RADIOApril 08, 2025

The truth behind the CIA’s Dire Wolf bombshell

A company called Colossal Biosciences claims to have brought the dire wolf back from extinction after 10,000 years. But perhaps just as shocking is where its funding comes from. Glenn reveals that the CIA has invested in the company, and he gives potential reasons why the spy agency would want to fund genetic engineering technology. Does the CIA want to create genetically enhanced animal super weapons for its own use? What about genetically altered humans? And have we learned ANYTHING from Hollywood? Should we be making “Jurassic Park” a reality?

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: So, Stu, how excited are you that the animal made famous by Game of Thrones, that went extinct, 13,000 years ago, is among us now?

STU: You know, they said Trump was the greatest comeback story. And now, we have the HEP dire wolf.

GLENN: Yeah. So do we have any of the video of the dire wolf?

Here's the dire wolf. The little babies. Aren't they cute?

STU: Oh, my gosh. I want one.

GLENN: No. You really don't.

STU: Oh, my gosh. I want one.

GLENN: They're so cute, aren't they? Yeah. Listen to that.

STU: They're a little loud.

GLENN: You want to get up in the middle of the night and hear howling? No. Uh-uh. So they retrieved the DNA from fossils of dire wolves. 13,000 years ago, they were over. Then they discovered additional DNA, and they edited 20 genes of gray wolves. And then put the dire wolf in the gray wolf, and we now have the new and improved dire wolf.

Which, hmm. I'm not sure this is a good idea.

You know, when it comes to AI. When it comes to all of that.

Has anyone watched a movie? Has anyone watched a movie?

This was all science fiction, dystopia stuff.

It's now here!

So as I'm going perusing this.

Because remember, the next thing is woolly mammoth.

And we had the CEO on the program.

Remember?

And I said, why are you thinking about bringing the woolly mammoth back?

He said, it would be good for the environment.

What? It would be good for the environment.

Do they not fart? And do they eat cows?

How is that -- he didn't really have a good answer on that. But it will make a lot of people on the left feel good.

Oh, it's good for the environment.

So we'll bring the woolly mammoth back.

And look at, they're so furry and stuff. They'll make great if you are rugs in the end.

The next step is to bring back the woolly mammoth.

Okay. Again!

You know, if you believe in Darwin, you believe in survival of the fittest. There's a reason these animals went extinct.

One of the reasons, I think for like these large, dangerous animals, is so we could live!

You know, there was a lot of, oh, my gosh. Going on, you know what I mean? (sound effect).

I just want to make that clear. Maybe we've forgotten about that. But that's what those animals were doing to humans. But we'll put them on a special island. And then, they will be fine.

So now we have the -- now we have the dire wolf.

Which is -- is truly wonderful.

And as I get into this. I see who some of the investors are.

And one of the investors that is really excited about just pouring money into the colossal bio science, is the CIA.

I'm giving you a chance to process that for a second.

First of all, CIA.

They've got a budget to invest in companies!

Hmm!

Sounds like a bad idea.

STU: Shouldn't really be part of what the CIA does.

GLENN: Well.

STU: It's not a hedge fund, right?

GLENN: Hmm. They're not just investing. They have good reason to invest, okay?

STU: Oh.

GLENN: So if you're looking for -- if you're looking to do what the CIA does, this might be a very good application for them.

Here's why gene editing is catching the eye of the -- are you ready?

STU: Uh-huh.

GLENN: It's a dual use technology.

Gene editing tools like CRISPR are inherently dual use. Meaning, they can serve civilian purposes. Conservation, biotech breakthroughs, and military intelligence ones.

So okay. I'm trying to -- woolly mammoths. Woolly mammoths. Why would you want to bring a woolly mammoth?

Well, one of them is they believe that they could CRISPR their way into bioengineering resilient organisms.

You know, like spy drones, that are animals.

Oh.

Enhancing human capabilities. Maybe we can Mengele our way into Gene splicing a little of the dire wolf into all of us. So we're a little stronger.

