The News You’re Not Getting (and Why) with Amy Goodman

Summary

The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart

Episode Title: The News You’re Not Getting (and Why)
Guest: Amy Goodman (Host and Executive Producer, Democracy Now!)
Date: May 6, 2026
Podcast Host: Jon Stewart (Comedy Central / Paramount)

Episode Overview

This episode dives deep into the state of modern journalism, the challenges facing independent media, and the importance of amplifying silenced voices. Jon Stewart interviews Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!, celebrating three decades of her groundbreaking reporting. The discussion covers Goodman's career-defining moments, the structural challenges of the "media industrial complex," and the lessons—and hope—for building news audiences rooted in accountability, truth, and people-powered change.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Journalism’s Mission: Covering Power, Not Horse Races

[05:09–07:47]

• Jon Stewart highlights Amy Goodman’s approach as fundamentally different from mainstream news:

  “They seem to focus on right, left; you seem to focus on power, no power. Voice, no voice.”

• Amy Goodman:

  "Democracy Now is all about going to where the silence is... We’re really about covering movements because movements are what make history.”

• She expands on the concept of a “silenced majority,” arguing that most people who care about pressing issues (war, climate, inequality) aren’t fringe—they’ve simply been erased or sidelined by corporate media.

2. Amplifying Voices: Trickle Up Journalism

[08:38–11:42]

• Amy stresses her distaste for so-called “exclusives”:

  “I consider an exclusive a failure. Like, if no one picks it up, that’s a problem. We want it to reverberate out.”

• She recounts covering the Standing Rock pipeline protests, highlighting her late arrival but pivotal video of protesters being attacked by dogs—which got 14 million views in 24 hours—forcing national attention.

  “This gave the lie to any executive withdrawal... and networks, one after another, picked this story up.”

3. The Perils of Access Journalism

[30:18–38:14]

• Jon Stewart laments the cozy press–power relationships:

  “Access is only granted conditionally. And those conditions negate the entire power of what good journalism is.”

• Amy coins “the access of evil”:

  “Trading truth for access is not worth it. The questions you’re going to ask for that access, those softball questions...”

• Amy recalls the White House once threatening to ban her after a tough, lengthy interview with President Clinton:

  "He called me. I didn’t call him!... He’s the leader of the free world. He could hang up if he wants to." [32:19]

4. Investigative Courage: Stories From the Frontlines

• East Timor Massacre [11:47–16:37]: Amy describes witnessing and surviving a massacre by Indonesian soldiers using U.S.-supplied weapons, drawing attention to America’s role.

  “They beat him with the guns as well... until they fractured his skull. We just kept saying, America... finally, they pulled the guns from our heads.”

• Oil, Nigeria, and Chevron [19:04–21:48]: Sheds light on multinational complicity in violence, with disturbing corporate admissions:

  Stewart: “He is just forthcoming and direct. Oh, yeah, Chevron... we hired the helicopters and sent the military.”
  Goodman: “‘Who authorized [the attack]?’ He said, ‘That would be Chevron’s management.’”

5. Media’s Role in War, Peace, and Manufacturing Consent

• [50:01–52:00]
  Jon and Amy indict the role of corporate media in “manufacturing consent” for war, from Iraq to Gaza:

  Stewart: “There is a certain… within the corporate media environment, that war’s more interesting than not war. They create… a kind of lubricant for the war…”
  Goodman: “In a time of war, the media tends to circle the wagons around the White House.”

6. The Future of Independent Media

[44:15–46:39, 64:33–68:19]

• Amy traces Democracy Now!’s organic, community-driven growth, leveraging listener/viewer support and the early internet to share content freely (“trickle up journalism”).
• She argues true independence comes from not relying on big donors, but enlisting communities who care about truth and democracy.

  “The media is a huge kitchen table [across the globe] debating and discussing the most important issues of the day.”

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

The Silenced Majority

• “Those who care about war and peace, climate catastrophe, immigrant crackdown, reproductive rights, inequality—those are not a fringe minority, not even a silent majority, but the silenced majority, silenced by the corporate media."
  — Amy Goodman, [07:30]

On the Risks of Truth-Telling

• “I consider an exclusive a failure. Steal this story, please.”
  — Amy Goodman, [08:38]

Journalism as Activism

• "They always say, well, you’re not a journalist, Amy, you’re an activist. But activism in the service of anti-corruption, or amplification of voices that don’t get to go, is exactly what—then what is journalism?”
  — Jon Stewart, [28:19]

Press Access and Power

• “Trading truth for access is not worth it.”
  — Amy Goodman, [35:52]
• “Politicians need journalists more than journalists need politicians. Our job is to do our job.”
  — Amy Goodman, [37:13]

Media as a Weapon or a Bridge

• “I think the media can be the greatest force for peace on earth. Instead, all too often it is wielded as a weapon of war. Which is why we have to take the media back.”
  — Amy Goodman, [49:36]

Never Again—For Anyone

• “[Standing at a Holocaust mass grave in Ukraine]… I thought, ‘never again anywhere, never again for anyone, for anywhere.’”
  — Amy Goodman, [60:13]

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Key Segments & Timestamps

• Introduction and Framing the “Unraveling” of Democracy and Media: [02:10–05:09]
• Independent vs. Corporate Media: [05:09–08:38]
• Standing Rock/DAPL, Viral Video Power: [08:51–11:42]
• East Timor Massacre and Survivor Testimony: [11:47–16:37]
• Chevron/Nigeria Oil Reporting: [19:04–21:48]
• The “Access of Evil”—White House and Clinton interview: [30:18–36:23]
• Manufacturing Consent and the Media’s War Role: [50:01–52:00]
• Community-Driven Journalism and Growing Democracy Now!: [44:15–46:39]
• Reflections on Family, Jewish Identity, and Humanization: [59:08–61:42]
• Power of Information and “Trickle Up” Journalism: [46:39–47:14, 56:43–57:07]
• Interview wrap-up and closing thoughts: [70:28–71:45]

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Panel Takeaways & Reflections

[73:25–79:02]

• The panel expresses admiration for Goodman’s independence and courage; journalists cited her as giving them “permission to avoid the pressures” of click-driven, access-focused journalism.
• Anecdotes like Goodman’s stance that “an exclusive is a failure” and her willingness to get arrested for a story are held up as a counter to “save it for the book” culture.
• Katie Couric’s on-mic admission that “they want us to show all these speeches” is discussed as emblematic of agency abdicated to corporate interests.
• The challenge for journalists to resist bad incentive structures and reclaim the profession as a calling for truth.

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Closing Thoughts

This episode is an inspiring, at times sobering, look at journalism’s ethical crossroads. Amy Goodman provides living proof—through not just words but decades of action—that fiercely independent, movement-focused reporting can be both brave and effective. Jon Stewart and the panel urge their audience, and journalists themselves, to “take the media back”—reclaiming the Fourth Estate as a pillar of democracy, not a lapdog of power.

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For more about Amy Goodman’s new film, visit: stealthestory.org
To watch or listen to Democracy Now! and see daily transcripts: democracynow.org

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(Analysis excludes ads, product promotions, and podcast housekeeping.)

Transcript

[Jon Stewart]

Folks, I have no problem giving a platform to those delightful companies that we have scrutinized from top to bottom and picked only the best. But here's the thing. I am first and foremost, we are a communicator. We are a show. And as such, we don't necessarily give big ups to other shows. But I'm gonna I promised myself I wouldn't cry. I'm going to make an exception in this case for npr, npr, National Public Radio, and their Up First Podcast. I don't know if you've seen the Up First Podcast on npr. It gives you the three biggest news stories of the day and reporting and analysis to actually understand them. That's why you go to NPR, to actually understand things. And they do it in 15 minutes in the amount of time it takes me to eat an entire pizza. That's right. That's another little piece of information you probably didn't know. I can eat an entire pizza in under 15 minutes while I'm listening to the up first podcast, follow NPR's Up first podcast so you can understand what matters and what happens next. It's hard news through a human lens. It's time to refresh your yard during Spring Backyard Days at the Home Depot. Get low prices guaranteed on propane grills starting at 100 like the next grill 3 burner gas grill. Or get $50 off the select Weber Spirit Grill and bring big flavor to your backyard. Then set the scene with Hampton Bay string lights that bring it all together. Shop Spring backyard days for seven days at the Home Depot now through May 6th. Exclusions applies to homedepot.com pricematch for details. Hey everybody. Welcome to the Weekly. Hello, my name is Jon Stewart and it is our weekly get together. Today's May 5th. May the 5th be with you. Yeah, that's, that's probably not going to work. Tomorrow will be the day that this comes out. So what is that going to be? May 6th? Who knows where we're going to be? We're coming apart at the seams, ladies and gentlemen. We are apparently involved in a ceasefire that involves bombing other countries and them attacking our boats. Nothing has any meaning anymore. It's slowly unraveling and slipping away from us to the point where a literal king has to show up in our Congress and go, what the is the matter with you people? Obviously that is not the tone of voice that he took because he's a king. I believe what he said was what the is the matter with you? Something along those lines. But he had to remind them. You remember Your whole thing was to defeat us so that you could have freedom and function through the consent of the governed. And we're slowly unraveling that. And the guardrails that are put in place are, are nowhere to be found, including the fourth estate. And that's why I'm, I'm so excited to be talking to somebody who actually has been on the ramparts of that fight for low these past 30 years and does such a public good and a service and, and her courage and bravery and relentlessness are just wonderful examples to set for the next generation of people who want to come out and tell real stories about what's really going on in the world. So Amy Goodman, the fabulous Amy Goodman, ladies and gentlemen, it is my distinct pleasure and honor today to welcome to the program Amy Goodman, who is the host and executive producer of Democracy now and has just a fabulous film out that is, I think, a wonderful tribute, but also insight into the incredible work that Amy has done throughout all these years. It's called Steal this Story please. It's in the theaters now across the country. To find a theater, just visit stealth.org always.org. amy, it's always.org with you. It's not.com. you're not a corporate individual, you're a.org individual.

