Dennis Prager argues that allowing feelings to dictate behavior inevitably leads to misery, critiquing the modern obsession with self-esteem where high school greatness fails to guarantee future happiness. He illustrates this with anecdotes of a former basketball player and a Columbia student who found their credentials insignificant at Harvard, while addressing gender dynamics by advising parents to focus on producing functioning adults rather than appeasing hormonal moods. Ultimately, the discussion asserts that acting happy despite internal turmoil is crucial for long-term well-being, challenging the notion that emotional validation should govern conduct. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: CohereLabs/cohere-transcribe-03-2026, WAV2VEC2_ASR_BASE_960H, sat-12l-sm, script v26.04.01, and large-v3-turbo
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Feelings Control Behavior and Happiness00:01:21
On today's episode of Timeless Wisdom.
If you allow yourself, and this is super duper serious, if you allow yourself to be better, to the extent that you allow your feelings to do two things.
One, control your behavior.
Two, be the measure of your happiness.
You can never, ever be happy, and you will inflict misery on others.
Other than that, it is a good idea to be guided by your feelings.
That's coming up on Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager.
Rising interest rates, stock volatility, out of control inflation.
People are concerned about what the future holds financially.
This is Dennis Prager for AmFed Coin and Bullion.
There's no better time than the present to move a portion of your IRA into precious metals.
You should know there's a right and a wrong way to set up your precious metals IRA.
Mistakes could cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars in IRS fines.
Call AmFed Coin and Bullion 800 221 7694.
AmericanFederal.com.
That's AmericanFederal.com.
Welcome to Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager.
Hear thousands of hours of Dennis's lectures, courses, and classic radio programs.
And to purchase Dennis Prager's Rational Bibles, go to DennisPrager.com.
Indispensable Elements for a Happy Life00:02:24
Hey, everybody, welcome to the Dennis Prager Show, where we believe that the happy make the world better and the unhappy generally make it worse.
Ergo, ergo, ergo, ergo, the happiness.
The happiness, the happiness.
The happiness.
Hey.
All right, join me, everybody.
I really sang a lot today.
It's the happy, happy, happy, happy hour.
Yes, it is.
It's the happy, happy.
That's right, ladies and gentlemen.
Every week, no politics at this hour.
There are political overtones, but I will never spell them out on the happiness hour.
Ever, This is Politics Free Zone.
The Happiness Hour is because I believe that happiness explains more of the world than economics or sex.
And that is with respect to Marx and Freud.
Prager has the happiness theory of human behavior, they have the economic and sexual theories.
I have the happiness theory.
That's right.
The unhappy.
Cause most of the world's problems.
That includes your family and the world stage.
And that's the way it is.
So, this is a big issue.
It's a moral obligation to act as happy as possible.
The unhappy think that the people who were acting happy all had it easier than they, and they are really, really wrong.
Today's subject is a sine qua non.
I love using Latin phrases.
That approximately 42% of the audience understands.
You think everybody understands sine qua non?
No, I don't think so.
Sine qua non means without which nothing.
In other words, indispensable.
There is an indispensable, there are a number of indispensable elements to a happier life, but this one is primus inter pares.
What is with me in Latin today?
This is primus inter pares and e pluribus unum as well.
The Moody Versus the Non-Moody00:06:24
Not only that, And that's it.
I think I've just exhausted my Latin, haven't I?
Yes.
And that is this.
Are you ready, ladies and gentlemen?
If you allow yourself, and this is super duper serious, if you allow yourself to be better, to the extent that you allow your feelings to do two things one, control your behavior, two, be the measure of your happiness, you can never ever be happy, and you will inflict misery on others.
Other than that, it is a good idea to be guided by your feelings.
Other than those two problems, no problem.
Now, by the way, am I anti feeling?
Folks, let me just say a word on behalf of feelings, lest you hear me incorrectly.
Without feelings, we are robots.
My computer has knowledge but has no feelings.
Hence, I have no emotional relationship to my computer.
That's why I've never quite understood an emotional relationship with any inanimate object, because they don't have feelings.
Feelings are what make us human.
I don't want you to have fewer feelings.
I want you to be guided less by your feelings and more by your mind.
Let me give you an example.
