"Pete Buttigieg"

Snap a flare off - it’s Mr. Pete Buttigieg. We talk trucks, fish, the WWE, rush-delivery marriage, and a cottage industry of custom homemade nail polish. What time did you eat your first M&M today? It’s an all-new SmartLess.

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

• 0:00Sean Hayes?

  This episode of Smartless is sponsored by Google Book. So the other day, I wanted to make invitations for my dog Ricky's birthday party. And I've got three things open on my laptop. An adorable photo of Ricky, a picture of a birthday cake, and the RSVP details. Thing is, as much as I look like one, I'm not a canine birthday party invitation designer. That's where Google Book comes in. It's a whole new kind of laptop with a feature called Magic Pointer. I just click the photos and different elements on my screen, and boom, Magic Pointer designs a customized birthday party invitation for Ricky. Click anything on your screen to create whatever you want. Visit googlebook.com. Available to 18-plus users.

• 0:44Sean Hayes?

  Compatibility and availability vary.

• 0:49Sean Hayes?

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• 1:25Sean Hayes?

  Sitting in traffic, huh? Watching an old lady with a walker make it further up the road than you have in the last 15 minutes. And of course, your gas tank is in the perfect spot between not a problem to stranded on the highway. Hit your booking point? Book with Southwest and enter airplane mode. Experience award-winning reliability, fly with the best crew in the sky, and never worry about change or cancellation fees. Now tell that old lady to slow down. Kids live around here. Southwest Airlines, enter airplane mode.

• 2:05Sean Hayes?

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• 2:48Will Arnett?

  Sean, good morning.

• 2:49Sean Hayes?

  Good morning.

• 2:51Will Arnett?

  It's a weekend morning. I know it doesn't line up with the episode people are about to listen to, but it's an actual Saturday when we're recording this.

• 2:57Sean Hayes?

  Yes, that's correct.

• 2:58Will Arnett?

  Be honest, your plan for the day. Go be fucking ruthless with yourself right now.

• 3:03Sean Hayes?

  Totally. I'm gonna have, I'm not even kidding, I'm gonna have chili cornbread casserole right when this is over.

• 3:08Will Arnett?

  No, no, no, but tell us something unusual.

• 3:12Will Arnett?

  Welcome to Smartless.

• 3:33Sean Hayes?

  Oh, Sean, get a good stretch in you. You look like a little kitty cat stretching. Wait, listen, I have a story to share with you all. Here we come. Was that why you had to stretch for your story? Yeah. Is that what just happened? Did you write notes? Or are you just gonna kind of free it? Oh, no, this is serious. Look at the look on his face. I know, because I don't know if this has ever happened to you, but two days ago, I'm in my car. I'm on Wilshire Boulevard, in between appointments, because if I drive home, by the time I get there, I have to come back. So I'm driving around like 20 minutes trying to kill time. So I'm driving, you don't pull in somewhere. Yeah, you're just burning fossil fuel because... Well, it's an electric car. It's an electric car.

• 4:13Jason Bateman?

  It doesn't charge for free, you know. Go ahead.

• 4:16Sean Hayes?

  Okay, so.

• 4:16Will Arnett?

  It does mitigate it somewhat. Okay, go ahead.

• 4:18Sean Hayes?

  So I'm in the center lane on Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills, and the car goes dead. And I have plenty of battery, and I'm freaking out. And the display on my dashboard says.

• 4:29Jason Bateman?

  Neutral.

• 4:30Sean Hayes?

  Uh, is your.

• 4:32Will Arnett?

  Is your key in the car?

• 4:33Sean Hayes?

  That's what it said. And you're wondering what neutral means?

• 4:36Jason Bateman?

  Stupid ass.

• 4:36Sean Hayes?

  I was like.

• 4:38Will Arnett?

  It says you're going nowhere.

• 4:39Sean Hayes?

  First of all, by the way, first of all, have your, has your car ever broken down in the middle lane? And like a busy, like it, the stress is crazy.

• 4:47Jason Bateman?

  Yeah.

• 4:47Sean Hayes?

  And I mean.

• 4:48Jason Bateman?

  Did you get out and try to start pushing your car?

• 4:49Sean Hayes?

  No, but I freaked out. I was, I put on my hazards. Everybody's driving by like, fuck you. And I'm like, what am I supposed to do? My car died. Then it says the key, the, the thing on the display on the dashboard.

• 5:01Jason Bateman?

  Sure.

• 5:01Sean Hayes?

  Said, is your key in the car? If so, hold it up to the designated area. And I'm like, what's the designated area? Anyway, I freaked out. So I take the, I take, this is the longest story in the world. I took the, um, manual out. And while people are driving past me like.

• 5:14Will Arnett?

  Oh, so you weren't alone. Manual was with you. Was he in the backseat?

• 5:21Sean Hayes?

  But you took him out, right? So he was, it must have been in the trunk?

• 5:24Will Arnett?

  So you let Manuel out?

• 5:25Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, and I asked him what was wrong.

• 5:27Jason Bateman?

  So you're reading the manual and meanwhile, you're screaming, guys, stop honking.

• 5:32Sean Hayes?

  I know.

• 5:32Jason Bateman?

  It's not my fault.

• 5:34Sean Hayes?

  Have you ever had that happen? Like, I, I was so stressed out. And so I'm, I have my head down. I'm looking at the manual, looking for like keys or whatever, like key fob. And they say, anyway, so I, anyway, I panic and I call Scotty. Scotty's like, what do you want me to do about it?

• 5:48Jason Bateman?

  Yeah.

• 5:48Sean Hayes?

  And so I.

• 5:50Jason Bateman?

  With a tone.

• 5:51Sean Hayes?

  I'm freaking out. And I find a YouTube video of a guy who went through the same thing in the same kind of car. And he's like, you gotta put it in the cup holder. I'm like, the cup holders? I put the key in the cup holder. And I hit it again. Thank God it started. But that was like 20 minutes sitting there with my hazards on. And then I finally, cause I'll be damned if I didn't make to my massage. So I got to my massage.

• 6:11Will Arnett?

  That was your appointment.

• 6:12Sean Hayes?

  That was my appointment was my, cause I hadn't had one like a year.

• 6:14Will Arnett?

  Sounds like a real busy day. Middle of the day massage?

• 6:18Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, yeah, middle of the.

• 6:20Will Arnett?

  Middle of a workday massage? Okay. So, and you give me shit, JB, for not having, going to the office. This guy's doing middle of the work, weekday massages.

• 6:29Sean Hayes?

  Wait, this is the end of the story.

• 6:31Will Arnett?

  You're fucking living like a fucking Saudi prince over here.

• 6:36Sean Hayes?

  So wait, the end of the story is I get out of my massage. I just passed the front desk because I already paid and she goes, oh, wait. And you could tell she was too embarrassed to say the word husband. So she goes, your friend dropped off a spare key. And so I use my spare key. He dropped, Scotty drove all the way to the thing to drop off a spare key that I didn't even know I had.

• 6:55Jason Bateman?

  While you were getting a massage.

• 6:56Will Arnett?

  Your roommate, your roommate came. Your roommate. I know that you're a confirmed bachelor and your roommate.

• 7:04Sean Hayes?

  The guy in the other room.

• 7:08Sean Hayes?

  Oh, poor Sean. Oh, God, that was the worst. Has anything ever happened like that? I mean.

• 7:13Will Arnett?

  Well, I have had that issue.

• 7:15Sean Hayes?

  It's called a car breakdown.

• 7:17Will Arnett?

  No, but I have had that thing with the key where like it has to be, it's not being recognized. But usually I just, usually just move it around to different points of the car.

• 7:25Sean Hayes?

  Who, but who, they don't tell you that? Like, how was I supposed to know?

• 7:28Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, there's a picture usually. It shows like a little picture somewhere on your, on your, your, your screen. Where to, where to stick it.

• 7:36Will Arnett?

  But anyway.

• 7:36Jason Bateman?

  Yeah.

• 7:37Sean Hayes?

  Anyway, yeah.

• 7:37Jason Bateman?

  Great story.

• 7:38Will Arnett?

  Did anybody, did anybody stop for a selfie with you?

• 7:42Sean Hayes?

  No, I had my head down so far looking into the book.

• 7:45Jason Bateman?

  Did you think that maybe you should pop the trunk or the hood so that no one rear ends you or honks at you?

• 7:50Sean Hayes?

  And just. Well, I had my hazards on.

• 7:51Jason Bateman?

  Doesn't work.

• 7:52Will Arnett?

  You have one of those like little, like, like triangular, uh, uh, orange reflective things in the trunk of your car?

• 7:57Jason Bateman?

  Set on the road.

• 7:59Will Arnett?

  Do you snap a flare off?

• 8:04Will Arnett?

  Whereabouts at Wilshire?

• 8:05Sean Hayes?

  But by the way, I was, I was in the thick of it. I was like Wilshire, like just off of Santa Monica and like, you know, Rodeo, like in the middle of that section.

• 8:14Will Arnett?

  Oh, in Beverly Hills?

• 8:15Sean Hayes?

  Yes, on, in the middle lane.

• 8:17Jason Bateman?

  Lucky you didn't get mugged.

• 8:18Will Arnett?

  So your, so your fancy car breaks down on Wilshire and Beverly Hills on your way to your massage.

• 8:25Jason Bateman?

  Relatable, relatable. In the war theater.

• 8:27Will Arnett?

  Hey, listen, man, and the price of eggs must be crushing you right now. You're just going nuts over this, right?

• 8:32Jason Bateman?

  Guys, it's a great segue. I've got a guest that can answer a lot of high-stress driving questions for you.

• 8:40Will Arnett?

  Oh, good.

• 8:41Jason Bateman?

