The Glenn Beck Program - Best of The Program | Guests: Vivek Ramaswamy, Seth Dillon, & Dave Isay | 2/17/23

Episode Date: February 17, 2023

Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy joins to explain why America must rediscover itself and declare independence from China. And he gives Glenn a big hint about whether he’ll run for president. Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon explains how he’s still able to do satire in an unbelievable world. StoryCorps’ Dave Isay joins with clips from the One Small Step program, which highlight the power of having conversations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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enlarge our clientele to world entire. Trouve of little enterprises like on our own.com on Amazon.ca. And all of this AI stuff you've been talking about forever, and I think people are probably sick of it.

But now it's actually turning into that point where people are becoming aware of it, and we really are, I think, at the beginning of something that we have not contemplated at all. We're sitting here, like on day one of this, staring into the abyss with no idea what's coming and really no rules or foundations on how to deal with it.

It's like we're strapped to a chair, and somebody spends on, you don't want to be strapped to this chair. You really don't want to be strapped to this chair. And then somebody's like, I'm just going to count to 10. Okay? Just going to count to 10. No big deal. 10, 9, 8, 7.

And all of a sudden, your chair starts to shake and you're being launched into space and you have no idea and no plan to return. That is how dramatic this is. Incredible. People are seeing little things like we talk about in today's podcast, and we will talk more about it on Monday, that the chair is starting to shake.

You're starting to go, oh, this is kind of weird. What did the chap, GPT say? What is going on? What? I'm telling you, get out of the chair. get out of the capsule. This thing is launching. And as a globe, you know what's so crazy is

almost everything this week, I think, has been disinformation. You know, look at the response for the train. What was that? Look at the response on the balloons. We started the week with aliens. We might have shot down an alien aircraft. Can we point out that we're all in kindergarten? Our entire week has been talking about trains and balloons.

Yeah. If the wheels of, and Kamala Harris with the wheels of the bus. We're doing all of them at the same time. Yes, but party city is not a threat that we know of at this point. All right, our podcast coming up. Going about your daily life when you're living in pain is like walking uphill with a backpack full of rocks. Sure, let's put the rocks down. What do you say?

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Don't forget to subscribe to this podcast at blazTV.com slash Glenn as well. And you can use the promo code Glenn to save yourself $10. Also, I mentioned the YouTube pages. Glenn has, of course, YouTube page. Now, over a million subscribers. Stu does America YouTube page, a few less, a few less than that. you can go and make that number a little higher if you would. Actually, today I'm going to be doing a special live broadcast because I feel like when I get in these moments and when, you know, hell is all around us.

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Here's today's podcast. You're listening to. The best of the world. I want to take you to now a guy who I have read is possibly, well, people are trying to draft him to run for president. And I have to tell you, even if he doesn't win or wouldn't run to try to win, but just try to get everybody to understand ESG, I support his candidacy. Vivek Rameshwamy is with us now. He is an anti-ESG crusader and has really made a lot of inroads with strive.com. Check it out. He's with us now. You're also an Ohio resident. Any thoughts on what's happening?

I mean, it's very sad what's happened, Glenn, and I watch Pete Buttigieg effectively imply that this has gotten too much attention. That's an affront, and I think it just reveals why people here and people across the country do not trust the establishment in Washington, D.C. And you know, the funny thing is I've seen both sides of it, right? I was born and raised in Ohio. I'm talking to you from Ohio today. I also went to school with Pete Buttigieg. We were at Harvard together. We overlapped with each other. And the dirty little secret is that if this had happened in Washington, D.C. or in New York City, the response would have been dramatically different. And the people here know it. And that's what fuels this cycle of distrust. And unfortunately, I'm sad to say that distrust exists for good reason. We need to put

new leaders in charge. And it's just, you know, most importantly, I think that community has been as brave as they possibly can be, but it's also revealed the divide between the aristocracy and D.C. And the rest of the country. I mean, the Pete Buttigieg comments, all of them are just so dismissive. And, you know, let's say even that he's, he's not, but let's just say he was right. You still don't say that. You go to the town and comfort them. and then give them some hard news, but they just are like, was everybody looking at this for? Why? Keep driving.

