Pornography, Patriotism, and Parenting | Dennis AMA

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Dennis Prager.

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Do you consider yourself personally an American before a Jew, or the other way around, or the same?

My question is, I'm wondering, my husband looks at a lot of pornography even though he knows that it makes me very unhappy, and I'm wondering what you think about that. My husband and I have been in this predicament for quite a few months now. We're at a point we absolutely have to make a decision, and I feel like you're the right person to help me and my husband make this decision. What is your favorite Beatles song?

Some months ago you had mentioned that you have tips for jet lag that actually work. Do you believe in ghosts?

No. Do you?

Yeah.

That's coming up on Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager.

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Welcome to Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager. Hear thousands of hours of Dennis's lectures courses and classic radio programs, and to purchase Dennis Prager's Rational Bibles, go to DennisPrager.com.

It is time for you to set the agenda. You absolutely set the agenda, whatever you want, anything. You know, when I tell you that you want to know my shoe size, you want to know what my favorite pipe tobacco is, do you want to know the meaning of life, do you want to know the essence of effervescence, is it— whether it's its quintessence, anything, anything, anything. Is open for this hour. 1-800-PRAGER-776. 1-800-PRAGER-776. I'm Dennis Prager.

Hi, Dennis. What an honor to talk to you. I have listened and learned from you for so long now.

Thank you so much. Are you in your kitchen right now?

No, I'm in my car.

Oh, because I hear it— it's like a speakerphone. I just imagined you wandering around. I'm going to get 10,000 letters of sexism. What do you mean, a woman in a kitchen? What a disgusting, uh, caricature. Go ahead.

I wish I was in my kitchen.

There you go.

Yeah, I have a silly question for you.

Take it away.

What is your favorite Beatles song?

Well, I will answer you, but you need to know something because I have— you know, honesty is the best policy.

Okay.

Uh, I am a little, uh, I am catching up in middle age with all of the popular, all of the non-classical music I missed I wandered through the '60s and '70s in isolation from popular culture. I don't say this— I don't say it with any pride. I'm just— it's an autobiographical detail that just helps explain me. So I was immersed at the time really only in classical music and missed one, you know, the great epic moments. I'm catching up on the Beatles, but right now I love, for example, Yesterday.

Beautiful song.

Yeah, exactly. But, but I need to tell you, it doesn't come from a body of knowledge of 100 Beatles songs. Okay, is that so?

Maybe I'll check back in 6 months.

That is right. Well, well, well, I'll tell you this, uh, I am really— there are— there is music now that brings me such joy, like Rosemary Clooney. And there's a, there's a body of women singers. I don't know if they're called pop singers or jazz singers from the '50s, I guess, and '60s, or '40s, '50s, and '60s. They're absolutely driving me nuts. I love them. That and jazz, and like the guy who called with Dixieland, you know. So I'm catching up, and of course film music, which I really advocate today. I think it's the best music being written today. Anyway, Sharon, it's very sweet of you to ask. That is a beauty. You like "Yesterday"? I love "Yesterday." What's your favorite Beatles song?

In My Life.

In My Life. All right, I'm gonna check that out. Okay, thank you so much.

Thank you.

Okay, be well, drive carefully. How do people talk so right on the road? You know, she went through 3 red lights then. And let's go to Pastor Chaz. Where are you calling from, Pastor Chaz?

Oh, Dennis, it's such a pleasure to talk.

Where are you calling from? Sureview, Minnesota. Okay, how you doing?

I'm doing great. We had the pleasure of meeting at the state fair about a year ago. I'm the youth pastor with the tattoo of Jesus. But anyway, that's not why I'm calling.

Oh, I remember you. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yep.

And hey, we have a little band called Smokers 5K, and we are Dennis Prager freaks. About a month ago, you talked about what is femininity. And I, because I'm a youth pastor, I love talking to kids. I asked that question. I'm also a bus driver to supplement my income, and I asked all of my kids on my bus from high school down to elementary school, what is femininity? I recorded it for you, and I'm going to send it to you.

Oh, I'd love that, yes.

But I want to tell you, it was everything on the board from being sexy, you know, being feminine, to— and the little kids, as you know, they get younger, they say being ladylike, being polite, being girly. And it was absolutely fascinating to see what they're learning. And then some of them— most of the questions, I would, you know, these are Dennis Prager questions, totally. I would say, what is femininity? What does the word feminine mean to you? The high schoolers had more trouble.

