Don't Let Ebola Stop You

Summary

Armstrong & Getty On Demand

Episode: "Don't Let Ebola Stop You"

Date: June 2, 2026
Podcast: Armstrong & Getty On Demand (iHeartPodcasts)
Hosts: Jack Armstrong & Joe Getty

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Episode Overview

This episode of Armstrong & Getty On Demand weaves together social commentary, current events, and irreverent humor, focusing primarily on the changing landscape of work (especially for teens), the authenticity of political candidates, the impact of artificial intelligence regulation, and fascinating new research about human evolution. The hosts jump nimbly between news, personal anecdotes, and philosophical musings, maintaining their trademark mix of dry wit and skepticism.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Life Under Siege: Ukraine Update

• The episode begins with a somber reflection on ongoing attacks in Kyiv:
  • Jack reflects on the challenges of empathizing as an American:
    "Ukraine looks like whatever city you’ve been to... imagine if all of a sudden you heard whistling and then rocket hits the library or whatever. And that’s just your life. It’s so hard as an American to wrap your head around that." [01:18]
  • Joe Getty paints the reality for civilians:
    "The apartment building you live, five apartments just got taken out. Thank God it wasn’t mine, honey. Anyway, what do we want to have for dinner?" [02:09]
• Brief analysis of political and military pressures on Russia ("Putin... about to do something crazy"). [03:01]

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2. Political Authenticity & Primary Drama

• The hosts touch on the political attacks facing Democratic candidate Graham Platner:
  • Jack: "He’s getting attacked by his own crowd because they know there’s more bad stuff to come out before... voting, which I think is next week." [03:35]
  • Discussion about media coverage and the concept of "cosplaying working class." [03:35]

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3. The Vanishing Teen Summer Job

Societal Trends & Economic Factors

• Jack raises concerns over declining rates of teen employment:
  • "What’s behind the decline in teen summer jobs?" [04:41]
  • Liability laws, high minimum wages, and restrictive attitudes cited as major factors.
• Joe:
  • "Some 16 year old with no work experience isn’t worth what you’ve said is the bottom wage that can be paid. So they will be paid nothing. Thanks for helping." [05:17]
  • Notes layoffs and closures due to California minimum wage hikes (e.g., Carl’s Jr. shutting ~50 locations):
    "Minimum wage hike has cost the fast food sector 18,000 jobs just since April 24." [06:38]
• The hosts lament the cultural shift away from viewing restaurant/retail jobs as positive experiences for youth:
  • Joe:
    "Anything but modern university, shallow intellectualism... anything else is invalid. It’s an ugly, embarrassing life." [08:29]
  • Jack talks about his kids eagerly wanting to enter the workforce and how jobs foster maturity and financial literacy:
    "How much does that change when you get a job? You realize how long it takes you to make 50 bucks." [09:08–09:40]
• Joe reflects on ideology and the demonization of capitalism in education:
  • "You have your entire practically education system, especially universities, demonizing capitalism... that's not opportunity, that's exploitation." [10:19]

The Value of Customer Service Jobs

• Jack admits he never worked retail/restaurant, while Joe and producer Michael share the value of these experiences:
  • Joe:
    "My son worked at Target... A master’s degree in how people really are." [13:00]
    • Lesson: Not everyone is a victim or noble; some are "scumbags... They lie and cheat and steal." [13:19]
  • Michael: "I did the fast food, I served people yogurt, I did restaurant work, all sorts of public stuff." [13:23]

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4. Masculinity, Work, and Modern Malaise

• Discussion of Sting's reflection on "toxic masculinity":
  • Joe:
    "He believes the fact that men no longer use their hands and physicality on a daily basis may be driving a lot of the problems with men." [17:17]
• Jack & Joe discuss the shift from manual to service-based economies and whether that loss of physical work impacts male well-being.
• Philosophical musings on the inevitability of this change and Thatcher's role (or not) in Britain vs. the US. [19:20]

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5. Scientific Revelations: Human Evolution’s Pace & Meaning

The Universe's Expansion

• Joe summarizes new astronomical research:
  • "Scientists... finally figured out how fast the universe is expanding..." [20:28]
  • Attempts to grasp the meaning:
    "The universe is expanding into what?" [22:05]
    • "Nothing is something… Space is nothing. I mean, there’s nothing... Right, but that's something." [22:22–22:34]

Recent Human Evolution – Major New Study

• Jack & Joe cover a ground-breaking genetic study:
  • New research upends the theory that humans stopped evolving 40–50,000 years ago.
  • "Researchers showed that natural selection has been ubiquitous across the last 10,000 years, reshaping our appearance, our immune systems, and even predispositions to mental illness." [24:06–24:28]
• Traits that have evolved: skin color, eye color, immune diseases, schizophrenia, bipolarity, intelligence.
• Joe:
  • "We’re not simply cavemen wearing suits. We are different beasts altogether." [25:25]
• The shift from forager to farmer increased the need for intelligence and complexity:
  • "The emergence of farming and village culture changed human brains. You had to get smarter..." [29:35]
• Delicate handling of scientific findings and group differences:
  • Joe:
    "If it turns out... that for whatever reason, people of African origin are somewhat less intelligent on the average... That doesn’t for an effing minute mean I’m smarter than Thomas Sowell, trust me. And as an individualist, that’s the only question that matters." [31:53]

