Speaker 1: Hi, and welcome back to the Carol Markowitz Show on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1: Are you single and don't want to be? Here's your
Speaker 1: new Year's resolution? Stop texting. Look, I despise talking on
Speaker 1: the phone. I don't have voicemail. I don't listen to
Speaker 1: voice notes. I'm a texter all the way. By the way,
Speaker 1: I don't listen to voice notes. Do not send me
Speaker 1: voice notes. They will never be heard. Don't do it.
Speaker 1: So maybe I'm a hypocrite. But I can afford to
Speaker 1: be a hypocrite because I'm not on the dating scene.
Speaker 1: I can limit all of my conversations with my husband
Speaker 1: to text. Buy milk kid is sick because there's very
Speaker 1: little for us to misunderstand, and more important, at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, we have face to face conversations.
Speaker 1: Studies have actually found that too much texting, even when
Speaker 1: you're already in a relationship, isn't healthy. Either quick I
Speaker 1: Love you or scheduling text are fine, even positive, but
Speaker 1: any attempt to conduct serious conversations via text quickly leads
Speaker 1: to lower relationship quality. It's obvious why texting is divorced
Speaker 1: from tone and can lead to misinterpretation. Was that a
Speaker 1: joke or is my boyfriend a jerk? What does that
Speaker 1: emoji convey? Texting blurs intent. For example, you know young
Speaker 1: kids are super anti putting a period at the end
Speaker 1: of text. Now or if you don't know that? What
Speaker 1: if you know you're from a generation that still does that,
Speaker 1: but they've adopted this new philosophy. It's all interpreted as
Speaker 1: throwing shade, so you can easily make a mistake and
Speaker 1: not even know it. The TV show Catfish highlights stories
Speaker 1: of people who meet and fall in love online, sometimes
Speaker 1: spending years in relationships solely on the computer or phone
Speaker 1: before finding out that person isn't who they thought they were.
Speaker 1: And while sure they were attracted to their words on
Speaker 1: a screen, finding out that the picture their boyfriend or
Speaker 1: girlfriend uses fake fizzles the whole thing out very quickly.
Speaker 1: It's rare that the tricky decides that they still love
Speaker 1: the trigger due to all the great texting conversations they had.
Speaker 1: That's because actual physical, in person attraction matters, and so
Speaker 1: does the breach of trust that develops when long term
Speaker 1: text only relationships are revealed to contain distortions. Is it
Speaker 1: possible to fall in love over text or email, then
Speaker 1: meet and have all of your feelings confirmed. Sure, we
Speaker 1: all have friends who have done this, but we also
Speaker 1: have plenty of friends who will spend weeks or months
Speaker 1: texting before meeting and sometimes end up not meeting at all.
Speaker 1: Too often people will meet the person with whom they
Speaker 1: have texting chemistry, only to find out they have no
Speaker 1: in person chemistry. I get it. It's hard to be
Speaker 1: the weirdo demanding phone conversation when everyone around you is texting.
Speaker 1: But you'll save yourself a ton of wasted time if
Speaker 1: you make that leap. Institute a policy for yourself where
Speaker 1: you can texts for half an hour to see if
Speaker 1: there's a connection, and then switch to setting up an
Speaker 1: in person date. Move your life offline as much as
Speaker 1: possible in twenty twenty four. Coming up next an interview
Speaker 1: with Senator Ted Cruz. Join us after the break, Hi,
Speaker 1: and welcome back to the Carol Markowitz Show on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1: My guest today is Senator Ted Cruz, one of my
Speaker 1: favorite senators who has definitely had me thinking I should
Speaker 1: have converted to Texan and author of the excellent new
Speaker 1: book Unwoke. So nice to have you on, Senator Carol.
Speaker 2: Great to be with you thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: A question I ask all of my guests, and I
Speaker 1: imagine we'll take us in the direction of your book,
Speaker 1: is what do you think is the largest cultural societal
Speaker 1: problem in America? And is it solvable?
