The Michael Knowles Show - July 22, 2025


Ep. 1776 - WNBA “Pay Us What You Owe Us” Stunt BACKFIRES


Episode Stats


Length

43 minutes

Words per minute

174.76744

Word count

7,521

Sentence count

650

Harmful content

Misogyny

39

sentences flagged

Hate speech

25

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

The WNBA has unveiled a new line of T-shirts that say, "Pay Us What You Owe Us." What are the real intentions of these t-shirts? Is the WNBA rebuking the league for not paying them what they are owed?

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 The ladies of the WNBA have debuted some new game wear.
00:00:03.900 T-shirts that say, pay us what you owe us.
00:00:08.740 Now, for those of you who don't follow the WNBA, which is another way of saying all of you,
00:00:13.120 you might not know that the WNBA is a subsidized sports league. 1.00
00:00:19.140 It does not earn enough money to pay its players.
00:00:22.100 So it has to be bailed out by the NBA, which lots of people watch,
00:00:25.860 to the tune of $10 to $15 million annually.
00:00:30.220 All of which brings into question the ladies' capacity, not just for basketball, but also for basic math. 1.00
00:00:37.720 Because if the women were paid what they are owed, they would earn significantly less each year. 1.00
00:00:44.960 Plenty of people have observed and made fun of that fact.
00:00:48.580 What no one seems to understand is that the women's publicity stunt has almost nothing to do with money.
00:00:54.660 I'm Michael Knowles. This is the Michael Knowles Show.
00:00:59.280 Welcome back to the show.
00:01:16.600 One in four Gen Z workers regrets attending college.
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00:02:48.260 Pay us what you owe us.
00:02:49.860 We have the clip, right?
00:02:50.860 It's all these gals wearing these stupid T-shirts in the half-empty stadium. 1.00
00:02:56.100 At least half-empty stadium.
00:03:00.360 Pay us what you owe us.
00:03:05.960 There it is.
00:03:08.380 Dozens of people looking on.
00:03:12.160 Well, not really looking, just kind of walking around, not paying any attention, blase as could be.
00:03:17.040 What's this about?
00:03:18.680 Pay us what you owe us would mean that they make a lot less than they are paid.
00:03:23.300 Because they are paid with charity from the NBA, which makes so much money because so many people watch it, that the league actually pays the ladies because no one watches it. 0.98
00:03:34.920 What exactly are the ladies rebuking with these T-shirts? 1.00
00:03:38.620 A lot of people think they're rebuking the league.
00:03:41.240 Rebuking the league for not paying them what they're worth.
00:03:44.300 That's obviously not the case.
00:03:46.060 I think it's deeper.
00:03:47.720 I think at a deeper level, these basketball ladies are rebuking the fans or the lack thereof, the people who are not fans. 0.93
00:03:55.560 Pay us what you owe us.
00:03:57.400 Well, they can't be paid what they think that they're owed because the league doesn't bring in any money.
00:04:02.240 The league doesn't bring in any money because you're not watching it.
00:04:05.140 You! 0.99
00:04:05.400 Statistically, 100% of people that I'm talking to right now, both listening and watching this, do not watch the WNBA.
00:04:13.640 So it's a rebuke of you.
00:04:14.620 You owe, in these women's minds, I'm quite confident, you owe them your eyeballs. 1.00
00:04:20.240 You owe them your attention.
00:04:22.020 And at a deeper level even than that, this is a rebuke of reality.
00:04:28.100 The women feel as though they are owed something that reality is contradicting. 1.00
00:04:32.980 They think that they should be a really popular sports league, that they should be as big and famous as the NBA.
00:04:41.040 But they're not because they're women and the NBA is full of men. 1.00
00:04:46.580 And watching men play basketball is much more interesting than watching women play basketball because men are physically much, much stronger than women. 0.91
00:04:53.520 And faster and more agile and women are not. 1.00
00:04:56.680 And so what this is a rebuke of is reality, which despite 60 years of feminism, centuries of feminism really, if you go back to Mary Wollstonecraft, despite all that feminism, men and women are still different. 0.51
00:05:12.160 And men are still better at certain things than women are. 1.00
00:05:14.860 Women are better at other things than men. 1.00
00:05:17.420 But basketball is one of the things that the men are better at.
00:05:21.040 But that's really what this is about.
00:05:23.280 The resentment that you see in the pay us what you owe.
00:05:25.580 These people, they make more money than a lot of people do at least.
00:05:29.240 But the resentment you're seeing is not really a resentment for some basketball executive or even for the audience.
00:05:35.020 It's a resentment of reality.
00:05:36.760 And if your ideology, this is the final point on it and it's applicable to everyone out there.
00:05:40.760 If your ideology leaves you resentful of reality, as all leftism and liberalism do to some degree, you should probably find a different ideology.
00:05:54.900 This is what Marx says in the 11th thesis on Feuerbach.
00:05:57.520 He says, philosophy until this point has sought to understand the world, but the point is to change it.
00:06:02.120 But you can't really change the world because the world is as it is.
00:06:05.360 Nature is as it is.
00:06:06.480 And it's immutable.
00:06:07.420 So, if you want to have a good life, you can understand the world and live within it.
00:06:12.680 Now, speaking of philanthropy, speaking of charity, speaking of money, Milana Vayntrub.
00:06:23.680 You've probably never heard that name.
