She's A Loser & A Dope

Summary

Podcast Summary: Armstrong & Getty On Demand - "She's A Loser & A Dope"

Release Date: August 4, 2025
Host/Author: iHeartPodcasts
Episode Title: She's A Loser & A Dope

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Introduction

In the episode titled "She's A Loser & A Dope," hosts Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty delve into the controversial landscape of celebrity political affiliations, the impact of political stances on careers in Hollywood, and the broader implications for American society. The discussion is punctuated by insights from guest Christiane Amanpour and former advisor Jamie Rubin, who provide a nuanced perspective on the intertwining of politics and entertainment.

Sydney Sweeney's Political Affiliation and Its Fallout

The episode kicks off with a surprising revelation about actress Sydney Sweeney being a registered Republican. This disclosure serves as the catalyst for a broader conversation on how political affiliations can influence an actor's career trajectory.

Notable Quote:
"She's a registered Republican, I think her ad is fantastic. Trump understands that better than anybody." – Joe Getty [03:17]

Jack Armstrong expresses concern over how Sydney Sweeney's political leanings might jeopardize her opportunities in the predominantly liberal entertainment industry. The hosts discuss the potential backlash and the possibility of Sweeney being blacklisted from future roles due to her political stance.

Notable Quote:
"She might not get roles in TV shows and movies because of this because it's too controversial now." – Joe Getty [04:23]

Christiane Amanpour counters by suggesting that the backlash is exaggerated and that Sydney's talent may ultimately overshadow her political affiliations.

Comparisons with Political Figures and Media Appearances

The conversation shifts to comparisons between Sydney Sweeney's situation and appearances by political figures like JD Vance and Kamala Harris on media platforms. The hosts analyze how political figures handle media scrutiny and public perception, drawing parallels to Sweeney's predicament.

Notable Quote:
"JD Vance, completely different level of talent... he is far and away the most likely nominee for the Republicans and likely the next president because he is so good in getting better." – Joe Getty [07:09]

Christiane Amanpour critiques Kamala Harris's media appearances, labeling her performance as ineffective and underprepared, which further fuels the discussion on the importance of media presence in political success.

Impact of Political Allegiances on Branding and Commerce

Joe Getty highlights how Sydney Sweeney's Republican affiliation surprisingly aligns with Trump's communication style, emphasizing the strategic use of sound bites in political messaging.

Notable Quote:
"Sydney Sweeney being a registered Republican, I mean he repeats. That's one of the reasons he repeats things." – Joe Getty [03:19]

The hosts examine the repercussions of such political alignments on brand endorsements and commercial success, citing the surge in American Eagle's stock following Sweeney's ad campaign.

Notable Quote:
"American Eagle stock rose more than 10% last week." – Joe Getty [10:47]

Critique of Progressive Movements in Education

A significant portion of the episode critiques progressive initiatives in education, particularly focusing on the National Education Association's (NEA) stance on white supremacy and institutional racism.

Notable Quote:
"Their image has been co-opted by the right, accurately or not, in part because of where she's from, the Mountain west and some of her hobbies fixing cars, even hers." – Christiane Amanpour [13:01]

Christiane Amanpour and Joe Getty express frustration over the NEA's portrayal of the Holocaust, arguing that the association dilutes the specific targeting of Jewish people during the atrocities.

Notable Quote:
"The NEA now describes the Holocaust as having 12 million victims from different faiths without mentioning the attempted extermination of the Jewish people." – Christiane Amanpour [30:51]

Higher Education Costs and Federal Policy

The discussion transitions to an analysis of rising costs in public higher education, critiquing the New York Times for not adequately addressing the underlying reasons for these increases.

Notable Quote:
"The Average cost of public higher education in the United States has, adjusted for inflation, more than doubled since 1980. And they don't spend a single word." – Christiane Amanpour [29:46]

AI and Its Economic Implications

Towards the end of the episode, Armstrong and Getty explore the burgeoning field of Artificial Intelligence (AI), touching upon its economic impact and the competitive landscape among tech giants like Meta (formerly Facebook) and Google.

Notable Quote:
"Mark Zuckerberg's willing to pay somebody a billion dollars if they can put him in first place." – Joe Getty [42:30]

They discuss the ethical and practical challenges posed by AI advancements, including misinformation and the reliability of AI-generated content.

Notable Quote:
"Chat GPT lied to me. It damaged our relationship. I'm now pretty gun shy." – Joe Getty [27:38]

Conclusion

In "She's A Loser & A Dope," Armstrong and Getty offer a critical examination of the intersection between politics, media, and personal branding in the modern era. Through incisive dialogue and pointed observations, the hosts shed light on the challenges faced by public figures navigating a politically charged landscape, the repercussions of progressive policies in education, and the transformative impact of AI on society and the economy.

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Note: The timestamps correspond to the moments within the provided transcript where the notable quotes were made.

Transcript

[Jack Armstrong]

This is an iHeart podcast.

[Joe Getty]

Ah, come on.

[Jack Armstrong]

Why is this taking so long? This thing is ancient.

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[Jack Armstrong]

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[Jack Armstrong]

If you eat too many ultra processed foods, you could be starving your gut microbes and they'll get hangry. That's one of many things I learned after working on a new audio course about the gut microbiome. You can learn how to keep your gut happy by listening to Try this From the Washington Post, I'm Christina Quinn. I host Try This. Dig in with me, Andrea. Practical advice for life's common challenges follow. Try this right now, wherever you're listening. Seriously, try it.

