
Loading summary
iHeart Radio Announcer
This is an I heart podcast.
Jack Armstrong
Shh.
You won't believe what my new friend just told me about dinosaurs.
Miko Mini Plus Advertiser
Is your child having conversations you never imagined? Are they learning without realizing it? It's not a tablet. It's not a toy. It's Meiko Mini plus, the AI powered companion that turns curiosity into endless learning. Hear the future of playtime. Meet the extraordinary Meco Min Plus.
Annabe Sofas Advertiser
Only at Costco, there's nothing like sinking into luxury. Annabe sofas combine ultimate comfort and design at an affordable price. Annabe has designed the only fully machine washable sofa from top to bottom. The stain resistant performance fabric slipcovers and cloud like frame duvet can go straight into your wash. Perfect for anyone with kids, pets or anyone who loves an easy to clean spotless sofa. With a modular design and changeable slipcovers, you customize your sofa to fit any space and style. Whether you need a single chair, loveseat or a luxuriously large sectional, Annabe has you covered. Visit washablesofas.com to upgrade your home. Sofas start at just $699 and right now get early access to Black Friday savings up to 60% off store wide with a 30 day money back guarantee. Shop now@washablesofas.com Add a little to your life. Offers are subject to change and certain restrictions may apply.
Elevate Health Advertiser
We all know those GLP1 injections work wonders, but that price tag almost gave me a heart attack. When my insurance denied coverage, I was staring at a choice between paying my mortgage or paying for weight loss. Talk about a rock and a hard place. Then I found Elevate Health Compounded semaglutide at just $58 with payment plans that don't require a second mortgage. Same medication, same results, but a price that real folks can actually afford. Visit joinelevate.com today. That's J O I N E L E V A T e dot com. Your wallet will be as happy as your waistline. This medication is not FDA approved.
Jack Armstrong
You know what your customers are doing right this second? The exact same thing. You are listening to me.
Joe Getty
Which, let's be honest, is kind of flattering.
Jack Armstrong
But my point Is ads on iHeartRadio.
Joe Getty
Actually get heard in the car, at the gym, on the couch, while people.
Jack Armstrong
Are walking their dogs.
Joe Getty
Who's a good boy? Who's a good boy?
Jack Armstrong
Good boy. You're a good boy.
Elevate Health Advertiser
That's right dude.
Jack Armstrong
You're a good. So why not make the next ad about you?
Joe Getty
Get started today. Call 844-844-IHEART or go to iheartadvertising.com that's 844-844-iheart or iheartadvertising.com.
Jack Armstrong
Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio at the George Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong.
Joe Getty
Getty, Armstrong and Getty. And now here, Armstrong and G. Live from Studio C. Senor.
Jack Armstrong
We are in a dimly lit room deep within the bowels of the Armstrong and G Communications compound. And today we're under the tutelage of our general manager, cloud flare. All right, I don't know that term, cloud flare.
Joe Getty
He says it again loudly. It's a web safety guidance cloud based something or other system that is involved with like a lot of the biggest websites on earth and is screwed up for some reason today as we are speaking these words.
Jack Armstrong
Oh really?
Joe Getty
It's taken down X, formerly known as Twitter. What's the. What's the fullest? Katie, you have a better grasp of it than I do.
Katie Green
X Chat, GPT. Uber's down right now.
Jack Armstrong
How's aol Spotify?
Katie Green
AOL is kicking.
Joe Getty
Oh yeah, you've got always.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah.
Joe Getty
So it's always online, huh? Right.
Jack Armstrong
So I can check my mail.
Joe Getty
So, yeah. Is it a Chinese hack attack? That's the question I'm asking because that seems exciting. If that Chinese hack attack ever does come, it's going to be a hell of a day.
Jack Armstrong
Well, it comes all the time, hundreds of times per day. It's just. You're talking about the big one. It happened over the weekend as we talked a lot about yesterday, by using Anthropic's own AI to go after companies. First time that's ever really been done. And so who knows what today is? Could be something like that. Absolutely could be. And they might not tell us even if it was. Which is probably a good idea.
Joe Getty
Yeah, yeah. They'll just say, you know, an error was made during a software update. We apologize for any inconvenience, which is fine again, as long as our best and brightest are fighting this stuff as hard as they can. But I was just thinking, okay, so the whole web goes down and number one, the announcement goes out over, I guess AM radio or something. What is happening? And that everybody should remain calm. And I would think, you know, what, the hell with the modern world anyway, I don't like it. I haven't enjoyed it. How many times have I said that? I'm just going to go into the woods and I'm going to realize, wait a minute, all of my money is accessible only via the web.
Jack Armstrong
Right.
