A trailer can only do-- a trailer can only do
one of three things.
A trailer can spoil the movie
or a trailer can hype up the movie
and it doesn't meet up to it
or the triler c-- trailer can make it seem
like the movie's gonna be shit and then it's not.
What am I watching the trailer for?
You only need trailer--
You don't need a trailer for The Matrix.
I need a trailer for the first Matrix,
'cause I'm like, "Why? Why would I just go watch a movie
"about the Matrix? Now I'm at, like, a computer movie.
"Like, (bleep).
Now I'm-- Like, a movie about routers and shit like that."
You've got to watch a trailer for the first one.
But there are many movies that don't need a trailer.
I can't watch a trailer for The Matrix.
I know everything I need to know about this movie.
Everyone who watches the trailer,
you are wasting your life as a person.
What are you watching a trailer for?
"I want to know if they're gonna punch."
I think they're gonna punch, guys.
"I wonder if there'll be guns."
I-I can guarantee you there'll be guns.
"Will there be some slow motion?"
I'm gonna put money on that one as well.
"Okay, but are they gonna wear black?"
Look, my friend, there are few things I can put money on
that are definitely gonna be happening there.
"Is Morpheus gonna be bald?" Yeah, the last time I checked.
What is a trailer gonna tell me about The Matrix?
Nothing. It is a waste of my time.
It can only spoil my experience.
I will concede that a trailer is good to pique your interest.
You cannot have a made--
any trailer for a movie that has already existed.
What I do is, like, when those trailers play,
after, like, 20, 30 seconds,
I look into my popcorn and I ignore everything.
(laughing)
-I refuse. -MAN: Yeah.
If they're gonna make a new Godzilla movie now
or a new King Kong movie,
this is the-- All the trailer needs to be is this.
(rhythmic thumping)
Then you see an eye.
(rhythmic thumping)
Aah!
I'm gonna come watch it.
(laughter)
-♪ ♪ -ANNOUNCER: Coming to you from the heart of Times Square,
in New York City, the only city in America,
it's The Daily Show.
Tonight, houses are too expensive.
K-pop.
And Governor Gavin Newsom.
This is The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.
Hey! What's going on, everybody?
Welcome to The Daily Show. I'm Trevor Noah.
Let's jump straight into today's headlines.
♪ ♪
There's a lot going on in the world today.
The big international news is that President Biden
held a video meeting with Vladimir Putin
to warn him not to invade Ukraine.
Yeah.
And a video chat is a tough way
for both of these guys to do diplomacy.
I mean, especially because, even when he's in person,
Biden talks like he's got a bad connection.
"Man, come on, man. Vlad, you-you got to--
"You know, the thing we're-we're trying to do on the border.
"You got to-- Man, we-we got to-- we got to--
Come-come on, come on, man." (stammering)
"Joe, you're cutting out.
"No, Joe, I cannot hear. You are cutting--
"Reboot your ser-- You know what, I reboot for you.
"I have access to White House servers.
"Not Kamala. She doesn't use Bluetooth.
Everybody else."
All right, let's move on to some technology news.
Everyone loves Tesla cars.
They're like if a Prius did ayahuasca.
But now they're under fire for a new feature
that allows drivers to play video games
like solitaire on the dashboard screen while driving.
Yeah. Which... Guys, come on.
How are we supposed to drive and play video games
and text and eat breakfast
and do our makeup and flip off other drivers
for not paying attention to the road?
It's too much now, people.
And, also, I can't emphasize this enough--
it's not worth dying in a car crash
just to play a video game.
I mean, at least not solitaire.
You know? If God of War was on there,
then, yeah, I'll drive off a cliff.
But solitaire? Shit.
St. Peter will be roasting your ass at the pearly gates.
"Solitaire?! Your bitch ass died for solitaire?
"Yo, this shit is hilarious. Yo, Mother Teresa!
"Come hear this, come hear this!
"Yeah, bring Jeffrey Epstein with you!
Okay? Bring Jeffrey with you. Oh, this shit is crazy!"
Wait, what?
Jeffrey Epstein's in heaven?
Are we just gonna carry on like that didn't happen, guys?
We're just gonna let that g-- How did he get into--
All right, let's make like every bachelorette party
and go to Nashville, Tennessee,
where another Confederate statue has been removed.
This time, it's one that was put up in the 1990s.
