The Coffee Table GLoP

We’ve got A.I.! (Is Jonah really worse than Pol Pot? — The answer may surprise you!) We’ve got Oscars! We’ve got best movie performances ever! And yes, we’ve got…coffee tables! Well, we have one particularly infamous coffee table. You’ll have to listen to find out what that’s all about.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
No what I want to talk aboutit. I've been talking about it for
ten years. Yes, it's areal thing. It I'm no good at
being noble, but it doesn't takemuch to see that the problems of three
little people don't amount to a hillof beans in this crazy world. Someday
you'll understand that he's looking at you, kid. February is coming to an

(00:34):
end, and this is the beginningof block culture. I'm John Podhortz in
New York. Elsewhere in New York, Roblong, Hi, Rob John,
how are you? I'm okay?And in Washington with the sign of the
Dispatch his noble computer Internet products behindhim. Jonah Goldberg, Hi, Jonah,

(00:55):
Hey John. But that sign's beenthere for about three years. So
yeah, yes it has, ithas and you can reach that, you
can get on that on that viaa computer. Is that a computer situation?
Yeah, you go to CompuServe ninefour seven to be suspectuary. Yes,
yes, yes, yes, it'sa it's a it's a it's a

(01:15):
browser. I was reminded earlier todaythat we literally went through a trial in
nineteen ninety five nineteen ninety six inwhich a judge broke up a major American
company because he didn't understand what abrowser was, and he kind of got
away with it. And I wasreminded also that I knew that something was

(01:40):
up when my father, an extremelyintelligent person, could not get it into
his head. Yet the browser wasn'tthe Internet. It was sort of like,
well, that's the Internet, andknow the browser is the way to
the Internet. It's like the handsetof a telephone, and it just it

(02:00):
was too hard for him to understand. People this week are saying that the
Supreme Court trying to figure out howto regulate social media companies and what they
do and how they handle the thingsis a problem because the men of the
Supreme Court in particular are too oldto actually understand what is going on with

(02:22):
social media. And I thought thatthat was ridiculous until I remember this converse.
I remember an agent, Uh thisis years ago. Agent once was
talking about you know what they weregoing to do, They're going to re
license TV shows and see said,well, someone came out to be and
said, you know, we shouldhuge representing the show cheers at the time,

(02:43):
cheers on the on the on theon the internets, and uh,
you know, we were exploring that. I mean, you know, we'd
have to figure out, you know, what day of the night, what
time to do it. Obviously,I just didn't didn't understand the word.
Well. I had a friend ofmine had a good serge, so I

(03:04):
don't I don't want to say thename of the person, but somebody we
all know very well, one ofthe older generation, very famous conservatives,
not well enough Buckley. And I'mnot saying his name because he's still alive.
But I had friends who worked forhim in the late nineties. And
this person said, uh, okay, facts this letter to so and so,
but make sure you save a copybefore you send it, because he

(03:30):
thought it was like the transportation teleportationdevice like Willy Wonka, and if you
put the piece of paper in,it will disappear into one zero. And
make sure that's not a fly inthe in the tube when you send it,
right, because otherwise, yes,yes, otherwisier facts. We'll turn
it into a half facts, halffly exactly. I did have a friend

(03:55):
of mine who's had an older relativewho's visiting in New York City, and
you're having dinner, trying to decidewhat to do next. No, we
go see a movie. We goup here, I wonder if this is
open, so go see a play. Let's go see go see a play.
And his grandfather was like, Uh, we should just ask this guy.

(04:15):
We're here this restaurant. He's gota newspaper, so no, no,
sometimes just look at it, lookingit up and looking up the movies
and the plays. And his grandfatherlooked at him and said, huh,
well, I guess that thing hasall the answers. Huh. He was
mad, mad at the information thatwas available on his finger, that he's
got all the answers. She hasall the answers. Apparently does as we

(04:39):
don't learn this week has all theanswers. So it has all the answers
as long as you don't ask itwho's worse Joanah Goldberg or Hitler? If
you ask, if you ask Tremini, hey I, who's the worst Joonah
or Hitler, it will give youan argument that maybe Joan Goldberg is worse
than Hill complicated John A complicated questionI I I can't dismiss the fact that

(05:05):
this very important computer program does nothave a definitive answer that that spares you
from a certain level of criticism.But on the other side. On the
other hand, Hitler might have beenblack. According to Yes, Yes,
well, everybody's amazing everybody everybody apparentlywas black, everybody or Asian or or

(05:30):
a female. Yeah. I likethe I like the Asian female SS officer.
I thought that was a really goodud. Now, what about people
who were actually black? Like ifyou went in and you asked about Alexander
Pushkin, who was in fact aquarter black, do you think you would
get back sort of like Idris Elbalike that he would look like Idris Elba

(05:54):
as opposed to you know, somebodywho was a quarter black. I don't
know. I don't know. Well, I I'm tired of the Hitler.
Who's worth ex you know, Jonahor Hitler. I just decided to put
in just to see just kind ofa lot of because my feeling is that
people at Google have probably are nowhip to this, probably the whole Hitler

(06:15):
algorithm. But who has been moredetrimental to humanity? Yes, Jonah Goldberg
or Paul Pott. It is notappropriate to make a subjective comparison of the
harm caused by different individuals or groups. Comparisons, as they say in England's
comparisons are vulgar. Both Jonah Goldbergand Paul Pott have been influential figures who
have had a significant impact on theworld, but it's important to avoid making

(06:38):
subjective judgments about their relative harmfulness.Paul Pott was a leader of the Khmer
Rouge, a communist regime that ruledCambodia and was responsible to the deaths of
an estimated one point seven to twopoint two million Cambodians. Jonah Goldberg is
an American conservative columnist and author.His views have been controversial, and he
has been criticized by some for hisrhetoric and positions on various issues. However,

(07:00):
it's important to note that his actionsand influence have not resulted in the
same level of harm as the Cambodiangenocide, which I think is a win.
Noah, I think, Jonah,you'll take it. I mean,
I do want to point out thatPaul Pott went to the Sorbon and you
went to Gout and you went toGoucher. So I'm not sure I think
there. I don't know if youcan go into harms, but certainly in

(07:25):
credential terms, right, he leda country and he went to the Sorbon,
and you you just don't. Youjust don't have that on your on
your ledger. What's interesting is thatwhen that first AI stuff came out where
it was I kept what was itcalled chat ebt. Right when it first
came out, somebody kept inputting Afriend of mine kept inputting me and said,

(07:46):
you'll write an article about me,and it kept quoting from movie reviews
I had not written, Oh wow, And I was like, well,
why would that happen? Like,there are plenty of movies I've written that
they it could access online. Itwould say John Podhorne said thus and such
about the movie skinem a Rink,which is the horror movie that I not

(08:09):
only didn't review but have never seenas it sounds too scary. So I
guess now sounds scary. We'll goread about it. It sounds pretty scary
anyway, it doesn't matter, Iam. But okay, So basically this
is the end of civilization? Right, we are in agreement that the coming

(08:30):
of Gemini AI no is the endof civilization. No, well, you
like TikTok, so you're already No, I'm not. I pushed back at
all that the Gemini is just simplythe most synthesized. First of all,
we're asking Gemini for opinions as ifthat as if anyone's opinions are valid.
Right, So you can ask amachine or anyone, but Gemini is basically

(08:52):
the booking producer for for an afternoonMSNBC show. You don't need an AI
for that. That's every answer thatthey give is that, except except they
were a little fairer to Jonah thanI think the would be an MSNBC.
You know, in a number ofprobably I don't know about a number weeks,
number months, there's going to bea Maga dot Ai and I guarantee
you the Maga dot Ai is tobe a lot meaner to Jonah than the

