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Jay Shetty's podcast on purpose is the number one health and wellness podcast.
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The president participated in an interview with Jay Shetty, who you all may know, to discuss the administration's effort to tackle the mental health crisis. Mr. President. How are you, man? Such a pleasure. Good to see you.
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Thank you for this honor. Thank you. Very, very grateful.
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Day will come when you open that closet door and you smell the fragrance of her dresses or you walk going by that park where you walked with your child or your or your wife or your husband or the thing that reminds you that for the longest time will just bring a tear to your eye.
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But eventually every once in a while will bring a smile to your lips before bringing a tear to your eye.
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When that happens you know you're going to make it.
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Best-selling author and host The number one health and wellness podcast On Purpose with Jay Shetty.
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I'm so grateful and honored that you're here with me right now.
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Thank you so much for all your love and all your support for On Purpose.
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It's incredible what we've been creating together, what we've been building together, and I'm so excited to share some big news with you.
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This is an extremely special interview today as I'm sitting down with the President of the United States, Joe Biden.
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This is only possible because of all your love and support for the podcast and making us a platform that the President and his team felt was right to talk about mental health.
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This conversation is dedicated to the person behind the podium.
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I always want to get to know the human behind the title, behind the position, behind what they do in the world, and spotlight and shine a light on mental health.
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We talk about so many of the things that he's gone through in his personal life.
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I'm so grateful that I got to have this conversation that we're going to share with the world at large and make sure that mental health is a mainstream conversation because it's so integral to all of our lives.
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I hope you enjoy this conversation.
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Thank you for all your love and support. Means the world to me.
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Everyone, welcome back to On Purpose, the number one health and wellness podcast in the world, thanks to each and every one of you that come back every week to learn, listen, and grow.
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Now, you know our mission here is to make the world happier, healthier, and more healed.
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And I believe that learning about people's stories of healing, of grief, of loss, of growth is a powerful way to do that.
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And today, I've been graciously invited to the White House, and I'm sitting with Mr. President.
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And I'm so grateful and honored to be here and to have you on our platform and for you to choose our platform to have this conversation.
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I couldn't be more honored. Thank you so much. Thank you.
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I'm flattered you'd want to interview me. Absolutely.
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Well, let's dive straight in.
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The first question I'd like to ask you is what is your earliest childhood memory that you believe defines who you are today and the person you've become?
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The earliest memory I have is there's two of them.
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One is there was a bully in the neighborhood lived down the in an area called the plot and we lived up the hill.
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And I was out with my friends in the alley behind our house and my mother was at the pantry looking out.
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The tough guy in the neighborhood smacked me as a couple years old and he ran and I came in holding my face and my grandfather was at the kitchen table and said, "What's the matter, Joey?"
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And he said, "That's a shame."
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I walked in and my mother said, "Joey, go back out there." So, go back out there.
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She said, "Walk up to Wait till he walks up to you.
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As soon as he does, smack him right in the nose. In the nose."
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She said, "I'll give you 50 cents if you do it." I said, "Why, Mom?"
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She said, "You won't be able to walk in that alley again if you don't." I was scared to death.
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I walked out, popped him in the nose, he bled, he ran, and I thought, "Huh." It worked.
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It worked, but I think the lesson I learned the most though is I used to stutter badly.
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And I would talk like like like like like that, and then I'd catch my rhythm and then I'd be able to And it was something that uh I thought was the worst curse could happen to me cuz everybody makes fun of it.
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I had a similar experience with being bullied.
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So, that resonates very strongly with me. I think everybody does.
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I was the runt of the litter. No, I really was.
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I was a little guy and uh I was a relatively good athlete even when I was a kid, but uh I literally was the runt of the litter.
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Well, well, for me it was my weight.
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I was overweight growing up, and it was the color of my skin.
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I grew up in an area where I wasn't surrounded by a lot of Indian people, and so those were the two reasons.
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Except my mother didn't give me that advice.
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Sometimes I wish she did.
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My mother did the opposite.
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She actually came into my school and spoke to the teachers, which was really embarrassing at that age, and you know, not helpful for my No, I think maybe it is, you know. I I had a similar thing.
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I when I was in I went to Catholic grade school and high school.
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And you sit in those days you sat in alphabetical order.
