Sexual Lube & Whale Snot

Summary

Armstrong & Getty On Demand

Episode: Sexual Lube & Whale Snot
Date: March 3, 2026
Podcast: Armstrong & Getty (iHeartPodcasts)

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Episode Overview

This episode of Armstrong & Getty dives into a smorgasbord of hot-button and quirky topics. The hosts, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty, tackle the role of AI in government and warfare, Gavin Newsom's personal struggles with dyslexia and his political positioning, the homelessness and drug crises in California, a major military development in Iran, the dangers of surveillance technology, and oddball Americana like the Kentucky Meat Shower. The tone alternates between sharp political critique, wry humor, and genuine curiosity.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Gavin Newsom's Dyslexia & Political Communication

• [00:44–08:03]
  • Background: Recent focus on California Governor Gavin Newsom’s self-disclosure that he struggles with reading due to a processing disorder, possibly dyslexia, following a questionable onstage comment.
  • Newsom’s Method: He must underline, circle, and rewrite information from books or articles in order to retain and process it.
    • Newsom: "If you underline a book, then put it on little cards, that's the process... It's a process." [02:15–02:59]
  • Hosts' Take:
    • Jack highlights the labor involved for those with processing disorders, referencing people who have to create complex workarounds just to learn.
    • Discussion about the difference between dyslexia and ADHD.
    • They note the broader point—that many kids once seen as "dumb" or "weird" likely had undiagnosed disabilities.
  • Political Angle: Michael and Jack suggest Newsom mishandled his attempt to generate empathy by presenting his reading difficulties clumsily.
    • Michael: "He's a liar and utterly unprincipled... but this is about dyslexia." [04:01]
    • Jack: "I don't know that that was the best way to present this learning disability thing." [06:40]
  • Notable Quote:
    • Newsom: "This is the gift of dyslexia... It's a superpower if you have the grit." [04:19]

2. California Homelessness: Rhetoric vs. Reality

• [08:03–12:11]
  • Montage: A medley of Gavin Newsom’s shifting rhetoric on addressing California’s homelessness crisis over the years.
    • The montage exposes contradictions: one moment touting major progress, the next admitting a lack of progress.
    • Jack: "That music was mocking in tone." [09:37]
    • Michael: "We have made enormous progress—then, six months later, the state has made no progress." [09:43]
  • Host Analysis:
    • They frame homelessness primarily as a drug crisis, not a housing one.
    • Jack: "Why don't you look at it as a drug problem? ... All of us are worried about our kids starting to do drugs and ruining their lives." [11:23]
    • Michael: "You have to understand what's afflicting them." [13:11]

3. Major Military and Geopolitical News: Iran Power Vacuum

• [13:12–17:22]
  • Developing Story: Stratified, tongue-in-cheek coverage of a massive strike in Iran that reportedly wiped out key government leaders during a vote for a new Supreme Leader.
    • Jack: "You're the dog catcher in a medium sized town. We need you to come vote for the Supreme Leader." [15:05]
    • Questions on how this alters the balance of power and prospects of U.S./Israeli involvement.
    • Michael: "How does that change the equation? ... You might be thinking, 'Hey Uncle Sam, give me a jingle, let's work something out.'" [16:14]
    • Uncertainty about the depth of remaining Iranian leadership.

4. Firsthand War Anecdotes: American Pilots in Conflict

• [17:22–18:42]
  • Rescue Clip: A Kuwaiti local checks on an ejected U.S. pilot. Warm reactions contrast with more hostile encounters where locals initially menaced downed American airmen, before realizing their nationality.
    • Jack: "A Kuwaiti local, making sure the F15 pilot was okay ... said, 'Thank you for helping us.'" [17:43]
  • Michael: "As the belligerent Americans destroy the Middle East, the locals are greeting them..." [18:03]

5. Media Portrayal of Iranian Regime

• [18:42–18:56]
  • Mocking coverage of obsequious Western media reporting on Iran's theocratic leaders.
    • Michael: "Ayatollah as a fuzzy bearded cleric who had a ready smile and loved poetry—unfriendly believable." [18:56]

6. AI & the Pentagon: Anthropic vs. Department of War

• [18:56–31:10]
  • The Battle Over AI Ethics:
    • Pentagon breaks off with Anthropic (creator of Claude AI) over its refusal to allow military use of its technology for "lethal autonomous weapons" (LAWS).
    • Jack: "Anthropic specifically doesn't want their AI used for lethal autonomous weapons ... known as laws." [20:45]
    • Michael: "Anthropic is essentially asking for the right to offer a case-by-case thumbs up, thumbs down... You can't have that." [22:39]
    • Discussion on whether AI companies should be able to veto military uses of their tech.
    • Concerns that if U.S. doesn’t use top-tier AI for defense, adversaries like China will.
  • Government Surveillance Risks:
    • Jack: "User data, such as search history and algorithm preferences... is not categorically protected by the Fourth Amendment." [25:03]
    • Smart car and "cybertruck" anecdotes illustrate how omnipresent cameras and AI could erase privacy.
  • Slippery Slope Metaphor:
    • Michael: "This feels like a sheet of glass covered in WD40, some sort of sexual lube and some whale snot—the slipperiest slope that has ever existed." [28:08]