00:06:25.160 She's the girl from the ATT commercials.
00:06:27.860 I'm sure if you saw one of the cell phone commercials, you would recognize her.
00:06:31.640 She's an actress. 1.00
00:06:33.700 She's most famous for selling cell phones. 1.00
00:06:35.780 She has just started a philanthropic porn site.
00:06:41.720 I shouldn't say porn is maybe overstating it.
00:06:43.640 A philanthropic naughty pictures website.
00:06:46.980 It's called Only Philanthropy.
00:06:49.960 Not only fan, only philanthropy.
00:06:52.220 Okay.
00:06:53.200 Why did she do this? 1.00
00:06:55.200 She says,
00:06:55.840 I did another flirty photo shoot.
00:06:59.600 I want to do something good with it again.
00:07:02.260 In March, you helped me fundraise for a single mom who lost everything in the L.A. fire.
00:07:07.500 And I think we should do it again.
00:07:09.500 This time, I'm hoping to fulfill over 30 GoFundMes for disabled families affected by the same fire.
00:07:15.720 With your help.
00:07:17.320 Turns out this little only philanthropy experiment actually worked.
00:07:20.160 So, should we do it again?
00:07:21.120 This is how it works.
00:07:21.700 You give.
00:07:22.720 I give.
00:07:23.920 A few flirty pics.
00:07:26.880 Wink, wink.
00:07:27.920 We help people who really need it.
00:07:29.660 Let's trade some playful exclusive content for real world impact.
00:07:33.420 Link in bio.
00:07:34.800 So, notice a couple things here that raise your eyebrows.
00:07:37.240 She says she wants to be a philanthropist.
00:07:39.300 Great.
00:07:40.760 Philanthropy is wonderful.
00:07:41.700 Actually, all of you, or many of you, were very kind in donating toward a medical cause,
00:07:46.820 a rare genetic condition that affects a lot of people, a lot of kids.
00:07:50.000 Including, it came to my attention because it affected my friend's kid who was just diagnosed with it.
00:07:55.120 Many, many of you gave a ton of money.
00:07:56.780 If you haven't yet, by the way, it's justgiving.com slash page slash cureforgeorge.
00:08:00.560 But anyway, that's philanthropy.
00:08:01.640 Where you just, you give to help someone and you don't expect anything in return.
00:08:05.960 Here, she says, here's how it works.
00:08:08.260 You give, and I give.
00:08:10.420 So, that's not really philanthropy.
00:08:11.620 That's just a transaction.
00:08:13.300 She's just selling you racy pictures of herself. 1.00
00:08:16.940 She's selling you her own debasement. 1.00
00:08:19.080 But then, the first line here, this also should raise your eyebrows.
00:08:23.680 She says, I did another flirty photo shoot, and I want to do something good with it again.
00:08:29.220 Notice the order here.
00:08:30.900 She isn't saying, I want to do something good, and therefore I did a flirty photo shoot that I'm sending to you.
00:08:35.960 If, in exchange for money.
00:08:37.540 She says, I did, I took the quasi-pornographic pictures, and now I want to do something good with it.
00:08:44.260 Notice that the disordered behavior happens first, and then she justifies it by pretending it's charity.
00:08:50.680 Here she is.
00:08:51.420 Here's this woman, Milana Vayntrub, describing her philosophy of only philanthropy.
00:08:57.020 Because of you, and your help, and your contribution, and your belief, that we could do something silly to heal the world.
00:09:06.560 That we could have this playful exchange, that I could give you something fun and exclusive, and you could contribute some money to help some people.
00:09:17.980 So you see the way it works in her mind.
00:09:25.200 The way it works in her mind is, I'm doing a good thing.
00:09:30.740 I'm doing a good thing, because the money in the end is going toward needy people.
00:09:33.960 And therefore, you don't need to pay any attention to the fact that there are all these kind of morally dubious things we do in the middle.
00:09:42.660 Because all's well that ends well.
00:09:44.980 Because good ends justify immoral means.
00:09:47.340 So she's not running a porn site, or a racy pictures site.
00:09:51.760 No, no, no.
00:09:52.740 She's not selling her body for money. 1.00
00:09:54.800 No, no, no, no.
00:09:55.880 She's a philanthropist.
00:09:58.960 But it's going to involve a little porn.
00:10:01.440 And even just think about the, I don't want to go too deep into this, but imagine the process here.
00:10:07.520 Who's giving the money?
00:10:08.800 It's men.
00:10:09.400 It's not women, presumably. 1.00
00:10:11.620 The men want these racy pictures of this girl.
00:10:14.400 So they're giving money so that she can degrade herself taking these pictures. 0.87
00:10:19.880 And then what are the men going to do with those pictures?
00:10:22.560 Are they just going to look at them once and then delete them and that's it and move on with their day and have a cappuccino?
00:10:28.540 I don't know.
00:10:29.300 I think it's going to cause disordered thoughts in their mind.
00:10:33.180 Maybe it's going to cause disordered actions.
00:10:35.340 And it's just the whole thing is kind of gross.
00:10:38.340 This girl has now debased herself from an ATT pitch man to a porn star. 1.00
00:10:45.000 It's all gross.
00:10:47.180 But it's for a good cause, right?
00:10:49.340 So isn't it worth it?
00:10:52.240 This is every deal with the devil.
00:10:55.560 This is every single deal with the devil.
00:10:59.180 The deal with the devil is you're going to do a bad thing, but it's going to turn out to have a good outcome.
00:11:06.560 You're going to compromise yourself.
00:11:08.280 You're going to do something immoral.
00:11:09.820 But it'll probably work out.
00:11:12.360 And the thing about the deal with the devil is it doesn't work out.
00:11:15.400 All sorts of immoral bad stuff along the way.
