The A&G Replay Wednesday Hour Four

Summary

Armstrong & Getty On Demand – "The A&G Replay Wednesday Hour Four"

Date: December 24, 2025 | Host: iHeartPodcasts

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Episode Overview

This replay episode features Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty engaging in wide-ranging, sharp-witted discussion on key cultural, scientific, and economic issues. The main themes include a skeptical look at climate change narratives, the effects of comfort on societies (inspired by the "Universe 25" mouse experiment), the erosion of civil discourse, the challenges facing US fiscal sustainability, and how language is manipulated in media and politics. The hosts critique alarmist rhetoric, dissect mainstream coverage, and ponder the implications of current trends for society and governance—all in their signature irreverent, incisive style.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Climate Change Narrative and Scientific Retractions

[03:43–14:43]

• Opening Critique:
  Jack and Joe begin with a story about media misrepresentation (Jake Tapper's misidentification of a suspect), segueing into skepticism about climate change reporting.
• Nature Journal Retraction:
  Jack details a prominent climate study’s recent retraction by Nature, which had previously claimed climate change would reduce global economic output by 62% by century’s end—later found, due to data errors, to be closer to 23% or even less.
• Media & Political Incentives:
  The hosts argue that climate change predictions often rely on "crappy science" and are hyped for maximum alarm to drive political and financial agendas.
• Quote:

  "These grim predictions are almost always based on crappy science. And while we hear a great deal about the cost of climate change, we hear far less about the cost of climate hysteria." – Jack Armstrong [05:53]

• Science Under Pressure:
  Discussion includes how scientific journals are now emphasizing "citation diversity," sometimes at the expense of rigor (ex: Nature encouraging authors to cite researchers based on race/gender).
• Quote:

  "I noticed there are no trans scientists cited in this study. Can you go back please and work on it some more?... This is the journal Nature, which is utterly a joke at this point." – Jack Armstrong [10:55]

• Political Religion:
  Climate change activism is compared to religious belief, suggesting for some it's become an unshakable identity.

2. Media, Misinformation, and the Scope of Funding

[10:55–14:58]

• Media’s Framing:
  The NYT and other major outlets are critiqued for blaming the drop in climate concern on “misinformation” campaigns, ignoring flawed science and economic failures.
• Funding Contrast:
  The relatively tiny budgets of climate-skeptic think tanks ($14M) vs. vast environmental group spending (Sierra Club: $173M, NRDC: $220M, Earthjustice: $152M) are highlighted.
• Quote:

  "The so called disinformation groups are Lilliputians compared to the herd of elephants which is the anti climate change spend trillions of dollars lobbying groups." – Jack Armstrong [14:23]

3. The Future of the Climate Movement

[14:43–16:53]

• Host Predictions:
  Jack predicts the focus will move from panic and "trillions spent" to pragmatic technological innovations and climate mitigation strategies, with developing countries rejecting economic "kneecapping."
• Identity Politics:
  Joe and Jack discuss how political beliefs on climate (and more broadly) have become core to personal identity, making persuasion nearly impossible.
• Quote:

  "People's politics is their identity now... To convince them that their politics are wrong is incredibly dislocating." – Jack Armstrong [16:46]

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4. Universe 25: The Mouse Utopia Parable

[20:12–22:53]

• Summary:
  Joe recounts the "Universe 25" experiment: mice in a resource-rich utopia spiral into social dysfunction and extinction, despite no material shortage.
• Application to Modern Societies:
  The hosts draw parallels to "first world" societies growing restless and less fertile as existential struggle disappears.
• Quote:

  "I've known a handful of people who were completely taken care of. Trust fund kids... The vast majority of those stories do not have joyful endings." – Jack Armstrong [22:08]

• Takeaway:
  They posit that striving and adversity are vital to healthy societies and individuals.

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5. Media Consumption, Civility, and Rage Bait

[26:28–27:56]

• News Fatigue:
  The hosts note declining news viewership, linking it to growing incivility and the prevalence of rage-driven content ("rage bait").
• Quote:

  "People are consuming less news right now because they can't handle it. What matters at this point is that we're losing the ability to talk to each other." – Joe Getty [26:54]

• Social Media Dynamics:
  Frank Luntz is cited on how news has become "unimportant rage bait," much of it designed for monetization rather than societal benefit.
• Self-Reflection:
  Jokingly, the hosts reject the “rage-bait” approach for their own show, saying it's “bad for your soul.”

---

6. The US Fiscal Trilemma & Looming Social Security Crisis

[28:29–34:05]

• Explanation of the Trilemma:
  Armstrong describes the pressures of managing the economy, bond market, and meeting voter demands—a balancing act becoming ever more perilous.
• Social Security Warning:
  The impending insolvency of Social Security (projected for 2033) is described as the “reckoning” facing the next US president.
• Quote:

  "The most frightened person in the world ought to be the next President of the United States... they're going to have to make the utterly gut-wrenching decisions to save Social Security, or benefits are going to be cut across the board." – Jack Armstrong [32:20]

• Elon Musk Mention:
  Musk is cited as having “checked out” of attempts to fix the US, saying voters refuse to accept hard truths.

