The Blessing of Ignorance

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Hey everybody, Dennis Prager and Julie Hartman. Dennis and Julie, we are proud. If I'm allowed to brag on our behalf, We don't miss a week. And let me tell you, it's, it's been a challenge. Julie's been in Italy and I've been in Greenland. So we made sure that we would, we would be ready with you. God, look at these. This is really ugly. I got to do something about it.

I'm glad you're changing something because I want to change something too. So hello, Dennis and Julie listeners. This is the behind the scenes.

Yeah. So let me explain to everybody. Let me give them a rough idea. So I was gone for 2 weeks, just got back, and it was a listener cruise. The whole time was the Arctic Circle. Well, now obviously I'll have stuff to say. Julie has been in Italy. She's on her way to Romania and Hungary, all giving lectures and learning about humanity. And I'm thrilled for her, you know. Well, so I want everybody to know this is, this is really What is the word? Live is not the exact word, but— well, spontaneous is accurate too, but it is real-time. That's really what it is, is real-time. Julie and I, you and I have probably gone the most, almost since we know each other, of not speaking. Or minimally.

Yes.

Yeah. So we have a lot of catching up to do and we're going to do it. Yeah, that's the term, real time. So I want to know what has happened in her life. But I don't only mean the events in her inner life because it's a very rich experience. I wanted to say something on behalf of my late father. I— you may have heard me say this, Julie. But it endeared him to me at that moment. I was 20, I was your age, almost exactly your age. And I remember visiting my parents at their home. I was still living in New York. They were in Brooklyn. I was in Manhattan or Queens. This was post-Columbia. I was in Queens, but it doesn't matter. Anyway, I was visiting my parents and so they said, "Dennis, what are you doing this summer?" I said, "Oh, I'm going to Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt." And my mother sort of got a heart attack, started sweating from nervousness, and my father looks at me and goes, "You know, Dennis, you're only young once, and I'm thinking about you." Course, I've been young for the last 50 years because I'm still doing that. But nevertheless, you have this gift of life that is not— I don't only mean the gift of love of life, but you have been given a gift, as I was, of being able to do this. And I am thrilled for you. This is— it's God, we could do, and maybe we should, but not on this podcast, but the spectacular benefits of travel. So I don't want to crap on your alma mater, but you are learning more these two months than you did at Harvard?

Oh my gosh, in 2 weeks? I mean, that's the nature, to your point, of traveling. And it's not just crapping, to use your term, on my alma mater, but anybody's alma mater. I mean, you—

Exactly.

You just learn so much from traveling. But I just want to cut in and say that it really is true that we're doing this in real time. I've missed you, Dennis. We haven't really talked very much.

I know, I know. It's a rare lacuna. I miss you very much, for the record. But the only but is we're both living very full lives, thank God. But it's okay, you know, I don't—

Well, I just want to assume—

There's a mutual enrichment that is indescribable. Let's put it that way.

Yes, and I want to explain to people that Dennis was just in Greenland and Iceland, as you had mentioned, but you were on a cruise. And so literally, I would text Dennis or he would text me and the text wouldn't go through.

Yeah, yeah, it was, it was really defective. There was no— I basically went without internet for much of, much of the 2 weeks. It's okay because it was a great trip, of course. It was, by the way, for those interested, and you should be interested, for 30 years I have done cruising around the world from Antarctica to the Arctic Circle, from West Africa to Argentina. I mean, all over the earth on great cruise ships with listeners every year except for COVID year, lockdown year, or 2 years.

Lockdown year.

So just for people to know that, and you know, You could find out more information on my website. So anyway, it was a fantastic trip for me, but mine is more a travelogue. Yours is an inner travelogue. So I'm very, very interested in catching up. And that's why I say this is real time. I don't know the answers to any of the questions that I'm about to ask Julie. So, all right, let's begin with this. Why are you in Rome?

Okay, well, I will answer that question, but I also have something that I want to bring up already, some of my observations of travel, and I'm sure you'll relate to it. But I'm in Rome right now, really, as, as you put it a few minutes ago, lecturing and also learning about the world. But the main thing that I've been doing, and I actually just finished it about a day, day and a half ago, was that I was participating in a Catholic spiritual immersion trip. It's called the Truth and Beauty Project for people who are interested, and I will talk about it on my show and the various events and things I've learned surrounding that. So I'll put that— put a pin in that for a moment. But for those of you who want to look it up, you can. And it's a program which brings together 18 to 30-year-olds from all around the world to learn about the Catholic faith. Now, as many of you Dennis and Julie listeners know or may have heard, I was baptized as a Catholic. I received my First Communion. I was not confirmed, and I grew up in a largely secular home. My mother is Catholic or was raised in a Catholic home. My dad is actually the son of a Lutheran minister. And so I was raised in a nominally Christian household, but we were never practicing either way. And so I've come on this trip in addition to lecturing, really to, to learn. And what I've loved about it is that I've learned so much about the Catholic faith. But although Christianity is a proselytizing religion, I have not felt at all that it is a condition of the leaders, organize— oh no, oh no. Oh, are you there?

Yeah, I've been here the whole time.

