Take a Zester To That Lemon

Summary

Armstrong & Getty On Demand — "Take a Zester To That Lemon"

Date: June 5, 2026
Hosts: Jack Armstrong & Joe Getty | iHeartPodcasts

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Overview:

This episode of "Armstrong & Getty On Demand," titled "Take a Zester To That Lemon," focuses on a fast-paced, zesty discussion of current political, cultural, and technological events. Major topics include political maneuvering around the Ukraine-Russia war, controversial protesters and legal questions, media and racial double standards, the explosive growth and social dynamics of AI, celebrity culture intersecting with sports, the impact of weight loss drugs on culture and retail, and shifting geopolitical realities.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Ukraine, Russia, and Headlines (02:57, 35:21, 37:48)

• Zelensky’s Taunting Letter:

  • President Zelensky of Ukraine sent a pointed, almost mocking public letter to Putin, both taunting and requesting peace talks. The hosts discuss the tactics and psychology behind this risky diplomatic gesture.
  • Quote (36:41):
    "The taunting letter went after all kinds of different things. After 26 years in power, age is beginning to take its toll." — Jack

• Ukrainian Strikes and Psychological Warfare:

  • Recent Ukrainian drone strikes near St. Petersburg might be a flex aimed at unsettling Putin pre-conference. Connection to Candace Owens attending Russian events is noted.

• International Peace Talk Dynamics:

  • Zelensky offers to meet outside Trump-negotiated processes, in neutral countries, twisting the pressure on Putin in public opinion while questioning the likelihood of security for such talks.

• Russian Domestic Situation:

  • Recent intelligence, battlefield losses, and economic troubles—Zelensky spotlights these in his letter, aiming to rattle Russian confidence.
  • Quote (42:09):
    "If Putin actually read this, you would think he'd have to at least ponder... that doesn't sound good." — Jack

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2. Political Turmoil & Protest: Double Standards (04:19, 04:50, 05:44)

• Protesters Storming Churches in Minnesota:

  • Story: No charges for anti-ICE protesters who disrupted a church service in St. Paul.
  • The hosts sharply criticize officials and the cultural tendency to dismiss certain disruptions as "just protest," warning that precedent could allow mob actions across all religions and spaces.
  • Quote (05:44):
    "The fact that you can use comfortable white people as a pejorative, as it so often is, is disgusting." — Jack
  • Quote (06:40):
    "Do you only care about those you agree with?" — Reverend Jonathan Parnell (read by Jack)

• Media/Cultural Double Standards on Race & Violence (07:32):

  • Case: Henry Nowak in Britain:
    • White victim ignored in mainstream media compared to George Floyd; detailed narrative on police bias and two-tiered British justice, linking to the media silence and political correctness.
    • Quote (08:07):
      "There has never been any evidence that George Floyd's death, unfortunate as it was, and mostly, I believe, caused by his drug abuse, had anything to do with race... Henry Nowak, white young man, 18 years old, attacked and stabbed... cops get there... 'Mate, I don't think you have'... and let him sit there and bleed out." — Joe
  • Hosts voice strong skepticism of media’s handling and warn of resonance among far-right agitators.

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3. Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson in Russia (12:26)

• Owens in Russia:
  • The hosts are openly critical of Candace Owens attending pro-Russia conferences, calling her and Tucker Carlson "traitors" for appearing to praise Putin over the United States.
  • Quote (12:51):
    "Yeah, she and Tucker are traitors to the United States... we have free speech. But, you know, I also get to call them traitors." — Joe

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4. AI & The 'Global Pause' Debate (16:59 – 23:34)

• Dario Amodei & Anthropic:

  • Amodei (Anthropic CEO) calls for a global pause on AI development, citing risk of recursive self-improvement in AI.
  • The hosts analyze this as a mix of genuine concern and "regulatory capture"—a leader calling for a pause now that they're ahead.
    • Quote (18:33):
      "You want to pause when you're in the lead." — Jack
    • Quote (19:05):
      "Dario, what about China?" — Joe (Expressing skepticism any global pause would be respected)

• AI Safety, Marketing, and Internal Conflicts:

  • Some view the dramatic warnings as calculated marketing. Discussion of the cultural clash inside AI companies between safety-focused “philosopher kings” and growth-driven executives.
  • Quote (23:22):
    "Nuclear weapon anti-proliferation is child's play compared to software anti-proliferation." — Joe

• The Exponential Problem:

  • Explains the risk of fast, recursive improvement in AI, referencing Elon Musk's warnings and the unpredictability of future rapid changes in AI capabilities.
  • Quote (20:53):
    "The AI from Friday morning is not going to be the AI that is doing all kinds of things to the world by Monday afternoon..." — Jack

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5. Pop Culture & Sports: Status, Connection, Absurdity (24:14 – 27:44)

• NBA Finals Ticket Madness:

  • High-profile personalities, celebrity watchers, and Wall Street elites drive ticket prices to insane heights (over $100k for courtside, possibly seven figures for front-row seats).
  • Discussion on how access is “gamed” so celebrities get the front row rather than hedge fund managers for ratings and buzz.
  • Quote (25:13):
    "The nosebleeds were running $8,000 as of yesterday... The good seats? You're now competing against Wall Street titans and hedge fund guys for whom money is no object." — Joe
  • Quote (26:49):
    "These tickets are like Taylor Swift madness for finance bros." — Concierge agency founder (via Jack)

• Status Displays and FOMO:

  • The social status of being seen at high-stakes events and how billionaires and celebrities value visibility over money.

