Stuff You Should Know - SYSK Selects: How Filibusters Work

Episode Date: April 1, 2017

In this week's SYSK Select episode, although lots of people incorrectly believe the filibuster was an intentional rule created by the founders of the U.S., this ancient method of stalling legislation was actually brought about in America by accident. Learn the ins and outs of this contentious quirk of parliamentary rules that allows a single senator to hijack the proceedings of the entire legislative body in this episode. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the podcast, Hey Dude, the 90s called, David Lasher and Christine Taylor, stars of the cult classic show, Hey Dude, bring you back to the days of slip dresses and choker necklaces. We're gonna use Hey Dude as our jumping off point, but we are going to unpack and dive back into the decade of the 90s.

We lived it, and now we're calling on all of our friends to come back and relive it. Listen to Hey Dude, the 90s called on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Lance Bass, host of the new iHeart podcast, Frosted Tips with Lance Bass. Do you ever think to yourself, what advice would Lance Bass

and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do, you've come to the right place because I'm here to help. And a different hot, sexy teen crush boy bander each week to guide you through life. Tell everybody, ya everybody, about my new podcast and make sure to listen so we'll never, ever have to say. Bye, bye, bye.

Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Hey everybody, this is Chuck and surprise, you get a bonus episode this week, and every Saturday moving forward with our SYSK Selects episode. So what we decided to do was to kinda,

not everyone knows we have all these back episodes laying in wait to the tune of 900 plus. So each week, Josh'll pick one, I'll pick one. We're gonna curate these, it might be Newsy, it might just be one of our favorites, and we're gonna publish them on Saturday. So if you haven't heard this one before, enjoy it, if you have, maybe listen again.

And this week I picked out filibusters, especially because of kinda what's going on in this country right now, with the looming nomination of Mr. Gorsuch to the Supreme Court and the threatened Democratic filibuster. So if you don't know what filibusters are all about, give this episode a listen

and everything will be a lot more clear. And we hope you enjoy it. Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, from HowStuffWorks.com. Hey and welcome to the podcast, I'm Josh Clark, and with me is always the Charles W. Chuck Bryant and Jerry, and that's Stuff You Should Know. I filibustered that.

You can't. Josh, I could talk for the next 24 hours straight and not allow you to speak, and that would be filibustering this podcast. No, you'd actually be creating a podcast, still. I guess so. We don't have any parliamentary rules, so I mean, technically you could do that,

and it's a podcast still. Upon reading this, it seems like the U.S. government doesn't either, because one strategy is to just pick up your ball and go home, which is sort of what filibustering is, except you don't go home. No, you stand there and tell everybody else goes home. Yeah.

In the most classic example. Yeah. Which is what we're all about here at Stuff You Should Know, the classics, man. That's right. Chuck, you know this year, 2013, which is drawing to a close. There were two very high profile filibusters.

One was by Wendy Davis, member of the Texas State Senate, who filibustered against a proposed bill that would, or a package of bills that would limit access to abortions. Did she actually do it like a solo filibuster? Yeah. The classic move.

She had like on some snazzy pink magenta, Mizuno running shoes. Nice. A back brace. Oh, really? I believe a catheter. Shut up. No, I'm not kidding.

I'm almost positive she had a catheter. Well, we'll get to that. And spoke for 11 hour straight. Yeah. There was also another one in September by U.S. Senator from Texas, Ted Cruz, one of the founding people of the Tea Party, or at least one of the most prominent members

of the Tea Party, who was filibustering against a continuing resolution to keep the government open. Okay. Or to reopen the government. So he went solo as well. He did. One was real. One was fake.

What do you mean? Cruz's was fake. It wasn't a real filibuster. It was basically stage dressing that looked like filibuster, but at its core, as we'll soon find out, it wasn't a filibuster because it was the result of a deal with Harry Reid that Ted Cruz

would be allowed to speak for 21 hours. And then at the end of his 21 hours, this vote would go on. The whole purpose of a filibuster is to prevent a vote from taking place, not make a deal to speak for a certain amount of time, and then let the vote go through. And then Cruz, even further wowed people

by voting in favor of the motion after he supposedly filibustered it. Man. So we have one very, very real one. Wendy Davis, she wasn't allowed to take a sip of water. She had to stay on topic, spoke nonstop for 11 hours. Catheter, the whole thing.

