The Daily Show: Ears Edition - Jon on Trump’s Epstein Meltdown, MAGA's Mutiny & Elmo’s Antisemitic Tweets | Kyla Scanlon

Episode Date: July 15, 2025

Jon Stewart delves into the MAGA furor over Trump's handling of the Epstein case, Trump’s cheap distractions-turned-threats against Rosie O’Donnell, and the president's double standard on red state vs. blue state relief. Plus, Jon demands accountability from Elmo for his antisemitic rant on X. Economic commentator Kyla Scanlon sits down with Jon to discuss her book, “In This Economy? How Money and Markets Really Work.” They talk about the importance of teaching Americans about the economy in accessible ways, how the government has weaponized people to justify Medicaid cuts under Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill, why labor and capital don’t have to be mutually exclusive, and why she’s optimistic about the future. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Get groceries delivered to your door from No Frills with PC Express. Shop online and get $15 in PC Optimum Points on your first five orders. Shop now at NoFrails.ca. Stop. Do you know how fast you were going? I'm gonna have to write you a ticket to my new movie, The Naked Gun. Liam Neeson. Buy your tickets now and get a free chili dog. Chili dog not included. The Naked God. Tickets on sale now, August 1st. You're listening to Comedy Central. From the most trusted journalists at Comedy Central, it's America's only source for news. This is The Daily Show with your host, John Doe! Hey, welcome to the Dairn Show. How about it?

Johnny got himself a new do. Huh? Very nice. My name is John Short. Man, have we put together a great show for you tonight. Economic commentator, Kyla Scanlon, will be here later. She's going to be talking about which la boo boo. I was told that's a real thing.

A la boo boo? Apparently it's like a Teletubby with fangs. Which one's the wisest investment? But first, let me be completely frank. We had a tremendous show planned for you. Well designed, articulate, tremendous deconstruction of the most interesting issues of the day. We prepared a whole piece on the new Trump tariffs, breaking down the different rates and their secondary impacts.

A truly illuminating dive into the overlooked role of the commodities markets and trade deficit accounting. It was going to be so funny. But sadly at the last minute we had to scrap all that because Elmo lost his f**king mind. Because Elmo... lost his f***ing mind. Elmo is back to his usual family-friendly content after a hacker posted racist and anti-semitic remarks to the Sesame Street character's ex-account. This is what happens when you go too long without tickling Elmo. I'm sure it wasn't terrible. It was Elmo. How bad could it be?

The since-deleted posts called for death to the Jewish community and criticism of President Trump. The hacker also demanded the release of the Epstein files and used inappropriate language to respond to other users. All caps, Elmo? By the way, to the news people, is that the only B-roll of Elmo you have to play for the Death to Jews story? Look at Elmo in the bureau. He's dancing! Hey everybody, Trump's a child-f***er! Woo! Havana, Gila, Havana, Gila, Havana!

For God's sakes! You don't have any footage you could use of Elmo being appropriately sad or circumspect when talking about those posts. It's Elmo. Every week he's in a spiritual crisis. Here he is. Look, we found this. This is him finding out that leaves fall off of trees.

Oh, Elmo just found out about life's impermanence. Couldn't you have used that for his death to choose stuff? Instead he's out there, death to choose, death to choose. Anyway, these tweets were especially shocking to me as someone who has worked with Elmo. I've worked with Elmo as everybody definitely remembers. Yeah. with Elmo. I've worked with Elmo, as everybody definitely remembers. Yeah. Oh.

I hosted Elmo Palooza in, I'm going to say, 1831. This picture makes me sad for a number of reasons. It does remind me, though, of a certain point in one's career where you haven't really established yourself yet and so they really don't give a shit if your wardrobe fits. You're just kind of a guy that's there with a suit that's there and if it fits, great. And if it needs to also fit Big Bird for the next sketch? Take it off, Stu. It's snuffleupagus is up next.

