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Podcast Host
This is an iHeart podcast.
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Guaranteed Human 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.
Jack Armstrong
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.
Joe Getty
This is where mindset comes in.
Jack Armstrong
Someone will be eliminated.
Joe Getty
Pressure is coming down.
Co-host/Commentator
Trailer games on Prime Video January 8th. Watch the trailer on trainergames.com Season 2.
Podcast Host
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, Briana 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 2, sponsored by Samsung Galaxy, tips off January 5 on TNT, TruTV and HBO Max.
Sponsor Representative
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 again 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 information purposes only and is not investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures available@public.com Disclosures A new 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 Post.
Joe Getty
No, we're not working on Christmas Eve. We worked really hard to get it in our contract that we wouldn't be working today. So you're not hearing us alive.
Co-host/Commentator
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.
Joe Getty
Not dying, just a little heat joke. Coming up on the 12 mile mark.
Co-host/Commentator
Most T shirts worn for half marathon.
Joe Getty
Previous record 127.
Co-host/Commentator
I've got 137 T shirts on. My back is so sore, my hands are so swollen. 13 miles.
Joe Getty
We're gonna make it. Come on. What the hell was that?
Co-host/Commentator
It's a guy running a marathon wearing 137t shirts. The I guess the previous record was 131, so he added six more and ran a marathon. In said again, it's worth.
Joe Getty
Yeah.
Co-host/Commentator
Or half marathon.
Joe Getty
Yeah, yeah.
Co-host/Commentator
He's a content creator. And his content is he does weird, freaky, kind of funny things that are also painful and strenuous. Okay, well.
Joe Getty
You know, there's two ends of the equation for the whole content creator thing. There have to be people that watch and or listen to this stuff to make it worthwhile. And apparently there are, given the fact that you know what the average kid spends 7 hours on? Tick Tock or whatever it is, you know, that makes it worthwhile. Because then the advertisers get enough eyeballs to pay money to the content creator. The vicious cycle and stupid ass like so. So people scrolling through their phones all day long taking in this crap leads to more of this crap and it's just, it'll never end.
Co-host/Commentator
In a related story, a smartphone before age 12 could carry health risks, according to a study. Researchers found higher rates of depression, poor sleep and obesity among tweens who had early access to Cell phones.
Joe Getty
I think cell phones are horrible and the younger the kid, the worse. But smartphones. But I would like to know what other factors go with that. You know, it's a. Parents who give their kids a smartphone at age 10 probably do other things in addition to giving their kid a smartphone that aren't next necessarily in line with good parenting.
Co-host/Commentator
In my mind, I think that is entirely possible. Tough to tease that out of the study, but an excellent point. The younger that children under 12 were when they got their first smartphones, the study found, the greater their risk of obesity and poor sleep. The researchers also focused on a subset of children who had not received a phone by age 12 and found that a year later, those who acquired one had more harmful mental health symptoms and worse sleep than those who hadn't.
Joe Getty
For instance. Yes, for instance, what I was just saying, the parent that gives their 10 year old a smartphone probably doesn't give a crap what they eat. So the obesity thing doesn't surprise me. The parent that gives their 10 year old a smartphone probably doesn't supervise it at all. So the fact that they are spending more time on social media, which makes you depressed, doesn't surprise me.
Co-host/Commentator
You mentioned earlier the intense pressure from the kid to get a smartphone, partly because that's how tweens and teens stay in touch. And if they want to be part of the group, which every adolescent desperately wants, it's tough if you don't have a smartphone counterbalance. And this is the lead author of the study and a child and adolescent psychiatrist at Children's Hospital Fiddle, Philadelphia. Quote. When you give your kid a phone, you need to think of it as something that is significant for the kid's health and behave accordingly.
Joe Getty
Here's the upside of how much they want the phone, though. It's the greatest. I'm going to take this away from you if you don't get your grades up or whatever, ever. I mean, there's never been a parenting stick as opposed to a carrot, as great as taking away your phone for a week. Because I've done it.
Co-host/Commentator
I'm just taking away a carrot, a stick.
Joe Getty
I don't know. That's a good one. But man, you, you have a kid or an adult, anybody who is addicted to their smartphone and it's so much of your life. And you know, you don't get that until you get your grades up or you start taking the trash out or whatever. It is your thing. It is powerful.
Co-host/Commentator
Powerful.
Joe Getty
What.
Co-host/Commentator
What percentage parents actually have the spine to. To carry out that sanction? Hansen does that.
Joe Getty
Yeah, I do that. And several, several of my son's friends do that also.