Oh, okay, it froze. Um, I have never felt that it's a condition of the leaders, uh, I don't know, having me on the trip that I convert to Catholicism. In other words, they have never pushed it on me, uh, it is— or any of the people on the trip. It has truly been an immersive, amazing experience, and the trip was so international. As I said, it just— the immersion just ended, and I'm still in Rome for other things, but all these young people from all around the world were on this trip. We had a guy from the Netherlands. We had a girl from the UK, another girl from Latvia. Another one from Hungary, a man on the trip from India. And here we are, all these young people coming to Rome wanting to learn more about Christianity and Western civilization. And it was just the coolest thing. But that's sort of the background.

So what did that involve? Daily courses, lectures? What was it?

Yes, yes. All day daily courses and lectures.

Oh, all day?

All day. Oh yes, it's a very, very immersive experience. It's called an immersion.

And who were the speakers? Are they priests? Who were the speakers?

No, the organizers, the organizers are this Catholic couple, Ashley and John Nerona, and you can, you can look them up, and they run the Truth and Beauty Project, and they do these various immersions, and this was the one that I was on. And they're, uh, they both have worked at the Vatican They both are very, very prominent in media here in Rome, and they're just great Catholics who want to teach people about Christianity and Western civilization, particularly young people. And they took us for several days all around Rome, and we went from site to site, from church to church, and learned about the faith and Western civilization. And so you can imagine I have a lot to say about it. I can keep going or I can—

Oh no, I want, I actually, you have more to say unless I bounce off some of your ideas. You definitely have more to say. I mean, I have thoughts on Greenland and Iceland and the Orkney Islands and Faroe Islands, but they're not comparable to what you're experiencing. So I'm simply, I'm fascinated by, what has happening. First of all, tell me, I would assume the answer is yes, but not necessarily, did you make close friends among your fellow participants?

Oh my gosh, yes, and I bet many of them are listening right now and I wanna say hi to them. They're so lovely. So also there were some Americans, fellow Americans on the trip. There are these two sisters who are from Nebraska and grew up on a farm in Nebraska. And so for me being from Los Angeles, meeting two girls who grew up grow up on a farm in Nebraska, in the same country as I am from, but nevertheless it's almost as if they were in a different country. That was so cool. So yes, I've just made the most spectacularly close friendships. And really, Dennis, this Europe trip for me is, as you said, for lecturing, and that will primarily be in Romania and Hungary. In fact, you spoke at the festival that I'm speaking at in Hungary. It's called MCC Fest. I'm going there in a few weeks. But also this so much for me has been learning and collecting information and experiences to elevate myself and elevate the shows. And you, Dennis, have been such an inspiration for me because you're— and sorry, listeners, I'm complimenting him, but it's deserving. You're brilliant in your own right and you're brilliant because of your yeshiva education, I believe. But a huge component in my view of what has made you such a successful talk show host and such an elevated person, irrespective of your profession, is your traveling. And specifically the traveling that you did when you were my age. You bring it up so often. And I know even when you don't bring it up, I notice when it comes into your commentary. And we as Americans— again, I could really throw so much at the audience, but I'm being prudent here with all the, all the impressions I want to give because there's so many. But The main one is that we Americans don't understand how ignorant we are. We have absolutely no idea how lucky we are to be American, how different our civilization is, how different our reality is from others. And let me tell you, we as Americans have it, if I may generally speak, an international reputation of being really ignorant. And I'll give you an example. One of my friends on the trip is from Hungary. I actually went to Hungary 2 weekends ago for a ball. I went for 2 days. I'll tell you all about that. But I will admit something. I didn't know that Hungary was communist.

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But I will admit something. I didn't know that Hungary was communist.

Oof. That's—

I, the history—

So this is really important that you said that.

This is so important, and I'm willing to throw myself out there as an example. Okay, I'm not afraid to be embarrassed. I'm not afraid to say what I think.

No, good, God bless you for saying it. I did not know you did not know that.

I didn't know that, Dennis.

Yeah, so you know, it's ironic, 'cause you know that ironically, East Europe and the Soviet Union was my field of study. I went to Hungary when it was communist, over and over.

I now know that. I mean, I know that you went to, you know, the Soviet Union. We talked about when I got back from the Soviet Union.

