Speaker 1: Life Audio.
Speaker 2: Hey there, this is Marissa strit I am the CEO
Speaker 2: of Prigger You and you are about to listen to
Speaker 2: a special edition of fireside Chat with Dennis Prager. Those
Speaker 2: of us here at Pegger You are continuing to do
Speaker 2: the very important work that we've been doing with him
Speaker 2: for over ten years. We are educating millions of young
Speaker 2: people online, we have state partnerships to bring our content
Speaker 2: into schools, and so much more. You can head over
Speaker 2: to peger you dot com to see the progress that
Speaker 2: we've been making. Also, I'd love to invite you to
Speaker 2: support our mission by donating to our five OHO one
Speaker 2: C three. It is a nonprofit. Your tax deductible donation
Speaker 2: will go to an institution of higher learning that actually
Speaker 2: shares your values. So enjoy your podcast and thank you
Speaker 2: so much for all your support.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Put that now, you look like a unicorn. That's good.
Speaker 3: I hope this is being This should be record our
Speaker 3: recapturing some of this. Okay, good, good here.
Speaker 1: Oh wait a minute, I'm wrong. It's got to go
Speaker 1: under the neck, under the chin.
Speaker 3: Okay, Yeah, he's definitely silly today. Yeah, one second.
Speaker 1: It's inconceivable if he wore it. Everybody it would the
Speaker 1: stock market would sink, and I'll say that. Okay, ready,
Speaker 1: Hi everybody. You're probably wondering why is Dennis wearing this
Speaker 1: dunce hat. It's not a dunce hat, a party hat,
Speaker 1: and the answer is right here, Episode one hundredth, the
Speaker 1: one hundredth fireside Chat. So it's a big deal. I
Speaker 1: normally would not wear this, but basically Megan, who was
Speaker 1: the unofficial producer of the fireside Chat, asked me to
Speaker 1: do so. She asked my colleague friend and co founder
Speaker 1: to do it, but as he pointed out, he didn't
Speaker 1: do it when he was five, he's certainly not going
Speaker 1: to do it now that he's twenty five. So I've
Speaker 1: done it, and happy birthday anniversary to us at fireside Chat.
Speaker 1: I'm Dennis Prager. This is my home. Otto is busy
Speaker 1: today and you all know atto by now, but this
Speaker 1: is very special. It's the one hundredth one. So I figured,
Speaker 1: why don't you meet the person who actually came up
Speaker 1: with the idea of prager you It was not my idea.
Speaker 1: I always make that known. The idea of taking credit
Speaker 1: for something I didn't do actually repulses me. I'm a
Speaker 1: big believer. You give credit where it is due. Alan Estrin,
Speaker 1: who is my friend for thirty years, very dear close friend,
Speaker 1: is the one and producer of my radio show for
Speaker 1: many years, is the person who came up with the idea.
Speaker 1: And Alan is known to many of you who know
Speaker 1: my radio show is the Living Martyr. It's a funny
Speaker 1: nick that he actually developed on his own, but it
Speaker 1: was so fitting. It's really it stayed. And how many
Speaker 1: years ago it was on a listener cruise. I've been
Speaker 1: taking cruises with my listeners for now about twenty five years,
Speaker 1: and from Antarctica to the North Sea, I mean literally
Speaker 1: all over the world, every continent. On one of those cruises,
Speaker 1: what happened.
Speaker 4: Two friends of ours on the cruise approached me and
Speaker 4: they said, we should start a Prager University. Let's do
Speaker 4: something along the lines of Hillsdale. Let's create a new
Speaker 4: place where Dennis's values can be taught. And I thought
Speaker 4: about it for a bit, did a little research, came
Speaker 4: to the conclusion that it would probably cost us about
Speaker 4: two hundred and fifty million dollars to get started, take
Speaker 4: ten years to build a building. Maybe after that time
Speaker 4: we'd have a thousand students graduating. I didn't want us
Speaker 4: take that make that much effort, take that much time.
Speaker 4: But I had another idea that I had been percolating
Speaker 4: about that sort of came together when they made this
Speaker 4: point about a university, which I like, the idea of
Speaker 4: doing something educational at that this was now, I think
Speaker 4: two thousand and nine, twenty ten.
Speaker 3: I thought, let how about if we do.
Speaker 4: We really make use of the Internet, let's create something
Speaker 4: on the Internet. So then I started researching what they
Speaker 4: people had been doing educationally on the Internet, and mostly
Speaker 4: what people were doing was they there were education national places,
Speaker 4: but it was a professor standing in front of a
Speaker 4: blackboard talking for an hour, and I knew that's not
Speaker 4: how people are consuming the internet. It's certainly not how
Speaker 4: young people are consuming the Internet. That dovetailed with the
Speaker 4: idea that you have a special gift of being able
Speaker 4: to distill complex ideas into a short, coherent timeframe. So
Speaker 4: then I started thinking about, well, let's make short videos,
Speaker 4: put those on the internet. How long should those videos be?
Speaker 4: And the five minute idea came to me very quickly.
