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This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von

#635 - Sen. Bernie Sanders

21 Jan 2026

Transcription

Chapter 1: What are Bernie Sanders' views on winning back the working class?

0.031 - 27.743 Theo Von

Here's a question. If you walked into a stash house and found it full of $20 million, how much would you steal? That's the question Matt Damon and Ben Affleck have to answer in Netflix's new movie, The Rip. They play a team of Miami cops alongside Teyana Taylor, Steven Yeun, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Kyle Chandler, and Sasha Kaye, all trying to decide, are they the good guys or the bad guys?

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27.723 - 57.207 Theo Von

This movie is an edge-of-your-seat thrill ride the entire time, keeping you guessing till the very end. Don't miss the rip. Watch now only on Netflix. Today's guest is a senator from the state of Vermont. Before that, he was a congressman. He was a mayor. He's a mittened meme, actually. I'm thankful for his return to the show. Today's guest is Senator Bernie Sanders.

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61.777 - 63.906 Unknown

I will find a song.

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76.103 - 76.544 Theo Von

Oh, yeah.

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Chapter 2: How does Bernie Sanders respond to ongoing ICE raids?

77.465 - 95.416 Theo Von

Leonard Cohen used to spend time in here. Yeah, my mom used to play Leonard Cohen for us when we were kids. She liked him, and so she would play his When the Walls Came Down. Remember that? Yeah, and the other here is Hallelujah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah.

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96.898 - 106.562 Sen. Bernie Sanders

Here in New York City, there is a... It's called the Youth Choir of New York City. Does that ring any bells? It's kids.

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106.582 - 109.385 Theo Von

Pull them up. The Youth Choir of New York City, is that it?

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109.405 - 117.797 Sen. Bernie Sanders

Yeah, it's beautiful. And among other things, they do a beautiful, beautiful rendition of Cone's Hallelujah, which I love very much.

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Chapter 3: What changes does Bernie Sanders suggest for the two-party system?

119.459 - 122.683 Theo Von

Yeah, I haven't been to see them. I would like to go check them out, though. Do they perform pretty often?

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123.284 - 143.298 Sen. Bernie Sanders

Mm-hmm. What's beautiful about it, these are kids from the city, often working class kids. The guy does a fantastic job, and the quality is really wonderful. And we're trying to do something in, there it is. God, you can't say a word here. It's up in, there it is. Those are the kids, and beautiful, and wonderful.

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143.778 - 148.484 Theo Von

Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's nice. No, I haven't gone and seen it. Where did I go? I went to see a Knicks game.

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Chapter 4: How does Bernie Sanders view the role of nurses in healthcare?

149.105 - 153.338 Theo Von

They haven't won a championship in 53 years. Right? I didn't even realize that.

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153.598 - 154.999 Sen. Bernie Sanders

Well, I'm Donnie's mayor. That'll change.

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155.119 - 167.871 Theo Von

Yeah, there we go, huh? Hey, we'll start maybe getting some more foreign players in. Hey, they got some good guys at the Eurostep. You know, changed a lot of things. I saw that you were out there on the nurses picket line, the New York nurses.

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168.271 - 168.712 Sen. Bernie Sanders

Yep.

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168.732 - 171.254 Theo Von

Yeah, that's awesome. We went the other day, too. We had a great time.

171.514 - 171.995 Sen. Bernie Sanders

Oh, wow.

Chapter 5: What are the implications of AI and robotics in healthcare?

172.035 - 172.956 Sen. Bernie Sanders

That's a nice crowd.

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173.356 - 176.519 Theo Von

That's when you were. That was there. Oh, that's me today. There I am.

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176.539 - 178.881 Sen. Bernie Sanders

Who's that handsome guy in the brown coat? Oh, that's me.

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180.323 - 181.544 Theo Von

Who's that kid with him?

181.564 - 182.365 Sen. Bernie Sanders

Oh, that's the mayor.

183.226 - 188.653 Theo Von

Oh, yeah, that's Zoran, huh? Yeah. Yeah, there we were. We went out there the other day. We had a good time.

Chapter 6: How does Bernie Sanders define healthcare as a human right?

188.673 - 191.456 Theo Von

We stayed for a few hours, walked around, shook some bells, you know.

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191.757 - 192.438 Sen. Bernie Sanders

Great.

