Ep. 2399 - NBA Player RELEASED For Expressing Traditional Christianity

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Here are some things you can do and still not get waived from your team in the NBA. You can wield the gun while drunk at a strip club. You can knock up every woman in a four mile radius of every NBA stadium. You can get arrested for alleged felony assault after concussing and strangling your girlfriend. What is the one thing you absolutely positively cannot do, especially during Holy Week? I'll explain in a moment. Welcome back to the Ben Shapiro Show.

All right, so Jaden Ivey, NBA guard out of Purdue. He used to score about seventeen points, grabb four point nine rebounds as a sophomore. So he was drafted fifth overall in twenty twenty two by the Detroit Pistons. And he's a good player. He posted sixteen points and five assists and four rebounds in his rookie year.

And then in his second season, he scored sixteen points per game, and then he was up to almost eighteen points per game, and he got hurt in his third season, and then he was traded to the Chicago Bulls. And that is where the trouble began. So this week Jaden Ivey posted a video about the NBA's Pride Month. This, of course, is the month where the NBA and pretty much all the NBA teams have nights dedicated to LGBTQ plus minus divided by sign.

And Jaden Ivey got himself in trouble because he posted on Instagram a video talking about NBA's Pride Month. He is a converted, newly religious Christian. They proclaim Pride Month and the NBA. They proclaim it. They they show it to the world. They say come come uh come join us for Pride, for Pride Month. To celebrate unrighteousness. They proclaim it.

Okay, so that seems like fairly traditional Christian belief right there, that you should not actually celebrate pride in what is considered a sin by the vast majority of the religious world. Well, the immediate response of the Chicago Bulls was to can him. They announced that they had waived him due to conduct detrimental to the team. Apparently it was very, very bad for the team that he put out an Instagram video proclaiming the same thing that churches all over the country say all the time.

The Chicago Bulls had coach Billy Donovan, was asked about all of this. It was suggested that Ivy seems to be spiraling. Now, Ivy has reported depression in the past. It is unclear whether he is in the midst of some sort of mental issue or not. But if you're going to cite evidence of a mental issue, this is not the best evidence.

And him just saying traditional religious belief that you shouldn't celebrate pride in what is considered a sin, that is not a spiral. Here was the Bulls head coach trying to explain. I know some of the things that were put out there. Um you know, I think it's a a situation for him where, you know, it's on his own personal Instagram. I don't wanna get into what he put out there, but certainly I hope for him.

You know, he's okay. Um, I don't know, you know, like I've had conversations with Jaden and stuff and he's been always about rehabing his knee and trying to report what and play. Um, but I think organizationally there's certain standards I think we want to have as an organization. And so again, not not a a ringing rebuke there from the coach. Nonetheless, the Bulls let him go because of course you cannot say anything that violates the precept of full scale wokeness on these sorts of issues.

So Jaden Ivey then went to Instagram Live to defend himself. He was at the airport. They said my conduct is detrimental to the team. Right? Why didn't they just say uh we we don't agree with his stance on LGBTQ? Why didn't they say that? Well how how is it how is it conduct detrimental to the team?

What did I do to the team? What did I do to the players? I did nothing but but but practice with them, play with them, pass the ball to them, good teammate to them. Said good job, good shot. I said I said uh Good job. Good pass. Way to way to play, bro. Right? I said these things to my teammates. Was never detrimental to them. So why is it that the NBA and and the Chicago Bulls say that I'm detrimental to the team? How?

'Cause I'cause I ha'cause I believe in in the truth. Because because uh I know Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. I mean, again, he has a point. The team could have just said we disagree with his comments. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. By the way, in the UFC this happens all the time.

And Tana White routinely says this about people that he disagrees with in the UFC who say things that are actually quite morally bad. And he will say, you know, you're allowed to say what you want to say. I disagree with it, but it's not my job to sort of police the speech of other people. But the Bulls just cut Ivy, they just waved him, which is kind of incredible.

Well, Ivy also went off on Steph Curry. And the reason he's going off on Steph Curry is because Steph Curry is frequently brought up. by critics of traditional Christianity in the league apparently, as sort of the example of what Christianity should look like, meaning that you sort of cite the vaguest verses from the Bible while ignoring actual sort of traditional moral practice. So here is Here was Ivy talking about Steph Curry.

That's why you got Steph Curry and he he not even surrendered and y'all believe he's a Christian. Y'all believe he's a Christian because he he he wrote Philippians 413. Y'all think he's a Christian. Why didn't he used to walk out of it? But he's cursing just like the world. We are now about ready to go, so please take your seat, cursing your seat go. Friendship with the world is enmity with God. He's friendship with the world. He don't know Jesus. And I pray he comes to the truth.

That him and his family would be saved in Jesus' name. Because all that stuff is not gonna matter on judgment day. All them rings he got. Now again, I'm just wondering precisely what Ivy said here that merits being waived. I mean, let's let's be real about this. If he were saying the opposite, that Pride Knight is the best. In fact, if he came out as gay today, he would be celebrated by the league. He would be touted as one of the most important basketball players alive if that happened.

The NBA has a political bent, without doubt. And they are putting at risk an entire Christian audience and traditionalist audience that look at this and say, Hold up, you get waived for saying that you don't believe that pride night ought to be celebrated? Not even'cause you did anything wrong, just because you said that you don't agree with the league's stance on these issues.

Back in January 2025, Ivy talked about how he had become a Christian. He sort of explained the story. And again, here he was giving his testimony. My testimony is that, you know, when you're away from Jesus, when you're not Close to him. And when you when you have a relationship with him You're gonna like Satan is is is there. He wants to just steal, kill and destroy. That's all he he comes here to do. He doesn't wanna give you peace. Um he wants to make your life hell.

And that's what I dealt with, you know, most of my life. Um and when I when I came to know Jesus, my life my life ain't like did a whole three sixty And I and I have that peace, I have that joy and uh that I've you know been searching for my entire life. Now, again, recall that the NBA had to have an entire controversy engulf it surrounding whether they should have a night honoring a strip club in Atlanta. Remember this.

And that required the NBA to actually step in after weeks of consternation about whether or not that should happen. But apparently the minute you sound off and you say, Hey, Pride Night, it's got it's got some connotations that are anti Christian, the minute you say that, gone. Well that's an insane tactic from a league that wants to maximize its fan base, not minimize it.

And again, during Holy Week for Christians, it's a kind of astonishing stance by the league. I'm hopeful that some other team will give Jaden Ivey another chance. Because man, the Chicago Bulls really screwed up here in a major, major way. In just a second.

We'll get to a domestic terror attack, as we now know that it was a not only a terror attack, but a foreign driven terror attack. And we'll get to the latest on the war in Iran. Plus Bishop Barron will stop by to talk about the Pope and about Holy Week first. Picture this. You print out your entire browsing history, you sign your name at the bottom, you nail it to your front door for every neighbor to see. That would be a crazy thing to do.

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This breaking news, by the way, is brought to you by the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. Visit BenforThefellowship.org. So speaking of breaking news, yes, there are in fact internationally driven terrorists who are living among us. They're living in the United States.

