The 200th Episode | Sunday Fireside Chat

Life Audio.

Hey there, this is Marissa Streit. I am the CEO of PragerU, and you are about to listen to a special edition of Fireside Chat with Dennis Prager. Those of us here at PragerU are continuing to do the very important work that we've been doing with him for over 10 years. We are educating millions of young people online. We have state partnerships to bring our content into schools and so much more. You can head over to prageru.com to see the progress that we've been making. Also, I'd love to invite you to support our mission by donating to our 501. It is a nonprofit. Your tax-deductible donation will go to an institution of higher learning that actually shares your values. So enjoy your podcast, and thank you so much for all your support.

Hi everybody, and welcome to the 200th fireside chat. Wow. Oh, well, it lasted for when it— oh, do I blow them out?

Yes.

That is a big— this is a big deal.

Happy birthday to us.

Yes. Oh, I thought I'd get all 3. Folks, you don't, you don't realize when we did this in the beginning, we didn't know it would go to number 2, let alone 200. And now I got, I got so much to tell you. And we have the CEO of PragerU as my guest. This is actually a big deal. First of all, let me do the, the requested thing. Okay? Okay, excellent.

Okay.

Meghan's arm is now making an appearance. All right, so I'm Dennis Prager. Welcome to the Fireside Chat number 200. I always tell the number, or I don't know if I always— I began maybe at 100. This is a very big deal to me because we reach so many people Every week, and I haven't missed a week in the I think in the two hundred. Even if I've gone to other places, as in this case, I just came back from Hungary and Slovakia and Czech Republic, which I'll talk about another time. Is very big deal meeting people who watch the fireside chat in Eastern Europe. So by the way, to those of you in Hungary, Czech Republic, and Slovakia, a special hello. knowing that you watch. And I know when people watch when they mention Otto, then, then I know it's for real. Some even mention Snoopy, which is mind-boggling. So this is a chance to talk to you about what is on my mind. It's completely spontaneous. And then take your questions from—

Yeah.

Literally all over the world. And thank you for watching. My guest today is a woman who makes this all possible. I don't exaggerate when I say that. The CEO of PragerU. I'm going to say something very serious before we start. Marissa— she's Marissa Streit. And I have always debated the question, how much does God intervene in our lives? I'm a very big believer in God, but I, I don't know if you can know when God intervenes in your life. People say it and they may be right, but I'm very, very, very rational. It's why my Bible commentary is called The Rational Bible. And so I, I don't know when something happens, did God intervene or not. But I can say this, if God did intervene in sending Marissa to me, it sounds very reasonable. It's a good assumption. I can't say it for sure. I don't know God's mind, but it's just pretty— it's close as you can get. Uh, I, I don't want to embarrass you by just throwing accolades at you, but you know how I value you, how everybody at PragerU does. So let me, let me explain something on the day-to-day operation of this enormous operation. with a billion-plus views a year, with 85 employees and growing constantly, to have basically one person overseeing that, uh, it, it, it's a, it's a staggering operation. I gotta believe though, Marissa, that— and, you know, I am in effect putting words in your mouth, but I'll risk it— that you feel similarly that God sent us to you.

I feel— first of all, I feel the same way about you personally. You changed my life. I've said this to you before, but I'd love to take the opportunity to say it again. First of all, happy birthday. We just celebrated your birthday. You have been one of the greatest gifts to me. You made me a better wife, a better parent. You know, growing PragerU alongside with you has been one of the greatest pleasures of my life, one of the greatest challenges of my life, but you You know, no pain, no gain, and certainly running PragerU has been unbelievable gain. And I think we're going to talk a little bit about the history of PragerU and some of the things that we've gone through together. And I have no question that God has played a role in us building PragerU because the miracles that we've experienced are really God-sent.

Well, so I pretty much assumed that you— and you're like me, you're very rational, so it's not something you say often, oh, God did, God did. So I want to make that clear to everybody there. Anyway, putting God aside for a moment, so let's reminisce a little because you will have better memories about this than I, for whatever reason. I, I'm a man and I don't remember as much as a woman.

And I'm a woman, I remember every annoying detail.

Okay, there you go, perfect. Didn't you and I meet at a meeting of another group?

Yes.

The first time we met.

So in my former career, first I was an educator, and after I was an educator, I ran a group called the IAC, and you were one of the speakers there, and I had no idea who you were. I heard you speak, I thought you were brilliant, and then I didn't make much of it until a mutual friend of ours approached me and and asked me if I, you know, it was one of those typical, do you happen to know someone we're looking to hire, someone who has a background in nonprofit management, someone who understands the digital space very well, and somebody who understands education? And so his name was Roger. And then my response to Roger was, well, those are a whole bunch of random sets of skills that I'm not sure I know anybody but myself, and I do know who Dennis Prager is. And I'd love the opportunity to meet with Dennis Prager and Allen Estrin, the producer of your radio show. And then Allen did tell me that the reason you hired me was because both of you thought that I was the only person who was not intimidated by the idea of building PragerU, but also working with you.

