The Daily Beast Podcast - Why Trump Is Fuming About Deranged Speech Fallout

Episode Date: July 18, 2026

Presented in partnership with PMI U.S., US Businesses of Philip Morris International. Share your prediction for America's future with #America250 or fill out this form for a chance to be featured on t...he podcast. By posting with #America250, you agree that The Daily Beast may include your comment in PMI U.S.-sponsored segments on The Daily Beast Podcast and to other potential PMI U.S. uses. https://beast.pub/america250 #ad  Joanna Coles and Daily Beast executive editor Hugh Dougherty break down an extraordinary week in Washington, from Donald Trump's grievance-filled White House speech and his escalating fixation on the 2020 election to the fierce political fallout it sparked across both parties. They dig into why Gavin Newsom and Senator Jon Ossoff may have seized the moment, the growing backlash against JD Vance over his use of Marine Two and his mounting political vulnerabilities, Pete Hegseth's latest military crusade, and the eyebrow-raising revelations surrounding Trump's teleprompter operator allegedly profiting from insider knowledge. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:01:26 He wanted this speech to be on prime time. There's nothing he loves more than being on prime time. He was boycotted effectively. switched off by ABC and by NBC. And the angriest and honestly the most alive bit of this speech on Thursday night was when he demanded that they face revenge for not showing this speech. The rest of the speech was, if I'm honest, a bit low tea. He was raspy.
Starting point is 00:01:54 He was not standing energetically. And he went through a hold of grievances. He's very sore about what happened six years ago. and he became president again, but he can't get over that he lost. I'm Joanna Colts. This is the Daily Beast podcast, and it's Friday. So it must mean Hugh Dockery. The Daily Beast executive editor is here to process the week. You get to hear how the sausage is made in our brains as we dissect the week's news. Is it about low tea? Is it about explosive diarrhea? Oh, dear, I can't believe I even...
Starting point is 00:02:34 said that out loud either. Is it about J.D. Vance taking advantage of Marine 2 to helicopter his son to a golf lesson? And is it about the way President Obama so carefully and diligently and deliciously sliced up J.D. Vance on a plate? Well, let's find out. Before we do, smash the subscription button and let's get to it with Hugh Dockedy. Hugh Dockney executive editor of The Daily Beast, where are you? Joanna, I am in Ohio. I'm in J.D. Vance's home state. I'm just outside Cleveland on what is known locally as America's North Coast on Lake Erie. And I am also in the smoke, as I think many of us are in this country right now. Yes, I can assure you, as I cycled in on my city bike this morning, the air quality was not great.
Starting point is 00:03:33 We will be talking about J.D. Vance and the fact he's been using Marine 2 to helicopter his children around as a taxi service on their way to golf lessons. Not very relatable, I'll warrant. But clearly he's going to try and use his son to curry favor with his boss, the president. But I think it's fair to say, well, I very much hope I should ask you, did you stop off at a taco bell at the airport on your way to J.D. Vance's home state? Luckily, luckily, I did not, Joanna. I was forewarned that a visit to the Bell is actually not very wise at the moment because of a reason that I know we've got, as an unpleasant reason, but there is an explosive diarrhea bug spreading across the US and it has now been traced to one of Taco Bell's suppliers. ironically, in Mexico, and I'm sure that many in MAGA might have something to say about that. I think they will. But what I was going to say is it's an explosive week for news. I barely know where to begin. We've had the Jay Clayton and the Todd Blanche hearings. We've got Donald Trump's
Starting point is 00:04:44 bonkers speech from the White House, which I've got various thoughts about, and I know you have. And the White House itself has just sort of exploded at the negative reaction that Donald Trump has received from that speech. We've got Donald Trump's teleprompter operator being hauled up because he's been betting on Polymarket and Kalshi about the contents of the president's speech. Yes, because he read them in advance. We've got Donald Trump trying to monetize his truth socials by selling them to Wall Street in advance. Huey, where to begin? I suspect we begin. I mean, we could begin with Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, saying this is a really serious moment.
Starting point is 00:05:32 And it's a 25th amendment moment after watching the president use the White House to, you know, spin his conspiracy theories about 20. which she still seems remarkably sore about. But what struck you this morning? Well, all of that, Joanna, luckily, explosive diarrhea did not strike me. And so far, I've been safe. I'm not a consumer of Taco Bell, actually. But I definitely am not going to be now. I'm sure sell shares in Taco Bell.
Starting point is 00:06:08 Again, we always say we're not stocked tipsters on this show. We're definitely not stock. So maybe you buy the dip, Hugh. Maybe you buy the dip. Well, that would certainly be a dip, wouldn't it? Yes. Don't live mass. I think the biggest thing, well, I think there are two huge things out of this speech.
Starting point is 00:06:28 First of all, the biggest thing for Trump, Trump spoke for 18 minutes, and many people who are watching now won't have seen it. And that's the thing that really angered him. He wanted this speech to be on prime time. There's nothing he loves more than being on prime time. There's nothing he loves more than ratings. And he was boycotted effectively. He was switched off by ABC and by NBC.
Starting point is 00:06:57 And the angriest and honestly, the most alive bit of this speech on Thursday night was when he demanded that they face revenge for not showing this speech. The rest of the speech was, if I'm honest, a bit low tea, as is now what you now say in MAGA circles. Right. He was raspy. He was not quite slumped, but he was not standing energetically. And he went through a whole load of grievances that, as you just said, Joanna, he's very sore.
Starting point is 00:07:29 He's very sore about what happened six years ago. And he became president again, but he can't get over that he lost. And in the course of that 18 minutes, he came out with a whole load of half-fax, half-baked claims, weird, you know, sort of unconnected thoughts, which he in his mind appears to think prove that somehow China, the latest target, interfered in the 2020 election and may have helped Joe Biden get there. And there's an obvious intellectual dissonance in this, not two words that one often associates with Donald Trump, but he complains that there was interviews.
Starting point is 00:08:14 by China. He doesn't offer any proof. He didn't even say that they changed votes or that they'd got Joe Biden to win. So this speech effectively acknowledged that Joe Biden had won because it didn't say the opposite. And he talked about China. And yet, he has described himself as an admirer and a friend of Xi Jinping, the Chinese leader. Well, it seemed to be a sort of incoherent, conspiratorial rambling using the oval office. to validate these frankly bonkers claims, claims that have been taken seriously in the past. I mean, goodness knows, I think there were more than 90 separate court cases looking at allegations of alleged election fraud. None was found to be true. And this is him basically setting up
Starting point is 00:09:06 for the midterm saying, listen, guys, if I lose, it's nothing to do with me. People love me. They love the Republicans. It's someone else's fault. Yes. Well, I think you're absolutely right. The big word there was seriously. These claims were taken seriously and they were dealt with by courts and they were dismissed. So we know what the truth is. The truth is Joe Biden won. It's really simple. But the other thing, the other big takeaway, I think for me out of this and for many others, is that there is an element here of self-poning. We released a whole trunch of documents which were supposed to prove his case and the problem is that they did the opposite. They showed that China had access to US electoral records and they also showed that those are records that are publicly available,
Starting point is 00:10:04 that you can go and download. Some states make them freely available. Some states sell them. You can go and get these. No, and the point for the states that make them available, the point is transparency, right? Exactly. You can look at the voter rolls, this is completely transparent material. That's the point of the process.
