Jon Stewart & Mark Cuban Talk 2024 Politics, Healthcare, Crypto and AI | The Weekly Show

MARK CUBAN: Another great question, Jon Stewart. JON STEWART: Boom. Come on. End of year, baby. Let's do this. Hey, everybody. Welcome once again. It is the final Weekly Show pod-a-palooza, at the end. of this very tumultuous 2024. We've been delighted that you have stuck around. and that you've listened to these fine conversations. as much as you can.

And I hope that you've enjoyed it. And we're going to keep going. We're going to be on ourselves a little bit of a break. Some rumors that I am taking a few weeks to soak. in the Juan Soto signing. No, that's not true. That's not true. I knew it was coming. Listen, when you're a Mets fan, you expect the best. You expect it all to go your way. You're like a Gatsby. [LAUGHS] No, it was a complete and utter shock and joy.

But we are going to do our final conversation. for this year with our go to dude. who does our final conversations, Mark Cuban. As you know, we had Bernie Sanders on last week. We like to go from Bernie Sanders to Mark Cuban. You go from the Democratic socialist to the billionaire. and you hope that the audience does not sustain a groin. pull in that transition. But a really interesting guy, really smart guy, and I'm really looking forward to the conversation.

And I hope you guys are, too. So let's just get on damn to it. [MUSIC PLAYING]. Ladies and gentlemen, it is our annual Weekly Show pod wrap up. As per tradition, Mark Cuban will be joining us. He is the co-founder of Cost Plus Drugs. Mark Cuban, welcome to The Weekly. Show pod year end roundup. MARK CUBAN: Thanks for having me, Jon. JON STEWART: From now on, I am only. going to introduce you as co-founder of Cost Plus Drugs.

As far as I'm concerned, Mavericks, Shark Tank, billionaire, none of that. It's co-founder Cost Plus Drugs. MARK CUBAN: That's all I care about. JON STEWART: That's all we care about. Mark Cuban, the year has ended. This has been a tumultuous, a tumultuous year. for you personally. You've changed in terms of you're done with Shark Tank. now. Have you taped your last episode? MARK CUBAN: I have taped my last episode. I'll have to do some updates for some of the companies. I invested in. But in terms of sitting in the chair, done.

JON STEWART: Now, at the end of it, was there a dog pile? What was the type of celebration that. was done to end your reign? MARK CUBAN: It was cake and alcohol. and a little going away party. So it was fun. JON STEWART: All right. Fair enough. Fair enough. No nudity, I'm assuming. It was all above board. It was all parental consent and--. MARK CUBAN: I have an NDA. I have an NDA. JON STEWART: And absolutely a wise choice. The one thing I want to ask you about. You stepped into the political arena in a way. that you have not in the past.

What was your experience like there? Did it leave you wanting more? Did it leave you cynical? What was your experience being a surrogate. on the political circuit? MARK CUBAN: I mean, it didn't leave me wanting more, that's for sure. But it wasn't cynical either. I kind of enjoyed it. I mean, it was a unique experience. I loved going out there and talking to people about America. and what I'd hoped the future would look like, how.

businesses would impact them. And the Harris campaign had me talking primarily. to small to medium sized businesses who were. not Kamala Harris supporters. So I got to respond to their questions. and talk about the economy and businesses. and starting companies. And I really enjoyed it. JON STEWART: When you talk to small business and medium. business, what are the frustrations and complaints. that you hear the most? Are they anything that surprised you about that? MARK CUBAN: No, there were no surprises at all.

I mean, small business people are just trying. to get by, for the most part. And, I kind of got into my rote approach. where I talked about the fact that there were 33 million. businesses in the country. 98% of them are small businesses. that are pass through and 98% of them make $400,000 or less. JON STEWART: Profit? Or are you talking about that's net or that's--. MARK CUBAN: No, that's net. That's work you earn. Because if it's a pass through business, that individual entrepreneur or the entrepreneur.

is making $400,000 or less. And that's a magic number, because remember, Kamala Harris said if you make $400,000 or less, your taxes weren't going up. They potentially were only going down. So that was an important component of the discussion. And then we talked about potential tariffs. And I tried to project out and say, look, if it's a year from now and it's December of 2025. and you're in the retail business, as an example, if there are 60% tariffs on products from China,

how is that going to impact your Christmas selling season? Nobody said, oh, that's a great thing. And how does that impact you as a family? Now all of a sudden, all your Christmas. presents or most of your Christmas presents. cost 60% more. You're going to be able to not buy as much. You're buying less. And so not only are you not going. to be happy as a family, but the vendors. that you deal with, the retailers, the online buy, whatever it may be, they're not going to sell as much either. So there's a cascading impact.

And then I would go into immigration. And I was honest. I would not let the Harris campaign tell me what to say. They would try to give me notes and I would say, I don't care. [LAUGHS]. JON STEWART: That's what they always. want from a surrogate is for them to go like, hey, man, screw your notes. I'm just going to say--. were you able to have any influence on policy at all? I know there was some discrepancy. between unrealized gains and that was something you thought. was kind of a nonstarter.

Did you have some influence on policy there? MARK CUBAN: I think I did. I mean, I talked a lot about unrealized gains. And when I went out there and said, for the first time, it was ridiculous. And I went back and spoke to them and said, I'm not hearing you guys challenge me at all. And they're like, well, you're saying things that we'd. like to say, but we can't say. So I kept on going with it. So I took that as tacit approval and went with it. So that was one area. Another area was crypto. I mean, I was very clear early on. that there was data from Pew Research that said at least 40%.

of young men were into crypto. And the way I explained it to them. wasn't a big picture crypto thing at all. I was like, look, for a 21-year-old kid, particularly men these days, they're not like we were when. we were growing up, where it was a rite. of passage to open up a bank account. or to get a savings account. Now they download Robinhood or Coinbase or some app. and they live in an app economy. And if you downloaded Robinhood or Coinbase, you're buying crypto over stocks.

and you're buying crypto not just because you want. to see it go up, but because it makes you part of a community. Dogecoin is a meme stock and everybody talks about it. Bitcoin, whatever it may be. And so if these young men have their entire net worth tied up. in crypto and you've got an SEC head Gary Gensler. doing everything possible to reduce. the value of their net worth. And everything they read in those apps. about what's happening to the price of their crypto.

is driven and talked about relating to Gary Gensler, they're not going to vote for you. And I said it to Gary Gensler directly. I said it to Kamala. I said it to her team that Gary Gensler. could cost her the election. And there's an argument to be made. when you look at the numbers. A whole lot of young men voted against Kamala Harris. And I think crypto had a lot to do with it. JON STEWART: So you're saying the conventional wisdom, which is she should have gone on Joe Rogan's podcast, is wrong.