That's what I said, which is what I wrote. I said, ask girls in high school or college and they'll give you a blank look.

They seriously, I had probably 4 or 5 girls who said, I don't know.

That's exact, I predicted it. There you go. That's right. Because that is not in their vocabulary. They don't, what does it mean to be feminine? They don't know. They don't know. No, just as, by the way, ask boys today in college or high school, what does it mean to be masculine? And they probably won't know because masculinity and femininity have been warred against. There's a war against those concepts.

I also posed the question, your favorite, the, you know, what's worse, cheating on a test or smoking? And, and that I was really disappointed because I also teach, have a private school, and on the high school, junior high, And most of the elementary, 100% of the kids, it was smoking as the greater evil.

100%?

In the senior high and junior high, 100%. When it gets to elementary school, I mean, they're little kids. And then about half of the private school kids thought cheating was worse. It was about 50-50 with those kids.

But they'll be straightened out and they'll be taught that smoking is worse than cheating as they get to high school.

It's such an evil. They are taught it's such an evil.

You know, I love you, and I hope I see you again this year.

Oh, you will. You will. Okay.

Oh yeah, bring the youth group. That's right. Thank you so much, Pastor.

All right, all right, Chaz.

Thanks a million. Thank you very much. I remember him. Yeah, he had the Jesus tattoo.

He is a—

he's a wild guy. He's a great guy. He'll— he can help kids tremendously. How do you like that, folks? 100% of the kids. Do you know, people often don't believe when I say how bad it is, the moral confusion. They really don't. For example, I read— somebody sent me an email that they had, who had not heard my show, but somebody had told them, there's this guy Dennis Prager on the radio, and he says that two-thirds of American high school seniors would not vote to save a stranger if their dog and a stranger were drowning. And this person wrote to them, this Prager is a liar, that is absolutely absurd, he doesn't know what he's talking about, he made the whole thing up. But of course the person actually didn't try it out on classes as I have for 30 years. The same results: one-third vote for their dog, one-third for the stranger, one-third doesn't know. So two-thirds wouldn't vote to save a human before their dog. And then this question is a perfect one, the one that Pastor Chaz asked: what's worse, cheating or smoking? Amazing, amazing, amazing. Joseph Eden, Prairie, Minnesota, on the Patriot. Hello, Joseph. Dennis Prager.

Yeah, hi Dennis Prager. Hi, nice talking to you. Thank you so much for taking my call.

Mm-hmm.

The reason I'm calling, I— there's a lot of things I respect about you, I gotta admit that, but one of the things that I respect probably the most is how many languages you speak.

You—

I know you speak French and you speak Hebrew and Russian, right? Now I speak— I am currently— I'm learning Spanish, uh-huh, and my girlfriend, actually, she's Russian, so I really want to learn that language. Although she speaks English too, I can communicate with her, but I'd like to communicate with her grandparents a little better.

Right.

And I would love to learn Hebrew also, because I hold Judaism in high regard.

Uh-huh.

Well, there's nothing like reading the Old Testament in the Hebrew. It'll blow your mind. But anyway, the— so what did you want to know? How to go— what's the best way to go about it?

Yeah, I've heard that a lot of people tell me that going to another country helps out a lot.

Oh, by far that's the best. There's not even— There's nothing close. There's nothing close to being in the environment, and especially if you're going to be there alone so that you can't lapse into English with somebody all the time. There's nothing like it. I mean, I get along in Spanish, so I don't include it as a language, but I can get along in it. And I just was in Peru and Chile a couple of months ago, and I had a great time. But my Spanish improved dramatically in one week just being in Peru and Chile because all of the signs are in Spanish, and that's all you'll read. You're forced You're forced to read the ads in, in, in Spanish. You're forced to listen to the language if you listen to the radio, watch television. So the number one best is immersion in that country. Absolutely. Number two is to have a teacher. You can do it on your own. It's very, very hard. You have to be very self-disciplined to be able to do that. Number three is a philosophical attitude. People go into studying languages as if it is as hard as, uh, figuring out how to send a rocket to Mars. You have to get into your mind that it is not that hard. You can do it. I'll give you an example. When I studied Russian in college, uh, they told us the first week, next week you're going to have a quiz on the Russian alphabet. You have a week to learn the Russian alphabet. Now people would think, oh my God, a week to learn a whole new alphabet? I think it's 32 letters, Russian. Everybody passed the quiz. Everybody. That's it. It's no big deal. You just— it's like learning a code. Hebrew was only 22 letters, not including the changes of the— when some letters are at the end of a word. But that's it. It is not— now, some— I mean, I frankly— Chinese, I mean, that I be honest, that I could not psych myself up to thinking that's easy. So anyway, I hope that stuff works, and tell me when you'll go to a country, okay?

