Carole Cadwalladr
Appearances
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
Well, that last part's going to make for some good B-roll for an Inside Edition story one day. Anyway, Trump made that guy deputy director of the FBI, because of course. But look what his only three months on the job have done to him.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
Yeah, that's called a job. You have a job. That's what they are. You go in at a specific time, 6.30, 7, around there, to a specific room, mostly four-walled. And you're there all f***ing day. It's work. It's a job. And yeah, there probably is a dude in there that you hear all f***ing day.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
He's leaving... He's leaving his job to make more family with his time. He, uh, he a lot, I think. Or just has a mail order sperm farm going. I don't know what he's up to. I'm actually, I'm starting to feel bad for this guy. He's been, look at him, he's been there four months. Look at, look at poor Bash. It only took four months to go from this to this.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
And how are you just finding about this now? How is having a job now suddenly destroying everything?
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
I mean, it's just as hard. I don't like the separated. I mean, divorce. I'm not divorced. I was divorced, but not separate. I'm separate together, but not, of course, alone. But I go, who knows? I mean, some people, they leave for a while. Who the f*** knows? Guys come over, they come banging. Who the f*** knows what's happening? I don't know what's happening. Why can't she come to work?
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
Why can't I just bring, can I bring my wife to work? Would that be okay?
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
The only one who's gonna come out of there unscathed is Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt, because I don't think she got any principles in there left to die.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
By the way, I think the more she lies, the bigger her cross gets. Is that possible? It's like some sort of weird Pinocchio cross. The president can't be bought. I'm not even upset with this lady. Because just rolling with the punches is clearly the only strategy for happiness when you're working for Trump.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
Trump's very open secret has always been he doesn't believe in or care about any policy issue at all. He wants attention, he wants his ego stroked, and he wants money. He wants wads and wads of money. Remember his 90 deals in 90 days? He made them, but only for his family. Those are the only deals he made. Meanwhile...
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
The world he said he was going to fix is burning, like so many nuclear-capable planes in Siberia. And don't bother trying to call him on it, because before you can, he's already moved on to pulling some new crazy thing out of his ass to distract us.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
You're saying that the Joe Biden, who doesn't even know where he is, is actually an incredibly advanced cloned robot? How much ketamine are you on?
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
Welcome back to The Daily Show. So I want to tell you about my guest tonight. My guest tonight is an award-winning investigative journalist who writes the sub-stacked newsletter, How to Survive the Brologarchy. Please welcome to the program, Carol Cadwallader. Very surreal. It's very surreal. It's very surreal. I want to introduce you to our audience who might be unfamiliar with your work.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
Carol was one of the first journalists that broke the Cambridge Analytica data story. This was many years ago. Back when... Nobody was right about it. And give us a little bit of just that back story of what happened when you exposed what this group was and what happened to you.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
Nothing changed.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
Actually, the one person who was put through the ringer during all of this was you.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
You were put on trial for discovering this very true thing, and they really tried to destroy you.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
He went from tech titan, given a mandate to move fast and crush the deep state to guy who had a bad night in Nashville bar he can't remember. He's got that look like, has anyone seen my shoes? He's a little beaten down. He's got that look on his face that I imagine his employees normally have. Black eye, thousand yard stare. This dude has seen some shit.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
I hate that. Yeah. I'm a Brexiteer, you're a Brexiteer.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
What, are you kidding me? I'm in America. We don't care what happens there. No, but it is. So but you were on the cusp of does that story now with Cambridge Analytica sort of siphoning the data from Facebook, weaponizing what would get people agitated and trying to influence those elections? Does that almost seem quaint by today's standards?
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
Was the change of that, because there is a sense, you think of that sort of in the capitalist sense or the consumerist sense, like if I'll be talking to my wife about a certain something and then the very next thing on Instagram is an advertisement for that very thing. And you think, oh, they've weaponized what we're interested in to get us to buy things.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
But this is a very different scenario in that they've weaponized it to defang democratic processes.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
But on the plus side... On the plus side. So when you hear about that from Palantir, is that... Are you describing something generally, or are you describing exact... Like, Palantir is getting all of our data. I mean, that was what they announced.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
applying ai now to this database and what is the ai's purpose is it to sift through the data to target you for messaging or is it also to prevent you from accessing government programs
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
And there's no regulation on this, by the way.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
Normally, we're quite prompt with this type of activity. I'll go even further. In the big, beautiful bill, there is a segment of that that says, for the next 10 years, they are not allowed to legislate or regulate AI in any way, shape, or form. It is prohibited by an act of Congress if this goes through. What does that do to this?
