The Daily Show: Ears Edition - Trump Blames Plane Crash on DEI, Lewis Black on Dry January | Vince Beiser

Episode Date: January 31, 2025

Michael Kosta on the tragic Washington D.C. plane crash and Trump's baseless blame of DEI for the catastrophe. Plus, the Best F**kin' News team breaks down which of Trump's nominees was least qualifie...d at their Senate hearings.  Lewis Black Celebrates the End of Dry January and Other Ridiculous Drinking Trends Journalist and author Vince Beiser sits down to discuss the paradox of electric vehicles and renewable energy in his latest book "Power Metal: The Race for the Resources That Will Shape the Future." They talk about how preventing climate change has led to a rush for “critical” metals, how China has dominated the field of mining and manufacturing, the minerals and metals behind Trump’s Greenland obsession, recycling electronic waste, and the importance of reusing and repairing gadgets.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 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 I'm Michael Kostner. We have so much to talk about tonight. Trump shows he's unqualified to come for the nation. All his nominees are unqualified for their jobs and Louis Black's qualified to start drinking. So let's get to the show. We have a great show. We have a great show.
Starting point is 00:00:30 We have a great show. We have a great show. We have a great show. We have a great show. We have a great show. We have a great show. We have a great show. We have a great show.
Starting point is 00:00:38 We have a great show. We have a great show. We have a great show. We have a great show. We have a great show. We have a great show. We have a great show. We have a great show. We have a great show. We have a great show. We have a great show. Talk about tonight. Trump shows he's unqualified to come for donation. All his nominees are unqualified for their jobs, and Louis Black's qualified to start drinking.
Starting point is 00:00:49 So let's get to the latest news on the Trump administration in another edition of The Second Coming of Donald J. Trump. ["The Second Coming of Donald J. Trump"] I'm gonna come. ["The Second Coming of Donald J. Trump"] I'm gonna come. Trump's been busy these last few days. Signing orders, reinstalling the Diet Coke button, grabbing Panama by the canal. But it was only a matter of time until he had to start presidenting for real.
Starting point is 00:01:24 This morning he held a press conference to address the tragic plane crash in Washington, D.C. last night. And remember, one of the most important things a leader can do in a rapidly developing, difficult situation is to calm people down, stick to the facts, and keep your uninformed opinions to yourself. We do not know what led to this crash, but we have some very strong opinions and ideas and I think we'll probably state those opinions now.
Starting point is 00:01:51 I mean, or we can just speculate wildly. Why not? I get a little bit nervous when Trump has a strong opinion. You know, it's never something unifying, like, sunsets are beautiful or love is the answer. But this is a new term, and he's only a few days in, so let's give him the benefit of the doubt. What's Trump's opinion about what happened in D.C.? The FAA's diversity push,
Starting point is 00:02:17 a big push to put diversity into the FAA's program. The agency's guidance on diversity hiring, the FAA's program. The agency's guidance on diversity hiring, the FAA's diversity and inclusion hiring plan. Ah! Damn you, diversity initiatives! Why are you responsible for every historical tragedy? The fires in Los Angeles, DEI. The bridge collapse in Baltimore, DEI.
Starting point is 00:02:43 The Irish potato famine, DEI. Slavery, DEI. The bridge collapse in Baltimore, DEI. The Irish potato famine, DEI. Slavery, DEI. Did you ever notice how many minorities were at slavery? It's all DEI. Just to be clear, Mr. President, you have evidence that diversity initiatives are responsible for this tragic crash. You're not just saying this, right?
