Is flying ethical?

Is flying ethical?

Released Wednesday, 29th January 2025
Good episode? Give it some love!
Is flying ethical?

Is flying ethical?

Is flying ethical?

Is flying ethical?

Wednesday, 29th January 2025
Good episode? Give it some love!
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0:00

Oh, such a it's such a clutch off -season

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rules and restrictions may apply free. This

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week on The Gray Area, we're talking

0:34

to Chris Hayes about how our

0:36

digital devices have changed us. Now

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it's like traffic or air travel.

0:40

Like, it's a thing that we

0:42

all just experience as a bummer.

0:44

That you just talk to about

0:47

like, doesn't it suck that? You

0:49

know, we can't pay attention. The phones

0:51

are always going off. Listen

0:55

to The Gray Area with me,

0:57

Sean Elling. New episodes every

0:59

Monday available everywhere. What

1:04

does it mean to be a good person? Should

1:06

I take zero flights ever?

1:08

How do I balance caring for

1:11

others versus caring for myself? Hey

1:15

y 'all, it's John Flynn. You're listening

1:17

to Explain It To Me. If

1:19

you're a regular listener, you know

1:22

the drill. You call in with

1:24

questions and we try to

1:26

find you the answers. But not

1:28

all questions have capital A answers. Sometimes

1:32

they're more

1:34

squishy. Is

1:37

it unethical to stay on Twitter

1:39

or Facebook given the dangerous positions

1:41

that are expressed by their owners?

1:43

I found out from a DNA

1:45

test that my dad isn't my

1:47

biological dad. Should I tell him? That's

1:51

where my colleague, future perfect senior

1:53

reporter Segal Sampmule comes in. Hi.

2:01

Hey, hey, yay, we're finally getting

2:03

to do something together. So here,

2:06

and explain it to me,

2:08

we're basically looking for questions

2:10

with answers that aren't all

2:12

that easy to find if you pop

2:14

them into a search engine.

2:16

Seagal answers questions, too, but

2:18

a different kind. She's all about

2:21

ethics. So I'm a big nerd

2:23

who did a degree in philosophy.

2:25

And I'm also just a person

2:27

who in my regular daily life.

2:29

I feel like I think about...

2:31

moral questions a lot and like

2:33

what does it mean to be

2:35

a good person is that even

2:37

a thing what does it mean

2:39

to live a good life all

2:42

of that stuff and so I

2:44

launched last year this philosophical advice

2:46

column it's called your mileage may

2:48

vary and it's not like other

2:50

advice columns out there because my

2:52

basic feeling about the advice column

2:54

as a genre is a genre

2:56

was born in 1690 and like

2:58

at the time a lot of

3:00

people thought like there's like one

3:03

objectively right answer to moral questions

3:05

and there's like one objectively right

3:07

way to be a good person

3:09

and I'm just like no like I

3:11

don't buy that premise like I

3:13

don't think there's one objectively right

3:15

answer to the like super complex

3:17

moral questions that our lives throw

3:19

at us so I decided to

3:21

reimagine the genre and do an

3:23

advice column that's based on value

3:25

pluralism. Say more about that what

3:27

does that mean? That's an idea

3:29

that was developed by philosophers like

3:31

Isaiah Berlin and Bernard Williams. It's

3:34

basically the idea that every single

3:36

one of us has not just

3:38

one thing we value, but like

3:40

we have multiple values. And they

3:42

can be equally valid, but sometimes

3:44

they're in conflict with each other.

3:46

And when your values clash, that's

3:48

when a dilemma is going to

3:50

arise for you. When we get a question,

3:53

the first item on the to-do list

3:55

is research. What journals are there about

3:57

the topic you asked us about? Who's

3:59

written about it? What gaps are there

4:01

in the existing reporting? I wanted to

4:03

hear how Segal's process is different from

4:06

ours. You know, I think most advice

4:08

columns you write in, here's my question,

4:10

they're like, boom, here's the answer, here's

4:13

what you should do. And I'm like,

4:15

no, what I'm going to do is

4:17

tease apart what are the different values

4:20

that are like implicit in your question

4:22

that are intention with each other? Then

4:24

I will curate for you from like

4:27

the past 2,000 years or so of...