Okay, I'm gonna go get a plane ticket right now.

You're my man. Thank you, Joseph. All right, be well. Appreciate it. Riverside, California. James, KTIE. KTIE. Hello.

Hello, Dennis Prager. Hi. I'm responding to your comments regarding happiness, and I was in my car, so I'm calling late, but my wife and I lost our only child 13 years ago.

I am so sorry.—

and we— I talked to you about a few months afterwards and then we met you at a hotel during one of your talks and you and your wife took some time with my wife and me and we really appreciated that. But since then we've had a son born to us so we have a 9-year-old son.

Oh, wonderful.

Which we adore but I can tell you that 13 years after the fact. My wife and I are happy, uh, we're very close. I love my wife dearly, she loves me. But there is a sadness that never ever goes away.

This—

the— I, I only wish we had more time, but I want people who have suffered that unique loss to have heard your call. God bless you, James. Stay tuned, folks, back in a moment.

This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.

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Now back to more of Dennis Prager's timeless wisdom.

Uh, let's go, uh, to Judy in Los Angeles on 870 KRLA. Judy, Dennis Prager, hi.

Hi Dennis, it's nice talking to you.

Thank you.

My question is, I'm wondering, my husband looks at a lot of pornography even though he knows that it makes me very unhappy, and I'm wondering what you think about that.

Well, uh, we're putting aside religious questions, all right? Yeah, all right, we're putting aside that, that issue, uh, just vis-à-vis you. We're talking now. Well, my first question to you— I have a lot of questions, okay? Question number 1 is, do you have an intimate physical relationship with your husband?

Yes, I do.

If he weren't looking, would you have any reason to think that he is not interested in you physically?

Uh, yeah— well, yeah, I mean he isn't— he's interested in me but he certainly likes looking at other women.

Ah ah ah! We're putting that aside. Let's say he never looked. Are you aware of the fact that he's attracted to you and that you have an ongoing sexual relationship as husband and wife?

Yes.

Okay, so That's very important. And the reason that I asked that— this, wives should hear this— because we can't, we can't put our heads in the sand on this issue about what men look at. So the first question is, is it taking away from you? And thus far, on the most basic level, it does not appear to be. Number 2, how much time does he spend?

A lot. A lot. He's got files of it. He's got websites with Pages and pages of addresses.

How do you know this?

Because I've seen his file. It's right in the—

Does he tell you this?

No.

Oh, you have, as it were, taken a peek?

Yes, I've taken a peek.

Does he know you know?

Oh yes, he does. I've talked to him about it.

And what does he say?

Uh, he says nothing. He responds with nothing.

Is he angry that you looked?

No, he didn't say he was.

If you didn't look, would you have reason to think that he had all this?

Yes.

And what would that— what would the tip-off be?

The way that he looks at other women, I think, is a lot of it. And the fact that he's— he has cheated on me a few times.

Now that doesn't help, but how does he look at other women? When you say the way, how does— how— what is that way? He ogles?

Yes.

In your presence?

Yes. He does it subtly, but he does do it.

Well, subtly is what matters. I mean, so you notice that he notices.

Oh yeah.

But can you have it— if you go to a restaurant, can you actually look him in the eye, or is his eye everywhere else?

Uh, sometimes it's everywhere else, other times it's not, but frequently it's funny.

I was talking to my son about this, who's 21, and, and, uh, uh, just, just recently we were just talking about this, and he was saying to, uh, his girlfriend, in fact, And he is a very— he's actually quite religious and he's quite self-controlled. He said, you just have to understand, the male eye wanders even when we don't even know it. I mean, it is the visual— this is something it is not possible to fully explain to a woman. There's no way because it's like explaining to me an orangutan. I can understand the fact, but I can't appreciate what's going on. The visual for the male is overwhelming. Yeah. Is there, is there any food you really love?

