5/28/26: U.S. & Iran Exchange Fire, Trump Says He Doesn't Care About Midterms, CDC Scrambles Amid Ebola Outbreak

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but there are some significant developments and some concerns that Russia could, in fact, be looking outside of Ukraine to escalate this conflict. So I want to talk to him and get his view of what exactly is happening there. Also, as you probably know, the Pope issued an AI-focused encyclical. So we have a Catholic who is also an AI expert on to talk to us about that and break down the import. We also have a number of Trump administration actions to continue to push AI forward at breakneck pace. And the labeling, of anti-Data Center extremists as a new focus of federal government crackdowns. Okay, everybody stick with us for our premium subscribers.

We deeply apologize about the show being late yesterday. We'll get to that in a second. Now, first and foremost, when most important things to make sure everybody who's paying for our service gets their email and is signed up. So support at supercast.com. If you've not yet received an email or you still have some questions about the process, again, support at supercast.com. Griffin, Mac, the entire team, we are all working behind the scenes to make this faster every single day.

Now, for yesterday, though, it was a three-hour show. So sometimes that's just going to be late. That's part of it. And, Crystal, you can explain some of the process here for behind the scenes. And I apologize for taking everybody behind the curtain. A lot of people still have questions, and this is the reason. Yeah, so one of the issues we're having is the email is going out, but the Spotify upload has not fully happened because it's Spotify just takes a little bit longer. And that's causing a lot of problems because a lot of people watch it on Spotify.

so they get the email, they go to Spotify, it's not there. So what we've decided to do is hold the email until it's uploaded everywhere so that no matter how you access it, it will be available once you get the email. That means the email is going to be a little bit later. If you are anxious to see the show as soon as it is humanly available and possible for you, go to Supercast and check there, see if it has been uploaded and is available there. So that was the decision that was made so that there's not confusion.

That'll mean the email is a little bit delayed, but no big deal. Yeah, and the thing is, guys, I get it. You know, the people who watch on YouTube are like, oh, it's ready. You know, why should we wait? 50% of the people watch on Spotify, right? So, like, we got to make sure that everybody's happy. So I know there's a lot of diehards out there and people set their clock and all of that, et cetera. We're doing our absolute best to please everybody. So there you go. And I have to say, given everything, it's gone very smooth. Oh, yeah. Thank you guys for bearing with this. I know people are excited about the shift and we are, we are too. And so working out some

kinks this week. But if you're having any issues whatsoever support at Supercast, that is the big message. In a few weeks, you won't even think about it, and everything will just be a lot better. Okay, let's go ahead and start with Iran, as Crystal said. In deja vu from our Tuesday show, in the middle of ceasefire negotiations, talks and all of that, what happened? Oh, let's go and put it up here on the screen. Late last night, the news broke. The U.S. military struck a military site in Iran near the Strait of Hormuz and intercepted four Iranian drones.

They carried out new strikes targeting a military site that a U.S. official said posed a threat to American forces and a commercial traffic in the strait of Hormuz. U.S. military also intercepted drones launched from Iran on Wednesday. Now, allegedly these drones, let's put in A, 0B, please up on the screen. This is from Tretta Parsi. Allegedly these drones were launched from Iran towards a U.S. commercial vessel. Obviously, we don't know the exact details. But here's some immediate analysis from Dr. Parsi.

Two new U.S. strikes on Iran. U.S. says it was in response to drones, unclear where there were casualties on the Iranian side. It is unlikely that Tehran will accept this as a new normal. A low-grade conflict gives the United States a major advantage. It can inflict comparability more damage on Iran while slowly eroding Iran's new one deterrence. A strong Iranian response, on the other hand, would escalate matters beyond Tehran's preference and play right into Israel's hands jeopardizing any progress made in the negotiations. Instead, Iran may opt to respond elsewhere.

Either way, this is putting dangerous pressure on the already fragile. situation. Trump appeared frustrated today and might have requested limited kinetic action. Washington may calculate this will help push the negotiations forward, but it might as well easily kill the talks. And just as you can almost set your watch by, A-0C, please. So hear from C-com 10 p.m. Eastern time last night, Iran launched a ballistic missile towards Kuwait. It was successfully intercepted by Kuwaiti forces, again, according to them. The egregious ceasefire violation was by the Iranian regime occurred hours after Iranian forces launched five, one-way attack drones that posed a clear threat in and near the Strait of Hormuz.

All drones were successfully intercepted by U.S. forces, which prevented a sixth drone launch from an Iranian ground control site in Bandar Abbas. U.S. Central Command and Regional Partners remain vigilant and measured. So if Iran strikes back, that's a ceasefire violation. If the U.S. strikes them, it's not a ceasefire violation. I'm still trying to wrap my head around what the ceasefire means. if the fire is not ceasing, seems to be a common thread here with a lot of these U.S. and Israeli actions in modern times.

But look, I mean, the bottom line is it demonstrates that the ceasefire is falling apart. The extension of the ceasefire still hasn't happened. There was a lot of optimism on Sunday. They're blaming the Iranians. They're saying, oh, they move slow and all that is certainly true. But really what it is, apparently on the Iranian side, is they need buy-in from all factions to the government. They need Supreme Leader to sign off.

They need Golobov to sign off. There's internal disarray. The hardliners are Maddo Lov from even negotiating in the first place. Basically, everybody in that system has to sign off on the new deal. Oh, except all the new people in that system are, you know, the new generation. The old ones are all dead, the people who were more likely to maybe strike a deal and who respected U.S. power. And the new ones are like, no, we have to establish credible deterrence. And all the meanwhile ballistic missiles are going off, drones and all of that are happening.

The second U.S. strike in the matter of days, literally. Our Tuesday show let off the exact. same way. Yeah, and Tricia's point is exactly the right one. Are the Iranians just going to sit there and take it? And why should they, right? If they, if they permit this to go forward where the U.S. can just randomly blow up this, randomly blow up that, and that's not considered a ceasefire violation, and there are no consequences for that, then they are ceding so much of the power and control that they were able to win previously on the battlefield. Meanwhile, Trump is saying all kinds of wild things we covered before, how now he's like, oh, in every country has to, for some reason,

get into the Abraham Accords and normalize relations with Israel as part of this deal. And those countries literally went silent on the phone and we're like, I don't think that we're really down with that. I don't know why that's being included here. So when you add things like that, it makes it even more difficult to come to a deal. And then yesterday, he comes out and threatens to blow up the country of Oman if they don't get on board with the things he wants them to do. Let's go ahead and take a listen to that. No, the strait's going to be open to everybody.

