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Peter Duke, with guest commentator George Webb, examines the creative life, public controversies, and personal routines of the late cartoonist and author Scott Adams. Duke opens from his studio while Webb reports from Bisbee, Arizona, where he has been covering stories near the U.S.–Mexico border. The conversation turns quickly to Adams’ death, prompting Duke to recall their professional and personal connection and the cultural influence of Dilbert.
Remembering a Personal Encounter
Duke describes photographing Adams nine years earlier, an image later used in a New York Times profile that labeled Duke “the Annie Leibovitz of the alt-right.” He recounts how that photo session began a brief but meaningful friendship built around shared curiosity and humor. When Adams announced his illness, Duke published a letter reflecting on his respect for him rather than contacting him directly.
The Logic of Dilbert and the Corporate Machine
The hosts trace Dilbert’s resonance with the workplace of the 1990s, identifying its accuracy in depicting absurd corporate logic. Duke recalls receiving a framed Dilbert cartoon while working on the X-Files.com project for 20th Century Fox. He cites a specific 1997 strip in which Dilbert questions his boss’s sense of urgency, underscoring Adams’ skill at dramatizing bureaucratic contradiction. George Webb connects this insight to Adams’ own experiences at Pacific Bell, where dysfunctional policy meetings supplied the raw material for his humor.
Early Internet Innovation
Adams, Duke explains, added his email address to every comic strip to invite readers to send him real workplace stories. In the mid-1990s, few public figures interacted with audiences through direct digital channels. This feedback loop created a proto-online community that inspired countless strips. Duke highlights Adams’ foresight in understanding networked culture long before social media shaped popular communication.
The Home Studio and Routine
Duke recounts his visit to Adams’ home in Pleasanton, California, describing a vast residence with an indoor tennis court and minimalist décor. He recalls the large kitchen island where Adams filmed his daily live stream, “Coffee with Scott Adams,” using his MacBook camera while monitoring viewer comments on an iPad. Behind him, Duke noticed Photoshop open on a computer screen as Adams refined a cartoon panel. The garage, nicknamed “the man cave,” served as Adams’ post-show retreat, where he would smoke from a bong to unwind. Duke mentions Adams’ dog Snickers, trained with blue tape to stay in a designated square on the floor, a detail that revealed Adams’ disciplined approach to both work and life.
The Philosophy of God’s Debris
Discussion shifts to Adams’ novel God’s Debris, which once topped Amazon’s religion category. Duke explains the story of a metaphysical “avatar” transferring cosmic knowledge to a delivery driver. He later discovered that the book’s structure resembled writings by seventeenth-century mystic Jacob Bohme, whose Rosicrucian ideas blended materialism and spirituality. Duke interprets Adams’ attraction to such themes as evidence of his struggle between rational materialism and transcendence.
Media and Misrepresentation
The hosts address how media outlets framed Adams’ comments about race. Duke revisits the statement that led to widespread condemnation and explains the logical sequence of his argument as an Aristotelian exercise that became distorted. Both hosts see the controversy as an example of modern media’s appetite for outrage and the difficulty of communicating nuance in viral environments.
Hypnosis, Persuasion, and Communication
Duke describes learning hypnosis after spending a day observing Adams’ verbal precision and focus. Adams had studied persuasion and neuro-linguistic programming, integrating those tools into his public talks. Once Duke understood the techniques, he found himself unable to watch political commentators — Jack Posobiec, Mike Cernovich, Tucker Carlson, or Rachel Maddow — because he recognized their persuasive cues. He credits Adams for demonstrating how rhetoric functions as structured influence rather than conversation.
The “True Believer” and Trust in Systems
When a viewer asks whether Adams failed to see political manipulation, Duke answers that Adams acted as a true believer. He trusted institutional narratives, including vaccine campaigns, with the same logical faith that guided his work. Duke reflects that Adams’ reasoning led him to decisions that later seemed misguided, yet he insists those choices aligned with his integrity. Webb adds that genuine conviction often makes individuals vulnerable to exploitation by political or financial actors who recognize their authenticity.
Networks of Influence in Media Politics
The dialogue expands into the history of conservative media circles surrounding Andrew Breitbart, Ben Shapiro, Steve Bannon, and Charlie Kirk. Duke connects his acquaintance with Chuck Johnson to his introduction to Adams and recounts how friendships and rivalries shaped the ideological map of alternative media. He recalls Friends of Abe, a private Hollywood group of conservative creatives, and the difficulty of protecting such organizations from infiltration or misrepresentation. Webb contextualizes the discussion within larger patterns of media consolidation and intelligence ties.
Closing Reflections
By the end of the conversation, Duke and Webb portray Scott Adams as a figure who merged engineering logic, comic timing, and metaphysical curiosity. He represented the technological optimism of the 1990s and the ideological fracturing of the 2010s. His studio, his routines, his humor, and his final philosophical questions form the portrait of a man who built meaning through systems of reasoning and narrative design. Duke’s tribute portrays Adams as a rationalist trapped in the logic he mastered — a man who built systems of persuasion and philosophical puzzles but never escaped the materialist framework that defined his thinking.
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