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Oct. 20, 2025 - Dennis Prager Show
01:25:22
Timeless Wisdom - A Life In Radio
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Welcome to Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager.
Here, thousands of hours of Dennis's lectures, courses, and classic radio programs.
And to purchase Dennis Brigger's Rational Bibles.
go to DennisPrager.com.
Thank you.
Thank you.
And there we go.
Okay, so really, whatever you would like to raise.
I know you had a great uh session of this with Alan behind the scenes.
Did you were all your questions answered?
Does it seem glamorous?
It isn't.
Hard work.
Yes, it's very hard work.
It's very hard work to do a show.
I'll I'll tell you uh there was one rule, of course, in radio.
Really only one rule for a talk show host.
There is everything else is secondary.
Whether you're kind or or cruel, whether you're stupid or smart, whether you have good values or you're nihilistic, it doesn't matter.
There is one rule that cannot be violated.
You must be interesting every minute.
Because if you're not, there are, at least in Los Angeles, ninety-nine other options just on the radio.
Then here are the other options.
A cell phone.
Another option, talking to the someone else in your car.
Another option, listening to music.
I don't mean just on radio, just on a CD or on an iPod.
So I am aware at every moment that I have to win your attention.
And I have to do so in my case, also within the parameters of decency.
I can't, and I don't mean not cursing, that's easy.
But I mean in the sense of I can't appeal to the lowest common denominator.
So that during the Clinton Lewinsky uh affair, I I would never tell jokes about either of them, which would certainly hold people's attention, but they violate rules that I have for myself in the way that I would conduct myself.
I don't make fun of people, even if I don't happen to respect them much.
So uh it is a very real challenge, and uh I have been on for 23 years.
There was somebody here who heard me on my first broadcast.
Was that uh you heard me?
You did too when I sat in for Carol Hemingway?
Yes.
What'd you think?
Did you think uh do you remember?
You knew I was nervous.
You said you were Dennis.
I I said on the air I was.
I think you did.
Yeah, I know I did afterwards, I don't know if I did then.
I sat in uh you you and I were talking about it, and uh I sat in for Carol Hemingway on this program, those of you not in LA or those in LA who didn't know about it, and they were looking for somebody.
This was these were the criteria for who could be the host of this show with a priest, minister, and rabbi.
You had to know religion, know how to speak, and not be a clergyman.
So I fulfilled their criteria.
I uh it was perfect.
I was like a God said to them, and needless to say, they were God sent to me.
I really didn't frankly know what I would do for a living uh at that time.
I just didn't know.
I knew what I wanted to do, and that was I wanted to get my ideas to as many people as possible.
So you can only imagine how I felt when I was offered an opportunity on uh ABC radio in Los Angeles.
I was very nervous that night for a very simple reason.
I knew this would determine the rest of my life.
I knew it.
I knew that if I if I did all right, this was the beginning of something big, and if I didn't get invited back, it was the end of something big.
And then at the the show went from 10 p.m. to midnight.
At 11 p.m., Wally Sherwin, me, I I trust live and be well till 120, passed me a note and said, tell them you'll be on next week.
Oh wow.
It was the happiest note I ever received in my life.
I I uh thank you, it's very sweet of you.
Tell them tell them you'll be on next week, and for the next uh, let's see, 23 years or uh and counting.
And so.
Oh, thank you.
And so that was uh that was the way it began.
I was very nervous for good reason.
I was dripping on the microphone, in fact, and I had this fear that people would hear the drips and think I was broadcasting during a little rain or whatever.
That is what I recall.
And gradually over time, of course, it changed my life because I became so aware of Christianity.
And you might think that just because the vast majority of Americans who were religious are Christian that non-Christians know Christianity.
The truth is a lot of Christians don't know Christianity.
Have I told you about how often I ended up being the one to defend Christianity on the air?
This was an ongoing joke on religion on the line.
This is what would happen every so often, somebody would call up, usually an ex-Catholic.
Of all the angry groups, nobody is as angry as ex-Catholics.
In fact, so many ex-Catholics called the show to crap on the priest that about midway during my ten-year tenure, I actually said, name of the show is Religion on the Line, but it really should be called the ex-Catholic Hour.
Or why I'm still angry at a nun 82 years later.
Now, I have no axe to grind here.
I have no horse in this race or porcupine in this particular zoo, but I I marveled at the ability of Catholics, of some Catholics, to still be angry at their at their nun or priest from when they ran out.
I'm not talking about the handful abused.
It had nothing to do with that.
But you see, when Jews leave Judaism, they leave rabbis alone.
They go on and they, you know, they bother other people, but they're not going to call up and say, you know, some rabbi mistreated me when I was eleven.
And then the same with Protestants.
If some minister bugged them, then they go and they move on.
But Catholics, it was fascinating to me.
And I I still don't know.
I think it's because they still have not freed themselves from Mother Church.
The Mother Church so has a uh a grip on their on them that they're still want almost want the priest to apologize for what happened, I don't know, 70, 50, 30 years ago.
So anyway, every so often, and it would, and then there would be other people calling in and they would knock religion, which is fine.
That's the show.
A lot of non-religious people listened.
I loved that fact.
So every so often, a the prince priest or minister, remember there were no ads on this show, so I couldn't be spoken to off air.
It was a great two hours of radio, there were no ads.
So every so often I would get a note from the priest or minister, could you please defend my faith for me?
But so I would, and and the same would go the other direction.
Sometimes the priest or minister would chime in and defend Judaism because the rabbi wasn't that good at it.
Did I tell you the story about the guy who was angry at the Jews for being thinking they're the chosen people?
I haven't told you any of these stories.
One night, a dear friend who was no longer a priest, but still a dear friend, Father Michael Nosita, some of you may remember the name from the show, and Father Nosita always defended the Jews, and one night some guy gave a really hard time about God, this notion that God chose the Jews.
So finally, Father Noseder raises his hand, or you know, signals he wants to speak, or Father Nosita.
This is Father Michael Nosita, Roman Catholic priest.
Listen, God chose the Jews, get a life.
LAUGHTER And that was it.
What's the guy gonna say?
You know, this is the priest telling you, you know, the rabbi was all, you know, well, we don't really mean chosen, uh, you know, hey, we don't want you know, we didn't mean anything, and then the priest gets on, get a life, that's it.
And then he had, listen, God is not a democrat.
No, no, no, small D, small D. Uh, in that, And he said small D. He said, you know, God, God didn't walk around taking a vote on who he would choose.
God decides, does it, and that's the end of the issue.
So these were highlights of uh of those shows when I I just loved it.
