The Matt Walsh Show - January 18, 2019


Ep. 179 - What Sets The March For Life Apart


Episode Stats

Length

34 minutes

Words per Minute

177.51201

Word Count

6,046

Sentence Count

386

Misogynist Sentences

9

Hate Speech Sentences

5


Summary

Today on the Matt Wall Show, I talk about what I think is the most incredible and inspiring thing about the March for Life. Also, a congressional Democrat makes an absolutely evil insinuation about Lindsey Graham. And finally, we'll talk about the negative effects of screen time and contrast that with the wondrous effects of reading.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Today on the Matt Wall Show, the March for Life is happening in D.C.
00:00:02.900 Today, I want to talk about what I think is the most incredible and inspiring thing about the March for Life.
00:00:09.620 Also, a congressional Democrat makes an absolutely evil insinuation about Lindsey Graham.
00:00:16.080 And finally, we'll talk about the negative effects of screen time.
00:00:19.900 And we'll contrast that with the wondrous effects of reading.
00:00:23.360 And I'll even give you a few reading suggestions as well as a bonus on the Matt Wall Show.
00:00:30.000 Somebody on Twitter asked, put this question out there for everyone.
00:00:37.420 What advice would you give to your teenage self?
00:00:41.300 And so I know exactly what advice I would give.
00:00:43.660 I would say to my teenage self, invent the Snuggie, which is just a blanket with arms.
00:00:50.400 Make a couple of million bucks off of that.
00:00:52.580 Invest it in Netflix and Amazon stock.
00:00:54.760 And then go build a compound in the wilderness and drop off the grid for good.
00:01:01.080 Because things are going to get pretty weird.
00:01:03.920 And you might want to avoid it as best you can.
00:01:07.500 All right.
00:01:08.280 The March for Life is happening today in D.C., which is why I'm wearing my Make Unborn Baby's Great Again shirt.
00:01:16.720 Hundreds of thousands of pro-lifers taken to the street, calling for an end to abortion.
00:01:21.340 That's what's happening right now.
00:01:23.040 The hideous evil of abortion is what they're standing up against.
00:01:28.160 Now, it's not going to get anywhere close to the kind of media coverage, of course, that literally any other march of this size would get and has gotten.
00:01:38.320 Which, by the way, is a very small category.
00:01:40.740 So when I say marches of this size, there aren't very many other marches that fit into that category.
00:01:50.160 There have rarely in American history been marches the size of just your average, ordinary, annual march for life.
00:01:59.600 The so-called women's march a few years back.
00:02:02.560 Now, that may have been around the same size.
00:02:04.740 And think about all the media coverage that thing got.
00:02:08.200 But that was one march.
00:02:09.720 That was just one time.
00:02:11.240 They couldn't sustain it.
00:02:13.080 And the incredible thing about the March for Life is that they do this every year, year after year, year in, year out, for 40-plus years and counting.
00:02:22.460 And there is always a huge turnout every single time.
00:02:27.700 And they do it in the winter, too.
00:02:29.760 They do it in the dead of winter, where it's very cold.
00:02:32.700 A lot of times there's snow on the ground, like there is now, and there's ice.
00:02:37.720 If they move the march to April or May, and they also didn't have competing marches, because that's the other thing.
00:02:44.080 There are other marches for life around the country in other cities, some today, some at other points in January.
00:02:50.620 So if they were to boil it down to one march and then do it in April or do it in May, I think they could easily get a million people or more.
00:03:00.680 But even with those disadvantages, they still get hundreds of thousands of people.
00:03:07.040 Now, I'm not going to give you a whole speech about the march.
00:03:10.160 You've heard it before from me.
00:03:11.740 You already know how I feel about the march for life.
00:03:14.860 And you know how I feel about the aims of the march for life.
00:03:18.020 But there's just, there's one thing about the march for life that I wanted to, I just wanted to highlight.
00:03:25.140 You know, I wanted you to notice.
00:03:26.640 It's a really obvious thing, but it's easy to overlook.
00:03:29.900 And this is the profound thing that separates the march for life from pretty much any other kind of march.
00:03:37.940 Aside from the turnout, the other thing that separates it is this.
00:03:42.040 Nobody is there to march for themselves, okay?
00:03:50.260 Nobody is demanding anything for themselves.
00:03:55.380 Just think about that.
00:03:57.480 Nobody, not one single person, if there are 300,000, 400,000, 500,000 people to march,
00:04:03.440 not a single one of them is going to be there marching for their own rights.
