The Glenn Beck Program - February 24, 2026


Best of the Program ｜ Guests： Brad Reese & Bowen Troyer ｜ 2⧸24⧸26


Episode Stats

Length

45 minutes

Words per Minute

153.05185

Word Count

6,991

Sentence Count

655

Misogynist Sentences

2

Hate Speech Sentences

14


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 When you let aero truffle bubbles melt, everything takes on a creamy, delicious, chocolatey glow.
00:00:06.320 Like that pile of laundry.
00:00:07.800 You didn't forget to fold it.
00:00:09.240 Nah, it's a new trend.
00:00:10.720 Wrinkled chic.
00:00:12.100 Feel the aero bubbles melt.
00:00:13.900 It's mind bubbling.
00:00:15.120 All right, on the podcast today, we talk about President Trump, what he should say in the
00:00:18.820 State of Union address tonight, how the outrage headlines are actually rewiring your brain
00:00:25.300 so it's impossible to have a conversation with anybody.
00:00:28.960 And we go through and start with the guy who was talking about Epstein and then goes into
00:00:37.100 Mar-a-Lago, tries to burn the place down over the weekend.
00:00:40.280 Where did that come from?
00:00:41.820 And what does it mean that the Democrats are bringing the Epstein victims to the State of
00:00:47.880 the Union today?
00:00:48.600 What are they reinforcing here?
00:00:50.600 Also, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.
00:00:52.880 Who doesn't love them?
00:00:54.500 Well, Brad Reese, as in Reese's Peanut Butter, he doesn't love them.
00:00:58.520 And he has a reason why he's on today's podcast as well.
00:01:02.040 Quality control looks different when production isn't 7,000 miles away.
00:01:06.660 When your clothes are made halfway around the world, quality control often means hoping
00:01:11.200 everything turns out right after it's shipped across the ocean in the container.
00:01:15.960 When they're made here, it means something else.
00:01:18.360 It means somebody is down the street that can walk in and go, hey, I want to see the line.
00:01:24.140 I want to see the stitching.
00:01:26.180 I want to see the fabric.
00:01:27.540 They can fix a problem before it becomes 10,000 problems in a crate across the ocean.
00:01:33.020 American Giant makes their clothing here in the United States.
00:01:36.000 This is extraordinarily difficult to do, and they're one of the first people that were
00:01:39.700 leading the way on this.
00:01:41.540 American cotton, American workers, American factories.
00:01:44.580 It's not a marketing gimmick, and they didn't do it for trade.
00:01:48.320 They did it because it was the right thing to do, and they took it on the chin for years.
00:01:52.700 You want clothing built to last, designed with intention, made under standards that don't
00:01:57.060 require a translator or a time zone difference to verify?
00:02:00.140 Just like integrity, quality is not an accident, and when you buy something built with both
00:02:06.400 integrity and quality, you're supporting skilled workers, stronger communities, and
00:02:11.120 manufacturing base that still takes pride in doing things right here in America.
00:02:14.800 So buy American today, American-Giant.com slash Glenn, American-Giant.com slash Glenn.
00:02:21.960 Save 20% when you use my name for your first purchase.
00:02:25.180 That's American-Giant.com slash Glenn.
00:02:30.140 Hello, America.
00:02:31.100 You know we've been fighting every single day.
00:02:32.860 We push back against the lies, the censorship, the nonsense of the mainstream media that they're
00:02:38.160 trying to feed you.
00:02:39.140 We work tirelessly to bring you the unfiltered truth because you deserve it.
00:02:44.060 But to keep this fight going, we need you.
00:02:46.540 Right now, would you take a moment and rate and review the Glenn Beck podcast?
00:02:49.900 Give us five stars and lead a comment because every single review helps us break through
00:02:54.800 Big Tech's algorithm to reach more Americans who need to hear the truth.
00:02:58.960 This isn't a podcast.
00:03:00.480 This is a movement and you're part of it, a big part of it.
00:03:03.900 So if you believe in what we're doing, you want more people to wake up, help us push this
00:03:07.620 podcast to the top.
00:03:09.020 Rate, review, share.
00:03:10.620 Together, we'll make a difference.
00:03:12.720 And thanks for standing with us.
00:03:13.980 Now let's get to work.
00:03:14.880 Tonight at six o'clock, Dennis Pringer and I talk about his new book, If There Is No God,
00:03:34.660 The Battle Between Who Defines Good and Evil.
00:03:38.420 Um, it's an amazing conversation.
00:03:40.900 He is, uh, paralyzed from the neck down.
00:03:44.280 This is one of the first, um, public appearances.
00:03:46.800 I think this is the first, I know it's the, the first national radio appearance that he
00:03:51.740 has, uh, done since he left his own show.
00:03:55.320 Uh, and he is, um, it's amazing to watch this guy.
00:04:01.260 Wait until you hear how positive he is.
00:04:03.600 Uh, I mean, he has no reason to be positive.
00:04:06.140 I would not, I would be a little cantankerous, uh, just a little bit.
00:04:09.700 Um, he is not, he is, he's a, just a remarkable man really.
00:04:15.000 Um, but we talk about, you know, how, if we dismiss God, then everything falls apart.
00:04:22.960 Absolutely everything falls apart, uh, including our happiness.
00:04:27.440 And, uh, he talks about that.
00:04:29.280 You don't want to miss that.
00:04:30.300 It's episode two 80 of the podcast.
00:04:32.500 It's a torch exclusive conversation.
00:04:34.860 Uh, it comes out tonight at six o'clock for torch subscribers.
00:04:39.000 It'll be out everywhere on Saturday, but you really don't want to miss this.
00:04:42.400 Here is a clip of the, uh, interview.
00:04:47.420 I, uh, I spoke to him.
00:04:49.460 Um, uh, I think I started the conversation.
00:04:54.680 Well, no, let me, let me go here.
00:04:58.420 People are starting to refer to America as a Christian nation.
00:05:01.840 And I said, is it important to have to, to emphasize this is a Judeo Christian nation and why listen to his response?