I'm gonna say another thing that I would do, starting about the third, fourth year, uh, whenever we had a uh a newcomer, which was often, at least one of the three clergy was frequently someone who hadn't been on.
Well, I don't know if you know this, but I have an impish side, and I I like playing practical jokes on people.
And I had an ongoing, I mean, this is I I may have to pay for this in the next world.
About I would saunter in, the clergy showed up around 9.30.
I would saunter in about a quarter to ten, ten to ten, and join them in the proverbial green room, and they would sit there often nervous, what's the topic, Dennis?
So I would say to them, you mean you weren't told?
That was one way to give them a very hard time.
That the Archdiocese had not told the priest, the board of rabbis had not told the rabbi, and religion and media had not told the Protestant minister.
So I said, Oh, I'm very sorry you didn't find out, but but the topic is a comparison of the eschatological views in Habakkuk and Luke.
Oh, my God.
Some of them knew what eschatological meant.
None of them knew anything about Habakkuk, who is the the smallest chapters of prophet in all the prophets in the Old Testament.
I don't think any PhD thesis in the most rarefied instance has ever written on anything comparing Luke and Habakkuk.
And these guys would just sit there and go, Well, well, you know, uh Dennis, I'm just I don't I I really don't know what to say about that.
And I'd just be cracking up inside, you know, ruining the night for these wonderful, they were almost always wonderful people.
It is amazing.
It had a real impact on me.
I really liked the clergy.
They were they were.
They were they were they were a notch above the average person.
They really were.
They took their roles seriously.
They were kind, they were thoughtful.
Uh, but that is the way that I would always give them a hard time prior to the prior to the show.
Then I I graduated, I didn't graduate, because there's you can't get higher than that.
That was a great ten years, but as I told you, I finally was cajoled into going on weekday radio, and I was put on seven to nine.
Weekday night, seven to nine.
That was actually in the middle of religion on the line.
That didn't work.
ABC threw me off to put a cooking show on at 7 p.m.
Which everybody considered one of the dumbest decisions ever made by a radio station.
Why would you put a cooking show on at night?
Anyway, the reason was they got ads from supermarkets.
And money makes radio go round, understandably.
So I was fired, and they kept me on.
But then religion on the line did so well that they decided they, and this was a great moment.
They said, Dennis, do you think you could talk about anything other than religion?
I said, Yeah, I think I can.
They said, Well, why would you why was your graduate work in?
I mean, they thought I was like a divinity student.
I said, international relations.
They said, oh, great.
So they gambled with one hour prior to religion on the line, from from nine to ten, and I would do whatever I want.
That went well, so they said, Dennis, you think you could do from eight to ten before religion on the line?
I said, sure.
Then they said, how about seven to ten?
I said, you want me on ABC Radio in LA from 7 p.m. to midnight?
What if someone doesn't like me?
They'll hate the station.
Said, we don't care.
Do it, and then 9 to midnight on Saturday night.
Those were the days when you could smoke in the studio.
So I would have my pipe and I would smoke during the show.
And then, oh, who was that wonderful guy?
Who would remember?
A black guy who followed me on at midnight, who's passed away since.
What was his name?
Secondary smoke.
Well, the poor guy, he hated tobacco smoke.
And he was so sweet to me.
He followed me both nights at midnight.
His show was midnight to five on weekends.
And I I just for I I am terrible at names.
Tom Hall.
Tom Hall.
That's it.
Tom Hall, may he rest in peace.
I met his wife afterwards.
She's a wonderful woman.
Beautiful woman, too.
Anyway.
So Tom would follow me at midnight.
And what I did was, because I was a good guy, I'd stopped smoking an hour before Tom came in.
That was that ended that.
But Mike Nosita and I had a contest every time No Cita was on, which was about every sixth week, where he would be the priest.
He and I, there was a big glass window looking into the studio.
We would pass by him at about 10 after midnight and make very silly faces through the window, and it was our task to try to make Tom Hall laugh in his opening monologue about world or national politics.
It was disgusting what we did.
Because he was very serious, man, and talking seriously, and then he would just start to go.
And then he would say, Oh, Dennis Prager and his friend the priest are making faces with the only imagine what a listeners thought at that moment.
I I always believe that it's it's uh your task to have as much fun in what you do as possible.
And I had a I had a great deal of fun that way.
I became close to a number of the clergy.
I told you about Cap Johnson who where I caused the Northridge earthquake during his installation.
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So all of them have uh have a bone to pick with me.
And uh then uh then we went to we we I hate that.
I went to uh nighttime, nine to midnight.
If I had my druthers, that's when I would broadcast.
My favorite time of day is the night.
I'm awake, I'm alive, and the nice thing about nighttime radio is they don't expect you to talk about the day's events.
You can philosophize all night.
That's what people expect at night.
You know, at 10 p.m. you just you know, you're thinking about other things, and that's what I loved to do.
But the audience in TV is at night, and the audience in radio is during the day.
So it it there they they switch.
That's why I love traffic.
I make a living from bad traffic.
The more cars on the road, the better it is for a radio talk show host.
So I can never lament the existence of traffic, because that's why you're there.
That's why I'm there.
And so I went from 9 to 12 at night.
That went well, and then I introduced some of you may know Larry Elder to uh radio.
Now, Larry Elder, Larry Elder is uh is an a black black guy who's conservative.
Actually, he's libertarian, but by now it, you know.
Yeah, he's getting he's moving, he's moving, yeah.
He became Republican.
He did?
Yes, yes.
Maybe he'll run for governor.
Anyway, so I I don't know if you know how I discovered Larry Elder.
Those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, it doesn't matter, it's still interesting.
This is a he is a very big uh uh factor in in radio.
He now has a syndicated show.
He also has a television show.
Oh, that's off?
It's in the line.
It's in reruns?
All right, he had a television.
Nobody has a television show for long except for uh Nightline.
What was his name?
Coppel, Ted Copel.
Okay, so anyway, this actually happened.
Larry Elder.
It's life is so funny like this.
I was sent to Cleveland, Ohio about 15 years ago by people who wanted to syndicate a television show with me.
And they wanted to try me out as the co-host of the morning TV, biggest morning TV show in Cleveland.
Now, A, I know nothing about Cleveland.
Hey, welcome to the talk show.
Where am I?
On Cleveland, Cleveland.
And it doesn't matter, though.
A talk show's a talk, you know, a morning show is a morning show.
One of the people that I interviewed was this lawyer who came on every week to talk about the law named Larry Elder.
That's how I met him on this fluke thing that I had was sitting in on this morning show.
So Larry shows up and he cracks me up, and I think this guy is truly sharp, and I like his views.
So I take his name down and I say, Larry, are do you ever come to LA?