  Today, we've got a guest that's gonna prove to you, too, that hard work can bring great results, fellas. If you just show a little discipline and focus, read a book, for God's sakes, and apply yourself, you can reach great heights, Will. Sean.

• 8:56Sean Hayes?

  Okay, I'm working on it.

• 8:57Jason Bateman?

  This guy was named valedictorian in high school, voted most likely to become president. He went on to graduate college magna cum laude, and that would be from BT dub Harvard. Then he was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford, so he did that, graduated first-class honors in philosophy, politics, economics. And he came home, he split his time between serving in Afghanistan and mayor at 29.

• 9:20Sean Hayes?

  Oh, I know this fella.

• 9:21Jason Bateman?

  He's since served four years as United States Secretary of Transportation, and hopefully his high school class is right, and he'll be our president one of these days.

• 9:29Sean Hayes?

  That's a missed beat.

• 9:30Jason Bateman?

  It's an honor to have on Smartless, Mr. Pete Buttigieg.

• 9:35Speaker 03

  Hey, guys.

• 9:37Jason Bateman?

  Hi there. Now, so can you explain to Sean, because in Afghanistan, you were driving, were you not?

• 9:46Speaker 03

  Yeah, that was a big part of my job over there.

• 9:48Jason Bateman?

  High-stress driving. And so what would you suggest to him there on Will Sharon Road Day? Should he pop his trunk, so he doesn't get rear-ended?

• 9:57Speaker 03

  In Afghanistan, you definitely would not want to open any part of the vehicle. This happened one time.

• 10:02Jason Bateman?

  Sure, pop a flare, perhaps.

• 10:04Speaker 03

  Actually knocked a mirror off the first time I was driving.

• 10:09Jason Bateman?

  Come on, Pete.

• 10:10Speaker 03

  Yeah, got in big trouble, because you couldn't like just, you know, stop and pick it back up.

• 10:17Jason Bateman?

  Right.

• 10:18Speaker 03

  And, you know, Will Sharon Boulevard, much like Central Kabul, I imagine, is a place where you need to watch your back, be careful.

• 10:26Sean Hayes?

  Incredibly dangerous.

• 10:26Will Arnett?

  But JB, but as Secretary of Transportation, you might have some advice for people like Sean, who's...

• 10:34Sean Hayes?

  That's right.

• 10:35Will Arnett?

  Porsche's wrecked down.

• 10:36Sean Hayes?

  It's amazing how many people just don't want to stop and help.

• 10:40Jason Bateman?

  No, exactly. Well, maybe they got a look at you. Now, do the up-armored Humvees even have hazard lights?

• 10:46Speaker 03

  I didn't even get a Humvee. It was a slightly up armored Toyota truck. It was a Highlander, I think.

• 10:53Will Arnett?

  That's kinda cool.

• 10:54Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, well, that's all they drive there, right? Pickups?

• 10:56Speaker 03

  Uh, yeah, they love their Hiluxes. That's kinda the go-to vehicle out there. At least it was in my day.

• 11:01Will Arnett?

  Hilux? I don't know that. I'm not familiar with that term Hilux.

• 11:04Speaker 03

  Yeah, I think they only sell those abroad, but it's really big over there.

• 11:08Will Arnett?

  I mean, there's nothing, there's nothing like seeing a pickup, a Hilux, storming your way with like 12 guys in the back in a 50-cal mounted roughly in the, you know? Dangerous. It's dangerous.

• 11:21Speaker 03

  Yeah, it gets your blood flowing.

• 11:22Will Arnett?

  Sure, sure.

• 11:23Jason Bateman?

  And now, and so you were driving top speed, looking out for the, for the, the, the road mines on your way to reconnaissance and things like that, and that sounds very stressful.

• 11:36Speaker 03

  Uh, yeah, yeah, it was pretty stressful, but you know, the folks I was with were really good at their jobs. I was well-trained in my job, so we called it military Uber, basically making sure people and gear could get to where they need to go.

• 11:49Jason Bateman?

  Would you ask your passengers to rate you favorably?

• 11:51Speaker 03

  Uh, you know, I should have.

• 11:53Jason Bateman?

  Yeah.

• 11:54Speaker 03

  So, you know, I'm getting reacquainted with Uber now, cause I, uh, you know, for the last four years, I, I would still drive like if I was dropping off the kids at school or something like that, but the most time, most of the time I was, you know, being driven. That's how it works when you're in the cabinet. So I had to get Uber back on my phone and get, get used to all that. It's, uh, it's changed a little bit since I remember. You've got more options now.

• 12:16Will Arnett?

  Yeah, but nobody can accuse you of being, of being highfalutin, considering, you know, we mentioned your service in, in the, in the armed forces. Like you, what an incredible career you've had. I'm, I'm really impressed by it.

• 12:27Jason Bateman?

  It's unbelievable.

• 12:27Will Arnett?

  That you went to Harvard, you're a Rhodes Scholar, and then...

• 12:30Jason Bateman?

  Are you impressed by it, Will? I mean, Jesus, did you hear them? I mean, of course you are.

• 12:34Will Arnett?

  He was in, he was in something that you would never get assigned to. He was an intelligence officer, okay?

• 12:40Jason Bateman?

  What does that mean?

• 12:40Will Arnett?

  So, you, he's gonna tell us right now.

• 12:43Speaker 03

  Well, I could tell you, but then I'd have to, you know.

• 12:45Will Arnett?

  Yeah, then you have to... Oh, please kill him.

• 12:51Will Arnett?

  On the podcast, the ratings would be phenomenal if you. But what an unbelievable, when you were sort of 15 in high school, you couldn't have imagined the, the, the sort of the, the trajectory your life was going to take, could you?

• 13:09Speaker 03

  No, there's no way. When I, when I was 15 in high school, all I wanted to be was an airline pilot, which, which I still think is an amazing job. I respect pilots so much. By the way, it's a great job. It pays very well and, and it's very in demand. But I just, I thought that was the coolest thing ever. My dad would go on business trips sometimes.

• 13:27Jason Bateman?

  Mine too.

• 13:28Speaker 03

  And they, they would have, um, on the, on the wide body planes that would, that would fly, uh, over the Atlantic. They used to have this custom where they'd, they'd, they'd pin up a carbon copy of the flight plan. I don't know if you ever saw this. It'd be

• 13:45Jason Bateman?

  Oh, wow.

• 13:45Speaker 03

  Uh, about the size of a small poster and they would stick it to the wall in the back of the plane. I think this was before they had monitors where you could see where the plane was. So it would show the track of where the plane was supposed to go in this, in this kind of carbon line on this, on this map. And he, anyway, he, if you asked, they would give it to you. And so he would bring them back for me when he came back from a trip and I just wallpapered my room with them. I was, I was so obsessed.

• 14:10Jason Bateman?

  Wow, that's cool.

• 14:11Speaker 03

  I knew the names of the pilots that had signed, uh, signed the things like, you know, they were like celebrities to me and.

• 14:17Jason Bateman?

  Did you ever consider getting your pilot's license and, and, and joining the air force instead of the Navy?

• 14:22Speaker 03

  So I discovered some things about my eyesight that meant that I was not going to be a candidate for, uh, for military aviation.

• 14:28Jason Bateman?

  Same, same. Colorblind, right?

• 14:31Will Arnett?

  Oh, that was the reason.

• 14:32Speaker 03

  Not colorblind.

• 14:33Jason Bateman?

  Wait, hang on a second. Sorry, sorry, Mayor Pete. So Sean, um, your, your kind of fuzzy vision derailed a long career as an aviator?

• 14:42Sean Hayes?

  No, I thought you were going to, to, you were, you're colorblind because you can't be a pilot if you're colorblind and I'm colorblind.

• 14:48Speaker 03

  Yeah, no, it just had to do with how near sight. I think now it's not such a big deal, but I was so nearsighted, uh, that, and astigmatism, you like, at least in the nineties, like.

• 14:55Jason Bateman?

  Okay, sure.

• 14:56Speaker 03

  You can look forward to your career. No colorblind, that's a thing.

• 14:58Will Arnett?

  Oh, you've got headphones. I've got headphones too. That's crazy.

• 15:01Speaker 03

  That's a whole subplot in What's the, Little Miss Sunshine, right? There's a whole subplot.

• 15:05Jason Bateman?

  Yes, very good, very good. So then, all right. So then your vision kept you, all right. So then it would, but what, what about, now there wasn't, both of your parents are, Are academics and educators, but there's no, is there military in your family at all? What, what got you to lean that way?

• 15:22Speaker 03

  Yeah, there is, yeah, not, not at my, not my parents' generation, but before that, there were a lot in my family were career military. Matter of fact, when I was growing up, we had a, we had a portrait, a painting in the living room of this army officer. And we were, you know, I mean, my parents were professors, middle-class neighborhood Indiana. We were not like a portraits of ancestors on the wall kind of family. So it always stood out to me and I asked about it. And the story, it turns out, it was my, it was my great uncle who died in a plane crash in 1941, but he was an army air corps officer, which was the predecessor to the air force. And the reason that painting exists is because his brother, my grandfather, was also an officer, he was a doctor, actually, who's an army doc.

• 16:05Speaker 03

  And at a, I guess there was a prisoner of war camp in, I think, New Mexico, where World War II prisoners would interact with American officers. And he got to know an officer who could, who could paint and asked him if he would paint from a photograph, this portrait of, of his brother who had been killed. And, and he did.

• 16:29Jason Bateman?

  Wow.

• 16:30Speaker 03

  And, and so I grew up with this, he's kind of sitting in a classic World War II style army uniform, kind of staring right, right at you. And, and I felt like it was kind of my family's version of the Uncle Sam poster, you know, saying like, why not you? Why aren't you serving your country?

• 16:46Jason Bateman?