She should have gone on Gary Gensler's podcast. and told him what was happening there. Now, as someone who is--. I understand slightly about blockchain. and I certainly understand the utility of something like that. In terms of crypto, look, if you talk about young men. and on apps, as far as I can see, they're also on FanDuel and all these other gambling apps. So explain to me, help me understand why this isn't just. a random gamble for these young men that isn't going to come.

back and bite them in the ass. What's the underpinnings of it? And why is it better than just jumping on FanDuel. and trying to hit a parlay on Saquon Barkley, which we won't get into? MARK CUBAN: Well, there are a lot of analogies. I'm not going to argue with that. But think about gold. I mean, all that gold we have in Fort Knox. It's not because the United States government. is betting on how much jewelry is. going to be sold at Christmas. [LAUGHS]. JON STEWART: I hope not.

MARK CUBAN: Right. I mean, there's no intrinsic value to gold other. than we say there is intrinsic value to gold. JON STEWART: I see. MARK CUBAN: Gold is a store of value. And so people hope it goes up. There's some people who think that if there's. a catastrophe and the economy craters, then gold will retain its value. But it's not like you can walk around with a bar of gold. like it's 1822 and you slice off a little sliver. and you weigh it. Someone's just going to knock you. out and take your bar of gold. JON STEWART: That's how I've been. getting at the supermarket.

I've been slicing my gold, getting my eggs. MARK CUBAN: A little sniffle for you, a little sniffle for you. JON STEWART: That's what I'm talking about. MARK CUBAN: So let me translate that to Bitcoin. JON STEWART: Yeah. MARK CUBAN: OK. Bitcoin has become a store of value. It's marketed that way and has been marketed for the last 15. years or whatever it is. And it's gotten to a point of acceptance, just like way, way back when gold got to a point of acceptance. as an alternative for legal currency. or as a foundation behind legal currency.

Bitcoin has kind of taken that place, and it makes more sense in a lot of respects. You're not going to carry around that bar of gold, but you can carry around your phone, as an example, that has Bitcoin on it. And if you need to transfer value to somebody else, it's easier to do it right now, particularly. if you're 21, with Bitcoin than it is with gold. So there truly is an economic value there. JON STEWART: But now we have between gold and Bitcoin, there's this other thing that we have, which is currency. And is this meant to augment that, to replace that?

What are the transactions that are. made better by using either Bitcoin. or crypto or those things? What need is it filling, I guess, is my point? MARK CUBAN: Well, it's faster and cheaper, particularly. for international exchanges. So if you're in, pick a country, and you're like, Mark, I need something to spend. I need some money. It's a whole lot easier for me to send. you $100 in Bitcoin or Ethereum or USDC than it is in cash.

JON STEWART: Now, is the idea then that what would happen. with, say, an Apple Pay or something along those lines, that stores will begin to adopt a technology so that its use. becomes more convenient even at if I'm running down to Wawa. and I want to grab myself an iced tea? MARK CUBAN: So let's talk about two different things here. JON STEWART: That's two different things. OK, OK. By the way, I apologize for making you do this remedially. MARK CUBAN: No, that's OK. I like it. JON STEWART: I really don't know it so well,

and I would like to know it. MARK CUBAN: So just think of Bitcoin like digital gold. Period, end of story. JON STEWART: Oh. MARK CUBAN: It's just built on supply and demand. Only the difference is people are still mining gold. and it's physical. You have to pull it out of the ground. There's a lot of cost associated with that. Bitcoin is all digital, but it's. limited in the number of bitcoins that will. ever be created to 21 million. JON STEWART: Now, who limits that? Is there an overseeing body that makes--. MARK CUBAN: No. That was part of the original plan. That's the way it was designed originally.

So right now there are about 19.8. million Bitcoin out there minus what's been lost along the way. JON STEWART: How do you lose it? MARK CUBAN: So early on, you might have bought a bunch. of Bitcoin in 2012 for $0.10 each, didn't think twice about it, threw away that phone, and you. had 10,000 Bitcoin on there. JON STEWART: Oh, dear God. MARK CUBAN: Yeah. So there's stories about people literally. who put hard drives into trash heaps and lost it. And now we're searching in trash piles looking for it. But that's Bitcoin, and it's just supply and demand.

that defines what it's worth. So right now, the price is near $100,000. That means a lot more people are buying it than selling it. Very analogous to gold. So then there are other cryptos. Ethereum is one that I also own a bunch of. And the difference with Ethereum. is it really takes advantage of the blockchain, but it adds something called smart contracts. And what a smart contract is, it allows activity to be. triggered by other activity.

So for instance, I won't go into deep details, but if I want to create an NFT and use that for books, let's say for textbooks. That smart contract associated with that NFT. has specific features about it. One of the unique features that are part. of the Ethereum and smart contracts and NFTs. is they can pay royalties. So if Jon Stewart writes a book for a college. and it's a textbook on accounting,

right now it's got to be physical. And then you go to the bookstore. and you buy a used copy. But for every used copy that's sold and resold--. JON STEWART: Or an ebook that they would download. or something. MARK CUBAN: Right. Well, the physical copies, you don't. make another nickel in royalties. as it's sold and resold. If you do it as a digital version using Ethereum. in a smart contract in an NFT, the royalties. can be paid on and on and on and on. again as that digital textbook is resold. JON STEWART: Is this something that's been applied.

yet to music publishing? Because that seems like it would. cure an awful lot of the difficulties. in the royalties of music publishing. MARK CUBAN: Yeah, and all IP, for that matter. But the reality is it's only been done on a small scale. The challenge for crypto right now, in all candor, it hasn't had its Instagram moment. If you remember going back to the original App Store in 2009, I think it was, there weren't a lot of people downloading. apps for their smartphones. I mean, unless you were really geeky and into it.

But then all of a sudden, Instagram came along. and grandma and grandpa and mom and dad needed it. Then Facebook had an app. And so that really got people into smartphones. and using and downloading apps. We haven't had that moment with crypto yet. That's still something that has ultimate utility. for everyone and anyone, that doesn't exist yet. And that's kind of the ongoing hope. But now let's tie that back to Gary Gensler. So all these people trying to come up.

with apps that run on smart contracts. on top of Ethereum, Solana, whatever it may be, whatever. form of crypto it may be, Gary Gensler. wanted to call all forms of that a security. JON STEWART: Right. He wanted to regulate it like you would regulate stocks, for those that are-- OK. MARK CUBAN: And in some cases, they were securities. If you're selling them to raise money for a business, that's a security. Nobody's arguing that. But if you happen to buy an NFT as a textbook,

he wanted to call that a security as well. If you use your Solana or Matic, or not Ethereum, but let's say Solana or Matic, two smaller cryptocurrencies, to purchase something online, he wanted to call. that a security as well. And as a result, that sent a lot of developers who were. trying to create these new smart contract apps out. of the United States to other parts of the world, Singapore,

Japan, Korea, you name it, to start. companies that otherwise would have been in the United States. I had two companies that actually left the US to do. their development because they could just sell to crypto. enthusiasts and users in other countries. and not worry about it here. JON STEWART: I feel like this is. turning into digital currency for dummies. And unfortunately, I'm the dummy. who doesn't quite understand. So in my mind, and this is perhaps.

rigid thinking to a large extent, what can we put in place? If it's not a securities regime that has regulation, what do you put in place that can protect people who want. to invest in this but are--. in the way that the government would put in FDIC protections. if you had a certain amount of money in there. Are there protections that you think would be worthwhile? MARK CUBAN: Well yeah, sure. JON STEWART: At what level would. those regulations become too onerous. and start to stifle the creativity?

