The Daily Show: Ears Edition - Trump’s Losing Streak Seeps Into Iran & Netanyahu Gets a Taste of Mean Girl Trump | Dr. Thomas Mather a.k.a The TickGuy

Episode Date: June 3, 2026

Michael Kosta covers Trump's impressive losing streak: His name's getting removed from the Kennedy Center, headliners are dropping out of his America 250 concert, Congress is blocking his slush fund, and to top it off, Trump hasn't been able to keep his word on a peace deal with Iran. Plus, Ivanka and Jared buy a private island in the Mediterranean for the modest price of around $1.5 billion. Desi Lydic Anal-a-Zones a pair of scandal-plagued contenders for the midterms: Democratic Maine Senate hopeful Graham Platner takes flak for sexting other women while married, and Colorado's MAGA-minded gubernatorial candidate Victor Marx faces scrutiny over his claims that he called in an airstrike against ISIS as a civilian, performs exorcisms over the phone, and might've done a killing or two. Dr. Thomas Mather, a.k.a The TickGuy, talks to Michael about how to enjoy the outdoors all year round while staying safe from ticks. Dr. Mather, a researcher and professor of public health entomology at the University of Rhode Island, explains how to identify the types of ticks that can carry Lyme disease, answers The Daily Show staff’s most neurotic tick questions, and offers a three-pronged approach to tick prevention: tuck in shirts and pant legs, treat clothing with repellent, and check yourself for ticks (perhaps while on the toilet). -- For up to 65% off your order, head to https://VeracityHealth.co and use code DAILY. Head to https://Quince.com/dailyshow for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. To get simple, online access to personalized, affordable care for ED, Hair Loss, Weight Loss, and more, visit https://Hims.com/dailyshow -- The Daily Show airs weeknights at 11/10c on Comedy Central. Stream full episodes on Paramount+ Follow TDS: YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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, Michael Cost. Spark, get used to. Ivanka and Jared are buying a real fixer-upper, and we finally figure out how many murders is too many murders for a candidate to do.

Spoiler, it's not zero. Hey, let's get into the headlines. It seems like every day there's more. pressing news about the economy. Gas is $5 a gallon. Raspberrys are $8 a pint, which sucks because my backup plan was to fill up my car with smoothie. Now, despite all this, it's inspiring to know that even in these tough times, there are everyday Americans out there

who are still able to make it work. Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner have purchased their own island off the coast of Albania. It's an unbelievable, beautiful 1,400-hectar private in the middle of the Mediterranean. Let's give it up for this couple. I mean, oh, I'm sorry, do you guys not have hectare money? And for those of you who are thinking, hey, before buying a private island, shouldn't billionaires

maybe read the room? What you don't understand is the island doesn't have rooms yet. They can't lay the foundation for those rooms until they burn down all those stupid trees, okay? And for the record, Jared and Ivanka aren't scheming. real estate moguls going around the world snatching up private islands. This was more of an impulse by. We were on a friend's boat and we stopped for a swim. Effectively, that's how we found it. We swam to the islands. We went on a hike barefoot all the way up to the top and we were just captivated. Oh yeah. I feel you, girl. I feel you. Been there, done that. Except instead of the Mediterranean

and I was swimming in the Hudson River, and the island I hiked barefoot was Staten Island, and instead of buying it, I stepped on a needle and got HPV, but I feel you. I feel you. I just have one follow-up question. Can you make this sound even more out of touch?

You know, it's not even a business for me. It feels more like a challenge than anything else. The culmination of all of my experience in real estate, all of my travel, a lot of reflection on how I want to live, how I think people increasingly are wanting to live, and trying to really build something that's a tangible manifestation of that.

A tangible manifestation of the way, come on, lady, you're rich, and you bought an island. Just say that. Not everything has to be a deep spiritual journey, you know? It's like when you look up a chicken salad recipe and you have to scroll through nine pages of how the cook's grandparents escape the Balkan wars in the back of a donkey cart? So did Nana use paprika or mustard? Which one is it? But of course, I'm kidding. I love Ivanka, and I fully support all of her endeavors. This place sounds like paradise on earth.

