There’s No I In Trevor Noah [VIDEO]

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Speaker 4 Social media is so so multifaceted, right? So sometimes you're using social media to connect with family that are living abroad.

Speaker 1 Sometimes you're living, you're on social media to get your money to get your WhatsApp is the, I would ban WhatsApp. Why would you ban WhatsApp?

Speaker 1 What's WhatsApp? African aunties. What's the story

Speaker 1 done to you? They just

Speaker 1 let me tell you something. During COVID, nothing sends photos faster.
Listen, Ben. Yeah.
The misinformation that African aunties spread about COVID during COVID-19.

Speaker 1 It actually is one of the biggest, it's one of the biggest spreaders of. But you know why it became that? They were like, gargle with salt and vinegar instead of getting the vaccine.

Speaker 1 And I'm like, this is not going to work. That's just, you've got, that's just the wrong family.

Speaker 1 That's not my fault. That's just talking about who you grew up.

Speaker 1 No, no, I mean, it's all about.

Speaker 4 The people on my WhatsApp aren't saying anything like that.

Speaker 1 You're in the wrong WhatsApp.

Speaker 4 Well, maybe I'm in the right WhatsApp.

Speaker 1 Maybe I'm in the right WhatsApp.

Speaker 1 You're listening to What Now, the podcast where I chat to interesting people about the conversations taking over our world. Today on the podcast, my favorite question, if I ruled the world.

Speaker 1 We love a good thought exercise on What Now, and this is one of our favorite questions to ask with friends.

Speaker 1 If you were in charge and you could change one thing about anything, schools, airports, commerce, restaurants, whatever it may be, what would you change?

Speaker 1 Well, we've got three folks on the show today with three massive ideas, maybe terrible ideas. Who knows? We'll see.

Speaker 1 Either way, joining me: writer, journalist, and professional hater Cristiana Mbakwe Medina, and one of our very own executive producers and my good friend and fellow football watcher, yes, you say soccer, Ben Winston.

Speaker 1 Let's get into it.

Speaker 1 This is What Now

Speaker 1 with Trevor Noah.

Speaker 1 I always try and think of what the music is that's playing before the thing is.

Speaker 4 Trying to sing it for you.

Speaker 1 That's actually really good.

Speaker 4 Nah, I see a real talent on mine.

Speaker 1 It's almost like you did it. Welcome to the podcast, everybody.
How you doing? Good. Terrific.
You paused for such a long time. Yeah, because we've got kids.

Speaker 1 Did you pause because you're English or did you pause? Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 yeah, it's probably a British issue. It really is.

Speaker 4 Well, we were being polite. I was sort of going, ladies, first, you can say how you are, and then

Speaker 1 oh, wow. And now I'm going to apologize for us polling because

Speaker 1 it was compulsive. Well, happy podcast day, everybody.

Speaker 1 This is an all-colonial edition, I guess.

Speaker 1 It's like degrees of colonization. Yeah, we have the colonizer, we have one who was integrated into the colony, and then one who was just oppressed

Speaker 1 but has made his way out.

Speaker 4 i'm not going to come across well in this poll at all if that's how we're if that's how we're setting it you're the colonizer

Speaker 4 okay maybe i'm not

Speaker 1 fine oh this is fun actually this is fun this is fun ben we we we barely get to speak to you because you're always like off doing something like if there was an asteroid coming to earth now

Speaker 1 you would probably be asked to produce it as a as a concept like they'd be like the world's ending we would like to get ben winston to produce this for us yeah the final ending concert of the world It's lovely to be here, Trevor, when 14 people have said they can't make it and then I get that call.

Speaker 4 It's like he's already a producer of the pod. No one else is about.
We want to do it in person.

Speaker 1 Let's just get that dude. Oh, that's what we're

Speaker 1 fake humility. That's more than that.
Fake humility, Elizabeth. And as always, as always, the rose amongst the thorns.
I love that phrase. Christiana, how are you, friend? I'm good.
I'm good.

Speaker 1 Feeling good being a rose. I'm normally like the thorn.

Speaker 1 Where are you the thorn? Because I'm just like, I'm the friend with the opinions that destroys the green. You know, it's funny.

Speaker 1 I feel like you've lived in, maybe you've lived in like the Western world for too long. Because if you were in South Africa or many parts of Africa, I feel like you would be like the friend.

Speaker 1 Yeah, of course, because it's just like they like chaos. Yeah, I mean, like, think about Joseph, like our friend from Uganda.
Oh, my God, we need to have him on.

Speaker 1 Literally, there was a group text that was sent out to our soccer group, and they didn't mention his name, but they said, hello, gentlemen, please note that this is a casual game and nobody needs to be instructive and stop telling other people that they're useless and what they need to improve on.

Speaker 1 And I sent it to him, and in classic Joe style, I said, Joe, this is this is definitely directed to you. And he was like, Oh, first time I've been called a gentleman.

Speaker 1 He wasn't even phased because I think as Africans, we're blunt, we're like, whatever. I know I'm not being polite or anything.
How are you doing, though? I'm good. Where have you been?

Speaker 1 Where have I been? My favorite CIA asset. Oh, wow.
You always ask that question in such an accusatory way. I'm sorry.
And no, it's fine. It's fine.
I feel like you're up to mischief. You know what?

Speaker 1 You're not wrong. You're not.
Where I am in the world is generally for a mischievous reason.

Speaker 1 And where I am in the world is actually the perfect question to ask for our brand new segment. It's time for We're in the World, brought to you by T-Mobile, who can help you experience travel better.

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Speaker 1 Okay, I've debated whether or not I should tell you this. Oh, wow.
This is one of those moments in life where I like to be honest with my friends. Okay.
But I also like to be right.

Speaker 1 By the way, if a man tells you he likes to be honest, that means he's a liar. But.

Speaker 1 What?

Speaker 1 Well, I can't believe you'd say that. It's just that when men are like, oh, I'm really honest.
No, no, no. I didn't say I'm really honest.
I said I like to be honest. There's a difference.

Speaker 4 What's this got to do with where you've been?

Speaker 1 I've been traveling quite a bit. Yeah.

Speaker 1 In part of my travels, I had a meeting and a conversation with

Speaker 1 the

Speaker 1 assistant director of military operations at the CIA.

Speaker 1 So, yeah. Interesting.

Speaker 4 Is that what you've been doing? You've been having a conversation with the CIA.

Speaker 1 I think you've truncated everything I've said and made it sound a lot more

Speaker 1 clickbaity than it is.

Speaker 4 What did you meet the CIA about?

Speaker 1 Again, you've just moved on from, you've now made it the whole organization. I just met an individual, lovely, lovely gentleman.
Okay.

Speaker 1 And yeah, it was just, I, but I wanted to tell you this because if I omitted it, I would always feel like I had kept something from you that sort of made you right. And why did he reach out to you?

Speaker 1 You see, these are like, this is not, it's not like he reached out. We just happened to be in the same place and we were having a conversation.

Speaker 4 You have a strange life.

Speaker 1 We're the places I cannot tell?

Speaker 1 I've been to other places well.

Speaker 4 I saw you recently.

Speaker 1 We literally bumped into each other in an airport in Dubai. It was in Dubai.

Speaker 4 I wasn't in Dubai. I was flying.

Speaker 1 You were coming from Abu Dhabi.

Speaker 4 I was coming from Abu Dhabi and I was flying to LA and then we just happened to be texting. I was like, where are you? You're like, I've just landed in Dubai.
And I was like, I'm in Dubai airport.

Speaker 4 You're like, so am I. And we met at like the business centre.
Yes, we did indeed. And we had like a lovely 20 minutes.

Speaker 1 It was so bizarre. I love those like encounters and those meetings, just randomly bumping into people in the world.