MARK CUBAN: So, I have this company called lazy.com. So all it is, is a place for you to show your NFTs. So if you go to lazy.com/mcuban, you get. to see the NFTs that I own. I wanted to register it with the SEC. to make sure they didn't come after me in the event I. decided to raise money. When you go in and start filling out the forms, you find out immediately that it's apples and oranges. You're trying to fit the round into the square,

and it just doesn't work. And so all the crypto industry has. asked for is to modify the forms and the regulations. to be suitable to crypto. It's not that we don't want to register. It's just like oil and energy has got their own special set. of forms with the SEC. Finance has got their own special set of forms. Crypto needs a special set of forms. That's all anybody's asked for. JON STEWART: You don't want somebody to start regulating it. that doesn't understand it as a commodity. And this gets into the larger question that maybe ties. together the two things that we're talking about,

which is your experience in that political arena. and also your experience within these sort of new, more higher. tech financial industries. And that is with democracy being at best an analog system, sort of designed for the slow temperance and the idea. of chewing on these checks and balances and all these things. It is so outmatched by this new digital economy.

And was there ever a thought? I've always kind of in my mind dreamed. about this almost bureaucratic moonshot, a kind. of Manhattan Project to help. And I imagine you saw this when you talked to small businesses. Regulation is typically the domain of larger companies. They're the ones that make regulations complicated. Poor people don't. Middle class people don't. Small businesses don't make it complicated. It's people that have two floors of lawyers that. bring in all these loopholes.

Do you see a pathway through to create a governmental moonshot. like that, that can clean out a lot of these regulations. that are hurting the small businesses. but still protect them? MARK CUBAN: So that's a deep, deep, deep question. JON STEWART: Or is that DOGE? Is that what the DOGE is? MARK CUBAN: That's a deep question, because regulatory capture is a real thing. The bigger companies can introduce. regulations that make it harder for the smaller companies. to compete.

They can introduce friction that makes filling out forms. and all these things very much more. difficult to even get started. JON STEWART: And state and local. that you pile on top of that. I mean, it kind of really rolls like a snowball down a hill. MARK CUBAN: Yeah, and that's where AI more than crypto. Look, just to wrap up on the crypto side, there's this thing called DAO, D-A-O. Distributed Autonomous Organization. I think is what it stands for. And with DAOs, it's really easy to set it up so. that for anything to happen within that blockchain.

or within that organization with those smart contracts. has to be voted on. And it's voted on by people who actually own. the cryptocurrency, which could be--. well, it's not Doge, but there's other. types of cryptos that--. JON STEWART: So it's a crowdsourced regulatory idea? MARK CUBAN: Yeah, I wouldn't call it crowdsourced, but it's a progressive's dream. From each according to their ability, to each. It's everybody gets an equal vote. And whatever the group decides.

And it's up to the DAO to set up the principles of it. and what's voted on and is it a majority, a super majority, whatever it may be. And then you get to decide. And that goes into evolving that digital currency. or the digital applications that are there. So that's on one side. Those haven't really taken off. I really thought they would a lot more than they did, but they have not. Then there's using AI. And so there are things like NEPA, which. go into the environmental protection stuff.

to try to find out if there's a little frog. or whatever before something's built. In my opinion, in the conversations I had with some. of the Harris folks, is that's where. AI really, really can apply. Because there's a process designed for the people in NEPA. who go through and determine what should be approved. and what data is required and what friction should be added. or what friction should be removed. Artificial intelligence is great for that. All the rules that the individuals on those councils.

and boards that make those determinations, they have rules that they follow. They have guidebooks that they follow. JON STEWART: It's onerous. MARK CUBAN: Yeah, it's onerous. There's tons of bureaucracy, but tons of data there. You put that into artificial intelligence, into a large language model, and you use that to train. the large language model. And then when a new project comes along, you set up agents which then feed. the questions and the answers and the answers. to the responses to that new organization, whatever.

it is they may be building. JON STEWART: Does that abdicate our autonomy? Because I was looking at it like common sense. If you remember in Pennsylvania, this was not very long ago. There was a huge fire on 95 and the highway collapsed. Under the typical regulatory regimes, you're talking about 5 or 10 years of incredibly expensive. bureaucratic red tape. And this really important artery. for interstate commerce and all these other things.

would have been closed down. At some level through common sense, the governor just said, fuck it, we're just going to build it, and it was done in 10. days or something like that. And it really demonstrated--. MARK CUBAN: That it can be done. JON STEWART: How government could be more agile. And do we need to rely on some large language model. or should we just look at things and go, oh, we. need housing. And we're crushing our ability to create, allow the markets. to create this or to do those things.

through these other regulations. MARK CUBAN: All the above. Because there was the bridge in Baltimore, there was a bridge in Pittsburgh where. the same things happened. They turned around quickly. The challenge is who makes that decision? When it's obvious, it's easy. When it's not so obvious, it's far more difficult. And so that's where the AI comes in. and large language models. Because across the breadth, however many instances. of evaluations that need to take place across the country, you don't want individuals having to make those decisions.

JON STEWART: But I thought that's the whole point. I thought the whole point of people running for office. is that they've got a vision and they earn. our trust as opposed to AI. And this, again, may be more of the Luddite's. view of not understanding. MARK CUBAN: No, it's-- yeah. JON STEWART: Of AI. I'm nervous about abdicating that. At least with people, there is a certain regime. of accountability that we can bring through. I can't vote out a large language model. MARK CUBAN: No, this is the Soylent.

Green thing, because it was--. JON STEWART: Wait, what? We're eating people now? Oh no. MARK CUBAN: Because it was the people, the politicians that made those decisions who. got us where we are right now. And so there's never, in my mind, a question. that if you give somebody power, they're going to take that power and want more. If you're using AI, you wouldn't. use it for the final decision. You would use it for all the administrivia that happens. between the application being made.

and the point where a presentation is. made to a board of some sort who. would make the final decision. JON STEWART: You're not removing people. So let's put it in an athletic analogous model. We're talking a little bit about analytics, then. It's really more about here are the analytics, here are the different metrics that we're. going to plug into this, and now we're going to hand it over. to the GM or the managers or whoever. it is that's responsible for these things. And it's a tool to help them make more informed decisions.

MARK CUBAN: Right. Because you're all using the same data. and the same precedents. There's nothing that all of a sudden just presented itself. So if it's replicated over and over with the same data. within that same realm, that's perfect application for AI, but you don't want to be completely dependent on AI. because it's hard to know the genealogy of the decision. Meaning what exactly went into the final determination. that the AI spit out? So then that's where you have your board who says,

OK, this is what the AI recommends. We have these additional comments to make. on additional concerns. And then the board makes the final decision. But you consolidate that review process from what in some cases. could be years, a decade. JON STEWART: You're talking about condensing. a bureaucratic process through this new tool that allows you. to make these decisions at a much more rapid pace. as opposed to just abdicating to the computer. goes, don't rebuild the bridge.