Starting point is 00:10:22 We know that there is nothing wrong with the American electoral process. We saw what happened when Fox News claimed that the voting machines owned by Dominion were somehow faulty. Dominion sued and they settled for just under $1 billion. and the head of Tucker Carlson. Tucker Carlson, who was the lead news presenter on Fox News, was part of the deal that Fox made in a settlement with Dominion to say there's absolutely nothing wrong with Dominion voting machines. So this is something the Republicans or the MAGA wing of the Republican Party have banged on about with absolutely no factual underpinning
Starting point is 00:11:00 whatsoever. Correct. And it's very noticeable, just as a side note, it's very noticeable that Donald Trump did not name names or name companies or name people. Well, and he didn't name the election city won. How come he won in 2016? How come he won in 2024? It all seems bonkers. What do you think of Gavin Newsom hopping into his back garden, which looked very nice?
Starting point is 00:11:24 I'm assuming it was his back garden or the back garden of the official residence and saying, time for the 25th Amendment, guys. A tale of two screens. On one screen, Donald Trump. old, raspy let's be honest, didn't sound great. He sounded bored by his own conspiracies.
Starting point is 00:11:46 I thought, oh my goodness, he might fall asleep in the middle of his own speech. And goodness knows he's capable of doing that. Would anybody have been surprised? It was not energetic. And then, almost instantly, Gavin Newsom,
Starting point is 00:12:03 on Instagram, on Twitter, on social media, phone in hand, as you know, people do. Young, energetic, bouncing around outside in the sunshine, a new beginning, and an absolute, absolutely, absolutely virally coherent expression of what this was, the ramblings of a mad king. Well, the only thing missing tonight in Donald Trump's speech was tinfoil.
Starting point is 00:12:32 This was a legitimate 25th Amendment moment. the ramblings of a mad king. Don't get me wrong. Foreign interference in our elections, that's a real thing. Nothing about what you watch tonight, though, was real. It's make-believe. He wants to rig the election in 2026. He knows he's going to lose.
Starting point is 00:12:54 He needs to rig the election before one vote was cast. There's no doubt that Gavin Newsom at the moment is the presumptive first, the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination in 2008. Of course, other people may emerge. However, the important thing about this is in the one big moment that Trump has been hyping and hyping and hyping, Gavin Newsom was right there. He reacted immediately and he reacted in a way that people are talking about hours and hours after the speech. When they're not talking about the speech, they're talking about Gavin Newsom and they're talking about the 25th Amendment.
Starting point is 00:13:31 This episode is brought to you by FIFA World Cup. edition on Netflix. It's a fast, fluid game where your phone is the controller and your TV is the stadium. You just launch it on your TV, scan the QR code with your phone, and boom, you're shooting and passing in seconds. Plus, it's included in your Netflix membership with zero extra costs. Go to the Games tab and play FIFA World Cup launch edition now, only on Netflix. There was another politician who shot up, I think, the Democratic poll for potential presidential candidate in 2028, and that was, of course, the senator from Georgia, John Ossoff, who had a masterful bit of questioning in, frankly, what feels like it's been a pretty weak showing from the
Starting point is 00:14:23 Democrats at the hearings for both Todd Blanche and Jay Clayton, Jay Clayton, who's up for the Tulsi Gabbard vacancy as head of national intelligence. John Ossoff asked him who'd won the election. You know, did he agree that Joe Biden had won the election? Jay Clayton wasn't really able to say it. And he came in with an amazing response. You refuse to answer a basic question about who won a presidential election?
Starting point is 00:14:55 No, I- But you asked to lead America's intelligence community? Isn't it humiliating to be unable to answer this question, to have to indulge the president's delusions? We know, you know, everybody in this room knows the truthful answer to that question. Why can you not give it? I mean, for me, that was the quote of the week. It was a standout quote of the week. It was calm.
Starting point is 00:15:23 It was logical. It wasn't angry. And it made a brilliant, brilliant. emotional point at what these guys have to do to prostrate themselves in front of Trump. It was absolutely electric. There is no doubt that John Ossov immediately tucked in behind Gavin Newsom in the Democratic running here. But it also demonstrated so much about the weird world of MAGA, the weird world in which these people live. Just to go back, Jay Clayton was a partner at Sullivan in Cromwell. That's one of the most prestigious law firms. In theory, I'll just say in theory,
Starting point is 00:16:03 this is a guy who knows what the law is. This is a guy who at the moment is possibly the single most powerful prosecutor in the country. He is the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, which is the biggest office of the federal prosecutors. It's always been the most powerful. It's one that has made far-reaching prosecutions. So he is at the peak of his legal career. And yet, this guy was reduced to mumbling incoherence. And, you know, he looked, let's not get too into the appearance here, but Jay Clayton has always been admired by those who know him for his hair. It's the thing that everybody talks about, Jay Clayton, great hair. Well, and it's the thing that Donald, right, and it's the thing that Donald Trump loves about
Starting point is 00:16:52 his cabinet, right? He says he picks them for central casting, yes. And yet, here was central casting really at work, young, brilliant senator, let's be honest, bit old, bit unshaven, bit questionable on the hair-coloured guy up against each other. And one was forensic, he was not angry, as you say Joanna. He was calm and he kept going and he kept going and he exposed whether it's a moral or intellectual vacuum at the heart of Jay Clayton, historical judge, but he exposed what happens when people get inside this Trump realm and have to do this bizarre dance of not just admitting, not just agreeing. Joe Biden won the 2020 election. But also it seems such a waste of time to look back for Trump on 2020. Why is he, I mean,
Starting point is 00:17:49 if you were a shrink and we should ask Dr. John Gardner this, but why is he fixed on the moment of losing when he won an election on either side of it. There's something that, you know, it's like a dog being drawn back to its own vomit. There's something that he spirals around there. And if he had won it, he wouldn't be in power now. Right. He would be former President Trump. And you didn't have got the Olympics and the World Cup and all the things that he was enthusiastic in America 250 and all the things he's boasted about having. So, yeah, it's a crazy obsession.
