0:00
When you need to build up your team to handle the growing chaos at work, use Indeed sponsored
0:05
jobs.
0:06
It gives your job post the boost it needs to be seen and helps reach people with the
0:10
right skills, certifications, and more.
0:12
Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your
0:16
boxes.
0:17
Listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsor job credit at indeed.com/podcast.
0:23
That's indeed.com/podcast terms and conditions apply.
0:26
Need a hiring hero?
0:27
This is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs.
0:30
Struggling with weight loss?
0:31
Prolon's five-day fasting mimicking diet is a clinically developed nutrition program
0:35
designed to promote fat loss while protecting lean body mass.
0:39
Developed at USC's Longevity Institute, it assists the body in entering a fasting like
0:43
state that helps reset metabolism and target visceral fat.
0:47
In just five days, Prolon offers a science-backed approach to weight loss without extreme restriction
0:51
or guesswork.
0:52
Set 15% off plus a $40 bonus gift when you subscribe at prolonlife.com/now.
1:16
This is Undaunted Life, a man's podcast.
1:19
I'm your host Kyle Thompson.
1:21
Let's get into it.
1:22
Because if you're listening to this on time, Merry Christmas Eve to you 2020.
1:25
If you're not listening to this on time, you missed the holiday spirit, the Christmas
1:29
spirit.
1:30
But that's okay.
1:31
I'm wishing you and yours a very, very Merry Christmas.
1:32
Try not to get lost in all the materialism and all the nonsense of 2020 as we get into
1:37
this Christmas season, but just wanted to wish you all a very Merry Christmas.
1:40
But today, we're breaking down the best books that I read in 2020 and if you stick with me
1:46
until the end of this episode, I will give you what I consider to be the best book that
1:50
I read in 2020, so definitely stick with us throughout this entire show.
1:55
So I've done this every year that we've done the podcast, but let me just flow a little
1:58
bit on how I read.
1:59
So as I've told you guys a lot before, I'm not a huge reader in that.
2:03
I don't have an idetic memory.
2:04
I don't have an ability to read quickly.
2:08
I have to reread stuff in my mind kind of wanders, especially when I read fiction.
2:13
That's why you're not going to see a lot of fiction on the list today.
2:15
But I just read when I can.
2:17
So one of the best things that I do in terms of reading is I do almost 100% of my reading
2:22
on my phone.
2:23
Okay, I do that on the iBooks app on my phone that I have on my iPhone.
2:27
I don't really mess with paper books.
2:29
I'm actually reading a paper book right now, a hardback book, but that's not really something
2:33
that's super convenient.
2:34
Because again, if you're getting your oil changed or maybe you're waiting for your wife
2:38
to get done doing something at the store or you're just somewhere where you're not by
2:41
your nightstand where your book is, you can just pull out your phone and take down half
2:45
a chapter, read an entire chapter, who knows what you're able to accomplish in that time.
2:49
But that's the way that I do it.
2:50
Even if I'm just reading in the house by myself or something like that, I will just sit there
2:53
and do that with my phone.
2:55
It's very easy for me to take notes on my phone right there.
2:57
You can just take it right there in the app.
2:59
I highlight stuff.
3:00
Guys, when I went back to do the best books of 2020 that I read, if I didn't have those
3:04
highlights, if I didn't have those sections, I would have kind of forgot some of those
3:08
things that I'm going to be sharing with you today.
3:09
So that's how I read.
3:11
But here's the thing.
3:12
One of my favorite quotes from one of my buddies, a buddy of mine named Matt, he said,
3:15
and he said this to another buddy a long time ago, but it's like, there are people that
3:19
read, and then there are idiots.
3:22
And to some of y'all, that might seem harsh, but that's just the way that it is.
3:25
Because again, I talk about this all the time.
3:27
The number of guys that I know that don't read is astonishing.
3:31
They don't read any books.
3:33
It's like, hey, man, how many books have you read this year?
3:35
They're like, read books.
3:37
What am I in high school?
3:38
It's like, really, did you also stop maturing whenever you graduated high school as well?
3:43
Because the thing guys is that is how you stave off depression.
3:46
It's how you stave off dementia.
3:48
It's how you infuse your mind with things that you wouldn't learn otherwise from the
3:52
television or even from podcasts or something like that.
3:54
And of course, I'm a big lover of podcasts as you saw in last week's episode.
3:58
But guys, the people that just spend their time watching television and wasting their
4:04
brains away, just rotting their minds, watching Netflix, it doesn't make any sense.
4:08
So you got to be reading and I don't really care how much you read.
4:12
I don't really care how many books you take down in a year that I know people that read
4:15
over a hundred books every single year.
4:17
I'm just never going to be that guy.
4:19
I'm between 20 and 30 books every year.
4:21
That's fine for me.
4:22
I've taken a lot of podcasts.
4:23
I do a lot of other things, but guys, you have to read.
4:25
But as we move forward into the award show for today, how I do the list is I've got 11
4:32
different awards.
4:33
Most of the awards are the same as last year in terms of the category, but I've switched
4:36
a few out.
4:37
And here's the thing.
4:38
This is very, very important.
4:40
The books that I'm putting in this list, most of which were not released in 2020, okay?
4:44
So I didn't just exclusively read books that were released in this year.
4:48
So that is one important thing to keep in mind is there's going to be books from all
4:51
over the place.
4:52
These are just books that I read during this year.
4:55
So without further ado, let's go and hop into the very first award for best books of 2020.
5:00
So the first award is the most interesting book of 2020.
5:05
And that is recovering biblical manhood and womanhood, a response to evangelical feminism.
5:11
This is by John Piper and a bunch of other people.
5:14
I think there's over 20 authors that contributed to this particular book.
5:17
It was released in 1991 originally and then re-released in 2012.
5:21
And one thing I'll kind of give you an idea is in terms of how I'm going to be introducing
5:24
all these books, I'm going to read to you to the description from Amazon because sometimes
5:29
whenever you do these podcasts, whenever people are doing like best book podcasts or something
5:32
like that, they're kind of giving their own summary of a book.
5:35
And sometimes their summaries just aren't very good.
5:37
And I'm going to give you all a very accurate representation of what these books are so
5:41
that you can find the ones that you think will be interesting to you, add it to your
5:45
reading list for 2021.
5:45
So I'm just going to read the stuff from Amazon because this typically comes from the publisher
5:50
and or the author.
5:51
So that's what I'll be doing.
5:52
Then I'll kind of be giving you the reasons why.
5:54
So here's a description of recovering biblical manhood and womanhood.
5:58
A controversy of major proportions has spread throughout the church.
6:01
Now more than ever before, gender roles are openly questioned in the wake of evangelical
6:05
feminism, a movement that is having a profound impact on society, the home and the church.
6:10
More than 20 influential scholars, such as John Piper, Wayne Grudem and D.A. Carson have
6:15
committed their talents to produce the most thorough response to date, combining systematic
6:19
argumentation with popular application.
6:22
This volume deals with all the main passages of scripture brought forward in this controversy
6:26
regarding gender based role differences.
6:28
One concern with the fundamental question of a proper relationship between men and women
6:32
will want to read this book.
6:34
So the reason why it's the most interesting book of 2020, this is a book I actually started
6:38
in 2019 and then read through it's close to 600 pages.
6:42
But it is an incredibly dense book on a singular subject.
6:46
And the singular subject there, it's voluminous in terms of what you can read or think about
6:50
those subjects.
6:51
But I'm a guy that obviously spends a lot of time thinking about manhood and if you're
6:54
thinking about manhood within the church, you're going to be thinking about womanhood
6:56
as well.
6:57
And most people are just assuming that there's not really a controversy there or they're
7:02
just going with the attitudes that are presented from the pulpit at their megachurch or something
7:07
like that.
7:08
So this really gets down into egalitarianism and complimentarianism.
7:12
And the authors, they all come from so many different perspectives and to have this many
7:16
heavy hitters in one volume is pretty impressive.