---

7. Language Manipulation: Inflation and Political Framing

[39:42–47:22]

• How ‘Inflation’ Was Redefined:
  Armstrong argues the word "inflation" has shifted from denoting the expansion of money supply/credit to merely rising prices, thus veiling root causes and political responsibility.
• Quote:

  "Every major economic illusion begins with the corruption of a word. Inflation once meant... the artificial expansion of money and credit... By redefining inflation, governments have obscured its nature and economists have lost its meaning." – Jack Armstrong [40:54]

• Consequences:
  The change obscures accountability and hinders the public’s ability to recognize or address underlying policy mistakes.
• Winners and Losers:
  Those who receive new money supply first (banks, state contractors) benefit, while ordinary savers are penalized.

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "Say what you want, Al [Gore], you got fat and rich on this stuff. And I admire your cleverness – you got in early on this scam." – Jack Armstrong [05:53]
• "We have complete inability to say no to ourselves personally or politically... We are really short-term thinkers." – Jack Armstrong & Joe Getty [48:06–48:12]
• "People just don't want to deal with reality. The majority of people can't be convinced. Look, this is unsustainable and we got to do things different... Nope." – Joe Getty & Jack Armstrong [34:05–34:15]

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Segment Timestamps for Key Topics

| Topic | Start Time | |------------------------------------------------------|:--------------:| | Climate change narrative & retraction | 03:43 | | Citation diversity in science journals | 10:09 | | Media, funding, and disinformation framing | 10:55 | | Future of climate movement & identity politics | 14:43 | | Universe 25 mouse utopia discussion | 20:12 | | Decline of civility and "rage bait" in news media | 26:28 | | Fiscal trilemma, Social Security, tough decisions | 28:29 | | Inflation: language & policy manipulation | 39:42 |

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Tone & Style

Armstrong & Getty approach these issues with a blend of sarcasm, exasperation, and humor, interweaving personal anecdotes, sharp analogies, and pointed media critiques—all supporting a skeptical, libertarian-leaning viewpoint. The language is colloquial, often tongue-in-cheek, and peppered with cultural references and inside jokes.

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This summary covers all core content in the replay episode, skipping ad breaks and non-content promotions.

Transcript

[Podcast Announcer]

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[Fitness Show Promoter]

Ten athletes will face the toughest job interview in fitness that will push past physical and mental breaking points. You are the fittest of the fit. Only one of you will leave here with an IFIT contract for $250,000.

[Jack Armstrong]

This is where mindset comes in.

[Fitness Show Promoter]

Someone will be eliminated.

[Jack Armstrong]

Pressure is coming down. Trailer games on Prime Video January 8th Watch the trailer on trainergames.com Season 2.

[Podcast Announcer]

Of Unrivaled Basketball is here and the talent is unreal. Paige Beckers, Nafiza Collier, Kelsey Plumb, Brianna Stewart and more are back to redefine the game. Unrivaled basketball Season 2, sponsored by Samsung Galaxy, tips off January 5 on TNT, TruTV and HBO Max.

[Public Investing Advertiser]

Support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On public you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year. You can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like EFTs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors, LLC SEC Registered Advisor Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures [e-mail] Disclosures A new year.

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[Jack Armstrong]

Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio, the George Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty. Armstrong and Getty. And now here. Here's Armstrong and get it.

[Joe Getty]

No, we're not working on Christmas Eve.

[Jack Armstrong]

We worked really hard to get it.

[Joe Getty]

In our contract that we wouldn't be working today. So you're not hearing us live.

[Jack Armstrong]

I'd hate to make both Jesus and Santa Claus angry. So, yes, we're taking the day off, but hope you're enjoying some really good A and G replays. Dig in. Merry Christmas. Ian Cole Jr. A 30 year old white man from the D.C. suburbs is charged with transporting an explosive device in interstate commerce and with malicious destruction. Why Jake Tapper said the bomber was a white man when he is clearly a black man. Nobody's quite sure. It was an odd moment. Did Jake ad lib that? Was it written for him? We don't know. And it has nothing to do with this segment's topic. But it's an opportunity to kick Jake Tapper in cnn. So having administered that kicking, I just, I didn't want too many segments to go by without getting back to that. A word about the climate scam. Is the climate changing? Yes, of course it is. The climate's always changing. Is it man made or man cost? Yeah, in part, probably so, yeah. Is it worth spending trillions and trillions of dollars on insufficient technologies that won't do any good and will decimate economies? Good Lor. Yeah, say what you want, Al, you got fat and rich on this stuff. And I, you know, I admire your cleverness you got in early on this camp, but some great coverage. I'm going to go from the free press to redstate.com to the free Beacon to the New York Times, God help us. Great piece in the Free Press. First, have you heard how by the end of the century climate change will cut the world's economic output by 2/3? Big giant paper in the journal Nature came out not long ago. Two thirds of the world's economic output will be eliminated. How Australia's Great Barrier Reef, one of the natural wonders of the world, is disappearing. How the island nations of the Pacific are sinking into the sea. If you've even glanced at reporting on climate change, you've heard all of these things and more. It's always a minute to midnight and we're looking at the barren desert of the world where humanity's last stragglers will scrape for seeds in the grid of the hot wind. That's some good writing. I like that. But these grim predictions are almost always based on crappy science. And while we hear a great deal about the cost of climate change, we hear far less about the cost of climate hysteria. Both the direct financial costs of all the programs meant to save us from it and the damage it flicks on the proper practice of science, which I thought was a great point, and I'd love to. I'd love to go deep on that, but, you know, you know, we got to move on. Always the never ending hurtling forward. So the leading science journal, Nature two days ago retracted a paper that had made enormous impact on the climate science world. It claimed that climate change will reduce global economic output by 62% by the end of the century. It was, as the Washington Post reported, the second most cited climate paper of the year and the one that helped define the debate. But when skeptical researchers took a look at the math, they found that the underlying data indicated not a 62% loss, but maybe a 23% loss. And by 2050, it wasn't going to be a 20% loss of economic activity. It was barely going to be 6%.