Starting point is 00:18:26 I more you're going to talk to Michael Wolfe about it. So, Hugh, we've discussed the president. Let's discuss the vice president. Using Marine II as a personal taxi for his son to take him to a golf lesson. And then, of course, President Obama picked up on something that J.D. Vance said. So this is not a good week for J.D. Vance. I'll just be honest. I'm not sure it's ever a good week to be JD-Vans.
Starting point is 00:18:55 It's ever, I know. He's kind of, he's always in the smoke, isn't he? So, J.D. Vans, hillbilly elegy, a humble background. You know, he claims to be from Appalachia. We do know he is actually from the greater Cincinnati suburbs. But, you know, certainly a tough upbringing, a state university, a state college. The Marines, an enlisted Marine, you know, there's a lot of, you know, a lot of humble background. All off, the Secret Service, and this is really bad.
Starting point is 00:19:34 This is really, really, almost without precedent. Secret Service agents from inside his detail have been leaking about the diva-esque royalty-level demands that are being put on them. It's so bad that they have come up with badges that they swap with each other. and they use obviously Vance and Obama and Trump and everybody who's protected by the Secret Service have codenames. J.D. Vance's code name is Bobcat. Again, not entirely clear.
Starting point is 00:20:04 I don't know if they have Bobcats in the greater Cincinnati suburbs, but his nickname, his code name is Bobcat. And they're exchanging badges with each other saying Bobcat Survivors Club. And it has the motto, So TBD, TBD, because he and Usha keep changing their arrangements. That's really bad for security. Changing arrangements is expensive, it's difficult.
Starting point is 00:20:32 It's hugely demanding on these agents who do incredibly difficult and demanding work. And another one has a shield, and it says on it, Carplane Commander, because he moves about so much, they have to fly his cars around. but as we heard, he's flying to the golf course with his son to learn how to play golf. He was taking Marine 2, a helicopter as Trump. You see Trump getting on Marine 1. When Vance gets in it, it's called Marine 2. He was taking it from the old Naval Observatory where the family live across to another golf course across the other side of the city.
Starting point is 00:21:13 I mean, is that relatable? Is that, you know, is that what the hillbill is. people pay their taxes for for the vansis to fly Marine 2 and their child to his golf lesson. I don't think so. It's not a minivan, JD. We should ask people to put in the comments, is this what you're paying your taxes for? Are you happy with the idea that J.D. Vance is ferrying his son to a golf lesson on Marine 2? And by the way, he and Usha are also going to lease a country estate about 40 or 50 miles outside of D.C. in Virginia.
Starting point is 00:21:49 And that means more movement, more travel, more security arrangements. We know the Secret Service are unhappy with them because they're leaking. And the Secret Service don't leak. We have wild rumors about difficulties with the Clintons that emerge 15 years after they had left the White House. I am not aware that we have ever seen such a direct pipeline of behavior to leak with a Secret Service protectee in this sort of and especially these internal badges, which are a joke and are funny, and we can see on screen now, but that's not something we're supposed to see. However, as you said, that wasn't even the only bad news this week for JD.
Starting point is 00:22:35 He also got a cutting put down, I think, is one way you could put it from Barack Obama. Bitch slapped. Yes. Before the next track starts, have you ever wondered, who are the people in my old family photos? Or what brought them to Canada? With Ancestry, you can start finding answers. Start with a name and we'll guide you from there. For just 499, try our new 30-day beginners pass and uncover generations of family stories. No experience necessary.
Starting point is 00:23:07 You've got questions? We've got ancestors. Offer ends July 22nd, 2026. Visit Ancestry.ca slash beginners for details. Terms apply. Right, by President Obama, who appeared on the writer Malcolm Gladwell, he has a podcast. He appeared on that podcast and highlighted something that many of us don't understand about J.D. Vans. Right. So J.D. Vans, and actually, there's a personal element to this as well, I think, and a very, you know, sort of personal element for Obama. because J.D. Vans had been podcasting himself this week.
Starting point is 00:23:45 He was supposed to go and meet a Republican group of members of the Republican House, and instead he went to Joe Rogan, because Joe Rogan, bigger than Congress. And he was asked about this appalling moment at the Trump UFC cage match when one of the fighters said, Michelle Obama is a man. Horrible, just, you know, this vile thing has come out of the MAGA fever swamps. And as we know, Joe Rogan was the man holding the microphone when this guy said it. He didn't push back. And J.D. was asked about it by Joe Rogan.
Starting point is 00:24:23 And he sort of grinned about it and said that wasn't even the funniest thing. He just no condemnation, no pushback. If there's one man, this is a new Catholic convert, this is a Yale graduate, this is a Marine, he's a man who's sworn to uphold the Constitution. you know, he should know this is wrong. He should know this is disgusting. He should know that obviously Michelle Obama is not a man and saying it is vile. None of that. Then Barack Obama goes on Malcolm Gladwell's podcast and points out the glaring hypocrisy of J.D. Vance
Starting point is 00:24:59 that he has spoken about how the people who fought, the descendants of those who fought in the Civil War have more right to America than those who did not. and he is married to Usha Vance who is the daughter of immigrants well the daughter of Indian immigrants the daughter of Indian immigrants and J.D. Vance had in part an Indian wedding he's spoken about eating vegetarian food his children have a mix of names
Starting point is 00:25:25 and he he's posed very happily with his extended Indian American family but Obama was absolutely forensic in knifing this hypocrisy. He called it to his face hypocrisy. The hypocrisy of the vice president.
Starting point is 00:25:46 I don't understand how J.D. Vance and Stephen Miller can sit around the same cabinet table. I don't understand how they can talk to each other, given how unpleasant and vile Stephen Miller is about immigrants, about brown people, about setting ice on people, about the president's comments about Mexicans and immigrants being racist and the worst of the worst. I don't know how Ushah Vance gets into bed with J.D. Vance at the end of the evening, assuming they do.
Starting point is 00:26:17 Well, and we know that Ushavans' family are, they're in San Diego. They are embodiments of the American dream. Right. Her mother's a science professor. They were Democrats. Yes. These are clearly, and the immense pride that they would have had in coming here and making it an American, Joanna, you and I are both proud.
Starting point is 00:26:37 to be immigrants. They then, you know, Ushah Vans, a brilliant career, clerking for a Supreme Court justice, a degree from, you know, degrees from the most distinguished of colleges. And their son-in-law is saying she and they have less right to be America and less right to be American, at the same time as he's going home to an Indian-American wife.