Uh, yeah, there is. I can't think of it offhand, but I'm sure this—

well, all right.

I love hamburgers.

I love hamburgers. Okay. Uh, it would be as if they were— well, it's not even, it's not even as effective an example, but I, I would love to talk to him because it sounds like it's too much.

It is.

Yeah. But on the other hand You feel he loves you?

As much as he can. Uh-huh. As much as he's capable of. I see.

Well, I'm gonna talk about this in a moment because a lot of women are plagued by this, and some should be and some shouldn't be. There's no automatic response here. We'll be back in a moment. I'm Dennis Prager. Alrighty, everybody, you're listening to The Dennis Prager Show. A woman called up. This is the hour, by the way, you make— anything on your mind, anything. I love this hour. I make the agenda 14 of the 15 hours of my show, and, uh, and you, uh, by the way, those of you who love my show and only can get an hour, please know you can get the whole thing now, uh, through a subscription on my, on my, my website, DennisPrager.com, if you feel it's valuable to you. And I, and I pray that you do, obviously. Now here's a woman who calls up. Her husband looks at pornography on the— he has files of it on the computer. And, and so on. Their, their physical relationship is a good one, she said, and that's very important, uh, because he's not using it as a substitute. The point is that a lot of women panic, and I'm not, I'm not defending, I'm not, I'm not there, I'm not here to make judgments right now. I am here to help marriages, okay? Please hear me out. Women should not panic, and because it is natural for a woman to panic if her husband looks at pictures. It's, it's natural for a woman to panic if he looks at, at, at women at the beach. I mean, it's, uh, if, if he looks at the, uh, Victoria's Secret catalog. That is why you have to think what men are about and what male nature is, and if Of all the lectures that I have given, I've had more thank yous on my lectures on male sexuality, which you can get through the website or through my office, 800-225-8584.

I know it sounds like an ad and I don't care.

That's not how I make a living. And folks, girls need to hear this so that they'll know the effect of their clothing on men. Wives need to hear this so that they don't panic if they catch their husband looking at a magazine or a website. There is, there is, you have to know the nature of the animal, and in this case it really is an animal. And you can't panic, you can't go, oh my God, my husband is sick. Do you know one of the reasons men don't open up fully to their wives is because they know that their wife is going to say he's a pervert if he opens up fully, because in her eyes, given her sexual nature, he sounds like a pervert. But he probably isn't a pervert. So that is why I'm addressing this, because I don't want to see people have a gratuitous tension in their marriage. Now, I, I'm not saying that it shouldn't be addressed. I think they need to talk about it and need to understand what is going on. And, and he needs to figure out why he's spending so much time doing it. But, uh, that is, that is something that should not tear people apart. I mean, unless— I mean, anything could tear people apart, obviously, at a given point. All right, I hope that that helps your marriage. That's why I took that. It's a very difficult subject, obviously.

This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this. Are you enjoying Timeless Wisdom? We'd love to hear from you. Call 877-243-7776 and leave a review, share your thoughts, or just even an encouraging word for Dennis Prager. Your voicemail might just make it on the show. That's 877-243-7776. That's 877-243-7776. Thanks for listening and for your support. Now back to more of Dennis Prager's timeless wisdom.

Let's go to Sherman Oaks, California, and is it Dor? Dor on 870 KRLA. Thanks for calling, Dennis Prager.

Hey Dennis, how are you?

I'm well, thanks.

First of all, I just want to thank you for everything you do. I really think you help make this world a much better place.

Oh, I hope so.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much.

My other question, I'm sure you read it already. I am Jewish myself as well, and somebody, another talk show host, mentioned something, hinted to this the other day on the radio, but didn't quite answer it. So I wanted to ask you, do you consider yourself personally an American before a Jew, or the other way around, or the same? And that doesn't mean that, you know, that doesn't take one away from the other, but just in terms of just how you view yourself.