[Amy Goodman]

That's right. And I'm not calm either. But I do want to say.

[Jon Stewart]

Not at all.

[Amy Goodman]

But I do want to say that it's not my film. Yup. It's about Democracy now, the 30 years. But the directors, Carl Diehl and Tia Lesson are a big deal. They're Oscar nominated for their film on Hurricane Katrina, Trouble the Water. Tia just won three Emmys for the Janes, which is about the underground abortion network in Chicago in the 60s. They were Michael Moore's producers. Years ago they did Citizen Koch. So they're amazing. And they decided to do this film. So what? You know, to have two Oscar nominated stalkers in your life, no. What could be wrong?

[Jon Stewart]

You deserve more. And you know, it's very interesting because in that moment I think we've essentially established the difference between Amy Goodman and Jon Stewart. I give information and then Amy gives the correct information. And that in many ways sums up the careers. I, I have to tell you, Amy, you know, I am a just long time admirer of what you do. When, whenever my frustrations over, you know, what we consider mainstream news and, and the criticisms I have, it always sort of, it comes back to, I mean, look at, look at Amy Goodman. Look what Amy Goodman does. Why can't they do that? And it strikes me that it's because the axis that you work under, and you tell me if this is even mildly accurate, they seem to focus on right, left, you seem to focus on power. No power. Voice. No voice. And is that what makes it. Is that what grounds it and makes the work so essential?

[Amy Goodman]

I mean, that's what Democracy now is all about, is to go to where the silence is. And it's often not silent. You know, I mean, it's raucous, it's rowdy. People are organizing. We're really about covering movements because movements are what make history or covering the people closest to the story. I mean, we don't bring you the same pundits that you see on. On every network show who know so little about so much explaining the world to us and getting it so wrong. But the people who are at the heart of the story, as my colleague Nermeen Shaikh says, the co host of Democracy now in Steal the Story, please. You know, the media is this frame, and Democracy now widens that frame because usually the media really erases so many voices. And we take the people outside the frame, bring them in, and not only bring them in, but we center them. And you know, John, those people are not a fringe minority. I mean, I really do think those who care about war and peace, those who care about the climate catastrophe.

[Jon Stewart]

That's right.

[Amy Goodman]

Those who care about the immigrant crackdown, about reproductive rights, that those who care about inequality are not a fringe minority, not even a silent majority, but the silenced majority, silenced by the corporate media, which is why we have to take it back.

[Jon Stewart]

And it's incredible how, you know, you bring up such a. I think an interesting point about there is a prototype or a boilerplate that modern media follows. And I understand television has to be producible, but where it's, you know, we give a brief, a bit of information, and then the rest of the time is filled out by people who don't really have firsthand experience or witness experience. Your work and Democracy Now's work feels like you get the information, not the analysis that so much of media now is. Is just easily produced, shallow analysis. But the information is what's actually crucial and necessary to expose these stories.

[Amy Goodman]

Well, you know, they took the motto of Democracy now. The directors steal this story, please. Because I consider an exclusive a failure. Like if no one picks it up.

[Jon Stewart]

Right.

[Amy Goodman]

That's really a problem. We want it to reverberate out, because who are we covering? I mean, in the film, you have our coverage of the standoff at Standing Rock, right where indigenous people. Standing Rock Sioux in North Dakota, were joined by indigenous people from Latin America, first nations from Canada, and then many non native allies. They thought maybe a couple dozen people would come to help them fight the Dakota Access Pipeline. But thousands came. So we were even late to the story. We were covering it from New York. That's where we broadcast Democracy now from. But we only went out there in Labor Day of 2016. Now, that is a really important year because that's when Trump first ran, right? Donald Trump ran against Hillary Clinton in the presidential debates. Not only didn't the moderators bring up this epic gathering, but they didn't bring up climate change. And that's why people were there. They were really scared that the pipeline, which would go under the extremely long Missouri river, could bust, could break, and could hurt the water supply of millions downstream. So we followed one day when they were protesting bulldozers coming on to their sacred burial site. Six bulldozers. They stood in front of them, these earth crushing machines. Girls, women, boys, men. And then the machines pulled back, and then the dapl, the Code Access pipeline. Security guards release dogs on the protesters. And we filmed a dog with its mouth and nose covered in blood. So we released that video online, and within 24 hours, there were 14 million views. It really showed. You know, when I go into the networks, when I'm invited into CNN, MSNBC, which is now MSNBC, I would say to the host, why don't you cover climate change more? And they'd say, the executives upstairs, they say that eyes will roll, that they won't get enough. But this gave the lie any executive withdrawal for that number of views. And then the networks, one after another, pick this story up. President Obama, I think, was in Laos for some historic trip, and he held a democracy forum with students. And one of them said, hey, what about that video of the dogs biting the protesters?

[Jon Stewart]

Wow.

[Amy Goodman]

And I heard that when he came back to Washington, he saw the video and it wasn't lost on the first African American president, what it meant to sick dogs on protesters. I mean, steal this story, Please take the story.

[Jon Stewart]

And people don't see these stories. It's. It really is. A tree falls in the forest, and if nobody's there to hear it, they don't. But. But you are wandering the forest, recording these trees falling. There's a great moment in, in the film, and I say great meaning, illustrative. Not great in that it was awful. You're in Indonesia and East Timor, East Seymour. And American weapons are being used by the army to slaughter protesters. And you're there, you're filming it. And. And I think they said in the. In the film this had been going on for 17 years. Yes, or something along those lines.

[Amy Goodman]

Indonesia invaded East Timor, December 7, 1975. 90% of the weapons they used were from the United States. The army was trained, financed, and armed by the United States. And, you know, isn't it amazing that the entire American population, probably most people never heard of, maybe they heard of Baltimore, but not East Timor.

[Jon Stewart]

Yeah, barely that.

[Amy Goodman]

And yet we were connected to them by the barrel of a gun. So I went there to East Timor in November of 1991 with my colleague Alan Nairn, who was writing for the New Yorker. And on this day, November 12, 1991, the people of East Timor were protesting the killing of yet another young person. East Timor. He had been killed on the steps of the church. Everyone was taking refuge in the Catholic churches of Timor because for the first time, the UN had sent a delegation that would investigate the human rights situation they were going to send. So everyone was dropping out of school and work and going into the churches so they'd be protected to speak. But then we later learned, at the behest of the us, the UN delegation didn't come. And so on this day, thousands of Timorese came out to the church for Communion. The priests held it under the trees because there were so many. And then they marched to the cemetery, and we followed them. And this is unheard of in a. At the time in occupied Timor, when there was no freedom of speech, no freedom of assembly, no freedom of protest, they marched and they marched to the cemetery where so many young people were buried. And that's when we saw the Indonesian army, armed with us, M16s marching up. Alan and I always hid our equipment when we were talking to people, because if they were caught talking to journalists, they could be arrested, killed, disappeared. Now, I took out my tape recorder, I slung it over my shoulder. I held up my microphone like a flag. Alan put the camera above his head, and we walked to the front of the crowd. We knew the Indonesian army had committed many massacres in the past, but never in front of Western journalists. Maybe we could head off this attack. They marched up 10 to 12 abreast. They came around the corner. People couldn't escape because there were walls of the cemetery on either side of the road. They marched around the corner without hesitation, without provocation, without warning. They swept past us and they just opened fire on the crowd, ultimately killing over 270 Timorese on that day. A group of them surrounded us. They were shouting, australia, Australia. They wanted to know if we were from Australia, which is like two or 300 miles away. And we understood what that meant. When Indonesia first invaded, there was a group of Australian journalists with Australian Broadcasting Corporation, abc. And they lined them up against a house and they executed them. And the Australian government hardly protested the killing of their journalists, we believe, because years later, Indonesia and Australia would divide up the oil spoils in the Timor gaps. So we wanted to make clear we were not from Australia. And as they beat me to the ground, Alan threw himself on top of me to protect me.

[Jon Stewart]

And they beat him with the guns as well.

[Amy Goodman]

And until they used them like bats, the USM 16s, until they fractured his skull as we lay there in the ground. They then put the guns to our heads, and we just kept saying, America. I threw my passport at them. It said, United States of America. America. America. Finally, they pulled the guns from our heads. We believe because we were from the same country their weapons were from, they would have to pay a price for killing us, that they never had to pay for killing the Timorese. And we understood at that moment, we, in order to stop this killing, we had to get out of the country to report it to the outside world, because only outside pressure would stop this.