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
It gives them a 10-year head start on whatever it is they want to do with it?
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
I'd like to know at least how that happened.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
You know, great, glorious goals such as... But how does any of this square with their so-called libertarian...
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
principles it's nonsense if there is a centralized control of data run by an opaque algorithm that nobody understands but them i mean and when they want to make changes grok for like a week no matter what you asked it was be like do you know south african farmers that are white are being killed like they can do whatever they want and is the idea we're supposed to just
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
trust that it's in our best interest?
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
And that's... Here's the other thing that really bothers me about it. So... Everything that we're doing to China, the tariffs and everything else, is because they don't play fair. They steal our IP. They steal our... What is AI if not vacuuming up Anything that is proprietary, not just about our work, but of our souls.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
Like, it is sucking up everything that we are and using it for whatever they want to do. And what's our recourse to that?
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
And do you see, is it different in the EU? Do they have a sense of the peril of this, and they're acting more robustly? Is this something that you see in the United States as the Wild West? Who is keeping an eye on this, and can we get our own AI to keep an eye on their AI? LAUGHTER
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
the Stasi or this is the KGB or this is the CIA. Look, this country is rife with examples of government, MKUltra and FBI surveillance on Martin Luther King and John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy. You know, we are not unfamiliar with those kinds of police state activities Is this of a different piece? Is it just that it's more opaque? Is it more efficient at doing it?
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
So you're not going to tell us what happened? Do you need a safe place to stay? Look, I believe sometimes do happen when you're roughhousing with your kids, but I'm also sure the one sentence no parent has ever uttered to their child is, go ahead, punch me in the face.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
Are we seeing something really different than we've seen?
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
And used for predictive purposes as well.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
I don't use that. What are you saying? I do my own work. What are you saying? That these questions I just plugged into ChatGPT?
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
That, boy, did you just nail, I think, such a crucial point there. Beyond even the more sort of dystopian visions of where they're going to be taking this is the practical application of a technology that is wildly fallible. That is something that, you know, they just put out the Maha report, and apparently there's seven studies in it that don't exist.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
And nobody thought, like, oh, we should probably check that.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
Right. To try and contact. And it won't be anybody. It'll just be for this press one. But nobody will ever come on. Exactly.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
And not transparent in any way by removing the people.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
So you've been looking at this for many years. You have faced a great deal of personal repercussion for doing this. You continue to push on it. Is there anything that you've seen? within this move that makes you feel like we have the ability to in any way slow the inevitability of it?
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
Oh, Carol. Carol, I got to tell you, and I'm going to say this to the audience at home, I probably should have started there. before everybody was on the ledge. What do you see?
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
But Elon spent $300 million of his own money to get Trump elected, irreparably damaged his personal brand and almost all of his business, and is clearly suffering some kind of issue. But don't worry. Trump made sure that Elon got something in return.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
This was the optimistic part of the show. This was the part of the show where you were going to bring us all back from the ledge and look what you've done.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
I understand. The only way I would push back is just to say Instagram is actually my only friend. Carol, I just, I can't tell you how impressed I am with the work that you've done, that you continue to do, the way that you continue to stand up for this, even when it has cost you such a great deal in your life. Be sure to check out Carol Substack.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
It's How to Survive the Brolligarchy and her nonprofit called The Citizens. Is that correct? That's correct. The Citizens. Carol Cadwallad.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
So I understand. This month, though, is really more about like gay and lesbian pride, not just not just pride in general.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
We won't elaborate. Michael Kosta all this week.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
You have to make sure that everybody knows you give them to a lot of people. It's just not that special. You know, I got a bunch of these. I give them to special people. Who's the guy who brings me my Diet Cokes? I give him one for every Diet Coke. Anyway, enjoy your useless key. There was no need for Trump and Elon to commemorate this epic fail. It's an embarrassing display of theater.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
Look at these guys. Pretending like this is some kind of celebratory, victorious send-off for a job well done. Jesus, look, even Lincoln is looking down. You see him? Look at Lincoln. Look at Lincoln. Even Lincoln is looking down going...
