The Find Out Podcast

The Missing Congressman

41 min
Jun 4, 2026about 1 month ago
Listen to Episode
Summary

Host discusses California primary results showing Javier Becerra and Steve Hilton advancing, the mysterious disappearance of Republican congressman Thomas Kean Jr., and the firing of Scott Pelley from 60 Minutes by Barry Weiss at CBS News. The episode covers electoral trends, media consolidation concerns, and the importance of supporting independent progressive media.

Insights
  • Mainstream media institutions are being systematically dismantled by conservative ownership, with CBS News losing credibility and viewership under new leadership focused on destroying rather than reporting
  • Voter willingness to support unqualified candidates (Spencer Pratt, Trump) signals deeper dissatisfaction with incumbent performance that Democrats must address through tangible policy results, not just messaging
  • Independent media funding is now critical infrastructure for progressive messaging, as traditional media gatekeepers have been compromised and social platforms suppress non-billionaire-owned content
  • Congressional accountability is deteriorating—representatives can disappear for months without explanation or consequences, indicating systemic failures in oversight and constituent representation
  • Anti-corruption messaging resonates more strongly with younger voters than traditional Democratic policy platforms, suggesting a strategic messaging realignment opportunity
Trends
Conservative acquisition and transformation of legacy media institutions into partisan outletsDecline of traditional broadcast news credibility and viewership among younger demographicsRise of creator-led independent media as primary information source for progressive audiencesVoter frustration with incumbent performance driving support for outsider/unqualified candidates across party linesIncreasing importance of direct-to-audience communication strategies bypassing traditional mediaCongressional accountability gaps widening with minimal consequences for non-participationAnti-corruption and government efficiency emerging as top voter concerns across demographicsConsolidation of media ownership enabling rapid institutional transformation and editorial controlMonetization challenges for independent media creators despite significant audience reachGenerational shift in political engagement toward digital-native platforms and creators
Topics
California Primary Election Results and Jungle Primary SystemCongressional Accountability and Missing RepresentativesMedia Consolidation and Institutional DeclineIndependent Media Funding and SustainabilityAnti-Corruption Policy MessagingVoter Dissatisfaction and Outsider Candidate SupportWhite Male Voter Engagement StrategiesDemocratic Campaign Infrastructure and DNC LeadershipAI Regulation and LegislationMaine Senate Race and Susan Collins AccountabilityMainstream Media Credibility CrisisProgressive Messaging StrategyCreator Economy and Long-Form ContentElectoral Strategy in Swing DistrictsGovernment Efficiency and Civil Rights Protection
Companies
CBS News
Barry Weiss fired Scott Pelley from 60 Minutes, destroying the network's credibility and profitability under conserva...
Paramount
Parent company of CBS News, acquired by right-wing Ellison family who installed Barry Weiss to dismantle news division
The Free Press
Barry Weiss's media company described as right-wing propaganda outlet now influencing CBS News editorial direction
Find Out Media
Host's independent media company with four shows generating 8-10 million monthly clip views, requiring subscriber sup...
Gigaclear
Broadband provider sponsoring the episode, offering rural UK broadband service from £16/month
WOOP
Health and wellness app sponsor providing sleep, recovery, and strain tracking for personal optimization
People
Javier Becerra
Polling at 4-5% when appearing on Find Out Podcast, now presumptive frontrunner for California governor
Steve Hilton
Trump-endorsed candidate who previously sought Bloomberg funding for startup ventures in 2015-2016
Karen Bass
Current LA mayor who won re-election despite challenges from Spencer Pratt and city council candidate
Spencer Pratt
Reality TV personality from The Hills who ran for LA mayor as Republican, finished second in primary
Thomas Kean Jr.
Republican congressman from New Jersey who disappeared for 3-4 months, won primary without public appearances
Rebecca Bennett
Naval helicopter pilot who won Democratic nomination in New Jersey swing district against Thomas Kean Jr.