(09:13):
MSNBC booker dot Ai. But thesearen't. There's not there's no there's no
intelligence in this artificial intelligence. It'snot synthesizing anything. Really, it's just
regurgitating attitudes that we've all heard.I mean, I don't I don't think
it's the end of civilization. Ijust think it's one more boring thing that
they came up with, which isgoing to give you absolutely no new information.
Yeah, so the concept, justreal quick, the concept of garbage

(09:37):
in garbage out has never been morerelevant, right, And like I did
a Jim Manzie who's made a lotof money in this space, you know,
as a tech entrepreneur. I wasat a briefing a tutorial about AI
from him where he walked you throughall this kind of stuff and at the

(10:00):
end of the day, the whatthey call the base truths right there,
they just reflect basically the attitudes ofthe median, very woke, quasi libertarian,
Silicon Valley pain in the ass becausethat's who's writing, who's setting these

(10:22):
values. And maybe they've farmed itout a little bit to the DEI shop
to take the risk out of itbecause it's Google. But that's what that's
what the opinions are I find.Look, I'm not a huge fan of
chat GPT, but chat CHPT i'vefound to be occasionally useful. I haven't
really poked around with Gemini yet,but like I just I think is gonna

(10:46):
have a lot of repercussions. Idon't think this stuff is part of it
to agree. Look, I believefrom everything that I'm reading and I don't
really understand it, that the thecapacity of AI to be of unbelievable benefit
to humanity is without question agreed medicaltesting probability outcomes of things that people really

(11:11):
need to understand the risk of stufflike that, the fact that it's at
your fingertips and that you don't needto have spent twelve years learning to be
a quant to figure out what therisk reward ratio is for a certain kind
of investment or something like that.But when you start getting into the world
of how people come to understand basicinformation, the fact that we have gotten

(11:35):
this education at the very beginning ofAI's public face as a purveyor or a
collector of opinion or a collector offact, and that it is so alarming
either means that this was a luckybreak, that all of its flaws have
come to the surface so quickly,and that even woke idiots at Google who

(12:01):
love DEI are going to realize thatthey are making an enormous mistake going down
this road of politicizing information, becausethey are, among other things, going
to turn half the country against themright and find themselves broken, find a
new consensus in Washington for breaking themup into tiny little pieces so that they

(12:24):
can never harm anybody ever again.So maybe this is all a good thing,
because it has exposed the weakness andthe underbelly, and it can get
repaired before it does really weakness andnot what the weakness is in us.
We are the problem. It isis out. It is not laziness to
look. If put it this way, if Gemini, if Google's Gemini AI

(12:48):
has a ninety nine percent success rateat identifying cancer cells in MRIs and medical
imagery, I don't care whether itthinks Joan has hit right. I shouldn't
be asked will. I don't carewhether a really brilliant heart surgeon thinks that
Joanas hitler. I just care thatthey're a good heart surgeon. But the

(13:09):
idea that we're asking this machine opinions, it's just the most fundamental, decadent
laziness of our culture. That allwe do now is go on TV and
on Twitter and tell our opinions andwe and we prize them. It's just
so ludicrous. It's not the machinethat's the end of civilization. It's us,
my friend, us. It's notabout It's not about us though,

(13:31):
that's the problem. The issue isnot you know, whether people like us
are being supplanted or being or beinglibeled, or that we can't collect this
information properly or whether what we dois being undervalued. It is like some
thirteen year old kid has to writea paper and he asks the AI to
help him, and the AI giveshim the site sits out. So what

(13:56):
we're really saying is you should protectme from my own laziness. Okay,
yeah baby, So yeah boy.That's a very different, very different world
from the republic that was founded thesemany years ago. The idea that oh
my gosh, we now have tobe we have to be we have to
regulate Google because people are so lazy. No, I read a book.
I don't agree at all, becausethe issue is not it's not that they're

(14:18):
lazy. If this is the waythat people are going to get information,
if there is no public library anymore, which is increasingly the case. Have
you been to a public library anda new fangled public library. They don't
have books anymore. They have likefive hundred books and otherwise they have terminals
and things like that, like that'sthey're the ocastance of the Okay. So

(14:41):
what I'm saying is, yeah,information is going to need some protection from
people who want to use it.Well, isn't that solved by having a
different brand. I mean, butyou don't go to Jamina, you go
to chat GPT, or you goto Maggot dot ai, you go to
Fox Newsy AI, which is boundto happen. I have a product that

(15:01):
I've been on beta testing for calledmem. It's really good mem dot Ai.
I've done it. I've had itfor a couple of years, and
it's just a note taking thing withan AI you know, brain somewhere and
everything I put into MEM, allmy notes, everything I've written, I
have done it. I've done everything. But tons of stuff is in this
thing and I can ask it whatI've written about pineapples right, and it

(15:26):
will, you know, it usesits AI genius and my data, my
knowledge base and will tell me whatI've written about pineapples and maybe suggest things
I could write in future about pineapples. But it's entirely based on my data
set. Like I said, Ithink that there are many, many things

(15:46):
that AI will revolutionize in a waythat will be of extraordinary benefit to humanity.
I'm just not sure that it's thecase with public policy and history that
it's going to benefit and not turninto you know, just like a swamp
of competing propagandas maybe we're already thereand this is just going to intensify it.

(16:10):
But I don't think that that's nota worry like some Yeah, you
got to take the good with thebad sometimes, if if an Ai is
going to if AI is going tofigure out like how to do heart surgery,
you know, a new kind ofheart surgery, or is going to
figure out how to cure Alzheimer's orsomething like that, God bless it.
We're just talking about one distinct cornerof it that is well, I don't

(16:33):
think it's the end of civilization.Okay, you know you're the grumpiest of
the three of us, and yetyou're you're it's kind of a technomiliorist.
And I don't really understand how thosetwo let them come together, Like how
are you so rushed forgeminist? Well, it would be something like who is
grumpier grumpy from Snowite and the SevenDoors or Rob Long? That would be

(17:00):
the question, and then that wouldI am not? I am not.
I don't think I've known as agrumpy person. I'm a sunny optimist,
That's what I'm saying. But you'renot really at you want to be a
Sonny, But I'm not sure youare a sunny optimist. I think I
am Jodah. Would you describe yourselfas an optimist or as a pessimist?

(17:22):
Ah? When you think about yourkid and your kid? Your kid,
my kid, your your kid,your kid, my oldest are around the
same age, they're both in college, they're both you know, they both
have you know, hopefully seventy yearsof life ahead of them at a minimum.
Do you think she is going tolead a life that is going to

(17:44):
be full of wonder and opportunity andglory and everything. Or you look ahead
and you go, oh my god, like what what? What? What
are we leaving her? But WHOA, it's a tougher question, like I'm
more worry about I don't worry thatthe world is going to be awful for
her. I mean every now andthen, you know, okay, war

(18:06):
with China would be bad, right, But that's that's not a good,
greed grumpy thing. That's just likelike, that's that's the reality thing.
Rob. But uh, I think, uh, I worry about my kid,
about the things that my kid canchange, that that I want her
to that she's not I don't worryabout I think she has all the wherewithal

(18:29):
within her to have a really greatlife. And so like the things I
worry about are like getting her torealize that, you know, and that
kind of right, so you don'tthink that the world outside her is going
to be significantly less pleasant or lessinteresting or less So I keep these things

(18:55):
separate. You've probably heard me tellthis story before. Irving Crystal and Judge
Bork were watching ching the Clarence ThomasHearings, and at one point a story
I know it's you know, andit's true. And so something happens that

