Club Random with Bill Maher - Neil deGrasse Tyson | Club Random with Bill Maher

Episode Date: November 5, 2023

Bill and Neil deGrasse Tyson on whether Neil is wrong about outer space, science vs. opinion, why Neil turned down a scholarship offer from Carl Sagan, how many astrophysicists exist in the world, Nei...l tries to change Bill’s mind about the youth of America, Neil’s Tonight Show experience, the gender spectrum in sports, why the Vegas Sphere would be the perfect TED talk setting, and the existence of aliens. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Control and T-Rex at the Ontario Science Center. Dinos in motion, our new interactive exhibition lets you move life-sized dinosaur sculptures made of recycled materials, explore biomechanics, robotics and more as you dig into the art and science behind these fascinating creations. Book your visit today at OntarioScienceEn Center.ca. AI can be abused and say, invent five jokes that Gilmars never told, but in the style of Gilmars. Yeah, they've tried that. They're at it.
Starting point is 00:00:34 So, yes, right. Lincoln, this was a big issue in the Lincoln dog list of babes, it's random people. That's right. I remember that. Very man-self. Do I genuinely reflect? What do I do? That's right. I remember that. There he is. Man himself. Do I genuinely reflect?
Starting point is 00:00:47 What do I do? Dr. Dunn is right. I'm absolutely. How you doing, man? Professor of personality. How are you? Look at you. I got you in my life.
Starting point is 00:00:55 I'm missing you in your, in your... I'm looking. You're already... Man, Kate. No, that's for a married guy. You in my land. Oh, I'm missing you in your, in your, in your, in your, in your, in your, in your, in your, in your, in your, in your, in your, in your, in your, in your, in your, in your in your, in your, in your, in your, in your, in your, in your, in your, in your, in your in your, in your, in your, in your, in your, in your, in your, in your, in your, in your in your, in your, in your, in your, in your, in your, in your, in your, in your, in your in your, in your, in your, in your, in this, you know what? It's much more pop culture.
Starting point is 00:01:26 It's very pop culture, very pop culture. So you dumbed it down for me personally. No. I provided scenery along the way. While you're learning your science to capture some pop culture moments. What are the scientists talking about? They do what's new in outer space, Doc.
Starting point is 00:01:43 No, I feel like the half of me is is tending to scientific diversions in the public, you know, aliens, UFO sightings. Right now, we'll get to that. But I want to know actually like when you're in the coffee clutch with your other egghead. Yeah, what were we talking about? What's this gossip about there?
Starting point is 00:02:06 What's putting a tingle in your anus? Okay. That's not where I get my tingles, but fine. You know I was gonna work that. Yeah, I don't know about your anus, but you know, some of my anus, what is going on with your anus? You must know, like the planets like that change,
Starting point is 00:02:22 or there's some, some of that. Yeah, yeah, they have what? Some of that stuff we could get... No, not from Uranus. That would be Uranus, obviously. Oh, okay. Oh, really? Is that the way you're supposed to? If you're older than age eight.
Starting point is 00:02:33 Yes, you say Uranus. Do you have a drink? Yeah, I'm doing a grandma in the age eight. What do you drink? A grandma in the age? A wine guy. But when I have wines with food, and generally it's not otherwise, but if I'm just chilling, as I am with you, excuse me, a wine guy, but when I have wines with food and generally it not otherwise, but if I'm just chilling like I am with you
Starting point is 00:02:47 Excuse me a wine guy. Yeah Yeah, and I can hang with the snobby is to mung them so Just really I mean you mean like you know about wine. Oh, yeah, you academically. Yeah, I mean, I know Yeah, so that's like a hobby. Yes, that's a right way to say that So if you had like an Australian Serras at California, Cabernet, a California's in Fendel,
Starting point is 00:03:09 a French board though, French Burgundy, a Spanish Rioja, I would just go right on down and tell you which one they are. The brain, the human brain barely works. Not for about Matt Gay. Look at mine, everybody. It barely works. But not about Matt Gage. Look at that everybody. It barely works. You know, two people
Starting point is 00:03:28 viewing the same thing, give a different, right? We've known that psychology, the psychologists have known this forever. And we have books of optical illusions where, oh, is the line one line right? Bigger or smaller? I don't know. I can't tell is it in the page I'm simple line drawings can confuse the mind that one is very confusing It just is all of these are arrest. They wouldn't put them in a book. This is my point so So don't look down on it. It's the brain barely works Right cannot convince me that stirring in other chemicals will make objective reality more apparent to you. Oh, but it does and has more artistic. No, it's not.
Starting point is 00:04:11 Here's a difference. Here's a difference. More artistic. That's different. Fine. I know. Fine. But I am sure.
Starting point is 00:04:18 If it blocks creativity, fine. Right. Well, there's no creativity in your field. There is however, however, in my field, nature is the judge, jury, and executioner of my creative and right. Whereas to an artist, correct. There's room there, you're right. That's the difference.
Starting point is 00:04:37 If Van Gogh did not paint the starry night, or Beethoven didn't compose the night's symphony, no one ever born after them is going to do that. Whereas if Einstein wasn't born, somebody or some combination of people would have eventually found relativity. No doubt about it. So, our creativity is on a landscape where there's only going to be one answer there, not for the artist. So, yeah, stirring the chemicals for the artist, and you'll see the world in whole new ways. Okay, great. Art, music. And what?
Starting point is 00:05:11 And with the microdosing, that's a whole frontier right there. Right? This is not a hill I'm going to die on with you, because I'm basically of the same mind, because I know, especially through relationships, you know, being in show business. I always say, I'm in show business, I'm not of it. So I'm not over there with the, I know what you mean, but I've known people who were artists,
Starting point is 00:05:34 you know, in a relationship level. And they just come at a truth in a different way. You know, it's not linear, it's not rational. We call these people women. No. You know, it's not linear. It's not rational. We call these people women. No No, not just but but there is an artistic way of perceiving reality and it can be very frustrating Like if you are I'm much more of the logical type, you know And do other people think that about you? Yes, they do. Okay. Just checking
Starting point is 00:06:11 I know the fact that you and I disagree on a number of things makes me sometimes question like, well, maybe he's wrong about the outer space shit, because normally what I do, if someone who disagrees with you means they're wrong and you're right. No, it just makes me... That's what you just said in private. Well, it does question. If you disagree with someone on like ABCD and E, and then F, see F for us would be like your field, which I know nothing about, and I know you're a genius in. I know that. So like when questions about, you know, astrophysics come up, I always just go, whatever Neil deGress Tyson says, I'm down with that.
Starting point is 00:06:42 If it says the big bang theory happened, and the whole universe fit into a marble, it sounded a little funny. Yeah, well, the universe is under no obligation to make sense. No, I understand that. And I understand that what I have faith in, and of course, everything is faith even though we're both atheists,
Starting point is 00:06:59 what I have faith in is that even though I can't understand that, how that happened, you do. You really do. How you put it? You put it in the 10,000 hours. Okay. You have the big brain, you figured this out.
Starting point is 00:07:11 And I trust you on that subject. I don't trust you on everything else. But you don't have to. I know. Of course, but if I have a view of something that is factual, it's because the evidence I've seen supports that view. My, I don't have beliefs in things that are not otherwise supported by evidence.
Starting point is 00:07:33 And I would ask you, what does it take to change your mind? Because I know exactly what it takes to change my mind. It's the, it's the weight of evidence. Right. Brought to bear. Ona, ona, ona, evidence. Right. Brought to bear. Right. On a question or a bribe. And my belief in it, if we use that word, is proportionate to that evidence.
Starting point is 00:07:52 Right. So, but people look at the same evidence. I mean, we're really talking about medicine now, even though we're not saying it for some reason. And people look at the same evidence. That's why they say about doctors, get a second opinion. Because in medicine, it is still an opinion. And the experts disagree.
