In this call‑in episode, host Dennis Prager explores the idea that every person possesses both innate flaws and gifts, and that how we respond to them shapes our character. He opens by asserting that nature includes built‑in weaknesses and strengths, and that conscious, volitional choices determine how we use our gifts. Prager invites callers to share personal stories that illustrate this theme. Kenny from New Jersey recounts being publicly mocked by his gym coach, yet channeling that ridicule into a state tennis championship and a career teaching the sport, demonstrating how a perceived flaw can become a strength. Prager then shares his own rough upbringing, describing a rabbi teacher who threw him across a desk for misbehavior—a disciplinary episode he interprets as a formative, non‑coddled experience, contrasting it with modern over‑protective attitudes. Carol from Mesa, Arizona, describes a long‑standing anger that manifested in her journal through red ink; recognizing this pattern became her “aha” moment, leading her to adopt a “Happiness Hour” practice that has helped her stay content for decades. Throughout, Prager emphasizes the harms of coddling, the value of disciplined hardship, and the possibility of turning flaws into gifts through intentional effort.
Chapters
Today's subject is your nature. Everyone, everyone has a nature, and no one has a nature without built-in flaws. It doesn't exist. By the way, no one has a nature without built-in gifts. It goes in both directions. I've never met anybody who had no gift. There may be such a person. So that's why, by the way, you have to ask, what do you do with your gift? That, that's where the nature part is not the only thing at work. That's, that's a conscious volitional choice. So I'm curious what you've done with your nature. Do you know it? Do your kids know their natures? I was raised by a tough dad, and he constantly told me the flaws in my nature. And I think it, in the long run, it probably helped. Didn't feel good, but it also made me stronger. All right, let's, uh, let's see what you're doing here. Look at this, that's really something. How many people have realized they have negative stuff? Anyway, this is provocative. Woodstock, Georgia. Kenny, hello.
Hello, Dennis, how are you?
I'm well.
Yeah, I'm in the same boat as you. I'm from New Jersey, and I remember my gym coach, he said in front of the class during attendance 'Kenny, you're a weird little shi.' So, um, after—
forgive me, wait, wait, wait, I want to get this clear. He was the what? The coach?
He was the gym coach. I was a tennis player in the state of New Jersey.
Did he say this? Did he say this in front of all the other kids?
Oh yeah.
See, I want young people should understand how uncoddled we were.
Yeah. And everybody made fun of me the whole day, but I won the state championship in tennis that year. And because of that, I was just a big goofball, you know what I'm saying? But because of that behavior, I ended up becoming a tennis pro and teaching because I like little kids and I'm goofy. So I used it positively.
So I love it. I love it. I'm telling you the harm that has been done to two generations now by the coddling. You know, one of my teachers in 8th grade, he was a rabbi actually, 'cause I was at a yeshiva, I was at a religious Jewish school, half the day Hebrew, half the day English. And I never took school very seriously. I didn't do anything mean, but I horsed around in class. I talked to my kid next to me in the next desk. And he got tired of me one day and put down his cigarette. Can you imagine that? The guy smoked in class. Eighth grade. It meant nothing to us. Anyway, he threw me over a desk, and I remember thinking— again, this is 8th grade, the other thing was a sophomore in high school— and I remember thinking, I deserved it. I also remember thinking, I'm bigger than him and he threw me, that's impressive, he must have been really annoyed. So every time I— or nearly every time I have told this story, people have said to me, what did your parents say? What'd your father say? And I said, are you nuts? You think I was going to tell my father the teacher threw me over a desk? My father would have thrown me over a desk. Because in those days, the teacher was right. Today, that teacher would be arrested. The cops would come and handcuff him. For the smoking, what a great point. Yeah, the guy killed all of us. Now I know, that's it. I'm doomed. The secondhand smoke I endured from Rabbi Kushner. Now that I think of it. Anyway, Rabbi Kushner died at 107. From smoking. No, smoking cigarettes is dangerous. I don't believe the secondhand smoke stuff, but that's separate. Okay. Carol in Mesa, Arizona. Hello, Carol.
Hi, hi Dennis. Hi, thanks for taking my call.
Hi.
So I was always angry growing up. I felt like I had so many reasons to be angry. And, um, I, in my late 30s, I opened my journal to write something in it and I realized what I had written before was in red ink. And so I reread it And I was all angry, and I looked back in my journal, and everything that was written in red, I had something to complain about.
Wait, you would write in different color inks?
I didn't even know I would.
Yes, that's fascinating. So you subconsciously chose red to express anger?
Yes.
And that was my aha moment, is when I looked at that and I thought, something's wrong. This is—
how old were you?
I was probably 35 or 36.
Wow.
And I'm 58 now, so I've had— it took me a couple years to overcome that nature.
Well, more than a couple. It took you like 38.
Well, I've actually been happy for about 35. I— nothing really gets to me anymore. And a lot of that has to do with the Happiness Hour.
Really? You made my day. You see, well, that proves that hearing things and taking them to heart can change or work around your nature.
