The Charlie Kirk Show - February 12, 2023


The Speech ASU Faculty Tried to Cancel — LIVE from ASU


Episode Stats

Length

19 minutes

Words per Minute

163.04347

Word Count

3,125

Sentence Count

233


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

My speech at Arizona State University on health, wealth, and happiness was allowed to go forward despite a petition calling for me to be kicked off campus. I talk about why this should not have happened and why it was a good thing that it went forward.

Transcript

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00:00:00.000 Hey everybody, happy Sunday.
00:00:01.000 My speech at Arizona State University on health, wealth, and happiness, where they did not want me to speak, but I still did.
00:00:07.000 Email me your thoughts as always, freedom at charliekirk.com.
00:00:10.000 Get involved with TurningPointUSA today at tpusa.com, start a high school chapter, start a college chapter at tpusa.com.
00:00:18.000 That is tpusa.com, tpusa.com.
00:00:25.000 Support our program at charliekirk.com/slash support.
00:00:30.000 Buckle up, everybody.
00:00:31.000 Here we go.
00:00:32.000 Charlie, what you've done is incredible here.
00:00:34.000 Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus.
00:00:36.000 I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk.
00:00:39.000 Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks.
00:00:42.000 I want to thank Charlie.
00:00:44.000 He's an incredible guy.
00:00:45.000 His spirit, his love of this country.
00:00:46.000 He's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created, Turning Point USA.
00:00:53.000 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.
00:01:02.000 That's why we are here.
00:01:05.000 Thank you, everybody.
00:01:06.000 Tom, that was excellent.
00:01:07.000 Thank you.
00:01:08.000 And thank you guys for showing up tonight.
00:01:11.000 There's a lot more controversy around this than I would have expected.
00:01:15.000 And I can't even see that.
00:01:19.000 But that the name, could you think of a less controversial title of a speech, Health, Wealth, and Happiness?
00:01:29.000 And somehow that gets to be super controversial, right?
00:01:33.000 I mean, evidently, I suppose everything does.
00:01:37.000 So, look, there's a couple things I want to talk about, and I do want to address this last week, but I want to make sure the proper thanks is in order.
00:01:48.000 Despite all the clamoring and the nonsense, Arizona State University deserves credit for still allowing this event to proceed.
00:02:03.000 And I mean that non-sarcastic.
00:02:06.000 I'm not exactly a college fan.
00:02:11.000 That's supposed to be somewhat funny, but no, I mean that.
00:02:16.000 It's a big deal.
00:02:17.000 This is allowed to proceed and happen and continue.
00:02:21.000 So I want to address some of these attacks.
00:02:24.000 Look, you could say whatever you want about me.
00:02:26.000 It doesn't bother me.
00:02:28.000 But when you start attacking Dennis Prager, I mean this.
00:02:34.000 I mean, and the person who was attacking him was a religious studies scholar, which if you know anything about Dennis Prager, who probably has published more, written more, spoke more, or broadcasted more about the Torah and the Hebrew Bible than any person alive on the planet.
00:02:55.000 I would just say that if you're a religious studies scholar, you could probably learn something from Dennis Prager instead of wanting to kick him off your campus.
00:03:08.000 And look, I could defend myself.
00:03:11.000 It's fine.
00:03:12.000 I just, and Dennis probably won't even get into most of this, but it does tell you something that you could disagree with everything that I might say or Dennis might say.
00:03:22.000 However, if your profession is to study religion and someone who has now successfully published four out of five Bible commentaries, which I don't know if you've seen Dennis's Rational Bible, it's one of the most amazing accomplishments of the modern era, going verse by verse of the five books of Moses and understanding the original Biblical Hebrew.
00:03:47.000 And the quote is just so funny.
00:03:49.000 It says, I want to make it clear that each signature on this petition was for a different reason.
00:03:53.000 I believe these speakers represent ideas that go against the principles of ASU charter that stand for inclusivity and not exclusivity.
00:04:01.000 Well, if you're for inclusivity, then why do you want the event not to happen?
00:04:05.000 That's not very inclusive of you.
00:04:12.000 I'm so tolerant, which is why I don't want other ideas to occur.
00:04:16.000 It's really interesting.
00:04:19.000 So, look, I also want to make a special shout out to the 10 professors who didn't sign the petition.
00:04:30.000 Are any of them here if you're here?
00:04:34.000 Because all the emphasis was 37 out of 47.
00:04:37.000 I mean this non-sarcastically.
00:04:39.000 I was impressed that there were 10 holdouts, that there were 10 professors that said, I'm not comfortable signing this petition.
00:04:46.000 That was more than I expected, truly.
