The Glenn Beck Program - Best of the Program ｜ Guests： Justin Haskins & Alex Epstein ｜ 8⧸31⧸22

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00:01:30.300 difference here's a podcast you're listening to the best of the glenbeck program

00:01:42.760 this is the glenbeck program welcome to it we've got a couple things going on today

00:01:51.760 i'm going to give you an understanding of the first amendment uh like i in a way that i don't

00:01:58.640 think you've ever heard um and it is vital that you understand this they just um they just passed

00:02:05.920 in the california assembly and it's going to gavin newsom's desk and they keep saying if he signs it

00:02:10.600 of course he's going to sign it the state is going to be the arbiter of all truth now uh and when it

00:02:16.940 comes to doctors that is terrifying something else is going on you're being intimidated and harassed

00:02:23.380 and they're they're uh trying to set examples of why you shouldn't get involved nikki haley is with

00:02:30.380 us she's a former u.s ambassador to the united nations former south carolina governor and founder

00:02:35.460 for stand for america and uh there was a problem with the attorney general's office in new york

00:02:42.180 uh with stand for america they accidentally leaked some documents nikki is here to tell us all about 0.75

00:02:49.460 it hello nikki how are you hey glenn thanks for having me on you bet you bet so tell me what happened 0.72

00:02:56.240 you know basically um we have a you know a policy organization that we go out we send out newsletters

00:03:05.640 every day to over three million people we talk about anything from the fact that it's wrong to make

00:03:11.080 someone who doesn't go to college pay for someone that does go to college it's you know that we need

00:03:15.980 term limits that we can't 30 trillion dollars in debt is a problem and spending more is not going

00:03:21.880 to help the inflation situation um why men shouldn't be playing in girls sports we talk about all kinds of

00:03:28.320 things we hit biden we hit pelosi we hit gavin newsom we hit anyone that has liberal policies and we

00:03:34.260 talk about conservative solutions so we've had this for about three years it's called stand for america

00:03:39.060 and all of a sudden we get contacted by a news organization that says we have a copy of your

00:03:45.000 tax return which is supposed to be completely confidential just like personal tax returns are

00:03:50.400 and we're going to release all of your donors off of it well we said okay send us the copy that you say

00:03:57.420 you have and we look at it and on the last page it's stamped by the new york state attorney general's

00:04:02.860 office the new york state attorney general released this tax return to try and intimidate conservatives

00:04:10.760 and glenn they have done this i have said this for as long as i can remember republicans are too nice

00:04:16.640 they're too nice when something like this happens they whine they complain and then they turn around

00:04:22.700 and it happens to someone else well we are not going to do that we are suing the new york state

00:04:27.500 attorney general's office we are calling on merrick garland to investigate the new york state attorney

00:04:33.160 general's office and we're going to make sure we fight back it's not going to be cheap it's not going

00:04:38.800 to be easy but if we don't do it at some point this has to stop and i hope that every conservative

00:04:45.120 listening today will join us in that fight and go to stand for america.com and let's say no more

00:04:51.440 let's show them that when you mess with us you've messed with the wrong person are you going to sue

00:04:56.080 politico because politico was the one that released the names correct yes so that is also something

00:05:02.520 that we're looking at you know they've obviously said oh these are first amendment rights but we are

00:05:06.820 also looking at what it's going to take to sue politico we're going to sue we're definitely new

00:05:12.320 york state attorney general definitely going after merrick garland to have to answer for this

00:05:16.200 we are looking at suing documented who is the one who got the information from the new york state

00:05:21.860 attorney general and gave it to politico and we're looking at what we're going to do to politico

00:05:25.740 we're looking at every actor that put their hands on this i mean they would never ever ever

00:05:32.120 publish the dark money network of arabella advisors never and they're there's so much money

00:05:41.060 running through that dark uh network democracy alliance they would never even think about doing

00:05:48.160 this they're only doing it you planned parenthood none of those none of those have ever been late

00:05:54.680 right and yet they have gone after president trump they have gone after the nra they've gone after 0.93

00:06:00.340 pro-life groups now they're going after us anyone that gets that is a thorn in their side they turn

00:06:06.580 around and think they can intimidate us just by doing something like this it takes a lot more than

00:06:11.340 that to intimidate us so let me ask you nikki do you think uh the um intimidation will work to some 1.00

00:06:18.680 degree pr i haven't met them yet but are there people who are saying you know what i'm not going

00:06:24.240 to get involved i don't want my name on a list you know i mean we have you know we have stand for

00:06:30.200 america pack which is a political organization we have hundreds of thousands of donors and we publicize

00:06:34.880 all of those because political organizations by law you do that policy organizations typically donors

00:06:40.740 they care about policy they just don't want to get into the political mess and so this was a way of

00:06:46.660 trying to do that everyone we contacted every donor before this happened to let them know and every one

00:06:52.600 of them said we support you we appreciate what you're doing you go out there and fight and so you

00:06:58.800 know we all i was very proud of you know how our donors handled this and it's not about the donors

