E32: Behind the scenes of Elon hosting SNL, CDC failures, America's real-time UBI experiment, post-COVID boom in jeopardy & more

**David Sacks** (0:00)
Look at this red on my stock screen. I can't believe what's going on. Stocks are down. Does it mean I'm a loser? I don't know. I need some self-worth now.

**David Sacks** (0:14)
Now!

**Jason Calacanis** (0:17)
Oh, God!
Hey everybody. Hey everybody. Welcome back. The All-In podcast is back. Apologies about last week. I had a personal emergency.

**David Sacks** (0:44)
Are we allowed to say why?

**Jason Calacanis** (0:46)
Of course. I mean, you can say it.

**David Sacks** (0:48)
Go say it.

**David Friedberg** (0:49)
Say it.

**Jason Calacanis** (0:49)
Say anyway.

**David Sacks** (0:50)
It's a humble break.

**David Friedberg** (0:50)
With us today on the program.

**Jason Calacanis** (0:54)
Queen of King Wife, David Friedberg, Chamath Palihapitiya, The Dictator, and the Rain Man himself, David Sacks. I was on a world tour.

**David Sacks** (1:02)
No. No. No.

**Jason Calacanis** (1:04)
I'll tell the story. Obviously, I don't like to talk about a certain friend of mine because he's very high profile.
I don't talk about it in public.

**David Sacks** (1:11)
Just flex.

**Jason Calacanis** (1:12)
Just flex. Just do it and move on. I have been lifting. I just want to let people know the good shows back.

**David Sacks** (1:17)
No. You were backstage at SNL helping Elon with the SNL appearance. Were you not?

**Jason Calacanis** (1:24)
This is true.

**David Sacks** (1:25)
Tell us what that was like. Tell us about the backstage experience at SNL.

**David Sacks** (1:27)
Tell us about the backstage experience. I mean, we were living it out in real time with you guys, but tell us what it was really like.

**David Friedberg** (1:33)
First, tell us why Elon recruited you to do it.

**David Sacks** (1:36)
Are you Elon's funniest friend?

**David Sacks** (1:39)
Arguably.

**Jason Calacanis** (1:40)
Well, I mean, he's got a lot of fun.

**David Sacks** (1:42)
Guys, hold on. Don't you remember the joke at Sacks' roast five years ago? Remember when Elon was late and I had that ad lib joke? There were two jokes that I landed at Sacks' thing, which I thought were the two fun-
No, Jason, my thing.

**Jason Calacanis** (1:57)
When I was being roasted?

**David Sacks** (1:59)
No. Wait, was it Jason's party? Sacks? Oh, yeah, yeah.

**David Sacks** (2:02)
Yeah, I hosted Jason's roast.

**David Friedberg** (2:05)
That's right. That's right.

**David Sacks** (2:06)
It was your roast. It was your roast. It was your roast, yeah. Anyways, okay, go ahead. You're the funniest friend.

**David Sacks** (2:10)
Otherwise known as the funniest night of-

**Jason Calacanis** (2:14)
All of our collective lives.

**David Sacks** (2:15)
It was really funny.

**David Sacks** (2:16)
That was really funny.

**David Sacks** (2:17)
We have to tell stories from that sometime.

**Jason Calacanis** (2:19)
Sometime we'll tell the J Cal roast.

**David Sacks** (2:20)
You probably are Elon's funniest friend and have a talent for writing. Let's not beat around the bush. You do.

**David Sacks** (2:25)
Let's not beat around the bush.

**David Sacks** (2:26)
You do.

**Jason Calacanis** (2:28)
I'll take the compliment.
So I left to go on a little trip to go to Austin to see some friends and then Miami to see some friends. One of those friends who I hooked up with and was hanging out with in Miami was obviously Elon.
And he was doing Saturday Night Live and we were just coming up with ideas around the dinner table and we were just laughing our asses off, just brainstorming ideas that would never be allowed on television, you know, and he said, hey, would you come with me to Saturday Night Live? And I was like, oh, that's great. You have enough tickets. I assumed he meant Saturday night, you know, and he said, no, I don't have a lot of tickets. It's COVID. It's like half his money. Would you come with me to the writer's room and just, you know, be my wingman, basically. So I had like three or four board meetings, five podcasts.

**David Friedberg** (3:13)
So I just, you know, it was like an instant yes.

**David Sacks** (3:18)
I didn't have to check my schedule.

**Jason Calacanis** (3:20)
No, I mean, I take my work seriously.

**David Friedberg** (3:25)
You're like, Elon, can you give me about half a second to decide?

**Jason Calacanis** (3:28)
Well, I already made the decision in my mind that if my friend needs help, you guys have been in similar situations where you've asked me for help. I've rolled with Chamath on speaking gigs or going down to try to, you know, save Sacks from going into complete utter madness.

**David Sacks** (3:42)
Oh, my God.

**David Sacks** (3:43)
This is not crisis management. Anyway, so you said yes, you went.