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Clay Travis
Welcome back in Clay. Travis Buck Sexton Show. We may have stepped into a coin loving buzzsaw here. Buck it is. The comments are going to be very, very funny. I think on this the poll, you can go vote in it. Thousands of you are already weighing in and the general consensus is it's close to 50, 50 on whether we should be eliminating all coins. The reason why I brought that up was because today is reportedly the last day I saw this on Fox News that they are going to be producing the penny. It definitely costs more to produce the penny than the penny is worth. And so in the future the smallest coin would now be the nickel. And and I think going forward you're going to see more and more arguments about, hey, do we still need to continue to produce coins? There would still be coins in circulation probably for, you know, the next hundred years. I mean, I don't know how long it would go on. Here's a fun stat for you, Buck, before we dive into phenomenal messenger for the Democrats. Jasmine Crockett, what percentage of money that exists in the world today actually physically exists?
Buck Sexton
What percentage of money 15, 20%.
Clay Travis
Good guess. I'm told it's 10.
Buck Sexton
Okay, I was, I was in the room. I was in the room.
Clay Travis
But yeah, I think that will blow a lot of your minds out there. In other words, if you went to the bank and you have X dollars and everybody went to the bank and they have X dollars, I mean, this is sort of a bank run. The physical notes that represent the vast majority of the wealth in the world, it doesn't exist. It's just numbers on a computer screen. Only about 10% of the dollars in America, of the euros in America, of all of the different currencies physically exist. That's something kind of interesting. And the younger you are, young people, and I sound like an old guy every time I say that. Young people, and I'm getting to be an old guy. They don't even carry money. I mean like the actual physical carrying of money. They have their iPhone, they pay with Apple pay. They have credit cards. They don't physically carry around cash at all. They have Venmo, they have Zelle. They have all these different ways to share expenses when they're buying, you know, going out for dinners or whatever else, concert tickets. It's kind of wild. We're moving towards a cashless society already. And I think we're moving there in really rapid fashion. Much to producer Greg Chagrin.
Buck Sexton
Well, yes, and I do agree that there are concerns about not having the privacy and the ability to just have currency that the government is not tracking and aware of at all times. But I don't know, man. Pennies. Not. Not a fan of pennies. Quarters. I'm a little more open to.
Clay Travis
A little more open. Did you ever work retail? Did you ever work at a place where you had to accept cash, make change, like process transactions? I've done a lot of retail in my life.
Buck Sexton
Tell everybody. Clay, Abercrombie and Fitch, where they only were. They only hired good looking people. When Clay did it. He loves to remind us all. My wife too, very shy about it. I'm like, I'm like, so you were hired at the Florida Abercrombie or you know, Fitch or like the Orlando area, whatever. Because you were cute, right? Like, just say it. She's like, no, I was a hard worker. I'm like, right, right.
Clay Travis
It was a. The retail jobs that I had. I worked at American Eagle now famous because of the Sydney Sweeney jeans. For years. I worked at a company called Media Play in the book section. The idea there was you could buy CDs, you could buy books, some of you will remember the concept. Big box retailer. And then I worked at Abercrombie and Fitch, Pentagon City Mall in Washington, D.C. while I was in college. One of the best jobs I ever had. Buck. Pretty girls walk in. You got an immediate excuse to talk to pretty girls. It's like. I mean, that's.
Buck Sexton
I'll tell you the truth, man. I got caught up in the world. And this was really common in New York, the world of the unpaid corporate internship I had. And in retrospect, I got scammed. I think it would have been way better. Now, some. Some places I got, like. I worked at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, and they. Because they actually had interns do real work. They paid you like you were paid. It was, you know, it was maybe three or four hundred bucks a week or something at the time. But it was like, at the time, living in D.C. with three roommates over the summer, that was real money. But I remember other places where I worked, and I did. I worked at the Council on Foreign Relations as an intern. They didn't pay. And that place has a huge cf. People like cfr. That's the Globalist and the Illuminati. Yeah, I was an intern there. Trust me, no one cared. No one remembered me. They didn't pay. And people were. There was someone who got a. An actual recommendation from. I think it was the Crown Prince of Jordan or something for one of those internships. Clay. I mean, people would go all out for these.