7. Notable Quotes: "Nothing To Hide" Privacy Trap

• Jack:
  “My son said, 'I'm not doing anything wrong, so I don't care.' ... Wait till somebody else is in charge. Maybe they'll think what you're doing is wrong.” [28:27]

8. Anthropic, CDC, and AI Over-Filtering

• [31:10–31:30]
  • Anthropic overregulates certain words (like "pathogen"), interfering with CDC research.
    • Jack: “It reminds me of the thing years ago ... when Facebook was trying to deal with the nipple.” [31:16]
  • Humorous references to the challenges of automated content controls.

9. The Kentucky Meat Shower: Americana Oddities

• [31:40–35:30]
  • Historical Curiosity:
    • On March 3, 1876, chunks of meat mysteriously fell from the sky in Bath County, Kentucky. Modern science points to vomited vulture remains.
    • Jack: “Chunks of meat began falling from the sky for several minutes ... chunks and chunks of meat.” [34:09]
    • Towns commemorate this with an annual festival.
    • Humorous banter from hosts and Michael: “I asked my wife for the Kentucky meat shower and she didn’t speak to me for a week.” [33:04]
    • Taste-testing the meat, attempting to identify it.

10. Protests: Middle East Native Confronts U.S. Activists

• [32:03–32:55]
  • Audio montage from a Philadelphia protest where a Middle Eastern man confronts anti-war activists:
    • Middle East Man: “Why don’t you leave America? ... None of you have showered.” [32:20]
    • Hosts appreciate the authenticity and bluntness of his critique.

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Gavin Newsom’s Dyslexia & Approach: [00:44–08:03]
• California Homelessness Rhetoric: [08:03–12:11]
• Iran Leadership Assassination: [13:12–17:22]
• American Pilots in the Middle East: [17:22–18:42]
• AI, Pentagon, & Anthropic Debate: [18:56–31:10]
• Surveillance Tech Warning: [25:03–29:23]
• Kentucky Meat Shower Festival: [31:40–35:30]
• Protesters Confrontation in Philly: [32:03–32:55]

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Memorable Moments and Quotes

• Newsom on Dyslexia:
  “This is the gift of dyslexia... It's a superpower if you have the grit.” [04:19]
• Michael on Political Empathy:
  “He’s a liar and utterly unprincipled ... but this is about dyslexia.” [04:01]
• Mockery of Homelessness Rhetoric Montage:
  “We have made enormous progress—then, six months later, the state has made no progress.” [09:43]
• Slipperiest Slope Analogy:
  “A sheet of glass covered in WD40, some sort of sexual lube and some whale snot.” [28:08]
• On Privacy:
  “I’m not doing anything wrong, so I don’t care … Wait till somebody else is in charge.” [28:27]
• Kentucky Meat Shower Banter:
  “I asked my wife for the Kentucky meat shower and she didn’t speak to me for a week.” [33:04]
• Protest Confrontation:
  “None of you have showered.” [32:20]

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Overall Tone and Takeaway

The episode is a characteristic blend of incisive skepticism toward political narratives (especially on homelessness and surveillance), dark humor about government and war, and wacky enthusiasm for American oddities. Jack and Joe maintain their irreverent, at times caustic, yet always engaging tone, weaving between sharp critique and lighthearted banter. The looming implications of unchecked AI and surveillance receive particular emphasis, echoing classic dystopian warnings but with contemporary urgency.

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For listeners seeking a critical, funny, and sometimes biting exploration of the day's complex stories—plus a few bites of weird Americana—this Armstrong & Getty episode delivers.

Transcript

[Jack Armstrong]

This is an iHeart podcast, guaranteed human

[Joe Getty]

broadcasting. Live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio at the George Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty.

[Jack Armstrong]

Armstrong and Getty. And now here's Armstrong and Getty. War rages on. We've got more about that coming up this hour. We'll talk a little bit about the whole anthropic Pentagon thing, which is super interesting.

[Michael]

Is that just a clash of two completely different dudes? Really interesting. We'll. We'll be on it.

[Jack Armstrong]

We got to figure that out, though, because obviously AI is going to play a role in our government and in our warfare, and we'll get a little of what the latest is on. On the actual war. This is something completely different. This is Gavin Newsom, Governor of California, who's almost certainly running for president. We talked a lot last week about that thing where he was on stage. I've heard various reports about how much that was a black audience or not the host was black. A lot of the audience was black. Was it mostly black audience? I don't know, because originally it was portrayed to me as a. A black event. And Gavin Newsom said on stage, said, hey, I'm just like you. I got a terrible grade on my SATs, which is a weird thing to say.