The planned 1400-acre resort will also sit where abandoned bunkers and decaying buildings now stand. But Kushner and Ivanka still face major hurdles, including unexploded landmines and weapons that remain on the island. If you like Pinyacoladas and unexploded landmines I mean there's got to be an easier way to divorce somebody Ivanka was on that island like Jared smile Hey a little to the left more to the left Hey hop up and down Jared

Let's move on from Ivanka to the man whose sperm made her Donald Trump He's had a rough week The judge ordered his name off the Kennedy Center His concert fell apart and they canceled the wet t-shirt contest at the reflecting pool party. He was going to win that one, too. The only thing Trump had going for him was the $1.8 billion slush fund he got from the Justice Department.

And now there's bad news with that, too. On Monday, health speaker Mike Johnson met with Trump to talk about the fund amid GOP backlash. Shortly afterward, CBS News learned the administration plan to scrap it. What? Are you telling me that instead of just going along whatever Trump says, members of Congress can actually stand up to him, that they can provide some kind of check and or balance? That's great.

It's not as great that he pushed us so far that the check and or balance is not using illegal money to pay pedophiles for storming the Capitol. But still, good on you, Congress. It just goes to show that if you knuckle down and power through, you can do the bare minimum at your job. And that should shut up the haters who keep saying the only thing Congress is good at is insider trading. So yeah, Trump's on a losing streak. But as my penis doctor always says, it's never too late to turn things around.

Trump could still make a deal with Iran. And he keeps saying they're close. So really, it can be any day now. 95 days into this war and with talks on the brink of collapse, complicating the deal, Israel's incursion into Lebanon, advancing deeper in the region to fight Iranian-backed Hezbollah. threatening to call the talks with the U.S. entirely off. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

Iran is stopping a peace deal with us because Israel is bombing Lebanon? Damn it, Israel? Why do you keep bombing stuff? Is it because we keep selling you bombs? That can't be the reason. There's got to be another reason. But still, this is a disaster. If the peace talks fail, then that means the war is back on.

And that means that all the death and destruction and carnage is going to raise gas prices before my big, road trip. I was really looking forward to showing my kids all the amazing places in this country where they can watch Bluey on their iPads. The point is I'm terrified, and I bet Trump must be nervous as hell too. President Trump says he doesn't care if peace negotiations are over. Trump said, quote, I don't care if they're over, honestly. I really don't care. I couldn't care less. If they're over, they're over. Whoa, whoa, whoa, you okay, dude? Why do you sound like the Iran deal broke up with you for your best friend?

Peace talks weren't even that pretty. Listen, Mr. President, you've got to complete these peace talks. Because I think I speak for all Americans when I say, we don't want our soldiers overseas in the Middle East. We want them where they belong, diffusing landmines on Ivanka's Island. Now, Trump, how can you not care about this? He went on to say, quote,

frankly, I thought they started to get very boring. Boring? Boring. Oh, I'm sorry. Is wrapping up the war you started? not interesting enough. Yes, peace talks are boring. But guess what?

Important things are boring. Like picking up your kids from school. That's why I don't do it, a life hack. The school will just drop them off at your house. They'll tell you they won't do it again, but guess what? They don't want your kids either. I guess the president couldn't care less

about Netanyahu dragging him back into a very boring war. The president initially said he couldn't care less, but hours later, he was on the phone. with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Sources describing the call as tense, with President Trump fuming at Netanyahu over the escalation. Well, well, well, turns out he only pretended not to care, but he actually did care.

Just like me, when my penis doctor said it actually is too late to turn things around. Off his penis! But look, Trump and Beebe have been best friends for a while. So how tense could this call really have been? Axios reports that Trump said to Netanyahu, You're fucking crazy. You'd be in prison if it weren't for me.

I'm saving your ass. The president added, quote, everybody hates you now. Everybody hates you now? The president then added, Best Friends for Never. T-TYL, talk to you. Never.

It seems that Trump is starting to suspect that Netanyahu might be deliberately derailing the peace talks just to keep the United States in the war. To which I'd like to say, ding ding ding dumbass why are we always watching Donald Trump discover shit

that everyone else knew this whole time he had no idea that peace in the Middle East is hard he had no idea that the Strait of Hermuz is where oil goes through and now he's like wait a minute does anyone else think the international war criminal is kind of shady

this guy was so clueless this guy was so clueless about Netanyahu it makes you think maybe he didn't know what Jeffrey Epstein was doing But Donald, yeah, you guys don't know how to listen to that joke. But Donald, this is a turning point. Are you going to buckle down and commit to ending this war, no matter how boring it is? I know it's tough, but all the world wants is for the chaos to subside in the world to get back to normal in a peace deal.