Co-host/Commentator
Yeah, I don't know if the answer is 10 or 90. I truly don't either. Interesting. But it's even worse than it makes.
Joe Getty
It difficult, though, for the parent. I must say, when my kid didn't have his cell phone for a couple of weeks, it changed everything in terms of, like, trying to get a hold of him.
Co-host/Commentator
So putting a. Putting aside depression, poor sleep, and obesity, which is a hell of a phrase.
Joe Getty
No kidding.
Co-host/Commentator
How about this? Here is a school teacher clip number 14, talking about her classroom experience.
Guest Speaker
I think that you guys don't know what's going on in education right now. That's fine. Like, how could you know unless you were working in it? But I think that. I think you need to know. So here is exactly what it's like right now, working in public education. First of all, the kids have no ability to be bored whatsoever. They live on their phones and they're just fed a constant stream of dopamine from the minute their eyes wake up in the morning until they go to sleep at night. Because they're in a constant state of dopamine withdrawal at school. They behave like addicts. They're super emotional. Like the smallest thing sets them off. And when you are standing in front of them trying to teach, they're vacant. They have no ability to tune in if your communication isn't packaged in short little clips or if it doesn't have, like bright flashing lights. That's actually the way. Harder part for me than just the outright behaviors is just being up at the front talking to a group of kids who have their eyes open. They're looking at me, but they're not there. They're not there. And they have a level of apathy that I've never seen before in my whole career. Punishments don't work because they don't care about them. They don't care about grades, they don't care about college. It's like you are interacting with them briefly in between hits of the Internet, which is their real life.
Co-host/Commentator
Wow. Ah.
Joe Getty
That last part. I've run into that not caring about stuff, and I just don't quite get it. How does that. How did that come out of using cell phones in the dopamine hit thing?
Co-host/Commentator
That's all you want.
Joe Getty
That's interesting because I've. I've run into that and I've talked to other parents who are having a bit of that problem too. Or say, like, they just don't care. Like, I cared When I was in school about my grades and they just don't care. And I'm like, yeah, why don't you care? I don't remember why I cared. I just did. That's interesting.
Co-host/Commentator
Well, that squares pretty comfortably with addiction in general, doesn't it?
Joe Getty
I guess. Yeah. No, no, I was just trying to picture when she was talking about the standing up there in front of the class and they're used to getting dopamine hits all day long. Remember, if you're older, remember how incredibly boring your 9th grade social studies teacher was. Now try to imagine it with your current brain that's used to getting, you know, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam all day long. Not your. I was 15 years old back in the time when, you know, my brain much was much slower. Sure, you were bored then. Imagine it now. Oh, my God.
Co-host/Commentator
Imagine you're a child who's never gone through that stage of development that we did.
Joe Getty
Yeah.
Co-host/Commentator
Worse than we can imagine it.
Joe Getty
Because I have a hard time reading long form myself. I have to, like, really discipline myself to make myself do it because it seems so boring for a while until I get back in the groove because I've ruined my brain. And my brain worked fairly well up until 2008 and I started staring at a smartphone. So. Yeah, if you've never had that, I don't know. We're gonna have to. We're gonna have to figure out a way they might have to craft lessons in school to where they're all videos and they come at you really, really fast with music and lights. That might be the only way to reach kids.
Co-host/Commentator
Yeah. Yeah. Interesting.
Joe Getty
I mean, because I really do think it's a. If you can't beat them, join them sort of situation. There's no point in. Well, you're going to sit here and you're going to listen to me drone on about the Stamp act, whether you like it or not. That ain't going to work. No.
Co-host/Commentator
Because they won't absorb any of it.
Joe Getty
No.
Co-host/Commentator
Yeah. You'll have lost the war. Yeah, I. I'd agree. I don't know exactly what to do of it. I keep hearing, seeing this metal picture of God, and I don't know what's your favorite talking to God cliche? Saint Peter. And God's saying, you know, the humans had their run time to clear the way for the. The ants or the beavers or whatever. St. Peter saying, how are you going to get rid of the humans? And God will say, don't worry about it. They'll do it themselves.
Joe Getty
God, sometimes school was so boring and that was with my pre smartphone brain. Sure, I can't imagine what it would be like for your average junior in high school now or college kid to have somebody up there droning on and on versus the competition. Is your phone Instagram or TikTok? Holy crap, that's a problem.
Jack Armstrong
Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty the Armstrong and Getty show.
Commercial Announcer
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.
Jack Armstrong
Ten athletes will face the toughest job interview in fitness that will push past physical and mental health breaking points. You are the fittest of the fit. Only one of you will leave here with an IFIT contract worth $250,000.
Joe Getty
This is where mindset comes in.
