The Harris Campaign's Got Jokes, Tubi's Taking Over, and Mike Birbiglia's Our Co-Host

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26:34Mike, we're back. California Governor Gavin Newsom is urging schools in his state to restrict the use of cell phones in classrooms. Newsom wrote a letter to school districts saying officials should act now, citing the risks of distraction as well as social media pressures. At least eight states have passed laws, issued orders, or adopted rules this year to curb phone use among students during school hours. 72 % of high school teachers cite cell phones as a major distraction in the classroom, according to Pew Research. This is kind of obvious. Most parents who support banning phones in class say they should be allowed at other times of the day, according to a poll from the National Parents Union.

27:06And you have a young daughter. I have lots of kids. What do you think of these cell phone bands? Because a lot of them are using yonder pouches that you see at concerts and comedy shows to lock up phones. We didn't do a yonder at your show, I think. Yeah, I haven't really gotten into it. But, yeah, I think it's a great—I think it's about time they banned phones in schools. I think it's madness that we haven't been hipper to this sooner. I think it's one of those things where, I mean, correct me if I'm wrong because you know this better than I do, but I think Steve Jobs and Bill Gates both didn't let their kids use phones, right?

27:43Right, yeah. And to me, that's the instruction manual right there. You go, oh, the people who basically made this technology aren't letting their kids use. Yeah, game over. Don't do it. I wouldn't do it. What is your daughter? What grade is she in? She's going into fourth grade. They don't bring phones. She doesn't have a phone, right? No, no. And there's a big, you know, in Brooklyn where I live, like it's there's a big push to do this thing like wait until eight, wait until eighth grade, essentially to let kids have phones. And some of the schools also already just don't allow phones or they do yonder pouches or some variation when kids come in.

28:18I mean, it's it's this crazy thing where you just go, why? It's this technology where you take essentially a forklift and you shrink it into a thing you can put in your pocket. And we're going, yeah, kids can bring that to school. Like, it doesn't make any sense. It's extraordinary. This summer, this is an experiment I did, and I recommend it to other people as well, especially artists. You know, on my podcast, Working It Out, we talk extensively about artistic process and how to augment it. For me— It's a great podcast, by the way. Oh, thank you. Thank you. For me, I did this thing this summer.

28:51I've been trying to write my next movie for the last couple years, and I haven't been able to carve out the time. I think part of it is because I have this distraction machine in my pocket. So I said, well, what is the smallest iPhone that I can get? And it was like this iPhone SE. SE, right. It's really small. And I go, okay, it'll just have, basically, my wife and daughter will have the number, my parents will have the number, and that's kind of it. And I'll have Uber on it so that if I'm in a jam, I can get where I need to go. And it has been a huge, huge breakthrough for me. I've gotten so much writing done because I don't have Instagram on it.

29:34I don't have all the distraction things on it. It's just like one of these things when you have the thing pared down, you realize that these iPhones are essentially like Swiss Army knives. And you're like, well, I don't need the toothpick and the bottle opener and the corkscrew. I just need the knife, I think. Right. So what were you wasting your time on Instagram? Like you're just scrolling. Yeah. Infinite scrolling. Instagram, TikTok, which I've basically deleted. I just basically do on my laptop now. And then, yeah, I mean, I just think it's like, it's, I mean, look, these machines are brilliant.

30:10These iPhones are, they're actually too brilliant. They're too good because the things that you can do on them are so exciting that they're distracting us from the actual beauty that's around us. You couldn't write the movie because you had a, because you were distracted. I can see, I do it all the time. I'm always looking at news because it's interesting or I'll watch The Daily Show because I don't watch it in real time. I watch it in clips or whatever, you know, whatever I happen to be doing. I watch a lot of videos on the Vogue just for entertainment or to calm down or something. Talk about the creative.