7:19
I will say that you can kind of get into the weeds and some of the chapters do get into
7:23
the weeds about the Greek and they're a little bit more theological.
7:26
So if that's not really your cup of tea, I wouldn't avoid this book, but just know that
7:31
going in that there's going to be some sections where you're going to be like, wait, what,
7:34
what, what, you know, they're talking about the context of this particular obscure Hebrew
7:38
word or something like that.
7:40
But it was a very, very interesting read because there's always more going on below the surface
7:44
than what we realize.
7:45
The modern church has become incredibly feminine.
7:48
That's the reason why a lot of men in the church are incredibly feminine.
7:52
That's why a lot of people that work in the church, a lot of the pastorate are incredibly
7:55
feminine and it's not an accidental thing.
7:58
Society is helping push this, but it's also a cancer from within.
8:01
So that's why I think that is the most interesting book, but I will give you my favorite quote.
8:05
I'll give you my favorite quote from all these books today.
8:07
And this is my favorite quote from the book here, quote, if I were to put my finger on
8:10
one devastating sin today, it would not be the so called women's movement, but the lack
8:15
of spiritual leadership by men at home and in the church, Satan has achieved an amazing
8:21
tactical victory by disseminating the notion that summons for male leadership is born
8:26
of pride and fallenness when in fact, pride is precisely what prevents spiritual leadership.
8:33
The spiritual aimlessness and weakness and lethargy and loss of nerve among men is the
8:38
major issue, not the upsurge and interest in women's ministries.
8:42
So that is my favorite quote from the book in the most interesting book of 2020, recovering
8:46
biblical manhood and womanhood, a response to evangelical feminism by John Piper at
8:51
all.
8:52
All right, next one here.
8:53
The most timely book of 2020.
8:55
That is how to destroy America in three easy steps by Ben Shapiro that was actually released
9:00
this year.
9:01
And this is the description of that book, a growing number of Americans want to tear
9:05
down what it's taken us 250 years to build.
9:08
And they'll start by canceling our shared history, ideals and culture.
9:12
Traditional areas of civic agreement are vanishing.
9:14
We can't agree on what makes America special.
9:17
We can't even agree that America is special.
9:19
We're coming to the point that we can't even agree what the word American mean or word
9:25
America itself means.
9:27
Disintegrationless say we're stronger together, but their assault on America's history, philosophy
9:31
and culture will only tear us apart.
9:34
Who are the disintegrationists from Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States to
9:38
the New York Times 1619 Project.
9:40
Many modern analysis view analysis view American history through the lens of competing oppressions,
9:45
a racist and corrupt experiment from the very beginning.
9:48
They see American philosophy as a lie, beautiful words, pasted over a thoroughly rotten system.
9:54
They see America's culture of rights as a facade that merely reinforces traditional hierarchies
9:58
of power instead of being the only culture that guarantees freedom for individuals.
10:03
Disintegrationists attack on the values that build our nation are insidious because they
10:07
replace each foundational belief from the right rights of freedom of speech and self-defense
10:13
to the importance of marriage and faith communities with nothing more than an increased reliance
10:17
on the government.
10:18
This twisted disintegrationist vision replaces the traditional unionist understanding that
10:23
all Americans are united in a shared striving toward the perfection of universal ideals.
10:28
How to destroy America in three easy steps shows that to be a cohesive nation, we have
10:32
to uphold foundational truths about ourselves, our history and reality itself.
10:37
To be unionist instead of disintegrationists.
10:40
Shapiro offers a vital warning that if we don't recover these shared truths, our future,
10:45
our union as a great country is threatened with destruction.
10:49
So the reason why it's the most timely book of 2020 is because of when this book was written,
10:55
like when the manuscript was delivered, and then also when this was released.
11:01
So this was released early in 2020, but this was finished, this book was finished in 2019.
11:07
So that's pre-COVID, that's pre-Jor's Floyd, pre-Rayshart Brooks, that's pre-All the
11:14
rioting and looting.
11:16
That's pre-election 2020.
11:19
That's pre-anything that happened in 2020.
11:23
And here he is going into a very dense book again, Ben Shapiro doesn't write long books,
11:26
but he writes very, very dense books and he's talking about these enormous topics and it
11:33
could not have been released in a better year.
11:36
Because this book is describing the chaos that is coming from people that are trying
11:40
to tear down the American system from the inside.
11:42
And we've seen that in full-throated support from a lot of people in Congress, people across
11:48
the country.
11:49
And we've just seen that just in general vernacular on Facebook or Twitter or in your conversations
11:54
at the coffee shop.
11:55
So there couldn't have been a more timely release of a book than this.
11:59
And also for any of you history buffs that listen to this podcast around the middle part
12:03
of this book, maybe into the second half of the book, there's an a tremendous chapter
12:07
that kind of gives a history, a historical retelling of how we got to where we are right
12:11
now as a country, and it goes back way before the revolution.
12:15
It was incredible.
12:16
I mean, I'm sitting here reading this section of this, you know, difficult book, and I'm
12:22
just enthralled with the story of America.
12:25
And again, he's got pages and pages and pages of footnotes.
12:27
So this isn't him just papering over anything.
12:29
He talks about the evils of slavery.
12:31
He talks about how the Native Americans were treated in the Trail of Tears.
12:35
And as an Oklahoma, and I learned about the Trail of Tears in Oklahoma history classes
12:38
growing up.
12:39
So it's obviously very near and dear to my heart.
12:40
I'm chalked all Indian.
12:41
So he doesn't glaze over any of America's sins, but he's basically making the argument
12:46
that we can't be judged based solely on our sins, because then there is not a great country
12:51
or a great people that has ever lived.
12:53
So incredibly timely, timely book, but I'm going to give you my favorite quote here from
12:57
the book.
12:58
There's a lot of quotes.
12:59
This one was just my favorite.
13:00
Typically, courts have attempted to read the Bill of Rights to separate two requirements
13:04
regarding religion.
13:05
The requirement that Congress not establish an official religion and that Congress not
13:09
prohibit the free exercise of religion, but this provision was meant to be read in tandem.
13:14
In order to allow for the free exercise of religion, the government could not establish
13:19
any particular sect and the founders did not believe that religion was to be relegated
13:23
to the realm of thought.
13:25
They fully understood that living religiously required exercise of religion, not merely
13:29
thought or worship.
13:31
A large variety of states made specific provisions exempting religious groups from generally
13:35
applicable laws, for example.
13:38
So there are a lot of great things, you know, that was kind of the best one that I could
13:41
just take and give to you.
13:43
But the most timely book of 2020, how to destroy America in three easy steps by Ben Shapiro.
13:48
Next book here, the most challenging book that I read in 2020.
13:52
And that is evidence that demands a verdict, life changing truth for a skeptical world.
13:57
And this is by Josh and Sean McDowell.
13:59
It was released in 2017.
14:01
Here's the description.
14:02
Equip yourself to present and defend the claims of Christian faith.
14:06
The truth of the Bible doesn't change, but it's critics do.
14:09
Now with his son Sean McDowell, Josh McDowell has updated and expanded the modern apologetics
14:13
classic for the for a new generation evidence that demands a verdict provides expansive
14:18
defense of Christianity's court's roots and thoughtful responses to the Bible's most
14:22
difficult and extraordinary passages.
14:24
It invites readers to bring their doubts and doesn't shy away from tough questions.
14:28
Topics and questions are covered in four parts.
14:31
Evidence for the Bible, evidence for Jesus, evidence for the Old Testament, evidence for
14:35
truth, serving as a go to reference for even the toughest questions, evidence that demands
14:40
a verdict continues to encourage and strengthen millions by providing Christians the answers
14:44
they need to defend their faith against the harshest critics and skeptics.
14:48
So why this is the most challenging book that I read in 2020 has a lot to do with just the
14:53
length of this book.
14:54
Okay.
14:55
Because again, like I told you, I don't read a lot during the day and I also don't read
14:58
very quickly.
14:59
It's hard for me to remember things.