Joe Getty
You know, what are you going to do? Go you know, walk up to Charles Schwab or Fidelity. Where do you have your money, folks? You're going to, like, walk in the bottom of their skyscraper in Manhattan, say, excuse me, my name's Joe Getty, and you have my money, and I would like it now. I wouldn't know how to begin.
Jack Armstrong
Isn't that one problem panic? You know, that's true with all money, including crypto. You know, crypto is seen as the great way around a lot of. A lot of modern problems, but you still got to have online ability to get your crypto right.
Joe Getty
Oh, yeah, you can't even. Well, I suppose you could turn it into cash, but I don't know where.
Jack Armstrong
From whom. I spilled coffee. Give me just a second.
Joe Getty
Oh, no, I'm sorry to see that.
Jack Armstrong
Not on my bright white shirt, thank goodness. That goes with my suit. I. I won't belabor this right now, but I. I probably will. I'll labor it and then belabor it afterwards. I started reading last night because I was watching, listening to a podcast. The book came out a year or two ago by one of your fathers of Internet of AI. If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies is the name of his book.
Joe Getty
Well, at least he avoided alarmism.
Jack Armstrong
Well, and he. He was one of the biggest proponents in the world, leading the charge for decades about AI and how important it was and how it was coming and we need to be in front of it and everything like that. Just the biggest cheerleader there was for AI. One of your big names that most of you wouldn't know, but just in case you would, it's Ellie. It's the old, old British fellow, Ellie Yudkowski. No. But then a few years back, he decided, no, this is going to destroy mankind in a whole bunch of different ways, and we've got to stop this. And he wrote that book. If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies. He takes it as far as. And he's got several chapters where he runs through various scenarios on how it could just destroy the planet or human. Human beings or the environment or all kinds of different things. But he goes so far as it might be a situation where we need to outlaw. Outlaw companies attempting to build AGI or ASI super intelligence as opposed to just general intelligence. Anybody trying to build super intelligence, make it against the law, and if they continue to build it, bomb their factories. I mean, that's how big a deal it is.
Joe Getty
He thinks, holy cow. I don't know. This guy is whether he's, you know, a bit of a crackpot or prone to such, you know, Crazy rhetoric, but that's, that's a hell of an opinion.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah. So there's AI, artificial intelligence, and you got AGI, artificial general intelligence, as maybe, maybe a lot of, you know, that's basically when it's as smart as the smartest person in the world and can program itself and everything like that. They think the leap from AGI to asi, super intelligence, which is beyond anything any human beings have been able to think. Our mind could be like two hours long once AGI starts, all of a sudden when it can program each other, it'll be to super intelligent.
Joe Getty
I just had a thought.
Jack Armstrong
It'll say.
Joe Getty
Yeah, yeah, okay. So I was gonna ask you to, to define for we, the, the half baked, this artificial super intelligence, but nobody knows is your point.
Jack Armstrong
Well, it will be able to leap.
Joe Getty
Tall buildings in a single bound.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah. It'll be able to think on a level that nobody's ever even really been able to imagine.
Joe Getty
Right.
Jack Armstrong
But I'll talk more about that later because there's some really interesting scenarios and all there.
Joe Getty
It's just good news. I have cured all cancer. Bad news. I suppose from your perspective, I'm going to kill you all in three, right? Two. This is ironic. One.
Jack Armstrong
I just listened to a story, a broadcast story about one of the hot toys that are out this year are AI toys that you have hooked up to the Internet. And so little kids can play with a doll, for instance, and ask it questions and it can answer and it gets to know your kid's name and gets to know your kid's personality and interests. And so, you know, it's like the AI Chatbot except for its little kids. But there have been examples out there of the little AI teddy bear telling your four year old how to start a fire or where to get the knives in mom's drawer or various things like that.
Joe Getty
Trying to think if I've ever heard a worse idea. Nothing's popping to mind.
Jack Armstrong
No kid.
Joe Getty
Holy crap. Oh my God.
Jack Armstrong
If you buy that for your. Well, it's because you don't know. People who would buy that for their kid aren't paying attention to the whole AI story the way some of us are.
Joe Getty
Right. Which is not a mortal sin exactly. But I mean, that is an incredible lack of judgment and you've already reproduced, so I can't say I hope you don't reproduce if you're buying it for your child.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah. To think if I could. Is there a worse idea I've ever come across? No, that's the worst idea. That one right there. Putting AI chat bots in the hands of the youngest among us.
Joe Getty
You know, it's funny. There's. There's a conceit among human beings, has been for thousands of years, that these are the end times. It's exciting to people. They feel. It's. It's like an ego trip.
Jack Armstrong
Well, they were all. They were all wrong in the past.
Joe Getty
Yes, well, exactly. They would. They flattered themselves that these are the critical times as ordained in scriptures or whatever their belief system is. But then, you know, they come and they go and life chugs on and no, it wasn't the end times. You should have lightened up and enjoyed your life. Right. I'm increasingly feeling like this might be getting toward it. And as it's coming, as it, you know, it all is crumbling, I don't think I'm gonna think, wow, this is exciting.
