The Eric Metaxas Show - Karen & Charlotte Pence (Encore)

Episode Date: April 8, 2020

In preparation for a hoppy Easter, the Second Lady and Second Daughter, Karen and Charlotte Pence, share their educational children’s book based on their real-life pet rabbit, “Marlon Bundo's Day in the Nation's Capital.” (Encore Presentation)

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I tell all my relatives to take it. relief factor.com. I shouldn't tell you this, but Eric hired someone who sounds just like him to host today's show. But since I'm the announcer, they told me. So I am telling you, don't be fooled. The real Eric's in jail. And welcome. Hey there, folks.

It's true. The real Eric is in jail. But, you know, the show must go on. I have some interesting news. We tried to get some celebrities on the program, and we failed. Gwyneth Paltrow, she doesn't. like my politics. I said, who can we get? And they said, did you know, Eric, you're in the business of writing kids' books? Did you know that the second lady of the United States and her daughter,

Charlotte, have written and illustrated a children's book? Did you know that? I did know that, and we have them on the program. Karen Pence, Charlotte Pence, welcome back. Thanks for having you. You're in the new studio. Don't seem so excited, okay? Your generation is way too emotional. I'm, I didn't know, honestly, I did not know that you were doing a second. book. I know you did a first children's book. You know I'm a children's book guy. I've written children's book. So I got very excited about this. What was the first one called? A Day in the Life of the Vice President. Yeah. The first one. Yes. By the, by the rabbit. Marlon Bundo. And I have to ask you this again, whose idea was it to name your bunny rabbit Marlon Bundo? That was me. So yeah,

we had a, we had him in college and actually got him for a film project. And so, Wait, wait, wait. What? I got him for a student film. You got a rabbit for a film project? Yes. Not for like a casserole recipe. No. Okay, because a lot of times people, oh yeah, but that, no, my favorite restaurant, every Monday they have like a rabbit dish.

And I think, no, I can't do that. I can't do that. All right, you got him for a film project? Yeah, yeah. I wrote a film and it had a bunny in it. And so I ended up getting him for like a short film project for school and just ended up keeping him. but his name is kind of a joke on Marlon Brando, the actor. You really didn't need to explain that, Charlotte.

Most of us know that Marlon Brando is an actor. Okay, so Marlon Bundo is the rabbit. Yes. But again, you've never been to this glorious studio here. I'm excited to have you both so people can see you. Yeah. And the other studio, you didn't have to get hair and makeup, did you? That's true.

Right? You just show up. But you decided to do a second book. This one's called A Day in the Nation's Capital, written by Charlotte Pence, illustrated by Karen Pence. And since I'm a children's book writer, I know that the illustrator does all the work. Yes, definitely. We've got to show this here, right? Amen. But it is funny, though, because my friend Tim Raglin, who illustrates this stuff. I mean, this is amazing work, and it takes forever. So how did this come to be? Did you say, hey, mom, are you in it for another one?

Do you have it in you to do another? How many illustrations? I don't know. Probably about 20. 20 illustrations and they're watercolors. They're water colors. So they're not just like you didn't do it with a magic marker. Right. They take a while. There's a lot of planning that goes into it too. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, we kind of wanted to do another one and kind of wanted to do one where he just went around Washington, D.C. and looked at the different monuments and memorials. But then when we started kind of brainstorming about it, it made more sense to make it more about the Pledge of Allegiance and the different freedoms and rights that we have. So it became more of an educational book. You believe in all that stuff. Yeah. So do I.

But it's so great to have a children's book teaching kids about this. Okay, so it says it said someplace in the, it's mainly about the Pledge of Allegiance, but it's also about the whole capital, right? You go to visit these different places. I can't show these things on here. But you have obviously a story where you take the rabbit to different parts of, I can't. Kim, am I really saying this? You take the rabbit to different parts of the...

