Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov - The Trump Epstein Doodle Bombshell
Episode Date: September 10, 2025The GOP-led House Oversight Committee released Epstein’s “birthday book” in full… and it’s real gross. Scott and Jessica unpack the shocking revelations, and advise the Democrats on how to u...se this to win some elections. Plus — a surprising new poll shows that the young men and women of Gen Z might be really far apart, on lots of things. And, Scott and Jessica celebrate their work anniversary — it’s been a whole year of Raging Moderates in your podcast feeds. Thanks so much for listening! Check us out on YouTube at youtube.com/@ragingmoderates. Follow Jessica Tarlov, @JessicaTarlov. Follow Prof G, @profgalloway. Follow Raging Moderates, @RagingModeratesPod. Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@RagingModerates Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Welcome to Raging Moderates. I'm Scott Galloway.
And I'm Jessica Charlew.
We're one years old.
I know.
We're one years old.
We're so fresh, baby-faced.
Oh, my gosh.
But one feels serious.
Happy anniversary. Is that weird?
Likewise, we are.
What is one?
One is paper?
Paper.
Paper. Huh.
Yeah.
Well, Daddy's been bringing you Benjamin's, if I might say so myself.
I was going to say, is it?
They were like a money joke, but it's supposed to be sentimental, like, you know, what you give your partner on a one-year anniversary, like a special card or, you know, a photograph framed from your best trip ever.
One year should just be a note saying, okay, if this hadn't happened, it'd be really fucking embarrassing.
I was thinking about a buddy of mine.
I was just in Brazil, and I have this wonderful friend that I met 20 years ago in Brazil.
And whenever I go to Brazil on a speaking gig, I don't know if you know this, I'm big in Brazil.
But anyways.
I've heard that, and I've seen it on your social media.
Yeah.
I'm big of the macho countries. I'm big in Brazil, South Africa, and Australia.
Anyways, I have this great friend, Augusto, and I met him at a bachelor party where the bachelor didn't show up. A good friend of mine, he's not eccentric, but he gets really into shit. And he decided he was really into Brazil. And we went down to Salvador de Bahia for Carnival, which was amazing. And he met one of the biggest movie stars in Brazil and was, of course, immediately starstruck, you know, talented, famous, beautiful, and Brazilian.
Anyways, their marriage lasted, like, not very long, but my friendship with Augusto has endured 20-plus years, and we knew it wouldn't work very long when the night before the bachelor party in Floripa, she would not let him go.
This was, like, 23 years ago.
He sent out this big email saying, guys, I'm really sorry, but, you know, I forget her name is upset and we'll let me go.
So I just don't feel like I can go.
And I'm like, we're like, we're like, don't do it.
Well, no, we were more concerned with us.
Like, dude, this isn't about you. We're all going. None of us are, none of us are casting our trip. This had nothing to do with you. This was about Brazil, surfing, Floripa. Anyways, that did not last a year. I don't know how I got here, Jess. Jess, what are your reflections on the year?
I think we're supposed to talk about this at the end of the show, but we can start early. But we're going to have a lot of like Epstein stuff to talk about. So we can go early. My reflections are that this has been one of the most wonderful,
consequential experiences of my professional life. And I'm so thrilled to be doing this with you. And a lot of people obviously want to get into podcasting and it's kind of a joke, right? But I got so lucky that I was partnered up with someone that already has a podcasting empire. So everything was just easy and your team has been so fantastic and welcomed me into the Prof Gfold. And I feel like we've carved out a night.
space for this raging moderates conversation. And I've had a blast. And the idea also that I could
speak for more than, you know, 90 seconds without being interrupted is thrilling. And I always look
forward to it. So I had a great year. I'm so glad. That's very nice. By the way, I was like to draw
this to a life lesson for your young professionals out there. That's how you get a race.
Oh, really? Is that happening? Are we going back to paper? The paper is coming. I wasn't even trying
to do it that way. It was just genuinely what my reflection is. I mean, even the stuff that's
hard. And it's, I get it, we're not coal miners and we're not curing cancer and all the things.
But there are real- Or caring for children, because being a mother is the hardest job, Jess.
That's true. School drop-off started this week. Yes, it is. Is it really the hardest job?
Well, do you want to carry someone in your stomach, then get them out of your body and be responsible for them,
basically for the rest of their lives? Because I know people say, oh, they go to college. I still call my mommy on my way to work every single day.
So, yeah, it never ends.
Yeah.
No, I had Indian food last night, so I think that's somewhat similar, kind of walking around.
Uh-huh.
Yeah, it's like a wild stomach ache and a bad poop.
That's all it is.
I feel like I'm on the verge of throwing up every 30 minutes.
And also, I'm a little pregnant all the time because I have to pee all the time.
Oh, yeah, aging with the male bladder is not great.
No, it's not great.
But I like that you call, you speak to your mother every day?
Oh, yeah, definitely.
I mean, I always did, but even more so since my dad passed away.
I love, she's the best.
Even when she's wrong, she's the best.
Yeah, I used to speak to my mom every day.
That's nice.
That's really nice.
That's good.
Not a lot of sons do that.
I think more than you think.
I think that actually a lot of men I know are, well, a lot of the men of my life are really, really close with their mother.
I'm, I'm sorry, I'm drawn to kind of feminine men, but, and maybe that's just part of it.
Or I don't know if you need to be masculine or feminine.
I don't think it's not a feminine anything.
It's not a feminineity thing.
It's not a feminineity thing. Yeah.
Yeah, that's probably true. But anyways, I'm glad you talked to your mom. I'm glad you're happy a year in.
Are you happy?
Yeah, I'm really happy.
I need some affirmation back now. Is this been the most consequential year of your professional life?
I'm not sure I'd go that far, but...
You're like still selling L2 was pretty cool, but you're fine.
Yeah, no, 160 million felt pretty good, felt pretty consequential.
