The Glenn Beck Program - Ep 26 ｜ Brad Meltzer

00:00:00.000 you are i think one of the best storytellers alive today uh you humble me with that you know

00:00:22.360 you know what i love when we do this is you and i we have a history right we have this amazing

00:00:29.000 history and it's this and it's this mutual love of history and i love that we've had all these

00:00:33.560 conversations over the years that have gone on privately depending on who's empowered depending

00:00:39.180 on what's changed depending on where the culture is and this is oddly i think the first time we've

00:00:43.360 ever sat down for the in-depth conversation it is which i love i'm just i can't wait because i'm

00:00:47.620 like you know usually it's like whatever i do my thing and i'm like they're gonna ask me these five

00:00:50.840 questions and i'm gonna answer these five questions and i feel like i'm like no you have no right now

00:00:54.640 i'm just like oh this is gonna be a good one you brought a toy i did i should have brought

00:00:59.340 something from my collection um but you brought something uh pretty amazing and it kind of goes

00:01:04.520 with the book yeah um so your new book is uh the first conspiracy the secret plot to kill george

00:01:11.240 washington i know just a little bit of it i just know that i just know the execution part but i don't

00:01:19.880 know anything else and you know me i love you love this stuff and you know this i love george

00:01:25.180 washington and i i even have from 1911 i think new york did the complete bound uh uh conspiracy

00:01:36.420 papers they bound oh yeah conspiracy theories so i have that i still don't know this and i didn't know

00:01:43.240 this either uh this story i found in you know only the nerds read the footnotes and that means you and i

00:01:49.560 yeah right and i found this nearly a decade ago in the footnotes and i remember thinking a secret

00:01:55.420 plot to kill george washington is this real is it fake is it internet nonsense what is it and it's

00:02:01.720 true in 1776 there was a secret plot to kill washington when george washington finds out about

00:02:07.300 it he gathers up those responsible builds a gallows let's not start at the end yeah let's not start

00:02:12.980 at the end and let's just say um it's foiled it's foiled and and george washington spoiler alert

00:02:18.340 lives all right so let's start let's go back with george washington um because when you look at

00:02:25.740 history a lot of people were made into heroes that shouldn't have been made into heroes um a lot of

00:02:31.280 the stuff that we read about is either bogus or just so one-sided um one of the guys i i started doing

00:02:40.340 research on uh edison and tesla i thought i knew the story no it's incredible edison's a monster yeah i

00:02:47.140 won't do i won't do edison and the i am books oh my gosh he's a monster yeah um and you never know

00:02:53.540 that and so there are some things to where you look at and we've made the problem of we made it worse by

00:03:01.180 by making giant statues of of people yeah and that's what we do we do that we've but we've always done

00:03:07.900 that with our heroes we dip them in granite we make these statues we we worship at them and we do a

00:03:12.900 great disservice because then they're not people anymore but this guy george washington is the only

00:03:18.920 one that i could find that isn't winston churchill that if you talk to one set of people right you get

00:03:28.940 a different answer you get a different answer yeah and he was both yep this guy i can't find the flaw

00:03:35.020 in him yeah i know and i totally agree and we've talked about this offline as well but the thing about

00:03:41.500 george washington is he's not like john adams he's not like thomas jefferson who are writing all

00:03:46.480 their feelings uh to their loved ones and telling you every emotion they have george washington spends

00:03:52.080 everything for him is close to the vest martha washington obviously gets rid of all the papers so

00:03:57.320 we lose lots of correspondence but but even even you know on some of the biggest days of his life

00:04:03.220 they barely merit a warrant uh in his diary on some of the biggest you know moments where he's scared

00:04:10.040 the day he's the he was there when they signed the constitution the day they signed the constitution

00:04:15.840 you know what's in his diary no i went to pick up my copy of don quixote right right which was his

00:04:21.000 favorite book right what what are you doing you just signed the concept right i mean that's the thing

00:04:25.800 is even in fact in this one there's this day where he you know someone dies in front of 20 000

00:04:30.040 people you know if you murder someone in front of 20 000 movies say dear diary had a bad day

00:04:34.640 and his is just like nothing barely a mention and it's not it's not because he was correct me if i'm

00:04:41.760 wrong yeah it's not because he was secretive he was just very private and didn't there's this great

00:04:47.500 letter the archives has right one half they're trying to get the other half from a friend of mine okay

00:04:53.620 um and they have the letter written to george washington right after the revolution it says

00:04:59.500 george you're gonna they're gonna praise your name up and down they're gonna name cities after you

00:05:04.480 they're gonna build monuments he's horrified by it my friend has the response and the response is

00:05:11.400 dear lord i hope not yeah i should never praise me it was the god almighty that did it and we all

00:05:19.900 witnessed it he so he's not he's not trying to hide things or play close to the vest except in war

00:05:26.580 um no and i don't mean it right i don't right it's just not his way yeah he just doesn't boast and i

00:05:32.140 think it comes back i mean i always believe and i don't want to get all freudian on it but i i do

00:05:36.140 believe it you know so much of who we are comes from our childhood you tell me your childhood and i'll

00:05:40.120 show you who you are yeah and washington as a kid um you know one of the things he does i mean he

00:05:46.760 loses everything right he loses his brothers he loses his father loses everything but even as a

00:05:51.840 kid he's writing down these 110 rules of civility to live by and so and where did that come from

00:05:57.640 right well the historians debate whether he was he did it because he needed to or whether it was

00:06:04.320 a class exercise either way it's a spectacular thing that he apparently does over and over 110

00:06:10.060 rules of civility that exist back then they're and they're spectacular they're i actually read them

00:06:14.540 because i was like i want to read something that i know george washington read at the most

00:06:18.680 impressionable moment of his life when he's young when it's all just starting you're just that kind

00:06:22.860 of tabula rasa there you are and they're spectacular because one of them is you know don't pick your

00:06:29.060 teeth at the table don't spit on people when you talk to them all good advice we could use right now

00:06:33.960 don't spit in the fire it's kind of right right but it's also you know about humility and modesty

00:06:40.180 and and there are ways to be you know when you say a proper virginian gentleman we we assume we

00:06:46.140 assume it means someone with great manners but i think for him it actually meant to be a great man

00:06:51.120 and i think that those that's what i mean when i say close to the vest it's not about being secretive

00:06:56.680 it's not about i don't want anyone to know i feel like he when it comes to his own emotions he's like

00:07:02.200 what i think doesn't matter there are bigger things to worry about and and i feel like it's just it all

00:07:08.360 comes from this point of of a level of humility that i've never seen on anyone in history and i

00:07:13.480 always say i don't think george washington's greatest victory or most important thing that

00:07:19.620 he's ever done is winning the war i don't think it's being president i don't think it's any of

00:07:23.360 that i think the greatest thing he's ever done is that moment after the war where he can be king

00:07:27.960 and he when we win the revolutionary war he can easily be the king of america they were so popular

00:07:34.960 they would have made him the king of america as you said in the letter they're going to praise you

00:07:37.460 forever and you know that you know the famous story we've talked about this one i remember is

00:07:42.820 king george king george is talking to painter benjamin west and says what's george washington

00:07:48.040 doing after the war and benjamin west says he's going home and king george says if he does that

00:07:52.840 he'll be the greatest man to ever greatest man who ever lived right and that's what he does and

00:07:58.600 then he does it again after his second term he could have had a third term or a fourth term

00:08:02.840 but that's what he continues to do is he has faith in us as a culture faith in us as a country

00:08:08.460 faith in us as a people that we'll be in charge of our own destiny we don't need him on there and i

00:08:14.320 feel like when i think about that you know a plot to kill george washington um i just think my god

00:08:21.180 would anyone else have had the character the depth of character to walk away from that opportunity of

00:08:27.660 power and and that's i don't know anyone else in history like that not even today i know nothing

00:08:33.640 i mean there's nothing like them so where did that come from because his mother his mother eventually

00:08:38.180 kind of turned on him yeah you know said he was running for president the second time and and she

00:08:43.820 said oh he's he's you wouldn't believe how much he spends on ice cream uh that was the big scandal