00:05:13.220 Glenn, God, God bless you for asking that question.
00:05:17.720 Uh, I intend to write, uh, a major piece on that issue.
00:05:25.800 Good.
00:05:27.340 The, uh, there is no Christianity.
00:05:32.660 There is no Christ without the, uh, the Judeo.
00:05:38.120 Well, Jesus was a Jew.
00:05:42.480 As I tell my Christian friends, uh, Jesus never read the New Testament.
00:05:56.500 Uh, Jesus was a Jew.
00:06:00.320 Uh, the, uh, the, uh, the gospel writers were Jews.
00:06:06.180 The apostles were Jews.
00:06:09.880 Paul was a Jew.
00:06:12.340 I mean, the, all the ideas that Christians, all the ideas that Christians use to, uh, validate their faith.
00:06:28.900 Are, are, are based on the, on the Jewish Bible.
00:06:33.340 Yeah.
00:06:34.140 Uh, there is no, so there's no Christian without Judeo.
00:06:40.100 And the Judeo would not be known in the world without the Christian.
00:06:45.080 Uh, the reason people know about the 10 commandments.
00:06:50.200 It's all over the world is because Christians publicized it.
00:06:57.080 We need each other tremendously.
00:06:59.700 And I believe there's a divine role for both.
00:07:02.600 I'm going to get into a lot with Dennis Prager.
00:07:06.740 You don't want to miss this exclusive, uh, interview with him.
00:07:10.100 His book comes out, by the way, if there is no God, um, please, he can't do a book tour himself.
00:07:17.200 He's doing very limited number of these interviews.
00:07:19.680 It took a lot for him to do this interview.
00:07:22.040 We had to stop several times because he had to catch his breath.
00:07:25.500 Um, but, uh, he, he so believes in the message of this book and so do I, I wrote the afterword
00:07:32.200 for it.
00:07:32.580 I read it.
00:07:33.060 It was shortly after Charlie's death.
00:07:36.420 Uh, he sent it to me, uh, and I wrote the afterword for it.
00:07:39.860 It is really good.
00:07:40.760 Buy it.
00:07:41.460 It's available in bookstores everywhere.
00:07:43.440 Show your support for Dennis Prager and get a really good book.
00:07:47.780 Uh, if there is no God available now.
00:07:50.340 All right.
00:07:51.100 So tonight and Jason and Sarah and Ricky, I'd like to bring you in on this tonight is
00:07:55.840 the state of the union.
00:07:57.060 And I have a list of things that I think he has to talk about, uh, today, but I'd like
00:08:02.840 to start, you know, Sarah, I'd like to actually start with you on, because you're more of the
00:08:08.380 average person, you know, you, you got into this cause this was like, it's a job.
00:08:12.940 I push buttons.
00:08:13.760 It's a job.
00:08:15.160 Um, and you're a raging alcoholic, right?
00:08:18.840 Raging alcoholic.
00:08:19.840 So, you know, you're like the average American, uh, are you going to, are you going to watch
00:08:24.900 this tonight?
00:08:25.720 I'm definitely going to try.
00:08:26.860 Um, I'm excited for the pomp and circumstance as usual.
00:08:30.660 Um, but really, you like that part?
00:08:33.280 I do.
00:08:33.520 I do.
00:08:33.980 Cause it pisses everybody off.
00:08:36.100 Okay.
00:08:37.580 Okay.
00:08:38.360 All right.
00:08:39.160 It's typically you.
00:08:40.260 Okay.
00:08:40.500 Now I understand it.
00:08:41.380 Yeah.
00:08:41.580 I understand.
00:08:41.960 Cause it does.
00:08:42.540 It pisses me off.
00:08:43.140 I'm like, shut up.
00:08:44.740 They just introduced him five seconds ago and you gave him a standing ovation.
00:08:48.920 And now you reintroduce him and you're going to give him another two minute standing
00:08:51.920 ovation.
00:08:52.380 We could all go home.
00:08:53.440 We could be in bed in 15 minutes.
00:08:54.940 If you guys would just sit on your hands for a while, but that's just me.
00:08:58.680 No, that's very true.
00:08:59.520 Is there anything, is there anything that he has to say to you that you want to hear?
00:09:06.360 I want stats.
00:09:07.200 I want numbers.
00:09:07.800 I want him to come with facts.
00:09:10.600 I think a lot of times he's just, I'm the greatest and this is going to be the best
00:09:14.160 economy ever.
00:09:14.940 I want number.
00:09:15.860 I want comparisons.
00:09:17.220 He's going to give that tonight.
00:09:18.540 I hope he's going to give that Jason.
00:09:20.660 What does the president have to do?
00:09:23.360 Well, per the insiders, the president has to address the save act and election integrity.
00:09:27.900 They are leading in the poll right now.
00:09:30.220 So that's what they really want.
00:09:31.360 And it's hard to kind of argue with that.
00:09:33.120 I'm really curious about because the president has made a big focus on outward facing threats.
00:09:39.580 South America, he's talking about Greenland.
00:09:43.180 He's tried to bring peace to Ukraine.
00:09:46.180 He's been in the middle, all over the Middle East.
00:09:48.680 The point is he's very outward focused when a lot of people were saying make America great
00:09:53.340 again is all about being inward focused economy, all those things.
00:09:57.060 I want to know how this, and it kind of goes towards your question of him during his first
00:10:02.200 hundred days on whether he was trying to fix a system that was built post-World War II.
00:10:09.640 Talk about that and tell us how all these things you're focused on outwardly is really
00:10:14.080 about focused on inside the United States.
00:10:16.940 Make that clear to the American people.
00:10:18.880 That's paramount.
00:10:19.860 Excellent.
00:10:20.500 Excellent.
00:10:21.200 Ricky?
00:10:23.040 He's got to convince both sides of the aisle that when he does the targeted strike on Iran,
00:10:29.480 it's not if, when he does it, it's in our interest.
00:10:33.540 Speaking to what Jason was talking about, he's also got to convince both sides of the
00:10:38.420 aisle and all of America that his policies with ICE, even though there may have been some
00:10:44.140 distractions, we'll call it that, in Minnesota, his policies for ICE are for all Americans,
