TCB Infomercial: Mike Pesca

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Commercial Break – TCB Infomercial: Mike Pesca

Episode Overview

In this episode of The Commercial Break, hosts Bryan Green and Chris Enjoy Hoadley invite Mike Pesca, a renowned political pundit and host of The Gist, to discuss a range of topics from relationship dynamics influenced by politics to the nuances of his new comedy podcast series. The conversation delves deep into the effects of the recent election, media biases, polling inaccuracies, and the role of comedians in shaping societal narratives.

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1. Welcome and Introduction (00:00 – 01:43)

The episode kicks off with brief advertisements for Instacart and DSW, setting a lighthearted tone. Bryan Green then warmly welcomes Mike Pesca, highlighting his credentials:

Bryan Green [01:53]: "Soon we will be bringing in Mr. Mike Pesca, noted political pundit and overall commentary on current events and news. Used to work for Slate magazine, now host of the very popular daily podcast The Gist."

Bryan humorously notes Mike's intelligence, mentioning his Mensa membership, and sets the stage for an in-depth discussion.

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2. Addressing Listener Questions: Political Differences in Relationships (01:44 – 12:17)

The hosts introduce an "Ask TCB" segment, presenting a listener dilemma:

Listener [03:45]: "My boyfriend and I have been together for four years, recently moved in together about six months ago... two days before the election she learned that her boyfriend would be voting for the candidate she did not care for. She is now rethinking her entire relationship with him. What to do?"

Bryan Green [03:55]: "That's what I mean. You gotta dump them. I don't know any other way to put it."

Mike Pesca [04:00]: "How did that get not get talked about before?"

The discussion navigates the complexities of political disagreements within relationships. Bryan emphasizes that while differences of opinion are normal, the heightened polarization of the 2024 election makes such differences more profound:

Bryan Green [05:25]: "In 2024, these are not differences of opinion. These are like differences in fundamental universal spiritual energy. It's like good versus evil on both sides of the aisle."

Mike concurs, recognizing the emotional and personal stakes involved:

Mike Pesca [09:00]: "I agree. I think it'd be really hard."

The hosts explore the impact of Trent Trump's personality and his influence on political dynamics, ultimately advising the listener on the challenges of maintaining a relationship amid such deep-seated political divides.

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3. The 2024 Election: Polling Accuracy and Media Influence (12:18 – 32:44)

Transitioning from personal relationships to the broader political landscape, Bryan and Chris delve into the recent election results, questioning the accuracy of pre-election polls and the role of media bias.

Bryan Green [25:03]: "How did pollsters get it so wrong? They are essentially futurists. Right? And I don't believe anybody can see into the future."

Chris Enjoy Hoadley [26:33]: "Pollsters did really well in the swing states. They were within a point and a half in Michigan and Wisconsin and a point or two points in Pennsylvania."

They dissect the concept of swing states acting in unison, leading to the combined polling inaccuracies that tipped the election in favor of Trump. The conversation highlights the media's role in shaping voter expectations and the echo chambers that reinforce existing biases.

Chris [30:34]: "There's an audience incentive to not even examine the bias or to lean into the bias, because that's where you make your money."

Bryan [32:07]: "There's a bifurcated audience. We want that echo chamber. It makes us feel good, it warms us, it warms the cockles of our heart."

The hosts critically analyze how modern media outlets, including podcasts like Pod Save America and platforms like MSNBC, contribute to polarized perspectives, ultimately influencing election outcomes and voter satisfaction.

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4. Democratic Resilience and Trump's Potential Actions (32:45 – 41:41)

The conversation shifts to the resilience of democracy in the face of Trump’s potential presidency. Bryan and Chris discuss fears surrounding Trump's policies and actions, such as deportations and pardons related to the January 6th insurrection.

Chris [34:11]: "I do think democracy holds. I do think it will be tested."

They consider the practicalities and economic implications of large-scale deportations, emphasizing the logistical challenges and financial burdens.

Bryan [35:38]: "How are you going to get the money? Where's the manpower?"

Mike Pesca adds a pragmatic viewpoint, suggesting that while Trump’s rhetoric is overwhelming, the existing democratic institutions and dedicated professionals will work to maintain stability.

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5. Introduction to Mike Pesca’s New Comedy Podcast Series (41:42 – 55:35)

Transitioning to a lighter topic, the hosts focus on Mike Pesca's latest venture—a limited comedy podcast series featuring interviews with comedians. This segment explores the intersection of humor and societal commentary.

Mike Pesca [42:48]: "It's called Funny. You Should Mention. It's a limited series where I interview comedians who use humor to highlight societal truths."

Chris [46:52]: "Comedians are pretty important people, pretty important thinkers. They can describe phenomena in a way that resonates deeply with the audience."

The discussion highlights how comedians serve as public intellectuals, using humor to challenge norms and provoke thought without being overtly preachy. They emphasize the effectiveness of blending comedy with insightful dialogue to address complex issues.

Bryan [44:30]: "A good comedian's job is to push the envelope while being emotionally open. They plant seeds that might cause listeners to rethink their perspectives."

Chris [48:10]: "They used to call it 'experience,' but now it's 'lived experience.' It's much more important."

The hosts commend Mike for his ability to make these conversations engaging and meaningful, underscoring the value of bringing comedians into the discourse on societal issues.

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6. Concluding Remarks and Promotions (55:36 – End)

As the episode winds down, Bryan and Chris reflect on their discussions with comedians, categorizing them into three types based on their interview behavior. They praise Mike Pesca for bringing an intellectual edge to The Commercial Break and express optimism for future collaborations.

Bryan [58:07]: "He's an extraordinarily intelligent human being. His show is fact-driven with fascinating guests."

Chris [55:35]: "Both agree that MySpace is the place to be."

The hosts encourage listeners to follow their various platforms, including Twitch and their website, while also promoting upcoming episodes and initiatives.

Chris [62:49]: "Give us your red flags. Tell us why, tell us what perks your interest or what seems like a red flag or a green flag because I want to do a show dedicated to it."

They conclude with a positive note, expressing gratitude towards Mike and maintaining an optimistic outlook on the current political climate.

Bryan [63:14]: "We will stay optimistic until January 20th. I'm very optimistic, Chrissy. I'm staying optimistic."

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Notable Quotes

• Bryan Green [03:55]: "You gotta dump them. I don't know any other way to put it."
• Mike Pesca [04:00]: "How did that get not get talked about before?"
• Bryan Green [05:25]: "In 2024, these are not differences of opinion. These are like differences in fundamental universal spiritual energy."
• Chris Enjoy Hoadley [26:33]: "Pollsters did really well in the swing states. They were within a point and a half in Michigan and Wisconsin and a point or two points in Pennsylvania."
• Bryan Green [32:07]: "There's a bifurcated audience. We want that echo chamber. It makes us feel good."
• Chris Enjoy Hoadley [34:11]: "I do think democracy holds. I do think it will be tested."
• Mike Pesca [42:48]: "It's called Funny. You Should Mention. It's a limited series where I interview comedians who use humor to highlight societal truths."
• Bryan Green [44:30]: "A good comedian's job is to push the envelope while being emotionally open."

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Conclusion

This episode of The Commercial Break provides a thoughtful exploration of the interplay between personal relationships and political affiliations, the reliability of polling in elections, media influence, and the transformative role of comedians in societal discourse. With Mike Pesca's insightful contributions, the hosts navigate complex topics with humor and intelligence, offering listeners both entertainment and meaningful perspectives.

For more content and to engage with the hosts, visit tcbpodcast.com, follow them on Instagram and TikTok, and stay tuned for future episodes and interactive live sessions on Twitch.

Transcript

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[Brian Green]

On this episode of the Commercial break.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

Ooh, maybe that person had a podcast Lower rate.

