The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Part 3 – 2020 Book Author Guests On The Show Roundup

Episode Date: December 31, 2020

Part 3 - 2020 Book Author Guests On The Show Roundup

You wanted the best. You've got the best podcast, the hottest podcast in the world. The Chris Voss Show, the preeminent podcast with guests so smart you may experience serious brain bleed. Get ready, get ready, strap yourself in. Keep your hands, arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times. Because you're about to go on a monster education roller coaster with your brain now here's your host chris voss hey folks welcome to the chris voss show.com podcast oh my god all that good stuff this is going to be part three that we're doing today of our uh series i'm doing here at the end of the year of 2020 and what we're doing today of our series I'm doing here at the end of the year of 2020. And what we're doing is we're doing a roundup of all the great book authors we had on the show. I'm

giving you a little bit of the background, my experience, maybe some background stories if I remember any, my impressions of the author of the book, et cetera, et cetera. And yeah, so you might get some dirt, you might get some interesting comments or background on it or maybe reasons to read the book as well. And we're just kind of going through start to finish. So you want to start at part one back in January. And we're going all through the year in kind of an order ascending or descending, I suppose. It depends on how you look at it on the Chris Foss Show. It's kind of ascending in the order it goes because you know the new stuff is the top but uh you know but we're descending if you will

into part three right now welcome to the descent let me put some like uh let me put some like uh audio on that welcome to the descent in a world gone mad welcome to the descent in a world gone mad. Welcome to the descent. All right, enough of that crap. Let's get on with it, man. This is a much bigger project than I thought it would be, mainly because I told so many great stories and been kind of loving the experience.

I've had to dial back just a little bit because I can't tell every story or else we're going to be here for like 10 episodes. But I'm giving you the good bits, if you will. And hopefully you're going to sit down and read some of these books in 2021. And I highly recommend you read them all. Everybody who found the show we've just been always so impressed with or else they wouldn't be on the show.

There's only been once or twice where I've called somebody back and said, we're not publishing that shit. So anyway, this is the show. Let's get into it. And this episode is brought to you by IFI Audio and their new Neo IDSD. The Neo is the new wave of digital sound listening for your desktop, music, gaming, and bleeding-edge Bluetooth, even MQA audio file decoding. We're using it in the studio right now. I've loved my experience with it so far.

It just makes everything sound so much more richer and better and takes things to the next level. IFI Audio is an award-winning audio tech company with one aim in mind, to improve your music enjoyment of quality sound, eradicate noise, distortion, and hiss from your listening experience check out their new incredible lineup of dax and audio enhancement devices at ifi-audio.com all right guys so uh let's take a look at uh uh what we have next up on the slate of people we did interviews if you didn't catch the end of part two we talked about peter struck and his appearance and kind of what i wanted to do with that appearance uh

since it's the end of the show i'm going to give it a replug here at the beginning of the show uh because if you didn't listen all the way the end you are a moron sometimes the good bits are at the very end it's kind of like a pie sometimes the best part is the crust at the bottom not the top so there you go be sure to listen to that episode. We put a lot of work into that episode. Another episode that I put a lot of work into was Clarissa Ward. Clarissa Ward came on from CNN. She wrote this extraordinary book called On All Fronts, The Education of a Journalist.

And if you're familiar with Clarissa Ward, she's brilliant. She's traveled the world. Her life story that she tells in the book is extraordinary. Everything from being a second to the starring role of Kill Bill 2 and her adventures of life as a child. Just a really great story and a really brilliant mind when it comes to seeing the world, analyzing the world, and some of the scary environments that she was in, sometimes life-threatening. She tells some incredible stories in the book.

In fact, I just recently saw her on CNN where she's in Russia, like I would never want to be there, and she's, I think it's Navalny, the Russian guy who got poisoned, who's run against Putin a couple times, he got poisoned in his tea with the, I think it's Novichok, the name of the nerve agent. I'm going off of spitball memory here, so forgive me. Anyway, she is helping track down the people through the cameras and the videos and everything that they were able to hunt down and I guess phone records and stuff, she was able to track down his potential assassins. And she's been going out calling them out with a CNN crew.

And I just sit and I watch it and I go, man, I hope she drinks her own bottle of water and stuff because that's just scary in that town of Russia. But this is what great journalists do, and she does it. Anyway, having her on the show was a joy and a delight. She was a wonderful guest. You know, like I said about Jim Sciutto from CNN, sometimes you expect some of these folks maybe to show up, and they're like, well, I'm on CNN.

I'm an uppity person. She was down to earth, a wonderful human being, great, brilliant, funny. The book is an incredible read. If you ever want to read about what journalism is like on the ground, especially outside of the American world, you know, Iraq, Afghanistan. And what, what really amazed me about, uh, doing my background and research on her. And of course, what I knew about her from before, from watching her on CNN was she navigates the Arab world and does her news stories and has to of course do journalism, dig for stuff. Um, but one of the things is she's this very tall, very obviously white and blonde woman. It's, you know, it's hard to miss her in a crowd of Arabs.