Exactly. And I think it's about self-protection because initially he was embarrassed that this was a bigger deal than expected. He's just come off another crisis with respect to grounding flights because of software glitches. So he thought this made him look bad, sweep it under the rug, even if the people are left to suffer as a consequence. Now if that refuses to happen, and thank you, to the people in this town and across the country who have stood up, to say this is a big deal, now is actually almost implicitly blaming the people who are actually casting attention on what's an important situation. Okay. I just see this as a symptom, Glenn, of a deeper problem in our country. So let me throw another log on this fire here. I checked the

ESG score of Norfolk Suffolk. Um, uh, railway. They have a higher ESG score than Tesla does. And their E is a lower threat, according to their score, than their S is. They're pretty good on the environment. What? What? This is laughable, Glenn, and it reminds me exactly of FPX on one small, on an ESG scoring mechanism, scoring better than ExxonMobil. This is a farce. And you put three-letter acronyms about it. What's it designed to do? It's designed to hide the essence of what's actually happening. And, you know, these companies, and working hand-in-glove with the government to do it are deflecting accountability from the topics they'd rather not be scrutinized for instead, talking about environmental and social issues instead. By the way, using the money of everyday citizens to advance those agendas without their knowledge. And you and I know that well.

That is the defining fraud of our time. But that, too, Glenn, is just a symptom of a deeper cancer in this country where we've lost our national identity. So people who are supposed to run the show are not the ones who we're, elect to run the government are not the ones actually running the show, running the actual government today. That's a new bureaucracy combined with new titans to be in the private sector, and that's the real problem we need to solve. Okay, so tell me how you solve that, Vive.

Look, I think there's a top-down version of this, and there's a bottom-up version of the club. The top-down version is we need to get the state and capitalism out of each other's hair. That is fascism. You combine state power with corporate power to do what neither can do. on its own. That is Mussolini's definition of fascism. And that's the state of affairs in modern America today. I'm sorry to say it. So what I say is if it is state action in disguise, if the government is using private companies, either through the ESG agenda or through free speech regulation in Silicon

Valley to do through the backdoor what government couldn't do directly, then those companies and those situations ought to be bound by the same constraints as the federal government itself. That includes the First Amendment to the Constitution in the United States if you're a tech company, for example. So I have a lot of ideas for top-down fixes here. I think we should make political expression of civil right in this country so long as we have other protected classes as well. But if we're honest with ourselves, Glenn, we also have to look ourselves in the mirror. Each of us do, you do, I do. Every person listening to this does and ask ourselves, what is it within us that causes us to want to bend the knee to these new monarchs? It's like the Israelites, why they want to go

back and be ruled by Pharaoh. There's something innate in human nature about it. And I just think we are so hungry for purpose right now in America that we need a conservative movement that fills that vacuum of purpose and identity with a vision of national identity that dilutes this poison to irrelevant. And that's part of the conversation. I will tell you, the left just heard what you said, and they would love, they're going to call you absolutely a nationalist and a fascist. I mean, forget about the actual meaning of those words. But you, you know, you a nationalist identity? What are you talking about?

What is the vision we should all be working toward? Revive the ideals that set this nation into motion. Basic ideas, even like merit, that you get ahead in this country, not in the color of your skin, but as MLK said, on the content of your character and contributions, I mean, that means getting rid of this national cancer of affirmative action. Merit in government, making sure the people we elect to run the government are the ones who actually run the government, not this cancerous bureaucracy that multiplies itself like a like a metastasizing tumor. I'd say meritocracy and ideas, Glenn. The best ideas win when no ideas are censored. Merritt and who gets into this country. I see this as a first generation American myself. My parents were

immigrants. We should want more people like them, but not people whose first act of entering this country is a law-breaking one. Those are just basic rules of the road. They're not even democratic ideas or Republican ideas, they are American ideas. And you kind of call that nationalist, call it nationalist. We then, if we shore up that vision, those basic ideas, then and only then can we take on the actual threats we face externally like communist China, which is not going to be easy to address. And I have views on how to do this. But I think we can make the sacrifices needed to address communist China, to declare independence from communist China, to do the kinds of things we're going to have to do if we shore up our national identity.

within. And that's what I'm on a mission to do one way or another. Vivek, you know, you look at China. I think we are marching toward war. This is exactly what happened at World War I. A group of Fabian socialists wanted to change all of Europe, get rid of the old structure. They said it was going to be great. They saw the potential for a war. They went all in thinking that it could be short and it will be enough pain to cover the collapse and the restructuring of the world. I think that's exactly what's happening. And I think just like they were wrong in World War I, they're wrong this time. This could be very catastrophic, just catastrophic.

