Week in Review | 7/27/25

The A.M. Update

Aaron McIntire

Politics, News, Daily News

4.9 • 773 Ratings

🗓️ 27 July 2025

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The A.M. Update Week in Review highlights key moments from the week. Malcolm Gladwell’s Wall Street Journal talk argues driverless cars, tested with Waymo in Phoenix, are too safe, incentivizing pedestrian misbehavior like kids playing soccer on streets, potentially causing urban gridlock. A discussion with Dr. Beisner reframes the global warming debate as not about human contribution (which he concedes is negligible) but about whether Earth exists for human flourishing or vice versa, questioning if conceding human impact is strategic. Tucker Carlson’s Turning Point USA speech critiques conservatives for focusing on minor victories like gender in sports while ignoring bigger issues like drugs and economic decline, linking moral and middle-class decay. Richard Nixon’s In the Arena excerpt on 1960s education dysfunction parallels today’s societal challenges, emphasizing education as a linchpin. The Trump administration earns a B+/A grade, marred by slow DOJ/FBI action on accountability, despite strong immigration and military recruitment gains. A poll shows 70.3% give Trump a “pass,” with critiques on Epstein files and Syria policy.

Malcolm Gladwell, driverless cars, Waymo, pedestrian behavior, global warming, Dr. Beisner, human flourishing, Tucker Carlson, Turning Point USA, moral decay, middle class, Richard Nixon, education dysfunction, Trump administration, DOJ accountability, Epstein files

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the AM Update, week in review. A collection of the best moments from Aaron McIntyre's
0:08.0	morning update. Malcolm Gladwell is a prolific author. Now, he is what some I think dumb people
0:16.3	would maybe idealize as a genius. He's not a genius. He's just a very compelling storyteller,
0:22.1	and he has some interesting things to say.
0:24.4	One thing that I found interesting that he had to say recently,
0:28.0	he spoke at a Wall Street Journal confab
0:30.5	about why the prospect of all driverless vehicles is impossible.
0:36.4	And it's for a really simple reason that I'm kicking myself I didn't think of.
0:40.8	Listen to this.
0:41.5	Driverless cars in an urban setting don't work because they work too well.
0:49.7	Right?
0:49.9	So what we went is we went to Phoenix, where they had Waymo.
0:56.8	And I had my producer get in the Waymo, and I ran alongside the Waymo, and I would cut the Waymo off, and the Waymo, of course,
1:05.0	because it's got like 58 sensors, would stop instantly, right?
1:09.0	And then I would run circles around the Waymo, and the Waymo would sit
1:11.8	there patiently waiting for me to get out of the way. And I realized, if every car on the road
1:17.8	is a driverless car, then there is no penalty whatsoever to pedestrians misbehaving. If you're a kid,
1:24.7	why don't 11-year-old boys play soccer on the streets of, on 42nd Street in Manhattan?
1:30.3	Because they're going to get hit by a car and killed.
1:32.3	But if every car is a Waymo, you will totally, they're all going to stop and they're going to wait there for hours until you finish their game.
1:40.3	The waymo is, so the whole point of deterrence, the reason deterrence with human driver's work
1:47.5	is that the driver will make a mistake and kill you inadvertently. Waymo will not make a mistake.
	...

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