Lovett or Leave It - We’re number one.

Episode Date: March 28, 2020

Stephen Merchant, Kara Swisher, and Beck Bennett join for Lovett or Leave It: Back in the Closet. A big stimulus bill passes. Trump looks to goose the markets. Tech companies thrive as their workers take risks. And everyone realizes they don’t have enough forks.

Hey everybody, I'm John Lovett. Welcome to Love It or Leave It. Before we get started, I just want to remind everybody, if you're looking for a way to help those in need, Crooked's Coronavirus Relief Fund spreads your donation equally to groups providing critical support to food banks, healthcare workers, restaurant workers, seniors, kids who depend on school lunches, and more. We've set a new goal. We're trying to get to a million dollars. People have donated so much, and it means so much. We're almost there. You can donate at crooked.com slash coronavirus.

That's crooked.com slash coronavirus. Now, welcome back, everybody, to the third installment of Love It or Leave It Back in the Closet. That's the new Back in the Closet intro song by Casey Catalbas and Brock Fletcher. So many of you sent in so many awesome intros that we're going to use a new one each week. If you want to make one, you can send it to hey at crooked.com and maybe we'll use yours next week. We have a great show. I am recording from the couch in my home. This is the very first time we've recorded out of my house. We have some amazing guests lined up. Stephen Merchant, Kara Swisher, and Beck Bennett. All right, let's get into it. What a week. I am here

live in my house. This is the first show in the history of Love It or Leave It without any audience whatsoever, no one in the studio, no one at the improv. So here to help me understand which of my jokes work and which of them do not work, please welcome the writer and director of the original British version of The Office, and more importantly, the creator of Lip Sync, Battle on Spike, actor, writer, producer, a man whose approval I desperately seek, Stephen Merchant. Thank you so much, Don. You know, funnily enough, this is how you should have began your career. You understand that, right? You should have started as a lonely man in your house who over time built up to performing in front of a live audience.

But you, so arrogant are you, having never performed seemingly live in front of an audience ever, thought, yeah, I think the best thing to do is to start with an hour-long live comedy show. It's true. I've danced through the raindrops my entire life. No doubt about it. So, well, Stephen, how are you holding up? How are you doing? I would quite happily never leave my house in most normal circumstances. I would happily

never see people. So this is working out for me. There are times where I'm almost, you know, just in regular life thinking I'll maybe keep urine in jars and grow a long beard and kind of really how I use it. So this to me is a great by-product. For those listening to the podcast, you should know that Stephen's fingernails do wrap in a circle. That's right. Like those Guinness Book of World Records people. Yes. Once this is over, I will not be going bowling. There is no way I'm getting these fingers in them little holes. No, so what about you? Is this because you're not a sociable man. All right.

Okay. Sure. You can live without people. No, I would say that I missed the option. Yes. You know, I'd like the option. No, I mean, we're fine. You know, Ronan and I are fine.

We have each other. We have Pundit. We have a fridge full of food. We are learning how to cook. You know, we're doing so we have a really good situation. So I am remaining very upbeat and thinking about the people who have it much worse than me. That is not to say every once in a while, I don't just walk outside and go for a walk just to have a few minutes outside. Yeah, absolutely. And most of my life is spent writing on a project here or

there. And that is a lot of being at home and isolated anyway. So but for those that actually have to go out in the world and make a proper living, I mean, I don't know where your head's at at this point. I mean, it's terrifying. And I do feel bad for those people. And I think all of those people who sort of preparing for the worst in that this could drag on until Christmas. Yeah, I mean, I'm already getting in sort of Christmas puddings, turkey. You know, I'm assuming this is good. We're going to be here for the long haul and just hoping that that proves not to be the case.

Do you worry at all about the glut of ponderous, self-important, deep projects that people are currently writing? The completely banal masterworks that are going to be emerging. I'm more worried about the endless zombie movies that are being written about a mysterious virus that takes over the world, because I feel there's a lot of screenwriters working on that project. All right, let's get into it.

I'm going to tell some monologue jokes about the news, and you'll just let me know after each one how you're feeling. Okay. Here we go. It's been two weeks since Crooked started working from home, which means officially I have done dishes upwards of 45,000 times. That just seems like good math. That doesn't strike me as a joke, but onwards. All right, fair enough.

I'm going to give you another one. We're all learning lessons during this quarantine period, and the lesson I've learned is that I don't own enough forks. Yeah, not like it. I like anything where the punchline is forks. Last week, it seemed that we might be quarantined like this for months, if not longer. But then Donald Trump realized this whole lockdown thing might be bad for the stock market and his reelection. So on Monday, he suggested we might all be able to get back to work on Easter Sunday. Take a listen. Easter is a very special day for many reasons. For me, for a lot of our friends, that's a very special day. And what a great timeline this would be. Easter is our timeline. What a great timeline that would be.

I may be Jewish, but this Easter is going to be a very meaningful day for me because it's the day I get coronavirus. That's great. I'm loving this. Yeah, we're having a great time. This is exactly what the show should be every week.

You come on and entertain me one-on-one. Here's another Easter joke, Stephen. This will be just like the first Easter, but in reverse since it will take people a few days to realize they're going to die. Because, you know, Jesus rose.

No, sure. But it's a little messy, that one. It doesn't. It is. No, it's hard to figure out. I was trying to fix it to make it so, you know, except in reverse since. Yeah, but it's like Jesus died and then we're Jesus. Are we dying?

It just it seems muddy. Right. It is muddy. Well, sort of like you want to say because at first you think you're going to be fine and then you realize you're dead. Right. You know, that that maybe flips it. Yeah. All right. We'll workshop it. Because he rose and he's the son of God. I don't know. I mean, it smacks of the joke of a Jewish person who doesn't fully understand our Christian faith. of a Jewish person who doesn't fully understand our Christian faith. Point taken. Trump went on to say this. There's tremendous hope as we look forward and we begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Friendly reminder that the light at the end of the tunnel is the thing you see when you die in the ICU.

All right. Next joke. Trump's pressure to ease restrictions, including his plan to create a county by county risk map, takes place even as the number of U.S. coronavirus cases has begun to surge. On Wednesday, the United States reported more than 14,000 new cases. That is the most cases detected by any country in a single day since the pandemic began. And roughly the same number of times I've done dishes this week. That was a callback. Basically, almost all the punchlines are either about dishwashing or death. Well, what else is going on, Stephen?

That's what's on my mind. As of Friday, there were more cases in the United States than any other country on Earth, including China and Italy. The U.S. is now the epicenter of the pandemic. Trump said we'd be sick of winning. Now we're literally sick from winning. Lovely.

