The Eric Metaxas Show - Amity Shlaes (continued)

Episode Date: March 31, 2020

Amity Shlaes continues her conversation about the Great Society and how that particular program by the Johnson administration has played out through the decades in America. ...

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey, folks, I challenge you to think of at least one thing you no longer do that you wish you could. Do you miss like playing golf, maybe long walks with your spouse sleeping through the night? Are you ready to start living without pain? My colleagues and friends, Hugh Hewitt, Dennis Prager, Mike Gallagher, have been talking about their own successful experience with Relief Factor. And you can add Eric Mataxis to that list. Relief Factor is changing the lives of tens of thousands of Salem radio listeners by reducing and even eliminating daily aches and pains.
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Starting point is 00:00:56 I tell all my relatives to take it. relieffactor.com. But first, two very important questions. Have you ever tried to stack marbles while wearing boxing gloves? Also, did you know that marigolds and geraniums hate each other? Absolutely. And now your host, Eric Mataxis. Hey there, folks.
Starting point is 00:01:25 Welcome to the Eric Mataxis show. This is what we call a bunker video. We are all in our respective bunkers. As you know, we have pre-recorded a lot of non-bunker stuff before. this quarantine sequestered us all into our bunkers. So we're today talking to Amity Schlaise, a friend, a scholar at the King's College. She's written an extraordinary book on Lyndon Baines Johnson, not to be confused with all the other Lyndon Johnson's, and the great society, so-called, of the 60s.
Starting point is 00:02:04 So we're going to play the rest of that. We played most of that in hour one. and then we're going to have a little more coming up in the next two segments. But right now, Albin and Chris and I are going to share some fun stuff with you. But here's what I'm going to do. Since this is a radio program and anyone could be listening driving down the highway, this is not a Christian program. It's a program and I happen to be a Christian.
Starting point is 00:02:29 But since I am a Christian and since we're going through this pandemic, I thought I would begin this hour with a prayer if you need to pull. pull over to the side of the road, do what you need to do, but I will make it brief. Heavenly Father, we ask you, in the mighty name of Jesus, Father God, to be with us, all who can hear my voice now, Lord God, because we need your presence. We need you to show up miraculously in our lives. A lot of us have financial struggles. Our businesses are going through financial struggles.
Starting point is 00:03:06 many of us are separated from loved ones. Many of us are sick. Father God, we ask you, by the power of your spirit, to speak to everyone who wants to hear your voice. Be with us. Lead us and guide us through this difficult time that you would use it for your purposes in our lives. Amen.
Starting point is 00:03:31 Thanks, Eric. I hope I didn't freak out any hardcore atheists out there because obviously if God doesn't exist, I would just blown smoke, right? So, but anyway. And if he did and that wasn't a good prayer, you'd be evaporated by a thunderbolt or something by that. Because we serve a very harsh legalistic God. You sure do. Okay.
Starting point is 00:03:55 This is a bunker video. So today we're going to talk about a couple of things that we have to talk about. I just opened with a prayer. That's a good segue for the Mike Lindell story. I don't know if Chris, if you and Albin had a chance to see what happened yesterday at the White House. Did you get to see that? Yeah, yeah, I saw it. If you go online, it's only like about a 50-second video of Mike and this prayer that set a firestorm among, you know, the left.
Starting point is 00:04:28 Well, for those who don't know what happened, Mike Lindell is the founder. of MyPillow, MyPillow.com. They're one of the main sponsors of this program. So I know, Mike, I consider him a friend. He's friends with the president. So yesterday at the daily briefing in the Rose Garden, the president was talking about how we are as a nation. It's like a war effort. We are asking people to behave in a patriotic way. And so we're asking companies to stop doing what they're doing and to do things like make ventilators or coronavirus masks or whatever it is. Well, Mike Lindell stepped up early on as he would. The man is a stand-up guy, a champ, a hero.
