I Pick Nits

Summary

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Armstrong & Getty On Demand – "I Pick Nits"

Date: February 13, 2026
Hosts: Jack Armstrong & Joe Getty
Podcast Network: iHeartPodcasts

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Episode Overview

In their signature irreverent style, Armstrong and Getty tackle a range of topics—from a comically chaotic senior pickleball brawl to serious concerns about the influence of DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) on medical education, the decline of traditional sports journalism, Valentine’s Day reflections, the rapid evolution of AI, and a shifting world order. The episode blends humorous anecdotes with critical discussion of news, culture, and politics, presenting both mockery and genuine concern.

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Key Topics & Discussion Points

1. Pickleball Brawl at a Senior Center

[00:28–02:41]

• The show opens with a 911 call describing a fight breaking out at a senior center’s pickleball court, escalating into 20 people involved and someone being struck with a pickleball paddle.
• Armstrong jokes about the presumed age of participants, noting, “Elderly. She’s probably our age.” ([01:14])
• Discussion of the arrested couple's ages (63 and 51) prompts riffing on stereotypes about Northeasterners and Florida retirees.
• The segment acts as a springboard for broader musings on AI, manipulated information, and bias in big datasets—a theme the hosts return to throughout the episode.

2. Manipulation & Bias in AI

[03:23–04:40]

• Armstrong & Getty discuss how authoritarian regimes are flooding the internet with false articles to manipulate AI language models and spread disinformation.
• Jack observes:

  “That’s one of the big problems with the language learning model thing, LLMs… the misinformation, disinformation thing could grow way beyond anything human beings were ever capable of.” ([03:51])

• They highlight the dangers of “garbage in, garbage out” and speculate on the accelerating timeline of AI surpassing human capabilities, referencing Elon Musk's provocative claim:

  “Elon said yesterday that coding will be dead by December. There’ll be no human beings needing to code by December…if he’s off by a year, that’s a big deal.” ([04:40])

3. The Death of Sports Sections & Woke Journalism

[04:52–11:41]

• The hosts look at the decline and recent layoffs at the Washington Post’s sports section, lampooning its focus on social issues over actual sports coverage.
  • Examples include articles with titles like “Hockey isn’t gay enough” and “The Olympics vs. climate change.”
• Jack quips:

  “If you give me way more WNBA articles that nobody reads, that's somehow better for the world...” ([05:55])

• Joe offers a blistering critique:

  “Like every single day, the head story, the lead story is some sort of woke nonsense loosely tied to sports.” ([11:41])

• The hosts emphasize a disconnect between sports journalists and their supposed audience, arguing the content is out of step with mainstream sports fans.
• They acknowledge that the media lived in “a world that none of us exist [or] inhabit.” ([08:32])
• Memorable dig:

  “I'm a lifelong hockey fan with gay friends and the idea that I want to read an article that hockey isn’t queer enough…what are you talking about?” ([10:35])

4. Valentine’s Day: Cultural Observations & Joke-Off

[12:11–15:13]

• The show mocks morning news Valentine’s Day flower segments, then hosts a “Late Night Joke Off,” rating the comedic performance of Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, and Seth Meyers on Valentine’s Day jokes.
• Joe:

  “Lowest grade getter will be banned from comedy for life.” ([12:36])

• None are banned for the first time, as the jokes are considered solid.
• Armstrong reflects on the public’s engagement with Valentine’s Day, questioning the hype compared to his own social circle where it’s largely ignored.

  “I feel like all this comment every year about all the flowers and dinner reservations...is like for a nonexistent thing.” ([14:55])

• Segues into a discussion about the “36 questions that lead to love” and the psychological mechanisms of falling in love.

5. The Measles Resurgence & Vaccine Efficacy

[17:27–19:33]

• Alerted by a CBS story about a measles outbreak, the hosts discuss waning vaccine immunity over decades and whether adults should consider boosters for diseases like measles and whooping cough.
• Joe admits:

  “I got [the whooping cough booster] partly based on your recommendation.” ([19:25])

6. Trump’s Massive Political War Chest

[19:33–23:51]

• The conversation turns to the unprecedented size of Donald Trump’s political war chest ($1.5 billion) ahead of the midterms and whether such sums can influence small, local races more than national ones.
• Critique of the US political system’s safe seats and the outsized attention on only a handful of competitive races.
• Joe discusses Republican underperformance:

  “They’re not losing because the other team’s great. They’re losing because they suck.” ([23:06])

• The hosts reiterate that most election spending will flood into just a few battleground states.

7. Viral RFK Jr. Quote & Addiction Recovery During COVID

[24:02–25:07]

• Armstrong plays a much-discussed clip of RFK Jr. recounting his lack of fear about COVID, referencing past drug use:

  “I’m not scared of a germ. You know, I used to snort cocaine off a toilet seat. And—yeah, I know this disease will kill me, right?” ([24:05])

• The clip is used to discuss addiction recovery and the devastating impact of AA/NA meetings shutting down during the pandemic.