You know, number one, she's a woman. And number two, she's very blonde and very white. And so for her to play in Canedo or to stay out of situations where terrorists might be like, yeah, I'm American, let's be evil, is definitely extraordinary. And so her book is an incredible read because you just imagine in your mind as you're going through her adventures where you're just like, oh my gosh. But what's really interesting is she's such an incredible human being to these people that she has to earn their trust and they they trust her, and they believe in her, and the adventures of the stories in her book are helping get those stories out to the world

where a lot of people didn't know what was happening. And so extraordinary read. Read the book. Extraordinary person. I was definitely impressed with her when she came on the show. Next up we had on the show, this is really a cool author that we had. You've seen him on TV a bunch of times as a news consultant or topical consultant on different things. He wrote The Spy Masters.

Let me pull this up here. Now the CIA, or how, sorry, I've got a small cut of this. How the CIA Directors Shape History in the Future, Mr. Chris Whipple. He also wrote The Gatekeepers, if you're familiar with that book. He's written a lot of different books. How the CIA Directors Shape History in the Future, Mr. Chris Whipple. He also wrote The Gatekeepers, if you're familiar with that book. He's written a lot of different books. But he talks about the CIA directors. He profiles several of them going back into Nixon and stuff and features several of them.

And we kind of talk and dig about the good ones and everything else, talk about the CIA. It's an extraordinary deep dive into these guys and who are the good ones or bad ones according to his research and his evaluation. And we talk about many of them, which was kind of interesting at the time because I think at the time we had him on, Trump and John Brennan were fighting. John Brennan recently published a book and we reached out to him to try and get him on the show.

I didn't see him do a lot of touring with his books, and he doesn't have to. I mean, you know, everybody knows who John Brennan is. But still, we did invite him to the show. And I'd love to have him on the show, but I'd kind of be scared because I'd be like, if I ask him the wrong question or if I upset this man, I will have Black Alcabar show at my house and I'll open a gulag in Poland. So I'm just kidding. I'm sure that probably wouldn't happen, right? Okay, I will have black alchemy show at my house and I'll open a gulag in Poland. So I'm just kidding. I'm sure that probably wouldn't happen, right?

Okay, I'm sweating now. Anyway, he always seems like a really nice, succinct, factual gentleman that you don't want to fuck with. So I never would. Another great author we have on the show, and this fit into the white nationalist Christian theme. If you've been following the last two episodes, there were about nine authors and books that we had on the show kind of became a little undercurrent, uh, project I was working on

where I had authors on that are Christians, uh, or, you know, well, the Christians are somewhere in the denomination of Christianity. Uh, and they were calling out the white nationalism, the racism and the problems inside of the churches, which I find incredibly brave. I find incredibly, I just have a lot of respect for these people because I know how hard it is to be the person inside of a church or a cult where you're going, hey, man, this shit is fucked up and they're yelling and screaming at you and, I don't know, burning crosses on your front lawn, if you will. It's not the funnest place to be, and it's a challenge, but these guys have definitely,

you know, they're calling from inside the house going, there's something wrong, and we need to fix it. So kudos to them for being the brave experts. There were some other people that we talked about, the power worshipers taking America back for God, Jesus and John Wayne, White, Too Long, lots of great authors that we had on the show that kind of fit into the same narrative. In fact, the next guest we'll talk about as well. But Chuck DeGroat wrote this book, When Narcissism Comes to Church, Healing Your Community from Emotional and Spiritual Abuse. he actually does a a consultancy practice of psychology where he deals with narcissism and one of the things he connects is is the power of narcissism and how it works in a church worship of individuals that

that sometimes don't have your best interests at heart and how that actually leads upwards to the worshiping and deity, what's the word I'm looking for, demagoguery of Donald Trump and why they still support him. So really great insight from this gentleman. Really warm, fun, engaging gentleman. Brilliant to have on. I loved his insight and I love what they're doing to make their church better, be better people. Good for them. I really support that. We all need to make their church better, be better people.

Good for them. I really support that. We all need to make our world better in all of our different fields. So it's just not them. But, yeah, we could use a little less Trump and deity, demagoguery, all that good stuff. And so hopefully what he's doing can help clean up what's going on. The next author we had was in the same vein. She was really brilliant. Out of all the authors that wrote about this subject of narcissism, Trump, who built Trump, where he came from, the Stephen Millers of the world, all this monstrosity that built it up.

The person that really nailed it down for and summed it up the best for me and tied it all together in a bow was Ann Nelson. That's Ann with an E at the end a-n-n-e uh she wrote the book shadow network media money and the secret hub of the radical right i really recommend you read this book um what she does is and a lot of the authors kind of did this in their own little parts and pieces but she ties the boat all together and gives you the whole lowdown where it all makes sense she talks about the 40 year old network of the betsy devos amway her father the prince family and how between them and these dark packs and dark money they basically run a shadow network of radio stations and uh you know between everything between uh what is it, who's the big fat guy who says all the racist stuff and misogynist stuff. And, yeah, I think he's deaf right now or whatever.

