Normally Podcast: Tucker Carlson Controversy, Bill Gates’ Climate U-Turn & Election 2025

Summary

The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show

Episode: Normally Podcast: Tucker Carlson Controversy, Bill Gates’ Climate U-Turn & Election 2025
Date: October 30, 2025
Hosts: Mary Katherine Hanson & Carol Margaret

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Episode Overview

This episode tackles several major stories dominating political discourse: upcoming elections in key states, President Trump’s showy Asia trip and its foreign policy implications, a controversial podcast appearance by Tucker Carlson featuring Nick Fuentes, Bill Gates’ public pivot on climate priorities, and the ongoing battle over narrative control in media and culture. With characteristic humor and skepticism, the hosts challenge “normal” versus “weird” trends in politics and public debate, calling out tribalism, media bias, and damaging rhetoric on both the right and left.

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1. Election 2025: State Races and Voter Experience

[01:22 – 03:01]

Key Points & Insights:

• The hosts express a sense of overwhelm at the volume of current news, noting “the onslaught of news is somewhat overwhelming to the extent... the President’s on a whole ass Asian trip. Nobody’s talking about it.” (Mary Katherine, 01:22)
• Local races in Virginia, New Jersey, and New York are looming, with Republicans possibly picking up the Attorney General race in Virginia.
  “That one’s possible. It’s going to be an uphill battle for everyone else.” (Mary Katherine, 02:02)
• Voting experience in Virginia: Even without party registration, there’s an implicit “tweaking” of political assumptions at the polls.
• Discussion of sample ballots and open primaries in Virginia.
  “I do enjoy kind of tweaking them a little bit because they’re not even aware that we’re around them.” (Mary Katherine, 02:46)
• Commentary on confusing ballot strategies in New York, especially for older voters.

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2. Foreign Policy: Trump’s Asia Tour

[03:19 – 09:18]

Trump’s Travels and Diplomatic Flair

• Trump’s meetings abroad include Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, and China.
• Anecdote about meeting Japan’s new Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, a conservative and a protégé of Shinzo Abe. She gifts more cherry trees to DC.
• Trump’s “showmanship” continues to draw huge responses, such as entering a Japanese battleship via the plane elevator:
  “Just the showmanship of Donald Trump in any place, on any occasion… he comes down… to meet the troops… and it’s just insane. The troops go crazy. He has a real gift for that.” (Mary Katherine, 04:53)
• Trump dances with Malaysian greeters; both hosts endorse presidents dancing:
  “I’ve always been a fan of presidents dancing. I don’t get mad at any of them for it. I think it’s cool. I think it’s you being yourself, enjoying the moment.” (Mary Katherine, 05:43)
• South Korea’s new post-coup Prime Minister and the upcoming China visit are highlighted as major diplomatic events, especially concerning trade.

Media Bias in Coverage

• Washington Post’s coverage is critiqued for rooting against the US in trade talks:
  “Why are you rooting against us even if you don’t like tariffs?” (Carol, 07:20)

• The need for transparency in journalism—hosts argue it’s better for journalists to clearly state their opinions.
  “Let’s stop pretending so that you can evaluate: okay, where’s she coming from on this?” (Mary Katherine, 08:41)

• Hosts agree that regardless of president, rooting for America should come first:
  “I’m very much rooting for us. And that would be rooting for us even if it were Joe Biden…” (Carol, 09:09)

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3. Tucker Carlson, Nick Fuentes, and Far-Right Controversies

[09:31 – 16:22]

Tucker Carlson’s Platforming of Nick Fuentes

• The hosts express personal disappointment over Tucker Carlson’s recent guest, Nick Fuentes, citing a shift from Carlson’s older, more mainstream conservative persona. “He doesn’t even look the same anymore. The eyes are completely different. The smile is completely different. Something happened there…” (Carol, 10:21)
• Nick Fuentes’ anti-Semitic views are called out directly, with frustration at conservatives’ silence: “Nick Fuentes is not anti-Israel. He is just an anti-Semite… This, you know, washing of his reputation that’s going on… No, not at all. He’s, you know, just a Racist, anti-Semite, and he’s just not that interesting a person.” (Carol, 11:32)
• The hosts critique the “very online” nature of these debates and the toxicity of internet leaders.
• Notable, uncomfortable moments from the podcast episode are described, including discussions of women, sex, and porn:
  “At one point also, Tucker was just like, ‘Wow, that’s a lot of jerking off.’ And I was like, I think I’ve heard enough.” (Mary Katherine, 13:52)
• They highlight Nick Fuentes’ scapegoating of Israel for a personal controversy: “Nick Fuentes one time live streamed himself watching gay porn. And guess who he blamed for it?... Israel.” (Carol, 13:55)

