This is from the November 9, 2004 program.

Daily Show Interview With Richard Branson (14 MB)
This interview gets really interesting when Jon asks Branson to sponsor a contest to invent something to “get us off the internal combustion engine.”
BTW: Branson said he would do it! He also seemed rather preoccupied with the prospect for the rest of the interview. Let’s try to hold him to it!
Here’s a partial transcript:

Stewart: “What about this: putting up a prize for somebody to invent something to get us off the internal combustion engine? What do you think of that? Get uh, like an X prize type of thing like they did with space travel.”
Branson: “Hmmm.”
Stewart: “What do you think of that?”
Branson: “That makes a lot of sense.”
Stewart: “It does?”
Branson laughs.
Stewart: “How ’bout giving me some seed money?”
Branson: (leans back…) “Um. Okay.”
Stewart: “What do you think of that? You could set this thing up, and people could..it’d be like a private industry thing. There’s gotta be a way. I mean, we can fake diamonds.”
Branson: “Um hmmm.”
Stewart: “There’s gotta be a way we can make fake oil or something. You know what I’m saying? It’s just carbon for god’s sakes.”
Branson: “Water.”
Stewart: “Water? An engine that runs on water? Set up a prize!”
Branson: “Well I’ve just given you the answer. So I want the money.”
Stewart: “Or you’re gonna do it?”
Branson: “No..WATER?”
Stewart: “Cars run on water?”
Branson: “Yeah. They could do.”
Stewart: “What on hydroelectric cells or something?”
Branson: “Something like that. I don’t know. I’m trying to get my money back.”
Stewart: “I’m telling you something. This could be a great thing.”
Branson: “Okay.”
Stewart: “Seed money.”
Branson: “Alright. Would everybody chip in here?”
Stewart: “YOUR the billionaire!”
Branson: “Alright.”

Link to zip file of all November 9, 2004 clips. (39 MB)

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