Starting point is 00:08:12 Thousands and thousands of doctors and medical experts have disagreed about how we handled COVID. There was just a very big court case called Missouri versus Biden, which decided in the favor of these doctors because they said they weren't allowed to get their point of view across because the government colluded with the tech companies, so we only heard one point of view. So the science, there's a thought in science for things like a new virus that we're still
Starting point is 00:08:40 studying and don't know a lot about. And that's why there is dissenting opinion, lots of it. You don't even hear all of it because they're so intimidated. So like something like that. I'd like to address that. Yeah, go ahead. Okay, so with the Monday morning quarterback, you know, as we all are after the facts,
Starting point is 00:08:59 we could go back and restructure how the rollout would have been should have been done. There's no question about it, okay? About, you know, the discovery of the virus, the development of the vaccines, the rollout of the vaccines, the progress of the virus, the mutations of the virus, the lethality of the virus, the comorbidities of the virus,
Starting point is 00:09:24 all of that could have come out better. And I'd like to think somebody made a book of recommendations from this. So the next time we have another pandemic, which is not, we don't have the way to century for that, that will prepare in a way that people are properly informed. That's my first one. We're making that book as we go,
Starting point is 00:09:41 because lots of stuff we know now that we didn't know. And a lot of it is like, oh yeah, no, that wasn't a good idea. Or oh yeah, the virus actually. Correct, correct. But people were not honest enough about the uncertainties at the time they made their declarations.
Starting point is 00:09:56 And part of it, these other half of this is, when you learn about science in school, what do you think science is? And most people think it's what's in a book with both face words, they memorize and take the test. And you don't realize it's a process. A process of preparing nature. Yes.
Starting point is 00:10:13 And understand coming to an understanding. That's so. So now here's my point. More relevant to what got you into this. Science is not the word of any individual. Science, the objective truths of science are established only when there's multiple tests, multiple tests on a level where the individual
Starting point is 00:10:36 no longer matters, because it's the collective body of evidence. Can I agree? What we have in this world is, and you've seen this in all manner of categories. You're channel surfing on YouTube, and somebody says, the establishment thinks this, but I have the real answer, and they're trying to suppress it. This is irresistible to go listen to that one person who's opposite the establishment. And here's the thing, just because the establishment
Starting point is 00:11:05 doesn't agree with you, it doesn't mean you're correct. So you can say this, but I'm not here. But you're sending up a dynamic between the established which is to say Dr. Fauci and a crazy person who thinks there are chips in the vaccines. Yes. I'm talking about Fauci versus Dr. Martin Colddorf. No, but I'm saying Fauci versus J. Butterchariot.
Starting point is 00:11:27 Hold on. Okay. Fauci. Fauci. So don't pretend. Come on in. Fauci. Fauci. Fauci, in principle, should, and most of the time, does represent the mainstream understanding
Starting point is 00:11:48 of the drugs, the disease, the reactions, and the like. The mainstream, which has been wrong about so many of it. Well, this above then, that's a separate conversation. But it is a true conversation. So then, he represents a mainstream. It's not because he's an expert. It's because he not only is he an expert, but that's not the, that's not the issue here. It's that ideally he is conveying a, a,
Starting point is 00:12:11 a community understanding of what's going on. Now you want to put him against another person who has pedigree, Harvard, Cornell, whatever. And you're going to say, there's one expert against another. That's not how science works. So why didn't you go to Cornell? Oh, you know, I never really came out in my biography. I mean, yeah, that never really came out. It seems like, I tell you, I have this. I mean, we both have a connection. I took his course, Carl, say,
Starting point is 00:12:37 he is, what, he was capital H. He was there like for one class. Yeah, I told he was, he was, he was, well, he was a star. I mean, only took it because I told him on the tonight show. Yeah, well, I could take a course with this guy. Yeah, you're Carl Sagan for anyone who's not knowing who he's talking about. Yes. And he's your, you know, the your hero, your mentor.
Starting point is 00:12:56 Yeah, he was he's by the way, he's a mentor not one-on-one, just by example. I mean, I saw what he did, how he said things, how he interacted with people, the patients that he had for people whose brains were just somewhere completely off the rails. And so I've learned a lot from that, but not because he was a direct mentor, but because he said an example that I found valuable to follow. So he just to catch people up, in case they didn't know, I was in high school, applied to a bunch of colleges. Cornell was one of the ones I was accepted to. And unknown to me that admissions office
Starting point is 00:13:30 must have sent my application to him. Saying, here's someone we want to attract. Can you do anything about it? He sent me a letter, a letter. I'm a 17 year old high school kid in the Bronx. Said, dear Neil, I understand you're considering colleges. Are you considering Cornell? If you want to come visit, come by. I'll give you a tour of the labs. You can find out what to, you make a decision.
Starting point is 00:13:51 But how did he know that you were this prodigy? My application to college was dripping with the universe. Okay, right. And it wasn't because of him. I was not even native. So he wasn't, it wasn't just like, uh, shot in the dark. He was like, I see that this kid is the one. I had telescopes since I was, what you put it in the application.
Starting point is 00:14:12 Oh yeah. Okay, so he read something. Oh yeah, that's it. Whoa, who is this? Oh, I was in the astronomy class. Yeah. I was on an expedition to study stone stones. I had all the stuff in my,
Starting point is 00:14:22 it was, it was, it was, my engagement with the universe was so thorough that it was a separate identity outside of whatever I was doing in a classroom. And so this I had energy for it. And so he'd saw that and sent me this letter. Right. So the letter was not completely out of the blue. There was, there was not completely out of the blue. There was justification there from within the application. It was dripping with the universe. So I showed it to my mother, she said, yeah, this is like legit. All right, let's do it. So got on a bus in December, okay, went up to Cornell, five hour bus ride
Starting point is 00:14:58 that is, and he met me outside the lab. We went in, well, madame, talk to him in his office, and when I remember forget this, he did a no-look reach. He went back like this, and was one of his books, and I said, wow, that's badass. Oh, yes. You learned that.
Starting point is 00:15:17 And here it is, that is in Danielin. To infinity, NBL. He did a no-look reach, and was one of his books and he signed it to me. Of course, I still have it. He says, too, Neil, future astronomer. Okay.
Starting point is 00:15:31 Then the day ran long and we, he drove me back to the bus station. It started to snow, not uncommon in Ithaca, New York. And he was wondering, he said, if the bus doesn't come through, here's my home phone number. Could he touch you in appropriate? No, it's not. It's. Did he touch you inappropriately? No, it's...
Starting point is 00:15:45 It's... Where is this guy? Where is this guy? Where is that guy? Yeah, come and spend the night, right? No. So... A tent.
Starting point is 00:15:55 It's a tent again, the winter. So... Yeah, I got on the bus, it still came through. I've had people tell me afterwards that I should have just said the bus didn't come through and then spend the night. Right. But anyhow, so I didn't end up going to Cornell because here's what I did.
Starting point is 00:16:14 At the time, this is like inside baseball here, but I had subscribed to Scientific American and my favorite part was about the authors. And people write for Scientific American as scientist, they're not journalists. So about the authors, it tells them where they went to college, where they got their masters, where they got the PhD, and where they were on the faculty. This is total information. I got all the articles on astronomy and physics that I loved, and I made a grid for which of the schools
Starting point is 00:16:41 I was admitted to had check marks from these authors. Where they'd gone to college, where they were, and Harvard, one hands down. And I didn't know at the time that the Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, which is a government installation, was co-located with the Harvard Observatory. And so the numbers I was looking at was the sum of those two.
Starting point is 00:17:07 But that's fine, because if you're looking for summer jobs and stuff, it's all one complex of buildings. So I said, if I go to Cornell and he leaves, I knew enough to know that professors move around. Then I went to Cornell for a reason that evaporates. Whereas at Harvard, there's the sheer number of people doing astrophysics,
Starting point is 00:17:27 I thought was a stable, stable community to walk into. So I went to Harvard. Is it a community idea, a must-deer friend? We all know each other. It did not many of us. Not many astrophysicists? No, there's so many. In the world, 8,000, 8 billion people, so you divide those two numbers, we're literally one in a million human beings on earth. But if you have an astrophysicist in the room with you, you better ask all your questions, because you might not see another one
Starting point is 00:17:59 for the rest of your life. But isn't there things that you would- Unless you're Bill Martin, you could just sum them up out of the ether. Well, that's a thing as ether. Okay, so- So- I'm being-
Starting point is 00:18:10 I know. I know. I know. Is that allowed? Well, you're- We're both in the other category. But we're both- we're combinations. You're a very creative guy in your field.