Right. Let me answer you, because that's why I took it. It's such an important question. Thank you, Dor. I was asked this question when I was interviewed in Hebrew by an Israeli group in Southern California. I had a blast that the other evening. I'll never forget. Anyway, they asked me this question, and I said, I'm going to tell you in Hebrew what I tell anybody, non-Jew, Jew, in English. I give the same answer to everybody, and obviously on the radio, you have an audience of every background. I consider myself having two fathers, George Washington and Abraham, or Abraham and George Washington, depending on the chronological order you want to give. Number two, I get my values from both. My religion is Judaism, and I am an American, and they enhance each other magnificently. It's— to me, it is very analogous to asking a Christian, are you a Christian first or an American first? And I think anybody who has a religious value system must put that above a secular nationality. I mean, it's just the way it is. God comes first. God, country, family, as it's often been stated in American history. The beauty about being an American is that it celebrates Judaism. It celebrates— it doesn't tolerate it, it celebrates it. The God of Israel is the God of the Christian in America. This is why this is the only country to ever call itself Judeo-Christian. There have been Christian countries, there are secular countries, and so on. This country's value system is Judeo-Christian. So this is— this is— I, I, and I even feel a member of two chosen peoples, the Jews and the Americans, and I believe that with all my heart. And it drives some people nuts who think the idea of chosenness is just sick. And yet, yet that is the American belief, and that is the Jewish belief. A lot of Jews don't have the one, and a lot of Americans don't have the other. That's part of the rift in this country. I'm glad you asked the question. I am unbelievably rich to be both. Alrighty, over to Deanna in Los Angeles on— whoops, whoops, whoops, whoops— on KRLA 870. Deanna, Dennis Prager, hi.

Hi Dennis, how are you?

I'm well, thank you.

Thank you for taking my call.

Thanks for calling.

Um, you know, I've— my husband and I have been in this predicament for quite a few months now. We're at a point we absolutely have to make a decision, and I feel like you're the right person to help me and my husband make this decision. We, um, are at a point where my daughter is ready to go to kindergarten. We've actually been accepted to a Jewish private school for her, as well as we're, you know, we have our public school locally that what she could go to. I always said if money were no issue, I would want her to go to the Jewish private school. Well, money is a bit of an issue, especially when you consider from kindergarten through high school, and then I have a second child 2 years behind her. And I thought you might be a really good person to talk to to get your perspective on just kind of making the best decision.

Well, as it happens, as it happens, I gave a talk which has circulated in the hundreds of thousands in the American Jewish Life called The Case for Jewish Day School. So you can get it from my office. I just want you to know that, and then you could sit with your husband and really hear me at length make the case. I think that religious schooling for kids, including Christian kids, is a very good thing because the public school— not all, of course, there are some great ones with great values— but in, in urban areas generally, I don't want my child to have a whole day of, uh, of godless education. God is very important to me. It's the most important thing in the world, and I want my child to get it. Now, to be perfectly honest, God is not a big deal in a lot of Jewish day schools. I— so that I have to be honest, but at least he sneaks in when they study the Torah.

I mean, this particular day school, it's a very big deal.

Oh, well then, then to me it's a no-brainer if you could at all afford it.

Why?

I don't, I don't know an argument against it. The argument You know, there's a common argument that people give, which is, "Well, I don't want my child to only grow up, you know, with kids of only one religion." And I agree with that. I think that kids should meet kids of every faith. But my kid, being in a Jewish day school, his best friend is a black kid. I even wrote, "Why my child's best friend is a black boy," or a black whatever it was. And it is up to parents to make sure their kids meet kids of all different backgrounds. But there is a time, and let me make this point, this is— because of the clicking, I'm gonna put you on hold. This is very important for people of every faith and even of no faith. A child needs a cocoon to become a beautiful butterfly, to fly into the world. You have to first go— the caterpillar must first go into a cocoon. You can't be worldly at 7. You have to affirm some identities— religious, national. That's why we don't Americanize our kids in the public schools. If we did, I would have less problems. Stay tuned.

This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.

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Now back to more of Dennis Prager's Timeless Wisdom.

Uh, Mike, Phoenix on KKNT. Hello, Mike. Dennis Prager.

Hey, Dennis, how are you?

I'm well, thank you.

It's kind of just a goofy question.

I love goofy questions.

Every time I bring it up to people, people look at me like I'm crazy.

Well, you, you are a little. Go ahead.

Okay.

Do you believe in ghosts?

No. Do you?

Yeah.

I'll tell me, you ever met one?

Not kind of.

I just—

the house I grew up in always had Strange little things happening all the time, and, uh, can we figure out what it is? You know, I'm a Christian, so, you know, your soul has to go somewhere when you die, right? Heaven or hell.

