Pod Save America - “Pod Lang Syne.”
Episode Date: December 27, 2018In a special New Year’s episode, Jon, Jon, Tommy, Dan, Erin Ryan, DeRay Mckesson, Ana Marie Cox, Ira Madison, and Louis Virtel discuss their resolutions for 2019. ...
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Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau.
I'm Jon Lovett.
I'm Tommy Vitor.
Hope you're all enjoying your holidays right now.
We have decided that for our last episode of the year, we're going to talk about our New Year's resolutions.
We are.
And not just us. You're going to hear from us in the next couple minutes.
But then we asked a bunch of the extended Crooked family to give us their resolutions too.
Ira Madison, George Papadopoulos.
Louis Verdell.
Maria Butina.
Yeah, she's resolved to spy more.
Is that possible?
James Comey will be here.
Yeah, he's going to get taller.
He said he wants to be taller in 2019.
And more righteous.
So how should we start this?
Does anyone want to start with some resolutions?
Sure
Tommy, you want to start or Lovett, do you want to start?
Why don't you guys do a standoff?
I'll go first
Kick it off, buddy
Kick it off, Lovett
Alright, I have some
Here we go
Alright, so
Listen
My diet's a disaster again.
Are we doing a food section?
I'm just going to say this one quick because it is the one I make every year.
The only time I've successfully reigned in my diet is when HBO was hanging over my head like a sword of Damocles.
And I just can't live like this anymore.
I can't have so many Snickers ice cream bars.
And you know what? You have Snickers ice cream bars. And you know what?
You have Snickers ice cream bars?
Ronan.
Those were my favorite treat as a kid.
Ronan bought a box of five, ate one, and left town.
John.
What kind of monster?
John.
I love Snickers ice cream bars.
I want to credit you for having Snickers ice cream bars.
I wrote down, I want to eat worse, smarter.
Okay?
If I'm home alone in my house, I will have five peanut butter spoons without
thinking twice about it. That is a thoroughly disgusting habit. We're all being quite a bunch
of Charlottes right now. That is like eating an entire chocolate. I don't get what that means.
That's like eating a whole cake. It's okay to have a Snickers ice cream bar. It's okay to have a snickers ice cream bar it's okay to have wings for lunch along
with your sandwich if it was an accidental order like i just did i ate a whole pizza for lunch
i guess i want to eat out less and like postmates less because and and emily's always trying to
convince me to do this she's like we can we can buy groceries. We can cook. There'll be fresher foods.
It'll be great.
And I'm always just like lazy and say, oh, it's easier to postmates.
I think that can't be great.
The one I want to talk you into is firing up that coffee maker.
Dude.
What?
I've been doing it this week.
Come on.
Because I was finally shamed enough when we were at the Hanukkah celebration last weekend.
Everyone was making fun of me for my Dunkin' Donuts coffees and sandwiches every morning.
You just said the Hanukkah celebration. Like, I was making fun of me for my Dunkin' Donuts coffees and sandwiches every morning. You just said the Hanukkah celebration.
Like, I don't know how you made that sound so not Jewish.
I know.
I don't know what else.
It was the first Hanukkah thing that I've been to.
The Hanukkah celebration?
You sound like Mike fucking Pence.
So I was at the Hanukkah celebration with Mother.
Wait, this is a big deal.
Did you get like a filter and like grounds?
I got some K-cups and I've just been making i've been making coffee every morning this oh so you
have a cake you guys have a k-cup machine we do and i just wasn't even using that oh boy okay
well and i'm using steps and i'm using buckle up for the responses to using those k-cup things
oh no is that a prize that fucking problematic problematic tweet it john let him know what you
think about the k-Cups.
Can I tell you a related one to what you're saying?
I want to go to the gym less.
You don't need to go to the gym.
Tommy's not going to uphold the resolution. You don't know.
You don't need to go to the gym.
People out there are throwing their phones at the volcanoes.
I'm not giving you the standard shit.
This is like in 08 when they asked all the candidates,
what's your greatest weakness.
Yeah, John Edwards was like,
I help women cross the street too much.
No, that's the opposite.
I'm doing literally the opposite of that,
which is most New Year's resolutions
are like, I would like to read more books.
I want to go to the gym less.
You don't have to go to the gym
if you don't eat the five handfuls
of trail mix every time you walk
into the Crooked Media kitchen.
Tommy, I so appreciate that.
It's a discipline.
In that spirit,
I resolve this year to start smoking.
I really want to read more.
I want to write more.
That's perfect.
Neither of us are going to do that. No, I'm going to do it.
I'm going to do it. I feel like I can keep mine a little easier.
That's the beauty here.
Yeah, going to the gym.
That's when you can knock off in January
and then the gyms are crowded with the people who made the opposite resolution.
Let's see.
I plan to either keep up with Slack more or remove myself from Slack.
But the only way out is through.
Either way.
Here's how our company goes.
Tell us.
We're sitting in our office, and we'll all be on Slack because that's how we all communicate in this company.
And we'll say something like, oh, can you believe that story about George Papadopoulos?
And Lovett's like, what?
What are you talking about?
We're like, it's on Slack.
He's like, when was it on Slack?
Like, two hours ago.
We've been all talking about it for two hours in this company.
Maybe I was ideating.
I resolve to not use that word again.
I was busy ideating.
So you want to use Slack more or not at all?
Yeah, it's one or the other.
The current lukewarm Slack use that I'm offering is terrible.
How's your resolution about your desk or what's happened with your desk?
Do you want to tell everyone what's happened with your desk?
Can we lay the context yet?
John and I sit together in a in a room
we have three desks we have a little couch we have a speakerphone lovett's desk has gotten
so covered in shit that it's no longer usable uh now he has resolved to sit on the couch
and now two-thirds of the couch and chairs are also covered in backpacks the other day he sorted
his mail on the couch that happened i think he's trying to push us out of the office he's now he now he now resides in like 60 of the office um look uh so
my desk was messy during the period of time in which we were traveling touring doing the hbo show
my desk is now clean and yet i can't bring myself to go back there i'm a couch man i'm gonna go back
to the desk i'm gonna go back to the desk but i'm going to go back to the desk. But I've loved the couch lifestyle.
First of all, I can see all the way down the office from one end all the way to the other.
I can see the whole empire.
Spatial politics are an issue.
I can see the whole thing.
And so I like that.
But I hear you.
I hear you.
Another resolution I have here, it says, I will delete Facebook, Twitter, email, and text.
The only way to reach me will be to call me.
Whoa.
That's not going to happen. will be to call me whoa that's
not gonna happen not gonna happen but it is the dream it is the dream that's like uh jack going
to burma for a while you know that's just cutting it all off well so my my is on slack oh jack
we all talked about it um my big resolution sort of has to do with social media i i'm not going to
resolve to not use twitter i am going to resolve
to use twitter differently because it has become i think it has broken my brain it has permanently
altered my brain chemistry i am an angrier person when i use it i am more cynical when i use it
there's too much nastiness on there there's's too much anger on there. And I think most importantly, Twitter, as people who do politics for a living, as we all do,
Twitter just does not accurately represent what most people in the country think about,
how they feel, how they act, how they speak.
