All Episodes
Previous Next
Aug. 13, 2023 - Huckabee Today
49:54
The Secret to Thriving (SPOILER: LEAVE PEOPLE ALONE!) | FULL EPISODE | Huckabee
| Copy link to current segment

Time Text
Tonight on Huckabee, former Kansas Governor Sam Brownback, laughable life observations with Dave Dugan, actress Allie Landry on Reshaping Your Life, patriotic country artist Alexis Wilkins.
That's Trey Corley and the Music City Connection.
And I'm your announcer, Keith Pilbry.
And now, here's Mike Huckabee!
Welcome everybody.
What a great crowd we have out here tonight.
We are so very grateful for you joining us this week for The Huckabee Show.
Now, this past week, I made a very quick trip to Israel for three days, just for a couple of speeches and some media appearances and meetings.
While there, I visited the excavations at the City of David in Jerusalem, most of which are not even open to the public.
Deep underneath the modern city are the ruins of ancient Jerusalem as it existed 2000 years ago during the time of Jesus, but which has been buried for 20 centuries since the Romans sacked it and burned it totally to the ground in 70 AD. While visiting in an area not yet open to the public,
My longtime friend from the excavation team placed a small mark of soot on my hand that is part of what was uncovered from the destruction of the temple and the city of Jerusalem in the first century.
Now to touch the physical residue of what some consider to be the end of the Jewish people would have been sobering.
Except that I felt quite the opposite because I had in my hand the ash from what was to have been the end of the Jewish people and the nation of Israel.
Indeed, they were dispersed throughout the world, hunted down, mercilessly murdered in the Holocaust, and removed from the very land that God gave them through Abraham over 3,500 years ago.
But that was not the end of their story.
Those ashes can now become the mark of God's ultimate fulfillment of His promise that He will restore His people and His land.
Well, this summer, exactly, exactly 50 years ago, 1973 was my first trip to Israel.
I made it as a teenager in 73. Since 1981, I've taken groups on a spiritual pilgrimage to the land of the Bible.
And in fact, we'll take groups there both in February and May of next year.
But while many people believe that God had failed the Jews and allowed them to wander the planet and almost become extinct because of the Holocaust, it was anything but the last chapter of God's story or His promises to His chosen people.
I'll be honest, there are days I fear that America has been reduced to ashes.
Not physical ashes or being burned to the ground, but the spiritual ashes of a nation that has forgotten and forsaken God, and where evil is called good and good is called evil.
Where political leaders claim they don't know what a woman is, despite claiming to be all for the very women they can't even identify.
Weird.
It's a time in which government criminally prosecutes those who dare disagree with its politics or speak views that challenge the authority of government or those in power.
But the ashes on my hand reminded me that God, and not man, determines if the next chapter of our history is our last.
As surely as God returned Jews to their ancient and indigenous homeland, So, I'm confident that God can and will return America to its greatness, but only if we, its people, will humble ourselves, pray, seek His face, and turn from our wicked ways.
Look, I believe in voting and civic engagement.
Totally think it's important.
But our real problems in America aren't political, they're spiritual.
And if we continue on a course of rebellion, worshiping the created rather than the creator, and conduct violence toward one another, we may be reduced permanently to ashes.
But if we're willing to end the evil pride that marks us and begin to humble ourselves before God, the ashes of our culture can become the springboard of our renewal and our revival.
I hope America is never reduced to just the burning of ashes, but I will say this, if we are, I also hope that someday in the future that those ashes will arise a remnant who remember God, believe his truth, and will rebuild on the principles of liberty and love for one another so that America's comeback is as real and as strong as the Jews.
Sam Brownback has been a governor, a senator, a congressman, a candidate for president, and he's also served as U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom.
His work around the world has shown him countries who protect religious freedom are best at also protecting other individual liberties.
Please welcome a great friend from the wonderful state of Kansas, Sam Brownback.
It is great to have you here, Mr. Ambassador.
You have held so many titles, my gosh.
What's the favorite of all the things you've done?
Congressman, Senator, Governor.
You know, it's actually probably my current title, Grandpa.
I totally relate to that.
I've got eight grandchildren.
A ninth one on the way.
And you can't have too many grandchildren.
There's not a number that you say, well, that's enough.
That's it, yeah.
No, more.
Because you want your kids to succeed as parents, but boy, those grandchildren, that's the sweet stuff.
But one of the jobs that you have held is ambassador for international religious liberty.