This could be bad. This could be really bad, Glenn. I have one note of optimism. And I think we're working within a short window here for that optimism. Xi Jinping has shot himself in the foot through self-inflicted damage to get that third term last October when he took that unprecedented third term as leader of the CCP, that opens up a short window for us, I believe, to defeat China economically so that we will never have to militarily. I do not think that window's going to be open for long, but I call for total declaration

of independence from China, total decoupling. I think that that is the declaration of independence of the 21st century, because unlike the Soviet Union, in the last Cold War, they never provided the shoes on our feet or the phones in our pocket. China powers our modern way of life. But if we pull the economic rug from under them right now, they're in a vulnerable spot, Glenn. And to me, to the extent I pull the trigger and actually pursue this path, that would be one of the big reasons to do it, is I think we're working within a short window where we can actually do that if we can get it right. It will involve sacrifice. I'm going to tell you that bluntly.

There's not a rosy picture. There will be inconveniences involved for Americans. But our moment demands you used World War I analogy. I'll use a World War II one. We need Churchill, not Chamberlain, and we don't, I think we have a short window where we don't have to go to war if we can defeat them economically by achieving independence. And you sound like a guy who is going to run for a president. I'm thinking about it, Glenn. I'm thinking about it.

And I'm thinking about seriously. But it's not about me. It's not about the person. It really shouldn't be. It should be about the what and the why. And I could care less who it is. If it's a great person who doesn't have the right agenda, it doesn't matter to me. I think we need to define the agenda, define why we're doing what we're doing.

That's what I care about. You and I both care about. I know that both of us. And the question of the who then just becomes a lot easier after we've defined those things. That's what I'm most focused. I have to tell you. I support you 10010 percent. You are outside the system. You are very successful at what you've done. You have identified all of the right problems. You have worked to actually solve them yourself through the private sector. I think you get it. You know, I'm not endorsing any. for president at all. I think there's a lot of good people out there. However, the voice that you could bring to the table, even if you didn't win, you could shape the platforms of the party. I think it's, I think it's very important, actually, that you run. Just wanted you to know. I just say, I appreciate that. Let's rediscover what America is. That's what I care about. If we do that, I'm happy. Vavek Ramoswamy. Thank you so much, sir. I appreciate it. Appreciate it.

God bless. You're listening to. One of the guys who has been affected by digital censorship is Seth Dillon from the Babylon B. He's the CEO of the Babylon B. Hey, Seth. How are you? I am good, Glenn. It's good to be back with you.

Thank you. I think I ask you this every time you're on. But it gets worse between the interviews that we have. How are you guys dealing with satire? in a world where we're shooting $10 balloons down out of the sky. It is getting worse, isn't it? I mean, we're tracking it in a sheet. I may have mentioned this before on your program,

but we're tracking in a sheet all of our jokes that come true. And we call, you know, like they're fulfilled prophecies instead of punchlines. And we're up to almost 100. I think we've hit 90 now. So 10 more and we get 100 jokes. Unbelievable. Do you have that list in front of you? Can you tick off some, either from memory or?

Yeah, I can pull it up. I have it on my... I mean, that's like The Simpsons. On my link tree, but... Everybody's like, The Simpsons, they're prophets. No, they're not. They're comedians. They're just writing jokes.

We're becoming the joke. It is an old problem, though. You know, Shakespeare said gestures do off become prophets. So, you know, this has a long history. But it's happening with us really frequently. We did a joke about how horrified Satan distances his self from Grammys after that crazy Sam Smith performance. And then the Church of Satan came out two days later with a statement saying that the

performance was underwhelming and meh. And it didn't represent the case of Satan. I mean, this kind of stuff is happening all the time. We did one, experts say they don't know what's causing everyone that suddenly collapse, but it's definitely not that one thing. And then you see a story that says, something has been killing American young people in sharply rising numbers, but it's not vaccines.

