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You're listening to Comedy Central now. Hi, this is Bill Clinton. Please join me on my podcast. Why am I telling you this? Why am I telling you this? Why am I telling you this for conversations with some of the most fascinating people I know? We'll talk about ideas that deserve more attention, about how science, technology and design are improving our lives, and about why we should be hopeful and optimistic about our future. Starting February 4th, listen to Why Am I Telling You This?

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And the I Heart radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. Well, hello, what's going on, everybody? I'm Trevor Noah and this is the daily social distancing show. Before we get started. I'm happy to announce that I've completed yet another New Year's resolution. Yes, my friends, I finally managed to stop eating frog eggs.

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No, wait, that was baby yielders resolution. That means he's got mine.

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Anyway, on tonight's show, the stock market is going crazy. Republicans are going nuts and coronavirus is going out of control. Plus, inauguration poet Amanda Goodman is joining us to chat about her future. So let's do this, people.

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Welcome to the daily social distancing show from Trivers Koch in New York City to your couch somewhere in the world. This is the Daily Social Decency Show with no use. Let's kick things off with the stock markets. America's number one supplier of great depressions as volatile as the stock market can be. This has been one of its wildest weeks yet.

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Craziest business story out there. And Internet trading mob is driving GameStop shares higher, it appears, despite short sellers. Look at the stock. It's up more than six hundred eighty percent so far this year.

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They realized that all of the institutional investors were hedging on GameStop. So they just bought a bunch of call options, bought a bunch of stock and created the game. A squeeze that you saw on Friday.

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OK, OK. I don't know about you, but that explanation is way too complicated. Short selling. The thing of the long selling and the look.

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What we really need here is that scene from the Big Short when mobile Robbie breaks it down for us in the bathtub, you know, and I actually called her to do that, but she blocked my number. So I had to figure out plan B.

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But basically there's a group of people on Reddit who don't use the stock market to invest. They use it to gamble. And yeah, that's what a lot of serious investors do to put these guys on Reddit a more honest about it. And they love to troll the people who aren't. So there's a store called GameStop that sells video games. Not a great business to be in since games can be downloaded now, which is why the serious investors decided to short GameStop, which means to bet against it.

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But the creditors are gamers who have a semi ironic love for the store. So they started making names encouraging each other to punish the serious people by buying worthless GameStop stocks. Now, instead of failing, GameStop is succeeding wildly.

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Not really. Of course not as a business. But come on, stocks are never real.

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The serious people have already lost five billion dollars and some giant hedge funds have gone bankrupt. Got it. Good.

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Now let's get out mogel Robbie's bathroom before she gets home and asks me what I'm doing here. The last time she called me here was a bit awkward.

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OK, now that we're on the same page, yo, this shit is wild and I know some people are freaking out about this. People like this isn't how Wall Street is supposed to work. What's going to happen to these poor hedge funds?

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Let me tell you something. Wall Street is going to be fine. All right? There are millions of people who are out of work and thousands of businesses closing. And yet the stock market is an all time high. No worrying about hedge fund guys. They can cry about this on their helicopter that takes them to their boat, that takes them to their yachts.

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In fact, if anything, I think it's actually funny to see how Wall Street doesn't like it when somebody's Wall Street to them. Yeah, because when they make moves that cost people their homes, people in Wall Street are like, hey, man, those are the rules. We want to happen to them. Like, those aren't the rules.

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Is the one going to regulate this.

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And these Regitze investors already moving beyond GameStop. Now they're pumping up the stock prices of other failing companies like Bed, Bath and Beyond, AMC movie theaters and even Tootsie Rolls, which, by the way, I didn't even know that Tootsie Roll had its own stock. Who was that for? So it's a candy that looks and tastes like a turd, but it also sticks to your teeth. You're interested in investing. Now, if you think about it, the only reason that these Raddatz's have been able to pull this off is because of the Internet.

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Yep. Think about it like Reddit and all these social media. They make it possible to get together with people who think like you. This wasn't possible decades ago. Like now, if you want to take down a hedge fund, you can find people to help you do it. If you want to plan an insurrection, you can find people to help you do it.

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So if you think you're the only person in the world who's attracted to that part of a stapler, that looks like a face. Well, I'll see you at Staples faces dot com, my friend.

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Mm hmm. But let's move on to something that isn't surging humans.