And he's got cancer, which is probably good for him. Anyway, you know who I'm talking about. And there's a whole mess of these radio stations that they own, the control TV stations. She talks about the Council of National Policy and its organizations and how they did this and basically the deal with the devil they first made with Ted Cruz as they were trying to make him president. And then when that failed, they had to go sell their soul to someone they really didn't want to sell their soul to, Donald Trump. And all of this has to do with money and power and deregulation and getting billionaires to make more money because they're globalists.

They're not even Americans anymore, really, once they reach that point. So check out her book, Shadow Network. She was a joy to have on, brilliant writing, brilliant detail in what she did. Before I read her book, I watched an hour of her at a club at a club, uh, one of those Commonwealth clubs, I think it was in Wisconsin or somewhere up in the, the, the Northeast. And, uh, I was just floored by the delivery that she gave. I just went, Holy shit. It all makes sense now. Uh, another great author that we had on brilliant journalists, of course, uh, she works at time magazine. Uh, I forgot her title off the top

of my head but i believe she's either like a co-editor or at large or if she's not she should be let's put it that way how's that molly um and uh she was really brilliant and uh she wrote a book called pelosi just pelosi is the title molly ball um and she sat down and wrote a biography of uh pelosi that's probably one of the best biographies that's ever been written about pelosi uh she even spent time with pelosi and pelosi i think sat down with her at a few events uh to go over the book and interview and stuff um so this is one where you know she actually got the inside straight if you will on pelosi uh but she writes a great book on Pelosi. She was a joy to have on the show. Brilliant author. Once again, she's one of these journalists

that I just love having on the show. I'm always tickled because they're so brilliant. Their data and their research is so brilliant. Sometimes I'm just so nervous. I fumble half these. I'm just like, oh my God, these people are so smart. Why are they they around me and so hopefully we deliver a great show and give them great questions um i think i fumbled the intro on her because i was having a bad time with my blind left eye but uh she was really gracious and and just just a great book check her out if you don't follow her on time magazine wherever she goes she's going to be one of those journalists someday that you know it's going to have like 50 million great volumes of work. So there you go.

And she already does, actually. I should just make that disclosure. Next up, we had David Shimmer on the show. He wrote the book Rigged. And this is really good. America, Russia, and 100 Years of Covert Electoral Interference. And David wrote this book. I can't remember what outlet David works for, so forgive me, David.

But I believe it was the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal. It's one of those two. But whoever he works for, they're a great company. Let's put it that way. I'll throw that in there. Sorry, David. We're spitballing some of this as we go along. But David, the more important thing is who David is and what he wrote. And he wrote this brilliant book called Rigged. What's interesting is he talks about

all the years that we've been in this battle of media and battle of Cold War and matter of information when it comes down to elections and how, you know, we're not always the perfect penny in the world when it comes to like, well, you meddle in elections and everyone's like, America, you do the same shit. So it was a great discussion, brilliant research that he did and a wonderful historical lesson just to kind of understand the dynamics of the United States and Russia going through the thing. Next up, we have on the show Ian Baruma. Ian Baruma. He wrote this book called The Churchill Complex, The Curse of Being Special from Winston and FDR to Trump and Brexit.

The title and the cover of the book is a bit deceiving because it almost makes it think like, wait, is he promoting Johnson, Prime Minister Johnson and Donald Trump? He's not, actually. He writes a brilliant book where, you know, there's a lot of moments. You remember the photographs of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Churchill on the bench, usually with Stalin, where they were having their meetings to try and figure out what to do with Hitler and stuff. And, you know, they formed this iconic in his book, and he gives examples and stories of it, is how politicians after that have kind of bastardized their experience and luck and tried to milk off it and sometimes to disastrous effects. He talks about the Iron Lady, forget her name, and the Falklands. We had a great discussion about it and very historical. Trump's failures, uh, prime minister Johnson's failures and how a lot of these people since then have,

have tried to ride on that train of, of, uh, of, uh, reputation from Churchill and FDR and those great times. And when they have, sometimes it doesn't go well. So miracles always have the claimers. That's a, there you go. Next up on the book, this one again fits into the titles of, of talking about white nationalism in the Christian segment, but also got into fascism and America and everything else. Brilliant author. He runs a great podcast. I definitely recommend you follow him on Twitter and listen to his podcast i do it's one of the few i listen to jared yates sexton he wrote this book american rule how a nation conquered the world but failed its people brilliant read uh brilliant

read on twitter uh brilliant stuff on his podcast, so freaking rich with data, mining perspective, things you didn't think about or see. You definitely want to read his books, so go out and get it, American Rule. Brilliant guy to have on the show. We just had a really great discussion that would just mine all sorts of data and lots of epiphanies. You'll definitely want to go back and look at that show, etc. A fun show that we had. This is a lot of fun. I was able to do a lot of comedy

on it. It seems political, but it wasn't. But it was funny because she dug out all the stories. She wrote the book Sex with Presidents. Eleanor Herman. She's written several different books along these lines so i think sex with the queen or kings of england and stuff she wrote sex with the presidents the

