Mehdi Hasan: The Freedom to Speak

What do Premier League football, corporate newsrooms, and 90s action movies have in common? More than you’d think, apparently. This week, Trevor and Eugene sit down with award-winning journalist, broadcaster, and Zeteo founder Mehdi Hasan to discuss fandom, media, and the strange ways everything connects. They debate the beautiful absurdity of sports loyalty, the pressures and limitations of corporate TV, and Mehdi’s decision to leave that world behind and build an independent platform of his own. Then, because no conversation is complete without a few unexpected detours, the three dive into a surprisingly passionate debate over the glory days of classic action movies.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:04Trevor Noah?

  Jean-Claude Van Damme, I mean, come on, he's not, he's not Jason Statham.

• 0:08Speaker 01

  Whoa!

• 0:08Trevor Noah?

  Ah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 0:10Speaker 01

  Are you kidding me? Yo, what? JCVD versus Jason Statham?

• 0:14Trevor Noah?

  First of all-

• 0:14Speaker 01

  Statham would kick his arse!

• 0:15Trevor Noah?

  My friend, okay, let me start, let me start by saying this.

• 0:17Speaker 01

  Go on.

• 0:18Trevor Noah?

  You're stupid.

• 0:19Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 0:20Trevor Noah?

  Secondly, secondly, Jean-Claude Van Damme, my friend, you-

• 0:25Speaker 01

  I grew up watching Jean-Claude Van Damme.

• 0:26Trevor Noah?

  You have the memory of a goldfish.

• 0:27Speaker 01

  No, I didn't, I can tell you every film now, Bloodsport.

• 0:29Trevor Noah?

  My friend-

• 0:29Speaker 01

  I can watch Bloodsport again every day.

• 0:31Trevor Noah?

  There is no world-

• 0:31Speaker 01

  Double Impact, twin brothers in Hong Kong.

• 0:33Trevor Noah?

  There is no world where you can make a statement as, will it be a close fight? Yes. Would it be a tough fight?

• 0:38Speaker 01

  Time Cop.

• 0:39Trevor Noah?

  My friend, there is no world-

• 0:41Speaker 01

  There's no scenario you watch more JCVD films than I have. I watch him now, that, the B shit that goes straight to, goes straight to streaming, where he's like an old assassin retired, I watch that shit too. I watch all of this stuff.

• 0:51Trevor Noah?

  What disabilities do you have? In what world? You did the hand. In what world are you gonna- What, what, what did happen to him?

• 0:57Speaker 01

  What was going on with him there? Like, I don't know.

• 0:59Trevor Noah?

  Oh, he's bringing a gun, he's bringing a gun.

• 1:00Speaker 01

  Like, he has a gun now, cause he, cause he can't do splits and kick anyone, cause he's fucking old?

• 1:04Trevor Noah?

  Cause you said he's old and you did this with your hand.

• 1:05Speaker 01

  Yeah, then you did that.

• 1:06Trevor Noah?

  I don't know what that was. That's like just a- I don't know what else.

• 1:08Speaker 01

  But, he's Jason Statham.

• 1:09Trevor Noah?

  In what world?

• 1:10Speaker 01

  Jason Statham would kick his arse.

• 1:11Trevor Noah?

  No way!

• 1:12Speaker 01

  Are you talking, are you serious? You think this Belgian dancer is gonna take out-

• 1:17Trevor Noah?

  You think this British, you think this British diver- You think this British diver is gonna beat kick boxer? With cheesy lines like-

• 1:24Speaker 01

  What are you talking about? Yo, what are you talking about?

• 1:27Trevor Noah?

  On a chubby.

• 1:28Speaker 01

  This guy's not serious, bruh.

• 1:29Trevor Noah?

  You're insane! Do you know Tongpo?

• 1:31Speaker 01

  Ah, my man, you're playing games, you. Have you seen Universal Soldier?

• 1:34Trevor Noah?

  My, my man, I've watched all of them, these are the only movies we had in South Africa.

• 1:36Speaker 01

  I think Dolph Lundgren would have kicked Jean-Claude Van Damme's-

• 1:38Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, but that's a tough one, but that's a tough, that's why-

• 1:41Speaker 01

  I'll give you Lundgren.

• 1:42Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, but I'm saying that-

• 1:42Speaker 01

  But I won't give you Van Damme.

• 1:57Trevor Noah?

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• 2:40Trevor Noah?

  but still ending up wasting your time digging through five different apps just to actually find it. Thankfully, Google Pixel 11 is designed with Gemini Intelligence, so it can proactively find the information I need right when I need it. Like my flight info on travel days or my calendar when Eugene texts me to hang out. Oh, sorry Eugene, I'm booked. Learn more about what Google Pixel 11 can do at googlestore.com. These AI features are available in select countries and languages for users 18 and over, and make sure to check responses. You have booked forever, forever.

• 3:20Trevor Noah?

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• 3:24Trevor Noah?

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• 4:09Trevor Noah?

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• 4:38Trevor Noah?

  What's the, what's the language rules on this show? You speak, the language you speak? Okay. How many languages do you speak?

• 4:47Speaker 01

  One and a half.

• 4:48Trevor Noah?

  What's the half?

• 4:48Speaker 01

  Urdu.

• 4:49Trevor Noah?

  Oh, okay, alright. We are known as the Urdu swearing podcast.

• 4:54Speaker 01

  I don't know, I, I don't worry. You were, when you did your famous India-Pakistan dodgy accent, that was on every, every Indian WhatsApp group I was on got that clip. Don't worry, I remember it well.

• 5:06Speaker 01

  You did like a Bollywood in the middle. You did like a Bollywood. It was in the middle of the war.

• 5:09Trevor Noah?

  What did you do? Got flamed for that.

• 5:10Speaker 01

  He did like, in the middle of the war, he went, he did like a Bollywood breakout of the soldiers. He like mocked Indian Pakistani soldiers doing Bollywood.

• 5:17Trevor Noah?

  No, no, no, no, no. I didn't, didn't mock them. Mehdi, Mehdi.

• 5:19Speaker 01

  What was it? I can't remember.

• 5:20Trevor Noah?

  Come on, Mehdi, you are the man of facts.

• 5:22Speaker 01

  Not anymore, I can't remember anything. I have early onset dementia. By the way, I have a hard out at 4:25, my friend, because I gotta catch a train or my wife will kill me.

• 5:31Trevor Noah?

  Let's do it, man.

• 5:32Speaker 01

  She's already upset with me. Let's not make her more upset.

• 5:34Trevor Noah?

  Oh, man, why is she upset with you?

• 5:35Speaker 01

  Because I'm always traveling. So I said, I'll be home tonight, 8 o'clock. So I gotta make the 5 o'clock train.

• 5:40Trevor Noah?

  Did you think you would work less or more when you started your own thing?

• 5:43Speaker 01

  I thought I would work more, not this much more.

• 5:46Trevor Noah?

  Insanely more. Yeah, and I will say congratulations on all of your success, Mehdi Hasan.

• 5:50Speaker 01

  I appreciate it, same to you.

• 5:51Trevor Noah?

  Does it feel like, uh, does it feel like freedom or does it feel like a different kind of burden?

• 5:55Speaker 01

  No, no, freedom.

• 5:56Trevor Noah?

  Yeah?

• 5:56Speaker 01

  Always freedom.

• 5:58Trevor Noah?

  Did you, did you ever see this for yourself?

• 6:00Speaker 01

  Have we started?

• 6:01Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, what do you mean?

• 6:01Speaker 01

  I love, I love, this is the weirdest podcast I've ever done.

• 6:04Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, that's what I'm talking about.

• 6:07Speaker 01

  What's going on here? You just lulled me into it.

• 6:10Trevor Noah?

  What do you mean lulled?

• 6:11Speaker 01

  What if I said something outrageous that I wasn't supposed to say? What if I wanted to say some shit?

• 6:14Trevor Noah?

  Say some shit, so wait, so wait, wait, let me understand this. So you, you, you don't.

• 6:18Speaker 01

  Now I'm all buttoned up. Nah. I'm ready to go. What would you like to talk about on the media front?

• 6:22Trevor Noah?

  You see now, uh, you see now, Midi.

• 6:24Speaker 01

  You should have admitted that we were on.

• 6:26Trevor Noah?

  Now we must cut the cameras and then go back to the previous Midi Hasan. That's not what we're doing here.

• 6:30Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 6:31Trevor Noah?

  That's not, that's literally not what we're doing here.

• 6:33Speaker 01

  What we're doing.

• 6:33Trevor Noah?

  No, we're doing.

• 6:34Speaker 01

  I'm a free man.

• 6:35Trevor Noah?

  You see, so be free.

• 6:36Speaker 01

  I'm free from corporate slavery, servitude, domination. I get to say whatever I want. I get to do whatever I want. I don't have to look over my shoulder. It is liberating.

• 6:46Trevor Noah?

  What do you think you couldn't say before that you can't say now?

• 6:49Speaker 01

  Lots of things. I can say, uh, I can say whatever I want.

• 6:53Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, but what, what couldn't you say before? Do you remember a specific thing where you were like, oh damn, I couldn't say this before?

• 6:57Speaker 01

  Oh, I think, well, if you know anything about corporate media, and you do, because you worked in it as well, you know that it doesn't come down as a set of rules. It comes down as kind of, you know, maybe you shouldn't say this or that. I mean, there are obviously rules.

• 7:10Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 7:10Speaker 01

  I went to NBC News, which has a very strong standards department, which I respect.

• 7:13Trevor Noah?

  Oh, no, that's different. Standards is different.

• 7:15Speaker 01

  Standards is different, but then there's also, you know, things like, you know, you're not supposed to swear. That's obviously.

• 7:18Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, but I mean, that I can understand.

• 7:20Speaker 01

  And I understand that too. But obviously, if you look at, for example, the New York Times.

• 7:23Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 7:23Speaker 01

  Intercept got hold of a memo at the early days of the genocide where they were saying, don't say occupation, don't say apartheid, don't say genocide. This was their guidance to reporters, like that kind of bullshit. When I set up Zeteo in 2024, the first thing I said was, I get to say the G word, the F word and the R word. Genocide, fascism and racism, which corporate media runs away from. They do, you can't call Donald Trump a racist. You don't know what's in his heart. You can't say it's a genocide. That's, that's a little, that's a little inflammatory, even though every genocide scholar in the world pretty much now says it's a genocide. So this kind of crap, you know, fascism, I was one of the first people on MSNBC to say the F word. August 2020, I was sitting in for Chris Hayes. It was the Portland protest, George Floyd protest. And I said, we need to say fascism. And at the time, people are, this is hyperbolic. What are you talking about? He's not Hitler.

• 8:08Speaker 01

  Now it's kind of, his own team have pretty much said he's a fascist.

• 8:11Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, but, so here's what I think it is. I, I understand it, even though I don't agree with it most of the time. I think what happens is people don't understand that.

• 8:23Trevor Noah?

  It's something that shifts. It's not something that happens. Does this make sense?

• 8:27Speaker 01

  No.

• 8:27Trevor Noah?

  Fascism or any of the, so everyone thinks that fascism happens overnight.

• 8:31Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 8:31Trevor Noah?

  Everyone thinks that, even things like, you know, take it out of politics. Being broke or being an alcoholic or be, people think those things just happen overnight, but it's not. It's the one thing that leads to the next thing. It's the second drink, the third drink, the fifth drink. Two nights a week, three nights a week, four nights a week. So when you say it on night two of the person drinking. Alcoholic, people are like, no, Mehdi, Mehdi, Mehdi, come on, man. We don't use that word because that's hyperbolic. Yes, but the problem is by the time you are using, by the time everyone agrees on the word.

• 9:01Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 9:01Speaker 02

  Too late.

• 9:02Trevor Noah?

  It's too late.

• 9:02Speaker 01

  Hundred percent.

• 9:03Trevor Noah?

  That's, that's the issue. So.

• 9:04Speaker 01

  Tell it to the Palestinians.

• 9:05Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 9:06Speaker 01

  Now it's like, oh, the majority of genocide scholars say it's a genocide. Every human rights group says it's a genocide. Prominent Israelis say it's a genocide. And it's like, okay, but now a hundred thousand people are dead. Netanyahu says he wants to take over all of Gaza, et cetera, et cetera.

• 9:17Trevor Noah?

  Yes.

• 9:18Speaker 01

  We're in a very different place. Same with the fascism.

• 9:20Trevor Noah?

  By the time everyone agrees, it's too late.

• 9:21Speaker 01

  Well.

• 9:21Trevor Noah?

  Fundamentally.

• 9:22Speaker 01

  In twenty nineteen, I wrote a piece, I was writing for The Intercept at the time, I wrote a piece in, I think, March or April of twenty nineteen. And I said, if Donald Trump loses the next election, he will not accept the result and there will be riots. And people said, you don't know what they're talking about. You're a fucking Brit. You don't know anything about America. Secret Service will march him out. That's not how it works. Of course he can't try and stay on. And then we saw what happened with the election denial on January sixth. And now it's like, everyone's like, oh, well, maybe he'll stay on in twenty twenty eight. And like, now everyone gets it. When it's too late, he's back for a second term. He's crushing his opposition. Now it's like, oh yeah, maybe he's a fascist. Maybe he doesn't respect election results. Maybe he wants to be a dictator.

• 9:57Trevor Noah?

  I just realized that you're a Brit. I don't know why I didn't think of that before.

• 9:59Speaker 01

  British American now. At the time I was a Brit.

• 10:01Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, but what I'm saying is I don't even think of you as a Brit.

• 10:03Speaker 01

  Why?

• 10:03Trevor Noah?

  I think you are.

• 10:04Speaker 01

  Does my accent not give me away?

• 10:06Trevor Noah?

  Hmm. No, I just think of you as Mehdi.

• 10:08Speaker 01

  Okay. Unique nationality in the world.

• 10:10Trevor Noah?

  No, okay, let me explain. Stop being a hater, Mehdi. I'm trying to explain something to you here. This guy's trying to fight me here and I'm not trying to fight here. You get it, I'm saying, Eugene.

• 10:18Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 10:19Trevor Noah?

  You know, sometimes somebody becomes so ubiquitous that you don't think of them as being.

• 10:25Speaker 02

  About the Nokia's.

• 10:27Speaker 01

  Ubiquitous is, ubiquitous is not good.

• 10:29Trevor Noah?

  No, what I mean, what I mean is this, is like, you, you, someone starts to occupy a space just as themselves and you don't think of them as being from somewhere. Or, because I, I, and I mean this as a compliment, by the way. I just think of you as Mehdi Hasan now.

• 10:45Speaker 01

  From the internet.

• 10:46Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, just from the zeitgeist.

• 10:47Speaker 01

  That's what some people say, yeah.

• 10:49Trevor Noah?

  But from the zeitgeist, yeah, I do think of you as, as the, like, when you said now a Brit, I was like, oh, damn.

• 10:53Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 10:54Trevor Noah?

  Where are you from in the UK?

• 10:55Speaker 01

  North London.

• 10:56Trevor Noah?

  Huh.

• 10:57Speaker 01

  Twelve years ago I left.

• 10:58Trevor Noah?

  Are you a football fan?

• 10:59Speaker 01

  I am.

• 10:59Trevor Noah?

  Who's your team?

• 11:00Speaker 01

  Liverpool.

• 11:02Trevor Noah?

  Why didn't we start there, Mehdi?

• 11:05Speaker 01

  Because I grew up in, I grew up in the nineteen eighties where every brown Muslim supported Liverpool.

• 11:09Trevor Noah?

  Why?

• 11:10Speaker 01

  Oh, glory hunting. It was the end of a great era. The funny thing is, I started supporting Liverpool when they stopped winning everything.

• 11:15Trevor Noah?

  Or they stopped winning when you started supporting them.

• 11:17Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 11:18Trevor Noah?

  Correlation causation.

• 11:20Speaker 01

  So I, I said this to Piers Morgan recently, where he may insisted on his show that I congratulate him on Arsenal winning the premiership. And I said, you know, I'm used to Liverpool not doing well. Liverpool winning things was an aberration for me. My daughter's a Liverpool fan, mu- much bigger fan than I am, watches every game. I don't even have time to watch football anymore because of my life. But I'm used to it. She's got to enjoy Premier League victories and world-class. I lived through the nineties where it was very difficult, very difficult period where Man United were winning everything.

• 11:47Trevor Noah?

  So you, you jumped on a bandwagon and the bandwagon stopped.

• 11:50Speaker 01

  Worst, worst time. Every brown person did. Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London.

• 11:52Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 11:52Speaker 01

  He's a Liverpool fan.

• 11:53Trevor Noah?

  Oh, wow. So this is how it came to, I wonder if this is how Ryan jumped on. Ryan, is this how you jumped on? Uh, he won't respond now.

• 12:01Speaker 02

  Why would he jump on when the, when the brown people were jumping in?

• 12:04Speaker 01

  Ryan is white.

• 12:06Trevor Noah?

  The brown people always like.

• 12:07Speaker 02

  Ryan makes his own chili oil. What are you talking about?

• 12:09Speaker 01

  That's so great that we could like, we should start building an image of this Ryan guy and who he is.

• 12:13Trevor Noah?

  Well, if he's white, he probably joined at the right time. We're brown people come late to everything, right? So Dacey people, people from the subcontinent, we're late. We're famously late.

• 12:21Speaker 01

  But if it's.

• 12:21Trevor Noah?

  So I come along in like nineteen ninety and it's like, yeah, it's John Barnes at the end of his career, Ian Rush retiring. Ronnie Rosenthal, Israeli super sub, wonder what would happen to him today. But, you know, this is, this was a period where Muslims loved Liverpool. And we still do, and but some of us, you know, and my daughter's lucky, as I say, but this season, not so lucky. Yeah, yeah, but I mean, I mean Liverpool, we, we are, we were still the champions until recently. Is the thing I always, you know, have to be reminded of. Arsenal won, Eugene. Why do you want me to say it?

• 12:50Speaker 02

  Wait, what did they win?

• 12:51Trevor Noah?

  You know what, Eugene? You know what, nah?

• 12:53Speaker 02

  The ashes.

• 12:54Trevor Noah?

  You know what, Eugene? You know what?

• 12:56Speaker 02

  You know, that's the.

• 12:57Trevor Noah?

