From Hollywood to prison: Inside Russell Brand’s rape conviction — Jesse Weber Live Full Show

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: everybody welcome to jesse weber live so the midterms are over but now there's a lot of talk about 2028 why well first of all there are now reports that secretary of state marco rubio may soon step down from his post in order to pursue a presidential bid that's only part one by the way wait till you hear our theory on part two we're going to get to that then [00:00:26] Russell Brand: this was comedian russell brand back in 2023 i've never engaged in non-consensual sexual activity the defamatory and fictitious documentary was broadcast but today brand was convicted of rape [00:00:43] Speaker 1: and three counts of sexual assault potentially faces years in prison how is this possible what led to this stunning decision we're going to break it down in the fame files and finally is everything we know about the origins of life on earth just flat out wrong because there is a new study that says life maybe didn't come from comets after all we're bringing on avi lobe he's going to break down all the interstellar implications but we're going to begin with this big news out of california where governor gavin newsom announced his plans to commute the sentences of everyone currently on california's death row as one of his last acts in office that's 548 prisoners making it the largest commutation of death sentences in modern american history and because california has more prisoners on death row than any other state that means that newsom's decision canceled about one quarter of all executions nationwide now newsom's decision still has to get approved by the california supreme court for a number of these cases but the governor says he made the decision because he finds capital punishment morally objectionable outlining his thinking in an open letter to all californians where he wrote quote state sanctioned killing is incompatible with california's values undermines the foundations of our legal system and diminishes each of us i know we cannot execute people in our imperfect legal system and remain true to our core values first among them justice and human decency now this doesn't mean that notorious killers like carrie stainer or charles ing or richard allen davis who kidnapped and murdered 13 year old poly class in 1993 is going to be out on the streets anytime soon no those sentences those death sentences are going to be reduced to life in prison without the possibility of parole and look newsom already issued a moratorium on the death penalty back in 2019 so this isn't really a play to stop any imminent executions the question is why would he do this right why would newsom make such a stunning decision but one thought is is that california's incoming governor javier becerra may not share newsom's attitude toward capital's punishment as california's attorney general becerra actively sought the death penalty for a mass shooter though as a candidate he pledged to extend that moratorium if elected but there is something else and i teased this before there is the political angle to consider you see newsom has long been eyed as a presidential contender for 2028 and the death penalty decision may boost his credibility among some democrats an announcement like this two days after the midterms is that a coincidence and look he isn't the only person to be talking about this right secretary of state marco rubio is reportedly expected to step down from his position to pursue his own white house bid which by the way we're going to talk about a little bit more later because i have some thoughts on that too but what is the legal impact of newsom's decision really going to be could there be unintended legal consequences that would be end up damaging presidential ambitions so joining me now for closer look is legendary trial attorney mark garagos whose podcast reasonable doubt and two angry men are available online mark good to see you so first i want to know legally if he can do this and i actually want to start with something that i talked about the california supreme court they would need to approve about 70 percent of the commutations would they disagree with him i mean in a way he's taking away what the juries had voted in favor for [00:03:59] Mark Garagos: and then he's taking away what the judge would they want to do so well there's this unique constitutional provision generally a governor and presidents under the federal constitution have this kind of unfettered discretion to commute or pardon and it's not appealable and you can't really review it but in california the constitution provides that in certain instances that if the governor commutes may basically reduces the sentence from death to life without that in certain instances the california supreme court has to weigh in on that and as you indicated i think it's upwards of 70 percent of the people currently on death row would fall into that that reviewable category the fact there there really is a more 30 or 40 000 foot view to this and that's look the several several chief justices ago uh ron george said something to the effect and he was nobody thought of him as a lefty liberal he was a road dyed-in-the-wool republican and former ag who said the death the death machinery in the state of california is broken and that's true anybody who's ever handled a death penalty a case or watched it knows that it's broken and if so and by the way jesse when we looked at krista pike a couple of weeks ago we were talking the same thing that was literally do you think that that was the main [00:05:34] Speaker 1: conversation a lot i was talking to my producers about a lot of people brought up krista pike is this influencing the decision is he making this decision you think for political reasons [00:05:46] Mark Garagos: look i've been adverse to gavin newsom in civil lawsuits related to covid i have argued with him about criminal justice issues