Clay Travis
Didn't matter.
Buck Sexton
These unpaid internships. It doesn't. People are like, oh, it'll translate into a job. What I'm saying is, I think your experience of actually working in commerce and capitalism, a much better play for people. And it establishes something of an economic libido. You're like, oh, work harder, work longer, more money. An internship where you're not paid just so you can put it on your resume. You're actually incentivized to do as little as possible and get out of there as fast as possible.
Clay Travis
And I think they're diminishing the number of unpaid internships in general.
Buck Sexton
Oh, no, it's. There are rules against it now. There are rules against it now because it became so exploitative. Like, I did one at CBS Evening News, but I got school credit for it, so that seemed like a fair. But I did summer internships, a number of them, starting when I was even in high school, where I didn't get any. I didn't get paid. And I was just basically fetching coffee and making Xeroxes. So I Could put on my resume that I would. This was a thing in the 90s. Those of you who are elder Millennials, not you old Gen X people. Gen X people, you got to worry about your creaking joints and bones. The elder Millennials, you know what I'm talking about. You. We all got scammed, man. Late 90s. It was like. Clay, I worked at a. A. At a music label for a summer, for a couple months, and it was a complete waste of my time.
Clay Travis
This is unexpected. You worked at a music label for like, a month?
Buck Sexton
Yeah, like an internship. Total waste of time. Like, the biggest. I. I think it was supposed to be all summer. I legitimately told my parents, like, I'm gonna go play tennis instead. This is a waste of time.
Clay Travis
So, yeah, what was the music label? Death Row?
Buck Sexton
No, no, no, no, it wasn't. It was actually a music publishing company, so it was kind of like, did A&R and it was owned publishing. Right. Clay was the most boring intern. I don't even remember. I was, like, 17. It's the worst thing I ever. Worst.
Clay Travis
Worst way I ever spent a summer in college. When I was at GW undergrad, I went and worked on Capitol Hill as part of being a student in D.C. and that was actually somewhat useful and interesting. But, yeah, there's a ton of those that don't have any impact at all. I was just thinking, nowadays when you work retail and a lot of you out there who work in. Who work in restaurants or whatever else. I don't even remember the last time I saw someone pay in a restaurant with cash. You know, they have all these mobile devices now where they can come right to your. Right to your table and, like, take all your money. I don't even remember. A lot of places won't even take cash now. We used to. The reason I was bringing it up, Buck, is at the end of the day at American Eagle, and it doesn't seem very safe now. We would have a big bag of cash that we would deposit into the bank that we would clear out the cash registers with. And I was thinking about it the other day, because if I tried to explain that to my kids, they wouldn't even understand. And it was filled with coins, and it was filled with cash, and we had to tally it up and we had to take it, and we had to deposit it. At the end of the day, there's never any security. I remember thinking, this doesn't make a lot of sense. There's thousands and thousands of dollars. But that was what we had to do because the physical encapsulation of money was such a thing. And remember it Breaking Bad, when he starts to make real amounts of money, great television show, and he doesn't even know what to do with all the cash. This is one of the challenges of the drug trade in general. It's all a cash business. It takes a lot of space when you have actual. The physical manifestation of all that wealth.
Buck Sexton
Somebody, somebody can tell me what the. This was a famous problem that Pablo Escobar, the world's drug kingpin back in the 80s and 90s and really the original public enemy number one of the US government in the pre war on terror terror era.
Clay Travis
They.
Buck Sexton
He had something that they would call spoilage clay, which was they had. So they could not find a place to put all the cash that they were making by selling cocaine in the United States. And so they would store it underground in pallets and rats would eat it. And they. There were some crazy figure, tens of millions of dollars a year they thought they were losing to rats eating their cash. That's how much cash they were making in the illegal drug trade. One thing that used to exist in New York, it doesn't really anymore. But there were a number of restaurants that were famous, Clay. For being cash only.
