The Glenn Beck Program - Best of The Program ｜ Guests： Brad Meltzer, Kari Lake, & Dani Zoldan ｜ 3⧸5⧸21

00:00:00.000 it's friday and today is a great great show uh we start with our ode to dr seuss about uh asians in

00:00:09.300 cages which i think was the problem right that was a problem with i i can't believe i saw it on

00:00:14.400 mulberry street right uh they had uh drawn pictures of asians and cages and we decided

00:00:19.620 that for the left and for the progressive left in particular it was probably really important to

00:00:26.880 uh remind people who actually did put asians in cages uh we start the podcast with that 0.95

00:00:36.000 goes from there bill o'reilly is on he is he's fantastic this week uh we have a local news

00:00:43.540 anchor that couldn't take the bias anymore and has decided to leave uh television news she was

00:00:50.380 number number one anchor in in phoenix for 20 years we talked to her about that also stand up 0.97

00:00:57.880 uh in the park in new york city it's um the partner the business partner of james altucher that is uh

00:01:07.180 trying to get comedy brought back to new york crazy idea he sued he sued the state cuomo bent but it

00:01:15.600 wasn't a real victory it's open now 30 but at least they're open he's a big big big big big big big

00:01:22.180 big liberal uh and we had a great conversation that you don't want to miss all on today's podcast

00:01:27.760 and don't forget andrew cuomo was awful.com uh also don't forget to uh subscribe to the podcast of course

00:01:33.960 and rate and review it take a couple seconds do things for us because we do so much for you

00:01:38.900 right so much is it too much to ask you to do something and you know let me just give you one

00:01:43.820 more thing to do stew does america that podcast available as well to subscribe to and rate and

00:01:47.880 review and there will be a quiz after it so oh really yes i didn't even prepare yeah

00:01:53.100 you're listening to the best of the blend back program

00:02:03.940 ah what fun we'll have in the gulag together well

00:02:11.420 welcome to the program mr brad melzer uh one of my favorite people in the whole world he loves history

00:02:21.320 almost as much as anyone i know um brad how are you sir i'm good my friend how you been ah i'm good

00:02:30.280 i'm good you know yeah every time you have a new book out or whatever you you know somebody in your

00:02:35.440 office calls us could could brad gets up yes brad can get on you're you're one of my favorite guests

00:02:40.980 because you always bring something interesting uh to talk about and this week you don't have to bring

00:02:46.460 anything to the table with the banning of dr seuss and you a guy who's writing children's children's

00:02:53.460 books what's your uh what's your take on the dr seuss ban yeah you know i i am someone who grew up

00:03:01.540 on dr seuss oh my gosh i'm a writer i think how much therapy have you had right we all need it um but

00:03:10.420 you know me too well so but you know and listen i think i'm a writer today because of books like

00:03:16.140 dr seuss dr seuss when i did heroes for my son i put him as one of the heroes in the book for helping

00:03:20.880 millions of kids find the love of reading right i mean that is what dr seuss of course stands for

00:03:26.720 for so many and you know what is so interesting is and listen you got to look at the history right

00:03:32.960 you know as well as i know um what he did when he was younger versus what he did in the war versus

00:03:37.780 what he did later and all those things let's pretend let's pretend i don't know yeah so let's

00:03:45.100 talk about it let's talk about it so uh when he's a younger kid he actually like any kid you know

00:03:50.020 write some things that aren't the best right they just aren't right and even though he does these

00:03:54.760 amazing things his late at work his early work also has some drawings they if you look at them

00:04:00.500 they didn't age well i think even dr seuss would admit they didn't age well those two things can be

00:04:06.160 true at the same time and i think what is such a you know is so sad today is that we reduce the

00:04:12.960 culture and the culture has come to and i can say this you know for our kids books as dr seuss who

00:04:18.440 was a hero in one of them right every hero that i've done glenn from amelia erhart we did i am

00:04:24.580 abraham lincoln i am martin luther king jr i am rosa parks um to the new ones i am walt disney

00:04:31.220 jim henson someone has written to me and said that person's not a hero you shouldn't do them

00:04:36.640 and that is what is so sad to me because i always i tell my kids if you're looking for perfection

00:04:42.380 the only thing that's perfect is god that's it all of the rest of us are flawed and and we have to stop

00:04:51.140 seeing people as all good or all bad because none of us are all good you know we're good we're bad

00:04:56.740 we're complicated we're brave we're cowards we're amazing we're horrible we're wonderful

00:05:01.980 and especially when a week especially when it's the trajectory you know when the trajectory of a

00:05:08.300 man's life is he started out great and he turned into hitler not a good trajectory but if you are

00:05:15.820 you know if you are a monster at the beginning because of your beliefs or whatever else and then

