The Eric Metaxas Show - #139 - Larry Taunton

Episode Date: June 16, 2026

Today On The Eric Metaxas Show, Eric gives an update from the Revolution book tour after his book hits #1 on multiple bestseller lists and #2 on the New York Times list despite outselling Jill Biden��s book in BookScan numbers. Then Eric talks with Larry Taunton about his recent trip to the UK, Speakers’ Corner, radical Islam, Tommy Robinson, Laurence Fox, the Unite The Kingdom rally, Nigerian Christians, Britain’s need for Christian revival, and why the future of liberty depends on returning to God. They also discuss Larry’s upcoming book on Karl Marx and Charles Spurgeon, and why serious Christianity has always been the bulwark against socialism and tyranny. Chapter CEO- Cobi Blumenfeld Gantz joins to discuss his company and how they help people navigate the jungle of medicare.⭐ ORDER NOW:Revolution: The Birth of the Greatest Nation in the History of the World📕: https://a.co/d/0ir3NlapTODAY'S SPONSORS:⭐ FREE SLAVES with CSI: https://csi-usa.org/metaxas/🛏️ MyPillow — Save BIG with code ERIC: https://www.mypillow.com/☀️ Honest, fast, and free Medicare plan guidance: https://askchapter.com/metaxas/

Visit BetMGM Casino and check out the newest exclusive. The Price is Right Fortune Pick. BetMGM and GameSense remind you to play responsibly. 19 plus to wager. Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2,600 to speak to an advisor,

free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. Hey y'all, it's Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair. Ever order furniture online and wonder what if? Like, what if it doesn't hold up? That sofa was four days old. You should have ordered from Wayfair. With Wayfair, there's no what if.

Just style you love and quality you can trust. Visit Wayfair.cair, every style, every home. Hey there, folks, I'm back. Have no fear. I'm back. Daddy's home. No, I got back last night, and boy am I wiped out. I've never, Chris Heim's my producer. You've followed me on this journey.

Yeah, it's sort of like when you've ordered something on Amazon and you're checking the tracking information and your product is lost somewhere and you're just seeing where it's getting scanned. That's kind of like tracking you. Well, yesterday I got home and you think like, do I live here anymore?

Does my wife recognize me? Honestly, I was, I mean, yesterday I woke up in Orange County, California. Nobody knows how it happened. No, I know how it happened. But I was at my friend Greg Lorry's Church, Harvest Church. He interviewed me for the services on Sunday morning about the Revolution book. And in the evening, we did a fun podcast, which he's going to release this week.

but before that I was in Idaho Falls, Idaho. Yes, Idaho Falls, Idaho by the Snake River, not near the Snake River Canyon where Evil Knievel jumped his rocket cycle over it in the 70s, not there in a different part of the Snake River, but it was the Snake River, I can attest to that. And before that, I was in Colorado Springs, Colorado, before that I was in, let me think, let me think, don't tell me, Phoenix, Arizona at Mark Driscoll's church.

Before that, I was in Orlando speaking at a Southern Baptist event. They didn't know I wasn't a Southern Baptist, and please don't tell them. And before that, I was in Houston at the Woodlands, as Steve Riggle is the senior pastor there speaking at his church. And before that, I was another part of Houston doing check. Dad Robes Show's podcast. I mean, I have never in my life ever traveled like that, where you just go from thing to thing to thing to thing to thing.

And then I'm leaving again. I'm going this Thursday flying to Washington State, which I just found out is on the other side of the continent. I didn't know. I wouldn't have agreed to it. Washington State, there's going to be an event this Friday and Saturday, called Freedom Con. It is, I mean, if you can get there,

if you're a guy, if you can get there, it is, it's going to be a great, great event. It's just amazing. Then after that, we have a wedding in Colorado. And after that, I'm going to England for the ARC conference. I'll be speaking in London. And then I come back. I fly straight from London on my birthday,

mind you, on my birthday, in midair, mind you. That's a Seinfeld reference. And I fly back to Houston where I'm speaking at Second Baptist Church. Oh my God, I'm tired even just relating that. But it was a fun adventure. I met so many of you. I love meeting people. You know, I'm signing books and I get to meet people.

It really is a true joy. And I was on Steve Bannon's show. I don't know how many times. Steve Bannon kept having me on. I think he forgot I was the same person. He kept having me on. And the Revolution book, I know I've said it on this program.

It was number two on the New York Times bestseller list, which is very, very high cotton. That is unbelievable, but even more unbelievable. It was number one on the Washington Post bestseller list. It was number one on the publisher's, weekly bestseller list. It was number one on the Amazon bestseller list, number one on the Houston Chronicle bestseller list,

and even other bestseller lists, which I'm not thinking of right now, number one. So the question is, why was it number two on the New York Times bestseller list? You know, that's kind of quirky because we actually checked the book scan numbers and Revolution sold 25,000 copies the first week.

And Jill Biden's book, which was number one, only sold 20,000, even though she was on the view and it's a terrible book. Well, you know, the Bindens, they're very good at fudging numbers. You know, I think we know this about that. Fudging numbers. That's a really nice way of putting that, Chris. Thank you. Yeah.

So, yeah, I mean, I think when I saw Jill on, I don't know how I even managed to catch a snippet of it, but she was on the today's show, I think, or something like that. And to me, it just felt like she was on this. The book was part of a larger PR kind of apology tour, sort of like, hey, I'm so sorry. I tried to shoe whore my brain-de-husband into another term. As president, please consider voting to the Democratic national. It's sad. If it weren't so evil, it would be really sad.

But it's just sad and evil. Well, anyway, the, uh, the, uh, the, Back to the matters. I wanted to say this before I forget, I should have said it up front. The Revolution book sold so briskly that a lot of folks are out of it. If you want to copy by Father's Day, you can still get it. I would bet that if you order it from Amazon, even though they say it's not going to arrive by a certain date, I think that they do that, because I've been talking to people on the inside, they do that sort of protect themselves legally. They don't want to say, oh, yeah, you can get it by this date or whatever.

So they only put the date they can guarantee. But I think if you order it today, there's a good chance you would get it by Father's Day. So they don't guarantee it. But I know that Barnes & Noble is going to be stocking it. People, friends everywhere have been telling me, we're going to Barnes & Noble and they don't have your book. And you think, how can a book that's like, you know, number one on DeCello lists not be even stocked at Barnes & Noble. And my answer is I don't know, but I know that it will be stocked there.

