The Right Time with Bomani Jones - Tennessee vs Nico Iamaleava and Stephen A Smith Finally Runs for President | 4.14

Episode Date: April 14, 2025

On today's episode of The Right Time, Bomani Jones reacts to Nico Iamaleava transferring out of Tennessee and Stephen A. Smith's potential Presidential campaign. Bo starts the show by giving praise to Rory McIlroy completing the golf career Grand Slam by winning The Masters and why the viewing experience of The Masters has gotten so much better recently. (0:40) Next, Bo breaks down the situation in Knoxville where QB Nico Iamaleava is leaving Tennessee due to the school not raising his NIL deal and why the NCAA never prepared for this kind of issue. (6:36) Then Bomani discusses Stephen A. Smith leaving the possibility of running for President of the United States open and why he would win in a debate vs any 2028 candidate. (20:48) And finally, we have another round of If You Haven't Heard stories involving the best current financial advice, a potential dementia vaccine and quitting smartphones. Then Bomani listens to some voicemails about when you have mistakenly sent a text message to someone you were talking about. (40:09) IYHH Contributors: Bryan Walsh, Editorial Director at Vox: “Could an inexpensive vaccine help stave off dementia?” https://bit.ly/4czrrdW Allie Volpe, Senior Reporter at Vox: “The best financial advice right now is the most counterintuitive” https://bit.ly/3Yt2UBo Adam Clark Estes, Senior Tech Correspondant at Vox: “A skeptic’s guide to quitting your smartphone” https://bit.ly/3RjytK2 . . . Subscribe to The Right Time with Bomani Jones on Spotify, Apple or wherever you get your podcasts and follow the show on Instagram, Twitter, and Tik Tok for all the best moments from the show. Download Full Podcast Here: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6N7fDvgNz2EPDIOm49aj7M?si=FCb5EzTyTYuIy9-fWs4rQA&nd=1&utm_source=hoobe&utm_medium=social Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-right-time-with-bomani-jones/id982639043?utm_source=hoobe&utm_medium=social Follow The Right Time with Bomani Jones on Social Media: http://lnk.to/therighttime Subscribe to Supercast for Ad-Free Episodes: https://righttime.supercast.com/ Support the Show: Discover faster, more reliable search with Perplexity today. Download the app or ask Perplexity anything at perplexity.com! https://pplx.ai/bomani-jones When any player scores 50 or more points in a game, DashPass members save 50% on an order, up to $10 off. Use promo code NBA50 to redeem. See further terms and conditions at https://drd.sh/8ONpZP/ Go to zbiotics.com/BOMANI to learn more and get 15% off your first order when you use BOMANI at checkout. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the right time. A Wave Original presented by perplexity. My name is Beaumani Jones. Thanks for listening wherever you get your podcast. Thanks for watching us on YouTube. Subscribe, like, rate us, review us, give us five stars. You only give us four stars. I'm inclined to believe you are a hater.

We are going to talk about our future commander-in-chief Stephen A. Smith. Well, maybe, well, maybe not. Whatever, either way, I'm going to talk about it. But shout out to you, Roy McElroy. I saw that you won the Masters. If I was just a little bit more of a white man, we'd be doing his whole show about you. It was fascinating. It was amazing.

Sean, you're a golf guy. Hey, you recall seeing somebody more about the business of beating himself the roar you appeared to be except for those times where he appeared to be the greatest golfer whoever lived? I tweeted it because I obviously am a golf sicker and watch the entirety of the Masters all weekend. But I was like, he simultaneously played the worst golf of his career and the best golf of his career all weekend. And you're like, this incaps. just encapsulates what Rory McElroy, what that roller coaster is. And he finally did it.

To be fair to him, it was not the worst golf of his career or even the worst golf of his career at Augusta because he's the dude that once shot in 80. Yes. Going in. And remember the story at the time, I never quite saw it verified, but the story at the time was that his ex-girlfriend had pulled up to be there congratulated when he won. And I, dude, that's an 80 right there. Like if that really had happened, it's a wonder he didn't shoot a 90.

And that dude, you know, everything on the golf, he's able to maintain some sort of like professionalism. But, you know, just last year he had like a fair divorce allegations. And of course, like his wife and daughter are the ones to, you know, see him at the end of his round. So I'm like, you know, I think this guy would prefer if we kept it all just whatever's on the green, whatever's on the golf course, you know. Kind of, kind of. He'd be telling us a little bit too. much. We always know when he got a girl, right? Like, like he is of this generation. He 35. He's right in the smack of it, man. We always, we always know whatever is going on with Roy. The thing that

makes the Masters so interesting always, first of all, big winner of the high definition generation. When the TV went to HD, the viewing experience of the Masters became something completely different. Number two, it's the best branded event. I mean, I could go on and on about the guilty pleasure that is the Masters. If you go to YouTube and look up Game Theory, Bomani Jones, Masters, we did something on it a couple of years ago that is worth you checking out. But the thing about the Masters that makes it so interesting is that it is of those majors, the only one that's at the same place every year. And so the idea of winning the U.S. Open is different because there are eight or nine different courses that they bounce

between when they do it. What it means to win the Masters is based around a certain consistency, right? On top of like the course being what it is and all the, traditional stuff and all that. Da-da-da-da. Nah, nah, nah. When a dude falls apart at the Masters, it's different than falling apart of these other places

because that dude in his mind has thought about being in this exact place in a much different way. The receipts at the Masters are way more pronounced, right? Like, you know, people will pull up what you did wrong on 15, two, three years ago

over and over and over again. Yes. Whereas, like other courses, you can't because, like you said, it's like other tournaments, it's different courses. You mentioned the broadcasting of it all and how they use the best technology and their website live streams better than any platform ever.

And it's like, why doesn't more sports broadcast companies do this? Because they're not that rich, Sean. This is, that is about Augusta. That is not about the CBS. That is about, I can say, I could go on forever about this. But anyway, that ain't why your boy started off. I wanted to make sure y'all know, I didn't want to. Finn is, Sean, I know, you know, you're a golf guy and you're not one of the whites, but this is

still like, this is, this is for the whites in particular, this means something completely different. Totally. And I know you want to change topics right before we do a nice little breaker. Chris Haynes reports the Phoenix Sunset Fire head coach Mike Boodenholzer. Oh, ready? Just now. Just this morning, yeah. Okay. So that means in the last four years, I guess it is. Is it four or is it three that they have fired three coaches who have been to the NBA finals in the last six years, two champions. Yeah, they went Budenholzer, Vogel in 2003, Monty Williams, champion.