00:04:09.280 Because everybody marching has already been born.
00:04:13.960 If we're not counting the, you know, the many pregnant women that are going to be there with babies in the womb.
00:04:21.560 So all the people who made the choice to get into a car or a bus and drive to the march,
00:04:30.440 they're marching there, they are there for others, okay?
00:04:33.660 They're there for those who cannot be there.
00:04:35.900 In any other kind of march that you can think of, it's always people there for the most part.
00:04:42.720 Now, there may be some people who show up who are, you know, there to support.
00:04:45.920 But for the most part, predominantly, in any other kind of march, the people there are saying,
00:04:51.680 I want my rights.
00:04:52.840 I want respect for me and dignity and whatever else for myself.
00:04:58.400 And there's nothing wrong with that.
00:05:00.280 If the cause is just, then there's nothing wrong with that.
00:05:03.520 There's nothing wrong with marching for your own rights.
00:05:06.500 It's a good thing to do, an American thing to do.
00:05:09.280 The problem, of course, with the women's march is that they weren't marching for their own rights
00:05:13.420 because women already have, to the exclusion of unborn females,
00:05:20.100 women already have all the same rights as men.
00:05:23.100 So they weren't marching for it.
00:05:24.040 They already have all the rights.
00:05:25.820 What they wanted was, you know, like free birth control and those kinds of things.
00:05:29.080 So they were demanding things that are not rights.
00:05:32.080 They were demanding extra entitlements.
00:05:34.720 So that is an unjust cause.
00:05:37.660 But there are plenty of other rights and demonstrations that have happened throughout history,
00:05:41.200 throughout American history, where the cause was just and it's good that people came to demand their rights.
00:05:48.160 But in this case, you know, the people who are being deprived of their rights cannot march for obvious reasons.
00:05:57.340 So others are there in their place.
00:06:00.360 And here's the other powerful thing.
00:06:02.100 So, despite what you may be told, and I want you to, if you can't make it out to the march,
00:06:08.460 if you're not going to be there, after the march has happened, try to find some footage of it.
00:06:15.640 It's going to be kind of difficult to find actual footage of the march because the mainstream media,
00:06:20.860 they're not going to show you.
00:06:22.260 Now, they might mention it.
00:06:23.400 They might make a quick mention of, oh, anti-abortion demonstrators are in D.C.
00:06:28.840 Or what they'll like to say is something like, people are in D.C. today demonstrating on either side of the abortion issue.
00:06:39.860 Meanwhile, there are 400,000 pro-lifers and like 10 pro-abortion people.
00:06:44.680 And the mainstream media will portray it as if it's kind of an even split, right?
00:06:47.780 But what they won't do, they won't show you a huge kind of panoramic view of all the people who showed up.
00:06:56.800 They're not going to show you that.
00:06:58.480 So it might be hard to find it.
00:06:59.780 But if you go to like pro-life sites, life site news or something like that, you can find it.
00:07:04.120 And I would recommend or go on social media, go on Twitter and look at the pictures.
00:07:08.980 Because what you're going to notice is that despite what you're told,
00:07:13.080 it's not a bunch of old white men there who are trying to control women's bodies.
00:07:18.320 Now, there are going to be some old white men, which, great, God bless them.
00:07:22.760 They are needed in the movement as well.
00:07:25.120 But most of the participants in the March for Life, and most pro-life activists in general, are younger.
00:07:33.820 And most are women.
00:07:35.880 So these are young women, predominantly.
00:07:40.180 So think about that.
00:07:41.340 Not only are these young women marching for others, aside from themselves,
00:07:48.380 but they're marching, demanding laws that would, in a sense, restrict their own legal rights.
00:07:57.020 Okay, they are marching, demanding laws that would deprive themselves of certain legal powers that they currently possess.
00:08:06.200 So they're saying, no, I, these women who march in the March for Life, what they're saying is,
00:08:12.060 no, I should not have the right or the ability or the power to take innocent life.
00:08:19.040 I should not have that right.
00:08:21.220 That is not a real human right.
00:08:22.960 I shouldn't have it.
00:08:23.980 Take it from me.
00:08:24.920 And in exchange, give basic human dignity and human rights to the unborn.
00:08:32.800 Now, that is a, that's a really powerful message, isn't it?
00:08:36.340 Think about that message.
00:08:37.000 Think about how unprecedented it is for, for a message like that.