15:01
This book is just a tick under 900 pages long.
15:05
Okay.
15:06
And one thing about it is I didn't look at this book appropriately as I was going in
15:10
because you could even see from the description in the last paragraph, the description.
15:14
This is a go to reference book.
15:17
So again, if you have reference books in your library, these are typically not books that
15:20
you read from cover to cover.
15:22
These are books that you reference when there's a subject that comes out, which even more
15:26
so makes me think that it's important for you to have this digitally so that you can
15:29
just control F or command F and find something in the passage.
15:33
You can just search for it very easily.
15:36
But I read this cover to cover and it took me, I want to say five months to finish this
15:43
book and I wasn't really reading anything else in between.
15:45
This was after sweet baby James was born.
15:48
Man, it is such a dense book.
15:51
It goes into so many theological categories, so many philosophical categories.
15:56
It was just an incredibly, incredibly difficult book to get through, but I don't want that
16:00
to dissuade you from getting it because if I had read this book properly, if I had cherry
16:05
picked this book, if I didn't do my type A competitive thing where it's like, no, I'm
16:09
going to read from cover to cover no matter how hard it is because I'm resilient or whatever,
16:12
then it would have been maybe a more enjoyable book for me to read because there are a lot
16:15
of subject matters that were completely over my head or that I just didn't give the proper
16:19
amount of time and study and dedication to.
16:22
But that book is going to be a book that is going to be referenced a lot as I build a
16:27
content out for undaunted life as I just have conversations with people as, as I just share
16:32
ideas and philosophical underpinnings with, with individuals.
16:36
This book is going to be a tremendous key for that.
16:38
So it was a challenging book, but it's a very, very valuable book.
16:40
But here's my favorite quote from this book, the resurrection is such a significant and
16:45
momentous event that without its reality, the early Christian church could not have come
16:49
into existence.
16:50
Christianity was a movement begun by Jews in Jerusalem, not because they were all tired
16:54
of Judaism and wanted to invent something new, but because of something that they experienced.
16:59
They really believed Jesus had risen.
17:02
Any theory that attempts to explain away the historicity of the resurrection must provide
17:06
an alternate, an alternate explanation for the origin of the church.
17:10
And yet the first and consistent testimony of the church is that Jesus rose from the grave.
17:16
Guys, that is a great apologetic there because these people that did not, you know, they're
17:21
like, oh, you know, those 500 people that claim to see him, not only was that just recorded
17:24
in the Bible, you know, you know, that could have been something where they all just kind
17:28
of were seeing visions all at the same time.
17:31
And it was just all the explanations around how the church could even survive the first
17:36
century, pale in comparison to the explanation that all these people believe that they saw
17:40
a risen Jesus Christ three days after he was crucified on a Roman cross.
17:44
So it's a good reminder there.
17:45
So again, the most challenging book of 2020 evidence that demands a verdict, life changing
17:50
truth for a skeptical world by Josh and Sean McDowell.
17:54
Next category here, new one that I changed one up from last year.
17:56
It's the best classic book of 2020 that I took down.
18:00
And that is the adventures of Tom Sawyer written by Mark Twain.
18:03
And it was released in 1876.
18:05
Yeah, 1876.
18:06
Here's the description for any of you guys that have been living under a rock and have
18:10
never heard of the adventures of Tom Sawyer.
18:12
Tom Sawyer is an intelligent resourceful orphan who enjoys a life of freedom unsheltered
18:16
from life's hardships, the light that most children secretly or not so secretly yearn
18:21
for.
18:22
He is an immediately attractive character who draws the reader through his adventures,
18:26
falling in love, being dumped, becoming a pirate, being thought to be dead, fearing
18:31
that he would surely die uncovering a murder, finding hidden treasure and all the wild skipping
18:35
school and playing pranks.
18:37
Twain's characters are surprising, unforgettable and truly human.
18:40
His dialogue faithfully reproduces the common speech of his day in all its very dialects.
18:45
The plot combines adventure, suspense and mischief with the darker side of humanity.
18:50
Murder, deceit, brutality and racial prejudice.
18:53
Twain's trademark humor and observation of human nature are never far.
18:57
The adventures of Tom Sawyer was initially a commercial failure, but in his lifetime,
19:01
it was his best-selling book.
19:02
And today is regarded by many as a masterpiece of American literature.
19:06
So why is the best classic book of 2020 is because, again, I don't take down a lot of
19:11
fiction.
19:12
And if you're going to be reading classics, you're going to be taking down fiction.
19:14
I've got some in the hopper for 2021, but I just figured that I would take this book
19:19
down and actually listen to this book this year.
19:21
So again, I think it's kind of weird counting books that you read as book that you listen
19:24
to, but I thought that that was a fantastic read.
19:28
It's a free thing that you can find on most podcasts.
19:31
I forget the name of the company that I put it together, but you can just search for it
19:33
wherever you get your podcasts.
19:35
But I just remember being a kid and one of my favorite movies as a kid was Tom and Huck.
19:40
So it was Jonathan Taylor Thomas and some other kid.
19:42
And it was just so much fun hearing these stories being read back and it being so true
19:47
to that movie.
19:48
But then there were a lot of things that were left out.
19:49
Obviously, there's the use of the N word in this book.
19:51
There's some some crazy things about different murders and like it is kind of a crazy story,
19:57
but it's an incredibly enjoyable story and to think that this book is, you know, almost
20:02
I mean, 150 years old, like that's just a crazy thing that we can be still entertained
20:07
by that and our modern sensibilities.
20:09
And I'm not going to give you a favorite quote from this because again, most of it is dialogue,
20:12
but my favorite story from that book is where Tom and Huckleberry Finn, they fall through
20:17
the ceiling at their own funerals.
20:19
So everyone in town thinks that they're dead.
20:21
They're all lamenting and they're watching their own funeral from the attic of the church.
20:26
And they're seeing all these people and they're starting to feel a little bit sad.
20:28
And then they fall through the roof because if you just think about how insanely funny
20:33
and crazy and emotional that would be imagine being out of funeral for somebody, right?
20:39
I mean, just think about that, most of us don't like thinking about that.
20:42
And then also in that person falls through the ceiling, you know, it's a closed casket
20:46
ceremony.
20:47
And then that person's alive, like, you know, the elation and relief and anger would all
20:51
be there in that moment.
20:52
I think Mark Twain did an amazing job of describing that moment for the reader.
20:56
So that's my favorite story from the book.
20:57
But again, the best classic book of 2020, the adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain.
21:03
Next one here is the most useful book of 2020.
21:06
And this is going to below some of you away, I actually am choosing the communist manifesto.
21:11
Okay.
21:12
So that is by Karl Marx and Friedrich Ingalls and that is from 1848.
21:16
So even older than the last book by Mark Twain.
21:19
But here's the description of the communist manifesto.
21:21
The communist manifesto originally titled Manifesto of the Communist Party is a short
21:26
1848 book written by the German Marxist political theorist, Mark Karl Marx and Friedrich Ingalls.
21:32
It has since been recognized as one of the world's most influential political manuscripts
21:37
commissioned by the Communist League and laid out the league's purposes and program.
21:41
It presents an analytical approach to the class struggle, historical and present, and
21:46
the problems of capitalism rather than a prediction of communism's potential future forms.
21:50
The book contains Marx and Ingalls, Marx's theories about the nature of society and politics
21:56
that in their own words, the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of
22:02
class struggles.
22:03
It also briefly features their ideas for how the capitalist society of the time would
22:07
be eventually replaced by socialism and then eventually communism.
22:12
So why is this the most useful book of 2020?
22:15
You might be like, Kyle, what are you doing?
22:16
Have you been smoking?
22:17
This is a little bit weird.
22:18
The reason why this is the most most useful book of 2020 is because of all the ideologies
22:26
that are permeating throughout our culture right now.
22:29
Obviously, if you go back to my Race in America series, I talk at length about Black Lives
22:34
Matter specifically and I talk a little bit about Antifa.