So, so since 2020, so since 2020, so they, when Vogel got one year? Yeah, Vogel got one year. He didn't even finish the calendar year. Okay, so they have fired three coaches, two of whom have championships. and look, the only one I don't think is a good coach, or not, Booneholtzer isn't a bad coach, but I know what the problems are with Boonthalzer. I think Vogel's a good coach. I think Moni's a pretty good coach. I'm like, damn, wow.

Already, go ahead and put perplexity on the screen. Yeah. Damn. It is your friendly reminder that the Sons was sorry than a motherfucker until they got good right fast. And even then we talk about how like, are they even that good? Yes, yes. I mean, we could go on forever. I apologize to you, Phoenix, Sun.

I wasn't prepared to slam y'all. But I want to move on to this story about Nico, not to Nico with the Mavericks. Nico I yama leava. I hate this. Sean, tell them, please, that you heard me practicing this. Bo called multiple people right before we were about to record to get the correct pronunciation. He even said it correctly. I think 10 straight times.

You heard me. You heard. I think I did like vocal exercises. Back to back to back. really working hard. I amaliava. I amaliava. I amaliava.

I amaliava. I amaliava. Nico I amaliaava. I amaliaava. There we go. You do it with me. I amaliaava. All right.

He is Tennessee's quarterback. Tennessee made it to the college football playoff last year. They went up to Ohio State and they got their asses kicked. Now, we got a report this weekend that he had not been reporting to practice. I don't know. It was the spring game. Anyway, he had not been showing up at Tennessee, and the people at Tennessee had been calling him, and he had not been answering. And it was because he is currently being compensated via NIL at a rate of like $2.2 million.

And he wanted to take that up to $4 million. Tennessee said, no, we're not going to do it. And they let him go. And now the young man is trying to go figure out where he's going to play college football next. I read a story in The Athletic yesterday that did a lot of anonymous sourcing in terms. talking about a lot of people, getting a lot of anonymous quotes that is and trying to figure out where it is that he's going to go. And it was a lot of projection and a lot of people saying, I wouldn't pay him more than this. I wouldn't pay him more than that. Maybe he could get this

much. Maybe he could get that much. Da-da-da. And all of this stuff. And to me, the point of that story was not so much about the fact or like how much money he would wind up getting or what the market was. What to me was the point of that story, Sean, was that. He didn't have a place lined up to go. Yeah, we discussed it casually before we started this live episode. And I was like, it's like he went into negotiations without a fallback plan or without like an actual second offer. Yeah, it's like he tried to rob him with a water gun. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Like he walked in here, he walked in here with the tool. Like, yeah, give me the money. And they're like, no. So get out of here. Yeah, yeah. You don't get out of my face with that shit. And then he didn't have no plan for actually going and getting the money. So when I first heard the story, I thought it was like, oh, this is a holdout.

Then I saw the way he went about it and that he just wasn't taking their phone calls. And then they let him go. And I was like, this isn't a holdout. You just no call, no show to football team. With zero leverage. It's like all you need is leverage in a negotiation. You have none. Right.

Yet none whatsoever. And look, I've talked about this NIL stuff. while. Now, one thing that has happened that wasn't the case, that did something on NIL for a game theory two years ago. And something that has changed since then is the money has absolutely skyrocketed. Like at that time, the average that an athlete was getting was something like $1,000, like it was some small number. I can't remember exactly what it was, but they weren't actually getting any money. Those numbers have gone through the roof. These dudes are making millions of dollars playing college football. Dudes that are not going to play pro football are

making millions of dollars and good for them, right? The problem that I talked about from the very beginning that others talked about and that is the same point that I see everybody making right now. And the reason I'm pointing out that it's the same point I see everybody making right now is I am going to do my best to try to make a new point about this because I think it's important to get to the other levels of it beyond what is obvious and surface level. In discussing compensation for college football players, we were always stuck on what was so obvious because it was such a grade injustice that the guys weren't getting paid at all, that we didn't even have to get past that point in the conversation. Now we got way more places that we have to go. Now, the point that

everybody has made, because it's so important while also being so obvious, is that we wound up here because the NCAA did not prepare for this day coming, even though it was obvious one day it would happen. Therefore, nobody really had any plan. And at every turn, the NCAA and their member schools, rather than trying to establish some sorts of rules and protocols for making all this stuff happen, they just hoped that Congress would swoop in and save them. And Congress decided, no, they didn't want to do that. You boys are on your own. And so now what we have is this system where we saw a couple of years ago with Jay and Rashada where Florida signed him to the NIL deal and then just said, ha, major look, took it back. And he went from thinking he was going to get like $16 million

to maybe getting $2 million. And the boys bounced around from school to school after that. And all because there were no real means of adjudicating the matter of his dispute. Because there was no plan. Because there were no rules. Because there are no rules. Because every single bit of this is just a wild, wild goddamn West. Because instead of doing something about this, everybody just hope like hell somebody else would come up with a way to deal with the problem.

And that has not happened. So now we wind up in a place where now we have seen in college basketball where a lot of these coaches. Roy Williams, Myshe Shevsky, Jay Wright, you can probably point out a couple of others, who just looked around and were like, yo, I don't want to do this anymore. This is turning into something that I don't feel like dealing with. And people like me who have been advocating for players to get paid and to have more power for such a long time, looked at the behaviors of those people.

And when I say people like me in this case, I am not one of the people who did this, to be clear. But every time one of these coaches complains about the New World Order, they jump up and like, ugh, you don't like. get so much down that the players have power, do you? And it's like, that may be the case. But if you listen to what the complaints are that coaches have, and if you talk to people who cover college sports and the off-the-record stuff they hear from coaches, it's very clear what's going on here, man. There's no system to this. There's no rule. It's chaos. I cannot imagine trying to be a college football coach right now with the state of affairs of these guys and they got some agents in

these cases and they get into these negotiations and they make these plays or whatever. but they stay asking for some more money. Maybe they don't even deserve more money. Maybe it's just, it's everything. And this is before you add in the fact that you still got to deal with the craziness that you had to deal with before in this game, right? The craziness that was boosters, the craziness that was whatever your administration is, you still had to deal with all of that, right?