  Yeah.

• 16:47Speaker 03

  I want you. And, and I think that was, that was in the back of my mind. It was a big part of why, why I wanted to serve. You know, and then like a lot of people my age, 9/11 had a big impact on me.

• 16:54Jason Bateman?

  Yeah.

• 16:55Speaker 03

  And then when I got to Oxford, a lot, often, some of the Rhodes Scholars are graduates of the military academies, West Point Naval Academy. And my class had, had quite a few and I respected those guys so much. It was, it was one more reason I wanted to serve. And so I entered the reserve, once I got back and kind of started my professional life. I joined a reserve unit and we'd, you know, it was one weekend a month, two weeks a year, but then part of the deal is if, if they call you up, you go. And I got called up while I was mayor, actually. So I, I put my mayoral service on hold. I took a leave, had a deputy mayor who, who stepped in for me for the time I had to go and went off to Afghanistan.

• 17:35Jason Bateman?

  Is there any part of it you missed? Like?

• 17:38Speaker 03

  Yeah, actually, yeah. I mean, the people, most of all, like, the people I served with, and they were totally different from each other and from me, in every way, different, you know, politics, different, different upbringings, but, you know, we all just really trusted each other and looked out for each other. And it's something, yeah, I wish, you know, obviously, the military is not for everybody, but I, I think a moment like this is one where it would be great if more people had some experience of doing something hard together with other people that, that just builds that kind of trust that we don't seem to have enough of right now.

• 18:09Jason Bateman?

  Can you talk about that moment, to, to, to the extent you're comfortable, when you got that call that you actually were going to go overseas and serve? Because I'd imagine a, a lot of folks joined the service and they, it's during, it's not during wartime, and they, they never get in, in combat. And you, but you were going over, like, is, that's gotta be somewhat frightening. Can you talk about that? Yeah, your first day, like, Or that, that you're gonna go, time to pack your bags. Yeah.

• 18:41Speaker 03

  Yeah, I mean, you, you know, you, you take a deep breath and, and it's, it's sobering, but it's also, you know, it's a big part of why you serve. I mean, of course, if, if you're agreeing to put on the uniform, you're putting your right hand up and, and taking that oath, that means you're, the whole idea is you're gonna be there if, if your country needs you. And, you know, I had, I had one tour in Afghanistan. I spent a little time also in Afghanistan and Iraq as a, as a civilian economic advisor. But, you know, I was with people who served four, five, six tours. It was incredible how many, you know, my generation, how many tours some of them did. And, uh, so I, I was really humbled to see how much other people had served. And, you know, that's one of the other things that made me want to do in the first place, was seeing a lot of other people in my generation

• 19:24Speaker 03

  robbing up to go and thinking at a certain point, like, when's it my turn?

• 19:27Will Arnett?

  But is there, does fear enter into it?

• 19:29Speaker 03

  Oh, of course. Yeah. The, the first night I was there, uh, you know, they, they train you for what a rocket alarm Sounds like, obviously, you know, what to do if you hear the alarm that says incoming. I started out at Bagram, Bagram Airfield, and then later on was reassigned to Kabul, the capital. But that first night at Bagram, there was a, there was a rocket attack. And I just remember just my blood running cold when I heard that, that sound. It's the same sound, by the way, as, I think it's called, there's an iPhone alarm that's the exact same.

• 20:03Sean Hayes?

  Oh, the eh eh eh, that kind of thing, yeah.

• 20:06Speaker 03

  It would be a great idea to just never use that.

• 20:09Jason Bateman?

  Yeah.

• 20:09Will Arnett?

  Yeah, no kidding.

• 20:10Speaker 03

  On your iPhone. At least if you're around somebody who might have memories around that. But yeah, my first day there was a rocket attack, my last day there was a rocket attack.

• 20:19Sean Hayes?

  Wow. It's probably a different sound than when my massage is over.

• 20:22Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 20:23Will Arnett?

  Yeah, it's more of a gong. Yeah, and it's probably more fear than like JB when you got the call to, that you were gonna be in Heart to Heart: Secrets of the Heart, the TV movie. Like, that must have been.

• 20:36Jason Bateman?

  When I'm asked to force my call tomorrow, you know, it's gonna mean, yeah, yeah. But, well, listen, Mayor Pete, thank you, thank you for your service.

• 20:46Sean Hayes?

  Yes.

• 20:46Will Arnett?

  Indeed, indeed. It's pretty, it's really, really impressive.

• 20:50Jason Bateman?

  Now, you're, with your father being a professor of literature, did that, I mean, were you, stupid question, but I mean, I'm just, I'm, I love listening to you talk.

• 21:04Sean Hayes?

  By the way, I do too. And I love, anytime you're on any news channel, anything, anywhere, I'm like, you're the smartest person in the room, every time.

• 21:13Will Arnett?

  I love watching you debate, I love watching you debate. I mean, because you make debating not seem like debating, you just boil it down and you, and you take the contention. You take the contention out, which is really.

• 21:22Speaker 03

  A lot of debating now isn't actually debating. It's just like a media opportunity, right? It's just people kind of saying their, like, canned things and.

• 21:30Jason Bateman?

  But your ability to shape a thought, your opinion, just to make it kind of tangible for folks, I appreciate, because me not smart. But I love that you, I love that you spend time on Fox, too. And, you know, that, that, that there's an ability to, you know, because we all need to kind of stop talking across one another and talk together. And so it's, I love that, that you spend some time over there. Is there a reason why, why more Democrats? Aren't talking over there? Are they not invited? Or do they not want to go? I just wish they'd do it more.

• 22:12Speaker 03

  Yeah, I think.

• 22:13Sean Hayes?

  I'm both, yeah.

• 22:14Speaker 03

  Look, there's a lot of reasons to hesitate, right? If you're going into a place that you know is not ideologically friendly or not aligned with you, like, there's reasons to think twice about it. And I think a lot of people in my party do. But my take on it is, you can't blame somebody for not embracing your message if they've literally never heard it. And a lot of people will never hear what we have to say if we're only talking to people who are friendly to us. And it's not just TV. I mean, it's also, you know, I'm doing more podcasts, more digital stuff, just because I know that's where a lot of people get their information. I've been teaching one day a week at the Institute of Politics in Chicago, at the University of Chicago there.

• 22:50Jason Bateman?

  Wow.

• 22:50Speaker 03

  And one of the things I do is I'm always asking my students, whenever we sit down, a lot of times I'll do a show of hands. You know, where do you get your news? The number of students who raised their hands when I asked how many of them get their news from television was zero. Like, literally zero. They might see a clip from TV if it, like, goes into their TikTok feeds or Instagram or something like that. But, you know, I don't think of myself as that much older than them. But I grew up in a world where, like, you watch a TV story about some controversy. You heard the conservative opinion, you heard the liberal opinion, and maybe hearing the other side made you feel the way you feel even more strongly, or maybe it made you change your mind a little bit or ask another question. But like, the point is, you think about it. You like, stop and think about it. And it's very hard for that to happen now, the way our media works.

• 23:34Speaker 03

  So I'm trying to, I'm trying to cut through some of those categories.

• 23:38Jason Bateman?

  Well, glad you're doing it.

• 23:40Sean Hayes?

  We'll be right back.

• 23:44Sean Hayes?

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• 24:53Will Arnett?

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• 27:53Sean Hayes?

  And now, back to the show.

• 27:56Will Arnett?

  I think one of the tricks that they've done on both sides, and this is what has sort of made me, I think a lot of other people check out from the entire process, is that the truth is, we all want a better system. We all want a better country. We all want a better America. Everybody wants everybody to be better fed and all, etc. Just whatever the issue is, everybody wants that. And somehow, we've been convinced by a few people that we are at odds with each other. And I think that everybody is actually a lot more aligned I think so, too. than we think. I think so. And I truly believe that. Yeah.

• 28:31Speaker 03

  Yeah, look, obviously, there's some serious disagreements and differences in values. But there's also, yeah, you look at a lot of the biggest issues. There's like sixty, seventy percent of Americans who who agree on what to do about it. And and if you look at the overlap, you know, that might not be the same seventy percent from this issue to that issue. But like, the big things that people want out of everyday life and the big things people want their government to do for them to have stuff work, you know, clean, safe drinking water and clean air and roads that that don't have a hole in them and transit that gets into where you need to go and an economy where you can afford stuff and enough housing. Like, these are these are things that everybody wants. And we've gotten into this mode where politics is treated like a basically like a wrestling, like, death match.

• 29:10Will Arnett?

  Yeah.

• 29:10Speaker 03

  And it does, I think, turn a lot of people off. But, you know, my experience, and maybe it's because I came up locally, and and local politics, by the way, as everybody knows, can be very, very rough and tumble. But

• 29:22Will Arnett?

  Yeah.

• 29:22Speaker 03

  there's this sense, you know, in a community, you're a little more, it's a little clearer to everybody that everybody wants the community to do well.

• 29:28Will Arnett?

  Well, and you also have to answer to each other face to face, day to day.

• 29:32Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, you see each other at the grocery, walk in the dog, like, yeah.

• 29:35Will Arnett?

  Yeah.

• 29:36Speaker 03

  And and, yeah, I think we really miss that at the national level. You know, Washington has its version of that because you like run into other, you know, political figures, but it's not, it's not like being part of the same.

• 29:46Will Arnett?

  Yeah, but it's but it seems to me, and again, this is, forgive me for sort of boiling it down like this, but it does seem to me that Washington politics are a lot like the WWE. It's like everybody goes and puts on their on their their game persona and then back in the locker room, they're like, hey, that was a pretty good one. Yeah, this is a good one by you, too. And they all know, everybody knows each other.

• 30:05Speaker 03

  Right, right.

• 30:05Will Arnett?