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[Jack Armstrong]

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[Christiane Amanpour]

I'm Christiane Amanpour and I've been on the front lines and interviewing world leaders for more than 30 years. And I'm Jamie Rubin, a former advisor to both Presidents Clinton and Biden. We were married for 20 years and divorced for seven. Now we've joined forces on the X Files to make sense of how we ended up with no World Order. Listen to Christiane Amanpour presents the X files on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts.

[Jack Armstrong]

Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio, the George Washington Broadcast Center.

[Jamie Rubin]

Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty.

[Joe Getty]

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

[Christiane Amanpour]

Point.

[Jack Armstrong]

Out this weekend that she was a registered Republican.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Any thoughts on that?

[Joe Getty]

Is that who was Sydney Sweeney.

[Jamie Rubin]

She's like a very hot actress right now.

[Joe Getty]

She's a registered Republican.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Oh, now I love her ad.

[Joe Getty]

Is that right? Is Sydney Sweeney. You'd be surprised at how many people are Republicans.

[Christiane Amanpour]

That's what I wouldn't have known.

[Joe Getty]

But I'm glad you told me that. If Sydney Sweeney is a registered Republican, I think her ad is fantastic. Trump understands that better than anybody. He understands sound bites so he'll like he gets information like that and he thinks okay, here's the sound bite. Sydney Sweeney being a. I mean he repeats. That's one of the reasons he repeats things. So that there is the sound bite for everybody to grab on whatever topic.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Right.

[Joe Getty]

It's very clever. But yeah it is. Well it's surprising any young actress is. Is Republican surprisingly young person really is, but she isn't when. When whatever the name of this jeans, American Eagle or whatever they are jeans contacted her agent and said would she like to do a gene Ed, we'll pay her. What do you suppose she made doing that? Just a guess. Half a million dollars Too much.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Probably less at least. Oh, at least that.

[Joe Getty]

Oh really? More than that.

[Christiane Amanpour]

She's. I don't have a huge star.

[Joe Getty]

I don't have any idea. But okay. So the gene's people call her up and say we'll $2 million should be our representative for the jeans. Cool. Where do we sign? And she goes and she does the shoot which probably took two hours with makeup the whole thing. She had no idea that this is going to turn her life upside down, maybe forever. She might not get roles in TV shows and movies because of this because it's too controversial now. Especially now that she's. It's known that she's a registered Republican. In fact not probably guaranteed. There are shows that she would have liked to have been on Netflix series or whatever that she won't get because it's not worth stepping in it for the liberal left. I wonder she has no idea that that was going to happen when she decided to do a jeans commercial which generally you never hear about.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Well, you know this is an interesting question that I want to consider for just a second. The reaction among like every sane person in America has been this so called backlash is stupid. And nobody thinks like that. And the left are just be clowning themselves better than ever. But you think that the hardcore left in Hollywood will still think, yeah, but she's tainted now by her association.

[Joe Getty]

Absolutely. They just said just be a. We've got two attractive blondes could do this role roughly the same. Why the headache? Why take on the headache?

[Christiane Amanpour]

Yeah, I don't think so. I think she's bigger than that. I think it comes the other. It comes out the other way.

[Joe Getty]

But I hope so because it would suck for her to have her career affected by this in any way. It's just ridiculous. I mean the controversy is ridiculous to start with, but then like attaching it to her is even dumber.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Oh yeah.

[Joe Getty]

Anyway, so a number of people made comparisons last week to an appearance JD Vance made on a podcast and the appearance that Kamala Harris made on the Colbert Show. I was watching Mark Halperin's video cast over the weekend in which they thought he is nonpartisan and then he has a Republican and a Democrat as sidekicks. All three of them thought Kamala was horrible on Colbert in a way that I didn't quite pick up on the time specifically. She's had six months to figure out how to answer a couple of things and she still seemed to be like, you could see your wheels spinning figuring out how to answer what. What you don't have a practice to answer for politics today or you're rolling in or whatever seemed like. Anyway, J.D.

[Christiane Amanpour]

I was like, you know, back on the View, how. What would you do differently than Biden? Oh, I gosh, well, you really pinned.

[Joe Getty]

Me down on the. That I hadn't anticipated that question. Um, yeah, she was like that uncle bear after six months of probably thinking about running for president. Anyway, J.D. vance, completely different level of talent. And by the way, on Mark Halpern's podcast with the Republican Democrat and Halpern all think he is far and away the most likely nominee for the Republicans and likely the next president because he is so good in getting better. Here's him talking about the Sydney Sweeney situation on a podcast over the weekend.

[Christiane Amanpour]

My political advice to the Democrats is continue to tell everybody who thinks Sydney Sweeney is attractive is Nazi. That that. That appears to be their actual strategy. I mean, it actually reveals something pretty interesting about the Dems though, which is that you have like a normal all American beautiful girl during doing like a normal jeans ad. Right. They're trying to sell, you know, sell jeans to, to, to kids in America. And they have managed to sew unhinge themselves over this thing. And it's like, you guys, did you learn nothing from the November 2024 election? Like, I actually thought that one of the lessons they might take is we're going to be less crazy. The lesson they have apparently taken is we're going to attack people as Nazis for thinking Sydney Sweeney is beautiful. Great strategy, guys. That's how you're going to win the midterm.