30:41How did it not let you do that? It's just endless scrolling, correct, or endless entertainment? Yeah, because the algorithm is just building. It's every every second it is building a playlist of videos that appeal to exactly what you watch already. And so for me, it's like it ends up being this embarrassing. It ends up being like a lot of self help stuff, a lot of writing process stuff, a lot of film directors talking about how they made, you know, Godfather two or whatever. And it's like, if you get fed that for 20 minutes and it's all pretty interesting, you might stay for 60. And if you stay for 60, you might stay for two hours.

31:26And then there goes your writing day. So when you went to the SC, you finished the movie or was it hard to concentrate again? No, I'm like, I'm halfway through the movie, though. Yeah. Yeah, it's the concentration level has has changed completely. And I've just been just extraordinarily more productive. I think like I think I hope what what I iPhone does and I've heard rumors that this might they might go to like a flip phone, like an iPhone flip phone kind of thing, which I think would be good because I think we're at this point where we don't need a better camera in the phone. The camera is already unbelievable.

32:08The quality is absurd. It's better than, you know, digital cameras that were, you know, on the market 10 years ago for professionals. So what are we doing at this point? So it's like I just think a better phone and honestly like a phone that just is less distracting is what that's what I'm in the market. Yeah. Well, actually, the rumor is it's going to be thinner. The thinness is going to be like a credit card. thinness yes that's what they're going for i think in a lot of ways but i agree with you it's very i i'm addicted to it even i took twitter off and that was a huge amount of time especially angry time um and i still i like threads though i do i find lots of stuff i like to watch it's mostly videos of comedy or cooking or something like that i'm curious when you're in your concerts you again you didn't do the yonder punches why because a lot of comics do like every comedy show or music show, you put them in there, and you either take them with you or you leave them there, which is very upsetting, right, for me.

33:09I don't know why I can't separate from a phone. But why don't you do it? And what do you do with audience members who you can visit? You're up there. You can visibly see them on phones, correct? Yeah, that actually does drive me crazy. I usually call it out when it happens. But I do an announcement at the top of the show. I mean, I'm lucky over the years, you know, I've been on tour for, God, 24 years or something like that. And at this point, my audience, they found me either from This American Life or Netflix or Satellite Radio or my own podcast. And it's like, I like them. A lot of comedians, this is a dirty little secret of comedy, a lot of comedians don't like their audience.

33:52Right. Yeah, I can see that. These people are nuts. I'm not sure it's a secret, but go ahead. Yeah. So when I meet fans of mine on the street, I'm generally like, hey, you know, it's a pretty normal conversation. And so if I say to the audience, hey, could you guys shout off your phones? Usually they do. That's what's so special about theater. We're all in the room at the same time in the same place. And we have this this 90 minutes together where we're just together. And I think that that's what's so special about just live theater. Yeah, I agree with you. It's really interesting. I don't go to movies as much as I used to in theaters, but I have a thing now.

34:29If I don't look at the phone, it's a good movie, right? Oh, yeah. Like two texts, it's over. If I get into the two-text zone, it's not a good movie for me. And I feel terrible doing it, actually. At the same time, I still do it. Just moving on, have you heard of the streaming service Tubi? It's been described as Netflix's geekier, freakier, and totally free rival, and has exploded in popularity over the last year. Yeah, I couldn't believe this article yesterday in the Times. It's owned by Fox. Rupert Murdoch, once again, is part of the growing free ad-supported TV, Fast Movement. That's what it's called.

35:02It's like old TV, just so you know. There are no subscription fees, and 100 % of Tubi's revenues comes from advertising. It has the largest content library of any streamer. with 250 ,000 older movies and TV episodes, many of a sort of a bargain bin vibe. It's consistently outranking Peacock, Max, Apple TV, and total viewing time and drawing, even with Disney+. Have you tuned into Tubi? No, but it's interesting. When I read that article, I was like, oh, that's seemingly what I recall the playbook was of Netflix in the early years, right? And HBO, too, by the way. Oh, HBO, yes. like so the way I even found out about Netflix years ago was that one of my specials which was called what I should have said was nothing appeared on Netflix it was licensed and I didn't even know it all of a sudden people were saying to me oh I watched what I should have said was nothing on Netflix I go what's Netflix and they're like oh it's a streaming service and you look on that and then I would look on Netflix and I would go oh wow they have so many comedy specials and shows And I think it's a good strategy for Tubi because you look and you go, oh, they have Everybody Hates Chris.