You can't beat a bit of wordplay. I'm playing to my audience. I'm pandering. Stephen Merchant loves wordplay. That feels like a t-shirt waiting to happen. Meanwhile, Trump did manage to resuscitate the only patient he cares about, Dow Jones. Oh, yeah.

You know what, I would describe that as delicious. It is. It's a delicious joke. I want you to know that I really tried to make sure we were giving you hard, absurd, classic monologue jokes. This is A+. This could easily be on Leno circa 1988. Thank you.

Thank you. You mean before he lost his edge, so I will take that as a compliment. Markets rallied thanks to a $2 trillion stimulus package passed by the Senate, or perhaps the coming launch of the streaming service Quibi. A little niche, maybe playing more to your Hollywood crowd.

Yes, that was niche. Democrats were actually able to get a good amount of concessions from the Republican-controlled Senate. Here's what's in the bill. First, the bill includes a $500 billion loan program for businesses which Democrats negotiated to include oversight by both Congress and the Treasury Department, which would also prohibit Donald Trump or any member of his family from receiving the loans. This $500 billion also includes aid for airlines, seemingly in exchange for some sort

of government stake in their business. Stephen Brace for this one. It meanders, just flagging for you. Now when I ask for more Biscoff cookies with my gayest voice to signal to the gay flight attendant that we're cool, and he says, uh, no, you've had enough. And I say, Barry, those are my cookies. I own this airline, bitch. And he says, bitch, so do I. And then we laugh and flirt and he throws me the cookies. And I think being gay is fun. That felt more like a sort of jazz joke. You know, yeah, that was just kind of doing its thing, you know, and you either get in

that groove or you don't. Yeah, and you have to just sort of listen for the jokes I'm not making. Absolutely. It's where the jokes that you're not making. You're absolutely right. And to be honest with you, it was not for me. Kind of like a lot of jazz. It just wasn't for me.

No, and I hear that. And I'm so glad you told me because it's really important that you can be honest because you've given me a lot of really good laughs at a really dark time, some of which, we can all just be honest, were generous. Very generous. That was from the heart, that was from the gut, that was sincere. I did not throw that by much. Next, the bill includes what Schumer is calling unemployment insurance on steroids. This will

add another $600 per week for four weeks on top of what states already offer for unemployment, plus your balls shrink. That one I enjoyed because it just went low at the end there. It was just like you thought, you know what I mean? I've had the word play. I've had esoteric references to streaming services. No one's heard of. Now I'm just going to come in here, you know, all guns blazing at the end for my, my, dare

I say, your more crass audience. Yeah. One for us, one for them. That's exactly it. That's great. The bill extends to gig, freelance, and furloughed workers as well, but this relief upset Lindsey Graham quite a bit. If you're a nurse, aide, making $15 or $16 an hour, you're on the front lines here. A lot of doctor's offices are going to have to roll back

because elective surgery is no longer a source of income for a bunch of doctors. You're going to have all these well-trained nurses that are going to make $24 an hour on unemployment. You're literally incentivizing taking people out of the workforce. Look, Stephen, it makes sense. This kind of ruthless profiteering is why people get into nursing. Yeah, no, I enjoyed that because that just had good quality satire. It just was satire with a capital S. And I appreciate that and respect that. Yeah. And from the left, you know, we're punching up, you know. No, that was strong. This unemployment insurance is urgent. On Thursday,

we learned that more than three million people filed for unemployment last week, an all time record. That's a lot of thieving, shifty, sticky-fingered nurses. Good. Kind of a play on the joke that you'd already done. So I'm perhaps trying to double down on that. But I thought, yeah, I'm going with it. Well, there was maybe, I needed a joke in between, but I'm just trying to keep it moving.

You know, I got to keep it moving. For the energy, for the energy. The bill also includes expanded funds for hospitals, medical equipment, and protections for healthcare workers, increased aid to state and local governments and direct payments to everyone else. But before Andrew Yang rips all his clothes off and runs naked through empty Times Square, well, rock hard. Sorry, Stephen, for that image. This isn't universal basic income. I'll pause to say there that there's a joke inside of that. You know, a little image of of Andrew Yang running naked with an erection through Times

Square. But I will say two problems. A, not that strong of an image. And B, I didn't commit. I didn't commit. Yeah. And also, I find that image too erotic. It took me out of it. Yeah, you're in another place. I'm just thinking about it. It's kind of beautiful. So in the bill, there's a one time payment of twelve hundred dollars to every American who makes less than $75,000. If you file jointly and make under $150,000 as a couple, you'll receive $2,400. Plus, you will get an additional $500 for every child that I know of. Yeah. Wow.

Okay. We would call that over here a laddish. That was a laddish one-liner. Yeah. Well, it's fun, right? Because I I'm gay. So it's like not real. It's like in the moment I'm a character and the character is a guy that thinks he might have kids. That's your little Andrew Dice Clay moment. Hickory dickory dock. All right.

On Friday, as the bill was set to pass the House unanimously, one Republican, Thomas Massey, objected, which delayed passage and forced House members to gather together to vote down the objection. This goes against Nancy Pelosi's desire to let the chamber socially distance. But in Massey's defense, people have been socially distancing from him since he was killing frogs in grade school. Love it. Good. Yeah.

Solid. Yeah. Just just a classic dig implying he's a psychopath. I love it. Finally, I want to end with this clip, which is maybe the most relatable thing Donald Trump has ever said. It's still terrible. It's still the whole thing.

The whole concept of death is terrible. You exist. Poof. You don't exist. Where do I go? I don't know. Am I a materialist? Do I believe consciousness exists

outside of the realm of the physical? If all aspects of existence through chemistry and physics can be explained without resorting to some metaphysical, non-causal notion of consciousness, perhaps consciousness is an illusion. And yet if it's an illusion, what is that which is considering the illusory quality

of the illusion itself? How do I ponder the fact that I do not in fact ponder? Anyways, I think that's what he was trying to get at, Stephen. That was a lovely one to end with. I felt like that would have, it was beautifully written, but it would have been stronger had it been delivered by Alec Baldwin doing his drunk impression. Okay. Okay. Good note. I didn't, I, again, I was more doing the, uh, the intonation and I did not commit to the voice, but before I let you go, one last question, what is the nature of consciousness?