[Joe Getty]

How much more comfortable is he in his own skin? The person who's most comfortable in their own skin is a person who generally wins elections. I don't think, I don't think his opponent's going to be Kamala Harris. I don't think she'll even get to Iowa. But he is, he is pretty good.

[Christiane Amanpour]

I was thinking about this the other day. I was listening to some fellows discuss Kamala Harris's prospects going forward and they are miserable. They don't exist. They're, they're terrible. Nobody's impressed by her. She's a loser and a dope.

[Joe Getty]

But loser, a dope, That's a hard talk.

[Christiane Amanpour]

She is continually cited as a favorite. She topped the recent completely meaningless name recognition Democrat poll. And it occurred to me as I was strolling along listening to this that there is there and nobody ever talked about this, there is a designation in the political world of a person who must be taken seriously. And it doesn't matter if in Kamala Harris's case, for instance, if she was an appointed this Willie Brown's girlfriend anointed the attorney general in a one party state, a DEI hire for vice president after she washed out completely of the primaries. I mean, it was a humiliating defeat. But in spite of all that losing because Joe Biden plucked her to be the veep, she is a person who should be taken seriously. In the defiance of all logic, she's nothing. She will do nothing. She is gone.

[Joe Getty]

Forget her back to the blue jean ad and what JD Vance was talking about. Their lesson seems to have been that they learned is let's go further in walkness.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Or as I would put it. Meanwhile, back at the Third Reich, Bill.

[Joe Getty]

Maher on his show Friday night said in other uncomfortable racial news, sad news, we found out this week that Sydney Sweeney is a Nazi. And of course everybody laughed. No, she's not. But if you've seen the ad we're showing it now, she's dressed like Jay Leno. That's a good point. Which I thought was Funny. And then he recites the line about the blue eyes and I have good genes and all that sort of stuff. He said it also doesn't help that her bra size is 36 KKK. That's a funny line. And that the name that she gave her boobs is the Proud Boys.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Wow, that's some good riffing.

[Joe Getty]

He said, it's also like, it's pretty fun that all the online social justice girls are like, it's racist. There's no such thing as good genes. And then you go on Tinder and swipe left on every bald guy, which is hurtful to me, of course. Oh, yeah, that's true. So any comment on jeans as white supremacy? Bad jeans, bad jeans, bad jeans. As you swipe through all the guys. That is pretty funny. By the way, American Eagle stock rose more than 10% last week.

[Christiane Amanpour]

There you go.

[Joe Getty]

Sydney Sweeney has not made a comment at all. Although somebody did get out that voting information, which I don't think does her life any favors. Joe doesn't think it'll hurt her. I hope it doesn't. How she votes shouldn't make any difference. Anybody. And Donald Trump has another truth out today about this topic. Sydney Sweeney, a registered Republican, has the hottest in all caps ad out there. It's for American Eagle and the jeans are flying off the shelves in all caps. Go get them, Sidney. On the other side of the Ledger, Jaguar did a stupid and seriously woke advertisement that is a disaster. The CEO just resigned and the company is in turmoil and he goes through a number of other examples with Bud Light and that sort of stuff.

[Christiane Amanpour]

So, right.

[Joe Getty]

Trump recognizing where, you know, there's a little fire that he can jump into and make some hay with.

[Christiane Amanpour]

All right, here's my favorite comment comes from this journalist by the name of Charlie Warzel who is writing in the Atlantic. And just as a little background, Warzel used to work at the New York Times where he sobbed like a little girl during the emergency staff meeting. Remember the Mao, excuse me, Maoist struggle session over whether the paper should publish that op ed by Tom Cotton? You remember how that caused that just to uproar within the paper that a sitting US Senator would write an editorial in which he turned out to be completely correct, but it just tore their woke newsroom apart. So anyway, during the meeting over that, Wartsel is crying like a baby.

[Joe Getty]

He is like a little baby.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Wartsel was upset because, quote, none of my friends want to talk to me anymore because I work for this horrible, evil newspaper. So anyway, here's this.

[Joe Getty]

This you need new friends.

[Christiane Amanpour]

This half a man child now writing for the Atlantic. Let's see, he was attempting to write. I'm gonna quote Andrew Stiles now of the Free Beacon. He was attempting to write a cerebral lamentation about how, quote, the discourse is broken or whatever, while insisting that criticism of the ad campaign makes sense because of, you know, all the racism out there. Wurzel's rhetoric really shines when analyzing the political implications of hiring Sweeney to sell jeans.

[Joe Getty]

Quote.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Her image has been co opted by the right, accurately or not, in part because of where she's from, the Mountain west and some of her hobbies fixing cars, even hers.

[Joe Getty]

Knew any of this?

[Christiane Amanpour]

None of it and don't care. Even her figure has become a cultural stand in for the idea, published and pushed by conservative commentators that Americans should be free to love boobs.

[Joe Getty]

What?

[Christiane Amanpour]

I know, I know. Even her figure has become a cultural stand in for the idea pushed by conservative commentators that Americans should be free to love boobs.