I mean, they're jokes. It's unbelievable. And then the media makes them come true. I do say all the time, you know, imagine if your job was to write jokes that are funnier than what Democrats are doing in real life. I mean, that's a challenging job. I know, really challenging. So what is your take on just the news of the week?

I mean, can you deal with something like, did we blow up the Nord Stream pipeline? I mean, we talk about this. We've had deep, deep conversations in my producing meetings. Every day this week, do we want to know, is the world and the population of the world served by knowing the truth? What does it mean? Is there any place that is off limits?

Hmm. For comedy? For what we joke? Yeah, for comedy. We've decided there is no limit for us. us. Honestly, I think, you know, in the conversations about what you should and shouldn't joke about, the people that are usually telling you, oh, there's these things that you shouldn't make jokes about, those are their sacred cows that they want to protect. And that is the funniest stuff to joke about.

Those are the things that you have to joke about, if someone doesn't want you to joke about them. So the best comedians know that, and they leverage that. It's the reason Dave Chappelle is more popular than ever. Yeah. Because he knows that if he touches on some of these things that people are clutching tightly as their sacred cows, he's going to get laughs. People like to laugh at what you don't want to be joked about. So we generally have a rule that, you know, if there's anything that we're feeling like we shouldn't joke about it, well, maybe that's the thing we should be joking about the most. It is. It is. It is. It absolutely is. And I can't thank you enough for being there when no one else was joking about anything. Thank you for keeping that alive. Are you seeing a difference?

Do you think we've hit a tipping point on, because if we haven't hit it yet. We're very close on this woke nonsense and people just starting to go, you know what, this is enough. You know, I think we may be close to the tipping point because it's gotten so insane. The fact, you know, you know that once you start involving kids and this stuff and you start pushing this stuff on kids and they're doing it so aggressively, you know, the fact that initially it was all denied that there were drag shows happening for kids, now they're just openly promoting them all over the place. You've got the denials that there's gender affirming care. I'm putting that in scare quotes. Gender affirming care happening in these hospitals for minors. And now that, you know,

well, no, it is happening and it's good and you want to harm kids if you want to try to stop it, that kind of stuff going on. There are so many people who are now realizing how how crazy and out of control this has gotten. It's not just about, you know, respecting the freedom of other adults. It's about protecting kids from being purposefully confused. We're cultivating confusion and then treating it with irreversible damage to their bodies. I mean, this kind of stuff has gotten so wild that I think there is a lot of, a lot of pushback now and a lot of understanding that there needs to be something done to mitigate it.

The pendulum has to swing back the other way. And I think maybe we're at that point where it's going to start to do that. You're starting to see stories in New York Times that sound more reasonable. Really, because I haven't spotted a lot of those. But they just did one on transgender stuff. And I think it was about gender affirming care for kids or something. And the whole trans-community is up in arms about how transphobic to New York Times is. Right.

That's a good sign. That's a good sign. And I do think that I think, what was it? Like 150 people that worked for the New York Times walked out in protest. And I think the New York Times said, we're not going to be held hostage. Yep. What? So you're right on that.

Yeah. It's a great statement they put out. When it comes to what's being done to our time. children. You are really clear. You did, you've put some post up about Chelsea Handler and she did a video about, you know, the day in the life of a childless woman and how great it is. And you wrote, she left out the part where she cries alone at night from the realization that her freedom came at the cost of true fulfillment. Actually, it came at the cost of the lives of her children. I didn't realize she bragged about having murdered multiple babies. Wow.

Yeah. You know, there's this kind of, there's this, this, this, this, callous celebration that's happening so much now. You know, we're so far from that, you know, abortion should be safe, legal and rare type of thing. That was, you know, the kind of the mantra of the 90s. We've, we've come so far from that now that we have people like Chelsea out there, you know, bragging about how happy and free they are, you know, with really no, no mention of like what, what, if there is any mention of what, uh, if there is any mention of what, uh, allowed them to have that freedom. It's done in this, not in the somber, like, sad sense. Like, you know, I made sacrifices. I made hard choices to get here. Now, they celebrate what they did to get to get this freedom. And she's talking about the freedom to just wake up when she pleases and do what she pleases at night and go out with friends. And it's like, life is more meaningful than that. Life, you know, the lives of children matter. And there's so much more fulfillment to be found in having a family and raising a family and being surrounded by loved ones and and growing old with the ones that you love.

