Is This the DUMBEST Thing in 2026?! | 3/31/26

Summary

Podcast Summary: Steve Deace Show

Episode: Is This the DUMBEST Thing in 2026?! | 3/31/26
Date: March 31, 2026
Host: Steve Deace (Blaze Podcast Network)
Co-hosts: Todd Erzin, Aaron McIntyre
Special Guest: Matthew Farace (live from Israel), David Cunningham (director, “David: King of Israel”)

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Episode Overview

This episode blends principled conservatism and irreverent humor, tackling current events, religious and cultural discourse, foreign affairs—especially in the Middle East—and shifts in American society. Steve and the team process recent news with their trademark snark, followed by a deep-dive field report from Israel, commentary on the state of the culture war, and an interview on the new Fox Nation docudrama "David: King of Israel."

The episode’s underlying theme is bewilderment and frustration at the perceived self-inflicted decline of American culture and institutions, contrasting this with the resolve of others (notably Israelis). Through headline rundown, “vibe checks,” and guest interviews, the show explores the intersection of politics, faith, entertainment, and the search for truth.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. What Happened While We Were Away [04:40–10:21]

• Headlines & Snark:
  • Trump’s Truth Social comments: U.S. oil leverage, disdain for uncooperative NATO allies.
  • Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s warning to NATO—NATO must be a two-way street (“All of it will have to be re-examined” [05:38]).
  • Hezbollah’s connection to a recent attempted terror attack in Michigan, per FBI reports.
  • Media spectacle: Lindsey Graham at Disney World, mocked as “on brand.”
  • Chicago Bulls release guard Jaden Ivey—hosts argue it’s tied to criticisms of the NBA’s Pride celebrations.
  • Kristi Noem’s husband rumored to be a cross-dresser (report via Daily Mail).
  • Supreme Court overturns Colorado’s ban on conversion therapy (8-1 decision, only Jackson dissenting)—hosts note even the Court’s lesbian justice sided with free speech.
  • Sarcastic riff: “Straits of Hormuz vs. Gays of Hormuz”—mocking identity-politics coverage.

Memorable Quote:
“Isn’t it a little bit homophobic that we’re so focused on the Straits of Hormuz and not the Gays of Hormuz?”
– Steve Dace [09:27]

2. Frustration with the State of American Culture [10:21–13:39]

• Growing incredulity at the absurdity of U.S. politics/media, from Disney World spectacles to political silence on key terror issues.
• Satirical observations about the state of masculinity and the “idols” that have supplanted traditional values.
• Hosts express exasperation: the collapse isn’t imposed—it’s self-inflicted.

Quote:
“I just started sucking my thumb. I don’t have anything. ... We’ve created a world where our idols allow for that to beat us.”
—Steve Dace [13:13–13:47, summary]

3. Juxtaposition: American Cultural Self-Destruction vs. Supreme Court Decisions [15:19–24:56]

• Jaden Ivey’s NBA ouster: Explained as part of the NBA’s decline (low ratings, ideological capture).
• Contrast: NBA punishes dissent over Pride Month as the Supreme Court overwhelmingly defends religious free speech, including a lesbian justice siding with the majority.
• Hosts lament lack of courage and unwillingness to “take sides” in culture wars.
• Reference to events in Pella, Iowa (‘Drag Queen Story Hour’) as symptom of conservative abdication.

Quote:
“The NBA is willing to self-immolate from a PR standpoint on an issue the Supreme Court with a lesbian on the court ruled 8-1 in our favor on.”
—Steve Dace [21:33]

• Ominous conclusion: The U.S. decline is “the most self-inflicted in all of human history.”

4. Interview—Matthew Farace Live from Israel [32:54–47:07]

• Farace describes daily life under missile threat: Israelis adapting, life continues with disruptions (kids home, gatherings canceled, bat mitzvah postponed), likened to “COVID times.”
• Media misinformation: U.S. social media filled with false reports about Tel Aviv being razed, Netanyahu dead.
• Israeli resolve: “Imagine if 40,000 Americans were killed on 9/11—the outrage you’d see.”
• Unity across Israeli society, understanding existential crisis—not reflected in fractious, partisan U.S. environment.
• War goals ambiguous by design—Israel’s leadership tight-lipped about ultimate objectives in Iran, possibly to avoid telegraphing to the enemy.
• Discussion of U.S.–Israeli partnership, regional alliances, underlying complexity and uncertainty.

Quote:
“You get used to missiles ... going to the grocery store, you expect you’re going to have to stop and go to the bomb shelter. It starts to become the rhythm of life.”
—Matthew Farace [33:10]

Quote:
“People here look at America and scratch their heads and say: don’t they understand … Don’t they know what’s coming? And I tell them, unfortunately, no, they don’t.”
—Matthew Farace [39:33]

5. “Vibe Check”—Fake News or Not (Rapid-fire Segment) [54:28–78:02]

Steve presents “10 vibe checks”—provocative statements to test the panel's gut reaction about news and trends. Topics include:

• Whether U.S. troops will end up in Iran (divided views; both hope and dread at lack of clarity) [55:53ff].
• Can the Iranian regime be toppled without U.S. boots? Mixed answers.
• Will U.S. military engagement erode American public support for Israel? (Consensus: Yes, among post-boomers.)
• Will Tucker Carlson lead the “Ron Paul” foreign policy wing, sans monetary focus? (Skepticism and discussion about shifting political alignments.)
• Is “tabloid right” (Tucker, Candace Owens, Nick Fuentes, etc.) now a permanent, profitable subculture? (Agreement; likened to National Enquirer era.)
• Is the market for reality-based, faith-driven content shrinking? (Agreement it’s suffering; lament over lucrative “culture war” clickbait.)
• 2028 GOP—does JD Vance have a clear path if Rubio doesn’t run? (Reservations; unpredictable political terrain.)
• Will DeSantis run in 2028? (Hosts doubt it, see him biding time for a potential reset in 2032.)
• Will “Maha” (RFK Jr.-associated) voters stick with the GOP? (No; fundamental incompatibility.)
• Will any openly Christian NBA player defend Jaden Ivey? (Big divide—possible, but high risk and lack of backbone predicted.)

“There’s just too many broken people now on all sides ... the Tucker Carlson–Candace Owens–Nick Fuentes faction can always find enough audience to sustain lucrative livings ... We’re just going to have to learn to live with this to some extent moving forward.”
—Steve Dace [66:17]

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Pop Culture & Faith Segment—Interview with Director David Cunningham [81:32–96:39]

David: King of Israel (Fox Nation Series)

• Cunningham discusses the growing market and craft behind faith-driven media.
• Points out a “new moment”—faith content is now in-demand, supported by both audience and industry.
• Key to progress: faith communities reclaiming storytelling and the arts, gaining both skill and respect within Hollywood after a period of retreat and censure.
• Steve and David note the importance of honest, full-blooded Biblical storytelling that doesn’t shy away from darkness, making it more relatable to modern audiences.
• Cultural insight: the modern era is more moved by “broken heroes” (King David as imperfect, passionate, forgiven figure) than by pure, martyr-like figures.

Quote:
“A passion for the Lord—unabashed passion ... and then when he does screw up, he throws himself back on the altar ... and is willing to admit his mistakes ... and then the Lord rises him back up.”
—David Cunningham [85:14]

Quote:
“We totally gave [entertainment] over to them. ... We also stayed addicted to it.”
—Aaron McIntyre [96:48]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

Sarcastic, Dark Humor & “Vibe” [09:27, 13:13, interspersed]

• “Why do you think they’re willing to leave the gays of Hormuz behind?”
• “We’ve created a world where our idols allow for that to beat us.”
• “This is going to be the most self-inflicted [collapse] in all of human history ... I gave up ... I couldn’t possibly risk offending some 105-pound chick on the street.”

Field Report from Israel [33:10, 39:33]

• “Missiles coming starts to become the rhythm of life.”
• “Don’t they know what’s coming? ... Unfortunately, no, they don't.”

NBA & Culture [15:19, 21:33]

• “The NBA is willing to self-immolate ... on an issue the Supreme Court with a lesbian on the court ruled 8-1 in our favor on.”

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Timestamps to Important Segments

• [04:40] What Happened While We Were Away (Headlines & Satire)
• [09:27] “Gays of Hormuz” Sarcastic Segment
• [15:19] NBA, Supreme Court, & Cultural Decline Juxtaposition
• [32:54] Interview: Matthew Farace from Israel
• [54:28] Fake News or Not: Vibe Check Segment Begins
• [81:32] Pop Culture Tuesday: Interview with David Cunningham (“David: King of Israel”)
• [96:39] Wrap-up & Reflections

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Tone & Style

The show maintains a caustic, irreverent, combative, and occasionally darkly humorous tone. Steve and team routinely blend sarcasm (“Gays of Hormuz,” “bubble wand at Disney World”), theological seriousness, and news mockery, punctuating serious analysis with gallows humor. There’s a persistent thread of “we’re going mad and asking why no one objects,” with both affection and exasperation for conservative audiences.

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For the Listener

This episode is a dense, sometimes bleak, but always provocative blend of headline news, cultural criticism, in-the-field foreign reporting, and faith-based media analysis. It offers sharp—if exasperated—insight into the anxieties and frustrations of principled conservatives in 2026, highlighting the contrast between foreign resolve and perceived domestic cultural apathy. The interviews give concrete context to crisis zones and reveal a hopeful side for those invested in faith-driven media.

For anyone keen to understand the intersection of culture war, politics, religion, and contemporary media, this episode is an unvarnished, brutally honest dispatch from the front.

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For further information about the “David: King of Israel” series, check Fox Nation.

Transcript

[Steve Dace]

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[Matthew Farace]

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[Steve Dace]

Why wait?

[Matthew Farace]

Ask your doctor.

[Steve Dace]

Visit botoxchronicmigraine.com or call 1-844botox to learn more. And Greetings. Happy Tuesday.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Foreign

[Steve Dace]

My name is Steve Dace. Just putting out fires and glad that I just got to do my actual day job and go on the air. You're todders and how are you brother? How you doing?

[Aaron McIntyre]

Oh, I'm sure there's going to be some fires here on the day job too.

[Steve Dace]

I indeed Aaron McIntyre. How you feeling brother? You're good?

[Todd Erzin]

Good.

[Steve Dace]

Good.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Steve Dace]

As my granddaughter Autumn likes to say, good everyone. Good, Autumn, good. We're good. We're brought to you by our friends over at Kexi. Speaking of good, I did get my my Kexi cookie Easter set did come in the mail and I tried the first one. It was like an orange chocolate Incredible. I don't know what the official title was.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Full Stop Orange Chocolate.

[Steve Dace]

It was just Orange Chocolate Incredible. That's I'm naming it now.

[Aaron McIntyre]

All right.

