Hour 1: That's a Great Question

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[14] This is the Dan Levator show with the Stucats podcast.

[15] He's the co -host of Pod Save America, the host of Pod Save the World.

[16] He's part of the Crooked Media Empire.

[17] He co -founded it.

[18] He's speaking to us from Milwaukee, where he's covering the Republican National Convention this week.

[19] It seems a little bit crazy.

[20] He also did a South Beach session that you can still find from June of 2023 that I enjoyed.

[21] Tommy Vitor is with us.

[22] Thank you for joining us.

[23] And I will ask, well, I guess a complicated and simple question off the bat.

[24] How are you?

[25] Hey, Tan.

[26] It's good to see you.

[27] Yeah, look, I think we all need this this coped up news cycle to just chill out a bit, you know, relax.

[28] Everyone stop making news.

[29] We got Joe Biden getting COVID.

[30] We got an assassination attempt.

[31] We have the worst debate performance in two weeks.

[32] So it's just, it's been a whirlweek couple of weeks.

[33] And I don't know.

[34] Who knows when it's slowing down?

[35] Whirlwind, that feels like a whirlwind because everything is moving very quickly.

[36] And one of the speakers tonight is Hulk Hogan?

[37] Yeah, apparently.

[38] Who knew?

[39] What are we doing?

[40] I have no idea, man. I have no idea.

[41] Okay, well, tell me what it's like there.

[42] We sent someone out there and they couldn't get close to anybody.

[43] We were just trying to do some man on the street stuff that would be funny.

[44] And the restrictions were so large that we couldn't get close to doing anything.

[45] that resembled media?

[46] Yeah, I mean, like, there's a million reasons why, you know, the assassination attempt on Donald Trump on Saturday was a horrible thing.

[47] I mean, on just a human level, it's like one of the most frightening things I've ever seen.

[48] I don't care how much you dislike your political opponent, but you violence is not justified, in part because violence tends to lead to more violence, and once you start, it's very hard to stop.

[49] But also, just, you know, for people in politics, it just creates more and more and more distance between the people who represent us and the people who are just citizens.

[50] And that's true for the media.

[51] It's true for folks like me walking around Milwaukee today.

[52] So, yeah, it's completely locked down.

[53] We're going to go over to the site today, try to just talk to people on the street, just kind of get a sense of why they're there, what's going on, how people feel in this moment.

[54] But, you know, mostly the theme, the feeling coming out of the RNC so far is a convention full of people who think the election is over, basically, and that they've already won.

[55] How do you think the coverage and response has been handled to the assassination attempt?

[56] I mean, early on, it was pretty irresponsible.

[57] Donald Trump's vice presidential selection, J .D. Vance, immediately tweeted that this shooting was the result of Joe Biden's rhetoric.

[58] There was absolutely no evidence of that then.

[59] There's no evidence of that now.

[60] The more we learn about this person whose name I'm not going to say is that he was looking for Googling images of lots of political figures, Biden, Trump, Christopher Ray, the former FBI director, the princess of whales.

[61] So it seems like a disturbed person who told a bunch of his gamer friends he was going to do something big on the 14th.

[62] He had depression.

[63] So who knows?

[64] We're figuring it out.

[65] But yeah, I mean, it's, it's horrifying.

[66] It's horrifying, the whole thing.

[67] Let me make a little lighter the subject matter that we're talking about by just putting in front of you a couple of things and asking for you to tell me which is the funnier of these two things.

[68] The first thing I'm going to show you is Jim Justice of West Virginia, the politician who the words aren't funny, but the pan out comedically afterward feels like something out of Parks and Rec.

[69] Let's go ahead and play that first for Tommy Vitor.

[70] Bottom line to every single thing that's going on in this great country today is one thing.

[71] We become totally unhinged if Donald Trump is not elected in November.

[72] It's just so good.

[73] It's so good.

[74] And I ask you if it's better than this reaction from Alec Baldwin in the middle of all the Alec Baldwin stuff that has him going theatrical with body language work.

[75] I really appreciated the acting that he did on Saturday Night Live and I really appreciate his politics.

[76] You told one of the witnesses who disagreed with you during an interview that you thought Mr. Baldwin was a sucker.

[77] I do not recall saying that.

[78] I love this country.

[79] I guess we have your choice.

[80] I guess you like the second one better than the first one.

[81] Well, I mean, listen, I think that every dog, or I'm sorry, every political speech should have just a dog chill in next to you, riding shotgun.

[82] That's the, wants to be the governor of West Virginia running for Senate.

[83] He's a wildly popular in part because of this big sweet, chunky bulldog.

[84] I think the dog's name is baby dog that he brings everywhere.

[85] And it's like, I don't know, he's basically carrot top for politics.

[86] He's doing prop comedy there.

[87] I totally support it.

[88] But yeah, that moment with Baldwin is incredible.