I know that books a million has copies. So if you go to Ericmataxis.com, there's at least three ways to order it on my website. But I think you can get copies by Father's Day. But if you want to sign copy, forget it. You have to find me and I'm traveling all around the country. Now, I should say, though, I have my book here. evidently so I mentioned that I'm going to be in Washington State.

I'm going to be in Houston. But I was looking at my calendar and it's just absolutely nuts. I'm going to be in Washington, D.C. for the 4th. So I'll be there speaking at the Museum of the Bible on July. Maybe I'll do a book signing at the Museum of the Bible in D.C. Because I'm there on July 4th. If they're open, maybe I'll do a book signing the Museum of the Bible. I'm speaking in Cornerstone Chapel in Leesburg, Virginia.

on June 5th. I'm going to be speaking at Freedom Fest in Las Vegas. I wouldn't go to Vegas if I could help it, but that's where Freedom Fest is. You know, I think immediately I'll come to that with you. Why not? The last time I was there,

I interviewed John Cleese for crying out loud. Yeah, we could, you know, we could do the Sammy and Davis Jr., you know, Sinatra Rat Pack. Yeah, we could. We won't, but we could, just to be clear.

But so I'm going to be in Vegas. I've always wanted to say that. I'm going to be in Vegas at the Starlight Lounge. I'm opening for Sinatra, okay? But also, I'm going to be in Dallas, the July 12th, Prestonwood Baptist, Jack Graham. I'm going to be there. I'm going to be in Maine.

Ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to be in Augusta, Maine and Bangor, Maine, in mid-July. I'm going to be doing a big event in Los Angeles, California on the 23rd. It's called the American Freedom Alliance. And then I'm going to be in Murfreesboro. I'm just saying this to remind myself, so forgive me for wasting your time. I'm going to be Murphreysboro, Tennessee on July 26th, 25th and 26th. Then I'm going to go back to England to scold King George III.

Actually, no, I'm going back to England. We're doing another Socrates event in England. Socrates, Oxford, England, actually. We're going to be there for a while. Then I'm coming back. I'm going to be in grapevine, Texas, which is Dallas, Elevate Church. All this, I hope, is on my website. But it just goes on and on.

In August, I'm going to be at Myrtle Beach, California. Sorry, California, South Carolina. Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. I'm speaking the week after that. I'm going to be in San Jose, California at Mike McClure's Calvary Church. So it goes on and on and on. I am so great. I really, you know, Chris, I don't know if I've said it to you,

but I'm saying to anyone who will listen, I have been so grateful to the Lord because, look, I really believe in the message of this book. This is not just, hey, I just wrote something. I really believe it's it's about saving America. It's about we need to know who we are. So to me, it really is important. But to see God's hand in this that the book would be selling so well.

So I continue to exhort you, please to order it. Now, a lot of people are ordering, are getting the audiobook, which I read. I read the audiobook. And I think you probably want to listen to it at a way. 1.2 or 1.3 speed because I read it sort of slowly. But I really, I'm so excited about that, that it's selling this well. It gives me hope for the country that America is interested in a gigantic, you know, 600 page, $37 book. It's not all the other books. You know, I'm competing on Amazon with like $5 children's books and $9 paperbacks, soap opera, you know, novelizations.

and this gives me hope for America that Americans are interested in our history and in a big book. So I'm just, I'm so grateful to the Lord. I don't know what to say, except that I'm grateful. And I'm continuing to do a lot of media around it.

And thank you to everybody out there who's bought a copy of these books. It's really great. Feel free to pass them on to, you have to be frank, is whatever. Well, that's the thing is that I, and I say this all the time,

but this is not a book for history buffs. This is a book for Americans. Every American should know this. I put everything you need to know about America in this one book because I feel like, this is our story. We have to know it. It's not,

it's not extra credit. This is like we have to know it. And so it could be 1,200 pages. I really was in a way thinking, I want to make it way longer, but I thought, well, no, I'll make it a slim, svelte 600 pages, and you don't have to read all of them at once. You can just, you know, just read a page at a time.

That's my advice. Just read a page at a time. Or two at a time if you're able. If you're able to read two at a time, go for it, but no pressure from us. Chris, what else do we talk about? I just want to add everybody who participated in CSI and there were a large number. Bingo.

All he came through. Thank you so much. It's, you know, it was going. It was slow going to end it with a flurry, so we're really appreciative. Yeah. No, it's the fact that CSI does what they do and that we've been able to partner with them. And it's over now, right? I mean, you can't. So, but I, I am very grateful to those of you participated. There's so many people who listen to this program, many of whom I met on my travels, you know, you're good people. you care about what God cares about and we're grateful for that. So I think I have a guest coming up. I don't know if is it's,

I think it is probably Larry Taunton, I think. I think it's Larry Taunton. Do we have Larry? Is he ready to go? He's coming in shortly. All right. So we're going to leave it there. So anything else I can share?

I'm just trying to think there's been so much and I never write it down. Well, if I think of it, I'll just share it later. So give us a minute and we'll be right back. Hey there, folks. I've been saying that 2026 must be the year of accountability. Whether talking about government spending or the way we steward our own families, we have a moral duty to seek the truth.

But let's be honest, in the world of Medicare, truth is often the first casualty. Seniors like my 91-year-old mom are bombarded with mailers and pushy phone calls that feel more like propaganda than, helpful guidance. This is why I value my partners at Chapter. They operate on a different principle independence. Chapter is the only national advisor that reviews every single plan available to ensure you have the coverage that actually fits your needs. They've helped people find clarity and on average have historically helped members save an average of $1,100 a year on health care costs.

