• Let’s talk about polling! A bunch of new polls have us feeling a whole lot of feelings right now. ‘Pod Save America’ co-host Jon Lovett joins us for a vibe check on the state of the presidential race, and shares what he thinks we should all take away from the latest polls.
• Later in the show, New York magazine reporter Kevin Dugan explains former President Donald Trump’s latest foray into the world of cryptocurrency.
• And in headlines: Israeli airstrikes hit 1,300 targets in Lebanon, Nebraska Republicans failed in their scheme to change how the state awards its presidential electoral votes, and the Republican Governors’ Association announced no more ad buys in North Carolina amid the scandal involving Lt. Gov. and gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson.

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TRANSCRIPT

Jane Coaston: It’s Tuesday, September 24th. I’m Jane Coaston. 

Jon Lovett: And I’m Jon Lovett. This is What a Day. The show that’s definitely not freaking out about the polls right now. Couldn’t be us? 

Jane Coaston: Nope. I don’t know what you’re talking about. Everything’s totally fine. We’re fine.

Jon Lovett: Didn’t someone say we’re just vibrating in place? 

Jane Coaston: Nope. Nope.

Jon Lovett: Well, they’re lying. 

Jane Coaston: They were totally lying. I don’t know what we’re talking about. Everything’s cool. 

Jon Lovett: Everything’s fine. 

Jane Coaston: Totally good. 

Jon Lovett: Everything’s good. [music break]

Jane Coaston: On today’s show, more Mark Robinson fall out in North Carolina. Plus, a real two worlds colliding moment that we can’t stop thinking about. But first, let’s talk about those polls, because while we’re definitely not freaking out. 

Jon Lovett: And we’re not. 

Jane Coaston: Totally fine, but we want to make sure you, dear listeners, are also not freaking out. And that’s why Jon is joining me on the show today. 

Jon Lovett: That’s right. So to recap, first on Sunday, we got two polls that showed Vice President Kamala Harris with a decent lead. An NBC News poll had her five points ahead of former President Donald Trump. And a CBS YouGov poll showed Harris with a four point lead. Pretty good. 

Jane Coaston: Yes. Yes, good. And everything was totally fine. And that feeling lasted about 24 hours for poll dorks because on Monday, The New York Times and Siena College put out their latest poll and it showed Trump with leads in three major battleground states, Georgia, North Carolina and Arizona. Now, I know what you’re thinking, or at least what I’m thinking. Polls are weird, and if you get obsessed with them, you will lose your mind completely. And we do not need that energy right now. Thankfully, Michelle Obama gave us the perfect advice for the situation at this year’s DNC. 

[clip of Michelle Obama] If we see a bad poll and we will, we got to put down that phone and do something. If we start feeling tired, if we start feeling that dread creeping back in, we’ve got to pick ourselves up, throw water on our face. And what? 

[crowd at DNC] Do something!

Jane Coaston: And I always listen to Michelle Obama. But sometimes it’s helpful to talk things out. So Jon is here for a little bit of a vibe check on the state of the race. With a little over a month to go until Election Day. So let’s get into it. I think a lot of Democrats, especially Democrats who follow polls closely because they’re big dorks and anxious like me, woke up to this New York Times Siena College poll and their stomachs felt bad. But what was your reaction to the polls that came out over the weekend? 

Jon Lovett: So maybe it’s just because um I don’t know, the receptors in my brain that deal with polling have been kind of washed out by years of paying attention to the news. I don’t feel anything anymore when I see these polls. 

Jane Coaston: Oh, oh. 

Jon Lovett: I really don’t. I don’t have a lot of high highs. 

Jane Coaston: I envy you. 