And I do think it's the case to a lot of people who think that they're finding true freedom are, are in fact sacrificing true fulfillment to get it. And they will regret it later in life. And I don't think it's, I don't think it's mean to call that out. No, I don't either. I mean, if you're, you're murdering your children to do that, I think that's fair to call out. But I know that I didn't, I was a guy who didn't want any children, and I have four. and now I'm 59.

I wish I had 10. I mean, the only thing that I have done in my life that truly matters has happened inside the walls of my house. I mean, it's all about my children. And you don't really get that until you start to get a perspective of a life lived, you know? Well, yeah, and the kind of fulfillment that can come from living sacrificial in the sense that you're serving the needs of others, there is so much fulfillment to be found. It sounds like to this, when you're being selfish and self-consumed, it sounds so burdensome to think, oh, I might have to sacrifice some of my time or money or attention to take care of somebody else or care for somebody else.

But there's really, there's really nothing more fulfilling. Like, God made us to be in that role. You know, God made women to be mothers. He made men to be fathers. That's why we're here. And so, you know, there is real true fulfillment, deep satisfaction that comes from that, even though it's a harder life in many senses. Wow. Listen to the hate coming from you. The one of the stories that I'm following that is really disturbing is how fast Canada has collapsed on its protection of life at any age.

At any age. Are you following what's happening up there with euthanasia and everything? Yeah, I've been hearing some things. I think I heard something recently about a story about, you know, about how we need to have a cutoff time, I guess, after a certain age, just put everybody down. Is that really what they said? I haven't heard that, but I know that they are putting people down, you know, they, now for if you're a kid, a teenager, and you are depressed, you can go to a doctor in Canada and get end of life medication. Wow. Yeah.

Wow. Hello. Yeah, that's just no regard whatsoever for the value of life. And there's so much, you know, there are so many people, there's so many great stories. If you talk to people who've been suicidal, gone through depression or alcoholism, drug addiction, and they've come out on the other side of it. And their lives have been redeemed and so much good has come from that. Why are we so quick to give up on people?

I know. I don't understand that. I know. I am a guy who is addicted to all those things and led a really bad life and alcoholic and, changed my life. I'd like to think that my life had been redeemed, but I know there's a lot of people who are like, he should have died a long time ago. But I am living testimony that whatever you think you've done or whatever your problems are, there is, there are solutions and there is a meaningful and happy life ahead of you. Should you choose it? It's not going to be easy,

but if you choose it, it's there. It's there. Thank you so much. It's coming out of you. Thank you so much, Seth, for everything that you guys do at the Babylon B. And as always, anything we can do to help, you just let us know. Thanks. Thank you, Glenn. You bet. Bye-bye. You're listening to the best of the Glenn Beck program.

Hello, America. Welcome to the Glenn Beck program. It's Friday. I want to give you some hope here today that a country is not as divided as you might think it is. We just don't talk to each other. And we all live on social media and mainstream media. and everybody is incentivized to keep dividing. While there are real issues, I am more and more convinced every day that it is the governments of the world that are going in one direction.

And the people are looking at each other going, wait, why would we go to war? Wait, what are we doing here? Less than half of the country is for sending arms to the Ukrainians. I'm kind of at the beginning, okay, I want to help the Ukrainians. I don't want to go to war over it. But it seems like there's a disconnect between not only each other because of left and right, but also up and down, the people who are just working for a living and the people who are the ruling elites. How do we solve this?

I'm going to show you somebody who's working on it and is actually making a difference in 60 seconds. Well, Valentine's Day may be over, but it's not too late to give yourself the excellent gift of looking years younger. And it's incredibly easy thanks to GenuCell. Their most popular package is 70% off, and it includes the next breakthrough in skin care technology. GenuCel's probiotic moisturizer, absolutely free. You know, probiotics, they're unlike yogurt and stuff. They're like supposedly good for you. I don't even understand the stuff.