GLENN: I should just on the surface, we shouldn't Mengele ourselves into anything. Always a bad choice. Always.

STU: There's a lot at college campuses right now, where they're saying the opposite, I've noticed in protest. But I'm going to go with no on the Mengele into anything.

GLENN: Try this one on for size.

Another reason why the CIA may be interested in the -- in the new, hey. Let's bring animals back from the dead!

Ecological and geopolitical leverage!

D extinction. Great word, huh?

New. D extinction could reshape eco systems intentionally or not!

Imagine reintroducing a species to destabilize a rival nation's agriculture or environment!

Say, flooding, a region with engineered pests or altering food chains.

You know, I -- I don't think this is a good idea!

I don't think this is a good idea.

If you weren't convinced the CIA is out of control, you might want to share this with your friends.

Bio security and threat assessment. Reason number three. If adversaries develop gene editing for hostile purposes.

In other words, a weaponized pathogen or super soldiers, the CIA needs to stay ahead.

Investing in colossal gives them a front row seat to cutting edge biotech, letting them study its limits or viabilities.

They're not just funding it. They're learning to fend against it, or wield it themselves, if necessary. Now, this is a story coming out of China. Where China is reengineering people, trying to make them smarter.

I mean, come on, guys. Chinese are always. They're better at instruments.

They're better at math. They're better at really almost everything.

STU: This is interesting research.

Interesting approach. Almost have to come up with a name for it.

Like a gain-of-function research.

GLENN: Oh, my gosh!

What a great idea!

Gain of function.

STU: That would work perfectly. What could go wrong?

GLENN: Oh, my gosh. Reason number four. Synthetic biology for covet ops. Picture you're a bioengineered animal. Say, a dire wolf with tweak senses used for surveillance or tracking in remote areas where drones might fail.

STU: We are screwed!

GLENN: Uh-huh.

STU: We are screwed.

GLENN: Uh-huh. Number five, future-proofing influence.

Biotech is supposed to -- is poised to explode, economically. Think lab grown meat.

I don't want to think about lab grown meat. Gene therapies or climate fixes. I don't think we should be doing stuff -- you know, can we really stop? We really should stop. We're creating God in AI. We're now thinking, we can bring things back from the dead!

I believe that was -- those two things were the story of Frankenstein. I just want to throw that in there. Okay? We can bring things back from the dead. You know what we can do?

We can bioengineer so things can live forever.

And it will be smarter. And, of course, it will always stay under our control.

Oh, my gosh.

By backing colossal, the CIA, via IQT, gets a steak in a field, that could rival big tech in influence.

If D extinction tech scales, it might affect food security, land use or even cultural narratives.

Okay. So there's your update on how the world will end today.

That's one of the most disturbing things I have -- I have read in a long time.

You know, I'm just trying to get my arms around AI. And how we can use AI for a very short period of time, before it's turned against us, and eats us all.

Well, we might -- the dire wolf might eat us first.

But I'm just getting my arms around that. I don't think we needed to introduce this one too.

And the fact that the CIA is involved!

Not good.

STU: Yeah. But we can release a bunch of animals in places where drones won't be effective. With their special senses.

GLENN: Where on earth?

Where on earth, would a drone not be effective?

STU: Well, tunnel. Right? Think of the Hamas tunnels. If you release some dire wolves down there, probably more effective than our drones.

GLENN: I think we could go over -- I think we could go over to really nasty parts of like, the Czech Republic. And get dogs that have just been, you know -- they're breeding them to tear people apart, and throw them in the tunnels.

I don't think we need to go back.

STU: Yeah. But they don't have the special senses. They don't have laser eyes. You need to have wolves with the laser eyes. What could go wrong with those?

They're probably great pets.

I feel like the Industrial Revolution gave us a lot of these types of things. Where you would say, for example. We developed cars.

And we could have the same conversation, you know, Model Ts rolling off the assembly line. Like, hey. People will just keep making these things. Faster and faster. And faster.

And they will get to the point where they're going two, three hundred miles an hour. And that happened. Right?

That's happened.

