The Megyn Kelly Show - Zachary Levi on RFK and Tulsi Bringing Him to Trump, Secrets of Hollywood, and How God Saved His Life | Ep. 1010

Episode Date: February 19, 2025

Megyn Kelly opens the show by discussing what's really happening with President Trump vs. Ukraine President Zelensky, and how the Ukraine War could end now that Trump's administration is leading negotiations. Then actor Zachary Levi joins to discuss his new movie, “The Unbreakable Boy,” why he feels God brought him and the rest of the movie cast and crew to this, the importance of the movie and its message, how it fits with the rest of his career,how Tulsi Gabbard helped lead him to support Trump during the campaign, his support of RFK Jr. at HHS and Elon Musk at DOGE, how his career wasn't affected by the endorsement of Trump, the inspiring way Robert F. Kennedy plans to transform the Department of Health and Human Services, his plan to address the "off limits" areas that have been ignored, how he moved to Austin, Texas in an attempt to solve his problems, why this actually led to more challenges, hitting rock bottom in his life when he blew his life up, how a combination of God and therapy saved his life, how he landed the lead role in “Shazam” while spending a month in intensive therapy, how it was God calling him to the role and the support he received along the way, and more.More from Levi: https://theunbreakableboy.movieGround News: Use the link https://groundnews.com/megyn for 40% off the Vantage subscription to see through mainstream media narratives.Done with Debt: https://www.DoneWithDebt.com/Hungryroot: Visit https://Hungryroot.com/megyn for 40% off your first box PLUS a free item in every box for lifeTuttle Twins: Visit https://TuttleTwins.com/MKTax Network USA:CALL 1-800-958-1000 or visit https://TNUSA.com/MEGYN to speak with a strategist for FREE todayFollow The Megyn Kelly Show on all social platforms:YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/MegynKellyTwitter: http://Twitter.com/MegynKellyShowInstagram: http://Instagram.com/MegynKellyShowFacebook: http://Facebook.com/MegynKellyShow Find out more information at: https://www.devilmaycaremedia.com/megynkellyshow

Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show, live on Sirius XM Channel 111 every weekday at noon east. Hey everyone, I'm Megyn Kelly. Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show, live today from Sirius XM HQ in New York City. I have to say, when we show you the full set later, you'll see a Sirius XM really stepping up its game. It got me like the NFL Sunday guest, like desk. It's, look at this. So fancy, isn't it? Thank you, friends at Sirius. I love it.

And this seat will be occupied momentarily by Zach Levi, who is here in the building and on his way up. And I'm looking forward to speaking with him. There's a lot to go over today. And you know what, before we get to that, picking up on our AM update. I don't know if you guys listened to the AM update this morning. It was our first morning podcast. We're going to be offering that now during the weekdays. It's just a 15 minute straight news update for folks before they start their day. But it was mostly about what's happening with the settlement, the resolution of the Russia-Ukraine war, and how Trump has really taken the lead. Hello,

somebody had to, and is having direct meetings with Putin. And Zelensky of Ukraine is very unhappy and continues to sort of yap about it. Now, with all due respect to Mr. Zelensky, this thing was just on and on and on with no progress or hope of resolution until Trump got directly involved, till he got elected and stepped in there and actually started to say, look, let's be realistic about how this thing is going to land. So Zelensky would do well to just be quiet for a while

to see what Trump can accomplish. And when Trump brings it to him, it will be a proposal and he can react accordingly. But instead, he's been yapping the whole week long about there's no deal on Ukraine without Ukraine. Well, he knows that. All right. But realistically, you'll probably do what we tell you to because your war ends without our support. And everybody knows that. So we're kind of doing you the courtesy of allowing you to appear like you are in charge. But everyone knows without our money, this thing goes away. You can't you you lose. You would have lost week one. The Europeans have donated some, have supported some. But let's be honest, their

coffers are a lot more shallow than ours are. And we're the number one player in making this thing go away. So that's why Trump is taking the lead. He's dealing with Putin directly. And Zelensky just keeps dropping these not helpful statements. And I think Trump has about had it because he just issued a truth, you know, a truth social. And I'll give you a couple. All right.

So stand by. Let me see if I can find these on my phone. Oh, gosh. Can you guys send them to me again? My team sent them to me and now I can't find them now that we're actually live on the air. Stand by. I will get it to you. Here it is.

Oh, no. Shoot. That's not it. Are we live? Is this happening live? Trump basically called him a dictator and put him in his place saying, you know, why don't you take a seat because we're doing something here and you're not being helpful. Here it is. Think of it, he writes on Truth Social. A modestly successful comedian, Volodymyr Zelensky, talked the United States of America into spending $350 billion to go into a war that could not be won, that never had to start,

but a war that he, without the U.S. and Trump, will never be able to settle. The U.S. has spent $200 billion more than Europe, and Europe's money is is guaranteed while the U.S. will get nothing back. You remember that Trump struck the deal the other day or was starting to that would allow for us to have access to Ukraine's natural minerals as, you know, as collateral for our for our money. And nobody even thought of that. You know, Biden was just handing them boatloads of dollars without any promise in return. So Trump is saying here that we spent $200 billion. Europe got a guarantee. We never did. Why didn't sleepy Joe Biden demand equalization and that this war is far more important to Europe

than it is for us? We have a big, beautiful ocean as separation. Obviously, Europe is part of Ukraine and Ukraine's part of Europe. And Europe has to worry about this war, which is in its backyard, not ours. On top of this, Zelensky admits that half of the money we sent him is missing. That's exactly right. He admitted that it's gone underreported. But we've got over 100 billion dollars that's just kind of gone. And Zelensky's admitting it. And by the way, if you said we don't trust him, he's we think this man should not be entrusted with the American dollars. You would be called all sorts of names as recently as like six months ago. But it's a valid concern. He's admitted that it's gone and no one knows where he says.

Zelensky refuses to have elections, is very low in Ukrainian polls. And the only thing he was good at playing Biden, the only thing he was good at was playing Biden like a fiddle. A dictator without elections, Zelensky better move fast or he is not going to have a country left. In the meantime, we are successfully negotiating an end to the war with Russia, something I'll admit only Trump and the Trump administration can do. Biden never tried. Europe has failed to bring peace and Zelensky probably wants to keep the gravy train growing, going. I love Ukraine, but Zelensky probably wants to keep the gravy train going. I love Ukraine, but Zelensky has done a terrible job. His country is shattered, and millions have unnecessarily died.

And so it continues. And let me tell you why this is so bad for Zelensky. It's because recently, Trump, since he took office, was sounding not neoconny. Trump is not neocon-y. You know, J.D. Vance and Tucker are much more in the non-interventionalist camp. That's very large within the Republican Party. I would say Trump is close to them, but not entirely aligned with them. He's still got like a toe over in not neocon camp, but, you know, he's not afraid to drop a bomb on a guy like Soleimani. If the situation calls for it, Trump will be more bellicose, both in his language and then ultimately in his behavior.

And what Zelensky doesn't want to do is saber rattle Trump over to the J.D. Vance Tucker side, where Ukraine will get even less than Trump is trying to negotiate for them. Right. Trust me when I tell you they'll do better under Trump in a good mood than they will under Trump in a screw you Zelensky mood. So this is not smart behavior from a guy who has very few chips with which to bargain. Trump spoke to what's happening between the U.S., Russia and Ukraine from Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday. Here's Sot5. Tell us a little bit more about the Russia talks, your impression of how they went today and if you're perhaps more confident or less confident of a deal after what happened today. Well, much more confident. They were very good.

Russia wants to do something. They want to stop the savage barbarianism. I mean, what's going on over there? Its soldiers are being killed by the thousands on a weekly basis. It's ridiculous. And they're not American soldiers. They're Russian soldiers and they're Ukrainian soldiers largely, although a lot of Koreans have been killed, as you know. Quite a bit of them have been killed. They came know. Quite a bit of them have been killed.

They came over to fight and a large portion have been wiped out. But we want to end it. It's a senseless war. It should have never happened, would have never happened if I was president. Well, that's the other piece of it. I think we all know that's true. He has a different relationship with Vladimir Putin. And Putin would have been more, if not afraid of Trump, then respectful, I think, of the power that Trump yields as the United States president. Trump went on to say, yeah, I can end this war.

And honestly, everyone knows that. So he really like, again, Zelensky's playing with fire. Take a listen here to SOT6. I want to see peace. Look, you know why I want? Because I don't want all these people killed anymore. I'm looking at people that are being killed. And they're Russian and Ukrainian people, but they're people. Doesn't matter where they're from on the whole planet. And I think I have the power to end this war. And I think it's going very well. So that's where things stand now. Look, if he strikes a deal with Putin that allows Putin to have some most, it's going to probably going to be most of the territory that they have

taken in Ukraine, but also says and and also says that Ukraine will not be joining NATO. Putin will accept that deal. And Zelens NATO. Putin will accept that deal. And Zelensky is going to accept that deal. He's going to have to have security to ensure that they will not be attacked again. And it seems like the Europeans are prepared to give them some forces. Trump is saying no U.S. forces. We're not going to be the peacekeeper over there. Great. I think we've all had it up to here with that kind of role for the United States across the world. And I'm sure there will be some sort of additional financial investment, which Trump will now say will be repaid in essence by the earth materials, the raw earth materials that we can get out of Ukraine, which is very valuable. So that's where

we are. It's a precarious situation, but it's going to be handled. And the only thing that could clear the deal is Zelensky shooting his mouth off. Let's hope he stops that. This show is dedicated to uncovering the truth in a media landscape, often dominated by left-leaning narratives, especially when it comes to President Trump. It's safe to say you can expect more agenda-driven stories and factual distortions all over the rest of the news. But I do want to tell you about Ground News. Unlike other platforms that censor or amplify certain narratives, Ground News is not a news publisher. They're an independent app and website that aggregates every source on a story so you can compare coverage and see through

mainstream media spin. Ground News has an entire blind spot feed with stories that are receiving lopsided coverage. It truly reveals how media narratives are shaping the conversation. My viewers are gonna get 40% off their Vantage plan, which gives you unlimited access to their website and their app. They are independent.

They are supported by subscribers, not corporate interests. You can check them out at groundnews.com slash Megan. That's ground, G-R-O-U- out at groundnews.com slash Megan. That's ground, G-R-O-U-N-D, news.com slash Megan, to take back control of the news you consume. Today, we've got a very special guest. His name is Zachary Levi. You may have seen him on this broadcast. You may have seen him on some other shows around the cable nets and so on. He's a big Hollywood actor. He's Shazam. That's how my kids know him.

