A&G Replay Wednesday Hour Four

Summary

Armstrong & Getty On Demand

Episode: A&G Replay Wednesday Hour Four

Date: November 26, 2025
Host: iHeartPodcasts
Featuring: Jack Armstrong, Joe Getty

Overview

This "best of" episode of Armstrong & Getty recaps hot-button issues from recent weeks, focusing on major controversies in sports and culture, the influence of social media on mental health and political beliefs, political maneuvering ahead of the 2028 presidential election, and a wild story involving espionage in Silicon Valley. Equal parts satirical, irreverent, and insightful, the hour is packed with the hosts’ signature blend of sharp wit, skepticism, and cultural critique.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Winter Olympics 2026: Upcoming Ban on Transgender Athletes

[04:03 - 07:31]

• The hosts banter about the upcoming Winter Olympics in Cortina-Milano, Italy.
• A policy shift is discussed: The International Olympic Committee is expected to ban trans women competing in women’s sports.
• Jack Armstrong: "They ain't going to do the whole trans thing this time around. ...They're all about protecting the female category. She’s new and she got elected on the idea of, I'm going to protect women's sports, which is code for, we ain't gonna let dudes participate in our women's sports." (05:32)
• Joe Getty: “Well, of course you’re not going to let men in women’s sports. Then it’s not women’s sports.” (05:45)
• Discussion on new scientific findings highlighting enduring male physical advantages, even post-hormone therapy.
• Reference to Caster Semenya and the difficulties of categorizing athletes with differences in sexual development.

---

2. Social Contagion and the Transgender Debate

[09:06 - 12:51]

• Discussion of the backlash faced by academics like Colin Wright for suggesting rapid-onset gender dysphoria is a social phenomenon.
• Joe Getty: “He commented two words, social contagion. Within hours, his colleagues denounced him as a transphobic bigot... Incredibly, transgender identification has fallen 50% in two years among college students and adolescents. ...It was clearly a social contagion and people who got their careers ruined for saying it wasn't.” (11:15)
• The rise and fall of transgender identification is compared to the normalization of left-handedness.

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3. Antifa and Campus Speech Fights

[12:51 - 13:56]

• Armstrong reflects on missing a Turning Point event at Berkeley that turned violent outside, discussing why activists on both sides are so eager to physically confront one another.
• Joe Getty: “There is a significant group of people that believes the most lunatic rantings of activists. They believe it.” (13:20)
• The irony of "anti-fascists" acting out fascist tactics (beating people up for speaking) is highlighted.

---

4. 2028 Presidential Rumors: Trump, Harris & Newsom

[14:17 - 20:36]

• Trump toys with speculation about a third-term run, with Armstrong lampooning media credulity:
  Jack Armstrong: “How do you not get that this is him just getting you to dance to his tune to make you leap. MSNBC will have 10 panels all day long about this. Doesn't rule out a third term.” (15:04)
• Kamala Harris floats the possibility of another presidential run; skepticism abounds:
  Jack Armstrong: “Freaking politicians who become rich and famous sign multi gazillion dollar book deals. Don't hit me with your I'm in a life of service bull s. It makes me angry.” (16:10)
• Gavin Newsom’s carefully vague rhetoric and "hard scrabble upbringing" narrative are mocked:
  Jack Armstrong: “Now, officially, he doesn't say anything. ...he never, ever said where he is on trans sports thing.” (20:11)

---

5. Attitudes Toward Capitalism & Online Influences

[24:14 - 26:33]

• The panel discusses growing youth skepticism toward capitalism and a lack of financial literacy:
  • Clip played of Mark Cuban and Andrew Ross Sorkin agreeing that free housing, rent control, and government-run markets are unsustainable.
  • Joe Getty: “We have a financial literacy problem in America.” (24:39)
  • Jack Armstrong: “It's because the freaking teachers are socialists... they believe in socialism.” (25:08)
• Both left and right are susceptible to radicalization online, with the "manosphere" and extremist influencers affecting young conservatives as well.

---

6. Mental Health, Medication, and Social Media Trends

[26:33 - 34:12]

• Trend of antidepressants popularized by influencers (#LexaproBaddies, LexaHo, ZoloftGang) on social media discussed.
  • Many young women glamorize SSRIs; when negative effects emerge, those stories receive less attention.
  • Joe Getty: “Millennial and Gen Z influencers, some paid by telehealth companies, evangelize antidepressants on TikTok and Instagram using hashtags like Live Laugh, Lexapro, Lexapro Girly, Lexa Ho and Zoloft Gang.” (28:26)
  • SSRIs’ side effects (blunted affect, libido lowering) widely underdiscussed.

Generational Shifts in Mental Health Identity

[30:45 - 34:12]

• Stat: 73% of Boomer men say mental illness doesn't define them; 72% of Gen Z women consider mental health part of their identity.
• Joe Getty: “Both Gen Z men and women view their mental health as an important part of their identity at a rate over five times that of boomers...” (32:09)
• Hosts ponder how this cultural framing encourages medicalizing normal emotional rough patches.