8. DEI in Medicine: A Threat to Health?

[25:32–36:26]

• The show's final deep-dive critiques DEI initiatives in medical education and their alleged impact on medical standards.
  • Joe summarizes Dr. Stanley Goldfarb’s arguments from the book Doing Great Harm: DEI priorities have shifted med schools away from academic rigor, basic science, and meritocracy toward ideological conformity.
  • Alarming anecdotes:
    • The University of Minnesota forces students to pledge allegiance to “indigenous ways of healing.”
    • Ohio State suggests not greeting Black colleagues with “How are you doing?” due to assumed trauma.
    • National boards and medical schools moving to pass/fail grading, arguably lowering standards.
  • Joe emphasizes:

    “You got to change the accreditation system because these people are captured by far left progressives.” ([32:01])

• Jack brings up trends in grade inflation at Harvard and the reduction of A-grades to return to normalcy, highlighting the spread of “everyone gets an A” culture.
• Memorable quote:

  “That’s our medical schools, friends. So if you think, oh, crazy Uncle Joe’s ranting against DEI—man, this could hurt you. Seriously, in the years to come.” ([36:13])

9. Shifting World Order & Geopolitics

[27:25–28:16]

• Marco Rubio audio:

  “The world is changing very fast... The old world is gone.” ([27:25])

• Armstrong & Getty wonder what geopolitical information Rubio and other insiders might be privy to and discuss possible erosion of US global dominance.

10. Lighter Fare: NBA All-Star Game & LeBron’s Record

[29:30–30:33]

• Brief discussion about the NBA’s All-Star Game pitting Americans against the rest of the world, with Armstrong speculating on international players’ dominance.
• Shout-out to LeBron James for his record as the oldest player with a triple-double.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• [01:14] Jack: "That’s from a Senior Center 911 call… that poor winded, probably elderly woman, very upset. Send help quickly."
• [03:51] Jack: "That’s one of the big problems with the language learning model thing, LLMs… the misinformation, disinformation thing could grow way beyond anything human beings were ever capable of."
• [05:55] Jack: "If you give me way more WNBA articles that nobody reads, that's somehow better for the world…"
• [10:35] Joe: "I'm a lifelong hockey fan with gay friends and the idea that I want to read an article that hockey isn’t queer enough…what are you talking about?"
• [11:41] Joe: "Like every single day, the head story, the lead story is some sort of woke nonsense loosely tied to sports."
• [12:36] Joe: "Lowest grade getter will be banned from comedy for life."
• [14:55] Jack: "I feel like all this comment every year about all the flowers and dinner reservations...is like for a nonexistent thing."
• [24:05] RFK Jr (clip): "I’m not scared of a germ. You know, I used to snort cocaine off a toilet seat."
• [32:01] Joe: "You got to change the accreditation system because these people are captured by far left progressives."
• [36:13] Joe: "That's our medical schools, friends. So if you think, oh old junk. Uncle Joe's a little crazy with his ranting against DEI man, this could hurt you. Seriously in the years to come."

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Important Segment Timestamps

• 00:28–02:41: Pickleball brawl & AI bias intro
• 03:23–04:40: Information warfare & AI risks
• 04:52–11:41: Washington Post sports section critique
• 12:36–13:45: Late Night Joke-Off (Valentine’s Day)
• 15:13–16:57: "36 Questions That Lead to Love"
• 17:27–19:33: Measles & vaccine waning immunity discussion
• 19:33–23:51: Political money in U.S. midterms
• 24:05–25:07: Viral RFK Jr. quote & addiction behavior
• 25:32–36:26: DEI’s impact on medical education
• 27:25–28:16: Marco Rubio on world order

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Tone & Style

• Authentic Armstrong & Getty: Blends sardonic wit, satire, and genuine alarm.
• Exasperated yet playful: Especially regarding cultural trends, journalism, and politics.
• Rapid-pace, conversational: Often pivots quickly between jest and critique.

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Final Thoughts

This episode delivers the classic Armstrong & Getty experience: a mix of sharp-tongued cultural lampooning, worried prognostications about America’s trajectory, and just enough absurdity (senior citizen pickleball riots, Valentine’s Day joke wars) to temper the seriousness. Listeners are offered both laughs and food for thought on the media landscape, evolving technology, shifting geopolitics, and especially the potential downstream consequences of ideology overtaking expertise in critical fields like medicine.

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For those who missed it, the above captures the best moments, sharpest commentary, and most engaging tangents of Armstrong & Getty’s “I Pick Nits” episode.

Transcript

[A]

This is an iHeart podcast, guaranteed human.

[B]

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

[A]

Armstrong and Getty. And now here's Armstrong and Getty. Hello.

[B]

Where's First Creek? Pickleball court. And there's a fight that's broken out and we need. Come quick, please. Okay, how many people are fighting? There's about 20 people. Okay, any weapons? No, no. I mean somebody hit somebody with a pickleball paddle. Hit somebody in the head. Please. Oh my God.

