The Eric Metaxas Show - Brandon Straka
Episode Date: August 21, 2024Brandon Straka joins the show to discuss his sequel to the first Walk Away video ...
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Noble gold investments is the official gold sponsor of the Eric Mataxis show, a company that specializes in gold IRAs and physical delivery of precious metals.
Learn how you can protect your wealth with noble gold investments.
That's noble gold investments.com.
Welcome to the Eric Mattaxas show.
Back again, eh?
Glutton for punishment, eh?
When will you ever learn?
Now, here's the host that you hate to love, the man who was the first.
reason your friend sponsored your last intervention, Eric Matt, Texas.
Welcome to Tuesday. Chris Himes, welcome to Tuesday.
Happy Tuesday. Is it a super Tuesday?
Nah. It's just a regular Tuesday.
Yeah. But we have two great guests today and one really crummy guest. No, that's not true.
We just have two guests, two great guests. I'm sorry we couldn't come up with the third crummy
guest. We only have two great guests today. In Hour 1, Brandon Strock. Man, what a hero. He started
the walkaway campaign. We've got Brandon in hour one right here in the studio. Also, right here
in the studio, my dear friend Ryan Helfenbine, he's at Liberty University, another hero. So we have two
Yeah, they're doing a lot of cool stuff. Spectacular guests today. Later today, Tuesday, I fly
to Nashville.
And so do you.
I think we're on the same plane.
We're going to go hang out at the honky talks or whatever that is.
We're going to try to carve out a career in country music.
And you know what?
If it doesn't happen, it doesn't happen.
But we're going to try.
Yeah, and I'm packing an extra jug.
So if things don't work on Nashville, I can head over to Branson with my jug.
With the jug, right.
Or you can rent it out to jug bands who are always short a jug, if you know what I'm saying.
So listen.
tomorrow night, which is Wednesday, I'm speaking in Murfreesboro, one of my favorite churches in the world, World Outreach Church.
That's tomorrow night. If you're in the Murfreesboro, Nashville area, I hope you'll come.
I will be in Dallas doing a couple events, September 8th, 9th. I'm speaking at Prestwood Baptist Church that weekend. A lot of stuff coming up.
You can find it at Eric Mataxis.com. And actually, we need to announce this. I have been saying,
saying that if you go to metaxis talk.com and you email us, we will be delighted to read
your questions, your comments.
We just found out, Chris, correct me from wrong, that whatever you sent there didn't get there.
I'd like to blame the Trump Elon Musk's Twitter attack type thing, but it was actually just some
bad web coding.
Okay.
So we've now fixed it.
So if you go and use the form now.
No, but the point, what we really need to say is if you sent an email there, and I'm
sure many of you did, you need, first of all, to accept our apologies that we didn't get it.
So whatever you sent, would you please send it again?
Your questions, your comments, anything, we didn't get it.
It went into a black hole.
We can't get it.
Yeah.
Unless it was something.
Can we get it?
No, no, we can.
It's gone.
So folks, no joke.
We're so sorry.
Whatever you sent, go to Metaxistock.com.
Whatever comments you sent or questions, we didn't get it.
So we need to ask you, and we're now asking you, please forgive us and please rescind it.
Because we want to read what you say on the air.
We do a viewer or a listener writes.
We do those segments.
We do Ask Mattaxas segments.
But we need you to write us again.
So please go to Metaxistock.com and, again, forgive us.
And by the way, if you never went to Metaxestalksotoccom to ask questions or to make comments, would you please do that?
Go to Metaxestalk.com. That's our radio website. And I guess I ought to remind you that we're in the last days of our summer campaign to help kids and families serve by our friends of the Christian nonprofit relief organization, food for the poor.
we need your help.
These kids are starving, hard to believe, but it's true.
And the good news is you can do something about it.
So if you go to MetaxusTalk.com, you'll see the Give Life banner.
When you click on that, you are saving lives of kids in 17 Latin American and Caribbean nations where food for the poor operates.
So you can just go to Metaxistalk.com and you can click on the banner.
If you prefer to give monthly, that's sometimes easier.
But the idea of feeding the poor, we're supposed to do this, folks.
The government's not supposed to do this.
We're supposed to do this.
So please, would you help us go to metaxis talk.com?
You'll see the banner.
Or if you prefer to use your phone right now, you can just text the word Eric to 51555.
That's text ERIC to 51555.
Just to be clear, every gift of $50 feeds a kid two nutritious meals per day for an entire year.
That is how far food for the poor is able to stretch our dollars.