[Michael]

Yeah. Hilariously parodied here on the show.

[Jack Armstrong]

I still think he portrayed his. And then he jumps in. I can't read a book. You never seen me read a speech. I can't read. I think he didn't do the best job of laying that out. What's going on there? He has a processing disorder with his brain, like lots of people do. I think I've learned that I do on some things that I just. I read different things that I see. It's very minor. But now once I discovered it, it's like, oh, yeah, obviously I've always done this. His is pretty bad. And I thought this was just really interesting. If you have a processing disorder, if you've got a kid with one. Mark Halperin interviewing Gavin Newsom about his. Can you read? Can you read a book?

[Gavin Newsom]

I can read. I just have to underline it. I can't read spatially. I can't. That's why I can't read a speech, Mark, because spatially, I'll lose the line. So I'll literally. And I mean, I wish I had a book here.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Gavin Newsom]

If you ever lend me a book. That's why I don't go to library, because I can never return the book. I have underline. And then what I'll do is I'll take what's underlined, and then I'll put it out. And this is literally an actual example. I'll just put in pieces of paper, everything underlined, and then I'll do that for hours and hours and hours. And then eventually I'll put it on a little yellow card, which will have just quick notes, and then it's in my head. But that's the process. Everything online I have to print out. So I take what's online, print out your blog or something, and then underline it and then put it in here. So it's a. It's a process.

[Jack Armstrong]

So you can't. You can't read on a phone. You can't read on a phone or an iPad.

[Gavin Newsom]

I can. I just get. I start daydreaming. I start drifting off. And so it's.

[Michael]

So if you're.

[Gavin Newsom]

10 is the key.

[Jack Armstrong]

So if you're reading. If you're reading my book, say you open it and you just. You just start underlining as you read 100%.

[Gavin Newsom]

And circles. Yeah, I make stars. And then I go back, and without exception, I'll go back to every book I read, and then I will write it out. I have hundreds and hundreds of these pads.

[Jack Armstrong]

I thought that was really interesting, guys. I've known a few people explain to me how they, like one with a PhD, how they had to get through school, like record all lectures, take them home, and then type them out or something, because they didn't have the ability to process them in any other way or whatever. I mean, the amount of work you have to do if you have one of these processing disorders beyond what the rest of us have to do to get the same information is just incredible. And then some people either don't or can't put in that amount of work because it'd be so time consuming, and then they really struggle in life.

[Michael]

It's probably worth noting that this is not about Gavin Newsom per se. I mean, he's a liar and utterly unprincipled and a scammer and a schemer of 100 different ways. And as my T shirt indicates, the one I'm wearing today, if he were elected president, he would ruin the entire country. But this is about dyslexia.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, roll on with that, Michael.

[Gavin Newsom]

And this is the gift. This is the gift of dyslexia. I know people want to mock it and mock people that didn't do well academically, but the gift is a superpower because it allows you with discipline. It's hard work Is the grit. It's what my mom, you know, that's what. That's her legacy. It gives you the ability then to be able to absorb a lot, but also allows you the ability to be much more flexible. Allows you the ability to, I think, to have strengths where others struggle and find weakness.

[Jack Armstrong]

So I don't know anything about that angle of it, but I also thought it was interesting him say, because I know. I know kids who have this problem of they just. They can't not space out. They can't read two words without spacing out. Well, that's not dyslexia.

[Michael]

Might be ADHD or might be screen addiction.

[Jack Armstrong]

Who knows? So he has. He has dyslexia and adhd maybe, or. I would think he would know. I'm sure he's been tested for all this sort of stuff. But, yeah, from what I understand of dyslexia, I don't understand dyslexia as much as I understand adhd, because I know so many people with it. But sounds like he has both. That. That's something. And then so. Because if he under. If he draws, he reads along because he kind of showed it in the video. If he underlines it as he reads along, he can stay focused and read it in the proper order. For some reason, I wonder how he discovered that or if that's true for everybody with dyslexia or only him. I don't know. But I've known a number of people that came up with workarounds just like intuitively or stumbled upon them or whatever. Workarounds to where they could make their brain work to take in the information, whether record it and listen to it as opposed to read it, or is easier to read on. Like with him, he can do it on paper, but not on the screen. Man, back in the day, I wonder how many of the kids in. In school that we all knew that were just. They were dumb kids. They were. The dumb kids got yelled at and got yelled at and had something like this and just nobody knew it.

[Michael]

Yeah. Yeah, a lot. I have a feeling. Yeah, a lot. And I can think of a couple of the weird kids were absolutely autistic back in. In my childhood as well.

[Jack Armstrong]

I thought that was really interesting, which is.