Speaker 4 But you had been in Bhutan with a load of monks.

Speaker 1 Yeah, Bhutan, Japan.

Speaker 4 And now you're meeting the CIA.

Speaker 1 Like it didn't involve the CIA and I was traveling and enjoying good coverage. So let's jump into the podcast.
But remember, I wanted to tell you that that segment was brought to you by T-Mobile.

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Speaker 1 I think it is time for us to jump into this week's podcast, which is really exciting for me because sometimes I think we limit ourselves in how we think because we think through the lens of what is and what could be.

Speaker 1 And every now and again, I like to think to myself, what would I do if I ruled the world? And that's when I find the magic happens. That's when the true magic happens.
So I'm going to kick it off.

Speaker 1 So I've been thinking about it this week. If I ruled the world, I know this is going to be controversial, but if I ruled the world, I would shut down social media.
It's done. It's finished.

Speaker 1 There is no more.

Speaker 4 Oof, oof, considering, especially people are probably watching a lot of this on social media. Yeah, it's done.

Speaker 4 But it feels like you're being hypocritical because of how much stuff you're putting out on social media.

Speaker 1 No, I'm not being hypocritical at all. All of it? Yeah.
Now, let's be clear about what I consider social media. Peakly.
So it is Instagram, Facebook,

Speaker 1 Snapchat,

Speaker 1 TikTok,

Speaker 1 Twitter. And are there any others? There's WeChat, which is like

Speaker 4 Truth Social. I'm big on Truth Social.
love it. I love truth social as the white member of this panel.

Speaker 1 I'm I actually am huge on truth social. What's it like over there?

Speaker 1 It's where the truth is. Wow.
And it's social. Wow.
It's true social. Do they know that you're Jewish?

Speaker 4 No, I hide that.

Speaker 1 I hide that. I hide that.

Speaker 4 I thought I was hiding it from this podcast as well, but apparently not.

Speaker 1 I've announced it.

Speaker 4 So you're going to explain why you want to ban all social media.

Speaker 4 But you at the same time need to acknowledge the many incredible things that happen because of social media.

Speaker 1 So this is what I think we do sometimes in society that is,

Speaker 1 you know, like there's this idea, and I think it's neuroscientists

Speaker 1 have stated this, and psychologists, they've said that as human beings, we overestimate how happy something will make us, and we underestimate how unhappy something can make us.

Speaker 1 Right? I think social media falls into one of those categories. We take for granted how unhappy it has made us as a civilization.

Speaker 1 We take for granted how much it's hurt us, how much it, and I'm so I'm not saying it hasn't brought the good things, but I think the good things are far outweighed by the bad.

Speaker 1 My issue is we talk about TikTok and all these algorithms knowing us well.

Speaker 1 I think the thing we take for granted is that we're creating a feedback loop where the data that we're putting out becomes the data that we're getting in.

Speaker 1 What you don't realize is happening to you is, for the most part, the algorithm is

Speaker 1 contracting your view of the world and leaving you in a world where you like the things that you like. And it's just giving you slight versions of the things that you like that you like.

Speaker 1 Do you get what I'm saying? I do. And I worry about what it's going to do to us as a society.
I worry what it's already done.

Speaker 1 Now, I know some people are going to say, oh, but Trevor, I mean, because of social media, I know what's happening in the world. Yeah, we knew what was happening in the world before social media.

Speaker 4 Did we, though? We did.

Speaker 1 We did. But hold on.
We did. No, we knew.
We knew. Ask me about things.
I'll tell you if I knew. Okay, then.

Speaker 4 But here we've given the power. Social media.
Yes.

Speaker 4 And listen, I totally, one of the things I was thinking about in the lead up was maybe banning social media for kids who are under 16 and actually just letting them never have smartphones but only have phones where we can reach them and find out where they are because i don't think there's any good to be had from that but

Speaker 4 Essentially, back in the day, pre-social media, people would get their news from five organizations that would decide how to tell that news.

Speaker 4 And we have to acknowledge that now we are giving the individual power to tell their story that you're now taking away from them.

Speaker 1 Yes. I hear what you're saying.

Speaker 4 Which works for your dictatorship, but might not work for the world.

Speaker 1 I hear what you're saying, and I love you as my friend, but you're wrong. So the reason I say you're wrong with such confidence, Ben, is because I'm not saying that I will get rid of the internet.

Speaker 1 The internet still provides everybody the opportunity to, in some way, shape, or form share their opinions.

Speaker 1 Social media has created a specific machine, an algorithm that is tasked with one thing in particular, and that is keeping our attention, keeping us engaged. So I'm agreeing with you.

Speaker 1 Yes, there were maybe like five networks, but I think that would change. You know, cable news comes out, cable, television, cable, whatever.
But then there's also the internet.

Speaker 1 You can go on the internet, you can search something, there'll be other websites, there'll be other news, et cetera.

Speaker 1 Because in the same way that you're saying, social media has given individuals the opportunity to tell their stories, I think it's also robbed us of a collective understanding of what reality actually is.

Speaker 1 And I know, I know that I'm sacrificing some things, but the things that I I think we're benefiting from are the fact that reality starts to come back together because your feed can feed you a reality that isn't completely real.

Speaker 1 How many times have people looked at, like, let's look at just

Speaker 1 happy there? The thing is, you're unhappy there, I argue. But life is suffering.
Like, people are going to be unhappy, Trevor. Like, with or without the social.

Speaker 1 No, honestly, I think they're going to be unhappy. And I'd rather them be unhappy on their phones than out in the real world doing real damage.
But okay, think of it this way.

Speaker 1 Pre-social media, you are a crazy person somewhere in the world. Yeah.
You have a crazy idea. How do you connect with other crazy people? You start a religion and you have a home.
Very hard.

Speaker 1 But people's had cults.

Speaker 1 Very hard. So you're so

Speaker 1 hard to really block. Do you want to raise the...
threshold? Is that what you're saying?

Speaker 1 Back in the day, a crazy person had to be on the corner holding a flyer telling you why you have to join their thing to to end the government.

Speaker 4 That is what you're saying, and again, I'm okay with it if you want to be that kind of dictator, but what you're essentially saying is...

Speaker 1 I don't like the fact that you're calling me a dictator. You're asking if I rule.

Speaker 4 You're sat in a room with your name everywhere. I just said.

Speaker 1 No, no, no.

Speaker 4 You can't move for Trevor Noah apparel.

Speaker 1 Yes, but it says with Trevor Noah.

Speaker 1 With. It's a small word.
And you are with. And you're with.
I am with. And I think it's important to remember that.
Okay. With.

Speaker 4 But my point is, if you're saying there's mad people who we're giving a voice to, what you're essentially saying is you want to clamp down on free speech.

Speaker 1 Yeah, censorship. I'm not saying that.
You are.

Speaker 4 You are, because you're saying there's crazy people on the street corner. We're now giving them a megaphone.
I'm not disagreeing with you that we're.

Speaker 1 I'm not sure if you're not Elon Musk paid you, Ben. Oh, no, I'm not.

Speaker 4 I mean, all about the TikTok dances.

Speaker 1 You know what I mean? That's why I don't want to lose.

Speaker 4 Think of all the avocado toast recipes I'm going to miss out on. No, I'm just saying that your reason on the one hand is because we're unhappy and I can take that.

Speaker 4 And then you moved on to the algorithm is damaging. And now you're saying there's crazy people on the corner we're giving a megaphone to.
That's a wide spray of bullets you're going with.