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6. GLP-1 Weight Loss Drugs: Societal Ripple Effects (29:29 – 35:17)

• Cultural Impact:

  • The rise of GLP-1 drugs (semaglutide, tirzepatide, Wegovy) is not only changing lives but roiling retail and apparel industries—record returns as people rapidly size down.
  • Quote (31:31):
    "So you get the 36, the 34 and the 32..." — Jack (on ordering suit sizes as you lose weight)
  • Brands now face increased costs and logistical problems as users return multiple sizes while slimming down.
  • Quote (32:05):
    "The share of apparel exchanges where shoppers have sized down has risen each of the last three calendar years, hitting a high of about 15% this year." — Joe

• Celebrity Example: Lizzo’s Weight Changes:

  • Commentary on Lizzo's dramatic transformation, public persona shift, and her firing of heavier backup dancers—a case study in the contradictions of body positivity and celebrity image.
  • Quote (29:47):
    "She looks kind of biggish on TV... She'd probably look very, very average in person. And she didn't look used to before, remember?" — Jack

• Future of Obesity in America:

  • Hosts speculate: A major reversal in national body size might be underway, analogous to the wild swings seen in group photographs across the decades.
  • Quote (34:05):
    "Then maybe the pictures from here on out, everybody will be thin again." — Jack
  • Real-world pain for companies: A 5-10% spike in returns can cut margins by $20 million for a billion-dollar company.

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7. Additional Memorable Moments & Recurring Themes

• Sarcasm & Tone:

  • The episode is laced with the hosts’ signature dry wit, directed at politicians, celebrities, and cultural fads.
  • "We'll take a zester to the Don Lemon angle." — Jack (04:47)

• Cynicism About Media & Elites:

  • Ongoing skepticism of mainstream media, celebrity “industry,” and political posturing.
  • Frequent lampooning of “woke” politics vs. genuine progressive ideals.

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Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• 05:44:
  "The fact that you can use comfortable white people as a pejorative, as it so often is, is disgusting." — Jack

• 07:32:
  "Oh my God. Yeah, yeah. Whatever the highest level is, [Don Lemon] is guilty of it." — Joe

• 12:51:
  "Yeah, she and Tucker are traitors to the United States... I also get to call them traitors." — Joe

• 18:33:
  "You want to pause when you're in the lead." — Jack

• 23:22:
  "Nuclear weapon anti-proliferation efforts are child's play compared to software anti-proliferation? Are you kidding me?" — Joe

• 25:13:
  "The nosebleeds were running $8,000 as of yesterday..." — Joe

• 31:31:
  "So you get the 36, the 34 and the 32." — Jack

• 34:05:
  "Then maybe the pictures from here on out, everybody will be thin again. Wow." — Jack

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Timestamps for Major Segments

• 02:57 – Ukraine, Zelensky’s attempt at peace with Putin
• 04:19 – Political hypocrisy about protests; church incident in Minnesota
• 07:32 – The Henry Nowak case and racial/media double standards
• 12:26 – Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson in Russia
• 16:59 – Dario Amodei’s “global AI pause” proposal, Anthropic, and AI risks
• 24:14 – NBA Finals ticket pricing, celebrity status games
• 29:29 – GLP-1 weight loss drugs changing retail, Lizzo’s transformation
• 35:21 – Zelensky’s taunting public letter to Putin and its effects
• 37:48 – Discussion concludes with further Ukraine-Russia analysis and economic statistics

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Conclusion

This episode delivers a whirlwind tour through global politics, protest culture, AI’s societal impact, and shifting sand in both pop culture and retail, all punctuated by Armstrong & Getty's trademark irreverence and sharp analysis. Whether lampooning the absurdities of celebrity culture or dissecting the perilous dynamics at play in Ukraine, the hosts keep the conversation zesty, skeptical, and unfiltered.

Transcript

[Announcer]

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[Jack Armstrong]

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[Joe Getty]

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[Jack Armstrong]

Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln radio studio at the George Washington Broadcast Center,

[Announcer]

Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty.

[Joe Getty]

Armstrong and Getty.

[Jack Armstrong]

And now here's Armstrong and Getty.

[Joe Getty]

Ready?

[Jack Armstrong]

President Zelensky of Ukraine including taunts in his request to meet with Vladimir Putin, hoping that, I guess, that that would get under his skin and make him want to meet face to face. But he wants a face to face meeting. We got more on the whole Ukraine, Russia, war a little bit later this hour.

