The Eric Metaxas Show - Chris Buskirk

Episode Date: February 10, 2023

Chris Buskirk of American Greatness has a new book covering an important and intriguing subject, "America and the Art of the Possible: Restoring National Vitality in an Age of Decay."

Folks, welcome to the Eric Mataxis show, sponsored by Legacy Precious Metals. There's never been a better time to invest in precious metals. Visit legacy p.m.investments.com. That's legacy p.m. Investments.com. Welcome to the Eric Mataxis show. Do you like your gravy thick and rich and loaded with creamy mushrooms? If no one was looking, would you chug the whole gravy boat? Chug, chug, chug, chug. Stay tuned. Here comes Mr. Chug-a-lug-lug-lug. himself, Eric Mattaxas. Hey, Albin.

Hey, Eric. It's Thursday. You know what that means? Yes. It means, I don't know what it means. Here's what it means. It means an hour two, we're doing Ask Metaxis. So get ready, because people send in questions, and I try to answer them.

And if you want to send in questions, hurry up. In hour one today, we have an amazing, amazing, amazing guest. Buzzkirk is the man behind American greatness. John Zmirak is always raving about American greatness. It's a website. They write a lot about January 6th. He has a new book out. Chris Buzzkirk has a new book out.

We're talking to him in hour one. In hour two, we're going to get crazy. And we're going to talk to our friend Greg Lorry. It was a really fun, crazy interview about this movie coming out, Jesus Revolution. So that's the announcement. Okay. Another announcement. This weekend, I'm speaking, I was going to say in Danbury, Connecticut, because it's like right on the border of Danbury and Bethel. Technically, it's Bethel, Connecticut. I'm speaking at his vineyard. I'll be signing books. I'm so excited. It's the sweetest church, kind of amazing little place. And I'm speaking there. And if anybody can drive there, I know some friends will be there. Keith Junta is going to be there. Mr. Winepatch.org. he and his wife are going to be there. Some other friends will be there.

But I just can't wait. My parents will be there. Hey, you want to meet my parents? That'll be a riot. Yeah, they're the stars of my book, Fish Out of Water. If you want to meet my mom and dad, they'll be there. So anyway, I just want to say Danbury, Connecticut, or actually Bethel, Connecticut, his Vineyard Church this Sunday, I'll be signing books.

They'll be selling books and I'll be signing books and so and so forth. Before we get to the emergency fundraise for Turkey and Syria, I want to mention there's a news report out that James O'Keefe, whom I know, was kind of like shoved out of his own organization Project Veritas. I just want to tell you, ladies and gentlemen, first of all, the timing of this. Pfizer, he has exposed Pfizer. He's exposed a lot of people. They are evil. There's no doubt about it.

And I don't have any doubt that I shouldn't say that. I don't say, I don't know, any doubt. I am strongly inclined to believe that powerful forces got bad people in his organization, Project Veritas, because it sounds like he was ousted by two people when I read the article. I don't know any of these people. But I'm saying to try to get rid of James O'Keefe and take Project Veritas, they would say, it's like, hey, it's a great thing. He's just causing trouble.

He's dictatorial or something like that. Yeah, everybody who runs an organization. is called dictatorial by disgruntled employees. So when I read this, I just said, I stand 100%. I know James O'Keefe. I stand 100% behind him. I don't care what comes out. This man is a hero.

And I cannot imagine that anybody would give a dime to an organization where people have done this kind of thing, where they try to take it over or try to push him out. I think the reason I'm speaking about this is because this type of thing has happened to me. And it's happened everywhere I, look, it happened to James Dobson at Focus on the Family. It happened to my friend Todd Wagner at his church watermark in Dallas. People get on a board and then they kind of start deciding, we want to push our vision for this. And if you don't go along with it, you're kind of a tyrant and we're going to get rid of you.

It happened to innumerable people that I know personally. And I really can't say more. But I think James O'Keefe is a hero. and that when the truth comes out on this, it's going to be very interesting. But the idea that anybody would think that we can run Project Veritas without James O'Keefe, I'm astonished at the arrogance. The whole thing is just it just doesn't smell right.