Starting point is 00:05:19 I really, I know him personally, and he's the real deal. He's extraordinary. But he was in the Rose Garden for this. And the president said, why don't you come on up, some of you, you know, business leaders, whatever. So Mike Lindell comes up and he has a prepared statement about, you know, what it is to be a businessman helping the country. And it was wonderful. And then when it was over, he said, I've got a couple things I want to say. And I think he indicated that this was not approved or whatever. But he just, he went on to exhort everyone listening to pray, to spend this time
Starting point is 00:05:52 to get closer to God and closer to our families and a few other things. It was really beautiful. And then the president made it very clear when he got up there that he didn't know he was going to do that. it's obvious he didn't um but i don't know albin what did you think of it i i thought it was just straightforward and sincere i just thought it was a guy sharing his faith but not in a like in your face kind of way it was just like you know what most people like when trouble hits you know a lot of people who are so-called religious a lot of people don't pray on a daily basis but when something like this happens you start to say like you know maybe our only help is from the almighty god i say that believe in. And he's just saying it's just his, he's a private citizen.
Starting point is 00:06:35 Well, I thought, look, I love Mike. I love what he does and who he is. And the fact that he did that yesterday, I just thought it was heavenly, even literally speaking. It was just really wonderful because there's so many Americans who are not part of the secular elite journalist class who can make no sense of these things, who are actually threatened by it and confused by it. Most Americans know that we need to be praying. This is like being in a war. If you're in a war, people say there are no atheists in foxholes.
Starting point is 00:07:17 There are very few atheists who are facing possible death through this pandemic or the possible death of their loved ones. There are very few people who don't turn to the God that, they sort of say they believe in most of the time, but at a time like this, they take it seriously. So I thought it was a wonderful thing that he did. I put it online, and I just saluted him. And I guess, you know, I said to people that we need more, maybe I didn't say this. Maybe I'm just saying it now, but I thought it, that we need more people like this in the private sector who love this country, who will do what they can to help this country,
Starting point is 00:07:59 and who will be outspoken about their faith. Because those of us who know God, really we have the privilege and the duty to share what we know with others, because there's so many people that are hungry for this. They're not sure that it's real. So the fact that he was willing to do that in front of the whole nation, albeit briefly, and I thought appropriately, I just thought it was amazing. And I said, I suggested, I'm sorry, I suggested, in my mind. I don't think I said it online, but in a way, I thought as a way of thanking him,
Starting point is 00:08:34 you know, if you're going to buy sheets or something, get him from my pillow. Because this guy is just taking a beating from the journalist who despise him and, you know, who despise those of us who were jug-headed enough to believe in God and to pray. Right. And you know how people say, oh, thoughts and prayers. Well, here's a guy that's doing thoughts and prayers and action. He's not just praying. He's actually doing something about it. okay he's putting his his action where his prayers are yeah well i just think it's one of the things we can do is we can vote with our feet as they say you know you got to you got to do what you can and i always feel like supporting those people whether it's somebody who made a movie or somebody uh who makes
Starting point is 00:09:15 a product or whatever but people who are sticking their necks out for things you believe and you need to to support them so yeah one of the things i was uh that i read was like you know somebody was it was a tractor and he said why, you know, somebody said, you know, while you were watching Netflix, this guy basically reorganized his entire company to make masks. So it's like, you know, it's so easy to be critical, but this guy's actually doing something, which is so admirable. 50,000 masks a day, 50,000. Yeah, well, I think he said yesterday that they were up to 10,000, but they want it at the end of this week to be up to 50,000. But the dude's a hero. So as I say, support him if you, uh, if you want to buy a pillow or a mat.
Starting point is 00:09:55 Listen, no joke. We keep talking about this. There are pillows. They're sheets. Now there's flannel sheets. Now there's all kinds of stuff that you can buy. But Albin and I are kind of big on the mattress topper. The mattress topper, I never thought that anybody could make my sleep more comfortable.