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I was in the first row, Biden, four people down.
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In reading class everybody read a paragraph.
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I got to my paragraph, and I remember what it was because I used to try to memorize it rather than have to look at the word when I'm re-reading it, you know.
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It was And it was said, "And he was a gentle man."
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And the And the teacher said, "What's that, Mr. Biden?"
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He wanted She wanted to say gentleman.
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But it was easier to not stutter and say gentle man.
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I said gentle I said, "Mr.
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B-B-Biden, what is that?"
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And I got up and walked out and walked home, which is about 2 mi.
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My mother was sitting there tapping the table when I walked in.
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She said, "Get in the car." Went down in the car.
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We walked in, went to the principal's office. Sat me outside the door.
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The door was cracked, you know, it was one of those opaque glasses glass windows and it didn't go to the ceiling.
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Anyway, to make a long story short, she said, "I'd like to speak to the teacher." My mother said. And she said, "Mrs.
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Biden, I'd like to speak to the teacher."
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So, the teacher walks in looked at me like, "You're in trouble now, Biden." Walked in, sat down.
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There was a crack in the door. I'll never forget this.
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And my mother, Catherine Eugenia Finnegan Biden, and she she looked and I could see what what did you say to my son?
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She said, "Did you say b-b-Biden?"
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She said, "I was just trying to make an appointment, Mrs. Biden."
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She said, "If you ever do that again, I'll come back and rip that bonnet off your head. You understand me?" Swear to God. Wow. Get up, walked out. Go back to class, Joey.
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But, you know, it's uh everybody has something that is tough, particularly when you're younger. Mhm.
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And it makes such a difference when when somebody reaches out.
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I'm sure you had also had some experiences where someone would say, "Come on." Mhm.
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Like, for example, there's a more than a handful of young stutterers, they're not so young anymore, that I still keep in touch with them.
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One young kid uh he introduced me when I ran for president.
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Took such courage because he to talk talk talk like like that.
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And he practiced he practiced he practiced.
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But, it's had a profound impact on his life.
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Another young man, when I was uh vice president uh uh he was I could tell you can tell a stutterer if you're a stutterer just by when you're he was in line with his mom.
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It was in Tennessee and where I was doing a thing for Al Gore.
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And uh and she introduced her son and I could see him go his lips.
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I said I said, "Hey, I'm about to finish my speech.
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Why don't you come help me write it?"
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And the mother looked at me and he looked at me and took a minute and I showed him how I marked up my speeches so that I could get a little cadence with what I did.
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Did you ever see the movie The King's Speech? Yes, of course.
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Well, the gentleman who had that had a copy of The King's Speech, he did it sent me a copy.
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And I don't know if I have my book with me, but there's a one of these days I'll show you my speeches.
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I looked at it and I marked it up the same way.
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Every speech I mark up is the same way that I think they might have it.
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See those slash marks I put on? Yes.
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Well, this just to help me, but you know, there were people who reached out to me, too.
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Maybe that impediment was the best thing ever happened to me.
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It's incredible, isn't it, how a challenge that you're going through actually helps you become more compassionate and empathetic towards other people?
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It's kind of human nature for most people.
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When you understand the pain someone's feeling, your first instinct is Look, we we have a expression in the family from the time I was a kid.
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It's all about showing up. To just be in there.
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I mean, I imagine the times when you were down because they're making fun of your Indian heritage in an all white population.
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That having someone come up and say, "Hey, come on.
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You and me, let's do boom." It makes a difference. Absolutely. Yeah, I'll never forget. You've just reminded me.
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Ian Windass was his name.
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He was the toughest kid in school. And he had my back.
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That was that person that reached out to me.
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So, if anyone had a problem with me, they had a problem with him and he'd he'd take care of it. I felt very safe. Felt very safe with Ian. Wow.
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It really is all about reaching out, isn't it? I mean, for real.
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Think of all the young people today. Mhm.
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I think that there's more anxiety and loneliness today than there's been in a long, long time. Mhm.
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You know my friend, I appointed him Admiral uh McRaven.
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He was telling me about uh you know, the percentage of young people today who are feeling lonely, alone.
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And sometimes it's just just touching, just showing up.