  Mocking people's pain, Eugene.

• 12:58Speaker 02

  That's the problem with the podcast.

• 12:59Trevor Noah?

  Is the lowest form of humour, Eugene.

• 13:01Speaker 02

  I'm not allowed to dig in and get into the facts and get the merits of the story. I am interested and I'm representing a huge demographic of brown people.

• 13:12Trevor Noah?

  That want to join. You've never said brown people in your life. Ever in my life. You just heard him say brown people. And now you're saying brown people.

• 13:17Speaker 01

  Like, I'm not black today, I'm brown.

• 13:19Trevor Noah?

  This guy's never said brown, he's never said brown people in his entire life. This guy's out here.

• 13:24Speaker 01

  Added to your vocabulary.

• 13:25Trevor Noah?

  This guy's out here, gaslighting.

• 13:28Speaker 02

  But why are you like this every time we speak about soccer? I want to understand.

• 13:31Trevor Noah?

  It's called football. He wants, he wants to. Foot pro. You know what's funny is soccer came from.

• 13:35Speaker 01

  It's football.

• 13:36Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, but the word soccer didn't come from America, though.

• 13:38Speaker 01

  Where did it come from? Association football.

• 13:40Trevor Noah?

  Yes, but soccer didn't come. It's like, it's funny how we like punish Americans for saying soccer, but they didn't say soccer. They were taught the word soccer by Europeans.

• 13:47Speaker 01

  True.

• 13:47Trevor Noah?

  And then Europeans flipped it and were like, no, football. You dicks, stop saying football, it's soc, it's, it's, it's, it's not soccer. It's football. Then Americans are like, but who told us?

• 13:56Speaker 01

  Zoran Manda, he calls it football. So I respect him even more than I already respected him. He calls it football. He doesn't call it soccer.

• 14:02Trevor Noah?

  What do you think of Zoran?

• 14:03Speaker 01

  I'm a fan. I'm an admirer.

• 14:04Trevor Noah?

  What are you a fan of?

• 14:05Speaker 01

  I'm a fan of the fact that he won an election that people thought he couldn't win.

• 14:10Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 14:10Speaker 01

  He won it by sticking to his guns. He didn't roll over. He was a politician who basically ran from the left, but didn't run from the right. And I think we live in an age where Democrats, anytime they get attacked, they immediately crow, defensive crouch, defensive posture, try and meet you in the middle, try and compromise. He didn't do it. He, he said, these are my policies, this is what I'm running on. I interviewed him in December 2024. Right, at Zeteo, he was at less than 1% in the polls. I told him this later, it was a pity interview. They were like, there's a Muslim guy running from Queens, he's a socialist. I was like, ah, let's get him on, let's give him a platform. That day I was interviewing Hasan Minaj. And I remember being like, Hasan Minaj was just coming into the studio.

• 14:55Speaker 01

  I was like, we gotta get this other guy out quickly. I remember, I just vividly, like, Zoran, Zoran Manda, I would do that first. And then Hasan's coming, Hasan's coming. And I, you know, I had no idea at the time. And I told him this later bluntly to his face, I've said this to him, like, I, I thought I was doing you a favor. Who knew this guy would be a global sensation? And I kind of, in that first interviews, when he said, if Benjamin Netanyahu comes to New York, I'll have him arrested. I remember that. People went nuts at the time. Well, they didn't go nuts at the time because he was a nobody.

• 15:23Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 15:23Speaker 01

  But when he became big, that quote came back.

• 15:25Trevor Noah?

  It came back.

• 15:26Speaker 01

  It came back to the point where in the White House, Netanyahu is meeting Trump and a reporter says, Zohar Mamdadi says he'll arrest you. And Netanyahu is like, well, Trump will come with me to protect me in New York. And I was like, wow. And he kept getting asked about it and he didn't back down for it. I mean, he pointed out that legally he can't do it.

• 15:39Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 15:40Speaker 01

  But the aspiration, he never backed away from that. It's not just Israel, multiple issues, you know? He ran on like free buses, childcare. He had a bunch of very clear policies. I've been waiting for a Democrat who can speak like a human, energize people, young people. It's not hard. I always make the example of Donald Trump versus Hillary Clinton. What was Donald Trump's flagship slogan in 2016?

• 15:59Trevor Noah?

  Uh, build a wall.

• 16:00Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 16:00Trevor Noah?

  Deport all Muslims.

• 16:01Speaker 01

  You remember, right? It was 11 years ago. You remember it like it was yesterday. What was Hillary Clinton's top slogans?

• 16:05Trevor Noah?

  I'm gonna break the glass ceiling.

• 16:09Speaker 01

  I mean, look, nobody remembers what, I mean, I'm sure she had an amazing 77-page childcare policy. But that's just how Democrats run with like, we'll give you lots of stats and lots of proposals and lots of technocratic wonky solutions.

• 16:19Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, but Obama was, yes, we can.

• 16:20Speaker 01

  Yes, which was inspirational. Which was good. And he ran as a populist. People forget, he ran anti-war.

• 16:24Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 16:24Speaker 01

  People forget, he ran against the Iraq war and Hillary Clinton's record.

• 16:26Trevor Noah?

  I don't think you can be anti-war when you get in. I think there's something that happens to American presidents.

• 16:30Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 16:31Trevor Noah?

  Like, I think you can be anti-war when you're coming in. And then I think when you get inside there, someone says something to you or something happens and then they're like, hey, bro, you gotta do this thing, man.

• 16:40Speaker 01

  Donald Trump, the great.

• 16:41Trevor Noah?

  Yo, man, Donald Trump was fully anti-war.

• 16:42Speaker 01

  Well, he pretended to be, yes.

• 16:44Trevor Noah?

  I don't even know if he pretended.

• 16:45Speaker 01

  Yeah, 100% pretended.

• 16:46Trevor Noah?

  You think he pretended?

• 16:46Speaker 01

  Oh, 100%.

• 16:47Trevor Noah?

  No, man, I think he wasn't. I think he was anti-war.

• 16:49Speaker 01

  No.

• 16:49Trevor Noah?

  I think he was.

• 16:50Speaker 01

  He's still more.

• 16:51Trevor Noah?

  Just because of everything he said, he was fully anti-war.

• 16:53Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 16:53Trevor Noah?

  There was no, there was no, there was no point where he was like, I'm for this thing.

• 16:57Speaker 01

  Who cares? It's fucking Donald Trump. I can't believe your evidence for Donald Trump is, he said so.

• 17:02Trevor Noah?

  Mehdi, listen, listen, you see, here's where we're gonna have a disagreement.

• 17:05Speaker 01

  Please.

• 17:05Trevor Noah?

  You're making it seem like the man does not exist anywhere doing anything and has no opinion about anything. I'm saying, there are some things I believe that he believed.

• 17:14Speaker 01

  E.G. not going to war.

• 17:16Trevor Noah?

  I genuinely think that man.

• 17:17Speaker 01

  Even though in his first term, he did lots of war.

• 17:19Trevor Noah?

  He did not, that man.

• 17:20Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 17:20Trevor Noah?

  Do you remember when he launched like one missile? This is crazy, where he launched like, I think it was like one missile at, towards Syria or in that region.

• 17:27Speaker 01

  I was eating chocolate cake and it was great.

• 17:29Trevor Noah?

  You, you.

• 17:30Speaker 01

  That's what he said at the time.

• 17:31Trevor Noah?

  And then.

• 17:32Speaker 01

  I thought you were eating chocolate cake.

• 17:33Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, I thought you were eating chocolate. I was like, damn, you know where you were.

• 17:35Speaker 01

  I probably was. I ate a lot of chocolate cake. So a good bet that night, I was eating chocolate cake with chocolate ice cream.

• 17:39Trevor Noah?

  And then he found out, and then he found out how much each missile cost. And then he was like, I'm not doing that again.

• 17:45Speaker 01

  All right. So Donald Trump in his first term. Expanded every war he inherited from Barack Obama.

• 17:50Trevor Noah?

  You're not listening to what I'm saying. I'm not saying that he did what he did. I'm saying, I think there is something that happens to you when you get into the White House that eclipses your views on war is what I'm saying. Because to your point, there is no, there is no American president

• 18:06Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 18:07Trevor Noah?

  who has come in and not done war, is what I'm saying.

• 18:09Speaker 01

  So I would give you that.

• 18:10Trevor Noah?

  But many of them have come in and said, I'm not doing war.

• 18:13Speaker 01

  I know, but Donald Trump is different to any other president because he's done these two terms with a gap.

• 18:16Trevor Noah?

  Did you see you did his hands by?

• 18:17Speaker 01

  I do the hands.

• 18:18Trevor Noah?

  The hands, as soon as you said it, the hands came in.

• 18:20Speaker 01

  I'm turning into Trump now.

• 18:21Trevor Noah?

  Yes, yes, yes.

• 18:22Speaker 01

  Pre 2016, you could have got away with Donald Trump, yeah, you know, he's outside or whatever. But we had first term Trump. People just basically didn't want to pay attention. People kept saying, well, he never started a new war. But every war he inherited, he expanded in Syria, in Iraq, in Afghanistan. He dropped the Moab, the mother of all bombs, on Afghanistan. He did more drone strikes in his first two years than Obama did in eight years. People don't know this, he's Obama, the drone president. He killed Hasan Soleimani, the Iranian general, in his final year in office, which could have sparked World War III. So he did all this shit. He pardoned war criminals. And then he goes into opposition, he does his little retreat at Mar-a-Lago, he makes his comeback beats Ron DeSantis. And he goes to Michigan, he goes to Dearborn, he tells all these Arab Americans, I'm going to be anti-war. Kamala's with Liz Cheney, she's going to send your people to die in the Middle East.

• 19:06Speaker 01

  And that people believed, and that was bullshit, is what I'm saying. That that period where he pretended to be pre-war, then he comes in, does seven bombing, he bombed seven countries in 2024.

• 19:15Trevor Noah?

  Right.

• 19:16Speaker 01

  He started 2025 by going after Venezuela.

• 19:18Trevor Noah?

  And I'm still saying.

• 19:19Speaker 01

  And he did Iran. On Christmas Day, he did Nigeria. We didn't even pay attention to that one.

• 19:22Trevor Noah?

  I'm still saying, in fact, that just proves my point.

• 19:24Speaker 01

  Go on.

• 19:25Trevor Noah?

  When you're outside the White House, you're like, war's not good. When you go inside there, maybe it's like asbestos or something in the walls. There could be something. I'm just saying, where else have you seen?

• 19:34Speaker 01

  Military industrial complex, obviously.

• 19:35Trevor Noah?

  That's what I mean, that's what I mean. I think there is something.

• 19:38Speaker 01

  Do you think if AOC ran for president? Won the presidency. Do you think she'd be a warmonger too?

• 19:42Trevor Noah?

  I don't know, and I'd love to see. Maybe, maybe, maybe she wouldn't be. Uh, I, I have a belief that women don't go to war as much as men do. I think that women don't think of it as a solution, the same way that men do.

• 19:53Speaker 01

  I mean, Hillary Clinton had a very hawkish record.

• 19:54Trevor Noah?

  As president.

• 19:56Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 19:56Trevor Noah?

  We must talk about as president. Do you get what I'm saying? So I'm, I'm just saying, I don't think so.

• 20:01Speaker 01

  We haven't had a woman president, so we can't test that.

• 20:02Trevor Noah?

  You see, that's, so that's why we need to have one.

• 20:04Speaker 01

  We had, we had, we had female prime ministers.

• 20:06Trevor Noah?

  As I say, when I'm ordering extra food from a restaurant, you must do it for science.

• 20:09Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 20:10Trevor Noah?

  Just, you just, yeah, you must see. How can you know things without testing them out?

• 20:15Speaker 01

  That's a good point.

• 20:15Trevor Noah?

  Do you know what I mean? How, how can you?

• 20:16Speaker 01

  Here we are testing Donald Trump for another four fucking years.

• 20:20Trevor Noah?

  Do you feel like this has consumed your life as a person?

• 20:22Speaker 01

  Yes, I moved to the United States of America in March of 2015. He came down that golden escalator in May of 2015. So my entire period in this country

• 20:31Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 20:32Speaker 01

  has been dominated by this orange freak in my private life, my public life, my waking hours, my sleeping hours. I thought we'd got rid of him in 2021 and then he comes back again. I just can't get away from him. But literally, I, I, you know, I'm a Muslim, I'm an immigrant, I'm a journalist, every aspect of my identity intertwined.

• 20:47Trevor Noah?

  Oh, yeah, it's fully, it's, it's, there's no, there's no part of you that can escape it in a way.

• 20:51Speaker 01

  Just switch off and have a holiday and I won't think about him. Or I'll hang out with my kids, but my kids are Muslim American kids who have to grow up in this country with Trump as president.

• 20:56Trevor Noah?

  What moved you to the US?

• 20:58Speaker 01

  Uh, a couple of things. One is just journalism opportunities, greater here, I thought. And secondly is my wife is American and a happy wife is a happy life.

• 21:07Trevor Noah?

  Oh, nice. Okay. So where did you guys meet?

• 21:09Speaker 01

  We met in California.

• 21:10Trevor Noah?

  Nice.

• 21:11Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 21:11Trevor Noah?

  Were you just here on a vacation?

• 21:12Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, I was on, I did a lot of vacation, I have a lot of friends and family in America. She moved to the UK, right? So the first half of our marriage, she lived in the UK and she was like, when are we moving to the US? And I was like, what am I going to do in the US? I'm a brown, left-wing Muslim. Who's going to hire me? Right? So when I ended up working at the HuffPost, which was owned by Arianna Huffington at the time, AOL.

• 21:33Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 21:34Speaker 01

  It was like an American company. So I was like, all right, let's see if I can make a shift. So I ended up here in 2015 thinking, I'll be here for a couple of years. That was the agreement. I'll come here for a couple of years.

• 21:41Trevor Noah?

  That's what everyone says.

• 21:42Speaker 01

  And we'll cover the Hillary Clinton presidency.

• 21:46Speaker 01

  Best laid plans.

• 21:47Trevor Noah?

  Now, I I am not a fan of blaming people for things that most would argue are out of their control, but just in the little time we've been speaking, I've noticed a pattern.

• 21:57Speaker 01

  Okay, I supported Liverpool.

• 21:59Trevor Noah?

  Hasan started supporting Liverpool.

• 22:01Speaker 01

  Because?

• 22:02Trevor Noah?

  Mehdi Hasan started supporting Liverpool and then Liverpool went through its worst period ever.

• 22:06Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 22:07Trevor Noah?

  Mehdi Hasan moved to America.

• 22:09Speaker 01

  Golden escalator happened.

• 22:10Trevor Noah?

  And the golden escalator happened and now the rest is history. So.

• 22:15Speaker 01

  What should I do next?

• 22:16Trevor Noah?

  I mean, you tell me.

• 22:17Speaker 01

  I'm gonna buy a plane ticket to Tel Aviv.

• 22:23Trevor Noah?

  Can I ask you a question? Can I ask you a question?

• 22:26Speaker 01

  I mean, I'm here just to answer your question.

• 22:27Trevor Noah?

  Do you think, no, no, you're not. You're here to have a conversation.

• 22:29Speaker 01

  Conversation.

• 22:30Trevor Noah?

  You're here to have a conversation.

• 22:31Speaker 01

  I've got a few for you then.

• 22:31Trevor Noah?

  We've got, we're unbuttoned, there's no ties here, there's no corporate overlords, Mehdi can do whatever we. We could all start freestyle rapping right now.

• 22:38Speaker 01

  Can we?

• 22:40Speaker 01

  You know what we should do? I'm not very good on that. Let's talk about Liverpool.

• 22:44Trevor Noah?

  This guy, you see.

• 22:46Speaker 01

  This guy. There is one tenant of this organization. Please, please, Eugene.

• 22:52Trevor Noah?

  No, um, no, but like I, I, what, what, I, I mean, obviously that, that's a joke, you know, um, I think more about like your life and as a person, like who, who was Mehdi before all of this? Like, how did you get into this world? First of all, you seem, and not even seem, you are fully, like you fit fully into this position. I, I can't imagine you not doing what you do.

• 23:17Speaker 01

  No, can I?

• 23:18Trevor Noah?

  You, you, you're passionate, you're well informed, you are, you, you see, when you tell me I don't take time off from this, I believe you. I don't go like, nah, this guy's just saying that. I'm like, no, this guy, you sleep it, you, you, you drink it, you think it, you, you know what I mean?

• 23:30Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 23:31Trevor Noah?

  Was, was that always you?

• 23:32Speaker 01

  No.

• 23:33Trevor Noah?

  When did that become you?

• 23:35Speaker 01

  It's a good question. Um, I guess with the Trump phenomenon, Trump is sui generis, like him, him taking over my life, I don't think any other politician could.

• 23:41Trevor Noah?

  No, but I mean.

• 23:42Speaker 01

  When I was in the UK, I don't think there was a single, I covered UK politics for a living when I lived in the UK.

• 23:45Trevor Noah?

  But how did, let's go back, how did you get into that? What were you doing before that? What, like, why journalism?

• 23:49Speaker 01

  I've been a political journalist all my life.

• 23:51Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, but why? What, where did this start? Like, were, as a little kid, were you on the playground like, oh, I'm gonna cover the politics of the, of the Labour Party and what's happening with the Tories?

• 23:59Speaker 01

  Not as a little kid, but maybe fifteen, sixteen, yeah, I get very political at that age.

• 24:02Trevor Noah?

  What politicized you? What were you seeing?

• 24:05Speaker 01

  That's a good question. I mean, it wasn't a very interesting period. This is the mid nineties. Politics was very quiet in those days. Remember it was Clinton, Blair, end of history, all of that bullshit. I don't know why I got so political. It was a very boring time. I don't know why I got into politics at the most boring time. My dad was very political.

• 24:20Trevor Noah?

  In what way?

• 24:22Speaker 01

  He loved politics. Old Indian men love politics in general, right? They just want to talk about politics, any event, weddings, funerals. They want to talk about what's happening in India, Pakistan, DC, London. That's just a fact. Ask anyone. And often the conversation comes back to the role of the CIA, right? So that's, that's how most.

• 24:39Trevor Noah?

  Sounds like your kind of guys, Eugene. Let's go.