With Iran would be, but it would be, wait, what am I trying to say? A tangible manifestation. That's right, yes, that's right. When we come back, we'll check it on the midterms. For many, the goal is to simply stay fit and feel energized without resorting to extreme measures. However, constant cravings in the afternoon energy slum can make that feel impossible, especially in an environment where unhealthy food options are everywhere you look. This podcast is sponsored by Veracity.

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and make sure you use my promo code daily so they know I sent you. The midterm elections are just a few months away. So to analyze all the campaign stories, we turn to Desi Lydic, who's in our indecision, analogone. And this is the analesone, a segment I usually only do on my husband's birthday. He's a huge political junkie. Anyway, let's start with the Senate race. in Maine with presumptive Democratic nominee

and horny Lorax, Graham Platner. Since his campaign launched, Platner's had to apologize for everything, from a Nazi tattoo to offensive Reddit posts. The guys had more controversies than the second half of Michael. But with the primary, oh. With the primary just a week away, surely we're not going to hear about any more scandals

involving Graham Platner. Graham Platner, now addressing his latest scandal. Former campaign staffer came forward telling the Associated Press that the candidate was sexting multiple women while married. This kick profile with the handle P. Hustle, which is still active, shows a half-naked image of the Senate candidate wearing only a towel. Okay, this is so disgustingly inappropriate. You left the seat up?

Not the kind of married political candidate I want to exchange messages with. But let's move on from Maine to the other side. state where deodorant goes to die, Colorado. In their primary for governor, the Republican frontrunner is Marine veteran, Trump superfan, and axe bear spray model, Victor Marx. He is an outsider all the way down to how he announced his candidacy. Mark Soft launched his campaign for governor at a Charlie Kirk memorial service. Come October 1st, I'm going to let all y'all know if, in fact, God is calling me to run and win

for governor. He launched his campaign at a memorial service. Yeah. It does make me feel better about the gender reveal. I did at my aunt's wake. Linda. RIP. Now before dipping his toes into politics,

Victor racked up millions of views on YouTube as the self-described world's fastest gun disarmor. Look, you just pulled the trigger the long you see me move. ... relevant to the duties of governor, but good... but good job disarming all those virgins. Marks wasn't just spending his free time on YouTube. He also wrote a book called The Dangerous Gentleman, where he made some major claims about his past heroism,

which a reporter recently asked him about. You said that you've performed more than 130 missions to rescue women and children from terror and abuse. Your organization says that you've saved women and children from 30 nations. 30 nations. That's a lot of countries. 30 nations. That's amazing. assume a very true story that can withstand a simple follow-up question. Could you list off a bunch of

those for me? Start with the first. Yes, sir. What did I say? Your full quote was, I wrote this book, Dangerous Gentleman, after 130 plus missions to rescue women and children from terror and abuse. So that's not true, what you wrote. I wouldn't, that doesn't sound accurate. Doesn't sound accurate. I mean, 130 missions and 30 countries that he can't remember, that's the plot of the born identity. But, you know, maybe it's just a small fabrication. Certainly he has other areas of expertise, like his devotion to fighting terrorism, even after leaving the military.

You claim that you once called in a U.S. military airstrike that killed 70 ISIS fighters. I didn't realize that civilians could essentially facilitate military airstrikes. Could you walk me through how that worked? No. So he can't remember where he's been, and he won't tell him. us how he called in a drone strike, definitely a little strange, but again, Americans have become so desensitized to wild political scandals. At this point, there's nothing that could shock us anymore. Your claim that your abusive stepfather forced you to kill a man when you were

seven years old, is that the only person you've ever killed? Well, I would say, as a child, yes. That was an astoundingly long pause for a very simple math problem. Please tell me the rest of the answer is less bizarre. Do you think that you've killed people as an adult? Does it matter? Yeah, I'd say so. Yeah, I'm in charge of an entire state.