They are ready to commit acts of violence against Americans. There's new information that is now emerging about a terrorist named Amen Khazali. That would be the radical Muslim who attacked the Temple Israel in West Bloomville, Michigan on march twelfth.

According to six A B C Apparently, Hazali forty one of Dearborn Heights sat in the parking lot for a few hours on March twelfth before smashing his pickup through closed doors and into the hallway of an early childhood education area striking a security guard, and then he exchanged gunfire with another guard and then he shot himself.

That's what the FBI said at the time. That Ford F one fifty was stocked with commercial grade fireworks and jugs of gasoline, and of course it caught fire during the confrontation. Well, here is the FBI's Jennifer Runyon, the head of the Detroit Bureau, describing the video that Khazali left before the attack in which he basically acknowledges full scale that he is a member of Hezbollah or at least an adjunct member of Khezbollah.

Approximately ten minutes before the attack, he sends his sister two final videos. In Arabic, he records himself saying with this screenshot, this is the largest gathering of Israelis. In the state of Michigan, in the United States. I have booby-trapped the car. I will forcibly enter and start shooting them. God willing, I will kill as many of them as I possibly can. He sends a quick Three-second video with the same screenshot shortly after, and types this the message a special operation.

Now again, we know that his siblings in Lebanon were in fact members of his blood. Remember, the entire media on the left. And some people on the Horseshoe right reported that he was only doing this because his family had somehow been victimized in Lebanon. His family were literal members of a terrorist group. James Gorgon, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, he says: listen, this was not some guy who was self-radicalized or something. He was a Hezbollah agent.

Do not be misled. This terrorist acted on behalf of Hezbollah, and he intended to kill others, not just himself. He could have done that in a garage or in his basement. He did not need to plan for days, arm himself, and try to take dozens of Jewish American children with him. His death was just a means or a tool to kill as many Jews as he could. That's why his last statements were that he was on a special operation. to kill as many of them as he possibly can.

And as Gorgon expressed, it's not that Khazali was some sort of lone wolf that he was just reading stuff on the internet. He was an actual Adjunct member of Kizbolag and Kizbollah is an Iranian backed Lebanese terror group that has been targeting Israel for destruction for literally decades. They're also responsible for the murder of hundreds of Americans.

Back during the Beirut barracks bombing in the early nineteen eighties. Here was Gorgon saying that Hazali was not in fact a lone wolf, he was a terrorist living on American soil, and we allowed him to enter. I've seen some odd attempts to explain away or even lessen this terrorist attack by claiming that he was an isolated lone wolf. But that is misleading. Terrorist propaganda is designed to activate the so called lone wolf to act on behalf of the terrorist organization.

and it makes no legal difference if the current leader of Hezbollah himself, Naeem Qasem, called this man and told him to attack Temple Israel, or whether he simply heeded Hezbollah's call,

Again, this is exactly right. We need fewer people immigrating to America who are terrorists. I I know this may be controversial to some, but I don't know. I feel like that one is pretty commonsensical. We also could use fewer elected officials who agree with actual honest to God terrorists. So

This person, this terrorist came from Dearborn, Michigan. Michigan, of course, is a very, very large radical Muslim population. One of those radical Muslims is a man named Abdul El Sayyed. He is a candidate in Michigan. And according to the Washington Free Beacon. He said they've discovered audio of him, saying that he needed to stay silent about the killing of Ali Khamei, who would be the leader of the Iranian regime.

He literally told staffers he didn't want to say anything about it at all because there were too many people in Dearborn who were sad about it. In fact, here is the audio of Abdul El Sayyed admitting full scale that Dearborn, again, this is a major city in the United States, is distraught over the killing Of the leader of a terrorist regime responsible for the death of hundreds, if not thousands, of Americans over the last forty seven years. Again, this guy is running for Senate. Here he was.

I also want to remind you guys that that there are a lot of people in Dearborn who are sad today. Mm-hmm. So like I just don't want to comment on Khamani Khme uh Khamenei at all. Like I I don't think it's worth even touching that. Like they're gonna try and this is what we practice, but like isn't isn't Khameni a bad guy? Isn't it great that he's dead? I'm like first the man was eighty six years old who's gonna be dead sometime soon anyway. Second

That doesn't justify the the fact that he was a bad man does not justify our breaking of international law and unilateral action outside of outside of wartime. Like this is a bigger question about the United States responsibility to international law and we have been breaking it wantonly. This is the second Second leader that we've gone after in a matter of months, we are not the world's policeman and that's not what he got elected to do it.

Okay, but again, the key there is him saying that people in Dearborn are sad. Who the hell do you want in America who is literally sad over Kameini's death? Like truly sad over the killing of this terror master and murderer? And then we're Again, this tape is pretty astonishing, and kudos to the Freebeacon for uncovering it. Abdul Al Sayyed, who again is likely to be the Senate nominee in Michigan for the Democrats.

He says that if somebody brings up Khamenei, or if somebody brought up the sadness in Dearborn over Khamenei, that he would just misdirect over to pedophilia and claim that President Trump is a pedophile, basically. Understand the op. Understand the op and the grievance party, meaning people from Abdul El Sayyed to the Tucker Carlson right, who all wink hands in this sort of stuff.

They are using exactly the same tactics, and those tactics, by the way, are being promoted by Iran directly. You have literally the foreign minister of Iran who is doing what Abdul El Sayyed is doing, saying that the United States is violating international law, and by the way, Epstein. It is an op, meaning it is not a normal thing that normal people do. It is being driven top down by engagement whores and by actual dedicated anti-Americans, many of whom are inside America's borders.

Here's again, this guy is going to likely be the Michigan Senate Democrat candidate. Insane. They are going to go super hard on trying to trying to get you to s to sympathize with the regime. Like that's what the the conservatives and even some of our moderate enemies are going to try to get you to do. And I can say I've got no love law. for the ISO to many, just like I've got no love lost for Donald Trump's best friend Mohammed bin Sadnah.

I've got no love lost for any of them. You know what I care about? People back home in Michigan who still struggle to afford their groceries and their housing. That pro those problems are bigger than Donald Trump and he's unwilling to actually address them. Mm-hmm. No. And and I and I'm just gonna go straight at pedophilia, frankly. I should be like pedophile president, right?

Amazing. Amazing. Now El Sayed is currently engaged, as we say, in a hotly contested Senate primary. He is campaigning with sleazy limousine communist Hassan Piker. So according to the New York Times. is meeting with Piker and doing a rally with Piker, while Piker's huge young following has made him an appealing ally for progressive Democrats. Some have called Mr Piker the Joe Rogan of the left.

And people have pointed out that Hassan Piker is an insane radical who says the United States deserved nine eleven, supports a wide variety of communist dictatorships, a wide variety of Islamic terror groups. The New York Times asked him about all of this, and he responded, Why is it only now that people are getting very frustrated by it? I assume it's because there is a power center in the party that is worried about losing its grip, losing its relevancy.