[Jon Stewart]

Folks, I know things seem a little grim right now, and you got the Ms. Now on in the background 24 hours a day, and you got your Apple News open, and you're constantly flipping around and doing all these different things, but I'm telling you, man, there is a new project on news that is here to save us. It's this website, NAP Ground News. They. They take every article about the same news story from all the outlets all over the world, and they put them in one place and they tell you where it's coming from. They give you. It's like, what is it? Like, the ingredients. You know what I mean? Like, you might think to yourself, like, yeah, I'm at a. What is Chips Ahoy? How bad can it be? And then you look at the ingredients and you're like, raccoon anus. No, that's what ground. It's really not. It's probably not the correct compliment to say ground News tells you what part of your news is raccoon anus. That is probably not the log line that they want to go to at the board meetings, but that is what they do. They tell you where these stories are coming from. The Nobel Peace center has said that ground news is an excellent way to stay informed It's a hell of a service that they provide. Go to groundnews.com stewart subscribe for 40% off the unlimited access Vantage subscription discount available only for a limited time. That's ground news.com stewart or scan the QR code on the screen. What you do so well is you connect the dots between into these areas that Americans are not particularly paying attention to, the nexus of corporate power and military might and all these different things. There's another. And I hate to walk you through some of the events of the film, but I think it lays out a good foundation for kind of some of the things we'll talk about later. But again, another example of you on the ground is in Nigeria, I believe, and Chevron, which sends helicopters of Nigerian soldiers to shoot people. And you. And I don't know where you get the wherewithal to do it. Just go right up to the Nigerian Chevron building and go, hey, I'm an American. May I come in?

[Amy Goodman]

Well, you know, I was so inspired, this was years ago by this incredible Nigerian writer and activist named Ken Saro Wiwa. He was agony from Ogoniland in the Niger Delta. And he threw his lot in with the Nigerian people. And he knew with his prestige he could go outside the country and tell the world Nigeria is Africa's most populous country and Chevron and Shel were operating in the Niger Delta, disempowering so many Nigerians to give power to the rest of the world. And he came into our studio in New York at wbai, and I didn't think we had time. They just said, he's here. And I said, oh, my God, our show is booked. And they said, he's here for one day. Okay, two minutes. And he came on and he talked about how these large multinational corporations depend on brutal dictatorships in order to suppress the population. And that's what he described. And I said, well, what about you? Where does this leave you? And he said, I am a marked man. And he went back to Nigeria and he was ultimately executed with eight other activists he had been taking on shell corporation. But we decided after Ken was killed, I decided I had to go to investigate the sit on the Niger Delta. And so I looked along with my colleague Jeremy Scahill, who worked at Democracy now at the time, now founded Dropsite

[Jon Stewart]

News, did great war reporting as well.

[Amy Goodman]

Yeah, yeah. We went to investigate what was happening in the Niger Delta. And we found that Chevron had flown in the Nigerian military. The people in that area described. They said, we recognize the Chevron helicopters. The Mobile police were called the Kill and Go. That's the kill and Go. And they were protesting. The Nigerian military moved in and they killed two of the young men. They critically wounded a third, and they arrested others. And so, you know, I said, we have to go to Chevron headquarters and ask them about this. And that's when we went to the headquarters to speak to the chief spokesperson.

[Jon Stewart]

Mind blowing. They have it on tape. It's unbelievable in its honesty. And, and it's outright. He is just forthcoming and direct. Oh, yeah, no, Chevron. Yeah, no, we hired the helicopters and we sent the military. The guy just lays it out.

[Amy Goodman]

And I said, exactly who authorized it? I said, who authorized. He said, that would be Chevron's management. Chevron's management.

[Jon Stewart]

I mean, it's. It's. It's a shocking example of. And it gets to the broader question. When I think about what my kind of ideal of, of journalistic integrity or efficacy is, it's that. And why is it, you know, you say, when you go to these places, into corporate environments or CNN or Ms. Now or all these different places, they always say to you, hey, man, I really wish we could do that. You're like, you're reporters like, you. Not only can you do it, you have more resources than Amy Goodman will ever have. You can do it. You're on 24 hours a day.

[Amy Goodman]

But I do, I want to say, when it comes to. I don't even call them mainstream, by the way, because I really do think that those who care about all of these issues, from climate change to corporate power to war, are mainstream. I think that's the mainstream. But I think a lot of good people go into the corporate networks because they think they have a broad platform where they can report important issues. But they are the first ones now. And, you know, we just celebrated 30 years of democracy now. But they, you know, early on, they would say, give us a break. Now, those very same reporters who may not be working for the networks, or for example, for the Washington Post, where the Jeff Bezos paper, who just laid off a third of the newsroom, hundreds of reporters, they're saying, you can't say this loud enough. And I just want to say we had this 30th anniversary and, oh, my God, John, I wish you were there.

[Jon Stewart]

But, you know, I don't leave the house, right? You know, you know, I don't leave the house, Amy. I just want to. I would point that out.

[Amy Goodman]

I would have gone, you're just like a hologram. You don't really exist.

[Jon Stewart]

I'M pretty much a hologram. That's pretty true.

[Amy Goodman]

Well, we were at Riverside Church, this historic place where Dr. King gave his speech April 4, 1967, a year to the day before he was assassinated in Memphis. The speech against the Vietnam War. And at the time, the corporate media. I have the Life magazine issue that castigated him. He said, the United States is the greatest purveyor of violence on earth. And they said he did a disservice to his cause, his country, his people. They said his speech read like a script out of Radio Hanoi, and he just doubled down because he connected militarism, racism and materialism, and he just kept at it. So we went to this church. 2,000 people packed in. Oh, we actually had it for February 23rd. But then there was that one day. Snowmageddon.

[Jon Stewart]

Yes.

[Amy Goodman]

And we had to cancel it. 2000 people.

[Jon Stewart]

So one thing that can stop Amy Goodman is 18 inches of snow. No, can't get uptown.

[Amy Goodman]

It was the fear that someone would slip who came to see us. So March 23rd, oh, Juan Gonzalez flew in from Chicago. We've done Democracy now together for 30 years. The great journalist who used to be at the Daily News, he had that DN and then he had this DN.

[Jon Stewart]

He did some great 9, 11 stuff. Juan Gonzalez, that just, you know, know,

[Amy Goodman]

John, you know, because of the great

[Jon Stewart]

work Juan Gonzalez is. But he is. He. He was spectacular. And doing it for a paper that was like, hey, I think this might get us in trouble.

[Amy Goodman]

As soon he was behind his. At first he was in on the front page talking about the benzene, the

[Jon Stewart]

chemicals and all the. That was in the air. That's right.

[Amy Goodman]

Then he slowly was moved to behind the refrigerator ads. His editor was fired.

[Jon Stewart]

Oh, wow. Yeah.

[Amy Goodman]

But still he kept at it. And Juan's done such great work right back to, you know, he was one of the founders of the Young Lords, like the equivalent of the Puerto Rican Black Panthers in New York City. He talked about, and he said in the film, steal the story, please. How they understood very quickly they have to frame their own narrative. They had, like, hijacked ambulances and tuberculosis testing trucks to come up to Spanish Harlem and places where they were really needed. But they had to tell their story. And the network newscasters, you know, on abc, NBC, cbs, they said it is amazing how they make downtown white New York tremble. But what they're doing, they have such popularity, but they had a newspaper called Pallante. Every forward. And those reporters became some of the leading reporter. Those young lords became some of the leading reporters in New York. But so Juan flew in and he talked about the importance of independent media. Then hooray for the riff raff. A great group sang their song Pallante like for the newspaper. And then Michael Stipe of REM he sang Nermeen Shaykh gave her speech. Patti Smith sang Peaceful Kingdom and spoke Mossab Abu Toha, the great Palestinian poet

[Jon Stewart]

who such a beautiful man won the

[Amy Goodman]

Pulitzer Prize for his essays in the New Yorker, read his poem under the Rubble. And then I was trying to figure out, how do we end this 30 years as we move into the next century of democracy Now I see someone in the audience, the Boss, Bruce Springsteen.

[Jon Stewart]

Get the fuck out.

[Amy Goodman]

Come on. And he came up and he sang the Streets of Minneapolis. And then altogether the musicians sang Patty's Iconic people have the power. And that's really the theme of Democracy now over the last years. Yes, President Trump, any US President occupies the most powerful office on earth. But there is a force more powerful and it is people everywhere in the streets talking around the water cooler, organizing in their workplaces or being fired or laid off from them. That force involved with social change. You know, if you build a foundation, you never know when that magic moment comes. But if you build that foundation, you will help to direct the future, to make history. And those are the movements we cover.

[Jon Stewart]

But Amy, the people have to be armed with information, with the information that they don't, that the dots have to be connected. And you know, the one thing that they always say, and it's such a strange formulation of what journalism should be, they always say, well, you're, you're, you're not a journalist, Amy. You're an activist. And I don't understand how any journalist worth. And by the way, I think it's because they think activism is a partisan endeavor. But activism in the service of anti corruption or in the service of justice or in the service of amplification of voices that don't get to go is exactly what then what is Journal journalism is not narration. It's not. Not a security camera in a 7 11. That's just capturing images. What you've infused and what Democracy now always did so well is you infused the passion and the activism for justice. Not part is right. There's a great scene in the film. Bill Clinton calls into your program. It's the election 2000, was it?

[Amy Goodman]

Yeah.

[Jon Stewart]

And it's election day. And so Amy gets a chance. Bill Clinton, he's just calling a bunch of people, you know, he calls. It's Democracy Now. It's just another constituency. She lays out some of the best incisive questions to the point where, like, Bill Clinton, you can. You don't see him because he's on the phone, but you can imagine that Clintonesque almost, you know, the cartoon that Plimpton might draw of. Of Clinton, of just his face getting red, like, like, you're being rude, young lady. Stop asking me these questions. It's such a great moment that it absolutely, I think, illuminates what happens when independent activist, anti corruption media meets power.

[Amy Goodman]

I mean, we were just doing our job as journalists to hold those empowered account, right? He called into wbai, where Democracy now is based. He was calling dozens of radio stations to get out the vote. And of course, when they called, it was like minutes before the show started. And they said, you know, the White House calling. And I thought they said the White Horse was calling, which is historic tavern right in the Village, right, right where Dylan Thomas drank himself to death.