We did not earn that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah. To be honest, the sentiment or the emotion I register on this podcast is imposter syndrome. And that is, I have a view on politics, but I don't bring the same expertise and rigor that you bring with your polling background and you're thinking about it all day because you're on Fox. And you just have more street credit. You're looking at data. I'm just throwing out an opinion. And also, I'm usually the, I'm usually the Salza in podcast and someone else is the straight man. And it's flipped here. So it's been a learning experience for me. It's really
me asking you questions. But I very much enjoy it. And as is the nature of politics, I really enjoy
meeting our elected representatives. It makes me feel better about our elected representatives. What is
unfortunate is the comments and the things you get back, people are so polarized and sort of a
hair trigger away from being angry around your views. If I'm talking about stocks or I'm talking about
why young men are struggling, people come back with thoughtful comments. Here, it's just like,
okay, you fucking lib-tart. I mean, it's just...
Cry harder.
Yeah. There's not a lot of room.
For nuance?
Yeah, there's not a lot of... I don't know.
Like, that's the right word, nuance and context.
Anyways, I think we killed banter there. I think we can move on.
Nailed it.
Nailed it. Again, happy, happy one year anniversary.
Your gift is in the mail. I'm just kidding. There's no gift.
And our gift to our listeners is that...
Is Jeffrey Epstein?
There we go. The Epstein files.
But before we start the episode, we started Raging Moderate's very own YouTube channel.
We have left the nest.
So we're going to give you more of what you want, up-to-the-minute videos and conversations.
We're going to try and be more newsy and respond more quickly.
We just had a strategy meeting.
It was productive.
Jess did a quick hit with, who's that kid?
What's his name?
The brilliant kid?
Aaron Parnas.
Aaron Parnas, who's having a moment, a glow-up.
And I got 100,000 views, so we're like, okay, we need to do more of that.
So we're going to try and be a little bit more responsive and newsy, if you're not.
you will, we're going to do these up-to-minute videos and conversations in addition to the Wednesday
and Friday pod. So if you're hearing this, we'll have the YouTube link in the show notes.
Anyways, thank you for enduring that. Sorry for the ad. And today's raging migrants.
Doesn't I feel uncomfortable doing that? I think it's terrible. Well, it helps if you're a total
fucking horror, which I am. Oh, I'm glad also that I partnered with a whore. So there's very little
I'm not willing to do for money, Jess. There's very little I'm not willing to do for money.
Except the good news is I'm an expensive whore. High class. So I do I find some.
solace in that. In today's raging moderates, we're discussing a roundup of the latest Trump
news. Plus, we'll dig into a new poll revealing a sharp Gen Z gender divide. I was fascinated
by some of that stuff. I'm curious to get your thoughts. And as we mentioned, our one-year
anniversary. All right, let's get into it. House oversight just received its first batch of
documents from the Epstein estate, including the so-called birthday book, letters gifted to Epstein
for his 50th. One image released by Democrats has the White House playing defense.
Trump has denied writing it, sued the Wall Street Journal for defamation, and AIDS insists the signature isn't his.
Meanwhile, in Chicago, the administration launched Operation Midway Blitz.
God, that sounds like a bad movie to target undocumented immigrants with criminal records.
Advocates say arrests are so far minimal.
At the same time, the Supreme Court let Trump keep roving ice patrols in Southern California, despite concerns they single out Latinos, even U.S. citizens.
Trump will also vowed to bring back prayer in public schools.
promising new education department guidance to protect religious expression.
In behind closed doors, Treasury Secretary Scott Besant reportedly threatened to punch
Housing Chief Bill Pulte at a Georgetown dinner accusing him of bad-mouthing him to Trump.
Hmm.
Just a lot happening in Trump world.
Where do you want to start?
I know.
How about let me think, Epstein?
Yeah.
It's a, there is rarely very few things in.
in this world in which we're constantly being inundated with news and horrifying images,
you know, starvation, murder, etc. You know, we become desensitized to some degree. And I looked at
the birthday book and had a physical reaction to it. It felt like I was going to throw up at least
in my mouth a little bit and that it was a confirmation of all of the possible worst case
scenarios that you could imagine about what's going on. Because there are a lot of folks
who vote in different ways, right? A lot of Democrats and Republicans that kind of want to
bypass these things, right? And just we want to think the best of it, right? We certainly can't
be accusing everybody that fraternized with him of being guilty of, you know, doing it with
13, 14-year-old girls. But you look at some of these images, including obviously the card that the
president drew for him, you know, highlighting that we have certain things in common. And it is in
the frame of a woman's body and some people on the internet pointed this out. And I hadn't
noticed it until I saw folks pointing this out. But the breasts are very small. It's not like how
you would typically draw boobs.
I don't draw a lot of boobs,
but it's not grown-up boobs
that Donald Trump
has drawn there. It's just, you know,
little and maybe, you know,
he's not into big boobs or whatever, but
it has a young girl
vibe to it. And when you
see actually the signature
as pubic hair
in real life versus someone
describing it to you as it was in the Wall Street Journal
article originally, your
stomach just dropped.
And so I thought, well, this is going to be the worst of it, right?
Because this was the lead aspect of the story.
But for me, it got so much worse.
And I don't know if you've looked at the other drawings that were in the birthday book.
But one in particular is a sketch and it's in color, kind of like crayon looking, of Epstein giving balloons to little girls in 1983.
And then it's labeled 1983.
