The Charlie Kirk Show - Charlie's 2024 THOUGHTCRIME Thanksgiving With the Crew

Episode Date: November 27, 2025

Enjoy last year's Thanksgiving themed Thoughtcrime episode, where Charlie, Jack, Tyler, and Blake debate Thanksgiving hot topics, including:   -Is steak an acceptable Thanksgiving dish? -Is Black Friday ruined? -Is the date of Thanksgiving a sneaky plot by FDR?   Watch every episode ad-free on members.charliekirk.com!    Get new merch at charliekirkstore.com!Support the show: http://www.charliekirk.com/supportSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

My name is Charlie Kirk. I run the largest pro-American student organization in the country fighting for the future of our republic. My call is to fight evil and to proclaim truth. If the most important thing for you is just feeling good, you're going to end up miserable. But if the most important thing is doing good, you will end up purposeful. College is a scam, everybody. You've got to stop sending your kids to college. You should get married as young as possible and have as much.

many kids as possible. Go start a turning point USA College Chapter. Go start a turning point you would say high school chapter. Go find out how your church can get involved. Sign up and become an activist. I gave my life to the Lord in fifth grade. Most important decision I ever made in my life and I encourage you to do the same.

Here I am. Lord, use me. Buckle up, everybody. Here we go. The Charlie Kirk Show is proudly sponsored by Preserve Gold. leading gold and silver experts and the only precious metals company I recommend to my family, friends, and viewers. Okay, everybody, hello, it is thought crime week.

It is Thanksgiving week. And we are here. By the way, the official uniform of thought crime this week is the Thanksgiving uniform. I decided to go as Charlie Kirk for this Thanksgiving. I didn't fully shave. I might later. And then like your hair thing, where you do like the downup? Hey, it's the natural colloquy.

It's like a Nike swoosh. It is. I have it trademarked. Is that why you only wear Nike's? I actually don't only wear Nike's. But I should. So we also have Blake and Tyler as well. What are they wearing?

I'm wearing my turkey hat. I believe this is a Kirkland shirt. I don't actually have a Costco membership, but I'll be honest, my mother buys a lot of shirts for me. I'm wearing my turkey hat, my Native American shawl. I hear all you guys in there. And then my Arizona State T-shirt because we're going to the Big Tall Championship unless things go awry on Saturday.

Well, maybe. Hold on, Tyler. You know the story of Arizona football. Whatever is predictive. No, Tyler knows this. They will curse whatever inevitable path they have. They mess it out. It is an inevitability of Arizona State football. I've got a front row seat, Charlie, on Saturday with my two brothers,

right behind Kenny Dalyham. So, and down in Tucson. This is a very dumb question Oh, you're going Going down to Tucson. I'm going down to Tucson And front row seat I like Tucson

So it's going to be a miserable drive back This is a dumb question Having never gone to an ASU football game Did they just like suffer in complete agony For their first like three home games of the season Because you know It's a trip. Oh no they do evenings

Evenings. They do them in the evenings. It's still 95 degrees in Arizona It's a nice brisk 98 It's really nice. But here's factoid for everybody that's listening. Arizona has the longest rivalry game in the country, the Territorial Cup between Arizona State and Arizona.

People don't believe it. Look it up. No way. Oregon, Oregon State has to be. No, I'm looking. Look it up. Territorial Cup is the longest recognized NCAA football. Longest played or longest?

See, now he's at, and here come all the caveat. It's the oldest. Yale Princeton goes back to 1873. No, it's the oldest. No, he's the oldest. It's the oldest. Is it like the oldest that has a trophy for it? How is it older than 1873?

No, Yale Princeton is pretty... I mean, Yale Princeton was 1873. No, but the rivalry game. I'm surprised it's not older than that. Yale Princeton is a rivalry game. They hate each other. You have to look up the territorial...

Montana, Montana State, 1897. That's pretty old. We were before. Illinois State, Eastern Illinois, 19-1. Arizona wasn't even a state back then. It was before it. That's why it's called the... There couldn't be in Arizona State because there wasn't a state.

That's why they... I'm looking online. And this is the... duel in the desert is just 1899 and there's many rivalries that are older than 1899. No, look up territory. There's Michigan, Notre Dame, 1887,

Duke, North Carolina, 1888. Guys, guys, it's the oldest one that Tyler knows about it. No, no, no, no. Look, Google Territorial Cup. Army Navy game, 1890, I feel like the Army Navy game is pretty old, and they're still going.