I know him from the Kurt Warner movie in which he was amazing. And he did something especially courageous, especially for those in Hollywood this year. And that was he came out as an open supporter of Donald Trump and of RFKJ during the primary. All right. So first it was RFKJ and then he endorsed Trump. Despite the inevitable backlash, everyone knew it would come. But there's something interesting happening with him. I don't know that it has come. It's like somehow I think we might have found the one Hollywood celebrity who wasn't an open Republican, who endorsed Trump and still has a career. It's one of the mysteries of life. We discussed the last time why he discussed, why he felt the need to speak out and his support of the so-called Trump

Avengers team, you know, Tulsi, RFKJ and so on. When he was first on the show back in October, it was episode nine to eight. We didn't have time to go through his fascinating life and career. So we get to do that today with him in studio. But first, here's a quick refresher on Zach on screen. I hope I'm not interrupting. No, not at all. That's from, he's from Batman. Because that makes it better. Hi. How you doing? The name's Flynn Rider. How's your day going? Huh?

Who else knows my location, Flynn Rider? All right, Blondie. Rapunzel. Gesundheit. The only person I know that knows anything about this Caped Crusader stuff. Can I? Oh yeah, yeah.

That's crazy, right? What are your superpowers? Superpowers, dude? I don't even know how to pee in this thing. Amazing. That's the last one from Shazam. He's got a new movie out in theaters this Friday, and it's called The Unbreakable Boy. It is a heartwarming story about the ups and downs of navigating life with an autistic son. And we'll get to that in just a bit. Zach, welcome back. Hi. So good to be back. So good to see you in person, not just in a little square on a screen. I know. You never get to do it in person. I love coming down to the SiriusXM fishbowl. And you know, they broke out the NFL desk for us. How about that? Oh, look at this. This is fancy. This is the football desk. They don't do this for just

anybody. I want you to know that. I'm honored. I'm honored. So I want to kick it off with your movie because I think this is perfectly on brand for you. I think the Kurt Warner thing was perfectly on brand for you. Of course, Shazam just has mass appeal. That's on brand for anybody. But this is great because it's a story about love, family, challenges, faith. And I think given your newfound huge fans on the right who appreciate not just how you act, but what you stand for, this is right in the sweet spot. Yeah. I mean, listen, my goal is always to just make excellence, you know, like I,

from the beginning of my career, even as you know, someone who grew up Christian and was conservative in, in many ways, I would consider myself a libertarian, but I've always had conservative fans and Christian fans. And I've always said, I have no intention of being a Christian actor. I want to be an actor who also happens to be a Christian or who happens to be whatever else those other, you know, kind of indicators are. But with this, with The Unbreakable Boy, with American Underdog, I went after those films. It's the Kurt Warner film. Yes, the Kurt Warner film. Those films resonated with me because they were excellent. I could see it on the page. They were excellently written and the team around them wanted to make them excellently. And I love this story particularly, similar to the Kurt Warner film, American

Underdog. It's a true story. It's a real family and their story. And Scott Lorette, who I play, the father and husband, he wrote a book, The Unbreakable Boy, which this film is based on. And he was very brave and very vulnerable in showing just how not great of a father and husband he was for many years. He felt like he was failing.

He was. Because the child has a couple of disabilities or challenges. Yeah. And he's, you know, no parent understands how to handle that naturally. And so he's very open about how it wasn't easy. No. And more than that, I mean, you know, he and his wife, Teresa, they got pregnant on the third date.

Like that was a massive curveball. It's like, wow, this is not what I was expecting. Right. But they were like, we're going to see this through. We're going to do this and we'll figure out our relationship as we go. That was hard. That was a curve ball. Simultaneously during all of this, right now they're having children and their first son, as you pointed out, has multiple things going on that he's struggling with. One is osteogenesis imperfecta, which is brittle bones disease that they, they find out kind of early on within the

first couple of years, that's crazy and a massive curveball, not what he's expecting. And then a few years later, he's presenting very atypically and they find out he's on the autistic spectrum. I think that all of these things are indicative of even if those aren't specifically the things that we go through or struggle with in our own lives. We're all we all have these expectations of what we think our life is supposed to be, how it's supposed to look, how it's supposed to unfold. Scott was already dealing with his own insecurities and unhealed traumas, not really accepting and loving himself. So these things then just pile on, right? We feel like, well, clearly I'm screwing up if all of these things, if this is where the universe or God is bringing my way, this is my karma. This is what's happening to me. And I was really grateful that I got to portray him and really bring it to life in a very authentic way.

It's not just rainbows and butterflies and feel good, this movie. This movie has lots of that in it and humor and heart and it's infused with faith. But it allows the audience to go into the grittiness and darkness and hardship that the human condition brings about, what it means to just be human. And then tackling marriage and parenthood and all of those things. Let's show them a clip so they get a flavor for what we're talking about. Let's watch Sod 18, part of the trailer. Hey, Osman, are you sure that's the right hat for your first day don't be a goober daddy oh jester is the best one it's the mountain dew coat red of hats and the best

part is the six digits i'm austin but you can call me ozman welcome back everybody i have a lizard named margie and the killer hat collection. When I meet people, I tell them everything. Logan, this is Tyler. He said we can be best friends. All I have to do is shut up. Oh, yeah. I'm also autistic. Autism presents itself in many different ways. It's a class for kids with special needs.

They think that it's time that it's only going to get worse. It's to Austin. I think that it's time that it's only going to get worse. Earth to Austin. I think his brain's on another planet. Nope, my brain is right here in my head on Earth. This is not what I thought it was going to be like. Choose honor. Dad's late for work. Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa.

What? Austin, what are you doing? Two. I feel like I'm failing every day, and the harder I try, the worse I do. Honey, your mistakes don't define you how you healed us you've given up so much for this family and you've never stopped fighting for us patricia heaton as uh the grandmother i watch anything with her her values are so intact so great she is so solid as a human being and she's so talented and Megan, what's Megan's last name? Megan Fahey.

She's amazing. She's like a rising star. She's a rising star. White Lotus. White Lotus season two. The thing with Nicole Kidman. The thing with Nicole Kidman. Yeah. I don't remember. I know. I don't remember either, but she was great in that too. The perfect couple. Yeah. She's very talented and we were very grateful to have her play Teresa. Drew Powell plays my basically best friend in the movie, Peter Facinelli, plays our pastor. And the child actor, Jacob. Jacob Laval. Yeah. Who's here. He's based in New York. He's a wonderful kid, young man now. I mean, crazy talented, very talented and so uniquely perfect for this role because, you know, you're trying to bring a child with autism to

life in the most authentic way possible. Um, and also we were casting in the height of the pandemic. There were a lot of people that were just like, I'm not, I don't want to leave my home. I don't want to chance it. The plague is flying around the world. So everyone that ended up playing these roles was someone that was tailor made and fit perfectly. Like, you know, God works this way. I mean, those were the people that were supposed to be in this film with the cast, the crew. Uh, and it was a little engine that could, it was a thing that kind of came out of nowhere as we were preparing to make American underdog. This was like a, an added bonus. And then we shot that

shot American underdog. And then we were supposed to, originally the movie was supposed to come out three years ago, but because it was a small slice of life family film, and because a lot of people were still hesitant getting back to theaters, even in, you know, beginning of 2022 Lionsgate. And I think wisely said, listen, we don't want this thing to get lost. We don't want to get destroyed by these tentpole movies are the only ones doing well. So let's sit on it. And three years later, here we are. So, I mean, I'm sensing a theme in the projects to which you are attracted. I mean, I think anybody would have taken the lead in Shazam, any actor in Hollywood would have killed for that, but it also has an uplifting message. I mean, like part of what we loved about it was just how sweet it is, the relationship amongst

the family. And also it made you laugh. Like I was trying to explain it to my friend. I'm like, it's, it's not like, he's not like a scary superhero. He's funny. He's goofy. You know, you're totally rooting for him. But then like the Kurt Warner, American underdog dog, that story is amazing. It's one of the best American stories. I think I mentioned this to you last time you were on, but I, my first husband was obsessed with the LA Rams and they've moved around anyway, but he was obsessed with Kurt Warner and was reading that autobiography or biography. I can't remember. I think it was his autobiography on our honeymoon. So I got to know all these facts about Kurt Warner.

At first I was like, this is so boring. Stop reading me football excerpts. And by the end I was like, I'm reading that book right now. Who marries a single mother with a child who's challenged and has all sorts of challenging disabilities? No man who's like on his way up in the football world, you would think would say, yeah, this is where I want to park the car. I want in on this situation. But Kurt Warner did. He was backbencher. He only got to play because the first stringer got hurt and everybody was like, oh, bullshit. Kurt Warner's were in the socks. And sure enough, he wanted, it was just such a great

story, right? An MVP of the football game. So I'm just sensing a theme in the stories that you select that they all have heartstrings and they have these like classic American stories. I mean, I think heart is the most important ingredient in almost any story told, whether that's a comedy or a drama or a dramedy, or even if you're watching an action movie or, you know, sci-fi or whatever, like, are you the audience able to connect to that character? The first and most important thing you're connecting through is the humanity in that character, which is the heart of that character. I've been very blessed that, you know, a lot of these roles, they come to me, you know, up until Shazam, I couldn't be very picky about the jobs that were coming my way. Now, post Shazam, I have more offers. And so I,

I'm, I have a little more agency in deciding, okay, we'll go this way. We'll go that way. But up to Shazam, I could, I had say over the auditions I would go on or not, but those jobs are still like, okay, what's, what, what is God going to put in my lap? What role am I about to go and play? And I will say that, you know, maybe it's because I lead with my heart. My whole life I have, I, I have a really deep empathy and love for all of humanity. And I, and I, and I really mean that it's not just a, you know, a soundbite or whatever. Iite or whatever. It's one of the reasons why I felt so compelled to even begin speaking, I guess, being more open politically, because I felt like not just where I think we needed to go, of God. We're seeing them as the enemy. We're seeing them as a monster. And I just don't operate that way.

I want to be able to go and bring people together as best I can. And as an actor, when I get to tell stories that are so led, heart led, that get to tell stories that are infused with hope and that, that, that bring people back to understanding themselves and each other more. I think that, you know, that's a, those are great opportunities. Is it also fun to go and do things that have nothing to do with that, that are just for fun, just for laughs? Absolutely. I want to do all that stuff too. But as an actor, I want to, I mean, to me, like I'm proud of almost everything that I've done in my career. Almost everything. Interesting qualifier there.

Well, I'm proud of everything that I've done. I see ground to exploit. On different levels, right? On different levels. But what I'm saying is I am particularly proud of this film, in part because I got to play a role that really goes through it. It's not just one level of being all right, I'm this guy. Um, and not to say that other roles that I've played haven't also had levels and layers, but there's an overall kind of more upbeat, let's say vibe to Chuck, uh, that I did on NBC for years or Shazam or Tangled or Harold and the Purple Crayon or whatever. You know, I,

I have so much love for all these projects in one way, shape and form, but to play this real character, similar with American Underdog, you know, Kurt was much more stoic. And so there wasn't quite the same roller coaster. Like, cause Kurt was also just this really like solid dude as you're talking about.