00:08:50.240 with george washington um um and his mother actually kind of made him give up a dream he

00:08:56.800 wanted to go and join thank god he didn't the british navy yeah and he's young and he gets onto the ship

00:09:03.440 and his mom is making a scene she goes finds out that he's joined the navy and you know oh george

00:09:09.540 you you cannot leave me and he comes back down uh on the gangplank with his stuff yeah and he says

00:09:16.140 mother if this is where you need me to be i will remain at your side and he is his whole life

00:09:23.700 is about sacrifice but you know what i love about george washington's life is every sacrifice he makes

00:09:29.760 for someone else always pays him back later in this odd only god couldn't pull it off way there's a

00:09:36.620 moment um in the book it it just defies logic i don't know if you know this story but i didn't know

00:09:43.220 it and it blew my mind um during the revolutionary war smallpox is just raging through our troops

00:09:50.620 and um and they're trying to figure out should they have quarantines they can't cure it they don't

00:09:54.400 know what to do they're you know and if god forbid george washington gets smallpox in the middle of all

00:09:58.880 this we're dead and they know we're dead he's not going to and so just to tell the story for those

00:10:04.000 who don't know um you know and the british are putting smallpox on blankets because they're like

00:10:08.200 no no that was us right and and right right right the first levels of biological warfare

00:10:13.880 and they figure out that when george washington is a kid he goes with his brother who gets a disease

00:10:20.800 uh and and they send them back then the cure was go to the caribbean and you'll be cured by the

00:10:26.000 sunlight and the nice water but while george washington as a kid is there making this sacrifice

00:10:30.380 to go with his brother winds up being immune uh to smallpox and the reason he never gets smallpox in

00:10:37.480 the war is because of his dead brother who oddly is almost protecting him from beyond the grave

00:10:42.620 you can't write i mean i write thrillers for a living if i ever put that scene in a book my editor

00:10:46.680 would say you're insane you can't keep the say that the president of the united states when he's a kid

00:10:51.620 gets immunized for no reason by helping his brother in in the caribbean and then comes and

00:10:58.940 it saves his life during the revolutionary war so he he is a guy who wants to be a farmer that's what

00:11:05.400 he talks about all the time i just want to go back and go back my farm just want to do my farm thing

00:11:09.500 um and and yet he had this drive to get into the military this is what i wanted to ask you about

00:11:17.300 let's talk about this yeah i mean so he goes right the second kind of congress happens and and they're

00:11:22.180 picking who's going to run the military and the only guy everyone's wearing their usual outfits the

00:11:27.980 only guy who shows up in a military uniform the only one which is still shocking to me

00:11:32.800 is george washington and i know he's always humble but that's a conscious effort that's one

00:11:40.460 of those moments where i i actually wanted to hear i wanted to talk to you about this because

00:11:44.080 there's you know some people when you read about that they say oh he was peacocking which i actually

00:11:49.380 don't believe um but i do think right that wasn't that guy but he but he is he's he's clearly going

00:11:53.740 for a job you know you don't i had a guy in college a buddy of mine he used to take every

00:11:57.620 all of his suits i mean all of his tests in a suit and we'd of course make fun of him and be like are

00:12:03.120 you insane you're an 18 year old kid why are you wearing a suit to take a test but he was clearly

00:12:07.360 trying to say this is what i do i'm a more serious sort if you are the only guy of all those founders

00:12:14.220 who were there at that moment and you're the only guy who shows in a military uniform you're you are

00:12:17.760 making a statement and and it's it's genius advertising but that's who he was well he's a

00:12:23.520 soldier right yeah he was a soldier so he's showing up you've got your thing i have my thing

00:12:29.020 i don't think he wanted it i i let me let me ask you this question and kind of response to that

00:12:34.140 you know who peter lilback is no okay peter lilback um from the uh providence project uh up in

00:12:42.060 philadelphia one of leading scholars on george washington he wrote sacred fire i don't know if

00:12:46.520 you've ever yeah you sent me a copy of course i read it of course i read it for this yeah uh did

00:12:50.280 you really i did well i read it years ago you sent me you sent me a copy years ago so um peter and i

00:12:57.000 were talking i said peter i've been reading a lot of george washington i've been reading a lot of his

00:13:00.920 letters and a lot of stuff that nobody ever reads and i said i think you could make the case

00:13:07.780 that george and our founders knew that the united states would play some role in the re-establishment

00:13:17.900 of israel and they were so religious that that meant something to them they weren't i shouldn't

00:13:25.020 say this they were very um um um acquiescent to the almighty i was gonna say they were not

00:13:33.960 they knew that there was a greater power correct of course but they were christian um but they

00:13:38.800 weren't they weren't like right right right you know it's providence it's not god it's the right

00:13:42.920 correct um and he said you're crazy he did a year of research unbeknownst to me he comes back to me a

00:13:49.880 year later and he has written a book about it right and he said i think you're right so i wonder if

00:13:55.980 washington had a sense of some sort of providence of destiny that he knew this is the skill i have

00:14:07.320 i'm supposed to be here i'll show up so they know my skill and everybody is aware of my skill

00:14:15.180 uh and they choose me so be it if they don't so be it because remember they choose him and he says

00:14:20.600 and then he leaves right he runs out of the room right you go no no you can't talk about all the bad

00:14:25.420 things about me with me in the room please right and he and then when they go to tell him they look

00:14:30.100 around he's gone he's gone and the first thing he says when they find them i think it's to adams he

00:14:35.240 says you know i don't know if i'm up to this task right which is i don't think he was he first of all

00:14:40.820 he 100 wasn't the first thing that george one of the first things i should say that he does

00:14:44.880 is he immediately goes to a bookstore he orders books on how to be a better general he did three

00:14:50.440 things right when they appointed him it was i know the books what were the i got the sash

00:14:54.440 he wanted to fit uniform what were the other ones i mean there are plenty that he does but you you

00:14:58.600 have three in mind that you know no no you have i was gonna say oh yeah i said right he gets the

00:15:02.500 sash he he so let's start over he um he goes and gets books because he's like i you know and it's

00:15:08.680 like the it's like the idiot's guide for 1776 right i gotta be a general and this is military

00:15:12.920 strategy there's no time to get a uniform um but he wants to let people know he's in charge so he

00:15:18.180 orders a blue sash that you'll see in the pictures from them and i just love that he's like

00:15:22.500 these are just the basic things right and and and and that book thing is not a sign of weakness

00:15:28.980 it's the ultimate sign of strength i believe lincoln does the same thing as he immediately goes

00:15:33.880 and says i'm not up to this task how do i get better immediately my god do we need leaders

00:15:39.700 right that like yeah we have a letter from lincoln um in about 56 where somebody's saying you have to

00:15:47.020 run and he said i i don't i i don't think i'd be up to the task but i will tell you if i do um

00:15:56.480 ever become a position of leadership in washington there will be no one that will work harder to be

00:16:02.920 able to do that yeah you know they're they are preparing themselves right but back to what you

00:16:09.060 said i do think that washington um i i i just believe that and especially then i mean again

00:16:16.140 it's not a science-driven time right it's a faith-driven time back then i do believe that

00:16:20.740 that sense of destiny is something that plays and i know you know people love to tell that story in the

00:16:25.520 french and indian war where he's shot at and he has the bullet holes in his and his outfit and

00:16:29.740 you know and and the the indian lore that someone said he was the chosen one to be the leader that's

00:16:36.440 lore you it's lore right no no no it's i'm saying but the point of it is when stories like that persist

00:16:42.220 um that lore is it shows you the belief system at the time right like if other people are saying

00:16:47.940 you're the chosen one so if he's if you for instance in i think it was in trenton he was also

00:16:55.300 shot at um he had several horses shot out from underneath him yeah and he gets the biggest

00:17:01.740 white stallions and rides up right right goes right in the front of everything that's not i mean that's

00:17:07.080 not lore that's yeah that's true and whether he knew it at the time um he was creating this legend

00:17:15.840 of you can't kill this guy right well and listen even when he was failing i mean and this is i i can't

