We Must Not Allow Pundits and Partisans to Simplify Great Issues Into Irreconcilable Extremes

Krista Tippett, host NPR's On Being and author of Becoming Wise: An Inquiry into the Mystery and Art of Living, joined The Glenn Beck Program on Tuesday.

"I normally wouldn't have somebody on from NPR because of some of the experiences I've had recently . . . but we've had a conversation, and she is really a remarkable human being who sees, perhaps, I don't even know, perhaps not the policies of the world, but the problems and some of the solutions of the world, the same as I do," Glenn said.

On the current so-called war between the White House and the media, Tippett had this to say:

"I'm not fighting it," she said. "I'm choosing to get out of reactive mode and into building mode and healing mode. And I think that's a choice everybody can make."

In 2014, Tippett was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Obama.

Listen to this segment from The Glenn Beck Program:

GLENN: I want to introduce you to somebody who -- who I've just -- who I've just met. I read her book on the plane back from Bangkok yesterday, and a way to introduce her is just in the opening pages: I was born in the wee hours of the night of the 1960 election returns that came in with John F. Kennedy. I grew up in Shawnee, Oklahoma. A small town in a young state in the middle of Middle America where people had come to forget their past and leave their ancestral demons behind. My mother's ancestors drove their covered wagons into the former Indian territory to create their lives from scratch in the unforgiving Oklahoma dust. My father had been adopted by the people I knew as my grandparents at the age of three.

Her name is Krista Tippett. She is the author of a book, Becoming Wise: An Inquiry Into the Mystery and Art of Living. And she is also with NPR.

And I normally wouldn't have somebody on from NPR because of some of the experiences I've had recently with NPR. But we've had a conversation, and she is really a remarkable human being who sees -- perhaps, I don't even know. Perhaps not the policies of the world, but the problems and some of the solutions of the world, the same as I do.

Welcome to the program, Krista, how are you?

KRISTA: Hello, Glenn. I'm good. And I've so enjoyed getting to know you these last months as well.

GLENN: I want to talk to you first about the press. Bill O'Reilly said we're at war. The White House is at war with the press, and the press is at war with the White House.

How does that end?

KRISTA: Well, I think we don't all have to become foot soldiers in that war, right? I don't know how that war will end, but it's a very small slice of what's happening in the world and what matters for how we create the world for how we want our children to inhabit.

And I'm not fighting it. In fact, we're so focused right now -- I think so many of us, so captured. And the media war is kind of doing this, to what we resist and what we're reacting to. And I'm choosing to get out of reactive mode and into building mode and healing mode. And I think that's a choice everybody can make.

GLENN: I happen to agree with you. And I'm in that same place too.

KRISTA: Yeah.

GLENN: I'm wondering -- I was in Bangkok over the weekend doing some work with Operation Underground Railroad, which is trying to break up slavery. And I saw some -- I was in the jungle this weekend. I saw some just horrific things.

I get home and, you know, my kids are on the iPad. And it was hard to readjust. Then I get in this morning, and I see all the news where we're yelling at each other for ridiculous things.

KRISTA: Right.

GLENN: How do we change that?

KRISTA: Well, I -- you know, I interview a lot of scientists along the way. And, you know, I'm attentive to how -- there are really understandable reasons that our brains actually get riveted by that kind of fight and by a sense of threat.

And, you know, I think everybody I feel on all -- all around on all sides of our political system, you know, our brains are on high alert. So part of it is finding ways to calm ourselves, to calm the people around us.

You know, that sounds maybe like a not very powerful thing to do. But we don't -- just as biological creatures, we don't think clearly, and we don't rise to our best selves when we're afraid.

So, you know, I think there's these really basic things -- I feel like there are different callings in this moment for each of us as human beings, as citizens, as political people. And that's one of them.

And also that we have to accompany each other in that, and we have to get to know our neighbors who have become strangers.