And you're like, yes, master. No bridge. No bridge. MARK CUBAN: Yeah. You still want some human intervention. You need some common sense. And AIs can do a lot of things, but they're. best with repetitive things and best. with taking vast volumes of data and information. and applying those to processes. And so let the AI do what the AI can do, but leave the final decision to people. who understand the context. JON STEWART: Here's the $64,000 question then.

As the AI condenses that, you're. talking about a great deal of human legwork and sweat equity. that goes into these things. What happens to that labor? Is the speed of that worth the cataclysm that you're going. to have in white collar--. in the way that, let's say, industrialization changed. the economy over 100 years. Globalization changed it over decades. But it had, as we saw, devastating effect.

for the manufacturing base. Does AI devastate white collar work, but in a very condensed form? MARK CUBAN: So if your job is answering. the question yes or no all the time, AI is going to have an impact. If your job requires you to think, AI won't have much of an impact. JON STEWART: Really? MARK CUBAN: Yeah. So in this particular case, let's go. back to the NEPA type example. Somebody's got to make sure the model is. getting all the information and that it's.

structured correctly and--. JON STEWART: It's all data entry. We all become data entry. MARK CUBAN: Not even just, no, it's not even just typing. It takes intellectual capacity. So somebody who understands what the goal is, somebody who's been doing this for years, has got to be able to input feedback on everything. that the models collect and are trained on. You don't just assume the model knows everything. You want somebody to check, to grade their responses. and make corrections. And so while that model is being developed and trained,

there's a huge need for people to contribute value. The better example is if you want an artificial intelligence. that talks about Shakespeare and spits out things. about Shakespeare, someone's got to teach it, contribute. the nuanced things that you're not going to find. just from reading their books. JON STEWART: Don't you think it's already got--. I always get the sense that the AI models have already sucked. up whatever 15,000 years of human existence we have. and they've already moved on.

I feel like the AI models are like, what else you got, man? What else you got? Songs? What else you got? MARK CUBAN: No, it's the exact opposite right now. And here's the real problem. I'm glad you brought this up. Another great question, Jon Stewart. JON STEWART: Boom. Come on. End of year, baby. Let's do this. MARK CUBAN: Bam. OK, so IP. You've seen The New York Times and others. sue different creators of large language models. like OpenAI, Meta, et cetera, because they just automatically. went out and spidered and input their text.

and their intellectual property into their models. Intellectual property is still owned by the creator. And so you're not going to find the models being able to just. go out and get everything. Everything that was on the internet up to this minute, whatever it is that was openly available. and stuff that's added that's openly available, yes. But imagine you want--. JON STEWART: Wait, AI cannot get past a paywall? Is that what I'm hearing. I'm hearing that AI, it gets to a place to go, oh, I can't read this article.

Aw. I'm not a subscriber. MARK CUBAN: The AIs go, where's my credit card? No, but thinking in terms of medicine. And so your MD Anderson or your Stanford Medical. or pick all the different UPMC. And you have a doctor or research that's. really good in this specialty. You're not going to just say to Meta or OpenAI or Google, hey, you just take it for your medical models. You just go ahead and take it. You're going to say, no, I'll do my own.

I don't need you. And I'll take my specialty. Let's just say my specialty is oncology and cancer. I'm all these experts and I'm going to create my own model. I'll go out and use an open source model. that's spidered everything that's. open and free on the internet. But I'm going to add all the expertise that I have. and all the expertise that I create in the future. so that it is specific to me and I can charge for it. or use it however I deem fit. And what's going to end up happening is within medicine, some of the models will pay.

If you pay the Mayo Clinic enough money, they'll let you have that stuff. And others will want to retain it as part of their brand. JON STEWART: Right. MARK CUBAN: On a bigger picture, there are going to be millions of models. Right now we see it as OpenAI. We see it as Gemini, Meta, whatever it is, these big foundational models. But the reality is there's going to be millions of them. Jon Stewart's going to have a model. JON STEWART: Oh, I've got like five of them in the backyard. right now. I'm working on.

MARK CUBAN: Artificial intelligence. JON STEWART: Let's use the flip side of this. So you've got people looking to use these for analytics. or to shorten the bureaucratic space between making decisions. or to increase productivity or efficiency. Just recently we saw the anger erupt in this country. This young kid assassinates a health care executive. And underneath that, the big surprise is the level of anger,

the level of sympathy for the kid, and the level of anger against these algorithms. that are now being deployed, not to make things more. efficient, but to help them deny coverage. or to not pay certain things. And that's the counterweight, is it not? MARK CUBAN: Well, yes And no. I just did this big post on Bluesky. mcuban on Bluesky, if you want to read it. JON STEWART: I don't even know how to log on to it. MARK CUBAN: It's easy. JON STEWART: I know I'm supposed to migrate there.

I have no idea how to get on it. MARK CUBAN: Yeah, it's actually a great platform. Just download that app, Bluesky. JON STEWART: All right. MARK CUBAN: But in any event, the bigger. question is, why are we putting insurance. companies in that role? JON STEWART: The role of denying? I thought that's--. MARK CUBAN: Preauthorizations. Why would anybody hire an insurance. company who tries to make money by reducing. the amount they pay out? That's their interest. Why would we ask them to do preauthorizations? JON STEWART: That's the whole business model.

That's what we're trying to get out of. I completely agree. MARK CUBAN: Right. But the whole point is probably half the people who are covered. in this country, the insurance companies are involved, but they don't really act as insurance companies. JON STEWART: Well, they're adversarial. MARK CUBAN: Well, no, what I'm saying is, there are 50 million lives covered. by self-insured organizations, from companies. to unions, whatever it may be. And they use insurance companies. for their network, all the hospitals they put together,

and for their apps. But they also use them to do the preauthorizations. And my question to them has been, over the past four. or five months, has been why are you using insurance. companies for preauthorizations when you, CEO of that union. or company, are basically the ones that make. that decision whether or not you're. willing to pay for it or not? JON STEWART: But there are so many different ways that money. is sucked out of that system. You're talking about money out of your paycheck.

to pay a premium that has a deductible. So you're still paying--. MARK CUBAN: Let me just tell you how insane our health care. JON STEWART: It's truly insane. MARK CUBAN: Right. This is something, like, was mind boggling to me. I was almost this many days old when I found this out. When you think about your deductible, your copay, and your coinsurance, what it is you. have to pay up to before the company kicks in, your copay is. specific amount to see a doctor or your coinsurance,

like on original Medicare where you have to pay 20%. or some percentage of the total. JON STEWART: That's right. MARK CUBAN: Do you know who accepts the default. risk on all of that? JON STEWART: I would assume the patient. MARK CUBAN: No, the hospitals and the doctors. take that credit risk. And they literally, yes, it's insane. JON STEWART: But then why are patients going. bankrupt when they can't? MARK CUBAN: So that's what happens. So we're turning hospitals and doctors into subprime lenders.

without assets against them. JON STEWART: Oh, Jesus. OK, I see where you're going. MARK CUBAN: Right. So now play it out. You're a hospital. When I talk to hospitals, a lot of them, they have default rates are 50% to 60% or more, depending on where the hospital is located. So now this hospital has the deductibles, copays, and coinsurance that they are supposed. to be paid by the patient. They don't collect on it. So a couple things happen downstream from there. One, they turn into a mortgage servicer. where they try to collect it.

