BONUS： Daily Review with Clay and Buck - Feb 3 2026
Episode Stats
Length
1 hour and 2 minutes
Words per Minute
178.72849
Summary
In this episode, Clay and I talk about some of the things we saw at the recent visit to Washington by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and his staff. We also talk about the growing role of technology and manufacturing in the defense and national security space.
Transcript
00:00:07.260
and I was going to tell you about some of what I saw yesterday
00:00:13.520
First of all, I'll start from the defense and national security side.
00:00:18.200
And I think there's particular interest in this stuff,
00:00:20.820
especially after Trump talked about the discombobulator,
00:00:24.360
I think he called it, which was used in Venezuela.
00:00:28.360
My guess is that that's not the technical term for it.
00:00:33.040
But Trump mentioned something about this publicly,
00:00:35.580
which is unusual for a weapons system that people are not familiar with.
00:00:39.320
But now the Venezuelans are familiar with it, so guess what?
00:00:49.000
and just the national security needs of the United States going into the future
00:00:53.240
are going to be increasingly reliant upon two things
00:01:05.360
And you have to be able to make the most advanced stuff,
00:01:10.020
but you're going to have to be able to make it at scale and quickly
00:01:13.820
because when you're talking about drones and AI and hypersonics
00:01:19.360
and just go through the list of all these things that are either in use
00:01:24.100
and iterating, coming up with new versions of right now,
00:01:27.620
or just over the horizon and going to become much more a part of what we see
00:01:38.160
And this is what, Clay, the speech yesterday that Secretary of Warhead said,
00:01:44.040
I mean, he was busy with, like, the second richest man in the world
00:01:46.680
and taking around a bunch of very senior military folks,
00:01:54.160
and see how they're doing this Arsenal of Freedom tour,
00:02:00.900
And they're going around to a lot of the biggest,
00:02:06.040
not just, there's the defense primes, Boeing, Lockheed.
00:02:10.360
I mean, these are the companies that you think of
00:02:11.860
when you think of the military-industrial complex.
00:02:13.580
They've consolidated, and this has happened really, again,
00:02:18.840
I'm not an expert on all this, but the last 40 years or so,
00:02:21.580
there's been a huge consolidation of this stuff.
00:02:25.560
And now there's these companies, there's these upstarts,
00:02:29.520
these startups, I guess maybe both upstarts and startups,
00:02:33.760
like Andrel, based out of California, Palmer, Lucky's Outfit,
00:02:37.220
and others that are making really incredible defense tech.
00:02:46.820
this is one of the incredible things that Trump
00:02:53.680
that I think people don't have enough appreciation of.
00:03:03.580
and from the top down, refused, refused to do anything
00:03:08.900
that could even have military use or, you know,
00:03:12.620
any military projects whatsoever with the Pentagon.
00:03:16.560
And that was considered just, oh, okay, it's a private company.
00:03:21.580
You know, it's like when they said, build our own Internet.
00:03:26.680
Clay, that is a massive, first of all, it's borderline,
00:03:33.440
And that was the culture, though, in Silicon Valley.
00:03:41.860
to defend America against the threats of China and Russia
00:03:46.260
and global terrorism and all these other things.
00:04:00.420
the procurement timeline because it's become a joke.
00:04:04.880
They're saying, yeah, we're going to build something
00:04:09.300
as much as we say it is when all is said and done.
00:04:11.620
And by the time we get it, you're not even going to need it
00:04:13.880
because there's going to be some other technology.
00:04:25.760
that deals with a whole range of military threats,
00:04:37.380
that the United States' top companies now work with in areas.
00:04:45.080
but there's crossover, and they're willing to work
00:04:48.000
I mean, in my opinion, no American should be willing
00:04:57.900
with technology, will not help the United States military
00:05:02.780
Because Google, without the U.S. military providing it,
00:05:09.140
Like, Google only exists because the United States
00:05:13.960
provides this marketplace, yes, but this aegis of protection.
00:05:23.980
But remember, Pentagon's paying for this stuff.
00:05:41.940
Google is the main one, but all these top companies
00:05:46.940
Palmer Luckey of Andrel has spoken about this consistently.
00:05:51.440
And it's amazing, because he comes out of that community.