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6. Artificial Intelligence: Trump’s New Executive Order

• Trump signs an executive order mandating a 30-day government review of new AI models before public release.
  • Jack:
    "The idea that there’s anyone in government that has the slightest idea what would be a good regulation or a bad regulation or whatever is hilarious." [35:02]
  • Joe:
    "There are, like, eight people in the world that really understand this, and they don’t work in the government." [35:05]
• Skepticism that regulation will make any meaningful impact; expectation that courts will overturn it. [36:21]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On American perspective and war:
  "It’s so hard as an American to wrap your head around that." – Jack [01:20]
• On minimum wages and youth employment:
  "Some 16 year old with no work experience isn’t worth what you’ve said is the bottom wage that can be paid. So they will be paid nothing. Thanks for helping." – Joe [05:17]
• On the decline of 'working with your hands':
  "It’s a rare thing for modern men to actually use their hands and use their strengths to do anything. We’ve lost something there." – Quoting Sting, discussed by Joe [18:07]
• On customer service lessons:
  "My son worked at Target... he quickly realized, oh, there are a lot of scumbags and they lie and they cheat and they steal. They’ll look you straight in the eye. And lie to you. They’re not down and out, they’re scumbags." – Joe [13:00]
• On evolution and uncomfortable truths:
  "Don’t blind yourself to science because it makes you feel uncomfortable. That’s Middle Ages crap and we should have evolved from that." – Joe [32:37]
• On government regulation of AI:
  "The idea that there’s anyone in government that has the slightest idea what would be a good regulation or a bad regulation... is hilarious." – Jack [35:02]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Ukraine War Reflection – [01:03–03:01]
• Democratic Primary Discussion (Platner) – [02:19–03:35]
• Decline of Teen Summer Jobs & Minimum Wage Effects – [04:41–08:42]
• Value of Entry-Level Work & Maturity – [08:42–14:24]
• Sting on Lost Masculinity – [17:17–19:40]
• Recent Human Evolution Study Discussion – [23:00–31:03]
• AI Executive Order & Tech Regulation – [33:40–36:27]

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Additional Memorable Bits

• Humorous banter about working retail, solitude in work, and sandwiches in the field.
• Jokes about McDonald’s in Greece, ambassadorships as political consolation prizes. [19:40]
• Final thoughts include voting anecdotes and seaweed snacks. [36:54]

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Tone & Style

The episode delivers thoughtful commentary mingled with rapid-fire banter and humor. While often irreverent, the hosts tackle complex issues (e.g., genetic research, AI regulation) with a blend of skepticism and accessible analogies. The language is candid, direct, and occasionally self-deprecating, staying true to Armstrong & Getty's established style.

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In Summary

This episode combines hard news, societal observations, scientific discoveries, and absurdist humor — reflective of the podcast's wide-ranging style. Whether discussing modern adolescence, political theater, or heady questions of human purpose and destiny, Armstrong & Getty keep things engaging, grounded, and thought-provoking for their audience.

Transcript

[Body by Jake Radio Announcer]

This is an I heart podcast. Guaranteed human turn someday into Right now with Body by Jake Radio. Non stop workout music and expert tips 24 7.

[Jack Armstrong]

Hey, head over to iheart.com, search body by Jake Radio and stream it for free right now.

[Body by Jake Radio Announcer]

Awesome health and wellness tips 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

[Jack Armstrong]

Remember, stick to the fight when your hardest hit.

[Joe Getty]

It's when things seem worse that you must not quit. Don't quit.

[Body by Jake Radio Announcer]

Body by Jake Radio. Where hope meets momentum.

[Jack Armstrong]

Search Body by Jake Radio and stream it for free.

[Joe Getty]

Have a great day.

[Jack Armstrong]

Iheartradio

[Body by Jake Radio Announcer]

Want to get more work done with less effort on TikTok. Creators are sharing AI automation tips that save time and deliver better results. Tap to discover. Try TikTok.

[Jack Armstrong]

Now. Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln radio

[Body by Jake Radio Announcer]

studio at the George Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty.

[Joe Getty]

Armstrong and Getty. And now here.

[Jack Armstrong]

Here's Armstrong and Yeti. You can hear this in the background. The attacks here in Kyiv, Ukraine stopped

[Joe Getty]

at about 7am this morning.

[Jack Armstrong]

It's now close to 1pm and the attacks have started again. Okay, we're going to go get cover. You can hear a. You can hear the drones above. That's a report from Kiev where they've been under attack for like 24 hours. And I was thinking last night, I was trying to imagine this is watching some of the videos to live in because Keev, Keev looks like whatever city you've been to. I mean it just, it looks a lot of these towns in Ukraine do just imagine if all of a sudden you heard whistling and then rocket hits the library or whatever. And that's just your life. It's so hard as an American to wrap your head around that.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. The apartment building you live, five apartments just got taken out. Thank God it wasn't mine, honey. Anyway, what do we want to have for dinner?