ins and outs of love and lust oh baby in the white house uh and she was a hoot to have on uh just total fun and we got into all the diggy dirty stories of some of the different presidents. You probably want to read the book to get the real dish. But she was a hoot to have on. And we kind of went through some of the presidents. I bounced off her and she gave me the dirt on them. The one thing we don't realize is that part of power is sex and money. Power, sex, and money. That's, that's the triad, the trilogy, the triad of, of what these people are having, you know, and, and so that's what they want. And when you have ultimate power as a male and you have money, you definitely want sex because you're going to afford it and you have the power to try and get it. So, uh, we sometimes look at our presidents as like i don't know nanosexual or i don't know what

the right word is non-sexual and so uh she wrote the book sex presidents and she got all the dirty details on the kennedys and everything else and oi vey it was a lot of fun to have her on the show we just had a bit of riotous time with this subject and uh a lot of eye-opening stuff a lot of fun to have her on the show we just had a bit of riotous time with this subject and uh a lot of eye-opening stuff a lot of people that you're like wait no one have sex with that guy who's a broken down at nasty old president no you'd be surprised check out her book as well uh another great author we have the show uh the so Socrates Express by Eric Weiner. Eric came on in search of life lessons from dead philosophers. It was wonderful to have him on. I really like the perspective that he brought. And he delivers it inside of the book in a very special way. I'm

surprised I remember all this stuff. But he delivers it in a very special way. And a lot of it he wrote while he was on trains. So he journals it as like, I'm on Amtrak, train XYZ, it's 5 o'clock in the afternoon. And he journals his walkthrough on different popular dead philosophers and applies it to the meaning of Search for Life. A beautiful job that was done with it. Very engaging read when it comes down to it because he puts it into perspective that keeps you page turning, uh, really liked the book and his thoughts on life and, and in times of 2020 when you're in the darkness and trying to get through it. Yeah, it's a, it was an interesting experience and great to have him on

the show. Uh, next up, what do we have moving through the shows here wow look we're getting through them uh it's probably gonna be about five shows by the time we're done uh cassandra speaks elizabeth flesser we had on the show she wrote this book called cassandra speaks when women and the storytellers when women are the storytellers, when women are the storytellers, the human story changes. I'm sorry, the lettering is really small and I've had to look away from the mic. When women are the storytellers, the human story changes. Cassandra Speaks by Elizabeth Lesser. I was really happy to have her on the show.

It's kind of funny, I've had some women on the show, and they kind of go like, you know, this topic is about women or feminism. Like, why do you want to be on the show? I can't remember if she was that way, but it seems like I do remember a little bit of that going on. But we had a great discussion. I'm a big supporter of women, women's rights, and the power of women. I believe everyone's equal. And so we had a great conversation. I think there was even some banter that went on, on, on two beliefs that she

had that I believe differently on. You wouldn't think they were what they were. I'll leave that as a tease. So you have to go watch the show. We, I think we agreed to politely disagree. Um, but they would not be the subjects you would assume. I know that every woman in the audience right now is, I know what it was. You don't know what it was. You should go watch it. But, uh, and I'd be interested to see if you agree with me or not, but there, there are certain qualities that women have that men do not. It is a genetic DNA quality. Uh, it's like giving birth. I mean, women can get birth. We can't, Women can multitask. We can't. Maybe if you're gay and you've got that kind of woman DNA genetic makeup that I believe most people that are gay

have in their brain, especially those that are very woman-like and feminine in their thing. There's nothing wrong with that. It's good stuff. But there are certain aspects that we're good at. We're good at, you know, we're not hunter gatherers, most of us. So there are certain aspects that we're good at. We're good at, you know, we're not hunter-gatherers, most of us, there are men. And so there's a little bit of that discussion, but, you know, some of the different aspects that went into there and maybe things that she thought in the book. And I don't know, it's for you to decide. Watch the show. But we had a respectful, wonderful, engaging conversation with her. In fact, it was pretty ruckus. I think if I remember correctly,

the one thing I regret having was we were having such a great discussion, especially at the end, and she was so wonderful. But she had a hard out, which means they had to be out at a certain time because they had another show or something they had to get to.

And so I had a hard out with her, and I offered her to come back anytime. She's always welcome to that. In fact, all the authors that have had my show, except for and I offered her to come back anytime. She's always welcome to that. In fact, all the authors that have had him on the show except for one is welcome to come back on and if you listen to the first part, you'll know what that's about. But we still recommended their book.

Still made it in there. I'll give you a hint. It's in the first three parts somewhere. Anyway, guys, you'll know when you see it, or you'll know when you hear it. And if you don't, well, that's just your fucking problem, isn't it? Next up, we had a young lady. She's really popular with the women crowd on social media, Instagram, and every place else.

I didn't know who she was, but she's one of those mom influencers, if you will. And a couple of relationships, I guess she was in a relationship where she was married for a while, and they built this kind of huge following of people that followed them and their adventures, and they have kids and stuff. Her name is Rachel Hollis. I'm sure you've seen her. She's got like a gazillion followers. She was a lot of fun to have on the show.