• 24:42Speaker 01

  You need to hang out with Indian men circa fifty to seventy-five. But so my dad was very political all his life. He moved to the UK in nineteen sixty-six and was obsessed with British politics.

• 24:51Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 24:51Speaker 01

  He was obsessed with British prime ministers, the Labour Party. He's obviously obsessed with Indian politics. So I grew up around him, talking about politics, hearing about politics, watching the news. The news was on twenty-four seven in our house.

• 25:01Trevor Noah?

  Okay.

• 25:02Speaker 01

  So when I ended up being on the news as a host, like for my dad, it was like amazing. Most Indian parents were kind of disowning any child who became a journalist or a doctor.

• 25:09Trevor Noah?

  Doctor, lawyer, engineer.

• 25:10Speaker 01

  You can't be a journalist.

• 25:11Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 25:12Speaker 01

  And my sister and I both end up as journalists.

• 25:14Trevor Noah?

  Your sister as well?

• 25:15Speaker 01

  Yeah, my mother is not happy about this. My mother is a doctor. My father is an engineer, like a classic Indian couple. And my mother to this day is like, stop talking about Trump. Why don't you go be a lawyer or do something different?

• 25:25Trevor Noah?

  Why don't you make something of yourself?

• 25:27Speaker 01

  Why don't you make something of yourself? Why don't you be a lawyer? If you want to argue, be a lawyer. That's what she used to say to me. When I say you used to say to me like yesterday morning. So she hasn't given up. But my father was very proud of the fact that I was a journalist, doing journalism, politics. He loved it. He loved. Even, he passed away last year, but even to his. Thank you. Even to his last days, anytime we spoke, he'd be like, are they really going to run Joe Biden again? Really?

• 25:51Trevor Noah?

  So you, you, you basically found yourself in his like, this was like his league, you know, it's like, it's the Premier League or the NFL or the NBA of his. You found, but, but it, correct me if I'm wrong, it seems then that the two of you. It probably brings back good memories for you then.

• 26:09Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 26:09Trevor Noah?

  Because because most people would have gone away from politics if it didn't bring back good memories. Does that make sense?

• 26:15Speaker 01

  Yeah, no, but it was a great bonding moment.

• 26:16Trevor Noah?

  But that's what I'm not.

• 26:17Speaker 01

  We didn't talk about Liverpool, my dad wasn't a football fan.

• 26:19Trevor Noah?

  That's what I'm saying.

• 26:19Speaker 01

  But we talked about, anytime he'd call me, he'd be like, oh, I watched this video you did. Hmm, I'm not sure I agree with what you said there about Trump or whatever it is.

• 26:26Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 26:26Speaker 01

  Um, so that was always an interest, even till the very end, that was what he wanted to talk about. He was very upset. Any, any, anytime I'd visit him, he always had the news on twenty four sevens. He'd be like, oh, you know, this to happen, this happened, you know what's happening? He was super informed because he just read The Guardian all day, watched Channel Four News in the UK and CNN or whatever it is, Indian news. So that, that's in, that's in the household, that stare around me. And then generally, I wrote about this in a book I wrote about debating, which is, I grew up in a house where we were encouraged to debate and argue and question and dispute. Like my dad, and I talk about this in the book, in the late nineteen eighties, Salman Rushdie publishes The Satanic Verses, right? Muslims go crazy, it's a blasphemous book, it's insulting the prophet, which it did. Um, Ayatollah Khomeini.

• 27:05Trevor Noah?

  That was the one, they, that's where the Khomeini.

• 27:07Speaker 01

  The fatwa.

• 27:07Trevor Noah?

  The fatwa on him.

• 27:08Speaker 01

  He should be executed for, and at the time, people in.

• 27:10Trevor Noah?

  Do you know the story, Jean?

• 27:11Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 27:11Trevor Noah?

  Oh, yeah, tell, please tell the story, because a lot of people, I don't think, just know it.

• 27:14Speaker 01

  Salman Rushdie, very famous Indian, British novelist, uh, award-winning novelist, writes a novel, which is kind of fictionalized version of some Islamic history, as he understood it, in which the prophet is portrayed in horrific ways as a badi, and Muslims being very sensitive got very, very upset, to the point where, at the time, the Ayatollah in Iran, the supreme leader of Iran then, uh, Ayatollah Khomeini put out a very famous fatwa, saying the punishment is death for this kind of writing. Rushdie had to go into hiding, he's still today, kind of, he got attacked a few years ago.

• 27:44Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, he got stabbed.

• 27:44Speaker 01

  Again, uh, so it's never gone away, even after the death of Khomeini, and a lot of Muslims burned the book, even in, even in UK town, not just in the Middle East.

• 27:52Trevor Noah?

  In protest.

• 27:52Speaker 01

  So it was a huge controversy, and Muslims, uh, then got attacked, of course, by Western politicians, and you people are so backward and barbaric, and look at you, you don't believe in free speech. And my dad, in the midst of all this late eighties, I'm like ten years old, my dad buys The Satanic Verses, reads it, and then puts it on the bookshelf right by the dining table. So every time we have people over, they're like, what is going on? They're furious, all my dad's friends are furious, why have you got this book here? Why would you have it? And my dad would say, have you read it? And if you haven't read it, how can you be mad about it? And that mentality, which was very provocative in the Muslim community, is something that I remember vividly. This idea that you shouldn't just blindly follow the crowd. You shouldn't just take what's given to you from on high. You've got to question everything, no matter how sacred.

• 28:41Speaker 02

  Did you read the Satanic Verses?

• 28:43Speaker 01

  No comment. I did, I did. And it's awful, but at least you read it. Like, I mean, I don't read it as a piece of literature. What do I know about literature? Samarajid is an award-winning novelist. I'm not. And that's not the point. The point was, was it historically accurate? Was it offensive? All of that stuff. But the point is, obviously, I don't support, obviously, killing people for their views, obviously. But I understood at the time, I understood why it becomes such a wedge issue. You want to talk about culture wars today? I mean, that was a culture war issue.

• 29:10Speaker 02

  Yeah, that was viral before viral.

• 29:12Speaker 01

  Exactly, yeah, pre-internet, pre-days. And, you know, that's, and then it obviously gets rolled into everything else that then happens in the subsequent decades in the relationship between Islam and the West.

• 29:21Speaker 02

  I love that you were encouraged to argue and debate by your parents. I think.

• 29:25Speaker 01

  Yeah, because a lot of Indian parents are like, shut up.

• 29:27Speaker 02

  I mean, a lot of parents in general, especially.

• 29:29Speaker 01

  You heard the phrase chappal?

• 29:30Speaker 02

  No, what is that?

• 29:31Speaker 01

  So in the pack culture, anyone watching this speaks the same. Chappal means, I'm gonna get my sandal. Chappal is a sandal.

• 29:37Speaker 02

  Oh, it's Dan.

• 29:37Speaker 01

  That's just like chappal.

• 29:40Speaker 01

  You're gonna get.

• 29:40Speaker 02

  Actually, you've just taught me a new one now. Thank you so much.

• 29:43Speaker 01

  What's your, what's yours? The chappal?

• 29:45Speaker 02

  Chappal, I'm in.

• 29:46Speaker 01

  And you remember?

• 29:46Speaker 02

  I've got it for you, Gene. Every time you say something anti-Liverpool, chappal, I'm coming for you, bro.

• 29:51Speaker 01

  Double chappal.

• 29:52Speaker 02

  Could you, could you debate at home?

• 29:56Speaker 02

  What are you saying, guys?

• 30:01Speaker 02

  I don't think there was time for, for debating. Just you knew what you were told was what was going to happen anyway. I think if.

• 30:10Speaker 01

  But if you answered bad, did you get slapped?

• 30:11Speaker 02

  No, no, no, no, no. I think if you grew up with a single mom, there's no, there's no one to defer to.

• 30:16Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 30:17Speaker 02

  So I think when there's a debate happens, when there's someone to go, right, right, talk to your wife.

• 30:22Speaker 01

  Yeah, when there's an audience to debate for.

• 30:23Speaker 02

  But now if someone goes, at six o'clock, we're doing this thing, and you're like, but at six, and then they leave the room.

• 30:29Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, it's the law.

• 30:30Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's the law.

• 30:31Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, it's just the law.

• 30:33Speaker 01

  Yes, it is what it, because when we saw debating is when we went to white kids' houses.

• 30:38Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, that was.

• 30:39Speaker 01

  And we saw the back and forth.

• 30:40Trevor Noah?

  Yo, yo, yo, yo.

• 30:41Speaker 01

  What do I need to do that?

• 30:42Trevor Noah?

  Yo, yo, yo, yo. The day Andrew, the day Andrew, my friend, told his dad, he said, come to dinner. And then he was like, oh, dad, we're still playing. And I remember my body getting tense.

• 30:54Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 30:54Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, because I was like, I was waiting for his dad. And Andrew, like, he fully turned back, so his dad came to the door and he was like, boy, it's time for dinner. And then he was like, dad, we're still playing. And he didn't swear or anything, he wasn't like rude, but he just said a thing that I would have never thought of. He's like, dad, we're still playing, right? We're playing a Come On and Conquer, right? And he was like, dad, we're still playing. And then his dad like walked off. The whole period between us going to dinner and and the dad come. I sat there tense, waiting for.

• 31:22Speaker 01

  The backlash.

• 31:23Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, no, no, but I was like, he turned his back fully. I was like, how is he so, he's like, we'll play. And then he was like, back here. And then I was like, this the whole time now.

• 31:30Speaker 01

  Yeah, on standby.

• 31:31Trevor Noah?

  Could you like, you can't just, you can't.

• 31:32Speaker 01

  Head on swivel.

• 31:33Trevor Noah?

  That, that to me was not a concept that ever existed.

• 31:35Speaker 01

  But I think probably in hindsight, it went too far with me.

• 31:40Trevor Noah?

  In a debating.

• 31:40Speaker 01

  Because now I'm like crazy. Now my wife, my kids, my friends, my family, my colleagues have to put up with me being perpetually argumentative. Like, I can't help it.

• 31:49Trevor Noah?

  But you enjoy it.

• 31:50Speaker 01

  Remind me.

• 31:50Trevor Noah?

  But you enjoy it.

• 31:51Speaker 01

  Yeah, but they don't.

• 31:52Trevor Noah?

  So, so.

• 31:54Speaker 01

  It doesn't matter whether I enjoy it, the people around me are like, shut the fuck up.

• 31:58Trevor Noah?

  So when you got older, your mom was like, yep, you can have him now.

• 32:00Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, hundred percent, hundred percent. Yeah, yeah, I'm sure my mother would say that to my wife.

• 32:05Trevor Noah?

  That's what, that's what, uh, someone said to me when I was in India, uh, on my first trip, actually. Well, we were at a restaurant in New Delhi and it was like a crew of people that that's, you know, friends of friends that assemble, the older men. And we, one of the guys, we, we got into a debate and I was having so much fun. And then one of the other people he worked with didn't know that I was having a good time. And then he came and like stopped and he's like, and he's like, Trevor, he's like, I have to apologize to you. You have to know in India, we debate for fun, Trevor, please don't be, I was like, yo, my friend, I've found my people. That's all I, I was like, I have found, this is the most fun I've ever had. Because we also argue for fun in that way. But I guess depending on which culture you go to.

• 32:41Speaker 01

  Tell that stories, you could do the accent again.

• 32:42Trevor Noah?

  No, my friend, I do accents for every culture.

• 32:44Speaker 01

  I know, but I love your Indian accent.

• 32:45Trevor Noah?

  Every single, and by the way, I don't do, I don't do accents.

• 32:48Speaker 01

  Indian accent.

• 32:48Trevor Noah?

  I do the people. There's a, there's a common misconception people have about me.

• 32:53Speaker 02

  So you imitate the person that you've met before?

• 32:54Trevor Noah?

  Because I don't, I, I'm terrible at accents.

• 32:57Speaker 02

  Are you?

• 32:58Trevor Noah?

  I'm terrible at, I promise you, I'm terrible at accents. But I can remember how people speak. Does that make sense?

• 33:03Speaker 02

  Yeah, it does.

• 33:05Trevor Noah?

  So if you said to me like, do an English accent, I'll be all over the place. Oh, what you good for, I don't even know.

• 33:11Speaker 01

  So who's a famous English person you can?

• 33:13Trevor Noah?

  Well, I can do a certain person who's on television quite a lot. And that's like, no, you know who that is.

• 33:18Speaker 01

  Who?

• 33:19Trevor Noah?

  And our next.

• 33:20Speaker 01

  But it was really bad.

• 33:20Trevor Noah?

  No, no, it's not. It's not, it's not you.

• 33:22Speaker 02

  Who?

• 33:22Trevor Noah?

  Okay, I'll, I'll do it.

• 33:23Speaker 01

  Yes, Morgan.

• 33:24Trevor Noah?

  I'll do it properly.

• 33:24Speaker 01

  It's so bad that neither of us can get it.

• 33:25Trevor Noah?

  I'll do it properly. Hold on, let me get into it. I'll, I'll do it, I'll do it properly. Hold on. Cause I haven't, I've, I've gotta think of him doing it properly. Hold on, give me a second, give me a second, give me a second.

• 33:32Speaker 01

  Who gets the first out, you and me?

• 33:32Trevor Noah?

  Give me a second, hold on, hold on.

• 33:34Speaker 01

  I haven't lived there for ten years, I don't watch British TV.

• 33:36Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, but don't be biased, you're gonna think of yourself. Clear your thoughts.

• 33:39Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 33:40Trevor Noah?

  Breathe.

• 33:40Speaker 01

  Okay, chakra.

• 33:41Trevor Noah?

  Let yourself go. You got it.

• 33:43Speaker 01

  Go on.

• 33:44Trevor Noah?

  Okay, let me, let me also channel him. Let me, let me get him completely.

• 33:49Trevor Noah?

  Well, that's bullshit. Absolute bullshit. And now, time for our next story.

• 33:55Speaker 02

  Jeremy Clarkson?

• 33:56Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, it, yeah, it veered into Jeremy.

• 33:58Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah.

• 33:58Trevor Noah?

  It wasn't supposed to. It wa, it wasn't supposed to, cause the, the bottom part was more Jeremy than him.

• 34:03Speaker 02

  The gamble.

• 34:04Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, it wa, it was, it was. And that's why the Bugatti shy.

• 34:07Speaker 02

  So who is it?

• 34:08Trevor Noah?

  It's, yeah, that's, that's, you're right. I went into a bit of Jeremy.

• 34:10Speaker 02

  But who did you begin with?

• 34:11Trevor Noah?

  It was supposed to be Oliver, John Oliver.

• 34:13Speaker 02

  Ah.

• 34:14Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 34:15Speaker 01

  Not a good John Oliver.

• 34:16Speaker 02

  No, no, no, no.

• 34:16Trevor Noah?

  Cause I, cause I haven't, it's, cause you're throwing me off right now. By the end of this, I'm gonna do you, and then it's gonna be over for you.

• 34:23Speaker 01

  All right, if you do me like you did John Oliver, be like, any British person. Like sixty million Brits, Trevor can't do any of them. Clarkson, Oliver, Hassan. And your defense will be, well, I didn't know Mehdi was British. I thought he was just Mehdi.

• 34:35Trevor Noah?

  He is just Mehdi. Your accent has probably changed a lot.

• 34:37Speaker 01

  It has.

• 34:38Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 34:38Speaker 01

  Well, I'm a bit of a sponge. So I pick up stuff wherever I go. So people make, my, my British friends when I go back make fun of me. But when I go back, I speak British. But when I'm with Americans.

• 34:47Trevor Noah?

  You code switch.

• 34:47Speaker 01

  I code switch a bit, and then British people who are in my presence will say, that's weird, you don't talk like that when you talk to us.

• 34:53Trevor Noah?

  Do they say you sound American?

• 34:55Speaker 01

  When my wife moved to the UK. She had known me for like two, I don't know how many years before you got married. When she moved to the UK and saw me in my habitat, natural habitat, David Attenborough, talking to Brits, she's like, who the hell are you? She said, you don't talk to me like that. I said, because you're Texan. So when I go to India, I become a bit more Indian and I speak a little bit with a touch. When I speak to elders in my community, I mean, I just, I'm a bit spongy.

• 35:16Trevor Noah?

  No, you, but you can't not be. With, with my grandma, think about it, Eugene, you, as Eugene, the way you speak to us here.

• 35:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 35:23Trevor Noah?

  No, you, this is what people don't understand. People like to think of it as switching, I think this is an academic use of, of a, you know, an academic understanding, oh, you're code switching, no. If you have ever lived in multilingual cultures, you have to learn how to speak different languages to different people, even in the same language. So if you think about it, the Zulu that you would speak with your friends is not the Zulu you would speak to your grandmother, even though it's still Zulu. The way you would say the words, the way you would, your, your inferences. Yeah, your accent, the, the, even, even your tone has to change completely. So what I'm saying is sometimes people take for granted that anyone who's grown up in a world where there are multiple languages learns how to speak the language of the people they're speaking to.

• 36:07Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 36:08Trevor Noah?

  It's, it's not just like being, that's why I say like, when people say like, oh, you're code switching, it's like, yeah, on an academic level, I understand that, but it's, it's not, I couldn't talk to my grandmother with this accent. My grandmother.

• 36:18Speaker 01

  But it's not conscious, right? That's the key point. I'm not doing it consciously. I don't know I'm doing it until people point it out to me.

• 36:23Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, no, no, you don't.

• 36:23Speaker 01

  And also here's the other interesting thing, for me, it's a double whammy, because not only is it, okay, I'm living in America, and I have family who are British American, I have kids, one of whom, you know, grew up in the UK, one mostly grew up in the US.

• 36:32Trevor Noah?

  So their accents are different?

• 36:34Speaker 01

  My older daughter still has her solid, not solid, I'd say sixty percent British, fifty-five, sixty, she kept on to it in the last ten years, but my younger one came very young. So what I would say here is, I'm also on TV. I also did three years of prime time American television. So just, I had to switch. So people, I would have people, producers would say, if you use that phrase, no one knows what the hell you're saying. So I also had to therefore consciously switch times. I would want to use a British euphemism or phrase and my team would look at me blankly and say, no one knows what that means.

• 37:02Trevor Noah?

  I'd go, really? We've never heard of that phrase.