00:06:03.820
Clay, the whole paradigm has changed now where,
00:06:08.640
and it's important because if China has better AI,
00:06:28.580
for every 10 that we can make, we can't beat them.
00:06:39.400
the bravery of our soldiers is not going to be enough
00:06:51.780
And you go back in time, Civil War, for instance,
00:06:57.000
railroads changed the way that the war was bought,
00:07:01.020
the war was fought under the concept of celerity,
00:07:04.220
but troops being able to hop on a railroad line
00:07:08.140
and be able to get to a different area much faster.
00:07:26.480
it was airfare, right, air combat, air superiority,
00:07:30.340
and then tanks and their ability to run roughshod
00:07:34.660
over trench warfare and change the dynamic there.
00:07:38.120
The Ukraine-Russia war has basically turned into
00:07:43.720
And the question is, who can build the most drones
00:07:54.260
And they say, basically, even attacks, by and large,
00:07:58.260
with soldiers are becoming virtually impossible
00:08:15.340
at a speed that, frankly, we've never seen before
00:08:19.600
We are right now in a technological inflection point
00:08:24.980
would likely dictate who would win World War III.
00:08:37.440
is basically humans sitting around with joysticks
00:09:00.520
and we need the wheels and power of private industry
00:09:03.840
to be able to win the future battles of combat.
00:09:06.840
The other part of this that was really interesting.
00:09:09.220
So there's that defense and manufacturing piece
00:09:33.100
if you were an automobile manufacturer in World War II
00:09:42.420
This is the reality of the world they were living in
00:09:58.940
military-industrial complex situation right now.
00:10:02.760
That whole apparatus is in the process of being shifted.
00:10:45.140
Okay, and then on the space side of this, Clay,
00:11:52.640
the possibility of low Earth orbit data centers.
00:13:07.900
but we're doing a whole lot more than that, too.
00:14:05.920
On Monday, this show will go on satellite radio.
00:14:57.080
that I'm not sure technology has ever occurred.
00:15:30.780
Drake may to have more than one half passing yards.
00:15:36.740
Drake may is going to have more than one half passing yard.
00:15:40.340
Then I believe Drake may is going to have more than one half passing touchdown.
00:15:45.780
I think Sam Darnold is going to have more than one half passing touchdown and Jackson Smith and Jigba best receiver for the Seahawks.
00:15:54.240
I think is going to have more than 93 and a half receiving yards.
00:16:03.780
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00:17:18.380
I'm going to dive into a topic here in addition to the fun of Billie Eilish being on stolen land
00:17:26.760
and the seriousness of the $2 million verdict by a New York jury for a young minor who got
00:17:37.700
That's in quotation marks because it's not real.
00:17:44.240
And by the way, 800-282-2882, in the wake of the 3 million plus pages of Epstein revelations,
00:17:55.980
it feels to me like the Epstein story is basically over.
00:18:01.720
And even for the 5 or 10 percent of the audience out there that is the most focused on this Epstein
00:18:08.920
story, and I think the Trump administration, as we have said many times, did not handle this
00:18:18.620
Bill and Hillary Clinton are going to testify in front of Congress to avoid potential charges
00:18:25.320
for defying a congressional subpoena on two different days at the end of February.
00:18:35.040
It might have been the 27th and the 28th, but two days at the end of February.
00:18:41.480
And I'm curious if you co-sign on to this, and certainly you guys can react.
00:18:47.240
As I did a ton of reading yesterday to make sure that I basically had read everything under
00:18:52.940
the sun about the Epstein revelations and make sure that I wasn't missing anything.
00:18:57.200
Effectively, it appears to me, based on all of these emails, that Jeffrey Epstein had access
00:19:03.860
because of the work that he did with Jelaine Maxwell to lots of young, attractive women
00:19:10.480
and lots of old, rich guys were interested in meeting young, attractive women.
00:19:17.400
And Epstein used that as the lever to get access to all of these older, rich men who otherwise
00:19:29.060
And that was the way in which he ingratiated himself into all of these circles.
00:19:37.700
There's almost, Buck, no one who is famous, right?
00:19:41.320
No musician, no actor, no famous people that were interacting with Jeffrey Epstein.