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I used to get my deceased son, Beau, who should be sitting here instead of me, would always say, "Dad, you don't have time to make that call.
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You don't I I'd get in a plane and go home and because someone had a a serious problem, lost a wife, a daughter, and I and I He said, "Dad, you don't have time."
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When he passed away, the hundreds of people told me how he called, he showed up, he was there.
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And uh because there are people who showed up for me, too.
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And it just really matters. Yeah.
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You've been through You mentioned it there.
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You've been through so much tragic loss in your life.
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As you just mentioned there, you didn't run for presidency in 2016 shortly after the loss of your son.
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You've lost your first wife and daughter in a horrific accident.
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I can't even begin to understand how someone has the courage to process that much loss and grief, let alone move forward in the way you have. It's truly admirable. How How did you begin?
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I had an overwhelming advantage in the loss, and that was I had a really close family that was there.
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For example, when my uh wife and daughter were killed, my first wife, and my two boys were very badly injured, a tractor trailer broadsided them.
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I was not in was not in the accident.
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When I got home from the hospital, my sister and husband already gave up their apartment and moved in, helped me raise my kid.
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My brother we we lived in a suburban area.
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It was more country than suburban.
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And there was a little barn on the garage barn.
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My My brother came in and he turned the loft of the barn into an apartment for himself.
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They were there for me all the time.
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That was a gigantic difference.
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My best friend in my life is my sister and my brothers.
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And And uh so I had an enormous advantage and I think that when you see people who are going through something tough, it does matter if you reach out. I mean it does matter.
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Like for example, you know, you have a when you're a senator for all the years I was in a small state, you know so many people and people would pass away and you'd show up at the wake or the funeral.
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No matter what was happening, I learned it early on.
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People would stop and just come and throw their arms around me.
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Because if they know you know the pain they feel, they get some solace in it.
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It's not always easy, but it's uh it just matters just to to just to reach out.
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Let people know you see them.
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How did you allow yourself to receive that help too?
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I feel like as you were mentioning earlier, with the loneliness and the anxiety that exists, a lot of people either struggle to know what to say.
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I think we live in a society where people are like, "Well, what do I say if they've gone through that?"
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And the opposite end what you just said, being able to be open enough to actually receive help requires a certain amount of courage and strength as well.
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Well, I was uh raising a family for real, an extended family, my grandparents as well.
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Where uh my dad had an expression, "Family is beginning, middle, and end."
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There's a rule in the family growing up, not a joke.
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We didn't notice at the time, but whenever you wanted to speak to your mother or father, I mean they said, "Can we" you had a problem.
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No matter what they were doing, they stopped.
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No matter what they were doing.
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They stopped and heard her, listened to her.
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And I did the same with my children and I they did the same with theirs.
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Because it's a it's a matter of them knowing that you they are the most important thing in your life.
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If they got a problem, you're there to listen.
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I have a seven grandkids uh four of them all five of them old enough to talk on the phone.
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You know, every day I you text them or call them.
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And as a matter of fact, during the campaign, they were they were having a I didn't realize they're having an interview on the the four oldest grandchildren.
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And I said and just at the time and they said they call me pop.
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Pop calls us every day or texts us every day.
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And I called them the phone rang.
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While they're in the interview. Well, I I give my word.
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I had no idea they were in the interview.
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But it's a look, I I just think being there is is important and and makes such a difference, I think.
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Knowing that someone's going to be there for you.
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Just to listen, just to just to hold you, just to hug you.
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Yeah, I believe you're right.
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I I believe we often over complicate things.
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We think we have to say the perfect thing, we have to have the solution, we have to be able to fix our problems.
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But it's just half of just showing up. Mhm.
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Even people you don't know that well, but you've met. The fact you call Mhm.
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and say I'm thinking of you.
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I learned this from my experience.
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The day will come when you open that closet door and you smell the fragrance of her dresses or you're walk going by that park where you where you where you walked with your child or your or your wife or your husband or that thing that reminds you and for the longest time will just bring a tear to your eye.
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But eventually, every once in a while, it'll bring a smile to your lips before it brings a tear to your eye.
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When that happens, you know you're going to make it.
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That's the moment you know I made That mean you still don't cry.
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Doesn't mean the pain still isn't isn't real even years later, but you know you can make it.