Starting point is 00:18:22 I try to be- I- But in fact, just a few days ago, I went back and saw your 2003 standup in Hudson Theater in New York. It was very 9-11 focused. Yeah, but just remind myself of you when you were young, Tyke.
Starting point is 00:18:37 Yeah, 20 years ago. Man, what do you know? 60s. Oh, tomorrow. Yeah, I turned 65. Oh, tomorrow? That's my big day. Oh, I wish I knew. No, that's not.
Starting point is 00:18:52 No, I said it now, but what a big, you can't get something. No, no, you're, and that's a big, that's a big, that's a big, that's a big, that's a big, that's a big, that's a big, that's a big, that's a big, that's a big, that's a big, that's a big, that's a big, that's a big, that's a big, that's a big, that's a big,
Starting point is 00:19:04 that's a big, that's a big, that's a big, that's a big, that's a big, that's a big, that's a big, that's a big, that's a big, that's a big, that's a big, that's a big, that's a big, that's a big, that's a big, that's a big, that's a big, that's a big, that's a big, big, that's a big, that's a big, that's a big, that's a big, that's a big, that's a big, that's a big, that's a big, that's a big, that's a big, that's a big, that's a big, that's a big, that's a big, big, that's a big, that's a big, big, that's a big, big, that's a big, big, big, that's a big, big, big, that's a big, that's a big, big, that's a big, big, that's a big, big, big, that's a big, big, big, big you know, and, right, old, you know, ARP, ARP. Yeah, ARP. But, you know, it doesn't matter because look at you. You're robust, you look healthy, you look generically middle-aged. That's as good as you can do for 60- Oh, for 60- And keep that for long. Yeah, I see. For 65.
Starting point is 00:19:19 Uh-huh. That is as good as you can do. You look in old movies, all the old people are 65 in the old movies. Yeah. Reminder that people didn't live long back then. Well, I'm not gonna lie. It is old. It's the thing, among old people, we're the youngest.
Starting point is 00:19:36 That's what we got. Okay, tell yourself that. No, but I don't feel like my behavior is not old. Like, in important meetings, I still tell jokes and I spin in the board chair, you know, because they're very low friction and they're fun to spin in. And I, you know, I drink a lemonade
Starting point is 00:19:57 when everyone else is having a beer. Well, you're a milkshake when everyone else is having. So I just, I mean, the reason why you're such a great communicator is because like most people who know what you know, they're deadly dull communicating it. You, it's like James Brown, who went to Harvard, and got his degree,
Starting point is 00:20:18 you know, you're just, you know, I'll see you do. No. Well, the audience feels good when you... No, it's true. It's because I'm feeling... I mean, you feel the content. I mean, you became a brand, you know, you guys.
Starting point is 00:20:31 You're not a purpose, but just as huge. I mean, Cosmos was, remained one of the, my favorite television shows of all time. And this is going back to MacKale's Navy. Oh, MacKale's Navy. But like, MacKale's Navy. Oh, MacKale's Navy. But like, like, Berlin, MacKale's Navy. Yeah, do you remember that when you were a kid? I was so happy.
Starting point is 00:20:49 They always show leaning over the edge. But I said, but if it's flat, that's not the front of the boat. Wouldn't you be looking to the front of the boat? The boat would be pointing. I was had issues with that. What is this obsession you have?
Starting point is 00:21:01 No, I have issues with. Like, this is your mind. Like, you're not the creative mind. I mean, you are, but you have. No, I have issues with. Like, this is your mind. Like, you're not the creative mind. I mean, you are, but you're not the, the, like in, in, in, in, what's the one, lost in space? And lost in space? They're in a flying saucer.
Starting point is 00:21:13 I know, but it is flushes spinning. No, but when you're looking straight out of window, I have one thing inside of them. But why aren't they spinning around? Because we don't care. Because we the people. We the people, not the genius. We don't care, we don't see we the people, not the genius. We don't care.
Starting point is 00:21:26 We don't see that. They come here and spinny flying saucers. They'll walk off dizzy. I know. And Captain Kirk, you know, when he kissed the green chick. Yeah. I mean, of course we know that if they're green on another planet, they're probably not going to be hot.
Starting point is 00:21:41 Also, you know, the odds that he didn't get mail on kissing the green woman, but they're probably not gonna be hot. Also, you know, the odds are he didn't get mail on kissing the green woman, but they got mail kissing. Oh, kissing Gluhara. He kissed, but not like on the cheek. No, no, it was a lip kiss. It was? It was the first white black interracial kiss on television. You didn't know this?
Starting point is 00:21:58 Star Trek. I guess I did, but. Yeah, yeah, that he got made. Oh, here's the, here's here's the Here's one from the South ready. It's I totally object to this you know, this miscegenation there but If I had to kiss a black woman you'd be the one Who said that that's just some random guy. Yeah, who's complaining about the interracial kiss? Oh, yeah I mean trust me, there are still the
Starting point is 00:22:25 compliment mixed in with the insult. There are still plenty of idiot men today who say things like that. Like, I'm not really, you see, attracted to black girl, but you're different. Yeah, yeah. Like, they think that's a compliment or that it's going to get you. I mean, that kind of ignorance will take longer to eradicate. But the other one I remember from that era was Patula Clark. Do you remember who that was? Yeah, sure, but what about it? Nothing. I just want to know if you're a matter of. No, no. She kissed or Harry Belafondi kissed her on the cheek.
Starting point is 00:23:03 Just on the cheek. Like in a 1967, something like that, a special, and the affiliates in the South, like they dropped the network, and you know, like that, like it was just like, you know, and we're talking about a peck on the cheek. And it was, I mean, the change is you must have seen in your life.
Starting point is 00:23:26 Yes, in my lifetime. That's about 65 year old man. Yeah. Can you describe that? I would love to, because I heard you on a podcast once talk about getting pulled over with a bunch of, I don't think you were talking about other African-American.
Starting point is 00:23:39 Yeah, no, what it was was I was at a conference where, you know, a conference is, there's the banquet night, which was the night before the last day. And usually there's a bottle of wine, you grab it off the table, go to a common room or something, you just chill and chew the fat. And I'm there and we're going around the circle and somehow we've got to talk to about police
Starting point is 00:24:01 and police stops, right? So we went around the circle and every person is sharing their story. But we're all PhD physicists, okay? As sharing stories about police stops, and we just went around multiple times. And the only thing we have in common other than being PhD physicist is that we're all black. How many? Well, there were eight of us in the circle. Eight of us in the circle. Just in that one circle. And the stories had a very similar tone to it.
Starting point is 00:24:31 We were stopped and not given a ticket. So the stop was on some suspicion that was not then fulfilled. Where is it? This is 1992, 1993. Okay. So now it's 2023. So that's 30 years ago. I'm happy to say on a scale of how much that has changed Oh very, you know, it's an excellent question Bill because it's what I'm always asking Bill. Bill. Where are we now? Bill? Bill? Bill
Starting point is 00:24:55 People don't want to admit How much better things are today? I'm always making it at any time in the past. I'm trying to tell the kids this I today. I'm always making any time in the past. I'm trying to tell the kids this. I am always I'm trying to do. Here's what you do. Here is you set up a time machine. Okay. A time machine. Watch. And then if you are female on the gender spectrum or a person of color. You put him in the time machine and say, pick a time in the past where you were treated better than you are today. And if you really think that through, I don't think there's a single time you can pick. But the kids, see the problem with it. Well, because it's what they know, they, they, they, so, but here's the problem. Well, the problem is
Starting point is 00:25:40 education. If you don't teach kids history, if they don't know what happened, they think everything is just the present. The present. And everything bad in the presence, the worst that's ever happened. So you know, I try to tell them, I don't even need history books to know something like this. I love that. You lived it.