Starting point is 00:03:02 Right? I'm trying to figure out how you can come to the conclusion right now that diversity had something to do with this crash. Because I have common sense. There you go. No, no, no, no. There you go. There you go. He has common sense. It's just a coincidence that his common sense
Starting point is 00:03:21 happens to align with his long-held prejudices. So let's spin the big wheel of blame to see which minorities are responsible for this crash. Who will it be this time? Black people, lesbians, trans Armenians? The FAA is actively recruiting workers who suffer severe intellectual disabilities, psychiatric problems,
Starting point is 00:03:42 and other mental and physical conditions under a diversity and inclusion hiring initiative. They include hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, and dwarfism. Dwarfism? I can't believe it's only day 10 and Trump is already this far down his list of scapegoats. He's blown past race and gender and now he's hitting dwarves? Is he really suggesting there was a plane crash because someone with dwarfism worked in air traffic control? Does Trump think they couldn't see the control panel and they were just reaching up and pushing bumping buttons
Starting point is 00:04:33 hoping it would work out? Hold on. I just want to say that people with dwarfism are just like everyone else. In fact, their penises are normal size. Which means proportionally, they're huge. So in a way, you could say that I'm the one looking up to them. That's a thinker. That's a thinker. A lot of different layers in there. You might be thinking, well, that's progress.
Starting point is 00:05:16 You know, he used to blame everything on past administrations, but don't worry, he got them in there too. We had a very good policy, and then Biden came in and he changed it. And Biden went by a standard that's the exact opposite. The FAA, which is overseen by Secretary Pete Buttigieg, a real winner. You know how badly everything's run since he's run the Department of Transportation? Obama, Biden, and the Democrats,
Starting point is 00:05:40 they put politics at a level that nobody's ever seen. I changed the Obama standards from very mediocre at best to extraordinary. I'm sorry, you're blaming Obama? The guy from three presidents ago? Forget blaming a fart on your dog. This is blaming the fart on your dog that died when you were eight. I still think about you, Henry.
Starting point is 00:06:16 Such stinky farts you had. Look, Mr. President, I know you're scared that people might hold you responsible now that you're president, because you're the president, Mr. President. And it's time to just be a man, okay? Real men don't point fingers. Real men find solutions. Real men show leadership.
Starting point is 00:06:37 Real men moisturize. Guys, you got to take care of your skin. You got to take care of your skin. Yeah. Yeah. The skin is the take care of your skin. Yeah. The skin is the biggest organ on the body. Unless you're a dwarf and it's the second biggest. There.
Starting point is 00:06:59 Gotcha there. Gotcha there. All right, let's move on, okay? Because while Trump is demanding meritocracy in government, he's trying to fill his cabinet with a whole bunch of just real f***ing geniuses. Today, the Senate held hearings for Cash Patel, who Trump wants to lead the FBI
Starting point is 00:07:17 because of qualifications like this. My name is Cash Patel, and I have written the first ever children's Russiagate book. It's called The Plot Against the King. It is a fantastical telling by me, the Russia gate chief investigator. Wow, I mean, that's a great reason to not teach your kids to read.
Starting point is 00:07:35 At the same time, the Senate held hearings for Tulsi Gabbard who Trump wants as director of national intelligence, even though she's friendly with dictators like Bashar Al-Assad and looks like the head of the Galactic Council in a bad sci-fi movie. For more on those Senate confirmation hearings, we go to Jordan Klepper, Desi Lydic, and Josh Johnson. Let's go first...
Starting point is 00:08:02 Let's go first to Jordan. Wow. Let's go first to Jordan. Let's go first to Jordan. Jordan, you've been covering the Cash Patel hearing. How did he come across? How do you think, Kosta? Patel's a conspiracy theorist who believes the 2020 election was rigged, follows QAnon, and most shockingly thinks toddlers want to read a pop-up book about Russiagate.
Starting point is 00:08:24 I mean, just listening to him speak gave me brain damage so much that I think listening shockingly, thinks toddlers want to read a pop-up book about Russia Gate. Just listening to him speak gave me brain damage so much that I think listening to him speak gave me brain damage. Clearly, Cash Patel is the least qualified of all of Trump's nominees. I'm sorry, but can I just butt in here? Yes, Desi. Desi, you're covering the Tulsi-Gobbert hearings. How did she come across?