Jon Lovett: Or low lows around polls anymore. I think anybody that felt relaxed after seeing the last batch of polls I think was in the wrong headspace. And anybody who is freaking out because of this batch of polls is also in the wrong headspace. Polls will move up and polls will move down, the race, let’s just look at one of them. Right. Arizona. The last poll that the Times did in Arizona a month ago showed Kamala Harris up by five. This poll shows Kamala Harris down by five. Did the polling in Arizona, in a country that where the president being shot at and blowing a debate has a one point swing in either direction, do we really think this raised, raised change ten points? No. There’s some noise in the polls. There is not going to be a poll that comes out between now and November that should either reassure you to the point of complacency or terrorize you to the point at which you no longer believe being involved will help. They’re just that simply won’t happen. These polls can give you a little information. Their directional, they can help you have a better sense of the electorate, especially when you kind of blur your eyes. That’s the best you’re going to get out of it. And I think what I see when I look at all these different polls is to our great and everlasting relief. Kamala Harris stepping into this race has helped the Democrats do the work of reassembling the coalition that helped us win in 2020, specifically among Black voters, among highly educated voters, among young voters. She’s doing really well among women. And even though there’s a yawning gender gap, Democrats are performing better among women than Republicans are performing better among men. Our better is better. 

Jane Coaston: Right. 

Jon Lovett: And there’s still one big challenge in reassembling that coalition, which is a challenge that Joe Biden hadn’t resolved, which is what has happened to Hispanic voters. And you’re just seeing less polarization racially than we’d seen in the past. And these polls just reaffirm that reality, which is why you would expect to see slightly better polls in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin than you would expect to see in the Sun Belt states like Arizona and Nevada with North Carolina and Georgia kind of in between. 

Jane Coaston: Yeah, and a Democrat hasn’t won North Carolina since 2008 and Georgia and Arizona were surprise pickups, at least a surprise to me in 2020. So Vice President Harris can still win even if Trump takes those states? 

Jon Lovett: Yes. And so if we win just in those northeast states, your Michigan’s, your Pennsylvania’s, your Wisconsins’s. And there is no funny business in Nebraska, which as of today, it seems like hopefully, hopefully, [knocking sound] maybe there won’t be. Then, yes, if you win those states, that’s a 270 to 268 Electoral College results. Will it feel great in our tummies? 

Jane Coaston: No. 

Jon Lovett: It will simply not. But you can win with that. But I will say also, Donald Trump won North Carolina. I believe that is his the narrowest victory that Donald Trump had. He only won it by a little over a point which was worse than people expected. So North Carolina has been a bit softer for Republicans and especially with everything that’s going on now with Mark Robinson. Like there’s, I think, very valid hope there. 

Jane Coaston: So with little over a month left until Election Day, what is the state of the race right now and what should we all be preparing for as we get closer to November? Because I think it’s going to be close. It’s going to be way closer than it would have been without Vice President Harris. It’s going to be close regardless of what happens. It’s going to be close, even if we’d get another debate. It’s going to be close regardless of anything that takes place, to me. 

Jon Lovett: Look, Joe Biden was behind. Joe Biden stepping aside and Kamala Harris coming in her stead gave us more than a shot. I think anybody that’s looking at this race and looking at this polling and not assuming what we’re looking at is a tie, I think is either doom casting or wish casting. You know, you see an electorate that has pretty well made their mind up about who Donald Trump is. They have some gauzy memories of him being better on the economy. They are starting to view Kamala Harris as a candidate of change, which is a really great achievement on her behalf. But it is a country that is sour on the economy, that is sour on politics, that is cynical about the state of the world, that is looking for change, that sees Kamala Harris as in some ways being more of a change agent and Donald Trump as being more of a disruptor. And like our job is to persuade a bunch of people why Kamala Harris would be better for them economically and that they should trust their instincts on why they think she has better character, even if they have some vague notion that Donald Trump would be better on the economy, that they should trust their instincts on character and help them understand why their instincts on who Donald Trump is as a person versus who Kamala Harris is as a person are instincts that are actually reinforced by the policy difference. And so much of our job is to make that case in the face of a noise machine that is trying to obfuscate that reality and complicate that reality. 

Jane Coaston: What advice are you giving to stressed out people to your stressed out friends who are looking at this and either wish casting or doom casting? 

