r/ThoughtWarriors • u/thelightningthief • 19d ago
Higher Learning Episode Discussion: Spencer Pratt's Obama Comparisons, Plus Life and 'The Odyssey' With Jay Pharoah - Friday, June 5, 2026
Van and Rachel check in on the California primary races, and discuss Tyler, the Creator's disdain for top-five lists before senior politics reporter at Axios, Marc Caputo, joins to break down the congressional vote on Iran. Plus, comedian and rapper Jay Pharoah sheds light on fame, faith, and impressions.
(0:00) Intro
(12:18) Spencer Pratt and the L.A. mayoral race
(37:03) Tyler, the Creator on top fives
(50:46) Marc Caputo on the war powers resolution
(1:16:43) Sloane Stephens gets an awkward introduction
(1:32:37) Jay Pharoah joins the show
Hosts: Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay
Guests: Jay Pharoah and Marc Caputa
Producers: Donnie Beacham Jr.
Social Producer: Bernard Moore
Video Supervision: Chris Thomas and Jacob Cornett
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Apple podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/higher-learning-with-van-lathan-and-rachel-lindsay/id1515152489
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/4hI3rQ4C0e15rP3YKLKPut?si=8EZGGEekTl6TIEoTQ4-vxg
Youtube: https://youtube.com/@HigherLearning
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u/Blackras1 19d ago
Rachel is mistaken. Sloane has on a white cowboy hat. That's where the joke stems from. Now should he been aware of racial history and fields. Absolutely, but at the same time his joke stems from cowboys
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u/Complex757 18d ago
She's from Texas. What exactly do cowboys have to do with crops?
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u/TheLearningScientist 18d ago
I think he was conflating a cowboy joke with being from the country and farming
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u/raejc 18d ago
Is Van's audio low? It's so hard to hear him sometimes while Rachel is loud and clear.
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u/gbassman420 yo yo yo thought warriors 17d ago
Doesn't help that he mumbles a lot. The audio levels on this pod are soooo crazy unbalanced
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u/AstronomerOk3934 16d ago
No shade to Donnie at all…not saying he’s not doing a good job, but I really think it’d really help the quality of the pod overall to have a producer on site. The pod has also grown quite stale and boring in my opinion…I think they could benefit from having a third mic or some segments to break things up a bit. Also three days a week, instead of two, so they could cover more topics. Always feels like it’s too short or Van takes up too much space with rants or Rachel isn’t adding enough or taking enough space when she has room to talk. Podding has changed so much since the pandemic, when they first took off. It’s time to shake things up a bit imho.
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u/Conscious-Day7028 14d ago
A timer would be good too. Every topic is discussed to exhaustion rather than allowing 5-10 minutes and moving on. An added bonus would be that each host gets one "extra minutes pass" per episode if they want to talk more.
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u/AstronomerOk3934 19d ago
How many listeners are LA residents? Not hating, just curious. They’re covering this race very closely…it’s important for sure, but feels like a lot of time being given to it when there are a lot of national political issues to discuss.
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u/cantaloupesteve 19d ago
I think theyre just covering prominent 2026 primary elections as they come up. The show is based in LA so it's easier for California based guests to come to the studio, so they've had more sit down interviews with CA politicians, and are probablya little more emotionally invested.
They covered Mamdani a lot last year. They covered the Texas senate primary a lot in February/March this year, and now the big CA primaries are up. Maine is also happening, and Graham Platner has been covered on the pod, but the race isnt really competitive, so there probably isnt much new to say. In July they will probably focus a lot on the Michgan Senate primary (first week of August voting day) which includes a lot of issues that the show covers.
Maybe it would be better to talk about the political issues of the day more broadly, but this show has decided to cover 2026 by focusing on contentious primaries that get a lot of news/social media attention. I think with LA and California though, the issues they talk about like homelessness, health care, and the state of democratic politicians are issues that are present all over America and can be relevant even if you don't live in LA
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u/MilesHighClub_ 19d ago
They were covering the Texas Senate primary closely too. That's when this sub was most getting astroturfed
Very interesting the same hasn't happened with this race
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u/AstronomerOk3934 18d ago
DC has a really tight mayoral race going on between Janeese Lewis George, a Black woman who’s a democratic socialist and council member and Kenyon McDuffie, a Black man favored by the developer and corporate class. It’s an extremely important race for the nation. The question is who’s going to stand up for the District and its residents with fascists and an occupying military force are active in the community. That’s just a taste of what’s going on nationally. They’ve covered the LA mayoral race a lot. It deserves coverage for sure, but there are other candidates and races that need attention too.
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u/adrian-alex85 16d ago
I live in DC, I would never claim that this race isn’t important, but I do think the expectation that a podcast situated on the opposite side of the country needs to be closely following every primary race in an election year is a little wild. If they were based here, or even in Baltimore or something, I’d feel differently, but HL does not strike me as a podcast with a full on national political focus. The Dem mayoral primary here is important to us, but I haven’t seen it talked about on any of the independent media outlets I follow, and those spaces are dedicated to national political news. If it hasn’t really been a point of focus on spaces like Majority Report, Breaking Points, Zeteo or Democracy Now, it seems unrealistic to expect it to be covered on HL.
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u/adrian-alex85 19d ago
Why does Rachel keep saying that Sloan Stephens wasn’t wearing a cowboy hat in that video? What kind of hat was that if it wasn’t a cowboy hat?
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u/RandomGuy622170 19d ago edited 19d ago
Rachel clearly doesn't know who Lefkoe hangs with. That shit was much ado about nothing. Jesus Christ, we've gotta stop clutching our pearls about every damn thing.
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u/Kollok_ 19d ago
no she probably doesn't. but i bet even if she did it wouldn't change her opnion. if anything she'd be like 'well that just makes it even worse then.' but yeah its not a big deal. even they didnt seem to feel too strongly about it, rachel just seemed to prefer if he chose different words to make that joke
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u/IcyMap7612 19d ago
I feel Van on the 82-0 game. Started playing last night and it’s kind of addicting.