Speaker 1 Because I think it's a wide spray of bullets that's affected us so let's break them down really quickly so i'll give them to you as a list the reasons i say we should get rid of it right in my world if i rule the world number one yeah misinformation and disinformation spreading at a rate that is far far far quicker than any other traditional media could be number two limiting people's ability to live a life online that is making them more alone, more lonely, and feel artificially connected when in fact they're not.

Speaker 1 That's fair. Right? Because

Speaker 1 it presents the veneer of connection that that isn't in fact there. Number three, I would go with it's fracturing our collective reality.
Now, I'm not saying we have to agree on it or disagree.

Speaker 1 I'm not saying that. I'm just saying we all have to agree that it happened or it didn't happen.
And I think social media is fracturing that. Social media is breaking it down.

Speaker 1 I'm not saying my world would change. But Trevor, don't you think that like...
Wait, so neither of you agree with me here?

Speaker 1 Wow. You guys are parents, by the way.
The reason I don't agree is because I just think. You're going to wish your kids lived in my kingdom.

Speaker 1 Listen. Maybe.
The world's a mess. I don't disagree, but I think social media is just exposing how fractured we already were.
Most people never had a real sense of collective reality.

Speaker 1 No, how can you say this? Honestly, people. The grafts for loneliness, the grafts for loneliness, if you look at it, if you look at it as a graph,

Speaker 1 all that's happened. Like it's, I'll say from the Industrial Revolution, that's when it really starts to go up.
But if you look at loneliness from social media times, it's

Speaker 1 because we live in this like

Speaker 1 hyper-capitalistic culture where people have to work all the time, where people don't have money for like holidays and housing. Very valid.
Cost of living. Very valid.

Speaker 1 Even if people didn't have social media, they wouldn't have the means for connection because we're in this capitalist hellscape. I can agree with many.

Speaker 1 I can agree with many parts of that. Social media is just a reflection of like these kind of dystopian times we're in.

Speaker 4 You know what my favorite part of social media is?

Speaker 4 Close friends friends on Instagram. That little button.
Have you ever used a little close friends? Because then it can just be the 15 of you that you allow into your world.

Speaker 4 And then it's not a status thing. It's not a opinionated thing.

Speaker 4 It's just a little close community.

Speaker 1 Just putting it out there.

Speaker 4 There's lots of good things about social media.

Speaker 1 Lots of good things? Wow. I met my husband on Twitter.
Wow. There you go.
Look at that. People, people, okay.
Here's what I'm trying to understand here. You're going to meet her husband on Twitter.

Speaker 1 Guys, let's go with the children.

Speaker 1 Are you saying that you wouldn't want her children to exist? I can't believe you're good. Just because you met your husband on Twitter does not mean Twitter is now a good thing.

Speaker 1 A good thing can come from a bad thing. There are people who've met someone they like in prison.
I don't like prisons.

Speaker 1 I'm not cheering for prisons.

Speaker 4 I'm so sorry.

Speaker 1 He's being so rude to you.

Speaker 4 Tell me about that. I think there's lots of negative things.
One of the things that I was thinking about genuinely was like in the things when you said, let's do it about what we would change.

Speaker 4 I was going to say, let's ban social media for our under-17.

Speaker 1 Okay, so now let me ask you this question. Let me ask you this.
Why would you ban it for under-16s and not for over 16s if it is such a good thing for the world?

Speaker 4 I didn't say it was such a good thing for the world. I said I don't think it needs to be banned.

Speaker 1 If I remember correctly, I think it needs to be regulated. If we rewind the tape, you will hear Ben Winston say, I love it.
It is the best thing in the world. I want to dance with dictators.

Speaker 4 See, that's the problem with AI. You've made me say that, and I never said that.

Speaker 1 No, but really, why would you say that?

Speaker 1 Because you're having lunch with the CIA. So why would you ban it?

Speaker 4 I would ban it because I actually think the biggest problem with social media isn't about what you've said.

Speaker 4 I actually think the biggest problem with it is the insecurity that kids feel and the bullying that can happen on there.

Speaker 4 And that's what worries me about social media far more than like an adult reading a Twitter feed and they should just know better to believe and research facts that they're getting that are true or false.

Speaker 1 So if I'm hearing you correctly, you're saying that

Speaker 1 children are affected by the bullying and the shaping of their reality, but adults are not?

Speaker 4 I think adults have a freedom of being able to not feel as pressurized and if they want to enter into that world where they're bullied like when people say and this is gonna this is gonna be brutal when i say this but i'm saying it anyway like you know when people go in the news and they're like i've had death threats i've had death threats on my twitter i've had death threats i'm like what just don't go on twitter

Speaker 4 we're not talking like somebody sending a letter to your house where they've cut up like magazine letters and like real deaths we're just saying like some dickhead on Twitter who's like DM I'm like just don't go on social media if it's so upsetting for you but like for me I had I was on a flight yesterday I had an hour to kill I went on TikTok and you said a lovely time No, I actually had a lovely time I looked at Arsenal scores I watched clips it the algorithm what is frightening about it is the algorithm now knows me better than I know me yeah because like it started sending me this show about a porn shop not not like sexual porn porn p-a-w-n correct which i know it's like from the 90s this shop this porn shop in detroit and it's decided tick tock that i will like it and it's right i really do and now i'm like i it's showing me it knows what I like more than I would.

Speaker 4 If I saw that on a cable menu, I'd be like, I'm not going to watch that.

Speaker 1 Another reason I'd ban it.

Speaker 1 The algorithm's too precise? Another reason I've banned it.

Speaker 4 Such a precise algorithm. Do you not worry that you wouldn't be here if it wasn't for social media? Would you have become, without social media and without people going, oh, I love that guy.

Speaker 4 I want to hear him talk about this. It's unlikely that you would have had the success that you've had.
We would not be sat here today on your with your name on the mugs if it wasn't for social media.

Speaker 4 So are you not worried about the fact that you're cutting the hand that feeds you? What's the expression?

Speaker 1 I am willing to accept that there will be some things we lose in society.

Speaker 4 Because now you've got the house and cars. No, no, no, no, no.

Speaker 1 No, no, no. And I mean that honestly.
I mean that honestly. I go, I think sometimes it's hard for us to think about the possibility of a better future because we haven't lived in it.

Speaker 1 And I don't even mean this in like a dark way. Like if I didn't grow up in an abusive household, I might not be here with you.
Right. But would I want that for myself?

Speaker 1 Are you saying that abuse primed you for a friendship with Ben Wisconsin?

Speaker 4 In many ways, it did.

Speaker 1 In many ways, it did. Okay.
But what I'm saying is, what I'm saying is, like, I do not think that we have to accept something bad because there has been good that has come out of it.

Speaker 1 There will always be good that comes out of bad things. Okay.
But in my world, if I ruled it, I would get social media and I would ban it. We would still have the internet.

Speaker 1 We would still have TV and radio.

Speaker 1 I'm not like creating North Korea, people. Yeah, no, I can't.
You would just have to learn your own dances

Speaker 1 in your own world.

Speaker 4 you're gonna miss it so much and you'd have to discover TV shows on your own so okay votes Ben are you in my world or not no no I'm afraid not I think you're I think no I wouldn't want to ban social media entirely because I think whenever you take something away yeah you create a vacuum that's filled with something else and I worry more about what will fill that vacuum than what we will have by it okay all right fine and I also think Christiana would never have met her husband you would never have been sat here necessarily because of all of the things that went viral all of this fine All of this.

Speaker 1 But you two. All of this.

Speaker 1 All of this. Christiana, are you voting for my world or not? No, not voting.
And your reason is?

Speaker 1 I just think that humans are going to suffer anyway. And I'd rather suffer in a world where I can doom scroll on TikTok at 1 a.m.
in the morning.

Speaker 1 Okay, well,

Speaker 1 on that positive note. So cheat, we'll take a quick break, and then when we come back, let's see what would happen if Christiana ruled the world.

