Bestselling author Richard Paul Evans joins Glenn to discuss latest installment of his hit 'Michael Vey' series

Glenn: I want to talk to a friend here, Richard Paul Evans. He is the author of...I don’t know...how many millions of books have you sold, like 20 million?

Richard: Approaching 20 million.

Glenn: Yeah, happens all the time. Twenty million books, and he had a book called Michael Vey, a series, about three or four years ago. And he said, “I got a publisher that is telling me that I should dumb it down.” And I’m like, “Don’t do it.” And it was a young adult series. And we just went into publishing with Mercury, Inc., and so he published the first one with us and all of them with us, and it’s been a great relationship. And this is…the fourth book comes out today, Michael Vey: Hunt for Jade Dragon, and it is tremendous.

Raphe and I read it over the summer, but it is a series that I want to share with you because (a) Raphe loves to read now. He loves books. He didn’t when we first started, and now I can’t get his nose out of books. But it is also a book that I think without trying to teach things is teaching things. It’s teaching kids how to be kids, kids how to be heroes, how to make tough choices, how to love their mom and dad, without ever sounding like that—a tough book to write. How are you?

Richard: I’m well, thank you.

Glenn: Good. Comes out today?

Richard: Comes out today.

Glenn: Got your fingers crossed?

Richard: Uh huh.

Glenn: Yeah. This is one of the few books that has gone number one on the New York Times without a big movie. You know, it’s not Twilight or anything that goes out number one every time. Why? What’s happening?

Richard: I think it’s the message. I think America is hungry for this. And sometimes what you have to do is kind of counterintuitive to the industry. So where this doesn’t have a female protagonist—

Glenn: No vampires.

Richard: It’s not dark, not occult. It’s a story about a good kid, a humble kid who has some interesting challenges. He has Tourette’s syndrome, and he has electricity. And he gets put in difficult circumstances, and he solves the problems.

Glenn: Difficult circumstances is putting it—how many people in the audience have read the book? Have you all read the book? Okay, so a lot of people have read the book. Difficult circumstance might be a little mild. He’s taking on a group of people that want to take over the world. And in the first book, you do such a great job at these kids are offered anything, just do what I tell you to do, and you’ll be richer and more famous than you can possibly ever imagine. And the way the enticement is so evil and so good, and the way it happens in the real world, you know what I mean?

Richard: Uh huh.

Glenn: But then things become a little more difficult to see and easier to give up, you know? At the beginning of this book, they’re kind of tired; they don’t want to go on forever.

Richard: They’re filling their conscience. It’s like there’s…they know what’s right, and they want to do what’s right. And eventually it’s like you can’t buy that. You can’t buy peace of mind and peace of heart, and these kids are making good choices. But through the book, it’s like yeah, it does…are you talking about the good kids?

Glenn: Yeah.

Richard: Yeah, the good kids, it’s like how long do we have to fight this battle? Because they’re real kids. It’s like one of them says, “Why can’t we just go back to where we used to be?”

Glenn: How many adults feel that way about what’s happening? Right, why can’t we just go back? I just want to stop fighting this battle. I just want to go back to the way it used to be to where I believed in things, and things were stable, etc., etc. But you don’t get that opportunity. We were blessed for a long time to live under the illusion that we don’t have to fight that battle. These kids go back and do it. And I don’t want to give any spoilers, but they’re going to have some things they’re dealing with in the next book that are even darker and more difficult as things go on.

You’re getting pushback—you’ve had people tell you…you had a publisher say dumb it down; it’s too smart, which I love, by the way. And then you’ve also had publishers or people tell you you shouldn’t write this because there’s no female…the hero should be Michelle, not Michael. And the other piece is that they wonder why you’re even wasting your time with a young—

Richard: Right.

Glenn: So how do you answer?

Richard: I actually posted a letter. It was a candid response to all my readers and those out there who said, “Why are you wasting your time?” It’s like look, I don’t make as much money writing these books. I can write adult novels and do great. It matters. It matters that our kids have heroes. And if you look at the last successful series, Hunger Games, Divergent, Twilight, they are all female protagonists.

