THOUGHTCRIME Ep. 121 — Back To the Moon? Bryon Noem's Bimbo Fix? Mt. Everest = Lame?

Summary

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The Charlie Kirk Show — THOUGHTCRIME Ep. 121

Date: April 4, 2026
Main Hosts: Charlie Kirk, Russ Blake, Blake, Cliff, Andrew Colvett
Special Segment: Call-in by Jack Posobiec

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Episode Overview

This episode of "Thoughtcrime" brings Charlie Kirk and the panel together to discuss a wide-ranging set of culture-war topics with their trademark irreverent, conservative edge. The show’s primary debates this week include the return to the moon under NASA’s Artemis program (and conspiracy theories surrounding it), a scandal involving Kristi Noem’s husband, the modern Mount Everest climbing scene (and its recent Nepalese scam), and an extended, viral debate over whether "The Lord of the Rings" qualifies as overtly Christian or pagan.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Back to the Moon: Artemis II & Space Conspiracies

Timestamps: 02:09 – 19:52

• Excitement about Artemis II:
  The panel starts by celebrating NASA's Artemis missions and returns to the Moon, riffing on the viral video of a kid excitedly announcing "We're going back to the moon!" [03:27]
• Moon Landing Conspiracies:
  The group jests about moon landing deniers:
  • "Because it was on a sound stage in Burbank. Just kidding." — Russ Blake [04:51]
  • Cliff and others humor conspiracy theories but ultimately affirm belief in the moon landing.
• Flat Earth as a Symptom of Mistrust:
  Discussion about the rise of flat earth and other conspiracies, with personal anecdotes of family members who believe them:
  • "We went from 'trust the experts' to 'only trust non-experts that don't know what they're talking [about].'" — Russ Blake [07:33]
• Meanings & Value of the Artemis Program:
  Debate on whether skirting the Moon without landing (as with Artemis II) reduces the achievement. They discuss the U.S.-China space race and the stakes of lunar mining.
  • "I think with everything that's happened in the last 10, 15, 20 years, I would not be surprised if... we find out, hey, this, this baby was staged." — Cliff [05:02]
• Sidebars on Antarctica & Conspiracies:
  Segues into why commercial flights avoid Antarctica, using humor ("At the Mountains of Madness," "The Thing," and Nazi bases myths) to lampoon such conspiracies. [14:00–16:30]

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2. Mount Everest: Danger and Scams at 29,000 Feet

Timestamps: 21:33 – 26:17

• Sherpa Helicopter Scam:
  News discussion about Nepalese Sherpas poisoning climbers to prompt high-cost helicopter evacuations.

  • "It may have cost over $20 million worth of expensive helicopter evacuation guaranteed." — Blake [21:44]

• Is Climbing Everest Still Cool or Lame?
  Paneled as a "thoughtcrime" debate, the hosts argue that the feat has become commercialized and less impressive:

  • "The first guy to climb Mount Everest did it in the 50s... But now, you can just be a rich person and go climb Mount Everest." — Blake [22:28]
  • Human toll: frequent deaths, environmental damage, and the value (or lack thereof) of hiring guides to do the hard work.
  • "If a blind person can do it, it does sort of degrade the accomplishment for everybody else." — Russ Blake [24:03]
  • Discussion of recent death statistics and the tragic 2015 avalanche.
    • "That's the worst of all. You go to Everest and you just die in an avalanche at base camp. That sucks." — Blake [26:17]

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3. Lord of the Rings: Christian, Pagan, or Both?

Timestamps: 30:20 – 47:47

• Viral Twitter Debate:
  The viral take by Jack Posobiec (call-in guest) disputed that "Lord of the Rings" is overtly Christian.
  • "There's nothing overtly Christian about Lord of the Rings. There's no church in it. There's no Christ figure... if it's anything Lord of the Rings is overtly pagan." — Charlie Kirk reading Jack's viral quote [31:31]
• Panel Reactions & Jack Joins:
  Lively disagreement as the panel chews on definitions: can a story be Christian without explicit symbols, or does its morality suffice? Jack emphasizes:
  • "He [Tolkien] said he eliminated religion from the series and it is not found until you review it further." — Jack [34:17]
  • Andrew argues the work's morality is overtly Christian, comparing with Narnia as a direct allegory.
    • "Lord of the Rings is written with, at its core, absolute truth, as in good versus evil. Whereas paganism, there's no, like, absolute truth." — Andrew [38:20]
  • Jack: "I'm talking about overt outward displays of Christianity and the Christian symbology... as a tool to evangelize I just don't think it's great." [42:14]
  • Andrew: "Most non-Christians do not care to listen to the gospel message right off the bat. You have to tease them in, you have to bring them in in some way, and that’s what Lord of the Rings has done..." [45:15]
• Conclusion:
  Polite disagreement persists, but general consensus is that LotR's Christian influence is real but not explicit.

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4. Kristi Noem, Bryon Noem’s Scandal, and the Internet’s Response

Timestamps: 49:00 – 61:20

• Private Fetish Exposed:
  Discussion turns to the Daily Mail leak about Bryon Noem, Kristi Noem’s husband, and allegations/images of him engaging in cross-dressing/fetishistic behavior.
  • "[Bryon Noem] inflated a balloon and then shoved it down our shirt to pretend that it's a cartoonishly large pair of breasts..." — Blake [50:19]
  • The panel debates whether the exposure is fair, given his non-public status; critique of political figures’ personal scandals and the response from both left and right.
  • Cliff: "Come on, guys, we can't justify this. This is demonic. This is wild." [54:32]
• Comparison to Admin Transgender Officials:
  Panels compare reactions to this versus figures like Rachel Levine and Sam Brinton.
  • "At least, so far, no one has accused [Noem] of stealing anyone's luggage..." — Blake [56:05]
• AI & Deepfakes:
  Jokes about using AI to claim leaked photos are fake.
  • "What if Bryon Noem just come out and just said, that’s an AI pic and it’s all fake?" — Blake [58:06]
  • Andrew: "Take that, the actual photo, you throw it into AI, make a bunch of AI photos of it, and then just get a bunch of people to circulate it around X. ...You don't know what's what and what's. This is full on." [58:29]
• Comic Relief with AI-Generated Memes:
  Group laughter over AI parody images of themselves and public figures, plus banter about future runs for political office (self-deprecatingly noting these will forever haunt them).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Conspiracy Theories:
  "We went from trust the experts to only trust non-experts that don't know what they're talking." — Russ Blake [07:33]