Like he wasn't struggling with alcohol. He was struggling with his own, like, what am I doing? I'm lost in this journey. And I, I feel like God called me to be the next Joe Montana, but that's not happening. And I'm stocking shelves, but I love this woman and she's got two kids and I love them too. And so I'm going to go commit to that. And we'll see where God takes me the rest of the way. Scott is wrestling with God the entire time, putting on a good face. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Charming this guy, you know, working, but also just losing himself in a bottle because he's drinking away his problems because that's what so many people struggle with. I mean, alcoholism is rampant.

Let me show him a little bit of that. We have a bit of that captured in clip 20. I wish I could enjoy anything as much as my son enjoys everything. I've always held on so tight to things. I don't even know why. I just always needed everything to be a certain way. I talk about an attitude of gratitude. It's never been me.

I'm never content, I never have been. I used to think that that made me ambitious, but actually it just makes me ungrateful. And I hate that about myself. I push everything away, everything and everyone I care about. I don't want to do that anymore. I want to be more like my son. And that's him there in group therapy for alcoholism. Yeah.

Yeah. Sorry. No, it's emotional. Yeah, it is. And I haven't really, I've only seen the movie once. Really? Yeah. We, so we did it.

But when John finished it, we had a screening just like kind of our cast and, and it was wonderful. It was great to finally see what we had made together, but I haven't seen a lot of these scenes since then. And, you know, and these are things that I have struggled with that I think we all struggle with on some level. Gratitude is massive. It's so absolutely integral to the health and well-being of, like not just when we practice gratitude, when we see other people, in fact, I think that they've shown it's even more powerful. If you watch other people be grateful to other people, like if you're just a fly on the wall and you watch some person help an old lady across the street with her groceries, that in and of itself, and you see that old lady grateful to that person, it changes you inside. Like it's incredible, right?

There's a quite a line that a line that he has there that you delivered of, I used to think it made me ambitious. And then I realized I was just ungrateful. Wow. Yeah. And that, when I read the script and when I was, I mean, that was me, that was me tapping into a lot of my own issues with that. Because obviously we all want to go do well in this world and we want to be ambitious and we, and you want to be successful. There's nothing wrong with any of those things, but if you're not looking at what's right in front of you, right in front of you, right in that moment and being present with that and being grateful for that. And because of that, because he was struggling and feeling like he's failing. Well, when you

feel like you're failing, it's very difficult to be grateful for what you've got in front of you because you feel like none of it is good. And so they make you, they make you write the lists. Now people like keep a gratitude journal where you must write down three things a day is the ideal that you're grateful for. It's just, it's the whole exercise of it. But I think it's, it's interesting that you, you're feeling emotional as, as you're discussing this, because when I read your bio and read up on you in advance of today, you know, the last time we didn't do that, I just thought you were an interesting actor who was getting kind of political. And that was interesting. But you, you're interesting.

You've had quite a background. And I'm now having gotten to know you a little bit better. It's no mystery at all to me why you've chosen the projects that you've chosen or why you're doing so well with them or why you feel emotional now discussing it because you have had your own lifetime of struggles. Yeah. And it's probably what drove you into acting for many reasons. And it's what led to your initial frustration in choosing a profession which is overloaded with rejection. Yeah. Right? Before you made it. And

I'm sure there's still some of it now, but the whole journey makes a lot more sense to me. I mean, yeah, there's no coincidences, right? Like God's using all things. And I really do feel though, at a very young age, four, three or four years old, I knew that I was going to be an actor. Really? I knew it. I knew it in my knowing. I can't explain it. It's like the closest thing I can, I can paint as a picture is imagine when we're with God at source in heaven, you know, whatever that other place is. Imagine like there's some kind of mission select screen that we're looking at, like an options of what is the life that my soul is going to go live or something. And as a part of that, there's some kind of mission select screen that we're looking at, like an options of what is the life that my soul is going to go live or something. And as a part of that, there's like stipulations like, okay, you go choose this path. And part of that path is you're going to be an

actor and that's going to be a part of the journey that you're going to be on. And that's going to, and I also felt very called from very, very young age to be a leader and to love people and to like affect positive change in this world and build community. Like I felt these things in me. I couldn't articulate them in words that would probably make any sense because I didn't have a vocabulary at that time, but the knowing in knowing in my knowing and my soul and my purpose and my calling, like I felt these things. And so I think that was helped along certainly by being the middle boy between two girls in a house that was full of a lot of trauma and me just trying to find an identity and a voice

in all of it. Also very early on, I knowing people, knowing, like feeling, you know, having a deep empathy for people, feeling them and how they reacted to things. I knew that a smiling, laughing person felt good on the inside. You know, like I was tuning into that very young and I was like, oh, okay, wait a minute. Well, I know how to make people smile and laugh. I do a little joke. I do a little dance. I do a little funny impersonation or whatever. And I can evoke these responses and making people feel good was like, oh my, that's the drug I've been addicted to my whole life. Right. So no, I read, this is, I think from your book about, you're talking about how in your,

with your mom and the glass of water, can you tell that story about how you just picture a glass of water condensing on the, on the countertop? Yeah. So my mom, God rest her soul, was a really a wonderful, dynamic, beautiful, intelligent, like wickedly intelligent human being who also dealt with tons of unhealed trauma. And that led her down a road that I think brought upon probably like borderline personality with narcissistic tendencies. And that's a very difficult burden for people to handle. This might sound strange, but like, I actually have a lot of empathy for narcissists. They're some of the most destructive people in the world. That's because they're some of the most destroyed people down inside of themselves. But my mom,

as a borderline personality, specifically, her moods were always what ruled the moment. So if my mom was in a good mood and I did something wrong, I broke a glass, you know, something that was sitting on the counter and I did something wrong, I broke a glass, you know, something that was sitting on the counter and I accidentally knocked it over shattered. If she's in a good mood and she's rocking out and she's listening to like Bon Jovi or journey or, you know, the stuff that she would be in a good mood, she'd be like, oh man. And you know, and she'd okay, what happened? And you know, but it would be okay. Unfortunately, mom was not in that mood more often than not. And it got worse and worse through her alcoholism and through a lot of other just unhealed trauma. And so you knocked that same glass off of the counter

and it is, how dare you, you little shit, you, you know, like the fangs and the claws and everything would come out, but because that's what she learned from her mom. And that's what she learned from somebody, her mom or dad, or, you know, this generational trauma. And so. You kind of learned, you said that like you, you believed if I could just be better, if I could just be a more perfect boy, then I can please her. Yeah, kind of. I mean, but it, it wasn't, I don't think it ever felt like if I could be more perfect, it was more just like you start to learn, okay, this is my reality. How do I navigate it? And my mom and stepdad both had kind of impossible. My biological father, who's also passed away, and I love him, but we didn't really have a lot of a relationship.

I grew up with my mom and my stepdad, both of them heavily traumatized people. My stepdad was super traumatized in the ways of having thresholds that were like impossible to hit, like a bar that you could never, never really get to very, very, very high standards. And so that became this mission of how do I navigate that while simultaneously navigating a target that's constantly moving. It's one thing to have, yeah, you know, you can have a bar. Like if both parents had this impossible bar, you know, okay, well it's just, then it's like perfection, perfection. You got to get up there. You got to go do that thing. But with my mom, there'd be these moments of really beautiful love and grace with the thing. It's like, it's okay. Don't worry about it.

And there's where the target is. You're like, okay, I think I'm safe. I guess I'm okay. And then the next day it'd be like, I can't. And you're like, whoa, whoa, the whiplash of it all. So then, you know, as a child, you just start to literally, you know, teach yourself or learn ways to navigate that minefield. And it's a difficult minefield. Certainly, there was the perfectionism on the other side of things. And that all kind of became conflated in and of itself. It was gnarly.

It was a gnarly experience. But I will say, none of that. And many people deal with very similar experiences. None of that makes me a victim. None of that makes me absolved from my stupid behavior that comes out of my trauma. We are all responsible for healing our trauma and responsible for the actions that come out of that. I think the problem starts getting into where we start throwing blame and shame and guilt on people. It's like, you should know better.

I think it's interesting just as an explanation of your life's choices and of how difficult it must've been for you in the earlier leaner years of being an actor, you know, because like that you chose a profession that is also destabilizing, not predictable, full of rejection and difficult personalities and probably a fair amount of mental illness. Let's be honest. Oh, yeah. Rampant. That's very interesting. You know how they say you marry the best and worst qualities of your parents? Yeah. It's like kind of what you did in your job choice. 100%. But again, like I said, I don't think anything's wasted on God. I think that's all

kind of part of it. Our job in all of it is to make sure that we become aware of that, aware of what we need to work on in ourselves, but know that God's still going to use your trauma and redeem that. I learned so much by growing up in my home with my mom and my stepfather. I got tools that people who grew up in really loving homes may never, ever have. That's right. So I see the silver lining in that, which is, again, doesn't excuse any of that, but he goes, okay, all right. What was God doing in all of that? Why, why did I choose to go and have this experience in this household? If my mission in life or my calling was to go and be this actor? Well, shocker, all of that led me to better understanding again, in the midst of a lot of it,

before I went through the healing that I did. I got knocked around by Hollywood. Even now there are things that, you know, can be destructive, but I have worked on myself so much that I can see those who are the traumatizers in my industry and be like, oh man, they're just lost. They're lost in that. And I want better for them, but simultaneously, I'm not going to sit around waiting for my industry to become somehow saved. I'm going to go. I've been very actively trying to build an independent movie studio, living community for people in my industry to be able to go create art and content and entertainment that is not being scrambled and, and infused with nonsense agenda. Just make great entertainment for the masses of all the way it used to be.

And also simultaneously, if I'm going to go build a studio to go do that and accomplish that mission, well, let's go build a living community into it all so we can give people better lives because we all deserve that too. And I think that there are people- You have to get out of California. Well, I did. I went to Austin. Yeah. I'm in Austin, Texas. Well, that's an interesting pivot point in your life when you moved to Austin because your career was going well. You had starred in two series. You had done multiple projects.

You moved to Austin, which everybody loves. We were just talking with another guest who moved to Austin, loved it. But it didn't start off that way. When you got down there, that was sort of your crisis point where you really thought about ending it all. Yeah. Despite the fact that you'd already starred in TV series on primetime television, like, like many actors, I think you found it wasn't the Holy grail. It wasn't going to fill up everything and you got very, very low. So you mentioned this last time we were together, we didn't have a lot of time to talk about it, but can you just talk about how that hit you and how you then got out of that?