Territorial Cup, the nation's oldest rivalry trophy. Oh, well, the trophy that's so they well you can't really have a cup without a trophy you could just spiritually have one that's it so and that's and that was territorial that's what's called a territorial cup

sounds like your territorial and Arizona state was the normal school and that was it okay all right I'm not saying it's good football I'm just saying it's I have by the way since it is a Thanksgiving day episode I wanted to flag that we have all something very important to be

grateful for you remember real raw news charley 1912 you remember real raw news America's only trustworthy news source they have a breaking report today just before Thanksgiving special forces have arrested Kamala Harris she has come back from her vacation

in Hawaii but they they nabbed her according to the story there were moles inside of her secret service detail and they couldn't get her in Hawaii I guess Hawaii is like the deep state safe zone where they control things

but they got her back to DC which is also a deep safe safe zone but not as safe and so they managed to take her into custody she and Doug Emhoff will be sent to Gitmo to stand trial for treason I'm glad real raw news was able to get

Happy Thanksgiving Happy Thanksgiving We got on I was worried that she might be out there making those So Tyler's half right it's the oldest trophy It's the oldest trophy that is that is legit so it is the oldest trophy i mean it's pretty

it's pretty impressive it doesn't sound like it's a trophy it sounds like it's a cup nothing's old in it no he's right the territorial cup was created 125 years ago that is 1899 championship it's the oldest rivalry trophy in college football but what what was the school even called before i i don't know ASU was called the normal school it was called tempe it was literally called Tempe Normal. Tempe Normal. And Arizona. Huh.

It was a teacher. The Territorial Cup is so old that it literally is like a cup. It looks like a... It looks like a vase that you put flowers in. I thought no one lived in Arizona to like 1930. No, my ancestors were there. It was literally just two football teams. Prior to 1912, it was just two football teams.

Yeah, I just... Arizona's population... And to go that you had to replace someone on the team. Arizona's population in 1890 was 88,000 people. When did your family move here? We chased twice as many more than twice as many. 65% of them were related to our to a dollar.

I'm a seventh generation Arizona. When did the oldest boyer show up here? It wasn't boyer. It was lambs and, uh, and those people, but they was this 1860s. 1860, the population of Arizona was 6,482 people. that is that is oh gee second cousins with sheriff lamp yep man now there's a 6,000 there's like probably more than that within like a couple blocks of here oh yeah for sure okay guys we have to talk about thanksgiving is it okay to eat steak on thanksgiving i really worry not if it's the only thing you

eat on no no that's incorrect incorrect not allowed no you can have tyler and i were you're saying not at all not at all not at all you can have you must have turkey it is required to have turkey you may have ham if it is supplementary to the turkey but like it should be any meat you have should be from like a a central meat dispensing entity you cannot have individualized servings of me that is that is my position on the steak is not from a central meat dispensing no like you don't you don't make a giant You don't make like a 50 pound steak and then take like a piece of it and like pass the giant super steak around. Like that's what you do with ham or turkey.

Like you make the whole turkey or you make the whole ham and then you like cut a little bit of it. But you don't do that with steak. No, but that's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. You can have a separate serving of a plate of steak for people. You just similar to the ham. No, it's just wrong. Like, because ham is like supplement to the.

turkey taste you have to have turkey and ham on your plate you don't need ham no you don't need him you have to have no no i'm a turkey purist yeah but some people think that they they can start to get really now christmas is a completely different ball game totally there are no rules with christmas ham is usually center but steak is acceptable yeah but no but still the christmas is a whole thanksgiving it is un-american not to have either turkey some sort of dressing cranberries but here's the thing about the cranberry thing if you want to be an ultra traditionalist it must be straight out of the can yes taken vertically with no adjustments and now if you want to have wait is this is this some chicago thing no no no no no no no it's and if you want to have cranberry

with adjustments that could be supplementary but however it must be out of the can and you just take it vertically and it just jiggles walk me through your stuffing the stuffing is very interesting Okay. Now, here's the big question. Yes. Does the stuffing go in the turkey or is it prepared outside of the turkey? Is that stuffing versus dressing? And then put it in, cook it with the turkey.

Or some people will prepare it and then just put it in for like the final. See, that's, that's a little, you got to go to full Lanta. So I, dressing has to be obviously cornbread. Yes. Some sort of celerys and carrots. Sure. Sausage. Need your crunch.

A little crunch. Mix that all together. But you know what makes the stuffing really kicker? The gravy. Yes. And so you need the gravy. You have the stuffing. You have the jiggling cranberry. You got the turkey and that's all that's accepted. And then also maybe green beans

and then sweet potatoes. Creamy casserole. How do you make the sweet potatoes? No, no, no, no. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. What's the issue with greenbee casserole? I just, it's not allowed. What do you mean it's not allowed? You're getting too cute. Oh, green bean cassero with a staple. It's a total staple. With the, with the, with those little crunchy things on top, never made things. Fried onions.

No, no, no, I like the long, unenrupted, unblemished green beans. With butter. Yeah. That's good, though. Those are good, too, but that's not green beans. I never said casserole. The casserole is a, no, no, no, no, no. We are saying casserole is a staple.