As a father of four daughters, it’s important that our daughters have heroes, not that Hollywood is producing the kinds of heroes we want, but they need role models and strong role models. But what about our sons? Our sons are being thrown under the bus. They’re failing in school. They’re committing suicide at five times the rate of girls. They’re not getting into college. It’s like they need a hero. And so there is a subculture that is so anti-boy.

So when I created Michael Vey, I’m not surprised I was attacked by making a good kid who’s a hero. You know, there’s strong female characters and heroes in the book, absolutely, but Michael is a humble leader. He is not the swagger. He’s just a kid who wants to do the right thing. He loves his parents. In fact, that’s the number one comment I get from school teachers. It’s like gasp…he loves his parents. As if this is some huge leap of faith that we can’t cross.

Glenn: So we’re going to go to the audience here when we come back, but where does the series go from here? This is book four. You’ve got seven that you have. Where does it go from here? Are you finished with it?

Richard: No. I’m along for the ride, and I’m fascinated by what’s happening, because I’m looking at Hatch, and it’s scary when this thing kind of downloads to me from wherever it comes from, what I’m seeing, because I started seeing more and more relevance with what’s going on in the world. As Hatch figures out how to take over the world, it’s like you can buy the world. It’s like if he’s out there providing clean energy, people will just follow. And he’s actually twisted the truth so the good guys are bad, and the bad guys are good.

Glenn: It’s really amazing, and it’s been a real blessing, because, you know, especially my kids, they don’t want to talk to me sometimes about what’s coming in the world, you know? My older kids, my adult kids, I found out a few years ago, started at eight, started writing down my predictions and charting them and saying is Dad right or wrong about these things? And as they started coming true, they would check them off. So no, and I’m not kidding you, so now my older kids, we sat at the dinner table last Sunday, and they said literally just like this, “So…Dad…so what do you think is coming then?” And it scares the heck out of them, so they don’t necessarily like to ask me those questions.

This was such a great device to be able to say, without talking about politics or anything else, say do you notice how the bad guy here is manipulating? You notice how people are being used here? Look at what he’s just done. Can you think of a way that that would be used on people or could be used on you? And it’s fantastic, so I thank you for that. We’re going to go to the audience here in just a second.

Without civic action, America faces collapse

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Every vote, jury duty, and act of engagement is civics in action, not theory. The republic survives only when citizens embrace responsibility.

I slept through high school civics class. I memorized the three branches of government, promptly forgot them, and never thought of that word again. Civics seemed abstract, disconnected from real life. And yet, it is critical to maintaining our republic.

Civics is not a class. It is a responsibility. A set of habits, disciplines, and values that make a country possible. Without it, no country survives.

We assume America will survive automatically, but every generation must learn to carry the weight of freedom.

Civics happens every time you speak freely, worship openly, question your government, serve on a jury, or cast a ballot. It’s not a theory or just another entry in a textbook. It’s action — the acts we perform every day to be a positive force in society.

Many of us recoil at “civic responsibility.” “I pay my taxes. I follow the law. I do my civic duty.” That’s not civics. That’s a scam, in my opinion.

Taking up the torch

The founders knew a republic could never run on autopilot. And yet, that’s exactly what we do now. We assume it will work, then complain when it doesn’t. Meanwhile, the people steering the country are driving it straight into a mountain — and they know it.

Our founders gave us tools: separation of powers, checks and balances, federalism, elections. But they also warned us: It won’t work unless we are educated, engaged, and moral.

Are we educated, engaged, and moral? Most Americans cannot even define a republic, never mind “keep one,” as Benjamin Franklin urged us to do after the Constitutional Convention.

We fought and died for the republic. Gaining it was the easy part. Keeping it is hard. And keeping it is done through civics.

Start small and local

In our homes, civics means teaching our children the Constitution, our history, and that liberty is not license — it is the space to do what is right. In our communities, civics means volunteering, showing up, knowing your sheriff, attending school board meetings, and understanding the laws you live under. When necessary, it means challenging them.

How involved are you in your local community? Most people would admit: not really.

Civics is learned in practice. And it starts small. Be honest in your business dealings. Speak respectfully in disagreement. Vote in every election, not just the presidential ones. Model citizenship for your children. Liberty is passed down by teaching and example.