[Joe Getty]

Michael, can you play the door open? Hey, everybody, I'm back.

[Jack Armstrong]

Jack's back. Hey.

[Joe Getty]

I left a few minutes ago. My son is in the hospital and the hospital called. And I know what your experience has been, but mine has been if you don't take those calls when you get them, it is going to be really, really, really hard to talk to that doctor later.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, yeah, you could get the President on the line more quickly than you could get that doctor on the line.

[Joe Getty]

And I always like how they, if they do leave you a message. Yeah, so call me back. We missed you. Yeah, I'd like to. What number?

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, no, I wasn't, I wasn't implying that I would ever pick up or talk to you. You should just call me back.

[Joe Getty]

Anyway, so we're talking about climate change, if I remember correctly.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, yeah, right. And. And this writer makes a great point. I think that these numbers may have already made your eyes glaze over. And that's part of the point in climate science, you're not supposed to look too closely at the details for too many researchers, the goal the researchers, the goal is to produce the biggest numbers and galvanize action. And then when peers check their work closely, they often find howlers. In the Nature paper, a series of data errors linked to temperature in Uzbekistan appears to have tripled the projections. And then they go into the bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef and all this other stuff that's just not happening. And man, one of the best pieces of journalism I've read on this recently was the Wall Street Journal. On Tuesday, we talked about this, talking about the price of Europe's green energy overhaul and how they were told it would lower costs, save the environment and stimulate the economy. And costs have skyrocketed. It wrecked the economy and done s worth of good. Anyway, the good [e-mail] pointing out this, nature retracting that paper early 2000s, Tom.

[Joe Getty]

Friedman in the New York Times was really big on writing. So this early 2000s, you know, after Al Gore decided, well, I guess I'm not going to be president, I'll become a billionaire by getting involved in this whole climate thing. And Tom Friedman used to write column after column about the green energy economy and how much money there's going to be made and how that's the future of the world and everything like that.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, there was a lot of money.

[Joe Getty]

To be made and it was a future for a lot of people, but.

[Jack Armstrong]

It was a scam and it was taxpayer money primarily, and it didn't do any good. They actually mentioned Bill Gates softening his language in October at that COP 30 summit cut down on the doomsday rhetoric. But Nature said in a statement on their website explaining this retraction, the authors acknowledge that these changes are too substantial for correction leading to the retraction of the paper. Their predictions are still of the we're all going to die variety. However, even with the updated data, it's hard to take what they say at face value when they just screwed this one up so badly in one of the major scientific journals in the world. On the topic of the journal Nature, which was like so many institutions like the American Medical association, the American Academy of Pediatrics used to be respected, but now it's been captured by woke. There's a great story in the Free Beacon about this professor at the University of Southern California, Anna Krylov, who's an immigrant from Russia and a respected chemist who blew the whistle that Nature announced in October. This October, it was explicitly encouraging authors to include a citation diversity statement in their articles. The statement would affirm that they had made an effort to cite from a diverse group of researchers and acknowledged citation imbalances, balances based on race and gender. Wow.

[Joe Getty]

So the world is going to come to an end in your world because of climate change. But still the most important thing, before we can even take a look at those numbers is making sure you have the right ratio of male, female, different skin colors and sex orientations.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right.

[Joe Getty]

You still prioritize that. That's hilarious.

[Jack Armstrong]