00:08:41.740 Especially in this day and age, when people are constantly prattling on about rights they don't have.
00:08:46.080 You know, they have all the rights in the world, and now they want more.
00:08:48.320 They want entitlements.
00:08:49.120 They want this.
00:08:49.660 They want that.
00:08:50.200 But these women who are at the March for Life, and women in the pro-life movement generally,
00:08:55.100 they are saying exactly the opposite.
00:08:58.020 They're saying, yes, I want all of my God-given human rights, but the right to kill a child,
00:09:03.800 that is not a God-given human right.
00:09:05.260 I should not have that right.
00:09:06.380 Take it away.
00:09:07.360 Give it to, give rights to the child.
00:09:10.540 What a, what a, what a powerful, beautiful message.
00:09:14.780 And as I said, unprecedented.
00:09:17.700 All right.
00:09:18.220 Um, let's talk about something a little less inspiring.
00:09:24.720 Representative Omar, who's a, um, a Democrat, is making insinuations about Senator Lindsey Graham.
00:09:35.480 Now, it's important just for some background reference here, just so you understand how despicable this is,
00:09:42.220 the thing that we're talking about is, um, there has long been a rumor in DC that Lindsey Graham is gay.
00:09:48.080 Okay.
00:09:48.680 A rumor, as in, it's just something that his political enemies will, will sometimes say or insinuate.
00:09:53.900 It's just an implication, whispers, right?
00:09:56.800 Um, I'm not aware of there being any truth to it or basis for it whatsoever at all.
00:10:02.680 But you need to know that this rumor exists so that you can understand what the Democrats are doing here.
00:10:08.520 So, a guy named Kasim Rashid, uh, calls himself an Islamic educator, said on Twitter this week, in reaction to Lindsey Graham's kind of change of tone about Donald Trump over the past few years,
00:10:23.680 Rashid said,
00:10:24.400 I can't even imagine what they have on Graham.
00:10:28.380 Now, there's an obvious implication there.
00:10:31.580 If you're aware of the rumors and you say, well, I can't imagine what they might have on him, it's, it's really obvious what you're trying to imply.
00:10:38.140 And then, Representative Omar, a Democrat, sitting member of Congress, she responds with her own tweet and she says,
00:10:45.480 they got to him, he is compromised.
00:10:48.960 So, that's not even like she's saying her opinion or she's, um, presenting this as a theory.
00:10:56.000 She's saying, no, they got to him.
00:10:57.440 He is compromised.
00:10:58.080 What does she mean by that?
00:11:02.280 Um, well, she was pressed on this by CNN.
00:11:06.520 CNN did a rare bit of actual journalism, actually pressing a Democrat.
00:11:10.560 And, um, here's how that conversation went.
00:11:13.020 That's quite a charge to make.
00:11:14.320 You say you're pretty sure.
00:11:15.180 Based on, based on what evidence, what, what facts?
00:11:17.780 That's a remarkable, uh, comment to make about a sitting U.S. senator.
00:11:22.360 The, the, the, the, the evidence really is, um, present to us.
00:11:27.820 Uh, it's being presented to us in the way that he's behaving.
00:11:30.960 But that's not evidence.
00:11:32.500 That, that's your opinion.
00:11:33.880 But now, as a sitting member of Congress, you would have tweeted, they got him on this.
00:11:38.800 Again, just based on what evidence, Congresswoman?
00:11:41.820 My, my tweet was just, uh, uh, an opinion based on what I believe, uh, to be visible to me.
00:11:50.180 And I'm pretty sure, uh, there are lots of Americans who, who agree on this.
00:11:55.560 Now, uh, so she's, you see there, she's trying to backpedal a little bit and sort of, she's
00:12:01.880 trying to leave the insinuation sort of dangling out there for, for people to, so they know
00:12:08.580 it and understand it, but she's not, but that's the point of the insinuation.
00:12:11.140 She's not going to say it.
00:12:13.080 She's not going to come right out and say it because she's also a coward.
00:12:15.780 Uh, meanwhile, MSNBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle has gotten in on the act as well.
00:12:21.900 Uh, here she is on MSNBC a couple of days ago, kind of feeding into this, um, to this
00:12:28.180 rumor as well.
00:12:29.320 Before Donald Trump got elected, Lindsey Graham called Donald Trump a racist, xenophobic
00:12:34.440 bigot.
00:12:35.120 That is Lindsey Graham's words.
00:12:36.820 I doubt Lindsey Graham could tell you Donald Trump's had a change of heart in the last 24
00:12:40.680 months.
00:12:41.020 I bet what the change of heart has been with Lindsey Graham, not the president.
00:12:44.240 Or it could be that Donald Trump or somebody knows something pretty extreme about Lindsey
00:12:49.840 Graham.
00:12:50.340 Okay.
00:12:50.820 So you see how this goes, right?
00:12:52.520 Um, liberals spend all day insisting that all lifestyles are great and equal and, and
