0:00
(upbeat music)
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- This is Undaunted Life, a man's podcast.
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I'm your host Kyle Thompson.
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Let's get into it.
0:24
All right guys, I got a special guest on the podcast
0:25
for you today.
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His name is Mike Ritalin.
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Now, wait a minute.
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You might be thinking to yourself, Kyle,
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didn't you just have Mike on last week?
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I did, this is part two, you guys.
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I got you.
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I know he's one of your favorite people for me to talk to.
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So I wanted to bring you a part two.
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So, but for anybody that did not listen to the episode last week,
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not only should you go and listen to that episode,
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but now I'm gonna have to give the intro again.
0:43
Because you guys were lazy and just didn't listen to last week.
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So let me give his intro again.
0:47
He is a retired Navy SEAL.
0:48
He spent 12 years in the United States Navy.
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He's also a K9 trainer and has been so for over 20 years.
0:54
He also hosts the Mike Drop podcast,
0:56
which I was fortunate enough to be on earlier this summer.
0:58
And he's the founder of multiple businesses
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like Tricoast International.
1:01
That's a personal protection dog company.
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Team dog dog training programs,
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fueled by team dog food and treats.
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That's the food that I give my dog, Roman the Giant.
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That's why I love him so much.
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'Cause I give him the best food.
1:11
And also the Warrior Dog Foundation,
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which helps to provide care for a tired working K9s.
1:16
And in addition to all that,
1:17
the guy somehow has time to write best-selling books.
1:19
So he's the best-selling author of Team Dog,
1:21
How to Train Your Dog, the Navy SEAL Way,
1:23
and Trident K9 Warrior.
1:25
My tail from the training ground to the battlefield
1:27
with elite Navy SEAL K9s.
1:29
Now, guys, in the first interview,
1:30
we spent a lot of time talking about
1:32
why he went into the military,
1:33
how he became a Navy SEAL.
1:35
We didn't waste a lot of time on how he was cold wet
1:37
and sandy during buds,
1:38
'cause I think we all get that at this point.
1:40
But why he was in the military, some of those stories,
1:42
but also how he got into training K9s
1:44
and how he got into that whole world
1:45
and why he's kept being in that world.
1:47
But in this interview,
1:48
I wanted to get a little bit more into his brain.
1:50
And that has a lot to do with a new book that he wrote,
1:52
which that's why we're releasing this on this day.
1:54
Because as of today, his new book is out.
1:56
It's in the show notes.
1:57
You can go check it out and grab it.
1:59
Because he doesn't talk about the military
2:00
really in his new book.
2:01
He doesn't talk about K9s.
2:02
He's talking about American.
2:03
He's talking about these foundational topics.
2:06
And he's talking about a lot of really
2:08
kind of incendiary topics, right?
2:10
And in this interview, we get into abortion.
2:12
We talk about equity versus equality
2:15
and quality of opportunity versus equality of outcome.
2:18
And we get into a lot of that.
2:20
But at the beginning of this episode,
2:21
we talk a lot about his personal faith.
2:23
And the reason why is because since I did the interview
2:26
on his podcast earlier this summer,
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he's gotten a lot of negative comments from Christians.
2:30
They're like, oh, challenging his worldview.
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I've gotten a lot of negative comments only from Christians.
2:34
Like, have you ever even heard of apologetics?
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Why didn't you say this when he said that?
2:38
And, you know, pretending like it was a chess mask,
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which at this point, it's a good thing to kind of tell you
2:43
the day I did the interview on his podcast,
2:44
I had just met him.
2:45
And it's a three hour long conversation
2:47
where we're talking about a lot of different things
2:48
where there was nobody that was trying to set a goal
2:51
for what should happen in that conversation,
2:52
aside from the fact that we wanted it to be entertaining
2:55
and, you know, intellectually stimulating
2:56
for the audience, right?
2:58
And so, and then there's other conversations
2:59
that Mike and I have had that you were not privy to
3:01
'cause it hasn't been on his show or on my show,
3:03
which will keep personal because that's something
3:05
about the development of a friendship and a relationship.
3:07
But in the first 20 minutes, I mean,
3:08
it's about an hour long conversation,
3:10
the first 20 minutes or so,
3:11
we spend talking about his worldview
3:13
and talking about, you know, the Christian worldview
3:15
and the resurrection and those types of things.
3:16
And I think you're gonna be really interested
3:18
in his answers because he's a very, very honest guy.
3:20
That's why every time he comes on,
3:21
I have to do, you know, major language warning
3:23
if you have sensitive ears around Mike talks the way he talks
3:26
and I'm not gonna edit out anything that he says.
3:28
I want y'all to hear it from the horse's mouth,
3:30
how he thinks, right?
3:31
Just 'cause we have different worldviews,
3:32
doesn't mean I can't let him talk.
3:34
But that's really the thing that when you see
3:35
a conversation like this, it's a good example.
3:37
Yes, I am patting myself on the back a little bit here
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of how two people can vehemently disagree,
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vehemently disagree about core things,
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foundational things about who they are as a person.
3:48
And yet, no one's getting mad,
3:50
no one's calling someone else the name,
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you know, we're not trashing each other online
3:54
or otherwise after the interview's over.
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I mean, he's not here for this introduction, right?
3:57
This is after the conversation.
3:59
So I'm not saying anything bad about the guy,
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but it's just a good example to you guys
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that in this divisive culture that we live in,
4:04
that seems more divisive because of the news cycle,
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because of social media and all that,
4:08
you can still get to a point
4:09
where you can have a conversation with somebody
4:11
that you disagree with and leave being buddies,
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leave loving that person, leave, you know,
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valuing that friendship.
4:16
So I just wanted to kind of throw that out there to you.
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But I think I've done enough to tee you up
4:20
for this conversation by now.
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You're probably like, okay, Kyle, I get it.
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Let's go ahead and get to the conversation.
4:23
So I'm not going to keep him from you any longer.
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So without further ado, let's get into it.
4:28
Mike Ritalin, we're making a habit of this,
4:30
but welcome back to Undaunted Life of Man's podcast.
4:33
- Well, it's an honor and a pleasure to be here.
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I appreciate it and I'll come back anytime you'll have me.
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- Absolutely. Anytime you write a book
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or anytime you got something special,
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you have an audience here with us.
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Now, in the previous podcast that we did last week,
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well, you know, we did, you know,
4:47
your military career and your dog training
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and we talked about all that type of stuff.
4:51
Now we're going to dig into a little bit more
4:52
as to kind of what's going on in your brain,
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but also a new book that I'm excited
4:56
to tell our audience about.
4:57
But I'm going to pull a mic drop podcast on you, okay?
5:00
I'm going to start the podcast with a bunch
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of random questions that you get
5:04
just a few seconds to answer, okay?
5:05
So you ready for some, you ready for me to mic drop you?
5:08
- Always.
5:09
- Okay, here we go.
5:10
If you could only listen to one bands
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or one artist music for the rest of your life,
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who would it be and why?
5:17
- Probably Pantera.
5:20
I grew up listening to them and I saw them live
5:23
several times and there was just always something
5:27
about that band that I kind of connected with
5:30
and there were a lot of rough patches in high school
5:34
that I went through that, you know,
5:36
I know a lot of people kind of connect
5:38
with music that way and I'm no exception
5:40
is that there was just a lot of listening
5:44
to those albums that they made and I just,
5:48
man, I just love their music, you know,
5:51
I think it's different than the type of music
5:54
that's just hard for the sake of being hard
5:56
and heavy and fast and angry or whatever.
5:59
You know, they have kind of a bluesy groove
6:02
which their, you know, lead guitarist
6:04
was actually from here in Dallas as well
6:07
as the drummer, they were brothers.
6:08
But there was a lot of blues influence
6:12
with a lot of their riffs and stuff
6:14
and so there's kind of a heavy groove to it
6:16
where it's not all super fast and I just bet I just love it.
6:20
- Yeah, R.P. Dimebag, I got a quick story.
6:22
I was seeing Metallica for the first time in Tulsa
6:24
a few years ago and before the show was starting
6:26
they're playing music just like in the background.
6:29
So there was some slayer and there was some, you know,
6:31
this band or that band, Lance Eplin,
6:33
the crowd basically didn't respond to any of those bands
6:35
but the moment Pantera came on, the entire crowd
6:39
before the concert was singing.
6:40
And so even, I think Jim Brewer was the opener
6:42
and he's like, okay, I guess we got a Southern rock
6:46
'cause they're kind of like Southern rock metal thing.
6:48
I kind of know, I totally get the blues thing.
6:49
But all right, next question here.
6:51
What is the perfect home defense firearm?
6:54
- 12 gauge shot, yeah, for sure.
6:56
You know, to me for, and I'll quantify that
7:01
or expound on that with nine shot
7:04
is what I would use.
7:06
Don't use slugs or, you know, double-op buck or whatever
7:09
is that, you know, the beauty of nine shot
7:12
and this is backed up actually by FBI statistics
7:14
from a ballistic standpoint
7:16
as the most proficient round for neutralizing
7:20
a threat that way.
7:22
The beauty of it also is that, you know,
7:23
it's not gonna go through your walls
7:26
and kill your kids or, you know,
7:28
into the neighbor's house, the way slugs
7:30
or, you know, double or triple-op buck will.
7:32
So, you know, you don't have to be deadly accurate.
7:37
The sound of it chambering around
7:38
is pretty effective in and of itself.
7:42
It's easy to shoot, especially if you stick
7:44
with two and three-quarter inch shells.
7:46
Don't go three and a half.
7:48
You know, you can put two hands on it, you know,
7:51
females or slight or built individuals can shoot it.
7:55
No problem.
7:56
And yeah, it's a tried and true firearm for that.
8:00
No question about it.
8:02
- All right, I got a shotgun story,
8:03
but I'll tell you off air.
8:04
Sorry, guys, you can't even pay to have the right
8:06
to that story.
8:07
I'll tell them later.
8:08
But last one here, last random mic drop question.
8:10
If you were forced to live in another country,
8:13
which I know that's what it would take.
8:14
Okay, but if you were forced to live in another country
8:16
for the rest of your life,
8:18
but you were able to choose that country,
8:20
where would you move to and why?