You didn't actually haul Marlon Bundo around the city, right? We did not. No, we took a... But we did... We took a little stuffed bunny. Right. Just to kind of get some ideas about where should we position Marlon in some of these places. And we...

A stuffed bunny? We did. And we had an incident at the Lincoln Memorial where we put the bunny down and we were taking pictures all around different angles. And this little boy... probably about two, walked right over and just decided that little toy bunny was going to be his new toy bunny. He stole the stunt bunny? He did. Really?

He gave it back. His mom said, no, no, no, no. But it was really kind of cute. Yeah. That is kind of cute. Okay, so you had to do – well, see, that's the thing. That's the other question is that when you're illustrating a book like this, you know, you have to understand, Karen, that people don't – people who aren't illustrators, and I'm not rarely think about what goes into an illustration.

because they just see it, they go, that's nice, but they don't realize that you have to frame it. You have to think about all of that stuff. So you did that literally by going around the Capitol. We did. I mean, we took it around. Of course we didn't put him on the bench at the Supreme Court. Right. Of course not. But we did take it around and try and get some ideas.

And then Charlotte, once she had written the script, the text, then we were able to sit down. down with the art director at Regnery, and we kind of talked through what do we want Marlon doing in this particular spot and this spot. And so you, I just love this. Forgive me. See, this is the thing about a TV show. I can flip through this, but I can't really show. Oh, you went to the Kennedy Center. Yes. Incredible. And you didn't bring the actual bunny to the Kennedy Center. In the future, I'd like to have a TV show, and I would require you to bring the bunny onto the set. Do you have any idea how much fun we could have with the actual bunny? Yeah, yeah, you can do it.

Yeah, for sure. Incredible stuff. We do stupid pet tricks with the bunny. Do you think of this bunny as the second bunny of the United States? Yeah. I think it would. We actually call him BOTUS. Yeah.

Yeah. The bunny of the United States. Right. But the weird thing is I can't say that this bunny is like a heartbeat away from being the first bunny of the United States because there is no first bunny. That's right. Right? Right. Right?

Although this bunny could become the first bunny. bunny, right? Okay, so what are some of the places you go to and what are some of the lessons? Because this really, it's for kids, it's very simple, but you're talking about the heart of why America is great, right? That's basically the thesis through the eyes of a bunny. Yeah. Right. Yeah, we start with talking about religious liberty when Marlon looks at the National Cathedral and starts to talk about that. And then we kind of move through a lot of different freedoms. So we talk about how important it is to have different opinions and to go to the Kennedy Center to

interact with the arts and that's a good way to know other people's opinions and go to the Library of Congress to read about other opinions. But yeah, and then we talk about equality and how important that is and we go to the memorial for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. So there are a lot of different ones

we really wanted to include. It was honestly very difficult to choose which ones to include. and we wanted to get a lot of the war memorials in there as well, of course. And then at the end, Marlon ends up at the Arlington National Cemetery. And that's when he kind of realizes that all these freedoms that he's been learning about are really owed to members of the military and their families. So that's actually who we dedicated the book to. I have to say, I mean, just making that point,

it is so important for us to understand that people have suffered and died. not just for this country, for the values that we revere for religious liberty. And, you know, when we're talking about religious liberty, you have to forgive me, Karen Pence, for bringing up this issue. But you, art is a big part of your life. Obviously, you did the art for this book, but you've also taught art over the years. And the last time I saw you was right after the ball. It was after the stork ball or during the stork ball right after the March for Life in D.C. and you had been horrifically criticized for daring to teach art at a Christian school that has biblical values on sexuality.

And I just, I get so angry when I hear something like that because somebody might as well, in my opinion, say Heil Hitler. In other words, it's so un-American for someone to criticize a fellow American for doing something as anodyne as it gets. teaching art at a school, at a wonderful school. The idea that there are people in America who don't understand religious liberty and who sneer at it is one of the reasons why I'm glad you wrote this book and why you're talking about this stuff publicly. I talk about this publicly all the time, but obviously don't have a platform that you do. It's really key right now. So I don't know if you want to talk about it, but what was it like for you to be on the receiving end of really absurd criticism? Well, I do think it's, you know, the book was already done by then.

