WEBVTT - Sunday Fireside Chat | The Founding of PragerU w/Allen Estrin 0:00:02.680 --> 0:00:03.640 Life Audio. 0:00:04.440 --> 0:00:07.000 Hey there, this is Marissa strit I am the CEO 0:00:07.120 --> 0:00:09.160 of Prigger You and you are about to listen to 0:00:09.320 --> 0:00:13.200 a special edition of fireside Chat with Dennis Prager. Those 0:00:13.240 --> 0:00:15.520 of us here at Pegger You are continuing to do 0:00:15.560 --> 0:00:18.040 the very important work that we've been doing with him 0:00:18.040 --> 0:00:21.560 for over ten years. We are educating millions of young 0:00:21.600 --> 0:00:25.320 people online, we have state partnerships to bring our content 0:00:25.440 --> 0:00:28.240 into schools, and so much more. You can head over 0:00:28.280 --> 0:00:30.680 to peger you dot com to see the progress that 0:00:30.680 --> 0:00:33.400 we've been making. Also, I'd love to invite you to 0:00:33.400 --> 0:00:36.159 support our mission by donating to our five OHO one 0:00:36.320 --> 0:00:39.720 C three. It is a nonprofit. Your tax deductible donation 0:00:39.840 --> 0:00:42.760 will go to an institution of higher learning that actually 0:00:42.800 --> 0:00:47.120 shares your values. So enjoy your podcast and thank you 0:00:47.280 --> 0:00:48.879 so much for all your support. 0:00:50.040 --> 0:00:53.760 Yeah. Put that now, you look like a unicorn. That's good. 0:00:55.280 --> 0:00:57.520 I hope this is being This should be record our 0:00:57.560 --> 0:01:00.200 recapturing some of this. Okay, good, good here. 0:01:00.760 --> 0:01:02.279 Oh wait a minute, I'm wrong. It's got to go 0:01:02.360 --> 0:01:03.960 under the neck, under the chin. 0:01:06.880 --> 0:01:16.080 Okay, Yeah, he's definitely silly today. Yeah, one second. 0:01:14.959 --> 0:01:21.800 It's inconceivable if he wore it. Everybody it would the 0:01:21.840 --> 0:01:26.960 stock market would sink, and I'll say that. Okay, ready, 0:01:28.640 --> 0:01:33.280 Hi everybody. You're probably wondering why is Dennis wearing this 0:01:33.760 --> 0:01:36.399 dunce hat. It's not a dunce hat, a party hat, 0:01:36.640 --> 0:01:39.880 and the answer is right here, Episode one hundredth, the 0:01:40.000 --> 0:01:44.080 one hundredth fireside Chat. So it's a big deal. I 0:01:44.200 --> 0:01:47.640 normally would not wear this, but basically Megan, who was 0:01:47.680 --> 0:01:50.560 the unofficial producer of the fireside Chat, asked me to 0:01:50.600 --> 0:01:54.200 do so. She asked my colleague friend and co founder 0:01:54.280 --> 0:01:57.120 to do it, but as he pointed out, he didn't 0:01:57.120 --> 0:01:59.480 do it when he was five, he's certainly not going 0:01:59.560 --> 0:02:02.440 to do it now that he's twenty five. So I've 0:02:02.480 --> 0:02:07.960 done it, and happy birthday anniversary to us at fireside Chat. 0:02:08.240 --> 0:02:11.760 I'm Dennis Prager. This is my home. Otto is busy 0:02:12.000 --> 0:02:15.800 today and you all know atto by now, but this 0:02:15.880 --> 0:02:19.200 is very special. It's the one hundredth one. So I figured, 0:02:19.400 --> 0:02:22.160 why don't you meet the person who actually came up 0:02:22.160 --> 0:02:26.120 with the idea of prager you It was not my idea. 0:02:26.280 --> 0:02:32.079 I always make that known. The idea of taking credit 0:02:32.120 --> 0:02:36.520 for something I didn't do actually repulses me. I'm a 0:02:36.560 --> 0:02:39.880 big believer. You give credit where it is due. Alan Estrin, 0:02:40.040 --> 0:02:44.280 who is my friend for thirty years, very dear close friend, 0:02:45.720 --> 0:02:48.520 is the one and producer of my radio show for 0:02:48.560 --> 0:02:53.440 many years, is the person who came up with the idea. 0:02:54.240 --> 0:02:57.240 And Alan is known to many