Lovett or Leave It - Biden Taps That Gas

Episode Date: November 27, 2021

It's Thanksgiving weekend and there’s room for you at the kids’ table as comedian Naomi Ekperigin digs into the week in news, and reminds us to save a seat for Corn Pop. Astronaut Scott Kelly tells us about more than astronaut ice cream, and Jon and Tommy take things personally in the Newlywed Game. Then Alexis Wilson, Moshe Kasher, Tre’vell Anderson, Maria Bamford, and Ricky Velez gather 'round to enjoy a slice out of the Rant Wheel.For a closed-captioned version of this episode, please visit crooked.com/lovettorleaveit. For a transcript of this episode, please email [e-mail] and include the name of the podcast.

Welcome to Love It or Leave It Live or Else. If you have a Live or Else theme song, email to us at leaveit at crooked.com. We'll be using them again starting next week when we return to an all-live show. This is another hybrid episode, half live, half or else, with Naomi Ekperigen joining me for the monologue and an interview with astronaut Scott Kelly for some rapid-fire space news. Then we go to our live show, where we recorded a newlywed game with my dear friends Jon Favreau and Tommy Vitor, and some incredible never-before-heard rants from Alexis Wilson, Moshe Kosher,

Travelle Anderson, Maria Bamford, and Ricky Velez. Before we get to the show, a few quick announcements. On December 7th, Crooked will be looking back on 2021 with our live event, What a Year. Our live stream will include your favorite Crooked hosts, special guests, and more to help you process all the joys, follies, and complete and total meltdowns of this past year. So join us live for what a year as we look back on 2021 and look ahead to what we're going to face in 2022. It's on Tuesday, December 7th at 5 p.m. Pacific, 8 p.m. Eastern. And if you live somewhere in between, you do the math. To RSVP, head to crooked.com slash what a year. Also, we have a fantastic Black Friday weekend offer in the Crooked store. Now through Monday, November 29th, take 15% off site-wide with free

shipping on all orders. That includes brand new awesome holiday items from Love It or Leave It, Ponce of America, Hysteria, and so many more of our shows. There's really great stuff there. Check it out at crooked.com slash store. But first, she is the host of the podcast, Couples Therapy, and I Love a Lifetime Movie. And you can catch her half-hour special on season three of Netflix's The Stand-Ups next month. Please welcome back returning champion Naomi Ekperigen. Naomi, it's good to see you. Good to see you. You're looking well. Oh, thank you. Thank you so much. You too. You too. You look well. Thank you. I'm boosted. I got that booster and I think it's, you could see it.

Look, and a good reminder, if you're out there get boosted all right you got it you gotta get boost gotta get boosted the FDA should absolutely not have waited until the week before Thanksgiving to force everybody to go try to figure this out that was some bullshit but if you haven't gotten boosted yet get boosted get boosted okay get boosted, okay? Get Boost Mobile. Get a booster. Give somebody a booster seat. Just do what you need to do. You got to put your immune system on some phone books. That's what we're talking about here so that you can reach the table.

All right. Exactly. All right. Let's get into it. What a week. According to the White House, approximately 95% of federal workers have been vaccinated. So rest assured, tongue kissing your postman when he brings you a package you forgot you ordered is safe again.

That's gorgeous. You know, that's going to help with the supply chain issues. You bet it will. If people think there's a little kiss at the end, they'll hurry it up. The supply chain ends with a kiss. That's true. As their investigations continue, the January 6th committee issued subpoenas to

both Roger Stone and Alex Jones. Tough guys to find. I guess Liz Cheney just says to the process server, hey, bring these subpoenas to the worst orgy in the world. Or like, is there an island that's shaped like a knife? Do you know what I mean? Like, there's somewhere where supervillains would be. That can't be too hard, can it? Yeah, like that abandoned

subway station where Lex Luthor hung out in one of the Superman movies. But obviously there's no Lex Luthor here. It's all just what's his name? The guy that just died who was in Deliverance, who was in Superman and who was in Network.

He's the guy that says, Mr. Lut's the guy that says Mr. Luthor. You know? Or Mr. Luthor. That guy. He also was in Network being like, you know, Revelation. Okay. I love how you're giving me one word per motion picture credit. What's his name?

I don't know that person's name. Can I tell you something? I'll be honest with you right now. I've never seen Network. And that's okay. I said it. That's okay. Ned Beatty.

I'm talking about Ned Beatty. All right. Would have never gotten it. Would have never gotten it. Well, you know, over the break, if you're in the mood for a dark romp on the state of the media that feels oddly as relevant today as it did when it was made in 1970-something. Check out a film by Patty Chayefsky called Network. A new post-Virginia gubernatorial election study of Biden voters who voted for Republican Glenn Youngkin found Democrats have a weak brand and few respondents were able to point to any positive Democratic achievements besides the infrastructure bill.

Of course, we have a brand, Naomi. Say it with me. Who are we? A coalition of diverse people in interest. What do we want? A variety of different policy outcomes that are often contradictory. When do we want it? Some of us right now, some of us never. When do we want it? Some of us right now, some of us never. That's a nice way of putting it. I like the idea of a brand being soft when really it's like there is no brand. Okay, we need to get Olivia Pope in here.

We need to get somebody on the Art of Spin. Because the Dems are just like, it's like, could you be more vanilla? And I'm not even talking vanilla bean, okay? Because that's a fresh spice. I'm talking that French vanilla, that kind of yellowy looking vanilla. That's the vibe the Dems are giving me. And that's not the best. And no little specks. No little specks. I need them specks. Overall, voters want to feel Democrats are moving the country past the constant fighting of the Trump era, uplifting the economy and helping average Americans in a relatable way. This is literally why we hired Joe Biden to be the country's comforting grandpa. Come on, Joe. You got to slam a few Redvilles, prop yourself up in front of a Yule log,

get corn pop on the blower. All right. We shouldn't have to think of everything. All right. Get in front of that fire. Oh, I love that you mentioned corn pop. I think we don't talk about corn pop enough. We don't talk about corn pop enough. We need that corn pop energy. Definitely. Corn pop energy. Yeah, I feel like I need less Joe Biden has been up for 14 hours on a trip to Glasgow energy and more like Joe Biden trying to tell a story about corn pop that's kind of a gaffe, but doesn't matter.

That's sort of like the vibe. Yes, yes, yes, yes. You want him trying. You want him trying to razzle dazzle. And now that he's here, he's like, you know how when you get in a relationship with somebody and once they have you, they just let themselves go. That's Papa Joe. I've never been on that side of it.