Your answer to have you killed anyone cannot be a seven-minute silence followed by a hard pass. Could this story get any weirder? You perform exorcisms, commanding demons to come out of people. Can you explain to folks how that works? We identify the demon? like Jesus did, we asked what their name is, and then we give them commands, and then we destroy them. Do appreciate the passion. I mean, it's not something he's just phoning in.

You also perform these exorcisms by phone. Are those just as effective? They don't. Exorcism over the phone? The power of Christ compels you. Wait, sorry, hello. Are you... Wait, are you still there? Is that static, or are you projectile vomiting?

Can you just put Pizzou back on? Again, this guy is the Republican frontrunner in Colorado. So, obviously, we've become desensitized to scandal in this Trump era. Still, we can't lose touch with what's acceptable. And, hey, there's still time to raise our standards. But we better do it fast. Faster than... Oh, faster than...

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You guys are standing up for me, right? I mean, that's a wild reception for someone who calls himself the tick guy. I know it. You know, who can figure? I want to back it up at the very beginning because I'm really, relatively new to ticks. And I am fascinated by them. I've been pushing to get you on this show for a very long time.

Wow. Not enough people are having conversations about ticks. The little bit that I've learned has made me feel a little bit safer. So we have a lot of questions for you. But for a lot of the country, they may be asking, what is a tick? Yeah. What's a tick? Well, it's a good question.

Oh, Jesus Christ. That's supposed to be an easy one. That should be an easy one. You know, I could put my science hat on and tell you all the fancy things about it, but a tick is just a little creature. It has eight legs, and it wants to suck your blood. Yeah, well, why?

Does it want to suck our blood? Well, so to grow. So it uses the blood in each of its life stages, larvae, a nymph, and an adult, to either grow to the next stage or when it gets to the adult stage, it takes that great big blood meal so it can lay thousands of eggs

and start the whole thing over again. Wait a second. The tick wants what we want. The tick wants to eat. Exactly. It wants to reproduce. So we're not that different. No. We're not. Pretty similar, actually. Pretty similar. How did you get involved? How did this happen?

How did the tick guy become you? Yeah, well, that's a... Another good question. I have great questions. Yeah. Excellent. And if you say it after each question, it's going to be a long interview.

Because I've got so many good ones. Got it. Years ago, there was, I think, like a Visa commercial that had CEOs on it, and they would say, you don't know me, but you know what I do. Right?

So like the head of some company. And the truth is, I don't really need people to know me, Thomas Mather. What I want them to know is, Oh, you're the tick guy, right? Right. Look, it got me on your show.

I know. So you... Why aren't we talking about this more? Why, when I bring up ticks in a social situation or here at the show... Right. It's funny because no one else does it. Why aren't more... Why aren't we having this discussion?

What is it so viscerally about them that terrifies people? People are really creeped out by ticks. Yeah. The thought that, as an example, the thought that to get on you, to steal your blood, it usually starts slow and crawls up across your body. If you find it up on your head,

you just want to assume that it dropped out of a tree. I don't know one tick biologist that thinks ticks drop out of their tree. Now, I said that in a social post not too long ago, and some troll came back and said, well, you must not know very many tick biologists, I guess. Because they know, people really, they think they know,

I think they know a lot about ticks. And one time I was doing a television spot in Baltimore, and just before we went on, the guy said, well, what do you want to talk about? I said, whatever your producer put on the teleprompter is probably what we're going to talk about. And he said, no, no, really. And I said, well, you tell me two things you know about ticks.

And he said, they drop out of trees onto your head, and they die in the winter. And I said, and you'd be just wrong enough to still be at risk, because while you're looking up there for the ticks falling out of the trees, you're missing the ones crawling up your pant legs. Wow. And if they died in the winter,

where would next year's ticks come from anyway? And he went like this, big eyes, and he goes, we should talk about that. Now, we didn't talk about that. We talked about what the producer had put on the teleprompter. I bet you crush it parties. If one finds a tick on their head, one should assume that it crawled from the feet all the way up.

Or at least sort of at the knee level or something. And why don't we feel it crawling on us? Well, so some people do. Oh, interesting. But, you know, ticks have figured out how to do that in a sneaky way as possible. Because if they let you know that they're there, then you're gonna brush them off, right?

So they've figured this all out. Same thing with biting. They, their saliva, the first thing that they do when they start to bite is they spit into you. Yep. And that spit deadens your pain reaction. It changes your immune reaction. because the last thing that tick wants is a barrier to that.