in the past is this political it's hard to view gavin without viewing it through a political lens i understand i understand that yeah i having said that he does does have a streak in him where he tries to do the right thing i mean when he was uh in the mayor and was talking about marriages he was ahead of the curve nobody else was talking about that back in the day so i mean he does have he's obviously highly articulate he's a thinker and he does have um certain views you said the right [00:06:36] Speaker 1: thing look it is your point is you see i think it's setting him up for 2028 as a way to say hey look you know i'm sympathetic and i think it's the krista pike situation but you said you said and it's interesting that does the right thing there are family members who are probably furious about this in fact polyclass's father told the times this decision left him quote raw and angry so as we think about what the repercussions for him doing this could be politically i'm also curious whether or not the family members have a legal right to try to stop this well that's an interesting question and i i [00:07:11] Mark Garagos: i haven't seen mark claus in a long time but i do know mark and i would assume that if anybody wanted to pursue that it would be mark and probably under the marcy's law um provision of the california constitution but as you know when we've discussed it in the the menendez brothers case uh marcy's law when all of the living family members who were all victims were unified in their uh support of resentencing and having them get out uh nobody was giving them a listen to so other than the judge who granted the resentencing so you know a lot of this and i would argue that was also political and then jesse look at what happened today nate hockman who's oh yes let me read a statement let me read [00:07:58] Speaker 1: let me read a statement so nathan hockman came out completely disagree with this said the governor has chosen to commute existing death sentences to life without the possibility of parole as is within his constitutional power but that power does not extend to eliminating the death penalty we talk politics there is he right legally is he right that the he's that newsom's overstepped his authority [00:08:23] Mark Garagos: no he isn't right i mean as a as saying he's eliminating the death penalty he's not eliminating the death penalty but what he is doing is what's within his constitutional powers if you want to ask who's being political clearly without a shadow of a doubt it's nate hockman although it's politically to some respects i think some wags would probably say he's politically tone deaf because in l.a county which is what elected him there is not overwhelming support for the death penalty do you think if becerra when [00:08:56] Speaker 1: becerra comes in could he reverse this [00:09:02] Mark Garagos: if it had not if it's an interesting question legally if the 70 percent were not ruled on by the california supreme court i think there would be an argument the ones that have already been ruled on i would argue if i was representing them that that is a fait accompli and there's nothing you can do to [00:09:24] Speaker 1: reverse it interesting all right well i want to see where this goes both from a legal context and political context i think the timing i mentioned it two days after the murder terms doesn't feel coincidental but mark garagos thank you so much for breaking it down with me appreciate you taking the time thanks jesse good to see you good seeing you okay so governor newsom isn't the only one widely thought to have presidential ambitions for 2028 what did i say before as i mentioned there's lots of buzz tonight that secretary of state marco rubio may be moving closer to making his own run for the white house because there are new reports from both the independent bloomberg today that say that rubio is considering resigning from the trump administration soon in order to prepare for a 2028 presidential bid according to the independent sources say that rubio could be motivated to step down from the state department to distance himself from president trump and any controversial policies like the iran war all in the wake of the gop's midterm losses and bloomberg is also reporting that rubio has even spoken to white house officials about stepping down let's get to the facts of this join me now news nation white house correspondent kelly meyer and also we got with us former chief counsel to the democratic house judiciary committee uh julian epstein i'm so happy to have both of you here kelly i'm going to start with you though any word tonight from secretary ruby about leaving his post launching a presidential [00:10:43] Speaker 4: campaign are the rumors true so what we're hearing is the rumors are not true when we heard that from the secretary himself he did an interview tonight with the new york times and basically dismissed those reports that he was planning to leave the trump administration after the results from the midterms this week he said quote i don't know where these things come from to be honest with you and he said i love the work i'm doing and plus i'm always i always laugh when i say which job am i going to leave we know that he's secretary of state he's also the national security advisor he also declined though to talk about the 2028 election he says he doesn't even take questions on it anymore there's certainly going to be rumors swirling around 2028 because that's the next thing we're going to get into we know that the white house is very supportive of rubio and and loves having him around the white house he's there every day but right now the secretary himself is saying this isn't happening he's staying [00:11:35] Speaker 1: right where he is his role and position is always interesting because of all the memes of him doing every single job under the sun julian before i go to you um one more thing kelly state department white house are they saying anything