So it's taken you all over the world and you've been able to see nations that respect people's beliefs and their liberty and those who do not.
What's the big difference you see in those countries?
Well, the big difference, you see, is that the country will thrive if they'll respect people's spiritual longings.
Religious freedom, remember, is the human right that's closest to the heart.
We have a number of human rights that are very important and key, but this one's foundational because it's central to human dignity.
It's central to the spiritual desire.
What I find is if a country will respect these rights, the country will flourish.
Its security will be better.
Its economy will grow more.
If it won't, those things shrink.
And that's what's the real difference.
And we've got a huge fight going on around the world on religious freedom is the centerpiece of the fight in many of these cases.
What are the countries that you see that are Most harsh and uncaring for religious liberty.
The one I am most concerned about is China.
They're not the harshest in that, like North Korea, if you're a Christian you can just be But China is at war with all faiths.
Christians, they lock up.
They pull down the crosses.
They pull down pictures of Jesus and put up pictures of Xi Jinping.
But they're also systematic about it around the world.
And they're also very technologically savvy.
In the western part of China, you see cameras are everywhere.
They've got facial recognition systems.
They've got social credit scores.
And if you are a religious person, You're just kind of banished from being able to operate in this society.
And then they're spreading that system all over the world to allies of theirs like Nicaragua or other places that are dependent upon China.
So it's not getting better there.
And I think a lot of people say, oh, they're kind of becoming a capitalist society.
But they're certainly not freeing up anything in terms of people's personal beliefs and convictions and ability to express them.
It's gotten worse there because they see religion as the only entity with enough adherence, enough people with passion, That could take down a government.
That religion is actually the one institution that exists that can stand up to a government and they know it.
People don't appreciate that it was not a political movement that brought down Eastern Europe.
It was a spiritual movement led by Pope John Paul II and by many of the bishops who put their lives on the line to stand for religious freedom And it ultimately was the end of communism in Eastern Europe.
And that's what the Chinese fear.
They've read their history.
They know the history.
They are not about to see it repeated on them.
And yet, you've got not only China, you've got so many places around the world where Christian persecution It's taking place.
We've got the highest level of Christian persecution in the history of Christendom taking place right now.
And it's in all over places like Nagora-Karlbach that most people wouldn't be able to identify or even know the region.
Ancient Christian population, 120,000 people just being strangled by Azerbaijan and Turkey and just being forced out of their ancient homelands.
It's been repeated in so many places around the world.
What about in the United States?
I mean, we see some semblances of like the baker Jack Phillips out in Colorado.
He has been hauled into court and sued repeatedly because he had a custom bakery shop.
He was willing to sell anything in his store that was on the shelf to anyone.
But he refused to do the artistic work for a same-sex couple wedding.
And he got sued, and the state of Colorado has put him through the wringer.
He's won court cases, but the continual effort to destroy him, that disturbs me.
It's like, why don't they just let him practice his faith and go somewhere else to buy whatever they want to buy?
Yeah, and it's his constitutional right.
You have a right to free exercise of your faith.
That's the actual words.
It's a free exercise of your faith.
And you are seeing this crowded, and that's why a number of us went together of all different faiths to form the National Committee and the National Council for Religious Freedom.
It's to stand up for that free exercise clause so that you can operate in the public marketplace, in the public square, as a person open of faith, peacefully practicing your faith.
But you are seeing this happen.
You're seeing places and groups being debanked.
They're being deplatformed because of their Christian values because of their social conservative views.
This is happening all over the country and to me it is terribly disturbing because the United States is the leader on religious freedom of all the world.
Everybody watches what we do on this and anytime you limit religious freedom here, it not only hurts Americans, it hurts the world because religious freedom gets limited more places around the world.
Sam, I want to keep you here because we've got a lot more to talk about.
And when we come back, we're going to get the ambassador's take on the GOP primary, some of the upcoming debates.
Sam and I were on the same stage back in 2008. We have a little in common when it comes to running for president.
And we watch this stuff with great deal of interest.
We'll talk about that and more when we are back.
Stay with us.
Coming up, The Daily Wire's Michael Knowles has exciting news about his new book, and later, a patriotic performance by Alexis Wilkins.
That's all tonight on Huckabee.
Go to MikeHuckabee.com and sign up for his free newsletter.
And follow @govmikehuckabee on Twitter.
Welcome back, everybody.
We're visiting with Sam Brownback of Kansas.