I mean, listen, if Democrats want to keep embracing the radicalism and the stupid, and yes, the anti-Semitism, because Hassan Piker, all he does, he does a stupid game. His stupid game is he means to say Jew and he just says Zionist. That's all. That's his game. In any case, podcaster Jonah Platt, he pointed this out on CNN and he is not wrong. What Piker does that a lot of people of his ilk do is they try to inoculate themselves against claims of Jew hatred by pointing it out

In places that aren't them. He's been very clear pointing things out on the right. Oh, that's anti-Semitism. These are the tropes they use. And then he'll use the exact same tropes and just sub Jew for Israel. Yeah, that that happens to be correct. That happens to be correct. Well, coming up, we'll get to the latest in Iran, what's happening over there, plus Cuba plus Bishop Barron and Arthur Brooks are stopping by.

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So they know we sent you. That's Helixleep.com slash Ben. Okay, so back to the Middle East. Where do things stand right now? Well, according to Channel 14 in Israel. They have now obtained an exchange between the Iranian President Mahmoud Pezeshkin and the IRGC's Ahmed Vahidi. Pezeshkin would be the quote unquote moderate in this scenario, and Vahidi, of course.

is a radical. He is the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. Those are the quote unquote hardliners. So Pazeshkin apparently said, quote, I want to be involved in the negotiations with the US. Without a quick deal, our entire economy will collapse in three weeks. So first of all, that is accurate. They do not have an economy.

This is the great worry of the Iranians right now. Right now, they're still being allowed to move oil out of Iran to the tune of a couple of million barrels of oil per day. If that stops, their economy does not exist. It does not exist. The IRGC chief, Vihidi, he said, That's exactly why you can't be involved. You'll give up everything for a deal.

Which shows you where the IRGC is. Apparently, according to Channel fourteen, in Israel, after the call ended, the report says the Iranian president told his companions he feels like a hostage, quote, I'm unable to resign, I can't make my own decisions, all I can do is read from a script I'm given. Yeah, fair. So, where are the American people right now? Well, if you watch again all the online traffic, the American people are desperately upset about what's going on. Well

Not so much actually. Brand new Harvard Harris poll. It shows fifty one percent support for the airstrikes in Iran. In fact, it shows, according to this polling data, do you think it is in the US's interests or not to stop Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon? Seventy four percent yes, including sixty nine percent of independence. Is it important to restrain the global influence of China and Russia? 66%. Yes, including 63% of independence.

Again, these are not numbers that suggest that the American people are desperate, desperate to stop this right now. Three quarters of all voters according to this poll say that winning of the war is important. And also that the United States is in fact winning. Two thirds agree that Iran is the leading source of instability, terrorism, and that the Iranians do not support the Ayatollah.

Sixty-seven percent of people believe, again, that Iran is the big source of instability and terrorism in the region. So This begs the question, why is President Trump lagging in the polls? Because his approval ratings are down. I mean, the answer really is because of the economy as always. Right now, a lot of dyspepsia about the economy, and because of the war, the stock market is down and gas prices are up.

Forty six percent of Americans, according to the same poll, think inflation is the most salient issue. Fifty three percent say the economy is worse than it was under Joe Biden. Now, again, we keep hearing that MAGA Republicans are abandoning President Trump. That's actually not true. What is happening is that Democrats and independents who jumped on the Trump bandwagon largely because they didn't like Kamala Harris, some of those people are dropping off.

Kristen Soltis Anderson, who's an excellent polster, writes in the New York Times. She says my polling shows MAGA thinks Trump got it right when it comes to Iran. When I separate Republican respondents on whether they think of themselves as a Trump supporter or a Republican Party supporter first, I find more than nine in ten Trump first Republicans support the Iran strikes, compared with seventy two percent of party first Republicans.

So in other words, the Republican Party is on board and it is a fringe of the Republican Party, or not? Why? Well, because they are more aligned, frankly, with sort of dispossessed Democrats. Again, these are the people who are upset with Trump. And this is why when you see columnists suggesting that like Joe Rogan or Theo Vaughn defines MAGA, kind of like saying that Carrie Prijan defines Catholicism.

The late breaking decider who jumps on a bandwagon to effectuate his or her own values rather than, you know, joining in order to facilitate the values of the central institutions, those are typically not the people who define the institution. Because here is the thing. President Trump has been talking about all of this forever. Forever. We've played this clip before, but yesterday Trump truthed it out himself. This is from nineteen eighty-seven, talking about taking Iran's oil.

Why couldn't we go in and take over some of their oil, which is along the sea? How would you do that? Would you send in the Marines? Would you take a chance in a war? Let'em have a rant. You take their oil. That that's what I How? How? I mean do we want a war? What do you mean we take their oil? You go in. How do we go in? You're gonna have a war by being weak. Okay, how do we go in? What do we excuse me. You're going to have a war.

And it's going to start in the Middle East. What if the Soviet Union said you do this to Iran, we're gonna come in? I don't believe they do it. The next time Iran attacks this country, go in and grab one of their big oil installations and I mean grab it and keep it and get back your losses because this country has lost plenty because of Iran.

That is a very young Donald Trump saying the exact same thing he says today, and he is correct. He is correct about that. Meanwhile, the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, is explaining the state of play and what exactly are our objectives in Iran. I hear a lot of talk about we don't know what the clear objectives are. are. Here they are. You should write them down. Number one, the destruction of their air force. Number two, the destruction of their navy.

Number three, the the severe diminishing of their l l missile launching capability. And number four, the destruction of their factories so they can't make more missiles and more drones. All of this so that they can never hide behind it to acquire a nuclear weapon. That was our objective from the beginning. That remains our objective now. We are on pace and in fact ahead of schedule in some of those things and we are going to achieve those things in a number of weeks, not in a number of months.

Now what about the Strait of Hormuz? The Secretary of State talked with Al Jazeera, which again, man, what a what a waste Al Jazeera is. He talked about what will happen with the strait.

When when this operation is over it will be open and it'll be open one way or another. It will be open because Iran agrees to abide by international law and not block the commercial waterway or A coalition of nations from around the world and the region, with the participation of the United States, will make sure that it's open.

Okay, so we'll get more into that in a moment. First, Rubio says he's asked about negotiations. He says, listen, we're negotiating, but we're not gonna tell you who we're negotiating with, because again, as we have seen, a lot of different opinions inside the Iranian government right now, as their entire economy is in a state of collapse. Who is this new and more reasonable regime? Is the United States in direct contact with them?

Well, I'm not gonna disclose to you who those people are because it probably would get them in trouble with some other groups of people inside of Iran. Look, there's some fractures going on there internally. And at the end of the day I think that if there are people in Iran who now, given everything that's happened, are willing to move in a different direction for their country, that would be great.

Maybe negotiations are happening, maybe they're not happening, but the bottom line is the president is still engaged in a very high level of strategic ambiguity, right? He doesn't want our enemies to know exactly what we are doing. Yesterday he posted a video of an explosion in Isfahan. This explosion is astonishing. It is almost certainly the destruction of a major missile facility underground. I mean, look at this. Look at that secondary explosion.

A secondary explosion is where you hit a target, and then there is another explosion where a bunch of stuff blows up. That's what you see in the movies, right? Where where a car blows up and then the entire building blows up because there was a bunch of flammable in it. Well, that's that in Isfahan, my goodness. Well reports are now suggesting.