But it doesn't -- there was never a point where they're going so fast. That the entire world ends. Right?

With AI. With gene splicing. With biological warfare. Nuclear warfare. We keep having these conversations. Eventually some bad actor is going to take this to some logical extreme, and we're all screwed.

GLENN: What are the chances there are bad actors in the world? Can you name a thousand?

STU: 1.2 billion. 2.4 billion?

GLENN: I mean, besides everyone that is, you know -- when somebody writes a prescription and gives you advice as a doctor, I don't think they need a pardon, so they can never go to jail. You know what I mean?

You know, when Fauci is just writing a prescription, he's like, look, you should wear a mask. You should wear a mask. And take this.

You know, that's doctor's advice. I don't think that you need a pardon. What he was doing, was so corrupt, that he needed a presidential pardon.

I don't know, those are the kinds of doctors that maybe we should put in jail. Maybe it's just me.

I mean, it -- how do we get to this place? How do we get out?

It's going to be interesting, to see how this all works out.

STU: It will.

GLENN: How do we get out of this place, where we just seem hell-bent on our own destruction?

STU: With all of these things, I just don't see how -- I mean, our response with nuclear weapons.

And biological weapons was to just try to limit them as much as possible.

To go out, every time we heard. Hey, Bob, over in Iran. Might be doing -- might have the nuclear weapon. Why don't we go there and stop them. That's kind of been our approach.

Worked so far.

Eventually, it probably won't.

With AI. Our response is, let's just keep pushing it as fast as possible. With a bunch of really smart companies competing, along with governments doing the same thing.

GLENN: I mean, that's unfair a little bit.

STU: It is?

GLENN: So you have to remember that we didn't control things until after we used the bomb. Everyone was rushing towards it.

And we didn't know.

Honestly, there were, I don't know. 10 percent of scientists that said, if we do this, it could cause a chain reaction, that could set the entire world on fire!

STU: I remember that, from the documentary Oppenheimer.

GLENN: Okay. All right. So not really. Anyway, so --

STU: Close.

GLENN: So we had no idea what we were doing. We just knew, we had to get there first!

So afterwards, this is where it becomes fair.

After his, we could ban it.

We could control it.

It took extraordinary amounts of money to do.

It took certain equipment, that we could just ban.

You can't do that!

Okay?

And it was only -- only nation levels that could actually create one.

You know, the average person couldn't create.

Feen you had all the knowledge in the world. You couldn't create a nuclear weapon in your basement. Right?

You would need access to certain things that could be banned.

When it comes to AI. That's not true.

That's not true.

AI, you're going to have to ban, so much. And if somebody is using a nuclear weapon, on their own people, you know it!

You know what I mean? You would know it.

If somebody is using AI against their own people. You would never know it.

I mean, that's the kind of things that we're dealing with now.

Where it's so insidious.

That it could fall into the hand of one person. And it can design a weapon, that they can make themselves.

That will kill half the people on the planet. And you didn't even see it coming!

You didn't even know.

You didn't even know.

You could have the government ban it. But they're using it on you!

And you would never know.

That's the real problem, I think with AI. And the fact that you can no longer put it back in the bottle.

It's going to happen. We're all racing to get there.

But there is no way to get this back into the bottle. There's no way to control this. Like there was with nukes.

And honestly, that's why Silicon Valley went to Trump.

You know this. Right?

They were having a meeting.

Remember when Kamala Harris was like, AI.

This is great. It's a fun two letters. It's actually two words. Artificial intelligence!

Remember that? So insulting.

That was the meeting she had with all of the bigwigs in Silicon Valley.

And they said at that meeting, don't spend think more money on server farms or anything else.

We're taking care of it. This will all be controlled by the United States government. Because it's too big to let anyone else have it. Except for the United States government. They all walked out and went, we can't have the government have this. We will let the government be the only one that has this.

That's not good. That's why they flipped to Trump. Because they realized, this cannot be just in the hands of the government. But I would be the one in the room going, I don't think any of you guys should have this in your hands. Nobody should have access.

