The Josh Innes Show - Will America Unite?

Episode Date: September 12, 2025

A friend of mine told me that it will take a great tragedy to bring Americans together. I thought of this last night while watching Al Michaels get emotional discussing his first broadcast after 9/11. Some has suggested the Charlie Kirk murder will help bring people together. Newsflash: It will not. I know I'm a much happier person due to my new friend Coach Prime. But, I cannot fake belief that people will ever unite. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is brought to you by Defender. With a towing capacity of 3,500 kilograms and a waiting depth of 900 millimeters, the Defender 110 pushes what's possible. Learn more at landrover.ca. Where's your playlist taking you? Down the highway, to the mountains, or just into daydream mode while you're stuck in traffic. With over 4,000 hotels worldwide, Best Western is there to help you make the most of your getaway.

Wherever that is, because the only thing better than a great playlist is a great trip. Life's the trip. Make the most of it at Best Western. Book direct and save at bestwestern.com. Wendy's most important deal of the day has a fresh lineup. Pick any two breakfast items for $4. New four-piece French toast sticks, bacon or sausage wrap, Biscuit or English muffin sandwiches, small hot coffee, and more. Limited time only at participating Wendy's Taxes Extra.

While other money managers are holding, Dynamic is hunting. Seeing past the horizon, investing beyond the benchmark, because your money can't grow if it doesn't move. Learn more at dynamic.ca slash active. Dynamic, actively different. So yesterday was the anniversary of 9-11. And I was watching the football game last night, and there was a reference. There was a quick little package put together of the return of football in 2001.

I guess it was 13 days, 14 days after 9-11. So I guess it was the 24th or the 25th. I don't remember the exact date that football came back. And on Monday night football, Al Michaels was calling a Monday night football game at Lambeau Field on the first day or the first Monday night after football returned, right? And Al was talking, and you could almost seem getting emotional when he was talking about it because at one point he goes like, yeah, we were really together at that point. Like you see all the American flags in the stands, and he just, you could tell he's getting

a little emotional, and he's like, yep, we were together. As a country, we were together. And it's actually pretty profound. I don't know if anybody else cared or watched it or thought about it last night when he did this, but you could tell that he was getting emotional. And this is a guy that's called The Miracle on Ice, and this is a guy that's called Monday Night Football after 9-11. And you look at it, and it's a juxtaposition to 25 years later, and it's fucking wild.

But let's play a couple commercials, and we'll get going. Hey, it's Josh. The NFL season is rolling along, and every touchdown can bring you closer to a payout with Draft King's Sportsbook and official sports betting partner of the NFL from first. touchdown score to anytime TD props or the thrill of live in-game betting, which I love, every snap is loaded with opportunity. And you have got cool stuff, man. Like, I just, I love the opportunity.

I love live bets. Like, that's what I'm into. Like, I can't specify because I love to just jump in on games live. That's kind of my passion. Prop bets and live bets. New customers, here's one for you, though. Bet just five bucks and get $200 in bonus bets. Instantly, plus score over $200 off NFL Sunday ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV.

Grab over $200 off NFL Sunday ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV. Download the Draft King Sportsbook app and use the code in us. That's I N-N-N-E-S to get $200 in bonus bets instantly when you place your first $5 bet, plus over $200 off NFL Sunday ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV in partnership with Drafts. Kings. The Crown is yours. Gambling problem, call 1-800 gambler in New York. Call 8778-8-Hope-N-Y or text Hope N-Y. That's 467369. In Connecticut, help is available for problem gambling. Call 888-789-777 or visit CCP.org. Please play responsibly on behalf of Boothill Casino and Resort, Kansas. 21 plus age, and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Fees may apply in Illinois.

void in Ontario, bonus bets expire seven days after issuance, see sportsbook.draftkings.com slash promotions, NFL Sunday ticket offer for new subscribers only and auto renews until canceled. Digital games and commercial use excluded. Restrictions apply. Additional NFL Sunday ticket terms at YouTube.com slash go slash NFL Sunday ticket slash terms limited time offer. So I had a friend of mine and I would text him all the time and I'd be like, hey, do you think that people are ever actually going to come together ever again? And he said, well, it's going to take a tragedy. It's going to take a tragedy to bring people together, but it's going to happen.

And he referenced how 9-11 brought people together. And I'm like, but that was 25 years ago. And that feels like a different time and place. That's pre-social media. I mean, there was no social media. 2001, there's no Facebook. There's no MySpace. There's nothing.