[Michael]

I don't know. It is interesting, Gavin. It doesn't explain why you have zero principles.

[Jack Armstrong]

I don't think I know well, and it. You'd have more compassion for it. I don't think he presented it in the best way the other day to alert everybody as people are starting to become aware of Gavin Newsom across the country and as a presidential candidate and all that sort of stuff to say I'm as dumb as you, I can't read. I don't know that that was the best way to present this learning disability thing that he figured out.

[Gavin Newsom]

We're all human, we all fall short sometimes.

[Michael]

That's good point, Gabby. I think Democratic donors would do well to remember Maya Angelou's famous proclamation that when somebody tries to tell you what kind of person they are, believe them. Gavi cannot hit major league pitching. He is a one party state anointed star. He is not a major leaguer and, and he's proved it a couple of times lately. But they'll keep running him up the flagpole because he's good luck and well, reasonably well spoken. Although as you heard in those clips, not great.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, I feel like Gavin New or Mark Halperin bailed Gavin out of the thing that happened a week or so ago by letting him explain all this in a way that he should have done himself. I mean, as a good politician, he should have taken this very easy to be sympathetic about story and turned it into something that worked for him as opposed to something incredibly mockable.

[Michael]

Yeah, I would agree. And even his explanation to Halpern, he needed help from Halpern to explain himself. It's just he's not a major leaguer. Speaking of Gavin Newsom, if you don't mind, we do have a delightful montage of Gavin Newsom talking about solving the quote unquote homelessness problem in California, which is mostly a junkie problem for the last 22 years. Michael, let's hear it.

[Gavin Newsom]

What we call a 10 year plan to end chronic homeless in San Francisco. How are you going to solve homelessness? What are you going to do as a new mayor? And I say, well, what are you going to do? Because on a housing first model, direct access to housing, shelter, solve sleep housing with wraparound and support services. Solve homelessness. Homelessness absolutely can be solved. Laid out a detailed homeless strategy. There's been no intentionality on homelessness in the state for decades. It's not been a focus. I don't think we can solve homelessness. I know we can solve homelessness. We will reduce street homelessness quickly and humanely through emergency action. The highest investment the state's ever made is $1 billion on homelessness. We are poised to pass a budget in the next few hours that will provide $12 billion. I can literally quantify 58,000 people that we got off the streets last year. The state has not made progress in the last two decades as it relates to homelessness. Why not interested in funding here. We're not interested in failing more efficiently when it comes to the issue of homelessness and the crisis on the street.

[Jack Armstrong]

I feel like that music was mocking in tone.

[Michael]

I didn't notice. I love the juxtaposition of we have made enormous progress, 52,000 people. Then the next clip was probably six months later. The state has made no progress in dealing with the homeless. Oh, my God.

[Jack Armstrong]

It's so funny.

[Michael]

It's tragic.

[Jack Armstrong]

Comic was a year or two ago that we Californians got hit with the fact that somewhere between a third and a half of all the homeless people in the entire United States are in California because people figured out not only is the weather good, but they'll let you be drunk or high your whole life. They'll provide you housing and food, and nobody's going to arrest you for standing on the corner high and building a tent. It's awesome. Come to California.

[Michael]

The revelation that was a similar time frame that not only could they not tell us how effective the various programs had been, there wasn't even a mechanism for figuring it out. Yeah, There was no even effort toward

[Jack Armstrong]

accountability, which should have been a much bigger scandal. To say it for the one millionth time, I honestly wish I could talk to Gavin about this. Why don't you look at it as a drug problem? It's a drug problem. It's not a housing problem. It's a drug problem. Right. You got a whole bunch of people who ruin their lives with drugs and no longer can participate in the economy and they end up on the street. And we. And it's pretty obvious to them from looking around that we have a support structure for living on the street where you can get food and shelter and continue your life and medical care and all that sort of stuff and make

[Michael]

sure you don't have enough negative consequences to stop you before you ruin your brain. You're like, absolutely ensuring these people will ruin their brains.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, it's funny. I just popped into my head, like, I've had this conversation with other people. Have kids like I do. You teenagers. None of us are worried about our kids, like, not being able to support themselves, so ending up homeless because they're broke. All of us are worried about our kids starting to do drugs and ruining their lives. Right. And could end up on the street. I mean, that. That answers the question right there. Who's worried that their kid is going to end up homeless on the street economically? Just Plaid out. You can't find a job or get. Find some roommates or whatever. Very, very few. But drugs, absolutely could take you off the rails, right?