Scott Pelley
Fired from 60 Minutes by Barry Weiss for questioning her qualifications and editorial direction
Barry Weiss
Right-wing media figure installed to dismantle CBS News, fired Scott Pelley and neutered Evening News
Graham Platter
Maine Senate candidate facing personal scandal but supported by host as viable challenger to Susan Collins
Susan Collins
Maine Republican senator criticized for falsely claiming moderate status while voting with party leadership
Zach
Podcast team member who suggested launching Find Out Podcast after WhatsApp group conversations
Luke
Podcast co-host from Iowa, discussed at Trending Up conference, involved in Iowa electoral strategy
Rich
Podcast co-host attending Trending Up creator conference in DC during this solo episode
Sarah Jacobs
California congresswoman scheduled as upcoming guest to discuss AI regulation legislation
Ken Martin
DNC chair discussed regarding leadership performance and relationship with independent media creators
Rob Sands
Iowa Democratic nominee for governor in competitive race with multiple pickup opportunities
Mark Hamill
Participated in White Dudes for Harris campaign call with quarter million attendees
Jeff Bridges
Participated in White Dudes for Harris campaign call raising $6 million
Tim Walz
Participated in White Dudes for Harris campaign call with quarter million attendees
Barack Obama
Mentioned as dream guest for podcast; won Iowa in 2012 demonstrating state's Democratic potential
Quotes
"It's not rocket science, it's installation science."
Gigaclear AdvertisementPre-roll
"If you have a medical issue that keeps you out of Congress for at least a quarter of the year, if not more, and you're not willing to say why, you don't deserve to be in Congress anymore."
Host~15:00
"We need to make sure that the people who are complicit in this illegal activity face justice and go to prison if they are found guilty."
Host~28:00
"Support progressive, left leading independent media. We started this because we knew our message wasn't getting out and we needed to communicate directly to people."
Host~31:00
"If the money runs out for us, those eight to 10 million clips go to zero. So we need the money."
Host~38:00
Full Transcript
At Rural Britain, Gigaclear goes further than any other major provider to bring you fast, reliable, whole home coverage with free expert Wi-Fi installation. We come in, we set up, we do it all for you so you don't have to. It's not rocket science, it's installation science. Switch to Gigaclear from only £16 a month. Faster broadband for Rural Britain. 18 month contract, prices may vary. Verify at gigaclear.com. Hey, everybody, welcome back to the Findout podcast. Well, you are joining either the worst episode of all time, an OK episode, or maybe the best episode of all time. Because guess what? You've only got me tonight. Rich, Luke, and Zach were at Trending Up, which is a big creator conference in DC. And I'm going to Netroots Nation tomorrow in Philadelphia for two days. So we weren't all in the same place for any time or actually able to report at one time. So I was like, yeah, sure, I'll do an episode by myself. Why not? And actually, the funny story about this is that I did an episode earlier today. And guess what? I didn't plug my microphone in. I rambled for like 40 minutes. I had all this really great stuff for you. I was super funny. Everything was really, really, really on point. And we got none of it. So you're going to get the second round tonight from me. Again, just me and nobody else. And hopefully in Findout podcast history, we'll never have to do this again. So anyways, I'm going to talk about a whole bunch of important stuff. We got the California primary election numbers coming in. We've got Trump appointing somebody to be the director of National Intelligence who has no experience. We also have a congressman who won his primary last night, but nobody has seen him for three months. That's right. Definitely not a Democrat. Definitely a Republican. And also, I am going to be answering your questions from Findout Social. So and actually one more thing. I keep forgetting things. The firing of Scott Pelley by Barry Weiss at 60 minutes is another big one that we got to talk about because essentially mainstream media is dying in front of us. So we're going to dive right in because frankly, I got to get this done. So our editors can get it done so you can get it out to you by tomorrow morning. We're going to talk about California first. So California is a unique position in primaries in that they have something called the jungle primary, which is there are no Democratic and Republican or independent primaries. Everyone's together and the top two people advance to the general election. So you can be in a situation where there's one Democrat, one Republican, or you can be in a situation where there's two Democrats or two Republicans. It all depends on who finishes in the top two. Generally in California, Blue State, you get two Democrats. But in this particular case, there were about 30 Democrats running for governor of California and about two, maybe three Republicans running as well. So there was a worry that with the 30, it's not quite 30. It's 20, 20 or 25. If they had split, let's say 75% of the vote 25 ways, it could have allowed two Republicans to advance. But luckily, that is not going to happen. What looks to be a now, even though the votes are still coming in, is that you're going to get Javier Becerra as the Democrat and Steve Hilton as the Republican. So the important part here is that Javier Becerra, when he came on the find out podcast, was pulling around four or 5%. And now all of a sudden, it looks like he is the presumptive front runner and probably the next