This is what I noticed about the story with Nico Iameleava, Iama laiava, I amaleava. Niko I amaliava. This is what I noticed about this story that I don't think we're talking enough about because I think that this is a structural flaw in the game that's going to take a long, long, long time to fix itself. Okay? I hear about these players having agents. Okay. And I am sure that many of them do have agents and I know that the agencies, the big agencies are getting involved in the NIL business. they want to get these guys early, keep them and then keep them at the firm for when some of them get to the league. And of course, I talked about there being a lot of really big money right now. So there are agencies that are at play. Okay. I just want you to think about any industry that there is. You could even think about this in the context of sports with expansion. Okay. So there's an infrastructure in place where if you need a sports agent, these are the places you go. These are the people that you talk to, whatever it is. Right. And like when you start rising up in the game or whatever,

They're agents start calling you and they try to get you on. It's like this in my business and all this stuff. But the point I'm trying to make there is there's a pretty fixed number of agents that are there to serve the needs and interest of that many football players. Now, that's just for the NFL. Not all of those guys have a good agent. I mean, I would say most of them probably have a good agent. I would say a lot of them have a good agent. A lot of them have the same agent for whatever it's worth. but they don't all have good agents. I don't think that there are enough good agents to go around to cover everybody in the NFL, all right? But they've got contracts, they've got to negotiate, they've got needs, they got all those things cool. But let's operate on the assumption that there are literally just enough good agents

to cover the whole NFL. Okay? Now let's bring college football into play. There are 85 scholarship players per rome. in college football. I think it is a safe thing for me to say off the top of my head that in the power four conferences, if we call it 16 teams per power four conference, which is roughly the right amount. I don't feel like counted out right now.

Okay. 16 teams per power four conference. That's 64 teams, 85 scholarships per. So you multiply that out. All I'm saying is this. it is that many thousand players who need representation. I just told you that I don't think it's enough good agents to go around for the whole NFL, but let's say it's just enough good agents to deal with the whole NFL.

What kind of agents are you getting to represent these college players? How good are these agents representing these college players, keeping in mind that they are being asked to represent these college players while this game has no rules. Now, I'm not saying this as a criticism or like the point of it for me is not to criticize who the representatives are for these young men. What I am saying is that our friend Nico seems to be carrying on like a person who gets bad advice. You want to see another example of bad advice? Sean, do you put that on the screen, please? this is Josh Pate, who I believe works for the athletic.

But he is reporting that during the playoff, the players had said to themselves, basically, their contracts were for 12 games. They were now playing a 13th game, but they weren't getting paid for the 13th game. So they went in to try to get more money for the 13th game. Like not just him, but many players, they said, we're doing this. Okay. Now, logically, I understand where they're coming from, but Sean, that wasn't going to work. That would have never have worked. I mean, it's like, you keep talking about this. It's like the NICO issue is that it's, he's never learned how to navigate this world from the business side of things, right? It's like very fresh in the way he's negotiating his contracts and like this kind of we're putting our foot down because we're playing an extra game. It's like, that's not, that's not an argument to win.

No, that's a, it's, it's terrible advice. Yeah. That's all I'm saying. And so looking at the way that he played this now with this last thing, where, okay, I want to go get four million dollars, but they didn't seem to have another offer in hand. That is bad advice. And what you're going to have here, I think in this game that is very much so worth paying attention to, you're going to have a lot of guys getting really, really, really.

really bad advice. And so he's going to land somewhere, right? Like somebody's going to pick him up. But if you a coach, do you trust this? Like given how you've just seen business be handled and this guy seems to be a good player but not a great player. Is this what you want? Is this what you feel like putting up with? Is this what you feel like dealing with? So what worries me at every turn in this and has been for this, who's going to be giving these young men advice in these decisions that they're making? Because that is a very college student sort of decision to make. I'll never forget when I was in undergrad, I was on the hall council in my dorm. I was the treasurer. And I forget something happened and we had a dispute with some other organization about something. And so our dorm president,

who was a piece of work, he said, you know, know what? And he got on a phone call and he got us a meeting with the president of Clark Atlanta University. And I went with him. I forget who else is on the board. And it was two, three of us. And we went in and we met with the president. And the president was kind enough to entertain it and have us come in. And all he told us about was there were a lot of other people that you should have called before you came and talked to me. That was the game that we needed. We needed the game on, That's not really how this works, right? And so on one hand, I admire these cats gumption for trying to get out here and try to get

their bread before the playoff game. But somebody needed to be like, I hear what y'all are saying right now, but that's not how you do this. That's not how this is going to work. The same way no call, no show was not going to be the way that he was going to make this happen. And now what he doesn't have is a scholarship at this place. And Tennessee had to do that because Tennessee otherwise going to have a line of kids out

here trying to run the same game. if they didn't do this. We can be advocates for the cause of the athletes while also recognizing this isn't the same argument that it used to be, right? They are not quite the same defenseless babes in the woods that they were when nobody was getting any money. Now this money is real. Now there's a game that you have to play because you're a participant in something that

operates a little more fairly than it had previously. And somebody's got to start giving these cats better advice. because whoever told him, if they told him that what he was doing was a good idea, somebody needed to kick their ass. This was awful, awful. And as of right now, Sean, that two million he was going to make, he ain't making it. And will he ever make it? You know, all that for just an extra $2 million when you're already getting this money that,

you know, most people are dreaming of for a college athlete. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. But like right now he does not have a $2 million deal. It is not a guarantee that he is going to. to get a $2 million dollar deal. It is not out of the realm of possibility that all these people get together and say this particular person, we're not going to break him off that bread so that the rest of them understand that this ain't what you do. He got bad advice. And I think that's something we're going to need to pay very close attention to, particularly those of us who care about the interests of the

athletes themselves, is where are they getting this advice from? The advice industry. Is it really going to serve them because it's so many of those players and only but so many people who give good advice. That's just in regular life, let alone in a professional sense. I think it's probably going to take some years before the advice industry catches up to the needs of the players. And these are the kinds of things that we also need to think about instead of making the most obvious points. All right, Sean, I'm going to take a brief moment and send out a notification to people to let them know that I'll be talking about Stephen A. As many people know, I worked at ESPN or with ESPN or for ESPN in various capacities for the

better part of 20 years. I have been gone from there for the last two years. I'm not sure you can pop back up now because this is where I was going to get to you on. You know this for me as an approach to doing this show and something that I think is important for people to know. I'm not really interested in talking to a lot of ESPN business. that you can vouch on this. 100%. You intentionally try to avoid it if it doesn't make sense or it's not like, I have to talk about this, you know?