I was watching the election all last year and seeing that whoever had won in November, the real work ahead of us is to reweave our life together.

GLENN: Not to make everybody else feel like a loser.

KRISTA: Yeah.

GLENN: You write: The 21st century globe resembles the understanding we now have of a teenage brain.

KRISTA: Right. Right.

GLENN: We reduce great questions of meaning and morality to issues and simplify them to two sides, allowing pundits and partisans to frame them in irreconcilable extremes. But most of us don't see the world this way, and it's not the way the world actually works. I'm not sure there is even such a thing as a cultural center.

What do you mean by that?

KRISTA: Oh, well, I guess, you know, when somebody like me starts talking this way, I think the suspicion is, she's talking about the center or talking about moderates. I don't even know if that's interesting, you know, if there's a center. But what I do know, what I do believe is that right of center and left of center, even if we have very deep differences and convictions that are different to us, we don't want to give up or negotiate away, we also have big questions in common. And we share really important things like our love for our children.

You know, I loved -- I was in Iowa right after the election. And a mom telling me that she's part of a group of neighbors and school parents. About half of them voted for Donald Trump. About half of them voted for Hillary Clinton. But every single one of them was concerned about the effect that the election had on their kids, what they were watching, the kind of discourse they were hearing, the level of discourse.

And so they had rallied together to be in solidarity and actually be working together around that shared challenge. And I think that is a model for how, not that we all have to be in the center or all be moderates, but how we can really be building things together across differences.

GLENN: I will tell you, you were -- we're talking to Krista Tippett. She is the author of Becoming Wise: An Inquiry Into the Mystery and Art of Living.

You know, not to stick him out, but it was one of the most stunning things I had ever heard: George Stephanopoulos said that his 12-year-old daughter, for two weeks after the election, was sleeping in mom and dad's bed because she was afraid of what Donald Trump would do.

KRISTA: Yeah. Yeah.

GLENN: I mean, I have been called every name in the book, beginning at fearmonger. My children are not afraid of Democrats. They're not afraid of President Obama. That's not happening.

What is happening in the world of somebody like George Stephanopoulos, where their child has to sleep in bed at night because they're afraid of Donald Trump?

KRISTA: Well, I mean, I think there are some simple answers and some more complex answers. I mean, we have kind of all resorted to this level of making fun, which I think also is really destructive. And catastrophizing. Catastrophizing about the other side.

You know, catastrophizing, it's not good for us. And it almost never comes true. You know, the things that go terribly wrong are not the things that we are looking for or expect. That's just kind of a life truth.

On a deeper level, you know, to me this political moment is really about this human drama that's going on. I think all of the politics, I think Donald Trump -- I think it's all -- it's all a symptom of this human drama of how -- and how I see that -- you know, over the last few years -- you know, we need to sometimes just like stop, be quiet, take a breath. I just wish we could all take a breath together and say, you know, what an astonishing moment we are living in, in history, where we are redefining basic definitions, even that the 20th century thought it had gotten -- when does life begin? When does death begin? What is family? What is marriage? What is gender?

Our institutions don't make sense all of a sudden. Right? Like workplaces don't make sense. Schools don't make sense. Politics doesn't make sense.

So this is very, very unsettling. And, again, to go back to what the science is telling us, like physiologically, this sends us to really primal parts in ourself, where we just go into two modes, fight or flight. And, I mean, I think that's big. And it's complicated, but to me it's a way to relax and just say, "I'm going to stand on the ground of reality and have a really clear view of what we're up against."

And, again, I think even though it's huge, it comes back to, can we get grounded in ourselves? Can we get clear about what we care about and who we love? Yeah, go on.

GLENN: You say there are five things in your book that we have to pay attention to that will ground us. Can you give them to me?

KRISTA: Yeah. Yeah, there's kind of these basic elements of life. I wrote this book about wisdom, and I thought it was going to be about big extract, but lofty concepts. And I realized in the wisest lives, it's the raw materials, it's the words we use, you know, moment to moment.