Yeah, it doesn't usually stay in your house.

Yeah, I know. I could never really figure out what was going on in there.

Hey, did you ever—

you—

I don't know if, if you would even recall this. It's certainly, I'm sure, before your time. There was a TV show, Topper. Are you familiar with it at all?

No, I'm not.

All right, look, you— if you like Ghosts, if you're interested in Ghosts, this is one of the great— the handful of great sitcoms that ever existed. I can't stand modern sitcoms as a general rule. There were— there were a couple of— right. And in fact, I don't watch TV basically. But this, this topper was a family of ghosts.

Oh, are you—

you— including the dog.

Oh, that'd be great.

Oh, you have to look it up because almost everything from television of the '50s is now available on, uh, on tape or CD, like The Lone Ranger, uh, The Rifleman. So you check that out. Yeah, you'll, uh, you'll, you'll get a big kick. All right. Okay, I'm going to take this call even though I have a feeling that this caller has called in before. Go ahead, Tom and Glendora.

Hello, Dennis.

I know, I know who it is. I know, the chemistry professor. Take it away.

Hey, thank you. I was getting, uh, Dennis withdrawal symptoms there. Dennis, I've been so busy.

I got you.

To preface my comments, I gotta thank you so much for clarifying the worldwide battle of good versus evil. People don't recognize it, and it's kind of spooky. On the anniversary of my dear father's death, April 19th, you mentioned the Ukrainian Holocaust, and he was very, uh, much, uh, yeah, like, who, who talks about that?

Nobody.

I know it.

It's a non-issue in history.

I know it. I thank you so much, and they'll probably And it will continue to be, but you're doing your part.

Yes, thank you.

And what I wanted to ask you is kind of a silly question, but maybe not. Usually when someone is cordial, amicable, friendly as you are, you get very comfortable calling them by their nickname.

Yes, that's correct.

And I noticed you, I think years ago, had your brother on.

Yes.

And I think his name is Kenny.

His name is Kenneth, but I call him Kenny.

And you were quite comfortable with that, and everyone calls him Kenny.

Well, nobody calls him Kenneth, right? Everybody calls him Kenny.

And yet everyone on your show, myself included, and it's kind of out of context, we call you Dennis, not to be formal, but why does no one ever call you Denny, or do your friends or your—

Excellent, I love it. God bless you, Tom. The answer is this: there were 3 people who have called me Denny, and they all met untimely death. I, I, it's, I, I just, I, I, it's total coincidence.

Nobody—

no, the truth is, he called me Den. Nobody calls me Den. The only other nickname I ever had— it is very odd, I have never had a nickname except one, and that is the Prager. And do you know what is funny? And I don't know why. I mean, if somebody wants to call me Denny, that's fine with me. I don't care. But even as a kid, it was Dennis. It was the— or Prager. You know, boys call each other by their last name. By the way, is that still true? Do boys still call each other by their last names? But I— we all did in elementary school especially. But anyway, the only name I had was Prager, and you know Dennis Miller? I've been on the Dennis Miller Show about 3, 4 times now, and it cracks me up. He calls me Prager. Out of nowhere. Maybe because we both have the first name Dennis, so it's to distinguish. He may— I don't know, I have no idea, but it cracks me up every time he does it. So Tom, that answers the question. Let's go to—

good, I love—

this is really— it's got to be one of my favorite hours. Rafael in Santa Monica, California on KRLA. Hello Rafael, Dennis Prager.

Hi Dennis, uh, some months ago you had mentioned that you have, uh, tips for jet lag that actually work, and I've been itching to know what that is.

All right, let me tell you a few of them that work for me. I don't say they'll work for you.

All right.