For me, I feel safe and then stop trying. I get that. That's what I get. Okay. Absolutely. Absolutely. Conservatives Jonah Goldberg and Stephen Hayes resigned as paid contributors to Fox News over Tucker Carlson's recent series on the insurrection. That surprise is filled with wretched fascist propaganda, filled with misinformation, could lead to violence. There have been reports that Brett Baier and Chris Wallace have been complaining to the senior leadership at Fox about Tucker's increasingly dangerous and paranoid rhetoric. When reached for comment, Baer and Wallace's bank account said, Mmm, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum.

I like that. I like what you're giving us a soundscape. I like what you're goofing. It makes you very relatable. So I think you should do more like that. That's what the're giving us a soundscape. I like what you're goofing. It makes you very relatable. So I think you should do more like that. That's what the bank account says when they get the check. Hungry hippo style. A New York State Assembly investigation into claims against Andrew Cuomo reportedly found a workplace plagued by sexual harassment and intimidation, as well as finding overwhelming evidence that Cuomo ordered state employees to help work on his book during business hours.

If New York taxpayers were funding this personal memoir, they should have been given creative input. Nothing goes to print until Phyllis from Port Jeff makes her edits in the Google Doc. Phyllis should have had to sign off. Oh my God. Phyllis would have been like, he was always a troubled boy i could tell from the time he was young he never wanted to share like i like the idea that people would just make up their own facts about his upbringing based on how he is now i think that's good you

know he stinks the uh man that book really flew too close to the sun with that book really a lot of hubris yeah i feel like Cuomo writing the memoir about defeating the pandemic during the pandemic feels on the kind of hubris scale a little bit close to Jeff Bezos just shooting celebrities up into space like biweekly. Like, hello, the fates are watching. Right. They will see what you are doing. Show some respect. Show some respect.

Show some respect. After adjusting for the Thanksgiving holiday, unemployment claims have dropped to the lowest level in 52 years. Another setback for Joe Biden. Speaking of, the president has released 50 million barrels of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in an effort to drive down gas prices. Biden warns that while a price drop at the pump will come, the release won't solve the problem of high gas prices overnight, and eventually we will have to move away from oil as a fuel source. But that's

a problem for when we're all long dead, like five years from now. I'm like so annoyed that I wish I was a little older for the first time because I feel like just when like climate change becomes unbearable, I'm going to be too old for anyone to like keep me in their survival group. Do you know what I mean? And I don't have marketable skills. I'm going to be like, what, 60? They're going to be like, we don't need this broad. She doesn't even know how to do things. Oh, I feel like that's even optimistic though.

60? Yeah. You know. Yeah. Well. Maybe younger. Maybe even younger but the point is i have no skills and i really wish i did hey hey people need to laugh people need i'm a

traveling bard i'm a traveling bard in the apocalypse we all need to laugh just yeah just sort of like um you know a jester in the village i'm into that i could do that i could do that for a while. I'm non-threatening. On Wednesday, the Commerce Department revealed the prices for core personal consumption expenditures like food and energy are up 4.1% from this time last year. That's the fastest they've risen since 1991.

But at least in 1991, Naomi, the movies were good. Let me read you the top 10 grossing films from 91 and 21. Are you ready? Okay, I'm sure you're ready. Terming films from 91 and 21. Are you ready? Okay. I'm sure you're ready. Terminator 2, Beauty and the Beast, Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves, The Addams Family, City Slickers, Star Trek VI, The Undiscovered Country, the best Star Trek film ever made,

Thelma and Louise, Fried Green Tomatoes, Hot Shots, and JFK. All right? Whoa. Look at the range. The range that has. Look at the different films. Okay. Now Now here are the top 10 from this year. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Venom Let There Be Carnage, Black Widow, F9 The Fast Saga, A Quiet Place Part Two, No Time to Die, Eternals, Free Guy, Jungle Cruise, and Godzilla vs. Kong. There's only one movie on that list that isn't based on

pre-existing movies franchises or fucking theme park rides and that's free guy what that's the only that's the only new ip on this list wow i think that's rough that's real rough it's also when you say all the movies back to back it sounds like just one movie do you know i mean could you really be like marvel present shang chi black widow let there be carnage absolutely you know what i mean like it could be one title yeah it's gotten to the point and i'm not i'm not um you know i'm no martin scorsese ding in the marvel films you know that's not my style i like the movies of not, you know, I'm no Martin Scorsese digging the Marvel films. You know, that's not my style.

I like the movies of the people. You know, I'm a P.T. Anderson. P.T. Anderson likes the Marvel movies because he's, yeah, he makes some highbrow films, but he's a man of the people. Yep. But I am at the point now where it's not just that I don't remember which Marvel movies I've seen. I don't even know if they've come out. Marvel movies I've seen. I don't even know if they've come out.

I don't remember if there's a Marvel movie that has come out two years ago that I saw or has not been seen yet at all. I couldn't tell you where we are in the Spider-Man journey. I don't know how many of them I've seen. I don't know which ones have come out. I have no clue. Don't get me started on that one. Spider-Man.

It's like he's far from home. He's close to home. He's homecoming. Home. I said sit in the house spider-man in the house that should just be the whole thing the spider-man in the house movies because it's all the same title so i never really know what order they're in yeah it is confusing while on newsmax lauren bobert challenged madison contherne who uses a wheelchair to a sprint to see who would win the honor of having Kyle Rittenhouse as their intern. Let's roll the clip. He said that he would arm wrestle me for this Kyle Rittenhouse internship. But Madison Cawthorn has some pretty big guns.

And so I would like to challenge him to a sprint instead. Let's make this fair. What on earth? Like, how is it real? Because you know what it feels like? It feels like if you were like pitching reality to an executive, they would be like, that's over the top. That's a hat on a hat. I don't buy it. That's not how a real person would behave. It's tough. And I'll just say, look, Madison, that was an awful thing for your colleague to say and like maybe we should get a drink to talk about it you know i'll reach across the aisle you are so rude he's hot naomi all right okay but look you ain't reaching across no aisle

i don't care how hot they are you know they crazy the hotter they are the crazier they fall i just made that up i don't know what that means. Very handsome. I don't look at it. I can't. He's a dumb fascist, but he's got a symmetrical face. That's not my fault. NASA is soliciting pitches for how to build a nuclear fission power plant on the moon. And that's what happened to the moon, said a teacher in 2072.

It is a long shot, Naomi, but you know what they say. Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you may blow up the moon. Oh, a gal can dream. Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers is said to be suffering from COVID toe after his unvaccinated turn with the virus earlier this month, taking himself out of the game against the Vikings last weekend

to tend to the pain. This is in addition to an ongoing bout with misinformation brain. Wow. He's got the COVID toe. COVID toe. What's COVID? COVID toe's not a thing. I believe it is.