  You know what I mean?

• 30:06Speaker 03

  I think it was like that. I think that's changed a lot in the last few years. If you talk to people who just some of the things that are really dark, January sixth, that kind of stuff, where people, you know, were really fearing for their lives, I think I think has shifted that a little bit.

• 30:18Will Arnett?

  Right.

• 30:18Speaker 03

  But, yeah, there you could definitely feel, you know, we spent almost four years, I wasn't living in Washington the whole time, but but most of the time I was serving, we lived there. And

• 30:27Will Arnett?

  There's a headline. He boo judge admits he wasn't living in Washington the whole time. Here we go.

• 30:33Speaker 03

  No, you know what it was is we I was traveling so much like I was traveling a day or two a week minimum for for work and then you know, because my job was to partly to go around the country and look at the projects we were working on, you know, your charge of transportation, obviously, you're you're traveling a lot, but went to every single state at least once.

• 30:51Will Arnett?

  Wow.

• 30:52Speaker 03

  And then I, you know, there were times I was traveling a lot for campaign stuff, too, and began to realize that that it was for our family was more economical for me to stay in a hotel the days I was in Washington than to pay rent there and mortgage here in in Michigan where we live.

• 31:07Will Arnett?

  Right.

• 31:08Speaker 03

  And it was important to us for the kids to be around their their grandparents. So my grandmother or my mother, their grandmother, lives here in Traverse City now. We moved here largely because Chasten's parents, my husband's parents are here. That's where they're where he grew up and it's made all the difference in the world to have the kids close to their parents.

• 31:25Will Arnett?

  Yeah.

• 31:26Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 31:26Jason Bateman?

  What what what what made you think that you could become a mayor and get into politics at that early age? You became mayor at 29, I think.

• 31:35Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 31:36Jason Bateman?

  Like so, so coming coming back from Afghanistan, well, no, this this is before you went to Afghanistan, but but coming back from Oxford, you'd go, you worked for the consultant firm, but what what at what point did you think I might want to go into politics?

• 31:52Speaker 03

  Yeah, so I finished up at Oxford, got a job in Chicago at a consulting firm, but I the further

• 31:57Will Arnett?

  McKinsey, is that right?

• 31:58Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, McKinsey, yeah.

• 32:00Will Arnett?

  Yeah.

• 32:01Speaker 03

  And I learned a lot there, but I also figured out pretty quickly that that client service wasn't for me, there were just I just didn't care enough about it. I wanted to work on something I cared about, not just because I was being paid to care about, but because it was really important to me. And meanwhile, I South, a lot of people know that South Bend, Indiana is where Notre Dame is.

• 32:20Speaker 03

  What a lot of people don't realize is Notre Dame is actually across the street from South Bend, Indiana. It's not, it's not a college town that way and and the city was completely built around the auto industry. It was the company town for Studebaker. Studebaker was headquartered in South Bend.

• 32:33Will Arnett?

  Wow, wow.

• 32:34Speaker 03

  And even though that company went out of business in the 60s, when I was growing up in the 80s and 90s, the city was still trying to recover from that, lost a bunch of its population, vacant abandoned houses, collapsing factories everywhere. And so I grew up kind of inhaling this idea that success meant getting out. I mean, a lot of kids in, you know, the so-called Rust Belt and in rural America grow up with this message. Right? If you want to make something yourself, get out.

• 32:58Jason Bateman?

  Right.

• 32:58Speaker 03

  Which is pretty much what I did. I went to the East Coast, then I got even further away, going to the UK to study when I got this scholarship. And but then I started to realize the further away I got, the more I realized that I was I was actually from somewhere.

• 33:10Jason Bateman?

  Yeah.

• 33:10Speaker 03

  And started to feel this like almost militant pride in where I was from and what it could be. And I found that a lot of people I grew up with felt the same way, that like our city could be more than it was and could have a different future. And, you know, the right around the time I got in the race for for mayor, there was a national write-up of our city that called it one of America's 10 dying cities. And we hated that so much and didn't believe it. And so, you know, I found that that there were enough people who felt the same way that we could we could build this campaign. We had a lot, by the way, it's super bipartisan. You know, I ran as a Democrat, but we had a lot of independents, Republicans who supported it. And and then they put me in charge of the city.

• 33:53Speaker 03

  And then it was it was, you know, put up or shut up.

• 33:56Jason Bateman?

  So was that was that as frightening as getting the call up to go overseas? I mean, you know, you get all that responsibility.

• 34:04Speaker 03

  You know, I took office on New Year's Day and it was snowing. And one thing I knew a lot about was

• 34:09Jason Bateman?

  You're hungover.

• 34:14Speaker 03

  You know, one thing you definitely need to be on top of as mayor is snowplowing.

• 34:17Jason Bateman?

  Sure.

• 34:18Speaker 03

  Maybe not as much an issue, obviously.

• 34:20Jason Bateman?

  Not out here.

• 34:21Speaker 03

  Where you are, but, you know, right in the lake effect zone, a lot of snow. And it's kind of the test of the classic test of a mayor. So, you know, right away, there was this trial by fire, just making sure that we were OK dealing with this the snow. And yeah, it's everything from, you know, I worked on everything from, you know, police and fire to streets and, you know, to the zoo, like we were in charge of the zoo.

• 34:46Jason Bateman?

  Anything surprising about a mayor job that that would would that would surprise people, something you didn't you didn't expect?

• 34:53Speaker 03

  Um. I was surprised to be in charge of the zoo. It just wasn't something I thought about when I was campaigning. I didn't know I'd be dealing with golf courses as much. We had city golf courses that I was managing and we didn't like, I don't even golf.

• 35:10Speaker 03

  And then things that like you hear about, but I didn't really think much of it until I did it. Like you get to marry people, right? You are.

• 35:16Jason Bateman?

  Oh, wow.

• 35:18Speaker 03

  And I remember one time I came in, I was really early. I was the first person in, so my staff weren't around. And I stepped out of the elevator in the hallway that leads to the mayor's office. And this other couple, these two other people stepped out of another elevator and said, "Oh, mayor, we were hoping we'd find you here, like just who we were hoping to see." And I thought, okay, I hope I'm ready for whatever they're gonna ask, cause I'm all alone up here. And then they explained, she was super pregnant. And they said, "Well, we're on our way to the hospital. We're gonna have a C-section. And by the time we tell her parents that they're grandparents, I want to make sure we're actually married. So could you marry us?"

• 35:57Jason Bateman?

  Wow.

• 35:59Sean Hayes?

  And it's time sensitive.

• 36:00Speaker 03

  Like now? Yeah, yeah, like right now. So, you know, I don't know everything about their story.

• 36:05Will Arnett?

  And you're like, "Yeah, I could, but I've assigned all marriages to the zoo. So we gotta get to the zoo real quick."

• 36:13Speaker 03

  So we did it. Like I went through my drawers and I found like somewhere in there from the last time I did this, I had, you know, a copy of the protocol, the things I was supposed to say. And my staff trickled in while we were putting that together. And I found a piece of pipe cleaner we were able to use just as a makeshift ring. And they ran down and got the certificates and I signed off. And yeah, but by the time they, you know, got them married and squared away and then they went off.

• 36:39Sean Hayes?

  I mean, was she in labor while you were giving, I'm like, was she like breathing, whatever that is? Like, was she about to go into it?

• 36:45Speaker 03

  I'm not sure I would have been able to handle that.

• 36:47Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, yeah, that would have been crazy.

• 36:48Jason Bateman?

  Now, how does that differ from your first day as transportation secretary? What was, what was that like? Was it?

• 36:56Sean Hayes?

  What is day one like when you're handling that large department?

• 37:03Speaker 03

  Well, it's, I mean, it's a huge leap. So as mayor at about 1,000 employees and about a $300 million organization. So not small, but but as Secretary of Transportation, you got 55,000 employees. You oversee everything from commercial space travel, safety to the great Lawrence Seaway, to the Maritime Administration, to just so many things. And the budget is the size of a midsize country. It's about $150 billion, or at least it was once we got the infrastructure package through.

• 37:31Sean Hayes?

  Wow, that's crazy.

• 37:33Speaker 03

  It's pretty daunting. The really daunting thing was it was it was deep COVID, and I couldn't be in a room with most of my staff. And and then, you know, that was the time when the protocols were extremely intense. I got exposed as I was in a room with somebody who had had COVID, and it was decided that I needed to be confined for 14 days, just in case. So the first time I participated in an Oval Office meeting, they wheeled a television into the Oval Office so that I could participate by Zoom from this apartment where I was locked up.

• 38:08Sean Hayes?

  Oh, my, wow.

• 38:09Speaker 03

  And and and join remotely. So it's a very strange introduction to the job. It's a very strange introduction to my own team. But, you know, gradually, we built a really good chemistry with a really good team full of public.

• 38:22Will Arnett?

  But the irony that you're now the Secretary of Transportation, but you can't go anywhere.

• 38:27Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 38:27Will Arnett?

  You know?

• 38:28Sean Hayes?

  Yeah. And Pete, instead of asking you what we would never know, like what we could never guess about the transportation, like safety, like, I don't think I could handle that answer. I don't want to know what I don't know. So I'll just say, what is the most interesting thing that you learned that you could share with us about how it all works? Because it is kind of fascinating.

• 38:50Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, I don't want to know about safety stuff. I think I wouldn't be able to sleep.

• 38:53Speaker 03

  Oh, the safety stuff should be reassuring, though.

• 38:55Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, all right.

• 38:57Speaker 03

  I mean, one thing that people don't think about is how incredible of a civilizational achievement our overall aviation safety record as a country is. There was a terrible crash this year. There was 15 years with no fatal crashes.

• 39:13Sean Hayes?

  Yeah.