[Steve Dace]

I don't know what they called it, all right. But I mean, I mean these are ingredients you can pronounce and there's not that many of them. They taste like homemade because they are. All right, get your Easter box right now. Like the Irish Cream brownie and more. All available to you right [e-mail] k e k s I k e k s I it's leaving tomorrow for Easter so you got to make sure you get that order in now. All right? Kek si and then use my last name, Dace, as your promo code and you'll get 15% [e-mail] promo code DACE. All right. Coming up on today's program, on today's show, we are going to be joined by Dave Cunningham. He is the director of an outstanding new series on FOX Nation, David King of Israel. And you might recall that we had David on Over Christmas because he directed also John or Kevin Costner's Nativity story that aired on network TV on ABC that ended up getting over 20 million people worldwide watch that. And that was an outstanding job done there. So we're going to talk to him about his latest project. But then also for Holy Week, if you're looking for faith based content, the good news is there's a bumper crop of it right now. And we'll get into that with David Cunningham, fake news or not, next hour. Also, I'm going to do kind of a vibe check. Things that, you know, just looking at vibes, you know, and things I think maybe could happen aren't happening. What do you guys think? And we're going to go through, I've got 10 vibe checks, right? We're in the, we're in the, we're in March Madness. The guy who gets makes two or three in a row, then he decides I got to shoot it again. Right. And that fourth one is usually a brick off the side of the rim. And the announcers always call it a heat check. Right? All right. So I'm going to do the vibe check. I'm probably, my reach has probably exceeded my grasp with these 10. Okay. But we're going to check vibes and see if Todd and Aaron think any of these vibes are fake news or not. That's coming up next hour. A good friend of mine, Matthew Farace is going to join us at the bottom of this hour. He lives in Israel and he's going to set the scene on the ground there in Israel for us at the bottom of this hour. But let's kick this thing off as we always do with Aaron's rundown of what happened while we were away.

[Todd Erzin]

What happened while we were away brought to you by giving up on horror news. President Trump on Truth Social this morning said that countries like the United Kingdom who are having trouble procuring jet fuel should buy it from the United States. Or better yet, countries who depend on the Middle east for oil and its derivatives should, quote, learn how to fight for yourself. The USA won't be there to help you anymore. Just like you weren't there for us. Trump also knocked France for not allowing coalition use of its airspace for cargo flights. Just yesterday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio had a warning for NATO members.

[Matthew Farace]

I've been a big supporter of NATO, and one of the reasons why I've been a supporter of NATO is because I believe that these basing rights give us leverage and give us flexibility and operational capability all over the world. But if NATO is just about us defending Europe if they're attacked, but them denying us basing rights when we need them, that's not a very good arrangement. That's a hard one to stay engaged in and say this is good for the United States. So all of them is going to have to be re examined. All of it's going to have to be re examined.

[Todd Erzin]

On the topic of the Strait of

[Matthew Farace]

Hormuz, well, the Straits of Hormuz will be open when this operation is over. It will be open and it'll be open one way or another. It will be open because Iran agrees to abide by international law and not block a commercial waterway or a coalition of nations from around the world and the region with the participation of the United States will make sure that it's open. One way or the other, it's going to be open.

[Todd Erzin]

Meanwhile, back at home, the FBI confirmed yesterday that Hezbollah was behind the March 12 attempted terror attack on that massive Temple Israel synagogue in Michigan.

[Matthew Farace]

Based on the evidence gathered to date, we assess this attack to be a

[Todd Erzin]

Hezbollah inspired act of terrorism purposely targeting

[Steve Dace]

the Jewish community and the largest Jewish temple in Michigan.

[Todd Erzin]

That's FBI Detroit Special Agent in Charge Jennifer Run.

[Steve Dace]

Although the assailant's attack planning and mobilization

[Aaron McIntyre]

to violence began in earnest on March

[Steve Dace]

9, which I will fully detail here shortly. A review of his online activity since

[Matthew Farace]

January 2026 revealed a reoccurring search history

[Steve Dace]

of pro Hezbollah news channels, Iranian news channels, and videos about shootouts and bullets. He regularly consumed breaking news and statements

[Matthew Farace]

and live coverage of the current Secretary

[Steve Dace]

General of Hezbollah, Naim Kassim, and viewed

[Matthew Farace]

news coverage about an Iranian F for

[Todd Erzin]

total jihad against the US Military. Meanwhile, at Disney World Daddy, daddy, watch me tomorrow, darling. Whoops. Harm Picture TMZ acquired photos of Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina senator, the childless, blood lustful war hawk at Disney World walking around with what appears to be a bubble wand. Other photos show Graham dining and riding Space Mountain. The photos were de facto confirmed as real and authentic by Graham himself as he posted a photo on social media of himself shooting a rifle at a shooting range yesterday evening in Rhode Island, a nearly Finished mural of Irina Zarutska is being painted over at the behest of local Democrat leaders in Providence. Zarutska, who was brutally stabbed to death while riding light rail in Charlotte, North Carolina last year, has been the subject of many such murals around the country. David Morales, a state Democrat politician, told local media, ultimately, we want to make sure that every community member that calls Providence home feels safe. And we can both agree that this mural behind us does not reflect Providence's values, nor does it reflect the creativity that we want to see in our in the NBA. The Chicago Bulls have released guard Jaden Ivey for conduct detrimental to the team. The conduct in question this they have. They proclaim Pride Month in the NBA. They proclaim it. They proclaim.

[Steve Dace]

They show it to the world. They say, come, come, come join us for Pride.

[Todd Erzin]

For Pride Month to celebrate unrighteousness. They proclaim it. They proclaim it on the billboards. They proclaim it in the streets. Unrighteousness. Yes, Jaden Ivy is being released by the Chicago Bulls at the very least in part because he criticized the NBA for celebrating homosexual degeneracy. Couple of quick notes. According to the UK Daily Mail, Kristy Noem's husband is a cross dresser. Also, the Supreme Court ruled that Colorado's ban on so called conversion therapy is unconstitutional, violating the First Amendment. The decision was 8 to 1 with Ketanji Brown Jackson being the lone dissent. And finally, we go back to the no Kings protest to discover who the real victims are of the ongoing conflict in Iran.

[Steve Dace]

Isn't it a little bit homophobic that we're so focused on the Straits of Hormuz and not the gays of Hormuz?

[Aaron McIntyre]

I agree.

[Todd Erzin]

Yes, for sure.

[Steve Dace]

Why do you think they're willing to leave the gays of Hormuz behind?

[Aaron McIntyre]

I think it's just history historically. Like, you know, gays have always been

[Steve Dace]

very discriminated against, which is wrong on so many levels. Even in war.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Yeah, even in war.

[Steve Dace]

It just takes more reform in government, obviously, and then also educating society. Just feel like if we're gonna go in there, we can't leave the gay people behind. I don't think we should go in there at all. But if we're going to the Gays of Hormuz, we could turn it into

[Todd Erzin]

Fire island for sure. And that's what happened while we were away.

[Aaron McIntyre]

And in a German accent. And they're gonna win the next election too. Go team. Oh, man.

[Todd Erzin]

I wish you all had, like, transporter technology, but for the brain, so you could understand Steve's headspace coming into today, today's show and then ending. We could have Fire island and the woman's like, yeah, yeah, don't leave the gaze of Hormuz and what you said. Those types of people on track to win. We can't have murals of Irina Zarutska because it's not our values and we want people to feel safe.

[Aaron McIntyre]

And I think Kit, should we just keep going down the rundown, Aaron, you and I, or what? What should we do?

[Todd Erzin]

Yeah, I don't even know where he

[Aaron McIntyre]

went because, you know, I think, you know, part of this, it's related why we're going to lose. I think Lindsey Graham's getting a raw deal. I'm reliably told men should be able to do whatever they want to with their free time. Doesn't matter. Why are we judging? Poor guy. He's just kicking back at Disney. Men are allowed to have their hobbies.

[Todd Erzin]

Bubble wand. Okay. If you are surprised, if you are surprised that Lindsey Graham was spotted walking around Disney World with a bubble wand, you're probably the same type of person who was surprised that a Michigan Democrat Senate candidate by the name of Al Said was saying that he doesn't want to say anything about the death of Ali Khamenei because people in Dearborn are upset. That's on brand. That's the most on brand thing for Lindsey Gray I've ever seen. By the way I saw this morning, I think it's Harvey Levine at TMZ says they're opening up a D.C. bureau to which I say, yes, love it, love it.

[Steve Dace]

And they, maybe they can track down Christine Ohm's cross dressing husband.

[Aaron McIntyre]

We're glad you're back, Steve. Why do the Jews hate the gaze of Hormuz?

[Steve Dace]

I'm. I'm tracking this montage like there's some really meaty stuff in here. I'm jotting down some things as we're going along because I'm watching it in real time and I'm jotting down some things I want to discuss.

[Aaron McIntyre]

And then McIntyre goes top rope.

[Steve Dace]

And I just, I mean, I got, I don't have anything for that. And I was just going to walk right back in and then when I heard you say, and we're going to lose the next election to these fools, I just, I sat down over in the corner there in the break room and just started sucking my thumb.

[Todd Erzin]

I've.

[Steve Dace]

I've got nothing. I don't, I don't. I have nothing.

[Aaron McIntyre]

It's true.

[Steve Dace]

I don't even know whatever I Don't.

[Aaron McIntyre]

You should. And you should.

[Steve Dace]

I mean, I have. I have. I have a few. I've got three bullet points here that I think are very serious to discuss. I had just.

[Aaron McIntyre]

We've created a world where our idols allow for that to beat us. It's just true. You can be mad all you want about it. Don't hate Lindsey Graham. He's just a man enjoying his hobbies.

[Todd Erzin]

You know what I think we really need right now?

[Steve Dace]

An 8 minute Cambodian smoking toddler.

[Todd Erzin]

I need to talk to you about that. Among other things. Seriously. I want to install a button for you at your position to where you can just press it and automatically that'll pop up.

[Steve Dace]

I need it in my life right now.

[Aaron McIntyre]

I may do.

[Todd Erzin]

We need an 8 minute video from Kristi Noem detailing her newest veneers. I think that's what the world needs right now.

[Aaron McIntyre]

That's just another guy just enjoying his free time. I don't know why we're judging, man. It's just. Cut him some slack. Gotta kick back, do some guy things on his spare time, his hobbies. Don't judge.

[Todd Erzin]

How much daylight is there between bimbofication, which is allegedly the. The fetish that Brian Noam was into, and sports, Bro, hardly any

[Steve Dace]

half of this segment is left. Let's see if we can possibly.

[Aaron McIntyre]

You're a gamer. I respect that.

[Steve Dace]

How bad does the Colorado law have to be to get an 81 ruling from the US Supreme Court on a. On a rainbow jihad issue?

[Aaron McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Steve Dace]

So I want you to juxtapose these two events right now. I would assume there's going to be some sort of whisper campaign from the NBA and its media about Jaden Ivey. And he was high maintenance. And there were other issues. That's coming. Okay.