Jon Lovett: Here’s what I’d say. It is now almost the end of September. The time for planning to volunteer is over. The time to actually do it is here. I was just in a district over the weekend in Santa Clarita, California, which is about an hour outside of Los Angeles. That is a seat that a Trumpy anti-choice Republican won in 2020 by 333 votes. That is a place where you could personally knock on the number of doors that would make the difference between a Democratic House and a Republican House. Wherever you are, there’s a place where you can help. If you volunteer just a few times between now and Election Day, your name will go on the good side of the ledger. And you’ve got to get your name on that ledger. Just do a little bit more than they did last time. Go to VoteSaveAmerica.com. The scrolling and the anxiety. This is the way to relieve it in advance of the election and make sure that no matter what happens, everybody did everything that they could do. That’s all. That’s it. That’s where we’re at. It’s time. 

Jane Coaston: Absolutely. But while we’re feeling all of these feelings in our stomachs and learning about electoral districts in Arizona and North Carolina, you know what Donald Trump is up to?

Jon Lovett: What’s he up to? 

Jane Coaston: Cryptocurrency. So he recently announced that he’s launching World Liberty Financial, which someday could be a bank and a crypto exchange. But right now it seems like it’s nothing. 

Jon Lovett: Yeah, someday it could be a lot of things. 

Jane Coaston: Yeah. 

Jon Lovett: Someday I could be a boat. 

Jane Coaston: Keep dreaming. Keep dreaming. Trump absolutely knows what he’s talking about. Here he is talking to Fox News at a Bitcoin themed bar called Pub Key in New York’s Greenwich Village. My personal hell. 

[clip of Donald Trump] Well, I did. I bought a hamburger with Bitcoin. They say it was the first purchase ever made, I guess, of a hamburger or something. And now, look, I’m a believer in staying at the top. This is a hot thing. And rather than have it giving it to China, like the A.I. stuff, you know, artificial intelligence, China’s going crazy about it. They’re also going crazy on Bitcoin and crypto cryptocurrency. And I do understand it. I think it’s going to be a very hot industry. 

Jon Lovett: He does not understand it. 

Jane Coaston: I would bet actual money, actual money that I understand how it works, that he does not understand anything about this. And he is not. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. The juice is gone. The selling juice. I’m not sold at all. 

Jon Lovett: Yeah. There’s a moment at a [mumble] some crypto event that he spoke at where he said, have fun with your bitcoins and your crypto and whatever else you’re playing with. What sounded like the way my grandmother would talk about Nintendo. Like have fun and everything was a Nintendo. If it had a controller, it was a Nintendo. That’s how that’s how Trump sounds. But I do think that like game recognizes game and Donald Trump knows a scam when he sees one. 

Jane Coaston: Yeah. Scammers love scammers. So needless to say, I had some questions about what World Liberty Financial is. Is it a scam? Is it real? Is it backed by the FDIC? I’m guessing not. To find out. I spoke with New York magazine reporter Kevin Dugan. Kevin Dugan, welcome to What a Day. Thank you so much for joining me. 

Kevin Dugan: Thank you so much for having me, Jane. 

Jane Coaston: I want to be clear, I’m a crypto skeptic because it seems to involve either math or crimes. But what do people who aren’t crypto skeptics, people in the world of crypto, what are they thinking about this? 

Kevin Dugan: One of the problems with the way that World Liberty Financial is structured at least as the idea, right? It’s not clear what this thing actually is, but the idea that’s been out there is that this is a decentralized finance company. And what that means is they get rid of the middlemen that are bankers or advisers to money. People who would take your money through fees and percentages and things like that. The problem with that is, is that decentralized means that it’s owned by kind of everyone who’s involved in it. And the initial early stages of this seem to show that the Trumps would own 70% of the company, which would mean it wouldn’t be very decentralized. That was reported by Coindesk. That’s changed a little bit, but there’s still pretty significant control by the Trumps. And the other problem here is that it doesn’t really seem to have a very clear kind of focus. They’re trying to do everything a little bit like how Trump Media and Technology Group, his social media company wants to be both Twitter and Netflix, as well as Amazon and every other Silicon Valley company. They’re trying to basically do everything crypto all under one thing to be, you know, kind of like the Goldman Sachs of crypto and their own version of Tether and everything that you can think of. It seems like they’re just trying to kind of grab for everything that’s out there. 