Jack Armstrong
Isn't this cool?
Joe Getty
I'm gonna think, damn, I was on a roll.
Jack Armstrong
Things were going so well, got money saved.
Joe Getty
I. Pretty nice house. They. Ah, damn it.
Jack Armstrong
One of my favorite. I think it might even be a chapter from the book. This gets into the. There's a crowd of people called Accelerationists. There's. I'm. I'm like a doomsday person or doomsayer. They have different. A doomer people that only see downsides to AI. I'm in that crowd, really. But the Accelerationists are people that. It's split into two camps. It's people who either think, this is going to be the greatest thing ever, you aren't going to have to work, and we're going to cure all kinds of diseases, we'll live longer than we ever have, nobody has to go to work, blah, blah, blah. Greatest time in human history. Other people are doomers, but they believe it's going to happen. No. Whether I like it or not. And we. It's better us than China. And the saying in the AI crowd is the. It's. You'll. You'll recognize this saying from those of us who are fans of being able to own a gun legally. The only way to stop a bad guy with AI with. With asi. Really, the only way to stop a bad guy with AI is a good guy with AI is us getting it first. Chat, GBT or. Or Grok or whoever, being ahead of the Chinese. So it's basically that.
Joe Getty
Honestly, I don't see any alternative to that point of view.
Jack Armstrong
No, that. That makes a lot of sense to me.
Joe Getty
I. I take a shred of encouragement from the fact that in the wake of the. The first half of the 20th century, really the 19th century too, which was never ending warfare, practically never ending on every continent, everywhere. The development of the atomic bomb in the 40s. Virtually everybody believed for a very long time. This is the genie. We have unleashed it. It will take us all. This is that dark turn of history. And yet human beings need for self preservation. As Sting put it so movingly in the 90s. I hope the Russians love children too. Turns out we all kind of do. And nuclear doomsday has not occurred. This is a different beast for sure. Right. Well, are the dynamics similar enough that I can stop worrying and get a little shut eyed?
Jack Armstrong
Well, what. What we think will cease to matter once the super intelligence comes. It'll be whatever AI wants to do and thinks best for the planet are best for it.
Joe Getty
Oh, whoops. Yeah, there's the rub.
Jack Armstrong
And it does not love its children too, for obvious reasons, I think. Anyway, let's start the show officially. I'm Jack Armstrong. He's Joe Getty on this. It is Tuesday, November 18, the year 2025, where Armstrong and Getty and we approve of this program.
Joe Getty
I just hope I doesn't knock out the scotch distilleries because I want to go hammered when I go. All right, goodbye. All right, let's begin officially. Now, according to FCC rules, Reichs, here we go, swinging into action at Mark.
Jack Armstrong
One of the greatest, most admired and most successful companies in the history of the world. Frankly, the one and only McDonald's. I've gone there a couple of times and I'm honored to stand before you as the very first former McDonald's fry cook ever to become President of the United States. And it has been revealed his favorite McDonald's sandwich is the filet o fish. And he likes extra tartar sauce. Oh.
Joe Getty
Katie recoiled visibly.
Katie Green
That was for no reason. I've never tried one.
Joe Getty
I was a fish man as a teenager.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah, I like a filet. Fish is a good sandwich. And I agree. Extra tartar sauce. It's perfectly good order.
Joe Getty
Wow.
Jack Armstrong
Wow. I might have one of those today in honor of the President.
Joe Getty
Well, the President. The political narrative of the day, and it is not wrong, is that Trump is clearly losing his kung fu grip on the Republican Party.
Jack Armstrong
He's losing his voice. Is he okay? See? Ill.
Joe Getty
He said he'd ragged out his voice shouting at someone. Wow. He said he was yelling at someone. He apologized as he began that speech. I don't know if we have that.
Jack Armstrong
That's pretty funny. Sorry, I lost my voice. I was yelling at someone. Well, who and how much right Was it Baron for not having his grades up? Or was it the Attorney General or. Or Putin? I mean, it matters. Who?
Joe Getty
I don't know. I don't know. There are many choices, as he's been in a couple of rhetorical wrestling matches lately within his own party. Hence that narrative.
Jack Armstrong
Well, it's Epstein Day. I hope you got your loved ones a gift that they're voting on that thing today and that's the only thing lots of news outlets are talking about.
Joe Getty
Oh, for God's sake.
Jack Armstrong
Halpern said in his newsletter it might be a unanimous vote in the house. Might be 434 or however many people are there? Nothing.
Joe Getty
You know what? Come on in. AI. I changed my mind.
Jack Armstrong
Bring it on.
Joe Getty
Jack just changed my mind. Bring it on. Take over. Exterminate us.