00:10:49.920 to keep all Americans safe, not just Republicans.
00:10:52.380 I agree.
00:10:53.240 I agree.
00:10:53.540 Okay, before I get to my list of things, because I wrote down about eight things that I think
00:10:57.560 he has to do tonight, but give me a list of who's coming.
00:11:02.700 The hockey team is coming.
00:11:03.780 The male hockey team is coming.
00:11:04.960 Oh, yeah.
00:11:04.980 So, Sarah wants the pomp and circumstance.
00:11:08.000 I want to see Quinn and Jack Hughes, Jack still missing his tooth, grinning ear to ear.
00:11:13.900 It's going to happen.
00:11:14.460 Yeah, he's going to be there.
00:11:16.520 There's going to be some Epstein victims there that are brought in as props by the Democrats.
00:11:21.340 Right.
00:11:21.640 I'm not sure that works to their advantage, does it?
00:11:26.040 I mean, really, Bill and Hillary Clinton, you're going to, that party is going to bring
00:11:31.600 in Epstein victims?
00:11:33.480 Yeah.
00:11:34.080 Okay.
00:11:34.400 It's awkward.
00:11:35.040 All right, whatever.
00:11:35.780 I think, what was the stat, Jason, about the percentage of people who had, that Epstein
00:11:40.780 had donated to?
00:11:42.320 89% of Epstein's political contributions went to the left and Democrats.
00:11:47.380 89%.
00:11:48.020 89.
00:11:49.120 89.
00:11:49.840 89.
00:11:50.240 So, yeah.
00:11:51.840 By the way, I think Bill Gates is starting to really feel the heat.
00:11:55.040 Did you see that he left that global conference?
00:11:57.000 He didn't go to that big global conference, what was it, last weekend?
00:12:00.440 Because of this, they were like, ah, I don't think we're going to lose speakers if you show
00:12:04.580 up.
00:12:04.900 I think he's finally starting to get some heat from it, which is good.
00:12:08.260 You'd think the divorce with his wife would have been.
00:12:10.280 Yeah, it would have been enough.
00:12:11.060 No, apparently not.
00:12:11.900 But this is the guest that I'm most excited about.
00:12:13.880 She was invited by Speaker Johnson.
00:12:15.380 There's a lot of Americans who may not know the story of Jimmy Lai.
00:12:19.460 He is currently in a Chinese prison.
00:12:22.920 He's a pro-democracy activist.
00:12:24.940 He's facing 20 years, or he's supposed to be in there for 20 years.
00:12:28.200 And Speaker Johnson and the Trump administration are working to get him free.
00:12:31.660 His daughter, Claire, was invited.
00:12:34.140 And she's recently just started speaking out.
00:12:35.900 And she has said that it's his Christian faith that has sustained him.
00:12:40.960 And as you know, being a Christian in China is probably not the most popular position.
00:12:45.640 No, no, not at all.
00:12:46.900 Not at all.
00:12:47.560 Let's get her on.
00:12:48.520 I'd really like to talk to her.
00:12:50.320 All right.
00:12:50.860 So here are the things that I think the president has to do tonight.
00:12:54.800 He's got to lead with affordability.
00:12:57.080 He's got to lead with, here's what I've done to make the economy for you better.
00:13:03.500 And he's going to have to, you know, he has to express that it is in your best interest.
00:13:13.500 These tariffs are in your best interest.
00:13:15.840 That Iran is in your best interest.
00:13:18.700 All of these peace deals are in your best interest.
00:13:21.460 And why they're in your best interest.
00:13:23.920 More importantly, why have I done, like Jason just said, why have I done all these things overseas?
00:13:30.720 How do they affect your wallet?
00:13:33.500 How are they going to affect your children's future?
00:13:37.060 He really needs to distill this and show everything I've done overseas will affect you and your wallet.
00:13:45.460 I had to take care of that first.
00:13:47.500 So the explaining of the outward focus and the explanation of, of Iran is going to be really, really important.
00:13:58.260 He then also has to talk about, um, the criminal illegals.
00:14:02.980 He needs to make it really clear.
00:14:05.520 We're not against, we're a nation built on immigration.
00:14:09.760 Should we pause on immigration?
00:14:11.920 Yeah, perhaps so.
00:14:13.240 Because we don't have any idea who's coming in, but are we against immigration?
00:14:18.420 No, as long as they're the kind of people that come in and want to renew the promise of America.
00:14:25.380 Okay.
00:14:25.840 We, we can use those kinds of people to help build a more perfect nation.
00:14:30.520 That is good.
00:14:31.440 But what I'm trying to get off the streets are the criminals, which goes to your point, Ricky.
00:14:36.780 I think it was your point.
00:14:37.880 This affects everybody.
00:14:40.160 And in fact, disproportionately affects people in liberal cities and low income people by taking these rapists, these killers, these, uh, thugs, you know, drug dealers, by taking them off the streets, it's actually affecting low income and liberal cities more than it is the, uh, the red cities.
00:15:05.280 So I'm, I'm actually trying to be a president for all of the people here.
00:15:11.980 He, he also has to address the DHS funding.
00:15:14.760 We are with what happening in Mexico.
00:15:17.180 Uh, you look across that border, man, this, this, this whole world is a powder keg.
00:15:22.200 You're going to defund the DHS ice has their funding.
00:15:26.320 What are you doing?
00:15:27.340 What are you doing?
00:15:28.260 Why are you taking our department of Homeland security at a time when we may need it most?
00:15:33.100 First, you've got to restore the funding.
00:15:35.440 He's got to hammer that.
00:15:36.980 He also has to hammer the save act and why that's not Jim Crow.
00:15:42.620 What they're doing is Jim Crow.
00:15:45.800 And I think the most important thing he can do is define who we are.
00:15:53.040 What is it we're really fighting for?
00:15:57.380 What, why is America an important place?
00:16:01.160 Why are our values important?
00:16:05.020 What's important fighting for?
00:16:07.060 What's not important?
00:16:10.040 What happens to the world?