Starting point is 00:10:16 It's at least for me. I mean, I don't know. But it's amazing. I read it highly. If it's half as good for you as it is for me, you'll be thanking me. I'm actually, it sounds stupid. I'm actually amazed. Like I just thought, what's the big deal?
Starting point is 00:10:32 It's a mattress topper. Towels too, towels too, okay? Absorbent towels as well. Oh, the thirstiest towels at this side of the Mississippi. Actually, we have to go to a break, folks. We actually know, we're going to have Amity Shlays, and after the conversation with Amity, we'll have more bunker video. Stick around.
Starting point is 00:10:51 Hey folks, it's the Eric Taxi-Show. I'm talking, continuing in my conversation, I should say, with Amity Slays about her important new book. It's called Great Society and New History. There is so much here. I mean, and it's so important because suddenly we're living at a time where many people have forgotten the bitter, painful lessons that we learned by the failure of LBJ's A Great Society. We've had decades to prove it doesn't work. Yet now we're looking to Bernie Sanders, AOC, other figures who seem not to know the basics of how this failed and why I will always fail. Why do you think, Amity, because you know, you're a true student of history. How is it possible that people, that somebody as old as Bernie Sanders could still believe these tremendously pernicious myths about how economics work, how government? how government works. How is it possible? Well, I don't know Bernie Sanders, but what is clearly a great marketing idea is to sell an idea that can never be tested. And we're never going to, you know, it, we, socialism itself argues I am never done, even in Moscow, in the old days, even in Hanoi. I'm never done. I am just a process, a dialectic, some other big work.
Starting point is 00:13:00 It's Marxism. So they tell the children, we tell young adults, well, it's never really been tried. That's the joke. That's what the young people say. So of course socialism is attractive to many people. You know, this is called lying. Well, you could. But of course, that's what it's called.
Starting point is 00:13:16 Listen, you and I both know Scott Johnston. He was at Yale when you were there, right? He wrote a book called Campus Land. And in this book, which is a novel, but he talks about how this is being played out on campuses today. and it's the same thing. It's now played out through, you know, gender and race, politics and so on and so forth. But the idea is that we never succeed.
Starting point is 00:13:41 Once we have won, we lose. So we want to keep going, keep going, keep going. It's the same playbook. It's the same playbook. That's right. This was not a true or false question. You're allowed to expand on it. Well, you know, if you, it's the same thing as if you want to go on ahead of nostalgia or hope.
Starting point is 00:14:00 Neither is empirical. Empirical helps. And, you know, one of the things that's missing from the whole understanding, I used to argue with people for The Forgotten Man, my other book, including when we made the cartoon version, which I recommend, we used to argue all the time about how you show this. And one of the things that the progressives think is that before Social Security, example, there was nothing. Before Medicare, there was nothing. And most students now think what they neglect to understand is that the American community on the local level did provide
Starting point is 00:14:41 many things. There was the burial society, the church society, the town society. And when the great society or the New Deal expanded into that sphere, it crushed it. It crowded out much that was good about the United States. So often, you know, when you're debating at college, they'll say, before Social Security there was nothing. Well, there were a lot of things, including the family. But that's the point is that there was nothing from the government. But, you know, that's kind of like saying before Walmart and Amazon, there was nothing. And you think, no, no, no, there were a zillion little stores selling exactly the same thing.