I mean, Jesus, did I take a dump in my pants? Look at this. You know when the camera people are laughing at it, that's not fair. Richie, that's not fair. The truth is, I'm being honest, Elmo at the time was great to work with. He was. Was there a ton of coke on set? Of course. But hateful racist Elmo is not the Elmo

that I remember. I know what's in Elmo's heart. And so I thought it would be appropriate to have my old friend back so that we could talk through this very difficult time. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome my old friend, Elmo. Elmo.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE Hi, everybody! Who's ready to learn about rainbows? Yay! Yay! Elmo, you know what we're here to talk about. The Jews. That's right.

We're talking about the Jews, Elmo. I think you had something that you wanted to say. Yes. Elmo was hacked. They hacked Elmo! They guessed Elmo's password was Elmo! Elmo 1, 2, 3. Elmo knows passwords should have more numbers, but Elmo only knows three numbers.

Elmo, what did we talk about, about taking responsibility? It's true. Elmo wasn't hacked. It was Elmo. But Elmo was radicalized by the Manosphere. Elmo is part of the male loneliness epidemic. You see, what happened was Elmo was doing his own research on flu shots. Six hours later, because of the algorithm, Elmo was moderating the QAnon Discord chat and building homemade bombs. Elmo, you need to take responsibility.

Don't blame the algorithm. A lot of kids count on you for life lessons. And Elmo, accountability is a big part of that. Are you cancelcelling Elmo? Once again, the so-called tolerant left policing speech that's inconvenient to their woke dogma. Who's the real puppet now, John? Who's the real puppet?

Who's the real puppet now? You. You. You're the real puppet now? You! You! You're the real puppet! What? Elmo, that just sounds like alt-right talking point word salad. Yeah. You said it, not Elmo. Elmo's all right

No reason to cancel Elmo's funding then. Oh my god, is that what this is about? Elmo you're pandering to the right So you can keep your government funding for public broadcasting? Elmo can't go back on the streets, John. You have no idea what it's like. Elmo's too pretty to live under a bridge, John. It's a life brought to you by the letter sucking **** again.

Elmo won't. Elmo won't go back. Elmo can't go back. No! Well, I guess I'm glad you don't, I guess actually believe all that stuff you said about Jews. Of course not, John. Elmo doesn't believe almost any of it.

Although, I mean, it is kind of weird they all stayed home on 9-11. Elmo, they didn't stay home! That is a myth, Elmo! Oh, okay! Elmo's sorry. Please don't let them cut Elmo's funding. You'll talk to them, won't you, Lebowitz? All right, okay, Elmo everybody, Elmo. Wow, that was, that was enlightening.

I didn't, I didn't expect any of that. That was enlightening. I didn't expect any of that. Elmo shoots from the hip. You can't control him. I'll admit, the sucking thing threw me off, too. I thought that was weird. I thought that was weird. Now, the impetus for Elmo's rant

seems to be the Department of Justice memo that has just been released that said the Epstein sex trafficking case was officially closed and that no new information would be forthcoming. And while Elmo is demanding that the files be released, Donald Trump's response is brought to you by the letters FU. You're still talking about Jeffrey Epstein this guy's been talked about for years, but people still talking about this guy this creep.

So that is unbelievable. Unbelievable. You guys ran on it. Remember this we need to release the F scene list that that is an important thing this Epstein sex ring operation. I'm not letting it go ever. Ever. Put on your big boy pants and let us know who the pedophiles are. Why would you have to change your pants to let us know?

Who the pedophiles are. And why wouldn't you be wearing pants while you're researching this? And that was before the Trump administration took power. And by the way, they were still hyping the Epstein files after they took power. We have flight logs, we have information, names that will come out. President Trump is giving a very strong directive and that's gonna be followed. So people can expect actual movement on this.

It's not just empty promises. Oh, Donald Trump doesn't make empty promises. Yeah, right. Oh. Oh. Oh. Two of his wives and 10,000 unpaid contractors disagree. But these are all people who work for Trump that set the expectation.

And I think because of that, surprisingly, MAGA world, for the first time in memory, isn't just slavishly acquiescing to Trump's reality distortion field. Where did that whole case go? Where did all the files go? They just went nowhere? No one even believes that. This stinks. This just reeks. Something is horribly wrong here.