She wrote the book, Didn't See That Coming, putting your life back together when your world falls apart. Uh, she's the number one New York times bestseller author of girl, uh, wash your face. Um, anyway, I had her on the show and, uh, she was a lot of fun, a great hoot, but she had a lot of great perspectives of, of what she was going through going through, divorce, and very public kind of divorce, if you will, because she'd had a very public relationship where people would follow them online, social media, YouTube, Instagram, things of that nature. And so getting divorced from that height to where everyone's watching and people take a lot of stock in that, especially, I think, women. I personally don't care if you're a guy and you get divorced. I'm like, all right, right man enjoy being happy now um so anyway having her on the show was a joy wonderful person uh great personality i just she was uh just wonderful to have on but it was a great perspective time because her book is about doing a lot of that inventory that a lot of us

were doing in covid uh19, 2020 land. Why do they call it COVID-19? They should just call it COVID-20 in 2020. Just call it COVID-2020 because hopefully it's gone next year. Anyway, I'm moving off the subject. So anyway, she had a great sort of thing for people to talk about and think about as we were kind of all going through these personal inventories of what was important to us in life during COVID-19 and 2020 and quarantine and losing things. You know, people are losing jobs, they're losing family, they're losing money,

they're losing, you know, everything. And just like the title of her book, none of us saw it coming in 2020. It's just like, all of a sudden it's like hello uh here's your pandemic you're like i didn't order this and they're like no the uh the mother earth over there sent you the drink and uh now they told me to pour it all over your head so didn't see that coming check out her book rachel haas uh extraordinary guest uh brilliant person just wonderful um and all the good stuff next up we had brilliant you've probably seen him on tv a lot this guy's a professor uh i believe you know one of the astute um astute colleges i didn't go to college i went to betsy devos uh public school and trump university so i've been done uh anyway

uh really brilliant guy he's written like god i't remember. It's a spectacular amount of books. Harold Holzer, he's the winner of the Lincoln Prize, wrote a ton of books about Lincoln. He's probably one of the, I'm going from memory here, but probably one of the top leading authorities or historians on Lincoln. So if you ever want to know about Lincoln, check out Harold's books. But he wrote this extraordinary book called the president's versus the press the endless battle between the white house and media from the founding fathers to fake news it was really he was a wonderful guest to have

on i really had fun with him uh really brilliant uh very witty, and everything else, as you would imagine. But what was funny was he brought stories going back from Washington about this, about the battles between presidents and the press, and you would really be surprised. I mean, a lot of people have this sort of romantic sort of imagination that, well, the press and the presidents's got along until like nixon and trump no no man they had problems going back to washington and adams and and jefferson and and uh it was battle royale back then i mean they would actually buy printing presses and papers and throw influence around and and uh it and it was interesting.

And so he tells these great stories about the history and kind of the myth behind this legend of, well, you know, the press has always been this vaulted thing. Only until recently in like the 20th century did the press really become this entity. I think around Eisenhower or Truman where they become this entity i think around eisenhower or truman where they became this entity of of where where they needed to be um they need to have the subjectivism of being on their own and stuff before that it was still kind of dirty politics and stuff and uh so you want to definitely watch our episode we had with harold i had a lot of fun with him on the show great

brilliant gentleman just one of those guys i have on the show, and I just go, why the fuck are you talking to my idiot brain? But I tried to give him a lot of great questions, make sure we had a great show for him, and it was wonderful to have on the show. And hopefully we'll get him the next time he writes a book. So there you go. Next up we have on the show, this is another brilliant author. She's written a multitude of books, perfect fascist. And I'm trying to get to see this image and, uh, boy, it is not pulling up for me. Perfect fascist. And, uh, I want to say Degrassi is the last name, Victoria Degrassi.

Anyway, she wrote this book, perfect fascist. It's an incredible read for this at the time. And it's a historical novel where she tells a story of someone who was in the Mussolini party, the fascist party, and tells a story of his life and the damage and fallout from it. And also weaves into that the destruction of, you know, the ideals of fascism in Italy and like, oh yeah, we're going to save the world and make everything better. And then they don't. And in spite of not doing it, they make things incredibly horrible

and worse and disgusting. And everything that came with Hitler and Mussolini. And so it's kind of a romantic story and tells us about his romantic life and then his failures and how that's tied in with the politics of it. Beautiful book, and she's written several other books. You want to check them out.

Really loved having her on the show. She was just wonderful. And I think she was holed up in Italy at the time. So it was a really fun discussion to have with her. Next up we have on the show the Trump women, part part of the deal a lot of fun with this gal nina burleigh she was on the show and she'd written this book called the trump women part of the deal and um what's interesting to me is she went in and uh did all this digging around of the trump women and everything else. A brilliant story that she has.

