Factually! with Adam Conover - Spencer Pratt Crashes and Burns, and a Historic Knicks Comeback with Cassie Wilson and Dave Roth

Episode Date: June 12, 2026

This week, Adam is joined with Dave Roth from Defector and comedian Cassie Wilson to discuss the Knicks historic comeback, and how all the crystals in the world couldn’t keep Spencer Pratt from being defeated in the LA mayoral race by Nithya Raman.--SUPPORT THE SHOW ON PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/adamconoverSEE ADAM ON TOUR: https://www.adamconover.net/tourdates/SUBSCRIBE to and RATE Factually! on:» Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/factually-with-adam-conover/id1463460577» Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0fK8WJw4ffMc2NWydBlDyJAbout Headgum: Headgum is an LA & NY-based podcast network creating premium podcasts with the funniest, most engaging voices in comedy to achieve one goal: Making our audience and ourselves laugh. Listen to our shows at https://www.headgum.com.» SUBSCRIBE to Headgum: https://www.youtube.com/c/HeadGum?sub_confirmation=1» FOLLOW us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/headgum» FOLLOW us on Instagram: https://instagram.com/headgum/» FOLLOW us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@headgum» Advertise on Factually! via Gumball.fmSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This is a headgum podcast. Hey there, welcome to Factually. I'm Adam Conover. It's Friday, so we're wrapping up of the news of the week with some funny, smart people. Here we got Dave Roth from DeFector. Hi, how's it going? Really wonderful to have you.

And Cassie Wilson, a comedian and politically active comedian. Sure. Yeah, there you know, here in New York. It's really funny to be here. We're in New York. That's why I'm talking to both of you. And the L.A. mayor's race was called, like, literally like on the day I was flying here.

And I was like, this is a really bad. time to be going to New York because I want to talk about the LA mayor's race on the show. But it's actually the perfect time because yesterday was the most thrilling victory in the history of the New York Knicks, which we'll get to in a second. I want to start by talking about the L.A. Mayors race, though, if that's cool. Nithia Rahman, who is a candidate who I support, I've supported very publicly, overcame an early deficit to pull ahead of Spencer Pratt. The race has been called for her.

Oh, Spencer Pratt from TV? Spencer Pratt from television. He's very good. He's very good. Yeah, you like him? Yeah, I mean, I just remember him from, mostly from podcast appearances and stuff, and I have bought crystals from him. Have you really? Yeah, they don't work.

No, go ahead. I don't want to interrupt you. I just feel like, anytime someone says Spencer Pratt, it's my little game as being like, oh, from the show. Oh, from the screen. It's a podcast. You're supposed to interrupt me. That's what I want you to do. I mean, so, yeah, Spencer, we talked about on the show before he ran for mayor because

his house burned down and he saw a publicity opportunity in this to make himself a right-wing media star. He ran for mayor of Los Angeles. And here's the funny thing. On Tuesday night, like when the election happened, like I was at the election night party, we have this very pronounced blue shift in Los Angeles where the day, the votes that are counted the day of the election tend to be more conservative because it's all old people who have like mailed their ballots in weeks in advance. the Democrats, especially the progressives, tend to hold their ballots until the very last moment, especially this year, because the governor's race, nobody could decide, blah, blah, blah. And so the votes that we saw the night of, I was like, actually, this is exactly what Nithi needed. She's like 10 points behind Spencer.

She's going to make that up in the late returns. The right wingers did not realize this. And so as the week went on and she gained with every single drop, they started like conspiracizing about this being like a stolen. election to the extent that that has now become like almost the entire national news story about how how how has it been watching this you guys cassie you were very involved in the zoron campaign here in new york you were in fact the first person stop you guys stop i don't like to talk about it the first time i ever saw the first time i ever saw zoron i don't like to big zy come on we go way back the first time i ever saw zoron was on your ticot page and i was like oh this is nice

he's supporting some local DSA member, Fouca, who's never going to make it. Some nice guy, little man, who will never go anywhere. And now he's like, he's, he's, Mayor New York City. Yeah, he's the new FDR, Fiora LaGuardia. And Dave, last time you were on the show, we were talking about Zoran, that same,

because it was like, I think right after the primary. It was right after, yeah. I was extremely giddy. So it's very fun to get your guys take specifically on the L.A. Mayors race. did it even clock for you as something that was happening in the country being here in New York? We pay attention. We're locked in.

Yeah. I mean, most of the, for most New Yorkers, I don't want to speak for you, but most of us, most of the time is we're updating our what's the best slice rankings. We're doing it nonstop. Right. But national news does, oftentimes if you're in a pizzeria, for instance, you'll see something on the TV. So I knew that you guys have a mayor. No, I mean, you, I'm assuming we're paying attention. I was making attention. Yeah, I was refreshing. And at first I was like, ooh, I didn't know about the old people voting first thing. Respect to old people, but stop voting for.

You have to be pretty involved. You have to be pretty deep into progressive politics. Because it had been like four elections. I had seen this happen every single time where the progressive or the DSA candidate had some incredible quote, come from behind victory. So we were used to it. But yeah, like what what conception of it did you have, if anything? Oh, actually, I was in L.A. a couple weeks ago, and I was staying in North Hollywood, and there's this giant billboard with an AI-generated photo of Spencer Pratt and, like, a bunch of dogs. Yeah. And it was like, if I, if, like, the dogs would vote for Spencer if they could or something horrible like that. And I was like, what the hell? Yeah. I mean, I knew about, I think I knew about the AI ads. Like, I knew that there were ones where he's like, like, what if Batman was like not a good-looking guy?

