Episode 375: Dave Rubin: Unfiltered Takes on Biden, Trump, Tequila, and How Your Vote Affects Your Sex Life
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Hi guys, it's Tony Robbins. You're listening to Habits & Hustle. Crush it! So first of all, before we start this podcast, well, actually that's not true. We start this podcast on the right foot by taking these shots. They're by Magic Mind and they're very, very good for your focus, productivity, and being super alert. And I'm not a drinker. Are you a drinker?

I like tequila. Do we count that as drinking? Well, tequila is actually alcohol. So yes, it is actually considered drinking. It's agave. It's 100% blue agave. That's true. Yeah. Well, this is not tequila or agave. This is a healthy- You got some decent tequila in there. You may not be drinking it, but I saw what's going on in your little liquor cabinet over there. You know what I think the funniest thing before we take these shots is-

There's so much alcohol in this house. You would think that I was like an alcoholic for 30 years and my husband, neither one of us even like drink alcohol, but people keep on bringing us that tequila. What's it called? That bottle. Yeah. I have so much of it. I just, I'm like basically giving it away by the bottle. Is the gateway tequila. You give that to anyone that drinks anything else. I've done this a million times. Cause you know, I have a lot of conservative friends that drink whiskey and they think if you don't only drink whiskey or bourbon, somehow you're gay or weird. Yeah.

So I've given them tequila and that's the thing that then opens up a whole wider world to them. Really? Yeah. That bottle particularly. That particular bottle, right? Plasas de reposado, yeah. Which actually, although I do love it, is not the best tequila out there. Okay. It's not made the best way. There's additives, et cetera. I'm actually making a tequila. It's coming out in September. Are you serious? Yeah.

Yeah. That's so funny. So first of all, I used to drink, I mean, I'm not, I'm hardly an expert in this, but what's that one that George Clooney and Randy Gerber- Casamigos, which also is not the best tequila by far, but you put the name George Clooney on the bottle and you can sell the company for $500 million. 100%. It's not terrible. I'm not saying it, was it 750? Yeah, it was 750. I was only off by 250. Yeah, just a little. But he, like Randy, Randy Gerber, him, and a bunch, I think a couple other people, of course, I think-

I don't know who else, but that was, everyone thought that that was a premium product because of George Clooney, but it was probably not even a premium product at all. It's not really premium in any way. It's perfectly fine. It's not. Is it like Patron? What's Patron? Well, there's many levels of Patron. It depends on each one. Silver. The Casamigos Mezcal, I actually think is pretty decent. Blanco is just Blanco. You really can't screw it up.

But Reposado, that's what I'm making, which is aged three months, is a little more complex to make. And then Anejo, which is a year or they're super Anehos or extra Anehos that are a year plus, they're sort of more easy to make because you're really just aging them for a long time. So I like Reposados because it's like right in between both. And I don't think the Casamigos Reposado is particularly good. I love this. You actually know what you're talking about. I do know what I'm talking about.

about. You could probably put a little of this in my tequila, which I can't tell you the name yet. It's not public yet. Oh, you're going to tell me. We're going to announce it, I think, on September 3rd. Really? Yeah. Hopefully you sell it for a billion dollars like all these other companies. We'll see. We'll see. It's a passion project at the moment. So we'll see. I love that. Okay. So wait, let's do this shot. I want to know more. Okay. So what we do here, we shake it. It's going to explode on me in any way. It might. And you're wearing a really nice white shirt. I'm going to see Bill Maher later, you know.

I know. It's the only outfit I got on. Bill Maher, if he shows up all messy, you can blame me. Okay. Cheers. And then we just. One shot. Just one shot. One shot. Mm-hmm.

Or two if you're me. That's pretty good. Oh, yeah, that's good. It's amazing. Is there melon in there? What is that at the end? It's ashwagandha. It's a lot of adaptogens. It's like a nootrop. What is that sweetness right at the end? I don't know. Read it because I'm blind right now. I can't see. I literally just got – at 48, I got glasses like three months ago for the first time in my life. All of us are, honey. Is there writing on this? I don't know what's going on here. Isn't that funny? I had perfect vision until about six months ago. Yeah, me too. Me too. Crazy, right? Perfect vision my entire life.

Me too. How old are you? Same age as you. We're both 48. We both got glasses about six months ago. Isn't that crazy? Weird.

I know. It's a little strange, isn't it? And I can't read one ingredient on this thing. Well, I see it says it's subtly sweet, so it does agree with my idea. What does it say? God bless you. You got 12 magical ingredients. How are you reading this? I see matcha green tea. I see vanilla. I think I see vanilla. You know what I do? This is what I do, Dave. I'm going to show you a trick. Oh, God. Anyone who's listening to this. No, I can't be part of this. I would literally rather drive off a ditch than turn on the camera for a little bit.

Like flashlight at a restaurant. Yeah. I know, but this is what you have to do. I take a picture of it and then I read the picture. Organic agave, passion fruit. Oh, taking a picture. Yeah, I take a picture of the thing and then I enlarge it so I can see the words. Yeah, that's like a bridge too far. That's why I got the glasses because I was at...

I think I was at Hillstone in Miami, which is lit kind of dimly. I love Hillstone. Me too. I love Hillstone. And I was just like, I know this menu and I still can't see it. And then I was about to do the flashlight thing and I was like, no, I'm not in Del Boca Vista just yet. Like, no, no, no, no.

Why won't you do the flashlight though? No, because it's just because then it's just it's a concession. It's a sign of your age. I know. Next thing you know, you have to move your table because it's a little too close to the window. And then do you have a problem with this or that? It's too bright. Have you heard the joke?

The waiter walks up to a table full of Jewish people. By the way, we can say this because we're Jewish people. And says, is anything okay? Is anything okay? But the funny thing is, I think it's really kind of sad because I cannot concede to it either. Even though I have these readers, I will not bring them anywhere. I'll barely ever wear them. I'd rather walk around blind walking into things. Here, you want to see my glasses? I'll put my glasses on for a moment. You can see if you can judge.

whether you think they're okay or not. So you look good in the glasses. What do you think, yeah? Yeah, who makes those? Do I look smarter? I can't say it on camera because then other people are going to buy them. You want to be unique. Yeah, I'll tell you later. Okay, I think they're Warby Parker. They're not Warby Parker. No, no.

No, no. Are they caddis? That's all I wanted to know. No, they're not. You could try one. No, no, that's it. Can't do it anymore. And you see when I took them off that it looked like I was like really like. Yeah, well, you look very distinguished with them. That's quite a thought that you're having. Yeah, I know. Tell me more. I'll tell you much more without the glasses actually. But isn't that weird? Like what happens when you turn a certain age where you then become blind? I don't get it.

The fact that we both made it to 48 without doing that, from what I understand, is like very, very big deal. Impressive.

But I, you know, now it's like I only need them for that. It's really just for reading right in front of me. That's me too. And also I had a running joke on my show for years. We had a fake pair of Warby Parker thick rim glasses. Really? Because the joke was that newscasters, they all do it. Anderson Cooper, when he wants you to think something is important, puts them on. Or when he's emotional, he takes them off. And they literally, they all do it, Don.

John Lemon did it. It's so true. All of them do it. So we had this running joke where I was doing it all the time. So now I feel even on my show when I need to read something, I can't put the glasses on because then I'm basically, I've become what I always mocked. Exactly. That you always mocked. So I just can't see anything. It's fine. Well, you're right. So you're blind like me. Can you see me right now? Yes. No, no, no. It's literally. It's reading. I know. It's this to this. And it's really only, it's only in a dark restaurant really, except that this is printed. Sure.

extremely tiny. I know. It's a small bottle, small print. You and I have the same, like obviously like blind problem or whatever, like eye problem or eyesight problem. It's the basic thing. Like it is like the, the girl at the place was like, this is the most basic, simple thing. And most people have this in their twenties. I know. What's the problem is like, it's a sign of being old though. I do think so.