[89] Thank you for sharing that.

[90] Tommy, Fives can be morphed by social media and television coverage right now, vibes really bad around the Democratic Party, while vibes are really good around the Republican Party.

[91] But ratings are down for the RNC about 20%.

[92] And we made this mistake with Hillary, where we thought social media was actually reality, and we didn't see the actual election results coming.

[93] Now, X is owned by a massive donor and endorser of Donald Trump.

[94] How much of this really solidly.

[95] momentum for the Republican Party is actually just constructed by those things around us.

[96] That's such a good question and such a good point.

[97] I do think it's easy for those of us who are really plugged into social media or, you know, watch the news or politics closely to feel like things are constantly changing.

[98] When I think the reality is the biggest disconnect in this country is between people who are kind of politically obsessed and people who just don't pay any attention.

[99] They don't watch the news.

[100] They don't care about politics.

[101] They barely know who the vice president is.

[102] And that's not because they're bad people or they're ill -informed.

[103] It's because they got three kids and they're trying to get the soccer practice and they're trying to pay the bills, right?

[104] They're just living their lives.

[105] So I do think that social media and the algorithms can create this bubble of distortion that can change how people feel.

[106] I also think that four months is a lifetime in politics.

[107] Like I think when the Access Hollywood video came out in 2016, people like me were like, oh, this campaign is over.

[108] There's no way Trump can recover from this.

[109] And then he did.

[110] So we'll see what happens between now in November.

[111] A lot of things could change.

[112] There was an article I read that referred to what's going on in certain social media circles as the Zinternet.

[113] And I've seen firsthand Republican operatives kind of shaping narratives with influencers and lifestyle accounts, both on the local and national level.

[114] And I'm wondering, Are these people that are having to go and the internet is different than it was several years ago?

[115] There's a lot of pro -Trump sentiment.

[116] Can you actually count on this internet to be involved in politics when their whole thing is not really everything's a joke?

[117] Nothing really matters.

[118] It's all social currency.

[119] That's another really good question.

[120] I saw a tweet yesterday that said that the toilets at the RNC look like a mask gray for Zins.

[121] They're just like full to the brim, little pouches everywhere.

[122] So, yeah, this internet is strong and it's happened in IRL.

[123] I do think the Trump campaign has done something very smart.

[124] They have a strategy, which is reaching out to young men of all colors, black, Latino, everybody, white, sort of the Barstool Sports crowd.

[125] And they're doing that through a really smart, deliberate way.

[126] He's going to MMA fights and walking in with Dana White.

[127] He's going on, you know, he's hanging out with Jake and Logan Paul.

[128] He's doing the Nelk Boys podcast, right?

[129] So he's reaching those young men who frankly, you know, in a lot of cases, especially young black men, the Democratic Party has taken their vote for granted a lot of times and not spend enough time trying to persuade them or actually deliver for them and make and prove to them that we've earned their vote and they're trying to peel off some of those young men.

[130] So I think the question is always, what are you persuading people?

[131] Are they actually going to turn out or are they just post it?

[132] about how the photo of Trump, you know, holding up his fist after getting shot was cool and iconic and tough.

[133] I like, I will be the, I don't like Donald Trump.

[134] I'll be the first one to admit that having the political instinct after getting shot in the ear to stand up and raise your fist is like a feral political genius.

[135] There's no other way to describe it.

[136] No, no, there is another way to describe it.

[137] Desperation to stay out of prison, I would say.

[138] It's like, I would say that I could describe it that way.

[139] Yes.

[140] That's true.

[141] That's true, Dan.

[142] We will get to that in a second.

[143] But, Chris, you know where we are right now.

[144] I've never seen this happen before in the show.

[145] This is a heat check.

[146] We need to get out of the way and get Mike Ryan the ball.

[147] He's gotten two.

[148] That's a great question in a row.

[149] Can he get three?

[150] It's never happened.

[151] It's never happened.

[152] I haven't heard it in the media.

[153] I haven't heard it around here.

[154] Can you get three straight?

[155] That's a great question.

[156] Don't just give it away here either.

[157] Don't give it away.

[158] Make him earn it.

[159] Play some defense.

[160] I wanted to walk away from the table with my winnings.

[161] I was feeling good about myself.

[162] I'll try.

[163] Here's the heat check.

[164] Okay.

[165] Next week is the DNC, right?

[166] So it stands the reason if a decision is made on whether or not Joe Biden will indeed be the candidate on the ballot.

[167] It has to happen before the DNC, right?

[168] They can't just come around after, announce that he's a nominee.

[169] It'd be too late at that point.

[170] So if something happens with Joe Biden and this race, will it happen in the next couple of days?

[171] Yeah, that question was adequate.

[172] It's fair.

[173] It's fair.

[174] It wasn't amazing.

[175] It wasn't amazing.

[176] That was the dumbest question.

