Should we be shielding our kids from what is happening in the world?

Every time you tune into the news, you can see evil working its way into the world. Whether it be ISIS beheading journalists in the Middle East or kids bullying an autistic teen in Ohio, darkness seems to be covering the world. But you can do something about it, starting by having honest conversations with your kids. They are growing up in a safety bubble, and we shouldn't shield them from the horrors in the world.

Below is a transcript of Glenn's opening monologue

Tonight, I want to start here though on kind of a conversation that I would like to start to have with you over a longer period of time, and that is this, I really think that we all basically are the same inside. We might vote differently. We might, you know, like different colors, whatever, but we all want the freedom to choose. We want the choice of our own path in life. We want the freedom to speak out. We want the freedom and the respect that our voice is being heard without fear of any kind of persecution or repercussion, at least when it comes to the government.

We want to belong to something bigger than ourselves. We want to see a grander vision and build that, mainly for our kids because we want our kids to have it better than we did growing up. There is a ton of noise that gets between all of us, and it suggests otherwise, but I believe it’s true, that we can disagree on a ton of things, and those disagreements are often really very real, but when it all comes down to it and the dust settles, we have more in common than not.

In the days and the weeks ahead, we’re going to be trying to find people who really get that. We might disagree on really big things, but it’s important that we find the things we do agree on. Tomorrow, I’m going to be talking to a guy who I think is one of the more interesting people alive today. I’ve not met him yet. I’ve had him on the show I think once before. His name is Andrew W.K.

He is a rock star. He is a guy who I think writes for the Village Voice. And I’ve read his articles. I agree with this guy. I think he may be one of the most important voices in America today, and I want you to meet him. We’re going to have a fascinating conversation with him. That’s tomorrow night. He’s trying to unite us on the big stuff, and that’s what we have to do.

Now, is that going to help or hurt? Because a lot of people are like you can’t even talk to anybody. No, and by saying that I want my kids to not have the same kind of fears and worries that I had as a kid, is that help or hurt? I don’t know about you, but do you remember when we were kids, and we had this, you know, war, this Cold War, with the Soviet Union. That was really scary, right? I thought we were going to be vaporized. I can’t tell you how many nights I had nightmares as a little kid because that’s all you saw on television. Well, think about what our kids are seeing on television now.

Now, conversations like this may hit close to home, but I think that’s what TheBlaze is really all about. TheBlaze is a place to where we want to be able to challenge and question everything, everything that we’re doing as a parent, everything that we’re doing as people, but that challenge might just affirm the path that you’re on as well.

The world is becoming an increasingly dangerous and dark, dark place, and you know it. You just watch it. I think that’s why people are not watching news the way they used to, because they don’t know what to do about it. They feel helpless. There is no perspective, and when you see something like ISIS and everything else that’s going on, you think to yourself, “What am I going to do about it?”

You don’t have to look overseas to see evil, either. In Ohio, this is one of the most tragic things I’ve ever seen, an autistic child was tricked into doing the ice bucket challenge, and some of his “friends” dumped feces and urine on him instead. In Seattle, a wheelchair-bound couple had their computer stolen by a pair of thieves while they were at the mall. There is evil everywhere. It’s there. So what are we going to do about it?

Well, I don’t think there’s a better time than right now to first self-examine and honestly ask ourselves, “What are we teaching our kids?” Are we teaching them the things that they will need to be prepared to make sense of the world that they’re going to inherit and then change it for the better or are we just sheltering them so they can save their childhood and then send them off into battle completely naked, woefully ill-informed, and armed with only a phone full of selfies?

We mean well, but in our quest to make things better, we’re probably disabling our children, and we’re shielding them from reality or we think we’re shielding them from reality. I don’t think you can anymore. The things that we saw on TV, our parents kind of monitored. If they walked away from the room, we could change the channel, but there were only three channels.

Now, things are happening, and people have cell phones everywhere. It’s happening, it’s happening live. Anywhere from the greatest of the greats to pornography is happening all around our children in the schools, everywhere. We’ve worked hard to afford suburbia and give them the things that we didn’t have, often times at the expense of our own presence, and then we try to make up with things or we make up or we’re tired.

This is mine. I’m so tired at the end of the day, I’m just like, “Whatever, that’s good. You know what, honey, just go ahead.” No. We prop them up with false compliments. We give them these fake trophies for participation. We don’t discipline. We don’t train them for a life in a broken and a very harsh world. Instead, we try to protect them from it. We’ve shielded their eyes.