[Joe Getty]

This. That's kind of interesting that they're kind of go with like being curvy as a right wing thing because the New York Times had an op ed piece I was going to get to later. Why the right is Obsessed with Thinness when diet culture meets conservative morality. That is one of the dumbest things.

[Christiane Amanpour]

I've ever read in my life. It's as if they're using some sort of AI powered random fake aggrievement headline generator. Are you people serious?

[Joe Getty]

I know.

[Christiane Amanpour]

What's it like to live your life like that? Constantly looking for some excuse to bellow about somebody else being, you know, unenlightened.

[Joe Getty]

We will get to that later. How the right is obsessed with thinness and it's somehow white supremacy or awful or something. When and obesity is one of the biggest problems we've got in America. But what did you say we're doing? We got something.

[Christiane Amanpour]

This campus Madness update coming. Oh so much madness. Oh goodness.

[Joe Getty]

And a bunch of other stuff. Stay here.

[Jack Armstrong]

Armstrong and Getty.

[Jamie Rubin]

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[Christina Quinn]

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[G]

Across the country, everyday Americans are standing up to expand freedom and opportunity not just for themselves, but for their neighbors and communities. They're small business owners, parents, farmers and local leaders. People who are pushing back against government overreach and showing what's possible when liberty is protected and individuals get involved. I'm David Fromm, host of the American Potential podcast where we bring these stories to life. We don't just talk about policy solutions. Each week we share the impact of how these solutions benefit everyday Americans. Because behind every issue is an individual, a family or a community that's been impacted reminding us that policy becomes personal. So whether you're passionate about keeping more of your hard earned money, expanding school choice, or cutting red tape, you'll hear from the people making a difference as they share their stories. Listen now to American Potential on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube or wherever you get your podcast.

[David Fromm]

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[Jack Armstrong]

If you eat too many ultra processed foods, you could be starving your gut microbes and they'll get hangry. That's one of many things I learned after working on a new audio course about the gut microbiome. You can learn how to keep your gut happy by listening to Try this from the Washington Post. I'm Christina Quinn. I host Try this Dig in with me on practical advice for life's common challenges. Follow Try this right now, wherever you're listening. Seriously, try it.

[Joe Getty]

At the World swimming championships, the US.

[Jamie Rubin]

Saved its best for last.

[Christiane Amanpour]

The women's 4x100 medley team broke its own world record.

[Jamie Rubin]

In today's final race in Singapore, Regan Smith, Kate Douglas, Gretchen Walsh, and Tory Husk bested the old mark by 29 hundredths of a second.

[Joe Getty]

And getting ready for the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles next summer? I think so.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Is that right? Yeah, maybe.

[Joe Getty]

I'll look that up. I'll look that up.

[Christiane Amanpour]

That's why Americans don't care about global warming. If the oceans cover the earth, we're the best swimmers. It's fine. Speaking of the world of sports, maybe an hour four. We'll get to A lawyer believes Caitlin Clark has a serious civil rights case against the wnba. If she wants to make it, I.

[Joe Getty]

Doubt she does, but that's interesting because.

[Christiane Amanpour]

She'S getting the hell beat out of her night after night. And they hit us with some of the statistics and it's undeniable and it's almost never called. And it's because of race. And if not race, sexuality or both. So anyway, I lied.

[Joe Getty]

Summer Olympics in Los angeles are in 2028.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Oh, we got a couple years.

[Joe Getty]

The Summer Olympics.

[Christiane Amanpour]

I peaked too early in my training. I thought it was next year. Dang it. So speaking of swimming. Oh, we don't have much time. We're talking about the sort of person who actually tries to get offended by the Sydney Sweeney jeans ad and talks about eugenics and the rest of it and what they're like. Katie had this headline like a week ago. I was intrigued enough that I dug into it. In a Stressful World, Mermaiding gains popularity in D.C. area.

[Joe Getty]

Right.

[Christiane Amanpour]

And it's all about these Gals, mostly. And a couple of guys who get together once a week or more and they like. And they don mermaid tales. Some of them, like really expensive, dotted with sequins, lined with seashells, and waddle into the water and splash around and pretend to be mermaids.

[Joe Getty]

I like the headline in stressful times. Mermaiding, a new verb. Helps calm people down. Okay.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Yeah. Living here is fast. Everything is fast. There's traffic. There's so many people, it feels suffocating. Sometimes children.

[Joe Getty]

You all need to have children. You'd be busy raising your kids. You wouldn't have time for this crap. Have a job and children. Takes care of so many problems. You don't worry about all these extraneous BS things if you have a job and children.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Wow, Says the fascist. Mermaiding is luring attract. Is attracting merfolk who are either looking for a unique form of exercise, a deep sense of community, or something to take them out of their everyday lives.

[Joe Getty]

Did you say merfolk?

[Christiane Amanpour]

That's correct, yes. Although there is no official census, the mermaids of the Washington area estimate they have the second highest population in the country beyond Florida. In fact, Jack, two years ago, their community was featured heavily in the Netflix docu series Merpeople, which focused on several aspiring mermaids. Volatile journeys to earn admittance into elite pods, such as the Circuit Circus Siren Mermaid Pod in Laurel, Maryland, which is one of the most exclusive mermaid pods. And there's a lot here. We could do a whole podcast on this. It's just creating a safe space for people to have fun. A lot of people who need a place to feel accepted, blah, blah, blah. Is there a single person doing this who has ever in their life voted Republican?