[177] I wanted to ask you about getting Bam out of bio some help, like maybe some shooters around the side.

[178] Listen, I'm a Celtics fan, so I'm just walking on air right now.

[179] The problem right now is that this is one person's decision, and it's Joe Biden's.

[180] And so there's all these reports today that leaders in the Democratic Party, Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, senators, members of Congress, have gone to him and said, sir, we're seeing all these polls.

[181] Not only are you going to lose, but we could get wiped out in these center races and the House.

[182] That's not how you want your legacy to go down.

[183] I think you have to imagine yourself in Joe Biden's shoes.

[184] He's 81 years old.

[185] He has wanted this job his entire life.

[186] He got it.

[187] He thinks he's doing a good job.

[188] And now people are essentially trying to like take the keys away from him.

[189] And I think he probably feels like not only is that unfair on some level, but that like a piece of him is dying.

[190] You know, like this was your life's purpose and you can no longer do it.

[191] Now, I have empathy for that, but at the end of the day, we're all citizens.

[192] He's just another one, right?

[193] And so I don't care more about his feelings and loyalty than I do to the future of the country.

[194] And I'm deeply worried about our ability to win if Joe Biden's a nominee.

[195] If you want no bullshit conversation on politics and news without boring you to death, I would suggest that you listen to subscribe to Pod Save the World, new episodes every Wednesday and Pod Save America, new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays, wherever it is that you get your podcast.

[196] On your way out the door, do you have any feeling?

[197] I don't know how successful you are at these things or what your history looks like on being able to predict stuff four months out.

[198] But given where we presently are, which I imagine looks unprecedented to you from every angle, because I don't understand.

[199] how we've gotten to the extremities of where it is that we've gotten to, where both sides are looking at the other side and seeing existential fear for freedom, democracy, and America.

[200] You think what's going to happen here over the next four months?

[201] So, Dan, I suck it predicting.

[202] Your listeners should fade me if you are into gambling.

[203] I feel like the momentum is moving towards Joe Biden.

[204] not being the nominee, I would put it at like 70%.

[205] I think that when there's just a critical mass of Democratic members coming out and saying you have to go, it's hard to, it becomes a self -fulfilling prophecy.

[206] The question then is who comes next.

[207] Odds are it's Kamala Harris, but the Democratic Party could say, okay, let's try to have sort of an open mini convention.

[208] Unfortunately, then you run into a bunch of challenges with deadlines that involve like literal, like getting enough signatures written down to get names on ballots.

[209] So that will be a compressed kind of crazy period of time.

[210] Right now, I think this is Donald Trump's election to lose.

[211] He's winning in every swing state in a poll that came out yesterday.

[212] But a new candidate could completely upend things.

[213] And there's some polling that suggests that almost every alternative would do better against Donald Trump than Joe Biden would right now just because of concerns about his age.

[214] So I suck at predicting.

[215] I ducked your question, but right now it looks like Trump would win.

[216] Tommy, thank you for being on with us.

[217] Appreciate the insight.

[218] Thank you, guys.

[219] Summer's the best time to run the way you want.

[220] Dial it up with new challenges and programs and bring your workouts with you to make the most of outside sunny days.

[221] Stugats, guess what?

[222] You know what you can do with Peloton?

[223] What?

[224] Get the app.

[225] Go outside, ride a bike.

[226] Well, I thought you ride Peloton inside.

[227] Well, you do.

[228] You can ride Peloton inside if it's a rainy day or if it's cloudy or you just don't want to get outside.

[229] Maybe it's too hot.

[230] It's summertime.

[231] Go outside.

[232] I record a lot from my office with you.

[233] And you've noticed it's sitting there, yet it hasn't been used.

[234] Well, now's the time.

[235] Summer's the best time to start that push, Stugats.

[236] Right.

[237] Can we do it together?

[238] Not on the same bike, but we could join a class together.

[239] I used to do that.

[240] We used to have Guillermo Ton.

[241] I'd invite people.

[242] We'd all take a class together at same time.

[243] So I think you're starting to get concerned about my health and my age, Billy.

[244] I sense that with you.

[245] We're beyond starting.

[246] Okay.

[247] Whatever road lies ahead.

[248] Your training starts here with Peloton Tread and Tread Plus.

[249] It's not just a bike, a treadmill, too.

[250] I'm going to go outside.

[251] I'm going to get in.

[252] shape.

[253] I'm going to do it with Billy Gill.

[254] I want to be in your class.

[255] I want you to be my instructor.

[256] You don't want to spend more time with me. No, I can schedule a class and we can ride together.

[257] I won't be the instructor of the class.

[258] We can have Camila could be our instructor.

[259] I like the Grateful Dead class.

[260] My daughter, she uses the Peloton.

[261] She was on it once and an instructor who was playing Grateful Dead tunes.

[262] Let's do that.

[263] Okay.

[264] Why don't we go for a run?