Well, I mean, everything is a sign of aging to some extent. Like, you know, things start working a little less or move a little less or whatever. But for the rest, I think we're both doing okay for 48. Not bad. Do your friends look like my friends? I mean, most of the people that I grew up with not looking so great. You know, honestly, exactly. I think for...

in the grand scheme of things, I think I'm doing okay. And you seem like you're doing okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know? But the eyesight is just like a mental thing. Yeah. Okay, now, by the way, I didn't even say who's here. This is Dave Rubin. There'll be like a proper intro. Yes. But this is Dave Rubin. He is the guy behind the Rubin Report and...

Well, you know, it's interesting. Why don't you give your bio? Because it's a very interesting bio. You had, you were a comedian, you're a political analyst or commentator. You have a very zigzaggedy, interesting bio. So why don't you tell everyone who you are? I was born in Brooklyn in 1976. We lived there for three years, moved to Long Island, uh,

ended up going to SUNY Binghamton, State University of New York at Binghamton, which is now like a Hamas hotbed, unfortunately. But back then you just smoke pot and you made it through after four years. It was pretty great. And then I started doing standup right after school. And that was really, my friends were just funny. Everyone was funny. That was the language we spoke in. We were funny. We played basketball, video games and smoke pot.

Like that was, and I always thought somebody was going to be a comedian. And then a week after college, I was like, I need a job. I guess I'll go be a comedian. And I was on stage at the New York comedy club. It was, I think it was the end of May, 1998. And, uh, and I did pretty well. And then I was like, all right, I'll be a comedian. And in my mind, I thought that meant like, I don't know, you work for a year or two and then you have like a, you make like a living off.

that, which in retrospect is completely insane, right? I mean, guys work in clubs for years and years and years and barely make anything or actually lose money because of the time you have to invest to be in it or nobody really wants to be a road comic and also back then, you know, 98, it's 26 years ago, which is also kind of nuts. Yeah. Like,

the world was very, very different. It was way pre iPhone. It was kind of pre internet in any way that we all remember the internet, you know, guys weren't getting sitcoms anymore. Like the whole idea of doing standup was like, you do stand up for a while. Like from our day, it was, you do stand up for a while, you get on Johnny Carson and,

You have five minutes. If he likes you, you sit with him and then you get your show. Like that's what happened to Tim Allen and Roseanne Barr and literally everybody, Jerry Seinfeld, everybody. But by the time I started doing it, those shows were disappearing. Like Friends was wrapping up at that point. Seinfeld was already over and reality TV was kicking in. So then the best you could get really as a comic was to be a game show host or host of a reality TV show. So the guys that were sort of the generation ahead of me in the clubs, like Colin Quinn and that group,

that crew, they were stuck in the clubs. So my generation was like the first generation that like couldn't get out of the clubs. Anyway, I'm telling you all that because then eventually I was like, all right, well, this isn't, I'm a good comic, but this isn't getting me anywhere. I did road stuff, but that,

that's just miserable. You know, you're in the middle of nowhere and it's horrible and you're barely paid and all that. And then, and then eventually I heard of this thing called podcasting. There was a little more ability to do video online and that's kind of where I shifted more, but I was always doing like political stuff and cultural commentary. Well, I find sometimes that some of the smartest people I know,

are comedians right stand-ups because you have to have a person a they have a great you your observation a lot the ones who are good anyway and they have a great perspective and they have to understand current topical things right and and and be funny about it right you have to look at the world in like a tilted way yeah and see reality and as oscar wilde said if you're going to tell people the truth you better be funny or they're going to kill you so it's like

That really is it. Or comedy is tragedy plus time. Like if you look at things, you see a darkness in the world or at least the world the way it is. And then if you can apply like some lens to that, that will allow people to see it and think a little bit. I mean, that's what laughing is. Laughing is like the natural reaction to thinking actually. Right. If done right. Otherwise it's pitchforks, you know?

Right, exactly. Can I drink this hydration water now? Or do we have to wait for a certain point in the show? Because I am a little thirsty. You're hilarious. You can drink whatever. Yeah, okay. I didn't know if we were going to... I didn't know if we have to cheers to this also. Or are you going to douse me in this or what? This is life force water, which is not... It's just hydrogen. It's hydrated water.

or hydrogen water. But no, you can do whatever you want. This was kind of like a cutesy magic mind. I've been drinking regular water like a sucker already. I feel incredible. But you feel so much more hydrated now that you're drinking the hydrogen water. It's like the Capri Sun of water. It is. It's incredible. It is in the Capri Sun.

Yeah. Packaging. Yeah. Wait. So do you think of yourself then as a comedian or what do you consider yourself a political commentator? Do you think of yourself as a political commentator? Yeah, I guess now I'm mostly a political commentator. And then when I, but like, you know, when I'm on a book tour or whatever,

or I opened for Jordan Peterson for a year. Like I can still do stand up in that way, but it's more just like now- - You opened for Jordan Peterson? - Yeah, for a year and a half, we did about 120 shows in 20 countries for the first book, for "12 Rules for Life."

Yeah. And that really changed, that literally changed my life. Yeah. Yeah. So how did you get that? How did that work? Cause he's not a comedian by any stretch, but he's a, he actually, when I went to U of T in Toronto, he was a professor there. Oh wow. You went there. Yeah. And he, I'm a Canadian and he was a professor there. Like he's a, he's an academic, right? I mean, that's what he is. And he just became like a

a massive like household name. Yeah. Did you take any of his classes? No, I didn't. It's a shame because, you know, if you've seen any of those, because some of those classes are online still. Yeah, I know. And if you watch, you can see, you can see the brilliance, you can see the beginning of him. It's the origin story, but the way he's put it together now over the course of, you know, three plus decades is amazing.

absolutely incredible. But the way that that happened, it was actually a joke. The way that that happened was I had had Jordan on my show a couple of times and this is around 2017 or so. And he came to my house and my studio was in my house, in my garage in Sherman Oaks. And I had him and Ben Shapiro on the show together. And that night,

First off, it was our most, we did a live show for about two and a half hours. It was our most viewed show ever at that time. The live stream was the most viewed, you know, concurrent views and all that stuff. And it was also, if you are familiar with some of the stuff that was happening at that time, there was this thing called the IDW or it was totally, they called it the so-called IDW. It was sort of me and Rogan and Ben Shapiro and Jordan Peter, all these people that were like sort of podcasters,

science people intellectuals that were just having conversations that were not being had mainstream and this thing was really blowing up and that night it was in los angeles and that night jordan was going to do his first ever theater show they were just doing a test at the orpheum downtown as to just to see if could this clinical psychologist who talks about peter pan and all this other stuff could he draw a crowd and what would he do for an hour and a half so the show ended and

And I said to Jordan, literally, he was walking out the door of my house. And I was like, and it was kind of a joke. I was like, Hey, you know, if you want me to come tonight and I'll crack a couple of jokes about lobsters, he was doing a lot of stuff about lobsters and why they sort of crawl to the top of the pot. I was like, I'll crack a couple of jokes, you know, if you want, no, no problem. And he's like, he's like, yeah, why don't you come down? And, uh, I opened the show about 10 minutes of silly jokes about Jordan and about me and whatever else was going on in the world. And

absolutely crushed it jordan then did an hour and a half of his usual brilliance which he had never really done in that forum before you know like a real theater situation and all the caa guys were there there were like 10 guys they're all dressed caa suits and that whole thing and they immediately after walked up to me and they were like this was incredible we're putting them on tour you want to open for them let's figure it out and that and yeah and it all started right then and there

Are you serious? And then a month later, we were at the Beacon Theater in New York City, which was the theater that I always wanted to perform at my entire life because I lived on the Upper West when I was doing stand-up and I always used to walk by the Beacon thinking one day I'll perform here. And that's where the tour kicked off. Wow. Wait, so how many people showed up at the Orpheus at that? It was sold out. So I guess it was about 3,000 people. And then we did shows, you know, really ranging. We did...