And it is sort of warping our perception of what politics is
by just following the same fucking people and the same fucking fights all the time.
Can I respond to your resolution?
Yeah.
That ain't it, chief.
Exactly.
There's also, as I just demonstrated, a terrible, broken, boring, redundant lexicon on Twitter that just makes everyone in every conversation dumber.
Your Twitter jokes aren't funny after people have used them the first thousand times.
You told me this in private.
I think that's right.
Like, and I don't know.
I'm taking suggestions on how to use it differently.
Like, already over the last couple of weeks,
like, I'm not getting in Twitter fights anymore.
I don't want to do that.
I'm trying to stay out of my mentions more.
Both of you have peeled back very well, I think.
Yeah.
I'm proud of you.
I want to get out of the mentions more.
I want to have my tone be a little bit better on Twitter.
I want to try to have my Twitter tone match my real-life tone,
how I would talk to people in real life.
I don't go up to strangers on the street and start screaming at them about Medicare for All.
I don't do that.
I throw red roses at people.
Maybe you should fucking start.
do that i throw roses at people i would like maybe you should fucking start i would like to have debates with people in real life when i don't agree with them i sit and have a debate or i like
we get into it but i don't do what i do on twitter half the time i think that i think two things
about twitter i think one of the biggest problems of twitter is the illusion that you're actually, um, that it's actually important
to keep up with the stories and, uh, information that spreads on Twitter in real time as if
the world is changing so quickly and, and, and so much information that is important is being
sort of released in real time that if you don't keep up with it, you'll fall behind. You'll lose
the thread. You won't know what's important important anymore the world doesn't change as fast as twitter wants you to
think it does it just doesn't like big big little a lot of little things happen that we forget about
if we went through some of the things we have tweeted about in the past year we wouldn't have
retained them nor should we have because they weren't that important and so to me like it is
the illusion that there's something happening when there's nothing happening or when something
important is happening when actually something small is happening.
No, and that's the addictive quality to it, too.
And that's my problem is, like, I don't go on there
for the Twitter mobs and the flame wars and all that bullshit.
I go on there because I need to be updated on the news every 10 seconds.
And the question is, why do I need that update all the time?
And I don't think that I do.
You definitely don't. No one does.
Because here's the thing.
If your worldview was so soft and fragile that it was malleable based on these tiny little developments every single day,
that there was information that you needed to learn to adjust your perspective, adjust your expectations,
you'd be a ridiculous person.
You'd be a ridiculous, useless person.
People, for some reason, one of the worst things about being a public figure, I think,
is being asked to comment on silly stuff all the time. It would drive us crazy when we were
Barack Obama's spokespeople. But people on Twitter take that thing over for themselves.
They force themselves to comment on shit all the time for no reason like tommy vitor's statement on the american flag being removed from the scene in first man
the buzz aldrin stories like what are we doing here what a waste of time and the reason i say
i want to learn how to use it differently is because there are plenty of good parts about
twitter like you get all kinds of information you wouldn't get otherwise you hear from all kinds of
experts and really smart people and fields that you wouldn't encounter those people on a daily basis.
So that's fascinating.
We, some of the best parts of being here at Crooked Media have been people who went out to Canvas, who tweeted us and tweet pictures.
And we're voting for the first time.
We're registering people for the first time.
That part's wonderful.
I want to keep up with that part.
But I can't.
I can't with all the.
And it's just
like the twitter mobs and the pylons of people and it's like there's some people and it's
fortunately it's not us but there's some people who just all day long all that happens is they
get attacked by people they're just out there and sometimes they trigger it and sometimes other
people and i'm just watching it i'm like wait no one has anything better to do than fucking like dunk on i'm not even gonna start yeah we all have the same person
in mind we all need to stage an intervention for some friends but no and a whole bunch of other
people it's just like you have better things to do than pick one random personality on twitter
and just go after them all the time well it's this feeling of like it's this toxic thing our brains
are not meant to have so many people in our faces all the time tens of thousands hundreds of thousands of human beings who get to
who who are basically standing in front of you for five seconds at a time being like
i think aoc is dumb fuck and then that person's gone you're like no no wait wait wait wait you
know you didn't say that about these republicans you know climate change is coming also trump has
a crime. Also,
there's something cultural that you should know.
Also,
imagine if,
imagine if every tweet was read one at a time out loud to your face as they were going
by,
you'd fucking,
you'd have to,
you'd have to like,
it's a river out of humanity.
It's a river.
Did you see that New York times headline?
Yeah.
Well,
that's a waste of time.
There was bad.
That's the other part is you lose sort of perspective and proportionality of like what stories are important since there's like a leveling aspect of time. My hand there was bad. That's the other part is you lose sort of perspective
and proportionality
of like what stories
are important
since there's like
a leveling aspect
of Twitter
so that every story
that comes by your feed
seems like it's the same
but they're not the same.
Some are far more important
than other stories.
Yeah, I mean,
that's why, you know,
Trump is the perfect embodiment
of the Twitter idea.
He learns everything from it
and he'll say things like,
I'm going to fire Robert Mueller.
I'm going to do trade sanctions.
Megyn Kelly sucks.
All on the same level.
All equal footing.
I love Jesse Waters' new book.
Yeah, all one level.
You know, there was,
I've talked to you guys about this.
Check out Dan Bongino's podcast.
Right.
I saw this movie called
The Exterminating Angel,
which is an old film about a group of fancy people at a dinner party who discover they can't leave the party and they slowly go insane.
And it really stuck with me.
It's a great movie.
But it really stuck with me as an analogy for Twitter because all it took to make this group of fancy people lose their minds, rip apart the walls, attack each other, kill a fucking
goat was not being able to leave. Spoiler. You know, all the, all the talk about algorithms,
all the talk about monopoly, all the talk about the abuses of these companies, their failure to
treat their customers well, their failure to treat our privacy well, all of it's valid. But the
greatest trick they ever pulled was convincing us we couldn't leave because the second we thought we couldn't leave we turned into fucking
animals
I
Also wrote down read more tweet less on my list. Yeah
So as I try to tweet less and spend less time on Twitter, I want to read more
I want to write more I want to play piano more like I have other skills in life that I want to actually do
Maybe watch some movies. Yeah, we're gonna get you to to see some fucking movies because your blind spots on film are extraordinary. Can I do some
self-deprecation on this front? Please, sure. I want to watch more great stuff and I'm going to
list some shows that I haven't finished the series of. Atlanta, The Sopranos, Mad Men,
Dear White People, The Americans, Friday Night Lights, Insecure, Better Call Saul, That's So white people the americans friday night lights insecure better call saul that's so raven why
deny yourself why deny yourself this joy and like watch fucking the great british baking show every
night when you fall asleep a great show it's nice to fall asleep to but i could i could stand to
expand my world i'm very jealous of you tomm, that you have a lot of those shows left to watch.