governor of California. So obviously that says, if you listen to the find out podcast, you watch the find out podcast, whoever comes on here wins, right? That's what we're talking about. Maybe. But also, I want to talk about Steve Hilton for a second, because I've actually met Steve Hilton. When I was at Everytown for Gun Safety, he came and he met with me and somebody else to essentially beg for Bloomberg money for a startup that he was doing. So Mr. I was endorsed by Donald Trump, was begging for Bloomberg money in, let's say, 2015, 2016, so not that long ago. The guys of fraud, I think the good news is that all the Democrats are going to rally around Javier Becerra and Steve Hilton is going to lose probably by 20, 30, 40 points. So that's good. We also got to talk about the LA race, LA race for mayor, which is even crazier than the governor's race in that you have Karen Bass, who is the current mayor. You also had somebody in the city council running against her as a Democrat. And also you have this guy, Spencer Pratt, who is best known for being a side character on the reality show, The Hills, probably 20 years ago. And also he has been known to try to sell photos of his wife, Heidi Montog, photos of her while she was a teenager to the tabloid press. And also he's been blaming Karen Bass for his house burning down in LA, but the guy didn't have mortgage insurance. I don't know how that's Karen Bass's fault. But anyways, there's a whole grifter and Republican thing, which has been pushing him, luckily Karen Bass came out on top. Spencer Pratt did come in second, but we know in November with only one Democrat in the race, Spencer Pratt's probably going to lose by 30 points. So we avoided some catastrophes there. But I think there's some important lessons here also that when people don't like a particular candidate or person in office, Karen Bass is at a tough first term, people are willing to turn to anybody, which we saw with Donald Trump in 2016, even though it makes no sense and it would be even worse, they are willing to roll the dice. So like Democrats have to listen to this stuff, even though Spencer is a joke and he's not going to be mayor, but like there are people who are willing to grab on to anybody to infect change. So Democrats have to, when they get in office, they have to make things change. And that is a very important thing. You can't just go into office and basically go, I'm here now, we're just going to keep going as usual. You can't do that because otherwise we get people like Donald Trump or Spencer Pratt. And every once in a while, one of those idiots gets in charge. So we have to be very, very careful with this stuff. And I, Karen Bass was a great congresswoman. She was a potential VP nominee for Kamala Harris. So she's not an incompetent person, but I think there are some problems in LA that need to be addressed. And we have to understand the underlying causes of why so many people will vote for a complete and utter buffoon rather than just like laughing at them and saying they're idiots. We have to understand why they're doing that and make sure they don't because we cannot have another Donald Trump situation at the federal level and we certainly could not afford a Spencer Pratt situation in a top five city in the United States. So with that, you know, it's good that we seem to have avoided that. Unfortunately, we're going to have to listen to him for another four months or so, five months. And then hopefully we will never hear from him again. So that's what I have to say about California. But there's some other electoral news that's also important. So there is this weird situation in New Jersey, which is known as a very blue state, but they do have Republicans on the House side. And one in particular, this guy, Thomas Keane Jr. His dad was a governor, I believe, a very popular guy and he won a very tight race. I think this is his first or second term. But guess what? He won his primary last night. No one has seen him for three or four months. That's right. He hasn't been in the Congress. He hasn't he hasn't voted. He hasn't put out any statements. Nobody knows where he is, including Speaker Johnson, who says he talked to him, but wouldn't divulge any information. The guy has not voted in three or four months and he won his primary last night. So we don't know why he hasn't been around. No one has even photographed it or seen him or anything. But that's a swing district. And I have to tell you, if you have a medical issue that keeps you out of Congress for at least a quarter of the year, if not more, and you're not willing to say why, you don't deserve to be in Congress anymore. So I would say in that district, there was there is a great candidate, and we're going to try to get her on the show here, Rebecca Bennett, who was a naval helicopter pilot. She has just won the Democratic nomination in that district against Thomas Keane Jr. We need to make sure that she wins because regardless, like, first of all, we need to get rid of every Republican that we can. But if they can't even show up and vote, they need to go. So Rebecca Bennett is stepped up and she just won the nomination over three other candidates, I believe, so strong candidate. We need to make sure that she wins. So if you can give all the money that you can to her right now, we need to make sure that Thomas Keane Jr., for whatever reason, doesn't come back to Congress. I hope he gets the help he needs. I hope that his life is not endangered. But you can't just disappear for three to four months of the year, especially with Congress and the tight control of the Republicans have. You can't just disappear. It just doesn't work that way. So with that, Rebecca Bennett, we're