Yeah. And it's of the first KKK leader,
Nathan Bedford Forrest.
And I'm gonna be honest. You know, this-this statue here
was actually the one Confederate statue
that I feel should have been kept up.
Because, I mean, look at it.
This shit is hilarious.
When have you ever seen a statue where the general looks
like he's shooting his way out of a saloon?
You know, he's just like...
His horse doesn't even have reins.
Every other statue, the general sits there like a wise old man.
This dude looks like he stole a horse in Red Dead Redemption.
"I'm getting out of here! Aah!"
I mean, look at his face.
I've never seen a statue that's panicked.
Who makes a statue of your moment of panic?
He looks like he found out, he just found out
what a Barack Obama is.
They said what?! He's the ruler of who?! Aah!
In fact, I realized, you know, we don't need
to take down any Confederate statues.
Yeah, we should just say whoever designed this statue
has to design all the other statues.
Then both sides win. Yeah.
If this general really did look like this in real life,
I think it would explain a lot.
You know, he was probably the first guy
at the Klan rally who said,
"You know what?
We should all wear pillow cases over our faces."
"You mean, to scare the darkies?"
"Uh, yeah, sure, that's why."
All right, but let's move on to our main story.
For decades, owning a home has been one of the core parts
of the American dream, just below dating Pete Davidson.
But right now, actually buying a home is harder
than Matt Gaetz watching the new Saved by the Bell.
NEWSWOMAN: With the housing market red hot,
prospective buyers are trying not to get burned
as demand soars, but supply is limited.
Home prices rising at their highest rate in 15 years
and demand so intense that Redfin reports
nearly half of homes are selling within a week
of hitting the market.
NEWSMAN: Prospective home buyers
in astronomical bidding wars.
Homes vanishing from listings hours after being posted.
WOMAN: You go to an open house.
There could 50 cars in a line
outside waiting to see that property.
People are-are so desperate that they'll court favors,
get, you know, potential sellers,
uh, tickets to rare events.
NEWSMAN 3: Even houses with notorious histories are selling.
This is the 100-year-old Mediterranean style home in L.A.
where the Charles Manson family
murdered Leno and Rosemary LeBianca in 1969,
but in today's market,
it was snapped up for $1.8 million.
Okay, okay. Okay, I know what you're thinking right now.
"Why on earth would you buy that house?
Someone was murdered there!"
Yeah, exactly. Someone has already been murdered there.
What are the odds it'll happen again?
I mean, I'd sleep like a baby in that place.
But seriously, people,
the housing market has gotten crazy in America.
I mean, some people are buying a house
just hours after it's posted online.
A house! Hours!
Meanwhile, I read reviews for six months
before I finally decide which water bottle to buy.
And now that I think about it, I should have gotten a blue one.
But the question is, why has it become so hard
to buy a home in America?
Well, let's find out why in another installment of
"If You Don't Know, Now You Know."
♪ ♪
When it comes to why
the housing market has gotten so insane lately,
it's kind of a perfect storm of many different factors. Right?
You've got not enough homes being built
to keep up with the population growth.
You've got historically low mortgage rates
so more people can buy houses.
And then on top of that,
more people are able to work from home.
So they're leaving the city for the suburbs where maybe, yes,
there's not as much excitement,
but you and your spouse have way more space
to murder your neighbors.
But it turns out, there's something else
driving up demand for homes,
and that's who is competing for them more than ever before,
starting with the guys who tend to ruin everything--
Wall Street.
With home prices soaring to record highs,
there are mounting questions about the billions of dollars
big financial firms are pouring into the market
and pricing out some would-be buyers.
NEWSMAN: Blackstone has been on a single-family
home-buying rampage that began late last year,
going head-to-head with other major Wall Street players.
Large financial firms, often backed by private equity,
buy up and rent out single-family homes.
The companies typically use computer algorithms
to identify desirable property so they can bid quickly.
WOMAN: They're very aggressive. Their offers come in,
all cash, they come in sight unseen,
so as soon as the house hits the market,
you've got an offer from them, okay?
And they're ready to close within a few days.
There's about 25% to 35% of the houses in this neighborhood
are owned by Wall Street landlords.
NEWSMAN: One of them is Invitation Homes,
which owns more than 12,000 single-family houses
in the Atlanta area, nationwide more than 81,000.
Three other large firms own more than 100,000 homes combined.