00:19:48.420
My bet on that is because famous people have easy access to attractive women.
00:19:53.020
And really, the game plan of Jeffrey Epstein was, I'm going to use all these young, attractive
00:19:59.820
women to get access to primarily these old, rich guys.
00:20:06.140
And he leveraged that to be able to make lots of money.
00:20:09.160
Now, whether there were intelligence agencies in any way involved, blackmail, the New York
00:20:13.700
Times actually had a great write-up of how Jeffrey Epstein made a lot of his money.
00:20:18.720
Much of it comes through Lex Wexner, who was the founder of Victoria's Secret.
00:20:23.800
But I actually think this story is becoming less and less complicated the more emails come
00:20:29.760
This was a guy who was a pervert and had access to lots of young women.
00:20:34.060
And there were a lot of men in powerful positions who were very wealthy that wanted access to
00:20:39.600
And Jeffrey Epstein exploited that for those purposes.
00:20:45.180
Is there anything else that has leapt out to you from these three million documents that
00:20:58.280
He, I did not, and I will tell you this, I don't think his name had ever come up in
00:21:03.680
So he was one of these people who all of a sudden would go, oh, buddies with, again, no,
00:21:10.340
no allegation of criminal wrongdoing in any of this stuff.
00:21:13.480
And that's obviously why they're, and he has been very, Dr. Atiyah has been very vociferous
00:21:19.960
in that he knew nothing about Epstein trafficking underage girls and that he, you know, had no,
00:21:31.740
And I will just say, though, the brand damage that some people are suffering as a result of
00:21:36.800
this is really, we say brand reputational damage that people are suffering from.
00:21:42.300
There were a lot of people who minimized their contact with Epstein.
00:21:46.340
And now because really non-criminal email activity coming out has shown.
00:21:55.540
And so this made, you're starting to wonder why was there the hesitation to release a lot
00:21:59.900
Well, the FBI in the course of an investigation will get a lot of information.
00:22:03.920
And if it has nothing to do with criminality, it generally does not just release everything
00:22:16.600
You shouldn't be, you know, if you're, you know, if you're writing things that would just
00:22:21.880
be kind of, again, non-criminal, but if you're writing things that are embarrassing, that have
00:22:26.400
nothing to do with a criminal enterprise, why should that all be made public under normal
00:22:33.220
In this case, the public demanded, and for very good reason, a much broader transparency
00:22:39.560
than you would get in a standard FBI investigation because of the reasons that we could spend hours
00:22:44.980
and hours talking about when it comes to Epstein.
00:22:47.340
So, yeah, I think that there are people that are more damaged reputationally than I anticipated,
00:22:57.880
But the reality here, I think, is there will be people that never believe that there's
00:23:06.120
been enough transparency or rather that we've gotten the real answers.
00:23:13.900
And I think that what now at this point, the FBI or the DOJ are going to say, we've released
00:23:20.880
So, I don't know what else you or I could do in terms of advocating for more transparency
00:23:34.880
There's nothing in these emails that, on a standalone basis, you could bring, beyond a reasonable
00:23:43.080
doubt, criminal charges against anybody involved in.
00:23:46.460
And if there were, they probably would have brought those charges, right?
00:23:50.480
This is why it was somewhat established, I think, in advance that there might be people
00:23:55.200
that look scummy, but looking scummy is not a crime or else we'd have to throw most of
00:24:04.820
So, I think, Clay, maybe this brings a new phase, at least, into the discussion.
00:24:11.760
They'll believe that there are a lot of connections that have been covered up.
00:24:14.180
And I don't disagree with that, but I just don't know what else we can find that would
00:24:21.400
shed the light on it that people want at this point.
00:24:31.620
Like, I did what I consider to be a pretty deep dive yesterday to make sure that I had
00:24:38.060
And I think, again, this story, to me, based on all these emails coming out, is the story
00:24:44.380
of a guy who got rich by having access to a lot of young, attractive girls.
00:24:50.660
And there were a lot of old, rich guys that did not have access to young, attractive girls
00:24:55.860
that were willing to hang out with Jeffrey Epstein because he would, you know, you'd go to a
00:25:00.720
dinner and there were a bunch of pretty girls there.