• 37:03Speaker 01

  Never heard of that phrase. I'd say, you've never heard of that phrase? And I, and then I, and then I would start doing things like, um, I'd be on TV talking about, I don't know, the war in Ukraine, I remember MSNBC, and I'd say, they fired missiles. And then people say, and then friends of mine would say, you say missiles now? You don't say missiles? And they'll be like, I don't know, I don't even know. In fact, telling you the story right now, I'm not sure. As I'm talking to you, I'm not sure which one's which one's British, which one's American.

• 37:27Trevor Noah?

  Mine was controversy and controversy.

• 37:29Speaker 01

  Controversy. So I slowly, it took me four years, MSNBC, two and a half years, and last year I switched to controversy.

• 37:35Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 37:36Speaker 01

  I said controversy.

• 37:37Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, controversy for years, and then I switched it to controversy.

• 37:41Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 37:41Trevor Noah?

  So it goes, yeah, it goes back and forth. It's just one of those things that happens. It's life.

• 37:46Speaker 01

  But I still say tomato.

• 37:48Trevor Noah?

  You can't change that one though. Tomato is a weird one. Eugene says water, but even in South Africa.

• 37:53Speaker 01

  I say water a little bit American.

• 37:54Trevor Noah?

  He says water even in South Africa now.

• 37:55Speaker 02

  When I'm not thirsty, I say it. Can I get some water? Can I have some water?

• 37:58Trevor Noah?

  Can I get some water?

• 37:59Speaker 02

  No, can I have a water?

• 38:01Trevor Noah?

  That's exactly how you say it.

• 38:03Speaker 02

  You see a water, you're getting nothing.

• 38:05Speaker 01

  Getting a noun.

• 38:06Trevor Noah?

  Eugene is slowly transforming into a white American woman.

• 38:09Speaker 01

  How long have you lived in the US?

• 38:10Speaker 02

  You have not two days.

• 38:16Speaker 01

  I came here on Wednesday and I got a water on Thursday.

• 38:21Trevor Noah?

  Don't go anywhere because we got more what now after this.

• 38:27Trevor Noah?

  Fall has a way of turning an ordinary night into a reason to gather. Whether it is a football game, a Halloween party, or a dinner on a cold evening. Whole Foods Market makes those moments easier with comfort food, seasonal treats, and quality standards built into every aisle. Start with a Whole Foods Market Kitchen's lasagna, packaged soup, or a build your own family meal from the prepared foods counter, which feeds four for $35. For game day, add made in house wings, frozen pizzas, and 365 brand chips and dips. The limited time bakery lineup brings the season home with pumpkin blondies,

• 39:12Trevor Noah?

  apple brown butter cookies, and chocolate bourbon pecan pie. And with no artificial sweeteners like sucralose, artificial colors like red dye number 40, or high fructose corn syrup store wide, nothing gets in the way of the flavors you came for. Shop fall flavors with higher standards at Whole Foods Markets. Everybody has that oddly specific thing that they're curious about. Maybe it's restoring old watches. Maybe it's Japanese ceramic making. Maybe it's watching someone explain why one bridge in a remote area of Norway is secretly better than all the other bridges in the world. YouTube always has exactly what you're looking for, even when you didn't know you were looking for it. With YouTube Premium, those deep dives feel even smoother.

• 39:58Trevor Noah?

  You get ad-free viewing, but you also get background play when you need your hands free. And you get offline downloads, so you can keep watching wherever you happen to be, even if you happen to be off the grid. It's everything you already love about YouTube, just somehow even better. Yeah, one of my favorite YouTube Premium features is Smart Downloads. Because how many times have you gone somewhere and realized, "Ah, I forgot to download anything!" And now you're on the way to the airport and you're like, "Download, download, download, download." You're on the plane, "Download, download, download, download." There's no Wi-Fi. "I wish I downloaded." Now, all of those things that you were gonna watch are just on the internet. Smart Downloads basically thinks ahead for you. It automatically downloads recommended videos based on what you like to watch.

• 40:42Trevor Noah?

  So even when you forget to prepare, YouTube Premium didn't. I love it. It's like packing for a trip and discovering somebody already remembered the thing you always leave at home. It's always the underwear. If you like YouTube, you'll love YouTube Premium. Sign up now for your free trial at youtube.com/premium. Terms apply. Cancel anytime. I think one of the things you realize when you start caring about clothes is that simple doesn't have to mean basic. Because a t-shirt is a t-shirt until you find the right t-shirt. Ooh, then suddenly you're talking about the cut, the fit, the weight, the way it falls on your body. Then you're like, "No, no, no. You don't understand. Look at the sleeve."

• 41:26Trevor Noah?

  And that's what I've really enjoyed about Quince. One of my favorite things is their Pima Cotton Lux Touch t-shirts. And it's become one of those pieces I keep reaching for. The cotton has this really smooth, premium feel to it. The fit is great, and it just lays really nicely. And I think that's what you sometimes take for granted with simple clothes. When they're done really well, they become the foundation of an entire outfit. You can throw on a jacket, a sweater, whatever you want, but everything works because you started with the right thing. That's what I like about Quince. It feels premium without feeling like you're trying too hard. It's effortless. So find your next four favorites at Quince. Download the Quince app for app exclusive offers or go to quince.com.

• 42:11Trevor Noah?

  Get free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada and the UK too. Hello over there. Oh, and if Quince asks you where you heard about them, let them know it was What Now with Trevor Noah. It's the best way to support the show.

• 42:36Trevor Noah?

  So let me ask you a question. Is there, is there ever a part of you that worries about being left and like having an opinion? And then also saying that you're in the news?

• 42:46Speaker 01

  What do you mean?

• 42:46Trevor Noah?

  So for a long time, people said, if you're a journalist, you can't like have an outside, just like the Supreme Court. You're supposed to be, you know, you're supposed to be.

• 42:55Speaker 01

  The Supreme Court was always bullshit. Now we know it's bullshit. I think the media, I mean, the media doesn't exist like that anymore. Yeah. Look where we're sitting. We're just sitting in independent spaces. We're doing our thing. We're not bound by these old conventions. And the old conventions shouldn't even bind the people still in mainstream media. I would argue it's killing our mainstream media right now because people are fed up with being patronized by people who pretend that they're neutral or impartial. When we can clearly see they're not. I would rather have, you know, there was a moment recently where Brendan Carr, who runs Donald Trump's FCC, he's like a censorship czar.

• 43:26Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 43:26Speaker 01

  He was at a media conference, I think it was a Semaphore conference in DC. Somebody started sending me clips saying Brendan Carr is talking about you. I was like, you don't want to be talked about by Trump censorship. You don't, you don't want to be on that radar.

• 43:35Trevor Noah?

  Right.

• 43:36Speaker 01

  And I tune in and somebody sends me the clip and I watch it. And he's basically complaining that lots of liberal, lots of mainstream journalists have left the media and then now they're all like anti-Trump. And he's like, see, see, we told you the media was biased against Trump. And then he goes. At least with Mehdi Hasan, he hates Trump, but I like him because I know where I stand with him. He's very open about his biases and then you can just read or watch whatever he does. And I was like, A, that's a good point. B, I gotta take a shower now. C, I don't really wanna be on Brendan Carr's radar because I'm very happy with my life here and I don't wanna be deported. So that, so you know, there's that thing where there is this sense of now people in independent spaces, we're seeing their real colors, whatever. But my position has always been, I would rather people put their biases on the table and then just be fair.

• 44:21Speaker 01

  Right? So when I do an interview, I have a Trump person on or I have an Israeli person or I have someone who I disagree with from whatever government in the world. Someone from the Saudis, someone, whatever it is, that everyone knows I'm critical of them.

• 44:32Trevor Noah?

  Right, right.

• 44:33Speaker 01

  But I still try and be fair. I try and, I don't try and edit them in a bad way. I make sure they get enough time to speak and answer. I don't try and lie about, you know, in the question. That for me is more important. That for me is fairness, not this fake left, right, pick a point in the middle and say I'm impartial. That bullshit's gotta go. No one accepts that anymore. It was never real to begin with. It's now become very apparent that there is no kind of fake impartial. The view from nowhere they teach you at journalism schools.

• 44:58Trevor Noah?

  In the UK, that's like, that was like a big one.

• 45:00Speaker 01

  I think it's even bigger in the US to be honest.

• 45:02Trevor Noah?

  No, no ways, no ways Mehdi, no ways.

• 45:06Speaker 01

  Maybe the BBC, yes.

• 45:07Trevor Noah?

  Okay, yeah, that's what I mean. Okay, the BBC.

• 45:08Speaker 01

  But the US journalism schools just churn out people saying stuff like this and I think it's gotta end now.

• 45:13Trevor Noah?

  Okay, got it.

• 45:13Speaker 01

  And you know, well, the BBC, America and Britain have this role reversal, right? So in the UK, we have very, very impartial media, very, very heavily, we don't take a position, we're not tablo, we're not sensationalist. And then you have all these really tabloidy newspapers, really, really outspoken, provocative, The Sun and The Mail and all of that stuff.

• 45:29Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, that's true.

• 45:30Speaker 01

  And in the US, it's the reverse. You have all these crazy cable channels, opinionated fire, you know, you know, outspoken firebrands on cable and on TV. And then you have like really, really state New York Times, The Washington Post, very boring headlines, very, we must keep our impartiality. So it's a weird reversal.

• 45:47Trevor Noah?

  But I feel like, I feel like this world is more, it's.

• 45:51Trevor Noah?

  I could be wrong, but I feel like it suits you more. Like you strike me as like a Wild West kind of guy.

• 45:55Speaker 01

  Yeah, it was weird that I ended up at MSNBC, to be honest. When I was at Al Jazeera where I was before, and I also wrote for The Intercept, people would say to me, because I'd lived in the US for a few years, I'd gone viral a lot. I turned up on The Daily Show with your good self, I remember, and people were saying to me at the time, "Oh, it's only a matter of time till CNN or MSNBC hire you." And I was like, "Don't be silly, why would they hire me?"

• 46:13Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 46:13Speaker 01

  I don't fit that persona. I don't do what the other hosts do. They're never gonna hire someone like me. And then, I was wrong, to be fair. MSNBC, Phil Griffin, who was president at the time, did come and offer me a job, and I had three and a half very successful, fun years there, running my mouth. So, in that sense-

• 46:30Trevor Noah?

  Running my mouth.

• 46:31Speaker 01

  Running, is that Britishism?

• 46:32Trevor Noah?

  No, no, no, I just liked it. I just liked that you said that, running my mouth.

• 46:34Speaker 01

  That's what I do. I run my mouth. That's all I do in life. I've got no other skills in life.

• 46:38Trevor Noah?

  That's not true, man. That's not true. You're an informer?

• 46:43Speaker 02

  For the police!

• 46:45Trevor Noah?

  I knew there was something.

• 46:47Speaker 01

  Something weird.

• 46:48Trevor Noah?

  You know this guy, isn't he? Werner?

• 46:51Speaker 01

  Just when I think I couldn't love you anymore.

• 46:54Trevor Noah?

  Just when I thought I couldn't love you anymore.

• 46:55Speaker 02

  Just never reveals their sources.

• 46:58Speaker 01

  Yeah, you can't run your mouth, run into your sources.

• 47:00Trevor Noah?

  No, but this is what I mean. I think you are, like many British people, you will, you'll try and dampen your achievements or what you do. Like, British people are very quick to be like, "I don't care." Then you're like, "But you're the king of England! No, please, I just wear a crown sometimes." You know what I mean?

• 47:19Speaker 01

  Americans are much more-

• 47:21Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, no, you do, like, you do a shit ton of research. I don't think I know many more people who just know stats off the top of their head the way you do. Like, you, did you study like this? Did you-

• 47:35Speaker 01

  No.

• 47:37Trevor Noah?

  When you say "study like this", when you were a kid, when you were a kid, did you remember everything in school?

• 47:43Speaker 01

  Yes, I had a very good memory.

• 47:44Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, you can recall information.

• 47:45Speaker 01

  Not anymore, now I'm old and grey, but like, my daughter has a very good memory, has inherited that.

• 47:49Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 47:49Speaker 01

  When I was young, yes, I had a very good memory. I could remember, you know, put things on a table, I can remember it, names, places.

• 47:55Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 47:55Speaker 01

  Even today, I still remember obscure, like, my wife will make fun of me that I will forget kids' birth- Days, but I'll remember when the six day war was in nineteen sixty seven. So that kind of random stuff is still in here. I have too much shit in here. You know, Sherlock Holmes, like the mind palace. You must clear things out. Like, I don't clear shit out. So that's why I'm now in a situation where I can't remember like friends' names and stuff. But I can tell you, you know, which.

• 48:18Trevor Noah?

  You should name your friends. Yeah, you should then name your friends after like major tragedies. Yeah, name your friends after tragedies in history and then you'll never forget them. And then just tell them it's like your nickname.

• 48:28Speaker 01

  No, but I, but look, I also now do have to do a lot of prep. So I told you, I mentioned I wrote this book and there's a chapter in the book on preparation. I do try and make it clear, especially to young people, because they ask me this question, especially budding journalists, like, how do you do what you do? Like, I don't wing it. People think you wing things.

• 48:41Trevor Noah?

  I don't think you win anything.

• 48:43Speaker 01

  This one I'm winging because I walked into this conversation, no prep. Normally I'll be like, what's Trevor gonna ask me? And I'll be ready and I'll, and I, I walked in this one blind.

• 48:50Trevor Noah?

  There's no ready.

• 48:50Speaker 01

  I didn't even know you were gonna be here.

• 48:51Trevor Noah?

  That's, that's how we surprise you. Yeah, yeah.

• 48:55Speaker 01

  I didn't even know when we started. Here we go.

• 48:57Trevor Noah?

  That's what we're doing. Mary Hasan caught off guard.

• 49:01Speaker 01

  So normally I prep a lot.

• 49:02Trevor Noah?

  We're gonna put you, Mary Hasan ambush, and we're gonna play that clip first. I didn't even know what you guys were gonna ask me. I can't believe you guys said this shit about.

• 49:08Speaker 01

  Who are you?

• 49:09Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 49:09Speaker 01

  You look different from when we were on the Daily Show. Where did the hair come from?

• 49:12Trevor Noah?

  What are you talking about?

• 49:13Speaker 01

  You had a suit.

• 49:13Trevor Noah?

  What are you, that?

• 49:14Speaker 01

  It was a very different conversation. We talked about Pete Buttigieg. I remember that. We had a conversation. It was a presidential debate, live debate.

• 49:21Trevor Noah?

  Damn, you really have an insane memory.

• 49:23Speaker 01

  I mean, I was the guest. Why would you remember? You had like a thousand guests.

• 49:25Trevor Noah?

  But that's not the point. You, you have.

• 49:27Speaker 01

  But I do remember what we talked about, yes.

• 49:28Trevor Noah?

  This, this, but that's my point. You have an insane. Do you?

• 49:31Speaker 01

  I remember politics for some reason.

• 49:32Trevor Noah?

  Do you have a tough time forgiving people in life?

• 49:35Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 49:36Trevor Noah?

  Well, I forgive, but I don't forget. Yeah, but that's part of forgiving, I think.

• 49:40Speaker 01

  No, I can't.

• 49:40Trevor Noah?

  Forgetting.

• 49:41Speaker 01

  I can't do it.

• 49:41Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, part of, no, no, no, I'll tell you why. Which, okay, you tell me why you don't think so.

• 49:46Speaker 01

  Look, if I forgive you, I don't have to forget what you did.

• 49:48Trevor Noah?

  I'm not saying have to.

• 49:49Speaker 01

  Yeah, but I'm saying you said it's part of it.

• 49:51Trevor Noah?

  I argue. My my belief is when you forgive somebody.

• 49:57Speaker 01

  I didn't forget what you did.

• 49:58Trevor Noah?

  When you I'm saying when you when you forgive somebody.

• 50:01Speaker 01

  Is.

• 50:01Trevor Noah?

  In my opinion.

• 50:02Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 50:03Trevor Noah?

  To your point, the part of your brain that is holding on to the memory.

• 50:06Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 50:07Trevor Noah?

  Let's go. In my opinion, this is only my opinion. I'm not a neuroscientist.

• 50:10Speaker 01

  That's a good point.

• 50:10Trevor Noah?

  This is not medical advice. This is not anything. I did. I'm winging this for the record. This is my opinion one hundred percent. I believe when you forgive.

• 50:18Speaker 01

  Mm hmm.

• 50:18Trevor Noah?

  Your brain or something happens in your mind and you're more likely to forget is my opinion.

• 50:23Speaker 01

  I think that's a good point. What if you can't?

• 50:25Trevor Noah?

  I find people, generally people who have amazing memories like this, generally struggle to forgive.

• 50:33Speaker 01

  It is a problem that I do remember things that I should just let go. That is a problem. Just everything, personal, professional, political. I mean, actually, it helps me my journalism because the number one problem in this country is people have short memories. And that's why people in power get away with shit. Donald Trump. I gave you an example about the war thing. Oh, he's anti-war. Then I have to remind people, okay, remember what happened between twenty seventeen and twenty twenty one? No, because we all forgot it. I spent all of twenty twenty four listening to Americans tell me, ah, you know what? If Donald Trump comes back, we survived him once, we can survive him again. No, we fucking didn't survive him. Half a million people died from Covid. But you've forgotten that, right? Because Americans have the memories of goldfish, like eight seconds, nine seconds, done.

• 51:06Trevor Noah?

  You know, goldfish actually have good memories.

• 51:07Speaker 01

  Do they? It's a myth? Is that an urban legend?

• 51:09Trevor Noah?

  Should have fact checked that before I put it in the book.

• 51:11Speaker 01

  But we should check it now.

• 51:11Trevor Noah?

  I put it in my books. It's too late.

• 51:12Speaker 01

  Check it right now. I believe.

• 51:14Trevor Noah?

  I remember reading this and maybe I read the wrong thing.

• 51:16Speaker 01

  My fact checker should have checked.

• 51:17Trevor Noah?

  No, no, no, we should. We should read it because I I we should check it up now. But I do believe that the goldfish thing is actually a myth.

• 51:22Speaker 01

  If it is a myth, if it is a myth, then we should replace goldfish and we're just Americans should play the role of goldfish.