Oh, I didn't remember that. Allen would say that. Well, you're certainly not intimidated. Thank God. But I'm not that intimidating.

No.

But that's a separate issue. I understand if you only know me from afar, it might, might be. So I remember meeting you and being struck by you, and I remember saying, are you married? Right? Didn't I ask you that?

I think so.

Because I, I ask every young man and woman I meet anywhere in the world if they're married because I want them to get married. So I remember that, and then I thought, you're not?

Hmm.

I'm gonna look. I'm gonna look, and it shouldn't be too difficult. You're brilliant and beautiful. It's not a bad combination. And by the way, pretty easy to get along with. You're a really demanding— thank God— employer, but you are easy to get along with. Anyway, then you soon did meet your husband, right?

Well, we were dating. So at the time that you asked me whether I was married or not—

Oh, I didn't realize that.

I didn't know that even.

But we actually—

Noah and I, so we're celebrating PragerU's 10th year anniversary this year.

Yeah.

And Noah and I are celebrating our 10th year anniversary.

So I'm right. So the timing, the timing is okay.

Yeah.

By the way, just for the record, her husband is a terrific human being. I really adore him. And you know I do.

Yeah.

And I think he knows I do.

Yeah.

He's a very special and masculine guy.

You know, there was a conversation that we had earlier.

Oh no.

Oh no.

Oh, you know what?

This is because we were talking about Bush's son.

I mentioned another male.

Okay.

He, he won't, he won't handle that well. Otto left. This is the second time in a few weeks that Otto has walked out.

You know, I, I was gonna tell you, I don't know if you remember us having this conversation when my husband and I were dating. where you asked me whether I was dating or I was married, and my answer to you was that I was very serious about dating. I mean, everything I do, I take very seriously. I'm one of those people that just, I don't do things lightly. And so when I was single, I dated a lot. I was very specific about what I was looking for. And I remember saying to you that I approached finding my husband my husband the same way as— I put the same investment as I would put in my career. Because the person that you're going to end up marrying is going to be the person hopefully you're going to be with for the rest of your life, and it's going to have more impact on you than any career choice you make. And so I was a very, very serious dater.

So I'm very curious then, if you would have— give me a list of the 3 top things you were looking for in a man.

Values, generosity, and I really did, I remember saying to myself, I want a man who's going to treat me like a woman. I remember thinking about that.

Interesting.

Yeah, I found it to be a turn-off when the male behaved as if he was like a female.

Well, because you're feminine.

Yeah.

So you want that? I said before you said this that Noah's masculine.

Yeah.

Yeah.

A guy picks up about another guy as quickly as a woman does if the guy's masculine. That's one— it's one thing, at least for me, it's an immediate response that I have. And Noah does that. How did you meet?

We met at a charity. Yeah. Well, actually, the long story is We actually met on a double date where I was dating someone and he was dating somebody else. And I do remember saying to myself, well, that person is a better match for me. And then a few years later, you know, we would say hello to each other because we went on a double date, but I was dating other men, he was dating other women, and finally we were both single. And at a holiday party, I walked up to him and I said, hi there, can I have a bite of your donut? And then the rest, the rest is history.

Well, you know, I've heard some great pickup lines, but—

You'll learn from me.

Can I have a bite of your donut? Is— it's really up there. So the rest of the sisters, you have how many kids now?

3.

And they're all under what age?

My oldest is— our oldest is 8, uh, our son. And then we have 2 little girls, 6 and 3.

God. You have a very rich life.

I do.

Thank God.

Thank God I do.

In every way, I'm very happy for you 'cause we need you badly. So, okay, so how did it start at PragerU? Who interviewed you?

So you and Alan interviewed me at a restaurant right by your radio station. We had lunch.

Did they serve donuts?

I, you know what, I think I can remember. My memory is so crazy. Can you imagine being married? Don't tell me you can't remember about the line of donuts. a Diet Coke with 7 lemons.

7?

Yeah.

They gave me 7. I just— for the record, folks, I have never asked for 7 lemons in my life. If they— if I had 7, they brought them. Okay.

Why does he want all these lemons?

I didn't want all those lemons, but I'm happy to have them anyway. Go on. It kills the taste of Diet Coke. Yeah.