It gets rid of the blood clotting with anticoagulants. Damn. Yeah, they're fascinating. They're fascinating. Yeah, they are fascinating. And for whatever reason, learning about them is making me feel more comfortable, even though you're just telling me they're basically living vampires

that steal our blood, numb us, and can make us very sick. Exactly. And this is going to be a very bad tick year, correct? Well, so, you know, tracking ticks, the Centers for Disease Control, sort of keeps record of how many people go to emergency departments for tick removal, and their records are high. We have our own tracking where people can send us pictures of the ticks that they find called tick spotters, and our counts are over the moon, really, this year.

compared to other years so far. Is that because the Earth is warming? I mean, I remember growing up in Michigan, ticks were not a thing. It was not, maybe that's my parents were very negligent also, but it feels like there's more ticks. Are there more ticks? Well, there are more ticks, and they're moving.

You know, the tick picture has changed over the last 20 years, really. And you can blame really one thing, and that is tick reproduction. So I think that that reproductive hosts, most of the adult stage ticks that we worry about, the black-legged ticks, the lone star ticks, they take their blood meal, that last blood meal so they can lay all those eggs from whitetailed deer. And so there are so many more white-tailed deer now than there

were 20 years ago, than 50 years ago. So this is made, and they're in places where they didn't used to be. They're not scared of people any longer. I mean, we used to slow the car down and we would see a deer to look, and now we speed up. This isn't going to be all doom and gloom. We're going to get into what one should do, because what I really want to achieve by talking to you is I think in today's society and tech and political divisiveness, what we all need and what helps me is to engage with nature. Yes.

And what I'm so frustrated by is everyone is so afraid of ticks so much. that people are staying indoors. And so I want to make sure we understand what we can do to still enjoy the hike, still take all our kids out and playing in nature. So what's the first thing that we should do? We have to identify if a tick is on us, right? Well, everyone should do a tick check,

but I'm just going to back up one more second there and say, I think that the biggest issue is that people just need to know what a tick is and what it looks like. And one of the things that I have learned is that people don't know that ticks have two sides. You know, the top side has all of the markings and the stuff that someone needs to recognize them.

And the bottom side, just, they all kind of look the same. All right, well, I have this, you know, you sent this to us, and this may freak the audience out, but what are you looking at? This is the top side and this is the bottom side. Now, these are not labeled. Obviously, you know these, but why... First of all, let me just say it actually is a beautiful. beautiful creature.

It's fascinating. The markings are beautiful. You know what? And you're beautiful too. How do you not know that a tick isn't showing a picture of you going, eh? So it's important that we know what kind of tick is on us? Exactly. And the reason for that is that the different kinds of ticks transmit different germs.

They don't all do the same thing. So like if people say, oh, the ticks are going to be bad this year, I usually stop them and say, which tick are you talking about? I like that. I'm going to use that. Well, Lyme disease is this complicated, elusive disease that nobody seems to really know about, and people are terrified of getting.

If you get a tick bite, do you get Lyme disease? What are the odds here? Only if it's a black-legged tick. Okay, which one's a black-legged tick? They all look like black-legged ticks to me. The black-legged ticks are these two, and this is the one that they worry about. Okay, so if that has Lyme disease...

So one and two of those are carrying... Lyme disease germ in the eastern United States, less so in the south and less so in the west coast. Okay. Around here, 50% of them... Wow, that's high. Yeah, it is high. So that's why you want to find the tick pretty quickly to remove it. But the other ticks are just as common, in fact, a little bit more common than the black-legged tick.

And they don't carry the Lyme disease germ. So if people are terrified of Lyme disease and they have this tick on their body... No worries. can't even shut the fuck up. Exactly. Right. Now, this is what I mean by learning. Learning makes you feel like you have a little bit more power over this.