Because that was before Shazam. Yeah, it was right before Shazam. Yeah, so I mean, you know, like the bottom line is I was like most people doing what a therapist once told me, a lot of hit and run. Meaning you're not the one doing the hitting, but you are the one doing the running. So you get hit with trauma. You get hit with, and trauma, there's a spectrum of trauma, right? So I know people, a lot of people like to throw it around like, oh, I've been traumatized and they're, they're not or whatever, you know, but, but PTSD in war, PTSD kind of stuff is one end of a spectrum of very intense trauma. There's,

there's traumas all the way across the board. You know, mental health is like dental health. You know, uh, you can have a little cavity. You can need a full blown root canal. It's all the same type of thing. There's a, there's a now famous clip of, uh, JD Vance and me in 2017, when I did this long profile in him on NBC, it's on YouTube. You can Google it. Everybody's seen it at this point. But where we kick off the interview by me ticking down, raised in a house with domestic abuse, check. Raised in a house with alcoholism, check. Raised in a house with divorce, check. And these are all childhood trauma.

It's called CTEs, childhood trauma experiences. And he had all of them. I mean, so you're absolutely right. Like trauma, maybe one of those could be mild for somebody could be severe for another, but a bunch of them in the same family leads to kind of massive trauma that must be dealt with at some point. It must. And, and, and unfortunately, most of us are completely unaware that we're carrying this around. We have no idea. Most people are in this world. They're just surviving, right? And we're doing these hit and runs. Things are hitting us. And we're carrying this around. We have no idea. Most people are in this world. They're just surviving, right? And we're doing these hit and runs. Things are hitting us and we're just like, all right, I got to pick myself up and I got to run. I got to keep going because there's not

enough time to sit and wallow in this. There's not enough time. I have to go work. I got to put on the table. I mean, whatever, whatever these reasons are, you keep moving forward. And there's also a resilience in that. And I think there's something beautiful about the human condition and that we can persevere and we can do these things. But suffice to say, I was heavily traumatized from childhood through my industry, through my own stupid choices, bad relationships, a very short-lived marriage that was unhealthy, that I was an unhealthy person going into to begin with. Um, my mom had died in 2015 and we were, I hadn't spoken, really had a relationship with her in 13 years at the time

she did die. And she died tragically, like alone on a bathroom floor from complications of pneumonia. Like there's all these things that just, and you don't, you don't realize how psychologically damaging they can be or emotionally damaging they can be. And I was just trying to keep going, right? Put on that face, be actor guy, go do conventions. I love fans. I love spending time with everybody. You know, I'm just going to keep doing what I do completely unaware of just how broken inside that I was and that I did not have much more gas in my tank. And I, with a head full of steam and dreams, after many, many, many years of knowing that I was supposed to go and buy land somewhere like Austin

and go build this new Hollywood and save the world and all of the things that I feel like God's put on my heart, that was the driver. That was the last bit of fuel that I had left in me. And it drove me all the way to Austin and I bought my 75 acres and I was like, all right, God, I thought in my hubris, I'm like two years top. So I'm going to build this whole city and all this stuff. That was not the plan. And, but also, but also, so I ended up there and everything. I was like, what have I done? I've blown up my life. I, I, I'm here alone living in an airstream

on this land. That's 30 minutes outside of Austin. I like, like it was gnarly. And by the way, and so simultaneously I thought, and this was a big factor, I think it's worth mentioning. I thought, you know what? I'm also like physically, I got to clean up my body. I stopped drinking. I stopped smoking. I was a pack a day smoker for like 15 years. Like, and that's a lot. Really? Yeah. And I had also had a, uh, an Adderall prescription because I have dealt with ADHD and stuff literally my whole life. I was grateful that my mom never put me on anything when I was a child. Cause I think it's important to allow a kid to not have to have that type of thing. However, I did find it to help me. The problem was that Adderall, I was depending on too much and cigarettes and not realizing that really what was done at the bottom of it, that's

a dopaminergic dependency. Your dopamine system literally has been hijacked and you need to keep getting dopamine in you just to keep moving forward in life. And I thought in my infinite wisdom, I'm going to cut all this out cold Turkey. Oh boy. Holy crap. Combining all that on heel trauma and all that unhappiness. And then literally pulling the rug out from my dopamine system and having no dopamine whatsoever. I fell into the darkest, dark, darkest, deepest hole that I had ever really been in. And, and I, and I was like, God, I don't want to live anymore. I don't know what to do. I don't even feel like you're real. I don't know where you are. I don't know why you've led me here to die in this darkness. And thank God I

had the family and friends and support around me that I needed to just prop me up enough to then go to this three weeks of super intensive life-saving therapy, not too far in Connecticut. And it saved my life. It really did. But part of what was life-saving about that wasn't just all of this, let's say, clinical information that I was getting with lots of different therapists of different backgrounds and ilk. There was this woman, there were women who worked at this place who were companions. They were like these house moms. This place was set up for CEOs that were like-

Do you say where you went? Oh, yeah. Is it Silver Hill? No, no, no, no. It's called Privé Swiss. Privé Swiss. Sounds fancy. It does sound fancy.

And by the way, and it's expensive. And that's part of why when I came out of there- They all are. Frankly, they all are. But we should way, and it's expensive. And that's part of why when I came out of there. They all are. Frankly, they all are. But we should change that. Yeah, totally. Which is what my mission is now, is trying to democratize, at the very least, mental wellness, mental health services and things so that we can get people. If we can get everybody right in their own heart and mind, they start loving themselves, taking care of themselves, taking care of others. No, I had a loved one go into one of these facilities for over a month

and it was completely life changing. And, but it was exorbitant. I mean, it was extremely expensive. It was like $80,000 and truly no one can afford that. Nobody can afford that unless they have an extraordinary job and there's no insurance. There's nothing. Sure. But, but we are a rare amount of people. And again, that's why I say, thank God I had done well enough in my career where I could afford something that was so costly. But there was one woman there, um, who of all of these, these house moms and they would rotate through and they would basically like take care of you because you were so despondent. They couldn't depend on you to even drive yourself to your own appointments. So like they would have these women who were wonderful that were, you know, either wives or mothers or both that were semi-retired who had

big hearts and that wanted to help these people get through their treatment. And this woman, she prayed for me every day, even though she wasn't even supposed to, like she would pray for me. Um, wasn't supposed to. Well, yeah. I mean, in the book, I talk about it in the book, but basically, and I understand, by the way, they've also made amendments to their programming because of this and because of the success of it. And I'm very grateful to those folks at PrayBaseWis for having seen the efficacy of it. But, you know, what they wanted to make sure was that nobody was getting conflicting or contradicting therapy or advice, right? And sometimes you can go to a therapist that's giving you non-spiritual, just purely clinical

advice, but you might have somebody over here in a spiritual sense being like, well, I don't know about that. Let's pray through it or let's do whatever. And unfortunately, I do think a lot of people who are spiritual people, Christian people, they still have this weird, like, I don't know about going to therapy because all the answers I need are in the Bible. I just pray away all of my issues. I don't think that's how that works. Having gone through it myself, I definitely don't think that's how that works. No, I went to therapy for years. I had such a great guy. I haven't seen him in a while,

but I love him. And he gave me so many useful tools to deal with stress or anything, sadness, conflict. It's just about widening your arsenal. That's what it's about. Yeah, absolutely. And they can be very complementary as they should be, your spirituality and the spiritual wisdoms that are even found in the Bible that are, I think, very much backed up by even a lot of what we're finding in science and clinical science and whatnot. So because of that, they didn't want anything contradicting itself. So there was kind of a, you know, a rule like, Hey, don't get too personal into these types of ways. But this woman saw my heart. She saw who I was. And she is just one of the most wonderful human beings that I've ever met in my entire life. Also a mother. And, and she prayed for me and she prayed me and loved me back to life. Literally. Like

there was a day that we were, um, we, we were driving to one of my, I just got out of one of my appointments and I was just distraught because I felt like I'm getting nowhere. Nothing is happening. I'm still in this darkness. I still feel like I, you know, what's the point in living. And, um, and she was praying for me and she said, Hey, just, just know that, you know, what's the point in living? And she was praying for me and she said, hey, just know that, you know, right now, technically I'm not supposed to do this. So if you said anything, like, you know, I could potentially lose my job. And I said, oh my God, I would never say anything.

Please don't stop praying for me. You're one of the only things that's still keeping me alive. And I always get emotional at this point. She goes, oh no, of course, of course. And then we drive for a moment longer. And then she turns back to me and she says, but also know that I would gladly lose my job for you. As a kid who didn't realize that the biggest thing that I was struggling through was not loving myself. And the reason why I wasn't loving myself was because I had never really gotten that from my parents as much as I know they loved me. They were struggling so deeply that they weren't able to model that or show that to me and my

sisters, I think in the way that they needed to. And so the thing that I struggled with the most in my life was that I didn't think I was even worthy of that love and this complete stranger to love me like legitimately love me. It wasn't like, you know, we all tell people, I tell people all the time, I love you strangers. And I mean it, I mean it, I mean it in the way that I believe God calls us to love, like as deeply as to love our enemy and pray for our persecutor things we talked about last time. But this woman, like she was built to be a mom loving energy in that moment. Absolutely. For me, like if no other, like, Oh my God, like legitimately I consider her to be. And so all of that, you know, that's all that came out of me moving to Austin and all of this stuff. And then the irony or not irony,

but the kind of amazing way that God works was I was still in this therapy. I was like a week and a half in, uh, or two and a half, two and a half, two and a half weeks into my three week course essentially. And I had told my team and in Hollywood, my agents and managers, I was like, guys, I am not good. I am going off grid for three weeks to a month. Like, you know, so if anything comes around, just we're, we're put, you know, hit and pause it. Like, awesome. Got it. Cool. Cool. Cool. Two and a half weeks in. Oh, and sorry. And quickly prior to me going to this place two months prior, I had been offered the opportunity to audition for the role of Shazam. And I declined it because I was like, they're not going to cast

me. I'm not, I'm not John Cena. I'm not the rock. I don't know why they're coming after somebody like me. So I was like, thanks, but no thanks. And I passed again, not knowing that I was in a really low place of self-esteem and not believing in myself or whatever. So now two and a half weeks into therapy, I get this email from my agent or somebody who's like, I don't want to bother you. Don't want to bother you. But there's another role. There's a supporting role, very small, like one scene read if you're feeling up to it, but no pressure. Oh, yeah. OK, so that's a great place to leave this conversation on the back end. We'll pick it up. That's a tease, as we call it in the news biz.