8:22
- Norway, for me, just half of my family,
8:25
the ripplin side is from there.
8:28
And it's just, you know, that type of terrain,
8:32
just is really what is probably my favorite terrain
8:37
to live in, to be in.
8:38
And I just feel the most at home
8:40
in those types of environments.
8:42
So I like cold, [inaudible] weather.
8:44
And I like, you know, big, big monstrous landscapes
8:49
that kind of humble you that way.
8:52
So yeah, for sure, it'd be Norway.
8:55
Or, you know, if you wanna even consider a region,
8:58
just the Scandinavian countries.
9:01
I mean, Finland, Denmark, and Sweden
9:03
are also certainly up there too.
9:05
But I think if I had to pick between the four,
9:07
I wouldn't be, it'd probably be Norway.
9:09
- Hey, about a year ago,
9:10
I would've said New Zealand or Australia,
9:12
but after seeing what's going on down there,
9:13
I don't really know that I wanna be a part of that, but.
9:16
- LinkedIn is pretty amazing
9:17
at helping you grow your small business.
9:19
We cannot make your email response time faster.
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We can help you sell market and hire in one place.
9:27
We cannot help you find space
9:28
for your three desk drinks.
9:30
Why do you have three?
9:31
And while we can't help you find the perfect volume
9:34
for your presentation video,
9:36
LinkedIn can help you find the perfect audience
9:39
for your business.
9:40
Grow your small business on LinkedIn.
9:42
Learn more at linkedin.com/smallbusiness.
9:46
- Let's kind of dive in a little bit more
9:47
because this is something that I've thought about you
9:49
and I've talked about off-air.
9:51
Whenever I came down and I was on your podcast,
9:53
obviously we spent a lot of time talking about God,
9:55
talking about faith, talking about things therein,
9:57
and then we kind of flowed in every which direction.
10:00
And I told you this before,
10:01
and I think I've mentioned it on my show,
10:03
the only people that were mad at me
10:04
about that conversation were other Christians.
10:06
Because I think they were expecting me to drop
10:09
some sort of like big gospel bomb on you
10:12
and that you were gonna have this big crying
10:14
transformation experience in that moment,
10:15
which those things happened.
10:17
But you and I were just a couple of guys
10:18
having a conversation with microphones
10:20
in front of our face.
10:21
But there were some people that follow me
10:23
and follow you that weren't exactly sure
10:26
where you would put your mark on the board
10:28
in terms of where you land on your personal faith.
10:31
And so I wanna kind of dig down on that a little bit
10:33
before we get into the new book.
10:35
But for you personally, if someone says,
10:36
hey, what are you, categorically?
10:38
Are you an atheist?
10:39
Are you an agnostic?
10:40
Are you, I don't really care?
10:41
Like, where would you put yourself?
10:43
- So I mean, I view it kind of similar to politics that way.
10:46
And that I think that's one of the problems
10:48
is trying to drum up a label or a box
10:51
to put yourself or anyone in is that,
10:55
I don't think that way, you know,
10:57
whether you wanna call it linearly or what have you.
11:00
I don't really consider myself in a political party either.
11:04
I mean, there's things that I'm liberal about.
11:06
There's more things that I'm conservative about,
11:08
but there's a lot of things that I'm libertarian about also.
11:12
I wouldn't consider myself any one of those three
11:14
down the line.
11:15
So, you know, I view faith kind of that same way.
11:20
I mean, I know we talked about, you know,
11:22
me growing up pretty staunch Lutheran
11:24
and going through the three year confirmation process.
11:26
And, you know, I was pretty into it all of my childhood
11:31
and high school and then really heavy into it
11:34
the first couple of years I was in the Navy
11:36
until I went overseas.
11:37
And that's really what changed my perspective
11:40
to just be more open minded towards everything,
11:43
including the prospect of maybe it's all [inaudible].
11:46
I'm not saying it is, but just open to the fact
11:50
that, you know, that there are so many different,
11:55
you know, categories or groups of people on the planet
11:59
that are really, really hard line,
12:02
very specific to a certain specific faith.
12:05
You know, and they're all equally convinced
12:08
that they're 100% accurate and correct and right
12:10
and whatever.
12:11
And obviously, you can't all be, you know.
12:14
So, you know, that in and of itself, I think, you know,
12:17
kind of changes the paradigm or the, you know,
12:20
the lens with which I view faith.
12:22
So, I'm sort of going back to your question.
12:26
[inaudible], I don't know.
12:27
You know, I don't know if it's legitimate or not.
12:30
There are times where I think, yeah, that makes sense.
12:34
Something will happen where it seems, you know,
12:36
more than a coincidence.
12:38
There's other times where it completely rattles
12:40
any prospect of having faith in any type of higher
12:44
organized being or spirit, whatever you want to call it.
12:47
I think ultimately, if you, you know, water bored me
12:50
and say pick something, you know, I would say,
12:53
I do think that there is something else
12:56
to our existence.
12:58
I just, I don't have any idea what that is
13:01
and I'm not convinced enough, you know,
13:04
to hook line and sink or say that this is what I believe
13:08
100%.
13:09
I just don't know, you know, and, oh.
13:11
- You said you don't know several times
13:13
and this is an important delineating question
13:15
that I've asked a lot of people and I love
13:17
the different answers I get, but do you,
13:19
'cause I struggle with this question as well,
13:20
do you think it's no a bull?
13:22
'Cause there are certain things that aren't exactly
13:24
no a bull because the evidence literally does not exist.
13:28
It's not something that we can surmise.
13:30
Do you feel like it's something that you can know?
13:33
- I think it's a little bit in the eye of the beholder
13:35
that way.
13:36
I think the human brain is complicated enough to where,
13:41
if you just separate us from all other animals,
13:44
you know, the things that we have the ability to do,
13:46
look inside our own minds, look inside other animals' minds,
13:50
view the universe, you know, unlike any other animal,
13:53
can even possibly comprehend, you know,
13:57
that there's so many facets to our existence
14:00
that, to answer your question, no, I don't think that it is
14:04
because the way that people's perspectives are shaped
14:08
by their genetics, their experience, their environment,
14:11
nutrition, you know, the way that they develop,
14:16
you know, all these things, I think, you know,
14:19
are so vast and varied, you know, from human being
14:24
to human being that it's really, from my perspective,
14:27
impossible to say, yes, I know that this is a fact
14:30
and I can prove it here.
14:32
I just don't see that as being, you know, doable or accurate.
14:36
- Okay, this is kind of the last question in this vein
14:38
or I think it will be, but I know we have other things
14:40
we need to get to.
14:41
Something that I feel like a lot of people
14:44
in this may have happened with you,
14:45
I feel like religion, you know, using air quotes here,
14:48
kind of poisons the well for a lot of people
14:51
because it's like, you know, you try to do the right things
14:53
according to the religion, you open up whatever
14:55
that religion's rule book is and you try to check
14:57
all the boxes and it's impossible to do
15:00
and then you feel guilty or then you see something bad
15:02
happen and you're like, how does that coalesce
15:04
or jive with what I'm reading here?
15:06
Do you feel like that, and you can use it as a you thing
15:09
or just kind of a macro thing, do you feel like just
15:11
the advent of religious behavior and religious rules
15:15
that may or may not be tied to some sort of a moral law?
15:18
Do you feel like that really makes it harder
15:20
for people to come to a place where they can be down
15:22
with, you know, believing in these things or not?
15:24
- For sure it does, I think that that's part of it
15:27
and I'll talk to the other big part of it I think
15:29
or at least from my experience, I think human nature,
15:32
you know, anybody who's ever been a parent to teenagers
15:35
can tell you that [inaudible] the system is inherently ingrained
15:40
in our human DNA that way is that we like to push back
15:43
on things, you know, and you know, sometimes there is
15:47
an element of human nature that just exists
15:50
that's if you want me to do this, I'm not gonna do it
15:53
because you want me to do it.
15:54
- Right.
15:55
- And that's just part of who we are.
15:57
I mean, it's consistent across all age groups
16:01
and cultures and societies, specifically in that, you know,
16:05
as you enter into adulthood, you know, type of timeframe.
16:08
But ironically, it was more conformed, you know,
16:13
once I became an adult, until I was about 35, early 30s,
16:18
maybe, and then I've kind of come full circle
16:21
where now I'm at least as much of that way
16:24
as I was when I was a teenager as I get older
16:27
and more bitter and cynical.
16:28
But the other part of it, I think, and this is again,
16:32
just from my experience, but I also see it in other people
16:36
and it seems fairly consistent with a lot of religious groups
16:40
and this isn't just Christianity, this is all of them,
16:43
and I would even, I'll go ahead and say pick on
16:47
the Islamic faith even more that way
16:49
and is that, you know, the adage of,
16:51
"You catch more flies with honey than you do vinegar,"
16:54
I think is really, really apt when it comes
16:57
to most things in life, but especially religion is that,
17:01
and we'll use, you know, our episode when you came
17:03
on my show as an example is that there weren't a lot
17:06
of comments, but there were a few, and I don't know
17:08
if they were, you know, long listeners of mine
17:12
or ones that crossed over from you or what,
17:14
but they were very talking down to me on certain things
17:19
that I looked at, you know, like,
17:21
and I don't even remember what the specific, you know,
17:24
comment was or whatever comment that I made,
17:27
but somebody was like, "Really?