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It's a trend that sometimes happens after blizzards, long power outages or whenever couples might have some time to kill and not much to do. Many people joke that covid stay at home orders would lead to a new nationwide baby boom. We talked about that. But some researchers predict we might just see the opposite. It's looking like that baby boom is actually a baby bust. The Brookings Institution estimates this year could see a dip from twenty nineteen, approaching 300000 fewer births.

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The US birth rate will decline an estimated seven to ten percent this next year. That's on top of an already thirty five year low.

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Wow. So apparently these last 10 months have been all Netflix and no chill.

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And honestly, I'm not surprised who's going to Tiger King because I mean, there's certain things that you can watch and be like, yeah, we're going to get it on. But like when you're sitting next to someone, you're like, goddamn Carol Breskin. You're not making babies to that, but yes, apparently nobody has been making babies while they're in lockdown. And I mean, when you think about it, it makes sense. You know, when you're spending twenty four hours a day with someone for months, the last thing you want to do is make another one of them to hang out with.

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Not to mention I've been so scared of getting covid I don't even see my own family. So I'm definitely not going to let a stalk hand deliver me a baby. No, thank you.

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What do I mean, that's not where they come from. Where do they sex? So you have sex with a stork. Plus, I agree with these people that writes about the economy. I don't need a baby. I already have enough mouths to feed my mouth and the other mouth that's on the side of my neck. Did you say something to ever go back to sleep, Cornealious? But, you know, this story actually gives me a great idea.

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If there's fewer babies, that means there's going to be fewer kids. So that means fewer daycares, which means daycare will lose business. So Wall Street will bet against daycares, which means I'm buying a daycare. Let's do this redit. Oh, I lost everything. Why isn't this a regular?

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And finally, let's do something your dad always wanted to do on vacation and check in on the Baseball Hall of Fame. It's where the game celebrates its greatest players. But this year the celebration is going to be a tiny bit smaller.

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All the former baseball players who were eligible for induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame this year struck out. No player was named on the required seventy five percent of ballots from the Baseball Writers Association of America. Seven time Cy Young winner Roger Clemens failed to get enough votes in his ninth year on the ballot. Clemens was suspected of having used performance enhancing drugs during his career. He denies that. And baseball's all time home run leader Barry Bonds also failed in his ninth try.

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He was also believed to have taken performance enhancing drugs. Pitcher Curt Schilling, who won three World Series titles, fell 16 votes short. Since retiring, Schilling has faced criticism for posting social media comments critical of Muslims, transgender people and journalists.

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Tisk, tisk. Social media is bad news, guys, because I can guarantee you there's a lot of bigots in the Baseball Hall of Fame. They just didn't have social media to tell you about it. You think Ty Cobb was WOAK? I mean, just as a rule, any baseball player whose card was a painting probably hated somebody. I respect that the Baseball Hall of Fame wants to maintain their integrity, but it is kind of funny. But the Hall of Fame has higher standards than the US government because some baseball players, like I don't want to share a bathroom with this person in the Hall of Fame is like, hey, get out of here and go make some laws or something.

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All right. Let's move on to our main story, the coronavirus. You know, it's the reason you're eating a Caesar salad on the sidewalk in 30 degree weather. The entire world is struggling with this pandemic, but some countries are handling it better than others. So let's catch up on the latest Korona News Around the World in another episode of Keeping Up with Corona.

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First things first, just because we have a vaccine for the coronavirus doesn't mean it's going away immediately. In fact, right now it's only getting worse.

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The urgency of the vaccine effort is even more critical this evening, a race against time as those new and more contagious strains of the virus spread.

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covid-19 has been mutating throughout this pandemic. And in recent months, you've had these disturbing variants emerging that have been discovered in the U.K., here in South Africa and Brazil.

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Epidemiologists warn with the new variants, even brief interactions like an outdoor chat without a mask or having a cup of coffee indoors can increase your transmission by up to 70 percent.

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Authorities still don't know why the new variants are so contagious. So as an extra layer of protection, they recommend wearing two masks.

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Who coronavirus is one hell of a competitor? Man, it's like Michael Jordan, you know, it heard we made a vaccine and Corona was like and I took that personally because so far there's three major variants out there and new ones are popping up all the time. Like pretty soon we're going to need a sommelier to tell them apart. Yes. Here we have a twenty twenty one from the foothills of Wales. Very strong. If you if you give that a smell, you'll notice that you can't smell.