Like that could be, you know, saying this on a video podcast and my fucking tummy out. But I'm, whatever. I can say it that like Spencer Pratt kind of looks like shit. And I, but I had not seen him since the hills went off the air. But I'm so the way that I processed it beyond like I have, you know, like Los Angeles friends that were talking about it. And most of them are Nithia people. And, you know, I didn't sense any panic on their part. But there was a lot of like outside of like right wing media.

Like I know like the free press Not the the concept But the fucking Gary Wife blog Newletter Was throwing everything at this race Like they had a lot invested in it Because they that's the whole identity of that is that basically like You're a conservative person living in a cosmopolitan big city

Yep And you're just rolling your eyes at all the progressus Oh look what they're trying to do And so they wanted it to be You know this sort of reckoning obviously Which it was not but that I don't read the free press I mean, like, we talk about it a lot at Defector because everybody dislikes it, but it's not the sort of thing where it's, I'm not diving in to be like, what are we, what's Nelly Bowles burning on today?

I'd love to know. But the, it made it into like, like, I read a blog about Pratt at Slate. Like, there's like real, I think that some of it was obviously that the name clicked, you know, that like there people are signing this story because people wanted to read about it. But I think it was just enough that we were talking about this before we started that I was kind of like. constantly negotiating with myself, like how upset do I actually want to get as like a person with a mood disorder that doesn't live in this city? Like how mad do I need to get about what is or isn't going on in L.A.?

And that was a challenge. Like I think knowing that Nithia people weren't panicked helped a lot. But also like it's just still a lot of Spencer Pratt in the monitors, you know? Like it gives you a tummy ache. Yeah, I mean it was, I think what frustrated me in L.A. was, you know, look, a lot of people were calling Nithia L.A. Zoran, right? She actually had, she like kicked off the entire progressive movement in Los Angeles electoral politics in 2020.

Yeah, go whatever you want to do. No, I don't know. Take it, yeah, take the label off in the middle of the show. You want to be the water sponsor for the show. You got to pay for it, bastards. But, you know, like, L.A. is not the media hub in the way that New York is. Nithia is not a generational communicator the way. Zoran is. Like it clearly wasn't going to be that kind of moment. She's just like a very solid

progressive DSA member, et cetera. Um, but to see the national thing in the race be Spencer Pratt specifically, him get so much press. Like the New York Times everybody was doing almost exactly the Trump thing a second time of like, oh, a reality star running. Could he really do it? Whoa, kind of surprised. Oh, turns out some disaffected Democrats are going, or voting for him. I was like, It's 10 years after 2016 and we're doing the same shit again. That was the shit that freaked me out. Yeah. Seeing there's a, so LA material, which I subscribe to, it's really good.

New Newsletter about LA politics. Talk to people that had worked on the hills with Spencer Pratt. This is a good post. It is also, in retrospect, that is not a representative trench of, like, Los Angeles voters. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. People who've, like, been around Kristen Cavalari in their lives. It's like, that's not, there's a whole lot of rest of L.A. that's not like that.

But all of those people, they were saying exactly, like, shit that was, like, hitting the 2016 button in my brain really furiously. Like, he's an outsider. Like, yeah, he doesn't know politics, but maybe that's what we need. And there's a part of it. Like, where do you, what country do you live in right now? Let's start with that. Like, and how is it going? I was included into the Spencer Pratt necessarily of it all.

But, you know, being at in New York City having worked so hard to elect Zoron, you hope that he is the domino that falls that, you know, leads to, you know, let a thousand. Zoron's Bloom, like all over everywhere, especially in, you know, kind of like in these cities on a more local level where your elected officials can make real material change and they can do it more quickly than maybe they could have like a federal level. So, you know, I was hopeful. And then I saw the early returns and it was like, oh crap, what the hell did L.A. just do. But like, hey, should have kept the faith? Yeah. I mean, it, well, what's funny is like there were a couple moments during the race where I was like, maybe Spencer's going to take. He's got all this media momentum, you know, and Zoron did not run against a reactionary right-wing figure.

So, like, that's another thing that was different about that race. I mean, it generally did, but that was not going to be close. It was, and also Slewa, everybody was in the process of, like, turning him into a teddy bear. Sure, and he was kind of like a paleo-conservative type. He's like, you know, more of a- thing. Yeah, yeah. There's not another one of him out there.

Yeah, he's not running on, like, true Trumpian nimbism, you know, let's literally kill the homeless people. So, you know, I did have a few moments of wavering. But what really struck me is once I saw the early returns, I was like, I think we're in good shape and I was right about this. Literally all of the right wing media convinced themselves that Spencer Pratt would win. I was in an article in the New York Post called. Congrats, by the way.

Thank you very much. Bragg, okay? Do you want to tell everybody how you were described? I was described. Oh, you're thinking of the Daily Mail. I was described by the Daily Mail as an unlikable. woke comedian. Damn.

They wrote a whole article about one TikTok I made because I'm just I'm a hate object for the right wing I think it clicks off of me which is at this point I just got to use that to I gotta monetize it somehow. Water sponsor.

