Lovett or Leave It - White House Downplay

Episode Date: September 12, 2020

What you don't know that Trump told Bob Woodward can hurt you. For our first homestretch episode, Jon Favreau joins for the monologue, Dr. Ali Mattu is back to talk about staying motivated during a very hard time, and I talk to Dr. Muhammad Adeel Rish about his recent study on daylight saving time because it's my JOB. Plus listeners check on their parents' voter registrations and I quiz a listener on whether you can tell the difference between awful Trump comments on the military or ones we just made up.

Welcome to Love It or Leave It Home Stretch. Sweet home is the home stretch. Sweet home is the home stretch. I hope Neil Young will remember. It's the homestretch. That horrible, horrible song was sung, and I suppose written, by Travis. I never want to hear it again.

So I am begging you to submit your own homestretch theme song to get people hyped. At the end of last week's episode, we played the last of our favorite Back in the Closet songs. And I just want to thank the people that sent those in. Andrew Dwiggins, Casey Alexander, Kristen H., Kristen Phillips, and Yoshi Moriyama. Thank you all for submitting so many incredible Back in the Closet themes. We're going to try to collect them and put them in one place when we figure out how to do that. But if you want to make a Homestretch song, we have seven shows after this one.

That's seven songs. You can send it my way at leaveit at crooked.com, and maybe we'll use yours. So including this show, we have eight episodes before the 2020 election, and we are officially in the home stretch. That means each week we will be hyper-focused on doing what we can to win the election on November 3rd and keeping ourselves upbeat and motivated during the process. At the beginning of each show, we will be doing something called Homestretch Homeroom, where I will give you the lay of the land of what you need to know and what you need to be doing this week to defeat Donald Trump.

So we are starting this week with Get Your Shit Together Day. Every state has different voting options and deadlines ahead of Election Day, and things may have changed in the past few months or even weeks, so please take time right now to visit votesaveamerica.com slash states. You can learn your state's voting options and make sure you and everyone you know has a goddamn plan. Votesaveamerica.com slash states. Share it.

You can find out how you can vote, how you can vote by mail, how you can vote early, what you can do if your ballot doesn't come. There's a bunch of help there. It's a really great resource. There's nothing quite like it. You can find out how you can vote, how you can vote by mail, how you can vote early, what you can do if your ballot doesn't come. There's a bunch of help there. It's a really great resource. There's nothing quite like it anywhere else out there. So please use votesaveamerica.com slash states. Check your registration. Make sure everybody in your life checks.

And also, because there are only eight weeks left, it is now more important than ever that you make calls and you make texts. So if you haven't, I am begging you to go to votesaveamerica.com slash adopt to start volunteering for a swing state of your choice. I'm going to ask actually Dr. Ali Mattu about this today, but I personally have found that this has been hard to process, that all the worrying and all the attention, all the uncertainty and anxiety, that it all has to play out now over the next 50 days, that we have 50 days to save the country. So go to votesaveamerica.com slash adopt and start volunteering for the swing state of your choice. Over 200,000 of you have already signed up.

Thank you. But the reason I wanted to do these homestretch episodes is because this election is unique in all the ways we talk about, but it's also unique in another respect. We say every vote matters. And what we mean normally is that every vote can matter. Every vote in every district can mean the difference in a local race, a state race in the case of Florida, a race for the presidency. That's obviously still true.

But this year, it also means something more, which is that every vote against Trump, every vote we can find is not just a means of getting him out of office. By winning a state with 50.00001% of the vote, every vote is proof that the kind of politics that Trump and the Republicans have been practicing doesn't work. And every vote makes this election harder to steal, which means we need every ballot and we need every volunteer. So you are needed right now. As you know, I am a world historic procrastinator to a shocking degree, like pulling all-nighters

because he didn't start a speech for the fucking president. That is a level of procrastination few can match. But we're out of time. There's no more to Mars. We have 50 days left. Voting is about to begin procrastination few can match. But we're out of time. There's no more to Mars. We have 50 days left. Voting is about to begin. The election is here. So you need to sign up for Vote Save America.

And if I can't convince you, listen to the Reverend Greg Lewis from Wisconsin. He almost died from COVID, but he kept working from intensive care. Here's what he had to say about Vote Save America and what you can do to help. This is Pastor Greg Lewis. I'm founder of Souls Through the Polls, speaking to you from Ground Zero here in Wisconsin. Let me be clear, we're fighting for our lives. There's truckloads of corporate cash being dumped on our voters here in Wisconsin to confuse us and to intimidate us. They try taking away our mailboxes. They want to slow down our mail-in ballots.

They want to frustrate us with racist voter ID requirements. They let COVID affect us. I nearly died after all the protesting and marching. After all that, they shot our young brother in Kenosha seven times in the back. They've done a lot of damage here in Wisconsin. We need the power that can respond to those kind of things. That's why we organized Souls to the Polls Milwaukee. We have a network of hundreds of faith leaders who are in contact with thousands of community members. We're fighting back to stop intimidation and voter suppression. We sued these people who are trying to stop us from voting. More important, we are organizing in underserved communities. We're helping people register and get these photo IDs.

We're organizing them to vote early. We're showing older folks how to vote by mail. We're finding young people who need to be registered for the first time. We are finding young people who need to be registered for the first time. We are building what we call our voting block because we need our block of voters in place and ready to go, not only to show up and vote but to work together after election day for the common good. All this has been supercharged by thousands of Vote Save America fans contributing to the Every Last Vote fund. And we ask that you please dig deep once again for our final push.

We're taking a stand and so should you. Working together, we can't lose. So please go to votesaveamerica.com and get in the fight, you know? Just get in there. Later in the show, we'll be joined again by Dr. Ali Mattu to talk about the mental health challenges specific to this moment

and how each of us can stay motivated during a dark time. Also, not exactly a homestretch topic, but Dr. Mohammad Adil Rishi is here. He's a pulmonologist who recently co-wrote a paper on ending daylight saving time. And so we got into it in a very friendly way. But we had a great conversation about daylight saving time, which as you know, is my pet issue.

And you know what? Is that part of the election? No, not really. But part of getting through the next 50 days is also remembering that there's other shit to talk about to clear our heads. So I was glad I got to talk to him. But first, he hosts Pond Save America

and is a former speechwriter for Senator John Kerry's failed presidential bid. Please welcome Jon Favreau. Thanks for having me, Jon. I still am not sure what I'm doing here. Yeah, that's because you don't listen to Love It or Leave It. You just have absolutely no idea what goes on in this program. But you know what? You should feel good that someone said, put on my calendar, Love It or Leave It monologue. And I just said, sure. I'm happy. I have no idea what I'm doing, but I'm happy to do it. So here I am. It's a testament to this new world of being remote that I didn't ask you directly. No, you never said a word to me.

I forgot who said it. No one asked me. It literally just appeared on my fucking calendar. And here I am, like a good friend. Let's get into it. What a week. On Saturday, a gender reveal stunt started a Southern California wildfire

that by Monday had burned 10,000 acres and forced over 20,000 people to evacuate. In case you're wondering, it's a boy, and that boy is Malak, and Malak demands sacrifice

by cleansing fire. Oh. Here's the tag for the joke. I am become dad, destroyer of worlds. Did Travis have an alt for that? I think the alt is working for Funny or Die.