00:07:04.780 themselves it's about the fact they don't want us talking about what's right they don't want us

00:07:09.400 calling out the truth and they they don't want us to expose them for what they really are which is

00:07:14.320 running our country in the ground well i hope you um make progress uh in this in this lawsuit this is

00:07:23.160 so dangerous it is honestly they have weaponized the government in states where they control and they've

00:07:31.260 weaponized the federal government and uh they think that that that somehow or another that's going

00:07:37.320 to help them win i don't think so i think this wakes america up well and keep in mind this is a

00:07:44.540 violation of state tax law and a violation of federal tax law so if nothing is done to them for this

00:07:52.600 where will they go next i mean at some point something has to give and every conservative out

00:07:59.640 there who has complained about the biden administration complained about these liberal

00:08:03.820 attorney generals who are getting involved in things to hurt conservatives everyone don't complain about

00:08:10.000 it do something about it we need you to go to stand for america.com we need your voices to be loud

00:08:15.200 and we need to let them know we are fighting fire with fire and i think that's something that

00:08:20.680 republicans have not done well it is time to turn the corner on that because if they can do this to us

00:08:26.820 they can do this to everyone else and rule of law matters it matters and the democrats have decided

00:08:33.000 they're going to break it anyway if it fits their narrative we've got to make them be held

00:08:37.480 accountable for this i have you know i this is one of my complaints with the uh republicans that are

00:08:43.560 currently in office and not all of them obviously but the people like mitch mcconnell i don't even

00:08:48.360 know what they're running on i i mean i think they're just running on we're not those guys

00:08:52.780 i think that's what mitch mcconnell's plan is well and you know i'll tell you if you're tired you need

00:08:59.140 to leave that's why i'm such a fan of term limits but if you're going to represent the people you

00:09:05.200 have to be willing to do the things that are uncomfortable to do you have to be willing to go

00:09:09.620 into the fight and say we're going to fight for freedom we're going to fight for the rule of law

00:09:13.320 we're going to fight to get our country back and we're not going to stop until it happens and when

00:09:17.880 the democrats play dirty guess what that's politics you play dirty right back with them

00:09:22.640 what do you do it yeah legal fight dirty legally fight strong yeah you know i mean look it's i went

00:09:32.200 up against china and russia at the united nations wasn't easy it wasn't always nice but you do it 1.00

00:09:37.400 because you know you're fighting for good you're fighting for the right thing you're fighting for

00:09:41.160 truth you're fighting for a better way and that's what this is about republicans their policies

00:09:47.820 lift up everyone not just a small group of people they lift up everyone and that's why we fight as

00:09:54.300 hard as we do democrats don't like it because believe it or not they fight for elitists they

00:09:59.600 fight for lining their own pockets they fight in a way that's corrupt just to fit their narrative

00:10:05.120 and we're calling them out on the fact that they're not doing that don't tell me that minorities 0.98

00:10:09.720 are incapable of getting an id to go vote they're perfectly capable yes we call them out when they're

00:10:15.340 against voter id don't tell me that parents are incapable of picking the school that their

00:10:19.840 children should go to we call them out when they're against school choice don't tell them

00:10:24.360 they're being fair when they're taking you know students who didn't go to people who didn't go to

00:10:29.360 college and telling them oh now you have to pay for those that did go to college it's wrong it's

00:10:33.660 criminal and so yes we call them out but we call them out because that's the truth and that's what

00:10:39.040 i've always done is fight for the truth and that's why we're going to fight for it again on this

00:10:42.820 because we will not be intimidated we will not be bullied and every conservative out there don't

00:10:48.620 complain about it do something about we all need to be united in that nikki haley um former ambassador

00:10:55.540 to the u.n and governor and you were a tea party candidate if i'm not mistaken i was yes do you do you

00:11:02.420 sense this is a wave election like it was with the tea party i hope so you know three months ago i would

00:11:10.940 have told you yes four months ago i would have told you yes it feels shaky now i know we're going

00:11:15.780 to win the house um the senate is going to be iffy i'm going to try as hard as i can i'm i'm out there

00:11:22.580 we have endorsed 50 candidates we're going to be all over the country september and october helping

00:11:26.740 these people get over the finish line um but it's going to take all of us to do this it's really that

00:11:32.060 important and what i don't want to see and what we're seeing is republicans are you know you hear the

00:11:37.080 media saying oh but this isn't a good candidate or that's not a good candidate you know what every

00:11:41.700 one of our republican candidates is better than the democrats yes exactly right to fight for that

00:11:46.480 exactly right to fight for them so we'll be there for herschel walker we're going to be there for

00:11:50.940 dr odds we're there for sarah palin we're going to continue to be there for all of these conservatives

00:11:55.860 because honestly we need their voice we do we need their fight we do and and i'm going to be there

00:12:01.320 to fight with them nikki thank you very much nikki haley um she is the founder of stand for america 0.71

00:12:07.540 you can find more information and join the fight at stand for america.com