• On Mount Everest Commercialization:
  "The first guy to climb Mount Everest did it in the 50s... but now, you can just be a rich person and go climb Mount Everest." — Blake [22:28]

• On Lord of the Rings’ Religious Subtext:

  • "There's nothing overtly Christian about Lord of the Rings... if it's anything Lord of the Rings is overtly pagan." — Charlie Kirk paraphrasing Jack [31:31]
  • "Lord of the Rings is written with, at its core, absolute truth, as in good versus evil. Whereas in paganism there is no absolute truth." — Andrew Colvett [38:20]
  • "Most non-Christians do not care to listen to the gospel message right off the bat. You have to tease them in, you have to bring them in in some way, and that's what Lord of the Rings has done..." — Andrew [45:15]

• On Political Scandal/Ethics:
  "Come on, guys, we can't justify this. This is demonic. This is wild." — Cliff on the Noem photo leak [54:32]

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Segment Timestamps

(Important topics and transitions for quick reference)

• 02:09 — Going Back to the Moon? (Artemis II, enthusiasm, conspiracies)
• 14:00 — Antarctic Conspiracies and pop culture riffs ("The Thing," Nazi bases)
• 21:33 — Mount Everest Sherpa scam and deaths; is climbing Everest cool?
• 30:20 — Lord of the Rings religious symbolism and viral controversy
• 47:49 — Veggie Tales and woke culture (briefly)
• 49:00 — Bryon Noem scandal, private kinks, and public shaming
• 58:06 — AI deepfakes and the threshold of political blackmail
• 61:20 — Show wraps up with final thoughts and Turning Point USA activism

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Tone and Style

The episode captures its regular "Thoughtcrime" mix—irreverent, sarcastic, self-aware, and at times deeply earnest about questions of American, Christian, and conservative identity—punctuated with rapid-fire jokes, pop culture references, and sharp debate. The hosts balance serious commentary with comedic takes, maintaining the show’s signature blend of activism, news commentary, and meme-ready banter.

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Final Thoughts

• Activism Call-to-Action:
  The episode closes with a reminder of Turning Point Action and Citizens Alliance partnership, urging listeners to get involved in swing-state conservative organizing.
• Key Takeaway:
  While the episode covers everything from lunar exploration to literary Christianity and political scandal, it consistently threads big-picture questions about truth, cultural signaling, and how norms (and scandals) shape public life on the American right.

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Transcript

[Charlie Kirk]

My name is Charlie Kirk. I run the largest pro American student organization in the country, fighting for the future of our republic. My call is to fight evil and to proclaim truth. If the most important thing for you is just feeling good, you're gonna end up miserable. But if the most important thing is doing good, you will end up purposeful. College is a scam, everybody.

[Blake]

You gotta stop sending your kids to college.

[Charlie Kirk]

You should get married as young as possible and have as many kids as possible. Go start a Turning Point USA College chapter. Go start a Turning Point USA High School chapter. Go find out how your church can get involved. Sign up and become an activist. I gave my life to the Lord in fifth grade.

[Blake]

Most important decision I ever made in my life.

[Charlie Kirk]

And I encourage you to do the same. Here I am, Lord.

[Blake]

Use me.

[Charlie Kirk]

Buckle up, everybody. Here we go.

[Blake]

Noble Gold Investments is the official gold

[Charlie Kirk]

sponsor of the Charlie Kirk Show, a company that specializes in gold IRAs and

[Blake]

physical delivery of precious metals. Learn how you could protect your wealth with Noble gold investments@noblegold investments.com that is noblegoldinvestments.com.

[Russ Blake]

all right, welcome to this Thursday edition of Thoughtcrime. We are joined by Russ Blake and Cliff. Hey, Cliff. Howdy. You, too. You're looking well as always. Nice hat on your head. Which. Which one's this? You're. You're like. You're like Tyler. You guys. That's why you interchange with Tyler. You guys have lots of hats.

[Cliff]

This is the Win Poker. Well, World Poker Tour. I think it was. I think it says on there 20, 22. Yeah.

[Russ Blake]

Look at you, man.

[Cliff]

The World Poker champion.

[Russ Blake]

It was going to be something.

[Blake]

Are you a card shark? I didn't realize that, Cliff.

[Cliff]

We'll get into that sometime. Blake, I don't want to brag too

[Blake]

much, you know, that's.

[Russ Blake]

Yeah, it's a card shark, something like that.

[Blake]

All right, all right, whatever. Whatever. Enough. Nice. Guys, guys, guys, guys. We have something extremely important. Run it. Clip 1.

[Russ Blake]

Why do you want to be here? Why do you love space?

[Charlie Kirk]

Why do you love being a part of history? We're going back to the moon.

[Blake]

That's why we're going back to the moon.

[Russ Blake]

Guys, hold on. All right. Okay, so first of all, we're going

[Blake]

back to the moon. Angel.

[Russ Blake]

This is what Blake does with Strong Cell, too. He always jumps the gun. All right, couple things. We're doing an early thought crime today. We may get Jack in, but Jack is actually participating in the Turning Point event at George Washington University, so hopefully he can call in because we want to talk about him going viral with Lord of the Rings last night. I think it's important. Yeah, hopefully we get them in anyways. By the way, you came out smelling roses on that. I did.

[Andrew Colvett]

I got Mark Safe by nerd Roddick.

[Russ Blake]

And not because apparently I just haven't watched it relative, like sooner. Even though I said pretty sure it's overtly Christian. That was my. It's true.

[Andrew Colvett]

That was your take.

[Blake]

Yeah, you guys are always.

[Russ Blake]

Anyways, you're gonna.

[Blake]

You're gonna call it DEI this week. That's what I predicted.

[Russ Blake]

No, no, he's gonna do it a little bit on the gay side, but that's fine. Okay, here we go. We are doing an early thought crime with Cliff. And yes, our first topic is Artemis.

[Andrew Colvett]

Too long.

[Blake]

You know what? Play it again.

[Russ Blake]

Why do you want to be here? Why do you love space?

[Andrew Colvett]

Why do you love being a part of history?

[Charlie Kirk]

We're going back to the moon, that's why.

[Blake]

Ah, that kid is awesome.

