The Megyn Kelly Show - July 14, 2022


Woke Shaming Over Reality, and Faith Over Fame, with Konstantin Kisin and Alexa and Carlos PenaVega | Ep. 357


Episode Stats

Length

1 hour and 33 minutes

Words per Minute

203.80652

Word Count

19,150

Sentence Count

1,302

Misogynist Sentences

29

Hate Speech Sentences

42


Summary

Konstantin Kissen is the co-host of TriggerNometry and author of the brand new book, An Immigrant s Love Letter to the West. He joins Megyn on the show to talk about his upbringing in Ukraine and his new book.


Transcript

00:00:00.440 Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show, your home for open, honest, and provocative conversations.
00:00:11.540 Hey, what am I? I'm Megyn Kelly. Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show.
00:00:15.120 President Biden in Israel today, where he's making gaffes about the Holocaust
00:00:19.360 and fist bumping and handshaking world leaders despite his advisors saying he wouldn't.
00:00:25.640 Long story.
00:00:26.240 We're going to get to all the headlines with my first guest today, who I'll get to in one second.
00:00:30.540 And then later in the show, we're going to be joined by two actors we're super excited to have on.
00:00:35.160 The Pena Vegas are here, who were famous, still are, for movies like Spy Kids and hit shows like Big Time Rush,
00:00:43.940 and who now have left Hollywood, have moved to a place that they believe they can raise their family
00:00:51.420 according to their values and have a new book out about faith, family, and Hollywood.
00:00:57.380 But first today, very happy to be joined by Konstantin Kissen.
00:01:01.580 He is the co-host of Trigger-nometry, clever, and author of the brand new book,
00:01:07.900 An Immigrant's Love Letter to the West.
00:01:14.900 Konstantin, welcome back to the show. Great to have you here.
00:01:17.660 Megyn, thank you so much for having me. A real pleasure to be back with you.
00:01:21.240 Congrats on the book. So the last time you were on, we talked about Russia and Ukraine,
00:01:25.580 and you know a lot about this because you were born in Russia and you married a woman who's from Ukraine.
00:01:32.460 And as you tweeted out recently on the birth of your son, this is one thing that Russia and Ukraine worked on together.
00:01:38.600 This beautiful little boy. So it's something that you know a lot about.
00:01:44.080 But your point in this book is sort of to capitalize on that background and say,
00:01:47.960 there's a reason my parents sent me to school in the UK.
00:01:51.940 There's a reason they fell in love with the West and you did as well.
00:01:55.760 And it seems to me like you've kind of had it with all the shaming of the West that is so in vogue,
00:02:01.960 or as you point out, fashionable in today's day and age.
00:02:05.200 Well, right. And to extrapolate on what you're saying about why my parents sent me to the West,
00:02:10.980 this is why millions of people are desperately trying to get to the West as well, Megyn,
00:02:15.800 because they haven't heard that we are the worst society in history,
00:02:19.120 that we are all these bigots and racists and is and folks and whatever.
00:02:23.020 But they actually would quite like a bit of freedom and democracy and prosperity and whatever.
00:02:28.020 And it seems to me that the only people who no longer realize that we have those things in the West
00:02:32.380 and most people don't have them elsewhere are the people who are born here,
00:02:36.220 who perhaps haven't traveled much, who haven't seen many other societies,
00:02:39.540 who are not aware that another world exists.
00:02:42.080 They think that what we have in the West just sort of fell out of the sky
00:02:45.960 and was always like this and always will be like this.
00:02:48.720 And the book, I think, is a celebration of the great achievements on the West,
00:02:52.940 but also a warning, which is that if we forget how these things that we enjoy in the West were created,
00:02:58.980 if we allow ourselves to just navel gaze endlessly and obsess about things that divide us rather than unite us,
00:03:05.580 we will find that there are people elsewhere in the world, as we're seeing in Ukraine,
00:03:09.880 as we're seeing with China.
00:03:10.960 There are people elsewhere who have a strong, cohesive ideology,
00:03:14.380 not one we would agree with, of course, but they have a strong sense of who they are
00:03:18.100 and they're going to challenge us for the top dog spot.
00:03:20.880 And if we are busily dismantling our own societies, we are going to be in a lot of trouble.
00:03:26.620 Right now, in the wake of Boris Johnson going down,
00:03:31.180 the UK is debating who's going to be the next prime minister.
00:03:34.180 And they're celebrating the fact that pretty much everyone on the shortlist
00:03:37.580 is a minority or a woman except for one guy.
00:03:41.320 And they're like, this is all, you know, this is great because
00:03:44.180 we're not going to be able to be called racists on the conservative side, the Tory side,
00:03:48.220 because we're definitely going to be having a new prime minister.
00:03:50.920 Odds are, I guess, not definitely, but the odds are who's a minority.
00:03:54.900 And you, from the moment Johnson went down and the speculation about him going down began
00:03:59.960 to today, have been trying to disabuse people of that notion that it's pure folly
00:04:05.840 that electing a minority is going to somehow immunize
00:04:09.980 people on the right from charges of bigotry.
00:04:13.680 Well, it's not going to happen.
00:04:14.780 And by the way, Megan, you know me, I'm somewhere in the center.
00:04:17.680 I'm not on the right.
00:04:18.460 I'm not on the left.
00:04:19.100 But I kind of try to call it like I see it.
00:04:21.360 And what I've seen in the last few days is the sort of confirmation of what I said on day one,
00:04:26.540 which is it's not going to help.
00:04:28.600 They're not going to stop calling you racist.
00:04:30.120 The reason they're calling you racist isn't that they think you're racist.
00:04:32.740 The reason they're calling you racist is that they think it works.
00:04:35.180 And what we've seen even today, I was having a conversation with somebody on Twitter about
00:04:41.580 this, someone with a very prominent account who tweeted saying, well, this isn't real diversity
00:04:46.680 because they all have the wrong opinion.
00:04:48.720 And that's where we've got to.
00:04:50.420 You know, I'm very fond of the Eric Hoffer quote, which is every great cause begins as
00:04:55.180 a movement, becomes a business and eventually degenerates into a racket.
00:04:59.520 And I don't know what the situation is like in America, you tell me.
00:05:02.560 But here in the UK, we've got to the point where diversity, inclusion and all these other
00:05:07.420 words that people are throwing around, it's just a racket now.
00:05:10.780 It's a way of advancing a political ideology.
00:05:13.580 It's a way of winning in the political arena.
00:05:16.100 It's a way of getting people to stop talking, to shut them down, to prevent them from speaking.
00:05:20.920 And it's a way of smearing entire swathes of people.
00:05:23.140 And by the way, increasing numbers of minorities are deeply, deeply disgusted with what's happening
00:05:28.680 because they see it plain in plain sight right now.
00:05:31.660 The moment that you have the most diverse field, and by the way, Matt Goodwin, who is
00:05:37.180 a political analyst, a brilliant political analyst here in the UK, he mentioned recently
00:05:42.740 that actually the number of minority candidates and female candidates in this leadership is
00:05:47.920 greater than the total number of former people who've run for leadership of the left-wing
00:05:52.940 Labour Party, the number of people from minority backgrounds who've been in cabinet, who've
00:05:57.560 been in the House of Lords, and on you go.
00:05:59.300 In other words, you've got the party that's being called racist every day, has actually
00:06:03.420 got a really diverse field, and the other party not.
00:06:06.620 But it doesn't matter because these brown people, these black people, these women, they're
00:06:10.560 not the right kind of minorities.
00:06:11.800 They're doing it wrong.
00:06:13.020 They've got the wrong opinions.
00:06:14.720 And so this is my point is like, you know, we need to stop talking about this.
00:06:18.520 In my opinion, identity politics has discredited itself.
00:06:22.940 Initially, the diversity drive I do think was important.
00:06:25.520 We did have genuine discrimination.
00:06:27.180 People were not being given opportunities who deserve them.
00:06:29.840 We've got past that now.
00:06:30.900 That's what we're always trying to get to.
00:06:32.420 And now we've got to get to the position that Dr. King urges to get to, which is we should
00:06:36.720 all be judged by the content of our character.
00:06:38.520 No, he was a racist.
00:06:40.680 Well, Uncle Tom, apparently, is what we now call him.
00:06:44.980 Under our current thinking, he was a racist, and his beliefs were racist, and we have to
00:06:48.360 move on from Dr. King.
00:06:50.320 Yeah, so that sets me up perfectly for this clip that was all over the news yesterday,
00:06:55.720 and we didn't get to it, but I wanted to, and so we'll get to it today.
00:06:59.080 Ben Shapiro did a great takedown of what happened here that inspired me, too, to ask you about
00:07:03.780 it.
00:07:04.280 So this woman, Kiara Bridges, law professor at Berkeley, goes before the U.S. Senate,
00:07:10.600 and this is this person's background.
00:07:12.600 All right, she's, as I mentioned, law professor at Berkeley, specializes allegedly in constitutional
00:07:17.340 law, critical legal theory, which is related to critical race theory, racial and social
00:07:22.420 justice.
00:07:22.900 She's written books like Reproducing Race and Ethnography of Pregnancy as a Site of Racialization.
00:07:29.960 Oh, it's perfect, right?
00:07:30.920 The Poverty of Privacy Rights, Critical Race Theory of Primer, or Primer, if you like,
00:07:37.040 and she's co-editor of a reproductive justice book series, blah, blah, blah, blah.
00:07:42.080 She's got this high pedigree, valedictorian from Spelman College, JD from Columbia Law
00:07:48.940 School, PhD in anthropology from Columbia, and so she goes before the Senate to talk about
00:07:55.340 women's reproductive rights, but she will not say women.
00:07:58.480 She will not go anywhere near women, and she gets offended when others try to.
00:08:04.820 So Senator Josh Hawley, Republican from Missouri, tries to challenge her on the weird language
00:08:09.380 she's using.
00:08:10.420 And here's the clip that has now gone completely viral.
00:08:15.320 Professor Bridges, you said several times, you've used a phrase, I want to make sure I
00:08:19.140 understand what you mean by it.
00:08:20.560 You've referred to people with a capacity for pregnancy.
00:08:23.220 Would that be women?
00:08:27.880 Many women, cis women, have the capacity for pregnancy.
00:08:30.880 Many cis women do not have the capacity for pregnancy.
00:08:33.900 There are also trans men who are capable of pregnancy, as well as non-binary people who
00:08:37.780 are capable of pregnancy.
00:08:38.900 So this isn't really a women's rights issue.
00:08:41.700 We can recognize that this impacts women while also recognizing that it impacts other groups.
00:08:46.680 Those things are not mutually exclusive, Senator Hawley.
00:08:49.220 Oh, so your view is, is that the core of this right then is about what?
00:08:55.220 So I want to recognize that your line of questioning is transphobic, and it opens up trans people
00:09:02.360 to violence by not recognizing that.
00:09:04.220 Wow, you're saying that I'm opening up people to violence by asking whether or not women are
00:09:08.060 the folks who can have pregnancies?
00:09:09.580 So I want to note that one out of five transgender persons have attempted suicide.
00:09:16.880 So I think it's important.
00:09:17.580 Because of my line of questioning, so we can't talk about it?
00:09:20.240 Because denying that trans people exist and pretending not to know that they exist is
00:09:25.580 I'm denying that trans people exist by asking you if you're talking about women having
00:09:29.600 pregnancies.
00:09:30.320 Do you believe that men can get pregnant?
00:09:33.300 No, I don't think men can get pregnant.
00:09:34.220 So you are denying that trans people exist?
00:09:36.120 And that leads to violence?
00:09:37.320 Is this how you run your classroom?
00:09:38.680 Are students allowed to question you?
00:09:40.360 Absolutely.
00:09:40.660 Or are they also treated like this, where they're told that they're opening up people to violence
00:09:45.180 by questioning?
00:09:45.260 We have a good time in my class.
00:09:46.880 You should join.
00:09:47.700 I bet.
00:09:47.820 You might learn a lot.
00:09:48.920 Wow.
00:09:49.280 I would learn a lot.
00:09:50.540 I've learned a lot just in this exchange.
00:09:51.980 Absolutely.
00:09:52.920 Extraordinary.
00:09:53.580 Yep.
00:09:53.720 Oh, it's all there.
00:09:58.300 Her seething condescension.
00:10:01.500 You are there to answer to us.
00:10:04.220 He works for us.
00:10:05.780 Senate hearings are for us, the citizenry.
00:10:08.200 And you do not get to redefine the questions and answer your own questions to yourself.
00:10:14.280 Out of respect for the American people, you answer the questions that are asked.
00:10:17.940 You don't restate the questions in the terms you want and then get snide with the questioners
00:10:24.200 because you want to go viral.
00:10:25.620 The other thing is about that clip that jumps out at me is how she she can't do it, Constantine,
00:10:32.140 the way that you were just talking about how these people who are so focused on identity,
00:10:37.540 they're not actually looking to win arguments or persuade you on the substance of their argument.
00:10:41.660 They're looking to shame you into silence.
00:10:43.380 They want you to shut the hell up and just accept their worldview.
00:10:49.040 And you saw the moment that really, you know, sort of indicates it's so indicative of how the left,
00:10:54.760 the woke left speaks today is she starts to lose and she says your rhetoric is transphobic, right?
00:11:02.100 She's got to do the name calling.
00:11:03.280 She's got to shut them up by saying you're transphobic.