It's an absolute Thanksgiving. I don't think it's a staple. 100%. And then, let me think what else. Okay, yes, then the sweet potatoes. Sure. But none of this marshmallow stuff. You see, this is new egg.

and it's a mistake where all of a sudden full trad no no it's a mixture of it's like 1950s Thanksgiving right is like that's why it's like the gel you know it's no no I'm saying no marshmallow no no marshmallow thing is is a disgrace with well Charlie hold on a second though because there is one thing wait wait wait wait wait wait out there is one thing one dish that we know for a fact was served at the original Thanksgiving Charlie you know where I'm going with this smallpox no no no Charlie not what not what we served what was served to us Got it. Corn. Oh, see, no, no.

Corn was served at the original Thanksgiving, Charlie. The only corn that is acceptable is cornbread. I will say, you have to bend the knee to the corn god, and cornbread has to be either the dressing, the stuff. Do you agree, Tyler? Long time thought time listeners will remember that Charlie is like... Blake radicalized me against the corn god. He's an anti-cornite.

I think corn has no redemptive value unless it is for Thanksgiving because then it is a sacrament to Squanto. No, no, it's... Corn is good in the summertime. We eat the corn on Thanksgiving to show our thanks that the angry corn god has not destroyed us. Whoa, whoa, no, corn on the cob is summer. This is exactly right.

I forget his name. I forget the corn god's name in the movie. No, no, we're not talking about corn on the cob. We're talking about corn elements, corn bread, for example. Corn bread is great. Even, wait, wait, wait, even Charlie Kirk, like the chief anti-corn. Wow, this is huge. No, this is what thanks.

This is big. Let's be very clear. Thanksgiving is not about what you want to do. It is what your ancestors did. Okay. It doesn't matter if you don't want the cram... It is the... No, that's what I'm saying.

It's not about it. I don't care about it. If you don't like cranberries, you don't like turkey, suck it up. It's Thanksgiving. There is no... This modernity, like, I'm going to put, like, stature. Tanya doesn't, Tanya will not eat turkey. She won't do it.

It doesn't matter. She'll make it. She won't eat it. So here in Arizona, I don't know what to tell you. I completely agree, Charlie. I think the canned cranberry is a must on the table. However, you have to have... Boom!

You have to have a second... In Arizona, we have halapeno cranberries. Incredible. If you haven't had it... So now you're regionalizing this too much. No, it's good. It adds a little spice. It's just a little bit.

I was like when I went to the Grand Canyon last summer, and I discovered that I guess they just sell like prickly pear everything at every Arizona. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's anywhere in Arizona, really. this is lane schoenberger chief investment officer and founding partner of y refi it has been an honor and a privilege to partner with turning point and for charlie to endorse us his endorsement means the world to us and we look forward to continuing our partnership with turning point for years to come now hear charlie in his own words tell you about y refi i'm going to tell you guys about yrefi dot com that is y r e fy dot com why refi is incredible. Private student loan debt in America total is about $300 billion. Why Refi is refinancing

distress or defaulted private student loans. You can finally take control of your student loan situation with a plan that works for your monthly budget. Go to whyrefi.com. That is why refi.com. Do you have a co-barrower? Why refi can get them released from the loan. You're going to skip a payment up to 12 times without penalty. It may not be available in all 50 states. Go to why refi.com. That is YR-R-E-F-Y.com. Let's face it, if you have distress or defaulted student loans, it can be overwhelming. Because of private student loan debt, so many people feel stuck, go to yrefi.com. That is y-R-E-F-Y-F-Y.com. Private student loan debt relief, y-refi.com. So I have a question for everybody, though. And this is getting deep into the weeds.

So we talked about stuffing or dressing. Moist stuffing or dry stuffing. It's got to be dry, but the gravy makes it moist. If you make it too moist, Before the gravy. Because you can always make it more moist. You can't. It has to be on the spectrum of tilt moist, but not too much because if it's too dry, then it's just, it's too brittle. And brittle, there's nothing worse than brittle dressing.

So, scupable. I'm noticing that you call it dressing. It should be stuffing. However, I've been corrected many times. I've always called stuffing, even though it's not technically stuffing unless it's within the turkey. Yes. Dressings outside the turkey. It's still called it.

It's not. No, I grew up calling it stuffing, even though we never put it in the turkey. No, but it's the, I mean, I get that, but the type of food would be called still stuffing. Dressing is like for salads. No. No, no, no, dressing is outside that is cooked. It's cooked and it's stuff. No, I reject that completely. For me, stuffing is like a type of food and it, like, it should be used to stuff in it, but it is still stuffing, even if it's not doing the stuff.