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But because these variants are so much more infectious, authorities are now suggesting that everybody wear two masks. Which I think is a great idea, especially for America, because when experts said where a mosque, half the country was like, hell, no, that's my freedom. So if you tell them to wear two mosques, then people like, will you?

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I'm only wearing one mask leotard. And it turns out these new variants are hitting particularly hard right now because a year of restrictions has gotten people tired of that locked down life.

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The new covid lockdown in the Netherlands has sparked violent protests that continue tonight. Protesters have fought with police in several Dutch cities setting fires to buildings. Hundreds of arrests have been made since the protests started over the weekend. The lockdown includes a nine p.m. curfew. That's the first in the Netherlands since World War Two.

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Our guys, this right here is a bad sign. How are we going to keep the lockdowns going in the rest of the world when the country that invented legal weed is losing its shit? I mean, the Netherlands are supposed to be one of the chill countries. Think about it. How often do you hear.

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Careful, careful. You don't mess with that dude. He's Dutch. The Dutch are super nice. There's so much they named paying for things together after them. You want to be an asshole or you want to go Dutch. But yeah, of course people hate lockdown's. I mean, even just the name locked down sounds like something you should get mad about. What they really need to do is rebrand Lockdown's, you know, make it more appealing, like call it a nationwide slumber party or extended cozy time or the pretend you're an indoor cat challenge.

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Of course, lockdown's always a temporary fix. The real solution is going to be getting everybody vaccinated. And one country is showing everyone else how it's done.

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The world's biggest success story right now, Israel. Israel is a relatively small country, but it has administered far more first doses.

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Israel continues to lead the world in vaccinations using the American made Pfizer or medicine of vaccines.

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Well, in most countries around the world, you have to be part of a year or two to be vaccinated. Israeli clinics have been giving out any remaining doses to the general public after the day's scheduled appointments end for priority patients.

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Everything is done through our we all get notification where we can receive the vaccination, and it worked very, very well. Wow.

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Well done to Israel on leading the world in vaccinations. And, you know, it makes sense that they're doing this through people's phones. I mean, there's already an app that you can catch diseases, so why not have one that cures them to? What I don't understand is why can't America have that app, too, huh? Israel doesn't even have to change it. I'll learn Hebrew. Everything's closed. I've got nothing else to do. Now, as important as everyone getting vaccinated is, there's one thing that's even more important, making sure that your vaccine actually works.

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Chinese company Citified says it has confidence in its vaccine that is just being picked up by Indonesia, Brazil and Turkey. But there has been skepticism over the veracity of its stated.

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Questions are beginning to arise because Indonesia also conducting its own trials, releasing numbers that put its efficacy at about 70 percent. Brazil's findings for this very same vaccination efficacy down to fifty percent.

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Yes, much like an airplane touch screen, China's vaccine only works about 50 percent of the time. No Lion King, Lion King. Lion King played Lion King Play Lion King, play Lion King. I guess I'm watching cats. And I got to say, guys, I really feel bad for these countries. How could they have guessed that China would make a cheap knockoff of the vaccine?

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I mean, what is a person supposed to do with a vaccine that's only fifty percent as effective as the others? Stop standing three feet away from other people, go have half a meal in a restaurant, only hug one of your grandmas. Now, just because China is struggling to manufacture vaccines doesn't mean that they've stopped moving forward with technology, especially when it comes to testing for coronavirus.

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China has begun carrying out anal swabs for covid in a controversial move that has received some pushback. A hospital in Beijing carried out the swabs when testing staff at a school. While authorities in some hotspot areas may introduce the measure for people arriving from abroad, they've been doing blood serum tests to determine whether or not people have covered antibodies.

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And in some places, including a Beijing hospital, they carried out anal swabs, with the idea being that the presence of the virus in excrement is longer to detect. Then if you do, say, a mouth swab, you know what?

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There's a point at which I would rather just have the coronavirus, although I can't say I'm surprised to hear this.

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I mean, scientifically speaking, the anus is the nostril of the butt. And the plus side is with testing like this, you might not even need a vaccine. You just tell people, hey, we're not having Lockdown's, but. Every time you leave your apartment, some stranger is going to shove a cutup up your butt, we'll be done with coronavirus in like two weeks. All right. When we come back, we'll figure out how Biden and the Republicans can come together.