And then there's another image of him being massaged and,
potentially orally serviced it looks like by a woman in a thong and that's labeled 2003 and the line says under it what a great country
so it's just all there spelled out for you that this person was obviously a groomer that this person was a pedophile a sex trafficker all the worst things that you could ever imagine and by looking at the letters that are enclosed in this birthday book
you know that some of the most powerful people in American society were totally fine with it, found some redeeming quality in him. I don't, you know, this is going to become harder and harder to believe that there wasn't something nefarious going on in all of these connections. And this goes so far beyond what I had to adjust to as locker room talk in 2016, right, with the Access Hollywood tape. Like, you know, I have accepted that American.
society is cool with that. But to look at what's in this book and think that people are going
to be okay with this breaks my heart. What did you feel? It's funny because when I first saw
that one image. The card or the balloons? The card. Yeah. I might be just tone deaf and thick,
but I just kind of didn't get it. And then when I read, someone pointed out that this looked like someone
who had not gone through puberty yet and the pubic hair thing like you're right you just you hear that
and it's like whoa i mean that's just creepy and then the the creepiest thing or you know creepy squared
was i thought okay i don't think he's a very creative person i don't think he's the kind of person
to go into his basement with scissors and paper and kind of workshop some creative cards
he clearly got help
and my sense is
I'm just trying to imagine
him saying to someone
hey I want to give this guy
send this guy a birthday card
can you brainstorm some ideas
I mean him describing what he wanted
and then singing it and going
that's perfect
you know people send stupid emails
or like make offhanded comments
that are totally inappropriate
I get out over my skis all the time
and say shit that's just not appropriate
and then I look back
and I wish I could take that back
but this felt like a work
This felt like a piece of work and a project where he hired or had resources and he instructed them, this is the vibe I want to get across. It's got to be funny. It's got to be creative. It's a book. And then people came back to him probably with several ideas. And he said, that's the one. And unfortunately, I think right now the most consequential figure in the world is probably not Putin. I think it's she. I think she is in the background playing us like a fiddle. And then probably
number two in terms of damage, I would argue, is Bobby Kennedy. He'll be consequential in
five or ten years when we have measles and revela outbreaks, and then people realize that,
okay, this is why we have these outbreaks by creating massive friction around getting vaccines.
But arguably the most powerful person in domestic politics right now is Epstein,
posthumously, because he basically shut down the government. And in order for Speaker Johnson
to try and get this out of the news cycle, he dismissed Congress.
early. And it's not as if they don't have a lot to do. So he shut down the government. And my favorite
was Speaker Johnson claiming that, no, no, Trump is actually a hero in all of us, that he's an FBI
informant. And even, it sounds like even MAGA hasn't picked up on that. Even MAGA's gone,
okay, that's a bridge too far. But this is, I would argue that those narco-terrorists or innocent
civilians, whatever your viewpoint is on those people who were killed in the boat off the
Venezuelan coast, I think Epstein did that. I believe, and this is my thesis, that there are
five or six people in a room, queering AI, different LLMs with different prompts around, how do we
keep Epstein out of the news cycle? And they're coming up with just a ton of ideas, whether it's
threatened to fire Chairman Powell. Now say that's bullshit tomorrow. You know, a military strike
against a nation that doesn't have the power to move back under the auspices of narco-terrorism,
change the name of a cabinet for no real real reason. And that's not to say that they don't want to do
these things or they don't think these things are right, but I think there was a concerted, methodical,
and quite frankly, quite effective strategy right now of every day pushing Epstein out of the media cycle.
I think Jeffrey Epstein right now is the most powerful person posthumously or the most consequential
and influential figure in American politics. What are your thoughts? Do I sound very conspiracy theory here?
No, not at all. This has been the theme since, I don't know what, a couple months now, I should say, since this came back into the news in a very prominent manner. And you see it all over social media. Whatever the headline is, is where are the Epstein files? Right. Caroline Levitt, there was that conspiracy theory that one day when she had to talk about Epstein, she didn't wear her cross to the press to the press briefing room. But those are the hardest questions that she gets because she knows.
also that this is something that activates the MAGA base. This isn't the usual liberals are over
here screaming the sky is falling and, you know, we're going to oppose everything that's going on.
There is a core faction of Donald Trump supporters that are incensed about this. And it's not just
the fact that young women were abused, raped, trafficked. It's that Donald Trump sold them on this
idea that he wasn't part of the cabal of powerful men that are preying upon the rest of society. And it
turns out that not only is he part of it, that he's a main feature of the birthday book, right? He is
a flagship participant in this world. And there are some big time Republican or MAGA influencers
that are going along with Trump on this, like Charlie Kirk, he's buttoned up now, right? And he's on
message and whatever they're saying now. Caroline Leavitt tweeted that this somehow exonerated him. I mean,
they're trying to get into the signature comparisons and to the journal's credit, and a lot of credit
goes to the journal for this. They included signature comparisons from Trump around the same period
and notes to George Conway, who he's obviously no fan of anymore, and to Hillary Clinton. This is
indisputable. The New York Times is out with their analysis of it. It is obviously his signature.
So this idea that Donald Trump is somehow the hero in it and Mike Johnson had to back off of the ludicrous idea that he was the FBI informant that's actually exposing all this terrible stuff that's going on is not going to fly. J.D. Vance has been humiliated 50 ways from Sunday on this because he had posted, excuse my language, but in a word, this is bullshit. It's not bullshit. And I understand that you have the fighter flight response to these things and they think like, well, what can we do? Deny, deny, deny.
I deny. Let's slap a huge lawsuit out there, $10 billion. And Rupert Murdoch and the journal basically said, you know, if you come for the king, you best not miss. And they missed. They missed bigly on this one. And the idea that they thought that there was a chance that the journal would have gone to print with something this massive that they hadn't fact checked to oblivion is beyond reckoning.
Yeah, 100%. Beyond comprehension.
that is the correct way to say it. So, you know, hats off to the journal for doing this and being so buttoned up about it as well. But this is the Epstein files and how this is all being handled is one of those 80, 20 issues that we hear about all the time that the Democrats always take the wrong side of, right? Like, you know, trans people in competitive sports. Basically, no one is satisfied with how the Trump administration is managing this. And Rokana and Thomas Massey, who are spearheading that bipartisan.
and discharge petition, they need a couple more signatures. They have four Republicans that have
signed on thus far. And they're talking about, you know, reading names on the floor of Congress.
They obviously want to protect survivors who don't want to have their names mixed up in this.