I think if you're unvaccinated, you get COVID, you can have some kind of a toe issue. A single toe? Does it decide which toe it is? Or you say it all in a toe? I don't know how many toes are implicated. Oh, my God. COVID toe. Well, you know what?

He's hanging out with jr you figure out who that is i'm scared to say his name out loud it's a little like voldemort but he's hanging out with him and he thinks he can beat this thing you know bless his heart bless his toe come on shailene all right come on don't get me started on that one i said shailene get it together sister girl eddie redmayne now says it was a mistake for him to play a trans woman in The Danish Girl. Yeah, this story being told through the eyes of a heterosexual cisgendered man, that's disgusting.

Of course, the movie only got made because Eddie Redmayne agreed to be in it. So now he's saying a movie telling the story of the harrowing obstacles faced by trans people in history shouldn't have been told? Disgusting. I fucking hate this guy. Hey, hey, nothing you say can change that there's no good

answer you fuck we hate you now eddie redmayne you you should have and shouldn't have made the movie at the same time you piece of shit he's like i shouldn't have done it but i really wanted an oscar you know what i mean like that's what they usually say it's like but i really wanted i wanted awards it's like yeah we understand eddie you just wanted an award anyway i didn't see it it was fine i will say this though this is unrelated i will always be a theory of everything person in an imitation game world all right wow theory of everything is a much better film than imitation game do you think so mean, when you've got, because isn't that Cumberbatch versus Redmayne?

It is. You bet it is. It is Alien Cat Baby versus Alien Cat Baby. That's what I call them because of their wide-set eyes looking into your soul, but also their emotional aloof. They have earthic hit eyes. You know what I mean?

Uh-huh. They are. They're very cat-like. Cat-like. You know who else? Anya Taylor-Joy. She's another alien cat baby. Yes.

Wide set, looking at you from both sides. Yeah. And that's them. But that's brave of you to be a theory of everything in an imitation game world. That's how I feel. That's how I feel. Kevin Spacey will have to pay $31 million in damages

for sexual harassment he perpetrated on the set of House of Cards, which violated his contract. This is very low on the list of Kevin Spacey's issues, but he also wrecks so many movies by his presence. You know, like L.A. Confidential. That movie's fantastic. And then there he is. And you're thinking about it, you know? Well, did you see Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil? You know, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil was in his post-American beauty. Yeah. Kind of trying to find where on the mountain to grab to keep climbing, right?

That was in like the pay it forward era. And there was a movie like, I feel like it was called The Shipping News. Remember The Shipping News? No, that doesn't sound interesting. Anyway, there was a rough period where I was not very excited by anything he was in. Another controversial position I will take. Uh-oh. All right?

And if you have a problem with this, you can put it in the comments on my Twitter. Tevin Spacey ruins a lot of movies he's in, but not the usual suspects. Why? That movie is ruined by having a reputation it doesn't deserve. It never has. I don't get the usual suspects. Never have. Never have.

Wow. Never have gotten it. Your mention's about to blow up and it's brave of you to put it out there like that. Thank you. They're going to come for you. They're going to come for me. Let them come.

Let them come. Australian TV host Matt Doran flew from Sydney to London 10,000 miles. Naomi, do you know this story? No. He flew 10,000 miles for an exclusive interview with Adele around the release of her new album, 30. Then during the interview, Adele asked Matt what he thought of the album. He said he hadn't listened to it.

What? He said he hadn't listened to it. What? Now, there are some reports that Adele walked out, though that may be fake news. Regardless, either way, Sony somehow managed to prevent Australia's Channel 7 from airing the interview at all, even though they paid an exorbitant sum to put this all together. The interview was conducted a week before the official release doran later claimed he missed an email with the link to preview the album no but that is no excuse because you're flying there to interview adele right about the album you also have like 20 hours to listen to it what else you

doing on the plane you are literally on a flight where i would have been checking all my emails it is i would have been i flew uh emails. I flew New York to Sydney. It's like, you got a lot of time to kill, honey. Okay. You better find the album. That's when you send 20 emails being like, hey, where is it? I'm about to get here. Okay. Hey, I'm at Heathrow. Where is it? Okay. Hey, I'm in the cab. Where is it? It's truly amazing. 10,000 miles, untold amounts of money. And you're in there. Imagine sitting. It's like that's the most showing up for a final exam for a class you forgot you were in vibes. Like that's like a nightmare. That's a nightmare.

Oh, God. I can imagine her look was chilling. Do you know what I mean? Like she starts me as somebody who like she doesn't really like go off on you. She'll just like give you a look that lets you know you ain't shit. Because like when Adele shines her light, it's bright. But when it off it's dark you know what i mean it's cold and dark so he claimed he missed the email with the album which is very embarrassing you know come prepared if you want to discuss adele's funky island rhythms i guess i don't know i haven't whatever

it's about i'm assuming i don't know um i once missed an email from Hillary Clinton when I was a speechwriter for Hillary Clinton. And the email said, here's what I'd like this speech to be about. And I didn't see it. Then I wrote a speech that wasn't about that. Then she showed up at the event, threw the speech out that I wrote, and Adlib the version she wanted to deliver. And I remember being in the audience being like, huh, I wonder why she didn't want to use the speech I wrote. And she's doing this other thing. And then like three months later, it was so long after I saw the email and you can't go.

It was so far in the past that I couldn't be like, oh, here's why. Oh, just thinking about that. I just missed it. But how you miss it? Does it like an email from Hillary? Isn't it coming like in flashing lights? Is it in all caps? You know, here's your inbox. I mean, you know, I mean, like something all caps you know here's your inbox i mean you know i mean

like something to let you know it's from her uh in hindsight i probably should have had some safeguards in place you have to but i was um you were 15 i was eight years old you're a child prodigy that's a child child prodigy sure uh uh britney spears called out christina aguilera for not speaking out about the Spears conservatorship. If I were Britney, I would have a hard time not implicating everyone. Dame Julie Andrews, your silence has been deafening. Oh, my God. Madonna, no one has heard from you.

And it's clear you don't care about me after we kissed at the MTV Video Music Awards. Remember that? They had a triple kiss. They had quite a moment up there. It was quite a moment. And then you're like, that would be canceled now. How dare you sort of queer bait? How dare you treat sexuality as a game for applause?

You know? The idea of it being risque is also kind of old-fashioned too. Yeah. What a time. What a time. Anyway, she's free now, I guess. She's free. She's free.

