Andrew Klavan’s Kozy Klavan Christmas blends satirical jabs at woke culture—mocking Disney’s Snow White controversies, Harvard’s antisemitism scandals, and Biden’s corruption—with a heartfelt defense of traditional motherhood as the foundation of societal resilience. His daughter Faith counters political battles with quiet parenting wisdom, while Spencer Klavan jokes about emotional detachment behind "a library of books." The episode pivots to biblical translations, creative integrity, and the emptiness of modern identity politics, urging faith over fleeting cultural trends, before closing with a mix of holiday traditions and Daily Wire promotions. Ultimately, it frames Christmas as both a cultural reset and a spiritual call to reject radicalism in favor of timeless values. [Automatically generated summary]
Welcome to our Christmas show, a Christmas gathering with my son Spencer and my daughter Faith, where we'll reflect on the meaning of Christmas, look back on Christmas's past, and just basically say the word Christmas as often as we can in the hope you'll buy our book so we can take the rest of the year off.
You know, just the other evening I was sitting right here by the fireplace drinking eggnog and eating Christmas cookies and wondering whether to induce vomiting or simply lapse into unconsciousness.
I was listening to a radio tuned to the North Pole so I could hear the elves playing their magical rendition of my grown-up Christmas list.
That song where a woman goes to see Santa Claus and asks that wars will never start and Wright will always win and who knows what other nonsense.
And I felt so inspired because I thought to myself, you know, if crap like this can get an airplay every Christmas, I could probably just smack a squealing piglet with a trash can lid over and over and call it a Christmas song and make a fortune.
So I decided that I would put together my own grown-up Christmas list because by that time, let's face it, I was pretty much drunk out of my mind.
And I thought, if I could sit on Santa's knee without someone taking a video and selling it on OnlyFans, I would ask him to make the world a better place, maybe by installing ejector seats on commercial airlines so that any moron who listened to his iPad videos without using a headset could be instantaneously jettisoned through the top of the fuselage.
And where was I?
And sent plummeting at terminal velocity through 34,000 feet of terrifyingly empty space with just enough time before impact for him to reflect on the mind-boggling level of rudeness he displayed and why he actually deserved to be departicalized in the most painful possible manner, a dwindling number of seconds after he came to realize the error of his ways.
On my grown-up Christmas list, I would wish that every braindead college student who supported the Palestinian monsters, who slaughtered innocents and then cried boo-hoo-hoo when they got the shellacking that they so richly deserved, every journalist who whined about the First Amendment, then approved of censoring Americans on social media, every public official who closed churches for no reason or coerced people into receiving injections they didn't want, every commentator who minimized the Biden family's vastly corrupt history of influence peddling that so,
so obviously included the semi-sentient mannequin who's pretending to be president while leftist zombies dismantle America.
I'd wish that everyone who did those things and then had the unmitigated gall to pretend that it's Donald Trump who's the main threat to democracy would wake up to find themselves co-starring in the latest Democrat congressional gay porn video, along with a rolled-up tube of Donald Trump's truth social posts, because even though I'd never watched something like that, people could tell me about it and I would laugh and laugh.
And finally, on my grown-up Christmas list, I would wish there would be a magic Christmas explanation fairy who would fly from place to place explaining things.
Like she could explain to establishment Republicans and government and the media that, yes, Trump's behavior is appalling, but people only voted for him because you establishment types suck.
She would explain to Vivek Rami Swami and Nikki Haley-Whaley and what's his name, Iwami, the fat guy, that they are never going to be the Republican nominee for president, so they should go home and let people decide whether they really want more Trump or might prefer the empty space with zero personality who really knows how to do stuff.
And she'd explain to the guy falling to earth after being ejected from the plane for not using a headset that it's also rude, not to mention disgusting, to talk on the phone while you're in a public restroom.
So he actually deserves to hit the earth twice.
That's my grown-up Christmas list and also that wars would never start.
Although really, what the hell does that mean?
What a stupid song.
Trigger warning and Merry Christmas.
I'm Andrew Klavan, and this is the Andrew Klavan Christmas Show.
All right, we are back.
You know, you're like, absolutely.
So much harder.
It's a difficulty level extreme.
So this is our final show of the year, Before You Are Hurled Into the Clavenless Christmas, the suffering of which may be slightly mitigated by the birth of the incarnate God and the savior of all mankind.
It's swings around about God.
So I'll remind you once, subscribe to YouTube, the Andrew Clavin YouTube channel, and you'll get stuff all through my absence.
We'll put up all kinds of amazing things there.
And today, obviously, we're doing something different than the usual show.
We're having a chat with my daughter, Faith Moore, the author of Christmas Carol.
My son, Spencer Clavin, the author of How to Save the West.
And we're modeling this show on the old Bing Crosby Christmas specials where we pretend to like each other and then we all go off and get drunk and beat each other up.
So we'll be doing that off camera later on.
And because it's Christmas, I know that there's all kinds of news and there's all sort of important stuff for you to be angry about and dismal about and panicked and depressed.
But I want to remind you, I've said this before, but I want you to remember that if you were living in ancient Rome and reading an ancient Roman newspaper, which Spencer, who's a classic scholar, will tell you was printed, they chiseled it onto a big slab of rock that had been mined by Fred Flintstone at the quarry.
The dinosaurs delivered it.
The dinosaurs delivered the thing.
And, you know, if you were reading that news at the time, you would be reading about Caesar and wars and sexual shenanigans at high places.
And you would never see the actual biggest story, not only of the day, but of all time, which is a mother tonight is rocking a cradle in Bethlehem.
That headline would never appear.
So the biggest story in the cosmos would simply not be in your worldview.
You just wouldn't see it, and you would think all these other things were much more important.
Your social media, which was in fact written on the side of a brontosaurus at that time, I think, as we all know.
And, you know, you'd be busy with all the anger and gloom and you would forget the thrill of hope that made a weary world rejoice.
So today, we're going to talk about the real news, which is that the silent news of the silent night, that Christ is born and all will be well and all manner of things will be well.
And we'll also talk about movies and books and other things like that.
We've got questions we asked you to send in.
We've got them and we will answer probably one of them, two of them before you just get bored.
Start talking about the things.
Before we start drinking.
Once again, let me introduce my wonderful daughter, Faith Moore, who is the author of this incredible new novel, A Christmas Carol, which is not just getting great reviews on Amazon, but is also getting the press has actually picked up on it, has given you good reviews, which is good.
And men keep telling me that they have read it and it would have made them cry if they weren't manly men.
No, no, no, I'm keeping a tally of how many men have cried.
It is a growing list.
And we have pictures.
We will be publishing your pictures of you crying.
And my son, Spencer Clavin, no relation.
A lot of people ask me why I always say that, and it's because he pays me to say it.
His reputation.
Part of my contract.
Exactly.
And he is the author of How to Save the West, Ancient Wisdom for Five Modern Crises, which not only also has five-star reviews, people keep coming up to me and telling me how rich and deep it is and that they've read it twice or they're going to read it twice and that it's changed their worldview and all that.
So this is...
And it, too, makes grown men cry.
For different languages.
So we're going to get to your questions, maybe.
Who knows?
We don't really care whether we do or not, but we'll try to get to your questions.
But first, let's start by talking about what makes us rejoice in this moment.
And I'll begin.
I mean, I think that, you know, one of the things that I have always said is that if we look at the way things have gone bad in the country, they went bad very quietly in very little places.
And we frequently think we've got to save it today.
We've got to do something tomorrow.
This election is the most important election of our lifetimes.
And it's always a panic and everything's very urgent.
But really, I feel that the culture is a slow burn and it changes things slowly.
And there's just no question.
I, who never wanted to be in front of a camera ever, I never wanted to have a public prayer.