• 51:28Trevor Noah?

  That's not fair to Americans. I don't agree. I should be the first.

• 51:31Speaker 01

  No, no, seriously, Americans have no memory. I'm taking my American hat off.

• 51:35Trevor Noah?

  No, that's not true.

• 51:35Speaker 01

  And wearing my immigrant British hat as an outsider. It's hundred percent true. Hundred percent true. People do not remember what happened last week.

• 51:42Trevor Noah?

  No, no, no.

• 51:42Speaker 01

  And that's why everyone gets to reinvent themselves, rehabilitate themselves.

• 51:45Trevor Noah?

  So the fact is myths, uh, goldfish actually have memories that span months, not seconds. Studies have shown that they can be trained to respond to signals for food. Remember feeding times and navigate mazes, retaining that knowledge for at least several months.

• 51:58Speaker 01

  I wish Americans had the memory of months because we don't.

• 52:01Trevor Noah?

  Let me tell you something, Mehdi. Let me tell you something. Here's where I'll disagree with you.

• 52:03Speaker 01

  Please.

• 52:04Trevor Noah?

  I think it is unfair to say Americans have bad, Americans do not have bad memory, anything. I think any person who exists in an environment where they are constantly waterboarded with a media that is distracted, they are the people. So I'll give you an example, in South Africa.

• 52:22Speaker 01

  You're saying they're being overloaded?

• 52:23Trevor Noah?

  In South Africa, we had a commission, right? Is it still ongoing?

• 52:27Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 52:28Trevor Noah?

  Right.

• 52:28Speaker 01

  Just on the first of June.

• 52:29Trevor Noah?

  Right, so we have a commission that's on corruption. If you talk to the average South African, they are fully focused on this commission.

• 52:38Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 52:38Trevor Noah?

  How many months has it been going for?

• 52:40Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's been long now, it's been almost a year now.

• 52:42Trevor Noah?

  Almost a year. There's no South African who's forgotten about it. There's no South African who doesn't talk about it, it is fully in the zeitgeist. But I argue because the South African media has given it that it is on television every single day that they're on.

• 52:57Speaker 01

  On YouTube.

• 52:57Trevor Noah?

  The clips go out on YouTube, the clips go out on TikTok, people are seeing it. So all I'm saying is, all I'm saying is, I, I'm not quick to say Americans have a bad memory. I've watched the news in America, I've seen a story that is breaking on a Monday, and by Wednesday, they've moved on, and I'm like, how have you moved on?

• 53:16Speaker 01

  That's a, that's a fair point about, especially the Trump era, where they, where the, the strategy is, right? What's the phrase, to flood the zone with shit.

• 53:23Trevor Noah?

  Yes, exactly.

• 53:24Speaker 01

  That's the deliberate strategy of Steve Bannon. People, Americans didn't forget about Bill Clinton when that happened, the Monica Lewinsky, but then before Trump.

• 53:30Trevor Noah?

  Americans didn't forget Mehdi, no Mehdi.

• 53:32Speaker 01

  We did, we did.

• 53:33Trevor Noah?

  No Mehdi, no Mehdi.

• 53:35Speaker 01

  That's why George, look at George Bush's approval ratings, they're really good right now. You know, George Bush's approval ratings are good right now.

• 53:41Trevor Noah?

  Yes, but it's not.

• 53:42Speaker 01

  Why? He left office as the most unpopular president, he should be sitting in The Hague facing war crimes charges. He was, until Trump came along, he was the worst president of our lifetimes. But over time, Americans forgive and forget. They forgive and then they forget, like you want them to.

• 53:54Trevor Noah?

  No.

• 53:55Speaker 01

  Look at right now with Iran, why do they hate us? Why do they hate us? Because we remember shit, we don't remember, we shut down their plane, we deposed their government, we supported Saddam Hussein's invasion. We don't have any memories of anything we did, we're bad at history, we're bad at remembering.

• 54:08Trevor Noah?

  So I'm, I'm gonna respond to you, but then I also have a question for you. Um, so the first thing I will say is, that again, is not people forgetting, in my opinion. I don't think anyone forgot what George Bush did. I think because of recency bias, and because of the way people perceive things that happen in time. George Bush now, for the average American, seems like a much better option than what they're experiencing at this moment in time. A, because they're not experiencing it right now.

• 54:37Speaker 01

  I agree with that.

• 54:38Trevor Noah?

  And B, because George Bush, I would argue, was doing worse things to the world than he was doing to Americans. So the average American, for the most part, was experiencing less of Bush's badness than the world was, right? So that's what I think was happening. The other question, the question though, that I have for you for this is, when did you start saying "we" for what America was doing?

• 54:58Speaker 01

  It's a great question. That's a really good question.

• 55:00Trevor Noah?

  Because I noticed you said "we invaded them, we bombed them".

• 55:02Speaker 01

  I don't know the answer to that question. Sometimes, and you notice what I said before "we", I said, "Americans have bad memories", and then I immediately clocked myself and said, "Let me put my British hat on, take my American hat off", because I have multiple identities. So when I talk about bad American memories, I'm talking as an immigrant outsider, right? But then sometimes I'm an American insider. Now, that bothers Republicans. You know, the new phrase du jour is "deport and denaturalize", they say it about the mayor of New York, they say it about Ilhan Omar, they say it about me. Multiple Republican members of Congress have called for me to be deported. They say, "We're gonna send you back to the UK", which makes me laugh, because growing up, I was told to go back to India.

• 55:33Trevor Noah?

  People were sending you back to India.

• 55:34Speaker 01

  Now it's like, "I'm gonna send you back to the UK", ooh, that's a real scary inside. "You're gonna send me back to London, are you? Oh, not to London, not there." So, I mean, you gotta get, you gotta hand it to the racists, they've gone up in the world. But that is the crap I get now, and because they don't accept me as a real American. Naturalized Americans are not real Americans, apparently, unless you're Melania Trump. So, that is a good question. I don't know when I started saying "we", I wonder if my MSNBC team know, because I became a citizen in October 2020, a month before the 2020 election, just in time to vote against Trump. And, I don't know, it's a good question. I know, I was very happy to be a citizen, because I wanna have skin in the game, I don't wanna be just an outsider, just pundit running my mouth like a Piers Morgan when he was here.

• 56:15Trevor Noah?

  Shots fired.

• 56:16Speaker 01

  Obviously, I have American kids, and I have dual national kids, I have an American wife, and I live here, my future is here. So, no, I'm not saying to you, but just to people who wonder, like, "Why does he live here if he doesn't like it so much"? No, I love it, I love it here. I don't like American foreign policy, I don't like Donald Trump, but I love the United States of America, so they're clearly, I spoke at a no king, I spoke at a no kings rally, right? Two interesting things about that. I spoke at a no kings protest. Number one, I spoke behind bulletproof glass, first time in my life, that's the world we live in now after Charlie Coke. It's really strange, by the way. I love the organizers, spent a lot of money on the bulletproof glass, but it was only at the front. There was nothing on the sides, which I felt was a little bit of an inadequacy when there were people all around the stage. Anyways, that was weird, being behind bulletproof glass for the first time. I've spoken hundreds of speeches in my life. First time behind bulletproof glass.

• 56:59Trevor Noah?

  Did it make you give your speech differently? Like, did you move a little bit more?

• 57:01Speaker 01

  Yeah, I didn't have the same rapport. The audience felt distant.

• 57:04Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 57:05Speaker 01

  Apart from the people on the sides who could shoot me at any time. And then number two, my mother watched it because it went viral and someone sent it to her.

• 57:11Trevor Noah?

  From the side?

• 57:12Speaker 01

  She watched it from England. And she called me and she goes, okay. I noticed you said, I love America. I want to save my country. She goes, when did you start talking like that? Before you tried. And I was like, ah shit, because my mom's not a fan of the fact that I became an American. She wanted me to stay British.

• 57:29Trevor Noah?

  Oh, she wanted you to stay British?

• 57:30Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, she's.

• 57:31Trevor Noah?

  But where was your mom born?

• 57:32Speaker 01

  I was born in India.

• 57:33Trevor Noah?

  Ha, what a beautiful irony.

• 57:35Speaker 01

  Yeah. Which is exactly the point I made to her. I said, you became an American, moved to another country. Why can't I? Nah, I think she's just anti-American.

• 57:41Trevor Noah?

  But what do you love so much about America, though?

• 57:44Speaker 01

  Uh, many things.

• 57:45Trevor Noah?

  Mm-hmm. Tell me. I'm here for it.

• 57:46Speaker 01

  All right. I love.

• 57:47Trevor Noah?

  America, Eugene loves America. So he's just asking you to validate him.

• 57:50Speaker 01

  You've only been here two days as well, this guy.

• 57:52Trevor Noah?

  Best two days of my life.

• 57:53Speaker 01

  I, uh, what do I love about America? I love the, I love the sheer space.

• 57:59Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 57:59Speaker 01

  I love the fact that it's a big country. I love that flying to California is like flying to London. I love that. I love that this is a country, continent. Um, I love the fact you go to different states. I travel a lot for work. And every state you go to is like a little mini country with its own kind of people, problems, issues. I love that. I'm all about diversity. I'm, uh, sorry, sorry, right-wingers. I love my diversity, my D E I. Um, so I love the fact that people are different wherever you go in this country. That's a, that's a good thing, not a bad thing. I love the food. I'm a foodie. I love junk food. I love American junk food and fast food. I'm not a snob. I love the shit stuff.

• 58:32Trevor Noah?

  Mm.

• 58:32Speaker 01

  Like, I was, I was born from, I was, I was at a movie cinema last night and I ordered a milkshake.

• 58:37Trevor Noah?

  What did you watch?

• 58:38Speaker 01

  Uh, I watched Mandalorian and Gorgoth.

• 58:40Trevor Noah?

  Is it good?

• 58:41Speaker 01

  Right. Are you a Star Wars fan?

• 58:43Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, I'm, I love.

• 58:45Speaker 01

  Lots of people are Star Wars fans.

• 58:46Trevor Noah?

  No, okay, no, then I, I'm, I, then I would be careful then. I would say that I.

• 58:50Speaker 01

  If you're not a Star Wars fan, you probably won't love it.

• 58:52Trevor Noah?

  No, no, no, no, this is why, this is why I'm careful. So sometimes when people say, are you a fan of something, they just mean, do you like it? In fact, in general, I.

• 58:58Speaker 01

  Like, are you into it?

• 58:59Trevor Noah?

  No, he means, you think about it. No, no, no.

• 59:01Speaker 01

  He means on May the fourth.

• 59:03Trevor Noah?

  Do I say, may the fourth be with you?

• 59:04Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 59:05Trevor Noah?

  Yes, but not as like a, like I have to. I just like that people have said that. No, no, no, no, no.

• 59:09Speaker 01

  To answer your question, I love the TV show.

• 59:11Trevor Noah?

  Yes.

• 59:12Speaker 01

  Hard to convert TV shows into movies.

• 59:13Trevor Noah?

  Yes.

• 59:13Speaker 01

  For me, it didn't work as a movie. It's a movie.

• 59:16Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, they made it a, it was doing very well. It was doing well at the box office.

• 59:18Speaker 01

  It doesn't suck. It's good, but it's not great and it could have been better. But I loved the show and I love Pedro Pascal, so I went to watch it. But I ordered a milkshake.

• 59:25Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 59:25Speaker 01

  And it came, it's a, I just thought, I love it. At the moment, I was like, I love America.

• 59:28Trevor Noah?

  Did it come in the Grogu cup?

• 59:29Speaker 01

  No, it didn't. But it came in a fucking huge cup. And I was like, this is what I love. First time I went back to England, when I realised I'm an American. Went back to England, I was doing my show for Al Jazeera, went to a cafe across from the filming, I ordered a brownie. And this tiny little piece of shit came on the plate. And I was like, what is this? I was like, oh, I'm in England. That's when I was like, I'm American.

• 59:50Trevor Noah?

  What about the generally sunny disposition? Do you, do you find?

• 59:54Speaker 01

  That I don't like.

• 59:54Trevor Noah?

  You don't like that?

• 59:55Speaker 01

  No, that, I'm very British. American hat off, British hat on. That, that I, I don't want to talk to you unnecessarily. I, I want to keep my head down. I'm the guy on the tube in the UK. You mind your business. You keep your head down. You don't engage. And New Yorkers are a little bit like that as well.

• 1:00:07Trevor Noah?

  Not giving people directions, not. New Yorkers are.

• 1:00:11Speaker 01

  Unnecessary chit chat. No, have a nice day.

• 1:00:13Trevor Noah?

  Here's the thing people get wrong about New Yorkers though. New Yorkers mind their own business, right? And because it's a fast pay, people be like, New Yorkers are not friendly. I, I don't agree with that. I just think New Yorkers understand that everyone's trying to get somewhere and go somewhere. So you can't be just stopping everyone. Hey, how you doing? Well, how's your life? You're interrupting people's lives. But if you want to see how good New Yorkers are, do something wrong and they will very quickly correct you and help you.

• 1:00:35Speaker 01

  No, so.

• 1:00:36Trevor Noah?

  Like go, like say out loud, ah, I'm going, you know, to Queens and I'm gonna take the whatever, the F train. Somebody like, no, no, hey, hey, hey, hey, wrong, the wrong train. They'll be like, no, don't.

• 1:00:45Speaker 01

  To go back to your point about sunny disposition, if you mean like kind of department store, have a nice day, that annoys me.

• 1:00:51Trevor Noah?

  I love that.

• 1:00:51Speaker 01

  But if you love it, okay, I'm not a fan. But if you mean kind of sunny disposition as in what's my world, my world is politics. If you mean kind of Barack Obama, Zerran Mamdani, inspiring speech, tear jerking, I love that.

• 1:01:03Trevor Noah?

  Okay, so you like that part?

• 1:01:04Speaker 01

  Yeah, like I'm the guy who watched West Wing and a corny West Wing. Like people make fun of people like me. I love the West Wing. I'm that guy. I apologize. I know people hate.

• 1:01:11Trevor Noah?

  No, what do you mean?

• 1:01:12Speaker 01

  But some people hate West Wing there.

• 1:01:13Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, but I mean, we don't.

• 1:01:14Speaker 01

  But I love that.

• 1:01:15Trevor Noah?

  Why do we have to apologize for that?

• 1:01:16Speaker 01

  That British political cynicism, no, I'm not a fan of. I prefer the American.

• 1:01:20Trevor Noah?

  Okay, so you've taken, so you've taken on the the general optimism?

• 1:01:23Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:01:24Trevor Noah?

  That's the thing you love about America?

• 1:01:25Speaker 01

  A democratic optimism.

• 1:01:26Trevor Noah?

  I'm with you, I'm with you, but then when it comes to like the niceties in the day, you don't care for that at all.

• 1:01:30Speaker 01

  I'm still a Brit, I'm still a Brit there. It's like I can't be fake.

• 1:01:33Trevor Noah?

  Do you have the the fake apologetic thing that British people have?

• 1:01:36Speaker 01

  Uh, I'm not sure. That's a good question. Do you have to ask someone else? Do I? I don't. Yes, I do. I apologize all the time.

• 1:01:43Trevor Noah?

  No, I'm asking. I'm asking if he has it still. That's all.

• 1:01:47Speaker 01

  I I'm not sure. I don't know the answer to that question. You'd have to ask people around me.

• 1:01:52Trevor Noah?

  So you're fully in then? This is like.

• 1:01:54Speaker 01

  I'm fully in till I get deported. I'm fully in.

• 1:01:56Trevor Noah?

  Do you, are you worried about being deported?

• 1:01:58Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:01:58Trevor Noah?

  Genuinely.

• 1:01:59Speaker 01

  Are you not?

• 1:02:00Trevor Noah?

  No.

• 1:02:01Speaker 01

  Then you're stupid.

• 1:02:03Trevor Noah?

  Well, we're gonna clip that. We're gonna clip that for sure.

• 1:02:07Speaker 01

  I don't know what to say to a fellow non-white immigrant.

• 1:02:09Trevor Noah?

  If we don't clip this thing and put in like just the back and forths here with.

• 1:02:14Speaker 01

  No back and forths, out of context.

• 1:02:15Trevor Noah?

  Make sure we're clipping all of these moments, Jess, please.

• 1:02:18Speaker 01

  No, no, no.

• 1:02:18Trevor Noah?

  Well, then you're stupid.

• 1:02:19Speaker 01

  I apologize.

• 1:02:20Trevor Noah?

  And we're just like, gang, gang, gang.

• 1:02:20Speaker 01

  I apologize. It was a source for me.

• 1:02:22Trevor Noah?

  No, no, no.

• 1:02:22Speaker 01

  Non-white people do not take the threat of Trump seriously, I think.

• 1:02:26Trevor Noah?

  Mehdi, Mehdi, do not apologize. You're making my day.

• 1:02:30Speaker 01

  I just proved my point. I just did a British apology.

• 1:02:32Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, you did. Okay, so you do have that thing. So.

• 1:02:34Speaker 01

  Very sorry for.

• 1:02:35Trevor Noah?

  Do not apologize. You made my day. Because all, what I love is, I love the idea of us creating like a fake trailer for this interview.

• 1:02:43Speaker 01

  Just hostile.

• 1:02:44Trevor Noah?

  And it's just gonna be hostilities, back and forth. Well, you're stupid. What are you talking about? What do you know about? You're wrong about? And it's just ba, ba, ba. Mehdi has, and we're just gonna put the craziest title on the thumbnail, and I wanna see how many people are gonna click on it. And then just go from there and be like.

• 1:02:57Speaker 01

  Five minutes into the video, and then I ordered a giant milkshake.

• 1:03:02Speaker 01

  Geopolitics at its best.

• 1:03:04Trevor Noah?

  Do you think, uh?

• 1:03:05Speaker 01

  Yes, I am worried about being devoted. Yes, it would be insane not to be.

• 1:03:09Trevor Noah?

  Okay, so.

• 1:03:09Speaker 01

  I take this person seriously. Remember, I'm the guy in 2019.

• 1:03:11Trevor Noah?

  Yes.

• 1:03:12Speaker 01

  Who said, "Take it seriously, Trump will stay on." Yeah. Because he just says this shit.

• 1:03:15Trevor Noah?