It also helps that village get access to clean drinking water.
This is a very serious problem.
We've talked about it on the program, and we will remind you throughout this week that we really need your help.
We're way behind whatever you can spare.
We appreciate it.
There's also a phone number.
Some of you prefer to call.
If you want to call right now, dial 844-8663-hope.
That's 844-8663-8-6-3-4-863-4-6-7-3.
8-4-863.
Whatever you can spare to help us out.
We're very grateful to you.
We're doing a lot of other things that we want to mention before we go to our guests.
And I'd just like to say back to the email contact form thing.
If you did send an email or a note and it was nasty, please resend that, but make sure you send it to Dennis Prager.
Please do that.
Yeah, not to us.
So when you go to Metaxistock.com, don't bother sending the nasty email.
Just send those to Prager or Hugh Hewitt or any of our friends.
But anybody but us, that's the key, anyone but us.
So I want to mention that.
we are
relaunching the tour,
the church tour, for Letter
to the American Church. So
many churches showed the film,
but if your church has not
yet done that or wants to do it
again, we
want to make that possible.
So if you go to letter to the American
church.com, that's the website,
letter to the Americanchurch.com,
you will see
that you can email about
how to do this, but we want as many people to see this as possible before the election, folks.
We're in the home stretch.
So part of what we're doing is we're partnering with My Faith Votes to encourage voter registration,
and then also we have voter guides, state-by-state voter guides that are actually really,
it's been shown that that's really helpful to get people to kind of understand the issues.
and we had on a guest recently to talk about that.
Actually, I can read the verbiage that's right in front of me here.
It says, we're partnering with million voices and my faith votes for a pledge to vote campaign.
So you can go to our website, Letter to the American Church.com.
You can watch the film, and you can fill out the pledge to vote form on our site pledging to vote in November.
Also, the church tour is back.
I just mentioned that for a donation of any amount.
You can bring the film to your church and encourage your church audience to pledge to vote after watching the film.
So go to letter to the American church.com to find out more.
This is very important.
I just want to say it's very important.
And don't forget to visit our friends, our sponsors at Americans for Prosperity.com.
Americans for Prosperity.com and also
our friends at
the Herzog Foundation.org
if you want to homeschool your kids,
this is kind of important folks.
Christian, real Christ-centered K-312 education,
go to
Herzog Foundation.org.
It is so important right now, more than ever,
that we do that.
Chris, you did that.
Your family did that.
Yeah, well, this is sort of back to
school time for us because we're homeschooling. We have our three kids that we're teaching at home.
And by we, I mean my wife. But I do actually help out a little bit. But it's actually really
great to get resources because it's, it is challenging at first. But when you realize how much
is out there and how many other families and parents have done this before, you know, it's helpful.
So herzog foundation.com, I said.org. That was a
wrong. Hurtzog Foundation.com. They're there to help you, folks. And this is why we believe
in what they do. Ditto with our friends at Americans for Prosperity. You can visit them also at
Borders, SecureBorder, SecureAmerica.com. SecureBorder. SecureAmerica.com. We'll be right
back with our amazing guests. Americans are tired and frustrated by a stalling economy in
inflation, endless wars, and the relentless assault on our values.
Thankfully, there are companies like Patriot Mobile that still believe in America and our
Constitution.
And I'm proud to partner with Patriot Mobile because they're on the front lines fighting
for the First and Second Amendments, Sanctity of Life, and our military and first responder
heroes.
Take a stand for conservative causes and put America first by switching to Patriot Mobile today.
You'll get the same nationwide coverage as the big providers because Patriot Mobile
operates across all three major networks.
Plus, they back their service with a coverage guarantee.
They're 100% U.S.-based.
customer service team will find the best plan for your needs.
Keep your number, keep your phone or upgrade.
Go to Patriotmobil.com slash metaxis or call 972 Patriot.
Right now, get a free month when you use the offer code metaxus.
Don't get fooled by other providers pretending to share your values or have the same coverage because they don't and they can't.
Join me, switch to America's only conservative Christian mobile provider.
Go to Patriotmobile.com slash metaxus or call 972 Patriot for your free month of service today.
Are you worried about the future of the U.S. economy?
with so much uncertainty in the air, it's natural to fret about the security of your retirement savings.
But there's one asset that stands the test of time, gold. For centuries, gold has been a hedge
against market volatility and economic instability. With a gold IRA from noble gold investments,
you can harness the power of precious metals to help protect your financial future. By rolling
over your existing IRA or 401k into a self-directed gold IRA, you can enjoy the potential for
long-term growth and stability. Diversify your portfolio.
with a tangible asset that has real value.