00:05:21.020 you grew and you learned and you were like oh my gosh i reject the things that i thought i i'm not

00:05:27.540 the same man that's a hero story well and listen the star belly sneetches according to many are him

00:05:35.700 making uh amends for the early things that's supposed to be an attack against what hitler's doing

00:05:41.480 right that is he's he's basically learned from what he did early and said you know what i'm gonna get

00:05:45.940 this is the wrong thing we got to stand up isn't yertle the turtle the same thing yertle the turtle

00:05:51.220 is the same thing and and the one thing that i do think is important though and it is this is it's

00:05:58.680 he wasn't banned by twitter he wasn't canceled like that it was his own family his own estate that said

00:06:04.000 you know what these five these couple we're gonna take away you get the rest and the truth is you know

00:06:10.400 listen uh the drawings didn't age well they just don't i mean the same way that disney

00:06:15.880 land and disney world when you go now when you go to the song of the south you look at someone

00:06:19.380 and you're like uh this might have been good in the 50s and 60s but today it doesn't look as good

00:06:24.420 and and i and i i think the i wish that as a culture we could take a breath and rather you know

00:06:30.820 i go back to abraham lincoln's inaugural address is like we we need to be friends and not enemies and

00:06:36.820 i and i it's so sad to me and heartbreaking that the culture has turned into everyone is the best

00:06:43.100 everyone's the worst because that kind of those kinds of absolutes you know maybe it's because

00:06:47.680 i'm a star wars fan but absolutes you know in the jedi order right like they they just never do anyone

00:06:52.100 any good okay thank you for that uh you're welcome so um speaking of things that don't age well

00:06:59.420 you just uh wrote a book i am uh frida kahlo uh and most people know her by the eyebrows that didn't

00:07:07.160 age well uh let me tell you we've never been closer i i had all these people writing to me all

00:07:15.220 these kids around the country they're like i want i am frida kahlo please do i am frida kahlo and i'm

00:07:20.860 like all i know about her is she's got the eyebrows and that selma high played her in the movie and i'm

00:07:25.740 keep going what why do all these kids want her she's just an artist what's the big deal and you know 1.00

00:07:31.280 i i wrote this kid's book series we have a mutual love of history it's always been you know it's one of

00:07:36.280 the great things of our friendship um but to give the other part of our friendship is i wanted to

00:07:40.800 give my kids better heroes to look up to heroes of character heroes of compassion heroes of kindness

00:07:46.040 okay so tell me about her because i know i also know she was married to diego rivera which uh he was

00:07:55.280 a staunch anti-capitalist he was uh uh an american hater pardon me and yeah on social right a socialist

00:08:04.240 an absolute socialist yeah um and so tell me about her that's going to make me like her

00:08:10.040 yeah so here's here and again it's it's it's it's almost the reverse perfect with the dr seuss right

00:08:16.180 because if you can't you know to show the other side right right here's her story she's a little 1.00

00:08:21.860 girl she gets polio one leg is shorter than the other and she can't really walk she hobbles every 1.00

00:08:28.440 kid makes fun of her calling her peg leg wow and they say they make fun of how she dresses

00:08:32.760 they make fun of because she you know she wears long skirts to cover up her legs she gets as a as 1.00

00:08:38.140 a young girl in a horrible bus accident and they say she's never going to walk again cracks her back

00:08:43.880 and they're like she puts she's putting a full body cast and lying in bed unable to move she says

00:08:50.660 bring me some paintbrushes she can't even sit up they build a special easel for her and they put a 0.97

00:08:57.560 mirror over her bed above her so she can look up and see the thing that she can actually draw because

00:09:02.240 she can't move is herself and she starts doing self-portraits but what happens is and what's

00:09:09.220 amazing is that her whole life frida kahlo is made fun of for how she looks for the unibrow she's made 1.00

00:09:16.000 fun of where she's from she's made fun of how ugly she is and she is never anything but unapologetically 1.00

00:09:23.360 herself and her whole life she goes and i have to tell you one of the one of the things i'm proudest

00:09:31.240 of in this book is the last page of the book we actually put a mirror a plastic mirror on the last

00:09:37.600 page and it says there what do you see here and little frida kahlo in our children's book holds up

00:09:44.420 the mirror and it says i see a work of art and when your kid looks in that mirror in this selfie culture

00:09:50.840 that we live in you can see that she says you know everyone's life is messy and life isn't easy

00:09:57.620 and life is hard but you got to get back up again and you got to accept yourself for who you are and

00:10:02.600 if you do that as it says in the book i know the most beautiful thing in the world is you we got to

00:10:06.680 stop teaching our kids to take selfies and teach them a little self-love they're not perfect none of

00:10:11.920 us are perfect and that's what i love about frida kahlo is that that i want my daughter to have that