[Mike Pesca]

I think that might be the case.

[Brian Green]

It might be the case. It might be the case.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

And this guy's like. Like, I'm playing Ho Hos in hocus. I'm busting my ass and this ball. Damn effort.

[Brian Green]

The next episode of the commercial break starts now.

[Producer]

The party of the murder.

[Brian Green]

Oh, yeah. Cats and kittens. Welcome back to the commercial Break. I'm Brian Green. This is my dear friend and the co host of the show, Chris. Enjoy Hoadley. Best to you, Chris.

[Mike Pesca]

Best to you, Brian.

[Brian Green]

Best you out there in the podcast universe, super excited about today's activities, today's events. Soon we will be bringing in Mr. Mike Pesca, noted political pundit and overall commentary on current events and news. Used to work for Slate magazine, Now host of the very popular daily podcast the Gist. And the Gist is taking a long and winding road, and we'll talk to him about this into the land of comedy. I thought that was our lane. But Mike's going to take over, as he always does, because he's much smarter. Smarter than I am, I think. He's actually a member of Mensa, so we'll discuss that with him, one MENSA member to another. We'll have a discussion on the fees and how the locker Rooms have gotten quite messy. Handshake, secret handshakes. And how the locker room has gotten quite messy over there at the Mensa Country Club. But I, I want to get right to an Ask TCB that we received. I thought it was timely. We should discuss it. Let, let everything be on the table here. Chrissy at the commercial break. All the guardrails are now off. TCV.comTCV podcast.com they weren't before. Yeah, but we kind of stayed in a certain lane. I don't open it up just a little bit because I think this is an important question and one that we, that my wife and I have dealt with directly in our own sphere of influence. Like not us, like we haven't dealt with this particular issue but people we know have. So here is the Ask tcb. It's flat out simple. I don't even need to read it. Here it is. My boyfriend and I have been together for four years recently moved in together about six months ago and everybody in the entire world, us, not us included, were affected by the election. Like the ramp up to the election and the stress that comes along with that and all the daily news and daily junk. But without having much conversation about it, the two days before the election she learned that her boyfriend would be voting for the candidate she did not care for. And she is now rethinking her entire relationship with said boyfriend. What to do?

[Producer]

Dump them.

[Brian Green]

That's what I mean. You gotta dump them. I don't know any other way to put it.

[Mike Pesca]

How did that get not get talked about before?

[Brian Green]

I. Well, there's a little bit more to the email. I need to leave out certain identifying like factors. So I don't want to get into every single clue. But I will say this is that they had agreed they were going to vote for one candidate and then a couple of days beforehand he changed his mind and thought for the following reasons, this would be the better candidate. Now of course you probably figure out, you know, she voted for Harris, he voted for Trump. But you know, I'm not gonna allude, I'm just gonna say it out loud and what to do. Here's my opinion on opinion. You can have a difference of opinion. Differences of opinion are what make the world go round. I don't think there's any true, you know, I don't think that a difference of opinion is. I don't like blue cheese stuffed olives. That's an opinion. That is an opinion. Right? Do you really not or I nut fully. I hate blue cheese stuffed olives. God damn. Are they.

[Mike Pesca]

And look at us.

[Brian Green]

That. Fine, but we're not married and we don't live together. I mean, we kind of live together, but you know, only for like four hours, three days a week. So that's good. Yeah. But, you know, we. We have heard about similar situations going on in our own sphere of influence. Yeah. And how this young lady says. It really makes my stomach turn to think that he voted for the op for the other person. Now, let's take out of it who you like or who you don't like. I think in 2024, these are not differences of opinion. These are like differences in fundamental.

[Mike Pesca]

I agree.

[Brian Green]

Universal spiritual energy. Right. It's like good versus evil on both sides of the aisle. I'm sure everyone feels the same way. That is something that is stomach turning. And it's going to be hard to give that guy a hand shandy in the shower when you disrespect his universal spiritual energy. That's really hard. And the fact that he told you two days ahead of time meant that he was just scared. Dared all along to tell you that he was a Musk fanboy. Right. That's just it. And, and so put aside all of the details regarding the political differences. I don't see how you live under the same roof with somebody and literally suck them off when you just despise everything that they feel the world needs to be. How do you do that? I don't know. I'm not. I'm sure there are people that are very civil in this world that could do that. Who is a. Who is that famous couple? George Conway. Kellyanne Conway, divorced now. Oh, they are. Well, there you go. Now you see there you've had it.

[Mike Pesca]

I don't think it worked out.

[Brian Green]

Yeah. And. And Astrid and I've heard from a couple of couples one way or the other that their significant other, they know, voted for the other person and they're very unhappy about it.

[Mike Pesca]

Very, very tough. Because again, I felt like with this election, it wasn't the, you know, like, okay, a moderate Republican, you know, like it wasn't a normal Republican. I feel like you're voting for the actual person.

[Brian Green]

Yeah.

[Mike Pesca]

And his beliefs.

[Brian Green]

Well, he's a populist. Right. He's a populist by all definitions. And by some definitions he's other things. But I'm not going to get into that. I'm not here to poke the honeypot too much. But what I will say is that a populist is. Is a cult of personality by definition. It's somebody that you really like because of who they are, not because of what they stand for. Like, Mitt Romney is a, like, he's just a politician. You either like his platform or you don't like his platform. He is about as personality less as it gets. Yes. And like, I know about Mitt and all. I mean, Chrissy and I worked for Mitt for like three months. And so we know all about the guy and, you know, his beliefs and all that other bullshit. You don't need to do too much research. But Mitt Romney is just a vessel through which, you know, political action will take place or not take place. Trump is a personality. He changes his mind every fucking five seconds. He doesn't know what he's for or what he's against. It doesn't matter. Whoever the, whichever room he's in will dictate his agenda, particularly. And there's no particular platform whatsoever. Now, a lot of people will say the same thing about Harris, although she had like, a truncated amount of time to put that platform out there. I think she tried to play the same card. Will you vote for me because you like me? Right. And we can see how well that went. But, you know, I gotta tell you, young lady, I, I don't know. I mean, and she's young, too. This, this woman who, who, who dialed up and, and let us know. This is like 29 years old. You got a lot of life living ahead of you, and this might not be the one. I'm just sharing that with. I don't know how you're going to get through the next four years when he's rooting on everything that you dislike. That's a really hard thing to do. And if you do it, you're better than I am. And it doesn't mention children or dogs or cats or anything like that. So give him the fish and let him walk out. Let him go on his way. That's my opinion. That's my opinion. That is an opinion. That is an opinion. Not a fundamental, you know, spiritual energy that I have. I just.

[Mike Pesca]

I agree. I think it'd be really hard.

[Brian Green]

It's very difficult. Yeah. And I think that's, like, my personal opinion is that it's difficult in 2024 for all of us, no matter what side of the aisle you're on, to look at each other on the opposite aisle and say, fundamentally, I want to, like, hang out with you. I want to be your friend. I, I think you're a great person. Because politics has become so deeply emotional for everybody, because it really has become deeply personal for a lot of people. Like the, some of the things that some people on both sides of the aisle are talking about doing or not doing are like fundamental rights, like things that can change your life and generations and generations in a heartbeat. And so when you, when it gets that part, like I don't care If State Highway 90 is named after a traffic reporter that died in a terrible accident. That to me does not affect my life whatsoever. A penny gas tax so the schools can get more pencils. That doesn't affect me. Except for maybe in my, in my pocketbook. Like I'm going to deport you tomorrow because. Because is another thing altogether. Not that I don't believe that we should have, you know, laws or borders, but like just some of the rhetoric and some of the things that are being said are so fiery and so firebrand on both sides of the aisle. Just to let you know that because there are people on the left who have equally like life changing things they want to do to people for people around people, that it's hard not to look at somebody on the other aisle and say, if you believe in that stuff, do I believe in you? Like, that's a really difficult thing to do. So I will say this to this young lady. Thank you for listening to the commercial break. Your boyfriend is a terrible person and he should be kidding. No, I don't know. I don't know how you make it work.