Um, thank you for that. Uh, I'll ponder on that while I'm thinking about the dick joke that you told earlier. Okay, good. The point is, death is terrible. We need to do everything in our power to keep people home, flatten the curve, and learn to make a dish that isn't ziti with store-bought marinara sauce poured on top of ground turkey with frozen broccoli stirred in so that you can say there was a vegetable. stir it in so that you can say there was a vegetable. See, I know that you're laughing and I appreciate that, but you don't relate to that joke because you are a consummate chef. Yeah. But again, that was me trying to appeal to the masses. Yeah. You know, whereas yes, of course, I live in very rarefied air. I just felt like, are we making that into a chant? Flatten the curve? It feels like a lot like lock her up. Flatten the curve, build the wall.

Yeah. It's not exactly catchy. Somebody was saying stomp the curve, which I liked. I like stomp the curve. I think flatten the curve is pretty good. Flatten the curve. No, I guess that flatten the curve feels more inclusive. Like we're all part of it. You know, we're stay home or you're going to die. Right. Just seems, you know, like that's you hollering from your front porch. Right. Flattening the curve is about helping other people. Staying home and not dying is about you staying home and you not dying. Yeah.

That is the challenge. Listen, listen, it's Trump in the end who's going to come up with the catchphrase. He's come up with the greats of recent years. You know, he's a bit overtaxed. The best he's come up with lately is the cure is worse than the problem. Because somebody told him he can't say the cure is worse than the disease because then he's downplaying the disease.

So he has changed it to the cure is worse than the problem. And then he adds, and we all know what the problem is. He's losing it. Because we live in a fucking nightmare, Stephen. Just to update you on UK politics and news, by the way, I don't know if you're aware, but our Prime Minister Boris Johnson has just been testing positive for coronavirus.

I did see that moments before we were set to record. And it is also worth noting that he gave a press conference recently where he said, I've been shaking hands with people with coronavirus and I'm fine. How has Trump, Trump must have this by now. I can't believe he doesn't have it. Somebody on Pence's team had it. So many people at Mar-a-Lago have it. I mean, I don't know. Maybe, maybe Kentucky Fried Chicken provides some kind of immunity. And on that note, Stephen Merchant, whose approval again, I desperately seek while on Zoom and off Zoom. Thank you so much for joining us.

That was really fun. Thank you so much. I loved it. It was really enjoyable. And you have my blessing and my approval. Oh, worth it. Bye, Stephen. Flatten the curve.

Flatten the curve. When we come back, the phone lines are open. Hey, don't go anywhere. There's more of Love It or Leave It coming up. And we're back. Every week during these Back in the Closet episodes, we've been talking with our audience about their new sunless, screen-filled lives. This week, I asked if anyone out there has taken up any new, weird hobbies. Let's go to the phone lines. Hi, is that Sonia?

Hi, John. How's it going? Good. How are you? I'm all right. So first of all, is that Sonia? Hi, John. How's it going? Good. How are you? I'm all right. So first of all, how are you doing? A little bit crazy. They cut our hours at work and I work at a hospital. It's insane. And what part of the country do you live in? I live in New Jersey, South Jersey. And they cut your hours at the hospital? Yeah, because we're considered essential because I'm a financial counselor, but we're not really essential because we don't really have direct care for patients.

But we do help with, you know, like charity care and Medicaid and stuff like that. So it's kind of a double edged sword. So now you're home and I understand you've taken up a weird new hobby. What are you up to? Yeah, my coworker and I decided that we needed chickens. So we bought 15 chickens and we're starting our own chicken coop. You have chickens? Yeah, we bought baby chicks. that are waiting for them to arrive.

Now is the goal to get them big and eat them or make eggs from them? We're gonna do both. Wow. And I've decided that they should all be named after like 90 sitcoms. So the Golden Girls, Designing Women, Banani, and then we're gonna eat them.

So at some point down the line, your plan is to kill the Golden Girls? Little by little. And Betty White will be standing last. We're morbid. Just do what we gotta do. And where are these chickens? They're actually gonna be at my co-worker's

house, because I said I'll help pay for them and pay for all the materials, as long as I don't actually have to care for them. So I'm paying chicken support right now. This doesn't sound like you have a hobby. This sounds like you have an investment. I mean, I'll help if they need me to, but I really don't want to. But they are part of my chickens.

So you're funding these in the hopes of having eggs and meat. Yep. You know, in case things really slide downhill, we'll be ready. Okay, sure. Chicken wise. Yeah.

Sonia, I have to tell you, this is the most unexpected first hobby. You're the first person we've called. And I honestly did not expect your hobby to be raising and slaughtering chickens. You do what you got to do in this environment. All right, Sonia, stay safe out there. Okay, thank you. Thank you.

Love you guys. Thanks for calling. Okay, bye. Hello. Hi, is this Caroline? Yes. How you doing? So I understand you have a weird hobby, a weird new hobby.

A weird new hobby, yes. Well, what is it? Me and my friend said we would try to make candles because it would be as time consuming as possible. And to do that, we wanted to make them in wine bottles, like those cute little candles you get that are like cut wine bottles, like slice the top off a wine bottle so it was open basically, like turn it into a glass. And to do that, we watched all these YouTube tutorials

where you tie twine around it and then light it on fire and then stick it in ice. And that is supposed to crack the glass of the wine bottle. So we're not even at the candle stage yet. We're making cups. Yes. And so the idea is you would create a line around the wine bottle, and then you make it really hot, and then you make it really cold.

And then you stick it in ice, and that should, the heat and the cold, I don't know, it's supposed to crack the glass of the wine bottle. And how's that gone so far? Absolutely terribly. We watched it on YouTube, and we did everything they did, and we tried five different wine bottles thinking, okay, maybe it's the bottle. No idea. Were you drinking the wine? tube and we did everything they did and we tried five different wine bottles thinking okay maybe it's the bottle no idea it's like were you drinking the wine the wine was already drank okay

and so your hobby is not making candles we're not there yet we're still working on it see it's become more time consuming than plant which is great because i'm a teacher so school is not in session school is not in session i mean i suppose probably the best people at making candles, it's a challenge, are the Amish, and they don't have YouTubes. So you can't really find out the great ancient techniques. Have you considered making candles in other objects like candle holders? We moved to that today, and that actually was a success. Who is we? Well, that was just me. It was me and my friend friend who did the wine bottles it's sort of sounding like you don't have a friend it sounds like you're doing this alone and i feel like it's okay to say that you're doing this alone

like to because halfway through you had a friend and then you didn't have a friend anymore no sometimes now is the your is the friend you have a friend yes and they're with you now not right now not right now but where are they at their apartment so you're a friend yes and they're with you now not right now not right now but where are they at their apartment so you're a teacher yes what kind of um how big are the people that you teach and what do you teach them i teach high school science to adults so they're like 18 to 26 year olds who are getting their high school diploma where are you where do you live san diego san diego are you off for the rest of the year or just till may do you know yet in a couple weeks we're transitioning online for the rest of the year or just till May? Do you know yet? In a couple of weeks, we're transitioning online for the rest of the year.