Though Atlanta's on my list, too.
Thank you.
Season one is amazing.
I need to watch that again.
As we're going to use our phones less and tweet less and not use our phones in meetings,
something the three of us have talked about earlier, I'm going to read the first few from
the AFI 100.
You two say if you've seen it.
Oh, cool.
Ready?
Citizen Kane.
Yes.
Nope.
Yes.
Casablanca. No. Nope. Yes yes yes gone with the wind no yes lawrence of arabia no no larry no larry the wizard of oz
yes yes the graduate yep yes on the waterfront no no yes never even heard of that it's the one
with the rabbits right on the waterfront that's
water ship down i don't know what you're talking about schindler's list yeah of course all right
honestly that was a defensive task i'm you're not pro holocaust if you haven't seen schindler's list
everybody calm the fuck down get johnny bds over here what's the next one uh singing in the rain
no yes is it mary poppins it's a wonderful
life yes no you've never seen it's a wonderful i've never seen it it looks i i i got it you know
schmaltzy for you it's schmaltzy it's schmaltzy although i recently watched uh mr smith goes to
washington and i enjoyed it uh sunset boulevard no come on that's how i'm the gay one because
i've seen sunset boulevard all right we made it through 12 i'd like to see that's more than i thought sometimes it's hard
to find better than i thought i gotta dig in have you seen star wars yes but robert gibbs tried to
fire john because he hadn't seen like caddy shack and all these sort of animal house for the comedy
sort of cultural have you guys seen all about eve no oh you gotta watch all about eve and i
hadn't seen
chinatown and then barack obama made me go home and watch that that's oh my god well that is a
humble brag for all fucking time that's a cool i hadn't seen chinatown till barack obama made me
watch it yeah you know i i never i hadn't seen uh psycho and then the pope had me watch it I know. What? Three years of her speeches.
That was funny.
Along Lovett's last joke, one of the things I wrote down was I want to be more blunt.
I think there's a delta between what we text each other and what we say into these microphones.
I want to shrink that gap as much as possible, especially because we're going to be talking about the Democratic Party.
And it does us no good to pull punches.
Well,
I'll tell you what,
uh,
the be on Twitter less is going to help with that.
Yeah,
it is.
It's actually essential,
essential to it.
I wrote,
be more honest about my criticism of Democrats. And then I said,
I'll start right now.
My threshold,
uh,
but it's not necessary.
It's necessary,
but not sufficient is for any Senator who wants to be president is to make
sure they don't sound like a fucking Senator. And right yikes that's my good one that's my first i'm
gonna dipping my toe in i think you're right um on the flip side of the be blunt and say what we
think about democrats for the uh primary trim your sails no i think about something that love it you
wrote this when we were i think talking about the mission of this company at the very beginning.
There was a phrase where you said we should be patient with our allies.
Yes.
Which I think is a really great phrase.
And I do think like we should all disagree and we should have debates and we should be honest about what we think. for being patient and not always questioning the motivations of, at the very least, people who share
our goals, values, beliefs in a broad way. Debate policies, not motives. Yeah. And character too.
Like, I think that we, like, this is going to be a very fine line in the next year is that there's
going to be some serious fights and debates on policy among all these Democrats running. We
should have those debates and we shouldn't shy from them. But at the same time, like we, we have to remember that we
all share the same broad goal here. And we can't get to the point where someone has been so attacked
or, you know, by, by other people in the primary that we end up with a nominee who's been, you know,
got the shit kicked out of that person by 15 other Democrats. And then Trump uses
all those attacks in the general and we're nowhere good. So not good. Yeah, I would say one other
thing I want to do, speaking of just being on Twitter less and being in that kind of soup less
is not lose the forest for the trees. And, you know, as much as we want to cover what's going
on this week, what's going on today and sort of keeping people up to date with everything that's
going on. I also want to remember the kind of longer term trends that I care about,
whether they're economic or cultural. And some of the hardest things I think to talk about
are the kind of ever present atmospheric realities that are hard to understand and hard to change.
And so for one of them that I'm going to try to do more of is I want to talk about authenticity
less, and I want to talk about integrity more
because I think we actually
are using them interchangeably.
It's something I've talked about it before,
but I even still use it as a shorthand.
And so I'm going to start pointing it out
when I see more and more,
like when I see this idea of authenticity
as this thing we're supposed to be striving towards,
I want to talk more about why I think that's wrong
and why I think it's been part of the problem in our politics.
Cool.
Anyone else got one?
I want to follow a sports team in an almost psychotic manner.
I love all things Boston sports, the Red Sox, the Celtics, the Patriots.
I haven't really watched a lot of Bruins games since I was 12,
but they're good.
But I have to admit that I really only watched regular season Patriots I haven't really watched a lot of Bruins games since I was 12 but they're good but I have to admit
that I really only watched
regular season
Patriots games
and I don't want to hear
your bullshit
about how they cheat
they're a fantastic
franchise
John love it
so I want to pick
a new team
I didn't have to say a word
it could be a
you said it last night
I'd love to leave it
I heard it
it could be a
Premier League team
it could be an
MLS soccer team
go with the Rams here
go with the Rams
well it's week 14 so it'll be tough.
But it'll be fun.
Just watch them day in, day out.
Know the players, know the ins and outs.
Get a little crazy.
Get a little crazy.
Be that kind of guy.
Cool.
One last one.
Sure.
Please.
I want to be a bit more grateful in 2019.
I was thinking about that.
I had that one, too.
And I want to do it. I want thinking about, I was going to, I had that one too. And I, I want to do it.
I want to stop having to remind myself to do it.
That I,
I guess like,
you know,
when I'm frustrated by small things,
which happens a lot because,
you know,
we have this company now and it's incredibly exciting,
but there's a lot of moving pieces.
There's a lot of people.
There's a lot of things that have to go right.
And people,
things go wrong.
Sometimes things don't go the way you expect.
Things are hard.
And I,
sometimes I think get frustrated. We all get get frustrated but i want to remember in those
moments that there's always going to be that when a thousand things go right and and a dozen go
wrong that's good that's really good yeah i just want to remember this is the calm before the storm
laughter is the best medicine so don't get your knickers in a twist and i want to use fewer cliches oh boy my god what a oh wow we walked down a very long pier to get to the end of that one
it's like a love it or leave it episode i also think i want to spend more time with and
communicating with friends and family because like i think because of our job and
because we're so into fucking politics all the time that takes up so much mind share and then
we're tired at the end of the week and you like don't have anything to do and you just want to
like read a little bit more and then go like i need to just fucking get out and talk to all the
people in my life a little bit more you hear that that, Andy? A lot of love coming your way.
Hey, Andy, I'd like you to meet someone you might like.
It's your brother, John.
Meet someone you know well for the first time.