Starting point is 00:15:17 And they had local relationships. It really was, it's just something that's been wiped out by the vast, you know, global big thing coming in or the federal big thing coming in. And it really, you could argue that not only has it failed to help those who are suffering, or it certainly has not improved on how we used to help them, but in many ways it has done tremendous destruction to the fabric of society has made people think, like, I don't have to do anything. The government's going to do it. I'll just pay my taxes and the government will take care of it. But it can't work that way. It doesn't work that way. How many times can you kill Tocqueville's America? I mean, over and over again, the America that
Starting point is 00:15:57 this thinker, Tocqueville saw the America of Community and Local. He said the town I think he said it was a fragile thing, sort of like a tubercular patient that could die at any time because it didn't have much authority. The county or the state might squish it. But it was precious because it was
Starting point is 00:16:13 local and when you're a local government you tend to have a better idea of what the people need. That's the whole point. As corrupt as Daly was, he knew something about Chicago. He knew it was wrong to fund a gang. And that that story is never told. The value of local service. I think it's interesting in the book,
Starting point is 00:16:33 I will mention there are a lot of church figures. Sergeant Shriver took the church national and into government with the Office of Poverty, the Office of Economic Opportunity. He was formerly called. But in the book also, I have Father Shockley. There was a monstrous housing project in St. Louis that in the end has to be blown up. And that's in the book. And he, basically, basically found the answer for the poor people of St. Louis, which is to help them by their own house and then help them repair it, urban homesteading. So it's interesting where faith plays a role. One of the great targets, victims, casualties of the 60s was faith. Yeah, faith-based institutions, mainly the church, but you're right. And I think it's, it is tragic that the government,
Starting point is 00:17:23 the federal government, we know, cannot do things as well as local governments or state governments. I mean, this is a fundamental conservative idea that often, yeah, usually. But it's a fundamental conservative idea, right, is that we want to keep government as local as possible. We want to keep government as small as possible. We want these buffers, these baffles. We don't want it to be, you know, the federal government overseeing everything because it doesn't work. I was just talking to Peter Thiel at Socrates in the city. You know, he talks about this on the corporate side.
Starting point is 00:17:59 He says that when a company grows, the bigger it gets, the less efficient it gets. By definition, you can prove it. When you're a small group, somehow you're more efficient. That seems to be, you know, we've never figured out precisely why, but it seems to be a fact of reality that this is the way things work and this is how they don't work. But this is, again, the lesson that we seem to fail to learn. learn over and over. He said, how many times can we kill Tokvils America? Well, this is at least the third try we're on now. Right. At least. You know, for the grandmothers who might be listening, the people, our age, what about Medicare? I kind of like Medicare. Well, Medicare is great,
Starting point is 00:18:39 but it's a mousetrap for your children or grandchildren. They will pay for, we're spending too much. It's not entirely LBJ's fault. Why? Because the life expectancy then was just many years shorter than it is now. So he thought we would die at 65. Well, that would be four years of Medicare, and then we would die. Well, God bless America. We figured out how to make people live longer, but that doesn't mean that Medicare is adequate or that we can pretend it's adequate. So these programs went way out of control. The part that was the great error, the sin, was the arrogance of the planners that they thought they had all eventualities accounted for, and they didn't. So it's a sort of fools stumbling over themselves to tragic consequence.
Starting point is 00:19:28 But this happens over and over. I mean, this is why I believe in the fallenness of humanity, because we make these mistakes over and over. And it always is our temptation to think we are different than anyone else. I can see how to solve everything. And this utopianist strain, I mean, look, some of it is good, right? Sergeant Shriver, you know, like William Wilberforce, he says there's a time for the government to do the right thing. It can't always be private or small. Sometimes, I mean, there's a time for that. We understand that. But they, you know, without having their facts, tried to get the
Starting point is 00:20:05 government to do stuff that it ought not to have tried to do. And again, we are paying higher taxes today because of it. Our kids and grandkids will pay higher taxes because of it. Where we are now. Do you see a way out of this? I mean, writing your book will help a lot of important people, I think, to see how this works and doesn't work. I mean, is that your answer in effect? Well, I really believe in young people. And one force working to the advantage of common sense is that they resent being fed a monol line. Being fed a what? A single line, one story. So what happens now in secondary school in the United States, most of the time, is you hear one thing, the great society was good. And they also hear, if you're not for the great society,
Starting point is 00:20:49 you're against civil rights, which is crazy. I'm separating them. One is the rights of people to vote basic rights, which they needed, and the other is federal programs that pay money. Those are two different things. So kids are hearing only this. In colleges, they're hearing only this, that the great society was awesome. And intelligent people, thinking people, resent that deeply. So they begin their own inquiry. And it's up to us to not. not get in the way of their inquiry. They can come out where they like, but to be sure they have the opportunity
Starting point is 00:21:19 to pursue the inquiry. So one of the things we do at the Coolidge Foundation basically is educated about Calvin Coolidge, who was Mr. Tocqueville. He was President Tocqueville. He really believed in the towns. He said America is strong. Only United States is inviolate
Starting point is 00:21:35 only in so far as Arizona is inviolate. That is, states are very important, even for progressive experience. I mean, if we don't teach this and we're not teaching, we're going to another break. We'll be back. Final segment with Amity Schlaes.