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I think there's an advantage sometimes if you have deep faith, whether you're you know, Catholic, Protestant, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, you know, whatever.
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My family, when they want to get an important message to me, they tape it on the mirror of the bathroom. I'm serious, not a joke.
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wake up in the morning and Yeah, no, it's on the mirror.
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I guess I was down early on and this is going to be 10 years ago. I was down or something.
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And uh my daughter, Ashley, taped on my She's a social worker.
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Taped on my mirror, "Happiness is something something to do, someone to love, and someone to look forward to."
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You didn't And "Dad, you have all those things."
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Just remind you, you know.
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I think what you just said about the smile before the tear is probably one of the realest things I've ever heard, I think.
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We often are trying to create a world in which we only have smiles and we're we put pressure on ourselves and the people around us to be forever happy.
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And what you just said there was was really really resonate with me, really hit me, actually.
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The idea that you will cry, it will happen, but that tiny smile that you experience even through a loss, even through grief, you're fortunate that you got to have that experience that allowed you to find that smile at that time.
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And I feel like you've been through so many obstacles in your life, but I'd love to know what you see as the relationship between vulnerability and strength, especially as a leader, because I think leaders have an overarching pressure to display strength in a certain way.
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I'll give you an example.
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I coach several CEOs and individuals, athletes, and others.
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And one of the CEOs who leads a large organization called me a few months ago and we were working through some things together.
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And at one point I said to them, I said, "It would be really wonderful for you to tell your teams that you lead what you've been going through and growing through."
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And they said, "Jay, I don't know if I can tell them.
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I don't I don't know if I can tell them." And I said, "Why?"
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And they said, "Well, because it will look like I'm weak."
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And I said to them, "Well, no.
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You being vulnerable and sharing your growth is the greatest strength. That's not a weakness."
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But that was new because so many leaders feel they have to portray a certain type of strength.
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But even today I can see there's a grace in the way you're sharing.
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Well, I have I have a rule that I thought that everybody in my my staff knew.
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Because I I had when I was a senator for a long time, at one point, I don't know how they measured it, but I had the same staff longer than anybody in in the in the Senate at the time.
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For example, we were doing a very very important Supreme Court hearing.
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I was chairman of the Judiciary Committee.
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And we worked on very hard and did all the research and you know, anyway.
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There's one young man who people say was invaluable because he's the guy who knew all the detail about certain things.
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And I found out that he was having trouble at home.
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And I said, "I want you to go home.
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Don't come to the hearing." Said, "I can't go home. Go home." And you know why? Because I would go home.
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I have a thousand bosses, but only one, me. No one.
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And so I when I had crises at home raising the boys or I went home.
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Now, I don't know how many years ago it was, but in this job and as vice president another person was having some trouble at home.
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And I found out but I said, "Go home."
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They said, "No, no, I can't.
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I got I said, "If you don't go home, I'm going to fire you." Go home.
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Your relationship is a hell a lot more important than whatever you're doing for me.
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So, that's a rule we have. Not a joke.
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Absolutely not a and you never have to tell me why.
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All you got to say is, "I'm not going to be in." I take it your word.
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If it turns out you're playing games with me, I'll learn but I know you too well.
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Take the time because you're not going to be any better than your relationship.
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And that's a little bit what you were just talking about.
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And you know, I think you'd have to ask my staff.
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I don't know, but I think they long as they know that's more important more important than doing whatever specific thing you're doing at that moment for me.
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How do you apply that rule when it feels like what they're all working on this specific moment seems obviously to be the most important thing in the world.
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How do you Well, because there's only one advantage of getting older.
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You've had a lot of experience and uh and you're going to apply a little bit of wisdom. It's really critical. Yeah.
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And by the way, there's a selfish aspect to it because when you have a problem with someone you love or some problem you you know, you got to deal with it.
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Yeah, and you can't even perform as well. Exactly right. Yeah, absolutely.
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You've every day for years had to make difficult and stressful decisions.
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High stakes, hugely impactful on so many people.
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When you're making decisions, do you follow your head, your heart, your gut?
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How do you think about decision-making?
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I don't know how to separate the three. Mhm.
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Many times my heart brings me to the problem.
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And my gut tells me what I think I want to do.