I was speaking to a woman the other day, which we now will say TOD in the name of time saving.
I was speaking to a woman, TOD, and she was telling me that every day she wakes up and she's in a pretty lousy mood.
Now, as it happens, I guess for the better, in this one instance, a wonderful woman, but in this one instance, for the better, she happens not to be married.
Middle aged woman who is not married, but she was open enough.
People open up to me, as they should.
I open up to you.
Why wouldn't you open up to me?
So she was telling me that when she gets up every day, she's in a pretty lousy mood, and over the course of the day, gets better.
So, of course, that doesn't matter.
A lot of people don't wake up chipper.
I do.
That's why my live broadcast is in the morning.
I'm pretty much chipper all day.
Is that right, Sean?
Is that fair to say?
Sean thinks I'm too chipper.
He'd like me actually to be a little more sober in my orientation.
But be that as it may, even if I didn't, I have so long ago determined not to.
To allow moods to determine my behavior, that it is now pretty much instinctive.
Remember, I had this guest on, are we genes or nurture?
And how he said we overrate genes, but he really loved my analysis.
Remember, that was very touching.
Author of this fine book.
And I said, my view is we are 100% genes and 100% environment or nurture.
And he loved it.
So that's exactly right.
We're 100% each, if you will.
But of course, the point, well taken, even though mathematically that's not possible.
Anyway, the more you are governed by mood and feeling, the more you will live a roller coaster.
There are men who do this, women who do this.
My non scientific survey is that this afflicts women.
This is a battle more women have than men do because of female hormones.
So if I'm right and you are a woman listening, please know that.
This is your battle.
Men have their battle against the aggressiveness in their nature, the physical aggressiveness, and their sexual predatory behavior.
Men have to battle normal men.
Typical man has to battle his sexual drive every day.
He does.
Women, most women, typical women, have to battle their hormones in some way, whether it's premenstrual syndrome or not.
It's not the only time where a woman has a bad mood, and not all women do, obviously.
Everything I'm saying is a generality.
Generalities are the mother of wisdom.
We had that broadcast earlier this week.
But obviously, it contains the understanding that not every human falls into any generalization.
Now, this is unbelievably important for every one of your marriages, or 99% of your marriages.
Because 99 or 94.9% of marriages are between a Moody and a non Moody.
Whether it's male or female is secondary to my point that it's almost always a Moody and a non Moody.
And the Moody has an effect on the non Moody, and it's not a good effect.
And it's accumulative over years.
And Moody parents have effects on children.
And Moody children have effects on parents.
And Moody siblings have effects on siblings, as Moody spouses have on spouses.
And Moody friends have effects on friends.
In fact, they'll have fewer friends.
That's pretty much the way it works.
Because how many of you want to have a friend who's moody?
And why don't you just reverse the shoes here for a moment, will you?
If you could choose a friend, one who was upbeat nearly all the time, not phony, just upbeat, cheerful, or one who half the time was morose, gee gee, this is a real toughie, isn't it?
Whom you would choose, even you, the moody.
As I always say in speeches on these subjects, the moody never marry the moody.
One thing you could say about the Moody, they're not stupid.
They never marry one of their own.
One of my favorite lines in my talk on happiness, and it always goes over well because everybody relates to it.
1 8 Prager 776 is the number here.
1 8 P R A G E R 776.
I have touched upon this on many occasions, but I don't know the last time I've devoted the hour on happiness to the subject of not allowing your feelings, because we are in the age of feelings are sacrosanct.
Why We Never Marry Our Own Kind00:14:30
Right?
Self esteem is sacrosanct.
What is important for a child?
Self esteem.
That's baloney.
That's just baloney.
It is wildly overrated in importance that children think well of themselves.
I'm not saying children should think badly of themselves, but it's wildly overstated.
If you think you are hot stuff at 14, you are going to be a very difficult 24, 34, 44, 54 year old.
I don't want 14 year olds to think that they're hot stuff, okay?
It's not good for them.
Not good.
And ain't true.
What's there to think so great about yourself at 14?
But we live in the age of stupidity, as you know.
That is how I have dubbed it.
There was an enlightenment, there was a renaissance, and there was the age of stupidity.
We are living in it.
The citadel of the age of stupidity is the university.