[Michael]

I'm honestly asking this question, the willful misdiagnosis of what the real issue is. You got the one we just laid out. And then you've got a kid who is, excuse me, autistic or victim of trauma or has some other psychological problems, mental illness problems, and you tell them you know it, you're trapped in the wrong body. You're actually a little boy. You're not a girl, you're a boy. You should take these hormones instead of dealing with the actual root problem. And that's. These are the compassionate people of the left. I. I would like to spend two minutes in their heads just to figure out how the hell they work. I don't get that you've got an unhappy child. Instead of working hard to understand why they're so unhappy, you go with this wildly ideological new philosophy. In fact, you brand anybody who has a serious talk with the child about what's actually at the root of their problems, you brand those people as deprogrammer. What's the word with the de. Gayifiers or what have you. God, it's sick. If you want to help people, you have to understand what's afflicting them.

[Jack Armstrong]

Can we agree on that?

[Michael]

And if we can't, God help us.

[Jack Armstrong]

We have some breaking news we might have to discuss later. I think this is the first time ever a father whose kid was one of those school shooters has just been convicted of second degree murder and involuntary manslaughter as a parent because their kid went and did that. We'll have to look into the details of that story. That's pretty interesting. Among other things, we can get to stay here.

[Joe Getty]

Armstrong and Getty,

[Michael]

a metal detectorist in

[Gavin Newsom]

Wales, recently found two lead ingots that

[Middle East Man]

are believed to date back to the

[Gavin Newsom]

Roman era, while the detectorist doesn't date at all.

[Michael]

Wow.

[Jack Armstrong]

So I misreported a story earlier, misunderstood it. I thought that the breaking news that we killed them when they were voting for a new Supreme Leader was telling what was going on over the weekend when the 40 people got together. No, that. That's today. So over the weekend you had. You killed the supreme leader and the 40 people underneath them. Today, 88 members, whoever's left of the government in Iran, 88 members got together in a building in Qom. Qom. I don't know how you pronounce that down. Anyway, they were voting for a new Supreme Leader because the old one got blowed up. And they all got blowed up, Every single one of them. Looking at that building, I mean that building is rubble. So I would assume every single one of them is dead.

[Michael]

Boy, you think you hate hearing there's a meeting this afternoon. I mean the Iranian government. I'm thinking I'm not effing going.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, and you're so far down the line now because you weren't the first 40 and you weren't the next almost 90. So now you're down to like the, I don't know, you're the second assistant Minister of parks. You're the dog catcher in a medium sized town. We need you to come vote for the Supreme Leader. We're running out of guys, so we're having a meeting today at 4. I got a dentist appointment.

[Michael]

Would soon be okay. Can I show up via Zoom?

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Michael]

Why aren't they using Zoom?

[Jack Armstrong]

Why aren't they using Zoom? No freaking kidding.

[Michael]

Our Google Meets, brought to you by Google. Geez.

[Jack Armstrong]

88 members met to vote for the Supreme Leader and they all got obliterated. And obviously even with all the chaos going on, Israel or our CIA still has the tentacles to know exactly when, where, and blow them up. How is that possible?

[Michael]

Everybody's question is, you know, how does this end? How does it unfold? What's next? And I'm thinking about when you eliminate that many layers of the hierarchy,

[Jack Armstrong]

how

[Michael]

does that change the equation? Because if you are like the recently elected mayor of a medium sized town and all of a sudden you're among the most elite leaders of a regime that you've always been a little ambivalent about anyway, you might be thinking, hey Uncle Sam, give me a jingle, let's work something out. I don't want to get blowed up. Right. I mean, you're. How many hard line leaders are left? What's the state of the irgc, the Revolutionary Guard Corps? I, I don't know these things.

[Jack Armstrong]

I'm not sure anybody does. Well, the CIA and Israel probably know.

[Michael]

Well, the top guy so interesting of

[Jack Armstrong]

the Revolutionary Guard is dead. And that. And then his replacement is dead. We know that, but wow, that's something. Everybody got together to vote for a new Supreme Leader that they're probably going to very excitedly announce today. Some old guy with a beard, I'm guessing. But they're all dead. Damn.

[Michael]

We are monitoring events. There's a joke about that, a meme on the Internet about how men do that. I want to talk about that before too long. Stand

[Joe Getty]

Armstrong And Getty, you're fine.

[Jack Armstrong]

Really.

[Middle East Man]

You need something to help you?

[Jack Armstrong]

No, I'm not.

[Gavin Newsom]

No problem.

[Jack Armstrong]

You don't save.

[Gavin Newsom]

You are safe.

[Jack Armstrong]

You're safe.

[Middle East Man]

Everything good.

[Gavin Newsom]

No problem. Thank you for helping us.

[Jack Armstrong]

What was that? That was an American pilot. One of the American pilots that ejected from those planes that got shot down by the Kuwaitis. Three of our jets got shot down. All of the crew got out and safely parachuted to the ground. But there's one, a Kuwaiti local, making sure the F15 pilot was okay, which they were, and said, thank you for helping us.

