Dennis Prager Show - Dennis & David: The Problem with Modern Happiness
Aired: 2026-05-07
Duration: 39:11


=== Spontaneous Family Broadcast (07:02) ===

[00:00:00]  On today's episode of Timeless Wisdom, want to come on the air, young man?
[00:00:06]  Want to put on his mic?
[00:00:07]  This is totally spontaneous.
[00:00:10]  My older son is in from Florida.
[00:00:13]  When he was a little kid, he'd come to my night show that I did in Los Angeles and often would sleep during the show.
[00:00:21]  David, welcome.
[00:00:22]  It is a joy to have you.
[00:00:23]  Thank you.
[00:00:24]  And I think that since that time, I've had to have radio or television or something on while I fell asleep.
[00:00:32]  And I always wondered why.
[00:00:35]  That's coming up on Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager.
[00:00:38]  And it starts right now.
[00:00:41]  Andy Chrisman, a for him, has spent 40 plus years in Christian music.
[00:00:45]  And chances are he knows your favorite artist personally.
[00:00:49]  Now he's bringing you their stories.
[00:00:51]  I'm Andy Chrisman.
[00:00:52]  In his new podcast, One Degree of Andy, he sits down with the voices behind the song for real, honest, and faith filled conversations you won't hear anywhere else.
[00:01:00]  That's a great question.
[00:01:02]  If you love Christian music, this is your backstage pass.
[00:01:05]  The One Degree of Andy podcast.
[00:01:07]  Listen now.
[00:01:07]  To one degree of Andy, wherever you get your podcasts.
[00:01:12]  Welcome to Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager.
[00:01:15]  Hear thousands of hours of Dennis's lectures, courses, and classic radio programs.
[00:01:20]  And to purchase Dennis Prager's Rational Bibles, go to DennisPrager.com.
[00:01:27]  Hey, everybody, it's the Happiness Hour.
[00:01:28]  And remember, every week, come hella high water, lice, vermin, smiting of the firstborn, darkness does not anything happen.
[00:01:37]  It does not postpone the Happiness Hour.
[00:01:41]  Everybody, it's the happy, happy, happy, happy end!
[00:01:49]  That's correct, my friends, because the happy make the world better and the unhappy make the world worse.
[00:01:54]  You have a moral obligation to act as happy as possible, if not actually be as happy as possible.
[00:02:00]  Happiness is a moral virtue, not a psychological state.
[00:02:04]  Woo hoo hoo!
[00:02:05]  That's big!
[00:02:07]  And that's my thesis.
[00:02:10]  Happiness is a moral virtue.
[00:02:13]  Easy to be cranky.
[00:02:18]  It's easy to be miserable.
[00:02:24]  It's tough to be happy in a difficult life.
[00:02:29]  Life is difficult.
[00:02:30]  Or, as I like to put it, life is relentless.
[00:02:34]  Want to come on the air, young man?
[00:02:37]  Want to put on his mic?
[00:02:38]  This is totally spontaneous.
[00:02:41]  My older son is in from Florida.
[00:02:45]  And I don't know when the last time is that you were on any of my shows, David.
[00:02:51]  David is a father himself, which makes me a grandfather.
[00:02:56]  And, you know, every grandfather thinks that his grandkid is the cutest, but I know it.
[00:03:06]  See, that's the thing.
[00:03:07]  Others think it.
[00:03:12]  Actually, I'm slightly more rational than that.
[00:03:15]  While he is unbelievably adorable, there is a possibility, however faint it may be, that others are just as cute.
[00:03:26]  It's hard to believe.
[00:03:30]  Dave has been in my broadcast studios from the beginning.
[00:03:35]  No, not from the very, very beginning.
[00:03:36]  I am broadcasting one year more than you're alive.
[00:03:40]  You're 29, correct?
[00:03:42]  You want to give him a mic?
[00:03:45]  Yeah, are we good?
[00:03:46]  You want to say correct again?
[00:03:49]  I'm not hearing him.
[00:03:52]  Try that other mic.
[00:03:53]  I'm sorry, Dave.
[00:03:54]  This is totally spontaneous, ladies and gentlemen.
[00:03:56]  He had no idea.
[00:03:57]  He came back from the men's room, and I told him he might be talking on a national radio show.
[00:04:02]  But he's very calm.
[00:04:05]  Anyway, you're 29.
[00:04:06]  I'm broadcasting 30 years.
[00:04:08]  When he was a little kid, he'd come to my night show that I did in Los Angeles, and often would sleep during the show.
[00:04:18]  And it was very humbling for me when you put your own child to sleep while broadcasting.
[00:04:24]  David, welcome.
[00:04:25]  It is a joy to have you.
[00:04:26]  Thank you.
[00:04:26]  And I think that.
[00:04:28]  Since that time, I've had to have radio or television or something on while I fell asleep.
[00:04:35]  And I always wondered why.
[00:04:38]  I thought it was because I was bottle fed, but I think it's actually because.
[00:04:42]  Ooh.