00:04:50.000 But it does tell you a lot about, you know, where the academy is headed.
00:04:55.000 And again, I don't want to paint with too broad of a brush, but if you are a professor that signs a petition like that, just so intellectually lazy and just so sloppy, you know, you're an intellectual midget or coward, in my opinion, not to want to be able to offend your position.
00:05:11.000 And quite honestly, lazily and sloppily, and it's an insult to everyone who worked really hard to get a PhD just to say that stuff like, oh, he's a white nationalist.
00:05:21.000 Like, really, what's your substantiation for that?
00:05:23.000 Would you like to come up?
00:05:24.000 By the way, open invite for any one of the 37 professors.
00:05:27.000 You're welcome on my national radio program anytime.
00:05:29.000 And you can have an uninterrupted opportunity to tell me in front of millions of people why you believe the stuff you believe.
00:05:37.000 Or are you too cowardly because you just want to sign a petition and then go off into the distance with your moral superiority?
00:05:47.000 All right.
00:05:50.000 Enough of that.
00:05:51.000 But again, the university deserves credit for not cowing to the mob.
00:05:55.000 That is important.
00:05:56.000 All right.
00:05:57.000 It's funny because I'm still planning to talk about some of the most, I would say, non-controversial things, non-controversial for me, but there's two very simple things that I want you guys to walk away with that I think could be helpful and that I think could bless you.
00:06:11.000 And I think that could address a lot of other issues.
00:06:13.000 So the name of the talk is health, wealth, and happiness.
00:06:16.000 I was thinking to myself, what is one thing that you could do that has been proven over a long period of time that could make it easier to be healthy, wealthier, not just wealthy financially or materially, but hopefully wealthier in the soul and happier.
00:06:32.000 And it didn't take long for me to realize something I started doing a year and a half ago, largely thanks to Dennis Prager and many others, that has been proven to work for thousands of years that I think America, I know America used to honor.
00:06:45.000 And America, I'm getting LASIK surgery, so my eyes are not what it, I don't know, what a sign said.
00:06:56.000 I'm sure it was not wise.
00:06:58.000 Am I right?
00:06:59.000 I'm just guessing.
00:07:00.000 So if hey, that's what it said, you'll go with that.
00:07:05.000 That's my truth tonight.
00:07:08.000 So what has worked for thousands of years that have helped people get healthier, happier, and wealthier, the real wealth that matters is the wealth of the soul, the depth of the soul, not material wealth, but material wealth can help you.
00:07:22.000 And it's something I started to do a year and a half ago that I didn't come up with, obviously, but it's something that I think America has forgotten.
00:07:29.000 And it's stopping for 25 hours a week.
00:07:33.000 Put simply, honoring the Sabbath.
00:07:35.000 This is something that I'll be very honest, modern American Christianity has done a horrendous job of this.
00:07:42.000 However, I'm going to challenge even the atheists or the secularists that thank you for coming for the speech.
00:07:47.000 I'm not going to even try to make a religious case for this.
00:07:49.000 I'm going to tell you that if you do stop, which is what the word means, Shabbat, to stop, you'll be healthier, you'll be wealthier, and you will be happier.
00:07:59.000 So, if you think about the idea of the Sabbath or the Shabbats, I know we have some religious Jews here that do this every week.
00:08:07.000 So, for them, this is somewhat easy, but I'm just, I'm a newcomer to this, right?
00:08:12.000 My idea of the Sabbath was like putting my phone away for 30 minutes and watching football, right?
00:08:18.000 That was my idea of the Sabbath.
00:08:19.000 I would work every day, every minute, every hour.
00:08:23.000 And a really good pastor friend of mine, plus Dennis's teaching, said, Charlie, you need to stop.
00:08:29.000 I said, Why do I need to stop?
00:08:30.000 I got work to do.
00:08:31.000 They said, Well, you need to stop in the name of God, kind of a playoff of the stop in the name of love.
00:08:35.000 And I said, Well, what do you mean?
00:08:37.000 Shabbat means stop.
00:08:38.000 If God rested after creating the world, of which I believe, then you should too.
00:08:44.000 And so, July of 2020, what would that be?
00:08:48.000 2021, a year and a half ago, I decided to do it.
00:08:51.000 Friday night, turn off my phone.
00:08:52.000 And at first, it's incredibly difficult.
00:08:54.000 I'll tell you, if you do this, it creates anxiety separation with your phone.
00:08:58.000 You're one at the world's falling apart.
00:08:59.000 It's tough.
00:09:00.000 And it takes work the first couple months to do it.
00:09:03.000 But then after five or six months and you really get into it, you start to expect it and you start to look forward to it.
00:09:10.000 And I kid you not, with no exaggeration and no hyperbole, the way that you used to look forward to Christmas once a year, I look forward to Friday nights.