And I want to just be clear that I stand with him and we'll see what happens. But the timing is unbelievable. Okay. Now, before we go to our guests, you all know that yesterday and today and tomorrow and this weekend we're doing an emergency appeal. This was an audible that was called 24 hours ago by the Salem team to help the people in Syria and Turkey. Yesterday I said the death toll was 11,000. It is at least 19,000.

Ladies and gentlemen, very tough for us to comprehend that many bodies, many human beings dead because of an earthquake in Turkey and Syria. So I want to read the copy because we have a, you can, by the way, you go to Metaxistok.com, but we need people to do this right away. We're just doing this for a couple of days. This is an emergency relief thing. If we don't get to these people, immediately, it's useless. So it says that the death toll in Turkey and neighboring Syria climbed above 19,000 overnight. I'm sure it's well over that. already, with survivors and rescue workers expressing frustration at the speed of the Turkish government's disaster response. As the search continues, rescue teams from the United States

specially trained in urban rescue have arrived in Turkey. Let's play that clip. The piles of equipment, Rempton-Webbing ran loaded from a C-130 cargo plane at Indurlic Air Base in Turkey, as urban search and rescue teams from fire departments in Fairfax County, Virginia, and Los Angeles County, California, arrived to lend a hand. The teams are traveling with 159 people, 170,000 pounds of specialized equipment, and 12 rescue dogs trained in finding victims who were still alive beneath the rubble of collapsed buildings.

The teams and the dogs wore special jackets marked with the U.S. Agency for International Development logo. I'm Jennifer King. This is what Americans do, ladies and gentlemen. By the grace of God, God bless America. I want to ask you to do, anything you can. We're partnering, of course, with our friends at Food for the Poor. This is an emergency appeal. We are, okay, there are two ways you can help. You can go to

metaxis talk.com and click on the banner. You'll see it right there, metaxis talk.com. Or here's another way to give, perhaps easier for some of you. We've never done this before. text the keyword Eric to 911-999. That's text the keyword Eric, E-R-I-C, to 911-9-9-9-9-9-9. Text the keyword Eric to 911-999. You'll immediately get a link to my specific donation page so you can make a gift. Again, text the keyword Eric to 9-1-9-9-9-9. 911-999. This is an emergency, ladies and gentlemen, we need your help right away. Food for the

poor and its partners on the ground in Turkey and Syria. We mentioned them yesterday. We'll use your gift. We'll use your gift in any amount to speed critically needed food, safe water medical supplies to survivors of these devastating earthquakes. Temperatures have dipped below freezing. Hope of finding survivors is dimming. But as you just heard in the clip, rescue workers are still finding victims alive. There are hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children in desperate need of food, water, medical supplies, which food for the poor is ready to rush to the hardest hit areas. So I want to ask you again, will you please help today, which is to say right now, please, by going to metaxis talk.com, clicking on the banner. Or if you prefer, you can text the keyword,

Eric to 911 999. Again, that's the keyword. Eric, text it. The keyword Eric to 911 999. You'll immediately get a link to my specific donation page. With your help, we can literally save

lives in Turkey and Syria. Food for the poorer heroes. We've worked with them before. This is such an emergency. We've never done this before where we just said, We're going to do this immediately. But again, food for the poor, they're so reputable.

They're so good at what they do. They know how to partner with their organizations. They are great at this. And it's a horrible emergency, but we have the privilege by the grace of God to do something. So whatever you can do, $10, $50, everybody can do something. Food for the Poor. Again, the two ways to do it is go to metaxistocococ.com, mettaxistocon.com. or text the keyword Eric to 911-9-99.

Text the keyword Eric to 911-999. This is an emergency. We're grateful to you. We'll be right back. In case you haven't been paying attention, the Biden administration has caused a financial crisis and they have no clue how to fix it. Oil prices have skyrocketed.