[00:04:46]  That was good.
[00:04:48]  All right.
[00:04:49]  Today is open line for happiness.
[00:04:52]  Give me a call 1 8 Prager 776.
[00:04:54]  I'm going to chat with David a little bit here while you folks call.
[00:04:58]  And any subject.
[00:04:59]  It's.
[00:05:00]  I set the agenda 48 out of 52 shows.
[00:05:04]  Let's say two I take off and you hear a best of.
[00:05:07]  So 46 out of 50, I set the topic.
[00:05:13]  Four times a year, I have you do it.
[00:05:16]  You know that he's even texting now?
[00:05:19]  This generation texts.
[00:05:21]  I think that your generation, there will be people who will be dying.
[00:05:26]  As they die, they will be texting.
[00:05:28]  Dying.
[00:05:30]  Just about to leave the earth.
[00:05:33]  And with some initials.
[00:05:37]  Dave, welcome back to LA.
[00:05:39]  How does it feel to come back to LA where you grew up?
[00:05:43]  It was funny because I love where I live and I live in Miami.
[00:05:47]  But coming back here, the one thing I noticed, as I told you last night, was as I walked out of the terminal, my glasses did not fog up because I have been on the East Coast for about 10 years now.
[00:06:00]  And in August, wherever you are on the East Coast, it's humid.
[00:06:05]  So it was interesting to be in a place where your glasses didn't fog up.
[00:06:09]  Outside of that, not too much of a reaction.
[00:06:11]  It's great to be back.
[00:06:12]  Great to be with friends and family.
[00:06:16]  But being away so long, in some ways, it doesn't feel as if I'm coming home necessarily because it's been so long.
[00:06:24]  Yeah, no, I understand.
[00:06:25]  It's like when I go back to New York.
[00:06:27]  Right.
[00:06:28]  I know I grew up there, but I don't feel this is home.
[00:06:31]  When you move, you move.
[00:06:33]  Exactly.
[00:06:33]  But you are still an LA Teams fan.
[00:06:36]  Yes, absolutely.
[00:06:38]  See, that doesn't leave people.
[00:06:41]  It's so interesting.
[00:06:42]  I always marvel at that when I'm at a Dodger game and they're playing the Cubs, and half the stadium are Chicago Cubs fans.
[00:06:49]  It's like that in LA, in Miami, too, for two reasons.
[00:06:56]  Number one, the fans, I'm sorry to say, in LA and Miami are not that vocal and loyal to their teams.

=== Finding Purpose Beyond Wealth (11:43) ===

[00:07:02]  And also, it's just part of it.
[00:07:05]  You should have been at Kings games.
[00:07:07]  I just want to say.
[00:07:08]  When they were winning the Stanley Cup.
[00:07:10]  Yeah, that's true.
[00:07:12]  But also, people move to those cities so much that people, like you said, retain their team loyalties.
[00:07:18]  So when they come to those cities, they want to see their teams play.
[00:07:23]  Yeah, no, I understand that.
[00:07:25]  And that's going to be true for you.
[00:07:26]  The Angels come to Florida.
[00:07:28]  Exactly.
[00:07:29]  Exactly.
[00:07:30]  Or the Lakers.
[00:07:31]  Though, with my son, I will permit him to root for Miami teams.
[00:07:37]  I don't want him to feel like an outsider.
[00:07:40]  That's an interesting point where the parent pushes onto the kid.
[00:07:45]  The allegiance to a city they've never been to.
[00:07:48]  Yeah, it's a very interesting point.
[00:07:50]  Exactly.
[00:07:50]  Dave, this is the happiness hour.
[00:07:52]  And I know this is almost a silly question, but I'm going to pose a tough one to you.
[00:08:00]  What would you say off the top of your head?
[00:08:03]  Because I know you think these things through, but I still am putting you on the spot.
[00:08:07]  And you don't represent an entire world of 29 year olds.
[00:08:11]  I recognize that.
[00:08:12]  But to the best of your ability, what's the biggest obstacle to happiness in your generation?
[00:08:21]  I think it's two things.
[00:08:23]  Number one is.
[00:08:26]  We grow up with so much materially that we've begun to take so much for granted.
[00:08:34]  We just expect so much to be there.
[00:08:37]  And when you have, as you've spoken about so many times in your book, on the show, when you have high expectations, it's hard for those expectations to be matched.
[00:08:46]  And when expectations aren't matched, it's harder to be happy.
[00:08:51]  So it's hard to have low expectations with so much materially.
[00:08:56]  Second is that.
[00:08:58]  When you have so much materially, it's harder to find a purpose in life.
[00:09:04]  For so many generations and in much of the world, people's purpose, in my opinion, is to put food on the table.
[00:09:10]  But when you almost expect that to be taken care of either by yourself or by your parents, because by and large most of us have food on our table, we have to find a purpose other than survival.
[00:09:21]  And that's when things, I think, get very tricky.
[00:09:24]  As you said about the last hour, people are bored, so they need to find a purpose.
