Feb. 10, 2016 - Rubin Report - Dave Rubin
03:24
| 
| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
| For those of you keeping score at home, last week was one for the Rubin Report record books. | ||
| Our week started off by interviewing Senator John McCain, a war hero, one of the longest serving members of Congress, and a Republican nominee for President of the United States. | ||
| Senator McCain and I had a frank discussion on this year's election, money in politics, and foreign policy. | ||
| What struck me more than anything while talking to the Senator was whether you agree or disagree with his political opinions, it's clear that he's really trying to bridge the ideological divide and do what he feels is right for the country. | ||
| The entire time I was talking to him, I kept thinking what a better candidate Senator McCain would be than any of the current contenders in the GOP rat race. | ||
| Immediately after interviewing Senator McCain, I had the chance to interview Lubna Ahmed. | ||
| Lubna is a 23-year-old engineering student and an atheist fighting for secular values in her homeland of Iraq. | ||
| Simply by talking to me about secularism from the confines of her closed society, she instantly became braver than pretty much every person that I know. | ||
| I'm honored that she chose me as the first public person to talk to, and I'll always be an ally for her whether she's in Iraq or wherever life takes her. | ||
| While I was in awe of her during the interview, the most impactful part to me was when we talked about some of the people that we both admire, including Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins. | ||
| This portion of our chat illuminated exactly what this show is about, ideas. | ||
| The same ideas that Sam and Richard sparked in me, a 39-year-old guy born in Brooklyn living in Los Angeles, also were sparked in Lubna, a 23-year-old atheist in Iraq. | ||
| This shows you the true power of ideas. | ||
| Good or bad, ideas can transcend nationality, race, or religion. | ||
| My final interview last week was with the former leader of the English Defense League and now outspoken anti-immigration activist Tommy Robinson. | ||
| As I mentioned at the top of the show last week, I was hesitant to even talk to Tommy because people might call me a bigot or a racist. | ||
| Not only am I glad that we did the interview, but I'm really proud of your reaction to it. | ||
| Whether on YouTube, Twitter, or Facebook, you guys all kept the conversation going after Tommy and I put it down. | ||
| It was complete and total confirmation of last week's direct message. | ||
| Being afraid to talk can no longer be part of the equation. | ||
| I have no doubt there is a real movement happening right now. | ||
| People are absolutely sick of being divided. | ||
| Conversation is the key to bringing us together, and that's why in one week I talked to a man who is almost the leader of the free world, a woman who puts her life on the line to say what she believes, and another man who's on a crusade of his own. | ||
| It's totally irrelevant whether I agree with everything my guests say. | ||
| The important thing is to not be afraid to hear them. | ||
| As the internet brings us all closer together, we find ourselves connected with people in a way that we could have only dreamt of a couple years ago. | ||
| Despite that connection, I still get messages from viewers explaining that sometimes you guys are afraid to say certain things to your friends in real life, or to post certain articles on Facebook for all to see. | ||
| If Lubna, a 23-year-old in Iraq, isn't afraid to speak up, then you guys can't be either. | ||
| There's no time for silence anymore. | ||
| Yeah, there are genuinely bad people in the world, and sometimes talking to them won't get you the results you want. | ||
| However, you have to be brave enough to have the conversation in the first place. |
Export Selection