00:12:12.060 this is the best of the glenn beck program and we really want to thank you for listening

00:12:19.040 now not everybody is uh up on their lizzo uh rap if you will uh but i uh i'm you know

00:12:32.640 i'm from the me i'm from the mean streets uh just just uh west of uh south lake which is weird

00:12:40.880 west of south lake what's that but it's they're mean streets mean mean mean streets ugly and uh i have

00:12:48.980 to tell you you gotta be a hardened criminal to survive out there wow you ain't kidding uh and

00:12:55.140 everybody's all up in everybody's physical physical all up in that area in that entire vicinity yeah

00:13:03.620 worried about the oppression of lizzo you know she just won a i don't know mtv music award which who 0.96

00:13:11.160 knew that was still something uh and uh she's uh she's won that music award and immediately great

00:13:18.960 too oh she did wow and i can understand why she's a big celebrity she is a big celebrity huge huge one 0.74

00:13:26.660 you know but she's uh oppressed um and i just would like to point out to her you cannot claim

00:13:33.620 oppression if you made money on this uh what the hell my phone what the hell my phone what the hell 0.65

00:13:41.720 my what the hell my phone huh how i'm supposed to get home what the hell my phone what the hell my 0.59

00:13:47.700 phone what the hell my what the hell my phone uh i mean she made money okay 1.00

00:13:52.200 how is she supposed to get home without her phone i mean how is she supposed to get home without her

00:13:57.940 Well, they found her phone.

00:13:59.260 They found her phone.

00:14:00.440 Yeah, she thought it was, she actually, it was tragic.

00:14:04.100 They thought it was a tumor there for a while, but it had fallen in.

00:14:07.260 It was an old flip phone.

00:14:09.060 She lost it years ago, and it went into one of the folds of fat along with a cheese sandwich,

00:14:14.620 and it just kind of, it looked like a tumor.

00:14:18.080 But when they removed it, they were like, ah, found your phone.

00:14:22.460 So.

00:14:23.080 Now, was that before or after she released the song?

00:14:24.900 I hate to think it was inauthentic.

00:14:26.700 No, she didn't know at the time.

00:14:28.940 Oh, she didn't know at the time.

00:14:29.400 She didn't know, you know.

00:14:30.700 You don't get warnings like that, you know, that, oh my gosh, you have a tumor.

00:14:35.120 Wait, no, it's a phone and a cheese sandwich.

00:14:38.560 Now, I will say this, Glenn, you seem to be making some reference to her weight being excessive in some way.

00:14:46.380 It's beautiful.

00:14:47.620 And first of all, we should note that both of us are, you know, Adonis type figures,

00:14:53.400 and it's difficult for us to understand people who can't control their eating.

00:14:57.400 I don't remember.

00:14:59.040 I do not relate to it.

00:14:59.760 I was sitting on my couch last night having a bag of chips and dip and thinking to myself, that very thing.

00:15:06.700 I don't understand people who can't control their eating.

00:15:08.800 It's kind of disgusting to me.

00:15:10.440 You know, as a person with such immense self-control, I find it personally revolting to see people who are even the slightest bit overweight.

00:15:20.580 Me too.

00:15:21.160 I don't, I just, I just don't understand it.

00:15:22.980 I hate it.

00:15:23.340 But I am told that Lizzo does work out.

00:15:27.640 She, she teaches a Peloton class.

00:15:30.020 She teaches? 0.96

00:15:31.060 Teaches a Peloton class.

00:15:32.200 A Peloton.

00:15:32.440 Now, if you remember, there was the Peloton.

00:15:33.740 Wow, I did not think that metal was that strong.

00:15:37.540 I really didn't.

00:15:38.320 Right.

00:15:38.580 And this is, first of all, should be a commercial for Peloton.

00:15:41.100 You say, hey, if they ran the commercials and said, hey, Lizzo teaches a class, it holds her up.

00:15:46.500 Right.

00:15:46.800 It's obviously very sturdy.

00:15:49.100 That would be a good ad campaign.

00:15:51.040 Where's the seat go?

00:15:53.460 That's, that's.

00:15:54.000 Let's move on.

00:15:54.720 Let me go to.

00:15:55.520 I think we should note that, remember, Peloton got criticized because they put a very attractive

00:16:00.760 woman on a bike.

00:16:02.800 Yeah.

00:16:03.040 And she was, she was, she got it as a present.

00:16:06.840 Mm-hmm.

00:16:07.420 And they, and everyone criticized them for that.

00:16:09.480 And no one criticized them for, for having Lizzo teach classes.

00:16:13.520 Could it possibly be that this is part of the reason their stock is down 85%?

00:16:20.180 Yes, because there, there you go.

00:16:22.340 Thank you for making the point.

00:16:23.860 Oppression.

00:16:24.900 Oppression.

00:16:25.600 Okay.

00:16:25.820 Let me go to Justin Haskins who is joining us.

00:16:28.560 He is the co-author of the great book, still available, called The Great Reset.