[Michael]

Now, as the belligerent Americans destroy the Middle east, the locals are greeting them. Did you see the other video? So compelling. Another one of our guys who parachuted down, some of the locals surrounded him and were menacing them like they were going to beat him down with the lumber. And finally the guy community communicated.

[Jack Armstrong]

American, I'm an American.

[Michael]

And they're like, oh, oh, okay. All right. They put down their sticks and.

[Jack Armstrong]

No kidding.

[Michael]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

Cool. And I just saw the Iranian women's soccer team competing in some soccer tournament or something like that. Didn't sing with. They remained silent during the national anthem when they normally sing and it's a

[Michael]

show, read their faces.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right. And again, I really think they should tune into msnbc. So they should know they should be unhappy about this. They should be in favor of the Ayatollah and unhappy that the United States is doing this.

[Michael]

Oh, yeah. Well, at some point, maybe next hour, we can get into the slew of Bigfoot media organizations that eulogize the Ayatollah as a fuzzy bearded cleric who had a ready smile and love poetry. You know, just unfriendly believable. But speaking of military matters, this is so interesting and is a question that will continue to be devil the United States, I think, for some time, who ultimately controls how cutting edge AI tools are deployed in conflict in the military and the society as a whole too, obviously, is it the user or the maker? And that question has been under the spotlight in particular because of the conflict between Dario Amodi and Pete Hegseth, the founder, the CEO of Anthropic Claude and the Secretary of War. And I, like this is buried in the middle of this article, but I love this description. Amodi and Hegseth approach the question differently. A bespectacled researcher who often twirls his curly hair, Amodi authors lengthy documents philosophizing about the importance of AI safety and is known for his deliberate approach to problem solving. He has been A vegetarian since childhood, Hegseth is a former Fox News host with several tattoos tied to his Christian faith and military service. Videos of Hegseth lifting weights frequently circulate on social media, and he played a role in President Trump's decision to rename the Defense Department to the Department of War. In other words, as the headline in the Journal puts it, a fight about vibes drove the Pentagon's breakup with Anthropic. You've got two guys who are so different from each other, they're having a tough time coming to any sort of agreement.

[Jack Armstrong]

Anthropic specifically doesn't want their. You. Their AI used for lethal autonomous weapons known as laws. Laws.

[Michael]

Mm.

[Jack Armstrong]

Which we don't currently have, or at least we don't think. I mean, they haven't announced that we have. Maybe we have them and they're keeping it a secret or whatever, but currently we don't have minutes. Illegal. But Anthropic is so concerned that we would use. The Pentagon would use the AI technology to have weapons systems that, once activated, can select and engage targets without further intervention by an operator. How horrifying is that? You turn the thing on and send it out, and it makes it all its decisions from that point on and kills people.

[Michael]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Michael]

Anyway, it is. It's absolutely a troubling prospect. Especially. I've got a actually kind of funny slash troubling article about this guy who tried to do a programming change in an AI system. And the AI system researched, wrote, published, and promoted a slam piece on this guy. It just took the ball and ran with it, Assassinated the guy's character to try to not let him change the programming. This is entirely on its own.

[Jack Armstrong]

It's another one of those. What? I haven't heard this one. Those stories are amazing.

[Michael]

Right?

[Jack Armstrong]

Holy cow, that's troubling. And so, anyway, currently there's no public evidence that the Department of Defense has those kind of weapons. But, you know, Anthropic as a company, wants to make sure that their AI isn't used for any of that stuff. Also, they don't want Anthropic used for any surveillance of U.S. citizens.

[Michael]

Right.

[Jack Armstrong]

Which is illegal already, but could be done with AI in kinds of ways that are legal, as was explained by the Dispatch today. And I found this very troubling.

[Michael]

I'm sorry, before we get to the surveillance thing, to the military use deal, and I completely understand Pete Hegseth's position on this. Anthropics is essentially asking for the right to offer a case by case, Thumbs up, thumbs Down. Hey, we're going to use your AI to do this now. Can't let you do that. Can you imagine if Northrop, Drummond or I can remember these giant companies names, but if the maker of the F18 said, no, don't bomb that village, I know there's some ISIS guys there. Can't have you using our plane like that. I mean, the AI systems are now a tool of war. Do they get a veto power?

[Jack Armstrong]

No, that's unworkable.

[Michael]

That's the way I see it. While I appreciate their caution, it's unworkable.

[Jack Armstrong]

But the government doesn't itself have this technology. So we're going to pass on the best technology on planet Earth and have these other companies. I mean, it exists. So, you know, using your example again, there's a company out there that's built a better fighter plane than any fighter plane on planet Earth, but they're not yet going to let the Pentagon use it however they want. So they just won't have it and we'll have lesser fighter planes. That doesn't make any sense.