Jack Armstrong
Someone will be eliminated.
Sponsor Representative
Pressure is coming down.
Co-host/Commentator
Trainer Games on Prime Video January 8th Watch the trailer on trainergames.com Season 2.
Podcast Host
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 Beckers, Nafiza Collier, Kelsey Plumb, Briana 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 2, sponsored by Samsung Galaxy, tips off January 5 on TNT, TruTV and HBO.
Sponsor Representative
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 available@public.com Disclosures A new 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 Post.
Joe Getty
The long tradition of my brothers giving me crap for putting cream in my coffee continued while I was around everybody for the holiday. I asked my brother if he could pass the cream, and he said, do you need some high heels with that also? Or yes, that sort of thing.
Co-host/Commentator
Appropriate?
Joe Getty
Yes. Everybody looks down on me for putting.
Co-host/Commentator
Cream in my coffee.
Joe Getty
Oh, well, what are you going to do?
Co-host/Commentator
So there I was, in a lovely mood, surrounded by family over the holiday week. My all three of our kids, both of my siblings, my dad, my brother's family were all in town for Thanksgiving week, partly because, as I mentioned earlier, my dad's 85th birthday was Thanksgiving Day, and we celebrated lavishly and also played 18 holes of golf at age 85. My brother and my dad and I played. It was absolutely fantastic. Yeah, I mean, he's obviously not not the player that he used to be and all, and gets annoyed about it. Evidently, that continues till the end of your life. Golf is really annoying, but it was 85.
Joe Getty
You're like, how could I hit that shot?
Co-host/Commentator
Oh, my. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I'm like, dad, this is incredible. This is a blessing. He's like, I just keep shoving it to the right. What the hell's going on here?
Joe Getty
Am I lined up wrong? Who cares? That's hilarious.
Co-host/Commentator
Oh, I know. It's something, isn't it? So anyway. But there I was in just such a lovely frame of mind, ignoring the news, more or less, and I succumbed, I don't know why, to the temptation. I think it was Satan himself who said, take a look at the New York Post. Why don't you see what they're writing about? Why don't you see if there's something that you want to click on there, Boy. And so I opened the New York Post app. For some reason, there's this article, Aaron Andrews fires back at Sports Personalities After Holiday Comments backlash. And I violated a sacred rule. Any journalism about Internet arguments is not journalism. It's crap.
Joe Getty
I wish the president would give an Oval Office address about this. Any news story built around a couple of comments on social media, those people should be drummed out of journalism. Right?
Co-host/Commentator
But it was the spirit of it that pissed me off so much. So Erin Andrews, the longtime female sports reporter, sideline reporter, etcetera, Very good job. She was doing a podcast that I'm not familiar with. She was the guest, and they were talking to her about her career, and they asked her, and this isn't made clear at the beginning of our article, I think to draw you into the rage bait, they asked her for young girls or young women who are thinking about getting into your line of work, what are some of the things they don't know about it, some of the downsides? And one of the things she said was, well, you miss a lot of holidays, that you'd like to be home with your family, but you're on the road and you're doing your job okay. Simple as that. Well, you got this. Jenna Lane, who's a reporter covering the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for espn, weighs in, saying, saw Aaron Andrews remarks about the challenges in this business, blah, blah, blah, starting at a low wage and not having holidays. I appreciate what she's trying to say, but let's consider the folks working two to three jobs, jobs in retail, in warehouses, and in the service industry right now, just trying to make ends meet. They're not getting time with their families either.
Joe Getty
Oh, my God.
Co-host/Commentator
Your life would be a dream for them. I mean, let's keep this in perspective. Let's have some perspective. Oh, my God. And then you got hack loser Trey Wingo, former NFL host back in the 90s at ESPN. That's literally what they pay you for. You posted on X because you've got to be angry, including a headline about her remarks. Erin said it herself once, they pay you for the travel and sacrifices because doing the games is the fun part, blah, blah, blah. And these people just what bothers me the most about it is how obvious it is that they're just saying, look at me, look at me. I'm morally superior. To Aaron Andrews. What about the poor working people? I got a question for you half wits. If Erin Andrews was in a car wreck and broke her leg in two places and the pain was horrible, can she say the pain is horrible?
Joe Getty
No.
Co-host/Commentator
Or would you say, how about a little perspective, Aaron?
Joe Getty
Yeah, how about a single mom who has to work the night shift to Denny's. She knows what pain is.
Co-host/Commentator
If her leg broke in two places, she'd be having pain and she's got to go work at Denny.
Joe Getty
So let's have a little perspective. General or.
Co-host/Commentator
Or what's your.