Yeah, I don't find it to be particularly interesting. However, they do. Yes. Like, you look at the numbers that pop up when people want to talk about like ESPN office gossip. They are always. People love it. People are all over it.

Like, for me, I think it's, I don't think I'm the right person to do it, right? because probably the most profound and provocative things that I could say about ESPN are things I didn't say when I worked there. And so to me, that feels a little uneasy. Right. You know, like there's room to question my credibility on the matter, you know, given those things. Like, that's not the way that I want to do it. And also, I know these people, right? Even if I am not friends with them, often I am friendly. And so, you know, there's a lot that goes on there. However, I saw Stephen A. Smith was on this week with a George Stephanophilus on Sunday morning. And I was like, oh, okay, this is a thing now.

I think it's funny that when you came back from break, you were discussing how the two things, the two news stories that happened while you were gone that you wish we were maybe doing shows for was the, I think it was a basketball-related thing, something with Luca. Oh, the LeBron, it was the LeBron and Stephen A, and then there was another thing.

but then this was kind of in the world of there and you were like, I would have definitely hit on the Stephen A thing but now it's like after his appearance, it's like, okay, now we have enough to really cover it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, no, no, it's huge, huge. Now, all right, I want to be clear on a couple of things. The way that I describe my relationship with Stephen A. Smith is very simple. We are not friends, but we are certainly friendly.

If I see Stephen A. Smith, it will be warm and we will speak. We do not talk. Like, the last time I saw him was at the Super Bowl. I have no idea the last time we saw each other on purpose. And we ever worked to see each other. Like, that wasn't just running in each other in the office or something like that. However, the first guest on Game Theory for HBO to be interviewed with Stephen A. Smith, he was kind enough to do that for us.

He actually invited himself off for season two to promote his book when it came out. Like, the man's been good to me, and I have a very generally high opinion of him as a peer and as a professional. Like, I think it's important for me to lay those things out here. I also, well, I saw Stephen A at an event, I want to say in 2022 for an event called HBCU Week. And it was in Orlando. And I was there as some sort of ambassador or something. I can't remember exactly what capacity I was there. But Stephen A works closely with that organization.

Stephen A pulled up to an event they had that night. And he pulls up like Stephen A pulls up. he pulled up with his bodyguard. And I watched the way to Stephen A was moving through that room. And I was like, oh, this man is going to run for office. He moved like a man who runs for office. That was my impression at the time. And I've said this publicly.

He says that he has no plan to run for office and that he's had no plan to run for office. And I don't think the man is lying necessarily. But if I told you a man moved the way he moved through those rooms and I told you that then he decided to publish his memoirs and all of this. this stuff, these are the kind of steps that people make before they run for president, right? I mean, those are the things that people do. I don't know how calculating Stephen A is being on those things. I'm just telling you that on its face, it would look like somebody that's running for office. But again, Stephen A said over and over and over again that he does not intend to run for

office. But then somehow, this like the polling machine kind of got started and there was one poll, and I forget how many people they asked, but he polled at 2% in that poll. Now, for all I know, they interview 50 people and one of them says Stephen A. Smith, and that could be 2%. Like, I personally don't know the mechanics of the poll that we're talking about here. But once that happened, we started seeing it come up more and more. And you started having more people bounce around the topic or the idea that maybe Stephen A. Smith could run for president. He talks about it on his own podcast.

I see him go on The View. And he talks about politics in those spaces. And there's a thing happening. Pablo Torre on his podcast said that they had done something and they talked to somebody that said they felt like Stephen A was polling at a number such that if you poll at that number, then you should absolutely run for president. And all of this leads to on Sunday morning,

Stephen A is on ABC talking about whether or not he will or won't run or what he's thinking about. And this is part of what he had to say. I saw you mentioned Bill Maher. I saw Steve Bannon was on with Bill Maher, and he was asked what Democrats he worries about. And you know what the only name he mentioned? As a Democrat, he'd be worried about. So are you really, are you really thinking about running for president? Is this something you think of this?

Listen, I've been, I have no choice because I've had elected officials, and I'm not going to give their names, elected officials coming up to me. I've had folks who are pundits come up to me. I've had folks that got a lot of money, billionaires and others that have talked to me exploratory committees and things of that nature. I'm not a politician. I've never had a desire to be a politician. I just signed a contract extension with ESPN.

I am very, very happy with my day job. I'm very happy what my boss is. It's a pretty damn good one. Just right. It's a pretty damn good contract. I couldn't be happier. But here's the reality. People literally, people have walked up to me,

including my own pastor for crying not loud, who has said to me, you don't know what God has planned for you. At least show the respect to the people who believe in you, who respect you, believe that you can make a difference in this country to leave the door open for any possibilities two to three years down the line. And that's what I've decided to do. One thing I appreciate is that Stephen A always makes clear that there are people more qualified than him and that

this shouldn't be a thing or whatever it is. I do believe he has a choice. He does not have to explore running for president. But if I were him in the same place and if I had Stephen A's constitution, I absolutely would explore running for president. I'd totally look into it. Why not? I might not do it, but I'd absolutely look into it. You know, there's the thing they talk about, you know, you don't bring, you don't come to the front. You're called to the front.

And it seems like there's a measure of calling that has taken place to bring Stephen A. Smith to the front. This is the point that I want to make here. Because the things that bother me about this, very few of them have to do with Stephen A. Smith. He is allowed to say, whatever. he thinks about matters. If he wants to, he can go ahead and do it and say it and boom, right? Like he has the right to this opinion. We're the ones who listen. That's not his fault, right? I firmly believe that. I just want to make this point right fast. And Sean, I want to have your face here when I say this and you can let me know if I'm tripping, okay? But I thought about this

earlier. If we heard that Stephen A. Smith was one of 10 finalists to be named the head coach of the New York Knicks. We would dismiss that shit is the dumbest thing that anybody had ever said in this world. If they told us that Stephen A. Smith was going to be in a real live version of Eddie. You remember Eddie? Yeah.