22:38
Well, this is the book for those people.
22:40
This is the Bible to those people.
22:43
There's no book that they hold and hire regard than the Communist Manifesto.
22:48
And the reason why this is the most useful book is because most people don't have the
22:51
foggiest freaking idea what Marxism is.
22:54
I remember being on my back porch with one of my buddies or having a cigar and having
22:59
his drink and I think I've told this before, I mentioned Marxism and he just looked at
23:03
me with this blank look and I'm like, yeah, you know, like Marxism, he's like, what's
23:08
that?
23:09
I was like, you've never heard of Marxism?
23:11
No, he didn't just not know what it was.
23:13
He had never heard of it.
23:15
This is a college graduate, you know, a guy with a family like, but again, he's one of
23:18
those guys that hasn't read a book probably since he graduated high school.
23:21
He just, he had no clue.
23:24
And so he's looking at black lives matter and he's looking at these things happening
23:26
in culture.
23:27
He's looking at AOC and the rest of the squad.
23:29
They're pushing for socialist things, which obviously as you can tell by the description
23:33
of this book eventually leads to communism and all the bloodshed they're in.
23:36
He had no clue.
23:38
In the Communist Manifesto, you can pay money for it, which is hilarious by the way and
23:42
super ironic.
23:43
Or you can just get it for free.
23:44
Like I got it for free on my iBooks app.
23:46
You can get it for free just about anywhere.
23:48
It's a manuscript.
23:49
So it's not very long.
23:50
You can even get free versions on podcast formats and things like that.
23:54
But if you're going to claim Marxism, if you're going to point your finger at black lives
23:59
matter and point your finger at AOC and Bernie Sanders and, you know, anyone else on that
24:05
side of the aisle and talk about how Marxist or ideology is.
24:08
And yet you haven't read this book.
24:10
That's like quoting scripture, having never read the Bible.
24:14
And you guys see that a lot in politics, right?
24:16
Even had Gavin Newsom the other day, the, the governor of California who broke his own protocols
24:20
and went to some Napa Valley restaurant, you know, this without masks and no social distancing
24:24
and all that.
24:25
And then he got out on his press conference and did his little apology and he's like,
24:28
yeah, you know, sometimes we, you know, we all fall short as humans.
24:31
And so he, he neglected to talk about the falling short of the glory of God.
24:35
And you know, we all, you know, he just couldn't quite get there and he couldn't quite get
24:40
to that point.
24:41
He couldn't quite go to the scriptures, but it's the same exact thing.
24:44
You can't really claim Marxism just because you've heard Ben Shapiro say it or just because
24:48
you've heard, you know, Bill O'Reilly say it, you've got to look at it from a more intrinsic
24:53
point of view.
24:54
You've got to know what these ideas mean.
24:56
And I'm going to read you a quote from the communist manifesto.
24:59
This is how the communist manifesto ends.
25:02
So this is a quote for any of you guys that have friends that are like, Oh, communism's
25:06
not that bad.
25:07
Oh, it's not really that big of a deal or all, you know, it's kind of an innocent ideology.
25:10
There was just some old German dude that was just pontificating.
25:14
Here's a quote from the very, very end.
25:16
In short, the communists everywhere support every revolutionary movement against the existing
25:22
social and political order of things.
25:24
The communists disdain to conceal their views and aims.
25:28
They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of
25:34
all existing social conditions.
25:37
Let the ruling classes tremble at a communistic revolution.
25:41
The proletarian's have nothing to lose, but their chains.
25:45
They have a world to win.
25:48
Now doesn't that sound vaguely familiar?
25:52
Don't those ideas sound very, very familiar?
25:58
It's because they're being spouted from some of the highest places in government in the
26:02
United States and across the world, frankly, and you would think after the 20th century,
26:07
all the bloodshed under communist rule, under atheistic, communist rule, that we would
26:12
have learned, but we've got dummies that are being taught by all these leftist teachers,
26:17
K through 12, and then in the college, and they don't learn about this.
26:22
The percentage of students, public school students in America that grow up having never
26:27
learned about the Holocaust is astounding.
26:32
They don't know who Chairman Mao is, they've never heard of Joseph Stalin.
26:38
And then when they hear some of these socialist ideas, they can get on board.
26:43
There are guys in my foxhole that we read this as part of our foxhole curriculum this
26:48
this summer.
26:49
You know, it was just something interesting for all of us.
26:51
And when you read the first 20 or 25 pages, you can kind of find yourself like nodding
26:56
to some of the sentiments like, Oh, yeah, I get it.
26:58
Yeah, that makes perfect sense.
27:01
But then you have to keep reading because because they, they, they put a little sugar
27:05
on top of the turds, but you got to keep digging down till you get to the turds.
27:09
So guys, the most useful book of 2020, the communist manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich
27:14
Ingalls.
27:16
Next one here, we've got the most impactful book of 2020.
27:19
And that is abortion, a rational look at an emotional issue by R.C.
27:22
Sproul.
27:23
And this was released in 1990.
27:25
Here we go into the description.
27:27
In this book, Dr. R.C. Sproul employs his unique perspective as a highly experienced
27:31
pastor theologian and a trained philosopher to provide well considered and compassionate
27:35
answers to the difficult questions that attend terminating a pregnancy.
27:40
Dr. Sproul strives for a factual, well reasoned approach informed by careful biblical scholarship.
27:45
He considers both sides of this issue in terms of biblical teaching, civil law, and
27:50
natural law.
27:51
This edition includes a new forward by Dr. George Grant, and has been updated to reflect
27:55
developments in the issue of abortion, appendices provide further background on the issue and
28:00
when life begins in a list of sources for pro life people.
28:04
The chapters are listed as follows, a nation divided the sanctity of life, the sanctity
28:09
of life and natural law.
28:12
When does life begin?
28:13
What if you are not sure about abortion, the role of government and abortion, a woman's
28:17
right to her body, three frequent assertions, the pro choice position, the problem of unwanted
28:22
pregnancies, is abortion, the unpardonable sin, and a pro life strategy, okay?
28:29
So why this is the most impactful book of 2020 should be a surprise to you.
28:32
This is a classic book in the world of abortion.
28:35
It's a book that I had never read up to this point.
28:36
So I'm kind of surprised that I hadn't read it before this year, but guys, I talk about
28:41
it all the time.
28:42
This is my one issue.
28:43
If you're going to have one issue, the murder of innocent, you know, boys and girls in the
28:47
womb, that that's one, that's a hill to die on, right?
28:50
Don't die on the hill of immigration, don't die on the hill of taxation.
28:53
Don't die on the hill of foreign policy.
28:55
You die on this hill, okay?
28:58
But a lot of times, even in pro life circles, you're not going to get the most reasoned arguments,
29:02
right?
29:03
You're going to get someone that just starts screaming, ah, you're murdering babies.
29:05
And then they just don't have any context.
29:07
They don't have any philosophical underpinnings to the things that they're saying.
29:11
And they're going to be talking to somebody that literally looks at a nine, you know, month
29:15
pregnant woman thinking that what's inside her is still just like this glob of cells that
29:19
have just been kind of, you know, amoeba together.
29:22
And you know, it's not going to confer a personhood until it comes through the vaginal canal.
29:27
And you've got to be able to engage with someone like that.
29:31
And if you don't have a philosophical approach, if you don't have an approach that is going
29:34
to be convincing to that person, you're probably not going to sway them.
29:37
So I'm going to go in and give you my favorite quote from this book here.
29:40
Here we go.
29:41
At what line must freedom of choice end?
29:44
I believe it ends where my freedom of choice steps on another person's inalienable rights
29:49
of life and liberty.
29:51
No unborn baby has ever had the right to choose or deny its own destruction.
29:55
Indeed, as others have said, the most dangerous place in the United States for a human being
30:00
is inside the womb of a woman.
30:02
For millions of unborn babies, the womb has become a cell on death row.
30:07
The inmate is summarily executed without benefit of a trial or a word of defense.