00:13:00.640 wonderful, and they should all be accepted and so on.
00:13:02.920 But then they will not hesitate to imply that a person is gay in order to insult or discredit
00:13:08.400 them.
00:13:09.520 And they do this all the time with conservatives, not just with, with Lindsey Graham, but any
00:13:13.840 conservative who stands up for a biblical marriage or talks about this issue at all.
00:13:18.720 Um, what you're going to hear from, from liberals is, oh, you know, I bet he's hiding something.
00:13:22.400 Yeah.
00:13:22.840 He, he, he, you know, we all know, we all know what's going on with that guy, which of course
00:13:28.540 is ridiculous for a number of reasons.
00:13:30.240 But anyway, so what if he is hiding something, uh, that should be a total non-story, right?
00:13:37.300 To you as a liberal, it should be a non-issue to you.
00:13:42.240 So you're, you're implying that Lindsey Graham is gay.
00:13:44.340 Well, that's, well, that's a, uh, that is a libelous, despicable thing to do to make
00:13:51.720 implications with someone with no evidence or anything like that to feed into rumors.
00:13:56.060 But even aside from that, what, what does it matter to you?
00:14:00.580 You, you should, that should be a non-issue, non-story to you.
00:14:06.500 And not only that, but if somebody, uh, were gay and they were hiding it for whatever reason,
00:14:12.640 then you should respect their right to, uh, to what?
00:14:15.460 To come out when and how, and if they choose, right?
00:14:19.840 But that's not what happens.
00:14:22.320 And this is even leaving aside, by the way, this whole thing with Lindsey Graham, this,
00:14:25.120 this idea that he's being blackmailed or, you know, what's going on with Lindsey Graham?
00:14:28.260 He's, he changed his tune.
00:14:29.400 He was against Trump.
00:14:30.120 Now he's for him.
00:14:31.160 Actually, Lindsey Graham has, I mean, Lindsey Graham came out against Trump yesterday because
00:14:36.800 of the letter that Trump sent to Pelosi canceling her travel plans, which I thought that letter
00:14:42.060 was great, by the way, and hilarious.
00:14:44.020 Um, Lindsey Graham came out against it and said it was sophomoric and he, like it.
00:14:47.600 So, so look, I disagree with Lindsey Graham a lot, but it does appear to me for the most
00:14:54.440 part, he just, he just calls it as he sees it.
00:14:58.180 So he's come out strongly against Trump and he's, and he's, and he's strongly defended
00:15:02.140 him.
00:15:02.720 And if you're trying to figure out, well, why is he against them here?
00:15:06.980 And for, could it maybe just be that he agrees with Trump on this issue and not on that issue?
00:15:11.700 And I respect that.
00:15:14.520 Even if I disagree with where Graham lands on certain issues, it would appear that he's
00:15:21.020 just saying how he feels and reacting to the situation as it comes up.
00:15:25.480 So there's, on top of the, how despicable it is to feed into rumors, it also just, it doesn't
00:15:33.880 even make any sense to even be getting into this because considering Lindsey Graham is
00:15:40.340 still one of the senators who is willing to criticize Trump and has criticized him plenty
00:15:45.340 of times, including as recently as like 12 hours ago.
00:15:48.860 All right.
00:15:49.540 Running through a few other stories here.
00:15:51.980 Um, I want to mention this before the week is up, according to a recent survey, Americans
00:15:57.000 spend nearly half of all of their waking hours, 42% staring at screens.
00:16:05.840 Um, like I am doing right now and like you are doing right now.
00:16:09.380 So whether TV, computer, phone, whatever, Americans are spending half the day looking at a screen
00:16:17.240 of some kind.
00:16:18.040 And this of course is not surprising.
00:16:19.560 And it also isn't surprising.
00:16:21.640 According to a, to another recent survey, a third of all people say they would not be
00:16:26.320 able to live without screens.
00:16:28.040 Um, it's such an integral part of their day.
00:16:30.160 They can't imagine life without it.
00:16:32.620 Meanwhile, a new study from the National Institute of Health says that kids who spend a couple
00:16:38.280 of hours a day, let alone half the day, but even just say two hours a day looking at screens
00:16:44.380 tend to score lower on language tests.
00:16:46.960 Um, there have been many studies of this kind, all finding similar things, talking about the
00:16:54.180 detrimental effects of screen time on kids and on adults.
00:16:58.040 Um, although another study made headlines recently.
00:17:01.240 So there are studies all over the place going back and forth.
00:17:03.860 Um, but this one made headlines by going against the grain.
00:17:07.660 So reading now from the website sciencealert.com, it says leading pediatricians said there is
00:17:14.840 little evidence that shows screen time is toxic for children, even after other research suggested