00:17:22.660 get into and can't get my head around or even pretend to say that we understand what he thought

00:17:28.000 you know the thing that frustrates me about many washington books is they'll tell you and then

00:17:31.360 washington thought this and we don't know we can't know we can have a theory you can have a theory i can

00:17:36.380 have a theory but no one will ever know why he did it what we what we do with our heroes in this moment

00:17:41.980 is again we always do our heroes are mirrors they're always mirrors and we see in them what we want to

00:17:47.740 see and what we need that's what being a hero is is they give you something back in that way

00:17:52.500 but even when you go to the concrete things that happen washington still measures up even in the

00:17:59.320 failures that in the battle of brooklyn one of the scenes i love in the book is the battle of brooklyn

00:18:03.940 the first battles of the war here in new york and you know we tell the story john washington's the

00:18:09.580 greatest general who ever lived he's got everything he's he gets out generaled we get he's horrible he

00:18:14.520 gets outflanked by the british he doesn't have the experience that the british have he basically

00:18:18.940 gets pinned down he has the british in front of him he's got the east river behind him and this is

00:18:25.200 the end he should die in this moment if he's a lesser man he basically should say you know what

00:18:31.780 we're pinned down we're going to take out as many of them as we can we'll show him who's boss we'll go

00:18:36.780 out in a blaze of glory he'll be he'll beat his chest and show what a macho guy he is but there's

00:18:41.600 nothing genius about being a macho moron there's nothing manly about that instead he does the best

00:18:47.120 thing he always does he adapts to the situation he improvises in that moment and he plans a daring

00:18:53.000 escape in the middle of the night they commandeer every boat along the east river they say give me

00:18:58.120 every boat you can find and in the middle of the night when no one thinks they're gonna go

00:19:01.280 providential fog if i'm not mistaken yeah it always happens like that right you feel like

00:19:06.080 there's something like spielberg's directing the moment you wouldn't believe it if you saw it in a

00:19:09.760 movie but they all write about it and and basically this fog comes in in the middle of the night he

00:19:14.180 puts slowly one by one all of his men get on the boat and he makes sure they're safe but here's the

00:19:18.980 key moment glen right is that george washington won't get on the boat until he makes sure that

00:19:25.460 even his lowest men are on there first and safely away and they see him in that moment risking his life

00:19:32.020 for them and there are plenty of moments that come before and plenty of moments that come after but to

00:19:37.060 me that's one of those moments where i think today we've forgotten the word united in united states

00:19:42.240 and that's one of those moments where we truly come together with a leader that leads us that way

00:19:46.620 so let me flip this around i think one of the low points in washington is when he's standing i think in

00:19:52.560 new jersey and he's lost new york he's lost everything and now they're headed south again

00:19:57.840 right they retreat and retreat and retreat and we should say this for anyone listening

00:20:01.880 every battle is we fight and we retreat a little we fight and we retreat a little we go to long

00:20:07.400 island we retreat we go they just keep leaving from boston right almost to philadelphia 100 and it's

00:20:13.660 months of just retreat and so we have no chance and he's standing uh and he's looking across the water

00:20:19.560 at now new england with new york all gone yep lost it all and uh one of his uh men see him weep

00:20:30.120 and it's the only time story i know the other time i know the second time they see him weep

00:20:33.800 i don't know i didn't know the first one i don't know the second wow we are like one like one brain

00:20:38.500 if you put us together we actually may know a lot of stuff but we only know half right so he was

00:20:42.760 standing on the uh uh standing on the bank and he's looking at new york and the losses that they

00:20:50.180 have done and in a moment of weakness he weeps and it's at that point the guy who sees him is like

00:20:58.520 we are in trouble right if he's upset right this guy no this guy is weak this and it it really

00:21:07.120 that's how he reads it yeah it starts to churn the troops are starting oh no they they threw out

00:21:12.300 the war yeah they start turning on him of course by the time he gets to the delaware he's done yeah

00:21:17.920 yeah yeah yeah yeah no no i mean and and the thing that's amazing wait what's this oh the second time

00:21:21.540 let's do the second time so the second time is benedict darnold is basically when he finds out um

00:21:25.920 when benedict darnold betrays him uh it a letter is delivered from benedict darnold um alexander

00:21:32.340 hamilton delivers this letter to george washington as benedict darnold writes he doesn't deliver

00:21:36.500 it in song or in rap he just hands it over um but the letter says three things it says um

00:21:42.700 it says don't kill my wife benedict darnold writes because she didn't know what i was doing don't

00:21:47.980 kill my men because they didn't know what i was doing and um he actually also says in the craziest

00:21:54.080 moment of letter writing history he says basically i want my stuff back can you bring me my belongings

00:21:57.620 and in that moment you know he's just been betrayed by someone who was obviously one of his

00:22:02.320 dearest nearest and dearest and they say that's one of the only times they've ever seen

00:22:06.320 george washington weep is in that moment and and the great part the ps to that story is

00:22:10.380 is george washington actually delivers his belongings i mean if if you did that to me and you said i

00:22:16.120 don't give my stuff i'd light it on fire i'd light your stuff on fire and you betrayed me and we're done

00:22:19.920 um and and it's not washington he actually does the gentlemanly thing and says here you go here's

00:22:26.460 your belongings oh which actually if you want to do this this it works perfectly right as a sake

00:22:30.520 there was a there was a problem that people don't understand here and you mentioned on unity

00:22:36.600 let's talk about that yeah um and and loyalty there's there's a couple things going on most

00:22:42.680 people don't know it's between 20 and 30 percent are actually behind this revolution about 30 percent

00:22:50.400 are dead set against it yep and the rest of the nation is like whatever i don't want to get involved

00:22:55.820 that's right which is no different than where we are today right exactly it's the same exact thing

00:23:00.600 you have a liberal side you have a conservative side you have a middle side that's apathetic

00:23:03.580 and god you think in all these years we'd learn but we're the same and so the middle of the country

00:23:08.780 if you will the the middle section that's like i don't care they'll play it either way just to stay

00:23:14.300 if the british are in town hey i'm with you guys the americans are in town i'm with you guys far as

00:23:19.900 they're not they just want to live their life and be yeah oh and i was actually struck when i was

00:23:25.800 researching the book because i didn't know any of this we always again we we tell this is the story

00:23:30.620 we give our kids today that my kids are and let's be honest i i want to say those kids today get off

00:23:35.380 my lawn i mean the way i learned it is you know there's a shot heard around the world then there's a

00:23:41.960 fight there's a declaration for independence george washington comes in we win they sign the

00:23:47.000 constitution he's the president we live happily ever after and it seems like a line that is just

00:23:52.960 beautiful and straight and easy and it's a giant mess you know like i asked my kids the other day

00:23:58.200 how many presidents did we have before george washington and they just looked up i said what i

00:24:02.520 said seven seven we had seven now they weren't they were presidents of the congress oh okay yeah no

00:24:08.980 but mostly you don't even think that there's a time those seven years it's like what we won the war

00:24:15.200 we're the united states no we were something entirely different and what struck me is how

00:24:20.780 divided we were as a culture back then what struck me was because again we think that dream is we

00:24:26.400 believe in democracy we hold hands we come together and democracy was a wonderful idea but most you know

00:24:32.800 as you said a third of the people were just they saw the they saw what was happening with the king as

00:24:37.300 just basically a trade deal that they needed better terms on it was a financial solution there was no

00:24:42.180 great idea they just said just just tax us less give us a better deal let's negotiate a little

00:24:46.720 and we'll be fine under your rule and that's why one reason why i don't like hamilton yeah because

00:24:52.020 as soon as the war is over he's like you know let's let's just have to make the money right right

00:24:56.540 let's just let's just have a king um but to me but i but i'm struck by that idea and and i love

00:25:02.360 and certainly we definitely do get to that point where democracy catches fire it does catch the good

00:25:06.900 idea does catch on i don't want to deflate the whole thing but what strikes me and again in a

00:25:11.760 plot to kill washington you have to find people willing to do it and what struck me is how divided

00:25:17.800 our own military our own people were um and and we're always going to be like that we did a we did

