Speaker 1: Why don't we go next to
I hope I pronounce it correctly. Is it ti coup in Los Angeles, California? T.co.
Tico, welcome to the program. Please accept the invitation to join.
Speaker 4: I'm here. Speaker 1: Welcome. What's on your mind today?
Speaker 4: So I have been listening for quite some time since last year,
and I've noticed that a lot of the callers tend to be men. And I was wondering if, just like by way
of data or insights from being in the industry, if you have any insight on why that may be. Yes.
Speaker 1: Shows like mine, The Young Turks and others have significantly larger male audiences
than they do female audiences. It's in all of the demographics. It applies to all of our shows.
Even shows like this with female co-hosts still have overwhelmingly male audiences. And that's
reflected in the callers, I think. And and part of it is what what the demographic data
seem to show is that women are less likely to get political analysis from online left
wing independent media shows than men are. Speaker 4: Interesting. Yeah. Okay. And
then a final question just for you as a media professional. I wanted to hear kind of I even
though this is sort of politics adjacent, your take on the strikes that are happening.
Speaker 1: The late night writers, right? Well, listen, we actually talked about this
on the award winning and world famous bonus show earlier in the week. The thing about the strikes
is the demands. Obviously, they were not able to come to an agreement over salary, but it's really
more complicated than that. And so much of the money being made on these programs is now coming
on the back end through archives and streaming and asynchronous viewing. And the writers don't
typically have a provision in their contract that compensates them for that. So they are saying now
that the initial audience that watches it live on TV is only a fraction of the total audience. Since
we don't get any of the back end, we need more money upfront. I think that's a totally legitimate
claim. It's a reality about the changing media landscape. So I think they're they're completely
correct in their desire to be paid more upfront. Speaker 4: Great. Well, thanks for taking my call.
Speaker 1: I also don't watch any of those shows, so it really doesn't bother
me if they're off the air. Speaker 4: There you go.
Speaker 1: All right. Q Thank you. I appreciate the call.
Sure. What is that finish? Is that a finish name? Speaker 4: I know it's a name my mom made up
because it's easier for Americans to say than my actual name.
Speaker 1: Oh, okay. Fair enough. All right. You from Los Angeles. Crystal clear. Thank
you very much. Appreciate that. Why don't we go next to Patrick from Vancouver? Patrick,
welcome to the program. What's on your mind today? Speaker 3: Hello, David. How are you,
sir? I'm coming to you with tears in my eyes and have to flush the toilet 10 to 15 times.
Very good. I am wondering about today. About your opinion about ESG investing.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, so ESG investing for people who don't know is investing. That takes
into account the environmental and social impact of the companies that you are investing in.
Generally speaking, there's two views on this. One view is if you focus on ESG, you're going to get
an inferior return because the most profitable companies may not adhere to whatever is sort of
like in vogue at the time in terms of adhering to environmental and social issues. So it's a
perfectly fine way to invest, but you're just going to have a lower return. The the increasing
counterpoint is that over the medium to long term, the most profitable companies will be the ones
that are environmentally and socially conscious, so that actually it's the best of both worlds.
You're doing a good thing morally and ethically, and you're also going to get the highest return.
Honestly, my view on this is not a morality view. It's informed my but my by my views generally on
investing, which is I don't think I'm good at picking stocks. I don't think most people are
good at picking stocks. I'm going to invest in the broadest index that I can. And if I'm invested.
Speaker 3: Like I was just going to bring up like ESG index funds. But like
the problem is like their management fees are significantly higher than.
Speaker 1: My management fees. But my view on this, Patrick, is if over time,
the court, all companies in a country are going to move more in the direction of stricter
environmental and social standards by investing in the broadest possible index fund, over time,
I'll get more exposure to that ESG aspect anyway. Speaker 3: Okay. So it just it's just the market.
The market like for like, you know, for something like, I don't know,
an S&P 500 index, it will just adjust over time. Speaker 1: I would go even much broader. I would
go with a total stock market index. Yeah. Speaker 4: Okay.
Speaker 3: So like I shouldn't feel bad about investing currently right now in,
in like, you know, a total stock market. Speaker 1: That's a different question
whether you should feel bad or not. I can't tell you. Maybe you do feel I mean, listen, you know,
Noam Chomsky was confronted a few years ago and they said, you know, you make all these criticisms
about corporations and all these different things, the environment, social responsibility, but then
you've got your retirement money in the same index funds everybody uses. And Chomsky's response was
basically like, Listen, I'm an activist for the things that I believe are right, but at the end
of the day, am I going to keep my money under my mattress? That doesn't make any sense. There are
obviously more options now than just mattress or oil stocks. But, you know, that's Chomsky's view.
Speaker 3: Okay. Thank you very much, sir. Speaker 1: All right, my friend. Thank you
very much for the call. Always, always great to hear from our friends to the
north. I'll be back in Canada soon. It'll be extraordinarily exciting, I'm sure.