[Todd Erzin]

Already is.

[Steve Dace]

But you also need to understand Jaden Ivey's mom, she's the head coach at Notre Dame.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Oh, really?

[Steve Dace]

Yeah. Jaden Ivey's mom is the head coach at Notre Dame women's basketball. He's been around the game his whole life. His dad played in the NBA. Russell Hunter was his dad. So I know quite a bit about Jaden Ivy. Why? Because he was a all American for Purdue in our league a few years ago. And then he got drafted in the first round originally by my favorite team, the Pistons. We traded him because he got hurt a lot.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Okay.

[Steve Dace]

But there was never any comment that he was a terrible teammate or anything of that nature. Right. And then we drafted Cade Cunningham, who's kind of a better version of him. So it was kind of a positional redundancy. But there were like no whispers that he was impossible to deal with or, you know, was just going around the locker room. Bring out your dead. All right. Revelation 21. I mean there wasn't any rumors, anything like that. He just was injured and we, we needed another player and we're trying, they're trying to win a championship. They get one of the best record in the Eastern Conference and he's, he's a lesser version of our best player, Cade Cunningham, and that's why we were traded. So all these rumors and stuff were never prevalent at all. The time that the three years that he spent in Detroit never happened. Never was prevalent. One time comes from a serious basketball family. Very well known, inspiring personal story as well. Okay. So I'm sure they'll come up with something in Chicago. I'm sure they will. Okay. But I want you to juxtapose that on the. And this is also. NBA ratings are in the toilet. Major league baseball is actually back and surpassed the NBA as the number two most watched pro sport in America. Again, not that baseball's ratings are all that great. And you know, baseball is about to go on a year long strike probably next year. Okay. But that is more of an indictment of what's happened to the NBA. The NBA, which was rivaling the NFL when you and I were growing up in the Bird Magic, Isaiah, Dominique, then Jordan, Kobe era. Right. The era that Aaron, you were born into has completely imploded as a league. Its ratings are in the tank. It's completely imploded. And the, and, and, and this is just its next logical step. Remember, had the whole thing about you couldn't criticize China. Remember that a few years ago too. So this is just the next logical step. I mean the, the league is, is a construct of the spirit of the age, as is the league. It created the wnba. It's just a construct. Now there's at least a economic reason that the NBA exists. The WNBA is just nothing but a subsidy. So contrast that on the same day the US Supreme Court is saying to the state of Colorado, you guys know you can't criminalize the gospel, right? Because that's what they're claiming gay conversion therapy is. If you take your kid to. We're not, we're not putting people in hyperbaric chambers or something. Okay. Or, you know, we're not lobotomizing them for same sex attraction. Basically it is, hey, my kid or somebody is coming to me saying they're same sex attracted. I'm taking them to the pastor. Right. And giving him spiritual counseling because something is wrong. Because this is not God's design. That's what it is. So we would used to call it discipling. Now it's called gay conversion therapy. Colorado lost 8 to 1 at the U.S. supreme Court on this. But did you notice who the one dissenting voice was not. We have a lesbian on the court, folks. Elena Kagan's been on this court for over 20 years as a lesbian. So I want you to juxtapose this and make sense of this for me. The NBA decides, you know, our ratings suck. People aren't watching and, and basically our viewership is the comments section and or essentially msnbc. Twitter is our, is our, is our viewership. So we've got an idea. All right, let's get rid of a guy for criticizing Pride Month and make that pretty well known that it at least played some major role in why we did this. While a lesbian on the U.S. supreme Court in Elena Kagan is ruling it is unconstitutional to say you that to make a law saying you cannot take a child to see a pastor or ministry leader or what my wife does Christian therapy, psych, you know, counseling. You can't because of same sex attraction. Juxtapose make sense of that.

[Aaron McIntyre]

There was a time, Steve, early on in my time with the show, which means early on in Trump's ascendancy, you explained a lot about the political math of, of the world we were dealing with. And you talked about the environment and how it's folly to try to change the environment. It is what it is and you have to work within that. Well, the environment is that level of chaos that's not unique, that's every day. And the normie voter, instead of looking at that, ultimately we are still a representative republic. We're going to take as much chaos as we want. And we apparently want it because we won't take sides on this because it's icky. I don't want to get involved. I've got reasons. I'm comfortable. I'm doing my hobbies. You've answered this question. You answered it a long time ago. And it has to do with the environment. We the people are the environment. And obviously this level of stupid is what we want because we won't take clear sides on this. And there's no way to change this unless we take clear sides on this at an 8 to 1 level.

[Steve Dace]

This is what is so frustrating to me about this. It doesn't. This doesn't have to happen. No, this doesn't have to happen. We, the NBA is willing to essentially self immolate from a public relations standpoint on an issue the Supreme Court with a lesbian on the court ruled 8 to 1 in our favor on. Remember when I used to say where's the Attila the Hun? Where's, where's the Philip of Macedonia or his son Alexander the Great? Where's the Ivan the Terrible? Where's the Genghis Khan? Where's the great conqueror that just wrote us over and we were just a casualty of history. No, we're going to go down to the, to the retards like that chick in the video that that tells you it's all self inflicted.

[Aaron McIntyre]

This is what I'm saying.

[Steve Dace]

It's all self inflicted and that's what I listen. I've read a history book. I'm a Christian. I know there's only one eternal kingdom and it's his, not this country or any other. We are all from a civil. We're all as human beings going to assume room temperature. We are all as civilizations going to assume room temperature one day and take our plot, our fate, our place in the, in the burial plot of the ash heap of history. We all go there, we all do. We are finite. He is eternal. But this is going to be the most one in all of human history. This one will be just complete idiocracy. I gave up. I don't care. I can't be bothered. I, I, I, I couldn't possibly risk offending some 105 pound chick on the street. I couldn't possibly risk offending some 115 pound albino in all black antifa gear who if he took the gear off you'd curl more than he weighs. I couldn't possibly risk it. I couldn't possibly risk some unnamed anon on X and whatever bot army country they're from in my feed giving me negative feedback. So I guess we'll just go ahead and just, you know, just give up our way of life. I don't understand it. I'm not wired that way. I will never understand it and I will refuse you trying to make me understand it. I don't want to. I don't want to. I refuse, I refuse to understand it. Pella is the most right wing city in our entire state.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Great example.

[Steve Dace]

And like it's 2019. They're going to have Drag Queen storytime hour next weekend, the weekend after Easter. If you would have suggested this to the city council or the school board or the library board of Pella, Iowa even 20 years ago, even 10 years ago, let alone, you know, I can't say on the air what, what they would have done to you 50 years ago. Just say it would have included getting locked up in a. Contributing to delinquency of the minor. And we've never heard from you again. How's that lifetime jail sentence for you? And that's if you're lucky. How it.

[Aaron McIntyre]

This is what we're going back.

[Steve Dace]

We're going to do. We're doing this again.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Steve Dace]

So the Supreme Court says 8 to 1, you, you can't take the gospel away from the kids with a lesbian agreeing with us. But we're going to do Drag Queen storytime hour in Pella, Iowa. I got, I, I don't know what to do for you at that point. I don't.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Because they're looking at every man in Iowa. Those are true believers. They're looking at every man in Iowa and say, we don't think you can step to us. They're looking at everybody on the city council. They're looking to the police force.

[Steve Dace]

Stop and think about what, what you're saying here. What you're saying here is I won't stand up for what I believe on my own Facebook page. But these people will come. They didn't notice. They didn't choose Iowa City or some college town. They will come right to where you think you are the most secure, you are the most based and rub it right in your face and dare you to do something about it.

[Aaron McIntyre]

They're banking on the police force. They're protecting them.

[Steve Dace]

Correct.

[Aaron McIntyre]

And if you try to step in as a man, isolated, maybe one or five of you show up. You know, they're counting on the police getting you instead of them. Free speech and stuff. This is also, by the way, remember Pella several years ago had somebody just flat out at the public pool walking around nude, some transgender person. Again, you got to pick sides and you won't. So, yeah, don't sit around judging Lindsey Graham. Cause you're the same. You're the same

[Todd Erzin]

sentence I never thought and probably you would never have thought would be uttered on this year program. I heard Rahm Emanuel make a great point the other day, just from a demonic, a demonic kind of foundation or perspective. So wrong foundation, wrong premise. But his point still stands if taken from the correct perspective. Do we have any fear right now about China or Russia's military after what we've seen in just the last three months?

[Steve Dace]

You mean the vaunted the new Soviet Union who cannot even reach Kiev it

[Todd Erzin]

was their air defense systems in Venezuela, it was there. And I'm talking there, both China, Chinese and Russian air defense systems in Iran. How'd that work out for them? Not well. Do we fear that? Any, anybody on the face of the planet. Do we. Should we fear them militarily? No, no. But Rahm Emanuel said, hey, it's our domestic stuff that they could see and exploit. Now he's taking that from the demonic perspective. He thinks we should probably trans all the children.

[Steve Dace]

Yeah, he's projecting.

[Todd Erzin]

He's projecting. Indeed he is.

[Steve Dace]

But he's also not wrong. His premise is, but his application correct.

[Todd Erzin]

Yes, we have the softest of softest underbellies. There's a great number of accounts that you can follow and they do some interesting analysis about the heartland of America. And if you look at the birth rates here in the heartland, you know they are higher. They are higher than the coasts, they're higher than the average around the country. Which means that what we're still living, we're still procreating, we still believe and still have some hope for the future. That's, that's civilization. But still, even in this, even in this heartland, not the coasts, not the elitist coasts in the heartland, we have the softest of softest underbellies. And it's everything that Todd talks about on a day to day basis. If Ketanji Brown Jackson is for a policy, that policy is 100.

[Steve Dace]

She was the only vote.

[Todd Erzin]

100. 100%. Wicked, stupid, demonic. Just as a general and really, I think a hard and fast rule. And yet Colorado lawmakers tried to ram that through. They have no fear over there because they really believe what they believe and are willing to act upon it and have the tools to do so more than we are. There is no unifying, cohesive force that I have seen at least develop on the right other than reactions to those guys. A movement is not a reaction and it never has been.

[Steve Dace]

It doesn't have to end like this, man. This doesn't have to happen. It just, it just doesn't.

[Aaron McIntyre]

But it's gonna.

[Steve Dace]

The other topic I wanted us to address, we're going to be out of time for. So let's pick this up in the overtime because I think we need to understand what kind of a, of a new world it is that the Secretary of State of these United States is doing an interview on Al Jazeera calling out NATO. That folks, you, I mean, we were all concerned about the great reset two years ago, right? That is a great reset. That is a new world that is a new world, an American and, and, and, and, and by the end and the stuff he's saying, by the way, is all stuff we agree, like he's not on there like placating them at the same time. You know what I'm saying? I'm like, he's, these are our talking points. This is the stuff I think what he said. Right. But the American secretary of state is on Al Jazeera putting NATO on notice and not from the left, but from the right. That I think requires us a little further discussion that we just didn't have time to get to here with, with my, my crash out. So we'll do it in the overtime today for Blaze TV subscribers BlazeTV.com days use the code Dace. Get a discounted subscription [e-mail] days. Code DACE. More in a moment. The Steve Day show, in a world

[Matthew Farace]

of oversharing, dating remains sacred.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Meet the new Ashley Madison. Discreet dating. No public posts, no feed.