[Jack Armstrong]

So crazy.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

Anyway, brutal. I wasn't going to talk electoral politics because we've talked a lot of that today on this voting day. But one interesting thing is that you ought to be aware of if you haven't caught on to this, it's almost all Democrats and lefty pundits that are beaten up on this Platner guy. Platner guy. Now trying to drive him out of the race.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

Because they realize he is a tainted goods and he's going to cause them to lose. And so they want him out of the race because cnn, New York Times, I mean, they're just killing the guy now over his Nazi tattoo and sexting and all this different Sort of stuff.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, yeah. Hey, back to Ukraine. Just for a second. I thought it was super interesting, this piece in the Washington Post that pressure is mounting on Putin over how to end the war because their offensive is stalled, they're running out of guys, blah, blah, blah. Financial resources are dwindling in. Russian officials have issued increasingly shrill threats to intensify bombings of Kiev and are making more and more aggressive moves toward other countries in Europe. They're thinking Putin's desperate and about to do something crazy. I hope they're wrong.

[Jack Armstrong]

Wow. As we go back and forth here, we're doing the weave like Trump does. Back to Platner. He's the, you know, oyster fisherman guy, hardworking regular dude who went to a super, super fancy boarding school as a. Here's a black progressive pundit on cnn. We've lost the plot on authenticity. To think Graham Platner is cosplaying working class. He wears it like a Halloween costume that has been placed on him by the same people who, who have run a lot of progressive people out of the race and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So yeah, he's getting attacked by his own crowd because he's. They know there's more bad stuff to come out before, before they do their voting, which I think is next week. Anywho, saw this headline up on CBS this Morning? Didn't actually grab the story, but just saw some of the details around it. What's behind the declean and the clean. I guess it's kind of a word you can clean and de clean. I guess messing something up would be decleaning it.

[Joe Getty]

The judges will allow it.

[Jack Armstrong]

What's behind the decline in teen summer jobs? A very tight teen summer job market.

[Joe Getty]

Okay, go ahead.

[Jack Armstrong]

There's lots of things, including a whole bunch of you who think it's awful for teens to get jobs and have put all kinds of restrictions and in place. Then we got the whole liability law thing which has made it very, very hard and all kinds of different jobs that used to exist when we were kids, they all went away.

[Joe Getty]

Artificially high minimum wages.

[Jack Armstrong]

That one did it.

[Joe Getty]

Some 16 year old with no work experience isn't worth what you've said is the bottom wage that can be paid. So they will be paid nothing. Thanks for helping.

[Jack Armstrong]

My 16 year old has applied for a couple of jobs including. I'm hoping he gets one at a well known coffee company that's not far from me. And it'd be very easy for him to get to him back on a regular basis. But yeah, that's a Good point. In theory, they'll hire you with no experience whatsoever and all that. But I don't know what you, what do you, how much do you think it hurts him being a white male applying to big corporations like that?

[Joe Getty]

I don't know these days.

[Jack Armstrong]

I don't know either.

[Joe Getty]

It doesn't help, certainly.

[Jack Armstrong]

But no, that's not a stroke in your favor?

[Joe Getty]

No. You know, the, the New York Post, slash California Post the other day printed the story that you probably haven't heard. We, I think we touched on it briefly here, but Carl's Jr. Is shutting down nearly 50 California stores over the state's staggering minimum wage, as they put. Just doesn't make sense to stay in business anymore. So they're shutting down and all of those people are losing their jobs.

[Jack Armstrong]

How many?

[Joe Getty]

Almost 50. Wow. Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

How come they have.

[Joe Getty]

Biggest franchisee is leading the Chapter 11 action, putting 49 of its California restaurants up for sales, part of the proceedings, blah, blah, blah.

[Jack Armstrong]

How come they haven't gone with the touch screen that they're doing at McDonald's?

[Joe Getty]

I don't know. I mean this is 50 restaurants, not 350. But this franchise owner has had to declare bankruptcy. And you know, I don't know the particulars of it, but they go into the research done by UCLA and other places that the minimum wage hike has cost the fast food sector 18,000 jobs just since April 24 when it went into effect, representing a 3 1/2 ish percent decline in the sector compared to fast food sectors in other parts of the country. 18,000 people out of work.

[Jack Armstrong]

I don't know how old you have to be to work at like Burger King or Carl's Jr. Or whatever, but all the various things, including in the minimum wage, you're definitely right about that one that we've done to stop teenagers from having jobs. It seems so opposite of all that. We talk about regular in the regularly in the modern world about young people and their lack of maturity and not understanding this or that. And then we've made it impossible for them to get jobs. Which is one of the greatest schools you could ever go to is having a job.