Joe Getty
Aaron?
Co-host/Commentator
Oh my God, you people are pathetic.
Joe Getty
Oh boy.
Co-host/Commentator
God, your need to be morally superior to somebody is so bad you actually go with a criticism that bad. She's telling little girls, look, you're going to away a lot. You've got to travel, you're going to miss your family.
Joe Getty
Oh, how about a little perspective?
Co-host/Commentator
Oh God. And that just pissed me off. And I thought, what are you doing looking at the Internet, you idiot. Go deal with the people in your life who are actually there. Which reminded me of one of my, you know, my vows that I have to renew every now and again. I hate the expression touch grass because it's gotten such, it's such a cliche, but. But make your life your life. The people you actually see and talk to and deal with, interact with, do business with, play sports with. Not everybody online, that's not your life.
Joe Getty
I saw somebody write eloquently about this sort of news story where they grab two comments often not even, you know, well known people, like in your case, just random people, random commenters on social media and they build a story around it that needs to be outlawed. And I'm a free speech guy. It needs to be outlawed. Too many people fall for it. And sometimes I'll click on a story and then I'll get halfway through it and think, wait a second, is the only thing to this story is Jim and Omaha said something mean on Twitter about this thing? That's it.
Co-host/Commentator
That's the whole story that Ed in Miami had said.
Joe Getty
Right?
Sponsor Representative
Right.
Joe Getty
God, that's the worst journalism out there. We need to do better.
Co-host/Commentator
As a couple of colleges trolls weighed in and said sarcastic things.
Joe Getty
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The Internet did not like this person's version of the national anthem. And they'll pick two random quotes from people and build a story around it. We gotta stop doing that. It's the consumer that drives it though. You read it, they know how much time you spent on the article. They got the algorithm so two two.
Co-host/Commentator
Final points about this. Number one, I'm a little surprised that Erin Andrews dignified that jackass a couple of comments with responses, but she also took aim at NFL news aggregator Dove client Climate, who I've never heard of in my life, whose headline was Andrew's Under Heavy Fire for Her Holidays Remarks Under Heavy Fire.
Joe Getty
Remember Losers Online? Who cares?
Co-host/Commentator
Oh my Lord. Is there a way to break out of this?
Joe Getty
I don't know if there is.
Co-host/Commentator
I know I was just gonna say can you get a shot? I I need a shot where I see a headline like that and think that's stupid. Just pass it.
Jack Armstrong
Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty the Armstrong and Getty show.
Commercial Announcer
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.
Jack Armstrong
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.
Joe Getty
This is where mindset comes in.
Jack Armstrong
Someone will be eliminated.
Sponsor Representative
Pressure is coming down.
Co-host/Commentator
Trainer Games on Prime Video January 8th. Watch the trailer on trainergames.com Season 2.
Podcast Host
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, Briana 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 2, sponsored by Samsung Galaxy, tips off January 5 on TNT, TruTV and HBO.
Sponsor Representative
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 Sr. 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 available@public.com Disclosures A new 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 Post.
Joe Getty
You told me you had confidence in me, that I'd make the right choice.
Podcast Host
Yeah, I did.
Joe Getty
I have a ring. And this represents our commitment to love, to give us time to figure out together what our future holds. Wait a second. What do you think? I agree.
Co-host/Commentator
Definitely a match. That's for danger. I'm not for everybody.
Joe Getty
He's not for everybody.
Guest Speaker
But we're definitely for each other.
Joe Getty
Okay, that's from the Golden Bachelor last night. Man, that has some sappy S music that they played in the background. Michael, you said you have family members who were into the Golden Bachelor?
Co-host/Commentator
Yeah, my mom and my sister. They watch it.
Joe Getty
So it's like the Bachelor, except it's an old guy. Yeah. How old was he? 97?
Co-host/Commentator
No, I think it was 63. 63 years old. She's 66 and she's 63, I believe.
Joe Getty
Dude, how long have you pulled this act where you, like, tell a girl and I've bought you this ring to signify the fact that we're going to seriously consider being together and talk it over and see how things turn out? Whoa, wait a second. What kind of commitment is that?
Co-host/Commentator
Maybe the shows, those shows got tired of announcing the engagement of the winner and his Chosen one. And they always break up and become a running joke.
Joe Getty
What? Because they've known each other for two weeks on a television show. The concept is so crazy, but it continues. All right, who are the family members that like to watch it, Michael?
Co-host/Commentator
Oh, it's just my sister. Yeah, My mom and my sister.
Joe Getty
Yeah, your sister, Your mom. Okay. Well, I know chicks that dig it. Love, Love blooming. Everybody likes that, Right?