[C]

Is anybody leaving?

[B]

Okay, it's breaking up. But we. We need help.

[A]

That's from a Senior Center 911 call of a pickleball brawl that broke out at a senior center. And that poor winded, probably elderly woman very upset. Send help quickly. Somebody hit somebody else in the head with a pickleball paddle.

[C]

Elderly. She's probably our age.

[A]

Guy open.

[C]

By the way, if anybody uses the term pickle brawl at any point during this segment, we'll be rolling around on the floor.

[A]

That's pretty good.

[C]

It's not.

[A]

That'll be on the news tonight. Pickle bra. And then they'll have some expert on. Yes, older people now are finding shorter fuses because of screen time. Yeah, that's it. And pickleball.

[C]

Something and something. This is Savannah.

[A]

Pickle brawls. Are you at risk?

[C]

Oh, boy.

[A]

I wonder, did anybody get a video of that? Did any whip up. Anybody whip out their phone in time to get a video of some old people wouldn't hit each other with pickleball.

[C]

Oh, I'm sure. Yeah. According to Volusia county sheriff's office online booking records, one Anthony Edwards Sapienza and his wife Julianne, both of Punce Inlet were arrested, charged with two counts of battery on a person 65 year old and one count of aggravated battery. The his little lady has one chance.

[A]

Of battery that was out.

[C]

It was a dispute over the freaking rules. Insults were exchanged and Anthony Sapienza had used a vulgarity to describe his wife. As the group walked off the court. The victim then stated that Sapienza approached him, striking him on the left side of the face. He also accused the defendant of striking with a pickleball paddle causing significant bleeding.

[A]

I wish we had the ages other than just over 65. I'd like to know how old these people were as they swung pickleball paddles at each other.

[C]

Oh, yeah, the dude was 63. His wife was 51. The two arrestees, I'd like to know where they're from originally because probably not Florida probably not. It definitely reads Northeastern State to me. Speaking of which, your AI systems have hidden biases. They've learned about various folks from various states. We'll have to touch on those later.

[A]

Where would that come from?

[C]

What? What they've read.

[A]

Oh, okay. It just picked it up from the right.

[C]

Yeah, yeah, that's what they've heard, literally. Oh, which reminds me, certain totalitarian regimes are now, including Iran, are using. I can't remember what the technique is. What. It's essentially flooding the Zone with fake articles so that AI systems read hundreds of articles about how the US is really the great oppressor in the world and Iran is actually a Valhalla of peace and love. So AI systems start to get perverse ideas. Really crazy.

[A]

Oh boy. Yeah, that Aaron World, that's the, that's one of the big problems with the language learning model thing. LLMs is if the, you know, garbage in, garbage out. If they're, if they're reading crap that ain't real, that and then that and then they pick it up and then spout it out to other AIs that pick it up and it just. The, the misinformation, disinformation thing could grow way beyond anything human beings were ever capable of.

[C]

Yeah, yeah. I've come across a couple more articles that reminded me. Actually, one of them mentions the one you were talking about yesterday, Jack. About how the improvements in AI are now moving at insane speeds. The timetable has been moved way up and nobody has a handle on it.

[A]

Elon said yesterday that coding will be dead by December. There'll be no human beings needing to code by December. He exaggerates sometimes, but you know, if he's off by a year, that's a big deal.

[C]

So on a totally different topic, credit to Andrew Stiles of the Free Beacon, who was reporting on how, you know, how the Washington Post laid off a third of its workers and ended its so called sports section last week amid sweeping layoffs. Blah, blah, blah. His headline is Angsty. Journalists said the WaPo sports section was indispensable. The evidence suggests otherwise. And here are.

[A]

I'm not sure any sports section could ever be indispensable.

[C]

But no, you're not thinking of it in the right way. But I mean, because if you're into sports, the sports section is. Is good to have. But so. And he quotes a bunch of. Here's an ESPN ESPN reporter who wrote that the layoffs were so troubling because they signaled the appetite for real sports reporting has died slow, inevitable. New York Times reporter Ben Mullen wrote a eulogy for one of the last bastions of great sports reporting. More importantly, explained, the Post was a champion of diversity and a leader in women's sports coverage.

[A]

All right, so if you give me way more WNBA articles that nobody reads, that's somehow better for the world, here.

[C]

Are their major feature articles just in the last two weeks before the layoffs. Let's start with number one. Hockey isn't gay Enough. The papers, Washington Capital's beat reporter examined how the success of heated rivalry, the TV series about two gay hockey players, has made at least several people upset that the NHL wasn't doing more to elevate queerness and promote the LGBTQIA 2s or the power of three inclusion programs. The freaking NHL.

[A]

I feel like we don't need more examples, but you have them.

[C]

That was one of the major stories in the section that we're not going.

[A]

To have anymore because they've canceled the sports section of the Washington Post. We'll miss out on that sort of thing.