What you're building is an anti-God.

Secret Docs Reveal the ENTIRE Deep State Network | Glenn TV | Ep 451

The recent declassifications from Tulsi Gabbard’s ODNI and the Durham annex give us a rare glimpse into something much bigger and deeper than the Russiagate hoax against President Trump. Glenn Beck heads to the chalkboard to connect the dots and map out how the entire deep state operation works. We reveal who the players are, where the funding comes from, and how they exert their influence. From international color revolutions to the Ukraine impeachment and the Russiagate hoax, everything is finally starting to make sense. John Solomon, CEO and editor in chief of Just the News, gives Glenn a sneak peek into a bombshell investigation that exposes how the deep state provided cover for Clinton Foundation corruption.

Former CIA Officer EXPOSES John Brennan's Massive Web of Corruption

Bryan Dean Wright, a former CIA Operations Officer, tells Glenn Beck why he believes his former boss John Brennan belongs in prison and what must happen to prevent a full-blown trust implosion in American institutions.

Watch This FULL Episode of 'Glenn TV' HERE

Why Trump is RIGHT to take back DC

President Trump is cracking down on crime in Washington, DC, and Glenn Beck believes it’s a “brilliant” move. Glenn explains why Trump is taking action, whether it’s legal, and what he believes it says to the world.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: So the president yesterday, taking control of our Capitol back. And he said this, cut three. Listen.

DONALD: My father always used to tell me. I had a wonderful father. Very smart. And he used to say: Son, when you walk into a restaurant and you see a dirty front door, don't go in. Because if the front door is dirty, the kitchen is dirty also. Same thing with the Capitol. If our Capitol is dirty, our whole country is dirty, and they don't respect us.

GLENN: It's absolutely true.

This is the broken windows theory. You know what that is? The broken windows theory is something that Rudy Giuliani used to turn the country around. And that theory is, no one, no one, picks up a rock or can or bottle or anything, that's in a nice neighborhood that's clean and everything else.

You don't pick up a rock and break a window. However, if you're in a neighborhood where there is a lot of broken windows and everything is broken down, the average person is much more likely to pick up a rock and throw it through a window.

Why? Because the entire neighborhood says, we don't care.

So what Rudy Giuliani did, was he used this theory, and he cleaned up the -- he cleaned up the subways by doing a couple of things.

First thing he did, was he made sure, that if you were jumping the turnstile, for the -- for the subway, you were stopped right there.

Before, people just weren't paying a fair, they were just jumping a turnstile.

And nobody was doing anything about it.

He says, no one was crossing that turnstile. Now, what is it?

Is it a dollar to ride the subway? No one rides it for free. And so he put police, right there.

And they stopped you, and arrested you, if you were jumping the turnstile.

The second thing is, was he stopped the graffiti. He said, I don't care if they have to be repainted every single day.

When those things pull into the station, at night. If we get there in the morning, and they've been spray-painted, I want them all painted again, and then they go out.

Everything had been covered in graffiti.

And when he changed those two things, all of a sudden, the attitude, of the subway, it became safe again.

Because it was sending a signal to the bad guys and to the good guys, we care. We're not going to let this happen, anymore.

So what he's saying here, about dirty doorstep, means a dirty kitchen. It's absolutely true.

You ever gone into a restaurant. Gone into their bathroom. And you're like, oh, boy.

Oh, God.

I can't eat now.

Because if the -- the bathroom for the customer is like that. What is their kitchen like, where the customer never sees it. That's what he's doing, and he has the absolute right to do it. He's got 30 days, before he has to bring Congress into it.

This is the -- back in 1973, Congress passed this Home Rule Act. And they didn't have a mayor. They didn't have a city council. They didn't have any of these things.

This has been from the beginning of our country, the Founders wanted the District of Columbia, to be a district that is a federal district, run by the federal government. Not by local rile.

And in 1973, they started that. And it was all just to get them to be declared a state. First a city with a mayor. Then we should have power to elect the president of the United States.

Yada. Yada. Yada.