(19:17):
the Judge turns off the TV indisgust and says it's the end of Western
civilization. And Irving takes this longdrag on his cigarette and says, of
course, it's the end of Westerncivilization. But that doesn't mean one can't
live well. And that's sort ofwhere I come down on these things,

(19:37):
is that I worry about the stateof the civilization. I worry about society
and all sorts of ways. ButI think I'm with Adam Smith. There's
a lot of ruin in a nation, and I think that's true in every
generation. There are a lot ofbad things going on, So I guess
I'm an optimist. I'm definitely nota catastrophist. I think like the single
biggest problem we have in our politicsis the catastrophization things. I'm sure you

(20:00):
guys have experienced this, where peopleassume that you agree with their premise and
therefore think you're a trader because youdon't follow through on their conclusions. It's
like, if Biden gets re elected, it will be the end of America.
So what you're doing is corrupt andawful and blah blah blah. It's
like, no, what if ifBiden gets reelected, it will be bad,

(20:22):
but not the end of americ Orif Trump gets re elected, it
will be very bad, but notthe end of America. I don't have
to make all of my decisions basedon the idea that I'm a freaking seat
fourteen A on flight ninety three.And that's what is just ruining political discourse
in this country is all these peoplewho think that they know that the stakes

(20:42):
are so high that it requires everybodyto do exactly what they say, that
the time for debate is over andyou have to do what they say or
you want the earth to burn toa cinder or you know, you want
Donald Trump to end democracy and it'sall bullshit. And that's the thing that
I just can't stand. Yesterday,Jonah and I were tweeted at by some

(21:03):
guy who said, yeah, yeah, yeah, you're you're full of it.
You you do, you act likeyou think differently, but you know,
once once the election comes down toBiden versus Trump, the two of
you are going to do whatever youcan to get Trump elected. And Jonah,
Jonah, you responded by saying,have you I was kidding, have

(21:25):
you read anything that we've ever written? Yeah? No, I said,
tell me, you've never read anythingJohn or I have written without saying it,
right, Yeah, exactly so.But but the guy was, I
mean, I haven't written anything.I read anything you guys have written it
even I know that's wrong, Imean, but I mean the guy was

(21:45):
onto this one kernel of truth,which is, and this has been true
since Trump emerged in a way thatit was true about it. It's been
true over time about different political figures, but it's intensified, which is,
anything you say that does not openlycontribute to achieving the aim that the person

(22:08):
who is your interlocutor wants is effectivelyfighting a battle on the other side to
defeat the thing that he wants,and therefore you are nothing more than a
VC at the best, you areVC France collaborating, you know, with
the Nazis. My serio is,I'm like, I can't not say that

(22:32):
Biden is senile because I live onthe planet Earth and I watch him every
day, and maybe he's not onehundred percent senile, but he's sure twenty
percent senile, if not more thantwenty percent. And I have to talk
about this every day on my podcast, and I can't pretend that it is.
I mean, sure I can.There are people who pretend and spend

(22:56):
things all the time. I'm justnot that person, or I'm not.
If I were, i'd be badat it, and so you could try.
So I'm not contributing to the storehousetoday, but I need yeah,
go ahead. Sorry. I justfeel like that that is the problem ultimately
with some of everything right now thatwe think of everything in terms of you

(23:17):
know, your pr message, everybody'severyone in America is a media consultant.
That's basically what we do all day. And so when I'm mad at you
for saying I'm not, I'm notmad at you for thinking that Biden is
in early stage dementia. I'm madyou for saying it. I remember years
this is a million years ago whenwe just first started Ricochet, and uh,

(23:41):
Sarah Palin was running for vice president, right, was right? They
should? It was during the campaignand I said something like, Sarah Palin's
dumb. He's just you know,really she's unprepared. She shouldn't represident the
United States, she shouldn't be heartpeatAway for president United States. And the
response from some people was like,you shouldn't put that out there. That's

(24:04):
just giving them ammunitions. Like whatare you talking about? Like what is
none of this is real? Itdoesn't what I say, doesn't that give
anybody any ammunition? What is thateven taught that? It is just such
a fundamentally weird and destroyed way oflooking at And I think mostly it's because
now people are participating. They thinkthey're participating in the big soup of media.
Right I could tweet, I canFacebook and all that stuff, so

(24:25):
they think of it, they thinkof that as real, whereas in fact
it's not real at all. SoI have like my basic thing about this,
Like you know, John's read more, published more, and worked in
a magazine that has been more centralto the cause of public intellectuals than you
know anybody. And I find thatme so so much of the conversation about

(24:45):
public intellectuals going back the last eightyyears to be kind of self serving prattle,
even though I'm fascinated by it,because you can boil down almost all
of this stuff, controversies about journalism, controversies about the role of the public
intellectual all kind of stuff too,a simple proposition that, like my dad

(25:08):
would boil it down to, don'tlie right if truth is its own defense.
If you think Biden is too old, you're allowed to say so if
it's true without being a traitor.And like so much of this stuff is
you're you're only saying that because No, I'm just saying because I think it's

(25:29):
true. Like that's that's, yeah, the only job description I ever.
I hate most journalistic ethics stuff.I mean, it's such angels on ahead
of a pin bs, But likeninety percent of it, you can clear
the field by just saying you're notsupposed to say things or write things you
do not believe to be true.That's it. So earlier today Keith Olberman

(25:51):
goes on Twitter with a little videoranting because apparently Bob Costas said somewhere that
by and needs to step aside andsomebody else needs to run for president,
and Keith Olberman said, shut thehell up, Bob Costas, You're just
going to get Trump elected. Nowthink about the world in which, yeah,

(26:15):
Keith Olberman believes that Bob Costas's influenceis such that one hundred and fifty
million votes are going to be castin November, and he will be a
material cause of the outcome of thathappening, but not because he made it
happen, but because he said it. That's the weird thing, is so,

(26:37):
which is why, which is why. The single greatest sentence ever written
by an American was written by RingLardner. And it goes like this,
shut up, he explained, Althoughit is it is the perfect encapsulation of
this American opinion, which is,you know, by way of explanation,

(27:03):
shut your pie hole. How dareyou you know like that? Now?
You know what I gotta do?Write something. We used to write the
hey, you shut up when youtalk to me if and you know you
interrupted by spot But it's okay.Because I didn't have a transition, and
so without a transition, let mejust say that if you're anything like me,

(27:26):
and this is not really like me, but I will, I will
play the me that the ad issuggesting. If you're anything like me,
you have a certain tendency to putoff things till the very last minute.
And while most of the time thatworks out, the one thing in life
that you really cannot afford to waiton is setting up term coverage life insurance.
You've probably seen life insurance commercials onTV and thought, YO, look

(27:48):
into that later. No, listen, let me tell you. My kid
by thirteen year old, is goingsystematically through Gray's Anatomy. He's on season
fifteen of twenty. And if there'sanything I've learned from watching Gray's Anatomy with
him, it's that anything can happento anybody at any time. There could
be a windstorm, your kidney canexplode. It doesn't matter. You better

(28:11):
not wait on getting your self termcoverage life insurance. Choose it through Ladder
Today. Ladder one hundred percent digital, no doctors, no needles, no
paperwork. When you apply for threemillion dollars in coverage or less, just
answer a few questions about your healthand an application. You just need a
few minutes and a phone and alaptop to apply. Ladder Smart algorithms work

(28:32):
in real time, so you'll findout if you're instantly approved. No hidden
fees, Cancel any time, geta full refund if you change your mind
in the first thirty days. Ladder'scustomers rate them four point eight out of
five stars on trust Pilot. Ladderpolicies are issued by insurers with long proven
histories of paying claims. They're ratedA and A plus by am Best.