John, I also want to thank you personally for not hosting an illegal super spreader event during a pandemic with fireworks during a terrible fire season to surprise your friends and loved ones by artificially inflating the significance of your baby's assigned sex based on a doctor's examination

of the ultrasound. Yeah. You just like text people. You know? You don't even have to share it on social media. Just talk to people. Just let them know. One on one. Yeah. This week, a bear with a box on its head invaded a Turkish military base and climbed

a communications tower. In the gay community, that's called third base. Wait, wait. Here's another one. Here's another one. A bear with his face covered climbing a pole? I didn't realize Newsom let West Hollywood open the bars. That was good. I like those. Officials in Austin, Texas announced that five boats sank at a boat parade in support of President Trump on Saturday.

They should be careful with those boats. They're the Republican plan to address climate change. Oof. I feel like there's got to be a lot. It's tough. It's tough with the orange sky. It's tough with the orange sky. I just, there's a lot of places to go with that fucking those boats sinking, you know?

So as, as with all things, there's the thing. Then there's the conversation about the thing. Then there's the conversation about the conversation. This is going to be a third level. So the boats start sinking. Then some people are on Twitter are like, ha ha,

the boats are sinking. And then some people are like, don't you take pleasure in the boat sinking. Now we're on the third level conversation. That's between you and me. Don't you think there's some aspect of people relishing the sinking of the boats that's actually performative in the sense that what they're really saying is, I wish I felt this kind of fun, ha ha feeling, but I don't.

But I want to perform that I am. I wish I enjoyed this kind of fun, ha-ha feeling, but I don't. But I want to perform that I am. I wish I enjoyed this boat sinking. Yeah, no, that's exactly right, because everyone looks at Twitter, and everyone's, like, freaking out about the, something bad happened to Trump and his supporters, so now we must make a joke about it. I don't really, like, who likes seeing boats sink? No one likes seeing boats sink.

Yeah, I mean, U-boats, and, you know, U-boats enjoyed it. U-boats did enjoy it, yeah. That's a good exception. sank no one likes saying boat sank yeah i mean you boats and you know you boats enjoyed it you boats did enjoy it yeah that's a good exception the disdain you have for even being part of this segment it's a wafting off of you it's practically you may have to get a rag and wife off that photo of brock obama some of your disdain may may left a residue. Oh, that? According to a new study, last month's Sturgis motorcycle rally in South Dakota was a coronavirus super spreading event that could have been responsible for over 250,000 cases.

Sounds like hell got a few more angels. It's bad, John. In fact, I'd argue, it's bad to the bone. Who would have thunk it, you know? AstraZeneca halted its coronavirus vaccine trials after someone in the clinical trials developed an inflammatory syndrome in their spinal cord, but the vaccine trial resumed when it turned out

that the central nervous system was just throwing a gender reveal party. That's a complicated one. What actually i don't get it i kept it in just because i think it's funny to imagine a gender reveal party out of the central nervous system i don't know i was just very happy about the news that it resumed there there was a whole i go down the rabbit hole on a lot of the vaccine stuff because i'm want a vaccine the the disease that they thought it was originally suddenly there became experts everywhere on twitter about a very specific disease that those people definitely had never heard of before you're always one wikipedia entry away from expertise that was it and. And they were all like copying each other's tweets.

That's a terrible place. I don't know who needs to see this. Leaving this right here. But inflammatory syndrome. Transverse myuritis. RT if you agree. According to the newest social progress index, a global report card, there are only three countries in the world where people are worse off than they were in 2011. Brazil, Hungary, and the United States.

But personally, I don't know what they're talking about. This morning, I felt great knowing that my mask was protecting me from both the unchecked pandemic and the soot-filled orange sky. It's a twofer. It's a twofer. After last weekend's revelation that Trump hates the troops, people only a week ago, seven days since we found out Trump says he hates the troops all the time.

Cameras are turned off. He shuts the door and he goes, I just gotta vent about the troops some more. Give me that chief of staff. Live troops, dead troops, wounded troops. I hate them all. No love lost between Trump and the troops. News at 11.

Anyway, people thought it couldn't get any worse for him. But then this week, in anticipation of his new book, Bob Woodward released audio of Donald Trump admitting to downplaying the coronavirus threat. Here's the clip. Now it's turning out it's not just old people, Bob. Some startling facts came out. It's not just old people. Yeah, exactly. To plenty of young people. It's clear just from what's on the public record that you went through a pivot on this to,

oh my God, the gravity is almost inexplicable and unexplainable. Well, I think, Bob, really, to be honest with you, I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down. Yes. Because I don't want to create a panic. Trump defended his remarks to Bob Woodward, which took place in March, saying, what I want to show is I want to show calmness.

I'm the leader of the country. I can't be jumping up and down and scaring people. I don't want to scare people. He went on, scared of a new feeling. Antifa will destroy the suburbs and your marriage. Your wife isn't just a gettable suburban voter. She will leave you for Antifa. And then it will just be you and the two kids and you are not ready to help little Jennifer when her first period comes. And deep down, you know that little Joey Jr.

is clearly gay. And you're not so much anti-gay as completely ill-equipped as a man to talk about the complicated feelings that raises because of an unbroken chain of parenting decisions of generations made under oppressive, toxic masculinity. That is what awaits you if Joe Biden wins. Your son is gay and your wife is gone.

And now you're at CVS in a mask asking a stranger about tampons. That is the future liberals want. It's interesting. A couple seconds into that, I thought this is going to be one of those long ones. You're just saying I made ones. Your disdain. I'll be honest. I knew you knew. And that's why I said, I felt you go still. And it made it hard to commit.

Made it hard to commit. It made it hard to commit. I don't really, I mean, there's nothing we can do. We cannot make Bob Woodward go back in time and tell us that he knew this in March. And it's not a real like teachable moment. It's not like we need to send the message

that whenever you're interviewing a lying neo-fascist in the Oval Office and he reveals something important, you must get the news out to the world quickly. It's not like that's a common thing that happens. We're not gonna have this sort of event happen again in the future. That said, I think he could have let that clip out of the bag.

Save all your other news, plenty of news in there, Bob, but just give us the clip. Here's my thing on this. I finished up the workday yesterday. I went back home, which is walking out of my office into the living room, talked to Emily for the first time. And she's like, so what do you think about the Bob Woodward? And I was like, oh, she wants to talk about the Bob Woodward revelations. What do you think about the Bob Woodward? And I was like, oh, she wants to talk about the Bob Woodward revelations. What do you think about the whole Bob Woodward not telling anyone what he found out in the interview until now? And I was like, so that's the controversy we're talking about. The president just admitted to downplaying the fucking coronavirus

that's killed 200,000 people, but we're all going to talk about fucking whether Bob Woodward should have let the cat out of the bag a little earlier. Well, so here's the thing. I agree. Obviously, in terms of politics, I want to focus on what Trump did. I'm not trying to, this is not going to be in my Joe Biden message pitch. No, I know. But just because we agree about Biden, I just want to talk about this one side thing.

Well, so I tried to think about, first I was like, this is an outrage. You know, let's all drive Bob Woodward out of town. Let's get him out. Let's throw him overboard. Finally, once and for all. Put him on a Trump boat. Sick of him. Every president comes into office and they cannot resist his charms.