Broader Implications for the Right

• The risk of letting “fringe” or extremist voices dominate is compared to similar trends on the left: “The right is going to have to face this. It’s going to have to decide whether they are in the movement and if they are, I can say people like me are out... We saw what happened to the left when they entertained their fringe voices, and that’s where we are now.” (Carol, 15:07)
• Hosts assert solidarity with those speaking out against extremism:
  “They’re my people. This is who I want on my side for any upcoming... metaphorical political battles.” (Carol, 16:01)

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4. Bill Gates’ Climate U-Turn

[16:22 – 24:31]

Gates’ New Messaging on Climate Priorities

• Bill Gates recently published an essay urging a balanced approach to problems like climate change, disease, and poverty—suggesting poverty reduction take precedence.
• Read aloud:
  “Climate change, disease and poverty are all major problems. We should deal with them in proportion to the suffering they cause.... Our chief goal should be to prevent suffering, particularly for those in the toughest conditions… ” (Bill Gates via Carol, 17:09)
• Hosts react skeptically, suspecting ulterior motives tied to Gates’ business interests (e.g., AI data centers that will require huge energy consumption):
  “He needs people to tone down the crazy climate change rhetoric because he’s got a business deal in there.” (Carol, 18:13)

Energy, Progress, and Societal Anxiety

• They connect climate priorities with energy access and human flourishing, referencing “A Fossil Future” by Alex Epstein: “We never talk about how [energy is] the lifeblood of everything and how you can’t have human flourishing without it.” (Mary Katherine, 19:36)
• They lament the generational anxiety instilled by climate panic, citing surveys about young people’s hesitation to have children: “The majority of respondents were very or extremely worried about climate change. The study also found 52% said they were hesitant to have children because of climate change.” (Mary Katherine, 20:36)
• Personal anecdotes about diffusing climate anxiety in their own homes.

Policy and Economic Scams

• Hosts critique the lack of accountability for fear-based climate messaging, especially as influential liberals change their tune: “There’s no one who’s held accountable for this. He’s just like, ‘Oh, yeah, right.’” (Mary Katherine, 22:58)
• Notable example: California’s major financial loss in a clean energy investment:
  “The California Public Employees Retirement System for state employees lost 71% of a $468 million investment... But they won’t explain how. These losses are a major problem for California taxpayers...” (Mary Katherine, 24:31)

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5. Notable Quotes & Moments

• On the Showmanship of Trump [04:53]:

  • “Just the showmanship of Donald Trump in any place, on any occasion… he comes down… and it’s just insane. The troops go crazy. He has a real gift for that.”
    (Mary Katherine)

• On Journalistic Bias [07:20]:

  • “Why are you rooting against us even if you don’t like tariffs?”
    (Carol)

• On the Tucker Carlson Episode Featuring Nick Fuentes [11:32]:

  • “Nick Fuentes is... just a racist, anti-Semite, and he’s just not that interesting a person. And that’s the other thing. I feel like the fact that he has a following says some really bad, dark things about... where some people in our country are.”
    (Carol)

• On Bill Gates’ Climate Pivot [17:09]:

  • “Our chief goal should be to prevent suffering, particularly for those in the toughest conditions who live in the world’s poorest country.”
    (Bill Gates, read by Carol)

• On Young People and Climate Anxiety [20:36]:

  • “The majority of respondents were very or extremely worried about climate change. The study also found 52% said they were hesitant to have children because of climate change.”
    (Mary Katherine quoting The Lancet)

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6. Conclusion

The episode critiques political and cultural extremes, urging transparency, rational debate, and accountability on all sides. From lampooning press bias and performative politics to calling out both right-wing and left-wing excesses, the hosts aim to keep listeners grounded in “normal” values while grappling with the absurdities of the day’s news.