00:11:05.140 Your language is transphobic.
00:11:06.940 You're opening up trans people to violence by saying that women are the only ones who can get pregnant.
00:11:12.400 That's that was his offense.
00:11:14.180 And then drop the old trope about how one out of five transphobic or sorry, trans people have attempted suicide.
00:11:21.160 This is what the trans activists always do.
00:11:23.520 People are going to commit suicide unless you accept our worldview that men can get pregnant.
00:11:28.440 And what Ben was saying was, number one, a very high, unusually high rate of suicide within the LGBTQ community.
00:11:34.840 That's true.
00:11:36.040 Whether they're trans or not, whether they transition or not, there just is.
00:11:40.000 And number two, even if you accept that rhetoric somehow is the tipping point for some trans people when it comes to suicidal ideation,
00:11:47.680 it's not the responsibility of society to engage in the same delusion that they have about their gender and their abilities when it comes to having babies.
00:11:55.580 If they're men to prevent that, I mean, with all due empathy to the situation they're in, we don't have to pretend we believe the same thing.
00:12:03.100 They believe that despite the fact that they're a man, they can have a baby in order to protect them from suicidal ideations.
00:12:10.180 Like, but this is this tool works.
00:12:13.140 This woman's probably never had anybody challenge her like that in her life.
00:12:16.120 So she just goes to her usual trick of calling names.
00:12:20.260 And it really puts the lie of the baselessness to her whole critical race theory life.
00:12:26.660 What do you make of it?
00:12:28.260 Well, Megan, I don't disagree with the word you've said there, but I invite you and our listeners and viewers to take a step back for a moment and realize that your Congress is having a hearing.
00:12:37.360 In which you're debating secondary, elementary, perhaps school biology.
00:12:43.100 And you and I are sitting here, you're one of the most respected journalists in America, and we're having to discuss an issue on which we all know the truth.
00:12:50.720 This is a pretend game that these people are playing.
00:12:53.800 They're not, you mentioned respect for the American people.
00:12:56.240 I don't think they do have respect for American people.
00:12:58.340 I think they clearly think that most American people are bigots and are beneath contempt.
00:13:03.720 So that's why she's not answering the question.
00:13:05.920 And she also isn't answering the question because she knows on the argument, as you say, she's not going to win, which is why, you know, this concept that words of violence was so dangerous.
00:13:14.680 And, you know, in my former career as a stand-up comedian, I fought so hard against this because anyone with half a brain can see that once you set it up, that words of violence, well, that's the method by which you, A, allow words to be shut down.
00:13:30.900 And, B, by the way, and this is quite important, and I hope to God it doesn't come to this, but it did somewhat in the summer of 2020.
00:13:38.940 If words of violence, then if you're saying something I don't like, I am entitled to, quote-unquote, defend myself.
00:13:45.100 I'm entitled to use violence against you.
00:13:47.560 I'm entitled to burn down the city.
00:13:49.500 I'm entitled to portion off a part of an American city and create an independent area which is policed by people with guns.
00:13:57.120 I can do all sorts of things once we decide that words of violence.
00:14:00.700 And we have to find a way to row back from this, whether you're left or right, because I think we should all be deeply troubled by the way that we're having these conversations.
00:14:09.540 Me too.
00:14:10.160 Me too.
00:14:10.680 And just the notion, you know, again, everyone's going to commit suicide.
00:14:16.340 A high proportion of this community is going to commit suicide unless we go along with what they think about gender.
00:14:21.460 Well, we don't have to do that, but we don't have to submit to those threats.
00:14:24.680 And secondly, you're denying their existence.
00:14:29.380 She kept saying that you're denying their existence, and that's dangerous.
00:14:33.520 Denying that a biological man can get pregnant is not denying the existence of trans people.
00:14:41.280 It's denying that if you are born a man and then you decide to transition to female, certain biological realities will remain with you.
00:14:51.940 And one of them is you cannot get pregnant.
00:14:54.060 And if you are born a woman and decide to transition to male, you are still a woman.
00:14:59.240 Yes, you can get pregnant.
00:15:00.380 But the reason you can do that is because you're a biological woman.
00:15:03.320 There's only one way you can have a baby, and that is if you are a biological woman.
00:15:07.500 So it's like they try to parlay your adherence to biology and to biological realities into bigotry and a denial of the trans community's existence.
00:15:21.540 And I think the distinction is really important.
00:15:22.240 Megan, by the way, sorry to interrupt.
00:15:23.540 This isn't about the trans community.
00:15:25.200 Let's be very clear.
00:15:26.140 I employ on Trigonometry, our YouTube show, at least two people who have gender dysphoria.
00:15:31.060 One of them is trans, and one of them just has gender dysphoria.
00:15:34.460 They don't want this.
00:15:35.380 This person isn't speaking for them.
00:15:37.520 This person isn't making their lives better.
00:15:39.840 They're not the sort of people that want, you know, as we have here in London, the tube to stop saying ladies and gentlemen.
00:15:45.220 Most trans people are quite sensible people who just want to live their lives and be left alone to live their lives in peace without violence and without being confronted by hateful bigots in the street who unfortunately do still exist.
00:15:57.680 Right.
00:15:58.060 But they don't need this professor to be making stuff up or to be calling someone transphobic for asking simple questions.
00:16:03.960 This is not helping trans people, just like many of the conversations we have about race don't help black people or other ethnic minorities, like the conversations we have sometimes about women's rights don't help women.
00:16:15.800 And on and on and on and on and on it goes.
00:16:19.020 This isn't about the community.
00:16:20.940 This is about a few activists who've realized that there's a lot of money and a lot of cliques to be found in talking about this in this ridiculous way.
00:16:29.580 And that is, excuse me, the only reason these people are doing it, because it benefits them.
00:16:34.100 And I say this, as you know, I talk about this in the book.
00:16:37.780 Think about how many of these activists talk about how evil and terrible the West is.
00:16:43.060 Have you noticed, Megan, none of them ever leave?
00:16:45.200 None of them ever go to the country which they came from or to which the country from which their parents brought them into the West from.
00:16:51.580 They never leave.
00:16:52.500 Why is that?
00:16:53.560 Is it maybe because this is just a way to get famous and to get some money?
00:16:57.360 I wonder how long it can go on.
00:17:00.680 You know, this self-flagellation that my country's doing, your country's doing.
00:17:04.760 Like, could we go 10, 15, 20 years more of saying how awful we are, the refusal to celebrate July 4th?
00:17:13.340 I know you pointed out, you know, Cori Bush here in the States, part of the squad was, you know, July 4th is a holiday for white people, white privileged people.
00:17:22.100 OK, like how long could we continue it?
00:17:24.500 I do wonder where we are on the on the graph.
00:17:28.720 What do you think?
00:17:29.720 I think the pendulum is slowing.
00:17:31.900 I don't think it's started to swing back.
00:17:34.060 And I think reasonable people like you and I should be concerned about what happens when it does swing, because every revolution is followed by an equally ugly counterrevolution.
00:17:43.080 So we definitely got to be careful when that moment comes.
00:17:45.940 We're nowhere near there yet, I don't think.
00:17:47.560 But I've always said from day one, Megan, that the trans issue would be what broke all of this intersectionality nonsense, because people will accept, of course, historically speaking, there are communities that have been disadvantaged.
00:18:01.040 You know, many of the black people who live in America today are the descendants of slaves and the disadvantages of that will persist.
00:18:08.140 And so on and so forth.
00:18:10.060 I think no one sensible would argue that women haven't had a difficult time and have been unfairly treated at points in history.
00:18:16.300 All of these things are true.
00:18:18.260 And when you start to weaponize those, even moderate, sensible people will say, you know what, there's probably some truth to all of this.
00:18:25.020 You know, I'm going to be extra empathetic.
00:18:26.660 I'm going to be extra understanding.
00:18:28.280 But the trans issue is different because once you start to ask people to deny the evidence in front of their eyes, basic biology.
00:18:35.580 And by the way, probably most importantly, when you're starting to see, as you're now starting to see a wave of detransitioners who were encouraged down the path of medical intervention, taking hormone blockers, mutilating their bodies who now regret it.
00:18:49.380 And you want to say to parents of seven-year-olds, if your kid says, well, I think I'm a girl today, you've got to go and get them on the path to transition.
00:18:58.600 That's when you start to release normal people, Megan.
00:19:00.860 And I've always said this was going to happen.
00:19:02.980 I'm really sad that what it's probably going to take is more and more young people who have gone through the process, who've tried to transition because they were encouraged down that path and sadly ended up with a body that's mutilated or not the way they'd like and terribly, you know, in a terrible mental health situation as well.
00:19:20.880 But that is probably what it will take.
00:19:22.960 I do think that's starting to happen now.
00:19:25.060 I'm hopeful that we can minimize the number of people that are in that position.
00:19:29.280 We saw here in the UK, we've interviewed people from the Tavistock Clinic, whistleblowers from the clinic where a lot of this was being encouraged.
00:19:36.380 We're seeing extensive pushback in the UK.
00:19:39.040 I know there are people who are pushing back against this in the US as well.
00:19:43.020 And I just hope that we can do get, I hope we can do that and get to a point where this is no longer happening before it's too late and before more young people have been captured by this terrible ideology.
00:19:52.760 Hmm. Yeah. I'm next week. We're actually doing a full show on on and with the transitioners who have lived this firsthand and sorry, it's in August, the beginning of August, but who say they did not give informed consent.
00:20:06.940 They were teenagers who were confused, who encountered a system that said, oh, affirm, affirm, affirm at every turn or you're endangering their life or you, you know, you'd rather have a dead, a dead son or I'd rather have a live daughter than a dead son.
00:20:23.420 All the same rhetoric that we saw this so-called professor using about, you know, the high suicide rate and your language is dangerous.
00:20:29.240 And so they got shepherded through a system that wanted their transition when they were too young to really understand it, consent to it.
00:20:36.480 And now if you were a young woman who thought she was a man and you go through this, you're sterile.
00:20:41.760 You're not having a baby. You can never carry a child. You can never breastfeed a child.
00:20:47.740 These people who claim to care about trans kids, allegedly trans kids in crisis, couldn't care less.
00:20:53.320 They care about their own agendas, their agenda pushing.
00:20:56.240 And that's why I think your comment about in the book about like,
00:20:59.240 what's in fashion is so telling because I do think not only is it fashionable to call your country and ours racist and sort of hang everything up on some sort of racial problem,
00:21:10.660 but the trans thing is somewhat fashionable as well.
00:21:13.620 It's like all these teenagers, they're not trans.
00:21:16.360 Some small, tiny percentage of them might have gender dysphoria because it is a real thing.
00:21:20.420 But the vast majority of these kids think it's fashionable or they feel like they don't belong or they were told like our one guest,
00:21:25.960 if you feel uncomfortable in your body, you might be trans.
00:21:27.880 Well, every teenager feels uncomfortable in their own body.
00:21:30.620 Like that is not the standard by which you judge if you're trans.
00:21:33.580 But the fashionability of it, it's an overcorrection to the demonization of it.
00:21:40.000 And Megan, I'll add something very controversial right now, which is I'll say children can't consent.
00:21:45.800 We seem to be forgetting this basic point.
00:21:48.460 Children are children by virtue of the fact that they're not capable of fully understanding the consequences of their actions.
00:21:54.100 I've actually come back from one of my sister's weddings.
00:21:57.520 She just got married.
00:21:59.560 And in the process of the wedding, her husband was asked questions about her.
00:22:04.740 And one of them was, what did Ira, Irina, your sister, what did she want to be as a child?
00:22:10.400 And the answer was a boy.
00:22:12.240 Because my sister, the prettiest, loves pink, all feminine now, she, as a seven-year-old, said to my mom,
00:22:19.040 I want to be a boy.
00:22:20.100 And she went through a phase for a few months where that's what she said.
00:22:23.260 And guess what?
00:22:24.100 Now she's turned out to be a perfectly normal, straight, cis, quote-unquote, woman.
00:22:29.260 Children cannot consent.
00:22:31.240 Children are not capable of understanding the consequences of their actions.
00:22:34.980 We've got to be very, very careful that we don't make this, you know,
00:22:39.180 children choosing their own gender at that sort of age.
00:22:41.520 And we don't encourage them down paths that are going to be detrimental to them.
00:22:44.740 And it is our job as adults to protect them from the consequences of things that they don't fully understand.