Peacock released the first trailer for a new show called Bel-Air, a reboot of the first Prince of Bel-Air as a drama. Nope. What are you saying? What are you saying? Yes. That's why I like to come here because you've been giving me the kind of dark news that I can't cope with. Okay. The political stuff I can manage. But then you come in here telling me about Bel kind of dark news that I can't cope with. Okay. The political stuff I can manage.

But then you come in here telling me about Bel-Air the drama and I can't cope. I'm reimagining of the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air as a drama. No. No. Look, first of all, maybe it's great. And look, it could be worse. In the dramatic reboot of Punky Brewster, Sherry dies in that fridge. That's that episode. You don't get out ofry dies in that fridge. That's that

episode. You don't get out of the fridge in the drama. Nope. Oh, God. There's nothing I hate more than a reimagining. It's like literally, like when I hear the phrase reimagining, I'm like, uh-oh. Uh-oh. Ooh, it just like gives me shivers. Reimagining. Reimagining. It's like when someone's like from the twisted mind of,

you know? Yeah. And finally, in his memoir, Will Smith said he had sex with so many women, an act he found constitutionally disagreeable, that he would gag and sometimes even vomit upon having an orgasm. What? But that's Hollywood. He was uncomfortable with the amount of casual sex he was having, ultimately. Why was he having it, dude? Well, you know. Why do you eat more cake when you're full i think it was available to him because he was will fucking smith in the 90s i mean i get it but you know i stopped because i don't want to

ruin the cake fair enough i don't eat to the max because i said it's gonna ruin this memory also don't you think that shows me what kind of power he had that he could just like vomit upon orgasm and people didn't talk about that do you know what i mean like that didn't get around hollywood like if you give a will he might throw up on your face do you know what i mean but no one ever put that out there which is like wow there were a lot of sex secrets hollywood was keeping and honestly this one is in top fucking 50 so you know i see why people didn't get to it but But that's wild. I love how much Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith share. There's a steady drumbeat of not like talk show, normal personal stories. Like, oh, we fight over the remote.

And one time we went. It's like this is some fucking specific, hyper local, hyper personal. Absolutely. Like the kind of uncomfortable personal information you don't normally get. And I salute them for it. All right. I salute them. They're changing the game yet again.

I love it. I wish. That's like literally they're the two people I would love to meet at a party. Because like I feel like you can get in a corner at a party with Jada and you would just find out everything about everything. Do you know what I mean? They're that kind of couple. And me personally, I like people without boundaries.

So it's like tell me that you're in an open relationship with a 22-year-old. Tell me everything. I can see you standing in the back of a party with Jada just for kind of going person by person. You know what I mean? Just giving you everything. It's cool. I'm into it. I'm into it.

Naomi. John. It is always so lovely to see you. What a delight. You know what? This really keeps me young I've said it before And I'll say it again

It keeps me young It keeps me informed It keeps me concerned Alright All three And I want you to know That when I know That Naomi Ackperigan

Is going to be on the show I'm not worried I know we're going to have a good time I know it's going to be a blast I'm always so excited to see you Oh bless Thank you so much And please tell your listeners

Do not come into my mentions. Do not come into Naomi's mentions when we come back. The newlywed game with my work husbands, Jon Favreau and Tommy Vitor. Hey, don't go anywhere. There's more of Love It or Leave It coming up. And we're back! Joining me now to test exactly how much we pay attention to each other's lives is my colleagues and dearest straight male friends,

Jon Favreau and Tommy Vitor. Welcome! Hi, boys. Hi. Please have a seat. Very exciting. Thanks for being here, John. Thanks for having me.

Thanks for being here, Tommy. Thanks. We were just warned it gets a little personal. Is that true? We'll see. We will be playing our version of the newlywed game. I will ask them both questions. They will have to write down the answers,

and we will find out how well they know each other and some others all right are you boys ready yes ready so you both write down your answers okay yeah but one of you will know the answer and the other will be guessing what the other feels you know what i mean you'll see in a second okay couldn't have explained that worse yeah that was terrible here we go john what has been tommy's favorite album of 2021 so far? A hint would have been it's also the one he's talked about the most. I know. Tommy, what is your favorite album of 2021 so far?

It's America's favorite album, Olivia Rodrigo. I think you're thinking what I'm thinking. Yeah. Which is Donda. And here's the, and here's a twist in our version of the newlywed game. Give us a ding. John is correct.

Yeah. He's a Rodrigo in the streets, Donda in the sheets, Tommy Vitor long and meandering. Is that what you're saying? Thanks. Well, we like the,

you know, the Dan Pfeiffer, obviously our expert in rap did a shortened version. Dan is my rap curator. Tommy. Yeah. What is John's favorite keto snack? Excuse me, sir.

Do not start shouting out answers. I thought this audience respected the process enough not to just shout out potential answers this isn't jeopardy that doesn't make sense uh tommy what did you write some shitty bar some shitty bar also where he met Emily. That is true. But John, what did you write? Cheese crisps. Cheese crisps.

Fuck the cheese crisps. Cheese crisps. Crispy thing of cheese. It's crunchy. That's right. It's crunchy bits of fried cheese. Delicious. Dry it.

Dry it, everybody. All right. Well, you know, Tommy, I kind of think you deserve the points for that. Thank you. Because that sucked. Thank you. John, now let's get personal. Oh, you know, Tommy, I kind of think you deserve the points for that. Thank you. John, now let's get personal. Oh, God. John, what annoys Tommy most

about sharing an office with me? I really don't. This is... I learned something from this one. Very nervous. Genuinely afraid of the responses. John, what did you guess? Pundit barking? The temperature. Temperature. Genuinely afraid of the responses. John, what did you guess? Pundit barking? Ooh.

The temperature. Temperature. It's 90 degrees in there. That's true. It does suck. It is very hot. It's not Lovett's fault, though. No, but it is the worst part.

That was a political answer. And you know what? Thank God it was. Because I don't want to know the answer. Tommy. Yeah. We're going to get into some deep stuff here. What was the name of the restaurant you awkwardly hugged me in front of?

Nail this one. Okay. What was the answer? Spartina. It was Spartina. It was Spartina. Now, this is our final question, and it will be both. You're not going to explain that story?

We're going to get there. Here's what happened. Tommy, John, and I, we work together every day. We're back in the office. We're seeing each other all day. I happened to bump into Tommy and John at a restaurant nary two hours after we last saw each other at work. And Tommy was so

flummoxed, he gave me a hug. The first hug we've ever had. Which brings me hug number one. We've been to weddings together.