Starting point is 00:27:07 children with that heritage. It's the, I just, I mentioned intellectual dissonance with Trump and kind of hard to say Trump's intellectual dissonance. It's not his thing. J.D. Vans knows that this is intellectual dissonance. He knows better. Well, he also knows that he's using the platform of being vice president to sell copies of his book, a point not lost on Kim Strassel in the Wall Street Journal, who pointed out that actually
Starting point is 00:27:33 the Senate needs his attention. He's the president of the Senate. It needs his attention. And he's spending his time out on the view, as you pointed out, Joe Rogan, promoting his book when actually he should be dealing with all the legislation that needs to get to get past in the incredibly few working days left before the midterms. I mean, it's shocking how much time Congress people and senators take off for the summer. It's shocking how late they come back to start the full term. Of course, she points out that, you know, a lot of Republican senators are concerned that there may be another government shut down, that the Democrats will blame the Republicans.
Starting point is 00:28:15 And of course, this will happen right before the midterms. This, Kim Strassel in the Wall Street Journal, to those who do not know her name, she is not a news reporter in the Wall Street Journal. She writes for the Wall Street Journal opinion section, which has died in the wool conservative. It has been conservative forever. and she is very, very close to the, she is, I struggle to say an intellect in the MAGA movement, but she is certainly somebody that is looked to for her opinion. And she is scathing about JD Vance. She calls him AWOL.
Starting point is 00:28:53 She says that he is the glaringly obvious candidate to really run the White House's political strategy. and yet he is not there. He, I think, will be personally very hurt by this, but she points out that the 2028 election is going to be based on what is done by the Republican legislatures, the Senate and the House, now, because they know, and she doesn't admit this, but they know they're not going to get the House.
Starting point is 00:29:25 They know the Senate's in play. If they don't get anything through between now and January the 3rd, there's nothing to take to the voters in 2020, and as she points out, it will be J.D. Vance's fault. I wonder if J.D. Vance will be hurt, Hugh.
Starting point is 00:29:39 I think he will be counting the number of copies of his book that he's sold by talking for three hours on Joe Rogan. I mean, what vice president has got three hours to spend yapping on the Joe Rogan podcast? But that's why he had to put his son in the helicopter because he'd taken three hours, He couldn't drive them over to the golf course, had to get there faster because, you know,
Starting point is 00:30:05 it's just time management, Joanna. I know when I helicopter everywhere, that's what I see. Well, someone who's obviously feeling very envious of J.D. Vance being able to spend three hours on Joe Rogan's podcast is none other than the Secretary of Forever Wars. Pete American doll Hegsef, my obsession, is that he looks like an American doll with his little accessories, is, he stars and stripes everywhere, his socks, his sort of weird hairdo. But he is obviously
Starting point is 00:30:38 keeping one eye on J.D. Vance and of course, Marco Rubio and thinking they're ahead of me in the race, I'm going to give everybody free shots of testosterone. So he's testing people in the military. He's introduced compulsory tests, claiming that he's very focused on the individual warrior and the warrior must be made strong. And he's concerned that people may be made strong. And he's concerned that people may be low tea, which is actually sometimes a consequence of extreme stress, and that they will be making shots of testosterone available. I think he might want to give one to his boss. Donald Trump looks like he's run out of all hormones, all hormones.
Starting point is 00:31:15 He's barely producing any natural substance at this point, apart from a stream of kind of incomprehensible garbage. Are you planning to get, I've never asked you if you're, and I'm sure that this is breaking some kind of HR rule and I'm going to do it in public on a podcast. Huey, are you high tea, low tea? Should we be testing our staff for testosterone? I suspect the Daily Beast staff, men and women have all got very high testosterone. They come in bouncing every morning ready to take on the world.
Starting point is 00:31:49 So I don't think we're short of testosterone, but I think Pete Higgsath might be. Well, I've never been tested for my testosterone. run. So I don't know. I've no idea. Our producer Ryan pointed out that the end of my name ends in tea. So that's high tea. I don't know. Well, and a high tea if you're English means something completely different. It's a rather delicious punctuation point. Usually on a Friday or Saturday, it involves very well buttered, delicious sandwiches with the crusts cut off, some scones with a bit of cream and jam. Whether the only controversial thing is do you put the jam on first or the cream on first? do you add butter? Answer, of course you do. And then some pieces of cake, usually a bit
Starting point is 00:32:32 of Victoria sponge or some fruit cake. If that's what the troops are going to be getting, Joanna, I think that he would be the most popular Defence Secretary ever. However, he's going to offer them. And if you're in the military, you can't just say, oh, it's optional, because that's not how the military works. He claims that high testosterone. is the path to military greatness. Unfortunately, he has already been rather, you know, quickly checked on his facts by doctors who say that this is not necessarily scientifically proven, not necessarily scientifically wise, and not really the solution to winning wars. The broad solution to winning wars, I think, is to pick ones that are not lacking in any strategic
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Starting point is 00:33:56 Visit laurel.com to learn more. Well, it's also behaving, Huey, as if war is mano-a-mano and it's actually mortal combat. And in fact, as the Ukrainians have shown, it's about drones. It's about using weapons where the person is frequently three, four, seven thousands of miles away from the point of impact. Yes. And, you know, one thing that until the Pete Hegsith era, the top people in the American military, the generals, the admirals, were absolutely trying to, you know, we're encouraging intellects, we're recruiting people on the basis of their technical skills and their knowledge. And this whole making people look like gladiator or something. Well, this is what he wants to do, right?
Starting point is 00:34:54 He loves nothing better than to post a video of himself doing push-ups or press-ups or running with the troops or pushing a sled. He's obsessed by posting pictures of himself. And I've said before on the podcast, I think he uses the military as a personal training school. I think he uses it as a very custom gym. You know one of those gyms that we all long to be able to afford where they tailor everything to your body type. I long to go to one of those. But I think he's using the American military for his own personal body improvement. And we know he's struggled with alcohol and, of course, a much better thing to take that addiction.
Starting point is 00:35:33 And we've seen this in RFK Jr too, still junior at 72, and applied to a ferocity in the gym, which I think somehow channels that addiction energy. And you also said they're using the American military. Michael Wolf made the very prescient point that this looks very much like using the American military to run for the presidency. He is trying to scoop up the bros and the pod, you know, this sort of looks maxing, strengthening, protein-obsessed podcast world, which is... Jaw-hammering.
Starting point is 00:36:14 Jaw-hammering. Did they break their jaws? Clivicular. You only asked about testosterone, but... Actually, after this, I've got to go and do a bit of hammering. But it is a serious. It does appear to be the first maneuver from Hexeth. I think Michael Wolf is absolutely right in that.