00:17:20.300 that just a few hours a day could damage developing brains.
00:17:23.140 New guidelines for our guidance for under 18 year olds from the Royal College of Pediatrics
00:17:28.240 and child health in the UK said that evidence that time in front of a screen has a negative
00:17:33.120 effect on children is quote contested.
00:17:35.840 And that quote, the evidence of harm is often overstated.
00:17:39.900 The evidence is so weak according to the group that it could not offer parents a guide for how
00:17:44.920 much they should be limiting their children's screen time.
00:17:47.120 Um, again, this doesn't, this doesn't meld with what most studies have found.
00:17:54.320 It also just doesn't track with our basic common sense.
00:17:57.680 Of course, it's bad for you to spend half of your life staring at a screen.
00:18:04.100 Of course, that's bad for you.
00:18:05.900 I mean, to spend half of your day doing anything is probably not good for you, unless we're talking
00:18:10.100 about breathing, in which case you spend, you should probably spend a little bit more than
00:18:13.120 half your day doing it.
00:18:13.920 Um, but especially something as, as sort of sedentary and, uh, lethargic and passive and
00:18:22.840 unthinking as just sitting there staring at a screen.
00:18:29.060 Um, the effects of that, I think are, are literally immeasurable in that it affects you in so many
00:18:37.460 areas and so deeply that you can't possibly quantify all of it.
00:18:43.120 And I think a lot of the effects, it's just, it's something that we notice intuitively.
00:18:47.400 We don't even need all these studies.
00:18:49.020 I think we all know, like we, we, we can see the effect that if you spend, um, if you go
00:18:56.100 on some binge with Netflix and you watch TV for six hours, how do you feel?
00:19:01.900 I mean, do you feel sprightly and alive and energetic?
00:19:05.420 And do you feel like you just spent your time doing something productive?
00:19:10.940 Do you feel great about it?
00:19:13.120 Afterwards?
00:19:14.420 No.
00:19:14.980 So I think, I think just based on the effect that just, just based on your own experience,
00:19:19.400 you know, that it's, it's not good for you.
00:19:22.340 Just like you don't really need anyone to tell you that scarfing down, um, a whole Cinnabon
00:19:30.460 at the airport in a 2.5 seconds before you board a flight isn't good for you.
00:19:36.080 You don't need plenty of people will tell you that, but you don't need them to because you
00:19:40.360 just know based on how it makes you fit.
00:19:41.820 The moment you take that last bite, you're going, oh wow, that was not, yeah, I really
00:19:46.700 wish I just had a smoothie or something like that, or maybe some baby carrots.
00:19:50.680 Um, so it's the same sort of thing.
00:19:52.320 Um, and it's not hard to see why, because as I said, watching a screen is a passive experience.
00:19:58.220 It is, it is passive, but then also superficially stimulating and fast paced.
00:20:04.680 So that, um, and this is why it's so bad for kids.
00:20:08.580 And this is why also why kids shows these days are so obnoxious, most of them, um, because
00:20:13.740 there's just so, it's just so, there's so many things going on and so many different colors
00:20:18.940 and sounds and noises and everything just bombarding a kid's face.
00:20:23.840 But it's, it's that way for most of us when we watch most of the stuff on TV or whatever
00:20:27.940 you're doing.
00:20:28.340 It's just, you're, you're having all of these things pounded into your brain, um, while you
00:20:33.800 just sit there comatose, ingesting it unthinkingly.
00:20:38.660 And the effect is that you, you get lazy intellectually because you're not using your brain.
00:20:45.900 Um, your, your brain is being used rather than you using it.
00:20:51.780 Now, okay, you might say it is possible to actually engage intellectually with something
00:21:00.260 on a screen.
00:21:01.360 Uh, you could read a book on a tablet, so that's perfectly fine.
00:21:05.400 Um, or you could read a challenging article or essay or something again, you know, that's,
00:21:11.700 that's great.
00:21:12.600 And there are even a few shows and movies you could watch that have some real depth to them,
00:21:17.740 some real substance that are really intelligent and artistic.
00:21:22.240 And, um, and I think maybe you could become smarter by watching them, or at least you could
00:21:26.040 become not dumber because these are shows or films that function more like novels and
00:21:32.120 that really challenge you and make you think and are not handing everything to you.
00:21:37.180 You know, they're not spoon feeding everything to you and they're not pounding your brain
00:21:40.880 constantly with, with, with, with, uh, stimulus, you know, with, with stimulation.