going to try to have her on. But until then, give her money because somebody like that who doesn't even respect his voters enough to tell them why he is gone does not deserve to be. So that's another piece of this. And that's the piece I forgot this morning. So I'm glad in a way that my audio didn't work because I got to come back and talk about this. Another thing we need to talk about is the Graham Platner latest. It's not a scandal, but the latest hiccup in his campaign, it came out that his wife approached their political director or his political director at the time and told her that she had found text messages on Graham's phone that suggested that he was having sexual conversations with five, six women. This political director was the one that quit after the whole tattoo thing came out. And then apparently she decided that she was going to leak this last week. After Graham Platter's wife had talked to her in confidence, she leaked it. And so now everybody knows about this story. And I have to say, like I am a supporter of Graham Platter. I've met him a couple of times. But like, I'm not sad that this story came out because if this is real, people deserve to know and people need to hear the type of person he is and then make the determination if they want to keep like supporting him or not. And it seems like most of the people in Maine that I have talked to, because I am from Maine, have said they don't love this. But you know, it is a situation between his wife and himself. They both went to marriage counseling and they've worked through it. Like they had gotten through all of that by the time the story came out. So with that being said, I am still supporting Graham Platter. Everybody should still support Graham Platter. But if you have questions about him, that's also totally fine. And I would say to the campaign, you've known about this since what? July or August of last year, you could have gotten the story out there earlier, especially when this tattoo came out. And so like this is a bit of the underbelly of politics, but like the reality is like, as a political operative, you have to understand when you can get stories out or whether you need to hold them. This is a situation that people deserve to know and they should have put it out when there was another bad thing happening so that we were not talking about it now. Because the reality is this isn't just about Maine. If we don't win the Maine Senate race, we're not taking the Senate. So this has national implications. Susan Collins has told Maynard for years that she's a moderate and she's been lying about it. And we need to start calling her out. And I actually, one of the things I really love about Graham is that he does that. He calls her out for the bullshit because she claims that she's moderate. But if you're somebody in Maine, you should ask Susan Collins if you ever get a chance to meet her because she doesn't do town halls. But if you get a chance, say, when were you ever the deciding vote against a Republican president? And wait for her answer because the reality is it has never happened because Mitch McConnell has a deal with her and Lisa Murkowski that when there was a tough vote, if they have enough votes, he will let them vote against it to protect themselves because they're not stupid. They know that they need those votes in those moderate places. Otherwise, they don't have a majority. And that is what Susan Collins has been lying to Maynard's about forever. And that's partly why I love Graham Plattner, as they said before. He calls it out. So yes, he has shitty things in his background, but that primary ends next Tuesday. There is nobody else that could stand up. So we have Graham Plattner. I hope to God that that is the last thing that we hear about him as far as like the questionable stuff, because he is a real political talent and the people really love him in Maine. And I think he's a shot to defeat Susan Collins, but like this amateur shit has to stop. With WOOP, you can focus on living better for longer, understand your sleep, optimize your training and build habits that support your well-being. WOOP gives you personalized insights into your sleep, your recovery, your strain, and the patterns that may influence how you feel. With more clarity and consistency, you can create routines that support you throughout the year. Add more life to every moment. Discover WOOP at WOOP.com. We're done with Maine. We're going to keep going. I have horrible transitions because usually I have three other people that can help me through them. Oh, man, I have rock rocket fired through all of this so much faster than the last thing. I have a list of things that I want to talk about here and I've actually gone through four of them already. So you're actually going to get a much shorter episode, which interestingly enough, I have always been told in my digital career that people want shorter content. But when we end short, we get people writing to us and saying, hey, I wish you could keep going because I actually want to hear from you for like 90 minutes. Well, I can't do that by myself. So you're going to get a very, very short episode from me. This like for tomorrow or which is Thursday. But one of the things that I asked people and this is important for folks to know is like, I asked people on our new app, find out social, which operates very much like Twitter or threads, but has no billionaire telling us what we can or could not say. And you could post any links you want without suppression. I asked folks to tell me, like ask me some questions and I will answer them on the show because I knew I was like going to be by myself and I kind of was going to wing it. And now that I'm doing