If one in two have Lyme disease, and I'm bitten by this, and it's sucking, having a blood meal, as you so romantically say, what's the chance that I will get Lyme disease from that tick? Well, so it depends on a few things. Your immunity, how long the tick was attached. I know that's a controversial subject. for some people, but in our lab, we have,

we and many other people have done this to show that they don't transmit an infectious dose right away. The bacteria has to move from its stomach up to its salivary glands and then get shuttled out that way. So usually you have about a day, I'm sure that if someone's watching this, they're gonna take issue with that. There are other germs that can be transmitted right away,

but the Lyme disease germ, and one called Babiasee's, takes a little bit of time of development in the tick in order to be at an infectious level. If it's on your body, by the way, we may talk for three hours, but if it's on your body for a long time, two days, three days, will you definitely be getting Lyme disease? High chance. If it's infected, yes. If it's infected, high chance, okay.

But the sooner you identify it and remove it, the lower chance. Right. And in fact, you know, some people think, well, I've had that before, but you can get it again. There's not a protective immunity that develops. Let's talk about AlphaGal, which sounds like a superhero female movie. Yeah. But this is the disease that ticks, some ticks can transmit that makes people allergic to red meat or something? Right. And so it's mostly attributed to the one in the middle, the lone star tick.

The lone star tick. I know that. That's the lone star tick. Exactly. Because you're looking at the top and it has one lone little star. No, I'm fully aware of the origin of the bottom. you see there's nothing very specific about that. Okay, so this is the one that can give you Alpha Gal. And what's the, if this is one and two with Lyme disease, what's this one?

We don't know what the risk is for Alpha Gal. It's a little complicated. So it's not a germ. It's a sugar. So in its earlier stages, when the Lone Star Tick larvae and nymphs are feeding on deer or whatever they would feed on, It picks up the sugar. It's in all red meat except for it in primates. So we don't have that.

But in all hooved animals and even those that don't have hooves, they have the sugar. And so it becomes part of the blood meal, but it gets sort of transfigured inside of that. And then when they spit it in the next stage, it stimulates an allergic reaction to red meat. It, because... Alpha gal. What a bitch.

Yeah. She penetrates you. Let's talk about... I'm going to go with that in the future. You like that? Yeah, I like that. All right. Let's talk about ways for people to know if a tick is on their body. Yeah. So the first thing you have to think about is doing a tick check, and that's sort of

scares people too. Yeah, right. You gotta look. You gotta look at yourself. Yeah. It's scary. And then, you know, then it's like, where am I gonna look?

And so some people like, they don't do it because they think it's gonna take them an hour. Right. It doesn't, it takes me about two minutes. Okay. And this my wife to look at my back, you know, back in the day when we were first married, you know, she would do this happily now.

Yeah. You know. Years ago, she, bought us the biggest mirror they sold at the furniture store for Christmas, and in this corner, it said, good luck. Right, so she used to inspect every part of your body, and now there's a mirror. Yeah.

And as I've gotten older, I realize I can't see some of the places I used to see. Right. Or some of those places have dropped a little lower. Where's a little body check hack? Where do you like to do? Well, so I adhere to sort of my three T's for personal tick bite protection. So tucking, I tuck my pants into my socks.

When I'm out, I tuck my shirt into my pants. And I often will wear treated clothing if I'm at home and I don't want to have to think about it. So treated with permethrin. Okay. And that is really effective. We've done lots of studies with outdoor workers and stuff and shown how helpful it is to keep ticks off.

Yeah. And then more recently, because the Lone Star Ticks have moved into Rhode Island, and if they ever have tick races that you can bet on, always bet on the Lone Star Tickets, it's the fastest. Wow. Yeah, so it can move from your knee. I bet Kalshi is going to have that soon. Well, I should get it.

some benefit from throwing out the tip, you know. I want to walk over here because this is a life hack, so let's walk over here, and this is one thing you have shared, talked about, is a toilet is a good place to check yourself for ticks. Help yourself. Now, this is not connected to plumbing. All right, so you're sitting on the toilet.

43 years of professional training, and here we are. So you're sitting on the toilet. You're checking your phone, like every average American. Because what do you do? To do, right? You're sitting there, you're kind of trying to get it ready, making noises and everything.

You can actually see all this behind your knee. You can look at this side. That's a common place behind the knee, right? Very common. Look at both of these. You can sort of look in here. They often get up into people's groin areas because if they get past the knee,

there's open underneath your clothes, and then they get stuck at your beltline and underwear. I mean, one of the things, you know, maybe too much information. I mean, are you kidding me? This whole fucking interview has been too much of it. I switched to, you know, compression underwear so that keep them out of my junk, you know.