[00:09:30]  To do something because they have so much materially that that's since that's taken care of, they have to find something else, and that becomes the biggest challenge.
[00:09:40]  So, you feel that in a lot of your peers, that's a problem lack of purpose, yes, lack of purpose, yeah, it's a sense of outcome, a sense of comfort.
[00:09:52]  Well, I couldn't agree with you more, and obviously, I'm not agreeing because you're my son.
[00:09:56]  This is my son, David Prager, and I just figured since he was in town and he came to visit at the show that I would share.
[00:10:05]  Him a bit with you.
[00:10:06]  1 8 Prager 776, the happiness hour.
[00:10:13]  Let me take some of your calls.
[00:10:15]  It's an open line happiness hour.
[00:10:17]  We'll begin in Phoenix, Arizona.
[00:10:19]  And Tony, hi Tony, Dennis Prager.
[00:10:22]  Hi Dennis.
[00:10:23]  Hi.
[00:10:24]  I just want to let you know yesterday was your birthday, and it was my daughter's birthday also, who I haven't seen in over 25 years.
[00:10:32]  And I called her and left a message and wished a happy birthday.
[00:10:36]  And I just want to let you know that your birthday inspired me to do that.
[00:10:42]  Well, I got the chills, actually, because that's one of my, and I use the word, crusades in life, and that is to have parents and children who don't talk to one another talk to one another.
[00:10:52]  May I ask why the 25 year gap?
[00:10:56]  Well, I also have a son I haven't seen, too.
[00:10:58]  He's 42.
[00:11:00]  Why?
[00:11:00]  My ex wife poisoned them.
[00:11:03]  You know, I didn't have custody of them, and I was out west here in Phoenix.
[00:11:08]  And it just got worse, and she just, you know, when you hear poison all the time, you get poisoned yourself.
[00:11:14]  Did you get a response from your daughter?
[00:11:17]  No, no.
[00:11:18]  I've written letters over the past years and called, but I was just inspired yesterday by your birthday to call her and wish her a happy birthday.
[00:11:27]  Tony, I really pray, and I don't do that much.
[00:11:31]  I don't ask God for much.
[00:11:33]  I ask God to have your daughter respond to you.
[00:11:38]  We'll continue.
[00:11:39]  You're listening to the Dennis Prager Show, The Happiness Hour.
[00:11:44]  This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.
[00:11:50]  We live in a time where the moment you question the narrative, you're told to stop thinking and start complying.
[00:11:55]  That's why what Angel is doing matters.
[00:11:57]  With eye opening documentaries like Thank You, Dr. Fauci, and RFK Legacy, Angel is willing to explore the issues others avoid.
[00:12:05]  In a culture shaped by gatekeepers, Angel offers something rare a platform for truth seeking storytelling that isn't constrained by fear or conformity.
[00:12:14]  Go to angel.comslash Prager, join the Angel Guild, and watch these films today.
[00:12:22]  Now, back to more of Dennis Prager's Timeless Wisdom.
[00:12:27]  Happiness Hour at Dennis Prager's show.
[00:12:29]  I was talking to my son who's 29 and visiting from Miami.
[00:12:36]  And I asked him what he thinks the biggest obstacles to the happiness of people his age are.
[00:12:43]  And I agree with him the purpose issue.
[00:12:48]  Once you have enough food and enough shelter, what do you do?
[00:12:51]  What do you do for purpose?
[00:12:54]  Yes, and that should be a subject unto itself, but because it would enter the political, I won't speak about it much right now.
[00:13:04]  Anyway, this is the open line, which I do a couple of times, a few times a year on the Happiness Hour.
[00:13:10]  I was talking about texting.
[00:13:12]  I was ribbing my son about his texting and saying, Your generation, people will be dying and texting that they're dying.
[00:13:19]  My wife just sent me this article.
[00:13:21]  Actually, this news report from yesterday, from August 2nd.
[00:13:27]  At Huntsville, Alabama, a college student from Texas believes he is lucky to be alive after a terrible crash.
[00:13:34]  He was texting and driving when his truck flew off a cliff.
[00:13:41]  Chance Bothies' truck plunged off a bridge and into a ravine.
[00:13:48]  One of the last things he typed indicated what almost happened to him.
[00:13:52]  He wrote, I need to quit texting.
[00:13:55]  Because I could die in a car accident and then went over a cliff.
[00:14:02]  I can only laugh because he's okay.
[00:14:04]  But it is a funny story.
[00:14:09]  All right, let's take some of your calls here.
[00:14:15]  And let's go to Christine.
[00:14:17]  It's Open Line Happiness Hour, Fraser Park, California.
[00:14:21]  Christine, hi.
[00:14:23]  Hi, Dennis.
[00:14:23]  Thank you for taking my call.
[00:14:24]  Where is Fraser Park?
[00:14:26]  It's south of Bakersfield, actually.
[00:14:29]  I was going to guess it, and I didn't.
[00:14:32]  Well, it's a pleasure to talk to you.