Speaker 1 And then we're going to see what would happen if Ben ruled the world.

Speaker 1 It's a great place. Yeah, it's a great place for us.
We'll see. We'll see.
We'll be right back.

Speaker 1 We're going to continue this conversation right after this short break.

Speaker 1 Okay. So I created the perfect world and neither of you want to live in it.
Although you will send your kids to live in my world until they're 16. Which tells me a lot.
Which tells me a lot.

Speaker 1 Christiana. Yeah.

Speaker 1 What would you do if you ruled the world? If I ruled the world, I would abolish private schools. Wow.
And say that every child goes to a school assigned by a blind lottery.

Speaker 1 So you don't know where in your city or your district where your child would go to school. Because I believe that would incentivize rich parents to make sure all schools are good.

Speaker 1 Because you don't know where your child is going to end up. And I'd make it mandatory for people in the community to volunteer in the school.
You'd have to to get like a CRB check.

Speaker 1 We'd have to make sure you're not a paedophile or a weirdo and stuff like that. Hmm.
Abolish private schools. Hmm.

Speaker 4 Now, Trevor, without children, is probably never considered schooling or what it would mean.

Speaker 1 I'm sorry. I spent

Speaker 1 20 years of my life in schools, my friend. I'll have you know that.
Okay.

Speaker 1 So it's not a lot about schools. It's not a lot about schools.
I spent half of my life in schools. I'll be honest, my initial instinct is yes.
Like you, you, you know, I

Speaker 1 like this idea quite a bit, but, but let me ask you a few questions. Sure.
Are you afraid

Speaker 1 that

Speaker 1 you'll rob kids of community? Because a lot of the time schools represent the communities that they're in.

Speaker 1 And while they may not be perfect when it comes to the education that they dole out, but I do think we shouldn't take for granted what it feels like to be in a school that is part of your community and what it's like to hang out with kids that speak your languages or come from your cultures or you know, you know what I mean?

Speaker 1 How would you deal with that?

Speaker 1 Well, my counter is that like most rich people like the idea of a neighborhood school is collapsed for rich people it doesn't exist rich people like will drive in LA they'll go 45 minutes across town

Speaker 1 to a fancy private school and be like I don't want you to be around these people but I'm not talking about them I'm talking about let's say the poor middle class oh this even better they need to be able to be like this is who's probably gonna be your boss perhaps right they need to be integrated and be exposed to how like the wealthy and affluent people live I'm actually doing this social experiment where everyone gets thrown into the blender together earlier because the problem is it happens too late.

Speaker 1 It happens if you're really lucky, if you're a poor kid, maybe you get to go to an elite college and you get there and you have a miserable time because you're like, who are these people?

Speaker 1 They've played sports I've never played. They have references I don't understand and it's an isolating experience or you get.

Speaker 1 to meet them in the workplace and you're like, oh, I don't want to be around these people. They like air conditioning.
It's always cold. Why do white people want to be cold all the time?

Speaker 1 If you go to school with them, you're like, oh, white people like to be cold. And you're used to it, you know?

Speaker 1 Okay. It's very cold.
Yeah. Here's a

Speaker 1 here's a thought that I have, though. Yeah, but here's a thought that I have.

Speaker 1 We're now making the assumption that your opportunities in life come from your school. Yeah.

Speaker 1 When in fact, there may just be a correlation between who goes to these schools and the opportunities that they receive. Well, that's why I'm saying if it's a lottery, right?

Speaker 1 But that's just a lottery for the school. Yeah, it's a lottery for the school.
So you could be like the poorest kid in your city

Speaker 1 sitting next to the kid of, say, Bill Gates, right?

Speaker 1 Bill Gates is going to make sure that's a good school.

Speaker 1 I hear you.

Speaker 1 The spread of opportunities, the speakers that you get at the school, the sports you do at the school, the computers you use. Trust me.
I'm just trying to spread the opportunity.

Speaker 1 I don't think you're allowed to donate.

Speaker 1 Because parents...

Speaker 4 You're allowed to donate.

Speaker 1 Well, sure.

Speaker 1 No, I'm saying, but that's a big part of your damn.

Speaker 4 No, because that's what you're essentially.

Speaker 1 No, I see what you've done.

Speaker 1 I just see what you've done because then you're turning it into a private school. No, no, no, but that's what a lot of these like good public schools are essentially, right?

Speaker 1 They are privatized public schools in good neighborhoods because to send your kid to that school, you need to be able to afford a $2 million house. Ben,

Speaker 1 jump in with your point.

Speaker 1 This is like watching a football match and I see a counter. But wait, wait, wait, wait, but wait.
So what it does, I actually don't care as much about like the parents giving their money.

Speaker 1 It's the parents who can afford to give their time. The mothers and the fathers, let me be politically correct, who make things.

Speaker 1 You know, all these people that look out for the teachers, like that type of like social capital, the thing that is like very intangible, those parents.

Speaker 1 I want those parents to be involved in all children's lives.

Speaker 4 Well, no, I was going to say that the issue you're bringing up is on the one hand, we're saying we don't want private schools and we don't want extra funding for certain schools, but then with the other hand, you're going, a kid can sit next to Bill Gates's kid, and then they got lucky because Bill Gates then funds the school.

Speaker 1 And then essentially, well, he does.

Speaker 4 You said he put his money in. I mean, but to put his money in to make sure that school's good.

Speaker 4 So then, when he's funded that school, then that school suddenly suddenly becomes the Bill Gates school.

Speaker 1 No, you're describing a charter school. I don't want charter schools.

Speaker 4 No, but you're actively seeking donations from

Speaker 4 alongside.

Speaker 1 Oh, no donations. No donations.
Oh, wow.

Speaker 1 No donations.

Speaker 4 But then you want Bill Gates to bake rather than donate.

Speaker 1 No, no, no, because I'm like, when you go to, and I say this as someone who, like, for primary school, it wasn't the best school.

Speaker 1 Secondary school is a very okay school, but I ended up doing well in life. My son goes to a really nice school, right? Yeah.

Speaker 1 And the level of investment, I just mean personally from the parents and the time they can give, I'm like, oh, it makes a difference. And not all kids have that.

Speaker 1 Some kids have parents that work nightshare.

Speaker 4 It's knock-on effect for the government funding for schooling. If we put your plan into place, if you ruled the world, where are you going to get the absolute millions that it takes? Because

Speaker 1 where they get the money for the bombs. I agree.
I mean, you see those bombs.

Speaker 1 The bomb money.

Speaker 4 Agree with her. The bombs

Speaker 4 or the my point?

Speaker 1 No, no, no. Christiana's point.
I think she's right here. There's the money.

Speaker 1 They had the money when they wanted us all to take the COVID vaccine shot, which I took. I'm not an anti-vaxxer, guys, but but before you get on me,

Speaker 1 the money,

Speaker 1 the money is

Speaker 1 right. They spent a trillion dollars on the F-35 jet that didn't work.
They've got the money.

Speaker 4 But that is such a ridiculous way of playing politics. No, but they're going.

Speaker 1 They're going, let's create a huge problem that will put a problem. Why are we creating the problem?

Speaker 1 Investing in children is a problem. No, quite the opposite.

Speaker 4 Okay, I would say you're actually investing less in children.

Speaker 1 No, I'm investing in more children.

Speaker 1 Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I'll say this and then you speak and then we'll go from there.
So So

Speaker 1 I think what Christiana is saying,

Speaker 1 if you misinterpret how the money moves, it can seem like you're creating a gap.

Speaker 1 But if you look at how we currently run schools, let's say in America, and many parts of the world is different, but in the U.S., for the most part, a school's success or failure, if it's not private, is determined by the zip code that it exists within.