That's the temple.
That's where more stupidity is offered than anywhere else in any concentrated period of time.
And feelings are honored.
How you feel, even to the extent now, and I always promise no politics, this is not meant politically.
To the extent that what sex you feel you are should determine in the state of Maine which bathroom you go to.
Based on feeling, not on biology, not on anything else.
Feelings are sacrosanct, and we are hurting ourselves and our chances for happiness.
Do you relate to this?
For yourself, your spouse, your kid, your parent?
Do you have a question, a challenge?
1 8 Prager 776.
Dennis Prager.
This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.
Rising interest rates, stock volatility, out of control inflation.
People are concerned about what the future holds financially.
This is Dennis Prager for Amfed Coin and Bullion.
There's no better time than the present to move a portion of your IRA into precious metals.
You should know there's a right and a wrong way to set up your precious metals IRA.
Mistakes could cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars in IRS fines.
Call Amfed Coin and Bullion 800 221.
seven six nine four American Federal dot com that's American Federal dot com Now, back to more of Dennis Prager's Timeless Wisdom.
Hi, everybody.
The happiness hour on the Dennis Prager Show because the happy make the world better and the unhappy don't.
1 8 Prager 776.
This can be a life changing hour if you take what I'm saying seriously.
Obviously, if you don't, it won't.
We live, I'm really doing a battle because we live in the age of feelings.
Feelings have become sacrosanct.
We had a much wiser view of feelings to a certain extent.
Well, to a large extent, a wiser view in the past.
Sometimes feelings were too underrated and insignificant.
But right now, we live in the age of exalting feelings.
How do you feel about yourself matters more than how you do or what you do.
I'll give you a great example.
It really is a good one.
They had a study, of course, a number of years ago, ranking students of the equivalent grades in a number of industrialized democracies Korea, Japan, United States, and Britain, Canada, whatever it was.
The United States was one of them.
The kids ranked last in math knowledge, but they ranked first in their self esteem and how they felt about their math knowledge.
So tell me, are feelings that important?
Are you happy that the American kids felt good about their math knowledge?
I'm embarrassed by it.
When feelings don't accord with reality, we have a problem, Houston.
1 8 Prager 776.
Don't be guided, therefore, by feelings nearly as much as you've been told you should.
While I think this afflicts more women than men because of hormones and because they're not taught as little girls to control their feelings as much as boys are taught to control their feelings, it is certainly something that afflicts many men as well.
Not only that, if you monitor your happiness based on how you feel, you'll be a roller coaster.
I am.
Pretty stable.
You can ask anybody who knows me.
You know, what you hear is what you get.
But of course, my feelings veer over the course of the day.
I monitor them a lot.
I am all for your knowing what you feel.
If you don't know what you feel, you're out of touch with yourself.
That's not good either.
I'm not for ignoring, I'm for not letting them dominate.
I want your mind.
And I wrote in my book on happiness, which I certainly hope you have read, Happiness is a Serious Problem.
I've written, I wrote in the book.
That I am writing this book for your mind, not for your feelings.
If the mind is not in control, you can't be happy.
That's the way it works.
1 8 Prager 776.
We go to Phoenix, Arizona, and Mike.
Hello, Mike, Dennis Prager.
Hi, Dennis.
It's great to talk to you.
I'm a huge fan of yours.
Well, thank you for that.
I have greatly enjoyed your show over the last couple of years since I was first introduced to it.
Let me get to the point.
I was in high school in Missouri, actually, the first.
16 years of my life in Missouri.
I got cut from the basketball team in Missouri.
My folks moved to Hawaii, and I became an absolute superstar.
And I will tell you, I was feeling absolutely on the top of the world.
They broadcast our games, they had posters of me around the gym.
It was ridiculous how much I felt good about myself after simple happenstance brought me to Hawaii from a lackluster career in Missouri.
Well, after my parents moved back to the mainland, I was in Hawaii after my senior year going to Harvard.
I had an entire summer to myself, surfboards, job, freedom, house, everything.
I felt good, and yet I was continually empty.
I was dissatisfied.
The things that I had put so much stock in were just providing temporary fulfillment.
There was nothing lasting about it.
And so I think that you're exactly right on point.
You know what you remind me of?