[Mike Pesca]

Let us know how it works out.

[Brian Green]

I'm sure she would.

[Mike Pesca]

I mean, that's tough after removing it in together too.

[Brian Green]

Oof. I think the decision has already been made. If I'm being Just the fact that she texted in. I mean, I think the decision was made when he told you this. And I can only imagine if you're as fiery as I am. I can only imagine the conversation that went down when the two of you decided to go vote. Like, how do you, how do you even. I don't know, how do you approach that subject? How do you smooth that over? How do you make that better? You know, how do you make that better? I'm not sure. I don't know. I don't know how you do. Yeah.

[Mike Pesca]

Because even if you do say, try and say, hey, okay, agree to disagree and let's not even talk about it. You're still there. There's that little kernel in your brain and I know and it's going to fester and especially over these next four years, we'll see.

[Brian Green]

But yeah, like, I don't know, you know, when you like, you have differences. It's like I didn't care for the spring salad that you made tonight. You know, I mean, that's like a difference of. That's like a difference. It's like a little argument that you guys have. You know, I just didn't care for it. It didn't taste good. I don't like walnuts. Whatever the deal is, when it's like I don't have autonomy over my body, that's. That's a whole different animal.

[Mike Pesca]

Exactly.

[Brian Green]

It really is. So good luck to you, young lady. I hope everything turns out well for you and the rest of the earth. To be quite frank, the hoping everything, uh, turns out well. Did you hear that, too?

[Mike Pesca]

I'm trying to be positive. Trying.

[Brian Green]

It's hard. It's hard. It's hard. But you gotta remember, we are on the. We voted for the person on the losing side. Doesn't mean that I loved everything about Harris or hate everything about Trump and their agenda.

[Mike Pesca]

Exactly.

[Brian Green]

It just means that when you lose, there's always a lump in your throat and a sour belly. Always. So I'm trying not to be too, like, you know, kicking my dirt and stuff like that, but at the end of the day, this. It hurt. It hurts, and we're all still feeling it, and it hasn't even even started yet. So there you go. It hasn't even started yet. So this will be a. For sure. Without a doubt, there will be political conversation on this particular episode of the commercial break, because we have invited Mike Pesca weeks ago to come in and have this conversation around his new comedy podcast, Focus. He's talking to comedians around the world, a lot of the same comedians we are talking to. One that I listened to last night was Rachel Feinstein, who is fantastically funny. He has a podcast called the Gist. It's terribly popular. A lot of people like it. He is a. He is a pragmatic pragmatist, if you will, and he's a lovely human being, but a friend of the shows for a long time. We just never had a chance to bring him in. And so, I mean, we never took guests until recently anyway. But I'm so glad he's coming in. Mike Pesca from the Gist in. In just a few moments. So let's do this. Let's take a break, and when we get back, we'll have Mr. Mike Pesca here with us on the commercial break.

[Mike Pesca]

Nice.

[Christina]

In case you guys were wondering, I am currently trapped in the closet in the studio being forced to record liner after liner and I never get to leave. So help me by following us on Instagram at the commercial break and on TikTok at tcbpodcast and go to our website tcbpodcast.com for more information about Brian and Chrissy and access to our massive catalog of video and audio episodes. Now Please text us at 212-4333, TCB and tell Brian and Chrissy to let me out of the closet.

[Producer]

This episode is sponsored in part by ZBiotics pre alcohol let's face it, most of us are not 21 years old partying like we used to. We have to make the choice between a great night or a great morning after. At least that's what we thought, Chrissy and I, until we tried pre alcohol. I don't drink a whole bunch anymore and I was on the fence about this one. But a few weeks ago Aster and I went out for some drinks for my bir. The pre alcohol was sitting on the counter and I decided why not give it a try. And let me tell you, pre alcohol is the real deal. ZBiotics Pre alcohol Probiotic drink is the world's first genetically engineered probiotic. This was invented by PhD scientists to tackle rough mornings after drinking. Let me tell you how it works. When you drink, alcohol gets converted into a toxic byproduct in your gut. It's this byproduct, not dehydration, that's to blame for your rough next morning. But pre alcohol produces an enzyme to break this byproduct down. You just need to remember to make ZBiotics your first drink of the night. Drink responsibly and then you're going to feel your best tomorrow. I kept hearing about pre alcohol and I wondered what is it actually like? Now that I've tried it, I get why everyone is talking about it. And with their GMO technology, ZBiotics is continuing to invent probiotics that will help the everyday challenges of modern living. So go to ZBiotics.com commercial to learn more and get 15% off your first order when you use that code commercial at checkout. ZBiotics is backed by a 100% money back guarantee, so if you're unsatisfied for any reason, they will refund your money, no questions asked. All you have to do is head to zbiotics.com commercial and use that code commercial at checkout for the 15% off. Thank you ZBiotics for being a sponsor of a wonderful morning after drinks and of the commercial break.

[Jenna Fisher]

I'm Jenna Fisher and I'm Angela Kinsey we are best friends and together we have the podcast Office Ladies where we rewatched every single episode of the Office with insane behind the scenes stories, hilarious guests and lots of laughs.

[Brian Green]

Guess who's sitting next to me?

[Instacart Advertiser]

Steve.

[Jenna Fisher]

Ian, Iris Carell in the studio. Every Wednesday we'll be sharing even more exclusive stories from the Office and our friendship with brand new guests and we'll be digging into our mailbag to answer your questions and comments. So join us for brand new Office Ladies 6.0 episodes every Wednesday. Plus on Mondays we are taking a second drink. You can revisit all the Office Ladies rewatch episodes every Monday with new bonus tidbits before every episode. Well, we can't wait to see you there. Follow and listen to Office Ladies on the free Odyssey app and wherever you get your podcasts.

[Angela Kinsey]

This episode is brought to you by Allstate. Some people just know they could save hundreds on car insurance by checking Allstate First. Like, you know, to check the date of the big game first before you accidentally buy tickets on your 20th wedding anniversary and have to spend the next 20 years of your marriage making up for it. Yeah, checking first is smart. So check Allstate first for a quote that could save you hundreds. You're in good hands with Allstate Savings. Vary terms apply. Allstate Fire and Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates Northbrook, Illinois and Mike Pesca from.

[Brian Green]

The gist here now. Mike's thanks for joining us. We certainly appreciate it. Hello, it's my live from the Cat Habitat in Brooklyn, New York. If I'm not mistaken.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

Cat pat. Correct.

[Brian Green]

The cat pat. How are the cats?

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

They're good. They don't.

[Brian Green]

Are they both hairless or just one of them? Hairless?

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

No, Nokia and Matzah are both hairless. They don't know that though.

[Brian Green]

So they just, they lick themselves regardless.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

You know who else is hairless who is.

[Brian Green]

Yes.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

Sensitive about me and you just. But the amount, you know what the receptivity to all the good lotions they've come out with. Yeah, pretty good. That's a pretty big upside.

[Brian Green]

Wait, the lotions that take away the hair?

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

No, I'm just saying that there are many products, there are many lotions for the bald head and if I had hair there, I wouldn't appreciate them as much.

[Brian Green]

Yes, there you go.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

Your emoluments, your rub ins, etc.