GLENN: You write -- I love -- I circled this: Words make worlds. I love that.

KRISTA: Yeah.

GLENN: We choose too small a world in the decade of my birth. Tolerance to make the world we want to live in now. We open the radical difference that it had been there all along, separate, but equal to a new infusion of religions, ethnicities, and values. But tolerance doesn't welcome. It allows, endures, indulges.

KRISTA: Yeah. Tolerance has taught us to be with otherness and be with difference, whether it's racial or political and say, "I'm going to let you be in the room with me." But it doesn't -- has not taught us to be curious about each other, to be open to being surprised by each other.

These are small steps. This is not about saying, I want you to bring me around to your side, or I want to bring you around to my side, just to meet each other as human beings.

GLENN: But doesn't that -- but, Krista, I was -- I was with some people that -- we were talking about this, this weekend. We are not allowed to be surprised by each other.

KRISTA: No, that's right.

GLENN: Not because of tolerance, but because of political correctness.

KRISTA: Yeah.

GLENN: We're afraid to be surprised -- to ask questions that are surprising of the other.

KRISTA: That's right. So we -- part of the task -- it's not going to happen in our -- in our -- most of our media spaces. It's not going to happen in our political spaces. You know, this is the problem right now too. Those are the places we've been trained to look, to see the way forward. And it's hard to say, they're not going to save us. And they're not modeling how we want to be, how we want to live. So we -- yeah, we have to -- we have to create places. And I think we can do that very close to home, right? In our neighborhoods. In our parent and teacher meetings. In our families. And in local politics.

GLENN: How does -- how do we -- you know, I've been trying to find -- I would call them strange bedfellows. But I think people who are willing to be friends with people who are different and then risk everything by showing that friendship, how do we -- how do we get there when everything is set to destroy anyone who disagrees?

KRISTA: Yeah. No. You're so right. We don't -- what we also don't reward or honor in public is apology, or -- right? When somebody says, "I've changed, or I'm reflecting critically on some of the things I've done" -- and you're one of those brave people -- we don't reward that.

GLENN: I don't think we reward courage in any way.

KRISTA: We don't reward courage, that's right. Again, we don't reward it in our lives. In our real lives. But it's not -- it's not reflected. We've really got to turn away from -- you know that phrase above the radar, right? You know, I think one of the other things that's broken now -- the radar is broken.

But, again, we are -- the places we're captivated to look, to see, this is what matters, you know. This is how it works. These are our leaders.

We -- we have to force ourselves -- and I think help each other to move away. And I think the answer to that question of looking for friends, stepping a little bit outside of your comfort zone.

You know, Rilke. The poet Rilke is a great hero to me, and he talked about holding questions. There's a kind of pathology in America, that a question has to have an immediate answer. And any good question actually -- when you and I deal in questions -- ask questions for an answer -- questions also are -- a lot of questions we need to just put out there, and I think holding the question until we find the answer. And everybody can do this in their sphere, you know.

Who is that person? Who is that friend of a friend? Who is that brother-in-law, that I always get into a fight with at Thanksgiving. How can I very gently, in a spirit of generosity, with a willingness to be surprised, create a new entry point. And therefore create a new possibility for how we look forward differently.

GLENN: Krista Tippett, author of the book Becoming Wise. Thanks for being brave and reaching out and accepting a reach-out yourself. Thank you so much.

KRISTA: Thank you, Glenn.

GLENN: Appreciate it. Krista Tippett.

What do clay pots have to do with to preserving American history?

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Editor's note: This article was originally published on TheBlaze.com.

Why should we preserve our nation’s history? If you listen to my radio program and podcast, or read my columns and books, you know I’ve dedicated a large part of my life and finances to sourcing and preserving priceless artifacts that tell America’s story. I’ve tried to make these artifacts as available as possible through the American Journey Experience Museum, just across from the studios where I do my daily radio broadcast. Thousands of you have come through the museum and have been able to see and experience these artifacts that are a part of your legacy as an American.