You know me well enough to know that I don’t claim to have any answers. I don’t, especially when it comes to parenting. Anybody who says they’re, you know, I’m a parent, and I’ve figured it all out, you’re a liar. As a father of four, I can confidently tell you I am fumbling my way through it. I think I’m getting better, but make no mistake, raising and leading a family, mom or dad doesn’t matter, most important job and the hardest job there is.

But that I think is why we have to have an honest conversation. We have to have this conversation with each other because I don’t know, you’re like me, my wife and I, we sit in bed at night, and we will look at somebody else’s, our friends’ Facebook pages. And we see their put-together life, and it’s not our life. And we have a pretty sweet life, but our kids are, you know, messy and complaining and everything else, and so we look at this, and we say, “How do they do it? How do they do it?”

We can’t figure it out. And then we post all of our perfect moments on Facebook, and our friends are going, “Look at the Becks. How are they doing it?” The deal is none of us are doing it, none of us. And the things that we’re dealing with now have never been dealt before in all of human history. There is no detailed manual on what to do with kids, let alone kids with this kind of technology.

Never before has mankind seen this. With so much information out our own fingertips, what do I show my kids? What do I not show my kids? How do I keep my kids away from finding it on their own? Do I let them see the scary parts of movies? And what is even scary? What was scary is so far beyond what is scary now. What about video games? Do I tell them the truth about what’s happening to children in the Middle East?

You want to talk about nightmares, they’re teaching their children to hate and kill and to behead people. Do I teach them that? Do I show them that? Are they going to see that on their cell phone in grade school? This week is the anniversary of 9/11. A lot of us didn’t even show our kids the horrors of that day. Think about this, the kids born after 9/11 are now reaching their teenage years. That is incredible.

I will never even forget the smell of that day. Our kids weren’t living during that time. We saw evil rain down. We felt it. There was no mistaking it. Now we don’t even show the planes hitting the towers. It’s too scary. It’s too disturbing. If we don’t show them the truth, an entire generation is going to rise up blissfully unaware of what awaits them.

They didn’t feel the terror the morning of 9/11 when one plane hit, and we all said, “That’s a small plane. That has to be a small plane. That was just an accident. Maybe he had a heart attack.” And then another and then another, and then we all said, “How many do they have? Where are they going to hit next? Is this going to go on all day? Are suicide bombers going to be on the streets? Are they going to be in the malls? Is our country over today? Do you remember having that feeling, is our country over today?

Damn right, we were scared, because even though we didn’t know who Osama bin Laden was, even though we were all like who’s doing this to us?, we understood how fragile, just that day, how fragile this whole thing is. Our kids don’t know that, because it’s not. It’s bailouts. Everything is fine. There’s no mistakes. There’s nothing that can ever hurt you.

When our kids get old enough to understand the Muslim Brotherhood and that it’s a legitimate organization and that their real designs…when they get old enough to understand that ISIS is not a jayvee squad, they’ve got an eye-opening experience for them. Heck with our kids, half our population doesn’t even know that. We’re living in denial, and in our quest to give our children better, in our quest to make sure that our kids don’t have the nightmares that we had, they’re growing up in a safety bubble that doesn’t exist, and it’s not working out.

Do they really have it better than we did? Do they really have it better than our grandparents did when they were growing up in the Depression? Are we helping or are we hurting?

So what do you do?

Glenn invited Dr. James Dobson onto the show to explain how you can have conversations with your kids about what is happening in the world:

The Woodrow Wilson strategy to get out of Mother’s Day

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I’ve got a potentially helpful revelation that’s gonna blow the lid off your plans for this Sunday. It’s Mother’s Day.

Yeah, that sacred day where you’re guilt-tripped into buying flowers, braving crowded brunch buffets, and pretending you didn’t forget to mail the card. But what if I told you… you don’t have to do it? That’s right, there’s a loophole, a get-out-of-Mother’s-Day-free card, and it’s stamped with the name of none other than… Woodrow Wilson (I hate that guy).

Back in 1914, ol’ Woody Wilson signed a proclamation that officially made Mother’s Day a national holiday. Second Sunday in May, every year. He said it was a day to “publicly express our love and reverence for the mothers of our country.” Sounds sweet, right? Until you peel back the curtain.

See, Wilson wasn’t some sentimental guy sitting around knitting doilies for his mom. No, no, no. This was a calculated move.

The idea for Mother’s Day had been floating around for decades, pushed by influential voices like Julia Ward Howe. By 1911, states were jumping on the bandwagon, but it took Wilson to make it federal. Why? Because he was a master of optics. This guy loved big, symbolic gestures to distract from the real stuff he was up to, like, oh, I don’t know, reshaping the entire federal government!