it for a second time, I'm like, oh, God, I really need to make this better. So I'm going to answer some questions and we'll come back after that because I'm realizing I miss some stuff to talk about the 60 minutes disaster and why you need to support independent media. So with that, let's get into the questions, which I now have to find on my phone. So we're going to do this. Okay, we got them. Okay. So the first one, the question is origin story, of course, how did this podcast come to be? And I think it's important to have this conversation every once in a while, because we have been doing this for over a year now, but a lot of people have found us along the way. And so they don't necessarily know the origin story. So I will tell. So I was one of the guys that got asked to do the white dudes for Harris campaign, which obviously 2024, when Joe Biden dropped out of a race, Kamala Harris stepped in and there was a lot of excitement. And we knew that we had to move quickly to galvanize supporters, bring new people into the fold in order for her to win in November. So we did this crazy thing where we were like, let's talk to white men and get more of them on our side. And while we were talking about it, we were like, this is either going to be the greatest thing ever, or we're all going to get canceled for doing this. And we thought about it for a little bit and they were like, you know what, we need to do it. And we launched it. And it was a tremendous success. And it was so great to see so many white men be like, I'm excited about Kamala. And, you know, we generally don't talk about men or white men in particular at the Democratic Party. And I'm so glad you're talking about it. And so we had a call with a quarter million people on it, including people like Mark Hamill, Luke Skywalker, Jeff Bridges, the dude, a lot like Tim Walls was on it, a whole bunch of people, we had like almost a quarter of a million people on that call, we raised like $6 million. And we realized that like the Democrats have kind of ignored white men. And we did it for right reasons, right? Because like white men, generally speaking, are at the top of the pecking order. So why would you create a whole set of policies that helps the people at the top already? But the reality is when you don't talk about them, a lot of them start to drift and wonder, where do I fit? And so we lost a lot of them to the Banisphere and these idiots like Joe Rogan, who are idiots, but they talk to them. And so we realized it's time for us to step up and do the same and show them that like, you don't need to follow a blind, like a total idiot, you can actually, there are like-minded people who care about others, who understand like, woke is a good thing. And we need to support people who need a leg up, empathy and kindness and all this stuff. And so with that, even though we lost in November, we were having these chats on WhatsApp with the same group of people and Zach on our, that's on the team was like, we're having great conversations. We should do podcasts. We should keep this conversation going. And a bunch of us said, yes. And we launched a few weeks after Donald Trump was sworn in and it exploded. We hit number 29 on the US Apple podcast chart for podcasts. And we were instantly monetized on YouTube. It was all this like crazy excitement. And I kind of joked at the time, I was like, I think we accidentally started a company. And that's what we did. And we were like, well, we just did this with a bunch of guys who have a lot of followers, like the find out podcast guys have about 4 million social followers amongst the platforms. And because when we announced it, that was enough to drive a lot of people to listen. And we were like, let's do this for other creators. And so that is what we have done with American power with Mr. Global chats gotten at Townsend, which we have done with Get Angry with Brian Andrews and Luke, who's also on the find out podcast. And what we're doing with Dr. Nola with Nola Haynes is not a spy. And some of the new shows that we're coming. So like, we are taking short form creators who have large followings and building out their long form. And then we can cut all this stuff up and fire it out. And Luke was just telling me the other day, our clips are being seen every month between eight and 10 million times, eight, 10 million times for shows. And that is where you start to affect change because we are showing up at people's feeds, and we are showing them that there is another way to think you do not have to listen to Joe Rogan and all his idiocy. There are people who actually know what they're talking about on our side. So that is the origin story. This is a harder question. Do you think we will ever see true justice come for Trump? They said Trump, not Trump, but I assume they mean Trump. His administration, his family, the Republicans and billionaires who allowed him to dismantle democracy and grift up the American people. If not, what do you think will happen to them? So this is a hard question. And I think Donald Trump, because of his health, is probably not going to be around long enough to face criminal justice. That is just a fact. He is a very obese 80-year-old who eats horribly according to the HHS secretary. He doesn't have a great family history of living long time either. So I don't think he is probably going to face a lot of criminal responsibilities. He does have the fact that he is an adjudicated rapist. We have that. He is a naffelin. But I will say, for anybody who's running for president on the Democratic side, they have to, part of their plank has to go after this criminal activity, this grifting and this like handing contracts to the Trump family without, with