The Charlie Kirk Show - Ask Charlie Anything 189: Will Butker Survive? How To Learn Better? Pick A Veep ASAP?

00:00:00.000 Hey everybody, the AMA asked me anything where if you are a member at members.charlikirk.com, members.charliekirk.com.

00:00:08.000 You get to submit your questions.

00:00:09.000 Blake Neff and I take them for you.

00:00:11.000 You guys submitted some great ones.

00:00:13.000 Really embracing the fact that I'm hosting right now along with Blake.

00:00:17.000 While Charlie's away, he's going to be back on Monday.

00:00:20.000 But there's some great questions here.

00:00:22.000 We get into the behind the scenes of the Charlie Kirk show.

00:00:24.000 What it's really like, how we come up with topics, how we do research, how we retain information.

00:00:30.000 This is a really hands-on episode.

00:00:31.000 I love doing it.

00:00:32.000 If you want to be a part of this show next week, if you want to ask Charlie questions, join members.charlikirk.com.

00:00:38.000 That's members.charliekirk.com.

00:00:40.000 Hopefully you take us up on that and join our growing community of Charlie Kirk exclusive members.

00:00:46.000 So buckle up. 0.96

00:00:47.000 Here we go.

00:00:48.000 Charlie, what you've done is incredible here.

00:00:50.000 Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus.

00:00:52.000 I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk.

00:00:56.000 Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks.

00:00:59.000 I want to thank Charlie.

00:01:00.000 He's an incredible guy.

00:01:01.000 His spirit, his love of this country, he's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created.

00:01:08.000 Turning point USA. 0.65

00:01:09.000 We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country.

00:01:18.000 That's why we are here.

00:01:22.000 Noble Gold Investments is the official gold sponsor of the Charlie Kirk Show, a company that specializes in gold IRAs and physical delivery of precious metals.

00:01:32.000 Learn how you could protect your wealth with Noble Gold Investments at noblegoldinvestments.com.

00:01:38.000 That is noblegoldinvestments.com.

00:01:40.000 It's where I buy all of my gold.

00:01:42.000 Go to noblegoldinvestments.com.

00:01:47.000 They are counting on your surrender.

00:01:51.000 If you give up, they win.

00:01:54.000 But what if we look back and we realize we were just inches away from victory and that's when we decided to give up.

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00:02:58.000 Register now at tpaction.com/slash peoples.

00:03:07.000 I'm joined by the esteemed, the one and only Blake Neff, one of our other producers on the show.

00:03:14.000 Welcome.

00:03:15.000 Welcome, Blake.

00:03:16.000 I'm esteemed now.

00:03:17.000 Oh, dear.

00:03:18.000 Yes, you are.

00:03:19.000 Of course you are.

00:03:19.000 Oh, man.

00:03:20.000 You're also one of the hosts of Thought Crime, Thought Crime Thursdays, sort of one of our anchors of that show.

00:03:26.000 So, Blake, I'm going to, you know, kick it to you.

00:03:30.000 You get the first one here.

00:03:32.000 So, this is, I guess, from Bill.

00:03:35.000 I have a question not relating to being producers, but still curious.

00:03:38.000 Do you think the Chiefs will release Harrison Butger?

00:03:41.000 I am not sure what the rules are regarding firing football players.

00:03:44.000 Is that something you can fire someone for?

00:03:47.000 Bill.

00:03:47.000 I like the wording.

00:03:48.000 I like the wording you fire.

00:03:49.000 It'd be more fun in the NFL if they said that, if they just said, you know, the Packers have fired their defensive tackle.

00:03:56.000 So the term they use, it would be released so you can release an NFL player.

00:04:01.000 NFL contracts are not guaranteed, like they aren't required to keep you on the roster if they don't want you around.

00:04:08.000 They sometimes have guaranteed money and there are penalties for getting rid of you.

00:04:13.000 What I will say is I think it's pretty unlikely the Chiefs will do that.

00:04:16.000 This will go away eventually.

00:04:18.000 The Chiefs have just not commented on it directly.

00:04:20.000 The NFL put out a short statement, but it's definitely not on the level where they would just get rid of him.

00:04:27.000 And on the plus side, he is a good kicker.

00:04:29.000 He is good at his job.

00:04:30.000 He has one of the highest career accuracy levels of any kicker in NFL history.

00:04:38.000 Interestingly, I'm spacing on his name.

00:04:41.000 I want to check this.

00:04:43.000 I think it's Justin.

00:04:44.000 Is it Justin Tucker?

00:04:45.000 Justin Tucker is the kicker of the Baltimore Ravens.

00:04:49.000 And he's also, I believe, a super Catholic kicker. 0.79

00:04:52.000 There just seemed to be this cabal of highly accurate super Catholic kickers in the NFL. 0.67

00:04:58.000 But no, I think he'll be able to keep his job.

00:05:00.000 I think this will go away.

00:05:01.000 He'll be fine.

00:05:02.000 His jersey is selling really well right now.

00:05:04.000 I've seen it's both men and women's varieties.

00:05:07.000 So I think a lot of women are perfectly fine with what he had to say.

00:05:10.000 So I'm glad we saw a lot of people stick up for him. 0.99

00:05:14.000 But I would not, unless something abruptly changes, I don't see this turning into him getting booted out of the NFL or anything stupid like that. 0.99

00:05:22.000 No, I agree with you. 0.99

00:05:24.000 And I think the tide has sort of turned.

00:05:26.000 I think he's getting a lot of support now.

00:05:28.000 And I'm telling you, organizations watch jersey sales like a hawk.

00:05:34.000 So for example, when the Dodgers signed Shohei Otani to a $700 million contract, not only did they defer a lot of that until after the contract was over to help save cap space, but that's a ton of money for one team to put out for one player.

00:05:47.000 Why did they do it?