  Oh, no, I'm always taking it literally and seriously. So maybe, maybe this is a semantic misunderstanding that we're having. You asked me if I'm worried. You're not saying if I took it seriously or not. I think there's a difference for me.

• 1:03:24Speaker 01

  Okay, explain.

• 1:03:25Trevor Noah?

  So there are things that I do not care to worry about as a person for myself.

• 1:03:29Speaker 01

  But you take it seriously.

• 1:03:29Trevor Noah?

  But I take it seriously.

• 1:03:30Speaker 01

  Got it, got it, okay.

• 1:03:31Trevor Noah?

  So do I think there's a chance that they'll take away my ability to live in the US and kick me out? I'm like, yeah, that's very possible.

• 1:03:36Speaker 01

  Okay, then you're not stupid.

• 1:03:37Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, but I go, do I worry about it? I can't worry about it. For me as Trump.

• 1:03:41Speaker 01

  Oh, then in that sense, I don't worry about it.

• 1:03:43Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, because I'm like, guys.

• 1:03:44Speaker 01

  If I worried about, I wouldn't be doing what I do. I wouldn't be here in New York.

• 1:03:47Trevor Noah?

  Okay, then, no, no, then we're saying the same thing.

• 1:03:48Speaker 01

  I would have gone and become a lawyer like my mother asked me to. My mother says, "Stop talking about Trump. Keep your head down." And I'm like, "Okay," and then I go do Jubilee and then I'm like, "Oh, I didn't keep my head down."

• 1:03:56Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, I actually, I actually care, and I don't, I don't say this like, just to say it. I actually care more about the people who have to worry about it. That's what I care more about. So like, families being broken up.

• 1:04:04Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:04:05Trevor Noah?

  People who've built their lives here. You've got multi-generations.

• 1:04:07Speaker 01

  Hundred percent.

• 1:04:08Trevor Noah?

  This is their only chance. That's more the thing that I go, "Ah, man." And, and, maybe a not-so-popular opinion, I worry for the United States.

• 1:04:16Speaker 01

  Agreed.

• 1:04:16Trevor Noah?

  Because I think, I think any, like, if you, you know, we've had this conversation. We talk about the replacement population or rate of replacement in China or in Germany or in Japan. Places where they're seeing what happens when you're not having enough children being born or enough immigration.

• 1:04:34Speaker 01

  But it's just you.

• 1:04:35Trevor Noah?

  Your country cannot replace the population at a high enough rate to sustain your economy's growth. And there's almost no country that has done that without immigration. It's very difficult to do without immigration, because this weird thing that happens.

• 1:04:46Speaker 01

  No, Elon Musk says you can do about having lots of kids, and he's trying to show us the way.

• 1:04:49Trevor Noah?

  By the way, what was it like talking to his, um, you, didn't you interview?

• 1:04:53Speaker 01

  Ashley St. Clair, baby mama. He bet you really don't have a boss anymore. I don't think I've ever heard a journalist say baby mama in my life, right?

• 1:05:02Trevor Noah?

  With that accent.

• 1:05:03Speaker 01

  No, no, no, but the way he said it, baby mama.

• 1:05:06Trevor Noah?

  What did you make of that?

• 1:05:07Speaker 01

  As a Brit, I'll say I apologize.

• 1:05:10Speaker 01

  If she took any offence from that.

• 1:05:11Trevor Noah?

  No, no, she seems cool now. I mean, look, people ask me. Yeah, that's what I mean. That's what I mean. You said she seems cool now.

• 1:05:16Speaker 01

  But I'm a cynic.

• 1:05:17Trevor Noah?

  Yes.

• 1:05:17Speaker 01

  So I said this to Ashley when she was on the show, with the greatest respect. I've dealt with too many people who kind of, I've left Trump world and I've converted. And then they haven't really converted, or they're just out there for the grift. Or, you know, you look at Michael Cohen, conned a lot of people, people at MSNBC. When I was there, loved Michael Cohen. He'd be on the show every day and then suddenly he's back in the Trump fold or whatever. So I think a lot of these people I'm very skeptical of, like who come very late to the party. Although, to be fair, she said she had no regrets. I mean, I asked her straight up. You know, do you regret being fooled by Elon? And she goes, no, I got a kid out of it. She goes, I have my child, thankfully, so I would never do anything differently. But, you know, she talked about how he impressed her and I don't understand how anyone. I find him to be one of the most repulsive, loathsome, charisma free, humor free people on the planet. I get it, he's the richest man in the world, so that has a certain appeal.

• 1:06:00Speaker 01

  But, yeah, I confused when I talked to her about why she ended up with him.

• 1:06:07Trevor Noah?

  What were you hoping to get out of that interview?

• 1:06:09Speaker 01

  I wanted to know how much they paid her. They offered to pay her. She talked about. They offered, she said on the show, she said, they offered me the, uh, uh, uh, an amount the size of a GDP of a small country to not speak and she didn't sign it to keep her freedom to speak out. And she's been speaking out a lot. She's been a lot of places. She was on Jennifer Watch's podcast, she was with Hasan Baker.

• 1:06:28Trevor Noah?

  What, now, this is what's interesting to me. What does she say is the reason that she flipped her views on the world?

• 1:06:34Speaker 01

  I asked her that question. I think she said it was being exposed to people she had not been exposed to, being waking up to the grift on her side. She told some great stories about being in like WhatsApp and text groups with like Trump kids and MAGA influencers are all just getting the marching orders. Some of them are just getting money for what they're doing. You can cameo these guys, like the equivalent of a few hundred bucks. You can get a MAGA influencer to say whatever you want him to say. We live in a world where you click online. You do not know if the person posting on Twitter, Instagram threads is posting because they believe that or someone's paid them. And that applies on both sides of the divide, by the way. You saw recently Tom Steyer, the guy running for governor of California, billionaire, was paying liberal influencers to say nice things about him.

• 1:07:10Trevor Noah?

  I didn't see that, actually.

• 1:07:11Speaker 01

  So it's the world we live in now. It's just me, you, Trevor, who are actually speaking from the high, everyone else.

• 1:07:15Trevor Noah?

  Ah, me, my man. I get paid to hang out with this guy called Eugene. South Africa pays me. It's this weird deal that I have. They're like, you have to roll with one.

• 1:07:23Speaker 01

  You have to roll.

• 1:07:23Trevor Noah?

  And I'm like, ah, okay Eugene, let's roll.

• 1:07:26Speaker 01

  To keep the side out.

• 1:07:26Trevor Noah?

  Let's roll, my friend.

• 1:07:27Speaker 01

  The payout is a G P of a small apartment block.

• 1:07:33Trevor Noah?

  We're gonna continue this conversation right after this short break.

• 1:07:39Trevor Noah?

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• 1:08:24Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, one of my favorite YouTube Premium features is smart downloads. Because how many times have you gone somewhere and realized, ah, I forgot to download anything? And now you're on the way to the airport and you're like, download, download, download, download. You're on the plane, download, download, download, download. There's no wifi. I wish I downloaded. Now, all of those things that you were gonna watch are just on the internet. Smart downloads basically thinks ahead for you. It automatically downloads recommended videos based on what you like to watch. So even when you forget to prepare, YouTube Premium didn't. I love it. It's like packing for a trip and discovering somebody already remembered the thing you always leave at home. It's always the underwear. If you like YouTube, you'll love YouTube Premium. Sign up now for your free trial at youtube.com/premium.

• 1:09:09Trevor Noah?

  Terms apply. Cancel anytime.

• 1:09:13Trevor Noah?

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• 1:10:22Trevor Noah?

  I worry because there's a gift and curse when it comes to everything, right? I say that all the time, but I do believe it. One of the curses of having a media that is controlled by a few people is that it is controlled by a few people and we don't realize that our news is being filtered through the lens of a few.

• 1:10:40Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 1:10:40Trevor Noah?

  One of the gifts is that there's accountability because you know where to find these people. So even Fox News could be sued by Dominion Voting Systems and they could lose and they could pay the money. Even Fox News in that way. But now with the internet, the way it is.

• 1:10:56Speaker 01

  Anonymous, rando.

• 1:10:57Trevor Noah?

  You can run an entire campaign that lies to people. And the thing that I don't mean this like...

• 1:11:02Speaker 01

  And you never find the source of it.

• 1:11:03Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, I don't mean this like in a political way, like, ah, disinformation. No, no, no. What I just mean is it can make human beings feel like their world is worse or better or different than it actually is. And it can make them create or vote for a world that is worse for themselves without realizing it's. That's that's like the the most panacea side of it is.

• 1:11:22Speaker 01

  Do you remember the Johnny Depp Amber Heard issue?

• 1:11:24Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:11:24Speaker 01

  A lot of that was kind of online artificially boosted.

• 1:11:28Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:11:28Speaker 01

  Um, the recent, um, why am I forgetting the names? Uh, the recent big Hollywood row, I'm having a mind blow, see I'm old, I can remember wars.

• 1:11:37Trevor Noah?

  Hollywood row.

• 1:11:38Speaker 01

  Blake Lively.

• 1:11:39Trevor Noah?

  Oh damn, look at that.

• 1:11:40Speaker 01

  Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, a lot of that, there was a New York Times piece about what people were doing behind the scenes uh, to gen up, you know, opposition to her. So you don't know what you can believe anymore. And a lot of people out there are just innocently living their lives, walking down the streets of Manhattan on their phones, not knowing that they're being ma- manipulated in gaslit.

• 1:11:55Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, they're they're seeing a lot of people saying something, but they don't know that those aren't a lot of people. Those are basically paid actors. You know, you know how they put in the bottom of an ad even on TV? Those, if you still watch TV, it'll say, not a real person, paid actor. They they even even in that world, they have to tell you, I know that I'm telling you to take this medication, Sky Rizzi, but I'm not a real person.

• 1:12:15Speaker 01

  I love, by the way, that, you asked me what I love about America, I love pharmacy ads, they're hilarious.

• 1:12:19Trevor Noah?

  They're amazing.

• 1:12:20Speaker 01

  The drug ads are amazing. We don't have them in the UK.

• 1:12:22Trevor Noah?

  They're phenomenal.

• 1:12:23Speaker 02

  When they read out the side effects, no?

• 1:12:24Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:12:24Speaker 02

  Because diarrhea, memory loss, the hair in your eyeballs.

• 1:12:27Speaker 01

  They're smiling on screen as they say.

• 1:12:29Trevor Noah?

  My favorite is the fact that they say, ask your doctor about it. I'm like, if my doctor cannot tell me about the medication, I don't trust them. It's just weird that you're gonna be like, ask your doctor about, now I'm just walking and be like, so doctor, tell me about, uh, I wonder how many doctors hate that, actually.

• 1:12:42Speaker 01

  I know.

• 1:12:43Trevor Noah?

  You're doing your, you're doing your job.

• 1:12:45Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 1:12:46Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, no, that one doesn't get me. You know what the worst one is for me? I understand that all medication can have a side effect and I understand that they have to list this. What gets me is when the side effect is the thing that you were being treated for in the first place. That's the one that gets me. That is not a side effect. You understand what I'm saying? So if they say, you, do you suffer from constipation? Take this medication, it may cause drowsiness, it may cause suicidal thoughts, it may cause death, it may cause skin rashes. That's side effects, I understand this, I'm not even judging you. But when you go, side effects may include constipation, that's not a side effect, that's the thing not working. You can't, you must say sometimes it doesn't work. You can't say the side effect of the thing is the thing that I already have. That's not how it works, bruh. That's when I have an issue with those ads. Otherwise, I think it's great. I think it's a fun time. I sit there and I enjoy it. What do you watch when you're watching stuff, by the way?

• 1:13:32Speaker 01

  Oh, um, I've said this before because I don't really watch much other than action films.

• 1:13:35Trevor Noah?

  Well, yeah, what, what's your go to?

• 1:13:38Speaker 01

  Jason Statham.

• 1:13:39Trevor Noah?

  Ah, I like that.

• 1:13:40Speaker 01

  I, I.

• 1:13:40Trevor Noah?

  Because he's English?

• 1:13:41Speaker 01

  No, no, I knew you were gonna say that.

• 1:13:43Trevor Noah?

  No, I don't know, I'm, I'm wondering.

• 1:13:44Speaker 01

  I mean, I do love, I do love that, I do love that he has the kind of, they have to always give him some random English backstory. Cause he can't do an American accent very well. So in the majority of movies.

• 1:13:52Trevor Noah?

  Like me, I guess.

• 1:13:53Speaker 01

  In the majority of movies, you can't do an English accent so far, we've seen. Poor John Oliver. The, because they can't, cause he can't do a very good American accent.

• 1:14:01Trevor Noah?

  I take offense to that. I'll get it, I'll get it. If he comes back, if he comes back, I'll get it.

• 1:14:05Speaker 01

  Comes back, but the.

• 1:14:05Trevor Noah?

  It's cause we watched Jeremy Clarkson yesterday.

• 1:14:07Speaker 01

  That's why.

• 1:14:08Trevor Noah?

  That grand tour.

• 1:14:08Speaker 01

  But that doesn't sound like Clarkson either. But, cause he can't do an American accent. In most of the movies, they give him some random backstory. He left the marine, the Royal Marines and then moved to become a.

• 1:14:17Trevor Noah?

  They always do, they slide it in.

• 1:14:19Speaker 01

  This guy was, he was, he left the Special Boat Service and moved to this island.

• 1:14:23Trevor Noah?

  Um, and now he has a normal job.

• 1:14:25Speaker 01

  Now he has a normal job, now he's just a fucking, you know, even the one the other day, what was the one I watched the other day? I can't remember the name.

• 1:14:29Trevor Noah?

  The Beekeeper?

• 1:14:30Speaker 01

  The Beekeeper's a great film.

• 1:14:31Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, the Beekeeper was a good one.

• 1:14:32Speaker 01

  But there was a really bad one recently where he was on an island. I didn't rate that one.

• 1:14:35Trevor Noah?

  He was still a worker, though.

• 1:14:36Speaker 01

  He's always a worker.

• 1:14:37Trevor Noah?

  He's always like a.

• 1:14:38Speaker 01

  He's always like a foreman, a driver. My favorite one, of course, transporter movies.

• 1:14:41Trevor Noah?

  I mean, but that's one of the greatest movies of all time, though.

• 1:14:43Speaker 01

  Transporter one, two, three, they get better.

• 1:14:44Trevor Noah?

  That made me wanna buy the car.

• 1:14:46Speaker 01

  Oh, the Audi.

• 1:14:47Trevor Noah?

  That's when you know who he's dope.

• 1:14:48Speaker 01

  Audi, it started with the BMW, then they switched to Audi.

• 1:14:50Trevor Noah?

  They switched to the Audi?

• 1:14:50Speaker 01

  Audi was like, oof, you're like, I want Audi.

• 1:14:52Trevor Noah?

  You gotta buy this Audi. You know when they can make like a, a, a family saloon? Look like, no, this is the car you need to be driving.

• 1:14:59Speaker 01

  Quite a family, so it was like an AA, but okay.

• 1:15:01Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, but I mean, it's like a big goomba, goomba car.

• 1:15:03Speaker 01

  I had an Audi for a while after that, not an AA, it was a, it was an SUV. And I remember when I moved to the DC, I had one. And it is a real American experience. I was sitting in a parking lot at like a Walmart or somewhere and my wife or kids or whatever was inside. This guy just walks up to me, big white guy walks up to the screen, looks at me and goes, Audi? I said, yes. Because Hitler used that car with slave labor.

• 1:15:23Trevor Noah?

  Damn, bro.

• 1:15:24Speaker 01

  And I was like, I was this close to saying, and the White House was built with slave labor down the street. But I just moved, it was like a month in, so I was like, let's let it go, let it go.

• 1:15:31Trevor Noah?

  Do you think beef just finds you?

• 1:15:36Speaker 01

  It does, it does.

• 1:15:37Trevor Noah?

  No, and I say this, I genuinely say, so I, I like my.

• 1:15:40Speaker 01

  I was on the train today coming up.

• 1:15:41Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, and?

• 1:15:43Speaker 01

  He might watch this. Sweet kid was next to me on the train. Turned out to be a fan, but he said to me, and if you're watching, no, you know, I'm saying this very respectfully, but beef, you know, we're in the middle of a train journey and he turned to me and he's like, oh, I'm a big fan. I've seen your videos. I think, and then he goes, but you know, but I don't agree with you on genocide. Tell me why you think it's not a genocide. I said, I can't do this here. We're on an Amtrak train. I'm gonna do Trevor Noah. I can't read my emails. I said, I've done many videos. You can watch them. But it's like, it's hilarious to me that even the person who reckons on a train wants to have a debate about the Middle East right then and there.

• 1:16:16Trevor Noah?

  You, I guess, yeah, you've got, maybe you have like debatable vibes.

• 1:16:20Speaker 01

  Maybe, maybe you give it off. To be fair, I then go and look for debates too, which is what friends and family tell me. It's my fault. Like I went and did Jubilee, which was probably a dumb thing to do if you don't want to have a debate vibe. Cause now.

• 1:16:29Trevor Noah?

  You must have been in heaven though.

• 1:16:30Speaker 01

  People under the age of 25, they don't know my name. They've never seen Jeteo. They've never seen Al Jazeera. They're like, you're that dude from the circle debate. But you're that dude from Jubilee.

• 1:16:37Trevor Noah?

  Mehdi, let's be honest, you were in heaven.

• 1:16:38Speaker 01

  I was not in heaven.

• 1:16:39Trevor Noah?

  You were in heaven.

• 1:16:40Speaker 01

  Two and a half hours of my life I will never get back.

• 1:16:41Trevor Noah?

  Mehdi Hasan, you were, let me tell you something. Have you seen it?

• 1:16:44Speaker 01

  I was not.

• 1:16:44Trevor Noah?

  So you know that series on, on YouTube where they'll put one person against a group of people in a circle? And then they have to run to the middle and argue with you about something.

• 1:16:52Speaker 01

  I thought it would be heaven. It was not. It was hell.

• 1:16:55Trevor Noah?

  Really?

• 1:16:56Speaker 01

  I went thinking, this is gonna be fun, right? Trump, 20 to one. I like those odds. Let's do it. Someone like me, I'm like, yeah, let's do it. I go there and you asked earlier about memory and dates.