Does this mean he's going to text us on the weekends too?
Enough of you two.
John wants to get rid of us.
That's what he's trying to say.
I want to get out of the office more.
I think sometimes we get trapped in here.
The great thing about going on tour
is you get out, you meet people,
like Demetrius,
like folks we met along the way
who have just changed the way we think about things,
opened your eyes to different issues.
But sometimes your work rhythm turns into a rut
and you come in and you tweet
and you record and you leave
and I want to do that less.
Anything else?
Any parting words?
No.
More cliches for you, Tommy?
That's all I got, I think.
I think you guys will enjoy hearing from Aaron, from Louis, from Ira, from others TBD that we haven't recorded yet at this time.
We're asking now.
We're asking everybody.
So, yeah.
So, here's everyone else at Crooked.
And Happy New year, everyone.
Happy new year.
Happy new year.
Okay. We have Pod Save America host Dan Pfeiffer here. Dan, we wanted to get you into this.
What is your new year's resolution?
for here. Dan, we wanted to get you into this. What is your New Year's resolution?
I am going to try. And in the spirit of New Year's resolutions, it's going to be very hard to accomplish, but I want to use my phone less. I updated my software a few months ago,
and now Apple sends me every Sunday my screen time, my daily screen time average.
That's hard to look at, isn't it?
It is a hard hit because it's a lot of hours, and it doesn't even count, obviously, the hours I'm
on my laptop. And when it first started, it was when we were traveling for HBO. So it's like,
well, I'm traveling all the time. I'm in airports, I'm on planes, so it makes sense.
But in the month of December where I have not been traveling and I've been home,
it's just as bad. And so I think I need to carve out non-phone time,
right? Which just doesn't mean like pay less attention to the news, although that would be
potentially an ancillary benefit, but just have some time where I am not looking at my phone,
I am away from it. I could be maybe enjoying, you know, talking to humans or watching a program or
something, but just where I'm not like
constantly flipping back between like Twitter, the ESPN app, you know, Instagram or whatever else.
I'm just like present in the moment without my phone, like putting it in a drawer somewhere for
some period of time a day. So that is my goal. That is a fantastic resolution. I notice it
particularly when I'm like walking around outside and I'm like staring at my phone. I'm like, you know what?
You're outside.
You live in Los Angeles.
Look around.
Things are nice.
See you that unless you are walking your dog, you're in Los Angeles.
So you are driving.
So you should be looking at your phone anyway.
Well, that, that, yeah, that's bad too.
I'm outside.
I'm waiting for my valet to bring my car.
Yeah.
I have a very walkable neighborhood here in LA.
But no, and you realize you're like, what am I doing with my head and my fucking phone all the time?
So, yeah, no, that's a great resolution.
I would like to try that, too.
I don't know how successful I'll be.
But, you know, you can measure it.
Like, now that Apple sends us that data, you can measure it on the little, the bars can go a little bit lower than they are right now.
Because right now they're pretty scary.
Yeah, it's really, it's bad.
There are only so many hours in a day, and I'm spending a lot of them on my phone all right well um well thanks for sharing
that and you know go talk to some humans yeah that's that's my goal
okay i'm here with anna marie cox host of with friends like These. Hi, Anna. Hello. So this is our New Year's resolution special.
We're asking everyone.
We did our New Year's resolutions.
We're asking everyone else in the Crooked family.
So do you have some resolutions you want to share?
Sure.
So every year I vow to drink more water.
Oh, that's a good one.
That has been one for like 10 years.
How have you done with that resolution?
I think I finally determined what that means.
Because I used to just be like, I'll just drink more water.
And now I actually try to do this.
So I'm getting older and all my body does not respond as quickly and easily to things as each in the past.
So I've discovered like actually drinking the 64 ounces of water you're supposed to drink every day.
I feel like this is like, are we a wellness podcast now?
We are.
I didn't plan on talking about this.
This is Michelle Obama.
I did not plan on talking about this.
But it's very helpful when you're hydrated.
Being hydrated is a good thing.
So that was not going to be like a serious thing I talked about.
So I'm going to try to drink more water.
The other thing, though, is, wow, maybe it sort of ties in.
I hate the idea of resolutions.
I feel like they're oppressive.
Goal setting, for me, can be very...
I had a therapist that made me stop doing to-do lists
because she basically said it's just a weapon you use to beat yourself up oh interesting so resolutions can be that way too so i have started
thinking more about intentions i like that i like intentions because i think intentions kind of for
one thing it's not a pass fail situation right like if a resolution you break a resolution
like then you're like oh well fuck it right i might as well not do the thing i might as well not drink water i have failed yeah exactly
one of the reasons i used to say drink more water is because it's like well more you know like you
can always drink more um uh you can't fail at drinking more water that's right um but usually
the way that resolutions are formed or formatted formulated you there's some failure like potential right you either
check the box or you don't check the box intentions you can sustain yeah and intentions also i think
even just the way the word it kind of forces you to think about well why am i doing this
what is the thing i'm trying to accomplish here like if you want to lose weight well why though
like what's my what why though? Like what's
my, what's the bigger reason? What's the bigger reason? Cause I've just seen in my life, the
things that I stick with are the things that I'm doing for, to, to get closer to a value that I
believe in. Basically that's it. That's smart. Like things I actually follow through with in my life are things that are a part of the journey that I want to be on.
So even the drinking water thing, like I only actually started following through on that when I decided I actually wanted to take care of my body.
Like when that was just sort of a theoretical, I guess it's good to drink more water.
Like I didn't do it.
But now that it's connected to a larger goal,
a larger value.
I actually do it.
That's really cool.
That makes sense.
My big one that I did was
I want to figure out how to use Twitter differently.
I have a Twitter one too if you want to hear it.
Yeah, so my thing, I want to hear it then
because I was like, I don't want to cut off Twitter
because I know that that is the resolution style thing
where it's like, it's just not going to happen.
I'm going to feel bad. But I want to cut off Twitter because I know that that is the resolution style thing where it's like, it's just not going to happen. I'm going to feel I'm going to feel bad.
But I want to use it better because there's a larger feeling that I'm trying to get at, which is it has made me feel a little like angrier and more distracted.
And I want to use it better so that it makes me feel informed and like I have good conversations with people and, you know, that kind of stuff.
So this one might might might hit a little close to home for you.
Okay.
I have an intention to actually read everything I retweet.
That is great.
That is a good one.
To not just look at the headline or the picture.
Yeah, I mean, I've done that.
I've done that a couple of times.
And also not because there's a dark side to it, which there is,
but because I don't want to, I just, what am I doing?
I'm being irresponsible.
And I'm also letting myself off the hook for not being informed.
I'm contributing to a culture of headline reading and picture looking.
And it's not even like to make sure that the facts are correct, right?
It's a larger thing.