And he said, Well, as it happens, my parents live in LA.
This is terrific.
You let me know when you're in LA, you come on my radio show as a guest.
So he comes on on my radio show on one of his visits to LA, and it goes, it's fantastic.
I can't get over this guy.
I go back to Cleveland to give a talk, and I'll never forget, this will touch you, at least it touched me.
I'll never forget I I I live on powder.
I I rat I need powder more than I need food.
I just do.
I I it helps me a lot.
Regular powder, shower to shower powder.
Anyway, I I forgot it, and and Larry came to hear me speak in Cleveland on the second visit.
I said, Larry, could you pick up powder for me on the way?
And he said, absolutely, I'd be happy to.
And I don't know, I was so I felt so funny asking him.
I mean, how often did I meet the guy, pick up powder for me on the way?
But anyway, he probably doesn't even remember that.
But I I I was very touched.
Anyway, he came to my speech and I said, Larry, you come back.
I want to get you, I want to get you on.
If you want to come back to LA and be with your parents, I I want to get you on ABC Radio.
You're great.
I said, Ah, Dennis, how are you going to get me on the radio?
I said, you come on my show whenever you're in LA, and I'll give the tapes to the general manager.
Or beg him to listen.
The second time he comes on my show, we're talking about the issue of black leaders, and Larry is not enamored, in case you didn't know, of black leadership as a rule rule.
So a guy calls up, a a uh an African American caller calls up and says, Dennis, where did you find this guy?
He's really ticked off that I have this conservative black on.
So Larry doesn't let me answer.
He says, Dennis found me on the street here here in LA at the corner of, I don't remember, mentioned two streets of South Central.
I was carrying a sign, we'll attack black leaders for lunch.
laughter applause applause I laughed so hard that we I had I forced a station break.
I forced a commercial break.
I I lost my composure.
It was so fast and so funny how he dealt with this guy, and I actually drove George Green nuts.
I said, George, you George, you gotta have this guy on.
George, you have to have this guy on.
So they put him on on a night show, and he's a big hit, and of course he's a huge hit now.
All these years later.
And I I really I I mean I am fully responsible for his being on radio and then going to TV and so on.
And it was a it was it was a very good thing that I did for uh those for that part of America that gets to hear him.
He he is a very a very strong man, and he was attacked mercilessly for a number of years.
I mean, it was it was horrific.
Boycotts, that's right, and everything.
Happily ABC, KABC did not cave in.
A lot of stations would have caved in.
George Green, to his great credit, did not cave in.
Also, I was on from one to four in the afternoon, and he followed me, and it was really what that was my favorite time.
I would insult him every time.
Every time I would pass off, you know, you do a promo with the next host, it's a normal thing to do.
And I every time he'd come in, I would somehow rib him in another way.
Like I would say, and now, ladies and gentlemen, following me, the handsomest black man on LA radio at four o'clock, Larry Elder.
And every day, something else, just to annoy him, and we laughed so hard with each other that to this day I rem people say my favorite radio is when you and Larry, you know, when you would pass off the microphone over to Larry, we had we had a great deal of fun.
And then it came a time for me to get syndicated, and ABC at that time, the general manager was different.
Had it been Georgia, it would have been different, but it wasn't.
And he did not want me to be syndicated.
So that's why I left KABC.
And uh you I will tell you something, I hold to this day the biggest honor I ever received, was a photo of all the people in sales at KABC, and they all uh wrote, We love you, Dennis.
And I like to tell you a little about that because this is uh this means that meant a great deal to me.
In fact, that's part of the reason that I actually I had tears in my eyes, and it came through the last broadcast on KBC.
It wasn't because I was leaving KBC, it was because of all the love being showered upon me by the by the people who work there.
I have always had a particularly soft spot and uh uh uh respect spot for people in sales.
Yep, like Keith here, who was with me at KRLA, and unfortunately is not now.
Uh I have never understood fellow talk show hosts uh lack of cooperation with people in sales, as I tell the salespeople at every station I meet, and I'll be with the Minneapolis station next Monday, and I'll be with the Philadelphia station the Monday after that when I have lectures in Minneapolis and Philadelphia.
And I tell them, I said, I this is not that I'm a nice guy.
I am a nice guy, but that's not the issue.
The issue is that I know that you make my living possible just as I make your living possible.
If you can't sell my show, I don't have a show.
I have so I've always known how important uh people in sales are, and I've liked them too.
I think Alan feels the same.
We have liked a very high proportion of the people who are in sales.
And that's uh a little of the of the aspects of of my own history in radio.
I have learned, you know, I told you I became aware of how much I'm in people's lives, and this was really a result of all the all I think of the last six months of my life and the reactions of listeners.
I've always gotten incredibly powerful reactions, like on my birthday, I that's the one day of the year I ask, call me up and tell me if I've how I've touched you if I have.
That's very moving to me what people say.
There are two reasons for it.
One is because I really am genuine.
I mean, you've been there with me for a week.
I don't this is not an act.
I mean, I'm the same guy on radio as off radio, and people respond to that, to authenticity.
But there's another reason, and that is because it's radio.
The ear is much deeper than the eye.
Television is, if I could coin a silly phrase, is profoundly superficial.
It's it's superficial in large part because it is in fact appeals to the eye.
I'll give you an example.
A friend of mine went on a book tour, his first book that he had a book tour for.
You know what that is.
You appear on local stations all over the country.
And he said, Dennis is a very interesting thing.
Friends would hear me on the radio and friends would see me on TV.
And whenever I was uh on radio, they would talk to me about what I said.
And whenever I was on TV, they would talk to me about how I looked.
Hey, that was a you really look good.
I get that all the time.
If I'm on Larry King, unless I get into this, who was this uh what was it?
Farrell?
Mike Farrell?
Oh god.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Which uh Laura Ingram has a delight in replaying and replaying.
Yeah, it gives me a it's I get a charge.
So anyway, Mike Farrell is, you know, looks at me from the prison where Tukey Williams is about to be executed and says, You disgust me.
You salivate over death.
I mean, you know, anyway, I told him he discussed me, so there's really you know, it's not here or there, really.
Why don't we talk about the issue?
Then I asked if he had ever visited the homes of those who were murdered.
You know, well, those who reserve their passion for those who murder, uh, not my type, let's put it that way.
At any rate, so often being on TV, that's what I get.
Stennis saw you on TV.
That was great.
Or you look great, or what you're whatever.
But you never nobody says about radio, you sounded great.
They respond to what you say.
The eye grabs your attention faster than the ear, but the ear is much deeper.
There are so many ways of proving this, and I'll give you a few.
One is turn the sound off on a horror movie.
You won't get scared.