00:25:23.340 a look at we were like what's the culture look like in 1776 uh 10 000 men come to new york city

00:25:29.520 trying to do what 10 000 men always do when they're left alone with no women around right like they're

00:25:33.760 gambling they're drinking they want to go see prostitutes that's what they want to do george

00:25:36.800 washington's a proper virginian gentleman is horrified horrified by this is someone was he

00:25:41.880 has general orders is what they're called and his general orders are the rules that are coming down

00:25:47.240 on almost daily basis because there's no rules to the army he's got to build it he has to make it

00:25:51.700 he's trying to figure out and so one of the rules is you know no gambling he hated gambling everyone's

00:25:55.440 playing cards back then didn't even like that um you know he doesn't want them drinking doesn't

00:25:59.220 want him going to prostitutes like again all good rules like almost as if he's a young boy again

00:26:04.040 but all but also because he knows it's insane to take on the english you're talking about the

00:26:11.960 greatest fighting force ever assembled ever it's like the people in toledo going hey let's go get

00:26:19.860 the navy seals it doesn't work it doesn't work so he knows it's insane and so he's playing into

00:26:26.140 divine providence look we have to be on god's side we have to be people of merit right and the thing

00:26:32.300 that is amazing is and the best part of it he's right he's absolutely right i mean there's this

00:26:37.920 moment um where you see him in harvard square and he's got you know the the regiment from

00:26:45.980 massachusetts is there with connecticut is there with virginia and just like any guys who get together

00:26:50.220 the virginians wear something frilly on their uniforms so the massachusetts guys mouth off as

00:26:54.440 massachusetts guys will forever mouth off fight breaks out and washington rides in and the story goes

00:26:59.760 you know the first hand account that we found in the letter is he grabs two of these guys

00:27:04.060 and is shaking them and basically saying stop fighting with each other we're on the same team

00:27:10.000 and there was no united states back then you know we we rally around the you know right now again

00:27:16.280 whatever your politics are we have leaders who drape themselves in the flag and will happily tell you

00:27:20.840 how patriotic they are there's no flag to rally yourself around i mean obviously the early parts of it but

00:27:25.700 it was george washington insisting that we be united pulling us together and to me our leaders

00:27:32.780 that that will that are the best are the ones who can bring us together not those who pull us apart

00:27:37.320 and and i think it's amazing to me that if he doesn't do that we don't get where we want to go

00:27:43.540 he's absolutely right that you have to you know bring order to this chaos because we have no chance

00:27:49.180 against this military otherwise so one of the things he does is he says you have to have a loyalty oath

00:27:54.580 ah yes let's talk about it so there is a they called it the oath of allegiance and um and i'm

00:28:02.680 going to read i think i so i'll tell you this let me back up because for anyone who's listening

00:28:06.400 because you and i talked about this so when i go uh i was supposed to do an event for this book at the

00:28:10.340 national archives and i love that i got to take you to the national archives we have to make that

00:28:15.740 happen so every time i go the archivist united states um is uh is become a dear friend an amazing guy

00:28:23.980 and david ferriot will always pull out something when you go visit he's really good at finding that

00:28:30.740 secret thing you love it's for you and i it's going to like the toy store and and he always finds

00:28:36.620 something that's just amazing so when we because of the of the shutdown in the government we had to

00:28:41.560 we couldn't do the event so he said well let's meet for lunch so three days ago we meet in washington

00:28:45.800 dc for lunch during the book tour and he hands me this this envelope in front of me from the archives

00:28:50.740 and basically what happens is is in and i want to make sure i get the date right it's 1778 that's

00:28:58.660 what i thought 1778 there's an oath of allegiance that george washington asks everyone to sign and

00:29:04.220 what the oath basically is is we want you to swear you solemnly swear that you're going to make sure

00:29:10.020 you don't betray this you know this military that we're in and and we do that same oath today we have

00:29:15.540 our men and women in the military when they enter they raise their right hand they say i solemnly swear

00:29:19.380 state your name um that you're going to be loyal but what they did back then is they used to number

00:29:26.660 the oaths because it was the first one and so they numbered a one two three four five and you stood in

00:29:31.620 line and you dipped your pen in and you signed this oath and what he brought to me what i have and uh

00:29:37.620 is this this is uh number one and you'll see right the center and it's the oath that is signed number

00:29:44.740 one by george washington washington and the and the nice part of the story is the is if and and this

00:29:50.660 is the great irony of it of course is that when george washington signs that he's number one and

00:29:56.580 then there's number two three four and then there's number five which the national archives also has

00:30:00.820 number five and the oath five is benedict arnold and the oath from benedict arnold is uh and there

00:30:08.820 in that moment is when benedict arnold actually became a human being to me i grew up you know like you

00:30:13.140 were benedict arnold was a kind of curse word you told some you know but in that moment benedict

00:30:17.540 arnold on that day in 1778 put his pen in the ink and stood there and signed and said i solemnly swear

00:30:24.180 i'll forever be on your side you can read it this is what he says i written in his handwriting i george

00:30:29.460 washington commander-in-chief of the armies of the united states of america then it's printed do

00:30:35.620 acknowledge the united states of america to be free independent and sovereign states and declare

00:30:42.820 that the people thereof owe no allegiance or obedience to george the third king of great

00:30:48.500 britain and i renounce uh refuse is it kind of get it's risk refute yeah um and abjure any alliance

00:31:01.220 or obedience to him and i do he wrote something here or i do swear yeah that i will to the utmost of

00:31:10.340 my power support maintain and defend the said united states against said king george the third his heirs

00:31:17.700 his officers or his successors and uh to their abettors um and i will serve the united states

00:31:26.500 in the office of commander-in-chief which i now hold with fidelity according to the best of my

00:31:32.900 skill and understanding and that's the first time i mean that's it right i get emotional every time i

00:31:38.900 see it there's george washington swearing that he will forever be loyal to these united states and it's

00:31:45.540 not just something you talk about but they took the time wrote it up made them numbered them and said

00:31:51.220 everybody get in line wow get in line and uh the archivist united states was kind enough to bring

00:31:57.300 me this one he'd shown me i'd never seen this one he'd shown me benedict arnold's before but i'd never

00:32:02.100 i didn't even know they had george washington's they have in the in the archives they have these

00:32:06.020 treasure vaults and their rooms i would say some of them are you know maybe 20 by 20 um and they're

00:32:13.060 dumpy they you know you think they look like goldfinger you know or something that they're dumpy

00:32:17.620 they're hard but the air is pure it's all modified it's all fireproof it's walls that are you know

00:32:24.740 can prevent nicholas cage from coming in the middle of the night and stealing the treasure map

00:32:28.500 um and they have the best stuff they have the most amazing things i walk in and the head of the

00:32:35.460 smithsonian uh meets me i go to the smithsonian and he said uh come on in it so it's one of those

00:32:42.100 rooms with little thin drawers and stuff and uh he said uh oh you'll like this and he pulls out a

00:32:48.580 drawer and it's george washington's christening dress oh my gosh wow oh my god so much good stuff

00:32:55.860 yeah i know uh uh the uh the uh flag that was used against thomas jefferson by adams in another drawer

00:33:06.660 they start going through these drawers and none of this stuff is seen anymore right right right um

00:33:13.300 he gets to the very end we go around this corner and he's like he'll like this drawer and he pulls

00:33:17.620 it out and it's all stuff from from my event in washington dc in a drawer of course it is they have

00:33:23.380 it of course and i said shut up right and he said it may never be seen he said in a hundred years we may

00:33:32.100 throw it away he said but we found it's much better to collect it as it's happening wow then

00:33:38.820 go back and try to get it well the thing that's amazing about the archives to me when you go there

00:33:44.100 is you think oh you know put in the word abraham lincoln or george washington everything will come up

00:33:50.980 and the washington stuff i should say they they tend to know what they have but but as it goes forward

00:33:55.540 there's so much work product that they're still finding new things even in their own documents

00:34:01.300 so you'll see every like five years will be a story that breaks on a new lincoln letter that

00:34:05.860 they've never seen before because there's so much paper and in fact right now what's happening is

