TDS Time Machine | President's Day

Speaker 1 This is an iHeart podcast.

Speaker 2 You're listening to Comedy Central.

Speaker 2 Welcome back to my guest tonight. He was the 39th President of these United States.

Speaker 2 He is here to discuss how his nonprofit organization, the Carter Center, has nearly eradicated the guinea worm disease. Please welcome back to the program, President Jimmy Carter.

Speaker 2 Nice to see you.

Speaker 2 So here you are.

Speaker 2 Here's what I didn't realize. Okay, so

Speaker 2 you have this thing that you start in 1986.

Speaker 4 Right.

Speaker 2 Carter Center goes and they say, this guinea worm is a problem.

Speaker 2 Explain very quickly what it is, because I can't do it justice.

Speaker 4 Guinea worm, if you drink water out of a filthy water hole, which fills up during the rainy season and then stays dry, it doesn't have any fresh water.

Speaker 4 Then you drink the guinea worm eggs, and in a year's time, it grows to a worm about 30 inches long.

Speaker 4 And then it stings inside of your skin, epidermis, and then it creates a sore, a big sore, and then it emerges. It takes it 30 days to come out, and it destroys muscle tissue and leaves you a cripple.

Speaker 4 And terrible pain. Oh, horrible pain, almost indescribable pain, yeah.

Speaker 2 And this is, I have,

Speaker 2 a lot of times when a movie is coming out, they'll send me a little something like a nerf ball with the name of the movie on it. Your people sent me a dead guinea worm.

Speaker 4 I'm glad it's dead. I don't know if we can.

Speaker 2 Can we get that over here?

Speaker 2 This is what it looks like. It looks like that is the thing that comes out of people's, oftentimes their feet, yes, their feet or their toes.

Speaker 4 Feet, toes. The first time I saw it, one was coming out of a nipple of a woman's breast.

Speaker 2 Unbelievable.

Speaker 4 And just terribly, terrible, painful.

Speaker 2 Now, in 1986,

Speaker 2 when you begin this program, how many cases of guinea worm are occurring throughout,

Speaker 2 where did it mostly have, Asia, Africa?

Speaker 4 Three countries in Asia and 17 countries in Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa. We found guinea worm in 23,600 villages, and we had 3.5 million cases.

Speaker 2 3.5 million cases? That's what we found. This year.

Speaker 2 Now we are 1986 to now is

Speaker 2 not going to do the math.

Speaker 4 Last year we had 542 cases.

Speaker 2 542. From 3.5 million.

Speaker 4 Right. And 521 of those cases were in South Sudan.
This year, so far, we've just had seven cases, all of them in South Sudan.

Speaker 4 But here's the crazy part. So here's the thing.

Speaker 2 So we always think about,

Speaker 2 well, these types of scourges that hit these areas, we have to develop the right medicine and the drug, or we have to create some sort of

Speaker 2 how was this solved?

Speaker 4 No medicine will prevent it. No medicine will cure it.

Speaker 4 For 10,000s of years, they'd wrapped the guinea worm when it came out around a stick and put some tension on it so it would come out in 20 days instead of 30 days.

Speaker 4 So you had to suffer three weeks instead of four weeks.

Speaker 4 And so we found that if you pour the water through a filter cloth, the kind that won't rot in the tropics, and we provided that, then it screens out the guinea worm eggs and then you can drink your filthy water without a guinea worm eggs and you don't have the guinea worm.

Speaker 2 So that's what we've done. Education.
You went there and they showed.

Speaker 2 Now were they resistant to that type of disease? Yeah, some of them. It was changing thousands of years of how they were.

Speaker 4 Some of them were because the medicine men were making a lot of money treating it by putting it on the stick and twisting it.

Speaker 4 And also they thought that the pond was sacred. If it hadn't been for the pond, their ancestors wouldn't have lived, their village wouldn't be there.

Speaker 4 So we were insinuating that the disease came out of a sacred pond. So then if you hold up the

Speaker 4 glass and have a magnifying glass, you can see the little things swimming around in there. So So we convinced them that these were alien people, alien things in their pond.