He's been a Congressman, Senator, Governor, International Ambassador for Religious Freedom.
There's something, I don't know if he even realizes this.
Sam, you are actually responsible for three of my grandchildren, okay?
Now, here's how this worked.
Yeah, let's clarify.
I'm going to clarify.
Yeah, okay.
But a young man worked for you in the 2008 presidential campaign from Kansas City, Kansas.
His name was Brian, Brian Sanders.
When you left the race, my campaign hired Brian.
And the next thing you know, he comes to ask me, could he marry my daughter?
And you said...
I said, not on your...
No, I told him, I said, absolutely, because I'd already grown very fond of him.
And anyway, so three grandkids later, I don't care what happens to Brian and Sarah.
I think they're doing something.
I don't know what she's involved in anymore, but...
I like her, but I want to tell you why.
Because she stands there and she fights, but she fights in a kind way.
Yeah.
And that's what I really want to see in people in politics.
We should have robust debates about policy issues.
We should debate about everything, but we don't have to hate each other and be mean about it.
We can be, you know, look, I want to tell you my point of view and here's what it is.
And she does that.
And she's taken a lot of guff at different times doing that for the president.
I'm sure less so at Governor's Arkansas, because in Arkansas, people are nice people.
They generally are.
Yeah.
You know, when we're talking about the presidential election, we're getting into the season, the first debates coming up in a couple of weeks.
I remember you and I were on that stage back in 2007 and 2008 when that was going on.
It's frustrating to me.
I'd love to get your perspective.
Anchors and the moderators end up making it about themselves.
They'll ask a three-minute question and then say, all right, Senator Brownback, you have 30 seconds to give an answer to my three-minute question.
It's like a game show, isn't it?
Oh, it is.
It is.
And, you know, and you get a fight back.
And they almost make you be mean in it to get in the game show.
It's kind of like, you know, they're just pushing you together.
Instead of having a civil debate about something.
And then they...
Lament that the country's gotten meaner.
And you're going, oh, really?
You know, what do you think causes that?
You know, maybe it's your example that's causing that.
And I just, I'm with you on that.
And we really ought to find a better way to have those sorts of debates and discussions to get people into serious policy issues.
Because we've got serious problems facing us as a country.
And if the United States doesn't do well, the world doesn't do well.
This place is critical, and I don't think many times we appreciate just really how critical we are to the trajectory this world takes.
When you were in Congress and in the Senate, you were instrumental working with the Bush administration in an effort to save millions of lives through a program called PEPFAR. And a lot of people were surprised that Republicans and conservatives took the lead on that because it combated people in Africa,
particularly, who were dying by the hundreds of thousands of AIDS. That has had an Extraordinary impact on Africa and on so many lives.
Oh, it has.
PEPFAR, I mean, it got antiviral viral drugs to patients, the AIDS patients that they weren't getting.
And then we also then used it to help out in malaria because we were losing hundreds, they were losing hundreds of thousands, millions of children under the age of five.
And that program has saved 25 million lives.
It's been one of the most popular things the United States has ever done for the continent of Africa.
It raised the United States' popularity in Africa.
It was a George W. Bush program pushed by Christian conservatives primarily because it saves lives.
It helps people.
It was a proud moment to be a part of that and to be a part of the Bush team that pushed that on through.
Well, you've always been an advocate as a pro-life individual, and I think sometimes people think the only The thing pro-life people care about is life in the womb.
Actually, we care very much what happens when the child gets out of the womb.
And that was proof positive of it.
Yeah, it's pro-life and whole life.
You know, I believe every life is sacred, whoever they are, wherever they are, at whatever time in life that they are.
This is sacred, a unique child created in the image of God.
And I think that's the way we should sell the pro-life message and put it forward.
It's pro-life, it's whole life, and we love you because God loves you.
It's a great way for us to conclude, and I want to say thank you for being a strong advocate for people, wherever they are, whoever they are, and grateful for that.
You can follow Sam Brownback on social media, and you can take the pledge to support religious freedoms for all Americans.
The links are at Huckabee.tv.
Speaking of liberty, we're going to turn Keith Bilbrey loose right now.
Let him tell us what's coming up on the rest of the show.
Well, coming up next, comedian Dave Dugan will give you a case of the giggles.
And later, Allie Landry shares how to find purpose in a life you'll love.
It's all after the break.
We'll be right back.
And welcome back.
Dave Dugan's career started in construction, working for his dad.