I noticed there are no trans scientists cited in this study. Can you go back please and work on it some more? Yeah. This is the journal Nature, which is utterly a joke at this point and good for Anna Kryloff and blowing the whistle on it, but it's kind of a sidelight. So my final note on this is an absolutely head slapping long piece in the New York Times. Who wrote this tripe? Let's name names. Let's see. Lisa Friedman and Stephen Lee Myers. It is a long article entitled Many fighting Climate Change worry they are losing the information War. Shifting politics, intense lobbying and surging disinformation online have undermined international efforts to respond to the threat. And they go on paragraph after paragraph after paragraph explaining why the bloom is off. The climate change fighting rose. And they never nod their tip their cap at the notion that, well, as we've been explaining, the science is crap, the technologies that have been adopted have been incredibly expensive and ineffective. Mitigation is a much better answer. And taxpayers have realized they've gotten hosed. They never even recognize that in the giant New York Times article and as Andrew Follett points out in the National Review, blaming messaging difficulties and conservative misinformation for the movement's retreat is exactly backward. The New York Times recently told readers that declining worldwide interest in global warming is due to an alleged shadowy conspiracy by the oil, gas and coal industries, which continue to downplay the scientific consensus that the burning of fossil fuels is dangerously heating the planet. The gray lady then goes on to complain that Russia, Saudi Arabia, and of course Donald Trump promoted disinformation on social media platforms, quote, that have long been dismissed as conspiracy theories. And they blame the misinformation for the failure of a recent global warming summit in Brazil. Yet about the only thing the summit could agree on was hating climate deniers. And they put out a big statement about misinformation, denialism and how governments needed to attack that. In other words, all the world's environmentalist minded politicians could do was make a statement encouraging, removing, removing their political opposition from social media. And many of the environmentalists among American academics and politicians agreed with them. In terms of expenses. Oh, the irony is that environmentalists spend orders of magnitude more on what was caused disinformation and corruption than their opposition. The largest US anti climate alarmism think tanks are the libertarian Competitive Enterprise Institute, the CEI which spent $8.6 million last year total on all of their programs, 8.6 and the Heartland Institute which spent $3.7 million again on all of their causes, including anti climate change hysteria in contrast. So that's a total of about 14 million bucks. In contrast, environmental groups are spectacularly well funded. Last year the Sierra Club spent 173 million DOL alone, the National Resources Defense Council spent $220 million and Earthjustice spent $152 million funding which was almost exclusively dedicated to energy or environmental issues. So the so called disinformation groups are Lilliputians compared to the herd of elephants which is the anti climate change spend trillions of dollars lobbying groups.

[Joe Getty]

So where do you, where do you think this is? Do you think it's dying out? And like 10 years from now not a lot of people will be talking about the threat of climate change and trying to raise money for it and get people all worked up about it or.

[Jack Armstrong]

So in 10 years here's where we're going to be. It's the way I started the segment which is people are going to realize a lot of the harem scarum stuff is not true. A lot of the we have to spend trillions of dollars was to profit cronies. A lot of the measures that have been taken have decimated economies and not really done any good. And so they will, the concentration will be and should be, should always have been actual advanced technologies that can provide energy without carbon emissions, nuclear for instance, and future technologies that we can't even imagine. And mitigation, you know I'm always saying sell your park, buy some shorts. I'm only half kidding. Russia and India and Singapore, your third Indonesia, your gigantic third world countries that can barely feed their people are like, wait a minute, you want me to kneecap my economy? Which we've barely got going in the name of climate change. Screw that. We'll build a jetty or two to hold back the water. We got to feed our people. And that'll be the emphasis, mitigation. And you know what, honestly, 10, 15 years from now, who knows, we may discover something new about the, the climate that says oh, turns out the effect of this, it kind of double reverses. And now we're getting colder. Who knew? So, yeah, mitigation. Smart investments, always. I wish I was on the take from the oil companies. I could use the spending cash, but I'm not. This is just, it's, it's the truth as I see it, and I'm pretty confident it's the truth.

[Joe Getty]

Man. It's gonna be hard for some of the die to give up on it.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh yeah, because it's like a religion for them. And I don't mean they are.

[Joe Getty]

I don't even mean people profiting from it. People that just personally care so much about climate change.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, I heard a great discussion of that. Just more generally in terms of politics, that people's politics is their identity now.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

And. And to convince them that their politics are wrong is incredibly dislocating. It's like finding out you're adopted or, or something. It's. It's very difficult for people to do in a way that's probably not healthy. Armstrong and.

[LG Gram Advertiser]

Did you know Microsoft has officially ended Support for Windows 10 upgrade to Windows 11 with an LG Gram laptop? Voted PCMag's Reader's Choice top laptop brand for 2025. Thin and ultra lightweight, the LG Gram keeps you productive anywhere. And Windows 11 gives you access to free security updates and ongoing feature upgrades. Visit LGUSA.com iHeart for great seasonal savings on LG Gram laptops with Windows 11. PCMag reader's choice used with permission. All rights reserved.

[Fitness Show Promoter]

Ten athletes will face the toughest job interview in fitness that will push past physical and mental breaking points. You are the fittest of the fit. Only one of you will leave here with an IFIT contract worth $250,000.

[Jack Armstrong]

This is where mindset comes in.

[Fitness Show Promoter]

Someone will be eliminated.

[Jack Armstrong]

Pressure is coming down. Trainer games on Prime Video January 8th. Watch the trailer on trainergames.com Season 2.

[Podcast Announcer]

Of Unrivaled Basketball is here and the talent is unreal. Paige Beckers, Nafiza Collier, Kelsey Plumb, Brianna Stewart and more are back to redefine the game. Unrivaled basketball season two, sponsored by Samsung Galaxy, tips off January 5 on TNT, TruTV and HBO.

[Public Investing Advertiser]

Max support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On public, you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index, and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like EFTs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors, llc SEC Registered Advisor Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not investment recommendation or advice. Complete Disclosure disclosures [e-mail] Disclosures A new.

[Fitness Show Promoter]

Year is on the horizon and your 2026 savings start here. Right now. You can access the Washington post for just $2 every four weeks. Head into the new year with six months of savings at the special intro rate. After that, it'll cost $12 every four weeks. Cancel anytime. You'll get unlimited access to trusted journalism that helps you understand the year ahead and the world around you. Now's the perfect time to subscribe because great habits and great savings start together. Go to washingtonpost.com iheart that's washingtonpost.com iheart and start your year informed with the.