Well, no, I know East Europe so well that I could tell you from north to south where I went. Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, East Germany, Romania, Bulgaria. And then the next year I went Bulgaria to Poland, south to north. And I would stop in Vienna to have air because I couldn't handle communism for weeks upon weeks. So I would go in, in the middle of Eastern Europe because Austria butts into Eastern Europe. So I'd go to a free Western country and then go back in and immerse myself in a totalitarian state. But that's just an interesting sidebar. Your point, okay, so, well, don't forget at all where you're going with your travelogue. But it's worthy of noting. The ignorance is, You'll love this. So I, and I'm, it actually touches me at my core. When I got back from the Soviet Union at the age of 21, that's when I began lecturing, and that really set the stage for my whole life of being in public. And I remember saying within about 3 years, 2 to 3 years, and I would stay, and then I began saying it publicly to audiences, and I would say, you don't understand totalitarianism, and Soviet citizens don't understand freedom. And you can't explain it. So let me do the second part first. So you know I speak Russian. So I'd speak to Russians, you know, I would venture into speaking anti-communist ideas without saying anti-communist. And I would speak about— it's svoboda, is freedom in Russian. And they would say to me regularly, Soviet citizens, not pro-communists, just regular citizens, svoboda. Or svobodnost et anarchia. No, no, no, that's anarchy. So in other words, their vision was a non-authoritarian, or in their case, totalitarian state. The alternative is not liberty, it's anarchy. So you need a very strong state to prevent anarchy. That was, that's in their minds. So then I'd come to the United States and I would talk about totalitarianism, not freedom, and they go, well, I mean, like, what can't you do there, Dennis? And what can't you do there? You can't talk to your neighbor? What can't you do? And I'm not blaming them and I'm not blaming Soviet citizens, but the The ignorance of totalitarianism, even the term needed to be explained. What is totalitarianism, Dennis Prager? They heard of authoritarianism. What is totalitarianism? And it comes from the word total. It's, by the way, we should do another time, if somebody's taking notes, the difference between totalitarianism and authoritarianism. It's not my invention. It's—

but we'll talk about fascism and communism and socialism.

Yes, we should do all of that. Yes, all of that needs to be explained. Okay. Anyway, back to your point, which is so frightening, the ignorance. So I got to tell you, thank you for being humble enough to say that you didn't know that Hungary was communist. If Julie Hartman, who is really, really bright and really pursues knowledge, didn't know that, then it is probably fair to say 1% of people your age know that Hungary was communist.

Oh my gosh, you have no idea. I mean, again, I know I'm a broken record. I have so much to tell you already from this trip, and it's going to be many Dennis and Julie episodes, both abroad and while I'm back and for the rest of my life. I mean, this is why you travel. But I am seeing— not only am I learning about all these other places, but I'm learning about myself and I'm learning about my country. And I have what many would consider to be the most elite degree in the world. And I didn't know that Hungary was communist. And I will go a step further and say— and we know this, you know, a lot of this is than confirming what I already know. But there is such a massive effort underway in America to make us ignorant.

That's right.

I mean, it's so, so, so—

45% of people your age, according to Pew Research, don't know what Auschwitz was.

Oh my gosh, I totally believe it.

Yeah. And by the way, I know I always add to that. If 45% don't know Auschwitz, the most famous term of evil, maybe in history and certainly of the 20th century, then maybe 2% know the Gulag.

Totally. And let me— I'm not glad you mentioned the Gulag, but for the purpose of the episode, I'm glad you mentioned the Gulag because we— one of the reasons I've been contemplating this so much, why are we Americans so ignorant? And there are a lot of reasons. And by the way, I'm going to repeat something I said earlier, which is so important. And it's that we have an international reputation of being ignorant. Of course, I can't speak for every non-American in the world, but Dennis, I know you know this. I have gone up to people of all different backgrounds. And as I've mentioned on this trip I was on and just through my travels, I have met so many people from all over the world. It's been one of the greatest blessings of my life. And I'll say to them, what do you honestly think about Americans? And they'll kind of laugh and they'll, you know, be polite and say something. And I'll go, no, no, no, you're not going to offend me. I want to know the real answer. What do you think about Americans? And the answer I get 9 times out of 10 is that Americans are ignorant. The world knows it. We just don't know it. We think we're so enlightened. We are so unbelievably ignorant. And so I've been thinking about why this is. And of course, as we have established, there is a massive campaign to make us ignorant. We've talked about Yuri Bezmenov. We've talked about the infiltration of our media, our schools by anti-Western forces. But another part of it is that we have had the blessing of being ignorant because even just think geographically, we have two oceans. That sort of isolate us. If you grow up, for instance, in Hungary, even if you don't have a good education in Hungary, you know what your neighbor is to the north, you know what your neighbor is to, you know, you just have more neighbors than we do in the United States. And I will talk with people, my Hungarian friend, I mean, her maternal father was in a gulag in Siberia. And then her paternal mother, I think, was also in a gulag in Siberia. I am talking with a girl who is the granddaughter of people who lived in the gulag. You know, history is so immediate for people outside of the United States. Communism for us Americans is like something that happened way over there, across the oceans, across the world. For the people who I've been meeting, Communism, they are just 30 years away from communism. Their parents lived through communism. Their grandparents were in the gulags. Does that make sense? So yes, of course, we're ignorant because of this propaganda campaign. But we've also had the blessing of being ignorant because for many Americans, we've been in America for many generations, and thus we've been removed from a lot of that history.

That's entirely accurate. I remember when, again, when I traveled and I've traveled abroad every year of my life since I was 18, except for COVID year. Every year, no matter what my financial state, no matter what my job, I— it was, it was a religious duty, so to speak. I had to travel because, because of all the things you're saying. And so two little quick comments. First, until I was married my first time at 32, I traveled alone all the time. Among other reasons, who the hell wanted to go to Bulgaria with me? My friends—

I would.