17:28
"That's how you're gonna, you know, look at it,"
17:30
or whatever, and it's like, if you want me to, you know,
17:34
view whatever it is that you're trying to sell
17:37
in a positive manner, like calling me a [inaudible]
17:40
for having certain people once is 100% the wrong way
17:44
to go about that, for me and for most people, you know,
17:47
like, and I think that's where, you know,
17:49
it's kind of like independence politically,
17:52
is that they feel like Democrats attack them
17:54
for, you know, not wanting everything in their camp
17:58
and Republicans do the same [inaudible] thing
18:00
and they kind of feel, you know, they're not quite sure,
18:03
you know, and they've got both sides basically,
18:04
[inaudible] them, for what they think,
18:07
and then trying to get them to come to their side
18:10
and that's, unfortunately, I mean, I hate to use that analogy,
18:13
but that's what it feels like, you know,
18:15
with a lot of religious sex is that they try to almost
18:20
belittle you into, you know, coming on to their side
18:25
or their team to believe what they believe, you know,
18:29
and it's like, so that's part of it,
18:32
and within that, taking it kind of a step further,
18:34
it's the almost fire in brimstone, like,
18:38
if you don't believe this, you will spend eternity in hell
18:40
and you're gonna [inaudible] fry for that, like,
18:43
I'll tell you right now, like, you coming at me like that
18:46
is gonna push me so far away that you're not even,
18:49
I'm not even gonna listen to you, you know,
18:52
and so it's like, there's a minding your own business
18:55
component for me that's an important part of my life
18:58
that, you know, that I find is a huge turnoff
19:02
with a lot of religious folks, you know,
19:04
so that's been my experience with it.
19:06
Well, all those negative comments came from my burner accounts
19:09
if you were wondering where all those came from.
19:11
No, but that's kind of thing is I agree with you,
19:13
like, the vinegar thing, even within the church,
19:16
like, there's people that, you know,
19:17
maybe they're reformed Baptist
19:18
or maybe they're these people that have these very specific
19:21
things that they will not, you know, go left or right on.
19:24
It's this or it's nothing, and they'll even go after people
19:27
on their own side, but this is the kind of the last comment
19:29
I would say on this, 'cause this is something I wish
19:30
I would have said on our conversation earlier this summer
19:33
is we have to all figure out for ourselves
19:37
what are the, what are the potentialities
19:40
for the results of my decisions, right?
19:42
And so let's look at it this way.
19:43
So let's say you considered yourself to be
19:45
a strict materialist atheist, which you have not said,
19:48
but let's just kind of put you in that camp.
19:49
And then I'm, you know, a Christian,
19:52
a Bible believe in Christian, I believe that Jesus rose
19:54
on the third day was resurrected, you know,
19:56
to pay for our sins, all those different things
19:58
was crucified and resurrected, all that.
20:00
If you're right and I'm wrong,
20:02
when we get to the end of our lives, we're both worm food.
20:06
Now along the way, I will have wasted a lot more time
20:09
and money on, you know, dealing with going to church
20:13
and giving money here and feeling like I gotta do this
20:15
and checking all the boxes, right?
20:16
But we both end up in the same place.
20:17
We're both worm food, you know, the lights just went off
20:19
and that's it.
20:21
But if you're wrong and you spend your entire life
20:23
doing your thing and I spend my entire life doing my thing,
20:27
the reality from what we are told is that you spend
20:30
eternity separated from God, right?
20:33
You spend eternity and hell, those types of things.
20:35
So that's why I encourage a guy like you
20:36
and you and I have had conversations off air,
20:38
which are not, you know, pertinent to my audience here
20:40
that will keep private, that I would continue
20:42
to encourage you to look at those questions.
20:46
And I would almost say, don't even worry
20:48
about the does God exist question first.
20:50
I would always focus on the resurrection
20:52
because if the resurrection happened,
20:54
if that's a real thing that we can know
20:55
and there's evidence to suggest that that happened,
20:58
then that opens up a lot of other cans of worms.
21:00
You don't have to worry about dinosaurs yet.
21:02
You don't have to worry about,
21:03
can we get two of every animal on a single boat?
21:05
You don't have to worry about any of that.
21:06
Deal with the resurrection because that's the key
21:10
to the acceptance of the gospel,
21:11
not these macro ideas about all these different
21:14
particular things about how one word in the Greek
21:17
was translated versus the Hebrew or Aramaic.
21:19
So is that kind of a fair way to kind of leave that?
21:21
Is that a fair way to think about it?
21:23
- No, I think it is.
21:26
For me, where I struggle with the convincing aspect
21:31
in any regard is that,
21:33
and I get the witnessing aspect of religion,
21:38
but I don't understand why it's there.
21:40
To be blunt, it's like, why do you give a [inaudible]
21:47
what I think?
21:47
I mean, ultimately, like you or anybody else,
21:52
like why do you care if I believe in God or not?
21:55
- My answer to that is,
21:57
and it's a pretty straightforward answer,
21:59
is because I believe that every single human being
22:02
is made with the image of God implanted on them.
22:04
That's called the Amago Day, right?
22:05
Like we see that in the very first part of Genesis.
22:08
And so because I see you as a brother,
22:11
I also see you as a potential brother in Christ.
22:13
And so I guess the way of saying is like,
22:16
whether it's you or whether it's a family member of mine
22:19
that I would talk to about something like this,
22:20
it's like, I want you to have salvation.
22:23
I want you to have eternal life.
22:24
I want you to have those things.
22:25
And so you can think whatever you want,
22:27
and I don't want you to just become a carbon copy of me,
22:30
who's a carbon copy of somebody else.
22:31
Like that's not valuable.
22:33
I want you, Mike Ritalin, with your way of thinking
22:35
and your way of operating in life,
22:38
to accept that as a truth.
22:40
And I will continue to say what the truth is to you,
22:44
and whether you accept it or not is not up to me,
22:46
and I can't carry that burden.
22:48
That's not my cross to bear, as people would say it.
22:50
But that's why I would say that I care,
22:52
is because I have love for you as a brother,
22:54
as a friend, as I would for even a stranger,
22:56
would be the way that I would put it.
22:58
- So I appreciate you saying that,
23:00
and I think that's a really good way to put it.
23:03
And my advice to most people in your camp
23:08
would be to take that frame of mind,
23:10
as opposed to the judginess and the amway pyramid scheme
23:15
asked to feel that it could hopefully get from people.
23:19
And it's the pushy, judgy, those things just so severely
23:24
pollute the original intended message
23:27
that most people aren't even willing to listen to it,
23:29
because they feel like it's a door-to-door salesman,
23:32
or somebody is looking at them like they're inferior.
23:34
And that's one of the things, again,
23:37
that I probably struggle the most with,
23:39
is that when I feel judged from somebody else
23:41
who's [inaudible] up just as much as I have or more.
23:43
- Or worse, yeah.
23:45
- It's like, who the [inaudible] are you to tell me I'm screwed up?
23:49
Like, I don't need your [inaudible] about anything, you know?
23:51
So yeah, I appreciate you saying that.
23:55
And like I said, I think it's a great way to put it.
23:58
And for sure, brings my level of kind of guard down
24:03
by hearing if that's legitimately like all I'm paraphrasing
24:09
from your standpoint, all you're worried about is,
24:12
hey, I care about it, and I want you to be in the same position
24:16
to at least be able to accept that, you know,
24:19
that's admirable, and I can certainly respect that, so.
24:22
- Well, it's posture versus posturing.
24:24
Posturing is look how righteous I am,
24:26
don't you wanna be righteous like me, that's posturing.
24:28
But the posture of someone's heart in like the moment
24:31
that I would be is like, I know how depraved I am.
24:34
No one else, including my wife, including my parents,
24:37
knows the level of depravity that I carry within me.
24:40
Only God, and another entity outside of me
24:42
understands that level of depravity.
24:44
So I know when I'm talking to somebody,
24:46
that's worse than me, for those of you listening to this,
24:48
I use major air quotes, right?
24:49
They've done worse things, they've acted in worse ways,
24:52
they've said worse things, they believed worse things.
24:54
I realize that we're all in the same level playing field
24:57
because people, they look at sin like it's a bottle, right?
25:01
So it's like, oh, you murdered somebody,
25:02
a ton of sin goes in the bottle.
25:04
Oh, you said a lie, a little bit of sin goes in the bottle.
25:06
And when you look at it from the side,
25:08
we can all judge people by the level of sin they have.
25:10
I say look at it from the top, right?
25:12
When you look down on the top of a bottle,
25:14
you can't tell how much water is in there.
25:16
You can't tell how much sin is in there.
25:17
So it's like binary, are you a sinner?
25:19
Are you a bad person or are you perfect?
25:21
That's the only binary.
25:23
And so I think that really gets in a lot of people's way
25:25
is 'cause they look at someone's disheveled appearance
25:27
or they look at their background and they think,
25:29
oh, you know, a good loving Jesus could not
25:32
possibly love that person,
25:34
but you don't get that from the New Testament.
25:35
What are you digging in the New Testament?
25:36
He spent a lot of time around people that were disheveled
25:40
and horrible and immoral and all that.
25:43
And his words were like,
25:44
it's not the healthy that needed doctor, it's the sick.
25:47
And so whenever all of us can look at ourselves
25:50
on the sick side of that spectrum,
25:52
I think it's gonna go a lot better.
25:53
- Yeah, but I couldn't agree more.
25:55
And the last thing I'll bring up in terms of the,
25:57
some of the heartburners that there seems to be a parallel,
26:00
again, with politics and religion
26:02
from kind of a virtuous standpoint.
26:05
Is it, you know, a lot of,
26:07
and again, this isn't just Christians.
26:09
I mean, I've met plenty of Muslims and Buddhists
26:12
and then everything else, you know,
26:14
that fall into that same category of wanting to make sure
26:18
that you see me doing what I'm doing,
26:20
so you know that I'm a good fill in the black.
26:23
- Right.
26:24
- And also I'm gonna go ahead and highlight
26:25
what you're doing, you know, wrong,
26:28
so that you know that you've got some work to do, you know.
26:30
And, you know, like I said, just, you know,
26:33
when that's people's exposure to, you know, to faith,
26:37
then it's hard to wrap your arms around that
26:40
and say, yeah, this is for me.
26:42
- I agree.
26:43
Well, let's go from a very happy and loving topic
26:45
to we're gonna dig down into the declining of our country, right?
26:49
So let's, let's pep things up just a little bit.
26:51
So you've got a new book that comes out, guys.
26:53
If you're listening to this on time,
26:54
hit the book comes out today.
26:56
And in this book, you go into a lot of detail
26:59
on the subject of kind of the decline of our country
27:01
and where that's kind of coming from,
27:02
where some of our foundations are crumbling.
27:05
And it's not like any other book that you've written so far, right?
27:07
So you focus a lot on the dogs
27:09
and on your military career, that's not what this book is at all.
27:12
You're going out some of the core things that we believe
27:14
as a people and as a country.