Clay Travis
Yeah.
Buck Sexton
And it was basically because it was like they weren't really reporting all the money they were making. You know, that was the idea.
Clay Travis
Yes.
Buck Sexton
But the, the IRS got way better at calculating the. You know, because they can base it off your inventory. So what you buy. What are you buying monthly? Oh, really? You're only making that much, but you're buying this much. So they have ways of figuring this stuff out.
Clay Travis
Bars and then restaurants. That was huge. They would avoid reporting the actual dollars that came into the building. And now obviously you can't do that with credit card. And a lot of you out there who get tips. It's way easier to track your tips now in a credit card era than it ever was when you just got cash handed to you.
Buck Sexton
Yeah, that's a good point. That's a very.
Clay Travis
All right, let's play this. We'll react to it a little bit as we go forward. A lot of discussion about what's the future of the Democrat party. You've got Spanberger and, and the, the, the, the governor in New Jersey who just won Mickey Sherrill I think was her name. And they're arguing, hey, we're moderates. We know that's a lie. But they're arguing that's the path. Mamdani is clearly on the far left of the Democrat Party. And then there is an argument out there, and it is interesting that. That the future of the Democrat Party should actually be defined by Jasmine Crockett, who. Charlemagne, the God. You sat with him at a recent fundraising event.
Buck Sexton
We know.
Clay Travis
We had dinner.
Buck Sexton
We had dinner in Cannes with a group as part of our I Heart Festival there. And it was. It was a great. He's great company. Very, very, very good time.
Clay Travis
Okay, so you probably agree with him, as I do, that, yes, the Democrats are underutilizing Jasmine Crockett. She really is a phenomenal messenger for their worldview. They should use her more.
Guest Commentator
Listen, Jasmine Crockett is actually what the Democrats should be leaning into, like, because she is a phenomenal messenger. And some people just got it. Like, some people just have a different anointing on them. She's always on message about something. I was watching her yesterday, and she was. She was like, yo, Donald Trump is racist, and this whole administration is racist, and it starts at the top. And she just broke down example after example, and it was so powerful and so provocative and.
Clay Travis
And you.
Guest Commentator
You understood what the root of her issue was. And she got you by just saying, donald Trump is racist and this administration is racist, and let me tell you why. And then you get into all of the issues. I'm like, yo, you need somebody like Davenant Crockett. She is the most effective messenger that the Democratic Party has right now, and they need to be using her as a Trojan horse.
Clay Travis
Using her as a Trojan horse is an interesting analogy there, because the Trojan horse didn't actually work out that well, necessarily.
Buck Sexton
Well, depends.
Clay Travis
Depends on what you're look that you're looking at it from. Yes, but. But the concept of Chasman Crockett as a phenomenal messenger puck, I think is one of the worst takes. If I were actually telling Democrats what.
Buck Sexton
To do, this is where you and I.
Clay Travis
She is.
Buck Sexton
I went from being a unknown congresswoman to being talked about right here on one of the biggest, if not the biggest radio programs in the country. Clay. She has met her, and it's purely a function of brand. You know, the branding and communication approach that she has. You know, people were all making fun of AOC the bartender. She's one of the biggest names in Democrat politics now. So I. We're. We're in. We're in a new era now. You have to be. Look at Mom, Donnie. You have to be social media savvy. You have to understand how to go viral. And to people who say, oh, but the crazy Things. Yeah, but they just. Look. Look what they did with Biden. They'll just lie about the crazy things they've said or done. Or even Kamala. Kamala's like, yeah, we need trans surgery for foreigners who come into the country illegally funded by taxpayers. And then when it was time, she's like, yeah, no, we don't need to do that. That's all they'll do.
Clay Travis
This is. I don't disagree on this. It's great for her. It's awful, I think, for the Democrat Party. But to your point, Buck, you and I were talking about this off air. There's almost no consequence for crazy anymore. We aren't crazy enough. Like, our opinions are so rational and reasonable that you actually are incentivized now to be totally bonkers in every.