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And Amanda Gorman, the superstar poet from the inauguration, is joining us on the show.

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So don't go away. Never thought you'd make a great switchboard operator or seltzer man or professional royal mistress if full time jobs are your jam. We've got a podcast just for you.

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I'm Helen Hong and I'm at Beat and we host the new podcast Job Elite, taking a look at jobs that used to be a thing and now not so much.

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My Heart Radio's number one for podcasts, but don't take our word for it. Fine job elite on the I Heart radio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

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I've got one word for you, Tom Cruise on this new weekly podcast meeting, Tom Cruise. We're going to talk about Tom Cruise. We're going to talk to people who have met Tom Cruise. Why? Because Tom Cruise is the greatest movie star of all time. Is he, though? Shut your mouth. Everyone who has met him has an amazing story to tell. And that's where he met Tom Cruise. Tom Cruise. When I hear the bathroom door open and it's Tom Cruise.

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Hey, everybody, I'm Jeff Meacham. You might know me as Josh Open Hole from TV's Blackfish. And I'm here with the ghost of my maverick. Hey, I'm Joel Johnston. You might know me as Archie and the marvelous Mrs. Maze. And I'm Alex. And you may know no one knows you from anything. Listen, we love Tom Cruise. We are inspired by Tom Cruise. But while we live and work in Hollywood, we've never actually met Tom Cruise.

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So we're going to talk to some people who have and maybe one of them will lead us to the man himself so we can have our own stories of meeting Tom Cruise. Does it really have to just be about Tom Cruise? What are you here?

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Listen to meeting Tom Cruise on the I Heart radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcast. Welcome back to the Daily Social Distancing Show. Let's talk about America's new president, Joseph Rafiki. Biden, there's no doubt that he's got a tough job ahead of him. But in his inauguration speech last week, Biden made clear what his top priority is.

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To overcome these challenges, to restore the soul and secure the future of America requires so much more than words. It requires the most elusive of all things in a democracy.

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Unity, unity, unity, unity, unity, unity, unity. Unity. Unity. Unity. Unity, but look, I get it. America has been divided over the last four years. Technically, 12, if you include Obama's years, actually it was pretty divided on the Bush and Clinton who. Yeah, that was bad. Oh, you said the 60s and the civil war. I mean, the Civil War. Oh, man. You know, it also wasn't great.

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Whole thing with the pilgrims and the Indians either. All right. So America has been divided for like two thousand years now. The point is unity.

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So I can see why unity would be very appealing for people right now.

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But for unity to work, you have to agree on what unity is. And in Washington right now, they're not even united on that.

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US Senator John Cornyn from Texas. His response to the inclusion of transgender people in the military was to tweet another unifying move by the new administration. Questionmark.

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Democrats claim to want to unify the country, but impeaching a former president, a private citizen, is the antithesis of unity.

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Joe Biden, you talk about unifying the country, pursuing impeachment after he leaves the office or further divide the country.

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It's hard to unify when you're impeaching a president who's already left office. Joe Biden vowed that his top priority was, quote, unity. Does anyone at this point still believe him? Anybody raise your hand at home, raise your hand at home?

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Dude, only one of your viewers is dumb enough to think that you can see him through the TV because this is ridiculous. All right.

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Apparently, Republicans think that unity means the Democrats have to act like Republicans.

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That's not what unity is. Unity does not mean agreements. It doesn't mean doing whatever the other side wants. Unity means the state of being united and united means unified and unified means to be in for the same thing and thing. Same thing means I'll tell you this much unity doesn't mean you just do what the losers want, right? It definitely doesn't mean that you can't hold Trump accountable for what he did that wouldn't fly in court.

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You are accused of manslaughter. How do you plead? I plead unity, Your Honor.

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Man, get your ass to jail. And it's one thing to try to find unity with people who disagree with you on policies. But how do you find unity with people who don't even recognize your legitimacy?

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A clear majority of House Republicans who are now going to bring about unity voted to overturn the election and in effect, make Trump president for four more years over the will of the voters.

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This election was not stolen. Do you accept that fact? Well, what I would say is that the debate over whether or not there was fraud should occur. We never had any presentation in court when we actually looked at the evidence.

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Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor, Green, Kuhnen supporter, she has repeatedly indicated support for executing prominent Democratic politicians. Twenty nineteen. She liked the comment that said, quote, A bullet to the head would be quicker to remove House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in twenty eighteen. She said, quote, The stage is being set after someone asked whether they could hang President Obama and Hillary Clinton.