Starting point is 00:25:56 You lived it. I saw America like you did. Yes. But not like you did. That's why I'm asking you, because I can't know what you knew. Here's what I'm telling you. So for me, yeah, I'm choosing the future because that's that art looks better to me than any time in the past. But the reason why there's value to this exercise is rather than rather than in addition to complaining
Starting point is 00:26:17 that things aren't what they should be progressively. If you look at the past and realize how much it has changed, what you can ask is what did we do right? To get to where we are today. Let's do more of that and rather than only look at what's bad today and then try to eradicate that That there are lessons that we learned and my father was among them Just active in the civil rights movement worked under Mayor Lindsay in New York. Really is a commissioner, right? Mayor Lindsay manpower and career. You know it you know what news article was not written in the in the civil rights movement, worked under Mayor Lindsay in New York. Well, there's a commissioner, right? Mayor Lindsay. Man-powered curator. You know what?
Starting point is 00:26:47 You know what? News article was not written in the 1960s about New York. New York had no major riots. Largest ghetto in the country up in Harlem had no skirmishes here that nothing like Watts, nothing like New York. New York? Nothing. Right across the river nothing right across the river right across the river And so no one writes articles about that my father was there at the time and what is a riot if not the last desperate act
Starting point is 00:27:16 When you know there is no other path of hope right and so he was a commissioner of manpower and career development agency. That was an agency in New York where youth in the inner city would realize they might have a job. There's a career for them. There's opportunity in arms reach. So it was never a powder cake. So yeah, our father's may have crossed paths. Well, my father was in radio news. We lived in Jersey, but he commuted every day into Manhattan. Oh, okay. And maybe your father was interviewed every now and then. That's what I'm saying. Oh, well, they died a few years ago.
Starting point is 00:27:53 I checked my mother and my mother still. No, but this was being the 60s, 70s. Yes, of course. I can't ask him. I'm saying, yeah, it would be 60s early 70s, yes. Isn't that funny? So you've been in the business, your parents? Well, I would hardly call that the business, but radio news. Yes, I mean, that was what put
Starting point is 00:28:11 thing. That was an important thing back then. It was the era when radio, every radio station had news at the top of the hour, and you would have five minutes of news. And you know, even us kids listening to W-A-B-C, because in British... W-A-B-C, we had to like sit through five minutes and news. Yeah, yeah. I feel like we don't ask kids. Because in BC, you didn't say it right, because... Oh, you remember W-A-B-C? Of course.
Starting point is 00:28:36 Dan Ingram. Dan Ingram. So I'm gonna take Ron Lundy. I mean... But I would listen to WBLS. Yes. The total experience in sound. 107.5.
Starting point is 00:28:50 Wow. In stereo. You could have been a voice guy. You're saying, really? Face for radio, is this what you're saying? No, really, you could do that. No, you know what happened was, this, nobody knows this.
Starting point is 00:29:03 I was on the roof showing the night sky to like 40 people. And there's a tall building that had these big air conditioning ducts. And I was just speaking over the volume of that. And at one point, my voice cracked. And then I tasted blood in the back. It was like, what the fuck? What?
Starting point is 00:29:20 What happened? And so I went to the doctor, the ENT, and all these people. and they wanted me to learn how to send my voice out from my chest more than from my throat. I think opera singers know this, right? They know how to do that, but I didn't know anything about it. So I did all these voice exercises. And as I did this, my voice got more and more chest resonant.
Starting point is 00:29:42 Yes. And so it was, it was a, it was a way to protect my throat. Do you really what's going on? Do you remember the record Rainy Night in Georgia? Do you? Yes, I do. Who's saying? Who's the sound of Rainy?
Starting point is 00:29:56 Yes, who's saying it? Oh, no. That wasn't Billy Preston. Rick Brooke Benton. Oh, no, I would never remember that. I don't know. Yeah. I feel like you could cover that song.
Starting point is 00:30:08 Oh, really? Not in Georgia. Yes, so now. So I was being interviewed on CNN. And I miss our boy's voice doing the, this is CNN, you know, Darth Vader. Right. Did that for years? Yes, he did.
Starting point is 00:30:24 Yeah, and then he stopped doing it. And It's like, hell, I could do that. Right, this CNN. I got that. So I laid a few tracks for them. I don't know what they'll do with it. You know, Kakaplata placed it's not too scientific, though. Club random is brought to you by the audio marketing gurus at Radioactive Media.
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Starting point is 00:33:40 Say big on some at Amazon. Say people sometimes Amazon Stop. So Bill, how come nothing makes you happy? Nothing, what are you trying to do? You're the grumpyest grumpy. Why are you making that grumpy? I feel like now I'm gonna turn 65. I feel like we're on your porch in the rocking chair.
Starting point is 00:34:02 Get off my lawn. I'm not the grumpy one. Let me ask you, can I ask, I know it's your pockets, but I've been carrying questions within me for you. Me, I'm playing. Okay, carrying. Okay, wow. So you don't, as I heard you say,
Starting point is 00:34:17 maybe you dotted here and there, but you've abandoned college campuses in your standup, every committee in there. Okay, so literally everyone. Let me ask you. If you came up today, would you just read the landscape and develop a whole other comedic repertoire that does not end up having people pick it outside your thing?
Starting point is 00:34:41 I wouldn't. Are you just transposed and you're not adjusting to the shifting terrain? So is why is it there fault and not your fault? You're being so broad about the whole thing. Yeah, I am. Well, but that doesn't work because that doesn't never explain anything. If you want to talk about specific issues, it's funny. This subject comes up a lot of times with like people who are,
Starting point is 00:35:06 you know, my friends who are around my age 40. No, and they have like kids who are like super woke and drive them fucking. I got woke kids. I will never be as woke as my kids would want me to be ever. Yeah, but you're a little too. Still. And, you know, woke does not automatically mean better. Newer does not automatically. Right, that's true. So that's why I say to talk broadly is bullshit. You have to like talk about what specific, you know, issue are we talking about, you know,
Starting point is 00:35:38 the ones that get people's attention or gender issues. Yeah, I know, but what? Things like that that were, okay, this is very different. You cut your teeth. But 70s, what I'm saying, you read the room. Okay, but I'll answer you. You read the politics. I didn't read the politics. Yes, you did.
Starting point is 00:35:57 How the fuck do you know what I did? Because I know your jokes of the hour, they were great. Well, a lot of people think they're great now. No, I don't know if you don't. No, no, what I meant was, they were enough for you. They were jokes that would work on a college campus, okay? Certainly, there's a portfolio of jokes that would still work on a college campus. Surely.
Starting point is 00:36:19 I would hope not. From what, maybe some college campuses, the ones you read about are fucking insane. Give it up on the entire generation. And give it up on any place that doesn't even remotely attempt to believe in free speech. And thinks that anything that they hear that they don't like, that they don't agree with, is violence. These people are fucking nuts and you should be calling them out. Somebody like you, who has standing with kids should be not
Starting point is 00:36:47 doing what your parents do. You're doing what parents do. You're taking the path of least resistance. And therefore hurting the kids and yourself. Parents ruin both their lives. They ruin their fucking spoiled kids' lives. And they ruin their own lives because the kids rule the roost. So that's what you're doing on a national level.
Starting point is 00:37:06 I'm feeling more like on the ports. You're not flying long. Really? I feel like we're in the barbershop. Barbers, that works too. Barbers. In the inner city is the barbershop. We don't have porches in me. Well, there's the stoop.
Starting point is 00:37:19 There's the stoop. So I just, so here's my point. That's my opinion. I'm trying to get through to people on my social media and the like, and I see what pisses people off, what they react to, and I say, all right, these are the landmines.
Starting point is 00:37:31 I'm gonna navigate that. I'm gonna navigate it. Okay, you're, you're, you're, I navigate it so that I can see, because my father's greatest bit of wisdom to me, several nuggets, one of them was, it's not good enough to be right. You also have to be effective. And if you reject the college campus, then you have no
Starting point is 00:37:52 influence on them. They're not going to say, oh, we're not going to get billed, maybe we should change. Then you have no influence on it. Swayneard, I can wait till they grow up a little. Okay, I can wait. You don't know what you're talking about. You don't know what you're talking about with comedians. A whole lot of age rank on me. Comedian. No, you don't know what I'm up with. You know the, you know outer space. Well, what I'm telling you.