And so then Alan said, can you imagine a classroom the size of 35 35,000 views. That's what he said. Oh God, that's how he sold me on PragerU, because he basically said, you're an educator, right?

And how would you like 35,000?

How would you like to have 35,000 students? And I said, well, that's amazing, because as an educator, I've only had maybe 40 students in a class.

And, you know, wow, I love that story. And we were very happy with 35,000.

Oh my God.

We thought My God, 35,000 are watching a video?

Yeah. Well, I went down memory lane in anticipation of coming here. And so this was our first Prager University. We used to really go by Prager University. So this is from 2011. And by the way, we were a total startup. I'm not much of a garage person, so we started in my kitchen. And I used to design all this stuff. I just figured it out because That's what you do when you run a startup. And so I did the accounting and I did the hiring and I also did, at one point, the graphic design for the brochures. That is awesome. That's impressive. And so I kind of look at it and cringe now.

That was our first?

This is our first brochure that I made on, I don't know, I think it was like—

So how many views does it say we have in our first brochure?

So I think we said—

Does it even list it?

Yeah, it does. So let's see, you remember we did, um, The Bigger the Government, the Smaller the Citizen? You wanna guess how many were in here?

How many viewed it?

Yeah, how many?

How many? I have no idea.

55,000.

And we listed that as a major achievement.

Yeah, we get now 55,000, if, oh my God, we get 55,000 views an hour basically now. If Greg released a video—

There's nothing we put out that gets 55,000 views.

Nothing.

Nothing.

Nothing. Unless it's completely shadow banned and we realize that there's a problem.

Right.

Yeah. So that's, uh, that's fun.

Uh, we, we have things with, with 55 million.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The Electoral College.

Yes.

That's right.

I think it's at 60 million.

That's correct.

Yeah. So it's just fun. You see the, the old logo.

Are we free to tell the story, talk about God's intervention? And I'm not saying, again, I'm not saying God did, but it's for sure, it sounds like it. The jump we made going to graphics from photos.

Oh yes, that's okay.

I mean, I don't know why not.

And we learned so many— I mean, this is what you do when you start a business.

You learn.

You learn.

So in the very beginning, the first maybe 30, 40 videos were exactly what you see now. 5 minutes, some wonderful presenter and wonderful material, but photos. to accompany it, photos we took from the internet because we assumed, and I still assume it frankly, that it's— when you show something for 2 seconds, 3 seconds on an educational video in a nonprofit setting, what's the problem with going to Google Photos and taking it?

Right. Well, obviously there are copyright problems.

Well, no, that's—

We didn't realize at the time.

Which we didn't realize. So sure enough, one day we get note from a lawyer on behalf of someone in Ireland, right?

Yes.

Who said, that's my picture of a dinosaur sign, of which there were probably 500 exact photos on the internet. How, how on God's earth this guy knew it was his photo beats me. So our lawyer said, you better take down every single photo.

Every single photo.

We actually went out of business for about 2 weeks.

That's right.

Nothing was up. If you went to PragerU, you saw nothing. And that's when we decided we had to go to graphics.

So Dennis, that was possibly one of the first best things that ever happened to us.

Right.

And I think one of the lessons I learned, especially if there are young people out there, you sometimes don't realize, you think you're going through the worst thing in the whole world. You don't realize what a gift that ends up being later on.

I wanna honor this guy in Ireland at a banquet.

Send them flowers because we decided to rebrand the entire look. We moved away from the lighthouse model or the logo. Remember this lighthouse logo? We moved away from that. We changed, I mean, we hired a firm that helped us design our brand. We learned a whole bunch about branding. And that was what helped us really become viral.

That's right. It was a major, major leap in views, thanks to what seemed like a horrible crisis. You take down everything you've put up. I mean, that was, that was a big deal. But none of us panicked. I remember that. We just calmly said, okay, we got to start over.

Yeah.

And thank God we did.

Yeah.

So What was the beginning like? We were at an office, and how many employees when you came on did you have?

Well, when we started, we did not have an office. We ran the company out of my house, and I basically had a computer, and we had a few independent contractors. Our first employee was when we realized that we can't use an outside marketing firm And that PragerU in itself needs to not just be a production organization, but needs to be a production and marketing organization. And the philosophy that we had at PragerU was that for every dollar we spend on production, we should spend at least double on marketing because so many people make amazing content, but the problem is nobody sees it. And if you don't market it, what is really the point? And so I used to use this analogy of imagine buying this incredibly luxurious car, but never putting gasoline in it. and it never leaves the garage. And so that has been our philosophy. So our major hire was really Craig, our chief marketing officer. And when we started moving into that mindset of, you know, really marketing, I would say market the hell out of it, carpet bomb the internet with PragerU videos. I mean, those were kind of the statements that were going around. And so in the beginning, Craig would actually work from my home and eventually We raised enough funds to rent an office space, and then we started getting really serious.