It was all theaters. Like, it wasn't clubs. It was theaters. So I would say the smallest ones would be about 2,200. And then the big ones were probably about 8,000 or 10,000, something like that. And he's done bigger theaters since because he's way bigger now than he was even then. So back... I was going to say, when did he, like...

become like, when did he become popular? He became popular. I can tell you exactly. It was the fall of 2016. It was started bubbling up into the internet sphere around September, October, 2016. Because if you remember, there was a bill in Canada, probably remember as a Canadian, it was bill C-16 about gender pronouns and potentially you could be put in jail or fine and all that. And he was one of the first people talking about it. And then once

People started hearing him talk about it. Then they started diving into some of his other stuff that he had online. And then, of course, just the way he speaks. And then they started realizing, boy, this guy's not just some crazy person talking about gender pronouns. He has a 30-year history as a psychology, clinical psychologist, and a professor, and all this stuff. And there's such a breadth of knowledge there. And it's so cool, actually, every now and again on YouTube, one of those videos will pop up from way back when. And I'm like, man, that's so cool.

First off, that I had anything to do with this adventure, like the little footnote that I am in his adventure, but also to see the way it has grown and grown and grown and the amount of people. Trust me, we did over 100 shows. Like the amount of people that I saw that he got off drugs, mended relationships with their parents, got into better marriages, resolved things with their children, like got better jobs, like whatever the thing this man solved at night and night again. It was incredible. And people crying in the crowds and just...

Really? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Because I was going to say my next question was, what does he do on... What is his... Not schtick is the wrong word, but what does he do on stage? Does he just riff, speak? Does he bring people on and try to solve their problems? What is the thing? No, so he basically... It's really fascinating, actually. And they've taped a lot of them, but to be part of it was really incredible because he would basically...

The idea of the tour was that it was a book tour. So it was supposed to be about 12 rules for life, right? So there were 12 rules that he applied to life. And if you follow these rules, it'll in general make your life a lot better. And it was really interesting what he did because most people that go on a book tour, you pretty much have your stump speech. It's like a political speech. You have your 45 minutes. This is what the book's about. Here's my favorite anecdote. This is what it was like writing it. But Jordan did something different

every single night. So some nights he would talk about one rule, an hour and a half on just one rule. Some nights he would go through all 12 rules. Some nights he wouldn't talk about the book at all. It would be like, oh, today the New York Times called me the head of the alt-right. Let's talk about that. Wow. Yeah. And then the really cool part though was that we'd be in different cities every night and I would get to see that he would

sort of tell a story. And it was like, choose your own adventure because the next night he would just start from where he left off the night before. But I basically, me and the tour manager were the only two people that got to see the full story for the year and a half where he would, he would go as far as he could with some into some thought that he had about something right. Right. About religion, about the nature of reality, whatever it might be. And then the next night he would just pick up at that point and start going again. So it was,

unbelievably impactful for me to watch. And it also, it made me a much better speaker also, because I learned to not, even though I knew this to some extent, to watch him go on stage and, you know, he's, he's a master of pauses. So, you know, you can see him thinking, he'll start talking and then he just kind of waits for a second and I can see it. I know him well enough now he's going through the Rolodex to figure out where he wants to go next. And he's mapping out all these different things. And what I realized was when I go on a book tour, um,

or whatever I'm doing in terms of public speaking, like I just map a little something at the beginning and I never give the same speech twice ever, ever, ever. And I try to see where it goes. And, you know, sometimes, sometimes it goes in a really different way than I would have intended, but I, but I'm never afraid of that.

And I think that's really like the key if you're a public speaker to be able to get up there, be present in front of those people. And if they can see you like working through something, that is way better than here's the stump speech. I could have just handed this to you on a piece of paper. You know, thanks for your 45 bucks. That's so true. You know, you just like it kind of like that just kind of like resonated with me. I just didn't I did my second TED talk I did on last week, actually. Nice. In Houston. And it gave me so much anxiety and stress to

like to plan it, do it. Like I'm, I get really, really scared and nervous, especially cause I feel like I don't trust myself. I don't trust myself to go up there and be able to just like, yeah, you know? And even with, and then what, what, what happened, what they, what happens is you prepare. And because now you're preparing it, it feels very, um,

stock, it doesn't feel authentic. It feels very, it feels, it just doesn't feel right. And if it's stale, it just feels very stale. And so how do you feel? Like, I don't know. Well, everyone has a different way to do it. Right. So like for me, if I'm, if I, if someone says to me, you know, you're going to give an hour talk about something,

What do you normally talk about, by the way? I talk about politics or I talk about big tech or I talk about my own political evolution or whatever's going on in the world. But normally, what do you normally get hired to speak about? The number one thing? They usually don't ask me to talk about anything specific. It's usually just kind of like what,

what we're bringing you here, like do what you do every now and again, it's something specific. Like tonight we want you to really talk about free speech or big tech or, you know, something like that. But usually it's just like, I don't know, I guess I hit like a nice moment where it's like, they are just inviting me and then let me, they trust that I'll come up with something. I never really thought about it that way, but I guess that, I guess that is a nice thing that has happened over time. But for me, the way I do it is I very rarely think about what I'm doing until about five minutes before.

You don't get nervous? No, no, because I've done it forever. And I always felt as a comic, I never got nervous as a comic because I was holding the mic. So like I used to see guys get heckled all the time and just fold, like completely sweating, complete disaster, like dying in a pool of their own filth. And I loved getting heckled.

because I was like, I have the mic. Like if I can't beat some drunk idiot while I'm literally standing there sitting, I'm on a stage, I'm holding the mic. I have the speaker. If I can't do that, then what the hell am I doing? So I never feared that. I just, I never feared it. So usually for me, but everyone operates differently for me about five minutes before I'm like, all right, well, how,

How do I want to start? That's the most important thing. Like, so you get that initial connection. How do I want to start? What do I kind of want to do in the middle? And how do I want to end? And then everything else is just getting to that point. And then that really is it. So I don't, you know. And so when you did the, when you opened for Jordan, did you have the same thing that you did every night or do you always do something differently? Not...

That was like a little bit of blend of both because I felt that I was there to support him actually. So it wasn't really about me. I wanted to be as funny as possible for that like 10 or 15 minutes up top because then he does serious stuff. Like literally people crying in the crowd. I mean, I saw incredible, incredible things.

The best story that I can tell you about that is that we were in Dublin and you know, when you do these big theaters, you, as the performer, you don't walk out the front because everyone's standing there at the end. So they usually have like a side door, which is kind of hilarious because then they put you out in the side door in like a little alley, which if anyone's waiting for you is not great. But anyway, it was about 1am after, you know, he does the meet and greet, signs all the books. We had just flown in that morning. It was a long day, jet lag. I don't even remember where we were in another country the night before, like all of that stuff, long, long day. And we get out into the alley and

And it's really dark, which is like a little light in the distance. And it's me and Jordan's wife, Jordan, the tour manager. So just four of us were out there. He didn't have security at the time. It was very, very different. And we see these two guys about 50 feet away from us. And it seems like maybe they're fighting or something. We can't quite tell. And then they start walking towards us really quickly.

And we all kind of were like, oh, what's going on here? And then as they got closer, we could see they both had been hysterically crying. One of the guys was about 55. One of the guys was probably about 25. And it turned out they were a father and son who had had a falling out like five years before, had not seen each other in five years, both read the book independently, came to the speech.

by themselves saw each other at the show and made amends right there. I just got chills telling you that. And we saw it. They told us that Jordan began to cry. His wife began to cry. John, the tour manager, began to cry. I'm not much of a crier, but like something was going on there. Like that type of thing. Like that type of thing. Incredible. That is incredible.