You were— yes, well, you're right. You weren't born for the next decades, but you would. That's correct. And I would have gone with you. What am I going to say? But the— I remember asking, I'll never forget, I was asking, I said to a friend, I said, Dennis, what are you doing this summer? I said, oh, I'm going to East Europe, you wanna come? Where you going? I go, oh, well, I'm starting in Bulgaria. And he said, well, no thanks. And I go, what are you doing? I'll be going to Puerto Rico. It was, 'cause we lived in New York, a lot of people vacationed in Puerto Rico or Florida. So he basically, he would go to lie in the sun. And this is not better than now. Well, it is actually, to be honest. But I remember thinking, wait a minute, you're not married. You can afford it. It's very cheap to travel. And you're going to lie in the sun when there's a whole world to be seen?

Totally.

And I, I, it, it, it, it's, it has stayed in my mind that. So the other thing is though, there is, there is nothing as educational in the deepest sense of the word as traveling alone, which is what you are doing. Yeah. And that's what I did till I, I mean, a lot of my travels was alone. It's harder, but you learn more because you can't turn to your friend and speak English and make references that are, you know, homebound, America-bound. You must interact all day long with people from another country, and that's big.

Well, you know, during the days off that I have here in Italy, you know, some of my— the people who I've met here who have very quickly become my friends, because to your point, I've been traveling alone and just meeting people and becoming fast friends with them. Some of them have said, oh, do you want to go to the Amalfi Coast for a day? Do you want to take a day trip here or there for vacation? You know what I said to them?

What?

I said No, I don't, but I do want to do something different, which is I want to go to Ajor, which is Mussolini's city in Italy, like where he established his—

Yeah, well, I will admit that is different.

Well, I want to go see that.

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Yes. And people love to teach you about their culture.

That's right.

And about where they're from, especially going back to the ignorance point, especially ignorant Americans. And they know that Americans not only don't know what they're going to teach them, but that Americans need to know what they're going to teach them. I mean, and I just feel so lucky, Dennis, to have these opportunities, but also I am so willing to put myself out there as an example and tell people what I didn't know prior to this, because I know that I'm not alone. I know that a lot of Americans like me, especially Gen Z Americans like me, do not have any kind of sense of how the world really works outside of America.

And it's getting worse. I mean, kids in school now learn preferred pronouns. They don't know that East Europe was communist. They don't even know what East Europe is. I believe it would be interesting, 'cause you mentioned correctly, you have the most prestigious diploma from Harvard, or I don't know if it's as prestigious today as it was when, you know, 2 years ago, which is Harvard is committing suicide, but that's a separate issue. So is Yale, and so is Princeton, so is Columbia, so is Stanford. They're all committing suicide. The, the, I wonder if I stopped 10 students in Harvard Yard, if I, if I stopped them and said, name some countries in Eastern Europe. Forget name the ones that were communist, just name countries in Eastern Europe. I don't know what, I don't know, I'm serious. I may be wrong, I may be right. I'm not taking a guess. I would like to know How many could name Eastern European countries?

Very few. I could, I could say with close to certainty, very, very, very few. And it raises the question, why don't we learn this? You know, I mean, I, I've just been thinking so much this trip, if I were a teacher, what I would teach my class. And I would just put up a big map of the world and, and do just a very rough outline of the history of the world over the past 200 years. I mean, you know, gosh, there's, there's so much to say. I want to, I want to talk about communism for a bit, because that's something that has captured my attention. Because, look, I don't know if the forces behind the demise of America are 100% communist. I think there's a kind of a coalition of forces that the through line is anti-Western. Some are Islamofascist, some are communist. But I'm fascinated by communism. And I'm fascinated by how recent the collapse of communism was. Again, my friends who I've been meeting here, we think, we Americans think about communism as as something, you know, in the past. This is so immediate for them. Not only their parents and their grandparents living through it, but my friend from Hungary who's 24, she was coming up in a Hungary that when she was born was only 6 years out of communism. Many of my new friends in Eastern Europe are growing up in these countries that were picking up the pieces from their communist past. And I thought of you, Dennis. I thought if Dennis Prager, when he was in his 20s, went to communist countries, then Julie Hartman, when she's in her 20s, are going to post-communist countries, are seeing the way these countries are trying to pick up the pieces and trying to move forward. And I have learned, I've just learned so much. I mean, also, we in America, we think that communism is not something that can come for us. But actually, I think it is the very thing that is coming for us. I think that communism is trying to have its resurrection in America because it knows it can, because we have a free society where ideas like that are allowed to leach into the mainstream and have their free second and ungrateful society and a free, ignorant and ungrateful society. And if you think about it, the people, the communists who lament the demise of the Soviet Union, where is the fertile ground for them to resurrect it? America. You know, over there, isolated by two oceans, ignorant, free, open. That is the most fertile ground for this stuff to take hold. And we're so stupid, we don't see it.

That's right.

God, again, I could go on, but I have to remind myself to stop.

No, I love it because you're passionate about this, and you should be. It's so distressing. I wrote a column, it was really, I think, an important column a few months ago. I want to amplify the word ignorance. There's the obvious ignorance, like you were acknowledging you didn't even know Hungary was communist. But there is, there is a, there's a deeper ignorance which you don't have. And there's the ignorance of evil. You can't march for Hamas if you know evil. You can't say Israel is the villain if you have any, any moral compass functioning. But even putting aside the moral compass, Just knowledge of evil. Not knowing Auschwitz, not knowing Gulag, not knowing— oh, how's that? Pol Pot. I mean, Pol Pot exterminated a quarter of the Cambodian people in a few years, and his name is unknown. Unknown. You know, people know way more about a Kansas City Chiefs quarterback I mean, infinitely more.