about the reports so we did hear from the state department [00:11:49] Speaker 4: they were the first people we heard from today basically saying that that news that independent article is quote fake news uh from made up anonymous sources the white house also denying that he's leaving and president trump just said that this past weekend actually that rubio is doing a great job and he joked during that campaign rally in kansas that he might have to fire him he said because he's becoming quote too popular uh so both the state department and the white house denying he's [00:12:16] Speaker 1: going anywhere okay julian does it make sense to you i mean what do you make of the reports does it make sense to you a political machination to for him to step down do a little distancing prepare for [00:12:26] Speaker 5: 2028 well i think kelly nailed it on the reporting as usual um i think a couple things can be true at the same time i don't think him stepping down is imminent because there is a lot of business to be completed in iran but i would not doubt that he has had discussions with the president that after a certain point he does want to step down and i do think he's running for president for democrats that's bad news because if there's one candidate the democrats fear it's marco rubio let me just jump [00:12:54] Speaker 6: on that point for a second what does he offer as a response to what we saw two nights ago what would [00:12:59] Speaker 1: he offer as opposed to other candidates as saying you know a reflection of the frustration and the dissatisfaction that people have what is it something about him that would make sense as a 2028 contender and look 2028 two years away we will see what the democrats do in congress but at the same time what [00:13:15] Speaker 5: does he offer he offers everything that the president doesn't offer he first of all he is the best orator on the scene today and one of the reasons that i think iran has not gone well with the public is because the president hasn't explained the nature of the threat that we face which is a very very serious threat i think secondly rubio has charm which the president lacks uh he is able if you looked at his speech in munich or his speech in greece you would see even liberals in europe uh the liberal establishment saying what a wonderful guy he was and how persuasive he was in his defense of the western tradition um i think the third thing is that he has an incredible appeal to the most important swing block in 2028 which is hispanics he's beyond hispanics in terms of his appeal but the biggest swing that we saw in uh on tuesday night was hispanics uh going towards going towards um uh [00:14:09] Speaker 6: the democrats so i think again he is the candidate that democrats fear most yeah we'll talk about michigan and texas uh julian another point about that real quick before i jump back to kelly look one of the things [00:14:19] Speaker 1: i've been wondering about there is speculation you see these reports about who is going to take the blame for what happened like is there going to be a scapegoat for the midterm wipeout for the iran war is there any chance that rubio is which want to get out of that before anything goes on him [00:14:39] Speaker 5: i don't think he will get the blame i think the guy that's going to get the blame most is jd vance i think we were three or four weeks from success in iran on april 7th when we declared when the president declared the ceasefire and then jd vance went into this very clumsy negotiating process with a memorandum of understanding that was a joke it was worse than the jcpoa and then he diddled for three or four months and next thing you know we have an election i think if he had stayed out of it if the president had pursued uh the military option that he was pursuing back in april we were probably about three weeks away from achieving the objective on the nuclear the ballistics and the decapitation of the entire military industrial complex of iran the the negotiation was one of the worst things i've ever seen in international affairs and it was led by jd vance kelly when's next time we're supposed to hear [00:15:29] Speaker 4: from marco rubio so there actually is a major his first major post midterm speech that's set for a week from tomorrow right here in washington dc so we'll see what he has to say there but you know i've been covering him since he was you know in the senate for years uh before he moved over to his position now and he certainly has that foreign policy experience and that backing kind of playing off of what julian was saying there and just that he has that uh charisma that charm you know he ran before but he certainly has a lot more experience now so we'll see how this plays out right and something [00:16:06] Speaker 1: that we're watching really closely here as well kelly real quick follow-up on that any indication from the president who we would endorse whether it would be jd vance or marco rubio too early [00:16:18] Speaker 4: i think it's too early but it's interesting i think he said something not too long ago that people kind of caught on that he mentioned that the person that would be coming into the white house next would keep the gold up and he and people thought that he meant that he was talking about rubio because rubio likes that gold and the flare and everything in the oval so that was something that kind of hinted at that and he has a great reputation within the white house everybody loves him there certainly when you saw that video there the apprenticeship kind of uh tryouts that he did with the white house briefing having vance do it and rubio do it he certainly got to see who would who would do well [00:16:52] Speaker 1: at that all right julian i'm gonna have you jump in on the fun here am i right that gavin newsom did [00:16:56] Speaker 5: that for political reasons well look you know these are these are decisions of conscience at some level and i don't want to necessarily second