[Brian Green]

I have a 38 minute routine after I get out of the shower that does not include the hour and a half I spend in the shower. Notorious for long showers that's why I got a water heater that's the size of one of my bedrooms. But at the same time, I'd love a good lotion. And I gotta say, I love a good lotion. I've just become this way in my old age.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

And it's good to put it on your heads because when it's on other parts of your bodies, you know, slippage can result. But the head is usually up there alone navigating the world. Did you see the SNL song about the bald man?

[Brian Green]

Yes, I did.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

I don't know, I didn't understand their point. I mean, it's good to be seen, right?

[Brian Green]

Yes, it is good to be seen. Mike, you are a noted, I want to say a pundit, an observationist. I mean, you are really good at what you do do on the gist because you are so damn intelligent. Are you part of Mensa?

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

It's funny because my wife and I just took IQ tests and after me telling her that there are a lot of statistics that show the ideal IQ in a mate and leader is 120. So I thought she'd be about a 120. She tested higher than that and then I tested lower, so.

[Brian Green]

Oh, no, I wasn't.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

I have a lot of excuses, a number of them like I wasn't paying attention. Right. I didn't mean it, you know. You know, you shouldn't get sarcastic on an IQ test.

[Brian Green]

No, I love it. But you're. I consider you a brilliant guy, one of the smarter guys that I've known in my life. And it would not be fair to the audience for me to let you start this conversation without sharing your thoughts on the recent election and why the Democrats lost and why Trump has won yet again. The Teflon Don avoids consequences of any actions and he also gained followers. You know, he gained popularity.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

How did this happen?

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

Pick any ethnic group or any group at all in America that he was supposed to have offended, and he actually gained with all of them. Every single one of them, Right?

[Brian Green]

Yeah.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

The only ones he didn't offend were college educated whites. He didn't bother going against them. I guess he needed their money and he did well with them.

[Brian Green]

Yeah.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

So. So this, the, the election results was. The word is overdetermined. Do you know what I mean by that?

[Brian Green]

Yeah, explain.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

Yeah. Many different reasons.

[Brian Green]

Yes.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

It's a horrible college educated white term for many different reasons. And if you took out one of them, he probably still would have won. But I would say in order, number one, inflation. It's Killed every incumbent party the world over. And no matter who the Democrats were running in this term, they probably would have lost. But who the Democrats were running was number two. And I don't think Kamala Harris was some sort of awful candidate.

[Brian Green]

No, I don't think so at all.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

She only had 106 days. She wasn't running with her own people. And if there was a regular primary and if she was awful and that did happen once, I mean awful, but she was unappealing, she wouldn't have been the candidate. So like there is a logic to having a primary and testing people and making sure they get their bad answers out of the way then. So that was two. I think the third one is the what the Democratic Party, the brand, what it means to people. And a lot of it's deserved. And I have an article in the Atlantic called the HR Ification of the Democratic Party. And you've worked in corporate jobs, you both have. And HR might be necessary, but it's definitely not beloved. And I just think the Democrats come across as the HR department, you know, their initiatives and their supposed fund that is compelled and their bureaucracy and their form filling and their DEI and they're not really being that essential to the mission, all that stuff. It's just like a bummer of an experience. And even if the non reptilian parts of your brain are saying to yourself, well we need HR and aren't the Democrats kind of the adults in the room.

[Brian Green]

It just doesn't feel good, you know, it doesn't. I think I agree with you here is that it feels a little nanny ish, right. The whole situation. And then you know, some parts of the Democratic Party I think get be and my father in law has this saying that extremes on both sides end up in the same place. Right. And so I think that on the way opposite end there's just like this very loud segment of the Democratic Party that rings that bell way too much. And it does feel a little nanny ish and it kind of. It's like a buzz killer, right? It's a fun sponge. It's taking all the fun out of what we're supposed to be doing. And I think that the people in the middle who are me and you and Chrissy and whoever else I would like to think anyway feel not attached to it as much as maybe we should. And the message gets lost a little bit.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

Right. Because what is the, what's one main job of the HR department? Compliance. They literally, they'll admit that. And compliance isn't what we Turn to politics for it's not aspirational. And, you know, Donald Trump, for all his flaws, he's certainly not offering compliance, is he?

[Brian Green]

No.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

And, and I think that the Democrats, you know, and that extreme loud part of the party, they have big sway on Democrats who want to say normal things that would appeal to normal people, but they're a little afraid of what that part of the party will say. And recently we had a couple of representatives, of course, only after the election, saying maybe we should have said something about, you know, boys and girls teams and girls on boys teams. And the answer was no. That's just bigotry. And even if you think it is bigotry, they couldn't even make a point other than it was bigotry. They ignored that really, really effective commercial that Donald Trump everywhere, and therefore they them. And it was everywhere. And it wasn't the sort of thing you could put up on PolitiFact or fact check and say, oh, no, she never said that. Like, she did say that.

[Brian Green]

Yeah.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

So just, I don't think, hey, I said overdetermined. Right.

[Brian Green]

And yeah, there's so many different reasons.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

It's definitely not about the trans rights issue, but it is sort of what that symbolized in terms of Kamala Harris giving like a really bad, weird answer because she thought it was the spirit of the time, but also the inability of Democrats to be a little sensible about that and say, yeah, I heard that ad and I don't agree with it and I hear your concerns. They don't say that, you know, because the HR department essentially, that they are, tells them not to.

[Brian Green]

Yes. Well, and I, as Chrissy and I were sharing a couple of days ago, the hard fact is it's really not overdetermined. More people showed up to vote for Trump that voted for Harris in the states where it mattered. And he gained amongst a lot. Almost every swing state he gained and less Democrats or less. People who voted for Biden last time showed up at the, at the ballot box. The excitement that we all thought was in the air was not really in the air. Right.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

How did pollsters get this so wrong?

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

Well, a couple of points. I hated the joy part of the campaign. I just like, if the campaign is joyous, be joyous, but don't be explicitly joyous or meta joyous. It's like Kamala's coming to town. What she's selling, what programs. Joy. That is not what I go to a Harris rally for or a concert for. Yeah, yeah. And then the brat summer thing, they shouldn't lose because of Bratz Summer. But that lasted a little too long and no one understood it. And as soon as like Jake Tapper on CNN was making jokes about it, you know, it was dead. And Jake's a cool guy for a 55 year old newsman, but it ain't Brad.

[Brian Green]

What about we said this when it was happening. I was like, when the news guys are trying to explain Brad Summer, it's over. Like it's done.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

You have, you know, like dances to ymca. It's the worst form possible. Somehow we put that in a part of our brain of beloved grandpa at a. Well, maybe not beloved, but tolerated grandpa at a wedding. And when Kamala or the people around her think that brat is the selling point, we just go now. Yeah, yeah. So wait, what was your original question?

[Brian Green]

The pollsters, how did they get it so wrong? They are essentially futurists. Right? And I don't believe anybody can see into the future. People have been trying to do this for, you know, since the beginning of time. They've been trying to see into the future. And I can tell what's going on. But is it time to say that the polling as it has been traditionally in the past, it's just a dead version of trying to see the future?

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

I'm a blow your mind, Brian.

[Brian Green]

Here it comes.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

Blow that ball. Mind the, mind the glasses.

[Brian Green]

Yeah.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

Pollsters did really well.

[Brian Green]

You think so?