Setting up your gold IRA has never been easier
with noble gold investments, streamlined process,
and expert guidance.
This election year, don't let election volatility
and uncertainty keep you up at night.
Vote for the timeless safety of gold and silver in 2024.
Noble gold investments will give you up to 10, 1 ounce,
silver trump coins or a 10 ounce silver American flag bar
if you open a qualified account.
Go to noblegoldinvestments.com now,
noblegoldinvestments.com.
Hey there, folks.
Once again, as my guest is someone who is a friend.
Brandon Stroke, he's the conservative commentator and former liberal who made a name for himself as the founder of the walk away campaign.
Brandon, welcome back.
It's great to be here.
You have a new video out.
I saw it.
It's exciting.
But for people who aren't familiar with you or the walk away campaign, you, you, you, you,
You've got to tell your story because this is a story.
Like there's a lot of Americans who have similar stories.
They're maybe not as public, but just what happened to you and how it happened.
I can't hear it enough.
So if you don't mind, tell people how you became, you know, the founder in the face of walkaway campaign.
Sure.
Yeah.
So, I mean, basically just I'm a lifelong, I was a lifelong liberal and Democrat, two-time Obama voter.
I voted for Hillary in 2016.
And I was, you know, one of the people who was very upset.
when Donald Trump got elected for several reasons.
One, I believed everything that the left wing media told me about Donald Trump and his supporters.
And two, I also believed the left wing media when they told me that he had absolutely no chance of winning.
And she was going to win in a landslide.
So when he did win, two things were happening simultaneously.
One, I felt betrayed by the media that I trusted.
How did they miss this?
How did they get it so wrong?
Number two, why would anybody vote for this monster?
I mean, we literally just elected Hitler.
How did America do this?
And I spent about two weeks paralyzed by fear and anger and resentment.
And I finally reached the point where I thought, okay, this is going to be very long and painful four years if I don't find a way to process whatever has just happened.
And so that's how my journey began.
Never began with any thought whatsoever that I could possibly end up supporting Donald Trump or being okay with his supporters.
I just wanted to understand those two things.
How did the media get it so wrong to?
why would anyone vote for this man?
And so for the next several months, I kind of dug in and I started researching.
And what I began to realize in instance after instance was all the things that I believed about Donald Trump and his supporters were left-wing fabrications.
Now, listen, I just want to say, I know that this has happened to a lot of people, but there are a lot of people today who still believe what the mainstream media is pushing.
And again, I'm like a broken record, but I say this.
all the time. I understand why people believe the mainstream media, because I used to believe
the mainstream media. You used to believe the mainstream media. It takes, it's hard to process
that they kind of took a weird left turn and suddenly are all in for one candidate. It's one
thing to lean left. It's another thing when they are promoting, knowingly promoting propaganda
and lies. And it's, I understand how hard it is for people to get their heads.
around that. So you are a rare bird in that you decided to really look into this. Yeah. And I mean,
it must have been a weird process for you to go from who you were to suddenly seeing things differently.
It was, I mean, honestly, it was kind of horrible because as I was starting to see that I was
wrong about just about everything that I believed. And initially, I started kind of speaking
out about it a little bit. Well, I did start speaking out about it to friends, coworkers, people that I
living in New York City.
Everyone's very liberal.
And I was getting shut down.
And people were becoming very hostile and contemptuous towards me.
And I stopped getting invited to parties.
And people stopped returning my text messages and my phone calls.
And that in itself also started to turn a light on because I was like, well, wait,
why am I not allowed to change my mind?
And also, why is it a bad thing to discover that these things that are terrifying us aren't real?
Isn't that a good thing?
Like, surprise, we don't have to be.
so upset because the things the media are telling us aren't true. But it was like I started to see
this pattern where it's like addiction. And you were mentioning the people who are still on this train
because they're junkies. The media is feeding their addiction to hate. And they become addicted
to hate it at this point. They're like, I hate Donald Trump. I hate his supporters. I hate this.
And so every night they tune in to get their fix of why, oh, God, you know, what did Donald Trump do today?
And think of the irony. They're all about, they talk about love. They talk about their
against hate. And the fact of the matter is, the conservatives that I know, the people who love
Trump and his policies, they're not full of hate. It's so interesting to me, the great irony
that these people, and for me, I think part of it, my Christian faith comes into it, because I believe
hate hate hate is wrong. You can, I mean, to hate people is wrong, right? You can hate policies
or you can hate what they're doing, but you don't hate people.