And these are adults just trying to get their high school diploma. Yeah. That must be inspiring. It's awesome. They're really great. But it's going to be challenging to do it all online. How are they doing? So far, they're doing okay.

Yeah, it's going to be interesting to see getting everybody, you know, internet access, computers to work on, just things like that. It's going to be a challenge. All right. Well, Caroline, thank you for sharing your weird new hobby good luck i would suggest like skipping right to the candle making and i would do a little bit less glass blowing um and other hot dangerous sharp activities i was thinking they were kind of science experiments but we're gonna we're gonna take it a step down okay okay maybe maybe a volcano with baking soda. Start there. Good idea.

Caroline, thanks for joining. Thank you. Bye. Hello. Hi, this is Colin. Oh my God. Hello. Hi, Colin.

Hey, what's up? Welcome to the show. First of all. Thank you so much. So great to have you. What's your weird hobby? We understand you have a weird new hobby. My grandma randomly told me, like in passing,

that we're maybe related to Chester A. Arthur. And so I was like, okay, we're going to do an ancestry, like deep dive here. 21st president of the United States, I believe. Yes, that is right. Colin, Colin, I love that project for you. If you don't mind me asking, and if it's uncouth, you don't have to answer. How old are you? I'm 18. You're 18. Have you ever seen the film Die Hard with a Vengeance? Would it make you upset

if I said no? No. And I should address why you were afraid to tell me that you hadn't seen it. But I want you to see it because given your newfound love for Chester A. Arthur, America's 21st president, he figures prominently in that film. Incredible. So what have you learned about Chester A. Arthur? My dad was very quick to point out that he is a Republican. And I was like, that's cute. It was before the party realignment, but nice try. And I live in Kentucky. Life is hard. I'm getting my entire senior class registered to vote.

That's great. It's like 250 people yeah so is this are you in your senior year of high school yeah and are you still going to school or are you all home uh virtual virtual right now how's that been interesting to say the least I mean it's a bit weird and like everything is pretty much canceled for the rest of the year. And your grandma wanted you to research Chester A. Arthur? Yeah. Does your grandma often give you homework? I mean, kind of.

Sometimes she'll just send me newspaper articles and stuff. She'll be like, I thought you'd like this. Do you and your grandma talk about politics? She told me that I should watch Tucker Carlson and that I would learn something. And I was like, let's never talk about this again. Any other interesting facts about Chester A. Arthur you could pass along? There's apparently like a whole discourse about what year he was born in, because on Wikipedia, world's most reputable source, but like on some other stuff, it said he lied about his age and said he was a year younger than he actually was. So technically his birth year is 1829, but he said it was 1830. And then apparently there

was a whole fiasco about, because he was born in Vermont, but some people think that's actually a lie and that he was born in Canada and that he wouldn't be able, constitutionally eligible to be president. But then that whole hoax fell flat. So Colin, how has it been being home? Are you with your family? Is everybody cooped up? My parents are both working from home. Is everybody splitting the dishes evenly? You're assuming that they were split in the first place. Colin, is there anything else you'd like to tell the listeners or love it or leave it?

Please don't judge my state by mitch mcconnell and formerly matt bevin okay well we won't we won't i mean we might we might judge you for mitch mcconnell i just think there's no way you can get around that it's fine colin thanks for joining thank you so much this made my day all right good luck with that research project okay i'll let you know how it goes bye hi hi is this christina yeah it is how are you doing? Good. How are you? You know, I'm fine. So I understand that you've developed a strange new hobby. Yes. So I have this book about like presidents and it has like their birthdays in it. So I just decided to make a Google doc with all of the horoscopes of all the U.S. presidents and make graphs on them. a Google Doc with all of the horoscopes of all the U.S. presidents and make graphs on them.

So have you done anything about Chester A. Arthur? I have his horoscope. And when do you have his birthday listed? I don't have his birthday. He's a Libra, though. Do you have his birth year? No. Are you aware that there's actually a pretty big brewing controversy that more and more people are talking about, about when he was born? No, I have not heard that.

Sydney, can we get Colin back, please? Where are you from, Christina? I'm from Kansas City. And are you home right now in Kansas City? Yeah, I am. What's Barack Obama's horoscope? He is a Leo. He's a Leo. Yeah.

Well, that doesn't seem like a horoscope. That's just a sign. Yeah, I just am looking their signs up right now and then seeing which he's a leo yeah well that doesn't seem like a horoscope that's just his sign yeah i just am looking their signs up right now and then seeing which presidents have like the most and which like are the least so like there are very few presidents with like aries um for example there are only three of those well that'd be three out of 40 what how many 43 technically i mean we call them 44 but it's for how What number is Trump? Forty four. So it's 44 people. Yeah.

So three out of 44, it's like a little less than one in 10. So it's like, yeah, it's still feels about random. Yeah. No, it's very random. There's no point to it. Basically, this is just like me being able to tell people random presidents for like my bar trick. Like, do you have a bar trick? Yeah, my my bar trick is I don't go to them. Oh, that would be smart. See, I don't do that. And instead, I guess people's like horoscopes and Myers-Briggs. But when I fail, I can just be like, oh, did you know this horoscope about this president? So Christina is saying that Chester A. Arthur is a Libra, but you have some pretty important new data about when Chester A. Arthur was born.

Can you please just fill us in on what your latest cutting edge research on Chester A. Arthur has taught you? That came straight from the most reputable source on the internet, Wikipedia. Yes, I'm trying to talk you up, Colin. I'm trying to big you up here. All right. You're on the spot. You don't have to give away the game.

What do we know about, what do you know about Chesiree Arthur's real birthday? He said that he was born in like 1830 to like sound like young or like to be young or whatever. But he was actually born in 1829. But I don't think that affects the horoscope, does it? I don't think he was born on october 5th 1829 colin does that comport with your data hold on i have to go back to he's got to go to the raw files he's got

to go back to the stacks do we check the footnotes or like do we care that much colin you are the expert this is your study this is your hobby it feels more like a job now and I'm not even getting paid. October 5th, 1829. That's what I have too. All right. We did it. We did it. We've got two hobbies, one in Missouri, one in Kentucky, reaching the same consensus. Christina, what do you do in Kansas City? I teach eighth grade. You teach eighth grade? Colin's a senior in high school. city. I teach eighth grade. You teach eighth grade. Colin's a senior in high school. Cool. Hi, Colin. Hello. You did such a good job, Colin. Thanks for letting us call you back. I'm glad I connected you and Christina. Is that you telling me to leave? I'll leave now. Yeah. For the second time. I'm sorry. It's not your fault. It's definitely I don't know how to talk to people, but you did such a great job.