[Jon Stewart]

They got a little plaque right in there, right?

[Amy Goodman]

This little boat. And so they said, the White Horse. And I said, the President would like to speak to you. I said, the President of what? And they said, the President of the United States. I said, oh, my God, the White House, not the White Horse. But he's calling. And I thought, even still, I thought this was a fake call. But I did give them the internal number. I said, whatever. If he wants to call, yes, yes. He didn't call during Democracy now, that hour. And so it was election Day. We were going out to get coffee because we'd be there all night. Who knew that we'd have to be there for five weeks? But the next show, as we're walking out, the Nueva Alternativa, the Latino music show, Gonzalo screams, amy, get in here. The President of the United States is on the phone because he called into the station. So I ran in and me and Gonzalo did this interview with his producer and my two producers. And, you know, people wait for their journalists, wait for their whole lives to speak with the President of the United States. We had all of zero time to prepare for this interview. And I said, I understand you're calling people to get out the vote. And he said something and I said, well, people are wondering, why should they vote? How does their power compare to corporations? And then I asked him about taking the Democratic Party to the right.

[Jon Stewart]

To the right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Amy Goodman]

And he got upset.

[Jon Stewart]

Boy, he didn't. Oh, you cut the welfare by half, and that's gonna. And we've got the Highest employment. And he just went and he really got heated.

[Amy Goodman]

A part you don't see in the film. I asked him about whether he would be granting clemency to Leonard Peltier, who was a Native American leader who'd been in jail for decades. He said he was weighing it. Well, 25 years later, Biden, in his last minutes in office, released Leonard Peltier. And I just went to the Native American reservation where he is in North Dakota. But I also asked him about sanctions against Iraq, killing so many people. And he got so frustrated. He said, I find you hostile, combative, or at times, disrespectful. I said, I'm just asking you critical questions. I asked about Israel, Palestine. Finally, he said he had to go, and that was fine. And I went into the office, and the White House called me. And not the White Horse, the White House. And they said, you know, they were weighing banning me from the White House. And I said, what are you talking about? He called me. I didn't call him. And then they said, we told you he had a few minutes. You kept him on the phone for over half an hour. I said, he's the leader of the free world. He could hang up if he wants to.

[Jon Stewart]

That's exactly right. And you know what? And he can also answer a couple of questions. Folks, you know, I don't need to tell you, I am an old man. The old man sometimes very difficult to handle the progress of modern times. I'm still in my Costanza era, or I was when it comes to wallets. It was the old school wallet. It with the bi fold. It was giant. Then had the three little pockets, and you'd put your things and then all your crazy, and then you would try and put it in your pocket. But this is. It's built for a different era when you didn't have a phone and a fob and all the other things that it got to stick down your pants. Am I allowed to say that? Stick down your pants? Well, let me tell you something. Ridge wallet makes all that obsolete. You upgrade to a Ridge wallet, it changes everything. You could put all your cards in it. I don't know how many you got. I. I don't know what you do. It'll hold up to 12 if you have 12 cards plus cash. If you've got more than that, you don't need a wallet. You need an assistant to carry your stuff around. You got, yeah, they look good. 50 colors, styles to choose from, Lifetime warranty. It's literally the last wallet you're ever Going to buy. So please save your butt and get yourself a Ridge wallet. For a limited time, our listeners get 10 off at Ridge by using code TWS at checkout. Just head to ridge.com and use code TWS. You're all set. After you purchase, they'll ask you where you heard about them. Please support our show and tell them we sent you. That second scene where the White House calls you and castigates you is the part that I found so fascinating because it speaks to the bargain that journalists and news organizations have made with power. That access is only granted conditionally. And those conditions negate the entire power of what good journalism is.

[Amy Goodman]

Right? And I call it the access of Right. We all know about the access of evil.

[Jon Stewart]

Yes, the access of evil.

[Amy Goodman]

That's right, the access of evil. Trading truth for access is not worth it. The questions you're going to ask for that access, those softball questions, I mean, you saw, a few years after the massacre, I was at the White house questioning Mike McCurry, Clinton's spokesperson. And it was at a time when, amazingly, for the first time, Congress was cutting off, had cut off military training aid to Indonesia. I've been coughing since 9, 11, too.

[Jon Stewart]

Yeah, I know. I'm familiar with that cough.

[Amy Goodman]

You know it.

[Jon Stewart]

Well, you better be on the program. Are you on the program, Amy? There's a joker program.

[Amy Goodman]

I'm looking at it.

[Jon Stewart]

Yeah, get on that program.

[Amy Goodman]

But on the massacre. So I asked Mike McCurry, he was talking about it's President Clinton's 21st wedding anniversary with his bride. The reporters were asking about golf clubs that he used. And so I said, is he really going to be restoring military aid to Indonesia? And he wouldn't quite answer my question. And when I really pursued it, I said, some are saying that it's like this was at the time, this was what, 1995, 1996, giving weapons to Saddam Hussein. And Kamakuri said, we don't see it that way. We see it as serving the national interest, which is just astonishing. What, killing a third of the population of East Timor, one of the great genocides of the late 20th century. And when I was pushing that, he said, the turnip is dry. And all the reporters, many of the reporters in the room, giggled and laughed with him. And it's that kind of not only trading truth for access, but it's a kind of peer pressure. And this is not worth it. I mean, politicians need journalists more than journalists need politicians. Our job is to do our job. It's not to win a popularity contest. There's a reason why the freedom of the press is enshrined in the US Constitution in the First Amendment, because ultimately it's about the public's right to know. And we can't have a meaningful democracy unless people have information.

[Jon Stewart]

But what we have, Amy, is the theater of a democracy. It's. It's a show. You know, I, I can't tell you how often I watch these. You know, the daily press briefing where they put on a play for the, the American audience and Caroline Levitt or whoever is in that position, whether it was Mike McCurry and in those days or everything comes out and lies pretty much the whole time. And the journalists sit there and they've been cast, I guess, as the peanut gallery. And occasionally they'll get off a good question. But you're right, they don't cooperate with each other. They're all combating each other for a certain access or trying to make their name and this theater of the absurd, as though that press briefing is illumination in any form. It's not.

[Amy Goodman]

Well, you know, remember when Newt Gingrich was House speaker, he would hold a daily. He established this sort of this. Well, he would hold a press briefing every day. And he got extremely frustrated with my questions. According to a big piece in the Washington Post, he ended it because of my questions.

[Jon Stewart]

Oh, really?

[Amy Goodman]

But I did. They do capture. This wasn't at a press briefing, but they do capture the moment I had with Newt Gingrich. It was at the Republican convention, and his mom had just done an interview with Connie Chung where she said that Newt, her son, had called the first lady a bitch. That was Hillary Clinton. And so I went up to Newt Gingrich. I mean, his words matter. He's House Speaker. And I said, Mr. Speaker, will you apologize to American women for calling the first lady a bitch? And he said something like, I never said what you said. I said. And I said, are you calling your mother a liar then? Okay.

[Jon Stewart]

And that's when he went, no, she's a, she's not a liar. Oh, God, she's getting me in trouble.

[Amy Goodman]

But, you know, it's our job to ask the questions.

[Jon Stewart]

But it doesn't get done, and it. Or it's scripted. And so it gives you the illusion of information and that I, I really do think that's the difference. And I'm wondering what you. How does it get captured? Why does it get captured? Because like you said, a lot of them are really good people. A lot of them are committed. How does it end up as this

[Amy Goodman]

Kabuki theater Well, I mean I think, and I think you should ask some of them, but I think they know how to rise in the corporate media ladder. And when you start saying I want to go cover that protest, you keep getting sidelined. And you say, well I went to the White House press briefing but they wouldn't call on me. This isn't good for them. And so instead you ask a question that will allow you to ask a question the next day. But I mean for us then you just have to be outside. Look at the Pentagon reporters. They did something interesting when they were told recently by Secretary Hegseth that they had to sign an oath that they would not release classified information without the Pentagon's approval. Interestingly, across the political spectrum a lot of them said no. So they were outside the Pentagon then. And then in that case that's where they need to be. A judge just ruled not once but twice that that demand is unconstitutional. You have a P refusing to say Gulf of America. They say Gulf of Mexico. I thought they could compromise. They could say Gulf of America.

[Jon Stewart]

If you say it with the accent, it's halfway. It's meeting halfway. Amy. It says that's a fine solution. How, how do we unravel that symbiotic relationship where Washington is this nexus now of corporate power. It's kind of a self propagating machine. Like as you see, they deregulate, let's say tech and create trillions of dollars of wealth that flow towards these five individuals that we the gods that will decide our future. And then those individuals will filter back into the political system tens and hundreds of millions of dollars to keep those people ensconced in power. And the media around it is also feeding out of the same trough. It's this.

[Amy Goodman]

I mean they're owned by the same, right. You've got Washington Post owned by the billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. And what does he do? He pays $40 million for the Melania documentary and apparent 35 million to push it. $40 million giving it to Trump. And at the same time he is slicing the newsroom by hundreds of reporters. I think both are currying favor. And now apparently Amazon is talking about reviving the Apprentice and it'll be Donald Trump Jr. Who will be the star of that. And they own the press. And that's why these corporate mergers are such an enormous problem. With the Ellison's, you have them owning Paramount, Skydance.

[Jon Stewart]

Sure, they just bought us. And now they want to buy cnn,

[Amy Goodman]

Warner Brothers, Discovery, CNN and hbo.