The text was already done. And so it was actually kind of nice that this is actually where Marlon starts. He starts at the National Cathedral. We're going to have to stop there for now. But we'll be right back, folks. Look who I'm talking to. You can't go away. I'll be right back.

Hey there, folks. It's the Erkman Taxis Show. And look who I have in the studio. If you're listening on radio, you can't see, so I have to tell you. It's Karen Pence, a second lady of the United States and her daughter, Charlotte Pence. They've written and illustrated a book called Marlon Bundoz, A Day in the Nation's Capital. Welcome back to both of you. Thank you.

Karen, you were just saying about how, when this thing happened, people criticizing you for daring to teach art in a Christian school, which is insane. The book was already out, and you said, it starts with religious liberty. It actually does. It starts there. And, you know, Charlotte with the text wanted to start it there because that's how our country was founded. So people came to America for religious liberty. And so the book, I think, is so beautiful because it's, it's a bunny. It's a rabbit who's going around the Capitol and learning all about our country's history. But Charlotte wanted to be an educational book. And so, Marlin starts there. And I think this book is so important right now because we want to tell our kids,

these are the principles that our country was founded on. These are the liberties. These are the rights that every American has. And it doesn't matter what faith you follow. You're allowed to follow that in the United States without being criticized. So everybody has the freedom to follow their own faith. And so it actually was beautiful that that's the way the book actually was already written. Right. And that's one of the freedoms that we wanted to highlight. Right. Well, I mean, just so happens we live in a strange time in America where people are having to focus on what religious liberty is because we've had so much of it that it never came up.

I mean, for 200-something years, it basically doesn't come up. And then suddenly a biblical sexual ethic is challenged as it's been. and so we have to reassert this idea. But it is a tricky thing when we think about it. I mean, we don't need to have that conversation now, but just the idea that there are limits to every one of the freedoms that we have. I mean, if I say that my religion means that I can kill people with whom I disagree, the United States Constitution says that's where religious liberty ends

because they're more fundamental things, the right to life and so on and so forth. They're not teaching you that at Harvard, are they? Well, it's been interesting, actually, being at divinity school while writing this book. And it was kind of fun to think about the different ways that, you know, you write about that you can talk with people that don't agree with you. Because I think that those are really important values, too. I know a lot of children's books nowadays,

are tend to be a little pretty political. And so we kind of wanted to, or I wanted to write something that also encourages kids to, you know, have friends that don't agree with you on everything and to read about other people's ideas, too, and to not be afraid to do that. But you realize that itself is not. now political. This is the absurd situation. I was invited to speak at Sawani, the University of the South, to give a convocation speech. And I took that as my subject, the idea of diversity of thought and how, you know, like I said, for example, you should, if you are pro same-sex marriage,

you should have a friend who isn't pro-same-sex marriage. And if you are against same-sex marriage, you should have a friend who is for same-sex marriage, just so you can kind of understand where the other side is coming from. You don't have to agree, but you can, so you can respect that person. And I think that the people were too surprised even to gasp. They thought, can you say that? Can you even say that? And I thought to myself, wow, if we aren't loud about what we're talking about, we're

going to get drowned out because these are foundational issues in America. And so, again, that's why I'm so happy that you published this book. And it's just out this week, right? Just out today. Just out today. Yeah. So people can get it today. And it's a Regnery book.

Regnery publishes beautiful children's book. My favorite is Donald Drain's the Swamp by Eric Metaxis. Great book. It's an unbelievable book. Really hard to say how great that is. But, okay, so this one, according to parents.com, Marlon Bundo is the adorable bunny that should bring us all together. It is kind of cute that it's a bunny because it's hard to argue with bunnies.

