Barry Weiss Gives Peter Thiel an Award in Berlin

• 39:36Tim appreciates Barry Weiss attempting comedy and performance art, though he notes the crowd's muted reaction to her beginner status.
• 40:24Barry Weiss gives standup comedy at a digital payments conference in Berlin, introducing an award for Peter Thiel.
• 41:44Tim observes Barry is nervous on stage, having been isolated at CBS News with constant security.
• 43:05Barry opens her speech by claiming she's given a lecture on the Antichrist, then says she only does that at secret Mossad meetings in Tel Aviv.
• 44:27Tim argues Barry has just stated three provably true facts about Thiel—his secret group, his work with Israeli intelligence, his Antichrist lectures—and presented them as if they were absurd jokes.
• 45:38When bombing on stage, performers rush; Tim sees Barry doing exactly that, speeding through material hoping something lands.
• 47:16Barry tries to mark a transition by saying "What's not a joke," which signals to Tim that nothing before it was actually funny.
• 48:44Barry uses Peter Thiel as an example of the American dream while describing a defense tech AI surveillance company killing people worldwide.
• 50:25Tim delights in watching one sociopath give an award to another psychopath, calling it tailor-made entertainment.
• 51:27Barry, dressed in all black, calls Thiel ferociously entrepreneurial and independent while he sits emotionless, waiting for her to leave the stage.
• 52:32The head of CBS News is giving an award at a German digital payments conference to the head of a defense tech AI surveillance company who doesn't even live in America anymore.
• 54:24Barry's speech makes Tim feel bad for Thiel; she's so ineffective at her job that she generates sympathy for the person she's supposed to be celebrating.
• 54:44During an award speech, Barry asks if Thiel is a "prophet of doom," a negative characterization no one would include without editorial pushback.
• 56:31Tim mocks Barry for crediting Thiel with predicting Israel might invade Gaza and kill everyone—as if that was a bold insight only he foresaw.
• 59:04Barry describes dining with Thiel as fun because he questions whether democracy and freedom are compatible and considers whether humanity should exist.
• 1:00:05Tim calls this his Super Bowl: the head of CBS News giving Peter Thiel an award in Germany, and he commits to watching the remaining four minutes.
• 1:00:39Barry references Ayn Rand, Rene Girard, Strauss, and Tolkien as influences on Thiel's thinking.
• 1:01:08Barry quotes Thiel's famous founder interview question: "What important truth do very few people agree with you on?"
• 1:04:38Barry lists possible futures—machine gods, populism, rule by algorithm, apocalypse, abundance—then adds she's worried about something worse than all of those: more of her in an ill-fitting black suit.
• 1:05:45Tim imagines the billionaires in the room wondering when they get to eat children, sitting through Barry's speech with no patience.
• 1:06:18Barry finally finishes the speech with a standing ovation as Thiel receives his award from Axel Springer.
• 1:06:42Tim reflects that this is what the future of American media will look like: tech billionaires receiving awards while being introduced by people like Barry Weiss.
• 1:08:08Tim concludes Barry Weiss represents a supranational government now running CBS News, and her incompetence at such a crucial moment is probably terrifying the global establishment.
• 1:12:35Despite differences about Satan, the human race, and basic rights, Tim suggests Thiel and Barry can still share dinner and toast the Satanobsessed techno-optimists.
• 1:12:58Tim signs off wishing long life to the Satanobsessed techno-optimists.

Bari WeissPeter ThielPalantirCBS NewsMark ZuckerbergSam AltmanAxel Springer