[Steve Dace]

Adults connecting in private.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Ashley Madison. Blessed are the discreet.

[Steve Dace]

Download the app or visit ashleymadison.com iheartmedia. Well, yes, we are going to be celebrating our 250th birthday this year. But we can't just throw a party, not if you just heard the first 30 minutes of this show right there. There's a, there's a fight going on here, one that we have to win. And that's why I'm going to be at the Last Stand conference at Brave Church in Englewood, Colorado, just outside of Denver, first weekend in June, June 5th and 6th. You can join us there. Not just me, my, our colleague Ali Stuckey going to be there, Frank Turek going to be there, Victor marks, Pastor Rob McCoy, Seth himself, and more. You'll get to screen Seth's new film which is called the Last Stand. All right. And get your marching orders how to go out there. Our Lord tends to do his best work in the last stands. Right. So join us and get 15 off with the promo code Steve. TheLastStand.com is the website the Last Stand.com promo code Steve will give you 15 off your ticket. And if you see me out there that weekend, make sure to come by and say hello. Promo code Steve for 15 off. @thelaststand.com we'll talk about taking a stand. My buddy Matthew Farace is joining us now. He is literally standing just on the outskirts of Jerusalem. You see Bethlehem over his shoulder. So he's, he lives in an excerpt about 5 to 10 miles outside of Jerusalem where of Course, they are just enjoying a nice slow spring week, looking forward to Easter and Passover revelers. Not much is happening there. Matthew, how are you?

[Matthew Farace]

I'm doing well, Steve, how are you?

[Steve Dace]

So set the scene for us because quite a bit is happening. We literally had to reset your shot. It was shaking, all right, because there's a lot of shake, rattle and roll happening in your neck of the woods right now. So set the scene for us on the ground in Israel. What's it like?

[Matthew Farace]

Well, I heard a report yesterday, Steve, actually, that Pete Hagseth was talking about the fact that they had 200, essentially, targets of opportunity that popped up in Iran, which means that they had 200 targets that they had not previously planned on striking. What that means is that most of those are missile trucks. And we're feeling the impact of that here because despite the fact that we are a month into the war and this is a constant topic of conversation, Steve, despite the fact that we are this far into the war, there are still missiles coming on a regular basis, not with the kind of frequency that they came with before. Although I almost wonder, Steve, if you start to get used to it. I know that's the craziest sounding thing that anybody could possibly say, that you get used to missiles. But missiles coming starts to become the rhythm of life. You go to the grocery store, you expect you're going to have to stop on the way. You expect you're going to have to go into the bomb shelter at the grocery store. You may end up inadvertently pulling into a friend's house. You tell your kids, you can go to your friend's house, but if you hear the alarm, you got to go to the bomb shelter on the way to your friend's house. So I dare say it's almost become something people are getting used to

[Steve Dace]

try to correct. The record for us is Tel Aviv still standing?

[Matthew Farace]

It is still there and the prime minister is still alive.

[Steve Dace]

All right.

[Matthew Farace]

By the way, Steve, I don't get that. That must have been a really successful foreign op because lots of people were texting me saying, is the prime minister dead? And I'm thinking, where is this coming from? So somebody was doing a good job. China, Iran, somebody.

[Steve Dace]

This stuff is all over social media here in the States. All right, that Tel Aviv's been decimated was the thing two weeks ago. Last week it was that Bibi Netanyahu has been killed. Right. So what is daily life like? Like, are, are people going to work? Right? Are, are people still going? Are are Sabbath obs? Are people still going to synagogues, still going to church. I mean, what, what is what and what's Passover going to be like here and Easter with coming up here with Holy Week? What, what is life like right now there? How normal is it?

[Matthew Farace]

So, Steve, I'm so glad you asked that question, because that gives you the context of the fake outrage scandal that Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon and others were perpetuating yesterday and the day before, which is you really can't do any public gatherings over 50. There's not a lot of public gatherings. My daughter's bat mitzvah got canceled. Kids aren't going to school. Pretty much what people are doing is they're shopping. Maybe, maybe some folks are going out to eat. But it's pretty quiet everywhere. If you think about it, Steve, kind of like, kind of like Covid. So when the street cop stopped Cardinal Pizzabella and said, hey, don't go in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, you know, there was some missile fragments that blew up near here the other day. Anybody that heard that that's here would say, well, yeah, that totally makes sense. It's totally reasonable. So I think that's what they're struggling with, is with all of these family gatherings and stuff, all the different, you know, Christians, Jews, obviously, celebrating big, big holidays this week. That's what everybody's talking about. Most people are at home. Some people might go somewhere with family. You're not going to see any big public gatherings anywhere.

[Steve Dace]

What's the resolve of the people there? In fact, let me put it this way. What is the Likud political opposition saying right now?

[Matthew Farace]

Well, first of all, first of all, Steve, one of the things that you hear from people quite often is sort of a confirmation that President Trump did the right thing by virtue of the fact that there are this many missiles. The original plan was that Iran was supposed to launch 2,000 missiles just at Israel, all at one time, not to mention all the Gulf states. So that's, I think everybody knew Iran had these weapons, but it didn't really register until they started blowing things up. And especially in the Gulf states, which I saw you alluded to earlier on your show, which is huge, Steve, just huge. The government is pretty much being, they're very unified right now. A lot of the stuff that's going on is up north with Hezbollah. I have a friend that was just up there. We have this app, Steve, that, that we use called Home Front Command, and a minute and a half until a missile comes. A friend of mine was up north and he said, first the missile comes, then you get the warning. That's how close Hezbollah is firing missiles. There's a lot of IDF soldiers getting killed up there, unfortunately. But obviously Hezbollah knows that this is their last stand without the Iranian regime backing them. They.

[Steve Dace]

Did we lose Matthew's audio?

[Todd Erzin]

I think we may have temporarily. Matthew, can you hear us?

[Matthew Farace]

I can still hear you guys.

[Steve Dace]

We still got you. Okay.

[Matthew Farace]

I can still hear you guys.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Okay.

[Steve Dace]

Yeah. The reason I asked what is the political opposition saying, Matthew, is because the reality, our political realities are here, that Joe Scarborough has to beg Chuck Schumer, a Jew, into admitting that it's a good thing, that if the Iranian regime, you know, can't hurt people because of partisan politics, he doesn't want to say that. And Joe Scarborough literally has to put those words in his mouth in an interview. Ok, we are, you are, because you're a right winger. You're very well aware of, you know, what's happening here in the States, you know, in terms of the right wing divisiveness over this. Right. And so I think I, and I've been trying to communicate to my audience that I just don't think a lot of our people understand because of how mired we are in partisanship and Balkanization in our culture. I don't think a lot of our people understand the collective resolve of your people post October 7th, because we haven't really had that here except for about 15 minutes after 9 11, and we haven't had it really since. Right, okay. And so this idea that, hey, for now we, we have our issues, but this how it has to be put off because we just can't live like this with these people anymore. I, I just don't think we understand the level of, of uniformity and resolve that exists among your people. Am I, am I misreading that?

[Matthew Farace]

No, Steve. Imagine that 40,000Americans had been killed on 9:11, which is the ratio to October 7th. And imagine the outrage in the United States. The other thing is, unfortunately, again, Israel's been at war for 75 years. People are very accustomed to the fact that there is a group of people trying to kill us every single day. In fact, right behind me, not recently, the IDF found a huge terror plot that they uncovered with all kinds of weapons and bombs and stuff that was destined for this location. This is where they were planning on coming. So when you face the kind of reality where people are trying to kill you every single day, it's sobering and it changes your perspective. And people here look at America and they scratch their heads and they say, don't they understand they have a terrorist mayor of New York City? They're being infiltrated left and right by Islamic. Don't they know what's coming? And I tell them all the time, unfortunately, no, they don't.

[Steve Dace]

Is that resolve limitless on your end?

[Matthew Farace]

I don't know. I think, yes, I think it is. Because now that people understand that it was either do this or the country gets blown up. And also all the United States Gulf allies, which, again, as you alluded to, Steve, is a political sea change, that now we have this united front between Israel, Saudi Arabia, even the Qataris, because they lost some of their oil fields already. Everybody's seeing the threat and everybody's resolved that this has to get done and get taken care of. And now we're seeing, obviously, the fruits of the fact, Steve, that this is a direct threat to the United States, not just militarily, with the missile that was fired at Diego Garcia that Iran said they didn't have. But look at how Iran is trying to hold hostage the world economy right now. And that. That's, that's, they think, their leverage point on Trump. I think Trump's got a surprise in store for them. That's my feeling.

[Steve Dace]

Yeah. My understanding, and maybe I'm wrong, you could correct me on this, Matt, but my understanding is Al Jazeera essentially has been Qatari television all along. That is essentially a network that they predominantly control. And so if you've got Rubio on there saying the kinds of things he's saying, I know it's called Al Jazeera, but that's essentially Qatari tv. Right? I mean, that's right. Okay.

[Matthew Farace]

Yeah.

[Steve Dace]

So does limitless mean. I mean, I know you mentioned your son just got drafted into the idf. Does limitless mean that if it means that the IDF has to put boots on the ground and go to Tehran to remove this regime, does it mean that?

[Matthew Farace]

That's a good question, Steve. I think one of the things that Steve Bannon always talks about, this Greater Israel Project, incidentally, I've never heard anybody in Israel mention the Greater Israel Project. It is, however, in the Bible, which is another topic for another day, Steve. But I think Israel has as much manpower as it has. And so Israel has its hands full just fighting Hezbollah. The approach in Iran is going to be more what you've seen, organizing the Iranian people to rebel against these tyrannical dictators, giving them the tools that they need, giving them the intelligence they need. Because remember, Israel's a country of 10 million, despite what you hear from Joe Rogan, 500 million. And Iran is a country of 80 million, and it's huge. So the only way we see this happening from a US And Israeli perspective is if the Iranian people themselves take this into their own hands and finish the job.

[Steve Dace]

We're being told over here by our president that victory is diminishing Iran's ability to be a threat to the US and its interest moving forward. That's what a victory looks like. That's what we're being told. What are you guys being told there in Israel from your leadership victory looks like?

[Matthew Farace]

I think it's also ambiguous. And I think the ambiguity, Steve, is because there's a plan afoot, and they don't want to let the bad guys know exactly what that plan is. They've obviously drawn their red lines that said that Iran can't have a nuclear weapon, Iran can't support terrorism. But when I hear that, Steve, here's my question. If those are the red lines, anybody in the current regime would say, we disagree with that. We're going to get nukes and we're going to support terrorism. So I've got to believe that there is either some move afoot to overthrow the regime, or they found some people, like they did in Venezuela, that they can do business with, who have enough pull that they can say, yeah, we can make that deal with you and we can make that bargain with you. Boy, that's the $64 billion question.