of you who know 0:02:57.320 --> 0:02:59.680 my radio show is the Living Martyr. It's a funny 0:02:59.760 --> 0:03:03.360 nick that he actually developed on his own, but it 0:03:03.400 --> 0:03:08.560 was so fitting. It's really it stayed. And how many 0:03:08.680 --> 0:03:12.920 years ago it was on a listener cruise. I've been 0:03:12.960 --> 0:03:16.280 taking cruises with my listeners for now about twenty five years, 0:03:16.720 --> 0:03:21.120 and from Antarctica to the North Sea, I mean literally 0:03:21.160 --> 0:03:25.600 all over the world, every continent. On one of those cruises, 0:03:26.120 --> 0:03:26.800 what happened. 0:03:28.880 --> 0:03:33.760 Two friends of ours on the cruise approached me and 0:03:33.800 --> 0:03:39.240 they said, we should start a Prager University. Let's do 0:03:39.320 --> 0:03:45.760 something along the lines of Hillsdale. Let's create a new 0:03:45.800 --> 0:03:52.400 place where Dennis's values can be taught. And I thought 0:03:52.440 --> 0:03:57.640 about it for a bit, did a little research, came 0:03:57.680 --> 0:04:02.600 to the conclusion that it would probably cost us about 0:04:02.840 --> 0:04:06.000 two hundred and fifty million dollars to get started, take 0:04:06.040 --> 0:04:10.360 ten years to build a building. Maybe after that time 0:04:10.400 --> 0:04:13.680 we'd have a thousand students graduating. I didn't want us 0:04:15.120 --> 0:04:18.360 take that make that much effort, take that much time. 0:04:19.480 --> 0:04:24.200 But I had another idea that I had been percolating 0:04:24.240 --> 0:04:27.560 about that sort of came together when they made this 0:04:27.600 --> 0:04:32.080 point about a university, which I like, the idea of 0:04:32.160 --> 0:04:36.440 doing something educational at that this was now, I think 0:04:36.520 --> 0:04:38.640 two thousand and nine, twenty ten. 0:04:40.360 --> 0:04:43.560 I thought, let how about if we do. 0:04:42.760 --> 0:04:48.920 We really make use of the Internet, let's create something 0:04:49.000 --> 0:04:51.640 on the Internet. So then I started researching what they 0:04:52.720 --> 0:04:56.400 people had been doing educationally on the Internet, and mostly 0:04:56.440 --> 0:05:01.960 what people were doing was they there were education national places, 0:05:01.960 --> 0:05:06.240 but it was a professor standing in front of a 0:05:06.279 --> 0:05:09.599 blackboard talking for an hour, and I knew that's not 0:05:09.680 --> 0:05:12.120 how people are consuming the internet. It's certainly not how 0:05:12.760 --> 0:05:17.200 young people are consuming the Internet. That dovetailed with the 0:05:17.240 --> 0:05:20.480 idea that you have a special gift of being able 0:05:20.760 --> 0:05:29.040 to distill complex ideas into a short, coherent timeframe. So 0:05:29.240 --> 0:05:34.520 then I started thinking about, well, let's make short videos, 0:05:35.680 --> 0:05:39.479 put those on the internet. How long should those videos be? 0:05:40.320 --> 0:05:45.080 And the five minute idea came to me very quickly. 0:05:45.320 --> 0:05:49.000 Just seemed seven minutes just fell too long. Three minutes 0:05:49.080 --> 0:05:56.400 wasn't enough. Five is a nice number, solid number. Let's 0:05:56.480 --> 0:06:00.400 just do five minute videos. And I went to the 0:06:01.080 --> 0:06:03.440 same guys and I said, look, what you want is 0:06:03.480 --> 0:06:06.360 going to cost two hundred million dollars. I don't think 0:06:06.400 --> 0:06:08.080 you want to spend that kind of money or raise 0:06:08.120 --> 0:06:12.760 that kind of money. How about some seed money twenty thousand. 