36:07Well, that's a great show. You know what I mean? Like, I get that it's not new, but it's really good. Right. Yeah, it's definitely, it brings people in with old shows and things like that. Do you have a favorite old show in general? Oh, gosh. I think Cheers was probably my favorite. I grew up on Cheers and I grew up, yeah, I grew up on SNL. How about you? I go way back. I can watch The Brady Bunch any day of the week and twice on Sunday. Oh, wow. I know every episode. But I love finding stuff that I used to watch on these streaming services. That's one of my favorite things, like movies. You know, I'm here in Martha's Vineyard, and I'm going to watch The Inkwell tonight, which was a movie that's full of really big stars, actually.

36:50And it's about a beach in Martha's Vineyard, Noobloff. you know you can I like finding really old stuff that reminds me of my youth when I see it again it's sort of like I don't know I kind of like these ideas do you have a preferred streaming service these days or what's important for comedy is it still Netflix now it used to be HBO right Netflix is massive I mean the they did a Netflix did a really really smart thing early on which is they bought up specials with Chris Rock Dave Chappelle Jerry Seinfeld John Mulaney Amy Schumer this person and what happened was the stand-up comedy people who love stand-up comedy just went to netflix so then everyone they made deals with for me don't you from me on down they made really good deals for them because we all just wanted to be on the platform and and so now they they've really cornered the market i mean the the v i mean that i want to say the subscribership of netflix is is is a punch is a well above 200 million subscribers so it's it's it's a little bit in comedy right now it's the only game in town but but also youtube youtube has really changed the game on comedy specials because if you look at like you know shane gillis for example has a youtube specials filmed at like a comedy club in austin texas with i want i would guess like four cameras or something that are the equivalent quality of like a really good iphone and has 30 million views what do you do then what where do you go i mean because reddit's another place that my kids watch they watch you on reddit i know that they're like oh we saw him on reddit i'm like okay oh wow yeah but when you used to be the thing was you got a comedy special on hbo right and that made you and now it's netflix yeah no i mean i mean now it's now it is a combination of instagram uh youtube netflix etc but the other streamers i think in my opinion are well behind because i I don't think it's really even close.

38:47I mean, Tubi, I mean, who knows? Tubi has a shot. What do you look for when you're deciding on your comedy show where to put it? You kind of want everyone to see it, right? But you could just put it on YouTube yourself. Yeah, I could put it on YouTube. And I've definitely considered it. And I'm considering it with, you know, years ago, I'm sure you know the story from my shows, but I sleepwalked through a second story window in Walla Walla, Washington at La Quinta Inn. and I lived to tell the story and that's why it's a good story I told on This American Life and everything. So the 20-year anniversary in January from when I jumped through the window, I just took a camera crew and I filmed me going back to Walla Walla and talking to the person at the front desk after I jumped through the window, talking to the doctor who put stitches in my legs at the emergency room.

39:34And it's great and we're editing it now, but what's interesting about it is I'm just self-financing it. I hired a crew, I hired a great editor, you know, it's the affordability of making things at this moment is unlike anything in history. There's this there's this great documentary that during Apocalypse Now, Francis Ford Coppola made this documentary called Hearts of Darkness. It's hard to find, but it's great. And in the closing credits, he talks about it. And this is like 70. I want to guess 77. he talks about how in the future everyone will have access to cameras that are as good as the cameras we're working with now.

40:22And, you know, basically like I want to say he says something like, you know, a 13 year old in her basement in Ohio could make a movie as good as we're making right here. And I think we're getting pretty close to that. So what are you going to do with that? That's a great idea. Like you do a lot of production. People don't realize this, but you'd produce people. You produced Alex Adelman. You produce a lot of shows. Yeah. I mean, I just think that the costs are way down. And I think it's I think YouTube and all the streaming services have democratized entertainment in a way that whenever people ask me, I do Q &A's on working it out in my podcast sometimes.