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luxury genusel gifts for you to try. Order now. Only limited quantities are available. Go to genucell.com slash Beck. It's G-E-N-U-C-E-L.com slash Beck. Welcome to the Glenn Beck program. We have Dave Isay-N. He is the founder of StoryCorps. If you've never heard of StoryCorps, you should.

It's really a great capturing of history in real people's worlds. It is, honestly, you're not going to need Ken Burns to document this time and history and have some star read a letter from somebody because StoryCorps exists. And what they've done is they have talked to almost three quarters of a million people over the years and gotten their story from them. What was important? What are they thinking about? And it's all in the National Archives. It's a great, great thing that he has done. Dave is with us now.

But he started another extension of StoryCorps. How long ago, Dave? Three, four. You were one of the first conversations I had. It was just kind of a twinkle in my eye about four years ago. Four years ago. Yeah, we started thinking about it, but we launched it about a year and a half ago.

Yeah, okay. So you did one small step. Yeah. And one small step is what exactly? So, you know, as you're talking about before, there are these divisions in the country. and most people in the country are really sick of this and worried about where this is going to take us and want to find a way that we can see our neighbors again as our neighbors.

And obviously all the fear that we feel is this is not healthy. This is like a public health emergency in the country. So with StoryCorps, the big story core that you're talking about, we've had, as you said, about three quarters of a million people interview their grandma, their parents about their lives. And each of these go to the Library of Congress. So your great, great, great grandkids get to know your grandma. that through her voice of story. So essentially what we're doing

is collecting the wisdom of humanity for, you know, and it's about, you know, the fact that there's poetry, as you well know, and grace and beauty and the story is just hiding in plain sight all around us. We just have to take the time to listen. Oh, yeah. As opposed to what we're kind of bombarded with 24 hours a day. So those 750,000 people have known and loved each other.

And I came and talked to you about this like four or five years ago, that, you know, we were, and we were, we have a big problem in this country. that you know that we more and more you know polls show that that you know we see the biggest threat in our country as our neighbors not the Chinese that's really you know not not yeah it's really bad more than half the country thinks we're gonna see a civil war in our lifetime so the question is we're a nonprofit in every possible way in the human connection business so the question is you know

what could we do so we started experimenting with putting strangers for the first time across the political divide together not to talk about politics just to get to know each other as human beings, called it one small step and have and tested and tested and tested it. Because, you know, our Hippocratic oath is to do no harm to people. And we've come up with something that is frighteningly powerful. Because when you put just regular people together and you let them talk, you figure out, you know, you have a lot in common.

And people come out of these conversations, friends. So there's two clips that I want to play. And it's pretty interesting. What you've done is you've pre-interviewed people and got to know them a little bit and then put their sheet together of who they are. And then the other person, you switch with the other person. You haven't met yet. And what I found in listening just to these two clips is they came in with different expectations, which I think all of us would. Yeah.

So let's play the first clip, please. What was the thing that stuck with you after our previous conversation, Drew? Based on your military background, based on your upbringing, it was interesting to me that you saw people for their character more so than anything else. You know, you look at how we kind of damage each other in society and that we need to talk about it and stop that. And then we kind of said, let's talk to each other. Let's go to dinner and lunch. And I was like, oh, that sounds great. We hit it off right away.

We have the same ideas about how to improve our country. Our country is so divided now. We can do better. And I think that's what one small step is doing is allowing you to have those conversations to talk about our similarities instead of our differences. As far as our relationship is concerned, I feel as though I've known you forever. You're a dear, dear friend. And I cannot imagine you not being in my life at this point. Well, it's been a reciprocal.

Well, we're going to have lunch together, maybe next week or so. We'll get you to come here to the cottage and we'll sit down and talk politics and sports and whatever you want to talk about. Sounds good. Sounds good. And this is a relatively old guy in relation. He's a white guy. And in relation, he's talking to a much younger black man.

Yeah. And what did they go in expecting? So this is, so this is what you're actually here. in that interview are two people who came to do one small step. And we don't pre-interview people. People sign up. They fill out all of those things. They fill out all this stuff.