The destruction of American texts has already begun.

But why should people like you and me be concerned about preserving these things from our nation's history? Isn’t that what the “big guys” like the National Archives are for?

I first felt a prompting to preserve our nation's history back in 2008, and it all started with clay pots and the Dead Sea Scrolls. In 1946, a Bedouin shepherd in what is now the West Bank threw a rock into a cave nestled into the side of a cliff near the Dead Sea. Instead of hearing an echo, he heard the curious sound of a clay pot shattering. He discovered more than 15,000 Masoretic texts from the third century B.C. to the first century A.D.

These texts weren’t just a priceless historical discovery. They were virtually perfect copies of the same Jewish texts that continue to be translated today. Consider the significance of that discovery. Since the third century B.C. when these texts were first written, the Jewish people have endured a continued onslaught of diasporas, persecutions, pressures to conform to their occupying power, the destruction of their temple, and so much more. They had to fight for their identity as a people for centuries, and finally, a year after the end of the Holocaust and a year before the founding of the nation of Israel, these texts were discovered, confirming the preservation and endurance of their heritage since ancient times — all due to someone putting these clay pots in a desert cave more than 2,000 years ago.

I first felt a prompting to preserve our nation's history back in 2008, and it all started with clay pots and the Dead Sea Scrolls.

So, what do these clay pots have to do with the calling to preserve American history? I didn’t understand that prompting myself until the horrible thought dawned on me that the people we are fighting against may very well take our sacred American scriptures, our Declaration of Independence, and our Bill of Rights. What if they are successful, and 1,000 years from now, we have no texts preserved to confirm our national identity? What kind of new history would be written over the truth?

The destruction of American texts has already begun. The National Archives has labeled some of our critical documents, like our Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights, as “triggering” or “containing harmful language.” In a public statement, the National Archives said that the labels help prepare readers to view potentially distressing content:

The Catalog and web pages contain some content that may be harmful or difficult to view. NARA’s records span the history of the United States, and it is our charge to preserve and make available these historical records. As a result, some of the materials presented here may reflect outdated, biased, offensive, and possibly violent views and opinions. In addition, some of the materials may relate to violent or graphic events and are preserved for their historical significance.

According to this statement, our founding documents are either “outdated, biased, offensive,” “possibly violent,” or a combination of these scathing descriptions. I’m sorry, the Declaration of Independence is not “triggering.” Our Constitution is not “outdated and biased,” and our Bill of Rights certainly is not “offensive and possibly violent.” They are glorious documents. They should be celebrated, not qualified by such derogatory, absurd language. Shame on them.

These are only the beginning stages of rewriting our history. What if they start banning these “triggering” documents from public view because they might offend somebody? Haven’t we torn down “triggering” statues before? What if we are no longer able to see, read, and study the actual words of our nation's founding documents because they are “harmful” or “possibly violent”? A thousand years from now, will there be any remnant to piece together the true spirit behind the nation that our founders envisioned?

The Declaration of Independence is not “triggering.”

That is why in 2008, I was prompted to preserve what I could. Now, the American Journey Experience Museum includes more than 160,000 artifacts, from founding-era documents to the original Roe v. Wade court papers. We need to preserve the totality of our nation’s heritage, the good, the bad, and the ugly. We need to preserve our history in our own clay pots.

I ask you to join with me on this mission. Start buying books that are important to preserve. Buy some acid-free paper and start printing some of the founding documents, the reports that go against the mainstream narrative, the studies that prove what is true as we are continually being fed lies. Start preserving our daily history as well as our history because it is being rewritten and digitized.

Somebody must have a copy of what is happening now and what has happened in the past. I hope things don’t get really bad. But if they do, we need to preserve our heritage. Perhaps, someone 1,000 years from now will discover our clay pots and, Lord willing, be able to have a glimpse of America as it truly was.