Speaker 4: Just seemed seven minutes just fell too long. Three minutes
Speaker 4: wasn't enough. Five is a nice number, solid number. Let's
Speaker 4: just do five minute videos. And I went to the
Speaker 4: same guys and I said, look, what you want is
Speaker 4: going to cost two hundred million dollars. I don't think
Speaker 4: you want to spend that kind of money or raise
Speaker 4: that kind of money. How about some seed money twenty thousand.
Speaker 4: And they said, okay, let's do it, let's try it,
Speaker 4: and they gave us the money and we.
Speaker 1: Went.
Speaker 4: When we got back to Los Angeles, this was months later,
Speaker 4: we made our first few videos, which you actually ad libbed.
Speaker 4: There were no scripts. That's a whole nother process that developed.
Speaker 1: That's right. I ad libbed, and I remember the first
Speaker 1: Middle East one.
Speaker 3: I it was ad libbed.
Speaker 1: So let's go to the actual. By the way, a
Speaker 1: lot of this is I can't say new to me,
Speaker 1: but I don't remember it, so it's new to me
Speaker 1: for all intensive purposes. So in effect, really it was
Speaker 1: some to other people's idea.
Speaker 3: The idea of a university.
Speaker 4: Yeah was U Ron Lee and our dear friend the
Speaker 4: late may rest in peace, Carl Bowman. That's right, they
Speaker 4: had the idea of a university. So yeah, you could
Speaker 4: give them.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, that's fine. Like I of course it's yours.
Speaker 1: But but that.
Speaker 3: No, no, no, they definitely used the word universe.
Speaker 1: I got you. So you came over to me and
Speaker 1: on the ship. Yeah, correct, that I do remember.
Speaker 3: Yes, And then are we playing Hearts?
Speaker 1: Yes, which it's amazing you didn't say it during Hearts
Speaker 1: because I I don't allow anything to intrude on beating
Speaker 1: you with One of the goals of my life is
Speaker 1: to win at Hearts at every every time. So you
Speaker 1: must have said it right before or after the game.
Speaker 1: And then so my reaction, as I remember, was fine,
Speaker 1: and that was it. I didn't I don't. I didn't
Speaker 1: get excited.
Speaker 4: I I think you were intrigued by the idea, but
Speaker 4: there was no sense of right, let's let's absolutely we
Speaker 4: have to do it.
Speaker 3: Let's thinks.
Speaker 1: I say to everybody, if someone had said to me
Speaker 1: in the beginning, you'll have a million views a year,
Speaker 1: I would have said, from your mouth to God's ears,
Speaker 1: I would have not believed it was going to happen.
Speaker 1: How optimistic were you that something like that could happen?
Speaker 4: You know, that's actually a tough question for me. It
Speaker 4: raises a bigger issue. I never think. I really don't think.
Speaker 1: Ahead, right, I'm with you, I know, to say it correct.
Speaker 3: How many views was it going to get?
Speaker 1: You know what you need to do?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I didn't even have a sense of what was
Speaker 4: a lot of views. If you had said to me,
Speaker 4: this video gets ten thousand views at that point I
Speaker 4: probably said, wow, ten thousand people saw.
Speaker 3: It's that's a good start.
Speaker 4: When the Middle East, the first one we did, the
Speaker 4: Middle East Problem, got one hundred thousand views, right, I
Speaker 4: thought that was beyond belief.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 3: I used to say that like.
Speaker 4: Twenty five in the early days, twenty five thousand Jews
Speaker 4: was a single, fifty was a double. One hundred thousand
Speaker 4: was a Grand Slam home run in the bottom of
Speaker 4: the ninth.
Speaker 1: For those of you outside of the United States, these
Speaker 1: are baseball terms.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1: There are a lot of people watching outside. That would
Speaker 1: be like somebody for us using cricket to describe something. Anyway,
Speaker 1: it was a home run. And to this.
Speaker 4: Day I don't think about what's it going to be
Speaker 4: like in five Right, we say we have a deadline,
Speaker 4: we have to do something tomorrow.
Speaker 3: We have a job to do tomorrow.
Speaker 1: Lest that's right, Yeah, that's exactly right. I live that way,
Speaker 1: you know what, Megan, I'd like to talk about that
Speaker 1: because people are told a lot think where are you
Speaker 1: going to be five years from now? I've never thought
Speaker 1: we're all be five years from now. In my life.
Speaker 1: I knew what I wanted to do with my life,
Speaker 1: but that was that was it. I didn't know where
Speaker 1: I would be in five years, and it didn't matter.
Speaker 1: What mattered is am I doing something worthwhile now? And
Speaker 1: this was worthwhile. So we started it and we put
Speaker 1: out it wasn't every week.
Speaker 3: No, it was initially it was it was like every
Speaker 3: six weeks. I mean, we were just.
Speaker 4: Trying to test the market. We had no no regular pattern.
Speaker 4: It wouldn't even be like every six weeks. It would
Speaker 4: be one week, four weeks, fourteen weeks.
Speaker 1: Well was the first one? Wasn't mine on the Middle East?
Speaker 3: The Middle East problem was the first?
Speaker 1: Well interesting? Which is which was redone with a script
Speaker 1: even though the I had lived one worked out well.
Speaker 1: But first of all, most people aren't going to be
Speaker 1: able to add lib so it wouldn't have worked. It
Speaker 1: was it was not a pattern that we could have kept.