[Russ Blake]

You know, his parents like his dad. Way to go. But you know, don't tell mom I taught you that word.

[Blake]

Ah, it's so great. We're going back to the moon. Some people are trying to black pill. They're trying to be lame about it. They're trying to be. We went back to the moon 60 years ago. Yeah, but we're going to the moon again.

[Russ Blake]

Well, did we go to the moon?

[Blake]

Yes. We went to the moon.

[Andrew Colvett]

We went to the moon.

[Blake]

Wait, does it. Is anyone here? Is anyone here? A moon landing?

[Russ Blake]

I don't get to have fun with any of the current conspiracy theories. Let me have the 60s ones.

[Blake]

No. So you're gonna be like that, Andrew. You're just gonna say, let's play it.

[Russ Blake]

And then I want Cliff to weigh in. This is from 1969. Allegedly. Well, I guess either way, it's from 1969. SOP4.

[Charlie Kirk]

Very, very fine grained as you get close to it. It's almost like a powder. Ground mass is very fine.

[Russ Blake]

I'm gonna step off the lamina.

[Charlie Kirk]

That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. Oh, that looks beautiful. It has a stark beauty all its own.

[Blake]

It's does look beautiful, doesn't it?

[Russ Blake]

Because it was on a sound stage in Burbank. Just kidding. Cliff, what's your. What's your take of Artemis 2 and us allegedly returning to the moon?

[Cliff]

Yeah, I mean, listen, this is the one conspiracy I feel like is allowed these days because we've had enough time in between. Now I'm not quite there. Where I don't believe it. But I think with everything that's happened in the last 10, 15, 20 years, I would not be surprised if a couple years from now we find out, hey, this, this baby was staged. But I gotta make one comment. The kid reminded me. Have you guys ever heard the story about the janitor? One that we were first trying to

[Charlie Kirk]

go to the moon?

[Cliff]

Is this, is this folklore or have you heard this one before?

[Blake]

I'm not familiar with this legend. You're going to have to educate me.

[Cliff]

So apparently Kennedy or some high level politician was there and ran into a janitor. And there was a camera on them. And he said to the janitor, he said, what do you do here? And the janitor said, I'm working to put a man on the moon.

[Russ Blake]

And they talk about this at like,

[Cliff]

you know, like CEO or self help type seminars that like, you know, you want your team fully aligned. That kid from that interview, he was locked in and ready to go.

[Russ Blake]

Yeah, yeah. That is actually a cool like leadership story. You got the janitor who's like all in to clean the heck out of those toilets because he thinks that he's helping to send somebody the moon. Really? We're just trying to win a PR war against the Ruskies.

[Blake]

Yeah, but we want it awesome.

[Russ Blake]

Yeah. Even if it. Okay, is it more bad? Well, is it, is it more cool? Sorry, 11 year olds, this is a PG13 show. Is it cooler if we actually went to the moon or if we pulled off an entire like, don't do this.

[Blake]

No, don't do any of this. Don't do this devil's advocate stuff. It's way cooler to go.

[Russ Blake]

It is actually entire world that you went to the moon. No, I'm honest. I believe we went to the moon. I'm very proud of that as an American. But it is weird that it's been since 1969. Well, when was the last time we went to the moon?

[Blake]

Like mid-70s, like 71 or 72.

[Russ Blake]

That was like 75.

[Blake]

We were going at like 1 every year or so.

[Russ Blake]

I think anyways, it's just wild that, you know, it's legitimately 50 years ago that we. And now we're not even landing on the moon. By the way, Artemis 2, their mission is to slingshot around the moon's gravity, come back to Earth and then. And then by 2028, land somebody else.

[Blake]

Yeah. I think the current Plan is Artemis 4 is the one that lands on the moon. Artemis is going to be testing landing stuff in orbit around Earth and then I think Artemis 4 is, like, they actually do it.

[Russ Blake]

Yeah.

[Andrew Colvett]

I just think conspiracy theorists have way too much leeway these days.

[Russ Blake]

Well, I've made the observation that we went from trust the experts to only trust non experts that don't know what they're talking.

[Andrew Colvett]

There's so many non experts.

[Russ Blake]

Oh, gosh, the Internet is.

[Andrew Colvett]

Blake got into some fights with some non experts.

[Blake]

Oh, man.

[Andrew Colvett]

Last night.

[Blake]

Oh, yeah.

[Russ Blake]

Are we going there?

[Blake]

Oh, if you guys want. Oh, man. We've got 8 million.

[Russ Blake]

What happens in Russ? Yes.

[Andrew Colvett]

Dance.

[Russ Blake]

There's just Dance.

[Blake]

There's just eight, you know. Oh, man. Yeah. So every single person who is an expert on this at every single university, including in multiple countries, who'd have reasons to affirm otherwise. Like, they all agree on this thing. But no, I bet. I bet this, like, podcaster who does mma, it's, like, really, really on point with this thing. He's. He's definitely figured it out on the whole moon question.

[Russ Blake]

Oh, I see. Which is. Oh, it's. Wait, I didn't even know that Rogan is.

[Blake]

Rogan is a big moon truther.

[Russ Blake]

Is he a moon truther?

[Blake]

No. I've even seen tweets, like, people arguing that a very real reason we're doing this mission may literally be to prove to Rogan that we can actually do it.

[Russ Blake]

So I have a family member who will remain unidentified. That is a Flat Earther. Like, a legit Flat Earther.

[Blake]

Are they on?

[Russ Blake]

No. This is like a normal, good person in a lot of ways. This is why. And not dumb, actually.

[Blake]

No, they're.

[Russ Blake]

They're dumb about this. They are. Cliff. Laughing about this. They are wrong.

[Blake]

Like, do they fly in planes?

[Russ Blake]

What's that?

[Blake]

Do they fly in planes?

[Russ Blake]

Well, so that I've had this conversation. I was like, can you not see the curvature? Like, if you're. If you're. If you fly, for example, from Seattle to London, which I did one time many years ago, I remember, because it goes up towards the Arctic and comes down. It's the shortest route. And you could see the curve of the Earth very clearly. And then you think about Artemis, like, how many things would they have had to engineer and just pre plan to fool people about the curvature of the Earth? Because that thing was up there within, like, how many people are in on this? 5 minutes it was in.