We'll take a break. More on that story and on Zach right after this. Wow. Unbelievable. Four years of crushing interest rates, runaway inflation and reckless government spending. And who is paying the price? You are. You might have bills stacking up. You might have debt collectors on your back. You might barely be able to keep food on the table, and that's stressful. Done with debt can be a way out. These guys have developed a new aggressive strategy, many of them actually, designed to get you out of debt permanently without bankruptcy and without loans. Done with debt will stand between you and your bill collectors. They can go head-to-head with their creditors,

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Well, no, we were in Connecticut. We were in the therapy place. And you're doing well. You're two and a half weeks into it. You'd already rejected Shazam only because, not because you were too big for Shazam. Well, the audition for it, not an offer for it. Yeah, yeah, because you didn't think you were going to get it. You thought this was kind of like a chain jerk.

So now they come to you two and a half weeks into this Connecticut facility. Exactly. And they, it's a supporting role. It's one scene. And that day I just happened to that. It was a Wednesday. And I just happened to have had the first breakthrough moment where I could see some light at the end of the tunnel. And I see this, this message, I'm like, this is, this is so silly. I like, I'm supposed to be here and doing this healing. But, but I do believe that that was all meant to be. My agent was supposed to send that because I see this and I'm like, I'm starting to feel a little bit better about myself. I'm confident enough to maybe, you know, put myself on tape for this thing. I go, when did

they need this by? And he says, by Friday. So I give myself a couple more days to just, just to see, like, am I starting to stand back up again? Am I starting to feel myself again? And I was, I was feeling stronger. And so I said, you know what? Screw it. Whatever. I, I went to the gym. I came back from the gym. It was in my, my room. I propped my phone up on the dresser, whatever, with a book, you know, this is crazy. And I did one take and I sent one take of this other role. And hours later, I'm, my phone's blowing up and my agent's like, dude, not only did they love your read, but they also think you might be right for Shazam, which they have not cast yet. And I'm in therapy, finishing up, wrapping up this therapy. I'm like, what is

happening right now? And so then I had to explain, like, they were like, you got to get on a plane. You got to come back to LA. I was like, I'm not getting on a plane and coming back to LA. I still have a week of like the follow-up, like homework, like all of this stuff. Like I'd done the bulk of the therapy I needed to do, but there was still- They do give you tools to sail away with. Yes. And I was already picking up these tools along the way, but still, it's like, you wanted to have that last week of like saying your goodbyes and getting the last bits.

I'm like, dude, I can't. I'm in fact, part of the reason why I'm here is because of that industry. I can't just go do that. And he's like, okay, I get it. Let me go talk to, let me go talk to Warner brothers. And he comes back and he says, okay, um, would you do a camera test? But like, we can do it through basically iPads through Skype. So from therapy on Monday, then I had a conversation with the director over the weekend. I explained the situation. I was like, I can't put myself on tape reading these scenes. I can't do these with, with my, with my, with my psych psychiatrist, who's going to read off of me. Yes. With Beth, uh, Beth actually probably could have done it, but again, you want,

you know, and I'm like, I don't know. So we decided we're going to do this Skype, you know, video camera test through, through the iPads. I did that on Monday, Monday evening rolls around phones blowing up. What dude it's between you and another guy. If you don't come, he's going to get it. If you do come, there's a really good chance that you might get this role. And I went downstairs, it was, it was Monday evening. I went downstairs and there was Beth, Beth in the book. That's her name in the book. And she's the one who prayed for you. Yes. And Beth happened to be working that evening shift. And I go, Beth, I don't know what to do here. Because I can't tell if this is God.

Like, this is the fruit of having done the work that I needed to do. And God calling me into this. Or if this is the darkness. Is it the devil? I know it could be. Come back to Hollywood, Zach. We've got a prime role for you. You know, like whatever. I'm like, what is happening?

This is a big decision. It is. It's huge. And so I go downstairs and I go, I don't know what to do. And she's like, let's pray about it. So we prayed about it. And we go do Shazam. It was actually because we felt peace. It was just peace. And I think that's what we're all looking for all the time. That's where we know we're on the right path. If you're on, if you're on a path, a path that is surrounding you in peace, that's a real good side that God is like, I'm right there with you, you know, which is not to say that God is not with us when we're not feeling peace, because sometimes that's very much the situation that we're in and God is still there.

But sometimes you need to feel unsettled as a cue that you're not on the right path. Exactly, exactly. Your spidey sense is going off. But in this case, it was all about that peace. And so I called my agent and also I went to Heidi who ran the organization. I was like, hey, I need you to go to all of my therapists of which

they were myriad. And I need you to make sure that they all sign off that I'm good enough and healthy enough to go and do this. Because if any of them says no, then I need to listen to that and do whatever I need to do to make sure. And she went to everybody and they all said, you know, check he's good. You can go. And so I flew to LA. I camera tested on Wednesday, Thursday was off. And then Friday I got a phone call and I was Shazam. Do you remember which scene they made you do? It was three scenes. It was one where I saved Mary. She's like walking across the street, absentmindedly in a snowplow, almost hits her and kills her. And I go save her as, you know, it was grownup Billy Shazam. Another one was the one between me and

Freddie that you saw in the clip of me. I don't even know how to pee in this thing. And then I can't remember what the third one was, but you know, they were, they were, they were very much the scenes that were in the movie. And so set the stage for us since nobody listening, virtually nobody has done, has auditioned to star in a Hollywood movie, much less a, you know, a superhero movie. What size is the room? How many people are in there? You're walking in, you've just come out of therapy from this intensive program.

You land, like, is it an intimidating setting or how is it? Well, fortunately with film camera testing and things like that, it's not normally a big like peanut gallery of people. You've got the director, you've got whoever's operating the camera, you might have some other technicians, the casting director. It's not more important in that setting,

the director or the casting director, the director for sure. Yeah. Because, but the casting director, if they're doing their job well, they're bringing in all of these options for the director to see, but at the end of the day, it's the director's choice. Okay. And then obviously the executives getting to watch whatever that camera test is, cause that's why they're filming it so they can go show the executives and get approval there too. Ironically, with network television, although it's, I don't know what it is now, but when I was coming up in television, which was the beginning of my career a show or whatever, you got to go audition for the casting director, then the producers, then you go to the studio executives. And they're literally like you're packed into a room. There's 20 executives sitting in there, arms crossed, being like, all right, monkey, make me laugh. Oh, no.

Oh, yeah. And then if you pass that, you go to the network. And the network is all the network executives and some of the studio executives and the producers and the casting directors. And you're just like, oh, my God. And people, it's horrifying. It is, it is horrifying. It is a traumatic experience. I think a lot of, a lot of it now is done by like people put themselves on tape themselves and they send those, those in, but you know, it was, it was fascinating because there were a lot of people who would just crack under the pressure, great actors that would have been great on set, but they couldn't do that, that because it's gnarly. And then there were some people that were really good at doing a network

test, but you get them onto a set, they don't know how to build a character. They don't know how to be in a scene. They don't have those particular, you know, skill sets. So it was a very interesting process. All of that was perfect for you because you did have a background in being funny. I mean, in acting in a, in a, uh, listen, I had, I had a lot of background doing lots of theater my whole life. And in theater, you are, you know, things are much bigger and broader. And I did musicals and musical comedies and, you know, all kinds of stuff. And I love being in it. I have a child playing Ursula in the eighth grade play.

Do you? Coming up, coming up. Poor unfortunate souls. Oh, my God. That song is in my head nonstop right now. It's a great song. It's amazing. It's a banger. But yeah. So big things are happening in our house too. We haven't put her through quite that level of scrutiny yet. So you do it. And then how,

how soon thereafter do they, do they tell you you got it? I mean, it was, so from the time I did the first audition for the other role to the time I was Shazam was one week. Wow. It was one week. My whole life changed in one week, not just because of, but very much because of the therapy that I went and did the work I needed to do on myself. Talk about getting an instant return on your investment. Megan, let me tell you what, like God is no, God, when you really commit to doing something in your life, and this has happened multiple times over my life, I might be struggling with something, something I'm screwing around with, cigarettes, booze, girls, whatever it is. And I'm like, these are distracting me from my purpose and my goal.

God does not wait for you to prove it to him after, well, let's see if you hold on to this for six months. Because God knows when you mean it. So if you in that moment be like, I mean this, I'm not going to go pick that up. God's like, oh, okay. Yeah, you do mean it. So if you in that moment be like, I mean this, I'm not going to go pick that up. God's like, oh, okay. Yeah, you do mean it. I got you. And so here come those blessings. Because at the end of the day, I think that God absolutely has tremendous amounts of gifts and blessings that he wants to bestow upon us. It's not that God is like holding it back because, oh, you know, God's, I don't believe in this God, the taskmaster, you know, list and whatever all that nonsense is and holding all of this against us. God's love for us is immense.

And God is looking at us like we would look at our children who are like, give me the bigger toy. And it's like, well, you can't even hold the little toy. So if you show me you can hold the little toy and if you can show me you can pick up that five pound dumbbell, then I'll give you a 10. And then I can give you a 20 and then I can give you a 50. It is like the way we look at our, our children with the most generous lens and very quick to forgive. Absolutely. Absolutely. And as soon as our child shows that they're responsible enough to level up to whatever this new cool thing would be driving a car, whatever it is, we want to be able to say, yes, oh my God, by the way, we're stoked because we see the responsibility growing in them, that they are maturing, that we are maturing. I think when

God looks at us and sees us wanting to mature, God's like, oh, praise. Yes. Because look at all of these other things that I wanted to give you, but I've had to, I couldn't because they would crush you. You know, I think that every gift and every blessing comes with power, literally. The money we're given, the resources we're given, the relationships that we're given, the careers that we're given, all of that comes with power. Gifting, blessing comes with power. And if we've learned nothing else from Spider-Man, it's with great power comes great responsibility. And it's true. If you want those gifts, then you have to be ready for the power that comes with the responsibility.

So what year is this? What point in time is this? So now you've gotten cast and you're going to start shooting. Shazam. That was, uh, that was, uh, October of 2017. So I had just moved to Austin. I had just had a breakdown. I just went to therapy. And then this, by the way, I thought my chance of being a superhero were well in the rear view mirror. I was already nearly 40 years old at that point. And I had gotten to play the smaller role in the Thor franchise, but it didn't really do much. I was like, all right, I guess that was if I got one chip and I was very grateful for that too. Like I got to be

in that world, but I was like, I guess that was the chip that I played and Hollywood wasn't banging down my door. So yeah, it was crazy for that to all happen as quickly as it did. So that's seven and a half years ago. And since then it's been just nonstop, right? I mean, it's just been, it seems like you've been on a tear. I, yeah, I mean, listen, it all depends on who you're talking to. Like I have been super blessed that I, yes, I continue to go on a tear and continue to work and be working on projects that I'm, I am very proud of and grateful to be doing the, you know, Shazam as a franchise the first one did pretty well the second one didn't right so did those it did all of a sudden the the magical doors

of hollywood burst open and everyone you know i got spielberg being like get zachary levi on the line we got an oscar an oscar performance we did in four like because that's what he talks like everyone's from the 1930s in hollywood see now look here, Buster. Why I ought to. Why I ought to. But so, you know, no, those phone calls weren't rolling in, but it's all good. But you're a working actor doing great projects on the big screen. Yeah, like my dreams continue to be fulfilled every single day. Why did Bill Maher think that you'd been canceled when you went on with him in December?