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Folks, welcome back. As promised, Christopher Buzzkirk. He is the author of a new book, America and the Art of the Possible Restoring National Vitality in an age of decay. What do you know about this, Christopher Buzzkirk person? Did you know, for example, that he is the publisher and editor of American Greatness that John Zemirak is always raving about on this program? You've heard of American Greatness, Julie Kelly, blah, blah, blah,

Christopher Buzzkirk. He didn't just write this book and do all kinds of other stuff. He's the publisher and editor of American greatness. Christopher Buzzkirk, wonderful to have you on the program. Thanks for coming on. Oh, thank you for having me. Well, listen, we could talk about a million things, and maybe in the future we will. Today, I want to focus on your book. You have Encomia from no less than J.D. Vance and Victor Davis Hansen, a couple of anti-intellectual bums, if I've ever. I mean, geez, why would you put their blurbs on here? I don't understand. No, really, for folks like that to praise the book is a big deal. Congratulations. And congratulations. Congratulations. on the book because it's a happy, it's a happy thesis, America and the art of the possible

restoring national vitality in an age of decay. So what do you say? In other words, what makes you believe it's possible to restore national vitality in an age of decay? We certainly could use a little vitality and a little less decay. So where do you get the idea that that's possible? That is the way human beings are created, Eric. As you know, we have agency. We have the ability to make things better. And we also have the ability to make things worse. And we do a lot of the latter.

But that's not the only thing we're capable of. We're capable of all kinds of good things. And one of the frustrations that I have both sort of politically and culturally is that sort of what I think of is like learned how. helplessness in our society. And I offer what I hope is, in general, what I hope is a constructive critique of people on the right, because I think we are often guilty of learned helplessness, where we spend a lot of time thinking about how bad things are, about entropy and society. And it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy if you let it go too far. You don't know me well enough to know that I say this all the time.

when I hear people complaining. And look, you get this a lot on Fox News or whatever. They kind of, they get into the details of how horrible everything is. And I think at some point, that's unhelpful because it leads us to believe like, there's nothing we can do. America's under judgment. It's all going to hell. That's not helpful.

And if you buy into that, you yourself become part of the problem. And so I want to say thank you for expressing what I think is true is that we ought to be very, very careful about focusing on the negative to that point where we cease to think we can do anything about it. Yes. I mean, it kills all, like it's demotivating, right? When you think that way and it is extremely seductive to think that way. Like, I think that the negativity that people dwell upon is pornographic.

Like, it has a lot of the same. Like, literally it has a lot of the same. I totally agree. It's almost sick that people can watch hours of this stuff and you think, what is this doing to you? Is this good for you? It stops people from action. And this book is really about action. And I, you know, I'm smiling because you said the book has a happy thesis.

A friend of mine texted me a couple days ago. He's halfway through the book. He says, I hope it gets happier. And that's because the first half of the book is really diagnostic. But it is the second half of the book where the happy, you know, really takes full form because that's where the prescriptive element is. Because what I thought about when I was writing the book, and I will admit to you and your audience, I was extremely tempted to write a negative book.

In fact, I had several hundred pages of a negative book sketched out. And I realized it was so unsatisfying. And ultimately, really, I thought, was unhelpful to people because complaining just doesn't get you anywhere. Maybe it gets you more book sales. I'm not sure that thesis will not be tested with this book. And I got to, I wrote all this out and I sort of did what everybody always does, which I did the, you know, Ain't It Awful game. And I thought, I just can't do this because we are capable of so much more, both as, both as humans created in God's image, right? We're able to partake in creation in a way that sort of mimics what God does de novo.

But also as Americans, our heritage as Americans is that of doers, of builders. And I say to people quite often, if I'm sort of out speaking on the book or really on just about any subject, I'll find a way to work it in, which is that, you know, the founders of this country did not simply complain about the problems they had with the crown, with the English government. they built a better country. And you think about the people who came before the founders of the Republic, the settlers of this country, their viewpoint wasn't. I mean, think about the sort of the pilgrims, the scruby congregation. They went from place to place. You know, they were in the Netherlands before they came to form the Massachusetts colony.