But I believe what has happened on the left.
And I remember this goes way back.
This is my walkaway story.
But it feels good to hate.
It makes you feel morally superior when you can find some group of people and just say they're scum.
They don't deserve to live.
They're evil.
And I think that that is kind of an addiction.
It feels so good to say, I'm wonderful, and they're scum.
I hate them.
And this is what's going on on the left.
But again, the irony is amazing to me because they always talk about we're not about hate.
We're against hate.
And it's like, well, you say you are, but you're full of hate in being against hate.
And also anger and rage feels like power to a lot of people.
So if you're a person who's fundamentally unsatisfied with your life or discontent in some way,
you have two choices.
You can become depressed and kind of turn that in.
inward or you can lash out in anger. And anger is easily confused with power. And so I think that a lot of
people feel powerful when they hate other people. But in fact, they're just not acknowledging that
they're actually fundamentally very depressed. Yeah. Well, again, we see the classic case is the,
you know, the Nazis fomenting hatred of the Jews. When you can find a scapegoat and say that group
is unhuman, anti-human, evil, there are people who will respond to that because you've got all
these problems, but if you can put it on some other group, it makes you feel good. And so this is
kind of standard human nature, but to see it happening in the United States is horrifying. And I
remember, you know, again, my walkaway story when I was in college at Yale, I kind of bought all the,
drank the Kool-Aid. And I remember that feeling of moral superiority, like those people are
evil. I bought this, basically. And my walk-away story was in the late 80s.
I was home in Danbury, Connecticut, living with my parents, kind of lost, trying to be a writer.
And I started watching, it was like the Clarence Thomas.
I'm sorry, no, this is before that.
This is the Robert Bork hearings.
And I remember thinking, wait a minute, the way the people that I thought were the good guys are behaving, like Teddy Kennedy and stuff,
they were behaving evil.
And it's like I saw it for the first time because I wasn't hanging out with my friends.
Like I could actually just see what was real.
And it is a weird process to kind of have this, your whole world shifts.
And so, but I mean, you had this fairly recently.
2016, you went through this process.
But I like what you say too about how the reaction, the hateful reaction to you was kind of,
it didn't do what they would hope, which is make you kind of come back to them,
but that it made you realize, wait a minute, if that's their reaction, something's wrong.
Well, and that speaks to just the rebellious nature of my personality.
Once somebody tells me you can't do this or you can't say this or you can't think this,
you're going to make me want to say that and think it more.
And also start asking why?
Why can't I do that?
And so when everyone on the left started saying, don't ask these questions, don't say these things,
you're helping Trump when you do that.
And I thought, I'm not helping Trump when I'm trying to do.
I'm seeking truth.
I'm trying to understand literally what is going on.
You know, the media told us he's a racist, he's a bigot, or that he mocked a reporter's disability, or that he hates Mexicans or whatever.
But then I'm doing all this research and realizing none of those things actually happened.
None of them were true.
And isn't that interesting?
Why are they doing this?
And when it became clear to me, I wasn't allowed to have those conversations.
Yeah.
That's when I made my first video and spoke out about that.
Well, it is a chilling thing when you recognize.
Like, I remember when I saw the video that proved that he wasn't.
mocking the disabled reporter.
I just thought, whoa.
Holy cow.
Like they grabbed this lie and they ran and ran and ran and ran and ran.
And there are most people today still believe that lie.
Yes.
Not most people, but a lot of people, millions and millions and millions of people, still know that that's true and it's not true.
Well, and I think what's so alarming is that the more they get away with this, the more brazen they
become.
Because to me, one of the stupidest examples of them doing this is the bloodbath thing.
that they recently, oh, Trump, and Biden still says it to this day.
Oh, yeah.
Donald Trump's already told us if he gets elected, it's going to be a blood, or if he doesn't
get elected, it's going to be a bloodbath in this country.
We all know, well, most of us know what he meant and what he was saying.
Yeah.
But there's still a sect of that base that will believe this nonsense.
I mean, it is, you know, it's like there's lying and then there's a kind of a brazen lying,
which is really evil.
I mean, to lie like that.
And Biden, nobody has been more guilty of that than Joe Biden.
I've been stunned, frankly.
Again, because you expect politicians to kind of, you know, to skew things a certain way.
But the level of brazen lying that has come from the left and particularly Biden,
it's taken my breath away.