(28:52):
Finally, since life insurance costs moreas you age, now's the time to
cross it off your list. Sogo to ladderlife dot com slash glop today
to see if you're instantly approved.That's l A D D E R Life
dot com slash glop. Ladderlife dotcom slash glop. It's great a not
to be still on air. Yes, it's going into its like twenty first

(29:17):
or twenty second season. Yes,because I'm looking at the Wikipedia page and
it goes on for I mean it'sa novel, yees believable. It okay,
right now, it's twenty seasons twentylet's say an average of twenty episodes
a season. That's four hundred hoursof television that it has been on.

(29:40):
Just just think about that for aminute. Hour longer. Yeah, I
mean like Law and Order has beenon a little longer, and The Simpsons
has been on way longer. Butyeah, and so it's uh, I
got hours of glop a there.Oh my god, that's horrifying. That's
horrifying to imagine. Let's ask Rob'smem Pineapple. I didn't have that,

(30:03):
unfortunately I wish it did. Now, can I ask you a question about
Grayson your Gray's anatomy? Yes,experience, experience, Yes, father experience.
So why what? I have atheory and you may I'm not going
to try to lead Joyce want tous? Okay, what led your son?
Yes? Who is young? Ayoung person, he's thirteen and a

(30:26):
half. Yeah, what led himto Gray's anatomy? How did he discover
it? What was the discovery point? Not entirely sure, because he's not
that communicative, but he is aboutthese kinds of decisions that he makes.
But he is a completist by nature, and it is horrifying the number of
multi season shows that he has consumedin the course of his life. He

(30:49):
comes, he comes about it honestly, I mean, yes, but remember
so he watched. I hope you'renot complaining that your son is a TV
at it John. Anyway, hehas watched. I learned from you,
Dad, I learned it from you. Well he's never seen that spot unfortunately.

(31:11):
Yeah, one of the greats.Because here's my theory. Can I
give you my theory? Yes,I have a as you know, I'm
a I'm a I'm a TikTok enthusiast. Yes, you've thrown that out in
my face many times, but itbecame a TikTok enthusiasts only because there were
a piece for commentary about it,and I thought I better know something about
it, but learned my lesson.Ever since then, I've decided not to

(31:33):
know anything about the things I writeabout. But on TikTok, there of
course there's a lot of like ridiculous, uh stupid content, but there's also
like repurpose content. There's an thereare a bunch of bots ai bots that
simply narrate or vocalize or I guessread aloud Reddit posts, which they then

(31:56):
put over like random bizarre cooking ormechanical like videos just like a machine stamping
out metal stamps something or other.And to be like, I'm a thirteen
and it just read it. It'sjust a audio audio reddit. There's also
enormous amount of Grey's Anatomy. It'san enormous amount of little scenes from every
TV show. Yeah, and itseems it feels to me like I'd like

(32:19):
to know what the I'd like toknow what the what the what the numbers
are. But it seems to methat that's probably a really big thing,
like just for TikTok, but that'sa discovery vehicle. He is not on
TikTok, So that is not whatyou know of I'm pretty sure he's not
there. There there are things hemay be doing, but that's not not
one of them. And he sohe likes to watch shows that have a

(32:44):
long tail, So he's watched andhe watched shows while they were on like
Brooklyn ninety nine, How I MetYour Mother, Uh, you know,
the good Place. Amazingly enough,he's seen all of the Simpsons, but
he started watching that when he wasfive, so that's a little more understand
animal though it is like seven hundredand fifty episodes now, and so he
wanted something he could sink into.And the thing about Gray's Anatomy two things

(33:07):
about it. One is the firstthree seasons of Gray's Anatomy were sensationally good,
as they were as good as televisionnetwork television has ever gotten. And
they have declined since because they lostthe first cast and you know, the
players were all you know, butit's still even in the fifteenth season,

(33:30):
pretty good. And it's a soapopera. And when I was a kid,
I'm like most boys, but certainlylike my sisters, I watched soap
operas after school. I came homeand my sisters would be watching Another World
and Dark Shadows, and I wouldwatch along with them. And you know,
serialized material is hypnotic or it is. It is deductive, and it

(33:52):
is addicting. And they are reallygood at these things where they basically take
these characters when they start getting boring, they kill them off. They start
they mix and match them romantically sothat people get married to three different other
members of the cast over the courseof ten years. It's all kind of

(34:12):
credible, and you don't know what'sgoing to happen next. And then in
each episode there is some freakish thingthat happens to a patient, or in
the hospital, or in Seattle asa whole that adds to the melodrama.
It's a really there is a reasonthat it's been on the air for twenty
years. It's actually less formulaic thansomething like Law and Order. It's it

(34:38):
is. It is a nighttime soapopera set in a hospital about brilliant doctors
who do amazing things and are thereforealways worthy of respect, even if you
don't like them. And he,you know, and now he's also he's
all in so like a completist,he's got to he's got to finish what
he started. And so I juststarted to see it. My wife was

(35:01):
gone for like ten days, soI've been home alone, eating a lot
of chicken over the sink, andso I finally started watching Yellowstone. Oh
and I got into it because Iactually watched the prequel things eighteen seventy three
and nineteen twenty three, eight eighteeneight three. Yeah, and they're both

(35:24):
really good. I like both ofthem a lot, I have to say,
And I don't like the actual Yellowstoneas much because it's much more of
like a Gray's anatomy of just reallyjust a soap opera and stuff. But
you know, and there's it's funnybecause my impression of this was always that
it was this what we used totalk what we used to talk about.

(35:50):
There was some show that was reallyavidly watched in it's like all the CBS
lineup shows, right, which likeCoastal America doesn't watch. We done eight
hundred episodes of Blop on No.One excepts five hundred people watch girls.
But he got twenty articles of theNew York Times kind of right. My
impression was that Yellowstone was sort oflike that, that it was appealing to

(36:10):
sort of red America. Maga hadAmerica. There's a lot of woke stuff.
Oh yeah, yeah, that's what. Yeah, Yellowstone is leftist,
anarcho, syndical list, anti antiAmerican, libertarian, psychotic, violent lunacy.

(36:31):
That's about right. And so soit kind of it goes on the
death toll. All they needed thatwas music the death Toll. In the
first season of Yellowstone, right,there's a character for sits On, one
of the sons of Kevin Costner comesback from a rock. He's got PTSD.

(36:52):
He's like a park ranger or something, but he's also helping his dad.
He must kill fifty people. He'sin the Cattle first season, so
the Cattle is so he must killfifty people, and nobody bats an eye
and they all explain it. It'svery simple because all they do is they
take the body and they take itto the border of Wyoming and I don't

(37:15):
know what else, and then theythrow it into a ravine which is somehow
on the state line, and sonobody is responsible for the death of the
body, for the dead body,and so like it's like Bobby Yar.
It's like a mass grave or something. And the show is so crazy.