Well, I mean, because I jokingly, when I got, as you pointed out earlier, I was supporting Bobby Kennedy, then the miracle in Butler and the bullet that would have changed the history of the world. Speaking of God. Oh my God, God, yes. And, but because of that, then I think the humility that started to run in Donald Trump in a way that I don't know that even existed prior to that and him reaching out to Bobby and creating this alliance. And then I go and I'm like, OK, I guess I'm going to I'm on the Trump train now, you know, one that I was never on prior, but one that I knew I needed to go beyond because of the

state of everything and the team that he was collecting. And so Tulsi had reached out to me and was like, hey, I'm doing we're doing this town hall with Bobby. Why did she reach out to you? Did she see that you were an RFKJ supporter? We had a mutual friend that introduced us, a trainer, like a trainer at the gym that I knew from a gym here in New York

who moved to Austin. And I said, hey, would you come and, you know, I want to do a workout. She's like, cool. So we do a workout and we're talking about the state of the world. And I'm like, oh man, that Tulsi Gabbard, I think she's the bee's knees. And she's like, I know

Tulsi. I go train Tulsi sometimes. I go, oh, well, I'd love to meet her someday. Cut to a week later, we're sitting down and we're all having coffee. And I'm telling her, I think you're awesome. I love what you stand for. I love that you have the balls to have been Democrat your entire career, but recognize that the party has been lost. The values that it once held, a lot of values that I even agree with have been lost. And you see that those values have transferred over here and you're supporting Trump. I'm like, that's amazing. I love all that. And I share all these same concerns and I want to be able to help in all of this, but I'm not sure what to do. Cause I'm in Hollywood and that's a wacky thing. She's like, I get it. Get kicked out. And like a week later I get a

text or a week or two. I don't know what it was. And Tulsi says, listen, we're on the campaign trail for Trump. We're on the campaign trail supporting Trump, me and Bobby doing town halls. We would love for you to moderate one of those town halls. And I told her I got to think and pray on this because this is really crossing the Rubicon. That is definitely crossing. And but I but I did. And I felt peace again. I felt peace.

I felt peace because I knew that this was more important than saving my career. I think that we too often fall into these paradigms, these thought processes of self-preservation, and it is not good. We need to be wise, and we want to survive, and we want to live and flourish and all those things. But we can't merely make decisions off of, well, I hope nothing bad happens to me. No, no, that's no way to go through life. You've got to sacrifice. I've told the audience before, when the Trump team asked me to speak for him at his last rally before the vote, you know, the night before election day, it is not something a journalist would normally do. You know, that is crossing a line that you just don't normally cross. And even this whole show,

my transformation into more of a pundit, a journalist too, but you know, my daily job is more punditry has been an evolution, but that's, that's a bigger line to cross. And I really, same as you, I was like, I don't know if I should cross that. You know, it's like, not because of blowback, but just because it's a before and after moment for me, for sure, as a journalist. But like you just said, I truly did feel called. Even my husband was like, I don't think you should do it, Meg. Nothing against Trump. He was a Trump supporter, but he's like, you know, you don't, don't want the blowback. It's not a line you have to cross. And I'm like, honey, I got to do it. I don't know why. I just know I do. And I was so glad I did it right. I didn't feel ashamed, bad on, on, on the precipice of waiting, you know, the, the gunfire that would be in the

rhetorical. Um, I felt totally empowered and like I was in exactly the right alignment, you know, whereas I was supposed to be. So I completely relate to what you're saying. But now for me, the blowback would just be mean articles written about me by my fellow people in the press, which I've had millions of for you. It could be that could cost you your career. Potentially at that point, you have to be thinking it could cost me my career. Oh, I did. I thought a lot about that. And I prayed a lot about that. And I knew that I had a child that was, you know, coming and on the way. And cause even then my girlfriend and I knew that we were pregnant and I was like, okay, well, what am I doing? Like what, what will all this look like down the road? But again, at the

end of the day, first of all, I've known since I was a kid that I was born and called to be a leader. I've known it. And not in weird romantic ways or anything. The world needs help. It needs help. And the only way to go and help the world is to love the world. Nobody hating the world is actually going to make it a better place. They're just going to start cutting out the things that they don't like or whatever, and cutting down the

people that they don't like. But I really believe that we have to be able to, to see it as a whole and be like, okay, what can we do? How can we be effective change? So I already, already felt that calling on my life. And then when it came to this, I was like, so what am I worried about? Am I worried if I feel like God is calling me to this? And I did, I was like, I think that this is this moment. Cause I was never trying to just like insert myself. I was like, God, if you want me to go and step out in a bigger way, I need you to, I need, you know, give me the call. And the call literally came from Tulsi Gabbard. And, uh, and more than that, I'm very, I very, very much. And I've been preaching for a long time that I think AI is about to destroy my industry. So I was like, so what am I, what,

what am I worried? I know I love Justin Bateman. Oh my God. And, but I was like, so what am I really afraid of at the end of the day that I'm somehow going to lose jobs in an industry that I already believe is completely falling apart. And that won't even be creating jobs for me in a few years anyway. Like, come on. If I lose all of my acting career and I hope I don't. And I, and so far I haven't. And that's why Bill, I think was going back to the original question. He, because I jokingly said at the town hall, I said, you know, look, I, I, this could make me a pariah. And you know, I might be hereby announced my own cancellation. Yeah, exactly. But it was a joke, but a joke knowing what full well that who knows, who knows what the, I might be. I hereby announce my own cancellation. Yeah, yeah, exactly. But it was a joke. But a joke knowing full well that who knows? Who knows what the downstream effects would be?

But none of that matters. If the world goes off a cliff, what does it matter? You know, that's why I said on the podcast when I talked to you before, what is it to gain the world but lose your soul in the process? Lose our ability to have liberty, freedom, free speech, like the things that ironically the people on the other side are all suggesting that Trump is trying to take away, which I'm like, have you, do you understand free speech? I think a lot of people don't understand free speech, that it actually protects hate speech, stuff that I don't want anyone to say. I don't want any of that to come out of people's mouths, but in order to hold the concept

of free speech, we must protect. Yeah, I'm kind protect proud that it can though. Yes, exactly. You know, and what the ACLU used to fight for, which is defending the KKK. Yes. Yes. Because we must, we must hold onto these things. Otherwise democracy are, are, are Republic. It all fails. And so it was like, listen, I'm not even giving up my life for that. I, some people have died for that. Many people have died for that. If anything, my career dies, my acting career that I've been blessed enough to do for 25 years. If that's in the cards for me, then okay. God, if I'm walking with God, God will protect me. I think part of the call that you heard and answered was part of a bigger thing that's happening in the country at the same time,

which is more and more people feeling that same connection with Trump, with his message, with what he actually stands for, not what the left says he stands for. Just a new, the dawn of a new day in America where we're no longer obsessed with identity politics and dividing each other based on things we can't control about one another. The very foundation of the Civil Rights Act and the 14th Amendment and a lot of things that are foundational to our country's evolution that we've been eschewing for the past decade plus. And Trump got us back to, he said, we're ready. We are ready to go back to our foundational beliefs

and not dividing each other like that and having open debates about controversial subjects and listening to a guy like Bobby Kennedy instead of just dismissing him as a kook and listening to Tulsi Gabbard's different views on the Intelligence Committee, even if they're loathed by by more Republicans on the panel than they are by the Democrats on the panel. Let's listen. Maybe she's got some good ideas. The whole country was just ready for that. You know, let's you know, like you do with the Etch A Sketch. Let's just let's just OK. We need a cleanse, A cleanse and transparency.

Like why anyone, it's very indicative of those who are complicit in the corruption when they are shouting for the rooftops. No transparency. We shouldn't be looking at these things. Look at how he's tearing everything apart. It's like, no. Why don't you want to know what's in all of our drugs

and food and water and everything? Why don't you want to know what's in all of our drugs and food and water and everything why don't you want to know that yep you by the way we all deserve to know that these are our leaders they're public servants that is their freaking job not to tell us what's good for us and what's right and oh you'll know whatever information you need to know no no annoyed that we want to look underneath the hood. They are. And that's why I think a lot of Americans, even people who didn't vote for Trump, his approval ratings are good because they're like, hey, listen, at least the guy's doing what he said he was going to do. And more than that, these were some of the things I was kind of even secretly hoping he was going to do because damn it, we do deserve to know what's going on.

And then that's informed consent. Then I'll know, okay, that's what's in a vaccine. That's what's in this drug. That's what's in my fruit loops. That's what's it. Okay. Now I know about to give you a new baby. Exactly. Like, why wouldn't you want to know what you're giving? Exactly. Exactly. And we should be getting into through the doge of it all. But look, Tulsi, I am so excited for her to be getting into and uncovering all of the secrecy and nonsense and corruption that's been going on in our intelligence agencies. Oh my God. And everything that's going to be downstream of that, everything that Bobby's doing with HHS. Oh my God. Amazing. Doge is also a very important part of how we get to the bottom of this, but I've been trying to tell people and I, you know,

I've been getting, I was at Jesse Waters the other night trying to unilaterally talk about how we're losing. Yeah. And the people coming up to me saying, oh, you just want Trump voters? I was like, no, I'm listing people. You made a passing comment. You're saying people that we have to keep in mind that good people are losing their jobs. Not everybody should lose their jobs. Yeah. And in an appeal, I think, to Trump, you know, even MAGA people are losing their jobs.

Exactly. And then, of course, the left spun that back on. You only care about the MAGA people. Yeah. And I'm like, guys, I was listing. That's like saying, you know, if sugary drinks were being taken away and i would be like guys he doesn't understand he's losing soda i actually thought it was kind of cute that you defended yourself and posted like follow-up tweets like no that's not what i was i'm well past that point i'm like

fuck off yeah listen i i which i totally understand and i and i don't and i're not they're not honest brokers they don't actually want to hear any explanation understood, but there's a part of me. I don't, I, when I'm responding to people, I'm actually not like I'm responding to them, but I'm using it as an opportunity to say something important. So it's really just seriously. It's like, cause there's other people that might be slightly thinking that, but maybe they're not sure. And they're looking for clarification. And if I can go and put that out there, all of a sudden somebody's like, oh, okay. You know what? I was, I saw this thing and I was kind of like, what the heck? You have a much higher opinion of the dialogue on Twitter on X than I do. I'm like, well, let's go. I almost feel the need to apologize

when I say something nice on there. Like, forgive me. I'm just going to, I'm going to be nice for a minute, but I really have something lovely to say. I mean, we got Elon has said he wants it to be nicer. Yeah. And I think that that's all of us leading by example. Yeah. And again, it's like, it's super easy. I'm not obeying. I get that. But listen, but listen, but that's, but that I trust me when I tell you that it takes everything in me to not want to just unleash. Right. Cause that's what it does. We're all on the other side of this little keyboard, anonymous or not anonymous or whatever it is, but still, you're not talking to that person face-to-face.