00:05:48.000 Well, guess what?

00:05:49.000 They made about a third of that up on year one jersey sales.

00:05:53.000 That's how insane it can be.

00:05:54.000 Well, especially with somebody like Shohei.

00:05:56.000 I mean, he's an international talent, so he's selling jerseys in Japan and Korea.

00:06:02.000 So the fact that his jersey is selling as popularly as it is, and to Blake's point, he's the number one, I think, female fit jersey in the NFL right now.

00:06:13.000 That's going to make a ton of money for the Chiefs.

00:06:15.000 And listen, he didn't say anything that was truly wrong.

00:06:20.000 Even if you're a put your mind set on as a left winger for a minute, you can't actually say he did anything that wrong, right?

00:06:30.000 And, you know, what I really appreciated is people, obviously it's true he said nothing wrong, but I've appreciated that people relatively quickly realized, wait a minute, the NFL has multiple criminals who have no problem being on teams.

00:06:45.000 We have players like Tyreek Hill who are in trouble with the law all the time.

00:06:49.000 And if you can get 1,600 yards and catch 10 touchdowns, a team will hire you as long as you aren't literally incarcerated for murder.

00:06:57.000 Then they'll usually get rid of you if you commit murder, usually.

00:07:00.000 Ray Lewis, he pulled it off.

00:07:03.000 And so, like, I'm just appreciating the public's ability to push back on just rank BS when they try to push narratives like this on us.

00:07:13.000 Well, and Charlie actually wrote an op-ed for the Blaze about this.

00:07:18.000 The Blaze asked Charlie to do it because Charlie put up a tweet about it.

00:07:22.000 And I just texted with the team over at the Blaze.

00:07:26.000 I said, how well did this do?

00:07:27.000 They said, it was one of our top performers.

00:07:29.000 Like, people are really into this story.

00:07:31.000 And by the way, here's one other clue that they're not going to get rid of Harrison Butker.

00:07:35.000 This is the daughter of the Chiefs' owner, apparently.

00:07:38.000 I think her name's Gracie Hunt.

00:07:40.000 And she just went on Fox and defended him. 1.00

00:07:42.000 Play Cut 207.

00:07:44.000 We're going to start with you because the couch would like to know, as America would, the reaction from the Hunt family regarding the kicker, Harrison Butker.

00:07:53.000 Well, I can only speak from my own experience, which is I've had the most incredible mom who had the ability to stay home and be with us kids during that.

00:08:04.000 And I understand that there are many women out there who can't make that decision. 0.90

00:08:07.000 But for me in my life, I know it was really formative in shaping me and my siblings to be who we are.

00:08:12.000 So you understood what he was talking about.

00:08:14.000 For sure.

00:08:15.000 And I really respect Harrison and his Christian faith and what he's accomplished on and off the field.

00:08:20.000 Well, that's a pretty incredible clip.

00:08:23.000 I mean, that is the daughter of the owner defending his Christian faith and defending a woman like her mother who stayed home to be with, you know, the kids and raise the family.

00:08:33.000 I mean, it's, it's, I would say that Harrison Butker is in no danger of getting released from the Chiefs.

00:08:40.000 Would you agree, Blake?

00:08:41.000 Yeah. 0.61

00:08:43.000 It would be really dumb if they released him over something like this.

00:08:47.000 I think people are, I think it's good that they're worried, but I don't think there's any chance that it'll happen.

00:08:53.000 He'll be in, he'll be fine.

00:08:56.000 So my question is, how did Blake and Andrew meet Charlie and how did they start working for TP?

00:09:03.000 Thanks for all you do, Trish.

00:09:04.000 I don't work for TP.

00:09:06.000 Yeah.

00:09:08.000 I should clarify that just before, make sure we don't get in trouble with anyone.

00:09:12.000 But I work for Tarling Players.

00:09:12.000 Yeah, so that's true.

00:09:14.000 Which is not Turning Point.

00:09:15.000 Right.

00:09:16.000 So we actually, yeah, the show exists.

00:09:19.000 There's a media company that exists outside of Turning Point.

00:09:22.000 And that's a really simple reason why Turning Point USA is a 501c3.

00:09:27.000 It's nonpartisan.

00:09:28.000 Yak.

00:09:29.000 It's conservative.

00:09:30.000 Conservative ideas, conservative values, principles, philosophies.

00:09:35.000 But it does not endorse candidates.

00:09:37.000 A lot of people don't understand this.

00:09:38.000 TP USA, Turning Point USA, does not endorse candidates.

00:09:42.000 It doesn't endorse political parties.

00:09:43.000 It's completely unaffiliated with all that.

00:09:45.000 Now, there is something called Turning Point Action, which is the 501c4, which has a scorecard, which judges the way people vote in Congress and in the Senate.

00:09:56.000 It endorses political candidates.

00:09:57.000 It endorses presidential candidates.

00:09:59.000 It's actively involved in chasing ballots.

00:10:01.000 So it's a whole different thing.

00:10:04.000 I met Charlie.

00:10:07.000 My career took me from Hollywood.

00:10:09.000 I was working with Mark Burnett and Roma Downey launching TV shows.

00:10:14.000 And Mark Burnett does Survivor and he does The Voice and he does Shark Tank.

00:10:20.000 And then he did the Bible series, 80 the Bible Continues.

00:10:23.000 And they sort of said, hey, who here is Christian can help us launch these Christian things?

00:10:27.000 And it was Hollywood.

00:10:28.000 So I was like the only one.

00:10:29.000 So next thing I know, I'm going around Hollywood in the country with Mark Burnett and launching the Bible series and 80 the Bible continues and Ben Hurr.

00:10:41.000 And then launched a PR company after that.

00:10:44.000 And then somehow we got connected with Charlie and I ended up working with Prager U and the Blaze and Turning Point USA.

