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How Innovators, Athletes and Warriors Hijack Their Senses for Off-The-Chart Productivity

It’s the biggest revolution you’ve never heard of, and it’s hiding in plain sight. Over the past decade, Silicon Valley executives like Eric Schmidt and Elon Musk, Special Operators like the Navy SEALs and the Green Berets, and maverick scientists like Sasha Shulgin and Amy Cuddy have turned everything we thought we knew about high performance upside down. Instead of grit, better habits, or 10,000 hours, these trailblazers have found a surprising short cut. They're harnessing rare and controversial states of consciousness to solve critical challenges and outperform the competition.

In his new book Stealing Fire: How Silicon Valley, the Navy SEALs, and Maverick Scientists Are Revolutionizing the Way We Live and Work, co-author Steven Kotler details this place called "the flow" where creativity and performance are heightened. Getting in the flow isn't all sunshine and lollipops, however. Kotler joined Glenn on radio to discuss the phenomenon.

"If I understand you right, what you're saying is, whether it's drugs, whether it's a spiritual experience, no matter how you get there, there's this place called the flow, and it makes you so much more focused and productive," Glenn said.

Kotler explained.

"What we know about flow is that . . . in these states, all of the brain's kind of information processing machinery gets amplified, right? We take in more information per second. We process it more quickly. We're able to, like, link ideas together. So creativity goes through the roof, motivation goes through the roof, cooperation, collaboration --- all the so-called twenty-first century skills, the skills that we need so badly right now," Kotler said.

This state of consciousness floods the brain with dopamine, the chemical that underlies all addictive behavior --- like gambling, sex, shopping or cocaine addictions.

Glenn experienced his own version of it for several years from a "deep spiritual connection of profound gratitude and service" called "helper's flow."

According to Kotler, there are ten individual triggers that could drive someone into the flow, as well as group or shared triggers.

"There's a shared collective version of a flow state, known as group flow. It's what happens if you've ever been in a great brainstorming session or if you watched a band come together and the music just starts to soar, or for that matter, if you saw the Super Bowl last year . . . what the Patriots did in the fourth quarter. Everybody comes together, and football looks more like ballet. That's group flow. It's what the SEALs rely on so heavily too," Kotler said.

Based on brain research and four years of investigation, Stealing Fire explains how the driving forces of psychology, neurobiology, technology and pharmacology are fueling a trillion dollar underground economy.

Enjoy the complimentary clip or read the transcript for details.

GLENN: Steve, welcome to the program. Glad you're here.

I have to be honest with you, I've only read, you know, 50 pages of the book. And I'm not sure I -- I understand. Let me just ask you one question before we get into it, to make sure I do understand what the point is here. Is James Valentine -- he was not taking any drugs. He was just -- he had a different kind of experience. But the same effect.

STEVEN: Yeah.

GLENN: Okay. So I just wanted to know that. Now you can start at the beginning because now I think I got it.

STEVEN: Absolutely. Let me just put it in historical context for you because it's the -- thank you for having me, by the way.

GLENN: You bet.

STEVEN: But it's the easiest way to frame this up.

Back at the turn of the century, 1902, William James, who is a Harvard philosopher and psychologist and has used sort -- he's sort of the godfather of western philosophy -- he makes the observation that a whole slew of experiences, what all the experiences that are sort of found north of happy -- so these are states of awe. Certain kinds of mystical experiences, like trance states or states produced by prayer or yoga or meditation, or even in some cases, psychedelic states or flow states, which is what we study at the Flow Juneau Project, myself and Jamie Weil, who I wrote the book with. Which are those states of -- kind of optimal states of consciousness where we feel are best, where we perform our best.

You notice that all these states were really, really similar. They produce very similar psychological changes in us. They seem to heal anxiety, heal trauma, and they seem to lift us up to incredible heights. And they produce a very similar kind of physical experiences in us.

And we sort of turned our back on it. Like we weren't really interested in all states of consciousness at that point. Freud came along. He said, hey, pathological problems are much more interesting. Let's try to fix people.

And that's what psychology did, for about a hundred years, until the late '90s, when somebody -- hey, you know, there's this whole upper realm of experiences we haven't looked at. And now we have.

And as it turns out, using, you know, high-powered brain imaging technology, James was right. There's very, very little difference in the brain of a skier in the zone, moving down a mountain base, or say, as you pointed out, in the beginning, a billionaire microdosing with psychedelics or somebody meditating. Very similar things happen in the brain. They produce very similar feelings. And, thus, they have similar benefits.

GLENN: Okay. So let's get into this. Because I -- I've read 55 pages this morning, just trying to get ready for this. And I wish I would have picked the book up earlier. Because I think --

STEVEN: I got to tell you, by the way, 55 pages, you're doing well compared to a lot of people I talk to.

GLENN: Well, I'm embarrassed --

STEVEN: I appreciate that.

GLENN: I'm embarrassed that I've only read 55.

But the idea here -- I'm fascinated by it because I believe -- as long as we're not talking about a drug-only state, in the flow, I really truly believe that from 2007 to about 2012, I experienced that. And it -- just being in the flow. And it was a very different feeling and real high, high clarity.

Mine was a -- mine was a -- not drug induced. But I could explain it to you. And I think it's the way John Valentine --

STEVEN: James Valentine.

GLENN: Or, James Valentine would explain it as well. So I think there is something here to people --

STEVEN: Do I mind if I ask you a question?

