Charlie Kirk (2:16)

Every Monday, you're a busy guy. So let's talk about the disease.

Elijah Stacy (2:21)

Yes.

Charlie Kirk (2:22)

What is it? It's a peculiar disease, Right. And it's rare, but it's still. It's obviously genetic.

Elijah Stacy (2:32)

Yeah. So Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Right. It's a muscle wasting disease. And people start to take notice of it when they're about five years old. So they start falling on the floor frequently. They can't keep up with their peers at recess, can't go up the stairs. These are really the common signs. And so that's what really starts to take notice. But then when they're about 11 years old, at least for me, right. When I was 11 years old, they become completely dependent on a wheelchair. Right. So they will have to use a power wheelchair, such as the one that I'm in right now. And then in their teenage years, they'll start to lose mobility in their arms as well. So, you know, currently I can't lift my arms above my chest. I once, you know, threw the football round with my dad, who was a head football coach. I love playing basketball at recess in my wheelchair. Right. But, you know, I lost that ability. And then the worst part about the disease is most patients pass away by the time they're 25. Right. Because the heart and lungs are muscles too. So it's a fatal disease. So very, very serious. Very terrible disease. Not super well known, but I'm hoping to change that.

Charlie Kirk (3:34)

Well, and you have a great attitude on life, you know, that, you know, you have this terrible disease, but you have a great, you know, approach to things and you want to come up with, you know, a solution and try to tell people about it. So tell us about more about you. So you're, you know, you have this. You have this disease. You have more, I think, just like spirit and positivity than most people I meet because everyone's always complaining all the time.

Elijah Stacy (3:59)

Yeah.

Charlie Kirk (4:01)

And so just tell us what gives you the conviction to fight. What matters to you.

Elijah Stacy (4:06)

Yeah. See, a lot of people ask me this question. I never know how to answer. Cause there's so many things that I care about and so many reasons why I think I am the way I am. But a lot of people with this disease, what I find. Cause I run a podcast where I interview them. What I find is that they all have a similar attitude. Right. And I just think that there's no benefit to being negative. Right. It doesn't do you any good. Or being positive helps you overcome the hardships of life. So being negative, it still doesn't change the fact that you're in a wheelchair, that you can't use your arms, or that you have this terrible disease. Disease. So it's better just to be positive, and it helps you kind of adapt and just keep things going. Right. But I think, you know, really what I'm passionate about, I would say this, right, is I would say that my life. Cause I would sum it up as this, which is to minimize human suffering and advance human prosperity so that humanity can have a better quality of life. So any types of human suffering that I can minimize, that's what I'm all about. And so curing my disease or helping people with, you know, anxiety, depression, or whatever type of challenge they may face in their life, that's what I. That's what I want to do.

Charlie Kirk (5:10)

So there are advancements being made with this research. Can you talk about that? With this. With this disease?

Elijah Stacy (5:16)

Yeah. So I think it's really fascinating stuff. And these are really the two things that we focus on as an organization, which is gene editing and gene therapy. So gene editing, I'm talking about things such as. Such as crispr. Right. And in short, basically what this allows us to do is to edit your DNA. Right. So if there's an error there, which is what, you know, genetic diseases are, for the most part, they can go in and then, you know, cut that error out and then replace it with the correct DNA. The correct instructions. Right. Correct blueprints.

Charlie Kirk (5:45)

Yes.

Elijah Stacy (5:46)

And so that's really, really promising. There's a lot being done there. And destroy Duchenne actually just helped advance some science there. We made a contribution there. And then there's also gene therapy, which. Which instead of editing the blueprint, the spelling error, you can just insert the gene itself, and that gives the blueprint there. The best way I can explain this is if you have a book and you have a page and there's a spelling error on the page, it's not going to make sense. But instead of correcting the error on that page, that would be gene editing. You could just insert a whole other page, the same page, but this one doesn't have that error in it, so you can read it correctly. The problem with both of these is we need vectors, a delivery vehicle to deliver this genetic information. And that's really the challenge. And that's really what I'm focused on, is advancing the vectors, too.

Charlie Kirk (6:37)

So you mean vectors by how to actually get the.

Elijah Stacy (6:40)

Into the human body.

Charlie Kirk (6:40)

Yeah, got it.

Charlie Kirk (6:41)

And that science is moving very quickly.

Elijah Stacy (6:43)

Very quickly. Yeah. It's all very new stuff, but it's happening really, really quickly and there's a lot of money being poured into it and I think that nonprofits playing a role in it. It's really cool. Not just for people with Duchenne, but all these genetic diseases. And so, yeah, so I'm really excited about that.

Charlie Kirk (6:59)

So is it a recessive gene? Is that right?

Elijah Stacy (7:01)

Yes, yes.

Charlie Kirk (7:03)

And so your siblings have it, your brothers?