[Joe Getty]

That's well said. I think part of it is the whole. And I'd love to blame Obama for this, but I think he was, you know, he was much as much a reflector of this as a leader of it. But the attitude that everybody has to go to college, the only dignified path in life is to get an undergraduate degree and then go sit in a cubicle and, or whatever and that working with your hands was somehow embarrassing. The trades were embarrassing. Kids getting summer jobs and flipping burgers was somehow exploitive as opposed to a great blanking opportunity, which is how I looked at it, trust me.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

And it just. This demonization of anything but modern university, shallow intellectualism. Anything else is invalid. It's an ugly, embarrassing life.

[Jack Armstrong]

Boy, both my kids have just been dying to reach the age where they could go out and make some money, have some money in their pocket.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

And I saw one of my nieces in particular, her maturity over a year once she entered the workplace was absolutely amazing. Not surprising, but amazing.

[Joe Getty]

Can you break down maturity more for us?

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, boy. In the way that I mean it. Well, one went from like talking to a kid, like, to talking to a grown up somehow through the experience of dealing with other grownups all the time, I guess. But just the topics that would come up about money and all that sort, you know, the understanding, the value of money. How much does that change when you get a job? You know, your parents giving you 50 bucks or whatever they give you to go eat with your friends or something takes on a whole new meaning when you realize how long it takes you to make 50 bucks.

[Joe Getty]

Right, right. Yeah. Money becomes a question of time. Yeah. Yeah, that's true. I'd imagine it makes. Well, and I know this from experience, it makes people more realist than idealist than they were.

[Jack Armstrong]

My brother was talking. We were. I was talking to my brother the other day about how the first time his daughter, who's now in her mid-20s, got a paycheck, and it's like, wait a second, how come I'm only getting this much? You know, because you've never had the whole everything taken out before. Well, there's taxes and then there's a Social Security thing, and then there's this and that, and there's low for insurance and then there's a bunch of fees. You don't know what they are paying off. The War of 1812 or whatever. And they took that out of your check too.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. Yeah. Well, somebody's got to pay for it eventually. And. And I'm kind of just noodling through this thought. You've got your entire practically education system, especially universities, demonizing capitalism. It's a force for evil. It's exploitive of workers. Do you go into work for In N Out burger or Carl's Jr. I was a caddy, among other things. Busboy. Half a dozen different things. That's not opportunity, that's exploitation. And we're, you know on the 15th topic of the month, seeing the fruits of those attitudes being implanted in kids, we're hearing them express them now as adults that, no, this is not an opportunity, it's exploitation. And so we've got to raise the minimum wage at Carl's Jr. Much, much higher. And they don't care what the outcome is. They just care about how espousing that policy makes them look, if it makes them look noble. Never mind the 18,000 people who now don't have a job or, or, you know, they don't even get into the number of folks who've had their hours cut back. That just, it makes me insane.

[Jack Armstrong]

You know, the one thing I've never done is work like retail or a restaurant or anything where you work with, we have the public. I've never done that.

[Joe Getty]

That's the one thing you've never done. So you've fornicated with beasts, you've sacrificed a human to your God or gods, you've murdered a political figure. Now, work wise, I get it. That's funny. I've done that a lot.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, I know a lot. Most people have and. Well, you've probably never built a fence on the top of a hill in the middle of nowhere all day long in 20 degree below weather all alone, which I don't know what value you get out of that, but I've done that. Working with the public would definitely be a lesson that I'm sure would be helpful in a lot of different ways. Yeah, I love that this job has some of that coming through. Text, emails and all that sort of stuff.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

And every once in a while, back in the day, doing events and meeting people. But I've, I've never worked the, you know, constant customer. Customer is always right. Dealing with that, returning stuff to the store or not liking their meal or. I've never done that before.

[Joe Getty]

My son worked at Target for a couple of years anyway, and he was in like customer service. And he, it was, it was a, A master's degree in a. How people really are, as opposed to the, you know, fanciful idea that you have as a young idealistic person. You're always talking about how the left always seems.

[Jack Armstrong]

Every.

[Joe Getty]

Seems to think everybody's always trying as hard as they can and the only reason somebody'd be down and out is because the system was against them or blah, blah, blah. And my son Declan, he quickly realized, oh, there are a lot of scumbags and they lie and they cheat and they steal. They'll look you straight in the eye. And lie to to you. They're not down and out, they're scumbags.

[Jack Armstrong]

That's a good lesson right there.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

Do you do retail, Michael?

[Joe Getty]

Yep. I did the fast food, I served people yogurt, I did restaurant work, all sorts of public stuff.

[Jack Armstrong]

I would like. I did lots of different things at this job, but I would. For instance, I would get to work at like 6 in the morning. I would load a whole bunch of rolls of wire in the back of my truck and post hole digger and post and drive off into a field so far away from anyone else that I wouldn't see. I couldn't see another human being looking any direction the entire day. And at noon I would get out my sack lunch and sit there on the ground and eat my sandwich by myself. Then I would finish my sandwich and go back to digging post holes and build my fence. Not being able to see or talk to. And this is pre smartphone.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

See another human being the entire day at five o' clock I'd drive back and go home.

[Joe Getty]

Hell, that was pre brick phone.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

Oh yeah. Mercedes of a Hollywood producer. There's no way to communicate with another human except shouting God.