Top 10 WORST items in the new $1.2 TRILLION spending bill

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Biden just signed the newest spending bill into law, and Glenn is furious.

Under Speaker Johnson's leadership, the whopping $1.2 TRILLION package will use your taxpayer dollars to fund the government through September. Of course, the bill is loaded with earmarks and pork that diverts money to fund all sorts of absurd side projects.

Here is the list of the ten WORST uses of taxpayer money in the recently passed spending bill:

Funding venues to host drag shows, including ones that target children

David McNew / Contributor | Getty Images

Money for transgender underwear for kids

Funding for proms for 12 to 18 year old kids

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Border security funding... for Jordan and Egypt

Another $300 million for Ukraine

Anadolu / Contributor | Getty Images

$3.5 million for Detroit's annual Thanksgiving Day parade

Icon Sportswire / Contributor | Getty Images

$2.5 million for a new kayaking facility in Franklin, New Hampshire

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$2.7 million for a bike park in White Sulfur Springs, West Virginia, a town with a population of less than 2,300 people

$5 million for a new trail at Coastal Carolina University

$4 million the "Alaska King Crab Enhancement Project" (whatever that means)

FRED TANNEAU / Stringer | Getty Images

There is no doubt about it—we are entering dark times.

The November presidential election is only a few months away, and following the chaos of the 2020 election, the American people are bracing for what is likely to be another tumultuous election year. The left's anti-Trump rhetoric is reaching an all-time high with the most recent "Bloodbath" debacle proving how far the media will go to smear the former president. That's not to mention the Democrats' nearly four-year-long authoritarian attempt to jail President Trump or stop his re-election by any means necessary, even if it flies in the face of the Constitution.

Meanwhile, Biden is doing worse than ever. He reportedly threw a tantrum recently after being informed that his polls have reached an all-time low. After Special Counsel Robert Hur's report expressed concerns over Biden's obviously failing mental agility, it's getting harder for the Democrats to defend him. Yet he is still the Democratic nominee for November, promising another 4 years of catastrophic policies, from the border to heavy-handed taxation, should he be reelected.

The rest of the world isn't doing much better. The war in Ukraine has no clear end in sight, drawing NATO and Russia closer and closer to conflict. The war in Gaza is showing no sign of slowing down, and as Glenn revealed recently, its continuation may be a sign that the end times are near.

One thing is clear: we are living in uncertain times. If you and your family haven't prepared for the worst, now is the time. You can start by downloading "Glenn's Ultimate Guide to Getting Prepared." Be sure to print off a copy or two. If the recent cell outage proved anything, it's that technology is unreliable in survival situations. You can check your list of supplies against our "Ultimate Prepper Checklist for Beginners," which you can find below:

Food

  • Canned food/non-perishable foods
  • Food preparation tools
  • Go to the next level: garden/livestock/food production

Water

  • Non-perishable water store
  • Water purification
  • Independent water source

Shelter

  • Fireplace with a wood supply
  • Tent
  • Generator with fuel supply
  • Go to the next level: fallout shelter

Money

  • Emergency cash savings
  • Precious metals

Medicine

  • Extra blankets
  • Basic first aid
  • Extra prescriptions
  • Extra glasses
  • Toiletries store
  • Trauma kit
  • Antibiotics
  • Basic surgery supplies
  • Potassium Iodate tablets

Transportation

  • Bicycle
  • Car
  • Extra fuel

Information

  • Birth certificates
  • Insurance cards
  • Marriage license
  • Immunization records
  • Mortgage paperwork
  • Car title and registration
  • House keys, car keys
  • Passports
  • Family emergency plan
  • Prepping/survival/repair manuals
  • Go to the next level: copy of the Bible, the U.S. Constitution, and other important books/sources

Skills

  • Cooking
  • Gardening
  • Sewing
  • First Aid
  • Basic maintenance skills
  • Go to the next level: farming/ranching
  • Self-defense training

Communication

  • Family contact information and addresses
  • HAM radio

Miscellaneous

  • Flashlights and batteries
  • Lamps and fuel
  • Hardware (tools, nails, lumber, etc)
  • Extra clothes
  • Extreme weather clothes and gear
  • Gas masks and filters
  • Spare parts for any machinery/equipment

Is Trump's prosecution NORMAL?  This COMPLETE list of ALL Western leaders who served jail time proves otherwise.