If you, for your film project, had like a boa constrictor. Right. It would not be as cute. Yeah. It would not be as cute. It was funny. People actually kind of said, oh, you know, bunnies kind of hard to get. You should just change it to like a dog or a cat or something.

I was like, but bunnies are like neutral, you know. And for this character, he had to be kind of neutral. Because they're neither dogs nor cats. It's almost like politically independent. Yeah. Right? He's bipartisan, yes. That is really weird.

Very moderate. He's bipartisan. Look, and he's black and white. Like those great cookies you can get. That is so cool. Okay. So where else does Marlon? Bundo visit?

So Marlin goes, he kind of goes all around D.C. He goes to the archives. So we have an awesome little picture. My mom did of him sitting on top of the Constitution and looking through the glass. He goes to the Library of Congress, which we did take the stuffed bunny too. And he gets to look at his first book. So the first book we did, like he said, was Marlon Bundo's A Day in the Life of the Vice President. Oh, you mean Marlon Bundo, the stuffed version, the stunt bunny was able to look at his

at the book about himself in the Library of Congress. Yes, and the painting is in there to document. That is like two meta. It is very meta. It's like meta. It's like freaking me out. It's like facing mirrors to the end of the world. So since the name of the bunny is Marlon Bundo,

is this like loaded with tons of sly like cinema references to Marlon Brando movies? It is not, unfortunately. Maybe we'll do another one. I think, are you sure that your mother hasn't sly put in things? into the photographs. Like you'll see a tiny horse's head in a bed in the background. No? Nothing like that.

Okay. No, unfortunately. Okay. So, well, it seems now that you've done, too, that everybody's going to ask you the same question. Are you going to continue to do a series? I mean, I certainly hope you do. Yeah.

She's doing all the work here. So we actually, the third book, is coming out October 29th. And it's Marlon Bundo's Christmas Miracle. So people can pre-order it now, actually. Marlon Bundo's Christmas miracle. So it's our Christmas book. It's adorable. Maybe I could talk to Regnery about doing Donald the caveman's Christmas miracle.

That's a thought. We're going to do that. Now, can I talk to you? Because I never know when I'm talking to official people what I can say and what I can't say. You and your husband, the vice president, invited a number of people to your home at the Naval Observatory to have this delightful dinner. I happen to be one of those people. Are we allowed to discuss that here? We may discuss that here.

Can we talk about what a jerk Dennis Prager was? What a loud mouth. No, I have to laugh because, first of all, I was so honored to be invited. I'd never been to the Naval Observatory before, and I didn't know who else was invited. And so my wife couldn't come. So you were my date, basically. You don't realize it. But my wife couldn't come.

But I was so honored that Max Locato and his wife and then Dennis Prager and his wife were there. So it was this very, very special evening. But the reason I laughed is because I've never. known Dennis Prager for quite a while, and we really love each other so much we can't stop kidding. Yeah. And I thought, I know that the poor pences have no idea of what they've done by bringing us to the same table. You know what?

Really, Eric, it was the easiest dinner we've ever had there because the two of you didn't stop talking. Alvin, did you get that? That was called a dig. It was like underneath the... You would say things to each other and get the other one started. It was very entertaining. It was very entertaining.

I can imagine, actually, though, that... that being, when people are invited to a place like, you know, the vice president's residence like that, there's a stiffness because you think like, you know, this is so beautiful and so important. I'm not sure when I should talk or whether I should talk or something like that. So it could get stiff. And then you have to kind of grease the skids and be a great hostess and help them to talk. But you didn't have to do that with me and Dennis. No. It's, I just.

You got over that right away. I love Dennis so much. And I, and I know you a little bit also. So, you know, I get loose. But Dennis is so much fun that I just can't stop when he's when he's in the room. I adore him. And his third wife, I tease him about that. No, it's just so funny because they are, they're just delightful people.