Pam Bondi needs to be fired. Yes, Pam Bondi! The ringleader. She makes the decisions. The backlash wouldn't die. The ringleader. She makes the decisions. The backlash wouldn't die. So Trump had to go back out and kill the backlash. Perhaps even making it look like a suicide. So this weekend Trump tried to reason with his base using their shared love language,

long rambling truth social posts. In a social media post, the president asked his followers, what's going on with my boys and in some cases, gals. Let me stop you right there. Not to be all woke, but I believe they prefer the terms bros and hoes. But sorry, go on. You were explaining why it was time to move on from the Epstein case. Why are we giving publicity to files written by Obama, Crooked Hillary, Comey, Brennan,

and the losers and criminals of the Biden administration who conned the world with the Russia Russia Russia hoax, 51 intelligence agents, the laptop from hell and more. So just to understand this, in a few months time, we went from the Epstein files will expose the Democrats to the Epstein files were written by the Democrats and therefore can't be trusted, so let's move on. And then Trump brings up Hunter Biden's laptop as a reminder for all of us not to dwell on old conspiracy theories. What?! Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr So, problem solved?

Right MAGA world? Well, let's test it scientifically. How many of you are satisfied you can clap? Satisfied with the results of the Epstein investigation? Clap. Ooh! How many of you are not satisfied with the results of the investigation? Ooh! Let me hear everyone who thinks sex trafficking

should still be prosecuted say, hell yeah! Hell yeah! Who wants to know more about a cabal of elite sex criminals? Just the ladies! So... So, MAGA world is now an open revolt. You want to know how bad it's getting out there?

They're literally burning their MAGA Army uniforms. Yeah. And you know there's just another guy standing next to them going, uh, you know you got to flip him. That's your problem, Dave. You got to flip him. But clearly telling your base to just forget about Epstein isn't working. But if you know Trump, he can always just pivot to the classic Trump distraction.

Throw something outlandish out there and watch the dogs chase the squirrel. I'm gonna invade Greenland! I'm gonna bomb Iran! He's gonna try something big. President Trump is reigniting his decades-long feud with comedian Rosie O'Donnell. I think we're gonna need a bigger boat. That's not gonna be enough! The president taking to his social media platform to write in part, quote, I'm giving serious

consideration to taking away her citizenship. She's a threat to humanity and should remain in the wonderful country of Ireland if they want her. Don't look at our inaction and prosecuting a sex trafficking ring to the rich and powerful. We must focus on the real issue, the denaturalization of the costar of riding the bus with my sister. Yeah. MAGA is losing their shit right now. They cannot believe what they're seeing.

Trump is lying? Dismissing reasonable concerns as bad faith whining? Attacking anyone who disagrees? Well, I don't know. I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. They cannot believe what they're seeing. Trump is lying? Dismissing reasonable concerns as bad faith whining? Attacking anyone who disagrees? Well, as a resident of blue America,

can I just say right now to my red colleagues that my pronouns are how does and my ass taste. You like it? The Trump that you're just experiencing now, to your deep disappointment and dismay, is the dude we've been dealing with the whole f***ing time. You just didn't realize it because he's been nice to you. Like when you've had a terrible tragedy. My administration is doing everything in its power to help Texas.

We gave them all the money, all the help that they can possibly use. We've given them max. We've maxed out and we'll continue to max out. Whatever you need, daddy's here. Because you're the child he wanted. But we're Eric. And this truly is just a weird cheap shot. This is how we get treated.

I don't think we should give California anything. I mean, if I give California money, then every state that didn't vote for me will think I'm their president, too! That's not a precedent I want to say. Whether it's natural disasters or tariff carve-outs or immigration enforcement or a million other issues, Trump's MAGA base always benefits from favorable treatment,

except now. They're finally understanding what it's like to be the target of his hostility. This administration has weaponized vindictive... Viva! Viva la revolucion! What? What's that? What's going on? Viva la revolucion! Antifa forever! Elmo? I thought you were all right. Elmo was, but listening to your show and the trenchant analysis of the many hypocrisies of the right have re-radicalized Elmo to the

populist left. Free Luigi! Free Luigi! Oh, there's more! Death to Mr. Noodle! Death to Mr. Noodle! LAUGHTER Elmo, that is in no way what we're saying. Oh, dodging responsibility.