They, and that was sort of iterative, but they ultimately became people who wanted to use their faith. and their agency to build a society that they found conducive to building better lives for their families. And we need to understand that that is possible even now, even as big and complex as our society is that like human agency and human action really matters. Well, and listen, we should put our cards on the table. We're both Christians. And if you're any kind of a Christian, you have to believe that God commands us to do the right thing and to be positive and hopefully, even when things, or particularly when things are bleak, but there are so many people, not just conservatives, but Christians who buy into this negative view, they think they have some theological reason,

like, we're under judgment, like they know that there's no point in doing anything. And I, you know, I want to be the first to say, that's sinful folks, you're giving it into temptation that that's not the voice of God, that's the voice of the devil. And we've seen in the history of America this extraordinary, entrepreneurial spirit, we have done things in this country. No country can begin to compare to what we have done in this country. You know, we didn't just invent the light bulb and put a man on the moon and invent flying machines and on and on and on. But I would argue, and I would guess that you do, at least to some extent, that that comes, you know, whether it's a Protestant

work ethic, or it's fundamentally biblical to have. have hope and to act in a hopeful way rather than to just complain and to point at how everything's going to hell in a handbasket. And I think that, you know, as a Christian, I can say it that way. I can say that if you claim to be a Christian, you really have no business just wringing your hands or doing nothing, which, again, you said it before. It's a strong temptation, but it's wrong. And by the way, if you give into it, you become part of the problem. The time, the title of the book, America and the Art of the Possible, Restoring National Vitality in an Age of Decay. Do you talk a little bit about the crisis of cultural confidence also? Because that seems

to me to come into it. Yeah. I think that's a very big deal. And this is, it's easy to diagnose. You can see it all around you. It is, I think, not easy to fix, but possible, as I say. But the crisis that you see is something that you can also see in a lot of in a lot of human history in civilizations. You know, some of them don't recover. Some of them do. But when you have, I guess, let me actually back up a step and say that, you know, before there can be a crisis of cultural confidence, you have to have a culture that is confident.

Like that culture developed in a certain way because it believed something. And there was something that unified the culture. And one of the things I talk about quite a bit in the book as the hallmark or one of the markers of a healthy, sustainable, successful civilization is the ability to do big tasks together as a society. And you can see this throughout human history. And by the way, the biggest things that humans often have done, regardless of what the specific religion is. is revolve around, have revolved around their faiths. Religion, as I note in the book, is something that unifies civilizations. It's been true of Christian civilization, but it was also true of many pagan civilizations

throughout history. You think about the monuments that have been constructed that are some of the things that we think of as achievements in human history. And there's obviously the pyramids in Egypt or you have sort of the, you know, the pyramids in Egypt or you have sort of the great Buddhas that were built throughout Asia and that have lasted for a long time. The example I love for Christians, which I think is really instructive is the cathedral in Milan. And I use this example in the book because the cathedral in Milan was begun construction in 1385. And they concluded construction in 1963.

You know why? It's because the union's got involved and they screwed it all up. We'll be right back talking to Christopher, Buzz Kirk. The book is America and the Art of the Possible. Tell me why Relief Factor is so successful at lowering or eliminating pain. I'm often asked that question just the other night. I was asked that question. Well, the owners of Relief Factor tell me they believe our bodies were designed to heal.

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and you'll get huge discounts on all MyPillow betting products, including the Giza Dream Bedsheets for as low as 2998, and get all your shopping done now while quantitative. He's last again, use code Eric and Save Mypillow.com. Folks, welcome back talking to Christopher Buzzkirk, who's the publisher and editor of American Greatness. John Zemarick is always bragging about that. Julie Kelly is writing great stuff for that.

Our own album, SADAR, has written for American greatness many times. So we're talking to Christopher Buskirk about his book, America and the art of the possible restoring national vitality in an age of decay. And Christopher, you were just making the point about the Milan Cathedral. and I cracked a stupid anti-labor joke. But please continue. You said that the Milan Cathedral was begun when in the 14th century? Yeah, the late 14th century.