It's always a mistake to talk to him. And they all do it. They're all like, yeah, but I'm the one that's going to get better at Bob Woodward. It's up to me. But I will say that you get people to be more open in these interviews when you're doing a book by saying the interview that we're doing right now, nothing will come out until X date. And therefore you get more from people by promising them that it won't come out. Now that raises the question, why did the Trump White House and the president think, well, none of this is going gonna come out until eight weeks before the

election so i should be okay just unburdening myself whatever horrible secrets i need to tell this fucking stranger who's who's famous who's famous for taking down a president what's great about it too is um people were accidentally sharing a tweet from trump from 2018 calling the previous bob woodward book a scam yeah and it's like i actually believe they forgot that bob woodward had already fucked them once no apparently trump agreed to the interview this time because he's mad that his staff didn't let him do the interview last time and he thinks he thought this time i'll fix it and i'll make the book better because more trump is always the solution i mean he made the book better he wasn't as a producer

as a producer he excelled he is a showman he is a showman pop woodward's here oh good send him in um can you just make sure you put 17 other meetings on the calendar no i'm going to talk to him now but then i want to make sure just set 17 other meetings on the calendar? No, I'm going to talk to him now, but then I want to make sure. Just set 17 other meetings. I want to go through all of it. Just schedule him between Hannity and Laura. Yeah, mark one of the interviews Khashoggi, because I don't want to forget. I don't want to forget to say something so shockingly heinous.

No, this is what I've been saying. I want to know what the meeting is, so put Khashoggi in the fucking meeting so I know to be disgusting. Thank you, dear. He calls people dear, so. Bring me my Diet Coke. Meanwhile, wow, long time between these two sentences, a whistleblower has accused a top

official at the Department of Homeland Security of downplaying the threats from violent white supremacy and Russian election interference, including allegations that acting Secretary Chad Wolf told him not to disseminate a report on Russian disinformation because it made the president look bad. So does Don Jr., but we can't ban him. You know? If the government stops putting out reports that make Trump look bad,

will we down to news of pandas fucking at the National Zoo? Maybe they can put Little Richard on a stamp. I like that you picked out Don Jr. There was no reason to, but it was just good. He needs a little, you know, he needs some shit. Don Jr. is worse than Eric because Eric still has some shame in his eyes. Eric's still doing it for money. Don seems to be doing it for the love of the game And that's appalling Remember when we had the debate though About who should go to jail When we thought that everyone was going to jail Because of the Mueller investigation

And it was like Do you rather see Don Jr. or Jared? I at the time was a Don Jr. person I think I have moved squarely in the Jared camp Jared is the one that I want to see go down first Because he is a smarmy, little, useless fuck, is my view of Jared.

I think the reason it would feel better for Jared to go to jail is because it would surprise Jared more. Yeah. Like, deep down, Don Jr. knows he belongs there. With just over 50 days left until Election Day,

we've seen some positive polls. We've had a few doozies, including an NBC poll that showed Florida in a tie, which to me is just a reminder that we need to make sure the only person in Florida who just stands by and watches as shit goes down is Jerry Falwell Jr. Nice.

A lot of traction with that. A lot of traction with that. The gift that keeps on giving. Some people say that's kink shaming. But how do you know my kink isn't making fun of Jerry Favreau Jr.? My kink is three week old jokes. My kink is jokes that had a sell by date with August on them. That's your kink.

Before we let you go, how are you feeling about the polls, John? I feel great about the polls. I feel good about polls, John? I feel great about the polls. I feel good about the polls today. I feel bad about the polls the day of the Florida thing. You know, it's touch and go. It's touch and go. I think that with each passing day, the steadiness of the race makes me feel better. I'll be generally fine about the polls until we hit the debates.

The debates are the last bump in the road before election day. You know, people are always, I know they're texting you, they're always texting me like, what's going to happen? How are you feeling? Like I have some privileged access to information. But what I, what I've basically been feeling is obviously Joe Biden wins in a fair fight. The question is how, how unfair will things be on election day? You know? Well, that's why i i think he's a you know seven and a half point lead at 538 by the end of today not that i keep these things um in my memory you know and refresh it every five seconds but i think that's why he needs a lead that's like six or seven going into election day in the polls to feel good about vote by mail going well Trump shenanigans going well polling errors

Surprises here and there like a seven-point lead I think can withstand all of that He gets down to five he gets down to four a little more anxiety you start Yeah, right You say seven points you give Trump a couple of those points for the Electoral College advantage you give a couple of those points for Waiting for mail-in ballots you give Trump a couple of points For voter suppression and all of a sudden, seven points is close. Seven points is terrifying. It'll be terrifying no matter what we do. If the polling average is what it is today, the day before election day, I'll feel pretty good. But we'll see. We'll see, Jon. There you go.

Jon Favreau. Thanks for having me. Thank you for being here. What a delight. I love this show. I'm a big fan Yeah Yeah for sure Right back at ya Love the wilderness I think you went to Check out the wilderness Season 2 A lot of great interviews there

He went and talked to All kinds of people I think Oklahoma I don't know Somewhere Went someplace Thanks to Jon Favreau For joining

When we come back Dr. Ali Mattu Hey don't go anywhere. There's more of Love It or Leave It coming up. And we're back. In the final eight weeks of this campaign, there is a very good chance that our brains are going to turn to mush. And since we ask a lot of you, our faithful listeners,

we wanted to make sure that we're taking care of ourselves during the homestretch. And so here for a mental health check-in, please welcome back to the show, clinical psychologist, Dr. Alimatu. Thank you so much for being here. Hey, John. Thanks for having me back. Good to have you. So before we started recording, I asked you, how are you doing? And you said, do you want the good answer or do you want the real answer? Yeah. Do you want the general salutation answer or do you want like what's actually going on? Right. And because, you know, you're in Northern California where the fire has been bad.

And we were talking about how, you know, during this period of time when we've been stuck at home, you know, you look to these small comforts. Maybe it's going outside and going for a walk. And then that's taken away because the air quality is bad. because the air quality is bad. And I think wherever you are in the country, I think there's been that experience of the last four years into the last six months, which is you just feel like you're getting buffeted again and again and again.

And as we head into the last 50 days of this election, I think a lot of people are trying to figure out, how do I shake myself out of this? How do I get motivated? How do I find a little reservoir of energy, of motivation, of enthusiasm to do my part for the last 50 days? What do you say to people who are looking for a way to create that pivot?

I think a lot of this comes down to your values. And for a lot of us, our values have changed dramatically in 2020. So I want to challenge everyone listening to think about one year, two years, five years down the road. How do you want to remember your time right now, your time leading up to what's probably going to be one of the most important elections, at least of, of my life that I can think of, like all the consequences, everything that's that's weighing on this election. Like, how do you want to remember that time? What stories do you want to share? What do you want to be known for doing during this time?

And if you do that exercise, it can help you to identify what are your values right now? What's really important to you right now? And then you can think about how do I take actions that are consistent with those values? Because we have a lot of elicitors in California. Right now we're experiencing these fires. You're in Northern California where you've been dealing with just absolutely horrific air quality, not to mention evacuations and the damage caused by these fires in LA. Today, the air quality has been particularly bad as well. What are the coping mechanisms that are available? I mean, it's such a hard... Hey, we haven't dealt with this economically,

epidemiologically, environmentally. So we're left with one thing and one thing only, which is psychologically. What is the coping mechanism? What is a recommendation? What advice do you have as somebody going through this yourself for what people can do when they feel sort of trapped?

You know, someone sent me a meme the other day, which was the image of the Titanic sinking from the movie and all those folks playing the violin. And the caption was, therapists teaching you to use mindfulness over Zoom to like cope with the pandemic. And that's kind of what I feel like with that question, because yeah, what we need right now is a lot of systemic change. Like we, what we need to do is address a lot of the things that made California and other parts of the country really vulnerable to these intense climate crises. We need to look at the policies. We need to look at so much sort of stuff. But that's, yeah, I mean, that's long term. That's nothing that's going to help you to get through today and help you to get through the next few days. Honestly, John,

I don't have a good answer for that question. Yeah. I think a lot of this comes down to your personal health and safety has to be number one. So hopefully you're not in an area where you have to evacuate. If you do, you got to get out of there. And then if you are in an area like I am, where the air quality is very bad and unsafe to go out, you can't really go out. You have to take care of your own safety first. That's number one. And then number two, how to cope with this is, you know, thinking about what's helped you in the past few months. And for me, a big part of it has been connecting with other people. I know last time we were on, we talked about all the different reasons why Zoom sucks. I'm kind of, I'm like way over Zoom hangouts.

