from comedy central's world news headquarters in new york, this is "the daily show" with trevor noah. (cheers and applause). >> trevor: welcome to the 2k5eu8ee show, everybody. thank you so much for tuning in. i'm trevor noah. my guest tonight, my guest tonight, may guest tonight is an author, an author by the name of annie lowrey joining us,

everybody. (cheers and applause). >> trevor: she has a new book arguing that everybody should be paid a universal basic income. the book scawld give people money. but first let's catch up on today's headlines. >> we are that volcano that was erupting in hawaii, well, it still is. >> tonight the coast guard in hawaii is warning of more potentially dangerous lava bomb explosions on and off the big island after molton rock came slamming on a tour boat injuring nearly two dozen people on board. >> and now after destroying more than 700 homes, the volcano is creating a new island in the pacific as rivers of molten lava pour into the ocean. >> trevor: that volcano is terrifying. but it's also the most considerate natural disaster i've ever seen. yeah, because it destroyed the island but then it made a whole new islanding. i've never seen that before. like imagine if an earthquake

knocked down your house bun then he recognized a condo next door. (laughter) such a weird thing. in other news, last night was major league baseball's all-star game. and one of the pitchers, one of the pitchers, the milwaukee lauer josh 45der, right, he had some of these old racist and homophobic tweets go viral while he was on the mound pitching. went viral while he was out there pitching and everyone knew about it except him. (laughter) like you know the catcher must have tried to give him signals. he must have been your tweets, your tweets. no your tweets. you [bleep]. moving on, thanks to government regulations, there is a whole new meaning to lactose intolerant. soy milk may need a new name, the food and drug administration is considering banning the word milk in descriptions of nondairy plods. >> the fda plans to issue new

labels on milk as something that comes from a cow, not a planted. >> trevor: finally! almond milk can no longer be called milk. i mean i get i guess, you know, but now they're going to have to come up with a new name and personally i'm not looking forward to drinking almond [bleep] but hey, i guess rawls are rules. rules are rules. let's move on to today's top story. president obama. (cheers and applause) he's not coming back. (laughter) after a year and a half of relative silence the 44th president of the united states is back in the public eye. this week he flew to africa-- where he opened a community center in kenya and visited the village where his dad grew up, yeah. and finally picked up a copy of his real birth certificate. and surprise, he's actually from

norway, yeah. i didn't see that coming. and then it was on to south africa for what obama thought was a celebration of the 100th birthday of nelson mandela but actually, it turned into a roast of his dance moves. >> there is one area where president obama cannot march madiba. unfortunately, he cannot dance as well as madiba can dance. (laughter) (applause). >> trevor: oh man. oh, i feel like that's the same face he had on election night, he was like-- you know what is funny, it is funny how in america people credited obama as a great daryns, right, because he was the first u.s. president with rhythm, right? but in africa, all the presidents can dance. so when o bma dnses in africa people are like hey, barack, your white side is showing, huh? what's happening here.

because look, obama is not a great dancer. he is a good dancer but not a great dancer. i know you might be saying who are you to judge obama's dance moves, trevor. well, i will tell you who i am. i am the return up of the 20123 see-- 2012 season of dancing with the stars south africa. (applause) that's right! that's right! but obama in south africa, used the occasion to give a speech on the state of the world. and of course whenever obama talks about current events these days, there is an elephant in the room. which is fine, is he a south african citizen and he had every right to be there but i teurlly meant the other elephant in the room, donald trump. while obama never called trump out by name his subtweeting was sharp. >> we see the utter loss of shame among political leaders where they're caught in a lie and they just double down and they lie some more.

and you-- look-- (laughter) let may say, politicians have always lied but it used to be if you caught them lying, there would be like oh, man-- now they just keep on lying. >> trevor: isn't it amazing that trump is such a big liar that you done even have to mention his name and everyone knows who you are talking about. even in africa you are like liar and they are like trump, trump, trump. (applause). >> trevor: but beyond his political commentary, obama's plin purpose in south africa was to pay tribute to nelson mandela. >> madiba's life shown so brightly even from that narrow robben island cell, that in the late '70s, he could inspire a

young college student on the other side of the world. mandela said young people are capable when aroused of bringing down the powers of oppression and raise the banners of freedom. now is a good time to be aroused. >> trevor: yeah. (applause). >> trevor: this is probably the only thing that trump and obama agree on. (laughter). >> trevor: trump is like are you so right, barack, there is never a bad time to be aroused. >> trevor: he's like that is not what i meant. >> too late, don junior's out already, baby. >> trevor: mow that clip touched a little on the man that nelson mandela was. but after the break we'll talk about the man behind the legend. so don't go away. (cheers and applause)

