Speaker 1: Let's go to Dean from Dallas, Texas. Dean, you're on the air. Save us, please,
Dean, can you hear me? Yes, I can. Speaker 6: Hi. First-Time Caller, longtime
listener. I wanted to ask, Uh, do you think with the ongoing pandemic having a massive
impact mostly on the elderly when it comes to fatalities, that there will be a significant
extension to Social Security seeing as you know, more and more people are buying in and
you know, they won't be able to to cash it to cash out.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure I know what you're talking about. Will Social Security be extended?
What do you mean? Speaker 6: Yeah, like. The estimations for
when Social Security runs out of money. Speaker 1: Oh, I see. Oh, so are you saying,
is the money going to last longer or are people going to have to wait longer before they can
start getting Social Security? Speaker 6: Right? Is the money going to last
longer for, you know, because it's projected that people like me on the younger side won't
be able to even collect because at all long run out of money by then?
Speaker 1: Listen, though, those predictions are heavily disputed, so I wouldn't even necessarily
start with that as the expectation of where we are. That there are many serious analyzes
done of the Social Security Trust Fund, which say it's not going to run out. There may need
to be a period during which people pay in a little more or during which they might get
out a little less or have to wait an extra year. But it's going to all run out hypotheses.
My understanding is have been pretty widely debunked in terms of the effect of COVID on
that. I don't know the answer to that. It's a very good question. But I think it's something
that it's got to be studied by experts in that field, and I don't know that we're going
to have all the data until we're really out of the pandemic.
Speaker 6: Right, right. Well, thanks for taking my call.
Speaker 1: Appreciate it. My pleasure. Appreciate the call. Yeah, that's that's a really interesting
question. I wish I had an answer. I wish I had an answer. But I don't. Let's go next
to Jack from Indianapolis, Indiana. Jack, you're on the air.
Speaker 6: Hey, David, how are you? I'm doing well. Yeah, so I just kind of been looking
at the way things have been going in in America right now. Yeah. And you know, the thing about
it is that can get kind of depressing. And I think like, you know, why do I follow this
stuff so much? If you know, all I can do is vote. I mean, you know, suffer from that.
Also do some music that is about these issues like police brutality and government corruption
and stuff like that. But I was curious as to if you had any recommendations as far as
like I think they call civic engagement. Speaker 1: You're saying what can you do other
than voting, is that more or less what you're saying, basically? There are so many things.
I mean, listen, first of all, with technology the way it is now, you can participate in
essentially any race you want to buy phone banking and fundraising remotely if that's
what you're interested in doing. That's number one. Number two, really important to understand
that you don't have to attach your activism to individuals. You might attach your activism,
excuse me, to issues. There might be, you know, regardless of who your senator is at
the local level where you live. You could figure out, Oh, you know what? There's a conservation
commission in my city or town. I'm going to get involved in that. Or if you care about
literacy, most libraries and library systems have ways for you to get involved. I think
the first thing is we've got to kind of disabuse ourselves of this notion that there aren't
that many different ways that that we can get involved. There's community radio and
community television where you can get involved essentially at no cost, depending on where
you live in most parts of the country. There's really so much. And so the first, it's almost
like there's there's too much and you've got to figure out, do I want to work locally or
at the state level? Do I want to work by helping a candidate? Or do I want to work on an issue?
What do I care about? Most education, the environment, etc.? There really is no shortage
of ways to get involved. Speaker 6: OK. Yeah, that makes sense. What
exactly is phone banking? Speaker 1: Phone banking is very simple. You
there's now there's systems where let's say, you know, let's say it's John Fetterman versus
Mehmet Oz in the Pennsylvania Senate race, and it's a few months from now, right? It's
the 2022 election. Even if you don't live in Pennsylvania, you can sign up to phone
bank and basically you can sit at your computer and you'll get it'll pop up and it'll say,
OK, here is a believed Democratic voter. Call them, ask them if they're planning to vote,
call and so you can. It's basically all done through software at this point, and no matter
where you are, you can start making phone calls for any candidate you want. Most candidates
assuming that they're set up with these phone banking systems.