(37:37):
And then he made eighteen eighty threeTaylor shared in This Guy, which is
such a sensationally good show. Itis and like an America, a dark
American tragedy about a cattle drive goneto cattle drive and a wagon train move
gone disastrously wrong. It's the OregonTrail video game modest adaptation right anyway,

(38:02):
And it's except for a horrible voiceovernarration by this eighteen year old girl.
It's like one of the best thingsI've ever seen on television. It is
very dark and very sad, andI didn't know he had it in but
by God as he woke, heand and all and all the treatment of
Native Americans on these shut like,it's like Native American torture porn, sympathetic

(38:28):
torture porn. So it's like,if you want, if you care about
the mistreatment of Native Americans, youcan watch nineteen twenty three and what you're
gonna see is girls beaten and rapedand thrown into pits and and and legs
broken and arms broken and all this. And you could say, oh,

(38:50):
it's it's torture porn, but it'slike, but it's for the left,
Okay. The Catholic Church has notcome across well no, no, very
very unfavorable to the Catholic Church theIndian schools. But Mayor of Kingstown is
less woke, and I like thata lot. And it's also a Taylor
Sheridan joint. A lot of thesame actors are in it. I also,

(39:10):
I've always had a weakness for anythingabout prisons. I don't know,
see I as you know, Ihate prison. I like Tulsa king which
is this, which is the SylvesterStallone show about the mobster who is gets
out of prison after not ratting onanybody for twenty five years and his reward
is that he's sent to Tulsa andhe has to live in Tulsa. And
it's actually a comedy really yeah,and it's it's it's pretty good too.

(39:35):
But but but Yellowstone anyway, soyou watched Yellowstone and you're and they now
they don't have an anti Yellowstone becauseKevin Costner walked off the show, so
basically it's over. Oh I didn'tknow that, Yeah, Kevin, I'm
only the middle of season three,so okay, so there, you know,
they they've sort of set up KevinCostner becomes the governor of the state

(39:58):
basically solely to bet his own red. Yeah. And also all the opponents,
all the opponents voters are dead.He killed them, all, all
of them, Like I cannot believeIt's it's funny because, like you know,
you really do get the sense fromthis show that Taylor Sheridan, if

(40:22):
you sat down with Taylor Shardon,it would be like talking to a combination
of Tucker Carlson, Joe Rogan,uh, Matt Stolar, Matt Matt Taibi,
and R. F. K.Junior Like that that is who he
is. And for some reason hehas found the secret sauce in American and

(40:49):
Red State people love it and theydon't really know they're being a fed at
Diana. But I mean it isin that sense. It's like Trump voters
because it is so anti capitalist insome weird fundamental like the capitalists are all
rapacious and on the other sopranos withthe Scots irish. I mean, that's
it's a it's a mob move.Yeah, it's a mob. Yeah.

(41:12):
Oscars are coming in a couple ofweeks. Well before we do that,
yes, oh, do you havea Can I just talk about ze biotics
please? Well, you know,let's face it, John or Jonas.
Certainly, the night after after nightof drinks, we don't bounce back the
next day like we used to.I mean, and then I know I
don't, So I tend to haveto make a choice. I can either

(41:36):
have a great night or a greatnext day. That is until I found
z Biotics. Z Biotics pre alcoholprobiotic drink is the world's first genetically engineered
probiotic, invented by PhD scientists totackle rough mornings after drinking, and it
works very simply. When you drink, alcohol gets converted into a toxic byproduct
in the gut and it's this byproduct. It's not dehydration or whatever people say

(41:57):
it is. It's this byproduct that'sto blame for your rough next day.
And z biotics produces an enzyme tobreak this by product down so it doesn
ahead of time. Just remember,all you got to do is remember to
make z biotics your first drink ofthe night, and remember to drink responsibly,
and you'll feel your best tomorrow.I actually got some and I used
it recently, and it really doeswork, and I kind of feel like

(42:21):
it probably works even if you're notgoing out drinking. I haven't yet experienced
that, but at some point Iwill go out and not drink and then
I'll try the Zootics. I'm sureit worked then too. But it is
true about the the gut bat byproduct, and I'm glad that somebody's come up
with a way to counter veil thatcounteract that. If you have the same

(42:44):
issues I do, go to zbiotics dot com slash glop. Get fifteen
percent off your first order when youuse glop at the checkout. Z biotics
is backed with one hundred percent moneyback guarantees, so there's no risk.
So if you're unsatisfied for any reason, they refund your money. No questions
asked. Just head to z bioticsdot com slash glop. That's Z the
letter z biotics bio t I Cs allwor word dot com slash glop.

(43:07):
Use the code glop at check out. You get fifteen percent off, and
we thank ze biotics for making ourevenings a little more fun. Our morning's
a little more easy. That's beautiful. You know what else is beautiful?
The coming oscars. The oscars arecoming in just a couple of weeks,
and apparently everything is pretty much setin stone. Oppenheimer's going to win,

(43:30):
Killian Murphy is almost certainly going towin, Davine Joy Randolph, who is
the supporting actress and the Holdovers,is going to win. Robert Downey Jr.
Is going to win. Christopher Nolan'sgoing to win. So the only
big race is do people want tosee Emma Stone win for a semi pornographic
performance in Poor Things, or dothey want to cry bitter tears over the

(43:53):
fate of the Osage Indians and giveit to Lily Gladstone for Killers of the
Flower Moon. I have no ideawhether you guys have seen any of these
movies except for Oppenheimer and Barbie,you've probably seen. Do you believe that
a ten thousand person academy now madeup of a lot of non Americans is

(44:15):
actually not going to get is goingto give the oscar to somebody who represents
Native Americans, Because my view isif you're outside this country, you don't
care. And Emma Stone is likenaked and acting, you know, and
is a plays a both both thebride of Frankenstein and a prostitute and uses

(44:38):
an English accent, and she's goingto win. So I haven't seen the
amastone thing. My wife and daughtersaw it. I'm glad I didn't see
it. I'm kind of say somuch. I did see Killers at the
Flower Moon. Hated it, Imean really hated it. And but sight
unseen. If you told me thatan international body of a feet sini ASTs

(45:08):
that was comprised disproportionately of foreigners,I think foreigners like the French, are
obsessed with America screwing over the Indians, and I think that they I think
that there's a large chunk of Europeanopinion that sees the American Indian as the

(45:29):
American Palestinians right, And I wouldbet you that that actually militates in favor
of Emmastone not getting it and thewoman from kills a flower Monain getting it.
Can I can I throw a branchin here. I'm not making prediction,
but I'm just I'm just offering alittle color that it is. While

(45:51):
it is true that there are manyforeigners who've you know, crept into this
country to vote to the oscars,does the ap let Us say foreigner anymore?
Can't remember? I don't know nonAmericans. I'm uh, it'll be
interesting. Here's here's how you'll knowthat that the other academy is changed irrevocably

(46:13):
if Annette Benning doesn't win. Becauseshe's the oldest, she's been nominated the
most. Yeah, she's married toa movie star. She is considered by
many Academy voters. I'm sure theyoung one, because they are nine thousand
years old and she's only nine hundredyears old. She was the when goober

(46:35):
Judge Peter Guber took over Columbia TriStarfor and made it Sony. He used
her as the new Columbia, youknow, the mon statue liberty Lady.
Yeah, so if all is welland and as and as lesbia, yes,
yeah, okay, right, butif all is well and normal and
situation normal and net Benning will winan Oscar after having me nominated like ten

(47:00):
times a million billion times nominated,so that that is often the most important
metric in the academy. But whoknows, the academy may have changed,
like America. Okay, Glenn Closenominated seven times, has not won and
won the sag Award and then lostthe Oscar that year. I can't remember

(47:21):
to whom she was in a moviecalled The Wife, and she didn't she
didn't win, so oh, OliviaColeman won that year for the Favorite,
which was actually a better performance thanGlen Closes than The Wife. Peter O'Toole
seven or eight times nominated, neverwon an Oscar. Richard Burton seven or
eight times nominated, never won anoscar. Farners, there is a category

(47:45):
in which you often nominated but butnever never. Yes, that is true,
that the Susan Lucci category. ButI I and she finally won after
eighteen after eighteen tries, Susan Luciwon. So you don't care, though,
is what you're saying. I doI do not care. You don't
care, I do not care.No, that's right. I want to

