Cardinality violation: 1241 Operand should contain 1 column(s)

I used to have this in my WelcomeController when I wanted to return the last post created on the posts table ($post) and the second latest record ($postTwo), both queries were expected to come with the "category" method (a one to many relationship) but since i want to avoid repeating the relationship on the query, i tried to refactor it

$post = Post::with('category')->latest()->take(1)->get();

$postTwo = Post::with('category')
				->latest()
				->take(1)
				->skip(1)
				->get();

        $post = Post::with('category')
            ->where(function($query) use ($post) {
                $query->where('created_at', '=', $post->latest()->take(1));
            })
            ->orWhere(function($query) use ($post) {
                $query->where('created_at', '=', $post->latest()->take(1))->skip(1);
            })->get();

From what i've read the error is based on the fact that i am looking to return multiple values but one is expected or "allowed." i thought that by using take(1) i would be solving the issue, however when i look at the query, it selects all posts: "select * from posts" so what am i doing wrong?

im only looking to return 1 post for each of the where's.

SQLSTATE[21000]: Cardinality violation: 1241 Operand should contain 1 column(s)

select
  *
from
  `posts`
where
  (
    `created_at` = (
      select
        *
      from
        `posts`
      order by
        `created_at` desc
      limit
        1
    )
  )
  or (
    `created_at` = (
      select
        *
      from
        `posts`
      order by
        `created_at` desc
      limit
        1
    )
  )