You will love this if you haven't heard this.
And I suspect you haven't because I don't even know if I've mentioned it on radio.
But you say you went to Harvard?
Yes.
Yeah, so listen to this.
This will crack you up.
My brother went to Columbia, undergrad.
And I'll never, of course, I'll never forget because it's quite a while ago.
So, my brother in high school, very much like you, my brother in high school was captain of the basketball team, president of the student organization, editor of the school newspaper, and salutatorian.
So, you know, it's better than the trifecta, right?
So, he thought he was totally understandably on top of the world.
Then he told me, and I was at the time, let's see, if he was 18, then I was 12.
So, I was only 12, but I'll never forget he came home from the first week at Columbia, and he was very down.
And I said, Kenny, what happened?
What's going on?
He said, Well, Dennis, let me just tell you, I just met 700 other captains of basketball teams, presidents of student organizations, and high school newspaper editors.
And not only that, some of them play the oboe.
It's funny you mentioned that, but I will refresh your memory.
You have actually mentioned something akin to that previously on the show within the last three months.
But to your point, 3,200.
Students in my starting class at Harvard, 1,600 of which had been valedictorian.
It just absolutely put my credentials to shame.
So, why did you.
All right.
So, by the way, Alan, we have to do a show on Was Life Fantastic in High School and Did It Stay That Way?
Because it is not a blessing, as it turns out, to have had a great high school career.
Let me.
If I may, Dennis, I'd like to follow up on your next point, which was the.
Feeling good about the math scores?
Yes.
Are you gone?
Oh, no, I'm sorry.
I just wasn't sure if you were still there.
Yeah, I said yes.
Sorry, go on.
It was my math scores that actually got me into Harvard.
And I felt so confident about myself after being cheered and lauded so much at Podunk High School in the middle of public school in Hawaii.
I was so enamored with myself that I was just absolutely in a similar state of dismay the first.
Several months of college, as I realized that feeling good about it meant nothing about my competence or my ability to outshine my competitors.
And I, anyway, if I. All right, no, that's, no, no, no.
That is, it's a great call.
That's why I kept you on so long.
Thank you, Mike.
This is a real dilemma that I think has increased unhappiness in America.
The telling kids how they feel about themselves, the whole self esteem movement has increased unhappiness.
That's my point.
The self esteem movement has increased unhappiness, not decreased it.
The association with high self esteem as a young person with all good things has just been foolish.
Simply been foolish.
And I really do want to do a show on the link between, I don't think there's a link between high school greatness and happiness.
Well, that Michael Medved's first, or at least first well known book, Whatever Happened to the Class of 65.
And he traced what happened to the most popular kids.
It was generally not a happy story.
More on this when we come back on feelings.
Are they a problem for you?
1A Prager 776.
It's so important to make someone happy.
Make just one, someone happy.
Make just one heart to heart you.
You sing to one smile that cheers you, one face that lights when it nears you.
One girl, you're everything.
Two, Faye, if you win it, comes in gold.
Thank you, Jimmy Durante, on behalf of all of us here at the Dennis Prager Show.
Prager here with you.
Do you know we actually did once, and now that I just said Prager here with you, do you remember once, a long time ago, I asked listeners when you talk about me to somebody, do you say Dennis or Prager?
You remember the results?
What do you think?
You weren't here, Sean.
What do you think the results were?
You think Dennis?
I think it was exactly 50 50.
The enemy said Prager and the friend said Dennis.
Nah, nah, I just made that up.
Hello, Dave.
You're listening to the Dennis Prager show, The Happiness Hour, and it's about how feelings sabotage happiness.
Feelings are great.
Don't let them determine your conduct and don't even let them determine your happiness.
I'll give you another example.
Because examples are the only way to teach things.
If you are, let us say, well, I'll speak about myself right now, just in one way.
I have bad sciatica right now.
We're working on it and so on.
But if you would say to me, and it's really bad, and I've had it for decades, so it's flared up in its worst way.
Anyway, if you'd say, Dennis, are you healthy?
The answer is, of course I'm healthy.
I'm healthy, but I have this.
Right now, debilitating problem.
I mean, it's pretty severe.
As I say, I'm getting things done.