---

7. Espionage: Sex, Spies, and Silicon Valley

[38:00 - 41:38]

• Reports that Russia and China are sending attractive young women to seduce Silicon Valley workers—sometimes marrying and having children—for espionage.
• Jack Armstrong: "That's a heck of a commitment to your country that you're gonna meet a guy, woo him, marry him, have kids with him. I mean, that's really caring about your... wow." (40:00)
• Joe Getty: Notes the shift to “whole of society” espionage using ordinary citizens, not James Bond-style operatives.

---

8. Academic Bias and Harvard’s Reputation

[41:38 - 45:40]

• Harvard slashes its PhD admissions due to budgets; skepticism about value of most PhDs for the workforce.
• Reports of overt left-leaning bias among university staff and administration.
• Host reads anecdotes of hypocrisy in campus event oversight.
• Joe Getty: "That's the opposite of what a university ought to be. Polar opposite." (45:27)

---

Memorable Quotes & Timestamps

• “They ain't going to do the whole trans thing this time around. ...They're all about protecting the female category.” — Jack Armstrong [05:32]
• “It was clearly a social contagion and people who got their careers ruined for saying it wasn't. Good lord, were you a victim of an angry wrong mob.” — Joe Getty [11:15]
• “There is a significant group of people that believes the most lunatic rantings of activists. They believe it.” — Joe Getty [13:20]
• “How do you not get that this is him just getting you to dance to his tune... MSNBC will have 10 panels all day long about this. Doesn't rule out a third term.” — Jack Armstrong [15:04]
• “73% of boomer males essentially said, no matter what psychological challenges I face, I will not let them define me. 72% of Gen Z females said mental illness is an important part of my identity.” — Joe Getty [30:45]

---

Noteworthy Moments

• Joe Getty’s satirical riff on academic studies stating the obvious about gender advantage in sports. [07:06]
• Armstrong’s biting satire of politicians’ “public service” narratives. [16:10]
• Commentary on influencers paid by telehealth companies promoting antidepressants. [28:26]
• Discussion of “whole of society” espionage—ordinary tech workers as spies—underscoring new international security realities. [40:14]

---

Episode Structure & Flow

• [03:35] Show begins, replay hour noted
• [04:03 - 13:56] Sports, Olympics, transgender athlete policy, social contagion, campus protests
• [14:17 - 20:36] Trump/Harris/Newsom and 2028 speculation
• [24:14 - 26:33] Capitalism, rent control, online culture
• [26:33 - 34:12] Antidepressants, mental health, generational identity
• [38:00 - 41:38] Espionage scandals
• [41:38 - 45:40] Harvard, academic bias, campus politics

---

Takeaways

This episode weaves together cultural, scientific, and political trends, always with the hosts’ irrepressible irreverence and skepticism. Key issues include the complex fallout of sports gender policies, the risks of social media amplifying fads both benign and dangerous, and the deepening political divides shaping American discourse—both on campus and online. For fans and newcomers alike, the banter delivers both laughs and critical food for thought.

Transcript

[Commercial Announcer]

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[Joe Getty]

Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Lincoln Radio studio at the George Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty.

[Jack Armstrong]

Armstrong and Getty.

[Joe Getty]

And now here's Armstrong and Getty.

[Jacob Goldstein]

Welcome.

[Jack Armstrong]

We are off this week so you're going to hear some best of replays of the Armstrong and Getty show. Oh, you're going to love them. They're going to be so I'm going to be at home sitting in my car listening to the radio while you do.

[Joe Getty]

So while you're enjoying yourselves this week, why not hit armstrongandgetti.com and pick up an ang t shirt or hat from your favorite a fan, including the hot dogs. Our dogs. Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

Our Black Friday special is same price as every other day.

[Joe Getty]

Now on with the infotainment.

[Jack Armstrong]

Another big story around sports. I didn't realize the Winter Olympics are 12 weeks away.

[Joe Getty]

We're getting close. Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

And they're somewhere. Somewhere snowy, I assume. France. Where are the winter Good.

[Joe Getty]

And be a good idea.

[Jack Armstrong]

Grock that for us, will you, Katie? Where are the dang Winter Olympics? But anyway, Italy, I think.

[Joe Getty]

Or was that last time? It doesn't matter.

[Jack Armstrong]

Some. Some place snowy is be a good ding it. Yeah, probably not. Jamaica, Milano, Cortina.

[Joe Getty]

I win.

[Jack Armstrong]

Congratulations. So the Winter Olympics coming up in Italy. They ain't going to do the whole trans thing this time around. Here's a little bit of that.

[Commercial Announcer]

This sounds like a really big change potentially, Nick.

[Guest or Expert]

This would be big. And it would be a huge policy shift for the ilc, which until now has led each sports international governing body set their own policies centered on transgender inclusion. It would also mark a big change from the ILC's 2021 framework which said there should not be a presumption of advantage when it comes to trans athletes.

[Jack Armstrong]

So they were running scared last Olympics like lots of people were. Didn't want to be on the wrong side of this and said some things that they knew were wrong and Crazy like you just heard. And now I've changed her mind. Here's one of the spokespeople for the Olympics.

[Interviewer or Reporter]

What I would like for the IOC to do is to bring everyone together to try and find a consensus amongst. Amongst all of us that we can all get behind and that we can implement and above anything and everything else, it's fair and protects the female categories.

[Jack Armstrong]

They're all about protecting the female category. This, this. She's new and she got elected on the idea of, I'm going to protect women's sports, which is code for, we ain't gonna let dudes participate in our women's sports.