Jack Armstrong
Whatever's next.
Joe Getty
Planet of the ants? Is that. Is that what's coming next? They seem well organized and hard working, the ants.
Jack Armstrong
Whatever's next got to be better than this. Yeah, we got Katie's headlines on the way. Stay here.
Armstrong and Gettysburg.
Then the space hamster flew his hot air balloon all the way to the bottom of the ocean.
Miko Mini Plus Advertiser
Where did that story come from? Book Dream? Nope. It came from a conversation. Meet Mikomini, the AI companion that co creates personalized story adventures with your child in real time.
Jack Armstrong
What color was the hamster's cape and what did he pack for lunch?
Miko Mini Plus Advertiser
Unlock your child's imagination. Discover Miko Mini plus and the Magic of AI Exclusively at Costco.
Annabe Sofas Advertiser
Life gets messy spills, stains and kid chaos. But with anibe, cleaning up is easy. Our sofas are fully machine washable inside and out, so you never have to stress about messes again. Made with liquid and stain resistant fabrics, that means fewer stains and more peace of mind. Designed for real life, our sofas feature changeable fabric covers allowing you to refresh your style anytime. Need flexibility? Our modular design lets you rearrange your sofa effortlessly. Perfect for cozy apartments or spacious homes. Plus, they're earth friendly and built to last. That's why over 200,000 happy customers have made the switch. Get early access to Black Friday pricing right now. Sofas start at just $699. Visit washablesofas.com now and bring home a sofa made for life. That's washablesofas.com offers are subject to change and certain restrictions may apply.
iHeart Radio Announcer
Run a business and not thinking about radio, Think again. Because more people are listening to the radio and iHeart today than they were 20 years ago. And only iHeart broadcast radio connects with more Americans than TV, digital, social, any other media, even twice as many teens than TikTok. And that reach means everything. Just think about the universal marketing formula. The number of consumers who hear your message times the response rate equals the results. Now let's get those results growing for your business. Radio's here now more than ever. And iheart's leading the way. Think radio can help your business. Think iHeart. Streaming, podcasting and radio where the reach is real. Let us show you@iheartadvertising.com that's iheartadvertising.com or call 844-844. Iheart one more time. Just call 844-844-Iheart and get radio working for you.
Jack Armstrong
Lot of fit in with what Joe was just saying about Trump losing his kung fu grip on maga. Really? There's a group out there that's more MAGA than he is. And Marjorie Taylor Greene's just made quite a statement. You got blind bad built butch body. That's her.
Joe Getty
That's. That's the gal.
Jack Armstrong
And so we'll have that for you coming up a little bit later.
Joe Getty
Interesting. Where this all goes, nobody knows. Also, the dean of. I'm sorry, we don't have time for this screen. It's fascinating though. The dean of POLITICO's political writers says Gavin Newsom is in line to be the next president. Good Lord.
Jack Armstrong
Wow.
Joe Getty
That story coming up. But first, who's reporting what? It's lead stories. Katie Green.
Jack Armstrong
Katie, Somebody. Somebody texted this to me.
Elevate Health Advertiser
Okay.
Jack Armstrong
Where do bad rangers bows get sent? Prism.
Joe Getty
Wow.
Jack Armstrong
Wow.
Katie Green
I think how hard you're laughing at it is the best part.
Jack Armstrong
Oh, boy.
Katie Green
All right, Epstein's the big story. So here's the top three headlines on that House to vote on full Epstein files release the move Speaker Mike Johnson fought for months. That's from abc cnn. The prospect of an embarrassing defeat convinced Trump to reverse course on the Epstein files. And then ms, now formerly known as msnbc. Trump faces his biggest House rebellion yet and pretends it's his idea.
Joe Getty
I saw another headline that Trump's sure it'll fail in the Senate. So he thought, what the heck, let's go ahead.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah. And he was gonna lose.
Joe Getty
I don't think so.
Jack Armstrong
I still don't know why I was fighting it. I don't think that anybody will remember any of this in a week. The voting and who pushed what and whatever. I just don't think it's gonna matter.
Katie Green
From the Washington Times. Oh, snap. 186, 000 dead people got tax ballers for food.
Joe Getty
Got tax what?
Katie Green
Tax dollars.
Joe Getty
Oh, okay.
Katie Green
Hey, benefits.
Jack Armstrong
Do you have the headline I sent you? Because we're getting texts from people wondering why we haven't talked about it yet.
Katie Green
It's coming right now.
Jack Armstrong
Gotcha.
Katie Green
New York Post. Thomas Crooks used they them pronouns. Had an obsession with political violence and muscle mommies.