Now, next question This is for John What is Tommy's explanation For why he hugged me That's what we're trying to say It's going to be complicated Because there's a follow up Why does Tommy think he hugged me What is your answer

Good to see you question question mark, missed you? Tommy, what'd you say? I said pre-hug to Ronan hug, parenthetical, aborted. Aborted. Oh, so he said he saw Ronan, got confused. Okay. Both of those answers are incorrect. Final question,

Tommy, why did you really hug me? And John, we talked about this when Tommy wasn't in the room. Yeah, I know. Tommy, what's your answer? Love. Love. Unfortunately, that's incorrect.

John, what's the real answer? The real answer is because we were out. We were with our friend Shomique. We were having a few drinks. Then he saw you and was like, are we having fun without Lovett? Do I feel weird? Is it bad? Should I hug him to make him feel better that he's not here?

It was a work dinner. I know, but still. I think underneath it, you feel guilt all the time. There's a level of guilt to it. Examine it. That was a late dinner for you because I think we left at 8 p.m. and you were just arriving. Ronan eats like a

European music star. It's like I don't understand where he gets. He's like 9.30 should we go for an early dinner? 9.30? Jesus Christ. I've been sleeping for an hour by then. It's like Paris Hilton in the 90s. But he's not

powered by cocaine. He's powered by a fucking jet engine of ambition. The fucking core of his chest. Never turns off. It's like a fucking Iron Man thing. He'll point it at anything. Framing a picture. Capturing a politician in flagrante.

Whatever you need, it's 100% of the time. Anything else you guys want to cover? No, I think that's everything. That was really good. Tommy Vitor, Jon Favreau, both of them winners. Thank you both so much. When we come back... Are you going to hug? No, we're not. Oh, God.

Oh, God. Yes! You missed it. You missed it. Thank you to Jon and Tommy for joining us. Foster your platonic friendships, listeners. Romantic love is ephemeral. When we come back, my interview with astronaut Scott Kelly. And we're back. I am so happy we had space. There's going to be a few puns in the intro. You're just going to have to bear with us. I'm so happy we had space on the calendar for today's guest, a man with an otherworldly resume. His bestselling book, Endurance, shot like a rocket

ship up the bestseller chart. He is a former military fighter pilot who commanded three a man with an otherworldly resume. His bestselling book, Endurance, shot like a rocket ship, up the bestseller chart. He is a former military fighter pilot who commanded three missions on the ISS and holds the U.S. record for most accumulated number of days in space. He is also the brother of Arizona's best senator. Please welcome astronaut Hall of Fame inductee, my hero and yours, Scott Kelly. Thanks for being here. Well, thanks for having me, John. Appreciate it. I have a lot of questions for you. There's a lot of talk about the billionaires in space. News today that Michael Strahan is going for a ride on Jeff's rocket,

and then he may go to space. That's a terrible joke, and I'm so sorry. Can you talk a little bit about the difference between... I do think sometimes that all of these sort of companies get lumped together, and I'm curious if you see a difference between what SpaceX is doing versus what, say, Blue Origin is doing. Oh, it's much different. I mean, Blue Origin is going on what's called a ballistic trajectory. So they don't go into orbit.

It's a much lower altitude, whereas SpaceX puts a rocket with people on it into orbit, which takes a lot more energy, 17,500 miles an hour to get into low Earth orbit. I think probably a Blue Origin is probably going about 3000 miles an hour, maybe to get up to, you know, 100 kilometers. So big difference, but I'm still a fan of both. And I know you've given interviews where you talked about being a little bit skeptical of what SpaceX was trying to do technologically. And then you saw them land a rocket back down, you know, vertically. Yeah. And you said you'd be less skeptical thereafter. I mean, have you been surprised by the ongoing speed with which SpaceX has been able to become such a dominant force in space?

You know, when Elon originally said he was going to land the first stage on a barge and then refly it, I thought it was crazy. But, you know, NASA looked at that years, decades ago and thought it was either technologically too complex, too expensive. For whatever reason, they decided not to do it. And then Elon went and did it. So I was very impressed. I will never again question his sanity when he says he's going to do something. Yeah, SpaceX does move very quickly, but they are not NASA as NASA exists

today. They're a much more leaner, efficient organization. And that's why NASA decided to partner with them to build the Falcon and the Dragon spacecraft is because they can do things quicker, cheaper, hopefully just as safe. I mean, ideally it'd be more safe, but they have proven their efficiency. Now, having said that, NASA used to be able to do stuff like that. We went to the moon, you know, in eight years. So it's possible for us to do it. But I think, you know, since 1969, the agency has just grown to be very, very complex. And, you know, making decisions to do stuff quickly, it's not a hallmark of NASA as it exists today. Do you think that's something that has to change? Or do you think that the kind of evolution of these private entities is how we have decided to deal with the fact that NASA has become more bureaucratic? I don't know if it has to change. I think I would like it to change some, you know,

certainly government does things differently and probably always will than private or even public companies. But by having organizations, companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic in some respect, traditional aerospace companies, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Sierra Nevada Corporation, Sierra Space, having these folks be responsible for operations in low Earth orbit frees up NASA's infrastructure. It frees up money, bandwidth to do the more complicated things like going back to the moon and Mars.

So I think it can be a good relationship that is beneficial to everybody. Speaking of advances that NASA can lead, I was looking at pictures that the Hubble Space Telescope took before talking to you. What are you most excited about from the Webb Telescope? What do you hope to see? Well, it's 100 times more powerful than Hubble. And I think most people would agree that Hubble is incredibly powerful, has shown us a perspective where we, you know, our place in the universe, and to have an instrument that is going to be 100 times more capable, it's just hard to put my head around. Who knows what we're going to find? I think anything is possible with something that powerful. Not exactly the same as Hubble. I mean, it doesn't have a camera that is in the,

you know, the true optical range, I think, where we see things, but close enough. I think it'll have incredible science. I mean, hopefully 100 times better than Hubble. But technologically, it's pretty risky. A lot of things have to happen for that telescope to get working properly. And I'm going to be a little bit nervous when all these things have to happen. Yeah. I mean, a telescope's at a million miles where it's going to be the apogee of its orbit. Something's called a range point. You know, if something doesn't go right, our ability to fix it, unlike Hubble, is going to be much, much limited.

Do you think that the Webb telescope will be able to see any kind of exoplanet cities that we can kind of zoom in and see, you know? Imagine that. See some action? Imagine if it could see, you know, imagine that see some action. Imagine if it could see light, I don't know if it can, and may be able to see some chemical compositions in exoplanets that would only be there if they were given off by life, like plant life, you know, some kind of life form would have to be responsible for those chemicals. So it is possible that James Webb could discover life in the universe. You've been skeptical, though, about the possibility that aliens have visited Earth, and you've been skeptical of the evidence presented so far.