00:25:03.780
Well, when you're saying, you know, this is where I do think some, we have to be clear
00:25:08.760
when you're saying access to young girls, which you, you know, because that's girls, you're
00:25:13.680
really talking about, I think, a lot of these individuals who are not charged with and there's
00:25:19.620
no allegation out there by any of the women, by any of the women against, you know, numerous
00:25:26.880
of these individuals, which I think is really, it'd be one thing if we had some of the women
00:25:31.100
who, you know, who were abused, who were underage saying this guy did this or that guy, you
00:25:37.080
It's another thing to say there's no, you know, because you have to be fair to people
00:25:41.140
Epstein did, and this is a position that might, Epstein did interact with human beings
00:25:46.480
who did nothing wrong and knew nothing about it.
00:25:57.280
A lot of guys, this is the key, the key difference, sorry, I diverted there, but yes, you're saying
00:26:01.700
what I wanted to say, which is that it's one thing for a guy, you know, who is a powerful
00:26:06.460
rich guy to say, Epstein, he's got the Rolodex with all the over 18 Victoria's Secret models
00:26:14.280
I want to meet that 24-year-old smoke, and I'm 60 years old, and otherwise there's no
00:26:21.020
I'm saying that's what a lot of these emails look like to me.
00:26:23.520
Yes, that's, and that's, now you can say, you know, age gap and whatever, that is 100%,
00:26:29.940
you know, if it's a 24-year-old Victoria's Secret model, a lot of guys in their 50s and
00:26:34.800
60s, if they had a chance, you know, again, that's, this is the, there's no.
00:26:39.240
You can judge that as much as you can, but it seems to me.
00:26:41.980
There's nothing even vaguely criminal about that.
00:26:43.780
It's 100% legal and always will be and always should be, I might add.
00:26:51.000
So you can say it's, you know, it's like, you can say it's unseemly, but, you know, being
00:27:00.000
So that's why to me, when I saw these emails, it's interesting.
00:27:04.060
Epstein didn't really have celebrity friends, right?
00:27:08.880
And I'm talking about, there weren't a lot of Hollywood people.
00:27:13.480
They weren't actors and actresses that he was involved with.
00:27:20.820
And again, to me, it feels like he would have a party and you would go to it and there were
00:27:25.900
eight gorgeous models there and five old dudes.
00:27:30.220
And he took advantage of being able to provide those kind of environments.
00:27:39.000
Celebrities don't, you know, if you're a top Hollywood actor, you know, you don't need
00:27:44.520
Epstein to introduce you to an of age Victoria's Secret model or whatever.
00:27:57.780
Les Wexner, the Victoria's Secret brand and others.
00:28:00.940
But, you know, guys who are 30s, 40s, even into their 50s, who are successful and famous
00:28:12.220
Johnny Depp doesn't need Jeffrey Epstein to meet girls.
00:28:16.080
But if you're a 60-year-old kind of, you know, if you're like a Reid Hoffman-looking guy,
00:28:26.060
But Reid Hoffman, you know, and I'm just saying, this guy probably needed, you know,
00:28:32.540
I don't know, he's not a guy that you would think would have an easy time with the ladies
00:28:37.020
Who was in the emails was super rich guys that are probably socially awkward, that are having
00:28:43.540
trouble meeting women of age, and they used Epstein, and Epstein used them in order to
00:28:51.880
Again, you guys out there, if I'm missing something, if Buck is missing something,
00:28:58.440
But it feels to me, by and large, like this story is...
00:29:06.740
And by the way, a lot of these people, very rich Democrat donors.
00:29:11.120
A lot of these rich, supposedly super, super, they have amazing media.
00:29:21.080
You're like, ah, they actually seem pretty scummy in the emails with Epstein.
00:29:25.840
But again, to your point, if being scummy were a crime, most of Congress would be in
00:29:38.160
It doesn't feel to me like there's anything else, really.
00:29:40.860
The cleanup that happened of really damaging information and or any of the tapes, the
00:29:51.220
If there was a blackmail operation operating here, which I still believe was at least a
00:29:55.760
part of this, that's been gone for a long time, which we've said here.
00:30:00.320
I mean, that's my assessment is that that stuff got wiped a long time ago.