GLENN: Yeah, go ahead.

STEVEN: What triggered that experience in you? At the front end of it, what was going on in your life that brought that on?

GLENN: It was a -- a -- a deep spiritual connection of profound gratitude and service.

STEVEN: So, interestingly, you had an experience, and it's very long-lasting. It's known as helper's high. It was discovered by Allan Luks, founder of Big Brothers Big Sisters back in the '90s. It's essentially a flow state. Right? And let's just define "flow" for your listeners who don't know what exactly it is. Flow is a fancy term for being in the zone, being unconscious, if you play a lot of basketball. Those moments of wrapped attention and total absorption, where you get so focused on what you're doing, everything else vanishes. So your sense of self goes away. Time passes strangely. It slows down, or it will speed up.

GLENN: It's what, like, SEALs and people describe when they're at their height of, you know, going in to kill Osama bin Laden. Time slows down. Everything else disappears.

STEVEN: Yes. Now, that's a very acute -- when time slows down, it has to be very acute. There's a lot of additional brain processes being involved a little bit

GLENN: Right.

STEVEN: But essentially, helper's high is a flow state produced by altruism. You can even get a little taste for it -- if you've ever donated to Kiva or an online charity or anything like that, you'll get a little flush of that kind of feel-good feeling on the back end.

GLENN: Yes.

STEVEN: You just got it for a very long time. My wife and I were on a dog sanctuary and -- so we do hospice care and special needs care, and we live in a very poor community. And we work here intentionally and live here intentionally to do this work. And she runs on helper's high.

GLENN: So the difference between that and just the dopamine that you get from -- you know, the (sound effect) from your Facebook or your email.

STEVEN: Yeah, exactly.

GLENN: What is what is the difference?

STEVEN: So the differences are, as we move into flow, a couple of things happen: First of all, you get -- so most of what -- what they call 21st century normal, you and I, where our brains are right now, there's a lot of activity kind of behind our forehead, in what's known as the prefrontal cortex, which is your executive function, your attention, your sense of morality, your sense of will, language, function, all that stuff. That's going crazy.

And we -- most of us live with like the steady drip, drip of stress hormones like cortisol and norepinephrine. That's what psychologists talk about as 21st century normal, essentially.

As you move into all of these states -- this happens in meditation. It happens in conflative states like yoga. It happens in flow states, whether they're triggered by action/adventure sports or by music. James Valentine's experience was he got into these deep trances playing music.

You can -- chess is -- Josh Waitzkin talks a lot about chess and flow. Very common in a lot of things that require intense focus in the present moment or altruism, in your case.

And so what happens is you move into those states -- and in the prefrontal cortex, it gets really quiet. It dies down.

That's why your sense of self disappears. Right? The inner critic -- that nagging, always on, defeatist voice in your head goes quiet in those states because the inner critic is basically calculated in your prefrontal cortex. And if that part of the brain starts to shut down, we can't perform the calculations. So your inner critic goes away. Time passes, strangely. Because time is calculated all over the prefrontal cortex. And what goes away, we can't separate past, present, from future. It all blends together into what researchers call the "deep now."

And to your question, the stress hormones, norepinephrine and cortisol, they get flushed out of our system. And they get replaced by not just dopamine. Dopamine itself is a very powerful, you know, feel-good neural chemical with a lot of performance-enhancing benefit. But you also get endorphins and serotonin and monoamine and oxytocin. It's the cocktail that is so popular.

And what that cocktail does -- you talked about the clarity, besides -- you know, it makes us feel selfless. It makes us feel timeless. It also gives -- it massively -- it massively boosts motivation.

So McKinsey, for example, did a ten-year study of top executives in flow. And they found that top executives were 500 percent more productive in flow. That's a huge boost. And it's because all of these same neural chemicals, they're feel-good drugs. Some of the most addictive pleasure chemicals the brain can produce -- flow is the only time we get all at once. And so it produced this huge spike in motivation. A positive spike, right? Like a positive addiction.

GLENN: And so your -- your job now is to try to figure out how to trip us into this flow?

STEVEN: Yeah. We -- so over the past -- you know, flow science has -- stretches back 150 years. But recently, the past ten years, we've been able to look under the hood for the first time. Where are these experiences coming from? And we've been able to work backwards. And we now know that flow states have triggers, preconditions that lead to more flow.

There are ten individual triggers, what you or I could have used on our own to drive ourselves into flow. And then there's a shared collective version of a flow state, known as group flow. It's what happens if you've ever been in a great brainstorming session or if you watched a band come together and the music just starts to soar, or for that matter, if you saw the Super Bowl last year. Saw fourth quarter comeback, right? The spectacular -- what the Patriots did in the fourth quarter. Everybody comes together, and football looks more like ballet. That's group flow.

It's what the SEALs rely on so heavily too. It's a team coming together, being able to kind of behave like a collective organism.

GLENN: Okay. When we come back, I want to have you go through some of those ten things that can trip us into it. The name of the book is Stealing Fire: How Silicon Valley, Navy SEALs, and Maverick Scientists Are Revolutionizing the Way We Work and the Way We Live.

[break]

GLENN: I'm fascinated by this. Steven Kotler. The name of the book is called Stealing Fire.

And, Steven, if I understand you right, what you're saying is, whether it's drugs, whether it's a spiritual experience, no matter how you get there, there's this place called the flow, and it makes you so much more focused and productive. And however you get there, you're trying to figure out how to trip yourself into it. Correct?