With Whoopi Goldberg, get it? All right. If they told us that Stephen A. was going to be Eddie, not only would we dismiss this completely, Sean, you from up here, they'd be in the streets outside of Madison Square Garden ready to burn that motherfucker down if somebody pretended like Stephen A. Smith was going to be the coach of the New York Knicks. Yeah, they would, they would boo it to eternity and laugh at it so, so hard.

So yeah, I agree with that take. Yes. If we say that Stephen A. Smith might run for president and be like, hey, what do you think? Huh, he might have a chance. Yeah, what do you think? ain't that something, right? And yo, that's not his fault. That is not like, what, the phenomenon that I am not describing is not a function of anything

to do with Stephen A. Smith. Here's what Stephen A. Smith is. Incredibly famous, right? I was talking to a friend of him. I was like, Ethan Strauss about this. We were texting about it. And he was like, I don't think Stephen A. Smith is that famous. I'm like, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

You are 100% entirely incorrect. He is absurdly famous and has been absurdly famous. Really now is like a culmination of 20 years or so. He is more famous than most of the people that he covers. His name recognition is quick, right? It's immediate, right? And that's the big part of it is it was an advantage that Donald Trump had that I thought was very important. If somebody says Donald Trump, nobody is like, who's he?

No matter what you thought about him, you knew who he was. you've got to skip that initial step of, I don't know who this person is. Stephen A's in that same space. People, even if they don't know his work, even if they don't like him, whatever it is, they know who he is. Now, in everything in our current society, okay, nothing matters more than how many people already know you. Case and point, if you out here trying to get a record deal, you can show up with your music,

but what they really want to know is how many followers you got on all these apps already. because people believe that if you were already famous, then they can parlay that into whatever the next step and the next goal is. That's a big part of the Trump phenomenon. He showed up and he was already famous. Then you can parlay it into something else. And so what I think, if nothing else, that people can obviously and clearly see by Stephen A is people already know who he is. If we have already dealt with that first step, then okay, cool, we can work the rest out, right? So somebody is absolutely going to entertain a possibility or give some thought to the idea of Stephen A. Smith being the president because he has gotten over what is the biggest hurdle for people to get over at every turn, right?

But I feel like that's enough. I don't even like I need to say anything after but. I'm just, but, but, like, his point has been that this should be an indictment of the Democrats. And he says the Democrats in particular, but I think that this stretched out across both parties. But he was like, this should be an indictment. of the Democrats that people are really entertaining the possibility of him being the president. And I think there's something to that, but no, this is about the people. This is about what the people themselves are willing to entertain. And this seems to be to me that this is the people are willing to entertain the idea of Stephen A. Smith running for president. So hell yeah, big dog, go look into it. Check it out. See if that's something you might want to do. I just, I don't, I don't blame you for it. But it's a world that created the fact that this could be done.

And also, I will say this. Running for president since the year 1960 has been a television contest, right? Like the inflection point in American history on that is the debate between Kennedy and Nixon in 1960. It's a television contest. Bless the hearts of any of you who think you're going to get up on television and start arguing with Stephen A. Smith about stuff. You might, I don't know if you're going to lose, but I can tell you. you're not going to win. Per that point, boy, I just wanted to pull up this graphic from perplexity.

It's basically the potential presidential candidates for 2028. And obviously it's like J.D. Vance, Ronda Santis, Donald Trump Jr., Marco Rubio, Kamala, Pete Buttigieg Tim Molls. And to your point, these are people who would immediately lose in a debate to Stephen A. Smith. Immediately. Dude, he got so many reps. Like, nobody's got more reps debating people on television. that Stephen A. Smith does. Nobody does. Nobody has more practice. And as a result of that,

nobody has more experience talking to what people think of as like that, like the average voter, like the Joe Sixpack type stuff. Who you think watching TV at 10 o'clock in the morning on a Tuesday? Right? Like, no, Stephen A. Smith has the experience of talking these people. I totally see how, no matter who you are, if you operate in the space, how you can get your brain and get your mind into the ID. of this is somebody to run for president. I just want you to again ask yourself why you think that anybody can be president of the United States, but only a few people can be the coach of the New York Knicks. Because I think all of you would acknowledge that we're given, we would never get this far. We barely got this far with JJ Reddick. We barely did. Ted Turner,

Ted Turner was the older of the Atlanta Braves, and Ted Turner in, I think, 1976, I believe it was the year, named himself the manager of the team, and the commissioner told him that they would take his team away from him if he were to continue to do that and to make a mockery of baseball. That was being the manager of the Braves when they was sorry. When they were sorry, they was like,

hey, hey, hey, we got to show some respect for the office. That's not what's going on on the other end. It's just not it. So again, I agree with Stephen A. There are more qualified people to do this. I agree with Stephen A that perhaps this is an indictment of the Democratic Party. Um, because what Stephen A has also picked up on, he picked up on a bipartisan issue. We're all shitting on the Democrats. Like, all of us are doing that. Like, like, every, that is a crowd pleaser. He, he's a proud pleaser. He's, everybody's well get out there and say, who wants ice cream? Everybody wants ice cream, right? Like that one, that one's always going over. But the greater indictment is not of him. It is those of us

who are behaving credulously in the face of this. It is not about him. It is about us. This episode is presented by perplexity. Perplexity is an AI-powered answer engine that searches the internet in real time to deliver fast, clear, high-quality answers. Unlike legacy search engines that respond with the listed links, perplexity skipped straight to the answers you need explained in everyday language that's easy to understand with sources and citations. Ashon, how do you use perplexity, especially when it comes to the right time? You know, if you're a loyal listener or viewer of the show,

you're already aware that we use perplexity throughout the show on Mondays, especially when you need questions answered or stats confirmed. But perplexity is great because, say, you're curious about a specific topic from our, if you haven't heard, segment, for example, this news, species of dire wolf they just resurrected. I can search for more info about it and learn that this achievement marks the first reported case of de-extinction. That's a crazy thing to learn about, but also enjoy seeing just how fast perplexity got that answer for us. Discover faster, more reliable search with perplexity today. Download the app or ask perplexity anything at perplexity.com.