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

Yes. In the swing states. First of all, we all know about margin of error and you can't really expect a poll to get it right within one point or two points. If you talk to 4,000 people and you could correctly figure out where and you nail where 2000 are going, but you don't nail where 1770 are going. You didn't do a bad job. And that's usually what the pollsters did. And if you look at the really close states, they were, I think they missed a little in Arizona, but they were within like a point and a half in Michigan and a point and a half in Wisconsin and a point or two points in Pennsylvania. They actually did really well in the margin of error. And Nate Silver, who I guess took some heat because he said it's very, very, very close, but he thought Kamala Harris, he didn't think his numbers show Kamala Harris would win, although he wrote an article in the New York Times two weeks before saying that's what the numbers say. My gut says Trump's going to win. He had, day before the election, a chart of all the likely outcomes or all the possible Outcomes in terms of the electoral college. And if you look at his chart, the number one outcome that he predicted would happen, the most likely outcome was Trump winning exactly 312 electoral votes. How many electoral votes did Trump win?

[Brian Green]

322. Was it 312? 312. Geez. You know, I did watch. Exactly. Yeah, I did watch Nate Silver, and I know that he came close. So I guess I want to maybe illuminate a different point. Why does everyone feel so let down? Everyone got so excited because the pollsters showed that, you know, Kamala's on the upswing, the undecideds are swinging toward Kamala. It's going to be a close election, but we can. I'd rather be Kamala than be Trump. And I guess if you're living in an echo chamber, then other than on the other side, they were saying the same thing about Trump. But. But everybody that I have spoken with that I consider relatively intelligent about this stuff and informed voters. Fuck the polls. The polls were so wrong. He took all the swing states. But you make an interesting point, is that the margin of error is 3 points, plus or minus. They got it right. 3 points, plus or minus. They did. And every swing state was within a point at the last. Most of the last polls that came out were within a point. Yeah. So what happens now? Does democracy.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

Let me tell you one more thing about that, please. So, you know, odds and maybe, you know, sports, gambling, or people in your audience do. And if there's a 50% free throw shooter, what are the chances he makes seven free throws in a row? Or what's the chance there are seven heads in a row? Yeah, the answer is one out of 128. Right. It's one over two, 50% of the time times seven.

[Brian Green]

Yep.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

So you say. Wait, so then they were wrong when they said seven swing states were all a coin flip, and they got them all wrong. Wrong. But states and elections don't work like coin flips. It's actually correlated. So if Pennsylvania goes one way, for the most part, Michigan's going to go that way, and Wisconsin is going to go that way. And the same is true with Georgia and North Carolina. They're going to go in unison. Arizona and Nevada are going to go in unison, and then they're all connected. So, like, if everyone's a little wrong in one direction, they're most likely going to be all wrong in one direction. And that's what happened. I think we kind of confused what coin flip meant seven times versus the fact that it's an Election I. And we just want, we want to be. Why are people who lost the election disappointed when they were told it was close? Obviously they're going to be very disappointed because they had a lot invested in it. And then there is motivated reasoning for why you see a cloud and think it's a cowboy and not a spaceship. Right.

[Brian Green]

Yeah. Interesting.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

And then there's the fact that a lot of the people, a lot of the people in our media aren't like the media when we were kids, which really. Not just. Not that they don't care, but it was very incumbent upon them not to favor one side or the other. Most media consumption is by people who want an outcome and they're not diverse in terms of which media you're looking at. So MSNBC knows, knows that 90 something percent of its viewers want Kamala to win. So when you have people who want to hear that, you're more incentivized. I'm not say people were lying, but you're more incentivized to see the cloud as a cowboy.

[Brian Green]

Yes.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

Or to only tell your audience things that will get them excited. Plus, there is the component of some of these outlets. I was listening to the Dan Bongino show. He's a conservative guy, former Secret Service agent, and the day of the election, his pitch was, we're going to win. I'm telling you, we're going to win all the. And then he would cite, he would cite early voting, which actually did trend for Republicans. And we could have seen that if we looked at it. But he was saying, we need you to go out and vote. We need you to do this because if you don't execute the plan, we're not going to win as much as we know we can. Now, MSNBC wouldn't be that explicit, but they're essentially trying to motivate their viewers to vote because everyone at that network wants a win. And so we're not in a situation where people are just reporting the news really in an unbiased way. Bias exists in human nature.

[Brian Green]

Right.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

But I think now more there is an audience incentive to not even examine the bias or to lean into the bias, because that's where you make your money. That's what the audience is telling you.

[Brian Green]

I agree with you. There's a bifurcated audience. We want that echo chamber. It makes us feel good, it warms us, it warms the cockles of our heart. It assures us that, you know, Rachel Maddow is telling us all the good news out of the polls, while the bad news is largely ignored. And so, and to some degree we are getting what we asked for, right? They're just following the trends of living in echo chambers. All of us in this siloed media environment.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

Pod Save America, right? Which is all a bunch of former Obama guys. And it's newsy. They're telling you nonfiction, but that's not a news show. It seems newsy. I'm not saying they're lying to you. They're not presenting as something else. But you're like, oh, I listen to a lot of news. I listen to Pod Save America. That's not news. Those are democratic operatives trying to get a democratic result, trying to give you good news. Probably a little self deluded themselves. And it's a lot different from the ideal of Walter Cronkite.

[Brian Green]

So let me ask you this. What happens now? Does the democracy crumble? Does democracy fail? Do we have another fair election? Do we have any elections whatsoever? Is the worst of liberals fears and tears going to come true? Or is this just a lot of bluster to make us scared of the other side of the aisle? And the fact is democracy holds.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

Yeah, I do think democracy holds. I do think it will be tested. And the clearest indication of this is it happened from 2017 through 2020 and it held. Now I know all the arguments. Oh, there are no guardrails. Well, we've seen who Trump is picking and there are some head scratchers and there are some, I think, pleasant surprises with say, Marco Rubio. Seems of the people to be Secretary of State. Seems like a fair enough pick for Donald Trump. So it is true that you could look at all societies and all of them, all the big ones from the Romans to the Ottomans have crumbled. But it's also not true that if you were living inside those societies, you'd get it right the moment that it does crumble.

[Brian Green]

Fair enough.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

So I do think the thing that saved us first time around were competent people doing their jobs. Competent people in the Justice Department and in the different agencies and in Homeland Security. And those people are still there. They're dedicated to doing their jobs. They're still paid to do their jobs. They probably a bunch of them don't like Trump. So they're incentivized to do their jobs. He's not a guy with a ton of follow up. Also, I don't think he's literally a Hitler figure. I don't think he's a murderous psychotic. I think he's someone who's very vain and very thin skinned and likes to punish his enemies. But it'll just take so much work to effectively punish his enemies. So, for instance, I don't think Kamala Harris is going to be in an orange jumpsuit unless, you know, that's her fashion choice. That's. I don't think that some of the big name people that he threatened to prosecute, I don't think that'll happen. But on my show, I was talking to an expert who was saying what he can do is launch investigations. And the little guy, people we don't heard of, people who signed off, signed off on a document or was the special counsel Jack Smith's assistant. I don't know. Maybe they did something wrong, maybe they did nothing wrong, but they're going to spend a lot on lawyers to try to defend themselves. That's terrible. That's horrible. Does it affect your life? Unless it gets to the point of full scale political prosecutions, no. The other thing he's going to do is he's. I think he's definitely going to pardon some January 6th insurrection. That's bad.

[Brian Green]

Yeah.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

What can you do? And then there's the question of deportations. And some will happen. And it's. What's the scale? You know, there's. He says there's 20 million unlawful people unlawfully in America. That's probably too high. It's probably 12. If he went after even 3 or.

[Brian Green]

4 million, it would be a big deal.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

It would be a big deal, but it would also, like, really hurt the economy. He doesn't want to hurt the economy. He doesn't want to hurt stock markets. His stated tariff deal is never going to go in at that high price point because it would wreck the economy. This happened the first time. When he says something in his speech and people cheer. He'll keep saying it, but he usually. That's the sign that he doesn't usually believe in. I don't think he ever believed Mexico was going to pay for the wall. When he says something over and over, not in a speech like his goal of deportation and his pardons, that's probably something he will do, but will probably survive it.