STEVEN: Yeah.

GLENN: Okay.

STEVEN: What we know about flow is that -- you know, in these states, all of the brain's kind of information processing machinery gets amplified. Right? We take in more information per second. We process it more quickly. We're able to like link ideas together. Find -- so creativity goes through the roof. Motivation goes through the roof. Cooperation, collaboration, all the so-called 21st Century skills, the skills that we need so badly right now.

GLENN: Okay. So give me -- we have about five minutes. Give me the high points on how to trip yourself into it.

STEVEN: So, you know, some really kind of basic stuff is pretty simple. First thing you need to know is that flow shows up when all of our attention is focused on the right here, right now.

So at a very practical level, we go into companies, one of the first things we tell them is if -- you can't hang a sign that says, bleep off, I'm flowing. You are in trouble. Because flow requires 90- to 120-minute periods of concentration to really bring it out. Which is, by the way, one of the reasons Montessori education is so effective. It's built around to 90 to 120 minutes of uninterrupted concentration periods, right? They use this. And it's why Montessori kids, you know, see so much flow and end up testing better than so many other kids on any test you throw at them. Very simple thing.

Want to get it -- take it one notch up. We'll go into a trigger that's often called the golden rule of flow, known as the challenge skills balance. The idea here is really simple: All of flow's triggers are things that help drive attention to the present moment. Right?

So we pay the most attention to the task at hand, when the challenge of the task slightly exceeds our skill set. So you want to stretch, but not snap. And this is tricky. Because if you're sort of shy or timid, maybe a bit of an underachiever, whatever, the sweet spot is outside of your comfort zone. You have to be pushing yourself outside your standard comfort zone.

For a really super high productive, top performers, type A types, the problem here is they blow past the sweet spot. They will take on challenges that are so much bigger than they need to be.

And so one of the things we always tell people is in this stuff -- especially if you're type A, you got to go slow to go fast. There's a kind of neuro biologically sweet spot as to how we pay attention. And when you hit it, it really drives focus.

GLENN: Okay. Go ahead.

STEVEN: I mean, just a couple places to start.

GLENN: All right. So do you do this with -- are you guys doing this work with companies coming in and saying --

STEVEN: Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, last week, we spent a day with all the top senior management, top executives at Ameritrade. And the bigger point is this, we've learned this over the years in our digitally delivered classes -- and, for example, we did a six-week training at Google a couple years ago. It was a joint learning exercise, where we were trying some of this stuff out. And we train them up in kind of four high performance basics like sleep hygiene. Get enough sleep at night kind of stuff. Real basic. And then four flow triggers. How do you deploy these in your life?

And after a six-week period -- and they did about an hour of homework a day, spread out throughout the day, but it took some work. But not a ton. They saw a 35 to 80 percent increase in flow.

Now, within context, same McKinsey article I talked about earlier, the same study, found that a 15 percent increase in workplace flow will double overall workplace productivity. So what we've learned is, not only does flow have triggers, the stuff is really easy to teach. It's not -- and it's funny because everybody -- everybody is basically -- we're hard-wired the same. We're wired for high performance. So once you start understanding how this stuff works, you can really step on the gas.

PAT: So you don't have to do this through drugs, through chemical means, right?

STEVEN: No. No.

PAT: In fact --

STEVEN: There are a lot -- you have to understand that what you're talking about is pharmacology today, which has a long history of strong reactions. Lots of politics. Lots of mess. Goes back a long time.

Tomorrow, you're going to be talking about a EEG headset that zaps your brain in a particular way. We're already getting there. Right? We have EEG headsets that can dial up a lot of kind of the underlying neural biology of flow. And they're getting better. Virtual reality is better. Is really good at this as well. So like you have feelings of, hey, I don't want to take a pharmacological route. Totally fine. Right? Absolutely valid. You know what I mean? Not for everybody.

But, you know, it's an interesting bias because, you know, our idea that we -- it's internal and comes from us. It's pure and whole and sacred. And, you know, drugs are -- drugs are a cheater's way there, or they're bad or whatever. Fine. Okay. That's where we are now.

But tomorrow, it's going to be an app on your phone. That's where it starts to get really interesting.

PAT: Wow.

GLENN: Well, I want to talk to you about that a little bit. Because you say this can be really, really good or highly destructive.

STEVEN: Well, so earlier I mentioned that you get all five of these really potent neural chemicals. They're very addictive. All -- I mean, there's no external drugs, cocaine, for example, most addictive drug on earth. All it does is flood the brain with dopamine, right? Dopamine is the drug that makes -- that underlies all addictive behavior.

GLENN: Yes, yes, yes.

STEVEN: Gambling addiction, sex addiction, shopping addiction. You know, cocaine addiction. It doesn't matter. So you're getting the into the same neuro chemistry. So these states can be very, very addictive.

RADIO

Cabinet Wins, DOGE Audits, Tariffs: Trump's Third Week Has Been WILD!

It's only been 3 weeks of Donald Trump's second presidency and A LOT has changed! Glenn reviews some of the biggest wins that we've seen in the past few days: RFK Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard were confirmed as members of Trump's cabinet, Kash Patel is one step closer to being FBI Director, Trump has called for “fair and reciprocal” tariffs on US trade partners, DOGE is preparing to audit the IRS, and the list goes on!

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Let's see what the president has been up to in the last 24 hours.