Their support is completely free and takes under 20 minutes. If you have questions about your Medicare or want to ensure you're a good steward of your resources, please call chapter at 571, 421, 1,253. That's chapter at 571, 421, 1253. Talk to a real person and get the honest answers you deserve. Hey, the folks, welcome back. You can see that I've changed my clothes. Actually, I've just added a pocket square because I know some of you were uncomfortable with me without the pocket square and I want to say you're welcome um okay so I get to talk to Larry Taunton Larry Taunton my friend welcome back you've been around you get around I have and I'm missing a pocket square however I do have a very patriotic pin yes yes you do saved by the pin well listen

you've been in the UK I went how long ago were you there I came back earlier this week And let me say at the outset, by the way, I'm getting over a respiratory infection, so my voice is not quite, I didn't have a voice for a full week. It's just come back in the last couple of days. But yes, I was, I came back earlier this week, and it was a very insightful trip. I was there. I was in London mostly at Oxford University. I was doing a little bit of work with John Atlantic with my good friend Lawrence Fox. We were hanging out. And then I was a Speaker's Corner where all the Muslims, gather on Sunday afternoons. So, yeah, I mean, I remember Speaker's Corner. Now, you have to explain to people what is Speakers Corner in its Hyde Park, London. That's right. Speaker's Corner is probably the only place left in the whole of the UK where there is actual free speech. And that's a tradition going back to the early 19th century because this was a place of execution,

This corner of Hyde Park was a place where before your execution, you could get up on a literal soapbox and say what you wanted to say before your execution. I did not know this. Yeah, that's right. That tradition has carried on into the 20th century and now the 21st. And it's fascinating. Now, there's all kinds of crackpots. down there. There will be somebody shouting death to America, somebody telling you how to get rich

quick, somebody who might be, you know, telling jokes. There's all kinds of things that go on down there. But it's fascinating because it's also a place where some of the real hardcore Muslims gather, Eric. And my good friend, Jay Smith, who's been a friend of mine for, gosh, north of 25 years now, I think, before 9-11. I had become a lot of you. I had become a very much I'm very, very interested in addressing Islam. I just felt like this is an issue that Americans don't see coming. And hardly anybody was listening to me in those days. And then 9-11 happened.

And suddenly people were listening. And Jay was a guy that I've just continually sought out over the years because he is an expert in dealing with. It's heading to my home many times. And I've been with him down at Speaker's Corner to debate the radicals. because that is where they like to gather. And Jay has a pretty good, significant scar right here in his neck, where after debating at Hyde Park, some of them followed him down into the subway

and tried to kill him, tried to cut his throat. Listen, it needs to be said. That is just an expression of the religion of peace, ladies and gentlemen. Yes, there you go. It was a mostly peaceful stabbing. We want to be clear on this program. They didn't actually have a knife what they had were car keys, and we're holding him down and trying to, you know, push it straight into his neck.

And anyway, a subway, you know, pulled up, doors open. People were coming out so they ran off and left him there. I can't even, but I tell you, the fact that that really happened to your friend is so sick. Well, listen, I just want to say, you mentioned Lawrence Fox. I hope I'll see him. I'll be in London next week for the ARC conference. And I've got to tell you, I have hope for England. what Tommy Robinson has been leading and this new party,

what is this new party called? It's the Reform Party? Is that right? No, there's another party. That's the foreign party is Nigel Farage. I ought to know because I was hanging out with all these guys. It's Rupert Lowe. Names of the parties get a little confusing in the UK.

Rupert Lowe is this new guy. And I haven't followed this closely, but I guess I'm crazy enough to have hope for England at this point. You know, I Maybe not. Well, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I don't, no, no, no, no, there's no doubt. If the Lord is not in it, forget it. If the Lord is not in anything, forget it.

So, well, I, I did, I didn't mean that is kind of a, you know, in a cliche kind of way, meaning I, I, I think that the number of Muslims in the UK, the degree to which they penetrated institutions, embedding themselves all over the country, millions of them now. It's not like the situation in the U.S. where the Muslim population here is very, very small. It's tens of millions throughout the U.K. They're increasingly in positions of power like Sikid Khan, who is the mayor. But also, even when they're not, you know, and you have guys like Starmor, the left is, you know, the so-called red-green alliance is very real. And the left is in the left is in the state. enabling them everywhere. And there's a two-tier system of justice there that more and more Americans are becoming aware of. My feeling is the U.K. is, you know, Mark Stein said this a decade ago,

that basically Europe is lost. And my feeling is that I agree with that, unless the Lord should should really bring about significant revival in the land. And it's one of my feelings about, I mean, something, I don't know if you saw this, Eric, but this should greatly encourage you because you're part of the story. Do you remember the Nigerian bishop, my friend, Juan Zumbaz? Do you remember him? Yeah, of course, yeah. Well, you very kindly invited him. I told you his story. I've been in Nigeria, written a piece for Fox News called the forgotten Christians of Nigeria because I really wanted to shine a light on the persecution that was taking place there, arguably the most dangerous country in the world. And we brought Juan over,

Juan's been a dear friend. And I told you a little bit of his story and, you know, encourage you to give him some oxygen on your show. You very kindly invited him. We came to New York. You interviewed him. And there was a little bump afterwards, but not what we were hoping for. and then we had him on other shows and a little bump, but not quite what we were hoping for. And it had nothing to do with the platforms, your platform or anyone else. It just had to do with sometimes Americans,

their interest is just somewhere else. It just didn't seem interested enough. Well, when Lawrence was recently here, and Lawrence hangs out with us quite a lot here, I made sure that on his recent trip, that it overlapped with Jwan visiting, the bishop visiting us. Because I figured, you know, if Lawrence, you know, here's his story,

Lawrence has contacts with, you know, like you, has contacts with much bigger fish than do I. And Lawrence was very moved by story and told Tommy. That is Tommy Robinson, his story. And Tommy invited him to speak at the big event, the Unite the Kingdom rally. That's what got me excited, was that rally. Yeah.

You know, what would that be now? That'd probably be about three weeks ago. Yeah. But, you know, a million people, you know, marching there. And I, you know, I just brought tears to my eyes to see Juan speaking in Parliament Square in front of the houses of parliament, telling the story of all this going on in Nigeria. But not only that, for him to tell them what you think is in far off Nigeria and doesn't have anything to do with you, it is migrating. your way. And so it's good for those voices to be heard, but also because Juan was calling the people of Britain to repentance, to Christ, and to give that movement what I think it really

needs, which is the rebar of Christian faith in it. That's exactly my sense. I mean, I followed that rally, not closely at all, but I saw enough to see. I think it was Tommy Robinson saying we are a Christian nation. It was him. He did say that. If it's not for that, you're done. But if the people of England would wake up, enough of them would wake up and say, you know what, we kind of drifted secular, but we get this. If we are not a Christian nation, we are not England.