00:34:11.060 you're seeing um thank god for the mormons out there who are helping pay to digitize so we can search it

00:34:17.940 because otherwise we couldn't we don't have the the government doesn't have the money to digitize

00:34:22.180 all these all this work product and in fact one of the places where some of it goes is the national

00:34:27.220 archives has caves hidden across the country literally underground caves because it's cheaper

00:34:33.460 for air conditioning and for the to preserve the document so i was like i gotta go see your secret

00:34:37.780 on there if you have a bat cave i gotta go right like i gotta make my way there so i went out to st

00:34:41.700 louis i went to these places and what they have i mean you know they have they have you know jackie

00:34:48.020 kennedy's pink dress from the day jfk shot it's not just paperwork right it's these amazing things and

00:34:54.820 obviously the letters that nixon writes if the astronauts don't make it back you know if they

00:34:59.700 die up on the moon you have the greatest job in the world trust me i feel i when i go there i

00:35:06.100 mooch off their greatest job in the world i feel like that they have the greatest job what i get to

00:35:10.180 do is i get to go in and look at it i guess and every time i go they have something that i go

00:35:16.420 how did you how did you not show me this last time because this is the greatest thing ever every

00:35:20.340 time it's the greatest thing ever and you realize that's us right that's it's the perfect metaphor

00:35:26.420 for us as people we are all you know these amazing things and these horrible things these unspeakable

00:35:30.660 you know we are all of us brave and terrified we are all of us bold and scared we are all of us

00:35:35.780 amazing and cowards and we are all of us you know spectacular sometimes in the same hour sometimes in the

00:35:42.420 same you know minutes and that's what history always is right it's not that straight line we were

00:35:48.020 talking about from you know the start of the war to george washington become president it's

00:35:52.260 like mercury it flows every which way it moves all over it's contradictory and that's not the

00:35:57.620 bad part of history that's the best part of it is that it is exactly us and that's what the

00:36:02.980 government always will be is it's us it's we always want to say the government did this the government

00:36:07.700 did that the government's always the people that's what it is it's just us and it's as messy

00:36:13.460 and good as bad it's a reflection of what we tolerate and our best and our worst sides depending

00:36:18.980 on who's in power and who has it but the point is it moves and it changes and you know the line that

00:36:24.020 has stuck out to me in the declaration of independence lately is and i'm going to butcher it but it's the

00:36:28.900 line where it says and and and history will show that man will put up with a lot

00:36:36.100 you know until it just gets so painful that's it and i think that's that's you know we say oh the

00:36:46.420 government is doing all these horrible things well somebody was around in the people and they

00:36:52.020 they kind of knew it or had an opportunity to know it they just didn't want to know right there's

00:36:56.900 a lot of stuff now we just don't want to know that we're tolerating that's right i think that and

00:37:02.500 listen we i always say the government is not you know evilly stroking their cat and sitting on their

00:37:08.020 throne the government is you know people the government doesn't lie people lie and they lie

00:37:13.700 for very human reasons right because whether it's shame or whether it's not strong enough or whether

00:37:19.700 it's greed or whether it's sex or whether it's you know those are the basically it's very human things

00:37:24.580 um but i think just i i can't let that go because it's so beautiful the founders are so genius when

00:37:32.980 you look at what they constructed and there's this uh and i'll butcher it too but right outside i forget

00:37:37.700 if it's the senate or the house or somewhere in between in the u.s capital there's one there's the line

00:37:42.820 that basically says you know and it shows the whole government is designed to fail it is designed to be

00:37:49.860 really hard to make change in the government it is the founding fathers wanted one thing and they said

00:37:55.220 if it's easy then people will just come through and plow their way through demand all their demands

00:38:01.220 and we'll have a king again but if we make it really hard we make two houses that have to fight each

00:38:06.340 other and then even if it gets past there and it's still bad we have a supreme court to look over we have

00:38:11.220 a president who can veto it we're designed to fight designed to fail so no one can do and it's

00:38:16.820 genius in the way it's constructed but it takes us because we don't know our own our civil responsibility

00:38:23.460 our civil rules and um and responsibilities we we it takes us a while like right now

00:38:33.780 you're starting to see in america people going you know what i don't really care what happens

00:38:37.540 in washington they can't get a damn thing done i agree yes yes that's the system working at its

00:38:44.660 best there are people on both sides that want to take it crazy places yep and you can't get

00:38:51.940 anywhere in washington and so people on both sides want to take shortcuts no stick to the constitution

00:38:58.900 because eventually the american people will go you know what you guys are a bunch of clowns we'll just

00:39:03.940 do it right oh if history proves one thing it's that there are great moments where we don't care

00:39:10.900 until we do and then we do care look out because it's all going to change and i you know it's funny

00:39:16.740 i've been on book tour this week and i went i started on cbs i went to my friends at fox news i went to

00:39:22.740 friends at cnn i went to the local npr affiliate and despite what we all think there are things we all

00:39:28.500 agree on america whatever side you're on is tired of the way we're talking to each other they're tired

00:39:34.660 we're tired of the way we've been playing this wonderful game of us versus them whatever side

00:39:39.140 you're on those people did this you know if you're a democrat you hate the republicans you're republican

00:39:43.620 you hate the democrats we hate each other and the way what we do right now we find an opinion that's

00:39:48.660 opposite our own we unfriend we unfollow and then we surrounded and you're surrounded by people who only

00:39:54.820 agree with you and nothing good will ever come of that and it's amazing to me as i go as i've been

00:40:00.660 across the country this week watching again if you if you watch fox news or you watch msnbc

00:40:07.300 you have two polar views of of how the world works you you literally have different pieces of

00:40:13.140 information that is coming into your brain and someone said to me in one of those places we don't

00:40:18.100 do news we do opinions because if we just showed the news no one would watch but if we show opinions

00:40:22.900 then people will really watch us and people watch and don't realize they're watching opinions so

00:40:27.380 the we have in our phones the you know the library of alexandria at our fingertips at all times as

00:40:33.060 much information as we want but the hardest thing to find today is the truth right that's what you've

00:40:38.740 always been that's your the bread and butter right is the place where you can come and say here's the

00:40:43.060 truth and we've lost sight of it and we've lost sight of talking to each other we've just we've we've

00:40:48.100 entered this hard part and and i think you're right we're basically saying right now you know what i don't

00:40:53.940 like what's happening in dc i'm going to ignore it and then we'll get mad and then once again we'll

00:40:59.140 ask for that change

00:41:10.260 it's a time of a lack of courage yeah i think it's i think it's courage you know when i was doing um

00:41:17.380 um i think i've mentioned you have very good friends with president george hw bush and barbara

00:41:23.780 bush and years ago uh they wrote me a fan letter they're like one of my thrillers and i met them

00:41:30.500 and spent a lot of time they invited me to houston for a week to go you know see what it was like to

00:41:34.340 be a former president we became dear friends and i love barbara bush because she reminded me of my

00:41:39.620 mother in the sense that she didn't care if you were the king of england or you were the guy who was

00:41:43.460 sweeping the floors do you have something interesting to say are you funny do you have

00:41:47.220 something that's that's insightful if not then get out of my face she's not impressed with anybody

00:41:52.340 and we would sit and laugh and have fun together i spent many times many events doing work for

00:41:57.700 literacy with her she just believed in the value of literacy that that unlocked the american dream

00:42:01.700 is helping people read and i totally agree and so we were honoring mrs bush on her passing a couple

00:42:08.740 months ago we did an event in kennebunkport main and i get to kennebunkport with my wife and and i

00:42:15.060 know at this point we all know what's going to happen to president bush we know he's sick we know

00:42:18.740 the end's coming and i found out that they were bringing in some of his favorite authors to read to

00:42:24.100 him and i they said to me you know would you like we'd like you to read the president bush would you

00:42:29.860 know your book would you like to read to him so i say of course i'd be honored and i get in there and

00:42:36.500 it's uh it's myself it's my wife it's president bush and it's a service dog solid the secret

00:42:43.300 service leave we're alone in kennebunkport in his private office and this is the end

00:42:47.700 this is the end we know what's coming and they warned me they said we just want you know you're