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For further correspondence, listeners are invited to email: normallythepodmail.com

Transcript

[A]

This is an I heart podcast.

[B]

Greetings, Naturopathy Dr. Dennis Black here, founder of Rough Greens. And if only dogs could talk, I think a lot of them would say, hey, thanks for the love, but this food, it's not working for me. The truth is they'd be right. Because most dog food, wet or dry, is cooked at such high temperatures that every live nutrient in it is destroyed. And what you're left with is dead food bulked up with fillers and sprayed with artificial flavors. That's not what dogs need. But when you add back in the live vitamins, omega oils and antioxidants are in Rough Greens, your dog would say something different. Like, they'd say, wow, this is delicious. Or sluggish dogs might say, hey, let's go for a walk. Older dogs might say, I feel like a puppy again. It's not magic, it's biology. Don't just imagine it. See it in your dog. I'll send you a free Jumpstart trial bag for your dog. You just cover the shipping. Go to ruffgreens.com, use discount code talk, that's R U F F Greens discount code. Your dog could only talk. They'd say, thank you.

[A]

Hey, guys. We are back on normally, the show with normal ticks, but when the news gets weird. I am Mary Katherine Hanson.

[C]

And I'm Carol Margaret. How are you, Mary Katherine?

[A]

I'm doing all right. As usual. The onslaught of news is somewhat overwhelming to the extent, by the way, that the President's on a whole ass Asian trip.

[C]

Nobody's talking about it. It's funny because when we were talking topics today, I keep thinking, should we talk Virginia, New Jersey, New York City elections? We were on Fox and Friends together this morning, possibly our first ever TV appearance. Although neither one of us has that great a memory, so who knows?

[A]

Could be.

[C]

We may have been on before. Um, but, you know, there's really not much to say. We're careening toward election day and it's not looking good.

[A]

So, like a little bit of tightening. I do think that AG race in Virginia, there's a chance that Republicans pick that one off. Not to use an inappropriate metaphor given the opponent there, but. But I think that one's possible. It's going to be an uphill battle for everyone else. As you know, I did early vote today. I like to vote on election day, but I am traveling on election day. So generally when I can, I vote on election day. But I do enjoy the part where I, in my Northern Virginia area walk by and the Democrats see A mom. And they go, do you want our ballot? And I say, no, give me that one lonely Republican over here. Let me grab that from you.

[C]

I didn't even get it. You guys have separate ballots?

[A]

No, it's the sample ballot. We're not even registered as party in Virginia. So, like you can, you can grab, you can vote in either primary. You can do whatever you want here. But I do enjoy kind of like tweaking them a little bit because they're not even aware that we're around them.

[C]

Right. Do you even exist?

[A]

Much less that we're 40 something moms. So that's always a fun moment for me.

[C]

Yeah, yeah. In New York, I have to explain to my mom how she's not voting for the Republican candidate this time. And it's going to have to be some party she's never heard of. Like, so what you do is you find Andrew Cuomo on the ballot.

[A]

Oh my gosh. Bless him. Bless him. All right. So we decided to talk a little foreign policy since that's important. And that is happening right now.

[C]

Yeah. And so Donald Trump is in Asia. He met with the new Japanese prime minister who is also a heavy metal drummer, which I absolutely love. That is just. And she's so cute. I mean, I know it's not fair that we describe women as cute. Although I have to say Abe was also very adorable. But she just is so cute. She jumped up and down when she met Donald Trump. Adorable. Super cute.