They do a little biography of themselves. And then we match them or we have a computer match them. And they get to see each other's biography. First name, city only. You can't Google the person. And then the interview starts and you read your partner's biography to them. They read your biography to you. And then you just talk about your life.

So what we're just hearing actually are two guys who didn't interview. became friends and then came back to talk about the impact on their lives. And actually, after meeting, both of them are working on like a big project now in in Richmond, where this was recorded, restoring the first African-American school in Richmond, the Moore Street School. So, you know, the crazy thing, one small step is built on a theory, a theory that's one of the most studied theories in psychology called contact theory. It says under very specific circumstances, if you put people who think their enemies together

and they have a conversation, they can come out of it with that hate having melted away. And the highest possible result is friendship. And we see friendship coming out of these conversations all the time. I have to tell you. That is, I know that to be true. No, you do. In my own personal life, but also when you look at extremes, the thing that I found in doing research on the Holocaust was the Christians that saved.

Jews. They all pretty much said the same thing. They were not necessarily trying to save all Jews. Many of them said, well, this Jew is different. And the only difference was they knew them. They believed the stereotype. Right. But they thought, well, this one's not like them. And I hear that all the time across the divide. People will say, well, yeah, but you're not. Or that person's not like them. well, no, yeah, they're very much like that. You just have this cartoon figure. Right. And the question is, if we can get this to scale,

and I have to say, your show is the number one referer for conservatives to one small step. You're kidding. No. Wow. And we have barely scratched the surface. I know. We're having a meeting today, are we?

Yeah, we are. Yeah. I really would like to talk to you because I think, you know, you're you're coming from the nonprofit world and you know you're surrounded in you know NPR and and all of that with people who think differently than I do and I think we can make a bigger impact if we if we really put both sides together and and if it's not 50 50 contact theory is based I mean we at StoryCorps you know I've I we believe that there's a flame of good and everybody and that's and and and that you know and our job is to fan that flame until it's a roaring

fire you know and as you said that's it's that idea of general generalizing yeah you have a conversation you think but the truth is there's nuance in everybody and if we just pound on this if we do it over and over and over again and you're right this is not going to come from the government it's not going to come from no way you know it has to come from the people and and it's time for us to say enough there's you know people there are so many people who worked so hard and sweated and and and and and bled so that we could have this life that we have today. What are we going to leave for our children? Yeah.

And if we, you know, a democracy cannot survive if we hate each other. We have to stop this. You know, I just saw the news. The Idaho House has just approved to Greater Idaho, which means that the people in Oregon have voted and said they wanted to join. Now the House, it'll have to go to the Senate. But then it goes to Oregon. There's a lot of steps before that happens.

but that seems like a very logical thing to I don't have enough in common with you that I have to split. That's a really bad thing. And that's coming because I think there are a very small number on both sides that are so extreme. And those are the only ones that are really being heard. And the rest of us are standing around in our neighbors. neighborhoods and with our friends and going, what is happening here? But I don't know if that's entirely true, Dave, because we look at things like what's happening in our schools now.

These are all things 10 years ago. Every American would have said, no, not having transgender or, you know, regular strippers. We're not doing that. We don't do that. And, you know, I see it across the country that parents of all stripes are standing up against But there's a lot of people who are regular people who are now standing up and saying, well, no, wait a minute, I'm for this. And you're like, what I haven't, how did you change?

What new information did you get? You know, I think that there's, there is so much nuance in what people believe. And all nuance has been wiped away. Everything is black or white. True. And when you actually sit together and you actually talk, you find out that, you know, people have, first of all, like, you know, the great lesson of the big story core. And, you know, this is a show, first time I saw you, and we talked about your audience, you said they're patriots.

You know, and this is a show about people who love America. Yeah. Like I, after doing, I've spent 20 years on the road, you know, I haven't personally been on the road, but, you know, these hundreds of thousands of interviews. This is a great country. It is. The people, and every facilitator, we've had a thousand mostly young people who travel the country listening to the stories of America and they all come back and if you ask them what they've learned

it's a version of the Anne Frank quote people are good people are basically good and we've lost that and I think these kind of arguments they're like people are people have been driven crazy by Twitter you know

the dopamine hits you get by putting out the most radical but when you actually sit down with people I mean I think I think that's what we try to do That's what you try to do, just shake people on the shoulder and say, you know, wake up. Yeah, wake up. Wake up. Yeah.