4:29

wise philosophers, spiritual thinkers, spiritual thinkers, psychologists,

4:31

etc. thinking about this, what do wise

4:34

people say about when those values are

4:36

intention? Like what can you do? Okay,

4:38

here's an example of those values, intention

4:41

with one another. Someone who vehemently opposes

4:43

President Trump, wrote in and asked about

4:45

how to talk to family members who

4:48

voted for him. So Gaul decided to

4:50

bring in the work of social psychologist

4:52

Jonathan Hayt. If that name sounds familiar,

4:55

It's because he recently wrote a book

4:57

about smartphones and kids. He and some

4:59

others developed this this thing called moral

5:02

foundation theory. The research there suggests that

5:04

people in different political camps prioritize different

5:06

moral values. So liberals are the people

5:09

who they're really sensitive to the values

5:11

of care and fairness and conservatives are

5:13

people who are also really sensitive to

5:16

values of like loyalty, and sanctity or

5:18

purity. The point is, it's not like

5:20

some of these values are like dumb

5:23

or wrong and some are like right

5:25

and smart. Like that's not it. They're

5:27

just different values. He has this this

5:30

phrase that I that I like. He

5:32

calls them moral taste buds. Oh. And

5:34

it's like your your tongue has taste

5:37

buds for like sour whatever it is

5:39

sour bitter or sweet. You know, it's

5:41

not like some of those are dumb

5:44

and some of them are right. Like

5:46

they're all just different things. How does

5:48

that relate back to this Trump question?

5:51

I tried to bring that up to

5:53

help that question ask or think about

5:55

his family members because he was saying,

5:58

how can I even talk to these

6:00

people? Like, they just seem to not

6:02

care at all about human suffering. Like,

6:05

I think they just voted for Trump

6:07

to check a religious box on the

6:09

abortion issue. Don't you care that some

6:12

women will die from this? This is

6:14

gonna cause so much suffering. And I

6:16

tried to say to him, like, maybe

6:19

don't look at your relatives assuming that

6:21

they're just totally fine with human suffering.

6:23

And like, their values are diametrically opposed

6:26

to yours. It's like, they're not. politically

6:28

opposed. They're different values that they're

6:30

putting more weight on, but like,

6:32

they are values. We're not saying,

6:34

don't try to convince anyone to

6:36

change their mind. All views are

6:38

equally fine. All political orientations are

6:40

equally correct. We're just saying, how do

6:42

we nudge people to actually live out

6:44

those values in a more balanced way

6:46

or in a more authentic way? So after

6:49

combing through those ideas, Sogol starts

6:51

writing the answer in her column.

6:53

What do you want to put more

6:55

weight on? Do you want to put

6:57

more weight on this value or that

6:59

value? How do you want to balance

7:01

them? What would it what could it

7:03

concretely look like to balance them? And

7:05

I'll give people some ideas about how

7:08

you might balance them. If you find

7:10

the case for one more compelling than

7:12

the case for another, you might put

7:14

more weight on that. Are there moral

7:16

questions that come up for you and

7:19

your daily life? Like are there times

7:21

where you're like, like, This philosophical advice

7:23

column is really born out of my

7:25

own angst, I would say, about like,

7:28

oh God, how do I deal with

7:30

these things? I think a common one,

7:32

which probably a lot of people can

7:34

relate to, is how do I balance

7:37

caring for others versus caring for myself?

7:39

Yeah. The first question I ever got

7:41

and answered for this advice column

7:43

was someone writing in... Look, I

7:45

love my mom. I really care

7:47

about her. She has like a

7:49

whole slew of health conditions. I

7:51

do a lot to try to

7:53

help her out, but like as

7:55

she ages, I know she's going

7:57

to need even more help and

7:59

like... Would I be dropping

8:01

everything to take care of

8:03

my mom? I find that

8:06

so relatable. We might value

8:08

self-sacrifice and think that's admirable

8:10

sometimes, but we might also

8:12

really value self-preservation. So that

8:14

kind of thing. I think

8:17

about that a lot. After

8:19

the break, Seagal tackles a

8:21

question with a lot of

8:23

miles on it. Birthdays,

8:33

anniversaries, weddings, whatever the occasion.

8:35

It just got a little

8:37

more personal, with meaningful photo

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gifts from Shutterfly. Add a

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silly photo to a gold-rimmed

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and make something that means

8:58

something. It's today

9:01

explained, I'm Noel King with Miles

9:03

Bryan. Senior reporter and producer for

9:05

the program, hello. Hi, you went

9:07

to public school, right, Miles? Yes,

9:09

go South High Tigers. What do

9:12

you remember about school lunch? I

9:14

remember sad, lasagna, shrink-rapped, and little

9:16

containers. I remember avoiding it. Do

9:18

you remember the nugs? The chicken

9:21

nuggets? Yeah, if I had to

9:23

eat school lunch, that was a

9:25

pretty good option. I actually liked

9:27

them, but in addition to being

9:29

very tasty, those nugs were very

9:32

processed, and at the moment, America

9:34

has got processed foods in its

9:36

crosshairs. It's true. We are collectively

9:38

very down on processed food right

9:41

now, none more so than health

9:43

and human services secretary nominee Robert

9:45

Fulride Kennedy Jr. I'll get processed

9:47

food out of school lunch immediately.

