Human Events Daily with Jack Posobiec

Episode: Charlie Kirk & Jack Posobiec – The First Podcast
Date: January 1, 2026
Host: Jack Posobiec
Guest: Charlie Kirk (Turning Point USA Founder, Host of The Charlie Kirk Show)

Overview

This special retrospective episode features the first-ever podcast conversation between Jack Posobiec and Charlie Kirk, originally recorded in December 2021. The discussion dives deep into the philosophical and historical roots of the West's current societal challenges, exploring how the decline of religious and moral anchors, the mismanagement of the scientific revolution, and cultural shifts since the Enlightenment have shaped modern civilization. The tone is lively, irreverent, and intellectually charged—marked by friendly sparring, pop culture references, and questions aimed at understanding "how the West got here."

Key Discussion Points & Insights

The West’s Decline and Philosophical Roots

(02:00–06:44)

Jack opens by framing the episode: “How did the West go from the towering world power, the driver of progress, to this sort of corrupted, backward, and really decaying kind of situation that we're in now?” (02:23)
Charlie traces the rot back to the Enlightenment, arguing not everything that emerged from it was positive: “I'm a conservative that's unafraid to say that not everything that came out of the Enlightenment was good. That's like a thought crime in some right circles.” (03:42)
They debate the timelines of the Enlightenment and discuss thinkers like Machiavelli, Rousseau, Spinoza, and Nietzsche, emphasizing Machiavelli’s “the ends justify the means” as a turning point in political philosophy.

Nietzsche, Solzhenitsyn, and Loss of Spiritual Foundations

(06:07–09:12)

Charlie points out Nietzsche’s foresight: “He saw this coming before anyone else, and he was willing to write about it... Now it's really important because Nietzsche wrote 'God is dead.' He was not celebrating it.” (06:07)
Jack recounts Solzhenitsyn’s famous Harvard address: “Everybody thought it was going to be this celebratory speech—USSR is bad, the West is good... It was the eulogy of the West.” (07:38)
The consensus: “The cult of progress over the last 500 years... not to say that improvements and adjustments have not been necessary or beneficial...” (08:41, Charlie)

Modernity, Secularism, and Social Decay

(09:12–16:46)

The hosts link social ills to the loss of religious and communal guardrails.
Charlie: “I talk to parents... my 15 year old is sexually active and I don't know what to do about it... a majority of young men are addicted to Internet pornography.” (15:03)
Jack: “At the same time, the psychiatrist’s [office is] full. The therapist’s office’s full... So we're depressed, we're upset. Suicides are on the rise and yet we also live in such a time of abundance. How do you square it?” (17:19)
Charlie: “Directly correlated... the abundance was made possible quicker because we decided to forsake a lot of moral guardrails.” (17:37)

Science, Faith, and the American Founding

(17:55–26:24)

The scientific revolution, rather than the industrial, is seen as the critical turning point.
Charlie: “The mismanagement of the scientific inquiry into the natural world is why we're in the mess that we're in. And that's where you get Hegel, that's where you get John Dewey, that's where you get all the atrocities in the 20th century.” (22:49)
American founders balanced the benefits of Enlightenment with religion/tradition.
Jack: “That's why it's so great that you have both Jefferson and Hamilton...” (13:34) Charlie (on John Adams): “There's a reason why he said that the American project... was made holy for a moral and religious people.” (14:13)

Revolutionary Comparisons: America vs France

(24:10–27:52)

The French Revolution identified as the critical break from tradition vs. the American Revolution’s continuity.
Jack: “You don't have the guillotines in Philadelphia and New York... They went to great pains to tie the American Revolution to the past.” (24:32, 24:55)
French secularism led to attacks on Christianity: “The priests were all wiped out... Notre Dame was converted into a cult, a temple of reason. The cult of reason replaces the church.” (27:01)

Replacement Religions and the Search for Meaning

(28:23–34:29)

Secular ideologies fill the “God-shaped hole,” from “the cult of Greta Thunberg” to “replacement religions” like wellness and political activism.
On secular Sabbath observance and the logic of faith:
Charlie: “Why do you honor the Sabbath? I say, because God tells me to... If you believe God told you to do something, would you do it?” (29:09)
Jack shares his awe for the medieval illuminated manuscripts and the reverence in their creation: “Each stroke of the pen was perfect because it was the word of God, period.” (30:30)

East vs. West: Faith, Community, and Individual Connection

(34:29–37:39)