[Michael]

Yeah, yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

So I don't know how this gets worked out. And then there was on Friday, before the war started, with the help of Anthropic, by the way. They used Anthropic for a lot of the targeting and the complicated, figure out what to hit and how and arrange the planes and all that sort of stuff. They used Anthropic because intelligence processing as well, if you're following. On Friday, there was a big dust up, Trump said, and Hegseth announced no more government work with Anthropic, their Persona non grata to us. We're cutting ties with Anthropic, then use them 24 hours later to kill the ayatollah. But also there was talk of Trump made some noises about seizing Anthropic, taking the technology from them, which I have

[Michael]

to call them left wing nut jobs.

[Jack Armstrong]

Have to assume that can't happen legally.

[Michael]

Yes, it says some law I'm unfamiliar with, they cited. I can't remember the name of it, but it's the. To label somebody as a supply chain risk is a serious thing for a military supplier. And that's what the Trump administration is looking at doing, or already has. I'm not sure how the law works,

[Jack Armstrong]

but I was troubled by this. So Anthropic's really worried about its technology being used to surveil Americans. US Law doesn't allow the government to surveil us. But as this expert on the Fourth Amendment pointed out, a lot of what you would do colloquially, what you would colloquially kind of in common terms think of as a search is not a search under the Fourth Amendment. When it comes to AI, user data, such as search history and algorithm preferences collected and held by private companies is not categorically protected by the Fourth Amendment. Neither is all kinds of footage of cameras all over, everywhere.

[Michael]

Right.

[Jack Armstrong]

Necessarily fall under the Fourth Amendment and all kinds of other different things that AI could gather in a way that human beings couldn't. Just like super fast and put it all together. Right. We're gonna have to work that out

[Michael]

as a country as the technology continually changes.

[Jack Armstrong]

Good luck.

[Michael]

Yeah. Where do you have an expectation of privacy these days? In my own home, certainly. Every time I also clicked a form and said, I agree. When Google told you, by the way, your searches are ours. Your search history.

[Jack Armstrong]

Every time I get into my cyber truck, there's a little thing on there. It says four events happened while you're gone. Because it's recording on cameras all the way around. And I watch the events just for fun sometimes. And like somebody pulled up next to me and, you know, opened their door and got their baby out of the car and stuff like that and walk behind me and scratch their ass and all these different things. And I see it on camera. But all of these videos of these people that they, they don't know they're being videoed. Well, when every car has what the cybertruck has, which all of them will soon enough, every car will have, that will be recorded constantly. Every car you walk down the street is recording you car by car by car by car. So your entire walk around your neighborhood would be recorded if you wanted to put all that together. And then. And, and AI probably could. And that's something. You combine the ring cams with the car cameras, you will be on video constantly.

[Michael]

I wish we could reanimate Huxley and Orwell and have them update their. Their famous books, Brave New world and in 1984. Although 1984 is pretty close to the technology we're talking about, but. Yeah. How, how does, how does the world look? Because I know a surveillance society is an obedient society. People feel the need to conform and obey and keep their mouths shut, lest they be suspected of blah, blah, blah. And that just changes the nature of your society.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, there's that. And if you end up with a bad actor in charge of the government and decides to use it for ill, if mankind ever falls under the sway of a totalitarian government that has the surveillance technology that exists now will never break Free.

[Michael]

Correct.

[Jack Armstrong]

It'll be the classic Orwell, A boot stamping on your face forever because there'll be no getting out of it.

[Joe Getty]

Control your soul's desire for freedom.

[Michael]

That's the only answer. Thank you, sweetheart. You know, not every slope is slippery, but this feels like, I don't know, a sheet of glass covered in WD40, some sort of sexual lube and some whale snot. I mean, the slipperiest slope that has ever existed.

[Jack Armstrong]

Now, my son said to me, and I had to discipline him harshly. Said, said, I'm not doing anything wrong, so I don't care. Which is the attitude of a lot of people always on this stuff. But you think you're not doing anything wrong way till somebody else is in charge. Maybe they'll think what you're doing is wrong. How?

[Michael]

You show me the man, I will bring you the crime.

[Jack Armstrong]

How you vote, how you pay taxes, how you whatever. You know, pick a topic. Anyway, that's really interesting. So I don't know what I think about the most powerful tools on earth not being in the hand. The government doesn't have it or won't have it because they don't want to play along. China, because China's gonna have AI in their military, right? They already do. I'm sure it's probably the only, practically the only thing they're gonna do with AI is militarize it and we won't.

[Michael]

Right. The one thing I can't answer is whether Anthropic's leadership in some of the systems we're talking about clearly superior that, you know, to go with somebody else would be a big step back. Well, this, I don't know that this

[Jack Armstrong]

story got obliterated Friday because the war started over the weekend. But Sam Altman at OpenAI said, we'll do it. He raised his hand, said we'll do it because the government had a contract with Anthropic. And when they canceled it and said that's it, no more. Altman at OpenAI said, hey, we're, we're happy to fill in. So I'm not sure he cares if the Pentagon used it to surveil people or send out robots across the landscape with machine guns or whatever the hell.