Christina is school closed now in Missouri. Yeah, we're trying to figure out like how to make all of this work with like packets. I like had zoom meetings with my kids online. That's just everyone showing me their dogs, though. So that's not really working. But yeah, we're trying to figure it all out. Okay. Okay. Well, you know, good luck with your horoscope hobby. Thank you. I hope you really learned something. If you find any statistically significant information about the birth signs of presidents,

I'd be really interested to know it. I'd be really interested to find out that there's something to this whole horoscope thing. I don't think there is, but I will send you the data. All right. Christina, thanks a lot.

Bye. When we come back, we'll talk to Kara Swisher. Don't go anywhere. This is Love It or Leave It, and there's more on the data. All right. Christina, thanks a lot. Bye. When we come back, we'll talk to Kara Swisher. Don't go anywhere. This is Love It or Leave It, and there's more on the way. And we're back. Please welcome back to Love It or Leave It. Fan favorite, my favorite.

The chemistry already palpable. Already palpable. Across the universe. Over the Zoom. Kara the universe. Right. Over the Zoom. Kara Swisher. It's hard to be sexy over Zoom. It's hard to maintain our sexy relationship over Zoom. But here we are.

Here we are persisting. Yeah. I was just telling your people about, I got Zoom bombed this week. I don't know if you know what that is. I don't know what that is. I was on a public Zoom thing with Jessica Less and we were talking about women in tech and the spate of stories about women CEOs being jackasses, really. And we got Zoom bombed, which means someone started to put porn up, took over the screen and put really dirty porn up on the screen. And we couldn't do anything because what they do is they go from person, they put in like six or seven people and they put the porn up.

And then if you shut them down, someone else puts up porn and stuff like that. So we were Zoom bombed. I'm just saying, I'm just trying to like, you you know there are certain moments where that would be welcome but certain times where it wouldn't this was not good you know it was a guy's uh hand up well anyway i don't need to i wasn't looking for details it was not the crowd it was not they should have read the room on the porn but they didn't so uh you wrote a piece in the Times about the way in which this coronavirus crisis has influenced and been influenced by tech. Right. Facebook is seeing an incredible rise in traffic.

Amazon is overwhelmed as orders rise because people are at home. And meanwhile, we've seen reports of coronavirus in Amazon facilities. Gig economy workers are delivering food and providing services with some risk, real risk to help millions through this period of turmoil. How have the companies reacted to their role in this crisis? And have they taken their workers' needs and safety seriously enough? Well, you know, I think the whole question of the gig economy is sort of gets brushed under the surface of all the other stuff that's going on at the same time. And I do think this brings into very sharp relief how much these companies rely on gig workers. In the case of Amazon, those are warehouse workers. Those are mostly employees, and a lot of them are employees.

But that's an issue of safety. And every different job has a level of safety right now. Obviously, hospital workers are in real danger. Warehouse workers are in less danger. But still, they're with each other, and there's a possibility of transmission. And so how much we rely on these people is really clear through this. You know, we use gig workers every day and the idea of whether they have healthcare or not is a big issue. Uber, of all things, which has been fighting for people to not be employees and not be thought of, you know, there's a bill in California, AB5, that's about making them, giving them benefits, has now asked the government to pay for their health care benefits. So, you know, everyone understands that in this crisis, health care benefits are really important. But so are the

ability for these people to have some rights as employees in the whole ecosystem. So, yeah, I was going to actually ask you about that. So Uber's CEO, as they were working to pass this massive stimulus bill, said, I was going to actually ask you about that. So Uber CEO, as they were working to pass this massive stimulus bill, said, we really hope that Congress will take care of independent workers as they would salaried employees. It seems to be an admission of guilt here that, call them what you will, these are people who have one job or rely on, usually rely on, one or a handful of companies as their sole form of employment.

Well, you know their employees and I know their employees. I think it's the question of what is an employee now, right? And so, you know, I had a really interesting talk well before this with Gavin Newsom. We were talking about the idea of what an employee is anymore and how do they have the portability of health care, really. I think that's the most important and expensive thing, but other benefits. And so what will be interesting to see what happens after this is over, because there's going to be a lot of unemployment. And so these companies that have basically taken advantage of workers in a lot of ways, even though they sort of push this idea that, you know,

they get to work when they want. Isn't it great? That's their little plug. And it turns out, listen, Cara, here's the crazy thing. They get to work whenever they want. Isn't it great? That's their little plug. And it turns out, listen, Kara, here's the crazy thing. They get to work whenever they want. And it turns out a lot of people want to work all the time. Right, exactly. And so that's the trick. Yeah. So they have to really, we have to start thinking of how to protect all workers. And I think it puts everyone at risk, not just, and of course there's the regular sort of contract workers, like, you know, waiters and things like that. And what kind of healthcare It's really, it does bring into really trouble is how people are paid and then what benefits they get and how we can protect

them. Because when this is over, there's going to be huge unemployment and we have to figure out how to get people back to work, obviously, but how we can help them get back to work and give them better rights. And I think that'll be an interesting wrinkle if this happens during this, rights. And I think that'll be an interesting wrinkle if this happens after this period. Yeah, it does seem as though that the magnitude, the scale of the suddenness of the emergency has led people to embrace solutions that they wouldn't for the kind of quotidian crises that come for people every day. We're about to do UBI, universal basic income, basically, for a short term. Whereas three months ago, that was Andrew Yang's wild ride. You know, America is now a socialist country.