They can— they, they know— they, they have words like heteronormativity and cisgenderism.

Yes, that's right.

In your vocabulary than the knowledge of one of the most prominent dictators of the 20th century who exterminated millions of people.

Yeah, that's right.

And that's by design. I'm telling— I, I just— I see I just see it. It's just— and I knew this before, but I really know it now. It is so much by design. I'll tell you, Dennis. So I mentioned that I went to Budapest for 2 days, and I went for a weekend for a ball, which is its own conversation. You know, as an aside, I was sitting at a table with the guy I was sitting next to has a girlfriend, but the girlfriend was sick and couldn't make it to the ball. And he asked me to dance. And I said to him, would your girlfriend be okay with this? Because, you know, when you dance at a ball, you're really, you're really holding the girl. And he, he taught me, and the other people at the ball taught me that it's actually rude in Hungarian culture for a man not to ask a woman to dance. And I saw all of these men and women who were switching with each other, and they were married, or their spouses didn't care. It's just a part of culture that you dance with a woman. In America, we would never, we don't have any kind of, certainly we don't have balls in America, but we don't have that, any element of that culture that it would be rude.

Right, so this was a huge, this was really huge again. So when I was 19, I spent my year in England, well, not the whole year, 'cause that's when I went to Soviet Union, I went to North Africa, I went, but I was a student in England. That was where my travels were based from. And it was eye-opening, and I wanna mention this cultural issue. So I realized, 'cause there were so many cultural differences, like you're mentioning, between England, an English-speaking country, America is a British offshoot, you'd think we'd have a lot in common, and we did, there's no question. But there were obviously cultural differences. And so I realized there's no such thing as right or wrong culturally. There's only right and wrong morally. And that's why, that is why I developed my notion of it is a good thing to have different cultures. It enriches the human condition. I don't want everyone to have American culture. I want everyone to have American values: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Yes, that I really do want. But not our culture. You keep your culture. There's something beautiful about your culture. Now, values is a separate issue entirely. So if in Hungary the tradition is If there's a woman there, you dance with her, and that's not American. Oh, why is this married man marrying with this, why is he dancing with this other woman? Okay, that's fine. I'm okay with the American approach. I'm okay with the Hungarian approach. And I loved it. That's again, it's a product of travel, 'cause we tend to think, did I ever tell you my French's mustard, theory? Did I?

You did, but tell it to the audience.

You sure? I know Sean has heard it more than 4 times. But so this I learned, ironically, this I learned by traveling from Brooklyn to Manhattan. So I grew up in Brooklyn and I went to a friend's house. He lived in Manhattan. I went for a weekend. So I've always been— it's a gift. I don't take much credit for it, but I've been self-aware from a very early age. So I don't know, it's about 9th grade, 8th grade. I'm at my friend's house and they're serving— mother's serving hot dogs, brings out the mustard, and it's Gulden's mustard. And I remember thinking, what? They use Gulden's mustard, not French's mustard? And then it didn't take long for me to realize there was no right mustard. That is just your— I, and I had it with toothpaste because they used Colgate and we used Crest. I mean, yeah, go on.

Look at this thing. No, no, this is the mustard that like—

That's right, there's no right plug. Exactly, that's a perfect example.

This annoys me because I had to go get it somewhere.

Well, yeah, no, you should. Yeah, I have you. Next time you're over, I have adapters for Africa, for Israel. I have a stack of adapters. By the way, that is the largest adapter I've ever seen. You just need— actually, it's a transformer.

I invested in my adapter because it's both phone and computer.

Okay, fair enough. Okay, you got it.

This is fascinating. I'm now interested in adapters because the Hungarian one is different than the Italian one.

Okay, yeah, may well be. I don't remember, but that's right, it could be. One of the most fascinating things I've done recently is to get a brain SPECT scan. I went to bestselling author Dr. Daniel Amen at Amen Clinics. They're known as the best brain and mental health company in the world. Most psychiatrists sort of guess what your problems are, maybe very intelligent guesses, but Amen Clinics treats a variety of mental health issues and actually looks at the organ it treats, the brain. You can get 10% off an Amen Clinics evaluation. Go to amenclinics.com/dennis. Talking to Dr. Amen about my brain health. Which turned out to be, thank God, really good, was very informative, extremely informative. I see now why looking at the brain before treatment is so important to getting the right treatment and how it supports targeted treatment for conditions like ADD, depression, memory, and more. Visit amenclinics.com/dennis to learn more about their brain-based approach to mental health. Or call 844-256-7266. 844-256-7266 and get 10% off by using the code Dennis10. Right, so the mustard issue is exactly— it's cultural. It is not values. There's no right mustard. There is no right plug. There is only right in the moral sphere. So I am utterly accepting of your culture does X, that's great. And, or you do X, that's great. But we have to share moral values or it's all over. So that's the culture versus values difference. Your folk music is no better, no worse than my folk music. I do believe that Western classical music is the greatest music ever, ever composed, but not because I'm Western. And by the way, almost none of it is American. It's almost all German. And so it's hardly American-based, my view. My view is there is excellence in beauty and in the aesthetic realm. As Robert Florczak, your great art teacher and my great art teacher— I don't mean how to draw, but how to appreciate art— as the— and by the way, the proof that Western— that it's not a cultural thing but an excellence thing is that, uh, and you'll find this Prager Theory number 497263 interesting. I believe that Classical music will be saved by Koreans, Japanese, and Chinese, and I believe that Christianity will be saved by Africans.

