Pod Save America - Is JD Vance the Republican Front-Runner?

Episode Date: December 30, 2025

Jon, Lovett, Dan, and Tommy answer your questions about the upcoming midterms, early bets on 2028, what they got wrong about this year, and Lovett's future reality television career. Then, they listen back to their 2024 New Year's resolutions and set ones they hope to actually keep in 2025. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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There's no safe. like Simply Save. Welcome to Plaid Save America. I'm John Favarro. I'm John Lovett. I'm Tommy Vitor. I'm Jan Feiffer. It's that time of year again. when we answer your most burning questions about the year we're wrapping what's coming next and all sorts of personal stuff about love it

okay then we'll be confronted with our new year's resolutions from last year as we always are come clean about how we did and as always we're going to make some new ones about 2026 you bet you guys ready all right

New Hampshire Avenue asks Coastplay Republican strategist for a minute. You're headed into a midterm year. You control all of the government and you shat the bed and everyone knows it. Dems will run on a simple change affordability message. What's your best possible counter message? We're going to start off by doing some work for Republicans. Do we get to do things or just say things? Because the best counter messages, you ditch the tariffs, you extend the ACA subsidies. Oh, no, I think you're... You pitch on gas prices being down. I think your actions. You go to war.

with the Republicans you have. Thank you. That's where I was, I lost. That's it. Yep. Yeah. Okay. Dan, you want to go?

Yeah, sure. Okay. So I've given this a little thought. I find it alarming. But so my first step is I storm into the Oval Office and I say to Donald Trump and Stephen Miller, your plan to make this election about immigration and crime will not work. It's doomed to fail. No caravans, no crime stats.

It just, it is, this is an affordability election. And we cannot win by trying to change the subject. That cannot happen. and we'll network. So as Tommy said, there is a way to do this, which would be to actually lower prices, but we're not going to do that because we're Donald Trump and Republicans. That's not how we operate. So instead, the goal here is to disqualify the Democrats as vehicles for a change and as people who you would trust to actually lower costs. So you run a hard negative campaign showing Democrats' focus on all things other than costs. You use a lot of photos and videos of Biden and Kamala Harris,

and you try to associate Democrats, these Democrats with the economy that people hated just one year ago. And then probably, and this is the most thing you could expect from Trump, and you probably can't even expect this, is you start, Trump starts saying, we have made progress. We have to make more progress. Give me more time. And that's your plan. Yeah, can't beat that. Yeah. Well, it's funny because sort of that is that that that, that, that, that, you got the negative part. That's what they always do. They just can't seem to get Donald Trump to deliver any kind of a, um, um, a self-aware message. Yeah, like, I was thinking the same thing, Dan.

Like, you want to say Democrats, if you like Democrats, they just want to raise your taxes again, give the money back to illegals. And if they don't get their way, we've seen what they do. They're going to shut down the government again. It's going to come just going to be gridlock. And they're probably just going to investigate and impeach Donald Trump the whole time. That's what they're going to spend the next two years doing. And also, they can take your hard-earned tax dollars and just give them back to all the illegal immigrants,

which Donald Trump stopped, and that's why you've got to keep voting for Republicans so that Donald Trump can keep your taxes low and get interest rate down. He'll probably, you know, there'll be promising interest rate cuts, I'm sure, and make sure you're not paying for illegal's health care. Yeah, I think you said that cleanly enough

that they can grab it. Cool, cool, cool, cool. I'm hoping to see that on the five. One also note, I do want to say, John, that it's cosplay and you're just, do I say coastplay? You said coast playing. I can't pronounce anything.

Cosplay. It's cost to know, John. you are. Yeah, cosplay. Yeah. I've said it cosplay a million-tenth. I know, sure. Something happens with me

with some words. Me too, actually. We both do that. Pronounce them 100% correct all the time and then just... When you see it, you say it wrong. I do the same thing. You start getting like what?

Well, it's also, cosplay Republican strives to start a sentence. It's like a... Yeah. Anyway, sorry. Odette Haas asks, how much of what RFK Jr. is doing is reversible?

To the country, not to himself. I mean... Yeah. I mean, a lot of it isn't, right? I mean, RFK killed off like a half a billion dollar investment into MRNA research. Can't really fix that. He killed off a bunch of like long-term studies. There's a big measles outbreak in South Carolina, Arizona, and Utah.

Can't really fix that one. But, I mean, I think you can like fire all the cooks on like the vaccine advisory panel, roll back some of their dumb recommendations, like not giving babies the vaccine against hepatitis B. Like there's some things, but there's some damage here. I think it would be like generational, unfortunately. Yeah, we'll never know the costs. there'll be people that'll be harmed because they'll get measles because

they had a pre-existing condition but somebody else didn't and didn't get the vaccine anyway but I do think in terms of research it'll be measured in the time it takes for us to make up for the grants that weren't given like scientists are ingenious and eventually they'll get the funding like this research will be done we just don't know how long

he's delayed certain discoveries I worry about the brain drain of like the people who left big time doctors medical researchers scientists experts that have been there for like years and years and years at HHS. And, you know, maybe you hire some of those folks back, but I'm sure some of them are thinking, why would I go back into government if this Democratic president just gets thrown

out of office in four years and then I get fired again. Yeah, also like life gets in the way. Like you move from Atlanta, you start a new job, like you're not just going to go back because Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is gone. Yeah, by the way, just these are institutions that have incredible international credibility that have done extraordinary work. Like that is being burned. Tom Dashel was right asks

Dan was this you I don't even know what Tom Rachel was right about in this instance Me neither Everything Where do you guys stand on Trump's physical mental decline As a political factor Who wants to take this one? I mean I think it's very fun to talk about

Because it'll piss Donald Trump off I think you can easily shame the media Into covering his little nappies A little sleepy time in the cabinet meetings Like it's a political matter Unless he runs for a third term It doesn't really matter you know in that case we have bigger problems yeah we got bigger problem i mean if he does try to run

again um we should certainly focus on the fact that he's old and losing it and weirdly slurring his speech and constitutionally and eligible yeah yeah i like i i i agree with that i what i what i wonder is the ways in which it's affecting him politically in terms of his inability to uh wrangle people in congress keep people on board like the way his aging is hurting him as a second order thing like the, whether it's losing votes on Epstein, it's posting things about Rob Reiner. Obviously, he's said crazy things before, but like, I do think, like, I don't know, he's sort of slowing down. His days are getting shorter.

He's saying, you know, even like pardoning all the January 6 people. Part of that was just like, he was bored in the meetings. He was like, ah, fuck it. It's too complicated. Like, he's tired. He's tired early. That's why he pardoned the January 6 people? Well, part of what he did say that in that he was sick of the meetings where it was

hard to draw the line. And I do think there's something about, like, the moments in the meetings where you get fed up, we were exhausted, where you're getting kind of run down by these people in any direction. Like, there was meetings. Biden had that, right? They were just, they would just sort of make a decision and be done. That's how the staff at Cricket gets love it to do something. Yeah. Ask me before the day winds down at 2.30 p.m.

Do you think they ever prank them? She, like, falls asleep at the Oval Office. He just, like, put his hand in some warm water and just like, draw a little penis on his face. He's like, who draw this in arm's penis on my face? This is the most ridiculous giant penis I've ever seen. There's a comically large penis on my head. I will just say, I understand. I know, I know.

I understand the focus on Donald Trump's mental and physical decline. And I know that it comes from what we just went through with Joe Biden. And I think... You mean the country turning on a great president? Yes. And I think if Donald Trump was getting ready. to run for a reelection in a second term, then, of course, we should be talking about this all the time. I don't really understand the purpose, the, we're talking about politics, the political

purpose of pointing this out all the time and then yelling at the media to cover it, like they covered Joe Biden and all this kind of stuff, because what is the goal? Is the goal to make Donald Trump less popular in the sense that he's not going to be on the ballot again, right? And so are we trying to make, are we trying to say that, well, if he's less popular because we hit him on the cognitive decline than Republicans were actually on the ballot are going to somehow be less popular because they stood by Donald Trump and said that he's

super strong and has a lot of stamina. I just think there's a lot of other, a lot of other more effective attacks. John really changed his tune on this since you got that book deal with Jake and Alex Thompson. Fake tap. Yeah, he goes through that book. You did a great job by the book. They didn't put your name on the company. They did a great job. Well, the Clooney op

is where you nailed it. Yeah, I just, I don't understand. I just don't understand it. I don't understand it. I would separate. I don't think it's not fair. I'm just like, why am I wasting my breath on, why are we all wasting our breath on this one? Just a good-ass time. We're trying to win back the House and the Senate and then to elect a Democratic president in 2028. I'd separate two things. One is the political merits of focusing on Trump's age, which I agree with everyone, is minimal.