Starting point is 00:36:32 And what is, let's be honest, a very open Republican presidential race. J.D. Vance, not a good week, not good charisma. Question marks over him. Marco Rubio, clearly ambitious. Why, if you're Pete Hexeth, why not? Well, because if you're Pete Hegzeth, you must be panicking too, that the war, which may turn into a forever war, the very thing that Maga voted not to have the very central point of Donald Trump's foreign policy is not going well. He'll get blamed for it. Trump always has to find someone to blame. He'll probably fire Hegseth and say it was the idea to go into Iran. So he's looking to. to solidify a base while he still has a job and he still has reach. Yes, I absolutely think that analysis is going to hold up.
Starting point is 00:37:31 And of course, he embraced being Secretary of War. And if you win at war, I'm sure that's great. But if you don't win a war and you are Secretary of War, well, you know who's going to get blamed. And there ain't no ships leaving the Strait of All Moose right now. Everything is back to a sort of weird stalemate. and what's happened to the memo of understanding. And fuel prices are back up. Fuel prices are back up.
Starting point is 00:37:57 It was the memo of misunderstanding. So Huey, one person that didn't benefit last night from Trump's speech, who traditionally would have expected to, is Trump's teleprompter operator, who has been frantically rushing to Kalshi, one of the betting markets, to bet on the contents of Donald Trump's speech. of which he had
Starting point is 00:38:22 inside a knowledge. It's just an extraordinary story. Trump has often, weirdly, Trump's got a thing about teleprompters. He doesn't really follow them that well and he often goes off them and then he goes back on them
Starting point is 00:38:40 and quite often complains that they're broken, you'll remember, at the United Nations, he couldn't follow it and it turned out they loaded it wrong. And he blamed that on the United Nations when in fact it was his own people. And now we may have insight into the fact that the guy was probably not paying any attention putting Donald Trump's UN speech into the teleprompter because he was too busy on his Kalshi app trying to bet on what was inside the speech. So, yes, this is a completely new phenomenon of these prediction markets.
Starting point is 00:39:17 This is not your traditional betting. This is a very free, free ability to make a prediction and then ask people to bet against you. And now, obviously, I could predict, I don't know, we're going to the baseball tonight. I could predict that the Cleveland Guardians are going to win three to, for the point of argument. But I could know knowledge.
Starting point is 00:39:42 I've got no way of knowing if that's true. I could win, I could lose. You certainly couldn't have predicted that England was going to lose 2-1 to Argentina on Wednesday. That was a memorable match. Oh!
Starting point is 00:39:55 I always recuse myself from soccer because being from Scotland, as I have to make sure people are aware, we have complicated feelings about England playing soccer. Well, I don't have complicated feelings and I was gutted, I think is the phrase,
Starting point is 00:40:10 gutted in that last six minutes of the match that was that was shocking. But we should point out that the teleprompter operator, this might sound like it's a trivial thing, has made $100,000, $100,000.
Starting point is 00:40:29 The thing is, as I was saying, I don't know what the result of, you know, the baseball match, the baseball is, but he was on this prediction market because he'd seen the speech. He'd rewarded it into the teleprompter to practice and these markets move very, very fast. So we don't actually know how long in advance he was making these predictions,
Starting point is 00:40:50 but these markets can deal with predictions in the space of minutes, in the space, in theory of seconds, and he had insider knowledge about what Trump was going to say. Among the things, so this is a very intriguing part of this, is that he could, we think, have been prosecuted because he clearly was selling government secrets or government knowledge or government information. Well, and certainly information that could move markets.
Starting point is 00:41:20 And particularly information that could move markets. And he was not. Instead, the Department of Justice settled with him. And that settlement means we don't actually have exact knowledge of what secrets he shared, what predictions he made. And the reason that I think this is pretty significant is that the... one of the features of gossip around DC, of raised eyebrows, of questions about what's going on,
Starting point is 00:41:53 is that there are people who make predictions online on Twitter about words that Trump will use or phrases or that he's going to say this or he's going to say that. And they seem quite well informed. Are these people also getting this knowledge? We don't know because we don't know what they're. We don't know what this guy has agreed that he did. But we do know that he's been suspended without pay. And we do know that Don Jr. is an advisor to both Kalshi and Polly Market, the two leading companies in the prediction market.
Starting point is 00:42:29 So, hear that? It's your money calling. It wants a promotion. Elevate your savings with the Scotia high interest savings account. Always earn high regular interest rates that grow the more you save. and invest. Conditions apply. Visit scotiabank.com slash h-I-SA to learn more. Scotia Bank, you're richer than you think. The other thing that we should comment about, because you mentioned how fast the prediction
Starting point is 00:43:00 markets move, is the speed with which Donald Trump crazily puts out his true socials, and he's now trying to create a separate channel to charge for them so that the markets get access to the policy observations and rando thoughts that he puts out on truth social. It's obviously a way to monetise the platform, which has had a 77% drop in valuation since last year. Do you think anybody's going to sign up for it? Well, I mean, realistically, yes. If you, you know, the biggest traders, the biggest, the biggest movers of shares, of bonds, of future. of shorts, they want every advantage they can possibly get. You know, there was the flash crash a couple, a few years ago.
Starting point is 00:43:58 And one of the components of that was that people had set up faster, you know, wire, fiber optic cables to get information so fractionally faster that they were ahead of others. So if you're a trader, why would you not want to know an advantage? to know in advance, I suppose, but ahead of everybody else, what the president is about to do. You can make money on this. It seems, I mean, it's like it's an offer that you can't refuse because if you don't do it and others make money, then you've lost out. But Hugh, surely it must be wrong. It's as if he's setting up his own sort of Bloomberg version, right, a sort of and dram version of it. He's now his own teleprompter operator.
Starting point is 00:44:44 Right. He's the president of the United States. We've all paid for him already. Right. Is this how he should be thinking about his policy statements that he puts in through socials, that he can somehow monetize them for his own company? Well, you know, this has been the hallmark of his presidency and is grift, is cashing in, is, you know, Don Jr's presence on defense boards is, contracts without bids to people that live near Mar-Aleg. For the reflecting pool.
Starting point is 00:45:20 Perfect example. A contract without any bidding process, which is completely un-abnormal for something as important as the reflecting pool. And it goes to someone that has worked on a bedminster property of Donald Trump. And they've made a catastrophic effort to repair the reflecting pool so that in this In the peak summer of the 250th anniversary of America's history, the reflecting pool, there's no water in it. It's a concrete hub and it's hidden behind wire fences. I know you said to Arfara Thomas in the other day that one of the pleasures of going to D.C.