Jane Coaston: So. I remember Trump calling Bitcoin a scam against the dollar back in 2021. What changed about his relationship with cryptocurrency? 

Kevin Dugan: Well, I think that the need for money became really uh important. You know, the crypto community such that it is, is really pro Trump right now, right? You have like the Winklevoss twins, for instance. They are, I think, the biggest individual donors through crypto to the Trump campaign. There are a lot of people in the crypto industry who think that he’s just going to be better because he’s not going to regulate them. So I think that he saw an affinity there and he just decided to go for it and he also saw and he’s talked about this, about how quickly money comes in through crypto. Earlier this year, he was selling these he calls them digital trading cards um or something close to that. These are NFTs, nonfungible tokens that are like pictures of him in kind of silly getups. 

[clip of Donald Trump] It’s called the America First collection. 50 all new stunning digital trading cards. It’s really something. These cards show me dancing and even me holding some bitcoins. 

Kevin Dugan: And he was raising a bunch of money alongside those golden sneakers that he was selling, if you remember those. And so he remarked on CNBC about how quickly the money was coming in and how much money he was raising and how amazing it was. And so I think that he just saw where the money was. And it was around that time when he was convicted of fraud, when he was found liable for sexually assaulting uh E. Jean Carroll. And he owed a lot of money to a lot of people. And it just became very clear that this was a way to get access to that kind of money. 

Jane Coaston: What has the Trump family’s relationship with cryptocurrency looked like? 

Kevin Dugan: Well, you have a little bit of a mysterious connection between Barron Trump and Martin Shkreli. 

Jane Coaston: Oh. That’s that’s a name that I haven’t heard in a long time. Great. 

Kevin Dugan: Right, Right. Uh. The pharma douche guy. There were some texts that were leaked that show that they were involved in some kind of crypto venture. Not clear if this is what that was. But Donald Trump has talked about how um his sons have kind of opened his eyes about crypto and I believe he was talking about Barron in that case. I’m not sure to the extent of what Eric or Donald Trump jr. Whether they saw the light at some point, um how involved they were in changing Donald Trump’s mind about crypto. It does just seem like it’s a very quick jump though from all of the different technology businesses that they were trying to do with the Trump media and Truth Social and then dive right into the crypto industry especially because this year you saw Bitcoin and the price of other cryptocurrencies just skyrocket. I mean they went totally crazy. So when you see all that kind of money going into digital assets like that, um sure, it makes sense that they would be interested. 

Jane Coaston: So give me your honest opinion. What does success look like for World Liberty Financial? And do you think it can achieve that success? 

Kevin Dugan: Yeah. Success, I think, would be selling lots of digital tokens that would raise millions and millions of dollars. And there are a lot of people who really, truly love Trump and want to support him by buying his stuff. They just want to juice his revenue. He’s got bills. And I think, you know, several million dollars would be pretty successful. And it keeps him pretty liquid. And that way that he could pay his lawyers if he chooses to do so. And he can perhaps pay what he owes to the New York attorney general or or anybody who he might owe money to. So that would be my guess on what success would be here. 

Jane Coaston: Kevin, thank you for explaining this weird thing that sounds like a con to me. 

Kevin Dugan: Sure, I’m happy to. Anytime. 

Jane Coaston: That was my conversation with New York magazine reporter Kevin Dugan. We’ll get to the news in a moment. But if you like the show, make sure to subscribe. Watch it on YouTube and share with your friends. We’ll be back after some ads. [music break]

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Jane Coaston: And now the news. [music break]

[clip of President Joe Biden] I’ve been briefed on the latest developments in Israel and Lebanon. My team is in constant contact with their counterparts, and we’re working to de-escalate in a way that allows people to return to their homes safely. 