41:01Whenever people ask me advice, I always just say, make something, you know, learn from it. Get feedback. Make something else. Get feedback. Make something else. because the opportunity is, I mean, there's a whole bunch of people who've made these YouTube specials. They're making these specials for, you know, 20, 30,$50 ,000. It's amazing. So what are you going to do with that? I actually don't know yet. We're just editing it. It's really interesting footage. I perform some of the show in Walla Walla. I meet all these people. We're going to intercut it. And it may end up on Netflix. It may end up on YouTube.

41:34But we're just sort of taking it as it comes. A lot of times when I'm doing creative stuff, Because I was very early to doing stuff myself, right, in journalism, which people pushed up against. And everything I do now is, what do I need you for, exactly? Literally, that's the sentence. What do I need you for? No. Like, if I can do it myself or buy it off the shelf or whatever, it's, I always think, like, why am I paying you this? What is the reason I'm giving you this amount of money? For what? What's my service I'm getting? It's really interesting. And comics have really taken off. Even, you know, people who are sort of tarnished, like Louis C.K., came back through that methodology, right?

42:13Like, he found his audience that way. Some comic said to me, he's been stopped. I'm like, it doesn't sound like he's been stopped. He's doing his own thing. Anyway, you don't have to comment on it. No, I think comedians have a one-on-one relationship with their audiences. And if you continue to tour and you continue to create and put out specials, whether it's on YouTube or Netflix, if you're funny, people will show up. Yep, 100%. It was so funny because last night, Amanda and I went out for a date and a lesbian came over who was getting married on Saturday. And congratulations to them. It's Rachel and Maddie, by the way.

42:50Thank you for coming over. And they're huge fans. And they started, it was jokes. And Amanda's like, oh, no one's come up to us today. And then these lesbians came up and they were wonderful. And then the table next to me had, I was their book in their book club and they said oh they talked to you now we're gonna talk to you it was just all these older ladies who are wonderful the book club of Martha's Vineyard or whatever and they're like we love your book and then we took selfies selfies with everybody and then I went over to say goodbye to the lesbian couple and say congratulations and then this table of this woman Christina who was with her uh this whole gang of people were like we didn't want to say anything and Amanda was like once again big fan um it was interesting because I thought it made me think like fans are your fans you own them now right versus you don't own them you know what i mean like they're your fans versus anything else i think that social media has and podcasts the rise of podcasts which has been in the last decade has created a really intimate relationship with fans so like there's there's this famous story in show business which is that when Bob Hope moved from radio to being a movie star, that people pointed out he wouldn't have been a movie star if he weren't a radio star.

44:06Because there's something, he wasn't like this extraordinary looking person. He wasn't like a born movie star. But it's the intimacy of radio, the form is you're in people's ears. And there's something about it that's very powerful. And I I feel like when I've since I've done work since I've created Working It Out, the podcast, I feel like my audience because I work out jokes on the show and then I go out on tour at Cincinnati and Charlotte and people show up and they're like, oh, I like how that joke evolved into this other joke. So they're following you. I like how it started here. And yeah, they're following the process.

44:43One hundred percent. Both Scott's and I, my books wouldn't have been as big without the podcast. One hundred percent. That's who is at the audience at the shows, you know, and it does have this nice live. It's just interesting. I think comics who take advantage of this, and it's the perfect, actually, comics are the perfect genre to do that more than anything, I think. I don't know. We have one more thing I want you to comment on. Mark Zuckerberg shared an interesting photo on Instagram. I just sent it to you this week. A seven-foot-tall statue of his wife, Priscilla Chan, in his Instagram caption.

45:13Zuckerberg noted he was bringing back the Roman tradition of making sculptures of your wife, because, you know, whatever, Mark. chimed in the comments saying, the more of me, the better, question mark. Obviously, Jeff Bezos put his fiancée on the prow of his giant yacht, his mega yacht, boobs and all, the whole thing. Would your wife approve of this kind of gift? No, no. I mean, it's funny. I texted Amanda this week because your wife and my wife, they're both poets. Right. But the difference is, Jenny is an introvert. And Amanda is not an introvert. And I have a joke in The Old Man in the Pool where I say, Jenny's an introvert and I'm an extrovert.