Oh, she had to stay on topic? Yeah. Is that a new thing? Well, it's a Texas state rule. Oh, gotcha. And then Cruz just basically spoke for 21 hours. Handed the lecture and over to, I think, Rand Paul for a little while.

It was just kind of meandering or whatever. It looked like a filibuster, but as we'll find out, it wasn't really, even though Davis's was very much a filibuster. Gotcha. So let's talk filibusters, man. Yeah, it's one of these, well, it's about to say uniquely American,

but it does happen and has happened in other countries. It actually dates back to ancient Rome. Yeah, but it is uniquely American in the way that we do it. And how it's abused. Sure. So its history does go back to ancient Rome. Cato the Younger was a master of the filibuster.

And this is back at a time when you actually could make pretty good use of the filibuster because the Senate rule was that all business had to be concluded by dusk. So if it wasn't, sorry, it's off the table. So all you had to do was stand there technically for one day and you could filibuster anything. It's pretty silly when you think about it.

Yeah. And a lot of people, I think, assume that it's like part of the constitution maybe. Nope. Or that the founding father said, hey, we need this rule, the filibuster. Nope. That perhaps it was brought up by Superman

in the guise of Clark Kent. Yes, it was. Okay, I knew we'd get there someday. All right, so filibuster is an actual, it's any sort of action that you can take to block or delay action in the Senate. House can't do it, Senate can. Right, and it exists because there are rules.

Yeah, it's a really, it's an odd thing with an odd accidental history. I guess first we should say that the name they believe comes from the Dutch word that means pirate. And as pirates take things hostage, filibustering can also be looked at as taking things hostage. Very much so, I mean. Like a vote or a bill that wants to be introduced.

Confirmation. Or a nomination. Yeah, for a confirmation for a judge, let's say. Yeah, you're holding it hostage. A lot of people think filibuster is a good thing because it allows the minority, meaning the minority in the Senate to still have a voice. Right. And not just get run rush-shot over by the majority.

And the Senate has a long storied history of giving a tremendous amount of say and rights to the minority, whichever party that might be at any given time. And so as a result, the filibuster was allowed to exist for a while, ever since it was accidentally created. But initially, the Senate and the House had a rule that prevented filibustering.

Yeah, the previous question motion, which required a majority vote. And it was not used though, apparently. No. Ever. So in 1806, they got rid of it. The Senate did. Yeah, the Senate did. And kind of didn't realize what they had created

was a bit of a loophole in that now, if you wanted, you could get up and speak endlessly about something. And that's basically what it is. Mr. Smith goes to Washington, Jimmy Stewart did it, and everyone loved it. But these days, it's kind of a different story. Well, yeah, it's definitely lost a lot of its substance, too, you know?

Well, they didn't used to use it very much. No, and that previous question motion, that's what it was called, right? Yeah. So that was basically like you could say, so is everybody ready for this guy to stop talking about this bill? Or can we be done with debate?

And everybody says, yeah, you're nay, and then if it's yeah, then you just go on and vote. Like, it ends debate. But like you said, nobody was using it. And so they just kind of threw it out. Because debate is good. Yeah, I guess it was Aaron Burr was saying, we need to simplify these rules.

So the Senate did it, the House didn't, which is why you can't have a filibuster in the House, because they never got rid of the previous question motion. Yeah. But like you said, Jimmy Stewart did it. Everybody was just in awe of the idea of all you need is one good senator, and the rest of the Senate can be corrupt.

But as long as you have Jimmy Stewart, one Jimmy Stewart in there. And a catheter. Yeah. And a little bit of stamina. Yeah. The truth justice in the American way can prevail. And as you were saying, as a result,

a lot of people think having a filibuster is a good thing. Sure. Because it prevents tyranny by the majority. Yeah, and in essence, it is a good thing in a democracy. And like I said, it wasn't used that much in the 19th century. The first one was not until 1837. And less than two dozen took place before the year 1900. In 1917, things changed with President Wilson.