There's lots of things that we have where we don't use the name properly, but we still call it that because it used. to be done that way. I'm excited for Thanksgiving at this point. This is great. So we're, to people know, we're pre-taping this. Yeah, ahead of. We are, we are, today is, we are on Tuesday. We are in the students. We blew off Thanksgiving. We're supposed to be eating right now. Yeah. Yeah. So now, let's let's now go to the more fundamental question. Okay. Desert. Okay. Because that really is what do you need to set. Well, for me, I mean, if I have, I have, all right, go ahead. No, no, you go. No, this is. I have, I have, I have it. I have, and my mom knows this, I have left the house, gone to the store and purchased the ingredients for pumpkin pie and brought it home and made it myself because there was no pumpkin pie

available. It is required. Oh, I completely agree. It is like the first commandment of Thanksgiving oh yeah, is thou shall have pumpkin pie with whipped cream. With whipped cream. It is a non-negotiable. Right. If it's not there, like I got up. I got my car. I was like, I'm just going to go. I'm not Now, Ryan asks a really good question. Is Thanksgiving meal a lunch or a dinner? The answer is around 3.30 to 4 p.m. Yeah. That is the sweet spot.

Right as the sun is going down in Chicago, boom, you sit down, right? That is way too late. It is itself its own meal. No, no, no. That's way too late. You do it, I would say Neff family tradition is maybe 1 to 1.30 p.m. Ah, it's so early. It's super early.

No, no, no, no. But then what you can do it? Half time of the second football game. When are you going to sleep? Like five? Yeah, you got to smell it. The first football game is the Lions. The Cowboys are always second.

We have a tradition in our house. Half time of Cowboys, we get seated. Because we're cheering that the Cowboys footballers. Yes. Well, that's good, but not it's just way to. We share the tradition as well. Like, a TV is off during the meal. No, the TV is in another room.

I should be off. Yeah. Yeah. I greatly dislike the, like, TV sanctification of Thanksgiving. Like, I don't know. I would watch. I would consider it. Like, if the Packers are on, I would watch the Packers.

But I do not consider it essential to watch. Now there's three games on Thanksgiving. Well, we usually have, like. No, this is true. There has been a desecration. It used to be only two games. And it was on Fox. It would be the Lions.

It used to be bad. And now they're good. And actually, who do they? they play this week. Let me see. I bet it's actually pretty good lineup. And then it was the Cowboys, but now NBC got greedy because it was Fox had their game, CBS had their game, and then NBC got greedy and they snuck in their own. So is that this week? No. Okay, let me see here. What do we got? We got a new week of football. Okay, there's three games. Oh, Blake, you're in luck. Yeah, I know. I know. I'll see it. It's the evening game too. The dolphins are visiting Lambo.

Okay, I'm going to be watching that. Oh, and Chicago plays on Thanksgiving. Oh, they're going to get, they're going to get annihilated. They're going to die. At Detroit, at Detroit, that's, yeah, that's like a very much. By the way, you could tell who's having a better season. Tickets start at Ford Field for $181. Tickets start at Jerry Stadium, $28. Yeah, my son asked me the other day, because he saw when we went to the Eagles game and he was like all jealous that we went. And so he was like, oh, daddy, give me some Eagles tickets.

We'll go. And so we looked up the ones for Thanksgiving weekend. And I was like, I got to sell a lot more pillows. Yeah. Like, Eagles tickets right now are, It was, $500 was like the highest noseble-ed. 3-11 is where they start at. Insane. Yeah, this week. You're seeing, what, 3-11? And that's in Baltimore.

But Baltimore's so close, you're basically in the same. Philly light, right? Yeah, you're pretty much in, it's like 90 minutes, you know, the way I drive it's 90 minutes. Okay, so now that we have developed something. By the way, by the way, I don't want to throw my mom under the bus because every single year, and I know she's going to watch this, every single year post that, there's like a selection of pumpkin pies that is always available. That's the way it must be. By the way, do you think that pecan pie can also make an appearance?

Of course. Yes. Most know, other pies can be there, but pumpkin is the only one. No, pecan pie. I actually prefer more than pumpkin pie. However, I must have a slice of pumpkin pie first. Wait, wait. Were you always like that, though?