It just, I'm done with it. I had this one really bad Zoom family hangout where it was like 10 different windows and all these kids running around and just like chaos being like pumped into my ears. I'm done with those kind of things. But what's been helpful for me is like novelty. Novelty and structure in my hangout.

Like whether that means I got a nephew and I bought the Switch. It took me a long time to find it. But like one of my life's missions now is to get good enough at Smash Brothers to beat him. I thought I got really close last week and I like destroyed him five games in a row and then I found out he had been holding out on me and he just like wiped me after that. But it gives me some structure and it's something new and different that really helps me to connect with someone else. So novelty and like structured social interaction is really helpful at this time. Our days look so similar. We haven't really had a lot of new

experiences. I was talking to my wife yesterday and we were talking about how we couldn't remember anything we've done this summer. Like I have no memory of what separates August, right? Like, cause there's no, there's no new experiences to anchor our memories at all. So with the absence of like new experiences, like going to a coffee shop and running into a new person or some wild news thing that happened at the office, we have to create novelty. So the people that you're close to finding a way to do something new with them, that's one thing that might be able to help us cope when the world outside is quite literally burning. I like that actually, find ways to create novelty. I want to ask one kind of philosophical question, then I want to

ask one kind of more practical question. The philosophical question is, it seems like, I think one of the reasons it's almost laughable to say, how do you cope when the world is on fire is that somehow it seems like a lot of what psychology is about, it's about processing trauma and it's about helping people through hard times, but it's predicated on being outside of the emergency, right? That like the typical way we talk about things is, you know, if you're in an emergency, get out of the emergency. But we've been in an emergency now for six months, right? We're in an emergency because of the pandemic for six months. We've been in a political emergency for four years. I mean, and right now,

even, you know, there's all this now research saying that we are in a kind of clinical depression as a society, right? And that's not something so much of American culture is built around. You can solve your problem. You can have age, you have agency, you can address what's wrong, but do we have the tools right now? Are we being honest when we try to think about this as sort of something to cope with rather than what it is, which is an emergency that we're not on the other side of? Like, how do you, how do you strike that balance between trying to create agency for people while also recognizing that a lot of this is outside of our control? Yeah, yeah, that's it's that's a question I've been struggling with myself a lot. And so let's work our way through it. So in an emergency, it's about psychological first aid, getting people connected to help getting

them information they need, that's going to get them to safety, and then helping them to connect with sources of support. Whether that's friends, family, someone to talk to, doesn't have to be a professional, just someone else. That's like the immediate crisis stuff. And then you have all of this traumatic grief. You know, all of us have lost something. Some of us have lost people, but we've all lost a way of life. And many of us have lost liberties and freedoms and, and, and all of that as well. You know, one of the things I'm struggling with is we haven't had time to stop and grieve. Like yesterday was incredibly difficult for me because I looked outside and I saw nothing but orange.

And my daughter was asking me, why are there fires? The trees are sad. Why isn't anyone stopping the fires? What's wrong with people? And I didn't have a good answer for her. It made me realize how much I haven't grieved the loss of this climate that I grew up with.

I grew up in Northern California and never lived through anything like this before and now this is our new reality. We are going to have more wildfires so we haven't had a moment to really stop and grieve and grieving is all about finding some way to experience part of the emotions you're going through without it overwhelming you and overwhelming what you can do in the day. But John, there's like so much stuff keeps happening. So many new emotions are created. There's so many more losses. It's so hard to grieve all this stuff.

There's no textbook answer to how to do that. And then the big philosophical question you raise is about equity. And it's about our systems. And it's about government. And it's about a lot of big scale changes that need to happen. I have realized how much inequity influences your experience of a crisis until probably these wildfires on top of the pandemic. And now I'm getting a much better picture of, wow, well, when you grow up in poverty, how does that influence your ability to navigate other crises that occur. We've known that the coronavirus, it impacts certain populations far worse than others and I'm only now beginning to appreciate how layers of inequity really magnify each

other. The only way to really deal with that, it's not mindfulness, it's not pulling yourself up by the bootstraps, it's not, you know, deep breathing. That's not going to solve these problems that require systemic change. And that that requires collective political action. That's what we really need. We need all this stuff. But if I had to pick one thing, we need to address a lot of our inequities. So to that end, this is the practical question. All right, we talked about creating novelty as a way to kind of get through this period, even if it's in your home,

even if it's a new game to play over Zoom, whatever it may be. But what is a kind of practical tip for people that agree with you, but they're feeling the weight of the last six months, the last four years, this period? What is a tip that you have to say, okay, you have 50 days, snap out of it, for lack

of a better term. It's unfair. I'm not telling anybody to snap out of it. I can't snap out of it. I keep trying to snap out of it, and I'm still in it. I wish. Yeah, I know. What is a tip to get people over that little step, even if they're feeling lousy, even

if they're feeling sad or even feeling depressed, feeling kind of the absence of motivation, the absence of emotion during this time. What is a kind of tip to help people maybe not get through that all the way, but still take action while they're experiencing these kinds of painful things? The core dialectic of therapy is acceptance and change. You need both.

You can't do one without the other. They're both related to one another. So before we can take action, before we can do everything that's needed, You need both. You can't do one without the other. They're both related to one another. So before we can take action, before we can do everything that's needed in the next couple of months, we have to work on the acceptance side. And what I mean by that is we all need to find some way to experience, acknowledge, and come to terms with what we have gone through and continue to go through in 2020 the losses we have experienced the grief we are holding on to we have to find some way to experience that i was so overwhelmed yesterday i couldn't get anything done and that's one of the big frustrations for me is like i'm still expected to do all my work as if the world is not on fire. Like, how do you do that? Yeah, you know, so I got so overwhelmed with this, I just spent like an hour

writing on my phone, how I'm feeling and what I'm going through. And I just posted that on social media. And the feedback I was getting from friends and family and people I don't know, it helped me to realize that I'm not alone in this feeling. And what was unique to me is feeling so crappy and feeling so bad and also feeling guilty for having those feelings because I shouldn't, because I haven't lost my home. I can still work from home, you know, but like my pain is not predicated on someone else's pain. You know, we can both be in pain, even if I have things that are keeping me safe, right? So we all need to find some way to experience, acknowledge and share that grief, not to the point where we're overwhelmed, but just enough,

like release a little valve of that grief. And then we might be able to move on. It's acceptance and change. You need both. You can't do one without the other. And then maybe take just a little bit of the anger that's left, put it in a time capsule deep inside your heart. And then when this is over and we start to forget, every once in a while, we open it to remind ourselves about what this time was like, so that we never let it happen again. John, you know, I'm a big supporter and anger, anger mobilizes, it snaps you out of your out of your day. We need some of that anger, hold on to it. We need some of that for the next 50 days to get

us to that finish line. Think about the injustices that have occurred this year and the last four years and turn it into something good. Dr. Ali Mattu, thank you so much for your time. This is a great conversation. I really appreciate it. And hang in there up there in the burning part of Northern California from here down in the burning part of Southern California. Doing my best. Hope to see you on the other side of all of this. When we come back, we'll enlist the help of some listeners to get their families to make sure they have a plan to vote. Don't go anywhere.

