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Glenn's Show Prep

It is time to come together and lead people out of the darkness

May 30, 2014
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The Glenn Beck Program

You may have noticed that Glenn has had a wide range of guests on his programs this week. From Montel Williams to Rabbi Irwin Kula, James Altucher to Kamal Ravikant, Glenn has been speaking to individuals who might not agree with him politically but share common principles and passions. Glenn opened this morning’s radio program with monologue centered on the importance of joining together with those who may have once made us uncomfortable in order to lead people out of the darkness.

Below is an edited transcript of the monologue:

Yesterday, I had several people in my studios here who are very different than me. I have a new friend in Rabbi Irwin Kula. Rabbi Kula is a New York liberal rabbi who three years ago didn't even want to meet with me. He was like, ‘I don't think I'm going to meet with devil boy.’ But he did because he is a man of integrity and courage, and we sat down and had a great conversation.

I told him at that time, ‘Rabbi, here's what I think is coming. And here is what I think we need to do. And I would just ask that you would pray on that and see if you can help.’ A year went by and we saw each other again. And he said, ‘You know what I've learned in the last year?’ And I said, ‘No, sir.’ And he said, ‘How many people have unreasonable hatred for you.’ I said, ‘Do you remember when I asked if we could meet together?’ He said he never hated me. I was a cartoon character to him. And he said, ‘Now my life is so amazing because I am witnessing unreasonable hatred that I never knew.’ And he said, ‘Being your friend is interesting.’ I said, ‘I understand that.’ A year goes by. And he said to me, ‘I'm beginning to understand what you're talking about. I'm seeing what you're seeing now, with the hatred that is growing on all sides. I want to talk you more about it.’ This is before I gave a speech someplace, and he happened to be there. He came up to me afterwards and he hugged me and he was crying and he said, ‘I'm in. I'm in.’

We've been trying to get together now for the last eight months. And we keep missing each other. And finally he got on the plane and he came down yesterday and he sat with me. We had such an amazing chat. A chat about the hole that so many people are feeling. The hole that our kids are cutting themselves, our kids are killing themselves, and everybody is talking about gun regulation. Even, you know, with me, I'm talking about video games. But really, what we should be talking about is the hole that everyone is trying to fill. And we're all filling it.

We're all addicted to something. I want you to really think to yourself: What is it that you're addicted to? And when I say ‘addicted to,’ what I mean is: If I asked you to put it away for a month, could you do it or would you do it? If I said, don't have any coffee for a month, don't have any alcohol for a month, don't have a cigarette for a month, don't view pornography for a month, don't use the Internet for a month, don't use your cell phone or text message or email for a month. Would you do it? Different question than could you do it. Would you do it? Most of us at first would say, ‘Oh, it can't be done.’ But I would challenge you.

Five years ago you didn't have an iPhone. Five years ago you weren't texting. Five years ago you didn't have Facebook. Five years ago we didn't have Twitter. So these things we all lived without just a very short period ago. So the answer is: Yes, you could. But would you?

We are so busy checking the mail. How many times have we been in a conversation. I was just in a conversation… and somebody pulls out their phone because they just got a little buzzzz, and I looked down, ‘Oh, news item just happened.’ Really? I haven't seen you in four months. How about we have a conversation? I didn't even notice it because I thought, ‘Oh, wow, that's important news.’ But was it? Really? I mean I would have found out that news in just a few minutes. Is that news going to affect us somehow or another? Do we need to know exactly what's happening? I understand we're in the news business, so yes, we do. But I'm asking you: When you find out, oh, the guy from the V.A. just apologized. Is that something that you need to know right now? Are you going to affect that somehow or another? Does Washington affect you somehow or another? We're watching the Kardashians, not all of us, thank God.

This is a historic studio. This is where they made JFK and portions of Forrest Gump. All the Barneys were done here. Prison Break was filmed here. Robocop was filmed here. Silkwood was filmed here. These are historic studios. But these studios fell into disrepair, and they just went dark. I really just think they just went dark. This was a bad building when we first came into it. You could feel it. The people were miserable here. It was bad. And we have spent now the last year… trying to get the bad karma out of this building and change the way it feels and the way we relate to each other. And it has been quite a journey.