Got a little ticked off because there was a filibuster blocking a bill, arming merchant ships, and the Great War was being fought. And he said, we don't have time for this. Right. So I'm going to push to pass something called a cloture rule, which means that we can cease this filibustering with a two-thirds

vote. Right. And he didn't really have any say. I mean, the president is not involved in the Senate. That's the vice president. But he was using all of his influence and public opinion against a, quote, a little group of willful men. Yeah, I mean, he hated it.

And he was a big champion of trying to limit it as much as possible. So the Senate passed this cloture rule that said you can bring something to a vote with two-thirds majority, which is 67 senators. That's right. That's still a lot of people. That means that the will of the Senate, not just the majority,

not just the majority party, I should say. Yeah. But the actual Senate is enough of this. Let's just, we agree that we need to stop debating this. Exactly. It has since been abused or used, depending on your viewpoint. And during the civil rights movement, racist senators

used it to block all sorts of things, from anti-lynching laws to civil rights bills, and successfully, Strom Thurman in 1957 broke the record for speaking for 24 hours and 18 minutes. That's still the record. Straight. Yeah. That's because no one else wants to do that,

or has the stamina, or the adult vipers. Right. But you can't leave. We keep talking about that. We should explain. You're not allowed to leave even to pee. You have to keep talking. Well, that was the case until the 70s.

Apparently, filibustering, thanks to the segregationists who are using it to prevent lynching laws, to prevent the civil rights bill, pretty much anything that had to do with civil rights, they were using the filibuster for. So by the time the 70s rolled around, the Senate passed a different rule that meant, well, it said, if you want to bring a vote to cloture to end debate,

no longer do you need 67 senators. You only need 60, which is a little easier to get. But we're going to give the minority, still, see the Senate loves the minority, the ability to threaten a filibuster if they have 41 senators on board with that filibuster. And you don't even have to stand up there anymore. Yeah, but you still can.

If you're a lone senator, it didn't eliminate the lone filibuster speaker. No, because if you have 40, or 39, or 38, or it's just you, you're just that one person, then you have to stand up there still. But the idea that if you had 41 senators who would, if called upon, would vote against that cloture. Yeah, you don't have to talk.

Right. Because by definition, you have that filibuster power. And the whole idea of adding this rule was not just to give a little back to the minority when you were taking it away by dropping it from a 2 thirds to 3 fifths majority for cloture. Right. They were also trying to make it so that the Senate business

was more streamlined and efficient. But it had the unintended consequence of people saying, like, oh, well, I threaten filibuster. I'm going to sit over here, and I don't have to talk. I'm going to threaten filibuster. So that means take this bill out of consideration, and let's move on with the other business. That's right.

And that's when bills just started getting blocked left and right. Yeah, and back to Thurman supposedly with the whole bathroom thing. He took a steam bath to dehydrate himself, so he wouldn't have to pee. That's the story. I can imagine that would take for maybe 10, 12 hours.

But then 24 hours, he'd pee himself. You think? I'll bet it's just one of those untold stories of the Senate, Strom Thurman, peed all over himself. OK, so that's the simple filibuster, the one you don't see as much anymore because. The one guy standing up. Yeah, now it's more about, hey,

we can just threaten it and no one has to waste their time speaking and debating. But Chuck, it does keep you from wasting time, but because it's easy to do and because all you need are 41 senators, it's created a backlog. It's a really easy way for the minority to hold anything they want hostage, which is one reason why, while a lot of people

say it's a good thing to have a filibuster because it protects the minority from majority tyranny. But having a filibuster means that really just a fairly small group of senators, less than half, can hold anything they want up. And just that one simple filibuster, the presence of it, means that you can have any crazy nut who's a senator hold anything up that he wants as long

as he's willing to stand there and talk. So there's some people who say, we need to get rid of the filibuster. There's others who say, no, the filibuster has to exist. It's this accidental thing that the framers didn't put in there, but it was a happy accident that it came about and it proved its worth as a part of democracy. Well, you mentioned earlier who was the lady, Davis?