Starting point is 00:21:46 Do not go away. The book is Great Society. Hey there, folks. I'm talking to Amity Schlaes. Amity, I've neglected to mention the Coolidge Foundation, except when I was introducing you. Tell us, because this in many ways is part of your answer as to what we can do to help people understand, you know, why things didn't work in the past and when they did work and how they work. So tell us about this. Support opportunities for young people to inform themselves.
Starting point is 00:22:44 Let them choose what? one of the things we do, which sounds very small but is very great, is we have high school economic debate. And kids win prizes for arguing both sides and therefore internalize some content. And kids get that. They want to win a prize. Kids don't like school, by and large. They like competition. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:23:03 They want to do sports. Debate is a sport. I really like that. The other thing we do at Coolidge is we have a college scholarship for which many compete because it's a full ride to any college. And the kids have chosen different colleges, including, by the way, Grove City, one of our scholars. But basically, it's a ticket to college. And in order to win that, candidates write two essays about Calvin Coolidge, one of which is economic. So I'm basically offering them material that probably isn't in the high school curriculum.
Starting point is 00:23:37 They don't have to buy it. All they're doing is acquaining themselves with it. I do believe the problem is not the kids. It's the curricula. So wherever you can offer. Well, we know the problem ain't the kids. I mean, there's no doubt about that. But we do know that, you know, education in America has swung dramatically left and that they teach a narrative that says, as you said earlier, that the great society was a good thing.
Starting point is 00:24:06 And the facts are clear. The great society was a disaster. Well, their resentment. is important. Kids do resent as smart kids, even regular kids, whatever. They resent being fed a line. And we just have to encourage their inquiry. Recently, Clayton Christensen, the great Harvard Business School guru, passed away. And one of the things he talked about was disruptive innovation. If you can't change schools, and I don't think you and I will live long enough to change the public school in America, really, you can work around schools.
Starting point is 00:24:38 offer alternatives. It's not very expensive. That's basically the business I do. With full respect for the schools, I want to offer what's not offered in those schools. Yeah. The only problem is that the schools are being paid for with our tax dollars. And it seems to me that that's the problem that you have teachers unions and so on and so forth, that they're working against the interests of our kids. They're working against the interests of people who pay the taxes. It's a horrible situation. Well, you know, one of the things that we've noticed in applications for the Coolidge is we have kids from all kinds of schools, including homeschoolers. Homestchoolers are going to take over the world. That is the hope of the future. This doesn't mean that there are brilliant kids everywhere. And we also know there are great people teaching in public schools. I know that.
