Valuetainment - April 10, 2026


Luigi Mangione Wrote Me a Letter From Prison…


Episode Stats


Length

10 minutes

Words per minute

196.98056

Word count

2,105

Sentence count

138

Harmful content

Misogyny

5

sentences flagged

Hate speech

1

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

On this episode of the podcast, Pat McAfee talks about a letter he received from Luigi Mangione, the man who is serving a life sentence for the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Pat also talks about how important it is to write a letter to a fellow inmate.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 So recently, I get a letter from Luigi Mangione.
00:00:02.520 My assistant comes to me and says, you got a letter from Luigi Mangione.
00:00:05.520 I said, which Luigi Mangione?
00:00:06.620 He says, D. Luigi Mangione.
00:00:07.820 I said, D. Luigi Mangione from the Metropolitan Detention Center?
00:00:10.620 Yes.
00:00:10.800 In Brooklyn?
00:00:11.420 Yes.
00:00:12.260 The same place that a lot of these guys, Nicolas Maduro is at right now, by the way,
00:00:16.100 Jelaine Maxwell, R. Kelly Diddy, some of these guys?
00:00:18.360 Yes.
00:00:19.120 The guy that got accused of killing Brian Thompson, the CEO of United Health?
00:00:23.080 Yes.
00:00:24.300 What's he writing me a letter for?
00:00:25.880 I don't know.
00:00:26.880 Okay.
00:00:27.840 So what do I do?
00:00:28.620 I open it up.
00:00:30.000 And I read through it.
00:00:32.120 And by the way, to tell you how well it was written would be an understatement.
00:00:38.660 This was written as if a kid went to Harvard or Yale.
00:00:44.700 Good writer, sense of humor, sarcasm, witty, even a riddle in there.
00:00:49.980 He even cut a piece out, like go figure it out for yourself.
00:00:53.540 Clips, go watch these clips of these philosophers.
00:00:56.000 You can tell.
00:00:57.400 You can tell he's very intellectual.
00:01:00.920 Deep meaning in the way he's writing his stuff, right?
00:01:03.900 And even in there he talks about, because one day I'm doing a podcast,
00:01:06.520 my phone blows up with a couple hundred messages.
00:01:08.300 Pat, a viral article is going around right now of Luigi Mangione,
00:01:13.800 who turned 27 years old, writing 27 things he's grateful for.
00:01:17.620 And number seven is you.
00:01:18.720 I said, number seven, I don't have a connection with him.
00:01:21.120 Yeah, go read it.
00:01:21.820 Number seven, I'm grateful for Patrick B. David's book, Your Next Five Moves.
00:01:28.380 Really? Yes.
00:01:29.700 And he's passing it around in the prison he's at right now.
00:01:33.460 Huh, interesting.
00:01:34.900 How that book made it there, who knows, but it's there.
00:01:38.620 And then in here he says, Pat, out of all the 27 things I wrote that I was grateful for,
00:01:44.160 the one that I got the most hate mail was number seven, Your Next Five Moves.
00:01:48.660 A lot of girls who are Gen Z were not happy about that. 1.00
00:01:52.040 He says, you have a Gen Z female problem.
00:01:55.060 He says that in the letter.
00:01:56.120 Anyways, he said a lot of other things.
00:01:57.940 So I sat on it, and I said, what do I tell this guy?
00:02:01.680 Do I write back?
00:02:03.980 You know, what level of hope does a person have at 27 years old that is accused of killing the CEO of a company, UnitedHealthcare?
00:02:11.220 And we all know that UnitedHealthcare was known for lowest percentage of paying insurance to their clients or, you know, a payout that they're giving.
00:02:20.860 So it's not like they had a good reputation.
00:02:22.900 But to go and allegedly kill that CEO, what do you tell a guy like that in the letter?
00:02:29.120 What do you tell him?
00:02:29.720 So I sat there and I thought about it.
00:02:31.500 I remember being in military and how much letters meant to us.
00:02:35.500 Till today, my teacher from my high school, health and guidance teacher, that I met her when I was 14 years old.
00:02:41.220 I'm 47, 33 years old.
00:02:43.240 You know, until today, we write letters to each other.
00:02:45.740 Every three months, I get a letter from her. 1.00
00:02:47.260 She's got chickens. 1.00
00:02:48.060 She's got this. 1.00
00:02:48.540 She's got that.
00:02:49.600 But it took me back to when I was in the military how valuable our response was.
00:02:54.060 So I wrote a letter back to him, and I sent it yesterday with six books to him.
00:02:59.300 So I think those other six books, he's got time to read.
00:03:02.100 So I sent him the other six books to go through as well.
00:03:04.140 The guy's got a sense of humor, even though he knows what he's done.