Buck Sexton
I want to run a psychology experiment where we just do a podcast, Clay. We launch a new podcast where I just say the craziest stuff possible that I know will get the most attention possible. And then we give all the proceeds to charity. Because I think, by the way, I think I'd be funding wings for children's hospitals. I think. I mean, I think we would be. Cash.
Clay Travis
What is the craziest thing? That we could argue tongue in cheek for the audience, but it would go mega viral, and it's actually a great idea.
Buck Sexton
But the only problem is I don't know if it would be as crazy as some of the things that I'm hearing these days. So I don't know. I don't know. There's some interesting stuff online these days, just putting that out there. Some of us have to stay within the facts and reality that we live in. But it would be nice to be able to just get. Get as crazy as we want. It'd be kind of a fun experiment.
Clay Travis
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Buck Sexton
All right, welcome back into Clay and Buck. We got a quick turnaround here. I just want to say it, Clay. Big Penny has come for you. Big Penny is they are united. There are lots of them. They're apparently all over the place. In fact, you can't even get rid of them. You can't even lose them. They're everywhere. They keep turning up. Again, Big Penny is coming after you for and me. Cause I backed you up on this one, on your coin comments and how they're not going to make pennies anymore. We are going to dive into your thoughts coming up here in a moment on that as well as the biggest news stories of the day and some other odds and ends we're going to get to. So definitely hit us with those talkbacks, those calls. And yeah, throw your pennies at Clay. All right. You know, that's, that's the way we're going to handle this one. That's, that's how you can show him your disdain for an end of coinage in America. Being practical for a moment here, why spend. Speaking of money, I want to save you, not just pennies. I want to save you hundreds of dollars, thousands of dollars over the long term by switching your cell phone service. So easy to do. Why not do it? If you haven't switched your cell phone service to Pure Talk, consider this. Pure Talk gives you unlimited talk, text and plenty of data on a super fast 5G network using the same towers as one of the bigger companies, but for just $25 a month. Compare that to your current bill. PureTalk will help you switch in about 10 minutes. Just dial pound 250, say Clay and Buck. When you do, you'll save 50% off your first month. Find savings with your wireless bill. Dial pound 250, say our name's Clay Ann Buck. Say Clay and Buck. That'll connect you to PureTalks, US based customer service team. Dial pound 250, say clay and Buck to get hooked up with Pure Talk.
Clay Travis
Welcome back in Clay Travis Buck Sexton show. A lot of you weighing in. This is going to be like the flutes, Buck. They're coming for me. A lot of you with your flute playing quarters in your hand, your rolls of pennies.
Buck Sexton
I'm just going to say, if someone finds you in the driveway of your nice brand new house bludgeoned and there's a flute and a handful of pennies next to the body, we're all going to know what happened.
Clay Travis
That's right. I'm in potential danger here. I want to take this call because I don't even understand how it's possible. There is a woman, Jen. She says she is in the southeastern United States. You said you only escaped your husband because you were able to save pennies. Is Jen there?
Buck Sexton
Yes, sir.
Caller Jen
Good afternoon, gentlemen.
Clay Travis
All right, Jen, how many pennies did you save? What did it, what did escaping your husband cost you? What did you buy?
Caller Jen
I bought a lawyer for a thousand dollars as a retainer using 35 jar, 35 quart size glass jars on six shelves and in the back of my pantry all filled with pennies.
Clay Travis
How many years did it take you to save up that many pennies?
Caller Jen
It took me about, it took me about two and a half years.
Clay Travis
So were you thinking the whole time I'm saving these pennies so I can afford to divorce my husband? And what did the lawyer think when his retainer fee is paid in 35 jugs of pennies?
Caller Jen
My lawyer was amazing. And what I was doing was I was slowly collecting pennies and other change because he was looking in my wallet after I would go grocery shopping for my cash. And my lawyer was very amazing.