I always wanted to write my books.
You know, William Faulkner said his obituary should be, he wrote the books and died.
You know, I wanted to be, he wrote the books and never died, but that's all I got.
But, you know, I never wanted to be in front of a camera, but I started talking to people because I felt that the culture had gone awry.
This is 20 years ago.
And in 20 years, I've gone from being like, what is that guy talking about?
To everyone getting that this is the point.
And the culture is not just the arts.
It's the way we behave and the things we're willing to say in public.
And I feel that there's just no question that we are on the brink of a traditionalist spring, let's call it.
A spring of the best ideas coming back.
It's not just the fact that the Daily Wire has finally gotten around to making things like ladyballers, which I think is great.
It's a lot of things.
It's the movie with Jim Caviesel, The Sound of Freedom that got distributed.
It's the Chosen, which is telling the story of Jesus Christ in this enormously original way.
It's the fact that people are willing to make jokes.
It's Elon Musk taking over Twitter and turning it into X.
The culture is striking back.
The other day, I went and saw Godzilla Minus One, and you think, well, that's this crazy thing.
But it's this $15 million Japanese Godzilla film in which, and people keep saying, well, it's so good because of the human story.
It's the human story.
The difference in the human story is that women are women.
And they're inspiring and they build things out of the ruin of the war and they make the world come to life.
And the men go off and fight, but they're fighting because of the women.
Beam's Dream Powder Sale00:02:26
And so you see the actual relationship between men and women.
And it's all very realistic.
People are flocking to it.
I think things are changing.
These three books have all sold well.
That's our clock on the wall.
It will be ringing throughout the show.
Don't let it bother you.
This just makes me a little nervous when it goes up to the beginning.
I'm bothering.
Yeah, exactly.
It's a memento, Maury.
Time has for that time.
15 minutes nearer.
But the thing is, you know, these three books did very well.
They're sold really well.
And I think that we are willing to say the things that people have been afraid to say.
Spring is coming.
And I think that this is a big, big deal.
And even though it's not the next election and tomorrow and this court decision and this and that, it is the thing that changes the world.
And I think it is changing for the better.
And I'm hopeful.
Now you can.
If winter comes, can spring be far behind.
That's very nice.
Beams Dream Powder contains a powerful, all-natural blend of ingredients, including magnesium L-theanine.
I know this stuff works.
I tried it myself.
It knocked me right out.
It's not just your run-of-the-mill sleep aid.
It's a concoction carefully crafted to help you slip into the sweet embrace of rest without the grogginess that often accompanies other sleep remedies.
Sleep is the foundation of our mental and physical health.
You must have a consistent nighttime routine to function at your best.
Today, my listeners get a special discount on Beam's Dream Powder, their best-selling hot cocoa for sleep with no added sugar.
If it put me to sleep, it will definitely put you to sleep.
It's now available in delicious flavors like cinnamon cocoa, chocolate peanut butter, and mint chip.
Better sleep has never tasted better.
Just mix beam dream into hot water or milk, stir or froth, and enjoy before bedtime.
If you find yourself battling the bedtime blues, give it a shot.
Your weary self will thank you.
If you want to try Beam's best-selling dream powder, take advantage of their biggest sale of the year and get up to 40% off, plus a free frother for a limited time when you go to shopbeam.com/slash Clavin.
I use that frother.
It's plenty of fun.
Discount auto-applied at checkout.
No code is necessary.
That's shop, B-E-A-M.com/slash Clavin for up to 40% off plus a free frother.
And you're probably thinking to yourself, anybody can spell Beam, but how?
Oh, how?
Please tell me how do you spell Clavin?
It's K-L-A-V-A-N.
K-L-A-B-A-N, there are no easy playbacks.
Moms at Harvard00:13:12
Well, my domain is education.
That's what I love.
That's what I've always cared most about for myself and for everybody else in the world.
I'm a creature of the academy.
You know, I have other good qualities, I promise, but fortunately, I'm a creature of the academy.
And I, for all my sins, believe desperately in the urgency of that project and the preservation of the wisdom that has been handed down at great cost of blood and treasure by our forebearers from Athens and Jerusalem and everybody that came after.
So for that reason, it's very painful to me to see the way our institutions of higher learning have been basically eaten alive from the inside out by Marxists and then worn as a commie skin suit to indoctrinate American children.
I mean, you know, one of the things that Plato, the great Greek philosopher, observes, and has been true throughout all civilizations, is that education is politics because what you instill in the hearts of young people then becomes what the next generation believes.
And we saw when these kids spilled out into the streets in 2020, we saw what young people have been taught to believe.
They'd effectively had their brains scooped out with a melon baller over the years.
And to me, this is a source of great sorrow and rage because it's a betrayal of the most sacred thing in my life besides Jesus himself, which is the truth and the wisdom of the past.
None of this gives me hope, but Elise Stefanik, the Republican House representative, has done something very rare for a public servant, which is she's performed a public service.
And that was to expose.
She should be impeached.
Exactly.
She surely will be imminently.
But she exposed the president of Harvard, Claudine Gay, for the fraud and the scam that she is and that the institution she represents has become.
And it was important that it was Harvard, because even though there are other great schools in the country, or formerly great schools in the country, I should say, the name Harvard, for everybody who has heard it or grown up here in America, carries with it this enormous mystique, this unbeatable cultural power.
And what people have to understand, what has been very difficult to get people to understand, is that that name has become a lie.
It is a cover and affront for not just stupidity and mediocrity, although Claudine Gay represents both of those qualities in their totality, but also for actual evil, for some of the darkest impulses and oldest and stupidest forms of hatred that have ever coursed through the sinful blood of man.
And when Claudine Gay was unable to say that calling for the genocide of Jews was contrary to Harvard's policy, she was actually revealing the true face of what has happened to our academies.
Even though conservatives have been Pounding their tables about this for as long as I've been alive.
They still look at their kids, they've cherished babies that they've raised to go in the right path from infancy, and they think, How can I get my kid ahead in life?
I know I'll send him to Harvard.
They have to stop that.
We have to realize, sorrowful as it is, that that era is over and these people have desperately betrayed our trust.
We no longer owe them any kind of respect, any kind of favor, any kind of blessing, and certainly we don't owe them our children, our most precious resource.
And so, the sooner, and I'm glad that Claudia and Gay has not been fired because the sooner these institutions are revealed for what they are, the sooner people can begin the work of rebuilding, which has been the work of my career to date.
That's what my podcast is all about, that's what my book is all about.
And it's what I think must now happen as part of the long game that you're talking about.
It's a deeply American enterprise.
This is not something that Europeans do.
It's a deeply American enterprise for farmers on their tractors, and cops in their cars, and moms at home, and teachers in elementary schools to be picking up works of Shakespeare and trying to educate themselves about the principles articulated in Aristotle's Nicomachean ethics.
And to say, you know what, you gatekeepers, you eggheads, you know sham philosophers, you sophists in the academies, we don't need you.
We have our local institutions, we have new institutions that are growing up or taking precedence, like Hillsdale and these classical education schools, that can do the work that these Ivy Leagues were supposed to do.
And I think we're going to keep building that, and that brings me great joy and hope.
Yeah, I think it is a turning point.
And I have to say, they did one thing you should never do: they insulted the Jews.
All these people who say, oh, the Jews have all the power, I think, good.
Because basically, they write, they think, they'll send out the word.
This is not what we want.
And they'll stop giving money, which everybody should.
That's right.
Those evil rich Jews.
That's great.
I hope that you can't.
Absolutely.
I hope that's your money and give it to us.
Exactly.
Also, insulting the Jews makes God mad.
It makes God annoyed.
Yeah, it really gets ticked off.