Speaker 4: No, and then we knew it wouldn't work. When you
Speaker 4: decided that we couldn't add lib these things because.
Speaker 1: Even though I had lived well, even very.
Speaker 3: Very well stream better than anybody, but.
Speaker 1: It has to be written.
Speaker 3: We made it a term.
Speaker 1: Every word has to be careful because it's.
Speaker 3: Five minutes and every word has to count.
Speaker 1: I'm permanent, exactly right. So now we have a billion
Speaker 1: views a year, and we're also in something else we
Speaker 1: would not have anticipated. We're in a very big battle
Speaker 1: for free speech on the Internet. I mean, I have
Speaker 1: come to realize this battle is so much bigger than prager.
Speaker 5: You.
Speaker 1: If Google can do what it wants to do, the
Speaker 1: conduit of all information practically in the free world and
Speaker 1: is stop us. They put another hundred of ours on
Speaker 1: the restricted list, and that was just because they're angry
Speaker 1: at us.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's very difficult, I think for people to grasp
Speaker 4: how big this lawsuit is. If we lose, then Google, Facebook,
Speaker 4: Twitter truly have a blank check yes to do whatever
Speaker 4: they want.
Speaker 3: They will have.
Speaker 4: There will be the courts will say we're putting no
Speaker 4: restraints on you.
Speaker 3: You have nothing to figure.
Speaker 1: Well, there is only one solution after that, which I
Speaker 1: never even entertained, and it only hit me now, and
Speaker 1: that is that Congress would have to pass some sort
Speaker 1: of law, maybe break up a monopoly. But the threat
Speaker 1: to free speech in America is the greatest in American history.
Speaker 1: And neither you nor I engage in hyperb That's that's
Speaker 1: how serious it is. So I think people would be
Speaker 1: interested as well to know of our relationship. So it's
Speaker 1: it's we we met. I think we can actually virtually
Speaker 1: date the month because you were asked to write a
Speaker 1: script by David Zucker, the great uh director in Hollywood
Speaker 1: who he and his brother did Airplane, which is one
Speaker 1: of the classic films.
Speaker 3: I want to correct just.
Speaker 4: That's accurate, but and I know we both feel this.
Speaker 4: I want to give credit to Rich marky.
Speaker 1: Good please Rich, who was.
Speaker 4: Working with David Zucker at that time as as his producer.
Speaker 4: He was the one who approached me because Rich and
Speaker 4: I were working on a script for Disney at the time.
Speaker 4: It's actually a funny idea having to do with the
Speaker 4: origin of the Marx Brothers, and he he told me
Speaker 4: that he and David wanted to do an educational video
Speaker 4: with you, and he asked me if I was interested.
Speaker 4: At that point in my writing career, I had made
Speaker 4: the decision that I would not do any writing.
Speaker 3: At all unless I was paid.
Speaker 4: It was just kind of a blanket because I had
Speaker 4: done things and not been paid and didn't work out,
Speaker 4: and I just thought, I gotta be paid or I'm
Speaker 4: not doing it.
Speaker 1: He's a professional screenwriter, that's his profession.
Speaker 3: Okay, go on, So I said, who is this guy?
Speaker 3: So he tells me a.
Speaker 1: Oh, you did not know.
Speaker 3: I knew who you were. I had just started listening
Speaker 3: to you.
Speaker 1: What year is this?
Speaker 4: This is nineteen ninety one, And the whole backstory of
Speaker 4: how I started listening to you is a whole other story.
Speaker 4: And Rich tells me that he and David want to
Speaker 4: do a project with Dennis Prager. And I said, and
Speaker 4: he couldn't pay me, you know, I said, what are
Speaker 4: you going to pay me anything? No, we don't have
Speaker 4: any money to pay you. And I thought about it
Speaker 4: really overnight, and I called him back and I said, look,
Speaker 4: I'll do it because I want to meet this guy.
Speaker 4: I really like the way he thinks. And I broke
Speaker 4: my rule. And then the interesting thing that happened was
Speaker 4: that in preparation for writing, I knew I had heard
Speaker 4: heard you enough to be very very intrigued so to
Speaker 4: prepare for writing the script, which for what became for
Speaker 4: goodness sake, Rich gave me a binder full of Ultimate Issues.
Speaker 1: And Ultimate Issues was a newsletter that I was publishing
Speaker 1: at the time on my own. People who went to
Speaker 1: my speeches subscribed, and that's where I really worked out
Speaker 1: my philosophy of life and my theology.
Speaker 4: So he gives me a binder of the Ultimate Issues,
Speaker 4: and he gives me a box of tapes. Over the
Speaker 4: next I would say week, now we would say binge watch.
Speaker 4: But over the week I consumed read all the Ultimate Issues,
Speaker 4: listened to.
Speaker 3: All the tapes.
Speaker 4: There probably were ten or fifteen tapes. And the one
Speaker 4: that really got me was Why I Am a Jew,
Speaker 4: which was the first recorded lecture you ever sold. And
Speaker 4: in that lecture, it was like you were describing my life.