[Blake]

You could see every single commercial pilot is in on it because they plot out their courses, apparently on the assumption the world is round. They'd have to do it quite differently if it wasn't.

[Russ Blake]

Well, so, like, one of their Points that they make is that you don't go. Like a lot of people fly over the Arctic, but nobody flies over Antarctica.

[Blake]

Yeah. Where would you be flying to?

[Russ Blake]

I don't know, like, maybe you were going from Australia, New Zealand to South America.

[Blake]

Yeah. And also there's probably no like, airports you can land on there if anything goes wrong.

[Russ Blake]

Yeah, but you couldn't land at an airport in the Arctic.

[Blake]

Yeah, there's closer ones. There's like places. I mean, like usually when you fly over. I don't think you're usually going over the North. North Pole. Usually you're like doing more of a great surround. I don't know, I'm not sure. But before in general, like look at a map. There's nothing in the South Pole area. Like Antarctica is really far away, even from the southern tip of like South America or Australia also. I just can't imagine there's that many flights from Australia to Santiago, Chile or whatever.

[Cliff]

What's the expected time on this? Is it like two weeks?

[Blake]

I mean, what are they, about 10 days or.

[Russ Blake]

10 days?

[Blake]

It takes you like five days to

[Russ Blake]

get to the moon. Didn't we hear that like the bathroom malfunctioned?

[Blake]

Yeah, they fixed it. But you did have to worry about that because there's, there's two, I believe there's two women on this, on this ship and you know, women need a lot of time in the bathroom.

[Andrew Colvett]

Should have sent Mark Wayne Mullen up there. He'd have been able to fix the bathroom pretty quickly.

[Russ Blake]

Plumber Mike Wade.

[Blake]

We should have sent Aerosmith on this mission because they were really good in the movie Armageddon.

[Andrew Colvett]

Oh, you're right. There you go.

[Russ Blake]

It says, however, a few long haul routes in the Southern hemisphere fly close enough to skirt or briefly enter Antarctic airspace. Especially depending on winds and exact routing. These typically offer distant views of the continents edge or ice. But this plays into their conspiracy theory ice wall because it's like. Yeah, it's like a whole ice ring. And so if you're flying close enough, you're just touching. You could see the ice, but you don't fly over it.

[Blake]

What's their explanation for like, some flights go east and some go west to get to the same spot you, that

[Russ Blake]

you're going around like, like it's all

[Blake]

a big flat disc.

[Russ Blake]

Yeah, you're, you're. The disc spins. I don't know this perfectly well. I'm not the best guy. But the disc spins and they're flying around a disk.

[Blake]

And why do they believe this?

[Russ Blake]

Which is why it makes sense to go over the North Pole because it shortens the distance. Everything. Just because the Internet told them.

[Andrew Colvett]

Yeah, that's.

[Blake]

Yeah, I'm gonna go.

[Cliff]

I got three reasons here. Grox telling me why people don't fly over Antarctica. One, no demand for direct routes, which is pretty obvious. Safety and practical challenges. And then the lack of infrastructure. There's only a handful of research military airstrips, mostly on ice, seasonal and not equipped for large commercial jets in extreme.

[Russ Blake]

Did you. Did you mention extreme conditions? Because Antarctica has way more extreme weather.

[Blake]

Antarctica is way colder than the North Pole.

[Andrew Colvett]

We sat in a plane for an hour waiting to get de iced just in Minneapolis. So God forbid we're going over the North Pole.

[Russ Blake]

Before he ever stepped behind a microphone, Charlie understood something important. Leadership begins with learning. He didn't chase a diploma or a title. He chased truth through Hillsdale College's free online courses. He studied the great works of the classics, the principles of the American founding, and the life changing truths of the Bible. Those ideas didn't just inform him. They shaped his character, strengthened his convictions, and prepared him for the challenges ahead. One of the courses he took was the Genesis story. Taught by Hillsdale Professor Dr. Justin Jackson. This free online course explores the relationship between God and man, what happens when that relationship is broken, and the path toward reconciliation. It's a real college course, Rigorous, thoughtful, and accessible to anyone willing to learn. You can take the very same course completely free. Grow stronger in your faith. Gain clarity about humanity and your place in the world. Prepare yourself for a life with courage and conviction. Visit CharlieForHillsdale.com to enroll today. That's CharlieForHillsdale.com learn deeply, lead boldly. Carry it forward.

[Blake]

We have all these conspiracy theories about flat Earth, but we have a lot of cool stuff we could do with Antarctica we could go with. At the Mountains of Madness is actually a true account from H.P. lovecraft. And if you fly over it, you'll unleash the Cthulhu horrors that will overrun humanity. We could also say the thing. We could say the thing was the dot was a documentary and that if we were to send planes to south the South Pole, they could crash and allow the thing to escape and consume all of humanity with its assimilative powers.

[Russ Blake]

No idea what you're.

[Blake]

You have. You haven't seen the thing.

[Russ Blake]

Wait, the Ivan? The thing?

[Blake]

The thing? You don't even know what I'm talking about. He doesn't even know about the thing. Cliff, you know what the thing is, right?

[Cliff]

Oh, I don't.

[Blake]

You don't? No one has anyone. Okay, Rumble chat. Like, back me up on this. You guys have watched the movie the Thing, right? Come on.

[Russ Blake]

Are you appealing to the chat?

[Blake]

Yes, I'm appealing to the chat.

[Russ Blake]

Who wrote it? The Thing Movie, 1982.

[Andrew Colvett]

Horror.

[Blake]

Yeah, the Thing, man. It's where, like. It's where you can't trust anyone because any of them.

[Russ Blake]

Kurt Russell's in it.

[Blake]

Yeah, Kurt Russell. And it's the alien, and it assimilates and, like, poses as people. And then they like to do with Antarctica. Yeah, it's on an Antarctic base.

[Russ Blake]

Antarctica. It's like, one of the coolest movies ever. Scientists are disturbed at their base camp by a helicopter shooting at a sled dog. When they take in the dog, it brutally attacks both human beings and canines in the camp. And they discover that the beast can assume the shape of its victims. A resourceful helicopter pilot and the camp doctor lead the camp crew in a desperate, gory battle against a vicious creature before it picks them all off one by one.

[Cliff]

Andrew, you should do voiceover work. It's very passionate.