00:21:45.260 Um, but the vast majority of the entertainment on your screen is not like that.
00:21:52.340 The vast majority, and we all know it is aggressively, aggressively stupid.
00:21:58.440 I think this, every time I'm watching football, which of course, watching football is a completely
00:22:04.760 mentally engaging thing to do.
00:22:06.100 And it makes, makes us all smarter, right?
00:22:07.520 Uh, or maybe not, but whatever, but if I'm watching it, um, and, um, and then I see a
00:22:18.100 commercial, like I'm watching a football game on Fox or something or on, uh, CBS or whatever.
00:22:22.520 And then I see a commercial for the new slate of, uh, broadcast sitcoms that are coming out
00:22:28.480 this season.
00:22:29.800 Every time I see these commercials for these sitcoms, I sit there and just after watching
00:22:35.260 a 30 second spot for the, for a sitcom, I really feel like my IQ has collapsed.
00:22:42.020 Um, just in those 30 seconds, it is so, so, so, so stupid and mind numbing that I practically
00:22:51.260 lapse into a coma just by half a minute of exposure.
00:22:54.860 And I always think, and I make the same point to my, to my wife, if she's in the room, every
00:23:02.620 time we see one of these commercials, I always say like, who watches this stuff?
00:23:06.760 Who is sits down?
00:23:08.780 I can't even stand a 30 second commercial.
00:23:11.420 Who is sitting down on your average Tuesday night and saying, I'm going to watch stuff like
00:23:15.680 this for two, three hours.
00:23:17.140 I can't even imagine it.
00:23:18.760 I mean, Lord help, Lord help them.
00:23:25.060 Have you ever noticed something?
00:23:27.760 Have you ever noticed how, um, if you sit down to read a book at like nine 30 at night,
00:23:34.340 you'll get really, really tired.
00:23:36.380 And within the hour, you're ready to go to bed.
00:23:38.320 Right.
00:23:39.220 Um, which is one of the excuses people will always give me for why they don't read is,
00:23:43.700 ah, well, I love to read, but it makes me tired.
00:23:45.480 Okay.
00:23:47.100 Well, maybe it's not such a bad thing to be tired at the end of the night.
00:23:49.540 You know, maybe that's a good thing.
00:23:51.100 Um, you might as well say, well, you know, I'd love to go for a jog, but it makes me tired.
00:23:57.480 Yes.
00:23:57.860 That's the point.
00:23:59.220 That's part of the point.
00:24:00.260 It's good that it makes you tired.
00:24:01.740 That's a good thing.
00:24:03.500 Um, so, and I've noticed this myself.
00:24:06.740 So if I sit down and read a book at night, yeah, it does make me tired.
00:24:09.940 And then I'm, I'm going to probably be going to bed a lot earlier than I normally would.
00:24:12.420 But, but if it's nine 30 at night and I sit down and I put on the TV, I could be up until
00:24:17.380 three o'clock in the morning.
00:24:18.360 I mean, I, it's, I'm not going to get tired.
00:24:21.400 Why is that?
00:24:22.900 Because the book is working your brain.
00:24:24.960 It's tiring you out.
00:24:26.080 It's making you think.
00:24:28.660 Whereas the show on the other hand is catatonic.
00:24:31.140 It puts you into this kind of mental stasis or stupor.
00:24:35.020 And then you just sort of coast mentally, psychologically, not asleep, not awake.
00:24:41.200 And, um, and I think that's one of the reasons why people complain about, you know, having
00:24:44.820 trouble sleeping these days.
00:24:46.020 So it seems like everyone is claiming to be, um, claiming to be an insomniac.
00:24:50.440 It's because you're sitting there, you know, watching the TV.
00:24:52.740 A lot of people have TVs in their room.
00:24:54.260 So they, they get down and, and they, they lie down in bed, they put on the TV and then
00:24:58.980 they're there, you know, they can't figure out why they can't sleep.
00:25:02.740 Um, and okay, maybe it, you know, it's, it's fine sometimes to watch some really stupid
00:25:07.880 thing that puts you into a mental, um, stasis, but every day for hours, that can't be good
00:25:18.120 for you.
00:25:19.220 It's the same thing.
00:25:20.080 If you sit there, you know, if you're sitting there in bed, which I've done this plenty of
00:25:23.040 times, but if you're sitting there in bed, just mindlessly, you know, scrolling through
00:25:27.320 social media and you could sit there for five hours and do this and not even notice it.
00:25:32.560 Um, because again, it's shutting your brain off, which maybe sometimes that's fine, but
00:25:38.840 half the day, every day, every night, no.
00:25:43.400 And this is why I am a big, um, proponent of books.
00:25:48.780 I think books are great.
00:25:50.120 Um, I wish more people read books.
00:25:53.560 I wish I should read books even more than I do.
00:25:57.200 Um, if you just get yourself into the habit of reading and it, it'll be kind of tough at
00:26:03.600 first, I think.