9:49

About half the school lunch program

9:52

goes to process food. Penn the

9:54

man who once saved a dead

9:56

bear cup for a snack fixed

9:58

school lunches. Today explained... every weekday

10:01

wherever you get your podcasts. This

10:03

is explained to me. We're

10:05

back talking with my colleagues, Zagal Samuel,

10:07

about her column. Your mileage may vary.

10:09

One of the things that I like

10:12

about her work is that it's thoughtful

10:14

without being judgy. I'll just give you

10:16

like a personal example when I was

10:18

an undergrad and like this was many

10:20

years ago because I'm old so like

10:22

I don't think climate was as top

10:25

of mind for me then as it

10:27

is now but I remember a bunch

10:29

of us would go have lunch together

10:31

on campus at this kitchen where they

10:33

like gave free like vegetarian lunches and

10:35

they had like plastic spoons and I once

10:37

was like having lunch there with some of my

10:39

friends and I used a plastic spoon and like

10:42

I tossed it out at the end of the...

10:44

meal and my friend who

10:46

was studying environmental sciences

10:49

looked at me and my one

10:51

little plastic spoon with such horror

10:53

and disgust and I was like

10:55

oh my god I felt like

10:58

laser beams were shooting out of

11:00

her eyeballs at me sending me

11:02

into flames the lighting me on

11:04

fire like it was the amount

11:06

of judgment seemed to me completely

11:09

out of proportion yeah with this

11:11

one little plastic spoon and This

11:13

is maybe silly on my part,

11:15

but at that age I found

11:17

that so off-putting and like repellent

11:19

It made me like have some

11:22

like yucky feeling about Environmentalist stuff

11:24

for a little bit Okay, so Gull has

11:26

been on the side of not so

11:28

friendly advice So she gets it, but

11:30

I wanted to know why she decided

11:32

to start this column now? What is it

11:34

about this very specific moment? We're in

11:37

that made her think this is what

11:39

the people need so I think that

11:41

there is a lot of emphasis these

11:43

days on, you know, you've probably heard

11:45

people talk about like optimization culture. Yeah.

11:48

And I feel like usually people talk

11:50

about how we see that showing up

11:52

in like, oh, optimize your diet, optimize

11:55

your exercise routine, that kind of stuff,

11:57

you know, like have soilens, like what?

11:59

I think like the less analyzed

12:01

version of this is like how

12:04

optimization culture is coming for our

12:06

souls and trying to tell us

12:08

to like optimize our moral lives

12:10

and optimize how good we are

12:12

as people and I think it's

12:14

great to try to be a

12:16

better person in some ways but

12:18

I think this lens can be

12:20

really really hard for people it

12:23

makes us feel like Nothing you

12:25

do is ever just going to

12:27

be good enough. Like you have

12:29

to be doing the most good

12:31

possible, otherwise you kind of suck.