Does this guy sleep? What's Melania doing for Valentine's Day today?

STU: One thing. When he's the president of the United States, is he thinking about that type of thing?

GLENN: No. He has people think about it. People who have people.

STU: Uh-huh.

GLENN: Yeah, people who have people. Usually, maybe like, maybe his son. Like, Dad. Maybe you should carve out a couple of hours tonight.

Oh, crap. I didn't even. You're president. I think I can make a few calls.

STU: I feel like, it's interesting that we just have a president that is awake, like every day. He seems to wake up. We see him places. Have you noticed this? I don't know if you've noticed this at all. But current president of the United States, we see him out doing things. Isn't that weird?

I feel like it's weird.

I don't know about this system we have, where the president is awake every day. It's changing our traditions, Glenn. I'm concerned about it.

GLENN: It is. It is. Well, Barack knows. We have to change our --

STU: That's true. Trump has kind of dropped the hammer on the rest of the world with tariffs. And I kind of like this tariff. Whatever they charge us, we're going to charge them.

STU: Reciprocal tariffs.

GLENN: Reciprocal tariffs. That's fair. We're not going to charge you -- I mean, maybe China would.

But we will not charge you more than you charge us. You charge us something. We'll charge you.

I think that's good!

STU: Yeah, it's interesting. It certainly seems fair. Right? Like, don't fire up.

Because the rest of the world loves tariffs. They love tariffs more than we love tariffs, even though we --

GLENN: I don't love tariffs.

STU: I don't love them at all.

Trump does love them. We've talked to him even in private conversations. By the way, in case you're wondering, is he just saying this just for the cameras? No. He really loves them. He loves tariffs. I don't agree with him on that policy. Though, he's used it to great effect recently.

That being said, I mean, if someone started charging you 100 percent tariff on a particular item, picking that same item and putting a tariff, 175 percent, certainly is fair. Now, of course, the reason we import things typically is because we don't have them here.

GLENN: Right! But not necessarily, like cars. Cars. Europe charges us a 10 percent tariff to send a Ford over.

And they charge -- we charge them 2 percent to send a Mercedes. I mean, what's fair about that?

STU: Now, again, one of the things that's fair about that. Is it's not paying an extra 8 percent on a car. We get a benefit of that, as a consumer.

That if we want to buy a European car, we will pay a little bit less and now we'll pay a little bit more. So there is a penalty to that.

However, it is certainly fair. The word "fair," I think applies when it comes to nation-to-nation relation.

And one of the things we've liked about having these lower tariffs on our side is getting lower prices for our consumers.

GLENN: Correct.

STU: And so they're -- and as Trump has discussed, he's been very up front with us. There will be pain with these policies. But long-term, we think it's worth it.

And that's really where the rubber meets the road.

GLENN: Okay. So now, everybody is very, very upset about Donald Trump signing off on DOGE and the audit of the IRS.

Now, I do have to question your sanity when you're against the audit of the IRS.

STU: You seem to be for audits. You can't audit them?

GLENN: Yeah. Who do you have to be, to be against an audit of the IRS, and bring every single receipt you have! I want to see every receipt. Oh, I want to help them.

STU: By the way, Glenn, I work with you.

GLENN: Uh-huh.

STU: My job is -- and for multiple decades now, has to be -- become closely associated with Glenn Beck.

GLENN: Yeah, it's good.

STU: Oh, the perks. The benefits. Oh, gosh, I can't even count them!

GLENN: Yeah. Hmm.

STU: Yet, somehow, I made it through the entire Barack Obama administration. And the entire Joe Biden administration.

GLENN: Yeah!

STU: Without getting audited.

GLENN: Yeah. Not me.

STU: No. I know. I remember. And yet what about happens two weeks ago? I get a letter with the IRS, with Trump in office. That I'm getting audited.

And I don't know if this is just a parting gift from the Biden administration. How is that happening?

GLENN: That's what I'm saying. Thank God somebody noticed your shadiness. Somebody finally noticed. He's very shady. He's very shady.

You know, the good thing is, both of us stay -- to our accountants, we always say the same thing. Anybody who is preparing our taxes. Stay way away from the line.

STU: Yes. 100 percent.

GLENN: When in doubt, leave it out.

STU: Still, it's incredibly frustrating. We were talking to Alan Dershowitz, I have every single book -- everything -- yeah. Sure. Somewhere, I have every receipt from 2022. I'm sure.

But, I mean, the -- this is this relationship that we have with the government, that is this adversarial torture fest, that we pay for every year. Oh, gosh. I can't wait to pay by taxes.

Maybe I'll get a refund. Maybe they'll give me some of the money that is mine, back to me, multiple months later.

GLENN: I believe that's actually what happened to me.

I believe they owed me money.

STU: After the audit. Yeah.

GLENN: I stayed away from the line.

STU: That's what you have to be.

GLENN: You know, jail time does not sound good to me. In any way, shape or form.

STU: The wrong IRS agent, that doesn't like your show, happens to be doing it, well, guess what happens? They push it beyond the limits of normalcy. So the good senator and common sense-filled senator from Oregon, Ron Wyden said, this means Musk's henchmen are in a position to dig through a trove of data about every taxpayer in America.

Wait. What? You mean like the IRS does?
(laughter)

STU: What core of government function are you guys talking about?

GLENN: No, what's up with that? And it could be the very reason behind possible delays, in people receiving their tax refunds for 2024.