00:10:16.800 lesson are you this to have that lesson that's a really good story and i hate you for it but uh it's a

00:10:23.560 really good story you know me no no no i know we don't do her social you know we don't do where

00:10:27.940 her politics because as you said her politics evolve and go up and go down like anyone else's 0.99

00:10:33.260 yeah um to me none of that's important the question is as you said the hero's journey

00:10:37.260 and her hero journey is just one of absolute i mean how hard is it to find especially for

00:10:43.380 young girls today and everyone's told to be beautiful be perfect be everything on instagram

00:10:47.900 it's disgusting to me this is your kids to just love themselves this is proof that uh we don't ban

00:10:54.640 books and we don't judge people on one thing i mean i think it's great that we hear this about her

00:11:00.260 and if you're curious about her then you you eventually as you grow up you start to look into

00:11:06.060 what she believes and who she married and what he did and everything else and you make your own

00:11:11.300 decision but we don't ban people and we don't uh we don't say oh dr seuss did this a long time

00:11:17.860 ago and we got to get rid of that even if you're a family um all right so brad you have one more

00:11:25.160 book out do you not like this one okay i do you've got about three minutes tops i'm gonna do it quick

00:11:33.020 so i you know me a long time i've never dreamed a book i dreamt an entire book i dreamt the premise

00:11:39.560 of this book it's called a new day and i woke up and i said i have an idea that sunday quits

00:11:46.560 just like that and all the other days have to have tryouts for a new day and they quickly have

00:11:52.800 training they say let's have fun day everyone will have fun and like no let's have run day everyone

00:11:56.820 runs fast like the flash no bun day where everyone wears buns like princess leia and they're like oh i

00:12:01.780 thought you're gonna do the other buns they're like no let's not do that and then a little girl 1.00

00:12:05.680 comes to sun it gets crazy and crazy that they want the dogs want dogs day the cats want caturday

00:12:10.200 but the end of the book a little girl comes in with a potted plant for sunday and sunday says what's

00:12:14.860 this you want tree day you want to grow rutabaga day what do you want and she says no i just want to

00:12:20.100 say thank you sunday for all the things you give us and i want you to have a nice day and sunday is

00:12:26.120 undone and in that moment sunday realizes the of course the moral of our children's book which is that

00:12:33.200 with a little kindness in it every day can be a new day and my god where we are as a culture right

00:12:39.320 now our kids are so anxious we as adults are so anxious we need to arm our kids with the lessons

00:12:45.200 of that when you say thank you and you show kindness instead of venom in this world you can

00:12:50.280 change everyone's day and have a new day so that's the that's the new children's book you're a better

00:12:55.420 man than i am brad i i so respect you and uh i love your constant optimism uh and your ability to

00:13:03.860 tell the truth and have your message heard by uh all americans without ever compromising who you are

00:13:12.280 uh and congratulations on that and thank you for being my friend listen thanks for being my friend

00:13:19.360 whatever the genre but it's not just optimism this is how i fight back right i fight back by helping

00:13:25.260 people teach character to their kids and help them you know realize this is a venomous moment we're

00:13:31.000 living in it's a terrible moment in american history when we're all fighting and the only you

00:13:36.020 have a choice right and my choice is is try and put a little more kindness in the world well you know

00:13:41.160 again i go back to abraham lincoln one of mine and you were great heroes um and and i think that a new

00:13:46.580 day for me is just my attempt to kind of counter what we're seeing in the culture so our kids get a

00:13:51.540 little something better i am free to call i'll give them a little something better and the other

00:13:56.200 book is called a new day brad melzer the author and uh friend of the program thank you so much brad

00:14:02.020 appreciate it always love talking to you thanks my friend god bless this is the best of the glenn beck

00:14:08.460 so earlier this week i saw a viral video from a former arizona news anchor named kerry lake here's

00:14:26.940 what she said sadly journalism has changed a lot since i first stepped into a newsroom and i'll be

00:14:33.760 honest i don't like the direction it's going the media needs more balance in coverage and a wider

00:14:40.680 range of viewpoints represented in every newsroom at every level and in each position in the past few

00:14:48.400 years i haven't felt proud to be a member of the media i'm sure there are other journalists out there

00:14:54.180 who feel the same way i found myself reading news copy that i didn't believe was fully truthful

00:15:00.500 or only told part of the story and i began to feel that i was contributing to the fear and division

00:15:06.880 in this country by continuing on in this profession it's been a serious struggle for me and i no longer

00:15:13.560 want to do this job anymore so i've decided the time is right to do something else and i'm leaving fox 10

00:15:20.020 there will probably be some hit pieces written about me not everyone is dedicated to telling the truth

00:15:26.240 okay thankfully so this is kerry lake we're gonna we have her on the phone now and so we're gonna get