00:22:50.200 And we've done a terrible job of doing that.
00:22:52.660 It's so true.
00:22:53.900 It's something that we're going to live to regret.
00:22:57.100 We're already starting to regret.
00:22:58.620 And I do think the real way forward is not just the detransitioners, but it's going to be the lawsuits.
00:23:03.240 It's going to be the lawsuits from the detransitioners and families who, in earnest,
00:23:08.020 sought care for their child's psychiatric care, amongst others,
00:23:10.860 and instead were pushed an agenda that tends to be left-wing, that tends to be weirdly ideological.
00:23:17.240 There's not a lot of conservatives pushing this.
00:23:19.180 And that tells you something.
00:23:20.480 Like, that's an alarm.
00:23:23.820 And so I remain hopeful that the courts, as they have been in so many situations,
00:23:28.740 can be some sort of a backstop to some of this lunacy.
00:23:32.480 But we just have to start it.
00:23:33.720 We've got to get it started.
00:23:34.420 And when you've got constitutional law professors like this moron out there teaching the next
00:23:38.560 generation of lawyers, I do worry.
00:23:42.160 You know, I mean, can you imagine?
00:23:43.380 Can you remember back in the day when you used to think, like, you just had a baby?
00:23:46.340 It would be great if he wound up at Berkeley or Harvard or Yale.
00:23:50.300 Like, wow, that would open up such doors and make such connections.
00:23:53.600 Hell no.
00:23:54.580 I don't want my kids anywhere near those institutions.
00:23:57.800 I don't blame you.
00:23:58.960 And look, as you know, we just had our first child.
00:24:01.040 He's a couple of months old.
00:24:02.060 And this is something I've already thought about is, like, in the past, the standard
00:24:06.180 path line was, you know, you get good grades at school, then you go to college or university,
00:24:10.640 and then you land a great job.
00:24:12.940 Well, if this is what's happening at colleges and universities, I don't want my child anywhere
00:24:17.360 near that.
00:24:18.300 I'd rather they were a plumber, frankly, at this point.
00:24:20.560 Do you know what I mean?
00:24:21.520 So this isn't, you know, and this is one of the reasons that, you know, that I talk in
00:24:26.360 Immigrants Love Letter to the West about how I really became aware of all of this stuff
00:24:30.480 where I was asked to sign a behavioral agreement contract to do a comedy gig.
00:24:35.200 And that's the point I was making at the time, which was, look, I hear these students, you
00:24:40.540 know, that are running around being a bit crazy.
00:24:42.660 Students have always done this.
00:24:43.820 Of course, young people are going to do this.
00:24:45.760 Sure.
00:24:46.100 The problem isn't the students.
00:24:47.440 The problem is who's teaching them and what are they then growing up to be?
00:24:51.180 Because we see it here, here now in the UK, a lot of these people now, now politicians,
00:24:56.140 they're lawyers, they're judges, they're making decisions that actually impact the real world.
00:25:01.640 And they're bringing a lot of this complete nonsense and rubbish and a lack of understanding
00:25:06.240 of the real world into political spaces, into legal spaces, and then having a genuine,
00:25:12.180 real impact on the world.
00:25:13.900 So this isn't something that's, you know, contained to college campuses.
00:25:17.460 And I'm glad people are starting to realize that.
00:25:19.980 That was just in 2018.
00:25:21.580 I didn't realize it was that recently that that happened.
00:25:24.280 They wanted you to sign this pledge that you were going to, you weren't going to touch
00:25:27.180 any third real subject.
00:25:28.360 There would be no jokes about it.
00:25:29.760 I can't remember the list, but it was like.
00:25:31.240 I can.
00:25:31.840 Let me tell you, Megan, because it's worth hearing.
00:25:34.020 Racism, sexism, classism, ageism, ableism, homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, xenophobia,
00:25:39.500 Islamophobia, anti-religion, anti-atheism.
00:25:43.300 And it also said that all jokes must be respectful and kind.
00:25:47.460 Why did the chicken cross the road?
00:25:51.360 Would have been a great, great bet.
00:25:53.200 I'm sure you would have crushed it.
00:25:55.080 Yeah.
00:25:56.000 So that's the kind of thinking that some people at our universities are starting to engage in.
00:26:00.680 And I saw it in comedy and comedy is now riddled with this stuff, certainly in the UK.
00:26:05.220 And that's because comedy is downstream of culture of society in general.
00:26:09.620 So I saw the early signs of it in the comedy industry, which is why we started trigonometry
00:26:14.360 in the first place.
00:26:15.160 Frankly, we were just two idiot comedians who were trying to understand why is it that
00:26:19.060 people were suddenly saying, instead of, you know, make any jokes you want.
00:26:22.320 And that's the whole point of being a comedian to like jokes of violence and you mustn't
00:26:26.140 oppress people with your offensive humor.
00:26:28.620 And that's kind of the journey that I've been on, which is why I wanted to write the book,
00:26:32.700 because that experience as a comedian really terrified me because of where I come from.
00:26:38.360 You know, I was born in the Soviet Union.
00:26:39.940 And I saw this sort of repression of people's ideas, repressions of people's statements,
00:26:44.080 the fact that you were restricted from making jokes or punished for making jokes.
00:26:48.340 And I was like, hey, I left Russia, the Soviet Union, because I didn't want any part of this.
00:26:53.100 And now I've ended up in the West.
00:26:54.700 And that's exactly what we've got.
00:26:56.260 So there is there is a popular British feminist and poet named Aja, and she just got banned
00:27:04.340 from Twitter because she went online to complain about a trans woman, a biological man, a trans
00:27:11.500 woman, basically trying to lecture her and others on how they and their objections to certain of the
00:27:17.740 encroachments on women's rights that the trans community or better put their activists push for.
00:27:23.440 Right. So she got out there and she did her sort of poetry like this is bullshit.
00:27:26.500 And I object. And Twitter's banned her because they don't like the way in which she expressed
00:27:31.820 herself. And it really is ironic if you think about the fact that what you really have is a
00:27:36.060 biological man lecturing a woman on how she needs to speak about women's rights and the woman saying,
00:27:42.740 no, I will not let you constrain me.
00:27:44.640 I will speak about women's rights the way I want to and stand up for them the way I want to.
00:27:49.260 You and Twitter telling the woman you will shut up and the biological man will have the
00:27:54.400 last word. He can say what he wants about, quote, women, but you cannot.
00:27:58.760 Your side of the conversation will be shut down unless you agree to speak in the way he
00:28:03.140 slash she wants you to.
00:28:06.320 I mean, that's the point that we are at because you kind of like out of respect for the trans
00:28:09.780 community. And I am somebody who does their pronoun.
00:28:12.220 I don't mind saying their pronouns. It's fine.
00:28:13.640 I just think it's respectful and it's kind.
00:28:15.780 But when you when you get to the point where you realize a trans woman is a biological man,
00:28:20.600 that's a biological man. And so it's essentially a man trying to tell you a woman how you need
00:28:25.580 to speak about women's rights. The only answer is to say, no, no, I don't consent.
00:28:31.660 I will speak about women however the hell I want.
00:28:35.460 And if you don't like it, you can listen to another channel.
00:28:38.340 You can walk away, but you cannot censor or silence me and my speech.
00:28:43.980 There's nothing feminist or pro woman about that.
00:28:48.480 Well, I agree with you and very passionately said.
00:28:50.980 And of course, if you said all that on Twitter, you'd be banned as well.
00:28:53.860 That's that's the situation we're in because you keep saying he and you're not allowed to do that.
00:28:58.880 And I come back to the point that I made earlier, which is this is about the idea that words
00:29:02.780 are violence. Once you accept that, everything else follows.
00:29:06.120 There's another thing, of course, and we've got a big problem because it's legislated for now in
00:29:10.120 many countries. You've got this idea that there are protected groups.
00:29:14.100 And once you have protected groups and by the way, not to attempt to annoy feminists,
00:29:18.520 but I do think there are portions of feminism that actually got involved in this and tried to
00:29:23.280 introduce the idea of protected groups. And it's starting to kick them in the rear now at this
00:29:28.500 point, bite them in the rear. Right. Once you introduce the idea of protected groups,
00:29:32.620 you're saying, well, not everyone is the same, not everyone's equal. Of course,
00:29:36.180 not everyone's the same, but not everyone should be treated equally.
00:29:38.620 Then you get to a position where some some, you know, some animals are better than others
00:29:43.400 and some animals deserve to be treated better than others. Of course, I'm quoting Animal Farm.
00:29:48.040 So that that's the place we're in. And we've got to get to a point where we start to unwind some of
00:29:55.280 these very, very dangerous ideas, because once, you know, once they go from the realm of just some
00:30:00.900 people talking on a campus to actual legislation, as we have in this country, where we have the
00:30:05.220 Equalities Act, which says in terms, some people deserve to be treated differently to other people.
00:30:11.720 You're always going to have this problem. You're always going to have certain groups that need
00:30:15.780 special protection. And therefore, anyone who says anything, because remember words of violence,
00:30:19.760 they've got to be punished. They've got to be struck down. They've got to be silenced.
00:30:23.800 And that is the position we're in. So there's a big job ahead of unwinding some of those policies
00:30:28.420 that we've seen in the last couple of decades. All right, Constantine, stand by. I'm going to
00:30:33.440 squeeze in a quick break. Much, much more to go over with you.
00:30:42.440 Okay, so let's talk about classism. It's something that you do talk about. And you care about income
00:30:48.880 inequality. And I do, too. I do, too. It doesn't mean you don't like capitalism, but you know,
00:30:54.760 you can see the issues with like skyrocketing rents and the and the not a skyrocketing, you
00:31:00.680 know, employment opportunity for young people in terms of salary and so on. But I've heard you talk
00:31:06.860 about recently, like in particular, these economic or these these green energy policies, which are
00:31:11.420 crushing, are crushing the working class. And how I think it was a tweet that you sent out that says
00:31:17.060 what the one thing that's becoming clear to me is whatever your view of climate change,
00:31:20.060 the pursuit of net zero by continually raising the cost of living is going to cause populist
00:31:25.680 revolts that will make Brexit and Trump look like minor blips. I agree with that. We're seeing it now
00:31:33.400 in Sri Lanka, right, in what's happening in the Netherlands with these farmers. And, you know,
00:31:39.320 in your country and mine, people have about had it with these so-called green energy policies that
00:31:43.560 come at the expense of the working class. And, you know, there are a lot of other causes for
00:31:49.500 concern economically as well. I mean, it's going to be let's let's be clear, Megan, I think the
00:31:53.920 economists I speak to all are very clear about this. A very difficult economic time is coming
00:31:58.640 anyway. So to spend the time that we have, instead of dealing with those problems, whether it's the
00:32:05.200 effect of the war in Ukraine, which is probably in terms of the global food crisis is going to cause
00:32:09.720 famine in many countries in around the world. Now, we in the West, of course, are fortunate to
00:32:14.200 probably avoid that. But we will see very high rises in the cost of living, whether that's fuel,
00:32:19.700 whether that's food, whether that's gas. And to be piling all of this stuff on top. Look,
00:32:24.380 I don't know enough. I'm not a climate scientist. I don't know what the deal with that is. I'm just
00:32:28.460 saying, I think the way we're approaching this by impoverishing the people who are already vulnerable
00:32:33.000 in our societies is not going to achieve that. And what you're going to get instead is populist
00:32:38.080 revolts of the kind that I frankly don't want to see. And I don't see how you get away from that
00:32:43.820 fact that at a time when people are already struggling, if you have a situation as we do
00:32:49.360 in the UK, where so much of our energy pricing, so much of our fuel pricing, so much of our food
00:32:54.640 particularly is the product of these levies, is the product of some of the ways that we are
00:32:59.620 approaching this idea that we must get to net zero immediately. Otherwise, we're all going to drown
00:33:03.860 and run out of food in 12 years. It's not going to have a good impact on our society. So even if
00:33:09.440 you believe that we have to tackle the issue of climate change and with urgency, this just does
00:33:14.480 not seem to me like a practical way to do it, particularly when we seem to be ignoring forms
00:33:19.560 of energy like nuclear energy that actually do help to solve the problem, but for some reason don't
00:33:24.520 seem to get the green activists excited. I don't know why.
00:33:26.960 Mm hmm. I blame Jane Fonda and that movie The China Syndrome. I blame her for a lot. But that's
00:33:33.820 one of the problems. And my guys with Chernobyl, we did not handle that well, to be fair. So that
00:33:38.000 probably didn't help either. That's true. Although that series was amazing, right? That so-called
00:33:44.480 documentary. I'm not sure if it was a true documentary. But in any event, so Joe Biden,
00:33:48.640 let's talk about him politics for a minute, because he goes over to Israel in the Middle East. He's going
00:33:52.900 to meet with the Saudis as well, the ones he said he would deem pariahs. But now he goes hat in hand.