[00:14:33]  My husband and I are avid listeners.
[00:14:36]  And I always say thanks to Dennis Prager.
[00:14:37]  My husband converted from left to right.
[00:14:41]  Wow.
[00:14:42]  And you were already on the right?
[00:14:44]  I'm so far right, it's scary.
[00:14:46]  Well, you owe me a cigar.
[00:14:47]  You should send me a cigar.
[00:14:49]  Okay.
[00:14:50]  I should.
[00:14:51]  Yes.
[00:14:51]  Yeah, congratulations.
[00:14:53]  It's conservative.
[00:14:54]  Yeah.
[00:14:56]  Well, you know what's funny?
[00:14:57]  I'll tell you what is funny.
[00:14:59]  Women call up and thank me for converting their husbands to being conservative.
[00:15:04]  Men call up or tell me privately, thank you for having my wife listen to your male female hour and being more receptive to certain overtures.
[00:15:17]  So, men have a different game plan.
[00:15:21]  Yes, I agree with you.
[00:15:22]  Well, that's kind of why I call because thanks to you, I made a conscious decision to be happy.
[00:15:28]  You know, I'm of an age where I spent the 70s.
[00:15:32]  Growing up, small child through my teenage years, being brainwashed by the feminist left.
[00:15:37]  You know, a woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle.
[00:15:40]  And that sort of got shoved down my throat, you know, even through Sesame Street, et cetera, and all the media.
[00:15:47]  And thanks to you and the Happiness Hour and me embracing my faith, getting right with God, I made this conscious decision to be happy because I realized if I was responsible for my happiness, I was obviously responsible for my unhappiness.
[00:16:01]  And I was essentially always angry at my husband for not being psychic, not knowing intuitively, you know, what my needs were, what my desires were, you know, what needed to be done around the house, et cetera.
[00:16:15]  Basically, I was angry because it wasn't all about me.
[00:16:17]  And then one day I just decided to be happy and be the kind of wife my husband wanted me to be in his marriage.
[00:16:24]  I decided to take the first step.
[00:16:26]  And my husband turned on a dime, let me tell you.
[00:16:29]  I was nice first, and that's all it took.
[00:16:32]  And our marriage is fabulous.
[00:16:35]  We had some rocky times in the past.
[00:16:38]  We've been together 24 years.
[00:16:39]  We have two children.
[00:16:41]  And I'm happier than I have ever been.
[00:16:44]  All it took was, I mean, it started about five years ago.
[00:16:46]  I took my first step into a synagogue, and I was like, it's like God whacked me on the forehead and said, What took you so long?
[00:16:53]  You know, you're finally here.
[00:16:54]  And it was like an epiphany.
[00:16:57]  And I just decided that I'm going to make more of an effort instead of being so selfish.
[00:17:03]  And my husband responded immediately.
[00:17:06]  And we can't wait to see each other.
[00:17:08]  I can't tell you.
[00:17:10]  What were your last words?
[00:17:12]  I'm sorry.
[00:17:12]  I was going to say, At the end of the workday, we can't wait to see each other.
[00:17:15]  Wow.
[00:17:15]  Wow.
[00:17:17]  You know what?
[00:17:17]  Better than a cigar, and now I'm being very serious, I'd like you to say some of these things on a little video and email it to me.
[00:17:26]  Oh, okay.
[00:17:28]  I'm very serious.
[00:17:29]  It would mean the world to me.
[00:17:30]  God bless you.
[00:17:31]  Thank you.
[00:17:32]  Love to your husband.
[00:17:34]  I decided to treat him nice, and then he turned on a dime.
[00:17:41]  That's it.
[00:17:43]  That's it.
[00:17:47]  For the vast majority, not all, there are some real loser men.
[00:17:52]  But for the vast majority or the great majority of men, that's what it takes.
[00:17:59]  That's it.
[00:18:02]  For some men, nothing will work.
[00:18:05]  I fully grant that.
[00:18:08]  Happy wife, happy life is a variant of that.
[00:18:12]  It's not identical, but it's related.
[00:18:18]  But that's really what it takes.
[00:18:20]  The woman, I've always said, the woman.
[00:18:24]  I believe the woman makes the marriage.
[00:18:29]  If the man is a decent man, I'm not talking about men with very serious psychological problems or men who are addicted to a drug or alcohol, or certainly not talking about serial philanderers or anything like that.

=== Wisdom Lived Out in Children (14:35) ===

[00:18:46]  But for the average decent guy, and the average guy is decent in America, let me tell you, that really is what it takes.
[00:18:57]  And it was a very powerful, very eloquent call, and I thank you.
[00:19:03]  All right, let's go to Kaylee in Dallas, Texas.
[00:19:06]  How old are you, Kaylee?
[00:19:08]  I'm 17 years old.
[00:19:10]  How do you spell your name?
[00:19:12]  K A Y L E Y. Is that the normal spelling of Kaylee?
[00:19:18]  I think there are a lot of normal spellings of Kaylee.
[00:19:22]  That's what I thought.