And, you know, she experienced the first thing that I did. We had some sapatico where we were both stunned. And, you know, she was on the floor of the, not the inauguration, let's see, the announcement of the win with Trump. And I must have watched that scene like a million times. I'm surprised I didn't see her because I just kept watching it just in shock the announcement of the win with Trump. And I must've watched that scene like a million times, surprised I didn't see her. Cause I just kept watching it just in shock and horror going, what the fuck just happened? Like, this has got to be a nightmare. And she was experiencing the same thing on the floor. Uh, really delightful, bright, uh, journalist, uh, brilliant, uh, just,

uh, another one of these people, I believe she's written several other books you want to check them out as well but the discussion we have about what she wrote the perspective that she brought to the trump women book part of the deal was really interesting and uh you know talking about uh you know women and their role in this misogynist sexist uh racist world uh supporting the um supporting the patriarchy if if you will, that whole thing. Just a brilliant discussion with her and a lot of insight in the book. I just came away with a lot of epiphanies and learning stuff. I remember that distinctly about having her on the show.

So check out her book, The Trump Women, part of the deal. Great author, just brilliant guest as well. Every guest was brilliant but you know she was one of the people that stuck out in my mind so my discussion um next up on the show hey didn't have to do with politics for a change huh what do you say uh we did have a lot of politics on the year it wasn't by design it was just it was just that's the way it was set up and it came down i think a lot of the publishers were trying to get these books out for the end of the year before the election. They knew the election would make the books hot. So there you go. This is a great book by a guy who does, uh, an Epic commercial maker for commercials

and 60 second, 30 second stories. He wrote the book 60 stories in about 30 seconds. How I got away with becoming a pretty big commercial director without losing my soul or maybe just part of it. Bruce Van Dusen. This guy was a lot of fun to have on the show. He tells all the dirty details and some stories and actually calls some people out. It's pretty ugly. But it's funny, too, because the people were just being jerks at the time. But he's been really prolific at carving out a niche for himself in Hollywood that most people don't do, and a career actually at it, of doing commercials.

And so he's done like tons of commercials that you've probably seen over the years. And so he dishes some of the dirt at the end of the show where he's telling you some of the stories and stuff. And, of course, you can read the book and get something in it. If you definitely want a fun book that's a fun read and you want to know about some of your things. In fact, I think on the show he shared some stories he didn't put in the book about some different actors.

You may want to check that show out as well. But it was fun to have him on. Delightful, wonderful guest. His perspective on Hollywood and everything else was incredibly interesting. So check it out. 60 Stories in 30 Seconds Bruce Van Dusen. Next up on the show we had Heather Linde

Linde? Hopefully I'm pronouncing that correctly. Of Bears and Ballots. An Alaskan adventure in small town politics. This is a hoot to have her on. She lives up in Alaska in a very small city where everybody you know, everybody knows each other. And she runs for office because she wants to do the right thing.

She just has this kind of American sort of romantic ideal towards running for office. And, you know, up there it's very different. You know, you're back in the wilderness, if you will, in a small town. So she runs for office and she's trying to do the right thing, and she finds out how bombastic, how volatile, how vicious it can be to be a politician trying to balance what's right and wrong. And a lot of the work they're doing in this small town is just balancing the budget and repairing stuff and stuff like, well, someone's got to fix all the lights at the dock and, you know,

making sure the trains run on time, knock, knock, if you will, even though there's no trains, I'm sure, in their town. No, there might be. It's a small town. They might have like a Pacific Railroad running through it. Anyway, it's a great book, and it talks about her perspective and her venture. At one point, this small little town in Alaska, it's an extraordinary story,

they're actually trying to recall vote her. They threaten her with a recall vote. They try it. I mean, you think Washington, D.C. politics are bad? It's just amazing the microcosm of the same sort of experience she has in this little town. And she's really just trying to do the right thing. And then she sees through social media all the people who shit talk her and say, you know, F this and write all these horrible things on her social media.

But then your town is so small, you bump into the people that wrote about you and you're like, hey, Joe, how's it going? And they're like, hey, how's it going? And they'll come over and help you start your car or jumpstart your car or help you bring you some food. And you're just like, wait, I just saw what you wrote about me. So it was a really lovely and interesting discussion I had with Heather, really an author. She's written several other books in some different veins, so you want to check those out as well.

But she was a lot of fun to have on. And, you know, a lot of people that sit around different veins so you want to check this out as well but she was a lot of fun to have on and you know a lot of people that sit around and go you know washington dc is a cesspool whatever politics is kind of its own cesspool regardless of the size of your pool let's put it that way maybe i should write that down sell the t-shirts for it um this is an author that i really appreciate having on michael i Black, famed comedian, actor, and everything else. He wrote a book that had me in tears, that broke me in so many ways. If you have a son and you're a father, I would highly recommend you give this book to them. He wrote a really incredible book, and we had an incredible show uh you should really go see the

show um we had a really raw show and i was worried about sending him a copy of the show when we got done in fact i don't think i ever did and thanking him to be on the show because i was worried he would ask me to bring it down because we got into the feels, if you will. So if you get done watching the show, I don't think you would do that. But we got really deep in the feels. I think there were some tears. And they weren't just his. They were some of mine.