[265] Outside.

[266] Guided Run.

[267] Peloton.

[268] Me and you, that's something we can do together.

[269] Okay.

[270] Turn on the app.

[271] Me and you, go outside.

[272] Enjoy the summer.

[273] Call yourself a runner with Peloton.

[274] at one peloton .com slash running.

[275] All right.

[276] Don Lebertard.

[277] You are a fool.

[278] You're nobody.

[279] You are an infant.

[280] You have nobody to me. I literally put together a freaking stage for your toenail.

[281] I am your career right now, pal.

[282] Look at me. I am your career.

[283] Stugats.

[284] You have messed with me, David.

[285] And now you're messing with me. And I'm more dangerous, pal.

[286] This is the Dan Lebatar show with the Stugats.

[287] So, Mike, I hate to break this to you, but your adequate question actually may have turned out to be a bad question because the DNC is not next week.

[288] It's in August.

[289] That's totally fair.

[290] I've had a weird relationship with space and time over the last few days and weeks.

[291] Well, also, men.

[292] I am in week four of the college football season.

[293] I'm in like light jacket weather at this point.

[294] I was also, there was one day where I took a shit in three different states in the same day, which was a personal record for me. I've been all over this great land over the last few days and it's all kind of catching up.

[295] The next week to you is like mid -October.

[296] Yeah.

[297] And like in the movies, I'm being transported to like the late 90s.

[298] So like I'm just all over the place.

[299] And also I'm fighting what is a general, a. general pushback on being involved in the public domain when it comes to politics.

[300] So this show will kind of force it and I have to realize I have to be publicly responsible.

[301] But my first notion after the horrible acts of the last weekend were I don't have the stomach for this anymore.

[302] I want to check out on all of it.

[303] The temperature on this is just way too high.

[304] And like Tommy said, like once you start going down this road of violence, which started with January 6th and the attack on the Pelosi's and now hopefully it's, crescendo on the attempt on Donald Trump's life.

[305] It just seems as though we're on a very dangerous track and I just kind of want to opt out of it.

[306] It doesn't seem like we're on a very dangerous track.

[307] It seems like we're on a more dangerous path somehow, which is really, really terrifying to me. We are just beginning where the terror starts because I think we've escalated into what are unprecedented times.

[308] The last thing, Tommy Vitor just said is a sentence that at any time in my life would have been unfathomable when he says it looks like Trump will win with the litany of things that are on that side of the ledger.

[309] And once upon a time, Howard Dean ruined a presidential campaign for this position by being unpresidential with a sound.

[310] Not only are we going to New Hampshire, we're going to South Carolina and Oklahoma and Arizona and North Dakota and New Mexico.

[311] We're going to California and Texas and New York.

[312] We're going to South Dakota and Oregon and Washington and Michigan.

[313] And then we're going to Washington, D .C. to take back the White House.

[314] I have a theory as to why things are so bad because if you look at the things that matter historically, the economy, unemployment rates, hell even the stock market, or even the midterm elections in which we were all told and all convinced that a red wave was coming.

[315] And then Joe Biden, as an incumbent, had probably the greatest midterm cycle of any politicians.

[316] Like, why is he losing so badly if he has all these things that actually matter?

[317] And what I got down to is they became, the Democratic Party won, pretty much on a platform of that cross for me on this dais right now is not normal.

[318] The last four years have not been normal.

[319] Not you, Billy.

[320] I'm saying, I'm pointing to Donald Trump.

[321] A vote for Biden is just a vote for, I will not vote for that.

[322] Yeah, like not Trump essentially won by record numbers and had the highest point total of all time because the American public was exhausted by the craziness of those four years.

[323] So here's my theory as to why things around Joe Biden are so bad, while everything that actually matters is supposed to be good.

[324] It's because when you campaign and you champion that you are the party of normal, You can't ignore the deficiencies that are deteriorating right before our eyes right now.

[325] If you keep trudging along with this candidate, you yourself are suspending reality in failing to acknowledge it.

[326] So when you start being a party that is not acting normally, that is not subscribing to this is a qualified candidate that represents a best of us and it is a polar opposite of what we see there.

[327] when by comparison on this debate, you make a felon, someone who is not really in touch with reality, seem that much more with it than you, you are in deep trouble.

[328] There are a number of things here, okay, and I will not pretend to be any kind of political expert.

[329] I am just a citizen like everyone else here who's scared, and I think we can all agree that we're just scared of everything that's happening everywhere.

[330] everywhere, but it is an act of marketing and mythology and miracle that a bullet would turn a felon into a martyr without killing him.

[331] And that where we are, where it regards Trump and Biden is, I believe, whoever would be in charge right now because of the way big money has contaminated everything and every one.

[332] Biden included because his climate shit is terrible when you start talking about the oil money too.