30:12
This execution literally involves being torn limb from limb.
30:17
Is this destruction or description to graphic?
30:21
Is it too emotionally provocative?
30:23
No, it would be only if the description were untrue.
30:29
The right to choose as sacred as it may be does not carry with it the arbitrary right
30:34
to destroy a human life.
30:36
This is as much a miscarriage of justice as it is a miscarriage of a human baby.
30:43
This is an absolutely brutal throat punch to anyone that thinks we should be able to murder
30:48
babies in the womb.
30:49
The most impactful book that I took down in 2020, abortion, a rational look at an emotional
30:54
issue by RC Spro.
30:57
Next one here, we've got my most entertaining book that I took down in 2020 and that is
31:01
the terminal list by Jack Carr.
31:03
That was released back in 2018.
31:04
So obviously we have him recently here on the podcast to talk about the terminal list
31:08
and also the subsequent novels, true believer, say Savage Son, and then the upcoming The
31:13
Devil's Hand that's going to be released in April of next year.
31:15
But let me go ahead and give you the description of the terminal list.
31:18
A Navy SEAL has nothing left to live for and everything to kill for after he discovers
31:22
that the American government is behind the deaths of his team in this ripped from the
31:26
headlines political thriller that is, quote, so powerful, so pulse pounding, so well written.
31:32
Rarely do you read a debut novel, This Damn Good, unquote, that's from Brad Thor.
31:37
On his last combat deployment, Lieutenant Commander James Reese's entire team was
31:40
killed in a catastrophic ambush.
31:42
But when those dears to him are murdered on the day of his homecoming, Reese discovers
31:47
that this was not an act of war by a foreign enemy, but a conspiracy that runs to the highest
31:51
levels of government.
31:53
Now with no family and free from the military's command structure, Reese applies the lessons
31:57
that he's learned in over a decade of constant warfare towards avenging the deaths of his
32:01
family and teammates.
32:03
With restless pacing and relentless suspense, Reese ruthlessly targets his enemies in the
32:08
upper echelons of power without regard for the law of combat or the rule of law.
32:14
So the reason why this was the most entertaining book of 2020, again, is because I don't do
32:18
fiction.
32:19
Fiction is hard for me to follow, especially some of these books.
32:21
You know, I didn't really find out about Jack Carr until Savage Someone's release.
32:24
So that's three novels in it.
32:25
It's like, well, crap, you can't just kind of skip around.
32:27
Even though that was, that's what Joe Rogan did before he had Jack Carr on the podcast.
32:30
But I went back to this book, I had tokens or whatever they're called on audible.
32:35
And so I got all three of those books, I had some long drives that that I was on.
32:38
And so I took down the terminal list and I just got to be honest with you guys.
32:42
It reminded me when I was reading the damn Brown novels back in the day.
32:45
So angels and demons and the Da Vinci code and, you know, Inferno and some of those types
32:49
of things, those were just spellbounding books.
32:53
And they were like 500 page books that had like 200 chapters.
32:55
And so you could read two or three pages and then go on to the next thing and go on
32:59
to the next thing.
33:00
And I had that feel to it, but it was super militaristic, right?
33:03
So it was obviously a former Navy SEAL that is trying to, to avenge himself.
33:07
But I just found myself in this book, you know, when you're reading a thriller, yeah,
33:10
your heart rate will get up and you're like, Oh, what's going to happen?
33:12
And you just got to make sure that you can read some more to where you can kind of take
33:15
down the content.
33:16
But there were different times when I was listening to this book where, I mean, I was
33:20
just overcome with emotion, you know, overcome with sadness for the main character, overcome
33:25
with anger for him, overcome with different things in to have something like a book illicit
33:31
that time type of an emotion.
33:32
For some of you guys, you don't even get that type of emotion from real life circumstances.
33:36
But I just remember seeing myself being like, man, this freaking sucks.
33:39
Like what would I do in this situation?
33:41
But it was an absolute thrill, right?
33:44
You know, there are some arguments to be made that me amazed savage son is probably the
33:49
fan favorite of the three so far that have been released.
33:52
And that is an incredible one.
33:53
But guys, I could not recommend these more highly to you.
33:58
And the thing is, is I can't really give you a quote because there's a lot of context.
34:01
I don't want to give you any spoilers, spoilers.
34:03
But I will provide for you my favorite review of this book by anybody.
34:07
So here's the favorite review quote, Jack Carr's many years of experience as a Navy SEAL gives
34:13
him unique insight and abilities to ride an extremely unique thriller.
34:16
The pages turn fast as you get inside the head of a warrior, absolutely intense, unquote.
34:22
Now it doesn't seem like that crazy of a review, but it's from Chuck Norris.
34:25
All right.
34:26
So Chuck Norris has read this book.
34:28
He thinks it's awesome.
34:30
And if you don't think that's awesome, then you're not awesome.
34:32
So definitely take down that book.
34:34
That is the most entertaining book I took down in 2020, the terminal list by Jack Carr.
34:39
Here we go to the next one, the best reread book of 2020.
34:42
And so that was the 5000 year leap, 28 ideas that are changing the world.
34:47
So every year I try to reread at least one or two books from the past.
34:51
I try not to reread a book that I just read the previous year, but this book is by W Kleon
34:58
Scosen.
34:59
I think it's how you say it.
35:00
So I'll spell out the last name, S K O U S E N. This was released back in 2007.
35:05
Let me give you the description here.
35:06
The nation the founders built is now in the throes of a political economic, social and
35:11
spiritual crisis that has driven many to an almost frantic search for modern solutions.
35:16
Crazy that this was written, you know, so long ago.
35:19
The truth is that the solutions have been available for a long time in the writings of
35:23
our founding fathers carefully set forth in this timely book.
35:27
In the 5000 year leap, a miracle that changed the world, discover the 28 principles of freedom
35:32
our founding fathers said must be understood and perpetuated by every people who desire
35:36
peace, prosperity and freedom.
35:39
Learn how to how adherence to these beliefs during the past 200 years has brought about
35:43
more progress than was made in the previous 5000 years.
35:47
These 28 principles include the genius of natural law, virtuous and moral leaders equal
35:52
rights, not equal things and avoiding the burden of debt.
35:56
So the reason why this is the best reread of 2020 is just because of how applicable it
36:01
is.
36:02
The last time I read this was about four years ago.
36:05
This is when I first started going to our like Sunday night, jujitsu thing.
36:08
This was one of the books that we were doing at that time.
36:10
And at that time, there weren't really a lot of crazy things going on.
36:13
Barack Obama was still president, Donald Trump hadn't been elected yet.
36:17
And you know, there wasn't a whole lot of consternation going on.
36:20
There was some concerns about what Barack Obama was doing to the country, the direction
36:23
that he was sending it.
36:25
You know, just the disdain that he and the people of his ilk had for Christians and conservatives
36:30
and kind of what you were made to feel if you were a traditional conservative American.
36:34
But the reminders of what the founding fathers believed and wrote is a refreshing thing because
36:40
a common refrain now is that the founding fathers were deist at best.
36:45
These were not people that believed in God.
36:47
They certainly didn't believe in the Christian God and people are just accepting that as
36:51
truth.
36:52
Again, being taught by K through 12, you know, teachers in the United States, they're, they're
36:56
not getting the real history.
36:58
So this is a really good book.
36:59
I will say that there are some things that the author says at different points where he
37:03
doesn't provide some sort of a footnote.
37:05
He's kind of inferring his own personality and his own opinion, but he does kind of separate
37:09
his opinion from factual readings throughout the book.
37:12
I feel like you can get that and I'm going to go ahead and read several of my favorite
37:15
quotes because this, this is kind of a through point of this book.
37:19
And so all of these quotes, I think kind of attached to one another as you go and read
37:23
through the 28 principles that are brought through.
37:25
So we're going to go and start with the quotes and I'll just kind of let you know when I'm
37:27
going on to the next one.
37:29
So here's the first one here.
