E154: Presidential Candidate Dean Phillips in conversation with the Besties + Xi's SF visit & more

**Jason Calacanis** (0:00)
Congressman, how should we refer to you today?

**Dean Phillips** (0:04)
Well, I prefer Dean, but, you know.

**David Sacks** (0:06)
Let's go with Dean. Let's go with that, Mr. Phillips.

**Dean Phillips** (0:09)
I'm asking people to be keen on Dean, so I might as well run with it.

**Jason Calacanis** (0:12)
Ooh, there you go.

**David Sacks** (0:13)
Well, you know what? I'm a big supporter of the Dean Machine already.

**Dean Phillips** (0:16)
Oh, you know about the Dean Machine?

**David Sacks** (0:17)
With this gelato, I'm all up on the Dean Machine.

**Dean Phillips** (0:20)
By the way, I bought an old International Harvester Metro van for 20s when we did activations like South by Southwest.

**Jason Calacanis** (0:26)
I used to own one of those, by the way.

**Dean Phillips** (0:28)
No, you did?

**Jason Calacanis** (0:29)
Yeah, I bought it from my ranch.

**Dean Phillips** (0:30)
Come on.
I love that baby. So I bought one for 20s and I saw how people just immediately were attracted to it and fell in love with it. And I thought, hey, when I ran for Congress, I'm going to do the same thing. So I created the government repair truck.

**Jason Calacanis** (0:43)
Are you driving around in this International Harvester?

**Dean Phillips** (0:45)
Of course.

**Jason Calacanis** (0:46)
You're kidding.

**Dean Phillips** (0:46)
Yeah, I'll show you. I'll send you a picture of it. It's cool. It's got a 1980 Chevy chassis under it, but it's still the basic nuts and bolts.

**Jason Calacanis** (0:55)
Sacks, we're referring to a type of automobile.

**David Sacks** (0:57)
You can ask one of your three drivers about it, David.

**Chamath Palihapitiya** (0:59)
Don't worry, David, your driver can take you in it.

**David Sacks** (1:01)
Ask your Miami driver. He probably owns some muscle cars. I don't think your LA driver owns muscle cars. Here we go. Let's start the show. Three, two.
Hey, everybody. Hey, everybody. Welcome to The All-In Podcast with us again today, the dictator himself, Chamath Palihapitiya, the Rain Man David Sacks and the Sultan of Science, David Friedberg. We are going to continue our conversation series with presidential candidates today.
Our fourth presidential candidate is on the program. Dean Phillips represents Minnesota's third district and he's about 25 years younger than Trump and Biden at 54 years old.
Dean, before getting into politics, I understand you were the CEO of your family's spirits business and you ran Talenty Gelato. Oh, that pistachio flavor, amazing. So welcome to The All-In Podcast, Meet the Other Besties and maybe you could just start out by telling us why you are running for president.

**Dean Phillips** (2:16)
Yeah, well, I'll tell you, after being in the vodka business and the ice cream business and actually the coffee business, I think I understand at least what Americans want. So that's a good start.
I'll tell you a little about my background and why I'm here. I lost my dad in the Vietnam War when I was just six months old. He grew up with no money in St. Paul, Minnesota. I earned an ROTC scholarship on behalf of the federal government, of course, to pursue his education. Went to Vietnam in 1968, just before I was born. I got to see the US land on the moon and I think regularly about how he looked up two days before his helicopter crashed and he died.
Looked up and saw Americans on the moon and looked down and saw America at its worst. And literally that experience in no small way is what brings me to this day. And I was six months old. My mom was 24 and widowed and we moved in with my great grandparents for the first three years of my life.
And I got lucky when I was three, my mom married a wonderful, extraordinary man who adopted me, Eddie Phillips, brought me into a family of great blessings. My grandmother became Dear Abby and my aunt Anne Landers. So I grew up in a family of a lot of advice and I've lived on both sides of the advantage and I recognize it. I remember the day I turned 26 and I counted the days that my father had lived, my birth father. And I remember the day after I had lived as many days as him. My life changed forever. And I became inspired, joined our family business after college.
I ended up running our beverage business. We created Belvedere Vodka, which we sold to LVMH. And then got into the ice cream business and did the same thing.

**Jason Calacanis** (3:52)
You guys created Belvedere?

**Dean Phillips** (3:53)
Yeah, my father and I and our partner, Steve Gill, went on a trip to Poland in 1993, hoping to sell them Philip Schnapps, which we made in Minnesota. We thought Eastern Europe was ready for peppermint and peach schnapps.