00:30:11.240
I'm not saying it shows you everything that should be shown.
00:30:15.180
I'm just saying I don't see where the next phase of demand for transparency is going to
00:30:25.540
I mean, if there was something else that I thought, we have to release, what else is going to be
00:30:34.560
But I'm sure some of you would disagree, and you will let us know that, because you
00:30:38.760
are not shy about talking about when you disagree with us.
00:30:42.220
And if I can just pivot for something far less serious for a moment here, Clay, before
00:30:47.620
I actually get into a serious read, but far less serious, we have to have a fulsome discussion
00:31:00.660
I feel like a kid who doesn't recognize his dad right now.
00:31:03.280
We've got to have a whole conversation about this.
00:31:07.500
But it might go in some interesting directions.
00:31:14.800
They're incredible, and I support them every month.
00:31:18.140
They honor America's heroes like U.S. Army officer Stuart Wayment.
00:31:22.200
Valuing liberty, freedom, and service, Stuart joined the Army.
00:31:24.660
He graduated from Army Aviation School and received many honors and awards during his distinguished
00:31:28.940
career, was a mid-air collision during a training exercise that took Stuart's life.
00:31:33.420
He leaves behind his wife, Kiara, and three sons.
00:31:36.860
Tunnel to Towers paid the mortgage on Stuart's family home.
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The kindness of people across the country alleviated Kiara's financial burden and brought
00:31:45.980
She is grateful that her children can grow up in a safe place, supported by family members
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Join us in donating $11 a month to Tunnel to Towers at T2T.org.
00:32:08.160
Trump highlights from the week, Sundays at noon Eastern in the Clay and Buck podcast feed.
00:32:13.240
Find it on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:32:20.600
One story that we have not covered very much that is at the top of most of the newscasts
00:32:32.360
The mother of Savannah Guthrie, her name is Nancy Guthrie.
00:32:39.440
We have a big audience listening to us in Arizona.
00:32:42.340
The sheriff is going to give an update on this story.
00:33:00.100
My take, and I don't know if you would sign off on this as well, is that Savannah Guthrie
00:33:05.940
is not so famous that I would think most people would know who Savannah Guthrie's mom is.
00:33:13.080
And so as there are reports of blood and abductions here, I don't know if this is just she's a victim
00:33:22.360
and it has nothing to do at all with Savannah Guthrie.
00:33:25.280
I think the reason it has caught a lot of attention is because there is a connection to Savannah Guthrie.
00:33:34.080
I just don't think Savannah Guthrie is so famous that everybody would know.
00:33:39.140
If you told me J.D. Vance's mom was abducted, I would say, OK, you know, if you told me that there were there are certain people that I would say, well, there's no way that's coincidental.
00:33:48.840
I'm just not sure that this is in any way actually connected to Savannah Guthrie.
00:33:54.140
I mean, yeah, well, it I mean, and I look, I hope that they find Savannah Guthrie's mother on are unharmed and that the perpetrators are punished to the fullest extent of the law.
00:34:04.680
The first thing that my brain went to, though, when I read this is remember the just heartbreaking story of Michael Jordan's dad.
00:34:12.020
Just yeah, someone who's Savannah Guthrie is not quite as known globally as Michael Jordan was.
00:34:18.000
Michael Jordan was, I think, pre-Trump, Michael Jordan might have become the most famous person on the planet for a period of time.
00:34:25.160
I think he probably was the most recognizable, most famous, you know, sports icon, but really cultural icon.
00:34:32.700
His dad was, if memory serves, napping in his car, like taking a taking a basically a snooze.
00:34:39.520
And people woke him up to carjack him and shot him in the chest.
00:34:43.560
A totally just horrific, random act of violence.
00:34:47.260
I think both those guys got life in prison, the two that that did the carjacking.
00:34:52.120
But, you know, terrible things can happen to the family members of famous people, too.
00:34:56.940
And this is when you're talking about a woman with dementia.
00:35:03.620
I think they're putting the details up about her right now.
00:35:14.360
And again, in Arizona, and they're about to have a press conference.
00:35:18.020
Sorry to cut you off, but just the photos are everywhere.
00:35:20.600
And certainly a lot of you are listening in the Arizona area.