Like, there's barely an internet. So, like, people kind of got their news from the media. the same place, TV, newspapers, radio, you know, there was basically Rush Limbaugh and conservative talk guys on the radio and then, you know, local people. That's kind of what you got. That's where your information came from. There were no blogs. There were no, you know, there were barely any cell phones in 2001. There was nothing. So it was very easy for people to come together because I don't think people were as brainwashed in 2001 because they didn't have as many opportunities to be brainwashed as they are now. They didn't have as many

outlets, as many avenues, right? There aren't as many opportunities to be brainwashed in 2001 because there is no social media. You know, however years, how many years of age you want to, you can log on to the internet and start getting indoctrinated by people, right? Like in 2025. But I would tell him, like, I don't believe that things are ever going to get better. Like, I don't believe things are going to, like, come together. People are not going to come together. And he was still of the big belief that a tragedy in history, tragedy has brought people together. And I don't know if you would consider the Charlie Kirk thing, it's clearly a tragedy because the guy didn't deserve to die and he shouldn't have died because he had differing viewpoints from people.

He was not a Nazi. He was not Hitler. He did not deserve to get a bullet through the neck, right? He didn't. But you start to look at these things and you say, is that a tragedy that's enough to make people think like, holy shit, this is wild. And this is an assassination, a murder that we watched not live but basically live on the internet almost every human in the country saw this video of this guy getting his head blown off basically blood gushing from his neck this is something that we don't see a ton of me you see videos more so than you used to you know this isn't faces of death you know you didn't go into the you know a garage and watch faces of death with your buddies and watch a guy you know like some terrorist cut off a dude's head you know you didn't on video

like we can see these more readily or they're more available than they use you used to be. But still, like, it's still jarring to see somebody take a bullet through the neck and have blood gush out of their neck right in front of a bunch of people and die. Like, that just doesn't feel like an American thing. And that is a tragedy. And you would think something so tragic and something so dramatic and something so in your face would at least make people stop and go, huh, maybe things are pretty fucked up and maybe it's time we figure this shit out? No, it hadn't done that. It's not. Like, I understand that this isn't like a tragedy to a 9-11 extent where, you know, a foreign entity has attacked America. But hell,

I was thinking about this. If 9-11 happened in 2025, there'd be a large percentage of this country that'd be rooting for Al-Qaeda. Like, hey, Al-Qaeda's bad. We hate Al-Qaeda. We hate it. And then, like, they'd be like, fuck you, Trump, we love al-Qaeda. Like, that's how fucked up we are. You want me to believe that this country's coming together over Charlie Kirk getting shot? Come on, man. Like, look, it's a tragedy and it's a horrible thing. And it was, like, it was heinous to watch.

But just solely in the world of, do you think this is the kind of event that brings people together? Do you think watching a guy on a college campus get taken out? Like, we've heard stories about political activists getting shot, right, from. our youth, right? So we've heard Malcolm X, but there's no video of Malcolm X or nothing that's a widely circulated video of Malcolm X getting taken out. And there aren't widely circulated videos of Martin Luther King getting taken out. We know he got shot. We've seen still photos of him at the Lorraine Motel and people pointing up to the gunman. Like, we know that there are people that have been assassinated. Some videos clear than others. Like we've seen, you know, the Bobby Kennedy

in the hotel kitchen. Like, we've seen all of those things. And we've heard about all of those things. We've heard about four dead in Ohio, Kent State. We've heard of all those things. But this is truly right in your face and you watched it essentially in real time. And the majority of the people that hated the guy before and hated his politics before still fucking hate the guy. And they're glad he's dead. And they still hate his politics. It ain't bringing anybody together. I'm not trying to be so pessimistic here. I think we've been doing fun happy upbeat let's laugh let's talk sports betting let's talk football we've been doing some fun segments on the podcast got a nice message from a listener who said hey man i can tell that like

you're in a better mood you're doing fun shit and we're laughing and i appreciate that it's because a coach prime i guess i listen to the coach prime book in the car and i'm locked in and i'm feeling good and and you know i'm looking for the more positive outlook on shit i want this to be successful i want the radio to be successful i want people in the building to like me so i'm trying to be a more confident person, right? Going to get a haircut and a beard trim today? Because as Coach Prime says, when you look good, you play good. When you look good, you feel good.

When you feel good, you play good. When you play good, they pay good. So I'm going to tighten up the beard a little bit, get a little haircut, look snazzy, all that shit. So I'm trying to be more positive. But I am not positive. I'm actually positive in that nothing is going to change and there is no incentive to change. and I don't believe things are going to get better. And I'm not saying that from a viewpoint of hardcore pessimism.

I'm just looking at it from a view of realism. When you sit back and you think to yourself, hey, are things going to get better? Do you believe they're going to get better? Do you believe that there will ever be something that will bring people together? Does a guy who has different viewpoints than you getting gunned down on a college campus? Is that going to bring you together? No. Then what is?

Another 9-11? As I said, there'd be a lot of. large portion of this country. Van Jones would be rooting for al-Qaeda. Rosie O'Donnell would be rooting for al-Qaeda. We would just sit around and say, well, we deserve it. We're terrible. I can see why people hate this. Joy Behar would be rooting for al-Qaeda. You know, like, come on, man.