00:26:04.600 But if you get yourself into the habit and you make that your relaxation time, you just,
00:26:09.540 you say to yourself, I'm, this is going to be my time to relax.
00:26:12.020 It's going to be, no, I'm not watching TV.
00:26:13.240 I'm reading a book and at first, yeah, it's going to be a little tough because it's so
00:26:18.560 easy to just put on the TV and shut the brain off completely.
00:26:22.260 But if you try to force yourself to read, force yourself to like it, develop an interest in
00:26:26.400 it, find books, figure out what kinds of books interest you and, and stock up on those.
00:26:33.420 And then, um, and then, and then maybe you'll eventually, you'll look forward to it.
00:26:39.600 Make it a whole thing, right?
00:26:40.920 If you have a fireplace, put the fireplace on, you sit there, you get a drink, you got to
00:26:44.160 drink something, something when you're reading.
00:26:45.700 That's, you can't, you can't enjoy a book unless you're drinking something.
00:26:48.700 For me, it's whiskey.
00:26:49.800 Maybe for you, it's wine.
00:26:51.300 Uh, it doesn't have to be alcohol.
00:26:52.300 It could be tea, could be coffee.
00:26:53.980 If you're the kind of person who can drink coffee at night.
00:26:55.780 Um, but you need some kind of relaxing drink that you sip on.
00:26:59.620 Okay.
00:26:59.880 So a glass of water isn't going to cut.
00:27:01.100 You need some kind of drink.
00:27:02.360 You need some sort of thing.
00:27:03.560 Like you're re you know, you need some little like reading spot where you sit and you read
00:27:06.760 and you have your book and you read.
00:27:08.000 And if you do that, I think over time, you'll actually begin to look forward to it.
00:27:11.780 And then, um, and I think it'll, you just, it's very, you're not going to regret spending.
00:27:20.140 If you sit down and you read a book for an hour, you're not going to say after that,
00:27:22.200 Oh man, I wish I hadn't done that.
00:27:23.460 Um, and I know for me, when I get into a thing where I'm reading a lot, I feel fresher.
00:27:30.420 I feel smarter.
00:27:31.200 I feel, I feel more engaged with life.
00:27:33.080 I also think I'm a better writer when I'm, when I'm reading during those times.
00:27:36.660 Um, so that's what I would recommend.
00:27:38.240 And finally, this dovetails nicely with the last thing I wanted to talk about.
00:27:42.780 Um, I had planned to go to the mailbag, the email and answer an email today on Friday.
00:27:47.860 And, um, I found this email yesterday and I knew that I wanted to talk about the screen thing.
00:27:53.480 And give my little reading speech.
00:27:55.420 So, um, so when I saw this email, I thought this would be a good one.
00:27:59.500 Uh, because it kind of works with it.
00:28:01.320 So someone emailed me a few days ago said, dear Matt, assuming that bookshelf behind you
00:28:05.900 during your show, isn't there just for show.
00:28:08.800 Can you tell us what are your top five or six favorite books on that shelf?
00:28:12.420 I could really use some good reading suggestions.
00:28:16.300 Um, no, those books are not actually totally for show.
00:28:19.400 Some of them are completely blank.
00:28:20.540 They're just there as decoration.
00:28:21.480 No, um, no, they're not for show.
00:28:23.540 And I like this question because it limits me.
00:28:26.720 Now I thought about maybe I would cheat because it says, what are my top five or six books on
00:28:31.300 that shelf?
00:28:31.940 I have other books that I like that are elsewhere in the house.
00:28:34.860 And I thought maybe I would cheat and get, but I'm not going to cheat.
00:28:37.320 So I went, I did go to that particular shelf and found my top five or six books on that
00:28:42.060 shelf and I'll share them with you.
00:28:43.680 And then here's some good, uh, you know, if you, if you decide you want to, um, uh, become
00:28:49.060 a nerd who reads a lot, then here's some good suggestions for you.
00:28:51.940 So five or six quickly from that shelf.
00:28:54.280 Um, here's my first suggestion.
00:28:56.940 I don't even know if you can see Problem of Pain by C.S.
00:28:59.340 Lewis.
00:28:59.540 This is, um, not my favorite C.S.
00:29:02.380 Lewis book.
00:29:02.820 My favorite C.S.
00:29:03.480 Lewis book is A Great Divorce, which was not on that shelf.
00:29:05.900 So I can't, I can't do that.
00:29:07.600 But the problem of pain, um, is I think still C.S.
00:29:11.560 Lewis at his best where he's dealing with, you know, he's dealing with the, the, one of
00:29:17.060 the biggest problems, one of the biggest issues, um, for a believer, which is how
00:29:24.240 could there be a God who is overseeing a world with so much suffering and pain?
00:29:31.420 Such a difficult problem.
00:29:34.260 One that C.S.
00:29:35.120 Lewis takes very seriously, obviously, but he, and he deals with it in a way, and this
00:29:38.720 is why C.S.