• 39:14Speaker 03

  Wow. And that doesn't just happen, right? I mean, think about what that takes.

• 39:18Sean Hayes?

  Right.

• 39:19Speaker 03

  I wish we had that on auto safety. We don't. Like, on the ground, like in cars, we lose more than 100 people a day in this country. It's one of the big things I worked on. We finally got the numbers starting to go down again on my watch.

• 39:29Will Arnett?

  Are those numbers, are a lot of those numbers still the result of people being intoxicated? Is that...

• 39:35Speaker 03

  That's still there.

• 39:36Will Arnett?

  Or is it a lot of texting?

• 39:37Speaker 03

  Both, yeah. Distracted driving is a huge deal. I mean, I cannot...

• 39:40Will Arnett?

  Distracted driving, yeah.

• 39:41Speaker 03

  I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to just put down the phone. Just, it can wait. But anyway, the work that goes into making sure people are safe, and stuff I never thought about in shipping, like making sure that things that go into packages are safe. You know, we learned things like there was a cottage industry of custom, kind of homemade nail polish, which sometimes is using compounds that were unsafe to put in the mail. Again, not on my bingo card for things I would be dealing with, but...

• 40:11Sean Hayes?

  Wow, right.

• 40:12Speaker 03

  It was a thing, but...

• 40:13Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, because can't you mail anything? I mean, how do they find out?

• 40:17Speaker 03

  Not hazardous materials.

• 40:18Sean Hayes?

  Asking for a friend, Sean.

• 40:20Speaker 03

  But people, that's the thing, people don't know, like, if you're like on Etsy, you know, selling custom nail polish, you don't think of yourself as a person who ships hazardous materials, right? You think of yourself as a small business. And so, you know, trying to do that without, you know, over-regulating everybody to where nobody could do anything.

• 40:35Will Arnett?

  Jason, quick, do you know what Etsy is?

• 40:36Sean Hayes?

  Uh, she, she's, uh, Sean's cat.

• 40:40Will Arnett?

  Thank you so much. All right.

• 40:42Sean Hayes?

  Cat.

• 40:44Jason Bateman?

  Come here, Etsy. So Sean, did you get enough of an answer there for a friend?

• 40:49Speaker 03

  I did.

• 40:49Jason Bateman?

  About how to properly mule something?

• 40:53Sean Hayes?

  What to look for, how they could.

• 40:54Speaker 03

  Right.

• 40:55Sean Hayes?

  No, I always thought that because, you know, like, gummies are legal, but you can't mail them. Here we go.

• 41:00Speaker 03

  Is that right? You know what else I learned a lot about? Fish. Fish? I wound up having to learn more than I thought I would about fish. Why, why? Because, um, a lot of fish, you know, famously swim upstream and, um, if a road is built through a stream or a river and you don't put the right kind of culvert so the water can go under it, it blocks the fish passage. And it turns out a lot of roads were built in the 60s and 70s. Uh, the culverts either weren't built the right way or they failed over the years. And it was screwing up fisheries, especially in the Pacific Northwest, but this is happening all over the country. And so we, we started working on fixing it, uh, with, with some of the funds in the infrastructure package. Huge deal for the Pacific Northwest, especially for tribal communities, but also just, just in general.

• 41:44Speaker 03

  Uh, so I wound up having, you know, um, in PowerPoint briefings on the difference between, uh, anadromous fish, which swim upstream and, uh, I think catadromous, I think is the word for the ones that fish go downstream. And, um, and it's not just salmon. I mean, there's, there's a lot of fish related things that turn out to be at stake.

• 42:04Sean Hayes?

  But Pete, you know, the, the, like, like you look at, I've never been to Japan, but everybody I know that's been to Japan is like, every street is flawless, everything is clean, every like road and it's. Sean, you would love Japan, for real. I, I, I know, I really want to go, but you go, God, there's hot, like, you just said the budget, like, how is it, and I can only speak to Los Angeles, every road I drive on has massive potholes all the time, like, what's going on?

• 42:29Speaker 03

  Yeah. So some of it is you, you, you get what you pay for, and, and that's a country that just really invests in its, in its, uh, transportation, but they also have a culture, uh, of taking care of things that I think we could, we could learn from. I went there because they hosted the G7, all the transport ministers from the G7 countries get together and it was their turn to host. And but this this this great meeting and but yes, it's kind of saw that up close. Got to ride the bullet train and and

• 42:55Will Arnett?

  See, there you go.

• 42:55Speaker 03

  The bullet train, which is an incredible experience. And but there's a culture like it's um, like you don't eat while you're walking in Japan. A couple of us made this mistake and and learned very quickly you're not supposed to do that. Like you don't just walk down the street with an ice cream cone or a sandwich.

• 43:12Will Arnett?

  Really? Because why?

• 43:13Speaker 03

  Which is it's just you're supposed to stop and eat at a table and then they give you. If you get something to go, they give you a little bag to put your trash in that you take with you.

• 43:24Will Arnett?

  Wow, that's incredible.

• 43:25Speaker 03

  You're supposed to look after your own trash. So there's just this like culture of cleanliness and taking care of things.

• 43:29Will Arnett?

  Well, we've talked, first of all, I think that it might go beyond. I don't want to go too deep on this. But as a Canadian, it goes beyond a little bit, just a culture of cleanliness. And it is a culture. There is a thing that is lacking this idea that we have to lift each other up and be responsible to the greater good. I um,

• 43:47Speaker 03

  I love that.

• 43:48Will Arnett?

  I once said to my dad, and I don't know if I've shared this on the on the show before. I said, why didn't you move to the States when I was younger? I said, he was a lawyer for many years and he went into business. I said, you could have made way more money. He said, because I have an obligation to the system that brought me up and he came from nothing. And that I don't think that that exists as much in this country. There's much more of a fuck you, I'm getting mine. Which is fine, you know, it is the land of opportunity. But but there is, to answer Sean, your question, I think that there is a little bit of that that kind of bleeds into everything. And you look at, you've seen those videos, Pete, I'm sure of, when they decide to rebuild a bridge, a small bridge in the Netherlands. On a highway.

• 44:30Speaker 03

  It's incredible.

• 44:30Will Arnett?

  And they do it in 48 hours because they don't want to disrupt the whole system.

• 44:34Speaker 03

  Really?

• 44:35Will Arnett?

  So everybody, they prep, prep, prep, prep, prep. They shut it down and they quite literally build the bridge in 48 hours. That's crazy. Amazing.

• 44:42Speaker 03

  No, that's it's incredible. We worked on ways to emulate that. But I think I half agree with you, but I think there's a deeply American tradition around that, too. It's always kind of in a bit of a push pull with the, you know, the individualistic tradition. But you know, a lot of the great infrastructure we count on, the aviation system, the highways, you know, are built on that spirit. And so is the idea of preparing, you know, it was Lincoln who said, give me six hours to chop down a tree. And I will spend the first four sharpening my axe. And I think about that a lot because if we apply that to infrastructure, we'd be better off. Hey, I gotta ask, speaking of, speaking of fathers, um, uh, there's something I've always wanted, Jason, to ask you about, which is that I once read-

• 45:27Jason Bateman?

  I thought you were gonna take a shot at Sean.

• 45:28Speaker 03

  Um, no, I, I once read that you are a, um, uh, maybe the most prominent Maltese American, uh, figure in Hollywood.

• 45:37Jason Bateman?

  I, I, I was reading about you-

• 45:38Speaker 03

  That's the country my dad immigrated from.

• 45:39Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, I was curious about that.

• 45:40Speaker 03

  Have you ever been there? Like, do you have a connection to Maltese culture?

• 45:42Jason Bateman?

  I went there when I was a little kid. Um, yeah, my, actually, my, it's my mother's mother that was, uh, that was from Malta.

• 45:49Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 45:49Jason Bateman?

  And that's where she met her husband, my grandfather, because he was in the, uh, British Air Force.

• 45:56Speaker 03

  Ah, classic, uh, yeah, classic thing that happened a lot in that, in that generation.

• 45:59Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's, it's a, what an, what an interesting, uh, little island out there. Incredibly strategic and, and rich in history and, and a great filming location, right? The Great Popeye was shot there.

• 46:13Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah. In fact, I was there, I was with a friend and we, we stumbled onto the set of World War Z.

• 46:19Jason Bateman?

  Uh huh, wow.

• 46:20Speaker 03

  Because, uh, because you know, it's, it's-

• 46:21Jason Bateman?

  I love that movie.

• 46:22Speaker 03

  Tiny Mediterranean country, which means it can be made to look like lots of places, especially lots of places in the Middle East or North Africa. I think they used it for Gladiator. Uh, but, um, they just changed the signs and they could make like, I think a lot of the scenes in Munich, whether it was in Lebanon or Greece or, uh, or Israel, Palestine, like a lot of that was shot in Malta. But yeah, World War Z was going on. I didn't know what that was, but I was, I was walking with a friend and, and we just, suddenly like the signs, uh, on the, like businesses switched to Hebrew and there was this overturned tank. And we had maybe like wandered past a stanchion and didn't notice because, because they were taking a break. And then this, this bus pulled up and a bunch of zombies got out.

• 47:00Jason Bateman?

  Sure.

• 47:01Speaker 03

  And, uh, and it's really unnerving-

• 47:04Jason Bateman?

  And you looked at your drink.

• 47:05Speaker 03

  You know what was really unnerving was not to see zombies, but to see zombies acting not like zombies. Right. Extras, I think there were Maltese extras. They were waiting for, you know. Smoking.

• 47:15Jason Bateman?

  Talking casually.

• 47:15Speaker 03

  Yeah, there's like a zombie smoking a cigarette. Eating a sandwich. Like checking his phone. There's a zombie with a bottle of water. That was almost more unsettling than seeing a bunch of.