Jack Armstrong
Miranda Devine of the New York Post. Who's the one who broke the Hunter laptop story? So sometimes she's on the big stories. She claims that the Biden Justice Department hid a bunch of information about the would be assassin who shot Trump in the head that we should have known about. And it's out now and it's pretty interesting and stuff. And we get to talk about muscle mommies, which is something I didn't know anything about.
Joe Getty
Nor I. Muscle mommies. Okay.
Katie Green
USA Today. Cloudfare outage impacts, ChatGPT, Spotify X and other websites.
Jack Armstrong
How are they all tied together like that? That's. That's what's interesting to me is that's I don't know anything about that world. It's like that outage a couple of weeks ago and it turned out it was all Amazon's websites. And then that's what I found out, that Amazon's biggest business isn't servers. Yeah. Isn't sending me packages. It's. It's hosting various companies. So the way that all these places are tied together is completely unknown to most of us. I think.
Katie Green
From Chat GPT or Chat GPT, study finds Chat GPT's hallucination problem. Study finds more than half of AI's references are fabricated or contain errors.
Jack Armstrong
I have a theory on that. I actually want to talk to somebody in AI about it, but we'll get to that later.
Katie Green
This cloud fare outage is affecting the Babylon Bee. So I've moved over to the Onion. Twirling Britney Spears unaware. Phone died hours ago.
Jack Armstrong
She's spinning around in her kitchen with her knives. Wait a second. This thing isn't even on.
Katie Green
Not even on.
Joe Getty
Damn it.
Jack Armstrong
Oh. Marjorie Taylor Greene. Has she broken officially with the President? We'll see. We got that and other stuff on the way.
Armstrong and Gettysburg.
I just came across something that for the first time makes this whole Epstein saga somewhat interesting to me. So we'll get to that.
Joe Getty
Wow.
Jack Armstrong
Maybe you've heard this, that Larry Summers has stepped back from public life.
Joe Getty
Really?
Jack Armstrong
So Larry Summers, president of Harvard way back in the day, got fired for correctly saying that dudes are better at engineering math stuff as a whole than women because it's just a fact. Just demographically right, demographically as a whole, just true. There's all kinds of statistically true can be proven. He said it out loud. He had to quit as a president of Harvard. Anyway, he's still a very powerful strategist and thinker for the Democrats for a long time. Is like a normal Democrat, not, not a wacko, but.
Joe Getty
And he was center left guy, very smart.
Jack Armstrong
Secretary of the treasury under Obama and then, you know, shows up on shows all the time talking about this or that. Well, some of the emails from the whole Epstein thing that came out last week were pretty embarrassing for him. And he says he is a horribly embarrassed and he's resigning from public life. He will keep his job as a professor at Harvard, but he's no longer going to be, you know, going on TV shows, speaking on boards, all that different sort of stuff. What are the embarrassing emails? And this leads to the first interesting thing that I've come across really since the whole Epstein saga began. In one set of emails, Larry Summers confided. Well, I'll back up a little just a second. Summer's statement saying he is embarrassed in resigning for public life came after the release of emails between the men as part of all the blah, blah, blah we know from last week. Some of the exchanges with Summers took place in 2018 and 2019 after the Miami Herald had published a lengthy investigation into Epstein's abuse of young girls. A decade earlier, Epstein had pleaded guilty to charges related to soliciting a minor for prostitution. So years after this was all public knowledge that Epstein was a scumbag. You know, he was a sexual perv. Even if they were of age. He's not the kind of guy you're, you're a Larry Summers that you should be hanging out with and partying with. Even if they were girls of age. The fact that they were underage puts him in an absolute, you shouldn't be going there category. But he continued emailing.
Joe Getty
A quick, quick reflection on the fact that the guy gets tried and convicted. He got a sweetheart deal, but he did time for trafficking underage girls for the purposes of prostitution. Then he goes right back to it, right? I mean, that's a perv with a, with a felony conviction on his record.
Jack Armstrong
And, or he understands the world of the powerful and he had no reason to think he couldn't continue, which is gonna get to my point here in a second. But Larry Summers continue to email in with his good friend. It apparently seems to be Jeffrey Epstein. After that. In one set of emails, Summers confided in Epstein about his efforts to pursue a romantic relationship with a woman he described as a mentee. You're a mentor, and they're your mentees. Wow. So he gets a hold of Epstein and says, I'm mentoring this girl. How do I go about, you know, getting her in the sack? Oh, wow.
Joe Getty
Well, you go to an expert, right?
Jack Armstrong
Right. Epstein offered him advice and called himself Summer's wingman. I'll be your wingman.
Joe Getty
Ha ha ha ha ha.