Co-host/Commentator
To each their own. I could see, you know, you'd meet somebody and really hit it off with them. That's entirely possible on a TV show. The idea that you're then going to get married is idiotic.
Joe Getty
Well, on a TV show, they've abandoned it because it's like just all the weird stuff that's going on.
Co-host/Commentator
In other news, this coming out of the shutdown. President Trump's approval on the economy in an AP poll is 33%. But the treasury secretary urges Americans worried about affordability to be patient.
Joe Getty
There is the inflation line. We've got that under control. It's leveled out. That is going to start turning down. Then there's the income line.
Co-host/Commentator
I would expect in the first quarter.
Joe Getty
Second quarter of next year, those two lines are going to cross and the American people are going to start feeling better. Are they? I actually heard a. What I thought was a pretty good story on NPR today about this. They're going with the angle that when inflation was bad, Joe Biden was telling Americans it wasn't. And you could say all day long the economy was great. Joe Biden was out there saying the economy's the best in the world. And you go to the grocery store and get gas and everything like that. And you would think, holy crap. Now you have almost exactly the same thing going on with Donald Trump going around saying the economy's the best in the world, the best it's ever been, man. It don't feel.
Co-host/Commentator
Look at the stock market.
Joe Getty
Yeah, but don't feel that way when you go to the grocery store or buy anything.
Co-host/Commentator
No, the White House messaging and Trump in particular have been terrible on this issue. I mean, like, almost suicidally bad. I don't get it.
Joe Getty
As we talked about yesterday, he ran on I'm going to lower prices, which is not really what he meant, but that's what he said. And people who don't know a lot about how inflation works thought the prices were actually going to go back to what prices used to be. But that's not the way inflation works.
Co-host/Commentator
Right.
Joe Getty
So, yeah. So even if you got inflation down to 2%, people still be a Lot of people would still be pretty unhappy because things are expensive. Like I've been saying since the inflation thing took, I don't know how long it takes before you get used to new prices, to where it no longer shocks you. But I'm not there yet. I'm not there yet.
Co-host/Commentator
I don't know about everybody else. Oh, no, no, not even close. You know, it's very much like the whole I'll solve the Ukraine, Russia thing in one day, which I realized it was her hyperbole. How about one month? How about one year? How about ever? And just making outlandish promises about the economy, then when they don't materialize, telling Americans, no, you're wrong, it's great. That's just, that's insane messaging.
Joe Getty
Yeah, yeah, I was.
Co-host/Commentator
I mean, you could have come into office and say, you know, the day of the inauguration, you could say, look, the economy's super screwed up because Biden was terrible at it. True, it's probably going to take a solid year to two years to straighten things out, but we're going to bring down that inflation level. We're going to see if we can even roll prices back a little bit. That's going to be tough because the way inflation works, but, by God, we're going to do everything we can to make your life more affordable. That would have been great and people would have had a little bit of patience. But between the bad messaging and the tariff thing, it's just. I'm not shocked his approval numbers are that low, 30%.
Joe Getty
That was his, like, bulletproof number that he was so good on all through the first term. And while he was running that in immigration, he has, as we've said many, many times, he's got the common man, the common touch, better than practically anybody who's ever run for president in the history of this country. But it is quite possible on this one that a guy that looks at the stock market to see how the economy is doing doesn't get that for everybody else who. That isn't their number one concern. Every single time you go to the grocery store, you're shocked. Every time you eat out, you're shocked at what it costs.
Co-host/Commentator
Shop for your kids, clothes, whatever. Oh, yeah, back to school.
Joe Getty
It's just amazing. And I don't know what you do about that. So that, that's, that's one angle. I, I find the psychology of all this interesting because at some point, we'll get used to the new prices and they will no longer shock us. And that will just be. We'll be back to regular life. Like, I don't know how long that takes. So that's kind of an emotional thing. And it's also kind of an emotional thing whether you're happy or not. It's got a lot to do with comparing yourself to other people. And if you perceive that other people have more than you, you're less happy. Whereas if you perceive that other people have the same as you, you're happy with the same stuff. It's just human nature.
Co-host/Commentator
And it's interesting Comparison is the thief of joy.
Joe Getty
Yeah. And everybody does it. Wait a second. Where's my watch?
Co-host/Commentator
I try very, very hard not to do it. Every time I catch myself doing it, I say dumb. Stop it.
Joe Getty
Comparing yourself to other people.
Co-host/Commentator
Yeah, yeah.
Joe Getty
I'm sorry to get sidetracked, but I don't have my watch on and I never take my watch off. Off. I must have taken it off in my sleep.