no big contracts, all this stuff that's going on. So while I don't think Donald Trump probably will, because he is a weasley little bastard and will probably get out of it, we have to make sure that the people who are complicit in this illegal activity face justice and go to prison if they are found guilty. So that's how I think about that. Okay. This is one that I liked from earlier and I'm going to give you the exact same answer. Every week at work, a question is written on the board directly across from my cubicle. And here is the question. How do you cook your bacon? My mom is listening over there if you just heard her tackle. She likes this one. I'm going to tell you, you bake it. You don't put it on a pan. You bake it. I don't like it super crispy. That's the best way to get the best texture or the best flavor. And it's also the least messy. So that's what I would tell you 350, 375 for like, I don't know, 15 minutes, something like that. That's what I would do. Very serious question. I know. This is a harder question, way harder. I'm reading these in a timeline. So that's why you're getting serious and not serious. How do we reinvigorate the American, they say ethos, but I think they mean ethos, to inspire people across party lines to amplify progress. There are many ugly things that this administration has revealed about how our country operates. But in your view, how do we revive the American spirit? Well, this actually was a hard one for me to answer earlier and I'm going to try again. And the reality is, until we break the MAGA fever, I actually don't know how we do. But if we can, I think there are things that both sides agree on that we can come together on and say we need to fix the government needs to work more efficiently and effectively. I agree that I worked in the federal government for five years. There are easy things that we could do to make it work more effectively. I think that we need to make sure that people understand why the federal government needs to protect people's civil rights, which this administration has completely gutted. We have to explain when you take that away and you look at the gerrymandering that's happening across the South, Alabama, Louisiana, all these places, Tennessee are taking votes away from black people. And we need to explain why that needed to be put in place in the first place in the South because of the 1960s, they had also gerrymandered districts and made sure that black voices did not have a majority in any districts. We have to explain to people why we need those things back because representation matters, not just for people who look like me. So if we can do some of those things and it's going to take a long time, I think we can start to bring people back, but we have to break the MAGA like cult of personality in order to do that. And I don't really know how to do that exactly, but that's what we have to do. All right, another question. Okay, we have better policies. How do we get Americans back on our side? And I have an easy answer to that. Support progressive, left leading independent media. We started this because we knew our message wasn't getting out and we needed to communicate directly to people who were not hearing why democratic policies were good for them. So you have to support people that are doing these types of things. And we have a whole host of friends. First of all, if you could afford a membership with us, you should do that. But there are also people like Kasein Rashid, Mike Nellis. There are so many people out of Mockler. I'm forgetting a bunch in my head. They're all going to yell at me for not putting them listed on here. But the reality is like, you have to fund the people who are pushing the messages that you agree with, because they have to pay the bills. And I have to pay the bills. I have a family. I'm doing this clearing my house with this wild background. And we have to make money in order to do this. So you have to support independent media. We do that. We get those messages out. We get a megaphone. We will win. So someone asked me about, this actually worked out really well. Someone asked me who I was hiring from 60 Minutes. So this is a story I wanted to talk about because this shows how conservatives are getting into mainstream media and destroying institutions that people have come to rely on for accurate information that it hasn't had any bias at all. And what we're seeing right now at CBS, so the Ellison family, which is a right wing family, bought CBS or Paramount, and they put Barry Weiss, who is a right wing hatchet nutcase in charge of CBS News. She runs this thing called the Free Press, which essentially is just like right wing propaganda. And they have brought her in to essentially do what Donald Trump asked, which is to destroy CBS. And she is actively doing that. She's basically neutered CBS Evening News, which has lost millions of viewers. And then just today, she fired Scott Pelley from 60 Minutes, which 60 Minutes is the most profitable show that CBS has outside of, I don't know, probably syndication with Two and a Half Men or some other dumb show like that. And she fired the main guy because he dared to stand up and question what she was doing at her hiring of Nick Bilton, who is just a journalist, has no experience in TV, no experience running a newsroom. So he stood up and said, why are you qualified? Why are you destroying this? And all the people in the room were either clapping, applauding, laughing. Today, they fired him. Maybe the biggest cash cow that CBS has. And Scott Pelley is the pinnacle. Like Anderson Cooper had just left. Leslie Stahl's been gone. She may come back. She may not. We don't know. They've destroyed it. So Scott Pelley, you