That perhaps President Trump would be willing to end the war without actually opening the Strait of Hormuz and instead just leave it to the Europeans, according to the Wall Street Journal. President Trump told AIDS he's willing to end the US military campaign against Iran, even if the strait remains largely closed, according to administration officials, likely extending Tehran's firm grip on the waterway and leaving a complex operation to reopen it for a later date.

In recent days, according to the journal, Trump and his aides assessed a mission to pry open the choke point would push the conflict beyond his timeline of four to six weeks. He decided that the United States should achieve its main goals of hobbling Iran's Navy and missile stocks, wind down current hostilities, and pressure Tehran diplomatically.

And if that failed, then Washington would press allies in Europe and the Gulf to take the lead on reopening the strait. President Trump did put out a statement on Truth Social yesterday telling the Europeans, Hey, you know, if you if you don't like what's going on, maybe you should go get your own oil, quote.

All of those countries that can't get jet fuel because of the Strait of Hormuz, like the UK, which refuse to get involved in the decapitation of Iran, I have a suggestion for you. Number one, buy from the US. We have plenty. Number two, build up some delayed courage, go to the strait and just take it.

You have to start learning how to fight for yourself. USA won't be there to help you anymore, just like you weren't there for us. Iran has been essentially decimated. The hard part is done. Go get your own oil. Now again, on principle, he's not wrong, but the reality is that's unlikely to happen.

The president knows that the Strait of Hormuz, if left in Iranian control, would allow for the Iranian government to rebuild and strengthen. And let's be real about this, the whores of Europe, meaning the leadership class over there, would basically just try to bribe the Iranians.

Hell, they might build them a nuclear facility just to allow the oil to move through. These are the same Europeans who are happy to use Russian oil while simultaneously claiming the United States ought to defend Ukraine. So what is the most likely scenario here?

probably major action to reopen the strait, to grab Khargah Island, to throttle the Iranian regime by cutting off its lifelines of the global economy. Because again, let's be real, the Iranian economy is nonexistent. And if the oil flow goes away, they can't pay their boys. All of their IRGC and Basiji friends are going to go without paycheck.

As Stephen Moore points out, the change over there is not a long term prospect, it is a short term prospect. Here is Stephen Moore yesterday on Fox Business. Let the market work here. Uh as soon as we get the straights open, I'm gonna predict on your show we're headed right back down to fifty dollars a barrel. Dan Dan Brulette may not agree with me on that, but I think the world is a wash in oil. This is a t very temporary situation.

And the only the last thing I'll say is look, I I'm in favor of US controlling the Venezuela and the Iran oil, but let's give the money to the citizens of Iran, let's give the money to the Venezuelans so that they have a a future. Now the president is suggesting that as far as the cost that we have incurred, our Arab allies will help defray that cost because again, he's not wrong.

You know, actually get something from the get something from the Arab Gulf nations who have not yet dropped a single offensive bomb. I mean, it makes some sense. Here's Caroline Levitt at the White House yesterday. Who's paying uh for the cost of this war? Will those Arab countries step up to do just that? Well I think it's something the president would be quite interested in calling them to do. Um I won't get ahead of him on that.

But certainly it's an idea that I I know that he has and and something that I think you'll hear more from him on. Well President Trump again is readying all potential tactics in the arsenal. He put out a statement on Truth Social yesterday. He said the United States is in serious discussions with a new and more reasonable regime to end military operations in Iran. Great progress has been made.

But if for any reason a deal is not shortly reached Which it probably will be, if the Hormuz Strait is not immediately open for business, we will conclude our lovely stay in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their n electric generating plants, oil wells, and Harg Island, and possibly all desalinization plans, which we have purposefully not yet touched.

Now of course this is making all of the members of the legacy media very, very, very dyspeptic. They're very upset. They're getting some heartburn. Reporter from NBC said, Why is Trump threatening a potential war crime?

President posted this morning about you know his threat to um that on leaving Iran he said we might come blowing up and completely obliterating all of their electric generating plants, oil wells, Harg Island, and possibly all desalinization plants. Under international law striking six

civilian infrastructure like that is generally prohibited. Why is the president threatening what would amount to potentially a war crime with the U.S. military? And how do you square that with the administration repeatedly saying that the US does not target civilians? by the statement that you just read that their best move is to make a deal or else the United States Armed Forces has capabilities beyond their wildest imagination and the president is not afraid to use them.

Now again, they keep saying war crime, war crime, here's the thing. It is not explicitly unlawful or automatically a war crime to attack an enemy's electrical grid, according to John Spencer, the executive director of the urban warfare industry. Meaning it can be, but it isn't just by definition.

Under the law of armed conflict, such targets can be lawful if they provide a military advantage, and every single strike has to be adjudicated under proportionality, distinction, and precaution. So what do those things mean? Well, distinction means that the target has to be a military objective, not directed predominantly at civilians. And again, it is not in the interest of the administration to target the civilian population of Iran, which we correctly believe to be on our side.

Proportionality means that the expected damage can't be excessive in relation to concrete and direct military advantage anticipated. So in other words, you're not allowed to blow up an entire city block in order to take out one terrorist. in general. And finally, precaution includes ensuring that civilian casualties actually be minimized. So it's not clear whether this would violate any of those prescriptions. The bottom line here.

is that the Iranians are living on borrowed time. And as always and forever, all they can rely upon is people to undermine the war effort and make President Trump stop short. That is all they can rely upon. All right, in just a second, we're gonna get to

The situation in Cuba, where we're actually allowing oil to flow into Cuba, not sure what's going on there. Plus, we'll talk about some comments by the Pope about the war. Bishop Barron will stop by. Isabel Brown versus the View like tons coming up on today's show first.

Passover is almost here, a sacred time to remember God's deliverance. This year, many in Israel are going to mark the holiday under the shadow of war. Obviously, I'm talking to a lot of my friends in Israel. They're literally setting up their Seder in bomb shelters right now.

This is why the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews is on the ground right now, delivering food, equipping shelters, caring for Israel's most vulnerable. IFCJ's doing great work for vulnerable people on the ground, people have been living in a state of war for a couple of years at this point.

Your Passover gift declares that the story of deliverance lives on through faith, through action, and through you. Visit Benforthefellowship.org to rush your life saving gift again. That is one word. BenforThefellowship dot org. That's benforthefellowship.org. Now Again, Marco Rubio, he is pointing out that the people of Iran are incredible. Again, the the goal is not to harm the people of Iran.

The people of Iran are incredible people. The people who lead them, these this clerical regime, that is the problem. And if there are new people now in charge who have a more reasonable vision of the future, that would be good news for us, for them, for the entire world. But we also have to be prepared Форсибільті, мабіє, да і знати кейс.

We'll have to see what happens. Suffice it to say, I do not think that the President is going to give up the ghost right now, not while he has the Iranians on the ropes, contrary to all the legacy media trash coverage. Now, meanwhile, when it comes to Cuba, the Cuban regime is also on its last legs, deprived of Venezuelan oil. They're basically just bleeding along. That's it. That's all that's happening here. Well, according to, again, the New York Times reporting on all of this.