• 47:24Jason Bateman?

  Then you saw Brad Pitt walk by and you just passed out completely.

• 47:27Speaker 03

  Yeah, he sadly was not, was not present.

• 47:30Jason Bateman?

  Um, have you been there recently?

• 47:33Speaker 03

  Uh, it's been a few years, but, uh, but I'm hoping soon to be able to take, uh, our kids there because I want to introduce them to, I want them to know like the one place in the world where their last name is a common name. I want them to like,

• 47:43Jason Bateman?

  Oh, that's great.

• 47:44Speaker 03

  You know, meet their cousins and extended family.

• 47:46Will Arnett?

  Is that true? Is that, is that quite a company?

• 47:47Speaker 03

  It's like Smith over there. I mean, you, there was a statue to Anton Boege, who was the president of Malta and a great poet. And like, we're not even related.

• 47:56Jason Bateman?

  Wow.

• 47:57Speaker 03

  They were like, I think it's like, he was like neighbors with my great grandparents or something like that. I mean, but it's incredible. It's a fascinating place. It's beautiful and interesting stuff.

• 48:06Jason Bateman?

  How old are your kids, by the way, now?

• 48:07Speaker 03

  Uh, they're three. They're turning four this summer.

• 48:09Jason Bateman?

  That's great. That's so cool.

• 48:11Speaker 03

  Boy and a girl, twins.

• 48:12Will Arnett?

  Fun age.

• 48:12Jason Bateman?

  That's great. And we will be right back.

• 48:18Jason Bateman?

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• 48:59Sean Hayes?

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• 49:40Sean Hayes?

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• 50:16Sean Hayes?

  And now, back to the show.

• 50:20Jason Bateman?

  Hey, I want to get back to infrastructure for one second. You guys got that huge bill passed and got a lot of great stuff started. I'm assuming a lot of that stuff is still happening and marching forward. And if the answer to that is yes, are there... Is there anything you can talk about that maybe we might not know about, that you're super excited about, that is still a couple of years away from being completed? Because a lot of these things are obviously long-term builds. But like, you know, you said like Bullet Train in Tokyo. Like, stuff like that. Is that... What's coming down...

• 50:54Speaker 03

  Yeah, there's a bus. So we funded about 70,000 projects. Roughly 20,000 of them are done. But yeah, most of them, by their very nature, they take years and years to do. As a matter of fact, I drive past one almost every day here in Michigan. That I remember signing off on it's that's now actually now everybody's grumbling about it because it's you know it's in construction and blocking traffic but eventually it's going to be great redesigning the road there to make it safer but yeah there's a you know there is a high speed there are a few high speed rail things going on one I'm excited about is a high speed rail connection from Las Vegas to Southern California and it was a public private partnership we funded it with with federal dollars but there's also a private company bringing a lot of the dollars to the table and partnering with the state

• 51:37Speaker 03

  of Nevada to get it done that if they hit their marks it'll be going before the end of this decade and wow just zip down it a lot of it is actually straight down the median of I 15 that's how they solved the really of getting the yeah because one of the hardest things when you're building a railroad is to put together the the right of way right to get the land lined up yeah and so there was a big portion where they were able to take advantage of the right of way that's already there on the interstate so that's one that I'm excited about

• 52:04Jason Bateman?

  How long would that take do you think to get from Vegas to LA?

• 52:07Speaker 03

  I know it's dramatically quicker than driving I think I gotta look it up but definitely under the because it's hours and hours

• 52:14Will Arnett?

  I like the idea of the train of like the one like going to Vegas that train is filled with happy excited people and coming back it's all somber and hungover

• 52:21Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, you'd rather walk home

• 52:23Will Arnett?

  Everybody's broke you know

• 52:25Jason Bateman?

  Totally

• 52:26Speaker 03

  No, what excites me is the idea that like instead of going to Japan and coming back and talking about how amazing it would be you know to have something like that like we'd see that somewhere in the US because I think if people experience that like somewhere in the US then then people are going to want it everywhere and it's you know it's it's yeah I'm looking it up now it's two two hours and 10 minutes is what they're shooting for

• 52:45Jason Bateman?

  Gotcha, oh wow, that's pretty good What did you push forward stuff that we can expect to see a bunch of cars driving around without drivers behind it or trucks without drivers is that stuff coming as well?

• 52:55Speaker 03

  So yeah, we worked on that you know we don't the industry is creating that that's the private sector but but but our job was to kind of work on the policies to make sure it was safe and to try to support some of the pilot programs that were going on I actually really Believe in the potential of this technology. I know it's spooky for people. You see a car, there's nobody behind the wheel. It's definitely-

• 53:16Jason Bateman?

  But as you mentioned earlier about, you know, distracted drivers and stuff, that takes the main cause of danger out of it.

• 53:22Speaker 03

  Exactly. No, it's definitely possible to envision a future where people are shocked that we drove our own cars.

• 53:29Jason Bateman?

  Right, but I have to say though, because I just, actually I was just talking to you, Jane, Will, at dinner the other day. Yeah, I was talking about Waymo, which is a self-driving car, and I've been in one before, but I'm like, of course, I'm a catastrophic thinker, so I think of all the bad parts and all the bad things that could happen. So I'm like, well, this is a terrorist's dream to have, I mean, there's so many scenarios I could come up with, I could tell you right now, about how to use self-driving cars in a horrible way.

• 53:57Will Arnett?

  Well, just one. Give us one.

• 53:58Jason Bateman?

  Well, maybe you'd be late for a daytime massage. Start there.

• 54:02Will Arnett?

  Imagine that. It wouldn't need to know to put the key in the cup holder. No, Pete, how many billions did you guys put towards?

• 54:12Speaker 03

  Yeah, no, that's the kill switch. You take the key out of the cup holder and then you don't have a problem.

• 54:16Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, no, you could-

• 54:18Will Arnett?

  But my thing is, Sean, as I said to you, is like, I'm worried about cars showing up at restaurants with people who have reservations and it shows up a valet as just like a dead person in the back. You know what I mean?

• 54:27Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

• 54:28Will Arnett?

  Like they had a heart attack on their way to-

• 54:29Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, or that. Yeah, or that.

• 54:31Speaker 03

  Well, I will admit, I never thought of that.

• 54:33Jason Bateman?

  Yeah.

• 54:36Jason Bateman?

  I could think about a million things.

• 54:38Will Arnett?

  And all of a sudden-

• 54:39Jason Bateman?

  So, Pete, you've got such a, you know, you seem to treasure, like we all do, our private life, and I would assume that your incredibly, you know, accomplished career in public life has made that difficult to maintain. Was that a part, as we all try to battle with it, is that a part that you are comfortable maintaining? Do you guys, do you find the ability to be private, or are you guys, because you must get stopped all the time on the street, and is that tough for the kids?

• 55:17Speaker 03

  Yeah, I definitely think about it differently. It's like, it's one thing to like- You know, take a selfie with somebody at the airport or at a restaurant when I'm just doing my thing. It's another if I feel like somebody might be like taking pictures of our kids or, you know, we're, you know. Pretending to be reading an email. Yeah, I mean, I'm sure you've had this experience where like people go through all kinds of links to look like they're not taking a picture when they're taking a picture. I'm usually pretty oblivious to this. Chasten detects it and then usually takes picture back at them or teases them about it. But it's like, you know. Or says like I do real loud, "Did you get it?" Ask for a picture, it's fine. But yeah, obviously you think about those things differently with your kids. But I'll say like, the community we're in in Michigan is really great, really warm, welcoming, supportive. And they know you're there, so, yeah.

• 56:01Speaker 03

  And generally, when we're out and about, I mean, people, people understand that we have a family. But yeah, you think about this differently. You know, they're three, so they're not old enough to really notice or care about, you know, stuff that goes with being high profile right now. But it, yeah, it definitely changes the stakes, I think, for anyone who's in public life, just thinking about what to do next. Right.

• 56:21Will Arnett?

  Go ahead, Sean.

• 56:22Sean Hayes?

  I was just saying, have you ever heard of a place called Galene, Michigan?

• 56:27Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah.

• 56:27Sean Hayes?

  It's a really small town.

• 56:28Speaker 03

  It's not too far from South Bend, I think.

• 56:29Sean Hayes?

  Okay, so.

• 56:30Speaker 03

  You got a timeshare you want to offer him?

• 56:31Sean Hayes?

  No, Reyna, my best.

• 56:32Will Arnett?

  Reyna lives there.

• 56:34Sean Hayes?

  Reyna lives, she has a restaurant there called Ray and Al's, and it's one of the greatest restaurants, so you check it out.

• 56:39Speaker 03

  Oh, good to know, alright. Thank you caller.

• 56:41Will Arnett?

  Thank you. Good plug for Reyna, for Ray and Al's.

• 56:44Sean Hayes?

  Well, no, I didn't know if you.

• 56:46Will Arnett?

  It was lame in the town, Sean. Sean, what's lame in the town?

• 56:48Sean Hayes?

  Their website, you want to? Galene, Galene.

• 56:50Will Arnett?

  Galene. If you're in Galene, Michigan, go Ray and Al's and say, "Reyna," and say hi, say you, Sean sent you.

• 56:56Sean Hayes?

  And you get 20% off.

• 56:57Will Arnett?

  And you'll get 10% off your appetizers.

• 56:59Sean Hayes?

  Exactly, exactly. So, listen, you don't have to answer this, but I would love if you ran for president.

• 57:05Speaker 03

  Yes, please.

• 57:06Sean Hayes?

  And then, second, is there something, because Jason kind of asked what your, well, what are you worried about the most in the future, in the near future, and what are you most hopeful about?