Contrasting Christianity’s personal relationship with God to Eastern faiths’ impersonality:
Charlie: “There's a huge difference between the God of the east and the God of the West. They believe that God is in the nature. We believe God created nature.” (30:47)
Jack’s experience in China: “Even after all the years of communism, there's still this... total hodgepodge... but it's very transactional.” (31:02)

Community, Family, and Rebuilding

(46:05–47:23)

Emphasis on practical action:
Charlie: “Win where you live. That's the most important... focus local and the rest might work, it might not.” (46:09)
Jack: “Even smaller than that, even go back to, hey, we're going to have ordered families again... society works better when we have these things called families.” (46:20, 46:28)

The Fate of Empires and The Path Forward

(42:09–45:14)

Jack: “We’re clearly living through a collapse cycle... Are we going to be an Empire going forward, or are we not? And if we're not, what do we do to reconstitute ourselves in a way that is most beneficial for the people who live here now?” (45:20)
Charlie: “The problem with the American empire is that we never admitted we were one… It's like, oh, yeah, we're not an empire. Meanwhile, we're bases in every corner of the world.” (45:36)
Both argue for a pragmatic focus on locality, community, and moral renewal as a possible way forward.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On the Enlightenment’s flaws:
Charlie Kirk (03:42):
“I'm a conservative that's unafraid to say that not everything that came out of the Enlightenment was good. That's like a thought crime in some right circles.”
On Nietzsche and “God is dead”:
Charlie Kirk (06:07):
“Nietzsche wrote God is dead. He was not celebrating it.”
Jack Posobiec (06:44):
“He's lamenting... Solzhenitsyn said... it's that man forgot God and replaced him with ideology.”
On Western materialism and spiritual decay:
Jack Posobiec (07:58):
“You have become materialistic. All you care about is the here and now. You have totally cut yourself off from spiritual life. And all you care about is getting your next product.”
On American prosperity and dysfunction:
Jack Posobiec (17:19):
“At the same time the psychiatrist’s office [is] full... The morgue, everyone's getting on some medication or another. So we're depressed, we're upset. Suicides are on the rise and yet we also live in such a time of abundance. How do you square it?”
On replacement religions:
Charlie Kirk (34:29):
“It's replacement religion. Absolutely right. That means that there's something wrong.”
On personal relationship with God:
Jack Posobiec (37:13):
“What it really is missing, what I've always found, is that direct personal connection that you have with your creator.”
On the collapse of empires:
Jack Posobiec (42:10):
“When you look at other collapses... can you fight history, I think is a question.”
On focusing on local community:
Charlie Kirk (46:09):
“Win where you live. That's the most important.”

Important Timestamps

03:42 — Critique of the Enlightenment and Machiavelli’s legacy
06:07 — Nietzsche, “God is dead,” and the crisis of spiritual meaning
07:38–07:58 — Solzhenitsyn’s Harvard speech and Western materialism
15:03–17:37 — Social problems linked to loss of moral guardrails
22:49 — Mismanagement of the scientific revolution
24:10–24:55 — Differences between American and French Revolutions
29:09–30:30 — Faith, Sabbath, and reverence for scripture
34:29–34:37 — Replacement religions and competing theologies
46:09–46:28 — Practical strategies for societal renewal

Tone & Style

Dynamic, animated, and intellectually provocative: The hosts engage in friendly banter (including jokes about Catholic vs Protestant traditions), use historical and philosophical references liberally, and are unafraid to blend irreverence with gravitas.
Original language retained: Notable colloquialisms, e.g. “Win where you live,” “Directly correlated,” “Replacement religions,” and “God-shaped hole.”
Accessible, yet deep: While referencing academic thinkers, the conversation also includes current anecdotes (e.g., Billie Eilish, modern “replacement religions,” family life, local politics).

For Further Exploration

The episode encourages listeners to examine modernity’s loss of spiritual anchoring and reflect on the potential for community- and faith-based renewal.
Jack and Charlie recommend practical engagement at the community and family level, invoking American founding principles and the importance of local action.
The hosts invite further study into the philosophical and religious history that has shaped current events and to resist the fatalism of inevitable decline.

Final Note:
The first-ever podcast between Charlie Kirk and Jack Posobiec is less a typical news rundown and more a sweeping, laced-with-personal-anecdotes philosophical discussion—framed by a conviction that America's challenges are as much spiritual as political, and that rediscovering moral and religious foundations is vital for renewal.