Well, lucky for him, Dick Clark found him and called him to Hollywood and his career shoveling gravel was over.
I don't think he was all that unhappy about that.
Well, recently he raised money for cancer and set a world record by driving in a roundabout a thousand and one times.
Please welcome the very funny and the slightly dizzy Dave Dugan.
How you doing?
I'm very excited to be with you.
Well, I'm really excited because I'm getting ready to fake a slip and fall.
Because I like to own a piece of this joint.
Yeah, I really am excited to be with you guys.
I've come all the way from my hometown of Carmel, Indiana.
Oh, okay.
You felt like you had to, right?
And now here I am and I'm just...
In a theater that is a very nice theater.
And I'm familiar with theaters because this summer I've mostly been performing in theaters, actually, which has been going great until people start yelling, get out of the way, we can't see Oppenheimer.
But this...
Hey, has this happened to you?
You know, you just can't wait to get out of a conversation with somebody because they're really annoying or obnoxious.
And I got a great way to escape.
You just go, how do you know when you've got pink eye?
And they will scoot on and make a new little friend.
So I'm trying to have a good summer.
I've done a few...
Oh, I made my own swimsuit this year.
I made it completely out of CVS receipts.
It only takes three receipts to keep me decent.
So I can't wear dress shoes.
Anymore.
My eyes are up here.
And it's bad.
I've got really bad flat feet.
And so it's really hard to do certain sports.
And it's hard to act like I'm cool when I'm walking down the beach wearing my corrective thongs while I'm showing off my new CBS One Piece.
You guys ever have something happen that is...
It's so life-changing, you don't know if you're ever going to be able to bounce back from it.
Well, let me just say, did you know that they stopped serving potato cakes at Arby's?
All right, this might be troubling me more than it does you.
But here's how I found out, because to me, that's the crown jewel of Arby's, a potato cake.
And I went in recently to order my lunch, and then after I was done with my order, at the end, I just said, I'd like a potato cake, please.
And the guy behind the counter said, Kind of a hillbilly guy.
Well, I think by his grammar, he goes, sir, we don't serve no potato cake anymore.
So I just, there was a tingling in my ears.
I thought I was going to lose consciousness.
I almost passed out.
And I couldn't even think of a backup plan.
I couldn't think curly fries quick enough.
And...
And then he's making things more confusing for me because he had so many gums.
You've seen, sometimes you look at someone in particular and they've got those forever, you know, those forever gums?
And I thought I saw my whole reflection in his gums.
I thought I was going to lose my mind when he said, do you want horsey sauce with that?
Like I, I didn't even know, I didn't know Mr. Ed had a kid.
So if you, uh, If you want to know...
Well, I'm scared of horses if you want to know the truth.
But I'm a big dog lover.
I love dogs.
And in fact, I bond with them.
I saw this dog the other day and I felt bad for it.
He had one of those cones around his neck.
So that means they've had some sort of procedure or whatever.
And I felt so sad and so much sympathy because a few years ago when I got fixed, that's what my wife made me wear.
And...
Good thing, because I wouldn't leave myself alone.
Who would have known my hind leg was so flexible?
You know, because I'm a giver, ladies and gentlemen.
No, some people don't give their takers.
I'm a giver.
One of my favorite things to do is I like to prepare breakfast in bed.
And upon serving, occasionally I would be nice to hear, like, that's so sweet or you shouldn't have, as opposed to, how the heck did you get in our house?
So, like I said, I drove in today, and they were very nice.
They offered me a flight, but if I can drive, I usually like to drive because there's not as much hassle.
You know, because like now when we go to get on an airplane at security, we all have to go through that full body scan.
Which, that's so invasive, isn't it?
I mean, do you remember the good old days when we could just kind of watch some of the more, they just take a few of the more suspicious looking people and make them go through the, right?
You could kind of, you know, stand back and point and laugh.
And now, we all are marched to the full body scan, and something, when I was in there, it must have snapped, because I threw in a couple pelvic thrusts, because I thought, well, I think they want a show, and...
They did not want a show.
They jerk you right out of there.
They put on a glove.
They got a wand as big as this mic stand.
You know you're in deep when they get that wand out.
Twenty-five minutes went by.
I thought I was going to miss my flight.
I finally said to the security guy, I said, if you don't stop with your bad touches, I'm going to grab my carry-on and squirt you in the eyes with no more than three ounces of contact lens solution.
So, this is, let's see, 26 years of marriage this year from my wife and I, and I have no complaints.