One of them just announced a $5 billion fund to buy more.
Okay, okay, I know what you're thinking right now.
Why on earth would we allow Wall Street to mess
with the housing market?
They caused the housing crisis!
Yeah, exactly.
They already caused a housing crisis.
What are the odds it happens again?
I'd sleep like a baby in that place.
But yes, Wall Street is now buying up tons of homes
all across America, because what better way
to fix your image problem
than to become the nation's biggest landlord, I guess.
And regular people, regular people trying to buy homes,
well, they don't have much of a chance
going up against Wall Street.
I mean, Wall Street usually has more money.
That's kind of their whole thing.
Your only hope is to, like, try and distract them
by asking how their crypto is doing.
Yeah, and then by the time they're done answering,
you will be in escrow.
But it turns out there's another group...
there's another group that's driving up prices,
and they're not bankers.
Yeah, it's not evil, greedy bankers.
In fact, it's your mom.
There is a generational fight that's playing now
and partially to blame for more expensive home prices.
You've got 90 million millennials,
the largest generation in U.S. history,
storming the marketplace and really looking
for that, you know, dream of homeownership
to start building wealth through owning their own property.
NEWSWOMAN: So, we have millennials
aging into their home-buying years.
And baby boomers, meanwhile, are healthier,
they're living longer and they want to age in place.
They're all competing for the same smaller houses.
Baby boomers are looking to downsize,
while millennials and Gen Xers
are looking to buy smaller, entry-level homes.
NEWSMAN: So many baby boomers are active in the housing market
that it's become much more difficult
for millennials to buy a house.
In general, boomers have a lot more money to outbid them.
That's right, boomers are dominating the housing market,
and... there's an eight-hour Beatles movie on TV.
Whoo! They're living their best lives, what's left of them.
'Cause, you know, this sucks for us millennials.
This wasn't the plan, okay?
You boomers were supposed to get old,
and we would sell all your shit and move you into a nursing home
where you get all the Jell-O and geriatric hand jobs you want
and then we take your house. That was the deal!
You guys get to destroy the planet,
and we get the rec rooms, damn it!
So with private equity squeezing them on the one side,
and their parents on the other, young people in particular
are in a difficult spot when it comes to buying a home,
and they really only have two choices.
Go live in the woods, you know,
make a home out of sticks and mud
and join book clubs with squirrels,
or get really creative.
NEWSMAN: A new trend hitting the housing market...
Millennials are teaming up with their friends
to buy their dream home together.
For a lot of these new homeowners,
doing this is the only way they're able to afford a home.
...and flocking to the suburbs,
finding their cheap dream homes in far-flung places.
More millennials are buying fixer-uppers.
A big draw for young buyers,
fixer-uppers are often cheaper.
Sometimes they go for as little as $20,000.
NEWSMAN: Where are they finding these gems?
Well, leave it to millennials to do their house shopping
on Instagram on a page called Cheap Old Houses.
Why do you think millennials are so attracted
to cheap old houses?
(both chuckle)
You know, sometimes reporters ask the dumbest questions.
"Why do millennials love crappy, old houses
that nobody else wants?"
'Cause it's their only option.
That's like asking me in grade school,
"Trevor, why do you love sitting by yourself at lunchtime?
"What draws you to a life of spending recess
with your imaginary friends?"
I mean, do you know how hard it is
to buy houses off Instagram?
You got to slip into the house's DMs.
"Yo, does the carpet match the drapes?" (chuckles)
"No, for real, I need to know if the carpet matches the drapes.
"I can't afford to buy new drapes,
so I just need to know, man. I got a budget."
So, that's where we are right now.
Thanks to boomers and Wall Street,
owning a home may soon no longer be the American dream.
The good news is if you wait around long enough,
you might still get a chance to date Pete Davidson.
For a personal perspective on the nation's housing crisis
and what can be done about it,
we turn now to Desi Lydic.
Desi, I understand
that you've been looking for a house recently.
-I-Is that correct? -Yes, I have.
I had a two-bedroom apartment,
but it's just too small with three kids running around.
Oh. I didn't know you have three kids.
Oh, I don't. I don't know whose kids they are.
They just showed up one day, and they wouldn't leave,
so I had to.
I'm sorry to hear that, Desi.
Um, so, how has your house search gone?
Ugh, it was rough at first.