00:15:31.040 the story from her uh firsthand hi kerry how are you hi glenn i'm doing great thanks for inviting me on i

00:15:38.280 i just can't believe that i'm talking to you about this video that i put out i just wanted to send a

00:15:43.260 message to the viewers yeah well let them know where i was going i think this went viral because i i think

00:15:50.060 people are feeling kind of what you're feeling they don't trust uh news and quite honestly local news

00:15:58.240 has been more trustworthy in the last few years than it has been the national news and uh and we need

00:16:06.460 good journalists now more than ever and i i saw this and i can relate to your pain uh and and wanted to

00:16:14.740 talk to you about it and i i don't want to bash the station or anybody else i just want to talk

00:16:19.800 generally what is happening what is happening wow well i mean i think we have very biased news i

00:16:29.380 think we have a lot of one viewpoint represented in newsrooms around the country whether it be

00:16:34.620 national or local and very little of another viewpoint and i'm and i guess you could say you

00:16:40.420 know right versus left but i'm even talking i don't know how to say it when i first got into a

00:16:46.440 newsroom i remember it just seems like there were a lot of different age groups you know it's become

00:16:51.000 a very young profession it's a hard job to run around and be a reporter um but i think we're kind

00:16:57.240 of missing different perspectives even when it comes to age we're losing a lot of the older people in in

00:17:02.600 journalism i mean think about i don't know how old you are glenn you're a young guy

00:17:07.500 no i'm in my 50s i'm in my 50s as well okay i feel like i have a little more wisdom than maybe i did

00:17:15.400 even in my 30s or 20s yes and i think it's great to have those viewpoints people who may be our

00:17:21.920 grandparents or people who grew up in uh you know small towns and have rural experience it's all

00:17:29.660 becoming kind of the same the same viewpoints um and i just decided that i couldn't fix it one person

00:17:38.500 but i also didn't want to be part of it and i didn't feel proud about what i was doing and i'm

00:17:42.720 one of those people that i like to i like to work and i like to feel good about it and i just hadn't

00:17:47.820 been feeling good about it for a long time so i let me say this carrie and and um and ask your

00:17:53.580 opinion on it i'm not sure that it is um you know when you were talking about age uh and wisdom

00:18:02.580 and experience i know i want to surround myself with young people not to the expense of others

00:18:08.660 but because they have a different viewpoint and they see the world uh for what in with fresh eyes

00:18:17.000 and what it can be um but i also want to work with people who understand and respect the

00:18:23.480 world that was and the world that we have lived through and the experience we have if we work

00:18:31.680 together we create something amazing but i don't think that exists anymore that you're just dismissed

00:18:40.200 yeah or not even dismissed you don't even feel you can put your ideas out there to be dismissed

00:18:47.000 i've had so many people reach out to me and you're right glenn i i love the young reporters i've worked

00:18:52.980 with you know i i absolutely love the perspective they bring i just i was thinking when i got into

00:18:59.320 my first newsroom how i was kind of the young reporter and i looked up to so many of these

00:19:03.260 veteran reporters who've been there forever right and a lot of them have gotten out of the business

00:19:07.080 so i'm not trying to bash the young people i adore them they we have some of the hardest working

00:19:11.300 great young people in town and i've been lucky to work with them um but yeah yeah you don't even

00:19:18.260 feel comfortable putting out an idea because your people are afraid to talk right now i just was at

00:19:22.600 an appointment the other day and it it was somebody it's somebody i've gone to uh for a while and i

00:19:29.020 thought he was um liberal i didn't know what his you know perspective was we didn't really talk about

00:19:33.980 the news because it's kind of dangerous and when he found out that i left my job only then did he reveal

00:19:41.080 oh my gosh i'm actually conservative and i'm scared to death i i see clients all day i'm so afraid to

00:19:48.340 even speak that i might offend somebody and i thought wow this is not just in journalism this is in

00:19:54.120 this is everywhere in every industry people are afraid and i'm hearing this from the response i've

00:19:59.600 gotten from the video which has been thousands upon thousands of emails and comments people telling me

00:20:05.680 they work in you name the industry they're feeling this as well well i i can't tell you we did a deal

00:20:12.360 on the great reset and what the banks and the accounting firms are now going through uh on this esg

00:20:19.020 reporting environmental social justice and governance uh score which is basically chinese the social score

00:20:26.460 their social credit score it's it's really truly terrifying and i am getting so many emails and so many

00:20:33.940 calls from people who are uh cpas or work in the banking industry that are all saying the same

00:20:41.220 thing this is coming and we don't know what to say we don't know what to do because i'm not for this but

00:20:47.180 i i i'm i'm out you don't stand against this yeah it's it's frightening and so what do we do you know