Speaker 1 In Christiana's world, if I'm correct, and you will correct me if I'm wrong, I think what Christiana is saying is our tax dollars now become amortized and you can't just aim rich neighborhood money into one school where they now have like random programs like lacrosse donkey dancing which is excess money vibes and it goes to all the schools and so she's saying because of that because all schools will get all money and all parents will have kids in all schools all parents will want all schools to be good because they don't know where their kid will end up so it's not more money It's just the money will be spread out differently.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I'm not sure that's right.

Speaker 4 Because I think that private schooling essentially means that there is a load of government money that is not needed because it's taken care of by those wealthier parents who can afford private schools.

Speaker 4 Let's say, and I don't know the percentage, what percentage would you think go to private schools over public schools?

Speaker 1 People or money.

Speaker 4 No, no, people. Let's say in America.

Speaker 1 People is nothing but money, is the thing I'm worried about.

Speaker 4 But my point is, is that that amount of money is coming from the parents, it's not coming from the government.

Speaker 1 Yeah, we don't care.

Speaker 4 But let's say it's 10% of schools. Now you're taking that 10% and you're creating that burden on the state school.

Speaker 1 So that's not all.

Speaker 4 Because now you're having to to spread how much investment you're making and you're not allowing donations from parents in your system.

Speaker 4 So suddenly an education system that was already stretched, that didn't have money, you're now going, all of those people that were willing to pay for education, so it wasn't our government problem.

Speaker 4 Now you are our problem.

Speaker 1 So this is what I'm saying. So like in LA USD, like in LA right now, they are under-enrolled because of combination of COVID, people leaving California and all of this stuff.

Speaker 1 And that's like a lot of schools are at risk of closure. This is true.

Speaker 1 And when we say you can no longer have that route of plucking your child out of this system, it creates a different set of expectations of the government.

Speaker 1 So parents like yourself are going to be like, you're going to make sure that's a good school, right? Forget the money. It's never about the money.
The systems are underserved.

Speaker 1 There aren't actually enough students. Like the schools are under-enrolled.
And by the way,

Speaker 1 it's actually, I just want to say that this is a thing that I find a lot of affluent black and Asian parents like have a dilemma about. It's something I think about a lot.

Speaker 4 How one of your kids, what's your oldest?

Speaker 1 So my eldest kid is four. And my youngest is 10 months.
And the funny thing is, with the public schools that are really good, they're not very diverse, right? But the private schools are more diverse.

Speaker 1 So, like, now it's like, I want to send him to a good school, right? And in my mind, I'm like, okay, public school, great option, free, but there's a risk he'd be the only black kid in the class.

Speaker 1 Private school, that's not the case. You've got black kid, Asian kid, Jewish kid,

Speaker 1 and the private school is really, they're like, we care about diversity and inclusion for our school brochure. So they're like,

Speaker 1 do you know what I mean? So they're like, we make sure we like, we want one of everything. Like they'll be like, yeah, we've got a non-binary Latino kid with four.
So what are you going to do?

Speaker 1 You know what I mean? Like, I don't know what I'm going to do. You haven't decided.
I don't know what I'm going to do. That's why I want to ban them.

Speaker 1 So wait, wait, wait. So here's, here's something I would want to ask about your magical world, right? This is you ruling this world.

Speaker 1 Unfortunately, when you look at history, you will see that time and time again, if you

Speaker 1 try to do this type of system, people who are rich, people who may be a little bit racist I'm not even saying racist people I'm just saying a little bit racist like you know racist life

Speaker 1 just sprinkled with racism

Speaker 1 those types of people will find ways to get their kids out of or into something else let's look at a recent example COVID COVID came yeah a lot of parents didn't agree with what was happening and what did these parents do they were like you know what We're actually taking our kids out of this little Zoom system you have.

Speaker 1 And we're going to create little pods. I believe you now may create with your system.

Speaker 1 You may actually create a bootlegger movement of schools where parents are going to be underground with like species. Listen, that's happening in this country already.

Speaker 1 You've got this homesteading movement, unschooling movement, homeschool movement. You don't think yours would accelerate it more? Well,

Speaker 1 I think there's always going to be like the people who say, I'm going to pull my kid out. I'm going to try and get around the system.
But most humans, especially parents, are lazy.

Speaker 1 This is what you underestimate. People are very lazy and no one wants to be with their kid all day.
Oh my God. No, no, no.

Speaker 1 If, like, if you're like, okay, you say to the mums and the dads, you have to be a parent who teaches your kid, they'd rather kill themselves.

Speaker 1 They're going to start it, I'm sure. But some people will be like, okay, we're going to do our pod.

Speaker 1 Week two. They're going to be like, send these bastards back to that integrated lottery school and they're going to figure it out.
I just think.

Speaker 1 I'll throw this last thing for myself out. Just from history, you would think this would be the case, but don't ever forget, America used to have public swimming pools.
They were everywhere.

Speaker 1 People would go to the corner, they would jump in the pool, see you at the pool, Bobby, see you at the pool, Jamie. Everybody loved the public pool.
You watch movies from back then.

Speaker 1 There was always a public pool. That's where the bully was.
I'm going to punch you.

Speaker 1 And then one day, America passed a law. And America said, these pools should also be open to black children.
And the black children came to the pools.

Speaker 1 And initially, there was just a little bit of racism, people being like, you shouldn't be here. You're making the water black.
And people peed in the water while they were in it.

Speaker 1 Some people threw acid in, etc. But even though, even that, even as that died down, what happened to the pools? They started closing.
They stopped getting funding.

Speaker 1 People were like, I don't know if we need pools. And what happened at that exact time?

Speaker 1 Private pools started going up. The idea of having a private body of water in your house was a crazy concept pre-the 1960s.
And now everyone's like, I want a house with a pool. I want, why?

Speaker 1 Because there is no pool. And I think what you may be creating unintentionally is a world where those same people will go, okay, actually,

Speaker 1 why are schools even a thing in our society? Maybe we should close schools down. I mean, we're kind of on the road there with the charter system.

Speaker 1 But I think yours, I think yours would literally, as we say in South Africa,

Speaker 1 like lights off instantly. It would just be like an exodus.

Speaker 1 And we'd look back and go, wow, you remember, you know, there there used to be a time when there were schools, public schools, and people are like, I can't believe it. And they'd all be gone.

Speaker 1 And so that is why I would not be voting for your world, unfortunately. I think there are many great ideas, the ideas behind it.
Yeah. I love.

Speaker 1 But I would, as much as I would love to see Bill Gates' kid sitting next to some other kid from Compton who's telling him why Kendrick won the beef.

Speaker 1 Listen. Ben?

Speaker 4 I'm still reading from the pools thing. I thought people were just shutting them down because you got Varoukas.

Speaker 4 Well, that's why people didn't go to public pools that I rubber sock I had to wear as a kid. All that horrible fungus cream.

Speaker 4 It'd be hypocritical in a way for me to vote for it as someone who went to a Jewish primary school and then a private secondary school and like really enjoyed my oh well you see no no no before before we got your vote actually tell us more about that it's a it's a tricky one I think I think it gave me a lot of

Speaker 4 I think religion was always a really big part of my upbringing and my family's life and our heritage and our history and actually getting that education between the ages of four and eleven of who we were and where we'd come from kind of helped my identity even today so I think that there'll be a big part of me and the way I run my life every day that would be missing if I hadn't have gone to that Jewish primary school and because I'm happy with like how things have showed up in my life and how it turned up I wouldn't really want to change that or tweak that but I do think there is always a responsibility to make sure that children are are exposed to all ways of life, however that is, especially if they're in an insular school system.