And it's really, it really is like Biden revenge is what we're doing. Which is why everyone's yelling at Jake or Alex. And like, and I get the sense of unfairness, which is. Revenge is a dish best served old. That's really good. Okay, I'm just going to step right past that. I do think that the media has an obligation to cover the health of presidents, particularly old presidents, whether it's Joe Biden or Donald Trump.

And when Trump has weird things like an MRI, they should be demanding to know what the MRI is about. And it will be unfunny. And know that they're going to be lied to because we're lied to about everything to happen. And then they should be digging around to see if they can find the truth, right? Which I actually believe they probably are. Like, they like news and stories.

And so they're probably looking for that. But I think that something can be a worthwhile subject of journalistic exploration and accountability but not be a good political message at the same time. Yeah, well said. That's why I'm glad that Tom Daschle was right mentioned this is a political factor, which means that Tom Daschle once again was right. Tommy D. Jared asks, are there concerns regarding the Trump 2.0 administration that in hindsight you either under indexed on or went to Doomer on? I think I under-indexed on corruption because we didn't know the full

crypto element for sure I think I under-indexed on understanding that all the focus on immigration meant we were going full Monroe Doctrine and we're going to invade Venezuela and be like the emperor of the Western Hemisphere I was maybe too doomer on the political competence of this White House

I mean they have like kind of Oh you thought that they would be more competent I thought they would be more competent like they felt pretty like they were like they were rolling in those early days, and now a little less so. Yeah, I remain surprised he pardoned all the January 6th insurrectionists. That was, I think, worse than I had imagined.

I assumed that there'd be some break lever, at least for the most violent people, not that he wouldn't pardon people that shouldn't be pardoned, but that there would be some political instinct there. And with that, I also, we all knew the Department of Justice would be politicized. I am surprised that they're not even pretending, that they're not, that they have Pam Bondi out there, basically as a vassal for Trump, like, you know, I don't know how much better hypocrisy would be that they're pretending otherwise. But in some sense, like, hypocrisy is like a kind of

partial payment on virtue because you're at least acknowledging that there are virtues we used to believe in, but they've completely wiped that away. And I think that was, that came a little faster than I expected. Dan, what about you? I think the thing that I, make a joke about it, not the first time he said that. Yeah. Nice. Nice. I think the thing that I underestimated was how just pliant and gross most of the major institutions society would be. You know, like, sure, corporations who could make more money from Trump, I expected to be with him. Like the tech guys, you know, the trillionaires sitting with him. But just like universities, law firms, meet the Walt Disney Corporation, just left and right, just doing what Trump wants because it's in their interest.

When many of those very same institutions were horrified by Trump. 1.0, a less bad version of this one and just like, maybe that's incredible naivete on my part, but just that so much so much a society was willing just to throw in the towel for their own self-interest. Yeah, I agree with all those. I think the only, the only one that I was maybe too doomer on was, and I hate putting this out there, it's really tempting fate, but I thought they would have locked up more of their political opponents by now. I thought they would have gone for like not for lack of trying

I was going to say and that is it is not for lack of trying but like if you had told me that by the end of year one they would have only

and well I have failed to basically indict Jim Comey and Tish James and everything else is in some investigative phase I would have thought that they would have gone further than that yeah I think it is

just because of a combination of the courts standing up to Trump I think the there's probably people in DOJ who are still career people putting an insurance lawyer

in charge of your prosecution yeah he's gonna say and then a whole bunch of fucking idiots they're there yeah which by the way it's just one place I think we've all I think we're all kind of

instinctively a bit dumer on is just the like the quiet democratic redundancies that exist that that don't seem as strong as they are but are like

are there and our defense mechanisms that are kicking in the courts are one the fact that this is not some mass mobilization of authoritarian interest And so one layer beneath all these people are career people and non-loyal people that have that are also buoyed by the fact that he's not popular.

And I think we all should keep that keep that in mind because it's it's a, you know, it's a dog that doesn't bark, but not just not just the the level of corruption, Tommy, but just how open the corruption has been to brazenness is just yeah, that is both, you know, it's crazy. Potsave America is brought to you by Zbiotics pre-alcohol. By now you guys know I'm the world's biggest evangelist for Z-biotics. It is a game-changing product I use before any night out with drinks, and it's called pre-alcohol. So Z-biotics, pre-alcohol probiotic drink is the world's first genetically engineered probiotic. It was invented by Ph.D. scientists to tackle rough mornings after drinking. Here's how it works. When you drink, alcohol gets converted into a toxic byproduct in the gut.

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See, they just ditch Calibri because it was too woke. This was just a big topic. You know what I have to say, I'm with, I'm with Marco on that one. Calibri fucking sucks. Times New Robbins is the fucking best. Calibri is trash. Times New Robbins is a typewriter font. It hurts my eyes every Thursday, because I just learned today from read because this was a topic on Trimley Online,

which we'll air before this comes out, that you're the person who dictates that we must use Times New Roman. You're like fucking Munger Rubio over here. Yep, I am. So I think that is antiquated and you should kind of be willing to be open to change because it is an old school Serif font. It's a serifference. We don't have to agree on the same font. Well, it's not about, it's about, well, we can all use different fonts that we find

appealing, but it has a kind of prestige. Dumb casual? Yeah, for sure. It has a prestige and like intellectual rigor because it was used in the past. But sansere fonts are more readable. They are just more legible, which is why the time, why word switched to Calibri. The problem is Calibri is just an other. ugly-ass sans-sera font and there are better fonts, you know, you don't, Helvetica is the king,

and if you're going to come for the king, don't miss. So this wasn't a question, actually. John is just a classical chauvinist who loves anything Roman. He dreams about the Roman empire all the time. I didn't even think about the Roman part. Yeah, it is a kind of patriarchal font in a way. Bronze age bro. It is a font of the white male. And so I think that's sort of part that you're enamored of the fonts of the, this is how I'm, this is how I'm, I'm coming out as a white nationalist, just because of my Times New Romans. Yeah, that's right. Making news today.

Yeah. Anyway, the question from Font Guy 81 is, I hate J.D. Vance. Oh, that wasn't even the question? No. I thought it was. I hate J.D. Vance, but it's clear that he's a much better messenger than Trump and is likely to be the nominee. A lot of assumptions there. Why don't they let him do more of the talking?

Reject the premise. Okay. Yeah, let's go ahead, Tommy. No, he sucks. I mean, he's more disciplined than Trump, but he's not a better messenger. He's none of the humor or charm that Donald Trump has this. has made him a successful politician. He's not, like, bad, but he's not better.

Anyone disagree? No, Trump is a, Trump, not to us, but you can see Trump is a bully your root for. J.D. Vance is a bully your root against. Hard. It's like a biff. Also, it and is likely to be the nominee. What do we think about that? I think we just talked to John Hallman for his podcast today, and he was like, he was, like, crazy to the Jay Zee Vance is going to be the nominee.

I think that there's no way that guy is so unlikable. He thinks it's crazy? Yeah. Not crazy, but he was very, he was very down on the idea of JD. And did you agree with him or? No, we both thought. I do like, it's sort of like right now, I don't know what the most likely, you sure, he's the most likely person to be the nominee is that 10%, 20%, 60%, I have no fucking idea.

There's just no obvious person who's more likely than him to be it at this moment. And you saw a right pull himself out. Yeah, though. That sneaky prick will throw himself back in. I mean, the far right hates J.D. Vance sometime in part for racist reasons, but also they don't trust him. They don't believe he's like credible. They don't think he believes what he says. He's shape shifter. I guess we have that in common. Yeah. It's so funny. It's so funny. And our love for Times New Roman. Yeah. It's so funny that Rubio in that article definitively says if J.D. Vance is

the nominee, I'll be behind him and I want it. I'll get behind him and I won't run. And it's like, wow, I wonder if Marco Rubio, who in this article is referenced for having completely done an about face on his core political convictions could find a way out of this. Exactly. Right. He's said the opposite about every person in that article. Precisely. To the answer Fonkai 81's question of, why don't they let him do more of the talking, have you seen who the president is? Yeah, that's the answer.