It's international waters. Nobody's going to control it. We're going to watch over it. We'll watch over it. But nobody's going to control it. That's part of the negotiation that we have. They would like to control it. Nobody's going to control it.

It's international waters. And Oman will behave just like everybody else and we'll have to blow them up. They understand that. They'll be fine. Oman will behave like everybody else or we will have to blow them up. And this again comes down. You remember we're getting all those tweets from regime-aligned media. They're, oh, we're 95% of the way there.

We just have these tainty, tiny details to work out. Like the entire nuclear program and the control of the Strait of Formos. Well, everything we've seen from the Iranian side and even leaks from the U.S. side about the way that would work is like, okay, well, you're going to have Iran and Oman in control. There won't be a toll, but there might be some sort of environmental payment fee or something of that nature. And now Trump is coming in to, no, there's not going to be any Omani control. there's not going to be any Iranian control. It's going to go back fully to the way that it was. There is no way that Iran is going to accept that.

Yeah, this Oman thing is so insane because Oman was literally the only good regional partner who was trying to mediate and stop some sort of kinetic action. Now, of course, look, Israel was the number one, I would say, foreign force that wanted this war. But what also came out? And, you know, some of this is a little hard to trust, but some of the Saudi Arabia reports said, actually Mohammed bin Salman behind the scenes, he was like, yeah, go ahead, let's do it. And then the UAE, even that was a little bit behind the scenes. But what we do know is that after the war kicked off, that Saudi Arabia and the UAE were

definitely in Trump's ear saying, let's go, go, go. Now, they're getting chastised a little bit whenever it comes to the Abraham Accords, but threatening to blow up the country of Oman for doing what, for having the temerity to ask for no war in the first place. Remember, the Omani foreign minister, the day before the war, went on, I think it was face the nation, because we played the clip here on the show. And he was like, none of this has to happen. There's still a way out of this. He met with the vice president. Now we know from behind the scenes, they had decided to attack Iran like a week or so beforehand, even while they were pursuing the sham. So, Oman, I mean, Oman, by the way, it's not exactly a country that you would want to push away in a situation like this. It actually is a pretty decent U.S. ally, has good negotiations and relations with Iran. And all. also happens to be the only other country with control over the Straits of Hormuz or the ability to exert control. So not, you know, trying to go out and threaten, oh, we're going to blow you up. How do you think that's going to go over in Muscat?

I don't think very well, you know. So this is a country, this is a country where they have long prided themselves on their ability to facilitate these negotiations or relations, you know, with Iran. And this is, you know, to openly just say, oh, we're going to blow you up when you're an ostensible U.S. ally. I mean, shocking, right, to everybody who is. is over there. And yeah, it also just, it demonstrates that if you are Israel or anything, you can help blow up the ceasefire. I mean, I was showing you a picture this morning. Beirut. Oh my God. You know, look at what is going on over there. They're lighting this place on fire, bombing and passing, you know, sending troops into new Lebanese villages, nothing from the

President of the United States. Oman, they didn't even do anything this time. He said they might be working with Iran for some sort of environmental feed. He's like, oh, we're going to blow them up. Yeah, when's that sort of language going to be levied at Israel? Can you imagine? Oh, if Israel doesn't get in line and abide by the ceasefire in Lebanon, we're going to blow him. I mean, he would never. He would never. But yeah, with Oman, it's just, let's just, you know, throw him to the wolves.

And then I'm skeptical, actually, of that reporting from early on that Saudi was pushing for this war. And, I mean, we don't know. But the reason I'm skeptical is because it's been bad for them, number one. And number two, we had that moment where they denied us use. of their bases and even overflight rights, which was an indication that they were not happy with the continuation of the war and that they were very uncomfortable with the direction.

So to me, that was an important indicator. But you know, Trump has some pretty strong words for them and for Qatar and other nations as well, saying that if they don't agree to get into the Abraham Accords and normalize relations with Israel, even though they have always said that they will not do that until there is a pathway and a clear pathway to establishment of a Palestinian state and resolution of the

Palestinian issue. So he's saying that they owe it to us to get into the Abraham Accords, even though, you know, this disastrous war with Iran has gravely, I mean, there's been a big problem for them, is going to hurt their economy so, you know, incredibly harshly. Let's go ahead and take a listen to Trump talking about how Saudi and Qatar owe us. And we'd like to have the countries we were talking about with Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, and the others, we'd like to have them immediately join the, and Steve Witkoff is working on that with Jared and some others, but would like to have them join the Abraham Accords. It'll be historic if they do it. I think they owe that to us. To be honest, I think because that really would be a tremendous sign. And I think those countries owe it to us. Their countries are getting blown up, Sogher, because of us. But they owe it to us to do what we want them to do. And, you know, for them, I keep looking at this.

The UAE, it's obviously already a part of the Abraham Accords. I don't really get what's going on in their population. I mean, again, these are monarchies. But remember, like modern monarchies, they have to have some level of political support. And for the Emirati people, you know, there's a social contract. It's like, yeah, we accept the rulers and in exchange, we're all filthy rich. But, you know, that only goes so far. Like with Saudi Arabia, they have much bigger population, I guess.

So that's part of the reason why it's a bit different. But they do have to manage internal politics. That's where a lot of the religious Wahhabism and all that other stuff comes from. So for them, it is not like a politically tenable solution to just say, yeah, we're going to recognize Israel in its current form without any recognition of a Palestinian state. Now, again, the government itself doesn't care. But that doesn't mean that the people don't care, especially, oh, my God. in Qatar and some of these other places. When I lived there, I mean, this was almost 20 years ago.