[333] Big money has contaminated all of it that I believe the voting public, whoever's in charge right now, is angry and working in an economy that makes everyone else have the money more than ever except for them.

[334] And so whoever's in charge when that happens when gas prices are so high that you're angry and upset because you can't afford $6 a gallon, whoever's in charge of that is the one that's going to get the wrath.

[335] I just simply can't believe, and I've been asking this for four years, how did it get so bad that these are our best options?

[336] Like, there are no good options.

[337] But you're espousing something that the Republican Party is counting on.

[338] You just said that like people are frustrated because the wealthy are getting wealthier.

[339] Look at the numbers.

[340] Look at what one party will do with wealth.

[341] Look at the unemployment numbers right now.

[342] Job numbers are incredible.

[343] The economy is actually working just because you can't get a $5 foot long anymore doesn't mean that.

[344] But it can just be that simple.

[345] And if you see the media coverage in which we are absolutely a contributor to, yes, reaction to Biden and him not having his mental faculties a way that we're used to seeing is outweighed.

[346] Donald Trump was seemingly falling asleep multiple times now at the R &C, and it does not matter.

[347] If it happened to Biden, it would matter.

[348] And it's all because the Democratic Party has always been the party of normalcy when it's juxtaposed by Donald Trump.

[349] When you seem as crazy and as detached, you then amplify the normalcy that, you're seems to be there with people that have already made him a martyr and the bullet just signified that he is actually potentially one because you have a bandage on his ear to prove it.

[350] He already made himself a political martyr before the assassination attempt.

[351] When you talk about political frustrations generally when it comes to the rich getting richer, you know, in the United States, we normally have about 50 year shifts in each direction economically.

[352] We go to the left for about 50 years, then we shift to the right for about 50 years.

[353] And since Ronald Reagan, our country has been shifting generally further and further and further to the right.

[354] Just because we elected a black president doesn't mean that we were shifting to the left.

[355] Obama's economics himself, Biden's economics, are actually further to the right than the left -leaning presidents were earlier in the 19th century.

[356] You now look at a time where you feel that level of frustration.

[357] in a lot of ways the Democrats should have been sort of talking about an even further shift to the left than what they're doing in this standard of normalcy because you have things like inflation going the way that they are.

[358] You have things like these companies that we see sort of running everything in the money within politics.

[359] That is where the frustration could be alleviated.

[360] And ordinarily, that's what would happen, but because of this extreme last second move into a right that favors authoritarianism, the left is seemingly picking up the pieces in comparison.

[361] I don't understand.

[362] I really don't how it is that I'm someone who vastly underestimated all of this stuff.

[363] So the extremities could be so extreme that your choices are between someone who appears to be dying and someone who can't be killed.

[364] Like, it's not too much to ask the incumbent to be able to coherently finish thoughts.

[365] It's not too big an ask.

[366] And for all of this stuff that we're discussing that we can discuss all of the issues, sometimes whether it's Howard Dean and a sound that he makes, or it's a debate where you see the president can't finish a thought.

[367] It can come down to the one thing.

[368] Like, I don't trust that to be presidential.

[369] I don't trust that.

[370] Do you know How, I did not know, I did not know, this is how amateur I am with some things as they regard politics.

[371] I did not know of a hypothetical situation that I could put in front of you that would involve an incumbent running for office and us pretty much being uniform and like, man, they got to get Biden out of there.

[372] They got to get Biden out of there, even though it's not about the job that he's done.

[373] it's just like, yeah, I can't finish thoughts, can't finish thoughts and stumbles around too old.

[374] Like, did you guys know that there would be a, did you guys create the hypothetical scenario before this one where you would knock out an incumbent toward the end of the race just because he's old.

[375] Get him out of there.

[376] That's sort of my frustration with the mentality in general.

[377] I would implore people when you think about this.

[378] Ultimately, you're not voting for an individual.

[379] You're voting for an administration.

[380] You're voting for everybody that's in it and you've seen what the Biden.

[381] administration is done.

[382] I as someone that's further, like personally, you all know it.

[383] You've heard me talk about it.

[384] I'm further left.

[385] I'd like Biden to be doing more progressive things than he's done.

[386] I can sort of have attacks on their administration from that angle.

[387] But from someone who might be down the middle who's trying to decide and you're frustrated by Biden being old, just think about the administration that you're voting for.

[388] Think about in any scenario, you want something to get done, whether it's from the left or from the right.

[389] Who do you want your opposition to be?

[390] Who do you think will work with you?

[391] Who do you think will actually put you in a position to be able to get something done that you want?

[392] I know for me, like 100 times out of 100, that's going to be Joe Biden.

[393] I like this guy.

[394] How'd you poop in three states on the same day?

[395] It was like a four corners monument thing or like you just had the runs that day?

[396] So I could have, if I wanted to, if the flight wasn't so early, I could have pulled off four states in one day.

[397] So here's what it was.