[Jon Stewart]

That's right, cnn, hbo. All Those things. But how do you. If there is a media industrial complex, and I think there is, where it's kind of this revolving door where everybody's eating out of the same trough, Independent media is the answer yet why doesn't independent media grow in that same way? Like what grows is this sort of podcast universe, like this where we're just analyzing things, but they're not doing the work that you guys do, which is information gathering.

[Amy Goodman]

We have a model of listener, viewer, reader support. We start. Started what? 30 years ago on 9 Pacifica radio and community stations. We thought we'd end after the election. It was the only daily election show in public broadcasting in 96. But there was such a demand for it after that, we continued. So more and more stations picked us up at some NPR stations as well. Then 911 happened. We were at that firehouse downtown television,

[Jon Stewart]

you were right in the thicket.

[Amy Goodman]

And one TV station in New York, Manhattan Neighborhood Network, Public Access, had a link to that community media center. They started broadcasting us as emergency broadcasting. Public access TV stations around the country started asking for the show. Then PBS stations, then NPR stations. And now we're at about 1500 public radio and television stations around the country and around the world. By the way, Public access is also under assault right now.

[Jon Stewart]

But even NPR and PBS backed away from you guys for certain stories, fearing the loss of funding.

[Amy Goodman]

And for us, we had such a strong global supporter base from 30 years ago. You have to understand, we couldn't afford anything. And the inter tubes, it was right around the time of the inter tubes coming into being, right? So democracynow.org, we, it was before the word podcast and we put up the MP3 and radio stations. That's how they could take it for free. The other networks could pay to have satellites to put it out. We couldn't. But because we put it [e-mail] then people would transcribe it immediately. Someone in Mexico, someone in Montana, someone In Michigan, segment 1, 2 and 3. The. Our transcription coordinator put it all together every day. The transcription will be there right away. To this day, most shows don't put their transcript up. And then network reporters, interestingly, would take those transcripts to the White House, to the Pentagon, to the State Department. And it would be based on their questions, real people closest to the story, not the know nothing pundits. And that's what we call trickle up journalism. But it grew so fast because of that, we put total information online.

[Jon Stewart]

Do you think it's your training, Amy, in, you know, there's An. There's a different aesthetic when you're dealing with radio news. You know, your. Your background in radio before, because it's. It's an interesting transition that you guys made from radio and BAI and all those things to television. But you never lost. You know, a lot of television focuses on. It's a visual medium. And unless we have tape, you guys always seem to have remembered your aesthetic from radio. And it's a different way of telling stories.

[Amy Goodman]

You're absolutely right. I mean. And it's a more imaginative media.

[Jon Stewart]

Yes.

[Amy Goodman]

And so we were on that. And I was before Democracy now on that. Well, let me just tell the story of Pacifica, which is amazing. 1949, founded by a war resistor named Lou Hill, who came out of the detention camps in Berkeley, California. They established KPFA in 1949.

[Jon Stewart]

Oh, I didn't know that was. That was done literally from someone who had been interned in World War II.

[Amy Goodman]

Yes. And then KPFK in Los Angeles, 1959, went on the air. My station, WBAI, 1960. WPFW in Washington, 1977. But the fourth station was KPFT in Houston in the Petro Metro. It goes on the air in the spring of 1970. Within weeks, it's blown up by the Ku Klux Klan. They strap dynamite to the base of the transmitter. KPFT rebuilds themselves quickly. And in a few weeks, they go back on. And The Klan straps 15 times the dynamite to the base of the transmitter. And right in the middle of Arlo Guthrie singing Alice's Restaurant, which I thought was a good song, they blew it up again.

[Jon Stewart]

It's a good song. It's just very long. And that's probably what happened.

[Amy Goodman]

So then it takes months for KPFT to rebuild. And In January of 1971, Arlo comes back to Houston to finish his song on the air. And yes, it might have taken a long time. And KPFT is back on their feet. I can't remember if it was the Grand Dragon or the Exalted Cyclops. Cause I often confuse their titles.

[Jon Stewart]

It's very hard to tell them apart sometimes, because you gotta look at the hoods. It's like one of them has, like, a Rehnquist hood that has, like, little bars on it or something.

[Amy Goodman]

But he said it was his proudest act. That's because he understood how dangerous Pacifica is. How dangerous? Independent media is dangerous because it allows people to speak for themselves. And when you hear a Palestinian child or an Israeli grandmother, when you hear an Iranian uncle or aunt in Afghanistan, like That Iranian uncle might remind you of your uncle and you might not like your uncle, but it makes you much less likely to want to destroy him. You cannot caricature or stereotype him anymore. Humanization, that is what, what fuels the hate groups. I think the media can be the greatest force for peace on earth. Instead, all too often it is wielded as a weapon of war. Which is why we have to take the media back.

[Jon Stewart]

Yes. And manufacturing consent to create a narrative because that's more interesting. I always felt that that was part of what happened in Iraq is there is a certain within the corporate media environment that is war's more interesting than not war. And it's a good story and it's a build up. And they almost create the kind of. I'm not saying they create the war, but they do create a kind of lubricant for the war that allows it to. They take some of the friction out of the tube.

[Amy Goodman]

I mean, absolutely. In a time of war, the media tends to circle the wagons around the White House. Look at what President Trump said this past weekend. He said if you question the war, I think he said if you say that the US is losing the war or not winning the war, that is treason.

[Jon Stewart]

Hegseth called them the Pharisees, that. I mean he went biblical that if you were to question their decisions, you're literally against God. Forget about even America.

[Amy Goodman]

And this is such an enormous problem. I mean, when you look at Iraq, I mean, what did Iraq have to do with 9, 11? Of course not. But there are commonalities from Timor to Iraq to Venezuela to Iran, three letters, oil. And you know, I'm not saying it's the only reason, but they understood this with Iraq. Remember, didn't they call originally the invasion of the US called the invasion of Iraq Operation Iraqi Liberation?

[Jon Stewart]

Yeah.

[Amy Goodman]

And they realized that the acronym was oil, so they changed it to Operation Freedom. They couldn't do that.

[Jon Stewart]

They understood it even they knew that was too far that they would do that. Amy, have you ever felt like that stories that you had done had been utilized for the wrong purposes? Were there, were there any situations where you felt like you walked into a situation and regretted putting something out there? Does in independent. What are the safeguards that independent media has on things like that?

[Amy Goodman]

I mean, it's a good question. I think of times if someone is taken hostage, if someone in different countries, the family doesn't want to put out word right away, I may hear about it and they're terrified that they'll be killed right away. I In most cases would not defy that if someone felt that someone's life was at stake at that moment. I mean, it's just, though, so important to hear people describe their own experience and if they can, to have someone closest to them. I was just thinking about a woman named at the end of Steal a Story, Please. I mean, Tia and Carl did an incredible job, but they continued to add to the film until now, and now it's out all over the country. A woman in Minneapolis. I mean, the people of Minneapolis have taught us so much. That's people. People across the political spectrum, because it's

[Jon Stewart]

about community and about not capitulating in advance to things.

[Amy Goodman]

And, you know, if an immigrant family is afraid to go out and buy groceries, people would buy groceries for them, afraid to take their kid to school, walk their kid to school. But I was thinking of Alia Rahman. She is an autistic disabled woman who is on her way to the doctor. Immigration. Immigration agents stopped her, smash her window as she shouts to them as they drag her out of the car, cutting her seatbelt. I'm disabled. I'm disabled. They say, too effing late. Except they use the full word, like President Trump does. So they drag her out, they injure her. Seriously. She's taken to the Whipple Detention Center. She doesn't know what's happened when she gets out. We interview her, and then Ilhan Omar, the congressmember from Minneapolis, invites her to the State of the Union address. You know, they can each get a guest. Ilhan Omar, the only Somali refugee congresswoman who President Trump calls garbage. He calls the whole Somali community in Minneapolis.

[Jon Stewart]

Community. No, he's. He's denigrated the entire community.

[Amy Goodman]

Oh, my God. So she goes to the State of the Union. Alia rahman, she's a U.S. citizen, and I hate to even qualify this by saying she's a US Citizen, as if you're not a US Citizen, you can, right?

[Jon Stewart]

Then you can be treated however they want to treat you.

[Amy Goodman]

Right, exactly. So she goes and she's in the gallery where all of the guests are, and she's between some police chief and some mayor of two different towns that others had invited. And she's there, and she's sitting, and President Trump's giving that longest speech ever of a State of the Union. And the Republicans are standing, applauding, making noise, sitting. And, you know, if it was a Democratic president, would have been the other way. Democrats would have been standing up and down, standing, roaring, sitting down, down, applauding. And then he starts to denigrate the people of Minneapolis. And she stands up in quiet witness. She stands there. She has a cane. She stands there. Security takes her out. They take her down once she's already injured from Minneapolis. We had invited her on the next day, not knowing any of this. We wanted to ask what's it like to be there at State of the Union after this happened to you in Minneapolis? She is taken to jail. She gets out at 4 in the morning. She comes on Democracy now. And she says, I am wearing the same clothes that I wore to the State of the Union because I was arrested. I was taken down. It was like a supervisor had to say to the agents who took her out, what are you doing? Right? And she came on Democracy Now.

[Jon Stewart]

And it's so important, though. It's. It's Amy. It's so. And it's. And many. Minneapolis is a great example of that. That. Because what you see is they lie about things that happen. And so if you don't have witness, if people don't have the courage, like this woman to stand up or the footage like they had in the case of Renee Good and Alex Pretty, this is what they lie about. When we have witnesses and cameras, imagine what they lie about when we don't have that.