[Joe Getty]

Post have we ever talked about Universe 25 before? I feel like we probably have, but we've been doing this radio show for 30 years, so could have been a long time ago.

[Jack Armstrong]

Project 2025, right? From Heritage Universe 25.

[Joe Getty]

It's a famous mouse experiment from back in the day.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, right, yeah, go ahead.

[Joe Getty]

Between 1968 and 1972, he studied these mice. He created a mouse utopia experiment to see what would happen. I think you'll see parallels to today with these mice. The basic setup is the Utopia. Utopia included an enclosure with unlimited food, water, nesting materials and no predators. For these mice. He started with four breeding pairs and then let the population develop naturally again. Food, weather, food, water, protection. All your basic needs met and no predators.

[Jack Armstrong]

The population initially grew Wi Fi fast streaming.

[Joe Getty]

Exactly cool. Amazon prime yes, the population initially grew exponentially. But at around day 560, the growth began to slow dramatically. They stopped having little mice babies. At a certain point, despite having physical space and resources, the mice developed behavioral pathologies. Dominant males became extremely aggressive. Subordinate males withdrew completely. Some mice, mostly males, completely disengaged from social life, only eating, drinking and grooming themselves obsessively. Female mice abandoned their young and infant mortality skyrocketed.

[Jack Armstrong]

Wow.

[Joe Getty]

Young mice never learned social and mating behaviors from their parents, if you will. And by sick day 600, no new mice were being born and the population eventually went extinct. Now, as it says here in the summary, people are not mice and mice are not people.

[Jack Armstrong]

Fair point. Come on now. Yeah, I have known a handful of people who were completely taken care of. Trust fund kids, that sort of person. And the vast majority of those stories do not have joyful endings or descriptions.

[Joe Getty]

No, but this is what I've been saying about we stopped having babies. This is what I've been thinking of first world countries. We don't have any threats, we were not going to be invaded by another country, and we have our basic needs met. Even if you got people marching in the street because their house is not as big as their neighbor's house or whatever it is, our basic needs are being met and we're stopping getting together. We're starting to act weird.

[Jack Armstrong]

True. Yeah, well, and it's absolutely known scientifically that struggle raises your testosterone and victory raises it even more. We're meant to strive and fight, whether literal battles or metaphorical battles, and we're not meant to lay around and be comfortable as beings.

[LG Gram Advertiser]

Did you know Microsoft has officially ended Support for Windows 10? Upgrade to Windows 11 with an LG Gram laptop, voted PCMag's Reader's Choice top laptop brand for 2025. Thin and ultra lightweight, the LG Gram keeps you productive anywhere, and Windows 11 gives you access to free security updates and ongoing feature upgrades. Visit LGUSA.com iHeart for great seasonal savings on LG Gram laptops with Windows 11 PC Mag Reader's Choice used with permission. All rights reserved.

[Fitness Show Promoter]

Ten athletes will face the toughest job interview in fitness that will push past physical and mental breaking points. You are the fittest of the fit. Only one of you will leave here with an IFIT contract worth $250,000.

[Jack Armstrong]

This is where mindset comes in.

[Fitness Show Promoter]

Someone who will be eliminated.

[Jack Armstrong]

Pressure is coming down. Trainer Games on Prime Video January 8th. Watch the trailer on trainergames.com Season 2.

[Podcast Announcer]

Of Unrivaled Basketball is here, and the talent is unreal. The best women's players on the planet are running it back with even bigger moments and bigger stakes. Don't miss as Paige Becker, Snafeeza Collier, Kelsey Plumb, Brianna Stewart and more take the court and redefine the game. This isn't your regular season. This is unrivaled, where the pace is faster, the energy is higher, and every athlete shines unrivaled basketball season two, sponsored by Samsung Galaxy, tips off January 5 on TNT, TruTV and HBO.

[Public Investing Advertiser]

Max support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On Public, you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like EFTs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member finra SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors, llc SEC Registered Advisor Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures [e-mail] Disclosures A new year.

[Fitness Show Promoter]

Is on the horizon and your 2026 savings start here. Right now you can access the Washington post for just $2 every four weeks. Head into the new year with six months of savings at the special intro rate. After that, it'll cost $12 every four weeks. Cancel anytime. You'll get unlimited access to trusted journalism that helps you understand the year ahead and the world around you. Now's the perfect time to subscribe because great habits and great savings start together. Go to washingtonpost.com iheart that's washingtonpost.com iheart and start your year informed with the Post.

[Joe Getty]

Interesting.

[Jack Armstrong]

It's the Armstrong and Getty Show. Armstrong and Getty Show Conscience of the Nation. Armstrong and Getty. I'm watching the ratings. People are consuming less news right now because they can't handle it. But what matters at this point is.

[Joe Getty]

That we're losing the ability to talk to each other.

[Jack Armstrong]

We're losing civility. We're losing respect.

[Joe Getty]

Respect.

[Jack Armstrong]

And the public is looking this insane.

[Joe Getty]

To hell with all of it.