[398] I left from Florida.

[399] One.

[400] And I got to Arizona.

[401] my flight had been canceled.

[402] So I'm hanging around the airport in Arizona for longer than I plan to be, you know, took a shit in Arizona.

[403] Then I get a flight to Nevada, to Reno, Nevada, and I get to the hotel that is in right on the border on California.

[404] So I took a shit once I landed in Nevada.

[405] And then to close the night, tummy was a little uncomfortable, took a shit in California, was across the street from the battle.

[406] It could have been four.

[407] I could have shit in four states.

[408] That's a great platform to run on.

[409] Just I'm a regular in four states.

[410] It's more normal than other people.

[411] When you're hiring for your small business, you want to find quality professionals that are right for the role.

[412] That's why you have to check out LinkedIn Jobs.

[413] LinkedIn Jobs has a tools to help find the right professionals for your team, faster and for free.

[414] As Metal Arc Media continues to grow as a content studio, we strive to hire only the best and most qualified candidates.

[415] Thankfully, with LinkedIn, they've made it easy for us to find them.

[416] LinkedIn isn't just a job board.

[417] LinkedIn helps you hire professionals you can't find anywhere else, even those who aren't actively searching for a new job, but might be open to the perfect role.

[418] In a given month, over 70 % of LinkedIn users don't visit other leading job sites.

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[420] On LinkedIn, 86 % of small businesses get a qualified candidate within 24 hours.

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[423] That's LinkedIn .com slash prep.

[424] Post your job for free.

[425] Terms and conditions apply.

[426] Don Lebertard.

[427] You are very comfortable talking about how you met your wife, how much you love her, how important she is to you, and that's the reason that I asked the question.

[428] I've always admired that about you.

[429] that you are, you have no problems whatsoever professing your love.

[430] Well, the thing is, I got a new wife now.

[431] You know, me and Bianca didn't make it.

[432] So I moved on.

[433] We moved on.

[434] It was for the better for both of us.

[435] Stugats.

[436] Things just got a little awkward there.

[437] So let me be the first on this show to congratulate you on the new wife, Vince.

[438] Congratulations on feeling whole, feeling complete, you know.

[439] let's talk tailgating yeah don't be don't don't feel awkward buddy you know I don't I mean it's too late for that I appreciate you soothing me in this regard but I already feel terribly awkward and then my teammate comes to my defense with not a question but just a healthy congratulations and the further pointing out of that awkwardness because he's always good for me in those spots I'm also thinking of divorce Vince after many, many years, 18 years with a partner who does things like that to you.

[440] This is the Dan Levitar show with the Stugats.

[441] I've been getting a version of this for a very long time, more than the last four years.

[442] Dan still doesn't get, this is someone writing in here on YouTube, Dan still doesn't get that they were the first to go super political and lost half of his fans.

[443] I gave it like six months because I love the sports part, but when it was constantly politics down your throat, it quit being fun.

[444] And you felt like you were being lectured, too.

[445] Wait, where'd you get that?

[446] YouTube.

[447] You got that from someone actively watching our show while they're saying how we lost half our audience and aren't watching the show.

[448] Okay, this is why you sound defensive.

[449] No, no, no, I sound defensive because I know the numbers.

[450] I know that we didn't lose half our audience and it just feels like a wild criticism when someone's literally watching on a platform where you can't argue.

[451] that you're not watching anymore?

[452] The thing about the risking of losing fans that the criticism neglects is that it was a conscious choice.

[453] I didn't do and we didn't do everything it is we did to be told or governed by anybody else what to talk about.

[454] Anyone who has been around here behind the scenes as it sounded like I'm going a little bit crazy over the last four years for a variety of reasons that don't have to do with that is I understood some of the sacrifice we were making when we were making it, some of it, not all of it.

[455] And one of the choices that everyone around here has heard me say is I wanted these microphones to be free right now as Morning Joe can't do a show on Monday or the Daily Show can't do their show on Monday, or John Stewart.

[456] Someone as powerful as John Stewart can't do the stuff he was doing for Apple because the corporations are in charge.

[457] I understand if and why you object to this stuff.

[458] I also understand why you want it to be sports and the escape.

[459] I like that too sometimes.

[460] But after a presidential assassination attempt or a former presidential assassination attempt, I don't actually know.

[461] You guys tell me, because I really don't know about the question that I'm asking, how many of the sports shows addressed what happened with Trump?

[462] I don't know the answer to what it is I'm asking.

[463] I've been traveling.

[464] I'm behind.

[465] I feel bad that I don't know a lot of what's going on because you fall behind very quickly these days.

[466] But I just don't want to sit out the next four or five months, no matter how it is that they end up going because I can't talk about stuff.

[467] It's the choice we made.

[468] The choice we made had something to do with Chris Cody, but what started to fray everything before Chris Cody was the limitations on speech because of a corporate policy that now results in all the walls falling down.