37:30
The thinking of of Polybius Cicero, Thomas Hooker, Koch, Montesquieu, Blackstone, John
37:36
Locke and Adam Smith, Salton peppered their writings and their conversations.
37:40
They were also careful students of the Bible, especially the Old Testament.
37:43
It even though some did not belong to any Christian denomination, the teachings of Jesus
37:48
were held in universal respect and admiration.
37:50
Obviously, this is referring to the founding fathers.
37:52
Let's go to the next quote here, John Adams pointed out why the future of the United States
37:56
dependent upon the level of virtue and morality maintained among the people.
37:59
He said, our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people.
38:03
It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other next quote here.
38:07
The American founding fathers agreed with Locke.
38:09
They considered the existence of the creator as the most fundamental premise underlying
38:14
all self-evident truth.
38:15
It will be noted as we proceed through the study that every single self-evident truth
38:19
enunciated by the founders is rooted in the presupposition of a divine creator.
38:25
Next quote here.
38:26
Last one, actually.
38:27
After being elected president, Washington stressed these sentiments in his first inaugural
38:31
address when he said, no people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand
38:36
which conducts the affairs of men more than the people of the United States.
38:40
Every step by which they have advanced to the character of the independent nation seems
38:45
to have been distinguished by some token, a providential agency.
38:49
So guys, very, very good book.
38:51
If you're interested in the founding fathers and some of the things that they thought philosophically
38:55
theologically great, great book, the best reread of 2020, the 5000 year leap, 28 ideas
39:01
that are changing the world by W. Cleon Scosum.
39:04
So now we've got a few categories left.
39:06
I think we've got three books left.
39:07
This is the most disappointing book of 2020, but this one's a little bit different than
39:12
the ones in the past years.
39:13
Some in the past years were just absolutely awful from from cover to cover.
39:17
Some just didn't really hit the mark that I thought they should, but this is the most
39:20
disappointing book I read this year.
39:21
It's called Alone at Dawn.
39:23
Also of honor recipient, John Chapman and the untold story of the world's deadliest special
39:27
operations force.
39:29
This is by Dan Schilling and Chapman, Lori Longfritz, I think I got her name wrong.
39:34
I think it's Lori Chapman Longfritz anyway, and that was released last year in 2019.
39:38
But let me go and read the description to you here.
39:41
The New York Times best selling true account of John Chapman, metal of honor recipient and
39:45
special ops combat controller and his heroic one man stand during the Afghan war as he sacrificed
39:50
his life to save the lives of 23 comrades in arms in the predawn hours of March 4, 2002,
39:56
just below the 10,469 foot peak of the mountain in East of a mountain in Eastern Afghanistan,
40:02
a fierce battle raged outnumbered by Al Qaeda fighters, Air Force combat controller John
40:07
Chapman and a handful of Navy SEALs struggled to take a summit in the desperate bid to find
40:12
a lost teammate Chapman leading the charge was gravely wounded in the initial assault believing
40:16
he was dead.
40:18
His seal leader ordered a retreat Chapman regained consciousness alone with the enemy
40:22
closing in on three sides.
40:24
John Chapman's subsequent display of incredible valor valor, first saving the lives of his
40:28
seal teammates and then knowing he was mortally wounded single-handedly engaging two dozen
40:33
hardened fighters to save the lives of an incoming rescue squad posthumously earned him the
40:37
metal of honor Chapman and his first airman is the first airman in nearly 50 years to
40:42
be given the distinction reserved for America's greatest heroes alone at dawn is also a behind
40:47
the scenes look at the Air Force combat controllers, the world's deadliest and most versatile
40:52
special operations force whose members must not only exceed the qualifications of Navy
40:57
SEAL and Army Delta Force teams, but also act with sharp decisiveness and deft precision
41:02
even in the face of life-threatening danger.
41:04
Drawing from firsthand accounts classified documents, dramatic video footage and extensive
41:08
interviews with leaders and survivors of the operation alone at dawn is the story of an
41:13
extraordinary man's brave last stand in the brotherhood that forged him.
41:17
So after reading that description, you might be shocked that I have this as my most disappointing
41:21
book that I took down in 2020, but this is why I was the most disappointing book of 2020.
41:27
This is another book that I listened to on Audible and I don't know if I had solid myself
41:32
a little bit before I went into reading this, but it's kind of one of those things when
41:35
you're about to purchase the book, you can kind of flip through the reviews real quick
41:38
and the very, very first review that I saw was a one or two star review that basically
41:42
said, you know, this was an awesome story, but this is a terrible retelling of it.
41:47
I don't even understand what's happening.
41:49
It's in a very confusing read.
41:51
The person's voice is not pleasant, blah, blah, blah, and I read that and then I started
41:55
listening to it.
41:56
So I kind of had that in the back of my mind that this was going to be hard to follow,
42:00
but then that's exactly what I found to be the case.
42:02
I felt like the narrative being spun in this book was incredibly hard to follow when I've
42:07
read other military memoirs, right, you know, whenever you read extreme ownership or lone
42:13
survivor or, you know, fearless or any of those types of things, you can find yourself
42:18
there.
42:19
American sniper.
42:20
I mean, you can kind of see yourself in those situations.
42:23
You can almost, you know, imagine like you were there if you were like, you know, holding
42:27
a camera, like being a part of the action and kind of seeing these things happen.
42:31
And I just didn't get that from this book.
42:33
Okay.
42:35
But with the other books that I've put in this category, most disappointing, this is
42:40
a book that I would still recommend to you because I think this was a me problem.
42:44
I mean, this is like 4.9 out of 5 on Amazon with like over 5,000 reviews.
42:49
So obviously I feel like I missed the mark.
42:51
Okay.
42:52
So I think what I'm going to try to do maybe this next year is I'm going to maybe try to
42:56
actually read it myself as opposed to listening to it because again, I listen to things at
42:59
two time speed.
43:00
You know, I can't bring myself to listen to it any slower.
43:04
Perhaps I missed out on some things.
43:05
And also I felt like there was kind of a whiny undertone of this because they were obviously
43:11
talking about Air Force combat controllers, who they are the most deadly operation, special
43:16
operations force.
43:18
But it seemed like they kind of had an axe to grind with Delta Force and axe to grind
43:22
with the Green Berets and axe to grind with Navy seals.
43:25
And there, it was almost like a jealous little brother, kind of at different points describing
43:30
the Air Force combat controllers and how hard they got it and how smart they have to be
43:33
and all those things.
43:34
And so that kind of struck me as odd.
43:37
It wasn't really fun to kind of listen to someone describe it in that way.
43:42
But again, I feel like this might be a problem.
43:44
So I would highly suggest that you still take this book down, but that was the most disappointing
43:48
book that I took in for 2020 alone at dawn, Medal of Honor recipient, John Chapman and
43:53
the untold story of the world's deadliest special, Oh gosh, I cut off the deadliest
43:58
special operations force goodness, guys, hey, we're doing it live.
44:03
So we're just going to keep going.
44:04
And again, that is by Dan Schilling and Lori.
44:07
I think it's Chapman long for its I think I just got the the name mixed up here.
44:11
Okay.
44:12
So now we got the two final ones left.
44:15
So we're about to get to my best book of 2020, the best book that I took in.
44:19
But this one is almost the best book of 2020.
44:23
Okay.
44:24
I mean, it was right there.
44:25
It spent weeks thinking about which book that I was going to put in there for the best book
44:29
of 2020.
44:31
But this one was almost it.
44:32
But it got, you know, just basically edged out by another one.
44:35
So the almost best book of 2020 is the coddling of the American mind, how good intentions
44:40
and bad ideas are setting up a generation for failure by Greg Luchinoff and Jonathan
44:45
height.
44:46
And that was released last year in 2019.
44:47
Let me give you the description here.
44:49
Something has been going wrong on many college campuses in the last few years.
44:53
Others are shouted down, students and professors saying they are walking on eggshells and are
44:58
afraid to speak honestly, rates of anxiety, depression and suicide are rising on campus,
45:03
as well as nationally.