You think Donald Trump's going to let someone else do more of the talking? Do you think J.D. Vance is fucking stupid? Yeah, the last guy to have the job, have his job, you know, almost had him hung. When I first, when I first worked in the Senate, I worked for a senator named John Corazon from New Jersey, and right before I started, or at some point before I started, he did this, one of those roast dinners. And he said this joke about Chuck Schumer, which is sharing a media market with Chuck Schumer. It's like sharing a banana with a monkey, take one bite, and he throws his feces at you. And it apparently did not go over well with Chuck Schumer.

You think? He went over pretty poorly. But I always think about that. Why is J.D. Vance not not taken up more attention? The most dangerous place in that Oval Office is between Donald Trump and those cameras. Yep. Did you write that joke? I did not. I did not. I really didn't. I would, I did right, you know, Pokemon go to the polls, yes. That was you, for sure. But this one, no. One of the greatest, Pokemon go to the polls. One of memorable lines in politics in the last 10 years. People are like, why did you come up with that stupid line?

Why did I come up with it? Why do you know what it is? I didn't. Or did I? White House Mess asks, J.B. Pritzker said on your show the other day that while he thinks Zoran Mamdani ran a great campaign, he basically only won because he had a deeply flawed opponent and people shouldn't read too much into it, especially about DSA's popularity, do you agree?

He said that? Is that an accurate description of what he said? It's pretty close and it was an honestly, like, not, it was sort of, he kind of swerved to get there, which I thought was interesting. Yeah. My take on it is. Thanks White House Mess for finding the newsy part of that interview. I yelled at White House Mess.

My take on it is the lessons you learn from a race in New York City are about like what worked and didn't work, not in terms of winning or losing, but like, what resonated with people? What broke through? What made someone exciting? What points to kind of a style of politics that could be effective in this moment? And I just think it goes way too far to say that the reason Mamdani succeeded is just because Andrew Cuomo was a flawed candidate. I think there are a lot of people that Andrew Cuomo could have beaten. And there's a lot to learn from Mamdani, irrespective of picking the worst person to run against. Winning that primary is incredible. Like, Cuomo's flawed, but like New York is as progressive as it gets, but still, he ran a great

campaign. I don't think it says much about DSA nationally. I think it says a lot about like Mamdani being an amazing candidate with a great message and great tactics and charm and talent. Yeah, it would be smarter to learn from Mamdani rather than try to dismiss it because of Cuomo, I think.

Dan, you got anything else to happen? No, I agree with that. I don't know if you wanted to take the no, Andrew Cuomo was the reason that he won. No, because Andrew Cuomo beat all the other people other than Zorn Mandani. That's right. All right. C. Swayer asks, are there any states you think could surprise us in the midterms? Dan, what do you think? I think if the Alaska

would be the one like this is obviously a huge long shot, but it's the one race where if Mary Patola gets in the race, which people expect she probably will and runs against Stan Sullivan. She's a member of Congress who served statewide because there's only one member there. It's a smaller state where you can, you know, make a lot of impact with organizing and Georgia door messaging and stuff like that. So I think that I would be shocked. if we won any, I'd be pleasantly surprised we won any of the stretch states like Ohio, Iowa, Texas, and Alaska. But I think Alaska gets the least amount of attention and maybe the one that were most likely to win of those four. And this follow-up I'm throwing to Iowa native Tommy Vitor.

Do you think there's hope for Iowa in 26? I think we have to have hope for Iowa because that's going to be one of the stretch states. Like I'm bullish on Iowa this cycle. It was the biggest change in vote like in sort of the swing from uh obama in 12 to trump and 16 was Iowa but this cycle we've got a big governor's race and a great candidate and rob sand love it was just joking about how much i like rob sand which which i do um there's an open senate seat there's at least three highly contested house races then there's like some possible down ballot flips like secretary of state but also it doesn't cost as much as like texas you know what i I mean, you can compete, like, Rob can run a great race for, like, 30 million.

It's not going to be, like, half a billion, like, the Georgia Senate primary. Before Ann Celser, kind of disintegrated across Designoreen as she expected because her poll was so bad, Trump tried to make it illegal. Like, she had inside of that poll made some predictions about some surprising turns towards Democrats that we have actually also seen, right? Yeah, they've done, they've overperformed in a bunch of, um, special elections and stuff. Yeah, I feel bullish on Iowa as well.

I think long term, it is incredibly important to compete in Texas despite the cost because, like, if you're looking at larger trends, like, we need Texas and Texas is probably moving more slowly towards us. Well, it was. It was. It was. But I also think it's hard with, like, you have a very older population and rural population in Iowa, right?

And so I think it's that that's tougher. But I think this, I think with combination of Trump being president and the tariffs and everything that's happening, I think it's like the year for Iowa. That's what the farmers are getting killed. Like all the soybean farmers are in Iowa and Illinois and their props are getting decimated. Their entire businesses are going away. Like, people are pissed. Yeah. Gen Z. Boomer asks.

That's a good name. Huh. Good name. I've heard Favro say on other podcasts that no one in the current Demp field gets him super excited. When did Obama start to get serious national attention? as a potential 2008 candidate. The minute is 2004 DNC speech ended? Yeah, think about it this way in terms of the cycle that we're in now.

So this would be if at the 2024 convention in Chicago, a speaker, someone spoke there, gave the keynote address who just like lit the place on fire and got national attention for that speech back in July, and then Kamala loses this person. wins a Senate seat and is now giving speeches all over the country and generating a whole bunch of buzz by now for sure and so is that happening can i can i dispute that sure um well for you here comes here comes evan by's guy no no i was actually loved it at what point at hillary clinton hq they were like holy fuck where this obama guy come from i that's well i do remember there was a lot of weight hanging on this flimsy

wire hanger that said he promised not to run you know that was still in the in the window where that was happening and so it was like he wasn't running that part of like that was like he was able to kind of be free of that while he was uh in those first two years in the senate uh i don't remember when it started becoming real that not only was he running but he was like a real threat but i assure you it was later than it should have been so watching this from having worked for Evan By, who was thinking of running for president, and talking to a lot of people who worked for Obama, like Pete Rouse and Robert Gibbs at this time, who and Steve Hildebrandt, who were heckling me for working for Evan By instead of Barack Obama. It really was the fall

of 2006, when he was out campaigning for everyone, getting massive crowds, going to Tennessee, going to Montana, going all these places that no Democrat brother would go, getting these massive crowds and audacity of hope came out and he was going to be in October of 26 yeah these huge I mean October of six yeah oh star of six and then he went on meet the press right after that right after the election and changed his mind and said he was reconsidering it but it was like everyone loved Obama huge generous have attention but it was the fall of 2006 we're like oh there's a true phenomenon happening here and maybe now's the moment and evan by went to new hampshire the same time that Barack Obama did and he dropped out the race uh two days later tough

Hmm. Anyway, that's that's the timeline. 2028 white knuckler asks, if you were in a lab and could design the worst 2028 primary candidate possible, what would they sound like? What policies would they prioritize? The worst? Can I be mean? On the, on the Republican side, I think it would be the Romney Ryan ticket. Oh, I didn't even think. You just thought of only Democrats. I was thinking of only Democrats. I was thinking of only Democrats. Yeah. Yeah. Well, there we go. I'll fill this space. You guys are up. Well, I mean, this is sort of an obvious question, which is, like, the worst Republican primary candidate would sound like AOC and the worst Democratic primary candidate would sound like this one case. It's got to be a feasible, like, kind of version. Like, I think it would be like corporate, you know, anti-populist Republicans in the mold of what the Republican Party used to be. Yeah. And I think for a Democrat, it would be a corporate centrist, Kristen cinema, like establishment politician. Okay.

that yes corporate centrist um economic positions mixed with um the the remnants of uh like overly woke language you know like someone who's like uh i never run the primary here but i i i want uh i want public private partnerships to to to leverage uh you know more jobs and also i'm going to start with the land acknowledgement yeah i think that would go over poorly that's that to me is the the worst combo anyway love it yeah it's a funny question because it's like sort of sort of like what's the worst movie the year well it's a movie so bad you never saw that I do think like we need there's a kind of uh we're all like there's a kind of tie for worst right now and it is a kind of certain old school corporate political speak I

don't mean corporate like in the policies but just in the language and the rhetoric that we've got to move past. And, you know, one thing I talked to Pritzker about as well was just why does it feel like, why do so many people feel so Democrats don't have a vision? And his point was only, well, Democrats never have a vision. They have a primary and they pick one person and that vision becomes the vision of the party and the comedy and Biden kind of holding that space and not using it. And then Kamala having to step in with the very limited time. And also, to be honest, just not being someone who I think we just doesn't have a particularly well-known world or ideology that kind of guides what we think she would do as president.