Clay Travis
So was this like an incredible story? Yeah, this is pretty crazy. So you hid the coins that you were getting back as change on like grocery store trips and whatnot. And as a result you were able to retain an attorney. So it's not just pennies. You were having quarters, like just all the change you could get. You were secret change jars.
Buck Sexton
You kept change jars together and you were able to get a lawyer.
Caller Jen
It was, it was 35 jars of pennies alone with an addition of mixed change altogether mixed together. So it was 35 pennies. 35 jars of pennies only and then additional change as well. But it was over $1,000 in just pennies.
Clay Travis
So what would have happened if the. If I had won and there were. Was. Now the reality is change is going to be circulating for the rest of our lives. What they're doing today is they are just stopping production of more pennies so they'll continue to circulate for the rest of our lives. But what would you have done if change didn't exist?
Caller Jen
I wouldn't have been able to get out.
Buck Sexton
I wouldn't have been able to still be married.
Caller Jen
Probably.
Buck Sexton
Wow. Well, that's quite a story, I gotta say. Have you ever seen the Shawshank Redemption?
Caller Jen
Patience is a virtue. Be virtuous.
Buck Sexton
You know, I just. It reminds. Thank you for calling in, Clay. It reminds me of Andy Dufresne, right. Taking one little piece of dirt at a time and then he tunnels out. Remember, that was the whole thing.
Clay Travis
It's an amazing part of the story that's also the story of Alcatraz. If you visit Alcatraz. The only people to ever escape from Alcatraz dug their way out through the back of their jail cell there, and they then climbed on the pipes all the way out. And we never have figured out what happened to those guys.
Buck Sexton
By the way, speaking of pennies and coinage and bills in circulation, I did check back on this one, and according to Pablo Escobar's brother at the time, who was also his accountant for the operations of the Medellin cartel's importation of cocaine and I believe heroin, but mostly just cocaine in the United States, Clay, their spoilage, which was rats eating the cash and just physical loss to the elements of. Of the cash that they were storing, was $2 billion a year.
Clay Travis
Unbelievable.
Buck Sexton
I mean, just like they're like, oh, big rainstorm. The cash got wet and the rats ate some. We were losing $2 billion a year. That's how much cash they had.
Clay Travis
I mean, I think the answer. Some of you out there probably wondering why we only go up to $100 bills. For those of you that are strongly committed to. To cash, it's because they don't want to make it easier for the storage of. Of money for illicit transactions. In other words, if we had a thousand dollar bill, you can imagine how much more money could be stored illicitly. And there's been talk about the Euro potentially replacing the $100 bill. And, you know, because if you're engaged in criminal activity, you want the largest denomination bill possible to get cash.
Buck Sexton
What's the most cash you've ever seen physically present?
Clay Travis
It's a great question.
Buck Sexton
One time ten. Oh, I saw. I saw several million dollars in cash.
Clay Travis
Well, you carried. Back in the day at the CIA, you guys had go bags filled with lots of cash. Right?
Buck Sexton
Can neither nor deny. I'm just saying I saw a lot of cash. I saw. I mean, I told back in the.
Clay Travis
Day, the US Mint. So I've seen the big pallets of cash before there. But in terms of physical cash that I've ever seen, I think it was about 10 grand is the most that I've ever seen physically present one place.
Buck Sexton
I can just tell you that it's. It's funny also when you see these movies and they're like, I need $10 million and someone shows up with like a briefcase. Oh, no, no, no. It's going to be like duffel bags. You're talking duffel bags for 10 million. For $10 million. It's going to be a bit more than a, than a simple valise or a briefcase. That's not going to get it done for you. Just throwing that out there. For any of you who are planning like a Bond villain style, you know, bank situation. Yeah, you can just.
Clay Travis
Should I play some of these people that are furious because the pennies going away because we are deluged in them right now?
Buck Sexton
I just think that it's a shame that they can't actually like, as part of the show, you know, throw pennies at you to show their displeasure because that would just be fun. But yes, go ahead.