45:56An extrovert is someone who gets energy from being around other people. And an introvert doesn't like you. Or she might like you, but she's going to need me to explain why we're leaving the party. And I think if I made a seven foot statue of my wife, I think the relationship would be over. Really? It would be the end of the relationship? She does not want a statue of herself. No, no. Yeah, neither does Amanda. I would say she'd be horrified. Horrified. Horrified. Yeah. I mean, what do you make of these billionaires doing this to their... You know, in this moment of exponentialization of money and of people's presence and fame, I think people have an outsized version of themselves sometimes.

46:39And you see that with Kanye, you see it with Zuckerberg, you see it with Elon, a bunch of these, you know. And they lose a sense of what is a reasonable thing to do. What would be a positive expression of love? Well, it's very performative, right? It's very performative. Part of me, I'm like, oh, so what? She likes it. You know what I mean? Part of me is the old Carol, which I'm like, oh, she likes it. It's okay. And part of me is like, it's not for her, is it? It's for you. And for like when Mark puts on the gold chains or the hair or the hydrofoiling, I'm kind of like, oh, good for you. And then I'm like, what's this what's happening here?

47:23Right. Yeah. What's the most extreme public display of affection you've had with Amanda? Just a picture of us on our first date, maybe. Oh, that was it. She's not a grand jester kind of gal. Right. Yeah. I have rented Delmonico's for you and there's a band. Yeah, I mean, Jenny and I got married at City Hall, and we're 16 years in. Amanda and I have a pandemic wedding in Brooklyn in Prospect Park. It was good. Worked out fine. Worked out the kids came. It's great. I love that. Okay, Mike, let's pivot to some listener questions.

47:58We asked our listeners for questions just for you. Let's go through a couple. The first is about something that's been in the news lately. Steve from Threads says, Everyone knows Mike loves couches. maybe can give us some insight on where you draw the line with that love. For some context, you profess your love of couches in a 2019 special, The New One, which is about your daughter. Let's listen. Couches are humble. They're like, this is about you. You want to take a nap? Be my guest. You want to have sex with my arm? I'll think about it. You were early. I was early on this. I think people do have an intimate relationship with their couch.

48:35I think this is the most relatable thing about J.D. Vance. I think he should lean into this and say, yes, I do have sex with my couch. I think we will go, OK, I get this guy. You know, it's funny that that special it's called The New One. And it's all about how I never wanted to have a child and all the reasons why no one should ever want to have a child and why I was right. And then ultimately why I was wrong. And what happened was the reason the couch joke arrived was that one night I was doing a show at Princeton and it was all mostly students. And and it didn't have the couch joke in it. that you just played.

49:09And it was all about having kids. And I've never looked at an audience that has been more disinterested in the topic that I'm discussing. They just had this look of like, we don't know what you're talking about. We don't want to have kids. We don't know what it would mean to have kids, et cetera. And I called my director, Seth Barish, who's worked on all of my shows over the years. And I go, I have to come up with some way in for younger audiences. I'm always trying to have my audiences appeal to age 12 to 112. You know what I mean? And I came up with this metaphor. And the metaphor was, I love my couch.

49:45And the couch is the symbol of stability. And just like the thing, just going home to your couch, there's something about it that hugs you. It's a bed that hugs you. And it ended up being like this really real Hallmark thing. And it allowed young audiences to come along for the ride on the show. Yeah, it was great. I remember that. But how did you get to sex with Miles? Sex with a couch is a stretch. I mean, I've never had sex with my couch, but I... I can't believe it was in there. I had forgotten. I had forgotten. But he had a different version of sex with a couch, not the arm. There was another part of it that was his sexual activity.