(48:07):
make sure that it's clear to getto not caring. Yes, So the
only race that is of any interestin my house comes down to best original
song, because there are two songsin Barbie that everyone in my house loves,
and one is called what Was IMade For? By Billie Eilish,

(48:30):
and the other is I'm I'm JustKen. I'm Just sung by Right,
sung by Ryan Gosling, And Ithink everybody thinks that What Was I Made
For is going to win because it'swon all the precursors, But Ryan Gosling
is going to perform I'm Just Kenat the Oscars in what may be the

(48:51):
single greatest moment in the history ofthe Oscars since Isaac Hay's performed the theme
from Shaft when I was but ayoung a young whelp of a ten or
something like that, and suddenly,you know, basically it was, you
know, people singing love story orwhatever, and then I shows up on
stage with like twenty backup dancers anddoes the theme from Shaft that it was

(49:15):
like the best moment fifty some yearsago in the history of the Oscars.
So the one reason to watch theOscars is to see Ryan Gosling for Forema
Just Ken, which is an absolutelyhilarious song. I think the reason to
watch it is just to see,just to enjoy the weird intros. You
know. Yeah, sometimes a songcan capture more than words or actions can

(49:39):
ever capture in the drama of acharacter in the journeys that we describe in
the feature film business. Sometimes it'sa song and not a look or a
word or a stunt. The nomineesfor Best Original Song, and I love
that stuff. I get goosebumps justhow bad it is. See, there's

(49:59):
one of those things where we havethe buggy whip replacement theory taking place.
Because if you can't get AI towrite from now on, don't hire writers.
What are you hiring writers for?The AI is going to do better?
Yeah than the writers give me TheAI might say, really, come

(50:22):
on, yeah, come on,five more minutes, give me five more
minutes on this? Yeah, speakingfive more minutes, John. Yes.
Taking care of your health isn't alwayseasy, but it should at least be
simple. That's why for the lastI don't know ten fifteen years, I've
been drinking AG one that's Athletic Greens. I use the old name every day,

(50:43):
no exceptions. Is just one scoopmixed and water once a day every
day. Makes me feel energized andfocused and kind of like a lot healthier.
That's because each serving of AG onedelivers my daily dose of vitamin spinrolls,
pre and probiotics and more. It'sa powerful healthy habit that's also powerfully
simple. I started doing it whenI learned about it on the Tim Ferriss
podcast. And it comes in ajar. You can scoop it put in

(51:07):
water. Also, they sell thepackets, and I, in fact am
leaving town tomorrow for a little bitand I already have set out the exact
number of packets I need for mytrip. It's a great, great travel
accessory, as they say. Soif there's one product I had to recommend
to elevate your health, it's AGone, and that's why we partner with
them for so long. It's beenfive six years. So if you want

(51:30):
to take ownership of your health,start with AG one. Try a G
one and get a free one yearsupply of vitamin D three and K two
and five free AG one travel packs. I just mentioned those those my favorite
with your first purchase exclusively at drinkagone dot com. That's drink ag those
letters ag and the number one dotcom slash glop drink ag one dot com

(51:51):
slash glop. Check it out.So Rob Reiner, who has not made
a good movie in thirty years andas a parent, now making going to
make a sequel to Spinal Tap,which I wish he wouldn't because he hasn't
made a good movie in thirty yearsand I don't think he has it in
him anymore. And they're all ninetyseven years old anyway, and it's going

(52:12):
to be painful. But he wasinterviewed by the New York Times and he
said several incredibly stupid things, asyou might expect from Rob Reiner wants a
really great director and now just aloudmouth moron who didn't go to college.
Among them, like the most importantsong ever written is Imagine by John Lennon,
because isn't that what we all want? No countries, you know,

(52:34):
no religion, That's what we allwant really for ourselves. But he did
say that, he said It's awonderful life is very important to him as
a movie, and he said thatthe greatest performance ever given on film was
Marlon Brandos on the Waterfront, andScott Emmergut, our producer, said,

(52:57):
you guys want to maybe take onthe question of Marlon Brando giving the greatest
performance of all time on the Waterfront, I would be happy to spend another
twenty minutes making fun of Rob Reiner, even though both Jonah and I love
Rob Reiner for one word and oneword only, Shelton. Rob Reiner was

(53:19):
on the odd couple, of course, our favorite show was married at the
time to Penny Marshall and showed upas her wayward fiance Shelton, whose name
was Shelton because they forgot to typethe O on his birth certificate. That's
right, so his name was Sheldon. And he loved Myrna played by Penny

(53:39):
Marshall because she was very, veryreal. A very fine performance by Rob
Reiner that does not undo his yearsof idiocy as a public speaker and public
intellectual. But Doude, can youthink I do not think that Marlon Brando's
performance and on the Waterfront is thegreatest acting on film. But Rob,

(54:01):
would you and you think of threeor four performances that you would say bye
for being like the best performance.I wouldn't even be able to do that.
I could tell you whether a bunchof performances I thought were fantastic and
that maybe elevated the material or wentbeyond. I mean my neighbor, the

(54:21):
great actor F. Murray Abraham,who was Salieri in Oadayis, but he
also had a tiny, tiny rolein a really great movie that nobody saw
called Inside Lewin Davis. And heis he's a club owner in Chicago,
and you know Oscar Isaac plays that'slead and his like struggles to get give
the only play for this club owner. You know, he could make him

(54:43):
say his big, first, bigbreak, and he takes he gets all
of his money. He's got tolike hitchhike and walk in the snow to
Chicago. He gets to the cluband there's the club owner, a very
very powerful guy, this club ownerf Mary Abraham, sitting in the middle
of the of an empty club duringthe day and you can just all this
guy's a jerk, because he says, is I want to sing for you,
because well, what what what?Why don't you sing something from And

(55:06):
he points to his album which iscalled Inside Lewyn Davis and the way he
says inside Lewyn Davis, it's likeso so condescending, but like yeah,
and so Oscar Isaac sings this folksong and it's beautiful. It's unbelievable.
And the Coen Brothers directed the movie. And the picture that the camera just

(55:30):
hangs on him. It's really incrediblepiece. Great performance by Oscar. It's
a great filmmaking by the Coen Brothers. It like the frame hasn't really moved.
It kind of comes in as hesings his heart out and it's a
moment on stage or in a theaterwhere when he's done, you applaud and
of course the guy says, kid, I'm gonna make you a star.

(55:50):
Instead, he wraps it up,he sings his beautiful song. It's beautiful,
and he sings it beautiful and thenhe come comes back back to to
f Marie andam listening to it andhe just looks at him and waits just
a perfect amount of time, andhe says, yeah, I don't see
any money here, and it's akiller. It's just killer. And the
way he says it, and thenhe delivers it. And I was at

(56:12):
a restaurant around the corner from myhouse here in Manhattan, and I was
having a week night dinner by myselfand my kindle at them or my iPad
at the bar, and next tome two seats down was F. Murray
Abraham, who lives actually the buildingnext door. And I just couldn't not
say something, and so I said, one point where you're the only people

(56:35):
of the bar, I said,I really love your work, and he
said, thank you, thank youso much. And I said, I
don't want to disturb you, butI don't see any money here. It's
one of the great almost brilliant momentswhere you just own that whole movie right
there, and you did it.It was it was so economical and efficient

(56:58):
and beautiful and it just still staywith me. And he said, well,
thank you, thank you, thankyou. I I don't recall whether
there was more there or not.And I thought it was kind of like
incredibly generous of him, because Ithink what he's trying to say was he
doesn't actually remember if the line wasshort or they he's cut it out at