I mean, I liked him from jump. Like I thought he was, I loved his way, his way. I didn't realize he was like, I never expected him to become as,

as he did. Oh, I saw things. We were in Amsterdam, a guy with a yellow vest that was doing the, you know, the gurney, what do they call it? The thing that goes to the plane, not the gurney, the whatever. Oh, the air control guy? Yeah, like, not the guy on the ground, but the guy that's like, the thing that connects to the plane, the air walk, or whatever it is. Yeah, whatever it is, yes. Whatever that thing is. He literally saw Jordan

and ran onto the plane and was like going crazy. You changed my life. I got this job because you, the pilot kind of realized what was happening because he probably could have gotten in a lot of trouble. And it was like, he was like, thank you. Thank you. You're not, you know, you're not allowed to be here. But, but I over and over again, I saw that. But anyway, you asked me about the process with that. So for Jordan's shows, I didn't always do something different every night because I, I wanted to,

it to be as happy and fun as possible at the beginning so that he could then do his hour and a half. And then, and then at the end we did a half hour together, which was a Q and a that also I tried to make funny. Cause my feeling was if I can get them laughing at the beginning, Jordan does something deep and powerful, which is what they're there for, but then leave on a good note. I wanted the end to always be funny so that they walk out. And I know that for the rest of their night or the next day, they're going to be thinking about all the things that Jordan said, not the jokes that I made.

But if the feeling that they walked away with was like, wow, it was great fun at the beginning and I can't believe how much I laughed. And then at the end there was this other, you know, silly thing or whatever. So that, that's really, that's amazing. Did you, cause what year did you say you started your podcast? You,

YouTube channel. The YouTube show started when I moved to LA in 2013. 2013. Yeah. And then that was... That whole year with Jordan was 2000... It was 17 into 18, yeah. So between 2013 and 2018, like, how did you gain so much track? Like...

Did you, or did the Jordan thing really kind of help escalate your- - Well, it was kind of like, it was going like that. The Jordan thing blew it up for sure. But what happened even before that, like a year before that was I started, you know, I was a lefty, I was a progressive, I was on the Young Turks, all of that stuff.

- How did you go from liberal to where you are now? I wanna ask you about that. - Well, I still consider myself, I mean, liberal in the truest sense of liberalism that Bill Maher is always trying to say, "I'm still a liberal." And I'm like, "Bill, that may well be true, but you're just living in the wrong time now." - Yeah. - Which I'll discuss with him later tonight. We're always arguing that out. So in a perfect sense,

I am still a classical liberal. My first book, Don't Burn This Book, was a defense of classical liberalism. I still agree with every single thing that I wrote out there. But unfortunately, defending my liberal values has become a conservative position. So that's why conservatives, conservatives ironically are defending liberalism. But to explain that all the time over and over gets very confusing and lost in the weeds. So I don't bother saying I'm a liberal anymore. I don't mind if someone who understands what liberalism means, meaning individual rights and laissez-faire government and

and logic and reason and all of those things. I don't mind if someone says that to me, but when, but every now and again, someone will be like, you're still a liberal. And I'm like, well, I'm not exactly sure you mean that the way that it really was intended to be, but you know, you know, you're a communicator. You can only spend so much time like giving definitions to everybody. But what had happened around 2016, as I was waking up to the

craziness of the left because I was on the Young Turks and it was, they were just nuts and everybody that they disagreed with was a racist and blah, blah. And there was an unbelievable hatred of Israel even back then, which I didn't really understand because it was the only place in the Middle East that had anything remotely close to their progressive values and all of that stuff. I did a video for PragerU, it was my first video and it was called Why I Left the Left.

which has now been seen like probably 50 million times or something. And what's interesting about it was it was just me explaining kind of the difference between progressivism and actual liberalism. And never in the video did I say I left the left. I still believed I was sort of Bill Maher. Now I was like, I am on the left.

These people are crazy. I am trying to fight for what's right here. So when I woke up that morning, because you shoot those videos because they have to animate it and everything, they shoot those videos like six months before they come out. I don't even think I knew it was coming out that day. And I woke up that morning and I look at my phone and it says, "Prager U, Dave Rubin, why I left the left." And I was pissed.

because I thought this is not right. I did not leave the left. This whole thing, you know, like they've titled it in such a way 'cause I didn't make up a title. I wrote the script, but I didn't title it. And I was pissed.

And I think I was about to get on the phone with them. I was trying to figure out who to call or what, you know, how you got to change this. And I went to the video on YouTube and it had already within the first like three hours, it had like 10 million views. In three hours? Something like that. Don't quote me exactly on that. But basically within a day it had 10 million views. But like that morning I saw it just exploding. Right. And I looked on Twitter and all these people are talking about it and everything.

And I quickly looked at the comment section and I saw all of these people and everybody was like, you know, he's a liberal. It makes sense. Like these progressives are crazy and blah, blah. And I was like, you know what?

let me just leave the title. Let's just, let's just let it be this thing's working and it's cooking. And then that was the next thing that really kind of blew things up. So I had, my career was kind of like going like this. Then the why I left the left video, like really blew it up. Then Jordan, which was probably about a year after that, that really blew it up. And then there, you know, there's been some other things since. Where are the other things that kind of, cause you're like in the, like, why didn't you ever do the, like, you know, Ben Shapiro, what's that thing called? The, he, you know, the,

What's the media company? Daily Wire. Daily Wire. Yeah. But you're not really... You're not a part of the Daily Wire, right? I'm completely independent. Well, that was the other thing that along the way I went. So I started at the Young Turks and then I was on Aura TV, which was a digital network created by Larry King, who became like a...

not only a friend, but a mentor and like a bonus grandfather to me, which was absolutely amazing. And then I was at this other little startup for a few months called Riot. That just kind of, that was actually before Aura. That actually didn't, we just went in different directions. They decided to do like 3D video. I'm not even sure the company exists. So that's, then I went over to Aura. And then from Aura, the show was really blowing up.

because now that Why I Left the Left video had come out and more people were starting to pay attention to me, I was finding the old school liberals. So that's where I interviewed Sam Harris for the first time. And I had Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Douglas Murray, who I'm sure you know is absolutely incredible. So I was finding like the people that I was simpatico with that I really like, and nobody was really talking to them in an honest way. That's what's so interesting. Going back to like 10 years ago, nobody, they weren't really in mainstream in the ether at

Like you were kind of like doing these things that were very much like ancillary, but that now has become very mainstream. Well, it's kind of funny. It's sort of why I actually don't like interviewing as much as I used to. Yeah. Because-

everyone's kind of doing it now. You're actually quite a good interviewer. It's very obvious to me from the beginning. You're fully listening. Like you're engaged. Like you're looking at me the whole time. You're not like staring at like, what's the next question and everything, but like everyone's kind of doing it now. And it's not that that makes me enjoy it less. It's just, it doesn't feel as novel. So it's not Phoenix. My producer sitting right here. He knows like we've, we've shifted the show a little bit where I,

we don't feel like we just have to get an interview for the sake of getting an interview. It's much more, who do I want to talk to and why do I want to talk to them and, and all that kind of stuff. But, but the reason that I did the long form interview, which again, now everybody does, but when I started doing that around 2015, it was really only me and Rogan online, like, and he was just starting. So he would, this is sort of pre Joe Rogan, Rogan, which nobody really remembers, but he was not the, he was more fear factor, Joe Rogan than Joe Rogan of now. And the

the reason I wanted to do it was I felt that everything was making people stupid. It was when Snapchat was huge and Vine, you remember Vine on Twitter? I remember all of this. Really, yeah. These six second videos and everything was making people stupid and I was like, all right, I'll do the reverse of that and I always love Larry King and I love that show. I love the way he interviewed and I know people felt he was a softball interviewer or something but I thought he was thoughtful and interesting and funny when he needed to be and everything else and he let his guests talk and that's really how I decided to do it and