Elijah Stacy (7:05)

Yes, so you know, my older brother, he's a paramedic, he's in the Army Reserves. Completely fine. Right.

Charlie Kirk (7:13)

Doesn't have it.

Elijah Stacy (7:13)

Doesn't have it, but I have it. My little brother Max had it when he was here. And then my little brother Kai, he also has it as well. And so, yeah, it's X linked. The mother carries it and then she passes it down and that's what has it or that's how it happened.

Charlie Kirk (7:30)

So since you've been 11, have you seen advancements as far as how treatment and awareness around it?

Elijah Stacy (7:38)

You know, that's interesting. So when I was 11, right, for the longest time I really didn't want anything to do with this disease or organizations. I kind of just like, you know, I'm not defined by this disease. I don't want to put my identity in that. You know, I'm just. I love sports, I love following my dad on the football field, stuff like that. So I really didn't pay too much attention. And my parents, I wouldn't say that they paid a great deal of attention either. More just like, hey, let's make the best out of life. But since I was 15 and started destroy Duchenne, I'll definitely like that. You just see it every year. There's something new.

Charlie Kirk (8:11)

So new advancements and new breakthroughs. So you and I were talking off camera about this and your faith is very important to you.

Elijah Stacy (8:19)

Yes, yes.

Charlie Kirk (8:20)

And a growing movement on a certain kind of. Let's just say I don't want to overly politicize this, but on the left is trying to say that if there is a genetic malfunction found in, let's say a pre born child, that you should have the right to abort that child. What is your stance on that?

Elijah Stacy (8:41)

Absolutely not. There's no moral justification, no grounds to do that. I think it's really wrong and really not so much that I think you're underestimating what someone with a genetic disease can really do. Right. I mean, I think that because I have the suffering that I've gone through, I'm still able to have a really good life, but I'm able to Use that suffering to help other people with their suffering. Perhaps it's not, you know, not being able to walk or not being able to use your arms, but it's able to relate to them and help them overcome their challenges of life. Like, I understand adversity because I live it every single day, you know, So I don't think that. I think that's incredibly wrong. And there's other problems that I have with that as well. Philosophically.

Charlie Kirk (9:28)

Sure.

Elijah Stacy (9:29)

Yeah.

Charlie Kirk (9:29)

And you can go into that if you want.

Elijah Stacy (9:30)

Well, I just think that, you know, as you said, the, the left and really, really anyone.

Charlie Kirk (9:35)

Pro abortion people, just anyone for that

Elijah Stacy (9:37)

matter, if you make a moral claim. Right. I'm fascinated with the moral argument for God's existence. And really, if you think about morality, it's like, well, how do you justify it? Right. If you say that this thing is right or wrong and you think it's true for everyone, objectively true. Why is it objectively true? Or you'd have to ground it into something that is higher than us. Right. And that has been done by God's existence. People normally trying to ground it there. If you take a naturalist view, I don't believe that you can do it. Right. You won't. It'll just be a subjective moral claim.

Charlie Kirk (10:10)

I agree with you. And so, just so that we're specific, there is a growing movement of people that believe that if they find any form of genetic defect, that should be reason for immediate abortion, basically implying that your life is just like an. Is just like a burden. A burden, yeah. Can you help unpack that? Like, do you, do you feel like your life has been like. Can you talk of someone who would have otherwise been, like, eliminated?

Elijah Stacy (10:42)

Yeah, I think that. Well, like, as you said earlier, and I, you know, my faith is really important. I think that every single person has moral worth. Every life has value. And so I think that no matter your circumstances, regardless if you believe in God or not, no matter your circumstances, I think that there's a lot that you can do to help the world in a positive way. And you're not a burden necessarily because you may have this disease or you may need special help in certain ways because you're still able to provide things in other ways. And so no, no one's, no one's a burden or they shouldn't be eliminated because they have a genetic disease. Right.

Charlie Kirk (11:25)

And it's a growing claim on the left there. So talk about your faith. You know, there's a lot of people that are saying that, you know, God isn't real or it doesn't matter. It's obviously a central point part in your life. I never want to hear anyone complain about their life anymore because, you know, when I meet people like you, it's, you know, there's. There's a different set of cards. You didn't ask for this, right? You didn't, like, I didn't choose it. You didn't make a bad choice that all of a sudden you got this right. This is the ultimate, you know, God had a different plan for you. Can you talk about how you're able to dig? Not dig, not even dig deep, but just, like, maximize every single day and what that looks like for you?

Elijah Stacy (12:07)

What do you. What do you mean by that? Like, maximize every day in terms of like, for faith or just.

Charlie Kirk (12:11)

Just both. Just what. What does it mean to live a full life for you? And just a lot of. There's a lot of pessimism and a lot of negativity out there right now.

