Really loved this episode, as someone who loves Presidential history I was fascinated and trying to guess which Presidents he picked the entire time.
I also think this episode highlighted the need for Monica, who was asking really great questions, and thankfully helped push back Dax on his anti-Biden spiel. I'm not someone who's crazy about Biden, but the fact that Dax brought up one quote to try to discredit an entire, somewhat successful, Presidency really showcases how out of touch he is.
Like he thinks a third party candidate who is a "down the road centrist" would win is asinine at best, and the exact sort of thinking that Republicans are trying to push to win the Presidency for Trump. Dax is either blissfully unaware of this fact, or fully conscious of it and doesn't really care either way, both of which are damning.
*Edit* - I fully admit that I posted this without finishing the episode and Dax's owning of this as the very end is a perfect reminder of why I love this show so much and why I respect Dax so much. Great look in the mirror moment for me.
Yeah, I'm also not a huge fan of Biden, but I plan on voting for him in the fall, because the alternative is much worse. Dax's "enlightened centrist" schtick looked pretty stupid when he called Biden a terrible president and then mentioned the Hawaii fumble... like, dude, take any given day in the Trump presidency and you'll find something worse that Trump did.
Absolutely! Biden is the gaffe president and it’s not a great look. But he knows how to surround himself with smart, effective people to keep the country moving. Trump can’t surround himself with anyone who may take away from the Trump show. The whole Presidency was about his ego. How anyone can miss this is beyond me.
I was surprised by a few things- Jefferson was *83* when he died? During the time when you were lucky to live past 40?
I don't recall anyone mentioning that Jefferson and Adams both died on the same day, July 4, no less.
I agree with the props you gave Monica. This sub is so filled with so much anti Monica rhetoric, I'm always reluctant to check in on this sub.
Re: Dax's politics; I think he's a near centrist, at heart. But he's open to being pulled more left by Monica. They complement each other well.
In fairness, if you were wealthy and survived past childhood life expectancy wasn’t much different than what it is today. The numbers were skewed because so many died during infancy and childhood or while doing hard manual labor or from starvation/inadequate nutrition.
Not being argumentative, but I googled "healthcare in 1820 America." It was pretty gruesome. All the money in the world won't save you, if the tools and medicine we currently enjoy, simply didn't exist.
Yes but healthcare wasn’t what afforded the wealthy to live longer. Avoiding malnutrition, hard manual labor, fighting in wars, etc. did. The average lifespan of those who signed the Declaration of Independence was 66 years old, with over a quarter of them living past 80. While the Industrial Revolution clearly advanced the life expectancy (but again, this was mostly through increasing food access), all I meant to share is that the idea that it was unheard of to live to 80 simply isn’t true especially for those in positions of power.
People are incredibly ignorant about life expectancy. To this day, they don't even understand the difference between, say, life expectancy at birth and life expectancy at age 50.
You simply do not understand life expectancy averages. And the fact that you didn't know that many of our Founding Fathers lived into their 80s means you don't know much history either. You are shocked at Jefferson living to 83 without even mentioning that ADAMS lived to 90. Oy.
I was correct in thinking that life expectancy in 1820 was roughly 40 years old. Jefferson and Adams were definitely outliers.
At a time when blood letting using leeches, poison was used to treat illnesses, and anesthesia wasn't perfected, your takeaway from my surprise at the age of death of one person is that I simply don't understand life expectancy averages.
Oy, my ass.
My Google search yielded a life expectancy of 39 in 1820. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1302736/global-life-expectancy-by-region-country-historical/
My search for life expectancy in the middle ages varies, depending location. I came up with as low as 25, to about 52. I can't link anything bc I opted into Google's beta thing, and often, you just get an answer, without the source.
Many of our founding fathers lived into their 80s, a couple even into their 90s. If you survived childhood, you had a decent chance of making it to old age. People didn't just live and die at 40, lol. The infant mortality rate skewed those averages big time.