But I remember there would be donation boxes in public for the Palestinian, like for either PA or something. And I mean, that just, and I would often see Qatari people, Katari families and Thobbs and others, they would put money into them. So this is something that's been going on for, you know, decades. And so for their government to have to sit there and be like, okay, we're going to fully recognize Israel, normalize relations entirely. And then in a post-October 7th environment, it seems.

inconceivable. They wouldn't face some level of internal pushback. They don't have that level of fiat. I just don't think it exists. Maybe with the UAE, again, there are people, they all seem to be fine with it, I guess. They literally have IDF soldiers in Iron Dome on their soil, which I still think is probably not going to go over that well with some of the people in Abu Dhabi or any of the Emirates. But yeah, just seeing this demand, I just want to bring it back for the audience. It's about Trump not wanting to admit that he failed. Like, that's what it's about. It's about a grand bargain-style thing that he's adding on at the very last minute, because to sign the deal in its current form is an admission the entire war was a failure to reopen the Straits of Hormuz,

which were already open, to stop nuclear weapons from being built that weren't being built. It could go down the list. After we obliterated their nuclear program, so we had to bomb it to re-obliterated and now it hasn't been obliterated, which means that they need to turn it over. It's like none of it makes sense for even five seconds, even when gases at some five, you know, a 435 or something like that, a gallon nationally. It's absurd. That's why he wants the Abraham Accords so he can sell it as some sort of big new thing. Yeah, I mean, I was listening to the monk debate with John Mearsheimer and we'll play a clip for him and get his reaction to how this went.

And he was up against with his partner in writing the Israel lobby book. He was up against Victoria Newland and Mike Pompeo. Newland doesn't even support the Iran War. And then Pompeo, I mean, it was impossible for him to defend how things. are. Oh, he could, he could only take the neocon line of, we need to go further. We need to do more. Real war against Iran has never been tried, right? That was his line because even he couldn't defend if the war ends now, what an incredible disaster it was. That's how bad it is, is even, you know, the staunchest neocons, all they can do is not say, oh, yeah, this is going great. They have to say, no, it's been a disaster. But if we just do more war, that'll solve the problem. And unfortunately,

days tick by here, and as Trump makes comments like this that completely undermine, you know, any potential peace deal as we bomb inside of Iran, which is certainly going to complicate any sort of diplomatic negotiations, as the days go by, it seems more and more that those neocon arguments of, you can't stop now, their only way out is through, are holding some sway with Trump. And then, of course, the Israelis are going to be pushing that as well and doing everything they can. We've got a clip will play for Mirzheimer later where Itamar Ben-Gvir is out there saying, Israel will not let the U.S. go forward with a deal with Iran. That's the way that they are seeing things.

So it's hard to imagine how this all comes together. Maybe it will, right? Maybe the Iranians will just ignore these little bombings and that they are so desperate. I know their economy is struggling that they'll be so desperate to get their assets unfrozen and some sort of sanction relief and go back to some sort of level of normalcy that they will choose to turn a blind eye and move forward with negotiations. But, you know, it's a lot of question marks. Mainstream media is full of cruel depictions of the unhoused, stories that shame and

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and we discussed the absolute best of things. It's that, and then there's everything else. He would just shout one line and it would murder. Marie Lunch! Let's talk about the best moments that we had on the road. I would love a cocktail. Dude, Joe could get last row, middle seat, on a Southwest Airlines flight. Joe, I was your flight.

It was great. The guy on Hemp State, we were on the field, and the player thought Joe is his former coach. And he hugged him, and he hugged him, and Joe just went with it. And the guy goes, what are you doing here? And you walk in and it is bananas. I mean, it's a feast for the eyes.

And I was like, it's not my thing either, but we're here. When in Rome? Top athletes, chefs, musicians, everybody. Listen to Paul's best podcast on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. At the same time, Trump under incredible domestic political pressure here, the midterms are looking like. a full-blown disaster. Obviously, you've got Ken Paxton, who won the Republican primary with Trump's backing in Texas. He is incredibly corrupt.

There's all sorts of personal issues there. So kind of an ideal candidate from the Democrats' perspective in terms of even having a shot of taking the Texas Senate. So Trump was asked about the political ramifications here, and obviously gas price is really high, something that people feel every day. And so I don't really care about that. Let's go ahead and take a listen. system is broken down. They thought they were going to outweigh me, you know, we'll outweigh him.

He's got the midterms. I don't care about the midterms. Look what happened last night. That was the prelude to the midterms. I don't care about the midterms. I mean, look, maybe it's bluster, because that is kind of their calculus is to make him pay in the midterms. So if he's like, yeah, I don't even care about that. Maybe that's bluster. But he certainly is acting like he genuinely doesn't care about the midterm. Gas is $3.92 a gallon in Texas. That's unfathomable. Did you see Ted Cruz bragging about how gas was only $3.99? Yeah. He was like, hey, Gavin, gas is only $3.99 here in Texas. I'm like, oh, my God, dude, you're the senator from Texas. You're bringing you a $4 gas in Texas where the gas is literally from and where the refineries are. It's like, it's insanity. That is just, oh, man, I can't even, you know, continue to talk about it. But yes, on the political level, it's very obvious, like, this has been extraordinarily damaging. I I still am not sure it's at a full-blown crisis level for the average American. I think what's happening is that they are looping it into all of the other cost of living factors.

And especially, look, I mean, we've talked about this. The vast majority of Iran attention that is paid by most people is to gas. Gas has remained now high for almost three months. So it's been 80-something days, I think, that this has gone. Okay, so the elevated gas price, let's call it two months this entire time. It's not going down anytime soon. And I really said, like Memorial Day weekend, I thought a lot of people would really wake up because that's the first, probably long drive and you fill up a couple of times or something like that.

And then now, especially as we move into summer travel season and the general inflation, what we're really watching is also what it does is when life feels extraordinarily unaffordable. And then you also, I think, have this kind of obscene level of wealth spending that is being flashed by a lot of the cultural elite at the same time, it really makes people very angry. Like, have you seen all this NICS ticket stuff? Oh, yeah. What is the court side seat for these, I think, NBA finals are going for like $100,000. I asked the guys in control room. I was like, what do you guys think? And they're like, oh, I don't know, 10, 15. I was like, try times 10, you know, to get on there. And US Open, I know you love the U.S. Open. I think the new tickets are, like, have gone up to

like $2,600. Like, you can't even walk in. That was that, again, I'm not going, but I saw people talking about it. I usually go, but I haven't looked at the ticket prices yet. But, yeah, I was looking at the prices for the Knicks because I was a big Knicks fan. So I was like, oh, maybe we should go to a game. Just to walk into the door. Like the nosebleeds.