27:16
So how about you just generically,
27:18
'cause we don't have all the time in the world,
27:19
tell us what this book is about
27:21
and why you decide to write it now.
27:23
And as I understand, you're going the self-publishing route.
27:25
So kind of, where did this book all come to be?
27:27
And how are you getting into us?
27:28
- Sure.
27:29
So, you know, in the last three and a half years
27:31
of doing the Mike Drop Show, you know,
27:35
I've had the pleasure of having a lot
27:37
of really interesting guests on that many of whom have had,
27:40
you know, decades of experience in certain, you know,
27:45
elements of our society that are reflected in this book.
27:48
And when I kind of tried to wrap my mind around
27:53
all of the different viewpoints
27:56
and kind of no [inaudible] real-world stats
27:58
that I got from these folks,
28:00
coupled with what you hear in the media,
28:02
they didn't jive, you know?
28:05
And so if you watch Foxy and MSNBC,
28:08
you know, any mainstream media outlet
28:10
for a couple of hours, just pick a day,
28:13
you would think that the things that plague our country
28:16
are very specific.
28:19
When you look at the actual data,
28:21
they don't match up, right?
28:24
So we're being fed all of these, you know,
28:29
kind of hidden agendas or political
28:32
and, you know, even economical agendas
28:35
to feed certain big businesses and lobbyists
28:38
and what have you, and it [inaudible] me off.
28:41
It is that, you know, we're being force-fed certain things
28:45
that, you know, this is what you should be worried about.
28:47
This is, you know, just constantly being jammed down
28:50
our throat of here are the problems that plague our society.
28:54
But then you look at, you know, the top 10 things
28:56
that people die from or that are the biggest negative
28:59
net impacts on our society and that's not really
29:02
what's being talked about, you know?
29:05
And so I noticed in talking with a lot of these people
29:10
that, you know, I came into the conversation
29:13
with the things that I think are really, really crucial
29:17
to be able to hear somebody to listen to understand,
29:20
to drop your politics, religion, and emotion at the door
29:24
when you go into it, coupled with the prospect
29:27
that you might actually be wrong.
29:29
And that's how you need to enter into these conversations
29:31
when you're trying to figure these problems out
29:34
and, you know, seeing how emotionally charged people
29:38
are on social media and just in the regular media,
29:41
you know, it turns into where we're making a lot of decisions
29:45
for this country based on emotion, you know?
29:48
And, you know, nothing will pollute your ability
29:52
to make a good sound decision
29:55
than having it influenced heavily by emotion, you know?
29:59
And so for me, it was important to kind of strip away
30:03
all of the BS and really get down to like the root causes
30:08
of all of the things that are making our nation
30:11
turn into what it's being turned into from a societal
30:16
and cultural standpoint.
30:17
And so that was the biggest driver.
30:19
Now, I also was not naive to the fact that, you know,
30:23
having kind of a 30,000 foot view approach
30:27
to something like that can be daunting, right?
30:30
Throwing a little plug for, you know, for undaunted, right?
30:34
Is it, you don't want it to be daunting for people to,
30:37
you know, to look at something and think,
30:41
well, how the [inaudible] am I gonna do anything about it?
30:43
You're talking about things that cost millions
30:45
or billions of dollars or, you know, millions of people
30:48
are affected by acts like how it is me, Joe Schmo
30:52
and my, you know, suburban house gonna do anything
30:54
about any of that, you know?
30:56
And that's a very real problem, I think,
30:59
for most people is that they just feel kind of, you know,
31:03
underwater that way.
31:05
And so I wanted to say here are the big problems.
31:09
Here's why they're the way they are.
31:11
Here's what we can do as a country to fix it.
31:13
And here's what you can do as an individual to do your part
31:16
to, you know, to help solve that specific issue.
31:19
So that was really the driver.
31:21
Now, I was approached by one of the publishers
31:26
that I've worked with in the past to do a book similar to this.
31:31
And so I'll be the first to admit I was influenced
31:35
with the initial thought of thinking, you know,
31:39
okay, if they're asking about doing a book like this,
31:43
there's probably a good reason to do it.
31:45
You know, and in the interest of saying, you know,
31:47
hey, instead of giving them the creative control,
31:50
and when I put all this time and effort
31:52
into pitching something like this,
31:54
especially when it's as politically charged as it is,
31:57
I don't want, you know, a media outlet deciding,
32:01
no, we don't want this in there.
32:02
No, we're cutting this chapter out.
32:04
No, this is too inflammatory.
32:06
Oh, we don't like the way that sounds like,
32:08
you can't have that with, I mean,
32:09
you shouldn't have that really with any book,
32:11
but especially a book like this where there's a lot
32:13
of very divisive things talked about, you know,
32:17
that people are really, really emotionally charged over.
32:20
So, you know, all those things combined is where it came from.
32:25
- Yeah, you don't really leave anything on the table
32:28
in terms of a topic that's gonna get people's, you know,
32:32
blood pressure boiling or something like that.
32:35
And you kind of split the book up into two parts.
32:36
The first part, you kind of go into just macro subject matters
32:40
that you're discussing in the book.
32:41
And guys, you're gonna have to go get a copy of the book.
32:43
Obviously it's gonna be in the show notes.
32:44
We can't get into all the details here.
32:46
But then the second half of the book,
32:47
you go into more specific type things.
32:49
But from the first half of the book,
32:50
I want to really highlight something
32:51
that you talked about in chapter three.
32:53
And you mentioned it a little bit earlier in our conversation,
32:55
but chapter three is called Escaping the Echo Chamber.
32:57
And so, Escaping the Echo Chamber,
32:58
I want to read this quote here, quote.
33:00
"Despite what anyone says,
33:02
most people don't actually want
33:03
to have their viewpoints challenged,
33:04
their perspectives changed,
33:06
or their beliefs called into question.
33:07
They don't actually want to be presented
33:09
with compelling truths on two sides of an issue
33:11
and have to think for themselves.
33:13
They just want to feel like they are in the know
33:15
and on the right side, the winning side,
33:18
the side that makes sense," unquote.
33:20
So, obviously I feel like I intuitively know why that is,
33:24
but I feel like that is a through point
33:27
for the other points that you make
33:28
in the first section of the book,
33:29
because you're talking about a problem
33:31
with a victimization culture that we live in.
33:33
And people don't want to hear
33:34
how being a victim is a bad thing.
33:36
We talk about how a lot of people
33:37
just kind of act like a spoiled American brat.
33:40
They've got all these things, life is so good.
33:41
And yet they're still stressed out all the time.
33:44
Like the kids were, yeah, I love to quote,
33:45
I think you said you're churning out
33:47
too many 18-year-old infants, right?
33:49
Like as a country, we're doing that.
33:50
We're worshiping at the altar of these idiots
33:53
that don't know anything about the subject they're talking
33:55
about, whether it's LeBron James
33:56
or some other random celebrity.
33:58
But I feel like it all kind of comes back to
34:00
the escaping the echo chamber part.
34:02
We want the people on our side
34:03
to hear the virtuous things we're saying,
34:05
like you were saying earlier.
34:06
Do you feel like that is kind of the hinge point
34:08
for a lot of the issues we're seeing?
34:10
- 100% it is.
34:11
I mean, raise your hand if you like to be wrong.
34:13
Yeah, nobody.
34:14
- Nobody likes to be wrong, right?
34:16
Especially when it's something that you're passionate about.
34:19
You know, something that you feel very, very strongly about.
34:23
I mean, on your side, you can take abortion, right?
34:27
You know, on anybody's side, you can pick,
34:30
you know, a couple of things that they are really,
34:32
really passionate about that it's like,
34:34
not only does the prospect not exist in their mind
34:36
that they could be wrong,
34:38
but they're scared to death of being wrong.
34:41
Especially if it's a belief that you've fought hard for
34:44
or held on to for a long time,
34:46
or again, just feel really, really passionate about,
34:50
it's hard to let that go.
34:52
It's really hard to enter into a conversation
34:55
when you're adamant about something.
34:57
Take a disagreement with your spouse, right?
34:59
Is it entering into that disagreement with the prospect?
35:04
You know, she may be right.
35:05
I could be totally [inaudible] like,
35:06
it's hard to put yourself in that frame of mind,
35:09
but it's crucial because the reality of it is
35:12
is that no matter who you are,
35:13
no matter what the subject of conversation is,
35:15
that is the case, you might be wrong.
35:17
Now you very well may be right also,
35:20
but the prospect has to at least be possible
35:22
in your mind that you are wrong.
35:23
And so when you drop that, you know,
35:28
and simmer down the emotion,
35:30
because again, I mean, pick any instance in your life
35:33
where you were really, really emotionally charged
35:36
and you decided on something,
35:37
how often is it right, how often is whatever decision
35:40
you made in that moment, right?
35:42
You run into that a lot in business
35:45
and in professional life where something [inaudible] you off
35:47
and you want to respond right now because you're [inaudible]
35:50
and you want to get back at somebody or be vengeful
35:52
or prove a point or be stubborn or whatever.
35:55
And that's never the right way to go about it.
35:58
You know, you want to be calculated
35:59
and very strategic and very emotionally stable,
36:04
you know, when you're making these decisions.
36:06
And so that is essentially kind of the backbone
36:11
or the benchmark principle of how you have to enter
36:14
into every thought process with any of these issues.
36:18
And so, you know, the reason why I kind of pre-empt
36:23
each chapter with the same little kind of mantra of,
36:27
you need to, you know, remove these things
36:28
and enter into this, you know, topic with this mindset
36:33
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37:05
When I think for a lot of people,
37:06
if you just use this, I don't know if it's an adage
37:08
or it's just generational wisdom,
37:10
but the first person to raise their voice
37:12
is probably the one that's wrong.
37:13
I feel like that's true.
37:14
Like if you're debating who's the greatest basketball player
37:16
ever versus Michael Jordan or LeBron James
37:18
or you're debating some actual real topic
37:20
that has lives at stake,
37:21
I think that's a really good place to start
37:23
because if you start with yelling,
37:24
that's what I've told people.