00:20:56.040 that's the question how do we come together i think the majority of people feel like what you just

00:21:01.480 described they're they're afraid of what's coming they want to speak out but they don't know how to

00:21:07.180 do it you know do you lose a job do you you have to put food on the table right somehow yeah right um

00:21:13.320 and and i had to come to grips with that because i was walking away from a nice paycheck i'm going to

00:21:19.520 be honest i've worked in the business for a long time and the courageous part wasn't putting the video

00:21:25.020 out the courageous part was coming to grips with okay i'm leaving i have to leave this all behind

00:21:31.540 yeah when you have 20 years at 20 years at number one at a local station that's a big thing to walk

00:21:39.260 away from and also i bet you also thought but i'm also losing my voice i'm losing the ability

00:21:46.660 you know to to have this kind of impact maybe i can make a difference did you go through that as well

00:21:54.180 i did i for a while um i felt like well it's better to be in the media even though i'm not

00:22:03.340 totally proud of it at least trying to you know i always say it's not my sandbox i'm just playing in

00:22:08.560 it and everyone's when i try to throw a handful of sand out right um but you know i hate to have

00:22:15.100 voices leave the media that we need and maybe more common sense voices but also when you just feel like

00:22:21.740 you can't make a difference um then you have to move on that's where i kind of came to i thought

00:22:27.380 well i just don't feel like i can it's not worth putting my voice on things i don't i personally

00:22:32.700 don't believe in now other people glenn they might jump into these roles in in newsrooms around the

00:22:37.860 country and feel fine reading the stuff that i had a hard time reading and and feeling good about

00:22:42.960 did the election play a role in this i think two things happened covid and the election but really

00:22:52.480 it happened back what you know with the election in 2016 i started seeing about how people were

00:22:58.480 covering donald trump and um i thought why are they so why do they hate this man so much can't we just

00:23:05.960 be fair in how we cover him didn't seem that way and it only grew worse after 2016 um i wasn't thrilled

00:23:14.260 with uh how the election was handled by the media at all and i remember on um election night actually

00:23:21.620 when um it was called arizona was called i remember thinking whoa we still have people voting how can and

00:23:28.400 i and i even spoke out and said a few times election night wait a minute i don't think arizona should have

00:23:33.940 been called because we still have hundreds of thousands maybe a million votes to count i remember

00:23:38.780 saying that several times on election night and um yeah that kind of bothered me obviously uh when

00:23:46.400 the when the votes were counted it didn't turn out and that it turned out that joe biden took the state

00:23:51.700 but i didn't feel that calling it that early was the right thing to do and i voiced that opinion on the

00:23:56.440 air so i want to i want to ask you about it also go ahead go ahead so i was gonna say covid also

00:24:02.740 really i think was where it hit me i felt that what i was reading was was kind of fear mongering

00:24:10.820 this is my opinion and we were able to put out the media was able to put out um sound bites and all

00:24:18.260 kinds of information from certain doctors but not other doctors correct you know even if they were

00:24:23.680 doctors who weren't treating covid patients and then we have doctors who are treating covid patients and

00:24:29.140 we can't talk about that we can't talk about what's working it was it almost felt like there was no

00:24:35.260 desire to put out stories that would make people feel better alleviate some of their fear or give

00:24:41.060 them options for treatment or things that might help it felt very much like fear mongering and i don't

00:24:46.780 want to be a part of that because i work i live in a neighborhood with elderly people who are afraid to

00:24:51.060 come out of their homes and i i just i didn't feel good about it so when we get into this kind of uh fear

00:25:01.300 to speak um where are we headed i mean there's a story in the new york times today about how the germans

00:25:13.300 have just uh banned uh the uh speech uh and put on a watch list the one of their political parties it's

00:25:24.740 a right wing uh they say extremist i know nothing about this party it it might be a bunch of nazis i

00:25:31.100 don't know um but that's the way that's the way they're treating them and banning their their speech

00:25:38.500 uh and i i and putting them on a watch list and you read the new york times story today and it is

00:25:45.820 it's it's almost giddy about the idea that you could put a political party on a terror watch list

00:25:54.820 it's a little frightening that it seems as though we're going in that direction well i mean we may be

00:26:03.140 i mean people are being banned from uh twitter and facebook and we've seen posts banned i don't know

00:26:09.760 anything about um the story that you just talked about maybe this is a modern nazi group who knows

00:26:14.880 right i don't know either yeah i i'm actually if you bring up a point though i'm the censorship

00:26:20.760 is at a is at a level i never expected to see in this country and i'm really stunned when when i post

00:26:27.800 something or i talk about censorship on social media to see other journalists pop into my

00:26:32.780 feed and make comments supporting censorship as a journalist i i just don't know how you