Now you're just a comedian. Quit both sidesing it, you corporate whore. LAUGHTER Elmo, it's just, it's more nuanced than that. It's not black and white. Oh, that's just more nuanced than that. It's not black and white. Oh, that's right. Elmo doesn't understand. Elmo's stupid.

Elmo's world view is Manichean in its simplicity. Good versus evil. Lock versus Hobbs. Good versus evil, lock versus hobs. No, no, no shades of gray for Elmo. Elmo, I'm not really, oh Elmo? I mean, he's fucking Free Luigi, over here. And you're all like, oh, point it at Elmo, don't tweet. Shut up.

Elmo, I am not criticizing your worldview. This is merely an exploration of the motivations of Trump Elmo, I am not criticizing your worldview. This is merely an exploration of the motivations of Trump to not release the files and explaining to his base that the way they're feeling now is how blue America's been feeling the whole time. But we all know why Trump hasn't released the file. We all know who got to him

Elmo I don't think I want to hear the answer to any of this No, no, it's not. I'm just asking questions. It's not what you think. All right, Elmo. What was it? John? It was the Jews. No, Elmo!

No! When we come back, Kyla Scanlon, don't go away! No, Elmo! No! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go!

Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go!

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Whether you're taking over your parents' basement or moving to campus, IKEA has hundreds of design ideas and affordable options to complement any budget. After all, you're in your small space era. It's time to own it. Shop now at Ikea.ca. Everybody welcome to the show, my guests tonight. She's an economic commentator. She's the author of,

In This Economy, How Money and Markets Really Work. Please welcome to the program program Kyla Scanlon. Welcome. First of all I want to tell you how much I enjoyed the book, In This Economy. I really feel like it's one of the first books about the economy by an economist type person where every sentence didn't seem to end with the phrase obviously dumbass. Like it's not condescending at all. It's just really, it's so clear and accessible. Yeah, thank you.

That's the goal. I think we really underserved people with economics education and we send people out into the world without understanding anything about economics, like it's not required in a lot of schools. And so the book is really meant to just help people understand these things that you have to know to exist in the modern world.

Yes. Yeah. That was a much better way of putting it than I put it. Because it is, in economics books, I find that they get so, you know, ultra focused on certain, the curve of the Philip and the thing. And this is just, here's what's in your economy. These are the ingredients. Here's how they work together.

And it's not math, it's like probabilities. This may do this, it may also do this. There's a nuance to it. Yeah, I mean, it's people. Like the economy is made up of people. In the book I say it's just people peopleing around which is true and so you have to when you look at economics you have to really consider how people act and they're not always rational and so it's important to incorporate that when you talk about it. Did you find in was the impetus for this

when you were studying economics and when you're in those areas, did you find that they were at a remove? Is that what drew you to grounding this more in actual people and the results? Because economists talk about things, they are, they're sitting in sort of windowless rooms going, I'll raise this rate and I'll lower that rate. And it's like a bunch of people then get foreclosed on it. You're like, well, that didn't work.

You know what I mean? Is that what made you think of it that way? Well, I've been inspired by so many economists. And I think with this book, I felt like there was a bit of a gap in the market. Like the book has 60 illustrations. It's meant to be fun. There's a lot of metaphors, a lot of poetry. And so I just wanted to tie a thread to economics, to the rest of literature, to some elements

of humanities, because it really is like the art of people. And so I wanted to try to do that. As you now look at the situation that we're in. So let's apply this. I want to talk to this new bill that's come out. The beautiful bill. Apparently, it's quite lovely. I've heard.

It has alliteration. It's large. It makes really sophisticated and erudite news people say big beautiful bill like they're ordering it friendly. He's like, I'll have a fribble. Like the thing that strikes me about this is whenever we talk about an economy being irresponsible in terms of spending. The go-to fall guy for that, the go-to scapegoat are the poor. Is that the conventional wisdom in economics? You know, our deficit is out of control.