You could see the guy jump out of the closet and cut her to pieces with a saw.
It'll look silly.
It is the sound that makes you scared.
Sound m goes much deeper than sight to uh to the uh as a general rule to our psyche and and our conscience and so on.
Another example is I had a national TV show, which you probably all missed.
In fact, I missed it.
I don't remember when it was on.
But it was about uh 11 years ago.
I had a national TV show for six months.
And it was cut because of ratings.
It was a very good show, I will say.
I'm very proud of my work.
But I had standards.
And one of them was there are two things that appeal on TV in particular.
Fighting, in other words, yelling at each other.
And skin.
Female skin.
So the cult called eye candy.
And I wasn't prepared to win listeners either by yelling at guests any more than I do on my radio show, or by having semi-nudity.
But it was a very interesting thing, and I wrote about this in the book that I most of my four books most want people to read.
Think a second time.
Forty-four of my essays.
One of my essays is about what I learned doing television.
And so one time they convinced me, Dennis, it's sweeps week.
Dennis, you need to keep your show.
You've got to get good ratings during sweeps week.
Win the listeners that week, then you can do all the good things you want, but you have to compromise.
I bought the argument for one night.
And what was that night?
That night was would you uh we'd like you to discuss uh women's lingerie with the head of Fredericks of Hollywood and a woman psychologist.
And I thought, that's fine, I would do that on my radio show.
I talk about that stuff, about male-female sexual relations and looking sexy for your husband.
That's a totally fine topic for me.
It's part of life.
They didn't tell me, or I didn't hear it.
Oh, and we'll also have models.
Now, I think I'm interesting, but between me and Fredericks of Hollywood models, somehow I think they'll win for both sexes.
Well, anyway, to my amazement, I'm starting to talk and on to the stage or studio stage, parade these women who are semi-naked, beautiful.
Plus, they hired for that night a hand camera man.
Uh-oh.
Who got so close to their privates, I thought he was taking X-rays.
I mean, the guy looked like an X-ray technician.
You know how close they get to your cheek for tooth X-rays?
That's how close this guy was with his camera.
I mean, it was it was funny, actually, to see.
And from every angle, you know, up and down and across these models, and I'm chatting away about, you know, well, uh, the effect of this on husbands and and so on.
Anyway, the point that I want to tell you is a lot of my shows were rerun.
Every single time that show ran, it had the highest rating of any show that I ever did.
That's a very powerful lesson in television.
Because the opp it's the in every way it's the opposite of radio.
What people do, is especially men, as many of you wives know, is they go through the remote control, clicking channel after channel after channel.
And as soon as they see skin, they stop.
Now, that's not what they're looking for.
They may be looking for sports, they may be looking for elevated talk about the eschatological relationship between Luke and Habakkuk, for all I know.
But no matter what, the eye stops at at semi-nudity or nudity, but there wasn't nudity, it was semi.
And so that's what would happen.
I wish people scanned the radio dial like they scanned the television dial, I would have even more listeners, and a lot more, because I think I'd win people over if I they gave me ten minutes.
But the people in radio tend to stick to one channel, whereas people in TV are clicking away constantly.
So it's very different.
But it it one of the great lessons of life was the difference between the ear and the eye, and it's good to know in life.
That's why I always enjoy interviewing listeners who were who are blind.
I obviously have a lot of blind listeners.
They're not watching TV as a rule.
And I am fascinated by blind people's perceptions of the world.
They have a different experience than the rest of us do.
And I am always fascinated by it, especially those who have been blind since birth.
One of the questions I always ask them is, what does blue or red or yellow mean to them?
And the answer is nothing, obviously.
But for us, it's amazing to think that color has no meaning.
Obviously, to one always bit blind.
So I'm always fascinated to talk to blind callers.
But I that's one of the big lessons, and that is why you can enter people's hearts doing a radio show, and why they can listen for hours upon hours and week after week.
I mean, I'm getting email now, and I have a fantastic substitute.
Mark Taylor is terrific.
I truly believe he has kept the vast majority of my audience.
But people want me when they tune into my show.
That's why every so often when I am off for a day, it's the only time I take a week off.
This is a once a year cruise.
But if I take off a day, unless there's huge news breaking, we tend to have three of my best hours that have no time factor.
What we call Alan and I call evergreens.
And they are, they can be, you know, broadcast, and I am I know when an hour might be an Evergreen and make sure to make no reference to the month, the day, the season, the temperature, anything in the news, you know, and sometimes it'll uh it'll be going great, and then in the last segment, the guest will say, Well, you know, Christmas is coming up, and I'll be like, oh no.
Oh, he blew it.
You blew it.
You could have been rebroadcast till you die.
And now you blew it.
So I, you know, I'm praying, don't blow it.
But I don't want to tell them not to make any reference because then they're not natural.
Tell you another thing that I do, you'll find of interest.
I do not talk to my guests during breaks.
I don't want any social relationship with them to take away from the intimacy of the actual talk on radio.
So all you hear is all I have said and they have said to me.
There's nothing off air.
Now, here's this, this will really amaze you.
When they're in studio with me, it's usually by phone, but when they're in studio with me, I tell them in advance, please do not take this personally.
I will not be looking at you.
I can concentrate best just listening.
Watching people talk, you're watching.
So two senses are being taken.
Now, I don't mind watching somebody talk, but if I have to interact in front of a million people or whatever the listenership is, then I have to concentrate on not only what they're saying, but what will I ask?
And I am not someone with a list of questions in front of me, no matter what they answer.
I have been interviewed enough to know that that's what most hosts do.
They have a list of questions.
You could say, and as soon as I leave the studio, I will be killing myself.
So, Dennis, on Shin, in its chapter here, it says, you know, there's no I just said I'm gonna kill myself.
Oh, really?
No kidding.
Uh so I react to what they say, but I have to react immediately because you don't want silence on the air.
But I don't, I I by the way, most guests, at least most of the male guests, are actually pleased that they don't have to look at me either.
They also rather talk.
Men like to men go like this, you know, they talk, this is how women like to make eye contact.
Men think better staring out into the into the cosmos.
That's an interesting male female difference.
So I really have to apologize to women host.
But that is why my favorite is to interview people uh by uh by phone.
I do not find.
Alan, do you find that interviews in studio are better than by phone?
No.
Neither do I. Yet I bet you people would think that physical presence would make for a better interview.
And and and it doesn't.
I'll tell you what is tough though, talking about physical presence.
95% of the time that I'm on national TV, Hannity and Combs or Hardball or Larry King or Bill O'Reilly.
Bill O'Reilly.
Doesn't happen much more than I am.
Or just, you know, the regular CNN MSNBC talk show.
