Human Events Daily - Jack Posobiec - THE TRUTH ABOUT AUTISM

Oct. 23, 2025 - Human Events Daily - Jack Posobiec

21:41

THE TRUTH ABOUT AUTISM

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	All right.
	I've got a special guest coming on now for Human Events Daily.
	First time that he's ever been on my show, but I've been on his show.
	It's Leland Vitter of News Nation.
	What's up, Leland?
	Jack, good to see you.
	Thank you.
	Oh, thanks to have you.
	Thanks for coming on.
	And I just wanted to say, you know, so you and I got to didn't know each other too well, but you really came out and did great coverage of when Charlie passed away, his murder, his memorial.
	You came out and did several days, I believe, of shows out there, even directly from the vigil itself right outside of our turning point headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona.
	And I just wanted to say thank you for giving it the spotlight that you did and for coming out.
	And I know it's not easy to make the trek, but myself and a lot of the people that work with Charlie, that knew Charlie, we really appreciated it.
	Well, you're nice to say that.
	And we appreciated you, the very warm reception from TPUSA and the folks there.
	You know, when we obviously learned about Charlie's death and saw the effect it was having on the entire country, I think it was something that we needed to be at.
	And it's one of the things I love about News Nation is our connection to our audience that really responded to that.
	And the nerve that Charlie's assassination touched.
	News Nation outrated both CNN and MSNBC during before, during, and after his funeral service.
	We covered the whole thing and took the whole thing live.
	And I think it speaks to Charlie's influence that no one, I think, in life probably fully understood.
	Certainly I didn't, even though I've covered him since 2015 and knew him since 2015.
	His influence on the national political conversation and the effect that his assassination had is something I think we're still trying to figure out.
	And I'll be quiet in a minute, but I would be remiss if I didn't say to you, Jack, that I think the fact that Turning Point, in the midst of its founder, leader, sort of spirit animal, everything Charlie was, in the midst of his assassination and that grief and that sadness to be able to pull off an event and fill a football stadium and a basketball stadium to memorialize him.
	Those are the kinds of events that take months to plan, you know, political conventions with the president and the vice president and everything else.
	And Turning Point did it in a week.
	And it speaks to the just incredible organization and professionalism that Charlie built that I think people just did not really understand and appreciate in his living time.
	No, and I thank you for that as well.
	The entire team there, Turning Point USA, Turning Point Action, the, and it's just the people that Charlie brought together.
	It's the talent that he saw.
	It was his ability to, and I think a lot of people didn't, you know, he would always joke with me.
	And he would say, you know, you know, Jack, if I fail at this politics thing, I'll go and be a college football coach.
	I'm going to go SEC.
	And, you know, people, you know, could see the videos of Charlie.
	And he could throw the long ball.
	He really could.
	He's a great basketball player too.
	And he honestly could have probably considered, you know, considered or pursued a career in that if he wanted to.
	But it was his ability to see talent and then put people who had that talent in places where it made sense was how he built those organizations.
	And he was making them bigger and bigger.
	The events and the organization was getting larger.
	And obviously now it's exploded in terms of size and growth and interest since his assassination.
	But it was because he built everything to put, you know, everyone who was there and, you know, whatever small role I played, you know, to also kind of just be on the front lines and have a front row seat to all of that as it was going on around me or, you know, pick up the phone.
	Hey, can we get this thing?
	Can we get that thing?
	And everybody just said yes.
	I mean, it was one of those situations where everybody was just saying yes to everything.
	Whenever we needed something, the Cardinal Stadium was fantastic.
	They were phenomenal to work with.
	I mean, they just said yes, of course, right away.
	So many people really stepped up.
	And even, you know, even stories about people that I'm not really at liberty to say because they wanted to help out, but didn't necessarily want to get credit for it or anything like that.
	They just wanted to do it because it was the right thing.
	And I, I, I, you know, look, none of it makes what happened right, but it was, it was truly an amazing thing to just be a very, very small part of that, um, that I was.
	And, you know, that was Charlie, right?
	That was Charlie understanding his ability.
	And, you know, it struck me that day when I walked in to the stadium and that Charlie had always told us that he wanted to do a stadium show.