It's a great marriage.
Although, when I'm with her, a lot of times, I don't know if any other husbands hear this, people look at me and they go, wow, you married up.
And that's a nice compliment for her.
I'm just thinking, well, how much did I marry up?
I mean, am I just slightly out of my league?
Are you saying she has some sort of facial recognition disorder?
That's the only reason she's with me?
So I get a little revengeful.
I actually, you know, sometimes when they say, oh, you married up.
Oh, well, yeah, she's pretty, but she snores like a sailor.
I'm not even kidding about that.
And it's not even a human snore.
It's a hog snore.
She woke herself up with it the other night.
She goes, oh, I must have been dreaming.
I said, you must have been dreaming about wallowing in mud because I've never heard anything like that before in my life.
Thank you guys so much.
Thank you very much.
Hey, Dave, let me tell you, my friend, I think you better spend the night in Nashville.
Because if I were you, I wouldn't go home for a few days after that story.
Well, I see what you're saying, yeah.
It's great having you here.
Nice being here.
Thank you for coming.
And to book Dave Dugan for your event and to see his new special title, Keeping Your Marriage Interesting, which I'm sure he's going to do now.
Go to Huckabee.tv.
We have all the connections.
Right now, Keith Bilbrey is going to keep this show interesting.
He'll tell you what's coming up next.
Well, after the break, Michael Moles discusses the fallout of the Bud Light fiasco.
And later, Alexis Wilkins' brand of country is right up your alley.
Don't go away.
You're watching Huckabee.
One of the great things about this show is we have the best music in Nashville, and Nashville is Music City, USA, but it wouldn't be without Trey Corley and the Music City Connection.
Give them a big hand.
Michael Knowles is a conservative commentator at The Daily Wire.
He's also a best-selling author, and on his recent trip to Hungary, he made an exciting announcement that one of his most famous works has just been translated to Hungarian.
We're going to find out what you can learn in his book, and that's whether you read it in English or Hungarian.
Please welcome back to the show one of our favorites, Michael Knowles.
Michael, thank you.
Welcome back.
I'm thrilled to hear about the trip to Hungary because it's one of those places in Europe that has not gone the way of the far left.
It is the promised land, Governor.
It was a real pleasure to go visit.
And what coincided with this visit was not just a speech.
And an opportunity to check out Budapest, see what a non-liberal democracy looks like.
But this translation came out, and the translation took about as long as it took me to write the book, and that was about five seconds.
But I'm just so pleased that the message of my book, Reasons to Vote for Democrats, a comprehensive guide, could now make it not only to an American audience, but to a global audience as well.
To those who are maybe unaware, the book, Reasons to Vote for Democrats, it's a pretty thick book, but it's filled with empty pages.
It's totally empty.
I... I can't quite pronounce the title of the translation.
I can't quite get it out.
But I can pronounce the rest of the book.
It's the first translation, actually, in the history of publishing where the translation is identical to the original work.
That is history in the making right there.
What was your impression of the Prime Minister and his leadership of Hungary?
Because he's been controversial, particularly to the American left.
They hate him.
They hate him.
He's very controversial to the New York Times and he's very popular with the Hungarian people and everyone who goes to visit.
I'm really impressed by Prime Minister Urban and the entire government there.
When I went to visit, I was warned beforehand that Hungary was a threat to democracy.
A threat, yes.
A threat.
And I thought, okay, well, why is Hungary a threat to democracy?
And then I looked it up in the New York Times.
And the reason that Hungary is a threat to democracy is because the people elected a conservative.
Well, that is definitely a threat to democracy, isn't it?
It is.
When the people have their voices heard in their government, that is very dangerous to democracy if the way that they make their voices heard is to reject liberalism.
Do you think, though, that we're seeing a pushback?
And I mean, good example.
Bud Light comes out with this ridiculous ad featuring the pretend woman, Dylan Mulvaney, and they've lost $30 billion in market cap As a result of it.
Their brand has been ruined.
People are not going back to it.
They thought it was a blip and it wouldn't matter.
It matters.
Same thing is happening with Disney and with Target and other companies.
Is this maybe the kind of light at the end of this horrible tunnel?
Well, it certainly is.
I think that Transheiser Bush was banking on...
Oh, that's good.
That is good.
I love that.
What they were banking on was that the Conservatives would boycott, we'd throw a big fit for one week, and then we'd all go back to drinking their swill.
It was the number one beer in America.