The United States Coast Guard is allowing a Russian tanker full of crude oil to reach Cuba, delivering a critical supply of energy to the island nation after months of an effective oil blockade by the Trump administration, according to a U.S. official briefed on the matter. Well that that is um it's weird that we would let the Russian ship through for sure. That is definitely a strange move by the Trump administration.

Basically, President Trump is saying, you know what, it's temporary. We don't want people to starve and let's be real about the the real answer is that we need to finish one thing before we get involved in another. Here was the president yesterday. Well we have a tanker out there. We don't mind having somebody get a boatload because they need they have to survive. Well I I would say I told them

If a country wants to send some oil into Cuba right now, I have no problem with it. Do you worry that that helps? Do you worry that that helps a lot of American though? Doesn't help him. Okay, again, I think the the real thing here is that initiating some sort of full scale blockade on Cuba in the middle of the conflict in the Middle East is probably a distraction. And as the Secretary of State Marco Rubio says,

As in Cuba's been having blackouts all of last year, they're having blackouts the year before. This is not going to alleviate much. Cuba's been having blackouts all of last year, all the year before. There isn't a naval blockade surrounding Cuba. The reason why Cuba doesn't have oil and fuel is because they want it for free. And people don't give away oil and fuel for free on a regular basis. Unless it was the Soviet Union subsidizing them or Maduro subsidizing them. It just gone through it.

Well, meanwhile, more on the international front. Yesterday, Pope Leo gave a poem Sunday homily. in which he made some comments about war. It it seemed to be a veiled reference to the United States' war in Iran, although he was I'd say, somewhat unclear about what exactly he was saying. Here is some tape of the of the Pope. He did not arm himself or defend himself or fight any war, being Jesus. He revealed the gentle face of God who always rejects violence.

Rather than saving himself, he allowed himself to be nailed to the cross, embracing every cross born in every time and place. Throughout human history, brothers and sisters that this is our God Jesus, King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war. He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them, saying, Even though you make many prayers I will not listen, your hands are full of blood.

It's so we don't have to continue to play the the rest of the statement in in I believe that's uh in Italian or Latin. I'm my my languages are not particularly good here. It's it's definitely a strange statement, and I gotta be honest, I'm not sure what the Pope means by this. Obviously, the notion that God does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war. I assume here that he's talking about unjust war, because otherwise it makes no sense.

I mean, otherwise, there's some problems just historically and also textually here. Obviously the Old Testament is filled with figures who both prayed to God and went to war. Moses, Joshua, Barack and Deborah. Gideon, Samuel, King David, who wrote entire Psalms to God while at war, Hezekiah. And there are lots of popes, it turns out, historically, who have initiated full scale crusades, or bless them.

For example. Pope Urban II, who initiated the first crusade, with these words, quote, This land our Savior made illustrious by his birth, beautiful with his life, and sacred with his suffering, he redeemed it with his death and glorified it with his tomb. This royal city is now held captive by her enemies and made pagan by those who know not God. She asks and longs to be liberated.

And an incomplete list of other popes who blessed crusades or other forms of war. That would include, obviously, everyone from Eugenius the Third to Gregory the Eighth to Innocent the Third to Boniface the Ninth, to Nicholas the Fifth, to Clement the Fifth.

So, I mean, again, this is why I don't think that the Pope means what people think he means there. I I would assume that he means unjust war, not all war,'cause otherwise we sort of have to ignore the entirety of the Old Testament and pretty much all of Catholic history.

And just to clarify that, I did talk to my friend Matt Fred of Pineswith Aquinas, who knows way more about this than I do in terms of Catholic doctrine, and he pointed me to the works of both Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, who point out when war is justified. So again, if Pope Leo wants to make the case that the war in Iran is unjustifiable, he should make that case. I I I'm not a fan in general of when leaders use inartful and broad language that can be deliberately misinterpreted.

by members of the Legacy Media. Joining me online to discuss this, the rest of current events, and of course it's Holy Week is Bishop Robert Barron. He, of course, is the Bishop of the Diocese of Winona, Rochester, and is one of the most prominent Catholic voices in modern media And he, of course, is the head of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries. Bishop Barron, thanks so much for taking the time. Really appreciate it. Ben, good to see you as always.

So let's do some news of the day and then we'll talk about Holy Week more broadly. So obviously made a lot of headlines yesterday or the day before when the Pope made this statement. A lot of people interpreted that as a a slap at the Secretary of Defense Pete Heggseth or a slap at the President of the United States.

How should people interpret that? Again, my my own take is that he's using language that I think is in artfully broad there because I assume he's talking about unjust war, otherwise he'd be in conflict with m from my understanding and from my Catholic friends, Catholic doctrine itself. No, I think that's the right distinction, the one that you made. And of course, you know, Pope Leo is an Augustinian.

So he's he's shaped by the Augustinian intellectual and spiritual tradition. And it was Augustine, as as you suggest, who was the first major figure in Christianity to give us a just war theory. Now, mind you, Augustine was very strong on peace and that the God revealed in Jesus Christ crucified is a God of peace and nonviolence. Augustine held to that. He held to a critique of Rome that was predicated upon the constant use of violence. So Augustine is no warmonger.

But he also recognized in a finite fallen conflictual world, sometimes the only way to oppose deep injustice is through the violence of warfare. And then he gave us these criteria. Thomas Aquinas amplified them and so on. So I think that's the right distinction. The Pope is certainly critiquing an unjust war, or someone who's invoking God to support an unjust war.

And I furthermore agree with you that you know he's not referring specifically or or precisely to the Iran war. And if you want to look at a situation, look at it in light of the seven criteria that determine whether war is just or unjust. And you know, right, if if you say simply God does not hear the prayers of of warriors, well then Abraham Lincoln and you know, George Washington and and Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill.

So I I think what he meant, I think you're making the right distinction. It's it's the prayers of those who are seeking his sanction for an unjust war.

Yeah, Bishop Barron, one of the things that I think is driving me a little crazy about the current sort of online dynamic is the unwillingness to grant any sort of favor or credibility to the most obvious explanations of things and the and the leap to the the sort of most extreme interpretation of events. I think that's happening here where people are immediately jumping to he must mean a condemnation of President Trump or the Secretary of Defense.

I think that's also what happened on Sunday, on Palm Sunday, uh in in Jerusalem, where it seems fairly obvious to me that there was a pretty terrible misunderstanding between Cardinal Isabella over in Jerusalem, where he wanted to go to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Yeah, exactly. But forgive me the pronunciation. And he he goes to he goes to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Israeli

Authorities, the the home front authorities, have basically shut down the entirety of the old city. I mean, they shut down the Western Wall, they shut down the Al Aqsa Mosque. Th that is because they have rules there that basically in the middle of missile attacks, if you have a site that is in fact not protected from missile assault. And it is not within walking distance or quick access to what's called a Mamad in Hebrew or or a safe room or a or a bomb shelter.