00:33:58.040 And today, actually yesterday in Israel. I mean, you know, the one thing you're not supposed to do
00:34:03.360 when you go over to Israel, I think, is make gaffes about the Holocaust. I'm pretty sure it's the one
00:34:07.180 thing you shouldn't screw up. Here's a little bit of what happened when he was there. Soundbite 2.
00:34:13.860 I will once more return to the hollow ground of Yad Shavim
00:34:16.940 to honor six million Jewish lives who were stolen in the genocide and continue, which we must do
00:34:26.400 every, every day, continue to bear witness, to keep alive the truth and honor of the Holocaust,
00:34:33.420 horror of the Holocaust. Honor those we lost.
00:34:37.900 I realize it's a stumble, the honor of the Holocaust, too. It happens, but it happens to him
00:34:43.240 all the time. He kept referring to the prime minister as the president. It was just I mean,
00:34:49.540 it was every turn. You really do have the feeling of like when he's talking. Right. And it's like
00:34:55.160 it just feeds into the lack of faith in our leaders. You guys are about to elect a new one.
00:35:00.320 I hope you do better. I do, too, Megan. I'll be honest with you. I mean, of course,
00:35:04.460 people can make partisan points here, but I'll be honest as an outsider, as someone who respects
00:35:08.860 America who thinks it's a country that has a lot of the right values. I know you're very divided at
00:35:14.460 the moment, but actually that's because you're trying to work out how to run a country, how to
00:35:17.940 run a society. That's one of the things I love about your country. Like here in Europe, we're like
00:35:22.060 we've got all this sorted out. We don't need to talk about it when actually we do. You guys,
00:35:26.920 yeah, you've got problems, but you're trying to work it out. You're trying to. I love America for
00:35:31.020 this reason. And to see that you've gone from one guy who said a lot of stuff that that was
00:35:36.840 unpleasant to listen to, to another guy who barely says anything that you can actually hear. And it
00:35:42.280 is coherent. I just think it's a bad look for your country. It's a bad look for America. It doesn't
00:35:48.480 reflect well, whether you're a Democrat or Republican or a moderate or anything. It's just
00:35:53.280 sad. It's sad to see. I'm sad that he's in a position where this continues to happen. It just
00:35:59.720 looks bad as an outside. I'll be honest with you. Yeah. The Aussies just elected somebody who's got
00:36:04.520 similar stumbling problems, though he's a much younger man. He said that when he went to the
00:36:09.600 Middle East, he wasn't going to. I mentioned this on my show yesterday and said I hadn't confirmed
00:36:14.240 it. I wasn't sure if it was fake news. No, it's real. He said he wasn't going to shake the hands
00:36:18.560 of any leaders while over there because of covid, you know, because they're very concerned. The WHO
00:36:22.560 is saying we should bring back masks, mask mandates. All right. It's like they're never going to let go
00:36:28.120 of their hand over our mouth ever. Once you give these controls to the government authorities,
00:36:33.720 they will never give them back to you. So he's saying because of covid and the rise in the Omicron
00:36:39.100 sub variants, he doesn't want to shake hands while he's over there. Most people believe that he just
00:36:43.620 doesn't want to shake the hands of the Saudi leaders who he said he would make pariahs out of
00:36:47.700 and who killed Washington Post journalist Khashoggi. Anyway, so he goes over there and what does
00:36:54.160 he do? He starts fist bumping. He's fist bumping the Israeli leaders. My God, Konstantin fist bumping.
00:37:01.340 And then and they're trying to shake his hand and then he sees Netanyahu. What does he do?
00:37:06.260 Grabs his hand, gives him the big, you know, five finger handshake and winds up seeing some
00:37:11.720 Holocaust survivors a bit later. And he's kissing them and he's hugging them, putting the lie to this
00:37:16.360 whole nonsense about his covid concerns. I don't know what to make of it other than it's more lying
00:37:21.920 from our leaders. You've written a piece recently. Was this in your book? I'm trying to remember where
00:37:26.000 I saw this, but you were pointing out how you might have some good leaders in the UK.
00:37:30.920 It's the same applies here, but there's very few who you actually find impressive.
00:37:34.860 We actually like deeply respect and more and more. We're getting that here, too.
00:37:40.160 Yeah. And this covid theater, Megan, it's one of the things it's doing. People think this is just a
00:37:45.500 playful thing that we all laugh at. Actually, it has real consequences, because the more you see
00:37:50.660 that the people who are telling you to wear a mask or to get vaccinated or to get your booster or to
00:37:55.940 socially distance or whatever, the more you see that they don't do any of this, that they don't
00:38:00.660 actually live up to the expectations that they set for you, the more I think a lot of people actually
00:38:05.000 switch off and don't take sensible precautions in situations where actually probably would be a good
00:38:10.300 idea to socially distance from people when you can, if there's a lot of virus going around.
00:38:15.380 Do you know what I mean? So we've got this point. We've got to this point where they are doing
00:38:21.240 theater and people, of course, lose trust and faith in our politicians. But the broader point,
00:38:27.740 yeah, you're right. I talk about it both in the book and on my sub stack is we've got to a position
00:38:32.220 where I think we deliberately filter out people of principle and character, because, of course,
00:38:36.380 the moment you stand up for principle, as you and I both know, the moment you stand up for what you
00:38:40.900 believe in, you do alienate some people. Some people won't like it. And in the current environment
00:38:45.940 that we have, the moment anyone doesn't like what you do, that is the end of your political career.
00:38:51.940 If you said the wrong thing, it's a gaffe. If you did the wrong thing, well, you're evil forever
00:38:56.840 and so on. And I'm afraid as a result of that, we're preventing decent people from going into
00:39:03.100 politics. And when they do, they find that it's not a place that they're going to stick around.
00:39:06.720 And so you end up with the people that we all end up with. I have a I have a glimmer of hope
00:39:12.520 on this subject to offer. I was thinking about this the other day. One upside of the younger
00:39:18.040 generation having grown up with social media and, you know, just having to worry from birth about what
00:39:23.740 they say online and the incoming attacks and bullying you get on Instagram and Facebook, whatever
00:39:28.660 it is, is we might wind up with better leaders, because I think a lot of people, a lot of sane
00:39:33.420 people right now are like, I'm not I'm not running for all. Why would I put myself and my family
00:39:36.920 through that? I don't want to be subjected to that nonsense. And I feel like the younger people are
00:39:40.740 like, I've I've never known any other. Yeah, of course, I'll do it. Yeah. Why would I let public
00:39:45.380 scorn stop me? That's I've been immersed in that toxic stew since birth. So I'm kind of hoping
00:39:51.680 it could lead to better leaders because they were neutralizing that factor. You can no longer live a
00:39:57.640 life of privacy where you're not constantly getting attacked. And so why not get out there
00:40:02.740 and try to make a difference? We'll see on the subject of covid. We were gearing back up. There's
00:40:10.280 already talk about should we be bringing bringing back more lockdowns about mask mandates returning
00:40:16.340 now to L.A. New York just brought back not mandates, but mask recommendations. I mentioned
00:40:22.680 the WHO and now Hong Kong. Hong Kong is going to electronically tag covid patients, people who have
00:40:31.860 tested positive for covid as it adopts China's health code system. This is pretty crazy where
00:40:37.220 they're going to make you wear a bracelet to track you to make sure that you're isolating
00:40:41.140 in home. And I mean, it's like one of those things where you look at it overseas and you say never
00:40:46.080 here, never here. And I wouldn't put it past our leaders to try it. No, I wouldn't either. And if
00:40:53.080 you remember, Megan, I don't know if this story made it over to the U.S. I hope it did. But Neil
00:40:57.780 Ferguson, one of the statisticians responsible for helping to introduce lockdowns here in the U.K.,
00:41:04.160 he openly said in the in in the interview in The Telegraph, I think that they had no idea that they
00:41:09.540 could do lockdowns until they saw China do it. And then they were like, oh, they can do it. So can
00:41:14.780 we. So I'm afraid this entire thing has been handled with a very Chinese line. And if you know
00:41:20.320 anything about the way the CCP controls the population, if you know anything about the Chinese
00:41:25.780 social credit system, you should be very concerned. And I think what's really, really important is
00:41:31.340 the opposition that was fermented to all of these measures during the peak of covid here in the U.K.
00:41:36.940 and of course, in the U.S. That needs those people who are part of that movement, myself included.
00:41:42.340 We need to remember this ain't over. They're going to try again. I think there's no question
00:41:46.420 that this winter there will be another wave, judging by what people are saying. And if there's
00:41:51.180 another wave, there will be another wave of authoritarianism that we're all going to have
00:41:54.260 to resist once again. Yes, we're going to have to resist. We're going to have to fight. So let's end
00:41:59.160 on this note, because as we discussed, you have a new baby. He was born in May. So you are brand new
00:42:05.420 to fatherhood and it's it's fun and it's exciting and it can be overwhelming. I'm sure if it's
00:42:10.780 anything like my experience. But you wrote a barn burner of a substack column to your son
00:42:16.540 that I absolutely loved called We Do Not Kneel, a letter to my newborn son. And the gist of this
00:42:24.580 letter, I encourage everybody to go to Constantine's substack and read it is as follows. If you want to
00:42:31.800 live a comfortable life, you can fit in. Don't ask too many questions. Keep your head down. But son,
00:42:38.160 if there's one thing I've learned, it's that comfort is overrated. You did not come into this
00:42:43.760 world to consume as much food, pleasure and entertainment as you can. A fulfilling life
00:42:48.120 is one of purpose. And the meaning of your life is to identify that purpose and pursue it
00:42:53.560 with every fiber of your being. You go on to say those who lack the courage of their convictions
00:42:58.840 will be threatened by yours. Those who lack confidence will consider you arrogant for having
00:43:03.300 it. And most of all, those who are desperate to fit in will hate and secretly admire you
00:43:10.460 for standing out. I love that you encourage him not to settle, not to settle and to pursue
00:43:19.280 a life of extraordinary nature, of an extraordinary nature. I couldn't agree with everything you've
00:43:25.600 written more. I feel like it was what I was trying to get at in my book, Settle for More as well. One
00:43:30.960 of the many reasons you and I like each other because we have similar life philosophies. And
00:43:35.720 just spend a minute speaking about that. Do not kneel.
00:43:41.180 I don't know how to say. I'm probably going to cry talking about it because it's so important to
00:43:45.540 me, Megan. You know, I come from generations of people who were in gulags in the Soviet Union
00:43:51.380 because they said the wrong thing, but they believed in it. And so they said it anyway.
00:43:55.700 I come from generations of people, as my boy does, of people who refuse to bend to authorities
00:44:01.560 like the kinds that no one in the West can imagine. So when I see people who are afraid
00:44:06.300 of speaking their mind because the mob is going to pursue them on social media or someone is going
00:44:11.240 to send them a threat or whatever, I understand. I do understand. But this is no way to live.
00:44:17.880 This is no way to live. Every single person is born to do something brilliant with their life.
00:44:23.180 And I really believe that the pursuit of that brilliance, whatever form or shape it comes in,
00:44:27.820 is the purpose of your life, is the meaning of your life. It's the only thing
00:44:30.720 that I've ever done that's made me happy. It's when I've been doing what I believe. It's when I've
00:44:35.600 been speaking my mind without muzzling myself. And that's why I encourage my son. And frankly,
00:44:40.800 anyone who wants to listen to pursue that to the best of their ability. And by the way,
00:44:45.020 I don't care if your politics are different to mine, if your views are different to mine,
00:44:49.060 it doesn't really matter to me. I just know that a world full of people who are pursuing
00:44:53.080 their purpose is a world full of happy people. And happy people don't engage in the sort of
00:44:57.760 divisive crap that we've had in our countries for the last decade or two. And if we can all be doing
00:45:04.140 something that we love, I think we'll get to a position where we hate on each other less and we
00:45:07.940 actually come together in a much more productive way, which is one of the reasons I wanted to write the
00:45:12.060 book. Because as you know, I, you know, I tried to address the book to people who would disagree
00:45:16.960 with me because I do think it's important that we reach across the aisle. It's important that we
00:45:21.480 don't demonize the other, even if we think they're silly or stupid or wherever it is,
00:45:25.740 we've got to get past that. Megan, we've had a lot of division. We will have more division,
00:45:30.040 but look, if we are to survive as the West, we're going to have to come together eventually.
00:45:34.720 And I think that's really important.
00:45:36.120 Love it. Everybody should buy the book. It's called An Immigrant's Love Letter to the West.
00:45:41.860 Constantine Kissin. Those are two Ks there in case you're Googling it and check out Trigonometry