I am looking into a camera.
They're in New York or Atlanta.
I'm in LA.
And I am staring into a camera, a video camera, seeing nothing.
I don't see the host, I don't see the show, I don't see the other guests.
That's a talent that you build up.
The ability to act naturally staring into a machine.
And you can't look away.
That is why you'll notice sometimes guests they're they're looking their eyes away, and you think, what's wrong with them?
They're acting normally.
But they don't know you can't act normal.
You have to look normal, which means stare right into that tube the whole time.
So you learn how to do that too, because if you saw what was happening, there's a four-second delay.
You don't know that could drive you mad.
Sometimes they forget to turn the picture off.
And I am watching the interviewer from four seconds ago.
But he has stopped talking in reality, because I hear that in the earpiece.
So I'm talking to the guy while he's talking.
That's why I said, please don't forget to turn the monitor off.
I don't want to see me.
I don't want to see them.
So that that is a that's a challenge.
And that's the where that is the world of the media that I that I inhabit.
And Alan is it's interesting.
I'd love to get a recording of your session with Alan.
What it what it is that you ask.
Uh, but I guess it makes sense.
Alan Alan and I have a routine.
I'm a big believer in routines, though not as big as Alan, the single most self-disciplined human being since Adam.
And uh you should know this is behind truly behind the scenes.
I will, unless there is a an emergency of life and death, therefore it's not never happened, I will not call Alan after 1117 p.m.
My last chance to talk to him before a show is 1116.
And uh because he goes to bed on time, and then I read what he has sent me.
And he sends me what what's the average number of pieces you send me?
Twenty?
Fifteen?
About fifteen pieces.
Let me tell you how good he is.
I've always had wonderful producers.
There's no comment on them.
But the ratio of pieces that they would send me that I would use was approximately one in fifteen or twenty.
With him, maybe I won't use one in fifteen or twenty.
That's how well he knows me and digs up good stuff.
That is a tremendous help to me.
I do my own reading, and one of the nice things is Alan doesn't always know what I'm gonna talk about.
And we, in studio or not in studio, we c communicate, did you tell them this through I am.
I can't talk to him.
So we're I aming, instant messaging each other the whole time.
And uh sometimes, you know, he'll even say, good job.
That's a rare moment.
Then I when he says good job, I know it's the sort of thing that should get an Emmy.
Then I'll also get get rid of this guy.
That might be a caller.
Did you tell them that too?
Oh, so you know everything.
All right.
So you're just hearing it from the other side.
Now you know he told you the truth.
Get rid of this guy, because but usually we know both of us.
It's time to get rid of this guy.
Uh Sometimes, though, he's a little afraid that I will preoccupy myself with subjects that I really love, but that only a fraction of the audience might love, but that's an ongoing joke between us.
And that's how a show is done.
The intensity is such that after the three hour show, I can do nothing intellectual.
I want to retreat onto an island, play spider solitaire, and talk to no one.
That is how intense those three hours are.
But unfortunately, I am not capable of doing that.
I'm not allowed, because that's when I record ads.
That's an ongoing joy.
But I am well aware that they pay my salary, so I keep that in mind and try to do as good a job as I can.
You uh did Alan tell you how strict I am about accepting ads?
I'm very, very strict, and they're I turn down a lot.
If uh if I don't believe that something is worth your time, no matter what they'll pay to advertise, I will not I will not have them on.
And I have often given advertisers a very hard time.
I interview them prior to make sure, and we have really not been burned.
Is that fair to say?
We have not been burned by an advertiser in any of the cities.
But uh I take that seriously.
In fact, I've been checking my mail, and somebody sent me a uh complaint about one of the advertisers, and I said, I just want you to know I am responding to you from the Amazon River.
That is how seriously I take complaints about an advertiser, and it was forwarded uh on.
And uh that is how seriously, and and they're always they're always looked into.
Sometimes the advertiser foul up, and sometimes the listener did.
The question was that what pe people call me up since 9-11, I have been called by people, say, Dennis, what do you think of Islam?
Is Islam a peace-loving religion?
Is it a good religion?
Does it preach violence?
Since 9-11, I have answered the same thing, and obviously, because you repeated me all the time.
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Verbatim.
And that is, I say the truth is I never judge religions, I judge practitioners of the religion.
This is not diplomatic.
I have been very harsh on the world of Islam today.
I think it has very serious moral problems.
I speak uh I speak uh about on occasion, I speak about the uh about uh the clash of civilizations.
That's hardly a diplomatic talk.
So I'm not being diplomatic.
I assure you that if you lived uh in uh parts of Eastern Europe in the 17th century, parts of Western Europe earlier than then, you would have called up if there was such a thing as a radio show and said, is Christianity a uh uh uh a bad religion?
Because you would have seen so much violence in the name Of Christ, that that's what you would have said.
And I would have hopefully said the same thing.
There are a lot of practitioners that have really serious problems.
But I don't know how to judge it.
Religion is what its adherents make of it.
That's what I have learned.
I'll go further.
I'm not even sure about the relationship between theology and people's behavior.
As odd as that may sound to you.
There are people in religious groups that have theologies that I think are very, very irrational, very odd, and produce wonderful people.
That's in my religion, in Christianity, in offshoots of Christianity, Mormonism, LDS, whatever it might be.
I don't know the relationship between theology and goodness.
This is not a happy comment, it's not an unhappy comment.
What people have done with their Bibles and their theology in all directions is amazing.
So I can only say that the Christians who founded this country, the United States, not this country we're in, but the U.S., based on a very deep reverence and belief in the Old Testament, have produced something unique.
Uniquely good, in my opinion.
That is as far as I can go in making this statement.
But I also believe it's better than Christianity alone or Judaism alone.
What this Judeo-Christian value system has produced.
That can bother a believing Christian, could bother a believing Jew.
I talked to you about this before.
But I call it as I see it, and I can only really react to people's behavior.
Do I think Islam needs to be reformed?
Of course I do.
Is there a possibility?
Is it impossible to believe in the Quran and be a good person?
Of course not.
It's not impossible at all.
I think Scientology has very goofy principles.
Some very wonderful people I have met have been Scientologists.
I would never recommend Scientology to anybody.
But, you know, uh Tom Cruise is not my values model, but there are other Scientology people that I have met who have been wonderful.
I I'm shocked sometimes when people tell me, oh, yeah, Scientology.
That's why it's so complex, and that's why I am very at peace in saying I judge behavior.
Now, if you want to ask me, do I believe that there are serious problems with the Islamic world today?
Of course there are.
And that's that's so that's why I stay that way, Harold.
I I appreciate the question.
Yeah.