All right, we will move on.
Well, I don't know.
I find this question a little bit difficult to answer because I, unlike you guys, I am not out there in the world commenting on culture or politics.
I am at home changing diapers.
I am making sure the important thing is that.
Well, so I'm at home changing diapers.
I am at home making sure that we get to school on time and that everybody's homework is done and that our backpacks are packed and that lunch is made and that dinner is on the table.
But actually, I think that is what gives me hope.
I mean, you guys were talking and I was thinking like, oh, you know, I could say the whole thing that went down with like Rachel Ziegler and Disney and how she bad-mouthed Snow White and suddenly everybody was like, hold on, wait, actually, we like Snow White and we like those things.
And it sort of exposed Disney's whole woke agenda.
And wouldn't it be great if they could go back to telling stories?
And I guess that's true.
And that does give me hope.
And it gives me a little bit of glee to watch everybody kind of make fun of her that way.
But really what gives me hope is my children.
That I get to spend every day, every hour of every day, making sure that they grow up to be good men who will take the baton from what you're talking about.
You know, these people who are now being exposed as such liars and wherever it is that you're talking about in colleges and places and whatever you were saying.
And I don't know what anybody's talking about because I just want my kids to be okay.
And I think moms across America just want their kids to be okay and they don't want them to grow up, to be the kind of shuckleheads that are pouring into the streets, trashing things.
And I think, you know, we can do that.
I can do that.
I can raise children who don't do that and learn to pick up their Shakespeare and, you know, not go off to sham institutions that just have fancy names or whatever.
And I think that I'm not the only one.
You know, I'm sitting here right now saying this, but most of us are not because there's laundry to do and chores to be done and, you know, homework projects that you learn about at 12 o'clock at night the night before.
And, you know, presents to wrap.
And that's what we're doing.
Who cares?
Who cares about any of this other stuff, really?
We are at home raising the next generation.
And that gives me hope.
You know, here's the thing about this.
First of all, people should know that we have people here filming this in my house.
Oh my God.
Because we couldn't, we literally could not get you to Nashville and back home in time to take care of your children.
So this is closer to your home.
So we actually did that.
It's all my fault.
No, but I mean, no, the point is that this is something you're doing on the fly, where we have actually, you know, we can kind of do this and mess around, but you actually have more important things to do.
You're the only person sitting on the cat who has more important things to do.
I have to go.
And if this weren't true, here's the thing.
If this weren't true, you know, you know when you don't know, but in football, I don't know.
Yes.
You'll see the quarterback line up and he looks at the defense and he starts to change the play to counter the defense.
Tell him.
He calls an audible.
He calls them audible.
He looks at what they're defending against.
If what you were saying isn't true and weren't the most important thing, all the effort of the opposition would not be going into demeaning it and overturning it and would not be going into telling us, you know, we don't want random parents telling us what their children should learn.
I love that random parents.
We don't want cartoons with present fathers.
What kind of fantasy is that?
This is the New York Times, Women who's reviewing, what's it called, Chipchilla.
Chipchilla, the Bent Key children show that has a present father, and they were so upset that he was telling stories about dead white men like George Washington.
And I was like, he's dead?
No, so these things, you know, it's so interesting because I talk to conservatives all the time and the things that we're talking about, the small changes in education, the small decay of the reputation of corrupted Ivy Leagues, the change in the arts.
I mean, I'll talk to conservatives and they'll say the culture, the culture, the culture.
And they'll say, well, did you see this movie?
Well, who cares about a movie?
You're going to lose the ninth congressional district in Nevada.
And you talk about, I talk about moms all the time and I get these letters from moms saying, oh, somebody noticed that we're doing something important.
Yeah, because nobody notices.
I mean, I talk about this all the time.
Because today people try to equate motherhood with a job because the narrative is that you're only sort of important and successful unless you, if you have a job.
So a way to try to validate moms is to say like, well, this is my job.
I'm, you know, my job is changing diapers.
My job is, you know, all these things.
But if it was a job, it would be a terrible, terrible job.
Because no, because there's no, nobody pays you anything.
You don't get a raise.
You don't get a promotion.
No, it's not my job.
It's my vocation.
It's completely different.
And so that's what I'm doing.
That's what we're doing at home.
And so you don't get the kind of feedback that you would get if you went to work every day and your boss said, good job on that project.
Here's a bonus, whatever.
You don't get that.
So if you're choosing to do this, you're choosing to do it because you know it's right.
You know it's the thing that you're supposed to do and it will come back to you, but down the road later.
It's a mistake we make.
We don't always understand that you get more of what you honor.
I think conservatives have a hard time in the arts and in terms of family formation with trying to recognize that you can't just make good arguments for why people should do this or that thing.
You actually have to pat them on the back.
That's what people want that.
You need to give awards to great movies and to the best work that's being done.
I mean, all of this is starting to become apparent, but it's something that, for example, the Roman Empire was built on this whole incentive system that you're trying to get the thing that's going to earn you the most plaudits.
And you're right.
There's something, it's almost never, it's impossible to honor mothers at the level that they deserve.
And it's also likely that they're honored less than most people, just generally, which is even worse.
And also, I have to say, I always say that, like, if you want to know what people think of their mothers, go up to a guy who's bigger than you and insult his mother.
When you come to in traction and in the hospital, you will understand that this is something that people understand at every level, except except the institutional level, institutional level.
They never get it until the population starts to drop and the economy suffers.
And they say, we have to encourage people to have children.
And then it's too late because we haven't said that this is what everything is about.
Children, you know.
Well, you've taught people that it's not important.
You've taught them that they're supposed to go off and get this corporate job and climb the corporate ladder and then that the children are kind of this like afterthought that happens along the way and that's what makes them so annoying, because it's like you're trying to focus on your career.
So if you, if you tell them that, then why would they yes, I don't really want to have children.
And they say what we need is more, you know, childcare.
I think, like no we, we actually need less childcare, like fewer people who are more related, saying to me you just want women to be, you know, barefoot and pregnant.
I say no, they don't have to be barefoot.
Of course they should be.
I was actually very gratified.
We had the um, the christmas party, the Daily WIRE christmas party, which you couldn't come to because you were taking care of your children.
People Love: The Inner Feeling00:13:39
Was I invited?
You would have been.
No, I couldn't, I wouldn't have come.
I couldn't come.
But but I have to say there were a lot of pregnant women there and I was like yes, more daily wire babies is what we're going with.
Yeah, it's important that I stay healthy.
Over the next couple of weeks i'm going to be entertaining traveling, a lot of the holidays, the last thing I need is to get sick and miss out on time with my friends and family.
Thanks to my friends at Contingency Medical, i'm prepared for anything.
Contingency Medical provides emergency antibiotic kits to keep you protected against common infections and symptoms.
They offer several different packs so you can choose one to match your lifestyle, whether that's traveling or just keeping some antibiotics nearby in the event of a supply chain disruption or antibiotic shortage.
Not sure which option is best for you?
Check out the go pack.
It's specifically designed to fit inside your carry-on luggage.
The go pack includes antibiotics to cure common infections, as well as medicine to treat symptoms that might otherwise ruin your trip.
Each pack also includes access to the prescribing physician for guidance on the safe and effective use of the medicines, as well as a booklet that outlines each infection and the proper course of treatment to get you back to your best.
Don't wait.
Go to Contingencymedical.com slash clavin now and enter promo code clavin for 20 off your pack.
That's twenty dollars off any pack at Contingencymedical.com slash clavin with promo code clavin.
Contingency Medical and its products are not intended as a substitute for professional medical treatment or advice.
Consult with your health care provider and, while you're at it.
Ask them how to spell Clavin and we'll tell you there are no e's in Clavin, but just make it look this easy.