But when you look at the way that the ball is rolling from the press conference with 10
survivors speaking out to unlikely heroes like Marjorie Taylor Green, who a clock is right twice a day.
You got to give her credit, though.
Totally.
She's shown a lot of leadership here.
She comes across as unafraid and trying to do the right thing.
I think she's, I think she comes out of this, regardless of what happens, a big winner.
Totally.
It's interesting how there are some things that supersede politics, right?
They're so visceral.
Yeah.
And that you can see these materials that you could listen to those survivors, talk about what their lives were like, how they were manipulated, like the young woman who had a dying mother.
And Jeffrey Epstein kept saying, I'll get her.
into the right doctor?
Mm-hmm.
You know, is there a sicker way to get someone to give you a dirty massage than to say,
I'll help you save your mother?
And Marjorie Taylor Green is just saying this is not red or blue.
Mm-hmm.
This is just about humanity.
There are a couple things or observations.
I think that the Democrats may have their message for 26, and that is, we've been saying
for a while, they were flat-footed, they needed to kind of respond.
It feels as if they found their footing and they're responding.
You know, Governor Newsom, senators, Bennett, Warren, Warner, Cassidy, to his credit, Sanders, I thought were excellent, pushing back on RFK and thereby, or pushing back on the president.
It feels like they're not playing offense, but they're off their heels.
And so the next thing has to be big ideas and messaging around 26.
And I think the big ideas have to be all around affordability.
you know, eight million houses, raise minimum wage, lower, lower access to Medicare by two years
every year, you know, whatever it might be. But I think that they may have been handed
the foot to lead with. And it's very simple and very understandable and appeals to people
across the political spectrum. And that is, if we take control of the house, if you vote for me
and we take control of the house, we will release the Epstein files. Because they'll have
that power. It's pretty simple, folks. If we take back the majority in the House, the next day,
we vote and pass legislation to immediately release the Epstein Foss. I think that will be a very
powerful thing to run on. Your thoughts? So I think it definitely can be part of it. I worry that we
could have the same, I don't want to even call it a missed opportunity because Kamala Harris did talk about
affordability and prices all the time in 2024. It just, you know, it was a change election.
It didn't resonate. But I really want to lead with cost of living and losing health care.
Agreed. Yeah. I agree. I think this is certainly part of it because it's part of the betrayal.
That's the main message, I think, which is Donald Trump has been lying to you from the get-go.
And it's everything about lowering your cost of living, making the grocery store more affordable.
getting us out of wars to I'm going to release the Epstein files and I had nothing to do with
it. And I think that you can thread that needle, but the price of, you know, your chicken wings.
I don't know if you saw that Mallory McMorrow ad that went very viral running for Senate in
Michigan. We had her on the podcast a few weeks ago. You know, she's talking about all of the
ads in NFL Red Zone, which was supposed to be seven hours of ad free. People really pissed about it.
but she's talking about, you know, it's $19 for chicken wings, $5 for chips.
Even your price of beer is going up.
And to me, that has to be the front foot.
And then the back foot is all of this.
But I think the mismanagement of the Epstein files and, frankly, the corruption that's going on surrounding it is certainly part and parcel of this package that Donald Trump sold you a real.
really bad bill of goods. And you can't point to an area in your life where you are better off
than you were when he assumed the presidency. And I think that that will be very salient.
And just before we bust a break, I just want to get your views and provide some comments on the
recent ice raid of a plant, a Hyundai plant. I think a lot of people are down with cracking down
on illegal immigration.
And also, look, this is largely performative in the sense that we were deporting more people
during certain periods during Obama and Biden by cooperating with local governments and not
doing it in such a cruel, visible, like, faux little dick macho way.
But approximately 450 to 475 workers were detained at a Savannah, Georgia Hyundai plant.
Most of them were South Korean nationals.
And many of them were here on a B-1 business visa or the,
the visa waiver ESTA program, neither of which authorized manual labor. So our immigration
process and visa process is best described as a total shit show. And this kind of demonstrates
how irrational and self-damaging our immigration policy as it relates to our economic
policy. And that is, South Korea is one of our strongest allies. And it has already prompted
travel freezes and reviewed operations by affected firms, including Hyundai, LG, and Samsung,
who are all reconsidering future U.S. plans.
And Trump has made a signature of his presidency to bring back manufacturing and to get
domestic and foreign firms to commit to making investments.
South Korea has good relations traditionally with the U.S., one of our strongest allies.
We fought a war together side by side.
We've backed their government, and we have convinced them to build really big factories and employ a lot of people, and now they are reconsidering that because we went in to play G.I. Joe, you know, minus the dignity, minus the humanity, minus the patriotism, and have effectively sent to chill down all South Korean firms around investing in the U.S. It's just as if, again, going back to chat GPT, it's as if they keep typing in.
what are the best way, how do we accomplish the biggest own goals in geopolitical and
economic history? It's almost like admire the elegance. It's like one ice raid is likely
going to reduce tens, potentially hundreds of billions of CAP-X from South Korean firms into
the United States. Nobody wants to get, nobody wants to leave their home, be an engineer,
go work at a plant and then get rounded up.
You know, when those people get out of jail,
which they're probably already out of jail,
they go back to fucking Seoul.
And they think, you know what?
We're going to open a plant in the suburb of Rio.
Or we're going to open a plant in Vietnam.
Or we're going to open a plant, you know, who knows?
Maybe we'll even do something jointly with China
because all of a sudden maybe we should start talking to them again.
This is just, it's not only performative.
We've seen that and cruel.
But let me appeal to the Republican side.
This will absolutely reduce jobs of domestic workers.
That Hyundai plant hires and creates a lot of jobs for high-paying jobs for domestic workers.
We're saying, fuck you to a great ally.
South Korea is an amazing success story.
They've built incredible products.
You know, the only rival to the iPhone is a product made in South Korea.
South Korean firms are wonderful to work with.
They take their relationship with America very seriously.
They are very measured.
They make big investments.
They're very methodical.
They have great companies.