Speaker 4: I was that person who was so Jews had assimilated
Speaker 4: so successfully in America that we wanted to marry a
Speaker 4: Christian because we just we felt so comfortable. This was
Speaker 4: all this is what was happening to Jews over the
Speaker 4: last couple hundred years.
Speaker 3: So by the time.
Speaker 4: We had our first meeting, I was very, very excited
Speaker 4: to meet you, and I actually brought with me. I
Speaker 4: brought my journal. You know, I keep a journal and
Speaker 4: have since nineteen eighty two or something like that.
Speaker 1: You have it our first meeting. Yeah, yeah, I have it,
Speaker 1: And this is all new to me, folks. I'm glad
Speaker 1: Glady this was By the way, he's the most disciplined
Speaker 1: person I know. And I say that totally matter of factly.
Speaker 1: You know why I have to be disciplined? Well, you'll
Speaker 1: tell them. It's a fascinating theory of yourself that you
Speaker 1: have and of life. But you are. And one of
Speaker 1: the many manifestations is that you write every day in
Speaker 1: your journal. And even if it's just the.
Speaker 4: Paragraph, sometimes things are in here that I really don't remember.
Speaker 4: But uh, of course, but it's it's fun to look back.
Speaker 4: So this is from nineteen ninety one.
Speaker 1: What's the date?
Speaker 4: Now here's the great thing. I'm just gonna make the
Speaker 4: argument right away. For the journal, you have no idea
Speaker 4: what day we met? You would it would be a
Speaker 4: struggle to figure out the year. You could do it
Speaker 4: if we really.
Speaker 1: Want to go. Sure, I could do the year.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but and I couldn't either.
Speaker 4: But because of this journey exact I can tell you
Speaker 4: exactly the day we met.
Speaker 3: It was November Monday. I mean, how would you even know?
Speaker 3: Is Monday right?
Speaker 4: Monday, November twenty fifth, nineteen ninety one.
Speaker 1: Where where did we meet?
Speaker 4: It was in Century City, in an office in Century City.
Speaker 4: And the headline I often wrote headlines of what happened
Speaker 4: that day met Dennis Prager exclamation point and this is
Speaker 4: what I wrote. Today was an important day in my life.
Speaker 4: I met the man who has changed the way I think,
Speaker 4: Dennis Prager. The occasion was to discuss the outline Susan Silverberg.
Speaker 4: She was the woman who collaborated with us on the
Speaker 4: script and I have done for the Goodness video.
Speaker 3: That's what it was called at the time. If in my.
Speaker 4: It is my fond wish that this will be the
Speaker 4: first of many meetings with DP. To have this great
Speaker 4: man as my friend would indeed be an honor. The
Speaker 4: work he is doing is of such great value and importance.
Speaker 4: That's why I'm so delighted to be a part of
Speaker 4: this video project, the project which will help spread his
Speaker 4: and then I put in quote his gospel ethical Monotheism.
Speaker 4: The meeting itself went better than I expected. DP was
Speaker 4: wildly enthusiastic. At one point, he said that this was
Speaker 4: one of quote best moments of his life. He sees
Speaker 4: that and I underline that he sees that much value
Speaker 4: in this video. His enthusiasm was both rewarding and infectious.
Speaker 4: It was also inspiring.
Speaker 1: God, is that moving? Really? I really moved. I never
Speaker 1: This is all new to me. That's the beauty of
Speaker 1: having a journal. I wish I kept one, but I didn't.
Speaker 1: I asked my father if my late father on an interview,
Speaker 1: I interviewed him on my radio show every year on
Speaker 1: his birthday. I asked him, we heard it this year
Speaker 1: because we replay some of them. Dad, do you have
Speaker 1: any regrets? None? I do. This is certainly one of them.
Speaker 1: By the way, it's important that people know you can
Speaker 1: watch what we made yet with some of the biggest
Speaker 1: actors in Hollywood, thanks to David Zucker with his contacts,
Speaker 1: and it's on the internet. I mean, it's free, right,
Speaker 1: people could just watch it. It's called for goodness sake,
Speaker 1: and it's really worth it. It's very funny, very funny,
Speaker 1: and it's about goodness and especially kids should see it.
Speaker 1: Nineteen ninety one is twenty eight years ago, so that's
Speaker 1: when we met twenty eight years ago. And I remember that.
Speaker 1: I didn't keep a journal, but I remember very well
Speaker 1: meeting you, and I was very excited meeting you. So
Speaker 1: you were excited meeting me. I was, well, I see,
Speaker 1: it's so typically it's like my other spouse, my wife.
Speaker 1: She would laugh too. It's very fine people in my
Speaker 1: life and humble. But that was it was obviously very
Speaker 1: important at that meeting, and so we collaborated on the
Speaker 1: script and folks, you could watch this this. And then
Speaker 1: we did two more with David Zucker. We did one
Speaker 1: on and it's just as relevant. I saw it's also
Speaker 1: on the internet, and it's it's about diversity. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: really really, really worth seeing. And then I don't remember
Speaker 1: what the third was, but the and I did the
Speaker 1: diversity one with Larry Eldert.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah, we did a sequel. We called it
Speaker 4: for goodness sake to oh okay, fine, but it was
Speaker 4: it was two parts.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's really really worth you folks watching.