And I think because it makes me realize we're in a new day, this is not like, oh, this is not the old Democratic Party that they've got a view.
and I don't agree with it.
They are doubling down to keep power, to get power.
They will literally say anything.
And folks, that should scare you.
That should scare you because that's really sick.
But in the good news department, I'm talking to my friend Brandon Strach.
He has a new walkaway video out.
When we come back, we're going to talk about the new video, which I've seen.
It's fabulous.
Don't go away.
Hey, this is Eric Metaxus.
For years, I've told you about nutrometics, a professional supplement
brand trusted by doctors since 1993.
Nutrametics offers a variety of health bundles.
Whether you want to support your immune system, improve your sleep, promote joint comfort
or detoxification support, Nutrametics has a health bundle right for you.
The best part about Nutrametics, every year they donate a minimum of 50% of their profits
to Christian charities and missions.
That's right, 50% of their profits.
Neutrametics has a goal of surpassing $100 million in giving by 2030.
Many of you take supplements already.
Switch to Neutrametics.
It's the highest quality.
and they donate 50% of their profits.
Get 15% off by using the code Eric during checkout.
Go to Nutrametics.com and search health bundles, support your health while helping others in need.
Go to Nutrametics. That's N-U-T-R-A-M-E-D-I-X.com.
Neut-R-M-E-D-I-X.
For 15% off.
Again, Neutrametics, N-U-T-R-A-M-D-I-X.com.
Nutrametics.com use the code Eric for 15% off.
Hey, folks, you asked and my pillow listened.
They're finally bringing you the most requested offer ever.
Right now, you can get the queen-sized premium MyPillow for only 1998.
My Pillar is made with patented, adjustable fill.
It adjust to your exact individual needs, regardless of your sleep position.
It helps keep your neck aligned and holds its shape all night long so you get the best sleep of your life.
But that's not all.
Get their six-piece kitchen or bath towel sets for only $25.
The brand-new mattress topper for as low as $69.998 and their famous My Pillow bed sheets for as low
is $25 and so much more.
Go to MyPillow.com or call 800-978-3057.
Use promo code Metaxus to get huge discounts on all MyPillow products,
including the premium queen-size My Pillo only 1998.
That's the lowest price ever.
Don't delay order today.
Use promo code Metaxus at checkout.
Again, 800-9783057.
Use promo code Metaxus to get huge discounts.
All right.
The last time you were here was, it was like over-eastern,
year and a half ago is almost two years ago with my friends John Strand and Simone Gold.
We were hanging out, the three of us, not long after that.
John Strand went to prison for doing nothing because of the power-hungry maniacs in the Biden administration,
wanting to shut down anybody who would dare to say, I'll vote for Donald Trump, I love America, whatever it is.
And so to sit here with you and to think of the hell that you've been through, the hell that our friend John Strand has been through, he was on the program recently,
what we're facing is evil.
I mean, I think this is why so many people are waking up because they've never seen anything like this.
How the left has demonized its opponents on a level.
And think of the irony.
The right, the conservatives would never do this.
I mean, if anybody who is a Trump supporter who has that attitude, I'd be the first one in his face and say, no, we don't fly that way.
We don't roll that way.
But the left has demonized its opponents.
We've just never seen anything like it in America.
It's so sick.
And what they did to you, I mean, you told that story on this program.
But it's just like.
what you said about your friends that kind of came at you or shut you off when you had these different
opinions to go, that's evidence for what I'm saying is true. Yeah. Not what that it's false.
Well, can I tell you something? And if I don't think I've ever said this publicly before,
so I'm going to break this on your show right here today. So, you know, we used to talk about
left-wing reporters being activists, you know, they're activist reporters. Well, we're so far beyond
them being activist reporters. Now, many of them see themselves as, as like an arm of the judiciary,
that it's like their, it's their job to help us be prosecuted or, or, and a lot of people don't know this.
There's a scumbag who works for CNN who actually contacted my prosecutor the night before my plea hearing when I was pleading guilty to a misdemeanor for January 6th because, and the reason why I pled guilty to a misdemeanor is because I wasn't willing to go to trial in D.C. and be found guilty, guaranteed.
That's why I pled guilty.
But he contacted my prosecutor.
and said tomorrow's Brandon Strock's plea hearing.
We have reason to believe he's planning to plead guilty tomorrow,
but he doesn't actually believe that he's guilty.
Would you want to reconsider offering him this plea deal?
Who did this?
A reporter for CNN.
He literally, CNN, a reporter for CNN,
tried to get my plea deal pulled.
Did this.