37:25
It's like, hey, if you're gonna go to your school board
37:27
because of, you know, critical race theory
37:29
or the pornographic books
37:30
that are in your, you know, five-year-olds classroom
37:32
and all that and you start when your time starts,
37:35
you start yelling into the microphone,
37:37
everybody can very, very easily tune that person out, right?
37:40
Because you're not making points,
37:41
you're just yelling at me.
37:43
But I mean, you brought up abortion.
37:44
So I guess since you brought it up,
37:45
I guess we're gonna have to talk about it, Mike,
37:47
because, but there are some other subjects
37:48
we're not gonna hang our hat completely on that.
37:50
But you did something in your book
37:51
that I feel like is a very fair thing.
37:54
And that's when people get a little bit,
37:56
not really offended, but they get a little bit suspect
37:59
when people are talking about the abortion subject
38:01
in their only using religious language, right?
38:03
Their only using Judeo-Christian morality
38:05
or they're only using the Bible or all that type of thing.
38:07
So the way that I would like to approach
38:09
the conversation about abortion is like,
38:10
even though we can't really take the Judeo-Christian framework
38:13
or morality off the table, for our conversation,
38:15
since we only have a little bit longer,
38:17
we're just gonna take that completely off the table.
38:19
Because I think that I can show you
38:21
without any religious jargon or language
38:23
that a pro-choice mindset is a problematic one
38:26
and also potentially an indefensible one.
38:28
But we can't go at the entire subject of abortion,
38:31
but I just wanna look at two things that you brought up
38:33
that you talked about a lot in your abortion section,
38:35
which I thought was fair.
38:36
You talk about when life begins and her body, her choice.
38:39
Those are the main things that you kind of focus on.
38:40
So on the when life begins part,
38:42
from your book you say things like,
38:44
there's a point at which life begins, right?
38:46
And I would say that that's obviously correct.
38:48
You also have a quote said,
38:49
"I believe that line is determined by nature."
38:53
Now you can kind of mince words with that,
38:55
but I would say generally that's also a correct statement.
38:57
But then you also say this,
38:58
you say that science says that when a fetus
39:00
is ready to live, thrive, and function on its own,
39:03
it's a human life with rights that should be protected.
39:06
And that's where I would say
39:07
that that is an incorrect statement.
39:09
So I'll kind of play through this
39:10
'cause I wanna get your thoughts on it.
39:12
So there's a doctor named Jerome Lejeune.
39:15
This is not a guy that I knew about until a few months ago,
39:16
but he's a world-renowned scientist and physician.
39:18
He's called the father of modern genetics.
39:21
So this is like kind of his area.
39:22
He had this quote that I found really, really incredible.
39:25
And it's this,
39:26
the fact that after fertilization has taken place,
39:29
a new human has come into being
39:31
is no longer a matter of taste or opinion.
39:34
It's plain experimental evidence.
39:36
And just so you don't know that I'm cherry picking a quote
39:39
from a guy that's obviously a theist,
39:41
there was actually University of Chicago study done
39:43
just a few years ago back in 2018
39:45
by a guy named Dr. Stephen Jacobs.
39:47
And they pulled biologists from all over the map, right?
39:50
So these are people that this is their world.
39:52
They found that 95% of practicing biologists
39:56
affirm that life begins at fertilization.
39:59
So inside this group of people,
40:01
there were super majorities of people
40:03
that consider themselves to be.
40:05
They self-identify as pro-choice or liberal, right?
40:07
So these aren't just, you know, religious Catholic zealots
40:09
or something like that.
40:10
So in light of that information,
40:12
just using science alone,
40:14
would you agree that at the moment the sperm cell
40:17
fertilizes the egg cell and creates that, you know,
40:20
one celled zygote that a new human life has been formed?
40:24
- So for me, you know, I hate to say the same thing
40:27
as I don't know, you know, like to me,
40:31
there's so many things at play here, you know,
40:34
what, I mean, if every scientist on the planet says,
40:38
this is what I think, hey, I respect the fact
40:40
that you're a wizard and you're a line of work
40:44
and you're, you know, a learned professional.
40:48
My take is though, is it, you know,
40:50
is it when there's a heartbeat, maybe?
40:53
Is it when you can determine what,
40:55
which biological sex, you know, the individual is, maybe?
41:00
When it's, you know, life can be sustained on its own,
41:04
maybe, [inaudible], I don't know.
41:06
You know, I can see saying, yeah,
41:10
it makes sense that it starts here.
41:12
It makes sense that it starts here.
41:14
It doesn't make sense that it starts here
41:16
in a lot of different ways, you know,
41:19
and so for me, where I separate all of that
41:23
from just the simple fact that, you know,
41:26
as a human being, if you're bringing another human being
41:29
into this life, it's just my opinion,
41:32
irrespective of when it starts,
41:34
you should get to determine whether or not
41:37
you go through with that.
41:38
I, that's just how I think, you know,
41:41
now, like even the prospect of saying, okay,
41:46
in the third trimester, should that be a lie?
41:48
Like the day before a child is born,
41:50
should somebody be able to do that?
41:52
Like, there's nothing about that that I think is good,
41:56
or fair, or cool, or enjoyable,
41:59
or even bordering on [inaudible] legal.
42:03
But I still think that in a society where
42:06
the onus on the parent, right,
42:09
is that you're in charge of doing that,
42:12
and you have the ability to bring that child
42:14
into the world or not, it should be up to you
42:17
to decide whether or not you go
42:19
all the way through with that.
42:20
Now, I know people say, well,
42:22
you can just give it up for adoption.
42:23
Yeah, I get that.
42:25
But still, if you're making people do certain things,
42:29
I just, I'm just not okay with that.
42:31
I think you still need to give people the choice
42:33
to do what they want to do.
42:34
That's just how I feel about it.
42:36
- Sure, yeah, we're bleeding into the,
42:38
her body, her choice part, which we'll get to here
42:39
in just a second, but just kind of come back
42:41
to even the initial point,
42:42
because I think you brought up some fair points there.
42:45
The fetus that's growing inside,
42:47
whether you want to call it a baby, a fetus,
42:48
I mean, a fetus is just Latin for offspring.
42:51
So, you know, it's, you call it whatever you want,
42:53
but the entity that's growing inside of the woman's body,
42:57
to say that it's not alive would be,
43:00
it's not a matter of opinion,
43:01
it's actually a matter of fact,
43:02
because it is growing.
43:04
The cell divisions taking place, metabolism is taking place,
43:07
the unborn child is processing nutrition,
43:09
the organs are there, those things don't happen
43:11
in a non-living entity.
43:13
This pin is not doing that,
43:14
this microphone's not doing that.
43:15
And so that is not as much of a matter of opinion
43:19
in terms of when life begins.
43:20
I think what a lot of people get,
43:23
they get sideways on is when is it a human being, right?
43:26
You know, it's being that becomes the question,
43:28
not that it's alive or not,
43:29
because again, it's a living human, right?
43:32
'Cause it's not gonna come out a ficus
43:33
or come out an iPhone,
43:34
it's gonna come out as a, you know,
43:36
hopefully a live human being.
43:38
So that's kind of the point that I wanted to go through here,
43:40
but let's go ahead and get into the,
43:41
kind of the her body, her choice argument,
43:43
because that's mainly what you were kind of talking about.
43:46
So you're, go ahead, go ahead.
43:48
- Just real quick is that yeah,
43:49
even if I was to say, you know what, yeah,
43:51
I do agree with you that life begins,
43:53
that the instant conception takes place.
43:55
Like even if I say, yeah, that's what I think,
43:58
I still think that as a parent,
44:01
you ought to be able to have the ability
44:03
to choose to go through with it or not.
44:05
That's just, yeah, and that's,
44:07
I know that's what you're about to get into,
44:08
but just to clarify for anybody,
44:10
it's like he doesn't even know what he thinks, agreed.
44:13
I don't like there's times where I think,
44:15
yeah, it makes sense that it's here or there or, you know,
44:17
like [inaudible], I don't know, you know,
44:19
but ultimately into the next point,
44:22
yeah, I still think you should be able to do what you want.
44:25
- Well, Mike, as someone you mentioned earlier,
44:26
it's like you can't be outraged about everything equally, right?
44:29
So I mean, look at anytime elections come up,
44:31
it's like, okay, here are the hundred things
44:33
that you could be concerned about.
44:34
You can't be concerned about them all equally.
44:36
So you obviously are a little bit more concerned
44:37
about the her body, her choice side,
44:39
as opposed to the window's life begins side.
44:40
So in your book, you say,
44:42
when a fetus is still in utero,
44:43
it's part of the woman's body.
44:45
- I'm gonna say, our child, our choice,
44:48
not her body, her choice.
44:50
- Okay, you do go into that in the book,
44:51
which most people don't,
44:53
which I thought was interesting because it's like,
44:54
you know, what about the dad?
44:56
Does the dad not get a say?
44:57
- Yeah.
44:57
- Yeah.
44:58
- Yeah.
44:59
- And I think that's [inaudible].
45:00
- Sure, so we'll get further into that
45:02
and we'll just assume that is the paradigm.
45:03
So you say when the fetus is still in utero,
45:05
it's part of the woman's body.
45:07
That is technically incorrect.
45:08
Also you say, science says that when a fetus is ready to live,
45:12
this is a quote from earlier,
45:13
and function on its own,
45:14
it's a human life with rights that should be protected.
45:16
Before that moment,
45:17
a fetus is an extension of the woman's body,
45:20
which is a statement that I would also push you
45:21
and say that that's incorrect.
45:23
And so as we've established a little bit earlier
45:24
that, you know, what's inside the womb,
45:26
it's a separate human body that's inside the body
45:30
of the woman.
45:31
So you've probably heard this,
45:32
I think I may have even said this on your show,
45:34
the old adage of, you know,
45:35
my right to swing my fist ends where your nose begins, right?
45:38
Well, that still applies to the living human
45:41
that's inside the womb.
45:42
You're right to choose what to do with your body
45:45
or our bodies ends where a living human
45:48
in the womb's body begins.
45:50
And this is why this is why it's so important.
45:52
The abortion process, the abortion procedure
45:55
does not happen to the woman.
45:58
It happens to the living human that's in her womb.