50:22Yeah. But it didn't happen. No, it didn't happen. It's just rude. But he should lean into it. You think he should lean into it? I think so. Here's what I think. It's interesting, because it's not true. Everybody, J.D. Vance did not put anything about having sex with a couch in his book. Let me be clear. But, but, the big but, people think he could have. That's the thing, right? Sure. Maybe he didn't, but I feel like he could have. Well, very good for you to be so prescient. Here's another one from Threads. Mike, as a storyteller, what advice do you have for young people in terms of telling good stories?

50:54Specifically, what are your favorite stories to read? And what's the key to inspiring people through story? People don't realize comics are storytellers. They really are. And at their very base, I think Scott talks a lot about, not comedy, but just in general. So talk a little bit about storytelling. Yeah, it's funny. On the podcast this week, we had Stephen Merchant, who co-created the original Office and Extras. In England. In England, yeah. The original, the great Office. And he talks about how he's been telling more stories on stage. And we talked about the craft of that. And he was sort of asking, like, how do you take something that is inherently like maybe a little bit sad or a little bit dramatic and find the comedy in that?

51:35And I think that the key to stories is telling comedic stories is finding one joke in it that opens up the audience and tells the audience that you are okay laughing about this thing. And because you're okay with it, they should be okay with it. So years ago, when I was 20, I had bladder cancer. And I was like, I want to talk about this on stage, but I don't know. It bums out the audience. And so I came up with this joke. I say I had bladder tumor when I was 20, but it's funny because I'm a hypochondriac. And I think the funniest thing that can happen to a hypochondriac is you get cancer because it affirms every fear you've ever had in your life.

52:14You're like, see, I told you. Remember last week when I told I thought I had rickets. I was probably right about that, too. There's going to be a lot of changes around here. And what happened with the audience is they started to go, oh, OK, he's telling a funny story so we should just go with him on it right yeah and so and so you know like with with steven he had a story that was wild story he was at sarah silverman's party years ago and he accidentally took a edible and he he took an edible and he accidentally walked through a window wow he was like i'm gonna go outside and didn't realize that it was a window and he walked through it and we were talking through like the mechanics of that how do you make that a story and and the The key thing is he's okay now.

52:56Right. You know what I mean? Right. You have to assure the audience they're okay now. Glass and blood aside. Go ahead. Exactly. Exactly. And what I always tell people about stories is as long as you have a beginning and most importantly, an ending, the audience will stick with you for the middle. Was there one where you told a story where you didn't have them? Because there's a lot of tough stories in this new show. Well, I have a lot of stuff about my dad and about our political differences. And, you know, there's a story I tell and it's dramatic. I mean, it doesn't have a punchline to it. But I say, you know, in my 20s, you know, I realized that we were kind of drifting apart politically.

53:35And one time we had an argument that was so bad that when I said goodbye, he didn't even say goodbye. He just said, you've really gone another way. And it was devastating. I actually had choked up now even talking about it because it was so painful for me because I'm driving home and I'm realizing my whole life I sort of wanted to be my dad. And at a certain point, I decided I wanted him to be me. Right. That was a great moment. That was a big insight in that show. It was gut punch. It was a gut punch. You do a lot of that, though. You do a lot of the shifting from comedy to something that's very upsetting, right?

54:09But then I think it's related to like what what were the political climate we're in right now, which is like I think there's a lot of the extremes of both parties want the other party to be them. And that's never going to happen. People have really widely different takes in this country. And it's just getting to a point where we just go we can just go, yeah, this person could be the leader of the country and that would be OK. We don't need the wild extreme on one side. We don't need the wild extreme on the other. We just need someone to kind of right the ship. Yeah, well, I don't think Trump is that person more and more, especially this week.

54:49He's really lost his mind on a lot. It's like he can't be like I used to believe in Trump derangement syndrome. But now I'm like, no, he's really dangerous. Yeah. No, he definitely is at this point. Let him talk. It's definitely a let him talk situation because, man, it does not make a ton of sense. No. His stuff about Kamala Harris lately is so strange because he's also attracted to her. He doesn't know what to do. Yeah, he said that she looks like Melania a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. He doesn't know what to do. He's like, oh, no, I'm attracted to her. It's very strange. It's weird. She should get some bodyguards.

