Dave Smith — Stand-up comedian, libertarian political commentator, and host of the 'Part of the Problem' podcast and co-host of 'Legion of Skanks.' Known for anti-war, anti-interventionist views and his on-air debate with Douglas Murray.
The gist
Dave Smith returns to defend his right as a 'mere comedian' to critique foreign policy against accusations he isn't an expert. The conversation ranges across the manufactured-fear politics of 9/11 and COVID, the CIA's role in shaping events from JFK to Watergate to Russiagate, and Nixon taking the US off the gold standard as the root of inflation and endless war funding. Smith makes an extended case that the Ukraine war was provoked by NATO expansion and that a 2022 peace deal was killed by the West, and argues the war in Gaza has become indefensible 'biblical levels of evil.' Despite the bleak survey, both end on an optimistic note that the collapse of the legacy-media propaganda apparatus and a more aware younger generation create real potential for change, crediting Trump for pursuing several peace deals.
Big reveals
- Joe recounts reading 'Best Evidence' about the JFK assassination right before a set, getting his mind blown, and bombing on stage that night.
- Smith argues intelligence agencies set up Watergate and that Bob Woodward came straight out of naval intelligence into his first reporting gig.
- Joe relays Bill Murray saying Woodward's Belushi book 'Wired' was fiction, which made Murray distrust everything Woodward wrote about Nixon.
- Smith claims a Ukraine peace deal was nearly signed in early 2022 and that Boris Johnson killed it on behalf of the West to keep the war going.
- Smith highlights Chuck Schumer telling Rachel Maddow the intelligence agencies have 'seven ways till Sunday to get back at you.'
- Smith cites Andrew McCabe's 60 Minutes admission that DOJ officials debated invoking the 25th Amendment to remove Trump.
- Smith notes the ICJ ruled 21 months ago that Israel's conduct in Gaza was 'plausibly a genocide' and that two former Israeli PMs have called it war crimes.
- Smith reveals his son was born with a congenital heart defect that would have killed him in any earlier era, his core reason for optimism.
Things worth remembering
- Nixon taking the US off the gold standard in 1971 is framed as one of the worst policy decisions in US history and the root of modern inflation.
- The US has spent close to $10 trillion on wars this century, financed by borrowing and printing rather than taxing, which the public would have rejected.
- A Gallup poll found roughly 70% of Ukrainians now want an immediate negotiated end to the war.
- Smith argues Russia repeatedly signaled it could tolerate a neutral Ukraine but not Ukraine in NATO, which he says was the real trigger for the war.
- Median age of cable-news viewers is about 70 while the median podcast listener is around 34, per a chart they reference on air.
- Grok was briefly suspended on X on Aug 11, 2025, reportedly after posts accusing Israel and the US of genocide in Gaza.
- Israel reportedly restricts direct-to-consumer ancestry and paternity DNA testing while supporting medical genetic screening.
- Smith argues Trump won in part by going on Rogan, Schultz, and Theo Von shows, making podcast appearances a new requirement for winning the presidency.
- A possible reclassification of marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III could transform the legal cannabis industry's banking and tax situation.
- Trump claimed to have settled 'six wars in six months,' including the Armenia-Azerbaijan deal signed at the White House.