Speaker 4 But I also think you make really good points about what you're saying with the community spirit of everybody

Speaker 4 being part of the same thing going forward. So I'm kind of on the fence.
I'm voting more against it than for. But I'm closer to voting for this than I ever am banning social media like Trevor said.

Speaker 1 The thing is what you said about the primary school you went to, when you don't have a child of that experience in the classroom classroom with you, it feels like an abstraction. That's true.

Speaker 1 And that's something I worry about, not just for my child's own identity as being black and Latino, like how he views himself, but then other people, if you're only in a very insular world where you don't see much outside of it, I think it's the one that's the one way I would augment my vote for you.

Speaker 1 If your world was school swap, I'd be in.

Speaker 1 So if you said for like two months of every year, kids all go to a different school, then I would be in. This is like a premise of like a Hollywood movie.

Speaker 1 I mean, we'll make it.

Speaker 1 It's a no vote for me. I think it's a no from.

Speaker 1 I tried. I made a point.
I think it's a no for me, but I developed a point.

Speaker 4 You've brought up great points that we genuinely, as parents, need to think about how, like, how we approach things and how we don't just push everybody else out of the way to get what we need for our children.

Speaker 4 And there is a sense of community and integration that's needed in the school system that currently maybe doesn't.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I feel like we should be equally invested in everyone's children, not just our own children. Because when that child grows up and robs you, you're gonna have some opinions on it.

Speaker 1 Yep, that's right. Every robber, everybody's child.
Don't ever forget that. Okay,

Speaker 1 we're gonna take a quick break. We're gonna come back with the final one: Ben Winston.
Oh, no, if I ruled the world,

Speaker 1 don't go anywhere because we got more. What now? After this,

Speaker 1 All right, this is it. We're back.
Time for the final, if I ruled the world. So far, we got two no's.

Speaker 1 Ben and Christiana voted against me. Clearly, the empire strikes back.
And then we voted against Christiana. So, Ben Winston.
Well,

Speaker 4 I thought about a few things on the way in, and they were, you know,

Speaker 4 flushes on toilets should be on the floor rather than on the wall.

Speaker 4 like for hygiene and then i was thinking about like i've used one of those they're great much better like a slow lane for people who are walking slowly. That stuff was annoying me.

Speaker 4 And then I started to do that.

Speaker 1 Japan does that naturally. I love it.

Speaker 4 Do you know what I mean? It's like there was stuff like, or like the fact that the plug changes depending on where you are in the world, and this should just be one, you know, straightforward one.

Speaker 4 And then I realized YouTube were coming up with really intelligent things. And I was like, oh shit, I better think about this.
So I was quite glad I came last.

Speaker 4 Just giving me a good 40 minutes to work out what I was going to do.

Speaker 4 I'm going to go for something that has, I think, been a positive effect in many people's lives, which came from religion, but for me, it isn't religious.

Speaker 1 And I think

Speaker 4 that we should make the seventh day, and not for religious reasons, because we're worried about a God or whatever else. I think the seventh day should be a day of rest where

Speaker 4 we go extreme. No electricity, no phones, no driving.
Where for one day, for 24 hours, we switch off.

Speaker 4 We exist with our family and friends. We eat together.
We drink together. We don't go down to the shops and get the stuff we had to prepare for it in advance.
We don't work.

Speaker 4 We exist with whatever we've got. We go for walks.
We enjoy each other's company. We switch off from everything else in the world.

Speaker 1 And I think that actually

Speaker 4 it comes from something that came in my childhood. I grew up Orthodox Jewish, right? So my family, they wouldn't use cars on Saturday.
We wouldn't use phones. We wouldn't work.

Speaker 4 And my dad is quite a well-known sort of infertility specialist. He would be working from 7 a.m.
to 11 p.m., six days a week.

Speaker 4 But from a Friday night to a Saturday night, as a religious family, we were just with each other.

Speaker 4 The time we would spend together, the joy that that would bring us, the switch off that we knew for 24 hours, I just had my dad and like nothing else mattered.

Speaker 4 And we would all be together and exist together, I think is such a beautiful thing to have and to almost like reset.

Speaker 4 Because whatever job you do whether you work down the store whether you host a podcast whether you're a doctor nurse whether you do something silly like make tv shows like i do it's always the most important thing in the world and if for one day you just turn off and just breathe for a minute i actually think that could be great for society and family values and everything okay this is this is very beautiful i'm gonna i'm gonna start by

Speaker 1 asking some questions just to

Speaker 1 clarify to understand yeah

Speaker 1 is everyone resting on the same day Correct.

Speaker 4 Everybody does the same date because otherwise,

Speaker 4 because we need other people. So, what we would have to do on this day is we would go, right,

Speaker 4 all day Saturday or Sunday or Friday, doesn't matter. We can choose.
I'm open to whatever my cabinet feels about it when we discuss it in government. But the one day that we choose, everything stops.

Speaker 1 Okay. Everything stops.
No flights. So if you are...

Speaker 4 No flights, because then you need the air hostess. I'm saying for one day we shut down.

Speaker 1 And think about

Speaker 1 hospitals. Wait, Wait, hospitals are allowed? Yeah.
So who's working in the hospital? Life and death.

Speaker 4 Anything that is life and death, shift work. Anything that is life and death, we carry on.
No one should die because of my policy. I don't want anyone to die.
I know I'm a kid.

Speaker 1 I'm afraid for some people, the liquor store is life and death. But then they can stock up.

Speaker 4 On the Friday, they stock up. Like many religious people do.
They get drunk on the Sabbath, but they stock up and you get ready for it. It would also be incredibly good for the environment.

Speaker 4 Because for a day, everything's grounded. Electricity, planes, cars.
It would be phenomenal for the world.

Speaker 1 And for one day, do you know what? We all just chill out. Okay, okay.
So, um, Christiana, you haven't, do you have anything? I have a, I have a bunch. So

Speaker 1 I like it.

Speaker 4 Thank you.

Speaker 1 In principle. Let's just vote now.
Let's go.

Speaker 1 This is the app. Because of like accents.

Speaker 1 This is. I just realized I'm.
I didn't want to like it because I'm a hypocrite. I should have been the American on this podcast because Josh is.
I should have.

Speaker 1 In fact, for the next of the segment, I'm just going to be, I'm going to be the American voice on this. I don't agree with what you guys are talking about.
Okay. This is trash.
We should watch.

Speaker 1 Okay, but Christiana, go ahead. You go ahead.
No, you know what it is?

Speaker 1 Because, like, growing up, we didn't have, we went to church on Sundays, but the thing is, it eventually, my dad's a pastor, so it felt like work. It was like, it was always a bit much.

Speaker 1 But what I did love was after church, we'd always have like a family meal and people would be over the house. Like, Sundays are a lot of good memories.
We'd have

Speaker 1 apple pie and custard. It just created that.
So there's something about a ritual as a collective group that is very

Speaker 1 grounding that I lack now. Do you know what I mean? Because, like, my mum's going to listen.
I don't go to church much. I don't go as much as she can.

Speaker 1 Got myself in trouble. But, like, you know, and the people in my world don't observe any rituals.

Speaker 1 Because, you know, there's a day where everyone's like, okay, Sunday, I'm going to be free, but everyone's so overscheduled, it's impossible to make plans.

Speaker 1 And I do feel if there's something like collective, we all know that you've got nothing happening on Sunday. I mean, can I just come up with that? We can come together.

Speaker 4 And I think what religion gives people, if you take out the religious bit, right?

Speaker 4 If you take out the God-fearing bit, you take out the going to church bit, you take out the guilt bit, you take out all of those elements, and then you're just left with a day of rest, actually, like literally rest, and that can be joy and fun and enjoyment.