And poor Max Lucado, he's this, you know, delightful pastor. He has more to say than Dennis or me. And yet he was very graciously allowing us to be rude and talk and talk and talk and talk. But it was just so delightful. It was a great evening. It was incredible. And I'm so sorry my wife couldn't come. She didn't even get a doggy bag out of it, but nothing. Absolutely nothing. No, it was so delightful. But it's so interesting to me to think that the life of a second lady and a second daughter, so to speak, it must be odd to go from being in Indiana suddenly to have secret service and all this stuff and all the protocol that goes with it. I think the privacy probably is the hardest thing, is the lack of privacy. see there's always someone with us. So that part is a little bit difficult, but the opportunity to do so many things for good and to elevate causes. You know, Charlotte and I both have charities

that we're giving money to from these books. And so to be able to elevate something that we care about and help people is very special. Well, it's wonderful. And again, this children's book, the fact that it's not just a children's book, but that you're talking about things. things that I think sometimes if you're in the professional political class, you forget how beautiful it is to come to the nation's capital and to see all these things. And it really is. It's very moving as it ought to be. It's designed so beautifully. We have a final segment. Folks, we're talking to the second lady of the United States, Karen Pence and her daughter Charlotte Pence about their new book, Marlon Bundo's A Day in the Nation's Capital. Stick around.

Hey there, folks. It's here from Texas Show. I'm talking to the second lady. of the United States of America, Karen Pence and her daughter Charlotte Pence. You guys, you're going to get tired of being referred to that way. And eventually, I guess you're always going to be referred to that way, right? Unless finally, you can just call me Karen. Unless finally, well, you know, but you're not, you're, you're, you are Karen, and yet you're not just Karen. The book is, you sort of start with the Pledge of Allegiance. And a lot of people don't understand the Pledge of Allegiance. The other day, I don't know where I was saying the Pledge of Allegiance, and when we said under God, one nation under God, I had to tell the person next to me, you know, that was inserted at some point. I think it was during Eisenhower or something like that.

Do you remember? Yeah, it didn't have to be an expert on this. Yeah, it wasn't until later on that. It wasn't inserted. We were actually just talking about that this morning with some of like the facts that we come up with it and like seen after writing this. And it was cool because we didn't start out thinking it would be about the pledge. but as I wrote it and we were kind of working with the whole team, we kind of thought, you know, this is actually a really good way to tie everything in because there are words in the pledge like Under God and like, you know, liberty and justice for all that really do tie into all of our freedoms in America. Well, it's interesting because the Under God thing, I believe, came in during at the height of the Cold War, you know, when we were dealing with the Soviet Union and they were an aggressively vocally godless.

society. And we were trying to make the case that that's where we differ from them fundamentally. Why do we believe in the sanctity of human life? Why do we believe we can't treat animals? Why do we believe we can't treat humans like animals? All of that is because of our shared Judeo-Christian ethics. There's no way around it. Once you get rid of that, you can do anything, you know? So it's kind of interesting that they inserted it into the pledge. But we know the pledge is not like a foundational document, like the Declaration or Constitution. So when did it come into existence? I guess my notes say 1892.

I mean, I wasn't aware of all this stuff. Yeah, and it's changed. I mean, I think that they changed it from my flag to the flag of the United States, which is kind of interesting to think about, I mean, you would think that they're the same thing, but they're kind of not, you know? And then later on, the Supreme Court also ruled that

no one has to say the Pledge of Allegiance, like without, you know, wanting to basically. Right. Which I think is interesting too just because the Pledge of Allegiance tends to still kind of be a little bit trippy for people. I don't know why, but it is for some people. And so you don't have to say in that, again, that's another right that we have as Americans. Well, it's a fascinating thing because at the heart of our freedoms is the idea that we're free to dissent on certain things. In other words, you know, if somebody says that my religion says that I can't really make a pledge to a flag, that a lot of times Christians feel that way, different Christian sects feel that way.