[Amy Goodman]

Exactly. And so Alia, they have that video. And then here, because she told her own story. And now New York Times takes it, Washington Post, the networks take it. That's the idea of stealing. Steal this story. Please, please,

[Jon Stewart]

Folks, I don't know if, you know, the Met gala was on. I didn't go, but I could have gone because do I want to say an icon in that world? Yes. I don't think. I don't think anyone myself. Billy Porter, you know, the designers, they crave to drape me in the newest fashions. I'm considered the poor man's Heidi Klum. And that's where Quince comes in. Our friends at Quints are back to help fashion plates like myself and like my audience, upgrade your summer wardrobe. You know, I can't always wear couture, if that's what they call it. Hot couture. Hot couture, haute couture. I can't always wear that. That's where Quince comes in. They got the summer staples. The breathable, comfortable, high quality, 100% linen shorts and shirts. Pima cotton tees. You know, the Pima cotton tea. That's, that's your. That's the softest, most durable of the cottons. You know, there's a lot of argument about the cottons. But I think most experts agree it's the Pima cotton that really makes the difference. Please, I beg of you. You know, you know me. I don't like to nag.

[Amy Goodman]

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[Jon Stewart]

I beg of you. Refresher every day with luxury you'll actually use. Head to quints.com TWS for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. But now available in Canada too. Come on. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E.comTW S for free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.comTWS. You know, there's something in the film that I thought was so poignant. You travel back to a place, a town where I believe it was either your grandmother or your great grandmother was from Rev.

[Amy Goodman]

It was Rivna, Ukraine, where my grandmother was born.

[Jon Stewart]

Now there's a, there's a mass grave there where the Nazis had come to in. Your grandmother was, had gotten out because of the pagrams a little bit earlier. And you stand by the stone that they have commemorating this mass slaughter of, right? And you say a silent or you sing a, a, a prayer. And it's incredibly moving about the dehumanization of the Jewish people during that time. And then immediately you refer it back to Gaza. And I thought that to juxtaposing those two things so beautifully encapsulated how this dehumanization continues today and that these slaughters are not justified wherever they may go. It was that, that never again anywhere,

[Amy Goodman]

never again for anyone, for anywhere.

[Jon Stewart]

Right? And it, but, but, but there's an art to that narration to remind people that the suffering that you believe your people are going through is also what other people are going through. And you cannot cut their humanity off.

[Amy Goodman]

Well, you know, John, when I grew up in Hebrew school, I was always obsessed with almost why would non Jews help us help Jews during World War II? Why would they hide away a family in a barn or in an attic or help someone? Because they're putting their own lives at risk. And I was always amazed. They're called the righteous. And I was stunned by what they did and the enormous risk they took. And you look today at what is happening in Palestine. And I went to cover at the end of this film. They show the covering of Grand Central. A thousand mainly Jews come out on Shabbos on Friday night and they shut down Grand Central saying never again for anyone anywhere. And their T shirts said Jews say no. And we're interviewing them. That's the important thing. I mean, the networks, how far they'll go, they might show a protest, but go and interview the people.

[Jon Stewart]

But they don't do that. What they'll do is they'll use that framing, especially on the cable networks to frame it as anti Semitic radicals were there. Meanwhile, you're on the ground with them and they're all Jewish. I mean like we're not. What we're saying is the Netanyahu government and, and the, the Zionists who are saying, no, this has all been given to us by God and that's what we're going to do. Like that's what they're rejecting.

[Amy Goodman]

Right. It's Fox News. And they were saying the level of antisemitism is unconscionable. It shocks the conscience. And they're showing the same protest and it's you they're not contradicting because they don't talk to anyone. And then you see this 81 year old CUNY Jewish CUNY professor with her high waters, like her pants up to wherever above her ankles, saying to the police, take me, take me. And you see the children of Holocaust survivors who are older women now saying, never again. Holding up their handcuffed hands. And you see a young obscure state legislator who's there, who I interviewed by the name of Zoran Mandani. That's correct, right. Who says, I am here in solidarity with the Jewish community. And I had asked him, this wasn't included in the film, are you getting arrested today? But he had told me he couldn't because he had just gotten arrested like a week or two before and that could lead him to prison. So he was there. Support and amazing. Think of what has happened with Zoran Mamdani, from that to speaking up right now as mayor of New York City.

[Jon Stewart]

But to see, you know, Amy, as the cycles continue to repeat themselves, does it cause you, is it disheartening? You know, so much of what you were doing early on as you were drawing that line between corporate power, American money, the violence being done to people in other places in our names for our fuel and all those things. And then you draw the line today. American dollars being used with weapons to kill people that have, we have no beef with, that have nothing to do with us for fuel and all these other things. And, and it's, you know, look, the show that, that I do, like, like there's a certain impotence to it. That is, it can be cathartic, but it's impotent. And that, that's a frustration that I deal with. But I wonder when you're you're doing it in a manner that is really, you're embedded in it with those voiceless people. And I wonder, what does that do to you emotionally?

[Amy Goodman]

First of all, you're underestimating, to say the least, your own power, because humor means so much. And obviously President Trump pays attention, to say the least. But, you know, after I come off the show every day, I suffer from ptsd, post Traumatic show disorder. It is a lot to take in. But think about what it is for the people, whether we're talking about Iran. I mean, I just want to say, when we were talking about Bezos, who owns the Washington Post and gutted the newsroom staff, almost the whole Middle east division, we had on a Washington Post reporter right at that time a few weeks ago who did an analysis of the first day of the US Israeli strike on Iran in southern Iran. Minab, the girls school, the primary girls school. She did an analysis. You know, it looks like it was a U.S. tomahawk missile hit the school. 175 people dead, about a dozen teachers and mainly little girls going to school. And this Washington Post reporter was in our studio doing this incredible analysis of it. But she didn't work for the Washington Post anymore because she had just been laid off. Now, she still did that. And people now everywhere are still doing things. And the media, I couldn't have predicted social media, how it rose up over these years. We always went to. We never expected people would come to us. We go to where everyone is and we put out the news on, on YouTube, on Instagram, on TikTok, whatever. And I don't think we can predict with the shuttering of newspapers, the gutting of them, the networks consolidating or disappearing. Who knows if HBO documentaries, those documentaries like Tia's the Janes will still be there. If it's taken over by Trump allies, who knows? But new entities emerge, and if we can just be a model for what that new entity can be in the rest of the world. They know state media and they know private media, but they don't know listener, viewer, reader, supported media. And that's what we want to be a model of. And the hunger for independent voices. You know, I'm traveling the country with the film Talk, doing the Q&As after we were just. And we do fundraising for either NPR stations, for PBS stations. We just did Howard University's pbs whut, wpfw, Pacifica Radio, WEAA at Morgan State. These have been amazing. And in Baltimore, when we got there at the movie theater, it's called the Charles in Baltimore. Big sign, the Devil Wears Prada. You know, Devil Wears Prada, too. And then over on the side it says, said, steal the story, please. So as we pulled up, I mean, the place was packed to the gills. And I go, oh, my God, it's going to be empty. And everyone's going to the Devil Wears Prada. So anyway, I go in and everyone's saying, oh, my gosh, we loved much now. I said, really? So all these folks who are going to the Devil Wears Prada, and they go, what are you talking about? We're going to steal the story. And then I looked on the screen and it said, steal the story. Sold out. But they were still selling plenty of tickets to the Devil Rose Prada. Yes, there is a hunger for independent media. I see the media is a huge kitchen table that stretches across the globe that we all sit around and debate and discuss the most important issues of the day. War and peace, life and death.

[Jon Stewart]

Like how you grew up. It really, in many ways, it's a

[Amy Goodman]

reflection of the Shabbos table.

[Jon Stewart]

You sitting around with your. Your mom and dad, who your sacrifice found like incredible people, and your brother incredible, and. And sort of three brothers and practicing. I was thinking of the one who ran David's press, who ran.

[Amy Goodman]

Yes, Dave's Press. My. He writes books with me. He's a great journalist in Vermont.

[Jon Stewart]

But it really, it's grounded in a kind of a familial warmth and love of criticism, discussion, openness, honesty.

[Amy Goodman]

And even after we have vicious fights, we still love each other.

[Jon Stewart]

But it's, it's. And you've, You've, You've taken that aesthetic and, and infused it into this really incredible media entity.

[Amy Goodman]

Well, to. Yeah, I mean, that is the power of the voices. I mean, they. I bask in their. But just to say with that image, seeing it as this huge kitchen table where we debate the key issues, anything less than that is a disservice to the service men and women of this country because they can't have these public debates on military bases about whether they're sent to kill or be killed. Anything less than that is a disservice to a democratic society.

[Jon Stewart]

I couldn't agree more. And I think the moral foundation of what you do has to be infused into news organizations where it's corporate or not. And I think the people in those organizations have more power than they believe that they do. And they have to start taking that back. You know, as you look at the future of independent media and, you know, sort of Democracy stands as kind of a linchpin of it and a real guiding force for people and a light. Is there a future for it that is benefactor driven? Is there a Bezos but for independence that carries it through?

[Amy Goodman]

I think it comes out of community and the support has to come from the community.

[Jon Stewart]

It's always got to come out of community. Right.

[Amy Goodman]

Because ultimately, look, Bezos buys the Washington Post. No one knew what he would do with it. But during that time time they develop that slogan, democracy dies in darkness, which is true. But look, it's very dark at the Washington Post right now.

[Jon Stewart]

I was going to say. And they're the ones who, who had the dimmer switch and they're the ones that were pulling it. Amy, I just want to thank you for, for spending the time with us. I'm such an admirer. And the work that you've done over all these years is just, it's legendary. And so we so appreciate you and all the people that are behind the scenes that work so hard. Although I, I have to say you do more with less than any organization of your ilk that I have ever seen in my life.