I might have cried more. So if you want to watch a very powerful show but a very powerful book every father should buy this book for their son every single father this should be uh demand reading don't let them eat until or play their xbox until they read this um but uh this book was extraordinary uh michael ian black a better man a mostly serious letter to his son a little bit of commies in their tongue and cheek if you will um one of the reviews on it wrote raw intimate and true uh unfortunately i'd read the book it might have been better if i'd read the book and gotten a day or two space away from it but i i basically finished the book and it was a page turner, um, to an hour before the

show. And I just wanted to sit and cry when I got done. Um, you know, it talks about his experience with his father, which for men is kind of a deep seated, uh, interesting issue that we deal with perspective on that. And then, um, it, uh, it, it talked about him and his father. And then it talked about him and his father and then, of course, his relationship with his son. And then he's seeing all the horrible things that are going on in the world. And he's trying to give his son advice on how to navigate these things, how to navigate Black Lives Matter, how to navigate toxicity, racism, all these different things. Uh, the me too sort of movement and, and how to, uh, behave in this sort of era. Um, and we had a great show. I got, uh, I think I cut a little deep on a couple of my questions where we got into feels and, uh, and we, when we dropped some, uh, feel bombs, I don't know

what you call them, but, uh, uh, the discussion I had with them was, um, really deep and it was really motivation, uh, uh, emotional and, uh, some feels and some cries, but the, the stuff that we talked about in the show, I'm, I'm, I'm proud of and proud of the questions and the show that we did for Michael. And I'm proud of what he brought, of course, to the show. That's definitely a show you really want to go back and watch. And you may want to bring some tissues with it, especially if you're a man or if you have father issues. What man doesn't?

But a great book. And I highly recommend if you have sons, make them read this book seriously before they're 18 or as young as you possibly can. Um, uh, just, just a really great book. So anyway, watch the episode. If you want to, if you want to see a lifetime sort of channel only with a good plot and good acting, cause we weren't acting, um, acting um there's your that's that's the one episode i think that there's more uh water in than anything else of any of the shows we did this year

so there you go uh really honored to have him on the show brilliant gentleman just a moving book i i can't think of something better to give to your son so there it is um another wonderful gentleman we have on the show this guy has worked in movies uh he was the guy who co-wrote the jerk from the classic movie uh the jerk uh just an extraordinary career writing movies uh screenplays everything else uh and we talk about that on the show uh just a just one of those guys that you sit down from hollywood who has all the stories new and old who knows everybody who knows the dirt who knows the good stuff who's seen it all through the ages of the golden years of hollywood and everything else uh but he wrote this beautiful

novel called you can go home now and it's a definitely a uh suspenseful novel in the layout of its plot and everything else uh michael elias uh you definitely want to check him out we had an extraordinary conversation um we we just talked talked and talked and talked and it seemed like the show would go on forever it seems like uh yeah in fact now i remember correctly um this is another show where he was such a great guest we had him on and i think we were like 25 minutes in before I'm like, hey, dude, we got I got to start the show. We got to put some of this data in the show. We're just having so much fun rapping and talking about things and sharing his perspective on Hollywood and stuff. We're having so much damn fun. I had to like be like, okay okay so we gotta we gotta start packaging what we're going through right now in the show so let me start the show and let's maybe retouch on some of the stuff but just a delightful character just wonderful just one of those one of those guys like uh i don't know mel brooks that you just sit down in a cigar room and in a cognac and just tell

fucking stories about classic hollywood it really brilliant. But he writes this great novel, too. Just check out You Can Go Home Now. And he's written several other different books. He's a writer by trade, so you know it's going to be great. Check him out. This gentleman you see on TV fairly often, MSNBC, Carlton F.W. Larson. He's a professor. Small print I'm not getting, I believe UC Davis, professional

of constitutional law at UC Davis. There we go. I feel like I'm doing one of those eye things that you do with the eye doctor. On treason, a citizen's guide to the law. I really appreciate having him on. He was really brilliant, super nice gentleman to have on. I think we had some discussions before and after about just everything. Another one of these shows where it's like hey we got to get this in the can um and i've saved a lot of these shows because someday if i get bored i want to go back on them and see if we can mine some outtakes that that are publishable you know sometimes we not not on this thing i far recall really but sometimes on some of these episodes we've done off-the-record stuff, especially with journalists,

but sometimes there's really great stuff that we have that I just didn't have time to go through and mine through all the banter and fun we were having. But he brings on the show about how treason works and the treason in the application of the Constitution, which is really brilliant, because I, like other people, have been running around going, yeah, it's treasonous. What the heck are you doing with fucking treason? the application of the Constitution, which is really brilliant because I, like other people, have been running around going,

yeah, it's treasonous. What the heck is doing with fucking treason? Turns out it's not because treason only applies in the Constitution. We break it down, and he does that in his book, when America is in a wartime. So treason is where you, if America is at war, you go sleep with the enemy, basically, or give comfort to the enemy or support to the enemy. But the country does have to be at war, you go sleep with the enemy, basically, or give comfort to the enemy or support to the enemy.