Okay, because I travel so much, I have to— I have had to figure this out. Uh, first of all, when you arrive at your place, and if you arrive, uh, in the— before the evening Do not take a long nap because then you are simply staying on your old time. Okay, as tired as you are, try to make it till 7 o'clock at night. Maybe take an hour nap, although I don't know how much it'll help you, but nothing more than that because then if you take more, then you're sleeping on your old time zone. Number 2, get your brain on the new time zone as soon as possible. By changing your watch on the plane. Don't think, "What time is it?" back in wherever you're coming from. It will— it will— you mentally have to reorient yourself. Number 3, it is a— it depends, of course, how long the flight. If you're going, you know, LA to Europe, which is common for me, that's an 11-hour trip, and that's 9 or 10 time zones. So that's huge. But even if it's New York to Europe, you still have 6, and even if it's just across the US, you still have 3. So if I will go from LA to New York, it is probably best for me to get very— to get the earliest flight to force me to get up early and be tired by New York time midnight, because that's only 9 PM my time. Also, they say don't drink on the plane. Alcohol is not good apparently for jet lag. Since I'm not a drinker, it doesn't affect me, but I want you to know that. But prepare in advance your sleep habits is what I have found, and force yourself to go to bed on the new time. I hope that helps a little bit. As a guy, love that you asked. We'll be back in a moment. The Dennis Prager Show.

This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.

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Now back to more of Dennis Prager's Timeless Wisdom.

Hello, Todd. Dennis Prager.

Dennis, your show rocks. I just want you to know that.

It does rock. It does. That's, that's it, Alan. That's what we have to use as a promo. Your show rocks. Go ahead.

I want to know what you do during commercial breaks.

You really want to know?

You want to know when you have a guest? I mean, is the poor guest on hold the whole time while you're talking?

Yes, yes. Oh, that's a very intelligent question, and I will tell you actually what I do. I do not— I purposely do not talk to guests. They are— they live in a limbo of silence for 3 minutes or whatever it is. And the reason is I don't want them to lose their passion by speaking to me during the break.

Gotcha.

It is a very deliberate choice that I've made because there are many of them that I would love to, you know, just chat with or so on, or, you know, schmooze with, but I don't because I absolutely— I don't talk to them before it. And I don't talk to them during it. And, and it is for that reason, because they'll say things to me and then, then they won't have the same passion to say it again, or because they'd said it to me off the air, they think they said it on the air. So I want every, every aspect of the interchange between us to be on the air.

Now what about when you don't?

So that's, that's what I do with the guests. Now you want to know what I do during commercial breaks otherwise?

Yes.

Okay, you really want to know?

Yes, I do.

All right, one of the things I do is make ridiculous noises to annoy Sean. All right, this is a fact. Should I give you an example?

Yeah, let's hear it.

And he basically can do nothing. He just has to sit there and take it. And he's, you know, it's almost Christ-like, the persecution that he experiences with me. Then I also, let's see, I will sometimes, I will in fact If I'm recording a commercial, I might do that. During that time, I might take some puffs on my cigar or pipe, depending which I'm smoking. I will get a drink of water. I will maybe play a little Spider Solitaire. So it is— I want you to know that that time is used very valuably. On some occasions, I am frantically checking the internet., to, uh, find, uh, uh, to find more information on the subject that is just breaking that I'm talking about. So it is, it is very— actually, whether I'm horsing around or doing serious research, it's a good— it's a very useful period for me.

When you're, uh, when you're talking, I sometimes hear like a little coin tapping on the table. Do you fiddle with a coin sometimes?

That's Sean.

Ah, okay.

I, I never fiddle with a coin. I have never fiddled with a coin.

And I will never fiddle with a coin because I subscribe to your show online, and the quality of the sound that I download is far superior to the, the AM live stuff.

Well, AM compresses. There's nothing— you, you are getting by subscribing to the show a direct feed.

Yeah, and it's great.

Yes, it is. I'm glad you mentioned that.

People should know, listen to it when I want to. I go to work when you're not on, so now I get to listen to you when I'm driving to work.

Well, bless you for mentioning it. I'm self-conscious about it, but people should know about it. It's a totally nominal fee, and you can subscribe to the show. Go to DennisPrager.com. Bless you. It was a great series of questions there, Todd. The time is used valuably. Let's go to— I can't even pronounce— this is very rare that I cannot pronounce— what is your city? Larkfur? Cheryl?

Larkspur, right?

Larkspur was a misspelling here. All right, Eva will be caned. All righty, Cheryl in on KNUS, what's on your mind?

Okay, well, Dennis, I've always been very curious what a typical workday is like for you from the time you get up, go to bed.