When you were little, my mom makes a killer pecan pie. Okay. Like, destroys the world. Okay. What about, what about chocolate pie? When I was younger, I was always pumpkin, but then pecan pie. Well, now we're getting into chocolate pecan pie, and that's where you just surrender. you're just done at that point it's just it so you throw you throw because guys you know folks who don't

know charlie you're usually pretty strict with your diet you're usually strict it's like yeah you're usually like no no no but thanksgiving's different thanksgiving you go all in and it is it is a holy day by the way i think thanksgiving is one of america's greatest traditions it is because it's a day just to give thanks i think it's uniquely awesome talk talk about that for a little bit because there's you know a lot of people to say well it's you know it's just about the it's you know it's the indians it's the pilgrims. Well, everything is what you make of it, right? Who cares? There's no God involved. Why do you? Well, no, first of all, the pilgrims were definitely giving thanks to God. They were. They were not giving, you know, thanks to Brahmin. But they're giving thanks to the

almighty God. And, but yeah, secondly, I just think it's amazing, especially during the season where we have such abundance and we won the election, that there's a day where you just stop and you say thank you, which then, of course, acknowledges you're saying thank you to a higher power. And I don't know of another nation or another country that has a day of gratitude. I think I actually said this once and I guess there was like some random African country that has it and that's fine. I got like in trouble for saying this last year. Okay. So fine. I guess Senegal has a day like that. I'll look it up. However. Great job, Senegal. Or whatever. But following in some good footsteps. But a day of gratitude, I subscribe to the Prager. Hopefully he's doing better. He's

fighting like crazy right now. Believe he's really struggling. That happiness is impossible if you are not grateful. And I believe that. I do not think you can have joy. I do not think you can have be content if you're not grateful and i think it's a beautiful thing as a nation we have a day to say thank you we have to shout out on the nation who always the nation who uh who always gave us the story of thanksgiving real quick notice real quick you know shout out to the ogy who always told us the true story of thanksgiving rush limbaugh oh man he was an ogy on that he just did every year i've still got i've got a recording of it uh somewhere we used to play it and i got to relisten that and try to it's so good send that to me send that to me try to recreate it

I did something on the show last year where I sort of like I didn't try to do it like rushed at it but I told the story and people just have to keep telling that story over and over and they tried socialism it failed then they tried giving people ownership

of their various plots of land and then they had an overabundance of their harvest and so they gave thanks to God what a concept what an incredible concept But instead, now it's all like, oh, the pilgrims were dying, and the Indians had to come, and they saved the pilgrims because they were stupid Europeans, didn't know anything. Even though Squanto had actually lived in Europe, even he had been in London more recently than the pilgrims had.

It's always spoke English so well. But, of course, you know, facts are. Blake, you were saying something. Well, so first of all, I was saying we should make fun of Canada for having their knockoff Thanksgiving. That is just one month before ours. I think we should always see every. opportunity to bully Canada because it's fun and but also even like the full story of thanksgiving because evil liberals always want to dunk on it like it's even more beautiful than just

the pilgrims doing it when they settled here uh like the very first like annual Thanksgiving national holiday fourth Thursday in November like clockwork that was started by Abraham Lincoln in 1863 middle of the civil war the peak of the civil war I think that's probably the bloodiest year of the Civil War and he says yes in the middle of this we're going to have a celebration of national Thanksgiving and like that was what said it

as a national holiday. George Washington declared a day of Thanksgiving. It's truly you know it's a great thing because it is possibly the one great national tradition that was created in America that we have had for the entire

history of America that is just totally our own thing. And then us being America, we have exported it to the rest of the world in various ways. Someone was very shocked to learn. I was talking to a foreigner who was like, wasn't Black Friday this week? No. No, Black Friday

is this week and it's kind of terrible. I used to be a Black Friday person, but now I'm done. It's awful. It's just so awful. And it's not even Black Friday anymore because Black Friday there's like, well, Charlie, given everything

that you just said about the importance of Thanksgiving. What do you think about the people who leave Thanksgiving dinner early to go and start shopping? First of all, first of all, I totally, when I grew up, it was actually Black Friday. Yeah. Now it's like black Thursday evening. Right. And it's not like you start lining up, like the sales actually begin. It's actually interesting for younger listeners that don't know, after so many people got trampled in the Walmart raids because people would line up, they keep the stores open. Right. They don't close them and reopen them. Because it used to be the Walmart would close and then all the deals in the sales would be set and then people would get trampled so

much i think someone almost died and they got hospitalized and there were tons of lawsuits this is the plot of that this is the plot of that is that right i didn't know that people died that's i didn't know they died um that there's that thanks thanks thanksgiving horror movie this is actually the plot where people get killed and then like someone's getting revenge on the people who started the uh the stampede so so i had no problem with like you have a really really good Thanksgiving and then you want to get good deals on stuff. And I think that was fine. It was like a good kickoff to the Christmas season.

But and it used to be, when I grew up, there was a grittiness to Black Friday. There was like a took, it took real spirit. So you have to understand. Like I grew up in Chicago. It would always be like sub 20 degrees. And if you wanted to get a Black Friday deal, you would earn it.