00:10:52.000 And then from there I went on to Charlie and I got closer into business and we launched this podcast and we launched the radio show and now we simulcast on Real America's Voice for the first two hours and it's been a massive, massive success.

00:11:07.000 And so that's how I met Charlie is through my work in Hollywood.

00:11:12.000 I was connected with a lot of press.

00:11:15.000 I wanted to help Charlie with his press and then it kind of became a whole thing.

00:11:20.000 So Blake, how do you know Charlie?

00:11:24.000 Do any of us really know Charlie?

00:11:27.000 So I was obviously I was at Fox until 2020 and then events unfolded, which you can read about on the internet.

00:11:34.000 And so I was working in a variety of independent roles.

00:11:38.000 And then in what have been about October 22, about a month before the midterms, so there's a woman who works at Turning Point named Marina.

00:11:49.000 And I knew her from when I worked at Fox.

00:11:51.000 And so they needed a new producer role on the Charlie Kirk show.

00:11:56.000 So she, this is my understanding anyway, she recommended me to Andrew.

00:12:00.000 So Andrew just called me out of the blue.

00:12:02.000 He's like, hi, Lei.

00:12:03.000 I'm Andrew at the Charlie Kirk show.

00:12:05.000 And I'm like, hi.

00:12:06.000 And he goes, hey, do you want to work for us?

00:12:07.000 And I was like, sure, I guess.

00:12:10.000 And that was pretty much it.

00:12:11.000 That was about the length of my job interview.

00:12:13.000 And then I suppose I met Charlie for the first time.

00:12:18.000 Oh, yeah, it was at America.

00:12:20.000 I met him at AmericaFest about two months later.

00:12:21.000 So I did come down for that.

00:12:23.000 Yeah, but there was other people trying to get Blake to work for him, and I had to elbow him off.

00:12:28.000 So we don't have to get into that, but it's fine.

00:12:33.000 Hey, guys, prepare to witness a journey of resilience, courage, and redemption in Angel Studios' upcoming new film site, hitting theaters May 24th.

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00:13:33.000 That's angel.com slash Charlie.

00:13:37.000 Question from Bruce.

00:13:38.000 Who picks the podcast bumper music and where can I get the playlist?

00:13:42.000 I don't know if we have Michael, if he's if he's visible or not, but I think he's just in the studio.

00:13:48.000 He's just in the studio, but he says you can go to artlist.io and it's just royalty-free music.

00:13:57.000 We used to play real songs more often, and then I think we got one of those slaps on the wrist where you have to pay $10,000 because you use someone's song too much or something.

00:14:08.000 And so off it was to the royalty-free music land.

00:14:11.000 But I agree, a lot of it's quite crazy.

00:14:13.000 This is maybe two in the weeds, but for radio, you can play, if it's just radio only, you can play certain types of music, more of the popular stuff that you would hear on the radio songs you would know.

00:14:25.000 Once we started simulcasting on Real America's Voice and Salem News Channel, then that became a licensing issue.

00:14:34.000 So yeah, Michael does a great job with that.

00:14:36.000 So hat tip to Michael.

00:14:38.000 If you're watching, I believe you are.

00:14:41.000 Next question from Bruce.

00:14:43.000 We don't have to stay too long on this because we've actually covered it before, but Scouting America sent a couple emails this last week.

00:14:50.000 I'm an active adult volunteer, and I believe it's not totally ruined and can and should be saved.

00:14:54.000 That was the second question from Bruce.

00:14:57.000 Blake, what do you think?

00:14:58.000 Can Scouting America, formerly Boy Scouts of America, can it be saved?

00:15:02.000 Is it worth sticking in there?

00:15:05.000 Well, I'm not involved with it at the time.

00:15:07.000 So I think it would be arrogant of me to just say, oh, it can't be saved.

00:15:12.000 What I would say is the trajectory, everything I have seen in terms of its trajectory for the past 10 years has been bad.

00:15:21.000 And I feel what they've disproportionately done is driven out the people who were some of the biggest value additions to scouting.

00:15:29.000 They got a lot of the churches to leave.

00:15:31.000 A lot of the people affiliated with those churches stepped away.

00:15:34.000 I certainly know that a lot of people who were heavily involved in scouting when I was growing up and becoming an Eagle Scout stepped away because they were very upset about these changes.

00:15:44.000 And so I can, could it be saved?

00:15:48.000 I don't want to say it's impossible.

00:15:49.000 Everything's possible.

00:15:50.000 What I would wonder is what's the mechanism that would cause that to happen?

00:15:55.000 And a lot of the things that have made it, that have damaged it strike me as basically irreversible.

00:16:01.000 Like, I can't imagine Boy Scouts going back to me and all boys.

00:16:04.000 Like, they've let in girls.

00:16:06.000 They're heavily girls now. 0.81

00:16:07.000 You're not just going to kick, you know, 200,000 girls out of scouting.

00:16:11.000 So if you want scouting as it was in the way Charlie and I praised it as a positive all-male environment for young men, I think you're going to have to look to alternative organizations that people are creating. 0.53

00:16:26.000 I don't know which ones are the best.

00:16:27.000 I know there's several options.

00:16:29.000 But I do think if you want to restore the best parts of scouting as it was, you're probably going to have to look to something that's not the literal Boy Scouts of America.

00:16:38.000 But I don't want to say that it's worthless.

00:16:40.000 I'm sure there are many troops that are good.

00:16:41.000 I'm sure there are many programs that are good.

00:16:43.000 I'm sure they still teach a lot of good values.

00:16:46.000 It's just that I don't think it's a, I think it's a stretch to say that it will go back to what it was in anything short of basically a miracle.

00:16:56.000 Yeah, I have two thoughts on this real quick.

00:16:58.000 I was not a Boy Scout like Charlie and Blake.