And it didn't happen.
The boycott has kept up.
The numbers have gotten worse.
So that's good news.
Same thing happened to Target.
The same thing has happened to other companies that keep pushing this woke and specifically trans agenda.
The bad news for us, though, is that no matter how much the customers say no, the big institutional investors, the asset managers that combined control $20 trillion of assets, they're still pushing this.
And because they threaten the companies, companies like AB InBev or any of them, to say, if you reject this ideology, we're going to tank your ESG score.
Then when your ESG score goes down, we're going to pull some money out.
When we pull the money out, your stock price goes down, and then you lose your companies.
So in the old days in America, the customer was always right.
Today, the customer is almost never right.
And unfortunately, we see this at the ballot box, too.
When the people come out and the people oppose the most liberal, radical agenda items, we're told, listen, you're deplorable, you're irredeemable, you have no right, and if you ever try to say no again, we'll call you an insurrectionist.
Is there any way to combat that?
I mean, is there a solution?
We're not going to just go along with the spirit of the age.
It's that great line from Fulton Sheen.
If you marry yourself to the spirit of the age, you're gonna find yourself a widow in the next one.
And if we marry the spirit of the age in our countries, we're gonna find ourselves having lost our culture, having lost our traditions, having lost our whole way of life.
Wow.
I hope that your trip to Hungary helps to fuel the continued commentary that you are bringing to us, because it's very, very powerful.
Michael, you always have great things to say.
I don't know if you'll ever top that book, though, The Reasons to Vote for the Democrat.
It's impossible.
That's just amazing.
But I want you to know for our audience, Michael's books, including The Reasons to Vote for Democrats, which is available now in English and Hungarian.
They're available in bookstores everywhere.
But be sure to follow all of the links to Michael Knowles and The Daily Wire at Huckabee.tv.
We will connect you to Michael on social media as well.
Speaking of connecting, Keith is going to tell us in both English and Hungarian what's coming up next on the show.
I thought it was either or.
Okay.
Stay where you are!
Our actress and author, Allie Landry, is right after the break.
Allie Landry, is right after the break.
Visit Huckabee.tv and get your very own Made in the USA Huckabee mugs, t-shirts, and more.
Thank you.
And welcome back, everybody.
Most people thought that actress and TV host Ali Landry had a charmed life named Miss USA, one of the People magazine's most beautiful with a booming career, happy marriage, and three great kids.
But they didn't know that she was actually struggling with exhaustion, depression, and some other serious health issues.
Now she's sharing the secrets of what she learned and how she reclaimed her health and wellness in her brand new book.
It's called Reshape Your Life.
Allie Landry.
Allie, I'm a little unnerved by the fact that you have been named to People magazines like 50 Most Beautiful People, And let me tell you why.
I've never been on that list, and I don't understand it.
Well, that's a shame.
We have to do something about that.
I think it's too late.
I don't think so.
You know what most people may remember you for?
The Doritos commercials at the Super Bowl.
My gosh.
I mean, those still are considered some of the greatest commercials in Super Bowl history.
Yeah, it still goes on as like the top 10 every year.
I have to sign a little bit of a contract.
But I have to say, you know, my kids now ask me, I have three children, and they're like, Why don't we get free Doritos?
I was like, babe, they never sent me one bag of Doritos.
Are you kidding?
All of those commercials, not one bag.
But I did buy a house with Doritos.
My first house was bought with that chip.
The house of Doritos.
There you go.
They were some of the greatest ads.
That's been a few years back.
Launched my career.
Yeah, beautiful.
There's another part of your life that a lot of people may not know.
Not very long ago, we had Jim Caviezel and Tim Ballard on the show, and they talked about this magnificent film, Sound of Freedom, that if people have not seen, don't pass go.
Go straight to the theater and see it.
Absolutely stunningly.
Magnificent film.
Your husband is the director of that movie, Sound of Freedom.
The writer and director, yeah.
It makes me emotional.
Oh, wow.
It's just been such a hard journey for us, you know, with that project.
It really has.
And to see, and I thanked you when we met backstage because you were one of the very first who welcomed them on and allowed them to talk about this film and share it with your audience.
And I think that's probably one of the reasons why we are where we are today.
Well, it's been amazingly successful to the chagrin of Hollywood that thought it would kind of come and go in about three days and nobody would watch it.
Yeah.
And it's now breaking so many records and it's one of the big summer blockbusters.
My cheeks are hurting.