Co-host/Commentator
Was it when you strip searched Michelangelo? I know you do that before every show just to make sure he's not hiding any weapons, you know, prison style.
Joe Getty
I took my watch off to strip search Michelangelo.
Co-host/Commentator
Well, yeah. Do you know. Oh.
Joe Getty
Oh, God.
Co-host/Commentator
Took him a minute, folks.
Joe Getty
I got sidetracked. So then the other thing is because this affordability issue is going to be the issue that both parties are wrangling over, no doubt, for the next year leading up to the midterms. And I don't know if there is an answer from either side. The politically the answer is to seem like the party that cares the most about it in terms of actually doing anything about it. That's a whole different question. But you got to seem like the party that complicated that cares about it.
Co-host/Commentator
Well, and let me just say, if the Republicans lose on that point, after the debacle of the Biden administration and the Democratic Congress, I mean, that'd be like losing a football game. You were up 50 to nothing in the fourth quarter that, well, I'm going to don my Armstrong and get a f yaw looking party T shirt proudly on that day.
Joe Getty
Well, if you were going to run for president honestly, completely honestly to me, because I don't think there's that much you can do about it. You just said, look, this is the way inflation works. You know how a new car cost $2,000 in 1965 and now they cost $40,000? Inflation just things get more and more expensive over time. We had a period here where inflation happened really, really fast. And it's shocking to us and it's going to take years before we get used to these prices or wages catch up and there's nothing I can do about it. That's the way. I mean, that would have been the honest thing.
Co-host/Commentator
Yeah, or you could rephrase that and just say we're going to stop prices from rising anymore, from rising so quickly, we've got to slow it down and we have the plan to do it. That'd be good enough, I think.
Joe Getty
But he said prices will come down. And then the idiotic media, much of whom I don't think understand how inflation works either, talk regularly about and prices haven't come down yet. Well, they're not going to. They're gonna stop going up so fast. Anywho, this meme is seems to be back, at least on social media. I heard Ben Shapiro on somebody else's podcast the other day addressing it. He got hit with the whole. But look, in the 50s, on a single salary you could own a home. It was based on the stat that got everybody's attention last week that the median first time home buyer is now 40. It was 29 in 18 in 1981. It is now 40 years old. Started there. So you used to be able to just dad working, buy a home, live the American dream. And Ben Shapiro, in that he's a very smart guy sort of way, broke it down the way we have broken it down many times over the years, that the combination of that was a blip in time after World War II and the entire manufacturing sector of the world disappeared and we were the only manufacturer of everything. Combined with the fact that those people were living a much less extravagant, extravagant lifestyle than everybody does now. Tiny houses. Ben Shapiro actually said, and I think he was right. If you had to live in the house your parents or grandparents lived in, depending on your age, you would think this is a crap hole because it's tiny and a little run down. That's what I grew up in, a tiny, a little rundown home. Not, you know, the giant McMansion everybody thinks they ought to have. And so from both ends it was a blip in time historically and just a completely fanciful view of what life used to be. Nobody flew anywhere back then. Nobody. You drove to the local lake in.
Co-host/Commentator
The summer for vacation or to grandma's house. Sure, right.
Joe Getty
My final point on this, just because we've talked about this a lot, the key to this though, that I haven't said yet, is we've got to do away with this whole comparing life Today to the 50s and acting like we're getting screwed. Whether it's by Republicans or Democrats. It doesn't make any sense in all the ways that's been laid out a bunch of different times. Times. But as long as we're going to hang on to that, we're doomed. The comparison is the thief of joy. We're comparing ourselves to something that one, was a blip and two, never really happened the way it's being displayed. So our politics are going to be miserable until we finally come to grips with that.
Co-host/Commentator
All right, two. Two points. Number one, yes, you're right. It's not just not apples to apples or apples to oranges like apples to golden retrievers. Comparing our lifestyle right now to the 1950s, for instance. Second, fascinating Joe getty revelation. Have never in my life had my own room. Everybody has their own room in most modern American households, right? Yeah. I was with my sister in our little apartment when we were young, and then my brother was born, we moved to a new house and I was roomed with my brother. Then I went to college. I always had roommates. And then I got married while I was still in college. I never had my own room.
Joe Getty
It's pretty great.
Co-host/Commentator
Yeah, I'm fine.
Joe Getty
I shared a bedroom with my brother and it would. It would have seemed crazy to make me. My kids share a bedroom. It would have seemed crazy. I don't know why. I mean, I mean, but that's a difference in lifestyle right there. Of course everybody needs to have their own room. No, that was the exact opposite. When I was a kid and we're not 150 years old, my little brother.