[Steve Dace]

In fact, that was the next thing. That's the next thing I was going to ask you, Matt, is our administration today finally said, yeah, who specifically they've been hinting at, they've been dealing with. They said they're. They're trying to negotiate with. The speaker of the Iranian Parliament is who they're trying to negotiate with right now. All right, for some kind of a ceasefire that essentially is unconditional. We'll stop. We'll stop hitting you if you give us everything we want, basically. All right. Have you guys been given any names? Right. We know there's the two armies, there's the Revolutionary Guard, that are very loyal. That's the smaller army, but also the better trained. There's the national army, which is massive, but kind of just set around and didn't enforce the Ayatollah's edicts against the protesters in the wintertime. We don't really know where they stand, but we've not heard, like, an El Sisi kind of a leader that, you know, could subdue the country and be friendly to our interest coming out of that group we've not seen, you know, because they kill them all and remove them, though, like. Well, less a kind of dissident leader. So are you guys hearing anything about the speaker of the Parliament of Iran or any other names? Do you guys know anything about this guy at all?

[Matthew Farace]

Yeah. Well, what's really interesting, Steve, first of all, just to give you a backdrop, and I think you would. You would love it if you're here. All over the country are Israeli flags and American flags paired together. I was driving today on Highway 1 that goes from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and along the entire highway, on every street light is an American flag, an Israeli flag. If you go to Jerusalem, David's harp, which is a famous bridge, it's got LED lights, it lights up at night. American flag, flag of Israel. People are so thrilled that Israel gets to partner with America in this very vital mission and that Israel is being such a good partner to America. And unfortunately, as you're talking about, Steve, America, we thought that we had all these allies in the world, and we're finding out it's a much smaller list than we thought it was going to be. Your question about who we're dealing with in Iran, that's a source of constant speculation here, is who are they dealing with? What does this look like? Is the peace plan a fake? One thing we do know, of course, is that President Trump has said for 40 years that he wants to take the oil and that he wants to use the oil to pay for the war, which is exactly what he did in Venezuela. So it is a source of constant speculation, Steve, about what's happening. And again, that's the backdrop of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. You're in a country that's at war with missiles flying down all the time. You're fighting Hezbollah. There's flight missions with the Americans flying to Iran. There's a lot going on, and it's very easy that something like that would happen.

[Steve Dace]

Matthew, thank you very much, man. I love you, brother. Stay safe. All right. God bless you. Take care.

[Matthew Farace]

Thank you, Steve.

[Steve Dace]

You bet. Thoughts on that conversation? By the way, the speaker of the Iranian parliament is the former senior commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, former police chief of Tehran, former mayor of Tehran as well. So, thoughts?

[Aaron McIntyre]

Well, I think what stuck out to me the most, and there were several things that stuck out, is when he honestly said, Matthew honestly said that the goals of what's going on here are ambiguous. Way too many people want to be way too controlling what they're talking about. This is war. You don't get to control all of the variables. You control as much as they can. But it makes sense to me why Israel has to go all in on this, in this moment and say if not now, when I've said that before, but it's as much as those flags are lit up over there, it's not good enough on our end as Americans for it to be as ambiguous. We don't live there, they do. We need the law every day that this goes on. We need clear sense of Americans about what exactly we are doing. Because on many fronts, I'm as much as in the dark now as I was at the beginning. And that becomes less. As less acceptable every day that goes by.

[Todd Erzin]

In this speaker, I think Calabif or Koloba is his name. You know, he's got a history going back almost 20 years of still very much talking tough about Iran, but at the same time, you know, wanting some sort of dialogue with the west, not the constant stream of death to America. So who knows? At the end of the day, we do. I'm torn. I'm torn on just about every aspect of this because I want to know what's going on. I think it needs to be articulated. Yet at the same time, I don't want America's enemies to have any sort of telegraphed answer of what's happening either.

[Steve Dace]

Right, we'll come back. We're gonna do a vibe check, fake news or not here next. Stay tuned. All right, back here with hour two, live and on demand on Blaze TV, radio and podcast with Todd Erzin and Aaron McIntyre. I'm Steve Dase. You can let us know what you think about what we think via the stevedace.com inbox by emailing the show. Steve dace.com that's D, E A C E like us on Facebook, Me, we and Gab. You can follow me at steveday show on X Instagram and Tick Tock. You can also subscribe to our new our YouTube channel at DACE show on YouTube. That's @dayshow on YouTube. You can also subscribe to the podcast if you haven't already. And a lot of you have because you're the biggest part of our audience. So hit that subscribe button. Or if you're an Apple, itunes follow. And that way you're going to know for sure you don't miss an episode right there in your podcast feed. And then tens of thousands of you have left us five star reviews. We appreciate each and every one of those and we'd appreciate tens of thousands of more. Provided we've earned them. If we've not earned them. I got a note yesterday from a guy in the middle of the show. I think I told you guys about. This seemed like a seven paragraph email of complaints and laments. And they're all things that I did say on the show. So they were. Maybe I didn't agree with his framing of them, but they were not made up. Right. And I, I just, you know, I took a minute, I wrote the guy back and I said, sir, listen, there's tens of thousands of podcasts. Literally, you're going to find one that's, that's going to do what you want. All right? We're not worth it. And I wasn't. I didn't mean this to be snotty and did I sound snotty when I said this to you yesterday? I didn't mean it to be.

[Aaron McIntyre]

No, I know you're snotty. That was not snotty.

[Steve Dace]

I mean, I'm just literally. We're not worth it. No, no. None of us are. I don't care if it's a huge show like Bongino, Tucker, Glenn. I don't care if it's a kind of huge show like us. Okay. I don't care if it's, you know, a hundred people listening. We're not worth letting you, let us getting this far into your skin. None of us are.

[Aaron McIntyre]

The most amazing thing to me about the criticism is I guarantee you if you turn it on them, they wouldn't apply it to themselves.

[Steve Dace]

Well, that's probably a guarantee, but that's human nature.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Well, that's. We don't have to accept. I know that ridiculous default for every level of stupidity. If you're gonna bring a standard into the room. Why, if so, if Steve turned around and said, you know, I. Same thing about these bullet points, and I really think you could be doing better, you'd say, I like my way just fine. I thought this out.

[Steve Dace]

I mean, I just told him, I said, listen, we're not worth it. No hard feelings, man. Glad you listened. While you did, go find something else that Matt. That Matt will, to borrow the phrase we're about to use en masse, your vibe. Okay? And God bless you. You know, I mean, we're not worth it. We're not worth that level of angst. We're not.

[Todd Erzin]

You mentioned a couple of specific things that this emailer said. I don't even remember you saying that on the show. And I guarantee you probably don't even remember that either.

[Steve Dace]

It sounded. But it sounded like stuff I would say, so I went along with it. Sure.

[Todd Erzin]

Yeah. I look back in comments and stuff that I say publicly here elsewhere, I'm like, I have no idea what they're talking about. They're really angry at me. I have no idea what they were. What I was even saying. If you're listening to this show or any show harder than the people who are actually doing the show, maybe we

[Aaron McIntyre]

need metrics on how many people on all the shows hate watch.

[Todd Erzin]

Yeah.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Like on all the podcasts.

[Steve Dace]

I've never. I've never understood that. I can't hate watch anything. I can't. If I find it irredeemable, if I find it completely.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Let's be fair. I mean, that's your history. Lions is that.

[Steve Dace]

Well, okay, that's the one exception. But it. But I would argue that it eventually did turn around.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Okay.

[Steve Dace]

I mean, they're good now. Okay. But. Yeah, but I didn't start off watching the Lions like that. They did that to me. They broke me. I am the victim. They broke me. When I moved to Michigan, we won the. We had Billy Sims. We won the division my first year. I'm nine years old. I'm thinking I'm in. This is the local team. I had no idea what I was getting myself into for the next 40 years. I was ambushed. I'm clearly a victim. Yes. Thank you for affirming that.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Yes.

[Steve Dace]

I appreciate that, Doc. I think maybe a lot of this would just be helped with a good night's sleep. And our friends at Beam can help you with that. All right. Get the Beam Dream Powder. It's a powerful blend of all natural ingredients like Reishi, magnesium melatonin and more. It also tastes pretty good, too. It's the. It's. It's grandma's hot cocoa before bedtime, but without all the sugars and carbs. Still tastes great. Lots of different flavors. Sea salt, caramel. I'm a chocolate peanut butter guy. All right. And if you've been waiting for the right time to make sure you get that good night's sleep, they are offering their best deal yet. How about $1.25 a night? That's all it's going to cost you because you're going to get up to 40% off when you go to shopbeam.com Steve and use the code Steve B E A M shopbeam.com Steve use the code Steve for up to 40% off. Get your best night's sleep that you deserve so you can go take on the day. Shopbeam.com Steve, use code Steve for up to 40% off.

[Todd Erzin]

All right.

[Steve Dace]

Pardon me. Are we ready for some fake news or not?

[Aaron McIntyre]

I don't think so.

[Steve Dace]

You don't think so? Now, I sent you guys these offerings. Have you looked at them?

[Aaron McIntyre]

Yeah, I mean, I'd looked.

[Steve Dace]

Okay, it sounds like you're. You're depressed by what.

[Aaron McIntyre]

I. I don't think so. For the same reason we started off this show. I think. I think we're going down a dark rabbit hole.

[Steve Dace]

I. I do. Let's see if we can yank that thing back. Yank us back out of that.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Okay.

[Steve Dace]

All right. All right, So I got 10 statements here we're going to discuss over the next 25 minutes, and you guys tell me if you think they're fake news or not. Some of them are things I do think. Some of them are things I don't think, but I think are worthy of considering. And as we go through each of these, if you want to ask me, is this what you think or what you think we should think about, I'll happily clarify that. Otherwise, I won't tell you in advance and let you ask. All right. But these are just kind of general vibes, even. Either I'm picking up on people whose opinions I respect are picking up on, or people whose opinions I don't necessarily respect are saying, but I want to maybe consider. I'm the one that's wrong here. Fair. Okay. Number one, there will be a significant presence of U.S. troops on the ground in Iran. Of course, you could ask me, define significant, and I think that should be left open to the interpretation of the answer here. Okay, let's just say something more than a handful of advisors.

[Aaron McIntyre]

It's. Anything beyond advisors, in my estimation, is significant, and I think that's not fake news. That seems to be the clear way things are going.

[Steve Dace]

Do you think it's not fake news?