guess that but i would say a lot of people are going to say while there's a lot of problems with the death penalty in california i certainly agree with that if he believes that the death penalty is wrong from a moral point of view why didn't he uh pardon or commute these sentences back eight years ago when he was first elected so this feels very political it feels like a soft to the far left um and it's dangerous because while it may be good for primary politics with the far left the sort of anti-incarceration left you can bet there are going to be a number of horror stories that republicans are going to pick out and they are going to paint them it's going to be sort of like a willie horton and so they're going to paint the five ten worst cases of the commutation and they're going to hang that around his neck and in a general election that would be a tough thing [00:17:49] Speaker 1: there are real lives at stake there are real consequences to doing something like this it's not just one commutation i mean you're talking about almost 600 so again a lot of moving factors i talked about it with mark kelly meyer julian epstein thank you both so much appreciate it jesse thanks thanks jesse all right coming up there's really no other way to say it a bloodbath on wall street yeah as artificial intelligence stocks took a massive hit the dow plunging more than 1800 points as investors are worrying about the future of the ai industry is the ai bubble finally popping what does it mean for your wallet we're going to get the facts from a top economist if you watch this show you know who we're bringing on we'll be back what a difference a day makes on wall street just 24 hours after stocks soared following the midterm elections the market has erased all those gains and then some the dow closed more than 1800 points today okay a drop of about 3.4 percent the s p 500 fell more than four percent now the tech heavy nasdaq lost five and a half percent pushing it near correction territory and some of the biggest losses came from ai companies like chipmaker nvidia which fell nine percent while rival amd lost about 17 percent one of the day's biggest losers was sandisk whose flash memory has been invaluable to the data center build out they fell a whopping 22 percent now what's behind the market plunge well the concern on wall street seems to be that the democrat sweep of congress could lead to new restrictions on the massive data centers that are powering the ai boom which in turn slow the growth of some of the world's most valuable companies but what makes today's sell-off especially striking is the fact that just yesterday the dow soared more than 1500 points so is this sudden reversal telling us something about investor confidence does it signal bigger problems for the larger economy joining me now to discuss is dr chris clark professor of economics at washington [00:20:02] Speaker 7: state university how do you see it uh that's a good question i see yesterday as hopeful i mean the primary objective in the election was about affordability so stabilizing the war in iran lowering tariffs that's good for business that's good for wall street but a little lower down the list was an increase in data center moratoriums and other regulations and i think that's what they're thinking about today [00:20:26] Speaker 1: is it also that you're seeing investors maybe not having as much confidence in ai companies i think anthropic open ai their growth numbers didn't reach where they were supposed to or where they [00:20:36] Speaker 7: were expected to go yeah that's a good question i mean obviously uh a anthropic and open ai are not on the stock market yet uh but the other firms that are creating software microsoft meta google etc they had a low day but it wasn't as bad as the hardware companies that we saw but are investors questioning the ai boom right this is the second big negative day for ai we had one about two weeks ago as well this could be a sign of that it's hard to tell without more time the stock market goes up some days and it goes down others day-to-day uh telling what long-term trends are is a little difficult [00:21:18] Speaker 1: well chip makers like nvidia they saw their stock plunge other companies like microsoft saw smaller [00:21:25] Speaker 7: losses why do you see that difference yeah and the difference is huge by the way i mean we're seeing on the screen nine percent for nvidia whereas microsoft and and google and others they were only about three percent today to me the difference is in the tone and the specifics of the regulation so the easiest thing to regulate is simply to say a data center moratorium we can't build any more data centers but to me the bigger worry is an ai model going rogue that would require regulating the software companies uh and so because the easy regulation might be the easier one to get out politically i think that's what we're seeing i think stock the wall street is afraid that we're going to stop building these data centers and perhaps we stop building them here but we might build them more in other countries rather than the one that personally i far more worried about is uh regulating the software [00:22:14] Speaker 1: companies right oh we'll just build a you know data centers on the moon um is this really a sign that ai investment is about to slow down because if we're thinking about that how does that have ripple effects throughout the larger economy could sectors like construction take a hit for example this is [00:22:30] Speaker 7: what the bet is today i'll emphasize it's just one day of data we'll see what happens in a week well you'll ask me about it two weeks from now i'll be back if this continues uh then yes a sign that we will slow down construction i mean at least a percentage point of the growth rate of gdp is from these data center construction and this could have ripple effects elsewhere uh throughout the economy [00:22:52] Speaker 1: so let before i let you go what is the