Yeah. Paul and Spring? But the New York You don't know. The New York Post wrote this whole article that was the problem with Nethia's campaign you could see in her election night party and the whole thesis of the article was

we were dancing at the election night party. There was a dance party. Yeah, too gay. Sorry. It's not going to work. It's not going to sell. Sorry. And I was like, there's a photo of me dancing in there. And I was like, we were dancing because we knew we were going to win. Like they, but this article came out a couple days after the election.

Like they all thought we were going to lose. And the idea that, so what it comes down to for me is like now that they're saying that the election was stolen, the amount of like entitlement that the right wingers had to think that just because they're running, just because they're tapping into some sort of rage means that if they don't win, they were either cheated or something went drastically wrong is bizarre.

It's a blue city. Republican registration is like 15% or something like that. So you'd like outperformed the number of Republicans that could have voted in this, but that's also like, yeah, I don't know. Well, I think you're, I don't know if this actually counts as like pushing back. I think you might be giving them a little bit more credit

than they, deserve for saying they actually thought this. Because I think that there's like, certainly some people, like, not to keep going back to the LA material blog that I read, but like all those people that worked on the hills with Spencer Pratt, like a lot of them really did seem to think that he was going to win. Also, I don't know that everybody that was quoted in there like can read a book if they had to. Most of them probably didn't live in Los Angeles. Right.

A lot of them didn't. Some suburb city that couldn't vote for me. But I think that that's sort of the second wave of it, the stuff that made it or like powered the national news thing is like, I don't know what Benny Johnson thinks, but I know that like he's doing like TikToks about Nithia because it's like there's a trending topic that he can ride on and he knows that he can say whatever he wants to say about it and he doesn't live there either. So I think that there's this other like when a thing achieves that exit velocity and it breaks out from like local freaks and like sort of, you know, and whoever is like following

California politics to obsessively, which I guess includes me based on how much I've now said I've read about it. You subscribe to a wonderful publication. Yeah. But the, I think there's also like, there's people at that national level whose job it is to like make sure that people stay upset about whatever everybody's upset about at that moment. And this becoming that is like, I guess in some ways that's an upset too, you know, because it's like a mayor's race in a city that's like a sort of hate object for that community. But I don't take any of those people in good faith, like as a general rule. Yeah, it's hard to say whether or not they're actually heartbroken or if they're just trying

to make money off of the clicks or if they're just setting up something for November, right? They're just setting up the election denial that they're going to do then. And what really makes me mad is that like we are now, talking about the election denial story to such a degree that that is, like the national news story about the L.A. mayoral election is still about the right wing reaction to it. Like, it's not about the race itself. And that's really. Well, they've captured so much of media. They're the ones who get to tell the stories that we are reading, you know, not just in the free press.

Yep. But if it's all the oligarchs who have bought up all of the news sites, then that's the story that we're going to be told. Yeah. You know? This also seems like it's got a case of like late stage Twitter brain disease going on to, just in the sense that I think a lot of the argument for Spencer. I mean, some of the things that I've seen like, you know, fairly prominent right media people saying is like, Nithia has no base, like look at how many followers Spencer has. And it's like, well, that's not. Those are two different things. Like she represents a part of the city where like people live. And then he's on the site that people used to goof around on during baseball games and now they don't anymore. Like I don't think that those things fully align that way. And yet I don't

I also feel like this is, I mean, I mean, the ultimate in Oligar capture being, you know, X.com, the everything site that like I think if you didn't get off of there and you don't know sort of, I mean, I don't, I have friends that are still on there. It's not about that. I just think that like you have to be aware that like the way that that site works and what you're seeing and what's being amplified has shifted under your feet over the last two years. And if you don't know that and you're seeing all of this stuff and you're, you know, what the algorithm would now push in your direction. I could see how you could maybe talk yourself into it, provided you never look up from your phone and consider how many registered Republicans there are in Los Angeles.

Yeah, it's really strange how many people seem to fall for it. And I don't know if it's just because of X or if it's because of what you said, Cassie, about the broader ownership of the media sites. But like even the, to watch like even the, quote, liberal sites like take the lead from the conservative media is crazy. Like, The Atlantic, I think just today published a thing about, you know, California counts votes slowly. And the reason they count the vote slowly is because they're verifying all the signatures on the ballots and because they do it by mail-in voting. Could it be a little bit faster? Sure.

Is it a big fucking deal that it takes a couple weeks? I don't really think so. I don't know what's, what exactly is the democracy from this. But the Atlantic had a whole piece of like, no, Democrats need to really, oh, wow. things aren't going so good in California because Democrats are taking a while to count the ballots. I'm like, so you're just repeating the watered down version

of what Beny Johnson's. They did the same shit around our primary in June. Tell me about it. Right, it was right before the primary, the Atlantic, there was some piece that was like, actually, rank choice voting means just not democracy, you guys. It was like, what the hell is this take? And it was all these just like, you know, people, the media

get scared when progressive politicians are like gaining real material power and like you do have to look up from your phone. There's so many examples of this in Zoran's run where, you know, polling, he's polling at 1% or like, there's all these articles that are like, he could never do it. And then you're leading a canvas of 75 people in the pouring rain. Or you're like at some, you know, rally or fundraiser and there's hundreds of people there and you're still months out from the election. Yeah. It's like genuinely, like, not to be like, go touch grass, but like real life organizing with real people in the world

will show you what is actually possible. And that is the thing that will like actually turn out results. Like because there is so much corporate capture of our media, you genuinely have to be able to look away and like, what is the real life example? When I go and knock on a door, who am I speaking to? How is this message being received? And, you know, on my, on my way to the election night party for the primary, it was 930. Voting was closed. And I said to my lift driver, I was like, hey, did you, did you vote today? And he proudly at a red light. He shows me a text from his niece. And she had said, you know, hey, make sure you go and vote. You should rank Zoron, Brad. Like here's the list.