Like last night when the story, we're recording this obviously a couple weeks before New Year's,
but last night the story broke about that seven-year-old girl who died um from guatemala
when she crossed the border and i had been out i jumped on twitter i saw everyone tweeting about it
and my first instinct was to just retweet it but i was like i don't want to just like retweet into
the outrage here like i want to read this story like i know what happened because i've seen twitter
but i want to read a couple of Washington Post reporters wrote this story.
I want to know all the details.
I want to see what happened.
I read the story.
And that's what everyone should do.
It's what everyone should do.
And also, I think it helps you do an important processing of what's actually happening today.
Like you are, this is not to get too real about this, but that's a way of honoring and respecting the lives of the people that were
impacted by that death is to not just retweet it, but to kind of,
I'm not saying people who just retweeted it don't care or don't honor them,
but to sit with that story for a minute and really feel the feelings that come
with reading about such a tragedy rather than just hitting retweet and be like,
well, I've taken care of that.
Right.
You know, I think Twitter kind of encourages a way of looking at the world
where we don't have to process things.
Just like, oh, that's just general badness, right?
Because it's leveling.
And everything that comes across the feed seems like it's the same level of importance.
And it is not.
And everything that comes across the feed seems like it's the same level of importance.
And it is not.
And I actually talked about this on my show a few times.
And I'll mention it just in the context of Twitter intentions.
Which is that I want to be more thoughtful about who I retweet as well.
Okay.
Friend of my pod, Anil Dash, has a policy of not retweeting white men.
Interesting.
And I've had times where I've tried that. And I would just encourage everyone to think about it for an hour.
Because what you soon realize is that it's hard.
Because the majority of journalists, politicians politicians sports figures like whoever it is like
that's there's just a lot of white dudes yeah having opinions out there and sometimes they're
good opinions sometimes they're it's not it's not because like i just want to censor them
it's more like why is this just the default identity that is being amplified.
Yeah.
So if you kind of force yourself to just,
who am I retweeting and why?
Like, is this the best voice for this issue?
Right.
That's very smart.
I mean, I also, I think in general.
As a white guy, I'm sure you have some feelings.
As a white guy, yeah.
Please retweet me all the time.
No, I think it's in general i think more factually based stories tweets over opinion in general yeah and yeah you know especially white guy opinion because that we all
know but even then like actually so anil what he does is not even just opinions no that seems like
it's beyond yeah it's like when I'm retweeting this news story,
even though it's not like,
it doesn't seem germane to the story
that the person that wrote it is a white guy.
Right.
Is this really the best story?
Is this really the best voice?
Or is it just the first one I came across?
Right.
You know.
And oftentimes, I'm sure it's the first one
that people came across. Yeah. So it's just, I mean, I think being more thoughtful about the use of the platform.
And the other thing I would say about Twitter, that's also, I'm really just glad you mentioned
it because I have been thinking about it as well. The intention that I will bring is when I go to
check it, I want to ask myself, is this important right now yes is it important that i check twitter
right now or could it wait perhaps the biggest one i've made a rule for myself now that when i
wake up i have to read a few news stories before i start scrolling like i cannot wake up and start
scrolling is the first thing that I do because then you're just
off to the right,
then you're off
on a tangent somewhere.
I woke up this morning,
I started,
someone was tweeting something,
I was like following,
I wasn't participating
but I was following
some argument on Twitter.
I'm like,
what the fuck am I
following this argument for?
This isn't the central issue
of today.
You know what's real good
for that?
Newspaper.
What is that?
It's a thing.
It's printed on this stuff.
Is that bigger than my phone?
This stuff that I have waving next to the microphone.
It has paper.
She found some paper.
Found some paper.
I dug it out of an archive.
I actually thought about, for a while, I was downloading stories to my Kindle to read first
thing in the morning because I had the same idea that I shouldn't just like get on and start scrolling.
Yeah.
And I actually think I'm going to do a daily subscription to a newspaper for the new year.
And that has double, it's many different benefits.
One of which we take the dog on a walk in the morning to get the paper.
Oh, okay.
Get me, you know, like get us both out yeah earlier probably than
i want to does your dog what time my dog sleeps in it's awesome but then it's like but then he
has but then it's like very urgent mine that we leave yeah mine sleep i'm the first one up okay
of of me emily and leo i'm the first one up and And then when Leo sees that I'm up and stirring, he'll climb up.
And take your place?
Lie next to me.
Oh.
Cuddle for a little bit.
Oh, nice.
Emily is usually the last one up.
Oh.
But then at some point quick, he'll jump off the bed and just stare at me.
And that's like, I got to go.
Yeah.
When they're up there.
That's the thing about dogs.
I wasn't prepared for this.
It doesn't get us up early.
But when he wants to be up, you better.
Yep. They'll be scratching, you better. Yep.
They'll be scratching at the door, running around, tossing his head.
Any other last minute resolutions?
Intentions.
Intentions.
I mean, I got so many.
I got to load.
Oh, I'll be serious again.
To always give myself another chance.
That is a fantastic intention.
To never think it's the last chance to do anything.
Like, I always have another chance.
Yeah.
That is a wonderful life intention.
Thank you, John.
Thank you, Anna.
And Happy New Year.
Happy New Year.
I am here with
two-thirds
of the
greatest show
on audio,
on your phone,
on turf.
Take that, The Daily.
Take that, Barbaro.
Take that, P.T. Barnum.
Yeah.
We're show people.
Fuck you, Oprah.
Actually, I'm so sorry.
We love Oprah here.
I'm so sorry.
Louis Vertel, Ira Madison III, Cara Brown could not be here, but you guys know them,
the Keep It Crew.
They're in studio, and we're talking about New Year's resolutions, things we want to
do to improve our own lives,
to make the lives of people around us better,
but really the former.
Very good.
What do you got?
That was poetic.
You were like Burl Ives and Rudolph,
just narrating the way.
Thank you.
Well, a couple things.
One, this is something people don't really know about me.
I actually do not like to travel.
I like living where I live,
getting the iced coffee I get, getting the
breakfast burrito I get, and going home
and that's my life because I am addicted
to comfort. What are you talking about?
You're so much fun to travel with.
I guess I have gone to Mexico City with you.
Are you being sarcastic?
Okay. Mexico City was
a journey, Louis.
Alright.
So I vow to actually want to travel more because
i am in under i've just not visited anywhere and i am now in my 30s ashamed of it what if a listener
wants to be your companion what kind of countries are you thinking about like sex companion i didn't
say that i said it wait that normal english phrase sex companion okay um i would desperately
love to go to australia and also by the way am i allowed to say this in the new year we will
probably be touring with keep it a little bit and i hope to enjoy these places via that experience
please tour with keep it so i have always wanted to go to australia but i'd rather someone else
pay for me to go we can make that that happen. Thank you. Oh my God.
Crooked knows Australia.
Crikey.
Australia is waiting for me to launch that accent.
That's my New Year's resolution in 2019.
I'm going to debut my Australian accent.
You just gave him this idea. I am sorry to mention any countries around him ever.