So you had to like leave with your family at like 10 p.m. After all that turkey's full. And you like stood in line at Target from the open. their doors at 12.01. Right? And you would like shop all night and you would like get 7-Eleven coffee and get home by like 5 a.m. and you felt like I earned this deal. And it was like a sense of accomplishment. And you know what I mean? And you had to have, there was like a limit to what you could get to. Of course. No, and it was very narrow. And it was like one specific thing. We would go through catalogs and go through what was on sale. Yep. This was all before internet. I want to

throw to Blake in a second, but there was, the internet ruined it. There was a, also, there was a divide and conquer strategy of what stores are we going to hit? Are we going to go to Best Buy? Are we going to go to Home Depot? Because like, and you're shopping for other people. And there was like a real like conquest, like chess game. Oh, yeah. It's like, oh, wow, Best Buy opens at 1130 and Walmart's at midnight. My, my strategy would always be like I would find the one store that was like within a 45 minute drive in like a like a non-populated area. It was so. that people didn't think about or like a staples because nobody thinks that staples would have stuff but they do have computers and different you know high items so like what are what's the

thing that people aren't going to think about and that's where i'm going to go and now you just wait for cyber monday and click a couple buttons and so all the adventure of it and you don't earn it anymore it used to be you'd get home at 3 30 in the morning you're like i got a good deal on a big screen tv it was it was a teenage right of passage in suburban chicago blake your thoughts yeah it was really, I can still think of like individual things I went out of my way to get on Black Friday. I think I still have a PlayStation 3

that I got in 2011. I think I can remember the exact deal. It was a PS Slim $250. It came with little big planet and like some crummy ratchet and clank game. Who cares? But like that was the best deal you could get for I think like two years after that point. But what ended up

killing it was as you said you know you'd go for the time and it used to be okay it was on Black Friday normal hours Then they would open it at like 6 a.m. in the morning and people would show up before. Then someone got ahead and made it, oh, let's open exactly at midnight. And then what finally killed it, I think, the rise of the internet was a factor. But another thing that killed it was companies decided to get so greedy. And they just said, we're doing Black Friday on Thanksgiving.

And they would just be open on Thanksgiving with those deals. And I think to America's credit, there was popular backlash to this where they're saying, wait, you're forcing employees to skip Thanksgiving to come in and work on Thanksgiving though I must hedge I have to be personally grateful for the fact that some that stores are open on Thanksgiving some of them because I visited a friend this is about 10 years ago I went down to a friend in Tennessee for Thanksgiving and I took a a mega bus down you know poor we have to travel by bus and I took a mega bus down and I had a bag under it and we I had to get off in Chattanooga which was the final destination was Atlanta and they get out and they're like okay where's your bag I'm like

oh it's under the thing and they open it and they feel around they're like uh yeah we can't find it we have a schedule to do we have we have to go and they just drove away with my bag with all of my changes of clothes and I arrived late Wednesday night so I had to go to a Walmart which thanks to American capitalism was open on Thanksgiving and I had to buy an entire set of clothes for the whole weekend so I had that perspective I actually one of my first jobs was in high school. I took the seasonal job at Target and my first day, like first real day was Thanksgiving or Black Friday. So I had to wake up after Thanksgiving when I was like a sophomore in high school at like literally 4 a.m. I had to be at Target at 4.30 help stock everything.

This was still the days that they still open the doors like Charlie was talking about before they just like leave it open or open like super early. And there would be like I get there at like four o'clock and there would be a line wrapped around the building that people waiting to get in and then we had to stock everything. Hey, Andrew Colvette here. Do you want to own a home? The time to act is now. For the first time in years, buyers finally have the upper hand. There's more inventory, more negotiating power and less competition. But this window of opportunity won't stay open for long. As soon as the Fed cuts rates, buyer does. demand is expected to spike driving prices up and giving sellers the advantage once again with

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Call 8-3-8-3-8-1172 or go to Andrew and Todd.com. That is Andrew and Todd.com. So here's a crazy story. So you guys, there's a myth that Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving. And you know why that's a myth? because the real truth is the real truth is that Thanksgiving is the day before Black Friday and that is because let me finish the story this is because I am not making it up the current date of Thanksgiving is because of like an evil plot by FDR no I'm not making this up so Lincoln's proclamation of Thanksgiving is Thanksgiving is on the last Thursday of the month yes it is on the last Thursday Right. It is not on the last Thursday.

