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  • Hey it's me Destin welcome back to Smarter Everyday

  • I just interviewed the President of the United States of America

  • Which is really strange because I'm not a journalist

  • I'm not a politician. I'm a rocket engineer.

  • Which means I'm going to come at this thing from a completely different angle than most people

  • The process of interviewing the President is strange because you learn things about him,

  • and the White House of course, but you learn things about yourself.

  • Four parts of this video:

  • The mechanics of how this happened; what my goals for the interview were;

  • the interview itself; and what I learned.

  • My understanding is there was a long list of people being considered

  • and then at some point, I was interviewed as a potential candidate.

  • I'm not a registered Republican or Democrat, but they asked me point blank who I voted for

  • and I didn't tell them

  • but the way I answered the question made it pretty clear to me

  • I was not going to be selected.

  • But I was.

  • It was a secret for 3 weeks, and then I went out to L.A. to shoot a promo for the interview.

  • It was there that I met Adonde and Ingrid.

  • They were super cool and really down to earth.

  • When I got home, I asked the Internet what they thought I should ask the President

  • And I got all kinds of answers.

  • I mean, good ones, bad ones. It was amazing.

  • But think about it, I don't agree with the president on every single issue,

  • so I have a huge opportunity here,

  • I could sit down with the most powerful man in the world and tell him how I think he should run the country,

  • or I could accept the fact that he might see things differently than I do

  • and try to have a meaningful, intelligent, respectful conversation.

  • My goal was not to just have this intelligent, respectful conversation

  • with somebody I might disagree with on other topics

  • but to demonstrate that it could actually be fun!

  • To do this, I went to Washington to meet the President.

  • The day before the interview we went to a studio

  • in Maryland, and we practiced with a guy named Fredrick.

  • He's a stand-in hired by Google and he's a really cool guy.

  • The next day, we went to the White House and we got to meet the President's dogs

  • which were really, really soft by the way.

  • We did some dry runs to make sure we knew how to roll our sets around,

  • and then each of us kind of went off and reviewed our questions one last time

  • to make sure we knew what we were gonna say.

  • We then waited for the President, and he walked in and we started the interview.

  • The President had already been briefed on who the 3 of us were,

  • and the fact the Swoozie was gonna give him a lightning round,

  • then I was gonna watch a video with him,

  • and that Ingrid was gonna ask him about what's in his pockets.

  • A lot of people wanna know, did I share my questions

  • with the White House, these are the actual cards, before the interview?

  • And the answer is 'no.'

  • This is how I know this:

  • I was looking into his eyes during the interview,

  • and it was clear, through nonverbal communication,

  • that these things were hittin' him cold.

  • That impressed me! When I figured that out,

  • I was like, "Holy cow. A common citizen going to the White House,

  • talking to the most powerful man in the world,

  • on a live internet interview,

  • that is an incredible amount of transparency."

  • And I don't care what you say about the man's politics,

  • that impressed me, and I appreciated that.

  • For many reasons, I wasn't nervous, I was actually

  • really excited about this.

  • I decided to ask the first question on

  • how he gets smarter on topics he might not be the expert on.

  • It was an interesting answer, because it's clear that he's

  • changed his methods over the course of his presidency.

  • As he was answering this question, it was pretty clear to me that he was in interview mode:

  • His body language was a little rigid.

  • Now keep in mind that at this point, the President still doesn't know what kind of interviewer I'm gonna be.

  • For all he knows, I could be hostile.

  • What happened next was a moment I will never forget

  • I knew before he did that we were on the same wavelength,

  • and I really wanted to let him know that,

  • after all, I had listened to him already for 10 hours via audiobook.

  • If you watch the President's face,

  • you can see the exact moment that we connect.

  • Obama: And that I think is pretty consistent with,

  • you know, how scientists approach problems generally.

  • Destin: Now, I actually knew that about you because I've listened to your audiobooks,

  • and, in "Dreams of My Father,"

  • it ended with the 2004 Democratic National Convention speech.

  • Did you see it? Let's back it up and watch his body language.

  • He's a little guarded, and then the connection.

  • Isn't that cool?

  • It's the exact moment that this quit being an interview,

  • and became a fun, intelligent conversation

  • between two individuals who want the best for each other.

  • It was a really cool moment, and I won't forget it.

  • My second question was about polarization.

  • It's been clear to me that the country is more polarized now than it's been in a really long time,

  • and in fact there's data to back this up.

  • Whatever your views are, it's become really popular to yell

  • at the other side and blame them for all the county's problems.