[Jack Armstrong]

How good was that probably for my brain that kind of solitude.

[Joe Getty]

Good or ruinous? I don't know. Write in, tell us what you think of the effect was. [e-mail] I got a theory. Yeah, okay.

[Jack Armstrong]

We got more on the way. Stay here.

[Joe Getty]

Armstrong and Getty,

[Jack Armstrong]

Armstrong and Getty here. For hims, there are all kinds of great weight loss approaches that fit into your world. Out there, they've got them at hims with a wide range of affordable GLP1 options.

[Joe Getty]

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[Jack Armstrong]

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[Joe Getty]

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[Body by Jake Radio Announcer]

Visit hims.com turn someday into right now with Body by Jake Radio. Non stop workout music and expert tips 24 7.

[Joe Getty]

Hey.

[Jack Armstrong]

Head over to iheart.com search body by Jake Radio and stream it for free right now.

[Body by Jake Radio Announcer]

Awesome health and wellness tips 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

[Jack Armstrong]

Remember, stick to the fight when your hardest hit.

[Joe Getty]

It's when things seem worse that you must not quit. Don't quit.

[Body by Jake Radio Announcer]

Body by Jake Radio where hope meets momentum.

[Jack Armstrong]

Search Body by Jake Radio and stream it for free.

[Joe Getty]

Have a great day. I heart radio.

[Jack Armstrong]

Tracy Morgan, the comedian getting ready for one of his biggest gigs, the NBA Finals. And to help the city get excited, the longtime Knicks fan is lending his iconic voice to the subway.

[Joe Getty]

Fellow Knicks fans, it's Tracy Morgan. Game night in New York. Starts on the subway. The old city in orange and blue, rolling it together. Armstrong. Blue skies, baby.

[Jack Armstrong]

Okay, Tracy Morgan doing the voiceover for the subway, headed to the Knicks game. The final start tomorrow night. Reminding you that Tracy Morgan the comedian, when he was in his limo and a Walmart truck hit him, he got $90 million out of that $90 million. That's why he's in the front row sitting next to John Stewart and Timothy Chalamet. Because he got that kind of money.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

Wow.

[Joe Getty]

I've known somebody who got not nearly that high settlement, but man, you wouldn't want to go through what they.

[Jack Armstrong]

No, no, no, no, no.

[Joe Getty]

Get it.

[Jack Armstrong]

No.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

Dang.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. He's a hilarious dude. Coming up, Sting and his thoughts on toxic masculinity. Okay, right now, as a matter of fact, I just thought it was such a good tease. I wanted to tease it. Even though I'm going to do it right now. I actually, I think this is really interesting. And he doesn't really talk about toxic masculinity per se, but he says he believes the fact that men no longer use their hands and physicality on a daily basis may be driving a lot of the problems with men, however you want to describe it, you know, lacking purpose, drug abuse, porn and video games, you know, toxic masculinity, to the extent it's really an issue. He's, he's done. He's written this musical about the last days of a shipyard, Britain. And he says, I work with my hands every day as a musician and I'm lucky. It's a rare thing for modern men to actually use their hands and use their strengths to do anything. We've lost something there. I don't have any answers, but maybe the toxicity in society at the moment is a result of the fact that we've lost a direction for that energy, the male strength. It's rare. We have to use it.

[Jack Armstrong]

Sure. Our forefathers did not work with their hands out of a better character, though. They had no choice.

[Joe Getty]

That's part of the problem for the entire existence on Earth.

[Jack Armstrong]

Sure. But, yeah, you have to go out of your way to make yourself work with your hands because most people are not going to make a living having to use their hands.

[Joe Getty]

The other thing that's interesting is a. What do you call it? An Anglophile, which I am, is that he blames Margaret Thatcher and her dream of a service economy. And I would say to Der Sttinger, first of all, love the songs, brother. Love the songs. But I won't gush, let's just be friends and hang out together a lot anyway. And I would also say to him, Margaret Thatcher didn't have any effect on the United States. And we've got a giant service economy where men can't channel their strengths into building ships either.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, right. We kind of had this topic earlier on something, but she saw the changes coming. This is what the economy is going to be. This is what the modern world's going to be. Get prepared for it. You, you couldn't have said no to the service economy taking over and say, we're all going to build ships or fences or rail, you know, rail lines or whatever. It wasn't going to happen.

[Joe Getty]

And you know, Roxanne, you shouldn't date a prostitutes thing. Armstrong and Getty. And finally, in a recent post on X, US Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle celebrated a new McDonald's location in Athens and called it, a, quote, the most technologically advanced McDonald's in all of Europe. Which just means the ice cream machine works. Oh, boy. Hold foil, boy. What do you do when your ex's dad is the president and says, look, nobody wants you in this country, but we'll make it easy for you. How about an ambassadorship? Oh, to have that sort of bad.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, no kidding.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, I'd love to do that.