Clay Travis
Let's see. Oh, man. So many different ones of these. Let's go. A lot of people are saying they use coins for family fun. This is for instance, what Justin from Arizona, KFYI Double D is saying.
Justin from Arizona
I think we should keep the coins. I'm with your producer. We have a thing, we. A family fun jar. So all of our loose change goes into there and when it fills up, we cash it in and go do something fun as a family.
Clay Travis
That's a cool idea if you're regularly bringing cash into the house. Now, have you ever done that where you've.
Buck Sexton
I. It is deeply satisfying. And I did this for many years. I had a ca. I had a change jar. I, I was, I had very little money and I was working for the government and I had a change jar and I would go to one of those like Coin Star or one of those places. This is also. I remember I went once to a bank and they gave me the little like Tootsie Roll things to wrap them up in. And I did the math on this in my head, I'm like, this is. I'm paying myself like $3 an hour.
Clay Travis
In terms of coin wrapping. Roll up all your coins.
Buck Sexton
It was not good. So, yeah, coins are one of those things. But I've definitely gone out with a buddy of mine who used to do this too, and like, get like a Chinese. All you can eat, you know, $17 with the coins you have together. It's. I would tell you it's very satisfying. Very satisfying.
Clay Travis
I would say probably the most common is the going through. I think tolls now tend to also accept credit cards. But you know that feeling when you're driving and you're like, oh, I don't have much cash. And there's a toll coming up. Everything else, I don't. I don't think I've had very. I'm trying to think of the last time I had physical possessions of coins. I don't pay cash for anything. I. I don't. I'm trying to think, what's the last time you paid cash for something? Do you remember? I don't.
Buck Sexton
Yeah, I'm trying to think. Actually. No, I. Oh, church. I get cash at church.
Guest Commentator
The.
Buck Sexton
The.
Clay Travis
The donation in the.
Buck Sexton
I actually have a, like, a little cash like, box that every Sunday I just go to for putting in the cash box at church. I think you can do a check. Like, I see. I'm not casting aspersions here. Okay. It's church. I see some of the older parishioners do checks.
Clay Travis
Yeah.
Buck Sexton
But to me, I'm like, I'd rather just give them a, you know, give them a bill. So that's the only place that I just realized this. I have cash on hand for church. And in case we get a delivery and I have to get. I also. Oh, tips for delivery guys. That's what it is.
Clay Travis
Tips.
Buck Sexton
Tips for delivery.
Clay Travis
For tips is the last time that I remember giving cash. It used to be when the boys were younger and we had regular babysitters. Babysitters only dealt in cash. That was like, oh, and when I.
Buck Sexton
Get my haircut business, when I get my.
iHeart Radio Announcer
When.
Buck Sexton
When my Cuban Americans put on the Buena Vista Social Club, give me a tiny coffee and give me fancy haircut, I give those guys cash. So there's something.
Clay Travis
I will also point this out. My wife just takes money out of my wallet and. And the kids do too sometimes because the. I'm the only person in the house that actually has cash. So on the rare event when we need cash. But having said that, I don't remember the last time I Got coins like I do not have physically in my possession right now. I don't think I have any coins.
Buck Sexton
You're like a time warp man. You're sitting there with your actual newspaper made of paper with your dollar bills and your kids coming over borrowing 20s from you. You really, this is like 1998 over in the Travis household.
Clay Travis
Well, why would you want to leave behind the greatest year that has ever existed in the history of the world? I'd like to go back to 1998.
Buck Sexton
The late 90s were a great time in America. I will agree with that. I can't, I cannot tell a lie. It's very important. We're going to take more of your calls and thoughts on this stuff and also get back into some of those interesting. We just had the FBI Director Cash Patel with an announcement from the White House press briefing which I will discuss with you guys coming up here in a little bit. We have. Steve Yates will be with us. Am I correct, team? Right, Mr. Yates? Yep. And Robby Starbuck are gonna be with us in the third hour. Steve Yates just got back from something like 10 days traveling with the Secretary of Defense. So he is perfectly positioned to speak about this FBI. Cuz it's an announcement about China and the FBI from the FBI director. We'll speak to Steve Yates about this. He was all over Asia with the Secretary of Defense traveling to cover those meetings and those negotiations with President Trump. And then we'll have Robby Starbuck on. And Clay, he's got quite a story he wants to tell.