of how you should rank these candidates. And he showed me that. And he was like, yeah, I voted for Zohoran. She sent this to 18 members of my family. And I was like, this is a real life interaction. And that was the moment where I was like, I think we may have done it. And like the polls obviously like weren't,

you know, they had just closed. So we didn't know what was going to happen. But it was like, no, these are the real life examples that will show you what is actually possible. And you know, publishing a photo of you guys dancing and being like, they're going to lose. It's like the perfect example of like, no, these are real life people who are in a room experiencing joy.

And like that is something. and like community, and that is something that the right is super afraid of. Yeah. So that's the story they're going to want to tell. Didn't just drop down into the election, like, by way of a website. Like, they're sort of like, I'm assuming that this is the case. Like, I, it sounds like you had a similar experience. I had a friend who was after the 2024 election.

Like, I think I talked about this a little bit when we talked about it last. Had, you know, like emotionally, I think a lot of people sort of bottomed out, me included at the idea of being like four years of like Trump with like the new cabinet and the new. you know, a sense of a mandate. He threw himself into the Zoran campaign. And I think that in a lot of ways, like, it, like, emotionally saved him because of the experience that you had where he's, he's going to these different neighborhoods. He's knocking doors. He's organizing people. I mean, he didn't get, like, high up in the campaign or anything like that. But, like, he worked hard, and this was something he found real purpose in. And I think it's like you can start to believe all over

again through interacting with people in a way that would like make it easier to dance on election night or make it easier to like ask your lift driver a question that you might not otherwise like ask a lift driver and that I imagine that's like where you all were it's just weird that like no one I think there were people that thought I mean just again like the post would have been acting like Cuomo was going to win one way or the other right up until they didn't but was it stranger for you to know that there was this like, like to be as comfortable and secure in your knowledge that this had worked, at least to get you into the one-on-one against Bass. And then also to know that there was this other parallel conversation that was completely 180 degrees from it. Yeah,

it was really strange. I mean, look, I had a hunch and I was more confident than a lot of other people in L.A. I was just like, I think I've, I just feel it. And I could be wrong, but hey, we already cast the vote. So it's okay for me to have a feeling about it, you know? Um, but, uh, yeah, like to see this national conversation that's completely detached. I, I think what happens in the media and not just right wing media, but media generally is like there's a bias of being in the media itself. And I say this as a person who works in media. Like you tend to think that all that matters is like what you're saying into microphones and what people are hearing and the narrative that's coming out of like the microphone or the typing class. and they completely forget that like politics is actually done by real people like and it's

millions of individual people going into a little booth and being texted by their niece and going okay what do I that do you know what do I put down and like that is what really makes a difference and there's so little acknowledgement of that like I I knew that that was going on with the Zoron campaign when I was here because I saw the organizing I was talking to you to other friends I was like oh you guys are doing doing a real ground game and you've been doing it for like a year. And then there's the social media thing, which is an entirely different world, right?

With Nithia's campaign, she jumped in so late there wasn't time to do that kind of ground game. It was more like she's been a very popular progressive for this amount of time. She's really well known in the city. There's a lane wide open. People are upset with Karen. We have a theory of how she can win that ended up being borne out.

But none of the analysis in the media is, about either of those two stories. Nobody is going, hey, how did, how did she actually do? There was one piece in the LA Times. How did she actually win? I gave a couple quotes to it. But like, nothing from anywhere else. And I didn't see that after the Zoran campaign either.

I'm sure there were a piece here or there. But like, it was a fucking grassroots door knock. It was a real campaign. Like, it had nothing to do with what the New York Times of the Post was saying. And like the fact that they don't even try to. So like understand what did we get wrong is bizarre to me. Well, I think also these media outlets want people to think that they don't have power because like that's what politics has become in this country on such a big level is like

and that's why they're stripping. You know, the voting rights act. It's like they want they want to take away the power of an everyday working class person and they want them to think that they have no power. And so that's why it's so important in these like blue cities that people do understand that they do have power. And like in these pockets where, you know, we can, everyone in New York City can vote from mayor. Everyone in LA can vote for mayor. It's not about

gerrymandering a district. And it's like that's why these races are so important is like showing people that they do have power. And also that it's not just about like going into a voting booth in like electoral politics. But like this is a way that we organize people for other reasons too. This is how you unionize your workplace. This is how you start a mutual aid group. You know, whatever it is. It's like not just electoral. And that I think is the really scary thing also for the legalists. Part of them not understanding like what DSA is, for instance. Like DSA is like an organizing vehicle primarily. Yeah.

That's like slightly separate from electoral politics in order to make electoral politics is one thing that DSA does. Exactly. Hey folks. This episode is sponsored by Ground News, a service I truly believe in and one that we actually used when researching the topics we discussed on this week's episode. You know, every news story has a second hidden story behind it, the bias of the publication that wrote it and how they choose to frame their articles.