00:16:33.700 He's also the Heartland Institute editorial director in StoppingSocialism.com.

00:16:38.300 And he has been working with several teams around the country trying to stop ESG.

00:16:44.800 There is some new research out that is really quite disturbing about our public pension funds.

00:16:54.660 And we welcome Justin now.

00:16:55.960 Hi, Justin.

00:16:57.340 Hi, Glenn.

00:16:58.440 How are you?

00:16:59.060 Good.

00:16:59.300 Well, I'm, you know, I haven't lost a phone and a cheese sandwich in any of my folds lately.

00:17:02.960 So I'm pretty good.

00:17:04.560 No, you know, I just, I just got to say this whole lead into this ESG pension discussion

00:17:09.760 featuring Lizzo is, uh, I've never had that happen before.

00:17:13.940 This is why I'm a radio hall of famer.

00:17:16.120 Exactly right.

00:17:17.500 Exactly right.

00:17:18.760 A lot of the audience goes for, uh, you know, chiropractic adjustments from the whiplash 0.99

00:17:23.660 that they get on this program.

00:17:24.880 Um, anyway, so tell me what is, what's happening with the pension funds, because we've been

00:17:31.540 worried about, uh, BlackRock and, and all of those guys, but the pension funds, uh, are

00:17:39.340 showing something really truly remarkable.

00:17:42.820 Yeah, that's right.

00:17:43.820 There is this incredible study put out by Morningstar, which is a financial services

00:17:48.040 company that actually supports ESG.

00:17:50.460 So they're not on our side of this issue at all.

00:17:53.280 And what they did was they looked at public pension funds.

00:17:56.220 Those are pension funds that are funded by taxpayers directly or indirectly.

00:18:00.880 So if you're listening to the show right now, you have contributed very likely you have

00:18:04.540 contributed to one of these pension funds.

00:18:06.320 And what they did was they look to see how these pension funds were voting in ESG shareholder

00:18:13.840 resolutions.

00:18:14.780 So when companies have an ESG resolution that comes up, um, a corporation, uh, if you own

00:18:22.760 stock in that company, and that includes pension funds, you can vote in favor or against these

00:18:27.960 shareholder resolutions.

00:18:29.200 And these ESG resolutions are usually favoring very far left-wing causes.

00:18:34.020 Okay.

00:18:34.720 Uh, like battling climate change or misinformation on social media platforms, things like that.

00:18:40.660 And what they did was they looked at pension funds to see how they were voting.

00:18:44.340 And what they found was that in 90% of the vote, 90% of the time, public pension funds were

00:18:51.780 voting in favor of these ESG related resolutions.

00:18:55.560 Okay.

00:18:55.880 Now, wait a minute.

00:18:56.600 I just, I want to put this into perspective here.

00:18:59.280 So this is your public pension fund.

00:19:02.060 You have any kind of pension that you're getting from the state or whatever, a teacher, whatever.

00:19:07.160 These are your public pension funds.

00:19:09.440 They're voting 90% of the time with ESG, the ESG focused funds.

00:19:17.700 So the ones where people are like, I want ESG, I'm intentionally putting my money there.

00:19:24.260 I believe in all this are only voting with ESG standards and all that crap, 85%, 85%.

00:19:35.080 So your regular pension fund is outdoing the ESG funds on ESG.

00:19:43.460 Yeah.

00:19:44.500 Yeah.

00:19:45.140 That's exactly right.

00:19:46.340 And some of the biggest champions of ESG that get all of the press and rightly so like BlackRock

00:19:53.120 and State Street Global Advisors, they're at 74% and 66% respectively for those two asset

00:20:00.200 management companies.

00:20:01.060 So publicly funded pension funds from taxpayers are far more likely to support ESG than even

00:20:08.220 BlackRock or State Street, or like you said, an ESG fund.

00:20:12.600 So, and this isn't a small amount of money either in just the states that were covered in

00:20:16.640 the study, which are not all the states because of availability of data.

00:20:20.200 It was 14 million workers covered through these pension funds with 3.4 trillion, trillion

00:20:26.680 with a T assets under management.

00:20:29.440 So they're using trillions of dollars in assets in order to promote left-wing causes.

00:20:36.300 And it's not just in Democrat-run states.

00:20:39.440 It's all over the country that this is happening.

00:20:42.100 Now, Democratic states are worse. 0.98

00:20:43.860 Their pension funds, 98 times out of 100, they're voting with ESG.

00:20:50.040 Split state pensions are 85, but it only goes to 80 with Republican states.

00:20:57.240 Yeah, that's right.

00:20:59.300 The red states, according to this study, are eight times out of 10 voting in favor of these

00:21:06.440 ESG metrics.

00:21:07.140 And to give you an example of an actual shareholder resolution that some of these supposedly freedom

00:21:13.960 champions of freedom are voting in favor of in red states, there was an ESG resolution

00:21:20.860 put up for Facebook, now Meta, that was trying to battle misinformation, okay, and make it

00:21:28.920 extremely difficult for misinformation to be allowed on the platform.