0:06:13.680 --> 0:06:15.800 And they said, okay, let's do it, let's try it, 0:06:16.240 --> 0:06:18.599 and they gave us the money and we. 0:06:20.240 --> 0:06:20.360 Went. 0:06:20.520 --> 0:06:23.000 When we got back to Los Angeles, this was months later, 0:06:24.440 --> 0:06:29.920 we made our first few videos, which you actually ad libbed. 0:06:29.960 --> 0:06:33.520 There were no scripts. That's a whole nother process that developed. 0:06:35.200 --> 0:06:37.280 That's right. I ad libbed, and I remember the first 0:06:37.320 --> 0:06:37.960 Middle East one. 0:06:38.000 --> 0:06:39.159 I it was ad libbed. 0:06:40.839 --> 0:06:43.640 So let's go to the actual. By the way, a 0:06:43.680 --> 0:06:46.159 lot of this is I can't say new to me, 0:06:46.240 --> 0:06:48.320 but I don't remember it, so it's new to me 0:06:48.400 --> 0:06:52.680 for all intensive purposes. So in effect, really it was 0:06:52.880 --> 0:06:55.160 some to other people's idea. 0:06:55.839 --> 0:06:57.920 The idea of a university. 0:06:58.240 --> 0:07:03.680 Yeah was U Ron Lee and our dear friend the 0:07:03.760 --> 0:07:07.240 late may rest in peace, Carl Bowman. That's right, they 0:07:07.279 --> 0:07:09.320 had the idea of a university. So yeah, you could 0:07:09.360 --> 0:07:09.840 give them. 0:07:09.760 --> 0:07:12.760 No, no, no, that's fine. Like I of course it's yours. 0:07:12.840 --> 0:07:14.760 But but that. 0:07:14.680 --> 0:07:17.840 No, no, no, they definitely used the word universe. 0:07:18.200 --> 0:07:20.480 I got you. So you came over to me and 0:07:20.520 --> 0:07:23.200 on the ship. Yeah, correct, that I do remember. 0:07:23.280 --> 0:07:25.720 Yes, And then are we playing Hearts? 0:07:25.920 --> 0:07:29.400 Yes, which it's amazing you didn't say it during Hearts 0:07:29.400 --> 0:07:33.239 because I I don't allow anything to intrude on beating 0:07:33.280 --> 0:07:35.960 you with One of the goals of my life is 0:07:36.000 --> 0:07:40.120 to win at Hearts at every every time. So you 0:07:40.160 --> 0:07:42.200 must have said it right before or after the game. 0:07:42.720 --> 0:07:47.080 And then so my reaction, as I remember, was fine, 0:07:47.440 --> 0:07:50.160 and that was it. I didn't I don't. I didn't 0:07:50.160 --> 0:07:50.920 get excited. 0:07:51.120 --> 0:07:55.280 I I think you were intrigued by the idea, but 0:07:55.360 --> 0:07:58.760 there was no sense of right, let's let's absolutely we 0:07:58.840 --> 0:07:59.400 have to do it. 0:07:59.520 --> 0:08:00.360 Let's thinks. 0:08:00.840 --> 0:08:03.400 I say to everybody, if someone had said to me 0:08:03.480 --> 0:08:06.280 in the beginning, you'll have a million views a year, 0:08:06.720 --> 0:08:09.160 I would have said, from your mouth to God's ears, 0:08:09.400 --> 0:08:11.960 I would have not believed it was going to happen. 0:08:13.480 --> 0:08:17.080 How optimistic were you that something like that could happen? 0:08:20.640 --> 0:08:24.480 You know, that's actually a tough question for me. It 0:08:24.640 --> 0:08:30.720 raises a bigger issue. I never think. I really don't think. 0:08:30.560 --> 0:08:35.480 Ahead, right, I'm with you, I know, to say it correct. 0:08:35.559 --> 0:08:37.599 How many views was it going to get? 0:08:37.720 --> 0:08:39.160 You know what you need to do? 0:08:39.320 --> 0:08:41.680 Yeah, I didn't even have a sense of what was 0:08:41.720 --> 0:08:43.200 a lot of views. If you had said to me, 0:08:44.440 --> 0:08:46.839 this video gets ten thousand views at that point I 0:08:46.880 --> 0:08:49.000 probably said, wow, ten thousand people saw. 0:08:48.800 --> 0:08:51.200 It's that's a good start. 0:08:52.080 --> 0:08:55.200 When the Middle East, the first one we did, the 0:08:55.240 --> 0:09:00.240 Middle East Problem, got one hundred thousand views, right, I 0:09:00.280 --> 0:09:02.400 thought that was beyond belief. 0:09:02.679 --> 0:09:02.959 Right. 