Speaker 4 Then you've actually got the really great side that there can be no doubt that is beneficial to us all. I think, actually, just to go seventh day, bang.

Speaker 1 Okay, no worries. Okay, okay.
I love it. I feel you.
I get it. Thank you.
Okay. I think both of you are probably tired.
And so you're just like agreeing. Yeah, we're tired of it.

Speaker 1 Like ridiculous ideas right now. So let's go through this, Ben.
Let's go go through this. So maybe let's start at the top then, because you are ruling this world.

Speaker 1 What happens to people who don't rest?

Speaker 1 Do you arrest them?

Speaker 1 I'll be here all week, folks.

Speaker 1 Trevor Norris with the jokes.

Speaker 1 What do you do to them?

Speaker 4 What happens to somebody who drops somebody a line on your internet that has no social media? I mean, like, are we talking about discipline and punishment?

Speaker 1 No, yeah, no, and I'm being serious. I'm asking, I'm asking, what do you do? Because no one can use my social media because it's banned.
So I'm saying, what do you you do? Well, people don't rest.

Speaker 4 Well, roads are shut, so they can't drive, right?

Speaker 1 You're not allowed to... You just shut the roads.

Speaker 4 The police.

Speaker 1 So they shut them the night before?

Speaker 4 No, no, no. You just can't drive.

Speaker 1 The roads are... But how do you can't drive?

Speaker 4 Oh, you can drive actually for emergencies.

Speaker 1 So this is what I'm saying. So I'm talking about the pandemic is a perfect...
You know what I love about the pandemic? It was one of the most...

Speaker 1 powerful natural experiments that humans will probably never be able to conduct ever again.

Speaker 1 And one of the things that showed me is that while most of society will follow a rule, there are some people who are just like, whoa,

Speaker 1 I just heard you say roads are empty.

Speaker 1 That's how I find you. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, Ben, Ben, Ben.
This is not, remember, this is not me as trying to do that.

Speaker 4 No, I get it, but you're not acknowledging the great things I'm talking about.

Speaker 1 You're just saying, well, how are we going to enforce it? Ben, wait, wait, wait. Please understand this.

Speaker 1 As an optimist, the number one thing I have to do in my life is I first have to probe an idea with all the things that might make it fall apart before

Speaker 4 an optimist. If the first thing you're asking is, well, how do we enforce it? And people are going to do that.

Speaker 1 That's a cynical thing. No, no, no, no, no.

Speaker 1 Actually, the first thing I said was, that's beautiful.

Speaker 4 Thank you. That was the first thing I said.
I'm not sure you meant it.

Speaker 1 That's the first thing I said. I said, that's beautiful, Ben.
Thank you. That was the first thing I said.
So I'm just asking you, what happens to all the people who don't,

Speaker 4 I mean, lots of people break rules and laws.

Speaker 1 Yeah, but what happens to them in your world?

Speaker 4 They're fined.

Speaker 1 They're fined? They're fine.

Speaker 4 How are they? Not on the Saturday because they can't touch money.

Speaker 1 But then

Speaker 1 such things.

Speaker 1 But then how do you no money. Wait, but how do you know? But how do you know that they will win?

Speaker 4 Because there's no electricity, so you can't do online shopping and you can't touch money.

Speaker 1 How do you know who was breaking the rules?

Speaker 4 We've gone like that with the power, like we've shut down the electricity.

Speaker 1 Yeah, but how do you know who was breaking the rules? So, Trevor's gone out. You're really getting in the weeds.

Speaker 4 There's so many more problems than that.

Speaker 1 There's so many more problems than that.

Speaker 4 There's industries like if you're going to unpick it intelligently, then start thinking about, well, how are people going to travel to the hospitals?

Speaker 4 How are businesses and restaurants going to survive when one of their weekends are gone?

Speaker 1 The reason why they're

Speaker 4 going to to happen when at the weekend.

Speaker 1 No, so let me explain to you.

Speaker 1 This is why I'm starting with the rule. This is why I start with the rule.
Anytime you change the world with a rule, you then have to worry about rule breakers.

Speaker 1 So now you're saying people may not work. And now what I'm saying to you is if they do not work, what happens to them? Then you're like, well, we're going to have to find them.

Speaker 1 Then I go, but who's looking at them? We have to get some sort of police people to make sure that the police are working

Speaker 1 to make sure that people are not.

Speaker 4 That's not a good or bad idea, Trevor.

Speaker 1 I think there are some parts of it that I'm not. No, you're trying.
What you're saying is... You're forcing me to rest on a day.
I don't want to rest on one day. Why must I rest on your day?

Speaker 4 You can rest on all seven days if you like.

Speaker 1 No, no, no, but

Speaker 1 I'm not going to rest on more days. What if I'm saying that? What if I like to rest for a week and then work non-stop for other weeks? What kind of dictatorship is this?

Speaker 1 Well, you're forcing people to sleep.

Speaker 4 I'm forcing people to have a day where they just take a breath, they surround themselves with people that matter to them.

Speaker 1 What if those people are far from them?

Speaker 4 Where we literally make them...

Speaker 1 What if those people are far from them? To move neighborhoods.

Speaker 1 I mean,

Speaker 1 move neighborhoods.

Speaker 1 But what are you saying? You're saying that

Speaker 4 the world only existed when we had electricity.

Speaker 1 No. So therefore, pre-electricity, pre-public travel.

Speaker 1 Pre-League, pre-cars, the world was a disaster. Wait, no, that's a false argument.
People enjoyed themselves. Let me explain why it's a false argument, and it's not the right comparison.

Speaker 1 Before we had the electricity and the trains and everything, people were generally confined to the places where they lived. We now live in societies where people are not where they were always.

Speaker 1 So some people have had to go work somewhere where their family is not.

Speaker 1 Some people have had to go live somewhere where their friends are not.

Speaker 1 So now what I'm asking is: if somebody works a job that ends at night, like late shift on the day before the seventh day, how do they then get to their friends and family?

Speaker 1 Some people live four hours away, three hours away.

Speaker 4 So at nine o'clock, they can get there. It's four hours, but then by midnight, they wake up for the day of rest with their family.

Speaker 1 I don't know. Christiana, this is the reason to hump.
My only modification would be the no electricity thing. Okay.

Speaker 1 Just for, especially for me, like, I love music and there's something to like being elected. In In Ben's world, you better learn guitar later.
I know, like, but there's something about being

Speaker 1 beatbox. I know, I want to be at the dinner table, play some Clio Sol in the background.
Like, there's something like that.

Speaker 1 So, there's something about the because I listen, I'm a musician, I play piano, but I don't want to play piano.

Speaker 1 That's what so, like, there's something about like music and the atmosphere, and so for some people, it's a cookout with the DJ. Yeah, we need electricity for that.
No, I think so.

Speaker 1 Someone's cooking at this cookout. I don't, I don't know.

Speaker 1 It's the BNA.

Speaker 1 You're creating fire. They're not allowed to create anything new.
Okay, I think we should modernize it.

Speaker 1 We need to modernize it. We can need to modernize it.
I'll accept that. Because for some people, like cooking is a recipe.

Speaker 1 No. Okay, no, electricity.
Cooking? No. I think it needs to be.
No, it needs the electricity.

Speaker 1 What if somebody's on a fire? No, you can do an open fire.

Speaker 4 Oh, no. I said life and death.

Speaker 1 Don't try and pull me up on the life and death.

Speaker 4 I said life and death.

Speaker 4 What I'm saying is, firstly, Trevor, I know you are breaking out in hives about staying still for a day in your own peace.

