Charlie James discusses political tenure and the scale of the Planck units.

What this episode covers

Charlie James: And welcome back to the program. Let's go to the phones and talk to Richard in Dallas. How you doing, Richard?Richard: Hey, good, Charlie. Listen, good old Mark Sanford, man, you know, he's a real outdoorsman, ain’t he? Hiking... hiking the... Appalachian Trail. Listen, we used to go— I'm gonna go on this real quick. We used to go up to Nantahala Gorge, and that trail crosses right there at Nantahala, right at that little center. And they had these people come in there and they'd re-up on supplies. And they're good people, but they're not much to be around on account of their aroma. [chuckles] And it's not— it's not a woodsy aroma, either. But anyway, Mitch McConnell, you know, Mitch McConnell, I— please try to help me understand this. Why do those senators and people in politics like that just hang on way beyond the point of being able to do their jobs, other than getting a paycheck? And surely to goodness they've saved enough money to retire.Charlie James: It's not— it's the staff. The staff is doing this. All this stuff is the staff.Richard: I know. But no, no, no, no, no. Listen, what I'm asking is his dignity. Surely in his heart, or his wife, or somebody would say, "Okay, you know, honey, you've done great. It's time to retire."Charlie James: Wouldn't you think? Wouldn't you think she would do that? Wouldn't you think that Jill— uh, the— the— the Biden would have said, "Hey, honey, it's— yeah." No. No.Richard: Why do they hang on? I mean, that's what my question is. What is the— what—Charlie James: Because, well, it's like I— it's like I said before, power is a hell of a drug, man.Richard: Okay. Okay, Charlie.Charlie James: They're addicted to it. They never, ever want to give it up. They don't want to give it up.Richard: Even on their dying breath, man.Charlie James: Yep. Exactly right. Appreciate it, Richard. Thank you very much.Can I tell y'all something? I told this— I found out something— I think it was yesterday, and it has just blown my mind. And this has got nothing to do with politics. It's got nothing to do with— with— except for what it's got to do with— it's got nothing to do with any of that. But when I heard this, my mind just went [sound effect].A couple of weeks ago— it was before I went on vacation— I had a conversation with a caller, and we were talking about what we know about the universe. And I told the caller, I said, "Listen, we've gone a lot farther out than we have in." Okay? And that's the truth. We've gone a lot farther out in the universe than we've gone into the universe. But I didn't know by how much.Well, I found out. There's a thing out there, it's called Planck length. [chuckles] My wife is like, "I can't believe he's talking about this right now." But I am. Planck length is the smallest unit of measurement possible. If you were try— to try to go and— and find something smaller than Planck length, which is $1.6 \times 10^{-35}\text{ meters}$, it would take so much energy that you would literally create a black hole. Okay.So, what is the biggest thing? Now, we're talking about what we know right now. The biggest thing is the universe, of course, right? The observable— the observable universe, $90\text{ billion}$ light-years across. If you took the universe over on this side of the scale, way over there, and then you took the smallest unit of measurement, Planck length, and it's over here on the left side of the scale, what would be in the middle of that scale as far as size is concerned? What would it be?This is where my mind just absolutely exploded: The human egg. The human egg, the ovum, is the— is right smack in the middle of those two extremes. The human egg is one tenth of a millimeter. It's one of the smallest things you can see with the naked eye. You got to have really good eyesight, and you got to know what you're looking for, but you can see it. Maybe half as big as a human hair. But it's there.That's the middle! That's the middle! Everything else to the left ...

Distinct summary based on available episode metadata or transcript content.