55:25But let me ask you, what are your favorite stories to read in that answer? I, you know, the stuff that makes me laugh hardest is David Sedaris always. Classic. He's just always so funny. His diaries are hilarious. He published his diaries. Zadie Smith's stuff is always fantastic. I don't know if you ever read this years ago. She wrote this fantastic piece. I know you've written so much brilliant stuff about Silicon Valley over the years. And she also wrote this piece about Zuckerberg that was so dead on about about. Oh, I have to read it. Yeah, it was in one of her essay books years ago. And it was about how essentially like we live on our phones.

56:07We live on our computers and our phones. And the aesthetic of it is essentially Facebook. And from a person who has no sense of style. our style that we are living in virtually is from mark zuckerberg a guy who wanted a date in college and so he created this thing and now we live in it and and it's such a such a brilliant essay and it was it really makes you i really made me think hard hard on sort of like the missteps that culturally we've made i do think at the heart storytelling remains the most important thing to everybody in some fashion to that to that point to yours and scott's points about storytelling i think one of the things kamala should really lean into is that she's she's a self-made person from the self-made family and that and that he he inherited 400 million dollars and that's not relatable inheriting 400 million dollars is not what anybody nobody has that right although one might argue he's he's sort of a poor person's version of a rich person right whoever's a spy That's aspirational.

57:11I want to be him. It is. Yeah, it's aspirational. But I do think the more she tells personal stories about herself and her own life, I think the more people will gravitate towards her. Waltz has done a good job of that. She was talking about her. She worked for McDonald's when she was a teenager. And he goes, you think Trump could ever make a McFlurry if his life depended on it? That's very good. It was a perfect way to tell it. And everyone was like, it was so specific. McFlurry. Like he wouldn't even know how to operate the machine and this and that. So it was a story he was telling about her, right?

57:45And insulting him at the same time. It worked really well. I think they're very good at stories, the two of them. I think particularly him. He's a particularly good storyteller. And that's what we like from our politicians in a lot of ways. Okay, lastly, an ex-user asks, on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the worst, how bad are Scott's jokes? Okay, here's what I'll say about Scott's jokes. Scott's jokes are not, they're not jokes. They are fodder for you and Scott to bounce around your lovable chemistry. I see. Okay. And so I enjoy them because he's like everyone's uncle. He's our podcast uncle.

58:29He tells these goofy jokes. He knows they're goofy. You make fun of them. You say you're going to get trashed by your friends and your fans. And you do. And it's fun. Rachel, last night, the lesbian was like, the jokes aren't funny. I was like, thank you. But I think that's what's fun about it. And I think that I think one of the things that's so wonderful about this podcast is that you and Scott just go at these topics in a way that doesn't feel censored. And it doesn't feel restrained. and I love listening to it. That's why it's an honor to be here. We do. We do. He does repeat jokes. If he tells that Poland invading Germany thing again, I'm going to fucking tell him or Germany invading Poland.

59:13He's got to stop. He's got to get new ones. That's all I got to say. Maybe you can help him. Okay. You can workshop a few with them. All right. If you've got a question of your own, thank you listeners for putting those in for Mike. We've got tons of them, by the way. We'll send them to you. Any you'd like answered, send it our way. Go to nymag.com slash pivot. Send a question for the show or call 855-51-PIVOT. All right, Mike, one more quick break. We'll be back for predictions. You have to give us a prediction.

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1:02:08Okay, Mike, let's hear your prediction. Here's my prediction about the election. I think that, I don't know which way the election goes, But I think that Kamala may end up taking two or three states that we don't even think are in play. I think that she has an appeal that I don't even know if she'll win. But I do think she has an appeal that crosses that crosses the electoral map in a way that maybe pundits aren't even realizing. Interesting. Why do you think that? Because I think that all I've heard for the last year is people saying we need someone else. All I hear, people who voted for Trump, people who voted for Biden, we need somebody else.