And clearly there was some kind of need for that. And so I guess when you must have been kind of, wait, so there's two things. So why after Aura did you not do or go on the Daily Wire thing? Oh, well, Daily Wire. I would think that that would be perfect for you. Daily Wire I don't think had even started yet. Oh, where did he start? He started a little bit after that. Oh, okay. I could be wrong. I'm not even sure. Well, it certainly wasn't the Daily Wire of...

now uh of what it is now like i don't think they had other personalities ben was kind of doing his own thing he was with bright bard at that point yeah it was definitely it was definitely pre-daily wire for sure yeah but basically what happened was aura you know my show was really blowing up and then there was larry and they had like 10 other shows and the other shows were not doing well you've never heard of any of them or the hosts or anything actually william shatner had a show on there but but you had never you've never heard of what the show was i've heard of william

You've heard of William Shatner, but the point was they had a show. But basically, basically my show was blowing up and Larry obviously was the big name and he was the, I think he was largely financially backing it as well. But the more that my show blew up, the more they wanted out of us and the more that I felt I was supporting all of these little shows. And I was like, no, I don't want to be badass.

I want to either, I either want to be on a network where there's 10 great all-star shows and I'm trying to like force my way in or I'll just go independent. And I chose the latter. And I remember walking out of a meeting with one of the executives there one day and they just like showed us a spreadsheet of like numbers they wanted us to hit and revenue to hit and thinking, wait, wait a minute. I'm the only one here who besides Larry, who has a show that's working. Why are you demanding all this of me when none of these guys can get 10 views and

And then I was like, we're going independent. And for a little, so we went independent and for a little while, for about four months, I borrowed Roseanne Barr's studio. She has a studio in El Segundo right by the airport in LA. We had become friends like a year before, built my set in her place. And then Roseanne, God bless Roseanne.

She's obviously a little nutty, as she would admit. And doing business with her was rather difficult. So after four months, I was like, now I'm done. And then that was when we finally had saved up enough money, bought a house in Sherman Oaks, turned that into the garage, into the studio. And then the show exploded. That studio that you may remember, that's when we moved in in November 2016. Jordan, as I said, he was cooking September, October. The first interview that I did-

when we moved into the house was Jordan on Skype because we didn't even have internet yet. My studio wasn't built. I had to jack internet from my neighbor and I have this very, you can find it online from November to the end of November, 2006, maybe beginning of November, 2016 of, of,

Me interviewing Jordan about C-16 and Peter Pan and all this stuff. And the internet's horrible because it's scrambling and everything. And that really was kind of the beginning of now – of all the stuff that now I guess people know of me. Because the Rubin Report though on YouTube – how did you – because I was thinking like you have so – you have like 2.5 million, 2.2 million or whatever subscribers on there. Yeah. Because –

Is it harder now to gain traction or like, was it easier back then? Or did you say like all those videos, like the left, why I left the left or all that? Is that what kind of helped?

Yeah, it all kind of feels it. Actually, the thing I'm... You didn't ask me this, but the thing I'm most proud of when it comes to numbers, and I try not to get lost in numbers at all, is that we have never put a dime into advertising. Ever. Ever, ever, ever. It's all organic. It is completely organic. Ever. Nothing. And it's so hard to grow on YouTube. It's so hard. Well, to that point, I mean, I would suspect, I don't know because I'm not trying to build a channel now, but like...

You're not? Well, no, no, no. I mean, I'm trying to continue to build my channel. Right, right, right. Is it easier to build now because of the public base? No, I would think it's probably... My guess is it would be much harder. Well, no. Now, for me to continue to grow, I mean, every month we're breaking every record. Every single month. It's crazy. My live streams are blowing up and...

I don't say that to pat myself on the back. I said out of like, I think we're genuinely doing something good and we have a good team behind it and it's important relative to the craziness of world and all that stuff. Yeah. So I suspect now, you know, when I got on YouTube around 2013, it still was the wild west. Nobody knew what it was really. People were doing videos and then you could do a reaction video that would get put under the video and it was,

It was like a whole different thing and it was new. So nobody knew how to master the game. Now there's a zillion companies that are there to master the game. Also everybody and their brother wants to be a YouTuber now. So my general suspicion is, I mean, you've seen some new people get into the game now, usually because they're extremely well-funded. They've done something else. They made it in some other world. Then they get on YouTube. They have enough money to like, you know,

Put some rocket fuel on that. Yeah. But that's what I was going to say is that that's what I was wondering because back then it had to be more organic. It was much more the wild. It's still the wild west. People still to this day have no idea how to break YouTube at all. But the people who I see are doing it, I'm not sure if it's just bots and people are just doing that and or that it's just people who are very wealthy who are putting a shit ton of money in advertising and buying a shit ton of traffic.

Cause it's so difficult. I think there's probably every combination of those things, but you know, even that sort of thing, like at some point it doesn't work. No, it doesn't. You know, it doesn't work at some point. Like you can, you can throw a gajillion dollars into something. You can get a certain amount of views out of nowhere and all of that stuff. But like the longevity of it is that you're hopefully doing something good and worthwhile and everything else. So like when I see now my YouTube, my analytics guy, uh,

is amazing. And when he shows us that every month we're just crushing it and that our live streams now are getting hundreds of thousands of views a day. How often do you do live streams? We're live every day at 11. So Monday through Friday at 11 for about an hour, we go against the view. So I like to think that the real divide in America is not left versus right or conservative versus liberal. It's Rubin Report viewers versus view crazy people. That's sort of the divide in America. Seriously?

No, no, no, not that. But seriously, you go live. Not that far, but no, no, no. I mean, it's sort of, yes. Seriously, no, but yes. No, no. What I mean is you go... I didn't even know you did a live stream every day at 11 o'clock. Yeah, yeah. And how many people are listening? I mean, if we looked, he can pull up the numbers, but if we looked at our last five of them, I mean, I think one's got about a million views. One's got about 500,000 views, usually around 200,000 or 300,000. Well, so the entire medium of like...

In terms of like- And that's for an hour show. That's not, and our watch times are great also. So it's not like just people like clicking in and then getting the hell out of there, which a lot of videos have. That's what most people, yeah, exactly. So you do this every, you're not doing it today, obviously. We're traveling this week, but I'm doing a lot of these shows and we'll take a clip of this. And if you don't mind, we'll put that on the channel. Please do. By the way, that'll be good for you too, of course. So we're trying, the thing with YouTube is once you're in the game, you have to stay in the game.

So I mentioned to you about going off the grid for August. When we started doing that years ago, I didn't put up anything for a month and it crushes you. It completely ejects you from the algorithm. And then you basically have to spend two or three months just pushing back in so that you can get close to your numbers before. So now we have a whole system devised where I tape things beforehand. We do some prepackaged stuff and everything else because I would prefer not to, 100%. I would prefer to... I take...

August off to keep my mind fresh and disconnect. And I think it's good for, I know it's good for me and everything else. And for what I do, I want to give that to my audience too, but we simply cannot do it because we have to stay in the game because otherwise it will literally cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars. And it's not even about the money. It's just that I want people to see my content, you know? You know what? That's interesting. You said that because like,

I was saying earlier, I just did, I finished the second TED talk. My first TED talk went viral and it was crushing it. It was up to like 6 million. They had to pull it for something that was, had nothing to do with me for whatever, for TED. And,

They had to pull it for three weeks and it never gained traction again. It got stuck at that number because you can never, once, once something stops, I feel like in the algorithm and you're, that's what it is. Well, no one really knows how to explain the algorithm or what's really going on there. Or, you know, it's been written in so many ways by so many people over the years that

that it's sort of its own thing. It's like Terminator 2. The machines have turned on now. And it is what it is. And we're sort of all like at its mercy in essence. We are. But part for sure of what it feeds or what feeds the algorithm is newness.