[Jack Armstrong]

I don't want to hear you yelling at each other.

[Joe Getty]

Interesting. That sounded like Frank Luntz.

[Jack Armstrong]

It was indeed Frank Luntz talking about why people don't watch the news as much as they used to. Although the youngsters are getting Their news, quote unquote on TikTok, which means they're getting Chinese propaganda and little else. Yeah, interesting. And that's something we both were contemplating during the time off and coming back. How much of the so called news is actually just unimportant rage baiting. A lot of intentional controversy making for the clicks and for the fundraising and.

[Joe Getty]

For a very small percentage of society who's paying attention to it.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, that's the thing. I mean, in talk radio, there are a lot of people who make a hell of a lot of money in the podcast world through doing that. There's a lot of money to be made. We just prefer not to. I think it's bad for your soul.

[Joe Getty]

More on that to come or not to make money. That's an interesting story.

[Jack Armstrong]

No, no, no, no. I think you've missed my point. So I read about the tri thing.

[Joe Getty]

For you to try melon. I just want to tell Michael because I know he's keeping track also. Yeah, we're now at six straight weeks of no soap in the men's bathroom in the main stall. Michael, I don't know if you're keeping track.

[Jack Armstrong]

I will bring soap. In six weeks, you got to scratch a hash mark in the wall like it's a prison.

[Joe Getty]

I really feel like the main. I'm talking the big stall where people do their main business, right?

[Jack Armstrong]

That's.

[Joe Getty]

You got to have soap there. There's been no soap for at least a month and a half.

[Jack Armstrong]

It seems like a long time. This is not dignified. I'm bringing soap in a bar of soap. Well, okay, so here's a question. I can tell you with absolute certainty there was no soap in there, like the last week of September. Was it refilled at any point between then and now?

[Joe Getty]

I don't think so. It's probably longer than I'm even saying.

[Jack Armstrong]

Okay, all right. So there you go. Months. Anyway, that awful. What does the building management do? Exactly. Let's just start there. What do you see as your jobs? Oh, boy. Oh, boy. So the trilemma. Here's what it is. And I got this from a story that was called Is America Headed for a Debt Crisis? Look abroad for answers. And they highlight the pathetic and floundering. British and French are valued allies since WWE two days. And they're talking about the obvious situation where they have mounting debt problems. But here's your trilemma. If you have too much debt, the bond market hates it. What do we care? You say to yourself, well, that's how the US Finances So much of its spending right now is we borrow money, we sell bonds. And because it's the most safe bet on the planet that the United States of America will pay its debts, it's an extremely popular investment. The problem is, as that great confidence in our debt service gets shakier, the yields rise, the rates rise, the amount of interest we must pay rises. So it matters from a budgetary and tax point of view, whether the bond market thinks, oh, it's perfectly safe, or whether they're starting to think, man, they're running up a lot of debt. And then the second leg of the trilemma is the budget itself. I mean, you can't just spend yourself into oblivion. So you have to be willing to make cuts at some point or raise taxes. The third leg of the trilemma is the voters. And again, they highlight the voters in Britain especially, well, France, too, who have said, essentially, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. We want enormous welfare services and low taxes, which is absolutely idiotically unsustainable.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, Elon spoke to that a little bit during the break. He was on some podcast talking about AI and robots and stuff, but he was asked about the whole DOGE thing and everything like that, and he said, basically, I'm out of the whole trying to fix the country game. He said, it can't be done, at least not in our current political climate. People just don't want to deal with reality. And he's 100% right. I can see how he waded into that and thought, wow, people are just going to pretend this isn't a problem or that you can get out of this situation without cutting programs. Right.

[Jack Armstrong]

And doing hard things, wishing or magic beans or something like that. And I'm sorry, I misstated the second leg of the trilemma. That is the economy. If you raise taxes to a confiscatory rate too high, you're going to crush economic growth. Ask California. The high tax is the most hostile environment to businesses. Year after year after year, businesses are fleeing. If it weren't for AI, Gavin Newsom would be in stocks getting pelted with rotten tomatoes right now anyway. So you've got the pressure of the bond market, the economy, and the voter. And the voter is, to a large degree, the key legal.

[Joe Getty]

Absolutely. The voter is the only part you can really hope to have any effect on the other two with.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right. We get bailed out. The United States gets bailed out, because people need dollars around the world to trade with. That is the great trade currency of the world. That's not Sustainable forever for a variety of reasons that I won't get into because it's long and it's boring and I only half understand it. But our, the dollar status as the must have global asset is declining. All right, here's why I said the most frightened person in the world ought to be the next President of the United States. According to the RIRI rejiggered numbers, the Social Security trust fund will be broke in 2033. You remember when that year seemed really, really distant? Well, the guy or gal who wins in 2028 is going to be in office, you know, barring some extraordinary turn of events until 20 or until 2032. And if the, trust me, if Social Security is going broke in 2033, that discussion is going to dominate that term. And so between Congress and that poor son of a gun or daughter of a gun who's going to be president, they are going to have to make the utterly gut wrenching decisions to save Social Security or benefits are going to be cut across the board. And man, you want to talk about a political bloodbath and a reckoning with reality. If we still have it in us, that's going to be it.