Yesterday, the [Rabbi Kula] walks in and, I mean, most rabbis that I know, they live in their head. Israel means ‘to wrestle with God.’ That's what the translation is. ‘One who wrestles with God.’ And so most rabbis that I know, they live in their head, and they wrestle with God, and they're just these giant brains. I have met – on very rare occasion – one that lives in the head and the heart… And he walked in here and he said, ‘Boy, there is something happening here.’ I said, ‘Yes, there is, Rabbi.’ And we started to talk and he never talked about my community. He talked about his community. And he said, ‘Let me take the beam out of my own eye before I worry about the speck in somebody else's.’ He said, ‘There's so much hate in my community.’ Now, he's assuming – and I'm going to assume that you are doing the same – as I relate this story, that you're now thinking about the hate in our community. But he said, ‘There is so much hate in my community. And it's becoming unreasonable. And it's because we're lying to each other. We are lying about everything. We're lying about our lives. We're lying about the future. And we're all afraid. And we're lying that we're not afraid. You watch news and they're lying to you about what's happening in Washington. They're lying to you about what's happening with the banks. They're lying to you. And we're starting to separate from each other.’ And he put his head in his hands and the man wept.

We have to love each other. I want to read something we put up on this chalkboard. We have this giant hallway in this studio. It's a four-story atrium in the middle of the studio and this hallway. This is probably 20 feet tall and 40 feet long. It's chalkboard on the side. And I wanted to show you what I wrote on this. And this is for my staff to read:

I believe the world doesn't have to suck. But for that to be true, we have to be our better selves. We must empower, forgive, lift, enlighten, hope, dream, create, and above all, love. Most people will laugh at this idea. Let them. We won't notice it because we'll be busy changing the world. So to all those who visit here, welcome and join us. To the rest of the world, we may appear as mad men. We actually like it that way because they'll never see us coming.

That is a message that I gave my staff and that is a message that I give you today. Religion has been so corrupted. Religion has gone so dead and cold. Religion has become about rules and not about love. It has been about making money and building bigger churches and rock bands or whatever it is, and not about service.

I remember when I said to my wife, ‘Will you marry me?’ And she said, ‘No.’ And I said, ‘Okay, that's not the actual answer I was looking for. How come?’ And she said, ‘Because we don't have God in common.’ And I said, ‘Honey, I believe in God deeply. I just don't go to church because I don't believe in church.’ And she said, ‘We're not going to get married unless we go to church.’ And I said, ‘You got to be kidding me. You come over to my house on Sunday. I have gotten up and I've just watched like The Sopranos on HBO and I'm in a perfectly good mood. I'm good. You, on the other hand, have gone to church. And so now you come over and you spend the first 20 minutes talking to me about how everybody was honking their horns. How everybody -- somebody flipped you off while you were trying to get out of the parking lot. How people only went for 45 minutes and as soon as they had the sacrament, they were gone. Why would I want to go there? I'm great watching The Sopranos. Why would I want to go to that?’ We hadn't found what they were looking for.

But I challenge you. I'm not talking about religion. I'm talking about finding something that fills that hole that doesn't come from man. I don't care what it is, but find something that is bigger than you. The reason why our kids are cutting themselves, the reason why our kids are shooting, the reason why these video games are dangerous is because it aids in the going dead inside. It speeds the process up. There is nothing our kids are shocked by. Nothing.

Do you remember how frightened you were of some things when you were little? Our kids have seen it all. They have seen murders. They have seen rapes. They have seen bloody, dead bodies. They have seen it all. So there's nothing that shocks them and on top of it, there's nothing sacred. There's no reason to be reverent for anything or anybody. Tell me the things you believe in. Tell me the things that are bigger than you. Tell me the things you think your kids have reverence for. Go into our churches. There's no quiet space. If it's quiet, it's because everybody is on their cell phones or their iPads and they're texting. The only reason why it's quiet is because they're living in the cyber world. What is it that fills that?