0:09:03.280 --> 0:09:05.200 I used to say that like. 0:09:05.160 --> 0:09:07.959 Twenty five in the early days, twenty five thousand Jews 0:09:08.000 --> 0:09:11.440 was a single, fifty was a double. One hundred thousand 0:09:11.559 --> 0:09:13.760 was a Grand Slam home run in the bottom of 0:09:13.760 --> 0:09:14.199 the ninth. 0:09:15.240 --> 0:09:17.439 For those of you outside of the United States, these 0:09:17.480 --> 0:09:18.600 are baseball terms. 0:09:19.520 --> 0:09:20.480 Oh yeah, that's right. 0:09:20.880 --> 0:09:23.680 There are a lot of people watching outside. That would 0:09:23.760 --> 0:09:29.720 be like somebody for us using cricket to describe something. Anyway, 0:09:30.320 --> 0:09:33.959 it was a home run. And to this. 0:09:34.040 --> 0:09:37.120 Day I don't think about what's it going to be 0:09:37.240 --> 0:09:42.040 like in five Right, we say we have a deadline, 0:09:42.080 --> 0:09:43.319 we have to do something tomorrow. 0:09:43.320 --> 0:09:44.400 We have a job to do tomorrow. 0:09:44.480 --> 0:09:48.280 Lest that's right, Yeah, that's exactly right. I live that way, 0:09:48.320 --> 0:09:50.280 you know what, Megan, I'd like to talk about that 0:09:50.600 --> 0:09:54.280 because people are told a lot think where are you 0:09:54.320 --> 0:09:57.200 going to be five years from now? I've never thought 0:09:57.200 --> 0:09:59.160 we're all be five years from now. In my life. 0:10:00.120 --> 0:10:02.360 I knew what I wanted to do with my life, 0:10:02.760 --> 0:10:05.480 but that was that was it. I didn't know where 0:10:05.520 --> 0:10:07.560 I would be in five years, and it didn't matter. 0:10:08.120 --> 0:10:11.440 What mattered is am I doing something worthwhile now? And 0:10:11.480 --> 0:10:15.360 this was worthwhile. So we started it and we put 0:10:15.400 --> 0:10:17.319 out it wasn't every week. 0:10:17.480 --> 0:10:20.680 No, it was initially it was it was like every 0:10:20.760 --> 0:10:22.439 six weeks. I mean, we were just. 0:10:22.400 --> 0:10:29.360 Trying to test the market. We had no no regular pattern. 0:10:29.440 --> 0:10:31.800 It wouldn't even be like every six weeks. It would 0:10:31.840 --> 0:10:37.000 be one week, four weeks, fourteen weeks. 0:10:37.480 --> 0:10:39.760 Well was the first one? Wasn't mine on the Middle East? 0:10:39.800 --> 0:10:41.000 The Middle East problem was the first? 0:10:41.000 --> 0:10:45.000 Well interesting? Which is which was redone with a script 0:10:45.760 --> 0:10:48.360 even though the I had lived one worked out well. 0:10:48.400 --> 0:10:50.440 But first of all, most people aren't going to be 0:10:50.440 --> 0:10:53.200 able to add lib so it wouldn't have worked. It 0:10:53.280 --> 0:10:55.560 was it was not a pattern that we could have kept. 0:10:56.240 --> 0:11:00.760 No, and then we knew it wouldn't work. When you 0:11:00.840 --> 0:11:05.640 decided that we couldn't add lib these things because. 0:11:05.559 --> 0:11:07.760 Even though I had lived well, even very. 0:11:07.720 --> 0:11:11.040 Very well stream better than anybody, but. 0:11:12.280 --> 0:11:13.320 It has to be written. 0:11:13.360 --> 0:11:14.240 We made it a term. 0:11:14.360 --> 0:11:16.480 Every word has to be careful because it's. 0:11:16.360 --> 0:11:19.160 Five minutes and every word has to count. 0:11:19.240 --> 0:11:25.800 I'm permanent, exactly right. So now we have a billion 0:11:25.920 --> 0:11:32.760 views a year, and we're also in something else we 0:11:32.800 --> 0:11:37.559 would not have anticipated. We're in a very big battle 0:11:37.840 --> 0:11:43.000 for free speech on the Internet. I mean, I have 0:11:43.120 --> 0:11:46.880 come to realize this battle is so much bigger than prager. 