This has not been worked. This has been an experiment that has not worked at all. So he can deploy the National Guard for law enforcement, because there is no governor of DC. He can use it for emergencies, crowd control, and to execute federal laws. However, he just declared an emergency.

Now, under the Home Rule Act, he can assume control of the Metro PD, which he didn't, for up to 48 hours, during special conditions of emergency.
And that time period can be extended.

But he -- what he's doing here, is he's using these 30 days, hoping that the home rules act is going to be revealed. Only Congress can reveal that. But there's movement to reveal it now. And if Congress appeals the home rule act.

Then this nonsense in the District of Columbia is over. And if anyone tells you, you know what, the crime status are going down.

To what?

To what?

Even if they went down to 2019 standards, is that good enough?

I mean, it is still more dangerous than walking around in Bogota, Colombia.

It is twice as dangerous as walking around in Islamabad!

I don't know. I don't think that's really a good thing.

And, by the way, they changed the way -- you're a stat person. Did you read this about the stats.

PAT: Playing with them.

GLENN: Oh, my God. Playing with them.

Felony assault is not considered a violent crime now in their crime stats. Not assault. Felony assault. Felony means usually prison is -- is tied to that.

STU: Yeah. Not just some easy misdemeanor, where you get your hand slapped.

GLENN: Felony assault.

STU: Yeah. If you're not going to include that, it's hard to even take that seriously.

But your point is more crucial to this, than even the statistical games.

GLENN: Yeah.

STU: Because they keep -- they keep bragging they're getting it back to 2019 levels, or maybe a tick below. That's not good.

GLENN: No. It's not.

STU: What you're saying is acceptable is not acceptable.

That's the message from the White House.

I would love to see it.

And we're seeing it so far. I would love to see the Democrats try to win that battle those rules.

If what you're trying to tell me, because we were there for the inauguration.

GLENN: Police everywhere.

STU: Of course that was -- police everywhere -- it's a totally different --

GLENN: But I had a guy threaten my life, and not for political reasons. Just because I think he was batcrap crazy.

STU: Yeah. Yeah. Right. I mean, a lot of sane people threatened your life on a regular basis. Crazy.

GLENN: This is a nutjob.

STU: Yeah. But, like, unless you're at the mall, during the day, it's -- and even there, can get sketchy at times.

GLENN: Oh, yeah.

STU: You feel it.

GLENN: You feel it. You feel it.

STU: You want to stay inside your hotel room.

GLENN: And, you know what, everybody knows this. Washington Post. There -- this is a story on how safe the city is.

This is a safe city, but overhearing witness game threats and then watching the camera footage of the thuggery is disturbing, said one resident.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, over --

STU: Anonymity, over concerns of personal safety.

GLENN: Yes. Anonymity, over concerns of personal safety. So I don't want my name in the paper, because I'm afraid of the thugs finding out who I am, and killing me. But it's perfectly safe. Oh, my gosh!

STU: Everyone knows this! Anyone who has ever been to DC. You know it, by walking around.
Weird crap happens to you. People approach you, in threatening ways.

GLENN: You know, Rikki told me just a few minutes ago, our executive producer. She said, last time I was in DC. And she lived in DC for many, many years. She said, I was in my old neighborhood.
She said, I used to walk at 2 o'clock in the morning.
I never had a problem with that. She said, I went to this restaurant. And I was there with a friend.

And I had gone there a million times.

She says, it's in the middle of the day. Within just a few minutes, she's sitting on a patio outside, some huge guy, she said, 300 pounds, at least 6 feet, comes up and says, I'm going to kill you. And starts threatening her and her life.

They call the cops. It takes them 15 minutes. She's not far from the Capitol. Fifteen minutes to get there. And then they don't do anything about it.

He -- she's like, anybody who says, this isn't happening, has just never been there. Here's an ABC anchor. Now, remember, their whole spin is, this was fascism.

There's no -- it's a safe city. Listen to this ABC anchor. Listen to this. Cut one.

We've been talking so much about the numbers, and usually that's how you play devil's advocate. You talk about, oh, well, stats say crime is down.