[Blake]

Yeah, it's the Ulta. It's the movie that came out. It was the cooler movie that came out at the same time as ET In a world. In a world can't trust anyone.

[Russ Blake]

In Antarctica, we're a T82. Kurt Russell leads a crew desperately attempting to fight back against an alien canine force. And they didn't.

[Blake]

Oh, wow. That is pretty good.

[Russ Blake]

Thank you. Did you. Do you guys ever. That wasn't scary. It was beautiful.

[Cliff]

You guys ever hear the. I'm now diving deep into the Antarctica conspiracies, and I had not heard this one before, that they. They're really secret Nazi bases, and that's where Hitler escaped to. I hadn't heard that before.

[Russ Blake]

There's, like, a fun name for it, too. It slows down the aging process.

[Andrew Colvett]

He's the Batman villain known as Mr. Freeze.

[Russ Blake]

Yeah, well, that too.

[Charlie Kirk]

Yeah.

[Blake]

They had, like, a name of it. It's like. What was it like? New Bism. Yeah. New Swabia. New Schwaben Land, they would call it.

[Russ Blake]

And I. I believe in the moon landing. I just want to be very clear because.

[Blake]

Okay, so accepting that the moon landing is real. Is it. You know, we're all very excited for that, kid. But is it sufficient that we are going back to the moon 60 years after we went for the first time?

[Russ Blake]

We have way better film production now, so we do approve anything. Everybody should be like, it's a hologram.

[Blake]

Is the mission tainted? AI Is the mission Tainted by us bringing a Canadian on this mission and

[Russ Blake]

not leaving him on the thousand percent.

[Blake]

Yeah.

[Russ Blake]

We call it Americans. Yeah. What's that, Cliff?

[Cliff]

It's a complete disgrace. Complete disgrace on how we let that pass.

[Russ Blake]

Does he, does he have an American flag on his, on his shoulder? Look at. And there's a woman, which got.

[Cliff]

Yeah, but let me, let me say this though. I think the whole landing part is like, that's what's impressive. I mean, obviously, you know, I'm not saying that getting to the moon is obviously impressive, but like, you know, what was it? The ballpoint pen and the whole story, you know, of what happened and then getting off the moon like that to me is what, you know, you think, you think. What was the movie? We're just saying Armageddon. Like, you think about the landing part. I do think that discounts the whole trip, that they're not actually landing.

[Blake]

Well, you build up to it. It's still the first time.

[Russ Blake]

So weird is that we've already done it before. Yeah, we haven't done it for like seven years.

[Blake]

Really. What's tragic is that America abandoned this. And we know why. Because America went all in on dumber stuff.

[Russ Blake]

You know, Trump brought it back and then Biden shelved it and, you know,

[Blake]

really brought it back. Amusingly, it was Bush, remember, Bush got really into like, we should go to the moon and land on Mars and stuff. And then Trump's really moved very slowly. We should, we should land on Mars. This should be, this should be step one towards us going to Mars. And we should also.

[Andrew Colvett]

Now we're in a race against China.

[Russ Blake]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, so China wants to essentially own the moon. And we're like, we're gonna do it first. I don't know what kind of minerals are on the moon. Like, could you mine the moon?

[Blake]

Oh, 100%. I think everything, I think anything that would have created minerals on Earth would have made them on the moon too.

[Andrew Colvett]

There is a, there's an amazing show that I love on Amazon prime or not Amazon Prime, Apple TV called for all mankind. And it literally. The whole point is like, what if the United States had won or lost the space race back in the 70s? And then you kind of go through them landing on the moon, them putting a, a permanent base on the moon, then the race for Mars and there's a whole like the Cold war actually has a full on kinetic war on the moon.

[Russ Blake]

Wow.

[Andrew Colvett]

It's kind of cool.

[Cliff]

What if we were right?

[Blake]

If we were losing the space race to China and they were Taking over the moon. Would it be justified for us to blow up the moon?

[Russ Blake]

Pretty sure that would have some downside.

[Andrew Colvett]

Yeah, that would have some serious consequences.

[Blake]

Okay, okay. You guys can all be like, don't blow up the moon. There was. Did you know there was an actual college professor who was obsessed with pushing the idea that we should blow up the moon?

[Russ Blake]

Really?

[Blake]

Yes.

[Russ Blake]

This is. This is obscure, Cliff. What were you gonna say?

[Cliff]

No, I was just looking at the Bush stuff because I'd never heard that, Blake. And you're right. His moon. This is W. Bush. His moon goal was to return by 2020. And then his Mars goal, which this is such a simple thing for W to say, was to use the moon. Quote, use the moon as a stepping stone to get to Mars, which, you know, I get it. But, like, yeah, that was in 2004. Vision for Space exploration.

[Blake]

Yeah, that was. So we're executing on Bush's vision in a variety of ways right now. You go, yes, it was. An Iowa State mathematics professor, Alexander Abian, spent much of his career advocating that we destroy the moon, which he said would eliminate seasons, the wobble of the Earth, and it would delete all associated events like heat waves, snowstorms, and hurricanes. And he said that those who dismissed him were like those he dismissed, Galileo. So he said we should explode the mood. And he was a mathematics professor, so he's smarter than all of us. But speaking of things that are kind of cool but also possibly lame, we also have very fascinating news out of another extreme part of our universe. Mount Everest. So Mount Everest, the tallest mountain in the world, is in the news because Nepalese police have discovered a sinister Sherpa plot to poison Mount Everest climbers. Apparently, they were spiking their food with baking powder or other things, causing them to fall ill, so that they would then request a helicopter evacuation off of Mount Everest.

[Russ Blake]

Extraordinarily daunting.

[Blake]

They would get a helicopter evac off Mount Everest, which is really expensive. And it was a way to basically scam people into expensive helicopter evacuations off

[Russ Blake]

of Mount Everest stream. That is.

[Blake]

Apparently, it involved over 20 people, and it may have cost over $20 million worth of expensive helicopter evacuation guaranteed.

[Russ Blake]

It's like American insurance companies paying for it. Oh, totally. Yeah. We're like, somehow the Somalians figure out a way to defraud us and the Nepalese.

[Blake]

It really is sinister. Like, you think of what a cash cow just having Mount Everest is for the Nepalese economy. And then these guys are like, no, it's not enough. We have to do this. Insane scam on the people coming here to spend money.

