Hey it's me Destin welcome back to Smarter Everyday
I just interviewed the President of the United States of America
Which is really strange because I'm not a journalist
I'm not a politician. I'm a rocket engineer.
Which means I'm going to come at this thing from a completely different angle than most people
The process of interviewing the President is strange because you learn things about him,
and the White House of course, but you learn things about yourself.
Four parts of this video:
The mechanics of how this happened; what my goals for the interview were;
the interview itself; and what I learned.
My understanding is there was a long list of people being considered
and then at some point, I was interviewed as a potential candidate.
I'm not a registered Republican or Democrat, but they asked me point blank who I voted for
and I didn't tell them
but the way I answered the question made it pretty clear to me
I was not going to be selected.
But I was.
It was a secret for 3 weeks, and then I went out to L.A. to shoot a promo for the interview.
It was there that I met Adonde and Ingrid.
They were super cool and really down to earth.
When I got home, I asked the Internet what they thought I should ask the President
And I got all kinds of answers.
I mean, good ones, bad ones. It was amazing.
But think about it, I don't agree with the president on every single issue,
so I have a huge opportunity here,
I could sit down with the most powerful man in the world and tell him how I think he should run the country,
or I could accept the fact that he might see things differently than I do
and try to have a meaningful, intelligent, respectful conversation.
My goal was not to just have this intelligent, respectful conversation
with somebody I might disagree with on other topics
but to demonstrate that it could actually be fun!
To do this, I went to Washington to meet the President.
The day before the interview we went to a studio
in Maryland, and we practiced with a guy named Fredrick.
He's a stand-in hired by Google and he's a really cool guy.
The next day, we went to the White House and we got to meet the President's dogs
which were really, really soft by the way.
We did some dry runs to make sure we knew how to roll our sets around,
and then each of us kind of went off and reviewed our questions one last time
to make sure we knew what we were gonna say.
We then waited for the President, and he walked in and we started the interview.
The President had already been briefed on who the 3 of us were,
and the fact the Swoozie was gonna give him a lightning round,
then I was gonna watch a video with him,
and that Ingrid was gonna ask him about what's in his pockets.
A lot of people wanna know, did I share my questions
with the White House, these are the actual cards, before the interview?
And the answer is 'no.'
This is how I know this:
I was looking into his eyes during the interview,
and it was clear, through nonverbal communication,
that these things were hittin' him cold.
That impressed me! When I figured that out,
I was like, "Holy cow. A common citizen going to the White House,
talking to the most powerful man in the world,
on a live internet interview,
that is an incredible amount of transparency."
And I don't care what you say about the man's politics,
that impressed me, and I appreciated that.
For many reasons, I wasn't nervous, I was actually
really excited about this.
I decided to ask the first question on
how he gets smarter on topics he might not be the expert on.
It was an interesting answer, because it's clear that he's
changed his methods over the course of his presidency.
As he was answering this question, it was pretty clear to me that he was in interview mode:
His body language was a little rigid.
Now keep in mind that at this point, the President still doesn't know what kind of interviewer I'm gonna be.
For all he knows, I could be hostile.
What happened next was a moment I will never forget
I knew before he did that we were on the same wavelength,
and I really wanted to let him know that,
after all, I had listened to him already for 10 hours via audiobook.
If you watch the President's face,
you can see the exact moment that we connect.
Obama: And that I think is pretty consistent with,
you know, how scientists approach problems generally.
Destin: Now, I actually knew that about you because I've listened to your audiobooks,
and, in "Dreams of My Father,"
it ended with the 2004 Democratic National Convention speech.
Did you see it? Let's back it up and watch his body language.
He's a little guarded, and then the connection.
Isn't that cool?
It's the exact moment that this quit being an interview,
and became a fun, intelligent conversation
between two individuals who want the best for each other.
It was a really cool moment, and I won't forget it.
My second question was about polarization.
It's been clear to me that the country is more polarized now than it's been in a really long time,
and in fact there's data to back this up.