• 57:17Speaker 03

  Well, obviously, politically, I think my worries about the political scene here are, I imagine, pretty obvious. I'm concerned about the things that are happening to freedom in this country. And I've been very outspoken about that. I'm also very concerned about what could happen with AI. And I don't just mean like the extinction scenarios and all the crazy stuff. I'm talking about something a little closer to home, and I think quicker than people realize, which is how many jobs are at risk. Stuff that we thought would happen in like 100 years, and it could happen by the end of this decade, and just really, really profoundly changing everything.

• 57:56Will Arnett?

  Pete, we were having a discussion about this the other day, because we were talking about the idea of bringing manufacturing back to the US, which we all could agree would be fantastic, right? If we could, if we could create more jobs, jobs that were lost over decades and decades. And a lot by, and by the way, a lot of those jobs were farmed out and sent over there by the very same people who were saying, hey, what the hell? How did we do this? Well, we didn't do it. You guys did it because it was saving you a lot of money. However, we can all agree it would be fantastic to bring more jobs. There's no argument there. But one of the things we were talking about the other night is this idea that now, and you brought it up, AI, when you combine that with advancement in robotics, we have the potential to really decimate the workforce here in this country

• 58:40Will Arnett?

  on a, on a pretty massive scale. And as you pointed out, quite quickly.

• 58:44Speaker 03

  Yeah, and not just manufacturing workers or warehouse workers. We're talking about doctors, lawyers, investors, like it's, you know.

• 58:50Will Arnett?

  Yes, all of it.

• 58:51Speaker 03

  I mean, Hollywood was ground zero for some of this, right? With the, with the writer's strike. And that shows just how big a range of people are impacted. But that brings me to maybe the hope side, which is, I think, if we get it right, there's also enormous potential here. But, but like, our politics has to be lined up the right way, and we have to line up our economy the right way. And what I mean by that, I'm taking the example of self-driving cars, right? There's all kinds of nightmare scenarios. There's also a chance to eliminate one of the leading causes of death in this country, which is the kind of murderous track record of, of human drivers. We lose 40,000 people a year. And more generally, like, the same AI systems that could cause huge disruption could also help us cure cancer and solve climate change and all these other things. I think the biggest

• 59:34Speaker 03

  question is, do we have a political system that makes sure that the enormous wealth that's being created by this technology? Flows through to the people? Or does it get concentrated?

• 59:45Will Arnett?

  Oh, for sure we do, Pete. I'm not worried about that at all.

• 59:47Speaker 03

  Okay, well, I'm glad you're not worried.

• 59:49Will Arnett?

  No, no, no, no. I'm really excited about, are you guys excited about the new robotic AI version of Will and Grace? How could with that be? Hey, everybody, it's just Jack. It's me, it's just Jack. We already saw it.

• 1:00:06Jason Bateman?

  But Pete, when you say flowing back through the people, does that, would that be in the shape of perhaps training the workforce that would be without a job to better transition into a job that is available? Maybe through the advancements?

• 1:00:19Speaker 03

  I just mean money, actually. Like a dividend. Because, you know, remember the taxpayer created a lot of this value. Like, the internet was literally a federal research project in the 60s funded by the American taxpayer. So to me, it's only fair that Americans see more of the income generated by it. But also, the thing with training is this isn't just about getting people their income back. I've seen this where I come from in the industrial Midwest. Somebody's been working in a machine shop for 18 years. And then that machine shop is closing down and they come along and say, well, do this retraining program. Same education, you'll get the same income, you just got to be a nurse's aide.

• 1:00:58Speaker 03

  And that's a perfectly worthy job, but this guy does not, that job wasn't just his income, that was his identity. And if you're not speaking to that, then we're going to have all kinds of social upheaval, as we already are. But it's going to get worse.

• 1:01:11Jason Bateman?

  So then what would be the answer then? You know, getting back to your point about maybe training for transitioning into another available occupation? If that occupation is not aligned with somebody's passion or dreams or identity? What would the answer then be to how to use the newfound funds?

• 1:01:29Speaker 03

  Well, I think, and again, I think some of the funds should just directly, we should have a tax structure where those funds are directly flowing to people more. But in terms of what we do, I think we, we as a society don't know what to do with ourselves sometimes if we're not, if we're not putting it all into our jobs. And I'm somebody, you know, I'm guilty of that. Like, I have meaningful work and I've thrown myself into my jobs. And that can be a very good thing. But there's so many other sources of meaning that can be connected to service.

• 1:01:58Speaker 03

  They can be connected to a lot of things that used to be considered maybe more conservative coded, but I think I think my party should pay more attention to them, like like family and faith that that can bring meaning to a lot of people. Local involvement, like shaping your community, like things where human uniquely human skills are absolutely needed that we could show more regard for. Like as an economy and a society, we don't show a lot of regard for the work that goes into parenting. We definitely don't, you know, compensate that kind of work properly. Same thing with service. I mean, right now they're cutting AmeriCorps as we record this. They're cutting all kinds of service things that that actually in a world where AI generates

• 1:02:38Speaker 03

  more the value and productivity, like we could, you know, a lot of people could have a a shorter work week, more money in their pockets and a chance to do things in their community that would absolutely be a source of pride and meaning. And I want to live in that kind of that kind of society.

• 1:02:54Will Arnett?

  Well, Pete, Pete, I made the, and I was quite flippant about it when I made the comparison to Canada and the US in terms of a sense of social consciousness, but and because I do agree with you, I do agree that there is a long history of it in this country and that there is still a vein of that. I think that we've been maybe potentially distracted is the word that I'll use and and maybe in certain areas gotten off the path and focused more on our differences and also focused more on ourselves. But I think you're right. I think that if potentially we can all start to, and and I mean all of us, I mean me too, if we can all start thinking about somebody, we're so hung up on our own condition. And if we could start thinking about other people, it's a really simple concept that

• 1:03:37Will Arnett?

  if you think about somebody else and you think about helping somebody else, you actually your own situation improves immediately. Well, it does, your own situation does improve because it changes your vibration to sound not so too woo. I totally agree with all that. Absolutely true. And and being of service is super, super important. And if everybody did it a little bit, the shift would be absolutely. I know, but how do you get people to do it? I don't know.

• 1:04:00Jason Bateman?

  Put a little incentive there.

• 1:04:01Will Arnett?

  Yeah, I mean, it's really, if you boil it down, if you're feeling bad, just on a day to day, if you're, if you wake up today, if I feel bad today, if I go out and do something for somebody else, I will immediately alleviate that and raise my own vibration. Again, it sounds very woo. I'm not woo woo in that way.

• 1:04:23Jason Bateman?

  Well, is it something that you're tracking on your Oura ring on the app itself?

• 1:04:27Will Arnett?

  Jason, this concept is tougher than doing something for somebody else. How about, let me look at it.

• 1:04:32Jason Bateman?

  You can talk slower, please.

• 1:04:33Sean Hayes?

  Do pictures. Pictures are better. Pictures are better.

• 1:04:35Jason Bateman?

  Pete, before we let you go, I would love to hear from you. Who, if you could travel back in time, who would you love to sit down, have a coffee with, to get some tips from on how to address this, I guess I shouldn't say uniquely challenging situation where we find ourselves in, because we seem to cycle through moments like this. But who'd you love to talk to right now?

• 1:05:00Speaker 03

  Well, I can definitely imagine, and I know it's maybe a little obvious to the point of cliche, but I can picture like, if I get to have a coffee with Abraham Lincoln, and I'm saying like, "Look, our country's divided, it's polar..." He says, "Oh, you think your country's divided? Wow, okay."

• 1:05:15Jason Bateman?

  Yeah.

• 1:05:15Speaker 03

  You know, I mean, he was in charge when half of the country broke off and declared war against the other half, mainly for the purpose of being able to continue enslaving people, right? So for a little perspective around our problems, I think you would be a really good person to talk to.

• 1:05:28Jason Bateman?

  Right.

• 1:05:29Speaker 03

  And also somebody who was unflappable in so many ways. And like, for somebody who has the ambition to become a president and a wartime president, surprisingly low ego, there's a famous anecdote where one of his generals was getting out of hand, and his advisor said, "You gotta cut this guy down to size." And he said, "I would hold his horse if he could win this battle for me." And just attributes that I would like to see a little more of. So I know, I know it's a little obvious, but I can't think of, like, in the political space, I can't think of somebody you'd more want to consult than Lincoln.

• 1:06:04Will Arnett?

  No, it's a good answer. And I had asked Sean about a week ago that same question, and you know who he said he'd like to sit down? Chef Boyardee.

• 1:06:10Jason Bateman?

  What?

• 1:06:11Will Arnett?

  Yeah.

• 1:06:12Jason Bateman?

  Really? Just to see, you just say, "Nice meal."

• 1:06:15Will Arnett?

  Yeah.

• 1:06:15Jason Bateman?

  How would you get hurt? How did that?

• 1:06:19Will Arnett?

  Number two, the Colonel.

• 1:06:22Will Arnett?

  Number two, the Colonel.

• 1:06:23Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, absolutely. How do you make it?

• 1:06:25Will Arnett?

  And then Ronald McDonald. So, listen.

• 1:06:29Jason Bateman?

  Pete, thank you so, so much for coming on and making us.

• 1:06:32Sean Hayes?

  Yes, don't ever stop talking and going on these shows. I mean, it's just, it's,

• 1:06:36Jason Bateman?

  Yeah.

• 1:06:37Sean Hayes?

  You're just amazing and thank you for all of, all that you do.

• 1:06:40Speaker 03

  Hey, thanks for having me. I really enjoyed it.

• 1:06:42Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, yeah. All right. Looking forward to seeing more of you in the very near future, if you know what I mean.

• 1:06:47Speaker 03

  I'll be around. I'll be out there.

• 1:06:48Jason Bateman?