Starting point is 00:46:03 is a walk along the reflecting pool. I always love that. There's something about it. Well, it draws tourists from around the world who turn up and they see that Washington looks like a dump, that it looks like it's completely. completely unable to fix its own monuments, despite the fact that Donald Trump said the guy he'd given the contract to knew exactly what he was doing, he was going to do it better than anybody else, he was going to do it cheaper than anybody else. And of course, it's not true. Well, it was true that his company was called Greenwater and he at least delivered on that. He at least delivered on that. No more American frag brew. Oh, yeah, the Daily Beast are robustly fair and accurate. So only fair and accurate to point that out.
Starting point is 00:46:42 Well, Hugh, I know that you're about to go off and stroll along the North Coast. I'm sure J.D. Vance is very pleased that you're in his home state. I am going to be scanning the skies for Marine 2 in case he's off to golf course near here. And I can only guess at the enormity of news by next Friday when we come back to talk about it. And again, as we said, explosive, explosive news. this week and I'm sure there'll be more explosive news next week. Well, I was hoping the explosiveness of it might end now that we know the source of that particular problem, Joanna. But when it comes to the news, it's not letters from Mexico's that are the issue that are bringing us the news.
Starting point is 00:47:30 It's probably mostly the president and he's not going away. Well, he's not going away. Although if he does, let's hope that he's flying in his grift force one, as you have caught. It joined it and not the old plane. Hugh, great to see you. Have a fabulous weekend. Thank you. I will look forward to seeing you back in the office on Monday.
Starting point is 00:47:51 And I will be there too. Thank you, Joanna. I'm now joined by Stacey Kennedy, CEO of PMIUS, for our America 250 series produced in partnership with PMIUS, US businesses of Philip Morris International, as part of its year-long initiative to celebrate and accelerate American innovation and reinvention. Looking ahead to the next 250 years of America reacting directly to your comments, and Stacey and I are discussing the future of manufacturing an American innovation. So let's dive right in. So we have Stacey Kennedy, CEO of PMIUS, Stacey.
Starting point is 00:48:37 What is it going to take for America to re-establish itself if this is even the right goal as the central? of the manufacturing world. Thanks, Joanna, for having me. I'm delighted to be here. And, you know, I think America's got what we need to reinvent ourselves. Okay. Reinvent ourselves in manufacturing, reinvent ourselves in a whole host of areas. I mean, if we look at the American dream and the core of the American dream,
Starting point is 00:49:09 I think it's not just about an economic prosperity. It's about the fundamental right and the freedom to, invent and reinvent. Okay, so how do we do that? What does that mean for people? Because the American dream for people, I think, meant that they would have the opportunity, they would have economic opportunities that would get them past where their parents were, right? Their life could be aspiring.
Starting point is 00:49:33 So what are the ingredients? I think the ingredients are in bringing communities together with business because these are the people that make the magic happen. If you want manufacturing, states have to create a great. economic climate. They have to attract business. There has to be something in it for the community. And I fundamentally believe in the quality of American workforce, hands down. So we just built our new factory in Aurora, Colorado, 18 months from ideation to operational. And this was because there was a fundamental need for us to produce more product because consumers were demanding it. You look
Starting point is 00:50:13 for a great state that's offering opportunity and a great workforce. And that's what I think it takes. I think it takes all of those kind of stakeholders working together to just get it going. What's the product? The product is Zen. America's number one smoke-free brand. We're a smoke-free company. Right.
Starting point is 00:50:32 That's our mission. So I know you used to be a smoker and you're still a fan of nicotine, right? So are you a Zin user? I am. Okay. And I'm predominantly an I-cost user. ICOS is our smoke-free heated tobacco. So it's a similar experience to a cigarette, but without the smoke, which is what causes all the harm.
Starting point is 00:50:53 Right. The cancer. Right. Exactly. All right. So I've read that your favorite thing to do for lunch because you're always on the go is an espresso and an – how do Icos? Yeah. espresso and an Icos that can get me through any lunch or any day, but put me in a meeting or an airplane.
Starting point is 00:51:12 and Zen is my go-to. Okay, so Colorado, up and working, what was it about the energy of Colorado or the workforce that you felt you could lean into? Well, first of all, it started with the community. So whenever we are looking for, it's for me not about the state incentives or the land or these types of things,
Starting point is 00:51:34 we went into communities, deeply in the communities, and talked to local politicians, the mayor, business chamber. We met with civic organizations. So we do a lot of work with veterans organizations. So we want to hear from people in the community about what they would think about our presence being there. And so I did a listening tour across America when we first started doing business here three and a half years ago. And the things that people were saying about how important manufacturing is to local communities.
Starting point is 00:52:08 And so that's where we started. And we started working with the community. And then we say, okay, now we have tangible examples of the type of workforce, what our factory would mean in this community, how we can partner together. Do we have, is there enough affordable housing? Is there enough, you know, restaurants and businesses around? And that's how we made a decision about the exact location. Okay. So you've talked about tobacco-free product. What is the sort of, as you look out, and obviously 250 years, there's an insane amount of time to think about. But in terms of breakthrough technologies, do you see anything on the horizon that you think, oh, this really is going to be breakthrough?
Starting point is 00:52:51 I think there are plenty to talk about. I mean, AI, of course, being the forefront of that. But I think the real breakthrough needs to be critical how humans and machines work together, because there are fundamental things about a human being that we're never going to replace. the cognitive capabilities, the judgment, the empathy and the ability to have emotions, and to deeply understand the human condition. But AI can deliver, of course, such enormous capability, and the breakthrough needs to be how that's going to work in a new operating model societally.
Starting point is 00:53:30 But I think what I'm hearing from Americans is we listen, as exciting as that is, and of course, some find it, they're skeptics, some find it a little frightening. others find it incredibly exciting and energizing. But most Americans just want better, Joanna. They just want innovation to serve them in their everyday lives. We all want that. Okay, so what kind of innovation? I desperately want innovation in my daily life,
Starting point is 00:53:56 but I'm not quite sure what it's supposed to do for me. And some innovations feel like, oh, it's too much. I've got to learn how to use yet another thing. So when you're listening to people, what are the kind of innovations they're talking about? So it usually comes across in four areas. So give me something that I love, but better. That's where our Zen fits in, right? People use nicotine for a reason.
Starting point is 00:54:20 Right. But they don't want the smoke and the things that smoke causes like cancer. That's a better product. Right. Give me something that makes my life easier, easier to navigate. Give me something that makes me and my family and especially my children safer. And give me something that is healthier. So those are usually the corridors that we find most Americans are talking about very pragmatically about something that's going to make a difference in their life.
Starting point is 00:54:47 Okay. So we have a question here from someone saying, how do we get back to that sense of community where the factory, the local factory, was actually at the center of the town and people sort of knew other people and there was a sort of purpose to the town, to the community? Well, I think that we can get there through those who are invested in America like we are that are building manufacturing facilities. But I think I would broaden the question and the idea of a variety of things that can unite a community, a town. It may very well be a factory, but it could also be a new mission around reinventing education. It could be a civic organization. It could be, you know, power behind first responders and what they're doing in the community. So I think we need to define community pretty broadly, but look for the right mix in communities of things that are going to pull the community together. Super important.