I challenge you to find something that fills that. That's real. That you're not going to lose if the economy goes down. That will make you stronger if you lose your job. Not weaker. Something that you cannot lose, something that is a lighthouse. It's a polar star. What is it for you?

And then I challenge you to start looking for people that make you uncomfortable. I've had a conversation with Montel Williams this week that was necessarily uncomfortable for him. I've had a Rabbi from the Upper West Side of Manhattan. That wasn't comfortable. We have to start reaching out to people and the best thing about this audience is we have always tried to push and prod and poke and in a safe place make you uncomfortable – just be true. Just be honest. Not ever saying what I think you want to hear. But saying what I believe.

You have this amazing elastic mind that most audiences don't have. You go and look at an NBC audience and they do not have the ability to think out of the box. They don't have the ability to go into an uncomfortable place. And that's the same with most audiences, left or right. You're different. Go find and seek those people because I'm telling you, we need to tie each other together. We need to rope each other together. And we need to find our polar star, so we can lead people out of the darkness.

A nation unravels when its shared culture is the first thing to go

Spencer Platt / Staff | Getty Images

Texas now hosts Quran-first academies, Sharia-compliant housing schemes, and rapidly multiplying mosques — all part of a movement building a self-contained society apart from the country around it.

It is time to talk honestly about what is happening inside America’s rapidly growing Muslim communities. In city after city, large pockets of newcomers are choosing to build insulated enclaves rather than enter the broader American culture.

That trend is accelerating, and the longer we ignore it, the harder it becomes to address.

As Texas goes, so goes America. And as America goes, so goes the free world.

America has always welcomed people of every faith and people from every corner of the world, but the deal has never changed: You come here and you join the American family. You are free to honor your traditions, keep your faith, but you must embrace the Constitution as the supreme law of the land. You melt into the shared culture that allows all of us to live side by side.

Across the country, this bargain is being rejected by Islamist communities that insist on building a parallel society with its own rules, its own boundaries, and its own vision for how life should be lived.

Texas illustrates the trend. The state now has roughly 330 mosques. At least 48 of them were built in just the last 24 months. The Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex alone has around 200 Islamic centers. Houston has another hundred or so. Many of these communities have no interest in blending into American life.

This is not the same as past waves of immigration. Irish, Italian, Korean, Mexican, and every other group arrived with pride in their heritage. Still, they also raised American flags and wanted their children to be part of the country’s future. They became doctors, small-business owners, teachers, and soldiers. They wanted to be Americans.

What we are watching now is not the melting pot. It is isolation by design.

Parallel societies do not end well

More than 300 fundamentalist Islamic schools now operate full-time across the country. Many use Quran-first curricula that require students to spend hours memorizing religious texts before they ever reach math or science. In Dallas, Brighter Horizons Academy enrolls more than 1,700 students and draws federal support while operating on a social model that keeps children culturally isolated.

Then there is the Epic City project in Collin and Hunt counties — 402 acres originally designated only for Muslim buyers, with Sharia-compliant financing and a mega-mosque at the center. After public outcry and state investigations, the developers renamed it “The Meadows,” but a new sign does not erase the original intent. It is not a neighborhood. It is a parallel society.

Americans should not hesitate to say that parallel societies are dangerous. Europe tried this experiment, and the results could not be clearer. In Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, entire neighborhoods now operate under their own cultural rules, some openly hostile to Western norms. When citizens speak up, they are branded bigots for asserting a basic right: the ability to live safely in their own communities.

A crisis of confidence

While this separation widens, another crisis is unfolding at home. A recent Gallup survey shows that about 40% of American women ages 18 to 39 would leave the country permanently if given the chance. Nearly half of a rising generation — daughters, sisters, soon-to-be mothers — no longer believe this nation is worth building a future in.

And who shapes the worldview of young boys? Their mothers. If a mother no longer believes America is home, why would her child grow up ready to defend it?

As Texas goes, so goes America. And as America goes, so goes the free world. If we lose confidence in our own national identity at the same time that we allow separatist enclaves to spread unchecked, the outcome is predictable. Europe is already showing us what comes next: cultural fracture, political radicalization, and the slow death of national unity.