And it makes them look bad. They hate being put in that position, because there's no upside. Maybe you collect some money, but on the downside, the patients hate you. The whole world hates you because of all the patient debt. and medical debt and bankruptcies as a result. But when you can't collect them, what do you do to compensate for that lack of revenue? You jack up your fucking price. JON STEWART: Right. So we're all subsidizing this system of delinquency,

to some extent. MARK CUBAN: No, nobody. It's just the hospitals accept that risk. And I guess you could say we subsidize it when. you cash pay a higher price. JON STEWART: Well, that's what I'm saying. If they're jacking up their prices. and either insurance pays it or you pay it, that's subsidizing this much larger. default rate in a system. MARK CUBAN: But it gets worse. It gets worse. And so now these providers, the hospitals and doctors, they negotiate with the big insurance companies. And it's fascinating.

If you walk into a hospital to pay for an MRI, as an example, and you don't mention your insurance, you just say, I want a cash price, they'll probably say it's $350 to $450, depending on where you live. That same hospital will negotiate. with what they call the BUCAs, the big insurance companies. For that same thing, they'll negotiate a price of $2,000. JON STEWART: What? MARK CUBAN: Yeah. So you would think that big insurance company negotiating. with the hospital and that insurance company. covers millions of lives.

They insure or deal with--. JON STEWART: Why wouldn't they negotiate that if it's. a bulk thing to $100? Why would it be higher? MARK CUBAN: Because the hospital needs the insurance. company as a sales funnel to bring patients in so. they can pay their bills. And the insurance company wants that price. to be higher, particularly for things like the ACA, because the ACA requires for all the plans they cover. that they spend up to 85%. JON STEWART: How is this not collusion then?

If both sides need it to be higher, that's colluding on a certain price. And beyond that--. MARK CUBAN: But it's by law the way the ACA works. So think about this, Jon. So somebody who gets an individual plan on the ACA, say one of the bronze plans, which is the least effective. And it has a $9,000 deductible. So this individual can't afford much in premiums, decides. they want a 9,000 deductible. You know who's truly subsidizing that deductible? The fucking hospital. JON STEWART: Wow.

MARK CUBAN: And when you get your insurance or anybody gets. insurance from a big company and they show you five, six, seven different plans and one of them is $1,500 deductible, but you're 25, and so you take the $5,000 deductible. Who takes on that risk of the $1,500 versus the $5,000? The doctors in the hospitals. JON STEWART: But you still pay the price on your credit score. and on a bankruptcy. MARK CUBAN: Yes. Now there's a limit. Only if it's above 500. They changed some of the rules. And for some of the lost money by the hospital,

there's this thing called dish payments that the government. will give the hospital to try to make up for it, but it doesn't. JON STEWART: But isn't the whole fucking system, Mark, isn't it all, especially with the ACA, a bribe? Isn't it a governmental bribe to give to hospitals. and insurance companies to say, as a way of saying people. with pre-existing conditions have to be able to get. themselves some coverage. The whole thing is almost a trillion dollar bribe.

And when you look at the levels of profits that are rolling. through these insurance companies, clearly we find ourselves in an unsustainable moment. MARK CUBAN: Clearly, clearly. But it's worse than that. Because it's the government making the determination. of which insurance plans that they approve for Medicare. and Medicare Advantage. JON STEWART: Well, that's when they. tried to privatize Medicare. I don't understand. With the satisfaction most people had with Medicare, now they've gone to privatizing that Part.

D or whatever they call it. And that's starting to--. let's back up for a second, because this. brings us to a very interesting point. that I want to ask you about. All right. It seems to me that with all the checks and balances. within the government, legislative, judicial, executive, all those different things, the one thing. the founders didn't really add into the equation. is corporate power. This idea that there has to be an entity that is large enough.

to, in some ways, be a counterweight to unfettered--. the system we've chosen for progress and money. is incredibly efficient at creating wealth, but it has a lot of collateral damage. MARK CUBAN: Yeah. So here's the thing. JON STEWART: Yes. MARK CUBAN: The government can work OK. if it's an efficient, transparent market. If it's not efficient and transparent, even though it's big and you would think it can. negotiate well, it doesn't. JON STEWART: But it doesn't because the lobbyists. and the money and the billionaires.

that are putting their money to lobby against the government. MARK CUBAN: No. Government just isn't smart enough sometimes. to make the obvious decision. We're only going to do business with you, pharmacy benefit manager, if you publish us exact prices. And we're not going to allow you to use rebates if you want. to do business with us, because we'll just go to the pass. through PBMs. JON STEWART: Right. MARK CUBAN: The government has choices. They just don't choose to make the obvious and best choice. JON STEWART: And you wouldn't say that big money.

influencing politicians is the largest. driver of those bad decisions? MARK CUBAN: No, certainly for sure. JON STEWART: Yeah, OK. That's what it seems like. MARK CUBAN: There's no innocents. There's nobody with clean hands in any of this. Everybody has their role. So then the question that Bernie was on here, again, he'd be like, well, single payer, Medicare for all. That's where we're going. JON STEWART: That's what he would suggest. And I tend to agree with him. Or at least a governmental system for all that. allows for private insurance outside of it. MARK CUBAN: The question is, how do you get there?

How do you get there? And who are the participants that are making it work? JON STEWART: AI with a team of experts. MARK CUBAN: AI would be better than the people. we have negotiating right now. Because we are in this form of government with this republic. that we have and there's so many influences and so. many constituencies that have to be appeased, you're not going to get an optimal system. And so the only way to get through that.

is to educate the people who have an influence. So for instance, I'm going out there and talking to CEOs. and I'm saying, look, you self-insure. and you're hiring this insurance company. to do preauthorizations that only. make your life more miserable because your employees are. upset. HR is upset. When at the end of the day, you're paying for it anyways. JON STEWART: But that's not how it's incentivized. Even that guy, the big thing about that guy that was killed. was he turned that company a giant profit.

by putting in those algorithms that were denying coverage. MARK CUBAN: But who hired him to do that is the question? He got that opportunity to do it. and he's grabbing all the money he can, but who hired him to do the preauthorization process? That's the question people aren't asking, and that needs to be answered. JON STEWART: So when you talk to--. you've talked to Vivek Ramaswamy. He's on the DOGE board and Elon's doing the DOGE board. What do you think their mindset is about--. is their mindset to go into government.

and say, look, we need government. to make better decisions. I think for a long time, people have. felt that, that feeling that we're not. getting value for the money and that there's. inefficiencies there. I think we look at it as a system that's. been co-opted and corrupted. So what is the mindset going in there. Is it a Silicon Valley efficiency model? Because government does have this responsibility in a way. that business never would for people's well-being.