So this brings up a question that you guys were asked.
Because one of the big questions I guess is, does your mother actually exist?
Or is she a fantasy that we have, that we have a nice mom and wife that we all love?
Because mom will not come in front of a camera.
In fact, I told her the cameras were coming.
She was out the door so fast.
I just saw a blend of it.
And I think that we can actually agree that mom is a, you know, this is a woman who graduated from a seven sisters school.
She's a highly intelligent, accomplished person.
And now that she finally got rid of you guys, such a pain in the neck.
Right, the fall and chains.
She's a very successful and sought-after therapist, and an education she got while taking care of everybody.
But she is also like a mistress of the small offices of love that have had such a huge rippling effect.
So here's a question we get from Laura, who says, Faith and Spencer, what is some of the best advice your imaginary mother has given you?
And she adds, I love these family shows.
Please keep doing them.
Merry Christmas to you all, which we appreciate from Laura.
So Faith, I'll ask you first, what is some of the best advice your mother has given?
Oh, gosh, it's hard to pick.
I mean, yeah, she is the best of us and the smartest of us because she doesn't do this.
Yes.
She doesn't have to throw away.
And we're so lucky she doesn't because she's so far superior.
Exactly.
Like we all tailor tail in comparison.
You know, for me, I think what you just said of the sort of like, what did you say, the small offices of love, I think, you know, I am someone who, I think now that the term for this is deeply feeling child.
I was a deeply feeling child.
I think that might be a Dr. Becky thing.
Yes.
I haven't even heard of Dr. Becky.
That's okay.
You're out of the loop.
I was a deeply feeling child, someone, yes, someone who was, the world was and is very, very loud for me.
And I think she always had and has a kind of calm and a kind of love, but also a kind of very practical wisdom to impart.
And so in the situations that would kind of paralyze me, for example, I'm new here at this school, or, you know, I have to invite somebody over for a play date or whatever.
It wasn't kind of like, you'll be fine, just do it, just go.
It was like very practical, you know, like on this day, do this, call this person.
She saw that, you know, she was here.
She has always been here.
And she saw, I think each of us, you both did, I think.
You saw each of us for who we were, not for who you thought we were going to be or who you wished that we were.
And you parented us that way.
And so whatever, you know, our challenges were, we're always met with good advice that met us where we were, you know, and so I'm not sure.
I don't know if, Laura, you're asking for me to tell you a specific piece of advice that you could then pass on to your children.
And I'm not sure that I can because I feel like it's this, I mean, maybe it's this, to see your children for who they are.
You know, I think we all have these ideas in our mind about who our kids are going to be and how we're going to be with them, but our kids are themselves.
And you know that from the minute that they're born, that they are themselves.
And I think you knew that and she knew that.
And so I think if you're willing to accept that, and it can be hard to accept, but if you're willing to accept that, then you're going to parent in a way that is much more supportive to your children.
So I think that that is something that she did for me and that you did for me as well.
Well, it is interesting.
One of the things that's really gratifying about the publication of Christmas Carol, and by the way, if you're not buying these books, you will be getting cold.
Right now, as you're listening.
Being delivered.
This is your last chance to actually get toys in your stocking for Christmas.
Was it, I too, though I would not have had the phrase of deeply feeling child.
I mean, when you are an artist, one of the things that you realize about yourself is that you are hearing and feeling things that other people.
I used to say about you, I used to say to mom about you, you can hear the grass grow.
And I know what that's like.
I know, you know, it's a very tough thing.
And if you're a guy, you immediately think, maybe I can use this to make some money.
But I think it has taken you a long time to challenge that, to channel, sorry, that sensitivity into making books that people love.
But that is essentially what ultimately you use it for.
But it does make life more difficult.
It means that the things that roll off other people's back, you know, kind of stick in your, like, a million needles, like that guy in the horror movie.
He's got all those needles coming out.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
No, and you, you, it's like there's no filter.
Like you hear everything.
Everything.
You see everything.
It's kind of like when you're in a restaurant and the tables are really close together, you know, and you can't help but like hear the other conversations of the people.
Like, you know, I hear that all the time.
Yes, I know.
You know, I can't filter it out.
It was also funny that, like, you know, people like me who are in my head all the time, sometimes your face will twist because something's going through your head.
Yeah.
And like Faith would be like three, and she would, what?
I still do that.
You're always like, nothing, nothing.
Nothing.
I'm just thinking.
I'm just thinking.
So you're basically saying you're Spider-Man, right?
With all of the.
Yes, I'm saying I have telepathy.
So watch out.
I mean, to your point about mom and dads both knowing us, paying attention to us is really what you're talking about.
I maybe have the opposite problem.
I have my soul and heart are inside of this enormous, like, you know, separated from the world by this enormous kind of library of books, which has always been my home.
And that's a great joy to me and hopefully is of some benefit in the world, but it's also an enormous, it can be an enormous setback sort of emotionally and in terms of connecting to people.
I think you were hiding from me and my emotional outbursts inside of your mental library.
Well, if so, then thank you because it's been very lucrative for me to do that.
I have a tantrum right now.
Great, let's do it.
Oh my gosh, I'm so excited.
It's like this is a core memory that is being reactivated.
But mom, who, like all the greatest of mothers, humanized her children, and especially me, Lewis says that parents give of their bodies to create the body of the child and then they give of their souls to create the souls.
Yeah, yeah.
Abolition man.
Very smart.
Yeah.
And so, and Wordsworth, as you know, says that the infant babe drinks from his mother's eye, the smiles that animate the world.
And this was definitely true for me with mom.
She gave me two pieces of advice over and over again, one of which was very practical and very much tailored right to me, which is never go anywhere without a book.
A physical book, an object, because you never know.
You literally never know when you're going to be stuck in a waiting room.
And this is always true.
And you might not have your phone, your phone might die.
All of this is still good advice.
But the other one was her mantra, which came from a James Taylor song.
Mom loves James Taylor.
I would always pretend to hate James Taylor because I was a snotty kid, but secretly loved James Taylor also.
And when I finally admitted this to her, right.
And she told me that her mantra is the James Taylor song, Shower the People You Love With Love.
That is it.
Shower the people you love.
I mean, the people that you, and it sounds like it should be obvious because you love them.
So why wouldn't you shower them with love?
But of course, for somebody like me, I'm well aware that love can be an inner feeling without ever being an outer action, without ever being shown or said or spoken.
And so mom's both philosophy and practice is just to overdo every possible demonstration of love.
And what's funny about this advice is you may in the moment feel weird about it.
You might even regret certain things that you do in pursuing this philosophy.
But in the long term, you will never regret showering the people you love with love.
You know, I have to tell you, I should point out to the audience who doesn't know mom because she doesn't want to know you.
She actually has no interest in you.
I should point out that she's always saying that I, and I think we idealize her, which isn't true.
I mean, we're all very critical, nasty people who see into people's every flaw.
And I don't think we idealize her at all, actually.
But I will say that, you know, she's obviously taken care of me for the last 45 years, without which I think we can all admit I would be living in a dumpster.
Yes.
Yeah, no, it's obviously clear.
You're on the edge now.
On the edge.
You're in a daily effort to restrain you.
But I have to say, I have to say that the other day, she was making me a bagel for breakfast.
And it suddenly just occurred to me that these little things, which of course the feminists hate, and everybody, I get cursed out all the time.
People are always putting these little emojis, you know, you're a piece of garbage because you say these things.
But I said to her, you know, it occurred to me that these are like little pebbles of love thrown into a pond.
And the ripples are tremendous because they don't only affect your lives, they now affect the lives of everyone you meet, obviously your children's lives and everyone around you, because they have created a sort of atmosphere of, I don't even, it's almost like a debt that they create, you know, that you owe the world and other people and the people you love especially.