[Amy Goodman]

Well, my colleagues are my inspiration.

[Jon Stewart]

Yeah, it's fantastic. So Amy Goodman hosts an executive producer at Democracy now and the movie is Steal this Story. Please go to steal this story.org and find out where it's playing and go check it out because it's incredibly moving and incredibly inspiring and I appreciate you. So thank you for, for talking to us.

[Amy Goodman]

Thank you so much. Hope to see folks at the movie theater.

[Jon Stewart]

Absolutely. See you soon. You know what I hate, ladies and gentlemen, almost more than anything. It's slow growing trees. Come on tree. I don't have all day. I don't have all epoch era age. I need me trees and Anita now. Well folks, fast growing trees has the answer. They got all the plants your yard or home needs. You might be thinking I don't have space. I'm. I got, I got nowhere to plant. Plant what? No, they got a variety of apartment friendly house plants. Did you know you could have a lemon or avocado tree indoors? Did you know that indoors. You know how nice that would smell? The lemon, not the avocado obviously. Oh, the avocado might. You know what? I actually let me, let me self correct. I don't know what avocados actually smell like, man. They could be quite pleasant. And right now they have great deals on planting essentials. Up to half off on select plants and listeners to our show get 20 off their first purchase when using the code TWS at checkout. That's an additional 20 off. Better plants and better growing at fast growing trees.com using the code TWS at checkout. Fast growing trees.com code TWS. Now's the perfect time to plan. Let's grow together. Use TWS to save today. Offer is valid for a limited time. Terms and conditions apply. Amy Goodman.

[Jillian Spear]

I loved that.

[Amy Goodman]

So good.

[Jon Stewart]

She's so good. She's. You know what's crazy, though, is when you realize the amount of work that they're doing. Like, three of them, literally.

[Jillian Spear]

I was shocked by that in the documentary.

[Jon Stewart]

Stunned.

[Amy Goodman]

Yeah.

[Jon Stewart]

There's. There's a great one of, like, a documentary that she's putting together, and she's literally editing herself while she's on the air. She's slicing the tape.

[Brittany Mic]

It's amazing.

[Lauren Walker]

I saw that storyline on, like, the first episode of Newsroom, and I was like, that would never happen. And then I see it in this dog actually happening. Like, oh, shit.

[Jon Stewart]

Yeah, it's amazing.

[Lauren Walker]

She is next level. I just. I am fangirling from a journalist perspective. She really gave journalists like me the courage and the permission to avoid the pressures that the industry puts on people. And we've talked about some of those, like, you know, trying to write the clickbaitiest article so that you can get a bonus or achieve Internet glory with the sexiest of war stories, let's say. But I don't know, she really stands out as someone who reports the story that she doesn't see and wants told. And a little, like, interesting side is that I was a former national security reporter, and I would write stories that I knew would not get clicks. And one of them, like, 10 years ago, was about how the American Psychological association voted to ban its members from participating in national security interrogations after what we know.

[Jon Stewart]

Yes.

[Lauren Walker]

And it went fine. Like, I got this great story that I didn't see elsewhere, and then it vanished. And then a little bit later, in her 20th anniversary anniversary book, it was cited, and she had a whole section about people and the power that they have. And so I just think it kind of brings it full circle of. I, as a journalist, have power, these individuals have power, and together you have even more power to create the reality you want to live in.

[Brittany Mic]

That's so awesome, Lauren.

[Jon Stewart]

That's beautiful.

[Lauren Walker]

Yeah.

[Jon Stewart]

Can I ask you a question about that? Because it does. I would imagine that most young people. People. And when I say young people, I'm talking about Jillian, Lauren, and Britney. Most young people go into that business because it's a Calling because they feel an obligation. They're drawn to issues of justice or they're drawn to things in your mind when, when you were there. How does that get beaten out of them or stolen from them?

[Lauren Walker]

I mean, I, I touched on this, but, but I've worked at places that have bonus structures that if you get a baseline salary of peanuts, and then if you achieve a certain level of clicks on certain stories, you can get bonuses. So literally, some people's livelihood is tied up with writing the sexiest story possible, but on like, a grander scale. I mean, people know that in order to get a bigger platform, you have to be known. And, and the ways of doing that are writing sexy stories and getting them in front of people. But yeah, she shows that everything is

[Jon Stewart]

possible and cozying up to the powers that be. The control.

[Brittany Mic]

Access.

[Lauren Walker]

Exactly.

[Jon Stewart]

Access to power, access to corporations.

[Lauren Walker]

Yeah.

[Jillian Spear]

The incentive structure is just fucked all the way down. It's like it's not just the journalists that have the wrong incentive structure. It's the entities that they work for

[Jon Stewart]

that do right top, top down that

[Jillian Spear]

leads us to where we are now. That's right.

[Jon Stewart]

That's right.

[Lauren Walker]

Oh, yeah. Journalists, I mean, are at the bottom of this, like, power structure. It definitely comes from the top. And I mean, there's a pressure on editors to get things structured a certain way so that they have success. And it goes all the way up.

[Jillian Spear]

There was a point in the documentary that I loved so much, which is they were at the Republican national convention in 2008, and there's all these protests outside. And I think Amy got arrest.

[Amy Goodman]

Arrested as in St. Paul.

[Jon Stewart]

Right? That was. Yeah, yeah, she got arrested. Yeah.

[Jillian Spear]

And they interview Katie Couric.

[Jon Stewart]

Yes.

[Jillian Spear]

And she asks, are you going to be covering the journalists outside getting arrested? And she goes, you know, I've seen that. And I would, I would love to,

[Lauren Walker]

but we have all these speeches, and

[Jon Stewart]

she said, she literally says that we have all these things that they want us to show. And you're like, who wants you to

[Jillian Spear]

show all these speeches that they want us to show they, you're not a cameraman, you're a journalist.

[Jon Stewart]

List.

[Jillian Spear]

Like you have some agency in this.

[Lauren Walker]

I love that little line. Like, she's like, I'm aware of it. As if that matters.

[Jillian Spear]

And no shade to Katie. Like, I'm sure it's not just her, but.

[Brittany Mic]

No, no, it's everybody.

[Jon Stewart]

But you know, in their hearts, you know, that they got into this business to do the right thing, to tell the right story. And I, I, I honestly believe, like, they could do it. They could overturn. I don't think that the incentive system is. I think you could make a profitable news business out of what Democracy now does, using them as your touchstone, not buzzfeed or whatever the fuck people use.

[Brittany Mic]

I think it takes a leap of faith.

[Lauren Walker]

It just takes a lot of bravery.

[Jon Stewart]

Bravery, right. But, yeah, you saw, she was in East Timor.

[Jillian Spear]

She's in, like, oh, my God.

[Jon Stewart]

She's putting herself in literal harm's way.

[Jillian Spear]

And, you know, it's like the exact opposite. Like. Like when she said an exclusive is a failure, like, that's just the exact opposite of this. Like, save it for the book culture that we're seeing right now where everything comes out a year and a half later and they want it all to themselves.

[Jon Stewart]

Right. Word. Well, it was fantastic. Brittany, what do the kids want to know from us?

[Brittany Mic]

Alrighty. First up, John, do you think Fetterman is going to flip to the Republicans?

[Jon Stewart]

Fetterman? I think the. The Republican caucus is, if I know correctly, no hoodies allowed.

[Jillian Spear]

Suddenly they're okay with his hoodie?

[Jon Stewart]

Yeah. No, I think. I think the Republican caucus is like a country club. I think there might be a dress code. I think you got to wear at least, like, a polo shirt. So I don't think. I mean, to be fair to Fetterman, like, I don't know how he would be a Republican. Like, he goes along with them on, I guess, Israel, which I really don't understand. And. And maybe there's like a couple of, you know, he'll. He'll throw a bum. But as a Republican, I don't understand where he would fit in unless he just wants, like, to be in a better office or get a better committee role. But, like, he's not a Republican.

[Lauren Walker]

Do you see what he said about Platner? That.

[Jon Stewart]

No, what are you saying?

[Lauren Walker]

Like, the Republicans love Platner.

[Jon Stewart]

The Republicans love Platner?

[Lauren Walker]

Yeah, he said that.

[Jon Stewart]

What does that mean?

[Lauren Walker]

I just love how. How all of these Democrats are, like, pointing the finger, like, no, you're going to be a Republican.

[Jon Stewart]

You're going to be a Republican. No, he's going to be a Republican. I think he should just draw the two strings on the hoodie and just pull it down. Shut the up for just a little while.

[Jillian Spear]

But he will wear a suit when Netanyahu comes to town. That's where he. He's like, I'll dress up for him.

[Jon Stewart]

It's. He's got a very peculiar set of. He's got great empathy, oftentimes for marginalized groups. Groups yet in that situation truly is just. I'm not, I'm not looking at anything else but Netanyahu. It's such a. It's such an odd dichotomy from how he is with almost everything else.

[Jillian Spear]

I can't follow his logic.

[Jon Stewart]

No. But I will say this. He is the senator I most dress like.

[Jillian Spear]

Honestly, probably same.

[Jon Stewart]

I'm dressed like him now. You don't know that. That I. I'm Hoody List, but pretty much everything else is straight Federman right now. To be honest with you. I've been Fetterman in it since probably like ninth grade.

[Brittany Mic]

Before him maybe.

[Jon Stewart]

Yeah, something like that. What, what else?