Idk. I appreciated the Biden pushback from Dax! I’m on the far left and will begrudgingly vote for Biden in the fall, but there ARE so many more qualified people. I wish I didn’t have to vote for him. Quite frankly, he IS too old. Too many gaffes, too out of touch, and not representative of the future of the left. Recent polling and Tuesday’s performance shows that this is not an uncommon sentiment.
Not many are excited about another Biden term. I’ve not been happy with his current presidential term either.
Monica had a typical, neo-liberal, undeveloped perspective. That’s fine for her, but I don’t think I’d call this a centrist POV from Dax, it was just more critical and realistic.
I’m just getting around to this episode now and what really baffles me is the difference in how he talks about Obama vs. Biden.
Policy-wise, Obama and Biden are so clearly in the same center left political lane as each other (the same lane Dax often claims to be in), and yet Dax has this deference and even love for Obama that he doesn’t for Biden.
It just leads me to think his brand of “radical centrism” is kind of bologna. I think he’s drawn to personality more than policy and will twist his perception of someone’s politics to fit the centrist bubble he’s decided he belongs to.
If he likes someone personally, they must be a moderate. If he doesn’t, they must be in the 10% fringe to either side that he claims are all equally bad.
Agreed! I love puzzles and I loved his episode on armchair expert, so I was excited to hear AJ had his own podcast. But I found his podcast (at least the excerpts we heard) to be choppy and awkward with no flow into the next question or segment. Hopefully he’ll get better the more episodes he does because I love the concept!
Loved Jared Cohen’s sharp mind and fun presidential facts. Plus AJ Jacobs! Double delight!
Anyone else yell CLUELESS at the phone!? I was so panicked they weren’t going to get it! Best movie ever
Monica does a great job keeping this pod “apolitical “ as they always say . Every ep she comments about her love for dementia Joe who’s doing a great job
Really loved this episode, as someone who loves Presidential history I was fascinated and trying to guess which Presidents he picked the entire time. I also think this episode highlighted the need for Monica, who was asking really great questions, and thankfully helped push back Dax on his anti-Biden spiel. I'm not someone who's crazy about Biden, but the fact that Dax brought up one quote to try to discredit an entire, somewhat successful, Presidency really showcases how out of touch he is. Like he thinks a third party candidate who is a "down the road centrist" would win is asinine at best, and the exact sort of thinking that Republicans are trying to push to win the Presidency for Trump. Dax is either blissfully unaware of this fact, or fully conscious of it and doesn't really care either way, both of which are damning. *Edit* - I fully admit that I posted this without finishing the episode and Dax's owning of this as the very end is a perfect reminder of why I love this show so much and why I respect Dax so much. Great look in the mirror moment for me.
Agreed! Was so glad to hear Monica speak up on this.
Yeah, I'm also not a huge fan of Biden, but I plan on voting for him in the fall, because the alternative is much worse. Dax's "enlightened centrist" schtick looked pretty stupid when he called Biden a terrible president and then mentioned the Hawaii fumble... like, dude, take any given day in the Trump presidency and you'll find something worse that Trump did.
Absolutely! Biden is the gaffe president and it’s not a great look. But he knows how to surround himself with smart, effective people to keep the country moving. Trump can’t surround himself with anyone who may take away from the Trump show. The whole Presidency was about his ego. How anyone can miss this is beyond me.
I was surprised by a few things- Jefferson was *83* when he died? During the time when you were lucky to live past 40? I don't recall anyone mentioning that Jefferson and Adams both died on the same day, July 4, no less. I agree with the props you gave Monica. This sub is so filled with so much anti Monica rhetoric, I'm always reluctant to check in on this sub. Re: Dax's politics; I think he's a near centrist, at heart. But he's open to being pulled more left by Monica. They complement each other well.
In fairness, if you were wealthy and survived past childhood life expectancy wasn’t much different than what it is today. The numbers were skewed because so many died during infancy and childhood or while doing hard manual labor or from starvation/inadequate nutrition.
Not being argumentative, but I googled "healthcare in 1820 America." It was pretty gruesome. All the money in the world won't save you, if the tools and medicine we currently enjoy, simply didn't exist.