Starting point is 00:25:28 But my goodness, generally speaking, it's a tough slog. And also to know there are heroes from the period is important to them from the past who might stand for the things. things they think might be interesting, which include federalism, restrained government, lower taxes, stability. But wait a minute. Have you noticed that nobody's talking about federalism anymore? Like, it's just interesting to me that this is a foundational idea of America, of the American Republic. And we're not really explaining this anymore. You hardly ever hear about this talked about in the news. It's probably because Republicans corrupted it, including Richard Nixon, who's in my book, the new federalism wasn't really federalism. It was more big government,
Starting point is 00:26:05 dressed up disingenuously as federalism. But I differ with you on that point because many of the judges who are now being confirmed in courts, thanks in part to the leadership of the Federalist Society and our law schools are federalists. That is, they are more supportive of state's rights than progressives. You've neglected to mention that the Federalist Society would not be able to do any of this stuff if the current president were not allowing them to do that. So kudos to him, another reason to vote for this president because what you're talking about is so important. The appointment of judges who actually understand how America was supposed to work.
Starting point is 00:26:45 It's kind of funny that we have to even talk about that. No? I love it when I can just get a guest to just check out. We've only got a minute and a half. I'm a foundation leader, not a political comment. No, no, but I'm just saying it's like that's when you talk about the federalist society, the point is that, you know, you could have a president and say, well, I don't want to get in bed with those right-wing nuts. And the president, to his credit, has understood the importance of this. And I think that, you know, he's not representing anything except America when he does that. And that's what a president's supposed to do. He's supposed to figure that out.
Starting point is 00:27:25 But I also think that the Republican Party has to have, think about what its agenda is. One of the problems right now is, that it's fashionable in the Republican Party to soften capitalism. It's like social capital. So you end up with, let's have another child credit. Well, there are many, many child credits in existence so far. And the true reality is if the capital gains tax went down to 5%, that would do more for families than any child credit. But the Republican Party is squish.
Starting point is 00:27:57 Yeah. And that's a real problem. Oh, that's another story. Oh, my gosh. Swishy. We're running out of time. 30 seconds left. People who are just tuning in.
Starting point is 00:28:06 What is the great society? The great society is the local society. The great society that was wrong in this book is the one that is arrogant and thinks Washington can do everything. And we've had how many decades to figure out that it didn't work, it doesn't work, and it cannot work? Half a century. Half a century. I mean, more than half a century, right? I mean, it's unbelievable.
Starting point is 00:28:29 Well, Amity, thanks for taking it. the time to come down to the studio here. Thanks for everything you do. But in particular, thanks for being a genuine historian and using your gifts to write this book, Great Society, a new history. It really is vital that we understand how we got here. What works, what doesn't work. Thank you so much. Thank you, Eric. Hey there, folks. Welcome back to the Ekmataksa show. This is the bunker video version. If you're listening on radio, I'm just here to tell you that we are not disembodied voices. We're human beings. And you can watch us in our quarantine state if you go to the Eric Metaxus show on YouTube. Actually, please go to the Eric Mataxis show on YouTube and subscribe and tell your
Starting point is 00:29:46 friends to subscribe. There are a lot of people who watch there, but they're not subscribed. It actually helps us if you are subscribed. So please do subscribe if you're not yet subscribed. that's one thing. The second thing, I didn't mention it in the segment earlier, but we were just all raving about Mike Lindell. And I said, you know, as a way to thank him, when you order pillows and whatever mattress stoppers, go to MyPillow.com.
Starting point is 00:30:13 They're a big sponsor of ours, but don't forget to use Eric as the code. Otherwise, you do not get our discount code. Obviously, anybody can use that. You don't need to listen to this program. But I'm just telling you to do that or asking you to do that, I should say. Alvin, what else are we going to talk about?
Starting point is 00:30:29 Well, you know what? Make sure you sign up for the newsletter coming out this weekend as well. Go to Eric Metaxus.com and sign up for the newsletter. Yeah. Please. And please follow me on Twitter and on Facebook if you can do that. And even on Instagram. We're starting to post some wacky stuff on Instagram.