00:16:11.540 If we just disappear, what happens to your children?
00:16:15.580 I would love for the president to say, you know, everybody's fighting all the time and we got to stop this fighting.
00:16:21.160 We have to start saying, if we're going to fight, let's fight together for this vision of America.
00:16:30.780 What would be interesting is if he ever did that, how the left would be forced to be against that vision of America.
00:16:38.160 And it would be so telling because they would, if he was clearly articulating a vision of America that everyone could look at and go, I want to be like that.
00:16:50.060 I don't care who I voted for.
00:16:52.380 That's the America I want.
00:16:55.080 It would put people in a very awkward position because they would have to come out against that, which they would, which they would.
00:17:03.180 Those are the things he needs to do.
00:17:05.540 I, I think he will be in danger if, if he takes a victory lap.
00:17:12.680 Now, let me explain that.
00:17:14.720 He's got to take a victory lap.
00:17:16.600 He's got to say what he has accomplished in the last year.
00:17:19.700 But if that victory lap doesn't include, I heard you.
00:17:25.060 I heard you.
00:17:27.000 Everything that we have done is to get your cost of living down.
00:17:31.860 And you may not feel it yet, but it's happening.
00:17:34.760 And here's the proof.
00:17:36.260 And we're not done yet.
00:17:38.280 I heard you then.
00:17:39.780 I hear you now.
00:17:41.060 If he does what the Democrats did last time, where you just don't get it.
00:17:46.180 You just, you can't, what, you can't read wall street reports.
00:17:50.560 He'll lose people.
00:17:51.960 He has got to say, look, I understand that you don't feel it yet, but I heard you.
00:17:58.720 Then I hear you now.
00:17:59.880 And we're not done.
00:18:00.820 I had to take care of these big things to be able to get to the things that will actually now affect your table.
00:18:08.800 I had to do it in this order.
00:18:10.140 And the other thing I think he loses on is if he spends any real time bashing the Supreme Court.
00:18:17.680 I don't think people want to hear the bashing of our institutions.
00:18:22.520 He can say they came up with a really bad thing and I disagree with it, but that's their job.
00:18:27.780 I disagreed with what they came up with.
00:18:30.400 That's my job.
00:18:31.520 And so I thank the Supreme Court because you've just made my tariffs stronger.
00:18:36.960 That's the way he should handle it.
00:18:38.220 If he gets waylaid into, and I'm ashamed of you and you're, then he's going to sound like the Democrats.
00:18:43.380 And we don't like that when the Democrats do it.
00:18:45.940 I wonder if the Democrats like it when they even do it as well.
00:18:49.520 Probably they do, but I don't.
00:18:52.860 That's what the president needs to do.
00:18:54.440 Tonight at State of the Union, we'll be watching.
00:18:58.160 The burner launcher, when police lights were still flashing two houses down,
00:19:03.160 when the couple turned off their bedroom lamp, even after the street went dark again,
00:19:09.420 the image of that splintered back door would not leave their minds.
00:19:14.780 It was a neighborhood break-in, middle of the night.
00:19:17.120 Now they're lying there, quiet, for the first time, and the question feels real.
00:19:21.960 If somebody came through our door, what would we do?
00:19:25.160 It's one thing to talk about safety.
00:19:27.200 It's another to actually live it and see it and not as abstract.
00:19:32.480 When it's happening on your street, your neighbors, your family,
00:19:35.440 you realize calling 911 is important, but that doesn't solve the first 20 minutes.
00:19:40.180 That's why the burner launcher exists.
00:19:41.700 Non-lethal, safe, self-defense tool powered by CO2,
00:19:45.300 launchers, powerful projectiles, and tear gas.
00:19:48.280 It keeps the bad guys away.
00:19:50.220 Time for the cops to get there.
00:19:51.740 Go to burner.com slash Glenn.
00:19:53.600 B-Y-R-N-A dot com slash Glenn.
00:19:56.220 Do it now.
00:19:56.900 Now back to the podcast.
00:19:58.820 This is the best of the Glenn Beck program.
00:20:02.180 So I want to talk to you about it.
00:20:05.440 What's happening with the State of the Union tonight?
00:20:09.400 Tonight, you're going to see somebody who is laying out his vision of what needs to happen.
00:20:14.300 And, you know, it's Donald Trump, and Donald Trump will be Donald Trump.
00:20:17.220 But in the audience, you will see what the Democrats are doing.
00:20:20.540 And today, or yesterday, a story came out in the Atlantic about how the GOP has become,
00:20:28.200 it's called the Nazification of the GOP.
00:20:31.720 Okay?
00:20:32.280 So you hear more Nazi, Nazi, Nazi.
00:20:34.200 Also, the week that somebody tried to go in and at least cause harm at Mar-a-Lago,
00:20:41.160 if not kill the president,
00:20:43.160 he was motivated because he felt that Donald Trump was in with the pedophile, Epstein.
00:20:51.280 So what do the Democrats do?
00:20:53.260 They invite all of the Epstein victims to be sitting with them during the State of the Union.
00:20:59.660 Okay?
00:21:00.140 So reinforcing Nazi and pedophile.
00:21:04.680 I want you to know this is why you can't talk to your friends.
00:21:09.480 And this may happen to you as well.
00:21:11.720 But let me explain something, how I know this to be true.
00:21:15.760 What I just said a half hour ago, you know, in the last half hour.
00:21:19.180 That's science.
00:21:19.940 Now let me show you how I know this to be true.
00:21:23.160 I've talked about this in bits and pieces, and I'll talk about it in a little maybe bigger chunk here.
00:21:28.040 But years ago, about 2011, I started getting very, very sick.
00:21:34.440 And I'll share this.
00:21:35.740 If you see my hand, if you're watching, you can see my hand shake.
00:21:40.100 That's from the permanent damage that I did when I was in the early 2000s.
00:21:47.540 Okay?
00:21:48.160 And I lost feeling in my fingers.
00:21:51.660 I started to shake.