00:29:39.280 Lewis was so great is that he deals with it in a way that's very accessible.
00:29:42.080 Um, there are a lot of great theologians who you try to pick them up and read them and
00:29:46.040 you can't get through a page because you don't even understand what they're saying.
00:29:48.760 C.S.
00:29:48.980 Lewis didn't have that problem.
00:29:49.800 He could break down these very complex, deep kind of subjects in a way that even someone
00:29:53.840 as stupid as myself, um, can understand.
00:29:57.360 Then, um, the, uh, Soljan Euston Reader.
00:30:01.760 I, I mean, uh, my favorite Soljan Euston book isn't on the shelf, so I'll just give you
00:30:06.740 this.
00:30:07.300 And the great thing about this, um, is it has, has some of his writings from some of his
00:30:14.800 novels like, um, you know, the Gulag Archipelago, but it also, Cancer Ward, it also has his speeches,
00:30:22.080 including the iconic speech that Soljan Euston gave to Harvard.
00:30:28.600 And I think 1976 or it was in, it was in the seventies.
00:30:34.180 Um, I believe after Soljan Euston was exiled from the Soviet Union for being such a strong
00:30:41.000 critic of, um, of that regime, he was exiled.
00:30:44.660 It came to the United States.
00:30:45.540 He was, he was a hero here.
00:30:47.300 He was invited to give this, uh, this commencement address.
00:30:50.720 Everybody thought it was going to be kind of like this rah, rah, shishkoomba, go USA,
00:30:55.380 stars and stripes kind of thing.
00:30:57.060 And it wasn't that at all.
00:30:57.980 He gets up there after being exiled from the Soviet Union, he's embraced by the West and
00:31:01.980 he gets up there and he just offers this searing indictment of Western culture.
00:31:07.020 Um, very accurate indictment of Western culture.
00:31:09.980 And so he was hated by people in the West after that.
00:31:12.380 He was just kind of this man in between, hated by everybody.
00:31:14.980 And I think he's one of the great heroes of the 20th century.
00:31:17.540 Um, Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace.
00:31:20.520 I think his, his, his, um, short story collection, uh, supposedly fun thing I'll never do again
00:31:26.240 is better, but I didn't have that on there.
00:31:27.900 I think David Foster Wallace is, um, my favorite essayist that I've ever read.
00:31:34.420 He's got a great insight into the human condition.
00:31:37.800 He was not a Christian, um, obviously if you know his story, he died in tragic circumstances.
00:31:43.300 He was a seeker looking for the truth.
00:31:46.360 Um, uh, and despite the tragic end of his life, I still think that, uh, there's a lot
00:31:51.860 that even a Christian could glean from, from his essays.
00:31:55.280 The Lord by, um, Romano Guardini is my favorite piece of spiritual writing of all time, easily.
00:32:05.100 Um, I would recommend that.
00:32:07.100 And then finally I'll go with, uh, the rise and this one, this copy is pretty beat up,
00:32:12.360 but the rise and fall of the third Reich, William Shire, uh, my favorite piece of history
00:32:18.060 writing that I've ever read.
00:32:20.000 As you can see, it's pretty long, but it's just, I mean, it's absorbing, it's compelling,
00:32:26.200 it's terrifying, it's disturbing, but if you really want to understand what led to World
00:32:36.620 War II and kind of more importantly, just how could a guy like Hitler, this started life
00:32:43.280 as just this obscure kind of, uh, um, vagabond, this sort of, you know, anti-Semitic nutcase
00:32:53.440 radical, um, who manages to, you know, become one of the most powerful men of the, um, of
00:33:00.880 the 20th century and, you know, threatens to take over the entire world.
00:33:04.560 How did that happen?
00:33:06.380 And how is it that people fell in line behind this ridiculously evil man?
00:33:14.260 Um, if you want to understand that, which is one of the, one of the great questions of
00:33:18.320 the 20th century, one of the great questions of history, I don't think you could do any better
00:33:21.660 than reading that book. It gives you such an insight into it. Um, you're not going to go
00:33:27.940 away from that book having a very cheerful impression of human nature. It's not a cheerful
00:33:32.700 read at all, but, uh, I still would absolutely recommend it. So there are some, um, I also
00:33:37.560 had Crime and Punishment as Dostoevsky. I don't know, that might be, I don't know how many
00:33:40.800 I've recommended, but Crime and Punishment is Dostoevsky's second best book behind, uh,
00:33:45.040 Brothers Karamazov, in my opinion. So there you go. If you, if you want to start reading,
00:33:50.240 there's some, uh, recommendations for you if you happen to care. Again, I want to say God bless
00:33:55.980 all the people at the March for Life. If you made it out, thank you for being there. Thank you
00:33:59.780 for fighting the good fight. I'll talk to you on Monday. Godspeed.