Sean, you know I stopped drinking, but apparently there's a great product for people who want to have a better tomorrow after a night out? Yeah, I got to tell you about this game-changing product. I use it before a night out with drinks. It's called pre-alcohol, and let's face it, after a night with drinks, I don't bounce back the next day like I used to, and I got to make a choice. I can either have a great night or a great next day, but that is until I found pre-alcohol. Z-biotics, pre-alcohol, probiotic drink is the world's first genetically engineered probiotic. It was invented by scientists to tackle rough mornings after drinking, and here's how it works. When you drink, Alcohol gets converted into a toxic byproduct in the gut.

It's this byproduct, not dehydration. That's the blame for your rough next day. Pre-alcohol produces an enzyme to break down this bribe product. Just remember to make pre-alcohol your first drink of the night, drink responsibly, and you'll feel your best tomorrow. Now, that's saying it's too good to be true. You know, I was also on the fence about it, but every time I have pre-alcohol before drinks, I noticed the difference immediately the next day. Even after a night out, I can confidently plan on bouncing back the next day to tackle whatever the day has in store for me.

Spring is here, which means more opportunities to celebrate warmer weather before drinks on the patio, that tropical vacation, or your best friend's wedding. Don't forget Zbiotics pre-alcohol, drink one before drinking, and wake up feeling great the next day. Go to Zibiotics.com slash Beaumani to learn more and get 15% off your first order when you use Beaumonti at checkout. Zibiotics is back with 100% money back guarantee, so if you're unsatisfied for any reason, they'll refund your money, no questions asked. Remember to head to zbiotics.com slash Beaumani and use the code Beaumani at checkout for 15% off. Shout out to DashPass and their members-only deal for the 24-25 NBA season. They swoosh, you save. When any player scores 50 or more points in a game, DashPass members save 50% on an order up to $10 off.

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Use promo code NBA 50 to redeem terms apply. We know you can't be on top of all the news and information of the day. No need for the social media feeds. We got you. Now, if you haven't heard. All right, Bo here's the first one of the day. Hi, I'm Ali Volby and I'm a senior reporter at box.com. If you've been paying attention to the news lately, you know the economy has been depressing

lately, to say the least. President Donald Trump's tariff plans have thrown the stock market into turmoil, which can make looking at your retirement account right now kind of sad. But according to the finance experts I spoke to, the best strategy is to do nothing. That is, don't make drastic changes to your investment strategy. Selling stocks during a downturn may feel satisfying in the short term and scratches the itch to take some sort of action, but it's nearly impossible to correctly time the market and get back in. Selling low typically results in a loss and you could come to regret that choice later on. To avoid making any rash decisions, experts say to remind yourself why you're investing in the first place. Maybe that's to better

support your loved ones in the future. Then think about your financial goals, to retire by 65 or pay for your kids to go to college. If those motivators and goals haven't changed, neither should your strategy. Remember, investing is a long game. Don't make short-sighted decisions. Don't make short-sighted decisions now that might impact your future. Yeah, I would, I would say as I hear that, my thought, Sean, is that you don't buy stock to hit for a lick. No, no. Like, that's not the, like, and even if like, you know, the funny money people, the whole buy the dip argument is basically the same thing. Like if you're in it, be in it. And when it goes low, it's a chance for you to stack up. But if you've made the decision to be in it, you just go ahead and be in it.

But no, but the panic sell off of stocks, like, what are you trying to do tomorrow? Now, if you try to retire, like right fast? Okay, maybe it's time for you to put this in sort of annuity or whatever because, oh my gosh, Sean, I can't even be paying attention to this shit no more, man. Like, like, this is, it's, yeah, it's like you're going to, you're going to sell when it's bad, but what are you going to do with that money? Because everything, it's not like you're going to get a house or, you know, a new car out of it. Everything else is bad. What you, what you're saying is that you think this is the only the beginning of the fall, which I guess is, is, bro, I don't know.

I just know. My money look like it's in shambles. If it's the beginning of the fall, just take me out now, you know? I don't need this NVIDIA stock to really save me from the fall, you know? Yeah, I don't, I don't like, do I need to go back over there to Vietnam? Because I ain't going to lie, brother. I went over there to Vietnam. And, you know, people are like, oh, so you think you could stay there?

L-O-L.L. Hell no, I couldn't stay there. What are you talking about? I got some dope. I got some great. I'll tell you that, but oh, no, but oh, man, dude. Ooh, man, come on. All right, here's our next one.

Hey, this is Brian Walsh, editorial director at Vox.com. I recently wrote a piece for Vox's Future Perfect section about some surprisingly hopeful news and dementia research that they actually featured in our good news newsletter. Anyone who's watched a loved one struggle with dementia knows how devastating these conditions can be. Right now, over 55 million people worldwide suffer from dementia, including about 6 million Americans.

roughly one in 10 people over 65. As our population ages, those numbers are projected to double by 2060. But these past few weeks have brought some genuinely encouraging findings. A study from Wales followed more than 280,000 older adults and found that those who received the shingles vaccine were 20% less likely to develop dementia over the following seven years compared to those who didn't get vaccinated. What makes this study particularly compelling is how it took advantage of a quirk

in Welsh health policy. In 2013, Wales began offering free shingles vaccines to people turning 79, but not to those who are already 80-year-older. This created what scientists call a natural experiment, with two nearly identical groups separated only by whether or not they received this vaccine. Why would a shingles vaccine protect against dementia? Scientists think it could be related to inflammation. Shingles is the cause by the chickenpox virus reactivating after lying dormant for decades,

creating intense inflammation around nerve cells. That inflammation may contribute to cognitive decline. This finding adds to growing evidence suggesting that we've been thinking about neurodegenerative diseases like dementia or Alzheimer's all wrong. Those amyloid and tile protein plaques we've been focused on for so long might actually be the body's response to underlying infections, which could explain what the treatments targeting just the plaques haven't been very effective. We're still a long way from a silver bullet against Alzheimer's and dementia,

this represents one of the strongest potential protective products we found that could actually be implemented in practice. And that's definitely some good news worth sharing. Sean, I ain't going to lie. They said that Schengel's vaccine improve your chances by 20% within seven years of the vaccine. I feel like what we've established actually is a game of when to get that vaccine at the right time because it sounds like if I get it too early, then I won't get the benefits. Yeah, it's like what's the right window for?

for me to take this while I can maximize its kind of potency for dementia, I guess. Like, don't get me wrong, I'd prefer not to get shingles. I'd really not want to get dementia. Yes. You know, like, like the shingles part is kind of whatever. But dementia is brutal. Like, I don't wish that upon any person or any family. It's just, it's just awful. I, I would prefer not. We'll put it like that. Yeah. And just the fact that there is maybe a cure in this, like, backwards, other vaccine way, I'm all for it. Whatever works, baby. Whatever works.