[00:19:23]  Okay.
[00:19:24]  Anyway, thanks for calling.
[00:19:25]  What's on your mind?
[00:19:27]  Well, um,.
[00:19:28]  Your texting commentary reminded me of my theory about texting.
[00:19:33]  You know, humans have always been writing to each other from the Pony Express to emails, but, you know, that would, the Pony Express obviously took months and, you know, up to years going across the oceans.
[00:19:48]  Now, you know, we text, and, you know, it seems to be a natural sort of way of communication for humans.
[00:19:57]  I just think it's different now because of the instant gratification factor.
[00:20:04]  Very intelligent point.
[00:20:06]  And you're welcome.
[00:20:08]  And go on.
[00:20:09]  And therefore, what?
[00:20:12]  And therefore, you know, maybe there's a reduced amount of joy you get from talking to someone.
[00:20:21]  But on the other hand, you could be happier because you're in constant communication with this very person.
[00:20:29]  A man I deeply respect just last night said to me he thinks that.
[00:20:33]  Your generation talks to one another less because of texting.
[00:20:37]  Do you agree?
[00:20:39]  I do agree.
[00:20:41]  That's interesting.
[00:20:43]  We'll be back in a moment.
[00:20:44]  Happy to Sarah Dennis Prager Show.
[00:20:48]  This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.
[00:20:55]  We live in a time where the moment you question the narrative, you're told to stop thinking and start complying.
[00:20:59]  That's why what Angel is doing matters.
[00:21:02]  With eye opening documentaries like Thank You, Dr. Fauci.
[00:21:05]  And RFK Legacy.
[00:21:07]  Angel is willing to explore the issues others avoid.
[00:21:10]  In a culture shaped by gatekeepers, Angel offers something rare, a platform for truth seeking storytelling that isn't constrained by fear or conformity.
[00:21:19]  Go to angel.comslash Prager, join the Angel Guild, and watch these films today.
[00:21:27]  Now, back to more of Dennis Prager's Timeless Wisdom.
[00:21:31]  It's so important to make someone happy.
[00:21:35]  Make just one.
[00:21:37]  Jimmy Durani, thank you, sir.
[00:21:40]  Yes, it is nice.
[00:21:41]  It's hard to make somebody happy.
[00:21:43]  It's a beautiful song, but it's hard.
[00:21:45]  My theory is you make yourself happy.
[00:21:47]  And ironically, then all those around you will be happier.
[00:21:51]  People want to be around happier people.
[00:21:54]  Oh, I can't believe it.
[00:21:55]  The call I was about to take.
[00:21:56]  This is the most frustrating part of talk radio.
[00:21:59]  The call I was about to take.
[00:22:01]  Somebody wanted to ask my son a question, and then they hung up.
[00:22:07]  And there's nothing you can do.
[00:22:10]  Should I ask the question anyway?
[00:22:11]  Because I read it.
[00:22:13]  Yeah?
[00:22:14]  So somebody, I don't even know what city, not that it matters, I guess, but they were going to ask you, in light of your mom's and my divorce, your own happiness and its effect on you.
[00:22:32]  I don't know if it had, it definitely had effects.
[00:22:36]  I know it had effects.
[00:22:38]  In terms of happiness, I don't think so.
[00:22:40]  I think that one of the most important things for kids to grow up in, it's pretty obvious, is to be in a happy house.
[00:22:46]  And if two people are staying together and can't be happy, then it's going to affect the kid adversely.
[00:22:55]  In addition to that, I think we model a lot of things, whether we want to or not, from our parents.
[00:23:01]  And if we see a loveless marriage, then wouldn't we model our marriage after that as well, potentially?
[00:23:09]  So I think having two parents married is obviously the ideal.
[00:23:17]  But having.
[00:23:19]  Two happy homes is better than having one unhappy home.
[00:23:22]  I think what happens though a lot is I've seen that people attribute their happiness to getting divorced.
[00:23:32]  They think that if they get divorced, they'll be happy.
[00:23:35]  But that's just shifting the blame of their happiness to somebody else.
[00:23:40]  And as you say all the time, you're responsible for your own happiness.
[00:23:44]  So it's a challenge.
[00:23:47]  But I think ultimately, if people say they're staying together for their kids, it's also bad because the kids will know.
[00:23:56]  And that'll reinforce the children that the only thing that matters in a parent's life is their children.
[00:24:04]  Which is not good because when you hear that, it's a recipe for narcissism.
[00:24:09]  Whoa, good stuff.
[00:24:11]  All right.
[00:24:12]  Thank you, Dave.
[00:24:13]  Dave's visiting from Miami and came to the show, and I figured I'd introduce him.
[00:24:18]  I don't think, when was the last time?
[00:24:21]  The best thing we ever did.
[00:24:23]  Do we have it?
[00:24:24]  We don't have it in our archives.
[00:24:25]  That's terrible, Sean.
[00:24:28]  I think the best thing we ever did, David and I announced a game sitting at an Arizona Diamondbacks game in Phoenix.