Well, I could talk very much about the latter point that you made because I became fascinated by Pope John Paul II, who, by the way, is that the one you met, Dennis Prager?

Yes, you're right. Yes.

Oh my gosh, that must—

it must seem so unreal to you.

I— it is so unreal to me. I, right, flying over here— this is so me, it's so nerdy— I didn't sleep at all the whole 12 hours from LA to Italy. I read instead a whole biography cover to cover of Pope John Paul II.

By who? By who?

By John Moody, who I actually had on my show.

He— oh, fascinating—

about the Chinese Communist Party. He was the, the Time magazine Vatican correspondent in the '90s, and then he went on to launch Fox News. And now he writes, and he worked with Pope John Paul II. Anyway, I was thinking that was the one you met, so we'll have to talk about that. But I was reading about the enculturation efforts in the continent of Africa, the Catholic Church trying to enculturate with many of the tribes in various African countries rituals. Anyway, that's a whole rabbit hole. But I want to go back to your, your point about culture, because— and I agree with you— the differences in culture are what make life interesting. And I love going to a different country and seeing the differences and trying the different food too is so great. But back to this point, I was talking about my fascination with communism and post-communism in Eastern Europe. When I asked some of my Eastern European friends what they thought about Americans, they said that in addition to thinking of us as ignorant, the positive impression that they gave was that we're very friendly and we're very welcoming to others. And so we were kind of exploring why that was their impression. And then they told me— pause— oh, are we good?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay, sorry, it freezes sometimes for me. Oh, and then they told me that there isn't a lot of trust in Eastern European culture, almost any culture. I didn't really see— this is, this is another example of ignorance. I didn't realize that. And so then I— then we, through, you know, many dinner conversations, kind of unraveled why. And it is the legacy of communism, because they said You would fear that your neighbor would rat you out. Your neighbor would go to the authorities.

And we developed that during COVID Rat them out if they have more than 3 people visiting. Remember that story in Vancouver? It was— I reported it at the time where neighbors snitched. They weren't even going into the other people's apartments. But there were more than 3 in that apartment. Snitch. That's correct. That was practice for a police state, as I said at the time.

Well, I'm so glad that you brought this up because I mentioned earlier in the show that one of the reasons why I am so hell-bent on traveling is because of you. And I know how much it has elevated you personally and professionally. The COVID thing is such a great example because you were one of the first if not the first in America to call the lockdowns out for what they really were and to oppose the vaccine. And I remember at the time when I was 20 years old and discovering you, I was very enthralled with a lot of your ideas, but I'll be blunt. I thought you were totally wrong about the vaccine. I didn't think you were totally wrong about the lockdowns, but I thought that you went too far. You were totally right. And you know what it is that made you a prophet at the time? It was your travels. It was just the example that you gave. It was that you went to communist countries, you understood communism, and then when you saw it rearing its ugly head in America, you were able to call it out. And that is what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to understand the world so that when the next thing comes at us, you see it for what it really is. And so you're so right. And of course we Americans don't get it because we never, for many of us, lived in a country where we had that ratting people out.

Yeah, that's right. But there is a, it's interesting because, you know, my dear friend Joel Alperstein, who's really been, if I'm the writer, he was the producer of my Bible commentary, which is a huge undertaking. And we've been very close for decades. So he married a Chinese woman and he just got back. It's really funny. You were in Rome, I was in Greenland, and he was in rural China visiting for 3 weeks, visiting his wife's relatives. And there's no trust among Chinese. None. It was one of the feature elements of life there, he said. And see, here, here's the, here's the interesting thing. Freedom, among its many incomparable virtues, produces trust. The, the almighty state produces people who loathe one another. Nobody likes one another in an authoritarian state because you don't know who to trust. Will they snitch on me? And in America today, we have it. It's called cancel culture. If I speak this, I never heard this idea. Forget I never heard the term cancel culture until the recent past. In my long life, it was unheard of that you couldn't speak your mind in America. And that was one of the great virtues of the United States. You could speak your mind. I told you, I think, 'cause when I was a kid, some kid, you know, we would be playing baseball in the street and some kid would, you know, start screaming at another kid and he goes, shut up. And the other kid, why? It's a free country. I could say whatever I want. It was built into us. Kids today don't say it's a free country, you can say whatever you want. That phrase is unknown to them because it's not true anymore. And as the state censors more and more using big tech as its vehicle, then you will have even less trust among people. So You have raised a truly significant issue, and I'm giving you the Chinese example as another one because it's a police state. In a police state, you can't trust the next guy.