I mean, basically, I'm going to go try to O-Zemic dementia. Cool. Let's do it. All right, here's our last, if you haven't heard. I recently tried to quit my smartphone. Not like going off the grid or anything, but I wanted to do just the basics. Text, call my mom, listen to music without getting sucked into the social media casino. I failed, but I'm not done trying.

This is Adam Clark Estes. I'm a senior correspondent at Fox where I write a newsletter called user-friendly that's all about how to make tech work better for you. Now, the anti-smartphone challenge led me to a whole new movement called digital minimalism. The phones they like are not smartphones. They're called intentional phones. Everything you do on these phones, you intend to do. In other words, you don't look at your phone and get sucked into staring at it. There's no web browser, no social media apps, no infinite feeds. One of the better known options is the light phone.

The original version launched in 2015 with a simple tagline, your phone away from phone. It could only make calls. Since then, there have been newer models that have a few simple tools like texting, directions, podcast, music apps, but they still leave out anything that encourages endless scrolling. And still, no web browser. So I tried living with just the Lightphone 3, which came out this spring, and it was harder than I thought to let go of a lot of apps, email, Slack, ridechair apps.

But even trying to give up these things made me realize that I don't need them all the time. And I do need to pay less attention to my phone. So I made my smartphone boring. I got as many apps off my home screen as possible. I made it black and white. I hit Instagram from myself. I'm even thinking about putting it in a drawer on Friday, picking up the light phone, and not looking back until Monday morning. Part of why I feel the need to stay connected is work, part of its family, but mostly it's just had it.

I've chained myself to my smartphone as long as smartphones have existed. That's made me distracted and anxious. And I forgot what it's like to be bored. It's not bad. The world is more interesting than you realize. Sean, you know, I think I'm working on. I'm not doing a great job. I'm doing pretty good with the phone.

It's the laptop. That's my struggle. Because the laptop is here when I'm at home and there's always like that's, it's hard. But man, I'm telling you, we've got to do it. it. Like, I really see it and observe it more in other people now that I've become, like, more attuned to this as a thing that I work on. Maybe we got to get on it, man. Like, we got to, we got to do something. But I see it all over the place. And it's just, it's, it's a tough go. And again, for me, it's when I'm just like, why, I'm just here. Why am I doing this? Why am I doing this?

You know, I just, you know, I was on vacation when you were, I was in Hawaii. And I came back really refreshed. And I was like, oh, like, I wonder if it was the fact that I was like, by the ocean. and getting in the sun. It's like, well, I realize, like, my phone time was down by, like, significantly more than half because it's, you know, three hours before even L.A. and Eastco, six hours east go. So I was like, the time difference. I have all my people here anyway. And I was just off my phone. And I was like, wow, I feel really refreshed coming back from that. Well, one thing I find interesting is that I have all these people in my life that clearly hear me talk about this.

And I give them all the doom and gloom from these books and everything. And they nod along with me what I talk. And then I'd be with them on their phones. They, back in that all, they can't, they just stay with that needle in that bad boy, right? They look at me like, yeah, good for you. Let me know how that goes. And I'm just like, come on, man, we, I swear to you, we'll all be better off. We all will. And, you know, I pulled it up on perplexity, but, you know, Adam Clark Estes, the writer at Vox mentioned the light phone, which is this, you know, kind of minimalist design phone.

and, you know, one, you know, it could do everything, phone, text, email, what you need, but without the apps, the best part for me, and something that actually got me interested of maybe getting it is it avoids third-party apps and tracking so that, like, you get no surveillance and you don't get that kind of ask app, not to track kind of prompt that we always get on the iPhone. So in terms of that, I was like, yeah, there's some safety value involved and it's just, I'm on my phone less. Just look, you ain't got to do it because I'm doing it. I'm just telling y'all, I think we'd be best. better off this way. I agree. All right, an incredible prompt this week is the time you accidentally sent a wrong text to the person you were pretty much talking about. Some wild submissions, some that I'm like, I don't even know if we should air these. But as we're here, we're going to air, here's the three voicemails for the week. Hey, Bumani. How you doing? So this is circa 2015. We have a large deadline. Everybody on deck working the weekend on the Sunday. Everyone's supposed to show up at 10 a.m. But Cindy, we'll call her Cindy, doesn't show.

11 o'clock, we'll put in the lunch order. Where's Cindy? Send her off a text. Hey, everyone's here. Need you here. Where are you at? 11 o'clock becomes 12 o'clock. Now I'm really frustrated. I'm starting to borderline. I'm livid. Hey, your stuff feeds into what other people are doing. We really need you here. Where are you? Please get here. 12 o'clock turns into one o'clock. now I'm just kind of concerned. Just no word. Dindy, are you okay? What's going on?

One o'clock becomes two o'clock. Another text, Dindy, I'm really, really worried here. Can you just let me know that you're okay? A few minutes after two o'clock, return text. I'm sorry, I overslept. You overslept? It's two o'clock. Fire off a text and my wife just filled with rage and venom and frustration.

Fine. And then respond to Cindy. Okay, well, I know you'll be here soon, so just hurry up, but be safe. Two o'clock turns into 2.30 and then 4 o'clock. And she strolls in with wet hair, not a care in the world. I am beyond upset, filled with rage. Again, fire off another text to my wife with just the venom, spitting venom. and put my phone down, walk out of my office, go to her desk.

She's not there, but her phone is, and her phone buzzes, and I am even more upset. She's been here for three minutes. Who is she texting? I look down, and it's me. It's me. I didn't text her. Wait, run back to my office, grab my phone. No, I did text her.