Carmen Sandin fucked off. Not clever. just gave him this idea i am sorry to mention any countries around him ever carmen sanding
fucked off not not clever just fuck you what is my new year's resolution i
i don't know i think i've had i think i've had a very good year you have had a good year um
who knew that appearing on love to leave it would let me scam you on the, giving me
a podcast and brought Karen Lewis along.
And honestly, we're more popular than all of you.
We know.
I watched the numbers.
I watched the numbers.
So I don't know.
Next year.
I just, I want to keep having fun with my friends.
I want to hear more.
Keep it.
That would be nice. The next year. I agree. I want to hear more Keep It. That would be nice.
In the next year.
I agree.
I want to give everyone all the Keep It they want.
Let's go daily.
Why not?
Have you thought about it?
14 times a day.
Yeah.
Seven minute shows.
Yeah, we'll take down the New York Times.
Is that how long the daily is?
I don't know.
I don't listen to it.
Tommy, you talk about serious things.
Who can listen to that?
Not my friends. See, that's what I'm saying. I listen to people. Tommy, you talk about serious things. Who can listen to that? Not my friends.
See, that's what I'm saying.
I listen to Pod Save the World.
Oh, thank you.
I find it enjoyable.
It's a good.
Because I'm always like, who are these people?
We all need both.
Who are these names?
What I like about Keep It so much is that you guys make me laugh and you talk about Kanye being crazy or doing whatever fun thing.
But it always ties into
something bigger. There's always a point you're trying to make about the world, about Trump,
about society, about culture. And like, I, I learned something. I would like to resolve to
not talk about Kanye or Justin Timberlake or the people that terrorized us this year, next year.
Yeah. What else is there to say say some people are like infinitely good for jokes
like you know unfortunately if lena dunham re-enters the news like that's another page of
material i've got another scroll i've written so uh uh but kanye i mean man how many times can i
talk about him being the only rapper who cries when you beat him at a board game i mean is that
true i just doesn't he seem like someone who like like, fuck Monopoly? I bought it. Yeah.
I was in.
Yeah.
You're not allowed to tell him.
That's right.
What do you think Kara's resolution is if she were here?
She hates New Year's.
She does?
Why?
Just because it's an amateur hour and everyone treats it like a big show.
She literally called it amateur hour.
Yeah.
In our Christmas episode, she literally said, keep it to New Year's.
The best New Year's I ever had in my life. That's why she's not here. That's why she's not here. Tommy said, said, keep it to New Year's. The best New Year's I ever had in my life.
That's why she's not here.
That's why she's not here.
Tommy said, let's record something about New Year's.
And she was like, I will be right there.
And then she ran and Charlie's Angels just rolled into the elevator.
A front handspring right out the window.
I do think the best New Year's I have are when I don't plan something and I have low,
low, low expectations. Like one year I went to Atlantic City thinking this is rock bottom and we had a blast.
Rock bottom also sounds like a restaurant you could go to in Atlantic City.
Washington, D.C.
There's one called Rock Bottom, I believe.
Oh, yeah.
Sounds like a Sebastian spinoff musical.
Yes, precisely.
Actually, my best New Year's was last year in Chicago.
I usually hang out with my very good friend, Andy, who is lovely and also
a friend of Iris.
He also happens to be a glorious mess.
What, you?
I was there.
I know.
I just said it, sweetie.
Yes, you're friends with him.
No, you said I'm friends with him, but you didn't tell people that I was there.
Okay.
Well, you were a featured player in this night.
Not like a star. Moving on. I wasanda woodward heather locklear and melrose
place i was special guest star okay well i mean all guest starring roles must come to an end and
yours hers never did she guest starred for seven years that's true uh uh uh but uh we just walked
around went party to party and then in chicago they do this thing la people don't understand this like stay up past two so we went and did that and i was just i i looked like
the mask from scream by the end of the night i just was like a monster making out with other
monsters and by 7 a.m i just i was like judy garland on the last day of her life just like a woman who was going to split in half oh my god uh well as you're listening to this now i am spending new years in buenos aires
you were get this you know where i'm spending income come from you're just traveling all the
time you're in france starting riots there we know you did it you're in the uk you're in buenos
aires what do you what the hell well listen by time Lovett finds out that I'm funneling money from Lovett or Leaveit,
I'll be halfway across the globe.
Yeah.
I'll be in Tokyo for New Year's.
What?
Mm-hmm.
I'm going to be in LA.
Oh.
No, that's good for you.
Stay here.
Stay here.
Quote young adult, you're good here.
I have a dog. Oh, you have a dog oh you have a dog oh oh that's
not why i'm lame though i mean the dog's cooler than i am did i know you had a dog you met her
i have met her ira came over the first love it or leave it we hosted a party in my house afterwards
we rented our rental and you came over and i think all the dogs oh no you know what pundit was there
that night jumping on your lap.
You've met my dog at this office.
Yes.
What a star fucker.
You know,
your dog isn't really out there like Pundit and Leah.
No,
she respects her privacy.
She needs it.
She craves it.
Okay.
Yeah.
Is your other resolution to do this boutique workouty thing in LA that we were talking about previously?
Oh yes.
Is that a non-resolution? No, I want to. I have come to enjoy working out due to, I guess, being brainwashed
by the city. But I hate cardio and I want to add an element of that that makes that
entertaining. And I think this boutique gym that we are speaking about will do that for me.
One time I worked out next to wait for it aaron shock friend
of keep it yes but also abrio day really oh was she scouting for more husbands or whatever that
was she was killing it on the treadmill she did a great job practicing for her tour yeah right
yeah get yourself out there hundreds were going uh i will not be joining that boutique a little yeah because your
trainer doesn't make you run blah blah blah i love my trainer he's very nice and i go you don't text
him back i go to a small boutique gym in la i like we're saying boutique shitty trendy expensive
thing that we force ourselves to do well you know what acquainted with the fact that i hate the word
boutique yeah go ahead i'll mention the name of that gym
when they start advertising
on TV.
That's right.
Well, that's all I got
for resolutions.
This has been fun.
This is,
look,
I'm about to go into
a one-hour conversation
with a former
U.S. Ambassador to Israel
whom I love,
but we're going to talk about
things that make me sad.
Well, you tell Barbara Streisand I said hi.
I will.
It's a good place to end it. And tell her how she can get jacked.
Happy New Year's, Barbara.
I am thrilled to be here
with Erin Gloria Ryan. You're not thrilled.
I am thrilled. Look at my thrilled face.
It looks like a pale... Normal face. Pale face. With Erin Gloria Ryan. You're not thrilled. I'm thrilled. Look at my thrilled face. Okay. It looks like a pale.
Just a normal face.
Pale face.
With Erin Gloria Ryan, host of Hysteria, friend of the pod, one of the greatest people on
the planet.
Oh, come on.
I'm definitely the greatest.
What day is it?
It's early December.
It's Wednesday, December 12th, because I have to fly out in like three hours.
You're going to New York.
I am.