So she becomes a kind of consensus that of the democratic politics we already had. There's just this big open space for someone to come along and just sound different. When I was president of Goldman Sachs, my deputy was Latin X. That's the, that's how that's all that's the, that's very you. That's horrible. This is your nightmare kidding right here. Oh, I'm just, that is. Go, go test them out.

Erickson Kiva asks, how do you think, Trump would eulogize you on truth social. What do you got, guys? God, fun to think about. I hope he does. I hope he does. Although I actually take that back. I hope he does.

I'd like to outlive Trump. That's how I'm thinking. It's how my bingo card. I actually reached out to a friend in the administration. And Mr. Trump actually did it for me. So let's roll that tape, please. Is this going to be Ryan's voice again? Promise you no.

Some guy named Tommy died today. Tommy Veter Sloppy Tommy What a loser What a nobody He worked for Barack Hussein Obama

That's when he peaked I heard Obama Had Little Tommy Carry the pallets of cash To Iran I heard sloppy Tommy Gave Ukraine blankets When I delivered the javelins

It's true Toothless two bit Tommy blamed Bengazi on a YouTube video It's not fair YouTube can't kill you Tommy Your career has been dead for years That's true. Now he has a podcast, wow.

How original. A 40-something white guy with a podcast, stop the presses. Talky, talky, Tommy. The problem is no one is listening. He probably died of Trump derangement syndrome. They call it TDS, but we'll never know because no one cares that you're gone, Tommy. Wow, that was really good.

That was amazing. Tough ending there. That was really good. Thank you, Seb Gorka for lining that up. That's really good. sloppy Tommy Seb Gorkas who you got to do that That was fantastic

I think that's it I don't think anyone else used to go That was really good Perfect Wow Thank you AI I really like that And we all love AI

Really good Play that at your funeral Hey Tommy why don't you take that cup of water And just pour it on the ground Oh my god Back to the worst primary candy There's another one That old water thing is like just made up

Not true Electricity costs? Very true. It's not totally not true, but it's like everything we do has like a cost or in terms of there's water consumption. Like you buy a pair of jeans. It's like a year's worth of AI service. Well, it just matters where the, it matters where you're putting the servers where the water comes from. You know, there's limited water and different water in water tables.

But yes, it's for the most part. Just for the facts. Niles. No, let's get into the AI thing. I'm going. Niles asks. You, this is an interesting one. You have the opportunity to replace one Trump cabinet member, but you have to do the job for the rest of the Trump term and be loyal to Trump.

Who do you choose to replace? This is, the tricky thing of this is like, what is being loyal to Trump mean in this role? Like, you just do what he says? You have to do what you think he'd want you to do? Or do you have to like, like, if he gives you an order, you have to do it? Well, I assume the latter. It's a question a lot of people have asked themselves and then failed, right? Well, because it's sort of like, can you do a version?

Another way of asking that question is, is there a version of doing this job where you feel you could do good for the country without pissing him off so thoroughly that you're ejected? Right, right, right. Which is I think what the question is asking. Yeah, that's sort of where I took it to. I kind of think the easy answer is RFK Jr. Yes, that was my. Right, because you could just like, Trump thinks RFK is kind of crazy and he just thinks it's like politically beneficial and you could walk back a ton of shit and Trump would never even read the memo about it. Hey, I just looked under the microscope and aspirin doesn't cause autism anymore.

There we go, Tylenol's fine. Mr. Trump, good news. You fixed the vaccines. They all work now. You did that. You did that. We did it. We checked them out.

We took some of your DNA from your blood sample. We put them in the vaccines. And now everyone's living to 100. And everybody's you. You're everybody. And maybe if you... So in a way, you should care about them. Good job, Mr. Trump.

You're them. Yeah, he hates his kids, too. Who would you be, Dan? I think that's the right choice. You're not a Brooke Rollins guy? No, not Brooke Rollins. I guess maybe you could be Scott Bessent. Mm.

I mean, when you're going to punch people. Yeah, you can't like, you can't do, like, getting Pete Hickseth off the board would be very good. But you're going to have to do. You're blowing up boats. Same with Pam Bondi. Obviously, same with Christy Noem. I don't think you can convince that. Those are the worst.

So I'm trying to think of the most impactful. You're working closely with Corey Lewandowski, closely. In every way. Dan, I think you could pull out Marco Rubio because he is also kind of like executing on his own plan for, regime change in Venezuela because he thinks it will help topple the Cuban government. And I think if you stop doing that, Trump would be like, all right, cool. Yeah, he doesn't really. Marco, yeah, I thought about that too. Although a little high profile, it's going to be harder

to do things without him. Yeah. Well, like, if you cared passionally about, I mean, you don't want to be education because you've already just eliminated the Department of Education, so that seems like not a great place to go. You know what? Also, the answer is Sean Duffy. The answer is Sean Duffy. The answer is Sean Duffy. You think the answer is Sean Duffy? I think that you could go a long way to just bring a small measure of competence to air travel the United States and I don't think Trump cares

about a lot of stuff that he's doing. That's just literally making the trains right on time. Yeah, that's a good one. I think it's RFK. RFK is a bit first choice, for sure. For sure. I don't dispute that.

We'll get to lots more of your questions after the break, but a quick reminder before we get to that. We're headed to New Zealand and Australia and February if you've ever wondered how grumpy Dan gets after a trans-specific flight. this is your chance

Pod Save America hopefully just visiting tour lands in Auckland, New Zealand on the 11th and then three cities in Australia after that Melbourne on the 13th, Brisbane on the 14th and Sydney on the 16th if you're a listener in New Zealand or Australia we'd really love to see you with these shows

head to crooked.com slash events to get your tickets when we come back more questions It's always so jarring to see Dan in his travel juicy couture velour track suit Yeah, he looks good, though. Yeah, it's always so, it's like, oh, that's his look. That's his flight look.

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using code crooked or going to cookunity.com slash crooked. Lil Monster Ramara asks How granular is your audience demo information? Curious who else in Canada is listening. Just you. You're the one. Lil, I know where you live. What you're doing right now.

You look great. No, we have podcast data is shit. YouTube data is interesting. Get like demographics and stuff. But we know how many people in Canada there are. Yeah. Yeah, we have like, we basically know like your IP address where you're kind of located like city of town, whatever. About 3% of the audience is Canada.

I took a look. But that's about all we know. But 3% of an enormous audience. That's why I don't remember. It's a small piece of a giant fucking pie, I'll tell you that. That's right. I wonder around 3% is UK too, and then it gets... Yeah, it's like, speaking.

I wonder if it was bigger before our country started threatening to annex their country. That would be a good... Yeah, let's get someone to... It should be higher since then. Well, they're just mad, like, they're genuinely really pissed in America. What do we do? We're on the right side. We live here.

When I went to When I went to the Montreal Comedy Festival When I was going through Customs, there was a French speaking person of the gay, spoke with a French accent And she said, where are you coming from? And I said, the U.S., and she said, How long are you staying?

And I said, don't worry, not long, and I'm sorry. And she laughed and he's like, We know it is not you. We know, we know. Hope Australian, New Zealand said that time. I know, me too. Dr. Michael A. Urban and a whole lot of other blue sky users ask

why are the pod boys stewing their brains in the Nazi cesspool that is Twitter what is the actual point you call it stewing a brain I call it building up a resistance building up my immune system I'm literally

just getting like articles that's all I'm doing and honestly like no offense Dr. Urban I will never go to blue sky I have no interest if I wanted to have horrific intra-democratic party left fights all day long. I close our office door. Teleport back to 2016 and live in that fucking hellscape.

I just, I never will do it. No offense. Our job is analyzing politics and the news and what's happening in politics. And that is happening still. All the journalists and politicians are on Twitter. And if they weren't, I wouldn't be there. It is also like, I'm sure it is a Nazi cess pool. My, I don't, my experience on Twitter is not just, like, scrolling and seeing Nazi shit all the time.

Yeah, I click away from that. I just don't see. I guess I'm following who I follow. Get a lot of Fuentes clips. Well, yeah, there's the point. Well, that, but that's part of our job also, like, knowing what that fucker's saying. And so it's like, I got my, I got my news column. I got my pundit column.