[Aaron McIntyre]

No, because they know the level of fire in Trump's own base that this causes, what it does to poll. I mean, really, weren't we just talking about, you know, the markets? The markets. Well, there's a market about this too, a psychological and emotional market. The base doesn't want this, and they're not doing anything to put out the fire, sending people there again. My own oldest daughter's boyfriend, a Marine, he knows many fellow Marines by name. They're amongst those 25 to 3500, whatever the number was. Yeah, it seems like this is happening.

[Todd Erzin]

So, again, like, I ended last segment, I'm torn, but I. I'm going fake news on this. Just Based on what we see right now. Based on what we see right now. I'm defining significant as more than an advisor's, less than occupying force, where we're putting 100,000, 200,000 troops at all on the ground somewhere or somewheres in Iran. I will say, as far as negotiating goes, all three of us, to varying degrees, but to a much greater degree than a normie, certainly, and maybe even the casual observer. We spend a lot of time tracking developments every single day about this and many other stories. So we are more informed, we should be anyway, than the average person. If I'm saying fake news and Todd's saying not fake news, isn't this exactly the type of position that the United States Central Command and Donald Trump want us to be in? Smart people, more informed and we have no idea. Have no idea.

[Steve Dace]

I hope so.

[Aaron McIntyre]

I hope so, but I see, I get that. Yet this is where this is married to the conversation. My comments on Matthew Farace being on tactically military strategy. Aaron, you are absolutely right, but we don't know before that becomes the cause, the why, and that's what nobody knows. So you're absolutely right, Aaron, about if to win, you. You want stealth. What are we. What are we winning?

[Todd Erzin]

I mean, I think we're going to get into that a little bit.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Okay, that's the vibe checks.

[Steve Dace]

Number two. The Iranian regime will not be toppled without a significant presence of US Troops on the ground.

[Aaron McIntyre]

To me, that's fake news unless you give me specifics. I should believe otherwise.

[Todd Erzin]

So you believe it's possible to topple

[Steve Dace]

them without us putting a significant ground troop? You think that's possible is what you're.

[Aaron McIntyre]

And we all believe that as a show, when we were talking about the people on the ground, that's not made up. We believe, like this is the reason why we might do this because there is a group of people who are really ready and willing to take it otherwise.

[Steve Dace]

Like I said, for example, and I maintain this, one of the reasons why I was way more nervous about this than I was last year is because I do believe the regime is teetering at a level that it was not a year ago. And I am concerned about what it might do as last gasp, desperate acts. Okay? If it feels like it really could be pushed over the cliff, I don't think they'll go quietly. That's what I said before this one.

[Aaron McIntyre]

If you tell me the only thing holding that back is that this amount of Iranian police just needs to be flat out killed. Okay? And again, to Aaron's point, Just flat out telling us that out loud takes away stealth. But on the other hand, I'm just not going, I'm not going to take it on face value that all those people, thousands upon thousands upon thousands protesting in the streets, it can't, absolutely not happen unless we go in. I'm gonna need a little bit more than that.

[Steve Dace]

Okay.

[Todd Erzin]

I think this is not fake news, unfortunately. I think that's what we've learned. But at the same time, we've had our Central Command commander Brad Cooper say in media interviews, kind of echoing what Trump has said and we've heard others say, which is we've told the Iranian people, any resistance within Iran, we've told them this entire time, stay indoors, wait for our signal. But we've just not seen a signal,

[Steve Dace]

hasn't been given yet.

[Todd Erzin]

We've seen virtually, doesn't it seem like we've seen less and less from within Iran, which kind of tracks with the level of Internet access within Iran right now. We've seen less and less as this thing has gone on, which is part of the frustrating aspect of this. But I'm going to say this is not fake news. Again, based on my perspective right now.

[Aaron McIntyre]

And even if this is true, I'll tell you what, the American people in the right is not going to be celebrating for freedom for Iran if it's at the cost of a lot of blood of American soldiers.

[Steve Dace]

What I'm fascinated by is we've done two of these. You guys have been on the opposite side of each other on the very first two. That's fascinating to me. Number three U.S. troops on the ground in Iran risks losing support for the US Israeli alliance. Post boomers, of course. But you don't think this is fake news.

[Aaron McIntyre]

This is not fake news. It doesn't. And that's not. Has any bearing on whether to your point, I necessarily agree with it or not. But I think that's.

[Todd Erzin]

Of course, Aaron, this is not fake news.

[Steve Dace]

First time you guys agree.

[Todd Erzin]

Okay, yeah, this is not fake news. But I'm probably a little less certain maybe than Todd is. I'm not sure how many in the Always Israel all the time, always Jews.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Look at the Jews, look at the

[Todd Erzin]

Jews all the time. I'm not really sure how many they actually are now there more significant than I would have liked to have had admitted, you know, a year ago. But I'm still not certain how big of a contingent that is. And then you've got the spring breakers that Todd was talking about last week who have no idea what, what a Middle east even is combined with. Why are we being homophobic by only going after the Straits of Hormuz? I mean, is this even, Is it. I don't even think this is a relative. I'm sorry, I'm not knocking you, Steve. I'm not knocking that at all. This is a legitimate, sober question. Is this even a relevant statement to debate?

[Aaron McIntyre]

The fact that that's a reasonable thing to even bring up, Aaron, and it is, is bonkers. It's utterly chilling.

[Steve Dace]

We literally just saw a college educated woman say we need to have the gays of Hormuz unironically. So, yeah, number four, Tucker, Carl. Now I'm going to say up front, I'm going to break my own rule. This is what I think this one is. Okay, not saying the other three may or may not be what I think, but I wasn't going to tell you unless you asked me. All right, preemptively, I'm going to tell you this is what I think on this one. Number four, Tucker Carlson will take over as the leader of the Ron Paul wing of the right or the party, but it will no longer have any of Paul's focus on monetary policy or the Fed and just be strictly focused on foreign policy, particularly look at the Jews.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Yeah, I am going to say that that's fake news because of the kind what Aaron actually just got done saying. And like what exactly is the lay of land? Every time you talk about making comparisons to Tucker and Paul, they track with me. Just this time when you say taking over that lane. Our politics are utterly different than the time when he was prominent.

[Steve Dace]

Don't disagree.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Those lanes are shattered.

[Steve Dace]

The reason why I'm saying this is there are prominent people within the Ron Paul movement in my feed.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Yeah, yeah.

[Steve Dace]

And all they do is defend and elevate Tucker Carlson. It is clear they are looking for. With Ron about to assume room temperature, it's clear they're looking for their next mega platformed champion.

[Aaron McIntyre]

His causes still exist, but they're in different lanes. The whole.

[Steve Dace]

Oh, I agree.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Has changed.

[Steve Dace]

I agree. I mean I would tell them, listen, you're gonna, you're gonna be very disappointed unless you're just a Ron Pauler because of the Jews. Okay, but all the other stuff about Ron Paul, the, the Fed stuff, the monetary Tucker is. This is the only thing you have in common with him is the Jew stuff. That's the only thing you have in common with him. So yeah, I mean I, I'm not saying he's a worthy successor. I'm just saying My own vibe has been. I, I am seeing Ron Paul high end, Ron Paul acolytes and disciples are actively trying to make this happen.

[Aaron McIntyre]

That's true. I'm just to Aaron's point, what lanes exist, what don't exist, what lanes matter? I just, no matter what the answer is in this moment, it's different from when Ron Paul was popular and ascendant.

[Todd Erzin]

Aaron, does the Ron Paul wing of the party even exist? Or is it the Gary Johnson wing of American politics? Like what is Aleppo? You remember that level or lack of level of understanding or even inquisitiveness about foreign policy? I mean, that's kind of, I think, a more apt description. I understand what you're saying, but I think this is fake news.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Okay.

[Todd Erzin]

I think Tucker Carlson being associated with or being considered the leader of anything, I think he would see that as beneath him or I don't, I don't know what he wants and I don't even think he knows what he wants.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Well, the closest way he does mirror him, and I'm the one who said this before, is that he is a. I believe he's going to run for President of the United States just like Ron Paul did. So there's Elaine number five.

[Steve Dace]

There's just too many broken people now on all sides that even if the Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, Nick Fuentes faction could never get a critical mass of voters electorally, they are always going to find enough audience to sustain lucrative livings with their content. Just as supermarket tabloids were each selling millions of copies apiece in the era before the Internet took over. Therefore, we're just going to have to learn what to live with this to

[Aaron McIntyre]

some extent moving forward in, in the near term. Yeah. I will say this is not fake news. Wisest serpents to accept it indefinitely. That, that's just.

[Steve Dace]

Let me follow up with you because Aaron will barely remember this era, but you and I can remember it. If we had social media at the time that the National Enquirer was at its ultimate ascendancy, mid to late 80s, would it look a lot like the stuff that gets posted by the people I just mentioned?

[Aaron McIntyre]

Quite a bit, yeah.

[Steve Dace]

And then the comments would probably look a lot like their followers that listen to them online. Yeah, yeah, I kind of think the same thing. All right, Aaron, what do you think? Fake news or not?

[Todd Erzin]

The key phrase there is to some extent, and I believe this is not fake news. I believe Trump has said on multiple occasions his favorite movie is Citizen King.

[Steve Dace]

Citizen King, yep.

[Todd Erzin]

Which is kind of a fictional retelling of William Randolph Hearst yellow journalism. There's just some weird, weird rhymes here. In the era of Trump and Trump, you know, starting the Trump Media Group, he kind of wants to be and the grand poobah of right wing media going forward, however much time he has, but his family for sure. So this is not fake news. But yeah, we can't tolerate this for a long term.

[Steve Dace]

Number six, the market for truth based content in America is shrinking and we are likely to be part of a dying breed.

[Aaron McIntyre]

That's. That feels like this is very vibish, but it feels like it's not fake news. Again, it's, it's not inevitable, but it seems to be what we actually desire in our, I mean where you, where your treasure is, you know, the card is also, you know, I mean what

[Steve Dace]

would our numbers be if I gave up doing bible stuff and just did Erica Kirk slams for the last six months. Would they be higher or lower? Right? They'd be markedly higher. Yeah.

[Todd Erzin]

I went, I went on YouTube when you were speaking in Tennessee last week or two weeks ago. I was trying to see if maybe they have had a live stream. So I, I did a search on YouTube, TPUSA live and I set the, the parameters for uploaded today. Just nonstop content with thousands of views from people I've never heard. Just doing what you were just saying. It's crazy. It's just nuts. And so again, this is a vibe check. So I'm going to say this is not fake news. It need not be that way. And we cannot black pill forever like this. There's always going to be a market. For as long as you're letting your light shine, there's going to be some sort of a market. May not be as big. There's always going to be some sort of a market. But it definitely feels vibes like that.

[Aaron McIntyre]

God only knows. A lot of our gatekeepers and leaders, et cetera, et cetera, have sucked. But this is like pure democracy that's happening and the founders and people.

[Steve Dace]

Yeah, you can't have no gatekeepers. And this is where righteous ones, we

[Aaron McIntyre]

have pure democracy in this world and it's not Good.