Starting point is 00:30:49 Okay, I didn't want to forget this. Food for the poor. Yes. Holy cow. Today and tomorrow are the last days that anyone can donate to Food for the Poor. So first of all, we want to say to those of you who have donated, God bless you. Thank you. We are so thrilled that we are able to help very, very poor families in rural Guatemala through
Starting point is 00:31:13 Food for the Poor. Food for the Poor is a fantastic organization. And I want to report that this week, even though it's a half week, we're still going to give out a weekly, grand prize. Now, the grand prize, as some of you know, everyone who gives anything is eligible for the grand prize. So some of you can give very little. Some of you can give a lot. Every $80 feeds someone for a year in Guatemala. This is very important and water for life. So anything you give would be appreciated. Obviously, $320 is for a family of four for a year. It's an amazing thing and it's a great cause. But anything you give, you're entered to win the grand prize.
Starting point is 00:31:59 And this is this week. So you haven't given, you have one more chance to enter this. The winner gets, this is almost funny, gets to visit us in the studio, which we claim by faith, because we are obviously locked out of the studio right now. I think it's being used as a civil war hospital or something like that. There's something going on there, but we cannot get into the studio during this quarantine season. But whenever we do get back in there, you have the ability to come visit us while we tape the show. It is an amazing experience. You can bring as many people as you want if you win the grand prize. Now, by the way, anybody who wants to do that, all you have to do is give $500. And you and your whole family, as many as you want, you can all come for $500.
Starting point is 00:32:46 But the grand prize is if you give any amount, you're entered. And you can win that. And you can win that. And by the way, when you win the grand prize, you don't just get that. You get a ton of signed books from the authors. Signed by Eric, signed by Elbin, Hamster Holmes, and Donald the Caveman. And Donald, the Caveman. Signed by everybody. Now, so please take advantage. Literally today is supposed to be the last day, but we'll extend it this week, certainly tomorrow. But you have to go to metastasot.com. You have to go to my tax talk.com. Yes, you do.
Starting point is 00:33:26 The banner for food for the poor. That's right. Just follow the link and it'll show you what to do. Now, I should say all these signed books that people win, one of these signed books is the Bonhofer book, the hardcover of the Bonhofer book. I was just going to say, we're not in the studio during this really weird quarantine.
Starting point is 00:33:48 And I was thinking of doing next week, I can't even believe this. Next week is the 75th anniversary of the death of this great hero, Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I wanted to do something about that in the studio. Obviously, we won't be in the studio. But we have to commemorate that somehow all of next week, because this is a major, major, major, major anniversary, 75th anniversary since April 9, 1945,
Starting point is 00:34:18 when he was hanged by the Nazis for his plot and the involvement to kill Adolf Hitler. The story of his life is extraordinary. I had the privilege of writing a book version of it, and we're coming out later this year with a 75th anniversary edition. Actually, it's a 10th anniversary of the book, so it's really the 10th anniversary edition of the book. And I've written a new forward to go with the 10th anniversary edition.
Starting point is 00:34:50 I think it's going to be out in October. and it's forced me to revisit the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. And in a way, I've avoided it most of this decade, just because it's so moving that it overwhelms me sometimes. And writing the book was more than enough. And I've spoken about him hundreds of times. But with the 10th anniversary edition, I thought, you know, I really do need to revisit this and write this forward.
Starting point is 00:35:18 And I have to say, it really just gave me renewed a preemptive. for him. So next week, which is the 75th anniversary of his death, we'll be talking about him. I'll be talking about him perhaps with some special guests. We shall see. So it's such a strange time. So Chris and Albin, like, what are you doing in the evenings during this bizarre time? How do you, how are you dealing with us? You watching something on TV, reading? What's going on? Chris, why don't you go with that one? Chris has six kids. Yeah. So basically, I spend most of the...
