Charles Barkley Unfiltered: Politics, the WNBA & 2028

**Stephen Dubner** (0:00)
Hey there, it's Stephen Dubner, host of Freakonomics Radio, and we have just made a new show, a TV talk show, it's called Better In Person. We have the kind of guests you don't see on every other show, and we have the kind of conversations you don't hear anywhere.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:16)
I'm like, yes, chef, be one with the pork.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:19)
You have the opportunity to make this little corner of the world into your ideal world, your dream world.

**Stephen Dubner** (0:27)
You can watch Better In Person on the Freakonomics YouTube channel. You'll find a new episode there every week.

**Michael Smerconish** (0:32)
This is how a conversation works.

**SPEAKER_5** (0:35)
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**SPEAKER_7** (1:09)
And join Michael Smerconish right here, in the middle.

**SPEAKER_6** (1:13)
This is The Smerconish Podcast for Independent Minds.

**Michael Smerconish** (1:17)
Can you please say half the things now that you said during the commercial break, and then we can just call it a day?

**Charles Barkley** (1:23)
Hey, man, I'm so fed up with the entire political system where you have to be a Democrat, Republican, Conservative, Liberal. Now you got to be a Socialist. I mean, it's silliness out here. I'm an independent person. I got my own brain.
When I hear the word Conservative, Liberal, Socialist, I'm like, okay, that guy's out. That girl's out.

**Michael Smerconish** (1:47)
You heard the callers at the tail end of the last hour. That's not the way we function here. You know that this program exists to spread the independent gospel.

**Charles Barkley** (1:56)
Yeah, but the problem is people are brainwashed. Like, I'm going to be a Democrat, I'm going to be a Republican. All you have to do is sway 3 to 5% of the people with something like they're passionate about or anti-against, and that's how you win elections.
I don't agree with everything Democrats or Republicans do. Why would I just say I'm a Democrat? Everybody should be independent. I mean, that makes zero sense. One of the reasons I hate CNN now, and I work for CNN.

**Michael Smerconish** (2:28)
As do I.

**Charles Barkley** (2:29)
Yeah, but I try to support to be a good man. When I'm sitting there watching the night shows, I'm like, they have two Republicans on, two Democrats. They scream at each other for an hour, and I'm like, that's just an hour of my life. I can't get back. Because the Republicans are going to say everything the Democrats do is wrong. The Democrats are going to say everything the Republicans are going to do is wrong. And what's bad about it, they're all successful people.
I want to help poor people, because I tell people, this thing ain't got nothing to do. See, they make you pick a team based on race, education. Education. Man, this is just risk people against poor people. And the risk people, they're smarter. They're like, let's just make the poor people fight with each other. And if the poor people would have like, you know, we're actually in the same boat.
We want economic opportunity. We live in crap neighborhoods. We go, our kids go to crap schools. We kind of go forward to go to the big schools. But they're like, no, let's make them fight with each other.

**Michael Smerconish** (3:31)
There's a song lyric, with, without and who'll deny it's what the fighting's all about. By the way, I didn't introduce you because I feel like that voice of yours and people who are watching you on C-SPAN 2 know that it's Sir Charles Barkley, 11-time All-Star MVP, Hall of Famer, Emmy-winning co-host of Inside the NBA, and the owner of the skinniest statue in Camden. I can't tell what you're tipping the scale at because of what you're wearing. I watch you on those commercials, on those big screens, like all day long. It's obviously working for you.

**Charles Barkley** (4:01)
You know, Mike, it's been a godsend, to be honest with you. I started working with Ro. Serena's one of our people now. She's amazing. Glad she see her back. I guess the open starts this week.
I gained over 100 pounds when I got my two hips, because I got each one the next summer. So I peaked out at 355