I mean, demand is high. People are desperate.
The open houses get mad if you take all the cookies.
But thanks to a little outside-the-box thinking,
I finally found the place of my dreams.
Yeah, wow, Desi, it actually looks amazing.
Yeah. Yeah. It is.
It's got a chef's kitchen, walk-in closets,
five washer-dryers for all the cult members
-and a rain shower. -Wait, wait.
I'm sorry, wait, wait. What was that last part?
The rain shower?
No, no. Did you say "a cult"?
Did you... Did you join a cult?
Okay, yeah, look, I know what you're thinking,
but let me tell you what.
If you want a house in this economy,
your best option
is the blessed door of our God-King Craig.
I mean, why pay half your salary for a three-bedroom house
when for free, you can live in a 75-bedroom compound?
And it comes with a home gym and a breakfast nook
for our daily diet of hot dogs and s'mores.
They only feed you hot dogs and s'mores?
Yes, but the hot dogs are inside the s'mores.
It prepares your body
to merge with your future robot host
or something. I don't know.
I don't actually believe in any of this.
What I do believe in is bathrooms,
and this place has 50.
Desi, I don't think a large house
is worth submitting yourself to a cult.
I mean, does this Craig guy even know
that you're just doing this for the housing?
I don't know. Why don't you ask him yourself.
-Craig, come meet Trevor. -No, no, no, no, no.
-Please, no, no, I... -The Day of Judgment
is upon us, Trevor Noah.
Join my flock on the full moon of our final suicide orgy.
We'll have it next to the heated swimming pool.
I'm sorry, what?
You got a heated swimming pool?
Yo, that shit is dope! What?
I know, right?
Come down to the suicide orgy and check it out.
-Come on. Come on down. -We can leave before the suicide.
-Yeah. -Um, all right, yeah. I'll-I'll see you guys there.
Uh, thank you so much, Desi and Craig.
-Bye-bye. God-King Craig. -Y-Yes, yes,
Desi and God-King Craig. Thanks, guys.
All right, when we come back,
Roy Wood Jr. gives K-pop superstar group Aespa
a tour of his New York. You don't want to miss it.
Man, suicide orgy.
Sounds-sounds like fun.
Welcome back to The Daily Show.
The superstar K-pop group Aespa
was in New York City just the other day,
and it turns out that our very own Roy Wood Jr.
is a huge K-pop fan.
So he decided to welcome them to New York in his own special way.
WOOD: When I heard that K-pop superstar group Aespa
and their avatar counterparts were coming to New York,
I knew I had to meet them.
Their innovative blend of digital
and real-world performances has changed the K-pop game.
And if I got to know them, maybe my nieces would stop texting me
about how uncool I am while we're sitting in the same room.
They needed an experienced tour guide
to show them around the V.I.P. way.
Luckily, I parked in front of that guy.
So I invited Giselle, Ningning,
Winter and Karina
on the most informative New York bus tour in history.
Where-where are the avatars?
I had seats for the avatars, too.
-Oh. -They're-they're in...
-They're in the Flat right now. -Maybe Flat.
The F-- And what is the Flat?
It's like a virtual space
-for our avatars. -Virtual? -Yes.
They're not real... people.
-I knew that. -Yeah. (laughs) -(chuckling)
I knew-- I knew they weren't real people.
-I was just quizzing you. -Yeah. -Oh.
-Okay. You ready to see New York City? -Yeah. Yeah.
-Wow! -Yeah! -Let's go! -All right.
-Let's go. Let's go see New York City. -Yay!
-(siren wailing) -Now if you listen closely... -Yeah.
-Mm-hmm. -...you can hear the siren.
-Yeah, siren. -That is the official sound of New York City.
-Oh. -(chuckles) -NINGNING: Oh, pizza.
I want pizza.
-Ah. -New York City, bagels and pizza.
-Bagel. -Bagels and pizza? -Yeah.
What does "Aespa" mean?
Aespa is-- Well, the "A" and the "E"
at the start of "Aespa" means "avatar" and "experience."
So it's kind of like having a two-sided thing
where we have an avatar friend
and we experience a new world together.
-Yeah. -Like a virtual reality.
-So metaverse? So-- All right, it's a metaverse. -Metaverse.
-Yeah. -Okay, okay. I--
-Th-That I understand. -Yeah.
-(chuckling) -I understand metaverse.