Starting point is 00:38:12 I know fucking doing comedy shows. I'm a huge consumer of your trade. Thank you. Yes. Well, I mean, thank you on behalf of all the comedians. I'm a huge consumer. I'm just letting you know that. You're mean of all comedians.
Starting point is 00:38:24 Yes, of all comedians. Yes, well, on behalf of all of us. And I have a, and I have a huge consumer. I'm just letting you know that. You're mean of all comedians. Yes, of all comedians. Okay, yes. Well, on behalf of all of us, I'd say I have a fast J. Leno joke. Not joke, you know, observation when you have a minute. I would, I would. I'd like you to let me know. Let me know.
Starting point is 00:38:34 I'll let the moment pass. I want to hear this. You want to hear it now? Absolutely. Okay, I know. Okay, yeah, okay. So, I watch Leno every night. His model, I didn't care about the guest.
Starting point is 00:38:42 Watch the monologue every night. He was the longest monologue of all the guys at night, okay? Genius comedian. Okay, and so I knew his timing, I knew his rhythms, I knew on the possibility that I would ever end up on his show, I would be in lockstep with him. Then the call came, okay? Now he doesn't typically do scientists,
Starting point is 00:39:04 so this was, I think, there was an unusual for him and he's a literary guy, a science literary guy, but it wasn't like Johnny Carson with scientists on all of that. That's a credit to you. You rose to the level of pop culture translator of science, which is a great place to be. And only a few people get to do that. Thank you. But it's a lot of work. Just learning what the hell's going on out there. Pop culture. So here's what happened. Thank you, but it's a lot of work. So learning what the hell's going on out there in pop culture. So here's what happened. So what show is it?
Starting point is 00:39:29 It had Jimmy Fallon on it. Why? Because two weeks later, he's taken over. So this is like the last week of J. Lennon's tenure. Yeah, right. And I'm on the show. But then I realized, I know why I'm on the show. Because that night
Starting point is 00:39:46 was the night that day Obama was inaugurated 2008 that 2009 January 20th so that evening I All a Hollywood is not available, but Neil is available. Okay, so I fly out to California. Okay, so no watch And he had a great joke about the inauguration in a minute. But watch what happens. He says, Oh, it's a nail. What do you, what's the latest in the universe? I said, Oh, that's a terrible Leno one. I can.
Starting point is 00:40:15 So what's the latest and the end of it? And so, so I set them up for a joke. okay? This is like dangling fruit. I said, on Mars, we just discovered that there's gaseous effluences coming from the ravine. Wait a minute, wait. And so then I wait like three quarters of a second to see if he picks that up. He doesn't, I keep going and he didn't pick it up. So I said, and we analyze the gaseous
Starting point is 00:40:44 and it's mostly methane. There was a pause. Now he's still in pieces. Oh, he's like listening and learning rather than being active in his defense. I don't know what the joke is about methane either. Maybe this is how you astrophysic. It's just no.
Starting point is 00:41:02 Methane. Such as what you'd find in the Lower intestines of farm animals. Yeah cowfarts Still he doesn't say me. No Jimmy Fallon says I can see it now on Mars. They've cow dead saying pull my So Jimmy picked it up. Wow and and that's good and he And so I was like what am I gonna I do here? What am I gonna do here? Well, I don't know at the point of that story. No, no, no, I was saying I follow the comedic thing.
Starting point is 00:41:35 So the next day, do you remember, Aretha Franklin sang at the inauguration and she had this big hat, a lot of you remember that? Yeah. But she was a huge hat. So the next day, he says, last night in his monologue, last night at New, National Physician, Leo the Grass, okay, I won't imitate it.
Starting point is 00:41:50 Fine. Last night at Leo the Grass Tyson on, and he told me there's only two things visible from space. The Great Wall of China and a Reef of France hat. That's just good. So I made it into two nights there. That's all. Oh, really?
Starting point is 00:42:04 And I would keep safe from that day. My cup, which is from the today show, I mean from the tonight show, okay, this is nice. On my side it says guest number two. Yeah, that's my, I was on the tonight show that week too, his last week. Seriously? Yeah, Seth MacFarlane and I sang in Tuxedos.
Starting point is 00:42:21 What? I missed that. Yeah, YouTube and we sang, I rewrote, with the help of my writers, I recall, thanks for the memories. Oh, nice, very nice. And we fucking rehearsed it and memorized it and sang it together, like two crew members.
Starting point is 00:42:39 I spoke on that. I thought, Jade should get a send off like that. Good, good, good. That meddler serenaded Carson when he left. With wind beneath his hands. Something like that. That's was it. But she didn't return my calls when I tried to get hurt. No, I wanted to rewrite the song and do it.
Starting point is 00:42:58 Yeah, it was really funny. But I've been on his car show. Yeah. He had a car with a jet engine. And so he wanted me on there to comment on aerodynamics of jet engines. So obviously I respect what you guys do deeply. I know. I appreciate that.
Starting point is 00:43:15 Okay. Look. And so let's have wondering how do you, how do you never, you know, I have on, you know, the serious XM you got comedy from the 90s, 2000s, 2010s. They decade them. And I listened to comedy from the 2000s, but half the jokes you can't tell today. But just exactly. And just to put this in perspective, we did a piece on this.
Starting point is 00:43:38 And this is going back seven or eight years. This has been going on. It's only gotten worse. But Chris Rock, Jerry Seinfeld, and Larry the Cable Guy, all at the same period of time, announced they are not doing college anymore. And, you know, we did jokes like a Jew, a black guy, and a redneck look into college, and they all go, fuck you, I'm getting at it. Right, right, right. So, if Jerry Seinfelds act, which can whiten teeth, it's a... That's a pretty...
Starting point is 00:44:08 That's a... He's a pretty clean humorist. Brilliant. Yes. But, like, if you're upset at Jerry Seinfelds act, I'm sorry, the problem is you and how you were raised, spoiler alert, wrong. You were raised wrong. That's the key to everything.
Starting point is 00:44:24 Is the kids were raised wrong. You were raised wrong. That's the key to everything. Is the kids were raised wrong. And it doesn't make me the bad guy because I notice this. I don't know why you want to join this. I want to navigate it so I can still be effective in community. Yeah, me too. But you're on the rocking chair. No, I have not given up. But you have a, no, that's stupid. That's real. It's so fucking, it's demeaning and insulting. No, frankly, it's reducing what I do, which is really subtle.
Starting point is 00:44:54 Yeah, going, I know. I know. It's a private social. It's just that that's what they would say on Fox News. Well, you know, he's just saying, he's just old to get off my lawn. It's a prejudice, it's not accurate, it's not cool. You're not allowing me my free speech.
Starting point is 00:45:07 I'm just calling you out on your bullshit. You're calling you out on your bullshit. Just because it doesn't agree with you doesn't make it bullshit. It could be exactly. It's just a different point of view. I'm just saying. Get off my lawn is not a point of view.
Starting point is 00:45:21 But it's a fun reference. Come on, you know, it's a fun reference. Yeah, but it's pretending, it's not accurate, and it's not honest, because it's pretending that all I am is a primal scream against the future coming. I'm not a primal scream. I love the future when it's good. I want to eat full-on that generation.
Starting point is 00:45:38 If you want to bring that fuck, if you want to bring back communism, which like a third of them do, no, I'm not going to go, oh, that's new, isn't it great? You know, I could say, hey, let's shit in the kitchen and eat in the bathroom. It's new, but is it smarter?