• 1:17:07Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:17:08Speaker 01

  I fucking prepared for this. I spent days preparing. My, you know, your four claims.

• 1:17:13Trevor Noah?

  Yes, yes.

• 1:17:15Speaker 01

  I had my notes. I had memorized constitutional amendment. My first argument was Trump is anti the constitution. Trump is pro crime. Trump, I can't remember my claims. Trump is, whatever it was, immigration. Oh, immigration is good for America. I had all these provocative claims for this mag. And I had data, statistics, official reports, quotes, all up here. I was ready. This is me. I went in. First guy sits down. I'm like, oh yeah, the constitution. He's like, I don't care about the constitution. Oh, what do I do now? It's like, none of my facts or figure is irrelevant here, because I'm surrounded by a bunch of white supremacists, fascists and crazies. And that was a very strange experience for me, because I went in thinking stupidly, not good faith debate, but some kind of debate.

• 1:17:57Speaker 01

  And what's interesting is, to be fair to Jubilee, and I've criticized Jubilee since doing it, to be fair to them, in other shows, Glenn Greenwald just did one recently with twenty MAGA people, I've watched other shows.

• 1:18:04Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:18:05Speaker 01

  And I watched them, and I go, how come I didn't get those twenty? Like, every other show has some semi-normal people, but for some reason, what do you say, beef finds me?

• 1:18:12Trevor Noah?

  Beef finds you.

• 1:18:12Speaker 01

  I get the twenty craziest people in the history of Jubilee. Like, I thought there'd be like two or three crazies and like sixteen, seventeen normal.

• 1:18:20Trevor Noah?

  But the whole squad was.

• 1:18:21Speaker 01

  It was like nineteen crazy and there was like one normal guy.

• 1:18:23Trevor Noah?

  I genuinely thought you were loving it.

• 1:18:25Speaker 01

  No, no.

• 1:18:25Trevor Noah?

  Just because of, just because of like how you roll in the debate, so that basically, you run in, you would love it, actually. You would, no, we're gonna, I'll show you.

• 1:18:33Speaker 01

  No, I think Eugene would just love watching it. Cause it was two and a half hours in a warehouse in LA with a bunch of white supremacists. And look, I want to make a serious point here, I do love debating, but this is gonna sound very strange and cliched, I'm also a human being. And you sit there for two and a half hours with person after person telling you, you're not a real American, you're not a white person, get out of my country. I didn't see that coming, I'll be honest, maybe I was naive, because I've watched other Jubilees and other hosts, other guests have not got that. Maybe those were white guys on the left who went on, maybe because I'm a brown Muslim, it was, it was worse for them. But it was a very strange experience to be told by one person after another, you're not a real American, you don't belong here, get out, you're gonna be the first to go. Then discover after the show that some of these people are like linked to the Proud Boys and are Nazis online.

• 1:19:14Trevor Noah?

  Oh, damn.

• 1:19:16Speaker 01

  I was sitting with some, and I, I took like one security guard with me afterwards, I was like, maybe I should take like twenty, because afterwards, you're feeling like, that's a very strange situation to be in, that is not a debate. Like, and a lot of people attacked me, a lot of people on the left said, why did you do that? Because you gave the wrong message out, you're saying that people of color should have to sit there and listen to white supremacists say this shit to their faces. And I understood that, and I respect that, I got criticized from both sides. Um, and, and to this day, people say, well, would you do it again, do you regret doing it? I don't know, I'm torn, that's why when you said I enjoyed it, like, I thought I would enjoy it, but I didn't.

• 1:19:48Trevor Noah?

  That makes a lot of sense. Do you think it changed how seriously you took the situation in the country?

• 1:19:55Speaker 01

  No, I already took its situation.

• 1:19:57Trevor Noah?

  No, no, but I'm saying, do you think it changed that?

• 1:19:58Speaker 01

  No, but I hope others took it seriously. That's the only redeeming feature. I hope the stupid people that we talked about earlier, who think this is all just a, you know, a bunch of old white men in Mississippi who are gonna die out, or the Republican body. They saw twenty young people in LA saying crazy antisemitic, Islamophobic, anti-black, great replacement shit. And I think people don't realize, this is not just some generational thing, oh, the race is just gonna die out, and then we have a liberal, multiracial America.

• 1:20:24Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:20:24Speaker 01

  No, no, no. This is a serious problem. There's a huge movement on the right that is young and vicious, the Nick Fuentes, the Groypas. Some of these guys were linked to Nick Fuentes, I discovered later. And I think that is what was scary, and I think that was one of the redeeming features. When I look back and say, would I do it again? Do I regret doing it? I certainly don't regret exposing, I hope I exposed it to whatever the fifteen million people, whatever it is, who watched on YouTube to say, you know, these people live amongst us, they are your neighbors. One of the guys, Connor, claims to have been fired after the show from his employer.

• 1:20:51Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:20:52Speaker 01

  I remember being on there thinking, as he said to me, yeah, I'm a fascist, as he played down the Holocaust, I'm like, you're saying this? I'm not naive enough to think that these views don't exist in American society. But the fact that you now live in a country where you think you can go on YouTube proudly and say it to cameras are filming you, your colleagues, your coworkers are gonna see this and it doesn't bother you? That, for me, was very stark. And actually, for the vast majority of them, there was no consequences for airing those views on YouTube to millions. That should tell us something about where we are as a country and what's acceptable now in discourse.

• 1:21:21Trevor Noah?

  How afraid are you on a day-to-day basis? Like, just when you're like rolling in the streets, living your life?

• 1:21:26Speaker 01

  I'm okay.

• 1:21:27Trevor Noah?

  Yeah?

• 1:21:28Speaker 01

  I get a lot of love.

• 1:21:29Trevor Noah?

  Okay.

• 1:21:30Speaker 01

  The haters stay away. The haters stay away.

• 1:21:32Trevor Noah?

  Or they're digital.

• 1:21:33Speaker 01

  Or they're digital or they watch from afar. I got one guy recently shout at me in airport, said, you should be deported, get out of my country.

• 1:21:40Trevor Noah?

  Like scream at you or just say it?

• 1:21:41Speaker 01

  No, just, he said it under his breath. And I said.

• 1:21:44Trevor Noah?

  That's even scarier in a weird way.

• 1:21:45Speaker 01

  Well, he breathed, he said, he said it was like a middle aged, middle class guy, not didn't look like a, you know, normal guy.

• 1:21:50Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:21:50Speaker 01

  So what passed me under his breath, saying, get out of the way, come on, he said, to put, get something about getting out of the country.

• 1:21:56Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:21:56Speaker 01

  And I said, what did you say? Say it to my face.

• 1:21:58Trevor Noah?

  Maybe he worked for the airport and he thought you were at the gates.

• 1:22:00Speaker 01

  Well, maybe.

• 1:22:01Trevor Noah?

  Maybe he was just telling you.

• 1:22:01Speaker 01

  I did.

• 1:22:02Trevor Noah?

  No, you know, because sometimes in life, you know, they say like your perspective can shape how you see and experience. So you don't know, maybe this person is like a greeter or somebody who works at an airport. And then maybe they were saying it in a good way. They were like, oh, my God, there's Mary Hasan. I love him. And they were worried for you and they walked past and they're like, you should get out of the country, man. No, you don't know.

• 1:22:17Speaker 01

  Unfortunately, I do know, because when I said, say it to my face, he said, you hate this country, you're a threat to our country, you should get the fuck out.

• 1:22:23Trevor Noah?

  Fuck you. I like that you verified it.

• 1:22:24Speaker 01

  I verified.

• 1:22:25Trevor Noah?

  Okay, this is good.

• 1:22:25Speaker 01

  I fact checked.

• 1:22:26Trevor Noah?

  No, because people don't do this sometimes in life, you know, you have a negative experience.

• 1:22:29Speaker 01

  I was surprised because I get a lot of hate online and in the mail, but not to my face, actually. Touch wood, I probably jinxed it now. But, you know, obviously now events, especially post Charlie Kirk.

• 1:22:37Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:22:38Speaker 01

  I have to have a lot of security. It looks really bad. I don't like feeling like a diva. But you do, unfortunately, given the level of hate and the number of guns in this country. But no, on a day to day basis, I live my life. I watch my Jason Statham movies. I drink my milkshakes. I don't worry about freaks.

• 1:22:50Trevor Noah?

  Here's something I've, I've always wondered, because we live in a society where people are constantly being fed one idea of, of other people, politics, et cetera, et cetera. I often wonder

• 1:23:03Trevor Noah?

  if there's something you would say to people who have a singular idea of you that might surprise them. What like, what would you, what would you say to people? Because I, I, I don't think there's any world where it's just a plurality, right? There's no world where it's just like them and us. Everyone has a shade of something.

• 1:23:17Speaker 01

  Agreed.

• 1:23:18Trevor Noah?

  It's this gradient that goes from one color to another, et cetera, et cetera. There's somebody out there who is only being fed clips of yours that pissed them off.

• 1:23:26Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:23:26Trevor Noah?

  They know nothing about you as a human being.

• 1:23:28Speaker 01

  Like bullshit lies.

• 1:23:29Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, yeah, but I'm saying, no, but I'm saying there might even be stuff that you've said.

• 1:23:31Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:23:32Trevor Noah?

  That people have clipped.

• 1:23:33Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:23:33Trevor Noah?

  In a way, you know, you know, when I experienced this for the first time, like in the, in the, in the starkest manner was when I did the White House Correspondents Dinner. I did the White House Correspondents Dinner, is Joe Biden. At like any White House Correspondents Dinner, I roasted Joe Biden, I roasted Democrats, I roasted liberal media.

• 1:23:50Speaker 01

  I was there in the crowd.

• 1:23:51Trevor Noah?

  I roasted conservative media. I wrote, you, I was like, this is what the event is about, right? What shocked me was the next day. The clips where I spoke about

• 1:24:03Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 1:24:04Trevor Noah?

  Anyone on the right went to the left. And the clips where I spoke about anyone on the left went to the right.

• 1:24:11Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:24:11Trevor Noah?

  And I was shocked to see how even when we try and create a reality that is gray, the algorithm splits the black and white and goes, we'll send this to you, we'll send that to you. But but I'm saying, what would you, it's like if you met somebody, let's say somebody walked up to you and they didn't say, get out of my country.

• 1:24:26Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:24:26Trevor Noah?

  They said, Mehdi Hasan, I've seen some of the things you say about this country. And I just want you to know that I think you you're really divisive and and you're not, you know, you're not part of making this country a better place. You know, I I think you hate America. What would you say to them? And if you saw they were trying to be sincere?

• 1:24:41Speaker 01

  Yeah, I would say, there's many things I would say to them. Um, aside from saying, well, I love the country too. Look, I would say, and I say this because this is my politics, is that I'm I'm the last person to be divisive. I think AOC has a very good line, which I will steal from her, which is, I want everyone to have healthcare. I want MAGA to have healthcare. I don't want to deprive my political opponents of everything. I'm a universalist, right? So I'm the last person you could actually call divisive. Because I want what I have for everyone else. I've been very blessed. I've been very privileged. I'm part of the one percent, whatever you want to call it. I want everyone to have access to healthcare. I want everyone to have a roof over their heads. I want everyone to have a job that pays well. Um, you know, I started a business. I'm as American, you know, American dream, immigrant came. I'm a fucking socialist running a business, right? I'm an entrepreneur now. I do stuff like, make sure you subscribe to Zeta.

• 1:25:25Speaker 01

  I feel dirty afterwards, but you got to do it. Small businessman. Um, so like, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm a proud American, right? I'm a proud American dreamer. Um, and my position, my politics, in fact, the opposite of divisive, they are universalist. They are, I want a higher minimum wage for everyone. I want healthcare for everyone. I want college to be accessible to everyone. I know it sounds cliched, but that's literally what, it's always makes me fun when we go, oh, the far left and the far right. Are the two divisive forces. The far right are Nazis who want to get rid of black people from America. The far left want universal healthcare. That is not the same thing, right? Bernie Sanders is not the same thing as Nick Fuentes. And if you think that, your brain is broken by the algorithm.

• 1:26:08Speaker 02

  I like that.

• 1:26:09Speaker 01

  I would also say I enjoy a good Jason Statham movie and I hope the MAGA voter does too. I feel like MAGA likes Jason.

• 1:26:14Speaker 02

  That actually is where you.

• 1:26:15Speaker 01

  I'd say let's go watch Beekeeper 2 together.

• 1:26:19Speaker 02

  You know.

• 1:26:20Speaker 01

  To be or not to be.

• 1:26:22Speaker 02

  Is that what he says?

• 1:26:22Speaker 01

  If he says it in the first movie, oh man, that's amazing.

• 1:26:24Speaker 02

  Of course he says it. You think he went through everything.

• 1:26:26Speaker 01

  That is amazing.

• 1:26:27Speaker 02

  Or not to be.

• 1:26:28Speaker 01

  That is amazing.

• 1:26:30Speaker 02

  To be.

• 1:26:31Speaker 01

  And then he kills the guy. And then he kills the guy.

• 1:26:34Speaker 02

  Ah Eugene, how are you gonna act like you don't love? Have you not watched Beekeeper?

• 1:26:37Speaker 01

  Fire, my man.

• 1:26:38Speaker 02

  I've never watched anything by Jason Statham.

• 1:26:40Speaker 01

  What?

• 1:26:40Speaker 02

  Ah Marathon, my brother, me and you.

• 1:26:42Speaker 01

  Why?

• 1:26:43Speaker 02

  I was gonna get into it and then one day I saw.

• 1:26:45Speaker 01

  I watched Expendables 2.

• 1:26:46Speaker 02

  I saw a video of him that he was almost an Olympic diver.

• 1:26:50Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:26:51Speaker 02

  Then I was like.

• 1:26:51Speaker 01

  That's so random. You've never watched Jason, but you know that bit of trivia that only hardcore fans know. He was almost a British Olympic diver, yeah?

• 1:26:57Speaker 02

  Yeah, for me, people who pivot too much.

• 1:27:02Speaker 01

  What?

• 1:27:03Speaker 02

  People who over pivot. You know, if he became a swimming instructor.

• 1:27:10Speaker 01

  Well, his next movie, he's on a boat. I just watched the trailer last night.

• 1:27:13Speaker 02

  If he became a swimming instructor, I would have been like, yeah, that's within the realms. He went from diving to becoming a Hollywood actor.

• 1:27:22Speaker 01

  But he doesn't claim to be an actor, I don't think.

• 1:27:23Speaker 02

  No, of course he doesn't.

• 1:27:24Speaker 01

  I think he accepts he's not a.

• 1:27:25Speaker 02

  He also didn't claim to be a diver.

• 1:27:26Speaker 01

  Didn't Jean-Claude Van Damme also go from, wasn't he like a dancer and then he went into?

• 1:27:30Speaker 02

  Yeah, he worked at his dad's gym.

• 1:27:32Speaker 01

  Jean-Claude Van Damme, I mean, come on, he's not, he's not Jason Statham. Whoa.

• 1:27:36Speaker 02

  Ah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:27:37Speaker 01

  Are you kidding me?

• 1:27:38Speaker 02

  Yo, I'm JCVD versus Jason Statham.

• 1:27:41Speaker 01

  First of all.

• 1:27:41Speaker 02

  Statham would kick his ass.

• 1:27:43Speaker 01

  My friend, okay, let me start, let me start by saying this.

• 1:27:45Speaker 02

  Go on.

• 1:27:45Speaker 01

  You're stupid.

• 1:27:46Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 1:27:47Speaker 01

  Secondly, secondly, Jean-Claude Van Damme.

• 1:27:51Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:27:51Speaker 01

  My friend, you.

• 1:27:52Speaker 02

  I grew up watching Jean-Claude Van Damme.

• 1:27:53Speaker 01

  You have the memory of a goldfish.

• 1:27:55Speaker 02

  No, I didn't. I can tell you every film now, Bloodsport.

• 1:27:56Speaker 01

  My friend.

• 1:27:57Speaker 02

  I can watch Bloodsport again every day.

• 1:27:58Speaker 01

  There is no world.

• 1:27:59Speaker 02

  Double Impact.

• 1:28:00Speaker 01

  There is no world where you can make a statement as, will it be a close fight? Yes. Would it be a tough fight?

• 1:28:05Speaker 02

  Time Cop.

• 1:28:06Speaker 01

  My friend, there is no.

• 1:28:08Speaker 02

  There's no scenario you watch more JCVD films than I have. I watch him now, that the bee shit that goes straight to, goes straight to streaming, where he's like an old assassin retired.

• 1:28:16Speaker 01

  I watched that shit too. I watch all of this stuff.

• 1:28:19Trevor Noah?

  What disability do you have?

• 1:28:20Speaker 01

  In what world?

• 1:28:21Trevor Noah?

  In what world are you gonna?

• 1:28:22Speaker 01

  What?

• 1:28:23Trevor Noah?

  What?

• 1:28:23Speaker 01

  What?

• 1:28:24Speaker 02

  What was going on with him there?

• 1:28:25Trevor Noah?

  Like, I don't know.

• 1:28:26Speaker 01

  Oh, he's doing a gun.

• 1:28:27Trevor Noah?

  Like, he has a gun now, cause he can't do splits and kick anyone, cause he's fucking old?

• 1:28:31Speaker 01

  Cause you said he's old and you did this with your hand.

• 1:28:33Trevor Noah?

  I don't know what that was.

• 1:28:34Speaker 02

  He has arthritis on his head.

• 1:28:35Speaker 01

  But Jason Statham would kick his arm.

• 1:28:39Trevor Noah?

  No way!

• 1:28:40Speaker 01

  Are you talking?

• 1:28:40Trevor Noah?

  Are you serious?

• 1:28:41Speaker 01

  You think this Belgian dancer is gonna take out?

• 1:28:44Trevor Noah?

  You think this British?

• 1:28:46Speaker 01

  You think this British diver?

• 1:28:47Trevor Noah?

  You think this British diver is gonna beat kick boxer?

• 1:28:51Speaker 02

  With cheesy lines like?

• 1:28:52Speaker 01

  What are you talking about?

• 1:28:53Trevor Noah?

  What are you talking about?

• 1:28:55Speaker 01

  This guy's not serious, bro.

• 1:28:56Trevor Noah?

  You're insane! Do you know Tongpo? Ah, my man, you're playing games, you.