Like, it's really interesting when you think about it. The government is the shareholder for everybody at this point. Like all these companies, and it's a bailout. Let's be clear. This is a bailout. It isn't a loan, which that would have been interesting. Some people thought it should have been a loan to the airlines and everyone else. But it's a really interesting thing that when they need to move in, they do move in and do pay for it. And you're right,

this $1,000 thing is important to do right now. But is it important to do all the time to give people a break, you know, in terms of that little break every month, so they don't feel like they're living hand to mouth. And so I think people will think about this, although I expect spending all this money, everyone's going to be a little bit like no more, no more money to people. Yeah, it's interesting, too, because it, you know, one of the debates, Lindsey Graham threw a fit about unemployment insurance. Even if you don't take him seriously, and you don't have to take him seriously, you do see how even Republicans understand that even giving people either unemployment insurance, or even just $1,000 a month does increase the negotiating power of individuals in the marketplace. I think of every one of these Uber drivers, Lyft drivers, Instacart delivery people, whatever the

gig role is, if all of these people had a small amount of income guaranteed every month by the government, their ability to turn down the ridiculous hours a lot of people have to work would give them more power and more sway. Possibly more creativity. The whole idea, Andrew's idea, was that people get creative when they don't have to worry about where the next paycheck is going to pay rent. And so you're going to get more entrepreneurial. You'll not have to pay for other things, other social money. Money is constantly transferred to people back and forth. It depends on the person, whether it's farmers or whatever. There's constant money being transferred back and forth. So this is not anything new. It's just who

everybody's going to need help at this point. And what's interesting, getting back to the tech companies, is one of the things that's fascinating to them, what I wrote about in this column is at some point, someone's going to have to pay for this. And the people that are making all the money are tech companies. So it's going to be interesting if state and local governments, if the government, if people in Europe start to tax these companies, that's where the money is. And so that'll be an interesting shift for them.

Because I think when they come out of this, tech companies are going to be much more powerful, the big tech companies, because all the small ones are going to be washed out, culled out of the herd because they can't pay for things or it's too competitive or they've lost their edge in the market. And so these big companies will be more powerful than ever. I mean, just to stay on that for one second, you know, you even see AOC saying we are putting more scrutiny on the small benefit that a nurse or a teacher will receive than we are on the benefits that would be bestowed on some of the largest corporations in the world, many of which do not pay taxes,

Amazon included. Right. That was interesting. And there was a good story in the Washington Post about that, that a lot of the people that are getting these bailouts are people that avoided taxes, avoided, you know, tried to use bankruptcy in order to take away things from employees. And so, you know, hopefully this will be the idea that we need more employee participation in things and how, you know,

the idea of putting people on boards, I've always thought was a great idea. But it's right. These people that avoid taxes are getting, not the tech companies, they're not needing handouts because they're doing really well and they will continue to do well. But some of these industries, you know, that are being rewarded for behaviors before, but there is no choice. That's the other thing, is they can't really have all these businesses go out of business

because it does have an effect on jobs. But we're focusing, to me, the wrong way. We need to focus on the workers versus the companies, or equally. I don't think there's anything wrong with focusing on the companies. But it seems like the idea, which is very Republican,

is you fix the big companies and then they'll help the workers. And that's, you know, that has changed. That deal has long been over for a lot of people. And I think a lot of workers do recognize that. Well, especially when for a decade, we've seen these large companies in the good years do stock buybacks, fail to invest in their own people, etc. CEO compensation. In the tech companies, it manifests in that the workers do benefit. They get stock options and things like that and make them, at least on paper, before they sell, very wealthy. But the contract workers don't get it. Like, you know, to me, I've always felt that, you know, the idea like, oh, you work for a tech company.

You're part of the company. You get stock, everything. I think Google has 150,000 contract workers. It's some number. I'm not going to quote the right one. But a lot of has 150,000 contract workers. It's some number that's, I'm not going to quote the right one, but a lot of these companies operate with contract workers and they don't get the same rights. And I think, you know, during the Google walkout, that was a big issue is a lot of these contract workers had no rights, you know, whether it was sexual harassment or something else. Or at one point at Google, they had a different color badge and so

they couldn't eat in their fabulous cafeterias, which was, you know, it's sort of this two classes of people. And the worry I have with a lot of these gig economy workers and the things that tech is building is one, they become a second class of citizen, a second class of employee. And then two, once they can replace them with AI, they'll be just be gone, like they'll, or they'll be just moved on out. And I think that's really, I think a lot of companies will be like, how can I eliminate workers going forward versus how can I employ people? It also becomes a question around health care because, you know, over 3 million people filed for unemployment this week.

So that's a vast number of people who are about to, in many cases, either have COBRA or run out of health insurance, joining the many people who are still working in the gig economy and not having insurance. And I've seen a lot of single payer advocates talking about how this is the nightmare scenario in which we're going to have a pandemic, which millions of people are told that they need to buy their own health care that they can't afford. It is striking how quickly this emergency has led to a lot of questions to be answered by government. Right. The backstop to Boeing, the backstop on unemployment, the backstop on health care,

the backstop on masks, all of this Trump's reluctance aside, that governors, states, companies, individuals have all turned to the government. Yeah, we're a socialist guy. It's so funny, all this like, don't be a socialist, but boy, does this feel like socialism. And I think, you know, they'll say it's temporary, and we'll get back to our money making capitalism. But what's more interesting to me is something that actually people like Mark Benioff and some others are talking about. And I interviewed someone today who was also talking about it, which is this new kind of capitalism. Like, where is capitalism going? And maybe the best way to market it, like, I hate to say you

have to market things instead of calling it socialism. I think it's called compassionate capitalism. And I know people scoff at this, but if there's a way to try to deliver the same messages in a better marketing package, like you keep using the word capitalism, but the idea of it being different, it's more worker friendly, it's more, you know, thinking about healthcare and things like that, you might see some of that emerge from this, because there's been a big push among certain, at least people in the tech sector about that concept, especially down in the lower ranks of engineers, where they just, you know, they don't want to keep making things that hurt people. What's going to happen is there's not going to be a lot of appetite for regulatory scrutiny of these tech companies, for sure, and a lot of

companies, because everyone's going to be busy trying to keep employment going and trying to help American businesses. And so what's interesting is they won't get the same scrutiny that was building momentum rather strongly. What I find ironic is they've done a pretty good job getting disinformation off the platforms when it comes to coronavirus. And one of the things Mark Zuckerberg said, which I thought was interesting, it's like, well, when it's black and white, we can do it easily. You know, the fact of the matter is they can do it easily. And now they have become publishers, they have become media companies, they've been making editorial decisions all the time. And they find it very easy when it's a virus,

but not so easy when it's a toxic political message, which to me is, you know, it's not a physical virus, but it sure is a societal virus. And it's definitely a body politic virus. Right? It's yet another example, right? It's? It's not about black and white. It's about red and blue. When it's Islamic radicalism, they seem to find the capacity to remove things from their platform. Now, when it's misinformation about a virus, they seem to discover the capacity to remove things from their platform. These problems become much easier when they're not worried about being yelled at by Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. Right, exactly. It's just interesting.