We're nothing. And we will be taken over by evil men, by the barbarian hordes that are there already. but if they know that they're a Christian nation and if that's a muscular Christianity that says, no, we're not here to kind of roll over. We're here to stand for what is right and good and true. That's a new day. So the fact that he said that,

the fact that he had your Nigerian friend speaking about that, that is the only future for England. That is the only hope for England. I mean, I know that. I know that. And it's funny, you know, Larry, because in the research for my book, there were a couple of places

that I noticed in the 1760s. One example is John Adams. I quote him. Another example, there's a guy named John Wilkes, who was this maniac for liberty in England at the time. But you could sort of see prophetically that it would be God's will that England and America would understand this idea of liberty.

And at some point, I think John Adams writes that we might be, we in America might be the hope for England and you wonder if 200 it would be 60 years later now because he wrote that in 1765 that if they might discover

that we need what America had 250 years ago which is radical Christian faith. That's the only way that it's possible for them to have liberty and to push out these dark forces. When you're a mid-sized business, you need every competitive advantage you can get. Like an AI solution that works for you, not against you.

SAP Grow is built with AI embedded at its core, working across every system. And it's ready to go from day one so you can hit the ground running. Bring it with SAP Grow, AI Cloud ERP for any size business. Yeah, no, I totally agree with you. We need a third Great Awakening. That's what we need. a third great awakening. Bingo. There's no other hope apart from that. That is a fact.

Somebody went right in front of the camera for an alter call that you're having right there on your show right now. I saw them pass right in front of your... You didn't see that, and I didn't see it. It's so good of you to have an altar call on your show, Eric. Thank you. Calling people forth, calling them to repent. All right, now you're joking, wise guy, but the fact is, what were we, where we're talking about? We mean this. That apart from... I know this is true, and I know that you know this is true, that apart from a great awakening, apart from revival, you cannot have liberty. And I mean, that's really, it ends up being at the heart of my book, which I didn't intend. But you just realize, why did the French Revolution fail dramatically?

Why did the American Revolution succeed dramatically? God. That's it. God. The Americans made a covenant with God. This is a sacred cause. We get rid of the monarch, the earthly king, and we replace it with God our king. that's the only way to have self-government.

That's the only way to have liberty. And if you want to do it another way, you'll fail. And the French failed and anybody else who does that will fail. So when I heard Tommy Robinson say that, I have to say, I think there are people in England who are getting this, beginning to get it by the grace of God. Yeah, I think so. And by the way, let me say congratulations on the success of your book.

So my copy arrived last week. So thank you. And we were glad to have you on the show and promote it, but it sounds like it's doing marvelously. I mean, I just, I really believe that, you know, we need to know this story. I'm a broken record. I keep saying this, but like Americans need to understand this.

We have to get the memo that apart from God, you have no American liberty. You cannot have liberty and freedom and self-government apart from God. All the founders got that. They understood that. And I wonder if enough people in England seeing the evil of radical Islam. If it's forcing maybe some people in England who wouldn't have thought of themselves as Christians to think, I need this. This is our only hope.

Yeah, well, I agree with you. Let me relate a story here that you might find interesting. I actually posted this as a thread on Twitter, but it just sort of give you some insight into what's going on in the UK. And I think this is a fairly typical slice, as it were, a look at what's going on there. I was one evening, I was out, and I was waiting for a meeting. And so I stopped at this little pub and, you know, how they are in Europe. I'm sitting outside on the sidewalk. You got a little round table. The chairs are facing out towards the street and your shoulder to shoulder. So, it sometimes cracks me up here in the U.S. that pretentious European

restaurants here in the U.S. mimic that. And I always say, you know, the reason they're like that is because they're socialist policies and they have no room. But you're shoulder to shoulder. See, you can't not hear somebody next to you. So there are these two guys,

a little older than me, mid-60s. And I overhear them say that they're celebrating retirement, the two of them. And one says to the other, he says, you know, when you look back on your career, he said, how long did you work? And he said, 40 years. He said, when you look back on your career, what are you most proud of? The other guy says, well, I have more than when I started.

He goes, no, no, no, I mean your career, your work. What about your work are you the most proud of? He said, well, I, you know, I suppose that I'm, you know, I'm a little better off. And he said, exactly, that's my point. He says, there's really nothing to look back on my career and feel like anything's, you know, that I've really, it all feels like it's been in vain. You said, I've got money, but it all feels like it's in vain. And I saw this as an opportunity to share the gospel. I'm a pretty outgoing guy.

I rarely meet a stranger. I said, excuse me, gentlemen, I've not been a eavesdropping on your conversation, but I couldn't help it overhear your question. He goes, what question? I said, the question, what do you most proud of when you look back over your career? I said, that's a great question. A lot of middle-aged men, a lot of men at retirement are asking these kinds of questions. And I'm curious where you arrive.

Well, they invite me to pull up a chair and sit with them. and I'm thinking the conversation is going to stay at this very high level because I thought, you know, this is a really good, deep discussion or potentially so, but knowing that I'm American, they immediately want to talk about Trump. They're just insistent. And so I said, as I always do in these situations, guys, I'm happy to share with you my opinions about Trump, but there need to be some ground rules at the beginning. I'm going to say things that aren't shocking, Americans, but will be to you. They'll be jarring to you, mainly because I like Trump, which right away is going to be, you know, shocking to you. And the rule needs to be that I get

to say what I want to say and you hear me respectfully. I hear you and we learn from each other, but it doesn't become personal. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, we're, we're too mature from that. We're, we're, we're far to, you know, urbane, you know, for that. So the conversation starts going in this direction Eric. And it starts with Trump, which I'm trying to move it off of that because I want it to be on the bigger ideas. And one of them says, what do you think of the UK? And I said, well, I've been here many times, many, many, many times. I was partially educated here as a young man. And I said, it's changed hugely. How so? I've said, well, I mean, you know, your open borders policy is really deeply affected. The direction your country is going in. And it feels to me like,

you're a people by and large that Americans have always looked up to the UK. But it now feels like you're a people who've kind of lost your way and don't really know who you are. Well, by now, one of these guys is starting to get pretty inebriated. He goes, F you, F you, F you, you've just F off back to the United States. And I said, well, you asked me my opinion. I'm just telling you my opinion. And the other guy says, well, continue, you were saying, I said, well, I think you're headed in the wrong direction. He goes, how so? And I said, well, you know, rate gangs, you're a two-tiered, you know, justice system, you know, you're open borders, Rotherham, and the other guy is getting angry. But this other felt just says, you know,

you do have a point. And I said, well, I know I have a point. I said, have you ever been down to Speaker's Corner? Do you realize the kind of people who are in? your country. They're not apologetic for any of this stuff. They're quite open in stating they intend to take you over. Indeed, a woman I was down there with, a Christian woman, debating a Muslim, another guy walked around here while she's debating, it whispers in her ear, we're going to rape you. I said, this is your country. So this other guy gets angry and he leaves and the other fellow says, I mean, boy, I'm so glad my wife is not here. And I said, do you mean because she'd hate my opinions too?