MARK CUBAN: Yeah, it's to be determined. There's a couple elements there. Number one is the deficit. Elon and others on both sides have. rightfully said it's a threat. It's a problem. But the reality is--. JON STEWART: Even with interest rates coming down, you think it's still? MARK CUBAN: But see, that's exactly where I was going. Because even if interest rates come down a little bit, interest rates are the majority of the ongoing annual expense. And interest rates will come down some, but they're not going to come all the way down because that.

will inflate the economy again and create other issues. and create more inflation. And Donald Trump, I don't think, is going to want to see that during his term. Which is why Elon, at one point on Twitter, someone said, we could see a collapse in the first two years. And Elon said, most likely or something to that effect. JON STEWART: A collapse of what? MARK CUBAN: Of the economy. Of the economy. Because if the economy collapses. like we saw during COVID, what happened to interest rates? Interest rates collapse as well.

JON STEWART: Sure. I mean, no economic activity. Everyone's going to want that. But in 2008, the government collapsed the interest. rates so that the people at the top could get that free money. I think--. MARK CUBAN: Well, whatever it is, whatever it is, that's the only way you're going to have. a dramatic impact on the debt. JON STEWART: Well, let's look at it this way. Let's flip it to there's a lot of people. and it's this modern monetary policy. MARK CUBAN: MMT, yeah. JON STEWART: Where they talk about that the deficit. doesn't matter because--. and I tend to be sympathetic to this.

You can print money. And why are we selling this debt to other people anyway? Why don't we buy it ourselves? I mean, it's all kind of a shell game to begin with. Why not make it easier on ourselves. to pay that down through the minting? MARK CUBAN: Yeah, just play more money. But now all of a sudden, more money. is in the economy and the economy re-inflates. And you start then having to--. JON STEWART: You think MMT does not-- you're. not a proponent of that. MARK CUBAN: No, actually, I read the books.

I talked to the people behind it. When interest rates were 0 or near 0, it made 100% sense. When interest rates skyrocketed to where they are now, it doesn't make sense. Because even if you just printed all that money, the government can't just print money. They have to borrow money even in. a fractionalized environment. There has to be some reason to do it. It's not like there's a printing. press that just goes brr. JON STEWART: I'm going to blow your mind here. We've created this new market of cryptocurrency and Bitcoin.

and all these other things that kind of has in some respects. out of nothing made something. What if that was utilized to bring. down those more troublesome aspects of deficits? Because we do need a government to spend. to help stimulate certain things, to stabilize people, to do things that have real value in people's lives. MARK CUBAN: Sure.

But there's still-- debits and credits still have to balance. And I'm not the economist who can. give you a detailed analysis of all this stuff. JON STEWART: By the way, they can't either. They just do it in a really smug, shitty way. MARK CUBAN: But I just look at it just as a business guy. And if we were just-- you still got to balance things. And so in order to print that money, we got to borrow it from someone, even if it's ourselves. And that inflates the balance sheet. and that creates other problems with inflation. JON STEWART: Right. MARK CUBAN: Because think of it this way, Jon.

Look at Zimbabwe and all these other third world. countries that tried to do the exact same thing. JON STEWART: But that's different. They were coming out of a place from very little stability. I mean, I think--. MARK CUBAN: No, it's not even about stability. JON STEWART: What undergirds our financial system is. the stability of our political system. And if you start to undermine that stability, I think by paying that off, you continue to reinforce. the infrastructure and stability of your system, which.

creates in and of itself, I mean, so much of this. is perception. MARK CUBAN: Yeah, but the economists will tell you--. JON STEWART: Look what's happening. in Argentina right now. So Malay goes in there and he's got that more libertarian, he's got four dogs named after Hayek. and whoever other economists are going that. He goes and he dives into an austerity plan. MARK CUBAN: [INAUDIBLE] program, yeah. JON STEWART: They plunge their inflation rate. but drives them into a recession. and creates a political crisis. MARK CUBAN: And more poverty, et cetera.

And he probably argued the opposite, but still--. JON STEWART: I understand. MARK CUBAN: But if you're going to print a lot of money, you are going to have a lot of inflation. And again, I'm not the economist, but I don't see that as being a significant positive. I think if you have 26%, 30%, 50% inflation, your stability goes out the door. JON STEWART: Even if you did a one time reset? You looked at this is not going to be an ongoing thing. But as Krugman would say, I've got a trillion coin.

And it turns out I'll just flip that thing over there, and we've cleaned it out a little bit, and we're going to give ourselves a little bit more. of a fresh start. MARK CUBAN: I don't think that works. But again, maybe there's an angle there that I don't know. JON STEWART: Because I know you love to spend. your time thinking about this. And I thank you so much. We probably went off the rails on crypto. and I've learned an awful lot. You still don't consider yourself, though, a viable political player. MARK CUBAN: No, no.

JON STEWART: And having that experience, do you think being. on the trail for the Harris campaign. really dissuaded you of that ever as a possibility? MARK CUBAN: No, I loved it. It wasn't that. It's my family. I mean, look at all the shit they're doing, that they did to JD Vance. I don't want my kids hear me about me fucking a couch. or what I was doing. JON STEWART: That's really a you issue, though, more than anything. MARK CUBAN: It was a nice couch. It was a nice couch. I took it to dinner. JON STEWART: Listen, man, do you really.

think that as a viable political candidate. you would take more shit than you take today? MARK CUBAN: Oh yeah. JON STEWART: I mean, there's no question the amount. of shit you take today. Just getting involved with the Harris campaign. was extraordinary. I mean, they went after you like crazy. As everybody, look, I take it just from being. on fucking basic cable. It's extraordinary the reach of that now. MARK CUBAN: Yeah, I mean, but it was mostly on Twitter. I'm fine with that. But if they go after my kids and my family and dealing. with that.

My kids are 15, 18, and 21 now. And more importantly than that, I want to be around them. That's a key reason why sold a big chunk of the Mavs, why I got out of Shark Tank. Shark Tank films June and September. By kids get out of school in June, go back in September. I missed birthdays. I mean, that's fucked up, and it bothered me to no end. And like our conversations, I get into this stuff. I always want to-- going even back to Elon and Vivek, there's a difference between just deficit.

reduction, which seems to be their focus, and problem solving. In between there is efficiency. You always want to be more efficient with whatever tools, people, or AI, whatever it takes, you want to be more efficient. But the question becomes, how do you solve problems? And what problems are you trying to solve? Because at the end of the day, that's. what we're trying to give our taxpayer. money to the government for to solve problems that we. need solved. JON STEWART: But that's the kind of thinking, though, that's so crucial. Because there's two sides of the coin. One is profligate spending from the government.

that doesn't consider--. I had a conversation with a Deputy Secretary of Defense, where we were talking about the $850 billion budget. And you would have thought I asked what. underwear she was wearing. Her response to being questioned. about the lack of passing an audit on $850 billion dollars. MARK CUBAN: Multiple times. Multiple times. JON STEWART: Just went like, how dare you? Do you even know what an audit is? And I'm like, I thought I did, but maybe I don't.