You owe them something that you've been given.
Water displacement.
So you have to, yeah, I mean it's funny that we've been talking so much about the unrecognized and uncelebrated acts of love that mothers particularly do.
There's a line, one of these lines that comes up throughout the Western canon that's always trotted out as an example of misogyny, but is actually one of the most beautiful things that's ever been said about women.
One of them is Milton, which says that Adam lived for God only and she forgot in him, which is supposed to be dismissive, but is actually perfect.
The other one is from Pericles' funeral oration, which is the speech that Pericles, the leader of Athens, gives during the Peloponnesian War, which would be the war that would just destroy Athens' naval empire.
But he's celebrating all that made Athens great.
And of course, these are dead men that he's talking about, soldiers.
But he says something to the effect of the glory of our women is that nobody speaks of them, that they are never talked about.
And in Greek culture, kudos and kleos and glory was the soldier's reward.
That's what Pericles was giving them by making this speech.
He was memorializing them and ensuring that their honor would live on.
That's why these men would go to war.
And he was saying the equivalent of that in a woman's life is to be unseen, to be unrecognized in all of the small offices of love that you perform.
And I think in the Christian tradition, and in especially the Hebrew Bible, we have an addendum to that observation, which is that when the mother of the house performs this amazing act of creating life and managing the household economy and all of that, then her children shall rise up and call her blessed.
And so it then becomes the job of people like Pericles and the soldiers in war and those who go out into the world to lift up this incredible life-giving act, which is, I think, kind of the whole point of honoring your father and mother.
Hors d'Oeuvres and Blessings00:05:49
I have to say, as you know, I'm going to get so much crap from mom about this.
Yes, I thought you were going to say that she was making you a bagel and you suddenly realized how the toaster worked.
And that you could put a bagel into the toaster yourself and press the button.
It doesn't make any sense to me whatsoever.
What is she talking about?
I understood when you were talking Greek, but I don't understand what she's saying.
That just beats me.
Don't look at me.
You know, mom once said to me that, you know, you write a book and you suddenly know how to make a souffle, but you live in a house for eight years and then you say to me, where do we keep the spoon?
All right.
From Jeremy, does the Clavin family have any Christmas traditions you try to do every year?
Now, you are the keeper of our traditional.
Yeah, you're asking the right person.
Yeah, exactly.
Yes.
Yes.
We watch the Alistair Sim Christmas Carol.
Isn't that the first time?
Obviously.
Yes.
We eat frozen hors d'oeuvres on thing on Christmas Eve.
We do that.
We argue over whose stocking is whose.
Those are the wrong things.
No, we can't have this.
We can't have the argument.
That will be the rest of the episode.
No, we'll stop.
I'm sorry I mentioned it.
We could have proven.
We could have taken a vote.
Well, actually, we do have the Christmas tree topping also to argue over, which is I don't really remember that one.
That is a B-side.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Tradition.
Useful for instruction, but not necessary for Orthodoxy.
Right, exactly.
What else?
All right, so we have the frozen hors d'oeuvres, which are excellent.
Yes, that's important.
And the croissants in the morning, Christmas morning.
William Sonoma because it's only product placement.
The product placement is sponsored by the money.
Sonoma, it was not being sponsored.
Although, if you're interested.
Yes, exactly.
I'm sure they're sold out by now for Christmas.
But if you'd like to sponsor this episode, for next year.
Yes.
Yeah, I mean, all kinds of, like, you know, we, I mean, I used to be the Christmas elf who handed out the presents.
I had a very, a very complicated algorithm about whose presents, you know, which present goes to which person at which time.
We have many traditions.
Yes, yes.
And I think the one about arguing over the stockings was probably our best tradition.
It's a lot of fun.
Yes.
Well, the thing about this, not to get into the stocking argument, but the thing about the stockings was that, like, in theory, you were right.
But except that as a matter of history, you were wrong.
So it was always a whole like.
Well, this is, as I always say, it may work in history, but does it work in theory?
Right, much like Aristotle's account of the birth of tragedy.
Just what I was going to say.
Theoretically makes a lot of sense.
Unclearies.
Totally like that.
Informs the details like that.
My favorite is the hors d'oeuvres.
Yes.
Yeah, the horseroves are good.
Well, because it comes out of a time when we actually couldn't do something fancy.
Like the time was running out and mom felt overworked and all of this.
And so she felt really bad that she had to make us these microwave hors d'oeuvres and then everybody was like, we love the hors d'oeuvre.
Can we have the hors d'oeuvres next year?
And this is, to me, really actually illustrative about the nature of Christmas traditions.
I would like to just say they go in the oven, not the microwave.
Some of them go in the microwave.
No, because I just think that like mom would never actually microwave our dinner is just what I'm trying to say.
I'm trying to say that yes, the hors d'oeuvres were a time-saving thing, an emergency thing.
And we do love them very, very much and have done it now for like 20 years, but they go in the oven.
Just if I wait for it.
This is a new tradition.
We're going to argue over supposed to devolve into blows after.
Is that another question?
But I do.
I have a point about the Odor.
I want to return to Alastair Sims Christmas.
Ah, all right.
Because first of all, I'm so tired of these people telling me that there's another better Christmas.
Oh, my God.
And then it's the Muppet Christmas.
Yeah, oh my God.
It's now the clock.
I thought we were supposed to ignore that.
Yes, it's the Muppet or George C. Scott, which I've seen.
But the thing I love about this, and I have to say this every year, is that Alistair Sim plays Ebenezer Scrooge as if he's right, which nobody else does.
Michael Kaine, George C. Scott, they all play him as if he's a mean old man.
And he's a cranky, unhappy old man.
But he plays himself like a superior person who sees the truth that other people don't see.
This is another important feature of Christmas Carol, which if you order today, you could still get in time for Christmas.
Faith's novel, Christmas Carol, follows this aspect of the story, that it's not about an evil, bad, nasty person.
It's about a person whose choices make sense.
That that shows that they are nevertheless wrong in spirit.
I've got a holiday gift idea that's sure to make you the hero of the season, the gift of Genucelle Skincare.
From now until Christmas, Genucelle's most popular package has a special discount just for my listeners at genuicelle.com slash clavin.
Treat yourself and your loved ones to the absolute best skincare in the world.
Those troubling forehead wrinkles, fine lines, skin redness, and even sagging jawlines will disappear right before your eyes with Genucelle's most popular collection.
Plus, included in every most popular package is your free hyaluronic acid serum for skin hydration.
The hyaluronic acid serum will restore your youthful appearance in less than 12 hours, guaranteed, or your money back.
My producer, Lisa, she loves this stuff.
She loves Genucelle.
She is probably one of every single product they have.
She's always raving about the under eye cream and how there is nothing like it on the market.
You deserve to look and feel your best this holiday season.
Go to genucelle.com slash clavin to get this incredible holiday discount.
Every order today is instantly upgraded to free express shipping.
Why Felicia Asks00:14:55
That's genuicel.com slash clavin today.
Clavin, by the way, just so you know, spelled, it's K-L-A-V-A-N.
There are no easing favorites.
All right, here's a question from Felicia, a lovely name.
In fact, I believe that was my mother's actual name on her birth certificate.
They called her Phyllis, but I think her name is Pony.
What?
Yes, I know.
This is your grandmother.
I've never heard that.
I didn't know that.
Excuse me, I have to think about that for a while.
It's a question for me, but I think Spencer can also.
I think you can both chime in on this.
What translation of the Bible do you use?
I have a friend who will only use the King James Version, and I don't agree that the King James Version is the best translation for our generation.