00:21:34.380 Now, of course, everything you and I believe, Glenn, is misinformation, according to Facebook.

00:21:38.780 We already know this, right?

00:21:39.940 So this resolution comes up for a vote.

00:21:42.640 And among the many pension funds that voted in favor of this, the vast majority of them

00:21:48.200 voted in favor of it.

00:21:49.040 Of the many pension funds that voted in favor of this resolution with Facebook, you had the

00:21:53.420 Florida retirement system, the employee's retirement system of Texas, the teacher retirement

00:21:59.660 system of Texas, the Ohio public employees retirement system, the Nebraska investment

00:22:05.040 council, the North Dakota state investment board, etc.

00:22:09.160 So in all of these red states, some of them deep red states like Nebraska, North Dakota,

00:22:15.360 where the Republicans have a 30 something point advantage in some of these places, they are

00:22:20.220 voting in favor of silencing people on Facebook.

00:22:25.340 Think about how insane that is.

00:22:27.300 Okay, so what do people do about this?

00:22:30.400 How do we stop this?

00:22:32.800 The primary way to stop it is to get state governments to put policies into place, either

00:22:39.760 through executive action or ideally through the state legislature.

00:22:43.760 Go through the legislature, please.

00:22:45.800 Yeah, we're not going to promote ESG causes in the state using publicly funded dollars.

00:22:51.640 It's not going to happen.

00:22:52.880 There are many states, two dozen states or so that have been looking at this issue that

00:22:59.080 are trying to put laws into place.

00:23:01.840 Some places have done some of this, like in West Virginia.

00:23:05.620 I know you've had Riley Moore on a bunch of times. 0.99

00:23:07.460 They've done a lot of good stuff there.

00:23:08.880 In Utah, Marlo Oaks.

00:23:11.320 Texas has actually passed a law on this, a limited law.

00:23:14.940 And Florida recently, Governor DeSantis came out and said, no more of this in the state

00:23:20.880 of Florida.

00:23:21.460 We're done doing this in the state of Florida.

00:23:23.840 He's good.

00:23:24.640 He is so good.

00:23:26.280 Oh, he's very good on this issue.

00:23:28.240 He's taking the lead on it nationally.

00:23:30.000 And that's exactly what we need.

00:23:31.720 We need someone like Ron DeSantis taking the lead.

00:23:33.920 So that's what needs to happen.

00:23:35.760 But it's only happening in a handful of states right now.

00:23:38.100 And even in some of those states, they're only focused on the E in ESG.

00:23:42.740 They're only focused on stuff related to energy and oil and natural gas and climate change

00:23:47.400 and all of that stuff.

00:23:48.260 And that's important.

00:23:49.440 But what about silencing people on Facebook?

00:23:52.780 Where's the law preventing that?

00:23:55.100 States are not doing enough on that issue.

00:23:57.640 And the S and the G is what's going to get the average person. 0.65

00:24:02.900 I mean, the E is going to cause all kinds of energy problems.

00:24:06.020 And I mean, it is why have you seen what's happening in in England with their energy costs?

00:24:13.320 You know, they didn't take that.

00:24:14.540 They didn't take that Trump pause with the Paris Accords.

00:24:18.160 So they're ahead of us.

00:24:19.920 But what's happening over in England is outrageous, outrageous.

00:24:26.080 And that is going to affect all of us.

00:24:28.180 Look, this will impoverish all of us.

00:24:32.480 If your goal, your stated goal is you will own nothing by 2030.

00:24:40.180 How are you going to get the Western world that was built on ownership?

00:24:46.480 How are you going to make that happen in seven years?

00:24:50.420 You have to make it so you can't own anything.

00:24:55.180 You'll be impoverished.

00:24:56.800 You they'll take it from you.

00:24:58.580 They'll you'll have to sell stuff.

00:25:00.400 They'll sick the IRS off onto you. 0.55

00:25:03.060 You won't have anything left.

00:25:06.100 And that's by design.

00:25:08.220 It's got to stop.

00:25:09.440 It's got to stop.

00:25:10.220 Yeah, without a doubt.

00:25:12.900 And the genius of in a very sort of evil, maniacal way, the genius of the Great Reset, which is what you're describing, is that in America and in places where we have constitutional protections in place to prevent the government from doing these kinds of things to us, you now have government working hand in hand with private corporations and businesses who are not beholden to those same rules and constitutional guidelines, who are now doing the dirty work.

00:25:39.820 On behalf of the government in order to limit people's rights.

00:25:43.980 And this is stories are coming out about this literally every single day.

00:25:47.340 In fact, just yesterday on the blaze dot com, I saw a story just browsing the Web site.

00:25:52.200 I saw a story that was titled New York lawmakers ask MasterCard and American Express to flag gun store purchases.

00:26:00.020 That is the Great Reset.

00:26:01.440 That's what it is.

00:26:02.460 They want MasterCard and they want American Express and other credit card companies and other servicers to do the dirty work for the government because the government can't get these laws passed.