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
Too soon, is that? Lincoln, for God's sakes. With all the shit going on in the world, I was not expecting the audience to be like, poor Lincoln. Just wanted to see you play. Of course, Lincoln wasn't the only one seemingly disassociating. in the Oval Office. Of course, there might have been an explanation for that behavior as well.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
Look, whether Elon was using drugs on the job or not, I have no idea. I do know one thing about the television industry, though, especially the news industry, and that is whatever unusual images we have... of Elon's enthusiastic time in Washington, DC, those images will now be repurposed and given a slightly different meaning and context, almost comically so, inside edition, do your worst.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
Come on, Inside Edition, inauguration party enthusiasm or reefer madness? And you might be saying, well, look, who amongst us has an unwound sometimes with a little mixture of ecstasy mushrooms, ketamine, and Adderall?
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
He told people that? This dude is a one-man anti-drug campaign. These are your pants. These are your pants on drugs. And I do love the fact, though, that the detail is he's the one who told them he had a bladder problem. That means things were so bad, he had to be like, oh, don't worry, it's nothing weird. It's just an overabundance of ketamine. Now, obviously...
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
We've got a show for you tonight. Carol Cadwallader is going to be joining us. She's a journalist. She's going to discuss with us the tech brologarchy and how the entirety of mankind, entirety, will be enslaved by a handful of misanthropic data hoarders. Spoiler alert, we don't make it. Speaking of misanthropic data hoarders, Doge,
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
We on this program would have been delighted to offer an unedited forum for Elon to discuss his journey from hardworking efficiency expert to drug-addled child star mugshot. But he chose to go in a different direction by sort of speaking to your theater-loving parents' favorite news program, CBS Sunday Morning. This is true. This was his final Trump administration exit interview.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
How revealing. Any follow-up?
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
Look what Trump has reduced this man to. He has broken this poor man. Just in an interview, can't we just talk about spaceships? I was told we'd talk about... I was told we would both be wearing helmets and talking about... Just a simple boy with a set of Star Wars sheets and pillows and... I really would just like to talk about space. I mean, you can't blame him.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
This whole project was cutting money from the government trying to find efficiencies and sneaking a Trojan horse in the back door and stealing all our data. But Trump is spending $200 billion more than the previous administration did in this amount of time and creating a deficit-exploding, big, beautiful bill that is the antithesis of everything Musk said he was trying to do.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
And now he's left softly complaining about it to a guy whose normal news segment is explaining to your grandparents how to download a PDF.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
No, sir. We will not be body-shaming legislation.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
and brave.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
By the way, so this actually is my favorite part of the whole interview. So Elon actually expressed some dissatisfaction with what was happening with the Trump administration. It was a turn of events that stunned the reporter on CPS Sunday morning, who had no idea, apparently, that this was being recorded.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
Yeah. That's what news does. He's saying that like, so am I in trouble now? I thought we were just killing time until we got another Patti LuPone apologizes update. I don't like any of this. But let this be a lesson to Elon and anybody in Trump's orbit.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
has finally rooted out one of America's least efficient government workers.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
Trump! Trump doesn't believe in anything, man. What, were you with him because of his commitment to rein in big tech?
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
When I'm president, big tech will pay. iTunes will have to agree to your terms and conditions. When I'm president, traffic lights will have to click on boxes containing pictures of you! Capture that! So how's that libertarian paradise vision going for you now?
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
It's never a good sign when the phrase master list and surveillance power are coupled. No one's ever like, I've assembled a master list. of puppies you can surveil for boops. But hey, how evil can Palantir be? You got pal right in the name of it. Well, look, it's not like they're handing all of our data over to some crackpot CEO.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
Well, let's not judge a book by its insides. Well, I've always said if there's anyone in the country who should have access to all of my personal data, it's the guy who wants drug-laced urine-spraying drones. Although, if he is serious about that, he's going to need a source for drug-laced urine. I might know a guy. No? No? Here's the thing. The reality is this.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Musk's Black-Eyed Exit & Trump's Insane New Biden Conspiracy | Carole Cadwalladr
The reality of Trump is he turns even his most fervent and enthusiastic foot soldiers upside down. Take Dan Bongino, ex-Secret Service agent, Fox News host, and guy who looks like he starts fights at Little League games even though he doesn't have a kid playing. He was very excited for the Trump era.