What a scare tactic.

STU: Hmm.

GLENN: These guys are so freaked out about Donald Trump. I mean, you know, the one thing that happened yesterday, that everybody should recognize. Mitch McConnell was alone. He was alone.

STU: That's huge.

GLENN: That's gigantic.

STU: On two votes. Tulsi and RFK!

GLENN: I know. I know.

STU: And before this, if McConnell said, hey, this is where I'm going, he would always have a bunch of buddies that would come with him. His closest friends. It would always do that.

GLENN: It's weird, you cut off the money, and things change.

STU: Yeah, he no longer has the leadership. He no longer has control of that cash. All of a sudden, he's a lonesome dove.

GLENN: Yeah!

So let me just ask -- I want to ask, are you tired of winning? Let me just give you the winning streak so far number Congress. Marco Rubio, voted to be confirmed, 99 to zero. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, confirmed, 68 to 29.

Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, seventy-nine to 18. Brook Rollins, Secretary of Agriculture, 72 to 28.

Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, seventy-seven to 22. Pam Bondi, 54 to 46. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Scott Turner, 55 to 44.

Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, 59 to 38. Doug Collins Veterans Affairs, seventy-seven to 23. Kristi Noem.

Secretary of Homeland Security, 59 to 34. Lee Zeldin became the EPA administrator 56 by 42.

I have to tell you, Lee Zeldin, there's some stuff he did yesterday, that you're like, holy cow.

STU: Yeah, I have high hopes for the him. He's off to a very good start.

GLENN: Yeah, Russ Vought, who I just absolutely love. Director Office Management and Budget. He's done a lot of incredible things this week. 53 to 47.

John Ratcliff, confirmed as CIA director, 74 to 25. Tulsi Gabbard and RFK were confirmed yesterday. You have Kash Patel who got out of the committee and is going to be voted on early next week. And, of course, you have Pete Hegseth. I mean, and Mitch McConnell, standing there alone, all day yesterday.

This is good. Now, the president did a couple of other things yesterday, that are ground-breaking. But we need to make sure Congress passes all of these things as laws.

And they're not just executive order.

And that's going to require us to keep the heat on Congress. And they're working on the budget.

Congress just put together their budget for next year.

The Senate is squealing like stuck little pigs.

But we need to get them to pass in one bill. And you're going to get some crap in that one bill, I'm sure. But you have -- you really have a hard time, going to get two bills through on reconciliation.

So we need it in one bill.

RADIO

Elon Musk is NOT a Threat to "Democracy." He's a Threat to Bureaucracy

Elon Musk and DOGE are not threats to "democracy," like Democrats are complaining. They're threats to the bureaucracy that has taken over the government our Constitution established. Glenn explains how this all originated with Woodrow Wilson, who dreamed of "freeing" the government from the "chains" of the Constitution and replacing it with a government of "experts" and administrators. That's where the shadow government began and that's what Trump and DOGE are "destroying."

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Elon Musk said, that we're not living in a democracy, we're living in a bureaucracy.

When he said that, my response was, yes. Now, I don't know if you know who Elon. I don't know if you know who Woodrow Wilson is.

But, yes!

Living under a bureaucracy, that's the point. Let me give you the quote, the history of liberty is a history of resistance.

The history of liberty is a history of limitation of governmental power, not the increase of it. Who said that?

Sounds like a guy who understands and values freedom. Somebody who understands the delicate balance of power, between the individual and the state. Right?

But the guy who said that, was the 28th president of the United States, Woodrow Wilson.

Now, does that sound like somebody that we know, maybe on the left, that is now saying things like, we've got to save democracy? We've got to save democracy?

He's killing democracy, by cutting the bureaucracy.

Wilson was exactly the same kind of politician. Except, he was the grandfather of all of this.

He was the architect of a vision, where government would no longer be confined by the rules, the outdated rules. And the chains of the Constitution.

He was the guy who said the Declaration of Independence needed to be cast aside, because it's an outdated relic. He was the guy that wanted you not to be governed by the laws of nature. And nature's God. But by an elite ruling class of scientists, experts, bureaucrats.

That's -- that's what he wanted.

Isn't that what we have right now? We're not -- we don't elect the president. You elect the president and nothing changes. Why?

Not just because both parties are alike. But because the bureaucracy is set in stone!

It's a ruling class, of scientists, experts, and bureaucrats. Wilson believed that the government was no longer the machine of our Founding Fathers, that needed to be shackled and restrained.

He thought government should be a living organism, an evolving entity, free from the so-called outdated principles of 1776. This is where we get the Constitution is a living, breathing thing.

No, it's not. No, that's Woodrow Wilson.

He looked at the Constitution. The greatest safeguard of liberty ever written. And didn't see it as a beacon of freedom. He saw it as an obstacle that needed to be overcome. He -- let me paint you this picture.

Imagine, you're sitting in a grand lecture hall. It's early 1900s. Gaslights are flickering. And a young professor steps up to the podium.

He stands at the podium, everybody starts to be quiet. It's all -- you're in the crowd, everybody there is the future rulers of America.

And he starts in to thunderous applause, with something that, I don't know.

Me. It would -- the back of my neck, the hair on the back of my neck would stand up.

He said, quote, the makers of the Constitution constructed the federal government upon a theory of checks and balances. Which was meant to limit the government's power.

And therefore, its ability to govern.

This was a great mistake. The Constitution was founded on the Newtonian theory of the universe.