[Andrew Colvett]

Well, on top of it, too. What a great culture. Most of these people going up Mount Everest are rich people who are bored anyways. So it's like, oh, so you're gonna scam them out of even more money.

[Cliff]

Got it.

[Blake]

So the reason I wanted to bring this up is similar thoughts. So, okay, they're scamming the people who climb Mount Everest. But the bigger idea, the thought crime idea, is climbing Mount Everest actually cool still? Or is it actually kind of lame, gay? Like, let's be. Let's be frank here. The first guy to climb Mount Everest did it in the 50s, and he had to figure it out. Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, they had to figure out how to get to the top of the mountain. And you know they were gonna die if they failed, and they had to do all the work. But now you can just be a rich person and go climb Mount Everest. You just. And it's the Sherpas, the local Nepalese. They do all of the hard work of figuring out. They basically create the route up there. You just. They guide you up the whole way. And, yeah, you can die, but a

[Russ Blake]

lot of people die every year.

[Blake]

Yeah, but you can also die in, like, a normal car crash, too. And I'm not a hero or brave for driving my car around Phoenix, I

[Russ Blake]

think it's not exactly the same, but it is much deadlier.

[Blake]

Have you seen the Phoenix drivers?

[Russ Blake]

It's bad.

[Andrew Colvett]

It's bad.

[Russ Blake]

The Nepalese. Am I saying that right? Nepal, Nepalese. They. I mean, they are really impressive. The. The fact that these guys go up and down, up and down, up and down. Like, there's.

[Blake]

Yeah, they're impressive.

[Russ Blake]

They're impressive.

[Blake]

They're impressive.

[Russ Blake]

Not the rich white dude, dud from

[Blake]

the west, like I remember about. This was when I was in high school or so technical training, this guy became the first blind person to climb to the top of Mount Everest. And, yeah, you can say, that's amazing. He's blind. But the other way you could phrase it is, okay, a blind person can do this.

[Russ Blake]

It does sort of degrade the accomplishment for everybody else. Yeah. And, you know, it's interesting about Mount Everest is that there's, like, a bunch of. There's a bunch of, like, trash everywhere. It's become really, like, dirty, the route, because so many people do it.

[Blake]

Well, you use oxygen tanks, and then you just chuck the metal tank. It's there for the rest of eternity. You. You're climbing with your climbing buddy, and he Gets tired. So you chuck him. His entire body.

[Andrew Colvett]

Exactly.

[Blake]

To the side to get to the top and abandon him. And they do throw up the B roll of it. It's. It's content warning here. But there's a lot of corpses on Mount Everest. And in fact, some of them are important landmarks.

[Russ Blake]

There's a Canadian flag.

[Blake]

Yeah. All right. And, like, this is what will happen. You will get tired. You'll be in the death zone, and you just get tired. And they'll. The guides will say, like, you need to get up or you're gonna die. You have to keep moving. But if you can't keep moving, they just ditch you there. And if you're high up enough, you can't get that scam. Helicopter rescue.

[Russ Blake]

So now you're making it sound cool to hike Mount Ever. Like, if you. It's impressive if you hike Mount Everest.

[Blake]

Yeah. But it's also. Again, it's that combo where the Sherpas are doing all the hard work. So if you go out there and you just die and you're not doing the hard work to climb, you're just sort of hazarding high altitude, and you might get altitude sickness and keel over. It just sort of feels dumb to me.

[Andrew Colvett]

It's the mountain climbing equivalent of getting into a cage and swimming with sharks. Like, it's not.

[Cliff]

I got the numbers here. What do you guys think? Per year?

[Russ Blake]

Yeah. How many people die per year? I'm not sure I'm sold on this analogy yet.

[Cliff]

I think I. I actually thought it was much higher.

[Russ Blake]

Go ahead.

[Cliff]

Take a guess before you look it up. I got the numbers, Blake.

[Blake]

Yeah, I mean, I would say. I want to say it's like, it comes in bursts. Like, there will be years where no one dies or one dies, and then there will be a bad storm and maybe like 10 people. I would. I would say average of one or two.

[Cliff]

Last year was five, which is a pretty low number. Eight deaths in 2024. 2023 had 18 deaths.

[Blake]

Holy moly.

[Cliff]

And then the notable one was 2015. There was a huge avalanche around base camp. 19 people died.

[Andrew Colvett]

Wow.

[Blake]

That's lower than I thought.

[Cliff]

I thought it was much higher.

[Blake]

That's the worst of all. You go to Everest and you just die in an avalanche at base camp. That sucks.

[Russ Blake]

Hadn't thought about it. Womp.

[Andrew Colvett]

Womp.

[Russ Blake]

Yeah, did. I mean, but I wonder how many of those were hikers and Sherpas or did the Sherpas that were like, we know how to avoid this.

[Blake]

It varies. There are. There are definitely some girl names that take out a lot of Sherpas.

[Russ Blake]

Really.

[Andrew Colvett]

Some girl named Stephanie just doing the check in list and what the sherpa

[Cliff]

2014. There were 16 sherpas because there was some sort of like that was. They were the only people that died that year. There was some sort of iceball collapse that was 2014.

[Russ Blake]

They're just getting back for all these Sherpa deaths that have happened throughout the year. They're getting, they're getting back at Whitey.

[Blake]

Yeah, yeah, I can kind of see that.

[Russ Blake]

That's a dark story.

[Blake]

Yeah, this is. It's very dark. But no, we need comments if anyone has thoughts. Is it lame to climb Mount Everest? Let's see.

[Russ Blake]

I don't think it's quite as lame as, you know, or like it's more harrowing than floating in a shark tank completely protected. Because the only way you die that way is if you have some sort of like.

[Andrew Colvett]

I mean have you seen the videos of sharks getting stuck in there and, and people literally like up against the back of the cage cuz the face got stuck in there.

[Russ Blake]

Oh no. But I mean, I guess that makes some sense. But it's not like if you're a small enough shark to get through a cage and a shark tank, you're probably not like a man eater kind of.

[Blake]

Andrew's the kind of guy, he watches Jaws and the guy gets in the cage music. I could do that. Scary.

[Andrew Colvett]

He watches the Meg and he's like Jason Statham has nothing on me, man.

[Blake]

But at least the Meg is a fictional shark. Jaws. Jaws is a real shark and just

[Russ Blake]

Jaws is not a conspiracy.