00:11:19.200 And you usually don't even get the thing you hoped for in the end.
00:11:22.340 I think that's what's going on here.
00:11:23.400 This is the apotheosis of the modern utilitarian consequentialist idea that says the end justifies the means.
00:11:33.380 We're now going to have porn charity sites.
00:11:36.380 Is that good?
00:11:37.140 Do you want your daughter doing porn charity? 0.98
00:11:39.760 Do you think that's good?
00:11:40.340 When you're teaching her about spiritual and corporal works of mercy, when you're teaching her to give alms to the poor, are you going to say, and that's why you should do porn?
00:11:47.820 Because as long as you get some sweet lucre, you know, some of that filthy money, then it's all, then any action is justified.
00:11:56.140 I don't think so.
00:11:57.240 We should.
00:11:58.020 We got to get rid of only fans, but we should get rid of only philanthropy, too.
00:12:01.720 You want to give money to the poor?
00:12:02.620 Give money to the poor.
00:12:03.240 What's the matter with you?
00:12:04.600 What is the matter with you?
00:12:06.160 Now, speaking of the disordered desires of men, you know, there's this idea that men, what every man wants is some much younger bimbo. 0.99
00:12:16.280 That's the ideal partner for a man. 0.60
00:12:20.220 And there's a study that's just come out that actually contradicts this.
00:12:24.060 I have much more to say.
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00:13:48.100 So, there's this idea out there.
00:13:49.900 Now, I really look like a toxic masculinity here, you know, buffing on my, I need a big glass of whiskey or something.
00:13:55.520 There's an idea out there that men, they want one thing and it's disgusting.
00:14:00.260 That men, their ideal partner is a much, much younger bimbo. 1.00
00:14:06.620 Some girl who's got nothing in between the ears, who just exists as a kind of extension of the male id, 0.97
00:14:14.480 his darkest fantasies and who's like 20 or something.
00:14:18.360 Well, it turns out, there's a report out from the Institute for Family Studies, that that is not true.
00:14:25.720 And the headline, the headline I think is actually a little bit misleading, but the headline says,
00:14:29.580 high status men are attracted to ambitious women.
00:14:36.320 So, it says, you're probably familiar with the common argument,
00:14:38.540 men would prefer an attractive younger woman over an ambitious woman close to their age. 1.00
00:14:42.880 This argument suggests that when given a choice, men don't prefer to marry women with career ambitions.
00:14:47.600 I actually don't think it suggests that, but that's an interpretation of the author of the piece.
00:14:54.280 Well, the Institute for Family Studies used data on almost one and a half million married men
00:14:59.060 in the U.S. 2019 to 2023 and their wives and found out, no, that's not true.
00:15:05.060 It turns out that men with the most relationship options, that means wealthier men, higher social
00:15:09.000 status men, marry women who are close to them in age and with high educational attainment.
00:15:17.680 And that the relationships with large age gaps are more common for low-income men than for high-income men.
00:15:24.460 Far from being a sign of wealth, marrying a much younger woman is associated with men
00:15:30.340 who struggle to find a partner until later in life.
00:15:34.320 So, the real story is simpler.
00:15:36.140 What almost everyone wants in a marriage partner is someone who shares their outlook on the world.
00:15:40.520 If you're an ambitious striver, you're probably interested in marrying an ambitious striver.
00:15:44.000 Or, and this is crucial, or somebody complementary to one.
00:15:46.800 So, this is where I think the headline gets it totally wrong.
00:15:49.340 It says that if you're a professionally ambitious man with high educational attainment,
00:15:55.100 though we'll get to the value of educational attainment momentarily when we talk about Gen Z,
00:15:58.700 but if you're that kind of guy, you're going to want a woman who's exactly the same.
00:16:02.040 But that's not actually what the study finds.
00:16:04.800 Finds that you either want someone who is like that, that's the lib men in that category,
00:16:10.700 or you want a woman who is complementary to that. 0.92
00:16:17.360 That's the right option.
00:16:18.600 That's what you really need.
00:16:19.720 Because if you're a workaholic, if you're a guy, you know, very professionally ambitious,
00:16:25.300 you work long hours, if you have a wife who's like that, then no one's with your kids. 0.98
00:16:30.640 So, either you won't have kids, or your kid is going to be raised at the daycare,
00:16:33.840 or with the nanny forever, you're going to neglect your kids, it's not going to work. 0.90
00:16:38.620 But that doesn't mean that you have to marry a woman who's nothing like you.
00:16:42.820 You can marry a woman who has high educational attainment, who is quite ambitious,
00:16:47.780 but whose ambition is complementary.
00:16:50.820 It's a different kind of ambition.
00:16:52.320 The ambition of the men is to be generally like men are, 0.77
00:16:56.100 and the ambition of the women is to be generally like women are. 0.99
00:16:58.280 And it understands that men and women are different.
00:17:00.500 But why is this?
00:17:01.720 You know, this kind of contradicts the Andrew Tate view of the world,
00:17:05.000 that men don't want to get married. 0.76
00:17:07.440 Marriage has nothing for men. 0.69
00:17:10.200 Men don't want a woman who's close to their age. 1.00
00:17:13.740 Men want a young bimbo, basically. 1.00
00:17:15.700 It seems to me, though I'm not super familiar with his view of life,
00:17:20.720 that seems to me what he's saying.