45:04
How did this happen?
45:06
First amendment expert Greg Luchinoff and social psychologist, Jonathan height, show
45:09
how the new problems on campus have their origins and three terrible ideas that have become
45:13
increasingly woven into American childhood and education.
45:17
What doesn't kill you makes you weaker, always trust your feelings and life is a battle between
45:22
good people and evil people.
45:25
These three great untruths contradict basic psychological principles about well-being
45:29
and ancient wisdom from many cultures, embracing these untruths and the resulting culture of
45:34
safety.
45:35
Interferes with young people, social, emotional and intellectual development, and makes it
45:40
harder for them to become autonomous adults who are able to navigate the bumpy roads of
45:45
life.
45:46
Luchinoff and height investigate the many social trends that have intersected to promote the
45:50
spread of these untruths.
45:52
They explore changes in childhood such as the rise of fearful parenting, the decline
45:56
of unsupervised child-directed play, and the new role of social media that has engulfed
46:01
teenagers in the last decade.
46:03
They examine changes on campus, including the corporatization of universities and the emergence
46:08
of new ideas about identity and justice.
46:10
They situate the conflicts on campus within the context of America's rapidly rising political
46:15
polarization and dysfunction.
46:17
This is a book for anyone who is confused by what is happening on college campuses today
46:21
or has children or is concerned about the growing inability of Americans to live, work,
46:26
and cooperate across party lines.
46:29
Guys, this is an incredibly fun book.
46:32
It was an incredibly insightful book.
46:35
These are not from your normal right-wing sources that you would think would be talking
46:39
about these types of things.
46:40
I believe both of these guys would consider themselves to be on the liberal left side
46:43
of the political spectrum.
46:45
The reason why it was almost the best book of 2020 is simply because the ideas were so
46:50
incredible to try to take in, because everyone's trying to explain why this common generation,
46:56
why this latest generation is acting in the way that it's acting, and I feel like he breaks
47:01
it down.
47:02
Both of these authors break it down in such an incredible way, but again, it comes down
47:06
to three terrible ideas, what doesn't kill you, makes you weaker, always trust your feelings,
47:12
and life is a battle between good people and evil people.
47:15
And guys, I don't really want to give away too much of this book because I almost demand
47:19
that you read it.
47:20
It is an incredibly, incredibly important book, but I will give you my favorite quote,
47:24
and it's this.
47:25
The bottom line is that when members of IGN, that's what they're calling basically this
47:29
latest generation, arrived on campus beginning in the fall of 2013, they had accumulated
47:35
less unsupervised time and fewer offline experiences than had any previous generation.
47:41
As Twingy points out, I'm not sure who that is from the context of it, quote, "18-year-olds
47:46
now act like 15-year-olds used to, and 13-year-olds act like 10-year-olds.
47:52
Teens are physically safer than ever, yet they are more mentally vulnerable."
47:57
Most of these trends are showing up across social classes, races, and ethnicities.
48:02
Members of IGN, therefore, may not, on average, be as ready for college as were 18-year-olds
48:07
of previous generations.
48:09
This might explain why college students are suddenly asking for more protection and adult
48:13
intervention in their affairs and interpersonal conflicts.
48:17
Obviously, I think a lot of people, they like to talk about the previous generations, like,
48:22
"Ah, these millennials are so soft, or these Gen Y people, or they just don't know what
48:25
they're talking about," but I think it's a stunted maturity.
48:29
I think it's clearly a stunted maturity to where it makes perfect sense that they're
48:36
18-years-old and that they've been on this earth for 18 years, but as they go into college,
48:41
they don't have the maturity of an 18-year-old, because I remember, obviously, I did some
48:45
dumb things.
48:46
I was kind of a class clown, but I was always a mature kid.
48:49
My parents were always complimented on how mature I was and how I acted in certain situations.
48:54
Yeah, I was a rambunctious kid, but I was a mature kid.
48:57
I didn't get into really serious trouble, but whenever I was 18, I wasn't kicked out
49:04
of my house, but I moved away to college knowing that I was never coming back.
49:08
And it didn't have to be explained, "Oh, hey, son, by the way, as soon as you move out,
49:13
your room's being changed into a guest room or into a storage room or something like that."
49:18
There was no definitive thing that was discussed, but at the end of the day, it was important
49:22
for my family to basically create this environment where it's like, "All right, you're on your
49:27
own.
49:28
We had you for 18 years, we got you all squared away, and now we're moving on."
49:33
I feel like this generation that is coming up is not getting that at all, and it was
49:38
an important book for me to read as I consider how I'm going to be a father to sweet baby
49:43
James.
49:45
The things that I'm going to allow him to struggle with, the things that he's not going
49:49
to get from his schooling that I got from mine and that my wife got from hers, and this resilience
49:55
that kids just don't have and this desire to be kept safe by some adult or, you know,
50:02
when their team gets beat really, really, really bad in baseball or football or basketball,
50:06
how all the parents on their team start yelling at the parents on the other team for how mean
50:10
they're being for running up the score.
50:12
And I'm going to be more sensitive to those things and be looking for those things so
50:16
that I can challenge those terrible ideologies that lead to a weak kid.
50:20
So the almost best book of 2020, The Coddling of the American Mind, How Good Intentions and
50:25
Bad Ideas Are Setting Up A Generation for Failure by Greg Lukanoff and Jonathan Hite.
50:29
So we've gotten all the way to the end of the podcast and here we are, the best book
50:34
that I read in 2020.
50:36
And the only reason that I picked this over the previous book, The Coddling of the American
50:39
Mind is because it was actually released in 2020.
50:42
So I thought it was important to finally have a book that was the book of the year that
50:45
was released in the year that I'm talking about it.
50:48
So the best book of 2020, Fortitude American Resilience in an Era of Outrage by Dan Crenshaw
50:55
released this year.
50:56
And again, that is representative Dan Crenshaw and retired Navy Seal, here is the description.
51:00
Jordan Peterson's 12 Rules for Life meets Jocko Willink in Lake Babin's extreme ownership
51:05
in this tough love leadership book from a Navy Seal and rising star in Republican politics.
51:10
In 2012, on his third tour of duty, an improvised explosive device left Dan Crenshaw's right
51:15
eye destroyed and is left blinded.
51:18
Only through the careful hand of his surgeons and what doctors called a miracle did Crenshaw's
51:22
left eye recover partial vision.
51:24
And yet he persevered, completing two more deployments.
51:27
Why?
51:28
There are certain stories we can tell ourselves about the hardships we face.
51:31
We can become paralyzed by adversity or we can adapt and overcome.
51:35
We can be fragile or we can find our fortitude.
51:38
Crenshaw delivers a set of lessons to help you do just that.
51:42
Most people's everyday challenges aren't as extreme as surviving combat and yet our society
51:46
is more fragile than ever, exploding with outrage, drowning in microaggressions and
51:51
evolving into divisive mob politics.
51:54
The American spirit, long characterized by grit and fortitude, is unraveling.
51:58
We must fix it.
51:59
That's exactly what Crenshaw accomplishes with fortitude.
52:03
This book isn't about the problem, it's about the solution, and that solution begins
52:07
with each and every one of us.
52:09
We must all lighten up, toughen up, and begin treating our fellow Americans with respect
52:13
and grace.
52:15
Fortitude is a no-nonsense advice book for finding the strength to deal with everything
52:18
from menial, daily frustrations to truly difficult challenges.
52:22
More than that, it is a road map for a more resilient American culture.
52:26
With meditations and perseverance, on perseverance, failure, and finding much-needed heroes,
52:31
the book is the antidote for a prevailing safety culture of trigger warnings in safe
52:36
places.
52:37
Interspersed with lessons from history and psychology is Crenshaw's own story of how
52:41
an average American kid from the Houston suburbs went from war zones to the halls of
52:45
Congress, and managed to navigate his path with a sense of humor and an even greater
52:50
sense that no matter what anyone else around us says or does, we are in control of our
52:55
own destiny.
