00:00:51.000We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country.
00:01:03.000Welcome to this episode of the Charlie Kirk Show with a friend of mine, Elijah Stacey.
00:01:07.000I met Elijah at Jack Kibbs Church, Calvary Chapel, Chino Hills, and I was so moved by his story and the nonprofit you've started and the group you're doing.
00:01:35.000I'm 19 years old and I started a nonprofit organization at 15 called Destroy Duchin, which aims at advancing gene editing and gene therapy technologies into human practice.
00:03:28.000So very, very serious, very terrible disease.
00:03:32.000Not super well known, but I'm hoping to change that.
00:03:34.000Well, and you have a great attitude on life.
00:03:37.000You know that you have this terrible disease, but you have a great, you know, approach to things and you want to come up with a solution and try to tell people about it.
00:04:07.000See, a lot of people ask me this question.
00:04:08.000I never know how to answer because there's so many things that I care about and so many reasons why I think I am the way I am.
00:04:14.000But a lot of people with this disease, what I find, because I run a podcast where I interview them, what I find is that they all have the similar attitude, right?
00:04:24.000And I just think that there's no benefit to being negative, right?
00:04:29.000Being positive helps you overcome the hardships of life.
00:04:32.000So being negative, you know, it still doesn't change the fact that you're in a wheelchair, that you can't use your arms or that you have this terrible disease.
00:04:38.000So it's better just to be positive and it helps you kind of adapt and just keep things going, right?
00:04:44.000But I think, you know, really what I'm passionate about, I would say this, right?
00:04:48.000I would say that my life cause, I would sum it up as this, which is to minimize human suffering and advance human prosperity so that humanity can have a better quality of life.
00:04:57.000So any types of human suffering that I can minimize, that's what I'm all about.
00:05:01.000And so curing my disease or helping people with anxiety, depression, or whatever type of challenge they may face in their life, that's what I want to do.
00:05:10.000So there are advancements being made with this research.
00:05:14.000Can you talk about that with this disease?
00:05:16.000Yeah, so I think it's really fascinating stuff.
00:05:19.000And these are really the two things that we focus on as an organization, which is gene editing and gene therapy.
00:05:25.000So gene editing, I'm talking about things such as CRISPR, right?
00:05:29.000And in short, basically what this allows us to do is to edit your DNA, right?
00:05:33.000So if there's an error there, which is what genetic diseases are for the most part, they can go in and then cut that error out and then replace it with the correct DNA, the correct instructions, correct blueprints.
00:05:46.000And so that's really, really promising.
00:06:06.000The best way I can explain this is if you have a book and you have a page and there's a spelling error on the page, it's not going to make sense.
00:06:14.000But instead of correcting the error on that page, that would be gene editing.
00:06:18.000You could just insert a whole other page, the same page, but this one doesn't have that error in it.
00:08:11.000So new advancements and new breakthroughs.
00:08:14.000So you and I were talking off camera about this, and your faith is very important to you.
00:08:20.000And a growing movement on a certain kind of, let's just say, I don't want to overly politicize this, but on the left is trying to say that if there is a genetic malfunction found in, let's say, a pre-born child, that you should have the right to abort that child.
00:08:51.000I think you're underestimating what someone with a genetic disease can really do, right?
00:08:56.000I mean, I think that because I have the suffering that I've gone through, I'm still able to have a really good life, but I'm able to use that suffering to help other people with their suffering.
00:09:05.000Perhaps it's not being able to walk or not being able to use your arms, but it's able to relate to them and help them overcome their challenges of life.
00:09:15.000Like, I understand adversity because I live it every single day, you know?
00:09:19.000So I don't think that, yeah, I think that's incredibly wrong.
00:09:24.000And there's other problems that I have with that as well, philosophically.
00:10:11.000And so just so that we're specific, there is a growing movement of people that believe that if they find any form of genetic defect, that should be a reason for immediate abortion.
00:10:28.000Basically implying that your life is just like a...
00:10:56.000And so I think that no matter your circumstances, regardless if you believe in God or not, no matter your circumstances, I think that there's a lot that you can do to help the world in a positive way.
00:11:08.000And you're not a burden necessarily because you may have this disease or you may need special help in certain ways because you're still able to provide things in other ways.
00:11:17.000And so no one's a burden or they shouldn't be eliminated because they have a genetic disease, right?
00:11:25.000And it's a growing claim on the left there.