[Joe Getty]

Well, of course you're not gonna let men in women's sports. Then it's not women's sports. As virtually all of humanity that got bullied into silence.

[Jack Armstrong]

You know, in most cases, all these conversations that are going on are, how do we handle this without being in trouble politically, as opposed to what's the right thing to do? You might have a couple true believers, you know, at your high school in California or something like that. But mostly it's how do we handle this without causing a firestorm? And here's the reasoning behind it all.

[Guest or Expert]

The ILC will issue the ban sometime early next year, citing a new scientific review that found evidence men have a permanent physical advantage over women athletes, even after hormone therapy. However, the Guardian newspaper says the ban could still be a year out and that the IOC is facing pushback to a possible ban on athletes who reported female at birth but have male chromosomes and the same testosterone level as men. Also known as differences in sexual development. That would include athletes like South Africa's Casar Semenya, who won gold at the London and Rio Games. Before track and field's governing body, World Athletics, banned DSC athletes from competing as women in 2023.

[Jack Armstrong]

DSC? Different sexual characteristics or whatever you said.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

I like this new study that came out that said men have an advantage over women. That's a good scientific study. I wonder who did that.

[Joe Getty]

How much did you spend on it? Tell me about the methodology. That's hilarious that they had to hide behind a new study. Good Lord. Instead of ancient wisdom. You know, it strikes me everything you've.

[Jack Armstrong]

Learned since you were a little kid on the playground going forward is the new scientific study.

[Joe Getty]

So I was reading about the women's soccer league. They've had a controversy lately, and it's all centered around this one player who is much bigger and muscular than all of the girls on the field. Looks like a dude Plays like a dude, built like a dude, et cetera. It's a similar case to Caster Semenya who they mentioned, who has internal testicles. It was one of these rare.

[Jack Armstrong]

That'd be awesome. Get them out of the way. Oh, I like having testicles. I just don't want them in the way.

[Joe Getty]

I see. Thanks for clarifying. So. But that's one of the extremely rare cases where sex assigned at birth is a phrase that makes any sense because these are people with both sets of genitals, meaning no faults of their own. No, of course not. No. So she has both ovaries and testicles and has much, much higher testicles. Party like that. The Turkish fella who was whooping up on the girls in the boxing last time around too. But you know, and, and it's funny how. So what do you.

[Jack Armstrong]

What do you think we should do with people who have testicles and ovaries?

[Joe Getty]

Oh, it's a shame. But they can't compete in women's sports. And that's the point I was about to make. The left, always. It's funny, they just are crazy about individual rights, except when it comes to individual rights that conservatives like, then they have no interest in them. It's all about the community. But yeah, I feel terrible for those people if they want to be athletes. But they can compete as men or in an open category. You can't beat the crap out of women because you are functionally, athletically speaking.

[Jack Armstrong]

A man, according to a new study. There's a new study by being a man.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, speaking of this sort of thing, I just finished reading the piece by Colin Wright, who's a terrific writer. He writes about this sort of thing. He was an academic scientist at Penn State in 2020, and there was that crazy explosion in adolescent transgenderism among young girls. And he commented two words, social contagion. Within hours, his colleagues denounced him as a transphobic bigot. And the online mob came from him before him and crushed his academic career. And he talks about how he was referring to research published by a scientist who had coined the term rapid onset gender dysphoria. In 2018, a peer reviewed paper, blah, blah, blah, and that the pattern was clearly explained by social contagion, the spread of ideas or behaviors through peer influence. And there are other examples, whether it's cutting or anorexia or whatever, teen girls are just incredibly prone to that sort of thing. But then he gets to the fact that the left wing dogma that gender identity is innate and immutable, people are born as transgender they're not convinced by a trend or whatever they're born. And that claim underpins the medical practice and the legal strategy. Puberty blockers, cross, sex hormones, mutilations of kids, minors and the rest of it. And the civil rights argument. So then he makes the point that the dominant argument to the counter argument to the social contagion theory is that the sharp rise in transgender identification over the past decade simply reflects liberation. Right? People are more comfortable expressing their authentic selves. That has been the argument. As transgender activist and biologist Julius Serrano put it in 2017, there really wasn't a rise in left handedness so much as there was a rise in left handed acceptance. That's an interesting premise, isn't it? People were free to be who the f they were. As John Oliver put it on his last week Tonight. But then Colin points out, if transgender identity were an innate trait like left handedness, we would expect identification rates to rise at first when it became socially acceptable, then plateau and remain stable at a fixed level. If the phenomenon were instead driven by social contagion, we might expect a boom and bust pattern, a spike followed by a rapid decline once the social forces driving it were weakened. And indeed that has become incredibly clear. Transgender identification has fallen 50%. 50% in two years among college students and adolescents. A couple of different studies. It was clearly a social contagion and people who got their careers ruined for saying it wasn't. Good lord, were you a victim of an angry wrong mob.

[Jack Armstrong]

I'm glad left handedness didn't catch on as a social contagion and have a hard time pretending I was left handed, eating, tying my shoes, whatever I'm doing.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. And then he points out that the overwhelming majority of those driving the trans mania fall into the non binary category, adopting identities which are said to be neither, both, somewhere in between, demi boy, gender fluid, two spirit. These are social identities, not biological ones. Unlike right handedness or left handedness, non binary identities have no anatomical or a physiological referent. They're conceptual, political and responsive to cultural trends or hallmarks of a social contagion. Case closed. Bam. Next case.