00:26:15.060 It's terrifying.

00:26:16.680 Thank you so much, Justin.

00:26:18.480 We are making huge inroads on this, though, don't you think?

00:26:24.300 Without a doubt.

00:26:25.240 We have seen more progress on this issue in the past six, probably eight to ten months than we've seen in the previous 20 years.

00:26:33.700 Yeah, it's remarkable.

00:26:35.120 We are making huge inroads.

00:26:35.880 It's remarkable.

00:26:36.920 And much the thanks to you and the research that you did for the book, The Great Reset.

00:26:44.940 Great Reset is available everywhere.

00:26:47.440 It's my latest.

00:26:48.680 Justin is my co-author.

00:26:49.840 And it is a remarkable look at what is all true.

00:26:54.920 By the way, we are not even allowed to say the words The Great Reset on YouTube.

00:27:01.300 Can't say those words.

00:27:03.300 Mr. Brilliant Radio Hall of Fame here named his book after it.

00:27:06.380 Now he can't even say the title of his own book.

00:27:08.700 So here's what I would suggest.

00:27:10.440 You get the book while you still can get the book.

00:27:13.440 The Great Reset available everywhere.

00:27:16.180 And there you have it.

00:27:17.660 Another example of why Glenn Beck is in the Radio Hall of Fame.

00:27:22.340 He's not in the Authors Hall of Fame.

00:27:23.840 Let's be clear.

00:27:28.120 The best of the Glenn Beck program.

00:27:38.900 Let's go to Alex Epstein, who is with us now.

00:27:42.960 He is the author of Fossil Future.

00:27:46.200 Hello, Alex.

00:27:46.740 How are you?

00:27:48.300 Hey, Glenn.

00:27:48.980 Great to be back.

00:27:50.040 I have to tell you, I've been waiting for weeks for this interview because you are the guy.

00:27:57.360 You not only, in your new book, you not only give us the way out, what we should be doing,

00:28:02.200 but you're actually describing what's coming.

00:28:06.340 It's insanity to cut our legs off before we have another chair.

00:28:12.960 You know what I mean?

00:28:13.740 We are turning off all of our energy supply, and it can't be done this way.

00:28:21.340 I mean, one thing I talk about throughout Fossil Future is this phenomenon of fossil fuel benefit denial.

00:28:29.600 We hear a lot about climate change denial, but the real denial is the huge benefits of fossil fuels,

00:28:36.400 which provide 80% of the world's energy in a world that needs far more energy.

00:28:41.700 And yet we're talking about rapidly eliminating fossil fuels without any evidence of a viable replacement,

00:28:49.080 and that has been the insane strategy that you're talking about.

00:28:52.480 Yeah.

00:28:52.580 Go through some of the benefits of fossil fuels, because everybody's like, oh, fossil fuels, okay, I get it, petroleum, so you got your cars.

00:29:02.980 Yeah.

00:29:03.440 I mean, the real benefit of fossil fuels, as I talk about in Chapter 4, is a livable world.

00:29:08.940 I mean, people talk about, oh, I'm worried that fossil fuels would make the world unlivable.

00:29:13.180 But you have to recognize first that fossil fuels are the only reason why the world is livable as you know it.

00:29:19.780 So the world naturally is a very deficient and dangerous place.

00:29:24.080 It's very low on resources, and it's very high on threats.

00:29:28.140 We, in what I call the empowered world, experience the world as an abundant and safe place, but that is a very unnatural phenomenon.

00:29:35.160 Specifically, it's a phenomenon of being able to use machines to radically expand and amplify our productive abilities.

00:29:44.220 So expand means we can produce things using machines powered by low-cost, reliable energy that we simply can't do with our physical bodies,

00:29:52.020 like provide an incubator that can save a baby's life.

00:29:55.040 And then we also amplify our abilities.

00:29:56.800 We can do things like run a combine harvester that can reap and thresh a thousand times more wheat than a really good manual laborer can.

00:30:04.500 So we only exist in this abundant and safe world by the grace of all of these machines doing work for us.

00:30:12.240 And that only works to the extent energy is cost-effective, which means low-cost, reliable, versatile, meaning being able to power any type of machine, and scalable.

00:30:22.200 So providing energy for billions of people in thousands of places.

00:30:25.160 And what we're seeing with this energy crisis is when you make energy less cost-effective, everything becomes less cost-effective.

00:30:31.700 And you see Europe afraid of winter, which is an embarrassment, and you see real threats of starvation around the world.

00:30:38.400 Now, people here in America will say, well, it's not going to happen here.

00:30:41.760 That's just because Europe screwed up somehow, and I don't want to think past that.

00:30:45.860 They actually just didn't take the pause on the Paris Climate Accords, right?

00:30:50.600 So they're just a little ahead of us.

00:30:52.500 Yeah, well, nobody is following the Paris Climate Accords.

00:30:57.680 In a certain sense, we are following it more than they are, but nobody is really following it in terms of rapidly eliminating CO2 emissions.