He said, no, she'd agree with you. She would want you and her to go off to a separate pub and leave us here while just the two of you can talk. The point that I'm getting at here is once you get among a certain educated, a socioeconomic group that has by and large insulated themselves from the reality. of the country. Okay? In other words, these things aren't happening in Kensington and Chelsea for the most part. They're happening in other parts of life. Same as Paris. People say, gosh, I see the riots and what's going on there. That's going to be happening in Eindesma, you know, on the outskirts of Paris. You're going to be fine, you know, in the city center because they're going to police that and make sure that that all looks great. And if that's where you live,

be it Paris or Rome or London or Berlin, you can fool yourself into thinking that none of these things are actually happening. And that far right, Tommy Robinson, is the real problem. And that's what's happening in the UK. So that's why I say I have a certain cynicism about where the UK is headed because there are some people like Tommy, like Lawrence Fox, like many others like them, who have a finger and ear to the ground and thus kind of know what's really happening. But there's another group of people who are so insulated from it. And unfortunately, they tend to be people who are fairly influential that they're like the Robert De Niro's of the UK.

And you think it's not happening. Now, that is changing. You're starting to see guys like John Cleese, you know, for instance, in addition to J.K. Rowling, and you're probably familiar with Jeremy Clarkson. He's increasingly becoming them. You're not familiar with Jeremy Clarkson. You must follow Jeremy Clarkson. Jeremy Clarkson did a long-running 20-year TV show called Top Gear.

And it was a hugely popular show. But now he does a TV show that's massively popular, both in this country and in the UK, called Clarkson Farm. People who are watching us will know exactly what I'm talking about. Clarkson Farm. So he was fired from BBC because he was deemed to be, in his words, a dinosaur. As far as I know, he's not a Christian, but he started farming. And he's been exposing the socialist policies and the ridiculous woke culture that's affecting, you know, even the rural areas.

But he's increasingly becoming a voice that's more and more outspoken of what's actually happening in the, UK. And I'm waiting to see, you know, Tommy unite with, and I'd love to see this, unite with a John Kleece, with a J.K. Rowling, and with a Jeremy Clarkson. And for all these people who are fighting different battles within the same culture, begin to have a real effect. Lord, let it happen. Lord, let it happen. It really is extraordinary, you know, to think how bad things have got. over there, Larry. And I think that, you know, again, when you've got folks like John Cleese and you mentioned J.K. Rowling and others, I wonder if the working classes will be rising up and there will be change over there. But God has to be at the center of it. People need to come to

faith in him. That's the only path forward, folks. It really cannot, it doesn't make sense in any other way. We just got a few minutes left. Current events, what shall we talk about? Do we want to talk about UFC fighting? I'm not a fan of UFC fighting. I don't know anything about this, but this might interest you. I have been one of the reasons I was in the UK. I was there for a debate at the Oxford Union was canceled and now it's rescheduled. So that part of the trip was pointless. But I have been up to my eyes researching my next book, which is Carl Marx versus Charles Spurgeon. So you may recall the article that I wrote about five years ago that went viral. It went crazy viral. And Eric, you of all people will understand this. There are things that you write that you feel this is so good.

This is going to really make waves. And it just disappears into the ether. You're just like, you know, and then there's other things that you don't spend nearly as much time on. And for whatever reason, they really, they really attract attention. And I grossly underestimated, I thought a lot of people wouldn't even know who Charles Spurgeon was when I wrote that article. And I grossly underestimated the degree to which Charles Spurgeon remains really, really well known within Christian circles. I mean, I knew, you know, pastors and so on knew he was. and I knew that there were some very serious Christians who knew who he was, but I didn't realize he was known much more at the street level than I realized.

Well, both of them lived in London at the same time for 34 years. You know, I don't know if you know there's a book coming out, I think, in September, by our friend Erwin Lutzer about Karl Marx and Moody. But I just, I love where you're going with this. Well, I'm excited about it because I have, you know, both of them lived in London at the same time. So I was there to research. I was there to research that book. And I've been working on this on and off for quite some time.

But it's quite fascinating because most people didn't realize until I published that, that Marx and Spurgeon lived in the same city for a long. It's hard to take in, really, the concept of that. And it's for decades. Marx lived in London for more than half of his life because he was a political exile. And it isn't like, say, if you recall the book, The Question of God, which put Sigmund Freud and C.S. Lewis, their lives touched like this. And they never met and they weren't working in the same city or anything like that. Marx's virgin, it's like this. I was using old maps

just last week, placing it over a modern map of London to figure out where certain things were. And I realized it was, for me, it was kind of an exciting discovery that one of the churches where Spurgeon preach was destroyed during the Battle of Britain. And now there's a big hotel there. But when you're standing at the side of that church, where it was, you can see Covet Garden. and Covent Garden was where Marx and the Socialists all met. So meaning they were within a stone's throw of each other for years on end. And it's quite fascinating because Spurgeon, most people don't realize,

Furgeon preached against socialism a lot. And Marx was kind of obsessed with the fact that socialism wasn't catching on in the Britain. And when Engels was asked why, Engels said one word, Spurgeon. Wow. That's pretty interesting. Wow. Christianity is the bulwark. And I shouldn't say Christianity. I mean evangelical Christianity, muscular, serious Christianity, not the Church of England at the time. Yep. In total agreement. And Spurgeon, Spurgeon was speak preaching to enormous crowds, and his church was a church of, it was a center, a hive of activity. And what I also find quite fascinating is there are a lot of people today,

a lot of Russell Moore-type preachers who would revere Spurgeon and don't realize that they wouldn't like him if he lives today. And that's because Furgeon was very politically active. But Svurgeon was engaging in the political questions today. And rather than staying out of politics, he was right in it. Well, listen, Russell Moore and David French pretend not to be politically active. They're just leftists and they use the cover of, oh, we're not political. It's those right wingers that are political.