This is Love It or Leave It, and there's more on the way. And we're back. And we're back. This week, Vote Save America pushed Get Your Shit Together Day, where we encourage you and everyone you know to do research on voting in your state to make sure you have a plan to vote and everyone in your life has a plan to vote. While this campaign may have reached the young Instagram family members of society, we realize not all of our older Boomer Biden voters might have gotten the memo. So this week, we're going to chat with a few of our listeners and then call your families

to make sure they have a plan to vote. First, we're going to talk to Sarah. Hello. Hi, is this Sarah? This is Sarah. Hi. Hello. Thanks for being here. Yes. So Sarah, all right. Do you have, what part of the country are you in right now? So I have been quarantined in Seattle. I got a coronavirus test last week and actually today flew back to the East Coast to spend some time with family in Delaware. And do you have a plan to vote to make sure you vote? I do. I am registered in Washington, which means they'll mail the ballot directly to me. And then my post drop box is like two blocks away from where I live. Do you know if all the members of your family have a plan to vote?

I think they do. I've sent quite a few links about getting absentee ballots. So who are we going to talk to today? We're going to talk to my mother. And where is she? She's in Delaware. All right. And we're going to make sure she... Yes. It's very quickly coming to its deadline to register for a absentee ballot. All right. Let's get her on the blower. What's your mom's name? Brigitta. Brigitta? Yes. Okay. Hi, is this Brigitte? Hello. Hello. Who's this?

Hi, this is John. I'm here with your daughter, Sarah. No. Yeah. Is this like a recording? It is. It's not even like one. It is one. You're on a podcast called Love It or Leave It.

No. We like to say you're on with John. That's what we say here. Wait, wait. Are you like a robocall or something? No. No. I'm a real person person i'm 100% real

because you can tell i'm real because i'm responding to what you're saying exactly right like this would be such a good robot we do not have robots this good sarah's mom no no no no no no this isn't really the real john lovett like from love it or leave it yes from love it or leave it no like for real like at 8.15 Eastern time, it's really you? Yeah, I mean, it's, yeah, I'm on the West Coast, so it's 5.15 still kind of inside of the workday for me. What, I mean, I can, what can I do to prove it to you that it's, that it's me? I mean, I don't, it is me. There's a dog here named Pundit.

Oh, you do have a dog named Pundit, and you're engaged. I am, yeah, that's right. No. That's right. No. That's right. But I could have faked that. A lot of people would know that. This is surreal. This is a joke.

It isn't. I mean, what lengths would people go? Think about how stupid a prank it would be for someone to pretend to be a podcast host. No, for real. That is so lame. I'm just tickled. For real, I'm talking to John Lovett. Here's the thing. I can see Sarah, your daughter's face. And she's like, Jesus, mom, can you get it together? No, no, that's not the kind of look she'd have. She'd have like an F you mom, like get real. I, maybe these are subtle distinctions. That's about right. So bring it up.

We are calling to make sure that you have registered and are signed up to get your absentee ballot in Delaware. Have you done that? So I got an email from like Pod Save America group or something on that first day that that happened. And my daughter sent me a text and she said, mom, you've got to like do this absentee ballot thing. So like I did. So you did it for real. Yeah. Just so you know, you can go to votesaveamerica.com slash states. It's done. It's done. I adopted Pennsylvania. You adopted

Pennsylvania. I did. I did. That's great. And then I said, like my daughter said, I have to get involved because, you know, I used to be a Republican. Oh, really? Like registered as a Republican. When did you when did you make the switch? After the 2016 election, when I like I got real. Too late. Too late. Yeah. Well, I know it's too late, but I didn't vote for him.

I did not vote for him. But I thought I was supposed to be a Republican because that's what everybody told me. But I saw the light and I changed my registration. I'm proud of you. Yes. Thank you. So now I have to take this class so that I can make all these phone calls to get other people to go on your website and register to vote. So here's my question for you, Brigitte, which is that Sarah wasn't even sure if you had properly signed up for an absentee ballot. And it sounds to me like, not only have you done that, but you've gone the next step and you're volunteering and you're helping.

So my question is what, what is this? She would be very upset if I didn't. What is this communications breakdown between the two of you? Sarah, can you please talk to your mother more? I don't know what's going on here, but it feels like there's. She lives in Seattle and I live on the West Coast. So the three hours... You live on the East Coast, mom. I mean, I live on the East Coast.

You live in Delaware. Oh, she's here. Hi, Sarah. So she lives on the West Coast and I live the East Coast. So sometimes we have a little bit of a breakdown. Uh-huh. But that doesn't... I mean, you know, I just want to make sure you're communicating well, you know?

We are. Are you for real? Oh, mom. Still for real. I mean, but so you feel like you have a good... Sarah, you feel like you have a good communication with your mother? That's probably pretty good. Clearly, we're not talking about her online browsing history. If I didn't know she went to vote Save America. You told me to and I want you to know I did do it. And you clearly don't listen to me often enough to give me the confidence.

Okay, well, I don't always listen to you. But for the most part... Can we please use our feelings words? I would like... Can we just start with I feel like rather than these accusations? Like, this is how it makes me feel. I feel like you don't give me credit for being open to change. And I've been open to change.

Now, Sarah. Like, I understand now my wrong ways of being registered as a Republican. Now, Sarah, your mother is reaching out to you and she's saying she understands that she's changed. She's learned. She wants to know that you acknowledge that. I feel heard.

I feel listened to. I feel seen. Well, I think we've had a real breakthrough today. Is this really, Jen Lovett? Oh, Oh my God. You got to get past it. It's just so we're so far beyond that part of it. I just want to make sure. Do you know, I went to see you. So for mother's day in 2018, she gave me tickets to go see you in Philadelphia. Still seems like a robocall. Like why would someone take a Thursday night at eight o'clock to call me? It's 5 where I'm at. It's 5 here.

I know, but I just... It's not that late. But I feel special. You should feel special. I do feel special. You're special, Brigitte. Sarah's special. Thank you both for being here. What a delight this is. Thank you both for making sure you're registered and using Vote Save America and getting involved. We are. We're going to get other people registered.

Thank you very much. Bye to both of you. Thank you. We're going to get other people registered. Thank you very much. Bye to both of you. Thank you. This was a delight. Bye. Bye. Hi, is this Melinda? Yes.

Hi, you're on with John, as we say. We are calling people because we want to make sure that, what part of the country are you in, by the way? We're in Pittsburgh. You're in Pittsburgh? Mm-hmm. Well, look, I'm a Pennsylvania adopter, all right? You are in my state. So it is my duty to make sure... Look, I see you got a call, Congress sweatshirt.

I know that you have a plan to vote. Yes, absolutely. You're ready to go. What's your plan? Voting by mail. You're voting by mail. Mm-hmm. But we also want to make sure that everybody reaches out to their family members to make

sure they have a plan. I'm sorry. Go get whatever game you want. Switch, yep, whatever you want. Yeah. No, I like it. Are you serious? 10 minutes. Wow, wow.

Only 10 minutes? Yes. Can we make it 15? Can we make it 15? Yes, 15 minutes. And Mario All-Stars? Yep, go ahead. Go ahead.

Thank you. Go on. Yes, go ahead. I love it. I'm sorry. I told them I had to do this. I think it's awesome. I like it.

Okay. So we need to bring the same enthusiasm that Shepard is bringing to haranguing you and just totally, totally taking advantage of the moment to get as much video game and screen time as possible, which I really appreciate. We want to make sure everybody's reaching out to their families to make sure they have a plan. So today we're going to reach out to somebody from your family and talk to them. Who are we calling? My mom.