Speaker 4: So there's a little funny story about about the second
Speaker 4: one we did. David could not direct the second one.
Speaker 4: He was busy, so he said to us, look, I
Speaker 4: can't do it. But I can recommend somebody. I met
Speaker 4: these two guys there. They're very talented. They're from Denver, Colorado.
Speaker 4: They just arrived in Los Angeles. I think they would
Speaker 4: be good for this project. And we said, look, David,
Speaker 4: you know you're the comedy genius. If you say they're good,
Speaker 4: they're good. Their names were Trey Parker and Matt Stone.
Speaker 4: The first project Trey Parker and Matt Stone did in
Speaker 4: Hollywood was for goodness sake too. They arrived in Hollywood
Speaker 4: in a a Honda beat up Honda Civic and that's
Speaker 4: that's how they started.
Speaker 1: And I think, I know, I know what you'll say,
Speaker 1: and I agree with you. Go ahead.
Speaker 4: No, I think it had a big influence on them.
Speaker 1: Correct, I do believe that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean we even there's even a term. I
Speaker 4: mean South Park Republicans. Yeah, I mean, I'm not saying
Speaker 4: they're they're right Republicans. I'm just saying their viewpoint was
Speaker 4: definitely shaped, I think in a very good way. I
Speaker 4: told that experience.
Speaker 1: I felt it then and I've felt it since.
Speaker 3: Not too many people know that.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, the no, no, I'm sure their origin story.
Speaker 1: I'm sure almost nobody does. Anyway, it's all available on
Speaker 1: the internet. So the rest, as they say, is history.
Speaker 1: I think it's it'll interest you, you folks watching this,
Speaker 1: that I worked for years to convince you to be
Speaker 1: the producer of my radio show. And the reason that
Speaker 1: it took me years he didn't want anything to even
Speaker 1: possibly interfere in our friendship. And I was certain it wouldn't.
Speaker 1: You were not You were not a certain And what
Speaker 1: you understandably were hesitant about was I remember, and I
Speaker 1: have no problem saying it. Would I would I take
Speaker 1: criticism because the producer of a radio show who never
Speaker 1: has a criticism of the quote unquote talent, that's what
Speaker 1: they're called, the people on the microphone, is useless. How
Speaker 1: do you get better if if nobody's critiquing you, It's
Speaker 1: not possible. And so I assured you would, assured you would,
Speaker 1: assured you fatally you took the leap. So I think
Speaker 1: they're curious. Can I take criticism?
Speaker 4: Yeah, you can take criticism, and I can give it.
Speaker 4: You could take it. I can give it. But you know,
Speaker 4: something goes both ways. Yes, I mean there's no.
Speaker 1: We don't hesitate. Hesitated because it's only for the greater good,
Speaker 1: you know. What That's another subject I should talk. How
Speaker 1: do you know if if you're criticized out of love
Speaker 1: or criticized with with with darker motives, and and and
Speaker 1: how to handle that and how to give it? How
Speaker 1: to give it is as important as how to take it.
Speaker 4: We both had the same goal, which is to make
Speaker 4: the product better. Yes, exactly. That's all that ever matters.
Speaker 4: It's all that matters at peguer You. It's all that
Speaker 4: anybody comes up with a better idea, right. We have
Speaker 4: a very horizontal structure at peguer You. Everybody contributes. Anybody
Speaker 4: has a better idea.
Speaker 1: Will will this is this is the power of being
Speaker 1: united with a higher value. Your ego gets gets bumped
Speaker 1: out it it doesn't, it doesn't play a detrimental role.
Speaker 1: And that's that's the case at praguer You. Is the
Speaker 1: case on our radio show. And that's uh and that
Speaker 1: we have a lot We have a lot of fun
Speaker 1: on the radio show. I mean you have to admit it.
Speaker 1: I mean it's a unique. I mean when you speak
Speaker 1: about having fun and alan, you have to put it
Speaker 1: in perspective.
Speaker 3: I have.
Speaker 4: I doing the radio show is a great deal of fun.
Speaker 4: I love doing it. And at the same time, when
Speaker 4: I'm doing it, I'm all business.
Speaker 3: No, it's all business.
Speaker 4: I'm thinking every second I know of the show, is
Speaker 4: this working? Is not working? And I can't and you
Speaker 4: can't imagine.
Speaker 1: I no one can imagine the amount of work that
Speaker 1: goes into the show, both on your part and my part.
Speaker 1: People think, which is what I want them to think,
Speaker 1: that I show up, you know, shoot the breeze and
Speaker 1: go home. On the amount that's going in my brain
Speaker 1: at any given moment, the amount of preparation the night before,
Speaker 1: the amount of preparation you do. People who subscribe to
Speaker 1: the show, and it is a great idea, get it
Speaker 1: without commercials called pragotopia. It's five dollars a month pregatopia
Speaker 1: dot com. You will not only get the show at
Speaker 1: any time and keep it and it's very powerful stuff,
Speaker 1: but you will get all the articles he sends me
Speaker 1: the night before. This is like a living compendium of
Speaker 1: what's happening on earth through our eyes, because he knows
Speaker 1: exactly what I want, and you get his brilliant, pithy
Speaker 1: one line comment, Oh it is no no, no, Sue,
Speaker 1: And I live for it. I sometimes burst out laughing
Speaker 1: at your dismissal of a fool in one sentence, it's anyway,
Speaker 1: it's a pray gootopia. I'm not trying to sell you anything,
Speaker 1: but I do want you to know about it. But
Speaker 1: it's an extraordinary thing to do something every day for
Speaker 1: three hours. It's intense.