Listen, I know a dude in the metaverse.
He owe me $12.
I figured the best place to start the tour
was at every New Yorker's most favorite place.
-So this is Times Square. -Ooh. -Yeah?
-Lots of videos and lights and flashing its... -Yeah.
-It looks like if a computer virus took over New York. -Oh!
-Lots of stuff going on in Times Square. -Oh. Shiny new city.
There's even a spot in Times Square
where there used to be a record store.
-Oh. -Record store?
Yeah. You used to have to buy music. How old are you all?
Oh, that's where I work right there!
-Oh. -Wow. -That's that building.
-Trevor Noah's in there. -Hi. -Hi. (laughs)
Up there is where the ball drops.
-Wow! -Wow. -It floats down.
I don't think they're doing it today.
I think it's only on New Year's.
I mean, I'm the one that lives in New York,
but if you say it's New Year's.
-Harry Potter. -Okay. Oh, yeah, Harry Potter.
-That's my homey. I know Harry. -Mm. -Oh, yeah.
That trash can is where Oscar the Grouch lives.
Oh! Popular trash can.
And that pigeon was in Home Alone 2, I think.
-This Home Alone? -Yeah, that Home Alone. That one, yeah.
Aespa was extremely impressed by my vast knowledge of the city.
I think he's a liar.
Manhattan-- this is also where we have the Macy's
-Thanksgiving Day Parade. -Oh.
It's a really huge parade.
We're performing in it this year.
-Yeah. -You should come watch.
-I'll try. I might be busy. -Oh. -Why?
I'm actually booked in the T.J. Maxx
-Thanksgiving Day Par... -Oh? -Oh.
-Ooh. -It's not really a parade.
It's like a little get-together in a parking lot.
-Oh. -But it feels like a parade if you drive slowly.
-That's cool. -That's cool.
WOOD: While I thought about how I was gonna get
T.J. Maxx's phone number and convince him to throw a parade,
we came to New York's second hottest shopping spot.
All right, so, this is Madison Avenue.
There's a lot of fashion in this side of New York,
a lot of different stores.
Do you all like shopping?
-Wow. -Love shopping. -WOOD: Okay, yeah.
New York is known for fashion. Even the dogs here have fashion.
-Wow! -Oh! -Whoa.
Dogs wear nice sweaters, then they go outside and pee.
I think that's where Gossip Girl lives.
-Oh, Gossip Girl. -Hi, Blair!
WOOD: Boy, this tour guide thing sure was easy.
There's, uh, Chanel.
-Chanel! -Chanel! -And, uh, Alexander McQueen.
-Givenchy. -Yeah, it's down there.
Y'all know Givenchy?
Yeah, we're ambassadors for Givenchy.
-We're all ambassadors. -You're all ambassadors for Givenchy?
-Yeah. -This is Givenchy. This is Givenchy.
That's Givenchy? All that's Givenchy?
-All Givenchy. -We're all Givenchy girls.
-This is TJ Maxx. -OTHERS: Oh...!
(laughter)
Then it was off to the really expensive part of town.
-This is an American hospital. -Oh.
Don't stare at it too long, because it costs money
to look at an American hospital.
-What? -Our health care is so expensive,
it costs money just to look.
That was ten dollars right there.
This is where Spider-Man fought Green Goblin.
-Oh, Spider-Man? -Spider-Man?
Yeah. Um, also, I believe, in, um... Ghostbusters,
uh, the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.
The Avengers had a big fight right here.
-Oh, yeah! -Yeah, I remember.
Yes, the Avengers, it was Thanos,
he came down, they was fighting all...
-Iron Man used to live... around the corner. -Whoa.
I was making progress. They were definitely impressed
with my knowledge of New York fights.
But wait until they see how famous I am.
What's up, boy?
Oh, yeah, if you see people recognize me,
it's 'cause I got a video did a million views.
-Congratulations! -I'll teach you all about...
-I'll teach you how to go viral. -Oh...
What's the most any of your videos have ever done?
Like, a hundred million views.
-A hundred million? -Yeah. -Yeah.
One video, y'all had one video do a hun...
-Yeah, one video. -One video.
-A hundred million? -Yeah.
(laughing)
Y'all...
-One hundred million? -Yeah.
-(laughing) -I got to get into singing.
Talk-talk to your people and see if y'all need,
like, one more member.