Are you aware as a broadcaster that there are certain people that call every single talk showing their own?
That's very funny.
You should mention that.
Am I aware that there are some people who call every talk show?
Yes, these is truly the talk.
And I don't know how they get in.
They must have a constant dial service that enables them, but when I listen to other shows and hear that same person, I thought, I thought you were loyal to me, you son of a you're right, and it does crack me up.
Yes, back there, yeah.
I uh changed my mind on the Oslo Accords, and I I went from Democrat to Republican.
Any other changes in my thinking.
Actually, changes in my thinking are always taking place.
I'll give you what I just said to you that Judeo-Christian values were greater than Judaism alone or Christianity alone, I would not have even thought about five years ago.
That's a brand new idea in my life.
I'm always thinking and always prepared to jettison a previous conviction, if the if the evidence warrants.
You know, uh I'll never forget an evangelical minister, once said about me on religion on the line, Dennis is a guileless Jew.
And he meant it totally complimentary.
He couldn't get over the fact that I had no agenda.
And I don't.
My only agenda is goodness and truth, as corny as that sounds.
I can't say that on the air.
It sounds so corny, people will vomit.
But I I but that is the truth.
That's why I can always change my mind.
On religion on the line, the reason the clergy really so liked me was they were shocked.
All I was so fair.
It didn't matter.
I never was rooting for the rabbi.
I'm a religious Jew, but I never rooted for the rabbi.
I rooted for whoever was better.
Not better arguer, better morally, better theologically.
And so I I'm prepared.
Now, as it's happening, yes, I am undergoing right now some interesting evolution in regard to micro subjects.
I'll give you one example, which I'm not prepared to talk about publicly yet, but it is now percolating in me as a huge subject.
And this is huge.
And that is the role of children in human happiness.
I believe that some cultures, including my own Jewish one, overstate their role and cause both adults, uh both the parents and the children, a gratuitous pain.
I think people should not look to their children to make them happy, and many cultures uh advocate that we do so.
So this is a huge subject, and um I'm not I never go public the first day I think of something.
I let it percolate, I talk to people about it.
For example, uh Beverly and Michael were having dinner with us the other night, and Keith and Stella, and I posed the question, because I say what you're considering?
Yeah.
Keith and Stella considering making a family.
Uh after six years of celibacy.
Keith has decided that enough is enough.
And uh they're thinking of having uh kids.
And I I deeply advocate people having children.
But the question is why?
See, people take I you you know I've said that on the air.
Without children, we won't get grandchildren.
Okay, that's a good one.
That's right, and you know, but you're not even guaranteed that.
But okay, but anyway, that's not children then, that's grandchildren.
Okay, but I have said this on the air, and it is the truth.
I am Mr. Y. Everything that exists, I ask why.
Nothing do I take on face value.
Why should you have children is a very interesting question.
Why?
What if you are happily married, as they are?
Why should you have children?
Will you be happier?
The chances are you won't be happier.
Did you hear the laughter of agreement?
I just anyway, and when you have a good reason to, you won't be hurt if they don't supply the happiness you want them to supply you with.
Asking your children to be your happiness supplier will create a neurotic child.
That is not the reason to have every traditional culture said have children to bring you whatever.
Bring you income in and truly older cultures, right?
Without children, who's going to work the farm, who's going to work, who's going to help the family business.
Okay, we no longer have that generally.
In Jewish life, uh there is a phrase in Yiddish, Nachis from Kinder.
Joy from children.
That is why you live and breathe, is to have joy from children.
This is not a wasp value, and I happen to love wasp values as a reg as a rule.
This is not, this is critical of the tradition I've been raised in.
The American tradition is different.
You have children, but you don't rely on them for your happiness.
I have talked about this in different contexts, but I'm going to change the context now.
I've never talked about this in this context because I never thought of it that way.
In Los Angeles, I'm pretty well known.
The proof is there is literally not a day that goes by that someone doesn't walk over to me, work in a mall and a restaurant on the street or wherever.
Usually a lot of people.
I don't mean they don't line up, I don't want to exaggerate.
But on a typical day, five people.
Is that fair, Alan?
Okay.
How do I know if the person coming over say, oh, Dennis Prager, love your show?
It's a typical thing.
Just want to say hi.
You really touch me, I really enjoy you, whatever they'll say.
Or I don't also very common, I don't always agree with you, but I really enjoy you.
Okay.
How do I know if the person is a Jew or a Gentile?
There's only one instant giveaway.
If they start talking to me about their children, I know it's a Jew.
No Gentile has ever told a stranger about their children.
Only Jews do.
You meet a Jew within ten minutes, they're telling you about the I don't care about your children, to be perfectly honest.
And I don't expect you to care about mine.
I never tell people about my children.
And I love them and I'm proud of them.
But what you don't care about my kids, and I don't care about your kids.
They mean nothing to me.
How's that?
They mean everything to you, maybe, but they mean nothing to me.
It is a boring subject.
I I always knew that, and I never talk to people about my kids.
Because you know what?
Everyone who has a baby has the same damn story.
Right?
Babies are babies.
I know you think your baby is unique.
And in some great sense, they're unique.
But they're not unique.
They all dribble the same.
They all fart the same.
They all burnt the same.
They're all brilliant.
I know all that.
He doesn't have grandchildren.
Ah, okay.
That's it.
All right.
Now, this is very important.
Okay, I don't have grandchildren.
You're right.
That is the reward for having children.
You're right.
But then please know, A, if they do have kids, it's a long ways off.
You may be dead.
Your children may kill you before then.
Anything may happen.
It is a very difficult sell.
Yes, Keith and Stella, you should have kids.
Because 35 years from now, you'll have a baby grandchild.
I somehow don't see that as persuasive.
When they'll be doing fine all those 30 years between now and then.
The reason to have children is because that is the fullest experience available to you, whether it is pleasant or not, and it's frequently not.
It makes you grow.
It is your obligation to repopulate the world.
ZPG was an idiocy.
The Western Western Europe is collapsing because it has not reproduced.
Because they were so stupid and listened to zero population growth.
So they had to import people to keep up their economies, and the people they imported don't happen to like them.
The people we've imported happen to share most of our values.
We are very lucky in the United States with all our complaints about illegal or legal immigration.
We should thank God every day that they share our basic religious Value system.
But anyway, that's an issue that is uh that I won't yet get ready to talk about, but is now percolating in my mind.
Yes, you're gonna give the mic?
Okay, I know you're next.
You shouldn't be penalized for being next to me.
So I know.
All right, fine, exactly.
See that nice.
Thank you.
Um we're with a group of, I'm sure, at least average people of compassion and generosity.