Okay. If you're just sitting there, you can push it to the right, push it to the left. Okay, great. You'd be surprised how much you can see. Yeah, I certainly did not ask that question. Why is this a good place to check? Is it because we're already sitting here anyways?

And also, this is a common spot that we don't normally check. Yeah, I mean, I would have, you know, otherwise I'd stand in front of that mirror and I'd have to go like this. Right, right. And my glasses would fall off and I can't see. It's a mess, really. All right, good. So, and then arms, armpits. Yeah, you can stand in front of the mirror and see that pretty well.

But this is for the lower body. This is for the lower body that, you know, when you get to be my age, you can't really lean over as well. Okay, great. We'll make sure that... Can I get up now? I mean, when I told the staff that you were coming,

more people pulled me aside and had tick questions. More than any famous actress, more so... World Championship athletes. Nobody talks to me when there's a tick guy... I'm really trying to make me feel good. Well, I don't... Yeah, but I just feel like there's so many misconceptions. So these are questions for...

from our staff, neurotic staff, about ticks. Are there ticks in Central Park or Prospect Park? Yes. In fact, just two days ago, I had one submitted from someone who claimed they got their tick in Central Park. When you say submitted, talk to me about that. What does that mean? To our tick spotters program.

So if somebody has a tick on themselves, they can pull it off and... Right. So instead of trying to kill it or whatever, you know, burn it. That's none of those things... That's what my dad told me to do with ticks. You know, the whole thing about touching the back end of a tick with a hot object, I mean, think about it. If they're down there, you really want to touch that with a tiny little thing with a hot object? It's never a good idea. If I got a hot probe down there, that's not where it's going.

You know what I'm saying? All right. So we have to talk about how to pull off a tick, but let's take a few more staff questions. Okay. Do I really need to do a tick check every time I go to a park or on a hike, or is it just for actual woods and forests? Yeah, so it depends on the park. I mean, you don't even have to be on a park. I mean, in the little town where we live in, Rhode Island,

we collected, we stopped at just the roadside where you might be taking a bike ride or something and putting your foot down to take a break or something like that. In 19 out of 20 stops, random stops, we found black-legged tick. Wow. Okay. Hey, good to know. Good to know. Maybe you hurt here and then you won't get Lyme disease. You're welcome. This is perfect. Should we kill ticks when we see them? Well, you can if you want. There's really no need to. I think that that's why they invented Ziploc bags so that you could put one in the Ziploc bag and you can throw it in the freezer. Then maybe you'll come across the information that, oh, maybe I should take a picture. Everybody's got

their camera now. But of course, now they know to take the picture of the top side because that's the side that is, you know, really. So we can pull off a tick, put it in a Ziploc bag, and we can also send it to you, right? Well, I can't send it to me. Just send me the picture. Okay.

There are testing labs, though, that you can. But if you've already thrown it down the toilet or someplace, you don't have it, you know. Who knows what kind it is, right? Right. Oh, I had this tick and it was one of the those brown ones and I'm like, okay, that's not very helpful. Here's another one.

Where do ticks habitat mostly? That's a stupid question. We answered that. How paranoid should I be about ticks? If I go to a park, playground, or a trail, should I constantly be checking for ticks? Well, I don't think constantly. You don't want to ruin it, but if you've thought about your clothing repellent, for instance, and you're all tucked in, you can sort of, you know, enjoy the day.

If you're taking a hike, we tell people to walk in the middle of the trail because the ticks are on the edges mostly. So you can, you know, we followed people, and they start walking down the middle, and before long, they're just bouncing off the side. But I like to explore. I don't want to just walk down the middle of the trail. Middle of the trail is, I'm a comedian.

I'm not going down the middle of the trail. Yeah, okay. But can I still live my life the way I want to and then just be super diligent about check? Yeah, so. That's what I'm fucking about, bro. That's what I'm talking about. Live your life.

I've only had Lyme disease once. What's that? I've only had Lyme disease once and I've been doing this for 43 years. There we go. He's only had it once. All right, show me how to take a tick off. All right, so the first bit of lesson is, you know... That's not a tick.

It's a juice pouch. It has a lot to teach us here, and I don't want to mess up your... You're, I should have gotten this. You kidding me, no one's watching this show at this point. Anyway, I think everyone knows that when you stick this in. Here, here, here, here. All right. Oh yeah, it is tricky.