No one would ever say the things that they say on Twitter face-to-face with that person. They wouldn't do it. So I have to really, my ego wants to be like, destroy! And I go, wait a minute, wait a minute, child of God, child of God, child of God, lost, lost, misunderstanding,

coming at me with vile, calling me a Nazi, whatever it is. They did literally, were they calling you a Nazi? They called me a minute. Child of God, child of God, child of God, lost, lost misunderstanding coming at me with vile, calling me a Nazi, whatever it is. They did literally were they calling you a Nazi? They called me a Nazi. I was like, okay, okay. This person has been programmed to believe these things. They have been lied to by legacy media for far too long. I cannot take my frustration and anger out on someone who is, by the way, not being responsible with their own reaction. But I can see that. Yeah, I can see that. I'm going to try and come in there. I'll come in with a little wink and rub and speak what is true. And then hopefully that message is not just for them. It's for whoever wants to go. This is sweet. You're a much sweeter person than I am. I think the audience knows that though. Now, wait, I know the answer to this, but were you raised

Catholic, Christian? Yes. But Catholic, I can't know the answer to this, but were you raised Catholic, Christian? Yes. But Catholic, I can't remember the denomination. My mom was raised Catholic. Okay. And because of that, rebelled big time. Well, you must be feeling pretty good about your decision in the wake of the Pope. Have you seen that he's weighing in on Trump's immigration policy? He's in the hospital. Like he could be dying, but he took a moment to condemn the determination to deport. He seems okay, according to his statement, with those who have committed additional crimes in addition to being here illegally. But he's really upset about us wanting to deport people who are just here illegally. He seems to want us to believe we have some moral obligation to

let them stay in the country. This from a man who lives in the Vatican, which is surrounded by a big, big fence. God bless Pope Francis. I don't wish for anything terrible to happen to him. He is very ill in the hospital right now. But I'm sorry, the nerve. This is not what Catholics need right now, which is to have the leader of the church scolding the American president for his immigration policy. This is what makes people dislike religion.

Are you Catholic? Yes. Raised Catholic your whole life? Yes, still Catholic. Raising three little Catholics. Look at you. I mean, I almost had my Presbyterian husband over here. I was like pulling him over. He's like, I'm out. I think it's the rulers on the are immense amounts of wonderful Catholics who really do love God and love their neighbor and want to do good in this world and have been very positively affected through their relationship with God through the religion of Catholicism. I am not a fan of, of organized religion writ large, which is also not to say that I don't

see the benefits that came from building civilization, morality, justice, like, you know, these various laws. I understand that. And, and, and by the way, even like diehard atheists see this, right? There's a lot of people that have come around and recognized like, I don't believe in any of that stuff, but I see the positive value that it's brought to society, civilization writ large. I don't know what's going on with the Pope. I don't really keep a lot of tabs. I did see some of this being spoken about.

I'm more concerned with and wondering just how much that role has become influenced by other agenda. I don't know that. Like getting the Catholic church getting paid to help all these immigrants. There's that housing, et cetera. There's that, there's that, but also I'm not going to lie. It's made me think twice about putting money in the basket on Sundays. Like what am I, what exactly am I supporting? But I think there's even unfortunately more murky waters, like even when it comes to things like the World Economic Forum and Davos and all of those people. I don't want to have to think about that crap. You know what I mean? I don't want my church doing that.

I know you don't want to have to think about that,. You know what I mean? I don't want my church doing that. I know you don't want to have to think about that, but you should think about that. No, I know. We all need to be aware of what is happening in the larger political game that's being played on the earth right now, globally being played on the earth. out to have a symposium summit about like health and human thriving and inviting people like Dr. Anthony Fauci. I think that is very, and people from the world economic forum and all of this stuff. Now people can call me a conspiracy theorist and wow, you're, you know, your tinfoil hat's too tight or whatever. I don't care guys. Like just go do a little research, dig online, follow the money, do all the things you need to do. There is corruption on the highest level, not just in our country, all around the world. And I don't understand why that would even be

going on. I don't understand why the Pope would be like, yeah, you're the people of everything that continues to be revealed. You're the people that should be coming and having this symposium. The Pope's not having any meetings in the short term. I mean, he's actually truly not doing well. So, I mean, I'm praying for him. I don't want him to die. I don't want anything bad to happen to him. But he's very elderly, and this is a serious lung problem.

I don't know how this is going to go. But, you know, to me, it's actually kind of crazy because we're right in the midst of this Oscar season. One of the films nominated is this Conclave, which is absolutely sacrilegious. It's a disgusting film, in my opinion. They make the new Pope, spoiler alert, intersex, meaning he has a vagina. It's like, okay, so God forbid the Pope dies and we go through a Conclave, which is the process by which they elect the new Pope. Of course, this is like, we're going to be like, could we make sure it's a man? Is it at a bare minimum bare minimum could we and it's going to be an explosive thing for the catholic church if if and when i mean when when it ultimately happens because there's

there is a battle for the soul of the catholic church right now between there's a battle for the soul of the world yes people who are you know genuinely committed look to have more conservative views and those who are far left. And we have a far left pope right now, which has led to the consternation of a lot of diehard Catholics when it comes to the Latin mass. There's a lot of issues. All right, wait, I want to shift gears because before we leave the RFK discussion and God, by the way, this ties it all together. He did take over at the National Institutes of Health at HHS this week. And he made a comment, which he's made before, but it doesn't get old, on how meaningful it was for him and how important Trump has been really in changing

Bobby Kennedy's life. Listen. Yeah. For 20 years, I've gotten up every morning on my knees and prayed that God would put me in a position where I can end the childhood chronic disease epidemic in this country. On August 23rd of last year, God sent me President Trump, and he gave me Mr. President. A lot of people told me that I couldn't trust President Trump. I better get it in writing. And we did a handshake and everything that he told me he was going to do, he has done. And I'm so grateful to him. And I've told you before, I genuinely believe that you are a pivotal historical figure and you are going to transform this country. Yeah. What a moment. Yeah. Oh man.

I watched it multiple times and I've heard him talk about that before about, you know, him being in prayer and petition for 20 years. I mean, I can feel it. I cried when, I mean, I cried when I was filming in Eastern Europe, Eurasia, when the election was happening. Like, I think I, I even was, when I was talking to you, I was over there or something like that. And so we were up, you know, hours before the U S was up. And so I was seeing the results, the poll results and stuff like that. And I was just like, wow, I can't believe it. This is actually happening. Like, like they were able to keep all of the potential, you know, things that polls and ballot boxes and everything like legit. And then getting Bobby across the line. And so, and that's what I was saying to the other day

to finally, cause, cause that was one step. And then it's like, okay, but we still got to get Bobby Tulsi, you know? And so the other day I was on a flight home and I'm seeing the confirmation and I just started crying on the plane because I really do like I know this man. I know him personally and I know that he has the integrity that that's the exact. And so does Tulsi to to go and be a leader that is non corruptible. There are far too many people, even good people, but it's like, you dangle that just a little bit of like, Oh, I could, I'm going to do good, but I'm also going to, I'm going to take a little bit. And then that starts with a little bit. And then there's a little bit of compromise and then it's a little more compromised and a little more compromised. And the next thing you know, they're not doing any of the good they're just in, you

know, enriching themselves with insider trading or whatever it is that they're doing. And this guy means it. He means it. And, and I, and he, and I absolutely agree with him. You know, like I love that even when people saying like, Oh, you better getting in writing and you know, don't trust that guy. Trump meant it. He meant it. And that should show everybody too. Like, yes, he's bullish and Trumpy and all of the things, things that I don't like. I get it. I also understand why people have such a hard time voting for somebody like that, because you want, you don't want your leader to, to have certain egotistical aspects about him. Put all that down for just a moment and see the things that he is doing well, is doing right. Man of his word.

That was a hard confirmation. Both of those were hard. Like not only did the Democrats not want it to happen, but even these Rhino Republicans, Mitch McConnell, get that guy out of there as soon as possible. I mean, he's just going to freeze himself out of there anyway, but like it happened. Yeah. And if that's not God at work to help heal this country in this world, I don't know what is. And here it's like, even if you are against Trump, if you're against Bobby Kennedy, whatever you believe about him, like, listen to what he's saying he's going to do. Listen and ask yourself, wouldn't this be great? What's so bad about this?

Here he is going on in soundbite eight. Take a listen. We will convene representatives of all viewpoints to study the causes for the drastic rise in chronic disease. Some of the possible factors we will investigate were formally taboo or insufficiently scrutinized. The childhood vaccine schedule, electromagnetic radiation, glyphosate, other other pesticides ultra-processed foods artificial food allergies ssri and other psychiatric drugs bfas pfoas microplastics nothing is going to be off limits yes praise god hallelujah exactly hit it all like isn't that what the right right on but isn't

that what someone in his position should have always been doing yes and every one of those regulatory agencies should have always been doing yes the fda should have been on top of all of this instead of just taking handouts from lobbyists they're doing studies on like trans fish and covid vaccines and how many 14th 15th versions versions we need. This is exactly it. He hits all the stuff that's unhittable. Who the hell else is talking about EMF and that glyphosate? I can never pronounce it. But they're spraying it all over our wheat, which is why it's in every box of pasta that you buy. And you don't even know it's in there, these pesticides that are all over our food. Both parties are guilty. The Republicans represent a lot of farmers too. We love our farmers,

but the farmers too, I'm sure would love to find some way of getting rid of these toxic chemicals so they don't have to swim in them all day and they can create products that are actually healthy and good for us and taste good. No one's even talking about this other than him. Yeah. It's a brave new world in the most positive of ways, I hope, I believe. I mean, Lord knows there's still people working in the shadows and the darkness that are trying to derail a lot of these things. So I don't think we're out of the woods just yet. There's still a lot of work to do, right? Same as they're going to try to derail every step of Doge. Every bit of it. But we must continue to stay in prayer and petition and believing that something really good is happening right now and do it with empathy. Make sure that people are not being just lost in this shuffle, long overdue. And we deserve it. Everyone deserves

this kind of transparency. Like light is the best disinfectant. Like just get in there. Just look at it all. Let's have a real coming to Jesus moment. And we need to do that with all things. We need to bring the American public in on a lot of these things that have been secretive and no, no, no, we can't tell them like rip the bandaid off. SSRIs talking about that openly. I mean, that has been more out there in the conversation, but it's very bold for the HHS director to say, we actually are going to be looking into these. It's just, Americans are taking the antidepressants like they're candy and they don't realize why they're not getting better. And then they up the dosage and then they try a different one and then they up the dosage there. And there's no actual public health official being really straight with them on the downsides of these drugs and how there might be alternative ways not to rip on those drugs.