However, I can tell you firsthand here in downtown DC, where we were, right here around our bureau, just in the past six months, you know, there were two people shot. One person died. Literally two blocks down here from the bureau.

It was within the last two years, that I actually was jumped, walking just two blocks down from here. And then just this morning, one of my coworkers said her car was stolen, a block away from the bureau. So we can talk about the numbers, going down. But crime is happening every single day, because we're all experiencing it firsthand while working and listing down here.

GLENN: Hmm. Hmm.

STU: You know.

GLENN: Go ahead.

STU: I was just going to say, I was on vacation last week. You know, it's like saying I'm cutting my calories from vacation levels to normal levels.

It's still not healthy. Right?

It's just -- even if there is an improvement from 2023, which some numbers do show, although the numbers are questionable.

2023 was just absolute catastrophe. And this is just terrible. Right?

Like, that -- there's no reason to embrace this norm.

As the norm.

GLENN: So let me give you -- I want to show you the response. The response on the left.

Here is -- show the full screen here of the free DC.

This came out yesterday.

Free DC. Like it's under some fascistic.

Look at this deal. And what it says is it is encouraging residents to protest Trump's federalizing of the city's police force. And what it wants to do is starting tonight at 8:00 p.m. And then every night, go out to stop this occupation.

Go out and bring pots and pans. And bang on them. And then when you're -- your neighbors go, what the hell is wrong with you!

Say, don't you care about the fascistic government.

STU: People will love that.

GLENN: This is crazy. This is crazy.

Now, if Donald Trump and I think with Jeanine Pirro.

I think some things are going to be happening quickly there.

STU: Hmm.

GLENN: He actually has a chance. And I don't think he's doing it this way, for this reason.

But he actually has a chance of turning DC Republican.

Because you're living in that. Imagine --

STU: It's hard to imagine.

GLENN: It's hard to imagine. But imagine living there. And now you're seeing your side, that you've always voted for. Say, it's not so bad. And you know it's bad.

You can't have your wife go out to the grocery store at night.

You've had your carjacked. Maybe crazy people on the streets.

And then he's doing something. And if it works, if it works, people will be like, you know what, I'm sorry.

But that is a better solution.

He is -- this is very brilliant of him. He's very good at this.

He knows where people live.

You know, spiritually. And physically. He knows right where they live.

And where they're living in Washington it can't. Is a hellhole.

And everybody there knows it. And if he can actually change their lives, he changes everything.

Are these MAJOR PROBLEMS with our airlines widespread?

What is going on at our airports?! Glenn Beck has noticed an increase in flight issues – delays, technical problems, understaffing. So, he speaks with aviation expert Mike Boyd, who explains where he believes these issues are coming from. Are they widespread? Or is it just one airline? And can the FAA fix these issues under President Trump?

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Mike Boyd. Welcome to the program, Mike, how are you?

MIKE: I'm doing fine. It's an honor to be here.

GLENN: Thank you. So thank you for coming on. I've been asking for an interview with Secretary Duffy, and we haven't been able to align the schedules yet.

But I am very concerned about our airlines. I was on a plane. These were all American Airlines, by the way. I was on the plane. The pilot, we got on. It was like two hours, three hours later late. We got on. And the pilot was standing in the aisle. And he said, everybody, I don't want you to blame the airlines. I want you to blame me.

And we're like, oh, okay.

And he said, because I wouldn't accept the plane, that they wanted to us fly because I have flown it before. And it has problems. And they haven't fixed those problems. And the only way it's going to be fixed is if we reject it. And say, I can't fly.

I don't know if that's true or not. Or what this guy -- you know, what the story was. But that didn't fill me with confidence. I'm like, wait a minute. Wait a minute. So you're actually saying, the airline is not repairing a plane.

And I don't think -- I mean, I don't think our airplanes are in trouble, and going to start falling out of the sky. But that has been happening lately.

What is happening with our airlines?