Yeah, Wendy Davis. Who you said she had to stay on point because in Texas, they say you have to stay on point. But federally, there are no laws specifically or rules that say you have to do so. You just have to talk, which is fairly ridiculous. And in 1935, Huey P. Long did such things as read Shakespeare and talk about cooking fried oysters or site recipes.

And I'll bet Huey Long had a pretty good fried oyster recipe. It's just crazy. It's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. You know? You can say whatever you want? Yeah, literally, that is what our government is doing. They're up there talking about oyster recipes on the floor

of the Senate to block a bill being introduced, perhaps. I've always equated filibusters with a senator standing up there reading from a phone book. I think that was another common tactic, too. Oh, did someone do that? Yeah. I don't know who did, but it's definitely been done. USA.

Right, and yeah, I think it kind of should leave a. It's shameful. It is, especially when it's not just, at the very least, you should have to stand up there. And debate your bill or debate your position. And yes, and talk about what the issue is at hand. And if you're willing to do that, if you feel that passionate about that,

then there's really not a lot of criticism that can be slung at you. But if you're saying that they're talking oyster recipes, or in my opinion, if you're just saying, they're in filibuster, that to me is just. Sci-jacking. It is. It's piracy.

It is. So that is not the only way you can waste time and block things from happening in Congress. You can, there are all these little tactics that can be used. For instance, you can introduce a lot of amendments to a bill. And instead of just saying, waving the right and saying,

you know what, we're introducing this amendment. Everyone knows it. We don't have to waste our time reading it. They can demand. I'm going to introduce 47 amendments to this bill. And we're going to read each one in full. Right. It's just a time wasting measure.

You can also add on to that a roll call vote for each amendment. So you have an amendment read. And then you have a roll call taken for every senator to say whether they vote yea or nay for each amendment. Which would make it even more timely. Something called quorum calls. Apparently that ascertains a number of senators present.

I don't know how that's different than a roll call. A roll call is what you're voting like. How do you feel about this amendment, yea or nay? So quorum calls, literally. Are you present or not? Because you have to have a quorum. I can't remember how many make up a quorum. But basically, there has to be a certain amount of people

present for Senate business to be conducted. So a quorum would be to find out if there's enough people present. And if you're just doing it in a delayed time, they might be in their offices or whatever. They might be having dinner. And they're still technically present. But if you call a quorum call, then that

means they have to come in and say present, and then go back to dinner. There can be something called an anonymous hold, which allows someone to block a bill, a man or woman in the Senate, when it requires unanimous consent in order to be voted on. But it's anonymous, which is kind of tricky. Because then you don't know who's holding up the gum and up the works.

Then it turns into like a big game of clue. So yeah, Harry Reid did it in the conservatory with the rope. So filibuster reform, surely something this weird and hanky, should be looked at and reformed in order to retain the true spirit of the filibuster. And over the years, there's been a lot of talk about reform, a little bit of action about reform, but not a ton until recently.

In the 50s, there was but one filibuster procession. And in 2007 and 2008, there were 139 filibusters affecting 70% of major legislation in 2007, 2008. Isn't that amazing? Yeah. So it obviously got out of hand, and people were abusing the power. I can't help but wonder also if the concept

that both groups are coming together to rule the country in a combined manner has become less and less of a concept over the last few decades as well. Oh, yeah. You know, is it or am I just making that assumption? And it's always been that way. There's always been that division.

Is that the case or no? It seemed to be like my opinion is that it used to be checks and balances, and now it's not so much checks and balances. Is it in, is just severe, severe digging in to your own point of view? It certainly seems that way. But it maybe was always like that. I don't know.

I didn't grow up in the 50s. Yeah, I don't know either. They probably felt the same way the American people did. Those jerks in Washington, you know? Oh, I'm sure they did, but I wonder if they had as much cause to say that as we do today. Like, is it the way it's always been or is it actually worse?