00:26:39.680 are okay with that how do you reason with yourself and say yeah censorship is okay

00:26:45.160 i i just was i guess i was don't know differently yeah i don't know i mean you know in germany when

00:26:52.540 they banned mein Kampf i kind of you know i get it they they were nazis and there were a lot of nazis

00:26:58.680 that didn't go to jail in germany and didn't pay for things and you wanted to stop that ideology

00:27:04.580 but we always sold mein Kampf here in america i've read it it is crazy it is the rantings of a madman

00:27:13.840 and to me it it it makes me question how did people dismiss this they knew what he was going to do

00:27:21.640 how did they dismiss it uh and i fear we're just repeating a lot of these things i can still get

00:27:28.860 mein Kampf at amazon i can still get it at ebay but i can't get six dr seuss books from either of those

00:27:36.300 places today i'm still trying to figure the dr seuss thing out i i don't get the problem with it but um

00:27:44.560 you know i think when you see dr seuss being banned it's really starting to wake people up and

00:27:51.540 we're we're led to believe that we have to remain quiet our opinions are wrong um you know we've been

00:27:59.800 called racist nazis you name it and i think that we might be in the majority and we're just being told

00:28:07.360 to be quiet and don't speak up even if you think it's common sense don't speak up or you're in trouble

00:28:12.140 i think there's a shift happening actually based on what i've been reading from the comments i've

00:28:17.600 gotten where people are saying that's it i'm done i'm gonna the next time this happens at work i'm

00:28:22.780 gonna say something i have to so i i don't know i are you sensing it and you talk to people all the

00:28:27.880 time glenn i feel like there might be a tiny shift happening where people are fed up enough with being

00:28:34.220 told their um you know traditional values are wrong their ideas are wrong their beliefs are wrong and

00:28:40.080 they're ready to stand up well i will tell you this is almost like the last call at a bar uh if if you

00:28:48.060 don't stand up now if you if you are remain silent uh it's this is the last probably easy time for you

00:28:58.140 to do it and i know doing it now seems like a lot if we would have spoken out earlier uh maybe things

00:29:04.740 would have been different uh but it's not going to get easier from here and if people don't stand up

00:29:10.260 in those meetings in those companies and say i'm not doing it you're not teaching me i'm hoping that

00:29:17.720 you know if we had 20 percent of the teachers stand up and say we got to go back to school this is

00:29:23.460 ridiculous 20 percent of the teachers it would make all the difference in the world but nobody's doing it

00:29:30.000 well people are afraid of being ostracized the cancel culture you know you want to fit in you

00:29:35.300 want people to like you that's natural but being ostracized won't kill you and it might save the

00:29:41.700 country it will set you free yeah and i've been canceled several times because people don't like

00:29:47.160 what i tweet i don't think i tweet anything wrong that's bad it might not be what other people um you

00:29:52.600 know i'm i try to put stories out there and get people to react to them and say hey what do you think

00:29:57.760 about this the president did this today or this happened what are your thoughts and and because

00:30:02.240 i'm not actively wasn't actively bashing the president or pushing you know covid fear the media

00:30:09.080 some people in the media would attack me and write stories about me in the newspaper but the first time i

00:30:14.500 was canceled it was i mean it was really painful i was distraught yeah it did feel like my world was

00:30:22.360 ending but the good news is you get over it and the second time you're canceled it's easier the third

00:30:28.960 time you just finally start to almost laugh at it you go okay here you go again yeah i'm being

00:30:33.040 canceled again and you you get to a point to where you can almost wear it as a badge of honor because

00:30:37.540 you start to see who's canceling you and you're like okay well i'm glad they're canceling me because

00:30:42.260 i'm not with them um carrie we we hope that you are going to continue your reporting uh in whatever

00:30:48.940 way when you decide how you're going to do it uh know that you have an ally in me and i'll i'll help

00:30:54.460 you any way i can thank you so much thanks glenn appreciate it you back god bless

00:30:58.580 you're listening to the best of the glenn beck program

00:31:05.140 so stand up new york has sued governor cuomo to lift covid19 the shutdown order and i guess it

00:31:19.160 kind of won a little bit because he has lifted a bit of the shutdown order it's killing new york city

00:31:27.060 uh uh donny zoldan is uh going to be joining me here in a second and i just want to read this tweet

00:31:33.860 that he tweeted yesterday i'll be on glenn back tomorrow morning 11 30 uh talking uh new york

00:31:38.920 city politics business shutdowns and mandates hopefully some comedy too wait until he finds

00:31:44.540 out i'm an upper west side liberal i'm trying to get my arms around that uh donny you're you live in

00:31:54.640 new york you you uh co-own a comedy club you live in the upper west side and you're liberal