So about 1385 is when it was, it was, the construction was begun. It was concluded in 1963. It took effectively 600 years to build the Milan Cathedral. And this is in the context of the question you asked about like about a loss of cultural confidence. And this is an example. I think of extreme, a positive extreme cultural confidence. For 600 years, the people of Milan believed that they should continue building this cathedral, which if you've been there, it's beautiful, there's all kinds of good things

that we can say about it, the sculpture, the stained glass, like everything about it is really, there are any number of remarkable feats of craftsmanship, which are done in the name of glorifying God. And I'm sure probably at some point glorifying people, too. But it was something that showed that there was a capacity for collective action there that showed a cultural confidence that and a continuity that lasted over a very long period of time. And by the way, one of my favorite factoids about that is, you know, what they started doing in 1964, the year after they concluded construction is they began the restoration of the cathedral.

So this is like, this is, the construction in a sense continues on because there is a fundamental belief throughout all kinds of different ages of history, pre-modern, modern, post-modern, that this is something that is worth doing. The unifying thing there is religion. There are other, I think, themes there, beauty is a theme that helps to unite people in the construction of that particular cathedral. but the confidence that we're thinking about that is required to do that, I think, is not present in in, in 2023 America. There's still remnants of it. And what we need to try and figure how we can do it is to reinvigorate that confidence. Because in order to build a cathedral like that, you have to agree before you even break around that that's something that's worth doing, let alone be able to do it for 600 years. Well, it's one thing to talk about religion, but really what you're talking about is the transcendent.

People want, I mean, we all know, or at least if we think about it, we know that we are not the products of random naturalistic processes. There's something beyond. And we want to express that. And we express that in art. We express that in some of the things you've been describing. We expressed it in putting a man on the moon. these are extraordinary things that we're willing to do because we believe in something larger than ourselves. And you're right. I mean, in the last years, we have lost that. I don't think

most Americans have lost that, but I think the cultural elites have lost that. And I think the cultural elites are part of this neelistic acid that has eaten away and that has told us that, you know, you don't even know if you're a man or a woman, much less what the purpose of life is. And I think that we have to push against that with all our might and main, first of all, because it's a lie. But secondly, because it's harmful. It hurts people. And I think there is something beautiful when people unite. I mean, when I think of the story of Prague, rebuilding Prague after the Second War, how everybody got involved in that.

And so I don't know what those things will be for us today. But it's important for us to understand that that's been at the heart of America from the beginning. that we're going to do the impossible, and probably we're going to need to lean on God in the middle of that. When you talk about in your chapter, America in the world, what do you have to say on that subject? I think, so this is said, when I talk about America in the world, this is set in the context of understanding America's first few hundred years of existence. And the way, the very simple framing of that is that, you know, this country is settled slash founded beginning in the early 17th century. You know, you've got Jamestown in 1607, and then you've got, you've got the Mayflower

in 1620. And you've got these, you know, small, pretty tenuous, but also weirdly optimistic colonies, you know, clinging to like the just the bare edge of the Atlantic coast. They develop over time. There's a war for independence. There's a lot of optimism around this new republic that everybody is engaged in this big project to build something new, something better. You've got, you've got this land that seems to provide endless possibilities for doing interesting and good things and making human life better. That happens in, you know, between 17, 76 and 1789, but then the national project becomes building the country and it's settling the frontier. So it's how do we get from the Atlantic to the Pacific? And that happens, obviously. And it is the massive project of all Americans in one way, shape, or form over the next, you know, 150 or so years. But the, you know, but we get as a people, we get to the Pacific coast. You know, we go from, we go from Massachusetts to Santa Monica, effectively. And the front.

tier basically closes. And then I think there's a question, well, what is the national project now? Like, we won. Like, we got to the Pacific, you know, and there's some fill in work to be done. You know, the Sunbelt states get built after, you know, in the early 20th century. You know, we add Alaska and Hawaii. But that's basically in a way. And I live in Arizona, some belt states. So, but we're a little bit of, we're a little bit of a footnote. And so the America in the world now becomes, well, America uses all this restless dynamic, sometimes creative and sometimes destructive energy to go to war. Actually, hang on one second.