	He had always, he had always said that.
	And it was sort of his vision.
	And he would send us messages.
	This is the vision.
	This is the vision.
	And we finally got there.
	And in a sense, and I know, you know, he's looking down, but in a sense, you know, he knew that maybe on some level, he knew that we'd get there without him physically being present.
	Yep.
	Well said.
	But, you know, one of the things that you passed me that, you know, in the midst of all this, and I had no idea that this was going on, you've just released it.
	You're now a New York Times best-selling author.
	You debuted at number four.
	You've written this incredible book.
	It's a memoir in a sense.
	It's about yourself.
	It's about your father, your relationship with your father, but also, and this is really one for so much of the Maha audience.
	This is an issue that we've talked about a ton from Bobby Kennedy and his work and Nicole Shanahan and her work about living with autism and growing up with autism.
	It's called Born Lucky.
	You've received an incredible response for it and well deserved because I've had a chance to flip through.
	I haven't read it all yet, but I've flipped through a lot of it.
	I mean, this is an incredible story.
	What was it like coming out and publicly telling your story like this?
	It couldn't have been easy.
	No, and Jack, you're nice to say everything you did about the book.
	For 42 years, I didn't talk to anybody about this.
	My parents didn't tell anyone, no teachers, no counselors, no friends, nobody that I had been diagnosed when I was five or six years old.
	And through all of that, we as a family handled everything together, the learning disabilities, the bullying, the isolation, the emotional trauma and difficulties.
	And now at 43, going through therapy, if you will, on national television is not exactly a thrilling experience, but it has been proven worth it because of the hundreds, if not thousands of emails, social media responses, everything I have gotten to Born Lucky because Born Lucky is hope for every parent of a kid having a hard time.
	Doesn't matter if it's autism or ADHD or anxiety or bullying or the social media disasters that kids go through, whatever it is.
	This is proof of the power and agency that parents have.
	And I think you're very right to point out parents aren't told that.
	They're not told how much power they have to help their kids and shown.
	They're told to just put their kids in bubble wrap and meet them where they are.
	My dad chose to try and adapt the world to me rather than adapt me to the world is very different than what's out there right now.
	And Born Lucky, I think, is showing how many families that are having a hard time, that they are not alone.
	Well, and I just have to say it because it's, you know, there's obviously when we look at what Bobby Kennedy's doing and Nicole Shanahan, and there's so many parents out there that are dealing with these issues or have children who are dealing with these issues and they want to know what to do.
	So even you just coming out and being public about your diagnosis and being public about your childhood.
	And then, you know, by the way, you know, I don't know how to say this without coming across the root.
	I had no idea.
	I'm just shocked.
	I was just completely shocked when you said that.
	And even I'm rarely speechless, but I'm like, what?
	You know, it just, it made no sense whatsoever.
	And I'm reading through this and I realize that that's why you wrote the book.
	It's because of the effect of your father, the effect of growing up the way that you did.
	And it's a testament to the fact that other people can do this as well.
	And what this is not for them.
	Yeah, Born Lucky isn't a prescription or a cure, right, Jack?
	It is this story about what great parenting can do.
	George Will wrote the forward and he said, this is proof of the mountain-moving power of parental love, which parents aren't told.
	You know, being a strong parent isn't celebrated right now.
	This is proof of what strong parenting can do.
	And you think about when I was about six years old, my parents were told they had to have me evaluated.
	Worst thing any parent can hear.
	So they take me one of those medical testing centers and they're in there for a couple of hours waiting for me in the waiting room.
	We've all been there, linoleum floors, stale coffee, old magazines.
	The woman comes out.
	Speaking of waiting, we're going to have to wait to catch the end of that because we are up on a quick break, a hard stop, but I'll hold you right there and we'll come back right after the Baker and Vitter here on Human Events Daily.
	Jack is a great guy He's written a fantastic book.
	Everybody's talking about it.
	Go get it.
	And he's been my friend right from the beginning of this whole beautiful event.
	And we're going to turn it around and make our events excited.
	Amen.
	All right, Jack Percipal.
	We're back on with Leland Vitter.
	He's here joining us from News Nation.
	We're not talking about the news.
