The thing I’m seeking is the thinking underneath. But what is the opinion of you that you seem to think I hold? I don’t know. There are moments where I’m like, David really wants to know about this, and there are moments where I think, David feels like if he doesn’t ask this that he’ll be criticized. I’m trying to gauge what you really want.
After our first conversation, when we were down in the lobby, we were talking about the idea of dissatisfaction with legacy media and that a lot of listeners have instead turned to podcasts and other voices. That they shouldn’t.
If you have authority, whether you ask for it or not, or whether you think it’s correct or not, what responsibility might come with it? Maybe traditional media has echoed certain sentiments that weren’t exactly truthful. So there’s this undercurrent of, Oh, we can’t trust those institutions. Now the reality is, you guys could get like 90 percent right. When you get one thing wrong, it’s like, They’re a propaganda tool! And I think what happened is more people started listening to us, and this is obviously spearheaded by the GOAT, Joe Rogan. More people started listening to podcasting in general, and because more people are listening, popular figures are now going on these platforms to have conversations — presidents and other figures. Now all of a sudden, everybody’s consuming their information about these very serious things on these platforms that were not designed to do this in the first place. Then when we go, Hey, we’re just asking questions and making fun of our friends, there is a very reasonable criticism, which is, yes, that’s what you started out as, but now that everybody is watching you, do you now have a new responsibility?
And what’s the answer? I don’t think that we have to take a specific journalistic approach. Meaning I don’t think we have to remove our own desires and the questions that we wanna ask. But I think it’s important to reflect multiple viewpoints on the pod. We desperately tried to do that in the last election. The Democrats that we asked were not willing to come on. Now they are starting to come, and that makes for much better podcasting. Also, the numbers when they come on are incredible. Clearly there’s a real thirst from our audience, and to me what that indicates about our audience is that it’s not this extreme one direction. We are interested in different things. Now that we have access to these people, it makes for a fruitful conversation. Then we would hope that people have the agency to make their own ideas.
Andrew, can you end with a family-friendly joke? This was a Louis C.K. joke that Seinfeld told when they were doing a conversation — comedians on comedians. The joke is something like: You know, going on vacation with the family, I put the kids in the car seats. I put my wife in the car. Put the coffees in the coffee holder. I put the bags in the back. I close the trunk. I close my wife’s door. I close the kids’ door. And when I’m walking from my wife’s door to my door, that’s my vacation.