46:00
You know, the abortion impacts her body secondarily,
46:04
not primarily.
46:04
Like the woman, the woman's body is just the setting
46:07
for the abortion, because the heart that stopped
46:10
during the abortion is not the mothers.
46:12
The limbs that are ripped off are not the mothers.
46:13
The brain is not the mothers that stopped.
46:15
The only dead entity at the end of an abortion, typically,
46:19
is the baby inside the womb, not the mother.
46:22
And so, 'cause you say, you know,
46:23
you should be free to live your life as you wish,
46:25
so as long as it doesn't affect our harmony body.
46:27
But in this particular instance,
46:29
in light of your own words,
46:31
would you agree that what is growing
46:32
inside the woman's body is a separate living human being
46:36
that's worthy of being protected?
46:38
- No, I wouldn't.
46:38
And here's why.
46:39
I know you just said that it's fact, right?
46:43
That the baby inside of a child is its own thing.
46:46
It's not an extension.
46:48
Where are you getting?
46:49
Or how are you saying that that's a fact?
46:51
- So it's a separate living entity.
46:53
It has its own DNA, it has its own organs.
46:55
It's processing its own fluid.
46:59
Like the heart is beating on its own,
47:00
the brain waves are moving on its own.
47:02
Now, you can say that it's receiving nutrients
47:04
from the mother, which is obviously a fact of nature.
47:07
The same would be true on a baby
47:08
that is geographically located outside the womb
47:11
after birth, whether they're, you know,
47:13
a day old outside the womb or my son
47:15
who's a year and a half old.
47:16
That baby is not viable.
47:18
If we leave our house today
47:19
and don't ever come back, the baby dies, right?
47:21
So that's what I'm saying.
47:22
It's biologically speaking, not religiously speaking,
47:25
a separate human life.
47:27
It's not an extension of the mother's life.
47:29
It is a separate life entirely.
47:31
Its own DNA, its own structure.
47:33
- Yeah, I mean, I guess where I would just disagree
47:36
with that, you know, is again,
47:39
is that without the support structure of the mother
47:43
being able to do all of that, that's just not the case.
47:47
I mean, minus or sans organs,
47:50
you could say the same thing about a cancerous tumor.
47:53
You know, its ability to thrive
47:56
is because it's embedded into a human being.
47:59
When you remove that, it doesn't have the ability
48:01
to survive or thrive and it dies.
48:04
You know, that doesn't make it its own entity
48:07
from my standpoint.
48:08
And I just feel that same way about a child now
48:12
or an embryo or whatever stage, you know,
48:16
that fetus is inside the mother is that
48:19
until it can sustain life, you know,
48:23
on its own outside of the womb, I don't view it that way.
48:27
That's just my viewpoint on it.
48:29
- Okay.
48:29
- And we can agree to disagree or, you know,
48:31
you can say, well, it wouldn't survive, you know,
48:35
without, you know, a two-year-old wouldn't survive.
48:38
A five-year-old wouldn't survive in a lot of cases.
48:40
I know 17-year-olds that wouldn't survive
48:42
if their parents left them for a week, you know.
48:45
So, you know, and I say that half-jokingly,
48:49
but I do, that's just, that is how I view it.
48:52
And I think, you know, where there's always gonna be
48:56
that area where we agree to disagree
48:58
is because I'm not attaching it
49:01
to any religious aspect whatsoever.
49:03
Well, I think this is just how I view it is that,
49:07
and I respect the fact that you're a man of faith.
49:10
I really do, is that I think that because
49:15
faith being what it is, is that it's impossible
49:19
to separate yourself from it entirely, right?
49:21
You can say, we're just gonna remove
49:23
the religious aspects.
49:24
Well, I don't think you can,
49:26
because it makes you think a certain way, right?
49:29
Which there's nothing wrong with that.
49:31
You know, and to me, the beauty of having
49:34
a conversation like this, and where I think it's important,
49:39
and where most people get sidetracked as they get angry,
49:42
right, is that, and I won't even say
49:45
it's typically more on religious side.
49:47
I know plenty of pro-choice people that are vile [inaudible]
49:51
when it comes to getting into a conversation like this,
49:54
they start getting angry and pounding their fists
49:55
and they take it personal and what have you.
49:57
I think it's important not to do that.
49:59
I respect the fact that you feel
50:01
and think the way that you do.
50:03
All I ask is that same courtesy and return,
50:06
is that you respect the way that I think about it,
50:08
and not say that I'm doomed to hell or whatever.
50:13
Even if that's what you think,
50:14
I just think that that's the wrong way
50:17
to approach it and the wrong way to feel about it.
50:18
But anyway, back to my point,
50:20
is that that's just how I view it,
50:21
is that until the individual in this case
50:26
can sustain life on its own for more than a split second,
50:31
or just being outside of the womb
50:33
would terminate that fetus's life on its own to me,
50:38
then it's not viable at that point,
50:41
or still at that point, that's just how I view it.
50:43
- So I would tell you that.
50:44
I certainly agree with a statement you just said,
50:46
but probably for a different reason,
50:47
when you say you can't remove the religious ideas
50:49
and all that, it's kind of ingrained.
50:51
I know the point that you were making to where it's,
50:53
you can't make an argument without that as your worldview,
50:55
but I would argue that the reason why that is something
50:58
that we can't remove from the table
50:59
is because without a Judeo-Christian framework of morality,
51:03
there is literally no reason why we shouldn't
51:05
be able to murder, because you can't make it to what's like,
51:07
well, we shouldn't destroy other monkeys,
51:09
because those monkeys are a part of our entity,
51:11
and if we can't propagate the species
51:13
without those other monkeys,
51:14
it doesn't really work that way.
51:16
And so I agree with your point of view
51:17
with a slightly different hue on it,
51:19
but also I would say, I think everything kind of boils down
51:22
to this, like if someone had to boil down
51:23
the kind of the pro-life position,
51:25
whether they're coming at it,
51:26
'cause there are pro-life atheists, believe it or not,
51:28
that's actually a category of person,
51:29
but it boils down to abortion intentionally
51:32
and directly destroys an innocent human life.
51:35
And as a guy that is, you know,
51:37
spent his entire career basically trying
51:39
to protect innocent human life,
51:40
that's kind of where I think that there might be some areas
51:42
of extra consideration.
51:44
And from my saying and from your saying,
51:46
it's always wrong to intentionally and directly destroy
51:49
an innocent human life,
51:50
but for you and I, you and I are gonna have to sit down
51:52
over some good scotch and maybe some beef ribs
51:54
to have this discussion further,
51:56
but I don't wanna give short shrift
51:57
to any of the other subjects in the book,
51:58
'cause I know we're running short on time,
52:00
but that's something that I, yeah, yeah, go--
52:02
- Can I ask for it in real quick?
52:03
- Yeah, go for it, go for it.
52:03
- On the murder thing, I get it.
52:06
Where it's tricky is that, again,
52:07
is that everybody's perception or perspective
52:10
or their take on what's innocent, what's murder,
52:13
what's justified, what's not,
52:16
varies vastly in some cases, person to person.
52:20
We kill people all the time.
52:22
On behalf of the U.S. military,
52:24
on behalf of law enforcement,
52:27
on behalf of science, doctors, et cetera,
52:31
maybe they make the wrong call,
52:33
maybe they don't give a [inaudible],
52:34
'cause this guy's a tweaker,
52:35
and I mean, I can tell you from experience,
52:38
and I know that while it's not a popular opinion,
52:42
like that is the case,
52:43
is that there are first responders
52:45
that are going to give a better level of care
52:47
to somebody that they think is a better person
52:49
than somebody that just tried to stab them,
52:52
and maybe is flatlining, and they're like,
52:55
man, you know what, I'm due for lunch.
52:58
Yeah, I'll let somebody else handle this.
53:00
Like, that stuff happens, you know?
53:02
And so, to me, that's where it's really, really difficult
53:05
to have these like black and white consistencies
53:09
when they just don't exist, you know?
53:13
And so, to me, I just feel it's a little disingenuous
53:16
to say, like, if you allow abortion,
53:18
then you're just okay with murder.
53:20
Like, to me, that's something that the left
53:21
is very guilty of, of saying,
53:23
oh, like, you don't want to get the vaccine,
53:26
so you want to kill old people.
53:27
Like, to me, that's that same kind of thing.
53:29
It's just like, that's a [inaudible] chief shot,
53:32
you know, and it's one that, you know, frankly,
53:35
is rooted in emotion, and not in actual,
53:39
any basis of fact, because, you know, again,
53:43
there are a lot of instances where we absolutely condone
53:47
taking other people's lives, and whether or not
53:49
that person is innocent or not is absolutely debatable.
53:52
You know, so, anyway, I just wanted to bring that up.
53:56
- Well, this is my, yeah, Mike, this is my show,
53:58
so I get the last word, dang it.
53:59
Okay, you don't get to tell me what to do,
54:01
but no, no, but like, to your point though,
54:02
like, you're making the right point,
54:03
so when people are like, oh, so you're anti-abortion,
54:06
so are you also anti the death penalty?
54:08
And I'm like, are you really comparing?
54:09
So like in the state of Oklahoma,
54:10
there was a lot of hubbub about this guy
54:12
that was executed last week.
54:13
This guy put a grocery store clerk,
54:17
or a convenience store clerk on his knees,
54:19
blew him away and took him for $2.50, right?
54:23
And so I'm like, no, no, no, I'm not comparing
54:25
what's growing in my wife's stomach right now to that guy.
54:28
Please, that's a ridiculous argument.
54:29
But, Mike, the thing about the last half of your book
54:32
is I love the fact that obviously, you know,
54:34
coming since I know you, I know that this isn't
54:36
like anything that would be unique,
54:38
but you just go into all these different crazy subjects, right?
54:41
You talk about the border, you talk about guns,
54:43
you talk about human trafficking,
54:45
you talk about all kinds of social issues,
54:47
you go into everything and you don't really leave
54:49
any stone unturned.
54:50
Now, you're not giving a magnum opus
54:52
on each one of those individual things,
54:55
you're going further into it,
54:56
but there's one quick section as we wrap up here
54:58
that I wanted to get your impact on,
55:00
or your input on rather,
55:01
because, you know, I really, really enjoyed this section
55:03
of the book, but it's chapter eight,
55:04
and it's called America's Inequalities, okay?