Starting point is 00:08:43 How do you think, Costa? I haven't been that uncomfortable since Klepper asked if I liked his haircut. She wants to be director of intelligence. Have you seen her friends, Bashar Al-Assad, Vladimir Putin, Justin Baldoni? Heartburn, upset stomach, diarrhea? It's too much.
Starting point is 00:09:01 She is clearly the least qualified Trump nominee. What are you talking about, Desi? First, my hair looks fantastic. And Tulsi was at least in Congress. She spent time in the government. The only thing Patel has spent time in is the comment section of the Pizza Gate subreddit. He's the most unqualified.
Starting point is 00:09:19 No. No way. You cannot trust Tulsi with state secrets. I wouldn't even trust her with secret brand deodorant. CVS locked it up now because of her. I wouldn't even trust her with secret brand deodorant. CVS locked it up now because of her. I'm sorry, can I hop in here? Yes, Josh, you're covering RFK Jr.'s hearing. Yeah, and obviously he is the least qualified candidate
Starting point is 00:09:34 because he is RFK Jr. He wants to run the Department of Health and Human Services. He's not qualified for health. He's barely qualified for human. All right. Department of Health and Human Services. He's not qualified for health. He's barely qualified for human. All right? He's basically a leather bag full of coughs. For someone who might be in charge of all the drugs,
Starting point is 00:09:55 he acts like someone in charge of all the side effects. Nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea. Baldoni. indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Baldoni. No, no, look, my guy wrote a children's book
Starting point is 00:10:11 about Russiagate. The only reason you write a children's book about Russiagate is you can't write an adult book about Russiagate. He used more exclamation points than a white woman's email. I deleted that. And Tulsi is the least qualified. She couldn't be more of a Russian mole There's more exclamation points than a white woman's email. I deleted that. And Tulsi is the least qualified.
Starting point is 00:10:29 She couldn't be more of a Russian mole if she was dangling from Rasputin's back. Josh, do you really think RFK is less qualified than Tulsi? Does a bear carcass get dumped in the Central Park woods? Cash Patel, if you're watching, a bear is the one that goes, grr. Please. Tulsi makes Cash Patel look like Stephen Hawking. Yeah, current day Stephen Hawking. Because Cash Patel is brain dead.
Starting point is 00:10:53 At least they have brains. R.K. Jr.'s brain got eaten by a worm... in his head. Guys, guys, hey. Why are we fighting over this? Okay, they're all unqualified. Why does it matter who the least qualified is? Michael, because the reporter covering that specific hearing
Starting point is 00:11:13 gets the right to use a somber but serious Pulitzer-contending voice when they say, in the opinion of this reporter, Cash Patel is the least qualified nominee in American history. No, no, no, no, no, no. Tulsi Gabbard is the least qualified nominee in American history.
Starting point is 00:11:38 You're both wrong. RFK Jr. is the least qualified nominee RFK Jr. is the least qualified......nominee......in American... ...in American history. Josh, are you putting in contacts? I don't have glasses, but I need to look smart. God, I never touched my eye before. Look, I don't think any of you are qualified for this job. Jordan, Desi, and Josh, everyone, when we come back, Lewis Black will try not to drink.
Starting point is 00:12:10 We'll be right back. Welcome back to The Daily Show. When a news story falls through the cracks, Louis Black catches it for a segment we call Back in Black. Ah, alcohol. It's why I get up in the morning. How my mom made it through her pregnancy. And why I'm not allowed within 50 feet of a horse. Booze is the most committed relationship I'll ever have.
Starting point is 00:13:03 But some people know nothing about commitment. Dry January, the challenge of giving up drinking for the first month of the year is growing in popularity. Happy Dry January. It's the month where folks ditch the booze and go alcohol free. One report found that 25% of American adults completed Dry January last year. A lot of people are going to be doing Dry January. I have done Dry January last year. A lot of people are gonna be doing dry January. I have done dry January every year now for three years.
Starting point is 00:13:29 Well, goody goody for you. It must be nice to have the luxury of giving up booze while the rest of us are trapped in f***ing reality. Wildfires, bird flu, crippling gambling debts. If you're not blacking out every single night, you're not paying attention. And by the way, why are we giving up alcohol in January? It's colder than Jack Frost's dick.