But the country does have to be at war for the treason aspect to be able to kick in. I think there's one exception. I think it was some of the Russians and the nuclear secrets and stuff like that. You'll have to listen to the episode. Brilliant author, brilliant mind. The guy's a professor at UC Davis. I mean, come on. What do you expect?

You've probably seen him on TV a lot. Just a great guy all the way around. Just had a lot of fun discussion with him. And I think he has some other books. You may want to check them out as well. This guy was really fun to have on. He's one of the founders of V vox media if you're familiar with them huge media conglomerate uh and he wrote this book it was kind of interesting called one billion

americans the case for thinking bigger matthew iglesias um he was a lot of fun to have on the show too brilliant guy uh i think one thing i was disappointed with on the show is i think he had a hard out so we had to get him out at a certain time. And usually by the time the show really gets popping, uh, the end of the hours there and there it is. And I've, I've tried to get better at timing the show as we do the delivery and watching the time at going, okay, are we, have we mined the best stuff yet? We got to get it out early and soon. So we try and do that on the show, but his book one billion um americans talks about how we need to think bigger we need to think bigger for immigration which was when one

of our things and in competing with uh you know global dominance with china and stuff we need to have more people more people are good and he he theorized that and puts the theories into uh studies and research and everything else. And this is a brilliant case for why we should be more open-minded and why our nationalism and our isolationism that's come from Trump is not going to be good for us in the future, competing with China and other big countries as well, like India. So brilliant, brilliant book from a really nice guy. Super great conversation we had. Next up, White House Incorporated with Dan Alexander, How Donald Trump Turned the Presidency into a Business.

For me, this is a recommend also as a must, must, must, must, must, must, must read. Dan oversees forbes the the you know forbes puts out this list every year of the or every two years or a year or whatever it is of the top 100 or most richest people in the world and uh trump has been humping that dog leg uh ever since i think the 80s and there's you, infamous stories of him scamming his way on the list, originally, uh, fronting his way on the list, having different people that people would call. And of course, back then it wasn't, you know, they didn't have the ability to mine data like they do now with everything else, um, in the internet. So, uh, he is in charge of ranking Donald Trump and collecting all of Trump's assets and tracing and everything he can for his finances

to deciding where he is on the Forbes list. He has the Trump file. He's in charge of it. And he's also, I think, a co-editor at the paper, and he's also just a brilliant, brilliant journalist. So let's put it that way. Super joy to have on the show. Fun, brilliant journalist. So let's put it that way. Super joy to have on the show. Fun, brilliant. If you read the book, he goes into extensive detail of seeing the assets of Donald Trump, how much the guy makes.

You'd be surprised at how much of Donald Trump's businesses are money losers or break-evens. And it's really only a few gems in his crown that keep him alive financially. It's really quite extraordinary. And you read the book. It's a really important read to know in the book. And you can kind of see what's going on with Donald Trump and realize why he's desperate and crazy and mad. And he's always trying to stay one head of the bankruptcy court.

Brilliant read. Brilliant discussion. We had a lot of fun banter too. If I remember correctly with the questions I had for him, uh, really great guy. Check out that show. Uh,

I think you'll like it as well. And, uh, I know I did. So there you go. That's all that matters. Really? Did I have a good time?

Yeah, I did. Um, last up on the show, uh, we had unholy white, why, why evangelicals worship at the altar of Donald Trump.

Sarah Posner, she was on the show, did an incredible job. I was blown away. Had some epiphanies. She has perspectives and research and data that just were mind blowing. So I'd highly recommend you check out her on the podcast. Check out her book. This was in the narrative of what we talked about before about the nine books this year, 12 books, where it was people talking about white nationalism, religion, Trumpism, Trump cultism, you know, white racism, all that sort of good stuff, why they still support Trump. Brilliant book and very detailed. And you read all these books, you really start to get them together. Picture of the, uh,

the evil undercurrents that are running this nation, destroying it and eating it alive. And, uh, it's not what you think it is. It's really just evil packs, billionaires, uh,

multi-globalists who don't care about anything. And I'm not being like, um, Oh, it's the Illuminati sort of bullshit. No, these are people you can name. You can see,

you can look at the Council of Foreign Relations, all that good stuff, and know what the fuck is going on. So there you go. Anyway, I'm going to wrap this show. This is about, we're coming to the end of an hour. So I'm going to wrap this show. On that note, we'll be talking about some other famous figures I can see here on the list that you may recognize from TV and from their appearances in the news and things of that nature that were on the show.

Looks like we're going to part four. And I can tell by now this is going to be a part five. So we will move to part four of the show coming up. So if you've been listening, as a wonderful listener, we certainly appreciate you. And be sure to check out some of the books that we listened to here and talked about. And then go to the show. Maybe listen to some of the old shows. You can search for them on the Chris Voss Show and all that good stuff.

Thanks for tuning in. We'll see you guys next time.