0:11:46.920 --> 0:11:47.000 You. 0:11:48.559 --> 0:11:51.800 If Google can do what it wants to do, the 0:11:51.960 --> 0:11:57.200 conduit of all information practically in the free world and 0:11:58.960 --> 0:12:03.600 is stop us. They put another hundred of ours on 0:12:03.640 --> 0:12:08.160 the restricted list, and that was just because they're angry 0:12:08.200 --> 0:12:08.559 at us. 0:12:09.200 --> 0:12:11.440 Yeah, it's very difficult, I think for people to grasp 0:12:11.480 --> 0:12:20.840 how big this lawsuit is. If we lose, then Google, Facebook, 0:12:20.880 --> 0:12:26.200 Twitter truly have a blank check yes to do whatever 0:12:26.240 --> 0:12:26.680 they want. 0:12:27.080 --> 0:12:28.040 They will have. 0:12:28.160 --> 0:12:32.240 There will be the courts will say we're putting no 0:12:32.400 --> 0:12:33.400 restraints on you. 0:12:33.200 --> 0:12:34.800 You have nothing to figure. 0:12:34.880 --> 0:12:37.640 Well, there is only one solution after that, which I 0:12:37.720 --> 0:12:41.200 never even entertained, and it only hit me now, and 0:12:41.240 --> 0:12:44.520 that is that Congress would have to pass some sort 0:12:44.520 --> 0:12:51.080 of law, maybe break up a monopoly. But the threat 0:12:51.120 --> 0:12:55.680 to free speech in America is the greatest in American history. 0:12:57.200 --> 0:13:02.160 And neither you nor I engage in hyperb That's that's 0:13:02.160 --> 0:13:05.560 how serious it is. So I think people would be 0:13:05.559 --> 0:13:09.480 interested as well to know of our relationship. So it's 0:13:09.800 --> 0:13:14.440 it's we we met. I think we can actually virtually 0:13:14.520 --> 0:13:18.080 date the month because you were asked to write a 0:13:18.120 --> 0:13:23.760 script by David Zucker, the great uh director in Hollywood 0:13:24.000 --> 0:13:26.400 who he and his brother did Airplane, which is one 0:13:26.400 --> 0:13:27.319 of the classic films. 0:13:27.360 --> 0:13:28.480 I want to correct just. 0:13:29.960 --> 0:13:33.520 That's accurate, but and I know we both feel this. 0:13:33.559 --> 0:13:36.480 I want to give credit to Rich marky. 0:13:36.720 --> 0:13:39.920 Good please Rich, who was. 0:13:39.559 --> 0:13:44.400 Working with David Zucker at that time as as his producer. 0:13:45.320 --> 0:13:48.000 He was the one who approached me because Rich and 0:13:48.440 --> 0:13:52.800 I were working on a script for Disney at the time. 0:13:53.080 --> 0:13:55.240 It's actually a funny idea having to do with the 0:13:55.280 --> 0:14:00.880 origin of the Marx Brothers, and he he told me 0:14:01.200 --> 0:14:06.720 that he and David wanted to do an educational video 0:14:07.320 --> 0:14:11.040 with you, and he asked me if I was interested. 0:14:11.559 --> 0:14:14.840 At that point in my writing career, I had made 0:14:14.840 --> 0:14:18.199 the decision that I would not do any writing. 0:14:17.880 --> 0:14:20.440 At all unless I was paid. 0:14:21.680 --> 0:14:25.480 It was just kind of a blanket because I had 0:14:25.480 --> 0:14:29.400 done things and not been paid and didn't work out, 0:14:29.440 --> 0:14:32.000 and I just thought, I gotta be paid or I'm 0:14:32.000 --> 0:14:32.720 not doing it. 0:14:33.400 --> 0:14:35.760 He's a professional screenwriter, that's his profession. 0:14:35.840 --> 0:14:43.800 Okay, go on, So I said, who is this guy? 0:14:44.000 --> 0:14:45.520 So he tells me a. 0:14:46.000 --> 0:14:46.960 Oh, you did not know. 0:14:47.160 --> 0:14:49.400 I knew who you were. I had just started listening 0:14:49.440 --> 0:14:49.680 to you. 0:14:50.520 --> 0:14:51.320 What year is this? 0:14:51.320 --> 0:14:54.920 This is nineteen ninety one, And the whole backstory of 0:14:54.960 --> 0:14:57.160 how I started listening to you is a whole other story. 