And if you've been in MSG, those nosebleeds are nose bleeds, okay? Thousands of dollars. Yeah, it's going to be the most expensive, like NBA final in history. Right. And I think, I'm only bringing it up because it gets flaunted for a lot of people. There are a lot of casual Knicks fans. Last time I checked, a lot of casual. U.S. Open fans, tennis, it's not just a rich man's game.

Yeah, the front of the final is, but a lot of people like to go. And so you see people out there, you're like, what is going on? Like, I can barely keep my head above water. And then there's other people, you know, Jason Calacanis is tweeting about, you know, going to these next finals games. That's fine. They're billionaires, like, they can go. I'm just saying I think it rubs it in a lot of people's face at a time like this.

Well, I think for, I mean, for a lot of people, for many, many, many Americans, maybe not a majority, but pretty close to 50% are really living hand to mouth. And so if gas prices are up, you know, for a sustained period of time as they have been, they're already really feeling that pain and that's starting to trickle through to grocery store prices as well. You know, if you look at the costs of like your classic Memorial Day barbecue items, everything was up really significantly. But don't worry because Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent tells us this is just transitory,

just hang in there, guys. It's going to go away quickly. Of course, we've been hearing that. for three months now at this point. In fact, somebody had put together a compilation of, like, all these Trump officials being like, oh, it'll come right back down. Don't worry about it. This was, again, months ago.

But let's go ahead and take a listen to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Sir, on the economy, two words. Resilience and prosperity. The continued resilience of the economy speaks for itself, even during the Iran, the conflict, and it speaks to the strength of your leadership. Pro-growth policies are creating conditions for American families and businesses to prosper. We're entering the second half of our 250th anniversary year

with renewed optimism and momentum. It has never been a better time to be an American, and as you said earlier, we have a record number of Americans working. The economy that you were building is not only strong, but secure and resilient and better position to compete globally. Real GDP has risen 2.7% over the past four quarters, something that many economists said couldn't be done.

In the first quarter of 26, despite Iran conflict, GDP grew at a 2% annual rate. The Atlanta Fed GDP now is predicting 4.3% for this quarter. In terms of prices, I believe the prices are transitory. Oil will be lower than pre-conflict levels when this ends. Natural gas is already down. As you mentioned, drug and pharmaceutical prices. they are plummeting and rent is down. That word transitory gives me PCSD soccer personally.

Yeah, I know. Well, it should. I mean, you know, this is not to get too deep into the weeds around all of this, but, you know, they have the same logic as the Biden administration did, and they're actually doing the exact same thing. So if people recall the insane transitory debates of the time, many of the transitory, you know, team transitory and all of that was the idea. that the supply side would be resolved. Ultimately, that's not what happened. And the reason

what it didn't happen is they didn't have aggressive government action. There was also the government, there was the invasion of Ukraine. So really, those two things together, high gas, COVID shock, basically nothing ever went down. And then housing in particular just because of supply and even some market dynamics, I think that's another huge part of it as well, just because, you know, assets have gone so wildly up over the last five or six years. And then there's a limited amount of housing stock, so that's why housing prices have skyrocketed, especially in very high cost of living areas. But here, they're making the same piece where, oh, it'll just go back down because the supply side thing will resolve itself. It cannot resolve itself entirely.

You have had 80-something days of the straight of Hormuz that's closed, period. We've had too many oil and energy experts on to discuss what that level of shock to the system will look like. Per Rory, our resident energy expert, he was like, look, oil was trading a $60 a barrel before the war. We would probably be in the 50s right now if the war hadn't happened. Oil's at 100. So you really think things are going to go back down to 50? Like, no, I don't think so. It will remain elevated.

So I think even the White House at one point honestly said, yes, gas will not be below $3 a gallon for like a year. Yes, I think that's correct. Fundamentally, even 350 and all that. a national average of that seems pretty much baked in, you know, for a long while. I guess it all depends on your definition of transitory. Yeah, that's true. Because over a long enough time frame, it is transitory, right? I mean, even the last one.

Eventually, the supply issues worked themselves out, and things got back more or less to normal, and inflation had come down quite a bit back to sort of normal levels. That doesn't mean the prices went back to what they were. Oh, no, no. It just means that the rate of increase had slowed. So, yeah, over the long term, will this be quote unquote transitory? Yes. But for Americans who are struggling right now with no end really in sight and us continuing

to bomb and Iran and Trump threatened to blow up Oman just for funzies, it's not looking too great here. Let's go and put this next one up on the screen just in terms of where we are with the deal. So Iranian State TV is saying that the draft deal with the U.S. would reopen Hormuz shipping and the naval blockade. But again, there's so much dispute and disagreement. This runs sort of, you know, the Iranian conception here runs counter to the Trump conception that Oman would have no involvement whatsoever.

Iran continues to expect that while they will not charge a quote-unquote toll, there will be some sort of fee for service. So in their minds, we are not going back to a previous Hormuz status quo. And yet that seems to be now where Trump is really pushing things towards. We can also put a 6 up on the screen, this White House account saying that the report from Iranian-controlled media is not true. The memo of understanding they release is a complete fabrication. No one should believe what Iranian state media is putting out in all caps.

Facts matter. So the draft proposal that had come out in the press that had been discussed, they're saying, no, no, no, this is not it whatsoever. Again, not a good sign that we've sort of seen this before when, Trump had originally come out and said, okay, we've agreed to use their 10-point framework as the basis for negotiations. And then when there was pushback from the neocons, then the White House quickly came out, oh, no, no, no, the 10-point plan you guys saw, that's not it at all. Like, that's not remotely what we're talking about here. And so this seems, again, the same playbook of denying the reality of what the Iranian position actually is because Trump cannot accept and be seen to have taken such a loss in this conflict.

And that, again, is the central barrier to being able to conclude this thing. Yep. That's the problem is that if the details become public to what they would actually agree to, it would be an unambiguous failure for the White House. This is, again, explains the Abraham Accords. And so in a weird way, the longer that this continues, I think it benefits Trump because gases is where it is. He says he doesn't care.