Gosh, I so took this for granted. I didn't realize it, but yes, that is why we have a reputation of being so friendly, you know, the American friendliness. We just sort of take it as like a cultural idiosyncrasy. But what you said is so important, that freedom produces trust. And that also goes back to something that you say often, and I think you reference when this is said in the Torah, and you'll know the reference. You'll say it in Hebrew first, and then you'll translate it to English once I mention it. But a good deed, a good thing produces more good.

Okay, so a good deed drags behind it another good deed, and a bad deed drags behind it another bad deed. I'm translating literally from the Hebrew. By the way, just for the record, in modern Hebrew, which is rooted in biblical Hebrew, in modern Hebrew, a tow truck uses that same word. So you could say a good deed tows a good deed, a bad deed tows a bad deed?

Well, we see this. I mean, that's just a fundamental rule of the universe. It's so funny I'm bringing up a financial analogy because like you, I don't give a damn about anything pertaining to finance and money. But when you're in debt, you don't just pay back principal, you have to pay back interest. On the debt.

Right.

Or when you lend out money, you don't just get back the principal, you get back interest. That, it's true. Good drags along more good, bad drags along more bad.

Oh, you're using that analogy. It's a good analogy. That's correct. You get more than you started with. That's correct. So, all of this, is it can't be overstated how important it is. So here's an interesting, you know, I always ask these questions. So why, why are the vast majority of people your age, and for that matter, when I, when I was young, why don't they do what you're doing? And so is it built in? And I pessimistically think it is built in. You, it's one of the reasons we're so close. You want to know the world, I want to know the world. And that's the reason when I was in high school, I wanted, you know what, do you know why I wanted to go to every country? It wasn't to rack up a record. That's a fun part, but it's largely irrelevant. I remember, again, so much happened in my brain in high school. And I remember thinking, I'll never forget, there was a civil war in Cyprus between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots. Cypriot is a name for a Cyprus citizen. And I remember hearing this on the news and thinking, I don't know a damn thing about Cyprus. It's, it's literally a word. And I said, I never want to hear the name of a place and have no idea what it's like. Yes, that was my dream. Are you ready to lose weight but not sure where to start? So I'd like to tell you why I chose PhD Weight Loss and Nutrition. Nutrition First. Dr. Ashley Lucas has her PhD in chronic disease and sports nutrition. The program is science-based. The PhD program starts with nutrition and is much more. They know 90% of permanent change comes from the mind, and they work on eliminating reasons you gained weight in the first place. There are no shortcuts, no pills, no injections, just solid science. Science-based nutrition and behavior change. If you're ready to lose weight for, I think, the last time, call 864-644-1900, 864-644-1900, to get started, or online at myphdweightloss.com, myphdweightloss.com. Just make the appointment for your one-on-one consultation. Call today, 864-644-1900.

Well, you know, what I'm about to say sounds really corny, but it will give you a great impression of mentally where I am in my life, spiritually, and in all kinds of ways. But I want— I just want to know why I'm here, or I want to know why the world works the way it works. And I mean, even think about this. You know, we think being born is something that's really common because there are 8 billion people in the world right now. And there are, I think, 110 billion people total who have lived. That's a lot of people. But we compare that— we should— we don't compare that against how many people could have been born and weren't.

I mean, I know this is— I know you, you've shared this with me. I love it. It's very— go on.

No, but seriously, this is actually like a cornerstone of my worldview now. And I never thought the word sperm would have such importance in my mind, but it really does. That one sperm to meet that one egg to make you, against all the other millions of sperm and all the hundreds of thousands of other eggs, and the fact that your parents I'm sorry to get into the details, but we're being intimate at that one moment and not later in the day. And also that your dad went to your mom and your mom went to your dad. I mean, do you understand how uncommon, like—

Right, the odds against our existing are trillions upon trillions upon, I don't even know if it's edible. Exactly. The odds against either of us existing is beyond measure.

It is, they estimate it's 1 in 400 trillion. So that's an amazing thing. Like, why are all of us put on the world? And then it's, you know, we're all in different countries. We have different, you know, I had Rabbi Manis Friedman on my show before.

I've been listening.

Oh, that's so sweet of you. That was really interesting. He's amazing. But he said, He was talking about how we have limited free will because we can't control the time and the place that we're born. We can't even control that we're born in the first place. I can't control that I was born as a woman in America in 1999. And so all of that fascinates me. Like, why, why are we born where we're born? And I just, I hope this is making sense, but I just feel a real curiosity about the world. And—

Well, that's it. Curiosity about the world. That's why— Yeah, the rabbi said the reason we are here is to make this world better. Yeah, right. I heard that part. Yeah. To elevate this world. Yeah. But your point about curiosity, there isn't— it isn't widespread. And why not? I know, why not? I don't, I know, I know.

Don't we want to know about each other? I mean, I want to know what the human condition is like in other countries.