00:17:22.740 But that actually isn't borne out in the surveys, so why is it?
00:17:25.820 Well, it goes back to old Aristotle, is why.
00:17:29.160 It goes back, forget about having a girlfriend, it goes back to just having a friend.
00:17:33.340 Aristotle understands friends to be like another self.
00:17:39.000 A true friend is like another self.
00:17:42.280 That's what Aristotle says.
00:17:43.780 And that sounds navel-gazing and selfish, but it doesn't really need to be.
00:17:48.400 As Aristotle also famously says, there are three kinds of friends.
00:17:51.220 Friendships of pleasure, you know, you just like the same stuff.
00:17:55.400 Friendships of utility, where it's networking, you know, where you, convenience, transactional,
00:18:01.200 you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. 0.98
00:18:02.520 And then true friendship, which is friendship of the good, where it's two people who see
00:18:06.840 the world in the same way, who are both pursuing some good that is external to them.
00:18:11.300 And, which is why, with a true friend, sometimes you don't, you can finish each other's sentences.
00:18:18.800 You can have whole conversations, you barely speak.
00:18:21.460 Because you know exactly where the other person's coming from.
00:18:23.740 And in a good marriage, in a true marriage, in a Christian marriage, it's going to be like that. 0.69
00:18:28.700 I don't like that sappy line that you sometimes hear at weddings.
00:18:32.020 Oh, I married my best friend.
00:18:33.720 I think, no, hold on.
00:18:35.280 I have my best friend.
00:18:37.100 My best friend is like Billy or whatever, you know, Bob.
00:18:39.500 He's my best friend.
00:18:40.060 And I have my wife.
00:18:41.360 And I don't need to go out, you know, to the pool hall or whatever kids do these days.
00:18:44.960 I don't need to go to the cigar bar with my wife. 1.00
00:18:47.020 I go to the cigar bar with my buddy.
00:18:48.240 I'll go to my home or on a romantic dinner with my wife.
00:18:52.200 But, I'm overselling it a little bit.
00:18:55.140 A good wife really should be a friend. 1.00
00:18:58.000 It should be someone who looks at the world the same way, who is virtuous, who is pursuing the good, and who is another self.
00:19:05.580 Because the looks are going to fade.
00:19:07.900 And if you ditch your wife, or if you do the Andrew Tate thing, you don't even have a wife.
00:19:13.480 If you just ditch these women after they turn 25, you know, the Leonardo DiCaprio strategy. 0.99
00:19:20.060 But you're going to wind up lonely.
00:19:22.540 You're going to wind up awful lonely because you won't have another self.
00:19:24.940 And you won't have true friendship because true friendship has to be grounded in virtue.
00:19:29.500 It can't just be transactional.
00:19:31.500 It can't just be about ephemeral pleasures.
00:19:33.360 You're going to be missing out on the fullness of a human experience.
00:19:37.140 So, it's true.
00:19:38.600 You know, sometimes these people say, well, in the animal kingdom, you know, in the animal kingdom, the man just bangs anything that moves.
00:19:48.440 Pardon my vulgar language.
00:19:49.580 But we're talking about the animal kingdom.
00:19:50.620 So, I guess it should be kind of vulgar.
00:19:52.020 In the animal kingdom, you know, the alpha has a harem of females. 1.00
00:19:56.540 And then moves on when it's no longer.
00:19:59.040 Right.
00:19:59.460 Yeah.
00:19:59.640 If you want to be like a gorilla, be like a gorilla.
00:20:03.820 But human beings don't have to be like that because we are like animals in that we are bodies.
00:20:08.260 But we're like angels in that we're rational.
00:20:11.940 We, unlike gorillas, can reason about justice and friendship and charity and all the rest of it.
00:20:18.640 So, you can do that.
00:20:19.820 You can debase yourself to be like a gorilla.
00:20:21.520 But I don't recommend it.
00:20:22.480 You don't have to.
00:20:23.060 You're a human being.
00:20:23.680 And most people, the vast majority of people throughout history, they seem to be on the human side of things.
00:20:31.460 Okay.
00:20:32.160 Now, speaking of Aristotle and higher education, one in four Zoomer workers regrets going to college.
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00:21:54.880 Folks, so often in high-profile cases and conspiracies, all we get are a few redacted documents and a litany of theories from sources close to the story that never pan out.
00:22:04.200 But other times, you get to sit down face-to-face with someone who is actually there.
00:22:08.040 Like in this latest episode of Michael And, where I sat down with a former P. Diddy escort who was named in the trial.
00:22:15.500 His stories will blow you away.
00:22:18.000 Check out this teaser.
00:22:19.740 So I don't know who I'm seeing.
00:22:21.820 And so I show up to the address, I go up to the door, knock, and she opens the door.
00:22:25.780 So you say it's very performative.
00:22:27.100 She's like, okay, sit there.
00:22:28.340 She puts the towel down.
00:22:29.340 She's like, hey, just don't pour the baby oil all over me. 1.00
00:22:32.380 I see like a little slit in the room.
00:22:34.760 There were times in the sessions where I saw that demon, the demon that she talked about.
00:22:40.840 Personal demon, you know, these are the demons that are afflicting me.
00:22:43.300 Or Diddy.
00:22:45.240 Yeah, Diddy.
00:22:45.900 You actually did this stuff.
00:22:47.640 Your name and your picture were revealed in court.
00:22:49.680 Revealed in court, and then it started to go mainstream when 50 posted that picture.
00:22:53.460 So this guy is a sex-crazed animal.
00:22:58.060 She was under his control.
00:23:00.260 Because there's video of him beating her in a hallway.