Do y'all need one more member?
If you don't mind, you know, dancing and singing...
-I can't dance. -Oh, then... -Um...
-I can't sing, either. -Oh.
WOOD: I was starting to think I was losing the band's respect,
so I decided to win it back
by heading to the hottest spot for Black performance
and the hottest spot for white gentrification.
This is Harlem.
That's the Apollo Theater right there.
-Theater. -Now, the Apollo Theater,
that's where so many comedians have gotten their start
and the rest got booed by strangers,
got booed so terribly that they almost gave up comedy
and their dreams... almost never came true.
-Aw. So sad! (chuckles) -Mm. So sad.
You know what? Let's go to karaoke.
-Oh, yeah! -Yay! -Yeah.
("Don't Stop Believin' by Journey playing)
♪ Just a small-town... ♪
WOOD: As I ended the tour with a rendition
of "Don't Stop Believin'" that was so good,
they asked me not to sing again,
I could tell that I nailed this tour guide thing.
But don't take my word for it.
Just look at their five-star reviews
that I made them type as I watched.
The only question was would they return the favor?
When I come to Seoul, you all can show me around.
-Yeah. -Course.
Cool. I'm bringing my avatar, too.
-Oh! -Oh!
But he's not staying with me 'cause he snores.
-Y'all got to find somewhere for him to stay, please. -Ah.
Thank you so much for that, Roy. All right, when we come back,
California Governor Gavin Newsom will be joining me
right here in the studio, so don't go away.
Welcome back to The Daily Show. My guest tonight
is California Governor Gavin Newsom.
He's here to talk about his new children's book,
inspired by his own lifelong struggles with dyslexia
and how it has shaped him as a political leader.
-Gavin Newsom, welcome to the show. -Hey.
-It's good to be back. -It's really good
to see you again, Governor. It's been a while.
-Yes. -Um, the last time we spoke was over Zoom.
-It was at the height of the pandemic. -Yeah. Yeah.
Um... Just, I mean, obviously, we're still in it.
But just looking at everything that's been going on,
how do you think California's doing right now
in terms of the pandemic?
Well, we were worried about the winter surge.
Last year around this time, we saw a big spike
in the Delta cases.
In fact, we peaked in that first week of January,
where we were getting body bags from outside of the state.
Uh, we had one of the best summers
of any state in the country.
Among the lowest positivity rate and case rates.
Uh, we started to see an increase,
but we're now about the fifth lowest.
-2.2% positivity in the country. -Mm-hmm.
And for one reason-- at the end of the day,
it's that we have led with vaccinations,
administered doses.
93% now of adults
have received at least one dose,
and the key is to continue to promote
these lifesaving vaccines and boosters.
That's the only way out of this.
You, um... you've had a-a-- like, a-a really rocky journey,
you know, to say the least,
-in and around the pandemic. -(laughs)
-I mean, California went through a really tough time. -Yeah.
You know? And-and then, obviously,
the whole country saw the George Floyd protests,
-and California saw some of the biggest, you know? -Yeah.
And then-then you had the pandemic itself,
and then you went to the restaurant
-when people weren't supposed to go. -Yeah.
You didn't even mention wildfires.
-I didn't mention the w-- I was getting to the wildfires. -Yeah.
-That was your personal wildfire. -Yeah, that was.
-Which was, uh... That was... -Yeah, that was-- That's...
Certain choices we make. You'll know.
Tattoo. Look... (stammers) Hardly perfect.
And those that are, God bless and write a book.
I hope they do. Uh, but-- And I'm not,
and I made-made a mistake. But, yeah, I owned up to it.
Let me ask you this though. Does that mean though that,
as a governor, you would have the same level
of maybe, um, compassion for people
who mess up with-- when they break the rules?
I always have. And, I mean, honestly, it goes--
and without even just jumping into the book, I always have.
I'm very humbled by the-the nature of the world and life,
-uh, and my own struggles and my own mistakes. -Uh-huh.
And, of course, when you have dyslexia,
you have a learning disability growing up,
uh, you're prone consistently to make mistakes.
It's an anomaly when you don't make a mistake.
-That's interesting. -Uh, and so, for me,
this notion of resilience and grit and determination.
But, look, the key-- the li-- You know,
I think it was Churchill, another dyslexic, said
the secret of all success--
moving from failure to failure with enthusiasm.