Starting point is 00:35:51 of my free time, just, you know, pretty much yelling at my children. So that's good night. I just yell at my family. You should always spank your kids at the same time, you know, every day. Very important. Yeah. Yeah, too old. I've been watching, I've been saying this that, you know, at the end of the day when I'm, like, exhausted,
Starting point is 00:36:13 I just have been watching old, well, not old. I've been watching stuff on the BBC, which is like Jane Austen and Dickens, you know, series. And some of them are amazing. And I will tell you, when we come back for the final segment, I'll tell you about the one that Suzanne and I watched last night, which was insane. We'll be right back. It's the Airman Taxis Show. Hey, folks, welcome back. This is the bunker video version of the Air Kim Taxes Show.
Starting point is 00:37:24 Albin and Chris, I was just saying that, you know, Suzanne and I've been watching some, we've kind of discovered streaming videos. Like we're very late to the game, I know. But I've got to tell you, there are these glorious Dickens adaptations and these glorious Jane Austen adaptations, most of them done by the BBC. And they are just most of them really amazing. And I know, Albin, you've watched some of them. But Suzanne and I watched Jane Eyre the other night. And I was too tired.
Starting point is 00:37:55 I couldn't watch it. So I went to sleep. She watched the rest of it. and at the end of it, they'll sort of suggest something else that you might like. Right. And so yesterday she couldn't remember what it was, but she says it looked funny. And so we looked and looked and we finally figured it out. And it's a show called Hunderby, which was created by the BBC.
Starting point is 00:38:17 It's very bawdy in the Chaucerian manner. So it's not the kind of thing that, you know, if you have particular qualms about bodiness, this is not the show to watch. but it is one of the most funny, well-written shows. It is basically a spoof of, you know, like an early 18th century period drama, right? So it looks like all these other BBC shows, but it's a spoof. And it's specifically a spoof of, have you ever seen Rebecca where, what's her name? It's with Lawrence Olivier, plays the master of Mandalay, this great home.
Starting point is 00:38:56 and his wife is this, or I'm sorry, his wife dies. And then he marries this, this very shy young woman. I can't think of the actress who plays her, but she plays a very mousy, you know. And then there's a housekeeper called Miss Danvers, who's a very frightening, forbidding figure. And Miss Danvers basically is intimidating this young, new wife. because this young new wife can't really step into the shoes of the lady of Mandalay,
Starting point is 00:39:32 who has now passed away. So this, even though that takes place in the, you know, looks like the 19th, sorry, the 1900s, this thing called Hunterby is set sometime in the 1800s, but it's the same concept. But the writing is absolutely hilarious. It's so funny that we put on the subtitles because they speak very quickly in the British accents. And then the subtitles became distracting, and we just decided we'd pause and rewind if we didn't catch the joke. But some of the stuff is extremely funny. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:40:04 It's, so as I say, it's body. So it's not for everybody. You know, it's not overly bawdy, but I'm just saying it is so brilliant. And so I don't know if either of you gets a chance to watch it. The episode is like 22 minutes each. There's like eight of them. Well, that's going to be on my list. No Safe Spaces is actually at the top of my list, okay?
Starting point is 00:40:24 Thank you. You know what? I've already watched No Safe Spaces, but here's the thing. Thank you for reminding me because we're going to be done for the day in a minute. Ladies and gentlemen, No Safe Spaces is about free speech in America, and it's about the censorship by the militant left of conservative voices. Well, guess what? The movie itself has been censored from a number of platforms, has been shut down.
Starting point is 00:40:52 They won't air it on a number of platforms. I don't remember which, but it made me and the Salem Radio Network so angry. We said we need to push this on our radio programs because this is, I mean, it's unbelievable. If you see the film, you will see that there is not a hint of anything in it that should offend anybody. I mean, it's just not made to be provocative in that way. Adam Carolla is in it. Candice Owens is in it. Dennis Prager is in it.
Starting point is 00:41:19 Alan Dershowitz is in it. All kinds of people that you'd recognize are talking about. free speech. It's amazing. You go to no safep spaces.com. We're at a time. We'll talk to you tomorrow. We'll have John Smirak. Don't, don't miss that. Thanks for listening.

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