I'll just believe him. I think one of the reasons why they don't care is because where the S&P is. I mean, literally every single day. Let me look at the futures. It's down a little bit. Not too bad. I mean, overall, we're still talking about like crazy all-time highs. So, well, if the market's going to be at all-time highs, that's what he and most of the people

in his administration care about. There's no real market signal. Even oil at $100 a barrel or national gas price of $4.30 a gallon. Look, it's a crisis for a lot, people, but it's not for them. It's not $6, which they think that people would be passed. So they have the runway. They think that they can just continue this on again, off again. Because as long as that happens, kind of like Afghanistan, then nobody has to just put their hands up and be like, yeah, it was horrific failure. A historic disaster, even though anyone could recognize it in Afghanistan starting in 2007, maybe earlier, honestly, 2005.

But it took until 2021 for everybody's eyes to become fully open. That seems to be their strategy right now. Now, will Iran accept that? That's the big question, too. Iboa. Mainstream media is full of cruel depictions of the unhoused, stories that shame and blame and paint the unhoused as a monolith. We The Un-House is the podcast that's changing that. I'm Theo Henderson, creator and host. And for years, I've created a space where the unhoused and their advocates can tell their own stories. In the last few months alone, I've interviewed Un-House parents, immigrants, mutual aid,

organizes veterans, the LGBTQTIA plus community, and the policymakers who make the laws that impact the unhoused existence. Wheatian Houses a two-time Webby and Signal Award-winning show with many exciting guests on the horizon. Tune in this week for my interview with Dr. Gio Wichor, a street doctor turned influencer whose work with the unhoused community has made a huge impact online and in her community. Listen to Wheatley-House on the I-Hard Radio app. Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast.

This is Michael Rappaport, and my podcast, the I Am Rapaport Stereo podcast, is unlike anyone you've ever heard. We're a variety show, and if you're looking for strong opinions, funny opinions about sports, entertainment, politics, pop culture, and whatever else catches my attention, then subscribe now. This kid, Jafar Jackson, is as good as Rami Malik as Freddie Mercury, and it's as Good as Timothy Chamalay as Bob Dylan. And I say that with love and respect for both of those actors.

And I don't know how many Oscar nominations they give out. I don't know if it's five, six for Best Actor. 150% this kid, Jafar Jackson, should absolutely positively get nominated for his portrayal as Michael Jackson. Listen to I Am Rap Report on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Podcast Hey guys, Paul Verzi here, and I want to talk to you about Paul's best podcast.

Will Ferro's Big Money Players Network and I Heart Radio. I sit down each week with a special guest and we discuss the absolute best of things. It's that, and then there's everything else. He would just shout one line and it would murder. Marie! Lunch!

Bill Burr. Let's talk about the best moments that we had on the road. I would love a goddamn. Dude, Joker get last row, middle, on a Southwest Airlines flight. Joe, I was your flight. It was great. The guy on Penn State

who went on the field and the player thought Joe was his former coach. And he hugged him and hugged him and Joe just went with it. And the guy goes, what are you doing here, coach? And Joe just goes,

and Joe just goes, man. And you walk in and it is bananas. I mean, it's a feast for the eyes. And I was like, it's not my thing either, but we're here. When in Rome? Top athletes, chefs,

musicians, everybody. Listen to Paul's best podcast on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. So I wanted to bring everybody up to date on this rapid spread of Ebola centered in the Democratic Republic of Congo. We can put this up on the screen in terms of our own country's response. So the CDC is seeking volunteers from their staff to go do Ebola screenings at airports

as that outbreak response expands. There's a lot to get to in terms of the U.S. response that I'll save for a moment. First, let's go ahead and take a look at where the Ebola outbreak is centered and just how dire the concerns are here. So we've had obviously a number of Ebola outbreaks, unfortunately not unusual. This already, though, is the third worst outbreak that we have seen. You can see here on the map where the worst spread is. You've had already hundreds of deaths, 223 deaths, that have been linked to this outbreak. You've had 900 suspected cases.

Remember, this is an area where it is very difficult to get actual real information. There is a lot of skepticism of the local population in terms of aid workers coming in. So it is hard to know exactly what the case number is, but we can see the way that is expanded. The other problem is that it appears it was detected quite late. where there had already been significant spread before the World Health Organization and other global health organizations or, you know, the U.S. health organizations detected that this Ebola strain was there and was spreading. There's a few reasons for that.

Number one, it is more of a rare strain of Ebola. It's not the most common one. So it wasn't the one that they were routinely testing for. That's number one. Number two, you know, you have a situation where we completely defunded U.S. AID. So a lot of our aid workers who had been there who may have been in the, in an ability to do like an early warning of, oh, I hear that there's some weird thing that is spreading here. They weren't there. So that may also have hindered the response. And then you also have, you know, this is obviously a war torn area. This part of the DRC is kind of like a rebel stronghold. It's far from the capital. So the fact of the remote location of where this began to develop is also part of the problem. But health experts, are saying that this is actually the most rapid spread that they've seen. So even though it's not yet the worst outbreak, it has a lot of momentum, which is why this

is so disturbing and why people are paying so much attention to it. Let's go and put B3 up on the screen here. You can see that Uganda has also closed its border with Congo, where suspected cases of this rare Ebola type are surging. They ordered that closure. This is actually in defiance of what the World Health Organization had recommended. And I'll tell you why. Their view is that this border is extremely porous. There's, you know, paths that go back and walking paths that go back and forth across this border,

across the entire length of it. And so their view, the World Health Organization's view, is if you close down the official border crossings, you're just going to push people to those informal crossings. And it's actually going to make it more difficult to detect the spread and be able to stop, you know, stop this virus from spreading. So that's kind of what we know about the, you know, the extent of the cases here, but there's all kinds of problems in terms of the response that can put before up on the screen. You've had a number of instances where family members, in this instance, they stormed an Ebola hospital demanding the return of the dead. One of the things that's been instituted in the Congo is that you have to use, you know,

official authorities to conduct burials because that is one of the ones. the ways that the that Ebola is primarily spread. It has to be direct contact with bodily fluids. And so the, you know, the burial rights are one of the places that they're really trying to get a hold on. And I was doing, I was telling you, sorry, I was doing kind of like a deep dive into, okay, well, why are people so skeptical? Because you also have aid workers that are like getting attacked who are coming in,

trying to spread information and trying to help out. You had a Doctors Without Borders tents that were set on fire, where you had a number of suspected infected patients who escaped. And it kind of has a lot of parallels, but in a more extreme form of like the, you know, vaccine and other medical skepticism here in the U.S., which tends to be among populations that have been directly abused and have reason to be skeptical of the medical establishment. In Congo, you can imagine that is taken to an extreme because you've had all kinds of outsiders come in to basically like steal their natural resources and wealth.