A couple days into this cruise, CNN did a little thing about some of the starvation in Kenya, showed an emaciated child.
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All this food being thrown away and tossed.
How are all of us rationalizing spending all this money and having all this stuff going when that kid is starving in Kenya?
Good.
I'm happy you asked that because it's uh every thoughtful person asks that question.
I was a member of the Clean Plate Club.
And I look it.
See, this is the thing my mother said to me, finish everything on your plate because kids in China are starving.
It never occurred to me to ask, let us say that I don't finish it.
Are you going to send it to Beijing?
I never realized there it's a non sequitur.
Whether I eat all the food on my dish or not has no effect on a Kenyan child.
It is completely irrelevant.
There is no zero sum.
There's X amount of food on Earth.
Therefore, if you don't finish your food or you eat a lot, they'll eat a little.
It doesn't exist.
We have enough food on earth to feed three Earths.
And with technology, it is literally unlimited.
There is no starvation because you are eating doubles.
Oh, that's a New York seconds on this ship.
It has nothing to do.
The reasons for starvation, I will tell you, are overwhelmingly.
About 99% of the starvation on earth is due to corrupt governments.
This doesn't mean we shouldn't care, but it means that we should be aware of what the roots are.
I learned this when I studied communism.
That was my field of study.
And I noted around in my uh after I left graduate school, I noted something.
Communism is so powerful that by golly, it always affects the weather.
Whenever communists take over, there's a famine.
Unbelievable how powerful communists are.
They changed the weather.
Ukraine was the breadbasket of Europe until the communists took over, and then six million Ukrainians died of starvation.
Then I read it in Ethiopia.
The Dirk took over the communist Dirk, and all of a sudden, massive famine in Ethiopia.
And oh massive famine in China.
Massive every everywhere communists took over, massive famines.
Didn't make North Korea?
Exactly.
Starving to death.
Boy, that's really amazing.
Such different weather in North Korea than in South Korea.
Astonishing.
Vile corrupt governments starve their people through incompetence or through malevolence.
There is nothing you do on a ship or eating at fine restaurants that has any effect.
If you decided to eat just bread and water, no child on earth will eat better.
None.
All you will do is put honest people out of work like the dear people who work on these ships.
It is a common understandable but foolish presumption that if the wealthier stop living well, it will help humanity.
It doesn't.
When they put a luxury tax on yachts, all it did is put yacht workers out of business.
People earning 50,000, 60,000, 70,000 a year, were now getting unemployment benefits.
Because the government said that yachts are a luxury item.
Which of course they are.
I can't afford a yacht.
But what the hell do I care if a guy gets a yacht?
Somebody had to build it, somebody has to service it, people work on it, and this ship, the amount that people work here and send money back home to the various countries they are from, and they are the ticket to their food, and I'm worried about that.
I eat my you know my entire steak.
It's the opposite.
Now, it almost sounds like I'm saying you're doing a service to humanity by going on a cruise.
The truth is, you are.
No, no, you see, I am you.
Yeah, right, Captain, I know.
I have no self-interest here, because if you didn't go on a cruise, I would do something else with listeners for a week, okay?
You know.
But but it it what what could what how would the world be better if you didn't spend this money here?
Now, there is one philosopher who happens to be an idiot, but who, but even idiots can raise important points.
It's a professor at Princeton who has raised the issue we should all take all our money beyond our needs and send it to Africa and Asia, wherever there's starvation.
The problem, there are two problems.
There and there are insurmountable problems.
One, let's say we did send billions and billions of dollars.
How do you know it'll get there?
More and more even liberal magazines are like the New York Times magazine have periodic articles that we in fact increase starvation by constantly sending money to corrupt governments because it just keeps the corrupt government in power, it doesn't feed anybody.
Second, is another problem.
No one will work hard if they don't get to keep most of their money.
One of the major reasons anybody, including doctors or clergy or talk show hosts work so hard as they do, is because there are rewards for hard work.
There's nothing wrong in being rewarded for honest hard work.
In fact, it's a good thing.
I want to reward them.
When I used to go to the Soviet Union, I would sit in a restaurant and I would bring big books with me.
Because the waiter would not show up for 35, 40 minutes.
Why should he?
He can't get a tip, and he can't get an increase of salary no matter how good he is.
Why should he come over to my table?
And so they didn't come to my table.
Then they came to the table, and I would say, I would point to what I wanted on the menu, and they would say, Nietu.
It's not here.
We don't have it.
Not served.
Finally, I would always ask, okay, just give me whatever is served.
Don't give me the menu.
Because why would they bother ordering?
The menu was for show.
Everything was for show in the Soviet Union.
That was the Potemkin village.
That was the famous thing.
Under the Tsar they had this.
A beautiful village, but it was all Hollywood sets.
Now, that doesn't mean we don't care about this kid in Kenya.
It means we have to try to help in the best way we can.
And you want to know the best way that the West has helped?
It was through Christian missionaries going to Africa.
That was the best thing the West ever did.
And I'm not even Christian, and I'm saying this.
When you teach people to have values that raise them above the way they had led lived, they will be able eventually to feed themselves.
That's the best we can the best thing we could send to the rest of the world are our values.
But Americans, half of Americans don't believe in American values.
They believe in European secular socialist values.
And so it's very hard to send over values that your own country is not even at peace with.
Hi, I was just curious, which which do you like more and which is harder when you speak in the microphone on the radio and not to millions that you don't see, or speaking to a hundred people that you do see, or speaking to a group of four to six at a table, or the smoking area that you can actually even touch.
That's a brilliant question.
I'm tempted not to answer you.
The hardest for me personally is uh just uh making banter to people that I don't know.
I am invited to give lectures all over, and they always append after the contract is signed.
We're assuming Mr. Prager will come an hour and a half early to uh uh uh to mill uh about with the sponsors of the talk.
I do it because it's expected, but that is so much harder than the talk itself standing around the uh you know, the hors d'oeuvres and the drinks with people I don't know who often don't know me either.
It's not always the case.
See, where people know me, then the conversation is immediately deeper because they know what to talk to me about.
But if it's people I don't know and don't know me, and that believes it or not, happens a fair amount too, then it is actually very hard for me.
And therefore, I knew this very early in my life, so I'll tell you one thing that I did.
Every lecture that I take, and I have a lot of lectures, every lecture I take outside of LA, I rent a car upon arrival.
The reason is so no one picks me up.
I found that standing with a stranger at the luggage and then being driven to the hotel was harder work than the entire lecture I will give the next day.
And so I rent my own car, and they go, well, what you know, Mrs. Birnbaum has been dying to pick you up.
You know, we we you know she loves you.