Let me play for you the question, the video question, because I think it is the perfect time to have this posed.

My name is Marilyn Upchurch. I am from New Mexico, and I'm 21 years old. Congratulations on the 200th episode. My question for you today is, did you ever think that PragerU would get this big and impact so many lives like it has?

I have so much to say about that that I will, I will cut it by 3 quarters because obviously I want you to comment. This really goes to the heart of my own psychological makeup. I have a chapter in my, in my book on happiness about not having expectations. That has guided a great deal of my happiness. I expect very little from life. It sounds a downer, but you know what an upbeat guy I am, so it's obviously not a downer. It means that every good thing is a pleasant surprise. And I, I walk around in a bath of gratitude because I didn't expect anything good to happen. I don't expect bad. I don't have expectations because how can you? How do I know I won't be hit by a drunk driver tomorrow? I don't expect to, but I don't expect not to either. It's— bad things happen to good people. So the answer to Marilyn's question is no. I If you'd have said to me, if someone would have said to me when we started, Marissa, you know, Dennis, I'll tell you, you guys will have a billion views a year. So I would have thought that somebody just trying to make nice talk. What are you kidding? I would have said, from your mouth to God's ears and have a great day. So you answer the question on your behalf.

Well, my answer is also, I would never imagine. I mean, I think both of us went into this project with a great deal of humility. And just knowing that we have to bring a cure. I mean, you have a cure for, for the mindset that America and the world is suffering from. And we just knew that we had to partake in bringing a solution. But I don't think we've ever imagined that we'd get these many followers, these many views. But there are other things that people, I think, don't realize, that these amazing benefits of working with PragerU, like The staff, we have close to 80 members of our staff and they're the most incredible people. I never imagined being able to work with such unbelievably passionate, creative, freedom-loving, it's like a family.

And virtually everyone really young.

Really young.

And I only note that to give people hope.

Yeah, I mean, I think it brings a lot of hope and these are some of the ripple effects of building PragerU, things we didn't realize or how many times we meet, these donors, I never thought I'd meet so many unbelievable individuals. I mean, the people we meet through PragerU, I'm like, are you for real? Like, are you an angel? Like, how do you, you know, so generous, so kind, so caring.

That's right, we meet angels. That's a great way of putting it. So we walk around grateful.

So grateful.

It's, it's a high. It's not an ego high. It's, it's a, it's an idealistic high. But I will tell you, Marissa, to again go into my own nature, I— and, and I'm curious, you, you don't— obviously you don't have to have this telling you, not like Shrinking Violet, but But I don't know what your response will be, but I think when I think of PragerU, which is of course a lot, 90% of the time, or my own life, PragerU and/or my life, I think of how much I haven't done. So what about you?

I feel like every year we start our year by saying we're just getting started because there's so much more to do. I know for 10 years we didn't do kids' content. This past year we now launched kids' content. Now we're making PragerU Kids. It's the PBS Kids that's actually good for you, broccoli for your child's brain. And so there's so much more we can do. And people ask me all the time, how are we not getting overwhelmed, right? How, how are we doing it all? How are we, you know, how am I doing it as CEO, mother of 3, the business? And I think what's helping me get through it is this incredible sense of gratitude that I have that, you know, every moment of my life I'm spending doing something that I feel like is meaningful and something that I enjoy. And so it's not that it's all rosy. We're obviously dealing with censorship, big tech censorship. We have this massive issue now with NewsGuard that is making all kinds of claims against us. We have all the issues that every other normal business has, plus the sabotaging of big tech. But I think what's helping us get through all of this is A, the results, and B, the immense sense of gratitude that we're doing something so incredibly rewarding.

You know, I'm thinking as you're speaking, here are 2 human beings being human. This would be a great fireside chat for people who have friends or relatives who think PragerU is awful and bad. And reactionary and even worse. Watch these 2 who, along with Alan, run the place and tell me, do they strike you as having a bad agenda? Do they strike you as mean? You know, I'm so used to being called every name in the book that it has zero impact. In fact, I, I have to say I'm actually pleased because you can't fight for good things and not be hated. That if everyone who fought for good were loved, we wouldn't have to fight for good, right? There's nothing to fight for. Everybody's good already. So, uh, having said that, it is mind-boggling that just decent people— and I will say like us— Like Allen, like Craig, like, like the whole gang at PragerU. We're bad? We're what people defame regularly? It's— how do you react to it? Oh, you're— oh, PragerU, you're haters. So I know how I react. How do you react?