It is currently on the fourth Thursday of the month. That is what the federal law is. So there are sometimes five... Which requires a Friday. So there are sometimes five Thursdays in November, and then it would be on the fourth. It used to be on the fifth. And then during the Great Depression, I believe, in 1939, FDR got in his head if there's a longer, like, if there's a longer time between Thanksgiving and Christmas, there will be a longer Christmas shopping season. season. And so people will shop more and this will stimulate the economy. And so he intervened and

he moved Thanksgiving to be a week earlier. And this became a partisan political issue. And so for a few years, Republican states said, we're not doing this and we're refusing to go along with it. So you had a Democrat Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday and you had a Republican Thanksgiving on the fifth one. And I think Texas, because they were a Democrat state, but had a lot of like conservative Democrats who didn't like FDR, they called the truth. And they just had, they said, they're both holidays. And they had two Thanksgiving. And then sadly, Congress submitted. And now it's just on the fourth Thursday. And we, we lost that culture war battle. But what you were saying, though, what you were saying, though, there's a deeper, and producer

Faz talks about this all the time. His birthday was this week, by the way, shout out. He calls it micro wins, micro w's, and how, so Charlie, you'd appreciate this, is that, like, in your teenage years, and working retail, you know, used to be part of this, too, but in your teenage years, there used to be a variety of things that you would do as a right of passage that have all been pretty much completely destroyed because of new technology. One of those, of course, was waiting in line like this. Another one of those, you know, having those retail jobs, again, with no phone to, like, just, you know, constantly be there getting you through it, just monotony going

through it. One of the other ones we, I don't know how I got into this the other day on Twitter was like, it's not even Thanksgiving related, but it was like when you used to have to call someone's house and if you wanted to, if you wanted to call a girl, you had to call her house and you had to get through mom or potentially dad. And so it's like the elimination of all those things in society has now created men or adults who don't actually go through any meaningful right of passage. No, I mean, I totally agree with that. I mean, some of these other rights of passage were like elementary things such as be home before dark. Like, that was like a very simple thing, right? Um, I mean, other rights of passage were that

you need to memorize, like you say, the home phone numbers of at least five people that you know. Yeah, memorizing phone numbers. Right. I don't think anybody does that anymore, like anybody. I know Tanya's. I don't know my parents. I know all the phone numbers from what I grew up. I know a bunch from when I grew up, yeah. Like, I know a bunch of my buddies, but, like, my brother got a cell phone later. I don't know. I also think it was really important that when I used to call somebody's house,

I had to speak to an adult. That's what I'm saying. I think that was a very profound. Think about that. I think it's a very underappreciated. There was no texting. It didn't exist. No.

When I was in sixth grade, AOL Instant Messenger was just starting. Okay. And that was a thing. But it had to be on a, like, publicly available computer in my house. And it wasn't like, you couldn't, like, bring it with you at all times. And it was like, there was like a very, you know, like... So it was this, like, logging on and logging off was a thing. Oh, it was totally a thing, right?

You had the away message. And, like, you would come home to see if you got any messages. And I actually, again, I don't even know if that was a healthier version of this crap that we have right now. Much healthier. And so I loved AOL Instant Messenger for the record. I thought it was really fun. And it was actually a really, really good service. It was really, I mean...

I really liked it. A lot of our social norms, a lot of our social norms on texting, it came from AOL and some messenger. Oh, yeah, that's right. That's LOL comes from that. L-O-L-B-R-B, L-O-L, T-T-YL. L-L absolutely comes from AOL and some message. AOL still exists, by the way. There are still millions of people getting dial up internet.

They shut down instant messenger. Instant messenger's been dead. Not only is instant messenger dead. Is that right? Aim is dead for like seven years now. Aim is gone? Aim is dead. Charlie, it's even older than that because I was on Instant Messenger.

because Jack and I are a little bit older than you. I was on a semester No, but I'm saying it was big of my community. Tyler is way older than Charlie. Way old. So, Jack's older than me. Tyler actually is the first generation.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's so good. I loved A.O. Yeah, AOL's my wedding. What else is a big? Yahoo. Here's another Here's another right of passage.

Okay. Playing a video game so much that it overheats. That's like a real thing Or playing a game Oh no, Jack knows what I'm talking about Especially computer games though No no no no no If you play for too long

And your computer wasn't that sophisticated or good The whole hard drive would like Start to like overheat right That's a real thing 100% Or how about another one Playing on either like age vampires or Sims Or like whatever it was And like it malfunctioning

Before you save or you can like log your progress right mom mom unplugging the nintendo before well when you were on like level eight of mario and there was no way to see or mom telling you to pause the game when it's actually online and you're playing against other people yeah i had numerous times beating it defeating a level super super mario and then forgetting to save it and you shut it off and you go back you're like ah that's shameful it's just so fun the things we worried about back then were just like so insignificant i miss i'll say this i don't know if any guys remember this one i miss new music tuesdays does anyone else remember new music too so that albums would release on tuesdays right i think games still released on tuesdays a lot they did at least

when i was a kid i think oh thank god there's something um but maybe that might have varied which was a thing a group of music and it was always tuesdays that would come out so you used to have like these mini black friday type things where you'd go on i guess people still kind of do it for games where you would come out for, you know, new music or, you know, a new album was dropping. So back when music actually was, like, good. And that being said, I did see Creed again this week. I'm trying to think of other rites of passage.