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Mainstream media is on a crusade to normalize Donald Trump's indictments as if it's on par with the electoral course. Glenn asked his team to research every instance of a Western leader who was jailed during their political career over the past 200 years—except extreme political turmoil like the French Revolution, Napoleonic Wars, Irish Revolution, etc.—and what we discovered was quite the opposite.

Imprisoning a leader or major political opponent is not normal, neither in the U.S. nor in the Western world. Within the last 200 years, there are only a handful of examples of leaders in the West serving jail time, and these men were not imprisoned under normal conditions. All of these men were jailed under extreme circumstances during times of great peril such as the Civil War, World War II, and the Cold War.

What does this mean for America? Are Trump's indictments evidence that we are re-entering times of great peril? Below is a list of Western leaders who were imprisoned within the last 200 years. Take a look and decide for yourself:

Late 1800s

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Jefferson Davis: The nearest occurrence to a U.S. President to serve jail time was in the case of Jefferson Davis, the first and only president of the Confederate States of America. Jefferson was captured in Georgia by Northern Soldiers in 1865 and locked up in Fort Monroe, Virginia for two years. He was offered a presidential pardon but refused out of his loyalty to the confederacy.

Early 1900s

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Eugene V. Debs: Debbs, a Midwestern socialist leader, became the first person to run for president in prison. He was locked up at a federal penitentiary in Atlanta having been convicted under the federal Sedition Act for giving an antiwar speech a few months before Armistice Day, the end of World War I. Many of his supporters believed his imprisonment to be unjust. Debs received 897,704 votes and was a distant third-part candidate behind Warren G. Harding, the Republican winner, and James M. Cox, the second-place Democrat. Harding ordered Debs’s release from prison toward the end of 1921.

Nazi sympathizers and collaborators: After the end of World War II in 1945, several European leaders who had "led" their countries during the Nazi occupation faced trial and imprisonment for treason. This list included Chief of the French State Philippe Pétain, French Prime Minister Pierre Laval, and Minister-President of Norway Vidkun Quisling. The latter two were also executed after their imprisonment. President of Finland Risto Ryti and Prime Minister of Finland Johan Wilhelm Rangell were also tried and jailed for collaborating with the Nazis against the Allied Powers.

Late 1900s

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The end of the Cold War: The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 was one of the pivotal moments that brought the Cold War to a close and marked the end of Communist East Germany. With the fall of the wall and the collapse of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), the former leaders were brought to trial to answer for the crimes committed by the GDR. General Secretary Erich Honecker and General Secretary Egon Krenz were both put on trial for abuse of power and the deaths of those who were shot trying to flee into West Germany. Honecker was charged with jail time but was released from custody due to severe illness and lived out the rest of his life as an exile in Chile. Krenz served 4 years in jail before his release in 2001. He is one of the last surviving leaders of the Eastern Bloc.

Lyndon LaRouche: Larouche was a Trotsky evangelist, public antisemite, and founder of a nationwide Marxist political movement, became the second person in U.S. history to run for President in a prison cell. Granted, he ran in every election from 1976 to 2004 as a long-shot third-party candidate. When he tried to gain the Democratic presidential nomination, he received 5 percent of the total nationwide vote. Even though in 2000 he received enough primary votes to qualify for delegates in a few states, the Democratic National Committee refused to seat his delegates and barred LaRouche from attending the Democratic National Convention.