Well, I learned something really important from you early on, which is don't let the compliments get to my head and don't let the insults get to my head.

No. Get to your heart.

Get to my heart. And so I'm very focused on truth, and the truth is that we're the tolerant ones. We're the ones who say, oh, you know, I can sit next to somebody who may not agree with me. I love testing out my intellectual boundaries. I love talking to somebody who may not agree with me. And so I focus on that. And, you know, I think those who judge us and make all kinds of claims against us Generally don't get to know us because any— I can guarantee you that any person who actually sits down with you or with me or with Alan will not come out with the conclusion that we're bad people. It's only the people who don't bother getting to know us and want to superimpose all these defamatory terms on us. Those are the people who say poor things about us, and the truth is they're the intolerant ones.

And they never give an example. PragerU this, PragerU that. Give an example. You know, what is the, uh, oh God, there's, uh, what is the, the woman, uh, co-commissar Erica Commissar is given, given the latest PragerU video, and she's a psychiatrist and a psychoanalyst. And, and what is it about? Is it about, uh, parent-child relations, I think? Why would a mean-spirited place put out a video on how families can get along better? There isn't a shred of political agenda in so much of what we do. Dr. Stephen Marmer, another psychiatrist, about how to forgive people. Gee, that's a hate group. It's well known that hate groups put out videos on how to forgive people.

I'll give you an amazing story. You may remember this. Somebody came out from the New York Times to write a hit piece about us.

This is great.

It's probably one of my favorite stories ever. And so she comes out and she spends the week with us to find out how terrifying, horrible we are.

Right.

You know, how we're coming after the mind of America's youth and brainwashing them with right-wing propaganda, whatever it is she comes in with, spends a week with us. By the end of the week, she turns around and says, I'm actually just like you guys. I agree with you on almost, you know, everything you said. You guys are incredible people. I can't write a hit piece about you. And so she goes back to the New York Times and tries to get her piece published.

Right, on the front page, no less.

And the New York Times won't let her do it because she didn't write enough bad things about it.

Right.

And so she comes back to us and says, well, what can I write that's bad? And then they come up with some tiny little things and it gets publicized.

We could use the New York Times pieces, which we do, as a publicity piece.

Yeah.

The same thing happened with Mother Jones. Left, major left-wing journals send people to write how bad we are. They meet us, they watch our videos, and nothing happens. I have a picture of— was it Mother Jones? Is that the picture there? They did a big artwork about me and I think Trump, who has played no role, by the way, in any of our videos. I don't think his name is mentioned in any of our videos.

Right.

And the truth is, to know us is to like us. You don't have to agree with everything we say. By the way, I don't agree with a lot of the people who make the videos. Alan Dershowitz and I disagree on so many issues, but there are areas where we have agreement. So we have a Harvard Law professor named Dershowitz. Give it— he's returned. Yeah, a great moment in, in this fireside chat.

I was worried.

This is fireside chat number 200. Marissa Streit is the CEO. She is indispensable. It is a very interesting— you don't have to respond to this. You're certainly free to, but it is a very— I don't have an answer to this. I have heard the phrase, no one is indispensable. I don't know that that's true. I don't think that it's true. Some people are indispensable. It doesn't mean that if they leave, the edifice crumbles. But some people are indispensable. It's just a fact. And you are indispensable to us. So I just thought I would throw that out. I don't believe that you are replaceable. That doesn't mean, obviously, if God forbid you were hit by a drunk driver, PragerU would continue, but it wouldn't continue the way it is. I mean, you are truly indispensable.

Thank you.

So what is it like? I mean, I don't— I— this is not my field, right? I do other things, which is the beauty. Everyone does what he's good at at PragerU because we're a team. There is not an ego in the group. It is amazing. I love it. As I always said, there are 2 types of people: those who want to be stars and those who want to be on an all-star team. My nature has always been I want to be on an all-star team.

So What?

I have no idea what the answer is. I wouldn't know how to keep 85 human beings—

I'm not sure I know how to do it either.

No, but you do. I mean, is it a juggling act? I mean, is there like daily crisis management? I have no idea.

I mean, there is all of that. And there is also running a company during this crazy time in the United States, With COVID and all these rules and, and, you know, most of our staff is young and they're straight out of college where I hate to say it, but they've learned very little. They've learned— they've been given very little skill sets on how to navigate through work. They may have learned how to study and then pass a test, but anything that requires more than that is something that is really hard. A lot of a lot of people that, you know, oftentimes will hire. And so, what's amazing about the PragerU staff, those who stay with us, is that they learn very fast and they adapt. At one point, Glenn Beck came and toured our office and said that he wants to send his staff to boot camp at PragerU so they learn how to work. You know, I think we're all figuring it out together, what it's like. It's really, really intense. That's what it's like. It's a lot of fun. It's very meaningful. But everybody works really hard, including myself.