[00:24:37]  That was great.
[00:24:38]  It was great.
[00:24:40]  We've never played that.
[00:24:41]  Hey, Dave, have you heard me going down the ice with Wayne Gretzky?
[00:24:45]  I think it's amazing.
[00:24:45]  I think it was hilarious.
[00:24:46]  I did.
[00:24:46]  I listened to it with my brother in Miami and we were cracking ice.
[00:24:52]  It was hilarious.
[00:24:54]  I thought it was great.
[00:24:56]  That's my other son.
[00:24:57]  I thought the thought of you on ice skates was actually fun.
[00:24:59]  Oh, that's painful.
[00:25:01]  I did ice skate.
[00:25:02]  All right, as it happens, I even bought ice skates when I lived there.
[00:25:05]  The Kings send out a line of Wayne Gretzky along with Luke Robotai and Dennis Frager.
[00:25:10]  Gretzky wins the faceoff.
[00:25:11]  He gives it to Robita.
[00:25:12]  Robita gives it to Dennis Prager.
[00:25:14]  Here's Prager to center ice with Gretzky.
[00:25:15]  Two on one break.
[00:25:16]  Gretzky back to Prager.
[00:25:17]  He stumbles and falls.
[00:25:24]  Very humiliating.
[00:25:25]  That's probably what would have happened.
[00:25:29]  I agree.
[00:25:30]  What am I going to say?
[00:25:32]  All right, let's go to some more of your calls.
[00:25:34]  This is really an open happiness hour here.
[00:25:39]  And let's go to Don in.
[00:25:44]  Levine, Arizona.
[00:25:46]  Hi.
[00:25:47]  Hi, Dennis.
[00:25:48]  Appreciate you, too, Dave.
[00:25:50]  Thank you.
[00:25:50]  It's good to.
[00:25:51]  There's a proverb, I believe, that talks about wisdom being born out or lived out in our children.
[00:25:56]  And I love to have your family on there and to see that born out in life.
[00:26:02]  But I began listening to your Happiness Hour as well as your Male Female Hour with my 17 year old son.
[00:26:07]  And last week on Friday, because I'm trying to invoke some conversation and some debate with him, because he's at the point right now where he's kind of smarter than most people, including his father.
[00:26:18]  And so I want to kind of stimulate conversation with him.
[00:26:21]  So we were talking last week about how love is the best motivator.
[00:26:28]  And he began to challenge that.
[00:26:29]  And he was stating a couple different examples.
[00:26:32]  One of them being that if you were to ask any of the kids in his Christian school, what motivates them to do better in school?
[00:26:40]  And he was convinced that it was out of fear.
[00:26:43]  And I said, well, even in that, don't you believe that a love for yourself could be a more positive motivator?
[00:26:50]  Reason why you're doing well in school rather than the fear of getting a poor grade and reflecting poorly on you?
[00:26:56]  Interesting debate.
[00:26:57]  We'll be back in a moment.
[00:26:58]  You're listening to the Happiness Hour on The Dennis Prager Show.
[00:27:02]  This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.
[00:27:09]  We live in a time where the moment you question the narrative, you're told to stop thinking and start complying.
[00:27:14]  That's why what Angel is doing matters.
[00:27:17]  With eye opening documentaries like Thank You, Dr. Fauci, and RFK Legacy.
[00:27:22]  Angel is willing to explore the issues others avoid.
[00:27:25]  In a culture shaped by gatekeepers, Angel offers something rare, a platform for truth seeking storytelling that isn't constrained by fear or conformity.
[00:27:33]  Go to angel.comslash Prager, join the Angel Guild, and watch these films today.
[00:27:41]  Now, back to more of Dennis Prager's Timeless Wisdom.
[00:27:47]  Hello, everybody.
[00:27:48]  Dennis Prager here, the Happiness Hour on the Dennis Prager Show.
[00:27:51]  The last caller, this is really open line, a happiness hour.
[00:27:55]  We do it about three or four times a year.
[00:27:57]  That's it.
[00:27:58]  Otherwise, I set the agenda on happiness and you and I discussed that particular topic.
[00:28:05]  My son, who is visiting in LA from Miami, is in studio.
[00:28:12]  I've been talking to him as well.
[00:28:14]  That was an answer that I think affected people when they asked you, and you were very open about the effects of divorce on your happiness.
[00:28:25]  To the best of my knowledge, right now, and I think.
[00:28:29]  I mean, you're a pretty happy guy.
[00:28:31]  Yeah, absolutely.
[00:28:32]  Absolutely.
[00:28:33]  Yeah.
[00:28:35]  1A Prager776, the last caller raised the question because he's having a discussion with his 17 year old son.
[00:28:43]  What's more animating, fear, as I recall it, fear or love?
[00:28:50]  Though he spoke about love of self.
[00:28:52]  I'm not a big fan of love of self personally.
[00:28:56]  I never use that term.
[00:28:57]  And if somebody said, Do you love yourself?