[A]

Well, and she apparently is a Shinzo. Abe was the former prime minister who was assassinated, by the way. A story that we don't talk about enough. That one kind of just like slipped by everybody story.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

So he was a great friend to Donald Trump. They liked each other a lot. She's a protege of his and is a conservative as he was. So there's reason for her and Trump to. To get along. Her name is Sanae Takeichi. I'm sure I'm mispronouncing it medium wrong, but that's what it is. And they had a. Seemed to have a very nice time together. She donated some more cherry trees to the to DC which actually is much needed. The Tidal Basin storm wiped out a bunch of them, so it'll be nice to have some new ones. I also noticed in Japan sent you this and we can play a clip of it because it is pretty spectacular. Just the showmanship of Donald Trump in any place, on any occasion. He comes down and look, I'm sure there's a term for this. He's like on a Battleship in Japan. And he comes down on what's essentially to meet the troops, a. An elevator for the fighter jets and, like, reveals himself as the elevator, and it's just insane. The char. The troops go crazy. He has a real gift for that. And at this point, at this point, like, he does it so often that that one doesn't even make news, you know, like, I saw. I happened to see it on X at some point.

[C]

Yeah, I, I actually, I, I didn't see it until you sent it to me. I saw the one where he lands in Malaysia and goes right into dancing with, like, the Malaysians who are waiting there for him. Whatever you think of Donald Trump, and he's amazing at this kind of showmanship. He is so real in those moments. He is not faking the funk in any way. He is just, like, getting down with the Malaysian greeters.

[A]

I've always been a fan of presidents dancing. I don't get mad at any of them for it. I think it's cool. I think it's you being yourself, enjoying the moment. George Bush was famously a charming and slightly dorky dancer, and I enjoyed it very much. And so more power to him. But, yeah, he's in, he's in Malaysia. He's in Japan. He's going to South Korea, which has a new prime minister at post. Coup. Prime minister. Remember that coup? That South Korean. Yeah. And then he's off to meet Xi Jinping in China, where, of course, in all of these stops, trade is a talk. A talk they're having. I believe in Japan, they talked about some soybean and gas trade changes. She was talking about purchasing vehicles from the US all sorts of stuff like that, as the tariff conversation continues. But China will be the. The main event.

[C]

Yeah. So the Chinese trade talks are supposed to be kicking off. And, you know, if you're wondering what side the Washington Post is on, it's not our side.

[A]

No.

[C]

Yeah, you think, right. The headline is, Drew Holden highlighted this on X as Trump meets Xi, Chinese leader has the upper hand. It's like if it was an opinion column. Okay. This is in their news section, in their world section. And then they have this line. The parent deal on offer signals little more than a redemption of the status quo from around when Trump returned to office in January and serves as vindication of China's own hardball approach to the Trump administration's coercive tactics. Like, why are you rooting against us even if you don't like tariffs? Which I understand completely.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Why would you want China to win?

[A]

Well, And I don't like tariffs. And also I don't think the facts on the ground reflect that it's gone super well for China since this whole thing started.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

So let's, Even if you don't dig the tariffs, can. Or Trump, can we evaluate it in a fair way?

[C]

No. Fair way. That's the thing, though. Like, you know, we don't expect fairness and it's gone to the point where we don't even, you know, we don't even expect it in, like, most basic ways. Right. It would be so much better if everything was just like, here's our opinion. Because that's really all it is anyway. Like, just be honest and say all of it. This, this whole newspaper's opinion.

[A]

Like, yeah, well, I, I do think that is, I mean, that's essentially, I was a straight journalist when I got into journalism and I decided that as a right leaning person, it would be extremely hard to continue and to rise as a straight journalist. Because once they figure out what you are, they're like, wait, you can't do straight journalism.

[C]

Right.

[A]

So you're sort of relegated to doing opinion journalism. Opinion and reporting, as you and I do sometimes. But I actually think it's helpful for people to know this is where I stand. Right. And this is how I'm evaluating these facts. Right.

[C]

Like, let's stop pretending so that you.

[A]

Can, you can evaluate. Okay, where's she coming from on this? And I try to be an honest broker and I try to be rational about things and as a result, end up writer about a lot of things at CNN than everyone else while I was there because I was coming from a different place. And so that's helpful to know.

[C]

Yeah. And again, everybody has an opinion. Like, let's stop pretending otherwise. Come on.

[A]

Yeah. Well, we'll keep you posted on the G meeting. I'm not rooting against us.