Starting point is 00:55:53 And that's what I mean, joined by a reinvention. I'll give you just a quick example. I'm from Mississippi. You may hear a little magnolia in my voice. I can hear any of my love. I love your voice. I love your accent. Thank you.
Starting point is 00:56:04 My mom is always very upset when she says, you're losing the magnolia in your voice. But my state, when I was growing up, we were dead last or next to dead last in education in the state of Mississippi. Famously so, right? Famously so. And what Mississippi has done to reinvent its entire education system, they're now above middle of the pack in just a short decade plus, which is amazing. Other states are now copying Mississippi's education model and trying to replicate that. Right. And how did they do that? What was the essence of it? So I think it was first of all curriculum, getting back to the basics and they had a very specific curriculum model based off of phonics.
Starting point is 00:56:47 But it was also around putting a performance-based system in schools that the schools got a chance to fix to write things themselves. And if that didn't, they got help. And so it was really coming from a place of helpfulness. but it was performance culture. And there was more to that whole story, but I think it's really amazing in what other states are trying to copy. You can look at other states
Starting point is 00:57:09 that really has been based around economic development. So I look at states like the state, that's my home now, Connecticut, and how public private partnerships like Advanced CT, I'm on the board of AdvancedCT, focused with the state on economic development and developing the right mix of small, mid-size,
Starting point is 00:57:28 and extra large corporations that are all coming together to make sure that you've got good dispersion of jobs across the state. You're constantly attracting the right types of businesses that are going to add to not only the fabric of society, but create jobs and empower the economy. And the small businesses that are so important, I was thrilled last night to hold an event at my home to honor the recipient winners of the Women's Business Development Council of Connecticut. Yay. These are women entrepreneurs that are getting grants to either start or expand their small businesses. These women are amazing. And you need small businesses as well to power the community and to power economic development at the state level.
Starting point is 00:58:13 And I think that's what Americans are looking for. That falls right in that. Give me better, better quality, safety, safety for my kids, healthy environment, make my life a little bit easier on a day-to-day basis. It sounds like you're running for office. Are you running for office? Why aren't there more people from business like you running for office? I don't know, Joanna. If we had more business pragmatist, I spent a lot of my time with governors.
Starting point is 00:58:41 I think as a country, we talk about the federal government a lot. But many of the decisions that affect our lives happen at the state level. Right. So if we have business-driven, pragmatic governors, and we've got some great examples around the country. We just had more of that. I think we would be so much better off. So how do you encourage people to take the risk to do something like that?
Starting point is 00:59:04 Because part of leaning into the future is also about, and I wanted to ask you this, and actually we got some questions in about this, is what does it take to be a leader to take America forward for the next? I mean, as we've set 250 years, feels like a very long time. But for the next 50 years, you know, navigating the challenges of AI, navigating a society which feels more fragmented, where there are fewer places for us all to come together and agree on an agreed set of facts. What does it take to get, as you say, business leaders or the leaders of tomorrow to stand for office? I think it takes society in general, being willing to feel.
Starting point is 00:59:53 finally get behind some of the those who are serving in office. I definitely believe in accountability for those who are holding public office, but I also believe that they are serving us. And those who serve have, they need support. So that's why it's so important for me as a business leader to get behind organizations like Advanced CT in Connecticut that are serving alongside those in the governor's office and in state office, because we owe it to them and to our state and to all of our constituents that we're standing up and supporting them and helping to, you know, move that policy forward. So I think if we saw more positive examples of that, then we might have more business leaders who would be willing to run for office. Because right now it's a lot
Starting point is 01:00:47 of risk and not much reward. Who's standing up for them when they're trying to do the hard stuff to tackle the really big problems? You're a leader of a company. You've worked a PMI for over 30 years. Is that possible? It doesn't look possible. Oh, now I'm flirting with you. Very strange. Very strange. How have you developed as a leader? Because so much of what you talk about depends on good leadership in America. You have a great reputation. You've become the CEO. How do you think of yourself in terms of showing up as a leader? I think the answer to that question, Joanna, is fundamentally in what we were talking about, the American dream and reinvention. So I've moved more than a dozen times in my career. I've lived on three continents, five countries.
Starting point is 01:01:39 I look at each new job and each physical move as an opportunity for a do-over. Oh, interesting. And I don't want to change fundamentally who I am. I don't believe that you can really do that, nor should you, if you, if you try, as a human being. But I definitely believe in the opportunity to pivot and reinvent how I show up as a leader in ways that it's just a constant improvement, right? So each move, each job is an opportunity to step back and assess. What do I think, how do I think I showed up as a leader in a way that felt really authentic for me and really resonated with my stakeholders, be that government, private enterprise, employees, you name it. And then what would I change if I could, you know, holding the proverbial mirror up in the face to have a really deep look and asking feedback from other people.
Starting point is 01:02:32 And then each move is an opportunity to say, you know what, I'm going to reinvent that aspect of how I show. up as a leader. I'm going to be bolder in my decision making. I'm going to, I'm generally a very collaborative person, but sometimes collaboration overused becomes unproductive. Whatever it might be, I use that as an opportunity each and every time, but it always starts with listening. You can't, you can't make any of those reinventions without listening. Okay, so you also read a lot. I do. Do you think reading continues into the future? And I, I, ask that because I know you read three books a week, two fiction, one nonfiction. I have two sons in their 20, so young adults in the workforce, one of whom also reads three books a week, one of whom
Starting point is 01:03:19 says, why would I read when I can watch television? So he gets his stories in a different way. What do you think the future of reading is? I deeply believe in the future of reading. And I'm hopeful that this next generation, you start to see some signs that they're wanting more tactile, more analog opportunities in life. I think there's an incredible exhaustion with social media. There's an exhaustion with the echo chamber of the news that everybody that we're all hearing. So I think that reading is going to come back in the old-fashioned paper, I have a Kindle, which I travel with, of course. but if I can put a real book in my hands, and when I look at, I have 17-year-old twins,
Starting point is 01:04:05 when I look at both of them, it's a hardcover book. It's a hardcover book. Hard cover book. Okay, and do they get those from the library? Do they buy them? Are they gifts? Either public library or Barnes & Noble.
Starting point is 01:04:20 My son's meticulous about his points, whatever this is. He's collecting at Barnes & Noble. And I'm so glad they got back into reading. He was a, my son particularly was a phenomenal reader at a very young age. And he had one negative experience where the teacher, new teacher, first day of school, ask all the kids to bring a book that they read in the summer. And he was so excited to show his book.