Starting point is 00:14:00 All your fat friends are posting gym selfies and it gets dark faster than Justin Trudeau's face on Halloween. Oh please. Me, I'd much rather give up booze in May. The weather is warm and I'm already coked up for Cinco de Mayo. But for those of you not sure about dry January, don't worry. There's something even dumber. For some people that looks dry, for others it might look damp. A damp January would mean only drinking on special occasions, adding more dry days to
Starting point is 00:14:39 your month, or consuming fewer drinks in each sitting. Damp January? Are you shitting me? Damp January sounds like someone I paid for a lap dance in the 80s. Just say drinking less. Not everything needs a label. I'm in a short-term situationship. No, you got a hand job from a coat-check girl.
Starting point is 00:15:10 Now move on with your life. Quitting booze may seem like a good idea today, but once TikTok goes away, you're gonna be getting hammered at Dave and Buster's with me and Pete Hegson. Fair warning, I tend to shit my pants on Dance Dance Revolution. Now I get it, some of you don't like fun, but if you're out with your dipshit friends
Starting point is 00:15:39 and you can't drink booze, surely there must be something you can drink. During dry January, people sip on mocktails, cocktails without any alcohol content. There are great non-alcoholic wines, beers, and spirits that are on the market today. Global sales of no and low alcohol products reaching more than $13 billion last year. Companies are cashing in too. Stars releasing non-alcoholic products like Katy Perry's booze free beverage line, DaySlaw. A great time. And Tom Holland's non-alcoholic beer company, Biro. This is from Proxies, this is their bubbly
Starting point is 00:16:14 rosé. You could. Wowee! An alcohol free drink that you can add alcohol to. If only Thomas Edison were alive to see this. Look, if I ever order an elderberry hibiscus fizz, be sure to garnish it with a loaded gun. These drinks sound almost as fun as getting an enema, which by the way, you can also add alcohol too. It's called boofing. Google it.
Starting point is 00:16:55 But listen, if the eighth best Spider-Man can cash in on the mocktailob, so can I. Introducing Lewis Black's Dry January Vodka. It's just regular vodka, and you can sit in the corner and watch me drink it. It even comes with a blanket to throw over me once I pass out. Now that's what I call a situation-ship. Wow, Lewis Black. Lewis Black, everyone.
Starting point is 00:17:31 When we come back, Vince Beiser will be joining me on the show, if you don't go along. Whoo! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Starting point is 00:17:56 Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. for the resources that will shape the future. Please welcome Vince Beiser. Power metal. Power metal. You sure this isn't a book about Metallica? You know, going for the broadest audience I can get. Yeah. What is power metal? So what it's about is, it's about the terrible paradox
Starting point is 00:18:35 of electric vehicles and renewable energy. That's all the time we have for tonight, Lisa. Thank you so much. Please continue. All right. So the paradox is this. So we are moving towards those things, EVs and renewable energy, which is great because we need those things to avoid climate change, which is the biggest threat that we face. But there's a catch.
Starting point is 00:18:55 And the catch is metal. Because to build all those things, to build all those millions of electric vehicles, solar panels, wind turbines, and by the way, all of the digital gadgets that we all rely on, and by the way, all of the digital gadgets that we all rely on our phones and our laptops, everything about the internet. My phone has metal in it?
Starting point is 00:19:10 Your phone has metal in it, my friend. I don't know about your phone, personally. Yeah, I actually have a wooden phone with a, there you go. OK, so even our, everybody here has metal on themselves right now. So we need billions of tons of those metals. So there's a worldwide rush on to get those.
Starting point is 00:19:29 They're called critical metals, the same basket of metals that we need for renewable energy and for digital tech. Wow. And as a result of that, we are cutting rainforests to the ground. Children are being put to work in mines. Oligarchs are getting their shit. I'm fine with the children, but the rainforest stuff.