You have to own up to your mistakes, don't repeat them,
uh, and learn from 'em. And at the end of the day,
look, I get it-- we have to model better behavior
as leaders. But one thing I'm proud of,
we've been a model in terms of science and health outcomes.
We have had a pandemic, uh, like every state has,
but we have not been shy to lean in,
take leadership and, with that, comes lumps.
-Let's, um, talk about the book. -(chuckles)
-NOAH: Ben & Emma's Big Hit. -(laughs)
So, they told me, uh, "Governor Gavin Newsom's gonna come
on the show. He's writing a new book."
And I was like, "Well, the last time a-a governor wrote a book,
-his life didn't go so well." -Uh...
-I was like, "This, this could be risky." -(laughs)
-But this is different. You wrote a children's book. -Yeah.
And I'm not going to lie. It was really endearing.
You wrote about basically your struggles with dyslexia,
-which I didn't know you had. -Yeah. Yeah.
Tell me a little bit about that. I mean...
I did find it ironic that the way you discovered your dyslexia
-is that you read through documents. -Read. Yeah.
But tell me a little bit about this story.
Well, I just kept seeing my name, and I'm wondering
what the stack of documents were, and of course,
wondering why I was going after school consistently.
And I didn't realize for years and years.
'Cause you were really struggling in school.
I was struggling. I was doing speech therapy.
In fact, look at these... I looked.
I hadn't looked in 20 years at these old files.
I mean, literally doing speech therapy.
A learning disability
that included an inability to read completely,
-an inability to spell. -Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Uh, and I still struggle. This is a lifelong issue.
And, of course, it's not unique to me.
I mean, it's jaw dropping. At least, we estimate
20% of Americans, 20% of people around the globe
have some form of learning disability.
-That's a... Think about that number. -That's huge, yeah.
It's tens of millions of Americans, hundreds of millions
of people around the globe, many that have been diagnosed,
many that have gotten intervention support,
-many that haven't. -Right.
And so, I just want to destigmatize this.
I just met with a bunch of young kids.
All of them that had learning disabilities and differences.
And the number one thing
they all have in common-- self-esteem.
And they feel demoralized,
-they feel that they're stupid. -Right.
And I had terrible self-esteem,
and I was in the back of the classroom.
And I had terrible grades.
And I can't read speeches even today.
So what do you do then before? How do you... how do you...
What do you do if you can't read a speech?
I-I don't have a speech writer. I... It's extemporaneous.
So you just remember. You just...
You just got to go up, know your material.
And that's another thing you learn in dyslexia.
You got to work ten times as hard as anyone else.
Because you're using other parts of your brain, yeah.
Other parts of your brain.
I mean, it's awkward to admit all these things, right?
-Oh, no. Right, right. -Because you want to be the guy...
This is my book about how great California and I am.
You know, I had a few setbacks, but let me tell you.
-The best is yet to come. -Right.
And, uh, it's opposite. This is a composite of me.
It's my mom, a single mom. She passed away almost 20 years ago.
And she's Miss Kim, and how she didn't give up on me
-even though she struggled. -Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
And I'll tell you. It's heartbreaking.
I got four kids. A couple of them are struggling
with learning differences, as well.
And as a parent, it's much worse, trust me,
-than being a kid with dyslexia -Right, right, right.
...is experiencing your own kids with a learning disability.
What's the word that freaks you out most?
There's got to be, like, a word.
That's an interesting question. I never thought about that.
I think "perfection." It's elusory. Doesn't exist.
-And we're... we're consumed by it. -Uh-huh.
And, uh, I just... I hate our education system
that doesn't incentivize mistakes.
It really is damaging beyond words.
What we need is the creative. We need the innovative.
You don't make mistakes, you can't find a new way
of doing things.
In politics, I mean, we destroy people...
-for making mistakes. -Right.
We do. And so as a consequence...
Well, there's a difference, though, between, I think,
destroying them and holding them accountable.
Right? You always got to find that balance.
You got to find that balance. 'Cause I don't think
you've been destroyed-- you're here
and you're still the governor. You know, some could say,
you know, your actions at French Laundry
meant that now you were taken to task,
and then the people voted for you.
I mean, you, what, 30 points.
So clearly the people are like: All right, you know,
Governor Newsom, we're gonna roll with you.
But I think there is a balance sometimes in terms of, like,
destroying politicians versus holding them accountable,
'cause they have power over people's lives.