00:31:06.100 But this is what's scary, is that the net zero agenda has maybe had 1% to 2% success in terms of slowing the growth of fossil fuels, because fossil fuels are still growing around the world, mostly in underdeveloped places that are less restrictive.

00:31:23.920 But in general, fossil fuels are still growing, but they're shrinking in what I call the empowered world, the freer parts of the world.

00:31:30.280 And even that is causing an energy crisis, because energy is so important, and it's so desperately needed.

00:31:37.920 So people don't really understand what it means not to have energy.

00:31:42.740 Over in, I think it was Scotland, Amazon and Microsoft shut down some server farms because they just couldn't get enough electricity.

00:31:53.420 We are a country and a civilization that is reliant on our technology, not just our engines, but also our technology.

00:32:04.060 And if you don't have the power, you can't keep it at today's standards.

00:32:09.440 But I don't know if anybody's noticed this.

00:32:12.340 What's happening in the technological world is only getting bigger and more invasive in our lives, not smaller.

00:32:21.940 We need more electricity in the future, not less.

00:32:27.200 For sure.

00:32:27.960 So this is something I talk about in Chapter 5 of Fossil Future, which includes talking about, you know, it's an expanding pie in terms of the need for energy.

00:32:36.780 The biggest reason is just most people are very energy poor in the world.

00:32:40.440 We have 6 billion out of 8 billion people who use an amount of energy that you and I would consider unacceptable.

00:32:45.380 We have 3 billion people using less electricity per person than a typical American refrigerator.

00:32:50.600 We have a third of the world using wood and animal dung as their primary fuel for heating and cooking.

00:32:55.380 So we have that.

00:32:56.500 But then as you're pointing out, the parts of the world even that are empowered, we're finding new ways to use energy.

00:33:03.120 And particularly in the realm of information technology, we have rapid growth.

00:33:08.000 And what you're finding with some of these tech companies, it's really tragic or in a certain sense shameful, is they are huge consumers of electricity who are rightly using more electricity.

00:33:18.960 And yet they're huge boosters of the idea that we can get off fossil fuels rapidly.

00:33:24.920 And one way they do this that's particularly insidious that I talk about in Chapter 6 on alternatives is they claim to be 100% renewable.

00:33:33.460 And the literal way they do this is they pay grids to give them credit for everyone else's solar and wind and to give everyone else the blame for their coal, gas, and nuclear.

00:33:43.500 So this is really shameful, and it's promoting all the wrong ideas, even though the world needs more energy, and they're exhibit A of why.

00:33:50.500 Can you talk a little bit about, I mean, the problem with our information system that we have now where people believe global warming is a catastrophe, and yet we have more information now or access to more information than ever before?

00:34:06.040 Yeah, I have a term I coined called knowledge system to really capture the set of institutions.

00:34:11.380 We often call it the media, but that's too much of a simplification.

00:34:14.400 The set of institutions that are designed to give us expert knowledge and guidance.

00:34:18.640 And I think one key thing is that you have these different phases by which knowledge is acquired and transmitted, and so there's the research phase.

00:34:26.080 But we don't just get things from the research.

00:34:28.020 The research needs to be synthesized by institutions and then disseminated, and then ultimately we evaluate what do we do about it.

00:34:34.860 Now, something like climate, what you see is the actual research has quite a few biases, but that research, even as it exists today, in no way justifies this idea of climate catastrophe, and certainly in no way justifies the idea of rapidly eliminating fossil fuels and replacing them specifically with unreliable solar and wind.

00:34:55.740 And yet we get this narrative that, oh, the scientists say we need to get off fossil fuels and replace them with 100% renewable.

00:35:02.680 That doesn't follow at all.

00:35:04.260 And so what's happening is we are getting a distortion from what I call the knowledge system.

00:35:09.060 The institutions we're trusting to get expert knowledge, they're distorting the actual state of the research to the point where we're being told that fossil fuels have no benefits, and yet reality is proving they have huge benefits, and losing those benefits is catastrophic.

00:35:22.880 Alex, put this on – I mean, you've been warning about this for a long time.

00:35:33.420 Put this on what's coming in some sort of scale that people can understand.

00:35:39.600 What is life like in 2030 if we continue down this path?

00:35:44.240 What's it like in 2024, 26, if we continue down this path?

00:35:48.660 I think there are two versions of this that we need to contemplate.

00:35:55.100 One is less realistic, and one is more realistic.

00:35:59.160 So the less realistic one is the one where we all pursue anything resembling net zero, where we all seek to reduce our emissions without a viable replacement.

00:36:09.200 And certainly there's nothing resembling a viable replacement by 2030, particularly because you're basically not allowed to build nuclear now.

00:36:15.140 So if everyone did that, it would be like much, much, much more extreme than what Europe is experiencing right now because it's just – and you're just seeing it.

00:36:24.780 Their power bills are going up by a factor of four.

00:36:27.700 All these shops are shutting down.

00:36:29.100 You just see the whole economy crash because it's interdependent, and energy is the industry that powers every other industry.