Speaker 6: OK, that makes sense. Yeah, really. Yeah, I think that's about it. Thanks for
having me on. Speaker 1: My pleasure. Yeah, engagement so
many ways to get involved. There's really no shortage. No shortage. It's almost an embarrassment
of riches, of riches, quite frankly. Let's go next to, I believe. Is it pronounced evident
from is it Winnipeg? I'm not even sure. Can you hear me? Yes, I can.
Speaker 3: How are you doing, Mr. Pacman? I'm doing well. Yes. So Winnipeg, we're just
in Manitoba, Canada. I love it. Yeah. So my question was about how do you choose what
to cover? Because I'll preface this with I listen to a lot of the new media landscape,
a lot of breaking point points. It's personal and sogar, calcul and ski type stuff like
that, as well as yourself. And I find that like, for example, to you, it will focus a
lot on like donations from big like companies into politicians and how that runs the political
landscape. I've noticed, like you find, it tend to focus a little more on like January
6th stuff like that. And I was wondering what makes you find that that's the most important
thing that you want to cover? Speaker 1: It's not. This is a beautiful question.
How old? How old a guy are you, by the way? I am 15. OK, I had a feeling you were a younger
guy. Listen, you are asking really high level questions here. OK, you are you. I think you
have upper management written all over you, as we like to say in the United States. Here's
some. Here's the bottom line. I don't have any secret algorithm or anything about what
I'm going to cover. I get to cover eight stories a day more or less. And basically, what I
think about is, what do I feel like talking about today? Where do I have something to
add on a story? What does my audience? What might my audience be interested in hearing
about? And is it time sensitive and newsworthy? And if so, I just kind of say, here's the
eight things I want to talk about today. I have all these different possibilities and
I'm looking at, you know, I have a list of journalists I follow on Twitter and I'm all
sorts of newsletters and it's basically just what do I want to share with my audience today?
That's really the reason for me talking about January 6th significantly, because you mentioned
that is the right is trying to rewrite history on what happened there. I think it's an incredibly
important sort of before and after event that has kind of changed the direction of what
we thought the right was willing to do or maybe thought they were not willing to do.
And I want to do everything I can to remind people that really wasn't normal. We still
haven't gotten a full understanding of everything that happened on that day. So that's why,
like in the last 10 days or so, I've been talking about it a lot to answer that specifically.
Speaker 3: OK. That makes a lot of sense. And then this one's just a little more of
a fun one. Sure. Like I was wondering, like, what do you think about Canada? Have you been
up here? If so, like what places you visit? Speaker 1: I love Canada. I have to say the
overwhelming majority of my experience is in Montreal. I've been to Montreal probably
20 times in my life. I grew up going there and I've been I've been so many times. I love
it. I've been to Toronto. It had less charm, but a beautifully organized, kind of less
European city. If that makes sense, you know, it's a different story. I've also been to
Ottawa once I I don't want to insult Ottawa, but I remember very little about it. It did
not inspire me in any real way. And I'm really I've never been to Quebec City, but I would
like to go as soon as it's reasonable and safe. But I love Canada and in particular,
you know, I'm a big I love France. And so going to Quebec, I just enjoy it significantly.
Speaker 3: I'm sure I'm sure I went for the first time this summer just to move my brother
and to college, and that was really nice. Speaker 1: Oh, OK. What? McGill, McGill? McGill
is great. McGill's great. That's that's fantastic. Well, listen is the correct pronunciation,
vedant. It's they, they don't. And what are the origins of that name?
Speaker 3: So it means eternal knowledge in Sanskrit. So my family's originally from Tamil
Nadu, which is the southernmost province of India.
Speaker 1: Amazing. Amazing. Well, listen, I appreciate the call, my friend.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much. Have a great recipe age.
Speaker 1: Wow, what a polite young man, folks. What a polite young man that is. That is really
something else.