Whatever your views are, it's become really popular to yell
at the other side and blame them for all the county's problems.
The president went into why he thinks this is happening.
Obama: And the problem is, is that when we get to our politics,
for a whole host of reasons,
a lot of it having to do with the fact that, you know, our media is now splintered,
and so some people, they're just watching Fox News,
some people are just reading the New York Times,
so they're not, they don't even start with a common baseline of facts.
They almost occupy two different realities in terms of how they see the world.
Destin: In engineering control theory, there's something called a feedback loop.
There's a positive feedback, and a negative feedback.
If you remove negative feedback from any system, it almost always goes divergent and chaotic.
This is not political science. This is math.
When people on the left or the right only listen to the media that agrees with their way of thinking,
that's a dangerous situation.
If there's no negative feedback pulling you towards the center, you're gonna drift out closer to the extremes.
I really appreciated what the President said here,
because it's a responsibility of everybody on both sides of the political debate
to listen to both sides of the argument.
If not, you're only going to be in an echo chamber, and you're only gonna listen to those voices
that amplify what you want to hear, and pretty soon there's nothing but yelling.
My third question was about space, which is when I solicited the presidential fist bump,
then forgot to blow it up like a gentleman scholar.
Anyway, you can tell by my face I was really excited about this question
and I'd love for you to go listen to the president's answer.
I wanted to end on a fun note, so I asked him this really cool question from Reddit:
Destin: If there was an element named after you, Obamium,
You've never been asked this, I hope.
Obama: I have never been asked this!
Destin: Yes!
So the question is:
Obama: This is a first.
Destin: So what would you want the physical properties--
Obama: What would be the elements of... what would be the--
Destin: Obamium is the element.
Obama: What would be the characteristics of Obamium?
Destin: That's right, that's right.
Obama: That's interesting.
Destin: I'm not gonna play his answers now, because I encourage you to go watch the full interview,
in it's entirety, on the White House's Youtube channel.
Ok, time to talk about what I learned,
The exercise of thinking through what you would ask the most powerful man in the world
is very different when you're sitting at home on the couch or talking to your buddies around the water cooler
than if you're actually planning on going and sitting down, and looking him in the eye
and asking him the questions.
I found myself wanting to be more informed,
more cordial, I wanted to be more forgiving,
Why is that? Why do we have a tendency to want to be disrespectful?
There's 2 things I learned in the presidential interview process about how to communicate with people
you might have a difference with.
Number 1: If I'm typing to somebody or I'm chatting on the phone,
I'm gonna pretend I'm sitting directly across from that person, looking them in the eye,
because I want to be respectful and gracious.
And Number 2: If I can just listen, it's huge!
Think about it, if I listen, not just to formulate my next response so I sound smart to them,
but if I truly listen to connect with them at the heart level,
my credibility and influence with that person goes through the roof!
Even if it's the most powerful person in the world, think about that.
Be respectful, and listen.
It's that simple.
But it's really, really hard.
Hey, thanks! This went from rockets in the backyard,
to interviewing the President... Which is kind of crazy!
Anyway, if this is your first episode of Smarter Every Day that you've ever watched
And somehow, you feel like this has earned your subscription, feel free to do that,
but only if it earns it!
Last thing, I want to thank the sponsor who has been with me from the low points
to now, which, I would say, is a high point, and that's Audible.com
Clearly that's how I prepared for this interview,
and I shot something while I was in the White House to tell you what I learned.
Okay, I hope you enjoyed me in the White House, I know it was a blast!
If you're interested in listening to President Barack Obama's books,
First one is "Dreams of My Father," you can get that for free at Audible.com/smarter
That's "Dreams of My Father," totally recommend it, he's a really good reader
it's fantastic. Anyway, another book is called "The Audacity of Hope,"
feel free to check out both of his books, I think it's very important that you
know the thoughts of the guy that's leading the country.
Anyway, if you'd like to check those out: Audible.com/smarter
"The Audacity of Hope," and "Dreams of My Father."
I'm Destin. Get smarter everyday! Have a good one!
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