Other word-for-word translations were created by going back to the original Hebrew and Greek, so it shouldn't matter.
Write.
I appreciate your perspective.
Thank you.
Well, first of all, I only started reading the Bible when I was about 15 because we didn't really, I mean, I guess I read it in Hebrew at Hebrew School, but I didn't understand it because I wasn't paying attention.
And I love the King James Version.
It is the most beautiful English because it's Shakespearean English.
In fact, Charlton Heston used to say that Shakespeare had a brother who was a monk.
And when the committee would put together their translation, he would say, I'll write that up for you.
Just change everything.
It is incredibly beautiful.
But I will say this, that as I've gotten older, the fact that it is archaic and difficult to understand has begun to bother me more as I want to extract more meaning out of the words.
And I now am more likely to at least consult the NIV, you know, the new one, that is written in plain English.
And it's not as beautiful, but I know that I understand what it's saying.
And I don't know.
I mean, you have talked about the fact that you think the King James Version captures some of the ambiguities.
Right.
Well, I have gone through like a whole journey with the KJV.
Something that I think people don't always understand is that because the church is a many thousands, is a several thousand year long tradition at least, and if you count the Jewish history, it goes back even further than that.
Our understanding of the original text has actually developed and increased.
Typically, you hear about this when people accuse Christians or Jews of studying this ancient text and nobody really knows even what it means.
But actually, the opposite is true.
As we've developed in our scholarship, I mean, it took a while even for the people who translated the Bible into Latin for the very early church in late antiquity.
It took a while before they went back to the Hebrew.
They were often going back to Greek translations of the Hebrew Bible.
And in modernity, if you go to a good scholarly edition, you are getting the most accurate biblical translation that has ever existed.
I mean, there are still many disputes that people have about how to translate various things.
But as I studied Hebrew and Greek in grad school, I came to realize that actually a lot of these newer translations, even though they're not as beautiful and they're not as iconic as the King James, they are actually advances in some cases in our understanding.
And so, yeah, I definitely think it's absolutely appropriate to use a number of other, you know, the NIV, for example, to use a number of other versions.
I would say that the King James Version remains important as a work of English literature.
So it's definitely a worthwhile translation.
I appreciate some of the choices that the more I learn about Greek and Hebrew, the more I realize that actually some of the things that look like liberties are efforts to preserve certain ambiguities that are already there in the text.
So I think it's a beautiful translation all around.
But I also think language changes, we need more clarity, and we develop in our understanding of the text.
So New Version is totally fine as a religious matter.
But as a literary matter, I think the King James is like reading your Shakespeare.
Like you need to know where phrases like apple of my eye come across and that sort of thing.
What do you think, Joe?
Well, I have a, as you know, I have a weird fascination with the tutors at Henry VIII and his wives.
And so I have a kind of affinity for the King James Version because you can draw a direct line from that back to like the Tyndale Bible and the Bibles that were suddenly coming into English during the time of the Reformation, which happened during this time period that I, for some reason that I can't explain, have a fascination with.
So I think I cannot say anything scholarly.
I don't know what you just said.
It's very interesting.
But for me, that's the one I like for that reason, because I feel like I'm kind of communing with a time that is important to me.
What is the thing with Henry VIII?
The guy was like a psycho.
I'm not so interested in Henry VIII specifically, but rather his wives.
His wives.
Yes.
Are there good wives in the bad ones?
Catherine of Aragon is my favorite.
It's the one he dumped to the first one.
The first one is my favorite.
Because he was a scumbag.
Yes.
Terrible guy.
Yes.
All right.
Let's see.
Who's better at wrapping gifts?
I think we all know who's worst at rapping.
Oh, I mean, it's not a competition.
Faith is definitely the best.
I am.
And I would like to say, I may never have, I may have actually never said this to you in real life, but like, I'm going to say it to you now.
The tradition, this is another tradition, of me coming with you to your little office to wrap mom's gifts is incredibly important to me.
That time that we spent together when I would wrap the gifts is something that I look back on very fondly and was always very, very important to me.
I've always loved bringing both of you to my office because we get away from everything and it would just be the two of us.
And that's really nice to hear.
I'm glad to hear it.
And also, it was important because I rap gifts so much.
Yes, well, you do.
Well, another tradition is the drunken elders.
The drunken elves.
We have a number of different card jokes that we do.
Well, the drunken elders, because my rapping was so bad, we had to explain what was happening.
All right.
You know, there's one question here that I think is really important that we not leave unanswered, which is whether, Eric, what makes Die Hard one of the greatest Christmas movies ever made?
Is Die Hard at a time?
It's sort of a leading question, I must say.
Can I just like back up?
Why does it matter whether Die Hard is a Christmas movie?
Because people have nothing better to do.
No, but like, really, like, it's a good movie.
I like that movie.
What does it matter?
Like, whether it's a Christmas movie or not.
I think, I actually think it matters.
I mean, does it matter like whether, you know.
What are we asking?
Like what?
What is the actual question here?
We're asking what is a Christmas movie.
Yes, it's much as we learned this year with What is a Woman in debates about definitions?
It's important to test edge cases.
Fine, okay.
And this is one of them.
And I also think that it speaks to that question about the sort of intangible Christmas feeling.
Like there's something that you've talked a lot about, actually.
The mood in the air that you can't totally pin it down, but you always know it when you feel it.
And I think some people experience it with Die Hard, which does take place, I believe, during Christmas at this point.
And I think, for example, that the Harry Potter movies and the Lord of the Rings movies are Christmas movies, even though they don't.
I mean, Harry Potter has Christmas in it, but there's no Christmas in Lord of the Rings.
But still, there is this, I don't know, homey, warm kind of glow about them that I think people are trying to pin down when they argue over this.
You know, first of all, I have an actual good diehard story, which is that when Die Hard came out, mom's parents, your grandparents, had gone on vacation somewhere and their house was empty.
So we went out as a sort of way of affording a vacation, which we couldn't afford.
We went out to stay in their house while they were gone.
And so we were out in the middle of Long Island.
And one day, just out of boredom, I thought I'd go to a movie and I kind of paged through things.
And there was an ad for Die Hard.
It was about the size of a postage stamp.
And it was just a picture, as I recall, of a man with his hair blown back, a cartoon of a guy watching the screen with his hair blown back.
That's how exciting the movie was.
He's describing a newspaper where the landscape is.
He's turned the fan movie.
Every theater is a fan movie location.
That's right.
And so I went to this movie knowing nothing about it.
And I'd never seen, I don't think I'd ever seen Bruce Willis on his TV show, which is basically what he had been doing.
And I just went and thought, God, this is kind of an exciting thriller movie.
First of all, it was so exciting that I actually, when I had hair, it actually was blowing back.
But I also was so naive that I was sitting there thinking, oh my God, this guy's going to die.
And I didn't realize I had to be a diehard 6.
Yeah.
Counting backwards on it.
Anyway, I say this because I love the movie and it's one of the greatest action movies ever made, if not the, it's the essential action movie from that date on.
Every movie was Die Hard on a Boat and Die Hard in a bathroom and Die Hard, you know, whatever.
I don't think it's a Christmas movie.
I think it's a movie that takes place during Christmas.
It has wonderful values in that it's about a marriage coming back together and people realizing that the marriage goes before everything else that they're doing.
And that's all wonderful.
But it does not do what a Christmas story does, which is A, utilize Christmas in all its parts to infuse the story with Christmas meaning.
But also, the story has to then speak back to Christmas.
So it's a wonderful life.
A Christmas Carol, your book, Christmas Carol.
They speak back into Christmas, that this is how the birth of Christ changes us.
Even if it doesn't talk about that specifically, as you said in The Lord of the Rings, this is how these values now change us.