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No, no, no, no. I'm Kyle Mooney. Sorry about that. Exactly. No, all good. All good. Thanks, buddy. Yeah, and we host the show What's our podcast here on HeadGum. This podcast is brought to you by

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you mentioned the Voting Rights Act, a bunch of that being knocked down. It really feels like they're laying the groundwork of this narrative being, you know, the real problem with American elections is not the disenfranchisement of minorities. It's that minorities are committing fraud and we need to disenfranchise them more. I mean, you literally had Republican politicians saying there is voting fraud in minorities. community specifically, it all really seems to be focusing to a point, which is part of how they're able to drive the media conversation because they are all pointed in the same direction a lot more than liberals are. Do you guys have any feeling about like what we might be seeing later in the year?

Armageddon. I was going to say dread. I mean, it seems clear that the political momentum is against Trump-style fash politics. Like it just, it sucks in basically every way. Like it, beyond the stuff that like ideologically you might hate about it. Like also it makes all your food costs more. Like there's just like people are fucking dying for no reason all over the place. Like it stinks. I mean, but yeah.

Yeah. I mean, this is the bit that we don't know yet. And this honestly like takes me back to a certain extent to election night for mom, or the primary election night for Mom Dani. Like I, you know, I read every, every single thing I could and, you know, again, like made myself half insane as a result. What happened was what was predicted to happen. By the end, everybody was sort of like, this is how it's shaping up. It's going to go this way. But it was so ugly. The shit that the

Cuomo campaign was putting out the last few weeks. And it's like if you remember 2024 or if you remember like basically like the 22 midterms, like the beginning of like when they were trying to make trans issues this sort of like national wedge like I knew that the stuff that the quomo campaign was saying wasn't hitting because I could see you know like you couldn't see it like in the same way that you know 30 people show up to go watch Spencer Pratt talk about you know the experience that he had on MTV's the Hills between 2013 in 2011 or whatever make sure to stream today you guys it's really it's very good you don't have to agree with them on every issue but uh we can agree great on that show on that little program yeah

But the, he looks so much worse now. Yeah. Well, I mean, so do I. What are you going to do? I can't relate to that. I know. What's different. It comes for all of us.

Not me, though. Probably not you. Probably not me. You might be built different. Totally. The thing that I think is, like, it was so ugly that I couldn't let myself believe it was going to fail because it had succeeded. Which I think made the Zoran victory that much. And the fact that it happened in this like sort of like reasonable way that there

There's no secret majority of reactionary voters, like, lurking on the upper west side of Manhattan. There were, like, plenty of them. There were more, like, reactionary voters on the upper west side of Manhattan than there are, like, people that live in South Dakota and vote Republican. But that's like, it's still, like, until it fails, it feels like inevitable. And I don't, I mean, I'm hoping for the best in the sense that, like, all I want to see the rest of my life is fucking Trumpism lose and to see the opposite of that politics become, Yeah.

Our daily political reality as a country, but like it just feels it's hard to have faith, I guess, with any of it, especially knowing all the monkeying around with everything that they're doing. How does it felt living in New York since Zoran has been mayor, right? Electric. I love it here. Because I was going back to L.A. going, you know, I come here like three or four times a year, right?

And I was going back to L.A. going, guys, in New York, people are walking around with smiles on their fucking faces. And I want that for I've lived in LA for 10 years. I'm a New Yorker at heart, but I love Los Angeles. I want that for the city I call home now. And so just tell me about that, Cassie. What has that been like? I mean, I still can't believe we did it.

Like the sense of pride that I think people have people who who campaigned for Zoron and like knocked on a million doors and just spent hours and hours and hours. The fact that we actually did it, sometimes I'm like, I still don't think it's real. but I think his campaign, I mean, his, his mayoralty, mayorship, mayoralty. We can agree that all the words for it sound amazing. Yeah. Him being in the mayor's position.

In mayor house. They've done, I think, a really incredible job at like celebrating their successes and just showing New Yorkers what they are doing and how our like money and resources are being spent. And the example that a lot of people talk about is the snow shoveling thing that he did where He, you know, reactivated the emergency snow shoveling program where there, you know, there are two huge blizzards in January, February. And he up to the rate to $30 an hour. You could sign up and, you know, overnight the streets were clear.

And it was like, look, this is taxpayer money being used to pay New York City residents to benefit the residents of New York City. That is how a government should work. Like, the government should work for people and, you know, like filling a gabillion potholes and, you know, making sure that like. The fucking bike lane over the, whatever, the Brooklyn Bridge. Exactly. Exactly, the little, yeah, yeah, yeah. And, you know, just like getting delivery drivers, their money, you know, just like he's doing all of these things. His, oh my God, what am I?

Administration? Is that what we're saying? Yeah, yeah. They're doing all these things and they're also telling people that they're doing all these things because, you know, so many, so many elected officials get elected and then they disappear. You never hear from them again. And it's like, no, he's always doing press conferences. He's on camera. His campaign is spreading the word about what they have done.

And this should show people in other places. other cities, other wherever, that this is what the government can do for you. Even if you don't have a Zoran Mamdani who is an incredibly charismatic, you know, once in a generation political talent, even if you don't have someone who is that figurehead, this is what you can and should be demanding from your local government. I mean, literally people in friends of mine in L.A. are constantly going add to story on Zoron. Like literally a couple weeks ago, he had, we balanced the budget, right? Inexplicably.