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But my head, meaning the research, the back sometimes says that's the wrong answer.
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I think you're driven by a value set. You know what you value.
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You know what you think is important in life.
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You know what you think is consequential.
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And I think people who know what they value, doesn't mean they're better or what, but if you follow your value set, to me they're kind of basic things.
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My dad used to have an expression, for real.
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He said, "Joey, everyone's entitled to be treated with dignity." Mhm. Everybody. Dignity was his word. Dignity.
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And what I find myself looking through the prism For example, I was at an event the other day where I was talking and I were talking about a problem a mom was having providing for the health and needs of a child, of actually a teenager.
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I said, "All I can think of when hearing about not being able to afford the treatment was how she's deprived of her dignity." Mhm.
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Imagine being a parent and you can't do anything about it cuz you don't have the financial wherewithal because you don't have the connection, you don't know where to go. Mhm.
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It's a little bit like, you know, uh I think the most dangerous, the most hated word in English language and any other language translated is cancer.
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You have can- It just strikes fear in everybody. Mhm.
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Well, it's one thing to get an analysis by a great doctor, but you still need someone to guide you through. It's complicated.
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But there and there were we're we're finding significant breakthroughs in cancer.
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But you need someone to sort of lead you through who knows about it.
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I think it's the same way with about any problem people have.
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If there's a way let people know there's an avenue. There's a way through.
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You know, I used to have a friend named Bob Gold who uh who died of a heart attack and I used to say, "Bob, do you understand me?"
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He said, "Joe, and I I understand you. I overstand you."
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But you got to know how to know.
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And and that's why we can be so of little things that can be of enormous value.
23:40
It's like you know, you're walking across this an intersection.
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They don't let me do that anymore, but uh you walk across the intersection and there's a you know, an elderly man or woman knowing they're waiting to see if they have enough time. Mhm.
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Just grabbing their hand and walking them across.
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It's a it's a little tiny thing, but it the anxiety it relieves.
23:59
Yeah, no, I that that resonates.
24:02
The idea of the more we're a part of the solution the less the problem feels overwhelming. I think so.
24:12
Now, I have to admit when you've been through something that's been particularly difficult helping someone going through it again forces you to relive your experience.
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Like for example, the people I admire when we have functions where we're trying to make a point uh how we can help someone with health care or whatever it is.
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The people who've been through it who show up and supported I always compliment them because it's like it happened yesterday when you start to focus on it. And it's hard.
24:45
We underestimate what we can do.
24:48
Now, I don't I'm not I'm not talking about being president.
24:51
I mean, just what we can do in in of uh dealing with people, I try to understand what is motivating the other person when I'm doing things internationally or when I personally.
25:07
Because if you can understand what motivates them, there's a shot even with the bad guys, you can break through and get something done. Mhm.
25:15
There's a way to expose the meanness without causing direct conflict.
25:22
For example, I remember I went to a Catholic grade school.
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We didn't often get invited to the cotillion, which was the local school down the street, the Mount Pleasant school.
25:35
And so I got invited and I was going to go.
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I was all excited about going.
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I think it was ninth grade, maybe it was eighth grade, and the little dance.
25:43
And there was a guy who was a good athlete.
25:45
I was a relatively good athlete and he was a good athlete from the school in the other school, big guy.
25:51
Became friends, but uh so I'm getting dressed and I didn't have a shirt to wear.
25:57
So my mother got my uncle's shirt, who was a smaller man than my dad, and French cuffs and rolled up the cuffs so that it would look like it would fit.
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And I couldn't find my dad's We couldn't find my dad's cufflinks.
26:09
So my mom went and got a nut and a bolt.
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I wondered why she was down downstairs in the laundry room looking for and put them on.
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I said, "Mom, I can't do this. They'll make fun of me. I'll be embarrassed."
26:24
She said, "Anybody comes up and says anything to you, you look at them and say" And here's the story I want to say.
26:28
This guy, Frank, came up to me and said, "Hey, look at Biden. Look what he's got here. Hey."
26:32
And I looked at him and said, "You don't have a pair of these?"
26:37
And he said, "Well, uh uh uh yeah, yeah, I got a pair." But I'm serious.
26:43
How do you assess people's motivations?