00:17:01.000 However, organizationally, you can see this happen in lots of different organizations.

00:17:06.000 Organizations that are not expressly conservative tend to drift liberal over time.

00:17:11.000 It's just like a law of nature.

00:17:13.000 But I will say, Bruce, if you're involved at a local level, you absolutely have the ability to ensure that your local troop is conservative, that it holds these traditional values and it upholds the way scouting has been done for a long time.

00:17:28.000 And the second thought is the only way that you get Boy Scouts back and Scouting America saved organizationally at a macro level is to get new leadership in and somebody that has the courage to radically about face and say, listen, it wasn't broke.

00:17:46.000 We didn't need to fix it.

00:17:47.000 We actually broke it by trying to do this thing.

00:17:49.000 So we're going back to the way it was.

00:17:50.000 If you get bold leadership in there, I mean, I think it's worth praying for because I think the Boy Scouts of America are truly that important to some of these formative years for young men like Charlie and Blake and turning them into the men that they become.

00:18:04.000 So I hope, you know, I'm going to hope for it.

00:18:06.000 I'm going to pray for it.

00:18:08.000 And so you should absolutely keep trying.

00:18:10.000 But yeah, there are alternatives that are popping up.

00:18:13.000 Whether any of those could match the level and scope that Boy Scouts reached is a big question.

00:18:20.000 Another question from Beth.

00:18:21.000 Do either of you enjoy hosting?

00:18:23.000 How do you decide who gets to host when Charlie is away?

00:18:26.000 Do I like hosting?

00:18:28.000 I do like hosting.

00:18:30.000 I can tell you that I have about five other jobs that I also have to do during the day.

00:18:36.000 So adding show prep, there is a level of show prep that you have to do when you host as opposed to produce.

00:18:44.000 It's deeper.

00:18:46.000 You have to know the details more intimately.

00:18:50.000 You have to kind of understand where you're going to go.

00:18:52.000 You have to map it out.

00:18:53.000 I think this morning I got up at 5.30 and I started working on show prep and what I wanted to do with the show today.

00:19:01.000 So it's a lot more work, actually.

00:19:04.000 And for those of you watching, to understand what Charlie does on a daily basis, I'm maybe one of the few people that has eyes on just how intense that preparation is.

00:19:15.000 Charlie runs two organizations, about $150 million a year.

00:19:20.000 He's in charge of 500 staff, not to mention the team that we have here.

00:19:27.000 So there's a lot of responsibilities on Charlie's shoulders on a daily basis.

00:19:32.000 And to also host a radio show, deal with donors, deal with politicians, leaders, organizations that are all sort of clamoring for his time is a truly Herculean feat that he pulls off every day.

00:19:43.000 And I just get a small glimpse of that when I host.

00:19:45.000 So I will say, yes, I enjoy it, but it is a lot.

00:19:49.000 It's a ton of work and we take it really seriously.

00:19:51.000 And, you know, thankfully, Blake is also on the team and does a great job helping us prep for each show.

00:19:58.000 Blake, do you like being on behind the microphone?

00:20:01.000 Yeah, I don't know.

00:20:02.000 I think it's pretty easy to just run your mouth on whatever.

00:20:04.000 Like, whatever.

00:20:06.000 Just express your opinion on things.

00:20:09.000 So nice.

00:20:09.000 Well, and Blake, you do thought crime.

00:20:11.000 Yeah, of course.

00:20:11.000 Yeah, we do thought crime podcasts.

00:20:13.000 That's a lot of fun.

00:20:13.000 And like I said, you're kind of the anchor of Thought Crime.

00:20:16.000 You help determine a lot of the directions in which that show goes.

00:20:20.000 And for those of you who don't know, we stream it live on Rumble on Thursday nights, and then we release it on the podcast on Saturdays.

00:20:28.000 And so it's, you know, that's a show that's more conversational.

00:20:33.000 Having Blake on, you know, even on these AMAs, makes it somehow sometimes more fun because we can just kind of banter back and forth and I can key off something he says and vice versa.

00:20:43.000 So I think that's really fun.

00:20:44.000 As far as how we choose who guests host when Charlie's away, I mean, I'm kind of the guest host.

00:20:50.000 Charlie just says, hey, you're hosting.

00:20:52.000 And I, you know, and then I do it.

00:20:54.000 So there's that.

00:20:56.000 And I was actually, it's funny enough, backstory.

00:20:58.000 I was before we launched into radio, I was actually, I don't know if auditioning is the right word, but I was auditioning, I guess, for a job to guest host a radio show in Los Angeles with Salem, part of their morning show.

00:21:13.000 They ended up going with Grant Stinchfield.

00:21:15.000 So he's, so I don't like him.

00:21:17.000 I'm kidding.

00:21:18.000 It's fine.

00:21:19.000 I like him just fine.

00:21:20.000 He's great.

00:21:21.000 So I don't know.

00:21:21.000 It's something that's, I was a rush baby.

00:21:24.000 I grew up with radio.

00:21:25.000 I love radio.

00:21:25.000 I love the microphone.

00:21:27.000 I love the medium.

00:21:29.000 And I know Charlie does too.

00:21:30.000 That's why we went into it.

00:21:31.000 So, anyways, I hope that answers your question.

00:21:35.000 Blake, do you want to take the next one?

00:21:37.000 All right.

00:21:37.000 What's a pretty fast one?

00:21:39.000 Let's see.

00:21:41.000 How about this one?

00:21:41.000 How do you, this is from Josiah.

00:21:43.000 How do you go about choosing partners for the show?

00:21:45.000 How much of a say does Charlie have in the sponsors and does he use them?

00:21:49.000 I can definitely say he uses them.

00:21:51.000 We actually have all of the sponsor products lying around the office in sometimes amusing spots.

00:22:00.000 I've definitely seen like strong, I've definitely seen strong sell pop up.