[00:29:01]  I never ever think of whether I love myself.
[00:29:03]  I've never thought of it.
[00:29:05]  I don't even understand it.
[00:29:07]  And I'm not knocking it, I'm just saying I don't understand it.
[00:29:12]  I try to earn my respect.
[00:29:16]  In regard to how I feel about me, I think always of the term respect.
[00:29:23]  Do I respect me?
[00:29:25]  I don't think about do I love me.
[00:29:27]  But anyway, love and fear, I don't care what animates good behavior.
[00:29:32]  I read to you recently, it was a terrifically interesting study.
[00:29:37]  People who believe in hell act better.
[00:29:41]  People who believe only in heaven don't act as good, as decently, as people who believe in hell as well as heaven.
[00:29:50]  How do you like that?
[00:29:51]  So that's why, you know, it says, and I did this on an Ultimate Issues Hour, which we rebroadcast, I think, recently.
[00:30:02]  Should you fear your parents?
[00:30:05]  Right?
[00:30:07]  Which is a biblical command.
[00:30:08]  It says, honor your father and mother, and it says, fear your mother and father.
[00:30:15]  I know some people like to translate it as hold in awe, and there is that element.
[00:30:24]  It's not fear as in be scared of, but it's fear.
[00:30:28]  There is an element of fear.
[00:30:30]  As I've often commented, I'll never forget the teenager who said, Do you do drugs?
[00:30:36]  He said, No.
[00:30:36]  I said, Why not?
[00:30:37]  He said, Because my mother would kill me.
[00:30:40]  I never heard a teenager say, I wouldn't do drugs as I love myself.
[00:30:44]  I'm not knocking it.
[00:30:47]  I'm just saying, I think fear animates much more of the lack of use of drugs.
[00:30:53]  And that's all I care about behavior.
[00:31:02]  If I wrote a sixth book, which I intend to write a sixth, seventh, and eighth, but my ninth book would be Behavior is Everything.
[00:31:13]  That's the motto of what I convey politically and in happiness and morally.
[00:31:20]  Behavior is everything.
[00:31:22]  And the problem is, we live in the age of feelings, not the age of behavior.
[00:31:31]  And if that was transmitted and received clearly, that's a very big deal in how you will look at life.
[00:31:42]  The emphasis from the 60s was on feelings, love, everything was about love, love, love.
[00:31:50]  It should all be about behavior.
[00:31:51]  I don't care.
[00:31:52]  If people love me, I care.
[00:31:54]  I care if the people I love love me.
[00:31:56]  But the other 8 billion people or 7 billion people, I care how they behave toward me.
[00:32:02]  Not if they love me.
[00:32:03]  I don't care if America is loved.
[00:32:08]  Yep, that's a big deal.
[00:32:11]  All right, let's go to some more of your calls.
[00:32:13]  Lawrence in Phoenix, Arizona is really coming in today.
[00:32:18]  Hello, Lawrence.
[00:32:19]  Dennis Prager.
[00:32:20]  Hello, Dennis.
[00:32:21]  Thank you for taking my call.
[00:32:22]  Thank you.
[00:32:24]  I have to thank you so much.
[00:32:25]  Listening to you for as long as I have been, I have young children, a six year old son, and I think that a lot of what I learned from you made me go from a very good dad to potentially a great dad.
[00:32:37]  Wow, I'm very, very touched.
[00:32:39]  Give me one example.
[00:32:41]  Well, I'm a firm believer in leading by example, and one day I was driving my son to swim lessons.
[00:32:46]  He was about four, and he was talking about someday having a family of his own.
[00:32:50]  And I said, Yeah, are you going to be a good dad?
[00:32:53]  And he says, Oh, yeah.
[00:32:54]  And I said, Well, what's going to make you be a good dad?
[00:32:57]  He said, Well, I'm going to play with my kids and I'm going to love their mother.
[00:33:01]  Wow.
[00:33:02]  He said that at four?
[00:33:04]  Yeah.
[00:33:05]  Yeah.
[00:33:05]  What's he going to say at six?
[00:33:08]  There's nothing left.
[00:33:10]  Well, you know what he might say to his kindergarten classmates?
[00:33:12]  Huh.
[00:33:13]  Is let your behavior control your feelings because he hears that a lot.
[00:33:19]  They're going to kick him out of school.

=== Leading by Example at Home (04:42) ===

[00:33:22]  Well, no.
[00:33:23]  We're going to a school where a lot of that is welcome.
[00:33:26]  Well, you'll be happy to hear that.
[00:33:28]  If he knows that thing on behavior.
[00:33:31]  And he feels that way about how important it is the way the dad treats the mom, you've got some kid there.
[00:33:38]  And if I played the slightest role in that, I am very, very happy that that is so.
[00:33:43]  Thank you.
[00:33:45]  All right.
[00:33:46]  And let's go to, let's see here.
[00:33:52]  Let's go to Jonathan in Idlewild, California.
[00:33:57]  Hi, Jonathan.
[00:33:58]  Dennis Prager.