Better you than me. This is like identifying a lone star tick instead of a deer tick instead of a dog. You know what I mean. The common thing is everyone knows what's going to happen when you stick this in there, right? Yeah, yeah. But we'll do it the proper way. Okay. But, oh, went through the other.

other side. It's hard. It's hard when you want to do this. On TV, it makes things a lot harder. Yeah. Funny way. You get the picture. Stuff pops out. So this is the tick. This is the straw that is sticking into your skin. This is a bag of germs. That's a tick, really. And if you squeeze the back end, stuff comes out the straw. Right. Right. So you don't want to do that. Okay. So how are you going to remove the tick safely? Okay. You need to grab it. close as possible to your skin, so you're squeezing... Show the camera those exact types of tweezers that you have. Because that's important, right?

Yes. It needs to be pointy so that you can grab it close to the skin and lift up. Because you don't, you know, a lot of people come at it like this way, and they can't help it squeeze the tick. Right. Right. So you want to not squeeze the tick. Okay. You pull it off, and then what do you do once you pull it off? Well, you put it in a Ziploc bag. Okay.

and take a picture of it. Maybe take the picture first. Sometimes people, people, Ziploc bags these days. They're a little bit cloudy, and so it makes it harder to see. Well, since COVID, supply chain's been a whole thing. All right.

Let's wrap this up. This show's never going to let me book my own guest again. I want everybody here, everybody who's watching, and me to feel safer when we're outside. What do I do this weekend? with myself and my little girls are six and three. How do we engage with nature in a healthy way? Well, start by right now.

We're getting ready to move into the season that the nymphal-stage black-legated ticks are going to be the active ones. They're the size of a poppy seed. Oh, Jesus Christ. And so you need to know what you're looking for. Which one is that? That's not on there.

Oh, God. It's too small. They're invisible. Here. Okay. Oh, wow. You have ticks with you? Yeah.

Of course you do. Why wouldn't you? These are dead ticks. And which ones are the... Well, so there's little nymphs. There's some little ones that towards the top there. It's hard to see, but they're small. Wow.

Right? And so they're gonna start at your shoe level. Okay. So the first thing that I recommend that you do is... Nice. Before the weekend, spray everybody's shoes with this stuff. It's got permethrin in it. That's the key ingredient.

And it will last on the shoes for about a month. Nice. Against ticks. Once it's on the shoes, it doesn't hurt anything else. Right. Right. And so everyone is like, I don't like chemicals. But curiously, everyone's willing to spray their shoes,

probably because it walks through God knows what, right? Right. So get them started with prevention at a place where they're willing to do it. That's sort of what we... Well, that's an easy thing right away you can do. Spray everybody's shoes. Once a month, if you have a pet, you're giving them a shoe tablet once a month. So same day that you're giving them the shoe tabit,

remember to spray your kid's shoes. I'm glad you mentioned my pet, because that's where the ticks come into our house from. But my pet takes a pill that puts insecticide in his blood, so then when the ticks bite him, they die. Why can't I take that? Another great question. Maybe we don't want to put insecticide in our bodies,

but I'm doing it to my dog. Yeah. So it's something. Something that has, you're not the first one to think of it, I'm sorry. For God's sake. And... Give me a little credit around here, huh? Yeah. Get a lot of credit for having me here.

Well, I... Thank you. I'm so thankful you're here. Thank you for talking to me. Have we covered enough? Is there any one last thing you want to share with anybody? We covered some prevention, getting them off our body. They can take pictures and send it to you.

your lab or what where what is it yeah it's called tick spotters okay um on just type that in i think your search engines will find it okay and and and a hundred thousand ticks later i have 100,000 people's stories in those submissions oh wow yeah yeah well thank you so much for being here we we really really appreciate it for more information on ticks and dr mather's word go to tick encounter.org. Dr. Thomas Mather, everybody. We did a quick break where we right back after this. Axios reports that Trump said to Netanyahu, you're fucking crazy. The second source says Trump was pissed and yelled at Netanyahu at one point, what the fuck are you doing? I didn't know. We could say that word. We all giggled like schoolgirls like he said. I can say it.

I can say it if the president says. Explore more shows from the Daily Show podcast universe 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. This has been a Comedy Central podcast.