But of course, they're political. So, but I mean, this is so interesting because people say the same thing about, you know, Billy Graham. And Billy Graham preached loudly, radically against communism. He didn't say, well, that's got nothing to do with the gospel. He understood it has everything to do with the gospel. That's kind of the point is you have to understand the whole world. And if you don't understand the wickedness of communism, why is communism always pushing atheism? Why would that be?

You used to see Billy Graham, you know, sitting at the conventions, you know, the Democrat or Republican National Convention. So he'd be sitting there in a booth. Lori and I listen to a good bit. A little plug for something very worthwhile here is there's the Billy Graham channel on serious satellite radio. And they play old Billy Graham sermons. It's just one Billy Graham sermon after another. And they're fascinating as historical slices, Eric, because they give a little introduction.

They'll say, this is Billy Graham speaking to American troops in 1951 in Seoul, Korea. Wow. And it's great. But almost almost every sermon, he is addressing something political. We've got to, we've just got about a minute left. Any hot takes on the, what happened in Iran, what's happening in Iran? Not really. I'll be honest. I've barely paid attention because I've just been reading Marx and Spurgeon pretty well all the time. I need you to tell me what's happened in Iran. What just took place? Unfortunately for you, I don't know. Basically, you know, President Trump has touted this big deal with them that they've signed the papers and stuff. And that then there's, you know, there are people who are very upset about it. My gut is simply to trust Trump.

He knows stuff we don't know. James Lindsay on X posted his understanding of what's really going on. The Iranian regime, such as it is, cannot last. Where this is going to go, we don't know. But I think that, you know, Trump is always, he's very cagey about what he says and what he's not going to, he's not going to tell us everything. And so my instinct is simply to trust him. But I understand how people are concerned, you know, smart people are very concerned about what is going on and about whether Israel has a right. to attack them if Israel is attacked. So it's sort of complicated. And I'm smart enough to know

that I'm dumb and I don't know enough about this. We need to know this. And hopefully Trump does know this. You can't trust the Iranians. Well, I was going to say, I know he knows that. We know that. And we'll have to end it there. Larry Taunton, my friend, thank you for coming on. Excited about this book. We'll have you back ASAP. Thank you. Take care. Patriots have been left behind. Today, I want to tell you about metaxis crypto.com. They're bringing access to cryptocurrency wealth to real Americans.

Crypto is supercharging President Trump's America First Economic Miracle, and now you can be a part of it. I've partnered with Block Trust IRA because their mission perfectly aligns with President Trump's Make America Great Again agenda, smashing down the barriers between loyal patriots and the financial freedom they deserve. Their animus AI trading platform works 24-7 analyzing market data and executing advanced crypto strategies that are beyond simply buy and hold, helping true American patriots build impressive wealth in Trump's historic economic boom. There's a reason their system was named the number one crypto technology platform by Bitcoin magazine from over 1,500 global competitors.

Whether you're a teacher, truck driver, small business owner, or retiree, watching inflation, eat away your 401k, Block Trust's IRAs advanced animus AI gives red-blooded Americans the same advantages as those coastal elites. Right now, their clients are seeing over 250% returns on their investments, and with military-grade security investments are protected by up to $200 million in insurance. Don't wait, visit metaxis crypto.com and find out how they can help you join the Trump Crusade financial revolution that's finally giving forgotten Americans access to the greatest crypto wealth opportunity in history. For a limited time, they're offering my viewers up to $2,500 in bonus crypto when you open an

account. Crypto created 80,000 new millionaires last year under Trump's phenomenal economic leadership. Why not you next? Hey there, folks. Welcome back. I want to introduce you to one of our sponsors. We've talked about them before in the past, but we've not met the CEO. And I always feel, you know, it's a nice thing if I could meet them.

but it's even nicer if you could meet them. The company is Chapter. They're the folks that help us navigate the Medicare quagmire. And Kobe Lumenthal Gans is my guest right now. He's the CEO. Kobe, welcome the program. Thank you so for having me. Well, you look way younger than you're supposed to.

What's going on with you? I appreciate that. I do look younger than I am, but I am not of Medicare age, if that's what you're implying. Neither am I, but I still look older than you. Now, because we're talking about Medicare, I have to start, you know, with the stupid joke thing. You are, you don't seem like somebody who has navigated the world of Medicare, and yet

that's exactly what you're all about. So before I actually let you answer that question, let me ask you, tell a little bit about your story. Where do you live? What do you come from? How did you get to be doing what you're doing? you're doing right now. Yeah, and thank you for having me. I grew up in a very small town in in North Carolina and eastern North Carolina moved to the suburbs of New York City when I was

about eight and grew up there. I currently live in New York. Of New York, Westchester County. Never heard of it. I've heard of it. Yeah. No, of course. That's, well, it's good to know. So we're basically local as far as I can see then. All right. Keep going. Exactly. I live in New York city now. Love, love the energy of the city. And before starting chapter a few years ago, I really started my career in software at a large technology company building data systems for the U.S. government. So I've been in and around government bureaucracies and government data systems for the better part of a decade now. Wow. So obviously, now, there's so many people watching right now who have dealt with the Medicare quagmine.

as I'm calling it, because it is very complicated. It shouldn't be complicated. And as people, I guess a lot of people until you hit 65, you're not thinking about it. So, of course, this is 25 or 30 years in my future. But for those people who are approaching that number, I want them to know about chapter, first of all. So in a minute, I'll tell them how to find you and everything. But what, do me a favor. And for people who aren't yet thinking about this, walk my audience through what happens

as you, at 65 or you're approaching 65. What are you facing? What is this? Because if you face it, you don't even know that there's a quag fire. That's kind of I want to be proactive in talking about it. Exactly. And as you said, most people don't really engage with Medicare until they have to or if they've seen their parents go through it or grandparents.

And that was my experience. I saw my parents going through the Medicare process. And that's what really opened my eyes to the Clagmire that people face as they turn 65 or retire. But every single American, when they approach retirement or turn 65, has to deal with Medicare in some way. That might be a decision to not sign up for Medicare if you're still working. But for most people, it's a serious decision to know whether they should sign up for a Medicare plan or not. And if they should sign up for Medicare, which plan? And there are lots of different types of Medicare options. Most people just think, oh, there's Medicare.