1:02:59These people are too old. It's just they're too old. and and I think she's someone else and I think that what's going to happen is you might see I don't know I think you might see an Ohio or an Iowa or a Florida Florida's Florida's getting closer Florida's closest within five points and and you might see one of those go in in a very surprising way but who knows I have a lot of Trump relatives who are voting for that's good I know No, it's interesting. The first time they're like considering, they're like, oh, she's kind of appealing. Because I think they're getting a clear view of her versus I think what's happened is Trump has not defined her quickly enough.

1:03:42And it's too late. It's too late now. He is going to have a very hard time. And there's a very short window. I think one of the things, I'll tell you a prediction I have, I'll do it very quickly, is shorter elections, great idea. Great idea. You know? So much better. So much. Every other country has them. Ours go on for years. It's madness. It's like when they put out Thanksgiving things the day after Thanksgiving. Shorter elections is a really good thing for the body politic and for our mental health, I think. Oh, I think absolutely. And by the way, I should point out if people are mad. I'm only talking about politics today because I'm such a big fan of this show.

1:04:22And I think these are important issues. But I don't do political comedy. You don't? No, I do personal stuff because ultimately I feel like when I tour, I want humor to bring people together. I want everyone to laugh, to get away from the stuff we're talking about today. And that's why I do personal shows. Well, your new show is political because it's about you and your dad. But to me, it's about when you were a kid, not about politics, right? Right. There was a scene, I think, with your dad and touching you, right? When you get hurt. Yeah, yeah, but giving me a medical evaluation because he's a doctor.

1:04:59And how it was a little, but I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it. Yes, you know, he was being your dad. I was like being a parent. Because we don't hug a lot. Yeah, right, exactly. So the politics that you layer on has nothing to do with politics. It has everything to do with connection, right, to me. I think so. And I think, I honestly think that the thing that I've discovered from touring the country, 48 states over the years, is that we're much, as a country, we're much more alike than different. That's correct. I say that all the time. Anyway, Mike, thank you so much. Scott and I will be back next week with a brand new episode recorded live from the Democratic National Convention.

1:05:35Just a quick note, because a lot of you have emailed us, our DNC show will not be open to the public, but it'll be in your podcast feeds on Tuesday. But we will be wandering around Chicago and I'm going to make Scott do all manner of unnatural things with couches. Maybe we'll go to the Wiener Circle, something like that. You know, the typical Chicago things that we'll be doing. But Mike, thank you so much. And again, let me just be clear. Your show was wonderful. I just want to say everyone should watch Mike's shows. Obviously, his show Old Man in the Pool has been nominated for an Emmy. And his new show, Please Stop the Ride, but it's also called The Good Life, depending on what it's going to be called.

1:06:13Can anyone see you anywhere else with that? I mean, I'm touring 20 cities in the fall, so I'll be in New Jersey. I'll be in Wisconsin, Madison, Milwaukee. You know, I'm all over the place. I'm in Charleston, Asheville. I mean, all over the place. All of it's on Burbigs. Yeah, it's a wonderful show. Thank you. It changes, correct? Changes all the time, you know. And so all of it's on Burbigs.com, which is also where my podcast Working It Out is. Yeah, Working It Out is a wonderful podcast. It's really good about creativity. Anyway, you're a wonderful person. We love you. You've done a wonderful job, by the way, and I may replace Scott with you at some point.

1:06:47I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet. Anyway, if I kill him in Chicago, I will read us out. Today's show was produced by Laryn Naiman, Zoe Marcus, and Taylor Griffin. Ernie Enderdot engineered this episode. Nishat Kirwa is Vox Media's executive producer of audio. Make sure you subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media. You can subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com slash pod. We'll be back next week for another breakdown of all things tech and business from the DNC. How exciting for us. Mike, thank you again. Oh, my God. Thank you.

1:07:19Mike is also currently doing an auction of a special one-of-a-kind item benefiting the YMCA. You can check it out at charitybuzz.com slash Mike Birbiglia.