Speaker 4 So they let us provide the filter cloths, but we had to go to every single village on earth that had the disease.

Speaker 4 So we feel that we have prevented about 80 million cases of guinea worms since we first started.

Speaker 2 Unbelievable. And this is just with the gauze.
Now,

Speaker 2 do they now

Speaker 2 do they now create the gauze themselves? Like, how does that work? You got to keep going through there.

Speaker 4 The coupon gave us a special filter that wouldn't rot in the tropics.

Speaker 2 And that's the thing that you have to get to.

Speaker 4 So it had to be woven by people that make parachutes. Wow.
Where it's woven together type.

Speaker 2 So you've eradicated. I mean, do you, now you got, you know, Bill Gates is out there with malaria.
Do you ever, you see him, you rib him a little bit?

Speaker 2 You'd be like, hey, man, how's it going with malaria?

Speaker 4 Well, we work on malaria too.

Speaker 2 And I've been kicking guinea worms butt for about 25 years now.

Speaker 4 Well, we don't rag it.

Speaker 4 We get a lot of money from the Bill Gates Foundation. Oh, that's what I meant.

Speaker 2 I meant they're very good people.

Speaker 4 Oh, they're really good people. That's what I'm doing.
I really am one of Bill Bill Gates' greatest admirers. When you go in there and you've earned their trust,

Speaker 2 are there other things that you want to accomplish in these villages?

Speaker 4 Some of the same people, we go out in the jungle and in the desert areas where nobody else wants to go. They call these neglected diseases because nobody...

Speaker 4 They really don't know.

Speaker 2 And oftentimes diseases of sanitation, diseases of simple 21st century, 20th century hygiene.

Speaker 4 One of the worst cases that comes from filthy eyes where flies gather around your eyes is called trachoma. It's a number one cause of preventable blindness.

Speaker 4 Cataracts call more, but this trachoma is worse. And when you go into a Maasai village or a dinka village and you see little children at a distance, you think they're wearing eyeglasses.

Speaker 4 And then you get close, it's a rig of flies that stay on their eyes all the time.

Speaker 4 So the eye gets infected and the upper eyelid turns inward. And every time you blink your eyes,

Speaker 4 it slashes a cornea. But how do you pick up the

Speaker 4 flies?

Speaker 4 You have to get rid of the flies. And so we teach the kids kids how to wash their faces, first of all, which they've never tried before.
So we have to teach them.

Speaker 4 And we also have found out that in certain parts of Africa, a woman is absolutely prevented by taboos from relieving herself in the daytime. So they have to hide and urinate or defecate.
So

Speaker 4 we decided to try an experiment in Ethiopia. So we taught them how to build a latrine, an outdoor toilet.
It only costs about a dollar if they do the work themselves.

Speaker 4 So we thought we might have 100 or 1,000. We've just finished 2,300,000 latrines in Africa.

Speaker 4 Wow.

Speaker 4 So wow, that's incredible. So I've become famous as the number one latrine builder in the world.

Speaker 4 I'm not famous for peace between Israel and Egypt, but wow.

Speaker 2 Maybe they'll change the name from the John to the Jimmy.

Speaker 4 You never know what will happen.

Speaker 2 Welcome to the night, the 42nd President of the United States' annual Clinton Global Initiative meeting, now in its 10th year, kicks off this Sunday, September 21st.

Speaker 2 Welcome back to the program, President Bill Clinton.

Speaker 2 I'll tell you something.

Speaker 2 I'll tell you this.

Speaker 2 And I'm going to say this, and it's nice you were here to witness it. I live this every day.

Speaker 2 Just the ovations,

Speaker 2 you're good too. But

Speaker 2 thank you.

Speaker 5 I do this when I see you at home. I'm all alone, just clapped off.

Speaker 4 Look at you. We just can't help ourselves.

Speaker 2 Exactly. Ten years, a Clinton Globe Initiative.
So you have this thing all planned out. You've got these tremendous speakers, all your things in order.
Something like this Ebola epidemic jumps up.

Speaker 2 It probably represents the confluence of all the various things that you can do at Clinton Globe Initiative. How agile can you be when something like that arises?