So here’s the deal: if you’re looking for an excuse to skip Mother’s Day, just lean into this. Say, “Sorry, Mom, I’m not celebrating a holiday cooked up by Woodrow Wilson!” I mean, think about it – this is the guy who gave us the Federal Reserve, the income tax, and don’t even get me started on his assault on basic liberties during World War I. You wanna trust THAT guy with your Sunday plans? I don’t think so! You tell your mom, “Look, I love you, but I’m not observing a Progressive holiday. I’m keeping my brunch money in protest.”

Now, I know what you might be thinking.

“Glenn, my mom’s gonna kill me if I try this.” Fair point. Moms can be scary. But hear me out: you can spin this. Tell her you’re honoring her EVERY DAY instead of some government-mandated holiday. You don’t need Wilson’s permission to love your mom! You can bake her a cake in June, call her in July, or, here’s a wild idea, visit her WITHOUT a Woodrow Wilson federal proclamation guilting you into it.

Shocking Christian massacres unveiled

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Is a Christian Genocide unfolding overseas?

Recent reports suggest an alarming escalation in violence against Christians, raising questions about whether these acts constitute genocide under international law. Recently, Glenn hosted former U.S. Army Special Forces Sniper Tim Kennedy, who discussed a predictive model that forecasts a surge in global Christian persecution for the summer of 2025.

From Africa to Asia and the Middle East, extreme actions—some described as genocidal—have intensified over the past year. Over 380 million Christians worldwide face high levels of persecution, a number that continues to climb. With rising international concern, the United Nations and human rights groups are urging protective measures by the global community. Is a Christian genocide being waged in the far corners of the globe? Where are they taking place, and what is being done?

India: Hindu Extremist Violence Escalates

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In India, attacks on Christians have surged as Hindu extremist groups gain influence within the country. In February 2025, Hindu nationalist leader Aadesh Soni organized a 50,000-person rally in Chhattisgarh, where he called for the rape and murder of all Christians in nearby villages and demanded the execution of Christian leaders to erase Christianity. Other incidents include forced conversions, such as a June 2024 attack in Chhattisgarh, where a Hindu mob gave Christian families a 10-day ultimatum to convert to Hinduism. In December 2024, a Christian man in Uttar Pradesh was attacked, forcibly converted, and paraded while the mob chanted "Death to Jesus."

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) recommends designating India a "Country of Particular Concern" and imposing targeted sanctions on those perpetrating these attacks. The international community is increasingly alarmed by the rising tide of religious violence in India.

Syria: Sectarian Violence Post-Regime Change

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Following the collapse of the Assad regime in December 2024, Syria has seen a wave of sectarian violence targeting religious minorities, including Christians, with over 1,000 killed in early 2025. It remains unclear whether Christians are deliberately targeted or caught in broader conflicts, but many fear persecution by the new regime or extremist groups. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a dominant rebel group and known al-Qaeda splinter group now in power, is known for anti-Christian sentiments, heightening fears of increased persecution.

Christians, especially converts from Islam, face severe risks in the unstable post-regime environment. The international community is calling for humanitarian aid and protection for Syria’s vulnerable minority communities.

Democratic Republic of Congo: A "Silent Genocide"

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In February 2025, the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an ISIS-affiliated group, beheaded 70 Christians—men, women, and children—in a Protestant church in North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo, after tying their hands. This horrific massacre, described as a "silent genocide" reminiscent of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, has shocked the global community.

Since 1996, the ADF and other militias have killed over six million people, with Christians frequently targeted. A Christmas 2024 attack killed 46, further decimating churches in the region. With violence escalating, humanitarian organizations are urging immediate international intervention to address the crisis.

POLL: Starbase exposed: Musk’s vision or corporate takeover?

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Is Starbase the future of innovation or a step too far?

Elon Musk’s ambitious Starbase project in South Texas is reshaping Boca Chica into a cutting-edge hub for SpaceX’s Starship program, promising thousands of jobs and a leap toward Mars colonization. Supporters see Musk as a visionary, driving economic growth and innovation in a historically underserved region. However, local critics, including Brownsville residents and activists, argue that SpaceX’s presence raises rents, restricts beach access, and threatens environmental harm, with Starbase’s potential incorporation as a city sparking fears of unchecked corporate control. As pro-Musk advocates clash with anti-Musk skeptics, will Starbase unite the community or deepen the divide?

Let us know what you think in the poll below:

Is Starbase’s development a big win for South Texas?  

Should Starbase become its own city?  

Is Elon Musk’s vision more of a benefit than a burden for the region?