We're going to go to a break, and we will let Christopher complete that in other sentences. Don't go away. With the overturn of Roe v. Wade, lots of companies are coming out saying they'll pay for employee abortion travel and expenses. Most of you've heard about some of these companies. You've decided to stop shopping or doing business there, but did you know that you most likely own stock in those companies through your 401k's IRAs and other investment accounts. Folks, this is a huge problem, and we need to do something about this to send a message

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Advisory services are offered through Inspire Advisors LLC, a registered investment advisor with the SEC. Welcome back talking to Christopher Buzzkirk. The book is America and the Art of the Possible restoring national vitality in an age of decay. Christopher, you were just making the point about how somehow we, deal with our energy once we've conquered, you know, once we've gotten across all the way across the continent, war becomes a thing. Talk about that. Yeah. So basically with the frontier effectively closes, like we win the battle of the frontier and we conquer the continent in the early 20th century. So I, you know, I live in Arizona. We were the 48th state. We came into the union in 1912. And the

question is, what do we do with all of this, like, restless creative energy as, as Americans? And Woodrow Wilson answers that question, Will, with, like, we did everything so great here. Obviously, now we just turn that energy outwards, and we go to war in Europe. And he, you know, leads Americans to war with, by saying we're, we're fighting this war for democracy. And the United States has been at war ever since. Like, there have, there has been almost no period of where we have not been at war for the past a little bit more than a century now. And one of the arguments that I make in the book is that that has not been good for America. That being a constant war for a century in other people's

countries has actually hurt our country because we have spent a lot of our time, talent, and treasure doing that. And so what we have seen, especially over the past 40 or 50 years at home is that, number one, it is just politically divisive at home. But it is also distracted us from the business of making Americans lives better. You know, the argument that a lot of conservatives have made who have problems with a lot of foreign interventionism is like, why have we spent $100 billion because we're interested in defending Ukraine's borders, but we can't spend any money defending our borders? because somehow that doesn't seem to be a priority for a lot of American elites of both parties. And so the argument here is that, you know, the middle class over the past 50 years has gotten smaller and it has gotten poorer and it has become more precarious than it was before. The last time it was possible in this country to support a middle class lifestyle, which I would define as you can own a house, you can have two kids, you can own a car, you can send a kid to college,

you can have health care. The last time was possible to afford that on a single median wage. So by definition, middle class, the last time you could do that on one median wage was 1989. And so now it takes two median wages in order to have what we all think of as just basic middle class America. And that is, that is in part because we have not focused on improving the quality of of Americans. And we've thought, I think, way too much about what we can do in these faraway places. We send our, we send our young men often really the best and the brightest off to fight these wars. A lot of them don't come back. What could they have done at home? What could those resources have been done at home? And this is a big part of what I think about, when I think

about revitalizing America. That means rebuilding our middle class. Like if we want to have a successful Republic, if we want to maintain self-government here, the predicate to that is having a strong, self-sustaining and growing, prosperous middle class. And for the best 50 years, we've had just the opposite. And we need, you know, if we don't want to sort of degenerate over time into what a lot of countries on the planet are, which is a very tiny ruling class that is very rich, built on top of effectively a surf class, then we need to focus on rebuilding. the middle because that has always been the backbone of this country. Just that that's what makes self-government possible.

And again, I think, well, I haven't said it, but it seems to me that was, that's what accounts for the popularity in the past and the president of Donald Trump is that somehow he seemed to get some of these things, which most global elites, including tons in the Republican Party, simply don't get. They've lost touch with the common men and women of the country and with, you know, the quaint idea of patriotism, love of country. I mean, those basic things, which, you know, we're talking about, the elites over the last decades really have moved us farther and farther from that. And, of course, in some ways, it's all come to a head now. We're kind of seeing it in all of its horror in a way that we really haven't.

We're kind of it's, it's, we're seeing it in its nakedness in a way, whereas before a lot of it was underground or, it's just easier to, to look away from. At least that's how it strikes me. I have a question I used to slightly troll people. Eric, and it's, what do you think America's number one export has been over the past 30 years? And people, you know, they'll scratch their heads. They'll be like, I don't know, oil. is oil and gas? No.