impact for consumers i mean should people be worried about their retirement accounts what should people watch for in the coming days to determine [00:23:00] Speaker 7: if they should make a move with their money right if you're near retirement you shouldn't be owning much stocks anyway because of the high volatility switch it over to something more like an annuity but if you're my age or younger you have a lot of time you shouldn't move money for your [00:23:13] Speaker 1: retirement account for day-to-day news smart move and and by the way you are young don't don't don't let it say any you know you're very wise for your young years and don't let the beard for you dr chris clark thank you so much for taking the time i really appreciate that my pleasure take care all right coming up so there are two disturbing headlines out of hollywood we got to talk about russell brand faces prison after being convicted of rape and sexual assault and we have got newly released video of his police interrogations plus megan markle's half-brother is reportedly a person of interest in the child sexual material abuse material investigation involving their father how why tonight's fame files that's next all right some big names making headlines tonight in our fame files and for some very serious reasons so we're going to go we'll talk about the fame files right now we're cracking it open first up got to talk about this actor and comedian russell brand is now behind bars london jury has found the 51 year old guilty of rape and three counts of sexual assault involving four women brand was also acquitted of two other rape charges and attempted indecent assault but and he's denied the allegations but tonight he's in custody he's awaiting sentencing on monday where the judge said he could face significant time in prison his legal troubles by the way may not be over because police also say they're investigating two additional rape allegations against him and tonight we're getting a look at brand being questioned by police during the investigation in 2023 we never saw this before take a look i did on occasion find [00:25:08] Speaker 8: reasons for leaving or asking partners in casual sexual encounters to leave shortly after the experience had concluded had sexual encounters in countless locations and scenarios often with people that i've just met the way of life that i've described the magnitude of the promiscuity deceptively rendered in recent media attacks accompanied by advertisements for complainants have caused consensual encounters to be unfavorably reframed decades later as i stated at the outset i've never engaged in any non-consensual sexual [00:25:44] Speaker 1: activity that's topic one then topic two megan markle's estranged half brother is now reportedly a person of interest in a child sexual abuse material investigation involving their father thomas markle jr was the one who first alerted authorities to allege child sexual abuse material at his father's home out in the philippines but now philippine authorities say that a witness claims underage girls were brought to thomas jr's home and according to the country's interior secretary when police questioned thomas jr he claimed he was just making tick tock videos but it's already stressed he's not currently a suspect okay joining us now kinsey schofield royal reporter host of kinsey schofield unfiltered thank you so much for taking the time look let's talk russell brand for a second i mean he has quite a transformation over the years from hollywood star more conservative persona what is the reaction you're seeing right now to this bombshell [00:26:40] Speaker 9: convention there really is a split reaction on the internet you are seeing women say finally justice is served and then you're seeing some of russell brand's fans devastated over this you know you're exactly right there was a very public reinvention he went from a self-professed sex addict to a born again christian complete with a baptism in the river thames his his fans were willing to believe he changed but a spiritual awakening doesn't erase criminal responsibility and a jury has now found him guilty for serious sexual offenses and the story is far from over why did they find him guilty and why [00:27:20] Speaker 1: did they acquit him do you know i mean what was the tipping point in that trial well i mean what's [00:27:25] Speaker 9: interesting to me is the defense argued that the media coverage had made a fair trial impossible and you know i think the split verdict is important because it demonstrates that this jury wasn't simply swept up in the headlines surrounding him they considered seven charges and returned four guilty verdicts and three acquittals they made distinctions based on the evidence presented to them and i think that that dismisses the defense's argument that they were wrapped up in some of the headlines they were specifically concerned about that bbc documentary that which started all of this [00:28:00] Speaker 1: right um look and i know he's got sentencing monday i understand that rape can carry life in prison i understand that uh you know sexual assault can carry up to 10 years i don't know if you have insight into what that sentence it could potentially be but i also know that his legal troubles may not be over [00:28:17] Speaker 9: they're still investigating other allegations right yes sky news reports that russell could be looking at between six and nine years the judge has made it clear that brand is facing a significant prison sentence sentence he's been um remanded into custody and this surprised me the judge refused to let him go home to say goodbye to his children this weekend that tells you how seriously the court is treating these convictions and to your point yes uh two new investigations that the police have handed over to prosecutors those remain allegations but the possibility of further criminal proceedings is very [00:28:54] Speaker 1: real let's turn to uh megan markle's family