And again, the old city, you've been there, I've been there. It is a warrant. I mean it i th all the streets are extremely narrow and so you can't get emergency vehicles in there. And so that is why there have been significant restrictions on not only large scale gatherings, but even Small religious services in kind of historic sites that are not protected. My guess is what happened is that there was an Israeli police officer stationed outside the church.

And the cardinal showed up and he said, I want to go in and perform mass. And the Israeli police officer said, My superior says no one is allowed to come in here and that turned into an international incident. And quickly everybody in a position of authority in Israel, from the Prime Minister to the President, immediately sounded off, said we need to make some sort of provision so this doesn't happen again and yet this turned into some sort of gigantic critique of I suppose

Jewish anti-Catholicism or something. And and that seems to me like the least likely scenario of what actually was happening there. Yeah, I agree with that. I mean it got resolved pretty quickly, and as you say, at the very highest levels. And there's a photograph of Cardinal Pizza Bala with a um Israeli, I think, police official and they're shaking hands and smiling, and I thought, okay.

That really should put an end to it. There was some misunderstanding or some interruption of a chain of command or something happened here. But yeah, to construe that as some massive, you know, attack on on Catholicism.

Is unwarranted. You know, Christians have always been concerned about access to the holy places, of course. And I think, you know, it's a it's a difficult time right now and there's sensitivities on all sides, but I think it got resolved pretty quickly. So, you know, all's well that ends well, I suppose.

So now let's talk more broadly about Holy Week. Obviously the a lot of kind of bad stuff in the news recently, but there's an inspirational time for for Jews it's an inspirational time'cause Passover is coming. It begins

Uh for for those of us who are who are Jewish and celebrate Passover, it starts Wednesday night. But for Christians, obviously, this is one of the most critical times of the calendar. You know, for for my listeners who may not, you know, follow the Christian calendar, the Catholic calendar, why don't you explain what goes on during Holy Week?

We uh recall the events just prior to the crucifixion of Jesus and then his resurrection on Sunday. So beginning uh really with Holy Thursday, so when Jesus gathers with his disciples for the Last Supper, the Garden of Gethsemane that night, then Friday, the day of the crucifixion. Saturday, we call it Holy Saturday when Jesus spends uh the the day in the tomb and then Easter Sunday. So we call that uh the Paschal mystery. So we the the Passover mystery, Jesus passing from death to life.

Uh it's the event by which we are saved from our sins. And I'd say this too, Ben, in light of, you know, Jerusalem and such a focus now on on Judaism, it's the fulfillment of Israel. Christians are those who say that the great story of Israel. including temple and covenant and prophecy and promise. all of it is fulfilled in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. That's what Saint Paul or Rabbi Shaul, who studied the feet of Gamaliel and knew the Hebrew scriptures intimately.

After he met the risen Jesus, he rethought his Judaism in light of the resurrection. And it's also why when Paul went to these uh towns in the eastern Mediterranean, he first went to synagogues, because the Jews would understand his message that the story of Israel has come to its fulfillment.

Um that's why, see, we are tied to Israel. That's you know, the recent popes have made that claim. It's up and down the Christian centuries, despite a t terrible history of anti Semitism that pops up, you know. But the great Christian truth is we're tied to Israel. You cannot understand Jesus without reference to Israel, because we see him as the fulfillment. As Paul said, yes to all the promises made to Israel.

So that's why anything like anti Semitism from a Christian standpoint is is intellectually incoherent. Well wh why do you think it is? It does seem like there has been a resurgence of the Marcian heresy that is making new inroads at this moment. And the Marcion heresy being the idea that the Old Testament

what was actually nothing to do with the New Testament, that actually it's completely irrelevant. Why why do you think that's making such a comeback right now? Because it does feel like it's making a comeback. Yeah. No, and it it's a good question. And Marcionism, you're right, it goes back to the second century, one of the oldest heresies and one of the most stubborn. You know, I think part of it is

There there's something that that is simplifying about it. So let's just get rid of the old uh testament. We'll we'll keep parts of the New Testament that that present a God that we can find, you know, more acceptable. It's sort of easier and cleaner intellectually. But when you connect Christianity to Israel, the story becomes so much more interesting. And it was Saint Irenaeus, second century figure, who said no to Marcionism. You cannot understand Jesus apart from Judaism. Um

I I don't know. There there's something that's intellectually repugnant about it and something morally repugnant too, because it gave rise to this deep, you know, rift between Christians and Jews. Read uh Paul to the Romans chapters nine through eleven as his great treatment of this problem. And in a way, we've never improved upon Paul, Romans nine to eleven, as he's tried to tease out.

He says, look, I'm a Jew. I'm I'm the tribe of Benjamin. I was a Pharisee by formation. I was zealous for the traditions of my fathers. And now I've met the risen Jesus and I'm trying to rethink it all in light of that. So we've been wrestling with this problem from the very beginning, but Paul represents a very beautiful, you know, appropriation and and retention of of Judaism.

Well, Bishop Barron, I really appreciate the time. I really appreciate the insight. I hope that you really have a a blessed and and tremendous holy week and a wonderful Easter, obviously. Thanks, Baron. God bless you.

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Alrighty folks, well, in other news, you know, shifting from, you know, things that are really worth talking about to things that are not worth talking about, but we have to talk about them anyway because we cover the news, there is a brand new garbage conspiracy theory making the rounds. This is regarding the trial of Charlie Kirk's alleged assassin, Tyler Robinson, whom all, I repeat, all evidence points to. So

The defense is now predictably throwing spaghetti at the wall and waiting to see what sticks. So what are they doing here? What they're really doing is they are chumming the waters with irresponsible media, hoping that the jury pool will end up being tainted. That is the that is the goal, to get somebody in the jury pool who is a conspiracist. So there is a piece that was printed, and it never should have been printed in the UK Daily Mail because it's trash.

And the piece's headline quote Bullet used to kill Charlie Kirk did not match rifle allegedly used by suspect Tyler Robinson, New Court filing claims. Now if you just read that headline. If you just read that headline, what you would assume is that there is a bullet that is identifiable and did not match the rifle, which would be groundbreaking stuff, right? That's what the title suggests. Bullet used to kill Charlie Kirk did not match rifle. Okay, that is missing a key piece of context.

Fragmented. There is no whole bullet to match up with the rifle. And when a bullet fragments, the way this bullet apparently fragmented, It makes it unidentifiable because all of the striations that you normally see on the bullet that match it up with the cha with the barrel of the rifle, those are not present. You can't identify it.

That is an absence of evidence. It is not evidence of absence. It's not evidence that Tyler Robinson is innocent because the bullet fragmented, and now you can't directly link the bullet to that rifle. Because you can't link that bullet to any rifle. It's not like there's another rifle you can link it to. But that's not how the Daily Mail wrote the story, which is trash. And the Daily Mail should be ashamed of itself. Again, bullet fragments are difficult to match to the original rifle.

This is sort of like making the case that if O. J.'s knife had somehow been discovered after the crimes, And it had been toss in a vat of hydrochloric acid and all identifying marks and DNA had been dissolved, that somehow the inability to connect that knife to OJ's DNA would not just not link O. J. to the crime, it would be exculpatory. It would see it would make it sound like he was innocent. It's just trash, it's stupidity, it makes no sense at all. None.