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Holy shit. This Marjorie Taylor green lady wanted to shoot Pelosi and hang Obama and Hillary. This woman is something else. It's like a normal.

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Karen fell into a vat of chemicals and then became a Batman villain. I mean, how can you achieve unity with someone who's literally wanting you dead? There's a reason why planet Earth never ends with a bill being signed.

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And suddenly the challenges at the young are eager to reach a bipartisan agreement. Seriously, people forget the country for a minute, right? That's their co-worker. Imagine going into work every day knowing one of your coworkers wants to kill you. A coworker stole my yogurt one time and I still hold it against him. I was hungry for twenty minutes that day.

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Kevin, you're a monster. Look, considering where the Republican Party is right now, I don't know if the two sides can really come together, but it would be fun watching them try to talk their issues out today.

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We're here to work on unity. Now, this is a safe space to share your feelings and hopefully find some common ground. Democrats, let's start with you. What does unity mean to you?

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We want unity. You know, it's about coming together and respecting each other.

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Wrong are Republicans. You had a very strong reaction to that. What does unity mean to you?

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Unity is bringing everyone in the country together to do exactly what we want all the time. And if you have a problem with that, we'll storm your office, that's what unity is. Very good sharing. I love how honest you're being Democrats. Is that something you think you might be open to?

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No. He just said he wants to storm my office or put you in prison.

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What are your options? Very good. Very good. You know what? I feel we should have a bigger say. We won the election. You stole the election.

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Now, remember compromise. OK, so how about Democrats won the election by stealing it? Yeah, that's fair.

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No, it's not.

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Look, we just want the Republicans to come to the table in good faith and find areas we can agree on so we can pass meaningful laws.

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OK, let's explore this. Republicans, when Democrats just said that, what is it that you hear?

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I heard that they want mandatory Sharia socialism and to put Rupal in the fifty dollar bill. That's what she said.

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That's not what I said at all. Although I am open to the Rupal thing, I gather the money.

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But listen, if they really wanted unity, how do they explain the capital riots?

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That could have been a real moment for unity. But there wasn't a single Democrat in that mob because they're all talk with no insurrection.

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They say, see, this is what he does. It's always my fault. It isn't your fault. It's your fault every single time. Why did you make it OK?

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You're walking around like it's not my fault if you get stuck and you stop, especially the Democrats.

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Look, we're almost out of time.

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So what I'd like to do is just take a step back and look at all the progress we've made. Excuse me.

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Progress. There has been no progress. See, you finally agreed on something. You're both united behind the fact that you can never unite unity achieved Republicans, your care Democrats. Let's pick this up again next week.

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We have a lot to work through because I got to run. I'm parked in a handicapped spot. So thanks for she did, of course.

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All right. When we come back, the star poet from the inauguration, Amanda Gorman, is joining us on the show.

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Don't go away. I'm Robert Evans, host of Behind the Bastards, and it could happen here. And boy, it does seem to be happening here. I'm going to guess most of the people listening to this are deeply concerned with what they saw happen in Washington, D.C. on January 6th. And I'm here to tell you, it was a fascist insurrection, an attempt by fascists to take over our democracy. And it didn't happen in a historical vacuum. There have been numerous attempts, many of them successful by fascist movements, to take over democracies over the last century in order to protect yourself, in order to protect your family and your very freedom, you need to understand this history and the history of the different antifascist movements that have fought, sometimes successfully, often unsuccessfully, to stop the same things from happening in their own countries.

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The knowledge of this history is important, and it's maybe the only thing that can save us. So if you were as concerned as I am, listened to behind the insurrections on the I Heart radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. Welcome back to the Daily Social Distancing Show. So earlier today, I spoke with poet, activist and author Amanda Gorman. We talked about what it was like being the youngest inaugural poet in history and what lies in store.

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If we're to live up to our own time, then victory won't lie in the blade. But in all of the bridges we've made, that is the promise to glade the hill we climb. If only we dare it, because being American is more than a pride we inherit. It's the past we step into and how we repair it.

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Amanda Goldman, welcome to the Daily Social Distancing Show.

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Thank you so much for having me. I'm super excited. I'm the one who should be excited because, I mean, twenty twenty one kicked off with a bang. It's been a whirlwind for everybody. But I think for you more than most people, it has been extra whirlwind, which is a word I trademarked.