But we now understand, that the government is not a machine. But a living thing.

It must evolve. It must adapt. And it must be freed from its chains!

End quote.

Freed from its chains. When I read that line, I -- I thought to myself. I thought of setting the monster free in Young Frankenstein.

You're free! You're free! It didn't work out well.

Okay? When you take something that is like fire. Hello, California. And just release it. It is a very bad thing.

Washington said, government is like fire!

It will be the master of you, if you're not the master of it. Are we the master of our government, or is it the master over us?

What do you think happens, when you -- when you have a government, I free it from its chains?

Does it become a benevolent force?

Does it look out for your best interest. Does it even know who you are, let alone answer to you?

Wilson wasn't just a professor. He was a man on a mission.

To change, and this is his words.

To change a man or a boy, to be the most unlike his father, as possible.

Isn't that what our education system is doing?

Wilson believed that we needed to move away from the messy system of self-government.

And have it all placed into the capable hands of an intellectual elite, that he called administrative experts.

So you can see this throughout our whole government. Anthony Fauci.

The law was, that we are not supposed to do gain-of-function research!

We now know, through all kinds of records, that have been released, that Anthony Fauci disagreed with that. And he made the decision, that we were going to do gain-of-function research!

Because it's not up to him, to answer to the people!

He answers -- he's the expert!

He's the administrator. He knows better than the average person. Even if other scientists disagree with him, he is science!

These experts, that are unelected, and unaccountable, Wilson saw this. This is -- these are the people that need to run the country.

Not as representatives of the people. But as scientists, technocrats, bureaucrats, who know better than you do, on how to live your life.

For Wilson, and now you're seeing his finished product, that Trump and Elon Musk are beginning to dismantle. You are now seeing, that his vision was that the American people were not individuals that were given God-give up rights.

They were just parts of a collective. A mass to be organized. To be managed.

To be directed.

He viewed the old principles of liberty and self-determination. Those are relics of an ignorant past.

Things that have to be replaced. By science. And numbers. Cold, efficiency of science and government regulation.

Now, our founders would say, that's all well and good.

We understand that, let's just take you, at face value and say you're honest in that. But what you're forgetting is that men go bad with power and money!

All men can be corrupted.

So it's not that we are putting chains on the government, because government is bad! No. Government is made up of the people that are in it.

And if you don't limit it, if you -- if you allow them to gain more and more power, and more and more money. It will go corrupt.

And it will begin to oppress you.

The government -- the founders weren't anti government. They were anti-out of control large government. Where the people were servants of that government, not the other way around.

Wilson wrote, the Declaration of Independence. That the -- the foundation of our freedoms.

He said, it was outdated.

He called the principles for all practices and purposes in the Declaration, meaningless.

Meaningless is his word.

The words that inspired the American Revolution, the ideas that all men are created equal, that our rights come from God. Not from government. Were to Wilson, irrelevant. And meaningless in the modern world.

Why? Because you're too stupid to understand what's really going on. You're too stupid to be able to manage the affairs, of not only the nation. But the world!

Every time we try to manage a nation, or the world, we go wrong!

Every single time!

He didn't believe you really have a right to property. To speech. To life itself, unless the government allowed it. If that doesn't terrify you, let me tell you something darker than that. Not morality.

Not faith, not the Constitution. But science should be the guiding force of government.

Well, we saw that with COVID. Didn't we?

Follow the science!

What kind of science?

The experiments that Fauci has been doing on animals and everything else. It's -- it's -- it's -- it's Mengele stuff.

It's really evil stuff! Because it has no medical purpose to it at all. The science that Wilson was talking about. Was eugenics.

And that's the same kind of stuff, that just named it something else. But it's the same kind of medicine that we're talking about now.

The kind that kills those who are unfit. Look at what's happening in Canada!

It's the kind of politics that led to policies of forced sterilization.

And racial segregation.

Which he put into practice. He was the guy who reseparated -- resegregated the military.

He segregated the government.

He praised the film, birth of a nation. Which we don't need to be the Klan. He believed in an America where government, led by an enlightened few, would decide who was fit to participate in society, and who wasn't.

Does that sound like America to you at all?

Or does that sound like the birth of something entirely different?

When he left office, it grew!

It took root in Washington, because they figured out, companies could go to Washington and lobby and get their way.

This was the beginning of all of the lobbyists in Washington.

And it -- it just grew. Ever expanding bureaucracy. A shadow government of unelected officials, who now control almost every aspect of your life! From what kind of car you drive. To what you eat.

To what stove you can have in your house. How you can build your house.

His dream was that a government would no longer be by the people. But by the experts.

The people would be managed. Guided. And nudged in the right direction.

So when they're saying that they're destroying democracy, no. They're destroying the bureaucracy, which is the antithesis to our founding documents.