00:03:08.280 And I have so many questions that I wrote in the letter to him.
00:03:11.220 But maybe think about something else.
00:03:13.160 How does this apply to you and I?
00:03:15.960 You and I directly and indirectly.
00:03:18.480 I was a kid back in the days that, you know, I listened to a lot of Tupac.
00:03:24.740 I listened to a lot of Hit Him Up.
00:03:26.000 I probably listened to Hit Him Up, I don't know, 500 times.
00:03:28.660 That was my workout song.
00:03:29.900 I listened to Eazy-E, Real Mother, You Know What, Gs.
00:03:33.200 I listened to RBL Posse.
00:03:34.860 I listened to Rappin' Forte and, you know, Bone Thugs and Harmony and DMX and all these guys.
00:03:40.680 I hung out with guys that were troubled kids, and I was part of a basketball league that was with Blood and Crip and Black Diamonds and 18th Street and Tunerville and all these guys, TVR.
00:03:53.120 I was in that community trying to figure myself out at 14 years old.
00:03:57.380 Parents got a divorce.
00:03:58.320 Life was a little bit interesting, and I went into the military.
00:04:02.740 And so I thought about myself.
00:04:06.280 Luckily, when I was in those moments of being impressionable and vulnerable,
00:04:12.140 the right people were in my ear.
00:04:15.420 And so it got me to go back and think about a guy I interviewed
00:04:18.180 who was an FBI criminal profiler.
00:04:20.320 This guy would talk to you right after a person killed their wife.
00:04:24.200 He was the first person that interviewed the husband that's accused of killing his wife.
00:04:27.900 Vice versa, wife accused of killing the husband, 0.54
00:04:30.640 he's interviewing the wife to see what got you to the point of killing your wife.
00:04:35.720 What was it? 0.99
00:04:36.600 Was it cheating?
00:04:37.400 Did he hit you?
00:04:38.780 Did he remind you?
00:04:39.740 Did she do this?
00:04:40.600 What gets you to point of killing?
00:04:42.840 And we all read or see these movies or the stories we go through, right?
00:04:45.840 What got you there?
00:04:46.720 And I said, Jim, what makes somebody do this?
00:04:48.520 This has been 22 years of doing this.
00:04:50.480 You know, it comes down to three things.
00:04:52.000 I said, what is it?
00:04:53.060 He said, genetics loads the gun.
00:04:55.780 Genetics.
00:04:56.700 Mom and dad loads the gun.
00:05:00.120 He says, your personality aims the gun.
00:05:03.100 but he said life experiences pulls the trigger so life experiences this guy had back issues
00:05:10.880 he had certain health problems his grandpa was a very successful businessman made a lot of money
00:05:16.300 he had the trajectory of he was a valedict this is not a regular kid he was a valedictorian could
00:05:22.620 have been a net positive to society working building a business creating jobs maybe getting
00:05:27.060 involved in politics doing something positive for the world he had that brain to do it he had
00:05:32.200 the genetics to do it but those life experiences the 90 days that he went on his own and mother
00:05:39.060 couldn't find him and eventually around november of 2024 i believe mom reported that i think my
00:05:45.140 son is missing and then december 4th is the day he's accused of killing brian thompson we've all
00:05:50.240 seen the videos and the day they caught him so what happened during those 90 days you know one
00:05:56.200 one of the movies i hate the most when i tell you i don't hate a lot of movies i hate this movie
00:06:02.660 you know what's the movie i hate the most joker with joaquin phoenix absolutely hate the movie
00:06:08.580 joker you know why at 43 minutes i don't know what the timeline was i'm sitting with my wife
00:06:13.320 we went with about 20 of us and the story is the guy ends up killing the capitalist the wealthy
00:06:19.740 guy and he's a hero look at this guy wow you know take out these rich and blah blah blah blah
00:06:24.620 And I said, what kind of a freaking movie is this?
00:06:28.780 How many kids is going to watch this and they're going to be like, you know what?
00:06:31.480 I'm going to be a hero.
00:06:32.560 Let me go take out somebody in power.
00:06:34.260 That could have been him.
00:06:35.900 Luigi Manchin could have watched Joker while he's away with somebody else.
00:06:39.140 And somebody's in his ear.
00:06:40.360 You know what?
00:06:40.900 Look what they're doing.
00:06:42.720 And what happened with you with insurance?
00:06:43.880 And this is not fair.
00:06:44.760 And all of a sudden you're like, I am right.
00:06:47.460 And the system is wrong.
00:06:48.660 And when you get to that point, that's a very dangerous place to be.
00:06:51.200 because you're almost giving yourself permission