00:22:05.000 Like occasionally, Charlie's assistant will just be like, Blake, want a strong sell?

00:22:10.000 And I'll sometimes sometimes I'll take it.

00:22:12.000 Although I like to joke that the only strong sell I want is the one that Hillary Clinton should be in. 0.97

00:22:16.000 But it's no, Charlie is a big strong.

00:22:19.000 He definitely endorses that product.

00:22:21.000 He endorses a lot of the supplements and stuff that he does.

00:22:26.000 He markets.

00:22:26.000 He definitely is a real believer in all of those.

00:22:29.000 He does drink the coffee that we advertise.

00:22:32.000 Black outfits, that's what it means.

00:22:33.000 Let me say this too, because I'm often involved in those conversations.

00:22:38.000 We say no to a bunch, like a bunch, a bunch, a bunch of sponsors that come up.

00:22:43.000 I would say the majority we say no to.

00:22:46.000 So yes, Charlie believes in the products.

00:22:48.000 And we have a, there's a whole meet and greet, get to know you process before we bring a sponsor on.

00:22:54.000 So rest assured they've been vetted and we do endorse them.

00:22:57.000 Andrew and Blake, are there certain topics some people on the team are more well versed in than others?

00:23:04.000 How do you decide who takes the lead on what?

00:23:06.000 Brad, Blake is our resident expert on European history and the various, what do you, I don't even know what you call them, regions, states, districts of Germany and Mexico?

00:23:18.000 Oh, yeah, all of that.

00:23:20.000 I like to think I'm also the one who always has to like go and like read the bill whenever there's like some 500 page thing that's up or I always enjoy when I get to bring up the strange aspects of the election process or the primary process.

00:23:35.000 It, of course, it seems to get more convoluted every single election cycle.

00:23:40.000 So I get to do a lot of that stuff.

00:23:43.000 Definitely, I feel like if we're going to assign anyone to become an expert on something, it's usually me.

00:23:50.000 Obviously, Andrew, you're really knowledgeable about media, production, the actual industry.

00:23:57.000 What Charlie himself is the most knowledgeable on, frankly, is politics.

00:24:02.000 He knows all of the lawmakers.

00:24:05.000 He knows the donors.

00:24:06.000 He talks to them a lot.

00:24:07.000 He texts with them a lot.

00:24:09.000 He has...

00:24:10.000 all of those communications going on all of the time and he's just been in the thick of it since he was 18 basically, and so he has that level of experience that is just otherwise unheard of for someone who's his age and he's only growing in that constantly.

00:24:26.000 So he's definitely just the biggest personal level expert on that on this staff for that sort of thing.

00:24:32.000 Yeah, and I i'd say Blake uh, you have a brain of a kind of a almost like a lawyer uh, yet you spent a lot of time, almost went to law school bullet tonight.

00:24:41.000 No, but you do.

00:24:42.000 Blake is the guy that's on the all the chats with all the like lawyers and the legal nerds and the kind of you have.

00:24:48.000 You're, you're on those group chats.

00:24:50.000 I'm on a lot of group chats with, like influencers and reporters and uh, a decent number of lawmakers as well, and we try and stay and stay in, stay in touch with a lot of, a lot of those things and I and i'm constantly getting pitched stories from a lot of people.

00:25:05.000 So I have to kind of do preliminary investigation if something's interesting or if it's catchy um, and then I, I I really tend to be very uh, i'm very hardlined when it comes to immigration.

00:25:19.000 So that's one of my, my pet issues uh immigration, and then election integrity uh, a lot of the Covet stuff i'll, i'll play point on.

00:25:27.000 So I think that's kind of a good rundown of of of our skill set.

00:25:32.000 And again, if you want obscure, random European history, you know Blake, Blake uh, is your guy Blake, say something random about like the Vikings or something, or like the like, what's something random that you've learned recently?

00:25:44.000 That's actually interesting.

00:25:45.000 Oh man um, one I picked up yesterday while I was actually I was in the uh, I was in our, our gym and I was playing the Revolutions podcast, and so it was talking about the English Revolution, Oliver Cromwell and all of that.

00:25:57.000 Oliver Cromwell wanted to dissolve parliament and but the law said that parliament had to sit for five months and it hadn't been five months yet.

00:26:05.000 But Oliver Cromwell was a genius so he said, the law doesn't say whether it's, you know, a calendar month or a lunar month, and so you know, a lunar month is, you know, about four weeks, so it's a bit shorter than a full month.

00:26:19.000 So he came out and he said, five lunar months have passed and I am firing parliament, and so that's what he did and he got away with it.

00:26:26.000 They also tried to ban Christmas, and the War On Christmas in 1650 was just as unpopular as the War On Christmas is today.

00:26:34.000 See what I mean, Blake Uh and his random, his random uh, his random histories.

00:26:42.000 Hey everybody, Charlie Kirk here, did you know that 80 of adults take supplements to feel our best, right?

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00:27:46.000 Okay, this is Kim.

00:27:48.000 Oh, wait, you had one, Blake, that you wanted to get to.

00:27:51.000 Hold on, let me bring this up.

00:27:52.000 You can go ahead and take it if you want, Blake.

00:27:55.000 Yeah, we'll do that.

00:27:56.000 So, Josiah, he asked about our sponsors, but he also asked, How have you learned to retain so much information?

00:28:02.000 And do you have tips and tricks for the process?

00:28:06.000 As an entrepreneur, I find it hard to see the return on investment for study or learning.

00:28:12.000 I'd rather be doing hands-on work because of the direct results.

00:28:15.000 Well, hands-on work is a type of study and learning.

00:28:18.000 I'm definitely not going to denigrate that at all.

00:28:21.000 I often wish I did more of that.

00:28:24.000 The trick for learning more information: there's two levels of this.