Literally reached out to the prosecutor and tried to get my plea deal pulled.
My attorney.
Is he still working at CNN?
As far as I know.
See, ladies and gentlemen,
you just heard this.
How evil, how sick.
Can you imagine a right, Tucker Carlson calling a prosecutor and saying, you know, this member of Antifa is, or whatever.
I mean, we would never do that.
A right-wing journalist would never do that, get involved in the legal process.
Now, I have to ask you, I have to, you know, play the skeptic and say, how do you know this?
Because this is really horrifying.
I can't even believe I'm hearing this.
Because the prosecutor sent his email to my lawyer.
I mean, I can show you the email.
My lawyer called me in a frenzy the night before.
So it was like 9 o'clock p.m. the night before my plea hearing, which was the next morning.
And my attorney called me and said, they're talking about pulling your plea deal.
And my prosecutor in my case forwarded the email from CNN to my attorney.
My attorney sends to me, I've got the email.
And so my attorney had to go back to the prosecutor and be like, this is not true.
We don't know why he's saying this.
And somehow they were able to smooth it over before the next morning.
Is there any wonder that no one watches CNN?
I mean, it's just amazing what has happened to journalism in America.
Well, look, you've been through hell.
I was mentioning John Strand has been through hell.
But I think what has happened is people who've been put through this, as you have been, have become radicalized and said, okay, you're just making me fight harder.
I'm not going to back down.
And so this leads us to the new video that you just created, this new walkaway video.
So talk about this.
Yeah.
So in this video, I launched Walk Away six years ago by putting out this video that went very, very viral, talking about all the reasons I was walking away.
Here we are six years later, and I've done what I'm calling the sequel to that original video, shot very much in the same style.
But this time around, I'm talking about all the things that have happened in the last six years, the ways in which the left has.
eroded our culture, our values, our freedoms, our country.
And it's stunning.
And it's a lot.
The video is less than 10 minutes long.
But in the video, it's rapid fire.
I mean, it happens very, very quickly.
And I tell people, you know, take a breath and sit down because people are having a very
emotional reaction to it.
And the reason why they're having a very emotional reaction is because people keep saying
this is overwhelming.
You know, and I keep saying it's almost like we're in an abusive relationship with
the left where they do something to.
us and then we just cope and we move on and we move on. But in this video, I sort of force people
with, I show headlines, I show video clips, I show pictures, bringing the receipts, talking about
all the things they've done in just the last six years since I made the first video. And by the
time people get done watching it, many people are weeping because they're like, I can't believe
this is the state of our country and what these people have done. But it's very powerful. And
President Trump actually posted it last night, I really encourage people to watch it because it's,
It's a journey that you go on watching this.
Well, I've seen it.
It's very short.
It flies by.
And it's, you've got, it's all there.
So people, to see that video, where do they go?
Well, we've posted it on every platform.
I mean, they can go to X at my account at Brandon Strachuk.
It's called Strachka.
It's on YouTube, Facebook, everywhere.
St.R-A-K-A.
K-A.
St-R-A-K-A.
Brandon Strock.
We'll be right back with Brandon Strock.
Brock, who's the founder of the walkaway campaign.
So you have created a platform, an app, rather, where people can post their own walkaway videos.
And there are tons and tons of walkaway stories.
I have a walkaway story.
I haven't made a video.
But you have a contest now that you're...
We do.
Okay.
So if you tell your walkaway story, Eric, you will have a chance to win $10,000.
And I don't know how things are going in your life.
but I highly encourage you to enter this.
I don't need 10,000.
I need 100,000.
No, but so you have a contest.
Yeah, yeah.
So we're calling it the walkaway $10,000 testimony of video challenge.
And for people to get more information, they can go to walkaway challenge.com.
But basically what we're doing is between now and November 1st,
we're asking people to submit their walkaway videos just like they were anyway.
But we are going to, over the course of the next couple of months, watch all these videos.
we will judge them based off of various criteria.
The most important criteria being that it be truthful, heartfelt,
but if people want to get creative, whatever they want to do,
it's just a fun contest.
At the end of this couple of months,
we're going to have a first, second and third place winner,
third place gets $500,
second place gets $1,000,
first place gets $10,000,
but it gets even better.
The first 50 people to enter automatically get $100 just for entering.
So the first 50 people get,
$100 just for entering.
Just for entering their walkway deal.
So when is the deadline or when is the moment?
The deadline is October 15th, but all people need to do is go to walkwaychallenge.com.