That's a very logical question. In fact, somebody called the other week and said, what do you do during the breaks? So now I'll give you this. It's a good question and it's a very fair one. A typical day is that, uh, I live on the West Coast, obviously, so the— my broadcast begins at 9 AM West Coast time, noon East, and obviously you have— your time is 10 AM, right, in Mountain Standard. Okay, or Mountain Daylight, whatever, but it's Mountain. So I get up, uh, and that will vary depending on how much I read the night before. I try to do almost all my preparation for the show the night before. I don't want to have to get up and think, oh my God, gee, what happened? What am I going to talk about? It's not a good way to get up. You want to get up and fairly confident. But I will tell you this. I often am not certain what I will talk about until the music starts. Because I, after 22 years, a lot of this is my gut instinct. What is the best choice for this hour or for this moment? It's a gut instinct. It's a sixth sense. I cannot explain it to you. And now most of the time I know right before, but I will review with Alan during hour 1. Gee, which will it be on hour 2? What'll it be on hour 3? Because it's not that we don't have anything, it's that we have too much, and I then I have to decide, right? Anyway, so that's the show, and then it's very intense, obviously, although my task is to make it sound so utterly easy. Yeah, well, that's right, that's my task. If you imagine if you heard a singer and you re— and the singer communicated how difficult the piece was, you wouldn't be enjoying the piece. So it is my task to make this sound as effortless as possible.

And you do.

Oh good, that's my task. That is, you're not supposed to think he's working. You're supposed to think— and the truth is I love it, but it doesn't mean it isn't a chess game, that there isn't constant thinking. But of course, anyway, so the show is over noon my time. Then if I have ads to record Uh, then I will do that, and then I am a free man. I have to be free then. I, I will make business calls that I have to make, but basically I then want to put my brain in a refrigerator. Do you understand?

I do.

It's like a guy playing, you know, 4 quarters of basketball isn't then going to shoot hoops. That's the last thing, you know. He wants to shower. And, uh, you know, and have a nice night out or whatever, go to bed. Uh, so I basically have the afternoon off. That is my time, uh, of, of rest and relaxation and hobbies and, and sometimes family. Then family time comes in late afternoon, and then basically I work again at night till about 1:30.

Wow.

Because— and the beauty is, well, that's— I'm a night person. That's just the way— that's the way I was made. And, uh, this is not true for Friday night, Saturday night necessarily, but it is true for the nights before the shows. And the one blessing of being on the West Coast is that I get the East Coast newspapers before I go to bed.

Right, right.

That's one of the reasons I could be prepared before I go to bed. Now, of course, Alan is also working at that time. And he is— and he knows exactly what I care about in life, and he provides me phenomenally great topics as well as anything that I find. It's also for my time for me to write my column, any book that I'm working on, and so on. But so it basically goes show, free time, family time, work time, bedtime.

Well, that's very fascinating. Thank you for sharing.

Thank you. It's very sweet of you to ask. I don't— you know, it's probably more interesting to anybody listening than to me. It's so— it's so, you know, that's the nature of my day that I would only imagine that it is more interesting to you.

Tomorrow on Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager.

Every week at this hour, I talk about some great issue of life, and today it's faith Faith and doubt. And the, the reason for it, though it never needs a reason, it is, it is an eternal subject, just as all of my ultimate issues are. The, the reason for it is the revelations about Mother Teresa that came out. And I read to you, or I spoke about it last week, there was a huge essay in Time. I don't know if it was in the published edition or on the internet, but I read it off the internet. And it was the revelations that her diaries and her letters to Father confessors from the 1940s on for 50 years were of a woman experiencing terrible darkness vis-à-vis her faith. That was her word, darkness. And I have to say to you, I always think I can't be surprised by some news item, that I'm pretty much at this point, if not jaded, certainly inured to just about anything happening. I was surprised.

I'm a Christian But, uh, I doubt all the time, and, um, I used to have a hard time with this. One of the things that really helped me to understand that this is somewhat necessary is the, the book Brothers K by Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky. Yeah, there's a great quote in it where a lady comes to this father, this wise father Zosima, and she says, I've lost my faith, what can I do to get my faith back? And he looks at her and he says, love other people. He says, you have to love other people before you have faith.

Join us tomorrow to hear more on Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager. Visit DennisPrager.com for thousands of hours of Dennis's lectures, courses, and classic radio programs, and to purchase Dennis Prager's Rational Bibles. We want to take just a second to thank the team at Life Audio for their partnership with us on the podcast. Go to lifeaudio.com to find dozens of other faith-centered podcasts and their network, including shows about prayer, Bible study, parenting, and more.

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