00:21:53.140 I started to have bad pain.
00:21:54.400 I had macular degeneration in one eye, macular dystrophy in the other eye.
00:21:59.520 All these things started happening, and I could barely think straight.
00:22:04.240 And then I had something that researchers called time collapse, where I couldn't time mark anything.
00:22:13.640 Okay?
00:22:13.780 I could talk to you one day and have a meeting with you, and I could remember everything about the meeting.
00:22:17.860 But I couldn't tell you if that meeting happened yesterday or last year.
00:22:21.420 And it was freaking me out.
00:22:23.340 Okay?
00:22:25.140 So I started going to doctors.
00:22:27.920 And every specialist I went to, I went for two years to doctors.
00:22:33.220 Everywhere I went, I went to the best hospitals and clinics in the nation, best doctors.
00:22:37.300 They all said the same thing when they first saw me.
00:22:41.720 I'd describe the symptoms.
00:22:43.880 They'd say, you're being poisoned.
00:22:46.600 And the first time I went, well, maybe.
00:22:48.560 I mean, George Soros doesn't like me very much.
00:22:50.740 Maybe.
00:22:51.160 We tested.
00:22:51.720 I wasn't being poisoned.
00:22:52.780 And I go to another doctor.
00:22:55.520 They couldn't figure it out.
00:22:56.460 You're being poisoned.
00:22:57.200 No, I'm not.
00:22:57.560 We've already tested.
00:22:58.120 I want to test you again.
00:22:58.920 You're being poisoned.
00:22:59.560 I'm telling you you're being poisoned.
00:23:00.500 Well, I wasn't being poisoned.
00:23:03.800 Okay?
00:23:04.280 Even though that's what they said, I wasn't ingesting chemicals.
00:23:07.860 I wasn't eating paint chips or anything like that.
00:23:10.440 There's no foreign agents.
00:23:11.420 After a couple of years, as I got sicker and sicker and sicker, I realized I was being poisoned, but I was poisoning myself in a way that the doctors hadn't talked to me.
00:23:24.840 I wasn't by what I was eating, but I was consuming poison with the relentless diet of the republic is dying.
00:23:36.440 The news, the history, the media, everything that was going on for nearly a decade from 2001 to 2010, I barely slept.
00:23:47.400 Okay?
00:23:47.740 Three hours a night, if I was lucky.
00:23:49.560 I had no dreams for almost 10 years.
00:23:52.480 I worked from 5 a.m. till well past midnight every day.
00:23:57.080 Each day, I was onstage, offstage, back onstage multiple times.
00:24:02.300 By 2009, I wasn't just battling what I believe were forces trying to reverse American freedom and evil.
00:24:10.060 I was fighting for my life in business, in media, in smears.
00:24:16.880 Physically, I was under threat all the time, and my body was responding to it.
00:24:22.480 By 2015, finally, a set of doctors said, you know, some people don't even believe in this, but it's adrenal fatigue.
00:24:31.820 I had been in fight-or-flight mode for over a decade, all day, every day, and your body is not built to live under constant siege like that.
00:24:45.900 Mine broke, and I still pay the price for it.
00:24:50.920 Why am I telling you this story?
00:24:52.480 Because we are poisoning ourselves, and I'm not speaking theoretically.
00:24:59.060 I'm speaking from experience.
00:25:01.400 When you constantly call on your body to produce more cortisol, you're not just stressed.
00:25:07.360 You're rewiring the brain.
00:25:09.700 You're reshaping your body.
00:25:11.280 You're altering the outlook on life.
00:25:14.220 Cortisol is your body's built-in alarm system, okay?
00:25:19.420 It's released when the brain perceives a threat.
00:25:22.440 And in short bursts, cortisol is brilliant.
00:25:25.660 It's great.
00:25:26.700 It mobilizes everything that you need to help you survive, okay?
00:25:30.620 But it was designed for dinosaurs and lions, not headlines and social media.
00:25:37.580 And when your nervous system is constantly activated by outrage, catastrophe framing,
00:25:46.080 existential politics, doom-scrolling, Nazis, pedophiles, cortisol stops being a tool and starts to become a poison, corrosive.
00:25:55.740 Your nervous system shifts into chronic fight-or-flight mode.
00:26:01.200 Your sympathetic nervous system dominates heart rate, blood pressure, stay elevated all the time.
00:26:08.000 Blood sugar stays higher.
00:26:09.320 Over time, hypertension, insulin resistance, cardiovascular disease, and those are the easy ones.
00:26:16.200 The second thing that happens is your brain begins to change.
00:26:20.340 Chronic cortisol, if it's exposed into your brain, the hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for memory and emotional regulation,
00:26:30.200 that reduces the volume of that part of your brain.
00:26:36.540 At the same time, your fear center becomes much more reactive.
00:26:41.560 So you're processing less, and yet your fear is going up.
00:26:46.660 You literally become more threat-sensitive, more reactive, less reflective, okay?
00:26:52.240 And then the prefrontal cortex that's responsible for all the executive function, the impulse control, the nuanced thinking,
00:27:00.260 that's less effective because it's also under chronic stress.
00:27:03.780 That means more black-and-white thinking.
00:27:05.880 That's why your friends cannot hold two thoughts.
00:27:08.920 They can't say, yes, these protesters were protesting and they were out of line, but they shouldn't have been killed.
00:27:19.880 Or they were killed by this ICE agent, but that doesn't make all ICE agents bad.
00:27:27.180 Got it?
00:27:27.560 You can't do that because you no longer physically can do it.
00:27:31.740 But the last thing that happens, your mood shifts.
00:27:34.760 High chronic cortisol linked to anxiety, irritability, sleep disruption, depression.
00:27:40.120 Sleep suffers because cortisol interferes with melatonin.
00:27:43.960 Then poor sleep increases cortisol.
00:27:46.600 It's just this endless loop, okay?
00:27:49.300 You wake up tense.
00:27:50.480 You scroll.
00:27:51.380 You confirm your fears.
00:27:52.740 Your body prepares for battle.
