Scott Douglas Jacobsen: What do you think about Elon Musk essentially taking over finance in America? Rick Rosner: Elon Musk is—I don’t know. I don’t like him holding as much power as he does. Trump is letting him mess with entire federal agencies. We talked about this last night—the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which …
Rick Rosner: All right. People think it's weird and gross, but I’ll reuse my wife’s bathwater. She gets in the tub and makes it hot. She likes it hot and is not in there long—she doesn’t clean herself there. She soaks to get warm in the winter. By the time she gets out, it's still …
Continue reading Ask A Genius 1276: Bathwater Ode, “I Like it hot”
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: The Twitter account at your "Anon Central" tweeted, "The U.S. has fallen. ItJust doesn't know it yet." But there is no verifiable evidence that Anonymous issued this tweet on February 1, 2025, or that it received 10.5 million views. Rick Rosner: Let's put this in a less histrionic framework. Recently, some have …
Continue reading Ask A Genius 1275: Anonymous, Protests, Biff Tannen, and Errol Morris
Rick Rosner: Richard May—the guy you've talked to a lot. He's a completely reasonable person, not weird in any way. He's got a wicked sense of humor and behaves like a normal guy. For every Keith Raniere serving a life sentence for running a sex cult and committing financial exploitation (often described as stealing tens …
Continue reading Ask A Genius 1274: ‘Sex Tricks’ and Time for Bed
Rick Rosner: What should I ask next? I haven't had many direct experiences. Still, I've had brief contact with so many people in show business that it feels surreal—almost like I'm playing the "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" game. What do you think about that? I'm probably only two degrees away from most famous people. …
Continue reading Ask A Genius 1273: How did we get on Kevin Bacon again?
Rick Rosner: We missed our session last night because I was busy with our show, which is now called Naked at Night—although it's really "Lance versus Rick." We've been doing it since mid-2017—around eight years now, with a couple hundred episodes under our belt. I'm a liberal, while Lance is fully MAGA. I started the …
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Russia's significant concern is being drawn into a conflict and potentially becoming increasingly dependent on China—a trend that's observable. Russia's population is approximately 145 million, while China experienced a population decline of nearly 1.4 million in 2024. Projections indicate that Russia's population could decrease to around 126 million by 2050, while China's population …
Continue reading Ask A Genius 1271: China’s Decline, Russia’s Future, and Africa’s Growth by 2050
Rick Rosner: It's worth noting that in the United States, tragic events occur regularly—consider school shootings, for example. While mass casualty events like these are not everyday occurrences, they generate significant social and political fallout. According to the Associated Press, large-scale air disasters are rare in the U.S., making incidents like this particularly impactful. Trump is …
Continue reading Ask A Genius 1270: Early Trump Administration
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: What did you think of the international reaction to Elon Musk's speeches to conservative and far-right groups? Rick Rosner: Musk appears almost eager to imply that he has a Nazi-ish streak. His parents reportedly held pro-apartheid views and may have had far-right ties. He's a creepy guy and the richest man on …
Rick Rosner: So, I've read two debunkings in the past couple of weeks. What's the name of that Black Swan guy? Nicholas Taleb. He demolishes the idea of IQ. Then, the guy you interviewed said that IQ is bullshit beyond three standard deviations from the mean—that is, below 50 or above 150. What the fuck …
Rick Rosner 