[Jack Armstrong]

Man, I'm looking at the dust up that happened in Berkeley. I wish I'd have gone last night. I was thinking about going, it's only whatever it is 45 miles from my house. But I had some kids stuff going on. But it got pretty spicy there outside the turning point event in Berkeley last night. Who are the needed?

[Joe Getty]

You there fighting antifa. And what did you do? You stayed home.

[Jack Armstrong]

What are the. Who are These numbnuts that show up to fight this stuff, just let them, Let them gather and speak. What is it? What's the skin off your nose?

[Joe Getty]

They're actually convinced that they're fascists. They believe. And that's, that's. I have to remind myself of that semi regularly. And it's true. On the right, but especially on the left, there is a significant group of people that believes the most lunatic rantings of activists. They believe it.

[Jack Armstrong]

You're willing to get into a fistfight over somebody speaking in an auditorium.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. You're the fascist. I mean, clearly, let's see, you dress up in a uniform, you go to the opposition events and you beat people up and call them fascists. Right.

[Jack Armstrong]

The people inside having the, the speaking engagement.

[Joe Getty]

It's the lack of appreciating the irony that offends me the most. The Armstrong and Getty Show. Get more Jack, more Joe podcasts and our hot links at Armstrong and Getty.

[Jack Armstrong]

Duck hums.

[Joe Getty]

The Armstrong and Getty Show.

[Jack Armstrong]

I would love to do it and I have my best numbers ever. It's very terrible. I have my best numbers. If you read it, am I not ruling it out? You'll have to tell me. All I can tell you is that we have a great, a great group of people, which they don't. That's Donald Trump, in case you couldn't hear. He's on the plane, he's flying around, going to all these different countries over in Asia. You could run as vice president. He said, yeah, I could do that, but that's a little too cute. They're talking about the third term Trump thing. And then they ask him like three times if he's ruling out running again in 2028. How do you not get that this is him just getting you to dance to his tune to make you leap. MSNBC will have 10 panels all day long about this. Doesn't rule out a third term. How do you not get that he's doing that? Have you ever had a little like a kid doing this to you in.

[Joe Getty]

Your life using a seven year old?

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. You just ignore them.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. Do the, the Rachel Maddows of the world not get it, or do they know, but their viewers lap it up?

[Jack Armstrong]

Your audience likes it so much.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, it's it, you know, it's a perpetual motion machine. Trump loves them. They love Trump.

[Jack Armstrong]

So Kamala Harris, I guess, hinted enough on BBC that she might run again, that that got people excited. This is how that went.

[Interviewer or Reporter]

Stories of your baby nieces, Amara and Leila. When are they going to see a woman in charge in the White House in their lifetime for sure. Could it be you? Possibly. Have you made a decision yet? No, I have not. But you say in your book I'm not done. That is correct. I am not done. I have lived my entire career a life of service and it's in my bones. And there are many ways to serve. I have not decided yet what I will do in the future beyond what I am doing right now.

[Jack Armstrong]

I've known a lot of people in my life that actually do dedicate their lives to public service, either as their career or like as a hobby. You know anybody who's coaching Little League or being a boy scout troop guy or whatever, but freaking politicians who become rich and famous sign multi gazillion dollar book deals. Don't hit me with your I'm in a life of service bull s. It makes me angry that you do that. That is just so.

[Joe Getty]

Ah, it's I'm going to continue my service by making a quarter million dollars a year serving on the boards of five different corporations.

[Jack Armstrong]

And the twice a year, however many million dollars she got from that book she just wrote anyway, she, she gets confronted with the idea of her possibly running again.

[Interviewer or Reporter]

But you've been very clear that it's a possibility you might run again to become president. And in my experience interviewing politicians, when someone says I'm not done, it means they are thinking seriously about running. But when you look at the bookies odds, they put you as an outsider, even behind Dwayne the Rock Johnson. I mean, is that underestimating you? I think there are all kinds of polls that will tell you a variety of things. I've never listened to polls. If I was in the polls, I would have not run for my first office or my second office.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh my God.

[Interviewer or Reporter]

And I certainly wouldn't be sitting here in this interview.

[Joe Getty]

But the bookies put the odds at four bazillion to one. That's not even a real number.

[Jack Armstrong]

I've never believed the polls or looked at them. Yeah, when you were losing every swing state and every poll pretended that you.

[Joe Getty]

Should have taken a glance.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, exactly. Might be every once in a while just worth taking a quick look. Hey, I'm losing every swing state according to the polls. I'll be darned. Anyway, so that's that. I hope she runs. That'd be hilarious. Gavin Newsom is going to run and is, you know, got a serious shot of being the nominee. He's starting to lay out his.

[Joe Getty]

First of all, the whole question, are.

[Jack Armstrong]

You going to run or not? And acting like that's a big deal when they finally cave and say, yes, who? If you're interested in that, good for you. So Gavin Newsom over the weekend said, yes, he's going to run or considering.

[Joe Getty]

It, and yes, I plan on being one of the 17 nobodies on a stage early next year. Yes, exactly.