Jane Coaston: That’s President Joe Biden speaking during an Oval Office meeting with the president of the United Arab Emirates on Monday. Earlier in the day, Israel launched a series of airstrikes that hit 1300 targets in Lebanon. Lebanese health officials say the bombings killed nearly 500 people, including dozens of children and women. A spokesperson for the Israeli military said the strikes targeted locations linked to the militant group Hezbollah. Later Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned people in Lebanon. 

[clip of Benjamin Netanyahu] Get out of harm’s way. I urge you, take this warning seriously. Don’t let Hezbollah endanger your lives and the lives of your loved ones. Don’t let Hezbollah endanger Lebanon. Please get out of harm’s way now. Once our operation is finished, you can come back safely to your homes. 

Jane Coaston: Israel’s airstrike campaign was the latest in days of escalating attacks that have brought the country and Hezbollah to the brink of all out war. Hezbollah responded by firing around 200 projectiles into Israel. A Republican led plan to change the way Nebraska votes in presidential elections came to an abrupt end on Monday. Now, a little background here. Nebraska is one of just two states that is not winner take all, meaning all of its electoral votes don’t have to go to one candidate. Republicans wanted to change that to help Donald Trump, obviously. Here’s what South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said on Sunday on Meet the Press. 

[clip of Lindsey Graham] If they change the law in Nebraska, it won’t be under on the phone in the middle of the night. It will be through a democratic process. The entire federal delegation of Nebraska, House members, and two senators want this changed. That one electoral vote could be the difference between Harris being president or not. And she’s a disaster for Nebraska and the world. 

Jane Coaston: Except despite what Senator Graham said, it turns out not all Nebraska Republicans wanted this change. The final holdout, state Senator Mike McDonnell, said Monday he would not agree to it, meaning the effort is effectively dead. How did Republicans respond to this? With maturity and grace? No. Which brings me to our last headline of the day. Mark Robinson. 

[clip of Mark Robinson] A lot of talented people right now are reaching out to us and we’re right in the process right now of forming a team that we know can still lead us to victory. So we have full confidence in our ability to keep going. 

[clip of unknown reporter number 1] But the timing of that, them walking away from you right now. 

[clip of Mark Robinson] The time the timing doesn’t matter. It’s not it’s not the timing. It’s how you react. And we are ready to react. 

Jane Coaston: That was the North Carolina Republican gubernatorial candidate claiming it’s not a problem that almost all of his senior staff resigned Sunday. Those resignations came after a bombshell CNN report detailing old comments he made at a porn website’s forum, including calling himself a Black Nazi. And things got worse for Robinson on Monday, when the Republican Governors Association announced it isn’t planning any more ad buys in the state. Here’s Robinson again, talking to reporters. 

[clip of unknown reporter number 2] Have you taken steps then to prove it’s not you? [?] find out.

[clip of Mark Robinson] We we absolutely are. We absolutely are. 

[clip of unknown reporter number 2] What are those steps? 

[clip of Mark Robinson] We’re we have we’re in talks right now. Everything up to legal counsel, to take CNN to task for what they have done to us. We are we are going after them. Okay. We are going to go after them for what they’ve done. 

Jane Coaston: Now, Robinson claims he has taken steps to prove the account that posted to the adult web site was not him. But local NBC affiliate WRAL News reports Robinson actually rejected offers from supporters to help investigate the matter. Regardless of whether Robinson tries to prove his innocence, Politico found even more user data linking him to the same porn site account. While campaigning in North Carolina Monday, J.D. Vance boldly told the crowd he and Trump were standing with Robinson. 

[clip of J.D. Vance] A sex scandal in North Carolina is between the lieutenant governor and the people of North Carolina. They’re going to make their decision, and we support them. 