Speaker 2 Can you address it even at this year's season?

Speaker 4 Yeah, we are.

Speaker 5 How? We're going to have

Speaker 5 all the people from the World Health Organization and the UN

Speaker 5 and the Doctors Without Borders, Partners in Health, all these people are going to come together and talk about it. The United States has done a lot.

Speaker 5 President Obama's gotten some money through Congress and the Pentagon's committed a good bit of money and resources.

Speaker 5 Look, this is an emergency because nobody knows how to cure this.

Speaker 5 We know that almost 5,000 people have been infected. We know that more than 2,600 have died.
Almost certainly more than that have been infected.

Speaker 5 The problem is, as compared with previous outbreaks of Ebola, which were in remote rural areas, this is hit in some urban areas.

Speaker 5 And when it got into Nigeria and the Congo, there are a lot of people there.

Speaker 5 And there are just so many bodies brushing up against one another every day, it increases the risk. You have to isolate and care for.

Speaker 5 A lot of these people can survive if they get proper care quickly and we can stop the epidemic and let it burn itself out if we can isolate everybody that's infected, but it's going to take a Herculean effort.

Speaker 4 Right.

Speaker 2 Is the idea too, since you have people on the ground, you know, if organizations that are not as familiar with the local and provincial authorities down there, you know, one of the big issues is trust.

Speaker 2 The local communities are very frightened by this, justifiably so, and they may not necessarily trust outsiders outsiders that come in, the United States coming in.

Speaker 2 How is it that

Speaker 2 can your organization build through those more local authorities and build the trust you're going to need?

Speaker 5 We can in Liberia, where we're very active and where we've been there

Speaker 5 from the beginning of President Johnson Turtle's tenure.

Speaker 5 But

Speaker 5 in other countries, they will have to work with the local health ministries.

Speaker 5 They'll have to work with the local people, which is why it's encouraging to me that we may have an African coordinator who will have, I think, a lot of credibility working with the overall UN coordinator and the World Health Organization and everybody else.

Speaker 5 I think by and large Doctors Without Borders deserves an enormous amount of credit because they have put their lives at risk and put everything into it. So many people have gone there to serve.

Speaker 5 And now that Partners in Health is going in, Partners in Health is my partner in Africa and they've done a lot of work in Africa and they have a very good name.

Speaker 5 We're going to, I think, see a big ramp up.

Speaker 5 And I think in Liberia, I saw a news story which said, just interviewed people on the street who were really thrilled that the American government and the military were going to invest in doing this.

Speaker 5 We've been working in Africa with the military since I was president.

Speaker 5 And there's an Africa command now, and they're very well organized. I expect this to get.

Speaker 2 How old is that? 20 years? Is that?

Speaker 5 Well, we first of all organized a training program in West Africa, and then

Speaker 5 after I left office, they turned it into a separate command. So they've been working about 17 years, I think.
Right.

Speaker 2 Unbelievable. Well, it's nice to see that the infrastructure paying off in the future.
When we come back, we're going to figure out how to fix the other parts of the world that are broken.

Speaker 5 Let's do that.

Speaker 1 Welcome back to our conversation with soon-to-be former tenants of the White House.

Speaker 1 I've got one more question for you.

Speaker 1 This is a personal question. It's a little bit selfish.

Speaker 1 I look up to you because we share a lot in common. We both have parents who are black and white,

Speaker 1 both half African,

Speaker 1 south side of Chicago, south side of Africa.

Speaker 3 Similar.

Speaker 1 In and around race,

Speaker 1 when you are a person who has a platform,

Speaker 1 when you are in a space where you are engaging with people,

Speaker 1 it is often difficult

Speaker 1 to navigate and skirt that line

Speaker 1 between speaking your mind and sharing your true opinions on a race, whilst at the same time not being seen to alienate some of the people you are talking to.

Speaker 1 Because if you are a white person who's speaking about race, then you are just a person who is interested in race.

