In this episode, Megyn kelly talks about why she decided to leave NBC and why she felt compelled to start her own podcast, The Megyn Kelly Show, in September of 2020. She also discusses why she and her team decided to start a podcast in the first place, and why they chose to do so as a way to honor the people who have been with us from the beginning.
00:05:11.540Now we know that Dr. Fauci and Francis Collins of the NIH were actively working behind the scenes to stifle it, to muzzle them, to censor them and dismiss them as a bunch of loons.
00:05:23.600But we, I'm proud to say, in December of 2020, put them on the air.
00:06:02.460And Dr. Bhattacharya recently told us that we were literally one of the first in the mainstream, because we're not sort of far right or far left, to even ask them if they would come on.
00:06:13.160But the mainstream media, most of them, they're eager to help suppress them.
00:06:17.700In early spring of 2021, so just a few months later, we put on Josh Rogan of The Washington Post.
00:06:25.840He wrote the book on COVID and how it got started.
00:06:28.940Well, Josh Rogan, even though he's with WAPO, was completely ignored by most of the mainstream.
00:06:35.440They didn't want to hear him talking about the COVID, that COVID might have come from a lab.
00:06:40.540They didn't want to hear that Dr. Fauci might have been responsible for the very gain of function type of research that may have led to the pandemic, that he was funding the very type of research that may have wound up causing this whole thing.
00:06:59.420You weren't allowed to even speak those words.
00:07:10.540That's what I've been enjoying most, the middle finger to the mainstream, and it's absurd judgments about who's worthy of listening to and who's not.
00:07:21.520Months into the insanity following George Floyd, and really the nation lost its mind.
00:07:25.660They lost its mind after George Floyd.
00:07:27.380Months into it, we had on people like Sam Harris, Glenn Lowry, amazing.
00:07:31.760If you haven't listened to that, if you haven't listened to that episode with Glenn Lowry, where he talks about why we love America and why America is the greatest country in the world,
00:07:39.200including for people of color, you're missing out.
00:07:43.140People like Jason Riley of the Wall Street Journal, who I absolutely adore.
00:07:46.820Other thought leaders who pushed back hard on this fake narrative about cops and the dangerous racism being pushed on our kids and our institutions as a result of a bad cop named Derek Chauvin.
00:07:58.700We booked Shelby and Eli Steele, whose documentary, What Killed Michael Brown?
00:08:05.520Remember that case of Ferguson, Missouri, was banned on Amazon.
00:08:11.540Two black men having their say about what they think happened in this community that became the epicenter for these racial debates for so long.
00:08:18.880Their their take on it was banned by Amazon for a discussion that we had on this show.
00:08:27.780It was amazing because, of course, we wanted to hear what they had to say about Michael Brown.
00:08:31.040But then we got into everything, how Eli has made it in Hollywood, despite the fact that he is deaf and how most of the shows, even the ones who wanted to hear more about their documentary had canceled him.
00:09:10.780Those are the exchanges I run home and tell Doug about.
00:09:13.940To be honest, I just run downstairs and tell him about we're in the same house.
00:09:18.640But there have been some special, special moments.
00:09:22.260We booked people like a teenager from Missouri.
00:09:25.660This young girl, her life was ruined over false allegations of bigotry by her school, which was so focused on kowtowing to anyone crying racism.
00:09:35.300They they forgot about the need for due process, for fairness, the importance of decency and actually getting to the bottom of facts.
00:09:43.580Her sin was she had to support the police flag on her laptop and where they went with that.
00:09:50.320And this one accuser who falsely pointed the finger at her was insane.
00:09:59.420We interviewed a mom, a new mom and business owner whose frustration with the lockdowns, her distrust of corporate media.
00:10:07.460People like Lemon and Quom over at CNN forced her into other pockets of media that wound up taking her down a rabbit hole online and ultimately culminated in her being at the Capitol on January 6th.
00:10:31.980The interviews that I most look forward to probably were the parents and the teachers and the students speaking out about the craziness in the schools, right?
00:10:41.580The racial agendas, the trans agendas being forced on them, including my own, my own schools in New York City, which we loved but had to leave because of their crazy, crazy ideologies.
00:10:52.900It takes guts for teachers to come on and speak out.
00:10:55.600They know this is a career ending decision.