[Brian Green]

You know, optimist as far as deportations are concerned, I'm an optimist, too. And, you know, a lot of the things that Trump said last time and granted he did, you know, it's kind of like the gang that couldn't shoot straight. Right. A lot of these things did not come true because democracy held or because Trump just kind of let it go. He just like it fell apart. And as far as deportation is concerned. I read somewhere that a call sound after average about 140,000 to $400,000 to deport one person from the United States of America and fly them back to their home country, if the home country will take them at all. That is a massive amount of money. If you're talking about even 2 million people.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

Where does the money come from? Where's the manpower? Where are the hours going to come from? And what are we. What ball are we dropping if we all start focusing on, you know, our ebolita who's been here for 20 years, not bothering and anybody. So that. That's that. And I, I have to, you know, I have to think that at the end of the day, this is a lot like high school for those who are. And what I mean by high school, the first day of high school is it's never as good as you hoped it would be. It's never as bad as you feared it would be. Right. It's somewhere in the middle. It ends up being just kind of a ho hum day where maybe a few little exciting things happen.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

Right.

[Brian Green]

And I think that's.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

And what we forget about in retrospect were things like how much your sweater itched and how tired you were in the morning. And he's like little indignities. And then you remember, I don't know, maybe if the prom was good or that one game where the football team, you know, out kicked the competition. And so our memory. And this is probably why Trump won, right? Our memory of it was a little gauzy. Although I do have to say about that deportation number. You know, I'm sure the Trump people would say, well, that's all. It's only that high because we haven't been doing it enough. If you do it at scale will lower the number. Then again, if you deport the people on planes and they, you know, buy that snack kit, that's like 7.99. We have to not let them do that. I'm a humanitarian, but.

[Brian Green]

Yeah.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

Shouldn't allow them to buy the.

[Brian Green]

No more. Yeah, yeah.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

Just the pretzels. That's what I'm saying.

[Brian Green]

Yeah.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

Not the cheese plate. Come on, guys. Country to run here.

[Brian Green]

We can't give champagne out on the deportation flight. Well, listen, you know, you make me feel better because you are a pragmatic pragmatist, Mike. If you're anything and you make me feel a little bit better because I, you know, I was saddened by the result. I can't say that I wasn't a little Bit shocked. But I also probably had that delusional optimism that comes with any election that is close, as I did in 2016, as I did in 2020 and ended up on the, on the side of the coin that I chose shows. But the reality, I think is there's a lot of bluster going on right now. And I think at the end of the day, most of this bluster ends up just being a fart in the wind. And the other thing is that Elon Musk is going to tear apart the country. No, he's not. Congress can only do that. And with a Congress with a House that's going to be so close regardless, I don't think much of anything is going to get done just like it hasn't gotten done in the last eight years. I mean, I don't think anything is going to get done. That is the bad thing is that there is no action.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

There is a lot of. I understand he's a weirdo jumping around billionaire richest guy in the world and quote unquote, bought the election. He spent $100 million on a get out the vote effort that didn't really get out the vote. I mean, the vote got out by itself. But you know, Gates and Bloomberg, billionaires I like, they combined to spend, to spend $100 million. Kamala Harris had billionaires and millionaires billionaires funding this pack called Future Forward that raised $700 million and tested ads. She had a lot more billionaire support, millionaire support. So one of the things getting you down is like this election was bought and it was bought by the richest people in the world. Actually, the richest people in the world mostly threw away their money on their preferred candidate.

[Brian Green]

Yes, I agree with, I was talking to someone texting with someone the other day and they were pissing and moaning about Elon Musk bought the election and Elon Musk and Elon Musk and I, I said let's not yell. Let, let he who cast the first stone not throw too many more. Because the truth is most billionaires, celebrities, corporate, you know, corporate high flyers, they're mostly quietly moving toward Harris because that's the administration they prefer. And Jeff Bezos, you know, you have to say masterclass move, not allowing the Washington Post to publish, publish an editorial for whatever reason he, he had stated. But at the end of the day, he ended up on the. If you're Jeff Bezos, you don't want to be in the sights of Trump. It's just going to make for a miserable experience for the next four years. But our media is all bought and paid for anyway, so what does it really matter?

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

And also, you know, I. I do see silver linings. Elon Musk understands that climate change is real, and if he has an important role in the administration, maybe he'll moderate Trump on that issue.

[Brian Green]

Yes.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

Let's say America turns into the national equivalent of the cyber truck in four years. I'm going to be a little.

[Brian Green]

They're very ugly, Mike. They're very, terribly ugly.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

I mean, like, if someone gifted you a cybertruck, you'd say, no.

[Brian Green]

No, I would say no, I don't like it. I honestly think it's one of the most distracting things. They're all over here in Atlanta, you know, this Kia.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

Is that it? Is that what it's called?

[Brian Green]

The sportage? Yeah, the Kia Sportage.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

Much worse knowing.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, but I'm not making a statement with my Kia Sportage when I'm driving up at a.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

You are unwilling to make a statement.

[Brian Green]

Well, they're, they're built here in Georgia, so I'm just supporting the local economy. Or they're built actually right over the state line. But we say they're built in Georgia. Yeah, you make me feel a little bit better, Mike. I always enjoy talking to you about this. Okay, so, Mike, but you're not here to talk about the election. You just happen to have come at a very sensitive time, very charged up time for. For us. But you really came to talk about your new series of interviews with comedians and comedians, which is just wonderful because you are a great conversationalist and you are doing a great job talking to these comedians in a way that I don't think we get a chance to dig in or would get a chance to dig in. It's just a very different room. Tell us more about this.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

Yeah, it's called Funny. You should mention it's a limited series, and I think we're going to do another one because this one's been so successful. And my idea was comedians are pretty important people, pretty important thinkers. A lot of times they'll put their finger on something societally true and they'll convince everyone or in some way describe a phenomenon. And then that's the description that takes hold there. The Saturday Night Live sketch with Tom Hanks about poor people and white people and them voting for Trump. That became one of those things that cut through because it was comedy and under. And explained us to ourselves. Yeah, comedians are not to be too highfalutin. I don't think they like being called philosophers. They're kind of public Intellectuals, they can be, right. Some of them just tell dick jokes. And what I say is God bless. Some of them, Louis CK or Shane Gillis will want to essentially have a premise and comedically convince you of the premise. It's more interesting for them and to fans of comedians like that, more interesting for us. Wanda Sykes does it. It's done on the left and the right. So I wanted to take these comedians who are essentially doing humorous op eds and talk to them, as I do every day on my show, about just like the people who write actual op eds. Right. Why do you say this? How do you back this up? But I never lose sight of the real point with a comedian isn't to make a point, it's to be funny. So how do you say this in a way that maximizes being funny? How do you say this in a way that is true but not so true? Comedians Ha. Clapter. So these are the discussions I've been having and so far it's been really interesting to me and the audience has responded well.