Your mom. And where's your mom? Where's your mom live? She lives in southern Indiana. Seymour, Indiana. Okay. Middle of nowhere. So let's get her on the phone and make sure she's got a plan to vote. Okay. And what's your mom's name? Ann.

Hello? Hi, is this Ann? Yes, it is. Hi, Ann. My name is John. I host a podcast. I'm also here with your daughter, Melinda. Hi.

Hi, Melinda. So we are calling because we are now just a few weeks out from the election, and we're just making sure that everybody has a plan to make sure that they can vote, vote early, vote safely. Anne, do you have a plan to vote? Yes, I do. My husband and I have already each individually mailed in our request for mail-in ballots. Our county commissioner, we live in Indiana, and we're over 65, so they called us to see if we wanted one

and we we did and so there the commissioner uh posted online that they would be mailing all the ballots out September 18th so we haven't received the ballot okay great we got the request in well you know that if you need any more information or if your ballot doesn't come you can go to vote save america slash states and you can go to to Indiana and you can find out how to make sure you can get that ballot or make sure you can cast a vote. Okay? Yeah, we'll do that. How are you doing in Indiana? We're doing pretty well. It's a little red here. It's too red. Our county's very red. Your county's red? Your county's red. But do you have a Biden sign in your lawn? Not yet. I'm buying one. You're going to put one up?

Oh, yes, I am. Will it bother your neighbors? We're going to put up the Biden sign, but we're also going to get motion sensing lights on the front porch because we know it will be endangered. You're surrounded on all sides. Is that Gary? I see, you know, the Zoom, it says your name is Gary. It's Ann and Gary, huh? Right.

Right. And wait, so are your neighbors conservative? I would say we have a mix around here. Well, our neighbor runs for state representative. Yeah, our state representative actually just lives about a block and a half from us, and he would be extremely conservative. He's very pro-gun. He's opposed to gun registration or basically gun laws of any kind.

It's Jim Lucas. You've probably heard of him. He's had to apologize for stuff. But there is an independent that petitioned to be on the ballot this fall because she didn't make it in the spring. And she got enough signatures that she is now going to be on the ballot. And I know her personally. And you're volunteering for her? Yeah.

She's speaking Saturday. So I was hoping to go talk to her there. Well, that's great. Now, Ann and Gary, is there anything you want to ask her? Anything you need to know? Anything you want to talk about? Mary, is there anything you want to ask her? Anything you need to know?

Anything you want to talk about? I would like to know the most effective way for someone like me or Gary to approach people that we know. Well, I just know people who say, this is why I'm voting Republican. It's because of the Second Amendment. It's because they believe in God. You know, they have this big, long list of things making it sound like it's their duty. But, you know, I feel like the Biden-Harris platform is pro all of those things. It's just in a different way.

Yeah, it seems like... And these are women that I'm talking about. So many people let Trump or the Republicans define for them what the Democrat platform is, which makes no sense at all. Yeah. So I'm not sure how you combat that. Yeah, I mean, it's hard. It's hard. I think there's two things. I think one, I think it's a slow process, right? You know, I think we're dealing with a long a lot of propaganda, a lot of misinformation, a lot of attacks over a really long time. But I think the most important thing, given that you're you know, you're in in that deep red part of Indiana is just telling people how you feel and why. Because because they don't know Joe Biden, they don't know Kamala Harris, but they know you. Right. And they know that they like you and they know that you're pretty good.

We have never, ever had a political sign in our yard. Well, we're going to do it this year. Melinda helped us with that. You know, she said that, yeah, she told us that if we had an arson in our yard, people driving by might feel reassured that there's other people that want to vote for them. I think that's right. I think that's important. I think you got to put a, you got to put a literal stake in the ground. And then the other piece of this too is, you know, part of our job is to, you know, make sure we're persuading people, trying to convince people. But we all can do our part to reach out to non-voters or people and get out the vote. And, you know, you may not be able to convince a Republican to vote for Joe Biden, but you can convince two people who might not have voted to vote for Joe Biden. And that's just as good. Okay. You know, you're, you're, you're, you're fighting the fight in Indiana and I'm grateful for it. And if you, and you can always

volunteer at Vote Save America and make calls, you may not be able to convince some of your neighbors, but you can reach people in Pennsylvania where Melinda is. You can reach people in Michigan and Wisconsin and North Carolina and Arizona and Florida. And then if they vote for Trump, well, you got five votes for Biden and that's pretty good too. Okay. So how do we make the call? How do we do that? I'm so glad you asked. If you go to votesaveamerica.com, votesaveamerica.com, you can adopt a state. So Melinda's in Pennsylvania, you can adopt Pennsylvania and become an honorary adopter of Pennsylvania. And then once you sign up, you'll start getting emails and you'll start getting tips on ways you can help. And you can make calls from your couch. You can write letters. There's all kinds of ways that you can volunteer from home because we're in the midst of this pandemic. from home because we're in the midst of this pandemic. And if you have any questions, there's a community at Adopt-A-State that can help answer your questions. So all you have to do, the first step is go to votesaveamerica.com and sign up, and then you'll get a bunch of

information about ways that you can help. Okay. That helps. You know, thank you so much. I want you to know that I met Shepard, your grandson, and I just want you to know that Shepard saw that Melinda was on camera, and he took advantage to make sure that he could sneak away and play Mario All-Star. And I just found the kind of, there's, so I just think politics runs in this family. There's a real, there's a real politician vibe in a great way that I'm getting from Shepard. I just think it's very exciting to see. It comes honestly to him, definitely. And Gary, Melinda, thank you so much for joining us.

And thanks for making sure you have a plan to vote and for volunteering. Okay, John. Good talking to you. Thank you. Bye-bye. Thank you. Bye.

Bye. When we come back, I'll talk to Dr. Adil Rishi about Daylight Saving Time. Hey, don't go anywhere. There's more of Love It or Leave It coming up. And we're back. He is a pulmonologist and lead author of a study published by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine about ending daylight saving time.

Please welcome Dr. Mohamed Adil Rishi. Thanks for being here. Thank you for having me. Look, this is a you for having me. Look, this is a pet issue for me. I consider myself to be one of the world's leading podcast experts on Daylight Saving Time. Before I get to what your conclusions were with the team, can you talk a little bit about the harm that comes specifically from losing and gaining an hour as we currently do? Our sleep is already under a lot of stress from everything that has happened over the last 50 years.

Electricity, television, and then smartphones. And the amount of time that we now spend sleeping in bed has shrunk already significantly. We're sleeping less and less. And then, boom, in March, you wake up one hour early. And so people who are already at risk start having problems. I mean, there is increased risk of heart attack, increased risk of stroke, increased risk of atrial fibrillation in that first week after that switch happened. And it's not one study. I mean, there are now several demonstrating that that initial switch

is bad. Now I want to get to what I consider to be the more controversial conclusion that you draw, which is you say, all right, places shouldn't switch. They should pick a time. And you say in the paper that basically while there's less evidence for this than there is evidence that the switch itself is painful, you're recommending a permanent standard time as opposed to permanent daylight saving time. Can you talk about what the evidence is that suggests permanent standard time as opposed to permanent daylight saving time. Can you talk about what the evidence is that suggests permanent standard time is better than permanent daylight saving time?

What will happen if you ask everybody to do daylight savings time all the time, especially these people who are at risk, but even those people who are not nearly as much at risk will be working on a social clock that's a little bit misaligned from their internal clock because we know that standard time is more aligned to your internal clock than daylight savings time. How can that be true everywhere? So it seems like there's some evidence, right, that daylight saving time on the western edges of time zones, it basically does mean that people get lay sleep. It can be light out till 9 p.m., maybe even a little bit later, what have you.