00:32:02.740 hey glenn hey how are you i'm good how are you good i i uh i'm glad that you're on you co-own the

00:32:12.940 comedy club if i'm not mistaken with james altucher right that is correct and gabe walden and my best

00:32:19.080 friend since high school yeah um the uh new york as james and i have talked about is dying it it's uh

00:32:26.960 it is the saddest thing i've i've ever seen i mean the greatest city in the world i don't want to say

00:32:34.300 dying we're coming back where it's being revised right now we're really coming back asked me a month

00:32:42.780 ago even i would have said dying but i really feel like we're on the upswing right now and by the way

00:32:49.000 the upper west side liberal thing i challenge you to take a walk with me on broadway on the upper west

00:32:55.720 side and get a bagel at zaybars i should be challenging you to do that i've done that many

00:33:05.880 times i don't think you know what it's like to walk down the street as me so surprised uh about two

00:33:14.100 years ago i was walking down broadway with ann coulter and someone yelled out we love you ann

00:33:19.320 so we should do it anytime brother anytime listen i saw you have stand up uh stand up new york in the

00:33:27.560 park and you guys started doing uh you know social distancing stand up uh you know under the trees in

00:33:35.220 in new york city tell me about that yeah i mean it was actually phenomenal march april may

00:33:43.620 uh really i was in the bar in the club by myself like everyone in new york city was really just

00:33:52.320 hunkering down and being in their apartments so there was really nothing going on march april may

00:33:57.480 in manhattan but come june when the weather was nice i started city biking to central park and i

00:34:04.540 bought a lawn chair and i would work on my laptop and i just saw hundreds of people on the lawn in

00:34:10.800 cheap meadow in central park just enjoying themselves and playing frisbee and lying on the

00:34:15.260 grass and i text my booker john and i'm like dude we should do a comedy show here like it feels alive

00:34:23.020 here in the park if you go to broadway it's a disaster but storefronts closed and homeless people

00:34:29.940 around and it was actually like dangerous in the streets but the park we didn't get that sense and

00:34:35.280 we we did a comedy show and 50 people showed up and we had six comics and we paid them and

00:34:41.700 it was an amazing experience comics walked over to me and they said they haven't been outside in

00:34:49.480 months and they obviously haven't performed and it was such like a relief and then people that came

00:34:54.140 out to watch it felt so good to be outdoors in the sun watching live entertainment the city really

00:35:00.000 fell alive so after that show i'm like we gotta scale this up let's dude let's do like 50 40 to 50

00:35:09.000 shows a week let's do shows and parks across manhattan brooklyn queens everyone thought i was crazy but

00:35:15.040 we did that we were doing 40 to 50 shows a week during the pandemic in the summer and fall and i've

00:35:23.100 owned the club for 12 years it was it's been really the best experience since i've owned the club

00:35:29.260 so what is the state of business in new york i mean you were just talking about broadway i don't know

00:35:36.240 how those people survive you still have to pay for the theater rent i mean somebody's paying for all of

00:35:41.740 that there's a lot of overhead all these actors and actresses and stagehands they haven't worked in a

00:35:48.440 year how is this going to survive i mean it's it's financially it's been difficult uh you know before i was

00:35:58.520 talking about just non-financials you know like we you know we were willing to invest some money and

00:36:05.500 put on these park shows and we made a lot of people happy and made comics happy but yeah the numbers

00:36:12.500 don't really add up right now uh we we've been shuttered a year a year we were closed down it's crazy

00:36:20.500 even while crazy even while other industries around us have opened uh you can go bowling and

00:36:29.640 you look like a bowler by the way

00:36:32.080 no you know the i did

00:36:36.360 i did uh i did more bowling in new york city than i've done in my life

00:36:44.300 look like a bowler too much permission to make fun of you yeah no there's fine to make fun of me but

00:36:56.620 uh don't make fun of bowlers man they they carry big really big suitcases um walk down broadway

00:37:05.020 yeah no um it it's been really frustrating a year i can't believe it's been a year we were closed down

00:37:12.160 and i got really frustrated over the past few weeks when cuomo announced that weddings are allowed

00:37:19.060 and restaurants can increase their capacity and you can go bowling and play pool and do all these

00:37:26.300 things but comedy clubs can operate and music venues can operate and i i just i just i really

00:37:32.400 asked on social media like open the clubs you know screaming and yelling and we decided monday to

00:37:38.580 file a lawsuit uh you know we were fighting for the first amendment and the 14th amendment

00:37:45.300 um the first amendment you know freedom freedom of right expression which i didn't know like last week

00:37:51.540 and um 14 which is equal protection under the law right we should be able to operate on

00:37:58.220 under the same guidelines as other other businesses and the media has been covering the lawsuit

00:38:04.200 and uh andrew yang uh had a call with him a few days ago and he tweeted support and he didn't