00:27:54.400 You repeat.
00:27:55.020 When that happens, your worldview narrows.
00:28:01.580 Research now in stress psychology shows that chronic threat perception reduces openness and increases rigidity.
00:28:10.480 When people feel under siege, they seek certainty.
00:28:14.540 That's why everybody says you're either with us or you're against us.
00:28:18.060 And they become more prone to catastrophic thinking.
00:28:21.080 Nuance is dangerous because that's what your body is made to do when a dinosaur is chasing you, okay?
00:28:29.180 And opponents, any opponent, is more hostile.
00:28:33.700 So constant cortisol doesn't just affect your body.
00:28:37.740 It changes the way you interpret reality.
00:28:39.980 It makes the world look darker than it may actually be.
00:28:43.020 There's something called threat bias.
00:28:46.180 Under stress, the brain notices negative information more than positive.
00:28:55.140 Headlines, you know, that are catastrophic stick more than stories of progress.
00:29:01.200 You start scanning for danger, and that scanning becomes your baseline.
00:29:06.560 And your body cannot change.
00:29:08.120 My father used to say this.
00:29:09.200 There is no bad thought.
00:29:10.740 Your mind will process all thoughts.
00:29:14.820 I'm a bad person.
00:29:16.180 I'm a good person.
00:29:17.260 It will react the same way.
00:29:19.260 It doesn't differentiate between positive and negative.
00:29:23.240 It just creates.
00:29:26.060 Your body, your mind does not distinguish between a charging animal and a cable news chyron that says,
00:29:32.540 Threat!
00:29:33.460 They're coming to kill you.
00:29:34.660 Nazis are here.
00:29:35.480 It reacts the same way.
00:29:38.920 And it calls your nervous system into battle every single day.
00:29:45.440 And you're conditioned to expect war.
00:29:49.880 Over time, this does really bad things.
00:29:53.100 It reduces hope because hope requires the belief that tomorrow can improve.
00:29:56.860 How many people do you know believe that tomorrow is not going to be better, that their life is not going to be better, or their kids' lives are not going to be better than theirs?
00:30:04.660 That is, for the first time in American history, that's happening.
00:30:09.580 It increases aggression because your system is primed to defend.
00:30:14.640 Have you noticed people are much more aggressive than they have ever been?
00:30:18.080 They don't listen to each other.
00:30:21.700 This is why chronic outrage cultures feel the way you feel most likely right now.
00:30:29.920 You're just exhausted.
00:30:31.500 You're just exhausted.
00:30:35.140 Your body's designed for bursts of crisis followed by recovery.
00:30:39.120 But if we've engineered, think of this with social media, we've engineered an environment where existential crisis is permanent.
00:30:49.440 There is no recovery.
00:30:50.640 When you live in that state long enough, you begin to believe the world is permanently on fire.
00:30:58.340 When I say we're poisoning ourselves, I speak from experience.
00:31:05.440 Think about the media.
00:31:07.340 Think about politics.
00:31:08.120 Politics.
00:31:09.040 Think about social media.
00:31:10.920 Think about social media with our kids.
00:31:13.460 I saw firsthand what this did to my body.
00:31:16.500 Think about what our kids are going through just on social media.
00:31:20.040 Then put them into a classroom where everything is upside down.
00:31:23.900 They're questioning absolutely everything.
00:31:25.820 There is no stability.
00:31:27.120 Everything is under attack.
00:31:28.340 And then you have the teachers teaching them they've got to go out and protest because the Nazis are in the streets.
00:31:34.980 What do you think our kids are going through?
00:31:38.120 There are things that you can do.
00:31:43.520 And I wrote this in an article and we're going to post this today at glennbeck.com because it's why we can't talk to each other.
00:31:56.040 Because there are well-known, researched, proven scientific facts about our body and our brain that everyone knows.
00:32:10.780 I mean, they are consulting with the best behavioral researchers in the world.
00:32:18.320 They know exactly what is happening.
00:32:20.740 It's the same thing.
00:32:21.720 Do you believe Facebook doesn't know what that little bing does every time it goes off?
00:32:25.840 That bell?
00:32:26.480 Of course they do.
00:32:27.300 They also went to behavioral scientists.
00:32:31.580 They are trying to get you to do something.
00:32:34.720 What is it our politicians and our media are trying to get you to do?
00:32:39.000 They've trained you to do it.
00:32:41.040 And here's what they've trained us to do.
00:32:42.720 Not talk to each other.
00:32:45.000 Not trust each other.
00:32:46.280 Just scream Nazi at each other.
00:32:49.020 Pedophile.
00:32:49.460 That only leads one place.
00:32:55.720 When you see, when you see on either side tonight, somebody shouting pedophile, Nazi, in their actions or their words, sending that signal, know exactly what they're doing to your brain.
00:33:11.480 Know exactly what they're doing to your body.
00:33:15.200 You don't want to pay that price.
00:33:17.340 You don't want to pay that price.
00:33:19.460 You certainly don't want your children to pay that price.
00:33:25.280 This article goes into some things that work to rewire.
00:33:34.900 It takes a lot of work, but to rewire your body.
00:33:38.160 I'm still rewiring it today.
00:33:40.420 I'm still paying the price of all of those years.
00:33:44.020 You don't want to pay that price.
00:33:46.340 Please go to glenbeck.com.
00:33:48.460 We'll post that after the show is up today.
00:33:51.580 Read the article.
00:33:52.600 You're listening to the best of Glenn Beck.
00:33:54.780 Need a little more?
00:33:55.760 Check out the full show podcast anywhere you download podcasts.
00:33:59.440 The grandson of the inventor of Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, Brad Reese.
00:34:05.420 Hello, Brad.
00:34:06.840 Hi.
00:34:07.200 It's good to talk to you.