[00:34:01]  Jonathan going once.
[00:34:03]  Jonathan is going twice.
[00:34:06]  Jonathan is gone.
[00:34:11]  All right.
[00:34:13]  Carol, what's on your mind?
[00:34:14]  Hello, Carol.
[00:34:15]  Where's Carol?
[00:34:16]  There we go.
[00:34:16]  Hi, Dennis.
[00:34:16]  Hi.
[00:34:17]  You have a fan base in Arizona today.
[00:34:18]  Boy, it's mind blowing.
[00:34:22]  You know, I just wanted to get your thoughts on this texting thing because I'm a mom of teenagers, and I've even seen the difference from my oldest child, who's 24, to now my current teenager, who's almost 15.
[00:34:35]  And what I see with these kids is because they are texting so much and there's less face to face conversation, that because they have that protection of seclusion somewhat, that they're just so open.
[00:34:48]  Interesting.
[00:34:49]  I'm going to comment on that and ask Dave about it.
[00:35:07]  Who's doing this?
[00:35:18]  This is not Bob Marley, right?
[00:35:20]  Oh, yeah, Bobby McFerrin.
[00:35:23]  I was with a woman from Jamaica and I told her I used this on the show.
[00:35:28]  We couldn't remember who it was.
[00:35:30]  Dennis Prager here, The Happiness Hour.
[00:35:34]  This was open line.
[00:35:35]  There are so many wonderful calls, it's very painful if I obviously can't get to everybody.
[00:35:41]  And back to you, Carol.
[00:35:44]  You were saying what about texting and intimacy?
[00:35:46]  Well, I guess what I'm saying is what I'm seeing, and I'm seeing the difference even between my oldest kids and now my younger kids, is this openness.
[00:35:56]  There is no stiff upper lip, there is no stoicism.
[00:35:59]  If you are sad, if you are hospitalized with depression, if you are taking medication, it is in your text, it is on your Facebook page.
[00:36:08]  I mean, there is absolutely what I'm seeing like no boundaries, and I don't know.
[00:36:14]  Is that just a generational thing and that's why I'm uncomfortable with it?
[00:36:18]  Or is this a.
[00:36:20]  I know there's potential harm in it, but I just.
[00:36:24]  I think it's really interesting that these kids.
[00:36:27]  And because they're so open through their texting, they're actually more open in person now, too.
[00:36:32]  I mean, there is nothing.
[00:36:33]  All right, let me bounce that.
[00:36:35]  That's very, very interesting.
[00:36:36]  Let me bounce it off the youngest person in the studio.
[00:36:39]  My son David is 29.
[00:36:41]  How do you react to that?
[00:36:44]  I actually.
[00:36:45]  I don't totally agree.
[00:36:46]  I think that what's happened with not texting, but social media like Facebook, and I'm a victim of this too, but people just put any random thought that they have on.
[00:36:58]  So, but it's usually, from what I've found, people are still pretty private about their most personal issues.
[00:37:07]  So they leave that to friends.
[00:37:09]  I don't think that there's a huge issue interpersonally with texting.
[00:37:12]  I think that sometimes you can get lost in translation with texting.
[00:37:19]  I think what happens sometimes is if you're texting on an iPhone or a smartphone, they'll give you an autocorrect when you're trying to type out something.
[00:37:27]  And I've seen some wild misinterpretations.
[00:37:30]  So outside of that, I don't find a huge deal with it.
[00:37:39]  It's a very interesting and important question.
[00:37:42]  Is it a substitute for real talk?
[00:37:44]  I don't know.
[00:37:46]  I don't know.
[00:37:47]  I don't think anything can ever substitute for real talk.
[00:37:50]  My son and I were just talking about this during the break.
[00:37:53]  The most human thing in some ways is your voice.
[00:37:57]  When I hear a recording of my mother, she is more alive than when I see a picture of her.

=== Real Talk vs Digital Substitutes (01:06) ===

[00:38:04]  Tomorrow, Untimeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager.
[00:38:07]  We found the cassette that answers the question: when was my first happiness hour?
[00:38:13]  This is from January 1999, the first happy hour.
[00:38:19]  Join us tomorrow to hear more on Timeless Wisdom.
[00:38:23]  With Dennis Prager.
[00:38:25]  This has been Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager.
[00:38:28]  Visit DennisPrager.com for thousands of hours of Dennis's lectures, courses, and classic radio programs, and to purchase Dennis Prager's Rational Bibles.
[00:38:42]  We live in a time where the moment you question the narrative, you're told to stop thinking and start complying.
[00:38:47]  That's why what Angel is doing matters.
[00:38:49]  With eye opening documentaries like Thank You, Dr. Fauci, and RFK Legacy, Angel is willing to explore the issues others avoid.
[00:38:57]  In a culture shaped by gatekeepers, Angel offers something rare, a platform for truth seeking storytelling that isn't constrained by fear or conformity.
[00:39:06]  Go to angel.comslash Prager, join the Angel Guild, and watch these films today.