00:23:02.640 Like, I was supposed to be there that night.
00:23:06.440 I was supposed to.
00:23:16.100 Watch the full episode right now on the Michael Knowles YouTube channel.
00:23:19.480 For the uncensored ad-free version, subscribe to Daily Wire Plus.
00:23:23.900 Before I get to the zoomers working, just another little pop-up.
00:23:26.480 Breakfast of champions, especially, very important with a cigar, that you retrohale.
00:23:34.700 You breathe a little, touch out your nose.
00:23:36.180 It'll open up the flavor a lot.
00:23:37.140 Okay.
00:23:37.280 Why is it that a quarter of Gen Z workers regret attending college?
00:23:45.460 This, according to a new survey by Resume Genius, 23% of full-time Zoomer workers regret attending college.
00:23:53.980 19% say their degree did not contribute to their career.
00:23:58.300 Some of you are going to be saying, well, I'd expect the number to be higher.
00:24:03.380 It should be 75% regret going to college.
00:24:06.360 But a quarter is a lot.
00:24:08.600 Especially when you consider that a lot of these kids went into debt to go to college.
00:24:12.120 Some of them took out hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt to go get a degree in marketing or a degree in political science or something at whatever, Palookaville College.
00:24:28.160 And then they come out and they get a job and they regret going.
00:24:32.420 Why?
00:24:34.560 Well, it's that second part there.
00:24:36.200 It's that 19% say their degree did not contribute to their career.
00:24:39.620 The reason they have regret, almost the same number, more regret it than admit this, but a full one in five almost say their degree didn't contribute to their career, is because they went in with bad expectations.
00:24:54.120 I've said this before.
00:24:55.280 I'll say it again, though it's not popular.
00:24:57.120 The purpose of a university education is not to learn how to do a job.
00:25:01.180 It's not to get a career.
00:25:03.000 It's not to learn any particularly useful skill.
00:25:05.880 It's to read dusty old books and think in the abstract and ultimately to make sense of your freedom.
00:25:11.660 At a deep level, the purpose of a university education is not for the 8 to 14 hours a day that you're going to spend working.
00:25:20.480 It's for all the other hours.
00:25:22.600 It's for your leisure time.
00:25:24.220 It's what to do when you are not obligated to work.
00:25:27.740 When you are free.
00:25:28.980 This is why we call it the liberal arts.
00:25:30.980 And it helps you to become free.
00:25:34.240 This is like, what we have today in colleges is like, it's like Christian rock.
00:25:40.360 I know I'm going to offend some listeners, but I hate Christian rock.
00:25:42.640 I hate it.
00:25:43.040 I hate it so much.
00:25:44.180 And it's like Christian rock.
00:25:46.600 Because the idea of Christian rock is, hey, if we meld these two things that are not alike one another at all, we're going to make both of them better.
00:25:55.040 But that's not really what happens.
00:25:59.240 Christian rock is actually diminishing both of Christianity and rock music.
00:26:05.440 Christian rock is like the worst of both worlds. 1.00
00:26:09.240 It's not.
00:26:09.720 Christian rock is not better than any other rock music of, you know, like caliber.
00:26:16.380 It's not better.
00:26:17.380 And Christian rock is not nearly as good as any other kind of Christian music ever written, going back to the first century.
00:26:26.080 It's not better.
00:26:27.240 It's just, it makes it all worse.
00:26:29.220 So today, we have these universities that are in practice trade schools.
00:26:34.220 But unlike actual trade schools, they don't really teach you a trade.
00:26:39.940 And unlike actual universities, you don't read the great books.
00:26:43.180 And you don't, at least don't read them seriously and don't read them in a way that gives you an integrated sense of the world.
00:26:48.760 Such that what you learn in physics tells you something about what you learn in English, which tells you something about what you learn in math, which tells you something about what you learn in philosophy, which ultimately should tell you something about what you learn in theology, which is the queen of the sciences.
00:27:01.620 And there, you don't even study theology almost any at the time now.
00:27:06.120 Kind of crazy.
00:27:07.040 University, I mean, this is the argument made by St. John Henry Newman in the idea of a university.
00:27:11.320 But the university purports to be an institution of universal knowledge.
00:27:15.300 And at best, modern universities ignore the source and summit of all knowledge, God.
00:27:20.760 And usually, they criticize God or mock God.
00:27:24.780 So what do they can't purport to?
00:27:26.720 They can't seriously purport to universal knowledge.
00:27:30.480 So yeah, no wonder these kids regret their education.
00:27:32.880 It was a waste.
00:27:34.300 But it didn't have to be a waste.
00:27:35.720 It's not a waste for the reason they think it is.
00:27:38.520 Modern university education is not a waste because it doesn't affect your career.
00:27:42.900 Modern education is a waste because it doesn't affect the rest of your life.
00:27:45.420 And by affecting the rest of your life, by the way, it should also affect your professional career.
00:27:48.720 Because it should allow you to see the world differently and impel you to act differently within it.
00:27:53.620 Big waste.
00:27:54.320 Expect that number to go up, by the way, in the coming years.
00:27:56.720 Now, speaking of the economy, it's very hard to smoke while you talk on a show.
00:28:03.340 Have you ever noticed that?
00:28:04.880 And so if I were a professional, I would just talk.
00:28:07.520 I would let the cigar go out.