Can you talk a little bit about that? I know you've talked about the fact that some of the distances are too great, but that does presume a lot about our limitations being universal limitations. think that even the nearest star with an Earth-like planet, if we could go as fast as we can, it would take 80,000 years to get there. Does that mean someone else can't go faster? Maybe. I just don't see any evidence of it. I'm kind of a science-based minded person. So I'm a little skeptical when people claim that there are spacecraft visiting this planet from other places. I'm not questioning the integrity of people that claim those things. I think when people claim that there are spacecraft visiting this planet from other places, I'm not questioning like the integrity of people that claim those things. I think, you know, their aerospace environment has a lot of potential for optical illusions,

things that just don't look like you expect. But the idea that we have little green men walking around the earth that come from other planets is just, I just don't see evidence of it. last week, we got this window into a darker future when there were the fears that debris from an anti-satellite test might put the ISS in danger. Trump was very pleased with himself for getting to say he created a space force. If space becomes increasingly valuable, doesn't it become a place we increasingly fight over? How do you think about that? Well, I think it's human nature. You know, that's what people do, right? They fight over land and other things, crazy things. I'm sure at some point we'll be fighting over space. I think we're sticking our toes into that dangerous water right now. Doing those anti-satellite tests

really creates a risky environment because all the space junk we have to deal with already, it makes it even worse. So, you know, I think we should have some kind of international agreement between countries that have the ability to do this, that we're not going to do this anymore, because eventually, you know, you could put yourself in a position where you can't utilize low Earth orbit anymore, or even, you know, the higher orbits, because there's too much space junk out there. You know, one of the biggest risks of going to Mars is getting through the orbital graveyard, as we call it, where all these spent, you know, rocket bodies, old satellites are sent to die. And just transiting through that is very risky. So,

you know, we got a problem, we, you know, shouldn't make it worse. Do I think we will solve that problem? We can. But lately, I think there's a lot of problems that despite our ability to solve them, we don't have the will yet anyway. You need people on community service with those sticks. Yeah. Like they have on the side of the highway where they can like kind of stick a little piece, put it in a bag and move on to the next one. Yeah. Let's send you.

So you've talked about the physical effects of being in space for a long time, the muscle loss, the bone loss. But you talked about also working out in the ISS two and a half hours a day to mitigate it. How effective was that? How much hope did it give you that we have the ability to keep people healthy for long enough to get to Mars, to be in space for a long period of time? Well, we do. You know, I was in space for 340 days, I think. It's my last flight. You know, it takes less than that to get to Mars. So, you know, I've proven you can go to stay in space for as long as it takes to Mars and be able

to, you know, function well enough. You know, I had some effects, you know, my heart muscles shrunk 25%, you know, without having to oppose gravity for that long, despite all the exercise. But, you know, you get that back over time. I think the bigger challenge is if someday we want to go to the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, probably going to need artificial gravity because, you know, being without gravity for that long is not going to be good for the astronauts that get to wherever they're going and need to be able to work and function. What was the most annoying part? Not the serious part, not anything that's going to require an investigation or an experiment or a way to solve, but just the thing that drove you fucking nuts about not having gravity. Floating is fun, but it makes everything else harder to do. Everything except two things, moving large objects, and then just kind of getting yourself in a unique position to be

able to do maintenance on, let's say, something that's broken. I mean, even simple things like eating or brushing your teeth is an example. You know, you don't have a sink. You know, sink requires gravity and suction. And we like to be able to recycle or at least let, you know, water turn into humidity, which then gets recycled. So, you know, just brushing your teeth becomes incredibly annoying because you either have to spit the toothpaste out into a tissue, which is very awkward and zero gravity, kind of messy, or you have to swallow it. So yeah,

brushing your teeth is really irritating. I swallowed my toothpaste for a whole year, basically. I don't recommend that to any kids out there. Do not swallow your toothpaste. It's not good for you. Don't do it. It's not good for you. Spit it out. How soon do you think we're going to have experiments with artificial gravity? I assume you mean some kind of larger rotating spacecraft to generate artificial gravity. How far away do you think we are from that? It's been in every science fiction movie since 2001. You know, so when I talk about that, I'm talking about really artificial gravity for people. Now, whether that's rotating the whole spacecraft, or maybe it's you have a little centrifuge and you

go in it for, you know, an hour a day and read your email while spinning around, whether that's rotating the whole spacecraft or maybe it's you have a little centrifuge and you go in it for, you know, an hour a day and read your email while spinning around. Maybe that's good enough. I don't know. We'll have to figure that out. But technologically, I think we can do it like anything in space. It's a matter of, you know, what your priorities are and how much money you have to spend. I mean, we could have done it on the space station. We actually had a centrifuge module for science, big centrifuge. done it on the space station. We actually had a centrifuge module for science, big centrifuge. Now we have some little ones for like blood and stuff, but we had a centrifuge module on the space station at one time, but it, uh, not for people, but just larger experiments that had got canceled for, uh, you know, due to costs. So we could do it now if we had the money

and wanted to. Are you excited by how the kind of, because of some of these private companies, you're seeing some of the costs associated with getting heavy objects into orbit coming down? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, that's kind of the holy ground to access to space that's more common and available to everyone is the cost. Certainly the safety is very important too. You know, they're probably equally important. they're probably equally important, but the more people you fly, the more you learn, the safer you can make it and the lower you can make the cost to where someday I would imagine a world where you can jump on a suborbital rocket and fly anywhere to the world in an hour. Or now, assuming you

have enough money, you can fly into space as a tourist. Is that available to most people? No, but someday if we keep doing it, the costs will go down and the opportunity will go up. To your point about it becoming more common, it does seem we're at this inflection point. I remember somebody said this once about the space shuttle, which is that it made space routine except on cost and safety, which was, I think, a kind of ironic point about the kind of role the shuttle played. On the one hand, space is exciting and it's dangerous and it's an adventure. It takes courage. It takes daring.