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(cheers and applause). >> trevor: welcome back to the daily show. before the break we were catching up about president obama who is in south africa celebrating nelson mandela's 100th birthday. let's just acknowledge hoe dope you have to be for people to keep throwing you birthdays after you are dead. just think about how amazing you have to be. most of you can't even get your really mate to come to your party and are you a liar. dude what do you mean you can't come over, we live in the same room! so who was nelson mandela to get obama to take a break from kite surfing and go all the way to africa to give his first big speech since he left the white house? well, really there are two nelson mandelas. the first is played by every black aker in hollywood. >> may name is nelson mandela.

i am the first accused. >> have i dedicated myself to this struggle of the african people. >> those in power deny your freedom, the only path to freedom is power. >> i will walk to the quarterree but i will no longer run. >> it is not your place to tell me what is possible. >> in is the time to build our nation. >> ignorance brings chaos, not knowledge. >> trevor: now i know a lot of people complain that she takes roles she shouldn't, but i think she nailed it there, she killed it. she was pretty good. scarlet can act, yo. so this movie mandela and there is real mandela. because today marks 100 years since his birth i wanted to spend a few minutes talking about the man. because he spoke about me on my birthday. now that's not true at all now the first thing you need to know

about nelson mandela is that his name was not nelson. >> when i went to school, the lady teacher miss mdingane asked what is your name. i told her my african name, rohihila. she said no i don't want that. you must have a christian name. so i said no i don't have one. she says you are from today you will are going to be nelson. but that is how i got the name nelson. not given by my parents. >> trevor: wow, can you imagine how mandela's parents must have felt? their kid left the nows as-- and comes back as nelson. his dad must have been so mad, they called you what, i'm calling your teacher right now, hello, this is ggadla mandela. no, your name is injury me now.

oh, they got me too ha, ha. now the reason nelson mandela had to have a christian name is because back in the early 20th century white people ran south africa. so you couldn't have a name that they couldn't pronounce, all right. even though they were only 20% of the population they controlled the government, the land, the economy, everything. it is kind of like how today all those no gluten people have control of all of our menus. yeah, except in south african--after character the intolerance was real. so it was this oppression that pushed nelson mandela o join a revolutionary movement called the african national congress. he joined politics when he was just 26 years old partly to fight raise inequality and also because he had just been kicked off his parent's obama care. at first it fought for-- racist government got more oppressive in 1948 the government stepped up apartheid which made legal racism the foundation of the entire country. black people couldn't vote, they

had to live in certain areas, and they were banned from playing sports with white people. and mi not lying, that last part i completely understand, all right. if your system is based on white supreme see you can't have black people dunking all over your shit. it just doesn't go with the narrative. be like white people are superior, ah, wait, i wasn't ready, i wasn't ready. in fact, the government became so oppressive that mandela and the anc decided to resort to violence. they bombed power station, post offices and they did it when people weren't in there but still they blew shit up. and there were man people in south africa and around the world who wanted him to respond to the brutality of the government with civility, to which mandela replied, bull shit. >> there are many people here who think it is use its for us to talk peace and nonviolence against a government whose reply

is on-- on unarmed and defenseless people. >> for a lot of people seeing a young radical mandela say bit of a shock like finding out one of the care bears mauled a hiker to death. i mean i would expect that out of tender heart but you funshine? (laughter) but you see nelson mandela believed violence was necessary to fietd the violent government and he paid a price for it. in 1962 when mandela was 44iers old the apartheid government arrested him and sentenced him to life in prison and what he said on the docks is ledge enary. he said, i cherish the ideal of a democratic and free society. it is an ideal which i hope to live and to achieve. but if need be, it is an idea for which i'm prepared to die. i mean i'm prepared to died but-- (applause) but i don't want to die, i'm saying i'm preparedment don't make me die, i'm just saying, like, prepared to die, but not dying necessarily.

can we-- let's edit that part out. just leave the-- so mandela went on to spend almost 30 years in prison. and the longer he stayed in prison, the more mandela became a legend around the world. by the 19 '80s you had concerts around the gloan to free nelson mana and you got to admit it is probably good that that teacher changed his name because it would have been a lot harder for white people to protest his freedom when they couldn't pronounce his name. if they were like free dpsh-- free-- you know, let's go save the whales, let's go save the whales. now nelson mandela story up to that point was impressive but it is what he did after he came out of prison that transformed him from a leader to a legend. because when he became south africa's first black president, he reconciled the country and insisted that white people be a part of it, all right. and you realize this is a black country and he's the first black president. cohave easily just said i will give you white people a ten minute head start.

you guys put me in prison for 30 years. >> i done even know what a walkman is. i just hope i get to meet elvis, what? five minutes head start. so you see, this is just part of why people like barack obama look up to nelson mandela. this say man who grew up in a country, steeped in racism, spent di cades in prison fighting it, and then dedicated his life to world of racial progress. and most impressively when he was asked why he is not bitter, he had this to say. >> you end up coming out of prison and there is no bitterness. how is there no bitterness? >> well, i hate oppression. and when i think about the things it s i feel angry. you have a limited time to stay on earth. you must try and use that period

for the purpose of transforming your country. >> trevor: that's why he is a legend. (cheers and applause). >> trevor: happy 100th bitter day madiba. we'll be right back. we'll be right back. (cheers and ahh-h-h. hey, this one looks like a chameleon. hmm, i don't see it. oh, it's on! ( ♪ )

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>> trevor: welcome back to the daily show. my geses tonight is a contributing editor for the atlantic and author of the new book "give people money, how a universal basic income would end poverty, revolutionize work and remake the world." please welcome annie lowrey. (applause).