00:28:29.000 One, you just passively pick up a lot if you just read a lot.

00:28:33.000 It's hard for me to say that that's a process because I just organically do it a lot.

00:28:38.000 I know Charlie organically does that a lot. 0.99

00:28:41.000 There's a lot of merit to reading, to rereading things.

00:28:45.000 Once you see something four or five times, it's going to be a lot more ingrained than if you just try to remember it once.

00:28:51.000 A habit I've picked up in the last few years, I like to underline and write in my books.

00:28:56.000 I usually do read physical books, so I just underline anything that stands out to me.

00:29:00.000 And then, if I want to revisit or remember something that was important to me in a book, I just pick it up and I scan through it and I read what I bothered to highlight.

00:29:07.000 And that's a good way to quickly get it back.

00:29:11.000 I have a friend who is the best memorizer, he's the best learner I know.

00:29:16.000 He's able to accumulate huge amounts of information.

00:29:19.000 He swears by there's a smartphone program called Anki A-N-K-I. 0.99

00:29:24.000 I don't know if it's Anki, I don't know if I'm pronouncing it the right way, but it's basically a phone flashcard app, and you can just build hundreds, thousands of flashcards.

00:29:33.000 And he argues that it's essentially a solved scientific question: how to learn things.

00:29:37.000 You can build these decks, and you just, it knows the right amount of time to remind you of things, so it'll quiz you about it five times the first week, and then once a week for a while after that, and then it's down to once every six months to keep it fresh in your brain.

00:29:52.000 So, if you really are serious about trying to learn as much as possible, figure out how to use that app.

00:29:58.000 I know medical students do it, lawyers studying for the bar do it.

00:30:01.000 If you really need to internalize a huge amount of information, there are tricks you can use.

00:30:05.000 But if you're just more casual, it's you know, don't waste your time.

00:30:10.000 Like, I read a lot of books.

00:30:12.000 I, you know, I enjoy reading junk food books occasionally that are just pulpy sci-fi.

00:30:18.000 But most of the time, what I'm reading is has some sort of knowledge or takeaway that I would find useful.

00:30:25.000 And when you're doing that a lot all of the time, you just pick up a lot of knowledge along the way.

00:30:29.000 Blake, where do you get your inspiration for the books you read?

00:30:33.000 Like, how do you, I mean, it's just group chats.

00:30:36.000 Is it yeah, I get a lot of recommendations from my friends, uh, and it's often what I read next is just I could be more structured about this.

00:30:45.000 I know some people who are extremely structured about what they choose to read.

00:30:48.000 Most of this is just what strikes me at the time.

00:30:51.000 I have a perpetually large backlog of books.

00:30:54.000 So I end up getting books and then, you know, I've moved on by the time, you know, maybe I get five books that appeal to me on a topic.

00:31:00.000 I read two of them and then I decide I've moved on to a new thing.

00:31:02.000 And then I might go back to those other ones later.

00:31:05.000 I try to read as much as I can, but I'd still like to read more.

00:31:08.000 I read more in about 2018.

00:31:10.000 It helps if you are going to try to read something, take your phone and put it in a different room.

00:31:19.000 Not even put it aside.

00:31:20.000 Put it in a different room.

00:31:22.000 You can even buy boxes that you can lock it in and set it so like you literally can't open it.

00:31:27.000 Don't do this if you're a doctor or something where they're going to need you.

00:31:30.000 But studies show that if you are, if you even have a phone in the same room as you and you know it's there, it distracts your focus.

00:31:39.000 You always want to look at it.

00:31:40.000 So you literally want to train your brain to be able to resist the phone, to ignore the phone.

00:31:47.000 And if you do that very consistently, you'll find it a lot easier to read books without getting distracted over and over again.

00:31:54.000 And so your pages per hour productivity will be a lot better.

00:31:59.000 I learned through doing.

00:32:02.000 I'm more of a kinetic learner.

00:32:04.000 So I resonate with Josiah.

00:32:07.000 Because of my job, oftentimes I have to write things down.

00:32:10.000 So I'll research something.

00:32:11.000 I'll write something.

00:32:14.000 And by the way, having to summarize your learnings is a great way to kind of get to the point of figuring out what you believe about them.

00:32:21.000 So I would recommend that.

00:32:22.000 I know it's kind of like doing a book report, but I happen to have a job where that happens a lot.

00:32:27.000 So I'm benefited in that way.

00:32:29.000 Let's go to another question here.

00:32:30.000 This is from Kim.

00:32:31.000 I'm a member and I love watching the episodes without ads.

00:32:31.000 Hi there.

00:32:34.000 My question is, from being producers, do you see messages or data on the back end that points to things looking up for the next generation or the next election?

00:32:43.000 Do you see more people gravitating toward conservative media?

00:32:48.000 I'll take the point on this if you want to follow up, Blake.

00:32:51.000 I would say conservative media is absolutely growing.

00:32:54.000 A lot of the incumbent powers in the media sphere have had massive layoffs.

00:33:00.000 They've seen a decline in viewership.

00:33:03.000 And by the way, the old way of consuming media, whether that be through Fox or anything on TV, and there's nothing against Fox, that way is slowly dying.

00:33:15.000 There was one mega influencer I was talking to yesterday who called it a zombie.

00:33:19.000 And make no mistake, when Trump is off the scene, which is going to be inevitable, you are going to see broadcast media take a huge step back.

00:33:29.000 And what's happening now is that people are consuming a lot more content over YouTube, Rumble, podcasting.

00:33:36.000 So people tend to be multi-platform.

00:33:38.000 So sometimes they'll watch this show and then they'll check out the podcast.

00:33:41.000 And then they'll check out the podcast and they'll watch the live show and they'll listen to it on radio.

00:33:46.000 So that is happening more and more and more.