00:42:52.100 only going to read for 10 minutes because he falls asleep and my wife said brad's used to putting

00:42:56.340 people asleep with his books don't worry they'll be fine she's still and we go in there and we

00:43:00.660 pretend that everything's normal like this is just my average day in my average life and it's the

00:43:05.860 end right he's got the rocking chair with the presidential seal on it got a little view of the

00:43:09.540 ocean but i know what's coming and i just i see on his desk he's got about five books stacked up

00:43:15.060 and one of them is the first conspiracy and it's dog-eared it's like it's been read i mean i can't

00:43:19.540 tell you how many times post-it notes in it the whole thing because i had sent it to him a year ago

00:43:23.540 that's how he blur he blurbed the book for us and i say to him sir you want to read this and at this

00:43:30.260 point he's really only you know nodding in a couple of syllables and so i read my favorite

00:43:36.580 part of the book the part that makes me tear up every time i get to it when i was proofing it

00:43:40.820 um i'm gonna read it to you yeah and it's it's this moment it's um it's the moment where george

00:43:45.780 washington presents to the troops for the very first time has it read to them the declaration of

00:43:50.980 independence i don't even need the book i could do it by heart um because it's the line you know and i

00:43:55.060 know and i get to that line i'm sitting there president bush and he's sleeping at this point

00:43:59.220 it's 10 minutes and he's sleeping get to the line we hold these truths to be self-evident

00:44:04.580 that all men are created equal and in that moment president bush's eyes boom right open wide awake

00:44:13.540 and you know if you've ever been at the hospital room of someone who's dying and they have that moment

00:44:17.780 of clarity where you just know they're back boom my mom died boom she came back my dad died boom they

00:44:22.820 came back and he's back again it's like the declaration of independence is his lifeblood

00:44:28.900 like it's the ultimate iv and we get to the end of the chapter and i said sir do you want to do

00:44:34.500 another chapter we do another chapter and another and for a full hour glenn i'm sitting there and at

00:44:43.700 the end of the hour of course i say goodbye thank him for everything i know it's goodbye forever i know

00:44:49.300 what's happening and when he died i went to the funeral in houston and when he died the one thing

00:44:56.500 i was clear on is one word was mentioned over and over in all the tributes to him and it was this word

00:45:04.500 decency decency and yes it was because he was a decent man but i think it was also because as a

00:45:12.260 country we're starving for decency again we've lost sight of the word united in these united states we don't

00:45:18.340 talk to each other we yell at each other we talk about each other we scream at each other and to me

00:45:24.900 i feel like we when i look back and i always look at the zeitgeist for kind of where we are i i don't

00:45:30.740 think it's a coincidence that the big biographies this past year were neil armstrong and were mr rogers

00:45:38.100 that george bush's death and you know was such a big deal i i feel like we celebrated for a while those

00:45:44.500 who are the best and what we do right now in our culture is we celebrate those who are good at

00:45:47.860 getting attention called to themselves we celebrate the loud ones we celebrate those who on social

00:45:52.260 media whether it's you know facebook or instagram or twitter anywhere else are you know right with

00:45:56.980 multiple exclamation points and tell us how great they are and can get the most attention

00:46:01.540 that's we celebrate that's we like that's we pay attention to but we're starving for that generation

00:46:08.340 that taught us humility and decency and i don't think it's a coincidence that mr rogers was such

00:46:13.620 a huge movie this year or even that the movie whether it was good or bad or otherwise but about

00:46:18.100 neil armstrong came out neil armstrong never used the word i use the word we we did this we accomplished

00:46:24.420 it and he wasn't just talking about the astronauts he was talking about the scientists the mathematicians

00:46:29.620 the people who sewed his space suit together this was our accomplishment and you know i know hollywood

00:46:35.860 can mess up or do a good movie but the fact that they even made it in the same time

00:46:40.900 is and it's not that it's an answer but it's it's it's showing a desire in the population

00:46:46.340 for that humility and that that that decency that i feel like we've lost track of

00:47:05.860 who is

00:47:13.380 a modern day example of that yeah i constantly i you know my belief about heroes

00:47:20.340 is that heroes come when we need them most you never get the hero you want

00:47:25.940 that you always get the heroes you need and i think and this this is i admit and i go i wish i

00:47:30.900 could say that i'm so optimistic and i always know you can find me on a certain day and i say

00:47:35.540 that person's coming we haven't met them yet i don't know who it is but they're coming and we're

00:47:39.300 going to need them because we need them right now the same way as you need superman or anyone else

00:47:43.860 um and then there are days i wake up and say you know i in fact um they asked me to do an event uh i did

00:47:51.380 an event with president bush uh for w with 43 and um and with president clinton they did an event

00:47:57.460 together that i went to and i asked them both i said how do we come together if we're not even

00:48:05.380 agreeing on the basic facts if we're watching our own television networks our own twitter feeds i said

00:48:11.620 how do we do that and neither of them really had an answer um and and so some days i have the dark side

00:48:17.940 of me says i don't know how we get out of it and some days i go that person's coming and and when

00:48:22.740 the need comes and the need arises we will find them uh and it just as anything else it just depends

00:48:27.620 what day you catch me have you ever read any tim ballard no non-fiction yeah i'm gonna i'm gonna

00:48:35.540 send him uh send some stuff to you um he wrote something called the american covenant

00:48:41.060 and uh it's about george washington making that four-hour uh prayer after the inauguration

00:48:52.020 and the covenant that he made with god and that his theory is we have violated that and until we turn

00:49:03.060 back and go wait wait we will be your people um and uh you will be our god that um we'll just continue

00:49:13.460 to go off the tracks but it's that george washington covenant that has played divine providence with this

00:49:21.860 nation really from the beginning and and i think still is i mean we've had extraordinary

00:49:28.180 protection uh on this nation yeah no i mean listen so many of the things we i mean uh

00:49:36.740 i i feel like and again you can call it providence you can call it god you can call it whatever you

00:49:41.220 want but so much especially when you study this era is unexplainable by anything else you know you

00:49:46.500 look at it and you go how did this happen franklin say right how dare you right how do you how can you

00:49:54.180 deny that you stood there and watched it right man of science right when you have the man of science

00:49:59.060 when you went over the man of science um and and uh it's an interesting idea i'm curious you gotta send

00:50:04.660 it to me so i can read it it's a uh i don't know the answer i wish i knew the answer i'm searching for

00:50:10.500 the answer i think i personally think and i don't know i'd be curious your answer too that my obsession

00:50:16.900 with history doesn't come from some old quest it comes from a new one of an answer that i'm looking

00:50:23.460 for today i'm just not finding it today so i search for somewhere else to try and find the

00:50:27.540 answer that will make today better i don't consciously do that i don't you know i wish i

00:50:31.220 was so i'm so amazing i'm gonna find the answer to you know all of our problems i don't do that i go

00:50:36.740 and look what's interesting to me but i i really do believe um you know when i grew up my life was

00:50:44.660 by no means you know easy my dad lost his job and it wasn't one of those moments where okay you

00:50:49.940 got to find a new job we were worried about not money but we worried about safety um i was the

00:50:54.660 first in my family to go to a four-year college uh my my dad mom moved us down from where we where

00:51:01.540 i grew up in new york down to florida started over from scratch at 39 years old and my father never

00:51:08.340 really had the answers he just couldn't fight he just had a temper um and and he his dad was a military

00:51:17.140 guy who in world war ii uh was a boxer and was struck by lightning and that's how he got his

00:51:25.220 discharge and then my father when he was a kid at camp got struck by lightning two men two generations

00:51:35.220 both struck by lightning it defies as we were just talking about everything which also means by lightning

00:51:41.780 don't walk with me in a rainstorm right right but i but i grew up right but i grew up never

00:51:48.820 known if that story was true or just like george washington's coat with the bullet holes in it right

00:51:53.060 like is it is it the lore is the truth and when my dad died and i mean i should also say my my

00:52:00.580 grandfather used to put his hands on my father and he was a boxer in the military it was bad and my

00:52:06.900 father should have repeated history he should have absolutely beat the crap out of me because that's