Jack Armstrong
This is after you knew what kind of guy he was. And other messages. Summers quipped about women's intelligence. That's the topic that led to his resignation at Harvard and complained about punishment of men who hit on women in the workplace. So, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. What I wanted to get to that I found really, really interesting was something Rich Lowry of what he took from all these emails that came out last week. So often journalists like myself attempt to demonstrate to family members and voters in the far reaches of the country, away from centers of power and money, that their conspiracy theories are false. I end up in that situation myself that politicians are flawed, but the corruption is not the norm. A lot of these conspiracies aren't true. Isn't how we all operate. But the Epstein emails suggest otherwise. They suggest that, in fact, there is a widespread code among people with power and money who support one another. They are pals no matter what side of the aisle they're in a club, no matter the sins of their members. Transgressions that get contextualized, explained away, understood in quotes. That does seem to be what we have learned. And that includes Donald Trump, I guess, who, you know, he was probably more angry about the fact that Epstein was snatching girls from his club than the lifestyle of Epstein. Right?
Joe Getty
Yeah, I suspect that's true. Uh, you know, I don't know if it's the same piece or a different one Rich wrote, but he's writing about the Epstein conspiracy in plain sight. This guy was an unbelievable networker. He had rich and powerful friends, which tend to attract rich and powerful friends. He appeared to be wealthy, or at least very, very close to wealth, and he was extremely helpful to people. And, you know, it's funny, I've. I've run into people are like, that wouldn't be enough. I actually know at least probably two people, one in particular like that, unbelievably charming and outgoing, intelligent, funny, really helpful, and actually enjoys introducing. You would really like this person. Just a master networker. Really nice person, too, by the way. For what it's worth. I can absolutely buy that. That's why he had so many rich and powerful friends. He was just that kind of guy operating in the upper reaches of Manhattan society. I don't think that means everybody who is nice to him was molesting 16 year olds.
Jack Armstrong
No, but it does mean, apparently, or at least Rich Lowry is writing, that it does mean that if you find out he's that kind of guy, you think, yeah, whatever. I mean, you know, people have their flaws and you don't. And politics go out the window at that point. Who's a Democrat, who's a Republican? Despite what you say on talk shows about the other side being evil, y' all hang out together and keep your secrets from each other or with each other from the public, apparently.
Joe Getty
Yeah. Oh yeah, yeah, absolutely. So Rich writes, populists have a different narrative at hand that is consistent with the known record, namely that most of the privileged members of our society at the very top of the financial, academic, political, media and social worlds had no standards or ethics and embraced Epstein as a friend and consigliery. Epstein knew influential people, so influential people felt that they should know him. They considered him fun and useful for advice, for banter, for introductions, for information and for donations. The emails suggest, and there are thousands of them, that Epstein missed his calling as a high level seeming advice columnist for the rich and powerful. Want to know more about the reputation of the woman you're having an affair with? Seeking advice on how to gain political influence in Europe? Wondering how you're handling your interactions with a potential mistress? Looking for insights about Donald Trump trying to survive sexual harassment allegations? Need a reference for a gastroenterologist? Well then ask Jeffrey Epstein.
Jack Armstrong
Wow.
Joe Getty
Is the nature of the emails and Rich points out emailed with former Harvard president Larry Summers. Just mentioned the linguist Noam Chomsky. Venture capitalists I've never heard of. Emirati businessman Sultan Ahmad Bid Salayam, Trump activist Steve Bannon, the journalist Michael Wolf, the artist Andre Serrano, the department store scion Jonathan Farkas, former White House counsel Kathryn Rummler among many others.
Jack Armstrong
That is something.
Joe Getty
That is pretty Rolodexes still existed. He'd have like the best Rolodex in the world.
Jack Armstrong
How about the fact that a guy like Larry Summers, after it's known, publicly known what kind of guy Epstein is, is still going with him? Yeah, I got this chick I'm mentoring and I kind of want to get with her. What do you suggest?
Joe Getty
What? I wonder what he was telling his friends about the first conviction. I bet he said he Got railroaded.
Jack Armstrong
I don't know.
Joe Getty
And they chose to believe it.
Jack Armstrong
So the House is voting on the releasing of the Epstein files today. A lot of mainstream media is still treating this as the most important story in America. One interesting caveat that doesn't get brought up that much is Trump has the power to release all these files, like last week. Of course, so did Biden, by the way. But Trump, Trump could skip all this voting and, you know, going out there and saying, I want all Republicans to vote for it. He doesn't even need to have the voting. He could just say, let him loose. He's got that power. Although it might be like you said earlier, he knows it's going to die in the Senate. So they're not going to come out. Regardless of that, they're having a press conference right now. Representative Massie, who we've played a lot of, the Republican who wants everything to come out, along with Ro Khanna, Democrat. They're co chairs of whatever the scumbag committee I get, apparently that's the committee they're on to release the files. And they're there with a whole bunch of the victims. These are women that worked for Jeffrey Epstein and had to do all these horrible things. Last night on MSNBC, when I was watching what's it called? Now Ms. Ms. Now. Last night on Ms. Now, they said there are a thousand victims.