Okay, so just to dispense with that idiotic conspiracy theory, because of course your usual suspects, the Candace Owens of the world, are still trying to apparently get Tyler Robinson off on the basis of their own smooth-brained nonsense. Okay, before we move on to what's going on with Gen Z and our very own Isabel Brown, who was taken to task by the ladies of the view, let's take a question from a caller. This segment is sponsored by Peer Talk.

Hi, Ben. Do you think that within the remaining years of the Trump administration, it may be prudent to shift our battles with our foreign enemies to the enemy within our borders? That is the the growing anti-American radical leftists, seditious politicians. And the non assimilating anti American naturalized citizens who are abusing our bloated social welfare programs.

So I mean I think that we have to chew gum and wok at the same time is a good question. But I think one of the great lies about American politics is that we somehow if we focus on the butter, we can't focus on the guns. If we focus on the guns, we can't focus on the butter.

The idea being that we must spend resources that we would otherwise spend abroad at home. These are separate departments of government. We're spending more money than we have ever spent on anything. We're spending seven trillion dollars a year. Seven trillion. That is a lot of money. A lot of money.

And it turns out that the world continues to revolve whether or not we wish to be a part of the international scene. That is just the reality of life. And so if you quote unquote draw within so that you can focus on immigration, and meanwhile

Iran spreads its tentacles all over the Middle East, threatens all of our allies, threatens all of the shipping lanes, and basically grinds our economy under its boot heel. That's a problem too. You gotta handle all this at once. This is the hard part of being president. Okay, meanwhile, the Trump administration is now launching a new effort to hire members of Gen Z. This is a thing that they are focused in on. Kind of an interesting approach.

According to Fox News, the Trump administration is launching a new effort to make government cool again by hiring Gen Z workers to rebuild the federal talent pipeline after a year of doge cuts and to compete more aggressively with the private sector.

Now again, part of this is probably related to the downturn in job expectations for Gen Zers. Now see if you can provide some jobs for the youngsters. So some of it is likely political. But when you talk about Gen Zers and the big problems with Gen Z, You gotta say that there is a bigger problem with Gen Z than mere unemployment concern.

So for example, we should be somewhat concerned about the fact that there is a complete degradation of things like family formation with Gen Z, that the entire pathway from childhood to adulthood is being ignored or blocked off by members of Gen Z. According to a lot of the studies, more than one third of Americans, 15 up,

have never married as of twenty twenty two. That is up from twenty three percent in nineteen fifty. In the US, nearly one point five million more adults under thirty five live with their parents than one decade ago. And most importantly, there's a twenty twenty three Pew survey of eighteen to thirty four year olds

And it found that fifty seven percent of men said they definitely want children one day. Only forty five percent of women in the same age range do. That is a disaster area. First of all, only fifty seven percent of men is already low. A minority of women saying that they want children one day is crazy. That's crazy. So Isabel Brown, of course she's one of our hosts here at Daily Wire. She was at CPAC and she spoke out about this. It made the harpies of the view very, very upset. Here was Isabel.

If you're not encouraging your children to grow up and have the courage to get married and have kids, more kids than they can afford before they think they're ready, it is high time to start. It is these choices like deleting our dating apps and quitting birth control pills and saying I do at the altar that ultimately trickle down into the political policies that we will see save our country.

So again, I'm wondering what's so controversial about that. Telling people it is good to have kids and that you should get married and that you should have kids. All thriving societies rely upon this, but of course the ladies at the View are very upset. Very upset. They totally crashed out over this. What it what what? So my ultimate beef with this is that it wraps a woman's worth up in her ovaries in a way that

too for too long has happened. The whole women's movement was not about bucking the trend of staying at home or or loving tradition. It was giving women a choice To do what they wanted. And that's what this is too. Marriage, children, it's a choice.

And by the way, But be responsible for golfing. No, but be responsible. But the other thing is they act like people are sitting around just saying, yeah, no, I'm good. Uh most women I know, and some don't, but most women wanted to have children. They don't have them for other reasons. Okay, I'm just I'm just wondering. Um what that Isabel said is anti choice. She's saying you should make choices.

She's saying we should not be morally indifferent as a society about whether women want to have kids, which of course is absolutely true. We should not be morally indifferent. What I'm confused about is why women would want to deny their biology is an important factor in who they are. That's the part that's confusing to me. And womanhood is a magical power. It is.

My wife is pregnant with child number five. It is a magical power. It is incredible. And again, the notion that my wife is somehow barefoot and pregnant at home in the kitchen. Right now she's pregnant. Sometimes she's barefoot and sometimes she's in the kitchen. She is also a doctor. This notion that you can't choose to do many things all at once. Or

that you decide that you wanna stay at home with your kids for a while and then work part time. Like these are all choices. But to pretend that a society ought to be utterly indifferent about the choices you make, that it makes no difference to society whether you want to have kids or don't want to have kids.

That to me is nuts. That makes no sense at all. How can any sort of society survive along that along that basis? Of course we ought to have a preference for a morality that pushes childbearing and rearing. But it it is incredible how many people on the left seem to believe that if you say it's good for women to have kids, that this is somehow an order, like it's some h it's somehow a mandate, no one is forcing anything.

Anna Navarro says a don't tell me what to do with my uterus. I'm not telling you what you must do with your uterus. I'm telling you that it is better for society when women have children than when they do not, and it is better for women, as a general rule, when they want to have children than when they do not.

I don't know why that's remotely controversial, but I guess that's where we are. Again, no one is denying anybody a choice. We're just saying that some choices are better than other choices. Where is the call to responsibility for the men who make the who help make these children, right? I am I don't know why it's always People lecturing women what they have to do or not to do. Bottom line, if you're not paying my bills, you don't get to tell me what I do with my uterus.

No one's telling you what you must do with your uterus, but again, we teach our kids all the time what our values should be. What our values should be. It makes no sense to me to treat Isabel's statement that we ought to teach our kids that it's good to want kids. As some sort of assault, as some sort of offensive. Sonny Hawson, of course, says that children are too expensive. That's the real reason why people aren't having them. Again, that is not the case.

Poor countries, all over the world, people have tons of kids. In fact, there is a reverse correlation between the wealth of a society and the number of children that women are having. In this country there's this affordability crisis. And for a two-person household, a married household, you need over$400,000 for child care. Over$400,000. Most people don't make over$400,000. So she's advocating for people to be born into poverty.

People not being able to feed those children, people not being able to educate those children, and the and people not being able to house those children at the same time when this government is cutting all of the services that would allow people to have families and big families at home.

Again, none of th by the way, none of these women, if services were to massively expand for women, none of them would be saying anything different about what Isabel said. If the government had broader services, No one on that panel would be saying she's right, we should encourage women to have more more kids. Not a thing. Not a th th they just would not. And it's silly to pretend otherwise.