So if a video, if you have a video that is new, that gets on there, that is one of the pieces of what will deliver it into the endless stream of stuff. So if that video disappears and then you just repost that same thing, well, it's lost one nugget of the, let's say 10 or 20 or a hundred things that send it into the stream. The way I see it is that momentum's loss, right? Yeah. Well, that would be like the most simple way. Exactly. Like,

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Okay, so let me ask you, I've got a lot of questions with regards to politics because, like I said to you at nauseam already, I'm not a big political person, but you are so good at explaining things and to like the layman's person. Is there anything redeeming about the Democratic Party in your opinion? That's the first part. No, it's so gone. It's ridiculous.

I truly wish I could tell you that I wasn't screaming about this for years. This was so obvious. Like I didn't know it was going to end in this specific, well, did you see George Clooney today came out against Joe Biden? My God, when you've lost George Clooney, who knows what the rest of the facts of life cast is going to say? You know what I mean? What's Joe going to say? It's like, I know you can get that reference because you're of a certain age. Everyone under 40 is like facts of life. What the hell is that? Who's Tootie? That is hilarious. I love that. That's such a great

He was in Facts of Life for two seasons. I think it was crazy at the end. They suddenly opened a candy factory or something or a little coffee shop. 100%. And this is Garrett. This is Garrett. She was gone at the end. And then she was replaced by, yeah, she was replaced by Cloris Leachman. Right. But anyway. Also Joe Blank.

Yeah, I could mostly talk about 80s sitcoms. Yeah, me too. I can go head to head with you on this one. 80s sitcoms or 80s pop culture is actually my natural green juice. Oh, really? That would be my real thing. Do you like Golden Girls? I know we're taking a total... Oh my God, is she kidding? Do I like Golden Girls? That's my favorite of all time. I mean, what do you want to do? What do you want to do here? I mean, I've seen every episode of the Golden Girls at least once.

300 times. Oh, no, no, no. Me too. Yeah. I cried on May, I believe it was May 18th or so, 1992 when it ended, when Dorothy married Uncle Lucas. Yeah. Played by Leslie Nielsen, of course, from Naked Gun. Oh my God. Yeah. Do you know who created the Golden Girls, by the way? No, who? Susan Harris. And do you know who Susan Harris' son is? No, please tell me. Sam Harris.

Sam Harris's mom? Is Susan Harris, who is one of the most legendary TV producers of all time. She also created Soap, which was a little before our time. I remember Soap, yeah. Soap had Billy Crystal. He was the first gay character on television ever. But at one time in 19, around 1991, she had, she was the most powerful person in television. She had four shows in a row on NBC primetime Saturday night. She had Golden Girls, Nurses,

which was a spinoff. That was about the hospital that was in Miami. And then they had Empty Nest, which was also a spinoff with Dr. Richard Mulligan. The one that Blanche had a crush on. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Of course. Harry Weston. Yeah, Harry Weston, yeah. And then there was another show called Grand. That only lasted for a year or two, but she had four sitcoms from 8 to 10 p.m., NBC Saturday night. And she's done a million other things. Hold on a minute. I'm still on the fact that Sam Harris's mom created...

Not probably. My favorite show of all time. Yeah. Like, it was... Yeah. I still... By the way... What's your favorite episode, Rolanda? I mean, I could do this all day long. I could do this all day because I'll tell you something even more funny. But it taught me a lot of things, too. I mean, The Golden Girls was an incredible... By the way, there's nothing funnier. Like, Sophia and Dorothy, the relationship between the two. By the way, there's nothing... Who's your favorite character? I think Sophia is my favorite. Dorothy. And Dorothy. As I was going to say, it's kind of like...

a tie between Dorothy and Sophia for sure. I never loved Rose that much. I don't know why Rose was... You've always hated Betty White. I never liked... It's rare. It's rare. Nobody's ever said that before. I don't hate Betty White. But you have a hatred of Betty White. But she was just dumb and I didn't like that humor. I liked more Dorothy's sarcasm and Sophia. By the way, do you know there's a podcast that just started

That's like at the top of the charts. That's just people, two people riffing about the episodes of Golden Girls. Oh, I got to talk to those. Yeah. I mean, it's crazy. But what I was going to say to you is I still fall asleep. If I have to, if I can't fall asleep and I'm having a hard time, I watch an episode of the Golden Girls. I mean, I literally, I do cardio to the

girls. I'm probably the only person on earth that will keep me running. No way. Yeah. How did we just meet now, Dave? It's crazy. It's crazy. So I'll tell you one of the great lines of The Golden Hose. You'll know the episode for sure. Okay. I'll know every episode. So there were two episodes that involved Blanche's brother, Clayton, who's gay. Yeah, who's gay. And in the first episode, he comes out and it's a great episode and she's struggling with it. And Clayton, I don't know the actor's name, but

the guy that played Clayton was kind of normal. He was just like a normal guy. He had a Southern accent. They talk like this, but like, he was like a normal guy. Now this is, I'm watching this in like 1991 or something. So this is really sort of before I'm, or 1989, I'm saying before I was, before forming any thoughts really about sexuality, but there was something about that, that I thought was interesting because he wasn't over the top.

flamboyant or whatever. But the other episode that he was in is about two seasons later. I think it's season six where he brings his partner, Doug, remember? And they're going to get married. And now think about that. So this is, I think 1990 or 1991 Saturday night, 8 PM on NBC. They have two gay guys. Doug is a, uh,

like another normal guy, just normal, straight appearing guy. They're talking about getting married. Gay marriage wasn't legal for another 30 years, basically, but they didn't make an issue out of that. They talk about that two people can love each other and it's different. They still have Blanche is still struggling with it. Like it was real and honest and whatever. But the line to me that is like the most incredibly brilliant line, it's subversive and dirty and crazy. And the fact that this even-

Got past the censors is amazing to me. Blanche says, I don't understand. I know you love this guy, but why do you have to marry him? And Clayton says, well, I'd do anything for Doug and he'd bend over backwards for me. And it's like, think about that joke. Think about that joke.

Like, it's actually hilarious. It's hilarious. And then if you even look at sitcoms 30 years later, Modern Family, which I actually didn't watch Modern Family, but I know that there was a gay couple in it. Yeah. The gay couple in Modern Family, supposedly, one of the guys, I think of the fact I had a fear of public displays of affection. And that's how they wrote in, oh, we're just not going to have gays either talk about sex or affection or anything else. And that was 30 years later. Yeah.

Where the Golden Girls did that back then. And by the way, there's also an episode of the Golden Girls when Stan's cousin Magda comes from former Soviet Union. And Dorothy at a bookstore at the end is telling her about classical liberalism and all of the great things about America. I totally remember all of those episodes. By the way, you did a great Clayton...

I'd do anything for Doug. He'd bend over backwards for me. I told, and then by the way, that was the last line in the, in the show. And then they, they went to the music. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I can't believe you love. And then the fact that Leslie Nielsen married Dorothy at the end, Leslie Nielsen, who to me, naked gun is the funniest movie of all time. And I loved, loved, loved him so that he, so he turned out to be in those two final episodes.