00:28:08.880 But the cigar is too good.
00:28:11.280 The Mayflower Dream is just too good.
00:28:12.580 So sorry, you're going to have to wait for my puffs.
00:28:17.900 Breakfast of champions.
00:28:19.780 Really good news on the economic front.
00:28:21.320 The recession odds have fallen to the lowest level ever recorded, according to Polymarket.
00:28:29.480 The odds of a U.S. recession have fallen to their lowest level, dropped from 70% in late April to just 19% this week.
00:28:38.400 It's ever recorded on Polymarket.
00:28:40.860 Looking really nice.
00:28:42.080 Do you remember back on Liberation Day, Liberation Day when we were told that Trump tariffs were going to go into effect, then the tariffs did go into effect.
00:28:55.580 And people lost their minds.
00:28:57.500 And all the analysts freaked out.
00:28:59.200 And the market dropped.
00:29:00.760 And the bond market went crazy.
00:29:02.480 And everyone said, we are now headed to recession.
00:29:06.080 And this is it.
00:29:07.220 The walls are closing in on Trump.
00:29:08.800 This is finally it.
00:29:09.640 Plenty of people say, I'm turning on Trump now.
00:29:11.440 And then what happened?
00:29:13.300 It was a total tempest in a teapot.
00:29:16.240 The economy today looks better than it did back then.
00:29:20.600 And the economy was probably kind of a little, the market was a little overvalued, I think, back then, even at the end of the Biden administration.
00:29:27.860 This might have corrected it.
00:29:29.780 This is what Trump was talking about with the panic hands.
00:29:33.000 And it's why, sometimes, when Trump says or does anything, you have all these neurotic people just freaking out.
00:29:39.620 Well, I don't care if it's bombing Iran. 0.83
00:29:41.920 I don't care if it's the economy.
00:29:43.800 I don't care if it's some new immigration policy.
00:29:45.680 I don't care if it's some tweet about football, which we'll get to momentarily because Trump has some of those, too.
00:29:51.580 They freak out.
00:29:52.960 They lose their minds.
00:29:53.960 And all these people say, I've supported Trump in the past.
00:29:56.200 Usually, it's people who have supported Trump for six minutes.
00:29:59.080 So, listen, I've supported Trump, but I'm turning on Trump now.
00:30:02.620 These guys, these libertarians, the former left-wing guys, listen, I was a Trump supporter.
00:30:07.040 Yeah, you were a Trump supporter from late October 2024 to the first week of November 2024.
00:30:12.640 You've been a huge lib or libertarian or never-Trump or the whole rest of the time.
00:30:16.180 But I was, and now I'm turning my support.
00:30:18.740 And I always say, whenever these things happen, I say, give it a breather.
00:30:22.720 You know, even on the Epstein files, there are people who had supported Trump for somewhat longer saying, I'm turning on him now.
00:30:28.220 I say, just give it a breather, man.
00:30:29.680 He gets it.
00:30:30.340 He listens.
00:30:31.400 He sees things.
00:30:32.620 Don't worry.
00:30:33.900 Don't worry.
00:30:35.260 He's done pretty well, though, these last 10 years.
00:30:38.120 He managed to win the highest office in the land on his first shot, his first real attempt at any political office.
00:30:44.460 Just give it a breather.
00:30:45.400 But then the problem is, this is what happens with the newspapers.
00:30:48.940 You know, the newspaper reports some BS story, and everyone reads it.
00:30:53.480 And then it turns out not to be true, and they print the retraction two months later on the last page of the newspaper, and no one reads it.
00:31:01.540 It's the same thing here.
00:31:02.500 So it's very important to point this stuff out.
00:31:05.700 Many, many people on television and their fancy tires, they were saying two months ago, three months ago, one month ago,
00:31:15.400 the economy is going to collapse because of Trump.
00:31:18.400 Lowest level ever recorded when looking at recession odds on polymarket.
00:31:22.620 Keep that in mind next time.
00:31:24.060 Now, speaking of what could have been, Hunter Biden.
00:31:28.760 It's fitting to smoke things for this.
00:31:30.880 Hunter Biden has just done a long-form interview.
00:31:35.200 He did not hold back.
00:31:36.420 I really wish I could have gotten the interview, but I didn't, we didn't even, I didn't even think it was possible.
00:31:40.800 And this gives you so much insight into the present state of the Democrat Party.
00:31:46.320 Folks, we are celebrating a decade of Daily Wire, 10 years of fighting the culture war and building something real.
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00:31:52.640 We're growing fast.
00:31:54.040 More members, more shows, new voices like Isabel Brown.
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00:32:08.840 Our members get it all first.
00:32:09.900 The announcements, the first looks, the full truth.
00:32:12.200 No censorship or hidden agenda, just common sense and a community that has it.
00:32:16.780 Do not sit this out.
00:32:17.740 Celebrate a decade of the Daily Wire.
00:32:19.140 Go to dailywireplus.com.
00:32:20.340 Join today.
00:32:21.640 The producer's favorite comment yesterday.
00:32:23.740 I didn't pick this one.
00:32:24.580 I didn't pick this one.
00:32:25.980 The producer's picked it.
00:32:26.620 We're going to see if it's a good comment.
00:32:28.520 Kim Tate, 2285.
00:32:30.540 This was worth watching the first 40 minutes just to get to Michael's great impersonations.
00:32:35.760 Thank you.
00:32:36.220 What did I?
00:32:37.080 What did I?
00:32:37.780 Oh, I did Obama.
00:32:38.540 Did I do Obama yesterday?
00:32:40.740 Yeah, you're right.
00:32:41.360 Hey, you want me to do my Hunter Biden impression?
00:32:45.480 No, I'm joking.