0:14:57.720 --> 0:15:00.880 And Rich tells me that he and David want to 0:15:00.880 --> 0:15:05.000 do a project with Dennis Prager. And I said, and 0:15:05.240 --> 0:15:08.400 he couldn't pay me, you know, I said, what are 0:15:08.400 --> 0:15:10.080 you going to pay me anything? No, we don't have 0:15:10.120 --> 0:15:13.360 any money to pay you. And I thought about it 0:15:13.400 --> 0:15:16.200 really overnight, and I called him back and I said, look, 0:15:17.520 --> 0:15:20.360 I'll do it because I want to meet this guy. 0:15:21.000 --> 0:15:26.160 I really like the way he thinks. And I broke 0:15:26.200 --> 0:15:30.160 my rule. And then the interesting thing that happened was 0:15:30.240 --> 0:15:34.240 that in preparation for writing, I knew I had heard 0:15:34.560 --> 0:15:39.240 heard you enough to be very very intrigued so to 0:15:39.320 --> 0:15:42.400 prepare for writing the script, which for what became for 0:15:42.440 --> 0:15:49.400 goodness sake, Rich gave me a binder full of Ultimate Issues. 0:15:50.360 --> 0:15:54.720 And Ultimate Issues was a newsletter that I was publishing 0:15:54.760 --> 0:15:57.200 at the time on my own. People who went to 0:15:57.400 --> 0:16:01.120 my speeches subscribed, and that's where I really worked out 0:16:01.680 --> 0:16:04.320 my philosophy of life and my theology. 0:16:05.640 --> 0:16:08.800 So he gives me a binder of the Ultimate Issues, 0:16:09.120 --> 0:16:14.320 and he gives me a box of tapes. Over the 0:16:14.360 --> 0:16:18.080 next I would say week, now we would say binge watch. 0:16:18.160 --> 0:16:23.920 But over the week I consumed read all the Ultimate Issues, 0:16:24.200 --> 0:16:24.880 listened to. 0:16:24.880 --> 0:16:25.520 All the tapes. 0:16:25.520 --> 0:16:29.440 There probably were ten or fifteen tapes. And the one 0:16:29.480 --> 0:16:34.760 that really got me was Why I Am a Jew, 0:16:34.800 --> 0:16:39.400 which was the first recorded lecture you ever sold. And 0:16:39.600 --> 0:16:46.840 in that lecture, it was like you were describing my life. 0:16:46.960 --> 0:16:52.120 I was that person who was so Jews had assimilated 0:16:52.240 --> 0:16:59.400 so successfully in America that we wanted to marry a 0:16:59.520 --> 0:17:03.520 Christian because we just we felt so comfortable. This was 0:17:03.560 --> 0:17:07.520 all this is what was happening to Jews over the 0:17:07.600 --> 0:17:09.520 last couple hundred years. 0:17:11.000 --> 0:17:12.360 So by the time. 0:17:13.840 --> 0:17:18.400 We had our first meeting, I was very, very excited 0:17:18.400 --> 0:17:21.199 to meet you, and I actually brought with me. I 0:17:21.320 --> 0:17:25.320 brought my journal. You know, I keep a journal and 0:17:25.480 --> 0:17:29.840 have since nineteen eighty two or something like that. 0:17:30.440 --> 0:17:33.159 You have it our first meeting. Yeah, yeah, I have it, 0:17:33.600 --> 0:17:36.200 And this is all new to me, folks. I'm glad 0:17:36.520 --> 0:17:40.680 Glady this was By the way, he's the most disciplined 0:17:40.840 --> 0:17:44.679 person I know. And I say that totally matter of factly. 0:17:45.000 --> 0:17:47.920 You know why I have to be disciplined? Well, you'll 0:17:47.920 --> 0:17:50.480 tell them. It's a fascinating theory of yourself that you 0:17:50.560 --> 0:17:53.480 have and of life. But you are. And one of 0:17:53.520 --> 0:17:58.280 the many manifestations is that you write every day in 0:17:58.320 --> 0:18:00.240 your journal. And even if it's just the. 0:18:00.200 --> 0:18:06.400 Paragraph, sometimes things are in here that I really don't remember. 