And we've basically said, no, we want to humiliate your workers and send a chill.
How many Korean companies right now are canceling plans for joint ventures and capital expenditure around plants in the U.S.?
Just in the last 48 hours?
Not even just that.
They're talking about kicking American English teachers out of South Korea.
there you go. And why wouldn't you? We're not a friend. And on top of it that that we came with our camera crews because we're the most deeply unsurious nation on the planet. It's like Pixar, it didn't happen so that we could line up 350, 400 South Korean engineers. I mean, people with college degrees who a lot of them, it sounds like, had a legal right to be here, at least based on what their immigration attorneys have been saying, they've been
doing interviews about it to shackle them?
These guys wearing polo shirts?
I'm sorry, that is not what anyone imagined
when Trump said I'm going to get the bad ombres out of the country.
And I don't think it's just South Korea.
If you were any civilized and developed nation
that was thinking about acquiescing to Trump's demands
for more American investment,
and we should note that this predates Trump coming back into office,
I mean, this was the crown jewel of Brian Kemp's economic strategy for how he was rejuvenating Georgia.
And he must be sitting there thinking like, what the fuck?
Holy shit.
I didn't even have someone good that I was going to have to run for Senate.
And now I have to explain to people why billions of dollars of investment is just going away so that Stephen Miller can get off again.
I thought it was one of those stories that couldn't be real.
Let's talk about just how bad those hombres are. As of late June, there are over 59,000 immigrants held in ICE custody, which is, by the way, is 140% of detention capacity. So they're not being held in good conditions.
Nope.
Over 70% of them have no criminal record, no criminal record.
So do you really need to incarcerate people with no criminal record guilty of?
And they would say, well, they're guilty of a crime.
To be clear, folks, let's remind you.
Immigration is the secret sauce of America a lot of people agree with.
What a lot of people don't acknowledge is the most profitable part of immigration is a legal immigration,
because it's a flexible workforce that we have known comes in to pick our crops,
take care of our grandparents, provide us services, and then when the work goes away,
they melt back to their home countries, they pay Social Security taxes, consumption taxes,
but they actually tax themselves and call on our resources. I would argue it is the most profitable,
flexible workforce in history. Has it gone too far? Does it mean we should let it continue? No.
But to all of a sudden show up and act like these people are criminals, we knew this was going on.
And if you really wanted to be serious about it, if you really wanted to solve the problem,
you'd start finding those nice business owners that employ these people. And before you know it,
they would do, you know, certain biometric checks and boom, the demand would dry up and they would
melt back to their home countries. They have detained 20,000 immigrants a month. That's a three-ex increase
from 2024, 93% never convicted of a violent crime. It reminds me a little bit of when we brought
all these interpreters back from Afghanistan who had helped us hunt down bad guys. And then lately,
there's been talk of sending them back to Afghanistan, which is essentially a death sentence.
These people go back, they're dead. And this feels like the same sort of disingenuous, wink, wink,
come here, do our work, do our dirty work, the domestic workers don't, and then let's demonize you.
Anyways, Jess, let's take a quick break. Stay with us.
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Welcome back. Gen Z's gender divide is sharper than ever, and it's not just about politics.
The new NBC poll shows young men and women split on Trump on work, even on what it means to live a successful life.
Nearly half of Gen Z men approve of Trump compared to just a quarter of women.
Men are also far less likely to say they feel anxious about.
the future. And when asked what success looks like, I thought this was fascinating, Trump backing men put marriage and kids at the top, while Harris backing women ranked children near the very bottom. Instead, prioritizing emotional stability and meaningful work. This blew my mind. Jeff's, what do you think it means when Gen Z, men and women are chasing completely different visions of family and success?
Well, I think it means that we're not going to be marrying people who vote differently than us, which is the fundamental.
As if we needed another reason for young people not to hook up.
Exactly.
Did you talk politics when you were dating in your 20s?
I can't remember even.
I have no idea what the politics were of anyone I dated when I was young.
I lived abroad.
I was in London.
So we talked about it a little bit, but it was mostly like, hey, your guy made us go into Iraq and Afghanistan.
And, you know, everyone was kind of center left.
I mean, I was doing a politics PhD.
So I have a bit of like a stamp on me that I'm interested in it.
But it certainly wasn't definitional in this way.
And I had a very serious boyfriend who was like a Romney Republican and John McCain Republican who voted for Hillary in 2016 because Trump was just too much.
But fundamentally had, you know, different ideas about the size of government and taxes.
and we got on just fine for three plus years, right?
It didn't used to be this much of a way to define who you are.
And that is led in a lot of ways by liberals.
You know, we have less of a tolerance for people who disagree with us than conservatives do.
And I certainly see that in my environment at work.
And I know that's particularly true with young people.
But I was, and maybe I'm putting too much of my, you know, pollster or researcher had on,
I didn't love the way the question was phrased because they said, what do you consider important to a successful life?
And that's kind of unclear as to what do you personally consider to be important or what do you think is most important generally?
And I understand as a young woman setting out in life, so a woman in her 20s that's planning, I can see why you wouldn't be like, you know, I'm just trying to get my MRS and bang out a few babies, right?
because you know that you're going to be set back in your career or there are going to be a lot more challenges, at least.
I personally feel that I've thrived in this era of having children, but it's harder, right?
And I have a very specific kind of career.
And so this idea of young women basically saying, I've got a lot that I want to accomplish before I'm even thinking about kids made sense to me.
And that men, especially Trump voting young men that are leaning into the kind of Charlie Kirk mold of it all.
are going to be like, kids, that's what's most important to me. And it is important. And we,
you know, we have a population problem and liberals are the one that are having less babies.
But I saw in the census data, which I found fascinating, that it's not college educated women that are having less kids.
It's liberal women without a college degree.
Hmm. So.
Well, there's, it feels as if women, the bottom line is a lot of women who have opportunities and economic independence.
which is a wonderful thing. The bottom-wise, divorce rates have gone up since the 70s as women
have gained more economic independence. In some, women's assent economically has not been matched
by men's assent in terms of their ability to manage more of the domestic responsibilities.