[Blake]

Yeah, yeah, it's not a conspiracy.

[Russ Blake]

Jaws is real in the moon landing.

[Blake]

Fake Andrew. Andrew's just watching Jaws and there's. He's like, they don't need a bigger boat. I could take that out on a jet ski.

[Russ Blake]

I definitely don't think, you know Jaws.

[Cliff]

Jaws rocked me to my core as a kid because one of the, the behind the scenes shows Spielberg when they put the oxygen tank in the shark and then they shoot it and then obviously the shark explodes. And apparently somebody technical on scene was like, well Stephen, if you shoot an oxygen tank it's not necessarily going to explode. And he was just like they'll believe that it explodes. I was like his whole line for doing that like there's no you shoot an oxygen tank, it's not going to explode.

[Russ Blake]

But the fact that he was just like they'll believe it explains explodes. Goes back to the moon landing. Good director knows what the audience will believe.

[Blake]

Mr. Kubrick, they'll never think this is real. They'll believe we landed on it. Honestly, the least convict. The reason all the Kubrick conspiracy theories about the moon landing don't work is that knowing what we do about Stanley Kubrick, he would have made them redo the landing about 50 times before he'd be satisfied with the take. So that's probably the best argument against that particular weird conspiracy.

[Russ Blake]

Well, I actually, again, I believe the moon landing happened. I just understand why some don't. Hi, folks. Andrew Colvett here. I'd like to tell you about my friends over at why Refi. You've probably been hearing me talk about why Refi? For some time now. We are all in with these guys. If you or someone you know is struggling with private student loan debt, take my advice and give them a call. Maybe you're behind on your payments. Maybe you're even in default. You don't have to live in this nightmare anymore. Yrefi will provide you a custom payment based on your ability to pay. They tailor each loan individually. They can save you thousands of dollars, and you can get your life back. We go to campuses all over America and we see student after student who's drowning in private student loan debt. Many of them don't even know how much they owe. Yrefi can help. Just go to yrefi.com, that's the letter Y. Then refi.com and remember, Y refi doesn't care what your credit score is. Just go to yrefi.com and tell them your friend Andrew sent you. Okay. Shall we? I've been waiting for this.

[Andrew Colvett]

We shall.

[Blake]

All right.

[Russ Blake]

All right, Cliff, we have to start with you here. Since you weren't a part of this conversation. Do you believe the Lord of the Rings to be overtly pagan or not?

[Cliff]

So let me give my political answer first. You'll be very disappointed in me. So, in a past life, I think Andrew might know this, but I was a math teacher and I taught in New Zealand, and so I got to go to Hobbiton. It was an interesting trip. I have never seen the series, so. Talk about being a bad guest and somebody who cannot comment. I have no clue. I've obviously seen clips, but I did not feel the Lord Jesus Christ when I was at Hobbiton. That is my thought for this conversation.

[Russ Blake]

Score one for Jack right there.

[Andrew Colvett]

Yep.

[Blake]

I just. I don't get these takes where it's like. It's pagan unless, like, Frodo collapses on his knees and confesses Jesus as his Lord and Savior, but admittedly, that's. It went quite viral. I got sent. I have friends in Europe who also don't know that I work on this, like, program who were sending me that clip. So let's. Let's remind people what it was. Let's do clip 14.

[Charlie Kirk]

I've heard people try to make the argument that Lord of the Rings is overtly Christian. And I hate to burst the bubble, guys, but you're just wrong. There's nothing overtly Christian about Lord of the Rings. There's no church in it. There's no faith in it. There's no Christ figure. There's none of these things. And. And honestly, Lord of the Rings, if it's anything Lord of the Rings is overtly pagan.

[Andrew Colvett]

I would like the record to reflect that. When I was nodding and smiling, it was because I've heard that take before, not because I agreed with Jack.

[Russ Blake]

I was going to say, go get me that final frame. This is my defense. Give me the final frame. My face goes like. He goes overtly pagan. And I go,

[Blake]

he was thinking. He agrees with it.

[Andrew Colvett]

Unless you were trying to hold back a sneeze.

[Russ Blake]

Well, that was not what I was trying to do. I was like, huh. All right.

[Blake]

Well, everyone got very spirited about it. Everyone was ganging up on Jack. They were all going after him. And so he. I believe he insisted he had to call back in. Oh, did we get it himself? So I think we've got him on hold. Jack, are you there?

[Charlie Kirk]

Are they still crying? Are they still crying? They're still crying. That what's going on right now. There's the Lord of the Rings. Like, Lord of the Rings is crit. Is. Is Catholic. People are still crying about this.

[Blake]

What's this I hear? Oh, it's Jack's theme music.

[Andrew Colvett]

It's Lord of the Rings favorite music. He listens to this regularly.

[Russ Blake]

All right.

[Charlie Kirk]

What's weird is that, like.

[Russ Blake]

Is that, like, really.

[Cliff]

So what's really weird about this is

[Charlie Kirk]

that, like, really stupid people who don't have brain cells thought that I was saying that I didn't like Lord of the Rings or like that Lord of the Rings was bad or that I like. They hold the amount of hallucinations and drugs that people were taking. Kind of like the earlier Lord of the Rings fans who are the hippies are. It was just amazing to see all of these things that people responding to that I literally didn't say, because people forget what we were talking about. This because of the Stephen Colbert sequel to Lord of the Rings and the Whole point of it was me trying to explain why someone who's like an arch liberal would like Lord of the Rings, but then someone who's, you know, like a arch Conservative, like J.D. vance, would also like the same series. And it's amazing to me that, man, not only did I burst the bubble, I burst it so bad that they're still crying about it. And I've also realized that people don't know what the word overt means. Where, yes, overt means on the surface level, which is actually something that was said by, wait for it. JRR Tolkien, the writer of the series, who said that he eliminated religion from the series and it is not found until you review it further.

[Russ Blake]

All right, what, do you. Do you buy this? Do you buy his defense here?

[Blake]

I don't know.

[Charlie Kirk]

What do you mean, do I buy it? It's just. It's just true.

[Cliff]

Okay.

[Russ Blake]

I don't know.

[Blake]

I just. I don't know. I just think he's picking a fight. He's picking a fight over the wrong thing with the wrong people.

[Russ Blake]

Original one that went right about this. I want to get that. Send me the original, like, post from Human Events.