26:45
Like you were just saying that that when you can understand someone's motivation, you can almost disarm them without exposing them, which is what you just gave that example of now.
26:55
How do How do we do that so that we go to the root of it?
26:58
I think often we get so caught up in what someone's what we think someone's thinking or what we think someone's saying, but actually going to the heart of it and the root of it.
27:07
You know, it's hard to explain how you credit for these days for sort of holding an international community together in the I try to understand what the circumstance the other world leader is facing.
27:26
And see if there's a way what I would needs to be done.
27:28
There's a way through that he doesn't or she doesn't have to make a great sacrifice to do what she's doing, but help make the case why they're helping others, but there's ways to do that.
27:41
And it doesn't require the person if there's a if they have a fundamental difference with you on a subject.
27:49
But if they're doing something because they don't have the political bandwidth to be able to do it at home, you can provide it.
27:57
I will say to this leader sometimes, well, why don't you let me criticize you for this or thank you for that or more And most of the time Now, you don't do it off the top of your head.
28:08
You you got to know some of these people. They'll go, "Okay."
28:13
Or why don't you Why Why don't you criticize me?
28:15
Why don't you criticize me for my not doing something.
28:19
And then I'll respond and say, "Okay, then you can do what you want to do."
28:25
It's just basic human nature, but I think I think trying to figure out what leeway a person has.
28:36
I don't expect everybody to uh that I'm dealing with to appear in the second edition of Profiles in Courage.
28:44
Nor may I mean, it's hard. Mhm.
28:44
But, there's ways you can work through Not always, but you can work through things where you can allow the other person to save face and still get to where you want to go. Yes.
28:59
And sometimes it works with you working with two people Yes. to get that done. Yeah.
29:04
But, it's it's just trying to figure out what is really what impediments are in their way Mhm.
29:12
to keep them from being able to do what you know you feel in your your gut you know they know they should do.
29:19
That's a great perspective.
29:19
I'm so happy you shared that because so many of us are fixated on what we want out of something or where we want to get to or what our challenges are. But, Mr.
29:28
President, I'm so grateful for your graciousness and kindness in giving me this time today.
29:33
We end every On Purpose interview with a final five. Uh-oh.
29:36
Uh and these final five questions uh questions we ask every guest.
29:42
Uh and there are some some great ones in here for you.
29:46
So, the first question I'm going to ask you is what is the best advice you've ever received and what's the worst advice you've ever received?
29:51
I guess the best advice I've ever received is show up. Mhm. Just show up. Um be there and get up.
29:58
My mother used to say, "Joey, get up."
30:04
Never bow, never bend, never get up. Just get up.
30:08
And but showing up is just uh that's a big part. Mhm.
30:11
And I guess the worst advice I've ever uh received was uh holding a grudge.
30:20
Because lots of times when people do something that is really not good it's because they were fearful and they did it.
30:27
Not a fearful of you, but their circumstance. And it gets you nowhere.
30:31
And which means people doubt when I'm really Irish.
30:35
Um the joke inside was "Biden's really Irish."
30:38
But, all kidding aside remembering is important, but holding a grudge is uh it's not helpful. Very true. Very true.
30:46
First time for both of those answers. I love it. Okay. Second question.
30:51
A lot of Americans today are seeking therapy as a form of support.
30:53
Where does the president seek support and guidance in your own challenges and journey?
31:01
Well, uh my best friend is my wife.
31:07
The woman who has probably had more to do with my success than anyone is my sister Valerie. And uh my brother Jim.
31:16
And I think that's the place where I go most, but also I have a great advantage.
31:22
Over the years I've I've I've grown to have some great great relationships with people I work with and or one of my staff. Mhm.
31:34
And I think most of my staff would tell you the senior staff is I don't treat them like they work for me.
31:37
I treat them as they are.
31:39
They know Reason I hire them, I want them to know more than I know. Mhm.
31:44
And there's some things that uh that I seek advice from uh from a religious perspective. Mhm.
31:53
But that's really personal. Yeah. Beautiful. Okay. Third question.
31:58
Uh I believe it's been said that you told your first wife when you met her that you wanted to be or you one day you would be the president of the United States. Is that true? No, it's not true. I love it.
32:10
I read all this What I did tell her Yeah.