And the fact that we would respect that and that we respect conscientious objectors, whether it's Muhammad Ali or whoever it is, that they're people that they can't, they say I can't do something because of their faith. And in this country, we are really the most aggressive on behalf of those people to say that we don't want to force you. There are very few things that we can force you to do. I have to ask a strange question of the second lady. Do you ever get asked this? Because I'm curious, how did you meet your husband, the current vice president? I have no idea. Like maybe I heard this and I forgot.

Where did you meet? Actually, we met at church. Good answer. Yeah. That's the truth. Yeah. But I was playing in a guitar group up front. And so he came up to me after church.

And we started talking a little bit. And he said he wanted to join the guitar group. Now, he could have followed through on that. He does play the guitar, but he really was just making small talk. And I told him where I taught school. So are you allowed to say at what point in your life this was? Like, where were you in life? This was in Indiana? I was a teacher, and he was in law school.

Yeah. In Indiana? In Indiana. In Indianapolis. And actually, it's the church right across the street from the governor's residence, just by happenstance. But the funny thing was, I told him. where I, you know, was teaching school. He ended up calling that school and asking if I was miss or misses.

Then he knew that my sister was in law school as well. So he went to the registrar and said, I need to find her sister's phone number. She ended up giving it to him, which is amazing. He called my sister's house and I answered the phone because I was babysitting her kids. And he hung up on me. He hung up, yeah. That's hilarious. I also met my wife in church, but I didn't do any of that creepy stalker stuff.

But it doesn't matter. If you follow through and you propose marriage and then you have a family and then you become the vice president of the United States, I think it all worked out. I think that's kind of. But that's so beautiful that he was that aggressive in a sense because sometimes I think that's part of the younger generation that kind of more laid back. And like Charlotte, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. just a kind of a laid back thing. People aren't like gunning for you. Yeah, I think it depends. I mean,

you got to wait for the right person, definitely. I disagree. I actually wrote about that whole story in the book, Where You Go that I wrote kind of about our family history. And it's pretty funny to then end up at the governor's residence, which was right across the street from where they met. Isn't that wild? It's crazy. That is crazy. But that's so cute. See, I'm glad I asked you that. Yeah. Sometimes I ask questions like that, people say, oh, we met and say, oh, we met and say, seventh grade. I think it's so cute. It's so beautiful. But that's, uh, that is really wonderful. And here we are. Here we are. Unbelievable. Three kids later. Yep. Um, oh my goodness. All right. So, you really are planning to do more of these, like for sure, right? Yep. Yeah. We definitely have the

Christmas one. Already. Okay. Okay. My question is get more and more personal, so I think we better stop right now. Um, Charlotte Pence, Karen Pence, just a joy to have you here. Thanks for coming. Congratulations on the book. Great for an Easter basket. Yes. Easter. There you go. It's a bunny.

Hey, folks, welcome back. Well, I hope you come to see me in the movie. And I know yesterday. I was up before the dawn. Enjoyed my stay. But I must be moving on. We talk about serious things, but we have a lot of fun. We have fun.

We have fun. Now, you're not going to believe what I'm going to tell you. First of, I'm going to ask you guys, what are you doing on Easter? Where are you listening to your sermon? What's cooking for you this shutdown coronavirus Easter? You want to start over there, Chris? Yeah, we're, you know, we got little, we have three, you know, six kids, three younger ones. So we got them some fun things.

The youngest one is a girl, and she loves shoes. So she's getting some sparkly pink shoes she picked out online. It's kind of turning into a shoe monster. What is it enough to do with the resurrection? You pagan so and so. Yeah, maybe the footprints. Remember that little poem? There you go.

Thank you very much. Hudson, my seven-year-old wanted a punching bag, and maybe that's to beat up the Eastwood Money. So that's a connection there. And then my eight-year-old Maxfield is into lizards. We have about six salamanders in his room right now. And he wanted a larger iguana cage. So he wants to get a giant lizard, which has nothing to do with these deer.