Yeah. Incredibly. I had friends going, oh, look, Zoran, balance the budget. I'm like, okay, I hope you're going to fucking vote in our primary. Yeah. For someone who wants to take at least a somewhat similar approach towards good governance. And that's actually, I think, the main, main thing that Zoran, if you have in common is it's just, it's progressivism in the 1920s, 1930 cents of good government. Let's not have corruption.

Let's not have laziness. Let's like spend taxpayer money on taxpayer things. And like, my God, the thing that hit me the most that I saw. coming out of New York was one of the first, I think the first thing I saw him say he was going to do after he was actually elected was thousands of public restrooms around the city. And I was like, I mean,

I don't give a fuck about city run grocery stores. That, we could have run on that. And like, you don't have to do any of the other things. This is the thing that people need. This is what progressive politicians do well when they do it well is, what do my constituents need? Like, how am I going to make their lives better?

If you just tell people, how you're going to make their lives better without blaming, you know, immigrants or trans people or, you know, voter fraud. People are going to show up. Okay, this guy's going to make my life better. Great. I'm going to go both for that.

And then do it, right? Like, four years from now, they'll have shit in a box with Zoran's name on it. And they'll be like, yeah, I had to piss that one time. And the dude took care of me. I didn't have to go into the Starbucks and wait in line. The other bit that I'd add to that because I think what you said is correct. And I think the read on the energy of the city is like also my read as somebody who's

like, you know, older and lives in a neighborhood that is not the most. pro-Mam Dani, that there's also things that you can do even if the city council is trying to fuck you, which is a big problem that Mom Dani has had. That there is, uh, Julie Mennon, who's the speaker of the city council or whatever is like,

has basically, you know, is a real estate, like, wealthy sort of like a representative of like an established and, you know, in New York City, they're all Democrats. And they're all, you know, broadly speaking, they're not homophobes or whatever. Like, you could do worse, but they're like, they are dedicated to making sure that things continue more or less the way that they continue.

And a lot of the bigger swings in the campaign are going to be very hard, budget-wise, to get through the city council. A lot of the ideas and a lot of the things that the city council passes that Zoran, in some cases, has vetoed are things that are, like, very much, like, provocations from a sort of, like, center right to actually right perspective. The thing that you can do and that Mamdani has done, and I think, which is the reason why, despite the fact that he hasn't, like, governed as like, you know, it's not like Lenin, you know, like it's not, but the thing that he's done, right,

he's done the most, you know, without the gulag setup that we don't have yet. There's, like Staten Island real estate being eyed for this. But there's, I think, the way that you can show people that you're doing good work, and this is something that I think it helps to do the social media stuff, you also have to do the actual thing itself. Yeah. Is like constantly be communicating with them, not just like, here, what I'm doing for you, but like here's what you can do for yourself. Here's like the resources

that you have so much if you look at like Mamdani's social media, it's like now that he's the mayor, it's a lot fewer like fun videos where he's walking really fast or like eating on the subway or whatever. And it's stuff that's like you're entitled to these benefits. Go to this website. Yeah. Like sign up for these benefits. You deserve them. It's your right as a citizen of New York City. And like that stuff is, I mean, it's basic blocking and tackling in terms of like governance. It's also, he's the first mayor to have done it since I moved here 25 years ago. And also, like, that's the sort of shit that actually changes someone's life in a way that, like, Eric Adams unlocking the wonderworking power of swag or like Mike Bloomberg entering a public private partnership. Like, none of that stuff gets down to where people are actually living.

Whereas I think, like, communicating to people where they are about material things is like that's something you can do even if the city council is blocking everything. all of the bigger swings. We might not get the grocery stores. We might not get the free buses, you know, but like people are still going to feel like he's out there doing shit for them. Also, on the note of city council blocking him, the real thing that just happened was the New York State budget just passed. And Kathy Hochel, I, obviously I'm like very plugged into like New York politics.

But the fact that I know that 450,000 New Yorkers who use the essential plan, which is the like health care plan that a bunch of people have, if you're like low income. Half a million people are about to be kicked off of it because Kathy Hochel refused to tax the rich and like fill the budget deficit that resulted from Trump's big beautiful bill last year, which cut a bunch of funding. I know that that's not Zohran's fault. It's like his administration was campaigning to tax the rich, but they cannot do that without New York State agreeing to do it, which they, you know, they passed the piettaire tax, which is amazing, but they did not tax the rich adequately enough to like fill those but a jury gaps.

the fact that I know that like what the hell it's just like civic engagement like explaining how shit works and like you know it's like these are your benefits but also it's like show up at this you know hearing

or show up at this like you know the thing where there oh my God what is it the bad landlords hearing thing where you like show up and talk about your bad landlord or like you know tell us how you we can make the government more efficient they just launch that like civic engagement like getting people to understand

you know, what they can ask for, what they can do, and just like how shit works. And Chiosay is really good at that too. He's a city council member here and he has a series called Why Shit Not Working. And like just having these incredibly like engaged charismatic politicians explaining to their constituents, here's why there's a pothole outside or here's why we can't afford, you know, build affordable housing as fast as we want to. Just like that is something that I have never seen before. And obviously like I'm very clout in because it's part of my job. But, you know, anyone can, like, have these resources via Instagram now.