Speaker 2: Well? I think there are a lot of cultural societal problems,
Speaker 2: but one of the most massive, and the topic of
Speaker 2: my book is is how the radical left has seized
Speaker 2: control of virtually every major institution of our society. The
Speaker 2: full title of the book is Unwoke, How to Defeat
Speaker 2: Cultural Marxism in America. And what the book does is
Speaker 2: it chronicles exactly how that has happened. And each chapter
Speaker 2: of the book focuses on a different institution. So chapter
Speaker 2: one starts with universities, because the universities I describe as
Speaker 2: the Wuhan lab of the Woke virus. It's where the
Speaker 2: virus was created, it's where it mutated, it's where it spread.
Speaker 2: And from universities, the book then goes on to K
Speaker 2: through twelve. Education, it goes on to journalism, It goes
Speaker 2: on to government, it goes on to big business, it
Speaker 2: goes on to big tech, It goes on to entertainment,
Speaker 2: to Hollywood, movies, television, music, sports, it goes on to science,
Speaker 2: and the final chapter in the book is on China,
Speaker 2: which I view China as a central nexus intertwine with
Speaker 2: each of them. And what the book does is two things.
Speaker 2: It explains how and why the radical left seized each
Speaker 2: of these institutions, and then secondly, it lays out a productive,
Speaker 2: positive battle plan for how we take them back, because
Speaker 2: I think if we don't take the institutions back, we're
Speaker 2: going to lose our country.
Speaker 1: Absolutely. So, which one was the scariest chapter for you?
Speaker 1: Which one do you think is the hardest for us
Speaker 1: to conquer and take back?
Speaker 2: I think the most dangerous is entertainment. Entertainment is incredibly pervasive.
Speaker 2: The left understands the power of ideas. The left understands
Speaker 2: and they engage in the battle the arena of ideas
Speaker 2: in a way that the right systematically does not. So
Speaker 2: in terms of how we fight back, I advocate essentially
Speaker 2: using three sets of tools. The first set of tools
Speaker 2: is sunlight and transparency. Because the ideas of the radical
Speaker 2: life left are wildly unpopular. Normal rational people don't support
Speaker 2: abolishing the police. Normal rational people don't support open borders
Speaker 2: and chaos at our southern border. Normal rational people are
Speaker 2: not struggling to figure out what a woman is, and
Speaker 2: normal rational people do not celebrate the horrific atrocities of
Speaker 2: Hamas terrorists, that those are not mainstream positions. Simply shining
Speaker 2: a light on what the radical left is doing is
Speaker 2: a powerful tool for fighting back. The second tool I
Speaker 2: advocate is shifting the cost benefit analysis, increasing the costs
Speaker 2: for those who choose to go woke to increase the
Speaker 2: disincentives for going down that road. And the third tool,
Speaker 2: and this applies in particular to entertainment, I encourage conservatives
Speaker 2: and libertarians with resources, those who've been successful in business,
Speaker 2: invest in the or organs of transmission of ideas. Go
Speaker 2: buy a TV station, buy a radio station, buy a
Speaker 2: book publishing house, buy a movie studio, buy a record label,
Speaker 2: engage and speak. And you know, one example, the most
Speaker 2: profound example of this is Elon Musk's buying Twitter, which
Speaker 2: I think is the single biggest victory for free speech
Speaker 2: in modern times. But you know, Carol, I also point
Speaker 2: out in the book, Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post
Speaker 2: for three hundred million dollars. Now, he didn't do so
Speaker 2: because he was bullish on the profitability of media in
Speaker 2: the long time. He did it because he wanted to
Speaker 2: own the commanding heights of public discourse. We need conservatives
Speaker 2: and libertarians and those who love America to fight in
Speaker 2: those arenas to take the back.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely. You open the book describing how your father
Speaker 1: was for the cast Or Revolution in Cuba and how
Speaker 1: he ultimately changed his mind, and you describe him as
Speaker 1: a reformed revolutionary, but you also know that the new
Speaker 1: leftist of the seventies stayed committed to Marxism against all odds. Really,
Speaker 1: do you think changing minds as possible and how do
Speaker 1: we reform more revolutionaries?