Joe Getty
A thousand.
Jack Armstrong
So doesn't that mean some to you, that there are a thousand women out there who have come forward and not one of them is claiming that she was in a room making out with Donald Trump? Not one of them. Doesn't that mean something to you in terms of the whole this is going to get to Trump.
Joe Getty
I need to know about the thousand, quote, unquote victims. I need to know more about that. I don't even know what that means.
Jack Armstrong
But doesn't that seem odd that. Not. It's not odd because I don't think Trump was doing that. But, but that. That you're running a theory that Trump is going to get nailed on this. This is the big cover up. You got a thousand women out there. Not one of them is saying, and you know, you'd think there'd be one of them saying even if it weren't true, just because it'd be exciting and it'd get you a lot of attention and you could get on all the shows and maybe write a book. But nobody's saying that, right?
Joe Getty
Yeah, yeah, it's, it's ridiculous. Honestly, I've thought that most of this whole thing is ridiculous for a long time, as I've tried to make clear.
Jack Armstrong
But so, so we got.
Joe Getty
Well, the entire Democratic Party and about a third of the Republican Party was trying desperately to assassinate his for the last 10 years, especially in the run up to the last election, to the point of twisting laws and engaging in some of the most egregious and shameless lawfare ever seen in the history of the republic. But they had these smoking guns of child rape and they just, what, forgot.
Jack Armstrong
Well, and then who are you?
Joe Getty
It's just Baker's belief.
Jack Armstrong
Well, who are you applying the word they to? Because you got the other angle of. You had. Some of the most prominent MAGA voices in America for the past many years have been claiming there's this giant child predator conspiracy trafficking thing going on, including Dan Bongino of the FBI.
Joe Getty
So that's another third of the GOP that would want to dig that up if they had it right.
Jack Armstrong
So you got that whole angle of it. And Marjorie Taylor Greene was in that crowd. She is about as maggot as anybody out there. Very high profile and everyone knows it. Georgia House member, as you know. Well, she. This is, this is days ago when Trump didn't want Republicans to vote yesterday. He now says vote yesterday. But when he was saying don't vote yesterday, and he went after a couple people like Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene and then Marjorie Trader Greene. You mean bad built Bush body called her a traitor and a lunatic, which I like that term, called her a lunatic. And she is kind of broken with Trump. And here she is a little more. She said, today I was called a.
Traitor by a man that I fought for five, no, actually six years for, and I gave him my loyalty for free. I won my first election without his endorsement, beating eight men in a primary. And I've never owed him anything, but I fought for him for the policies and for America first. And he called me a traitor for standing with these women and refusing to take my name off the discharge petition. Let me tell you what a traitor is. A traitor is an American that serves foreign countries and themselves. A patriot is an American that serves the United States of America and Americans like the women standing behind me.
That's a pretty definitive. I'm breaking with this guy.
Joe Getty
What's that Taylor Swift song? We are never, ever, ever getting back together. Yeah.
Jack Armstrong
So where is the MAGA movement now? One of the leaders, one of the queens of maga, has said, I don't know this guy anything and I'm a patriot, suggesting he is not yeah. Huh. He can't run again. That's part of it. That's. That's the whole lame duck thing, right?
Joe Getty
Well, the only constant is change. And the, the Maga movement is changing before our eyes.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah. Wow. That's wild. We got Mailbag on the way. We got a lot more. We've got to get to the things now known about the guy that shot Trump in the head and tried to kill him that we should have known.
Joe Getty
What about Muscle Mommies?
Jack Armstrong
And we're going to learn about Muscle Mommies, which I didn't know were a thing.
Joe Getty
Oh.
Jack Armstrong
Coming up. Stay here.
Armstrong and Getty.
Yeah, I just looked it up. Larry Summers is married. So he had to explain to his wife last week. So you were mentoring a woman and you called Jeffrey Epstein for advice on how to get her into bed. Okay, that's quite the public revelation.
Joe Getty
That's not a good look.
Jack Armstrong
No, it's not.
Joe Getty
I mean, it's not like anyone. Anybody's not heard of old Jeffrey. Unbelievable. Here's your Freedom of loving quote of the day. I love this. Sent to us by me. Great article about the BBC and its incredible bias. And the writer points out on the day the. Oh, there's a big revelation. The day they unveiled the statue of George Orwell outside of the headquarters. And they point out that Orwell would recognize better than anyone the ethos that controls his former workplace.
Jack Armstrong
Quote.