I got my clips column of what's, what's, so it's just like, I'm, I'm there for, for that kind of shit every once in a while. You have a curious experience. Yeah, John has, I post something once in a while. I do. Once in a while. And a while can be any length of time, in a sense. But, yeah, I think the bigger problem is not that blue sky is a better place and Twitter is a worse place because there's more Nazis than there are.

It's that collectively just it's the stewing in the kind of anger and antipath and like different kind of negativities that I do think is genuinely bad for me. And I go through bouts of I post much less than I ever did. And it's actually rare that I post. and I am trying to use it less, but it is just, it is useful. It just is, and it's less useful than it was, and that sucks because it must, but it's still useful. I know a lot of the focus on when the discussion is Blue Sky is, like, the tenor of the conversation there, and it's mostly liberal of that.

But I tried Blue Sky for a while, and my biggest problem is because the user base is so small, they have this chart the other couple weeks ago, and it showed that, like, at the bottom of the chart of all social media apps is, like, blue sky and true social the user base is like just tiny tiny tiny and if you're looking for news there it just doesn't update as fast because it's just not there's not as many people on it and so it's just not it's not as reliable uh for late breaking news happening every second yeah there's this the the change to how twitter operates for the average person not the people who are premium users who have the equivalent of what used to be tweet deck where you can curate your own feed has become a terrible way to follow news because even now your following tab is algorithmically based in no

longer chronological. You can adjust that. There's a very complicated way to fix it, but that is the default now. Like, that's annoying for politics. That's terrible, by the way. It's horrible for sports. Like, if you're scrolling because you'll just get stuff from like five hours before or the first quarter of a game.

It's made it much harder to follow news. But you can, if you have a premium account, which we have without being paid for because of follower size, just for people wondering if we're giving Elon our money, you can set up a feed that feels much more like old Twitter where you're only seeing the people that you want to see in the order in which they tweet, which is a much better experience for following news and politics. Yes. Josephine with two Canadian flag emojis asks, would John Lovett consider being on any other reality TV shows, perhaps the amazing race? Yes. I would like to. Okay. Which I'd like to be on one for more than a couple, you know, a couple of hours is my goal.

Amazing race, it seems like it's a, it's a, a lot of international travel and economy for me. But the, but, you know, I also slept on a floor in a beach, so I can do that. Yeah, you know, you rough it all the time. But I, like, I liked my short turn on Survivor. Didn't go the way I wanted. But I had, I would like, it's a fun, I don't know what it is, but there's something about the like kind of participating in that kind of charged environment where you're not in charge. Like I like there's something really, I don't know, I really find it interesting.

I like the competitive ones. So amazing race, something like that. Traders. You have to go on traders. Like that is the most likely place for you. You would be great at it. It would be so much fun for all of us. We have to, I don't know who's in charge of traders.

We have to make this happen. Yeah. We got to get that peacock on the phone. I've got a couple of pitches for you. Okay. What about Milf Manor? It's a show where middle-aged women dated each other's sons. Sure.

I mean, I guess I could hand out towels or something. Yep. What about The Swan from 2004? Where I get a full makeover, where I get a facial surgery from Dr. Terry Dubrow. Contestants underwent multiple plastic surgeries and weren't allowed to see mirrors. Yep. I watched that when it aired. That's crazy.

I actually interviewed Dr. Terry Debrough about that very program and the ways in which it was seen as a horror and the downfall of civilization. But yeah, I'd do that too. Why not? Celebrity boxing? you know. You know what? Fonzi has never made sense to me because as a workout, it's asymmetrical. You're always facing one way. And I never like that. I never like that. They never turn the other side. Not for me. No, thank you. Last one, flavor of love? Sure. Okay. Yeah. So there's got to be a producer. Love Island? Love Island. Yeah. Another show I can go first on, I suppose.

Can they somehow send me home before they've clicked? They're like, oh, welcome to Love Island. You're already not here. That's so weird. It actually, it actually. You know that Love Island, I believe, is down the beach from the Ponderosa. So when I was in the Ponderosa hiding from you guys pretending I was still competing, I remember we were driving by. And I think we drove by where Love Island was actually being taped, I believe at the same time. Oof. Oof. B. Moore, Seymour asks, love it. Eight little Hanukkah presents or one big one? You must choose.

I would say one big Hanukkah present. one big Hanukkah present i think that's great i you know like as a kid the eight it really the other thing too is for i think for most kids that get eight presents the first seven or six or just little tiny gelt or like coins or socks or something really small and then you get the one big one you know you're like come on be something that you have to plug in you know come on something with a controller it is i was on the way to school this morning charlie asked me he was like so because they had a Hanukkah celebration their Christmas celebration today and he's like so what's uh what's the deal with honica like what happens there and i'm like well you know eight nights

eight presents one each night and all of a sudden he's like it's a good pitch he's like and you were just telling me that christmas is eight nights away and i was complaining that i have to wait that long and he was like i could see him like hmm and he's like oh oh can i do both and mom's jewish i guess Jill H asks for the parents Do you do timeouts? Why or why not? Not yet.

They're just too young. Just a belt for now? Yeah, I know. I take its car keys away. That was good. Take the car keys away from my 18-month-old. Dan? No, we don't do.

timeouts. We do consequences that we try to make be associated with whatever the punishment fits the crime. Yeah, whatever the infraction is, right, which when they're little or is easier, it's like you throw the toy, the toy goes away. Smoke the whole carton.

No, no timeouts with us. Hey, where's parenting culture right now on discipline? Are we still in the gentle parenting age or people back to saying? There's a backlash of gentle parenting happening. Yeah, I think so, too. I don't know. I just try to talk it out.

So far, so far it's working. We'll see. Wait until, wait till Teddy's two now, so who knows? All right. Lauren J.S.1 asks, what's the best book you read this year? Does anyone have an answer that's not abundance? I was waiting for you to say that. I didn't, yeah, yeah.

You know what I just, I just read randomly? So I was like going to bed and I read like, I read like 1929, which was excellent. It's a great book. But it's like it's not not anxiety inducing to imagine like he draws a lot of great parallels between the stock market crash in 1929, the economy today. So it's not like it's not the most relaxing kind of narrative. And I read I sort of it occurred to me.

I mean Hannah pointed out to me she's like you're constantly reading like horrible like depressing thing. So I was like, okay, I Googled like best book about sports. And I got a few options. And one was open, which is Andre Agassiz's. biography. Oh, yeah. Which is, like, super well regarded.

So I'd never, like, read it or heard of it. So I just, I did the thing where you can download the first chapter and read it. It is fantastic. It is so good. It's so interesting. He's such a thoughtful guy. He's super honest about, like, taking crystal meth and, like, playing tennis with a hairpiece and marriage falling apart and hating.

You fucking hated tennis. Hated it. Really? As a small child, he was one of those dads who literally chose their house in Las Vegas based on where he had the space to build a tennis court and then force his. kid to hit balls all day long and he made him a star like the one of the best ever but fucking miserable and it's an unbelievable book the hair piece story is so interesting because as a kid I remember I played tennis as a kid and uh and I was terrible but uh Andre Agassi was so cool because of the

hair yeah and it turns out that the hair was fucking fake he was terrified it all the time he made him a worse player because he was worried that his hairpiece would fall off while he was playing Like a Wimbledon. Like a shocking thing to learn. He also would play in jean shorts. You remember that? So cool. Oh, yeah.

So cool. He was treated as like a punk. He was just like, I don't know. He was like, I want to wear what I want to wear. Great book. Highly recommend it. So we started a book club at Cricket this year. And I wanted to do this.

And my only sort of a rule for what not book we chose was that it would be fiction. And it would be not of this era, whatever that means. And so if our only book we've done is, East of Eden, which I'd never read, and I know was a classic, but was riveting. Yeah, really was. And I absolutely loved it. And then I've been reading the Eric Larson books, and I read, and I think I

talked about this last year. I read The Demon of Unrest about the Civil War, the rise, the coming of the Civil War, which is incredible. I'm reading Dead Wake, which is about the sinking of the Lusitania. It's a great book. It's a fucking awesome. It is riveting, riveting. I just read Devil in the White City, too, which I also recommend.

But I'm going to read, listen, I know I'm done talking about Kazzo Ishiguru. that's last year's business. Now it's all that Eric Larsson. I did one pod today. Yeah, I did talk about Ishiguru in a different pot I did with John, poor John. Have you read it in the Garden of the Beast? No, that's next.

That is great too. So good. That's next. I wanted a Nazi break. Yeah, yeah. I'm on a Nazi break. Am I reading? You're in the wrong business.