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We assume America will survive automatically, but every generation must learn to carry the weight of freedom.

Start with yourself. Study the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and state laws. Study, act, serve, question, and teach. Only then can we hope to save the republic. The next election will not fix us. The nation will rise or fall based on how each of us lives civics every day.

Civics isn’t a class. It’s the way we protect freedom, empower our communities, and pass down liberty to the next generation.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

'Rage against the dying of the light': Charlie Kirk lived that mandate

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Kirk’s tragic death challenges us to rise above fear and anger, to rebuild bridges where others build walls, and to fight for the America he believed in.

I’ve only felt this weight once before. It was 2001, just as my radio show was about to begin. The World Trade Center fell, and I was called to speak immediately. I spent the day and night by my bedside, praying for words that could meet the moment.

Yesterday, I found myself in the same position. September 11, 2025. The assassination of Charlie Kirk. A friend. A warrior for truth.

Out of this tragedy, the tyrant dies, but the martyr’s influence begins.

Moments like this make words feel inadequate. Yet sometimes, words from another time speak directly to our own. In 1947, Dylan Thomas, watching his father slip toward death, penned lines that now resonate far beyond his own grief:

Do not go gentle into that good night. / Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Thomas was pleading for his father to resist the impending darkness of death. But those words have become a mandate for all of us: Do not surrender. Do not bow to shadows. Even when the battle feels unwinnable.

Charlie Kirk lived that mandate. He knew the cost of speaking unpopular truths. He knew the fury of those who sought to silence him. And yet he pressed on. In his life, he embodied a defiance rooted not in anger, but in principle.

Picking up his torch

Washington, Jefferson, Adams — our history was started by men who raged against an empire, knowing the gallows might await. Lincoln raged against slavery. Martin Luther King Jr. raged against segregation. Every generation faces a call to resist surrender.

It is our turn. Charlie’s violent death feels like a knockout punch. Yet if his life meant anything, it means this: Silence in the face of darkness is not an option.

He did not go gently. He spoke. He challenged. He stood. And now, the mantle falls to us. To me. To you. To every American.

We cannot drift into the shadows. We cannot sit quietly while freedom fades. This is our moment to rage — not with hatred, not with vengeance, but with courage. Rage against lies, against apathy, against the despair that tells us to do nothing. Because there is always something you can do.

Even small acts — defiance, faith, kindness — are light in the darkness. Reaching out to those who mourn. Speaking truth in a world drowning in deceit. These are the flames that hold back the night. Charlie carried that torch. He laid it down yesterday. It is ours to pick up.

The light may dim, but it always does before dawn. Commit today: I will not sleep as freedom fades. I will not retreat as darkness encroaches. I will not be silent as evil forces claim dominion. I have no king but Christ. And I know whom I serve, as did Charlie.

Two turning points, decades apart

On Wednesday, the world changed again. Two tragedies, separated by decades, bound by the same question: Who are we? Is this worth saving? What kind of people will we choose to be?

Imagine a world where more of us choose to be peacemakers. Not passive, not silent, but builders of bridges where others erect walls. Respect and listening transform even the bitterest of foes. Charlie Kirk embodied this principle.

He did not strike the weak; he challenged the powerful. He reached across divides of politics, culture, and faith. He changed hearts. He sparked healing. And healing is what our nation needs.

At the center of all this is one truth: Every person is a child of God, deserving of dignity. Change will not happen in Washington or on social media. It begins at home, where loneliness and isolation threaten our souls. Family is the antidote. Imperfect, yes — but still the strongest source of stability and meaning.

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Forgiveness, fidelity, faithfulness, and honor are not dusty words. They are the foundation of civilization. Strong families produce strong citizens. And today, Charlie’s family mourns. They must become our family too. We must stand as guardians of his legacy, shining examples of the courage he lived by.

A time for courage

I knew Charlie. I know how he would want us to respond: Multiply his courage. Out of this tragedy, the tyrant dies, but the martyr’s influence begins. Out of darkness, great and glorious things will sprout — but we must be worthy of them.