[Joe Getty]

Plus, Hitler loving main lobsterman, I guess. He's not a lobsterman. He's an oysterman, Allegedly. He's a trust fund brat, rude to women, et cetera. Graham Platner is now done. This isn't an official announcement. An official announcement. I'm very drunk. But anyway, he's been ahead solidly of Susan Collins, the very moderate Republican woman who's the senator. And so Democrats, I mean, if he was Hitler's grandson and had vowed in his diaries to carry out the old man's work, they'd stick with him if he was gonna win. But there's a new poll out that shows Collins has pulled into a tie with him. And so if that tide truly is turned, they will abandon him like, you know, last week's leftovers.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, that argument Democrats have been making some Democrats about it. We've got to stop the tide of MAGA craziness and everything like that by eliminating Susan Collins, one of only seven senators in US History to vote to remove a president of their own party.

[Joe Getty]

Right, right. A moderate woman. Yes. Yes. That's how dedicated they are to women's rights anyway. They'd rather have a guy who's tough on women or mean to women or whatever. Anyway, enough of that. I wanted to move to this story. It's Mike Tobin. You remember the fracas in the church in Minneapolis that's starting to during the craziness, the immigration raids with Don Lemon. Don Lemon did feature. The bitter, bitter taste of. Don Lemon is lingering around this story. We'll get to that in a moment.

[Jack Armstrong]

We'll take a zester to the Don Lemon angle.

[Joe Getty]

I'd actually like to do that to Don Lemon, but here's Mike Tobin. The city of St. Paul, Minnesota, will not charge the anti ICE protesters who stormed a church last January. It happened at the peak of Operation Metro surge, the enhanced immigration enforcement in Minneapolis. Demonstrators learned that a pastor with the city's church was affiliated with ice. All these pretend Christians, all these comfortable white people who are living lavish, comfortable lives while children are dragged into Concentration camps. The protests hold exalting Sunday services, the safety and the peace and the joy that we were feeling in the church, in our worship of Jesus Christ. Going out and seeing people who are, like, spewing hatred towards us, it made me feel sad for them.

[Jack Armstrong]

The fact that you can use comfortable white people as a pejorative, as it so often is, is disgusting.

[Joe Getty]

Well, it's the voice of revolutionaries. Yeah. So I could make a legal argument that the charges that ought to be brought are federal civil rights charges, but the city not bringing any charges. Listen to the reasoning in this next chunk of the report. But the city attorney says protesters didn't break any property, and there's not enough evidence for a conviction. Irene Cowell writes, the right to peacefully protest is protected, as is the right to one's religious beliefs. Reverend Jonathan Parnell responding. According to the city attorney's logic, it is perfectly fine for agitators to invade a mosque, a cathedral, or a temple, shout in people's faces, terrorize their children, and shut down their religious gathering. Just call it a protest. And Parnell questioned Minnesota leadership.

[Jack Armstrong]

Do you only care about those you agree with?

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. Reverend Parnell, first of all, two excellent points there. The idea that we can, with impunity, get a mob together and interrupt a church service of whatever faith and frighten the people into leaving and make it impossible to conduct that service. And civic leaders just look out and say, well, yeah, they didn't break anything. That's disgusting.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. And obviously, you open the door to that, you could. You can always come up with something to protest. I don't like the new raising the price of stamps. So we're going to bust into the mosque and interrupt their praying.

[Joe Getty]

Right, Right. Don Lemon still does face federal charges for interfering with these people who exercise their free right of. Well, in short. Yeah. It's. As it's colloquially known.

[Jack Armstrong]

So that's not class one douchiness of the highest level.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, my God. Yeah, yeah. Whatever the highest level is, he's guilty of it. A completely different topic, although it's. There's a common thread that runs through it. We haven't really talked about the case of Henry Nowak in Britain. It's getting a lot of attention in the blogosphere and online and that sort of thing.

[Jack Armstrong]

Elon's huge on it.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. Elon Musk is huge on it. He tweeted the other day that the New York Times has had zero stories on Henry Nowak while they've had 6400 on George Floyd. Whoa, 6400.

[Jack Armstrong]

Different George Floyd stories.

[Joe Getty]

Correct, just. And both stories are about a death in police custody. And indeed, there is no evidence, there has never been any evidence that George Floyd's death, unfortunate as it was, and mostly, I believe, caused by his drug abuse, had anything to do with race whatsoever. There's never been any evidence of that. Henry Nowak, white young man, 18 years old, attacked and stabbed by a couple of Sikh youngsters, or young adults, actually. They're all over 21, two of them in Britain. And one of the guys took out a ceremonial knife and stabbed him right through the chest. The cops get there, the body cam footage is very hard to watch. Henry is saying, I've been stabbed. And the cop says, I don't think you have, mate. And Henry says, I can't breathe. I can't breathe. You remember that phrase. The New York Times probably wrote 3,800 articles about that phrase. Zero about Henry Nowak. And the cops said, yeah, you're fine, shut up. And immediately assumed, because the minority fellows had called the cops and said, hey, we just got attacked by a white guy. And so they showed up, they believed it. They didn't do any investigation of who was the victim and who was the perpetrator and just let this guy bleed out while handcuffed. They handcuffed him as he was saying, I've been stabbed. I can't breathe. I can't breathe.