MIKE: Well, I think the experience you had, that one specific one. We've done a lot from -- I come from an American Airlines background. Nevertheless, we've done a lot of work with American pilots unions. These are very professional people. The fact that guy stood up there and said, I'm not confident with this airplane. That's a safety -- that's a safety plus.

GLENN: Oh, I appreciated that. We thanked him for that. Thank you. Thank you.

MIKE: But we have a major problem with American Airlines. If you have pilots saying, I don't trust you. These are not yo-yos. These are not good consumer men's. These are professionals. If they say that, we have a problem in America. If that happens in America, and I think you might want to call the folks down there in Fort Worth, their brand-new American Way headquarters. They spent billions on them and asked questions.

But overall, I haven't seen that. Are there big problems with air traffic control?

Yes. No question about that. And we finally have somebody that the FAA and the DOT, who has a clue. And that will be addressed.

But overall, if it's just one airline, you're on the right track, as far as looking at it.

GLENN: Okay.

So this is -- but are you seeing this kind of stuff happening with other airlines.

MIKE: No. No.

GLENN: I'm flying out of Dallas all the time. So I generally fly American. And I occasionally will fly Delta. But, you know, it's mainly American. So I just assume this is happening on other airlines as well.

Because I'm reading the comments from people. And they're like, I can't trust that I can get there the next day anymore.

And that's a real problem.

MIKE: Well, because air travel is. I have to get there times certain.

This is not a game. I have to get to the bar mitzvah, whatever I'm going.

So if they can't get there, I'm not going to go. And the reason I'm not going to go, is you can't get me there. Now, if you look at reliability.
And again, we've had some issues, like Frontier Airlines, if you want to see Saturday Night Lights, go to YouTube. You'll see a gated -- a gated net, Frontier Airlines. It's really bad. But if you look at others, like our friends at United Airlines -- and I don't work for those guys. They have a system where if you book at United, very often, they're with you the whole damn trip.

If you don't like a lot of text messages, don't book them. They're with you, the whole time. And their CEO is functionally age, about making sure, whatever went on. Whatever it is. Take it or leave it.

From that point, I think you may have stumbled over something that affects the metroplex, more than anything else.

GLENN: So how's -- because I've been on the plane. And everybody is like, we're going to have missing.

You know, you will miss your connections.

And everybody is like -- is this kind of -- is the airline system set up almost like the Just In Time supply line? That if it did ever go into catastrophic failure, it would be a real problem.

Because, I mean, it's just one plane arrives, just in time for everyone to unload and reload and take off again.

MIKE: Well, yeah. That's just the issue. In ancient times, our friends at Southwest could come in and go in ten minutes.

Today, you can't get ten seats emptied in that amount of time. So they're really trying to cut down the amount of time, on the ground. That makes sense.

The question is, they have to have systems they can't be allow them to do that.

Now, delta has put in a very comprehensive system that only works for Delta, where they have been able to coordinate all those things, and do a better job of it.

But you're right. If you're coming in and going out, and that airplane has to do a go-around, coming into Atlanta. That could be 15 minutes.

That 15 minutes could mean, you can't get across the terminal to get your connection. That's going to happen.

GLENN: Tell me about the situation.

Because, Stu, you did a documentary on how bad the air traffic control system was. Right?

STU: Yes, I did.

GLENN: And is that on YouTube still? What was the name of it?

STU: It is. Countdown to the next Aviation Disaster. Unfortunately the countdown was not as long as you would have hoped it would have been.

GLENN: Yeah, it is. I mean, what's going on in our air traffic control.

And I would never want to be an air traffic controller. The stress these guys are under.

And that's not -- I'm not even calculating the stress on how close these planes are flying in and out now.

I mean, I'm just thinking, back in the good old days, where it was very stressful.

Now they're still passing paper to each other. And these planes are one on top of the other one.

When are we going to change this system and update it?

MIKE: Duffy is doing that. Duffy is not -- and finally, we have an FAA administrator who has a clue. Brian Bedford. He's been around. No, I've known him for 40 years. This man knows the business, and he's all business.