Brandon Bell / Staff | Getty Images

Stand up and tell the truth

America welcomes Muslims. America defends their right to worship freely. A Muslim who loves the Constitution, respects the rule of law, and wants to raise a family in peace is more than welcome in America.

But an Islamist movement that rejects assimilation, builds enclaves governed by its own religious framework, and treats American law as optional is not simply another participant in our melting pot. It is a direct challenge to it. If we refuse to call this problem out out of fear of being called names, we will bear the consequences.

Europe is already feeling those consequences — rising conflict and a political class too paralyzed to admit the obvious. When people feel their culture, safety, and freedoms slipping away, they will follow anyone who promises to defend them. History has shown that over and over again.

Stand up. Speak plainly. Be unafraid. You can practice any faith in this country, but the supremacy of the Constitution and the Judeo-Christian moral framework that shaped it is non-negotiable. It is what guarantees your freedom in the first place.

If you come here and honor that foundation, welcome. If you come here to undermine it, you do not belong here.

Wake up to what is unfolding before the consequences arrive. Because when a nation refuses to say what is true, the truth eventually forces its way in — and by then, it is always too late.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Shocking: AI-written country song tops charts, sparks soul debate

VCG / Contributor | Getty Images

A machine can imitate heartbreak well enough to top the charts, but it cannot carry grief, choose courage, or hear the whisper that calls human beings to something higher.

The No. 1 country song in America right now was not written in Nashville or Texas or even L.A. It came from code. “Walk My Walk,” the AI-generated single by the AI artist Breaking Rust, hit the top spot on Billboard’s Country Digital Song Sales chart, and if you listen to it without knowing that fact, you would swear a real singer lived the pain he is describing.

Except there is no “he.” There is no lived experience. There is no soul behind the voice dominating the country music charts.

If a machine can imitate the soul, then what is the soul?

I will admit it: I enjoy some AI music. Some of it is very good. And that leaves us with a question that is no longer science fiction. If a machine can fake being human this well, what does it mean to be human?

A new world of artificial experience

This is not just about one song. We are walking straight into a technological moment that will reshape everyday life.

Elon Musk said recently that we may not even have phones in five years. Instead, we will carry a small device that listens, anticipates, and creates — a personal AI agent that knows what we want to hear before we ask. It will make the music, the news, the podcasts, the stories. We already live in digital bubbles. Soon, those bubbles might become our own private worlds.

If an algorithm can write a hit country song about hardship and perseverance without a shred of actual experience, then the deeper question becomes unavoidable: If a machine can imitate the soul, then what is the soul?

What machines can never do

A machine can produce, and soon it may produce better than we can. It can calculate faster than any human mind. It can rearrange the notes and words of a thousand human songs into something that sounds real enough to fool millions.

But it cannot care. It cannot love. It cannot choose right and wrong. It cannot forgive because it cannot be hurt. It cannot stand between a child and danger. It cannot walk through sorrow.

A machine can imitate the sound of suffering. It cannot suffer.

The difference is the soul. The divine spark. The thing God breathed into man that no code will ever have. Only humans can take pain and let it grow into compassion. Only humans can take fear and turn it into courage. Only humans can rebuild their lives after losing everything. Only humans hear the whisper inside, the divine voice that says, “Live for something greater.”

We are building artificial minds. We are not building artificial life.

Questions that define us

And as these artificial minds grow sharper, as their tools become more convincing, the right response is not panic. It is to ask the oldest and most important questions.

Who am I? Why am I here? What is the meaning of freedom? What is worth defending? What is worth sacrificing for?

That answer is not found in a lab or a server rack. It is found in that mysterious place inside each of us where reason meets faith, where suffering becomes wisdom, where God reminds us we are more than flesh and more than thought. We are not accidents. We are not circuits. We are not replaceable.

Europa Press News / Contributor | Getty Images

The miracle machines can never copy

Being human is not about what we can produce. Machines will outproduce us. That is not the question. Being human is about what we can choose. We can choose to love even when it costs us something. We can choose to sacrifice when it is not easy. We can choose to tell the truth when the world rewards lies. We can choose to stand when everyone else bows. We can create because something inside us will not rest until we do.