Speaker 1 If you are a person of color who's speaking about it, it's like, oh, the black thing started again.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 1 the question I've always wanted to know is, how did you navigate that? Because we watched you do it, but I always wanted to know how you navigated that through three or two terms. You know

Speaker 3 my general theory

Speaker 3 is

Speaker 3 that

Speaker 3 if I was clear in my own mind about who I was, comfortable in my own skin,

Speaker 3 and

Speaker 3 had clarity about

Speaker 3 the way in which race continues to be

Speaker 3 this powerful factor in so many elements of our lives,

Speaker 3 but that it is not the only factor in so many aspects of our lives, that

Speaker 2 we

Speaker 3 have by no means overcome the legacies of slavery and Jim Crow and colonialism and racism, but that the progress we've made has been real and extraordinary.

Speaker 3 If I'm communicating my genuine belief that

Speaker 3 those who are not

Speaker 3 subject to racism

Speaker 3 can sometimes have blind spots or

Speaker 3 lack appreciation of what it feels to be on the receiving end of that, but that doesn't mean that they're not open to learning and

Speaker 3 caring about equality and justice, and that I can

Speaker 3 win them over because there's goodness in the majority of people.

Speaker 3 I always felt that if I really knew that and I just communicated it as clearly as I could,

Speaker 3 that I'd be okay.

Speaker 3 Another way of saying this is

Speaker 3 there's not been a time in my public life or my presidency where I feel as if I have had to bite my tongue. There have been times in my public life where I've said, how do I say this

Speaker 3 diplomatically? How do I say this, as you indicated, in a way that it's received? Yes. Right? So there

Speaker 3 have been very few instances where I've said, well, that was racist. You are racist.
There have been times where I've said,

Speaker 3 you know, you might not have taken into account

Speaker 3 the ongoing legacy of

Speaker 3 racism in why

Speaker 3 we have so many black men incarcerated. And since I know that you believe in the Constitution and believe in justice and believe in liberty.

Speaker 3 How about if we tried this? Now,

Speaker 3 some might say, well, you're not speaking fully truth to power because of that diplomacy. Yes.

Speaker 3 But,

Speaker 1 you know,

Speaker 3 I don't think that

Speaker 3 trying to appeal to the better angels of our nature, as Lincoln put it,

Speaker 3 is somehow compromise.

Speaker 3 There may be times

Speaker 3 where

Speaker 3 you just have to

Speaker 3 call things out and name names. But the challenge we face today when it comes to race

Speaker 3 is

Speaker 3 rarely the

Speaker 3 overt Klansman style

Speaker 3 racism and typically has more to do with the fact that

Speaker 3 people got other stuff they want to talk about and it's sort of uncomfortable And

Speaker 3 it's somebody not getting called back for an interview, although it's never explicit. Or it's

Speaker 3 who gets the

Speaker 3 TV acting job, the actress who doesn't quite look the part, and what does that mean?

Speaker 3 And

Speaker 3 in that environment, where you're not talking necessarily about

Speaker 3 cut-and-dried

Speaker 3 racist behavior, but rather about

Speaker 3 the complex ways in which society is working these issues through.

Speaker 3 You know,

Speaker 3 trying to reach folks

Speaker 3 in ways that they can hear,

Speaker 3 I think is

Speaker 3 important.

Speaker 3 And I would add, everybody's got a different role to play.

Speaker 3 You know, if Chris Rock's doing stand-up,

Speaker 3 then

Speaker 3 there's a benefit to him doing something

Speaker 3 that is different from the President of the United States doing something.

Speaker 3 For one thing,

Speaker 3 he doesn't have to

Speaker 3 edit his language quite as carefully because I am still subject to

Speaker 3 some restraints on the streets. You still got your last shot on those seven words George Carlin talked about.

Speaker 3 I can't use those as a general proposition

Speaker 3 because a lot of children are watching.

Speaker 3 I try to comport myself in a way that

Speaker 3 my mother would approve of.

Speaker 1 Well,

Speaker 1 I just want to say thank you so much for being on the show. Thank you for being an inspiration.

Speaker 1 And most importantly, thank you for giving me an opportunity to see what I would look like after eight years of the toughest job in the world.

Speaker 3 You know, I will say that I

Speaker 3 I resent

Speaker 3 how young and good looking you are because I used to think of myself in those terms and it's been downhill for quite some time.