Elijah Stacy (12:19)

Yeah, I think that living a full life really, I think, as you said, starting with faith, it starts with God and everything kind of trickles down there. So if I'm doing things that glorify him and that lives in moral excellence, I think that's really important. You know, in a hierarchy of values, I think that you could place, you know, materialism and like, these superficial things. But I think that the most important thing that we should prioritize is our character. And so if I'm doing things every single day that are good character, then I consider that a day well spent. Right? Because that's living in accordance to God's laws. And the other thing too, about characters, that it's good under all circumstances. Right. Like, if you're healthy, you need, you know, good character is going to allow you to do good stuff with your health. If you're not healthy, good character is going to allow you to endure the pain and suffering that you have because you have poor health. Right? So character is good under all circumstances. So I think that's a super important thing. And then I also think too, that one more thing on the character point is that when you do face the suffering, it allows you to exercise your character and to improve it, to strengthen it. So I think that, you know, if you want to say maximize each day, I would say that it's working on your character. Right. That's a good day at, you know, at a minimum. Right.

Charlie Kirk (13:42)

So you went to. Did you go to public high school? Were you homeschooled or.

Elijah Stacy (13:46)

I went to public high school, yeah.

Charlie Kirk (13:47)

So did it bother you when people were complaining about, you know, how awful their life was and. Or just, you know what?

Elijah Stacy (13:56)

Yeah, I mean, if I'm being really honest, I think that some people, yeah, they complain about things that are just, like, they're not real problems, to be quite frank. But I think that, you know, a lot of times when people had problems, I would try to help them and, hey, let's fix it. The one thing I do not like is when people talk about problems, but they do not want to fix them. Yeah, that drives me nuts. I want to solve the problem. Right. Like my disease. Have disease. Okay, well, I'm going to try and complete the cure for it now. Right. Like, let's not just complain about it, let's do something about it. So that's kind of my view on when I heard other people in high school or just in general today complain about their problems.

Charlie Kirk (14:32)

So tell us more about your faith. Tell us, you know, does, you know, tell us about your journey and your walk. Have you ever had doubts and struggles and you go to Jack Kip's church, right?

Elijah Stacy (14:44)

Yeah.

Charlie Kirk (14:44)

Who's the man? So tell us about that.

Elijah Stacy (14:45)

Yeah, so when I was 11 years old, I mean, I was always raised Christian, but when I was 11 years old, I definitely started going, okay, well, why is God real? Why is this stuff true? And really started to think about it. So I really got into apologetics and studying people like Dr. William Lane Craig or Lee Strobel or these brilliant people who have given rational and evidential arguments for God's existence. And so that has really helped me. And I really still love that today. I really love philosophy and just studying that. And so I did have my doubts, but now that has really strengthened my faith. And I think that when you have those questions, it's not that you're questioning God, but it's you're trying to better understand him. And so when you have a problem, you don't understand something, you're trying to fix that question. That just lets you understand God better and get closer to him. And so I would say that, yes, I have had doubts, and that's how I got stronger. And Jack Hibbs, you know, he definitely has a lot of people that come speak there at his church that are into defending the faith and arguing for and everything like that.

Charlie Kirk (15:53)

Yeah. And so what has really helped strengthen your faith more than anything else?

Elijah Stacy (15:59)

Hmm. I mean, to be honest, I really think that apologetics is definitely just the way that I work. Right. I like to have a rational reason for believing in God. But I would say that in terms of, like, believing in God, but in terms of, like growing my relationship, you know, praying fellowship and reading the Bible, it's just. There's nothing like those three. You have to have all three. And that really helps me grow, especially. Especially fellowship, because you see other people going through different walks in their life and, you know, they got your back, I got their back, and it just. You grow together.

Charlie Kirk (16:31)

Yeah. So you are moving ahead with your nonprofit Destroy Duchenne. Tell us about how people can get behind it and support it and just tell us more about that.

Elijah Stacy (16:42)

Yeah, so, you know, people can follow it on social media, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, all that, LinkedIn. And then they can also just check out the website, you know, www.restructdashin.org, and just check it out. And if they would like to donate, that would be great, too. And yeah, that's how they can get behind it.

Charlie Kirk (17:03)

Awesome. So what else are you working on or else on your mind that you wanted to explore or, you know, make make our audience aware about?

Elijah Stacy (17:12)

I'm currently about to publish a book which.

Charlie Kirk (17:14)

Tell us about it. What's the book about?