Don't we all? Yeah. No kidding. In my life. Dan, you're a reader. I think the book, my favorite book that year is probably what we can know by Ian McEwan,

which is a very much not a book I would normally like other than I like Eden McEwen, which is a story about, like said in the future, like in a post-client, like a post-nuclear accident climate disaster, where there's a guy who's researching about a dinner part, he's an academic who's trying to find out, who's researching about a dinner party that happened in our current time right now where a, like a very, by with a very famous poet who wrote a poem that then got lost to history. And it's about how he sort of takes place in this time and that time.

And it's how he finds, wants to find out. not the secret why that poem was lost history. It's great book, Ian McEwen, who wrote Atonement, is a great writer. And it was bizarre. I almost didn't read it because the description seemed so unlike something I would normally like, but it was excellent. There's a, I saw, I'm going to read it as well, in part because, Dan, one thing that people were saying was interesting about it is that, in part, it is about how much information we create right now and what it will be like for future historians to try to understand the past,

not because things are hard to know, but because everything is knowable. Right. So as he's doing this, he has access to all of their texts and, like, location data from their phone about, like, who walked, where, what day, what they were texting each other, all the emails they sent. And so it is like, it's like too much information. And it's almost alarming to think, not the people are going to be doing history on us, per se, but like what someone could know years from now about like in sort of first person

information from a time period. It's very interesting. Wow. As you know, I don't read. How many times did you read? I was on a tear. I can't remember a single, like, fiction book that I read this year, actually, because I, it was all books for offline. Want a fun one? Hale Mary by Andy Weir, I think is the guy who... Oh, that's great. And you should read it before the movie comes out. Yeah, okay. It's a blast. Hail Mary? Project Hale Mary. Project Hale Mary. It's really fun. I won't even tell you what it's about.

Don't tell you. You just got to read it. Great. I need a book. So good. What is the last? Okay, Amphistaff asks, what's been your favorite new TV series or season of an existing show this year? I just have not watched anything. Pluribus. Pluribus. I'm loving pluribus. I haven't seen it yet. Oh, you watch it, guys.

Everybody's watching pluribus. I would say, it's hard. It's hard to describe, too, because also, like, you don't want to give away even. You just got to go into it. Yes. Yeah, most of our viewing is just like visual Xanax. It's like Great British baking shows from like six years ago. You know, you know, which right to bed.

I know. I think my favorite show this year was Task. I heard that was good. It was so good. I mean, it is like so, I would say it's not a good, it's not, it does not serve the same purpose as Great British Baking Show. It is not relaxing. But it is like very emotional, very exciting.

It's like truly, truly a great show. Like, so it's one of the, it's been a long time since there was a show that I like thought about so much afterwards. words like this one. And then I watched a bunch of like kind of hunting wives. Hunting wives, it was very entertaining. Yeah. There's been a bunch of shows that are like super entertaining and like kind of good and

like the beast in me. We just watched all her fault, which is, which we were just talking to you and Emily about the other night. That's about the 2020 election. The 2016 election. Oh, 2016. Oh, but it jumps back and forth. Yeah.

So we do know what season is about. 204. Yeah. Oh, what I say? You said 2020. Oh, fuck. No, oh, yeah, you know what I meant. It just worked.

All right. It did. I'm watching Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, which got turned on to, and it is very entertaining, very, it's ridiculous, but what a blast. Death by Lightning was great. I'm excited to watch that. It's really good. I had to watch some stuff. I am one episode in to the Ken Burns American Revolution.

Oh, catch you in 2020. Don't spoil it. Well, I was so surprised that I'm like, all right, yeah, let's get into this and I see how many episodes. And I started the first episode, I'm like, just each episode is quite long. I remember my cousin, uh, growing up had the Civil War like VHS collection and it was like 12 tapes, you know? That's the, that's like, I feel like this is the same thing. I just struggle with documentaries about a time before audio and video because I'm just like, okay, why don't you guys type this up? And then I'll fucking read it.

I'm sorry Ken Burns has a good job I'm sure he does This is not fair What I'm saying Yeah no it's fair All right Love it added some hypotheticals

Yeah Okay These are I guess this is just like Do you agree or disagree Yeah there's sort of just sort of thought Originally I was gonna have More kind of classic

Like you could only You have the fins of a fish But the head of a lion And I couldn't come up with anything That was good And so I just did other pitches So the first one is Everyone should wear a name tag

All the time with their first name on it. Yes. Like it should be seen as rude and standoffish to not have a name tag on. Yes. Yes. Yes. I will pound the table for this one because I end up, uh, people say names and they go, and then I feel awkward talking to them. And so you feel more standoffish. You engage with people less because you feel like a bad person because you don't remember their name. And if you could just look down. I'll go one further. I'll go one fucking further. Tattoo it to your forehead. Everyone should have a little name tag in the world, both for what Tommy is talking about, that you've named you've forgotten,

but also just in the world remembering that every person has a first name. Every car, while you're driving it, should have the first name of the driver just kind of in front so that you see the person the other car, not as an enemy who's in your way, but Jeff or Donna. And then it's like, it's hard to hold your horn down at Donna.

Has it worked for social media? Good point. Docs are in chief. Though the worst people are anonymous, but except for the people, Except for the people with their names, which are even worse. So, yeah, I take your point. You know, no bad ideas in a brainstorm.

I think it's a good idea. I'm with you, Tommy. I just can't. And it's also people that you... It's always a kid things. And then, but you can make a little jewelry. You can make it your own. It's special.

It's the same way that now not having a phone is seen as obtuse and strange when before you didn't have to have one. It would just be like a cultural thing. No law or anything, but just like, oh, you don't wear a name tag. I guess you don't want people to talk to you. Weird, you bad person. Get that name tag on. And then the people on the internet being like, actually neurodivergence,

they don't want to wear. I'm not saying you have to wear a name tag. Now I'm going to fight about Abelism. What did I do? Yeah. It's just an idea. I'm sorry. I take it back. Your comment about tags, maybe think of the best movie of 2025, which is Corner to the Stars, which was about tow tags, Dr. Thomas DeGucci, the former L.A. County Chief Medical Corner. Fantastic Yeah. Wow. Wow. They recommended. Wow. Ben Hethcoat. Check it out. Okay. Every four-year college degree should be divided into three years and one floating year that is only available after age 40. Oh.

Love it. I'm in. This is great. These are great ideas. I want this to happen. And I want you to know. And I'm going next year. Because I did.

Seriously. I will say, because I, this, this. Can I go to a new school? You can go. Yeah. Well, we'll try it out. I actually was gaming it out because what I was thinking and I was like getting into the actual policy mechanics of it.

And because you'd say like, well, how are you going to pay for it? you were already going to pay for a four year degree. And if you pay for your fourth year of college and then go into the workforce, it's no worse economically than having just been in college for that year. And so ostensibly, you would pay for the year in advance. And then that money is in some kind of endowment growing to help you afford the year you get when you're over 40. Like I was actually, I think there's a extra way to do it. It's almost like everybody gets a kind of sabbatical. Well, you're to pay for it. And yeah, I have a pay. I have a fucking pay for. And so that's better than Republicans at Congress. Yep. You know, on the OBBB. And

And then when you turn 40, it's like, it's customary at some point you get your sabbatical. And then maybe people skip a midlife crisis and their midlife prices. They go and learn cooking back at the school or somewhere near that. You know, you have to go to the same college. I think you should have to go to the same college. I think that makes it more interesting thought experiment. Okay. Yeah.

But so now people with family's got to go back to Holy Cross. Yeah. Okay. Well, no, you leave your family, I assume. Oh, you leave your family for a year. So you want, so this is now a kind of a rum spring of kind of people get to escape their lives for a year. In my mind, it was just, you get to learn. Am I going to spring break again?

Yeah, spring break. It's, because in my mind, it's like, I do feel like, oh, like, there were so many things I didn't learn or didn't think I cared about. Now I was thinking about this purely in social fun terms. Yeah, I could see the wheels turning in John's eyes. He's just like back at the bar at the frat house or whatever. And love it's like, what theoretical math class could I take? I was 100% focused on like, like maybe I would do physics. I didn't think about socializing for a second.

This time I'm going to Florida or Arizona. Yeah. It was like now you have a little more money so you're even going to a better spring break. You're not like nine people to a hotel room. Yeah, no covers it's South Padre Island. Back to the grill. Like I would like to do maybe do like kind of update my statistics

and get back into it. I do think about all the books I didn't read and think, I wish I'd just read those. There you go. Every year we do a nationwide ranked choice vote on the top apps with chat functions. WhatsApp, email, Slack, etc. And one is eliminated.