12:33

And I just think that's a

12:35

pretty crushing way to live. It

12:37

also feels very performative, like who

12:39

are you doing this for? Are

12:42

you actually doing this for, you

12:44

know, I don't know, it feels,

12:46

maybe that's me jumping to a

12:48

judgment call, but yeah. Yeah, I

12:50

mean, I think sometimes it can

12:52

be performative. Sometimes there are people

12:54

who genuinely feel like, oh my

12:56

God, I really want to be

12:59

good, and that means I always

13:01

have to be doing the most

13:03

good possible. Otherwise, like, I'm falling

13:05

short. And I had a kind

13:07

of life-changing conversation with my best

13:09

friend once, who is a mathematician

13:11

and very rigorous sort of analytical

13:13

thinking. But she said to me,

13:15

you're goal is not to optimize

13:18

every possible outcome, which like you

13:20

cannot control. Your goal is to

13:22

live in line with your values

13:24

as best you can. And like

13:26

that was really kind of like

13:28

a aha moment for me. And

13:30

we talked about how like that's

13:32

really challenging because we have multiple

13:35

values and sometimes they conflict with

13:37

each other. And then when I

13:39

discovered value pluralism, I thought, oh

13:41

my God, this is such a

13:43

helpful lens for me. So maybe

13:45

it can be helpful for other

13:47

people too. Your latest column is

13:49

about travel, climate change, and trying

13:51

our best. Can you describe that

13:54

question to us? What was this

13:56

person asking? So someone submitted a

13:58

question to your mileage. that I

14:00

think is really relatable. She

14:02

was saying, look, I really care

14:04

about climate change. Normally, the advice

14:07

given is like, avoid flying

14:09

because flights generate a very huge

14:11

amount of carbon emissions, like not

14:13

good for the climate, take a

14:15

train or a bus, or like

14:18

your hybrid car, whatever, instead. But

14:20

this person lives in a kind

14:22

of area that is like disconnected

14:25

from public transport. So she

14:27

is. more than 12 hours drive away

14:29

from the nearest city. Oh wow, yeah,

14:31

yeah. So like there aren't buses, there

14:33

aren't trains, like that's not an option

14:36

for her. And so she really tries

14:38

to avoid flying, but like if

14:40

she never takes a flight, that

14:42

means she's like never going to

14:44

go on vacation anywhere? Yeah. Beyond

14:46

her like immediate vicinity. So she

14:48

was like, should I take zero

14:50

flights ever or can I take

14:53

like one flight per year? but

14:55

she's starting to feel super resentful

14:57

because she sees her friends are

14:59

flying out super carefree they're flying

15:01

every month to like watch a

15:03

game and so she feels like

15:06

her like one individual lifestyle choice

15:08

is like being erased by the

15:10

actions of her friends and she's

15:12

getting really resentful about it yeah

15:14

what was your initial reaction

15:16

when you read that question

15:19

honestly like my gut initial reaction

15:21

was like Oh, honey. Like, yeah, I'm

15:23

kind of like, okay, all right, I'm

15:25

glad you said that because I was

15:27

kind of like, listen, I love me

15:30

a little vacate. I'm not gonna

15:32

not go to my friend's wedding

15:34

or Bachelorette party. Like, listen, I've

15:37

reduced my food waste. I recycle. Sorry,

15:39

Kylie Jenner has a private jet. I'm

15:41

not going to feel bad for being,

15:43

like, Southwest Aylist, like, but then I

15:46

was like, wow, maybe I'm a bad

15:48

person. Well, it's one of these things

15:50

where like bamboozles our brain, right? Yeah.

15:53

Like, I found it really relatable and honestly

15:55

got me thinking more about my own

15:57

emissions. I felt like a core thing

15:59

embedded. in this question was like

16:01

this question of should we

16:03

be like moral purists or

16:05

absolutists? Like should we take

16:08

this sort of purist path

16:10

and doing extreme self-sacrifice to

16:12

never ever ever fly or

16:14

is it like look we

16:16

also value other things like

16:18

nurturing relationships with our friends

16:20

or our family who live

16:22

far away maybe or we

16:24

value learning about other cultures

16:26

or like developing your career

16:28

or whatever it is? So

16:30

my response was about helping

16:32

this person think through like

16:34

yes climate is a super

16:36

important value great given your

16:38

circumstances especially I don't think

16:40

we necessarily have to say

16:42

we're gonna never ever ever

16:45

take a single flight for

16:47

the rest of our lives

16:49

I think it's great to

16:51

minimize how much we fly

16:53

and I really I'm trying

16:55

to like cut down how

16:57

much I fly but I

16:59

wouldn't counsel people to try

17:01

to take the purest absolutest

17:03

path unless They are one

17:05

of those like magical beings

17:07

who can do that without

17:09

becoming resentful or judgmental of

17:11

others. So what does philosophy

17:13

have to say about flying?

17:15

One more break and we'll

17:17

find out. Can you talk

17:20

through the process of answering

17:22

this question about flying? Like

17:24

how did you go about...

17:26

quote, unquote, finding the answer.

17:28

Okay, so this is like

17:30

where it helps to have

17:32

a little bit of background

17:34

in philosophy from my academic

17:36

days, I guess, being a

17:38

big nerd, that I immediately

17:40

thought of this essay I

17:42

love by this philosopher, contemporary

17:44

philosopher, her name is Susan

17:46

Wolf. And she wrote this

17:48

really awesome influential essay called

17:50

Moral Saints. And she basically

17:52

writes about like this. category

17:55

of people that are trying

17:57

to basically do that thing

17:59

of optimizing their morality. like

18:01

the most good possible. And

18:03

she writes that that's like

18:05

not necessarily great all the

18:07

time because if you're trying

18:09

to spend every single moment

18:11

of your life like raising

18:13

money to donate to Oxfam,

18:15

then you're not spending any

18:17

time cultivating your musical talents or

18:20

like reading cool novels or

18:22

developing your awesome sense of

18:24

fashion or like whatever else.