[Brian Green]

I am so interested in comedians and their effect on the world. It's part of the reason why we have interviewed so many of them here on the show. Their effect on the world, their ability to push the envelope, to invite new ideas into society or normalize through laughter. Ideas that otherwise were taboo or maybe frowned upon. I really think a good comedian. Comedian. A good, as you said, op Ed comedian. Right. If you want to say it like that. A good op ed comedian's job, like a Chris Rock or whoever is to push the envelope while you're at your most vulnerably emotionally open. And that is when you're laughing, when you find something funny or you agree with something and find it funny because you yourself are that idiot. Right? You yourself have that opinion. You yourself are on the other side of the joke and then it plants that seed. Maybe I'm wrong about this or maybe I should change my mind. Or he thinks it's cool. So now I think it's cool. And comedians often have just a wonderful vessel to bring those ideas into our head in a way that the news or pundits or commentarians cannot. Because you're just. You're just in a different space. You're in different energetic space.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

And I like how you're getting to the bottom of that. And this goes back to Plato, but.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

We definitely don't talk about. But you know, he would point to the fact that he was pretty suspicious of humor because he thought it was. Well, you're just sneaking in under the tent, making people laugh and filling them with bad ideas. But what a lot of these comedians think about is why do we think this way? And then they, perhaps alone in our society, are allowed and incentivized to say the opposite of the group think or to try to explore why we are saying things this way, and then to play around with a premise that might seem offensive. And one great thing that I talk to comedians, what they love is when they start off with the premise that we all agree on, and then they take the opposite side of the premise, and then they essentially convince people, you know what, maybe you're right. Like Sam J. Talking about, why shouldn't blackface be acceptable? Which is something that most of us would say, whoa, hey, yeah, Makes her point. Is she being absurd? Is she exaggerating? A little bit of both. But at the end you're like, huh, that is interesting. There is a contradiction there, you know, and yes, maybe it's just funny, but it is thoughtful. And so the thoughtful part I'm really, really fascinated with.

[Brian Green]

And yeah, I think this is a good lane for you, Mike. I think you should continue to do this because it's a good intersection of. Well, here, let me. Let me back up for a second. I don't think most people go to a comedy show to be preached to or to find a new ide idea or to have their minds open in any. In any spectrum. I don't think most people think on that level. Some do, but I think. And some understand who they're going to see right there when they go to see, I don't know, Shane Gillis or when you go to see Sam Morrill. You know, when you're walking in the door, there are going to be seeds planted, there are going to be ideas. They're really good at that. But I don't think most people think that. But you have an inner. There's an intersection there between intellectual and comedy that I find myself fascinated by. And you do a really good job of bringing that, at least in the ones that I've seen. You do a really good job of bringing that out in the communities. Who's your favorite? What is your favorite nugget of information, truth, surprise that you've received in these conversations?

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

Well, let's see, as I go through them, you know, I had. I suppose I had a. Not. Not so much a debate, but I did push back on Sam J. And what we got to was the prizing of lived experience, as they say. They used to just call it experience, but then they put A lived in front of it.

[Brian Green]

I wonder why.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

Yeah, so much more important.

[Brian Green]

Sounds snobby.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

Yeah, it's a little bit. Right. And I'm a little more, I guess, data driven and thinking, okay, but if that's just an anecdote, why would that, you know, essentially apply to the entire population? But, but I did have my mind a little bit changed about the importance, especially what she's doing through art of talking about, you know, her lived experience and being essentially profiled by police when she was nine years old and earlier. Yeah, so that was good. That changed me. Roy Wood and I had a similar conversation. Alex Edelman, which wasn't part of this series, but definitely part of what I do. That was a great conversation. That guy just won a Tony and an Oscar. Oscar for his, his one man show. Yeah. And so I, I just have pretty much enjoyed all of them. I've got something out of all of them and they're all funny here or there. So like, you might think, well, you, you do this a lot. Hey, come on, you don't have to be quote unquote on. I used to think that that was an inducement for a comedian to do the show, but 90% of them want to be on and want to be funny. That's the mode they're most comfortable with.

[Brian Green]

We have found a couple things through our time with comedians. Who's. 99% of the interviews that we have done are comedians and an actress or actor here or there. And now Mike Pesca from the Gist, which is certainly the most intellectual conversation ever had on the commercial break. Because of you, not because of us. But I do have to say that what we find is there's like three types of comedian, three types of personality types or entertaining type entertainment types that come on the show. One of them is the comedian who is on from the moment that we say record. And we almost have. I don't have to do anything. You drop a, you know. Yeah, you drop a word and they go. And there's a few of them. Literally filled up the entire hour. We didn't have much to say.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

Is that good? Do you like that?

[Brian Green]

It can be, it can be refreshing. Especially if it's a personality that is larger than life and known for being that way. Then you're reassured that they're just doing what they do. And that's fun to watch. Watch. It's fun to watch it unfold.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

And of course, there's always a little bit of interaction. You can almost tee it up. It's like, you know, it's like putting a little gas in the tank and watching it go. Right?

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

And it is also interesting because as interviewers, it's the only time that you're not asking someone about the thing. You're just saying, do the thing. You're not even saying it. You're just, you talk to a musician, they're probably not, you know, pulling an accordion out and singing for you or anyone who has an idea. They're not actually, you know, showing you their data or writing the idea, but the comedian is actually doing the thing.

[Brian Green]

That's it. You know Brad Williams? Do you know who Brad Williams is? Okay, so Brad came in. This is a great example. Brad came in so much to talk to him about so many things I wanted to cover. And I said, I saw you were on a WWE cruise last week, like a cruise with WWE people, you know, one of those cruises. And an hour later he wrapped up the story. And I'm not kidding, the guy just went. He just like. It's like you spun him and he went. It was, it was crazy. There is a second type which don't come in on. They come in, I think they get disarmed by the fact that we are not going to tee up their jokes and just let them do their asset right. Like they would on a late night show or some other podcasts or whatever. Just a conversation. And that conversation is often light and silly and sometimes leads to funny things. And then there's a third type which just come in. Really difficult, I think is the best word to put it. They're difficult. They don't know why they're here. Their publicist has set it up. I'm not sure who on talking to or why I'm talking to them. And it shows. Now that could just be a bad day. But I find that what you see a lot of times on stage or on a video or on a tick tock you think of as a personality. Like it's just them entertaining. But sometimes you get exactly what you see on that TikTok video or that show or HBO or whatever. And sometimes it's not for the good. It's not for the good. When you're interviewing them, you're like, but have your smarmy and kind of, you know, snot. That little nose, little kid.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

You must have had this experience though. And please name names where they come in like that. But you crack them. You ask the good question or show you know, their work or in some way communicate to them. Well, I don't know why I'm Here. And I've never heard of this podcast. Yeah, I don't have the ability to look at the top 20 podcasts in America. Anyway, your, your skill essentially, or whatever, the alchemy of the moment comes through and they, and they brighten up. And maybe for the audience it's better Brad Williams just like, boom, right out of the gate. But for you, that must be very satisfying.

[Brian Green]

Yes, it totally. And there are, there have been a few. And Gina Gar was one. You know, Gina Gershon is an actress, she's not a comedian. But you know, you look at Gina Gershon on screen and you think sexy, sultry, smarmy, Right? That's just the kind of the, the character that she plays. And she came on in the first few minutes, okay, whatever. But then she just turned on like a light and it felt really good. Then. Then there's others. I'm not. I'll give you names, but not here on the air. But there was one person in particular came in really kind of snarky at, at first lovely, then turned really snarky for the rest of the interview.

[Mike Pesca]

But again, I think that was just his personality.

[Brian Green]

That was just his personality. What you saw was what you got. It didn't matter who he was talking to. You weren't going to be the, you weren't going to be the funnier one in the room. Right. He was going to make sure of that at all expense. And that's okay.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

Like, yeah, there is that. There is that.

[Brian Green]

Yes, it's a little competitive.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

Who does this guy think he is? Ooh, maybe that person had a podcast lower rate.

[Mike Pesca]

I think that might be the case.

[Brian Green]

It might be the case.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

And this guy's like, I'm playing ho hos in hocus. I'm busting my ass and this bald effort.

[Brian Green]

Or I'm on my fourth Netflix special and I can't get higher ranked than the commercial break. But that's okay. We'll get it. I think you're. I think you're doing a lovely job where.

[Mike Pesca]

Congratulations.