Oh, yes. That's all just one goes. Great idea. One goes. Yes, because we just keep stacking them up and they have to check them all. It's unbelievable. And once you're eliminated, you're out for good. Yeah, you're out for fucking good.

The app is deleted. I mean, a lot of their success is kind of a network effect of having been picked up and taken up by others, right? The only reason Slack managed to get in is because they figured out that they could take over a business at a time. Otherwise, they would have faced the hurdle that the fact that we don't need another way to fucking communicate. One more. I'm going to throw in one more just for fun, which is double the number of three. is double the number of people in Congress. Okay.

Not only that, double the number in the house. To shrink the districts? Because the districts are now kind of in this in between, we have the same, we have the same number of members for a country of much fewer people. And it now defeats the purpose of having a local representative. And all of this talk about gerrymandering,

in part it's like, well, what should a district be? Well, all districts are kind of pretty varied now because they take in so many different people. They're much bigger than they used to be. So much smaller districts would mean you'd have, you'd know your Congressperson. It's just more democracy. And I actually think Democrats could like make that part of a platform.

We want more democracy. Members of Congress to have fewer people they report to in the House. And they'd get so much more done with all that more people. Double the Randy fines. There's some merit to this. I like this idea. Think about that. I'm going to like this idea.

Think about that. There's also like probably a really good argument for paying them way more. Like I think Singapore you make like a million dollars a year. if you're a elected official. You just couldn't get a, you know, higher quality person. Yeah. Today's episode is sponsored by strawberry.com.

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That's strawberry. m.m. slash crooked. Okay. Let's go to our resolutions. Reminder, we're going to play each of our 2020. 25 resolutions first, and then we'll give each of us a chance to explain ourselves, and then we can all offer up our resolutions for 2026.

Who wants to go first? Dan, you go first. Sure, why not? What do you got, Dan? All right, let's play dance. One, I am going to make another run at my attention span, and the thing I've started doing since election, which has caused me to miss many of John's best Twitter fights,

is to put my phone away before I put my kids to bed and not look at it for the rest of the night. I want to take up yoga in 2025. I started doing some this year. How'd that go? Well, I was one for two. Yeah, how's your, how's your, how's your, how's your, how's our downward dog? I would say the yoga went much better than my attention span. Really?

Wow. Yeah. So, that is a shock. I thought it would be the other way around. Yeah, no, the attention span, like, I, this is like a, I've been wrestling with this for a year now. I'm like, I'm very concerned about the impact of like short form video on my brain. But I used to, I really used to, as I said there, would put my phone away, we put my kids to bed and not look at it again and to right before bed, just to, like,

make sure that nothing was on fire or anything. That has failed. The phone is back. But I have done yoga, you know, not every week, but, you know, maybe every, you know, on average every two weeks for the last year. So I feel pretty good about that. Dan, will you do a tree pose with me right now? No, no, I will not.

That's for the premier subscribers. Yeah, hey, well, you can see, you can see. I want everyone in the room to know I would have done it. I only dance, you know, Korean dot com slash friends. I only dance, you can see only Dan's shop, you can see only Dan's. No tree pose. I don't believe this resolution until I see a fucking. Tree Pose.

All right. I'll go next. Oh, no, yeah. Wait, sorry, with your resolution. All of ours, then we're going to do, are we doing... No, we do one at a time. So I do my New Year's Resolution for next year. Let's hear it.

Okay. So I'm going to continue for the third year in a row to work on my attention span. So I have three this year because I figure if the more I have, the better chance I have succeeding at least once. The second, which runs completely dimensionally opposed to the other one, is one I'm stealing from my friend John Favre from 2024, which is, I'm going to post more. Okay. You're all liking it.

Unbelievable. I think, like I really have, like love I said, like I have, like I still use Twitter way too much. I look at it too much. But I do see that I have stopped posting. I've stopped like promoting our stuff, promoting my stuff, like putting our point of view in the world. And it is like a tool in which we can even the smallest way possible, like influence things.

And I sort of come to hate it. I've hate the responses to it. I hate the criticism from our side, the other side. I hate the feeling of it. But I think I have to suck that up and just do it because it's part of what we do content. Like this is what we do. So you kind of have to do it. And so I have to tough it up there.

Post and mute. I just feel like that's kind of weak. Like you got to swim in the fuck. Yeah, I agree. If you're going to put it out there, you got to live with the consequences, I think. Yeah. Yeah. It's like, don't cook if you're not willing to do the dishes.

That's stolen valor. And so the third one is one that is harder to hold me accountable for, which is probably a feature in a bug. But I've been thinking a lot about how, like, in my life, and in this true of all of us, that like for a long time in our career, as we were always, like, in positions where we were, like, had jobs that were, like, harder than maybe we should have at the time or above our station in life and, like, sort of live with the discomfort of pushing ourselves all the time. And I feel now that we, like, we've done this podcast for a long time. I've done

message box for five years now. And like I kind of like know what I'm good at. I know what I'm good at. And I feel like I've become very good at avoiding the things I'm not good at. And so, like, I do like heading into 2026, like want to push myself to be a little less comfortable in what I do, like to like sort of lean into things that I know are not my favorite things to do or I'm not as good at and try to do more of them and challenge myself more than just like keep doing the thing that I know how to do if that makes sense. Because that was like for my whole life before

I basically left the White House was always in a position of like, not that I want to live like this again, but where it's like we're always like one step away from like absolute fucking disaster in any of our careers and like living with that. I don't live with that stress, but I'm going to find something from like between there and like pure comfort, if that makes sense.

Yeah, it's funny. there's like a, I think there's like a natural trajectory, which is like when you're younger, if you feel comfortable, you don't necessarily feel safe because you want to be on to the next thing, right? And so you achieve some level of understanding of what you're doing. And then there must be something wrong. You have to go find the next thing. That's what I was like anyway, where like, oh, I had written a comedy. Now I got to write a drama. I'd been a speech writer. Now I would be a comedy writer. And I think the motivation was very defensive and not based in what, like, it wasn't a well made decision. It was more about feeling like if I'm, I don't want to be part of any

club that would have me as a member. And what's funny is, I do think then you go through a phase of then thinking, oh, no, the goal is to be comfortable in what you're doing, and then you get older. And it's like, no, that's actually a recipe for allowing yourself to be incurious and to be stuck in your ways and to kind of lose the plasticity of your brain. Very well said. I feel the same way. Cobra pose? Low cobra. Low cobra. Low cobra. One small resolution is I want to try to figure out if I'm too old to do a dragon squat.

that's right you all heard it put me on record googling that careful I only I only look at jacket squats in my incognito window um love it you want to go next I can go next let's see what I said last year we are coming to the end of the year where we made a lot of shows and did a ton of content

and there's a lot happening and I want to try next year to do a little bit less a little bit better Nope Absolutely not Absolutely not It's funny A little bit less a little bit Oh okay

Quality over quantity Yeah I feel like I did a little bit more the same I don't think I did anything worth You added like an entire series Yeah I think we did more I did more And a ton of YouTube shit

I did more we did a lot more I don't I do think What I will say One way I do think I have help this is we really have tried to make the love it or leave it in monologue, something we focus on and not just have it be a run of jokes, but try to figure out what we're saying about the week. So I think there's been a little, I brought a little bit being a little bit more deliberate to some of what we've been doing, which I think, and by the way, even thinking about how we do

interviews, I think we've all like kind of step back and try to think about like how to make, how to be, I guess really what I want to be is more deliberate. And I think I'm trying. I think that in fairness. So my resolutions. So I don't want to post more, but I do want to write more. And I have not been using Twitter that much, but especially in really kind of tense moments, maybe for myself, maybe because I think it has some value. I'm not sure. I've been writing against the type of the medium. So like Twitter is for just thrown off takes. And I've been writing these long Bill Ackman. Bill Ackman-length things at times Bill Ackman-Ling things. And people make fun of them. I don't really care. But like I just like as a place to be thoughtful and do what

is not natural for the medium, which is kind of lay out fully what I'm thinking. why somebody what somebody said without attacking them bothered me i still do the dunking when i get on there sometimes whatever but i've been actually enjoying that kind of writing and so i what i want to do is find a place maybe it's our sub find a way to write that way maybe on substack and then post some of it on social media but i want to be a little bit more deliberate of laying things out especially because i find i forget until i do it oh when you actually sit down and really write down something you actually clarify your own thinking in a way that carries through and it's just a muscle that I used to work more and I think it makes me

better and I want to get back to doing it. That's one. And then two, I have really gotten into cooking and I and baking and I want to be more deliberate and methodical about it and I want to learn more and like really kind of learn technique and be able to cook without recipes. I want to host more dinner parties where I'm cooking things. I want to like really build up my skills because I like it. It's actually really, it's a, you can't be on your phone. and that is my second resolution. Great. Good one.