[Steve Dace]

All right, four more. Number seven, there is no threat to J.D. vance for the 2028 GOP nomination unless Marco Rubio decides to run.

[Todd Erzin]

This is not fake news

[Aaron McIntyre]

right now. It's not fake news, but I'm just.

[Steve Dace]

By the way, it was announced today that JD has a book coming out first of June about his looking forward to reading that Catholic conversion.

[Aaron McIntyre]

I'm just saying based on what we've learned in the last. Since Aaron and I have been employed on the show this entire. Don't we have to say that's fake news?

[Steve Dace]

See, I could see. I think you're both right. I mean, Aaron logically is.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Yes, he is.

[Steve Dace]

You are also to say how many times have we talked about things we never thought we were talking about before? That's, that's again, that's why it's a vibe check.

[Todd Erzin]

Yeah.

[Steve Dace]

Number eight, Ron DeSantis will not run for president in 2028.

[Aaron McIntyre]

That is not fake news. I would be shocked if he did. I think he, he's lined up for almost whatever he wants to do next politically. Cabinet something, be a team player that way. I now you know the man. I don't, I mean you, I can't remember the last time I talked around you said I Talked to Ron DeSantis. I'm just saying I would be shocked if he ran again.

[Steve Dace]

I talked to him about a month ago at length. This did not come up. So I'll go ahead and disclose. This is the, this is another one. That is my vibe. Not that we discussed this at all, but getting to know him, I think he would agree with number seven. And I think Ron probably believes that 26 and 28 are going to morph into a two cycle decline like we had in 06 and 08. And I think Ron has just decided, let's just, we're going to let this era play itself out and I'm going to try to keep myself in the argument as much as I possibly can. And then in 2032, maybe it's time for a reset. And I think, remember, he's younger than me. Right. So I think, I want to say Ron is about four years younger than me. So he's just about to turn 50, I think. I think so.

[Aaron McIntyre]

And this is the act. Him running for president is one of the most selfless political acts I've ever seen in my entire life. What he put on the line, I mean, I don't, I think this is

[Steve Dace]

probably the reason he's not the vice president today.

[Aaron McIntyre]

I think he's the least, you know, I know you have to have a certain amount of ego to do that kind of thing, but I do think he's been one of the most selfless statesmen I've been exposed to, which is why I don't think. Another reason I don't think he'll run.

[Steve Dace]

We think Aaron, fake news is not fake news.

[Todd Erzin]

I mean there is like the doctor Strange and Infinity War or Endgame where, you know, there's the one scenario. This thing in Iran goes sideways and Marco Rubio is hung with that. There's nobody arrested for fraud and JD Vance is hung with that. Trump fires Bondi and hires Desantis. And by some miracle, he's able to wage a real crusade against the swamp for two years and he becomes the

[Steve Dace]

face of the administration.

[Todd Erzin]

That's why I'm saying this is the Dr. Strange one scenario.

[Steve Dace]

All right, seven minutes, two more left. Number nine. Mahas stay within the Republican Party will be a short one.

[Todd Erzin]

With friends like Bill Cassidy, who needs enemies? So this is not fake news. There's just too much. I mean, we're at the point now. I can't remember if this was on the air or off the air. It's on the air now. Basically, our options for various recourse. Our options for recourse seem like they are dwindling. And this is not to take away any of the great work that Maha has done in hhs, but it seems as if there's kind of a stall, kind of the last big waves that they made was the new food pyramid, the inverted food pyramid. That was the last kind of major story that I've heard from RFK Jr. There have been some ovations for things that Maha loves, but I'm not really sure how much concrete change is being made right now. And I am quite certain that if mandates aren't delivered on in the realm of Maha, those people are not going to just vote Republican to save America. Vote Republican because the Democrats are so bad. So the Republican Party needs to smarten up. But then again, you've got a lot of people like Bill Cassidy who has tried to gum this up from day one within the Republican Party. If they were smart, then they would basically rebrand themselves in part, you know, a third neocon, a third maga, and a third Maha. That would be kind of a smart rebrand for the Republican Party. Just spitballing here, but I don't see them doing that. So, yes, this is not fake news.

[Aaron McIntyre]

That's absolutely not fake news. I know for a fact that there's somebody very, very high up in the Maha movement who just is looking at the math right now and saying it's not their preference, but they're just saying this is unsustain, this is chaos. It's going to break. So it won't even be a matter of like necessarily just flat out leaving, but it just. It won't, it won't work.

[Steve Dace]

Has the Robert Malone stuff is that Reverberated down to your level of maha, like the grassroots level. People talking about what he's saying, that there's a literal saboteur in that program. And he ended up resigning because it was clear they were not going to clean it out and has no clue what to do. Is that filtered down into.

[Aaron McIntyre]

It's absolutely filtered down. But there's disagreement about how much of it is just flat out Pontius Pilate washing your hands of the thing or if this is an orchestrated dance that RFK Jr. Is in on because he can't do things with just a frontal assault. And it's kind. It's constant feints and things like that. Which. Which I understand as well.

[Steve Dace]

Okay, last one. Not a single spirit filled believer player in the NBA will end up standing up for Jaden Ivey. Which means it is entirely possible there's not a single spirit field believer player in the entire NBA.

[Aaron McIntyre]

That's fake news. Actually. There's just some guy, I don't know what team he's on, but he was wearing a Faith is not for the week T shirt. And so they started asking him, I haven't had a chance to do a deep dive.

[Todd Erzin]

Also said I don't want to end. Didn't he also say I don't want to end up.

[Steve Dace]

Like that's what I'm.

[Aaron McIntyre]

That's my point. And he said. So he hedged. Said taking it out like I might kind of end up in trouble. Which is the point. Like there's. I no, I think they're there. It's. There's. But there's still men without chests. They have idols. This is the thing you. Just because you believe in Christ does not mean you can't have idols. In fact, you are. The Bible tells you you can. And you'll be even in bigger trouble than those who don't have Christ because you are without excuse. And right now we have all kinds of men who say they believe in Christ, but they've got all kinds of excuses.

[Steve Dace]

Aaron, what do you think?

[Todd Erzin]

Yeah, unfortunately this is not fake news. Can you like just imagine, just for sake of argument, what would that actually look like in the NBA? Can you imagine someone saying, coming out and saying giving an NBA player giving a brilliant short hermeneutic on what why Jaden Ivey articulated regarding the rainbow Jihad is totally consistent with thousands of years of Christian thought. And then what would happen to that player? Like who is it? The fact that we don't know their name already means perhaps that person doesn't exist.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Well, I think. But it's we hide our light under a bushel basket all the time. I think there's all kinds of people right now. They just choose. They choose comfort and said this is the test. And it doesn't have to be some great theological diatribe. It's just like I point to Steve Kerr saying this and I point to this guy saying this and this guy doing this with this rap sheet.

[Steve Dace]

Exactly.

[Aaron McIntyre]

And I don't get stand and say what I want. Are you kidding me? That's what it takes. Put them on trial. And yes, that is what is demanded of you as a Christian. And I'm sorry, I've just been surrounded by this enough. I believe those people are there just like they're everywhere. They just have excuses.

[Steve Dace]

Were these good discussion points, do you think?

[Aaron McIntyre]

Today they were great.

[Todd Erzin]

Yes.

[Steve Dace]

Was there anything I didn't bring up that you guys thought for sure might be on this list?

[Todd Erzin]

I've been seeing this bandied about. I don't know if you've seen this as well. Various accounts talking about the future of the Middle East. It is plausible to avoid this type of situation with Hormuz in the future. It is plausible that Saudi Arabia might build a pipeline through Jordan with a terminus in Israel.

[Steve Dace]

Wow.

[Todd Erzin]

I think that's totally implausible, but it's being discussed. Somebody even quoting Netanyahu I saw this morning have no idea if the quote is. Is verifiable, but it's from an account that's usually pretty good. Wow. That's a random specific one.

[Steve Dace]

That. That would be something. It would pop culture. Tuesdays next. The Steve Day show. Get in the game with the college branded Venmo debit card. Wreck your team with every tap and earn up to 5% cash.

[Matthew Farace]

Back with Venmo Stash, a new rewards program from Venmo.

[Steve Dace]

No monthly fee, no minimum balance. Just school pride and spending power. Get in the game and sign up for the Venmo debit [e-mail] collegecard. The Venmo MasterCard is issued by the Vanccorp Bank N.A. select schools available. Venmo stash terms and exclusions apply at venmo.me stash terms max 100 cash back per month. All right, back here here on the Steve Day show, powered by our friends over at Relief Factor. If you've got too much chronic pain. What does that mean? It means that lingering stiffness, soreness, achiness, your knees, your neck, your hips, your back, your joints. That's probably because you've got too much inflammation in said joints. That's why you're looking for relief factor now. No guarantee that this supplement is the antidote you've been looking for. But what I can tell you is that over the years over 1 million people have taken the three week quick start. 70% of them saw such great results they stuck with the product long term. So why don't you see if you don't see a difference in your pain in just three weeks or less, especially when it's only going to cost you 20 bucks to find out, that's a pretty good value bet. 20 bucks for 70% odds that this is what you've been waiting for. Go and try it out. Get the three week quick start today at relieffactor.com that's where you want to go. Head over there today. Just 20 bucks to find out@ relieffactor.com well, we turn now to pop Culture Tuesday where each week we look at the intersection between what's trending between pop culture and the things that are good, true and beautiful that we're trying to conserve. And had a chance last week to watch a captivating new series over on FOX Nation called David King of Israel docudrama hosted by Zachary Levi, directed by the gentleman who joins us now, David Cunningham. And you might recall that he was with us Christmas time last year because he also directed the outstanding nativity docudro drama hosted by Kevin Costner that aired on network TV last year. And it's good to see you again, David. Welcome man. How are you?

[David Cunningham]

I'm good, Steve. Thanks for having me back. Appreciate it.

[Steve Dace]

You bet. You know, we never had a follow up conversation after the nativity thing came out. So how was that received? I mean, Kevin Costner going on national TV saying is one of the biggest stars in Hollywood history that he believes in the resurrection. Right. How many people saw that, David?

[David Cunningham]

I was told about 22 million people saw it between the platforms of ABC and Hulu and Disney. And we were trending in the top spots there in Hulu and the reception was amazing and we were super grateful for everyone's support. It was awesome.

[Steve Dace]

Well, that is phenomenal. And that project absolutely was worthy of that level of exposure. I thought it was exceedingly well done at the time. You're back again now with the Story of David. Of course you have this series on Amazon that is very popular. I saw last night. It's one of the top 10 series on all of Amazon right now. House of David is, I thought the, the angel animated film on David last year was, was an absolute triumph. I mean I thought it was one of the better animated films I have seen in the last, I mean, decade. I'd put it in the top 10. I thought it was that good. What I love about your docudrama is you guys delve really hard into the theology, but you delve into the stuff, for example, that you're not going to put in an animated film about David. Right. We're not going to see David cut Goliath's head off and hold it up as a trophy. Right. We're not, we're not gonna, we're not gonna hang out very often with the Witch of endor for 8 year olds at Christmas time. Right. Okay. So you guys do go there and tell me how this project came about and, and why you thought there was still some meat on the bone here, that there's still a story to be told.