It's automatic. It's the government. I've been paying for it my whole career. It must just work. That's unfortunately not the way it works. There are a lot of decisions people have to make. And that's really why I start a chapter to help people make that, make those set of decisions much more simply and with much more confidence.

Now, I guess I want to say up front, the reason I'm talking to you and not to somebody else is because I trust you and I trust chapter because I should say it's come to my attention that there are lots of companies that purport to do what you're doing. But my guess is they're getting something out of it and it's a little complicated. So I feel this is a very serious decision for people and they need to be able to talk to people that they genuinely trust that they have their best interests in mind. And so, what was it that made you see that this is something that you want to get into get into what was it the process of watching your parents navigate this it really was i saw my my mom in particular

worked with a local medicare broker as you said there are a lot of medicare agents out there she got really bad advice and now has to pay lifetime part d enrollment penalties so if you sign up too late the government imposes lifetime penalties on you so that to incentivize people to sign up at the right time. So there are a lot of consequences to this. And then on top of that, her whole experience was really painful. She had to call the Social Security office numerous times. She had to fax documents.

And as someone who works in technology, I just looked at this. And I was wondering, what is going on here? This makes no sense to me. And that's really what opened my eyes to the entire process and how broken it is. And then to your other point, most or really all Medicare advisors in this country are agents of the insurance carrier. They're not agents of the consumer. What we've done a chapter is that's, yeah, what we've done. That's like, that's the breaking news. That's the headline. So in other words, people report to be doing what you're doing. Like, oh, we're here to help you

navigate. Work for whom exactly? They work for the insurance carrier contractually and legally. Right. And it is, it is the biggest issue in my mind in Medicare today. And I've, I've, testified at the Senate about this. I have been working with Congress to try to pass new regulations that prevent Medicare advisors from representing insurance carriers and force them to represent consumers. But unfortunately, that's not the state of the world today. And unless you have the resources like a company like Chapter has, unless you put consumers first, and unless you build your own data and technology so that you can get access to the data you need to recommend the right plan for each person. It's very challenging, if not impossible, for others to do this.

So, and obviously that's what you've been doing. This is why we're talking to you. I should just tell people, if they're interested now, the website is askchapter.org. Askchapter.org slash metaxus. Askchapter.org slash metaxus. And there's a phone number. I'll give that in just a moment. So I guess my question, a couple of questions. First of all, what are some of the mistakes? I mean, suddenly, you know, people are facing this thing? What are some of the say, you just mentioned, you know, your own family, what they're dealing with. Suddenly, you sign a piece of paper and, whoops, now you're going to be fine forever. What are some of the common mistakes, other mistakes that people make when they sign up for Medicare? That's something that's not

optimal stem and that start? The most common is people just don't do anything. They don't realize that they have to take action. And so they either miss their enrollment window or they get defaulted into a plan or into a setup that's not the best for them. So that's definitely the most common. Second most common is people assume that Medicare Advantage, which is one type of Medicare plan, is really the only type of Medicare plan.

And so they sign up for a Medicare Advantage plan, which may or mean. not be right for them. The reason that Medicare Advantage is so heavily promoted, there are all these ads, is because insurance carriers will pay more for a Medicare Advantage enrollment than for a different type of Medicare enrollment. So last Q4, for example, almost 10,000 ads ran per day trying to get people to sign up for Medicare Advantage plans. And so that creates a lot of misinformation in people's minds for reasonable reasons. And it makes, it makes a lot of, you know, it makes it really hard to know what's going on, who to trust. And then I think the, or go ahead.

No, I was just going to say, I've looked at, you know, it seems to me, from what little I've looked into it, that it is very complicated. There's almost like an infinite number of options available. And so I guess my first question is, how did it get so complicated? I mean, the whole idea is Medicare's set up a long time ago to help older people. How did it get so complicated so that now we need, you know, seriously good advice or we can get in trouble. Medicare was initially passed in 1965 by LBGA.

It was a much simpler system at the time, to your point. Over the last 60, 70 years, the number of options have dramatically increased. And under the Clinton administration, there was this new concept of Medicare Advantage, which is privately administered but publicly funded Medicare plans. And that's really when the complexity started ballooning. And today, because Medicare is such a large component of our economy, it's almost a trillion dollars a year. That's the amount that the government spends on Medicare.

So when you have such a large amount of money and such an important piece of our health care and our health insurance system, there are going to be a lot of private companies that go in wanting to help and wanting to make a buck. And so that has created a lot of complexity for individuals. The additional component here is that. There's not really good regulation, as I said, that puts consumers first here. So people are in these Medicare brokerages and the insurance carriers are incentivized to make things complicated. I'll give you a very simple example.

Today, the way the regulatory regime is set up, it is illegal for me to post all the Medicare plan information I have online. I have, Chapter has the best Medicare plan information. One of the common questions we get is why don't we just post it all online. It is illegal for me to do that. legal. Okay, hold on. We're going to go to a break and I just want to talk to you more, but let me remind people again. You can go to ask chapter.org slash metaxus, ask chapter.org slash metaxis or is phone number 571, 421, 1253. Again, the phone number is the best. 571, 421, 1253 or ask chapter.org slash metaxis. Be right back. I want to write a book on the American Revolution because this is extremely important. Unless Americans know our story, we cannot possibly continue to keep the Republic. Welcome back. Kobe Blumenthal Gantz is my guest. He is the CEO of Chapter, which is a sponsor of this program.

These are the folks that help you navigate the confusing quagmire. unfortunately that Medicare has come. So Kobe, you were just saying that there are these weird rules. Whenever you deal up with the government, weird rules, you said that there's a law that you, for example, cannot helpfully post a lot of stuff about this online. That doesn't seem, you would think that transparency would be a good thing. that like, hey, here's some stuff people can read, but they won't let you do that.

That's right. It was one of the most surprising things I learned when we started the company. It is perfectly legal for me to tell someone over the phone all the information about the options in their area, and that's what we do every day. It is not legal for me to post that same information online without getting every single insurance carrier to approve of exactly what I want to post NCMS at the government to approve it, And of course, for me to get all of those approvals is not going to happen because the insurance carriers are not incentivized to make that information transparent. So it's one of these things. The intent of the regulation is to minimize risk so that people don't post deceptive information. So there's, you know, there's some integrated logic to it.