00:34:10.360 Yeah.
00:34:10.820 Thanks for having me on.
00:34:12.920 I have to tell you, I grew up in a bakery, and I struggle with my weight.
00:34:18.500 I look at you.
00:34:19.100 You don't look like you struggled with your weight, and you grew up as a Reese.
00:34:23.520 How is that possible?
00:34:25.640 How is that possible?
00:34:26.260 No, I've got the dad bod.
00:34:29.640 No doubt about it.
00:34:30.660 I'm 70.
00:34:31.840 Oh, yeah.
00:34:32.500 I've got the tummy.
00:34:34.840 Okay.
00:34:35.280 So, you know, I was so glad to see your letter to Reese's, I mean, to Hershey, because I
00:34:45.700 didn't know what was wrong with it.
00:34:47.960 I just have never had anything Reese's ever that I actually spat it out.
00:34:55.240 I was like, oh, my gosh, what is that?
00:34:57.480 It's nothing real.
00:34:59.260 What product was that?
00:35:00.740 Exactly.
00:35:01.540 Which?
00:35:02.300 I don't remember.
00:35:03.500 It might have been, I don't know, a heart or something.
00:35:05.720 It was a little, it was Valentine's candy.
00:35:08.640 So, whatever it was, it was a Valentine's package.
00:35:10.740 That's what I had.
00:35:11.760 Yeah.
00:35:12.160 You probably had the same thing I did.
00:35:14.700 Yeah.
00:35:14.960 The Reese's peanut butter mini hearts unwrapped.
00:35:19.320 Yep.
00:35:20.440 And it was awful.
00:35:21.960 Yeah.
00:35:23.160 Awful.
00:35:23.760 Awful.
00:35:24.460 So, do you own part of this at all?
00:35:27.360 Or is this, I mean, how are you going to get Hershey's to stop this?
00:35:32.500 Well, as far as the ownership, you have to understand, 1963, we were celebrating our 40th
00:35:37.060 anniversary.
00:35:38.320 And my grandfather died seven years earlier here in West Palm Beach, Florida in 1956.
00:35:44.720 So, in 1963, it was seven years after his death, my father and his five brothers merged
00:35:50.220 the H.B.
00:35:51.100 Reese's candy company with Hershey chocolate in a tax-free stock-for-stock merger.
00:35:54.920 And we received 616,316 shares, which after two-for-one, three-for-one, two-for-one, and
00:36:01.940 two-for-one stock splits are now 16 million shares.
00:36:05.840 And they're paying an annual cash dividend with $5.48 per share dividend.
00:36:13.620 And I did help stop the sale of Hershey in 2002.
00:36:18.460 William Wrigley made a $12.5 billion offer.
00:36:22.760 That was a done deal.
00:36:23.980 I fought tooth and nail because I was only seven years old when Reese merged with Hershey.
00:36:29.420 And as an adult, I wasn't going to allow the H.B.
00:36:31.880 Reese's candy company, which does business with Hershey company, being sold.
00:36:35.300 And, like I said, it was a done deal, but I helped stop that sale.
00:36:39.840 And since stopping that, the cash dividend has gone up 800%.
00:36:45.500 You have these companies that are no longer actually – there's no craftsman there.
00:36:55.700 There's no chocolatier there.
00:36:57.760 It's stocks.
00:36:59.360 It's money.
00:37:00.860 Doesn't that make a difference?
00:37:01.900 Well, yeah, so there is, my understanding, chaos at the Reese plant.
00:37:09.920 It's interesting.
00:37:11.480 So the cheap ingredients that you're using, compound coatings, are not working well with the chocolate machinery.
00:37:19.100 Hello?
00:37:20.540 So apparently it's breaking down the production line.
00:37:26.540 And, I mean, there's a revolving door, I guess, in personnel.
00:37:30.360 And, again, this is scuttlebutt, okay?
00:37:33.700 I haven't been able – you know, how am I going to confirm that?
00:37:36.760 But that the – so cheapening the products, they basically – the machinery there is for milk chocolate.
00:37:45.000 So they're having problems, and so I guess they're stooping for pennies and passing up the dollars because what they're saving in cheap compounds, there's spiraling costs and the production problems.
00:38:00.900 When a line closes down, that's catastrophic, revenue-wise.
00:38:06.600 I mean, you can't have your production lines, you know, not working, you know, 100%.
00:38:12.540 Besides the stocks, what does – what does this candy represent to you?
00:38:24.040 Everything.
00:38:26.560 Everything.
00:38:27.280 It's my whole – I mean, I'm 70 years old.
00:38:30.820 I've grown up with it.
00:38:32.700 I've been an admirer of it my whole life.
00:38:37.100 My worship, my grandfather.
00:38:38.400 That's why I'm here on West Palm Beach.
00:38:39.740 He died here.
00:38:40.660 I've got cancer, and I'm dying.
00:38:42.480 So I figure I'm going to die where my grandpa died.
00:38:45.180 Yeah.
00:38:45.480 So, I mean, I'm just following in his footsteps.
00:38:48.020 I mean, I'm going to die where he died.
00:38:50.200 Probably die in different hospitals.
00:38:51.700 He died at St. Mary's.
00:38:52.600 I'll probably die at the VA Medical Center.
00:38:54.420 But anyway, it's everything, and I love wearing Reese's swag, and it's so much fun because
00:39:03.780 Reese's is lightning in a bottle.
00:39:07.740 It is so beloved that if I wear a hat or a T-shirt, people are going to mob me.
00:39:13.960 Oh, that's my favorite bubble.
00:39:15.620 If I wear a Hershey's logo, I'm invisible.
00:39:18.200 No one says anything to me.
00:39:20.320 But Reese's is so well-loved.
00:39:22.300 And it really is so much fun to interact with Reese's fans because they are just fanatical.
00:39:30.640 Anywhere from the four-year-old all the way up to the 104-year-old.
00:39:34.540 That's how, if I'm walking in Manhattan, the sidewalks will part, and everybody will be smiling
00:39:43.460 and nodding their head because they don't know anything about me.
00:39:47.520 They just, oh, there's a Reese's guy, or he must love Reese's.
00:39:50.140 But anyway, you're walking by, and they just recognize the brand because you don't see the
00:39:56.220 kind of swag that I wear in, like, a race car, a NASCAR jacket.
00:40:00.080 You don't see that.
00:40:01.920 You know, that's not a common sight.
00:40:04.080 So it really is so much fun.
00:40:06.540 I mean, I can't stress that.