18:26

that makes a human life

18:28

rich and meaningful and like

18:30

makes you a cool, interesting

18:32

person that like other people

18:34

value being around. So Susan Wolf,

18:37

that is like a super great essay

18:39

that I recommend for people about like

18:41

the downsides of being a moral saint.

18:43

So I knew for sure I wanted

18:46

to draw on that. And then I also

18:48

thought about how with the purest path,

18:50

there's something psychologically appealing to

18:52

some people about it because

18:55

It does make it really easy in

18:57

your brain when you think like what

18:59

is the okay number of flights for

19:01

me to take per year? The answer

19:03

is very clear. Zero. Mm. Like

19:05

you have certainty, you feel like

19:07

boom, it's super clear, I know

19:09

I'm doing my duty, whereas if

19:11

you're like taking the more moderate

19:13

approach, it's like how many flights

19:15

is okay? Is it like three

19:17

per year, one per year, one

19:19

per decade? Like who knows? It

19:21

feels very subjective, right. can cause anxiety

19:24

and uncertainty. So that made me

19:26

think about this other philosopher,

19:28

Bernard Williams, and I wanted to

19:30

pull in his argument that, you

19:33

know, he says, we love the appeal

19:35

of objectivity, like we have in

19:37

the sciences, it makes us feel

19:39

invulnerable. It makes us feel like

19:41

no one is going to be

19:43

able to come and accuse us

19:45

of making the wrong decision or

19:47

choice, because look. It's objective. The data

19:49

says, like, that's the thing to do.

19:52

Yeah. And he says it's a fantasy

19:54

to think that we can import objectivity,

19:56

like we have in the sciences, into

19:58

the domain of ethics. not a thing.

20:00

Okay, it sounds like this has

20:03

been a conversation going on for

20:05

a long time because sometimes I

20:07

think we are more uncomfortable with

20:09

uncertainty now more than ever and

20:11

we try to optimize everything, even

20:13

our interpersonal relationships. Does this feel

20:15

like a newer trend or more

20:17

extreme or is this just like

20:19

a case of, okay, there's nothing

20:21

new under the sun? Yeah, so...

20:23

This kind of actually goes back

20:25

400 years and I won't bore

20:27

you with a whole like history

20:29

spiel but basically this goes back

20:31

to like the invention of calculus

20:33

and like when the scientific method

20:35

was getting rolling and people started

20:37

to like have this notion of

20:40

facts and objectivity and oh my

20:42

god how awesome we can be

20:44

certain about things we can have

20:46

like certain knowledge in the world

20:48

great and that works awesome for

20:50

certain things in life right like

20:52

that works great in science for

20:54

example it works great if you're

20:56

trying to like make antibiotics it

20:58

does not work great in the

21:00

moral domain because like morality is

21:02

notoriously contested we've been arguing for

21:04

thousands of years about what is

21:06

the good and there's still no

21:08

consensus And we have so many

21:10

different competing moral values. So it's

21:12

not a good fit for that

21:14

kind of thinking. Our culture nowadays

21:17

is so saturated with like tech

21:19

bro energy and like Silicon Valley

21:21

mentality of like we can engineer

21:23

our way through any problem. Every

21:25

life problem is a math problem.

21:27

That it like calms you into

21:29

thinking. that you can bring that

21:31

same like calculator energy to all

21:33

aspects of your life and including

21:35

the moral one and I just

21:37

think that's a fantasy. The next

21:39

time a reader or a listener

21:41

finds themselves with a moral conundrum

21:43

which you know they pop up

21:45

aside from you know calling them

21:47

in or submitting them to you

21:49

what questions do you think they

21:51

should ask themselves to kind of

21:54

like figure out for themselves what

21:56

the quote-unquote right answer is. Yeah

21:58

okay I love that. I would

22:00

say, look under the hood of your

22:02

dilemma. What are the values that

22:04

you have that are intention here?