Even if they weren't as, you know, they've been doing an okay job on anti-vax things. It's just interesting. They're capable of monitoring these platforms. And it's a question whether they want to or if they have the political will to do so. You described it as marketing, but in all of these things, whether it's using their platforms ethically by making sure there's not misinformation or treating workers fairly or supporting government policies that are more equitable, it's not a marketing question. It's about whether or not this form of rapacious capitalism, libertarian capitalism can survive. And I think what we're learning as we look around is that it cannot. Right, right, right. Absolutely. And I think what's going to be difficult is after this is over, as people get back to work, we're going to forget some of the things that we're already moving forward on, which includes some regulatory scheme work around them. My worry is coming out of

this, these big companies are going to be so powerful and very hard to pull back on. There has been, you know, a momentum, a slow momentum towards that. But there's going to be no, you know, going into the election, going into what's going to continue to be probably a very polarized country. And maybe it won't be after this, but I don't think so. I think one of the things is, is there an appetite to really regulate any companies going forward? You know, when all we're going to do is thank you companies for giving us jobs kind of stuff. And when bigger companies can weather a great recession, they can, but whether it's a small retailer that's trying to compete with Amazon or a small restaurant that had no buffer, that's going to close and not come back, we will be left with an

even more consolidated economy. 100%. And that's what's interesting. I think the idea of that these companies have, you know, billions of dollars of capital just lying on. What's interesting about tech companies, a lot of like companies like airlines and others do live hand to mouth. You know what I mean? And that's why tech companies have these they make fun of them, have these big cash piles in their basements.

Essentially, it's like Gringotts or something. You know, Apple's got, I forget, 200 billion. Google's got a lot. They've got hundreds of billions of dollars just sitting there. And it creates a situation where in this case, even if their business falls off by a quarter, maybe two quarters, it's still going to be, you know, if advertising goes south a little bit for Google and Facebook, which is their principal business, or if Apple doesn't sell as many phones or whatever, in this case, Amazon's going to do just fine. It's like they've got a perfect business for a pandemic. I hate to say that, but they've got a cloud and delivery.

So you wonder what they can do. They did save money in order to be able to weather this kind of thing. And they'll come out stronger than ever. Yeah, it's interesting because a lot of the criticism for years was they're sitting on this cash. They're sitting on this cash. Why won't they spend the cash? And then when the crisis happened, a lot of people were like, why didn't Boeing have any cash? We told them that they needed to have cash and they didn't have any bad weather funds. But one last question, Kara, how are you? Good, good. Resilient. I have to say that resilient. I've just been interviewing and suddenly everyone in Silicon Valley is using the term resilient versus, you know, grow, grow, grow. Like we're

resilient. We're going to save things. And so I've heard the word resilient. I'm fine. I'm doing really well. I am resilient. So are you. So, but I go with, um, upbeat with occasional moments of profound dread. Really? You have dread? I don't have dread. Occasionally. Really? Occasional moments of dread. Really? I have an apocalyptic view of everything. So this is sort of keeping with my way. And I work at home most of the time. So I'm the original social distancer. Kara Swisher, thank you so much for joining us. All right. Bye. Bye. When we come back, we're going to talk to a Wall Street expert on Trump's desire to get people back to work. Hey, don't go anywhere. There's more of Love It or Leave It coming up.

And we're back. This week, as unemployment claims skyrocketed into the millions, Congress passed a $2 trillion stimulus package to staunch the economic turmoil caused by the pandemic and the Trump administration's failure to contain its spread. But even as Congress takes unprecedented action, Trump has suggested that to save the economy, Americans may have to go back to work, even if that leads to increased deaths from COVID-19. I thought it might be good to talk

to an expert about this. So joining us from the storied Wall Street private equity firm of Frenchward and Watson, please welcome investor Scott Kochko. Scott, thanks for joining us. Yeah, what's up? Happy to be here, John. Everyone has to do his or her or their part. Wow. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you so much.

I appreciate that. Look, sometimes Wall Street bros get a bad rap, which really sucks because we don't deserve it. I mean, sure, some dudes spend their days acquiring factories in the Midwest to shut down operations and leverage the assets to fund a molly habit that could power every gay guy on Fire Island, which is a really fun thing to do and not bad. But we're also patriots, John. OK, well, so as a patriot, sort of what has been your response to this? Well, as I was telling my wife,

while sort of forcing her to spend more time on the Peloton, because, yeah, we're stuck inside now, but not forever, Margo. And you're going to want to be proud to show your face when you're allowed to go out. But as I was telling her, America needs to stop cowering from this virus. It's time for America to go back to work. But, Scott, hold on a second. Every medical expert, including the president's own top advisors, do not believe that safe many people could die.

Sorry to interrupt, John, but I'm an EMT. Wait, you're an EMT? An economics major talking, and everyone better listen up. Is there a highly contagious pathogen overwhelming hospitals in major cities around the world? Yes. Is the only way to slow the spread of this virus to shut down businesses and stay in our homes? Yes have to level with you, Scott. That sounds sort of evil.

Like you want people to die so the stock market can improve. Look, I don't want people to die, but people will die to make the stock markets improve. Yes, that's part of it. This is war. My grandfather stormed the beaches of Normandy. My father was a Green Beret who crawled through the jungle muck of Vietnam. And now it's our time to sacrifice and storm the beaches of the stock market. So, OK, OK, OK, Scott.

So right now, there is a huge number of infections that are happening to doctors and nurses struggling to treat the influx of patients without needed masks and gowns. What about these first responders? Don't you care about them? What about this first responder? Huh Don't you care about them? What about this first responder, huh? Don't you care about me? I care about me. Okay. I wake up every morning and make an espresso

because we had to lay off Mariana. And I head to my office. And what do I see? First thing in the morning, blood. You see blood? Yes, I see blood and guts. You see blood? Yes, everywhere.

Bloody red lines filled with the guts of hard working americans they're blood red line graphs to be honest i'm sorry you're talking about charts yes charts charts are showing the negativity the dips in the stock market everything just crashing and it's carnage it's disgusting and after a couple hours of that you know i gotta eat because i gotta keep going i gotta keep working yeah and i gotta go have lunch and you know what happens i have to go have lunch and i have to see my wife in my apartment you know what happens when i have to talk to my wife during the day what happens it means we have to have a conversation before we've had fucking wine honestly man it's like super fucking sad and confusing.

And like, I mean, it's like, I don't know. It's like we don't know each other. And like, I don't, it's like super quiet. And I don't know. So it's sort of been a hard time. Yeah. It's like you're having a hard time connecting with your wife through this. Thank you.