00:38:10.460 understand why we can operate under the same guidelines and cuomo caved and he allowed us to

00:38:15.480 reopen at 33 capacity now which again the numbers don't work but it's better than zero you know saturday

00:38:24.360 night live as you pointed out in your lawsuit saturday night live jimmy fallon show jazz dinner theaters

00:38:29.940 weddings restaurants why not you we didn't they didn't tell us which is really unfortunate because

00:38:39.840 entertainment in new york is everything i mean that's why people from all around the world young

00:38:46.380 people move here right to be an actor yeah to be a comic to be on broadway uh musicians there's great

00:38:53.980 music clubs and comedy clubs and there's off broadway and not to give one explanation not to

00:39:01.580 mention it at a press conference in the past year when he's when he wrote his book right yeah not to

00:39:07.460 address why we can't be open why he can't arrange a conference call with venue operators just explaining

00:39:15.240 the logic to them i find is really unacceptable he really dropped the ball there and i for the life

00:39:23.300 of me i don't get it well the good news is he's provided uh you guys with a lot of material uh when

00:39:30.480 you get back to work um can i ask you a question on this cancel culture and the the you know the

00:39:38.860 dr seuss thing and you know if the family wants to pull a dr seuss thing fine but now ebay is saying

00:39:46.400 they're not going to sell sell mine comp but they won't sell an old dr seuss book

00:39:51.200 are is are people in the arts uh in especially comedy lenny bruce would you this i think he would

00:40:02.080 be apoplectic over what's going on is are people starting to see in your business uh this isn't a

00:40:11.920 good trend you know what it's interesting most comics in in the country especially new york

00:40:21.080 are are to the left and they're very liberal but they're very uh pro speech and uh they're they're

00:40:30.420 very against uh this woke mob i'll call them and uh they hate cancel culture which is which is cool

00:40:38.900 you know like it's great again a lot of comics are are are liberal but they they hate it you know

00:40:45.060 they which is refreshing to see yeah it is they hate what's going on and i'm happy that you know

00:40:54.540 we we book the sort of comics that where they can say whatever they want and and we don't censor them

00:41:00.540 and like we again like i'm i'm liberal i live on the upper west side uh we we hosted roseanne bar

00:41:06.880 uh a couple years ago after you know that that whole twitter thing yeah i'm happy to give comics

00:41:13.820 uh a platform to say whatever they want that we've never censored them and it's funny i was i was having

00:41:20.320 drinks with my friend dan last night and i was telling him like there's some words that we used to

00:41:25.460 say like in the 90s or 2000s that you can't say now which i want and i want to bring it back

00:41:32.480 it was like funny saying i can't i don't want to say now in the air like aren't there some words

00:41:39.160 like we used to grow up um you are you're a little older than me i'm 40 um there are some words

00:41:46.260 where it it sucks that we can't say them anymore because we're afraid uh someone on twitter is in a

00:41:55.580 huge about it george carlin i mean george carlin uh made a good living and one of the you know one

00:42:08.320 of the things that really propelled him were the seven dirty words that you just can't say

00:42:13.420 i want to say that you got to bring it back yeah yeah back but can i i mentioned one thing like how

00:42:20.720 far it's it's become sure uh we so about a month ago uh we were approached by common health they run

00:42:29.340 urgent cares here in new york and they saw what we're doing trying to keep comedy going in new york

00:42:36.520 and um you know try to support comics and keep people laughing and they approached me and they're

00:42:43.740 like you know we want to offer your comic free health care visits and free covid testing

00:42:49.900 through august 31st right which is like a really cool thing to do and a comic i don't want to say

00:42:57.520 i don't want to call him a comic a wannabe comic the guy's like really sucks um tweeted now comedy 0.62

00:43:06.480 club owners get to decide who's who gets health care or not which comics are good enough to help

00:43:12.520 like we're giving free health ball to comics and he says why should comedy owners get to decide who

00:43:19.760 has health care or not that's how far things have become and it's unbelievable well we uh i want you

00:43:27.680 to know i supported uh roseanne barr when she was saying chop off the heads of uh of uh capitalists

00:43:35.140 and i supported bill maher after 9 11 i'm a free speech absolutist i don't have to agree with you

00:43:41.980 i don't even have to like you but we must protect free speech and i'm also new york's not a fan of me

00:43:48.780 but i'm a fan of new york and uh anything we can do to help you the comedians or the comedy club

00:43:54.120 you reach out at any time thank you so much i'm a fan of you thanks for having me thank you you bet bye

00:43:59.980 bye

The Glenn Beck Program - March 05, 2021

Best of The Program ｜ Guests： Brad Meltzer, Kari Lake, & Dani Zoldan ｜ 3⧸5⧸21

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