Charlie Kirk lived defiantly. He stood in truth. He changed the world. And now, his torch is in our hands. Rage, not in violence, but in unwavering pursuit of truth and goodness. Rage against the dying of the light.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Glenn Beck is once again calling on his loyal listeners and viewers to come together and channel the same unity and purpose that defined the historic 9-12 Project. That movement, born in the wake of national challenges, brought millions together to revive core values of faith, hope, and charity.

Glenn created the original 9-12 Project in early 2009 to bring Americans back to where they were in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. In those moments, we weren't Democrats and Republicans, conservative or liberal, Red States or Blue States, we were united as one, as America. The original 9-12 Project aimed to root America back in the founding principles of this country that united us during those darkest of days.

This new initiative draws directly from that legacy, focusing on supporting the family of Charlie Kirk in these dark days following his tragic murder.

The revival of the 9-12 Project aims to secure the long-term well-being of Charlie Kirk's wife and children. All donations will go straight to meeting their immediate and future needs. If the family deems the funds surplus to their requirements, Charlie's wife has the option to redirect them toward the vital work of Turning Point USA.

This campaign is more than just financial support—it's a profound gesture of appreciation for Kirk's tireless dedication to the cause of liberty. It embodies the unbreakable bond of our community, proving that when we stand united, we can make a real difference.
Glenn Beck invites you to join this effort. Show your solidarity by donating today and honoring Charlie Kirk and his family in this meaningful way.

You can learn more about the 9-12 Project and donate HERE

The critical difference: Rights from the Creator, not the state

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When politicians claim that rights flow from the state, they pave the way for tyranny.

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) recently delivered a lecture that should alarm every American. During a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, he argued that believing rights come from a Creator rather than government is the same belief held by Iran’s theocratic regime.

Kaine claimed that the principles underpinning Iran’s dictatorship — the same regime that persecutes Sunnis, Jews, Christians, and other minorities — are also the principles enshrined in our Declaration of Independence.

In America, rights belong to the individual. In Iran, rights serve the state.

That claim exposes either a profound misunderstanding or a reckless indifference to America’s founding. Rights do not come from government. They never did. They come from the Creator, as the Declaration of Independence proclaims without qualification. Jefferson didn’t hedge. Rights are unalienable — built into every human being.

This foundation stands worlds apart from Iran. Its leaders invoke God but grant rights only through clerical interpretation. Freedom of speech, property, religion, and even life itself depend on obedience to the ruling clerics. Step outside their dictates, and those so-called rights vanish.

This is not a trivial difference. It is the essence of liberty versus tyranny. In America, rights belong to the individual. The government’s role is to secure them, not define them. In Iran, rights serve the state. They empower rulers, not the people.

From Muhammad to Marx

The same confusion applies to Marxist regimes. The Soviet Union’s constitutions promised citizens rights — work, health care, education, freedom of speech — but always with fine print. If you spoke out against the party, those rights evaporated. If you practiced religion openly, you were charged with treason. Property and voting were allowed as long as they were filtered and controlled by the state — and could be revoked at any moment. Rights were conditional, granted through obedience.

Kaine seems to be advocating a similar approach — whether consciously or not. By claiming that natural rights are somehow comparable to sharia law, he ignores the critical distinction between inherent rights and conditional privileges. He dismisses the very principle that made America a beacon of freedom.

Jefferson and the founders understood this clearly. “We are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights,” they wrote. No government, no cleric, no king can revoke them. They exist by virtue of humanity itself. The government exists to protect them, not ration them.

This is not a theological quibble. It is the entire basis of our government. Confuse the source of rights, and tyranny hides behind piety or ideology. The people are disempowered. Clerics, bureaucrats, or politicians become arbiters of what rights citizens may enjoy.

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Gifts from God, not the state

Kaine’s statement reflects either a profound ignorance of this principle or an ideological bias that favors state power over individual liberty. Either way, Americans must recognize the danger. Understanding the origin of rights is not academic — it is the difference between freedom and submission, between the American experiment and theocratic or totalitarian rule.

Rights are not gifts from the state. They are gifts from God, secured by reason, protected by law, and defended by the people. Every American must understand this. Because when rights come from government instead of the Creator, freedom disappears.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.