TV

PBD Reacts to Glenn Beck's Prediction the Epstein Files WILL Be Exposed | Glenn TV | Ep 413

Radical transparency IS coming to America, Glenn says, but only if Kash Patel is confirmed to head the FBI. In fact, Glenn makes one of his boldest predictions yet: Kash will release the Epstein client list on his FIRST DAY leading the bureau. On tonight’s episode of "Glenn TV," Glenn is joined by ‪@PBDPodcast‬ host Patrick Bet-David and co-hosts Tom Ellsworth, Adam Sosnick, and Vincent Oshana. They discuss the damning ramifications releasing the Epstein list (or the Diddy list) may have for those who were associated with the island but were not guilty of partaking in criminal activity there — something President Trump expressed concern for before becoming elected. Plus, what will releasing the JFK files do to the CIA? We now know the CIA was in Miami following Lee Harvey Oswald, so why then didn’t the CIA stop him? Public trust in our federal government dropped substantially after the JFK assassination, and it continued to plummet over the next several decades until it hit a new low (14%) under Biden. Can Trump — with the radical transparency Glenn predicts is coming — turn that all around? PBD predicts Trump could increase that number to 50% or even 60%. Democrats see it coming, too. Their meltdowns over the DOGE and Elon Musk ending wasteful spending now are on fully display: “Accountability is here, and they’re panicking.” Lastly, Glenn and the "PBD Podcast" guys discuss how the first assassination attempt against Trump changed him as a person, providing him with both laser focus and an understanding that his job in the White House is much bigger than himself.

RADIO

Trump’s Treasury Secretary SHUTS DOWN Reporter Trying to Attack DOGE

The Biden government hired 80,000 new IRS agents to make sure YOU followed every one of their complicated tax laws. But when President Trump ordered DOGE to audit the government, politicians and the media squealed! That should speak volumes about what their true priorities are, Glenn says. Glenn and Pat review some of the latest pushback from the establishment, including how Democrats are whining about Elon Musk and how a judge tried to block even Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent from accessing Treasury data.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: You know, it's astonishing how many people have found a very clear common sense voice and a lack of fear.

They seem to be all over this administration.

Stephen Miller is one of them, don't you think, Pat?

PAT: Definitely.

And he was talking about the angry Dems. And had some things to say about them. Deputy chief, Stephen Miller, cut 14.

VOICE: The Democrat use of the term unelected is really quite remarkable here. Donald Trump was elected in an overwhelming landslide.

These are Donald Trump staffers. It's like saying that Mike Walls, National Security adviser is unelected. Or Susan Wiles, the chief of staff is unelected. Or Donald Trump's communication team is unelected.

This is presidential staff that serves at the pleasure and for the president, just as I do. I am a staffer, for the president of the United States. He is elected. He is the one that the American people have chosen to implement his agenda. This is the agenda the American people voted for.

That he is asking his staff. His subordinates. His employees. To implement.

The unelected power in this country is the rogue bureaucracy.

USAID is unelected. The FBI, that persecuted President Trump for eight years, is unelected.

The CIA and those who have laundered intelligence to try to change the foreign policy of the United States are unelected.

President Trump is restoring democracy, by controlling the federal bureaucracy.

There is one man in the country, who is elected bit whole American people, to implement an agenda they support. That is the president.

Every other officer in this country, members of Congress and Senate are elected at the state and local level. The Constitution puts one man in charge of the federal executive branch. And that's the president.

GLENN: Understood. Understood.

PAT: Let him finish.

GLENN: He's absolutely awesome.

And absolutely right.

I mean, that's the thing -- I just don't understand. When they were -- when the federal judge tried to block and did for this weekend.

But it's not going to last long.

Tried to block the secretary of the Treasury

PAT: Yeah.

GLENN: From even looking at the data, that is produced by the Treasury?

PAT: Yeah.

GLENN: Who is running things? My gosh.

PAT: Well, Treasury secretary Scott Bessent was interviewed over the weekend, and he had some things to say about -- just about that!

VOICE: Mr. Secretary, we are inside the cash room in the Treasury department. It's almost impossible to overstate how important the work that's done in the US building. Is the US financial system.

Yet right now, there is widespread concern about the DOGE teams access to sensitive payment systems.

Are you worried at all, that that access and that tinkering of the payment systems, could affect the Treasury's market or cause any disruption.

VOICE: Well, good. Thank you for asking me about that.

Because there's a lot of misinformation out there.

First of all, when you say the DOGE team, these are Treasury employees. Two Treasury employees, one of whom I personally interviewed in his final round. There is no tinkering with the system. They are on read only. They are looking. They can make no changes. It is an operational program to suggest improvements. So we make 1.3 billion payments a year. And this is two employees who are working with a group of long-standing employees.

VOICE: The letter that the treasury department sent earlier this week, talked about how the team currently does not have access to change the system.

Have they, at any point this year, had the ability to make changes?

VOICE: Absolutely not. This is no different than you would have at a private company.
By the way, the ability to change the system, sits at the Federal Reserve.

So it does not even lie in this building. So they can make suggestions on how to change the system, but we don't even run the system.

VOICE: And if they ask her, they request the ability to change the system. Would you grant that?

VOICE: No. Again, they have no ability to change the system.

I have no ability to grant that change. That they can make suggestions. Then it would go to the Federal Reserve. And just like any large system. There would be tests.

There would be this. There would be that.

And then the fed will determine whether these changes are robust or not.

VOICE: As the Secretary of Treasury, you also oversee the IRS.

Do you know what kind of access the team has to IRS data or individual taxpayer data?

VOICE: Well, I'm glad you asked that too.

Because, look, the IRS, the privacy issue is one of the biggest issues. And over the past four years, we've seen a lot of leaks out of there. The IRS systems are quite poor.

When I started in college in 1980, I learned the program. I think, there are 12 different systems at the IRS that still run on COBOL. But as of now, there is no engagement at the IRS.

VOICE: Elon Musk just a few -- half an hour ago, tweeted out that Treasury needs to stop approving certain payments. Has your staff tried to block any payments at the Treasury?