[C]

No, I'm very much rooting for us. And that would be rooting for us even if it were Joe Biden taking this meeting or Kamala Harris or anybody else. Root for America. It's really not that hard.

[A]

Alrighty. We'll take a break on Normally and we'll be back in a moment with another podcast that had some disappointing thoughts on it this week.

[C]

We are back on Normally, and I hate to talk about this subject because I don't want to give it air, but on the flip side, as we were talking about it before, like you said, not giving this air hasn't worked, and that is that Tucker Carlson has gone off the deep end and he had Nick Fuentes on his show this week. I'm disappointed. I really like Tucker. I said this on an episode, you know, on a previous episode, that I liked him when he was a conservative. I don't know what this is anymore. He's obsessed with Israel and Jews. It is the topic on every show. And if it's not on the show, then it's in his newsletter. It's all. All the air in the room for him. And I liked him. We were friendly. I don't overuse the term friends. We weren't friends, but we certainly had a good rapport. We would text and it's sad. He doesn't even look the same to me anymore. He looks like a different person. The eyes are completely different. The smile is completely different. Something happened there, and I don't know.

[A]

Yeah, it's. It's a whole thing. And in keeping with the. The theme of our show, it's not normal. No, this is like, this is a very online discussion. Nick Fuentes is a very online personality, as Tucker has become at this point, because he, he is not with a network anymore. And there are, like, healthy online personalities and unhealthy online personalities. My concern in the past has been, okay, do I want to spend a bunch of my time as a normal person raising a normal family, parsing groipers and all other groups of anti Semites and all of these online fights and figuring out who everyone is in order to push them away, or do I want to be a normal person and do my part? And it feels like you're going to have to be in this if you want to be in this business. You're going to have to understand who these people are to agree. You do a degree you don't really want to and listen to them to a degree you don't really want to in order to say, this is why no. This is why no.

[C]

Yeah, I agree with you. And the silence from so many different quarters on the right is also disappointing. They all see what's going on. They don't want to comment on it because they know it's gross. Nick Fuentes is not anti Israel. He is just an anti Semite. He has little to no opinion on Israel. His only opinions stem from, I don't like Jews, therefore I don't like Israel. And this, you know, washing of his reputation that's going on where Tucker and others are trying to portray him as. No, no, he's just, you know, anti Zionist, whatever. No, not at all. He. He's, you know, just a Racist, anti Semite, and he's just not that interesting a person. And that's the other thing. I feel like the fact that he has a following says some really bad, dark things about, you know, where some people in our country are.

[A]

Yeah, I have trouble understanding the appeal in a lot of these cases, whether it's Candace Owens or Tucker at this point, or Fuentes. And like, you know, some would say that's a weakness of mine. I don't think it's a weakness. And by the way, I think one of the analogs on the left is this Jennifer Welch woman who's become a light of the movement. And just today I saw she gets. Again, this is sort of how you get famous, being very online is that you say outrageous, insane, very, very mean things, and then you're clips go everywhere. And so I saw her today calling Riley Gaines at TWAT and was just like, this is how we create leaders now. Yeah, I know we're trolling all the way down in politics, but like it. At some point, I watched a. I watched a segment of the Fuentest discussion that was about women and porn and sex. After that, my day was pretty much shot. Like. Like, one of my. One of my favorite lines was not about the porn, but it was just Fuentes saying, the women are. They're. They're very emboldened. They're too emboldened. And then there was a lot of discussion about, you know, sort of the dopamine problem with porn and how it burns people out and it's an addiction. And all the points were correct. But when they're paired with, the problem is the women, right? Not the porn. Like, I'm not sure that's going to solve the problem, folks. And at one point also, Tucker was just like, wow, that's a lot of jerking off. And I was like, I think I've heard enough. I think I've heard enough.

[C]

Yeah, it is a lot of jerking off. Actually. Nick Fuentes one time live streamed himself watching gay porn. And guess who he blamed for it? Guess who he blamed for, quote, unquote, hacking his computer. Israel Mar. It was Israel.

[A]

Why'd y' all do that, girl?

[C]

You know, and that's the other thing. Like, like, Mr. You know, have a family, get married young, like conservative, or at least, you know, he was.