[Brittany Mic]

What else, John? Why do you think the Democrats never found a good nickname for Trump? How about Dummy Don, Juy Don, or Trumpety Dumpy?

[Jon Stewart]

Yeah, that's probably why, because none of those are any. I had one form years ago, Face von Clowns Stick, which I used when he and I were in a Twitter war together. Well, he was in a Twitter war. I didn't have Twitter. And he went after me one night because my real last name is Lebowitz. And so he felt that I was hiding that I'm Jewish. Which if, you know, I don't know where else you would see this face other than like a poster for Fiddler on the Roof. Like I. You could. Whatever my name is, is. It's pretty obvious. And I talk about it all the time about grown up Jews. So I, I went. He said, you know, you know, his name is John Lebot, so he's an imposter. And why run from your heritage? And so I tweeted back at him. Donald Trump's real name is Face von Clown Stick. Why would you run? And so suddenly he's getting bombarded and like 12 hours later, he just tweets out. Everybody think. Thinks Face Von Konstick is so funny. And they're all tweeting it at me. It's not original, it's not funny. And then like, we didn't hear anything else about it until like two weeks later at three in the morning, he just tweets out, John Stuart Leibowitz is a. And that's it. That was the end of the fight.

[Jillian Spear]

Wait, was he president during this time or was this.

[Jon Stewart]

He was not. He was in his. He was in his I do videos from my office era. Okay, not to put it into Swiftian terms, but he was in that era. And I just thought, well, this is insane that this guy is not presidential. Not. I mean, forget about presidential running A large conglomerate, like real estate thing. Like, you're up at three in the morning just randomly calling people pussies.

[Brittany Mic]

Was that the last time that you guys interacted?

[Jon Stewart]

Yeah, yeah, I think, I mean, it. Yeah. I mean, we, we've interacted a couple of times in person before all that. Yeah, I had him on the Daily show, at which point, and, and by the way, like, his predilection for lying is not new. It is how he conducts his business. Like, he was on the show, he's like, the Apprentice is the number one show in America. And I was like, it's actually, I think, 32nd. Like, it was, it was on the downswing. So I'm like, I don't think that's true. And he's like, number one, you know, like, oh, sure. It reminds me, have you ever seen the footage of Mike Wallace interviewing Roy cone, who was Trump's lawyer and confidant and mentor? For those who don't know, Roy cone was the, the. He worked with Joe McCarthy on the House on Americans committee. Like, truly the epitome of a bad person. Like, it's, it's a person with ill intent who learns the ways of the legal system so that he can weaponize it against good human beings. And he was Trump's guy. Like, you don't hire Roy Cohn if you feel like. I'd like my business to be above board. Like, he's a guy. But it's such an interesting interview. Mike Wallace is saying, Roy Cohn is sick at this time and he's dying. He has aids. And Mike Wallace says, forgive me, you know, but the rumors around that you are, you know, back in the day, then they referred to it as, you are a homosexual. That's how they would, you know, on, on television. Like now he would just go, rumor is you're fabulous. Is that true? That's not how it goes. So rumors you're homosexual and that you have aids?

[Amy Goodman]

Aids?

[Jon Stewart]

No. What? No, I don't have aids. You can call my doctors. We called your doctors and they can't talk to us unless you say they can. Are you saying we can call them? I don't have aids. I have, I have a liver cancer. It's. It's different. They just give you the same drugs as aids. That's why I'm not gay. I'm not. You know, Mike says, you know, people think there might be a moment where you come out of the closet. Come out of the closet for what? I'm not, not a homosexual, and I don't have aids. And, like, this just goes on. And Mike Wallace is being very respectful but somewhat insistent, and it goes on and on and on. And then the coda of it is, Roy Cone, a gay man, has died of aids. But it was such an interesting exercise in. And you almost felt like in the moment, Roy Con believed it. And maybe that's the secret of it. Maybe that's the castanza of it all. Like, yeah, it's not a lie if you believe. You believe it. Yeah.

[Jillian Spear]

I think Trump believes his own lies to some extent. I do.

[Jon Stewart]

Is that the dynamic?

[Lauren Walker]

I don't know. I feel like with the Tucker Carlson interview that just happened, and he was saying, like, that man just does not know much information. Like, probably sounds good enough to him to believe without enough context.

[Jon Stewart]

But there's another guy who. How. How would Tucker know? There's another guy who's literally asking the thing you said he might be the Antichrist. Christ, I never said that.

[Brittany Mic]

Never said it.

[Jon Stewart]

Here it is. It's written here. That never came out of my mouth. Here's the video. I never said. I never said that because I don't know what the Antichrist is like. They are. It is a grifter subculture, and they're all a part of it. And Tucker's move is just the latest shift of the grift. That's all this is. There's no epiphany. It's just, oh, that ship is sinking.

[Jillian Spear]

And the media doesn't hold them accountable. They'll move on to the next thing. And the New York Times does a profile of Tucker over the weekend.

[Jon Stewart]

Like, oh, this is an interesting transformation. No, it's not.

[Brittany Mic]

And why is he transforming?

[Jon Stewart]

Because he knows.

[Jillian Spear]

And has he transformed because he's an opportunistic asshole?

[Jon Stewart]

Well, bum. Now there's a nickname that'll stick. All right, what's the last one? What's the last one?

[Brittany Mic]

Last one. John, what's your favorite emoji?

[Jon Stewart]

Oh, the. The emoji is not. Not. We're not talking about a giphy.

[Brittany Mic]

No.

[Jon Stewart]

Or gif.

[Jillian Spear]

Well, what's your favorite gif?

[Lauren Walker]

Yeah, do you have one of those?

[Jon Stewart]

Generally, it's the. There was a baby at a hockey game who was, like. And, like, super intense, and I'll hit. I'll hit that one a lot. Or. No. Yeah, it's a little girl, and she's holding, like. She. She looks like she's eating some cotton candy, and it's like Sugar rush suddenly just dopamine. And she's just like, guy will kill all of You. I like that one. I like spongebob coming out of the shirt.

[Brittany Mic]

Oh, I've gotten that one.

[Jillian Spear]

Yes.

[Jon Stewart]

Have I sent that to you?

[Amy Goodman]

Yes.

[Jon Stewart]

That's a big one. Anything with a dog, of course.

[Brittany Mic]

But what's the emoji? We have a guess.

[Jon Stewart]

I. I don't do many of them, to be. To be quite honest. Poop is always big. I like. I'll. I'll slap a poop on something, depending. I don't do a lot. Or a poop. Or this face. Grimace, grimace, grimace. Guy.

[Brittany Mic]

We were gonna go. Our polymarket was thumbs up, because anytime.

[Jon Stewart]

Oh, you know what?

[Brittany Mic]

Anytime you send John a thing, it's like, do you want to do 11am or 12pm and he's like, just thumbs up.

[Jillian Spear]

Yes.

[Lauren Walker]

Busted.

[Jon Stewart]

Yes. That is. That is. Is correct. You're. You're absolutely right. Generally, they're not. They're. Yes. They're not. They're questions, and I'm just like, yes. What's. What's. What's your. Jillian, what's your emoji go to?

[Jillian Spear]

Oh, I like the. I like the one eye closed and then your tongue out. Like, that's.

[Jon Stewart]

And that. That is to indicate, like, that's crazy pants.

[Lauren Walker]

Yeah.

[Jillian Spear]

Or just like.

[Brittany Mic]

Or she's having a good time.

[Jillian Spear]

All right, drunk.

[Amy Goodman]

I'm drunk.

[Jon Stewart]

What's your. What's your go to?

[Lauren Walker]

So in this administration, I've been using a lot of the upside down smiley and a lot of the melty smiley. Yes.

[Jillian Spear]

The melty smiley is a good one, too.

[Jon Stewart]

And the head. The explosion head.

[Jillian Spear]

Oh, yeah, That's a good.

[Lauren Walker]

A good alt as well.

[Jon Stewart]

Explosion head.

[Brittany Mic]

Sometimes, Brittany, I do a lot of, like, the eyes, like, looking to the side.

[Jon Stewart]

Oh, yeah. Oh, the two. Like, that's interesting.

[Brittany Mic]

Yeah, yeah. Because I'm always like, what's the T? Or, like, eyes.

[Jon Stewart]

Have you ever found yourselves in a conversation where, like, in person, somebody says something and you go. And you will actually do. Because of the emoji, you will do the face.

[Brittany Mic]

In real life, I do the grimace a lot.

[Jillian Spear]

Yes, I think so. I think I do that, too. And because of the Chrissy Teigen gif where she's like, yeah, like, I just adopted that face because of that.

[Jon Stewart]

But know that in conversation, I don't ever use in real life the poop emoji. That I won't. That. That I. That I don't do.

[Jillian Spear]

But your dog does.

[Jon Stewart]

That's. That's really his. Go to that. That. That is always along there. Guys, fantastic program. So nice to catch up and talk to Amy Goodman. And you guys are lead producer Lauren Walker, Producer Brittany Mic, producer Jillian Spear, video editor and engineer Rob Vela, audio editor and engineer Nicole Boyce, and our executive producers Chris McShane and Katie Gray. We will join you guys again next week. The weekly show with Jon Stewart is a Comedy Central podcast. It's produced by Paramount Audio and Bustboy Productions.

[Lauren Walker]

Day or night, VRBoCare is here 247 to help make every part of your stay seamless. If anything comes up or you simply need a little guidance, support is ready whenever you reach out. From the moment you book to the moment you head home. We're here to help things run smoothly because a great trip starts with the right support. And hey, a good playlist doesn't hurt either. Paramount podcasts.