-You seem pretty comfortable with risk. -Yeah. And I’ve met a lot of Democrats who don’t … They’re more worried about things going wrong in their communication than something going right. Ezra, I’m a fail forward fast guy. You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take. I got a 960 on my SAT. I wasn’t one of those straight-A students at Harvard. I can’t read. You’ve never seen me read a speech. I can’t read a speech. I have severe dyslexia, a learning disability that has defined me in who I am, my struggles, my insecurities, my anxieties, but also my willingness to try new things and learn from my mistakes. Got a lot of facts you can spit at me, how do you learn? It’s just, I absorb a lot. I observe, I absorb. It’s just harder. I do hundreds and hundreds of reps. For some folks, do one or two reps. But in that process, you overcompensate and you then develop all of these other skills that have been gifts and allows you to read a room. It allows you to pivot, allows you to be a little bit more flexible. Yes, dare I say, even more authentic. And so that’s who I am. I can’t be someone I’m not. I’m not good at being someone I’m not. I’m not comfortable faking it. And there’s so many things in politics I’m not good at. The one good thing, though, is I think politics is radically changing. I think it’s rewarding a little bit more authenticity. I think Trump has sort of broken through this morass. We’re all getting roughed up a little bit here. And we’ve all made mistakes. We haven’t talked about my legendary mistakes. And you’ve got to own up to them. And it’s who you are. It shapes you as long as you learn from it and don’t repeat them. And so I’m just constantly trying new things. I don’t have all the answers. I seek them, but again, with a willingness to fall flat on my face and I’ve tried to be — I try to govern in that space. And so I’ll take the hits. We tend to be months or years ahead of others on a lot of issues, and that’s risky. And you get a lot, you get a lot of arrows in your back, but you also pave the way for others to be smarter and learn from that. Attack in a perhaps more electorally successful space. So I’m happy to be that guy. I don’t need to be president. This is not about that. There’s no — I didn’t wake up with some strategic plan. The idea that I’m even sitting here and people talk about this, 20 — that’s beyond me. I thought I went last through a recall. You talk about humility. Seeing your name on a recall ballot? Having your kids. And one of my kids had to be home-schooled, because it was so humiliating for her. Can’t go outside. You can’t walk the streets without seeing signs and getting through that and getting to the other side and dealing — I mean, this has been a hell of a seven years as governor of California. I mean, the most blessed and cursed state from historic wildfires and droughts and floods and, you know, unrest, social unrest. I’m one of the few governors left from the Covid era. There’s only a handful of us that could talk about all those scars and the mistakes that were made and the lessons learned and the humility that comes with that. And so I’m on the other side, and I think if people have noticed anything about me is you feel that a little bit, I’m, like, I’m smash mouth about some of this stuff. I think Trump is one of the most destructive presidents and human beings in my lifetime. I think this Republic is at real risk, this country, of being unrecognizable. And I have no patience for people that want to indulge it. I can’t stand the crony capitalism. I can’t stand all these supplicants that are sitting there bending the knee to this president. I can’t stand the universities that have done that, the law firms that have done that, the individual corporate leaders that have done that. Other governors, maybe, Democrats and Republicans that have been complicit in this moment. This guy is reckless. He’s wrecked this country, we will not have a fair and free election if we don’t continue to fight. That’s what matters to me. Seriously. I’m the future ex-governor, and who the hell knows what happens the rest of my life, except one thing I know that matters in the rest of my life is I have to look at my kids in the goddamn eye. I mean that, seriously. That’s not, like, a politician thing. to look them in the eye and say that [inaudible] of being judged, not to have lived in the moment. So that’s what animates me. But it’s not some grand plan. So paradox, bring it on. Contradictions, bring it on. Contradictions — but that, I think I can explain, perhaps. Evolution. We didn’t get into trans sports. That’s an issue no one wants to hear about, because 80 percent of the people listening disagree with my position on this. But it comes from my heart, not just my head. It wasn’t a political evolution. Your position -being that… -I don’t think it’s fair. I want to see trans kids. I have a trans godson. There’s no governor that’s signed more pro-trans legislation than I have. And no one has been a stronger advocate for the [inaudible] community. But you have to accommodate the reality of those whose rights are being taken away as we advance the rights of the trans community in terms of the fairness of athletic competition. And I just think that’s not a bigoted position, and it’s an example of some of the things I’ve been saying about being judgmental, dismissing people, throwing that person out of the party. I mean, you want to talk cancel culture. I’ve lived it on that issue alone. Despite a record of 30 years, and people are willing to say, I’m done. Friendships I lost on that position. And that position, by the way, came to me two years prior where I had to try to accommodate for a trans athlete and another athlete that were in the state finals in track and field, and they both dropped out because we couldn’t figure out a way to make it fair. And it was so unfair to both their families. Broke my heart, and I tried for two years to figure out, how do we do this? And so I was asked, is it fair? I’m like, I don’t know. I don’t know how to make it fair. But these people just want to survive. Where’s our grace and dignity about this community, at the same time. So this is life. It’s not linear, it’s circu-linear. It’s not just politics. And I think, I just want to bring a little life back to my politics. I got a year left. I got an expiration sell-by date. I’m on a milk carton. And to the extent I want to hold the line and push back against Trump, I’ll take no back seat to anybody else. And to the extent why don’t you want to throw me into the mix with these 12 other remarkable leaders that — they’re all friends. I’m going to see them all tomorrow at the D.G.A. Half of them governors, the other half great senators and legislative leaders in Congress. What a humble and extraordinary thing. That’s something you pinch yourself, back to that 960 SAT kid that couldn’t read in the back -of the class —— -I’ve been very careful not to ask you about 2028. So I’m not letting you go there yet. But as we wrap a little bit, I do want to talk about a different tension, paradox, contradiction —— That was my way of getting ahead of it —— -I see you, I know, I know —— -So you didn’t have to ask about it, Jesus. You’re not going to say anything interesting if I ask -you about 2028. -No, I won’t.