[C]

Exactly. This is the list of the things.

[A]

We'Ll miss out on.

[C]

2. The NFL Diversity Police. As part of the Post super bowl coverage, the paper expressed concern that the NFL was still grappling with a lack of diversity among head coaches. But, you know, we've all heard enough about that. 3. The enduring legacy of Colin Kaepernick. Big feature article before the Super Bowl. Nobody? No. Because the game was being played in his former home stadium, Kilgore argued that there was no one more relevant. That's the writer. To the super bowl this year. Good Lord. Number four. Feature Again. This is just two weeks. The Olympics versus climate change. It's like you're making this up.

[A]

I know.

[C]

The Post invited its readers to, quote, see how climate change is threatening the Winter Olympics with a slew of interactive charts linked to academic studies and interviews with activists, all making the case that abiding by the Paris Agreement is the only way to ensure that the Games continue. Number five, the Olympics versus somebody. Want to guess? Come on, spin the wheel of progressivism.

[A]

Ice immigration.

[C]

The Olympics versus gentrification. If you had gentrification, you win. Doubled. Byline report from Milan about the concern among advocates, quote, unquote, that the relentless gentrification in the Winter Olympics host city was, quote, deepening social divisions and widening income disparities.

[A]

You know, Jeff Bezos is a smart guy. If he was looking at the sports section and seeing that stuff, he had to be thinking, what is going on here?

[C]

Right? This is a section specifically for sports fans.

[A]

So you got the writers who think that's what the sports reader wants, so they're just living in a world that none of us exist inhabit.

[C]

Right.

[A]

And then you got their boss, I guess, who's probably been in the newspaper business a long time and everything like that and thinks that's what the sports section should be. And then you got the owner who it's just awful that he's not willing to lose a hundred million dollars of his own money every year to keep this af.

[C]

Right, right. There's more. Number six example just in the last two weeks. At last, queer culture comes to ice dancing. A racial justice reporter who doubles as the Post's resident figure skating analyst examined the ways in which Olympic ice dancers were incorporating, and I quote, an underground style of promenade common in black queer culture and made more mainstream with the advent of RuPaul's Drag Race. Number seven, Olympic athletes versus Trump. We're familiar with that.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Unfortunately they didn't get a chance to mention Eileen Gu, the US born skier representing the communist Chinese at the Olympics. Gu is freely criticized the United States while staying silent on issues involving the Chinese communists. Number eight, here's a bombshell for you. They did a deep dive on Nordic skiing and how it wasn't diverse enough. Bunch of Norwegians and Swedes, it wasn't enough black people.

[A]

It's so wild to me that these writers there and the people at NPR don't know how out of the mainstream they are. How do you? I guess because you live in a neighborhood where everybody talks about this sort of crap all the time.

[C]

Certainly a virtual neighborhood of the people you associate and you all got master's.

[A]

Degrees in something or other and you all talked about this sort of stuff. They don't know that you're like way over here on the spectrum, you're like in the 1 2% category, maybe even half a percent. I mean, you're so far from the mainstream, it's amazing.

[C]

Look, I'm a lifelong hockey fan with gay friends and the idea that I want to read an article that hockey isn't queer enough. I mean, what are you talking about?

[A]

Or that the most interesting thing to talk about cross country skiing in the Olympics is how it's not got enough different skin colors for you.

[C]

I'm seeing a lot of white people here. Or the first thing you ask a 21 year old snowboarder is what do you think of the unrest over ice in Minneapolis? Oh my God, they didn't shutter that quickly enough, man.

[A]

The crowd beaten up Bezos for not Being willing to throw a hundred million dollars of his own money at that a year because that's how much they were losing every year is bunch of.

[C]

Children living in fantasy land.

[A]

They really, really are. That's astounding. Like you said, if I was gonna make up headlines, I don't know if I could have done better than that.

[C]

I realize I've said this now roughly seven times. That was from two weeks of the sports section.

[A]

That's incredible.

[C]

Like every single day, the head story, the lead story is some sort of woke nonsense loosely tied to sports.

[A]

And what a tragedy that they've canceled the sports department out at the Washington Post.

[C]

What a loss. It's from the same school of thought that says we've got to work equity into every class, including nuclear physics and math.

[A]

Tomorrow is Valentine Day and we've got a late night joke off on that topic. Among other things on the way.

[B]

Stay with us, Armstrong and Getty.

[A]

I'm looking up at ABC News before we do a Valentine's Day late night joke off. ABC News doing some big feature on flowers to be relevant with Valentine's Day tomorrow. I don't know what they're telling you about choosing fresh flowers or I don't know what. I can't even imagine what they're doing.

[C]

But the lack of diversity in the flower industry.

[A]

Popular bouquets this year. Looks like red roses are in. Okay.

[C]

Oh, boy. All right, it's time for a late night joke off. We've got three jokes from different comedians we will rate. I will grade them on their effectiveness as humor. The lowest grade getter will be banned from comedy for life.