[Joe Getty]

Of course not.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Pretending to be a mermaid in your free time is a certain sort of person.

[Joe Getty]

You meet a woman. I'm from Ohio. I like wine tasting. I have two sisters. I dress as a mermaid on weekends. You what now? What was that last part for a.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Few hours a week, they slip on their mersona, take some shelfies with friends.

[Joe Getty]

So it seems like one of the main parts of dressing as a mermaid is puns. That seems to be. Might be more important than the water.

[Christiane Amanpour]

It's certainly an important part of it, but these people are very normal. Jack, for instance, this dance costume designer who changed her name to Targaryen after the family from the Game of Thrones and has purple hair and more piercings than a pin cushion.

[Joe Getty]

Get a job. Have a kid.

[Christiane Amanpour]

She goes by the name Mermaid Montara.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, my God.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Yeah, I know, I know. Takes all kinds. I guess.

[Joe Getty]

Mark Zuckerberg's willing to pay somebody a billion dollars if it can put him in first place. With AI, that's a pretty good job. Among other things on the way Armstrong.

[Christiane Amanpour]

And Gettysburg.

[Jamie Rubin]

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[Christina Quinn]

Lenovo is built for creators who don't wait for inspiration. They chase it with inventive tech, built in AI tools and seamless performance. Lenovo devices powered by Intel Core Ultra processors are designed to bring your wildest ideas to life faster. That's the power of Lenovo with Intel inside. Enjoy flexible financing, rewards on every purchase and free shipping. And students get special offers when you create an [e-mail].

[G]

Across the country, everyday Americans are standing up to expand freedom and opportunity not just for themselves, but for their neighbors and communities, their small business owners, parents, farmers and local leaders. People who are pushing back against government overreach and showing what's possible when liberty is protected and individuals get involved. I'm David Fromm, host of the American Potential Podcast where we bring these stories to life. We don't just talk about policy solutions. Each week we share the impact of how these solutions benefit everyday Americans. Because behind every issue is an individual, a family or a community that's been impacted reminding us that policy becomes personal. So whether you're passionate about keeping more of your hard earned money, expanding school choice or cutting red tape, you'll hear from the people making a difference as they share their stories. Listen now to American Potential on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube or wherever you get your podcast.

[Jack Armstrong]

If you eat too many ultra processed foods, you could Be starving your gut microbes and they'll get hangry. That's one of many things I learned after working on a new audio course about the gut microbiome. You can learn how to keep your gut happy by listening to Try this from the Washington Post. I'm Christina Quinn. I host Try this. Dig in with me on practical advice for life's common challenges. Follow. Try this right now, wherever you're listening. Seriously, try it. Hi, I'm Cindy Crawford and I'm the founder of Meaningful Beauty. Well, I don't know about you, but like, I never liked being. Being told, oh, wow, you look so good for your age. Like, why even bother saying that? Why don't you just say you look great at any age, Every age. That's what Meaningful Beauty is all about. We create products that make you feel confident in your skin at the age you are now. Meaningful Beauty. Beautiful skin at every age. Learn more@meaningful beauty.com.

[Joe Getty]

On the American Eagle website. I gotta get me some of them Nazi jeans before they sell out. Coming up chat GPT lied to me.

[Christiane Amanpour]

For the first time ever.

[Joe Getty]

Like, really misled me. It damaged. It damaged our relationship. I'm now pretty gun shy.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Wow.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. So that coming up. And also Zuckerberg's willing to throw a billion dollar salary at somebody if they can put him in first place.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Throwing around money with it for a half that. Yeah. Okay, a big AI update first, though. It's a campus madness update. Oh, so much madness.

[Joe Getty]

There's the madness. Oh, that's the madness part.

[Christiane Amanpour]

He's not digging it. Can't remember. Is there more of that? Okay, here we at the end. Okay, handful of headlines for you, Jack. And we could really spend a significant amount of time on any one of these. But it definitely goes to the fact that crusaders against the rot on our college campuses, and actually our primary and secondary educational systems too, we are not cherry picking. It's more like we're standing in the midst of a cherry orchard and you're accusing us of cherry picking. That's. I mean, we're surrounded by cherries. Anyway, I'm going to start with this, which is a little different than the other headlines, but it was the New York Times doing a story on how the federal policy changes changed on Pell grants and the big beautiful bill and higher education grants and federal loan caps and the rest of it. And what was interesting to me about this, and I'm sure you'll appreciate this too, Jack, is that they mentioned that the reason this discussion is so important is that the Average cost of public higher education in the United States has, adjusted for inflation, more than doubled since 1980. And they don't spend a single word. Not, not, not no less. I'm sorry. Certainly not a sentence or a paragraph in asking why.

[Joe Getty]

Is that?

[Christiane Amanpour]

Right.

[Joe Getty]

Doubled since 1980. Sounds low to me by a lot.

[Christiane Amanpour]

The only thing they talk about is why government is not doing more to hand people money to pay for it. Because it's more than doubled.

[Joe Getty]

It's way more than doubled.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Absolutely nuts. Yeah, yeah. This is public colleges.

[Joe Getty]

Well, right.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Anyway.