Is it agriculture? No. And I would say it's our number one export is been the middle class. We've exported it all to Asia, which is, you know, the problem with it is it's kind of true. And, you know, when China at our behest, by the way, was admitted to the WTO in 2000, that really harmed our middle class because we started literally. literally shipping jobs. Like there were investment bankers

who made a lot of money in the 2000s because their business was literally going to the American heartland and they would send the entire factory. Like people think like, oh, the jobs just went away of kind of a theory. They'd actually pack up the factories and send them to China

and those jobs never came back. Well, look, that's, you talk about patriotism. This is anti-patriotism. This is Craven Greene. which brought about extraordinary harms to their fellow Americans, and they didn't care. And of course, the political classes, whether it's the people who think the free market is the answer to, you know,

liberty that if we just do business with the Nazis or the communist Chinese, they'll all become just like us. That's, of course, not quite right. That doesn't work. It didn't work. And then on the left, it was greed combined. with naivete toward the evil of the communist Chinese and what they would do with it. So very, very important that we understand how all of this happened.

We have just a few minutes, folks. I'm talking to Christopher Buzzkirk. The book is America and the Art of the Possible Restoring National Vitality in an Age of Decay. Don't go away. We'll be right back. Folks, welcome back talking to Christopher Buzzkirk. He's the publisher and editor of American greatness, with which you must be familiar. the new book is America and the Art of the Possible.

So what is some of the ways we can restore vitality? What are some of the things that you suggest in the book, Christopher? Yeah, so this is actually my favorite part of the book. There was a visceral enjoyment for a flaw in my character of writing the complaint part of the diagnostic part of what went wrong. But actually, the more fun part is at the end of the book where I offer some concrete solutions. And I always caution folks when they read the book. I said, like, I do not have a silver bullet to fix everything.

The problems really are. They're too big. They're too systemic. I said, but, you know, also, there are things that we can do. And it's kind of like the old joke, like, how do you eat an elephant one bite at a time? And so this is the way I approach it. When I was thinking about the things that we can do, my goal was to think of things that were big enough to matter and seem slightly crazy, but actually we're still achievable. And so, you know,

I began by thinking, like, what are the concrete problems? Like we say, well, there's cultural decay. Well, that's hard to quantify, right? So in a way, it's hard to, not impossible, but it's hard to come up with a solution. But one of the things that I came up with that is easy to identify, to quantify, is that American lifespans have been declining. which surprises people unless they're unless they follow this subject. But for for a little more than 10 years, the median life expectancy in the States has been declining. The CDC released the number earlier this year for 2022. It's now down to 75.3 years median life expectancy.

And we are conditioned to believe while this is like this is modernity of obviously we're living a little longer every year. And in America, it's not true. people are living fewer years and they are sicker later in life than they've been in many, many years. So there's more disease. And at the same time, you look at some of our peer countries, an example I use not in the book, but in something I wrote earlier, this year is France. So France, at the same time, our median life expectancy has been declining. Their median life expectancy has been increasing. So they're now at like 80.5 years.

They're chronic disease, things like heart disease, diabetes, those sorts of things, also much lower incidence than what we see in the United States. And we think about a civilization that is vital, like literally vital, you know, same root word as life. You should have people living longer and healthier lives. And that seems to me to be a completely uncontroversial but also very worthwhile goal for us to undertake, which is let's, like a national goal that we should be able to unify around is let's get people, let's get Americans to live longer and healthier.

Everybody, step one is people should realize it's not happening now. It's actually going the other way and it has been for a while. It doesn't have to be this way because there are pure countries that are doing way better. And so I have a project that I describe how to do it, like some ideas about how to do it. I say, I call it America 100, which is let's have a goal where we say the median life expectancy of Americans 50 years from now is going to be 100 years old. It seems a little crazy, but it doesn't seem that crazy, right? Like it's like it's within spitting distance.

It's not like I'm saying, let's all be Methuselow, lived to 9669. But like, could we get it up to, or even close to 100? But I love the idea of the goal, the idea, and by the way, I'm going to invest in Walker's. But seriously, no, I think that that's a beautiful goal because you start beginning to think practically. How would we do that? What are the issues? We're out of time. Look, we've got to have you back.

There's lots more to talk about. Christopher Buzzkirk, thank you for the book, America and the Art of the Possible. And thanks for your time. We'll talk to you again. Thanks a lot.