[David Cunningham]

Yeah, so I've been running with this company called Warm Springs for a couple of years now. Awesome team. And we're actually putting together a new shingle called Steadfast. And so we had been working on that script a few years back. Had a couple of false starts, but yeah, I've had a passion to tell the David story for a very, very long time and feel like there's so much rich material to draw from in his life, his character, you know, it's, it's really the whole hero's journey and way before Shakespeare or anybody else got a hold of it. And so there's so much there and we're, we're just thrilled with the response and people engaging with it and hopefully people can be learning and being entertained and inspired and perhaps be inspired to go back to the Bible themselves. And because some of this stuff, you know, you look at it like the Witch of Indoor. You read it, you're like, man, that sounds like Lord of the Rings. Yeah, what the heck.

[Steve Dace]

Yeah.

[David Cunningham]

And is this really in the Bible? And, and it is, it is, it's pretty wild.

[Steve Dace]

I thought the scenes in which you guys showed the, the demonic oppression, haunting of Saul as the. It's a four part series to start. Right. We don't. And you're not going to get through the entirety of David's ark. So it kind of picks up right where the, the culmination of him and Saul's. Or it ends right where the culmination of him and Saul's story kind of concludes. The way that you guys depicted the descent of Saul into, into basically the mouth of madness. I thought that was extremely well done. As well as you were studying up for this, what did you learn about King David that you think right now there's a moment in our culture where he is, he is resonating right now on multiple fronts?

[David Cunningham]

Yeah, you know, I think a passion for the Lord, unabashed passion, just completely giving himself to the Lord. Guide me, show me, I will do, I will follow. And then when he does screw up that he throws himself back on the altar and begs for forgiveness and genuine forgiveness and is willing to humble himself as a leader and admit his mistakes. And then the Lord rises him back up. And you know that scripture about gifts and calling without repentance. You know, I'm talking about Steve. It's such a wild concept that when God gives you a gift, when God gives you a calling, even when we stumble and we fail, he doesn't take that away from us. That's a mind blowing concept. That's how much he loves us and trusts us and the whole concept of free will. Things go well with you? Not necessarily all the time, but he's not going to take away what he's given to you wants. And David had that. He had the charisma, he had the leadership, he had the smarts, he had the athletic ability and. But at times he failed and when he did, he humbled himself. So I think there's a lot of relevant lessons for today and for, for always.

[Steve Dace]

Frankly, I, you know, I've noted on our show over the years, David that I think the reason why there have been so many iterations of Batman in cinema in this era and he has become the most, really the most successful IP character in American cinema in the last couple decades. Even though Superman is the OG and is, is, is next to the cross, probably the most well known insignia in the world is his shield. Is because I think in our era we are struggling to connect with this like altruistic being who just does what is right because it's right and like for no other craven interest or ambition other than that. Right, okay. And, and I think in this era the perpetually broken hero who never leaves crime alley never quite gets over what happened to his parents. And it's a driving force and he does these heroic deeds while also still being very broken. I see some parallels there with King David. All right. He still has the, the basic vices of, of lust, of selfishness, of impetuousness, of disobedience, while at the same time all the hallmarks that you just mentioned as well. And so that resonates almost more with us than these, these ordinary disciples who go to their Death under the power of the Holy Spirit, you know, and have these, you know, perform these like supernatural acts. I think we struggle in our current culture to resonate with that as much as we do someone who's a hero, but as, as, as systemically broken as David is. Thoughts on that?

[David Cunningham]

Yeah, absolutely. And, and the great news, Steve, is that there are so many stories in the Bible for us to learn more and more about the character of God and what we should be pursuing in our own lives. So we learned that from David. We learned also from the disciples of, as you said, in terms of sacrifice. And so there's, there's so much there and you know, it's just mind blowing how dense and rich the, the Bible is and incredible stories. So I'm, I'm excited that we've been able to tell a little bit about that and, and hopefully get people stoked about the Word again.

[Steve Dace]

We're in a, we're in a moment right now on the faith side of developing original content. There's a great market for it now. Mainstream sources are beginning to realize that since they're a competitor prior to your production. I'd never been on the Fox Nation app before. Okay. And so I went searching for it to subscribe to watch your special because I wanted to see what your follow up was going to be after. I love Nativity so the Nativity so much. And I mean they're loaded with faith based content over there on Fox Nation. Right. We just mentioned House of David is one of the 10 most watched shows on all of Amazon, the arguably the largest website on planet Earth right now. You look at the success of the chosen. For example, a few years ago Sound of Freedom was a $200 million plus movie domestically at the box office. So there, there, there is right now, and particularly for serious faith stuff, not just, you know, even if you look at a movie like Jesus Revolution, which I love, you literally see the crop duster dropping the LSD off of the plane for, you know, a young Greg Laurie to sit there and take drugs with his, with his, with his soon to be wife. We'd have never shown that in a faith based film even seven, eight years ago. Right. And I think we're beginning to learn how we can, how we can show evil and darkness and sin without making it attractive so we can tell more realistic and accessible stories. And I think that's one of the big things that has made this moment kind of of success for our genre. Your thoughts on that, David?

[David Cunningham]

Yeah, if you don't mind, I get, I can back up a little bit. And you know, I come from this long line of ministers and missionaries and my great grandfather started 13 churches out of a covered wagon in Oklahoma. And my grand great uncle was a prisoner of war as a missionary to China. And my grandmother was one of the first women ordained ministers in her denomination. And my parents started an organization called ywam. And I share all that because in those generations the whole concept of the entertainment industry was something that was shunned in my grandmother's time. If you were in a cinema when Jesus came home, you're going to get left behind. And when I went to film school because I showed up and told my dad I wanted to be a filmmaker and he was like, oh, you mean like Billy Graham movies? And I was like, no, if I had the language I have now, I'd say a calling to popular culture, to see popular culture transformed to it and through it. And so I basically went on this journey and I wanted to learn about the history of people in the entertainment industry, TV and film specifically. And so in film school I went to usc. My emphasis was cinema history. And I dove into trying to find the people of faith and what the thread was. And there was actually a lot of people of faith in the origins of Hollywood and television. Both in the technology theaters and Rank cinemas, which was the largest Cinema chain in UK Methodist preachers could preach for 10 minutes before each movie. That was part of the. Everyone expected that a lot of the technology was invented by Christians. And then around in the 50s, Christians started backing off, especially Protestant side of things. They started backing off from the entertainment industry and not only rejecting it, but cursing it and inadvertently cursing the few Christians that were in in the Hollywood industry. My dad would tell a story about when some of the original 10 Commandments came out and the original Bible movies were doing so well. One of the studios reached out to the Bible schools and said, will you send us your graduates? We need more screenplays written about the Bible. And one of those presidents famously said, we'd rather send our students to hell than to Hollywood. And we missed out. We rejected and we gave up to the enemy this whole industry. And it's taken decades for us to get back and engaged. So you know, you look at it, it was first music in the 60s and 70s. Music Start was the first thing in creative movement. That was before dance because dance was considered of the devil. Here in Hawaii, where I'm from, my Polynesian friends, they would have to do the hula on a stool because their hips were moving so There was this whole crushing of. Of arts and entertainment. And by the time we kind of woke up in the 80s and 90s that we needed to get engaged in popular culture, we didn't have people of faith that had the craft and have the skill, that had the experience, that have the relationships. So we had some really poorly made stuff made originally. And it's taken us a long time to get to the place where we have earned the right through the craft and through the experience to be able to speak. So I believe that's a huge component. Everything that you mentioned, all those projects that you mentioned, those guys have been killing themselves for decades. Learning the craft, figuring it out, failing, trying again. And I have to. I've been doing this. All I've done my entire adult life has been been doing filmmaking. And so I think you've got, you've got that piece and then you've got the other piece, and that's the audience. And the audience, I think right now is hungrier than ever with our crazy world, with all the chaos, with, with all the noise that's out there, all the. What's the word? All the stuff that the cotton candy, you know, that people want something substantial. And so I think we're seeing right now a collision in an amazing way of audience and content creators and Hollywood, they just want to sell tickets. They just want eyeballs. And they've tried to do phase stuff and when. Because there wasn't filmmakers that knew what they were doing. Other filmmakers who weren't a faith, you know, would. Would explore the content and they would put spins on things. They try stuff because they didn't, they didn't respect the, the material.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Yep. So.

[David Cunningham]

And they flopped. So, you know, you mentioned, David, our, our series is. Is, you know, on a really tight budget. David King of Israel and the way we got that done.

[Steve Dace]

Steve, I've got, I've got. I've got one minute. I've got one minute left. David. Go ahead, finish your point. Go ahead.

[David Cunningham]

Oh, okay. That series Kings and Prophets, that ABC did years ago, that flopped because they. Anyway, all, all we did was recycle those props and, and those, and those sets to make it happen. So it's kind of cool to be able to redeem that story.

[Steve Dace]

I think the lat. Well, you guys did a very good job. I'd urge our audience to go see it over at Fox Nation. I It. I thought it was definitely worth my money alone. I think the next phase is we've got to figure out Hollywood does more horror films than any other genre. At least seven million people watched a four hour interview that Father Ripiger gave with Sean Ryan. Four hours on the topic of spiritual warfare. Seven million for four hours. Okay, so I've got to believe there's a market to watch it for 90 minute to 120 minutes if we're going to do it for four hours. But, well, that's a topic for another day, brother. We'll see you then. God bless you.

[David Cunningham]

Okay, thanks, Steve, for having me.

[Steve Dace]

Appreciate it. You bet. Definitely. Check it out on Fox Nation. It's very well done. You guys have any quick thoughts before we get out here?

[Aaron McIntyre]

So many. But I'll just say that when he says we totally gave it over to them, he's absolutely right. But the problem is we also simultaneously stayed addicted to it. We have this problem everywhere. Education. We don't want to be teachers. Somebody else always do it and feed our addiction. Yeah, they'll feed that addiction, but it's gonna hurt really bad. Or if you really want to enjoy it and elevate it, you're responsible for making it.

[Todd Erzin]

The comment that he made where he would have said maybe differently to his father when he, you know, said he wanted to go to film school. I want to minister or change pop culture to it and through it. Let's normalize that. Let's normalize that.

[Steve Dace]

Amen. It's the last place left where people let you try to change their minds affirmatively. They'll let you do it is in pop culture. That's just a fact.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Fact.

[Steve Dace]

Back at it again Tomorrow noon to 2 Eastern, right after Glenn Beck, right here on Blaze TV. Until then, go hard. Romans 8:28.