And I go, I am so touched that Mrs. Birnbaum wants to pick me up.
But uh I'll tell you the truth.
Uh and I now have a great excuse.
I really need the car because I'm gonna have to broadcast from your city the next day.
I have to drive to the station, then take myself back to the airport.
My mom would be happy to do that.
I'm sorry.
Herma, you're right.
Mrs. Burbat will be thrilled to take you anywhere you are, exactly.
So uh I uh that that is that is the way it is.
But between a speech and a show, they each have their own difficulties.
They're both have their own challenges.
Briefly, if you could tell us a little bit of philosophy on people who are baby.
What you do?
Do you give money?
Do you ever contribute?
Do you have a philosophy on this?
On people who are what?
Oh, begging.
Oh, I have a philosophy, but I'm not strong enough to follow it.
My philosophy is don't give, and I always do.
So uh I I have I'm a hypocrite.
Because it's it's in a you mean in America or do you mean in a in a third world country?
Well, which I'm thinking of America.
Yeah, in America, yeah.
I you know, here is what I say.
I know intellectually I'm encouraging irresponsible behavior.
And so I have no issue with anyone who doesn't.
But there's a voice in me that says the person must be in such terrible, even if they're phony, there must be so much wrong in their life to have put them on this corner.
You know, why why not give them something?
Well, I I I don't think I'm right, but I can't stop it.
So you you asked me a good another good question.
Yes.
Yes.
If you have an ex project for a book, what is it about?
Uh, you know, you folks really ask the toughest.
This is an ongoing source of derision uh of me by Alan.
Because I every every month I say, Alan, I know what my next book is.
In the meantime, I'm paralyzed.
I have too many books to write.
I'm paralyzed.
I think the one I'm gonna write now actually came up as a result of my lecture the first day with the second time.
I think I want to write a book of 40 propositions for life.
Forty short statements about how to have a clearer and better life, like some of the things I mentioned then.
People like to read those things.
I have a lot to say.
People like brief stuff, they could read it in the bathroom, where a lot of reading gets done, and uh I uh that might be it, but I I have already written twenty four columns on the case for Judeo-Christian values.
I want to write that book.
I want to write a book on male sexual nature, because every woman who has gotten my four tapes on male sexual nature, at least everyone that I ever met, I can't speak for everyone who ever heard them, has told me two things.
One, they saw their husband and uh differently and understood him far better, and number two, that they have given it to their daughter or their niece or their granddaughter to have her understand uh her uh her uh if she is not married, for example, she's in high school or college, to understand the effect of her dress.
She has no idea, and uh it is uh it's uh it would be a service to humanity to get that book out.
In the meantime, there are four tapes that are uh just as effective.
You should get those tapes or send them to a daughter-in-law or for that matter, son-in-law, but they I have gotten very good feedback, yes.
Yes, um, I was with you to the cruise to St. Petersburg, uh-huh.
And Scandinavian countries, and I would like you to share with us the episode you had in the synagogue.
We uh we took uh one of the cruises was to Russia along along along the uh the Baltic.
And we went to St. Petersburg, which I had not been to since it was changed back from Leningrad.
And I was there in 1969 when I was 21 years old.
I went to the Leningrad synagogue, which is a beautiful grand synagogue, and the Jews in the Soviet Union had been told that Jewry has died out everywhere else in the world.
There are no more Jews.
Judaism is dead, they should just all become good communists and leave their Jewish identity.
And I was twenty-one years old.
I went into the synagogue on one of the Jewish holidays, and immediately attention was eyes focused on me.
It was obvious I was a foreigner because I was better dressed than and I don't even dress fancy, but it was obvious that I wasn't a uh a Soviet citizen.
But I speak uh Russian well enough at any rate, and they made the biggest deal possible about this young man and actually asked me to read from the the uh actually the haftor from the prophets in Hebrew, and that I chanted it well, Blew their minds.
Everything the Soviets had told them was a lie.
It means that Judaism really is alive.
Jews do keep Hebrew up.
They can even chant, and look at this strapping young man from America, and he could chant this thing.
They went, it was, they went nuts.
And I knew it.
I had changed their lives just by showing up.
It was an unbelievable experience for me.
1969.
Well, when we went with the Estrens and the Marmors, our other dear friend Stephen Marmor, you know, the psychiatrist that I have on Happiness Hour periodically.
And I had told them this story.
You know, the last time I was at this synagogue, let me tell you what happened.
And sure enough, and get tell me if I got it right, because you were there.
A man was there, and it was a weekday.
It wasn't a Sabbath or a Jewish holiday, but a man was there and looked at me and said, You were here 35 years ago.
You're the one.
You're that American boy who could read the prophets, and it changed everything we believed.
And he hugged me.
And I was, I couldn't believe what I had experienced.
I don't look the same as 35 years ago.
You know, a little larger, all white hair.
I was, you know, uh, and yet he remembered, and exactly what I recalled, the effect that my presence had, he recalled, and everybody cried.
The Estrens, the barbers, me, you know.
It was, it was, it was a very powerful, powerful moment.
I want to tell you one thing about you.
I'm saying it at the end, so you don't think I'm I was buttering you up.
Oh.
But you should know this.
Uh it came up again.
And I don't remember in what context, but somebody was telling me on the ship that they uh who did not know of me or the uh or of you.
They said, you you must be a really good guy.
I said, why do you say that?
Because every one of the people I met who came on this with you is such a wonderful person.
I give you my word, a total stranger that I did not.
Alan is uh assenting to it.
This is a fact of life.
I often test myself.
Am I am I doing good?
Am I real?
Or am I just impressing me?
And the greatest test is who likes you.
Who?
And and I am told by advertisers, all the time, we always know who the Dennis Prager listener is.
And I say, how?
They're the nicest.
Although always told that.
But you know it's true because you know of all these other people who came on the trip with you.
I mean, this is very odd because I haven't met one jerk.
I mean, one out of ninety expect.
It's just the law of averages has that.
You are a wonderful group of people.
It has been a delight to be with you for for all of us who were part of this, the Estrans and Beverly and Michael and myself, and whoever else is responsible.
That's the reason I do this.
I'm not paid to do this.
I mean, I do what I love the trips, obviously.
But if I didn't think that I'd be on with wonderful people, I'd never do it because it would be too difficult.
I'd just take a regular week's vacation and go somewhere on my own.
But that is that is the greatest compliment to me.
Here I am complimenting you and turning it around as a compliment to me.
But it really is the stature that you have.
You are a joy to be with, and I I've loved being with you.
Thank you very, very much.
This has been Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Krager.
Visit Dennis Prager.com for thousands of hours of Dennis' lectures, courses, and classic radio programs.
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