Oh, yeah. Knowing the dial-up sound is definitely a right of passage. Like, not having super fast internet all the time. Having you, just having to sit. Remember waiting for websites to load? Do you remember asking friends for rides? Oh. Uber existed?

Wait, Charlie. What about asking directions and having to know directions? I'm still really good at directions, partially because you had to know where you were going. Like this was before GPS? How did this? How was it no one? Printing out, printing out.

Was that not the best? I used to be cheap, so I would just write it down. Charlie, were you around old? I was a big map quest guy. I would go to MapQuest and then I would write down the directions and then I'd just like bring my little note card with me. What were you saying? Charlie, you might be too young.

I once had a journey where my parents made me actually narrate the turns to make on an actual physical map that we had purchased like with you know the highways of america oh you no no all the time i remember i remember i was living in new jersey for two years when i was a junior high and my mom printed them out on map quest and was going somewhere for my brother's football game and got so lost and turned around she like pulled over in a gas station crying because she didn't know where to go or how to go anywhere she was like completely lost, like in any place. I had no idea.

It makes you think, like, actually... Sorry, Mom, for sharing that. Is it a good thing or a bad thing we have the GPA? I mean, in some ways, like, we're probably more efficient. When China comes after us, that's the first thing they're going for. Oh, yeah. That's one, 100%. It's that one than, like, all of our online banging.

It's crazy. It's just all screwed. I don't know if you still have to do this, but I know in London, in the UK, to become a cab driver, you used to have to, maybe you still do, but you had to pass this test called the knowledge, and it was basically you had to numberize

the location of like 27,000 different things in London. And like, people would like lose their minds attempting to pass this thing. And obviously, if it's still around, it's obviously just a gate to, yeah. It's more difficult to become a cab driver in London. They've done

passed the bar. I feel like Uber could use a little bit of that. They've done brain scans of cab drivers that have mastered the knowledge, and their hippoclamus, which is the actual part of memory, is bigger in their brain than the average person. And so in order for that to be true, in order, and this is actually So that's self-selecting that. No, no, no, in order for that to be true, the one or two things are true, either that these are people with disproportionately big hippoclampuses that are coming

into the taxi business, or your brain can change. Which is, it was the most profound giant hippoclamuses. No, but, sorry, Hippocampus. It's the thing that was indelible in Blasey Ford's brain, remember? Indelible in a hippocampus? However, it is indelible in my hippocampus. It was the most profound development of neuroscience in the last 20 years' discovery to show that your brain raw material can change based on your environment and your circumstances. Potentially.

There is no other explanation. There's no way that people that have disproporated. partially active parts of the hippocampus all just want to become taxi drivers right it's just like this is not a thing well no no the idea would be then that those are the only ones who can pass the test no again it's just it defies logic because it's you're in the you're in the sub one set of the standard deviation right these people like just happen to all want to become cab drivers no no way meaning that your your brain can actually become better at a certain task so it's so it's like a muscle that yeah actually let me find the study it's super interesting so the more you work

It was in Sean Astor's book called The Happiness Advantage. So the idea being then the more you, yeah, the more you work it out the same way like when you go to the gym and you're like, I'm going to focus on whatever muscle. This is right here. A taxi driver's knowledge is often linked to an enlarged hippocampus, blah, blah, blah, key points. And the study here shows about brain plasticities. Phenomenon demonstrates the brain's ability to adapt and change based on the experience where the hippocampus can grow in response to intensive spatial learning. So let's put this. on the flip side then, the fact that we're all

using GPS now... It makes us dumber. It's literally and... Unless you do what I do, which is you try to anticipate where the GPS is taking you before. Because the GPS is like AI. It could be an enhancement to you or it could just make you totally check out.

Well, it's sometimes wrong. Well, the GPS is wrong all the time. All the time when Mikey's driving, I'm like, why isn't it taking us this way, not that way? That's a good sign. If you are fact-checking your GPS, you are getting actually... I did this when we were driving around Pennsylvania

with my brother during the election. and we were driving from Penn State to Philadelphia. And at one point, it wanted us to go on this road, which would take us to Baltimore. And I was like, why are we driving to Baltimore? It's 83 South. We need 76 east because we need to go to Philadelphia because we're going to the Eagles game.

And now it eventually like picked up. But I remember sitting there looking at it and it was just clearly wrong. It was clearly wrong. I put it in the chat, Scientific American. Okay, I got to dash. You guys keep talking. Happy Thanksgiving.

everybody and you guys hold down the fort. Happy Thanksgiving, Charlie. Have a great Thanksgiving, Charlie. For more on many of these stories and news you can trust, go to Charliekirk.com.