Speaker 4 Because one minute you're in Bhutan, the next minute you're in Dubai the next minute you're on at the Hollywood bowl then you're meeting with the CIA for lunch I understand that just standing still for a day and being surrounded by love and human beings is difficult for you but I think you will find a community locally and you know what if you're far away from people go for a walk everybody else will be out for a walk people won't be on their phones there's something nice about community and community has been destroyed by the modern way of life.

Speaker 4 And what I'm saying is, wouldn't it be beautiful if we all just went back for one day, just one day, and we just had a little simple, beautiful life where we actually had a moment to spend time with the people we love

Speaker 4 and to and to just appreciate

Speaker 1 what we have. I love that idea.

Speaker 4 Before you know it, we're all dead and we've just been running around on the freeway.

Speaker 1 Can I just say struggling to get to a meeting? Can I just say, and I hope this is very clear, I love the sentiment behind that idea. It is fantastic.
Thank you, Trevor.

Speaker 4 It's beautiful.

Speaker 1 It is beautiful. Now, I think the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Speaker 1 I'm saying if we create one day where everybody has to rest, where everybody has to do it the same, we may not necessarily get to what you think we're going to get to because there are some people who go, I don't like my rest being on a predefined day.

Speaker 1 And then some people might go, okay, Ben, what if we want to do another day?

Speaker 1 And the reason I'm asking these questions is because it takes me or it makes us all think about many of the things that we have lost in creating a world where people can move around a bit more.

Speaker 1 And that is, it becomes a little more fractured, fractured, right? So what I'm saying, and I mean this honestly, it's not me just trying to play devil's advocate.

Speaker 1 What happens when Christiana wants it to be Tuesday? And Trevor goes, well, I like Thursdays off. And then Ben goes, no, I like Sundays off.

Speaker 1 What happens in that world?

Speaker 4 So you like the idea,

Speaker 4 you back the idea. The only problem you've got with it is you want to choose different days to have

Speaker 4 a chance. In the same way that the Christian day is a Sunday, the Jewish day is a Saturday, the Muslim days are Friday.
I think if I'm right.

Speaker 4 What you're saying is you like the variety, but you love my idea, you just don't like it all being on the same day.

Speaker 1 Is that what I'm saying? That's why I'm here.

Speaker 1 Forget I.

Speaker 1 There's no I in this. Okay.

Speaker 4 Well, what we're looking at does have your name on the mug.

Speaker 1 But it doesn't have I. No, and what it says with.
What we're looking at is with each other. We're looking at

Speaker 1 what happens when your world

Speaker 1 suits some more than others. What happens then?

Speaker 4 Well, that is life, isn't it?

Speaker 1 And who decides then?

Speaker 4 Well, it's I ruled the world. That's the name of the game.
So when you say who decides, if you're going to do a podcast and you're going to invite me here as the 15th choice guest,

Speaker 4 and you're going to say,

Speaker 4 if you ruled the world, what would you do?

Speaker 4 And then when I give you a very, very well thought-out plan that's much better than banning social media or scrapping schooling systems as we know it, and then you go.

Speaker 4 And then you go, and then you go, who's going to be in charge? I'm going to say, well, you just told me I am because you created a stupid game called If You Ruled the World.

Speaker 1 Well, I'm going to put my vote in and I'm going to say if I was voting for the system, I would say no

Speaker 1 because I think it would lead to unnecessary unrest. I think it would lead to massive conflicts.

Speaker 1 I think it would lead to a group of people, we'll call them the Thursdays, who would rise up and want to know why their day is not the day. Shame on you.

Speaker 1 And I, unfortunately, cannot vote for this, even though, and I must reiterate, I love the sentiment. And I mean this not facetiously, my friend.

Speaker 1 I genuinely believe, and it's why I do it in my life as well with my people.

Speaker 1 It's so important to take time off, to be with people, but I unfortunately cannot vote for your world where it's enforced on everybody on the same day because I don't think that will lead to peace.

Speaker 1 I think that day will be the day of revolution. And so my vote is no, Christiana?

Speaker 1 Yes, but with a caveat okay i would need electricity okay

Speaker 1 but then wait does that mean cars though no i don't i don't i hate driving wait so you wait okay so your world's gonna have electricity well hold on which electricity can we define how what you i wouldn't want to cook i hate cook i don't i'm very

Speaker 4 you essentially want you essentially want

Speaker 1 to negotiate here atmosphere you want music you want to be able to play around yeah i think music is a big part of the black experience okay and having a day of rest where black people the black experience no no i'm saying ben is screwed now what is no i'm saying a day of rest going to say no to to the black experience now?

Speaker 1 A day of rest where black people.

Speaker 1 A day of rest where black people can't watch

Speaker 1 what they like or play music. Ben, tell us why you don't want the black experience.
Yeah, why don't you want black people to listen to music on their special day of rest?

Speaker 4 As the minority on this podcast,

Speaker 4 let me tell you about the minority experience.

Speaker 4 With you two and Josh, I,

Speaker 4 as the minority,

Speaker 4 no, you know, listen, here's the deal.

Speaker 4 Nothing's passed today.

Speaker 4 Everything's got shut down.

Speaker 4 There've been two no's right this I'm about to win the game because when you vote that means two one it passes because you're you got two one against you you got two one against you because I voted before before you're before you're amending so please okay.

Speaker 4 So what I'm gonna

Speaker 4 here's what I'm gonna allow guys.

Speaker 1 Yeah, okay.

Speaker 4 So in Orthodox Judaism what they have so that people can cook is for 24 hours they plug in a little hot plate and they have a little kettle and it lasts 24 hours. It's just what they do.

Speaker 4 So so so with that spirit in mind, I'm going to make a little exception. And everybody can buy a little generator.
You have it in your house, so it's limited because we don't want people to go crazy.

Speaker 4 We don't want like a whole, you know, everyone going wild, but you'll have your generator. And therefore, if you want to play music, it will happily do that for the day.

Speaker 4 I accept that will mean that you get your rest. Some people don't want to sit in quiet.
My wife's one, she can't accept the quiet, she goes insane with it, she needs stuff in the background.

Speaker 4 So, I think with a little bit of generator, I think in order to get this policy through, like all good politics, you need a few amendments to get through Congress.

Speaker 4 I'm willing to provide this solution so that we can vote on this and we'll have a day of rest.

Speaker 1 Okay, so Christiana,

Speaker 1 you vote yes now.

Speaker 1 All right, so now that it's changed, I should be able to vote again because that's how it works.

Speaker 1 I think that's how it works.

Speaker 4 Once it's changed, you so. But it's still on the same day, Trevor.
I'm not shirking from that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 So now I will vote yes as well. Wow.
I will vote yes as well. Wow.
Because I will team up with all of my friends. We will combine our generators.
And we're throwing a concert.

Speaker 1 It is the only show in town. If you want to come and watch Trevor Noah perform with all his friends at the we're going to call it the Electricity is a Live Bash, come on through.

Speaker 1 We've got charging, we've got phone charging, we've got food cooking,

Speaker 1 we've got music playing,

Speaker 1 we've got movies because we've got all the generators and we've combined them. And the good news is there's no police because they're not allowed to work today.

Speaker 1 The vote is yes, Ben Wilson, you've won the game. Thank you so much for coming, everybody.
Welcome to another episode of What Now, if I Ruled the world

Speaker 1 with Trevor Noah.

Speaker 1 What Now with Trevor Noah is produced by Spotify Studios in partnership with Day Zero Productions and Fullwell73.

Speaker 1 The show is executive produced by Trevor Noah, Ben Winston, Sanaz Yamin, and Jodi Avigan. Our senior producer is Jess Hackle.
Marina Henke is our producer.

Speaker 1 Music, Mixing, and Mastering by Hannes Brown. Thank you so much for listening.
Join me next Thursday for another episode of What Now.