  • The president went into why he thinks this is happening.

  • Obama: And the problem is, is that when we get to our politics,

  • for a whole host of reasons,

  • a lot of it having to do with the fact that, you know, our media is now splintered,

  • and so some people, they're just watching Fox News,

  • some people are just reading the New York Times,

  • so they're not, they don't even start with a common baseline of facts.

  • They almost occupy two different realities in terms of how they see the world.

  • Destin: In engineering control theory, there's something called a feedback loop.

  • There's a positive feedback, and a negative feedback.

  • If you remove negative feedback from any system, it almost always goes divergent and chaotic.

  • This is not political science. This is math.

  • When people on the left or the right only listen to the media that agrees with their way of thinking,

  • that's a dangerous situation.

  • If there's no negative feedback pulling you towards the center, you're gonna drift out closer to the extremes.

  • I really appreciated what the President said here,

  • because it's a responsibility of everybody on both sides of the political debate

  • to listen to both sides of the argument.

  • If not, you're only going to be in an echo chamber, and you're only gonna listen to those voices

  • that amplify what you want to hear, and pretty soon there's nothing but yelling.

  • My third question was about space, which is when I solicited the presidential fist bump,

  • then forgot to blow it up like a gentleman scholar.

  • Anyway, you can tell by my face I was really excited about this question

  • and I'd love for you to go listen to the president's answer.

  • I wanted to end on a fun note, so I asked him this really cool question from Reddit:

  • Destin: If there was an element named after you, Obamium,

  • You've never been asked this, I hope.

  • Obama: I have never been asked this!

  • Destin: Yes!

  • So the question is:

  • Obama: This is a first.

  • Destin: So what would you want the physical properties--

  • Obama: What would be the elements of... what would be the--

  • Destin: Obamium is the element.

  • Obama: What would be the characteristics of Obamium?

  • Destin: That's right, that's right.

  • Obama: That's interesting.

  • Destin: I'm not gonna play his answers now, because I encourage you to go watch the full interview,

  • in it's entirety, on the White House's Youtube channel.

  • Ok, time to talk about what I learned,

  • The exercise of thinking through what you would ask the most powerful man in the world

  • is very different when you're sitting at home on the couch or talking to your buddies around the water cooler

  • than if you're actually planning on going and sitting down, and looking him in the eye

  • and asking him the questions.

  • I found myself wanting to be more informed,

  • more cordial, I wanted to be more forgiving,

  • Why is that? Why do we have a tendency to want to be disrespectful?

  • There's 2 things I learned in the presidential interview process about how to communicate with people

  • you might have a difference with.

  • Number 1: If I'm typing to somebody or I'm chatting on the phone,

  • I'm gonna pretend I'm sitting directly across from that person, looking them in the eye,

  • because I want to be respectful and gracious.

  • And Number 2: If I can just listen, it's huge!

  • Think about it, if I listen, not just to formulate my next response so I sound smart to them,

  • but if I truly listen to connect with them at the heart level,

  • my credibility and influence with that person goes through the roof!

  • Even if it's the most powerful person in the world, think about that.

  • Be respectful, and listen.

  • It's that simple.

  • But it's really, really hard.

  • Hey, thanks! This went from rockets in the backyard,

  • to interviewing the President... Which is kind of crazy!

  • Anyway, if this is your first episode of Smarter Every Day that you've ever watched

  • And somehow, you feel like this has earned your subscription, feel free to do that,

  • but only if it earns it!

  • Last thing, I want to thank the sponsor who has been with me from the low points

  • to now, which, I would say, is a high point, and that's Audible.com

  • Clearly that's how I prepared for this interview,

  • and I shot something while I was in the White House to tell you what I learned.

  • Okay, I hope you enjoyed me in the White House, I know it was a blast!

  • If you're interested in listening to President Barack Obama's books,

  • First one is "Dreams of My Father," you can get that for free at Audible.com/smarter

  • That's "Dreams of My Father," totally recommend it, he's a really good reader

  • it's fantastic. Anyway, another book is called "The Audacity of Hope,"

  • feel free to check out both of his books, I think it's very important that you

  • know the thoughts of the guy that's leading the country.

  • Anyway, if you'd like to check those out: Audible.com/smarter

  • "The Audacity of Hope," and "Dreams of My Father."

  • I'm Destin. Get smarter everyday! Have a good one!

  • (No Audio)

Hey it's me Destin welcome back to Smarter Everyday

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