Human Events Daily with Jack Posobiec

Episode: Charlie Kirk & Jack Posobiec – The First Podcast
Date: January 1, 2026
Host: Jack Posobiec
Guest: Charlie Kirk (Turning Point USA Founder, Host of The Charlie Kirk Show)

Overview

Key Discussion Points & Insights

The West’s Decline and Philosophical Roots

(02:00–06:44)

Jack opens by framing the episode: “How did the West go from the towering world power, the driver of progress, to this sort of corrupted, backward, and really decaying kind of situation that we're in now?” (02:23)
Charlie traces the rot back to the Enlightenment, arguing not everything that emerged from it was positive: “I'm a conservative that's unafraid to say that not everything that came out of the Enlightenment was good. That's like a thought crime in some right circles.” (03:42)
They debate the timelines of the Enlightenment and discuss thinkers like Machiavelli, Rousseau, Spinoza, and Nietzsche, emphasizing Machiavelli’s “the ends justify the means” as a turning point in political philosophy.

Nietzsche, Solzhenitsyn, and Loss of Spiritual Foundations

(06:07–09:12)

Charlie points out Nietzsche’s foresight: “He saw this coming before anyone else, and he was willing to write about it... Now it's really important because Nietzsche wrote 'God is dead.' He was not celebrating it.” (06:07)
Jack recounts Solzhenitsyn’s famous Harvard address: “Everybody thought it was going to be this celebratory speech—USSR is bad, the West is good... It was the eulogy of the West.” (07:38)
The consensus: “The cult of progress over the last 500 years... not to say that improvements and adjustments have not been necessary or beneficial...” (08:41, Charlie)

Modernity, Secularism, and Social Decay

(09:12–16:46)

The hosts link social ills to the loss of religious and communal guardrails.
Charlie: “I talk to parents... my 15 year old is sexually active and I don't know what to do about it... a majority of young men are addicted to Internet pornography.” (15:03)
Jack: “At the same time, the psychiatrist’s [office is] full. The therapist’s office’s full... So we're depressed, we're upset. Suicides are on the rise and yet we also live in such a time of abundance. How do you square it?” (17:19)
Charlie: “Directly correlated... the abundance was made possible quicker because we decided to forsake a lot of moral guardrails.” (17:37)

Science, Faith, and the American Founding

(17:55–26:24)

The scientific revolution, rather than the industrial, is seen as the critical turning point.
Charlie: “The mismanagement of the scientific inquiry into the natural world is why we're in the mess that we're in. And that's where you get Hegel, that's where you get John Dewey, that's where you get all the atrocities in the 20th century.” (22:49)
American founders balanced the benefits of Enlightenment with religion/tradition.
Jack: “That's why it's so great that you have both Jefferson and Hamilton...” (13:34) Charlie (on John Adams): “There's a reason why he said that the American project... was made holy for a moral and religious people.” (14:13)

Revolutionary Comparisons: America vs France

(24:10–27:52)

The French Revolution identified as the critical break from tradition vs. the American Revolution’s continuity.
Jack: “You don't have the guillotines in Philadelphia and New York... They went to great pains to tie the American Revolution to the past.” (24:32, 24:55)
French secularism led to attacks on Christianity: “The priests were all wiped out... Notre Dame was converted into a cult, a temple of reason. The cult of reason replaces the church.” (27:01)

Replacement Religions and the Search for Meaning

(28:23–34:29)

Secular ideologies fill the “God-shaped hole,” from “the cult of Greta Thunberg” to “replacement religions” like wellness and political activism.
On secular Sabbath observance and the logic of faith:
Charlie: “Why do you honor the Sabbath? I say, because God tells me to... If you believe God told you to do something, would you do it?” (29:09)
Jack shares his awe for the medieval illuminated manuscripts and the reverence in their creation: “Each stroke of the pen was perfect because it was the word of God, period.” (30:30)

East vs. West: Faith, Community, and Individual Connection

(34:29–37:39)

Contrasting Christianity’s personal relationship with God to Eastern faiths’ impersonality:
Charlie: “There's a huge difference between the God of the east and the God of the West. They believe that God is in the nature. We believe God created nature.” (30:47)
Jack’s experience in China: “Even after all the years of communism, there's still this... total hodgepodge... but it's very transactional.” (31:02)

Community, Family, and Rebuilding

(46:05–47:23)

Emphasis on practical action:
Charlie: “Win where you live. That's the most important... focus local and the rest might work, it might not.” (46:09)
Jack: “Even smaller than that, even go back to, hey, we're going to have ordered families again... society works better when we have these things called families.” (46:20, 46:28)

The Fate of Empires and The Path Forward

(42:09–45:14)