00:09:20.000 Because now I, and I believe that you don't have, I don't expect you to necessarily adopt this belief.
00:09:24.000 I believe God commanded us to do it.
00:09:26.000 So therefore, I say, God wants me to turn off my phone.
00:09:28.000 He doesn't want me to watch the news, which is honestly refreshing because it's all I do for six days a week.
00:09:33.000 And all I care about is family, reading books for 25 hours.
00:09:37.000 I stop.
00:09:38.000 And I am a healthier and happier person because of it.
00:09:43.000 And in our mental health issues are across the country, depression, anxiety.
00:09:51.000 And I would just submit, maybe instead of prescribing incredibly, let's just say, powerful pharmacology, benzodiazepans, diazepines, Xanax, Zoloft, maybe first we should tell a young person, turn off your phone for 24 hours a week.
00:10:15.000 It slows down your life in a more religious, transcendent context.
00:10:21.000 It also makes you have to do the work, go through the action of saying, I did not create this world.
00:10:31.000 I am not in charge of this world.
00:10:33.000 And what I'm doing is not necessarily as important as at least for one day honoring that there is a transcendent melody and harmony to our existence.
00:10:44.000 Now, but for those of you that say, Charlie, I'm too busy.
00:10:49.000 I'm too busy.
00:10:50.000 It's too much for me.
00:10:52.000 I get that, maybe.
00:10:55.000 However, what could be more important than stopping and saying, I'm going to honor the cathedral built-in time to say that my health, my relationship to my creator, my family is so important.
00:11:10.000 And I would argue that the more radical you are about the Sabbath, the more you're going to get out of it.
00:11:15.000 To say, totally turn off the phone, totally put it away.
00:11:19.000 I'm going to totally disconnect from technology.
00:11:21.000 And I could tell you, it is one of the greatest blessings in my life.
00:11:24.000 And you have something to say once a week, at least I have a Sabbath to be able to honor.
00:11:30.000 America used to do this.
00:11:31.000 We have blue laws.
00:11:32.000 It used to work really well.
00:11:33.000 I truly believe it's not the only reason, but one of the reasons why America has become a less happy country, more depressed, and more anxious, is because we are hurrying ourselves into oblivion.
00:11:46.000 It is the joyless search for joy.
00:11:50.000 And that is what modernity has given us.
00:11:54.000 You want a 3,000-year-old hack?
00:11:57.000 Just stop for once a week.
00:11:58.000 Okay, the second thing, which is also part of the Ten Commandments, which I wasn't planning on talking about this.
00:12:04.000 I was so moved by a conversation I had upstairs, which this is mostly for young people, but it's also for all people.
00:12:10.000 It's so incredibly important.
00:12:11.000 And this is something that if I were to say one thing that college does not do a good job of, it is telling young people that you have a moral obligation to honor your parents.
00:12:21.000 And I cannot emphasize how important this is.
00:12:25.000 And I'm not saying you have to love your parents.
00:12:30.000 As a Christian, it does say that in the New Testament, but just focusing on this word honor means to treat your parents heavily.
00:12:37.000 If you do not honor your parents and you do not, and it doesn't just say that, it comes with a promise, also involves your nation, because it says, honor your mother and father so that you may live long in the land of which you are in.
00:12:47.000 You think about it.
00:12:48.000 As America has stopped honoring our parents, we have become less free and closer to totalitarianism.
00:12:57.000 The less that we honor our parents, the less likely we are to be able to engage in self-government.
00:13:03.000 This is not the most popular message to give on college campuses because the propaganda that is typically said on not just campus, all campuses, is your parents don't know as much as we know.
00:13:15.000 We're enlightened and they're not.
00:13:18.000 And for your sake and their sake, for the country's sake, I want to implore you.
00:13:25.000 You will be a happier, wealthier person if, and a healthier person, if you do the work to honor your parents.
00:13:34.000 And I'll give you two specific reasons.
00:13:35.000 Number one, as you get older, especially if you have a child, which by the way, I think this is a thought crime.
00:13:42.000 You should get married and have children.
00:13:43.000 You will be happier and healthier and wealthier if you do those three things, by the way.
00:13:47.000 It changes your life for the better.
00:13:52.000 Once you have children, your respect of your parents goes up dramatically.
00:14:01.000 It does.
00:14:03.000 And they're worthy of honoring.
00:14:06.000 They are.
00:14:07.000 Now, you might say, Charlie, I have the worst parent in the world.
00:14:10.000 Dennis has written so much about that topic, you guys can just go into it with him and ask him questions about it.