Starting point is 00:19:44 I know. So are you... I'm throwing out a list to see what lands. Are you telling me, honestly, I have young kids, and I would love for them to have a job? I mean, it's like... Um... That's funny because of, you know,
Starting point is 00:19:58 we know my kids are okay, but when you see the footage and you read about these minds, it's really f***ed up. Yeah. It's really, really f***ed up. And it's even more f***ed up when you see the footage and you read about these minds, it's really fucked up. It's really, really fucked up. And it's even more fucked up when you go, oh, I might be contributing to that in a way. You might think the cobalt that those kids mined might be in your pocket right now. Not yours, because your phone is wooden.
Starting point is 00:20:16 Right. But everybody else. You're essentially saying there's no such thing as clean energy. Correct. What liberal friend are you trying to piss off? Well, I'm just a journalist. So my job is to just try to tell the truth as best as I can.
Starting point is 00:20:34 And renewable energy is much better than fossil fuel powered energy. But it comes with its own cost. It has its own serious downsides, which is not to say that you shouldn't buy an EV, that we shouldn't be turning onto renewables. We should be. We have to understand they come with serious costs.
Starting point is 00:20:51 And we have to do what we can to minimize those costs. Let's talk about China a little bit. Because every single chapter of your book, China shows up. Are they better than us with, I say us, meaning North Americans, with their mining, with their... Let me start over. Let me ask a better question. China, go. It's such a big topic, it's such a big country, it's hard to really pinpoint.
Starting point is 00:21:23 So in a nutshell, what's happened is so every single one of these metals that we're talking about that we absolutely need for EVs, for renewables, and for digital tech, China dominates the entire supply chain of those things. From digging them out of the ground, to refining them into metals, to building the actual, to manufacturing them into the actual car batteries and digital gadgets and all the rest of it.
Starting point is 00:21:44 That is a big problem because it gives them enormous geopolitical leverage, right? They've really got us over a barrel with this stuff. You tell a great story. You follow a man around Vancouver who essentially scraps metal. And what are we taught? What are the more valuable metals that are around?
Starting point is 00:22:04 Cobalt? Nickel? Cobalt? Nickel? Cobalt, nickel, yep. Copper? Copper. So for a guy like Steve Nelson, who's this scrapper that I've been following around in Vancouver, Canada. I thought my field pieces were tough.
Starting point is 00:22:16 I mean, you're literally in Vancouver following a guy in a dumpster picking up metal. Sexy stuff, Vince. That's right. That's right. That's the glamorous world of journalism. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So for those guys copper is the most valuable thing but but Steve is a guy, he's a super entrepreneurial guy who has basically been spending the last 20 years or so just digging through dumpsters in the back alleys of Vancouver for any kind of metal that he can find and sell and recycle. And not just like raw metal, but like old toasters,
Starting point is 00:22:48 old light fixtures. He can look at practically any electronic thing and tell you, oh, there's gonna be this much aluminum. There's probably about six ounces of copper. I can get two bucks for it at today's price. He carries it all on his bicycle. He's got a little cart hooked up to his bike and he just rides around collecting all this metal and then taking it to a scrap yard.
Starting point is 00:23:05 I don't think about metal every day. I don't think I want to, but now I think I have to. Metal should be more on the forefront of our brains. Should we be more concerned with reusing or refurbishing? The American consumer, this doesn't seem to match up. There's only so much metal we can use, right? Turns out there's pretty much no limit to how much stuff we can consume.
Starting point is 00:23:31 We can buy and use, right. Exactly, exactly. But this is where we get into how we can do things better. So we need metals, right? It's what so much of our civilization depends on. But we can be way more efficient with how we use it. We can do a lot more recycling, which is exactly what a guy like Steve is doing.
Starting point is 00:23:47 Yep. We can also be reusing and repairing our gadgets, right? Like, for a long time, all these manufacturers have deliberately made their things difficult to repair. Yeah. So now there's a movement on to force them to basically make Apple and Samsung and everybody else to make it easier to fix their stuff so that it lasts longer.