00:40:08.840 It's fun, fun, fun.
00:40:10.200 How did your grandfather come up with this?
00:40:16.340 Well, a lot of things happen.
00:40:20.700 And he had a customer in Harrisburg, and they were getting peanut butter balls.
00:40:28.460 Peanut butter balls with chocolates.
00:40:31.980 They were round.
00:40:33.060 And they couldn't keep them in supply.
00:40:36.000 And my grandfather agreed to take on the job of doing that.
00:40:39.940 And what he found is that if you put it in a cup, it speeds up the production.
00:40:46.480 You have to understand, in his day, there was no air conditioning.
00:40:50.180 So he couldn't do production in the summertime.
00:40:52.480 He had to can vegetables.
00:40:54.760 So there was no air conditioning, and there was no automation.
00:40:57.560 So everything was done by hand.
00:40:59.440 So the peanut butter cup, just the cup shape, was a production decision.
00:41:08.360 And when the air conditioning came in and when things started becoming automated, it just took off.
00:41:15.100 But what really happened was his candies were sold in department stores in one-pound or five-pound assortments.
00:41:22.780 So it was almost like a Whitman sampler or Russell Stover.
00:41:25.400 And the peanut butter cups were just one of the many, okay?
00:41:30.880 He had, you know, peanuts, clusters, and coconut.
00:41:34.240 But the peanut butter cups were just one of many.
00:41:37.020 And customers would say, I just want the peanut butter cups.
00:41:39.680 So the salespeople would have to take the peanut butter cups out of the box and, you know, put them on the way in.
00:41:45.900 And they'd sell them, but then they had to replace the peanut butter cups.
00:41:50.640 And that was a, you know, that made extra work.
00:41:52.640 So the salesperson said, look, HB, and they called them HB.
00:41:56.440 They said, look, if we could make this, the peanut butter cup, and individually wrap it and sell it for a penny, let's try that.
00:42:05.120 And he did that, and he burned a mortgage.
00:42:06.820 Never looked back.
00:42:08.600 Wow.
00:42:10.100 So when you wrote this letter, what was the response from Hershey?
00:42:14.140 Nothing.
00:42:15.280 Zero.
00:42:16.520 Nothing?
00:42:16.960 You haven't even heard from them?
00:42:17.900 No, of course not.
00:42:20.020 They are so arrogant, condescending to anybody, especially the Reese family, I find, unless you're, unless, you know, they want something from you.
00:42:31.640 But, no, they, see, I kind of, like, burned my bridges with them when I helped stop the sale in 2002.
00:42:38.300 Yeah.
00:42:38.700 And then you also have to understand that my cousin, Robert Reese, was the general counsel of Hershey, but he left before that sale was announced.
00:42:47.360 He went to Coors.
00:42:49.140 And, anyway, he then came back, after we stopped the sale, he then came back as the president of the Hershey Trust Company, which is a controlling shareholder.
00:42:58.640 And he cleaned up Hershey.
00:42:59.960 He cleaned it up, cleaned up their act as the president of the Hershey Trust.
00:43:04.360 And he also joined the board of managers at the Belton Hershey School.
00:43:08.160 And he corrected so many things that were wrong with the trust and the school and the company especially.
00:43:15.620 And then he pursued the $19 billion takeover of Cadbury Schweppes in England.
00:43:22.260 Now, you have to understand, Hershey already owns the rights to manufacture and sell Cadbury in the United States.
00:43:28.180 So we were going to buy Cadbury around the rest of the world, which was huge.
00:43:33.160 And that was a $19 billion deal.
00:43:35.820 We had it locked up.
00:43:36.800 Hershey was going to buy it.
00:43:38.660 And Richard Lenny, the former chairman and CEO of the Hershey Company, was a financial advisor to Centerview Partners, which was advising Kraft on a competing bid against Hershey.
00:43:51.120 And not only that, Richard Lenny, the former chairman and CEO of Hershey, was also the mentor of his protege, Dave West, who was then the CEO of Hershey.
00:43:59.660 And Dave West killed the deal and never went through.
00:44:05.220 Kraft bought it, which then Kraft then split into two, called Mandelaise.
00:44:09.560 That sect, Mandelaise, ended up with the Cadbury line.
00:44:12.900 But then Dave West, who killed the deal for Hershey and wants a lifetime opportunity, became a general partner at Centerview Partners.
00:44:20.760 I mean, talk about a conflict of interest.
00:44:23.400 So anyway, so there's a lot of bad blood.
00:44:25.480 You have to understand.
00:44:26.700 Chocolate wars.
00:44:27.440 Chocolate wars.
00:44:28.360 Yeah, the Reese family has been creating the wealth there.
00:44:33.080 And so the stock is doing very well.
00:44:36.360 The stock at Hershey now is doing very well.
00:44:39.240 Wall Street loves it when you increase your margins at whatever cost to the public.
00:44:45.620 It's long term is what I'm getting at.
00:44:48.040 It's going to not work out long term.
00:44:50.760 No, it won't.
00:44:51.420 Brad, thank you for writing the letter.
00:44:53.540 Thank you for making me feel sane because I thought, what the heck, maybe it's my taste have changed, you know, as I get older.
00:45:00.520 But thank you.
00:45:01.360 And thanks for keeping your grandfather's, you know, vision alive.
00:45:04.900 I just love peanut butter cups.
00:45:08.100 And I don't trust people who don't, quite honestly.
00:45:11.240 But thank you for everything.
00:45:13.400 I'm doing what I can.
00:45:14.760 All I can do is do the best I can.
00:45:17.260 Thank you so much for your encouragement.
00:45:18.940 Thank you.
00:45:20.100 You bet.
00:45:20.820 And God bless you on your health.
00:45:21.880 Thank you so much, Brad.
00:45:23.540 It's really sad because Mr. Hershey was an amazing man.
00:45:27.600 I don't know if you know the original story of Milton Hershey, but he was an incredible guy.
00:45:33.680 His mother was even more so in a real American success story.
00:45:38.400 It's sad that they've fallen so far.