00:45:47.420 as well, because it's well worth your time. Such a pleasure. Congrats on the baby, on the book,
00:45:52.740 and much, much more success coming your way.
00:45:55.760 Thank you so much, Megan. Always a pleasure.
00:45:58.220 All right. Coming up here in just a bit, the Penovegas will be here. Very,
00:46:02.860 very popular. And Gwendolyn is very excited for them. My, my intern, big, big fan. And you will
00:46:08.100 be too. You know, these, the, the, both of these folks, whether you know it or not. Uh, don't forget
00:46:13.020 folks. In the meantime, you can find the Megan Kelly show live on Sirius XM Triumph channel 111 every
00:46:17.200 weekday at noon East, the full video show. And the clips are on our YouTube channel, youtube.com
00:46:22.160 slash Megan Kelly. If you prefer an audio podcast, follow and download on Apple, Spotify, Pandora,
00:46:28.360 Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. I read all the reviews there. There were some updates
00:46:32.380 today, which had me laughing. And I appreciate the guest suggestions too. And there you will
00:46:36.560 find our full archives with more than 350 shows. So check it out.
00:46:45.240 Our next guests have several members of my staff, extremely excited, uh, who know them as I do from
00:46:51.860 movies like spy kids and shows like big time rush, Alexa and Carlos Pena Vega were hugely successful in
00:46:59.680 the entertainment industry and still are, uh, but their success began at a very early age. Alexa
00:47:06.780 became known for her role as Carmen Cortez in the major, major hit movie franchise spy kids. And
00:47:13.820 Carlos starred in Nickelodeon's big time rush and toured the country with the band. But there is so much
00:47:20.760 more to this married couple, uh, and their story. They recently released a memoir titled what if love is
00:47:28.680 the point living for Jesus in a self-consumed world? Love that title. And it details their journey in
00:47:36.340 the industry, finding their faith, finding each other and why they decided to leave Hollywood
00:47:41.360 behind. Welcome to the show. Carlos and Alexa agreed to have you here. How's it going? Oh my God. The
00:47:49.340 pleasure is all mine. I love, love, love your backgrounds and your stories and how open you guys both
00:47:55.660 are about getting to the place you are now. And you don't pretend it was easy. You don't pretend
00:48:02.280 you've had these perfect lives to the contrary. You own all the bumps along the road. And there's
00:48:08.920 a reason you want to own them and explain to people sort of who you are now and what makes you the
00:48:14.840 glowing, happy people I see before me on the screen. Hey, we'll take you. We'll take it. Uh,
00:48:21.240 well, um, well, for us, you know, you look at just even social media today. Um, it's all filtered
00:48:28.400 veneered. Right. And the truth is like when we first kind of started growing in our faith, it wasn't
00:48:35.760 this like perfect, easy thing that I think sometimes people sell Christianity to be, they, they make it
00:48:41.680 sound like the second you become a Christian, your life's going to be perfect. And in all honesty, our
00:48:46.540 life got really, really hard after we found our faith, because this world is not set up really for
00:48:51.860 faithful people. It's not really set up for happy marriages or happy families. Um, so we really had
00:48:57.840 to navigate what that looks like in our careers, what that looks like on social media. And we were
00:49:02.860 frustrated seeing all of these kind of perfect Christians, I guess on, on social media. We're like,
00:49:08.820 no, we want to share what it, what our walk really looks like. So for us, we just wanted to be
00:49:13.740 really consistent and honest and authentic to what it looks like to actually be a Christian in
00:49:21.580 today's world. Yeah. I want to talk more about that, that this world is not set up to celebrate
00:49:25.940 happy marriages. Hollywood certainly no, but even regular world. I mean, I I've observed this even my
00:49:31.060 own life. You go out with groups of friends in certain pockets. Um, you know, we, we travel amongst
00:49:37.300 different groups of friends in different places. And in some of the groups, it's always the guys with
00:49:41.220 the, with the guys and the girls with the girls, right? Like you go out to dinner, whatever. It's
00:49:44.340 like, wait, no, I want to experience this evening with my spouse. Like I don't, I'm not looking to
00:49:49.760 separate from him at every party and every dinner. And, but that's just my own, but you've experienced
00:49:54.520 it in a, in a world that the messaging around faith around love filled well, happy marriages
00:50:03.140 is nothing like what it used to be.
00:50:05.220 Yeah. No, no. And, and, and especially like in our industry, we got married really young. I mean,
00:50:11.660 what was it? 23, 23, 24. Like, like, like that's kind of unheard of in our industry. And
00:50:17.200 I feel like people like our friends kind of, kind of disowned us because they were like, well,
00:50:23.800 they're the married couple now. And I'm like, but, but it's okay. We can still hang out. You know,
00:50:27.040 it's fine. And it was, it was really hard for us, uh, in the beginning. Cause we didn't have,
00:50:31.960 have a lot of friends, especially, yeah, especially in LA. And we, we ended up after we
00:50:37.100 had our first kid, we ended up moving to Maui. Uh, and, uh, it's been amazing. We, you know,
00:50:43.140 a lot of young Christian, uh, families and it's just, man, I really hope that like, like my goal
00:50:51.900 is that we can really show people the beauty of marriage again, you know, and the beauty of,
00:50:56.420 you know, creating that family and having a bunch of kids and, and traveling. I mean,
00:51:00.160 we're currently on tour with my band. We're coming to you live from our tour bus.
00:51:04.120 So cool. Uh, yeah. And, uh, and you know, uh, a big conversation was, are you bringing your family
00:51:10.860 on tour? And I'm like, well, yeah, I'm not going to leave my kids, my five-year-old, my three-year-old,
00:51:15.700 my one-year-old and my beautiful wife for three months while I go tour the world and play shows.
00:51:21.000 Like I want them to experience that with me. Cause those are the memories that we can create. And
00:51:25.420 we had to make a lot of sacrifices to make this happen, but man, you know, it's been three weeks
00:51:30.420 and I wouldn't change a thing. It's a good way to start distancing from one another. If you physically
00:51:35.360 distance the emotional distance inevitably will follow. So you're right. You're doing, you're
00:51:40.520 prioritizing your love, your family, but I've got to ask you why Maui, right? Cause most people,
00:51:45.600 I don't, nobody moves to Matt. Who moves to Maui? Like it's an amazing idea.
00:51:50.260 We, we vacationed there a little bit.
00:51:51.960 Yeah. But we always thought like, Oh, once we retire, we'll live there. Um, but what I love
00:51:56.860 about my husband is he's such a go-getter that like for us, we're like, why are we, why are you,
00:52:01.820 why are we going to wait to until retirement to go have fun? Like, why don't we just go have this
00:52:05.640 fun? Well, because we were worried about what other people would think about it. And I think over the
00:52:10.120 last, yeah, like over the last handful of years, we kind of realized like, who cares, who cares what
00:52:15.980 people think about what you're doing? It's already not going to like you.
00:52:19.040 Yeah. Like that, that doesn't matter. And, and we're all so worried about, you know,
00:52:23.800 making, making our life look like an Instagram picture, you know, so perfect with all the filters
00:52:28.680 like, man, you know what, if I feel like I want to go do this and, and, you know, it's not bad,
00:52:34.320 of course, like, let's just go do it. And who cares? You know, my, my dad, I love him to death,
00:52:39.140 but he thinks we're crazy that we moved to Maui because it's not convenient for him.
00:52:42.920 And I had to go, well, pops, like, it's really convenient for us, but he's mad about it. It's
00:52:48.640 not convenient for him. And, you know, the old me would have been like, well, maybe, you know,
00:52:52.600 maybe we shouldn't do it because it's not convenient for him. But now I'm like, no,
00:52:55.800 this is what our family needed. And we made it happen.
00:52:59.260 Well, I love the idea. Cause I know, Alexa, you grew up, was it on a ranch in Florida?
00:53:03.680 So yeah, like you're used to being outside and having a connection with nature and having lived
00:53:10.060 in New York city for a bunch of years. And I know now, and not you, me, but you were in LA,
00:53:14.580 obviously for a bunch of years, you kind of lose that, you know, you're surrounded. I realize LA
00:53:18.440 you can hike or whatever, but it's not the same as being in Maui or growing up on a ranch. Your kids
00:53:23.700 now, it sounds like the way you're raising them is they're outside. They're connected with nature and
00:53:28.900 you guys are too. You're not sitting in front of screens constantly or, you know, in New York
00:53:34.040 where the main focus is on getting drunk at some bar restaurant. Exactly. No, we just wanted to give
00:53:40.860 our kids the best upbringing we could. Cause at the end of the day, we are going to travel. We are
00:53:45.180 going to be in big cities. They have the coolest life cause they get to go experience all these
00:53:49.720 different cultures all over the world because that's where our work takes us. So we wanted to
00:53:54.320 make sure that home-based was a place that we could really root ourselves into and really create
00:53:59.940 community and a place that felt like home. And, and for us, it ended up being Maui, but I will say,
00:54:05.200 and I've, I've talked about this recently, but, um, I moved begrudgingly because I knew it. I knew
00:54:12.560 God was calling our family to move. I really felt that pull on my heart. I feel so badly for you. You had
00:54:17.780 to move to Maui. Listen, um, but, but the truth, the truth was I, I was so invested in my career,
00:54:29.380 uh, and it was really picking up and I was working a lot that it, for me, it was really taking a big
00:54:35.820 step back to focus on family and to focus on our marriage. And, you know, for the longest time,
00:54:40.280 I'd always really thought that we moved for Carlos because Carlos was really frustrated with how things
00:54:45.520 were going in the industry for him and how things were moving. So he just was like, I need to get
00:54:50.400 away or I'm going to quit. So we moved. And in the beginning, I like, it was actually a struggle for
00:54:56.460 me. Cause I just, I grew up in this industry. I started when I was four. So for me, set is home.
00:55:01.500 So the idea of leaving this place that offered me so much, it was like ripping a part of me away.
00:55:07.040 But what I realized actually ended up happening was my identity was so in the industry that I needed to
00:55:14.740 be pulled away from it to really root myself, like further into my faith, further into our
00:55:20.580 relationship, our family. And we came out stronger than ever. We've, we've taken the last five years
00:55:25.700 to really foundation build in our family and in our faith. And we are, I feel like we can conquer
00:55:31.120 anything now. We've really come out of it. Just like we got this. You're welcome. Thank you,
00:55:35.080 babe. Thank you, babe. That was such a smart choice. I mean, most people don't listen to that little
00:55:40.600 voice. You're lucky that you had Carlos to sort of pull you and say, I see the path. And you took a
00:55:47.320 leap of faith in many ways and it paid off. So let's talk about the faith because, um, it was a
00:55:53.240 journey for both of you, right? Like Carol, Carlos, you were raised Catholic. Then you tried out, uh,
00:55:59.440 the Baptist church. And then I think, as I understand it, your parents got divorced and
00:56:03.520 it didn't bring them together. So you were like, all right, that Baptist church doesn't work.
00:56:07.040 So, so how did you reconnect with God? I read, I read you writing about like Jesus and I'm trying
00:56:15.040 to remember exactly how you put it. Hold on. Cause I like it. Cause I wanted to ask you about it.
00:56:18.200 Yeah. You write how you listen to somebody talking about how he'd met Jesus, how he'd met Jesus.
00:56:24.680 And what did that mean to you at the time?
00:56:27.640 So our, our, our, our best friend now, Andrew, uh, who's, who's probably listening right now,
00:56:33.240 Andrew. We love you dude so much. Um, he, he'd always been this like shining light in our lives.
00:56:39.740 And I, I never knew why, but his, his, his consistency and his faith and his, his just love
00:56:47.020 for people. It, it just like, like, you know, like, like I was attracted to his life. Right.
00:56:55.020 And I was in a really dark place in my life. I had just come off the tour. I was, uh, doing things
00:57:00.880 that I probably shouldn't have been doing. Definitely shouldn't have been doing. Uh, and
00:57:04.660 I didn't know who to call except for this one person in my life who was a consistent light in
00:57:11.300 my life. Yeah. I mean, Andrew and I were friends, you know, he was my, he was my realtor. So like,
00:57:17.060 we weren't like best friends, but like, I, you know, I, I knew him, but I thought about everybody
00:57:22.880 in my life, everybody in my family, all my friends, my coworkers. And I was like, this is the one
00:57:27.920 person that I see. I feel like he's got it all figured out altogether. So I, so I call
00:57:33.400 him up and I'm like, Andrew, I'm like, dude, nice talking to you. Got one question. Why
00:57:39.060 are you so happy? And he literally just laughed and he started talking about Jesus. And I immediately
00:57:44.800 hung up the phone. I was like, not, I'm not doing this. And after that two days go by, I
00:57:52.000 call him again. I'm like, okay, I'll listen this time. So he invites me to church and begrudging
00:57:57.840 me. I go to this church, but you know, I'm just kind of like, I'm searching. I'm like,
00:58:01.820 I'm like, I need something in my life. Cause I, I'm just miserable. So I go to this church.
