Penn Jillette
speaker
2,353 appearances
2 recordings
1 series
first heard Jan 2026
last heard 14 Jan
Penn Jillette’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 2 in all, peaking in Jan 2026 with 2.
Appearances
I can't begin to explain this because nobody can, but it seems like we created algorithms, actual computer algorithms, that found out there's money to be made with attention, and that attention is easiest to get through outrage, and that outrage is easiest to sustain keeping separate.
I think they did.
And we also believed, because I was very good friends with a lot of the people that were creating this.
We really thought that the gatekeepers... I know where you're going.
...were in the way of things.
And that one man, one channel, as the Fireside Theater said, would be a really good thing.
And people just all got together to talk.
And what we didn't realize is that
except maybe Jared Lanier realized, but... that you'd find a way to weaponize hate.
And that there is a feeling that's enjoyable about hate.
And what the internet gave us
was a way to have connections with people, both for good and bad.
The example I was using, I'm talking to my friend LOD, Lawrence O'Donnell, who's on MSNBC, one of my closest friends.
Lawrence said, you know, when you were growing up in Boston, he's a Dorchester cat,
They have a group of guys that get together all the time.
They're friends.
Five guys from high school right on through their whole life.
And, you know, one of the guys was like a racist.
And they all knew it, you know?
And he'd start on his racist jive and he'd say, shut the f*** up.
Showing 841–860 of 2,353 · page 43 of 118
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