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You can use one day if you'd like to add one of your poems, you you went from not just being notable because you read a poem, the youngest ever inaugural poet, but also because of what the poem meant to people, because of the inspiration behind it, because of how people felt after they heard what you did. What has it been like for you just just in this little period since the inauguration? What is your world been like?

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My world has been crazy. I mean, it's been turned upside down. I mean, when I was writing the poem, I knew it was a historic moment. I knew it was an important moment, which is why I wanted to do just service. But I wasn't really paying attention to the ways in which my own personal life might change. So I went I did my job a poem. I walked off and just kind of expected everything to be the same.

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And then I remember trying to open my Instagram just to look at other people's posts in all of my apps and just crashed because of all the followers that were just flocking to my channel. So it's been amazing and I'm still kind of absorbing it all like a sponge.

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The poem The Hill We Climb wasn't just momentous because of the day it was performed on. I think what made it so special was that you incorporated up until that day the things that so many people were feeling about America. If you don't mind, walk me through why you felt it was important to write a poem for that moment and then even still be writing the poem on the actual day that you were delivering it.

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Right, exactly. Well, for me, I mean, I was writing it and trying to find a way to encapsulate what had gone on over the past four years and even looking more expansively than that. And then, you know, we had the interaction at the capital. So for me, it was trying to say we've had this reminder of the ways in which democracy is both fragile and also enduring and how it is to defend it. And I think a lot of times in cultures, we think of the ways in which we can cleanse ourselves with water.

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I think of the ways that we can cleanse ourselves with words, meaning that was an opportunity to kind of we sanctify, we purify and reclaim not just the capital building, but American democracy and what it stands for, a pretty high ask of myself. But, you know, that's what I do when I showed up and I rolled up my sleeves and that was the aim of the poem to use words to try to go back to the quintessence of what America can be.

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I think you achieve that. I think you achieve that a thousand times over. And it showed in how people responded. I mean, consider it from this perspective and you may not, but this is how I saw it. I went on a day when Joe Biden's inaugurated. Kamala Harris is stepping into the role as VP. Lady Gaga is performing. Jennifer Lopez is performing. You were the thing that people would look at. You were you were the trending thing.

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I mean, it was like you competing with like Bernie Sanders is was basically it. That must be. Do you take a moment to go like, man, this is surreal.

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That is so surreal, especially because my friends there are so funny and, you know, they come for blood. So they were texting me like, well, Joe Biden did a good job opening up for Amanda Gorman. You know who won that? I'm not racist. It's not a competition. It's not a fight over who wins the inauguration. They're like, but you did. And so I think for me, it was so daunting to be on a stage.

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You know, there's Michelle Obama to my right and Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and what have been so the figures that have been mythologized for me and to find myself not only being in that space, but owning it and claiming it was, I think, the highlight of my career.

[00:31:29]

I believe that you are slated to perform at the Super Bowl. That is correct, yes. I didn't understand. You understand the juxtaposition of this right now.

[00:31:37]

Write poetry at the Super Bowl. You understand the levels you've made it to where they would like this person is so good that we have to bring her to do poetry at the Super Bowl.

[00:31:48]

Right. We believe that went over my head because I knew about the Super Bowl and the inauguration around. The same time, and it was like there was not space in my head for like I kept being like I got to write that inauguration poem and my team was like, there's this little thing called the Super Bowl, which you should also keep in mind. And so, you know, it's very rare. And I want to say, you know, it's not an exciting possibility that a poet will be at something like the Super Bowl.

[00:32:19]

It's just nothing I have heard about before. And so the moments I strive for in my lifetime, which is to bring poetry into the spaces that we least expect it so that we can fully kind of grapple with the ways in which it can heal and kind of resurrect us.

[00:32:35]

Let's talk a little bit about poetry. I mean, it feels like poetry, like some art forms has it has its highs and then it has moments where it disappears. Why do you think we should never forget poetry? What is it about poetry that you feel society needs to hold on to?

[00:32:51]

Well, what I always say is poetry stands as a great reminder of the past that we stand on in the future that we stand for. I do not think it is any coincidence that when America seeks to kind of consecrate its ideals, it does so through poetry. I don't think it's systems that we see a poem at the base of the Statue of Liberty as opposed to like a scientific formula or even a prosaic paragraph. Why is it that we call forth poetry in those moments or even point out to students, when you're at a Black Lives Matter march and you see banners that say they buried us but they didn't know recedes, that's poetry at the racial justice movement.