VOICE: We have not.

And I'm glad you asked that too. And just to put it in perspective, Elon and I are completely aligned in terms of cutting waste and increasing accountability and transparency for the American people.

I believe that this DOGE program in my adult life is one of the most important audits of government. Or changes to government structure, we have seen.

That when I was in my 20s, we had the grace report. And there's some great suggestions that came out of that.

Never implemented under Clinton and Gore.

I think it was to government efficiency. Or to reduce government. Nothing happened.

So, you know, President Trump came in. There's a big agenda.

And I think there are gigantic cost savings for the American people here.

And I think it's unfortunate the way the media wants to lampoon what is going on.

PAT: Yes.

GLENN: Thank you.

VOICE: These are highly trained professionals. And this is not some broken band going around doing things. This is methodical, and it is going to yield big savings.

PAT: Jeez. And what's wrong with that? Is there anything wrong with that? I don't think so.

GLENN: Right. Did you hear a nonhostile question coming from the Bloomberg reporter?

PAT: No. A nonhostile? No. But he handled it in a nonhostile way.

He was great, wasn't he?

GLENN: Yeah, very well.

I mean, yeah. And it's a little scary, that the Treasury Secretary can't make any of these decisions, they're all made by the Federal Reserve.

That's a problem, which is why DOGE wants to bring Ron Paul in for an audit of the Fed, which would be fantastic.

PAT: It would be great.

GLENN: Can you imagine what we would find at the Fed now?

PAT: Oh, my gosh. I can't imagine it. And it's the fed with the power to make these changes.

That's amazing too.

That they can't even do it from the Treasury. That's kind of eye-opening.

But I think they need to use that term audit of government more. Because what's wrong with that.

GLENN: Yes. That's why they're going into the Pentagon. The seventh audit failed.

Let me ask you something: You know, she brings up the IRS.

The government hired 80,000 new IRS agents, to go over your records. To make sure nothing -- no funny business is going on with you.

That you're paying every dime that you're supposed to pay. Because there's a shortfall.

No! There's not a shortfall.

They're spending too much. When we go in, and try to send accountants in, to say, how did you spend this money?

The same thing the IRS does to you, every year, they squeal like little pigs.

I don't know.

If -- you know, you went in to the IRS every year with the attitude that the Democrats have.

You would be audited every year. Because somebody, probably rightfully so would go, wait a minute.

Why are you panicking so much. Why are you saying we can't have access to your records?

This is a legal operation. What's happening here?

And it -- it kills me that the media is sticking up for corruption.

Whose side are they on?

PAT: Well, they're on the side of corruption. Because they're benefiting from it.

And that's been the problem for how many decades now?

How many centuries now?

GLENN: I know. I know.

PAT: Have we run the nation in a way that the Founding Fathers intended, since, I don't know. 1830. Probably not.

GLENN: No. So, you know what, I have a copy of the first budget. It was on the front page of a Columbia newspaper from South Carolina.

And it -- it lays out George Washington's budget.

And it actually asks Congress to increase the budget for firewood, because the Capitol was cold.

And they needed extra firewood to keep things warm.

PAT: Uh-huh.

GLENN: And I don't even know if that got passed. I have no idea if that got passed.

PAT: Jeez.

GLENN: But that's the way we should be. Oh, you know what, put a sweater on, Congress. Oh, you're a little cold in there. Put a sweater on.

PAT: Exactly.

GLENN: They're the ones that should be putting the sweater on. Not us. Not us.

PAT: Look how Thomas Jefferson struggled with the Louisiana Purchase.

I mean, we almost didn't do it. Because he thought, it wasn't proper. He thought it was unconstitutional.

But it turned out to be too good a deal, and we did it anyway.

But they had a completely different mindset. You know, the funds that the federal government had, that they got from American taxpayers, whether they pay in excise taxes, or wherever their taxes came from. Those were sacred funds.

And they didn't just throw them out to anybody for any reason.

GLENN: Yes. And look at --

PAT: We've got to get back to that.

GLENN: We can spend a trillion dollars and have it all just vanish on us.

But if Donald Trump says, let's take $2 trillion and buy Greenland.

Everybody would freak out. Which one should you freak out about?

The investment, or the loss?

PAT: Uh-huh.

GLENN: It's -- it's -- it's an unspeakable horror, what is going on. And how the people are reacting to it.

You know, everybody in America should be happy about this.

One other truth speaker. Somebody else who is just very good at saying exactly what he means. And getting right to the truth. Is Hegseth.

Here he is, talking about our strength. Cut 22.

VOICE: I think the single dumbest phrase in military history, is our diversity is our strength.

I think our strength is our unity. Our strength is our shared purpose. Regardless of our background. Regardless of how we grew up. Regardless of our gender. Regardless of our race. In this department, we will treat everyone equally.

We will treat everyone with fairness. We will treat everyone with respect, and we will judge you as an individual by your merit. And by your commitment to the team and the mission.

That's how it has been. That's how it will be.

Any inference otherwise, is meant to divide or create complications, that otherwise should not and do not exist.

GLENN: I've got to tell you. How is that controversial at all?

We're -- you know why they keep teams together.

You go through buds and you keep that team together, because their strength is their unity. You don't send them into war with a bunch of people that are all different with each other. You send them into war that all have different skills, yes.

But are acting as one, with one purpose.