Maybe shedding off skin, the grave clothes. How many, how many lizards do you have in his room? They're like literally six salamanders in there. You're supposed to say six that we know of. Actually, one did get out. One did get out then. And, you know, his location is TBD. I got to, okay.

I'm doing something animal related to. I'm feeding this stuff duck. I'm going to feed them an Easter chocolate candy. So that's what I'm doing. I don't know what that means. I don't either, but you ask. You say that again in English? No, my wife and I are going to watch a sermon from, you know, our Trinity Church, probably online.

We're going to, or listen at least. I don't know. I don't know whose sermon we're going to watch yet. almost certainly we go to central presbyterian on Park Avenue here in New York and our pastor Jason Harris will I'm sure have a wonderful sermon we'll be watching that but here's the weird thing and this is weird before this uh you know corona shutdown uh we were supposed to fly as a family to California because I was invited to speak at Horizon Church in Southern California for all their Easter services now that of course that is not happening so what they say

said is, well, you can come another time and preach, but for Easter, would you do a Q&A with us, you know, online? And I said, well, sure. And they said, well, what about like, you know, Wednesday? Would that be good? It was like, sure, Wednesday. We'll do a Q&A and, you know, we'll set it up on Zoom or something like that. Last night, I got an email that, yeah, and after the Q&A, then we want you to preach your 30-minute sermon. And I said, well, I really didn't have a 30-minute sermon prepared for tomorrow for Easter. You're joking, right? No, there was some kind of a misunderstanding. So I just want to say, folks, I am today preaching an Easter sermon on this very computer. And if you want to hear my Easter sermon, and actually there's some important stuff in it.

So I will put it on Twitter and on Facebook and hopefully on our email that we sent out whenever. I don't know if I can send it out on Friday since it's not airing at Horizon Church until Sunday. But I'll put it out online so you can check it out. But I am preaching an Easter sermon with some points that I think are actually very important because of what we're going through right now as a country. I feel really strongly that it's not a coincidence that we're experiencing Easter, that we're experiencing Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday. during this time. And so I will be preaching my own Easter sermon. I'm not going to listen to it on Easter, but maybe you want to. So you have to go to Horizon Church in Southern California. I don't have any other details right now, but it's just an amazing thing. I really did not expect to be

preaching an Easter sermon from the bunker in New York City. But you know what? Anything can happen. We're living in strange times. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, sounds good. I'm looking forward to hearing it and seeing it. That's well, I'm, I still, I still can't believe it. You know, we should also mention Good Friday on this program, unlocking the Bible. That is, unlocking the Bible is, it's a wonderful ministry. And on Good Friday, which is to say this Friday, this whole program is being given over to them. They're taking over the program. They're sponsoring a presentation, both hours, of something called Heaven, How I Got Here. It's the story of the thief on the cross. It's a very beautiful story. It's both hours. It's a, you know, it's a radio drama of the thief on the cross, the conversation with Jesus on the cross, and then how he gets to heaven, then he looks back on

his life. So it's a fictionalized account of this actual biblical character. But unlocking the Bible is sponsoring that. It's going to be both hours on good. Friday on this program. Yes. Anything else? I wonder if there's some ministry out there called locking the Bible. Those are like the anti-minister. Like, who locked the Bible?

I think Fred Berry, remember the 70s show what's happening? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Very was a member of the dance troupe called The Lockers. And I think they could do a dance version called Locking the Bible. Yeah. Popping and locking the Bible. I actually saw Fred Barry at a bowling alley on the West Side.

side when I first moved to New York, he was there with the youth group. He was in some little, you know, ministry there. And, yeah. Did you see, do you see Raj? No, I didn't. But Fred Berry, it was like the whole hour, everyone was kind of noticed he was there. And then finally,

as if he knew everybody in the whole alley wanted to see it, he kind of turned and said, okay, I'm going to give you a little bit. And then he did his rerun dance and the whole place, you know, he brought the place down. It was fantastic. Oh my gosh. It's like he sensed it. I didn't think we'd be talking about Fred Berry, and what do you know?