And so they go to sleep later. They get into this bad cycle. That seems true on the western edge places like Michigan. But it seems to me that if it's true that standard time is better for Michigan, wouldn't that exact same logic mean that daylight saving time, permanent, is better for Maine and Massachusetts? That if standard time is better for, say, Nevada, that daylight saving time is better for California, Oregon, and Washington? Again, you know, time zones are also an artificial construct, right? Of course. You know, you cross this line and now you're an hour behind. So, I mean, I think

you're right. I mean, there certainly will be people who would be adversely affected one way or the other. But I think what the evidence, you know, is that in general, I think standard time would be more aligned with more people. I mean, you can't, you know, there certainly will be people who probably benefit more from being on daylight savings time. Standard time still, I think, for more people would keep them more aligned. That might be true. It might be better for more people on the western edge of time zones. But presumably, the further east you go, the more people would benefit from daylight

saving time. I mean, ultimately, if the goal is to kind of have as many people where solar noon is as close to noon as possible, there's just going to be some places based on where they are in the time zone where 1130 a.m. is when the sun peaks. So sunrise and sunset are a little bit earlier. And some people are going to have like, you know, 1230, 1 p.m. solar noon and sunrise and sunset are going to be a bit later. My proposal, my view is that based on the evidence, it seems to me that while there are some states that should remain on permanent standard time, the option should exist for states to stay on permanent daylight saving time. And this way, you give the states the choice and you allow states to decide which direction

they want to go. Because I think right now, given the politics, there aren't a lot of states that currently do daylight saving time that are going to abandon it for standard time. But they might abandon it for permanent daylight saving time. Well, I think that's an interesting thought. States can go to permanent standard time, so that does not require a change in the law. Right, but that's my point, which is that they don't want to do that because daylight saving time is ultimately pretty popular. You may be right about the health effects, but in terms of how people feel about it, daylight saving time is popular. So people aren't going to switch to standard time, but they might get rid of the switch

if enough places are given the option for permanent daylight saving time. The usual opinion is that maybe daylight saving time is more popular. I think it has not been, you know, rigorously investigated. But I agree with you. I think health benefits are potential all year round. Standard time is just one piece of what needs to be looked at. I agree with you. I think health benefits are potential all year round, standard time, is just one piece of what needs to be looked at. So when ESM comes up with this position statement, we are not stating what can be the economic benefits or harmful effects of permanent

daylight saving time. We're making a public health statement. And that's how this should be looked at as a public health statement. There are other factors at play that probably will have to be looked at when a final decision is made. Yeah, I agree with that. I also do think that there's some confusion amongst people about what standard time is, what daylight saving time is, because people like the later sunsets, but they don't like losing the hour of sleep that it requires to get there. And so there's a little bit of confusion as to what they're exactly for. I noticed this myself as somebody who talks about this, that people say, oh, I hate the time jump. I want to stay on daylight saving time or what have you. There's some confusion out there amongst people about what the terms mean and exactly what goes on with the time change.

people about what the terms mean and exactly what goes on with the time change. You know, it's interesting you brought this up because in Europe, you know, European Union has decided to abandon daylight savings. And, you know, the survey that went out to the public before they made that decision, they referred daylight savings time as summertime and summertime as wintertime. Who wants to be on wintertime? Nobody wants wintertime. Give me summertime, any day. But you're exactly right. How you phrase the question affects how people answer it. Understanding what you're getting into, I think is very important.

There's plenty of evidence around the time switch being absolutely terrible. We should get rid of it. It seems to me that given the variance between states, between sunset and sunrise times, there just isn't enough data right now to convincingly say that nationally we should be switching to standard time. To me, it's murky enough to suggest that really what we need to do is just give a third option. You're right. Right now, states can choose the time jump or they can choose standard time. They have consistently refused to choose standard time with the exception of a few places over time. A bunch of states have passed laws that would switch them to permanent daylight saving time if it was an option. Purely from a public health perspective, if you could choose, would you give states the option to choose permanent daylight saving time if it meant they could avoid the time jump?

Do you think that that's a public health benefit? I think elimination of daylight savings time switches is very important. I think there's important evidence that that's just not good. You know, I think we would, as we say in our statement, prefer standard time as being permanent because you have to remember, you know, again, you talk about where people are located in their time zone and how standard time, for example, may, you talk about where people are located in a time zone and how standard time, for example, may not be as well aligned for them as it might be for people in other parts of their time zone. But again, you know, if you start cherry picking like that, for example, you know, if I live in one state and I have to cross the state border to go and work there and the time

is not the same in the two states, you know, so there will be people who will be adversely affected that way as well, right? And so... Well, there'll always be marginal cases like that. There's going to be an arbitrary line. There's going to be a place where there's a problem, always. I agree with you. So I think there will always be, that there will always be outliers.

But I think our position is that national standard year-round time is probably the best option. Now, it's not the ideal option. That's not what I'm saying. I'm sayinground time is probably the best option. Now, it's not the ideal option. That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that it's probably the best option from what's available. I agree with you. You want everyone to have that circadian balance from a four-to-three-year standpoint, but

that's impossible if you have a construct of time. Right. Well, yes. So I agree with that. It does seem right now that we don't have an option for permanent daylight saving time. What I'm saying is, what I would push is that it is worth examining whether states like Maine, Massachusetts, and the Northeast would be best on permanent daylight saving time, because I agree with what you're saying is true, that states on the western edge and a lot of states would be better off in permanent standard

time. I think there's just not enough information to conclude that that shouldn't be an option. Yeah, I agree with you. I think, you know, we say in our statement that more studies are needed to determine whether how east or west is positioned in the time zone in terms of health and safety outcomes. And so, yeah, I mean, I think there's more evidence that's needed. And so, yeah, I agree with you. Dr. Rishi, I have one last question for you. How much sleep did you get last night? Probably about five and a half hours. But in my defense, we have a four-month-old at home, and last night was my turn to be sleeping with him.

So that's how I ended up with five and a half hours. I think maybe all of this is because you need to get more sleep and you're trying to take it out on us late riser, daylight saving, late sunset enthusiasts. You're just angry at us and you're using science as a weapon against daylight. I hope that never happens. Dr. Rishi, thank you so much for your time. I'm glad we could have this conversation. I really appreciate it. Thank you for having me. Pleasure to be here.

Thanks. Thanks to Dr. Rishi for joining us. When we come back, we're going to test a listener on whether or not they can identify just how awful Donald Trump has been when talking about the military in the past. Don't go anywhere. This is Love It or Leave It, and there's more on the way. And we're back. As we mentioned earlier, news broke over the weekend that President Trump has disparaged American soldiers multiple times over the course of his presidency, including at the grave of John Kelly's son,

his former chief of staff, who died in Afghanistan. While this is obviously shocking, it does follow a long pattern of Trump publicly and privately attacking the military. In fact, Trump has said so many negative things about the troops. We don't think you'll be able to tell what's real or what's fake in a segment we're calling Trooping to a New Low. Here to play the game, we have Drake. Hi, Drake. Hi, John. Where are you in the country? Where are you right now? I'm in Wichita, Kansas. How are things in Wichita, Kansas?

We're doing better than the other big colleges for avoiding COVID cases. We've been really good about staying at home. And I've been working at home as a graduate assistant. And all my classes are online, which is great. You think you're learning online? You think you're doing a good job learning? You know, I know when to jump in and talk. OK.

But it's mostly the stuff that I'm just repeating that they said. Do you find that some people are talking too much because they haven't been talking to enough people because they've been stuck at home? Yeah. Our professor, most specifically. He emails us and he says he's only got his cat to talk to. And I know he has a wife at home. So it's weird. Wow.