How do you find people? Do they apply?

Both. We have a recruiter, you know, like many businesses will use a recruiter for higher-level positions, and then also people write in all the time. We have a, you know, on prageru.com there's a section where people can just apply.

How do you find the graphic artists? Because we get so many compliments on how good they are, and they are. Yeah.

Same. I mean, they either apply or we do recruiting.

So I would assume at this point we get a lot of applications.

In the earlier years, it was really hard to find really good talent, and now oftentimes it's hard to choose. We have really great people, and it's hard to choose who to go with, which we're very lucky. And this is, by the way, definitely an employee— it's definitely an employee's market. So people can pick anywhere they wanna work, but people who come to PragerU, the benefit is not just the financial gain, but it's the meaning and it's the community.

Well, and the people you work with.

The people you work with.

The human being needs kindred spirits.

Yeah.

And you work at PragerU, you have 84 of them.

Yeah, you're not bowling alone when you're working with PragerU.

You're not bowling alone, that's exactly right. So I'll ask you a toughie.

You—

what do you think of leaving California?

Oh, the hardest question.

I said it was—

what are you doing to me?

I know, I know. I knew that would get her. It is, by the way, I got to say, it's a very tough one.

Okay.

We live in a bad place. I hate to say this. I came to California. It was Freedomsville.

It's, it's pretty unbelievable what is happening here. It's really hard if you're a parent and you want to raise kids with good values. You really have to pay a lot of attention to what is going on at home. It's really hard to grow a business here because it's really a hostile environment towards people who run businesses. I can make a really solid argument to stay and I can make a really solid argument to leave.

To leave.

I also believe that we are fighters. And my fear is that if we keep running away from everything we don't like, then who's going to stay and fight? They're just going to keep closing in on us. And I think that actually ties into a question that I was going to ask you, if I may.

Mm-hmm.

And so my question is, I personally feel like many liberty-minded conservative individuals, and there are many of us, feel like there is an onslaught on us in the work environment, in schools. I know in the cases of some of my friends and the schools that they send their kids to, they're really looked at as a minority that almost doesn't even matter. And so what is it about the conservative spirit that doesn't fight back? What— I want to give you an example.

I think we're exhausted.

There is one of them, one of my mother— one of my friends who is a mother was telling me about a teacher in her school, and the teacher was teaching all this left-wing stuff. And a lot of the parents were upset, but the communication between the parents was, oh, she's always like that. That's just how she is. Just ignore it and move on. It's not worth your energy. And my reaction was, why do we keep doing that? Why do we keep letting them get away with it? Why is it not worth our energy to fight?

Well, I have a few, few answers off the cuff. One, most people are not fighters. As I always say, good people are divided into 3 groups: those who fight, those who help the fighters, and those who do nothing. Those who do nothing is the biggest group. It's a big problem in all of history. And I also tell people that those who help the fighters are just as important as the fighters. Not everybody has a fighting temperament or is in a position to, but everyone is in a position to help the fighters. And that is as important as the fighting. The troops, if they don't get supplies, they can't fight. So this human nature is one problem. Then there's the conservative issue. And to be honest, and I think you'll agree with this, the average conservative And I mean thoughtful conservative. They're out, and including me. My greatest desire from society is to just leave me alone. I will— I am responsible for my own happiness. Please just allow me to live my life. The left is the opposite. We want to lead your life. We are better than you. We know better than you. We we that's why we don't want to grow government. We want to shrink it. The we I am I am so in sync with the founders of America, the only founders of any country in history that wanted small government because they wanted. the individual to be big. Take care of yourself, your family, and your community. What is a more beautiful thing to do with your life than be taken care of? So we don't fight in part because our nature is just— my biggest urge, I don't want to tell the leftist how to live. I just don't want the leftist to tell me how to live. There's a big difference. They want to tell you how to live. I'm passionate about it, obviously, but because it's really deserving of passion. Those, I think, are the 2 biggest reasons. Plus, I mean, there are the specifics of— they will ruin your life. We won't ruin their lives. There's no conservative cancel culture. Here's the best example, is it intra-family? How many adult children stop talking to their parent because their parent voted for Barack Obama or Joe Biden? Zero is probably the answer. Maybe 3, and they're nuts. How many adult children stop talking to a parent because they voted for Donald Trump? It's in the millions. Millions. That's evil. We are not like them. So that's my answer in a nutshell. You probably didn't expect such passion.