Am I up? Okay. All right. I can go. I'll listen to this pain. I hate my voice so much. I want to talk to more people off air experts. I want to get good at using AI tools.

I tried to use chat GPT to write me a list of resolutions and I failed. Finally, I've been reading a book about mindfulness meditation, but I haven't been doing it. I think it would be good to do it. It's good for you. I did the experts thing. Yeah. Yeah. You did the AI tools.

I don't know. You just did. Proved it. I did. I did it 3.45 today, sign up for a new AI service, pay them a bunch of money to make one thing that I'll probably probably need rocket and rock it around you to unsubscribe me. Mindfulness, no, not even close, not even a little bit, not even once, I don't think. So, one for three?

Those hats, by the way, those were our Survivor hats. Oh, that's why we wore hats. The tribe has spoken hats. What a year. So my resolution is this is going to be a year saying yes. Not to work shit. The things that are fun. So it's like, I think I very, our work schedules are very regimented.

For me, it's Monday, Tuesday, intense prep, record, prep, record. And it makes you, like, feel hard to do shit. And it makes me not travel. I want to travel more and say yes to trips and get out of the office and do things and go places. Love that for you. Yeah, it's fine. I mean, my friend invited me to go on the trip to London for like a weekend, basically. And normally I would say no, but I'm going to go.

I'm like, no, we're going to do this. The Australia thing, we said, you always said, yes too it's like I was genuinely shocked when we got a yes to that being away from my kids for that long is like Tommy's always the hardest yes to get yeah you know I have a three year old and a 18 month old and you know came out of a pandemic like sort of an anxiety inducing thing to go to a new continent and be away from your kids for that long was like you know what just do it so I'm excited for Tom reading between the lines he's going to try ketamine and open his marriage things

sound pretty exciting it's a big year for Tommy uh Tommy is saying yes so many jokes I want to make that get me in more trouble all right All right, let's, let's go. My resolution this year, this one I'm gonna, I'm gonna nail. We know this one. I cannot fucking wait. I know this, we know this one. More posting.

Yeah, I'm going, I'm more posting, more Twitter fights. Yeah. Yeah, you nailed it. You did it, you nailed it. Honestly, I've never seen, I will tell you something. I will admit something. I thought that resolution was so stupid and so bad for you. And it's still, by the way, it might have been bad for you, but it wasn't stupid.

Yeah. You had, you really were on. to something. I will say though for for next year very similar to you like write and it's not just writing more but I'm you know I was doing a few of these like essays for offline at the beginning and I found it like I used to hate writing until it was done. I mean you write and then you go through this horrible process and then it's done you're like oh great it's done but for some reason the offline essays I've enjoyed because it really does help me just like put down on paper on a screen what I'm thinking it helps me clarify my thinking and

I've, like, stopped caring about it. I'm like, do they do well? Do they have to people like them? I don't care. I'm just going to do it, and it's going to make me feel good, and it's helping me spend less time doing the takes on Twitter by, like, getting everything down. It's almost like you get it out of your system.

So I like that. You always get a thoughtful, charitable response from the internet and also friends. Yeah, well, the internet, you know, I don't really care about Twitter. I don't see the, I don't see the replies there. Once in a while, I dip into the Discord. Oh, yeah. Love you, Discord. But yeah, no, I think that's it that's fun.

And I'm also going to try one night a week, like just no news. Just go home and if I'm going to use the phone, it's like, we'll carry the burden. That's why I have to find the night. Sundays and Wednesdays. Yeah. Well, then who will take the watch? Who will guard the wall on Wednesdays? Brian Stelter alone?

Are you reading the news every single? night in the evening? He's never not reading the news. He's never not reading. I'm scrolling here and there. It's not like I'm sitting for a full news, you know. I'm opening tabs. Yeah, you were, yeah.

Huh. Yeah, but it's too often. It's just got like, just at least, this is like a baby step thing. Just one night. It's not good for you. It's not good. I think you should do that.

Can I weigh in on your posting? Sure. Joy, your posting resolution last year. Because I think it is, as Lovett said, ridiculous. And you, but you did it well. But I think the, truth of it is is not the volume

of the posting. Like what you're, what you really resolved to do was that you were going to say what you believed and you're not going to care what anyone else said. Yeah. Which I think is very admirable and you really... You know, it's funny because my final resolution for next year, because I thought about that. Well, you already did

this one. Yeah. Oh, no, you're going to start caring again? No, no, no. I was like, we are, we are heading into a midterm season. There's going to be Democratic primaries and then we're going to, you know, then it's going to be talking about the Democratic presidential primary in 2028, and I feel like I want to be not like I, but like very open and honest about both criticism of Democratic candidates, but in a way that is constructive.

I want to like think about the criticism so that it's not just like, you suck and you can't do anything about it, but like, okay, what would I do? Right. And so it would be constructive that way. And if I really like something someone did, say it and be honest about it and not feel like if I say everyone's going to be like, oh, you're in the tank for so and so. You know, because it's like, I just want to be as honest as I can be about all the Democrats running for office. Because I think that sometimes I feel like in the past you're like, I don't want to be too tough because then they'll be mad at me or I want to be too nice because then people's, you know.

Well, it was brutal last time. It sucked last time in 2018. I was thinking about that. We were, everyone was mad at us all the time for being too, like, everyone thought we were in the tank for this candidate. Like at the same time, there were people were like, the pod bros are all for Bernie. And then it would be all the Bernie people would be like, the pod bros suck. and I like this goes to mind about being more uncomfortable is one of it is is being willing being less reticent about taking on criticism for the things I say right or right or like

being willing it's just sort of like like taking people along with my like stream of consciousness thoughts about candidates that can sometimes change too you know and it's like I liked that speech I didn't really like that I thought that was good I didn't think that was that great here's why you know it's funny because like for me part of what I want to do part of the reason I want to write a little bit more and step back a little bit more is I actually think like I sometimes like I'm like I lose sight of why like what it what is my value and like what is it what is it that I offer and I actually think like you know I'm like my actual like political analysis like I much rather step back and like think about something in a way that maybe is a little off kilter maybe it turns out to be

wrong but like I just would like to bring a little bit of more weirdness which means really a little bit more of like things that are not currently kind of necessarily exactly what people are saying or talking about, you know, because I just want to like step outside of the scrum because I think I do a little better outside of the scrum. That's part of what I'm trying to do. Jacob B Pritzker, can you do a dragon squat? Yeah. Did you look up what a dragon squad is? I did. It looks really hard. It's really hard. It's really hard. It's really hard. Dan, do Pilates with me next year. Can we do it a solid core? Make die your resolution. Yeah. Do Pilates? Yeah. Film it behind the paywall. That was almost my tournament online today was the

solid-core feud. Oh, yeah. I'm up. I'm up to date. All right, guys. That's our show for today. Happy New Year to everyone. Don't forget to take your Zbiotics. On Friday, we'll be dropping a special episode of our subscriber-only show Inside

2025 into this feed. It's Love It's Conversation with legendary and reclusive Democratic strategist, Phelip Rinesis. I love that description. What did you guys talk about? So Philippe played Donald Trump both in the Hillary Clinton debate prep and the Kamala Harris to Bray Prep, didn't get called on by Joe Biden because Joe Biden said, don't worry, I got this.

But it was really, he really went full method. And he's just an insightful person about how you deal with someone like Trump. That's, I think, partly why he had the kind of, kind of skill set to be Trump. So it was a, and it was a great conversation, genuinely, one of my favorite conversations to the long. Awesome. Check it out. And then we'll be back with a new show on Tuesday, January 6th.

Bye, everyone. We'll be wild. If you want to listen to Pod Save America ad-free and get access to exclusive podcasts, go to cricket.com slash friends to subscribe on Supercast, substack, YouTube, or Apple Podcasts. Also, please consider leaving us a review that helps boost this episode and everything we do here at Cricket. Pod Save America is a Cricket Media production. Our producers are David Toledo, Emma Illick-Frank, and Saul Rubin.

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