[Jack Armstrong]

That's rough.

[Joe Getty]

And let him sit there and bleed out. Then immediately said, okay to the other guys. You got injuries. What, what did he do to you? What happened here?

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, not to mention that as a, as a cop, you're supposed to help the person, even if they were, even if they're horrible people, even if they, they instigated it or whatever. You're not supposed to let them die on the street.

[Joe Getty]

You might be a person of good conscience. And you're, you're thinking now as we speak, well, okay, so there is kind of an ethnic, racial component to this. But maybe it was just one bad, stupid cop, wasn't very good at assessing the situation. And it's incredibly unfortunate. But you have to understand, and I don't like, you know, playing the victim card unnecessarily as a conservative or a white person or whatever. I think it's pathetic. But you have to understand the atmosphere in Britain. There's already widespread, huge demonstrations going on against their two tiered policing system where. And most of this is, has to do with Muslims and Sikhs are not Muslims. I'm aware of that. But the most infamous case was A fellow said he was going to burn a Koran and started to and he was stabbed by an offended Muslim and the burning got a more stiff penalty than the stabbing. And there is a terrified woke, self hating, two tiered policing going on. Britain, you may recall the absolutely horrific. This should be one of the most famous stories in the world over the last 20 years where the British police, the authorities, state, local and federal or whatever they call them there covered up the Pakistani rape gangs who were grooming and raping young white girls because they really didn't want to anger the Muslim community or look like racists. And so they let young girls get victimized over and over and over again out of gosh, what used to be called political correctness I guess. Absolutely nightmarish. So that's the ground that the seed of the Henry Nowak killing was planted in. And the cops utter disregard for poor Mr. Nowak who is entirely a victim. The stabber just got sentenced to life in prison which could be as short as 21 years in British law. And all of the evidence now in the body cam footage is out. That's why this is so hot now again. But it's horrible and some right wingy folks who I don't like their methods or what they say are seizing on this to really whip people up. So if you hear the name Henry Nowak, that's what's going on with him.

[Jack Armstrong]

Speaking of right wing people, I want to hear what you know about Candace in Russia. Candace Owens is in Russia. I hadn't caught that. I don't follow her much.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, she's in Russia to kiss up to Putin and appear at a conference praising Russia and denigrating the United States. Russian security forces are going to be there. It's, it's something

[Jack Armstrong]

disgusting.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, she and Tucker are traitors to the United States. You get to because we have free speech. But you know, I also get to call them traitors.

[Jack Armstrong]

You would hope that. You can't become a gazillionaire being a traitor to your own country though. Yeah, you can these days apparently. Do want to talk about the whole war with Ukraine thing speaking of Russia, but also jobs numbers out. Kind of interesting. What does this mean? Lots of jobs, unemployment low. People have a horrible view of the economy though because of inflation. Anywho, lots of stuff on the ways to here.

[Joe Getty]

Armstrong and Getty.

[Jack Armstrong]

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[Jack Armstrong]

AT&T business Wireless connecting changes everything. Dario Modi is either going to save humankind from the ravages of AI or. Or he's a fraud, and I don't actually know which. He runs Anthropic, which is emerged recently as the top AI power in the world, surpassing Altman's chat GPT. He's the one, Amodi is the one that's most loudly calling for regulations and everything like that. Now, our friend Tim Sandifer would point out that whether you're a moving company or a drug maker or maybe an AI company, if you're the leader, you always are on regulations because it makes it very difficult for your competitors to catch up to you or surpass you or compete against you.

[Joe Getty]

The more complex and expensive, the better. That's right.

[Jack Armstrong]

On the other hand, I've watched a lot of interviews with the guy and he seems very, very sincere that he's worried that AI is going to destroy the world and hey, somebody ought to do something about this. Anyway, he's out again. Anthropic urges global pause in AI development flags self improvement risk. He says that AI models are nearing the capability to start improving on their own with human intervention. And what they do when they start programming themselves is anybody's guess unless we try to put some guidelines in place, which is an open question on its own whether that's even possible.

[Joe Getty]

So he's calling for a pause in AI development.

[Jack Armstrong]

You want to pause when you're in the lead. So that would be like you're the who. Who's currently the Detroit Tigers, I think is the best team in baseball. They say. I think we should pause the the Major League Baseball season and the crown a winner. Now. I just think it'd be good for the fans, it'd be good for the game.

[Joe Getty]

I too am torn between the more cynical view of Mr. Emoji and. And taking him at his word. I just want to ask, do I even have to say it out loud? Dario, what About China.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right?

[Joe Getty]

You can, he says, and it's written by several heavyweights in the industry, but yeah, go ahead.

[Jack Armstrong]

He wants a global pause, which would include.

[Joe Getty]

Shut up. Yeah, I want world peace, Dario. Seriously, I sincerely want world peace. What about China, North Korea, Russia?