[D]

So the Valentine's Day is on Saturday. This is everything you need to know. Flowers are all sold out. There are no more dinner reservations. You're probably getting divorced. Okay, here's a little money saving tip. You can save a bundle on candy hearts just by writing the words I heart you on a Tums Valentine's Day. And I saw that if you go to Hooters. If you go to Hooters, you can shred a photo of your ex and get free wings. It's fun until you realize that you got back at your ex by eating alone at a Hooters on Valentine's Day.

[C]

In honor of Valentine's Day, Subway is offering buy one get one free sub. What better way to say I love you than I got this for free at Subway. Wow. Wow. A rare. This is great inflation, I think, Jack. We got Kimmel and Fallon with solid A's, Myers with an A minus Those.

[A]

Are pretty good jokes.

[C]

I think the. The governor will call the warden and send in a reprieve. Nobody is banned from comedy for life. This is a first.

[A]

The Valentine's Day phenomenon is interesting. I mean it's got a little bit of the old Yogi Berra. Well, for me anyway, the old Yogi Berra joke about nobody goes to that restaurant anymore. It's too crowded.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

I mean because I. I regularly talk about. I feel like just because of the world I live in my own bubble of, you know, you tend to hang around people like yourself. Everybody does. I don't know successful couples that take Valentine's Day seriously. And I feel like all this comment every year about all the flowers and dinner reservations and this is. That is like for a non existent thing. Like we're almost talking about something that doesn't really happy yet. It can't be true if all the restaurants are packed. I mean I did, I did try to go one year and it was impossible. Everywhere without a reservation. So lots of people are going out. I don't know why you. I mean explain why you would. Why, why do you wait in line a couple hours? Why wouldn't you just go the night before, the night after if you want to go out to eat or cook.

[C]

At home for them?

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

That's a nice expression of love. I don't. I really don't know. I'm mystified by the whole thing. If anybody had the budget to waste on a poll of people's attitudes about Valentine's Day or you've seen that sort of thing, please pass it on to us. I don't know, I just find the whole thing kind of silly.

[A]

Do you know the actual questions to get somebody to fall in love with you? The 36 questions that lead to love.

[C]

Yeah. Did a big feature on that on our podcast a couple of years ago, I think.

[A]

Probably did. That's a great thing about being me. It's all new to me almost every single day.

[C]

Talked about it for an hour. Yeah. Yeah.

[A]

Almost everything's new every single day. I mean I'm just as interested in it. The you know, a week later tabula Rasa Question 1. Given the choice of anyone in the world, whom would you want as a dinner guest that's gonna make somebody fall in love with me?

[C]

No, you don't get it at all. Would you like to increasingly showing who you are over a series of several dozen questions.

[A]

Would you like to be famous? In what way? Before making a telephone call, do you ever rehearse what you're going to say? I don't think I do. What would you constitute a perfect day for you? When did you last sing to yourself? Is there anybody that doesn't sing to themselves or in the car, regardless of your abilities? I don't know.

[C]

I'd say the vast majority of us do it.

[A]

I don't know.

[C]

If there's anybody that doesn't sing to yourself, I don't think is the same thing as singing along with the radio, is it?

[A]

Oh, I don't know.

[C]

I'm nitpicking. But of course that's what I do. I pick nits. I hate nits. If you are able to live to.

[A]

The age of 90 and retain either the mind or body of a 30 year old for the last 60 years of your life, or I guess it's. Or if you're able to live to the age of 90 or retain either the mind or body of a 30 year old for the last 60 years of your life, which would you want? I don't understand that question.

[C]

No, it's live to 90 and you get to choose the mind or the body?

[A]

Oh, I think. Oh, okay. Well, what's the point of. If you don't got your mind, what's the point of anything?

[C]

I get to preserve the body of a 30 year old. What's her name?

[A]

What's the point being my body?

[C]

I'm sorry.

[A]

I'm still not in love. I don't know. I haven't gotten through all the questions. I haven't fallen in love with you yet. People are getting chatbots to fall in love with them with those questions. Maybe we'll get to that story later.

[B]

Armstrong and Gettysburg.

[A]

CBS News has already tracked more than 1,000 confirmed cases across 21 states this year, roughly half of what was recorded in all of 2025. South Carolina continues to have the largest outbreak with more than 900 cases since September. So if we were a certain kind of radio show or maybe what we used to be years ago, I would now say. And that's why we welcome in Dr. James Mendelsohn of a local hospital who's going to tell us all about the measles outbreak. And I'm actually kind of wondering if maybe we shouldn't do that because here's what I'm concerned about. There's a measles outbreak in California. I wouldn't have thought about this really until I got whooping cough last year. The sickest I've ever been in my life. And I didn't think I'd get Whooping cough. And I knew I had been vaccinated for it 59 years ago before I got whooping cough. And it turns out they wear off over time. So my measles vaccination is as many decades old. So am I. Could I get measles just like I got whooping cough? And should everybody now who wasn't worried about these things at all go around and get vaccinations for whooping cough, measles, all kinds of different things?