You know where we could take it out of? Medicaid. Is austerity conventional wisdom when there's deficit spending? Yeah, so austerity is reducing the deficit by cutting spending or raising taxes. And so the common idea of cutting spending is that you'll go after the things that we spend a lot of money on, which is Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security. And so that's the first thing that they went after. I don't think it's the smartest thing to go after, but it is a big part of what the government spends money on. And so I think it was first to go, which is sad because you shouldn't go after people and you should think about raising

taxes instead of cutting them. So that's, so why is it, so when I look at the budget and I go, so the defense department got a raise. Now their budget's gonna be a trillion dollars. We've created a brand new ICE unit. They get $150 billion. The Pentagon's never passed an audit. All I see is senators and Republicans out on TV going, the big problem in this country is able-bodied people who still get Medicaid.

But none of them go out and go, our big problem is we spend $500 billion a year on defense contractors and they can't pass an audit. Why is it that the go-to then is people? I mean, I think people are easier to cut from. Like there's a lot of lobbying that goes on with the defense department. There's a lot of companies that have big contracts.

They're going to make sure that those contracts are insured and kept up to standard. And so it's much easier to go after things like Medicaid and Medicare, because the everyday person can't really have a lobbyist, you know, fighting for them. It really is like, like poor people need better lobbyists.

Like that's so, it's so horrible to think about. But I want to ask you like so that's Why they do it? Do they have a case in other words is Austerity as you look at it through when they've balanced budgets like that. Is that real? Is there another way that we could? Ostensibly do this. Is that still believing in the last what is it 40 or 50 years of supply-side economics? I mean I think some elements of supply-side economics are good like investing in infrastructure thinking

about how we can expand the economy like if you think about the way that we grow one way to manage debt is to cut spending, but the other thing is to invest in productive things. Like what if we built out high-speed rail or invested in housing? They cut that stuff too. Exactly. I know. And so that's really counterproductive.

It's super counterproductive to cut clean energy and then try to build out AI data centers, right? But that's the way I think out of the mess that we're in with the deficit is we have to invest in things that are truly productive. As someone who is observing this from its component parts, when you saw the strategy that they were going to use, this is their economic plan, whether it be, you know, through fiscal policy, he wants the Fed to lower the interest rates so that they, you know, servicing the debt will be less expensive. Do you, what is it that you see in their bill that you go, that might be smart, and what

is it that you see in there that you go, man, we are going down the wrong road? I'm really worried about the cuts to clean energy, and I'm worried about the cuts to Medicare and Medicaid. You know, over 700 rural hospitals are going to have to close, and there's no other option for people who are going to those rural hospitals. Like, they're going to have to drive hours to go and find care.

And so I think it's a bill that cuts taxes for the very wealthy of the population who will benefit massively from this bill, and then puts a lot of the rest of the population at risk. And if you think about an economy that's growth forward, I don't think that's how you would design a bill. Did you see a change? You know, what changed for me economically is watching in 2008 when the economy fell

apart and the government stepped in and they poured billions and billions of dollars into this supply side economy. They bailed out AIG, they bailed out all those people, but they didn't do a demand size stimulus where they helped people whose houses were being foreclosed. And I don't know that we've ever really recovered from that. But in the pandemic, there were some demand stimuluses that seemed really effective.

Why didn't that take in terms of economic theory? Was it just inflation? Because every country had inflation. We even had it less. Yeah. I mean, a lot of economic theory shows that demand-side stimulus really helps during downturns. It's one of the best things to do is to help people out by giving them money, especially if they can't go to work like how it was during the pandemic.

Right. And so I think it is something that people believe in, but it's tough, it's a tough sell politically. Like it's a tough narrative. So this is a political problem, not an economic problem. Most economic problems are political problems at the end of the day. Yeah.

But they never say that. Why would they? Oh! Oh! Kyla, that's exactly right. What do they do with you in the meetings? Do you get to raise your hand and go, you know, guys, this is a political problem, not an economic problem.