00:32:46.880 It's not a bong.
00:32:47.580 It would be something harder than that.
00:32:49.480 Anyways, Hunter looks like he's back on it again because he is full of vinegar in this
00:32:54.540 interview.
00:32:55.620 So the interview is all sorts of different things.
00:32:59.640 It's Hunter Biden's take on Joe, what happened to his dad before he was unceremoniously booted
00:33:04.980 out of the top spot for Democrats.
00:33:07.720 Then what does Hunter Biden think of Trump's policies?
00:33:11.080 And then, most interesting to me, what does Joe think about the present state of the Democrat
00:33:14.820 or what does Hunter think about the present state of the Democrat Party?
00:33:17.400 Here is what Hunter Biden says about Joe's terrible performance during that debate that lost
00:33:25.000 him the nomination for president.
00:33:27.260 I know exactly what happened in that debate.
00:33:29.360 He flew around the world, basically, the mileage that he could have flown around the world three
00:33:33.940 times.
00:33:34.480 Yeah.
00:33:34.720 He's 81 years old.
00:33:36.060 He's tired as shit.
00:33:37.360 Give him Ambien to be able to sleep.
00:33:39.120 He gets up on the stage and he looks like he's a deer in the headlights.
00:33:43.060 Okay.
00:33:44.580 First part, he's flying all around the world.
00:33:46.560 That's true.
00:33:47.240 It's hard.
00:33:47.640 It's hard to fly around the world when you're 35, much less 81.
00:33:51.620 Now, he had been flying a week prior.
00:33:54.100 So I don't know that the jet lag one week before that debate totally explains why Biden
00:34:01.400 was drooling on stage, especially when we'd seen him acting that way many other times throughout
00:34:05.520 the presidency.
00:34:06.680 But did you catch that bit at the end there?
00:34:07.940 He goes, and you know, he was having trouble sleeping.
00:34:10.320 So the docs gave him an Ambien and, you know, that's why he looked like a mummy.
00:34:15.660 So the thing about being president is your medical examinations are public.
00:34:25.140 Your medical information is of public interest.
00:34:29.000 And so we can, for instance, subpoena a presidential physician to testify before Congress, like Kevin
00:34:34.600 O'Connor, who testified before Congress and pled the fifth against self-incrimination, asked
00:34:39.220 if there was any cover-up about Joe Biden's terrible health, mental and physical.
00:34:43.260 But also, we can look at the prescriptions that the president was prescribed.
00:34:48.140 Ambien wasn't on there.
00:34:50.480 So he says, yeah, they gave him Ambien and he looked kind of, so hold on.
00:34:53.980 I love Hunter.
00:34:55.720 The fact that you're telling us this, that the president was taking a prescription drug that
00:35:00.420 he was not prescribed, then, of course, raises the question, what other drugs were they giving
00:35:06.800 and they didn't know about?
00:35:07.720 I was at the State of the Union two years ago.
00:35:09.900 I was there as a guest of my friend, Andy Ogles.
00:35:12.580 I was sitting not far behind the president, Biden at that time.
00:35:16.640 And you might have seen it on TV, but it was pretty clear to those of us in the room.
00:35:20.280 Biden walks out there and he just starts screaming in monotone for like 45 minutes.
00:35:25.100 I realized I don't have an ashtray, so you know what?
00:35:27.300 I'm going to have to ash on my desk.
00:35:28.560 It's okay.
00:35:28.880 Maybe in my candle.
00:35:29.820 No, I don't want to ruin my candle that way.
00:35:32.380 He gets up there.
00:35:34.200 He said, oh, what kind of Joe are we getting tonight?
00:35:35.760 And he gets up and goes,
00:35:36.540 and he just does that for like 48 minutes straight.
00:35:44.660 Still going strong at the end and then bolts out of the room.
00:35:48.240 I thought, man, what did they shoot him up with before that?
00:35:52.440 And I don't know.
00:35:53.600 None of the uppers come up on his presidential physical.
00:35:59.040 But then again, neither does the ambience.
00:36:01.100 So here you got Hunter Biden admitting,
00:36:04.420 yeah, we were engaging in medical interventions that we didn't tell you about.
00:36:08.300 Then Hunter is asked about current presidential policy.
00:36:14.960 Here's what he has to say.
00:36:17.160 For someone, like all these Democrats say,
00:36:20.180 you have to talk about and realize that people are really upset about illegal immigration.
00:36:25.520 Fuck you.
00:36:26.660 How do you think your hotel room gets cleaned?
00:36:28.680 How do you think you have food on your table?
00:36:31.480 Who do you think washes your dishes? 1.00
00:36:33.520 Who do you think does your garden? 1.00
00:36:35.180 Who do you think is here by the sheer just grit and will that they figured out a way to get here because they thought that they could give themselves and their family a better chance?
00:36:48.560 And he's somehow convinced all of us that these people are the criminals?
00:36:53.560 So another thing that becomes clear is Hunter appears to have developed Tourette's in his old age.
00:37:00.920 This is a sign.
00:37:02.280 Look, at various points in my life, I've talked more like a sailor than others, but I really try not to now.
00:37:07.300 Not even at the bar.
00:37:08.360 I try to avoid it generally because it's a venial sin, so it's not good.
00:37:11.360 It weakens your relationship with God.
00:37:13.320 And at a certain point, it just displays a lack of discipline in your ability to speak.
00:37:23.260 When you just insert the F word, every third word, and you know the effing thing, and you know the effing gardener, and the effing this, and effing that, you just sound like your brain doesn't work.
00:37:34.880 And for Hunter, that's probably true.