00:14:16.000 Here's the point: 99% of you tonight do not have abusive parents.
00:14:21.000 They might have different politics.
00:14:23.000 They might have different views.
00:14:24.000 They might have different religion.
00:14:25.000 None of that is an excuse not to honor them.
00:14:29.000 Period.
00:14:30.000 You talk to them and you spend time with them.
00:14:32.000 Okay, last thing.
00:14:34.000 I have no idea how I'm doing on time.
00:14:36.000 I think I'm okay, but all right.
00:14:40.000 How do you live a healthier, wealthier, happier life?
00:14:43.000 I didn't come up with this.
00:14:44.000 The next speakers are going to talk about this.
00:14:46.000 You have to go through the intentional steps of being thankful.
00:14:52.000 Every single person in this room has something to be thankful for.
00:14:56.000 Modernity in general, and unfortunately, far too many colleges, will encourage you to be ungrateful, not grateful.
00:15:06.000 Here's something that we all can say that we should be thankful for that I'm afraid we are losing.
00:15:11.000 We live in the greatest country ever to exist in the history of the world.
00:15:17.000 The second part of that is you didn't build it.
00:15:22.000 You inherited it.
00:15:23.000 So don't mess it up.
00:15:26.000 You see, the brilliance, the heroism, the courage, the piety, the virtue that went into building this civilization was not a mistake.
00:15:40.000 And I'm afraid we're not telling young people that as best as we could.
00:15:46.000 And so when I hear that America is systemically racist, bigoted from the start, colonialist, misogynistic, homophobic, all these different things.
00:15:56.000 And I think to myself, you live in the freest, the once freest country.
00:16:00.000 I don't know if we're still the freest, but I'll use that as a general sweeping term.
00:16:03.000 Definitely the most successful materially, without a doubt, the most benevolent, the most generous country ever to exist in the history of the world.
00:16:11.000 Are you even able in a 30-second soundbite, tell me why?
00:16:15.000 Or are you able to recite the reasons why there's all these flawed injustices?
00:16:19.000 Here's just a really simple truism for life: most countries are crummy.
00:16:26.000 They are.
00:16:27.000 You happen to live in a good one.
00:16:29.000 That's a reason to be thankful.
00:16:35.000 Okay.
00:16:38.000 Second thing that I encourage you to do: blame yourself for your own problems.
00:16:46.000 There are exceptions to all rules, and I'm sure somebody here could tell me an exception of something so terrible that happened to you, and that you got to deal with that.
00:16:55.000 But 99.9% of all of you watching online are here.
00:16:59.000 You are the reason you are unhappy.
00:17:01.000 You are the reason you are poor.
00:17:03.000 And you are the reason you are not where you want to be.
00:17:07.000 Period.
00:17:09.000 That is actually very empowering.
00:17:12.000 As Victor Frankl famously said in his book, Man's Search for Meaning, that I encourage all of you to read.
00:17:18.000 There's a patient that came into his office one day and he said, Boy, I hope there's something wrong with me.
00:17:24.000 I said, What do you mean?
00:17:26.000 He said, Well, if there's something wrong with me, then I can fix it.
00:17:31.000 But if there's something wrong with society, then there's no hope.
00:17:35.000 So if you are not where you want to be, that should actually be really empowering.
00:17:39.000 Maybe you can work harder, wake up earlier, stop drinking, stop doing hookup culture, stop doing drugs, become a better person, read a book, get off TikTok, stop spending so much time on your phone.
00:17:50.000 You are to blame for where you are.
00:17:52.000 It's not your parents' fault.
00:17:53.000 It's not society's fault.
00:17:54.000 It's not racism's fault.
00:17:55.000 It's not transphobia's fault.
00:17:56.000 It's you.
00:17:58.000 So decide who you want to be.
00:18:04.000 And finally, the last thing I'll say, and I suppose I'm somewhat approximating my time limit, right?
00:18:12.000 So am I okay?
00:18:13.000 Ish?
00:18:13.000 I'll land the plane.
00:18:15.000 Okay, got it.
00:18:17.000 They're giving me the hard pull.
00:18:18.000 I apologize.
00:18:18.000 I have no prompt.
00:18:22.000 I was once on a college campus, and someone said, Charlie, there is no such thing as absolute truth.
00:18:27.000 And I asked, Do you believe that absolutely?
00:18:32.000 The people that are telling you there's no truth in the world are pretty convinced that that is true.
00:18:39.000 At some point, you're going to have to live in somebody's truth.
00:18:42.000 There is a truth.
00:18:43.000 I hope you find it.
00:18:45.000 There is a God, and you are not him.
00:18:47.000 He wants you to be happy and healthy and to honor him.
00:18:50.000 Thank you, and God bless you all.
00:18:56.000 Thanks so much for listening, everybody.
00:18:57.000 Email me your thoughts as always: freedom at charliekirk.com.
00:19:01.000 Thank you so much for listening, and God bless.
00:19:06.000 For more on many of these stories and news you can trust, go to CharlieKirk.com.