[Jack Armstrong]

And here he is laying out his hard scrabble upbringing.

[Joe Getty]

But also, you know, it was also about paying the bills, man. And it was just like hustling and. And so I was out there kind of raising myself, turning on the tv, started, you know, just getting obsessed, you know, sitting there with the, you know, the Wonder Bread and five stacks of the white stack.

[Jack Armstrong]

Five story. Come on, macaroni and cheese.

[Joe Getty]

Are you talking about me? Every day. Every day in the backyard, just bouncing the basketball, throwing the ball against the wall until the ball is just like fraying, man. And you.

[Commercial Announcer]

That's it.

[Joe Getty]

Whole thing.

[Jack Armstrong]

What is he talking about?

[Joe Getty]

There are some days we were so poor I couldn't use new hair gel and had to use used from the day before.

[Jack Armstrong]

What didn't? He grew up in Nancy Pelosi's orbit somehow.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. His family was connected to the Pelosi's and I think the Gettys and. Oh, yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

But that's once again, like I was.

[Joe Getty]

Saying earlier about paying the bills, man. Paying the Chardonnay bill, the Pinot noir bill, servants, they had to be paid.

[Jack Armstrong]

Who's going to pay the driver? I mean, you know, right. He picks you up and takes you places. Somebody's got to pay the driver, the.

[Joe Getty]

Nanny, the assistant nanny. It was about paying the bills.

[Jack Armstrong]

So I've latched on to a thing with Gavin Newsom. Now, officially, he doesn't say anything. He's like you said, he's better than Kamala Harris. It's not laughable. Word salads where everybody mocks it, but he doesn't actually say anything. He gets credit for these clips.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, but he doesn't think he's going somewhere. But he never says it. Then, like throws out another three quarters of a sentence that never actually land.

[Jack Armstrong]

Because he never, ever said where he is on trans sports thing. He never said anything about it.

[Joe Getty]

I agree. It's about fairness. And there are concerns. Yeah, of fairness.

[Jack Armstrong]

But right there. What did he say there? What did he even claim? I don't know what happened there.

[Joe Getty]

He used to, like bounce a ball.

[Jack Armstrong]

A lot or have a peanut butter. I'd turn on the tv, you know, and have. And have A sandwich and what?

[Joe Getty]

Kraft Macaroni and Cheese.

[Jack Armstrong]

I don't know.

[Joe Getty]

Okay, you named some food what Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty The Armstrong and.

[Commercial Announcer]

Getty show.

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[Commercial Announcer]

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[Joe Getty]

The Armstrong and Getty showed.

[Guest or Expert]

Kids don't like capitalism.

[Jack Armstrong]

And I think a lot of it.

[Guest or Expert]

Has to do with social media.

[Joe Getty]

The clickbait right rage bait works better.

[Guest or Expert]

In social media and gets more people's attention. And if Mondami is out there saying.

[Jack Armstrong]

You'Re getting free housing, you're getting free.

[Guest or Expert]

Transportation, you're getting cheaper groceries, and that's what they're going to respond positively to.

[Jack Armstrong]

Is there any way that can work?

[Guest or Expert]

No, no, of course not.

[Jack Armstrong]

No.

[Joe Getty]

Look, we have a financial literacy problem in America.

[Jack Armstrong]

That's great. Mark Cuban, one of the most successful capitalists in history as a billionaire, saying to Bill Maher, when Bill Maher asked, can that work in New York City? No, of course not.

[Joe Getty]

No. The other guy, whoever it was. Oh, Andrew Ross Sorkin talking about how we have a financial illiteracy problem. That's 100% correct. Yeah, absolutely correct.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, it's because the freaking teachers are socialists. So no, they're not going to teach you the financial literacy that says no capitalism. Free markets are good in this way and here's why. Rent control and government run grocery stores and all these things have been tried, don't work. Your teacher's not going to do that because they believe in socialism, right?

[Joe Getty]

God, what's really interesting, you can talk people out of believing in rent control, for instance, in three minutes. And three minutes is a little luxurious. You give me two and a half, I'm pretty sure I can get it done. But if you're never exposed to that sort of thinking, that again, socialism is the greatest scam ever designed, I think. So on that topic, kind of sorta. And the next stuff we're gonna talk.

[Jack Armstrong]

About is Andrew Ross Sorkin, who's the hero of the left for, you know, financial stuff, said, no, it can't work.

[Joe Getty]

Right, Right. Yeah. So this is kind of looking at the left thing having to do with online culture, but I came across a piece, really well considered and written piece in the Free Press about how a lot of young conservatives are getting swept up in really ugly stuff online into, you know, neo fascism and, and the whole like manosphere. The manosphere. The whole what's his name? Cooper, who talks to a Tucker and tries to claim that Churchill was a bad guy and Hitler was misunderstood. All those.

[Jack Armstrong]

Historian Daryl Cooper, who's not actually an effing historian.