[A]

And lived that life, right?

[C]

And we used to talk about that all the time, how that was the most important thing and how, you know, number one for me is that my kids get married and have kids. And he would say, you know, the Same for him. And now he entertains this kind of nonsense and. And people like the Tate brothers who just are misogynist and gross and dumb. Just so dumb. And, yeah, I continue to be massively disappointed in him. I was really on his side after he got fired from Fox. And this is where he is now.

[A]

Yeah. It wasn't a pleasant watch.

[C]

No.

[A]

As my very tame description of it probably indicates. Sorry, guys, my kid is having a fit downstairs.

[C]

The right is going to have to face this. It's going to have to decide whether they are in the movement and if they are, I can say people like me are out. Which, listen, you know, my. All the comments I got on X that good Jews shouldn't be in it anyway, if that's where you want to take it, like, good luck with that. We saw what happened to the left when they entertained their fringe voices, and that's where we are now, at a crossroads of do we entertain this insanity or do we push them aside and move past them?

[A]

Yeah, I think the Seth Dillon thesis is like, you can see what letting the kooks drive did to the left. Do you want to do that or should we. Should we sort of rein it in here?

[C]

Yeah. And look, I like, you know, the people who are speaking out, like Seth Dillon, like you, like a lot of other people, like Dana Lash. I.

[A]

They.

[C]

They're my people. This is who I want on my side for any upcoming. You know, I. I want. I don't want to say war or battles because I don't mean it literally. Metaphorical political battles. Like, this is. This is the squad that I would like to be with.

[A]

Yep. And also not Jennifer Welch.

[C]

We'll be right back with more on normally. And Bill Gates changed his mind. Look at that. We are back on normally, where Bill Gates has had a change of heart about climate change, which is kind of funny because he was a giant. You know, we got to do everything we could to stop climate change. He had an essay that he wrote where he said, I'm going to read from it. Climate change, disease and poverty are all major problems. We should deal with them in proportion to the suffering they cause. Although climate change will have serious consequences, particularly for people in the poorest country, it will not lead to humanity's demise. This is a chance to refocus on the metric that should count even more than emissions and temperature change. Improving lives. Our chief goal should be to prevent suffering, particularly for those in the toughest conditions who live in the world's poorest country. I mean, that's nice.

[A]

Now it can be told, Carol. Yeah, that's old all along.

[C]

I said this to my kids today, like, you know, we're trying to get more into current events and what's going on. And, you know, I, with a note of, like, you may have heard mama say this once or twice in the last few years, that defeating poverty is far more important than any climate goals. You know, it's bizarre, and I'm sure that there's some personal gain here. A lot of people are pointing out that he has some sort of something in the works that he'd get some climate pushback on. Somebody tweeted at me, he's setting up a defense for his AI data centers that will consume massive energy. I mean, that's probably what's going on here. I don't think that he actually had a change of heart, but he needs people to tone down the crazy climate change rhetoric because he's got a business deal in there.

[A]

Well, I think it's a combo of the two. Yes. The data centers are becoming a real energy issue and a populist energy issue that both Republicans and Democrats in races this year are addressing and, and sort of pushing back against because it can raise electricity prices. And they're saying, hey, you guys need to kick in for maintenance of the grid if you're going to have these big power eaters. All of that is worth talking about. But I don't think he had a change of heart. I think his original position was cynical and stupid and he was just freaking people out because that was what was utilitarian at the moment. And now what's beneficial and utilitarian is that people calm down a little bit. But we should have been calmer the whole time. And a person who invented something so world changing should always have been telling people that innovation, technology, freedom, capitalism, create better outcomes for the most impoverished areas. And the quicker you get those, those places, more technology. And by the way, that means more power.

[C]

Yep.

[A]

The better off they're going to be. I'm reading A Fossil Future, which I should have read years ago, but it's, it's by Alex Epstein, and he makes the point, which is, you know, our sort of gut feeling the whole time, which is we only evaluate the energy discussion on the prospective negative consequences.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

We never talk about how it's the lifeblood of everything and how you can't have human flourishing without it.

[C]

Right.

[A]

And the more people have it, the better off they are and the more we are able to create solutions to any possible negative downsides, like.