  Thank you.

• 1:06:49Sean Hayes?

  Okay, good.

• 1:06:49Will Arnett?

  I'll be around.

• 1:06:50Jason Bateman?

  Good, good. See you later. Thank you very much.

• 1:06:52Will Arnett?

  Thank you so much.

• 1:06:53Speaker 03

  Thanks.

• 1:06:53Sean Hayes?

  Love to you and Chasten and the kids, too.

• 1:06:55Jason Bateman?

  Yes.

• 1:06:56Speaker 03

  Thanks so much.

• 1:06:56Jason Bateman?

  Okay. Bye.

• 1:06:58Speaker 03

  Bye. Take care.

• 1:07:00Jason Bateman?

  There, yeah, I felt weird calling him Pete.

• 1:07:03Will Arnett?

  I know, me too. Who started it? Did you start calling him Pete?

• 1:07:06Jason Bateman?

  I think I did. It kinda, it came out by accident and I felt like that was maybe disrespectful, but.

• 1:07:11Will Arnett?

  I know, was it?

• 1:07:12Sean Hayes?

  I don't think he would have minded. I, I have had dinner with him a couple of times.

• 1:07:16Will Arnett?

  Secretary Buttigieg, is that what we should have said?

• 1:07:18Jason Bateman?

  Mr. Secretary?

• 1:07:19Will Arnett?

  Mr. Secretary.

• 1:07:20Sean Hayes?

  Well, but he's not that anymore. He's.

• 1:07:21Jason Bateman?

  No, but I think you get to carry that forever, maybe.

• 1:07:24Sean Hayes?

  Oh, you do? Okay.

• 1:07:24Jason Bateman?

  I don't know.

• 1:07:25Will Arnett?

  Yeah, as a coach.

• 1:07:26Jason Bateman?

  Sean, will you write him something nice and apologize for us?

• 1:07:29Will Arnett?

  Yeah, apologize for us.

• 1:07:31Jason Bateman?

  And just say that you had started it and you feel bad that the other guys.

• 1:07:35Will Arnett?

  Could you mail it with some hazardous materials just to test his theory out?

• 1:07:38Sean Hayes?

  Just to test his theory. By the way, I didn't want to say anything, but I put my hand in my pocket during that interview and I still have two peanut M&Ms in it.

• 1:07:46Jason Bateman?

  Oh my, what, from last night's rave?

• 1:07:49Sean Hayes?

  No, tonight, this morning, I put them in there because you.

• 1:07:52Will Arnett?

  Wait, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on. It's, it's 10:30 in the morning. You put two peanut M&Ms in before 9:30?

• 1:08:00Sean Hayes?

  Yeah.

• 1:08:00Jason Bateman?

  Well, just in case you were thinking, well, maybe I can earn these at some point today?

• 1:08:04Sean Hayes?

  Yeah. No, I had a bunch of them and I ate them all, but I thought I had them all and there's two left in there.

• 1:08:08Will Arnett?

  What time did you have your first M&M today?

• 1:08:10Sean Hayes?

  Nine, nine, nine, a little after nine.

• 1:08:13Jason Bateman?

  What's the matter with you? Did that come out of the candy bowl there in the living room?

• 1:08:16Sean Hayes?

  Yes, you know it very well.

• 1:08:17Will Arnett?

  You know, you won't eat them if you don't have a candy bowl.

• 1:08:20Jason Bateman?

  Uh huh.

• 1:08:21Sean Hayes?

  Wait, can you write that down?

• 1:08:22Will Arnett?

  Yeah.

• 1:08:23Jason Bateman?

  How often do you go to the dentist?

• 1:08:25Sean Hayes?

  I just went yesterday.

• 1:08:26Jason Bateman?

  And?

• 1:08:27Sean Hayes?

  Everything's great. It's not like I don't brush. I don't, I don't eat candy and then close my mouth.

• 1:08:32Jason Bateman?

  Do you floss?

• 1:08:33Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, every day.

• 1:08:34Jason Bateman?

  Truly?

• 1:08:35Sean Hayes?

  I do every single day. Why wouldn't?

• 1:08:37Jason Bateman?

  And that's morning or night?

• 1:08:39Sean Hayes?

  I do morning and if I ate something like a steak or something that gets between your teeth, I do like, I'll do another floss. I'll do a second floss.

• 1:08:46Jason Bateman?

  And you do the little swords or do you do the old school?

• 1:08:48Sean Hayes?

  I can't do the swords because they make your gums bleed because you put them down so hard. You know what I mean?

• 1:08:53Jason Bateman?

  Well, why don't you be nicer to yourself and you won't bleed, you know?

• 1:08:56Sean Hayes?

  But you don't have a choice because you gotta get it in there.

• 1:08:58Will Arnett?

  They're not as good as a, as actual floss either.

• 1:09:00Sean Hayes?

  That's right.

• 1:09:01Will Arnett?

  They're good in a pinch.

• 1:09:02Sean Hayes?

  You can control the floss, you know?

• 1:09:04Will Arnett?

  Yeah, but they're a cheat and they're not as good and it makes you a lesser person.

• 1:09:07Jason Bateman?

  Weren't we just talking about the Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg? And now, and now I brought us into floss. I apologize.

• 1:09:14Sean Hayes?

  How great is he? You, you, by the way, you both asked all the questions I would have wanted to ask and I did, I mean, I didn't, he didn't answer the thing about the president. I mean, do you think he'll run?

• 1:09:23Jason Bateman?

  Well, we, I, I think.

• 1:09:24Will Arnett?

  You didn't ask him. You said, I want you to.

• 1:09:26Sean Hayes?

  I know, but I, we didn't want to ambush him with that. It's too early. That's right. I just kind of glazed over it, but I, I wonder.

• 1:09:33Jason Bateman?

  You didn't ask him for any theater stories.

• 1:09:35Sean Hayes?

  I said, I didn't.

• 1:09:36Will Arnett?

  I know.

• 1:09:36Sean Hayes?

  I didn't ask him for any.

• 1:09:37Will Arnett?

  You know what I liked about him? He's, he's, he speaks very soberly and I do like the idea, I like the idea that he goes on and he goes on to other shows. He goes on to shows across the political spectrum and I think that's really important because as you both know, we, we all have, we have a lot of people in our lives, friends and family who live across that same political spectrum.

• 1:09:57Jason Bateman?

  Right.

• 1:09:57Will Arnett?

  And we all find ways to meet in the middle and talk about stuff and we all want the best for each other. And I like the idea that he goes and he does that very same thing. I don't feel as divided as a lot of people do from the people on other ends of the spectrum. I think it's important that we all continue to talk because we're all in this together.

• 1:10:13Jason Bateman?

  That's right. Yes.

• 1:10:14Sean Hayes?

  I agree.

• 1:10:15Jason Bateman?

  Amen. And he checks a lot of boxes that you'd think would, would please both sides.

• 1:10:20Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, I agree.

• 1:10:21Will Arnett?

  And there are a lot of things that, that make sense that, that a lot of people say, you know, and there is some, sometimes the message is harder for people to digest and I get, or not the message, the delivery and the approach, but you know, we do have a lot of stuff that's, that's common ground and JB, I know you're looking for a buy.

• 1:10:37Jason Bateman?

  He has a nice way about him.

• 1:10:38Will Arnett?

  He does have a really nice way about him.

• 1:10:40Jason Bateman?

  Nice way about him. He has a very nice speaking voice on him.

• 1:10:43Will Arnett?

  Yeah, he does. And I meant it when he says he takes the contention out of it, right? He's like, I'm not here to argue. I'm just here to talk and you know, let's all. Feel like we're getting, Sean's thinking of a, one of you.

• 1:10:56Sean Hayes?

  Oh yeah, he's doing a massive Google search right now.

• 1:10:59Jason Bateman?

  You know, I think a lot, I think of a lot of them in between, like during the week and then I forget them.

• 1:11:05Sean Hayes?

  That's a good story. You should open with that.

• 1:11:07Jason Bateman?

  You know what? A bison, I heard, you know, would be a good one to work in.

• 1:11:11Sean Hayes?

  We've done that a million times.

• 1:11:12Jason Bateman?

  Yeah. It's such a stupid thing that we're doing.

• 1:11:15Will Arnett?

  What? You've been saying it's stupid since day one.

• 1:11:18Jason Bateman?

  But every single time we get to it, it's, it's insane to me. And it's now, it's just ironic, you know, that we're, that we're doing like, it's so dumb that we're, that, that we just decided, well, it's so dumb, let's just still do it.

• 1:11:31Sean Hayes?

  Yeah. Should we not, so you don't want to do it? By the way, we don't have to think of a word. We could just say goodbye.

• 1:11:36Jason Bateman?

  Well, yeah. How would, how would you, how would you wrap this thing up without?

• 1:11:39Sean Hayes?

  I have one that would work perfectly for.

• 1:11:41Will Arnett?

  You just make your situation, listen, we're in a situation that you don't like and you feel, you, you, you don't like that we're in this situation. And Jason, I'm going to put in golf terms.

• 1:11:52Jason Bateman?

  Oh, that's great. Thanks.

• 1:11:53Will Arnett?

  So sometimes you hit, you hit a good drive and you go down the middle of the thing, but you know, it's a little bit, and you know what you can always do? You can always improve your life. No, not cutting it. Okay.

• 1:12:08Sean Hayes?

  I was gonna say, I was gonna say, wait, it's right there. It's right there. He's Pete Buttigieg. He was in, he was in office. He was, he reached across the aisle. He, he was very, he was very.

• 1:12:19Jason Bateman?

  Very bipartisan.

• 1:12:21Will Arnett?

  Bye.

• 1:12:22Sean Hayes?

  See you next week.

• 1:12:51Sean Hayes?

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