Well, I mean, I'm— I think we've had this conversation before, because how do we reconcile that? How do we reconcile the fact that they will fight with no rules? They will do the most disruptive things. They will go after our kids. They will go after the education system. Everything you described. And we won't do that. We won't stoop to that level.

Well, and we don't think to do that. We don't want to do that. We don't expect— we don't expect schools to teach conservatism. We expect them to teach truth, to have as little agenda as possible. This is how you spell hello. You sound out the word, hell, That's a bad choice. And add an O. L plus O is hello. Well, what is the big deal? Now, of course, teaching any history involves some values on the part of the teacher. We understand. I taught at college. I had no agenda that I know of. I admit I taught Russian history, so I— obviously it's less impactful than American history, but still, I felt it was my duty to give the knowledge over as interestingly and fairly as possible. I would bring into class people I differed with. It was a great thing to do that. So we have a different mindset. Leave us alone versus we will control you. They are truly opposite ends of the of this thought spectrum.

It's so true that you bring this up. People think that now that we're making kids' content, we make the kids' shows, the magazines, the books, they're all waiting for us to put in right-wing propaganda in there. And they're looking at the content and they have nothing to say because we're just teaching history and we're just teaching values.

Half of our videos are, if you showed them to someone without saying it's from PragerU, say, well, is this conservative or left? And they would say, I don't know, I just don't know. Like the latest with Erica Commissar, or the ones on happiness, or, you know, mine on the Ten Commandments, which is of course the great— our great story, right? At a U.S. Senate hearing, I am asked by a U.S. senator— no, I'm not asked, the Google representative— why did you put Mr. Prager's video on the Ten Commandments on It's on the restricted list because it mentions murder. And I remember, Marissa, I— there are moments in my life when I feel I have entered the Twilight Zone.

Twilight Zone.

Yes, I'm actually humming the theme to myself. Did he say what I just heard? Isn't that like one of the Ten Commandments? Do not murder? So I actually said— you folks could see this on YouTube, my testimony— and the guy from Google And I— so I said, Senator, I think, uh, next time we're going to produce a Google-friendly 9 Commandments. We'll just drop thou shalt not murder. Then we can— then we can stay up.

Now you just said the word murder twice. Hopefully they're not gonna censor this fireside chat.

Exactly. What is Facebook gonna do with this?

Yeah.

So anyway, I think You asked a very important question. How do you get people to fight? I have another question, not for you, but that I ask. Certainly you're free to respond, but how do you get— how do you talk people into getting out of the closet? I remember when gays were in the closet, and that was a tragedy. None of us defend that.

No.

So now conservatives are in the closet. Half this country's conservative, and most of them, their fellow workers don't know it. Do you know, I conduct orchestras, as you know? So the New York Times covered my conducting the Santa Monica Symphony Orchestra at that Disney Concert Hall a few years ago. And so it became nationally known that I did that. And, you know, the scandal, as it were, a conservative conductor with a, a left-wing city, Santa Monica, California. And I did it to unite people. I didn't say a word about politics anyway. So, uh, I, I recall, uh, doing that and the, the anger It was amazing. So I got a letter. This really made an impact. I got a letter from a member— I won't say what orchestra— of one of the biggest orchestras in the country. I know what orchestras are big. I, I can say one instrument. She was a violist with this orchestra. And she said, I want you to know, dear Dennis, I just want you to know I, I play the viola for the XYZ Orchestra. And I've been with it for 30 years. No one knows I'm a conservative. She's playing with an orchestra 3 decades. She's that afraid of coming out of the closet. But listen to this. I think you know this, right? What my, my experience with San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. So I went up to San Jose, California a few years ago to speak. And I was— when they found out about it, some members of the San Francisco Symphony, one of the leading orchestras of the country, said, oh, we follow you. We'd love to have dinner with you. So you have to understand, when members of orchestras want to have dinner with me, I'm like a kid being invited by his basketball hero.

I know it's terrible because they'll write in to us and I'll be like, no, I'm sorry, Mr. Prager is too busy. And somehow they get to you and you're like, yeah, no problem.

Yes, exactly. That's how you cheat. You want to— you want to have dinner with me? Just be a member of a major orchestra. So because I love— I like crazy about music. So anyway, sure enough, like 6 people, men and women, members of the orchestra show up in PragerU t-shirts. Yeah, that's San Francisco. We're not talking dissidents, you know, conservative towns orchestra.

Yeah.

Yes. So my first question was, do your fellow orchestra members know how you stand? And they said, they all know.

Hmm.