	We're talking about his new book, Born Lucky, all about the role that parents can have and the incredible role that parents have and his and coming forward with his own story of growing up with a diagnosis of autism.
	So Leland, where we left everyone, the cliffhanger was that they're in the waiting room.
	They're looking at the linoleum floors.
	They've got that disgusting prison halogen lighting, which I hate so much.
	What happens next?
	So they're waiting for their little boy, six years old, me, to be brought back after all of this testing.
	And the woman says, there's very, very difficult things going on with him and hard to understand what's going on inside his mind, meaning mine.
	So I had huge behavioral issues.
	Forget birthday parties or play dates.
	That wasn't happening.
	But if a kid touched me in school, I'd turn around and slug him.
	And I was a fat little kid, so I could do some damage.
	That was the behavioral issues and couldn't relate to kids my own age.
	Number two, terrible sensory issues.
	You know, if there were socks on my feet that I didn't like or a jacket I didn't like or whatever, I would just melt down.
	And third, big learning disability.
	So an IQ test is that the halves of an IQ are put together to form your IQ score.
	My two halves had a 70-point spread.
	It was the biggest spread they'd ever seen between the two halves.
	20-point was a learning disability.
	She said to my parents, we never see anything like this.
	It's very difficult to understand what's going on inside his head.
	So, Jack, you're a father.
	Any father goes, all right, what do we do?
	And the one says, there's not much you can do.
	And the woman goes, you know, just sort of meet him where he's at.
	My dad goes, is there anything we can do?
	And then she goes, generally not.
	And so I wrote Born Lucky to give parents the hope that my parents didn't have, that they could make such a difference.
	My dad decided he was going to adapt me to the world.
	So no special time on tests, no, you know, accommodations in school, no discussions with teachers or principals or anybody about my diagnosis.
	And he said, look, he's not going to be good at school.
	He's not going to be good at having friends.
	He's not going to be good at athletics.
	So three things that kids normally get self-esteem from.
	So he started when I was five or six years old, having me do 200 push-ups a day to try and teach me what self-esteem was, what hard work was.
	He said, there's two things you can control in life, your character and your work ethic.
	And if you take pride in those two, that is going to make all of the difference for you.
	And that began him being my first and for 18 years only friend as he helped me adapt all the way through high school and college.
	That's incredible.
	Now, do you still do the 200 push-ups a day?
	No.
	No, I still, I still, I still run five miles about three times a week and I lift the other three times a week.
	So the physical fitness part, and I, and I think it's, it's interesting.
	But you kept the physical fitness, of course.
	Yeah.
	Well, no, and I gotta tell you, you know, as we've is is autism has become in the news and we didn't write this knowing that Bobby Kennedy was going to start making autism the scientific question of our time, which I'm so happy it is now and hopeful that nobody has to go through the hell that I went through as a kid.
	But I think the push for physical fitness for kids, especially kids who are having a hard time, whatever that means, autism, ADHD, anxiety, spectrum, whatever it is, it was such an enormous part of my life and so helpful and still is.
	I'm just happy people are talking about it.
	Well, no, that's exactly right.
	And so one of the pieces that I, I mean, it just shocked me that it, it, it jumped out at me in the book, other than the 200 push-ups, was the fact that your father quit his job to be able to spend more time with you.
	You referred to him as a full-time parent coach.
	So how does that even work from just a household perspective?
	It's a great question.
	You know, first to tell you that dad was fortunate.
	We were fortunate.
	He had started a few companies and done quite well, but certainly was in the high, you know, the pinnacle of his career.
	He was, you know, doing phenomena, you know, sort of there was so much more he could have done and knew that.
	And he said, I'm going to take a step back.
	And he said to me that I knew your only chance, meaning my only chance was for him to be there before I went to school and when I got home.
	And I said, well, dad, as we were working on this book, because he didn't tell me I had this diagnosis until I was in my 20s.
	We never really talked about it.
	But as I started interviewing him for the book, I said, what would you have done if you couldn't have quit your job?
	If you couldn't have been financially secure.
	And he said, simple.
	He said, I would have worked the night shift because I realized I was going to be your only friend.