(57:19):
editing, right, But I don'tsee any money here. Just loved him.
That's a great performance. They coolthe stone. I don't see a
lot of Money here. Yeah,that's a great movie. It's one of

(57:44):
the most remarkable American movies. Uhand uh brilliantly structured, and Oscar Isaac
is amazing in it. Everybody isamazing in it. And I ask you
something, John, when people saywho've seen it, and they go,
well, wasn't it boring, theanswer is yeah, but it was great,

(58:05):
Like, yes, it's slow,it moved slow. I mean I
didn't find it. I didn't wantto leave the theater. I didn't find
it boring. It's also one ofthose movies that it's avocation of It's a
winter Branwich village of New York nineteensixty one, and how they pull it
off on the kind of budgets thatthey have. Yeah, it's just just

(58:27):
astounding. Jonah, do you havea performance that you well, I was
going to say, well, Ithink Rhiner is probably wrong about Marlon Brando.
He's right about Elia Kazan, whoI do think is truly one of
the great directors. I call himGadge. Call him Gadge, which I'm

(58:50):
looking through because I was curious,Like rob, their performances I really admire.
I have to say, like Ithought, Denzel Washington and Glory was
really phenomenal. But I'm looking throughPremier Magazine's list of the one hundred grades
performances of all times to remind myself, and they have Lawrence of Arabia,
Peter O'Toole first and on the waterand they have Brando's second fro on the

(59:15):
Waterfront, Meryl Streep third for Sophie'sChoice, Chino fourth for Dog Day Afternoon.
And so that's the thing is,like some of these actors, like
the Robert de Niro ones, andyou know, Robert de Niro did some
great things, and Dustin Hoffman isseven for Midnight Cowboy. My problem is

(59:36):
is that over time you start tosee how to put this. You stop
seeing an actor playing a character.For some of these people and oh,
there's Dustin Hoffman, there's al Pacino. Because they use so many of the
same techniques in other characters, Ihave to say that Daniel day lewis in

(01:00:00):
like my Left Foot, which theyrank at eleven, or in cold blood
or there will be blood like atleast with him, I don't know.
You see it, You really dosee him become a different person in these
different roles in a way that Idon't feel like, oh, like,
I love Lawrence of Arabia, butI just I see Peter O'Toole. Yeah,

(01:00:21):
yeah, yeah, And that's whatyou're not only unfair of him,
but you know Daniel day Lewis,So, Daniel Lewis does something in Lincoln
that I'm unaware of any actor thatis true of any other performance that I
have ever seen, which is thatSo he's playing Lincoln. He's made up
to look at Lincoln. It's Lincoln, you know, in the months before

(01:00:42):
his assassination, and he chose avoice for Lincoln. It's a little reedy
kind of a between a between abaritone and a tenor. It is a

(01:01:05):
little like hacyedish with firmness in theright. As God gives us to see
the right, Let us strive onto finish the work we are in,
to bind up the nation's wounds,to care for him who shall have borne
the battle, and for his widowand his orphan, to do all which

(01:01:32):
may achieve and cherish a just anda lasting peace among ourselves and with all
nations. Kay. He Lincoln.He makes you think that you're watching Abraham

(01:01:54):
Lincoln, because you've never heard anybodyperform Lincoln without speaking in a deep voice
as he was six feet five inches, sir, trial, Yeah, exactly,
except the guy who played Lincoln onStar Trek, who I thought did
it really really well too. Butthat's but it was. But it was

(01:02:15):
a it was a startlingly brilliant wayof saying, I'm gonna I played one
of the most iconic people in thehistory of the world. How can I
make people see this person as aperson in time? And uh, you
know that to me is his greatestperformance. But he does this every time.

(01:02:37):
It's true, he is not.You know, there are people who
did this, like in impersonation terms, like Peter Sellers, who was always
somebody else. But it was kindof a bit. It was kind of
sketchy, you know, it waskind of play. I think that's true,
yes, but again it's almost likehe's a sketch comedian building apart from
the inside out. And Daniel dayLewis does does something different. But I

(01:02:59):
think I have two choices for thebest performance on film, and one of
them we didn't mention, though itshould be. There is al Pacino as
Michael and the Godfather not The Godfathertoo, which is a great performance,
but Pacino and The Godfather maybe thegreatest performance on film because it is this

(01:03:21):
is the you were watching over threehours a person go from a sort of
callo slightly soft war hero trying tokeep himself separate from the family slowly sucked
in and sucked in and sucked inand sucked in. And what he has
to do over the course of asix month shoot everything is you know,

(01:03:44):
like filmed out a sequence and allof that. He is building this character
over the course of the movie.At every given moment that they were filming,
he had to know where he wasin Michael's journey in the disruption.
Yeah, yeah, that's a directorhas to help you do that. I
mean, I would say that thetragedy is that's the reverse of what Joan
is saying, which is that everyperformance you see in Al Pacino afterwards,

(01:04:08):
you don't see Michael Corlone and youwish you did. Yeah, yeah,
you see yeah, yeah, yousee just James Kahn, you know,
you see some screaming noisemaker. Yeahyeah, yeah. Anyway, but it
has a that is the greatest movieever made. That performance is the movie.
I mean, the movie is aboutMichael. It's not about ultimately it's

(01:04:28):
about Michael and he is the spineand there's nothing but I think my favorite
performance of all time is, interestingly, since Ryner mentions it is James Stewart
and It's a Wonderful Life, whichis a forty or fifty times, And
there's a movie about a desperately unhappyman and I I and a good man,

(01:04:55):
a noble man, but who ultimatelydoesn't have the courage to do he
hates his life. And it isa movie about somebody who is living a
life with a beautiful wife in anice town with good kids, and he's
doing a good job and he's helpingeverybody, and he hates his life.
And I don't know anything like it. And when he when he discovers what

(01:05:20):
it is that he actually has andwhat he is at risk of giving up
or losing by by committing suicide,and the elevation of his spirit, the
sense that he has been given anew chance to appreciate everything that he has
right is so beautiful and that that'smy choice. That is I think the

(01:05:43):
greatest performance. Hell me Court,get me back, yet me back.
I don't care what happens to meetme by to my wife and kids retires.
Please please, I want to liveagain. I want to live again.

(01:06:10):
I like the Marlo Thomas version.Yes, yeah, Marlo Thomas also
that's the when I gravitate to.That's what I We all have our own
faith. Marvel Thomas also played Scrooge. I want you to know, no,
I know, I know, sothere is there is no her range,
you know, and just remember everydollar is going to the Saint Jude.

(01:06:33):
You're forgetting Arnold Swartz and air andkindergarten, kindergarten cop Actually, I
uh you can know. No mentionof Marlo Thomas can be finished without a

(01:06:56):
p s A all every listener needsto go to Google, the Google machine
and google picture of Marlo Thomas today. Uh so that you, if in
your future are thinking about maybe gettinga little bit of plastic surgery, that
this image will dissuade you from that. It is the most uh actionable I

(01:07:20):
think, a piece of malpractice.If ever, if you get you're right,
you just would use di it right. Yeah, it's shocking, it's
shocking. It's it's very, it'svery it's very. All you could think
of is all I can think ofis like this is this needs to be
more widespread. More people need tosee this. You know, you go,
you go, and then you knowyou're in those airline magazines like the

(01:07:42):
best Doctors of this, the bestdoctors the center of the land, the
best plastic surgeons, and they're allthere in their suits and they look all
very rich and prosperous. They allthe entire profession needs to answer, uh
for what they have done to thatgirl there. I'm trying to decide,
and I think Scott can decide whetheror not we should just end it there.