55:06
So, I'll read a quote from the chapter,
55:08
and I want to get your thoughts on it.
55:09
As we talked about in the second chapter,
55:11
the road to hell is paved with good intentions
55:13
and the quest for creating equal opportunity
55:16
for every citizen is beginning to morph into a crusade
55:19
for creating equal outcomes.
55:21
This is a subtle yet dangerous shift.
55:24
Now, I think most people would agree with you, Mike,
55:26
that it's a subtle shift, right,
55:28
on both sides of the issue,
55:29
where people are going to disagree
55:31
is whether or not it's a dangerous shift.
55:33
Now, I happen to agree with you completely
55:35
that the shift from, you know, equality of opportunity
55:38
to equality of outcome is incredibly dangerous,
55:41
but for you, why is that so dangerous for our country
55:43
to make that mental shift?
55:45
- Well, 'cause I think that's the springboard
55:47
into socialism or even communism.
55:50
It is that that is the benchmark principle
55:53
with which those ideologies exist and thrive is that,
55:58
but there is one kind of important caveat to that
56:03
is that it's the equality of outcomes for the masses, right?
56:07
It's not the equality of outcome for everybody,
56:10
it's the equality of outcome for most people
56:12
because there is always a group that is in charge
56:15
where none of that [inaudible] applies.
56:16
And you're seeing that right now with COVID restrictions
56:19
with taxes, with, you know, insider trading
56:22
that a lot of Congress folks get, you know,
56:25
if you look at the top 10 stocks that Congress,
56:29
as individuals are invested in, you don't have to scratch
56:34
your head very long to think, well, huh, why is that?
56:37
When it's, you know, Pfizer and ExxonMobil and, you know,
56:40
Johnson and Johnson and, you know, half of the top 10 companies
56:45
all have something to do with either COVID testing
56:48
or vaccines or whatever and it's been pushed at a huge level.
56:52
You know, so to me, when the playing field is meant to be,
57:00
skewed in a way where it's a tie game at the end,
57:04
that's never beneficial for anybody, you know,
57:07
and that's what's happening.
57:08
And to not recognize A, that that's happening or B,
57:12
again, just with that, that, you know, leap into,
57:15
into socialism where that's incredibly dangerous,
57:18
you know, it's important for people to understand that.
57:22
No, I do want to bring up on the topic of say socialism
57:26
in particular, not communism is that I mentioned Norway earlier
57:30
is that there are socialist aspects to the Scandinavian countries
57:35
as it relates to education and healthcare.
57:37
What I want to push back on and anybody would say,
57:42
well, they're socialist countries, they aren't.
57:45
And I would even say that there are elements of our society
57:49
right now that are actually quite a bit more socialist
57:53
than even some socialist countries.
57:57
You know, so it is important to understand socialism
58:01
from a broad spectrum standpoint is that, you know,
58:05
where the equality of out, you know, the term equity
58:09
gets thrown around now a lot more than it used to
58:12
and it's being misused.
58:14
But that, you know, equal outcome state of mind,
58:19
you know, it is one where you will see it in the society
58:23
in that the principle of competitive nature
58:28
or from a capitalistic standpoint
58:30
where people are actually striving to do better goes away.
58:34
You know, it is that as soon as you have that as, you know,
58:37
the principle of your society where, you know,
58:40
we're going to spread the wealth and move it around
58:41
and make sure that everybody has the same [inaudible].
58:44
That's when you see nobody giving a [inaudible] anymore
58:46
about what they do or how good of a job
58:48
or what have you seen in NBA hospitals, unfortunately,
58:52
because that's basically what it is.
58:53
That is socialized medicine for veterans and it sucks.
58:58
You know, and I've got Canadian friends and clients.
59:01
I've got, you know, a lot of contacts in Europe
59:03
for sourcing dogs.
59:05
You know, and while there are some benefits to,
59:07
we'll just take medical, you know, medical care
59:11
as one example of many is that, yes, you know,
59:15
your taxes and everything get to where things are paid for
59:17
but the level of care is terrible by comparison.
59:21
The wait times for most things that are emergent
59:24
are terrible.
59:25
A lot of people, you know, end up dying
59:27
or having things go on for so long to where it turns
59:30
into a big problem when it wasn't.
59:32
And so I think it's an important distinction to make.
59:35
It's the last point I'll bring up is socialized aspects
59:39
of society versus a socialized society.
59:42
And to me, it's one thing to have socialized X or Y or Z
59:47
but when you have a country that is based off of socialism,
59:51
you know, that is when the country is based off equality
59:54
of outcome across the board for the masses
59:56
and that is a dangerous, dangerous thing.
59:59
- Yeah, the subtlety is slowly leaving, right?
1:00:02
That conversation, I think the Biden administration
1:00:04
has really removed a lot of that subtlety
1:00:06
but the danger is there and it's ever present.
1:00:08
I know we're running up against time.
1:00:10
So kind of the last question here for you is,
1:00:11
how do you want people to use this book
1:00:14
that you just written, right?
1:00:15
It'll be in the show notes guys, you can take it down.
1:00:17
Again, we didn't get into, you know, a 20th,
1:00:19
a 120th of what you talk about in the book
1:00:21
but how do you want us to use this book?
1:00:24
- Yeah, I do have an extra 10 minutes, you know,
1:00:27
if that helps but--
1:00:29
- It does help 'cause I have other questions so go for it.
1:00:31
- How I want people to use this book essentially
1:00:34
is just as something that opens their eyes
1:00:37
to A, what the real problems in this country are
1:00:40
and B, how to actually look at them
1:00:42
to where you can evaluate them without being
1:00:47
as biased as possible.
1:00:49
It's inherent for human beings to have some level
1:00:51
of bias no matter what they're looking at
1:00:53
or talking about based on, you know,
1:00:55
their experiences and, you know, the way that they've been
1:00:59
brought up and in a lot of other things
1:01:01
but being at least conscious enough that you have bias
1:01:05
and trying to, you know, to figure out how to remove it
1:01:09
to the best of your ability before you look at all
1:01:11
of these things and then make a decision
1:01:13
on how you want to try to tackle it,
1:01:15
I think is the key to being successful
1:01:17
in solving the country's problems.
1:01:20
- And so when you say solving the country's problems,
1:01:23
again, most of us, the moment you said that,
1:01:26
there were probably two people that came to mind,
1:01:28
Biden or Trump, right, solving the country's problems
1:01:31
but obviously I'm the type of person that it's like,
1:01:33
who the president is shouldn't really matter that much.
1:01:36
It shouldn't really matter to your day-to-day living
1:01:39
because you make decisions for yourself
1:01:42
like what Trump says on Twitter or what Biden does, you know,
1:01:46
whenever he's, I don't know, walking through Europe,
1:01:48
you know, trying to convince everybody
1:01:49
that we should all drive around in electric cars.
1:01:51
That doesn't affect how you talk to your wife, right?
1:01:54
That doesn't affect how you deal
1:01:56
with those certain situations.
1:01:57
So do we all just have a skewed perspective?
1:02:00
Have we just, you know, are we worshiping at the altar
1:02:02
of the federal government and its ability
1:02:04
to make our lives easier at this point?
1:02:06
- Yeah, I mean, the chapter of Jay-Z isn't Jesus.
1:02:09
You know, it is essentially the root kind of principle
1:02:14
of that is and, you know, not just in pop culture
1:02:17
which, you know, I think that kind of speaks for itself
1:02:19
but especially so on the political spectrum
1:02:21
is that now with social media
1:02:23
and I do want to mention one of my ideas
1:02:26
that I've come to the conclusion after hearing a lot
1:02:29
of the Senate hearings on some of the Facebook stuff
1:02:34
and whatever.
1:02:34
So it's not in the book, I wish I had put it in there.
1:02:36
It's just something that it kind of came to me after
1:02:39
watching a lot of that stuff.
1:02:41
But if you look at politics, right,
1:02:43
they're supposed to be elected representatives
1:02:45
and I talk about, I don't have time to explain
1:02:48
how I think we should elect people instead
1:02:50
of them running for offices that they get called to
1:02:53
at basically the same way a grand jury works.
1:02:55
But, you know, with Twitter specifically,
1:02:59
you know, you've got these politicians
1:03:03
that turn into, you know, popularity contest
1:03:06
or public figures that care more about a snarky
1:03:11
or witty or snappy meme, you know,
1:03:13
that gets, you know, 10 million retweets or whatever.
1:03:17
And it turns into, you know, these public officials
1:03:20
that are now revered, right,
1:03:22
where it should be the other way around
1:03:23
is that you should know, you work for me, right,
1:03:27
and you should be [inaudible] scared of us
1:03:29
voting your [inaudible] out of office,
1:03:32
like not the other way around.
1:03:33
Like you don't tell us how the cow eats the cabbage,
1:03:36
we tell you how the [inaudible] to vote.
1:03:38
You know, and we've gotten so far away from that
1:03:41
because now all of these, you know, different personalities
1:03:45
and this is on both sides of the aisle
1:03:47
have become so popular in social media
1:03:50
that they let that get to their head
1:03:53
and it influences their policy, it influences the way
1:03:56
that they interact with people, it influences their self-interest,
1:04:01
it even further, I think, pollutes their desire
1:04:05
to get reelected, not that it wasn't terrible
1:04:07
to begin with, in the grand scheme of most people
1:04:12
when they get elected about six months into office,
1:04:16
they're now worried about their re-election campaign
1:04:18
and that's what they've focused on
1:04:19
and that's a huge problem, you know.
1:04:21
So to your point, yes, we've gotten so far off
1:04:25
the beaten path in terms of idolizing people
1:04:28
that shouldn't be idolized, nobody should be.
1:04:31
You know, to me, and I talk about this at length too,
1:04:34
like if you're not willing to hold yourself
1:04:36
in your own side, your own guy, party,
1:04:38
whatever you wanna call it, to the same standard
1:04:41
that you're willing to hold the other side to,
1:04:43
it's never gonna work, right?
1:04:44
Old sides have to be equally critical of themselves
1:04:48
as they are the other side.