Speaker 4: Well, you have a great phrase for it, which is
Speaker 4: the radio's relentless mistress.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it is.
Speaker 3: She never right, very demanding.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and people expect you on every day and I'm
Speaker 1: on almost every days. It's intense. It's a fantastic job. Fantastic,
Speaker 1: I think God.
Speaker 4: Not only every day, but they're they're the people. Most
Speaker 4: people don't listen to the radio for three hours, so
Speaker 4: we whatever, ten minute, fifteen minute. They may go away
Speaker 4: and come back, but we have to get them whenever
Speaker 4: they tune in, which is why, as you say, everything,
Speaker 4: every moment has to be interesting.
Speaker 1: Yes, well that's did I do? I keep looking at Megan?
Speaker 1: Did we Did I do something on interesting? Did I do?
Speaker 1: I think I did a commentary on the fireside chat
Speaker 1: on the importance of being interesting. Check into that, because
Speaker 1: if that's it's so obvious when you say it, but
Speaker 1: people don't think about it. It is It is the
Speaker 1: key to all communication, all communication of any type, musical, artistic, intellectual, religious,
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter. So anyway we were, you know, I don't.
Speaker 1: I was going to say, you know, it's like God
Speaker 1: brought us together. I'm always hesitant because I don't know
Speaker 1: if I'm special enough that God will intervene in my life.
Speaker 1: But if he does, he brought us together. I'll put
Speaker 1: it that way. You're less hesitant, not because of lack
Speaker 1: of humility, but I think you're Are you more comfortable
Speaker 1: with saying God has acted in your life?
Speaker 4: I'm more comfortable than you are. There are people who
Speaker 4: are I think more comfortable than me, right, But I'm
Speaker 4: a little further along on the scale than you.
Speaker 1: Right. And not only that, but I have had Saturday
Speaker 1: afternoon lunch Sabbath Day in Judaism lunch with Alan and
Speaker 1: his wife Susye for now how many years and one
Speaker 1: other couple.
Speaker 3: I think that started like in nineteen ninety three. We
Speaker 3: started doing that on.
Speaker 1: A regular so that's twenty five years. Yeah, that's another
Speaker 1: incredible bond that obviously we have. It's a very rich life.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's we're and we're both unbelievably grateful. I
Speaker 1: know that. So that's that's how Praguer you started. That's
Speaker 1: our relationships. It's truly a great one. And to when
Speaker 1: I speak on the radio about the importance of friendship,
Speaker 1: I know what I'm talking about because I have benefited
Speaker 1: my whole life from male friends and not that. And
Speaker 1: I believe women do from women friends. I'm a big
Speaker 1: believer in same sex friendship. Have I done a thing
Speaker 1: on friends? I think I have. Anyway, I'm always afraid
Speaker 1: of repeating myself, which is stupid because nobody, including me,
Speaker 1: I don't get a point the first time you got
Speaker 1: to hear something over and over and over and over. Anyway,
Speaker 1: that's a big one. So should I take some questions?
Speaker 1: Or have we already exhausted our time? We're at thirty
Speaker 1: while look at that by Bradley. I have a clock inside,
Speaker 1: so I don't know. Maybe, yeah, take a question, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm fine with it. I love the questions, all right.
Speaker 1: So here Sarah thirty three, Modesto, California. Hi, Sarah. On
Speaker 1: a recent fireside chat, you said something that resonated with me.
Speaker 1: If you learn to compromise your values, when will you stop?
Speaker 1: This was about parents who call me up and say, well,
Speaker 1: what should I tell my daughter. She's at college and
Speaker 1: she knows that if she expresses a non left wing thought,
Speaker 1: she'll be penalized by her professor and get a lower grade,
Speaker 1: which happens regularly. And so I always say to them,
Speaker 1: look and tell you what to tell your child. Of course,
Speaker 1: but you're calling me up. I'll just this is what
Speaker 1: I would tell my child, that if you start to
Speaker 1: compromise your values for grades, when will you stop compromising
Speaker 1: your values? And it's not a rhetorical question, it's a
Speaker 1: very real question. You might say, Okay, I know I
Speaker 1: will compromise my values to get a good grade, but
Speaker 1: after that I won't. Okay, But it's a question you
Speaker 1: have to ask yourself. And I know Ben Shapiro from
Speaker 1: I have enormous respect. I mean, he was a colleague
Speaker 1: and a friend and it does incredibly important work. And
Speaker 1: Ben Shapiro and I were both scholars or speakers that
Speaker 1: are retreat pass over a holiday and this subject came up,
Speaker 1: and he said, this is one of the few areas
Speaker 1: Dennis and I differ. He said, I think it's so
Speaker 1: important to get conservatives into Harvard and Yale and Princeton
Speaker 1: and Berkeley, and then in Stanford and so on. That
Speaker 1: you know, if you've got to just keep your mouth
Speaker 1: shut about your your your conservative ideas, it's worth it.