But the point that I'm making is I usually use it with the flu, but I'll use it on a personal sense and on something worse than the flu.
You can be healthy and be sick at the same time.
Of course, everybody is.
Every healthy person gets sick.
Every happy person has unhappy periods.
That doesn't make them unhappy.
Any more than sickness in a healthy person makes you a sick person.
At that moment, of course, you have sickness.
At this moment, of course, you have unhappy feelings.
But you have to say to yourself that it is like a cold.
Yeah, I have a cold.
Most people don't let a cold ruin their life.
But they do allow unhappy feelings to ruin their life.
At that time, at any rate.
That's why your mind is the key to happiness.
Your mind.
And your behavior, because that's why, of course, the theme of all of this is act happy, even if you don't feel it.
And I don't mean a plastic smile, I mean a cheerful disposition.
Let's go to Duluth, Georgia.
And Jason.
Hello, Jason.
Dennis Prager.
Hey, Mr. Prager.
How are you, sir?
I'm well.
Thank you.
My call was I grew up with all boys, and now I have all girls.
Whoa, God has a sense of humor.
How many girls?
I have two daughters and a wonderful wife.
Act Happy Even If You Do Not Feel It00:03:21
Okay, go ahead.
Their emotional ranges are confounding most of the time.
That's why he's calling up a guy.
That is.
Well, I mean, I grew up.
Anything to talk to another guy during the day.
No, I mean, I grew up with a man's man of a dad.
He's worked propane since I was five.
And I've got two brothers, and one's going in the military, and I was in the military, so we're all guy guys.
So you are not prepared for all this estrogen?
I am not.
I am awash in an estrogen ocean, barely able to swim.
Right.
But, um,.
I'm learning?
Yeah, go on.
What are you learning?
I'm learning how girls' emotions and feelings work compared to mine.
Because most of the time, I don't know why I've upset them, honestly.
Oh, God.
We have to keep this call.
What you just said is so funny.
The answer is nothing.
That's what you have to understand.
You're getting sucked into Estrogen Village.
We have to protect him, Alan.
I'm glad you called.
You're only 29.
Oh no, yeah, 29.
Jason, you have a chance.
Stay on with me.
I'm going to rescue you.
He's drowning.
He is drowning.
I am about to save a man's life.
He's learning what he did to set off their mood.
It's called breathing.
We'll be back in a moment.
I'm Dennis Prager.
This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.
Rising interest rates, stock volatility, out of control inflation.
People are concerned about what the future holds financially.
This is Dennis Prager for AmFed Coin and Bullion.
There's no better time than the present to move a portion of your IRA into precious metals.
You should know there's a right and a wrong way to set up your precious metals IRA.
Mistakes could cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars in IRS fines.
Call AmFed Coin and Bullion 800-221-7694.
AmericanFederal.com.
That's AmericanFederal.com.
I can't stop the smile on my face 'cause I'm happy.
I'm happy now.
Back to more of Dennis Prager's Timeless Wisdom.
And all of my friends are in this place, and I can't stop the smile on my face 'cause I'm happy.
I'm happy you're in this place.
One, two, three, so smile.
Smile all my friends.
You're in the happy place, so smile.
Another good edition, I must say.
I'm happy with this edition of the Happiness Hour.
Really good stuff, which reminds me that these are meant to be life changing hours.
In fact, every hour I broadcast, I hope, has that impact.
Certainly the Happiness Hour.
So people subscribe to the show to hear it again or hear what they missed and play it for others as well.
It's called Pragertopia.
It's a grand total of $6 a month and it makes a magnificent Father's Day gift and graduation gift.
Well, you let a graduate hear this show for a couple of weeks.
We have parents who've written to me.
Said that the show has turned their kids around at college.
And it's meant to.
This, along with Prager University, that's what I'm here for, folks.
Subscribing to Pragertopia for Father's Day00:07:49
Anyway, the last call I have to get back to.
I am going to save Jason.
And I know that sounds grandiose, but I mean it.
Jason, we were kidding, but now let me tell you something important.
Can you replay that line for Jason?
Oh, you can't yet.
You had said to me, you have a wife and two daughters.
And you said, you're learning about women's moods and so on.
And.
And you made the comment that you know you figure out what is it you did to trigger off their mood, right?