[Joe Getty]

That'll be fun to watch.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh boy.

[Joe Getty]

Elon is right. The current political climate, that's a problem that they got in France and Britain is. People just don't want to deal with reality. They, it's, it's amazing. I, I just, I can't believe.

[Jack Armstrong]

That.

[Joe Getty]

The majority of people can't be convinced. Look, this is unsustainable and we got to do things different. All right, who's on board? Let's roll up our sleeves and get.

[Jack Armstrong]

Nope.

[Joe Getty]

We're going to keep demanding a $70 worth of government for the price of a dollar, man.

[Jack Armstrong]

Okay, it's worth repeating. The founding pop is the last thing they wanted was a democracy. They wanted a democratic republic, obviously. And that's, you can use the term democracy, you know, accurately enough to describe that. But they knew a, A lot of common people are too dumb or unwise to understand that the person telling them no, we can have low taxes and high spending forever is a liar and a panderer and is just telling you that because they want to have power to figure out where all that money flows. And a lot of people just don't get that. They also understood that mobs tend to get in moods and then do really, really stupid stuff. But yeah, I think it's all going to come down in the next term, next presidential term.

[Joe Getty]

We got yet another word of the year from a different organization. Oxford University Press has named their word of the year for 2025. I don't know if it's the word.

[Jack Armstrong]

Of your Pretty good word, though.

[Joe Getty]

Rage bait.

[Jack Armstrong]

Rage bait's pretty good word.

[Joe Getty]

Kind of.

[Jack Armstrong]

That is a.

[Joe Getty]

Kind of fits with what we were just talking about.

[Jack Armstrong]

Perfect. Lead into the article I came across on vacation, I unwisely opened. I was intrigued. I was hooked by the clickbaity headline and it pissed me off. In the midst of the holiday cheer. I will explain in moments.

[Joe Getty]

And you believe it was rage bait?

[Jack Armstrong]

Partly. And also partly. Just a great distillation of what's wrong with social media in the Internet. It's the perfect example.

[Joe Getty]

So just to define rage bait, would it be like if you. If you got a headline that, you know, trans boy dominates girls track and field. They just know. Oh, you're gonna hate the reading about this.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, that's.

[Public Investing Advertiser]

Sure.

[Jack Armstrong]

That's an example. Yeah. Or anything. Including the word, the name Trump for years and years and years in lefty media. Trump's latest outrage.

[Joe Getty]

Right.

[Jack Armstrong]

That sort of thing.

[Joe Getty]

Wait till you see this. You thought it was bad before Armstrong and Getty.

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[Jack Armstrong]

This is where mindset comes in.

[Fitness Show Promoter]

Someone will be eliminated.

[Jack Armstrong]

Pressure is coming down. Trainer Games on Prime Video January 8th. Watch the trailer on trainergames.com Season 2.

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[Jack Armstrong]

What part of your body was the MRI looking at? I have no idea. That's not physically possible to have. No idea. It's not possible. What would you say to the doctor? No, no, no, don't tell me. I want to find out at my MRI reveal party. It's the lymph node, for God's sakes, man. Were you not curious at all when they laid you down in a tube for a half an hour and 45 minutes? You didn't want to know what they might be doing? Or did you just think to yourself, what a loud tanning bed?

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, well, that struck me the same way too, when Trump said, I have no idea what they did an MRI on. I just, I can't imagine not being curious and wanting to know myself.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, just, I mean, because you find medical science interesting.

[Joe Getty]

Well, I have personal interest in my own health. So you think I might have something wrong with me. You're going to do an mri on what?

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, I don't. I don't know. Had one emailer say that. No, since the budget is unlimited, they just did a whole body MRI or what? I don't know if that's a thing. Wouldn't that take hours and hours and hours? Because you got to take very specific shots of the various levels of you to get those layered images. I don't know what's going on. I never will. So I found this really, really interesting. It might. Might seem like a quibble to you, but it's not. I think it's fundamentally, really important. How many times have we talked about how the left perverts language? How they change the meanings of words or equivocate between two terms like sex and gender? First, they tell you, no, gender is different from sex. It's just the way you express yourself. And then your child needs to change his gender. Do you mean to get a sex change? No, we've already reckoned with that. As a society, we don't give sex changes to children. But now they've invented new terms to try to confuse issues. They do that all the time. And it pisses me off when even conservatives use terms like gender affirming care, for instance, which is obviously a term created to cloud issues. Found this super interesting. This guy from the Misei Institute. Ludwig. Is that just a Ludwig von Mises? Whatever. I'm not French, I'm an American. Yeah, it's me, Mises. The Mises Institute says every major economic illusion begins with the corruption of a word. Inflation once meant popularly people's perception of the word inflation. They understood what it still means. In truth, the artificial expansion of money and credit. Inflation means one thing, the artificial expansion of the money supply and or credit. But over time, it's been redefined to describe the consequences of inflation rather than its cause. Now, here's where you might think Joe Getty expert, wordsmith, is really slicing it thin. But that's not the case. That's exactly what I was thinking, and that's why I thought it was so interesting about this. The deliberate inversion of language serves a political purpose. It shifts blame from those who create money to those who merely spend it, transforming an act of monetary fraud into a mere statistical phenomenon. And I think even more important, their second point is, and they mentioned the result is profound because by redefining inflation, governments have obscured its nature and economists have lost its meaning. And citizens have come to accept their gradual impoverishment as an unavoidable fact of life. And also, this is the part that I really liked, Since we've used inflation now to describe a rise in prices is we don't have a word for an artificial inflation of the money supply anymore. If you say inflation, people think hot dogs are more expensive.