00:52:13.700 what he learned and that's all he learned and my father's whole reason for living was to be different

00:52:20.180 that the lightning won't strike twice right that it won't hit again and when my father died

00:52:28.820 oh you're getting me emotional now my father died i when he was dying i whispered two things in his ear

00:52:33.700 and one of them was you were a good father because i was a but he didn't know how to be

00:52:37.220 he just tried to feed all the good parts parts of my father no one gave them to him he had to find

00:52:43.140 them and when my dad dies at his eulogy i wrote this story of these two lightning bolts one after the

00:52:50.820 other that should have followed one right after the other the history should have repeated every single

00:52:55.460 time and when i was growing up my dad never he'd lose his temper all the time he would always punch

00:53:02.660 a hole in the wall when he was angry so all the walls and all the doors in our house bathroom

00:53:07.540 doors his door had a giant hole and a giant dent that was in the in the door whenever he'd get mad

00:53:13.220 but the only door he never ever touched was my door my sister and i shared a room it was a two

00:53:18.900 bedroom apartment for the for the four of us never touched our door never the lightning never repeated

00:53:24.100 and when my dad died and i i told that story in his eulogy i even acknowledged and said i just don't

00:53:29.860 know if it's a good story if it really happened because i don't i my dad's gone now and i never

00:53:33.940 knew if he was telling the truth about being struck by lightning or if that was just what he thought

00:53:37.860 happened on a day when he got knocked out of camp and i told the story and i put it on our facebook

00:53:44.100 page or twitter page whatever was on and a week later it just people started reading it and responding

00:53:50.340 to it and a week later a guy uh emails me and says hey brad i read that story about your father

00:53:57.300 and i gotta tell you something about your dead dad he was struck by lightning because i was there that

00:54:04.180 day when he was struck by lightning when we were kids and i'm going to tell you the story now and

00:54:09.060 this total stranger out there does the greatest thing that's ever happened to me when you lose a

00:54:14.420 parent is they tell you a new story about your parent and in that moment my father's alive again i get

00:54:20.260 a new story and he told me exactly second by second what happened and he said i know what happened

00:54:27.220 because i was struck by lightning on that day too and he tells me the story how my father grabbed the

00:54:31.700 doorknob a metal doorknob at camp and the lightning had hit my father wearing through him and he said my

00:54:36.740 hand was on your father's shoulder we were both knocked out both unconscious they were treated they

00:54:41.220 put white sheets over your father they thought he was dead he got he took the worst of it

00:54:44.420 and and verified the story and i tell you all that to simply say i still feel like my love of history

00:54:51.300 is trying to explain what i can't find explanations for today i don't know what they are i know i say my

00:54:57.860 prayers every night i know what i believe like you know is that thing in the universe but god i can't find

00:55:03.620 that answer

00:55:24.180 i think i know why you and i connect so much now dad thing

00:55:28.740 my father was beaten by his dad and my dad and i didn't understand this my dad was gentle as a lamb

00:55:40.340 in the house and um uh i didn't he didn't tell anybody until and i'm the only one he told

00:55:49.620 yeah i didn't know until i grew up 35 same thing same thing yeah and um i think

00:55:55.700 what it is we are looking for

00:56:04.980 i think we're looking for the

00:56:10.340 we're looking for the key that turns that on but both of our fathers didn't want to repeat history

00:56:19.300 yeah they didn't want to be that they didn't know how they don't know what to do my father

00:56:26.660 same way did not know how to be a dad it was it was pretty lousy dad for a while and a pretty great

00:56:32.820 dad for a while and pretty lousy dad the end but he was up until the end he tried he was lousy at the

00:56:42.260 beginning because i didn't know what was wrong with him right you know he was trying not to be

00:56:47.780 his father that those words are literally in my father's eulogy that all he was trying to do is not

00:56:52.980 be his father yeah that's all that was the only that was his true north just do the opposite of that

00:56:58.580 and you got to be on the right path he didn't realize that that's not enough yeah you have to and

00:57:06.660 he he said it to me but i don't think he understood it um he also kind of like a willie

00:57:13.460 lowman in a way so no it's literally my father was a salesman i i went when i go see death of a

00:57:19.540 salesman i'm in tears because i'm like there's my father he's willie lowman he is him i mean it is

00:57:24.580 literally the play that undoes me yeah i like part of me went to michigan because arthur miller went

00:57:29.060 to michigan like i mean that play i look at i'm like there's my dad my dad i we i mean he would come

00:57:35.780 home i feel like new level now but he would come home from sales and i knew he got paid because

00:57:42.020 only on the days he got paid could he bring home the dry cleaning and if the dry cleaning came home

00:57:46.820 i knew he would have he would take out food and he'd have the he'd have the over his shoulder the

00:57:51.620 dry cleaning because those are the only days he could afford to come home but the one thing my father knew

00:57:55.220 the only thing he knew is how to love me like a crazy person like a crazy person i mean he would

00:58:02.180 and i'll you know he would and he would you know he was insane like he would go into the bookstore and

00:58:06.740 say this is the best this is the best story for my father my father when he was 18 years old had knee

00:58:12.740 surgery and he died on the table he flatlined and they brought him back to life and when he was in

00:58:20.340 i think his 60s he was going in for hip uh hip replacement surgery and he's worried that i don't have

00:58:26.340 the body of an 18 year old anymore i'm in my 60s and if i flatline i'm dead i don't i can't i'm not

00:58:32.420 going to come back so he thinks these are his last moments on the planet and i fly home to see him and

00:58:39.140 he's so worried that these are his last moments on the planet that they have to fill him full of

00:58:44.260 tranquilizers just to calm his blood pressure before they can give him the anesthetic the doctor's like

00:58:49.780 he's crazy he's like an animal on there we have to literally trank him to give him the anesthetic so

00:58:54.740 they give him the tranquilizers then they give him the anesthetic they take him upstairs

00:58:59.460 an hour goes to an hour and a half hour and a half goes to two hours please let him be okay

00:59:04.820 and after two hours the doctor comes down and he says you want to see your father i said i do and i

00:59:09.780 go into the room he's full of tranquilizers he's full of anesthetic he's flying high as a guy doesn't

00:59:14.900 know where he is and he opens his eyes and he says i love you and then he says to me i sold a dozen

00:59:21.460 books up there and i said i said that's what you're thinking of when you're this close to death

00:59:26.100 i said that's what you're thinking of and i said did you tell him about the paperbacks

00:59:30.740 but this was the guy always selling right he's on his deathbed and he's still selling for his boy

00:59:38.020 like he go go into every barnes noble and say i'm here for brad melcher's new book he's my favorite

00:59:42.180 author they're like mr melcher we know he's your son we know he's your son um and to the day he died he

00:59:47.620 was that guy willie lowman forever out doing the sale but never had the tools to figure out his own

00:59:53.540 life but just knew how to connect and how to close that was what he did

01:00:01.700 five people brad that you think are essential to know about that's a good one it may be

01:00:13.860 completely either on the edges of history that people would have to go find or

01:00:21.540 or um or or maybe misunderstood yeah i'll take um

01:00:27.860 i want to give you a thoughtful answer not a quick answer i mean i know

01:00:31.380 i i do feel george washington abraham lincoln are two and i'm going to take away religious

01:00:35.700 because i feel like that just creates a whole different thing so let's just do historical

01:00:38.820 um those are always the top two that go um doesn't have to be american yeah no no i'll go

01:00:46.900 anywhere um

01:00:51.540 see if you say it's who i gotta eat dinner with i take my mom my grandfather any day

01:00:55.300 but if it's someone you have to learn about uh i still think and you know it's funny i go i i

01:01:01.860 start with dr king and then i go or should i go back to gandhi and then should i go back even further

01:01:06.180 for where gandhi gets it from but i still take dr king i still take dr king um i take mr rogers

01:01:14.660 i you can make it jim henson you can make it mr rogers but when i was five years old

01:01:19.940 mr rogers and jim henson on sesame street taught me you could use your creativity to put good into the

01:01:24.580 world and to this day all i'm trying to do is on some level i hope trying to use my creativity to