We can do better than this and we have to. It's up to us. Let me play the next cut. And I don't want you to reveal anything about this cut until the end. I want you to listen to this and see if you haven't either experienced or heard somebody firsthand that have experienced this very thing. Let me ask you this. When you read my bio, what did you think? And please be as honest as you feel comfortable because nothing would bother me.

So the first part, my mind kicked into stereotype, which probably died in a world Democrat, end of the story. Second part was intriguing because you said something along the lines of an open mind. I thought, well, this would be interesting. When I read your bio, I just thought you were white man. I thought I was going to come in here and just... I don't even know what it was. I don't even remember what it was. And that's what so interesting to me is that I'm just like, that's exactly right.

So I have to admit it. And I appreciate you receiving that and allowing me to admit my stereotype. Because when you walked in the door and you stood up and introduced myself, I was like, oops, oops, oops. I don't feel threatened. I hope you don't feel threatened. Once we leave this conversation, I hope. I hope, I believe we'll have other conversations with others, may revisit, maybe your wife and my husband and four of us can get together and continue you a conversation.

But my point is that what are we afraid of? Fascinating. David and Cassandra, both African American. So Dave, what are you doing next? Where do you go next with this? Well, we have, so now it's time. So basically we've done a ton of research. We've had thousands of people participate, and now we have to scale it. And we want, so right now we're in, first of all, if you're, if you're a Glenn Beck listener, you go, we have thousands and thousands and thousands of people on waiting lists, waiting to do this. Glenn Beck listeners right to the top.

So take one small step.org to sign up and join us. We are focused on three cities now. Richmond, Fresno, and Wichita, and we're just going to add cities and add cities and eventually have this, you know, go across the country. You know, it feels like a race against time. And at the end of those videos, we are. We're coming into the home stretch of something. And I don't know what's going to happen.

Well, 2020 is not going to be pretty. Yeah. And, you know, at the end of the video, it says, you know, our mission is to, you know, convince the country, it's our patriotic duty to see the human in people we disagree with, you know, and we know it's a moonshot. We know that there are a billion different forces that are trying, we're trying to trip this up. But, you know, the people can win. I mean, that's what you've believed all the way.

We just have to come together and just say, stop. And I think that is the biggest problem, I think, with politicians of any stripe. They don't necessarily believe in the people, you know. Jefferson said, trust the American people. They may get it wrong from time to time. They will correct their mistake. And so many people don't give us information or they're doing something else. They'll say one thing, do another.

Just trust the American people. You know, and I think that comes from a lack of doing what you do and what I do. And that is just listen to people all over the country. And you'll realize these are good people. Yeah. And I think that's part of the problem. And, you know, a big problem that's got us to this place is that people don't feel hurt. They just want people just want to be heard.

I know. And they want to be treated with dignity and they wanted to be treated. They want to be treated with respect. No one has ever changed their mind in the history of the world by being called a name, by being threatened. They just want to be listened to. You know, and again, if we could just assume the good in others, I mean, what a country this would be. I mean, it's such a country.

I mean, imagine if one small step could take hold. imagine if we could just, you know, be neighbors again. And if politics wasn't stopped up by the insanity and we could just get things done for the good of the country and the good of people. I mean, it's just beyond comprehension how amazing this could be. And then there's the other road,

which we don't want to talk about. And you know where that leads. I'm proud to know you. You're a good man. I'm proud to call you a friend. I appreciate you. really good man. How do people get in touch and if they want to sign up? So just go to Take One Small Step.org. It takes about five minutes to sign up.

And we are, we're drinking from a fire hose. Yeah. But we want you to be part of that fire hose and we want that fire hose to turn into a wave that overtakes this country and shows us a different way. Good. Thank you, Dave. Thank you. All right. When you're little, you've been able to do you, in the affairs of recreat, always in trying to negotiate, to change the cards of hockey, the bonhom,

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