We're talking about Fred Barry, Raj, and I can't think of that. Who's the third one? There was three, and then Raj had his little sister. Oh, I'm sorry, there was Duane. Duane, Rueh, and Rewan, who's Fred Berry. And Duane, in 1984, in the fall of 84, I bought my first typewriter, an IBM selectrics secondhand here in Manhattan. I was ready to become a writer.

And when I was in the typewriter store paying my $300 for the secondhand IBM Selectrics, I saw the character who plays Duane and I was all at Twitter. It was one of my first celebrity sightings ever. I'm so glad we're out of time. We're going to be right back.

Happy Easter, everybody, right? The final segment of the Eric Mataxis show. Actually, we've got a couple of important things to share in the next segment. Don't go away. Hey, folks, welcome back. This is a special bunker edition. as you already know of the Eric Metaxus show. A couple of quick announcements. We want you to go to our YouTube page. It's the Eric Metaxis show YouTube page. We're posting this video of David Benham. I would love you to share that video with as many people as you can. It's an important call to action.

I don't ask this often. Go to the YouTube page of the Eric Mataxis show and the Benham, David Benham, interview that I do 20 minutes. Please share that it with as many people as possible. Also, again, Mike Lindell of My Pillow has been seriously attacked. He is a hero. He is a patriot. He is a friend. He is a brother in Christ. And I just want to say, if you're inclined ever to buy anything from him, do it now to encourage him. Make sure you use our discount code, Eric, to get our savings. But I just want to say, when somebody's being in a little bit of a hero. I want to support him. So David Benham, Mike Lindell, there are a number of wonderful people out there. Thanks to Ted Cruz for supporting the Benham brothers and what they're doing and the cause

of life. And I guess I also ought to mention, you know, this week, all week long, I was going to be doing Bonhofer stuff, but it's kind of weird. We're doing these videos and it's hard to promote Bonhofer. This is the 75th anniversary of his death. But what I should do is remind folks that as of this week, I have a new book out. It is called Seven More Men. In it, I tell the stories of Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Billy Graham, George Whitfield, George Washington Carver, Sergeant Alvin York, General William Booth of the Salvation Army, Martin Luther. These are heroic stories. And I want to say that, you know, whenever I put a new book out, I don't do it lightly. I don't, you know, it's not like I have nothing else to do.

I think heroes are really, really important in our time, whether they are modern day heroes like my friends, Mike Lindell and David Benham, or whether they're heroes from the past. And so so many people said to me after I wrote seven men and seven women, you've got to write more. Aren't there more? And I thought, well, yes, there are tons more.

So I've written seven more men. We're going to be working on seven more women this year. But seven more men is now out. You can get a copy. Obviously, I recommend it. I stand behind every word since I actually wrote every word and I care about these heroes. But seven more men is the new book. We're doing a special giveaway where if you make a video of yourself, it can be up to 77 seconds long. And you put the video out there, use the hashtag, we need heroes and the hashtag Eric Metaxus and send it to info at ericmetaxis.com. just to show us what you've done. Whichever of these videos gets the most, you know, comments and retweets or shares or whatever it is, you will win a free copy of this book. And I also have to say, and I think this is kind of important, when you do this, you need to tell in the video who a special hero is for you.

It could be someone from history or it could be your dad or granddad or uncle. or anybody, any hero in your life, a coach, whatever it is, or a hero from history, it has to be short. So 77 seconds max. If it's 78 seconds, it's disqualified. I'm just telling you right now. So we're giving away seven free books each week. So it starts now.

So you have to go, you have to post it. You have to do hashtag, we need heroes, hashtag Eric Mataxis, and send it also to info at ericmetaxis.com. whichever seven of these videos get the most, you know, retweets and shares and comments and all that kind of stuff, we will send you a free copy of my new book, Seven More Men. We're at a time.

God bless you. Thanks for listening.