Jack: “We’re clearly living through a collapse cycle... Are we going to be an Empire going forward, or are we not? And if we're not, what do we do to reconstitute ourselves in a way that is most beneficial for the people who live here now?” (45:20)
Charlie: “The problem with the American empire is that we never admitted we were one… It's like, oh, yeah, we're not an empire. Meanwhile, we're bases in every corner of the world.” (45:36)
Both argue for a pragmatic focus on locality, community, and moral renewal as a possible way forward.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On the Enlightenment’s flaws:
Charlie Kirk (03:42):
“I'm a conservative that's unafraid to say that not everything that came out of the Enlightenment was good. That's like a thought crime in some right circles.”
On Nietzsche and “God is dead”:
Charlie Kirk (06:07):
“Nietzsche wrote God is dead. He was not celebrating it.”
Jack Posobiec (06:44):
“He's lamenting... Solzhenitsyn said... it's that man forgot God and replaced him with ideology.”
On Western materialism and spiritual decay:
Jack Posobiec (07:58):
“You have become materialistic. All you care about is the here and now. You have totally cut yourself off from spiritual life. And all you care about is getting your next product.”
On American prosperity and dysfunction:
Jack Posobiec (17:19):
“At the same time the psychiatrist’s office [is] full... The morgue, everyone's getting on some medication or another. So we're depressed, we're upset. Suicides are on the rise and yet we also live in such a time of abundance. How do you square it?”
On replacement religions:
Charlie Kirk (34:29):
“It's replacement religion. Absolutely right. That means that there's something wrong.”
On personal relationship with God:
Jack Posobiec (37:13):
“What it really is missing, what I've always found, is that direct personal connection that you have with your creator.”
On the collapse of empires:
Jack Posobiec (42:10):
“When you look at other collapses... can you fight history, I think is a question.”
On focusing on local community:
Charlie Kirk (46:09):
“Win where you live. That's the most important.”

Important Timestamps

03:42 — Critique of the Enlightenment and Machiavelli’s legacy
06:07 — Nietzsche, “God is dead,” and the crisis of spiritual meaning
07:38–07:58 — Solzhenitsyn’s Harvard speech and Western materialism
15:03–17:37 — Social problems linked to loss of moral guardrails
22:49 — Mismanagement of the scientific revolution
24:10–24:55 — Differences between American and French Revolutions
29:09–30:30 — Faith, Sabbath, and reverence for scripture
34:29–34:37 — Replacement religions and competing theologies
46:09–46:28 — Practical strategies for societal renewal

Tone & Style

Dynamic, animated, and intellectually provocative: The hosts engage in friendly banter (including jokes about Catholic vs Protestant traditions), use historical and philosophical references liberally, and are unafraid to blend irreverence with gravitas.
Original language retained: Notable colloquialisms, e.g. “Win where you live,” “Directly correlated,” “Replacement religions,” and “God-shaped hole.”
Accessible, yet deep: While referencing academic thinkers, the conversation also includes current anecdotes (e.g., Billie Eilish, modern “replacement religions,” family life, local politics).

For Further Exploration

The episode encourages listeners to examine modernity’s loss of spiritual anchoring and reflect on the potential for community- and faith-based renewal.
Jack and Charlie recommend practical engagement at the community and family level, invoking American founding principles and the importance of local action.
The hosts invite further study into the philosophical and religious history that has shaped current events and to resist the fatalism of inevitable decline.

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Charlie Kirk & Jack Posobiec - The First Podcast

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Summary

Human Events Daily with Jack Posobiec

Overview

Key Discussion Points & Insights

The West’s Decline and Philosophical Roots

Nietzsche, Solzhenitsyn, and Loss of Spiritual Foundations

Modernity, Secularism, and Social Decay

Science, Faith, and the American Founding

Revolutionary Comparisons: America vs France

Replacement Religions and the Search for Meaning

East vs. West: Faith, Community, and Individual Connection

Community, Family, and Rebuilding

The Fate of Empires and The Path Forward

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

Important Timestamps

Tone & Style

For Further Exploration

Summary

Human Events Daily with Jack Posobiec

Overview

Key Discussion Points & Insights

The West’s Decline and Philosophical Roots

Nietzsche, Solzhenitsyn, and Loss of Spiritual Foundations

Modernity, Secularism, and Social Decay

Science, Faith, and the American Founding

Revolutionary Comparisons: America vs France

Replacement Religions and the Search for Meaning

East vs. West: Faith, Community, and Individual Connection

Community, Family, and Rebuilding

The Fate of Empires and The Path Forward

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

Important Timestamps

Tone & Style

For Further Exploration