But the arrogance of it was wild. So the idea of connecting spending to value. But the flip side of that is the idea. of cutting spending with no discernment for value either. It's one thing to say I'm getting rid of the Department. of Education. It's another thing to say, here are. the aspects of the Department of Education that are viable. MARK CUBAN: 100%. JON STEWART: Here's the aspects that are wasteful. Hopefully, do you think it will be that considered a process? Or will it be just a giant reaper that goes through?

MARK CUBAN: Here's what I think happens, and this is just my guess. I think they go in trying to have a big PR impact. We're cutting this and we're cutting that. And they'll find the things that have always had notoriety. The $1,200 toilet type things, the $800,000 mice experiment, whatever it may be. And we'll chop those. And then from there, they'll have to actually think. They'll have to actually dig in.

And they'll have to find ways to measure. what they're evaluating. And that's going to be the challenge. JON STEWART: Efficacy. Yeah. MARK CUBAN: Yeah, because how could. you determine if it's efficient or not or if you've improved. efficiency unless you measure and you come up with benchmarks. that everybody agrees on? Because they're going to be taking. money away from Republican districts as well. JON STEWART: Or maybe they won't. I mean, maybe this will be another one of those, like, how can we fuck New York? How can we kill them? MARK CUBAN: Well, yeah, but then come the midterms,

it's a whole different conversation. And I think they understand that they've only. got two years to do something. JON STEWART: Absolutely. And it's already, listen, it's as. tight as squeeze in the House of Representatives. as you could ever imagine. I think they've got a little breathing room in the Senate, but that's designed in such an undemocratic way. that it can present a difficulty to begin with. But Mark Cuban, my God, I know you're a busy, man. I'm going to let you go. Next time you're in town, you got. to come and let me get some face time at a pizza joint.

I'll learn more about all this crypto and everything else. I appreciate it so much. You're our end of year go to, and I can't thank you enough. As always, really wonderful to talk to you. MARK CUBAN: Thanks for having me on, Jon. Love it. I love our conversations. Great questions, as always. JON STEWART: Good to see you, brother. MARK CUBAN: You too, man. Take care. JON STEWART: Talk to you later. All right. Final pod conversation of the year. We are joined, of course, by our great producer,

Lauren Walker, Brittany Mehmedovic and Gillian Spear. And what a good first date. Not even a first date. That might have been a third date with me and Cuban. I think did we consummate? GILLIAN SPEAR: Every first date somebody brings up crypto. That's just [INAUDIBLE]. BRITTANY MEHMEDOVIC: It's definitely on mind. with all the finance bros. JON STEWART: Are you saying that that date. was a cliche, Gillian? GILLIAN SPEAR: No, it's just it was a very modern date. JON STEWART: It was. I guess I'm looking for a man in finance. [LAUGHTER].

GILLIAN SPEAR: And boy did you find him. JON STEWART: And boy, did I find him. Do you understand any of that, by the way? I hated to have him walk me through it. like I'm a crypto kindergartner, but it was helpful for me to sort of understand. what the idea of it is. And it really does seem to be just an agreed upon, the idea that it's been agreed upon. We've agreed upon that this has value. We've agreed upon a system in which it will be traded,

and we're going to keep the innovation going. Are you guys in the crypto? Are you finance bros? LAUREN WALKER: I have Beanie Babies. Does that count? JON STEWART: See, how is it not Beanie Babies is my--. GILLIAN SPEAR: I'm with you, Jon, where to me, it still seems like a solution. in search of a problem. And what Mark was saying about you're in a foreign country. and somebody needs to send you money. It's like, bank transfer me. I'll go to an ATM. I have a credit card.

I don't know what sums of money we're talking about. I don't know if this is like a Liam Neeson in Taken situation. I can't find a use for it. JON STEWART: Gillian, you're dead on right. And I swear to you, and thank God I didn't go there, but I was like, you mean like Western Union? You go there in a telegram and you tell a friend, telegraph me a cashier's check for $150. But it really is one of those things where at its heart,

and I understand that it's popular, but you really are like, it's kind of a mass illusion. And then when he starts talking about gold, then you're like, oh, the whole fucking system is a mass illusion. And maybe it's nice that they're. kind of creating a new one. And maybe that supplants it or just injects. more wealth into what can only be considered. the bro podcast world. And maybe that's--. GILLIAN SPEAR: Business is booming. JON STEWART: Exactly.

LAUREN WALKER: What he was saying about AI. really stood out to me. The fact that no one in the white collar world. is going to be affected by AI. But it's just not true and it's already happening. And I was just thinking back to back at The Problem, we had talked to someone who works at a helpline for people. with eating disorders. And her group tried to unionize because they'd been overworked, and they got replaced by AI. And when they called in--.

JON STEWART: At a helpline? LAUREN WALKER: And when they called in, the AI that the place had started using. was not working properly and within a few interactions. was suggesting calorie counting. And that was years ago. JON STEWART: Holly shit. LAUREN WALKER: You understand how quickly this all develops. I know friends who have lost jobs. It's already happening. GILLIAN SPEAR: It's so crazy. I feel like so many of these tech people, they'll point to these historical examples.

of technology coming along and people losing their jobs. and how they were then redistributed into other parts. of the economy. And it's like, yeah, I get that, but you're also the same people arguing that this. is the most-- this is the biggest. technological innovation since fire. So you don't get to have it both ways where. you're like, this is the biggest thing since fire, but also ATMs. They didn't ruin bank tellers. JON STEWART: Do you think fire, when fire came out, people were like, I'm going to lose my heating job? [LAUGHTER].

Remember? I'm the guy who walks around and rubs everybody's hands. Now fire is going to fuck it all up for me. GILLIAN SPEAR: And those people never recovered, Jon. JON STEWART: Well, even that, the dystopian aspect of oh. yeah, no, you got to plug AI into whether. or not to fix the road. And you're like, mm. There's an accountability in government. that, well, it'll be a tool to help. But yeah, you're right. I think they haven't quite figured it out. And I think when you are on that cutting. edge of innovation, there is an exuberance,

irrational and otherwise, that comes along with it. And it's hard not to get swept up in that enthusiasm. I'm assuming that that's what angel investor. meetings look like. But at some level, stepping back and going, hey, just so we're clear here, you're. saying that the computer controls the entire hospital. and decides what oxygen to turn on and turn. off through analytics? Because it is, that algorithm is what was denying. everybody insurance coverage. GILLIAN SPEAR: Absolutely.

BRITTANY MEHMEDOVIC: You want some listener questions? JON STEWART: Let's hit them, man. This is end of year, come at me, bro. Whatever they got, man, I'm handling it. We're getting out of here. We'll have a few weeks to recover. Let's fucking do this. BRITTANY MEHMEDOVIC: All right. This one's a come at me, bro. Jon, it seems like you're projecting a little bit. What do you think you did wrong this year? JON STEWART: Oh wow. You mean they're asking for self-reflection?