Yeah. A lot of people are having trouble connecting with their wives through this. And it's got to stop. We got to do something. We got to get this economy back in shape. We got to get Americans back to work so everybody can start connecting with their wives again and stop being so sad at lunch and shit. So, I mean, I understand that, you know, it seems like you're going through something here, but don't you think people dying for the economy is a little bit extreme? What about the immunocompromised? What about the elderly? What about the young people who get sick?

John? Yeah? Correct me if I'm wrong, but you can't spell Darwin without win. Can you? I guess technically you can't. No, you're a smart guy. You can't.

Win's right there at the end. You can't spell without dar either. It's like no dar. You can't spell Darwin without win, John. No, you can't. I take your point. You cannot spell it without win. I'm not saying there won't be losses, dude.

I mean, of course. Like, you don't get anything without losing something. But the ones who survive will be stronger, dude. And they'll be going to restaurants and taking cruises and purchasing timeshares and generating profits. Profits, my boy, profits. Having the time of their lives, living the American dream. But, okay, Scott, let me ask you.

I got to tell you. I find this all pretty appalling. Are you telling me you would be willing to give up your ventilator if we take your advice and have a massive spike in infections that overwhelm the hospitals? No way, dude. No. No, I wouldn't even give one of them. And I've got three ventilators in my house. Oh, my God.

I paid Tom Hanks, Quattro Mills to create a diversion. Got a couple of ventilators. You paid Tom Hanks to create a diversion so that you could have your own private ventilator. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So what? That's what I had to do to secure my health and safety. And that's what every businessman does.

That's business. That's the whole fucking point, John. And now we all need to be in business for America. It's time to nut up or shut up. All right. Nut up or shut up. I guess it all just seems so selfish. I mean, what do you think we should do here? I mean, you should be selfish. We should all be selfish for

ourselves and we should be selfish for America. We need to look out for America. All right. We've got a choice to make as a country. Either we continue to, quote, self-isolate and, quote, flatten the curve so the hospitals don't, quote, overflow with corpses, or we do what's right. We go out, we go shopping again, all right? Like we did to the terrorists after 9-11. That showed Saddam, and it'll teach this virus a lesson, too, all right? We need to shop. We need to funnel our cash into this economy. This interview is over. This was a terrible mistake. We never should have had you on the show. Oh, you need to nut up or shut up, John. This is serious. They postponed Fast and Furious 9,

so I really have nothing to live for. I kind of want to die, man. We need to fix this. Investor Scotch Kotko, everybody. Bye, bye, bye, bye, bye. Come on. Beck Bennett from Saturday Night Live. thank you so much for joining us you can check out Beck as Launchpad and McQuack on season 3 of DuckTales which premieres Saturday April 4th on Disney XD and Disney Now

yes please it's a great show, Emmy nominated and when we come back, let's end on a high note don't go anywhere this is Love It or Leave It And there's more on the way. And we're back. All right, everybody, let's end on a high note. Things can seem pretty bleak when you're stuck inside all day watching numbers rise on a TV screen, or if you're out there doing a very hard job during a very difficult time. Just like last week, we are crowdsourcing

our high notes to hear from you some of the good you're seeing in your life. So here it is, this week's high note. Hi, my name is Heather and I'm calling from Chicago. I just wanted to leave with my high note. I am a returning Peace Corps volunteer and because of this global pandemic, the Peace Corps has made the decision to suspend all Peace Corps activities around the globe, meaning more than 7,000 volunteers had to return back to the United States. These volunteers were coming home to no jobs, no place to live, little money. And the returned volunteer community really stepped up. They opened up their homes to them.

They're giving them advice about getting jobs and reviewing resumes and picking people up from the airport and giving people food. And it's just really wonderful to be part of a community that's there for their fellow volunteer in time of need. And it gives me a lot of hope during this really bleak time. Thanks. Hi, John. My name is David from Oakland, California.

And my best friend tested positive for coronavirus and he beat it. He isolated himself like a champion. He felt terrible. He stayed at home. He played his Nintendo Switch. He refrained from getting Taco Bell, which is his true love and joy besides his boyfriend and his dog. And he managed to overcome coronavirus. And he shared his message on social media.

And it was shared hundreds of times by people who were inspired. And he is now going to be officiating my wedding at the end of the year. Stay safe, everyone. Thank you. Hi, John. My name is Emma. I live in Seattle. And my high note from today was that we got my 91-year-old grandma on a Zoom call,

but then she had to go because all of her neighbors were going to wave to each other from their porches at noon. So she had to leave our Zoom call for that. Hi, Crooked team, and especially Priyanka's new cat. My name is Sarah. I'm 26, and I live in Brooklyn. The thing that is giving me hope throughout this garbage nightmare is my whole life, I've never really had a close relationship with my dad.

But over the last three weeks, he's actually called me every day to check in and see how me and my roommates were doing. He even ordered me a thermometer when he found out I didn't have one, and he ended up sending me a pink ovulation tracking thermometer. He did not realize it was an ovulation tracking thermometer, and it's currently the biggest joke in my apartment and my whole family. So I'm hopeful that even though everything sucks, this mess will help me and my dad have a better relationship. Thanks for listening, guys. I love you, Dad.

Hey, John. This is Taylor. I'm a student at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas. And something that's really helping me and my friends get through this and a way that we can still connect is actually through Animal Crossing New Horizons, where we can at least, while we can't see each other in person, we can see each other on our little islands. So that's been really helping us get through this. Hey, you love it. This is Emily Mhowled. I'm calling from Asheville, North Carolina. I work in a clinic. I'm a nurse practitioner. And we met with our clinic staff Sunday morning

at nine o'clock. And by 3.30 in the afternoon, we had a drive-through COVID-19 testing site up and running with a huge amount of community support. We had businesses donating tents, doctors' offices donating testing kits. It was a real community event. Anyways, thanks. Bye-bye. And I just want to remind everybody, if you want to leave us a message about something that gave you hope, you can call 424-341-4193. Thank you so much to all of our guests, Stephen Merchant, Kara Swisher, and Beck Bennett.

It is 220 days until the election, and you can sign up to help at Vote Save America right now. Thank you to our grocery store workers and truck drivers and delivery people. Thank you to our doctors and nurses and everybody working in our hospitals. Thank you to our whole staff

keeping this show running and everybody at Cro our hospitals. Thank you to our whole staff keeping this show running and everybody at Crooked Media. Have a great night. Love It or Leave It is a product of Crooked Media. It is written and produced by me, John Lovett, Elisa Gutierrez, Lee Eisenberg, and our head writer, former Mike Bloomberg speechwriter, Travis Helwig.

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