That's why I say that's built in. I do want to get back though. It's mind-blowing. I'm telling you the similarity of our, of the realizations. Because Americans are more ignorant of the world and of history. That is correct. And in general, until the recent past, and the left is undoing this, have been nicer. That both are absolutely accurate. And I would One of the things I did as well, I do it to this day, is I ask people what do they think of Americans. And I make it clear to them, I'm not asking for praise or condemnation. I'm just curious how you react. So I remember I was giving a speech in Nice, France a number of years ago. And we were taken to dinner at a very nice restaurant in Nice. And a young attractive French woman was the waitress, I'd say about 31 years old. And she spoke excellent English, so I didn't bother speaking French. My rule is I will speak whatever language the other person speaks better. If they speak, in other words, why would I bother them with my French if their English is excellent? But if they don't have good English, we'll speak French. We spoke English. I go, how do you speak English so well? She said, oh, I lived in America for 2 years. I go, oh, really? Where? She said Tampa, which was ironic because I particularly like Tampa. I like Tampa, Pittsburgh, and Grand Rapids. It's my little funny favorite city for friendliness. Anyway, so I said, so let me ask you, I said, "What did you think of Americans? And I have no interest in you giving me a positive or negative answer. I'm just curious." And she goes, "They're the friendliest people in the world." Not just they're friendly, the friendliest people in the world. And it's a French woman. And so, it was, she was right. I mean, among, I mean, the Filipinos are friendly, Ethiopians are friendly. I mean, I have a whole list friendly people in the world, but Americans certainly until recently, this is another horrible creation of the left, the bitterness and the anger. When you crap on your society, why would you stay friendly? You're so bitter. But we have been, people came to America to be free. They didn't come to America for Americans' insights into the human condition. To just amplify on your point, I, you know, I'm much more likely to be able to discuss a Beethoven symphony in Hungary than in Tampa. It's just a fact. Yes, I recognize that. But it is what it is, and when push comes to shove, I'll take friendly and free over cultured and not friendly and not free. Obviously, I— that's largely what the choice has been. By the way, you can only imagine how people would react when I was your age, because I spoke a number of languages, as you know, And they go, an American speaking another language? Just forget how many, just one other.

Well, that is something that I cannot relate to you on, and I commend you with your— what would we call you, a poly—

polyglot—

polylinguist or something?

It's called polyglot.

Polyglot.

Yeah.

Well, Speaking of language, that's another thing. You know, you realize your American privilege in so many ways.

Yeah, because the world speaks English. How lucky did Americans turn out?

Exactly. And this is something that we're so boneheaded, right? We don't even realize. Yeah. Every single airport that I've been to in the whole world has signs in English and we just take it for granted.

That's right.

We're Americans.

Hey, listen, I'm I'm in Greenland. Greenland is, they have their own language, Greenlandic, which I didn't even know. And they speak Danish because the Danes have owned Greenland for a long time. But everybody spoke English. Here I am in Greenland, owned by Denmark, getting along in my language. Did I luck out?

Okay, okay, so I had this moment Yesterday I was at a cafe, I had a quick lunch break, and I was sitting there. By the way, Roman saltimbocca, which is the veal, excellent. Anytime anybody's in Italy, get that. But I've been having it every day. So I'm at this cafe, by the way, also it's so hot here, dear God, but it's amazing. I don't care because I'm enjoying and learning so much. But I'm sitting at this cafe and there's an Italian waitress who at the next table is taking the order of either a Bengali or a Pakistani family. And forgive me, I know the Bengalis and the Pakistanis tend not to like each other. I couldn't tell which, forgive me. But I'm watching them and they both don't speak each other's language. So what is their common language that they're ordering in? English.

Right. That's right. The Italian, the Bengali or the Bangladeshi and the Pakistani. And what are they talking in? Did we luck out or what? Americans don't have to learn a foreign language. And this is one who has learned quite a few. It's really important to know language, but it doesn't matter where we lucked out. Our native language is the world's language, is the world's second language.

Well, we lucked out in the sense that we were lucky that we were born in America to this culture, but we— people fought for this. You know, like the fact that the dollar is the global reserve currency, the fact that English is the default world language, our ancestors worked and toiled so much to create this kind of world that is so easy for us. And our mistake is that we think that it's our birthright, and it's not.

Well, it is a perfect, uh, uh, theme too. And I don't— I think we should do a part 2 in our next— there's so much yet to speak about. So this is what my final thought on that is: our ancestors did work really, really hard to make the United States of America We are living off the fumes of their car.

That's right.

And fumes don't last forever.

That's right.

That's the problem. Well, Jules, it is great to catch up. We will continue next week. Tell everybody how to contact you. By the way, not only— can I ask you, Sean, Is there a link to Dennis and Julie at DennisPrager.com? And if there isn't, why on God's earth isn't there?

This is so funny.

All right, if he says it's an excellent question, that means there isn't. Folks, I will do something about that. But go ahead, Julie.

You can reach me, Julie, at Julie-Hartman.com, especially if you live in another country and you have impressions about Americans. I'd love to hear them. And then you can follow me on Instagram and Twitter @JulieRHardman and Dennis @TheDennisPrager on Instagram, @DennisPrager on Twitter. I'm impressed that I remember this still with my travels. And what's the other one I'm supposed to publicize? DennisPrager.com. That's right. And we'll see you next week.

See you next week. Thanks, everybody. Thank you, Julie.

Bye, guys.

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