So when you have people coming in from the outside that you haven't seen before, telling you you've got to do all these things that you don't want to do, there's a natural resistance. Another reason is because this is a part of the Congo that is like a rebel stronghold. And so if the official government is telling you like, oh, no, you've got this outbreak and you've got to do all these special things, there's a natural skepticism there. And then again, because we defunded USAID, so we don't have these health workers who have been on the ground who have built that sort of trust, now they see all of these health workers coming in and they're like, oh, you lost your payday. So now this is your chance to get back on the gravy train. There's all kinds of

rumors that they get paid. The health workers get paid per case that's identified, et cetera. So there's significant skepticism. Yeah, this is very COVID. Yeah, there's significant skepticism that Ebola even is a thing and not just some like invented concoction to further subjugate the population. And again, given their history, you can understand where they're coming from, even though it's incorrect. I don't know. The more you're talking, I'm like, maybe I'm on the Congolese side here. You can see what you think that way. Yeah. It's not just like, oh, they're ignorant and they don't get it.

It's like, no, this is the people who have been incredibly abused, traumatized, exploited, et cetera. So when you suddenly have all these people coming and oh, I'm going to save you, they're like, who are you and what are you really doing here? Totally. Obviously, you know, so first of all, like you said, I didn't realize all of that, but I did know about the rebel issue when I was reading about it and how far and how difficult that also makes it. So you have government authorities coming into a rebel area. And look, I mean, I do think what this highlights is this, first of all, Ebola, I'm not worried about this becoming a global pandemic in the way COVID was. One of the things that we learned a lot during COVID was that why it became so deadly is airborne and the, you know, the proximity for how, sorry, not why COVID spread so easily, not deadly, was because it was airborne and it spreads very, very easily. Whereas Ebola literally only spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids.

And I also, isn't it the whole, like, it actually kills you so fast, it's not that easy to spread? Yes. Because it's so deadly to the body. You're ideal for a virus, for, you know, from the virus's perspective, is that it is deadly but not in a large proportion of the cases. Because if you kill the host, then you're unlikely to be able to propagate. So, yes, unfortunately, the fact that it is so brutal and so deadly is one of the things that it has going for it in terms of it not spreading too far. But still, you know, for people. in this region and for concerns with global air travel, et cetera, it's obviously something

has to be taken very seriously. Yeah, and that's another thing we learned about, the global, the interconnectedness, how easy it is and how often we'll see somebody who, you know, you're like, how could somebody in from the Congo end up here? It's like, well, it's not that hard. You can get there in less than 16 hours, like, and that's all it took. I remember the last Ebola outbreak, we had multiple doctors and others that were present here in the U.S., and remember there were cameras on all the hospitals and all those things.

I do think, I think, I think this was an important story for the reason why you let off with, which is CDC. And I do think it actually bears out like the genuine dual crisis that we have right now in public health, which is first and foremost a significant part of the population, my hand up, the last people I would want in charge are the Biden era people who bungled the last public health disaster. A significant reason why Jay Batacharya and Marty Makary and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.. I mean, literally, I think the number one reason why Robert F. Kennedy Jr.. is the current HHS Secretary is because of the COVID response. Now I'm not also going to sit here and say they've done a whole bang-up job, right? Because that hasn't happened either. And so what we've seen is a significant, significant verified and, in my opinion, appropriate skepticism of the broad public health establishment. I mean, Dr. Tedros from WHA, it's the same COVID guy, right? I remember all of the nonsense that they were spewing around over COVID, many of the lies. But then also we have to deal with, well, oh, but we also have now these Maha guys who are in charge. They've defunded. It doesn't seem like they're all that competent either. So we had a crisis of competence, I think, on literally all

levels here in the United States when we're facing now a genuine disaster potentially here with Ebola. And people are going to freak out. That's one of the reasons we're covering it early. I remember, I mean, do you remember 2014 with Obama the Holy? It was a national story. It was a wall to wall. Yeah, I forgot. Yeah. So it was wall to wall to wall coverage. One guy comes in and everyone's, you know, cameras tracking him from the air form. I remember, I freaked I went to the same bowling alley as one of the guys who had, was a doctor at Ebola. And they had to shut the whole bowling alley down. And we were all like, oh, my God, we're going to get Ebola.

But this is a big thing. I remember. So anyway, we're covering it now for that reason. But this is going to highlight, I think, the same problem is that warring, you know, expert, opinion. We don't have a real public health infrastructure here in the United States. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.. and others are not trusted by a vast swath of the country. The others, you know, many of these other docs, I don't trust them either. So you're like, okay, what do we do?

And then when this hyper politicization, especially with Trump now in charge, I mean, there's a crisis, I think, of competence and of trust right now in public health, which is, look, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and others were supposed to restore it. They haven't done so. And honestly, I think that's part of the tragedy. It's part of the reason why people were so upset and concerned about the hanta virus spread as well, because I think everyone with three brain cells looks in this and is like, if there's another pandemic, we're so fucked.

Like in every way. There's no trust. The agencies here have been dismantled. They've been doged to death. You've got wildly incompetent people who are in charge. And you can see here, too, you know, some of the fallout of, okay, you know, completely dismantling USAID. There are some consequences to that.

And one of them is that we didn't have people there to be able to identify this spread. Now, like you said, I don't think that this is a grave threat to the U.S. because of the nature of Ebola. You know, it's horrific for the people who are impacted in the region, but as a direct threat to the U.S., I'm not deeply concerned about it. But it's a warning sign. Okay, well, what if it wasn't Ebola? What if it was something that spread more easily? What if it was a virus that, you know, was not so deadly that it killed the host, but deadly enough that it's going to kill millions of people like COVID did?