Speaker 3 Thank you, sir. Thank you, man.

Speaker 1 Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

Speaker 2 Today, we're talking to Senator Joe Biden. Maybe Senator Joe Biden, perhaps President Biden.

Speaker 5 Is that?

Speaker 2 Are you.

Speaker 6 Well, I'm going out to see whether or not anybody but me thinks I should be president. So I've been going out around the country, going to a lot of those red states

Speaker 6 as a Democrat, see if I can gain some support, raise some money, and that's what I'm doing.

Speaker 2 I've always said, and I've always heard, as Delaware goes, so goes the nation.

Speaker 1 Well, actually,

Speaker 6 in terms of presidential elections, we haven't never had a president, but in terms of presidential elections, with one exception, that's been the case.

Speaker 2 Is that true?

Speaker 6 That's absolutely true, because it's voted the way the nation has voted by almost the same percentage up the last year.

Speaker 2 You know what I would do for Delaware as a reward for that? Buy the entire state, indoor carpeting. Because here's the thing.

Speaker 6 Somebody's already done that.

Speaker 2 Is that true?

Speaker 3 I can't literally

Speaker 2 so that's what that is that soft cushy feeling

Speaker 2 when you're deciding to do something like that do you have to go out and immediately hire the whole coterie of consultants is that the thing and do they immediately tell you the essence of you that has made you a popular politician lose that

Speaker 2 is is that the advice that they give is is to because it doesn't it strike you that hillary clinton is now they're saying to her let me suck you dry of any rough edges so that you can be palatable like cottage cheese.

Speaker 6 Well, let me,

Speaker 6 I've not hired any of the so-called big feet out there.

Speaker 6 I went through that 20 years ago. And

Speaker 6 what I've decided to do, look, I've noticed one thing.

Speaker 6 Those folks have made it, good, bad, and different, have had a group of people, half a dozen people, with them for 20 years or more, loyal to them, that took them to the dance. They stayed with them.

Speaker 2 Who would do anything for them? Destroy people if they had to do that.

Speaker 5 Destroy people.

Speaker 2 Who would make phone calls to

Speaker 3 Carolina? Exactly. And do what they have to do.

Speaker 2 Does it give you pause that for being in the Senate? It seems so frustrating because the Democrats right now are reduced to

Speaker 2 I'm going to hold my breath until you stop bringing up these names.

Speaker 2 Do you know what I mean? Does that make you

Speaker 1 pause in terms of getting into the national arena?

Speaker 6 Well, that's the reason to get in. I mean, part of my frustration is I've been doing this a long time.

Speaker 6 And I'm convinced that you you cannot change the direction of the country in the next two elections in the Senate. You can't get it done.

Speaker 6 And that's an honest to God reason why I'm out looking to see if I can get the nomination. And besides, as one staff member told me, he said, there's great benefits.
Look at the vacation time again.

Speaker 2 Nicely done, sir. You may end up going against a Senate colleague, perhaps McCain, perhaps Frist.

Speaker 6 Well, John McCain is a personal friend, a great friend, and I would be honored to run with or against John McCain because I think the country would be better off and be well off no matter who.

Speaker 2 Did I hear with?

Speaker 6 You know,

Speaker 6 John McCain

Speaker 6 and I think...

Speaker 2 Don't become cottage cheese, my friend. Say it.

Speaker 6 The answer is yes.

Speaker 6 I hope John, I wanted John to run with John Kerry last time out and I asked him to do that.

Speaker 2 Boy, I would love to see politics be shaken up in a way that just completely blew out the ramparts of partisanship. That would be a wonderful situation.

Speaker 5 All right, that's what we'd like to say.

Speaker 2 Whether it be any Democrat or Republican, I like the pairing.

Speaker 5 Thank you for coming by.

Speaker 2 I know you're on recess.

Speaker 6 On recess, just like grade school.

Speaker 2 I'm excited. On recess.
Go have yourself a nap and a little sippy cup and be on your way. Senator Joe Biden, thank you so much for coming by.

Speaker 3 Appreciate it.

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