Starting point is 00:45:53 No, this is what I always tell my friends when they're like, I can't talk to my kids because whatever I think they go, that's all thinking. Yeah. And it's like, yeah, is it better thinking? Is it better thinking? I. And it's like, yeah, but is it, is it better thinking? Is it better thinking? I know you think that like, you got to think with Martina Navaritolova. What do you mean I have a, I have nothing with me? A beef, you know, she has beef with you. Why
Starting point is 00:46:14 does she have a beef with me? Because you think like guys with dicks should get in the women's swimming pool. Basically. Oh, no, no, I, no, I, well, whatever got clipped and reposted, I don't know. But what I said was that the, in this emergent space where you have people expressing themselves on a gender spectrum, and you want to now compete in sports, we, that's still a frontier to be solved, and I don't have the answer,
Starting point is 00:46:48 but I can suggest one, whether or not it'll work. Maybe we don't compete by gender anymore. We compete on hormone ratios, okay? There was a woman who had uncommonly high testosterone levels, and they wanted to disqualify her because of how manly she was when she was born a woman and competing as a woman so if we're that's how we're going to do it
Starting point is 00:47:12 you know that this again this is what you really want wait Bill no I thought this through more than you might think I have so what you really want is an interesting contest between people who are similarly a talented the least interesting super bowl you could ever watch is a blowout by half time. See, what we agree on is that there are anomalies in human nature, whereas, yes. You know, the vast majority of people, I'm sorry, are still male or female.
Starting point is 00:47:37 And certainly, every cell in our body is dictating one of those other sections. I mean, obviously, hormones are. Obviously, that's, well, also, I make sperm and other people make eggs. That's what hormones do. You can't deny that, okay. So this, but as liberals, I think agree that, there are anomalies in nature and they should be respected and protected,
Starting point is 00:48:02 but this attempt to reorganize all of society around what a very tiny percentage, who again, we can protect and respect without pretending that every baby is a jump ball, like penis. What the fuck, I don't know, that doesn't mean anything. Well, we have no idea what this child is. I mean, that seems to be where you wanna go. I mean, like, how many people fit this description
Starting point is 00:48:24 that we should reorganize sports around? Sports is, we have men's sports and women's sports. And if the best team in the WNBA played the worst team in the NBA, the score would be a million to zero. Can we organize a society around that basic point with that with this of course, proviso that we protect and and respect people who do not fit into it. Let's segregate society because don't say people are like people. It's because that nature made it that way and that's how it is. So nature did make it that way. And it's not segregating. Well, it was a fine.
Starting point is 00:49:03 Segregating anything. That attitude. It's not segregating. Well, it was a fine. It was a fine? It was a fine? It was a fine? It was a fine? It was a fine? It was a fine? It was a fine? It was a fine? It was a fine?
Starting point is 00:49:12 It was a fine? It was a fine? It was a fine? It was a fine? It was a fine? It was a fine? It was a fine? It was a fine?
Starting point is 00:49:20 It was a fine? It was a fine? It was a fine? It was a fine? It was a fine? It was a fine? It was a fine? It was a fine? It was a fine? It was a fine? It was a fine?
Starting point is 00:49:15 It was a fine? It was a fine? It was a fine? It was a fine? It was a fine? It was a fine? It was a fine? It was a fine? It was a fine? It was a fine? It was a fine? It was a fine? It was a fine? It was a fine? It was a fine? It was a fine? It was a fine? It, you think? Lincoln was all about getting trans, oh, for fuck's sake. You're ridiculous. No, no, so here it is.
Starting point is 00:49:29 Just all I'm saying is that, how about this? I'm looking at schools in Manhattan. And it's a school there, and there's a, all from like built in the 20s and 30s. And there's a doorway that says boys, and a separate doorway on the other side school that says girls are thinking, Oh God, why are we doing this?
Starting point is 00:49:50 Because people are mostly boys and girls, but why split them entering a school building? Because they pee differently. She is a Christ that I have to explain this. No, because you know what I thought? And I saw that, it's colored fountain over here, white fountain over here. That's what I thought. Well, you, that's not the same thing.
Starting point is 00:50:11 Well, it's not exactly the same thing. And that's what I thought. And it's not exactly I agree. Okay, I agree. But this is what I always say about these kind of issues. There's two ways that you can be benign about something. One, you can be too far from it. Like, I would be too far from certain issues, racial issues, of course. How could I ever know? You can also
Starting point is 00:50:32 be lost sort of thinking wise, as I am, because I'm too far from it, if you're too close to it. Yes. That could be... You miss the elephant. Well, you miss the elephant. It's the fly on the Mona Lisa Why the fly wants to be on the Mona Lisa? I don't know and it can't even appreciate all right but okay you get my point and So like I think when you see that I totally understand why a man of your age Does but I don't think it's accurate. So I used to wrestle high school and
Starting point is 00:51:03 Okay, it's it's relevant to this conversation, believe it or not. So I was captain of my high school team, undefeated, although, wow. But it was in New York, the real wrestler is in like Iowa, you know, in Oklahoma. Oh, I'm sure there's some wrestling.
Starting point is 00:51:22 There's some, but if you really bounce that, it's not tough guys. We got tough guys, but they'll shoot you or punch you in the face. They're not wrestling with wrestling moves, but anyhow, what you want is a match that's interesting to observe, not where one person dominates the other. In wrestling, they know this. They're 10 weight categories. In high school, I was 190 pounds, that was 50 pounds ago or more. I was 190 pounds, very good incentive to stay there because if I would one pound over, the next category was unlimited.
Starting point is 00:51:54 So I was there at 190 pounds. I'm not wrestling someone 127. No, they find somebody else at 127, and the rest of 127. That makes the match more interesting for the viewer. So if we can split wrestling into 10 categories and that becomes the wrestling match, but all men against each other. Correct. So now I guess I have key point. Okay.
Starting point is 00:52:17 Okay. So all I'm saying is, what is it that makes the man the man? Is it the hormones? Okay. Is it if it's the hormones and you decide to give yourself a different cocktail of hormones I'm making this up by way. I'm not saying it should happen this way. It's a way to start thinking about it
Starting point is 00:52:37 It would be maybe the track meets have Hormocategories and maybe giving yourself the wrong hormones is Parmo categories. And maybe giving yourself the wrong hormones is deleterious to your health. Would you not admit that? Do you think we can just safely do things like this? So you feel the swakers you're concerned about, you're so deeply concerned about the health of the people who are trying to find their place on the gender spectrum. You care about the health so much that you don't want them to go through that?
Starting point is 00:52:59 It's not something that keeps me up at night, but when the subject comes up, I care about them like I care about all people. So if there is something, by the way. You think about all people. Of course. Is that a, is that it? Oh, okay. You're being serious.
Starting point is 00:53:13 Think about all people. No, I'm being serious. I do. Old school liberal. Okay. So I want all people to have, you know, make this very challenging world that we live in better. So that's why there's honest debate about this issue.
Starting point is 00:53:28 And why don't we cut it off? Keep the debate honest, yeah. Why don't we cut it off now? Because like, we're not gonna solve this. We set our pieces. We get it. I wanna plug your book. I know you have to run to your film.
Starting point is 00:53:40 What do you think? Oh, yeah, I got it. Yeah, but don't leave me before I have my full time with you. But too infinity and beyond. I do want to see, often I'm too stoned to remember to do the plug, and tonight I'm so proud of myself because I'm like, I'm all kind of grow. I think it's because I was reading it myself and I was really enjoying it. Oh, okay.
Starting point is 00:54:02 And it's got pictures, which I really like the biggest with 9 now. Almost on every other page. And it only needs to make a beautiful book. Psychologically, it's not goad easier to get through scientific material, which it also has a lot of. It looks like a picture. Oh, look at it, it's a pretty one of that big ball.
Starting point is 00:54:18 It's amazing. The moment the ring around it, how is that one? That's your reign is right there, right? That's what your reign is looks like. Really? I just picked the right page. And you have a's what your reign is right there. That's what your reign is looks like. Really? I just picked the right page.
Starting point is 00:54:28 And you have a reign of your reign. I got a real talent for this. Okay. Anyway, so it's written by a co-author. Who's my senior producer? The Lazy Walker. Okay. This is a collaboration between my podcast, start talk.
Starting point is 00:54:42 Right. It's been around for like 14 years. Like four. One of the biggest. Before I been around for like 14 years. Like, four. One of the biggest. Before I aspire to be at your level. Oh, really? No, your podcast is one of the huges. Okay, and what we do is we've got three DNA strands,
Starting point is 00:54:52 science, pop culture, and humor. Well, did you see the big thing they have now with that bano? Oh, the sphere. I got a call from the guy. I was thinking something in the, you're the natural. The animated exterior of the sphere.