• 1:29:00Speaker 01

  Have you seen Universal Soldier?

• 1:29:01Trevor Noah?

  My man, I've watched all of these, these are the only movies we had in South Africa.

• 1:29:04Speaker 01

  I think Dolph Lundgren would have kicked John Claude Van Damme's.

• 1:29:06Trevor Noah?

  Where's he now?

• 1:29:07Speaker 01

  That's a tough one, but that's a tough, that's why. I'll give you Lundgren.

• 1:29:09Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, but I'm saying that was.

• 1:29:10Speaker 01

  But I won't give you Van Damme.

• 1:29:11Trevor Noah?

  My man.

• 1:29:12Speaker 01

  I just, Staytham, Staytham.

• 1:29:13Trevor Noah?

  You've seen where you put your foot like this?

• 1:29:14Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:29:15Trevor Noah?

  Over your head? Over your head, yeah.

• 1:29:16Speaker 02

  Relax.

• 1:29:16Speaker 01

  But he doesn't hit people with it. Staytham actually just breaks some bones.

• 1:29:20Trevor Noah?

  This guy, you know what, Mehdi?

• 1:29:22Speaker 02

  Overpivotal.

• 1:29:23Trevor Noah?

  No, you are.

• 1:29:24Speaker 01

  I think you're crazy.

• 1:29:26Trevor Noah?

  I hope you get deported. This guy just said the craziest thing of all time.

• 1:29:30Speaker 01

  I'm just gonna say this, because one day I dreamed to meet Jason Statham. You gonna clip all the other clips? Me, I'm clipping this. And I'm tagging Jason on Instagram.

• 1:29:38Trevor Noah?

  This guy.

• 1:29:39Speaker 01

  I'm gonna say.

• 1:29:40Trevor Noah?

  John Claude Van Damme.

• 1:29:41Speaker 01

  Yeah. The muscles from Brussels.

• 1:29:43Trevor Noah?

  To end this debate.

• 1:29:44Speaker 01

  He's from Brussels, for god's sake!

• 1:29:46Trevor Noah?

  You're bringing in real things, which is not fair. Cause I'm not bringing in a single real thing about Jason Statham.

• 1:29:51Speaker 02

  I am?

• 1:29:51Trevor Noah?

  Not a single thing.

• 1:29:52Speaker 01

  Oh, it's not, okay, on camera.

• 1:29:53Trevor Noah?

  I'm not bringing in a single.

• 1:29:54Speaker 01

  Fine, on character.

• 1:29:56Trevor Noah?

  Of, I'm not, you, you're hitting below the belt.

• 1:29:58Speaker 01

  No, no, I'm saying, let's take their characters.

• 1:29:59Trevor Noah?

  Yes.

• 1:30:00Speaker 01

  You're gonna take this, like, wussy time cop, double impact Hong Kong dude, and you're gonna put him up against XSAS, Jason Statham, who doesn't take shit from anyone.

• 1:30:09Trevor Noah?

  Yo.

• 1:30:10Speaker 01

  Transporter 2.

• 1:30:12Trevor Noah?

  Blowing up things, shooting peep, I'm talking straight, hand to hand.

• 1:30:15Speaker 01

  Hand to hand, I'm talking hand to hand too.

• 1:30:17Trevor Noah?

  Have you seen, have you seen the beekeeper? John Claude Van Damme.

• 1:30:20Speaker 01

  Crumbaga is an Israeli martial art.

• 1:30:21Trevor Noah?

  We're just gonna, we're just gonna.

• 1:30:23Speaker 01

  Close combat.

• 1:30:24Trevor Noah?

  You'll be here, you'll be here. John Claude Van Damme, you'll be here. Here, while you're here, you'll feel something here.

• 1:30:28Speaker 01

  What are you talking about? You think Statham doesn't kick?

• 1:30:31Trevor Noah?

  He'll kick you like.

• 1:30:32Speaker 01

  Have you never seen that? So you lied earlier.

• 1:30:33Trevor Noah?

  Show me Jason Statham's highest kick. Show me Jason Statham's highest kick. And show me Jean-Claude Van Damme's highest kick.

• 1:30:38Speaker 01

  Jean-Claude Van Damme's short, so you don't need to do a high kick. He's a short guy.

• 1:30:41Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, okay, you know what?

• 1:30:43Speaker 01

  I've just defeated your argument then.

• 1:30:45Trevor Noah?

  If there's a, if there's a world where we could make this happen.

• 1:30:48Speaker 01

  I feel like there's a jubilee here. Twenty people.

• 1:30:50Trevor Noah?

  I'm going to try, I'm gonna try and we're gonna raise funds and make this movie.

• 1:30:55Speaker 01

  Why I told you to bring that.

• 1:30:55Trevor Noah?

  Forget the proof, lass.

• 1:30:56Speaker 01

  Let's just clip this, tag Statham and see what he thinks. I want to see you both with Statham in the chair.

• 1:31:01Trevor Noah?

  Say what? We, I didn't say, you're the one who brought this thing up out of, you're the one who made it antagonistic. I was happy with both of these heroes. I love the transporter.

• 1:31:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, and I said Statham would kick J C V D.

• 1:31:10Trevor Noah?

  You see, you see, you made it into.

• 1:31:12Speaker 01

  Obviously, have you just met me? I make everything into a debate or an argument. Even real fights.

• 1:31:18Trevor Noah?

  He finds him.

• 1:31:18Speaker 01

  Somebody has to win and lose in everything that I prove.

• 1:31:21Trevor Noah?

  What do you think you loved about action movies? What is, what is, what got you? Like, why action movies is what I'm saying? Cause you, cause you could have. Yeah, but you could have loved romantic comedies, you could have loved like.

• 1:31:31Speaker 01

  I do love romantic comedies too, I just don't, I just don't watch them now.

• 1:31:33Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, oh, okay, also you went through a period?

• 1:31:35Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:31:35Trevor Noah?

  But the action has stayed with you your whole life, clearly.

• 1:31:37Speaker 01

  My whole life, since I was a kid.

• 1:31:38Trevor Noah?

  Who did you wanna be when you were a kid?

• 1:31:40Speaker 01

  He-Man's out, I grew up watching He-Man.

• 1:31:41Trevor Noah?

  He-Man, do you think it's gonna be good or not?

• 1:31:42Speaker 01

  No.

• 1:31:43Trevor Noah?

  I'm worried about too many sequels. I think at some point.

• 1:31:45Speaker 01

  Toy films, no, no, but I.

• 1:31:47Trevor Noah?

  No, but I'm talking, I mean, they killed it with Bobby for the Bobby fans.

• 1:31:49Speaker 01

  Watching, and I don't know why I like it so much. Maybe because I was the kid in the playground who got bullied and I'm not good at fighting. Maybe I saw that as a kind of escapism, I saw myself in J C V D.

• 1:31:59Trevor Noah?

  Did you, when you were getting bullied?

• 1:32:01Speaker 01

  Oh, the J C V D wasn't my guy growing up.

• 1:32:02Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, but what?

• 1:32:03Speaker 01

  Bruce Willis.

• 1:32:03Trevor Noah?

  Bruce Willis was your guy?

• 1:32:04Speaker 01

  Die Hard, Die Hard, Die Hard was.

• 1:32:06Trevor Noah?

  Well, that's an interesting one, for a kid, that's a, I don't know why I think that.

• 1:32:08Speaker 01

  How old was I, Die Hard? I was quite old, thirteen, twelve, what was Die Hard, eighty-nine, ninety, I wanna say, eighty-eight?

• 1:32:12Trevor Noah?

  Uh, when we got them was different when they came out.

• 1:32:14Speaker 01

  That's so true, that's so true.

• 1:32:16Trevor Noah?

  I remember the first time.

• 1:32:16Speaker 01

  Had to go to cinema.

• 1:32:17Trevor Noah?

  I remember the first time I talked to an American about something that was current in my world in South Africa and they were like, that was, that was from ten years ago. And we were like, ah, that just came out for us, bro.

• 1:32:25Speaker 01

  It just came out for us.

• 1:32:26Trevor Noah?

  That literally just came out for us, so I.

• 1:32:29Speaker 01

  No, but I loved Arnie, obviously, I loved all those guys. They all turned out to be Republicans, now I see everything politically, so I'm like, fuck.

• 1:32:34Trevor Noah?

  No, man, don't, don't do that to yourself.

• 1:32:35Speaker 01

  Slice alone Republican, Arnie, Republican.

• 1:32:37Trevor Noah?

  Let me, let me tell you something.

• 1:32:38Speaker 01

  Although, Arnie's a good Republican.

• 1:32:39Trevor Noah?

  But let me tell you something, Mehdi, Mehdi, Mehdi, let me, let me, let me tell you something. If there's one thing I can I can hope to leave you with when you leave this podcast is do not do that to yourself because here's here's the thing we take for granted because we live in a world where people have now been forced to live their politics first

• 1:32:56Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:32:57Trevor Noah?

  and their humanity second. We have now created a world where we no longer see humans anymore.

• 1:33:02Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:33:03Trevor Noah?

  We see the politics.

• 1:33:04Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:33:04Trevor Noah?

  And then we forget that there's a human. But we don't understand that humanity is at the center of politics. If I cannot see you as a human, we'll never get to a place where we agree because we've already started with not agreeing.

• 1:33:14Speaker 01

  I I agree with that.

• 1:33:15Trevor Noah?

  So no, no. So what I'm saying is, and I mean this because I I I I remind myself of this, is I go, I have to live in a world where I'm willing to accept certain people have done beautiful things for me in terms of their art, in terms of their music, in terms of their movies, whatever it might be. Then I find out that on a personal level, they have different political views to me, that you that will take nothing away from what you gave me for my whole life, my whole childhood, my whole every because I'm like, yo, man, okay, fine, you have.

• 1:33:40Speaker 01

  I agree with that. You identified them on the screen.

• 1:33:42Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, but I'm saying, don't let that, don't rub yourself off, don't rub little, many of it.

• 1:33:45Speaker 01

  I try not to find, especially now with the genocide, right? For me, the biggest moral issue of our time is the genocide. For me, I see celebrities, actors through that prism. And that's a real problem for me. I recently discovered that Helen Mirren is like a hardcore politician. I love Helen Mirren. And it's like, ah, it's painful. Does that mean I'm not going to watch the next season of Mobland? Yes, I'm going to watch the next season of Mobland.

• 1:34:03Trevor Noah?

  Okay, okay, okay.

• 1:34:03Speaker 01

  Fucking amazing, even though apparently Tom Hardy got kicked off.

• 1:34:05Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, nobody, nobody, they negotiated and they they say, I think they saw the backlash and they've now said they're working on it.

• 1:34:09Speaker 01

  I love Tom Hardy as well. Um, but the, so that I agree with that.

• 1:34:13Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:34:13Speaker 01

  Um, but it's hard. I I want to say it's hard.

• 1:34:16Trevor Noah?

  I don't dispute that.

• 1:34:17Speaker 01

  And by the way, I would do the reverse too. So someone like Kiefer Sutherland, who's a super lefty in real life, his grandfather was the first socialist prime minister of some province in Canada. He was in a show, Twenty Four.

• 1:34:26Trevor Noah?

  Yes.

• 1:34:26Speaker 01

  Which I loved, super Islamophobic show. There's no debate about that. Like, it was a super Islamophobic show.

• 1:34:32Trevor Noah?

  That was like, that was like peak anti Muslim propaganda. Yeah, war on terror. Every show was war on terror.

• 1:34:37Speaker 01

  And seasons two, three, four became all the Muslim terrorists. Um, even like Kalpan turns out to be like a sleeper terrorist in that show. Loads of comedians in that show turn out to be, uh, turns out, turn out, so many people I watch it now, I'm like, shit, Nick Offerman is like a far right white supremacist.

• 1:34:51Trevor Noah?

  Oh, I didn't know that.

• 1:34:51Speaker 01

  In like season two, he's like beating up an Arab guy. That's. Nick off him. I text Nick, I was like, Nick, you're in twenty four. Yeah, it's early roll.

• 1:34:58Speaker 01

  Like, there's so many, Maz Jobrani is like a terrorist who doesn't go. Maz Jobrani is like a terrorist who doesn't go through. I've been rewatching it recently with my daughter. So I was like, okay, Islamophobic. But like that show, I loved it, but I had to really torture. Like, a lot of Muslims are, we should boycott this show. And I was like, I want to, but I love it so much. But it goes against everything I believe in. And I met Kiefus other than once, and I got to ask him about it. And he kind of tried to put my mind at ease about like the onscreen Islamophobia. But that's, that's the reverse. That's, that's where on screen, it's really bad, but you're still watching it as like a guilty pleasure. Even though you know politically goes against everything you stand for.

• 1:35:29Trevor Noah?

  So, but, but going back to you as the kid, who, who do you think you were? Actually, what, what, because like when I was getting bullied in school, uh, my two defenses were my speed. I could outrun most kids.

• 1:35:40Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:35:41Trevor Noah?

  And then was my humor. So I was like, okay, if the bullies do catch me, then I'm going humor. What was your, what was your?

• 1:35:47Speaker 01

  Mine was similar, humor, more mockery. So as I was getting beaten up, I would make fun of them more in front of the people.

• 1:35:52Trevor Noah?

  For real, for real?

• 1:35:53Speaker 01

  Yeah, because my mouth never shuts. I run my mouth. So that was the main thing, right? They're gonna try, they're gonna try and beat me up. One thing they're not gonna do is silence me. And that's been how I've been all my life. So, you know, whether it's Republican members of Congress saying deport me, yes, I'm back to the UK.

• 1:36:06Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:36:07Speaker 01

  Or the kid in school bullying me, calling me the P word, that was the same, that was the same. So it was always a matter of, you're not gonna shut my mouth. You can physically, you know, you know, all sticks and stones. You know, the crap.

• 1:36:17Trevor Noah?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, yeah.

• 1:36:18Speaker 01

  Sticks and stones will hurt your bones, the words will not affect you. No, bullshit. I knew that from very age, words will affect you. I've made words my career and that was the only defense I had.

• 1:36:26Trevor Noah?

  That explains a lot, though. It's like you kept, you kept that thing of, you're not gonna shut me up. You might scare me, you might beat me up, you might threaten me, whatever it is, but I'm still going to say. What do you think that gives you?

• 1:36:40Trevor Noah?

  And what, what I mean is like, what does it preserve of, you know?

• 1:36:44Speaker 01

  I mean, I would hope it preserves my integrity because ultimately, if you're in our business, at many points in your career, you're asked to sacrifice integrity, your principle, you're asked to shut up about an issue. You're asked not to say, you know, as Noam Chomsky has often said, the worst kind of censorship is censorship by omission. Right? It's what you don't say, not what you do say is that's the. Worst kind of propaganda and and brainwashing and gaslighting. And I think over the years, that's been the thing that I've tried to avoid in all my public life, my private life. As a as someone on the left, as someone who's a Muslim, et cetera, et cetera, is just saying, you know what? I'm just gonna say what I have to say. And obviously, to go back to your earlier question. This is why I love doing Zeta right now. As much as I loved MSNBC, I had a great time at MSNBC. Had a great time in all the other places I worked. All my experiences have been great. I don't regret any of my journalistic career.

• 1:37:29Speaker 01

  But the moment I'm in now, that freedom really to be able to really just go for it. Without having to worry about any consequences, or obviously some consequences, but in general.

• 1:37:39Trevor Noah?

  Yeah.

• 1:37:39Speaker 01

  I think that is hugely liberating. And I say liberating in a very literal sense.

• 1:37:44Trevor Noah?

  Well, I'm I'm glad that you get to be this person. Thanks for joining us, man. This was a true joy. I'm glad we got to see and good luck for the train ride back. If someone approaches you, because you never know, this guy is starting.

• 1:37:55Speaker 01

  Same kid would be the same train.

• 1:37:56Trevor Noah?

  He gets beef started. You never know.

• 1:37:58Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:37:58Trevor Noah?

  So on the way back.

• 1:37:59Speaker 01

  On the way back, I find myself sitting next to Jean-Luc van Damme. Yeah, the muscles from Brussels. The fact that he's from Brussels.

• 1:38:06Trevor Noah?

  Van Damme, have you watched The Beekeeper? Let me tell you who would kick your ass.

• 1:38:11Speaker 02

  Hopefully you bumped into Pedro Pascal.

• 1:38:13Speaker 01

  Oh, that'd be good. Not wearing his mask.

• 1:38:16Speaker 02

  You didn't reply.

• 1:38:16Speaker 01

  Boom, boom, boom, boom.

• 1:38:17Speaker 02

  I said, this is the way.

• 1:38:18Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:38:19Speaker 02

  Is it?

• 1:38:20Speaker 01

  Yeah, of course it's the way.

• 1:38:21Trevor Noah?

  Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. They didn't have enough of that in the movie.

• 1:38:24Speaker 01

  No.

• 1:38:25Trevor Noah?

  They did, but not enough of it. I wanted more of it. Yeah, that is the best part of it.

• 1:38:28Speaker 01

  That is the best part.

• 1:38:29Speaker 02

  Well, maybe. Does Boba Fett make an appearance?

• 1:38:31Trevor Noah?

  No. Don't spoil anything. Don't. We're gonna go watch it ourselves. That's what we're gonna do. Mehdi, man, for real. This is great.

• 1:38:37Speaker 01

  Thanks, guys. I appreciate it.

• 1:38:41Trevor Noah?

  What Now with Trevor Noah is produced by Day Zero Productions in partnership with Sirius XM. The show is executive produced by Trevor Noah, Sanaz Yamin and Jess Hackel. Rebecca Chain is our producer. Our development researcher is Marcia Robiu. Music, mixing and mastering by Hannes Brown. Random other stuff by Ryan Parduth. Thank you so much for listening. Join me next week for another episode of What Now.

• 1:39:12Speaker 04

  Time for a quick break to talk about McDonald's. It's the tangiest time of the year. For a limited time, head to McDonald's and get a McRib sandwich. Make it a meal by adding a medium fries and a soft drink like an ice cold Diet Dr. Pepper. So grab a McRib sandwich and embrace the tang. Save time by ordering ahead on the app. At participating McDonald's for a limited time. Dr. Pepper is a registered trademark of Dr. Pepper 7-Up Inc.