[Brian Green]

How do people find this? Tell us all about the contact details. I tried to look you up on Instagram and you are sparse, my friend. You don't do it.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

I'm not an Instagram.

[Brian Green]

I saw one picture. You have an account with one picture. I saw it. Was it. You had hair.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

My good side.

[Brian Green]

You had hair. Let's put it that way.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

I had hair, wide lapels and was holding Nixon does it Again headline. So the gist is the name of the show. It is actually the longest running news and opinion daily podcast.

[Brian Green]

That's right. I forgot about that. You're right about that.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

We give it over to Funny youy Should Mention, which is our limited series every. Every other week. And on the YouTube channel for the gist is where you can see all the videos of all these interviews. So we try not to hide it behind too many places. And definitely not Instagram. We have taken a stance against Instagram.

[Brian Green]

Well, good for you.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

Also Vine. So we were right about that one.

[Brian Green]

Fine, I remember that. Didn't vine get bought by Instagram? Isn't that what became real reels?

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

I mean, vine definitely like Tick Tock is Vine, but yeah, maybe some more seconds. A lot to it.

[Brian Green]

Wow, that Tick Tock has taken off. Thank God we only have five followers on it. But we don't post.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

To be honest, your Tick Tock is my Vine.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

Both agree that MySpace is the place to.

[Brian Green]

Right.

[Mike Pesca]

Always.

[Brian Green]

Mike, you've been a friend of the show for a long time. I really appreciate you coming on today. I would like to say to you that if you would periodically come back and make us feel better as we run into the next kind of unknown chapter in our United States history, I'd love that. I. I would love it too, actually. So let's put a pin in it and you and I will communicate. I know we do. So, Mike Pesca, from the gist, the longest running daily news podcast or daily incredible commentary on current events podcast hosted.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

By a bald man who lives in Brooklyn.

[Brian Green]

But if you like what you heard here today, you get that unfiltered five days a week. I can't believe.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

Brian. Chrissy, did you have filter the word that came through.

[Brian Green]

Mike, we love you. Check out his new Comedy Special on YouTube. We'll put links in the show notes. Thanks. And we will catch you on the flip side. Mike.

[Mike Pesca]

Thanks, Mike.

[Chris Enjoy Hoadley]

All right, thank you guys so much.

[Christina]

In a shocking turn of events, it's me again, Christina, your producer and resident rom com lover, here at the commercial break. And I just have one thing to say. I'm just a producer standing in front of an audience asking you to follow us on Instagram at the commercial break. And on TikTok CBP podcast, text us or call us and leave us a voicemail. Because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with tcb, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible. And while you're at it, go to our website, tcbpodcast.com but you don't have to because we like you, just as you are now. Now, if you immediately got those references, you're my kind of person. But it's time to take a break and listen to some sponsors and then we'll get back to the show.

[Instacart Advertiser]

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[Brian Green]

Well, certainly the most informed discussion we have ever had here. On the commercial break. There was facts. I heard facts in there. I did. And I knew he was going to bring the heat. Mike and I have known each other for a long time.

[Mike Pesca]

You guys have?

[Brian Green]

Yeah. And he's. He's supposedly been a fan of the show and I've been a fan of his, you know, and I like, whenever anybody says they're a fan of the show, I take it with a grain of salt that Mike just might be listening because he knows me and he wants to say nice things about me. But regardless, he's always said nice things about the show. Yeah, he's a great guy and he's an extraordinarily intelligent human being. His show is fact driven. He has some of the most interesting guests. Like, if you're interested in geopolitics, how the world turns, current events and news stories, the gist is honestly a great place to get it. Where Mike, while you'll certainly figure out how he feels, at the end of the day, he doesn't whitewash anything. He's, you know, he was talking about, like, this conversational bias that sometimes goes on the news where they're incentivized to just show you all the good stuff but don't show you all the bad stuff. Mike doesn't sugarcoat it. A lot of times he goes right at it. So it's one of the more. I. I like the gist. If you're going to listen to a daily current events podcast, try out the. Just give it a try for a couple of weeks, see how you like it. I think you'll find his voice and his. And his point of view is good.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah, I was going to say his personality really shines through, and that's something that a lot of just daily news shows miss.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, it does. So I just wanted to get it out of my system, to be honest with you. We agreed, like, Mike had this new thing with the comedians. And he was like, you know, can you. Can I come on and talk about it? And I was like, of course. I've always wanted to have Mike on the show, but didn't really have a good reason, meaning, like, he's a. He's a pundit. Like, and that wasn't what we were doing. And then when he says this about the comedians when he's doing this and I watch, I'm like, oh, that's right up our alley. This is the perfect way to get Mike on the show and the perfect reason to get Mike on the show. And then, of course, all the, you know, holy hell breaks loose in the, in the liberal, you know, and conservative worlds as the election goes down. And I thought it was. I knew it was going to be an interesting conversation, no matter who won the election one way or the. But he makes me feel better. Listen, all those who voted for Harris, the world will not come to an end. It will feel like it at times, but it will not come to an end. And all those who voted for Trump, you're not going to get everything you want, but your guy is in office. And for this I can only say, no matter who the president or the vice president, the Secretary of state or the DOJ or whatever, I can only hope that they do a great job for the country and the people that they serve. Serve fairly, honestly and with justice. We're going to stay optimistic until January 20th. I'm very optimistic, Chrissy. I'm staying optimistic. That's what I choose to be. So there you go. And to our friend who has decided she is going to move in with someone who's not voting the same way she is. What were you thinking? I mean, I know you've. You had to have known. Yeah, you had to have caught him, like, you know, trolling X or something. Like, he wasn't in, like, a crypto bro room at some time. Sometimes at some point. He wasn't in spaces listening to Elon drone on. Are you sure? I think you saw signs. Speaking of red flags, I'm sure you saw signs. There had to have been a couple of red flags. I'd love to hear them and I'd love to hear what your relationship. Red flags are things that you've been through, like relationships you've been in, and you look back and you go, yeah, that was a red flag.

[Mike Pesca]

Hindsight's 20 20. Give us. Give us the site.

[Brian Green]

He took me to Wahlburgers on our third date. That's a red flag right there. That is a red flag. Give us the skinny. 212-433-3TCB212 433-3822 Texas questions, comments, concerns, content, ideas. More specifically, this week I'm looking for red flags. I want your red flags. Tell me why, tell me what perks your interest or what seems 2020 seems like a red flag or a green flag because I want to do a show dedicated to it. We have some ass TCBs that we're roaming into there. Also, some people have responded and some people are saying yes to the Twitch. I love it. We're going to change around the studio, make it more Twitch friendly and so we, I think we're going to do one episode a week that we record here in the studio. We're going to broadcast live on Twitch, allow you to interact, throw in ideas, give us something to talk about. I love this idea and luckily a number of people have already said, yeah, love the idea, but I'd love to hear from you if you haven't let us know. Would you like to see a Twitch episode 2025? Would you like to see us on Twitch recording an episode of the commercial break interactively? Tcbpodcast.com that's where you go. You find out more information about the show, all the audio, all the video right there from one location. You can no longer buy tickets to our show from two months ago. Safe to say.

[Mike Pesca]

Well, you heard it here last.

[Brian Green]

You did hear it. There's only so much we can do. You can get your free sticker, go to the contact us button, drop down menu. I want my free sticker. Give us your address. Address. And away it will go at the commercial break on Instagram, TCB podcast on tick tock and YouTube.com the commercial break for all of our episodes starting on December 1st. Okay, Chrissy, I guess that's all I can do for today.

[Mike Pesca]

I think so.

[Brian Green]

But I'll tell you that I love you and I love you. I'll say best to you and best to you out there in the podcast universe. Until next time. Chrissy and I always say, we do say and we must say goodbye by.