And that's the issue. You have to be prepared, like the young woman who has been on my radio show and I had sit in for me at 21 years of age. And she said, after coming on my show the first time, She's a student at Harvard. She said, I went through 2 weeks of hell. You went on Dennis Prager's show? No more in my life. And then she said, after 2 weeks, it's like she got out of jail. She breathed fresh air. That's what people need to know. It is hell when you come out of the closet. And then it's heaven. It is heaven. You sleep better, you— and you bring beautiful people into your life.

I mean, I think the amazing thing now is that you may think that you're alone, but you're not.

That's it.

You are not alone. Half of this country is on your side. Don't forget that.

That's right.

They want you to think that you're alone.

That's right.

They want you to think that you're that only kid on campus, that you're the only mom who doesn't want critical race theory in that classroom. That's what they want you to think. It's a facade. It is not true. It is why PragerU's first book, Otto's Tales, was number one bestseller on Amazon. Of all books published in America.

Of all kids' books. No, not kids' books. All books. I looked it up.

Right.

The first day, yeah. And then for 3 days, kids' books. And so we're not alone. It's a facade. They make you think that you're alone, but you're— the fear, you're fearing the boogey monster. That's what you're fearing. You're not alone.

If you have half this country behind you. That's right. And they want us to fear.

Correct.

So that's the thing to say to the people. You know, here's it. If you were to tell, let's say, a college kid or an older person, doesn't really matter, said, so Marissa Streit, what video should we send to to our cousin who's on the left and thinks you're terrible? What would you recommend? I know I'm catching you off guard here, but I'm curious.

I probably, just 'cause I've been in that position before, I would probably say Dave Rubin's video, Why I Left the Left. I think the friendship that we have built with Dave Rubin is so incredible. I mean, he was part of The Young Turks. Who is—

and is gay.

And he's gay. And it's, it's really a video about the fact that the really the tolerant ones are the conservative ones. I mean, American values essentially are tolerant. The left's values are not as tolerant. So I would, I would start with that one, Why I Left the Left.

So my— it's interesting. Look, you could almost start with any of them.

He's also incredibly good looking and cute. I'm just plugging that in there.

He is, you're right.

My husband doesn't get jealous when I say it because he's gay.

Yes, that's some— okay, I'll leave that and move on. Your husband doesn't get jealous because he's good-looking.

Okay, yes, that's right too.

That was the right answer. Noah, I'm your man.

This is why you're an intellectual giant.

I would recommend a micro subject on happiness, on forgiveness. It would— it so goes against what they expect from us. I want to shock them with how kind we are. So that's— that's—

I don't—

I think some would be affected by yours, some would be affected by mine, but that's what I would recommend. Don't— don't show them anything political. You have, you know, you have 100 to choose from that have nothing to do with politics, and, you know, give that a try.

Yeah.

Because it— none of those groups, let's put it this way, no left-wing group is putting out the kindness videos that we are.

I'd say there's another video that I really recommend, especially for parents, and that is on participation trophies, because many parents agree that participation trophies are not good for kids. And I'll tie this into a recent statistic that I haven't shared with you. Since we launched PragerU Kids, the viewership, the female viewership on PragerU has increased by 5% since last year. That's 3 million more female viewer views on PragerU.

Wow.

Which is an amazing thing because this is something that I think You know, conservatives, liberty-minded folks, pro-American folks have been really struggling with getting to suburban moms. But we're seeing that suburban moms are really drawn towards PragerU now because now all the mama bears are coming out. And that is, I think, very significant.

Very significant. Well, this has been terrific. And you know what is amazing? There's no question I could go another hour with you. But I couldn't have thought— I mean, really, you or Alan, to be fair, on the 200th. We'll have Alan on the 250th. And, you know, it's really— this is such a terrific trio.

Yeah, it's our little triangle.

And we really adore each other. I mean, as humans, aside from working on the same values, it's great to work at PragerU. The 85 there would probably all say that. That's why when people come and visit there, it's like a booster shot, to use the terminology of the day.

It is.

Against the real problems of our society. Anyway, Marissa, I and untold numbers love you, thank you, and are lucky that we met. So you'll be back for— how about the 300th?

God willing.

God willing. So folks, I'm Dennis Prager, and this has been the wonderful 200th Fireside chat. May we double and triple the number with the same enthusiasm as the first 200? This is a good example of something you might want to show somebody who has misgivings based on, on no good reason about PragerU. Say, so what do you think? Bad folks, huh? So I'm Dennis Prager. This has been Marissa Streit, our CEO. Thanks to whom we are flourishing. I'll see you next week. Thank you for watching this video. To keep PragerU videos free, please consider making a tax-deductible donation.

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 in their network, including shows about prayer, Bible study, parenting, and more.