Co-host/Commentator
And I would play Nerf hoops for hours at a time. And every.
Joe Getty
Everybody I knew, if you went over to their house to play, they. They shared a bedroom. Their brother or sister was there. Everybody.
Co-host/Commentator
So again, apples to golden retrievers. Come on, folks.
Joe Getty
That's a good one.
Jack Armstrong
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Co-host/Commentator
Liz Warren fell down on the Senate floor yesterday and to everyone's surprise, didn't even yell Geronimo. Her new indian name is fall on ass.
Joe Getty
Oh, that's pretty funny how y' all doing. So we got some good newsy stuff for you. We talked about this expensive bed on the One More Thing podcast a while back. This really expensive mattress, which.
Co-host/Commentator
Oh, I remember that. Yeah.
Joe Getty
I'll hit you with the price here in a moment, because if you haven't heard about this, it's shocking. We actually walked by one of these stores. It's Hostins. I don't know how you pronounce it. H A S T E N, S. It's Scandinavian, so I don't know how they pronounce it, but they don't have many stores. The beds are ridiculously expensive. And we walked by one of their stores on Park Avenue in New York. We were leaving Central park and I was walking. We were walking along all these ridiculously expensive stores, and, oh, my God, it's one of those bed stores. But you had to have an appointment, and we were not dressed for people to go in and look at these kind of mattresses. But I would love to have laid down one. I don't even know if they'd have let us.
Co-host/Commentator
Sorry, poor people. We can't allow you in here.
Joe Getty
So I. I don't remember how I came across this over the weekend. And it. It reignited my interest in this sort of thing that it exists, but. So I went on ebay, and there's one available on ebay that's used, so they only want $48,000 for it. This used mattress comes with the box spring. So it's mattress and box spring for $48,000. There you go.
Co-host/Commentator
Yeah.
Joe Getty
And the owner of it, since I put it on my watch, sent me an offer yesterday, took $4,000 off. They're only asking $40,000 now for this mattress and box spring. This mattress is made of horse hair and some particular rare kind of horse and cotton. It's all natural materials. It is said by reviewers. I remember when I talked about this on our podcast, the person that reviewed it, I think, for the New York Times, said it's ridiculously overpriced and nobody is ever gonna buy one of these. But it is unlike sleeping on anything you've ever slept on. It's as if you're suspended. You're just floating. You can't even tell or any. There's any pressure on any of your body. You're just kind of floating there. And it's amazing. But the original price on this particular mattress and box springs that I'm, you know, I'm trying. I'm deciding whether or not to pull the trigger at 40 grand was $84,000? 83,980, please. $84,000 for a mattress and box spring?
Co-host/Commentator
Look, if you fly private all the time, go ahead and buy the horse hair mattress. We prefer sex workers hair, by the way, Jack.
Joe Getty
These days the horse a burden.
Co-host/Commentator
Oh, I apologize. I had misunderstood. But if that's your lifestyle, go ahead. If not, that's insane. Don't you remember that email we got from a gal? She said, yeah, we bought one of these things and you've got to like, have the horrors. Hair massaged every two weeks. The most uncomfortable thing ever, though.
Joe Getty
That's part of the upkeep. Yes. You have to have its. What is it called, a rejuvenation or something like that. Somebody needs to come into your home at least once a year and re massage it to make it. But I was just reading a review from somebody who's got one on Reddit. They said if you have the person come and rejuvenate it all the time, it feels. They've had it for four years. Feels exactly like it did on day one. If you don't get it rejuvenated, you have a very expensive sack of garbage. They said, but wow. I would like to lay down on one. There's a store in Silicon Valley. No surprise. I might have to go over there sometime and I'll wear my suit jacket and try to look like I belong there and make an appointment and lay down on one so I can report back. Isn't it amazing, though, that anybody would ever pull the trigger on a 4, $84,000 mattress and box spring?
Co-host/Commentator
Like a lot of things, I think it exists so you can mention that.
Joe Getty
You have it, but I can't believe they sell enough of them to be able to even be a company. You wouldn't think you'd sell two a year.
Co-host/Commentator
There are thousands of billionaires and you know more every day. I don't know.
Joe Getty
The bed's supposed to last forever. I don't know.
Co-host/Commentator
Maybe they get you. They sleep very. You know, I would think if I.
Joe Getty
Walk into this, I would think if I'd have walked into that store in Park Avenue, I'd been the first customer in six months. You saw one E? I don't know. Anyway.
Co-host/Commentator
Are you here on purpose, sir? Oh, yes, yes. Oh, my Lord. Oh, my God.
Joe Getty
Oh, my God.