52:57
So guys, I read this book on my own this year, and then I also read it with my foxhole, and
53:02
the reason why it's the best book of 2020 is because this is like the book.
53:08
That kind of goes on the heels of what was just described with the coddling of the American
53:12
mind.
53:13
I would suggest to you, the first two books that you read this year in this order would
53:16
be the coddling of the American mind, and then fortitude.
53:20
The reason for that is because the coddling of American mind is a description of the
53:25
problem, whereas as you saw from the description of fortitude, this is a description of the
53:29
solution.
53:31
This is one of the better because this could be considered a military memoir book.
53:35
It could be considered a modern philosophy book.
53:37
It could be considered a self-help book, but the lessons are so unbelievably good from
53:42
this book.
53:45
There's not a whole lot not to like about Dan Crenshaw, and I try not to be one of those
53:49
people that as soon as you know, someone gets into Congress and they're kind of interesting
53:54
and maybe they were a former military member or maybe they were former athlete and you
53:58
know, they've got some some stars kind of around them.
54:01
But this guy is legitimately going places.
54:03
I think people are a little about out over their skis thinking that he's going to run
54:06
for president in 2024.
54:08
As I've said before, I don't think he has the national name recognition for that.
54:12
I think it's more realistic that he eventually runs for Senate in Texas or runs for governor
54:16
of Texas, and then, you know, several elections down the line that he could run for president.
54:20
Who knows?
54:21
It could be him on one side and AOC on the other.
54:23
Wouldn't that be fun?
54:24
But the way he thinks about ideas, the way he breaks down his philosophies and the way
54:28
he explains it to you is incredibly unique and refreshing and very direct.
54:32
And so I'm going to give you several favorite quotes.
54:33
I think I had four quotes or five quotes that I pulled out from this book that I think is
54:37
incredibly important for you to take in.
54:39
So here's the first quote here.
54:41
"Outrage is weakness.
54:43
It is the muting of rational thinking and the triumph of emotion.
54:46
Despite what you've been hearing and seeing as of late, it is not a virtue.
54:51
It is not something to be celebrated nor praised nor aspired to.
54:54
It is a deeply human emotion, even understandable at times, but rarely is it productive, virtuous,
55:00
or useful.
55:01
It is an emotion to overcome, not accept an overcoming it requires mental strength.
55:07
This book is about acquiring that necessary mental fortitude."
55:11
That's from the first chapter.
55:12
It is amazing.
55:13
Next quote here.
55:14
"Now I wonder how a generation shaped by the comforts of victimhood culture unaccustomed
55:18
to adversity and allergic to sacrifice with less and less desire to persevere or preserve
55:23
our values and way of life will react when we are faced with the next great war or depression
55:30
or civil conflict."
55:31
Yeah, that's an interesting thought.
55:33
Next quote here.
55:34
"What you should do is scatter challenges throughout your life.
55:38
The nature and value of those challenges depend upon you, and those aren't singular.
55:42
Big goal challenges either.
55:44
The pursuit of meaningful suffering must be habitual."
55:47
I'll say that again.
55:48
"The pursuit of meaningful suffering must be habitual.
55:51
It must be a new part of your routine where you dedicate yourself to occasional bouts
55:55
of self-imposed suffering because deep down you know you have become too soft."
55:59
Ooh.
56:00
Ooh.
56:01
Love that quote.
56:02
Next one here.
56:03
"In the Christian sense, without suffering there can be no redemption, no mercy.
56:07
In the raw humanistic sense, without suffering there can be no internal resilience to adversity,
56:13
no proper preparedness for the future.
56:15
Suffering controlled by you and for the right cause can be a building block for both spiritual
56:20
health and mental toughness.
56:22
In a liberty-based nation like the United States, where we are free to fail and to suffer,
56:27
that fortitude is a welcome and necessary attribute.
56:30
Rather than trying to erase suffering at every opportunity, we would all be wise to value
56:34
it and seek it out.
56:35
So go do something hard."
56:38
Then that sounds like something I've said before.
56:40
Last quote from here, and it's a short one, "A system that falsely promises the end of
56:44
suffering also strips individuals of the capacity to deal with it."
56:49
So guys, if you're not a self-help book person and you feel like this is a self-help book,
56:54
this is probably going to be the most helpful self-help book that you could possibly have,
56:57
but another thing is if you have teenagers, if you have a 15, 16, 17-year-old, you've
57:02
got to read this book with them.
57:04
And regardless, if you've applied these lessons to your own personal life or if you've fallen
57:11
short in these areas, none of that really matters.
57:13
I really think this is one of the most important books that you could possibly read with your
57:17
children.
57:18
I can't wait to read it with my son.
57:20
It's an incredible read, guys.
57:21
It is the best book of 2020 fortitude American resilience in an era of outrage by Dan Crenshaw.
57:28
So as we look forward to 2021, I like to kind of give you a list of some books that I have
57:32
on The Hopper, and if you listen to my last year's episode, I have a lot of the same
57:36
books because a lot of the books I said I was going to read this year, I didn't end up
57:39
reading.
57:40
I read other books.
57:41
I was preparing a lot for all those podcasts.
57:43
We had a baby.
57:44
Oh, excuses, excuses.
57:45
I'll give you the list again, but there's one that wasn't from last year, and that is
57:48
the devil's hand by Jack Carr.
57:50
That is going to be released this coming year.
57:52
And then also we got the carryovers from last year, the first one being beyond order, 12
57:56
rules for life by Jordan Peterson.
57:58
That is the follow-up book by Jordan Peterson, it was supposed to be released in 2019.
58:01
Obviously, you had trouble finishing the book, you had trouble basically staying alive at
58:04
different points.
58:05
So I'm sure we're going to hear about that.
58:06
Then we have a liberal fascism by Jonah Goldberg, ordinary men by Christopher are Browning,
58:12
the arm by Jeff Passen.
58:14
That's a baseball book.
58:15
Then we have Martin Luther by Eric Metaxas.
58:17
So that's a biography of Martin Luther.
58:19
We have American Buffalo by Steven Renella, call sign chaos by General James Mattis, Jim
58:25
Mattis, not a daycare by Everett Piper.
58:28
For split the difference by Chris Voss and Tall Raz, Iron John by Robert Bly and The
58:33
Cross of Christ by John Stott.
58:35
The only reason I saw him in red The Cross of Christ by John Stott is it's still like
58:38
30 bucks on iBooks.
58:39
And I saw it go down to like $7.99 one day and I was like, oh, that's interesting.
58:42
And I didn't buy it.
58:43
And then a shot right back up to 30 bucks.
58:44
So I'll eventually be able to get that one.
58:46
But guys, thanks so much for listening to this podcast.
58:48
We really do appreciate you taking down this list.
58:50
If you look at the show notes, you will have the list of the books and where you can buy
58:54
them.
58:55
You would please subscribe on Apple podcast, iTunes, Spotify, Google podcasts or Stitcher
58:58
and refer your friends to listen and share this on social media.
59:02
If we reserve a five star review, please leave us one.
59:05
And I am currently booking speaking engagements for the entirety of 2021.
59:08
So if you want to come speak to your team at your men's event, at your whatever, hit me
59:12
up, I N F O at undaunted dot life, that's info at undaunted dot life.
59:16
The website is www dot undaunted dot life.
59:18
You can follow us on Instagram and Twitter at undaunted life or Facebook dot com backslash
59:22
undaunted life.
59:23
Check out our free devotionals on the U version Bible app just search undaunted life under
59:26
plans.
59:27
And as always, we want to thank the band August Burns read for allowing us to use their entire
59:31
music library for our content.
59:33
The entire outdoor track on this podcast is our song defender, which is off their latest
59:36
record entitled guardians.
59:38
The links are in the description.
59:40
I'm your host, Kyle Thompson.
59:42
Remember, keep cultivating mainly resilience, keep forging spiritual mental and physical
59:47
toughness.
59:48
Keep seeking the lion of Judah.
1:00:04
Peace.