David Pakman: Left-wing progressive political commentator and host of The David Pakman Show, a daily news-and-commentary program he has run for over a decade. A Jewish Argentinian immigrant to the US who frames himself as a progressive social democrat.
What this episode covers
David Pakman and Lex Fridman work through the modern American political spectrum, untangling labels like progressive, social democrat, and democratic socialist. They assess the likely 2024 Trump vs. Biden rematch, the strengths and weaknesses of each man, the DNC's role in sidelining Bernie, and figures like AOC, RFK Jr., Marianne Williamson, and Ron DeSantis. Much of the conversation centers on how social media and partisan media manufacture division, the collapse of shared standards for truth, and the distrust in science that grew out of the COVID response. They close on wokeism, the future of universities under AI, war and geopolitics, and Pakman's personal habits around reading, mental health, and creating content daily.
Recommended on this episode
Animal Farm
George Orwell
“I've read that one I don't know over 50 times it's probably my favorite book”— Lex Fridman
Man's Search for Meaning
Viktor Frankl
“Victor frankl's book is one I've read a bunch of times and it's so short”— Lex Fridman
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
William L. Shirer
“rise and fall the Third Reich I've read twice now and I recommend”— Lex Fridman
Also referenced (named, not recommended)
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage
Alfred Lansing
“I just read um sing's book about the Shackleton Voyage in Antarctica in 1914 15 and 16 super interesting”— David Pakman
Saving Time
Jenny Odell
“Jenny Odell has a new book on time and the concept of like Saving Time spending time Etc she just published it super interesting”— David Pakman
Amusing Ourselves to Death
Neil Postman
“Neil Postman wrote about this in his book amusing ourselves to death”— David Pakman
The Real Anthony Fauci
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“he also wrote the book uh the real Anthony fouchy ... it's been on my reading list to get”— Lex Fridman
1984
George Orwell
“when I did the one video on a book 1984 I really enjoyed it that that whole process it was fun”— Lex Fridman
Brave New World
Aldous Huxley
“even with 1984 allowed me to contrast with Brave New World”— Lex Fridman
Tesla
Tesla
“I was an investor in Tesla starting in 2015 I've since sold all my shares MH great run um I'm on my second Tesla right now”— David Pakman
Big reveals from this episode
- Pakman recounts how a snarky tweet after the Nashville school shooting blew up, drew Donald Trump Jr. and Candace Owens, and led to threats against his family.
- His father received around a hundred hostile messages, including 'you should have aborted your son,' before Pakman deleted the tweet, a decision he says he deeply regrets.
- Pakman blames scientific leaders like Anthony Fauci for speaking with false certainty and fueling lasting distrust in science.
- Argues Trump would likely have won reelection if he had handled COVID with seriousness and unity instead of cavalier dismissiveness.
- Pakman predicts there will be no university 'the way we think of a university' in 20 to 30 years because of AI.
- Says he was attacked and mocked online simply for publishing his personal book reading list.
- Reveals he recorded a 'if I die' video before traveling to the Ukrainian front line, and discusses fans suggesting AI could clone his voice to keep producing content after his death.
Worth remembering
- mRNA technology took decades to develop, so the claim a COVID vaccine was created from scratch in nine months overstates any single administration's role.
- American companies, not China, pay US tariffs on Chinese imports; reports tie the China tariffs to roughly a quarter-million lost American jobs.
- Pakman, a Bernie supporter, told his audience Reddit and Twitter gave an inflated sense of Bernie's actual popularity within the Democratic party.
- New polling, Pakman says, shows the 'woke' position (society hasn't gone far enough) is slightly more popular than the anti-woke position, by narrow margins.
- Tucker Carlson's firing from Fox is framed as legal risk mitigation tied to the $787.5M Dominion settlement and other looming lawsuits, not a political shift.
- Fox News collects a per-subscriber carriage fee from every cable subscriber, making it far less dependent on ad revenue than CNN or MSNBC.
- Pakman runs The David Pakman Show on a 'Letterman schedule,' shooting five episodes in four days, and organizes prep using a private MediaWiki wiki.
- Pakman reads dozens of books a year, mostly narrative non-fiction, history, and economics, and avoids modern political memoirs entirely.