Starting point is 00:55:06 But you couldn't use that sphere to look like the greatest Ted Jock ever. Yeah, probably. Right. That's their modest. Well, you're probably... No, no, I mean, I could probably... I wasn't saying probably to give the greatest ever,
Starting point is 00:55:18 probably, their talks that be fitting that space. The guy was in there, he runs the Mass and Square Garden. We should do a talk, a public talk together, I bet we could sell a lot of tickets. Oh man, right? In that sphere? You like money. It's the right, I like money, you like money, right?
Starting point is 00:55:34 We all like money. Yeah, I'm telling you, I think we could do, we could do some business. Knock out that theater. We can do that. All right, I know. So my people call you people. I, I, I, when I, but I, I was in Vegas last weekend
Starting point is 00:55:49 and I drove by it and it's, I don't know, either love it or it's creepy. It looks like AI has landed and taken over. That's the first thing I thought was like, oh, these people is, well, in the movie, the day the Earth stood still with Keon Lee's, the aliens land in Central Park, not in Washington, DC, and it's a big sphere
Starting point is 00:56:13 in the middle of Central Park. It's always a big sphere in those movies. And as long as we're on that subject, I know we've argued about this before. I don't have a dog in this fight. I hope we're not taking over by the aliens, but I'm not gonna make a big fight about it if they come.
Starting point is 00:56:27 But I feel like, and I don't know for sure, anything for sure nobody does, it just feels like more and more, it's getting harder to make the other case that there are not people who are watching us. And again, I don't know if there's anything unscientific about the idea that there would be other life in the universe. I don't know if you saw anything unscientific about the idea that there would be other life in the universe.
Starting point is 00:56:45 I don't know if you saw, if you watched the hard knocks show on HBO where they just go to the training camp with the football teams. But Aaron Rogers, who's a super smart guy, he sat in that chair, love him. He told a story about, I don't know where he was somewhere in the south and his friend walked out in the porch that together. They were not drunk. They were not asleep, two people. And they saw a giant, we can only be described as a flying sort of, just a giant big thing that then left like at the speed of light and then a couple of minutes later, two US jets
Starting point is 00:57:21 flew over. I believe him. I can't, am I 100% that this was a flying swans or aliens? No, but it just seems like this 20 years ago. This was no. I don't think so. Then the dude had a smartphone. It could have had a smartphone that can take high resolution video and stills. NASA. Maybe it was 20 years ago. Well, it's my point. So, so. No, they were gobsmacked. They were like, okay. So, in the day, you only had cameras when you're on vacation. So everything was, I win this test one.
Starting point is 00:57:49 I got abducted. I got this. I saw that. Now everybody's got a camera. NASA's setting up a clearing house. You take your smartphone, take a picture of your UFO, and your metadata has your location, the angle of the phone, the direction, you send it in, they can call it this. I just want to ask this on a more philosophical level. the angle of the phone, the direction, you send it in, and they can come call it this.
Starting point is 00:58:05 I just want to ask this on a more philosophical level. Just why wouldn't they, and I think we should just be happy that they're monitoring and not attacking, but what, it makes sense to me that, first of all, there could be other people in the universe, other beings. Sure. And there's also a lot of people who have similar stories about similar sort of looking creatures, you know, that book communion, I don't know.
Starting point is 00:58:31 Yeah, that started it. That set the standard for what an alien should look like. Okay. But the try trying to face big homicides. Yes, people seem to have the same story. Now we have military people, Navy fighter jets, testifying in Congress. We've seen things we cannot explain. It could be China has a technology.
Starting point is 00:58:51 We don't, obviously, we don't know. But it just seems like it's not unscientific to think that the aliens would be like, you know, these assholes are very self-destructive. And we just need to keep an eye on them. And yes, we might have to send Kiano Reeves down there to say, look, I was so sorry about this. Remember the movie? We tried not to wipe you out, but you asked holes. We may need this planet and you're fucking it up.
Starting point is 00:59:17 Glad you remembered that. So we're going in a different direction. So my reaction is, I want to meet the aliens. I just need better evidence than what has been presented. So if they are aliens, I would like better evidence than simple eyewitness sworn testimony. In science, what you swear on is not the measure of what is true. It's just the measure of what you think is true in your mind. But I need better data than that.
Starting point is 00:59:43 What do you think Aaron Rodgers saw? What do you think happened that night? He was brims with mysteries and I don't know. I bet this one seemed kind of obvious. A giant. So that must be why I bet it had a Rangers game in the garden. I just feel, I met him in a race, and he's new to the city.
Starting point is 01:00:00 He's the biggest small town guy. Boy did he take that town? Oh no. So I said, look, said look this might I felt very Very it is my town, you know, yeah director the planetarium. Yeah come by I told him this and then why should anyone ever act on that but he did so of course he did so in the two-week gap between the last the last Exhibition game and the first game. I got a call from his agent,
Starting point is 01:00:25 he said, he wants to come by and visit the planetarium. I said, bring him by. And then they said, oh, but can he bring 25 of these? Right, he does that. He goes to Broadway shows like with his whole crew. Yeah, like 25 jazz. Yeah, yeah. And so then they canceled at the last minute
Starting point is 01:00:40 and then he tears up his Achilles heel. So I think I could have given him some physics advice so that wouldn't add. I know, but what a bad ass. A guy who goes, gets the job in New York and goes, you know what? I'm so macho. I'm gonna take a bunch of fucking football players
Starting point is 01:00:54 out to every show on Broadway and Taylor Swift show. It was brilliant because, you know, New York is fun with them. They didn't combine. New York is Broadway too. Yeah, it is Broadway too. You know, it's a special Broadway. You't combine. New York is Broadway too. Yeah, it is Broadway too. It's a special Broadway. Well, you want to embrace the city.
Starting point is 01:01:08 I mean, he's more popular on crutches than any athlete. It's been walking in 20 years. I'm Saturday friends with his ex-girlfriend, the race car driver. Race car driver. Yeah, He dated, nothing at all gossipy, but. Uh. Oh, I think I had a panic, a panic, a panic, a panic, a panic.
Starting point is 01:01:33 Really? Yeah, she's got a home podcast. I mean, on podcast twice. And we talked about Aaron Rodgers in the last interview, and I told her that so he said he's a very fun, loving guy, and he would would have, because I was gonna tweet, how'd he come by? I would have given him some physics advice,
Starting point is 01:01:46 so he wouldn't tear his ankle. But I thought that was insensitive. She said no, he would have totally dug it. Totally on my page with the medical stuff. So. But let's not go back to there. So let me just say, yeah, I mean,
Starting point is 01:01:59 I witnessed testimony without independence, data obtained by something that is not your brain. Okay? The human sensory system is right, as we said earlier, in this conversation about optical illusions and you don't know what you're looking at. So, but two guys, this one giant spaceship, offering above them at the same time. Maybe it was aliens. Now, what happened to all the people who were abducted
Starting point is 01:02:27 as they told their psychiatrists? Their assholes were sore. They made no noise. They were. They testified to that. Does that make it objectively true? No, it just means that they believe they're telling the truth. What I'm saying is, all of the abduction stories,
Starting point is 01:02:42 so they were filling this in the 1970s, but you're old enough to remember all this. Back, when am I day? Yeah. So all these abduction stories, they all went away in the era of the smartphone because we can record that and we don't. There are no, well maybe the aliens know that.
Starting point is 01:03:00 Okay, so that was the excuse for when someone claimed to have taken regular cameras and the film was blank. So now, because of the ACLU and copped beating up black people, you can stream whatever is in your phone to the internet, to their servers, while it's happening. And we don't have any shots inside the... So here's what you do. Next time you abduct a steel and ash tray off the shelf.
Starting point is 01:03:26 And then when you're dead, if you don't get a picture, then you have an artifact of alien manufacture, and then we can analyze it, say, hey, we had a real encounter. I, again, I'm not dying on this hill because I don't know. I'm just saying, that's what I'm saying. We don't know.