00:35:25.420
Obviously, we want something not negative to come out associated with this story.
00:35:30.680
But, yes, to your point, Jordan's dad was murdered, and it appears to have nothing to do with the fact that Michael Jordan was Michael Jordan.
00:35:39.720
Just happened to be the son of one of the most famous people on the planet.
00:35:44.460
And I think this woman, Savannah Guthrie's mother, happened to be the mother of one of the most famous broadcasters around in America today.
00:35:51.780
Look, like I said, I hope that they find her, but the indicators here to say it's highly concerning is an understatement.
00:36:05.900
All you can do is pray and hope that they find her somewhere.
00:36:09.620
You always have that possibility that the kidnappers or the abductors, maybe they figured out who her daughter was and realized this is a bad idea.
00:36:24.900
But right now, it's highly concerning is all you can say about the facts as they have been presented.
00:36:32.640
So that press conference has not yet started, but I wanted to make sure that we gave you the latest on that, and we will be running on that press conference for the sheriff's updates on Nancy Guthrie.
00:36:48.340
I read somewhere that she had some disability, but she has physical limitations in her movement, so she can't go very far, but her mind is all totally there.
00:36:59.460
If you are listening to us in Arizona, certainly keep your eyes peeled there, as that is where she has disappeared.
00:37:07.520
And again, we will update you on what the latest is here shortly.
00:37:13.540
I'm out in Los Angeles, Buck, so I thought that this is very funny, and I thought we could have some fun with this.
00:37:22.100
The Grammy Awards were insanely woke, as one might imagine, and we talked about that quite a lot yesterday.
00:37:29.560
And maybe the wokest part of the entire Grammy Awards was when Billie Eilish, a singer, got up and said, no one is illegal on stolen land.
00:37:40.820
Here is that cut, I believe cut 31, from Sunday night at the Grammys.
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I feel so honored every time I get to be in this room.
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And as grateful as I feel, I honestly don't feel like I need to say anything, but that no one is illegal on stolen land.
00:38:02.760
All right, Buck, I had some fun with this yesterday on the show, and I pointed out, hey, if your land is stolen, the nicest thing you could do is actually give it back.
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And Billie Eilish lives in a multimillion-dollar Los Angeles mansion.
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The Tongva tribe, not familiar with their work, the Tongva tribe says in the – they used to have the L.A. area.
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Great place to be living if you were a tribe, by the way.
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They say Billie Eilish is living in a mansion built on their ancestral land.
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As the first people of the greater – this is the Tongva tribe in a statement to Fox News.
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As the first people of the greater Los Angeles basin, we do understand that her home is situated in our ancestral land.
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Eilish has not contacted our tribe directly regarding our property.
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They're asking Billie Eilish to turn title to her mansion back over to the Tongva tribe because she is living on their stolen land.
00:39:11.660
Buck, do you think that Billie Eilish, who won song of the year and was so fast to say no one is illegal when we're living on stolen land,
00:39:19.360
why is Billie Eilish not willing to turn back over her multimillion-dollar mansion?
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I will say, too, there are lots of footage, lots of drones of this property of hers now.
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To my knowledge, she has not commented since they have demanded their land back.
00:39:38.900
I have a feeling she's going to hang on to that mansion and not think twice about it.
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Clay, one thing that I was thinking about with the Grammys was that I think the state of – get ready for it.
00:39:55.920
John, I think the state – speaking of stolen land – the state of music today in this country in general.
00:40:04.340
Don't tell me, oh, I love this band or, oh, but what about this country?
00:40:09.800
I know more about college SEC football coaches than I do about country music.
00:40:18.640
Who is the guy that you're like, you don't know who that is?
00:40:28.020
You not knowing Pat Summerall and Morgan Wallen is – they're very different universes.
00:40:33.820
But, yeah, Morgan Wallen is one of the only artists in the world, frankly, that can sell out stadiums all around the country.
00:40:41.620
And now I celebrate his whole catalog, including the throwing the chair off the roof, apparently.
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Anyway, I think the state of music today in America is absolutely abysmal, absolutely abysmal.
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I think that the stuff that people are – first of all, everything is auto-tuned.