Right, okay.
The answer is nothing.
You cannot walk around like that because what you are going to be doing is not being real with your wife and daughters because you will be walking on eggshells.
Which egg will I burst when I tiptoe?
And that is not good.
They have to learn, unless you're a bad guy.
If you're a bad guy and you do obnoxious things, then I have no comment.
But you don't sound like that.
And if you are, obviously the whole thing is mood.
Do you follow what I'm saying?
Yeah, I definitely do.
I don't think I'm obnoxious.
I think there are times where the women in the house would disagree, but I don't find myself obnoxious.
Well, all right.
Most obnoxious people don't.
So, you know, we're in somewhat of a stalemate here.
But I do.
Look, in this regard, women have to fight their natures more than you have to fight.
Give me an example.
Do you have an example of how you set off a bad mood recently?
Yes, I do.
I play video games, which I'm sure you can devote a whole hour to men who need to grow up and not play video games.
But I don't ever do anything recreationally.
I'm always home with my family when I'm not at work, and I play video games.
Well, we fell on hard times, and I had to trade that video game in for cash to get us through a week until I got a paycheck because I just started a job last month.
And I have.
Repeatedly brought up the lamenting missing of that console, and it's rubbing my wife's last nerve, which I'm sure is understandable.
Okay, that's a.
Wait, this is not a male female issue as much as it is a marital issue over her priority and your priority where money goes.
So that was not the exact same thing as if I do X, then I set off a bad mood.
This is a disagreement as opposed to a bad mood.
Okay, I got you.
Anyway, it almost, you know what, because of time, let me just summarize here.
Because this is, because I am not in Jason's home, and for all I know, he does legitimately set off bad moods.
I don't know.
I do know, though, that virtually every man I know who is married or who has daughters has this issue to confront.
What will trigger anger at me?
That is why the jokes are told.
You know the famous joke if a man is in a forest alone, And a tree falls, is he still at fault?
You know, or you don't even need the tree falls.
If a man is alone in a forest, is he still wrong?
You know, however the joke goes, right?
You know, all right, I'm wrong, honey.
I'm wrong.
Now, sometimes men are.
Obviously, of course, both sexes have wrong and right.
But this notion of walking around worried about what mood I will trigger in my daughter or in my wife is not a good thing for her and is not a good thing for.
For him.
That's the reason for this hour about not letting moods do these control your behavior and emotions about happiness.
Allison, Phoenix, Arizona.
Hi, Allison.
Hi.
Hi.
Can you hear me?
I do.
Good.
Well, I'm loving this hour.
I think this is kind of fun.
It's making me laugh, which makes me, with my first comment, I think happiness or confidence is followed by happiness.
Wait, wait, wait.
Confidence is confidence, self esteem is self esteem.
They're not the same exact things.
I am against the self esteem movement.
Okay, go ahead.
Don't be happy.
Be happy.
Anyway, so I think when you're, last guy was on there, you guys are talking about sports and athletics, and after high school, you're really in nothing.
Yes.
And I find my, I find I have a family, and their parents involving themselves in their kids' lives, trying to create confidence, trying to create happiness, trying to create confidence, trying to create self esteem, trying to protect their kids from life's hurts.
And I see this, and so they're missing out on all these other things in life.
There is an article just recently.
We're going to talk about it next week.
About how good it is for kids to actually swallow dirt.
I mean it literally.
I don't mean this figuratively or emotionally, psychologically.
I mean literally.
We have protected kids from everything so much, we are injuring their life possibility of happiness.
We are injuring our children by micromanaging their lives for safety.
God, when I think of how when I grew up, or Alan, when he thinks about when he grew up, the lack of parental involvement vis a vis today.
Now, I think they could have been a little more involved, frankly.
That's true.
I do.
I don't say that there was a perfect middle ground.
But frankly, between the two, today is worse.
I'd rather have the non involved parent.
I don't mean not take care of you or abuse you, just not involved.
Alan, how many baseball games did your father attend?
Zero, exactly.
Alan's father, who just passed away, by the way, and whom I adored, everybody adored, was a great father.
It never occurred to Alan, why isn't he micromanaging my life?
If my parents micromanaged my life, I would not be Dennis Prager.