Joe Getty
At any given moment, there is an orthodoxy, a body of ideas which it is assumed that all right thinking people will accept without question or, well, if you need them. No kidding. There's an incredible battle going on in the transgender madness, specifically in the American medical community in which that very thing was going on in the most insane way. A body of ideas which it is assumed that all right thinking people will accept without question. It's one of the scariest things about humanity. Mailbag. You guys are freaking me out, writes Brian. Oh, drop us a note. Mailbag@armstrongandgetty.com you guys are freaking me out. After listening to your segment on the evils of AI as companions and leading people to suicide, an ad comes on for Weco Mini plus a companion companion for your child. Sold exclusively at Costco. We'll make up stories with them in real time and spur their imagination. Jack asked what the robot you buy will do for you. It'll raise your children. You don't need daycare or nanny. It will do it for you, Jack. You can go on a date while it rate takes your son to his scouting activities and can replay the videos of the highlights for him when he gets home. They won't have to harvest our organs, they're just gonna replace us, maybe raise us as pets. Brian and Walla Walla.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah, that kind of speaks to those toys I was talking about earlier in the hour.
Joe Getty
The very thing. Guys, you decry the dangers of AI companionship then run an ad for it.
Jack Armstrong
Ha ha ha.
Joe Getty
I know you don't control the advertising on all your many platforms, but on Monday show you're saying you're coming back with the story of how many lawsuits against AI that befriended, then urge suicide as a kid. Then the podcast advertisement comes on selling an AI companion book. Hilarious.
Jack Armstrong
Oh boy.
Joe Getty
Marina from San Diego Guys, having men, young men addicted to big tech devices seems like a short sighted goal for the tech industry. Why aren't they seeing the long game? Eventually young men will be manic, depressed, won't be able to have jobs to pay for these devices or be able to keep a roof over their heads. And they won't procreate. So no new customers. Also, imagine a war breaks out and they have to go fight with no motivation or sweetheart back home. What will they have to fight for? We're screamed. Probably.
Jack Armstrong
Probably yes.
Joe Getty
Yeah, let's see. JT and Livermore. I know in politics if you're explaining, you're losing, but when it comes to affordability, we really need to explain, he says. For example, one of the largest price increases over the last few years have been car and homeowners insurance. Both of those things are set on the state level. Trump really can't do much about that. Tariffs or no tariffs, blue states are the most expensive, driving up the costs. Another big mover for decades, the cost of college, again driven by the states worst offenders being progressive colleges and states. While Trump can deregulate energy production, drill baby, drill, and thereby bring down some energy costs, he can't keep states from shutting down the nuclear plants, can't keep them from throwing money away on solar panels and wind turbines, et cetera. Again, the blue states. Ditto for housing. Trump isn't directly in control of mortgage rates, nor is he able to impact the number of rental properties that are built or not built in. I would add housing regulations, etc. There's not all that much the POTUS can do about affordability and we ought to be letting people know. That is his point and he's right.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah, and that's why he's going for stuff he can have some effect on, like coffee and bananas.
Joe Getty
Interestingly. Interestingly though, he points out that potuses can drive up prices with bogus spending that drives inflation. Like the multi trillion dollar new green deal.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah, we do a lot. If you miss it, get the podcast. Armstrong and Getty on demand.
Armstrong and Getty?
iHeart Radio Announcer
This is an I heart podcast.
Date: November 18, 2025
Podcast: Armstrong & Getty On Demand
Hosts: Jack Armstrong & Joe Getty
Producer/News: Katie Green
In this episode, Armstrong and Getty delve into several pressing topics, with a heavy focus on technology and politics. They kick off with the widespread internet outages caused by Cloudflare issues — which disrupted major platforms like X (formerly Twitter), ChatGPT, and Uber — raising concerns over cybersecurity, potential hack attacks, and the vulnerabilities of a hyper-connected society. From there, the show pivots to the risks and ethics of artificial intelligence, referencing alarming expert opinions on AGI (artificial general intelligence), debates the mainstream political landscape including shifting allegiances within the MAGA movement, and examines new revelations in the Epstein saga, including damning emails involving former Harvard president Larry Summers.
Throughout, the hosts oscillate between humor and existential angst, reflecting the confusion and anxieties of living in a rapidly changing world.
Timestamps: 03:20 – 05:47
Timestamps: 06:10 – 13:32
Timestamps: 14:02 – 15:17
Timestamps: 15:49 – 30:41
Timestamps: 34:27 – 35:57
Timestamps: 36:39 – 40:47
This episode veers between anxiety, gallows humor, and insightful critique as Armstrong and Getty dissect the fragility of our tech-driven lives, debate the promises and existential dangers of AI, and explore the mingled corruption and insularity of political and social elites revealed by the Epstein files. The show also captures a pivotal moment of MAGA movement fragmentation with Marjorie Taylor Greene’s public split with Trump, and closes with listener mail reflecting the public’s deep unease about technology’s role in society.
Anyone interested in the intersection of technology, politics, and cultural change will find this episode a highly relevant snapshot of 2025’s uneasy zeitgeist.