1:04:50
That doesn't happen, you know, so that's a huge problem.
1:04:52
Now in the social media thing, one thing I wanted to bring up,
1:04:55
I do truly believe social media is one of the biggest problems
1:04:59
in this country for a lot of reasons.
1:05:02
The two that I'll highlight right now
1:05:04
are just the way that people interact
1:05:06
is that there's not an understanding
1:05:09
that there's any consequence for behaving, however you want.
1:05:13
There's zero consequence, right?
1:05:15
And so for adults, that's poisonous
1:05:17
because now people turn into total [inaudible], right?
1:05:20
They run their mouth with no fear of getting punched in it.
1:05:24
They run their mouth with no fear of any legal recourse
1:05:28
because they're completely anonymous, you know,
1:05:30
trolls with VPNs and whatever else.
1:05:33
So there's that, I think, pretty obvious why that's toxic
1:05:37
to our society because now people start
1:05:39
to treat each other that way, even in real life.
1:05:42
On the child side is that now they're being brought up
1:05:47
with these types of unrealistic expectations,
1:05:51
both from a body standpoint, from a behavior standpoint,
1:05:56
a lack of social cues.
1:05:58
You know, I've met a lot of, you know, kids, my kids, friends,
1:06:01
or people in the age group of, you know, in their teens,
1:06:04
coming into the workforce and hiring people
1:06:06
for certain things and what have you.
1:06:08
And one of the bigger things that I've noticed
1:06:10
is a lot of kids nowadays don't really know
1:06:12
how to interact with people
1:06:14
because they don't do it very much.
1:06:16
They're very socially awkward and inept
1:06:18
and can't read body cues when they're saying weird [inaudible]
1:06:22
or being, you know, awkward or uncomfortable or whatever.
1:06:26
They just don't get it, you know,
1:06:27
because they're so used to texting and Snapchatting
1:06:30
and whatever else.
1:06:31
And then, you know, there's a treasure trove of studies
1:06:35
on the negative impacts that it has in terms of dopamine
1:06:38
and serotonin and getting likes and messages
1:06:40
and things like that and how ultimately how it leads
1:06:43
to depression and suicide rates
1:06:45
or through the roof or the highest they've ever been
1:06:46
in those age ranges.
1:06:48
And it's all tied to that stuff.
1:06:49
And so my take, very simply, is to take a passport
1:06:54
or driver's license type of requirements for that.
1:06:57
You've got to be at least 16, right?
1:07:00
And now you can set up a government bureau.
1:07:03
Now, while I am not a fan of having the government involved
1:07:06
in any other aspects of our life,
1:07:08
this is one that I would say I'm okay with the same way.
1:07:11
I think driver's license and passports make sense.
1:07:14
In that once you turn 16, you submit the same type
1:07:18
of paperwork that proves that you are who you say you are
1:07:21
and you are basically issued,
1:07:23
just like a driver's license number,
1:07:25
a social media profile licensed slash number, right?
1:07:30
It's got your picture on it.
1:07:33
That's a government taken picture.
1:07:35
You don't get to [inaudible] choose it and go through 90 filters
1:07:38
and make it look like somebody who's not even you,
1:07:42
match.com profile as an example or grinder in our case.
1:07:46
But so here you're issued,
1:07:51
your government issued social media profile.
1:07:54
So now that you're 16, you don't get to have one
1:07:56
until you're 16.
1:07:57
Now, once you're at that point, if you go on Facebook,
1:08:01
you go on Instagram, you go on Twitter, whatever,
1:08:03
now it takes all of the censorship [inaudible] off
1:08:06
of their plate.
1:08:07
Now, everything is completely wide open.
1:08:08
They don't get to or have to be responsible for picking
1:08:12
and choosing if shutting this person down
1:08:13
or doing this or that is that whoever makes the comment,
1:08:17
every [inaudible] person knows exactly who you are.
1:08:20
You can't hide from anybody, right?
1:08:22
And so you are solely responsible for everything
1:08:25
you say and do on social media.
1:08:27
I think that that is a huge, big first step
1:08:31
in solving a lot of the problems is it keeps kids off
1:08:34
of all of that [inaudible] until they're at least 16.
1:08:37
And then they've got that couple of year buffer
1:08:39
where their parents, they're still living at home
1:08:41
and the parents can kind of help navigate
1:08:44
the same way you do driving.
1:08:46
It is that your parents kind of help you navigate
1:08:49
being on social media for a couple of years
1:08:51
before you get to do it alone.
1:08:52
Because I think if you wait until you're 18,
1:08:54
it's like the Amish kid going to Manhattan at 18
1:08:58
and losing their [inaudible] mind.
1:09:00
16 is, if we trust them to drive a vehicle,
1:09:02
you probably should be able to trust them
1:09:04
to be on a smartphone, but I don't think
1:09:06
they should be on it before then.
1:09:07
So I just wanted to bring that up.
1:09:09
I wish I had put that in my book.
1:09:11
I just hadn't thought of it again until seeing
1:09:14
all of these negative reports on some of the really
1:09:19
dramatically terrible impacts that social media
1:09:22
has on our kids and being a father of a few of them,
1:09:27
that really struck home and I wanted to bring that up.
1:09:29
- Well, hey, that just means you're gonna have to write
1:09:31
a second part to it, right?
1:09:32
You're just gonna have to do a part two to this book.
1:09:33
But 'cause I'm with you, there's also the consequences
1:09:36
of you say something on Twitter or you say something
1:09:38
on Facebook that you would never say to someone's face.
1:09:40
I'm certainly not the first person to point that out.
1:09:42
I think even Mike Tyson was talking about that.
1:09:44
It's like, it's amazing what people say whenever the threat
1:09:46
of being punched in the face is not there.
1:09:48
And so obviously there's a big part of that.
1:09:49
Our current society, but thank you so much
1:09:51
for going into all the detail on the new book
1:09:53
and for kind of going through all these conversations.
1:09:55
Guys, there's an example of how you can have
1:09:57
a cordial conversation about some pretty high-falutin topics
1:09:59
and not wanna kill the other person.
1:10:01
But man, that is all for me.
1:10:02
Is there anything else you wanna get off your chest?
1:10:04
- No, I just, I appreciate you coming on.
1:10:06
And like I said, I love the pushback.
1:10:08
I love that we can have that kind of conversation
1:10:11
and not agree on things without [inaudible] each other.
1:10:15
And I think that's the only way that you really solve
1:10:18
and any problems.
1:10:19
And the other thing too, I think,
1:10:21
broad spectrum for all of this stuff is realized
1:10:24
is that sometimes that's gonna happen.
1:10:26
Sometimes, no matter how right you think you are
1:10:29
or how many facts you have to back up, whatever,
1:10:31
there's people that are just gonna be like,
1:10:33
I still just disagree with it.
1:10:35
And that's okay too.
1:10:38
That needs to be okay for us to have
1:10:40
a legitimate free society where the First Amendment
1:10:44
is actually in play and used the way that it's supposed to be,
1:10:49
'cause a lot of times it's not.
1:10:52
So I just, I appreciate you having a dialogue with me.
1:10:57
- You gotta have a space to say your piece
1:10:58
and then just let the chips fall where they may.
1:11:00
Mike Ritalin, thank you for coming on
1:11:01
on Daunted Life of Man's Podcast.
1:11:03
- Hey man, thank you.
1:11:05
- There you go guys, I hope you enjoyed my interview
1:11:07
with Mike Ritalin, another interview with Mike Ritalin.
1:11:09
That's number three now.
1:11:10
And guys, we didn't get into even half the stuff
1:11:12
that I wanted to talk about on this one,
1:11:13
which just means we're probably gonna have to do
1:11:14
a part four at some point.
1:11:15
So guys, I really, really appreciate you listening in,
1:11:17
but before we let you go,
1:11:18
we are gonna do a quick resilience boost.
1:11:20
At Daunted Life, our mission is equipping
1:11:22
me into pushback darkness.
1:11:23
And specifically, we do that by providing you content
1:11:25
like this podcast, it helps you forge spiritual,
1:11:27
mental and physical resilience.
1:11:29
So here are the links from today.
1:11:30
I've got a link to Mike's website.
1:11:31
So you can go check out all this stuff there,
1:11:33
including his shop.
1:11:34
I've got a link to his books.
1:11:35
So if you want to just go straight to Amazon,
1:11:37
you can go and check out his books there.
1:11:38
And one quick thing on Mike's website,
1:11:40
if you go to his shop on there,
1:11:41
you can buy bundles that involve his new books.
1:11:44
So he's signed copies and different things like that.
1:11:46
But if you don't want to buy it there,
1:11:47
you just want to buy it from Amazon,
1:11:48
I've got a link to that as well.
1:11:49
And then also a link to Mike's YouTube channel.
1:11:51
All right guys, thanks so much for listening to this podcast.
1:11:53
We do appreciate it.
1:11:54
Wherever you're listening to this,
1:11:55
please subscribe, rate and leave us a positive review.
1:11:57
If you want me to come speak live at your event
1:11:59
or on your podcast, you shoot me an email to info
1:12:01
at undaunted.life.
1:12:03
That's I-N-F-O at undaunted.life.
1:12:05
Follow us on Instagram and TikTok and like us on Facebook
1:12:07
and you can also check out our website for everything else,
1:12:09
including how to donate to keep more content
1:12:11
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1:12:12
Just go to www.undaunted.life.
1:12:15
And as always, we're going to thank the band,
1:12:16
August Burns Red, for allowing us
1:12:18
to use their music for our content.
1:12:19
The Interalto track on this podcast
1:12:21
is our song, "Cutting the Ties,"
1:12:22
which is off their 10th anniversary
1:12:24
re-recording of their album Leveler.
1:12:26
The links are in the description.
1:12:28
I'm your host, Kyle Thompson.
1:12:30
Remember, keep pushing back darkness,
1:12:33
keep forging spiritual, mental and physical resilience,
1:12:37
keep seeking the lion of Judah.
1:12:41
Our love, thy land, is our heart and life.
1:12:45
We know you want, it's our side.
1:12:49
The nation, is our virtue.
1:12:53
You will be revived.