And so a lot of women are doing the math and saying the math ain't mathing, I'm out. And it's sort of
creeped down to the younger generations where now, I think a lot of women are saying,
I have reshaped my life around my relationships, different types of relationships, my work,
and I don't necessarily need to have a romantic relationship to feel like that I'm a success.
And that I'm happy.
And that I'm happy.
And one of the biggest myths that the data should dispel is the following.
There's this cartoon of a woman in her 30s who hasn't found love and doesn't have a husband, and she has failed at life.
And all of the data, including this one, in my opinion, in terms of the aspirations of young men and young women, show the following. And this is true. Men need relationships and get more from them, romantic relationships, than women. On average, men live four to seven years longer when they're married. Women, two to four years longer. Widows are happier after their husband dies and when they were married, widowers are less happy. Men are much. Men are much.
much less likely, they have better health outcomes, much more likely the household to build wealth.
And essentially, only one in three men is in a relationship under the age of 30, whereas two and three
women are, and you think, well, that's mathematically impossible. It's not because women are dating
older because they want more economically and emotionally viable men. And one of the things
that just should be dispelled is that men get more from romantic relationships because they need
guardrails more, they need support more, than women. 80% of men say that their best friend is their
wife, where it's only one and three women say their best friend is their husband. But what we have
is a generation of young men who are being told they have no value, are having a difficult time
finding venues to demonstrate excellence. Guys fall in lust. Women fall slowly, quote unquote,
in sort of love. Because the bottom line is, I don't want to
say our standards are lower, but men find a variety of different things. When men are asked,
if you could have a woman with 80% of everything you want, three-quarters say, yeah, I'm in. When you
present a woman with the concept of a man of 80% of everything she wants, three-quarters say that's
not enough, because the basis of evolution is women have a much finer filter. And when there's
fewer venues, whether it's work, whether it's school, whether it's church, for people specifically
men to demonstrate excellence to women, you end up with a lot of lonely young men.
who blame women, and also a lot of women, not as nearly as many, only half as many who don't
have relationships, but they pour that energy into more productive means. They don't start blaming
men. They don't start blaming immigrants. They work on themselves. They pour that energy back
into relationships in the friend network and back into their professional lives. But nearly
half of men, ages 18 to 29, feel they face discrimination. And I think some of that is the
man is fear telling them that they should be aggrieved. I think some of it is bullshit. I'd still
think young men have a tremendous amount of opportunity in our society or as much as any
society. But what is really sad is a lot of them, when I coach young men, it ultimately ends up
in a conversation of, I'd really like to have a girlfriend. And I hear their stories. And I
hear, granted, I know women have a lot of, like, horrific dating stories. They just sound like
shocking. The stories you hear from these young men are just really sad.
They're just trying so hard. They're trying to better themselves. And they really have a difficult time finding anyone who will even give them a shot. And I think that just as the, I apologize, I'm ranting on here, but the digitization of any category creates a consolidation in a winner-take-most. 50% of all e-commerce goes to one player, two-thirds of all social media globally goes to one player meta. 93% of search goes to one player. When you digitize something, it all aggregates and becomes a winner-take-all. And the same thing has happened in dating.
And that is the top 10% of men are just cleaning up.
And the bottom 90% are just kind of shut out of the mating market.
And I think it's creating a lot of unnecessary anger and real fissure.
And I still, I like the idea going back to messaging of Democrats talking about certain key things and messages.
And one of the key messages I'm trying to convince people to run on is the restoration or regeneration or the power of alliances, alliances between moderates, alliances between great nations.
democracies, alliances between us and Ukraine, us in Israel, the power of alliances. But I think the
greatest alliance in history is the alliance between men and women. And I have seven and a half billion
points of proof for that. But there's just less mixing now, less interacting, less coupling,
less mating, less connecting. And especially when men don't have the guardrails, I think about
if I hadn't been forced to go into work at Morgan Stanley, put on a tie and commute from my mom's
house to downtown 515 Figueroa and have a tie on, I think I would have smoked a lot more pot.
If I hadn't had a boss who pulled me into a conference room like every other day and said,
don't say that. If I hadn't had a girlfriend who said, stop drinking so much or I'm going to
break up with you or be kinder. And these men, so many men, don't have the benefit of these guardrails now
because everything is a reason not to date that guy or not give him a second coffee. And,
And I found this just really discouraging that these men do still value family and children.
And women have basically said, you know what, I don't need it.
I don't need it.
Your thoughts.
There was a lot in there.
About the dating scene, I totally understand that.
You know, this, like, nice guys finish last and having your checklist of what you're looking for,
especially once you're in your 30s as a woman.
and you have accumulated some wealth.
You've moved up the ladder, right?
Your middle management or above now.
It's not that crazy frenetic energy of everyone's 25
and has, you know, three or four roommates and one bathroom
and you have an apartment that you're renting on your own.
Or maybe if you live somewhere where it's more affordable,
you even own your own apartment.
And you're sitting there thinking, well, I got to have these 10 things.