Speaker 2: Look, I do think it's possible with some not necessarily
Speaker 2: for the hardcore committed ideologues. But as you know the
Speaker 2: opening of the book, I tell my family story, and
Speaker 2: my dad was born in Cuba, grew up in Cuba,
Speaker 2: and as a kid he fought in the Cuban Revolution.
Speaker 2: He fought alongside Fidel Castro. Now, at the time he
Speaker 2: didn't know that Castro was a communist. What he knew
Speaker 2: was that Batista was corrupt and cruel and was a
Speaker 2: terrible dictator. But it's interesting my dad has explained to
Speaker 2: me many times that the people fighting in the revolution
Speaker 2: were just like him. They were fourteen and fifteen year
Speaker 2: old young boys who didn't know any better. And as
Speaker 2: you know well, Carol, communist revolutions across the globe they're
Speaker 2: always fought by teenagers who are young and passionate and idealistic,
Speaker 2: and they don't have any life experience, they don't have
Speaker 2: any wisdom, so they're easily deceived into being part of
Speaker 2: a mission they believe in until the Communists sees power
Speaker 2: and they begin brutally murdering and torturing and using force
Speaker 2: and power. And I will say, look for my father.
Speaker 2: He was in prisoned, he was tortured in Cuba. He
Speaker 2: fled to America in nineteen fifty seven. In nineteen fifty nine,
Speaker 2: the revolution succeeded. My dad saw firsthand what happened. He
Speaker 2: saw that Castro was even worse than the guy who
Speaker 2: preceded him, was even worse than Batista. Sadly, the Cubans
Speaker 2: went from one son of a bitch to an even
Speaker 2: worse son of a bitch. And my aunt Mike thea Sonia,
Speaker 2: my father's younger sister. She was still living in Cuba.
Speaker 2: She fought in the counter revolution against Castro, and she
Speaker 2: ended up sadly being in prison being tortured by Castro's goon.
Speaker 2: That had a powerful effect on my dad when he
Speaker 2: saw his kid's sister being tortured by the same people
Speaker 2: he had been fighting alongside. That helped open his eyes.
Speaker 2: But you know many leftists that they refuse to open
Speaker 2: their eyes. I will say, Carol, I do think people
Speaker 2: on the left in the United States who are not
Speaker 2: hardcore Marxist, their eyes are opening up right now on
Speaker 2: what's happening on college campuses and the vicious anti semitism
Speaker 2: we're seeing on college campuses is a manifestation of cultural Marxism,
Speaker 2: and we're seeing people who had been on the left saying,
Speaker 2: wait a second, I don't like these people that I'm
Speaker 2: associated with. I don't like what they stand for, I
Speaker 2: don't like what they're doing. And it is it is
Speaker 2: a potential tipping point in terms of at least some
Speaker 2: people waking up and realizing that the ideology they had
Speaker 2: supported is wrong.
Speaker 1: Well, as a Jew and as a conservative, I hope
Speaker 1: that lasts because my concern always is that memories are
Speaker 1: very short, and I hope they remember that for future elections.
Speaker 1: Your dad came to the United States penniless and his
Speaker 1: son is a senator. Do you feel like you've made it?
Speaker 2: Oh? I feel like I live in the greatest country
Speaker 2: on the face of the earth. And this is the
Speaker 2: American dream. You get to live in it. I get
Speaker 2: to live in it. All of us get to live
Speaker 2: in a world where we have a chance to pursue
Speaker 2: the American dream. And I'll tell you, Carol, it was
Speaker 2: eleven years ago that I arrived in the Senate. I
Speaker 2: was elected in twenty twelve. I was sworn in in
Speaker 2: January of twenty thirteen. And I have to tell you,
Speaker 2: as I was being sworn in, I couldn't help thinking
Speaker 2: back to my dad in Austin, Texas in nineteen fifty seven.