Clay Travis
Yeah. A degree to which I particularly Google I believe. But I don't want to step on his story because I think a lot of you are going to say, oh, this is ominous. And you could see yourself as being reflected in what has happened to him. But the AI algorithm has been seeded to essentially tell awful untruths about him. When you Google his name. And I want him to explain it to you all. But I do think it's one of the things that we should be concerned about. AI is once AI gets seeded with something inaccurate, how do you remove something that is unTrue from the AI ecosystem?
Buck Sexton
I tell you there's, there's some scurrilous, scurrilous accusations out there that I am not in fact 6ft tall, that I'm like some version of 5, 11. This is unacceptable. OK. Height is a definitive thing we can do, you know. And I would like the Internet to accurately reflect that. I'm in the six, I'm in the six feet club. That's all I'm saying. All right. I'm not. Make sure I got to go back on Wikipedia and check. They like to like to antagonize me with this nonsense. All right. Every November, as Black Friday approaches, Birch Gold Group gives away Free Gold with every qualifying purchase. When you convert an existing IRA or 401k into a tax sheltered IRA in gold, birch Gold will send you free gold for every $20,000 purchased. Rewind the tape. In January of this year, gold was selling for around $2,600 an ounce. By the end of October, it was over $4,000 an ounce. That's a 53% increase. Gold thrives in times of uncertainty and all the money printing that's going on just means gold is going to be increasing in value over time. If you're looking to diversify your savings, Birch Gold can help you. Right now through November 28th, get free gold with a qualifying purchase. Just Text my name Buck to 989898 to claim your eligibility for a free info kit on Gold. Your opportunity for free Gold with purchase ends on November 28th, so don't wait. Text Buck to the number 9,898 98 for full details.
Clay Travis
News and politics, but also a little comic relief. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcast.
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Buck Sexton
Welcome back into Clay Ann Buck. Like we said, big guests coming up next hour. Robbie Starbuck, Steven Yates of the Heritage foundation just got back from traveling for almost two weeks with Secretary of Defense over in Asia. He was in South Korea, Japan, I think it was in Guam. It was like all over the place. I can't even remember all the places he was. Stephen was with me in Taiwan as well, by the way. So this guy knows what's going on in that part of the world backwards and forwards. Clay, I will tell you, I, I think have you met Steve before in person? Do you know he's been a friend of mine. Question for 15 years now. We go way very beginning of my media time at the Blaze. He is a totally fluent Mandarin speaker. So he speaks Chinese, like absolutely. With yeah and all. And I mean, he's, I don't know, very American, you know, guy. And I've not heard anyone else who has his, quite his skill level with Mandarin. He can translate perfectly. It's, it's really cool, actually, because you don't expect it. You don't even look at him. He looks like his name is Steve.
Clay Travis
Way before anybody was ever studying Chinese. He made the decision to get ahead of the curve there.
Buck Sexton
Oh, he was a missionary in Taiwan along. So you could ask me this a long time ago in the 80s. So yeah, that's how far back he goes. So anyway, we'll talk to him a bit about there's a few things. A big announcement today actually about a new deal with China that the FBI director made. We'll speak to Steve about that. But VIP email from Don. He said, Buck, you mentioned your favorite history novel of all time. What was the name of the book? I appreciate it. Your show is the best. Thank you for all you do. I, well, I want to say the one that I mentioned, Clay and I both threw out historical novels different than history books. Right? Historical novels that we really, really, really enjoyed. For me, it was Pressfield Gates, that's the author, Gates of Fire, which is a novelized Thermopylae Leonidas 300 clay. It was killer Angels, which I went and bought last night on for my Kindle. So I'm going to be reading Michael Shara. Is that how you say his name? Michael Shera's Killer Angels. Now I can come back and give you my review of it because Clay said that was his favorite. So Killer Angels, Gates of Fire.