We are not at all prepared to detect that. We're not prepared to be part of the global response. Our own domestic facilities are, you know, in shambles. the level of population trust is complete and utter chaos and disaster. Mainstream media is full of cruel depictions of the unhoused, stories that shame and blame and paint the unhoused as a monolith. We The InHouse is the podcast that's changing that. I'm Theo Henderson, creator and host,

and for years I've created a space where the unhoused and their advocates can tell their own stories. In the last few months alone, I've interviewed unhoused parents, immigrants, mutual aid organizers, veterans, the LGBTQTIA plus community, and the policymakers who make the laws that impact the unhoused existence. Woody Enhous is a two-time webby and signal award-winning show with many exciting guests on the horizon. Tune in this week for my interview with Dr. Jill Whittler, a street doctor turned influencer whose work with the unhoused community has made a huge impact online and. and in her community. Listen to Weezy and Howes on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. This is Michael Rappaport, and my podcast,

the I Am Rapaport Stereo podcast, is unlike anyone you've ever heard. We're a variety show, and if you're looking for strong opinions, funny opinions about sports, entertainment, politics, pop culture, and whatever else catches my attention, then subscribe now. This kid, Jafar, Jam,

Jackson is as good as Mitt Romney Malik as Freddie Mercury and it's as good as Timothy Chamalay as Bob Dylan and I say that with love and respect for both of those actors and I don't know how many Oscar nominations they give out

I don't know if it's five, six for best actor 150% this kid Jafar Jackson should absolutely positively get nominated for his portrayal as Michael Jackson. Listen to I Am Rap Report on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

I am Appleport Podcast. Hey, guys, Paul Verze here, and I want to talk to you about Paul's best podcast. Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network and IHeart Radio. I sit down each week with a special guest and we discuss the absolute best of things. It's that and then there's everything else. He would just shout one line and it wouldn't murder. Marie Lunch. Bill Burr.

Let's talk about the best moment. that we had on the road. I would love a cocktail. Dude, Joe could get last row, middle scene on a Southwest Airlines flight. Joe, I was your flight. It was great. The guy on Penn State,

moving on the field, and the player thought Joe is his former coach. And he hugged him. He hugged him, and Joe just went with it. And the guy goes, what are you doing here, coach? And Joe just goes,

and you walk in, and it is bananas. I mean, it's a feast for the eyes. And I was like, it's not my thing either, but we're here. Went in row. Top athletes, chefs, musicians, everybody.

Listen to Paul's best podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. You know, I thought there was a quote here from a former CDC director who said that it was, it's too simplistic to tie the Trump administration action. This is the Axios report, the B6, that it's too simplistic to tie the Trump administration actions to late detection of the virus. But he said dismantlement of USID, which was true. Ralph in the World Health Organization and deep cuts to the CDC staff delivered what he described as a one, two, three punch to global health architecture. It's sort of like climate change where it's very hard to say, okay, this climate event is because of these, you know, this level of temperature rise or whatever. But you can look at the overall framework and say, yeah, this probably did not help. I don't disagree with genuinely a word you're saying.

I just am not going to sit here and live in a world where USAID was some great functioning organization, right? or it was like, oh, it was a money laundering organization for the CIA. It occasionally also did some good work. Well, it did both. Yeah, right. But there's consequences to, you know, just completely defunding all of that public health architecture. I don't disagree.

I don't disagree. Same with the CDC. It's like, we shouldn't also live in a world where every CDC bureaucrat was some, like, incredible public servant. Like, no, they massively fucked up the last pandemic. When the CD, I will tell you this, for me, the way you probably feel about Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.., I feel that way about both. If I have some masked up freak telling me about what to do with this pandemic,

I'm doing a hell of a lot of research this time around, saying people, Dr. Anthony Fauci and all these, no, no, no, no. For me to put a mask back on or put some vaccine again in my arm, the amount of skepticism that's going into that is going to be 200 times fold. From Dr. Tedros, from CDC, from anybody. I never thought I would be the person who's sitting here trying to read preprints of pharmaceutical studies. But I am now, have to be, after what I just lived through. Now, I'm not saying you should sit here and say, oh, yeah, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., you tell me what to do.

And I'm going to do it. No, that's also not the case. But that's the issue, I think that we, I mean, Trump and the HH, the revolution of Trump in particular, which a lot of us forget now this time around. It's been, I get it. In the beginning, a large part of it was the Biden skepticism of the way CDC, WHO, and everybody handled the last pandemic. That is kind of crazy because Trump was the one who was president during the last pandemic. Oh, sure, sure. Well, I'm not defending him either.

Yeah, I'm just saying like the rewriting of that is kind of wild since he was the one who was actually president during that initial outbreak that implemented the initial measures. Biden did a lot to roll all of that back. But, you know, I mean, I would just say that I share some of your critique, certainly, of the COVID response, especially, I mean, things like, you know, once we figure it out, the school closures is to be the most cut and dry, where once we figure out that, okay, this is not particularly, you know, it's very unlikely to be deadly to. a child. And now we can see the learning loss that, I mean, we still have disaster. Recovery, especially lower income. There's no doubt about that. I would just say, look, as flawed as it was, I would take them every day over what we've got now, which is like completely defunded. R.Robert F. Kennedy Jr.. is a maniac crank. And it's, to me, it's the difference between, okay, if you think about the pharmaceutical industry, which I have a lot of critiques of,

and the fact that money is so central to it and the way all of that works and the revolving door, I've got a lot of concerns and problems with all of that. I would trust them a million times over the, like, snake oil supplement salesman, which is what Robert F. Kennedy Jr.. will, like, you know, pump up all kinds of, like, bizarre supplements. Those have no testing. Those have no efficacy. They can, like, lie to you directly. And there's effectively no regulation.