It's amazing. Yeah. It makes such a difference. I mean, that's what Nithia is running on is trying to explain why things are the way they are. But the most, one of the most popular political figures in L.A. right now is this guy named Kenneth Mejia, who's our city controller, which is not a very powerful position. It's like a transparency position. Like, he can audit stuff. And what Kenneth has done over the last four years, and he's just kind of like a random accountant who decided to run and was charismatic.

and, you know, did a good job running. In four years, he basically just put up a lot of websites where he's like, here's where the money is going, here's, I don't know, the streets that aren't getting fixed, here's blah, blah, blah, blah. And people fucking love it. And he just won six, like by 64 to 45% against a guy who spent $10 million trying to unseat him

just because people are like, oh yeah, I like Kenneth. He, like, tells me where the money's going. Right. And he doesn't, he can't even do anything other than that. And people love it so much. Yeah. Speaking of people walking around with smiles on their faces in New York, let's talk about what happened yesterday. This is going to be out on Friday, but we're speaking on Thursday. Dave, I'm sure you've already podcasted about the Nix earlier today. So let's start with Cassie. Please.

Yeah. I love the opportunity. Yeah. So what is your level of Nix sicko behaviors? I'm not a Nix sicko. I am a lifelong Nix appreciator. I come from a family of like diehard Nix fans. And I was always like, oh, the Nix are on.

Great. But I'm never like seeking them out necessarily. But during the finals, of course, I'm going to. I'm going to watch the finals no matter who's in it. But yeah, so it's huge for the Wilson family in particular. But yeah, very exciting. I've been watching the finals feeling really good. Googling who of the players is married, you know, like, how can I get up in there kind of thing?

Basketball wives, that's my vibe. So, yeah, I'm just really having a great time. Intense wag energy rating from the side of the couch. I felt so lucky to be in New York right now. Yeah. It rocks, man. This is. Oh, last night was like the best time in my life.

I'm not even, I should-R-on won the election. Last night was still the best time of my life. I should say also, like, cards on the table. I am not a Knicks fan. I grew up in New Jersey. I was a New Jersey Nets fan. They moved to New York. I thought that was horseshit.

Part of growing up as a New Jersey Nets fan means not liking the Nix. And I didn't like the John Stark's, you know, Patrick Ewing, like the 90s. And you're mad that Nets moved to Brooklyn. I was in the sense that they left New Jersey. But like, I was living in Brooklyn myself when they moved here. And I was like, how dare you? Like, I don't have a leg to stand on there. Like, I'm aware that it's hypocritical.

But I think that mostly what happened was I, I mean, I write about basketball as part of my living. Like I care about it a lot. I watch a lot of games. I'm just kind of like, I just like watching. I just hope everybody has fun. You know? I wish, if both teams could win, I think that it'd be great. But I, as much as I enjoy.

I also, though, like, I like this Knicks team a lot. I mean, there's been some insanely unlikable next teams during the time that I've lived here, like, just the real, like, where it feels like if James Dolan could, like, assume the form of a basketball roster. I mean, I lived in New York City for 10 years. I grew up on my first. Long Island, but I only started following sports at all, like, after college, you know. But when I

lived in New York, I, like, followed the Mets, you know, I was like, but the Knicks were such a poisonous team. Yeah. From 2005 to 2015. My dad was a Knicks fan. It still is. And we would go to games occasionally. And it would be like the fans would be like using the thunder stick things or whatever to chant that they wanted the coach to be fired. Yeah, or to like sell the team. Like, you get kicked out of, this is the other bit that is like, lately become a news story. Hilariously as the Knicks are becoming like, I mean, not America's sweetheart.

I don't assume that they're, but I mean, like, for sure as like, it's never been an easier or happier thing to be a Knicks fan during my lifetime. While all of that's happening, there's also that great story in Wired about this sort of like facial recognition AI panopticon that James Dolan is running at Madison Square Garden,

which like, it sucks. He's just got his own like private police force full of like bigoted goons even by like cop standards like these guys are just kind of like there's a story in there about them like basically like digitally trailing and harassing a like woman who was like a trans woman who was a super fan that they just like didn't want around the team or around the games like they they still suck and yet like the power of the team being good and then also the other thing that's happening the thing that like is bringing me joy even though like I want the Knicks to win this series because like I have a lot of friends that are Knicks fans and

because, like, you know, it's a likable, I could give you the broader basketball reasoning for it, but it would be boring. The thing, the reason that I mostly wanted to happen is that the city is like twice as fun when the Knicks are good. And I have, like, at this point, too, like, the shit that I've seen people talk themselves into, the conversations I've had with strangers about like Wilson Chandler 12 years ago where they're like, this could be the difference. This could be the guy. Like, this team is one win away from winning the finals and everybody is. is out of their minds with delight about it. And it is like, I mean, it does have the same feeling as like after Zoran was elected where you're kind of like, oh my God, better things are possible. Yeah.

And, you know, it wasn't quite as hopeless as the political situation, but it was like pretty fucking hopeless that like I wouldn't have bet on the next winning a title. It's real. I think one of the things I like about sports. You know, it really gets me going. I like games. I tend to not follow a team like, you know, game by game through. throughout a season. Like it tends to be too much for my attention span.