[Joe Getty]

Right, exactly. And how a lot of young people on the right are getting swayed by this stuff too. So it's not entirely a lefty proposition, but the headline in the Wall Street Journal over the weekend, girl, take your crazy pills. Antidepressants recast as a hot lifestyle accessory. Influencers tout the drugs, but many unsuspecting followers find the side effects take the fun out of life. And they give a bunch of examples of like this one. Stay at home mom. She felt lonely, overwhelmed at times, paralyzed with anxiety and self doub. And so she heard a former MTV star talk up Lexapro on a podcast. She searched for the drug on TikTok. Her go to information source and found Lexapro Talk and similar niche online communities where women in their 20s and 30s praised the benefits of antidepressants. She posted a video asking for help. Someone recommended a telehealth company. She answered a quick questionnaire. And an online nurse protect protest practitioner slash drug dealer prescribed a generic version of Lexapro. Bottle arrived a couple of days later. And then this gal that's that easy.

[Jack Armstrong]

To get on the SSRIs. I mean, most doctors are going to throw it at you anyway, based on my experience. But she didn't even have to leave her house.

[Joe Getty]

So she immediately starts posting TikTok videos of herself running to the mailbox for a pill package, taking a dose using such hashtags as Lexapro baddies and get help mama. In the months that followed, she gushed over the pills to her thousands of followers. She. For a time, she belonged to a social media movement that's given antidepressants a makeover from a stigmatized medicine to a healthy lifestyle accessory for enlightened and empowered young women.

[Jack Armstrong]

When did it get stigmatized? I must have missed that because gazillions of Americans are on it.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, well, it's gotten less stigmatized. But here's my favorite part. Millennial and Gen Z influencers, some paid by telehealth companies, evangelize antidepressants on TikTok and Instagram using hashtags like Live Laugh, Lexapro, Lexapro Girly, Lexa Ho and Zoloft Gang.

[Jack Armstrong]

Lexa Ho.

[Joe Getty]

I know. Recasting the medications as pop culture touchstones. And on TikTok hashtag antidepressants has surpassed 1.3 billion views, et cetera. Then they go into this list of, you know, attractive young women and stay at home moms that tout the benefits of the medicine and get thousands of followers and talk thousands of people into doing it who they then give them up and wean themselves off because it makes them miserable and ruins their lives. But they do that pretty quickly, or quite pretty quietly rather. And the videos of hey, here's my actual long term experience, those don't get nearly as many views.

[Jack Armstrong]

I'm sure that's true. I know plenty of people that are on SSRIs who swear by them and are happy with them, but if you are put on them or go on them and you don't need it, I guess it makes you really flat and life feels quite unpleasant, right?

[Joe Getty]

Crushes your libido, weight gain, etc. Just, yeah, everything is kind of flattened. So anyway, I just thought again, this is the, the democratization of ideas where an idea can reach millions of people worldwide when if it was just happening in your town, the person you know selling it would be told over and over again that's a bad idea and probably let it drop. And on a similar topic, I found this really, really interesting. Who did this 2024 presidential election study, Big survey. Mental health challenges are an important part of my identity. Among boomer males, 73% of them essentially said, no matter what psychological challenges I face, I will not let them define me.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right? That used to be a feeling for most people is like you. You would not allow yourself to believe you have any of those things. And then even if it was true, proven, you'd want to kind of keep it on the down low because he didn't want it to be your thing.

[Joe Getty]

Well, and I wouldn't want people to look at me and say, oh, there's Joe. He has anxiety, right? I mean, I know there's, there's a dozen things, maybe 50 things I'd rather have you say. And there's Joey's an a hole. I mean for instance, it's, it's better anyway, there's Joe.

[Jack Armstrong]

Man, can he dance.

[Joe Getty]

So please, like, like a stare, please. So 73% of boomer males essentially said no matter what psychological challenges I face, I will not let them define me. 72% of Gen Z females said essentially mental illness is an important part of my identity. 72% said mental health challenges are an important part of my identity.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. That has been my experience in a variety of ways with that generation in hiring for sitters and a variety of different things is everybody explains really early on what their. I have anxiety so I have to do this or I have OCD or whatever it is.

[Joe Getty]

Right, right. Both Gen Z men and women view their mental health as an important part of their identity at a rate over five times that of boomers, for instance.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, unless you're older and you grew up in that culture, how are you ever going to go through a rough patch in your life now where you wouldn't take some sort of drug for it because I mean all your friends are. And rough patches. I've had rough patches that lasted a freaking long time, I'll tell you that. Sometimes they do.

[Joe Getty]

Oh yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

Sometimes based on my own decisions, I've.

[Joe Getty]

Witnessed young women bonding over their mental health challenges. It's, it's part of the whole, you know, lionization of the victim victim culture in essence. And it's supported online in a lot of ways that are really, really interesting.

[Jack Armstrong]

Maybe that ought to be a lesson that they teach more people is you might go through, not might, you will go through many periods of your life where there are weeks or months or maybe half a year where you're really down because this or that happened and then you'll come out of it right.

[Joe Getty]

But you'll feel like I don't know what the point is because you're on a journey to discovering what the point is and sometimes that takes a long time. That's not mental illness, that's life.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

But I think it's worth going back to the previous article that was pointing out that a lot of these people are sponsored by the people selling the pills. Of course. Yeah. And, but they dress it up in like there's this one influencer, what's her name? Cute chick, you know, dressed kind of sexy, she's funny, she's wacky. Elena Davis, 35 year old influencer, made this video in 2023 of her dressed like she's going out to the club, laughing and taking her pills and, and, and making a big deal of how great it is. She weaned herself completely off them a couple of years later because they essentially screwed up her life.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

Good lord. The Internet is a bad place to be. Unplug it.