They have been helpful for a lot of people, but they're not for everybody. And it's the first line of defense. My friend has a daughter in college and she went to like the college counseling place because it can be a difficult adjustment. They try to push an SSRI on her. It's like for the love of God, maybe just talk to her, do talk therapy, do cognitive behavioral therapy before we just knee jerk, give the drug. Well, absolutely. But I, but I think that there's even more effective ways of solving for all of this. And you really got to go to the source. You got to go to the root, right? Why are SSRIs pushed on everybody so much? It's because there's

incentive programs. Why are vaccine and the vaccine schedule pushed on children so hard? Because there's incentives. Why should there be incentives for doctors to push what should just be healthy and natural and good? You shouldn't have to incentivize a doctor to encourage their patients to do something that's been tested and is safe and effective and everything. You just have a doctor say, oh, this is great. So why are you having to pay them X amount of dollars bonus to make sure if they get 95% of their pediatrician gets 95% of the people in their practice and the children all fully vaxxed up and then you give them hundreds of thousands of dollars in return? This is not okay. So I think that if we actually start to regulate these industries, all of that downstream pushing and stuff, that's all going to kind of start to resolve itself.

And once it gets exposed. 100%. Moreover, I think when it comes to our farming situation, listen, maybe under FDR, incentivizing farmers, getting out of the Great Depression, there was some good that they were trying to do with all of that. But all that did was led to, it led to like bad capitalism run amok and people in industrial farming and companies like Monsanto creating glyphosate and atrazine and all of these things that are poisoning us, which is why you can literally eat all the bread you want in Europe and you can't eat any bread in the United States. That's the point. We don't have to have this on our wheat. We don't have to eat our pasta and our bread like this. But what I think like when the biggest first things that

they can do is if you, instead of incentivizing farmers to do massive monocropping with industrial fertilizer, instead start incentivizing farmers. And we, by the way, we must because to, to incentivize farmers to have regenerative organic farms. Ron Johnson was just saying that this is a top priority for him. He's from Wisconsin. They're onto it now. Because our soil is dead. We only have so many more cycles left because the nutrients have all been sucked out of it through all the industrial fertilizing and the tilling for monocropping. It's destroying our environment. So people that want to solve for all of these things,

guys, we can help the environment and help the soil and bring down carbon in the environment. Like all of these things, if we just go back to the way we ought to be doing agriculture, and then you don't have to spray with all the things because there's other, by the way, ways to mitigate pests and whatnot. But also that shouldn't be in a truck

going 1,500 miles to a grocery store that is not local. Grow it and sell it and eat it within a few days. That's the way it's supposed to be done when we get back to more locally sourced. When you're here and it's so cold all the time, it's very hard to find, that we do need to import some of our fruit

coast to coast and vegetables. But there's ways to even get around that where it's not coming from so far and still grown in more responsible ways. I will be honest that I have not found a great solution for the fruit and vegetable problem, like getting it fresh. I was talking to, you know, Casey Means, good energy.

She's and her brother, Callie, amazing. But I'm like, how do I do that? Because I don't live in California. I can't go to the wonderful farmer's market in the middle of February. It doesn't exist in Connecticut. And even the ones that do don't have the fruits and the vegetables this time of year. And she was like, you can get your own inside farm. I don't see that happening. I got to be honest. We got to come up with a different solution, something

that's workable. Greenhouses. Really awesome greenhouses that people can be building up and around various communities. There's a lot that can be done with that. There are greenhouses that people have been building on the rooftops of buildings in Brooklyn and in New York. That's pretty dope. You know who does the indoor farming and does it really well? Elon's brother, Kimball Musk. Really?

He's got a crazy indoor farming program. He came on my show on NBC and I was amazed. It's like, if he didn't have Elon as a brother, this guy would be super world famous. Everybody would want to talk to him. It's tough. It's tough when he's your brother. All right, stand back. We're going to take a break. We're going to come right back. More with Zach in just a minute. When it comes to grocery shopping

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the real history of America. Schools are pushing revisionist narratives or skipping over key ideas altogether. That's why the Tuttle Twins, America's history books, are so important. These story-based books bring our history to life, the good, the bad, the inspiring, so your kids can understand not only the truth about our founders and the Constitution, but also the ideas and the values that shaped it. And in honor of President's Day this week, get your kids the whole America's History set. Don't miss this chance to give your children the education they deserve.

Go to TuttleTwins.com slash history right now and grab your set of America's History books in honor of President's Day and this great nation. If we don't teach the next generation what really happened, no one will. Hurry on over to Tuttle, T-U-T-T-L-E, twins.com slash history right now. I'm Megyn Kelly, host of The Megyn Kelly Show on Sirius XM. It's your home for open, honest, and provocative conversations with the most interesting and important political, legal, and cultural figures today. You can catch The Megyn Kelly Show on Triumph, a SiriusXM channel featuring lots of hosts you may know and probably love. Great people like Dr. Laura, Glenn Beck, Nancy Grace, Dave Ramsey, and yours truly, Megyn Kelly. You can stream The

Megyn Kelly Show on SiriusXM at home or anywhere you are. No car required. I do it all the time. I love the SiriusXM app. It has ad-free music coverage of every major sport, comedy, talk, podcast, and more. Subscribe now. Get your first three months for free. Go to SiriusXM.com slash MKShow to subscribe and get three months free. That's SiriusXM.com slash MK show to subscribe and get three months free.

That's SiriusXM.com slash MK show and get three months free. Offer details apply. You're doing awesome, dude. Go on, get back out there. Go finish your dance. Sure you can. Watch this. Oh, so sweet. That is a clip from Zach Levi's new movie. It's called The Unbreakable Boy.

It's a great film. It's out this Friday and in it for the listening audience, you see Zach's character go out on the basketball court with the mascots head on because his little boy was going to be the mascot, but didn't want to do it. And the boy's got the rest of the tiger outfit on just the body part. And with all the dad's crazy dancing and fearlessness out on the court, ultimately the little boy comes out and joins him and has fun. It's classic, great stuff. Yeah, yeah. Really proud of this movie.

I think it's just, it's very human. It's very- Are people going to the movies again? Yeah. They are. I mean, listen, that's why Lionsgate felt confident that this was a good time to release it. Three years ago when it was supposed to come out,

right after American Underdog, it was supposed to come out around Valentine's Day of 2022. Wow. But people hadn't really been coming back to the theater that much. And they were like, this is a, this is not that big a movie. Like it'll get crushed. It'll get lost. And so I think they feel very confidently that people are back in theaters enough. And also I just think the timing of the story is, is, is now like, this is the, this is the type of story and the type of movie that people are looking for. So when is your baby due? First week of April. Oh, so congratulations. Thank you. So you've got this movie hitting

and you've got a new baby coming. Yeah. This is your first baby. Yeah. Yeah. So that's how, how are you feeling about that? Amazing. I don't. Scared? Are you feeling overwhelmed? No, not at all. Yeah, that's Maggie. Oh, she's so beautiful. Oh my gosh. Look at me. She's going to be such a wonderful mom. Um, no, I'm not scared. I, I, I feel, you know, again, like God's timing is good. It's perfect. We it's, it's, it's us that want to fight it and wrestle with it. And it's like, no, no, it can't be this. And it can't be that, you know, like Scott in the unbreakable boy. But I'm so grateful that even though I've wanted to be a father since I was a kid, like I've, I've always known it's in my bones, it's in

my DNA. And I would have rushed it had I met somebody that, you know, it all clicked or whatever. And I wasn't, I was married and, and briefly, very briefly married and divorced. And we did not have children and we weren't supposed to have children. And I was supposed to have children at this point in my life after I had done a lot of work on myself so that I could love my child as deeply and as wholly as I could without spilling as much of my own generational trauma onto that child. Do you know if you're having a boy or a girl? We don't know. That's good. Yeah, you're letting them be a surprise.

I love that. Do you worry? I know I have a dear friend, and she's come on the show and talked about this openly, so I feel like I can repeat it, but she's an actress, too. Now she's a newswoman, but Melissa Francis, she starred when she was young in Little House on the Prairie and many other things. She was the next generation of Ingalls, along with Jason Bateman. Anyway, she wrote in her book, one of them, Diary of a Staged Mother's Daughter, about how her own mother's mental illness and how she worried, you know, like, am I going to have that? Do I have that? Anytime, you know, we all feel crazy here or there, you know, once in a while, but it's different when you have a

parent who actually does or did have mental illness. And now I'm sure with your next generation, it's yet another thing. So how do you process that? Or do you just feel like you're good because you worked through, you're're waking up and you're just, and you're just like in a funk and you've got some anxiety or some anger or whatever, that's like a little common cold. That's still mental illness. And you could also need a full blown root canal, mental root canal, which is what I needed, which is why I ended up going to the therapy that I did still melted mental illness. It's a spectrum just like physical illness. And so I don't, and I also don't believe that it's something that is ever, that's it, that's done, that's fixed, that's forever. In the same way that we have to brush and floss our teeth every single day, you got to brush and floss your heart and your mind every single day. You got to maintain it. It's a maintenance. And

if you do that and you do it consistently, well, then you don't end up getting these cavities turning into full blown root canals. You can just keep it. In fact, you don't even have to have cavities. You can wake up every day and be grateful. And even when the things are coming at you, meditate, pray, eat well, sleep well. Guys, I can't... Sleeping is so integral to your mental... You know you're about to have a baby. Oh, no, no. I understand, which is also the reason why, thank God, we've got a night nurse and there's going to be some help. But nonetheless, yes, there will be sleep that is lost, no doubt.

I know that's a part of the process, but I'm prepared for it and I can't wait. I think it's only going to triple your blessings here. It's going to make you even happier. Yes, you lose sleep. It's so worth it. It's a nothing, you know, in the lung. And one, one so easy. Ladies, isn't one so easy?

He's such a cute baby with his just one little baby. It's going to be so fun for you guys. Well, hopefully we'll have more. All the blessings in the world to you. Thank you so much. Thanks for having me, Zach. Thank you for being here. Oh, good luck with it. The movie, the baby, all of it. Zachary, leave by everybody. Check it out, The Unbreakable Boy, this Friday. Thanks for listening to The Megyn Kelly Show. No BS, no agenda more aggressive than ever. If you owe back taxes or have unfiled returns, waiting is not an option. And let's face it, it's stressful. Get this handled. April 15th could mark another tax year that has passed you by. So the smart thing to do is to get

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