0:18:07.359 --> 0:18:11.280 But uh, of course, but it's it's fun to look back. 0:18:11.320 --> 0:18:13.360 So this is from nineteen ninety one. 0:18:13.480 --> 0:18:14.080 What's the date? 0:18:14.440 --> 0:18:16.359 Now here's the great thing. I'm just gonna make the 0:18:16.440 --> 0:18:19.760 argument right away. For the journal, you have no idea 0:18:19.840 --> 0:18:22.320 what day we met? You would it would be a 0:18:22.320 --> 0:18:23.960 struggle to figure out the year. You could do it 0:18:24.000 --> 0:18:24.480 if we really. 0:18:24.400 --> 0:18:25.800 Want to go. Sure, I could do the year. 0:18:25.920 --> 0:18:28.480 Yeah, but and I couldn't either. 0:18:30.280 --> 0:18:32.480 But because of this journey exact I can tell you 0:18:32.520 --> 0:18:34.120 exactly the day we met. 0:18:34.440 --> 0:18:37.480 It was November Monday. I mean, how would you even know? 0:18:37.600 --> 0:18:38.399 Is Monday right? 0:18:38.440 --> 0:18:41.400 Monday, November twenty fifth, nineteen ninety one. 0:18:41.680 --> 0:18:42.920 Where where did we meet? 0:18:42.960 --> 0:18:45.800 It was in Century City, in an office in Century City. 0:18:46.040 --> 0:18:49.760 And the headline I often wrote headlines of what happened 0:18:49.760 --> 0:18:53.040 that day met Dennis Prager exclamation point and this is 0:18:53.040 --> 0:18:56.320 what I wrote. Today was an important day in my life. 0:18:56.760 --> 0:18:59.880 I met the man who has changed the way I think, 0:19:00.240 --> 0:19:05.960 Dennis Prager. The occasion was to discuss the outline Susan Silverberg. 0:19:06.080 --> 0:19:08.800 She was the woman who collaborated with us on the 0:19:08.800 --> 0:19:12.719 script and I have done for the Goodness video. 0:19:12.840 --> 0:19:15.960 That's what it was called at the time. If in my. 0:19:17.880 --> 0:19:20.520 It is my fond wish that this will be the 0:19:20.520 --> 0:19:25.520 first of many meetings with DP. To have this great 0:19:25.520 --> 0:19:30.000 man as my friend would indeed be an honor. The 0:19:30.080 --> 0:19:34.520 work he is doing is of such great value and importance. 0:19:36.720 --> 0:19:39.840 That's why I'm so delighted to be a part of 0:19:39.880 --> 0:19:43.479 this video project, the project which will help spread his 0:19:44.080 --> 0:19:49.280 and then I put in quote his gospel ethical Monotheism. 0:19:49.560 --> 0:19:53.560 The meeting itself went better than I expected. DP was 0:19:53.640 --> 0:19:58.560 wildly enthusiastic. At one point, he said that this was 0:19:58.720 --> 0:20:04.960 one of quote best moments of his life. He sees 0:20:05.160 --> 0:20:07.800 that and I underline that he sees that much value 0:20:07.920 --> 0:20:12.440 in this video. His enthusiasm was both rewarding and infectious. 0:20:13.280 --> 0:20:14.560 It was also inspiring. 0:20:16.480 --> 0:20:20.200 God, is that moving? Really? I really moved. I never 0:20:20.480 --> 0:20:23.399 This is all new to me. That's the beauty of 0:20:23.440 --> 0:20:26.720 having a journal. I wish I kept one, but I didn't. 0:20:27.960 --> 0:20:31.440 I asked my father if my late father on an interview, 0:20:31.760 --> 0:20:34.119 I interviewed him on my radio show every year on 0:20:34.200 --> 0:20:37.199 his birthday. I asked him, we heard it this year 0:20:37.200 --> 0:20:41.479 because we replay some of them. Dad, do you have 0:20:41.520 --> 0:20:47.920 any regrets? None? I do. This is certainly one of them. 0:20:48.400 --> 0:20:51.080 By the way, it's important that people know you can 0:20:51.160 --> 0:20:54.720 watch what we made yet with some of the biggest 0:20:54.920 --> 0:20:58.919 actors in Hollywood, thanks to David Zucker with his contacts, 0:20:59.440 --> 0:21:03.160 and it's on the internet. I mean, it's free, right, 0:21:03.240 --> 0:21:05.560 people could just watch it. It's called for goodness sake, 0:21:06.320 --> 0:21:10.640 and it's really worth it. It's very funny, very funny, 0:21:11.000 --> 0:21:15.480 and it's about