An AI content generator can borrow our melodies, echo our stories, and dress itself up like a human soul, but it cannot carry grief across a lifetime. It cannot forgive an enemy. It cannot experience wonder. It cannot look at a broken world and say, “I am going to build again.”

The age of machines is rising. And if we do not know who we are, we will shrink. But if we use this moment to remember what makes us human, it will help us to become better, because the one thing no algorithm will ever recreate is the miracle that we exist at all — the miracle of the human soul.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Shocking shift: America’s youth lured by the “Socialism trap”

Jeremy Weine / Stringer | Getty Images

A generation that’s lost faith in capitalism is turning to the oldest lie on earth: equality through control.

Something is breaking in America’s young people. You can feel it in every headline, every grocery bill, every young voice quietly asking if the American dream still means anything at all.

For many, the promise of America — work hard, build something that lasts, and give the next generation a better start — feels like it no longer exists. Home ownership and stability have become luxuries for a fortunate few.

Capitalism is not a perfect system. It is flawed because people are flawed, but it remains the only system that rewards creativity and effort rather than punishing them.

In that vacuum of hope, a new promise has begun to rise — one that sounds compassionate, equal, and fair. The promise of socialism.

The appeal of a broken dream

When the American dream becomes a checklist of things few can afford — a home, a car, two children, even a little peace — disappointment quickly turns to resentment. The average first-time homebuyer is now 40 years old. Debt lasts longer than marriages. The cost of living rises faster than opportunity.

For a generation that has never seen the system truly work, capitalism feels like a rigged game built to protect those already at the top.

That is where socialism finds its audience. It presents itself as fairness for the forgotten and justice for the disillusioned. It speaks softly at first, offering equality, compassion, and control disguised as care.

We are seeing that illusion play out now in New York City, where Zohran Mamdani — an open socialist — has won a major political victory. The same ideology that once hid behind euphemisms now campaigns openly throughout America’s once-great cities. And for many who feel left behind, it sounds like salvation.

But what socialism calls fairness is submission dressed as virtue. What it calls order is obedience. Once the system begins to replace personal responsibility with collective dependence, the erosion of liberty is only a matter of time.

The bridge that never ends

Socialism is not a destination; it is a bridge. Karl Marx described it as the necessary transition to communism — the scaffolding that builds the total state. Under socialism, people are taught to obey. Under communism, they forget that any other options exist.

History tells the story clearly. Russia, China, Cambodia, Cuba — each promised equality and delivered misery. One hundred million lives were lost, not because socialism failed, but because it succeeded at what it was designed to do: make the state supreme and the individual expendable.

Today’s advocates insist their version will be different — democratic, modern, and kind. They often cite Sweden as an example, but Sweden’s prosperity was never born of socialism. It grew out of capitalism, self-reliance, and a shared moral culture. Now that system is cracking under the weight of bureaucracy and division.

ANGELA WEISS / Contributor | Getty Images

The real issue is not economic but moral. Socialism begins with a lie about human nature — that people exist for the collective and that the collective knows better than the individual.

This lie is contrary to the truths on which America was founded — that rights come not from government’s authority, but from God’s. Once government replaces that authority, compassion becomes control, and freedom becomes permission.

What young America deserves

Young Americans have many reasons to be frustrated. They were told to study, work hard, and follow the rules — and many did, only to find the goalposts moved again and again. But tearing down the entire house does not make it fairer; it only leaves everyone standing in the rubble.

Capitalism is not a perfect system. It is flawed because people are flawed, but it remains the only system that rewards creativity and effort rather than punishing them. The answer is not revolution but renewal — moral, cultural, and spiritual.

It means restoring honesty to markets, integrity to government, and faith to the heart of our nation. A people who forsake God will always turn to government for salvation, and that road always ends in dependency and decay.

Freedom demands something of us. It requires faith, discipline, and courage. It expects citizens to govern themselves before others govern them. That is the truth this generation deserves to hear again — that liberty is not a gift from the state but a calling from God.

Socialism always begins with promises and ends with permission. It tells you what to drive, what to say, what to believe, all in the name of fairness. But real fairness is not everyone sharing the same chains — it is everyone having the same chance.

