In conversation with Tucker Carlson, plus OpenAI chaos explained

The episode opens with the hosts teasing David Sacks, whose wish to host Tucker Carlson has come true. The tone is set by one mock-grand line.

This is the greatest day in the history of the all in

The host introduces Carlson as the top-rated TV host for much of the past decade, fired from Fox News on April 24th for reasons the host says were never pinned down. He now runs a show on X with 42 episodes, whose guests include Donald Trump, Andrew Tate and Dave Portnoy. The first question asks why he was fired and what drives him now.

Carlson says he was never told why he was fired and can only speculate. He mentions several factors, including unpopular opinions, and says he was surprised only in the short term.

it kind of is an agatha Christie story

He accepts the decision as the owners' right, saying he worked at the pleasure of the family that runs the company. The hosts call firing a top performer without notes odd business, and one says ratings fell afterward. Carlson answers that anyone delivering bad news owes an explanation.

On advertisers, Carlson claims pharma is television's biggest advertiser and that a sponsor like Pfizer makes questioning the vaccine unlikely. He adds that in 14 years at Fox no one personally told him what not to say.

He says his unpopular positions on the Ukraine war, COVID vaccines, lockdowns and COVID's origins have been vindicated. On January 6th he says four people resigned over his suggestion that federal agents were in the crowd. These are Carlson's own claims, and the discussion does not test them.

He calls the Murdochs polite and says they assured him of his right to speak. His speculation is that, like Trump, he is disliked by affluent, educated people in NGOs, government and finance.

With his college roommate, Carlson concluded the country is not a democracy even loosely. He claims the public conversation reflects the narrow concerns of angry, affluent, middle-aged women, who he says hold outsized power over what can be discussed.

He cites trans issues and Black Lives Matter as picky priorities for a country of 360 million with bigger problems. His roommate predicts the focus will pass because it is too stupid, returning the country to questions about population, water and energy.

Asked about a protest at the Rockefeller Center tree lighting, Carlson says the focus on foreign conflicts is part of the same pattern. He compares it to rearranging his bookshelves as a magazine writer facing a Friday deadline.

I would transfer all my anxiety onto something I felt I could control

His top priority is national cohesion, meaning what a majority has in common. He argues early twentieth-century immigration brought volatility, including bombings, and that without a shared civic religion the country could not withstand an economic crisis today.

Carlson says the Depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps kept people fed and focused and held the country together. He doubts that a country with no agreed idea of what it means to be American could survive a similar shock today, and says what matters is having a shared civic religion, not which one.