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192.458 - 192.918 Theo Von

Got out there.

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192.998 - 193.919 Sen. Bernie Sanders

I love nurses.

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195.441 - 201.689 Theo Von

My sister's a nurse. Where is she a nurse? She's a nurse down in Louisiana. Good. But I figured that if, you know, things start here in New York, a lot of big things start here.

201.769 - 216.748 Sen. Bernie Sanders

Theo, let me just say something. I really appreciate the work you do and other podcasters do. This is one of the technological revolutions that is really good. You know, sometimes I go on TV and I'm asked to deal with an issue in seven seconds. I can't deal with it. You can't deal with it, right?

Chapter 7: What is Bernie Sanders' perspective on the influence of billionaires in politics?

216.968 - 219.191 Sen. Bernie Sanders

Yeah. Takes a little bit of time. So thank you for what you're doing.

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220.212 - 228.403 Theo Von

Well, I appreciate that. Yeah, we're trying to learn as we go, too, and it changes a lot, you know. But were you at Mount Sinai? Which one did you go?

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229.143 - 251.023 Sen. Bernie Sanders

Outside of here. Yeah, that's where we went. Yeah, yeah. Well, I'll tell you, I was really proud to go there and be alongside Mayor Zoran Mamdani. You know, I'm the former chairman of the Health Education Labor Committee. And I'll tell you, Theo, I have met with nurses all over this country. I love nurses. It's no great secret that our healthcare system is broken.

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Chapter 8: How does Bernie Sanders envision political change in America?

251.084 - 270.186 Sen. Bernie Sanders

Everybody knows that. And the people who are keeping it going are, in fact, the nurses. You know, they're with you when babies are born. They're with you when you die. They're with you in between. They're at your bedside. They're the backbone of the healthcare system, and I love them. And I'll tell you something. Time and time again, nurses would come into my office.

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270.166 - 287.866 Sen. Bernie Sanders

And they'd start talking and suddenly they'd start crying. And you know what they were crying about? They were crying about the fact that they were unable to do the jobs, to do the work that they were trained and wanted to do. That they didn't have the number of nurses they needed, the staffing ratios that they needed. They broke down.

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289.188 - 298.738 Sen. Bernie Sanders

And I was just a couple of years ago, not dissimilar to what's going on in New York City right now, in New Brunswick, New Jersey, these nurses went on strike. You know why they went on strike?

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299.138 - 311.329 Theo Von

Because they needed help to provide better patient care. It wasn't even about money. Right. They're just saying, hey, I can't even be a nurse. This is my calling in the world, and I can't even do it to a decent potential. Exactly. And it's tough enough.

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311.349 - 328.244 Theo Von

We talked last time about patients being stressed to the gills, not only dealing with their physical ailments, but having to deal with the stress of begging for insurance companies to support, just all of that. And now you're going to put the nurses under the same stress. Exactly. Exactly.

328.264 - 350.275 Sen. Bernie Sanders

It's pathetic. And I'm sure you know this. The CEOs there are these big, huge houses. One guy is making $26 million a year. Another guy, I think, is making $16 million. They're bringing in all these traveling nurses, spending hundreds of millions of dollars, rather than sitting down and negotiating a decent contract with these dedicated nurses. There they are. You got them up there, huh?

350.255 - 368.797 Theo Von

Yep. And I'm grateful. I want to just mention these wonderful CEOs by name today, just so, because look, it's a, it's time where we put a name with people who are making certain choices. And so we have Brendan Carr. That's, I know he's over at Mount Sinai. Brian Donnelly. There he is. Look at that big smile. I'd be smiling too if I just made $15 million this year.

369.298 - 392.49 Theo Von

That's Philip O. Ozuwa, who looks like a guess who character. And Stephen Corwin. From Monopoly? I don't know. That's alleged. These are the CEO's current, and I think one is just leaving one of his posts, who are, these are who nurses are asking for help from. Is that right? And just to be clear, Bernie, what are the nurses asking for?

393.131 - 415.388 Sen. Bernie Sanders

What they're asking for, what they call safe patient, nurse-patient ratios. That means... If you're a nurse on duty and you have too many patients to take care of, you can't do your job. A patient calls out, needs your help, you can't get there. So they want more staffing to be able to provide the quality care that patients deserve.

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