00:41:01.300
There's nothing that's – I think music has – people complain about – and a hat tip, Ben Dominic has said something like this on X, and I liked it.
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But I've been thinking this for – that's why I liked his tweet.
00:41:17.740
I think you might be able to argue that, like, pop music is even worse than – like, the descent of pop music is even worse than the descent of movies over the last 20 years.
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Is it – so movies, I think it's that everybody got afraid of being targeted on social media.
00:41:39.560
All of a sudden, if you make a joke that the wrong person is offended by, or you try to write a book, if you're a white person, that's from the perspective of someone other than a white person, it's, oh, cultural appropriation.
00:41:52.500
Is it just a culture of fear in taking risk and everybody so afraid of being targeted in a social media era that – I mean, great art requires risk would be my big picture argument.
00:42:04.900
I think the economics of it have changed a lot.
00:42:10.480
I think that it's far – for most people, it's far less lucrative and far less of a dream to be even just a successful band today than it was before.
00:42:25.700
In the 90s, when you – and maybe this is a Gen X millennial thing more than anything else, but the whole notion of the garage band, that you want to get together with your buddies, you're going to have – you're going to get together, you're going to play rock and roll, and maybe you'll play at like the school dance, and then maybe you'll play at a local venue, and then somebody will sign you to some big record label and all this stuff.
00:42:52.880
I don't think people think of rock stars with anywhere near the same – first of all, if you look at the biggest touring acts in the world today, for the most part, with the exception of like a Taylor Swift, and I can't speak to, again, I know nothing about the contemporary hip-hop scene.
00:43:11.500
But, Clay, you look at the bands that are touring, there are parents' bands.
00:43:19.260
It's Bruce Springsteen, the most overrated music act of all time.
00:43:32.060
I mean, they're rolling these guys out there with oxygen tanks attached to them.
00:43:36.660
And these are the bands that are still doing sellout and everything else.
00:43:40.300
So I think that it's very obvious the music industry isn't what it used to be.
00:43:47.160
You know, I look forward to introducing my son when he gets old enough to – I don't care who you are.
00:43:53.240
If you have any appreciation for music and you hear like a great ACDC riff or even some of the music we play on the show as our rejoin music,
00:44:04.180
like that Tears for Fear song, which I love, which was my number two behind our theme song to be the theme song on this show,
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Rule the World, those are – in 50 years, people will be like, that's a great song.
00:44:17.220
There's – the music that's being made over the last 10, 15 years, no one's going to be like, that's a great song.
00:44:22.780
Did someone make that with a synthesizer in the room by themselves?
00:44:26.340
I would argue – and I'm going to get people fired up now – the 90s was the last time when there was great original music being produced
00:44:35.540
across the different bandwidth of audio, right?
00:44:40.420
So you had – I would argue the peak of rock, meaning diversity of rock, was incredible in the 90s.
00:44:48.100
Because rap, I would argue, actually by far peaked in the late 90s.
00:44:52.860
If you go look at all the different rap artists, you could actually understand what a rap artist did back then.
00:45:05.280
You go back and look at R&B, which I think is mostly overrated, but all of it peaked in the late 90s in terms of the diversity of music.
00:45:12.600
You go back and look at all of the different bands that put out great music, and since then, it's collapsed.
00:45:21.260
There's nothing funny that's being produced in movies anymore, I think, because they're all afraid of those things.
00:45:24.560
On the music thing, though, Clay, top music acts in the 90s were global superstars with tremendous cultural resonance.
00:45:33.440
Remember, like, U2, which now, in retrospect, I actually would put it – I listened to a lot of U2 in high school, so I'm guilty of this, too.
00:45:39.940
And some of you are going to boo me for saying this, kind of overrated.
00:45:44.960
But U2 was sort of like Coldplay before there was Coldplay.
00:45:49.960
They'd meet with the Pope, and they'd meet with the head of the UN, and everyone's like, oh, and music, and music's going to save the world.
00:45:54.820
The Live Aid and all these different things that would go on.
00:45:57.480
The cultural impact of the contemporary music scene 20 years ago and earlier dwarfs what we have today.
00:46:07.760
And honestly, even Taylor Swift, she's super successful.