I mean, it's just fantastic.
It is.
It feels like we're living a miracle.
That's what it feels like.
It is a miracle.
That is a message that I'm convinced that the forces of darkness never wanted people to see.
Yeah.
And yet we have to see it and we have to know about it.
I hope you will convey to your husband how grateful we are for his writing and directing.
One of the greatest films I've seen in the last 30 years.
I wish he was here to receive that, but thank you.
I will definitely pass that on.
And just for those who have not seen it, I know when I told my mom that my husband was making a movie about child trafficking, Many years ago.
This was over six years ago.
My mom sort of put her fingers in her ears, and she's like, no, no, no, no, no.
No, it's too difficult.
Like, I can't.
I don't want to hear.
I don't want to hear it.
And I think that's maybe the initial reaction of most audiences.
But he took very, you know, a lot of thought and really wanted to take care of the audience.
And you and I had a conversation.
It takes you to the edge, but it never crosses over the line.
So he really cares for you, where you will be aware of the issues and the problems, but you're going to be OK. It's just something we need to see.
I want us to talk about the book, Reshape Your Life.
Yeah.
Most people would look at you and your incredible success as an actress and writer and speaker and all these things and say, Reshape Your Life, she's had it made.
Yeah.
Hadn't been that easy, has it?
No, it hasn't.
It's not things that I talk about very often, but I've had many reshapes in my life.
Some that have brought me to my knees where I didn't know if I could get back up again.
Initially, it was one around betrayal.
And secondly, it was tragedy and loss.
And then more recent was with my health.
I came through on the other side of those reshapes, I think, better than I was before.
And the wisdoms that came along with it and different areas that I tapped into to sort of get me to the other side.
And that's really all the things that are in the book, that's represented.
When I was going through the book, it was very apparent that reshaping your life is not just about one aspect of life.
That's right.
Because you talk about emotional health and spiritual health.
But also physical health, all of these things that make for the whole of a person.
And I think that is such a powerful message because sometimes people think if I just get healthy or if I just get my mental health fixed, but it's everything.
Well, I always tell, you know, at the time when I wrote it, I was 45. I'm now 50, proud to say.
You know, I was going through a lot of health issues, right?
And for women, I think it shows up as hormonal changes.
I felt I would call it sick, but not really like sick enough to go to a doctor.
I just felt really off.
And those are those things that you mentioned earlier, like that mild depression, the exhaustion, all of these things.
And I asked my girlfriends and they were like, well, yeah, well, we're getting older.
And for me, that just didn't sit well.
I felt like at the time I'm 45 years young.
I want to live a vibrant, beautiful life.
And right now I feel like I'm living half a life and I'm going to fight for this.
And that's when I really dug in.
I feel so many of us wake up in the morning and we deflect.
We deflect life.
It's coming at us like we're being hit by a Mack truck.
And I really just want to encourage people just to stop, pause.
For me, that looks like gratitude daily.
It goes into my prayer and meditation time, like sitting in those moments of silence and really figuring out what's working in our life and what's not, and what can we address, and what can we reshape.
Just not settling.
You know, we have one life on this earth.
I feel like it's way too short.
And I've realized that the tragedy that I've experienced in my life, I just want to live each day to the fullest.
I think you do that through the book.
And it's such an encouraging book to people who think there's something wrong with me and nobody else understands this.
And I think that's the affirmation of the book.
You do understand it.
You've lived it.
And you have some very practical advice to help people.
Allie, so nice to have you here.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Thanks for the book.
Thank you.
I hope you'll keep up with Allie Landry and get the book.
It's called Reshape Your Life.
You'll find health, diet advice, beauty tips.
Hey, it might even work for me.
Who knows?
Oh, the audience just laughed at me for a day.
It's not funny, you guys.
He's going to get 50 Most Beautiful next year.
I'll have to read the chapter on mental health now.
All of this you can get at Huckabee.TV, and we will connect you to the things that Allie is doing and her book.
Right now, Keith is going to shape up, and he's going to tell us what we have coming up in the show.
We'll have next an American country performance by Alexis Wilkins on Huckabee.
Music by Michael Huckabee.
Kentucky Congressman James Comer and 90s country group Ricochet performs their hit, Daddy's Money.
Music by Michael Huckabee.
Alexis Wilkins is one of the most proudly patriotic artists in country music today.
She's worked with stars from Lee Greenwood to Sarah Evans, and she's also writing commentaries at Town Hall, The Daily Caller, and soon she's going to have her own show on PragerU, which is a big, big deal.