Jane Coaston: J.D. Vance, brave as always. And that’s the news. And now for our parting thought today, I wanted Jon back in for this, because–

Jon Lovett: Okay. 

Jane Coaston: Um. There keep being moments that I see on the Internet in which I watch it. And then I read the replies to whatever it is. 

Jon Lovett: Oh that’s you’re mistake. 

Jane Coaston: And I’m like. 

Jon Lovett: That’s your mistake right there.

Jane Coaston: Nope. I always read the comments. I always read the replies because I’m an emotionally healthy person. So I wanted to ask you about a moment that’s been playing out very differently online depending on your political leanings. 

[clip of Oprah Winfrey] I thought it was so powerful at the convention when you said what when you said you have guns oh at the debate at the debate when you said–

[clip of Vice President Kamala Harris] I’m a gun owner, Tim Walz is a gun–

[clip of Oprah Winfrey] I did not know that. [laughter] And I thought that was powerful–

[clip of Vice President Kamala Harris] If somebody breaks in my house they’re getting shot. [laughter] Sorry.

[clip of Oprah Winfrey] Yes. Yes, I hear that. I hear that. 

[clip of Vice President Kamala Harris] Probably should not have said that.

[clip of Oprah Winfrey] But I–

[clip of Vice President Kamala Harris] My staff will deal with that later. 

Jane Coaston: That was Harris talking to Oprah last Thursday. But I actually first saw the clip posted on the Trump campaign’s social media accounts, which was weird. And many of the replies pointed out it was weird because it’s one of those things where I think they thought Kamala Harris sounded bad, but actually I thought it made her sound kind of badass. 

Jon Lovett: For me, what made it work wasn’t necessarily that she made the point about having a gun or that if you break into your house, she’ll shoot you. I think it’s the point where she goes, Oh my staff’s going to have to clean this up. To her everlasting credit, Kamala Harris has run an incredibly disciplined campaign, a campaign that hit the ground running in a way that I think exceeded even her greatest fans’ expectations. She rose to this occasion under unimaginable pressure, the kind of pressure that could obliterate anybody. She has sort of carried this fully baked, ready to go national presidential candidate. Incredible. It’s also meant that she has been really thoughtful and careful in how she used her words for a variety of reasons. Trump gets this credit for being this rebellious figure, for being anti-establishment, even though what is he fighting to do? He is fighting to protect the interests of the wealthiest and most powerful corporations fighting for the richest human beings on planet Earth. Fighting for traditional notions of the family, fighting to preserve kind of patriarchal institutions to get woke for a second. 

Jane Coaston: He’s like the most establishment person who’s ever existed. Also, he was president. That is–

Jon Lovett: Yeah. 

Jane Coaston: The establishment. 

Jon Lovett: And so he gets this anti-establishment, rebellious cred just because he is kind of an asshole. Yeah.

Jane Coaston: And he just says things. 

Jon Lovett: And he just said things. 

Jane Coaston: And in a way that we’ve like sometimes that’s sane washing where it’s like when you try to make him sound reasonable, you actually help him. And then some of that is just like, oh that’s just Trump being Trump, which like nobody else is allowed to do. But what struck me about this moment is lots of people own guns for protection. It’s kind of a big deal for millions of Americans and for the Trump campaign to pick out a moment that I think, to her credit, makes her very identifiable across a bunch of different groups. There’s been a massive growth in African-Americans owning guns, in women owning guns, in LGBT folks owning guns, and Asian-Americans owning guns for this very same reason. And then like to pick up that one moment and be like, ha ha ha, that’s so weird. 

Jon Lovett: Yeah. 

Jane Coaston: I don’t get it.

Jon Lovett: I thought it was cool. My gut reaction was like, that’s cool. I like that. Trump campaign’s spreading it. Stupid of them. Good for us. This is good. I like it. That was my emotional–

Jane Coaston: Yeah. 

Jon Lovett: –response. She looked cool. Saying you’re going to shoot an intruder is I’m sorry. Seems badass. Like that was my John Wick reaction. 