And by the way, the show got better and better each season. Better and better. In season seven, it was the most bawdy and ridiculous and their shoulder pads were bigger and the hair were bigger and everything else. But it was, and it was more over the top and it was more biting, but it was just, yeah. By the way, it was pushing the envelope with everything.

thing like even the blanch and the sexual innuendos constantly like what all all of Dorothy's jokes to her like completely they wouldn't have that on TV now yeah yeah it was it was way way ahead of its time it was way ahead of its time they were four incredible actresses the writing was amazing and

Oh my God. I also love Frasier, by the way. I love Niles. I didn't really like Frasier. You didn't like Frasier? I loved Frasier. A little too hoity-toity. But that was the funny part, that Niles was such a hoity-toity. They were so hoity-toity, it made it funny. Yeah. But Golden Girls, to me, to this day, is the best sitcom of all time. I will tell you, a very underrated episode of The Golden Girls.

and girls. Okay, tell me. You know, when people think of like the classical episodes, their classic episodes, it's not thought of that. Season seven, so the last season episode, it's either episode 12 or 13. It's called From Here to the Pharmacy where Blanche, the guy, the guy, no, no, not condoms, condoms, condoms. That also happens at a pharmacy, so that's good. Blanche, a guy from the Persian Gulf War comes back

and says that he's been dating Blanche, but she can't remember who he is. And it turns out to be his pharmacist or her pharmacist. Wait, hold on. What episode is this? It's called From Here to the Pharmacy. I believe it's season seven, episode 12. It's either 12 or 13. And a guy comes back-

A guy comes back. He had just served in the Gulf War, which had just taken place. And he now shows up, you know, dressed as a soldier. And he shows up at the door and he's like, I've missed you, Blanche. And she can't remember who he is. And it turns out that they had been dating, but he was the pharmacist, Bill. Oh, my God. I do remember this. Yeah. And there's just a couple of

phenomenal the whole the first five minutes of that episode is just joke after joke after joke after joke it's amazing it was actually written by Jimmy Vallee who is Bill Maher's best friend boy now I'm really dropping Hollywood stuff holy shit how do you remember you even know like episode season I thought I was a fan and my sister and my mom like this is all we talk about is the Golden Girls it's actually kind of

I had no idea that you were such a fan. There you go. That's not on your bio, by the way. Sam Harris has, you know, people give his mom Golden Girls things all the time or she had all this stuff. Oh, my God. So I have a set of Golden Girls shot glasses that were given by Susan Harris. Really? Yeah. Wow. I have Rue McClanahan's teeth. Oh, my God.

No, that's a joke. That would be pretty great. That would be amazing. Yeah. David, my husband, tried to buy me one of her gowns for my birthday once. Not to wear, but just so it would be so cool because she had an estate sale, Rue McClanahan's estate sale, and they had all of her crazy dresses. Remember her

red dress from George's funeral and all that stuff. And there was one that we was going to be like 3000 bucks for some like forgettable something. And he almost did it, but then someone bought it instead. Really? And I knew somebody at one time who was a Hollywood, like backstage guy who had one of their chairs from the Lanai and

And I was trying to get it. I don't remember what happened to that. Wow. This is amazing that you are such a fan. By the way, the fact that they always use the word lanai always made me laugh. Well, I now call our outdoor area the lanai. So do I. I'm like, bring it out to the lanai. Everyone's like, what?

What the hell's a lanai? By the way, I do it all the time to my husband. It is a sort of a lanai. That's the lanai. That's the lanai. I say it all the time. The people who like know Golden Girls like laugh and like smile. Yeah. But like, it's kind of like the family truckster from the vacation movie. Yeah. You know, like the whole thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But if you get the reference, you get it. If you don't, you don't. Yeah. By the way, is your husband, what does he do? He takes care of the kids. He is full-time. How many kids do you have? Daddy, two kids.

Two? Two kids based, in essence twins, but it was two surrogates within two months of each other. So twins. Oh, how old are they? Justin is the oldest. He'll be two in a couple weeks and then Luke will be two, two months after him. Oh, you have like babies. Babies, yeah. Oh my gosh. They're like little people, sort of like Oompa Loompas and they, you feed them and spin them around. And then put them to sleep for a bit and I'm like,

I didn't know you had two little babies. Yeah. Wow. How have you been married to, who's your husband? What's his name? His name's David also, which is, people think that's spectacular and hilarious. We got married in 2015. We've been together since like 2011 or something, which is like, that's, you know, that's 13. Let's say we've been together 13 years. That's like 30 gay years or something. That's,

I was going to say you're probably the longest gay couple, like the longest, like the longest amount of time spent together. I think there are others in history. Really? Where? Not in this town. With your memory. No, no. Maybe one. No. Well, I know people personally that have been together for, I know a couple of years.

couples that have been together for 40 years, but like, yes, in like, in LA, LA, everyone here's on meth. Exactly. Everyone here in LA, they don't, they don't stay anywhere for too long. Okay. Let's get back to the politics. Cause I have a million questions or like, wait, there's nothing redeeming. Really? Can't we do more on the golden girls? I would, I would actually like to do a whole episode. I like, if I would have known that you were such a golden girl person, I would have had rapid fire questions. Oh my God. And I would have asked nothing. You could get past me. Well,

I didn't, of course not. And you know the episode in the season with the line, yes? Oh, no. We do? Why? I have to go to Dr. Drew, and you don't want to cross Dr. Drew. I'll cross Dr. Drew. You can tell him. I'll cross him happily. What do you mean? How far is it? I haven't even gotten started with it. It's in Pasadena. Yeah, we're here.

This is making me really upset. I'll do it again. We'll do it again. We'll do it again. Or you'll come to Miami. You ever come to Miami? Yeah, I do. Come to Miami. We'll drink Slate. We'll watch the Golden Girls. That would be a great date. God, too bad you're gay. You're like a perfect person for me. I love you. Well, that's how it works. It's always like that. I mean, my husband would love hearing that. But that's besides the point. No, no. Good. You should find the straight guy who could watch the Golden Girls with you. That would be great. On a marathon. Yeah.

I had, that's a whole other story and a whole other episode. But listen, okay. I want to ask you about politics. Yeah. We saw the, we saw the whole fiasco that happened. Even the Democrats were like mortified of his performance. Isn't that in my, isn't that kind of elderly abuse? Yes. It's complete elderly abuse. It's complete elder abuse. I was with, uh,

I always tell the story, but I had two grandmothers who both had dementia into Alzheimer's sort of things at the end. One in particular, because I was doing standup in New York, I would work at night. So I had daytimes to be around her and take her to the doctor and the geriatric doctors and the cognitive things and all that. It's the exact same thing. It's the exact same thing. The stiffness, the awkwardness, the slurring, the confusion, the way he uses certain phrases to kind of reset things in his brain, all of the stuff. It's there. Everyone knows that I'm not a doctor.

Everyone knows it. But the thing is, everyone has known it for way, way longer than the last two weeks. Right. I did a video the day he was sworn in. We're holding it. We haven't reposted it yet. But the day he was sworn in, I said I would retire if he makes it to the end of, if he's sworn in a second time. Right. Because that is how confident I've been the entire time that this sham would fall apart. And now we are seeing, usually what happens with the media is they lie about something.

There was just some lie, whether it's Russia hoax or it's COVID things or something. And they lie for a while and then the truth eventually catches. Yeah. What happened on debate night is the first time I've ever seen this with the mainstream media where it was so patently obvious what was happening to him, the gaping mouth, the confusion, the inability to finish a sentence. Even Jake Tapper was trying to help him and it couldn't, it didn't really work. Trump,

Trump, who was so controlled that night. I couldn't believe it. Trump's best line, though, was, I'm not sure he knew what he said. And because he didn't mean it. He didn't mean it like, screw old man. He meant legitimately, like, this is a problem, people. I couldn't believe. Even he was, even he didn't even take shots. Yeah. Because it was like, it was like not even worthy of taking shots from. It was unbelievable. And now we just kind of usher in Kamala or something. But.