00:37:36.600 But if you take all the effings out of it, what is his argument?
00:37:39.820 His argument is we need amnesty for illegals, and we need more illegals so that we can have a slave class, so we can have a surf class, a class of people who work for us for very low wages without worker protections, and who clean our homes and pick our grapes and do whatever we tell them to do, and they don't have recourse to protections and to decent wages.
00:38:09.700 That's what he's saying.
00:38:10.300 And that's always what it's been about, at least for the business community and for wealthy liberal elites.
00:38:19.080 There's another bonus for the Democrats, which is that statistically, it's likely to give them a permanent electoral majority, though Hispanics have trended a little bit Republican in recent years.
00:38:28.420 Still overwhelmingly Democrat, but beyond just cynically trying to get votes, that's what it's been about for a much broader range of people who are not Democrat Party operatives.
00:38:39.700 It's been about cheap labor.
00:38:41.080 That's true for businesses.
00:38:42.120 That's true for people who have house cleaners and gardeners and all that's. 0.91
00:38:46.680 Can you believe these people?
00:38:48.460 They want to boot out our effing house cleaner. 1.00
00:38:52.660 So he's just unvarnished here.
00:38:54.960 Hunter unchained.
00:38:56.960 But then the juiciest part of the interview is when Hunter goes off on the Democrat establishment today.
00:39:04.260 opinions, but him, him, him and everybody around him don't have to be nice.
00:39:14.520 Number one, I agree with Quentin Tarantino.
00:39:17.040 George Clooney is not a actor.
00:39:19.240 He is a like, I don't know what he is.
00:39:22.580 He he's a brand.
00:39:24.020 And by the way, and God bless him.
00:39:25.720 You know what?
00:39:26.260 He supposedly treats his friends really well.
00:39:28.700 You know what I mean?
00:39:29.160 He buys them things and he's got a really great place in Lake Como and he's great friends
00:39:33.540 with Barack Obama.
00:39:34.920 You, what do you have to do with anything?
00:39:37.080 Why do I have to listen to you?
00:39:38.560 What right do you have to step on a man who's given 52 years of his life to the service of
00:39:44.100 this country and decide that you, George Clooney, are going to take out basically a full page
00:39:48.740 ad in New York Times to me and James Carville, who hasn't run a race in 40 years, and David
00:39:55.380 Axelrod, who had one success in his political life, and that was Barack Obama.
00:39:59.840 And that was because of Barack Obama, not because of David Axelrod and David Plouffe and all of
00:40:04.480 these guys in the Pod Save America guys who were junior speech writers in Barack Obama's
00:40:11.100 Senate staff, who have been dining out on the relationship with him for years, making
00:40:15.840 millions of dollars.
00:40:17.420 Love this, love this rant.
00:40:19.400 And I get it.
00:40:20.360 This is a creed to curve from a guy whose dad got done dirty by the Democrat establishment.
00:40:25.720 But the irony of it is Hunter Biden is a product, as much a product as anyone, of that very same
00:40:32.500 Democrat establishment.
00:40:34.480 Joe Biden was the face of the Democrat establishment until he wasn't useful to them anymore and they
00:40:40.460 threw him to the side.
00:40:41.480 And now Hunter can be honest.
00:40:42.600 And what is he saying?
00:40:44.640 He's saying the entire Democrat party, the whole apparatus, the entire machine is run by
00:40:52.120 frauds.
00:40:53.460 They're all frauds.
00:40:55.980 George Clooney, Hollywood face of the Democrats.
00:40:58.820 Hunter, he sounds like a MAGA Republican here.
00:41:01.620 He says, what the F does George Clooney know about anything?
00:41:04.640 Thank you.
00:41:05.220 I know.
00:41:05.700 I agree.
00:41:06.160 George Clooney's role in Hail Caesar, a movie about Hollywood and left-wing politics.
00:41:12.200 George Clooney's role is as George Clooney, as a guy who doesn't know anything about anything
00:41:17.300 and who's taken to fashionable flights of fancy by dubious ideologies.
00:41:21.600 He says, David Axelrod, that guy, these guys like won one campaign.
00:41:25.560 It's only because of Barack Obama.
00:41:26.900 He doesn't know anything.
00:41:28.020 Why are we listening to him?
00:41:30.080 Who else?
00:41:31.520 David Plouffe, same thing.
00:41:32.780 Who else?
00:41:33.060 James Carville, James Carville hasn't done anything really in politics since the early
00:41:36.320 90s.
00:41:37.240 Why are we listening to these people?
00:41:40.140 Now, of course, that wasn't Hunter's tune five years ago.
00:41:44.460 Five years ago, they were all saying, oh, these are the great, serious leaders.
00:41:47.560 Thank you.
00:41:47.960 We love you, George.
00:41:48.960 Oh, yeah.
00:41:50.400 Everyone should.
00:41:51.000 But now it's just come undone.
00:41:53.280 The whole thing has come undone.
00:41:54.920 It's an emperor has no clothes kind of moment.
00:41:57.440 Really, really beautiful.
00:41:59.500 And that's a great interview.
00:42:00.440 The whole interview could be summed up in a single sentence that the Democrat Party today
00:42:07.260 in the year of our Lord 2025 is complete BS.
00:42:13.200 All right.
00:42:15.100 I've got to leave.
00:42:15.940 There's so much more I want to talk about, man, but I got to go because I'm going to Washington,
00:42:21.040 D.C. for a very, very exciting project, which I'll tell you more about momentarily.
00:42:27.840 No member of segmentum today.
00:42:29.240 I got a bolt.
00:42:30.360 I'm Michael Knowles.
00:42:30.940 This is the Michael Knowles Show.
00:42:31.760 See you tomorrow.
00:42:32.080 We'll be right back.