	And the only chance you had was for me to be there with you, to put you back together every day.
	And by that, I mean, there was no taking away the adversity.
	There was no accommodations or, you know, behavioral accommodations or academic accommodations.
	He said, you're going to have to endure the bullying.
	You're going to have to go through the isolation and the physical bullying and the emotional heartaches.
	I mean, you think about it, there was a teacher.
	I think, you know, you know what kids do.
	The kids were so bad to me in fifth grade.
	My dad came to visit me one day and they had put me with the girls in PE for a few months.
	He found that out.
	Imagine what that does to a father because I was so bullied.
	But by seventh and eighth grade, I was in class one day.
	So the kids were mean to me and the teachers were too.
	I had an art teacher who didn't think I was going to become Picasso.
	And this art teacher said in front of the entire class, you know, if my dog was as ugly as you, Litter, I'd shave its ass and make it walk backwards.
	Think about doing that to a kid.
	And so I'd come home.
	I was totally distraught as I was every day.
	And my dad sort of patched me back together.
	What dad didn't tell me, Jack, was that middle school is great training for a Washington newsroom.
	And then he would make me inside joke, but that's a good one.
	It's true.
	And then he would get me, you know, he would put me back together and he would make me, you know, go to school the next day.
	But what I didn't know until we started working on the book and I interviewed him and my mom is that, you know, he would leave my bedroom every night after two or three hours of me taking my frustrations and emotions out on him that he would go downstairs late into the night and sit in the living room and cry himself just because of the emotional toll this was all taking on him.
	And I just think it's a remarkable story also about my dad.
	And, you know, I really great and honored.
	So many have come on the Born Lucky Journey and it's a New York Times bestseller.
	And I said to my dad last night when I saw him, I said, you know, dad, being a bestseller and author is nice.
	I said, but you are the subject of a best-selling New York Times book, which I think is a really fitting tribute to all he did and all he sacrificed.
	I mean, I can tell how much you love your dad and how important your dad is.
	And, you know, my dad, look, and we didn't have that kind of situation, but I mean, we've got that kind of relationship.
	And my dad is absolutely the person that I go to for all of it.
	And, you know, I remember when Charlie got, when Charlie got shot, you know, my dad just gave me a call and he was, he was just calling me like every single day, even.
	So we, you know, I flew out to Phoenix, but then my dad was still calling me just every day.
	Hey, just calling, you know, literally just that, just calling, just checking in on you, making sure you're good, boy.
	You know, Sonny Boy, he always calls me Sonny Boy.
	I noticed I pulled some of the foundational parenting principles out of this, though.
	Have no expectations about the future, right?
	You're not setting expectations.
	Never allow your child to feel they've disappointed you.
	You mentioned the depository of the frustrations, just listening, literally, just listening before school, late into night.
	And then, and I love this line, by the way.
	The currency of high school and middle school as well is not the currency of life.
	Man, we put so much pressure on kids right when hormones are hitting them.
	We do the hierarchy.
	We're ranking and stacking everybody.
	And it's like, for what?
	Like, what, you know, and there's that joke about people peeking in high school that exists.
	And it's like, none of us, you know, go back to any of that.
	Guess what?
	You can't take it with you.
	I love so much of what's in there.
	We've got a minute left.
	Tell people just final sentence on the book and where they can go get it.
	Well, Born Lucky is back in stock on Amazon.
	I know Jack is going to tweet out the link and put it on social media.
	Much bigger social media following than I have.
	Born Lucky.
	So we'll be honored to come on this journey with us.
	And I'll tell you, Jack, you brought up, you know, Charlie Kirk's funeral, where this started.
	The only other time I ever felt the kind of emotion I felt at Charlie Kirk's funeral was in Tahrir Square, the night Mubarak resigned.
	And that's sort of one of the stories in the book about the rest of my life and what my dad was able to set me up for was to be able to go overseas, become a foreign correspondent, now have a wife and a wonderful chance that I would have never had had he not shown all that dedication.
	No, I mean, and you've been all around the world.
	You've covered so many, obviously, very tight situations.
	And it all started with 200 push-ups a day with dad back home.
	Born Lucky is the book, Leland Vitter.
	Go check it out.

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