But I love the culture of sports. I love how it combines with politics. And one thing I noticed is, you know, one of my friends here in New York is like, was also volunteered on Zoran's campaign as volunteering on Claire Valdez's, you know, an aligned house campaign. And she's like super nerdy,

almost like Lilith from Cheers and Frazier kind of person, right? And she has become such a diehard Knicks fan. And the reason is I can see how the politics and the sports are like going together for her, how it feels like to be, it creates the same emotion and sense of possibility and civic pride. And that's so much more important than like how shitty the NBA or the Knicks is as a corporate ownership structure. It's like the amount of love on the streets is what will get people partying in the street? Right? Yeah, literally people dancing in the

year last night. Yeah. It's community and it's joy and it's like collective joy. And it's like we're all rallying behind the same thing. And it's like sports do matter ultimately. It's like yeah, you can, I mean, you know, there are these evil institutions like, you know, I mean, you can call the NBA evil, you know, the NFL is deeply evil, FIFA's deeply evil.

But the sports themselves really do matter and people really give a shit and like to have something to rally behind and just like just bring people collective joy that is like pretty much good, clean fun most of the time. Incredible. Yeah. I mean, it's like, we just don't have a lot of examples of that, you know. No. And I think also just in general, like from the sports perspective, there's not a single team that all of New York agrees about in a way that there is within.

I mean, like, with all due respect to the Brooklyn Nets who do exist, they play in the NBA as well. I saw them a couple years ago. I enjoyed it. Yeah. It's a nice stadium. It's fun. I like the location. Yeah.

A lot closer to my house. It's great. But they're not like, they're years. They're in like that sort of like long term rebuilding process that maybe is just them like. being bad and cashing revenue sharing checks. It's not, yeah, it's fine. We all go through it.

Yeah, it's good. I was, most of my 20s could be described that way. That there is, that there's a sense in which like, the, the Knicks as this sort of like, a thing that's been bad

for as long as most New Yorkers have been alive. And that's, the Knicks' last championship is 1973. Like, my dad remembers those teams very well, but like, I don't, I mean, like, I have friends whose parents

aren't young enough to remember that stuff. 50 years ago. Yeah, it's 50 years ago. So that, like, just believing that it's possible and I think that's like the aspect the joy part of it that is like most

I mean like the reason that I go out on the street after a Knicks win in this postseason is not like I still and it's not because I'm like a super fan although I have co-workers that are like they can't watch this game in a bar because they're gonna be too weird like it's just like they're gonna and

but for me it's like I'm watching it at home I'm talking about it with coworkers like in case I have to write around it something about it. It just feels like responsible. But like going out there and seeing like people running around high-fiving strangers and shit. Like you don't get to see that version of New York very much. A terrible thought.

Maybe it's not that terrible. Can I guess what it is? Yes. If the next one in the finals is going to be 9-11 but good. No, that would be. That's my thought. Instead of running away from downtown until they'll be running towards Madison Square Garden. We're going to dismantle the Statue of Liberty and like, you know, that's what's going to happen.

That is actually- That's not what it was gonna be. That's a much better thought. That is a much better thought. Mine was basically like scaling this up for like what is it gonna be like when it happens? Oh, true, true, true, true. Like how are people gonna respond when like,

and I know he's a friend of the pot, I don't want to say anything too bad about him, but when Donald Trump dies. How hard are people gonna go off? Like, because this is like, that was a crazy Nick's win. Game four, historic comeback, back and like absolutely unpredictable outcome. I was hooting and hollering in my own home.

That said, there's a lot of people that don't like the Knicks. I think that there's like, what if every city was responding like that in the United States? Something to think about. I mean, genuinely, when Joe Biden won, I remember this in 2020, people dancing the streets. Like when like CNN called it. Yeah. full of needles, but my headphones told me it was like, text from Sam, CNN just called it.

And so I could hear people outside in the streets like partying and banging pans and I had needles everywhere. But then finally, when they removed the needles, then I was able to go outside and it was incredible. Thank you guys so much for being there. Being here, I think we're going to call it there. It's been a really wonderful having you. Dave, where can people find you?

At defector.com, the website. And your podcast is. Yes, I do the distraction with Drew McGarry, and then I do a Hallmark movie podcast with Jeb Lund called it's Christmas Town, which is very different because it's about Hallmark movies. Hell yeah. And Cassie, where can people find you? Well, over the internet. It's just my name.

So. Okay. At Cassie Wilson. Wilson is two L's and I'm on everything. A very funny and funny follow. Oh, thank you so much. Thank you guys so much for being here. We'll see you next time on Factually.

That was a HitGum podcast. Hello, I'm Johnny Knoxville. And I'm Jeff. Tremaine. Welcome to Jackass the podcast, a new show coming to F-F-I-C-Coh. Coming to F-E-Chi. That's what it is. Hello, I'm Johnny Knoxville. And I'm Jeff Tremaine. Welcome to Jackass the podcast. A new show coming to HeadGum soon. Woo-hoo. I've learned a jackass movie has to be really 90 minutes. Every minute over is a minute to roll. Apparently, there's only so much butthole you can take. We're going to take you behind the scenes of our entire history.

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The Jackass podcast. The Jackass podcast. Without you, the IQ drops significantly. There's a strong chance that were it not for Jackass, that I would be in cloud makeup right this fucking minute. Chris Pontius. That shot. of your butt just cruising up.

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