I would be a wimpier guy.
Back in a moment.
This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.
Rising interest rates, stock volatility, out of control inflation.
People are concerned about what the future holds.
Financially, this is Dennis Prager for Amfed Coin and Bullion.
There's no better time than the present to move a portion of your IRA into precious metals.
You should know there's a right and a wrong way to set up your precious metals IRA.
Mistakes could cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars in IRS fines.
Call Amfed Coin and Bullion 800 221 7694.
AmericanFederal.com.
That's AmericanFederal.com.
Now, back to more of Dennis Prager's Timeless Wisdom.
There are others much worse.
Than you.
If a load of trouble should arrive, laugh and say it's great to be alive.
And keep your sunny side up, up, hide the side that gets blue.
If you have nine sons in a row, baseball teams make money, you know.
All right, everybody, Dennis Prager here, the Happiness Hour.
Let your laughter come through.
And in Prescott, Arizona, it's Renee.
Iron A, Dennis Prager.
Hi, Dennis.
How are you doing?
Good, thanks.
Great.
I have a question.
Balancing Involvement With Teenagers00:03:36
How do I deal with my almost 15 year old daughter's mood swings continuously if I grew up with brothers and I never really had to deal with that?
This case has nothing to do with brothers, sisters, or anything like that.
There is a simple rule.
My darling daughter, if you are in a bad mood, That's unfortunate and that's sad, but you're the only one who should know about it.
You are certainly always free and welcome to open up to me, your mom, or open up to dad, whatever the case may be, and let us know why you're feeling bad.
But you may not act on it in this house.
You can verbally express it, you can feel it, but you may not act on it.
But I noticed that she tends to say that I don't understand her if I don't understand her.
There was no teenager since Cain and Abel that thought their parents understood them.
I like that.
It's just a fact.
It is built in to the teenage mind.
I didn't think my parents understood me to the extent that I gave it a serious thought.
I am sure that my teenage kids, the same exact thing.
In fact, not sure.
I mean, one of them simply said, you know, Dad, you just don't understand me.
So, to which there is no answer.
Okay, I don't understand you, but I do understand what is necessary human behavior.
I think I do understand you.
We have a difference.
Okay, so be it.
I can't prove that I do.
You can't prove that I don't.
So we have a stalemate.
But I can make demands upon behavior.
I am a behaviorist, Renee, and so should every parent be.
Yes, I am too.
I have a sister who micromanages her daughter's life, and it makes it so much harder, not just for the kids, but for her.
That's right.
Well, parents believe that it is not possible.
You know the old thing, you can't be too thin or too rich?
There should now be an addition.
You cannot be too involved in your kid's life.
But in fact, you can.
You can be too thin.
It's called anorexic.
Well, and I see how much she doesn't want me to be like that.
My daughter doesn't want me to be like that, but yet she yearns for it.
And I'm not going to micromanage because I want her to fall into the trap.
The parents' task, exactly.
Look, here is where you've got to make peace with a very tough thing.
Your major aim is to produce a good functioning adult, your major aim is not to be loved by your teenager.
Exactly.
It's very hard, but if you do it, she'll spend the rest of her life thanking you.
Okay, my friends, call in on any subject under the sun now.
Meredith, Reagan, Ruth, Doug, Wanda, I am so sorry I didn't get to your calls, but now call in on anything on The Dennis Prager Show.
On tomorrow's episode of Dennis Teaches the Torah.
Listen to this.
This is the only instance in a biblical narrative of a man kissing a woman who is neither his mother nor his wife.
This is it.
Come back tomorrow for Dennis Prager's signature series on the first five books of the Bible, Dennis Teaches the Torah.
This has been Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager.
Visit DennisPrager.com for thousands of hours of Dennis' lectures, courses, and classic radio programs, and to purchase Dennis Prager's Rational Bibles.
Kissing a Woman in Biblical Narrative00:00:30
Rising interest rates, stock volatility, out of control inflation.
People are concerned about what the future holds financially.
This is Dennis Prager for Amfed Coin and Bullion.
There's no better time in the present to move a portion of your IRA into precious metals.
You should know there's a right and a wrong way to set up your precious metals IRA.
Mistakes could cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars in IRS fines.