So they have to go to walkway challenge, read the rules and then fill out your
submission for them and there's, you know, you have to use hashtag walkway, walkway challenge.
But when is the starting line for this?
Now.
Now.
Yeah, the contest is open now.
Oh.
Until October 15th.
So you might already be too late.
You better hurry up.
Yeah.
That's, no, that's exciting.
Listen, this is a, I mean, I think the reason the walkaway movement has become so popular is because you've figured out a way to name something that's happening.
Right.
Because there are tons and tons of Americans that are radically different than they were just a few years ago.
They have, you know, people say they've been red-pilled or they've been, whatever it is, it's a healthy thing.
It's a good thing.
And a lot of people don't know what to call it because they've been, you know, you were part of that tribe.
It's like the New York liberal, you wouldn't even think about voting for Donald Trump.
And then something happened.
Right.
And it's happening today.
There are people today that are some piece of information is coming at them.
And they say, wait a minute, that's weird.
And they look into it.
And next thing you know, they're on a journey.
I think the reason why it's exciting and that people really like walk away is because I based it off of my own experience.
I ended up walking away.
But when I walked away, I was very lonely because I lost most of my friends as I was leaving the left.
And I didn't really know where I belonged anymore, what to do.
And I literally thought to myself, isn't it a shame that there's not a community or like a network of people who have had this experience who can come together?
And then I just thought maybe I'll try to create that.
And so I created walk away.
It turns out a lot of people wanted that community.
But I think that the other thing that people like is despite a lot of misreporting on both sides.
we're not a Republican organization.
We're not even specifically a pro-Trump organization.
Many of us walk away and end up supporting Trump or becoming Republicans.
But what we are is an organization that encourages people to think for themselves,
do your own homework, do your own research.
Wherever that journey takes you, we really don't care.
We're there to support you as long as you're thinking for yourself.
That's beautiful.
Well, I mean, that is beautiful because thinking for yourself, it takes a little effort.
It takes a little encouragement because, I mean, again, I remember, you know, my so-called walkaway story.
When I was in college, you know, you drink the Kool-Aid.
You're hanging out with this tribe of people and they're telling you, like, thinking this way is good, thinking that way is bad.
I think it's so funny.
I've talked about this publicly, but I remember because I was hanging out with group people.
I didn't know that they were like left-wing ideologues.
I didn't even know what that was, you know, because I was young.
And I remember them pointing out somebody who's one of my best friends now, John Zmirak,
and pointing him out on the Yelp campus, see that guy?
He's a conservative Christian fascist.
You need to know, like, he's a, da, da, da, like, you need to know, like, you should hate him.
And I was like, huh, you know.
And so it's not like I really did that, but it was kind of like, okay, I guess I got to be careful of that guy.
My friends have told me, you know, whatever.
And so years later, my views shift.
dramatically, and I meet him here in New York, and I'm like, hey, John, like, I think exactly
the way you do on everything. And it's just, it's been this process for me. I mean, I remember that
process, you know, I have these, these, these markers in that process, because it didn't happen
overnight. It took, it took some time for me to finally find my way, like, back to reality. But it's
just, it's just so funny, because I, whenever somebody says to me today, you know, can you imagine
thinking like that. It's like, I don't need to. I remember
thinking that way. I remember being
that person
who hated those people.
I remember it and I can still feel
those emotions. So
I think there are a lot of people out there who
you need to understand folks. Like a lot of us have been
through this. Yes. I had a very similar
experience. I had a friend
that I had found out through social media. She was a
conservative. I'd been friends with her for years
when we were both liberals.
And I reached out to her and I told her I couldn't
be friends with her anymore now that I discovered that
she was a conservative.
And then I had my own experience.
And after I had my own experience and became a conservative, I reached out to her.
And I said, I'm so sorry.
I get it now.
And she kind of laughed.
And she said, well, the good news is that because I'm a conservative, I forgive you.
And we're good.
That's funny.
Well, it's so funny because you throw your stuff out there.
I don't know if it was you or somebody else who said to me that some of my videos had
kind of informed them when they were on this process.
And you think like, I'm just throwing my stuff out there, you know.
All of it makes a huge difference.
Yeah, no, I watched a lot of your stuff as I was being red-pilled.
I think you said that last time, and I was like, what? Really?
How did you find your way to my stuff and how wonderful that it kind of helped you?
Because it is, look, this is hard, folks.
Let's be honest, this is hard.
There are a lot of people that I want to have grace for them who they're on the wrong side of this stuff.
But they don't know it.
They don't know it anymore than I knew it or you knew it.