[Jack Armstrong]

Did the laws change around medicine somewhere where these doctors that have never met you can prescribe you things that you.

[Joe Getty]

Used to have to go see your yeah, yeah. There's been kind of an evolution through the year. De evolution because there's all kinds of.

[Jack Armstrong]

Drugs you can get on just by basically you just pay for them and you check some boxes on a form and they say, sure, we'll send them to you. And you've never met me. You haven't taken any blood work.

[Joe Getty]

That reminds me, I gotta pop my daily Viagra. I like to be ready. You know, like the Boy Scouts say, be prepared. Huh.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, that's interesting.

[Joe Getty]

Armstrong and Gettysburg.

[Commercial Announcer]

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[Jacob Goldstein]

This is Jacob Goldstein from what's yous Problem? When you buy business software from lots of vendors, the costs add up and it gets complicated and confusing. Odoo solves this. It's a single company that sells a suite of enterprise apps that handles everything from accounting to inventory to sales. Odoo is all connected on a single platform in a simple and affordable way. You can save money without missing out on the features you need. Check out odoo@o d o o.com that's.

[Commercial Announcer]

O d o o.com bring incredible sound into every corner of your home this holiday with the new Whim Sound smart speaker. Get high resolution audio with a 1.8-inch touchscreen. Smart modern design in one powerful speaker for just $2.99. From quiet mornings to lively holiday gatherings, WinSound makes every moment sound better and feel better too. Get the gift of the season for the music enthusiast in your life or for yourself. Whim Sound beautifully designed, effortlessly connected. Shop now at Amazon and search whimsound. That's wiimsound.

This holiday season, give the gift. Everyone will gather around a Vizio Smart TV now available at Walmart. From a super sized 100 inch TV to QLED TVs of all sizes, Vizio delivers breathtaking color and crystal clear picture quality that takes entertainment to the next level. Plus, with Watch Free plus built in, they can enjoy free live and on demand TV right out of the box. Have a music lover on your list. They can stream their favorite music on the iHeartRadio app. Ready to go on every Vizio TV. The perfect gift is waiting. Head to Walmart.com and discover Vizio TVs today.

[Joe Getty]

The Armstrong and Getty show coming up in a moment. Breathing through our butts has been declared safe after the first human trial. I'm not laughing, I'm coughing. Actually, a little. Both.

[Jack Armstrong]

There was a human trial.

[Jacob Goldstein]

Yes.

[Joe Getty]

Yes.

[Jack Armstrong]

Can I. If I like. If I squeeze really hard, can I breathe through my anus?

[Joe Getty]

You try hard enough. That's right. Everybody try. No, I'll explain in a minute or two. I found this really interesting.

[Jack Armstrong]

I'm aware of exhaling that way. A lot of people do that and they shouldn't.

[Joe Getty]

But this is from the Times of London. Female spies are waging sex warfare to steal Silicon Valley secrets. China and Russia are both sending attractive women to seduce tech workers, even marrying and having children with their targets.

[Jack Armstrong]

Wow.

[Joe Getty]

In a desperate attempt to get ahead and stay ahead. That kind of makes you tech and AI.

[Jack Armstrong]

That's. You're not a sex worker if you actually marry them and have children. You're a. I don't know what you are.

[Joe Getty]

You're a spy.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, yeah. Nobody's calling them sex workers. They're. They're spies. Chinese and Russian operatives are using sex warfare to seduce and spy on Silicon Valley professionals. James Mulvanon, the chief intelligence officer of Pamir Consulting, which provides risk assessments for American companies investing in China, said he was one of the many men recently targeted by foreign seductresses. Hoping to gain access to US secrets. Quote, I'm getting an enormous number of very sophisticated LinkedIn requests from the same type of attractive young Chinese women. It seems to have really ramped up recently. He described at how. How at a business conference on Chinese investment risks hosted in Virginia last week, two attractive Chinese women showed up and attempted to gain entry. We didn't let them in, but they had all the information about the event and everything else. He said, it's a phenomenon. And now I will tell you, it's really weird.

[Guest or Expert]

Wow.

[Jack Armstrong]

That, that is a heck of a comm. Commitment to your country that you're gonna meet a guy, woo him, marry him, have kids with him. I mean, that's really caring about your wow.

[Joe Getty]

Or you're. Well, you're in the. The spy service. It's. I've read various autobiographies of, of both men and women who are in the KGB and how you get recruited young and. And you're constrained the all day, every.

[Jack Armstrong]

Day of raising a kid. If you've done it, it's a lot of work. It's your whole life. I mean, you're doing all that as.

[Joe Getty]

Part of your being a spy.

[Jack Armstrong]

Wow.

[Joe Getty]

Right. Right. Let's see. Oh, here's. Here's the interesting part. And I've been trying to tell you this for a long time. Both Russia and the CCP are using ordinary citizens, investors, crypto analysts, businessmen, academics, to target their American counterparts rather than trained agents, which makes the espionage hard spot. Quote, we're not chasing a KGB agent in a smoky guest house in Germany anymore. Said one senior U.S. counterintelligence official. Quote, our adversaries, particularly the Chinese, are using a whole of society approach to exploit all aspects of our technology and Western talent.