[Jack Armstrong]

Anyway, worst case scenario, you end up in Bastard of Greece.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. Wow. Wow. So, a couple of interesting notes from the world of science. I'm very curious about science. I like hearing about it. I'm not nearly smart enough to comprehend most of it, but scientists, number one, have finally figured out how fast the universe is expanding. They've known for a very long time, or they think they know that there is a big bang and the Universe has been expanding from a single point

[Jack Armstrong]

ever since into what?

[Joe Getty]

A bigger thing, call it creation, call it the Big Bang, whatever you want. Even about 14 billion years later, this expansion moves objects like galaxies in it farther away from us. And they're trying to figure out what the rate of expansion is, because then you can extrapolate how old the universe is. International gathering of experts last year in Switzerland confirmed that objects recede faster as they become more distant. All right, now I'm starting to get glazed eyes and you know the look to once again quote the great Don Henley like cow at a passing train, uncomprehendingly. For instance, a galaxy 3 million light years away will move away from us at 46 miles per second. The scientists calculated a galaxy at twice that distance would be moving away at about 90 miles per second. So I can't comprehend that. But they do illustrate it in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics. They say that rate is most precise ever calculated. It's also mind bogglingly small. If you took an empty space the size of a football field expanding at the rate our universe is, it would take more than a million years to expand by a single centimeter. When you look at the size of

[Jack Armstrong]

the, the universe, the universe is expanding into what?

[Joe Getty]

The other place over there, the void. See, that's where I, my mind gets blown.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, really fast.

[Joe Getty]

It's like the book of Genesis. Before the creation, there was nothing. Whoa, wait a minute. Nothing is something.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, space is nothing. I mean, there's nothing.

[Joe Getty]

Right, but that's something.

[Jack Armstrong]

But before the Big Bang, there was just a whole lot of nothing. It's, it's hard to wrap your head around infinite nothing. You can't. Yes, you can't.

[Joe Getty]

Or even a little nothing. The calculation is called into question, a major scientific theory. It's about 10% faster than what the standard model of cosmology.

[Jack Armstrong]

This changes everything. I don't.

[Joe Getty]

Why would they ask cosmetologists anyway? It's essentially the theory of how everything works in the universe says the rate should be, is about 10% faster. Anyway, if you're into astrophysics, I suggest you dig more into that. I found this even interesting though, and this is crazy, your son has got to read this. I don't think I passed it on to you yet. It's been assumed for a long time that humans haven't really changed, adapted, evolved in like 40 or 50,000 years. A lot of that belief as they're writing in the free press, is in large degree in the shadow of famed paleontologist and naturalist Stephen Jay Gould, whose theory of punctuated equilibrium held that genetic evolution proceeds in fits and starts and that humanity was in a period of genetic stasis, like for 40, 50,000 years. There's been no biological changes in humans in that time, he argued in an interview published in the year 2000. Everything we call culture and civilization we've built with the same body and brain as way back in the day. He had no way to look into the ancient genome itself, and so neither did anybody else at the time. So the view that human genetic change belonged in the past became predominant. The idea that genes could both shape and be shaped by lifestyle was discarded. They quote another a couple of super heavyweights who, anybody who deviated from that line were shunned and dismissed as racists or get out of here or whatever. Yeah, I know. But now the conventional wisdom has imploded. There was a tour de force of big data science published in Nature last month that showed how a mountain of genetic data backs up the idea that that human revolution, the ideas about human revolution that date back to Darwin were wrong. By using cutting edge genomic methods, the researchers showed that natural selection has been ubiquitous across the last 10,000 years, reshaping our appearance, our immune systems and even predispositions to mental illness. Huge changes in humans in the last 10,000 years appears now. It appears that culture did not replace genetics as the vehicle for human adaptation, nor did it put an end to humans biological fluidity over time. The scientists show how the movement of people in the rise of agriculture unleashed a surge of genetic changes. The title of the paper is Ancient DNA Reveals Pervasive Directional Selection across West Eurasia.

[Jack Armstrong]

How thoughtful were we? That's what I always wonder. Not just how smart, but how capable were we of being thoughtful.

[Joe Getty]

Like sending flowers on somebody's wedding anniversary.

[Jack Armstrong]

Exactly. You know, picking up after yourself. 50,000 years ago were people living, you know, and everybody is living to like age 20 before you get a rock falls on your head or you get eaten by a lion or something like that.

[Joe Getty]

Die of the plague.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, but were people looking around and thinking, wow, what is the point of all of this?

[Joe Getty]

Right?

[Jack Armstrong]

What is what happens when you die? I mean, just, I just, I don't understand it. Just say every day and I see other people suffering and getting older and what are we doing here? Did they have those thoughts and conversations?

[Joe Getty]

Some days I get up and I think, moving this mud from here to over there, is there really a point to it? I mean, the king told me I have to, but my being exploited is

[Jack Armstrong]

this what I want to do with my life.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, yeah. So anyway, the idea that this paper illustrates is that we're an adapting animal. Not just in theory, but in reality. I thought this was so cool. After analyzing ancient DNA from exactly 15,836 West Eurasians, that is Europeans and West Asians who lived over the last 18,000 years, the Harvard team reported 479 gene variants where there was strong directional selection over the millennia. Skin color, eye color, celiac disease, schizophrenia, bipolar risk and intelligence are just some of the traits that have changed since the end of the last Ice Age, which is a little more than 12,000 years ago. We're not simply cavemen wearing suits. We are different beasts altogether.