That's tough. All right, Drake. Here's how it works. I'm going to read you a quote. It's either real or fake from Donald Trump about the military. If you think it's real, you say real. If it's fake, you say fake. Are you ready? Ready. Regarding the American cemetery near Paris, Trump said, why should I go to that cemetery? It's filled with losers. Real. Correct. On Veterans Day, Trump once said, I have no respect for veterans. It's ridiculous. Being a doctor for dogs and cats? Grow up.

False. Correct. At the Bastille Day parade, Trump was quoted as saying, I could wear a hat just as good as that guy, the leader. He's not special for wearing a hat. I could probably wear an even bigger hat if I wanted to. That's false. Correct.

Regarding World War I, Trump asked, Who were the good guys in this war? False. No, that's real. That is real. At the White House planning meeting for a military parade, Trump told his staff to exclude wounded veterans saying nobody wants to see that. That's real. Do you think that he knew that he was quoting Valerie Cherish from The Comeback? Probably not. It's probably a coincidence.

Specifically, he probably did. You think he did? He does like theater. There's always that angle. When Donald Trump Jr. told his dad he was considering joining the military, he was told they'd disown him in a second. False. No, that's real. Crazy. In response to this week's controversy, Trump said to Laura Ingraham, I respect the military very much. I just don't think they're as noble or honorable or smart or strong as everyone thinks. Gotta's got to be false. That's false. Yeah, he didn't say it. He didn't say it.

Could have, but he didn't. According to Michael Cohen, Trump once said to him, you think I'm stupid? I wasn't going to Vietnam. That's true. That is true. When asked about Vietnam, Trump said, so you've got the big wars, World War II, and then you got the teeny tiny wars, Vietnam. And isn't it funny how the vets from the tiny wars seem to have the most complaining to

do? Feels true. No, it's fake. It's fake, but it's, but it does feel quite possible. Trump once said, if you're young and in this era and you have any guilt about not having gone to Vietnam, we have our own Vietnam. It's called the dating game. Dating is like being in Vietnam. You're the equivalent of a soldier going over to Vietnam. Man, I feel it. No, that's false. No, that's real. That is real. That is fucking real. Trump said, I've been so lucky in terms of dating. It's a dangerous world out there. It's scary, like Vietnam, sort of like the Vietnam era. It's my personal Vietnam. I feel like a great

and very brave soldier. He's been talking so much about dating. It has to be false, though. That's real. That's real. Trump once told Howard Stern, there were some nasty STDs back then. That's why it was like being a soldier. Talk about dishonorable discharge. That's false.

That's too clever. Yeah, that's fake. It's too clever. You're right. That's the problem. That's too clever. On the subject of Veterans Day, Trump said,

many times I've suggested getting rid of Veterans Day, except the people, they love to do the shopping. They love the deals. Feels true. No, it's fake. Come on, Drake, step it up. I'm all over the place. You're doing great. You're doing great. On the subject of generals, Trump said, I know more about offense and defense than they will ever understand. Believe me, believe me, than they will ever understand, than they will ever understand. True. Correct. On President's Day, Trump said, George Washington was a sucker. They would never

have pinned that cherry tree on me. No way. I'd have said a slave did it. False. Yeah, that's false. Trump said to his generals, I wouldn't go to war with you people. You're a bunch of dopes and babies. That feels true. Nope. Oh, that's real. That's real. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. Trump once tweeted 26,000 unreported sexual assaults in the military. What do these geniuses expect when they put men and women together? False. No, that's real. That's horrible. Oh, no. It is. It's really horrible. Trump tweeted a photo of himself as a teenage cadet at a military academy, along with the caption, myself with mother and father at New York Military Academy. See, I can be very military, high rank.

False. It's real. It's real. The biggest loser should have been about everybody that fought in Vietnam. False. That one's false. Drake, you've won the game. It's a terrible game. Terrible quotes. It's too many that are real. What are you studying there in Wichita? I'm getting my master's in public administration. What do you want to do after you graduate?

I want to be a foreign service officer if there are jobs to be had. If we still have a foreign, we got to make sure we still have a foreign service once Pompeo's done. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, Drake, it was great to talk to you. Stay safe there at Wichita. All right.

Don't do any of those super spreader parties, okay, that I see on YouTube. I'd better tell everybody to leave then. Thanks for joining us. Bye, Jake. Thank you, John. Bye. When we come back, let's end on a high note. Hey, don't go anywhere. There's more of Love It or Leave It coming up. Hey, everybody. We just dropped our new merch in the Crooked store. We have our election collection. Vote and volunteer with new Vote Save America tees, a Dan Pfeiffer-inspired

worry about everything, panic about nothing stress ball, and most importantly, to commemorate all 24 episodes of Back in the Closet, we added a new tour t-shirt, even though we couldn't leave our homes, to the store as well. So go to crooked.com slash store to shop now. And a reminder, a portion from every sale goes to the group Vote Riders, which is doing incredible work to protect the vote. So go to crooked.com slash store to shop now. That's crooked.com slash store. And we're back. Now it's time for, let's call it a homestretch high note.

Why not? Because we all need it this week. Here it is, this week's homestretch high note, submitted by you, the listener. Hi, Levitt. This is Heather from New Jersey. My high note for the week is that I convinced my nearly 70-year-old aunt to register to vote, which she hasn't done in a very long time. And I am really, really happy about that because I also convinced her to register as a Democrat.

Thank you for all you do, and thank you for giving us some laughter in these crazy times. Hi, John. I have a high note for you. I just got my email saying I was accepted as an Election Day worker here in Brooklyn for Election Day. I'm so excited. I did it in high school about 15 years ago, and I am ready to show up and help people make their choice on November 3rd. Hi, Lovett. This is Kelly from Massachusetts.

My high note for the week is that I just started grad school for mental health counseling and behavioral medicine. Things feel really out of control right now, especially with the upcoming election. But my program has been very aware of everything and checking in, and it just makes me hopeful that we're going to have a bunch more mental health counselors in the world coming up. especially with the upcoming election. But my program has been very aware of everything and checking in. And it just makes me hopeful that we're going to have a bunch more mental health counselors in the world coming up. So, yeah, that's my high note. Thanks for all you do. Bye.

Hey, love it. This is Elizabeth. And I am based in Chicago, Illinois, and always vote in Chicago elections. But my home away from home is Michigan. So I have adopted that state through Vote Save America. I have signed up to be an early polling observer and I have applied to be an election judge in Chicago on the day of the election.

Thanks everybody who called in. If you want to leave us a message about something that gave you hope, you can call us at 424-341-4193. There are 52 days until the election. Sign up for Vote Save America right now to elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, hold the House, win back the Senate, and elect Democrats up and down the ballot. Thank you to Dr. Ali Mattu. Thank you to Dr. Adil Rishi. Thank you to our listeners for calling in. Thanks to Jon Favreau for joining in the monologue. Thank you to our grocery workers, truck drivers, delivery people, restaurant workers, flight attendants, teachers,

administrators. Thanks to everybody who signed up to be a poll worker. Thank you to our doctors, nurses, and EMTs and first responders. Thank you to our whole staff for going to keep the show going out and Crooked going strong. Have a great weekend. Love It or Leave It is a Crooked Media production production it is written and produced by me john love it elisa gutierrez lee eisenberg our head writer and the person whose gender reveal party started the fire travis hellwig jocelyn kaufman polyvi ganalan and peter miller are the writers our assistant producer is sydney rapp bill lance is our editor and kyle seglin is our sound engineer our theme song is written and performed by Sure Sure.

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