And the truth is, is that life just,
doesn't work that way. You know, you have one or two core things that you need in someone. But the
overwhelming message that I hear from my friends who are in happy marriages as people in their
upper 30s or low 40s is marry someone kind. It's kind of all that it is. I mean, we are on
such a deeply traumatic in a lot of ways journey through life that you need someone who is kind to you
and then by extension to the things that matter to you in life, to your family, to your colleagues
and whatever's going on in your professional life, especially to your children. And you can see that also
in how fatherhood has changed. I mean, can you imagine all of these boomer dads? Like if my dad
were alive and he saw how many diapers, Brian, changes. And he was an amazing dad. I mean, I have him on a pedestal so high. I cannot reach.
shit. And he didn't get up in the middle of the night with us. He went away. I mean, work
made it so, but would go away months at a clip. And Brian doesn't stay an extra night if he's on a
work trip because he wants to make sure that he's back to do bedtime. There's a complete revolution
in what is going on in male parenting right now and fatherhood. That is for some men. Unfortunately,
I think some men aren't keeping up. I think women have ascended
faster on more levels than men. And again, going back to the notion, the gap is widening and a lot of
women are just exiting. They are definitely, that was what I wanted to get to. So for the ones who are
signing up for fatherhood, the millennials and gen Zs, they are much more hands on than I think older
generations. For the women exiting, I'm afraid for a lot of them and what that's going to look like
long term, especially for the ones who are then going on and having children on their own, which I think is
Fantastic. I was not strong enough. You know, I always wanted to have kids, but I thought if I don't find somebody, I'm not, I can't do this on my own. Even with a huge support system, I think that that's something that's incredibly hard. But there is so much value in doing it with somebody. Oh, 100%. Right. If you can. And you brought up this idea of the way, you know, women talk about men. And I've been stunned by the spate of opeds in.
our top publications, right, in the New York Times and the Washington Post that are just
essentially shitting on men and that it feels like open season that you can do that. And that
doesn't mean we can't talk about issues within relationships or behaviors that men display that
we don't particularly like. We all feel that way. And likewise, men have things about women
that are annoying to them or that make their lives more difficult. But the New York Times,
I don't think would publish an op-ed
written by a guy
about how fucking annoying
and frustrating his wife is.
Right? Like, it just wouldn't
be allowed.
Jess, you have,
we don't even realize
how much of the public discourse
is biased. First off,
there's still a lot of misogyny out there.
It gets really ugly online.
Yeah.
And sort of the conversation ender is like,
well, no one's taken away
your bodily autonomy.
That's sort of the mic drop.
I get it.
at the same time, there is such a, I was at a conference and we were talking about,
and it was a really robust, respectful conversation, and I said, look, at some point we have
to acknowledge that people born as male and people born as female have certain biological
predispositions that give them certain behavioral characteristics more prone to people born as a male
or as a female. And I said, look, what you probably have with leveling of the academic field
in a prefrontal cortex that matures earlier.
That's the executive gas on, gas off function.
You're going to have more women that's already true
in law school and a medical school.
And also, you could argue that because of what I feel
are more feminine characteristics around nurturing,
I said women will likely disproportionately populate
our medical professions.
They will likely make better doctors.
They will likely make better lawyers.
They will likely make better PhDs
because they have an easier time adapting
to the more rigorous standards of academia.
Everyone in the audience is nodding their head.
Light clap, nodding their head.
Oh, I get, yeah, you're right.
Women are, will be better doctors.
And I've also said, I believe in general, and in no way should this reduce the quality
of opportunity.
I think in general, I have found women are better managers.
They can just read the room better and read people better.
I then said, I think men on average are better entrepreneurs.
I think that they are more risk aggressive.
They are more willing to ignore.
the data around them and do something crazy and take a, not a reckless, but a bold risk with
their own economic well-being and their own time and branch out and be ridiculously aggressive
around calling new clients. Comments, I do not feel safe around this guy. I cannot believe
you would invite him. So you can be wildly sexist as long as it's a bias towards women,
especially at these conferences that are massively populated by media and people who are more progressive.
That's fine. We buy into the notion that men or women are different as long as all those differences add up to women being the superior sex.
And anything resembling like an honest conversation around the fact that, okay, there is a role for men.
When Russian soldiers pour over the border in Ukraine, you want some of that big dick energy, that masculine energy is important in a home raising.
kids. The moment you say that, people's antenna goes up, and it gets very hard to have a serious
thoughtful conversation. And I think young men are really paying the price. And this all comes back
to one central theme, and that is, young men are paying the price for the disproportionate,
unearned massive advantage that was crammed into white men of my generation. The amount of
economic prosperity from 1945 to call it 2015 was greater than the rest of the world combined
in the U.S. I acknowledged when I was in the 90s raising tens of millions of dollars to my
startups, no women were raising money. Is that because women didn't want to be entrepreneurs?
No, no non-whites were raising money. Is that because black people didn't want to start
companies? No, it was because the entire VC community was not only white guys from Stanford
and Harvard, but 80, 90 percent of the total capital allocated was from white dudes from
Harvard and Stanford who felt more comfortable with people similar to themselves, so much so that
people from other groups didn't even have the confidence to try sometimes. And I got so much
disproportion under an advantage. People finally have had a reckoning. So now, similar to the way I think
a lot of students on campus go hunting for fake racists, people are holding young men accountable
for my advantage. And where I'll finish this with some virtue signaling is men of my age have a
responsibility to recognize some of that disproportionate advantage we had and not only try and pave a
path for people who weren't as fortunate as us, but also especially to reach back into the young men
who are paying the price for our advantage because nobody has empathy for them, except for mothers.
Mother see what's going on. So it hardens me when I see men of my age. Men are just not stepping
up in my generation. They're just not stepping up. And they're hoarding the wealth. And we've been
talking about that with the Republican bill, 100%, you know, just shutting the door behind you
or opening it a crack to let your kids and your grandkids through. And I'm not saying
everyone has to take the giving pledge or something like that, but it's kind of harrowing
to think that people are in massive positions of success and attainment. And they
definitely were given a chance by somebody, right?
Like someone made a call for them.
Someone opened a door.
Someone gave him 15 minutes for a coffee.
All these men, when I was right out of Berkeley, Howard Lester, Hamid Mogadam, Tully Friedman, Warren Hellman, Paul Stevens, all of these older men took an interest in me and gave me, Sandy Robertson, gave me unbelievable meetings, access, wanted to help me out because they saw a little bit of themselves and me as a younger man and knew kind of my background.
and I can personally attest to the fact that raising a kid on your own as a single mother
I experience that is not easy. I think it would be even harder now because of inflation
and we've fallen out of love with the unremarkable. I think it's harder now for single mothers
than it was when my mom was raising me. But, you know, men of my generation need to really stand up
and help younger men who are paying a disproportionate price. And also I would say that
women and the media need to stop looking at younger men and saying, you don't have any problems, you are the problem. That is not helpful.