[Jack Armstrong]

So your belief is you could not make China go along with a pause or.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, I believe that because it's so obvious. I could explain it to a dog, but apparently not. Dario Amodi. No offense, Dario, you're a fine fellow and very clever, but seriously, dude, we believe doers are not going to pause.

[Jack Armstrong]

We believe it would be good for the world to have the option to slow or temporarily pause Frontier AI. Well, we're currently in the lead. I slipped that part in AI development to enable societal structures and alignment research to keep up with the advance of the technology.

[Joe Getty]

Now that we're.

[Jack Armstrong]

Now that we're in first place.

[Joe Getty]

You added that again. I caught you.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

It proposes a global agreement. Seriously, are you children recursive?

[Jack Armstrong]

Self improvement is the fancy term that they use now for what they used to just refer to as AGI or asi. That's when that can start just improving itself on its own, and then that will. That. That improved thing will improve itself. And it could. What Elon always talks about, it could start just like exponentially start improving itself to where what you have by 8 o' clock tonight is significantly different than what you had this morning. I mean, it could just exponentially explode like that.

[Joe Getty]

And that which boggles the mind.

[Jack Armstrong]

It does. It does boggle the mind. And a lot of these guys think we're going to reach that day one of these days. And the AI from Friday morning is not going to be the AI that is doing all kinds of things to the world by Monday afternoon, which it does boggle the mind.

[Joe Getty]

And I don't want to be just knee jerk cynical because Dario and his crew have like, from the beginning of their company, Anthropic, they've been talking about AI safety in a way that they've been real leaders in that I just. Nobody ever answers the China question or in short, the evildoers question.

[Jack Armstrong]

Others have suggested to do the other side of it here. Others have suggested that Anthropic's warnings about the dangerous potential of its own tools could be considered a marketing ploy. Such skeptics point to Anthropic's decision to limit release of the powerful Mythos cybersecurity model capable of finding buzzing problems is a handy way to tout the capabilities of product. Our product is so Powerful. We can't release it to the public. It's that good.

[Joe Getty]

It reminds me of like those 50s horror movies and sci fi movies. Do not view this movie if you have a heart condition or are prone to palpitations. This movie is too terrifying.

[Jack Armstrong]

I thought this was pretty good. From this professor at Wharton School of Business where Trump got his degree.

[Joe Getty]

That's where I got my degree. Oh, wait, no I didn't. He said, I'm gonna pad my resume. Yes, I did, by God.

[Jack Armstrong]

He said Anthropic is full of true believers all the way around. AI labs are a mix of things, said the the expert. There is a trillion dollar company which is hard to wrap your head around on its own. There's a trillion dollar company with all the normal trillion dollar company stuff like marketing teams and lawyers. Then there's a core of researchers who are just building the next models. And then there's a set of people who are philosopher kings who are concerned about the future and what comes next. And they're all in conflict with each other at all times, which of course is true. Yeah, I'm sure you have people in the philosopher king crowd, which is who I'd be hanging out with, who are in there in these companies thinking this is just a disaster. It's just a matter of when.

[Joe Getty]

Nuclear weapon anti proliferation efforts are child's play compared to software Anti proliferation? Are you kidding me?

[Jack Armstrong]

Might even be impossible regardless of any efforts. Might be.

[Joe Getty]

Yikes.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yikes is what I get.

[Joe Getty]

My organs. Robot overlords, if you can use them. They're pretty worn out.

[Jack Armstrong]

Always the harvesting organs.

[Joe Getty]

It's always where you go.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yep.

[Joe Getty]

Armstrong and Getty gossip. They score. Seth Jarvis. Why it's the critics. And ignites the crowd.

[Jack Armstrong]

You like to quiet the critics.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, I love. Shut up.

[Jack Armstrong]

Critics.

[Joe Getty]

My beloved Carolina Hurricanes. Gosh, I've been a fan for how many years now? One equaling the the Stanley cup finals at one. Hey, Amazon. Two day prime. Two day prime. It's taking me five days to get my Carolina's Hurricanes T shirt and I want to jump on the bandwagon now. If you get it after lion bastards,

[Jack Armstrong]

they win or lo, that'll take all the fun out of it.

[Joe Getty]

I know, I know.

[Jack Armstrong]

Speaking of Sports, Game 2 of the NBA Finals tonight, Trump says he's going to go to one of the home games when the Knicks get to town because they start in San Antonio where they're playing tonight for Game 2. But that'll be quite the something. It'll be something if Trump goes to Madison Square Garden for one of the games.

[Joe Getty]

I was just going to say, speaking of the Kinecker backers, the Journal's got this story. It starts with this. This guy who is a celebrity watch consultant for Jay Z's Roc Nation.

[Jack Armstrong]

A celebrity watch consultant? Like watching celebrities or the wristwatch, I believe the wristwatches.

[Joe Getty]

Okay, yeah, yeah. So that's some gig. But he's got access to all sorts of people and sources in, in New York City. And he knows a couple of, like, high level ticket brokers and stuff. And he's a big, big, big Knicks fan. And he was looking into tickets and the nosebleeds were running $8,000 as of yesterday.

[Jack Armstrong]

The Giddens.