It's going to be cool.
It's going to be cold.
I don't have a jacket.
You're wearing, oh, that's very light.
Well, no, this is like made of tissue paper.
It's very light and chic.
Yeah, so I'm going to,
I have like a kind of jacket,
so I'm going to just wear 15 layers
and hope that by the time I,
because I left all my jackets there
when I moved here,
so I have to get one.
It's real dumb.
Anyway.
I'm wearing a sweater I bought in 2010,
so we all have our problems.
We have been talking to the great Crooked Media hosts
about New Year's resolutions
and things we want to do better in the new year.
Silly, serious, whatever you got.
Okay.
So you're asking me what I,
what's my New Year's resolution?
So right now I'm in the middle of trying to write something
and I realized that I have a process that I go through every time I try to write anything, literally anything, is that I reach a point of writer's block and I decide during that moment that I'm the dumbest and least funny person in the world and I'll never have another good idea ever.
ever. And my goal in 2019 is to
not get into the like freak out
I'm the worst writer ever mode
every single time that I have
writer's block. I was actually thinking
the other day
I reference the Muppets
like too much but there's
so many like life lessons you can
take from the Muppets. There used to be a character on Sesame
Street named Don Music. Do you remember
Don Music? He was a creative type.
He was a composer.
And Don Music was always presented in context
where he was trying to compose a song.
And he was reaching a point
where he didn't have the right lyric in the composition.
And he would give up and bang his head on the piano
and say, I'll never get it, never.
And it was supposed to teach children
that being overly emotional about minor hang ups is silly.
It looks silly. So I need to don music less. That's good. That's my plan.
That's a really good resolution because, you know, I was not a speechwriter.
I was a press hack, which meant that it perfectly matched my ADD, which I just, you know, took a million calls and emails from reporters and managed them as fast as I could.
And I loved it because it was like I didn't have to focus on one thing. Jon Favreau, when he was doing the head speech
writer work would always reach a point where like 1130 a night, he'd be texting his friends. Like,
I can't do this anymore. I'm not, you know, like that existential moment. And I didn't really
understand it until I tried to do some screenwriting. Uh, holy shit. Isn't it the worst
thing ever? Nobody should do it it's like i mean that's
what's giving me problems i have so much respect for you guys who who can sit and be in front of
a computer or look at a blank page for god's sake for like eight hours in a day and just focus
and write and grind it out and edit like i don't i don't know that i'm constitutionally designed
for that kind of work it's really weird it It's a weird thing that human ancestors never had to develop.
They never had to learn how to come up with a totally fake story
that works on multiple levels and then resolve the story within 22 minutes,
which is like writing a comedy script.
That's what that is.
And right now I'm working on something where if I change
it's kind of like
a Jenga thing
you know it's like
if I move one piece
then the whole thing
could fall down
and then it just
it's super frustrating
and strange
and for people listening
I mean you've like
you've sold shows
you've worked in
on Always Sunny
as a writer
which is like
one of the most
successful
great shows
of recent history
it well that's not because of me they brought me on on season 13 but like that's a like one of the most successful, great shows of recent history.
Well, that's not because of me.
They brought me on in season 13.
But like that's a badass show that people like for 13 seasons.
Yeah, it's a fun show to write for,
but to the credit of the people that I work with,
it's such a machine. Like you get in and they know exactly what all the characters are,
what they do.
It's so much more difficult to write something where you're like,
I'm making this up whole cloth. Like I came up with with a new world and this is what these people do within the world
or i'm like coming up with new motivations for people and it's like i was trying i was telling
another screenwriter recently that it's like trying to come up with a lie and then telling
yourself the lie and trying to vet it as though you don't want to be lied to and then going back
and you have to like have a conversation with yourself.
And it's so crazy making.
Were you always good at this when you were in high school and in college?
Could you sit quietly and write forever?
I was never good at it.
I'm literally not good at anything.
I was never good.
I was good at like making sarcastic comments in high school.
And then I was good at not going to class in college.
And then I was good at not knowing what I wanted to do in my 20s
and then I got hired as a blogger
and then I was good at blogging
and then I was good at,
I never wanted to do this.
I don't know what I'm doing.
I was good at not focusing,
not getting the grade at the time I needed it,
not going to practice or class completely sober.
Wait, didn't you play lacrosse or something?
I did.
That's so predictable. to practice or class completely sober. Wait, didn't you play lacrosse or something? I did. I did.
That's so predictable.
It's like a fun sport played by a lot of terrible people who give it a bad name.
It's so interesting how it is a Native American sport, right?
Yeah.
That is now the least Native American thing I can imagine.
The douchiest reputation.
Yeah.
Although fast growing.
Look, I'm not here to defend or support the lax community.
This turned into a roast.
I'm frustrated with my screenplay, so I'm just going to roast Tommy.
I'm twirling a lanyard over here telling you about my whatever.
That's a great New Year's resolution.
There's a little bit of self-care involved in all of these.
I mean, there's two kinds of resolutions, I guess.
It's like, you're going to go to the gym, you piece of shit.
Just you're, you know, if it kills you.
And this one's a nice one.
You're being nice to yourself.
I have to, well, because it's one of those things where, like, it doesn't help anything to be hard on yourself.
Yeah.
All it does is give you an outlet.
And if you're your own punching bag, then you end up worse for the wear at the other end of it.
That is a very hard lesson for me to learn because I've been a self-loather for as long
as I've known myself.
I feel like I need it to an extent.
What else are you supposed to do at Sunday night between 9 p.m. and midnight when you
fall asleep?
Hate yourself.
Yeah.
You were like, you were such a dick to your swim coach in sixth grade.
I cannot believe you did that.
Oh, man.
Like in 2017, this is another story for another time. But in 2017, I went to Nepal for like six weeks. Yeah, that's so cool. The pictures are that. Oh, man. Like in 2017, this is another story for another time.
But in 2017, I went to Nepal for like six weeks.
Yeah, that's so cool.
The pictures are amazing.
Oh, thanks.
It was the way that I told my mother I was alive.
I just would upload a photo to Instagram.
She was like, good, she's not dead.
But when I was there, I was alone a lot.
And you think when you're hiking that you're going to like learn all these lessons about life.
And I just spent a lot of time being like, I'm such a fucking asshole.
Like dealing with all this.
Like I was paying these like karma bills in my head where it's like, man, I was mean to that friend I had when I was 23 and then never hung out with again.
It was just like, yeah.
Beating yourself up doesn't equalize out anything.
You're not atoning to anyone.
You're spending your energy on something that is ultimately just going to make you less equipped to handle life.
Like if you just, it's good to
be self-aware. It's good to be aware of your shortcomings and it's good to want to become
better. But sitting there beating up on yourself doesn't make you better. Like if you saw your
friend doing that to themselves, you would stop them. And I think like an important thing
to remember is like, you should treat yourself like how you want your friends to treat themselves.
And that I'm going to try to do that a little bit more.