00:58:06.460 It's this little black church at Inglewood, the old ladies with the big hats. Uh, they're
00:58:10.700 like, you know, clapping their hands, singing some gospel music. And I'm, I'm just feeling
00:58:14.040 it. And the Bishop goes up and he preaches this sermon about when he was 23. And I was like,
00:58:19.220 I'm, I'm 23. And he preaches all this stuff that he was doing this. He was doing that.
00:58:23.840 He was sleeping around. And I was like, oh my gosh, this is me. And it was as if he
00:58:27.160 was, God was literally speaking through him directly to me. And I, I left that church
00:58:32.380 and I was like, I, I, I want it all. Like I was on a Jesus high. I called everybody that
00:58:39.420 I'd ever wronged and I apologized. And I, and I go to Andrew and I said, Andrew, I want
00:58:45.180 more like, like, like how do I get more? And he goes, well, I have a Bible study on, you
00:58:49.680 know, Wednesday nights, you should come. And I said, okay, I'm there. So I ended up showing
00:58:54.000 up to the Bible study. Now I'm on my Jesus high. And lo and behold, Alexa shows up at
00:59:01.800 the Bible study for her first time also. And she was going through wars and it was just
00:59:06.680 literally, I, I tell people, I'm like, I, I found God and truly found God and, and, and
00:59:14.020 just like submitted myself to him and gave him my life. And my life changed within seven
00:59:19.100 days. Yeah. I mean, right away, but, but like within seven days I had met my future
00:59:24.540 wife who I was going to have three kids with and travel the world. Like I, I, I
00:59:28.980 couldn't have written that, you know? Yeah. It's crazy. Yeah. We know, did you know,
00:59:33.780 Alexa, what was your history with faith, with God before that moment of meeting
00:59:38.180 Carlos at the Andrew Bible study?
00:59:40.480 It was touch and go. So, um, when I was really little, my mom really instilled a
00:59:46.100 love for God and still the love for Jesus in my heart. Um, but then, you know, as, as
00:59:51.660 seasons go by in your life, like we all have our, our seasons that we go through, um, faith
00:59:56.600 really fell off of our family. Um, so we stopped going to church when I was like 13. Now, when
01:00:01.520 I say, um, we were going to church, we were kind of doing the, like every other Sunday
01:00:06.060 type thing, very topical. Like I knew there was more to Jesus. I just didn't know like what
01:00:12.240 that depth was. I knew there was a better relationship with God, but I didn't really have
01:00:15.900 anybody with our whole family. We didn't have somebody in our life to like really guide
01:00:19.100 us and navigate us to what that was. So, um, my, my heart craved it though. And when I
01:00:24.860 was 16, I started driving and I would drive myself to church and I would drive my sisters
01:00:29.480 to church with me. Um, but again, it was this like Sunday morning thing. I knew there was
01:00:35.580 more, but I didn't know how to attain that. Like I would try to read my Bible, but the version
01:00:40.960 that I had wasn't really a version that I understood. Um, so my craving for that relationship
01:00:46.920 was always there, but it didn't really actually, I didn't deep dive until that first Bible study.
01:00:51.600 I even went through a failed marriage. Um, I learned a lot from that. I always have a cordial
01:00:56.760 relationship. Um, I even talk about it in the book a little bit. He was somebody that helped
01:01:00.860 me navigate, um, the, the outs of my, I battled the eating disorder growing up and he was there
01:01:07.660 for me for that. So I'll always be thankful for the things that I learned in that first
01:01:11.460 relationship. Um, but coming out of it, I was just really lost and I'm, I was done.
01:01:17.560 I'm like, God, I need you. And I really need to find you. And I wanted to deep dive. So I
01:01:24.220 called my friend Andrew, um, who had told me about his Bible study multiple times and I was finally
01:01:29.180 ready to go. And it was just interesting how the crossroads for us, we were both at low points
01:01:35.180 in our lives where we were really craving being rooted into something and really having that
01:01:40.220 stability. And that happened to be right when we met. So our entire foundation of our relationship
01:01:46.180 is our faith and always was our faith. It wasn't like started out our relationship. And then we
01:01:51.060 discovered this and had to try to figure out how to add it to our relationship. Like us hanging out
01:01:55.740 was going to Bible study, going to church together, talking about God, praying together. And it really
01:02:01.300 molded us as a couple. And, and I think that's why we've been able to be so successful as a couple,
01:02:08.140 as a family, because of that. Don't get it. Don't get me wrong. We had our hard times. We got
01:02:13.300 our, our hills and our valleys. Well, but that brings me to my next question, because I think
01:02:18.560 in a way you were very lucky to have such success professionally in your lives, each one of you
01:02:23.940 at a young age, right? Because that the industry that you chose, and I can relate because media is
01:02:30.780 ball of roses. But the industries that you chose are kind of toxic. And I think a lot of people go
01:02:38.740 into them thinking it's going to fill something in you. You know, if you, if you can spike that ball
01:02:42.860 in the end zone, you're going to be like, yes, I made it. I'm famous. I'm earning a great living at a
01:02:47.920 young age. I'm beautiful. Yeah. I know, Alexa, you were on, I wrote it down the vanity fair,
01:02:52.960 hottest teen celebs list, starring in movies and you're touring Carlos. So it's like, okay,
01:02:58.280 I did it. Like I, I am accomplishing all of my professional goals. Why do I feel so bad?
01:03:03.600 Why? Right. Like if you don't get to that, then you're still just chasing the false God,
01:03:09.200 right? You got to the point where you, you captured the false God and felt the emptiness that comes with it.
01:03:13.780 And listen, we still battle. I mean, we're human. We still battle, you know, finding good community,
01:03:20.320 especially when we're on the road. I mean, we haven't been home in five months. So, you know,
01:03:25.360 trying to build friendships, especially, you know, when you move to a new place. So like we've been
01:03:29.940 on Maui almost six years now, but yeah, friendship doesn't happen overnight. You have to build it.
01:03:34.320 You have to cultivate it. Right. And then for us, we've been on the road and something awesome
01:03:39.100 happened. We, um, we, I don't think we can announce it yet, but something really amazing
01:03:43.960 happened about a month ago. And we were like jumping up and down, like crying, celebrating.
01:03:49.360 And then we were also really sad. Cause we're like, we have like one person that we can call
01:03:55.180 about. We didn't have, we don't have, we don't have like this plethora of friends. Um, at least
01:04:04.500 not to that kind of depth. And, and Andrew has just always really been there for us, but it was also
01:04:08.980 this moment of kind of like pain too, because, you know, we, we love our parents. We're not very close
01:04:14.580 with our parents. Um, we're starting to develop better relationships with our siblings, which has
01:04:19.620 been amazing. Um, but again, it was just this kind of sad, lonely moment where like, thank God we had
01:04:25.720 each other. Thank God we had Andrew. And we're, we're really trying to build our community, but
01:04:29.300 we're just like, man, we don't have anybody else to celebrate with, but it was just such this moment
01:04:33.680 where like, God did not intend us to be alone. He wants you to have that community because you can't
01:04:39.580 really celebrate something alone. Like you want to celebrate with other people. And that's why I always
01:04:44.900 tell people, I'm like, if you can dig into community, if you could find your people to do it,
01:04:49.540 it's so important, especially like-minded people. Cause we have a ton of friends in this industry
01:04:53.700 who don't know God or, or who don't think like we do, or who are polar opposites in our, in our way
01:04:58.960 of thinking. Um, but like, but they're awesome. And we want to, we want to pour into each other.
01:05:03.760 We want to love on each other, but there's something so special about finding like-minded people
01:05:07.840 because they really lift you up in all the areas that you need to be lifted up and they hold you
01:05:12.300 accountable. Yeah. And that's been to go back to your question. That's probably been like way more
01:05:16.600 fulfilling than any of this other stuff that the acting, the awards that, you know, being on tour,
01:05:21.860 this is all great, but, but you're right. There's always like a sense of emptiness. And how did we
01:05:27.300 fill that? It was literally deepening our relationship with God and finding a really good
01:05:31.720 community, whether it's, you know, as small as ours or, you know, big, like just really, really having
01:05:37.220 that, um, that, that one-on-one with God and one-on-one with people. I feel like people are so topical
01:05:42.500 now. So like the friends that we do have, they really invest and we invest in them. So it's,
01:05:47.760 it's, it's so fulfilling.
01:05:49.360 Here's my question for you, Carlos. Cause when I, I was reading your story and it's, it's a great
01:05:53.700 story. Cause I love that you, you had so much rejection before you actually got big time rush.
01:05:58.080 It was like, and I tried out and I did really well and no, and then I tried another one and no,
01:06:04.500 and it just kept coming, but you kept going. So you, then, then you get cast in this, you know,
01:06:08.460 hit show and the band. And, um, I was, I was expecting like a fall where it was like you were
01:06:15.520 strung out on drugs, you know, but it was actually kind of sweet to me that it, it was short of that,
01:06:21.520 that your light bulb went on. I mean, yeah, yeah. Like a lot of video games, you're talking about
01:06:27.060 eating hot pockets and ice cream every night. I'm like, it sounds pretty good, but that was part of
01:06:30.800 your love. I mean, you know, I, it's so funny when we did dancing with the stars, I told my testimony
01:06:37.340 and I said, you know, like I was smoking a lot of weed every day and I was doing this and I was
01:06:42.560 drinking and I was sleeping around. And one of the dancers, you know, he, he, he came up to me
01:06:47.500 after the show and he's like, bro, you're making us all look bad. Like that's, that was your rock
01:06:52.480 bottom. That's my life. I was like, look, I was like, at the end of the day, everybody's walk is
01:06:58.020 going to be different. And for me, like that's that, that, that I'm thankful that that's when I hit
01:07:04.180 that moment of like, I need help because if I didn't, if I didn't have Andrew in my life,
01:07:09.400 I don't know where I would have been. I mean, like I might've gone deeper, you know, you just
01:07:15.380 like never know. But, but then, you know, that being said, I've taken that to, you know, in my
01:07:20.720 heart going, I need to be that light for anyone in my life. So Andrew was this bright, consistent
01:07:27.840 light to me. That's the word we always go back to. Consistency. And I feel like our world right now,
01:07:32.300 like there's no consistency, like faith, politics, whatever you want. Everybody's just like this.
01:07:36.700 And I'm like, can we just get this one bar of consistency and people are going to just trust it
01:07:41.220 a lot more. And they're going to be way more willing to, you know, go and, you know, take,
01:07:46.460 take that advice. So, so for me, like, if I didn't have Andrew, I don't know. I don't know how far,
01:07:52.500 how, how deep I would have gone. This is reminding me of the, um, Mr. Rogers, you know,
01:07:57.660 when, when tough times come, look for the helpers, look for the helpers. Don't you think
01:08:02.360 Andrew was sent to you? Yeah. I feel like he was sent to you. Oh yeah, absolutely. 100% to so many
01:08:08.900 people. And he's a true servant. And I always tell people, if you want to be a good leader,
01:08:13.340 you have to be a really good servant. I mean, that's literally Jesus. And, and he, he walks the
01:08:18.760 walk and it's beautiful to witness. Where is Andrew? We need Andrew to call in or something.
01:08:23.780 We need like, he's listening right now. No, Andrew, he's going to be our next booking.
01:08:30.520 You, you can be a great leader, but, but if I've learned anything from Andrew is that a great leader
01:08:35.780 knows when to allow someone to lead. Right. So it's like, you can allow someone else to shine.
01:08:42.180 Well, like, you know, listen, listen, like, like you can lead all you want, but as long as you know,
01:08:47.040 when it's time to step back and let somebody else lead for a change, most leaders want to lead all the
01:08:51.440 time. And that's where you get all of these, a lot of problems, but man, if you just know,
01:08:56.360 Hey, you know what, this is my time to take one little step back so somebody else can lead.
01:09:00.560 You go. That takes a lot of confidence, which not everybody has. I feel like your background,
01:09:06.880 Alexa was, was, I don't know if I'd say more typical, but you definitely had some hardship
01:09:11.400 in your, in your childhood rise to fame. You mentioned the eating disorder, which I would
01:09:16.680 definitely like to ask you about in a minute, but, um, can we talk about the relationship with
01:09:21.300 your parents? Because as, as I'm reading about, and I watched you, I mean, I, I have three kids,
01:09:26.620 you know, I definitely watched you in spy school and, um, sleepover. And, um, I was shocked to read.
01:09:33.600 And I, by the way, I didn't realize you were in evening shade, the Burt Reynolds, like that was
01:09:37.340 really little. So you, you have your life on camera and then you get to the part of the book where
01:09:44.040 you talk about how your mom did not let you take your money when you turned 18 and left home.
01:09:50.620 What? See, okay. So I know that people see that and they think that's a big deal. Like I've never
01:09:55.680 really thought of it as a big deal because the truth is I never looked at my career as a career.
01:10:02.440 Um, for me, I was doing something that I loved and I would have done it for free. Um, and it was