Speaker 1: And I respect that. So I'm giving you you, Sarah
Speaker 1: an argument in that regard. But from from my perspective,
Speaker 1: uh I I rather I rather have people fight and
Speaker 1: end up at less prestigious universities or graduate schools, because,
Speaker 1: as I said, I think if you if you compromise,
Speaker 1: you pretty much don't stop. Then then she writes, do
Speaker 1: you think this applies to friendships? If two people have
Speaker 1: completely different values, can they still be friends? Well, it
Speaker 1: depends on what the definition of a friend is. For me,
Speaker 1: a friend is someone that you that you share your most,
Speaker 1: you say anything to. That's the the ultimate goal. I
Speaker 1: believe of a friend is someone I could talk to
Speaker 1: about anything. But if you're going to talk to them
Speaker 1: about your values and then even the nicest friend say,
Speaker 1: you know, I reject them completely. I mean that I
Speaker 1: have the opposite view on everyone. Of course, it has
Speaker 1: to affect the friendship. Do you have any thoughts on this?
Speaker 4: My thought is the same as yours. I mean, it's
Speaker 4: very hard for me. I mean, people talk about this
Speaker 4: all the time.
Speaker 3: I wanted.
Speaker 4: It's hard to be friends. You can be acquaintances.
Speaker 1: And pals that you can be friendly.
Speaker 4: Friendly with, But to be friends with somebody who doesn't
Speaker 4: share your values, that's tough. I'm not sure i'd even
Speaker 4: want it. I wouldn't want to work that hard unless
Speaker 4: you felt you you could persuade them to come to
Speaker 4: your point of view and that you it was kind
Speaker 4: of like a worthwhile project.
Speaker 1: Of course. Look, there are people who know someone you
Speaker 1: know since fifth grade and they have such a bond
Speaker 1: from childhood. I guess if you could just and then
Speaker 1: then ignore it, I guess. But ultimately, values are too important.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know that's that's to a large extent
Speaker 1: to who we are, what do we stand for. It's
Speaker 1: a tough one. I mean, it's really tough. I'll tell
Speaker 1: you this, this I am adamant about. I don't want
Speaker 1: people to drop I'm not saying drop friends, and I
Speaker 1: certainly want you to keep your relatives as in a
Speaker 1: loving way. But if you're dating somebody and don't share values, that,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. You know. Let me put it bluntly, I
Speaker 1: don't care how good the sex is it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: It's because I can't imagine what else is keeping people
Speaker 1: who don't share values together to be perfectly honest? Is
Speaker 1: that fair, Rod, It's I think that that's the realistic way. Okay,
Speaker 1: you know, I'll take one more here, Is that all right? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Zayid twenty six in Jordan. I asked Megan to make
Speaker 1: a list of the countries that we just got questions from.
Speaker 1: I mean, we don't even know every country. Well, we do, really,
Speaker 1: you do, I think that don't we get reports from
Speaker 1: the Internet on what countries people are watching. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: an enormous number. I mean it's basically all over the world.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: The only place that doesn't watch Breaker You videos is
Speaker 4: North Korea.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And this in particular, the fireside chat, everything has taken
Speaker 1: off beyond anything we imagined. This is seven hundred thousand
Speaker 1: every week. And by the way, I just want to
Speaker 1: say to those of you, a lot of you are regulars,
Speaker 1: and I really appreciate it. I'd like to double that number.
Speaker 1: And all you need to do is, you know, tell
Speaker 1: somebody else about it. It's even if they don't agree,
Speaker 1: it's it's it is interesting and that's that's important. So
Speaker 1: here's Aid and Jordan. Hello Dennis. I'm a Christian and
Speaker 1: I'm grateful for my country Jordan protecting their Christian community
Speaker 1: despite the Muslim majority. But I still have some serious criticisms.
Speaker 1: My distant uncle was murdered due to the lack of
Speaker 1: freedom of speech in Jordan. Seeing the Western nations restrict
Speaker 1: freedom of speech disturbs me as I've seen the effects
Speaker 1: of it firsthand. Is there any hope or solution to
Speaker 1: grant freedom of speech rights to the rest of the
Speaker 1: world's nations, especially Middle East countries. Well, I will just
Speaker 1: tell you this, Zaid. The bad news is that the
Speaker 1: freest country in human history is having the most important
Speaker 1: internal battle since the Civil War over slavery, the war
Speaker 1: for free speech. The left is opposed to free speech
Speaker 1: and the right and and for that matter, even sent
Speaker 1: the center or adamantly for it is. This is the battle, Prager,
Speaker 1: you is fighting. This is the battle at universities. It's
Speaker 1: free speech is a value, It's not a human instinct.
Speaker 1: People want to control other people. People are afraid of
Speaker 1: free speech. They might hear something they don't agree with.