If we're going to rebuild, so let's rebuild an economic model that maybe makes more sense because even the Democrats have bought into the supply side, like even the ACA, Obamacare, is kind of a supply side. It's just subsidies and stimulus to insurance companies. How do we rebuild the theory of the economy on a resp... Can you rebuild it on a responsible demand side economic policy? Yeah, I mean, I think that there's a lot that we can do to invest in labor, to invest in jobs, to invest, yeah. Exactly. That seems like the thing.

It seems like over the last 50 years, capital is king and labor is devalued. How do we rebalance that? Well, so Robert Lawrence has a really interesting paper from 2015. Read it? Yeah. I call it the Lawrence paper. But it's great. It talks about how we can use capital to help out labor.

They don't have to be mutually exclusive. We can actually have money invest in the labor force, invest in training opportunities, give labor a voice at the table, invest in different employee stock option programs, give people a stake in the system that they're participating in beyond just wages. And so I think that's gonna have to be the next step for the economy is like how do we make labor have a central voice in the conversation

because I think a lot of the discontent that people feel right now is they feel like they're not able to be a part of the conversation because capital has been so dominant. And it seems like a political no-brainer. And I wonder why the Democrats have not been more forceful about, because I think we've learned this idea that if the government intervenes on the economy, that's socialism if they do it on behalf of people. But if they do it on behalf of corporations

or subsidies or wealthy tax cuts, that's fair game because that's the free market. Maybe politically we need to understand that we don't have a free market. Would that work? I think so. I mean, I don't know how that'll go over. Would you join me in my crusade? Yeah. Would you do the illustrations for this new... It's not about getting rid of capitalism. It's about...

No, it's not. ...government being the backstop to the necessary collateral damage that occurs from capitalist process, no? Yeah, I mean, I think people really undervalue the role of government. And I think a lot of people are in government is inefficient and it's bloated in a lot of cases, but it's also created amazing things like roads and DARPA and got us into space. And it was because the government paired with private markets, right? Like everything has to exist in the sense of symbiosis with each other.

And I think we've kind of forgotten that like everything exists in a vessel all by itself. And the more that we can connect the dots between private markets, between the government, the better off we'll be. Is there anyone out there that you see that's talking like that? Like, Mamdani has gotten a lot of momentum here in New York and immediately everybody's like, you're a socialist.

Like there is no in-between for anybody. Yeah. Has he been putting forward the message that it's a little different than what you're saying right now, but is that the type of thing that maybe can gain that momentum for labor? I think what's really nice about Mamdani is he's thinking about things differently.

Like clearly there has to be some sort of ideas pushed forward that are different than what we're doing now, just from purely a sentiment perspective. Like people aren't feeling good, and how do we make them feel better by investing in them? I think one paper that I really liked, our article from Kate Arnoff on pool party progressivism. Yeah, I read that. Yeah.

I call it the Arnoff paper. Yeah, but she talks about, you know, how do we give people dignity in the labor force? Yeah. I call it the Arnauf paper. Yeah. But she talks about, you know, how do we give people dignity in the labor force? How do we invest in them? How do we make sure that they feel a part of the structure? And sometimes that's beyond just like EV tax credits. Like we have to think about investing in a person.

And I think Mom Donnie has come forward and said, listen, what we're doing now isn't working for the everyday person. Here's how we can think about making things more affordable. And ideally, both political parties would build on top of that and learn that that's a message that works. I never understood why they conceded the idea of entitlements as though it's not investment. Human capital is the best capital. For God's sakes, our economy is 70% consumer spending.

Why don't we think about not a social safety net but a stronger floor? It's not entitlement, it's investment. If you get production out of that human capital that's suffering, wouldn't that be a better use of it than subsidizing pharmaceutical companies that don't give us a break on drug prices? Right, yeah. Ideally you would want technology and humans to coexist. You wouldn't want technology to be complementary.

Well, I'll do it, but you better go talk to technology. I don't think that's it. I don't think technology is interested. Well that's part of the problem too, is that some elements of the tech universe are working against what you and I are talking about. Peter Thiel! Peter Thiel! The guy asked him, he said, should humans exist?