And, you know -- and, you know, I know he's good because Chuck Schumer doesn't like him. So that underlines everything right there.

GLENN: Good.

MIKE: So that's starting right now. Look, we testified to Congress in 1994 on this. On a free flight system, that you could make it far more efficient. The FAA blew it off. The FAA has always been a repository of some really great people at the operational level.

But at the top, these are just political appointees. Take a look at the FAA administrator that the -- the last president wanted. Phil Washington. Nice guy. Clueless. But he was a good appointee.

We can't do that anymore. I think we're going to see some major changes right now.

GLENN: Now, can -- how long is it going to take us to fix this?

MIKE: Well, you know, one of the things.

It's sort of -- what Duffy said, well, we have a -- there was a program in place to fix it over the next five years. And that's ridiculous.

So he's on it. I mean, he just went up to Wisconsin. He found the oldest, I think the oldest control tower in the nation. We're going to fix this. He's really making a point of trying to get it done.

And I think he's doing it incrementally. Where like Newark. What a disaster. I don't mean this city, necessarily. I do.
(laughter)
But at the airport, you know.

He's trying to make that work better.

This guy is on it. So I'm thinking 18 months.

It's going to be incremental. But we will start to see this happen.

GLENN: In Newark, or in the country?

MIKE: In the country. Because we can't have a free flight system that is far more efficient --

GLENN: What does it mean, a free flight system?

MIKE: There's a free flight system -- they want to ignore this, where every airplane takes off, and it finds its own ways. Keep in mind, the skies aren't crowded.

You can put 250,000, count them, 737s in a cubit mile of airspace, parked, not moving.

But that's a quarter million of them. And any time in America, today, in the sky, you might have just 14,000 -- 14,000 airplanes in the sky.

GLENN: Wow.

MIKE: But that's like 11 million cubic miles of airspace. So we can use our airspace better.

But what we've had is quite frankly, an FAA that hasn't wanted to think about it. It's more worried about itself. I am convinced that is going to change over the next two years.

GLENN: And are we close to having AI do all of this free flight stuff?

I mean, I would imagine that you don't -- I mean, you don't need to check in with tower, if AI is assisting finding it.

MIKE: Oh, exactly. We've got to use that. And a lot of it -- it's -- the head of the FAA has always been the clown of the Titanic. He says, slow down.

And by the time, it gets back to the engine room, you know, we've hit the iceberg. I think it's one of those things that we have to recognize, a lot of stuff has to change organizationally at the FAA, and at the department of transportation. I think finally we have people that can actually address that.

GLENN: Wow!

That is -- I mean, this is wildly optimistic, but I am happy to hear that. I like Secretary Duffy.

I don't know much about him.

Not enough to say enough like you're talking. That makes me feel really good. I'm very concerned about our air travel.

It's not good. Not good.

Not going in the right direction.

MIKE: It's not going in the right direction.

I find out, if I treat the customer right, they might come back and fly me, and what's happening now, people are getting away from some of these really low fair airlines, where the seat is like, a bucket seat in a C-119.

They don't want to fly those things anymore. And people like United and Delta and other carriers are saying, we'll take your business.

And they are.

GLENN: I have to tell you, at times, I'll be on a plane. And I think we're like one scruffy dog with one blue eye, just walking down the aisle, creepily away from third world airlines. I mean, it's like, there are times I'm like, is there a chicken going to run down the aisle too? What country do we live in?

It's beyond. It really is the greyhound of the sky now.

MIKE: It is. There's no question. My mother was a stewardess in the 1930s. Everybody dressed up.

GLENN: Yes.

MIKE: Today, you're lucky if everybody is dressed.
(laughter)

GLENN: I don't know why we haven't had you on before, Mike. You're very funny.

Mike, thank you so much. For an inside look on this. I appreciate it. Mike Boyd, aviation expert. From the Boyd group international. He's the president and CEO.

MIKE: Me pleasure. Thank you.

GLENN: He's the guy who consults all these airlines and tries to help fix them.

And is also, you know, testifying in front of Congress all the time.