That's good.
Not only will you stop them, you'll be like, you're being annoying.
Yeah, you're making me want to be your stupid piece of shit.
You're making me not want to be your friend.
Well, you stupid pieces of shit.
That is one fantastic resolution.
No, that is your words, not mine.
You guys are all wonderful.
I love you guys so much.
I love them.
They're the best.
They love you too.
Oh, thanks. too oh thank you yeah
fly safe happy new year happy new year almost i don't remember in a couple weeks i think
kevin says it's your stupid idea all right and when we come back more talking yay On the line is DeRay McKesson, the host of Pod Save the People.
DeRay, how you doing?
I'm good, I'm good. I can't believe that it's already almost 2019. It's sort of wild.
It is wild. Last year feels like a blur, but I know a lot of stuff happened.
Midterms were good. What else?
I don't really remember.
You know, I did a panel recently with some of the Parkland students,
and they were like, this has been a really wild nine months.
And I was like, was that really just nine months ago?
Oh, my God.
That is.
Like, isn't that wild?
Like, she said that, and I was like, wow, only nine months?
Like, this feels like the world is is moving so quickly, you know?
So quickly.
And for those guys, it's a percentage of your total life.
I mean, they're what, 18, 19?
That's right, man.
Well, what we've been doing, we've been talking to some folks here at Crooked Media, some of the folks hosting great shows like Pod Save the People about New Year's resolutions.
Do you have any this year?
Anything you want to share with the audience? i think they're like they're two big resolutions
one is like i am just trying to be more like fit and healthy i went to a soul cycle club have you
been a soul cycle oh yeah it it hurt me it's hard hard i nearly fainted i tried to take a two-hour
nap the first time i did i was like oh i'll spin like you know i know a lot of people that have sort of done it i went and was like are you do you seriously stand
up this much i like don't know how and i honestly would were you able to do it in rhythm no i was
so out of rhythm i looked like an idiot no and like thankfully i got a bike that was like not
in the front but i would tell me i literally would have walked out if not for the peer pressure of
having to walk in front of everybody.
I'm happy I did it.
I'm going to the gym now.
I have a trainer.
So that's one of my resolutions for sure because I just need to do that better.
Yeah, I hear you.
And the second is when we think about the work, I'm always mindful, especially around mass incarceration and the police,
is a lot of the outcomes haven't changed at all.
With the police, it's like as many people got killed in 18 as they did in 17 16 15 and 14 like literally
no change so i think about what i want to do in 2019 is like double down on like the structural
things like they're not often sexy and people like programs because programs sort of you can
touch and feel a program you know you can touch and feel an after-school program you can touch
and feel feeding the homeless like Like, and programs are important.
They have a role to play in this space.
I'm interested in like either how we use programs to scale to be like system-wide or how we
fundamentally just change systems and structures.
Like that's like my laser focus for 2019.
So I'm going to try and laser in on that like a little bit more than I have been in 2018.
Can I ask you a question?
I've asked you this offline, but never on the air.
I mean, I think, you know, like I grew up in, you know,
like a privileged environment in New England.
Like for me, the reality I saw during Ferguson in particular
was incredibly jarring and eye-opening.
And I think awakened me to a systemic problem with police violence that I was
just not nearly aware of enough. Do you think that stories like Ferguson are still getting out
sufficiently and people are seeing that unchanged statistic that you talked about earlier? Or
do we need to do more work on that front? Yeah, it's interesting. I think that people are, people know the stories.
I don't think they know what to do about it, right?
So more people have seen videos
or like have the language to talk about it.
I think people don't think about like police union contracts
or laws as like sites of change.
So like, you know, I know you've heard me say it before,
like California has a law that literally says
that any investigation of an officer
that lasts more than a year can never result in discipline,
regardless of the outcome.
That is crazy. That's wild. You know in maryland there's a law that says that you can file an anonymous complaint against an officer for everything
except brutality you're like well okay that's sort of wild wow and in cleveland cleveland uh the
police union contract literally says that they destroy police officer disciplining records every
two years so like i think that people just don't i think that like
there's a lot of focus on the awareness that there is an issue i think people don't know what the
structural things look like and i think we have to do a better job of helping people realize that
like oh no the system can change like it doesn't have to work like this the things that you think
are the solutions are just not as sexy you know so like training is interesting but like i don't
know what training you go to not to shoot a nine-year-old. That's not a training issue. You know, that's like something
else. And like, or unconscious bias. It's like, yeah, unconscious bias is important. We should
train people. But like some of this bias is really conscious, you know? And like calling everything
unconscious is letting people off the hook. So I'm going to double down on the structural stuff
in 2019. That's great. That's great. And do you think you'll double down on sort of helping
people understand exactly that leap you're talking about, like the awareness and the next step? Is
that going to be a focus on Pots Save the People? Yeah, yeah. And helping people see the connections.
You know, on Pots Save the People already, we do the connections, right? So what are all the things
that you didn't even think about? But helping people. So we just had an interview about abortion and like i just had no clue about
the number of states that only have one abortion clinic or like you know you can sign up to be an
escort for instance and like escort women into abortion clinics and like just the strategies
that the the other side is using to clamp down on like access to abortion and things like that like
how do we help tell the structural stories at scale so people can listen
and be like, okay, I get that. I get the problem. Now here's how we fight.
Like that's what I want to be my work in 2019.
I just also want to say,
I think that's one of the things that pod save the people does so well because
you guys often do, you know, a news that, you know,
wasn't necessarily like the front page of the New York Times section where you guys bring together all these stories that are
critically important, but maybe didn't get heard by your audience.
And then you always make that leap of like how the listener can get involved and do more
and actually stop some of these, you know, structural problems or horrible incidents
that are happening.
So that's why I think it's just an invaluable show that everybody should listen to.
Yeah, I appreciate it. I that everybody should listen to. Yeah.
I appreciate it.
I think they should listen to.
And I know they are.
I know they are.
Dre,
happy new year,
man.
Thank you so much for,
for sharing that with us and,
you know,
look forward to talking more.
Cool.
Thanks so much.
I'll talk to you later.
I think, I believe this song plays at the end of It's a Wonderful Life, right?
Yeah.
This arrangement really reminds me of The Shining.
That just took it down.
Wait, which part of The Shining?
When he's in the bar, When he's in the bar.
Tanya's nodding.
Yeah, when they're pulling back.
I have not seen the shining.
You've not seen the shining?
It's so scary.
I don't like scary movies.
Oh, my God.
You know what?
Maybe we'll get you a sandbox little shovel you can play with while Tommy and I watch the fucking shining.
Happy New Year.
Tommy hates scary movies.
I do.
But that was a good one.
It's a psychological thriller.
I feel like that's also
one of those old ones.
I feel like I've seen
every scene from The Shining
because it's such a cultural...
Yeah, but when you see
them in order, boy.
That's the key.
Leave it in.
The kindness yet for auld lang syne. © BF-WATCH TV 2021