And he's like, let me think about that. But Peter Thiel understands the system really well. I don't know if you ever saw that email that he sent to Mark Zuckerberg. Yeah, I call it the Zuckerberg email. But he said that people are going to become disenchanted with capitalism if they feel like they don't have a stake in the system. He said this in an email. He gets it. He gets why people are

upset. He gets that certain elements of the system aren't working. And I think for him it's easier to replace the human race or something. We've got two choices here. Invest in people and make them feel more relevant in the world as it exists or get rid of them. And he's going transhumanism. All right. Well, here's the final thing that I think maybe this might be helpful. And the way that you explain the economy in this book is what made me think of this. You've deconstructed it to its component parts.

And it's something that I haven't seen done like in the healthcare economy. Like you can get a bill where it's $600 for an Advil, but it's never the ingredient list of why. You don't really have a sense of where our money goes in this system. Would there be, is that a use for like AI to give the rest of us a better understanding of the component parts of what things cost so that we can see more

clearly how labor needs to be better compensated. You can't call people essential workers and then throw them off Medicaid. Like that doesn't make any sense. Yeah, I mean, trust is one of the most expensive things in the world. And it's one of the scarcest things that we have right now. And I think the more information that you can give people

about where their money is going and how it's being spent and their role in the economy, the more trust that they'll have in the institutions and that the institutions are properly serving them. Right now, it doesn't feel that way because nobody really knows what's going on at all, right? And so I think the more that we can explain to people how things work, the easier it'll be

to help move things forward rather than backwards. And I think it's clear that we don't know purposefully that the obfuscation of how this system works is purposefully kept from us. The ingredient list that would allow us better insight into how we're being screwed is it's not happenstance. They do it on purpose. But you remain optimistic with the possibilities. I mean, I think that's all you can do is be optimistic. When you lose hope, what do you do? You end up looking like this. Look what hope looks like.

That's over there. Hope. And now, loss. I'm so pleased you joined us on the show. I'm telling you, man, this is essential reading for anyone out there who wants to have a basic understanding of the economy that you're dealing with so that you can make better informed decisions on how you want the economy to be in the future. Kyla, thank you so much for being with us.

I really appreciate it. I hope we get a chance to talk to you again soon. Kyla Stan, thank you for being here. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. How's it going? How's it going? How's it going? How's it going? How's it going?

How's it going? How's it going? How's it going? How's it going? How's it going? How's it going? How's it going? How's it going?

How's it going? How's it going? How's it going? How's it going? How's it going? How's it going? How's it going? How's it going?

How's it going? How's it going? How's it going? How's it going? How's it going? How's it going? How's it going? How's it going? But before we go, we're gonna check in with your host for the rest of the week, Jordan Klepper! Jordan! That's me. Jordan, what do you got this week? Oh, sorry, sorry, John. No, uh, no Jordan here. It's me, part bird, part plane, all Superman.

Come on, Jordan. That's a little bit... Jordan? You gonna stick with Jordan? Jordan? Jordan sounds like some kind of a jerk-off news reporter. No, no, no, no, no. Once again, clearly, I'm all Superman. What brings you here, Superman?

Oh, sorry, John. Sorry, John. No. Surprise. No Superman here, John. It's me, jerk-off news reporter Jordan Klepper. I would say. Pretty cool that Superman swung on through there. I must have just missed him. You're still wearing the Superman underoos, Jordan. You're still wearing the suit.

You're excited about the movie. It's fine. Tell us what you thought about it. Lilo and Stitch? I loved it every second. The Superman movie, Jordan. There's a Superman movie? No way! Are Lilo and Stitch going to be in it? Because I will see it 110%. Jordan Klepper, everybody. Here it is.

Your moment of surprise. US President Donald Trump was booed by some of the fans. And then after presenting the trophy, some might feel as though he kind of outstayed his welcome on the stage, sticking around to make sure he was in all of the photos. I knew he was going to be here, but I didn't know he was going to be on the stand when we left the trophy, so I was a bit confused, yeah. you get your podcasts. Watch The Daily Show weeknights at 11, 10 Central on Comedy Central and stream full episodes anytime on Paramount Plus.

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