this is a pretty shocking uh claim or report especially because her brother was the one who reportedly alerted police to this alleged material what happened here [00:29:06] Speaker 9: how did this happen yeah it is wild because it's junior that brought concerning material to the attention of authorities and they are now processing more than seven thousand five hundred potential pieces of evidence connected to thomas markle senior then just days later neighbors reportedly raised concerns about young females they'd seen visiting thomas jr's home investigators are now looking into those circumstances and suddenly the man who helped initiate this investigation into his father is facing questions [00:29:40] Speaker 1: himself and what do we know more about this alleged response that oh if you saw you know any me with anybody who was making tick tock videos is that really what happened yeah the neighbors described seeing [00:29:52] Speaker 9: young girls entering the residence while professional ring lights were visible through the windows and junior's explanation said you know he's just said i'm making tick tock videos his fiancee was kind of a big deal on tick tock before their relationship she has since deleted her presence online but investigators understandably want to establish who was present and what was filmed and they're referring to megan's [00:30:17] Speaker 1: half-brother as a person of interest now i know that they said he's not a suspect but do you do you hear anything about potential charges on the way for either thomas markle jr or senior yeah i mean [00:30:29] Speaker 9: what's striking is the international scope we've heard reports of investigative activity involving the philippines the united states and mexico with the fbi reportedly assisting in tracing digital evidence reports say that charges involving senior are eminent in the philippines senior has denied any wrongdoing and reports about his current health and care arrangements could complicate those proceedings now his son is facing additional scrutiny but junior has been described as a person of interest only and that's very different from being charged with a crime you know sometimes we do lighter subjects [00:31:01] Speaker 1: on fame files not tonight really really serious stuff uh kenzie scofield thank you so much for taking the time thank you okay here's a question is everything we know about the origin of life wrong origin of larger life on earth rather is it wrong there's a new study that's now putting all that into question what does this mean how should we be thinking about it we got an expert avi loeb ever hear of him joining me on the other side of the break what's the origin of life on earth we thought we knew right well now scientists for centuries that believe that comets provided the seeds for life right here on earth the theory was that these comets were packed with the necessary carbon and nitrogen molecules to spark life on this planet but now there is a new study out of cambridge university that is putting all of that into question this study took a look at one main compound hcn it's composed of hydrogen carbon and nitrogen and it suggests that the rate of comet travels and the angle of its impact onto earth would cause these molecules to vaporize and while the study says it's not impossible they say it would be statistically unlikely adding comet or would have to survive a fluke soft landing there would you know be enough concentration of those molecules that are elements necessary like water to create life so how exactly does this study impact our understanding about life on earth well that's why we got avi loeb harvard professor astrophysicist head of the uap advisory council good to see you sir so what do you think is it very unlikely that a comet is the source for life on earth well thanks for having me um the paper [00:32:36] Speaker 10: that came out last week considers as you mentioned just one molecule hydrogen cyanide which is considered to be an important critical precursor for the origin of life because it serves as a universal chemical building block for all the major components of living cells like uh nucleic acids proteins lipids and so forth uh however uh they find in the same paper that the delivery of hydrogen cyanide that is much more likely to a planet like mars the main reason that it's destroyed during impacts on earth is because the comets come at very high speed given that earth is closer to the sun than mars and so the molecule is destroyed but on mars it could have been preserved and uh obviously if you establish life on mars early enough um that could have been delivered to earth through asteroids we know that we know that rocks could survive the conditions of entering through the earth atmosphere if they come from mars and we have some examples of rocks that were not heated by more than 40 degrees celsius so if there were microbes in them that came from mars that could have triggered life on earth so we're martians we're martians potentially it's uh quite possible uh we don't know that for a fact we know that the first forms of life the last universal common ancestor luca uh emerged the 4.2 billion years ago so that's after mars was able to cool mars is a smaller object that had the conditions for life earlier than earth as we know that had liquid water on the surface so it's quite possible that it was triggered over there [00:34:27] Speaker 1: is there anything that if put aside an asteroid put aside a comet put aside that delivery mechanism is there any other explanation for the building blocks the ingredients of life here on earth is there another [00:34:40] Speaker 10: way that this could have happened yeah so they considered comets which are basically icebergs that they have liquid water i mean in principle if they get warmed up they can deliver water to earth but hcn this hydrogen cyanide molecule could potentially also exist in rocks asteroids not that are not as fragile and could be