[C]

That's a good question. I don't know. Different. I don't know either. Vaccinations last different lengths of time. Yeah. Because, you know, one of the principles of group immunity or everybody is immune. Well, you don't have to worry about it because it's not going to get started at all anymore. So you don't really have to get boosters because where are you going to get it?

[A]

Yeah. So I got recommended to me the booster shot for the TDAP thing for a couple of different things that little kids get because some of these diseases have made a comeback and we used to get them as little kids and then you didn't need to go get it again because we practically eradicated these things. But I need to look into that if I should go out and get a measles shot because I don't want to get sick again.

[C]

Yeah, yeah. I think the P. Pertussis is whooping cough. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because I got that partly based on your recommendation.

[A]

Yeah. It was not pleasant. So here's a story that we've mentioned a couple of times that's burbling under the radar as the midterm election comes up in November, which the Democrats are almost certainly going to win just because historically that's what happens. But Donald Trump. This is from the Associated Press. There's lots of versions of this story. Has been bragging about a political war chest that nobody has ever seen before in politics, exceeding $1.5 billion currently a staggering sum that he can wield at his whim to shape November midterms in various races across the country as they try to figure out which ones they can, you know, pick off or win or change or which ones are not worth betting money on. But Trump's stockpile, which dwarfs any amounts raised by predecessors in their second terms, is up for grabs. And it's going to be interesting to see how it's used. Nobody's ever had this kind of money to spend or even close. And whether or not that's going to be a difference maker or not, everybody's guessing.

[C]

I came across a piece, I can't remember where about Kamala Harris's fundraising and tens of millions of dollars that came from dark money sources and you can't tell who it's from and it's probably foreign countries and blah, blah, how dirty all that is. And just, you know, the government hands out trillions of dollars to who it decides ought to get it. And yeah, having a say in that is worth a hell of an investment. I don't know. Democracy doesn't work or it doesn't work for long.

[A]

I wonder how much difference this amount of money could make. Famously, in presidential elections, it doesn't matter that much. There's like a lowish bar to meet to have enough money to compete above that, it doesn't really get you anything else. Diminishing returns start very quickly. But in man, these small races around the country, if, if you know one guy in some rural district, Nebraska, can just overwhelm his opponent with ads or, you know, knocking on doors or whatever races people don't pay that much attention to. I wonder if it can make a difference.

[C]

Yeah, in swing districts, maybe. I've, I've been in markets that had the saturation political advertising because that's where most of the money goes is just TV and radio ads and that sort of thing. And you just, you quickly get to the point of turning it off. But I'm sure they have highly paid consultants who will tell you it actually works. It accumulates over time. You start to think Jones probably is dirty. I keep hearing he's dirty.

[A]

Well, just in case you don't know this, like 90% of House seats, 435 House seats are. Both parties have agreed we're not going to fight over these. So they've made them so safe that they can't switch hands and then they fight over the other handful. That's what the two parties have done, which is one of the reasons you can't get a third party going. But so to Joe's point, there aren't that many races that are even up for grabs. And so there's going to be a lot of that. $1.5 billion or how much Trump decides to spend will be concentrated in Maine, North Carolina, Michigan, Ohio, Georgia, New Hampshire and Alaska. So that's what, seven states going to be almost all the money to try.

[C]

To sway itself open ad agency in all of those states.

[A]

Yeah, no kidding. Boy, that'd be something if he was able to spend enough money to hold on to the House when everybody's predicting Predicting a. Just a tidal wave.

[C]

Yeah. And you always point out that they're going to lose the house. Because they always lose the house. It's. It's almost always. But, you know, I'm reminded of a football team that's going up against a much better opponent, but they didn't bring the playbook with them. And the quarterback throws three idiotic interceptions in the first quarter. They're not losing because the other team's great. They're losing because they suck. And I just think the Republicans messaging has been terrible. Just terrible. They're not doing their job. They're bad at their jobs. Have you considered being better at your job? Have we lost that clip? Michael, do I need to tip you? How does this work? Are you writing your wife a Valentine's Day note? That's sweet, but I'm gonna ask you to pay attention at work. Now, where were we? Ah, back to Jack.

[A]

I'm kind of done with that. Unless you got more to say about it. There's a clip we opened the show with. I wanted to get back on again because it's apparently getting quite a bit of attention.

[C]

And I said, I'm not.

[A]

That sounded like RFK Jr. Are we about to hear him?

[C]

And I said, I'm not scared of a germ. You know, I used to snort cocaine off a toilet seats. And yeah, I know this disease will kill me. Right? I don't.