BRITTANY MEHMEDOVIC: Perhaps. JON STEWART: Well, you guys know this. I get annoyed at myself for being a little high horsey. And you get a little of the sanctimony in there. So I try to relax sometimes on the certainty of my opinions. And the contrarian thing I can--. I really do feel like if you threw me in a room. with somebody who wanted to argue AI was going. to destroy us all, I'd be the guy who'd be like,

it will save us. And then you throw me in a room with a guy. who's like, it'll save us, and I'll be like, it will destroy us. I think I have a fucking Fiddler on the Roof. problem, which is that on the one hand, but on the other hand. So yeah, I've done a lot wrong this year, but I've had an awful lot of fun doing it. BRITTANY MEHMEDOVIC: That's all that matters. JON STEWART: All right. What else we got? Anything? BRITTANY MEHMEDOVIC: Other than our lovely guest. that we've just had on, who's your favorite billionaire.

and why? JON STEWART: Oh wow. A favorite billionaire. You know, I wonder if I more than one. I've talked to him. I've talked to Elon. I don't know. I'm trying to think if there's another billionaire. I probably do know them. I just don't know. You know who I would say? Seinfeld. He's actually pretty close to probably. being a billionaire and funny as shit. He might be the funniest billionaire. BRITTANY MEHMEDOVIC: OK. JON STEWART: Yeah.

And he generally doesn't try and chip. us or he doesn't try and like do. other billionaire shit to us. So I give him credit on that. GILLIAN SPEAR: Well, Steve Cohen just did. something really nice for you. JON STEWART: Oh. Yes. GILLIAN SPEAR: And he's listening, waiting for you. JON STEWART: That is my favorite billionaire. I didn't even think of that. He got me Juan Soto for my birthday. GILLIAN SPEAR: Yeah, wealth redistribution. JON STEWART: Yeah, I don't really know. I've met him a couple of times. I met him once. We did a-- boy, this ties together the whole thing.

We did a charity dinner. It was Stand Up For Heroes. And they bid on different things. And one of the things was could bid on a dinner with myself. and Jim Gaffigan and Seinfeld and Louis CK pre thing. So Steve Cohen bid on it. And normally when people bid on something. like that, it never fucking, they never like, it's just a way for them to just give the money. Cohen was like, you're coming to Rayo's.

So he made us go. And I remember we went and it ended up, for obvious reasons, being Steve, Seinfeld, Gaffigan, and me. And I remember making the joke to Jerry saying, jeez, I can't believe the lengths that Louis went. to to get out of this dinner. [LAUGHTER]. But yeah, that was my experience there.

Yeah, good to have a billionaire owner of a team. you like. BRITTANY MEHMEDOVIC: Well, that actually. ties into this next question. JON STEWART: All right, let's bring it. BRITTANY MEHMEDOVIC: How many World Series. do the Mets have to win to consider Juan. Soto deal a good investment? JON STEWART: Any. [LAUGHS]. If you can just give us five years of good baseball. You don't understand. The Mets are not--. this isn't the Yankees of a tradition of 26 championships. and every year we're in the playoffs. We come at it, we suck. And then every now and again come out of nowhere.

Suck, suck, suck, championship in '69. Got to the World Series I think in '73 but didn't make it. and weren't very good that year, had a miraculous recovery. '86. Suck, suck, suck. Then all of a sudden '84, '85, '86, they were good. Never got back there again. Were good through like a little bit of the '90s. Got to the World Series again in 2000. We're not a history of steady accomplishment. So if this dude just comes in here. and raises the baseline level of our team to non--.

I used to take the kids to the last game of the season. every year at Citi Field, because you. had the run of the place. GILLIAN SPEAR: That's what I'm going to miss. I'm going to miss cheap baseball tickets in New York. JON STEWART: Do you think he'll raise the prices? GILLIAN SPEAR: I just think more people will go. I could go on StubHub and get $15 not bad seats. JON STEWART: Really? That's a really good deal. GILLIAN SPEAR: I always wait till the last minute to buy.

tickets to the Mets games because people have gotten. depressed at a certain point. JON STEWART: And they're just giving them away. They'll pay you to go there. BRITTANY MEHMEDOVIC: All right. What's the better holiday, Christmas or Hanukkah? JON STEWART: That's just not even-- we're. not even in the same ballpark. That's like when Tracy--. when I got married and when we had kids, we were like, what are we going to do? She's like, oh, we're going to celebrate all the holidays. But she knew how I was about to get swamped. I'm literally saying to the kids, all right, everybody.

who wants to light a candle? And she's just like, look at all. the presents under the tree. When there's little kids around, like when my kids were little, like Maggie. with Elf on a Shelf. I will forever be grateful. We once got one and we got a stewardess on a plane to--. we had brought Maggie's Elf on a Shelf. We were traveling somewhere. And the stewardess came out of the cockpit going,

does anyone know who this is? And we have a picture of Maggie's face. She's just going, [GASPS]. The magic of it. I mean. GILLIAN SPEAR: I thought she'd be like, how. did that narc find me here? [LAUGHTER]. JON STEWART: At six, she was not dark. She didn't have a stash. So there was no--. but that's a fine point. But you guys, I hope you have a great holiday.

But let me just say, boy, the work that you guys have done. And I hope that the listeners understand. that I have the part, like, I stand on the shoulders. of real workers. You guys put together such phenomenal work this year. and allowed me to just really-- you know what's. the best part of it, I think? Because you all are so diligent and thorough and curious, it allows me to have that backing that I can just. be present in the conversations, which.

is the best gift for somebody who's interviewing somebody. is to feel like the work that's been done for you is so. thorough and interesting that you can just then plop it out. and let the conversation flow. So thank you, guys. GILLIAN SPEAR: Thank you, Jon. JON STEWART: So much. And enjoy your holiday. Brittany, what are the socials? BRITTANY MEHMEDOVIC: Twitter, we are WeeklyShowPod. Instagram, Threads, and TikTok, we are WeeklyShowPodcast.

Drum roll, please. We are on Bluesky WeeklyShowPodcast. JON STEWART: That's what Cuban was talking about the Bluesky. there. BRITTANY MEHMEDOVIC: Exactly. We're on it. And then you can like and subscribe. our YouTube channel, The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart. JON STEWART: Boom. All right, kids. Lead producer Lauren Walker, producer. Brittany Mehmedovic, video editor and engineer, Rob Vitolo. Audio editor and engineer, Nicole Boyce. And to the two of them, top fucking shelf. You guys have been crushing it all year.

And Rob, congrats on the baby's first holiday. Enjoy that. Researcher and associate producer, Gillian Spear. And as always, our executive producers, Chris McShane, Caity Gray. That is all for The Weekly Show pod 2024. We will see you guys on the flip side on 2025. And thanks again for everything. Bye. The Weekly Show With Jon Stewart. is a Comedy Central podcast that's produced by Paramount. Audio and Busboy Productions.

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