I did not text my wife, the long diatribe with rage and venom. walk back to her desk and she's just getting back from the copy room. She starts to apologize very sweetly, at which point I stop her and say, Indy, I sent my wife a text remarking my frustration at the situation. She looks down on her phone as it buzzes with a reminder and she looks at me, she nods and she says, fair enough. She unlocks her phone, opens it up, hands it to me and says, you can go ahead and delete it. and I was able to delete the text so she never actually saw the words, but she understood

the meaning behind them. So it was a little, the awkwardness was the save, but the point had been made. Anyway, keep up the good work. Hang in there. But man, she was like, yo, fair enough. Hey, Cindy, the game needs fewer of you, but if they will be you, more like you. Got to love it. Here's the next one. Yes. Hey, what's up, Bo? This is Jay Full calling from Los Angeles.

I wanted to call in about a text message I erroneously sent. So maybe like three years ago now, I just come back from the Monaco Grand Prix and decided to get into Dayton. So I was really excited. Went out with this young lady. She was very pretty to a Mexican spot. lot, but she was acting all weird on the date, like she was scared to order. I soon found out that she wasn't very intellectually stimulating, for lack of a better phrase. But I got through the day, it was fine.

You know, I figured we probably wouldn't go out again, but, you know, whatever. So, me being the millennial that I am, I go, and I tweet about it, you know, thinking nobody would notice and you know just kind of telling my followers whatever and the next day I'm recounting the story to my home girl when the woman that I went out with texted me and I accidentally started recounting the date in her text message and I brought up how the woman was acting all scared to order and she was acting like just real weird. and wasn't very smart, right? I hit send.

I realized that I screwed up and I saw copping pleas in the text messages. She does not respond for like 30 minutes. And then she comes back and she sends me a screenshot of my tweets. Man, not only did she catch me sending the wrong text message, but she had me dead to rice in 4K talking back. about her on the internet. Man, I learned a valuable lesson that day. I was so embarrassed. I could not apologize enough. And yeah, I'll never do that again. But it ended up turned out good because then I met my current girlfriend and everything worked out wonderful

with her. And I did not tweet about her on the internet. So, all right, thanks. Love the show and peace. All right. So part of what makes this funny is I know him. Oh, really? Incredible. Yes. And he and I also know somebody. I think he knows her, but anyway, she once made a mistake of tweeting something about a date she had been on with some dude.

And I don't remember exactly what she said, but in some level it was not complimentary. And so the dude invited her out again, and they went out again, and the check came to $80, and he pulled out a $100 bill, and then he looked at her and said, you got your half?

Oh, my God. Yeah, yeah. Whatever it was, he ain't like it, he ain't appreciated. I will say to some degree the like recapping of a date, I feel like more people could kind to use some critique and feedback in today's ride. Look at you. Look at you. Look at you. Look at you. Look at you. You don't have to call the person stupid, but you could say, you know, there's notes. I have no. I will say this, though, I was went out to breakfast in Durham, and I posted a picture on Instagram in the very early days of some dude and what I thought was a ridiculous get-up.

And it turned out that up until that point, he had been one of my biggest fans until he saw himself captured in what I consider to be a ridiculous get-up. Wow. And I eventually had to block that dude, man. He took that shit hard. But then I realized, yeah, that's my fault. I was out of life. So I have never had the luxury of talking about by any of these things.

If I talk about something like that on here, that happened 15, 20 years ago. I got a little bit too visible to think that I could just make light of my life as though it was only my own. That's actually incredible. I hope they call in with the lines open if the person listening. Maybe they don't listen to you anymore. But if they still do, we'd love to hear from you. Yeah, he looked ridiculous though. Good gracious.

All right. Here's our last one. Yo, Bo, what up? Long time listeners. I'm calling in a game. It's Canary with a K, not a seat at times, Eric. It's playing on for the whole 7557.

We're not the DMV. That's why I say the whole 7557. We're the bottom of VA right before you get to North Carolina. But, yo, check it out. So I was going to see another girl, right? And I was with my homie, and I had just, dropped them off. And my girlfriend called me at the time. So I'm like,

yo, listen, I sent camera text saying, yo, call Shorty when she calls you know what I mean? Tell her I left my phone or whatever like that with you. And that's the only reason, you know what I'm saying? You calling her. I actually ended up sending that message to her. She found out I was cheating on her and everything.

Pretty crazy. Shorty even pulled up me and let's just say till this day I still am apologizing because she's probably one of the best ones I ever had, you know but real story, I promise you that really happened.

It was it was quite messy. Very, very messy. I tried to stay with it for a while, actually. But she ended up just breaking up a couple weeks later. It is what it is because I didn't stop messing with the other girl either.

But a lot of show. I hope this gets on. Because, yo, listen, when you need to pay attention to who you're sending this to, read, read messages. And definitely don't send messages through fairies. Word. Let a show shout out for everybody, man. Sean, just get to the draft Kings thing that she was planning. Yeah, we got draft Kings pick six.

I got NBA play in game to Tuesday night. Grizzlies versus Warriors Steph Curry 28 and a half points I'll take more there Desmond Bain 19 and a half points I'll take more John Morant

27 and a half points I'll take more Draymond Green 11 and a half points Everything in my body tells me that I should take less and I'm gonna take more

I don't honestly know if that's good or bad advice you're going against your instincts It could go either way but ladies and gentlemen but thanks so much for joining us here on the right time. We do this here three times a week. That's Sean.

He handles everything behind the scenes. Thank you, sir. Also, thank you to our, if you haven't heard, contributors. Thanks to Ali Volpe of Vox. Check out her story about the best financial advice you could have right now. Thanks to Brian Walsh at Vox. Check out his story on how there may be an inexpensive vaccine to stave off dementia. And thanks to Adam Estes of Vox.

Oh, you guys ran it today. Check out his story on a skeptics guide to quitting your smartphone. Also, remember. remember check out the right time ad free program. Basically you give us $5 a month, $50 a year. You ain't got to hear no commercials and you get bonus content like AMAs and other exclusive podcast and videos. Remember, follow the right time. Subscribe, like, rate us, review us. Give us five stars. You only give us four stars. I'm inclined to believe you are a hater and we'll talk to you guys in a couple of days. Take it easy.