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All right, well joining us on the line right now is Arthur Brooks. Arthur has a brand new book titled The Meaning of Your Life. Arthur, of course, is one of our great thinkers. He's fantastic. And he argues that today's unhappiness epidemic, among young adults especially, is basically a crisis of meaning. Arthur, thanks so much for joining the show. Really appreciate it. Hi Ben, how are you? You know, thank God. Doing well. How are you?

Well, you know, we we just talked to Bishop Baron a little while ago about Holy Week. Obviously, a lot of people finding spiritual meaning this week. Your book is about how people find meaning in life. And, you know, I was just talking a moment ago about Isabel Brown at CPAC saying that we should encourage young women to get married, to have children, and then women on the view being very upset about this.

Why are so many people upset about the idea that we ought to promote values that themselves provide meaning in life rather than I suppose indifference to those values? We've lost been it's clear and uh you know, this is a research project I've been working on in this book for the last five years.

We in our society, which is sadly a decline, have lost the ability to find meaning through the institutions that bring it. And there's a lot of explanations for it. I mean, we can talk about ideology and polarization, but fundamentally this is about how We have used technology largely after two thousand eight, somewhat before that, but to the extent that everybody has a cell phone attached to their hand.

And they're scrolling their hours away. The average person looks at the cell phone 205 times per day, which literally makes us use our brains in the wrong way to find the meaning of life. I mean, you go back a couple of generations and the things that you were talking about were not controversial. And the reason is because everybody knew that an ordinary life filled with relationships,

And faith and friendship and love and family, these were the secrets to the meaning of life. And we have lost that, not just because of ideological polarization, but because of technology which has changed our brains. So l let's talk about that technology changing our brain. So it is absolutely true that it's almost as though a hack has been performed on the human mind by a lot of the tech companies that have programmed for virality.

and by content providers who of course are attempting to maximize their exposure. I mean we do that here on the show in order to get more people to watch to get more eyeballs. But the reality is that that it is as though we have found the most lizard brain parts of ourselves and then maximized those. And and poisoned ourselves in the process. Yeah. I mean, uh humans are unbelievably ingenious and and we we will wipe out small problems and in the process create major crises.

It's just amazing when you think about it. Uh let's see let let's see if we can wipe out a little bit of physical pain which will turn into analgesics that become So incredibly dependency provoking that we have a hundred thousand deaths a year at overdoses. I mean it's a classic case. And and again, I'm not a techno doomsayer. On the contrary, I'm a techno op uh optimist, but we have not learned how to use our technology appropriately.

And the result of it is that our brains, which are hemispheric, there's two sides to each brain. This is all in my book, How This Works. The right side is dedicated to mystery and meaning and love and happiness, and the left side is dedicated to solving technological and analytical problems. And we've stopped using the right side of our brains, which is why people are depressed and anxious and lonely.

and they'll lash out for all sorts of dumb activist reasons. I mean, all of the activism and conspiracy theories this are nothing more than a cry for meaning, a sense of coherence in life. And the way to actually get that is to put down your device and go love your friends and family. It's almost that simple. Of course it isn't because that's not ordinary anymore. So this book is a six-part plan in real life with real hacks and real techniques.

To find the meaning of your life just like the old days in the next six months. So I I don't wanna spoil your book, The Meaning of Your Life. Why don't you give us a couple of the hacks that people ought to be using in order to in order to break all of this dependency?

Well to begin with, you gotta get clean. You know, if we were talking about dependency on drugs and alcohol, I would say you actually can't go live a new brand new squeaky clean wonderful life if you don't actually get clean from the substances. And so I have a

a whole chapter on actually how to break your your your neurochemical d addiction to devices with all the latest research on how to do that. And by the way, Ben, it's not that hard. You just have to have a little bit of will, commitment and discipline, and you can do it in about three weeks.

Then after that, there's a bunch of ways that people haven't thought about, maybe in a long time. Deep conversations. I give a list of the kinds of questions that you could ask and talk about with your friends. That will literally illuminate the right hemisphere of her brain where questions of meaning will actually find you. I also talk about the importance of giving your heart away, falling in love, having kids.

I talk about how incredibly important it is to look upward to the divine, to actually practice a faith, practice it, notwithstanding your beliefs and certainly notwithstanding your feelings. I mean you and I as traditionally religious people, me as a Catholic and and you as an Orthodox Jew. I mean We we feel it sometimes, man, but we practice it every day. And that turns out to be the secret to the meaning of life, right, Ben?

That's exactly right. That's exactly right. And again, you know, we were talking with Bishop Barron about Holy Week. I mean, the the the fact that you practice in the world is the thing that makes you a religious person. And and it it is it is living a religious life, not believing. I think that we've also become very abstract in the way that we view life, way too abstract in in some sense.

I mean people who are religious typically spend most of their day doing the same kinds of things everybody else does, but orienting themselves toward the idea that they're doing it for a godly reason. It's the exact same kind of stuff. other people's lives who are not religious, they they do it with their kids. I mean you you you can do it with your kids or with your spouse. Right. If you're doing things for a better, bigger reason, you're gonna feel more fulfilled in your life.

than if you're doing it because your phone told you that it's important to be more famous or because some people were responding to you in your in your mentions on on X or something.

That's exactly right. And there's one more thing that a lot of young people have been taught that's quite incorrect. Uh, I I actually think that young people have been quite victimized by our culture because they you know, you and I, I mean you're a lot younger than I am, you're twenty years younger than I am, but you still remember the before time.

as do I, you know, before we were attached to our phones to this particular extent. But one of the things that that the lies that has been perpetrated with a lot of young people today leading to the kind of conversation that you just that you just illustrated about This non controversial idea that family makes you happy.

is because people are uncomfortable and they've been told that if they're depressed or anxious, that's evidence that they're broken and that their suffering must be eliminated. The truth of the matter is that I have a whole chapter on how never to waste your suffering. I have I have the latest scientific techniques on how to use your inevitable suffering in life to find the meaning of your life, which is what, by the way, our religions have taught and our grandmothers have taught.

And I talk about the fact that that when you're when you believe that I'm sad and I'm anxious, I I I I need to fix this thing. Well well guess what? Sadness and anxiety in life is evidence that you're alive and have a normally functioning limbic system, that that your emotions are working the way that they're supposed to. I tell my students at Harvard, by the way, when I've been, you know, working on this book, I say, look, if if you study at Harvard,

If you're not sad and anxious, you need therapy. Because the truth is you're doing a hard thing and you're doing it on purpose. And that's how you find the meaning of your life. So this is six ways to find the meaning of your life. That's what this book's all about.

Well again, that is the title of the book, The Meaning of Your Life. Arthur Brooks is the author. All of his work is fabulous. Go check it out right now. Arthur, thanks so much for the time and congrats on the book, as always. Thanks, Ben. Great to see ya. You too. Alrighty folks, the show continues for our members right now. We're gonna answer your questions about

Free speech in the NBA. How to prevent your loved ones from being blackpilled, so to speak, and the straight of hormones. Remember, in order to watch, you have to be a member. If you're not a member, become a member. Use code Shapiro at checkout. Try two months free on all annual plans. Click that link in the description. Hej, det är jag från Riksbyggen här. Har du svårt att fokusera på den här podden?

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