It's why we admire astronauts such as yourself. On the other hand, beginning with the shuttle, now as we're seeing more civilians in space, there's this routinization of space travel, which is necessary if more and more people are going to spend more and more time off of the surface of the earth. How do you think about that right now at this moment where, on the one hand, we're heading towards a time in which it's common? On the other hand, right now, we need people to still view it as an exploration, as an adventure to keep people interested, to keep people invested. Well, you know, I'm a big fan of flying in space and I hope everyone else is,

you know, but I also hope someday it'll be so common that, you know, we won't, we'll just consider it like getting on an airliner. And I think that's just called progress. So, and I'm for progress. All right. So there's a Virgin Galactic ship. There's a Blue Origin ship. There's a SpaceX ship. They're all ready to take off. You got dinner reservations that night. night you do not want to miss your dinner which one are you going to get on for a quick ride well of course the blue origin i mean the spacex is orbital so more complicated lands in the water you'd have to be picked up by a boat you know blue origin much much quicker flight right okay it's uh i don't know less less than 15 minutes. Virgin Galactic takes a while to get to altitude. So clearly, if you have dinner reservations that evening, I think Blue

Origin should be your go-to rocket. Which do you think is safest right now? You know, it's hard to say. You know, SpaceX certainly has a pretty good safety record of flying people. Blue Origin, likewise. But Blue Origin doesn't have as much history on it as SpaceX. But, you know, SpaceX is doing something much more complicated and a lot more energy involved. You know, Virgin's had a fatal accident, you know, but they're working towards making it safer. That's just how things go. You know, people are, you know, understand that this is risky stuff we do. But if I wanted to jump on a rocket and felt like I wanted my best chance of coming home and going into lower orbit wasn't a requirement,

I don't know, probably jump on the Blue Origin rocket. Last question. Does it bother you in movies about space where you hear the pew, pew, pew of the lasers and the engines make noise? Oh, you mean because they're in a vacuum? Because they're in a vacuum. Nah, it doesn't bother me. It's Hollywood, right? It's Hollywood.

You got to make it entertaining. Scott Kelly, thank you so much for your time. Congratulations on being inducted into the Astronaut Hall of Fame. My pleasure, John. And thanks for that. It was a big honor. Appreciate it. Thank you so much to Scott Kelly for joining us.

When we come back, so much rage. The right wheel. Don't go anywhere. This is Love It we come back, so much rage. The Rand Wheel. Don't go anywhere. This is Love It or Leave It, and there's more on the way. And we're back. Now it's time for The Rand Wheel. You know how it works. We spin the wheel wherever it lands.

We rant about the topic. Please welcome back to the stage, Ricky Velez, Moshe Kosher, Alexis Wilson, Maria Bamford, and Travelle Anderson. This week on The Real, we have non-voice actors doing voice acting. We have cops who quit. We have texting your therapist for clout. We have Dog the bounty hunter.

We have people who are worse at driving. We have 12-step groups. And we have cis people. Let's spin the wheel. God damn it, Travelle. It is landed on cis people, which I believe cis straight people remain seated. Oh my God.

Travelle has the floor. All right. So I just have one question for the cis folks and if you are straight this applies to you doubly you know if you're cis and queer then i you know we could do a little stuff you know but like what the fuck is going on with y'all okay cis people have been losing their minds for the last couple months. I agree, and I'm so sorry. Y'all have been passing foolish laws. We talked about Billy Porter's dumb ass earlier. I love Billy, but also the comment was foolish. As a non-binary person, I'm just saying.

Okay, I feel like cis people are losing control. I don't think I ever had control. Oh, wow. What are you Googling, Ricky? Cis. Cis. See what I mean? Again, see what I mean?

Travelle, what do we do about these cis people? I don't know. I did have this idea at one time to put y'all all on your own island and let y'all fight it out. And then whoever wins, we'll bring back, you know, and ingratiate them into the proper society that we trans folks are working

to create. But then I was like, it's just too many of y'all to do that. So we gonna go on our own island and still let y'all fight it out on y'all own. I think that's a great plan. Yeah, that works for me. It's actually on HBO. It's called F-Boy Island. It exists.

Alright, let's spin it again. It has landed on non-voice actors doing voice acting. And here's what I want to say about this. voice acting and here's what I want to say about this. Do we think that there's too much work in Hollywood for non-hot people? Is that what we think right now? Was there a surplus of jobs available to the ugly and asymmetrical that we decided that now roles that involve cartoon squirrels and fish, if they're going to have an unlikely friendship, it needs to be Chris Pine and Chris Evans talking to each other.

What is the fucking point? There are people with beautiful, mellifluous voices who have okay faces. These people are professionals. They do vocal warm-ups and exercises. They used to be the leads in video games. Some still are.

They have wonderful tambours. What the fuck is a tambour? It's about the voice. Hold on. I'll Google it. Thank you so much. Look up wonderful Tambor, not problematic Tambor. That's a celebrated character actor. And I'll say this.

Another aspect to this. There was an interview I will remember for the rest of my life. And it was on one of the morning shows, your Today's Show, your early show. And it had the cast of Ice Age 4 on it. And it was Queen Latifah and ray romano and john liguizamo sitting in a row talking about how fun it was to make ice age four a movie for which each of them made i believe somewhere in the order of 10 million dollars and the host a gail king a nora o'donnell someone of that nature, turned to them and said, what made you all decide

to get together and make another one of these movies? And the four of them looked like they were going to fucking lose it. Like, oh, well, we became a family in four separate recording booths, not seeing each other. They did it for the fucking money. So now we have built a situation where all the animated movies are played by beautiful millionaires while the voice actors are doing what? What? Nothing. Spin it again.

Voice actors' lives matter. Voice actors' lives matter. That's tea. That's tea. I just want to say I totally agree with you, John. It has landed on Dog the Bounty Hunter, suggested by Ricky. Yo, it's bad that he's back. Thank you so much, Ricky.

That was a shout. We got him, Britney Spears, and the Taliban back at the same time. It's too much. America can't deal with that. And I rest my case. Next. Give me a ding. Let's spin it again. The game is no longer being

played, Ricky. Give Ricky a ding. He won. We can't do dings while the wheel is spinning. We don't have the technology. It has landed on texting your therapist for clout. That was me. Hit it. I saw a tweet and the girl texted her therapist. It was aout. That was me. Hit it. I saw a tweet and the girl texted her therapist. It was a screenshot.

Who knows if it actually happened. And she's like, I'm in a panic. And the therapist is like, is this about Harry Styles? And the person sends back like a Harry Styles meme. And it's like, that's childish. That's extremely childish. And also like, just download Tinder. Like, you're doing a lot, babe. You're doing a lot.

Like, Harry Styles is not going to fuck you. He's probably not going to fuck you. Like, statistically speaking, that's not realistic. It's a long shot. He can't possibly. And also, it's like, if you're tweeting about therapy, then are you listening? Are you listening? Because that's what we should be talking about.

You're not present. You're not present. You're not in the moment. You're not unpacking your childhood traumas. You're looking in the moment. You're not unpacking your childhood traumas. You're looking at your phone. You're not looking at the therapist's eyes in that Zoom. You're tweeting during therapy, and that is a mistake. You're tweeting during therapy.