[Joe Getty]

But like I know a couple of specific examples of. It's doubled since people I know went in the 90s. Well.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Right, right. But the point obviously is that the New York Times doesn't even ask the question.

[Joe Getty]

Right.

[Christiane Amanpour]

It's just a question of government grants. Talk about a different mindset. A bunch of headlines here. This is something else as it reloads. Three, two, one. And we're back. The largest teachers union in America is pushing Holocaust education that erases Jews. The NEA now describes the Holocaust as having 12 million victims from different faiths without mentioning the attempted extermination of the Jewish people. Wow.

[Joe Getty]

It was mostly Jews. As we all know, the chunk of Catholics and gypsies and other people too. But it. It's mostly Jews. But they're. So they're just going with different faiths. Okay.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Yes. In fact, that was the plan all along. You may have heard of Hitler. He wrote a book about it in which he expelled. He spelled out exactly what he's going to do, but not to the NEA. Speaking of the NEA, they just scrubbed their 2025 handbook from their website. But the Internet is forever. And various school choice advocates have preserved all of it for all of us. And the nea. This is this year's handbook says educators must acknowledge the existence of white supremacy culture as a primary root cause of institutional racism, structural racism and white privilege. And educators must work to prohibit institutionally racist systems and to bring them down. And it's a chapter in verse of the whole DEI critical race theory stuff. But the biggest teachers union in America says that needs to be the top priority of teachers is to dismantle white supremacy in. In our schools and our country.

[Joe Getty]

Our public school system is completely broken.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Yeah. How long is.

[Joe Getty]

How long will it take? Can it be fixed? Will just so many people have to pull out and homeschool or private school? I don't know.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Yeah. And school choice that Republicans are pushing right now will so many people will leave the government schools in favor of these schools that educate children that the the system will collapse and it should. It has to.

[Joe Getty]

Your number one priority should have been the entire time and should always be for all eternity teaching math, science and reading. The end.

[Christiane Amanpour]

The NEA will push strategies fostering the eradication of institutional racism and white privilege perpetuated by white supremacy. Culture and school districts must provide training in cultural competence, implicit bias, restorative practices and techniques and racial justice. More on this another time, but let's click on a few more headlines. We didn't mention this and it was an oversight. We just got really busy. That ucla who we're absolutely hammering for their treatment of Jewish students, including the establishment of a Jew exclusion zone. UCLA agreed last week to pay more than $6 million to settle a lawsuit brought by Jewish students who said the university allowed anti Semitic demonstrations. I'm sorry discrimination during spring 2024 encampments. The anti Israel encampments. Good for them. Just absolutely hammered ucla which is deserving of everything it gets. George Mason University on the other side of the country, the president facing an array of federal discrimination probes has tapped the ex Maryland Attorney General as his personal attorney as an act of self preservation. This guy Gregory Washington is a DEI woke crusader and has sanctioned and demanded racial discrimination in practically everything George Mason University does. And if you're not familiar with George Mason, it is an enormous university in the Washington D.C. area. It is the biggest university in the University of Virginia system. So coast to coast all over the place. Medical schools quietly maintain affirmative action. According to Jason Riley in the Wall Street Journal. Some still use race to make admissions decisions even though the Supreme Court said it's illegal.

[Joe Getty]

I just heard a story yesterday of somebody who's apparently some sort of medical school star who has a whole bunch of options to go to different colleges for medical school and interview has interviewed it's a couple where the first question was what your what's your pronouns and this person does not swing that way politically. And thought I'm not going to this school. Question number one to decide if you want this star student to be in your medical school, what are your pronouns? How crazy is that? Prioritizing that higher than prioritizing that at all, having it be a part of it at all is crazy. But making that like the top thing are you our kind of people rather than whether or not you'd be a good doctor.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Right. I mean if it was like some sort of plumbers college, I would be thinking well that's stupid because like there will be leaks and bad plumbing if you make that a priority. This is like heart surgeons.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Oh, my God. It's obscene. Do no harm. A watchdog group that opposes racial preferences analyzed the last year's admissions data from 23 public medical schools. It found that at 22 of the 23 Asian and white applicants who were accepted had higher medical college admission test scores than their black peers. And the data showed that more than half of the schools, the average mcat, that's the big test score of Asian and white applicants who were rejected was higher than that of the MCAT score of black applicants who were accepted. And let's call there's a name for it.

[Joe Getty]

Racism.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Yeah, exactly, exactly. The Trump administration has launched a probe of the Duke Law Journal and warns their medical school is up next as they are promoting racial preferences and racial standards. For who gets to publish, who gets to be on the staff, who gets to earn the accolades. No white people need apply. Honest to God. This is Duke University, but the lawn medical schools. And then finally, it's a story in the Wall Street Journal by a fellow by the name of Colin Wright who was excluded at Cornell University from a job for which he was eminently qualified, maybe the most qualified guy in the country. They eliminated him purely because he was a white man. And behind the scenes memos which were issued or found during the discovery process for this suit said, yeah, no, we're not going to hire a white guy. Absolutely overt racism at America's universities coast to coast, Minnesota to Miami. It's unbelievable. It needs to take it apart, be taken apart. It's campus madness.

[Joe Getty]

Oh my God. What happened there?