delivered to earth in principle in the core of a large enough rock so i would not dismiss other channels of delivering even this molecule hydrogen cyanide they just ruled out one channel that this molecule has a hard time surviving when delivered through earth through the atmosphere of earth because uh it the the comet gets vaporized all together in the com and reaches very high temperatures uh as a result of the [00:35:38] Speaker 1: a high impact speed big picture as we look at this how does this impact our understanding of not only the history of our planet but where we fit in the universe if we're listening to this and now questioning [00:35:50] Speaker 10: what we thought we knew well uh it just rules out one delivery channel through icebergs but not necessarily through rocks uh there could be other molecules rather than hydrogen cyanide that played an important role so i would not worry too much we know that even hydrogen cyanide uh was delivered by 3i atlas the interstellar object that came through the solar system last year uh through the inner solar system and we saw this molecule coming from the that particular iceberg uh and we know that it's very common including amino acids are very common uh in asteroids that we find in the inner solar system so it's possible for example for the building blocks of life to have built on rocks that survive the passage through the earth's atmosphere i wouldn't say that uh it rules out the the the ability of uh asteroids to deliver the building blocks of life because we uh there are big asteroids that only get heated in the surface but not much in the core as they pass through the earth's atmosphere but there is a way to think about [00:37:01] Speaker 1: this that they could be wrong right there's a way they could be thinking about this and saying you know what the perfect conditions could have existed at that one time for that comment to come through i hear exactly what they're saying in terms of it vaporizing and also the the severity of the impact but there it is possible that the con that there could have been the ideal connect uh uh you know conditions [00:37:23] Speaker 10: at that point for it to happen yeah so for example they do the statistics based on their estimated impact rate and uh they find that early on in the solar system there was a heavy bombardment of comets but that was too early for life to develop on earth uh and they need just the perfect object that would move together with the earth so that it doesn't impact the earth's atmosphere at a high speed and who knows you know these are statistical arguments so i wouldn't worry too much about this uh and you know it's also possible that we are all martians that wouldn't be so bad it would mean that elon musk is trying to deliver people back to mars but in fact there were astronauts tiny astronauts microbes that were the first to do the passage the other way around billions of years ago and it again teaches us a sense of cosmic modesty that you know things that are far more uh impressive than what we are trying to accomplish with our technologies were done by nature billions of years ago you know [00:38:28] Speaker 1: what a lot of people are listening to this and probably are like i always felt like i didn't belong here i always felt i didn't why do i feel like this planet is not right now i get it i like that theory that was a theory i haven't heard yet and i'm very i'm going to be thinking about that avi loeb thank you so much for always taking the time i know your time's precious appreciate it thanks for having me okay so i got another question for you what do you think about pizza about this how about one opinion went too far cost an italian pizza chef his job this is quite the story more on this dilemma up next is it a fun topping or cultural violation that's the question at hand here in one australian pizza restaurant where an italian chef was fired for refusing to put pineapple on pizza this is a real thing chef david tambarella was fired from the now closed lacosta restaurant located in brisbane australia now the chef was fired on claims of generally bad behavior but that included refusing to put ham and pineapple on pizza for guests at a function in fact reportedly that was the third time supposedly refused to put the somewhat controversial toppings onto pizzas now his belief is italians should never put pineapple on pizza that it's a disgrace should also be noted that the state of queensland where the restaurant is located is known for the production of pineapples it's like if i worked it's like if he worked at the hershey store and they made chocolate pizza and he's like i refuse to do it anyway tambarella says the topping is quote offensive to his culture he argued that he was unfairly dismissed from his position at the restaurant now what is my two cents at all this look i don't know the ins and outs of his employment and i mean if that was so important to him maybe he should have found a different place to work actually it's being reported he now works at a different restaurant where pineapple is not on the menu so good for him there i gotta say though i kind of respect him for it yeah i mean you go to italy you don't see chicken parm at any restaurant okay so there's something to be said here to staying true to what you value and tradition because you know that's sometimes get lost in so many things in life and look i don't say that you're gonna say oh i'm biased because i think pineapple on pizza is disgusting i do hate me for it it's fine i actually love anchovies on pizza don't hate that you should give it a try doesn't take away from the main message of tonight you know what that main message is stay true to yourself there you go okay now i talked about earth i talked about ingredients of life we did that on hot take today my podcast it's up on uh it's up on uh news nation's youtube check it out we had a great guest got your questions i'll see you tomorrow cuomo is up next everybody