[469] So Dana White is endorsing Donald Trump for five minutes on McAfee.

[470] I didn't really pay attention to the sports media landscape outside of what was aggregated.

[471] and I saw what Dana White had to say there.

[472] And also, I'm existing on a show in which a couple hours, a couple minutes before I went into probably my most, what could be considered political segment in several months.

[473] I said over the weekend, I wondered aloud if I should just stop doing this altogether.

[474] And I think that that's superhuman to wonder if we should be doing this, especially now when it's got to be real vibes are real bad for at least.

[475] decide that I'm pulling for, which is not even a candidate, really.

[476] I get, I'm constantly telling my phone to stop texting me because I'm a registered Republican still.

[477] I feel sometimes a duty to say, hey, this isn't normal.

[478] And some people view that as an attack.

[479] It's why today, and even now, I'm trying to be so careful with how I'm saying something.

[480] And I want to have this Sean Strickland Redux in which I appear unhinged.

[481] I don't want to appear unhinged like I did when Greg Cody tried to ruin my Stanley Cup final.

[482] I understand now in this climate, especially as violence is spiking, that the need, even when I'm saying something that most in the audience might find disagreeable, that there is such an underlined importance in being calm and seeing like You don't actually feel super emotional about this.

[483] It's hard to argue that you're being rational about something when you sound emotional.

[484] Oh, I would go a step further on that.

[485] The entirety of my career, one of the greatest difficulties I have had in just being a communicator, is that the way that I deliver things can be strident and obnoxious and arrogant makes me unlikable and in the delivery of things that might otherwise be.

[486] well thought out, get drowned out in people not liking how it is that I'm delivering whatever the message is.

[487] I will tell you that since the death of my brother, I am feeling things more deeply on both ends, high end and low end.

[488] So I may over the next four months be even more guilty of this, given the general fear in the climate, because I do believe that what is presently happening is that there are a lot of people in the American voting public who are a combination of scared and angry.

[489] And so that combination of things often leads to violence.

[490] And so things are about to escalate here.

[491] I will remind you if you've been with us through the three and a half years, okay?

[492] Because the day after we left the ESPN, the insurrection happened.

[493] And I was paying, in a panic, a thousand dollars a day for a security guard because things had escalated to the point.

[494] Billy's still shocked by that one.

[495] That's a great racket by that security guard because, like, respectfully, I don't think the target after the Capitol is the Dan Lovitarcho studio.

[496] Understood, respectfully.

[497] Understood and also respectfully, like, respectfully, like, there were two people in the studio at the time.

[498] Like, everybody was...

[499] $1 ,000.

[500] We'd pay an hour.

[501] Every hour a day.

[502] It's crazy.

[503] No, it...

[504] We would have done things differently back then, but everything felt like super heightened.

[505] And that was because we had seen something that we'd never seen.

[506] And I remember how shocking it was.

[507] You did it not too long ago with the Howard Dean clip.

[508] Like remember when this was a thing that would take a candidate just totally out of the race?

[509] I remember the tan suit.

[510] I remember what our reaction was to January 6th.

[511] And it wasn't a normal one.

[512] society kind of paused in that moment and we all kind of looked at each other and said what can be done about this and things went away and kind of felt normal for a little bit what and I said this on Monday what kind of scared me about everything what scared me most was he the gun violence once again in what is supposed to be a really secure location with a lot of good guys with guns and yet a bad guy with a gun almost killed the the president after that After all that happened, everyone felt normal.

[513] What was happened in the R &C feels like super normal.

[514] You have to remind yourself that there are these visible cues.

[515] Like people have bandages on their ear in a support of Donald Trump because someone tried to take his life and I'm just, this is not normal.

[516] Would it have felt normal if the bullet was closer?

[517] The world would have stopped.

[518] I was in Tahoe at the time and I was at a casino and I was passing by the sports book and there were games still going on.

[519] And I was like, why are there games going on?

[520] Like, there was a politically motivated assassination attempt on the former president and the leading candidate for president in this cycle.

[521] This should not feel normal.

[522] I don't want to do the show anymore, was one of my thoughts that was going by my head at the time.

[523] And yet, here I am trying to make it through the day as I normally could.

[524] And I can't.

[525] I have to remind myself that it isn't normal.

[526] and that I have to do what I can, but I also realize the need to do it in a different manner now.

[527] For those of you who are saying that we didn't recognize where fans would be lost because there have been fans lost, but I would make the argument that standing for something in this particular climate has also made us gain fans and gain the strength of fans that we already have.

[528] But I totally understand your objection.

[529] If that's not what you want from a sports show, I hope you understand my objection that at 55 years old, I'm not going to spend all my time talking about Devante Adams.

[530] I'm just not going to do that anymore.

[531] But if he goes to New York.

[532] If he goes to the Jets, though, I'm doing a whole show.