got fired today. I can't afford you, really. I can't give you any money. Be perfectly honest. But if you want us to run a podcast for you, you can be at the top of the billing. We'll drop the Find Out podcast down. Scott, you could be the number one person. I don't care. But I have a feeling that you are going to get a very generous offer from somebody who has deeper pockets than we do. But if you need a home, let's chat. Okay. Let's see. What else we got? What is the one policy that Democrats should be screaming through the raptors relentlessly? This is easy. Anti-corruption. Anything related to anti-corruption. Do we want to ban stock trades from members of Congress? Absolutely. That should be one. Whoever is running for president and gets the nomination should be willing to give powers back to Congress. And the war powers, the fact that we can, the president can now wage war without Congress. I want to see somebody running for president that says, no, we need actually Congress congressional approval like we used to. I need somebody that's willing to give up something. And I think that will be a very powerful message. But the stock trading thing should be a flat, no stock trades, no wiggle room, no ifs ands or buts. That's what they should have. And I think the anti-corruption stuff is hugely important. We talked to the executive director of Next Gen America the other day about the focus groups that she did with young men and they all said corruption was the number one issue for them. They thought that Trump was a mob boss and that like none of this is above the board. So hitting anti-corruption, I think is the most important thing that Democrats can do. Someone asked if Ken Martin should resign. And this is a hard question for me because I have met Ken a few times. He's been very gracious to us. We've also seen some missteps. And the answer that I have to this is I don't know. And part of the reason is that anybody who is the DNC chair is going to be unpopular because really their main job is to raise money. It is not to win. It is not to like, you know, make get the right candidates and positions. It is a behind the scenes job. So if he's raising money, great. If he's not, then we need to talk about it. But I think for most people, like he has been very friendly to creators and influencers and independent media, which is very important. He allowed us to use the DNC studios for our State of the Union live show, which no one else was going to do and allowed us to do whatever the hell we wanted. That there was no message or like no restrictions or anything like that. That is the type of stuff that the DNC needs to be doing more. So like, while I understand that the autopsy thing was embarrassing and pathetic and all of that. And I think he probably got caught in the middle and he should have just like, released the stupid thing earlier. But who do you want in your place? And what do you want to see as the result? And that is the most important question. If you don't know the answer to that, then you should just say, let's keep Ken. He's been putting money into the state parties, which has been a miss for a long time. I say, let's keep going. We're also in June and November is the election changing now. Kind of feels familiar to 2024, right? But like, we don't need to do that. Campaigns know what they need to do. We need to raise money. If it's bad in November, we change. If it's good, we don't. That's generally how it goes. So that is what I'm going to say. Any advice on how to beat outsiders of MAGA? Our governor primary in Iowa has Trump's picks suddenly crushed by a pretty damn racist guy running on population and backed by Tucker Carlson and Turning Point USA. I'm legit terrified. There's no hope for Iowa with our registration disadvantages. I want to talk about Iowa because Luke is from Iowa. We've talked, Luke has talked a lot about this and he's talked to a lot of the people running, including Rob Sands, who just made the is the Democratic nominee. I think there are potentially five pickups in Iowa, the Senate race, the governor's race and three congressional districts. I think that they have picked some very extreme people on the Republican side. And let's not forget, Barack Obama won Iowa in 2012. That was only 14 years ago. That's not that long. So there are opportunities there. And so we need to make sure that all five of those candidates have the resources that they need to run their campaigns effectively. And I think that we will pick off a few of them. We have also talked at the Find Out podcast of potentially doing a live show in Iowa to help galvanize a different type of Democrat than I think the parties are used to. More men leading, maybe a little bit younger as well. And so we may be going to Iowa in the fall. So I am very bullish on Iowa. I think that we can win at least two of the five of those, if not three. And if you run three, then all of a sudden you might get all of them. So, yes, I agree. Some of those candidates are terrible on the Republican side, but it also gives us an opportunity to pick up those seats. All right, let's keep going. Oh, we only have two more questions left. And then I can go to bed. How do we build a better, more ethical media ecosystem? The conversations in the last pod really highlighted the need for change in how Democratic, liberal progressives get their message out, especially to younger generations. It's sort of what I said before, supporting media companies like ours. So Find Out media has four shows. We are partisan. We are not an unbiased place. Our goal is to make sure that more Democrats win and that we bring more people into the fold. So part of it is making sure that folks like us, folks