Speaker 2: His first job when he got to the US he
Speaker 2: washed dishes. He made fifty cents an hour washing dishes
Speaker 2: to pay his way through school. And what I kept
Speaker 2: thinking is if someone had come to that teenage immigrant
Speaker 2: and told him fifty years hence, your son will become
Speaker 2: a senator for the great state of Texas, that kid
Speaker 2: could not have believed that. That would have been beyond
Speaker 2: anything my father was capable of imagining. And on that day,
Speaker 2: when I was sworn in, I had my left hand
Speaker 2: on my father's Bible, and sitting up in the gallery
Speaker 2: was my dad looking down and he just had tears
Speaker 2: streaming down his face. And as my dad said afterwards,
Speaker 2: he said, only in America. That there is no other
Speaker 2: country on Earth where this is possible. And sadly, Carol,
Speaker 2: that's one of the reasons, one of the central reasons
Speaker 2: why the left, why the cultural Marxists hate America's why
Speaker 2: they want to destroy that freedom, that opportunity. They want
Speaker 2: to replace it with central power and control.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're absolutely right, and that's so beautiful. I love
Speaker 1: hearing about your dad and about your family, so I
Speaker 1: could talk to you forever, But I know you're a
Speaker 1: busy guy, So end here with your best tip for
Speaker 1: my listeners on how they can improve their lives.
Speaker 2: Well, improve your lives, I would say, do more to
Speaker 2: fight to save our country. Look, every person wants to
Speaker 2: live for something larger than themselves. I think America is
Speaker 2: at a greater crisis today than it has ever been,
Speaker 2: certainly in our lifetimes, and in many ways, Carol, I
Speaker 2: think you and I are blessed. We're blessed Number one
Speaker 2: to be Americans number two. Oh yeah, to have family
Speaker 2: stories where we've seen oppression, we've seen that freedom can
Speaker 2: be taken away, that we can't take it for granted,
Speaker 2: and we're blessed to be fighting for something that matters,
Speaker 2: you know. I tell people, listen, we're not battling today
Speaker 2: over whether the top marginal tax rate is thirty six
Speaker 2: percent or thirty eight percent. That matters, sure, but the
Speaker 2: fate of the cosmos is not going to turn on
Speaker 2: that question. We are fighting, I fully believe, over whether
Speaker 2: this nation the greatest cun in the history of the world,
Speaker 2: whether we survive, or whether our nation is destroyed, and
Speaker 2: that that's a blessing to jump up every day and
Speaker 2: say this is worth fighting for. And I want to
Speaker 2: encourage your listeners the book Unwoke. It is designed to
Speaker 2: help you fight to save America, to empower you, to
Speaker 2: educate you, to inform you, to give you tools to
Speaker 2: go and fight with your friends, your family. So I
Speaker 2: want to encourage folks. You can get the book anywhere.
Speaker 2: You can get it on Amazon or Barnes and Noble
Speaker 2: or any place you get books, but I want to
Speaker 2: encourage you to go buy it. And Christmas time is
Speaker 2: right around the corner. I would encourage you don't buy
Speaker 2: just one. It makes a great gift. Buy a copy
Speaker 2: for your mom, buy a copy for your best friend,
Speaker 2: buy a copy for your crazy left wing neighbor who
Speaker 2: you need to knock some sense into. Or even better,
Speaker 2: buy a copy for your kids or for your grandkids
Speaker 2: so they can understand what it is that people are
Speaker 2: trying to indoctrinate them with. They can be prepared to
Speaker 2: fight back. This book was written to help empower people
Speaker 2: to fight together to save our country.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Senator Cruz. The book is Unwoke.
Speaker 1: Get it wherever you buy your books. It's really excellent.
Speaker 1: I really enjoyed reading it. Thank you so much for
Speaker 1: coming on.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Carol, and I appreciate everything you do. Your
Speaker 2: voice is powerful and it has a real impact that
Speaker 2: it's needed.
Speaker 1: Thank you, senator. Thanks so much for joining us on
Speaker 1: the Carol Marcowitz Show. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.