[Joe Getty]

To get in. Right. Exactly. Just to say you were in the building. You're squinting, you see tiny figures running around on the court. You're mostly watching the Jumbotron. That'll cost you $8,000. But the good seats. You're now competing against Wall Street Titans and hedge fund guys for whom money is no object.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right.

[Joe Getty]

Wall street, big law, real estate bigwigs, celebrities. And nobody knows how high these tickets are going to go. But, Jack, you brought us the news the other day. The, the on the floor seats might go for seven figures.

[Jack Armstrong]

You know, I had the worst seats you could have when the LA Lakers played the Sacramento Kings, Game 7 of the Western Conference finals many years ago. And it was after Game 6 was fixed. Never forget, it was a Game 7 with the Lakers and Shaq and Kobe and everything. Like, it was a big deal.

[Joe Getty]

And it was awesome.

[Jack Armstrong]

Even though they were the worst seats you could have in the arena, being there, the energy, it was. It was so freaking cool.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

So there's an advantage to being there.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, I would agree. I would agree. And it's a warm memory. And you tell the story for the rest of your life. What is that worth? I don't know. It's up to the individual. But I love this part. Getting close to the action at such live events confers status. We've been discussing this for. I mean, you're Tim Chalamet. You're sitting at the row behind Tracy Morgan's. Humiliating. I'd put a bag over my head. Anyway, this, this, this woman is the founder of a concierge agency, and she says these tickets are like Taylor Swift Madness for finance Bros.

[Jack Armstrong]

I'm sure. But there's gotta be. And nobody explains this. There's gotta be some sort of mechanism to get celebrities in the front rows. Otherwise, if it were just who's got the most money Wouldn't it be all hedge funds managers sitting in the front two rows?

[Joe Getty]

There wouldn't be a celebrity to be

[Jack Armstrong]

seen, as opposed to always Jon Stewart and Ben Stiller and Michael J. Fox and Timothee Chalamet and Tracy Morgan.

[Joe Getty]

All in that row, interestingly enough. And this is what really intrigued me. So this woman's concierge agency arranges travel and experiences for dozens of members, most of them in private equity. Okay. With net worth. Slow down. With net worths ranging from tens of millions of dollars to billions of dollars. And it's the lower end of that spectrum that tends to shell out more because she says they have the most to prove they care about if they are seen. You got billions of dollars, you don't care about anything.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right. Some of the guys with more money are thinking, you know, if I really cared, I'd. I'd buy both teams and have them play in my backyard.

[Joe Getty]

But her, her team has already booked Nick's tickets. As expensive as $176,000 each so far.

[Jack Armstrong]

But there's some gaming of the system, which is fine. I'm not mad about it. But I don't know why they don't admit that. Look, we'd have a bunch of hedge fund managers. That's not good for ratings. People want to see Chalamet and a Kardashian. That's what gets people excited.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, fair enough. All right. Another consumer story about GLP1s and why they're overwhelming retailers. It's probably not with what you think afterward from our friends at Incogni. They point out every spam call, every scam text, every sketch email with your name starts the same way. Somebody found you on one of these data broker sites. All of your information is sitting on these sites right now. Until Incog tells him, get rid of it.

[Jack Armstrong]

Whole bunch of people got your phone number, your address, your email, your age, the names of your kids, all that sort of stuff, searchable and for sale. But Incog goes to these companies with the law on their side and says,

[Joe Getty]

you got to get that stuff off there.

[Jack Armstrong]

And they keep going back and keep going back to get your information off of these data brokers. And you're going to see a lot less calls, emails, and texts that you don't want.

[Joe Getty]

Yep. And right now, you can get 60% off with an exclusive [e-mail] Armstrong. Go to incogni.com Armstrong and take back your privacy. I N C o G N I.com Armstrong it's super affordable too. Don't worry. About the price. Check it out. Incogni.com Armstrong so the GLP1s are causing all sorts of shakeups of.

[Jack Armstrong]

Funny you had mentioned that, Lizzo.

[Joe Getty]

Restaurants and grocery stores and all sorts of stuff.

[Jack Armstrong]

Lizzo's up on the Today show right now singing. First time I'd seen Lizzo since her big weight loss. She's like half the size she used to be. Yeah, she's not big old Lizzo. She just kind of like.

[Joe Getty]

She's like 220 now or what? Because she was big. She is.

[Jack Armstrong]

She looks kind of biggish on tv. She's. She'd probably look very, very average in person. And she didn't look used to before, remember?

[Joe Getty]

No, no, indeed. Her twerking haunts my dreams.

[Jack Armstrong]

That whole thing that controversy is. Is worth. I can understand why people are mad about that. So when you were giant, you were the whole. No, this is beautiful. And blah, blah, blah. Acceptance, Bad acceptance. Then why did you spend so much money? Surgeries, drugs, everything like that. To get thin. And now you like, fired all your super fat backup dancers so you got people that are closer to your size. Come on, look what's going on there.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, yeah. She could say, well, I wanted to save my life. But then what the hell were you doing preaching the other.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, right. That's the point. Is this, this. This whole. No, it's. It's fant. Fantastic to be £400. No, it's not. It's not good on any level for you at all. And you should try really hard not to be.