[Christiane Amanpour]

I love that little exclamation point.

[Joe Getty]

Stepped on a nail or something.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Oh, she saw the madness around her, you fool.

[Joe Getty]

Okay, wake up, man. If you got the AI skills, Elon Zuckerberg, what's his name at Google, those people want you and they're willing to throw crazy money at you. Got that? And the fact that Chad GPT lied to me for the first time. We're, we're, we're estranged right now. On the way. Stay here.

[Jack Armstrong]

Armstrong and Getty.

[Jamie Rubin]

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[Christina Quinn]

Lenovo is built for creators who don't wait for inspiration. They chase it with inventive tech, built in AI tools and seamless performance. Lenovo devices powered by Intel Core Ultra processors are designed to bring your wildest ideas to life faster. That's the power of Lenovo. With intel inside, enjoy flexible financing, rewards on every purchase and free shipping. And students get special offers offers when you create an [e-mail].

[G]

Across the country, everyday Americans are standing up to expand freedom and opportunity not just for themselves, but for their neighbors and communities. They're small business owners, parents, farmers and local leaders, people who are pushing back against government overreach and showing what's possible when liberty is protected and individuals get involved. I'm David Fromm, host of the American Potential podcast where we bring these stories to life. We don't just talk about policy solutions. Each week we share the impact of how these solutions benefit everyday Americans. Because behind every issue is an individual, a family or a community that's been impacted, reminding us that policy becomes personal. So whether you're passionate about keeping more of your hard earned money, expanding school choice, or cutting red tape, you'll hear from the people making a difference as they share their stories. Listen now to American Potential on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube or wherever you get your podcast.

[Jack Armstrong]

If you eat too many ultra processed foods, you could be starving your gut microbes and they'll get hangry. That's one of many things I learned after working on a new audio course about the gut microbiome. You can learn how to keep your gut happy be by listening to Try this from the Washington Post. I'm Christina Quinn. I host Try this. Dig in with me on practical advice for life's common challenges. Follow Try this right now, wherever you're listening. Seriously, try it. Hi, I'm Cindy Crawford and I'm the founder of meaningful beauty. When Dr. Sabah and I decided to do a skincare line together, he said to me, we are going to give women meaningful beauty And I said, that's exactly right. We want to give women meaningful beauty, which means each and every product is meaningful. It has a reason to exist. It's efficacious. You're going to get results and then you just go out and live your life. Meaningful beauty. Confidence is beautiful. Learn more@meaningful beauty.com.

[Joe Getty]

Morning, Jennifer.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Morning, Herb.

[Joe Getty]

Any calls?

[Jamie Rubin]

No.

[Joe Getty]

Messages?

[Jamie Rubin]

Nope.

[Joe Getty]

Mail?

[Jack Armstrong]

None.

[Christiane Amanpour]

How about lunch?

[Joe Getty]

No lunch either. Dinner?

[Jamie Rubin]

Busy.

[Joe Getty]

Okay.

[Christiane Amanpour]

How about later at my place?

[Joe Getty]

You're married, Herb?

[Christiane Amanpour]

Oh, yeah. I'm Andy Travis, the new program director.

[Joe Getty]

Sorry, I got a meeting. We'll talk later. If you last that long.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Nice fellow.

[Joe Getty]

One of the best.

[Jamie Rubin]

Would you like to see the big guy?

[Christiane Amanpour]

The big guy?

[Jamie Rubin]

The skipper, the chief, the head honcho.

[Jack Armstrong]

The jerk who runs this place.

[Joe Getty]

Lonnie Anderson died yesterday and she was a big deal for 10, 15 years as a hottie tabloid star. So there you go, toxic max masculinity on display there in a way that would not be accepted in the modern world.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Oh, indeed. Disgusting.

[Joe Getty]

Is anyone worth a billion dollars? Well, Mark Zuckerberg thinks this woman, Mira Muretti, is worth a billion dollars if she take the job. But she's not going to, it looks like. Cause she's got other offers or wants to start her own thing.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Thing?

[Joe Getty]

She's one of your top AI experts. And right now the leaders in AI that'd be OpenAI. That's chat, GPT, anthropic, which I'm not as familiar with. Google and Zuckerberg are all in competition for the best AI researchers in the world. And it's like being a star quarterback or a power forward or you know, a long hitting third baseman. You can make that kind of money? Well, more than that kind of money.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Oh yeah.

[Joe Getty]

Nobody's gotten a billion dollars before. Muretti is the former top person at OpenAI. And she has a startup that's worth a whole bunch of money and all kinds of stuff like that. But anyway, according to the Wall Street Journal, Zuckerberg tried to hire other people from that company. They all declined to jump ship. He went after the top person offered more than a billion dollar pay package.

[Christiane Amanpour]

That's a lot.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, I'd say others have found Zuckerberg's offers too big to pass up. A 24 year old researcher named Matt Deepke said yes to a salary of 250 million over four years. Whoa. And I assume that's guaranteed money. It's not like, you know, some of your sports contracts. And again, this is not the number for the acquisition of a company it's the acquisition for a single employee. There are rumors out there, according to the Wall Street Journal, of much higher salary offers that have been thrown out there.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Wow. For.