00:33:48.000 And the way that even some of these platforms like YouTube and Rumble are working, they're acting more and more like TV platforms.

00:33:57.000 So you can watch it on your big screen at home and just watch Rumble that way.

00:34:01.000 So everything's kind of moving that way.

00:34:03.000 And what that's done is it's created an opening for alternative media to essentially get almost to par in a lot of different ways with traditional forms of media.

00:34:15.000 And the traditional forms of media had gatekeepers.

00:34:17.000 They were not very positive.

00:34:20.000 They didn't want to work with conservatives as much.

00:34:22.000 And there was implications when it came to advertisers and brands.

00:34:26.000 So it tended to have a gatekeeper effect.

00:34:28.000 That's all changed.

00:34:29.000 Everything's different now.

00:34:30.000 And if you look at the podcast list, guess what?

00:34:32.000 The top podcast, which we're honored to be on that list all the time, is mostly conservatives.

00:34:38.000 And then you got like the New York Times and NPR.

00:34:41.000 That's about it. 0.99

00:34:42.000 And Pod Save America, which is garbage. 0.98

00:34:44.000 But that is the top is conservative personalities. 0.97

00:34:47.000 And so that's just the way that things are happening.

00:34:51.000 And it's having an impact now with Elon Musk buying Twitter and turning it into X.

00:34:57.000 That our ideas now have free reign to get most places.

00:35:02.000 Now, there are some corners of the media ecosystem where we're not allowed still.

00:35:07.000 And I think that, you know, but you're seeing a big change.

00:35:10.000 It is growing, and there are massive opportunities in the future.

00:35:14.000 So I would say, you know, all systems go.

00:35:17.000 And one last point I'll say: TikTok.

00:35:21.000 We weren't even on TikTok about six weeks ago.

00:35:24.000 Charlie is now doing 10 million views a day or more.

00:35:29.000 We had a day with 14 million views on TikTok.

00:35:31.000 Those are conservative ideas, conservative debates, confronting ideas.

00:35:35.000 And guess who's consuming it?

00:35:37.000 18 to 24-year-olds.

00:35:39.000 And now they come up to him on campus and say, I love your TikTok.

00:35:42.000 I love what you're doing.

00:35:43.000 So hat tip to Ryan on our team, who really pushed for that to happen.

00:35:47.000 And hat tip to Congress for the terrible FISA vote because that's when Charlie had had enough of the censorship regime and just said, screw it.

00:35:55.000 We're going to get on TikTok.

00:35:56.000 I don't want anything else censored or banned or whatever.

00:35:59.000 So data behind the next generation getting more conservative.

00:36:02.000 Look at TikTok.

00:36:03.000 Look at the alternative media landscape where we're making big strides.

00:36:06.000 Salem, Real America's Voice, this show, a few others.

00:36:10.000 We can point to real success in that way.

00:36:14.000 Blake, do you want to comment on the behind-the-scenes metrics or data points about the next generation that you've seen?

00:36:20.000 I mean, I don't know any specific metrics, but what's clearly true overall, the word to go to is fragmentation.

00:36:28.000 That all of media is just fragmented.

00:36:31.000 It used to be you'd have your radio stations and you would have nightly news on the networks and you had Fox News.

00:36:38.000 And like podcasts didn't exist.

00:36:41.000 Web media was in its infancy until the mid-2000s.

00:36:47.000 And so now there's just an explosion.

00:36:49.000 So what really stands out now is now you can do things like I guess the simplest way to put it is if you want to create a show, you can create a show.

00:36:58.000 Yeah, you can create a show, whether you can get an audience or not is the question.

00:37:02.000 And I think that's really the benefit of the new fragmentation.

00:37:06.000 You know, you look at somebody like Don Laman, right?

00:37:09.000 Don Lemon existed within a CNN box, and that was his reason for being a known person, a known commodity.

00:37:17.000 And then he gets removed from CNN, fired from CNN, and then starts an ex-show.

00:37:24.000 I have seen a few people making fun of the metrics there.

00:37:30.000 So I don't think it would be a huge leap for me to say it's not been a huge success.

00:37:39.000 He's struggling to find traction in that way.

00:37:41.000 And that's really what this new marketplace of media, this fragmentation is creating: people that are worth watching and worth listening to.

00:37:48.000 Their ideas are resonating.

00:37:50.000 They find success and they find it pretty quickly.

00:37:54.000 And they grow pretty quickly.

00:37:55.000 If you're an untalented hack that needs a built-in audience and hide behind a network, it's not going to go so well for you.

00:38:03.000 I think one of the more interesting points is like you look at like Chris Cuomo on News Nation.

00:38:10.000 He's, you know, all of a sudden you're hearing a lot about him because he's gone after COVID.

00:38:14.000 I think it's fascinating to see what happens to a lot of these people that you assume are absolute hacks.

00:38:20.000 And I'm not saying Chris Cuomo isn't an absolute hack, but he's finding kind of a middle ground, Blake, that's, you know, he wouldn't have done if he was stuck behind a news desk at CNN.

00:38:32.000 Yeah, but because it is fragmented, the ability for any one person to influence things is reduced.

00:38:39.000 And there's pluses and minuses to that.

00:38:43.000 I'll sometimes get asked, like, what do I think of this or that conservative media influencer?

00:38:48.000 And I'll often have to be honest and say, I've never watched them.

00:38:52.000 I already work on one show.

00:38:53.000 How many other shows do you want me to watch?

00:38:56.000 Because there are a lot of them.

00:38:58.000 And there's good things and bad things.

00:38:59.000 The good thing is basically anyone can get out there and there is an audience.

00:39:03.000 You can really fine-tune who you want to listen to.

00:39:06.000 Find the one person who speaks the most to you.

00:39:09.000 But it's much harder for anyone to set an agenda.

00:39:13.000 That was one of the reasons that.