[Joe Getty]

Getting back to the GLP1 drugs and how they're shaking up food and restaurants. And now it's retailers, specifically apparel companies, are fighting a flood of returns. And they quote this one budget suit re retailer Flex Suits. They've seen a 50% increase in returns in the past year. And they say when a customer orders the same suit in two or three sizes, it's the red flag. And he will actually reach out, check the measurements, and ask the client, look, are you losing weight or on one of those GLP1 drugs? If you are, wait till you're done, then order a suit. Because what people are doing is ordering, you know, three of the things so they can wear the one for a while, then return it, then the other one for a while, then return it. Then finally, when they get skinny, get that one, return it. Hey, here's a hint. Don't return the other two. You're gonna need them.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, unless you stay on the drug. Right, right. Indeed.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

Which, you know, that's that's fine. Like I said the other day, people take blood pressure medicine for the rest of their lives. Why not the I don't want to be super obese drug for the rest of your life?

[Joe Getty]

We don't know the answer to that question, but so far it seems to be at least a possibility for a lot of people. So.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, so if there's like a 90 day return policy, or even if it was 60 day return policy, you're going to shed a lot of weight in 60 days on those drugs. So you get the 36, the 34 and the 32.

[Joe Getty]

And the share of apparel exchanges where shoppers have sized down has risen each of the last three calendar years, hitting a high of about 15% this year. So as these drugs get more and more commonplace, these retailers are, I mean, they could track it. They could practically tell you how many people are taking these drugs based on their returns toward the skinny end.

[Jack Armstrong]

So just when for the first time, really in the last couple of years, a lot of your retailers had started having like, what store was it? I was in the other day, all of their mannequins, half their mannequins were quite overweight with jeans on or sweatpants on or whatever to fit human beings. Because mannequins have always been the super fit, like skinny. Well, now they're going to have to get mannequins to reflect more people.

[Joe Getty]

I guess maybe you have to make them adjustable, inflatable or something like that. As the trends go up and down. Just as a quick example of how big a pain this is, if you've got a billion dollar company that typically sees around 20% of its items returned, a 5 to 10% increase in returns can slash gross margins by about $20 million.

[Jack Armstrong]

Wow.

[Joe Getty]

It's a huge problem.

[Jack Armstrong]

Unless there ends up being some sort of long term effect. That is horrific. We find out the era of people being giant might be over.

[Joe Getty]

It's possible. Yeah, yeah. It's a maintenance drug now. It's like blood pressure, you mentioned, or cholesterol or whatever. Yeah, this is something. At peak weight loss, those taking these medications can drop a clothing size every month. Whoa. Yeah, yeah. Jeans, bras and athleisure wear, often the first items replaced. Then come tops and dresses, as well as adjustments to rings, bracelets, and even shoes. Rings, fat feet. Yeah. Rings. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

So we'll have the, you know, now or there for a while. You look at pictures from back in the day and everybody's so thin. I mean, it's immediate. You look At a picture and you think, wow, everybody was thin back then. Then we got the. We're all big, period. And then maybe the pictures from here on out, everybody will be thin again. Wow.

[Joe Getty]

So the statistical bulge in the boa will be a bulge in. In us.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. From like the 80s to the 20s, we were all giant. Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

Cool.

[Joe Getty]

Wow. This gal shed hundreds of pounds. She looks pretty good.

[Jack Armstrong]

Lizzo is. I wouldn't have known that was her unless it said Lizzo underneath it.

[Joe Getty]

Her.

[Jack Armstrong]

She still ain't tiny. I feel like she was tinier a year ago when I first saw that. I wonder if. Did she lose a ton of weight on the GPL ones, then go off them?

[Joe Getty]

Girl's got big bones. What are you gonna do?

[Jack Armstrong]

That was something, though. And she fired her big backup singers.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

Her backup band is not near as big as they used to be. Hey, you hired me because I was giant. You said that was awesome. Now you're firing me.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

Get.

[Joe Getty]

Oof.

[Jack Armstrong]

Zelinsky and Putin meeting face to face. I want to get to that story. Among other things. Stay here.

[Joe Getty]

Armstrong and Getty. President Trump has worked to broker peace between Russia and Ukraine since day one of term two. And now Zelensky has written to Putin asking for a one on one with the Ukrainian and Russian leaders. Writing, we see that the United States is fully focused on the issue of Iran, and it would be wrong to simply wait until the war in Europe returns to the center of its attention.

[Jack Armstrong]

So Zelensky, this is the day after they have a drone strike outside of St. Petersburg, sending a cloud of black smoke across the very highway that Putin was going to use this weekend for some conference that he was having, which

[Joe Getty]

one Candace Owens is at, which is.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, really? Which is not a coincidence, obviously. So the day after that drone strike outside of St. Petersburg, Zelensky posts an open letter to Putin asking that they should get together and have a talk about peace terms. The taunting letter went after all kinds of different things. After 26 years in power, age is beginning to take its toll. Zelensky wrote about. Wow.