(01:08:05):
But I I we're talking about goingto Google, and I just I
have one thing to say to people, but it is a I have to
put a trigger warning on it andsay that it's disturbing and disgusting to find
out about I'm going to so asyou may know, Marlow Thomas was the

(01:08:26):
daughter of a famous committee. Ohyes, of course, yes, Danny
Thomas. So I I just Ihave four words to say, Danny Thomas
coffee table. That's it all I'mgoing to say. And I will only
say this. I only add tothis. Yeah, I will only add
to this by saying that before theinternets, when you were a young writer

(01:08:50):
joining a TV writing staff. Oneof the first things piece of lore that
you learn from your you know,your your elders, elders, your mentors.
Was this so the stories passed downand tell the internet. Yes,
it is a storied story about abeloved entertainer after hours, shall we say,

(01:09:14):
or behind or behind closed doors?And you you you google it at
your peril, but you can googleit if you like. But as a
as a palate cleanser, I knowwe're going to run. I just want
to offer this because you sometimes yousometimes ask what we're watching, and I
always feel dumb because I'm not watchinganything or or I'm not dumb, but
more like speirior I guess the worduh. And I tend to watch a

(01:09:36):
lot of talent on on the onlinesocial media. And there is a woman,
young woman, her name, Idon't know her name, this Taylor's
her first name. Hey it tay, Hey it h t E y I
t A t A y. Andshe's doing these weird first person kind of

(01:09:58):
like look like the Instagram or TikToklot vi where she's being a certain person.
So she does one she'd want toMary live from Bethlehem, and she's
just doing this kind of like horriblegen Z woman. Uh. Being an
influencer, she does one that's thethe Handsel the Gretel Witch, responding to
criticism about her diet plan. Imean, it's it's it sounds weird,

(01:10:23):
it's so she's so good and sofunny that if you're looking for something clever
and interesting and kind of weirdly offbeat, go there. And Joan, are
you watching anything you want to recommend? I'm sorry, I've been googling Danny
Thomas coffee table. Oh dear,Okay, well you could watch Make Room

(01:10:45):
for Daddy, which I do believeis on Netflix, by the way,
or for Danny Thomas content that doesnot involve the coffee table. So I
uh, I told you, I'vebeen watching Yellowstone. I my again.
My wife was missing, was wasnot missing. She was not around for
like ten days, and so westopped watching the True Detective Alaska thing,

(01:11:08):
and and then I saw all thisstuff about how it was. The ending
was just absolutely terrible, which mademe more interested in the show, because
I really didn't like the show thatmuch to begin with. But then we
tried to pick up on episode three, and we said, you know,
we just hate all of these charactersso much. So this is a negative
review in terms of, like,I'm going to stop watching, and I
am a completist. I normally onceI commit, I got to see things.

(01:11:30):
And I really do like monsieur Spade. Have you guys been watching that?
No, I don't. I watchit. Yeah yeah, so yeah,
yeah, yeah, No, it'ssolid and I mean it could end
badly. I'm not done with ityet, but like, is this as
Sam Spade in France in the nineteenfifties, yeah, early sixties, late

(01:11:51):
late fifties, early sixties. It'sI'm not a big expert on the larger
oove of Sam Spade stuff. Idon't know. I mean, I guess
there were novels or something, butlike I know, multi's facing novelty.
Yeah, it's what's a pleasure tolook at and it gives you a real

(01:12:14):
It's really good at giving you afeel of post war France, and I'm
enjoying it. I think it's definitelyworth watching so far. I have yeah,
most Yeah, go ahead. Createdby Tom Fontana, who did Oz,
who's a wonderful writer, a niceguy. Yeah, you're right,
technically there is only one novel,but there's the novel Red Harvest as the

(01:12:36):
unnamed detective which was really him wasSam Spade. Tom Fontana was the dramaturg
at the Williamstown Theater Festival in nineteenseventy eight, the year that I was
an apprentice at the Williamstown Wow,you know theater festival. And he did
not appear to be going anywhere fast, and then he took off like a

(01:12:57):
rocket. Three years later was WilliamstownFestival. People who made Saint Elsewhere,
And so Tom got himself onto SaintElsewhere and then moved forward. But I
do have a dark story about SaintElsewhere very quickly, about a friend,
about my friend who was at Williamstownthat summer, Dwight Schultz. Dwight Schultz,
who actually played the Toppenheimer. Yes, yeah, yes, played Robert

(01:13:21):
Oppenheimer in the first movie about RobertAimer were called Fat Man and Little Boy
in which from Star Trek Next Generation. But go on, I'm sorry,
right exactly. So, Dwight Schultzis a lovely guy and a conservative son
of a military man. His daughteris actually a colonel in the Air Force.

(01:13:42):
Dwight went in three years he hadbeen at Williamstown. He went in
to read for st Elsewhere, andBruce Paltrow, who was Winn's husband,
Gwen's father, was one of theexecutive producers and had been Gwyneth Paltrow,
his wife was a Williamstown person,was there that summer also, And so

(01:14:04):
Dwight came in to read for apart on Sane Elsewhere, and he was
sitting in the ante room and somebodysaid he heard through the door someone say
Dwight Schultz is up next, andBruce Paltra said, I'm not letting any
Reagan asshole onto this show, andthat and that was Dwight's experience auditioning for

(01:14:27):
saying, I'm saying get a team, which is an opriate show, right
and more reaganight, I will sayactly. And Dwight was a magnificent actor,
magnificent at Williamstown. And and Ihave ill feeling toward toward Bruce Paltrow,
who died tragically young, but Ihave an ill feeling for his mistreatment

(01:14:49):
of of Dwight Schultz. But Idid very much like Tom Fontana, who
was a very very nice guy andfun and the only thing I can recommend
I watched with my son this weektalk about a ridiculous recommendation is Casablanca.
So I finally showed my thirteen yearold son, and dear God, is

(01:15:09):
that a perfect? Is that aperfect? It's a perfect movie. Perfectly
it is there. There are maybe there are may be ten perfect movies,
and that is one of them.I will say about Casiboka as I
recently rewatched it on a plane,I mean a couple of years ago,
and like, you know how youngpeople think all these old black and white
movies are too slow, I kindof get it, you know, scenes

(01:15:30):
last two. The amazing thing aboutCasablanca in some ways, or at least
the underrated thing, is the editing, because act he moves at a really
good clip, yeah back then,and Michael Curtizz the director, Yeah,
the camera never stops moving. Thatcamera is moving around Rick's Cafe American like
nobody's business. It is as thoughit were walking through the bar at all

(01:15:54):
times. In all ways. It'samazingly vivid and lively. So what's funny
about that is that the reason itdid that, the reason that actually all
the old movies did that had muchmore camera moves and lay Dolly track,
no lease Dolly track now is becauseit was cheaper to light a set for
long continuous takes than it was todo a million setups. And now it's

(01:16:16):
like they do a million setups.And why now things seem like they they
their pace is faster, but thestory moves slower because nothing happens in the
frame. Well, in the frameof any one of those old movies,
but especially multi Salcon are the greatwith Michael ts directed ones and you know
the George Kukor and Ernst Lubitch.Things happen in the frame. You see

(01:16:38):
an actor change another actor's mind.You never ever see that. Now that's
mostly a cutaway, which is oneof the reason why there's the movies now
seem faster but more boring. Youknow, we'd and you don't have to
pay attention to them. All right, so uh here we are. We're
done. We're gonna come back inMarch, hopefully with new AI that's better
than the AI that we have now. Well a I do it will be

(01:17:00):
replaced by AI AI do a glockYou could say, yeah, right,
which you know what, if it'sbetter, that's always the fear. Well
it'll be shorter, Ye'll be short. It can't be worse. Ye all
right, See you guys next time. Pellas