But the implication is that it's very hard for consumers to get transparent information. I mean, I just have to say it's fascinating. This sounds like the definition of bureaucracy. You don't need to read Kafka. Don't read Kafka. I don't recommend it. Kafka asks, it's labyrinthine, it's confusing. It's dehumanizing.

Let's just put it there. That's what bureaucracy tends to be dehumanizing. And so it's one of the reasons that I just love the fact that people can pick up the phone and talk to somebody a chapter. And it's why I'm warmly recommending they do that, because, you know, it's one thing to talk to a person on the phone that's nice, but sometimes talking to people on the phone is not so nice. If it's people that you can actually trust, and so obviously, folks, I'm suggesting that if you have questions that you call up our friends at Chapter, I'll give you the number again because that's even better than the website. It's 571-421-1253, 571-4-21-125-1-5-5.

three. So what is the typical experience that people have? In other words, I assume that your goal is to steer them to a plan that's optimal for them. And so talk us through some of that. Our goal is to make sure people have the right health coverage, whether that's on Medicare or not. So if you are on your employer coverage and that remains the best for you, you're not leaving your job, you're remaining employed, we'll tell you that. We aren't going to try to switch you to Medicare if that's not appropriate for you. For most people, though, switching onto Medicare is actually the right decision for their health coverage and their wallet. So it's a very simple process. You call up. If you're already on a Medicare plan,

we'll tell you if there's a better option for you. If it's your first time signing up, we'll walk you through the process. We've built a lot of technology to automate the TDM. So it's very simple and delight. We try to make it delightful, turning a terrible experience into a delightful one, and we'll answer all of your questions that you might have about Medicare, about your health coverage, about your doctors, your prescriptions, how much it will cost, all of these questions. We'll sign you up. And then importantly, even after we help you enroll in a Medicare plan, if that's the right for you, we'll help you navigate the entire ecosystem throughout the year. So if you need to find a specialist who's in network with your plan, we'll help you with that.

If you need to minimize your prescription costs because you got a very expensive prescription, will help you with that. If you need to appeal a bill or a claim, you get a bill that doesn't make sense to you. Many health care bills don't make a lot of sense. We'll help you walk through that. And if it's an incorrect bill, we'll help you appeal that. So our goal is really to be your advocate, your navigator throughout this entire journey. And obviously, other companies that do something similar to you claim to do the same thing. So if you don't mind my asking, what is the difference between you and most of them? There are really three core differences. One is we learn at every single Medicare option. And that's actually, I think, unique in any insurance market

where we have access to every single Medicare plan across every type of Medicare. And we will enroll you in the right Medicare plan for your needs, whether Chapter earns money on that plan or not. All of the financials are hidden from our team. So our Medicare advisors are only incentivized to help each person. They're not incentivized by the insurance carrier. They don't earn a different amount of money, whether Chapter makes money or doesn't. And that's a really core difference. because if you're not looking at every option, how can you know if you're getting the right plan? So that's one. Two is we've built a lot of technology to make the experience very easy and simple and to catch mistakes.

Because it is such a Byzantine system, there's all these rules and edge cases that can really hurt people if you aren't aware of them. And so we've built a lot of technology and a lot of oversight so that we know every single person who talks to us is having a great experience and getting accurate information, which is really important. We spend so much time just even looking at, is the accuracy of doctors correct? Do we know which doctors in network with which plan? Do we know exactly what your prescription will cost on a given plan? It's a very hard data problem to solve that we spent a lot of time solving. And then the last piece is we care that every single person who calls us has an amazing experience. We don't want any variability in that experience.

We don't quality to be high for every single interaction. And the only way to do that is to keep a very high bar for who we hire. and who we allow to interact with people who call us, and we call them our members. And so I personally interview every single person who works at Chapter, every single candidate across our engineers, across our Medicare advisors, across our Medicare advocates.

We accept less than 1% of people who apply to join chapter. So we keep a maniacally high bar for talent, and that is what translates into an exceptional user experience. I think 4% would be maniacally high. 1%, I don't even know, there's no adjective for that. But it's kind of funny, because to me, as I get to know who you are as a company and what you're doing, that that to me is the key, what you've just said. In other words, that you understand that this is the piece, that almost no one else would go to this length.

But you understand this is what we deliver, this kind of, I mean, for somebody to, I'm just speaking personally and for my own family, to call up somebody, to get somebody who's personable, competent, kind, understand, you know, all of that stuff. It's not easy to find, basically. You often find the opposite of it or some variation. So that seems to meet the key to your success to the whole idea and reasons that I'm so warmly recommending chapter. I'll give the website again, folks, if you want to contact them, it's askchapter.org slash metaxus. Askchapter.org slash metactus.

Just got a couple of minutes left, Corey. What else can we say that we are not said? Well, I think one really interesting aspect that is a part of the ethos of chapter and I think relates to what you do and the important work that you do. for your audience, is that, as a religious scholar, you think about what does the Bible teach us? For us, I grew up as an observant Jew, and just last week, the Torah portion was for the Jewish Bible, was actually about, there was a mention of retirement, and God instructed the Levites to serve in the tabernacle only from ages 25 to 50. After age 50, individuals are not supposed to do physical work.

They're supposed to still mentor and provide their wisdom. And a large part of the ethos of chapter is we want to empower people to share their wisdom and to have the health coverage that they need to live an amazing chapter of their lives. That's why we're called chapter and not insert in name Medicare, because we want to help people live the best chapter of their lives. I think there's a lot of wisdom that is currently lost between the older generation and the younger generation. And what we're really trying to do is empower people with the health so that they can share that wisdom with the rest of us. And that I actually think it's a very important part to holding the fabric of our society together.

And that's really what drives us to continue to push so hard for an amazing, amazing experience for our members. I knew that biblical wisdom was behind all of this theoretically, but I also knew that it was behind you and what you're doing at chapter. But I wanted you to be the one to talk about it because, To me, that is the key. And it's not, you know, it's not even just wisdom. It is the kindness, the graciousness that comes out of that whole worldview. So I'm just grateful for you. I'll tell my audience again how to find you all now that they know more about you.

The phone number, that's the best thing, folks. It's 571-4-21-1253. 571-4-21-1-253. the website askchapter.org askchapter.org slash it says Kobe Blundalk and CEO of chapter

first of all congratulations and God bless you of what you're doing and thanks for this time Thank you.