00:46:13.040
Girls are not going to be listening to Taylor Swift songs in 20, 30 years.
00:46:33.020
What's the best Taylor Swift song you're going to tell us when we come back from this break?
00:46:37.400
And I guarantee you that all the girls listening to Taylor Swift now will be rocking out to it when they're 70.
00:46:44.560
We'll give you the latest on the Savannah Guthrie investigation as well.
00:46:51.340
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Tell them you heard about Cozy Earth right here on Clay and Buck.
00:47:55.040
Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:48:00.180
Welcome in, everybody, to the third hour of the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton show.
00:48:11.060
Not like some of these podcasts that people put out, Mr. Clay,
00:48:14.480
where they, like, tape it on their way to their beach vacation
00:48:21.580
We're doing it here for all of you, with you, three hours a day.
00:48:26.100
The beauty of radio and our almost 600 affiliates.
00:48:35.640
And we are bringing you the latest up to the minute.
00:48:38.600
I'm just saying, I gotta say, there's no craziness here.
00:48:47.000
And we're not nuts like some of the folks out there who are building audiences,
00:48:51.840
including on the right, who probably should spend a little time getting some help,
00:48:57.740
looking inward, addressing some of their demons.
00:49:04.700
Now, U.S. drone, I'm sorry, U.S. rather, has shot down a suspected Iranian drone on approach
00:49:17.600
Nothing too big, but just note, talking about an aircraft carrier, Clay, I had a lot of these
00:49:22.980
discussions when I was in Taiwan with the president, National Security Advisor of Taiwan,
00:49:27.560
Vice President, the world of surface, naval surface warfare is changing very rapidly.
00:49:37.560
And the projection of force that is possible with aircraft carriers is something that is variable
00:49:46.100
insofar as ship-killing missiles and the technology, hypersonic missiles, and the technology that
00:49:52.540
is developing very rapidly could turn aircraft carriers into multi-billion dollar targets.
00:49:58.760
Well, they're already targets, but target practice.
00:50:01.380
A lot of stuff to look at here in the years ahead.
00:50:05.800
But instead of talking about or going deeper into my analysis of this national security threat,
00:50:10.780
I don't want to forget that Clay, who now has two things going for him, one, a brand new mustache,
00:50:16.540
and two, thinks Taylor Swift is the new Beatles.
00:50:19.060
Do you wish to tell us the greatest Taylor Swift song of all time?
00:50:26.740
You can't go to... I'm talking your mustache and Taylor Swift.
00:50:29.200
I'm pivoting from the serious... You can't pivot my pivot.
00:50:35.000
So, we don't know what happened to Nancy Guthrie.
00:50:38.340
I told you that they were going to have a press conference.
00:50:41.320
This is the number one story on every newscast.
00:50:57.400
The FBI is asking, if you have tips on this, 1-800-CALL-FBI.
00:51:08.240
And basically, no one has any idea what happened to Nancy Guthrie.
00:51:31.680
I'm leaving it to you to how you transitioned back to Taylor Swift now
00:51:38.240
Now, I have to pivot back from a serious story to the story that...
00:51:45.120
By the way, Producer Ali, come up here for a sec.
00:51:50.140
We gave a huge take on Jeffrey Epstein, everything related to Epstein.
00:51:54.660
You are telling me that my take on Taylor Swift
00:51:58.080
has been considered more controversial by this audience
00:52:05.760
If you wondered whether the Jeffrey Epstein story is over,
00:52:08.740
you guys are angrier about my Taylor Swift take.
00:52:13.640
Yes, there is a waterfall of emails on your Taylor Swift
00:52:20.100
The people have spoken and the people are correct.
00:52:43.680
Buck is totally wrong that 20 or 30 years from now,
00:52:58.260
Taylor Swift will be more popular than she is now.
00:53:14.180
and can still walk out there and kick her legs.
00:53:16.860
She's going to be touring until she's 85 or 90,
00:53:24.540
This is a take that's going to go down in history,
00:53:29.800
is going to be as important as the fax machine.
00:53:37.280
you know who people would have said this about,
00:53:45.940
everyone's going to be listening to the Backstreet Boys.
00:53:51.260
The Backstreet Boys, NSYNC, all those boy bands.