01:01:33.220 put good into this world i never write a book about a plot to kill washington to me it's about

01:01:37.460 washington's character it's to inspire i never write a thriller just to make it turn the pagers it's like

01:01:42.580 here's the people at dover who deal with our fallen soldiers like these are the good stories this is

01:01:48.340 where you know we we can rise up as people and our kids books the same thing is like just showing

01:01:54.180 that power um but i feel like i'm trying to think of who it is um there's you know i'll tell you who

01:02:01.620 it is here's one and this uh this will be here's my good last one uh sheila spicer so you never heard

01:02:12.260 of her she was my ninth grade english teacher and sheila spicer african-american woman who i moved from

01:02:20.580 new york my parents didn't know what an honors class was more much less a college you know and

01:02:25.380 she's changed my life with three words she said to me you can write i said well everyone can write

01:02:32.660 she said no no you know what you're doing and she tried to put me in the honors class i had some sort

01:02:38.420 of conflict she said here's what i'm going to do she said you're going to sit in the corner for the

01:02:43.700 entire year ignore everything i do on the blackboard you're going to do the honors work instead ignore

01:02:48.260 every homework assignment i give do the honors work instead wow and what she was really saying

01:02:52.340 was you're going to thank me later now a decade later as someone who appreciates all history especially

01:03:00.020 my own my first book comes out i walk back to her classroom i knock on the door and she says can i

01:03:07.380 help you i said my name is brad melzer i wrote this book and it's for you thunk put it down she starts

01:03:14.020 crying i said why are you crying she said you know i was going to retire this year because i didn't

01:03:21.140 think i was having an impact anymore this woman changed my life the most important person beside

01:03:27.860 my own family who took the first person who ever told me beside my family i was good at something

01:03:31.780 changed my life and had no idea of her impact no concept of her legacy and i realized with her that

01:03:40.100 we all have this legacy out there you know we have our family which we all know but you also have

01:03:45.540 these people you see every day you have the the sheila spicers that are out there um that you work

01:03:51.460 with or co-workers or people like that that are part of your legacy to this woman again the biggest

01:03:55.780 impact on me and had no concept of her legacy and in fact when she uh when she finally retired

01:04:04.500 i went to her retirement party and i said she didn't know i was going to be there and

01:04:12.420 i realized as i stepped in that it was a potential disaster because when you go back to revisit your

01:04:18.660 own history you risk that history all your memories of what you thought it was are all at risk and she

01:04:26.260 had actually lasted 12 more years after my thank you to her when i went back and said thank you and she

01:04:31.220 said she was going to retire she lasted 12 more years is finally retiring they i said don't tell

01:04:35.540 her i'm going to be there a co-worker called me and said i know what she means to you and i sat there

01:04:41.780 and i'm i'm hiding behind a pillar it's a friday afternoon all she's got to do is say

01:04:50.180 you know it's a bunch of you know teachers who are tired on a friday it's five o'clock at night

01:04:55.540 all she's got to do is say i hate half of you i love the other half of you thanks for this vase you

01:05:00.900 gave me i'm gonna have you go have a good life and i realized watching this i'm like what if she's not

01:05:05.940 as good as i remember all my history is destroyed and she gets in front of these jaded teachers on a

01:05:12.980 friday afternoon at five o'clock and says gives a speech and says to all of those out there who think

01:05:18.340 that these kids have changed and america's changed and time has changed do not give up on these kids

01:05:25.380 do not give up on these kids and she gives the rallying speech like it's the end of braveheart

01:05:29.940 where i want to go and sign up for an education certificate and i'm she has no idea i'm there

01:05:34.420 there's not for show she has no concept of what's happening i'm like oh my god there's that woman who

01:05:40.020 changed my life when i was a kid at ninth grade there she is and i highly recommend to anyone listening to

01:05:47.700 this uh there is someone and i know you have it too who was the first person who took a chance on you

01:05:55.380 the first person who told you you were good at something go find them and say thank you you will

01:06:01.540 never believe what comes from it a few years ago um a sailor on a submarine wrote me a letter

01:06:11.460 and said uh this was actually a decade ago and said i can't tell you where i am i'm in an undisclosed

01:06:17.300 location with the military but we don't have many books on this submarine but we have one of your

01:06:23.060 thrillers and i just want to thank you because at a time when i really needed ease this thing brought

01:06:27.220 me ease i thought that's a really nice thank you i got to do something nice for that sailor so i

01:06:30.660 called i called up my publisher and i said can i get 10 000 books donated to the uso and they said

01:06:36.100 sure and i said that was easy so i called another publisher called another called another we eventually

01:06:40.420 got 40 000 books donated to the uso i got involved with the uso i do a lot of work with uso i've done

01:06:46.020 i've gone everywhere from the middle east and kuwait to cuba i'll do whatever they ask i always go over the

01:06:50.820 years and when i go to kuwait for the first one it was during the war um and war was basically

01:06:59.380 winding down at this point and i go there and one of the first soldiers that i meet says i want to

01:07:05.140 thank you brad for all those books you donated a decade ago and i said how do you even know that

01:07:09.940 nobody knows that story and he said well when i was stationed in iraq and afghanistan i'd always see

01:07:14.020 stacks of your books and they'd always say um courtesy of the uso so i knew that you had to have

01:07:19.620 doing them i said no you but i'm here to thank you you're getting it all wrong don't thank me i'm

01:07:24.260 here to thank you so i come back from that trip and i'm like i gotta track down that original guy

01:07:31.620 on the sailor and i gotta find him and tell him what his thank you set in motion so i actually

01:07:36.900 track him down i couldn't find the email bounced back i found his phone number i call him up i said

01:07:40.420 my name is brad melcher 10 years ago you wrote me a letter from a submarine thanking me i just wanted

01:07:44.740 you to know i got involved with the uso we got 40 000 books donated all these people were inspired

01:07:49.060 thanks to what you did in your thank you and i figured it's gonna be all inspired and you know

01:07:54.180 where you're on the phone with someone you know something's wrong and i say to him are you okay and

01:08:00.260 he says no and i said what's wrong and he said a few days ago he says to me my mother died of breast

01:08:06.980 cancer and what he has no idea of is my mother had just died of breast cancer and i said i think i'm

01:08:15.220 here to deliver a message to you and he says what's the message and i said when my mom died

01:08:22.340 everyone gave me this useless advice that i really couldn't deal with you know and and it just wasn't

01:08:26.820 helpful you know and i know they meant well but it just didn't do me any good i was so mad and upset

01:08:31.220 that i lost my mom and one person said something that really meant the world to me so i think i'm

01:08:34.980 here to share that message with you and that's why we're really speaking today and he says what's the

01:08:39.060 message and i said to him our mothers never leave us ever and he starts crying and because he's

01:08:48.740 crying i'm obviously getting emotional in that moment um and i'm not one of those new agey people

01:08:52.660 who feels like you know rainbows and glitter cannons you know rain down but sometimes in this universe

01:08:56.900 we feel like we're alone and other times we feel like we're profoundly connected to anyone listening

01:09:03.220 out there find that person think that person who gave you your first real chance that first

01:09:07.140 who took that chance on you told you were good at something track them down and say thank you

01:09:11.780 you will never believe what comes from it it will always pay back so i take miss spicer

01:09:17.540 i'll take her any day this has been very satisfying because i have learned a little bit about history

01:09:23.540 i've learned a little bit about you and i have also discovered that you are a much better man than i am

01:09:29.380 and so i have something to shoot for uh vice versa always always i am i'm i the dad thing is blowing

01:09:35.780 my mind right now i didn't know we had that explains like everything in an odd way it does yeah that's

01:09:42.900 a good one brad thank you thank you sir name of the book the first conspiracy the secret plot to kill

01:09:51.860 church washington just a reminder i'd love you to rate and subscribe to the podcast and pass this

01:10:03.460 this on to a friend so it can be discovered by other people

01:10:22.260 you

The Glenn Beck Program - March 02, 2019

Ep 26 ｜ Brad Meltzer ｜ The Glenn Beck Podcast

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