00:06:53.700 to justify doing something crazy like this.
00:06:57.540 But I still don't get it.
00:06:58.660 How does this apply to me?
00:06:59.640 Do you have kids?
00:07:01.020 Do you have a son?
00:07:02.020 Do you have a daughter?
00:07:02.820 Do you have a nephew?
00:07:03.860 Do you have a cousin?
00:07:05.360 Are you 17 years old watching this?
00:07:07.440 You're impressionable.
00:07:09.220 When you're at the lowest in life, and we will be,
00:07:12.780 many times we will be.
00:07:14.900 I got four kids.
00:07:15.900 Many times we will be.
00:07:17.660 When you're at the lowest, dude,
00:07:19.420 you better guard who you listen to and what you watch and what you read.
00:07:25.160 I don't care if you're 14.
00:07:26.940 I don't care if you're 44.
00:07:28.360 I don't care if you're 64.
00:07:30.920 This is our entire life.
00:07:33.140 This thing's not easy.
00:07:34.260 This thing's tough.
00:07:35.500 But we are also the luckiest people alive to witness what we have today.
00:07:39.560 And as tough as life is, it isn't as tough as it was 200 years ago
00:07:43.180 or 800 years ago or 1,200 years ago.
00:07:46.060 It's a lot easier today than it was back in the days.
00:07:49.200 Lifestyle is a lot better today.
00:07:50.960 AC wasn't around 140, 150 years ago.
00:07:53.680 You're probably in an AC place right now watching this video.
00:07:57.360 Probably have access to food.
00:07:58.600 You probably get access to the greatest computer in the world.
00:08:01.180 You probably are watching this on it.
00:08:03.080 We are so lucky.
00:08:04.300 Think about the perspective.
00:08:06.260 But, and when I was writing the letter, I'm like,
00:08:10.800 you know, this could have been a friend of mine.
00:08:13.320 I lost a friend when I was younger.
00:08:14.800 Until today, I think about him all the time.
00:08:16.720 This is someone's friend.
00:08:17.560 This is someone's son.
00:08:18.940 This is someone's cousin.
00:08:20.940 This is someone's grandson.
00:08:24.100 Someone got to him at 25, 26 years old that made him believe this is the right thing to do.
00:08:29.940 What was the third one?
00:08:31.340 Experiences does what?
00:08:33.100 Pulls the trigger.
00:08:34.980 I don't know.
00:08:35.820 So, you know, what I would take from the message if I'm you is,
00:08:40.100 i promise you this either made you think about you or it made me think about somebody else
00:08:47.800 whatever you could do make a list of two or three different people right now
00:08:52.940 and just send them an audio message and lift them up lift them up just send a message and say hey
00:09:00.400 i just want to let you know i believe in you it's all going to be fine share scripture with them
00:09:06.480 encouraging message something that could lift them up you would be amazed how how many times
00:09:13.620 we just need a message like wait where did this come don't even tell them what inspired you want
00:09:17.420 to send this to them just tell them tell her you would be amazed how much of an impact you can have
00:09:23.860 on three people today that's it so imagine if a million of us do this we positively impacted
00:09:30.560 three million people today. What does that do? A lot. Sometimes that's all we need. But
00:09:36.820 some tells me he's going to be watching this from prison. You know why? Because he watches a podcast
00:09:43.480 with others from prison because he talked about the other crew, people that are on there. Again,
00:09:48.800 you can tell the guy's got a sense of humor and I know he watches the content because somehow,
00:09:52.980 some way they have access to the stuff that we talk about here. Having said that, my body's hot
00:09:58.380 right now just thinking about this message that I shared with you because this was a heavy message.
00:10:02.140 This is a little bit more than just motivational. Let's go out there and do something big with our
00:10:05.760 lives, right? No, this is heavy. A lot of people are dealing with the wrong people being in their
00:10:09.560 ears, and we want to make sure we prevent them from becoming a story that we read about in the
00:10:15.220 paper. If you got value out of this message, especially the 51% of you that consume our
00:10:20.780 content but are not subscribers to it, take a moment if you can and subscribe to the channel.
00:10:25.800 And if you've never seen my interview with Kobe Bryant, one of the most mentally tough people you can study nonstop, you can watch this interview over and over again, never gets old, click here to watch the interview with Kobe Bryant.
00:10:39.680 Take care, everybody.
00:10:40.400 God bless.
00:10:40.960 Bye-bye.