Uploaded November 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago

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Then Brad Carson (Americans for Responsible Innovation) and Charles Lehman (Manhattan Institute / City Journal) dig into the shutdown endgame, Schumer’s calculus, 2026 vibes, and why data centers might be a sleeper issue. They argue affordability vs. “afford to dream,” culture vs. policy, and whether legalization waves for pot, NIL, and sports betting were built to fail. Plus: AI guardrails, why adding friction to vices works, and Goat Grinders on EST vs. EDT, reclining your plane seat, and off-leash dogs.

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This interview is from a Full episode of Not Even Mad, Hosted by Mike Pesca.
🎧Listen Here👉open.spotify.com/episode/5ym0yjjbbMmtLJLS8fvJzn?si=5a6VITL8QSSCc2ZrTzJU5Q
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CREDITS:

Creator & Host:
Mike Pesca

Producer:
Corey Wara


TIMECODES:
00:00:00 Intro
00:02:10 Who “won” the shutdown? Schumer, Trump, and whether the tactic ever made sense
00:09:00 Will anyone remember this shutdown in 2026 – and do shutdowns move votes?
00:09:25 Data centers, AI, and rising utility bills as a new frontline political issue
00:15:40 Are Zoomers actually “screwed” – affordability crisis or spiritual malaise?
00:18:25 Delayed adulthood: housing, marriage, kids, and rich new ways to waste time
00:22:05 Modernity, meaning, and why politics can’t fix the “lost thread” in young men’s lives
00:23:20 Why policy talk keeps turning into culture talk – NAFTA vs vibes and identity
00:25:00 Policy still matters: housing, energy, and how regulation makes America more expensive
00:27:00 Is the affordability crisis just a coastal problem? Oklahoma and the cheap states
00:27:15 Culture wars then and now: gay marriage, abortion, immigration, and what a nation is
00:30:15 Same-sex marriage as a one-off: what it taught activists—and what it didn’t
00:31:00 Marijuana opinion whiplash and early signs of a legalization backlash
00:33:40 Sports gambling scandals, crooked pitches, and whether we can re-regulate vice
00:35:50 Can we put the AI and gambling genies back in the bottle—or at least add friction?
00:37:20 Porn, goon caves, and our inability to foresee the downsides of instant access
00:40:20 Bans vs regulation: why simple prohibition sometimes works better than clever rules
00:41:40 Cloning, germline editing, outlawed weapons: examples of tech we actually stopped
00:43:10 AI as a multi-trillion-dollar exception: money, markets, and political difficulty
00:44:00 Three messy legalizations: online gambling, NIL money, and legal weed rollouts
00:45:20 Addiction plus profit motive – the real problem with commercializing every vice
00:47:55 Sports betting, young men, and why Democrats are hesitant to crack down
00:48:35 Kamala’s crypto-and-weed pitch to Black men and what that says about priorities
00:49:05 Goat Grinders: EST vs EDT, reclining airplane seats, and unleashed dogs with kids nearby