Starting point is 01:04:45 And in front of the whole class, the teacher said there's no way you could have read that book. That's not even close to your grade level age range. He was crushed. He didn't pick up a book other than it was mandated at school. for almost four years. Wow. And then in high school. Terrible.
Starting point is 01:05:02 What was the book? What was the book? It was one of our summer reading books. I think it was a Jane Austen book. So we did the classics over the summer. And she said, no way, could you be reading a Jane Austen book and whatever he was? I think it was fifth or sixth grade. And of course, we did it together.
Starting point is 01:05:16 It was not exactly probably his age range. But a brilliant English teacher and humanities teacher in high school have now gotten him right back in love with a whole series. of he's very reading postmodern books. He's like all sorts of exciting books that he has to read. And so now he's giving me my reading list as opposed to... Oh, that's nice. That's a very nice mother-son thing.
Starting point is 01:05:41 It is. Yeah, that was actually my Christmas gift. He chose a book a month that the whole family would read. We started with Kurt Vonnegut. So he picked a book. It would be, you know, short enough that everybody could have time to read it and then to discuss his family. Wow.
Starting point is 01:05:55 So as a family, because also family unit is important. as one leans into the future. So you as a family read a book a month? We do. Well, that's impressive. I wish I'd thought of doing that with mine. My kids are out of the house now, but what a great idea. And also having something which focuses your attention span.
Starting point is 01:06:15 Because I wonder if our attention spans are going to be the thing that trips us up as we go forward because it's so easy to get distracted now. It is. And I tell you, even with my reading, when I start a fiction book, it's hard to put it down. So I just helped myself recently out of the suggestion from my son, and I went to short stories. Awesome.
Starting point is 01:06:40 So he suggested Amortals has some great short stories. Right. I always liked Ernest Hemingway short stories. But you can finish a short story in a night. Yeah. And then you get a sense of achievement, right? Exactly. Like I have a sense of completion.
Starting point is 01:06:53 The story is finished. I can go off to sleep better. But I think it's really important because it also brings in a sense of debate. Because when you're discussing a book, your attention span is completely in a different place. Then as a family, you can debate the book or, you know, your views on it, which is great. Another great practice is debate. My daughter's in debate. I sold them.
Starting point is 01:07:14 And I get to judge high school debate on occasion. What hope and inspiration it brings for this next generation, for the next America 250. You know, I remember high school being very competitive. And I think as Americans, we are very competitive. But after the first debate that I attended with my daughter, I got it back in the car and I expected her to be talking about the points she scored, who on her team, you know, what were the wins, what were the losses. But Joanne, it wasn't at all. Her conversation centered around how the arguments improved when her team brought in some of the opposing team. team's arguments into their logic.
Starting point is 01:07:57 Oh, interesting. If you think about that and put that in a lens of the next 250 for America, innovation, listening to consumers at the core of innovation, how we reinvent ourselves. If society could just do that, bring opponents' ideas into our own logic of argumentation, wow. There's so much talked about how much pressure there is on a CEO these days. There's just so much coming at you. And yet I think you have a practice where it's phones down when you have dinner with your family
Starting point is 01:08:29 and that your husband often suggests a topic for you all to debate. And I love this idea. I love this idea. Is that something that you recommend for people, regardless of what parents do, but just that sense of connection and again, staying focused on one subject? I do. It's been a game changer for our family. And I'm very blessed because my husband's a journalist.
Starting point is 01:08:52 by background and trade profession. So curiosity out the yang. And it was really his idea to start educating the kids by having topics that are important to society brought to the dinner table. And it's a great way to just put the phone down, have conversation. So you'd ask everybody to read an article. So this is part of his media literacy training. Right.
Starting point is 01:09:15 Read an article. Read it from several different points of view, left, right, center. and then let's just discuss and debate. So that's usually where I think good conversations starts with listening, starts with being able to hear other's points of view, sharpening your own arguments by bringing in something that someone else has
Starting point is 01:09:34 that's maybe not where you started with the subject. I think it's really been a great practice for our family. I highly recommend. You've worked in Asia. You've worked in Europe. What are the things you most appreciate about the American worker? Or what are the differences?
Starting point is 01:09:51 Yeah. So one of the things that I appreciate about the American worker the most, and this may sound like an odd thing to say, but Americans can be rule followers and they can be rule breakers at the right moment. So my husband's German. So this is like rule following culture. Like if it's not written in the manual, this is not happening. Asia also you get some, it's like thinking, the way of education is to think a certain
Starting point is 01:10:15 way. And there's all pros and cons of those cultures and the workers and those. cultures. But in America, it's ingenuity. I need to solve a problem, but I can't solve this problem the same way I solved the last problem. Thinking outside the box to think, how can I make it happen? How can I make it more efficient? So I think Americans are just great at creating things. And it doesn't have to be a tangible thing. It can be, you know, small innovations that add up and make a really big difference. I deeply believe that ideas can come from every single one of us every part of our communities or individuals across the workforce. And we have tangible evidence
Starting point is 01:10:56 that that happens. And that's the great thing about American workers. Yeah, it's so interesting. I've always said to any newsroom that I've been in, there's no hierarchy for a good idea. A good idea comes from where it comes from. And it's either good or it's bad or it can be iterated on, but it's not, you don't have to have a certain set of backgrounds to come up. with a good idea. I totally, totally believe that and I see it every day in my company. Ideas come from everywhere, from a territory sales manager, someone working on a factory floor, somebody in the finance department, ideas come from everywhere, and that's what makes America great. Thank you to Stacey for joining me. Next Friday, I'll be talking about the future
Starting point is 01:11:44 of the internet with Dick Costello. He's the co-founder and managing partner at 01 advisors and the former the CEO of Twitter. And the following week, I'll be talking about the future of sports and technology with Vivek Ranadiv, co-owner and chairman of the Sacramento Kings. If you want the chance to have your prediction read and responded to live on air, leave us a comment with the hashtag America 250 on this YouTube video or head to beast. .pub slash America 250. Reminder that by posting with hashtag America 250, you have to be posting with hashtag America 250, you
Starting point is 01:12:21 agree that the Daily Beast may include your comment in PMIUS sponsored segments on the Daily Beast podcast and to other potential PMIUS uses. If you have been, thank you for joining us. Don't forget to leave us your comment about the podcast or about your dreams for their next 250 years of America and hashtag America 250. Big thanks to our production team, John Romero, Ryan Murray, Rachel Pasa, Heather Pissarro, Max the intern and Neil Rosenhaus. So the good news is we have so many Bee Beast tier members now. There are too many names to read out and we really appreciate your support.

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