[Michael]

Oh boy, probably robot wolves. One more note just because it's interesting and then I can't wait. Next segment, we've got a guy from the Middle east challenging a bunch of left wing stupid anti Trump demonstrators, anti Iran war demonstrators. Anyway, Claude not only played a significant role in setting up the attack on Iran, it also played a role in the military action that captured old man Maduro has been used for war gaming and mission planning. Anthropic for years has been the most vocal AI company advocating for guardrails. The stance at times is frustrating administration officials. Blah, blah, blah. Earlier this year, Anthropic effectively banned the use of the word pathogen in model prompts as part of its safeguards against AI creating a bioweapon on its unclassified systems used by many agencies. Blah, blah. The ban made it difficult for employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to use the AI tool. It took weeks to get workers permission to circumvent those bans.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, it's impossible to do that. It reminds me of the thing years ago we had about when Facebook was trying to deal with the nipple.

[Michael]

Oh, one of the funniest episodes in the history of the computer ban the nipple.

[Jack Armstrong]

Because they didn't. Well, originally it was to not have nudity and then, well, kiss ono breastfeeding and then you allow breastfeeding. But then what if it's an adult breastfeeding on a woman? Is that.

[Michael]

What about a man breastfeeding another man? Blah, blah, blah.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. Oh, God.

[Michael]

Oh, boy.

[Jack Armstrong]

It's better than the Kentucky meat shower, which is the 150th anniversary of today. Do tell you about that and other things on the way.

[Joe Getty]

Armstrong and Getty.

[Jack Armstrong]

Why am I not in Bath County, Kentucky today? To celebrate the meat shower with everybody else. It's an annual festival. We'll talk about that coming up.

[Michael]

Sounds like something that was outlawed even in San Francisco. We now bring you to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where a bunch of woke protesters are yelling about the attack on Iran. And they are confronted by a fella who's actually from the Middle East.

[Middle East Man]

Why don't you leave America? You hate this imperialist country. Why don't you leave when Iranian women were raped and murdered by their government, none of you said you're fake activists. Why don't you speak about the 50,000 Iranians who were killed? You faked have the smell of you because none of you have showered.

[Jack Armstrong]

That is some trolling

[Michael]

fake terrorist effing cosplaying children. Well said, sir. Well said.

[Jack Armstrong]

What is the Kentucky meat shower so happened 150 years ago today. They have an annual festival there in the county where it occurred.

[Michael]

And I asked my wife for the Kentucky meat shower and she didn't speak to me for a week.

[Jack Armstrong]

You. You date Kentucky meat shower. You don't marry the Kentucky meat. That's horrible.

[Michael]

It's terrible.

[Jack Armstrong]

Katie's staying out of it, she's gonna stay out of it. So I'm from rural America. So you, you come up with any reason for your festival? Like, I lived near Cawker City, Kansas, where they have the world's largest ball of twine. And every year you have a big giant party with bands and you drink beer and they add some more twined and blow a ball to make it bigger. I mean, you just come up with these things. In Bath County, Kentucky, they have the Kentucky Meat Shower Festival. It's 150th anniversary today when on this day, March 3, 1876, chunks of meat began falling from the sky for several minutes around 11am covering a 100 by 50 yard area in chunks and chunks and chunks of meat was a sun.

[Michael]

I don't know what's happening exactly, but something has gone terribly wrong.

[Jack Armstrong]

This poor woman was sitting there, she's not good, washing clothes or something like that, when chunks of meat, some of them as large as her hand, began tumbling from the sky.

[Michael]

People want the beef.

[Jack Armstrong]

The story went national fast as people tried to figure out why chunks of meat fell from the sky in that little part of Kentucky. Scientists got involved, examined samples. Seven samples were examined by scientists who confirmed that several were lung tissue, some were muscular tissue, two were cartilage. Several people actually tasted it and said it tasted like mutton or venison. This is the sort of thing you did in the 1870s, apparently, where if a chunk of meat fell out of the sky, you'd say, oh, let me taste that.

[Michael]

I wonder what that is.

[Jack Armstrong]

One way to figure it out, Clem. Anyway, apparently vultures vomit occasionally. And for whatever reason, a big flock of vultures vomited up all the dead food that they had eaten up, and at the same time, 200 pounds of unidentified meat fell in one little spot. And that's the Kentucky Meat Shower. And that's why they have a festival every.

[Michael]

Please send the bill for detailing your car after you vomit in it to Jack Armstrong. He'll be happy to pay that bill.

[Jack Armstrong]

We got more on the way.

[Joe Getty]

Armstrong and Getty.

[Jack Armstrong]

This is an Iheart podcast. Guaranteed human.