Clay Travis
I bought Gates of Fire also yesterday. So at some point it will arrive at my house and I will start to read it. But those are both. Yes, to your point. The conversation we were having yesterday about it.
Buck Sexton
Yeah. So those are. Those are fun. I tend to do novels when I'm trying to go to sleep. I think it's just so that's when I'll read more creative stuff. I don't know what. Do you have a preference with that, Clay? If I'm. If it's like the daytime, I tend to. Or even the early evening, I tend to be more history book or something that's, you know, political. At night is when I allow myself to do kind of the Lord of the Rings stuff. You know, I'll read whatever.
Clay Travis
I usually have one fiction and one nonfiction going simultaneously and just read whatever I'm in the mood for. Although I don't know if this is normal. The older I've gotten, I read way more nonfiction. When I was a kid, I read way more fiction. I don't know if that's commonplace for others as well, but I read way more nonfiction now than I do fiction.
Buck Sexton
Funny, I just. My nonfiction book that I just finished was Last Days of the Incas, which was very good. And I. So I'm actually about to start a new nonfiction. But my fiction book that I'm reading is a throwback. It's this guy, Scott Baker, the Darkness that Comes Before. But I'm actually going to put that on hold for a little bit and get to Killer Angel. So book Rex, by the way, on clayandbuck.com they're all under the Rex tab. You can go check them out.
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Clay Travis
Who's a good boy?
Buck Sexton
Who's a good boy? You're a good boy. That's right. You're a good.
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Date: November 12, 2025
Podcast: The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show (iHeartPodcasts)
Episode Theme: The fading era of coins, societal shifts to a cashless economy, the uses (and surprising value) of pennies, and incisive commentary on Democratic messaging—with listener stories, lively banter, and memorable tangents.
In this hour, Clay Travis and Buck Sexton dive into the debate over eliminating coins—especially the penny—as the U.S. reportedly ends its production. They reflect on America’s rapid move toward cashless transactions, the privacy implications of digital currency, and the nostalgia of retail jobs involving cash handling. The episode features a compelling call-in with a listener who used jarred pennies to escape a troubled marriage, as well as lighthearted banter about coins in everyday life. Later, the hosts dissect Democratic messaging, considering whether figures like Jasmine Crockett represent the party’s future. The episode closes with book recommendations and a preview of upcoming policy discussions.
[01:34 – 04:21]
[04:41 – 08:16]
[10:26 – 12:00]
[12:02 – 16:36]
[22:23 – 25:45]
[27:04 – 33:08]
[33:08 – 34:50]
[39:32 – 41:44]
Clay Travis [03:02]:
“That will blow a lot of your minds... it's just numbers on a computer screen. Only about 10% of the dollars in America... physically exist.”
Buck Sexton [04:21]:
"There are concerns about not having the privacy and the ability to just have currency that the government is not tracking..."
Clay Travis [11:42]:
"It's way easier to track your tips now in a credit card era than it ever was when you just got cash handed to you."
Guest Commentator [13:04]:
"Jasmine Crockett is actually what the Democrats should be leaning into... She is the most effective messenger that the Democratic Party has right now, and they need to be using her as a Trojan horse."
Clay Travis [15:20]:
"There's almost no consequence for crazy anymore. We aren't crazy enough... you're actually incentivized now to be totally bonkers..."
Caller Jen [23:25]:
"I bought a lawyer for a thousand dollars as a retainer using 35 jar, 35 quart size glass jars...all filled with pennies."
Jen [25:38]:
“I wouldn't have been able to get out. I would've still be married, probably.”
Buck Sexton [27:04]:
"...their spoilage, which was rats eating the cash and just physical loss to the elements of...the cash that they were storing, was $2 billion a year."
Clay Travis [33:00]:
"Why would you want to leave behind the greatest year that has ever existed in the history of the world? I'd like to go back to 1998."
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