32:13
and I uh and the same with No man deserves one great love, let alone two. For real.
32:21
The two women that I married, one passed away were women I knew when I went out with them the first time I wanted to marry them.
32:32
My first wife I I told her when I met her, we went to to I went to I had $89 tax return and one of five guys down to Florida and and I I don't drink so I was bored with all of it.
32:45
So I went to with three of them went to Nassau.
32:49
And for you could apply for 25 bucks round trip.
32:52
And I met my my deceased wife and I told her when when when I hung out with her for four days down there on the beach and uh that I was going to marry her and she looked at me and said, "I think so."
33:09
And I started commuting every day every weekend when I was I was a senior in college.
33:13
That's how I ended up at Syracuse. She's a marine.
33:15
And my present wife was uh it was a blind date that my brother set up for us.
33:22
And I knew when I saw her.
33:22
I I was on that 10 most eligible bachelor's list for five years.
33:28
And it's not a fun thing.
33:31
Because there were a lot of and don't get me wrong, a lot of nice people but I had kind of given up on uh they think you know I could have a and I got this blind date.
33:39
I'll never forget my brother said, "You'll like her.
33:40
She doesn't like politics."
33:45
I'm glad I asked that question.
33:45
Question number four, this is very important to social media.
33:50
So, the question is there are so many shows today based on the presidency, the White House, mirroring it shows on TV, streaming platforms.
34:01
Which one is the most accurate and which one is the least accurate? Mission Impossible. The most or least? Most.
34:09
Um look uh I uh One of the problems I have is I don't and I should I don't watch much television.
34:17
Now, and it's it's not because I'm above it or anything like that.
34:20
It's just that for example, for 36 years after the accident occurred and I commuted every day, 300 miles a day.
34:30
And uh and and the press actually I had one I got to know all the conductors so well.
34:35
They became friends and one day as vice president I was going home on the train which the Secret Service didn't like because there's so many opportunities to interrupt the train.
34:44
Um, and this particular I'm not going to embarrass him and say his name company grabbed me and she goes, "Joey, baby."
34:49
I thought they're going to shoot him.
34:52
Anyway, I said, "No, no, he's right."
34:52
He said, "I just read in the paper you traveled a million 100,000 miles on Air Force planes."
34:59
Because you have a list how many miles you travel on. And he said, "Big deal."
35:02
He said, "Joey, we had a retirement dinner. So, you know what?
35:07
You figured out you know how many miles you travel on Amtrak?" I said, "No."
35:12
He said, "A million 200,000 miles, 119 days a year, 300 day 300 miles round trip, 36 years plus what?"
35:19
I'm going, "What the heck?"
35:23
My point was I was on a train lot.
35:23
And, so when I get home there wasn't much to watch.
35:29
I mean, not it was to watch, but I'd I'd always make sure I think and I think you know you every all your guests know this that children need to know that they're the most important thing in your life.
35:41
So, even if I got home late, I'd climb in bed or my my two boys at the time and just even if they were asleep and get up in the morning and it wasn't like Ozzie and Harriet.
35:50
I wasn't fixing their breakfast, but I'd be there and have breakfast with them.
35:55
They'd take off for school, I'd take off for the train.
35:58
So, I've been back and forth so much I haven't I just haven't watched many pro- And by the way, there's a lot of good stuff I'm sure.
36:05
I mean, every once in a while I'd turn on.
36:07
And by the way, they got a great advantage here. You got a movie theater.
36:12
Inside Yeah, and they they tell me I I get this list what movies are in and we have the, uh, the the new one that's the, um, oh, the Oppenheimer? Oppenheimer, yeah. I haven't seen it yet. I haven't either, yeah.
36:26
They're They're They're the movies I see these days.
36:28
I get to see them at night once in a while. Okay, very nice. Amazing.
36:31
All right, our fifth and final question.
36:33
We ask this question to every guest who's ever been on the show, but it truly is unique asking you this question.
36:39
If you could create one law in the world that everyone had to follow, what would it be?
36:46
I don't think it's a matter of being able to have any one law that could change people's attitudes. I think I'm optimistic.
36:53
I think we have We're on the cusp We're in a time of real change.
36:59
And And we're at an inflection point in world history.