01:10:07.260 something that, uh, my entire family sacrificed for me to be able to do. Now I know a lot of people hear
01:10:13.540 that and it makes them frustrated, but the truth was like, I really would have done it for free.
01:10:19.220 And, and, and I probably would still continue to do it for free. Thank God we don't because we
01:10:23.440 provided it's provided for us a great life. But, um, but yeah, so that's not, I wish, thank God that
01:10:30.640 that's not technically the reason why we we've had a rocky relationship. And I'm hoping that we're a
01:10:36.260 little bit more on the mend. Now I've been praying for it. We're so different than we were,
01:10:40.220 you know, 20 years ago, 15 years ago. So we've grown a lot. Um, but yeah, yeah, I, I walked away
01:10:47.040 and I just started over and I lived on my friend's couch for a little bit. I learned a lot there and,
01:10:53.240 um, God really provided for me. And I think that's like, that's the biggest takeaway that I hope
01:10:57.220 anybody can get, um, from the book is it's easy to get looked like lost on, or it's easy to get stuck
01:11:02.000 on like, Oh, you left with nothing. Like you had no money. But the truth was I can give everything
01:11:06.300 away right now. And I know for a fact that God is going to provide for me and the weeks to come,
01:11:11.900 like, I'm not going to be left alone, completely like broken on the side of the road. I've given
01:11:17.580 all my money away before and I was provided for greatly. And, and I think that's just kind of
01:11:23.260 the faith that I've always had. Yes, babe. Yes, babe. Oh, I mean, you are great, but I would still like
01:11:30.120 to get my residuals from spark. No, right. You really want to have to choose. You can harbor on
01:11:37.780 it and like really let that eat you alive or go. It's just money. I'll make more and move on. And
01:11:43.620 for me, the health option was just moving on. There wasn't. Okay. Let me ask you about that.
01:11:47.320 Cause you were saying the prayers and so on. Do you pray for your enemies or people who have hurt you?
01:11:52.160 Always. You have to, or else I've just started. It's very hard. I can't like it. It takes,
01:11:59.900 it takes a lot. Like when I do it, I'm like, mother. I know. Well, cause like part of you is
01:12:05.000 like, you could just send a bus, God, just send a bus. Like, no, no, no. You don't want any harm to
01:12:10.680 anybody. But, but the truth is like, I, I wasn't always that way. It took, it took learning. It took
01:12:17.640 growing and it took like, okay, what's actually going to make the difference in my heart when,
01:12:22.000 uh, when I do this and you feel so much lighter, you feel so much better when you are praying for
01:12:26.900 people who you don't really like or who are mean to you. Um, but the biggest thing I took away from
01:12:31.900 it was I was driving one day and somebody cut me off and I was just like, so annoyed by them.
01:12:38.480 And I happened to be driving with this really, this woman who was just filled with wisdom.
01:12:42.060 And she was like, how about instead of getting mad at them? Why don't you pray for that? Maybe
01:12:45.140 they've never received prayer before. I was like,
01:12:47.640 Oh my gosh, that I just got checked. I just got checked by the woman next to me. So now when
01:12:52.400 people cut me off at traffic, I pray for them. Well, when you drive like Alexa, you know,
01:12:57.600 happens a lot. Oh man. She's like, she, she needs to get from A to B in the fastest time possible
01:13:06.600 because she, because she left 20 minutes late. And I'm like, why did I leave 20 minutes late?
01:13:11.440 Don't blame me. Don't blame me. Usually I can 100% relate to her on every front. I am
01:13:17.480 exactly the same. And I do get mad. And I always, I hate when people cut me off and I'm like, Oh,
01:13:21.980 I'm sorry. Was your, was your time more important than my life and the life of my child?
01:13:25.440 I get it.
01:13:26.820 No problem. Okay. It'd be great if you can have a dialogue with these people and not just with the
01:13:31.900 Lord about these people, but I am trying. I, Kathy Lee Gifford, my pal talked to me a long time about
01:13:39.020 how, um, and she's told this story to him too. So he knows what Howard Stern used to hate Kathy Lee
01:13:44.660 Gifford. And he used to rip on her all the time publicly. And she used to pray for him. And he met
01:13:49.740 her one day at the today show. He was coming through to promote something. And I guess what the way she
01:13:53.620 tells it, she went over to him and, um, he said something nice. He wasn't a jerk to her face. And
01:13:58.080 she said, I've been praying for you, you know, all this time. And, and it kind of led to a thaw.
01:14:04.000 And I think they're on good terms now, but the fact that she was able to pray for him all those
01:14:08.240 years while he was saying the terrible things is what got me kind of considering like maybe
01:14:12.260 instead of just resorting to this hatred I have in my heart for certain people, speaking of the today
01:14:17.220 show. Um, maybe, maybe I could do something else. I'm working on it. Yes. You know what?
01:14:27.300 Your heart will feel better for it. And also when you really think about it, like what do people,
01:14:33.000 what, what, what's happening in the world? Division, division. There's so much division
01:14:37.940 and you can either really lean into that division and like stir up the hate in your heart. Or you can
01:14:42.580 say like, no, I'm going to overcome it. Like I'm going to stomp out the enemy and I'm going to
01:14:46.000 overcome this division with light and love. And, and it's not easy. It's not easy. Like
01:14:51.580 God did not call us to like everybody, but he did call us to love everybody. So I love a lot of people
01:14:56.580 that I don't like, but it's cause I'm called to. We say that a lot. All right. Let me pause it there.
01:15:02.800 I'll squeeze in a quick break and then much, much more with Carlos and Alexa right after this quick
01:15:07.280 break. So fun. So fun meeting them. So Carlos, let's go back to when you've
01:15:16.000 quote, like hit, right? So you're struggling, you're getting the rejection, all that stuff,
01:15:20.020 but then you get cast in big time rush. And it was like, you guys had, you had sort of a similar
01:15:25.680 thing and you shot to superstardom. It was like, boom. You know what I mean? That show was a big
01:15:30.660 success before you know it. You've got tons of fans for people who haven't seen it. Here's just a
01:15:35.780 little clip. So people know what we're talking about. This is Sot Night.
01:15:52.780 Wow. Music video takes you back. Yes. That's the clip you show.
01:15:57.780 Oh, it's so cute. What do you mean? You brought back the boy band.
01:16:03.640 We were doing it an homage to Backstreet Boys in the airport. That was the idea.
01:16:10.340 Okay. It worked. Yeah. It was cute. It was cute. You've got the fun. I mean, you had to have had
01:16:17.160 the fawning girls everywhere. It's like a modern day version of the Beatles. Yeah. Listen, he's very
01:16:23.800 humble. He will not say this, but I'll speak for him on this behalf. We're literally sitting here
01:16:28.640 right now where he's going to be performing tonight, but they just played MSG. It was sold
01:16:33.520 out. Every, every venue that they go to, it's nearly sold out or sold out. Um, they sold out
01:16:39.360 their Mexico show in like what? Three hours or something like it's, it's amazing. The fan base
01:16:45.720 that they have is incredible. Yeah. I mean, listen, listen, we, we, I like to say that we, we did bring
01:16:50.980 the boy band back, you know, um, you did. There'd been a lot of boy bands trying to make
01:16:55.620 it, but the fact that we had a TV show that was reaching 4 million kids every single week
01:17:01.000 and then the song could be on iTunes and it, like we, you know, it wasn't as big as Hannah
01:17:06.520 Montana, but we definitely, you know, we helped reignite that love for, you know, male dudes
01:17:13.620 on stage, you know, pointing in the same direction. It actually feels so much more wholesome to
01:17:21.320 me. I'd much rather have my child watching that than listening. Even, you know, you put
01:17:25.120 on Spotify today and you just hit like today's hits and it's like F and F and F and F and N
01:17:30.380 word, N word, N word, N word, N word. You're like, Oh my God, what is today's? I don't get
01:17:34.560 it. I don't, I don't, I don't understand it at all. I mean, you're not going that
01:17:39.720 direction. No, no. And, and, and you know what we like, I, there's four guys in, in
01:17:45.980 my group and this resurgence, this comeback of ours has been so much fun and we're writing
01:17:49.860 a lot of music, but it's definitely a battle. I mean, I'm, I'm really the only believer.
01:17:55.300 Um, our lifestyle is very different from their lifestyle. I'm married with kids on our own
01:18:00.760 bus. They share one bus and they do their stuff. And it's like, you know, I, I, I love
01:18:06.160 them, but I'm very much, you know, alone in this. So I'm constantly being like, well,
01:18:11.280 can we not say this in the song, but can we say this, you know, can we not do this when
01:18:15.800 we do this? Um, so yeah, I mean, it's, uh, you know, it's, I think you've done a really
01:18:21.080 good job at balancing it though, but also keeping them in keeping the whole band in a
01:18:25.980 place that is still family friendly. Like you guys are able to grow up, but you're still
01:18:30.860 family friendly. Yeah. Well, it's like you mentioned Hannah Montana and I don't want you
01:18:34.340 to rip on Miley Cyrus, but she did sort of cross over from this beloved children's star
01:18:39.440 to like very raunchy. And I would say as somebody who is her fan at that, you know, earlier,
01:18:45.080 I was like, I don't know. I don't want to see this. I don't, you know, I'll never forget
01:18:49.240 her interview with Matt Lauer on today years ago. Right. And it was like, she was clearly
01:18:54.160 trying to be titillating and he was inappropriate too. And when it was over, I just felt kind of
01:18:59.620 skeevy. It makes me sad because as the years keep going by, I feel like the, the, the bar
01:19:08.600 of like, what is okay, just keeps getting raised. And I'm like, no, can we bring it? I mean,
01:19:13.220 the stuff that they're allowed to say on cable television, I'm like, how can they say that?
01:19:17.400 Like, really? They just got away with that.
01:19:19.720 Well, I think it's hard because ultimately at the end of the day, like Miley is really
01:19:23.380 talented. She is so talented. She's a fantastic performer. Like when I see girls kind of go in
01:19:29.880 this direction, I'm like, you don't even need to do that. I don't know why, I don't know who's
01:19:33.560 pushing you to do this stuff, but you don't need to, you have talent. Like that's, that speaks for
01:19:38.380 itself. You don't even have to go down that road, but I get it. And like Carlos editing out the,
01:19:42.700 whatever the lyrics that maybe they don't have to, you don't, as the fan, you don't even know
01:19:46.580 that's been done. You don't, you know, so it's great. You just get this nice product.
01:19:50.300 And it reminded me of, um, and I were talking about this, the Superbowl show with JLo and
01:19:54.480 Shakira, right? Where it was like, I mean, I saw lady parts as I watched the Superbowl with my
01:20:00.340 then six-year-old. I did not need, I did not need to see that. I did not need my son to see that.
01:20:07.000 It's like, they're great dancers or great performers or great singers. Why, why does it
01:20:11.000 have to be truly like almost X rated? Yeah. No, because it's that bar, that bar keeps getting
01:20:17.340 raised. Like it's just, I mean, even the boundaries every year, even, even children's
01:20:21.620 programming. Now I, I, again, I'm not going to rip on anybody individually, but there are some
01:20:25.900 things out there. Like I, I can't let my kids watch. We just don't let them want, we, we have
01:20:30.640 to be so careful. Yeah. I mean, like Disney movies, you can't go to Disney, Disney movies. I mean,
01:20:35.540 even Nickelodeon. I'm like, come on guys. Like there's, there's no need to go there. It's okay.
01:20:39.500 These are babies. These are babies. We need to remember that they're just little kids and
01:20:44.840 they're still navigating life. It's so, it's, what's so crazy about our society right now is
01:20:49.860 we try to, you know, we put more, forgive me, but like there's more vag in the public square and
01:20:54.340 there's less God. A hundred percent. A hundred percent. But I will say this, you read, you read
01:21:00.820 the Bible, you're looking at the old Testament and it's not very different than what's going on today.
01:21:05.480 I mean, you had all of this stuff happening back then. It's just, we have social media
01:21:10.640 now. Like there's a faster in your brain way to get there. Um, but again, that's a great
01:21:16.520 point. I actually, I haven't yet. I've never read the Bible like beginning to end, but I
01:21:21.860 have been doing, um, father Mike's Bible in a year, which I like, everybody's been doing
01:21:25.640 this, this great podcast past. And I listen to it. I'm like, cause I also love crime podcasts.
01:21:30.780 I love dateline and 48 hours, 20, 20. I just like, I don't know, whatever, but I'm like,
01:21:34.520 this is, this is like another crime podcast, but I compare the Bible. I'm like, I'm like,
01:21:41.960 I loved the hunger games. I remember reading them and just being so enthwalled, like so
01:21:46.020 excited about it. And I felt the same way about reading the Bible through when you find
01:21:49.440 a Bible that you can understand. So make sure you find one that's easier for you to read.
01:21:53.920 Even if you have to just start with the message version, start there and then grow and like
01:21:58.460 move on to like, maybe like a more like old school version. Um, but it felt like I was
01:22:03.700 reading some crazy adventure book. It's incredible. And it's actually like, the stories
01:22:08.440 are amazing. And the fact that all of this happened, like, I don't know, I get excited
01:22:12.300 about reading the Bible and we feel a little differently. The Bible is a little harder for