[C]

Exactly. Yeah.

[A]

I'm so glad you're with us now, Bill. But, like, we've been here for a while.

[C]

Yeah. Nice of you to join us. There was an AP story, like, two days ago that. About how young. Some young people don't want to have kids because of climate change. And you know what's interesting about that also is the Semaphore website. They do this thing where they point out stories that each side isn't reading, like what conservatives aren't reading, what liberals aren't reading. And this was the conservatives aren't reading story, that AP story on young, young people not having kids because of climate change. Maybe because we've read that story like a million times and we know about it and we talk about it more than they do. We talk about the fact that that's ridiculous and stop that.

[A]

And yeah, we should give some, some stats from that. Just, just for perspective, because I hate this thing where leading liberals get to do this thing. All this social credit and, and plaudits for a decade, two decades for being on the panicky side of this. They turn people into this. In a 2024 Lancet study of people 16 to 25 years old, the majority of respondents were very or extremely worried about climate change. The study also found 52% said they were hesitant to have children because of climate change. Adults under 50 years old without children were four times more likely than adults over 50 without children to say that climate plays a factor in their decision, according to a Pew Research center poll. And a study published this year in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that more than half of respondents said yes or maybe to whether climate change made them question having children. Now, from our perspective, having children is like the greatest joy that I have experienced, the greatest fun that I have experienced, and to freak people out to the degree that they change their life trajectory because of something you now think can, like, oh, we can solve that later.

[C]

Yeah, right. They damage this generation of kids. And look, if you want to be extra specific about it, it's not conservative kids, like, conservative kids are not getting the message at home that, like, you know, you shouldn't have kids because there's. Climate change is going to get real bad. You know, we have a joke that we make in our house, which is when the kids were little and they were learning about climate change at school. And I want to diffuse the situation and not make it like a crazy thing. I would say, you know, the world's not going to end. The world is going to be fine. People might not be Here, but the world will be fine and you don't have to worry about it. Nothing that you need to concern yourself with. And it's something I've always talked about also, like, why do we start beating the climate change story to kids in kindergarten? Why? What is the kid gonna do about it? And then they kind of do say to the kids, well, what should we do about it? Like, how about you leave the kids alone and you figure it out yourself? Bill Gates seems like he's, he's fine with not figuring it out anymore.

[A]

Well, I know. And like, as I said, this would have been the crazy right wing position 10 years ago. Right. Which is like, hey, I think we could probably figure this out and maybe we should all chill. Also, a lot of people changed their life plans based on the stupid population bomb from Paul Ehrlich, which was not a real thing. And like, it changes people's lives in bad ways. The anxiety is terrible.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

People shouldn't have to worry about it now, according to Bill Gates. Thanks a lot. And, and I just think there's like, as usual with these huge damaging policy pushes, like keeping schools closed, for instance, there's no one who's held accountable for this. He's just like, oh, yeah, right.

[C]

The whole time he's been flying on his private plane. I mean, oh, yeah. But like, yeah, you know, you shouldn't be, you know, it doesn't matter how rich you are or how, how many people will talk to you on, on the flight.

[A]

Yeah. You know, they don't believe it because if they did, Obama wouldn't have built like three shoreline homes for himself. The. I also wanted to point out just a couple with this. The this has always been a scam. The California. This is from this week, too. The California Public Employees Retirement System for state employees lost 71% of a $468 million investment in a clean energy and technology private equity fund, state records show. But they won't explain how these losses are a major problem for California taxpayers, who at least for now, are the backstop for underfunded state pensions. So all this, like, economy built around this, and I use economy loosely because it's a lot of scam stuff. Loses people money, loses taxpayers money. You remember the Solyndra of the past. There's a thousand of those that we funded. And now California yet again showing its optimum governance by throwing in on this stuff and losing everybody's money.

[C]

Good work, California. Well, thanks for joining us on Normally. Normally airs Tuesdays and Thursdays and you can subscribe anywhere you get your podcasts, get in touch with us@ normallythepodmail.com thanks for listening. And when things get weird, act normally.

[A]

This is an I Heart podcast.