[Joe Getty]

I know I do.

[Jack Armstrong]

We don't have a word for what used to be inflation. People today use the term inflation to refer to the phenomenon that is the inevitable consequence of inflation. That's the tendency of all prices and wages to rise. The result of this deplorable confusion is that there is no term left to signify the cause of this rise in prices and wages. There's no longer any word available to signify the phenomenon that has been up till now called inflation. It follows that nobody cares about inflation in the traditional sense of the term. As you cannot talk about something that has no name, you cannot fight it. Those who pretend to fight inflation are in fact only fighting what is the inevitable consequence of inflation. Rising prices. Prices. Their ventures are doomed to failure because they do not attack the root of the evil. That was an excellent point.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. So governments do things that will cause. In what we call inflation. Nobody discusses that. When the inflation occurs, what we call inflation occurs, then we have discussions about that.

[Jack Armstrong]

They do things. What things? What things are you talking about? I need to be introduced to this concept because we've changed the meaning of the word. And they go on. In case you're thinking, well, prices go up a little bit. They, you know, it's fine. I'm used to it for every expansion.

[Joe Getty]

I like your sanguine tone. That's really good.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, it's. It's my. I'm not really involved. I don't know much about this. Yeah, yeah. Let's see. For every expansion in the money supply, it constitutes a form of legalized counterfeiting that robs all holders of money, redistributing wealth from savers and producers. Hello. To those nearest the new money's points of entry. Prices adjust, and evenly. Because new money does not enter all pockets at once. It flows first to borrowers, banks, and state contractors before dispersing through the broader economy. Or I would argue, it flows into the pockets of those who politicians wish to bribe to get their votes.

[Joe Getty]

This is true. You know, I hadn't thought about. If you. If you actually start thinking about your net worth and how it's changed over the inflation years, starting in like 2020. It's depressing. It's depressing. But so you know your, your chunk of money that you've been hanging on to is worth. God, what is it worth? 10, 15% less than it was not very long ago. But people who are getting money, they've adjusted those amounts for inflation.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right, right.

[Joe Getty]

They haven't adjusted my savings for inflation.

[Jack Armstrong]

So, you know, you go back to the absolutely obscene un American impeachable treason trial with hangings Quality Inflation Reduction Act. Remember that one? That was inflation.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

It vastly inflated the money supply. They borrowed vast amounts of money and pumped them into the economy. That was inflation. It didn't cause inflation. You know, I'll be frustrated the rest of my life because everybody else in the world folks will continue to use the convention or the current meaning of.

[Joe Getty]

The term and you'll die an early death with your first.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, right, exactly. Because of my anger. But they mentioned the Austrian School of Economics and the understanding new money changes prices which beget other changes from injection points. Inflation benefits those who receive new money first and penalizes those normal people who receive it last.

[Joe Getty]

You know what I was talking about earlier. I'll be interested to see how this whole spending season shakes out. If we end up actually spending more than last year through the holidays while being behind on car payment, student loans, being the scaredest we've ever. Most scared we've ever been around healthcare costs. What does that mean about our society?

[Jack Armstrong]

We have complete inability to say no to ourselves personally or politically.

[Joe Getty]

We are really short term thinkers.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. Doomed Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty. The Armstrong and Getty Show.

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[Fitness Show Promoter]

Ten athletes will face the toughest job interview in fitness that will push past physical and and mental breaking points. You are the fittest of the fit. Only one of you will leave here with an IFIT contract worth $250,000.

[Jack Armstrong]

This is where mindset comes in.

[Fitness Show Promoter]

Someone will be eliminated.

[Jack Armstrong]

Pressure is coming down. Trainer games on Prime Video January 8th. Watch the trailer on trainergames.com Season 2.

[Podcast Announcer]

Of Unrivaled Basketball is here and the talent is unreal. Paige Beckers, Nafiza Collier, Kelsey Plumb, Brianna Stewart and more are back. Back to redefine the game. Unrivaled basketball Season 2, sponsored by Samsung Galaxy, tips off January 5 on TNT, TruTV and HBO Max support for the.

[Public Investing Advertiser]

Show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On Public, you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year. Literally. Type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like EFTs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member finra S SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors, llc. SEC Registered Advisor Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures [e-mail] Disclosures A new year.

[Fitness Show Promoter]

Is on the horizon and your 2026 savings start here. Right now you can access the Washington post for just $2 every four weeks. Head into the new year with six months of savings at the special intro range. After that, it'll cost $12 every four weeks. Cancel anytime. You'll get unlimited access to trusted journalism that helps you understand the year ahead and the world around you. Now's the perfect time to subscribe because great habits and great savings start together. Go to washingtonpost.com iheart that's washingtonpost.com iheart and start your year informed with the Post.

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This is an iHeart podcast, Guaranteed Human.