Then nothing's going to bring this place. If I can tell you that a terrorist attack on the country and I asked you, would it bring people together? And you'd say, no, I don't think so. Then it's never going to come together. Well, what happens when Trump isn't president? His vibe and his aura will still reverberate. What about if Trump dies in five years, 10 years, 20 years from now? What about when Trump dies?

Does that change it? No. It doesn't. It's not going to change. And this is not a pessimistic outlook. As long as there are still extremes on either side and they have the biggest bullhorn and they still go to social media and television and radio and they espouse their views and they have their groups of people that follow them.

what incentive is there to bring people together? What incentive does some right-wing guy have to bring the world together with the left-wing guy? What incentive to some wacky, liberal fucking TikToker or influencer have to bring people together? You know what bringing people together does? You know what Harmony does? It's boring. And it ends the need for these angry people. It's like sports radio in that way.

You know when the best sports radio is when the team sucks? The best sports radio is right after the team. Like when the Texans were losing those games in 2010 were like wacky, like everything that could go wrong wood. Like, hey, it looks like we're about to beat the Jaguars. Nope. Guy spikes the ball right into the hands of a defender in the end zone. Hail Mary, game over, or vice versa. Hail Mary caught.

The defender spikes it into the hands of the wide receiver game over. Or blowing a big lead on Monday night football to whomever. Like all of the things that went wrong for them, every time you'd come on the radio either right after the game or on the Monday after the game, people were so angry and so over the top that that was the best content you were going to get. Angry sports radio, team losing sports radio is always better than team winning sports radio. Because when you win, you're content. Happiness does not breed interesting radio. Misery breeds interesting radio.

Right? So, in this case, misery and discontent breeds money. power, clout. So if you're someone who's made their name and built their brand on either anti-right-wing or anti-left-wing stuff, what incentive do you have to wish for some sort of happiness? If people are happy and they're going about their day smiling and now liberal and conservative isn't even a thing and they're like best friends and they're riding tandem bicycles together, where does that leave little old you on social media that's yelling at the cloud? about how terrible the right-wing people are.

You're kind of out in the cold. You're kind of left in the lurch, right? So if you ask me like, Josh, will things ever, no, never will there be harmony? We are going to be a country that lives in forever strife. No, in fairness, most of us don't even try to not even pay attention to it. We just live our lives. We have our friend group. We have the people that we hang out with.

And we try to distance ourselves from that. The vast majority of us are not lunatics, but there are enough of them on both sides of the aisle that grift and need dissension to remain atop their perch and to capitalize on their earning potential, they will continue to divide people. We have to try to avoid that. I'm not some sort of leader. I'm not some sort of like cult leader or anything like that. but I'd like to be happy and I'd like to not hear all this shit all the time so I tune out of a lot of it

that's why like I used to talk about more political shit on here than I do I like I'll still talk about some you know like anti-woke shit that's kind of what my like my boss was talking to me about that he's like you know you think you're really political I'm like no I'm not I like one of my talking points I like to make fun of woke shit I don't even like the term woke because I think woke makes you too like right wing right like but I like the idea, like, of making fun of people who are overly sensitive towards certain shit. Like, I like to make fun of, like, hey, crack or barrel, change their logo because they're trying to get people that are never going to go to their restaurant anyway.

You know, like, I like to make fun of that kind of shit, but I don't consider myself a super political person. I didn't vote last time I voted one time ever. You know the story. I voted for Trump in 2020 because I hated the way the left wing politicians were doing shit, forcing vaccines and shutting down businesses and shit. So I voted for Trump in that case. Never voted, and I'll never vote again because I don't believe in these people.

And I don't want to be part of any of their cults. But if the question is, hey, again, back to the initial point of this, which was talking to my friend, I'm like, hey, do you think people are ever going to come together? And he says, oh, it'll take a tragedy. It'll take a 9-11. It'll take something that makes people realize, holy shit, we're in this thing together. Dude getting blown away essentially in front of the world for his beliefs. Didn't bring anybody together.

in fact, it distanced people even more. People are getting whacked because they can't help themselves from posting that they're happy that this guy got shot. People are broken. And, of course, you have the algorithm that feeds the machine. The algorithm feeds the machine with all of this hate and vitriol and shit that's going to incite. So it's never going to stop.

You actually want to do, you want to stop some of this? Again, get rid of social media. I'd be all in favor of it. Fuck social media. Dump Twitter. Dump Instagram. No more social. media. If you don't have hate and venom and the algorithm spitting horrible shit that's designed

to piss you off at you 24-7, maybe everybody'd be in a better mood. That would be the chance. You want to bring people together in social media? And at least we wouldn't have to see it anymore. That would be something that could bring people together. As long as there are social media and the YouTube's and the Instagrams of all this, you're never going to bring people together because there's too much money and too much power in chasing clout on social media and building clicks and cults of people. So no, no. The answer to the question is, do you think that the country will ever unite? Absolutely 100%. No, it will not. I'm glad I could uplift everybody today. We'll get into some sports stuff too, I promise.