[A]

So that's RFK Jr doing a podcast with Theo Vaughn, who's decided to become a giant podcaster as opposed to a giant comedian, which he was. And RFK Jr. They're talking about how AA meetings and NA meetings shut down during COVID and he was really concerned about everybody starting to drink or do drugs again when all those meetings were shut down. But I guess was the topic matter. And then he was. He would rather have been able to go into the meetings so he didn't do drugs again than being worried about catching COVID which.

[C]

That's a really interesting point.

[A]

I agree with myself, but.

[C]

Oh, yeah. And just like momentarily distracted me from the main point, which is snorting the Bolivian marching powder off a turlet seat, which is gross.

[A]

And you're. You. You seem to be able to justify that earlier in the show because it sounded disgusting to me. But you're no.

[C]

Justified. No, I was just explaining. You're a coke addict. You're there in a stall. You don't have anything handy. Although you are a Kennedy. Come on. Don't you have some sort of fancy cigarette case? Or don't you have, I don't know what the rich carry.

[A]

Don't you have a butler that can get down on his hands and knees and you snort it off his back.

[C]

Or off at the top of his top hat or something? Butler's word. Probably not. Anyway, you gotta snort it off the toilet seat. That's, that's terrible. God, you gotta take a long look at yourself. Speaking of medical science. This is not hyperbole. DEI stands a pretty good chance of killing you in the next 15 years of your life.

[A]

How is diversity, equity and inclusion going to kill me?

[C]

Medical schools. Ah. Medical schools have gone so far down the DEI highway, you won't believe it.

[A]

Are we going to learn more about that after we hear about.

[C]

We are going to learn more about that after we hear about rough.

[A]

Rough greens. Which is something exactly.

[C]

Right.

[A]

Add to your dog's food. It's not replacing your dog's foods because traditional dog food is, you know, it can sit on the shelf for a long time and it's, it's a lifeless thing. But rough greens is live. Live vitamins, minerals, probiotics, digestive enzymes and omega oils. And you add it to your dog's food.

[C]

Yeah. All those fine things help reduce oxidative stress, support immune defense and slow age related decline, helping your beloved dog stay active, mobile and alert as they age. It promotes longevity by addressing common nutritional deficiencies found in processed dog foods. So you don't have to get rid of your dog' food. Just add rough greens.

[A]

Ain't gonna cost much to try rough greens. It's free.

[C]

Really?

[A]

Rough Greens is offering a free jump start trial bag. All you do is cover the shipping, which won't be a lot. Use the discount code Armstrong to claim your free Jumpstart trial bag@rough greens.com spelled R U F F like a dog.

[C]

Rough R u f f greens.com that promo code is Armstrong. So don't change your dog's food. Just add rough greens and watch the health, health benefits come alive. Why don't we play Marco Rubio? I've been wanting to hear this. This clip number 13, it's kind of hard to hear because he's on an airplane tarmac, but this may be.

[A]

On.

[C]

The list of clips of the year.

[E]

The world is changing very fast. Right on of us. The old world is gone, frankly, the world I grew up in. And we live in a new era of geopolitics and it's going to require all of us sort of re examine what that looks like and what our role is going to be and we've had many of these conversations in private. Many of our allies they are our allies and either continue to have those conversations and I think Saturday openly and the meeting live there when moving to.

[C]

The key quote the world is changing very fast right in front of us. The old world is gone. Post WW2 order is couple.

[A]

That's interesting. I wonder what he knows that we don't know about that a great deal. Yeah. I'm guessing that has not been fully.

[C]

Realized probably in both positive ways and in ways that would freak us out.

[A]

I don't know if there's any positive ways. The old world order where we were in charge of the entire planet and kept the shipping lanes open and everything like that and nobody dared invade another country because of what we do. That was pretty good.

[C]

That was pretty good for us, for our economy. Yeah, I oversimplified what I meant. What I meant was there may be some encouraging news given the threats that exist. People are waking up to them and starting to act like adults. I certainly hope that's true. Europe, I'm looking at you well.

[A]

And then there's a whole big crowd out there that thinks us being in charge of the world was a bad thing and the world will be better when we're not. That's those people are known as nut jobs or wrong. Maybe just wrong.

[C]

The good way to describe them couldn't be more wrong. Speaking of the old world is gone. Your DEI doctor is going to kill you. Stay tuned.

[A]

Yeah, got to get to that and the whole Nancy Guthrie missing thing. We talked about this earlier this week. I haven't heard anybody else bring this up. I think it's the most interesting thing we learned this week out of the whole case. So maybe we'll get to that in our four Stay tuned.

[D]

Armstrong and Getty Sunday, our city's host to the NBA All Star Game. Instead of the usual, you know, it's usually a matchup between the east and the West. This year the teams will be made up of Americans against players from the rest of the world. You know, I've been hoping somebody would figure out another way to pit us against the rest of the world. I want to thank the NBA for doing that. I'll be. I'll be watching the alternative All Star Game on Turning Point usa.

[A]

Wow, that's interesting. What an interesting idea. There are so many good players from other countries in the NBA. Like four of the top five best players are from other countries. What's that going to say about the NBA if they easily win? Hmm. And they might, they might actually play in that game.