37:05
Whether I'm president or not, things are going to change drastically.
37:07
And you see it happening all around the world.
37:11
And we have an enormous opportunity, but the thing I want to con- want to change is American attitude that we can do anything. We can do anything.
37:20
There's nothing we've ever set our mind to that we've not been able to do we've done together. For real.
37:27
And so, I laid out four things that I felt were critically important in my State of the Union.
37:31
One was to make a fundamental change in cancer treatment. Mhm.
37:36
We can cure a lot and that's why I would put another $6 billion.
37:38
I mean, pick the impossible thing.
37:43
I have Caroline Kennedy gave me a copy of uh President Kennedy's part of President Kennedy's uh speech when about going to the moon.
37:52
He said, "Because we refuse to postpone."
37:56
We have to refuse to postpone anymore.
37:59
There's so much we can do and I mean it.
38:02
I believe it with every fiber in my being.
38:05
I've been doing this a long time and I've never been more optimistic about our chances than now.
38:10
And that's why when I ran, I said I ran for three reasons.
38:12
One, to restore the soul of America, sense of decency, just the way we talk to one another.
38:18
Secondly, to build this country from the middle out and the bottom up.
38:20
The wealthy still do very well, but everybody has a shot.
38:24
And thirdly, to unite the country.
38:26
And I think we can do it. I really genuinely do.
38:31
And but then again, as my often referred to, I'm a cockeyed optimist, but but I really believe it. Mr.
38:38
President, thank you so much for the honor. So grateful.
38:40
I have two tiny requests for you.
38:42
I'd love I'd love for you, if you don't mind, to walk me through what's here because I saw these beautiful pictures when I walked in.
38:47
And I thought they looked really special and I'd love for you to share them. This one.
38:55
My dad was was a real gentleman and a well-read man.
38:59
Never got a chance to go to college.
39:01
And he always said, "Joey, never explain, never complain."
39:05
And so we were having my fourth re-election effort as a senator in the late '90s.
39:11
And my dad was over at our house to you know, to be there with me.
39:18
And I was standing on this back porch overlooking this pond.
39:20
I built a smaller home when the home we had when everybody moved out.
39:25
But it sits on a pond, a 10-acre pond.
39:29
And I was saying my deceased wife, she lived in Lake Skaneateles in the Finger Lakes, beautiful.
39:34
She I said, "You know, I'm I I I wish Neilia could have seen this."
39:39
And so And my dad thought I was going to feel sorry for myself.
39:43
So he came he said, "I'll I'll be back."
39:46
And he took off and went up to the local uh Hallmark store.
39:50
And came back with this cartoon.
39:53
This is his philosophy of life. It's Hagar the Horrible.
39:55
Lightning strikes, his boat's going down.
39:58
He's looking up to God in heaven and saying, "Why me?"
40:03
The next frame, a voice from heaven comes by, "Why not?"
40:07
My dad always say, "What makes you so special you don't have these problems?" I'll put it down here.
40:13
The other ones there's a bunch there, but uh Which one do you want to highlight?
40:17
Well, one of my favorite ones is uh uh of that one of my son Beau.
40:24
This is when he came home from being in Iraq for a year with his unit and uh this is his son, little Hunter.
40:32
Got on his shoulders and wouldn't get off his shoulders.
40:33
Just would not I mean for hours was on his shoulders.
40:38
The others are my mom and dad, my that's my daughter, the love of my life, the life of my love.
40:45
And anyway, there's a lot up there.
40:45
I'm feeling I'm probably boring the hell out of you. Not at all. Not at all.
40:48
I I thought it was wonderful to see them when I came in, so thank you.
40:51
Well, like I said, my dad really was one of these guys and and that was about and so was my mother's side of the family.
40:59
And family, my dad would say is the beginning, the middle, and the end. And I believe it is.
41:06
I mean, I know what you're trying to do is all those folks out there that are lonely and all those folks out there that are feeling uneasy, all those folks out there that aren't sure. I don't know.
41:17
I just just sometimes just reaching out makes a difference. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you. Thank you so much.
41:26
You're doing good work for people. I really mean it. Thank you. Thank you.
41:29
That means the world coming from you and I look forward to many more conversations. Thank you. Thank you. One, two, three. Great. Okay, amazing.