like Kaseem Rashid, Mike, and all of these people get the resources they need to continue to keep going and talk about these things. Like I said, our shows get downloaded tens of thousands of times a month, which is great. But our clips from our shows are eight to 10 million after only a few months. Now imagine another year from now, we're probably looking at 20 million, then you go to 30 million. But we need the resources and we need to make sure that everybody in this ecosystem is getting funded as well. So if you could afford a subscription, which is just $9.99 a month, whether it's on Substack or YouTube or Patreon, that helps us keep going. And that means we can do more stuff. Because if the money runs out for us, those eight to 10 million clips go to zero. So we need the money. The other folks doing this work need the money. We need to fund it just like Republicans have done for a long time. And then finally, maybe the hardest question that I've ever been asked, and I still do not really know the answer, who is my dream guest? I don't know. I answered it earlier, and I'm going to give you the same answer as I gave earlier, because it feels like cheating if I don't. But, you know, we basically get to interview anybody we want on the show from the political perspective. So like, dream guests on the political side, it's sort of like, yeah, I would love to talk to Barack Obama. I would love to talk to any former president, Bill Clinton as well. I don't really want to talk to George W. Bush or Hillary Clinton or Kamala. All of those would be great. But at some point, I think we will get big enough that we could do that. So is that really a dream guest? It's probably not. So then you start going into is it sports? Is it music? Is it movies? And then there's a whole host of people that I think would be really, really interesting to talk to. I mean, I think like on the movie side, of course, George Clooney would be an amazing person to talk to, especially with his wife being as remarkable as she is. Or, you know, who else in the movie world? Tom Hanks, of course, like these people would be amazing. Music, for me, is probably where it gets the most exciting. And there's probably there's a few people that I would say are the are the ones that I would be like in all of talking to. And that's sort of if you're talking about dream guests, you sort of need to be in awe. And I think my answer to that, because he is probably the most famous person on the planet, even though he's 84 years old, would be Paul McCartney, who is somebody who has been famous for literally over 60 years. And everyone loves seems like a nice guy. That would be incredible. I'd also love to talk to actually one of these guys I have talked to, but I would love to talk to Brian May and Roger Taylor from Queen because they are probably my favorite band and I would love to hear from them. I actually was a I had a bit of a pen pal relationship with Brian May after the Obama campaign, because he saw I was on the campaign, and we were kind of exchanging messages. I'd love for them to come on because I have so many questions for them. But that's probably it. I mean, you know, sports wise, most of the people I like from sports are probably not democratically aligned like Tom Brady or Rob Kronkowski or Larry Byrd or somebody like that. But those are probably the answers that I would give. So with that, I think I made it. I really hope my video or my audio is working this time, because if I just rambled for 35 minutes, I'm going to be very upset. But I think we made it. I think I'm hoping this is not the worst episode that I have ever filmed. It is very hard to do this solo. I really rely on the other guys to do the back and forth and I could actually take a break and actually like look at my phone and realize what we're talking about. So but I thought, you know, I had a couple of guests in mind and it didn't really work out. And so I was like, you know what, let's see if I could actually ramble. I talk a lot anyways, so let's see if we could do it. So we've made it 35 minutes. So I think I'm done. And I am going to sleep very hard tonight, because this was a lot. But I want to thank you for sticking around. Let me know what you think. Also, please make sure if you haven't signed up with the Find Out Media Social App, you do that. That's where we're going to be asking people's questions. We're going to actually do a lot of engaging. So if you go either to the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store, just type find out social and you could download it, you'll get access immediately. Also, if you can afford a membership, we would greatly appreciate that that helps us keep the lights on. And if you're not subscribed to our sub stack, which is our daily email, let's make sure you do that to find out media.substack.com. And with that, I'm going to wrap. I'm just probably going to go lay on the floor and sleep because this is very tiring to do. But I want to thank you all for doing this. I hope to God I never have to do this again. But I appreciate you all sticking around. We will be back on Tuesday, actually with Congresswoman Sarah Jacobs, who is going to be on to talk about some AI legislation that she's introducing to make sure that we hold AI companies accountable and put some regulations around them so they don't run around wild and put data centers in places people don't want them and do all these things that nobody wants. So have a great weekend, everybody. We'll be back on Tuesday with Congresswoman Sarah Jacobs from California. Talk to you soon. Bye, everybody. Society. You'll always find us in tune with you. The Cambridge Building Society. Mortgages and savings. We can work it out.