And it doesn't really talk about that.
It uses the trope that is in every action movie, Lethal Weapon is the same way.
Something has gone wrong and somehow by killing people for an hour, it's all going to be solved.
And, you know, it does.
It's an important principle that serves as the foundation set of all video games.
Yes, yeah.
But so all I'm saying is that like, I don't feel it's essentially, existentially, a Christmas movie.
Maybe this is not what you're saying, but it's kind of like it uses Christmas as like a character in the movie to kind of tell you something about maybe the values or whatever, but it's not actually itself a Christmas story.
It's like it's using Christmas as a kind of trope.
I will say I watched It's a Wonderful Life again for this time, which I do not watch every year the way we watch the Elisa Sim.
And that is a perfect movie in almost every respect.
And what's really interesting about it is that the thing it's supposed to be about, I mean, everybody remembers it's about a guy who sees the world as if he never lived in it.
And it's why it's based, I mean, it's actually a very somber theme because it's about, he's about to kill himself and he has to be saved from this.
That takes about 15 minutes of the movie, which is like two hours long.
And that's kind of a remarkable feature in and of itself that it manages to get across this one idea.
But actually, much like the Dickens Christmas Carol and Faith's Christmas Carol, it's just a story about his life, essentially.
I mean, it really is just, you know, it's sort of the, it's the mirror image of Scrooge one, the positive difference that he's made in people's lives.
And Christmas is sort of happening, but it's very much just suffused through the world rather than being a character in the movie like in Die Hard.
But in It's a Wonderful Life and Christmas Carol and in your book, Christmas Carol, and what is happening is the values of the world are being turned over and put under the values of the spirit.
And I think that's exactly what Christmas is basically saying is that like while Caesar is doing this and this little baby is being born, this mom is nursing this baby, you know, a little mother is rocking a cradle in Bethlehem.
And that's the real thing.
That's the real story of life.
And that to me, you know, I mean, you can kind of see it in Die Hard.
But I just like the scene where he uses the fire hose to jump off the roof.
Possibly the greatest action sequence.
And I can't even remember.
I gave an entire lecture.
This is true.
I once gave an entire lecture on how to write an action sequence just using that because one danger leads to the next danger, leads to the next one, and there's no relief until finally he comes crashing through the window.
And I think then he's held at gunpoint.
It's absolutely like a ballet of action.
It's really good.
All right.
So there was one thing in here that I wanted to respond to because I get this letter every day from Jane.
I think the Daily Wire's effort to make conservative fiction, or we could just say fiction that takes place in reality, is one of the most important cultural movements going.
How can a writer get involved?
And I get this every year.
And I just want to say to Jane and to everybody, I think that's asking the wrong question.
I think what the Daily Wire is doing is wonderful.
I'm proud to be anywhere near it.
I'm proud because I feel like this is the drum I've been banging for 20 years and it's beautiful to now sort of be surrounded by people who've actually answered that call.
And it's just terrific.
It's actually great.
However, the question every writer and every artist should be asking is what am I supposed to make?
What am I trying to say?
How do I say it?
What is the beautiful, most beautiful thing that I can create?
And then you ask yourself, who wants this?
And we were asked before of the best advice mom ever gave you.
And the best advice she ever gave me was that You don't have to care whether your audience is two people or whether your audience is a million people.
The important thing is that you are speaking to somebody.
You have an audience.
And so when you sit down to write, you're not writing for yourself.
You're not writing to express yourself.
You're writing to communicate something that is in you to someone else, to give it to someone else.
And when you've done that and when you've done what you were called to do, then you think like, how do I get this to the people who will like it?
And if the Daily Wire happens to be that thing, then you start making phone calls and trying to, obviously, if you send me money, but then you start to find out, like, how do I get to this person with this material that I have?
I think that one of the things that I think is corrupting about the movie business is that you have to go around asking people for permission to do what you do.
And I've never wanted to do that.
And people compare it to Florence and the Renaissance.
You had to have an all this stuff.
But that too could be corrupting, but at least you knew what you were talking about.
You knew you were talking about something essential.
So I don't think the question is how do you get to the Daily Wire?
I think the question is, what do you want to make?
And then how do you get it to the audience that you made it for?
Supporting Creative Endeavors00:05:12
So that's my answer to that question.
I think that's right.
Let's see.
For Spencer, Alex, how gay is it to cry while watching this a wonderful wife?
No more gay than crying while reading Christmas characters.
Take that as you will.
Let's see.
Here's one for Faith.
What advice can you give to a husband whose wife is extremely creatively talented about how best to support her as she develops her talents?
How does that support change and or stay the same after children come?
Well, that's a lovely question because it implies that he has a wife who has some creative ambition and that he wants to support her.
And I think that that's lovely.
I think the first answer is that you can tell her so.
You can tell her that you love what she does and that you support this and that you are okay with this being a part of your life.
But I also think that this is the kind of thing that can very quickly go wrong if what you're saying is like, yes, yes, anything that you want to do, any creative endeavor, I will support you.
I will make sure that you have what you need.
Because perhaps you can't do that.
And perhaps the person's creative endeavor, while important to them and important to you, may not actually be the number one thing in your life, particularly once you have children.
And if your wife is going to be the one who stays home with the children, then as in my life, the creative endeavor needs to be nourished, but also is not the priority.
And so, like, for example, I wrote this book while my toddler was napping.
So, you know, I organized my life so that the kids came first.
So I think, you know, what I would say to you is if you sit down with your wife and talk through what is it that you need in order to do this, like, are you, are you, do you have some sort of YouTube show?
What do you need?
Do you need some equipment?
Do you need some time?
You know, what do you need?
Okay, here is realistically what I can do to support you.
Not like, I will do everything that I possibly can.
What can I realistically do?
Like, can we afford this camera, this writing space?
You know, can we afford this?
What can we afford?
And be clear with one another about what that is so that you're not saying things that you can't deliver on later.
And that's the way that you really support someone is that you are honest and clear about what you can do.
And then the time piece once you have kids is kind of like, yes, like on a Saturday, you might take the kids out for a little while so she can do her work.
But I think it's really about not being unrealistic about the thing, you know, that people's creative endeavors are important, but they might not be the most important thing right now.
And so what can you do realistically to support her?
And how can you not tell her that you're going to do things that you can't deliver on?
That's a kind of respect, too, to take her seriously.
Exactly.
To not simply cheerlead or say everything is great and go do whatever you want, but to strategize together, reason together about the right way forward.
I think both of these questions, this one and the previous one, we have this general sort of misapprehension that comes maybe in part from the very good American sort of enterprise spirit, but also from, again, the good sort of Protestant individual spirit, both of which suggest, I think, that like if you have some creative gifts or inclinations,
then the necessary measure of success is a contract, a million dollar contract and a million eyes on your work and all of those things, which listen, everybody loves, everybody wants.
Yeah, there's, I mean, I'm the last person who should make any criticisms of ambition because it's one of, it's the last infirmity of Noble Mind.
It's one of my major flaws, I would say.
But all of that having been said, your point about, you know, what you're making, the point, the actual point of your creative spirit, your creative gift, your creative endeavor, is that God has endowed you with this among other abilities and talents.
And talents come with callings, and part of your job in discernment is to figure out how to respond to each of those callings in an appropriate way, to devote the amount of time that's right for each thing, the amount of effort, the amount of love that each thing merits, which might mean a hobby, or it might mean a publishing career, or any number of other things, all of which are actually blessed to the same measure by God so long as they— And that's how you can trust, if you believe all of these things that I'm saying.
This is how you can trust that the thing that's on your heart to make, even if it has a two-person audience, is actually better to make than the whatever pandering garbage you'd want to make to try to fit some slot, because you think you can engineer your way around God's plan for you.