[Jack Armstrong]

Is intelligence what causes human beings to have the thoughts that we were just discussing? The what, what is the point of this? Is there something bigger happening here? Is that in just purely intelligence? Is that why we assume dogs don't have these thoughts, or cattle, or even monkeys? Is the level of intelligence or is that something different? It might be something different. Maybe we're going to find that out through AI because if AI is becomes more intelligent than us, but never questions what am I doing here? You know, then it's not an intelligence thing, it's something else.

[Joe Getty]

Okay, two more points from this. One of the more interesting details is that West Eurasians developed a host of adaptations in and around the class of genes that control immune function provides a clear demonstration of how the pressures of natural selection worked in humans. The rise of endemic diseases and pandemics, along with the acceleration of trade and the growth of the growth of cities, seem like excellent candidates for selection pressures. Since the last of the Ice Age, constant selection pressures buffet a world of plagues, twisting and turning genomes generation to generation. So a lot of disease related stuff. The research's most startling and potentially controversial results, and the reason you have not heard this, come from the analysis of polygenic traits. These are characteristics controlled not by single genes, but by a whole set of variants. And this analysis was made possible by advances in computational horsepower that let the headset scientist, his name is Akbari, sift through a mountain of paleogenetic data. In genetic terms, it looks like Europeans have been selected for higher iq, higher educational attainment, and less schizophrenia and bipolar disorder over the last 10,000 years. This is a startling result. The selection for educational attainment seems to predate even the most ancient education by thousands of years. Surprising as that is, it seems to be the case with latter samples reflecting selection for the combination of genes associated with Years of schooling in modern studies. Similarly, Neolithic farmers in the data set carried more variants associated with higher intelligence in modern samples than Mesolithic foragers. It's a strong sign that the emergence of farming and village culture changed human brains. You had to get smarter because you were dealing with a lot more people and the logistics of farming, economics. And so smarter people got selected and survived and bred and the rest of it.

[Jack Armstrong]

Because I was thinking. So then you got the cultural part of it right, just whatever world you're born into. I was thinking about this the other day when I was reading about the bubonic plague from the early 1600s in London. Which, when the bubonic plague hit around that time, or just life expectancy before the bubonic plague hit, it was something like one out of four babies died in the first year or something. I mean, it was something extraordinarily high.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

So every family lost a child pretty much. I mean, it wasn't the rare occurrence that we all wonder, wow, how do you go on after that happens? It was, it happened to everybody. And I'm sure that's most of human history. So how much did that change people's outlook on everything culturally? Who knows?

[Joe Getty]

But yeah, I'm sure there are fascinating books on that very topic, but the answer to that is long and fascinating.

[Jack Armstrong]

So you combine that with different levels of intelligence. I don't know how much we, we worried about these things. I really don't. Nobody knows.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. Yeah,

[Jack Armstrong]

because you, you wouldn't think, you watch some old timey movie, even if it's like Monty Python or whatever, and you think, God living in that village just surrounded by mud and dung and endless just back breaking labor to die. In your 20s, how do you even get out of bed in the morning?

[Joe Getty]

You step over the dung to step in the mud instead. It's terrible. Well, yeah, and you know, we don't have time to really go into depth on this paper, but the relationship between environment and intelligence, and then that's how that's passed in, passed along rather in, you know, your, your sets of genes, it's, it's crazy interesting and super important. I get why people are super uncomfortable talking about it. When it comes down to regions of the world and, or races, but the idea that we pretend scientific fact doesn't exist because it makes us feel uncomfortable, it's just, it's dumb.

[Jack Armstrong]

It's dumb. I'd say, yeah, don't let the worst

[Joe Getty]

people in the world direct the way we interpret reality. I mean, like, if it turns out. For instance, to cite the most explosive trope, that for whatever reason, people of African origin are somewhat less intelligent on the average than. Than European people. If that turned out to be true, that doesn't for an effing minute mean I'm smarter than Thomas Sowell, trust me. And as an individualist, that's the only

[Jack Armstrong]

question that matters, right?

[Joe Getty]

And anybody who would extrapolate that to assume, well, he won't be able to survive the job because he's a black fella.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, you're an idiot.

[Joe Getty]

And you don't deserve to have that black fella's talents in your organization.

[Jack Armstrong]

Town Sand.

[Joe Getty]

I'll hire him. Just can't. Don't stand. Don't blind yourself to science because it makes you feel uncomfortable. That's Middle Ages crap and we should have evolved from that. Oh, I was so proud of how I'd wrapped it all up with that sentence. I stumbled over the words. Maybe the next generation will be smart enough to finish the sentence, unlike me. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

[Jack Armstrong]

One quick extrapolation would be if we evolve faster than we thought in the past, then this evolving to a more sedentary lifestyle where we don't work with our hands. Getting back to what Sting was talking about or whatever should happen quicker than maybe we were thinking about.