[C]

I don't know. Be.

[A]

Yeah, the, the, the Euros. Anyway, I think they'd love to show. But anyhow, LeBron last night broke the all time record for oldest NBA triple double at age 41 and 44 days old. He had a triple double last night for the lakers.

[C]

Well done, LeBron. Well done. I'm going to quote Dr. Stanley Gold Farb in a minute. He's got a book out called Doing Great Harm, which is obviously a reference to the Hippocratic oath. But first, a review of his book which mentions the Minnesota chapter of White Coats for Black Lives. A medical student group greeted the 10-7-23 Hamas led terrorist attacks on Israel by saying that Palestinians, quote, should free themselves from their oppressors by any means necessary, say medical students group. In 2024, the Oregon Medical Board proposed including microaggressions in the category of unprofessional misconduct for which doctors could be punished up to losing their licenses. Keep in mind examples of microaggressions mentioned by the state's experts as saying America is the land of opportunity or I believe the most qualified person should get the job. Now, have you caught on by now that microaggressions was completely phony? It's a tool of capture of it's a weapon used by neo Marxists. They don't mean it sincerely. They're just trying to scare you into shutting up. Ohio State University College of Medicine instructs staff and students and faculty not to ask black colleagues, how are you doing? It's not an appropriate question, the college explained, because black people and all people of color experience racism every day.

[A]

Oh my God. That's. Now that we've heard a lot of these over the years, that's the most amazing. You can't say how you do it.

[C]

Because they're doing poorly because they're being racist against and at the University of Minnesota Medical School, new students are forced to recite a pledge. They're forced to to honor all indigenous ways of healing that have been traditionally marginalized by Western medicine. They must also declare that they, quote, recognize inequities built by past and present traumas rooted in white supremacy, colonialism, the gender binary, ableism and all forms of oppression. Those are all examples given by Dr. Goldfarb in his book now to his editorial published recently in the journal DEI is a Threat to Americans Health. President Trump's crusade against DEI has brought to light another crisis, the dramatic decline of medical education. For years, medical schools have emphasized discrimination and indoctrination at the expense of merit and excellence to the detriment of patients. And he says the fight to rectify this is just beginning. The crisis in medical education is directly connected to DEI for years the Liaison Committee on Medical Education which accredits MD granting programs. And the point of this article is you've got to change the accreditation system because these people are captured by far left progressives. Anyway, it required medical schools to establish programs aimed at achieving diversity and he goes into a lot of detail about that, but I want to get to some of the statistics. The traditional two years of pre clinical education required to become a doctor has been significantly reduced at more than a third of medical schools. This gives short shrift to the foundational curriculum in genetics, biochemistry, biostatistics and epidemiology. At 80% of MD granting schools, the foundational courses in basic science and clinical skills are now graded pass fail, discouraging the pursuit of excellence. This is a brand new trend. By the way, the first part of the national licensure exam that determines residency placement has also been changed to pass fail, further blurring the distinction between the mediocre and the excellent. Unsurprisingly, a growing number of medical students lack a strong grasp of basic medical knowledge. There's been a lot of attention given to UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine and he mentions it here. According to reporting based on interviews with faculty members, more than 50% of students, more than half these are your doctors. Doctors in the next couple of years failed basic tests on family medicine, pediatrics and emergency medicine. Nationwide, the percentage of medical students who passed the first part of the licensure exam has fallen every year since 2020, dropping from 97% to 89% for students pursuing an MD. Clinical skills have declined for years, made worse by DEI's distractions from clinical education. Even liberal medical journals have begun to question the state of medical education. A 2025 New England Journal of Medicine article on the use of pass fail in medical school asked is good enough good enough, right? These people got so far when we weren't paying attention.

[A]

You know, it matters more obviously in medical school than other things. But I mentioned this the other day that Harvard announced that they're only going to give out 20% A's starting next year. 20% of the grades will be A's because it had been creeping up through the years. For instance, last year, 66% of all grades were A's. Another 18% were A minuses. So that gets you to 84% of the grades they give out were A's or A minuses in all classes.

[C]

That's hilarious.

[A]

I know, I know.

[C]

Kudos to them for reforming that. But and that's been going on in medical school. Did you ever go pass fail on a class when you realized, oh I can still go pass fail instead of get a letter grade? Why did you do that? I did it once. Why? Because I was effing the class up. I was bad at it, right?

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

It wasn't because you were trying to excel. That's certainly not.

[C]

Oh, far from it. That's our medical schools friends. So if you think, oh old junk. Uncle Joe's a little crazy with his ranting against DEI man, this could hurt you. Seriously in the years to come if.

[A]

You missed a segment, get our podcast Armstrong you Getty on demand. We do lots of segments and lots of hours.

[B]

Armstrong and Getty.

[A]

This is an iHeart podcast.

[C]

Guaranteed Human.