Hundred percent. And-and-and...
and not only are you right, let me make a distinction
about the point I was making, 'cause I didn't say it
effectively enough.
It's not being held to account--
you need to hold us to a higher level of accountability
-because of our unique positions. -Mm-hmm.
We have not just formal authority,
but we should have, we should have some moral authority.
So I could not agree more. But I think about it
in terms of policy, in terms of good intentions gone awry.
-Right. -Not the failings,
but trying new things.
Being willing to take risks as it relates to...
It is challenging. Yeah, no, I hear you.
And that's where people say: See? What... That's complete...
You know, they-they try to make that investment.
-Complete embarrassment and failure, -Right, right, right.
-and then it's, you know, attacking your... -Yes.
And that's where, in the private sector,
I have 20 businesses. I started as an entrepreneur.
Restaurants, hotels, wineries. I'm really proud of them.
Pen to paper, myself. No inheritance, no... no...
And, you know, all I did, I actually did a...
I every month gave an award
to the person who screwed up the most.
-Wow. -We had a Failure Award.
I wish I worked in your company.
-It's never too late. Never too late. -(laughing)
And the reason you did this is because...
-To incentivize initiative and responsibility. -I like that.
We're not victims. Be accountable.
Let me ask you this, then.
Using your entrepreneurial spirit and mind,
combined with your leadership, let's look at California.
And California's not the only place.
-Please don't get me wrong. -Yeah.
But, you know, we've seen, um, a spate of, like,
you know, shoplifting and, like, these mass things
where they drive in, they steal a bunch of stuff and they go.
And then we see some police chiefs--
now, I take what they say with a pinch of salt--
but some of them say, like: Oh, it's because people know
they can go and steal $300,000 worth of things
and then, because there is, you know, no bail anymore
for "shoplifting," no matter how big the scale,
people understand the risk-versus-reward ratio
of what they're doing.
So, how do you find a creative way
to create a safer state for people
whilst also not jumping into the pri...
you know, the industrial prison complex
and then punishing people who shouldn't be punished
because they can't afford to pay bail?
How do you find that balance using that entrepreneurial mind?
Well, I'm in a unique position to answer that for two reasons.
One, I come from California, which led the nation
in the lock 'em up, three-strikes and you're out,
-1994 fear of the others. -Yes. Right.
I mean, we were on the-the forefront of that.
-We saw prisons increase. 175,000 people at peak. -Uh-huh.
Uh, we had opened dozens of prisons
and actually only opened up one new UC in that process,
and yet crime kept going up and up and up.
We advanced reforms, and we saw crime go down.
Let me be specific. These folks,
particularly on one of those networks,
every single day talk about something called Prop 47
-in California. -Mm-hmm.
That was a reform in 2014
as it relates to the issue of shoplifting and property crimes.
It would be a felony
if it was crime that was committed
that was $900 of goods.
Raised it from $400, roughly. $450.
The reality is in 2015, property crimes went down.
Larceny went down. Shoplifting went down.
'15, '16, '17, '18, '19.
So, if it's the cause of the spike,
it must have been the cause for the decline.
Now, what's happening
with the retail theft is unacceptable.
We have to hold people to account.
And we're doing that.
And these are crimes well beyond the $900 threshold,
so it's-it's rather specious, these arguments.
Plus, 39 states,
39 Republican states, not just Democratic states,
did the same thing that California did.
31 states today have higher felony thresholds
-than the state of California. -Mm-hmm.
Interestingly, Texas has higher violent crime rates
than California and property crime rates.
Why isn't Fox talking about those states?
They are scapegoating these reforms
because they don't support the reforms.
I'm open to argument interested in evidence.
If we find that these reforms
are not producing as they were intended,
then we will own that.
Same time, we have to own the responsibility
to address these organized criminal rings,
and these retail thefts are being done at scale
-in Minnesota and Chicago. -Right. It's not spontaneous.
-Yeah. -Not just California,
and that's a whole different paradigm and challenge.
and we are responsible-- again, accountable--
to addressing that issue, and we're doing that.
Well, thank you for the time.
Thank you for writing a really fun book.
-Appreciate it. -And, uh, hope to see you again on the show.
-Great to see you. -Ben and Emma's Big Hit
is available now.
We're gonna take a quick break,
but we'll be right back after this.
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