[00:33:34]

And so poetry, because it's inherently rebellious in its nature, I think it really becomes the language and the rhetoric of the people we get to kind of co-opt it and play on it. And what's more, we get to use those words to realize our thoughts and transform those thoughts into action.

[00:33:53]

You have a journey ahead of you that I think nobody can predict, which is exciting. And you've had a journey that has been unpredictable. You you talked about it growing up in a family with a single mom who was raising yourself and your twin sister and your brother as well, and and how you just fought to achieve. My question to you then is what are you aspiring to seeing that you've basically done it all? I mean, in the past few weeks?

[00:34:22]

That's a great question. I mean, I'm really taking that time to kind of sit back and think and be like, well, wow, that was it. Kind of what's next? And for me, I don't think it's about kind of beating my last thing or even competing against myself. I hear that a lot. And that's fine for other people. I'm not necessarily fighting against myself or competing or contesting against anything I've done, but I want to keep on the trajectory that I've started for myself.

[00:34:48]

I never want to kind of dally or diverge from that. And for me, that just means using my poetry to touch and heal and impact as many people as possible. And that can be at the inauguration and the Super Bowl. It can be in a living room. It's often in classrooms and other students. And so that's what's next for me on the more like resumé tick thing that I always have to mention when I'm on talk shows and like, I have three books coming out.

[00:35:13]

So there's also what I need to write. But, you know, I'm just chugging forward.

[00:35:19]

I know everyone's going to be reading the books. Thank you so much, Amanda Goodman, and congratulations on all your success.

[00:35:24]

Thank you so much. Don't forget Amanda's books, The Hill We Climb Changed Things and her poetry collection are all available to preorder right now. All right. We're going to take a quick break, but we'll be right back after this.

[00:35:40]

Lancaster, South Carolina, is in the middle of not much, but growing up nearby. I knew it as the hometown of a black man named Jim Duncan, who became a Super Bowl hero after the 15th. Now, my new podcasts return man. I'll discover that his death still makes no sense at all.

[00:35:57]

The story was that my brother went to the police station, took a gun off a police officer and shot himself in the head. Most people don't believe that. For the past three years at the Rockville Herald, I looked back at a story that's timelier than ever breaking down. So have you got some time to talk?

[00:36:16]

It involves race, the mental state of the person and a child that was scared to death to say anything. Listen to return man on the I Heart radio Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast. If you took away the date and time, could you imagine that happening today? Yes, you can. Oh. Do you ever wish you could get more from your podcasts?

[00:36:40]

Well, you can, with BuzzFeed Daily hosted by me, Casey Rock'em and me Zaphod on our show, we've got more good news and more pop culture, more Meems and more celebrity to more of everything that's blowing up your timeline and trending on the Internet every weekday evening, we're giving you more of what you need to enjoy your day, because what's life, if it is it to be enjoyed?

[00:37:01]

Listen to BuzzFeed Daily on the radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Well, that's our show for tonight. But before we go, as you know, the coronavirus pandemic is as bad as it has ever been, but luckily we have first responders who are still out there on the front lines saving people's lives. Now, if you want to help the first responders, then please consider a donation to first responders first, an organization that is offering first class medical and psychological treatment for first responders.

[00:37:33]

To find out more, go to the link below until tomorrow. Stay safe out there, wear a mask. And remember, the coronavirus variants are not like Pokémon. You do not have to catch them, Mole. But you can try, but you shouldn't. The Daily Show with Criminal Lawyers edition once The Daily Show weeknights at 11:00, 10:00 Central on Comedy Central and the Comedy Central Watch full episodes and videos at The Daily Show Dotcom. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and subscribe to The Daily Show on YouTube for exclusive content and more.

[00:38:12]

I'm Robert Evans, host of Behind the Bastards, and if you're like me, you're probably worried right now, in part because of the fascist insurrection on January 6th in Washington, D.C. But what if I were to tell you that what happened in D.C. was just the latest in more than a century of fascist attempts to take over democratic governments, many of them successful, learn about the history of these insurrections and the history of anti fascist actions attempting to stop them.

[00:38:37]

When you listen to behind the insurrections on the I Heart radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. This has been a Comedy Central podcast now.