[Jack Armstrong]

Can you imagine? You find out your wife and mother of your two kids. You've been married for 10 years. Only did it to spy for the communists.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, I know.

[Jack Armstrong]

Boy, would that be rock your world shattering.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. I want to get to the breathing through your butt thing in a bit, but I don't have time because I want to wrap this up. Yeah. Anyway, what was I going to say?

[Jack Armstrong]

Are you sure I can't? I've been trying.

[Joe Getty]

Well, not with that attitude you can't. I've told this story many times, but it's worth retelling it. It was about a decade ago that the FBI went to a particular large California university, and their counterintelligence folks warned the president of the university, you have a lot of Chinese agents on your campus. Masquerading as researchers. And they were told, quote, get off my campus, you racists. There are thousands, tens of thousands Chinese nationals in the United States right now doing the work of the Communist Party. Spending all day, every day doing the work of the Communist Party. I stand by those words. So, a couple of notes on Harvard, supposedly the world's greatest university, which has be clowned itself completely. I thought this was interesting. At Harvard, PhD programs are collapsing amid budget woes. Faculty of arts and sciences just slash the number of PhD student admissions by more than 75% in the science division and 60% in the arts and humanities division in the past two years.

[Jack Armstrong]

How much does the world need more PhDs in most areas?

[Joe Getty]

You know, quoting Nellie bowles Again, the PhD racket has always been a weird one. These schools push their smartest, most annoyingly ambitious kids to get a PhD. During that PhD, the guys all the work of being a paid professor, teaching courses, grading papers, but they're paid next to nothing. Then the clincher is that at the end there are no jobs available. Maybe one English department job in Idaho for a group of 300 to battle to the death over. So I support this belt tightening. We will have about 5,000 fewer Antifa soldiers produced each year. They might even spend their twenties making money. Love that. Well said Nelly. Speaking of Harvard, they say the university won't say whether they will sanction a dean who defended rioting and looting is legitimate parts of democracy. Described whiteness as a self describe, self destructive ideology. Celebrated Charlie Kirk's death, said it was acceptable to wish death on Donald Trump, et cetera, et cetera. This guy is unbelievable. What's my favorite he in the following the death of George Floyd, he tweeted rioting and looting are parts of democracy. Just like like voting and marching.

[Jack Armstrong]

Wow.

[Joe Getty]

A month before he got his gig last year, he posted on Instagram that people should love each other and hate the police. Describe whiteness as a self destructive ideology that annihilates everyone around it. Like in Trump to Adolf Hitler that appeared to celebrate the death of Rush Limbaugh, etc. Harvard has no comments on it. And the the con, the communist himself, Gregory Davis is his name, said those posts do not reflect my current thinking or beliefs. One of them was last year.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, I was a kid then.

[Joe Getty]

Marxists lie. They lie and they lie and they lie. And then Fox News had a panel with conservative Harvard students that was really interesting. Maybe we could find some of the audio for it. But they're speaking out about what it's really like on campus. Right now where the university has said no, we're going to be fair, but in practice they're not, said one. Quote A good example of this would be like something like the university is very strict on not co sponsoring events with outside groups when it comes to the Republican Club, let's say putting on events. But the Democrats get away with that all the time, no questions asked. And the students described what they believe to be selective enforcement of various campus rules. Quote There have been other things like the Republican Club puts on a big event and they send a bunch of administrators to really, you know, enforce fire code rules, making sure the audience is sitting properly in their seats. Whereas Democrats can host events, the whole place can be jammed pack and there's no concern whatsoever. That's the opposite of what a university ought to be. Polar opposite Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty the Armstrong and Getty show.

[Commercial Announcer]

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[Jacob Goldstein]

Is Jacob Goldstein from what's yous Problem? Business software is expensive, and when you buy software from lots of different companies, it's not only expensive, it gets confusing. Slow to use, hard to integrate. Odoo solves that because all Odoo software is connected on a single affordable platform. Save money without missing out on the features you need. Odoo has no hidden costs and no limit on features or data. Odoo has over 60 apps available for any needs your business might have, all at no additional charge. Everything from websites to sales to inventory to accounting, all linked and talking to each other. Check out Odoo at o d o o.com that's o d o o.com bring.

[Commercial Announcer]

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I use Shipt Same Day Delivery to stay connected with my sister during the holidays.

She lives across the country.

Shipt has tons of stores to order from. Groceries from Albertsons, crafts from Michaels, even pet supplies from petsmart. The list goes on. So when we have long distance movie nights, I turn to Shipt to get face masks, snacks and everything else we need delivered to her and to me same day. Download the app or visit Shipt.com that's.

S-H I-P-T.com this holiday season, give the gift of incredible sound with Vizio's full Soundbar lineup, available at Walmart. Transform any L room into a home theater with rich, immersive audio that brings every movie, show and song to life. Whether you're gifting a loved one or upgrading your own setup, Vizio soundbars deliver powerful, crystal clear sound that turns ordinary watching into extraordinary experiences. Stream your favorite holiday Playlist with the iHeartRadio app and discover how good your music can truly sound. Head to Walmart.com and find your perfect Vizio soundbar today. This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.