[Joe Getty]

It could happen eventually. Yeah, AI will wipe us out before that, unfortunately. But what are you gonna do?

[Jack Armstrong]

Good transition right there. Trump just now signed an AO executive order. That's a fairly big deal. We'll talk about that among other things on the way.

[Body by Jake Radio Announcer]

Armstrong and Getty.

[Jack Armstrong]

Got my letters mixed up before the break. I said Trump was signing an executive order about ao. No, it's an EO about AI. E, I, E, I, O. It's an ao. No, an EO about AI. There you go. Executive order about artificial intelligence that Trump just signed that asked technology companies to give the government oversight of new AI models before releasing them to the public. This is a shift for an administration that had been more hands off so far. Follows months of debate. They were looking at doing this back in May and then decided not to. The new executive order shifts the White House from its anything goes approach with AI companies which the president, also known as Liberty, which the president had said was necessary for us to compete in the race with China to a more hands on stance. The new order asks tech companies to give the government a shorter 30 day window for their new AI models to be reviewed by the government before they are publicly, publicly released. The idea that there's anyone in government, government that has the Slightest idea what would be a good regulation or a bad regulation or whatever is hilarious.

[Joe Getty]

Hard. No populist nonsense.

[Jack Armstrong]

There are, like, eight people in the world that really understand this, and they don't work in the government.

[Joe Getty]

Well. And they're continually befuddled by it.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. And they don't understand it themselves.

[Joe Getty]

China ain't regulating it. This is populist nonsense. People are worried about AI Rightfully. They're booing it at college graduation ceremonies. The average worker is concerned. Layoffs, blah, blah, blah. And so they're saying, yeah, we're standing up and doing something about this evil AI,

[Jack Armstrong]

which seems to mostly be a Democrat position, although Trump doesn't care about that sort of stuff. He's a populist.

[Joe Getty]

The Republican Party is making overtures to the Teamsters, starting to go populist on various things, like the minimum wage. That's. Yeah, the Democrats are party of liberty. Economic liberty doesn't exist.

[Jack Armstrong]

Where's a guy like me supposed to go eventually?

[Joe Getty]

There's Paraguay or Uruguay.

[Jack Armstrong]

Anyway, we'll see. Do you see any problems with this? Is this going to have any free speech issues or anything like that where it won't hold up because it's an executive order, and these things hold until the next president comes along. Unless he gets shot down by a court.

[Joe Getty]

It'll get shot down by a court. And ultimately it'll go away, and nobody will ever refer to it again.

[Jack Armstrong]

Okay, check your clock.

[Joe Getty]

It's time to stop Jack and Joe. They've gotta go, and if they don't, you can better be back tomorrow.

[Jack Armstrong]

Here's your host for Final Thoughts, Joel Ghetti.

[Joe Getty]

My final thought is going to be refining my previous answer, but let's get a final thought from everybody on the crew to wrap things up for the day. Michelangelo, lead us off. Yeah, I've got into seaweed snacks.

[Jack Armstrong]

I don't know.

[Joe Getty]

I feel like a fish now. My wife got me into them, and so I'm eating all sorts of plants.

[Jack Armstrong]

The key sentence being, you feel like a fish now.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. You know, goldfish. Didn't you usually give them seaweed?

[Jack Armstrong]

No.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, okay. I think so.

[Jack Armstrong]

You've never had a pet goldfish?

[Joe Getty]

I. I have had a seaweed snack, though, and they are quite delicious.

[Jack Armstrong]

Jack, final thought for us kind of threw me off. I'm gonna read. Oh.

[Joe Getty]

Oh.

[Jack Armstrong]

I'm gonna go vote today in person, and I'll have a story about that tomorrow. I'll be interested to see, because I'm going to just show up at a random polling place, not the one for my neighborhood and no ID and just walk in and see what happens.

[Joe Getty]

Well, interesting. My final thought is I'm trying to think of can the government demand to review a word processor to make sure it's processing words properly or an accounting software before it's released or because computer stuff's just intellectual property.

[Jack Armstrong]

Really? Yeah. I'm sure we'll have a lot more info on this by tomorrow. Armstrong and Getty wrapping up another grueling four hour workday.

[Joe Getty]

Interesting new world of legal questions. Yeah. So many people. Thanks. A little time. Go to armstrongandgetty.com, check out the Armstrong Getty store, pick up some ag swag.

[Jack Armstrong]

We'll see you tomorrow. God bless America.

[Joe Getty]

Armstrong and Getty.

[Jack Armstrong]

It's election day throughout the usa, so

[Joe Getty]

you better follow Jo's advice. Your civic duty is more important than your health.

[Jack Armstrong]

And we gotta get rid of the Dems. They ain't nice.

[Joe Getty]

Don't let Ebola stop ya. Head to the polls right now. Don't let Ebola stop ya. You can die later, just not right now. Don't let anybody stop you.

[Jack Armstrong]

We gotta get rid of them damn clowns.

[Joe Getty]

Armstrong and Gettysburg.