Starting point is 01:03:43 I find, correct. We don't know. I find... Correct. We don't know. We don't. We don't. Correct. The weight of that evidence is not magnified by someone swearing to tell the truth. I know. But 200 simultaneous store assholes. Is something. That's good evidence, right? I think I like better than making you laugh like that's hard. That's good evidence, right?
Starting point is 01:04:05 I think I like better than making you laugh like that. Nothing. The asshole defense. So, so AI, what? AI, AI. Yeah, what do you want? What AI want. We've had AI for decades.
Starting point is 01:04:26 And all of a sudden, AI can now in science, and it's all around us at all times, what do you think Syria is? It's not a human being. I know, but it's gotten to a new level. I'm getting there, so I'm saying. So now, AI can compose your term paper, and now you poop your pants.
Starting point is 01:04:43 Okay. What happened? What? AI can compose your term paper. Why did I poop your pants. Okay. Whatever. What? AI can compose your term paper. Why did I poop my pants? Because everyone thinks that AI is going to take over their lives and their jobs and their livelihood
Starting point is 01:04:53 in all the rest of the world. But AI's been with us for decades. And of course, it's getting better at all times. Right, it's getting better. What I'm saying is I think it made starter making headlines because started touching the lives of liberal arts people. Well, also because they made it mass for the masses,
Starting point is 01:05:08 chat GPT. Yeah. A year, a member is almost a year ago, about a year ago, that I first was at a restaurant with someone, and they said, you have chat GPT. I said, no, I just read something. What is that again? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 01:05:20 I mean, that was only a year ago, and now it's a household word. It's a household. Everybody use it for everything. That's a quantum leap from where we were a year ago. So, you know, it's like, yes, was there TV in 1939 or something? Yes, no one had it and then everyone had it. It's a quantum leap.
Starting point is 01:05:38 And it changes things. Okay. I agree. So, you want to watch out. You don't want it to become our overlords. Any more than you want nuclear weapons to destroy the world. And so you put in some restrictions. But what happened is people started seeing AI and then they lumped all of AI into this
Starting point is 01:05:56 one concern. If they had any clue how much AI is influencing their lives in any given moment, they wouldn't possibly say that. Well, I don't know. I don't know why those things. What do you think's flying your airplane? You think that pilots actually make an important decisions up there?
Starting point is 01:06:11 No, he's landing it, yes. Well, yeah, they choose to, but they don't. Well, landing is so important to me. I don't know. That is awfully. Yeah. That, yeah. They choose to keep some, keep some, keeps,
Starting point is 01:06:24 yeah, I, the blood flowing. Yeah, I the blood flowing. Yeah, I know. Okay, but I mean, you're setting up an opposition that I don't think is real. No, I'm not. We agree AI can be abused, especially if they have deep fakes that are videos and things. They can listen to they can sample your voice and say invent five jokes that Bill Mars never told, but in the style of Bill Mars. Yeah, they've tried that.
Starting point is 01:06:46 And there it is. They suck. They're not there yet. I was interviewed by an AI chat program on a podcast. And I said, they would perform three questions, and I wasn't very interested. I said, can I ask the guy, we're going to ask the thing back, a couple of questions.
Starting point is 01:07:03 They said, sure. Was it as fun as this? Ice. Come on. It was very, yes. It was very, I don't want to live in that world. Yeah. Okay, no, so we'll put restrictions on it.
Starting point is 01:07:16 Well, okay, I mean, that's been the big argument. It's like some people, like, Ian Musk, come saying from the beginning, this is an existential threat. I think he's right, because I think I've seen too many movies where this happens and it happens in all movies. Everything that happens in movies eventually happens in life.
Starting point is 01:07:34 That's the theory I go with. Because it's true. And I don't wanna agree with that, but I can't have to agree. They imagine it first. I remember in minority report, the Spielberg movie with Tom Creve, the Future Comes, and they have that.
Starting point is 01:07:45 This facial recognition, whoever you're going to go. Right, and the screens. Like he was moving, we had no screens at doing that. That was like science fiction. And then three years later, we were all doing it. Then they had the eyeball, the retinal scan. And then they needed a retinal scan of someone,
Starting point is 01:08:02 we had access, but they just killed him. So they carved out his eyeball in a plastic bag and put the eyeball in front of the thing. And he walks into the mall, and there's all those, you know, the ads are all moving. Like, we didn't have that then, but now we have all that now. Yeah, so I feel like we could have robot overlords.
Starting point is 01:08:20 Okay, so it made me. I mean, it was 1968 when Crowbrook made, I can't do that, Dave. Sorry, Dave. I can't do that. Okay, 2001, it's based on 1968, you remember it. Before we went to the moon. Before we went to the moon. Yes, it was.
Starting point is 01:08:39 Whereas some of my audience would say, if. That's your audience? Okay, you're proud of that. No, but there are people. No, not many, but I've had people work on them with we can double all the tag team them. I don't know why that one. That's a strange conspiracy theory. It's not strange in the flat earthers. Because we are. That's even sillier. Yeah, I can watch a football game in the winter in New York City and the sun has set yet it is still up in the Rose Bowl in California.
Starting point is 01:09:12 There's no way to explain that unless Earth is curved between New York. There's some very simple explanation again. You're speaking. So, so the people want to end on a positive note. Yes, so Ray Bradbury, great science fiction. He was once approached by a fan. It said, Mr. Bradbury, why do you write these stories with these apocalyptic futures?
Starting point is 01:09:33 Is that the future you think we're gonna occupy? He says, no, I write about those futures, so you know to avoid them. Right, maybe those movies have absolutely- Absolutely. No, I truly believe that. With the fear factor that needs to be there to make sure that doesn't happen. Right.
Starting point is 01:09:51 The other thing that has been depicted in a zillion movies is the apocalyptic post-nuclear war landscape, the book of Eli, and oh, there's so many of those kind of movies. We know the famous quote from Albert Einstein. I don't know how World War III will be for, right. But World War IV will be fought with sticks and stone, right? And it's always the same thing. There's got to be 10 movies where, you know, before the war, and then the war comes where humans
Starting point is 01:10:23 wipe out everybody because they're so stupid. This is why we need Kiano Reeves to come down. But then it's like the council. You know, always, always headed by a pan suited women. It's either Kate Winslet or a... What did you notice? What they're wearing? Yeah, because we did a bit on it.
Starting point is 01:10:43 Oh, look. There's like eight movies where they're all like a... I we did a bid on it. Oh, well, there's like eight long please, where they're all like in the hands of, I'll be right back. I'm there to the count. Does HBO put it on YouTube, or I gotta like subscribe? HBO Max, my show, is on HBO Max, or HBO. No, but the clips, they make it to YouTube.
Starting point is 01:10:59 Yes, sometimes, yes, absolutely. Always. Yeah, whatever you do, don't want to the whole show. Anyway, great to see you too. Anyway. Oh. Yeah. But it's always like,
Starting point is 01:11:13 it's always like, you know, the world was ended because humans were stupid and now we cannot allow humans to be human. We cannot allow emotions, except for this bed of hot teenagers, we're going to take back the world by being hot. And they do. You know, that's always, there's a little band of resistance at fights.
Starting point is 01:11:33 Yeah. Because we can't allow humans to have emotions. But you started this conversation by saying, what scares you, I'm maybe I'm paraphrasing, but what scares me is a very similar thing. Like, how can we survive when we see the way people think? The things that people do and what they believe in. My version of that is. Like, it convinced them of, it's crazy.
Starting point is 01:11:55 My version of that, that we're still here. I fear that we are not wise enough to be the shepherds we need to be for the future of civilization. Well, said crash hopper. Oh, all right. No, go to us. I knowds we need to be for the future of civilization. Well said Crash Hopper. Alright, I know you've got to go. Got to go. Dude, love you always. Hey, when we fight.
Starting point is 01:12:13 Right? It's a very hachromonial when we fight. Yeah, I realize this. You never been married. It's right out of a marriage. Well, I think right away you said which one of us is smarter. I didn't mean that at all. I didn't mean that at all.
Starting point is 01:12:35 Wait.

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