00:12:39.000Like, you know, in a hierarchy of values, I think that you can place, you know, materialism and like these superficial things.
00:12:46.000But I think that the most important thing that we should prioritize is our character.
00:12:49.000And so if I'm doing things every single day that are a good character, then I consider that a day well spent, right?
00:12:56.000Because that's living in accordance to God's laws.
00:13:00.000And the other thing, too, about characters that it's good under all circumstances, right?
00:13:06.000Like if you're healthy, you need to, you know, good character is going to allow you to do good stuff with your health.
00:13:12.000If you're not healthy, good character is going to allow you to endure the pain and suffering that you have because you have poor health, right?
00:13:17.000So character is good under all circumstances.
00:13:21.000So I think that's a super important thing.
00:13:22.000And then I also think too that one more thing on the character point is that when you do face the suffering, it allows you to exercise your character and to improve it, to strengthen it.
00:13:31.000So I think that, you know, if you want to say maximize each day, I would say that it's working on your character, right?
00:13:38.000That's a good day at a minimum, right?
00:13:42.000So you went to, did you go to public high school?
00:13:47.000So did it bother you when people were complaining about, you know, how awful their life was and or just, you know, what yeah, I mean, I mean, if I'm being really honest, I think that some people, yeah, they complain about things that are just, like, they're not real problems, to be quite frank.
00:14:04.000But I think that, you know, a lot of times when people had problems, I would try to help them.
00:14:57.000And so I really got into apologenics and studying people like Dr. William Lane Craig or Lee Strobel or these brilliant people who have given rational and evidential arguments for God's existence.
00:15:14.000And so that has really helped me, and I really still love that today.
00:15:18.000I really love philosophy and just studying that.
00:15:20.000And so I did have my doubts, but now that has really strengthened my faith.
00:15:23.000And I think that when you have those questions, it's not that you're questioning God, but it's you're trying to better understand him.
00:15:29.000And so when you have a problem, you don't understand something, you're trying to fix that question.
00:15:35.000That just lets you understand God better and get closer to him.
00:15:38.000And so I would say that, yes, I have had doubts, and that's how I got stronger.
00:15:43.000And Jack Kibbs, you know, he definitely has a lot of people that come speak there at his church that are into defending the faith and arguing for it and everything like that.
00:15:54.000And so what has really helped strengthen your faith more than anything else?
00:16:01.000I mean, to be honest, I really think that apologenics is definitely just the way that I work, right?
00:16:06.000I like to have a rational reason for believing in God.
00:16:09.000But I would say that in terms of believing in God, but in terms of growing my relationship, praying, fellowship, and reading the Bible, it's just, there's nothing like those three.
00:17:24.000But the book is basically a memoir of my life.
00:17:27.000And so I tell a story of each part of my life, a significant part.
00:17:31.000And at the end of each chapter, there's a life lesson that I learned.
00:17:34.000So some of those is self-image, how you view yourself.
00:17:36.000Some of it is worrying about what you can and can't control, the dichotomy of control, adapting, if you have this challenge in your life, you're just going to have to adapt to it.
00:17:48.000So there's all these different lessons and stuff like that in the book.
00:17:51.000And it's just really about all the adversity and overcoming suffering.
00:17:56.000And really, I think the title explains it best.
00:18:01.000And so the story behind that is, when I was 16, my back muscles were getting so weak and I was getting scoliosis in my back.
00:18:09.000And so my doctor wanted to, he started really pushing for me to have spine surgery where they would insert a metal rod in your back to straighten out your spine, right?
00:18:40.000And he said, once again, as a doctor, I can't give you false hope, but because I know you, I will give you a small if, you know, if you were able to do it.
00:18:48.000So for the next four months, I went to physical therapy, lost some weight, was eating healthy, totally zoned in on making this happen.
00:18:57.000And then four months later, it happened.
00:19:32.000What are some of the other lessons in there?
00:19:36.000Well, I mean, the first one is about doing things that seemed impossible.
00:19:40.000The second one is called Stay Ambitious, right?
00:19:43.000The lessons about staying ambitious, which I believe that really the lesson here is that if you're not chasing after anything in life, right?
00:19:51.000You're not going after anything, you don't have any goals, then you're really just existing, right?
00:19:55.000It's when you're ambitious, when you're really in that constant state of staying ambitious, that's when you really come to life and that you develop the passion and energy and everything that you need, right?
00:20:05.000That's when I, for me at least, that's when I find myself to be the most energized.