>> trevor: welcome to the show. >> thank you for having me. >> trevor: this is a book that will get some people really orgasmic and some republicans nightmares for years. >> hopefully. >> trevor: give people money. >> yes. >> trevor: not let them earn money, just give people money. on a basic level what is universal basic income mean? >> so the idea would be that a government and in this case our government would give everybody the equivalent of a social security payment. you would just get 500 or 1,000 a month maybe just for living and breathing and being in the united states. >> trevor: you would just get paid to just be. >> yes. >> trevor: thases' it. >> that's if. it's a very, very simple, revolutionary idea. >> trevor: right, so simple idea, complex in excuse-- execution. >> yes. >> trevor: as soon as you say universal income people say

communism, socialism, will you give people money. the first thing is why would people bother working. >> the idea is it wouldn't be enough money to stop people from working. so if you had 500 a month from the government it's very unlikely that would you quitted working. we have actually a lot of studies that have shown that even with more money than $500 a month, people don't stop working and the people without do stop working there is not that many of them tend to be the parents of young children. they tend to be young folks who are staying in school for longer and tend to be older folks who perhaps retire, take it easy a little bit earlier. >> when you speak about the labor force, you have gotten a lot of pushback on this book. "the wall street journal" pointings and saying why give people money, why not focus on giving people jobs. isn't that more important than just giving them a handout. >> so people want to work, and it's not necessarily a bad idea. but imagine having the government run a giant jobs program that was designed to employ like 50% of the labor force. that would be a hard and

expensive thing tow do you give people choice and support the economy in that way. you don't have to come up without 30 million jobs. >> trevor: if you look at people who are already paying tax there are many people in america who would say i pay my fair share of taxes. there are already programs that help, as you said, social security there are people who get grants from the government. why should they now also get another level of assistance in basic income while have i to may more tax, how would you respond to that? >> it probably wouldn't be everybody who would be paying more in taxer right. it would be very rich people and prance corporations that would be paying more in tax but the thing that this with do is it would really give more help to low income families. even now with the good idea that we have, one in seven americans is in pofer ert, more than 20% of children. the safety net we have isn't working in a lot of cases. and so i think that you have seen a lot of political strife and concerns about inequality in this country. and the feeling that there is a need for better solutions if the problem is going to be so bick.

>> it is a powerful issue that everyone is debating you have many tech leaders joining in and saying i think we need to look at. this president obama in south africa, in his speech actually just said the 15eu78 thing. he said maybe we should be looking at universal bairveg income. there is i guess one question that would always loom over and that is historically in america you would be naive to propose any idea involving giving people money if we don't acknowledge that race will always come into it. they will be a factor, and that is race. >> yes. >> do you think it is a program that could be passed in america, just thinking of how like welfare has been ak tad, et cetera, et cetera. >> yeah, it is a real challenge so the reason that we don't have the kind of safety net that you see in similar countries whether canada or europe, is largely because of race and racism, right. we as a country have just really hated the idea of giving money to people and then you know, we judge them for how they use it, right. you see this embedded in the programs that we already have. if you have food 1256r7s or snap

benefits we say you can buy this food but not that food. and we have a the a lot of require ams for programs that very low income people use. this would be a counterbalance to that but i do think it is race. you would have a large group of people in the united states and we have a culture that really val orizes work that would object to this and would say i'm not okay with that. if you think it is a big challenge to it but not a reason not to do it. >> trevor: it is a challenge. it is exciting, it is fascinating and one of the reasons i enjoyed the book. thank you so much for being on the show. >> thank you. >> trevor: give people money is available now, annie lowrey, everybody, we'll be right back. everybody, we'll be right back. (cheers and applause) ♪ yeah! yeah! yeah! we hide hotel names, so you can find four star hotels at two star prices. h-o-t-w-i-r-e

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trs well, that's our show for tonight, thanks so much for tuning in. here it is, your moment of zen. >> why are you so-- that i should evolve myself in the internal affairs of cuba. >> no. >> i expect you to be-- i done

know if i paralyzed you. >> no, no, no. i-- (laughter) [phone ringing] dunder miflin, this is pam. sure, can i ask who's calling? just a second. [phone ringing] jim halpert. what? how did you get this number? stalker. katie and jim met in the office. and now i guess they're, like, going out or dating or something. and, uh... i don't know, you know? they're just--she calls him and they...you know. i'm sorry, i feel like i'm talking really loud. am i talking really loud? so we're still on for lunch?