[Joe Getty]

Love it so far.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. So the letter was posted on the Ukrainian president's website, taunted the Russian leader over wartime setbacks, inflation, and Russia's dependence on China. And also made note of Putin's advancing age. As I said there, I'll read a little more about that in a little bit. But nobody's sure if this will work or not or to what extent it was a good idea in terms of trying to bring about peace. Putin could be, you know, angry and want to engage with this. Or it could cause him to have more resolve. Like, even if he was getting shaky, think f that guy. You know, who knows? It's always a risk when you do these sorts of things. But Zelensky said he would meet for direct talks outside the Trump administration's negotiation negotiating process, suggesting including European nations have the meeting in Switzerland, Turkey or an Arab state. I can't imagine any location or any situation where they would both be safe.

[Joe Getty]

We've talked about, like, when our president gets together with Xi Jinping and the incredible security protocols and interactions and agreements and that sort of thing. And we're at least frenemies. I mean, we're not open at war currently adversaries. I can't imagine imagine what that would look like.

[Jack Armstrong]

Woven into the offer for peace talks were needling remarks about a strongman leader unable to defend his own capital, Moscow or St. Petersburg. That one particular passage was. After 26 years in power, age is beginning to take its toll. Where does it go on after that? Pointing to the Russian leader's age to cast out blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. There's more to that, but I can't find it.

[Joe Getty]

It. I'm sorry, did you just yada, yada, yada peace talks?

[Jack Armstrong]

I think I did. Now we can all see that Russians are finally becoming less comfortable with this reality after hitting some of the inflation numbers and that sort of stuff, and how they had to scale down their victory day parade because of possible attacks. We have heard that you were promised in Alaska when they had that meeting in Alaska when Putting Putin and Trump met and they rolled out the red carpet and nothing came of that. We've heard that you were promised in Alaska the resolution of certain issues concerning Ukraine and Europe. President Linsky said. You can see for yourself that Ukrainian European issues are not going to be decided in Anchorage. Zelensky wrote. In other words, you've got to deal with me if you want to get any resolution to this. Um, we'll see if this works. The letter and the provocative drone strike might bowie spirits inside Ukraine. The New York Post or the New York Times writes it might also send to an audience of one Mr. Trump a message about Mr. Putin's declining fortunes, since Trump seems to like to back the winner in these things. Or it might help stoke domestic discord inside of Russia. Nobody has any idea.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, I was just trying to find the story. I know the Senate, the Republican Senate just voted to give a bunch of money and loans to Ukraine in spite of the president. President's Current stance, it's got to go through the House. But they're asserting themselves on that topic, defying the President more regularly and openly, which is interesting.

[Jack Armstrong]

So Ian Bremmer's been writing a lot about how Putin, for a variety of reasons of age and paranoia and who knows what his health situation is, has got fewer and fewer advisors. He's more isolated, all that sort of stuff. So. So what his view on things are, or how far he's willing to go to not look like he made the biggest, one of the biggest blunders in world history, who knows? He is a caged beast.

[Joe Getty]

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian forces have begun using near real time satellite imagery from this Colorado based company to improve the speed and precision of their drone attacks. They, they've cut down the amount of time it takes to locate and strike Russian assets by 90%. So they can see a building, get a satellite shot of it, say, hey, there's a bunch of armored vehicles out there. That's the kind the Russian officers use. Let's hit it now. And they hit it. They're doing terrible damage. So things are not swinging in Russia's direction, not at all. Which, you know, brings us to the discussion that's gotten hot recently. Does Putin lash out at Europe in an effort to make it look like Russia's being attacked by the west so he could, could mobilize even more young men and get more sacrifices out of the Russian people? Nobody's quite sure what he's going to do. To your point that he's increasingly isolated and paranoid.

[Jack Armstrong]

Wow. Like, I'm reading part of this letter that Zelensky sent or posted so anybody could read it, but it's to Putin. Yesterday I received a report on the losses of your army on the front in Ukraine during May. Once again, that number exceeded 30,000 Russian soldiers killed and seriously wounded. We have been maintaining that level month after month, and we have video confirmation of every one of your losses. These are not empty claims. We know that 63% of your battlefield losses are killed, while only 37% are wounded. In the 21st century, no army can afford such a ratio. And the share of those killed will only continue to grow.

[Joe Getty]

Wow.

[Jack Armstrong]

If Putin actually read this, you would think he'd have to at least ponder. You know, that's probably true. That doesn't sound good.

[Joe Getty]

I've heard that his strategy might be a nuclear standoff. Not a nuclear attack, but a serious threat of using nukes and then, you know, try to make hay during the resulting standoff. I don't know.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, he lays out all sorts of economic stats, inflation stats, deaths of soldier stats, ground gained recently, stat how far their drones have reached into Russia. He makes a pretty good argument.

[Joe Getty]

If only we did another hour. I would love to hear those. Oh, that's right, we do. And you can grab it via podcast. Armstrong and Getty on demand. Armstrong and Gettysburg.