[533] Completely different.

[534] I mean, that changes everything.

[535] That's where I could.

[536] Look, you bank.

[537] If he teams up with Aaron Rogers, if he teams up and brings Aaron Rogers back.

[538] Batiario, find a way over there.

[539] Make the decision.

[540] I saw Randall Cobbs on the SEC network now.

[541] Oh.

[542] You remember when he was a quarterback.

[543] He was an NCAA football hack.

[544] Oh, the best.

[545] Can you guys tell me, please, how Tony's show went last night.

[546] It's not Tony Tonight.

[547] It's not the Tonight Show.

[548] It was Tony 2.

[549] How long did it go?

[550] Do we have a...

[551] There is a clip.

[552] I was in it.

[553] It was my first ever Tony's show, and I enjoyed my time there.

[554] But I also needed to get back because I had a week three marquee matchup against Florida State that Memphis had to win.

[555] Mario Anderson is the least.

[556] candidate for Heisman right now.

[557] It was great.

[558] Wonderful moment.

[559] Great night.

[560] Go Tigers go.

[561] But I really enjoyed my time on the show.

[562] And the thing that I enjoyed most was the thing that was like, okay, this is a corporate partner responsibility.

[563] We have to do this best ball draft.

[564] And I was more excited to play the video games.

[565] And then everything after the best ball draft paled by comparison.

[566] I really liked that way.

[567] I had an, I opted out of fantasy football last season.

[568] and I just played DFS and whatnot.

[569] I don't know if you're familiar with the format of best ball, but it might be the only way to get Dan to play fantasy sports in that you do your draft.

[570] That's the last time you have to worry about your team at all.

[571] You don't have to start guys.

[572] You don't have to bench guys.

[573] You don't have to worry about it.

[574] Your team after that draft is your team forever.

[575] You don't have to worry about, oh, this guy's a boomer bus.

[576] I don't want to have that week -to -week decision.

[577] No, it'll just take the best points from your team and that that's your team that you rock with the entire year.

[578] I am now like only doing fantasy that way.

[579] What is the clip that we have from last night that you want us to play?

[580] So there's a lot of guys.

[581] What's so great about the Tony shows is a lot of our family over here, this extended universe of characters that does so much, and it's not said enough all the stuff that they do on this show to help make it good.

[582] It's an opportunity for them to become characters within our universe.

[583] So in many respects, you're being introduced to some of these people.

[584] but also in many respects, they are also getting an opportunity to see how hard this thing actually is.

[585] Talking into a microphone, getting by and having to worry about multiple things at one time while the content has to keep moving.

[586] So we have an example of someone trying to keep the content moving and the machine not really responding in kind.

[587] Yeah.

[588] And I think if you zoom in, he's actually wearing the same glasses in the picture.

[589] I was about to take that.

[590] I was about to take that.

[591] You like that, Malley?

[592] It's not that sneaky at this point.

[593] I like that.

[594] The guy was in the NOSC championship game.

[595] Really good player.

[596] Just good.

[597] How did the Packers do it?

[598] Taylor?

[599] They get lucky.

[600] Famous Jet fan?

[601] What happened there?

[602] Nothing.

[603] You have nothing to say?

[604] I have nothing on the Packers.

[605] Ethan just threw a dead fish to the group.

[606] How do the Packers do it?

[607] How do they do it?

[608] I mean, what kind of audio editor for this show would have to be a big enough egomaniac to weasel their way onto the air without the audience wanting?

[609] What is happening there?

[610] What is the matter with the amount of microphones that we're giving up around you?

[611] How do they do it?

[612] Look, it was amazing.

[613] All these people get camera time.

[614] They all had their patches that go under their eyes to make their eyes look good.

[615] I found eight of those on top of this table.

[616] You people are like animals.

[617] Act like you've been there before.

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[632] When you're hiring for your small business, you want to find quality professionals that are right for the role.

[633] That's why you have to check out LinkedIn Jobs.

[634] LinkedIn Jobs has the tools to help find the right professionals for your team, faster, and for free.

[635] As Metalwork Media continues to grow as a content studio, we strive to hire only the best and most qualified candidates.

[636] Thankfully, with LinkedIn, they've made it easy for us to find them.

[637] LinkedIn isn't just a job board.

[638] LinkedIn helps you hire professionals you can't find anywhere else.

[639] even those who aren't actively searching for a new job, but might be open to the perfect role.

[640] In a given month, over 70 % of LinkedIn users don't visit other leading job sites.

[641] So, if you're not looking on LinkedIn, you're looking in the wrong place.

[642] On LinkedIn, 86 % of small businesses get a qualified candidate within 24 hours.

[643] Hire professionals like a professional on LinkedIn.

[644] Post your job for free at LinkedIn .com slash prep.

[645] That's LinkedIn .com slash prep.

[646] Post your job for free.

[647] and conditions apply.