Starting point is 00:24:06 And, you know, as consumers, we can also take some responsibility, right? You don't have to get a new iPhone every single year. Well, you've got that wooden one. I understand you need to upgrade. Recycling, man, is recycling perfect the way we have it now. I throw it in a blue bin. I'm a hero. I don't have to think about it ever again. But talk a little bit about the depth you go in,
Starting point is 00:24:28 how it...what it costs and the resources it takes to recycle. Yeah, so recycling, too, turns out to have some serious downsides to it. It's really energy-intensive. It's really polluting. And it's often done on the backs of the poorest people in the world. So one of the places I went was Lagos, Nigeria,
Starting point is 00:24:45 the biggest city in Africa. And I spent some time there with guys who were recycling digital junk, right? Our old cell phones, laptops. These are guys sitting around with hammers and screwdrivers, just cracking open those things like walnuts and picking out the little bits of metal in them. You tell a story about people burning, standing around,
Starting point is 00:25:03 burning electrical wire to be able to later dig into the metal that's in all those charging cords. Exactly. All our cables, they've got plastic and rubber outside and copper inside. They want the copper. They burn the rest of the stuff.
Starting point is 00:25:17 And these guys are just standing around this incredibly like thick, toxic, oily, reeking smoke. And I asked one of them, I was like, well, aren't you worried? I mean, these guys are just in flip-flops and T-shirts, no safety equipment, nothing. And I asked one of them, aren't you worried about breathing in all this smoke?
Starting point is 00:25:34 And he just said, it's a job, I'm living in Nigeria, this is the only job I've got. And I said, well, how long have you been doing it? He said, since I was eight. I said, how old are you now? He was 35 years old. Right. Man, I have a drawer at home that has 100 wires in it.
Starting point is 00:25:51 Six iPhones. And don't judge because you have the same drawer. We all have this drawer. I don't know what to do with the phone. Yeah. Right? This is such a North American problem, right? Right.
Starting point is 00:26:02 But it is a rich guy problem. Well, it is a real problem for the world, right? Because all that stuff is just going to waste, right? Right. But it is a real... Or a rich guy problem. Well, it is a... It's a real problem for the world, right? Because all that stuff is just going to waste, right? We should be, we could be recycling it, right? But the problem is there just isn't an easy way to do that. So the good news is, like, actually in places like Nigeria and the developing world, it turns out they are way more efficient at it.
Starting point is 00:26:20 They recycle something like 90% of their e-waste. Whereas here, only one out of every six cell phones gets recycled. It gets recycled. It gets junked. So there's a lot we can learn from those places. It's an easy punchline, Trump wanting to take Greenland. Then I read your book, then I read about Greenland's vast resources of minerals and metals, and I go, oh, this might not be a joke. Is this what America has to do to keep up
Starting point is 00:26:49 so we can all get the new iPhone all the time? Do you support Trump taking over Greenland through military force? I do not. I'm from Canada, my friend, and I know where next after Greenland. That's true. No. No.
Starting point is 00:27:05 Oh. You wrote like a Canadian. This has hope and sympathy and. And it's spelled color with a U. Yeah, it's spelled color with a U. This might not be a joke about Greenland. We need these metals. We need these metals, for sure.
Starting point is 00:27:29 And Greenland does have an awful lot of them. There are other places in the world where we can get them. The thing about Greenland, though, it's chock full of especially a bunch of metals called rare earths, which we need for wind turbines, we need them for electric car motors. We also need them for our cell phones. The color red in your cell phone is thanks to one particular metal called europium.
Starting point is 00:27:50 No europium, no red in your cell phone. Anyway... What? Yeah. Europium? Europium. That's so funny. Now that sign makes sense that said,
Starting point is 00:27:59 a europium-free cell phone for sale. No, I've never seen such a thing. Anyway, but Greenland... Editors, please edit out that entire statement. So, problem is, there are a lot of these metals there, but, number one, really hard to get them. Greenland's really far away. The weather's incredibly harsh.