I mean, the numbers would suggest that, you know? But is it just that the numbers are showing that people figured out how to use a filibuster better than they knew before? So we're just smarter at being diving. They're more adept at using it. Or is government broken that much more to where there was one a year each year during the 50s,

and then there's 139 a year in 2008? Yeah, it seems broken to me. But it definitely indicates that to me, too. Yeah, I'm fairly cynical about the state of modern politics, though. I am, too. And the thing that gets me the most about this is the idea that the government is broken

because the two sides can't agree, even though, really, if you get down to it, there's almost no distinction between Democrats and Republicans. Ideologically here or there a little bit, but it's definitely between liberals and conservatives. Yeah, yeah. But between the Democrats and the Republicans,

I feel there's almost no difference any longer. Like where the rubber meets the road and not ideologically speaking. And so the idea that the government still can't function, even when you have virtually one large mega-party, I don't understand it. I don't understand what's going on there. It's sad.

It seems like it would be functioning in a really smooth manner and steamrolling over us. He's silly, boy. So we've talked a lot about this weird process, but we should talk about reform right after this message break. On the podcast, Hey Dude, the 90s, called David Lasher and Christine Taylor, stars of the cult classic show, Hey Dude,

bring you back to the days of slipdresses and choker necklaces. We're going to use Hey Dude as our jumping off point, but we are going to unpack and dive back into the decade of the 90s. We lived it, and now we're calling on all of our friends to come back and relive it. It's a podcast packed with interviews, co-stars, friends,

and nonstop references to the best decade ever. Do you remember going to Blockbuster? Do you remember Nintendo 64? Do you remember getting Frosted Tips? Was that a cereal? No, it was hair. Do you remember AOL Instant Messenger and the dial-up sound like poltergeist?

So leave a code on your best friend's beeper, because you'll want to be there when the nostalgia starts flowing. Each episode will rival the feeling of taking out the cartridge from your Game Boy, blowing on it and popping it back in as we take you back to the 90s. Listen to Hey Dude, the 90s, called on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hey, I'm Lance Bass, host of the new iHeart podcast, Frosted Tips with Lance Bass. The hardest thing can be knowing who to turn to when questions arise or times get tough, or you're at the end of the road. OK, I see what you're doing. Do you ever think to yourself, what advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands

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We were talking before we went off on some of our personal things about, I'll bet it stinks now, about reforming filibusters, but problems arise when you try to reform filibustering, because that can be filibustered. Yeah. You know? Yeah, if you have a proposal to reform filibustering,

it's still a measure. And you can say. You've talked about the right oysters. Exactly. So this whole talk of how to reform filibustering, some proposals came up in 2010. There were three good ones. One was, if you're filibustering,

you can't threaten a filibuster any longer. You have to get up there, and you have to talk. Yeah, play the part. That was shot down. Yeah. Another one was that over the length of a filibuster, the required number of senators to invoke cloture just decreases.

So a filibuster could only go on for so long before you get to a simple majority. Yeah. Now that was shot down. No. The third one, you got that one? Yeah, it would have banned filibusters on motions bringing a bill to the floor.

So you couldn't filibuster maybe something to reform filibustering. Right. None of those were passed. And the reason why, you would think that one party would be like, well, we don't want filibusters. We're in charge. You have to remember that eventually you're not

going to be in charge, and you're going to want a filibuster. Both parties filibuster. The Democrats filibustered Reagan's appointments and nominees in the 80s, just like the Republicans are filibustering Obama's right now. Yeah, I will say, though, in fairness, it's record numbers now compared to even what Democrats did. And I'm not saying one is better than the other.

No, no, I think that's fair. But it's much more highly invoked in recent years. For sure. And it's definitely been squarely on the shoulders of the Tea Party, too. Yeah. It's been since the Tea Party started to get some major seats.

For instance, I got a number for you. It used to be fairly rare to filibuster a judicial presidential appointment. Yeah. Like, it wasn't used that much for that. It was more for bills and things. And there have been only about 180-something times in the history of this country that that's been done.