[Joe Getty]

For these people. So you're. You're saying a lot correctly, that some of the hype you hear around AI is coming from companies that stand to benefit from it. True. But Zuckerberg and Elon and Google aren't throwing these kind of salaries at people just out of trying to pump up the look of AI oh, no, that's.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Straight out of the don't worry about what they say, watch what they do department. What they're doing is offering a gal a billion dollars to come work for them instead of her own company. That's a pretty strong statement. I was reading that the percentage of the growth in our economy that's like just AI is a little shocking. Yes, it is, because there are zillions of dollars being poured into that right now. But I did what this looks like in five years. I wish I knew. I hope to be around to find out.

[Joe Getty]

Like, I use Chat GPT all the time, as I have said now it's. I don't Google, I chat GPT.

[Christiane Amanpour]

But I did get lied to over.

[Joe Getty]

The weekend, which was troubling. Really troubling. As I've mentioned, I'm attempting for the 20th time in my life to read Ulysses by James Joyce. And I'm sticking with it this time. And I'm well through chapter two, which is further than I've ever got in my life. But I had a question about something, and I've been going to Chat GPT and it's been very, very helpful. But it gave me an answer on one of the characters, and I thought, wow, I am really lost. I thought we were reading the inner dialogue of a completely different person. How did I miss that? And I went back through the. The. To the first chapter and try to pick up where I got lost. Like, this is a major point. I can't. I can't read the book and be this far off of reading an entire chapter of inner dialogue. And I got the wrong character. I was right. It was wrong. It just. It just got it wrong. And very confidently got it wrong. Leopold Bloom, the main character, was not who was being discussed at this point. It was someone else. And I thought, okay, how often has this happened already when I didn't catch it, or how often will happen in the future where I don't catch it? That's troubling. I mean, like, how did it make a mistake that big?

[Christiane Amanpour]

Yeah, yeah. Reminds me the whole. When they write about your industry in the newspaper, you realize, wow, that's totally inaccurate. But I'm sure everything else they write about is accurate.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, I should have argued with it like smart people do. Maybe I can go back and still do that. Pick up in the conversation and say, hey, hey, hey, Chat GPT or Fred or whatever I'm supposed to call it. You realize you got that completely wrong, right? That character doesn't show up until chapter two and see how it reacts. If it argues with me, it says, my bad or do it now. What? What did this information cost you? Is what I would say to Chat GPT. He paid nothing for this. What do you expect?

[Christiane Amanpour]

Yeah, yeah, no kidding. What are you on for nothing.

[Joe Getty]

But, you know, we've. We've talked about the law cases where a lawyer's cruising along getting great info from Chat GPT. You use a piece and then in court, somebody challenges it and turns out to be completely phony.

[Christiane Amanpour]

It's a problem case that never existed. Yeah. Yeah. Indeed. Another thing I was reading about AI, the big consulting companies are. They're getting ready for a massive earthquake under them. This article is about McKinsey, which is a legendary business consulting group. But as they point out, the elite armies, the elite firms, armies of consultant have helped generations of CEOs, blah, blah, blah. Artificial intelligence can increasingly do the work done by the firm's highly paid consultants, often within minutes. So it can, like, analyze all of the business data, the structure of your business, churn out a PowerPoint and a deck of suggestions, and all in seconds. So what do they do anymore? And interestingly, the answer was, well, they're now rapidly deploying thousands of AI agents. Those bots now assist consultants in building PowerPoint decks. And I'm like, what, tax an AI agent? And so I had to click on that link and go read about what an AI agent is. Exactly. And as far as I can tell, it's kind of like an app. But I need to keep reading.

[Joe Getty]

You would think there'd be more people that have the skills, that it wouldn't be a one human worth a billion dollars. But, you know, apparently that's the case, at least currently.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Get into like, hiring an Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer or, you know, a Thomas Edison.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, if you're young man, learn how to do AI or not. I don't know. If you miss an hour, get the podcast. Armstrong and Getty on demand.

[Jack Armstrong]

Armstrong and Getty.

[Joe Getty]

Ah, come on.

[Jack Armstrong]

Why is this taking so long? This thing is ancient.

[Christina Quinn]

Still using Yesterday's tech upgrade to the ThinkPad X1 carbon ultralight. Ultra powerful and built for serious productivity with Intel Core Ultra processors, blazing speed and AI powered performance that keeps up with your business, not the other way around.

[Jack Armstrong]

Whoa, this thing moves.

[Christina Quinn]

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[Jack Armstrong]

If you eat too many ultra processed foods, you could be starving your gut microbes and they'll get hangry. That's one of many things I learned after working on a new audio course about the gut microbiome. You can learn how to keep your gut happy by listening to Try this from the Washington Post Host I'm Christina Quinn. I host Try this. Dig in with me on practical advice for life's common challenges. Follow Try this right now, wherever you're listening. Seriously, try it.

[Jamie Rubin]

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[Jack Armstrong]

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[Christiane Amanpour]

I'm Christiana Manpour and I've been on the front lines and interviewing world leaders for more than 30 years. And I'm Jamie Rubin, a former advisor to both Presidents Clinton and Biden.

[Christina Quinn]

We were married for 20 years and divorced for seven.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Now we've joined forces on the X Files to make sense of how we ended up with no world order. Listen to Christiane Amanpour Presents the X files on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

[Jack Armstrong]

This is an iHeart podcast.