Starting point is 00:28:19 Also, the people living in Greenland weren't really that hot on the idea. They've already shot down one rare earth mine that folks tried to open up there because they didn't want all the, you know, all the environmental chaos that comes with it. There was a few things in this book that were promising to me.
Starting point is 00:28:35 One of them was that there have been successful communities that have pushed off or fought off mining, at least that you mentioned. You might have been lying. Some really cool things like experimenting with plants that absorb metals. And then also this whole idea of someone mining in space. This was some cool shit.
Starting point is 00:29:02 Which one of those do you want to talk about? Let's talk about the plants, because I love if plants are the answer to all of us. Isn't that a great idea? That is so cool. So I absolutely love this. It's one of the many solutions that I talk about. And basically there are several dozen kinds of plants which suck up different kinds of metal, nickel and other stuff, from the soil. In theory, like who knew, right? So in theory, you can plant a bunch of these plants
Starting point is 00:29:27 in a place where we have that metal, especially like places that are already polluted, like where there used to be a mine or whatever. They draw it up, and then you burn the plants, you somehow pull the metal out of the plants. And it can be done. There are a couple of startups and a couple of research labs working on it.
Starting point is 00:29:42 I love the idea. So far, sad to say it's a long way from any kind of commercial scale. And you talked about how that was planted somewhere, and then the plant took over and screwed up the whole environment. So that's a bummer. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:29:55 There's always a downside somewhere. How would we mine in space? And how is this not a movie yet? Yeah. But there is someone trying to mine in space. There are quite a few people trying to mine in space. How bad do you hate your family if you're like, honey, I got this new idea.
Starting point is 00:30:13 I'm going to mine in space. OK, last question. How can I, how can you be a better consumer? So first of all. I can't take on a mining company, but how can I do this better? I mean, this is really scary shit you're talking about here. Yeah, so, I mean, so all those things we've been talking about,
Starting point is 00:30:32 which is really what, you know, most of the second half of the book is about, but also the number one thing that we as individuals can do is, if possible, don't buy a car. I know. That was... That was a heavy sentence I read. Uh- car. I know. That was a heavy sentence I read. Uh-huh. I know. As a man who has six cars and nine motorcycles. That's not true. Why? Why should we not buy a car?
Starting point is 00:30:51 Well, because cars are by far the most material and energy-intensive thing that most of us own, except for your house, if you own a house. Right. And I'm not saying you're a bad person if you own a car, even if you own nine cars. Right? I own a car myself.
Starting point is 00:31:07 Yeah. What I am saying is we need to get to a place, we need to reduce the number of cars that are out there. Because if we swap all one billion gas cars that are already out there for one billion electric vehicles, we're going to swap one set of problems for another. Right. Much better is we got to reduce the number of cars
Starting point is 00:31:23 by giving people the freedom to choose whether or not to have a car. Because right now, most places in America, you've got to have a car. You need one. But if we can promote things like bicycling, public transit, getting around by foot so that fewer people need to own cars, so that more people can choose whether or not they want to own a car, will all be much better off. Thank you for writing a great book. It's a great read. Power Metal is available now. Vince Beiser, we're going to take a quick break.
Starting point is 00:31:51 We'll be right back after this. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Starting point is 00:32:00 Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That's our show for tonight. But before we go, this Sunday, I'm headed to Asheville, North Carolina to participate in a charity tennis event to support Hurricane Helene relief efforts in Western North Carolina. You can support this cause by going to the link below to make a donation or bid on great auction items like even an autographed book from me, available now.
Starting point is 00:32:28 Now, here it is, your moment of zen. Mr. Chairman. You're a wise man, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman. Before we go to leave... Mr. Chairman. Yes, what do you want? Laughter Yes, what do you want? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Explore more shows from the Daily Show Podcast Universe
Starting point is 00:32:47 by searching The Daily Show, wherever you get your podcasts. Watch The Daily Show, weeknights at 11, 10 Central on Comedy Central and stream full episodes anytime on Paramount Plus. Paramount Podcasts.

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.