Shocking truth behind Trump-Zelenskyy mineral deal unveiled

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President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy have finalized a landmark agreement that will shape the future of U.S.-Ukraine relations. The agreement focuses on mineral access and war recovery.

After a tense March meeting, Trump and Zelenskyy signed a deal on Wednesday, April 30, 2025, granting the U.S. preferential mineral rights in Ukraine in exchange for continued military support. Glenn analyzed an earlier version of the agreement in March, when Zelenskyy rejected it, highlighting its potential benefits for America, Ukraine, and Europe. Glenn praised the deal’s strategic alignment with U.S. interests, including reducing reliance on China for critical minerals and fostering regional peace.

However, the agreement signed this week differs from the March proposal Glenn praised. Negotiations led to significant revisions, reflecting compromises on both sides. What changes were made? What did each leader seek, and what did they achieve? How will this deal impact the future of U.S.-Ukraine relations and global geopolitics? Below, we break down the key aspects of the agreement.

What did Trump want?

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Trump aimed to curb what many perceive as Ukraine’s overreliance on U.S. aid while securing strategic advantages for America. His primary goals included obtaining reimbursement for the billions in military aid provided to Ukraine, gaining exclusive access to Ukraine’s valuable minerals (such as titanium, uranium, and lithium), and reducing Western dependence on China for critical resources. These minerals are essential for aerospace, energy, and technology sectors, and Trump saw their acquisition as a way to bolster U.S. national security and economic competitiveness. Additionally, he sought to advance peace talks to end the Russia-Ukraine war, positioning the U.S. as a key mediator.

Ultimately, Trump secured preferential—but not exclusive—rights to extract Ukraine’s minerals through the United States-Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund, as outlined in the agreement. The U.S. will not receive reimbursement for past aid, but future military contributions will count toward the joint fund, designed to support Ukraine’s post-war recovery. Zelenskyy’s commitment to peace negotiations under U.S. leadership aligns with Trump’s goal of resolving the conflict, giving him leverage in discussions with Russia.

These outcomes partially meet Trump’s objectives. The preferential mineral rights strengthen U.S. access to critical resources, but the lack of exclusivity and reimbursement limits the deal’s financial benefits. The peace commitment, however, positions Trump as a central figure in shaping the war’s resolution, potentially enhancing his diplomatic influence.

What did Zelenskyy want?

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Zelenskyy sought to sustain U.S. military and economic support without the burden of repaying past aid, which has been critical for Ukraine’s defense against Russia. He also prioritized reconstruction funds to rebuild Ukraine’s war-torn economy and infrastructure. Security guarantees from the U.S. to deter future Russian aggression were a key demand, though controversial, as they risked entangling America in long-term commitments. Additionally, Zelenskyy aimed to retain control over Ukraine’s mineral wealth to safeguard national sovereignty and align with the country’s European Union membership aspirations.

The final deal delivered several of Zelenskyy’s priorities. The reconstruction fund, supported by future U.S. aid, provides a financial lifeline for Ukraine’s recovery without requiring repayment of past assistance. Ukraine retained ownership of its subsoil and decision-making authority over mineral extraction, granting only preferential access to the U.S. However, Zelenskyy conceded on security guarantees, a significant compromise, and agreed to pursue peace talks under Trump’s leadership, which may involve territorial or political concessions to Russia.

Zelenskyy’s outcomes reflect a delicate balance. The reconstruction fund and retained mineral control bolster Ukraine’s economic and sovereign interests, but the absence of security guarantees and pressure to negotiate peace could strain domestic support and challenge Ukraine’s long-term stability.

What does this mean for the future?

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While Trump didn’t secure all his demands, the deal advances several of his broader strategic goals. By gaining access to Ukraine’s mineral riches, the U.S. undermines China’s dominance over critical elements like lithium and graphite, essential for technology and energy industries. This shift reduces American and European dependence on Chinese supply chains, strengthening Western industrial and tech sectors. Most significantly, the agreement marks a pivotal step toward peace in Europe. Ending the Russia-Ukraine war, which has claimed thousands of lives, is a top priority for Trump, and Zelenskyy’s commitment to U.S.-led peace talks enhances Trump’s leverage in negotiations with Russia. Notably, the deal avoids binding U.S. commitments to Ukraine’s long-term defense, preserving flexibility for future administrations.

The deal’s broader implications align with the vision Glenn outlined in March, when he praised its potential to benefit America, Ukraine, and Europe by securing resources and creating peace. While the final agreement differs from Glenn's hopes, it still achieves key goals he outlined.