Would you please give a big hand to the lady who refuses to be canceled, Alexis Wilkins.
Good to have you here, Alexis.
Thank you for having me.
And I should tell everybody, you and I have something in common.
We are both from Arkansas.
You are a Razorback fan as well.
Grew up in Fayetteville.
Woo pig.
Woo pig indeed.
And I want to tell you, your songwriting ability is just masterful.
Thank you.
I listened to the things that you're doing.
You did a song called Stand.
It was one of your singles and it was about Standing up for the flag because you're such a supporter of our veterans.
Yes, sir.
Where did that inspiration come from?
Was it all the crazy stuff where people refused to stand and acknowledge the country?
Well, that certainly helps.
I work with an organization called Warrior Rounds where we work with veterans as songwriters and we write songs with them.
And so that song was born out of the man who runs that, J.J. Cooper, who's an incredible man and veteran.
If you haven't checked out Warrior Rounds, please do so.
They're amazing.
But Stan, yeah, it comes from all the craziness that was going on and also just the reverence that I think gets missed in the conversation, especially in my generation, in colleges nowadays.
I mean, the list goes on.
You all know how it is.
Do you fear that taking the stand that you take through your music and in your writing, that people will say, I'm not going to listen to Alexis Wilkins because I don't like her point of view?
You know, I don't fear because I think that the audience actually resonates more with people who are patriotic.
I mean, I think that in general, even if you don't have the exact values, you kind of go, I'm sick of the political conversation, sick of the really woke stuff that really It takes the attention away from the actual art and the music and the creativity.
In addition to the fact that I am patriotic, there's no hiding it.
And so I feel like the people who need to listen to the music and need to read the articles will be found.
So I'm not really worried about it.
You're a phenomenal performer.
Your voice is fantastic.
Thank you.
Most great performers, somebody else writes their stuff.
You're writing this, and it's some of the most impressive material that I've seen in years.
Thank you.
And so, you know, I really hope people will connect and say, you know, this is a superstar in the making because she's writing it, she's performing it, and it's stuff that we can relate to.
Just quickly, what is the inspiration for your writing and the songs that you do?
You know, grit especially.
I love John Wayne.
And I thought that something my generation doesn't have is grit.
You know, we don't see that anymore.
I grew up on Westerns.
I grew up, as I said, on history.
And you just don't see it in mass quantities anymore.
And so when we went to write grit and the songs surrounding it, you know, we have country back.
Stan was a part of it as well.
I just wanted it to feel, well, first and foremost, like the country music that I grew up on, that I love so much.
And then I wanted the writing to represent things that I just needed more of.
So we need more grit, we need more country back.
And that's kind of where it is.
I love starting with a title, but it's always different.
And it's really just writing versions of stories and things that I've observed in a way that I think other people and country fans will also resonate with.
Well, you have a gift and you're going to share it with us because while Alexis is getting set up to sing, we're going to let Keith Bilbrey tell the folks where to find out more about her music and how to get it, which you, I promise, will want to do.
Be sure to look for her guest articles at townhall.com and The Daily Caller.
To find Alexis' social media and to listen to her new EP Grit, go to huckabee.tv.
Now, performing Country Back with Trey Corley and the Music City Connection with Mike on Bass, here's Alexis Wilkins!
Thank you.
Back in old school was me's dream.
Radio was always clean.
People read their news and names.
Steel guitar was on everything.
Books lined up to hear straight sing.
Write this down long, let the king.
Drop a needle down on a vinyl.
Windows down just driving for my It feels like it's been a while And the American dream was a Cadillac And the red, white, and blue showed him how you act Things you got, you worked for You didn't think twice about not locking your door When people did the right thing with no one around They looked at each other and found common ground
From the music to the flag, I ain't living in the past I'm just saying that, oh I'm just saying that
I want my country back The one's not coming Show
them how you act.
Things you got.
You worked for.
You didn't think twice by not locking your door.
When people did the right thing with no one around.
They looked at each other and found common ground.
From the music to the flag.
Are you living in the past?
I'm just saying that.
I want my country back I want my country back People are proud of the USA American pride American made.
Fiddles and steel played on FM. Man, I just want that again.
When the American dream was a Cadillac.
And the red, white, and blue showed in how you act.
Things you got.
You were a fool.
You did the things twice.
I'll die like it.
▲
Export Selection