22:06

Because that's what's creating this

22:08

dilemma for you. It's not

22:10

about the actual nitty gritty

22:12

facts of the situation. It's

22:14

about the fact that within

22:16

yourself you have multiple different

22:18

things you value and they're in

22:20

conflict with each other. Can you

22:22

think through these values and figure

22:25

out, is there one you want to

22:27

put more weight on? because you're not

22:29

putting 100% of your eggs in one

22:31

of the baskets. Or maybe it's like

22:34

a life situation where you're like, I'm

22:36

honest to God, like 50-50 torn between

22:38

these different values. Okay, so how could

22:41

you balance between them? What could that

22:43

look like concretely to balance between them

22:45

and not torture yourself with guilt because

22:47

you're not putting 100% of your eggs

22:50

in one of the baskets? Maybe the

22:52

morally appropriate thing to do in the

22:54

situation is to be like, I'm going

22:56

to put 50% in this. basket and

22:59

50% in this one. Maybe that makes

23:01

sense for you in that scenario. Yeah.

23:03

What's a real life example of trying

23:05

to balance between two values? So I'll

23:07

go back to the one that I

23:10

personally find most, it's the one about

23:12

like caring for others, caring for yourself.

23:14

Yeah, yeah. I have really struggled

23:16

with this with my own family.

23:18

I love my family members so

23:21

much. I felt very torn between,

23:23

like, on the one hand, wanting

23:25

to do everything I possibly can

23:28

for them, for my grandmother, for

23:30

my dad, you know, wanting to

23:32

just sacrifice whatever. And on the

23:35

other side, being like, you know, I

23:37

also value my mental health. I

23:39

also like value having well-being

23:42

and, like, stability in my

23:44

life and... You know, if you're

23:46

sacrificing for others to the point

23:48

where it's really taking a massive

23:50

toll on your own mental health,

23:52

is that going to be

23:54

sustainable? First of all, like would

23:56

your family members want that? Is that

23:59

fair to you? You're also a

24:01

human person who counts as much

24:03

as the other people do. Is

24:05

that fair to your friends, your

24:07

children, your other folks you value

24:09

in life who are also counting

24:11

on you to be able to

24:13

show up for them in different

24:15

ways? So that's I think that's

24:17

like probably one that a lot

24:19

of us can relate to. Can

24:22

you give us a preview of

24:24

some questions you'll be answering soon?

24:26

Ooh. Honestly. I feel like it

24:28

might be that time when I

24:30

need to tackle the like, is

24:32

it ethical to stay on Twitter

24:34

or Facebook one? Okay, yeah, I'm

24:36

very much interested in that one.

24:38

I am still on Twitter and

24:40

Facebook. I don't like it, but

24:42

I feel like I need it

24:44

for my job. We're staying connected

24:47

to certain friends. So I like

24:49

haven't tackled that question yet, but

24:51

maybe I will. But it's honestly,

24:53

like, it's good because it's getting

24:55

these questions. pokes at me and

24:57

forces me to think through things

24:59

that otherwise I might not like

25:01

fully think through. All right, Sagal

25:03

Samuel, thank you so much for

25:05

explaining this to us. My pleasure,

25:07

thank you. That's Sagal Samuel. She's

25:09

a senior reporter here at Fox

25:12

and writes though your mileage may

25:14

vary column. You can find a

25:16

link to her work in our

25:18

show notes. And just because Sagal

25:20

answers questions, doesn't mean she doesn't

25:22

have some of her own. I

25:24

personally donate a fair bit of

25:26

money to like anti-poverty groups, like

25:28

give directly, which I think is

25:30

great, but sometimes I do wonder

25:32

on like a systems level, will

25:35

we just always have poverty? Is

25:37

that a built-in feature of our

25:39

world that is impossible to eradicate?

25:41

So, if you have a question

25:43

of your own, give us a

25:45

call. We're at 1,800, 618, 845,

25:47

and we would love to hear

25:49

from you. That's it for this

25:51

episode of Explain It to Me.

25:53

It was edited by Jorge Just,

25:55

and fact-checked by Caitlin Pinsi Moog,

25:57

mixing, sound design, and engineering this

26:00

week by Christian Ayala. Supervising producer

26:02

is Carla Javier. Special thanks to

26:04

Patrick Boyd and Rob Byers. If

26:06

you like the works, Sogal and

26:08

I do, consider becoming a Vox

26:10

member. Not only does it make

26:12

things like Sogal's column or this

26:14

podcast happen, but it comes with

26:16

some pretty sweet perks too. Go

26:18

to vox.com/members to learn more. Thanks

26:20

for supporting our journalism. Thanks for

26:22

listening. And thanks for calling in

26:25

your questions and reflections. Talk to

26:27

you soon. Bye.

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