Daily Wire Plus 30% Off00:02:34
Like that doesn't work.
And the thing that the only worthwhile act of creation in any context is the one that's being drawn out of you by God, who actually knows better than you do and where to go.
I have to say, the highest experience, or at least one of the highest experiences of my creative life, was writing the truth and beauty in the sure and certain knowledge that no one would ever publish it, no one else would ever read it, that I was going to put it up on Amazon and hand it out to my friends.
And then seeing it on the USA Today list and thinking like, wow, that was not why I wrote this.
Hooray.
All of that will happen.
It will always be better than you expect.
Christmas is coming up.
And if you're searching for the perfect gift for your family, your friends, your colleagues, your neighbors, or yourself, if you're just a narcissist, we've got you covered.
Daily Wire Plus annual subscriptions are 30% off.
That's one year of unlimited access to ad-free, uncensored, exclusive content from all your favorite Daily Wire hosts for 30% off, along with on-demand access to groundbreaking entertainment and documentaries leading the charge in the culture war.
Trust me, you do not want to miss what we have coming in 2024, like Mr. Bertram, the hilarious animated series with a star-studded voice cast featuring Adam Carolla, Roseanne Barr, Megan Kelly, our very own Brett Cooper, and more.
We have a highly anticipated release of the Pendragon cycle.
We're bringing the legendary story of King Arthur to life like never before.
Hopefully you've been watching the exclusive Pendragon Cycle video diaries that the team is releasing weekly.
This series will be epic, featuring a language written by Spencer Clavin.
Daily Wire Plus memberships also unlock the Daily Wire's new kids app, Bent Key at no extra charge.
Enjoy over 20 titles and hundreds of episodes that are kid-friendly and age-appropriate, eliminating the need for pre-screening.
And yes, Bent Key is where you will be able to watch Snow White and the Evil Queen in 2024 while you're not watching the new Disney version.
So you get twice the fun.
Plus, so much more in the works that I can't even tell you about yet.
But the best part is you'll be joining us in the fight to take back and reshape the culture.
This Christmas, give the gift of a Daily Wire Plus annual membership for 30% off.
Go to dailywire.com slash subscribe and join today.
Shockingly, we are actually out of time if we're going to have time to start drinking alcoholically and beating each other up.
You guys haven't been drinking alcohol.
This is schnops.
So let me, I will sum up because this is my last show of the year.
Last Show of the Year00:06:54
You and I will probably see each other again sometime.
If you're lucky.
So I want to just tell this one story and then we'll wind this up.
This happened maybe three days ago, three or four days ago.
His mom went out to a church thing and I didn't want to go out.
It was raining and all this stuff.
So she went out.
And as you know, when mom is away from the house, I turn into a mannequin that just sits there waiting for her to come back.
You don't know how to use a toaster?
I don't know how to do it.
I use the toaster.
And I was sitting in this room with the fireplace and drinking a cup of tea, actually.
Actually, it was a cup of tea listening to Christmas music.
And I began scrolling through X, as one does because one is stupid.
And on X, there were two consecutive pictures of women.
One was a TikTok video, and one was just a photograph underneath.
And young women.
And one was a young woman on TikTok explaining how, after having anonymous sex with some guy she barely knew, she had found out that she had herpes and now her life, and she was crying, and now her life was going to be, you know, less than it would have been and more distressing.
She might even not even be able to deliver a baby because of this.
And the one underneath it was just a photograph of a woman who had come back, young, to me a girl.
You know, I'm like a million years old, so she looked like a girl, but she was a young woman.
And she had come back to faith, specifically Catholicism, after many years absent, and was going off to her first Mass in nine or ten years, nine years, I think it was.
She had taken a selfie on her way to Mass.
And the look on her face was wonderful because it was quizzical.
It was like, something is happening here, but I don't know what it is, but I think it's going to be good, but I don't know.
And I was looking at this, watching these two things, and I was reminded of this poem that Spencer and I both love called Dover Beach, which was by Matthew Arnold in the mid-1800s.
And it's said to have been written on his honeymoon.
He was speaking to his bride, listening to the water recede in Dover Beach.
He was talking about the end of faith, about faith leaving the world.
The tide of faith was receding.
And toward the end, he says to her, I love, let us be true to one another, for the world, which seems to lie before us like a land of dreams, so various, so beautiful, so new, hath really neither joy nor love nor light nor certitude nor peace nor help for pain.
And I was looking at these two women and I was thinking, people in our society, and especially young people, have been so lied to by the people who are assigned to tell them the truth.
And they've been told that the most important thing about them is their sexual identity or their racial identity or some authentic self that is so important to be born.
And they're told that, you know, on the right, we tell them how wonderful it is that they can have a career and make a lot of money and all this stuff.
And the left are saying, oh, you've got to go out and save the climate and save this and talk about this.
And, you know, our system, our capitalist free system, has created so much wealth and so many cool things.
And I'm not against any of them.
I'm for all of them.
But they're empty, ultimately.
They have neither, they have no hope for pain.
They have nothing to offer people.
And people forget, you know, capitalism is a good system.
I'm for it and all this, but it's like everything else.
In the end, it's absolutely nothing and it will pass away as we will pass away and all this stuff.
And these people, especially these young people, and I think especially young women, are so miserable and so lost.
And a lot of people come to them and offer them a religion which basically consists of condemning other people.
Like now you know what's right and wrong so you can tell other people.
That's why Jesus said judge not so you could judge other people.
That's what he meant.
He was actually pulling a fast one on you.
And also it's about wallowing in guilt and every time I feel desire for somebody, I should feel bad and all this stuff.
Or, and this one drives me crazy because it's our side and it's our talking, the conservative people telling us that it's all about the war on Christmas and we have to be angry.
I'm really glad we didn't actually talk like that today.
I didn't know whether we would or not.
And I think that at the same time, this is an offer.
This Christmas offer is an amazing thing.
I'm going to pause here for a minute because of the moment that we're in historically to just talk to my brother and sister Jews out there.
And obviously, I hope all of you find Jesus Christ as I did.
But I want to tell you from personal experience that if the name Jesus Christ is somehow troubling to you, our God is so humble, he will come to you nameless as he came to me.
And, you know, so I'm not preaching that you change your religion.
I know that that's a very difficult thing, but the God of love is waiting for you.
God's plan and promise to the Jews is in 100% effect.
Not a single jot or tittle of it has gone away.
And anyone who hates on you, whether they do it under the cross or the crescent or as the head of an ivy league, is not just speaking as your enemy, speaking the voice of the enemy of mankind.
And it's important that you know that God loves you and he's coming to get you any way he can, any name that you choose.
And for the rest of us, for those of us who have found Christ, it's just about letting him have you, letting go, letting go of your big opinions and your smart talk and all the things that you're cleverer than everybody else and that people have told you and that you're absolutely sure true.
Just putting yourself in the hands of the carpenter so he can shape your soul on the lathe of heaven.
That's basically all it's about.
And there's a line in the Bible, I think in Revelation, you can check me, where Jesus is speaking and he says, behold, I stand at the door and knock.
Don't be a schmuck, open the door.
Exact translation.
But the point remains, the answer is right there in front of you.
Beyond all the things that the world offers you, sex and money and fame and riches and all that stuff, under the Christmas tree, there is a gift that is no bigger than a mustard seed that was put there with your specific name on it before the universe was made.
And the world, which seems so beautiful and various and new, has nothing for you that will give you the life you're born for.
And that little gift under the tree will give you everything you need.
He stands at the door and knocks.
The gift is under the tree.
Open the door.
Take the gift.
Have a Merry Christmas from me and Faith and Spencer.
None of this will come true if you don't buy our books, but still.