Jane Coaston: Yeah. 

Jon Lovett: Now, I talked to Roxane Gay actually about it because she wrote a long piece about how she became a gun owner. And there is a kind of contradiction in this, which is there are rising stats of women, and people of color buying guns and are becoming part of gun culture. And whatever your judgments of that, the reality is the most dangerous thing about a gun is having it anywhere fucking near you, whether it’s yours or someone else’s. Right? Like if you are a woman and you end up in a relationship with a man that has a gun, you are now more likely to be killed by a gun. Right. Like just guns in your home are dangerous. They’re just are. I respect an intellectual argument that this is in some way a bad thing, but–

Jane Coaston: Right. 

Jon Lovett: That’s the higher processing. Down here where the monkey lives, I like. 

Jane Coaston: Yeah, I am not going to give the Trump war room Twitter account any credit for any higher processing. 

Jon Lovett: No. No, absolutely not. 

Jane Coaston: Never. 

Jon Lovett: Absolutely not. 

Jane Coaston: Never. Not once. 

Jon Lovett: But I also just like once in a while, Kamala kind of saying like, ah you know, my talking points say this but you know what? Here’s what I really think. 

Jane Coaston: Yeah. 

Jon Lovett: Just like that kind of a wink and a nod to the fact that politics is a bit of a game that people don’t trust. It, I think is really good because she is really careful. I think she has to be careful because of the scrutiny she’s under. She has to be careful because she’s a woman, because she’s a Black woman. Like there is pressures that she faces. But that was a perfect moment to me of like letting people under a little being saying, like, sometimes I just do what I feel like and I like that. 

Jane Coaston: Yeah, absolutely. 

Jon Lovett: Oh. Also, Jane, join me live in Los Angeles or via livestream on October 2nd for Trek The Vote. This is a live comedy show and fundraiser that blends politics, games and high octane nerdom. All right. As we bring beloved Star Trek cast members Jonathan Frakes, Gates McFadden, Tawny Newsome and more into our world of political nonsense. All funds raised will go to Vote Save America and you can get your tickets and learn more at VoteSaveAmerica.com/trek. And that list of names is only the beginning. We have gotten so many amazing people from Star Trek that will be part of Trek the Vote. 

Jane Coaston: So. 

Jon Lovett: You won’t believe it. You won’t believe it. 

Jane Coaston: Dr. Beverly Crusher could speak to me. 

Jon Lovett: Absolutely. 

Jane Coaston: With her mouth. 

Jon Lovett: You bet. You want to know? I’m going to tell this story to Jonathan Frakes directly, which is before the Internet had as much audio and video as it does now. A friend and I disagreed as to how you pronounce the name Jonathan Frakes, and he thought it was pronounced Jonathan Frakes. And I thought it was pronounced Jonathan Frakes. And then we couldn’t resolve it until it turns out he had a nickname as a director because when he was directing episodes of Star Trek, he would get it really quickly. That’s why they called him, Two Takes Frakes. 

Jane Coaston: Wow. Wow. 

Jon Lovett: Two Takes Frakes. 

Jane Coaston: I love it. 

Jon Lovett: Thanks. VoteSaveAmerica.com/trek. [music break]

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Jane Coaston: That’s all for today. If you liked the show, make sure you subscribe. Leave a review. Pay for a hamburger with good old fashioned dollars and tell your friends to listen. And if you’re into reading and not just thinking about how easy it is to simply not say insane things on forums, no one should be posting in anyway like me. What a Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com/subscribe. I’m Jane Coaston and don’t freak out about polls. [music break] What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. It’s recorded by Jerik Centeno and mixed by Bill Lancz. Our associate producer is Raven Yamamoto. Our producer is Michell Eloy. We had production out today from Ethan Oberman, Tyler Hill, JoHanna Case, Joseph Dutra, Greg Walters and Julia Claire. Our senior producer is Erica Morrison and our executive producer is Adriene Hill. Our theme music is by Collin Gilliard and Kashaka. [music break]

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