That is your time to focus on you, and if you're focusing on Twitter, that's not what you're doing. I had a therapist on BetterHelp.com who texted me, Christine, of course you're stressed. You just had a baby. You should bother that therapist for sure. I thought, you know what? It seems like you're busy.

Let's spin it again. That's so funny. I think you're busy. It has landed on Cops Who Quit. I got a few thoughts about Cops Who Quit because of the vaccine here. This could be filed under don't threaten me with a good time. Okay, so let me get this straight. You're telling me that there's a simple way to improve public health

while simultaneously getting rid of the 1% most conspiratorial-minded and willing to violate the law if it suits them, members of a police force. This is great fucking news. The police have begun to defund themselves. I did not know that was possible. This is exactly like one of those science stories where they introduce one predator to deal with some kind of ecological meltdown. And they're like the cane toads in Australia where they put the cane toads in to eat all the cane beetles.

But then the toads got there and they're like, we don't like cane beetles. They're not yummy, but we'll eat everything else and create like a crazy, catastrophic ecological disaster. But in reverse, like it worked out so much better than we could have predicted they were trying to stop covid but they ended up forcing the dumbest people in police forces across the country to tell on themselves and resign without having to involve internal affairs pretending to investigate anything what unbelievable fucking baby these police are they rush into harm's way in like a gang den but then they're so scared to of a little shot that they snip the supposed blue line that stands between us and chaos i mean i know it's like they're like oh no it's different this is about body autonomy

and me doing what i want which i just translate as, I enforce the law until the second the law actually affects me. And then I stomp off like baby Huey. Like, yeah, some laws don't make you feel good. All I wanted in 1993 was to cut class, smoke weed and do graffiti. But officer Joe Carranza of the Oakland police department had a chokehold for me that took away those personal liberties and that is because laws suck but they are the thin blue line between us and covet 19 amazing let's spin it again i was born in 92, so I can't call you that. 92. I love that for you. It has landed on 12-step groups. Okay.

I'm in, you know, I live in Los Angeles, so I'm in several 12-step groups. And they're cults. They are cults, okay? When they're number one, free. Number two, free. Number three, they can't kick you out. You know, even if I go to these meetings and I bring a bottle of Jack Daniels

and I made an ice cream cake with a stolen porn DVD, all anybody will ever say to me is, keep coming back because they're dumb angels. But I just, I do, some of the things that bother me About 12 Step is people And this is an LA thing as well Where women will say Or people will say, oh I'm just doing a lot of inner work Nothing is happening

You're exactly the same This is just a hobby that you're doing on the weekends It's awesome. It's Dungeons and Dragons. You stop drunk driving. Awesome. Good for you. But it's not nothing.

It's not. You're not transforming from the inside. Anyways, that's my brand. That was amazing. Thank you to Ricky Velez, Moshe Kosher, Travelle Anderson, Alexis Wilson, Maria Bamford. Thank you so much. When we come back, we'll end on a high note.

And we're back. Now it's time for the high notes. One thing we'd like to say, if you are trying to reach us from Fort Bend Correctional Facility, we are working out a way to receive your call. But don't try us again until we give you the signal. The signal will be us telling you to try again. Thank you so much for trying. We're figuring it out. And thanks to everybody who sent in a high note this week. Hi, love it. My name is Barb and I'm calling from Oregon. I think I may be your oldest listener, but a big fan of the pods. My high note is that on July 27th, I had a big stroke. And now I am back to teaching hula dancing again. And that's such a joy for me and for my dancers. So I just wanted

to share that with you because it's a definite high note every week when we meet. And I'm really glad you switched Pod Save America to Tuesday mornings because I don't have to decide how to listen to Pod Save America on Monday afternoons when I'm teaching Hula. So anyway, love your show. Take care. Bye. Hi. love your show take care bye hi um so my high note of the week is that i am a middle school teacher and my school did this like thankfulness event last week where kids wrote anonymous little note cards listing whatever they're thankful for from friends to family to like specific anime shows um and one of my kids listed me as something they're thankful for uh it's really easy to like catastrophize when you're a teacher

um and forget that you're maybe making a positive impact on these kids lives especially when things aren't going so well necessarily. And so getting this little reminder that I am making a positive impact absolutely made my entire day, week, my year, honestly. I'm just so grateful for these kids and the opportunity that I have to make an impact in their lives and to positively affect them. So yeah, so my high note was that note and honestly the kids. And yeah, I listen to Crooked Pods on my commute home from work. So thank you very much for that. Bye. I love it. This is Katie Jaycox from the Central Valley of California. And I have two high notes

this week. First off, after working for a really famous guy that is a politician in the House for three years, I have now just been promoted to constituent services manager, which is something that I have been trying to get for three years now. So that was great. And then we live in a very big farming agricultural world. So during the pandemic, we started a special recognition program called the Golden Almond. And this year, this week, actually, I received the Golden Almond Award because my fellow co-workers actually nominated me in D.C. because as consistent services manager, I have been helping out two different veterans. One is a World War II veteran, and then another one is a Vietnam veteran that has ALS.

The World War II veteran, we were able to do a story on about a bill that would give 100,000 World War II veterans that are left in the United States VA health care that they haven't been getting since they came home. VA health care that they haven't been getting since they came home. And then the other one, we got a story on for he has an SAH grant, which is supposed to help with his home so that he can live at home with his wife. He hasn't lived with her for two years now because the VA has been dragging his feet and not fixing their home so he could live there. Well, we did a story on it, and now we have a contractor that reached out that is willing to do the entire work for free and is taking the VA out of the picture

and will do the work for free. And now this veteran gets to come home for Christmas with his wife. So it's really exciting, and I am really happy to be able to share these highlights with you. You guys have a great week. If you want to leave us a message about something that gave you hope, call us at 213-262-4427.

That's our show. Thank you to Naomi Ekperigen, John and Tommy, Scott Kelly, Alexis Wilson, Moshe Kasher, Travelle Anderson, Maria Bamford, and Ricky Velez, and everybody who left a high note. There are 346 days until the 2022 midterm elections. Have a great weekend. A high note, there are 346 days until the 2022 midterm elections. Have a great weekend. your producer. Hallie Kiefer is our head writer. Jocelyn Kaufman, Pallavi Ganalan, and Peter Miller are the writers. Our associate producer is Brian Semel.

Bill Lance is our editor. And Kyle Seglin is our sound engineer. Our theme song is written and performed by Sure Sure. Thanks to our designers, Jesse McClain and Marissa Meyer for creating and running all of our visuals, which you can't see because this is a podcast. And to our digital producers, Nara Melkonian and Milo Kim,

Mia Kelman and Matt DeGroot for filming and editing video each week. So you can.