And more than half of those have happened during the past seven years. Wow. So it wasn't used that much in the past, but in the past, it's been happened, I think, more than 92 times in the past seven years. Well, you know what that suggests? That suggests that before, those things

were used like a scalpel, and now they're just basically arbitrary. Well, that's exactly what it was. In the eight years that Bush Jr. was in office, there was about a dozen of those nominees that were filibustered, as opposed to 92. And since Obama's been in there. Yeah.

I see your point. It's definitely not surgical anymore. No. And again, both parties use it, but it's being misused and has been for a while. Yes. And if you listen to the GOP, they're saying that Obama's trying to pack the courts.

Yeah. If you listen to the Democrats, they're saying, dudes, nobody does this. Come on. Yeah. Be cool. So the reason that all those bills failed, or that the reform failed in 2010,

was because they basically did a little handshake deal where they said, all right, don't use filibustering so much to prevent these bills from being introduced. All right, I won't do that. And hey, you guys can add a bunch of amendments if you want to. And no one's going to use the nuclear option. Are we all cool with that?

Yeah, we're all cool with that. And then the GOP went back and started filibustering. And so the Democrats used the nuclear option. Yeah, they did, which was huge. I remember Harry Reid threatened it. And everybody's like, oh, my gosh, OK, all right. I can't remember what it was. The GOP was blocking something that Harry Reid really

wanted to push through. And he said, I'm going to use the nuclear option. And it worked. Have we even said what that is? I don't think we have. No, so the nuclear option is it's the power of the majority to use parliamentary procedures to change major rules, in this case specifically,

to remove the ability to filibuster. Yeah, just for that session. Just for that, yeah, just for that session. I think so. I saw that in this article, but I didn't see it elsewhere. Well, so here's the thing. The majority holds the power to say, all we need is a simple majority, 51 senators, which we have,

as Democrats, to change a rule. And that rule that we're going to change is that you don't need 61 senators to block a filibuster. Or 60 senators, I'm sorry. You only need 51, which we the Democrats have. Right, simple majority. Yes, so this has been in the power of whoever's been in the majority the whole time.

But it's such a polarizing thing. It's saying, we're taking away your ability to block what we want to push through through filibustering, because we're taking away your ability to filibuster. We're going to pass this rule with a simple majority, saying it just takes a simple majority to invoke cloture and end debate and bring something to the floor.

It's not saying it only takes a simple majority to confirm this nominee, because that's already the case. So if you follow it backwards, it takes a simple majority to confirm a nominee. Now, it just takes a simple majority to bring that nominee's confirmation to a vote. And they did that by passing a rule with a simple majority, saying that we're

going to end filibustering. Yeah, and that was just a few weeks ago on November 21. And it passed 52 to 48. All Republicans and three Democrats hopped to the other side and voted against it. And it was not for all filibustering. It was just filibustering on executive branch nominees and judicial nominees.

But not Supreme Court nominees. Yeah, other than the Supreme Court. So it wasn't like for introducing a bill or whatever. But earlier this year, they reached a compromise on some reform. Both sides worked out a bunch of new rules that changed the process somewhat. But I guess that wasn't enough in the case of November 21

and Harry Reid, because I kind of threw down the gauntlet, which no one thought would ever happen. No, it's been an option for many, many years, and no one's ever exercised it. So Harry Reid either said, this is ridiculous. This is out of control or government's broken. Or Harry Reid was drunk with power, depending on who you talk to.

Well, this particular sticking point was about nominating judges to the United States Court of Appeals for DC. And Republicans said that, you know what? The DC Circuit has really underworked. They said that they could save $1 million a year per judge. Cut costs, basically.

Which is pretty preposterous, considering the amount of money that's leaked away every second in Washington. Just that is the argument. Makes the whole thing smell fishy to me. It's a little bit shallow, sure. And then Democrats said, no, you know what? You guys didn't have these concerns when Bush was appointing these nominees.

And we need to maintain this court, because in the size of it, because it's really complex, like this particular court is. So I heard the Democrats tried to block appointments to that same court when Bush was in office. I'm sure they did. Yeah. So apparently, both sides just completely flip-flop.