No, and you don't even, if you want to just make it, you know, in purely like winning and losing terms, you're pissed off. You lost the election. Well, here is a route to trying to rectify some of the problems that we had that turned off an entire generation of men from the Democratic Party. It's pretty simple.
It's why Trump won. The good news, and I want to end on a good note, is that everyone from President Obama to Governor's Newsome and more have highlighted this issue and said, okay, something is wrong in Mudville and it requires real attention. And even better news, have you heard this? The dating sites are literally collapsing.
Yeah. People have decided, young people have said, you know what? And you know what's taking off? Things like running clubs, dining clubs, book clubs, in person is back in-person is back in-vote.
again. And I could not wish more ill-will on publicly traded companies than these dating sites. I love
hearing that Bumble is laying off at staff. I apologize Bumble. I hope you all go on to do
bigger and better things. And that matches down 70 or 80 percent. I think online dating has been
a disaster for both men and women, especially men, and everybody just ends up discouraged about
the other sex. All dating advice from a guy who lost his virginity at 19. Okay, we're going to move on here.
Let's take a quick break.
Stay with us.
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Welcome back.
Before we go, we again,
want to celebrate our one-year anniversary. We'd like to take a moment such that we could play
a few of our favorite moments. I have not heard this. Jess, have you heard this? It's cute. Yeah.
Oh, I have not heard this. David, roll tape. So we're trying something new here at Raging Mount
Arts. This is going to be the formal last question, and you are the inaugural flight on this.
So what's one issue that makes you rage and what's one issue that you think we should all calm
down about? I do think we need to be raging about veterans. To be honest, the
tax good. It's so frustrating to me.
One thing that really makes me rage, that we are the only industrialized nation in the entire world
without access to paid leave and affordable, accessible child care, infuriating.
I mean, the Liberation Day tariffs, probably the greatest act of national self-sabotage
that I've ever seen.
The thing that makes me rage is this completely false narrative that the economy is stronger
when a Republican president is in the White House.
I'm still pissed about what's happening to USAID.
Well, first of all, what makes me rage is traffic.
You know, I just don't think we should be out there campaigning in swing states with Mark Cuban as our spokesperson.
I think that hurts us too.
So a little bit of rage there.
What makes me rage is the whole anti-empathy thing.
It is deeply disheartening that we are living in a time of such overt misogyny and pushback on the rights that women have gained over the last, you know, 100 plus years.
We are better than this.
I think that is, above all else, what enrages me in terms of the moment that we find ourselves in.
The mainstream media's job in the Trump era too often has not been to get the story, but to get the president.
And I think it helped him win this time, frankly.
I was having an egg McMuffin, and I got so much grief,
Warner, you should be eating healthier.
You're being a roll amount.
Well, I think people should chill out about early morning eating habits after an all night.
I am just going to be an old man and complain about,
people on escalators. It's very simple, everybody. Move over. The issue that makes me absolutely
rage would probably be train delays. That would be top of mind. Do you feel like the subway is
much better since congestion pricing? Yeah, I think everything has been a little bit better since
congestion pricing. I hate to admit it, but I know, me too. Yeah. But we did publicly just now.
Yeah, we did. We'll cut that part out, right? Yeah, totally. I mean, this is pre-Hitler shit, and yet I don't see
a single Democrat with anything resembling a following of social media out there saying,
fuck all. So right now, as far as I can tell, we have one party and another party that thinks
they're at Catillion training their kids to be polite. Wow, well done, David. And Eric.
Yeah, and Eric. Oh, God, sorry. Eric. That's right. That's right. No, it's fine. It's more than one person.
Eric, you're a value part of the team. It was cute, right? I like the music. I was trying to get everyone's
voice, though. And I probably only got 50%. I got Senator Warner. I got Secretary Clinton. Mallory
McMorrow, I got. I know her voice. Wesley Morris from The Times, distinctive voices. It's actually
kind of, I mean, you can't change it, but it is a lesson in that you should have a voice that's
distinctive. Hakeem Jeffries, I definitely got that one. You got to be memorable, even if people
hate your voice, or I'm just making myself feel better since so many people hate my voice, but at least
you know it's me. So just as we wrap up here, I want to pat ourselves on the back. We are getting
about, I think, an average of about 140,000 downloads, about 50,000 on YouTube, so call it 190,000
impressions. And the average CNN show gets 350. So while we're still well behind total viewers from
CNN, CNN only averages 76,000 people in the core demo. That is people aged 18 to 54 are still buying
shit. And we get 70%, so we get approximately 140,000. So we're losing on total viewership,
but in terms of people that actually swing elections and buy expensive coffee and
rangervers and Viori Athleisure. We're kicking ass, Jess. I love it. Love working with you.
Appreciate David and Eric's good work. Drew Burroughs and Catherine Dillon continue to run the operation
and steer this aircraft carrier seamlessly.
Our engineer is William Flynn,
and as I referenced, our executive producer is Catherine Dillon.
Going forward, you'll find Raging Moderates every Wednesday and Friday.
Subscribe to Raging Moderates on its own feed to hear exclusive interviews with sharp political minds.
This week, Jess will be talking to the wine moms themselves,
the I've had it podcast ladies, Jennifer and Angie.
You won't want to miss it.
I went on their podcast.
I found them really interesting.
Yeah, they told me.
They loved it.
Yeah, I like them a lot.
I like how they're just, God.
They're just unafraid.
They're kicking ass and taking names.
They've got the vibe right now that everybody wants.
They're having a moment.
Make sure to follow us wherever you get your podcast, you don't miss an episode.
Congrats on a year, everybody.
And thanks to everybody for listening and making this show a nice place to work
and success and rewarding and all that good stuff.
All the positives.
Thanks, everybody.