Elijah Stacy (17:15)

When I was. Yeah, so I wrote it when I was like, I started at 16, finished it when I was 17, finally getting it published now. But the book is basically a memoir of my life. And so I tell a story of each part of my life, real significant part. And at the end of each chapter, there's a life lesson that I learned. Right. So some of those is self image, you know, how you view yourself. Some of it is. Is worrying about what you can and can't control. The dichotomy of control, you know, adapting, you know, like, if you have this challenge in your life, you're just going to have to adapt to it. Right. So there's all these different lessons and stuff like that in the book, and it's just really about all the adversity and overcoming suffering. And really, I think the title explains it best. It's called A Small if. And so the story behind that is, is when I was 16, my back muscles were getting so weak and I was getting scoliosis in my back. So my doctor wanted to. He started really pushing for me to have spine surgery where they would insert a metal rod in your back to strain out your spine. Right. I really didn't want that. You know, I don't think anyone does. And so I was really trying to push back. And me and him went back and forth in the doctor's office, and he was saying that you Know, as a doctor, I can't give you any false hope. I really got started to push. I said, okay, well, let's just say if I were able to strain on my back, could I avoid having the surgery? Because I don't want to have the surgery. You know, Mom's crying, my dad's all sad. You know, I'm sitting there. And he said, you know, once again, as a doctor, I can't give you false hope, but because I know you, I will give you a small if, you know, if you were able to do it. So for the next four months, I went to physical therapy, lost some weight, you know, was eating healthy, totally zoned in on making this happen. And then four months later, it happened.

Charlie Kirk (18:58)

Wow. And you avoided surgery.

Elijah Stacy (18:59)

Yeah. And so that was like, you know, I don't want to say it's an impossibility, but it was like, whoa, like, you're not supposed to do that. The doctor, you know, he even said that. I've never seen anybody do that. Like, I don't. I don't think. I don't think you can do it. But like, go. Go ahead and try. But like, wow, that's not supposed to happen. So, you know, that's really what the book's about. It's like, if you have a possibility to do something, you put everything behind it. You can make it happen. Even if it's a small if.

Charlie Kirk (19:23)

Yeah, that's. It's such a good lesson. So when is the book coming out?

Elijah Stacy (19:28)

The official date? I'm not totally sure yet. I know it's after March, so sometime around then.

Charlie Kirk (19:32)

What are some of the other lessons in there?

Elijah Stacy (19:36)

Well, I mean, the first one is about, like, doing things that are seemed impossible. The second one is. It's called staying ambitious. Right. The lessons about staying ambitious, which I believe that really the lesson here is that if you're not chasing after anything in life, right, you're not going after anything, you don't have any goals, then you're really just existing, right? It's when you're ambitious, when you're really in that constant state of staying ambitious, that's when you really come to life and that you. You develop the passion and energy and everything that you need, right? That's when I, for me, at least, that's when I find myself to be the most energized. And yeah, there's just, you know, third lesson is self sacrifice. You know, there's all kinds of lessons that I learned, and they come from different parts. You know, like, self sacrifice comes from my Brother Max, you know, constantly going to the hospital with him. He's a whole other story. There's two chapters on him. He's. He's a whole lesson himself. But, yeah, I learned a lot through my young 19 years. So.

Charlie Kirk (20:34)

Wow. So last. Last couple questions. What's your favorite Bible verse?

Elijah Stacy (20:38)

Favorite Bible verse. Wow, that's a hard one. Hmm. I think it would probably be. I believe It's. It's either first or second. It's first or second Corinthians 10, 5, which basically says that. I'll paraphrase, but it basically says that, like, we tear down any argument or pretension that sets itself against the knowledge of God. So Paul was writing there. He was basically talking about how they're just going around and making every thought obedient to Christ. And so I really like that as someone that likes to debate about the existence of God and give good reasons for becoming a Christian.

Charlie Kirk (21:22)

Yeah, that's well said. So. Well, I'm inspired by you, Elijah, and the work you're doing. So it's destroydushane.com how do you spell Dushane?

Elijah Stacy (21:31)

Yes. So it's D, U, C, H, E, N, N, E. Awesome.

Charlie Kirk (21:37)

And I have my wristband in the other room and you gave me a nice sweatshirt. And I'll be at Jack Kibbs Church next week.

Elijah Stacy (21:44)

Yes.

Charlie Kirk (21:44)

And I'll see you there.

Elijah Stacy (21:45)

Awesome.

Charlie Kirk (21:46)

And you're doing great work, man. I want to be supportive of what you're doing and how you're doing it.

Elijah Stacy (21:49)

Thank you.

Charlie Kirk (21:50)

So I have a feeling you're going to make a huge breakthrough on this.

Elijah Stacy (21:52)

Thank you.

Charlie Kirk (21:53)

Very soon. So God bless you, man.

Elijah Stacy (21:54)

I appreciate it. Thank you.

Charlie Kirk (21:55)

You bet.

Charlie Kirk (21:59)

Thanks so much for listening, everybody. Email us your questions. Freedom at charliekirk. Com. If you want to support us, go to charliekirk. Com Support. Thank you guys for listening. And I encourage you to get involved with Turning Point USA. Go to tpusa.com. thanks so much for listening, everybody. God bless.