Yeah. On this same point. Yeah. And took entirely one another's point when the presidency was. Well, it depends on who's in office and who has the majority on what your beliefs are, it seems like. Yeah, wishy-washy is what I call that.

USA. So as of November of this year, Obama presented 79 nominees who received cloture votes. Bush had 38 in the eight years that he was in office. But we should say that most of those cloture votes ended the debate, and most of those nominees did clear the filibuster. Right, because you used to have a filibuster that

required 60 senators, but a confirmation only required 51. Yeah. So now it's 51 and 51. And in the meantime, a regular old Americans are out there having real troubles, and senators are on the floor talking. Actually, that was 1935. I can't keep talking about the oyster thing.

But still, cathetering up, in some cases. I'm pretty sure she had a catheter. Really? That's crazy, and uniquely American, I guess. So you got anything else? I got nothing else. I hate to sound so jaded about all this stuff, but it's kind of hard not to.

I think you would be a drooling automaton if you didn't get worked up about this. And just say it like, no, this is how government should work. Yeah, if this didn't make you cynical, you know? It doesn't matter what party you're affiliated with, or whether you're conservative or liberal. If you think things are working right now, you need to completely reevaluate your life.

Yeah, it's hard. Did you hear Russell Brand go off a few weeks ago in the interview? It's interesting. It's an interesting take. Yeah, don't go vote. Yeah, it's hard to make an argument that your vote really matters these days in this country.

I mean, if you're in a red state, a deeply red state, and you're a Democrat, there's really no reason for you to go vote. Yeah, only a handful of states your vote might matter. And even then. And then those are the states that the candidates go to and that the senators have more power than others. It is a broken system.

On the podcast, HeyDude, the 90s, called David Lasher and Christine Taylor stars of the cult classic show, HeyDude, bring you back to the days of slip dresses and choker necklaces. We're going to use HeyDude as our jumping off point, but we are going to unpack and dive back into the decade of the 90s.

We lived it, and now we're calling on all of our friends to come back and relive it. It's a podcast packed with interviews, co-stars, friends, and nonstop references to the best decade ever. Do you remember going to Blockbuster? Do you remember Nintendo 64? Do you remember getting Frosted Tips? Was that a cereal?

No, it was hair. Do you remember AOL Instant Messenger and the dial-up sound like poltergeist? So leave a code on your best friend's beeper, because you'll want to be there when the nostalgia starts flowing. Each episode will rival the feeling of taking out the cartridge from your Game Boy,

blowing on it and popping it back in as we take you back to the 90s. Listen to HeyDude, the 90s, called on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Lance Bass, host of the new iHeart podcast, Frosted Tips with Lance Bass. The hardest thing can be knowing who to turn to when questions arise or times get tough,

or you're at the end of the road. OK, I see what you're doing. Do you ever think to yourself, what advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do, you've come to the right place, because I'm here to help. This, I promise you. Oh, god.

Seriously, I swear. And you won't have to send an SOS, because I'll be there for you. Oh, man. And so will my husband, Michael. Um, hey, that's me. Yeah, we know that, Michael, and a different hot, sexy teen crush boy bander each week to guide you through life,

step by step. Oh, not another one. Kids, relationships, life in general, can get messy. You may be thinking, this is the story of my life. Just stop now. If so, tell everybody, yeah, everybody, about my new podcast, and make sure to listen, so we'll never, ever have to say bye, bye, bye.

Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts. But how many politicians in this country are out there truly, like, pure and chased in their motives? I don't think there's a single one that's pure and chased in their motives, but I think some, there are still some good ones out there. No, there are, and I guess, I don't know,

they believe in their own side. But then when you dig up all the dirt of things that go on behind closed doors. The ones you have to look out for are the ones that don't believe in their own side. They're just exploiting one side to get themselves into power. Those are the ones that are truly bad. At least if you believe in your own side,

you have conviction, whether I agree with your convictions or not, at the very least, I respect the fact that you are convinced of your convictions. But if you don't have any convictions and you're just out for power, then tell with you, pal. Buddy, lady, all of you. So we're going to move to Costa Rica. Do they have government there?