Speaker 1: So it's worse than your question. You're worried about it
Speaker 1: spreading to Middle Eastern countries. And by the way, I
Speaker 1: agree with you, and I salute you for it. But
Speaker 1: if we in America, the country of the Statue of liberty,
Speaker 1: if we can't protect because one of the two political parties,
Speaker 1: and and and and the media and the social media,
Speaker 1: and the and the the educational institutions and the newspapers
Speaker 1: are suppressing free speech, this is this is the battle
Speaker 1: at this time. Any any thoughts, Allen.
Speaker 4: Well, it kind of takes us back to our case
Speaker 4: and in against YouTube. Yeah, that this is truly the
Speaker 4: the tip of that spear. And I think it's important
Speaker 4: not only for the US, it's because of the US
Speaker 4: leads if we've as you point out, if we if
Speaker 4: we fall down on this issue, it's going to be
Speaker 4: a very bad thing for everybody, for the whole world.
Speaker 1: And you know, I'll just end with this. The left
Speaker 1: and rewrites history and rewrites language so that for example,
Speaker 1: they were no longer illegal immigrants, there's now undocumented immigrants.
Speaker 1: As I've said a number of times on our radio show,
Speaker 1: maybe we'll rename burglary or or a bank robbery and
Speaker 1: undocumented withdrawal. Uh I do you know, I just read.
Speaker 1: Do you know that they're getting rid of the disabled
Speaker 1: list in baseball?
Speaker 3: Did you know that they've gotten rid of it?
Speaker 1: They got rid of it because it implies that disabled
Speaker 1: means that you can't play, but the disabled can play.
Speaker 1: But what if your disability comes from an injury, which
Speaker 1: is what usually happens.
Speaker 4: It's silly, but it's not silly. This constantly, it's frightening.
Speaker 1: Yes, that's correct. It's it's it's meaningless. But but I mean,
Speaker 1: and it's a trivial example. It's that's you know, if
Speaker 1: that was the only example, I wouldn't but it happens
Speaker 1: everywhere anyway. Alan, Oh wow, you did bring a cake.
Speaker 1: It was curious. Oh cheese, sheep cheese with not only
Speaker 1: sheep cheese, sheep cheese with handlewax. That's the best type
Speaker 1: of sheep cheese. Thank you. That's very sweet. Oh you've
Speaker 1: got a chance to see maybe.
Speaker 3: That truly cheesecake. That's like a slice of cheese.
Speaker 1: No, no, it's just like that is cheese. That is
Speaker 1: not cheesecake, right, this is cheese, and that's very sweet.
Speaker 1: I can't believe it's the hundredth one. This is obviously
Speaker 1: very meaningful to us. Because I'm a busy guy and
Speaker 1: I never missed this.
Speaker 3: It's a great example of one of my You know,
Speaker 3: I have lots.
Speaker 1: Of rules, and yes, your rules are terrific.
Speaker 4: And I don't take credit for this one, and I
Speaker 4: wish I could give credit to the where I first
Speaker 4: heard it. But this idea, you can't accomplish a lot
Speaker 4: in a day or a week, but you can in
Speaker 4: a year. The people stop themselves from doing things because
Speaker 4: they can't achieve what they want immediately. But if you
Speaker 4: think about giving a project a year to develop, So
Speaker 4: here's a great example, because that's fifty two fireside chats
Speaker 4: and a year.
Speaker 1: That's that's serious.
Speaker 3: That's serious.
Speaker 1: You're right, Oh well, how are they blowing out on
Speaker 1: their own? I want that to blow them out? Is
Speaker 1: it because of the air conditioning? All right? So I
Speaker 1: wish many many more years working with you. Is that
Speaker 1: a good wish?
Speaker 3: That's a good wish.
Speaker 1: Okay, everybody onward and upward to number one hundred one day. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: thank you.
Speaker 5: Allen, thank you tomorrow on Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager.
Speaker 1: And something that has puzzled me pretty much my whole
Speaker 1: life is this we call the generation of World War Two.
Speaker 1: It has now become fashionable, at least to call that
Speaker 1: generation the greatest generation. I I don't buy that. I
Speaker 1: have great admiration for my parents' generation absolutely fought World
Speaker 1: War II, the Korean War, and much of the Cold War,
Speaker 1: and the sacrifices made at home through the families that
Speaker 1: stayed back and then, and the numbers of Americans who
Speaker 1: died abroad and and just just went under either a
Speaker 1: draft or a volunteer to go and fight either the
Speaker 1: Japanese fascists or the Nazis. Is it is? It's there
Speaker 1: was a lot of greatness in that generation. Absolutely, I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't say it's the greatest general. Is it greater
Speaker 1: than the generation of Jan Washington and the founders of
Speaker 1: the country. That's an odd statement.
Speaker 5: Join us tomorrow to hear more on Timeless Wisdom with
Speaker 5: Dennis Prigger. Visit Dennispragger dot com for thousands of hours
Speaker 5: of Dennis's lectures, courses in classic radio programs, and to
Speaker 5: purchase Dennis Prager's Rational Bibles. We want to take just
Speaker 5: a second to thank the team at Life Audio for
Speaker 5: their partnership with us on the podcast. Go to Lifeaudio
Speaker 5: dot com to find dozens of other faith centered podcasts
Speaker 5: and their network, including shows about prayer, Bible study, parenting,
Speaker 5: and more.