01:22:16.880 you to read.
01:22:17.820 Definitely harder. I'm, I'm like you, I'm more like, let me just listen to it. Let me have
01:22:21.900 like, like preach me.
01:22:23.360 Like this woman used to wake up at like four in the morning and go to this room that we
01:22:28.940 designated as like our prayer room. And she would go to the room and every morning when I felt
01:22:32.660 her get out of bed at four in the morning to go read her Bible, I was like, you go
01:22:36.320 read your Bible. Like it bothered me so much because I felt so convicted that I should be
01:22:42.200 waking up and going to read my Bible and pray with her and start on like that. And it, I
01:22:47.160 mean, she did that for like half a year until I was like, Hey, you know what? I feel guilty.
01:22:52.200 I've been hating on you for doing this, but I should be supporting you and maybe joining
01:22:55.780 you. She was like,
01:22:56.500 I'll tell you, I have the experience where like I have it playing if I don't have the
01:23:01.460 headphones in and my kids will come into the room. Now my kids are older. Uh, I think
01:23:06.620 you said five, three and one, I've got, uh, eight, 10, eight, 11 and 12. And, uh, you
01:23:11.120 know, there's like on Sodom and Gomorrah, I'm like, pause, pause.
01:23:14.160 Yeah.
01:23:16.000 You didn't listen to that.
01:23:17.340 There's some intense stuff in there.
01:23:20.520 Very much so. Okay. So, um, let's get back to your individual story. Cause we talked a bit
01:23:25.180 about Carlos and you know, for you, it was, it was a low and it was a recognition that
01:23:29.220 there was a void that needed to be filled with something other than adulation, money,
01:23:35.140 fame, or even doing what you're great at, which is that is fulfilling doing what you're great
01:23:39.140 at is fulfilling, but it might not be as fulfilling as you, as you need, right? You needed faith.
01:23:44.980 You need a true love. And on the other side there, you were Alexa, same thing, hugely successful.
01:23:50.400 Um, wait, we do have, okay. So we have a clip of you and spy kids for people who want to
01:23:53.820 That fun walk down memory lane, soundbite.
01:23:59.460 Junie, don't listen to her. You're not worthless. You figured out how to get us here. You helped
01:24:07.100 Luke realize he was good, not bad. You talked to the Fuglies and saved mom and dad. You're
01:24:13.540 strong, Junie. You're strong.
01:24:15.760 I have a fun fact right here. If you look up Joseph Gordon-Levitt when he was in third round
01:24:29.400 from the sun and then, and then look up Alexa from spy kids, they look exactly the same.
01:24:34.440 This is very wrong.
01:24:36.260 We do though.
01:24:37.300 They look the same hair. The face looks the same. I'm telling you.
01:24:41.420 I'm 100% dropping a split screen of that into video of this show, which we'll post on later.
01:24:47.880 That has to happen. So now, so things are going great. I'm like you, you were successful at a
01:24:52.700 level. A lot of kids were not successful as Hollywood actors. And before I ask you about where
01:24:56.320 that led, you made a point in the book that one of my good friends is Melissa Francis,
01:25:01.340 who starred in little house on the Prairie when she was a little girl, she was like,
01:25:04.780 she was with Jason Bateman as the next round of children. Once the original three aged out,
01:25:08.880 they brought in new kids, you know? And so she was one of them. And she has made this complaint
01:25:13.060 to me many times. Justine Bateman actually made this complaint to me. You said one of the
01:25:18.460 worst parts of being a child actor was the parents, the parents like on the set. Can you expand on
01:25:25.500 that? Well, okay. So the kids just want to be kids and have fun. And so like, we all want to
01:25:31.300 play together. We all want to hang out. But then when the parents don't get along for whatever reason,
01:25:35.500 they all had like beefs with one another. It really, it messed up our relationships because
01:25:40.160 then we couldn't hang out with the other kids. We couldn't just go and play basketball in between
01:25:45.520 setups or takes or anything like that. It was just very separate because the parents didn't get
01:25:50.340 along. That meant that the kids couldn't be friends. And, uh, you know, I, I will say like
01:25:55.440 for a long time in my career, my mom was not a typical stage mom. She really did try to stay
01:26:00.680 back. And something that she implemented into that, that we've taken with us is that we traveled
01:26:05.920 everywhere as a family. Cause she saw how families were being broken up in the industry. So she was
01:26:10.040 like, if you're going to do a movie, the whole family's going, we're not, we're not separate.
01:26:13.940 Like they're not being raised by somebody else and you're not being raised by a manager. You're
01:26:17.280 being raised like with your family. So I, I really appreciated that. Um, but you know,
01:26:21.820 things get trickier as you know, more of, I guess somewhat like fame comes out and, and
01:26:28.380 after spy kids, I think things just got a little, a little harder to navigate as, as anything. I was
01:26:33.300 entering my teen years. Um, but on set was just difficult because none of the parents got along
01:26:38.060 with each other. There was just always fight. Melissa said it was basically like the kids would
01:26:44.660 get along, but the parents were like, she's getting more screen time than I am. Then my kid is.
01:26:48.600 And you're trying to position the kid. Luckily it wasn't that, um, we didn't have to deal with
01:26:54.400 that. I think it was just, you know, uh, frustrations within each other. Like, I don't,
01:27:00.260 I honestly don't know, but it was not about screen time. Luckily. Okay. So as you age up in the
01:27:05.540 industry, invariably you, like every teenage girl get to the awkward teenage years and you start
01:27:11.080 thinking about more, about more of your appearance and your weight. And it happens to all of us,
01:27:14.680 but you were doing it on camp and then some lovely producer called your mother about your
01:27:20.220 quote, fluctuating weight when you were shooting sleepover, which would have no effect on any
01:27:24.800 teenage girl. I'm sure nobody would respond. No, no, no. And an eating disorder would, would soon
01:27:31.200 appear. And it, it got bad. It got really bad. And I know you say it's not something you totally get
01:27:36.440 over. Just learn how to manage it. But, um, it was to the point where, forgive me, but you said you
01:27:42.520 were vomiting almost 20 times a day in the book. And I just, your body no longer even understood
01:27:48.620 how to process food looking at you today. So vibrant and beautiful. How did you find your way
01:27:54.580 out of that? Um, well, there was years of prayer and years of just being very ashamed, like knowing
01:28:01.820 that this was not me. Like, I think that's the hardest part. And that's what I was so fearful.
01:28:06.680 That's why I was so fearful. People finding out that I had this eating disorder was that
01:28:10.020 I was still me. I was still this girl who was joyful and happy, who wanted to live life, but had
01:28:15.280 this secret, um, that I was so ashamed of that I, no one could know, or else they would think
01:28:20.060 differently of me. Um, and just trying to balance, like people want you to be skinny in this industry
01:28:25.440 and they want you to look a certain way and having no real idea of health, no idea of nutrition.
01:28:32.280 Um, because like nobody teaches you that they just say like, if you want, go eat, go eat mac and
01:28:36.260 cheese, go eat this. But when you're a teenager, you're like, well, I don't know what that's
01:28:39.720 going to do to my body, especially as you, you know, start going through puberty, like
01:28:44.620 your body's fluctuating like crazy anyway. So this was just an added layer. Um, but after
01:28:49.600 years of being in this eating disorder, um, the kind of the first step was, uh, my mom
01:28:54.780 confronted, confronted my ex-husband about it right before we got married. And when he found
01:29:00.640 out that you would think it would send anybody kind of like running in the opposite direction,
01:29:04.380 but I'll give him a lot of props. Like he really stuck with me and he's like, no, you're
01:29:08.180 going to beat this and I'm going to help you through it. Um, and in the beginning I was
01:29:11.640 mad because I wasn't making the decision for me. It was somebody else like forcing this
01:29:16.600 on me. And, uh, it was really hard and I was, I did okay for a couple of years, but, um,
01:29:23.420 that beginning my body was, didn't know how to take in food. So I wasn't, I ended up being
01:29:27.900 hospitalized. I had like insane bloating, crazy ulcers. My body couldn't handle food. I should
01:29:34.680 have been introducing it slowly, but I, we didn't know how, and doctors were not helpful
01:29:38.800 at all. Like when I would explain my story and I would say, I know I would say like, Hey,
01:29:44.120 listen, I had an eating disorder. I don't have it anymore. I'm not throwing up, but my body
01:29:48.520 can't handle it. They didn't believe me that I wasn't throwing up anymore. Instead. They
01:29:53.040 were just like, well, you're still throwing up. That's why it's happening. I'm like, no,
01:29:55.380 you don't understand. Like I've stopped and I, my body's going insane. So instead they just
01:30:00.420 want to kind of pump you with pills and send you on your way and they don't hear you out.
01:30:04.740 And it was a really frustrating couple of years that we ended up getting a divorce and I fell
01:30:11.500 right back into where I, where I left off. And, and it wasn't until I deep dove into my faith.
01:30:17.720 And I always tell people, um, when Paul in Ephesians is talking about the armor of God,
01:30:22.480 you have your helmet of salvation, your breastplate of righteousness, your belt of truth. You then have
01:30:26.420 like your shield of faith and then your sword, which is the word of God. So I had this shield
01:30:31.660 of faith, but I couldn't quite defeat this eating disorder because I didn't yet have the word of
01:30:36.080 God. And when I started diving into the word and what the word says about my temple, which is my
01:30:40.660 body with the, what God says about us and how much he loves us as his children, I suddenly just felt
01:30:46.020 this overwhelming sense of love and peace. And I felt like I could conquer everything from then on.
01:30:51.560 And one day I woke up and it was gone. Like the feeling of wanting to like overeat, to binge,
01:30:57.540 the feeling of wanting to purge. It was as if somebody had like moved out of my house and they
01:31:02.040 were gone forever. You gave me the chills. That's, that is a true miracle. It was like a hundred percent
01:31:08.900 like a helper. Um, this is, this is not a miracle, but we have to end on it. My team found the image
01:31:15.200 of Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Please, we got to see this. You literally look like, yes, dude,
01:31:24.580 that is literally Alexa. I, I see where you're going, but she is much prettier with all due
01:31:31.660 to respect. At the time I looked like Joseph. Yeah. I had no interest in that spy kids girl.
01:31:39.180 No interest was not into it. You should be happy that there are middle school images of you out
01:31:46.440 there that are tolerable in any way. There is a reason I have buried all of those. And I've just
01:31:51.920 gotten rid of all my middle school colleagues. I just made sure that they they're never to be heard
01:31:55.520 from because no one needs to see that. You two are absolutely lovely. I can't like, how can people
01:32:01.280 find out how to hear you, how to watch you? Like, where should they go? Where can they find out
01:32:05.560 everything they need to know if, if they want to, uh, uh, hear, I mean, hear the whole story. Um,
01:32:10.860 our book, what if love is the point is out now you can get it anywhere where you can buy books. Uh,
01:32:15.720 and then we have Instagram. Um, mine is the real Carlos Pena and Alexa is at Vega Alexa. Uh,
01:32:22.620 and then we share a joint, uh, you know, we were reluctant, we were not super excited about joining
01:32:27.260 TikTok, but we're on TikTok and we're kind of, we just share some family fun and just, you know,
01:32:32.620 just want to put a light out there. Yes. I think I love it. You've joined together in that way.
01:32:37.620 You've joined together Pena Vega, which I like to, you didn't have to give up your last name and you,
01:32:41.400 it's sort of another symbol of your connection, your love. Uh, you guys are a great example for
01:32:45.700 young people, for Christians, for people who are struggling. Uh, and if you want to know more,
01:32:49.760 just read the book. What if love is the point? What if love is the point? What if it is? Cause it is.
01:32:57.300 Thank you both so much, Alex and Carlos, lots of love to you.
01:33:00.200 Thank you for having us. I wanted to give you a word on an important subject. We discuss a lot
01:33:04.980 here on the Megan Kelly show before we go on, that is Strudwick. My dog, get a lot of questions
01:33:09.360 about him online. He's still just as naughty as ever. He was making progress with the trainer
01:33:13.560 before we left Connecticut for the summer. And then we left Connecticut for the summer. So now he's
01:33:17.300 down here terrorizing the New Jersey shore. He he's sweet. Don't get me wrong. He's not aggressive,
01:33:21.780 but I mean, since we've gotten, we have a house guest staying with us right now.
01:33:24.920 He peed on our house guest, peed on him, not like near him on him. The other day,
01:33:31.060 ripped open these dog toys, you know, like the stuffing inside of it. It's like insulation.
01:33:34.780 Most dogs are like, that's disgusting. He ate it all. I don't even know where it came,
01:33:38.980 where it went. Didn't come out the back end. I think like in six months, it's probably going to
01:33:42.320 resurface some way. Just one of the many things I'm sure we'll be discussing when Andrew Schultz joins
01:33:47.920 the program again tomorrow. Really looking forward to it. Talk to you then. Thanks for listening to
01:33:54.020 the Megan Kelly show. No BS, no agenda, and no fear.