00:39:15.000 Like when Tucker was still on Fox, why that show was so valuable.

00:39:18.000 Tucker is a super charismatic individual.

00:39:20.000 He's a great host.

00:39:21.000 He has a lot of fun stuff to say.

00:39:23.000 But it was that he could also do that on Fox.

00:39:25.000 And therefore, it was on the one medium that really did just have five, 10 million people every single night who would bother to watch it.

00:39:35.000 And that's why it was, you know, it was too bad.

00:39:38.000 There's merits to him being on his own now with his own show.

00:39:40.000 He has a lot more freedom in who he talks to.

00:39:42.000 He can go way longer.

00:39:44.000 All of that's great.

00:39:45.000 But there is that downside that you don't have that person who's at 8 p.m. every night setting an agenda that just millions of people will see by default.

00:39:55.000 And that's probably the biggest downside with the current generation of conservative media is if you do have a truly transcendent talent, they won't necessarily reach the same high that they would otherwise.

00:40:06.000 But it's much harder to suppress a message.

00:40:10.000 And especially with social media, that message can reach really widely, even if their show otherwise maybe doesn't have the highest number of viewers.

00:40:17.000 Okay.

00:40:18.000 I think we're going to get to two more questions before we have to go here.

00:40:21.000 I'll start with this one.

00:40:23.000 I love when Charlie hosts the show and I listen to all three hours daily plus thought crimes.

00:40:27.000 Well, thank you so much.

00:40:28.000 Freedom Night in America, et cetera.

00:40:30.000 So Charlie and your team are part of my daily routine.

00:40:32.000 That's wonderful to hear.

00:40:33.000 However, I just wanted to say I also love when Andrew hosts.

00:40:36.000 Well, that is very nice to hear.

00:40:38.000 He is always so grateful and is constantly saying how thankful he is for the audience and to get to spend time with us on the show.

00:40:45.000 I am extremely thankful for this audience.

00:40:47.000 This audience has made the life I get to live possible.

00:40:51.000 And I think we have the best audience in the movement.

00:40:53.000 And there's literally millions of you.

00:40:56.000 And that blows my mind almost every day.

00:41:00.000 I appreciate his positive attitude and wanted to say thank you to him.

00:41:03.000 Well, thank you.

00:41:03.000 And to Blake when he hosts.

00:41:05.000 While I love watching Charlie, Charlie, please don't take this the wrong way.

00:41:07.000 I do enjoy getting different perspectives when he is away.

00:41:11.000 Well, that's great.

00:41:11.000 Blake, isn't that nice to hear?

00:41:12.000 I think that's nice to hear.

00:41:14.000 I just like that it's when they get to me, they're like, I like to hear a different perspective.

00:41:19.000 Yeah, Blake is our resident contrarian.

00:41:21.000 But honestly, I love that too, because Blake challenges some of our ideas and makes them better.

00:41:26.000 And sometimes we come out hot with a take and he's like, eh, what about this?

00:41:29.000 And then we end up finding a more creative way through a problem that the country's facing or it's in the news.

00:41:35.000 And it's elevated, I think, even more by that.

00:41:39.000 Okay, next question from Mikkel.

00:41:41.000 Wouldn't it be beneficial for Trump to name his vice president now so at least someone can be out campaigning while he is stuck in these frivolous trials?

00:41:50.000 Mikkel, what do you think, Blake?

00:41:52.000 Or is it Michael?

00:41:53.000 Whatever it is.

00:41:54.000 Michael Mikhail.

00:41:54.000 Mike.

00:41:56.000 I think that is definitely an advantage.

00:41:59.000 I often thought it would have been great if he'd picked it, picked his V really early, like if he'd just gone all the way back in September or not September, like February, when it was clear these trials were going to be a big thing.

00:42:09.000 Just get your surrogate out there, get him trained. 0.78

00:42:12.000 There's another reason it's worth thinking about is now they've apparently agreed to a vice presidential debate in July, and that would be very shortly after the GOP convention.

00:42:23.000 You'd just be taking your vice president and just throwing them right out there.

00:42:26.000 So having them get a little more formal prep just because they've been on the campaign for a while would probably be a decent idea.

00:42:35.000 I think those would all be good reasons to pick it.

00:42:37.000 That said, you do get a free news cycle boost when you announce who they are.

00:42:42.000 There's a reason Trump picked Pence just before the RNC last time.

00:42:47.000 He'll probably go for a similar pattern this time.

00:42:49.000 You go in with that positive energy, you debut them at the RNC, more or less to a national audience.

00:42:56.000 Everyone gets all excited.

00:42:58.000 Conventionally, there's a reason they do that, but I personally do.

00:43:01.000 I think on balance, it'd be better to have your Veep out there sooner rather than later.

00:43:06.000 I don't know that there's a ton of benefit to waiting right now, other than I guess you could say he has like 15 people acting as his surrogate right now because they all want the job.

00:43:15.000 So maybe he sees it as a chance.

00:43:19.000 You stole my line.

00:43:20.000 Yeah, that was going to be my one counterpoint: you basically have Doug Bergham and Christy Noam and Lee Stefanik and JD Vance and Vivek, all these guys vying for that spot, Dr. Ben Carson.

00:43:33.000 And they're all out working really hard.

00:43:35.000 And if you pick a Veep, they won't have that incentive.

00:43:38.000 And right now, they're all just sort of this chorus of voices that are supporting you.

00:43:43.000 So that's my angle.

00:43:44.000 Thanks so much for listening, everybody.

00:43:46.000 Talk to you soon.

00:43:50.000 For more on many of these stories and news you can trust, go to CharlieKirk.com.

The Charlie Kirk Show - May 20, 2024

Ask Charlie Anything 189: Will Butker Survive? How To Learn Better? Pick A Veep ASAP?

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