And so, you know, we just need to have grace for them.
And that's why to be able to frame it as these walkaway videos, the walkaway campaign, you know, I just think it's brilliant.
So we want to tell people go to, well, there is a website.
Yeah, right now I'm just going to tell people go to walkwaychallenge.com.
Because if they go to that website, first of all, they can kind of navigate and learn more about the movement.
But I want to encourage everyone right now to enter that contest and share it.
Walkawaychallenge.com.com.
Yeah.
All right.
We're out of time.
Brandon Strock, fantastic.
Congratulations on the new video.
Thank you.
Walkawaychallenge.com is the website.
Thank you.
Thank you.
And everybody share that new video.
Let's get it out.
Let's get everyone to see it before November.
Yes.
We've got a lot of exciting guests today this week.
A lot of great, great, great stuff.
And I guess I want to make it clear that none of this would be possible without our partners or sponsors.
We have one of them, of course, is.
our friends at Americans for Prosperity.
They are officially America's largest grassroots organization.
They're out there every day, hoping to reignite the American dream.
Folks, I think you know I'm all on board with that.
So their priorities, we're talking about Americans for Prosperity, are to secure the border.
Check.
To end inflation.
Check.
To make energy more affordable.
Check.
What could be more basic than this, folks?
This is what America is all about.
that is the American dream.
So their idea is to bring like-minded conservatives together,
turn them into a grassroots army to defeat the left's horrifying big government agenda.
This is really important.
So this is why, I mean, we all know that the media, celebrities, universities, on and on,
they're kind of stacked against us.
So we're not reporting the facts.
I mean, everything's gotten so expensive.
And if you believe the economic data from the current administration,
And they make it sound like there's no, like the economy's great.
They make it like, shut up.
Your eyes are deceiving you.
I would run on the platform of make burritos affordable again, you know, just that, just that one ticket item.
Make burritos affordable again.
They're so excited.
I wanted to.
That's a winning, that's a winning slogan.
It used to be cheap, and now it's like.
No, no, look, look, it's horrible.
So please go to Americans for Prosperity.
Actually, you can also find them at SecureBorder, SecureAmerica.com.
That's secureborder, secureamerica.com.
I also want to mention our friends at the Herzog Foundation.
They exist to catalyze and accelerate the development of quality Christ-centered K-12 education.
Their vision is for families and culture to flourish through quality Christian education.
How else could that happen, folks?
And they want to make the ecosystems of Christian education more accessible and sustainable for families across the nation.
That translates into they want to help you do the right thing by your kids.
If you need help and most of us do in terms,
trying to homeschool our kids or get our kids plugged in to like a real Christian school,
not a fake Christian school, that, you know, they're going along with much of the culture,
but then they've got some little chapel that they do.
No, we're talking about quality Christ-centered education.
Check out Herzog Foundation.com.
These are our friends, folks.
We want you to check it out.
HurtzogFoundation.com.
Please do that.
And I mentioned this early.
We're doing a fundraiser with food for the poor.
We only do this once a year, and we're in the home stretch.
We're way behind, I don't know, because we're going through a crazy time in the country.
So it's important that this week you step up to the plate.
We have a phone number.
Some of you prefer to call.
Or you can text Eric to 51555.
Text Eric to 51555.
If you do it on your phone right now, text Eric to 51555.
The link will pop up.
Or you can go to Matacketachian.
Taxestalk.com, you'll see the banner, give life.
This is basic, folks.
Very basic.
For very little money, tax deductible, you're feeding starving children in our hemisphere.
This is a big thing.
So Food for the Poor is a Christian Relief Organization.
We believe in what they do.
They share the love of Jesus.
And they're able to multiply it, too.
That's the really crazy thing.
It's like for $50 you can feed a kid for a year, which is...
A year.
I mean, yeah, you say, has this.
possible. Well, we don't have time to tell you, but trust me, I've looked into it. And they
get a lot of donations and whatever, but then they need our money to actually get the food to these
kids. Let me say this before we go. The phone number is 844-863-hope, 844-863 hope, 844-8663 hope.
And if there's anybody out there who can give $15,000 tax-deductible, it would be my joy to thank
you in person by spending the evening with you, have dinner with you, with your family, with whatever
group you want to put together. That's one of the things that I can do is give up an evening of my
increasingly insanely valuable time, but it's a joy to do that and to meet people who are willing
to put their money where their faith is. So you can go to metaxis talk.com and you can see the banner.
And we hope you'll do that. God bless you.