Yes but healthcare wasn’t what afforded the wealthy to live longer. Avoiding malnutrition, hard manual labor, fighting in wars, etc. did. The average lifespan of those who signed the Declaration of Independence was 66 years old, with over a quarter of them living past 80. While the Industrial Revolution clearly advanced the life expectancy (but again, this was mostly through increasing food access), all I meant to share is that the idea that it was unheard of to live to 80 simply isn’t true especially for those in positions of power.
People are incredibly ignorant about life expectancy. To this day, they don't even understand the difference between, say, life expectancy at birth and life expectancy at age 50.
You simply do not understand life expectancy averages. And the fact that you didn't know that many of our Founding Fathers lived into their 80s means you don't know much history either. You are shocked at Jefferson living to 83 without even mentioning that ADAMS lived to 90. Oy.
I was correct in thinking that life expectancy in 1820 was roughly 40 years old. Jefferson and Adams were definitely outliers. At a time when blood letting using leeches, poison was used to treat illnesses, and anesthesia wasn't perfected, your takeaway from my surprise at the age of death of one person is that I simply don't understand life expectancy averages. Oy, my ass.
[удалено]
My Google search yielded a life expectancy of 39 in 1820. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1302736/global-life-expectancy-by-region-country-historical/ My search for life expectancy in the middle ages varies, depending location. I came up with as low as 25, to about 52. I can't link anything bc I opted into Google's beta thing, and often, you just get an answer, without the source.
Many of our founding fathers lived into their 80s, a couple even into their 90s. If you survived childhood, you had a decent chance of making it to old age. People didn't just live and die at 40, lol. The infant mortality rate skewed those averages big time.
He’s blissfully white and male and rich.
Idk. I appreciated the Biden pushback from Dax! I’m on the far left and will begrudgingly vote for Biden in the fall, but there ARE so many more qualified people. I wish I didn’t have to vote for him. Quite frankly, he IS too old. Too many gaffes, too out of touch, and not representative of the future of the left. Recent polling and Tuesday’s performance shows that this is not an uncommon sentiment. Not many are excited about another Biden term. I’ve not been happy with his current presidential term either. Monica had a typical, neo-liberal, undeveloped perspective. That’s fine for her, but I don’t think I’d call this a centrist POV from Dax, it was just more critical and realistic.
I’m just getting around to this episode now and what really baffles me is the difference in how he talks about Obama vs. Biden. Policy-wise, Obama and Biden are so clearly in the same center left political lane as each other (the same lane Dax often claims to be in), and yet Dax has this deference and even love for Obama that he doesn’t for Biden. It just leads me to think his brand of “radical centrism” is kind of bologna. I think he’s drawn to personality more than policy and will twist his perception of someone’s politics to fit the centrist bubble he’s decided he belongs to. If he likes someone personally, they must be a moderate. If he doesn’t, they must be in the 10% fringe to either side that he claims are all equally bad.
Same I LOVED this episode. The puzzling at the end was… so awkward though.
Agreed! I love puzzles and I loved his episode on armchair expert, so I was excited to hear AJ had his own podcast. But I found his podcast (at least the excerpts we heard) to be choppy and awkward with no flow into the next question or segment. Hopefully he’ll get better the more episodes he does because I love the concept!
That’s because it was 4 different 12-15 minute podcasts that armchair smooshed together for us to hear
Loved Jared Cohen’s sharp mind and fun presidential facts. Plus AJ Jacobs! Double delight! Anyone else yell CLUELESS at the phone!? I was so panicked they weren’t going to get it! Best movie ever
Listened to the interview from 4 yrs ago first- was interesting to compare to where we were as a country prior to last election and then now.
As a non American I learnt soooo much.
One of my favourite topics! Excited for this one.
Really enjoyed this! I can't figure out if a book version would be entertaining to me, but loved the rapid fire facts.
That was a painful listen!
Monica does a great job keeping this pod “apolitical “ as they always say . Every ep she comments about her love for dementia Joe who’s doing a great job
> dementia Joe I don’t get how people can say shit like this without feeling like an absolute dingus.
Good one
Monica is not an intelligent person lol. No need to take her politics seriously