But it's breaking, it's breaking down way too early. And yes, she's, she's awful. But you have to remember the Democrats, all of them, they're not, they're collectivists by nature. So really, whether it's Joe Biden or whether it's Kamala Harris, largely doesn't matter because they're not really running the show. Biden obviously has not really been running the show. And I don't think Kamala would be running the show. That's a, that's a much bigger problem for America and what's happened to the presidency and the way we're viewed in the world. But,

I don't think it met in terms of policy and how the country will operate. If it's Biden or Kamala probably does not matter that much. Well, I mean, I think, I don't think anyone expected her to be so, so unlikable. She's more, more unlikable than Hillary Clinton. I mean, I thought she was going to be pretty bad, but this is like, this is, this is off the charts. This is off the charts. I mean,

Completely disconnected. Completely. It doesn't resonate with anybody. Like, I don't know anybody who was like, oh, I like that woman. Yeah. She's. Sunny Hostin likes her, I think. Well, okay. But she can have her. Yeah. Because she's. I think she's.

Yeah. But in a way, it's kind of a good thing that's happened. I feel for the Democrats because at least now they have a chance of replacing him with someone who has a chance. Because you can't hide. He's obviously on medication. People know – somebody knows whether it's a Secret Service guy that has had to literally carry him to bed or it's the – the thing can't hold forever. But that's what I mean about the lies eventually –

It happens. The system lies for a while or ignores for a while, but then eventually it matches up, right? So eventually it will happen. And someone at the White House is going to jump ship and be like, you know what? I can't hide this anymore. Actually, they've been injecting him with stuff before the debates. What could they be injecting him with? Like adrenaline? Like what are they giving him? Got it.

don't they grind up children and they make them smoke it or something? I know. That's what I heard. That's a conspiracy. Yeah. I don't know. No, no, I'm just kidding. They drink the blood. I don't know what they're, no, who knows? I mean, there's all sorts of known medications for cognitive problems. And then, and then, you know, there's, there's obviously there's adrenaline. There's, uh,

There's a million different things. But you know, even when they did say Adderall, like there's stuff they could do. Yeah, I guess that's true. But like, you know, I've seen, I'm sure crack crack, that could be one, but even I've seen things when they were, uh, when he was like reading speeches and he'll say things like period next paragraph, comma, end of quote, and nobody says anything.

- I always say on my show, so I do the show off the top of my head, except for the outline of the show. So Phoenix and I come up with an outline in the morning. So the outline that's running on the teleprompter, that's how I'm able to look in camera because we have a screen that I can look through and that's how they do it on television, right?

The way that we do it is I just have an outline. Like it tells me what clip I'm throwing to. Then I speak off the top of my head. Sometimes I screw up things on the prompter. Of course, that's not, that's just, it's hard to read and think at the same time. Sometimes he might've got a phone call so the prompter isn't moving fast enough. Like there's a million, see, I'm throwing him under the bus right there. Yeah, you're really a good, nice boss. You're doing fine, you're doing fine. You can still have lunch today. Yeah.

Anyway, the point is, like, I can give a very long leeway and runway for people screwing up things in public speaking and everything else. Even Phoenix. He does not. Even Phoenix. He does not know what he is doing. I know. That Stephanopoulos interview was worse than the debate. Stephanopoulos basically had 22 minutes to repeatedly say to him, are you alive? Are you alive? Is anyone in there? Anything happening over there? And he could not complete a sentence. Yeah.

So we're in a weird time, sister. Thank God I'm drinking hydrated hydrogen water. Hydrogen water by Life Force Water. Thank you for the water, guys. I was going to say something else, but I know you're going to wrap it. One more thing. Donald Trump. Can we just talk about Donald Trump for two seconds? Sure. So are you a fan of Donald Trump? You had

I basically like him. I've I'm friends with Junior and I'm friends with Ivanka and Jared. And I think they're absolutely lovely people. And I've known Junior even before politics and all that. I met Trump at Mar-a-Lago. I've interviewed him. I think he is a good, decent man. I think I know you care about the future of the Jewish people. He has three. Don't you? I do, but I'm.

I was putting this on you for a moment for whatever hesitation anyone listening to this might have if you're Jewish, like because of all the insane things they say about him, like his grandchildren are Jewish. His daughter is Jewish, Orthodox Jew. I've been to their place. Like these are good human beings. I think if he can control a little bit of the craziness, that will be good. But the system is going to throw everything they have at him now.

And my one fear at the moment is that it's feeling a little too like overconfidence, meaning we're all like watching the Democrat thing fall apart. But the system figures out ways to recalibrate, you know. So we got a long time to November. So how about like RFK? What do you think of him? I like him a lot. He is a decent human being. Again, I've interviewed him. We've had dinners and lunches together. We've done live events together. He is a good man. I disagree with him on some things. Right.

Where I would be considered more conservative, I suppose, or Republican on some things. But those are just little policy things. Like the heart of the man and everything else is incredible. But look, as I said, the day he announced, he will not be a Democrat by the end of this thing. And he was not a Democrat like two months later. And now we're all seeing the true evil of the Democrat Party. So unfortunately, he's not going to be on all the ballots most likely. And it's not, you know, they kept him out of the debate. But does he have a... Is he going to take...

votes from, let's say the- I think he probably ends up taking more from Biden, which for my position would be good. So Trump becomes president. You can probably argue it either way. There'll be a certain set of Trump people that are really still pissed at Trump over your backs and he's particularly good on that. So they might, but I think it'll be more that it will be the, it will be more like the average LA liberal who is not a complete psycho woke maniac and

who is like, I can't vote for Biden anymore because of the border and post 10-7 and all the other nonce and dementia, by the way. And they'll just be like, ah, but I can't vote for Trump or I won't feel good if I vote for Trump or my wife's never going to blow me again if I vote for Trump. So, which is a lot of it, by the way, but that's a whole other topic. We could do a whole podcast on that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I am a firm believer. It's the blowjob theory. I've put this theory out there. Did you? It's a real theory? Yes, that there are a huge percentage of men like blowjobs. It doesn't matter gay or straight, people,

Everyone likes blowjob. And some people like giving them too, but everyone likes getting a blowjob, right? And if you know that if your wife knows you vote for Donald Trump, you're getting 10% less blowjobs or your blowjobs are cut off in half, you are not going to do it. And I think that that's been a huge, huge problem because women tend to be a little more liberal or lefty or have an aversion to Trump or-

That is such a funny. The blowjob theory. You can use it. You can use that. We're going to clip that. Okay. Chelsea, we're clipping that blowjob theory. That's a really good, that's a really good clip. Clipping the blowjob. Clipping the blowjob theory. I know I have to, I have to.

I have so many questions. All right. One minute. One minute. One minute. We really have to go. It's Dr. Drew. Dr. Drew is going to be very upset. You can't cross him, you know? I know. He gets to be very evil if we're late. Okay. Okay. So I asked you a little bit about Biden, a little bit about Trump, RFK. I asked you about Kamala. We kind of talked about, oh, Gavin Newsom. Oh, he's evil. He's actually the devil incarnate. And you should leave this state immediately. You have a lovely house. I like this operation. It's a nice day here in LA, but you must leave this state immediately.

He's coming to kill all of you. Okay. When can we do this? Can we do like maybe like a four part series or something? Come to Miami and we'll do it in my place and then we'll come back. I don't know how often I can come back here. It's so hard.

here. I know you were used to come back. I find it quite grueling. I know. Although your mall here is nice. The Century City Mall is nice. That Eataly is just fantastic. It's great. Did you eat there at all? I had some meatballs and the fish there. My God. You had some fish there? I didn't have the fish, but it just looks amazing. Like it looks like Hollywood fish. You've never seen Hollywood fish at the Eataly. All right. I have to go. I have to go. Okay. Fine, David. Okay. Well, I guess you can come back. Bye. Have a nice time at Dr. Drew. All right. See you. And yeah, see you. Take care. And we'll talk later. Follow Dave Rubin. He's amazing. Bye.