Well, pharma can lie to directly, too. No, but there are, at least you have to, like, go through clinical trials and there is a process. And the thing usually works, you know, the way that it's supposed. supposed to, I would trust that million times over the supplement industry and the snake oil salesman, which is effectively what we've, I do think it is, which is effectively what we put in charge of the public health apparatus. No, see, the current, the previous CEC, I mean, think about all the lies, from masking to the vaccine, to the booster shots, the mandates that were put in place. I mean, the vaccine didn't work. Like, period, end of story. Yes, it did. Okay. Not in the way

that they said it was. That's not what they said in the first place. out there saying that if you get your child circumcised, it's going to give them autism. Okay? That's what we're dealing with now, Sager. Yeah, I don't. Am I saying here? And all the infectious disease specialists have been, you know, all of that has been dismantle. I didn't mean for this to turn into this, but like, don't forget, we had the same public

health authority. You said it's because racism is a virus, it's okay for people to go outside and to protest. But if you have a mass protest or whatever, that you're actually violating public health. I remember a lot of this stuff. I remember the CDC sex freak who was literally out there having a vaccine. mandates while engage in gay bondage porn while posting it on time. Like, let's not forget who's some of the freakazzoids who were in the previous administration. So you would take this over that. No, I'm saying both are bad. Okay, but this is worse. No, I wouldn't say it's worse.

It is absolutely worse. Look, I think, it is a mess. They've accomplished nothing. All they've done is dismantle the disasters of the last five years. The public health apparatus that exist. I am not ignoring those disasters. I was here with you covering them and I share your skepticism. but to replace them with just a bunch of like influencer cranks who just make shit up. But why is the previous, why is the person I, why was the guy who I just laid out here, literally who's posting and celebrating his gay kink porn while working at the CEC who is in charge of my child's vaccine schedule? I don't even know what you're talking about. Oh, I'll send you exactly what it does. But, but this is a very soon as person.

You want Robert F. Kennedy Jr.. over that. You think things are better now than the way they were when you had actual people who were. were at least professional and trying to follow some sort of scientific guidance. How could you say that that's professional? It's not professional. The same people were talking about, racism is so horrible. So you're going to go out and protest. But if somebody else wants to protest, that's not okay.

I mean, everybody should have been allowed to protest. And there were plenty of protests against the mandates as well. But they said one thing was fine and one thing wasn't. You have to lock down for this. You shouldn't lock down for that. Like, that was a serious problem, if I recall. I am not denying that saga. But I'm saying at least you had some professionals who have.

had some expertise. But that's not professional. Now you have all you have, all you have with these people between Doge and the Robert F. Kennedy Jr.. approach, all you've had is a complete dismantling of the entire public health approach and a replacement with a bunch of cranks who just make shit up. That's what I'm saying. You're saying that other people weren't cranks either. That is crank behavior. Saying that, you know, mandating vaccines for a one-year-old is cranked behavior, mandating vaccines, or lockdowns and school closures and recommending all that. That's cranks. literally save millions of lives. Hey, well, in terms of reducing hospitalization.

I would much rather have of those vaccines going out to the public and millions of lives saved and going a little too far than saying let a rip and millions of people can just die and it is what it is. The sins committed in the area or in the direction that we agree with are fine. What I'm trying to point out is that I think that what a lot of happened with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.. and others for dismantling, let's say, of some organizations and what they have done has not been necessarily good, but I will never sit here and defend like the previous. public health regime and system. That's all I'm trying to say is you can recognize the disaster

and dramatic failures and then also see, yes, we were supposed to have a revolution in a different direction. Ultimately, I don't think it's gone in the correct competence way that it has, but we cannot is, I just, I cannot sit here and ignore the absolute failure. No one is ignoring that. But you say you prefer it and I don't prefer that at all. I took something, they took something that was bad and they made it vastly worse. And there is no doubt in my mind, if we had a pandemic now, it would be way worse. And I just don't think that there's any doubt about that. The response would be worse.

These people are incompetent. They're out here like, we're looking for some volunteers to go to the airport to screen for Ebola. Good luck with that. We've got, you know, measles outbreaks, diseases from the past coming back and complete obliteration. I mean, yes, there was damage to public trust that was done under the, you know, previous approach. But what any, is anyone going to believe what Robert F. Kennedy Jr..

has to say about anything when he just makes up insane things that are completely ideological. Oh, I'm not so like, I will treat it with the same skepticism that I did under Dr. Anthony Fauci. That's what I'm trying to say, and I can see very clearly how we will be in that position. I will also blame them because of the people who are in charge if that's where we end up. And this is, look, this is why we had to cover this because this is the reality. We're going to have Annie Jacobson on soon to talk about her biological war book, and like, this is probably the number one. thing I'm like most worried about now. After seeing, because look, like I said, Ebola is not the big threat. But I'm like, okay, well, these people are in charge now. As you said, fair, fair, it's all

fair. We can debate Doge, CDC and all that other cuts. Many people, like me, will remember many of the failures of the previous administration too. And basically anything the government tells me from now on, I'm like, we'll see. We'll see. That's basically kind of where I'm at. And I think a lot of liberals now, like yourself, are in that position because of the people. I'm not a liberal, but anyway. You know what I mean. How dare you offend me that way? I apologize. A lot of people who are against the Trump administration is a catch-all, right, are now also

in a similar position to where some of us were under the Biden administration. I think that is genuinely like a crisis point for public health. Again, it was the Trump administration where COVID was, most of the COVID response was. Okay, sure. What? So to say that what Biden didn't preside over? No, I'm just saying there's such an erasure of, you know, what the early decision-making and the way that went down, and there's such a, like,

there's just such a fabrication of reality around the fact that the COVID response was all under Biden when... A thousand percent. You're not wrong. I mean, yeah, we got it together. The masking, school lockdowns, all that all happened under Trump. It was a warp speed was under Trump, too. Which, you know, a lot of people also forget. Yeah, well, in my opinion, warp speed was one of the best things that Trump did.

All right. Well, there you go. All right, let's get to Hormuz. Hey, this is Chuck from Stuff You Should Know, and we're submitting our most sciencey episodes for your peer review with our new stuff you should know doing science playlist. Out now. You want to know about Occam's Razor? Simplest explanation is usually the right one? We got you covered. Wondered what chaos theory is ever since the first time you saw Jurassic Park. Well, come on down. So distill a nice pot of tea, everybody, turn down the gas on your Bunsen burner, and slip into your most comfortable

lab coat and listen to the stuff you should know doing science playlist on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, it's Alec Baldwin. This season on my podcast, Here's the Thing. I talk to composer Mark Shaman. It's about the hang. It's the pleasure of hanging out with the people that you're with. You know, Rob and I was always a great hang.

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