Co-host/Commentator
Okay, okay, okay. It'll be okay. All right, here we go. All right. Yeah. You know, it's funny, I was just reading that according to several organizations, companies, people that would know, American consumers are going way towards thrifty Now a lot of luxury buying is down, generics are up, bulk buying is on the rise. Even your fancier burritos are going unordered in your eateries.
Joe Getty
Your fancier burritos?
Co-host/Commentator
Yeah, well, trust me when I tell you, like Chipotle, they keep very, very careful track of what is being ordered and what's not. And they're seeing a trend toward lower dollar orders.
Joe Getty
Wow. So maxed out credit cards, student loan payments coming back, probably a certain amount of uneasiness about the future. That'd be. I mean, I would never buy that bed anyway, but I would never be able to sleep because I'd be thinking, God, if the economy really crashes, I'm going to feel like an idiot on this $83,000 bet.
Jack Armstrong
Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty the Armstrong.
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Ten athletes will face the toughest job interview in fitness that will push past physical and mental breaking point points. You are the fittest of the fit. Only one of you will leave here with an IFIT contract worth $250,000.
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Guaranteed Human.
This episode of Armstrong & Getty centers around modern life’s oddities, cultural trends, and the economic challenges Americans face today. The hosts mix sharp social commentary, personal anecdotes, and some darkly comic asides while discussing smartphone addiction among kids, media clickbait, economic realities, outlandish luxury items, and nostalgia for a different American past.
(03:20–12:49)
Content Creation Stunts: Opening with light absurdity, Jack & Joe riff on a man who ran a half-marathon in 137 T-shirts to break a world record—a bizarre feat designed for internet attention. They criticize the endless cycle of content made simply to go viral, fueled by youth spending hours on TikTok.
Smartphone Health Risks: They discuss a recent study linking early smartphone access (especially before age 12) to increased rates of depression, poor sleep, and obesity in kids. Both hosts argue that parenting style, not just devices, likely plays a role.
Smartphones as Parenting Tools & Curses: Armstrong & Getty discuss the near-universal desire among kids for a phone, making it the ultimate leverage for parents—but also a complication for communication.
A Teacher’s Perspective: A guest teacher describes the impact of smartphone and social media addiction on her students: a lack of focus, inability to handle boredom, apathy, and disconnection from real life.
Dopamine, Boredom, and Classroom Challenges: The hosts consider whether education must adapt to kids’ dopamine-rewired brains and mourn the loss of focus and intrinsic motivation among youth.
(16:12–23:31)
Internet Outrage as Fake News: Joe shares his frustration from accidentally doomscrolling into a faux controversy about sports reporter Erin Andrews’ comments on missing holidays for work. He and Jack eviscerate “journalism” built around social media arguments—calling it “crap.”
Virtue Signaling and Manufactured Outrage: They mock responses from other media figures who accused Andrews of lacking perspective about “real” hardships, pointing out the performative nature of internet outrage.
Avoiding Online Life: They endorse “touch grass” over virtual melodrama and urge listeners to focus on real, in-person relationships.
(28:55–39:10)
Golden Bachelor & TV Relationships: A quick interlude examining the absurdity of reality dating shows for seniors (“Golden Bachelor”), poking fun at its lack of authenticity.
Trump, Biden, & Economic Perception: They analyze polls about Trump’s low economic approval (33%) and how both political parties have failed at messaging on affordability and inflation.
How Americans Perceive Prices & Wealth: Discussion on how people compare today’s reality to an imagined 1950s “golden age,” ignoring differences in lifestyles (e.g., homes were smaller, luxuries were rarer).
Personal Anecdotes: Both hosts recall never having their own bedrooms as kids (contrasting to modern expectations) and use this to highlight how ideas of “standard” living have vastly changed.
(42:37–48:01)
The $84,000 Mattress: Armstrong describes his curiosity about an ultra-luxury Scandinavian mattress made of horsehair, retailing for $84,000, recounted with both awe and skepticism.
Upkeep Requirements: These beds reportedly require regular professional “rejuvenation” or they become “a very expensive sack of garbage.”
Reflection on Wealth & Consumer Habits: They remark that the existence and sales of such luxury goods is a function of skyrocketing inequality and consumer psychology.
Shift Towards Thrift: Noting that most Americans are scaling back, pointing out that even fast-casual restaurants are seeing lower-priced menu items get more popular amid inflation and economic unease.
Wry, irreverent, occasionally exasperated, and always conversational—Armstrong & Getty blend grumpy Gen X realism with fond nostalgia and a sprinkling of dark humor, never shying away from calling out cultural nonsense and economic illusions.