The American dream was never about guarantees. It was about the right to try, to fail, and try again. That freedom built the most prosperous nation in history, and it can do so again if we remember that liberty is not a handout but a duty.

Socialism does not offer salvation. It requires subservience.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Rage isn’t conservatism — THIS is what true patriots stand for

Gary Hershorn / Contributor | Getty Images

Conservatism is not about rage or nostalgia. It’s about moral clarity, national renewal, and guarding the principles that built America’s freedom.

Our movement is at a crossroads, and the question before us is simple: What does it mean to be a conservative in America today?

For years, we have been told what we are against — against the left, against wokeism, against decline. But opposition alone does not define a movement, and it certainly does not define a moral vision.

We are not here to cling to the past or wallow in grievance. We are not the movement of rage. We are the movement of reason and hope.

The media, as usual, are eager to supply their own answer. The New York Times recently suggested that Nick Fuentes represents the “future” of conservatism. That’s nonsense — a distortion of both truth and tradition. Fuentes and those like him do not represent American conservatism. They represent its counterfeit.

Real conservatism is not rage. It is reverence. It does not treat the past as a museum, but as a teacher. America’s founders asked us to preserve their principles and improve upon their practice. That means understanding what we are conserving — a living covenant, not a relic.

Conservatism as stewardship

In 2025, conservatism means stewardship — of a nation, a culture, and a moral inheritance too precious to abandon. To conserve is not to freeze history. It is to stand guard over what is essential. We are custodians of an experiment in liberty that rests on the belief that rights come not from kings or Congress, but from the Creator.

That belief built this country. It will be what saves it. The Constitution is a covenant between generations. Conservatism is the duty to keep that covenant alive — to preserve what works, correct what fails, and pass on both wisdom and freedom to those who come next.

Economics, culture, and morality are inseparable. Debt is not only fiscal; it is moral. Spending what belongs to the unborn is theft. Dependence is not compassion; it is weakness parading as virtue. A society that trades responsibility for comfort teaches citizens how to live as slaves.

Freedom without virtue is not freedom; it is chaos. A culture that mocks faith cannot defend liberty, and a nation that rejects truth cannot sustain justice. Conservatism must again become the moral compass of a disoriented people, reminding America that liberty survives only when anchored to virtue.

Rebuilding what is broken

We cannot define ourselves by what we oppose. We must build families, communities, and institutions that endure. Government is broken because education is broken, and education is broken because we abandoned the formation of the mind and the soul. The work ahead is competence, not cynicism.

Conservatives should embrace innovation and technology while rejecting the chaos of Silicon Valley. Progress must not come at the expense of principle. Technology must strengthen people, not replace them. Artificial intelligence should remain a servant, never a master. The true strength of a nation is not measured by data or bureaucracy, but by the quiet webs of family, faith, and service that hold communities together. When Washington falters — and it will — those neighborhoods must stand.

Eric Lee / Stringer | Getty Images

This is the real work of conservatism: to conserve what is good and true and to reform what has decayed. It is not about slogans; it is about stewardship — the patient labor of building a civilization that remembers what it stands for.

A creed for the rising generation

We are not here to cling to the past or wallow in grievance. We are not the movement of rage. We are the movement of reason and hope.

For the rising generation, conservatism cannot be nostalgia. It must be more than a memory of 9/11 or admiration for a Reagan era they never lived through. Many young Americans did not experience those moments — and they should not have to in order to grasp the lessons they taught and the truths they embodied. The next chapter is not about preserving relics but renewing purpose. It must speak to conviction, not cynicism; to moral clarity, not despair.

Young people are searching for meaning in a culture that mocks truth and empties life of purpose. Conservatism should be the moral compass that reminds them freedom is responsibility and that faith, family, and moral courage remain the surest rebellions against hopelessness.

To be a conservative in 2025 is to defend the enduring principles of American liberty while stewarding the culture, the economy, and the spirit of a free people. It is to stand for truth when truth is unfashionable and to guard moral order when the world celebrates chaos.

We are not merely holding the torch. We are relighting it.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.