00:12:45.180You can, you can make up your mind as to which one you think is the more sound judgment.
00:12:52.280We did wellness weeks, talked about sleeping and drinking and time management and all sorts of good things like working out, which I was inspired to finally try to start.
00:14:07.800It turns out he's actually not some crazy ass quack whose viewpoints are so dangerous.
00:14:13.420They have to be silenced, but he's actually a really thoughtful environmental lawyer.
00:14:17.560Who has spent a lifetime trying to protect us from a government that too often really has taken crazy risks and endangered us when it comes to dirty waters or dirty air or sketchy vaccines.
00:15:22.640We're going to make sure you have the full picture before you click off.
00:15:26.960Look, we pride ourselves in debating respectfully, whether it's with the New York Times reporters, many of whom we've had on, or Democratic presidential candidates, same, or with diehard MAGA fans.
00:15:38.020Many of whom were in the Trump administration who come on and we have fun with them, too.
00:15:42.260Try to bring you all points of view on the show because we know that you can get angry one-sided talking points anywhere.
00:15:48.280It's more interesting to hear a back and forth, right?
00:16:06.160Or I'm more interested in having a good discussion with you, like in having a truthful discussion that's unafraid, than I am in licking the boots of my guests so that they'll come back on.
00:16:16.560As we gear up for the presidential elections, we're going to have to think about this.
00:16:19.960It's not like being in the primetime at Fox where, like, they have to come on.
00:17:03.760But I'm committed to honesty, you know, to the belief that there really are facts that are knowable.
00:17:08.880And honestly, that commitment to being honest and to not trying to mislead my audience is why we had to pull one pre-taped episode recently.
00:17:30.960This person presented themselves as a warrior for taking bold risks and reaching out across the aisle, even when it feels politically risky to do so.
00:17:42.100You know, you've got to take the slings and arrows because it's worth it.
00:17:47.520And no sooner had the interview ended than this person had their PR guy contact us after the show to remove a big chunk of the interview, which they were afraid would create political blowback for them.
00:18:02.520And try to tell us how they wanted the clips handled on social media, how they wanted them styled.
00:18:09.660Well, no, we said we're not doing that.
00:18:12.320We're not going to start hacking away at the interview and taking out the parts you're afraid of after looking into the camera with a microphone on and saying them, understanding this was for an interview to air.
00:18:25.740We're not going to remove the parts you feel might create blowback for you while you sit there and tell our audience this is a time they must take those very risks.
00:18:38.900So we told the guest the interview stands.
00:18:41.000It can either air or not air, which out of courtesy for the guest, we left up to the guest, but we're not slicing and dicing it in a way that would present a dishonest picture to our viewers and listeners.
00:18:55.180And this guest, the one who'd been so brave on cam moments earlier, coward, afraid and said, please don't air it.
00:19:05.460We were well within our rights to air it in its original condition with all the parts he didn't like.
00:19:12.620We were well within our rights to do that.
00:19:14.540And some of the team felt that we should.
00:19:16.660Out of respect for my guest, I chose not to do it.
00:19:18.740But in no world was I going to air a dishonest portrait of someone painting themselves as a take risks champion who couldn't even make it 10 minutes past the taping before running to us through his PR hack and begging us to slice and dice the controversial parts.
00:19:48.740And I remain confident that the tagline, open, honest and provocative conversations are the way forward for us, for Twitter, for the digital world, for our institutions, for our schools, our universities, our corporations, for the country.
00:20:14.620And I do feel confident that we're winning, that this battle is starting to turn our way, that the temporary insanity is starting to subside.
00:20:29.360And the reason for that is all of you listening to points of view other than your own, is all of the guests I just mentioned willing to put their neck on the line and come out here and take a risk, understanding there could be blowback, but understanding there was a higher principle at risk, right?
00:20:49.380Those are the people who have started to turn the conversation.
00:20:53.080So I am grateful again to this audience.
00:21:00.580I feel really honored and lucky that I'm in the position I am where I get to have these exchanges for you and that I'm not limited to three-minute segments like I was on cable or to doing cooking segments like I was on broadcast, right?
00:21:13.620I think, as I've seen a lot of you guys remark in the comments, I've found the right venue for me.
00:21:20.220You know, I feel like I've, I don't know, I'm home.