goodness and especially kids should see it. 0:21:15.680 --> 0:21:18.920 Nineteen ninety one is twenty eight years ago, so that's 0:21:18.960 --> 0:21:24.600 when we met twenty eight years ago. And I remember that. 0:21:24.800 --> 0:21:27.120 I didn't keep a journal, but I remember very well 0:21:27.160 --> 0:21:31.040 meeting you, and I was very excited meeting you. So 0:21:31.760 --> 0:21:34.720 you were excited meeting me. I was, well, I see, 0:21:35.000 --> 0:21:38.280 it's so typically it's like my other spouse, my wife. 0:21:38.359 --> 0:21:42.199 She would laugh too. It's very fine people in my 0:21:42.280 --> 0:21:51.120 life and humble. But that was it was obviously very 0:21:51.160 --> 0:21:54.320 important at that meeting, and so we collaborated on the 0:21:54.359 --> 0:21:59.520 script and folks, you could watch this this. And then 0:21:59.560 --> 0:22:03.880 we did two more with David Zucker. We did one 0:22:04.000 --> 0:22:06.840 on and it's just as relevant. I saw it's also 0:22:06.880 --> 0:22:11.040 on the internet, and it's it's about diversity. Yeah, it's 0:22:11.160 --> 0:22:14.679 really really, really worth seeing. And then I don't remember 0:22:14.680 --> 0:22:16.879 what the third was, but the and I did the 0:22:16.880 --> 0:22:18.399 diversity one with Larry Eldert. 0:22:18.480 --> 0:22:21.239 Yeah, yeah, yeah, we did a sequel. We called it 0:22:21.240 --> 0:22:24.320 for goodness sake to oh okay, fine, but it was 0:22:24.440 --> 0:22:25.320 it was two parts. 0:22:25.760 --> 0:22:29.840 Yeah, it's really really worth you folks watching. 0:22:29.960 --> 0:22:33.040 So there's a little funny story about about the second 0:22:33.040 --> 0:22:37.560 one we did. David could not direct the second one. 0:22:37.560 --> 0:22:41.639 He was busy, so he said to us, look, I 0:22:41.720 --> 0:22:44.760 can't do it. But I can recommend somebody. I met 0:22:44.960 --> 0:22:52.120 these two guys there. They're very talented. They're from Denver, Colorado. 0:22:52.640 --> 0:22:58.320 They just arrived in Los Angeles. I think they would 0:22:58.320 --> 0:23:00.760 be good for this project. And we said, look, David, 0:23:01.119 --> 0:23:05.320 you know you're the comedy genius. If you say they're good, 0:23:05.359 --> 0:23:12.480 they're good. Their names were Trey Parker and Matt Stone. 0:23:13.080 --> 0:23:16.880 The first project Trey Parker and Matt Stone did in 0:23:16.880 --> 0:23:22.840 Hollywood was for goodness sake too. They arrived in Hollywood 0:23:22.880 --> 0:23:30.240 in a a Honda beat up Honda Civic and that's 0:23:30.280 --> 0:23:31.680 that's how they started. 0:23:32.080 --> 0:23:34.680 And I think, I know, I know what you'll say, 0:23:34.720 --> 0:23:36.080 and I agree with you. Go ahead. 0:23:36.320 --> 0:23:41.640 No, I think it had a big influence on them. 0:23:42.119 --> 0:23:43.159 Correct, I do believe that. 0:23:44.400 --> 0:23:46.399 Yeah, I mean we even there's even a term. I 0:23:46.440 --> 0:23:53.159 mean South Park Republicans. Yeah, I mean, I'm not saying 0:23:53.200 --> 0:23:57.000 they're they're right Republicans. I'm just saying their viewpoint was 0:23:57.040 --> 0:24:01.680 definitely shaped, I think in a very good way. I 0:24:02.040 --> 0:24:03.000 told that experience. 0:24:03.080 --> 0:24:05.359 I felt it then and I've felt it since. 0:24:06.240 --> 0:24:07.359 Not too many people know that. 0:24:08.000 --> 0:24:11.600 No, no, no, the no, no, I'm sure their origin story. 0:24:11.720 --> 0:24:15.560 I'm sure almost nobody does. Anyway, it's all available on 0:24:15.600 --> 0:24:18.199 the internet. So the rest, as they say, is history. 0:24:18.560 --> 0:24:22.359 I think it's it'll interest you, you folks watching this, 0:24:22.520 --> 0:24:28.320