Jim VandeHei

We could probably get almost anybody on the phone, but it's not like I could get Elon Musk on the phone 10 times a year.

Right.

And we never could, even in the heyday of our, of our jobs, uh,

but he's doing a podcast a week or two.

So you have access to the smartest minds across any topic available for basically free or a Spotify subscription.

And you can listen and you can learn.

And so if you could filter that correctly, it is a beautiful time to be intellectually curious.

It's just so hard if you're not kind of doing this for a living and have the time to filter out the bad stuff and you just get on your phone and you're stressed out and the kids are screaming.

It's just easier to get into the bounty of crap.

I agree and I disagree, right?

So I agree if you have the time and the capability to think deeply about what you're talking about, the news, and to hold it up and to think skeptically and think critically.

I think most people have a life, and they're really busy, and they don't have that much time to allocate to information consumption.

And I think that they're the victims of this.

They really are.

I think, to be honest, we're the beneficiaries of it.

And that's what makes me sad, right?

Because I want, I believe like so powerfully in this country, so powerfully in its capabilities.

And I think we have all these advantages that people just don't understand exist in such abundant ways.

And yet people are demoralized instead and they think everything's funky because of what they're seeing on their screen.

And so, yeah, I think both exist at the same time.