Yeah, they have a government there. Are there any islands, tropical islands, that have no government? There's tons of uninhabited islands. OK, that's what we need. And unless I believe in anarchy, it'd just be nice to move to an island where there's not a bunch of jerks wasting your time and taking your money.

Yeah, I don't know. Anarchy's looking more and more attractive these days. Is it? Sure. We should do a podcast on anarchy. We really should, you know? If you want to know more about filibustering, you can type that word into the search bar

at howstuffworks.com. And since I said search bar, that means it's time for listener mail. All right, I'm going to call this one. Let's see if we can help out some heroin addicts. That's not funny. That's funny how I said it, though. Hey there, guys.

Thanks for keeping me entertained and sane. I'll explain the sane part. I will let you know what's been up with me and how you guys have helped me in the past few months. I am a 25-year-old living in Santa Monica, California. And I am a part of the huge homeless population there. Most nights, my girlfriend and I end up staying in a motel in Venice in LA,

where we are both homeless. It is my fault we ended up this way. We were both addicted to heroin. And it was because of me. Each day, my girlfriend and I have to go out and come up with $110 in order to afford our heroin and our room. Jeez, it's her daily habit.

Each day, we have to do this. It is an awful way of life, and we both feel horrible. We've been trying to get detox meds through the county clinics. But the waiting list to see a doctor to get into rehab like that is a very long list indeed. Unfortunately, there are not a lot of resources out there for drug addicts.

As far as detox is concerned, yeah, what is it, Switzerland? And actually, there are not a lot of people or institutions that are willing to help unless the addicted person has insurance or money to pay for treatment. We're not bad people. Just looking at it, in fact, you wouldn't know

that we were addicted to heroin. We both have had jobs in the past and homes in the past. And she is even a college graduate and is certified to do special effects makeup. The reason why I'm writing you guys is because you can imagine this lifestyle is very stressful. There's a lot of pain, shame, and guilt on a daily basis. And about three or four months ago,

I came across your podcast and it's really helped me get through some of the tough times. I found that listening to you when I'm in a fight with my girlfriend or stressed or sad really helps me turn around my mood. So thanks for this and thank Jerry as well. And this is from TJ.

And I told TJ that we would put a call out and I don't know if it will work or not. But if anyone in Southern California has a resource for TJ and his girlfriend to kick heroin, then we'd love to hear from you and we will put you in touch via email. TJ, if you're listening, I don't know if this is gonna work. And this is about as far as we can take it.

But if someone writes in, we will definitely put them in touch and see if we can get you guys off the junk. Yeah. So thanks for writing in. I'm glad we can help in some small way. Yeah, I'm glad we're doing something to help out, you know? Yeah, we'll see.

Well, I mean, like also turning his mood around. Yeah, true. But if you are a resource and can help these guys, email us at our stuffpodcastsatdiscovery.com email and just put in the subject line, I can help the heroin addict. I think that's a great subject line. Yeah.

And until then, TJ and girlfriend, stay safe. Please. If you need some help that you think Chuck and I can help you out with, you should get in touch with us. You can tweet to us at S-Y-S-K podcast. It's on Twitter. You can join us on facebook.com slash stuffyoushouldknow.

You can send us an email to stuffpodcastsatdiscovery.com. And you can join us at our home on the web at stuffyoushouldknow.com. For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit howstuffworks.com. Hey, dude, the 90s called David Lasher and Christine Taylor, stars of the cult classic show, Hey, Dude, bring you back to the days of slipdresses

and choker necklaces. We're going to use Hey, Dude as our jumping off point, but we are going to unpack and dive back into the decade of the 90s. We lived it, and now we're calling on all of our friends to come back and relive it. Listen to me. I'm going to tell you what I'm going to tell you.

I'm going to tell you what I'm going to tell you. I'm going to tell you what I'm going to tell you. And relive it. about my new podcast and make sure to listen so we'll never ever have to say bye bye bye. Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart Radio App, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts.