Tucker Carlson UNLOADS on Diddy, Kamala, Walz, Kimmel, Rich Girls, Conspiracy Theories, and the CIA!

I think the whole point of the Diddy parties was to get people to endorse Kamala. No, there's a lot of. There is a lot. This is something that I never perceived at all when I lived in Washington. I thought was like a dumb conspiracy theory. Even though I worked in the kind of crypto entertainment business, I know a lot of. A lot of people in the entertainment business, of course, because I worked in television, and I know a lot of people at the intel agencies and in politics, because that's what I did. And you would hear people once in a while say, well, they're all controlled. You know, there are files on that person. And I was like, oh, you sound like a freaking wacko. What are you going to say? Like, fluoride in the water is bad. Turns out fluoride in the water is bad. It's crazy. But that's. That's actually true. It's true. And I'm not guessing that it's true. I know some of the people involved. There are a lot of people in the entertainment business, but in the cultural business, more broadly, certainly in the news business, who are controlled by other forces. Like, obviously, how many of them look independent? How many of them look kind of shifty and afraid? You look at Jimmy Kimmel and, like, I don't know what's going on there, but, like, that guy clearly is nervous, super nervous. And I don't know why he's nervous, but every time I see Jimmy Kimmel, I used to kind of like, Jimmy Kimmel. I'm like, wow, man, he's worried about something. And I feel that way about a lot of them. You know, I don't know that we'll ever get all the details on Diddy. I don't know Diddy. Never met Diddy. Kind of glad. Never been to one of his famous parties. But I know a lot of people who have. And, you know, I don't know exactly what that was about, but I know it is not uncommon at all. We have been trained to believe that our senses are somehow less valid than things that we read on Wikipedia, which is totally controlled by the CIA. And the truth is, the opposite is right. If you're listening to someone speak and that person seems deceptive, do not believe that person, period. Tim Walls comes out who ran with Kamala Harris. I don't remember Tim Walls. And I saw Tim Walls, and I'm like, I don't. You know, I'm not going to indict him for it. I was like, that guy's a creep. Just flat Out. I'm sorry, he is. And I'm not, I'm not calling the, you know, U.S. attorney trying to get him indicted or anything because I don't have evidence. But I just knew instantly that guy's lying to me. The current way of doing things has been decisively rejected, most notably by young people. What was last election where Republicans won? Young people. I mean, really, you know, you always think of like, you know, your blue haired daughter lecturing you about saying, no, your blue haired daughter voted for Trump. She shouldn't have blue hair. But whatever, she voted for Trump. Like, what are you even talking about? And it turns out that their politics were the politics of unhappy rich girls. Actually, just to be totally blunt about it, and unhappy rich girls make up a very small percentage of the American population. So everyone else voted for Trump. So, okay, now we can have a discussion about adult issues. And I'm really gratified. I don't think, again, that's ideological. It's not even right versus left, Republican versus Democrat. It's like adults versus people who put signs on their front lawns telling you they believe in science. Well, people like that don't know what science is. Do you know what I mean? Their view of science is shut up, don't ask questions. Really don't think that's science. Actually, I think that's kind of the opposite of science. Whatever. Those people lost. The people who live in Brookline and Bethesda and all the screechy people I deal with in airports, they lost. And I'm really glad you can't know what your government is doing. Who owns this government? The federal bureaucrat who can't be fired? No, I don't think so. We do so if you wind up in a country with over a billion classified federal documents, you are living in an extremely corrupt country. Extremely corrupt. And everyone around the world knows that about the United States. We don't know it. We don't think we live in a corrupt country. We do. And we could fix it super easily. And that's just. Let's, let's declassify. Every 911 document should be declassified. Oh, shut up, conspiracy theorist. No, if you want to create conspiracy theories, pull down a curtain of secrecy over what actually happened. Why are you afraid to tell me the whole story?

So, well, let's just start with what in the heck has the last three days of your life been like, wild?

Yeah. Yeah, I didn't expect that. Yeah, I spent almost 35 years being paid to make predictions about elections. I don't think I ever got a single one. Oh, bless you. Sorry I left the sacred beverage backstage. Yeah, I would not have predicted that at all that Donald Trump would not only win, but win decisively with a mandate, the majority of the popular vote. The first Republican to do that, other than the post 911 election in 40 years. So I'm still trying to figure out exactly what it meant, but I mean, big picture, it means that the current way of doing things has been decisively rejected, most notably by young people. What was last election where Republicans won? Young people. Yeah. I mean, really, you know, you always think of like, you know, your blue haired daughter lecturing you about said, no, your blue haired daughter voted for Trump, which is kind of wild. She shouldn't have blue hair. But whatever. She voted for Trump. He won half of Hispanics. The overwhelming majority of Hispanic men like all that. The guy that they've been telling us is a racist for the last nine years. Like, if you knew one thing about Donald TRUMP From 2015 until Tuesday, it was that he was a racist, because they never stopped telling you that. And his numbers with black voters went up. His numbers with Hispanic voters just crushed it. He's never seen anything like that. And so whatever else he is, he's like not a racist, obviously. So I do think it's time for his opponents to recalibrate. I don't think any of this is actually about race or sexual. I think most people are kind of tired of that. I think those were cul de sacs in the first place. I think they were in fact, in some sense psyops meant to distract us from what actually matters, which is like economics and war, the things that matter that change the course of history. And I think on both of those questions, the current administration is like, reckless to the point of craziness. We're on the brink of nuclear war. Why? You know, take a poll of Americans. How many Americans think it's worth risking nuclear war to teach Putin a lesson? I mean, the whole thing's freaking nuts. And because of the nature of our media, which is just North Korean, where no dissenting view is allowed, it's shouted down immediately. I don't think people appreciate the current state of the United States relative to the rest of the world, which is greatly diminished and imperiled. I mean, we are really on the brink of catastrophic conflict, which we will lose in two different theaters at least. So, you know, the Biden administration did that. When was last time we read that in the New York Times or saw it on Morning Joe? You haven't but people sense that things are not moving in the right direction. Then domestically, the Biden administration and then the Kamala Harris campaign were both convinced that inflation was not real somehow, or that it was just right wing media complaining about it. It was just Fox News making a big story out of it to get their moron voters to the polls or something. But actually, the data showed, going back to the COVID checks, that it was entirely real, by the way. It was predictable, but it was as real as $9 butter. I mean, just like anyone who went to the grocery store knew that, but they could not comprehend it, and instead spent this entire, you know, three and a half, four years lecturing the rest of us about trans issues and race. And you may have your opinions on those things, but they're hardly central to, like, the functioning of a country. Like, what are you even talking about? And it turns out that their politics were the politics of unhappy rich girls, actually, just to be totally blunt about it, and unhappy rich girls make up a very small percentage of the American population. So everyone else voted for Trump. So, okay, now we can have a discussion about adult issues. And I'm really gratified. I don't think, again, that's ideological. It's not even right versus left, Republican versus Democrat. It's like adults versus people who put signs on their front lawns telling you they believe in science. Well, people like that don't know what science is. Do you know what I mean? Their view of science is shut up, don't ask questions. Really, I don't think that's science, actually. I think that's kind of the opposite of science. Whatever those people lost. The people who live in Brookline and Bethesda and all the screechy people I deal with in airports, they lost. And I'm really glad. Sorry.

No, no, it's great. Yeah, I love it. So if you could advise America's leaders on restoring the country, what would you suggest focusing on? Politically or spiritual changes?

Well, both those things. I mean, first of all, de emphasize the race stuff. That's just total poison. Nobody talks about. Look, in your life, are you. When no one's around and you're just with your spouse, your college roommate or your brother, your closest friends, are you mad about race? Probably not. Most people don't spend their lives thinking about race or other people's sex lives for that matter. They just don't. And if our leaders encourage us to have yet another fake conversation about race, which is really just one person yelling at another person, that person having to take it like that does nothing but divide the country and makes people hate each other, which is, of course, their goal. So stop with that. If you engender racial conflict in a population, it's very hard to make that go away. Most Americans do not want that at all. They don't see race first. It's just a fact. These are all facts. This is not a racist country. It's a really nice country. It's a country where people give directions to strangers and, like, take in stray dogs. It's just. People aren't racist, actually. And so stop with that stuff. Restore the colorblind meritocracy that we were promised. That is the basis of America. Innovation comes when the most energetic, smartest people are allowed to do their thing, when entrepreneurs are allowed to be entrepreneurial and artists are allowed to create art, and writers are allowed to write literature, and Elon's allowed to build rockets. And it doesn't matter sort of what color they are, what gender they are. It just matters that they have the energy and the drive and the intelligence and the ability to organize sufficient to get that done. That's just true. And so, you know, dismantle the state, the kind of. I hate to say it, but they're always calling Trump a Nazi. Really? Is he the one who said every person in America has to, like, identify by race, by bloodline? That's sick. Like, we rejected that, actually, in 1945, and we should reject it again and unleash the best within each one of us. I mean, you built this monument to Martin Luther King on the Mall. Okay, let's follow its precepts. Let's judge each other by the content of our character, by what we do, rather than how we were born. Like, that is. That is the promise of America and that, you know, we spend all this time taking care of gearing our education system to the people who learn the slowest. Maybe we should spend a little bit of time helping the people who learn the quickest. It can't just be making every school dumber. What about, like, the smart kids who want to learn and want to create? Like, they should be allowed to do that, too. Just back off and let people do their thing, and you will create an incredibly beautiful country and stop encouraging them to hate each other. So that's a. I mean, those are kind of vibe shifts. These are not specific policies. Those are the first two things I would do. Second, restore order to the world. We. Again, I cannot overstate as someone who travels a lot internationally, how close to nuclear conflict, the United States has been for the past three years, almost three years come February, like, like on the precipice of it. And because our media don't report this, I think most Americans don't really have a sense of it, but we are truly on the end, on the edge of, like, ending human life globally. It's crazy. Nothing like this, nothing this crazy has ever happened, probably ever in history. And so the role of the United States. If the United States is going to be a global leader, not its policeman, but a leader, a force for good. It has to become what it once was, which is a force for order and stability, not endless revolution, which is what we've had. Let's knock off the leader of that country and hope for the best. Well, that didn't work. You know, we killed Gaddafi, we killed Saddam. Those countries became worse than they were before. There are open slave markets in Tripoli, Libya. We'll just ignore that. The same people who did that just move on. Let's bump off Bashar Al Assad in Syria. Let's kill Putin and hope for the best. Stop. Stop. No more revolutions. This is what the Soviet Union used to do. Run around the world trying to foment revolutions. Overthrow one government and hope that a better government would take its place. That's not how life works, actually. It takes an awful long time to create something worth having. Progress is incremental. Destruction is instant. I can smash a plate glass window in a second. Try to make one. You know how plate glass window is made? It's complicated. Right. And that's true for countries too. So restore order. The United States should be a force for order. No, we're not going to blow up your natural gas pipeline, which we did to Germany. Destroyed the German economy. Destroyed the German economy. I don't know how many of you travel to Europe. Europe is. Is Germany. The European economy is Germany. And that economy has been crushed by what we did. Stop doing things like that, okay? Reorient away from permanent revolution. And the lunatics are now running the State Department, beginning with the chief lunatic, who's also stupid, Tony Blinken. All the way down the chain. Just reorient the whole thing. No, our job is to be paternal. When if you're a father, you come home, your kids are fighting. If your first instinct is to tell them to keep fighting, hit him harder. You're a monster. You're a moral criminal. You're a bad dad. No, your instinct is consistent with your duty, which is tell them to knock it off and make up, make things better. And so you know, there are reports. And look, Trump is always. And he does a lot, I think, to feed this perception. You know, he's often criticized as, you know, reckless or seat of the pants or whatever, but in fact, the opposite is true. I think it is being reported, like, in the last five minutes, that one of the first things Trump did after winning was to speak to both Zelensky and Putin and to make it really clear that the net effect of this war in Ukraine has only been the total destruction of the nation of Ukraine, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian men killed, Eastern Ukraine destroyed. I mean, really, just the elimination of a country, the biggest country in Europe, and that sort of no one wins. Like, there's been no upside to this at all. It's been effectively a genocide against the Ukrainians, and we're going to stop it now. We're going to stop it. And he spoke to both of them. That's what a United States president should do. And this lunatic who's been running our country for the past four years, like, hasn't. Hasn't spoken to Putin once because he's immoral. Really? Okay, immoral. Find a world leader who's not immoral. What do leaders do? Well, a lot of them kill people. In fact, I'd say about 100% of them do, if they have enough power. They kill people who are in their way. That's what they do. Sorry, I'm against that. That's why I'm not a leader. But that's the nature of global leadership. So it's not a question of, you know, finding, like, a good person in charge of a large country. You're not going to. There aren't any. But you can find better people and you can arrive critically at better outcomes. And the better outcome is no more war. And Trump did that instantaneously. And I think it's gonna work. That's worth voting for him alone. If you voted for Trump, and, you know, there are people in your life who are like, I can't believe you voted for that guy. He's a rapist. Okay, first of all, who do you rape exactly? Lots of people. Really? What are their names? And why hasn't he been charged? Shut up. Actually, what are you even talking about? Stop with that. Don't accuse someone of rape. Like what? Stop talking like that. Running around accusing people of things, of crimes, of felonies, without any evidence, like, what's your name? They can't answer. The whole thing's nuts. Stop lecturing me. Adults, people who run countries, the first thing they do is try and Stop pointless wars. They don't foment pointless wars. They. They end them. And Trump just did that. So if you voted for Trump on that basis alone, you should be proud of what you did, in my opinion.

So you have. You've interviewed so many people. I mean, recently, Elon Musk. I mean, you interviewed Putin earlier in the year.

Putin.

What was that experience like?

It was great. It was super interesting. And I should just say that when I interview somebody, obviously I'm endorsing everything that person's ever done. You know, you really. It does really go back to the American media, where I've spent my entire life. I'm the son of a journalist. I grew up around it, so that makes it 55 years I've been around this. And its current state is just. It's almost beyond description in how low and poisonous and dishonest it is. I'm just ashamed of. To be a part of it. No, I mean, of course you would want to interview. You know, your default if your job is to interview people, is to interview the most powerful people in the world, the most significant people in the world. And the point of those interviews is to ask them obvious questions and then let the public in your country, in my case, it's the United States, decide what they think. That's my job. And so the idea that you wouldn't interview somebody because the State Department doesn't like him or the senile guy in charge of the country has declared war on him without a congressional resolution that the government doesn't want you to interview. I don't care what the government wants. I'm an American citizen. I can talk to anybody I want to. And moreover, I can have any opinion I want to. That's my birthright. And that's why I don't live in Sri Lanka, okay, Or North Korea or any other country. I'm American, okay? That's what it is to be American. So I'm not being defensive. I actually don't care that the New York Times called me a Putin lover. What? I don't. You know, anyone who believes in New York Times is like, okay, good luck. But it's just a little bit bewildering that nobody else wanted to interview Putin, because what the CIA tells you, you're not supposed to want to. If the CIA tells me I'm not supposed to want to do something, and they certainly made that very clear to me, that makes me want to do it more. I mean, that's my job. And if you find yourself, like, on the set of Morning Joe, taking orders from the intel agencies, then maybe you should just go work for the intel agencies. Maybe you should admit that to your viewers. Well, you know, today's program is brought to you by the nsa, because effectively it is. And the intel agencies have a much greater role in American news coverage than most news consumers understand. I would say than virtually any news consumers understand. And I've seen it, you know, for over 30 years, so I'm very familiar with it. But it's absolutely crazy that no one has stopped it. And I'm praying. It's very hard to stop it it. By the way, I'm praying that Donald Trump will. I mean, it's on a long to do list, but I would say near the top. You have to, if you want to restore democracy, which we don't currently really have. I mean, the lefties are right about that. They don't want it. I do want it. I actually like democracy because I think it's my country. I was born here. I'm an owner of this system. I'm not a renter or a serf. But if you want to restore it, you have to prevent the government from using your tax dollars to lie to you. Because if you have that system, which we currently have, trust me, I can speak with authority on this, then you don't have a democracy because you don't even know what reality is. In other words, the people in charge are deciding what you can know about what they're doing. Well, that's a rigged system by its nature. How is that not a rigged system? How is that democracy? It's not. It's an oligarchy of the worst kind of. And I just don't think people in this country understand the degree to which the information that they received over their, over their Google Machines or from NBC News or from the, you know, last of the dying newspapers. They don't understand just how filtered that information is. Like, you have no idea what's going on in the rest of the world. If you're only getting your news in this country, you have no idea what the candidates are really like. It's really crazy. We have an ongoing debate in my office because we travel a lot. Does the average North Korean peasant have a better idea of what's happening in the world than the average person in a suburb of Boston? Maybe it's actually open to debate. Like that's, that's how filtered it is. And so the first step toward fixing it is admitting that you have the problem. Let's stop pretending, you know, if you can't even go interview Putin, who's engaged in a war in the middle of Europe, if you're discouraged from doing that. And the U.S. government tried to stop me from doing that by breaking into my signal account and leaking it to the New York Times. They got caught. They admitted it, if that's allowed. No one was ever fired for it. No other. The New York Times didn't rise to my defense. Hey, you can't use an intel agency to prevent a journalist from doing his job. No, it's totally fine, man. It's a really, really rotten system and it's the basis of all we know. How do you know what's happening in the world? How do you know what reality is? Well, because you see it on your phone. So you have to have honest sources of information or at least a diversity of sources of information. You don't have to trust any one source, but you got to have a choice. It can't all just be Mika Brzezinski telling you what happened yesterday because not good.

Well, so you've been in, oh man, media and TV for, I mean, since August of 1991. Wow. What advice would you have on where, what to, where to get, what to listen to, where to get diverse or accurate, non propagandized sort of education?

It's pretty hard. I mean, I've, I've gone so crazy and obviously I wouldn't recommend this to other people, but I don't read any news at all, ever, Period. I don't read any of it. I was in it too long. I know how poisoned it is. It's like watching a. You know, sometimes you meet nurses who are the most honest people in hospitals, in my experience, and they'll tell you, like, oh man, don't get any, you know, cardiac catheter at that hospital. They'll kill you. You should probably believe the nurse. Like, she works there. And that's how I feel about media. Like, I know how it works and so I don't read any of it. I get all my information from people via text message. I travel a ton to see things firsthand because there's no replacing that. But the advice that I would, I give my own children on this question is go with your gut. Like, I actually think we have a much more accurate sort of internal measuring system for truth than we understand. Like, you know, when someone's lying to you, you're born with that ability to discern truth from lie. Now it's, it's, it's unerring, but it's imprecise. In other words, if I feel someone's lying to me, he is that person's lying. My dogs know. Like, if you show up at my house and you're creepy, my dogs have no idea what you're saying. They don't need to know. They know you're creepy and they'll snarl at you, and then I know you're creepy because my dogs have already vetted you. All of it. No. And I mean it. And you're not welcome for dinner at that point. I don't know what you did, but it's gross. No. Yeah. I'm not joking at all.

Yeah.

Sorry. I'm sorry you failed the spaniel test. I'll see you. Good luck. Freak. All of us have the very same ability. Our instincts are our most honest guide, because your instincts are designed only to help you. They're not trying to sell you anything. They're not trying to get elected to anything. They're not trying to scam you. They're not selling you a timeshare anywhere. They're merely trying to protect you and inform you. And so much of the information that we take in sort of bypasses the five senses that science tell us are the sum total of our intelligence gathering apparatuses. I mean, that's like a total crock. Intuition is not technically a sense because science is like a joke, actually. It doesn't fully describe the human experience or even close to it. It's absurd. It lacks imagination. It's a scam, I would say, obviously, but we have been trained to believe that our senses are somehow less valid than things that we read on Wikipedia, which is totally controlled by the CIA. And the truth is the opposite is right. If you're listening to someone speak and that person seems deceptive, do not believe that person, period. Tim Walls comes out who ran with Kamala Harris. I don't remember Tim Walls. And I saw Tim Walls, and I'm like, I don't, you know, I'm not going to indict him for. I was like, that guy's a creep. Just flat out. I'm sorry. He is. And I'm not. I'm not calling the, you know, U.S. attorney trying to get him indicted or anything, because I don't have evidence, but I just knew instantly that guy's lying to me. And I think we all sort of know that, you know, you can just tell. And so, like, when they. When the media came out and said, you know, the Nord Stream pipeline got blown up, the biggest natural gas pipeline in the world, which fed the economy of Germany Of Europe, of the eu, our NATO ally. And it. It got blown up. And they're like, yeah, Putin did it. Putin did it. Really? He blew up his own natural gas pipeline. Why did he do that? Well, because he's evil. So you're telling me that Putin is so evil that he attacked himself because he just couldn't. He couldn't help himself. Like, he ran out of people to stab, so he just started stabbing himself in the face? Is that what you're telling me? Just. That's just the nature of evil? Yeah, that's what we're telling you. Shut up. You're lying. Like, I knew instantly that they were lying. Instantly they were lying. And I. And by the way, I had the privilege of saying so. It was not welcomed by my bosses, like, got fired in the end. But. But I said, that's a lie. You're lying. Oh, how do you know we're lying? Well, because it doesn't make any sense. And also, your lips are moving, and you're a liar, and I know that you are, so shut up. Oh, you shut up. But you Putin stooge. Okay, thanks, son. You're still lying. And that turned out to be a really good guide. And then, of course, we learned later we blew up the Nord Stream pipeline, obviously. And now we're blaming on the Ukrainians, whoever. It's not even an interesting conversation. But Putin did not blow up the Nord Stream pipeline. We now admit that it was a lie. It was very clearly a lie. And we're in my old job. Someone said to me, well, how'd you know that? Did you have inside intel? It's like, no. Sitting in my living room in Maine, you know, looking at it on my. On my iPhone. I'm like, that's just bs And I felt totally empowered. I think what made me different from others was I felt totally empowered to say so. I don't feel any obligation to go along with that. Like, why would I? Don't be intimidated. I guess that's kind of what I'm saying. Don't be intimidated. If something doesn't make sense, say, whoa, hold on, pal. You know, I don't get what. You know. What is that? So you become a woman by saying so? Like, what are the mechanics of that? Does it change your DNA? Shut up, transphobes. No, no, no. Okay, great. But how does that work? Speak slowly so I can understand or whatever. It doesn't even matter what the claim is if it doesn't make sense to you and the person telling you can't explain it, then they're lying about it or they don't understand it themselves, which is the same thing. Just don't accept that. And if, by the way, if the whole society refuses to accept that, if the whole society refuses to lie, it's like, just make the decision. You're not going to intimidate me into lying. And in my case, I'm like, I'm an adult middle aged man, I pay my taxes, I've got four kids. Why would I go along with your bullshit? No, I'm not, period. Under no circumstances. And I don't want to fight about it, but I'm not going to go along with it. Oh, the vax is safe and effective. Okay, well, I'm not taking it. How's that? Why don't you make me? You know, how about no? And if you're a father, like, you're in the how about no business. That's your job. I've done a lot of how about nos and. But no one's offended. You're like, how about no? No, we're not doing that. No, we're not getting some weird dog crossed with a poodle. I don't think so. What? Everyone's got us hyper. Ouch.

No.

No. How about no? Okay. It like works pretty well and no one needs to take it. I'm sorry. Not to attack the, the poodle mixes or, but I just don't want one, you know? And we've had that conversation quite a bit in my house. No. Okay. And I think you can kind of cheerfully say no to a lot of the demands made on you. And they'll get all hysterical and call you names and just like, no, no. And I think if enough people do that maybe like, I don't know, 200 million of them, all of a sudden it just stops. People are like, okay, guess we won't get the shih Tzu poodle mix. You know? You know what I mean? Damn. Maybe next time. Yeah, okay, onto the next thing. So I do hope that the next time there is this very familiar cycle where some story will happen, you know, some guy tries to pass a fake 20 in a convenience store in Minneapolis and then dies of a drug OD outside. And all of a sudden they take that story and tell you that actually it's your fault that he died. And we need to completely change the country that your ancestors built. And everyone kind of goes along with it. And all the preachers on TV and Nikki Haley and all the people you're supposed to sort of respect are like, yeah, we Need a revolution because George Floy died, I think at this point, or you know, there's some virus comes out of China very clearly came from a lab that we funded. And really early we learned that the death rate's like one tiny fraction of what they claim it is. And on the basis of that, they're going to give us some drug by force that hasn't been tested. And by the way, you can't sue because the Congress granted the company that makes the drug total immunity from lawsuits. I think more people are going to be like, nah, how about no, like go ahead and take that if you want, like whatever. That's your thing. You want to go inject yourself with some weird crap, that's fine. But I'm not doing that. And I'm just not under any circumstances doing that. And I read the autopsy report and George Floyd, like 100,000 other Americans this year, died of a fentanyl OD. And I feel super bad for George Floyd. I'm not defending his death. I feel sad about his death just as I do about the other hundred thousand who died from. But don't tell me that systemic racism killed George Floyd, because it didn't. I'm just not going to accept any more of your lies. I don't care what you call me. I don't care how much you threaten me. I'm not afraid of you at all because I have no reason to be afraid of you because you're a freaking loser who's never built anything in your life. So how dare you lecture me. I'm an adult man. Back off. That's a really good posture. A super helpful. It's a non belligerent posture. You don't need to get your AR15 though. You should have one, but you don't need to wave it around and be like, for my cold, dead hands. No, maybe it'll get to that. But you don't right now need to do that at all. Just like sort of cheerful. Nope, nope. Fentanyl O day. Not taking the vax, you know, Sorry. That works.

So can I ask you about nurses and people in situations where they were put under pressure or propagandized so much that they had no choice or they would lose their job and single mothers and what, what do you think's going to happen with these people? What do you hope to see happen? The ones that I'd love to really have you explain how propaganda works because there's a.

Well, what's going to happen is. And I have a relative involved in one of These suits was a commercial airline pilot. He just texted me on the flight out here that there was apparently a resolution of jury in Michigan just awarded a woman fired for not taking the vax millions of dollars. And I hope that that is a nationwide trend where everyone whose life was destroyed in that fit of lies and hysteria is made whole. I really hope so. And I do hope that Congress can immediately strip the blanket immunity from the vaccine makers. I don't understand that. I've sold products my whole life. I mean, imagine you have a product, you convince politicians to force the population to buy your product. Anyone who complains gets fired and you can't be sued. I'm sorry. And I'm not attacking vaccines, by the way. I'm sure there are fine vaccines. I don't know. I'm not taking any of them, but it's okay if other people do. I'm not mad about people taking vaccines. I'm not mad about vaccines. But that's a scam. And anyone who says it's not a scam can just explain to me how it's not a scam. How is that not a scam? You're not allowed to sue. You can sue anybody for anything in this country. Anything. That's why you don't have playgrounds anymore, because people made slots. Remember merry go rounds? Remember those? Is anyone old enough to remember a merry go round? They don't exist. They were awesome. I'd like 10 friends who have fewer teeth than they were born with because of merry go rounds. But they have stronger spirits because they were great. They don't exist anymore because the trial bar decided we're gonna get rich suing merry go round makers and people who were nice enough to build playgrounds. So, so many good things in American life have been eliminated by the greed of the trial bar. You know, by the way, next time in the Caribbean, go down to the yacht basin, wherever you are, it doesn't matter what island you are, and look at the biggest boats and just ask, like, the boat guys and the, you know, the matching polo shirts with the yacht names on, like, what does the owner of this boat do for a living? And just keep a list of how many of them are trial lawyers. Like, a lot. You know, it was the tobacco settlement or asbestos or whatever it was, talcum powder or whatever case they were. And I'm not attacking all lawyers, though I want to, because I do hate them with a passion. But even if I liked lawyers, I would say, how is it that there's this one category that's Exempt from the risk that all the rest of us who are involved in any kind of business face. Every single. I have liability insurance on my house in case the UPS guy slips delivering a package from Amazon. But somehow Albert Bourla and all the other creepy, creepy billionaires who run these disgusting pharma companies are in no danger of being sued because their corrupt pals in Congress in 1986 gave them blanket immunity. Like, let's tear that down immediately. Oh, well, we can't compete. Well, why don't you just make a safer vaccine then? How's that sound? Why don't you face the same risk that every other person who conducts any other kind of commerce or lives in this country faces every single day? Oh, we can't. Oh, shut up. Go away. And so that's the first thing. I don't even know how I got off on that, but I'm so mad about it. It's so crazy. And that no one can say anything about it. And it's like, oh, you're against science. I'm not against science at all. I wish we practiced it in this country. I do. I actually believe in science. And if, by the way, if you believe in science, let's see the numbers. Let's see the numbers right now. You know what I mean? Social Security has the numbers. We know a lot about who was injured, who took it, who didn't, about the trials that are all sealed. Like, I'll just say this and I'll stop. If you want to restore honesty to government, if you want to get rid of corruption, there's a very simple way to do that, and it's with transparency. It's allowing people to know what their government is doing with their money in their name. And if you can't know, if somehow you're being prevented from knowing, then you can be absolutely certain that crimes are being committed. Because why else would they be hiding it from you? Why is it that 62 years later, after the President of the United States was murdered, we can't see all the files on that, all the documents? Why is it that 23 years after 911 files are still classified? Why is that? I had a friend die in 9 11. Like, probably a lot of people in this room. I was there, totally changed my life. Why can't I know what exactly happened? Why don't you answer that question? It's our government. No federal bureaucrat has the right to tell you that you can't know what your government is doing. Who owns this government? The federal bureaucrat who can't be fired? No, I don't think so. We do so. If you wind up in a country with over a billion classified federal documents, you are living in an extremely corrupt country. Extremely corrupt. And everyone around the world knows that about the United States. We don't know it. We don't think we live in a corrupt country. We do, and we could fix it super easily. And that's just. Let's, let's declassify. Every 911 document should be declassified. Oh, shut up, conspiracy theorist. No, if you want to create conspiracy theories, pull down a curtain of secrecy over what actually happened. Why are you afraid to tell me the whole story? Why are you afraid to tell me the truth? We can resolve this right away. Just let me see the evidence. I have a right. I have a moral right to it. They have no moral right to keep it from us. So if I have one hope secretly for this administration, it's massive declassification. And let's find out what they've been doing. What happened to all the hundred billion dollars we sent to Ukraine? There's been no audit. Oh, they don't want to declassify that. Why? Oh, because it's a scam, that's why. And that's why I'm just so grateful that Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Who I believe spoke to you earlier, will be a part of this administration. And I think he will be. I think he'll be a cabinet secretary. And I hope that his presence reminds all of us the cost of secrecy. Two members of his family were murdered. We still can't see the documents there. Why is that? And why don't we have full transparency on anything related to public health? What's the actual answer? And the answer is they're lying. And they shouldn't be allowed to lie. So I hope that changes. So what about.

A couple things. One, Jeffrey Epstein files P. Diddy. What do you think is going to happen with all that now?

Well, I'll just. I mean, I should just say at the outset, you know, I lived in D.C. i got to D.C. my dad worked for the federal government, by the way, in a highly classified capacity. So, like, I didn't. And I lived. You know, basically, I got there in high school and I left when I was 50. So I married. You know, I came up in the system. I marinated in it. I didn't know that there was anything wrong with it. I would have been the last person ever to question the Kennedy assassination or Jeffrey Epstein's. Clear. Clearly a suicide. Like, I just had no idea because it's like having an alcoholic spouse and then you get divorced. Everyone's like, wow, you know, your husband was a drunk. You know, like, I had no idea. Like, the closer you are to something, the harder it is to see its outlines. And so when Epstein was, when he died, you know, I, I knew a lot of people who knew Jeffrey Epstein, like a lot. I never met Jeffrey Epstein, thank God, but I certainly knew a lot of people who knew him and like a lot, like more than 10. And so Jeffrey Epstein was not considered like some far out sinister figure in the world that I lived in. I mean, I'm just being totally honest about this. He was like this kind of interesting guy who had, you know, had this kind of rotating salon at his house off Fifth Avenue in New York. And there was always the Israeli Prime Minister and former presidents and like, just interesting people, you know, And I did not understand what that was about at all. And so when he died, I was like, oh, poor guy. Killed himself in prison. And then I got a call from his brother, just randomly. And his brother said, you know, he was, he did not commit suicide. And that I was really shocked by that. And I thought, maybe his brother's crazy. So this set off a multi year journey for me that really changed my views about a lot of different things. And the bottom line is Jeffrey Epstein was murdered. And not only murdered, but he was murdered in the most secure federal lockup in midtown Manhattan in the country. Okay. Not just in federal lockup, but in the most secure part of federal lockup. So how did that happen? Well, he was clearly murdered by another inmate. You can't get any answers to who the other eight inmates on his block were. There was no investigation into his death. They've never released it. And the Attorney General at the time, Attorney General Barr, clearly knew that this happened. And, and I've said that in public and he's attacked me for saying that, but it's just, just a fact. He lied about it. And so what is that? What is that? Think about that for a minute. And, and I don't know. The, I mean, there's a lot I don't know. I don't pretend to, I don't pretend to understand really anything. I don't understand anything. But I know lying when I see it. And they're lying about Jeffrey Epstein. And if they're not, where's the investigation? And there hasn't been one. And so that's pretty heavy duty. Where are the tapes? Where are the Epstein tapes? You know, it was so funny. They, they released A tape. A guy I know actually released a tape of Jeffrey Epstein talking about Donald Trump and saying, we were friends once, and I don't like Trump. And, okay, this was like, the October Surprise was to derail Trump. And everyone's like, how can you do that? And I thought, I'm so glad they're doing that. So let's talk about Jeffrey Epstein. Like, where. Where are the videotapes from his home in New Mexico, from his Caribbean island, from his place on Fifth Avenue. There are all these videotapes now, you know, in federal hands. Why can't we see those? And we can't see them, of course, because it's like a massive blackmail operation run by various intel agencies designed to put famous people under the control of governments. I mean, of course, that's. That. That's what it was, obviously, and everyone knows that, but no one can say anything about it. And as a friend of mine said, we were talking about this one night, and he goes, you know, kind of, if you think about it, like, if you're able to kill somebody in the secure block, in federal lockup in Manhattan and get away with it, probably not someone you want to dick around with. Like, that's a powerful force. And that's a fair point. But it's still worth saying out loud because it's worth living in a transparent, honest country. It's bad to have rot like that. It's bad to have crimes like that committed in front of our faces. We can't do anything about it. It makes everyone feel impotent. It makes everyone paranoid. It makes everyone feel like nothing's on the level. We wind up with a society where no one believes anything. And I feel like that's where we are. The number of people I know who are like, wow, I become a really deranged conspiracy theorist who doesn't believe in the moon landing. I must know a hundred people who said that to me in the last two years. This is. And trust me, if you don't feel that way, you're just not admitting it because you do feel that way if you're paying attention. And that's a bad way to feel, I don't think. You don't want a country like that. You want a country where things are pretty much what they seem to be, where people are honest, they're straightforward. When they make a terrible mistake, they admit it. You want a country that is like the family that you have or want to have, where people are just direct with each other and kind to each other, and not everything is some Crazy, multi layered deception designed to, you know, screw you or kill Jeffrey Epstein. Like, that's so dark. Let's not have that anymore.

So thank you. That was last follow up on that is celebrities don't appear to be as influential for presidential elections as I think they thought they were.

Well, I think the whole point of the Diddy parties was to get people to endorse Kamala. No, there's a lot of. There is a lot. This is something I never perceived at all when I lived in Washington. I thought was like a dumb conspiracy theory. Even though I worked in the kind of crypto entertainment business, I know a lot of. A lot of people in the entertainment business, of course, because I worked in television, and I know a lot of people at the intel agencies and in politics, because that's what I did. And you would hear people once in a while say, well, they're all controlled. You know, there are files on that person. And I was like, oh, you sound like a freaking wacko. What are you gonna say? Like, fluoride in the water is bad. Turns out fluoride in the water is bad. It's crazy anyway, but that's. That's actually true. It's true. And I'm not guessing that it's true. I know some of the people involved. Like, if you're on the. If you're on the House, you know, intel committee, the. Over the committee in the Congress that oversees the intel agencies, okay? It's your job to make sure the CIA is not doing anything crazy like interfering in American politics or murdering the wrong people or, you know, getting rich. It's not allowed to get rich if you're a federal employee, okay. And if it's your job to make sure that, like, the CA is not colluding with the Mexican drug cartels, which they are, but you are almost certainly controlled by those agencies, like they're spying on you, then I'm not guessing on that. I mean, because I know one of the people who ran that agency who's being spied on. He told me he's being spied on. And some of it's come out like, that's not acceptable at all. And I think it's very clear that the same thing happens to cultural influencers. And why wouldn't it, right? That there are a lot of people in the entertainment business, but in the cultural business more broadly, certainly in the news business, who are controlled by other forces. Like, obviously, how many of them look independent? How many of them look kind of shifty and afraid? You look at Jimmy Kimmel. And like, I don't know what's going on there, but, like, that guy clearly is nervous, super nervous. And I don't know why he's nervous, but every time I see Jimmy Kimmel, I used to kind of like Jimmy Kimmel. I'm like, wow, man, he's worried about something. And I feel that way about a lot of them. And so, you know, I don't know that we'll ever get all the details on Diddy. I don't know Diddy. Never met Diddy. Kind of glad. Never been to one of his famous parties. But I know a lot of people who have. And I don't know exactly what that was about, but I know it is not uncommon at all. And at least one entertainer I know personally was controlled. That whole thing is real. That's absolutely real. Why wouldn't it be real? Why wouldn't it be real to lean on somebody to reinforce a narrative for the purpose of maintaining power? I mean, a lot's at stake, you know, running the world. There's a lot of power, a lot of money. Well, don't dilute yourself. Like, people will. Will go to extreme lengths. Why wouldn't they? I mean, people risk life in prison to rob a liquor store for 800 bucks. So you know that there's some context for you.

So this guy's sitting here with, see Babs in the orange and Dan in blue. That's Dan and Babs. They run an organization called Strategic Coach, very high level coaching group. And he has this what he calls a DOS conversation. And it's dangers, opportunities and strengths. And you're consuming nicotine right now.

What the hell is going on? Yes, I am. Okay.

This is part of the Make America Healthy plan.

It is, actually. Now, I've already said so many crackpot things that I don't want to totally discredit myself, but I think there are. Yeah, if you, you know, take the tobacco and the tar and separate it from the nicotine, you know, it's something. I don't think I'm allowed to make medical claims about nicotine. I think we have a whole agency designed to prevent people from saying what they think is true. But it's a choice that I'm happy to make. Yeah, for sure.

We'll come back to that. Maybe so dangerous opportunities and strengths. So what do you think is the biggest danger or dangers that we're facing right now as a country, the biggest opportunity and the greatest strengths that we have?

The biggest dangers were with Iran. I'm just telling you that's the biggest danger. There are a lot of people who want it. There's a lot of money that's been applied to the political system to make sure we get it. It's a disaster for America. It's not a defense of Iran, by the way. Every time I say something, it's like, you're working for Putin. One, I'm not working for the Shiite Mull. I'm an Episcopalian. So it's not that I have any affection for Iran. You know, war with Iran would, would, would devastate this country. And there's a real danger that we're going to get one. I'm just saying that that's a fact. You'll see. So that's the main danger. They're obviously going to be. There's going to be some economic turmoil. I would have said, you know, a week ago that one of the great dangers is disunity in the country. But I feel like these election results were really unifying. Yeah. So I'm so thankful about that. I mean, it's just, if you look at them, it's just kind of crazy. I mean, you had Muslims in southeastern Michigan voting overwhelmingly for Trump. You had Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn voting overwhelmingly for Trump. Like what? It's pretty cool. You had, you know, almost entirely white right wing North Georgia voting for Trump. You had a lot of black guys in downtown Atlanta voting for Trump. You had the Amish voting for Trump. You had central Florida, big sugar plantations. You had the guys who own the ranch, you're the guys working, cutting cane, all voting for Trump. So it's like, there's something in this. By the way, this is not just true of Trump, but it's like whenever you have an election where the majority votes for something, you have, by definition, a measure of unity that you didn't have before. That's what a mandate is. Most people want this, and that's just a great thing. You know, it means that our, you know, our common goals are stronger and more important than our differences. And it's just so nice to be reminded of that. So that's our main strength. And going into an economic downturn or whatever is clearly going to happen. You want a unified country. You don't want a country at war with itself getting poorer all of a sudden. I mean, we avoided revolution during the Great Depression. And, you know, which is not a foregone conclusion, by the way, at the time. There are some really radical movements in the United States, but the country held together in a really impressive but amazing way. Actually. From 1939 to 1941. And I've been worried about that for a long time now. I'm not as worried about it. So that's, I would say our strength and our opportunity is, you know, America has a lot of problems. Those problems have been exacerbated gravely over the last four years. The immigration scheme that the Biden administration instituted, opening the borders, letting 15 million strangers come here, totally insane. That's bad. The US dollar is in a much weaker position thanks to the deranged sanctions on Russia starting in February of 2022. Kicking Russia out of Swift hurt the US dollar more than really anything that's happened since the end of the Second World War. But the opportunity is compared to what? Compared to what? I mean, the US dollar, while weakened, clearly other countries are hoping to diversify their currencies. Doesn't help them to have the US dollar be the reserve currency. But there's no good option right now. America has a lot of problems, but compared to what? Europe, Seriously, Canada, Australia? I mean, we are still in the best shape of any country that I visit regularly. And that's a massive advantage. And like, don't forget that if you can somehow convince Americans that their country's pretty awesome once again, again, it's an attitudinal question. When people feel self confident. I mean, this is true in your marriage, it's true in your job, it's true in every sphere of your life. When you feel good about what you're doing, when you feel like you're doing the right thing, you're doing something you can be proud of, you're way more effective. And when you feel rattled and shaken and self loathing and you know, like, how many productive hungover Sunday mornings have you had? Like zero. Because you hate yourself because you did something embarrassing the night before. But when you wake up Monday morning clear headed, ready to go and go for a run and bang it out, you know what I mean? If you have that attitude, you're gonna kill it. And so I do think a lot of America's potential is totally real. It remains untapped. Our energy reserves, I mean, are just crazy compared to the rest of the world's. We just have a lot going for us. And if you can just make Americans feel that we have a lot going for us and that we have nothing to be ashamed of at all. Stop telling them it's a systemically racist country. Shut up. Stop telling them that you know they're bad, which they've told us like endlessly. Just stop with that we're not bad. We're great. I don't know. It wouldn't take a lot to make this a great country again. I really think that. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, I'm going to ask you about that, but first I want to. We'll do some Q and A with the audience here in a little bit. Your alcoholism. You called yourself functional alcoholism when you were drinking and partying and whatnot. So what did you. What did you change? What was the. What was the light switch that.

Well, what I did was I stopped drinking, which I found super helpful.

What caused you to stop?

I mean, in my case, I was sitting at my desk in my office, smoking a Camel. I'll never forget it. Which I also quit, unfortunately. Little short ones, flavored with chocolate. Delicious, delicious cigarettes. I know no one's allowed to admit that, but they were amazing. But I was sitting at my desk, feeling hungover, Sunday morning, having a cigarette, and I just had this voice, which I think was from God, saying, you better quit. My wife was pregnant with our fourth child, and she was 10 days from giving birth, and I was. And I just had this voice, tell me, you're going to lose everything if you don't stop drinking. And I believed it. You know, who knows why? I mean, I'm just ordinary person with a slightly above average iq, not super insightful. Like, I have no idea what that was, but that happened to me and I followed it and I did it, and it completely changed my life. And it's hard to talk about sobriety without sounding judgy or like one of those boorish rehab guys who's always lecturing you on all the steps or whatever. But the truth is, one of the main problems in this country is that everyone's loaded. Everyone's on some kind of drug or drunk. I mean, everyone's on pills. Like, I just. I'm sorry, I don't want to judge anybody else, but, like, everybody is on drugs. It's crazy. Everyone's on SSRIs or that weird. The meth they give you, but they call it Adderall, benzodiazepines, you know, I'm on a flight. I think I'll take some Xanax. What? It's insane. And I just am totally opposed to that weed. The number of fights I've gotten into. I used to smoke weed every day. I mean, I was like, I know a lot about weed. It makes you passive and stupid. I'm sorry. People get so mad if you say that. Oh, shut up. No, I've smoked more Weed than you have. It makes you into a loser. Are you joking? What do you just face? Your life, it's so awesome. And I never say this out loud because people really hate you when you do and feel judged. I'm in no position to judge anybody. I could blow your mind, actually, if I wanted to. I'm not going to. But I'm saying, like, I know a lot about this subject, so I think I have the authority to say this. It's like, it's such a thrill to be sober. It's not that hard, actually. And if you're not sober, you're never going to achieve the purpose for which you were created. That's just a fact. You're not. And it makes you weak. It's the last thing I'll say. It makes you weak. The more you party, the more you run away, the weaker you get, the more fearful you become and the more you just face up to stuff. And I'm not even talking about drugs and alcohol for men. I'm talking about, like a grumpy wife. Like, there's nothing scarier than a pissed off wife, like, in the world. And if you run away from that and just go golfing and like, oh, she's crazy, you know, it doesn't get better. Like, man up and just like, tell me what's wrong. Just like, sit through the first three minutes and then you find out what's wrong and it gets better and you get stronger. She respects you for not golfing and for looking right into her eyes and listening to her complaints for a minute. It makes you stronger when you run away and when you golf or you get high or it makes you weak. And it's like a process. It's like the more you tell the truth, the more sober you are. The more you face things that have make you afraid, the stronger you get. It's like Life 101, but nobody feels free to say it. And the last thing I'll say, we should just go full Saudi on the drug thing. I mean it, like, full freaking Saudi. One of the benefits of traveling a lot is you go to countries with this. Don't put up with it. We're like, oh, you're so uncool. Like, you don't allow me to bring a joint to your country. Don't just cut your hands off if you do that. Because we're not. Try to do that in Japan, actually. Try to do that in Japan. You go to Singapore, you live in Singapore, they drug test you at the airport. If you're a Singaporean citizen. And if you fail the drug test, like, if you smoke weed, you go to rehab for six months. They don't tell anyone where you are. You just disappear. You go to rehab. That's a true fact. I just had dinner two nights ago with someone whose friend showed up at the airport in Singapore, flying home, got drug tested, got sent to rehab for six months. He was engaged. His fiance left him and married somebody else.

Wow.

Hilarious. You know, it's a pretty big deterrent to getting wasted, actually, it turns out. Yeah, that's harsh. Okay, but compared to what? Watching people die of fentanyl ODs on the sidewalk. Have you been to our cities recently? It's totally cruel and inhumane and disgusting and beneath us as a nation to allow people to OD on drugs on the sidewalk. There's no kindness in that at all. It's cruel. You hate people. If you allow that, would you allow your children to do that? No, you'd chain them to the freaking radiator till they sobered up. Because you love them. When you hate people, you let them OD on drugs and willing the whole country do that and encouraging them to do drugs. Sending crack pipes to crack addicts, giving weed to kids. Are you joking? I just lock them up, man. I mean. I mean. And I'll just. I'll be totally. As a former drug user, I'm saying that, and I really mean it from the bottom of my heart. I hope we just get full Saudi on those people, including the policymakers who allowed it, because they've killed so many people, they deserve to be punished in a very severe way.

So, yeah, it's interesting.

How's that for unpopular?

No, no, no. It's like, it's. It's. It's a.

Bring back the war on drugs, but this time we're not joking.

Yeah, well, see, I think the war on drugs was. I believe addiction is a solution to pain. So the drugs, the alcohol, the sex, the gambling, the workaholism, all the pursuits of the dopamine pursuit is because of either one. You're just pursuing this feeling you want or trauma and things like that. And I have mixed feelings about. Like, for instance, there's 25% of the world's prisoners are in the United States. We're the highest incarcerated country in the world. And there's 2.2 million people incarcerated in the US and the majority of people that commit crimes are under the influence of drugs and alcohol. And 40% of people incarcerated are committed a violent crime. The other 60% have not. So a Lot of these people are addicts. And so it's, you know, it's one of these things where I take a compassionate approach. And at the same time, Portugal, I'm curious where they're at now, because, like, all I can go off of is really from several years ago. I don't know how well it, you know, they've weathered through the pandemic, and I haven't stayed up to date on it. But what they did is they legalized drugs, but they. The money they were spending on enforcement went into treatment, and it cut the addiction rate in half. Almost all violent crimes went down. But when you just make.

I don't know. I've spent a lot of time in Portugal. I don't. I don't think that's an accurate representation. And I would say, you know, I know a number of people, more than two, who got off heroin in jail and who look back on their incarceration as a blessing. I mean, addiction, I mean, I think you have experience with it. I certainly do. They're crazy. You're not in your right mind. When you're addicted to something, you're totally crazy. You're like a trapped animal. You'll do anything.

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

People like that. You know that our record on drug treatment in the United States is like a joke. It's abysmal. It's just abysmal. It's made a lot of money for the drug treatment centers. Everyone's like, treatment. Well, show me a treatment center with like, an over 50% success rate over five years. I've never heard of one. Maybe there is one. I'd love to know. We should replicate it everywhere. The only thing I've ever seen that works is aa, and that's because it's based in, like, the core truth of life, which is you have to admit that you have no power to solve your problems, and if you don't, then you're just lying to yourself. So I think that works, but, you know, whatever. Opinions differ, but let's just. Let's just apply science to it. Like, where's the treatment center with, like, an 80% success rate? Where's one with an 18 success rate? I just don't know of any.

Yeah, the only ones that really have really great success rates are long term, you know, six months a year, two years, like, Vulcan Academy. This individual, they literally have people, mostly, you know, young adults that check in for, like, two years. And they have a incredible thing. But it's a long time, right? And then I can't remember the Name of the. But in Italy, this is one of Bobby Kennedy's favorite models of recovery, where they have these very long term, put them in nature, put them around different environments and connect them.

That definitely is good. But I guess I would also just say I left something out. I'm so mad about the drug thing that I'm sorry. I endorsed the Saudi drug program though. I meant it. But I do think we should spend a lot more time on the other side of the question, which is endorsing sobriety. It is so awesome to be clear eyed and sober. As much as it doesn't solve all your problems, you're still the lumpy loser you were when you were drunk. But it begins the process of healing your soul. And there's so much joy in sobriety. No one ever endorses it. Oh yeah, everyone's like, oh, life is better when you're loaded. But that's just a lie. It's a full blown lie. And no one ever calls them on that. And I, I hope, I mean, Trump is sober, Bobby's sober, I've been to meetings with Bobby and I hope that people now in positions of authority who are on television all the time will just tell their own stories more often and just say, you know, I'm so glad to be sober. It's so great because it is. Yeah, yeah.

And I'll tell you, the drugs that, that kill people are legal and the drugs that save people's lives, like the ibogaine and certain plant medicines are illegal. And so the whole thing is just lopsided. And part of the challenge is, you know, one of the initiatives we have with Genius Recovery is we want to save 20,000 lives a year. The 100,000 plus people that are dying from opiate addictions. And so we're.

Well, how many people die of Xanax ODs?

I don't know.

That's what I'd like to know. That's a legal product that like every woman in America has in her medicine cabinet. Every kid has it too. College campus or. I mean, how many, if you've got kids in college, how many of your kids friends have to go to treatment to get off benzos? How many people die every year from benzos and alcohol? Many thousands. How many people die from withdrawal from benzos? A lot. And those are legal. And psychiatrists prescribe them without thinking through the consequences. And there's no sanction and those psychiatrists should be criminally charged, in my opinion. That's crazy. The Sacklers paid a billion dollar fine for sending you know, opioids throughout Appalachia. But psychiatrists who hand out benzos, which are deadly and physically addictive, we're just like, oh, no, that's medicine. It's not medicine. It's totally wrong. And at some point, we need to call out people on the individual level. If you are a psychiatrist who's handing Adderall to children and benzos to their moms without any thought to the addiction and suffering and brain damage that results from those drugs, then you should lose your medical license, at very. At least.

Yeah, absolutely. So, looking back, being a father, what is the greatest lesson that has taught you because you have four daughters?

I have three daughters and a son.

Oh, I thought you have four daughters. Sorry.

No, I have. That's. Three is a lot. Yeah, I will say.

I think you might.

Yeah, they're like a union, you know, you have to negotiate with them and. No, they're awesome. I mean, the biggest lesson of having kids is everything flows from your marriage. And when you have a happy marriage, you know, your children are happy. Marriage is the core of a family. And I do think people spend way too much time going to their kids sporting events and not enough time with their spouses. I think they spend too much time with their kids and not enough with their spouses. And if you want to make your children happy, have a happy marriage. And if you want to have a happy marriage, spend time with your spouse. Don't golf, listen. And so that's been the main takeaway for me. And there is a period, and my kids are grown. My oldest is 30. But amazingly. But there's a period in parenthood that everyone in this room has kids, is familiar with where it's just so chaotic. Like, there's just so much going on, so many demands from the children. You never have time to talk to the person with whom you created the children. And you're really at risk of wrecking your marriage during those years, I think. I mean, really like an actual risk and not just in the obvious. Sleeping with your assistant, though that's a thing, too, but just in a much more insidious and common way where you just sort of end up hating each other because you never talk. And if there's one thing, I mean, I'm hardly like a marriage counselor. I'm just some douchey journalist. But just having lived it, I would say if there's one thing I would encourage people with kids to do, it's ignore the kids in favor of the spouse once in a while and go out to dinner like make yourself do that every week if you want your children to be happy. And what's the measure of their happiness? Well, the measure of their happiness is their willingness to, like, come home, is their love for each other. You know, if you wind up in a situation where your kids really love each other and are close with each other, you've done a good job as a parent. Like, that's the clearest measure, in my opinion. And that's really the dream of every parent. In every parent's heart is the hope that what he or she will leave behind is kids who love each other. And if you want that, love your spouse, because that gives kids the core, the stability, the anchor. The kids want to know that everything's okay, and that tells them that everything's okay.

Yeah, that's great.

That's great.

So you seem to. You deal with incredibly serious issues. I mean, you're quite an influential person. You've got. I think it's always goes back and forth between you and Joe Rogan, who has the biggest podcast. Or is it. I don't know if this is.

Rogan created the genre Rogan created. I talked to Rogan today, actually. Amazing guy. But I just want to say one word about Rogan. I've been in the media, as I said, my whole life. Rogan was like a sitcom actor and a standup comedian and like an MMA fighter. Okay. So he starts this thing called a podcast where he talks for like, three hours. I'm in television at, like, a big network, and I'm looking over at this being like, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. You know, no one's gonna listen to a three hour podcast from some MMA fighter. I know, right? And this guy's not even in our business. Like, what's he doing? He completely changed not just American media, but American history. He created a whole new. I mean, it would be like this one guy invented the newspaper or television. I mean, that's how big what Rogan did was. And I just will admit freely that I did not see it coming. I did not understand it. I didn't think it would work. And the fact that it did work says something so great and important about Americans, which is they really want to learn. They're not learning in school, they're not learning in the rest of the media. It's all shallow and dumb and about race and gender. It's all lying. And Rogan's just, like, willing to sit there with interesting people and talk for three hours. That was the most affirming that is the most reassuring thing I've ever seen in 35 years in media that, that worked. And so I'm just, I'm thrilled by Rogan. I'm proud to be his friend. And I'm just, I really admire him more than anybody in media by far.

Yeah, well. And I mean, and again, you are one of. You are one of the most influential people right now in the world in media. And over the last year, I don't, I don't think what just happened on Tuesday would have happened without Rogan, without you, without Elon Musk. I mean, there's a series of people, but they are reaching lots of people. But the reason I bring this up, though, is that you seem to be super light hearted about it. At the same time, I see you as a very interesting guy in terms of. You deal with very serious issues. I mean, you're interviewing world leaders, you're calling people out that you disagree with, and you're funny about it. You're just, you seem to just really enjoy your life and really, you just seem to have a real strong center in the midst of it.

Well, I'm not. I mean, I don't think I'm in charge of history. I don't. I have a keen understanding of the limits of my foresight and power. I don't think I'm God. I believe in God and it's not me. So that's like the root of my happiness. I know that everything we do is basically just dogs barking. It will be forgotten. You know, you do your best, but in the end, your name will not be remembered. Your grave will not be visited. You are insignificant in the scope of history, period. And knowing that you will die and knowing that, and I keep that ever present in my mind lightens it a little bit. It's not up to you to change the world. God's in control, not you. And so all you can do is your best, knowing that you'll probably screw it up at least half the time. Just apologize when you do and keep going. But it sort of lightens the burden a little bit. I see these people in Washington like, I have to change the world. And it's like you will at best make it worse. Like you're an idiot, actually, and so am I. But the difference is, I admit it. I know I am. I know I am. And that is such an affirming thing. And also the other thing I would say is I have dogs. I have a lot of dogs. And they sleep on the bed and I hunt with them. And I really love them, and so does my wife. And we sit in bed and we spend at least an hour a day talking about our dogs. Aren't they great? They're so great. And we have these circular conversations that are the same every single day, but despite the fact they're repeated 365 days a year, they are no less enthusiastic and sincere. Like, we really mean it. Like, that dog's amazing. Yeah, that dog's amazing. We're not embarrassed about it. And it is such a great lesson that the most beautiful and the deepest and the most important things in life take place right in your bedroom, on your bed, right in your life. Like, don't imagine that the only things that are important are taking place on your phone or in some faraway country or in a battlefield or a conference room or at this, you know, the scale of world economies. No, it's. A sleeping dog with her tongue out of her mouth is, like, way more important than anything else that's going on right now. Because it's happening in your bedroom and that's your dog and that's your wife, and there's like, joy right in front of you. And you should experience that joy every single day. Don't. It's like your instincts, don't ignore them. If you feel something really strongly, it's true. If you're deriving great joy from something totally stupid, like watching your dog snore, that's okay. Don't anyone tell you otherwise. Do you know what I mean? I see these people, these political people are like, no, I need to make the world safe for trans kids. And that's like, okay, great. But first, like, how about being nice to your own kids and pleasing your own wife and, like, get a dog. Get some freaking perspective. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, sorry.

No, it's awesome. Awesome. I thought your Callie means and Casey means interview was amazing. Where's Callie at? Where's Callie? He's around here somewhere. He'll be here tonight. And I mean, there's a lot of interviews you have done that are just so eye opening. People can learn so much and get so much perspective and learn what's really going on in all kinds of areas. Jimmy Dore, which I watched recently, was fascinating. What interviews have you done this year that you think would be.

Well, all the interviews with people I thought I would disagree with. I mean, I lived in Southern California as a child, and, you know, all the organic peanut butter moms in my neighborhood I found incredibly annoying. You know what I mean? Saving the whales and furry armpits and lecturing you about eating white bread. And I was like, oh, stop. You know, tell me again about how Woodstock was. Shut up, hippie. And as I've gotten older, I realize, actually, I love those people. They were right about everything. And it's just wild to see that a lot of them, I just wound up in an alliance with them, actually. And they were right about all the hell stuff. I mean, I smoked until I was 45, so. And I love pizza. So clearly you're not taking health advice from me. But it doesn't mean that they're wrong. You know, they're right, actually. And so really, the most beautiful and rewarding experience for me for the past four or five years is realizing how much I have in common with people I thought I had nothing in common with, including Bobby and Callie and Jimmy Dore and, like, just Naomi Wolf. I mean, just the list goes on. To be surprised in your 50s, to learn something new in middle age, to realize and cheerfully admit you were wrong and then find out, you know, all the things you're wrong about and accept things that are clearly right. Like, I love that. I mean, maybe some people are embarrassed about. I see my whole political class, I can't admit they're wrong about anything. They're still defending the Iraq war, but I think they're in bondage. They're trapped. They're fearful, they're terrified. Admitting they're wrong about anything because then the whole edifice of bullshit comes crashing down and just crushes them like the wicked witch of the West. How much better is it to live in pure freedom by admitting the truth about everything? Then you don't have to be afraid at all. You could just be like, I was totally wrong. I got fired from my job. It's like, who cares? You're just, like, totally free when you're honest. And so that has just been incredible to me. I've loved it.

I love. Thank you for coming to Genius Summer. You're awesome. Thank you.

When Kamala Harris was. Kamala Harris was talking about equity, she either didn't know what she was talking about, which is inexcusable, or she knew what she was talking about, which was malevolent. Those are the options. It's like, they just mean equality of opportunity. It's like, then why do they have a different word? They don't mean equality of opportunity. They mean equality of outcome. If you're foolish enough to believe in equality.