00:36:35.060 So the price of energy determines the price of everything.

00:36:37.320 So you just see prices skyrocketing and things crashing.

00:36:40.180 So there's that happening on a global scale everywhere, but the reason I say it's unrealistic is – let me ask you.

00:36:46.820 Do you think China is going to participate in this, Glenn?

00:36:48.880 No.

00:36:49.220 Do you think China is going to rapidly –

00:36:50.500 No, they're going to –

00:36:51.080 Is Russia going to?

00:36:52.400 No.

00:36:53.340 They're going to love this.

00:36:54.740 They'll be providing oil for any country that is not adopting this insanity.

00:36:58.660 And so this is what I – one of the things I warn about in Chapter 11 of the book, which I call unilateral disempowerment, which Europe is exhibiting right now, which means the freer countries decide, hey, we're going to restrict our emissions.

00:37:12.280 We're going to start – we're going to lower our fossil fuel use.

00:37:14.800 But what happens then is you empower often the less free places like China and Russia, and China in particular loves using huge amounts of coal to produce huge amounts of unreliable solar and wind that then ruin our economy and our way of life. 0.81

00:37:30.360 Like that's great for their ambition of becoming a global superpower by 2049.

00:37:34.720 So that's what I think is the most realistic is that we kind of sacrifice unilaterally, and we make ourselves much less secure, much more dependent on powers that do not wish us well and that are not pro-freedom.

00:37:47.820 Tell me what – tell me what we lose besides freedom.

00:37:51.580 Tell me what the average person's life – how is this going to impact?

00:37:55.340 How is this going to change their life?

00:37:58.920 Well, I would just ask, have you ever been really poor?

00:38:01.800 Yes, he has, Alex.

00:38:04.880 He has.

00:38:05.160 I've seen it.

00:38:05.780 I've seen it in action.

00:38:06.780 I have.

00:38:08.140 No, I'm just saying like most of us, even who have had success, have had periods where we didn't have much money.

00:38:14.980 I certainly had that in my life, and like it will be much, much worse than that.

00:38:19.840 I mean this is the thing because you have the element of just becoming much poorer, which people experience even with modest rises in gasoline prices.

00:38:28.200 You cannot afford as much.

00:38:30.520 But part of – it's not just this combination of you become poorer, but also you are in a society that is disintegrating.

00:38:39.120 And so what you're – like look at Sri Lanka and other places where you have these riots.

00:38:42.740 What happens is the decline is not this just smooth thing where, okay, I made $100,000, and now I make $60,000.

00:38:49.440 It is chaos.

00:38:50.300 I mean you just look around the world.

00:38:52.700 Every time you have these fuel price crises, it is chaos.

00:38:56.920 And it's not like America is in a particularly stable state right now politically or socially.

00:39:01.780 I had noticed.

00:39:03.000 So we don't – this is not what we need.

00:39:05.820 Now the nice thing is we have all the physical resources in the world to produce enough energy for a lot of people to have a good life.

00:39:13.380 Like this is totally a political – I mean it's cultural beneath that, but it's a political phenomenon.

00:39:19.800 So we can produce a lot more fossil fuel.

00:39:22.500 We can produce nuclear energy.

00:39:24.000 We can pursue what I call energy freedom.

00:39:26.780 And that's a lot of my work right now besides making clear this idea of a fossil future is promoting energy freedom policies so that we can get there and also get to new alternatives.

00:39:36.140 So I only have about a minute left, and I want to ask you about your energy freedom because you're saying let us build nuclear power.

00:39:44.780 Let us – you know, real promising alternatives.

00:39:48.240 Let's release the hounds here. 0.96

00:39:52.460 Let us do our work.

00:39:54.400 Chances of that – I mean I'm starting to see people love nuclear energy more than I've ever seen it since I was a kid.

00:40:02.740 I know.

00:40:03.840 That's an exciting development.

00:40:05.460 So reality, you know, this crisis, they're helping us open people's minds.

00:40:10.540 If people want to check this out, go to alexepstein.substack.com, and you'll see near the top the energy freedom platform.

00:40:16.640 I should say, you know, I used to have no influence at all in D.C., and now I work with something like 300 staffers on policy in different ways.

00:40:23.760 So I'm optimistic that there's a real appetite for a new energy policy that gives us all the energy we need in the present and promotes the positive evolution of energy going forward.

00:40:35.460 Alex, thank you so much.

00:40:36.880 Thanks for all of your hard work.

00:40:38.100 Founder and president of the Center for Industrial Progress and the author of a great new book.

00:40:44.440 It's called Fossil Fuel – sorry, Fossil Future, the real story on energy that no one else will tell you about.

00:40:51.360 And it is important that you hear it so you know what's going on.

00:40:54.240 I'm Alex Epstein.

00:40:55.580 Na, na, na, na.

The Glenn Beck Program - August 31, 2022

Best of the Program ｜ Guests： Justin Haskins & Alex Epstein ｜ 8⧸31⧸22

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