[Charlie Kirk]

Roger that.

[Russ Blake]

I want it because some people brought up some good points, Jack, and I want to give you a chance.

[Charlie Kirk]

It's amazing.

[Russ Blake]

Go ahead.

[Charlie Kirk]

I mean, I'm happy to respond to all the incorrect points that people were making.

[Russ Blake]

You know, there was a couple. There were some people who came to your defense as well, like Joshua Lysik. He had your bag. Let me see here. I can't find the original.

[Charlie Kirk]

New York Times multiple best selling author, Joshua Lysik.

[Russ Blake]

There it is. Okay. It's like communists. It's like communists. Okay, so let's just deal with the community note, Jack. It says in letter 142 to Father Robert Murray, JRR Tolkien describes Lord of the Rings as a fundamentally religious and Catholic work.

[Charlie Kirk]

So in that letter, they clipped off the end of what he said. He said it's foundational, fundamental in the sense that it's at the lower level. But he also says that he eliminated religion from the series itself and that you do not. You don't encounter it until you go into the lower level. Like, until. Until upon the revision. So he removed all of the overt elements of religion. So all of the Lord of the Rings stands, like, got really, really mad and decided to take their own favorite author out of context. It's really sad, actually. Like, why are you guys twisting the words of Tolkien if you love him so much?

[Russ Blake]

This is interesting. So, Tom Roswell. You can find him on X at tomrosrosel. Sorry, Rosell. R O W S E L L He says pagan here. Tolkien was Catholic. And Lord of the Rings is pagan mythology repurposed and imbued with Christian morality. It isn't actually pagan, so it's kind of like a quasi. Which is kind of what I think you were saying, actually. And a lot of people made the point, Jack, that since it, you know, Middle Earth and the whole theme is what, 10,000 years before our current moment or something like that, it was like some mythological antiquity that it couldn't have. Christ had not come yet at that point, so it had to be pre Christian. But it was imbued with Christian morality. Pagan mythology imbued with Christian morality. Would you agree with that presentation from this pagan?

[Charlie Kirk]

I certainly would, because again, the pagan here is not understanding what I'm saying. I didn't say anything about the morality of the series. I was talking about the overt surface level elements of the story. Dwarves, elves, knights, dragons, wizards. Again, this is all pagan mythology. Gandalf is basically a version of Odin. You have a pantheon of gods and one higher God. Again, this is all just pagan mythology. As Tolkien himself said many times, Gandalf is a guide.

[Andrew Colvett]

He's not Odin, he's an angel. That's more of what Tolkien was saying.

[Charlie Kirk]

But I did have to like, Gandalf is so. So Tolkien himself. Well, don't, don't lie, don't, don't twist, Tolkien. Tolkien himself said that Gandalf is based on Odin

[Andrew Colvett]

in the, in the sense of wandering, not in the sense of like actual, like, like Odin. But the, the core of it is that, you know, as with Christianity, he

[Charlie Kirk]

wrote that he was based on Odin.

[Andrew Colvett]

It's absolute truth, like Lord of the Rings is, Is written with, at its core, absolute truth, as in. As good, verse, evil. Whereas in paganism there is no like, absolute truth. There's just, it's. There's relative morality, if that's the right word, that.

[Russ Blake]

I'm thinking of somebody. This one got some play here. It says it's not like Norse mythology.

[Charlie Kirk]

Okay, but that's, That's a morale. That's the morality. That's not, that's not. We're just talking overt. That's, That's. Again, I didn't say anything about the morality.

[Russ Blake]

Oh, I think he's gone a delay. Still overtly.

[Andrew Colvett]

Yeah, that's still overtly. The morality part is overtly Christian. I know what overtly means.

[Charlie Kirk]

I'm just saying. But again, that's overtly Christian. A different it's expensive, but that's a different. Okay, but you're. You're just making a different argument than I was making.

[Andrew Colvett]

Okay, fair enough.

[Russ Blake]

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[Blake]

I feel like if something's pagan, it's got to have actual pagan gods in it. And there's only one God in Lord of the Rings, and it's explicitly like the Christian God.

[Charlie Kirk]

So that's. Yeah, but that's not true. There are, there are powerful creatures called the Valar that operate as sort of a pantheon of God.

[Blake]

Like a velociraptor is a powerful creature. It's not a pagan God.

[Russ Blake]

No, but it's obviously like to his point, it's magical or hold power.

[Andrew Colvett]

Well, so is Narnia.

[Russ Blake]

So Narnia has.

[Andrew Colvett]

Narnia has. Is a. Supposedly a. It's an allegory.

[Charlie Kirk]

Right? Right.

[Andrew Colvett]

Narnia is an allegory of the Bible. Has centaurs. Oh, here comes the what about it has minotaurs.

[Charlie Kirk]

What about ism.

[Blake]

Not even just that. But.

[Andrew Colvett]

No, but. But that's. That's your point. Jacket has magical creatures. But it, it's in your. In your own words. It is a direct allegory of the Bible because it has Christ in it. Well, actually in Narnia Crisis a. A lion. I don't know that Christ is a lion in our world, but there's magical creatures in Narnia, unlike. And unlike.

[Charlie Kirk]

Well, you would have to, you would have to take that up with Junior. Well, you would you find yourself in disagreement with JRR Tolkien then, because JRR Tolkien said that Narnia is a direct allegory of the Bible.

[Russ Blake]

So. Okay, here, here's here's an interesting one, Jack. This is from Octoboyo. It says it pulls most heavily from Norse mythology. Take the Volsunga saga, for example, which revolves around Loki stealing a ring from a dwarf, which is then cursed to bring death and destruction to whoever owns it. This also inspired Richard Wagner's famous Ring cycle opera. That's kind of an interesting one.

[Blake]

You know, I'm just. I'm just still getting hung up on this point. It has powerful creatures. Okay, well, the Bible has those angels who fall to Earth. It's got the nephilim, it's got the devil, and his angels are popping up in tribulations. We have demons possessing people. And yeah, God has power over them, but they are portrayed as existing.

[Charlie Kirk]

Look, we can. We can go around and around and, and split hairs on all this, like, all day long. And believe me, I'd love to. Like, I. I love this stuff, like, way more than politics, as you can tell it. Obviously, we're all into it. I. I like Tolkien. I like Lord of the Rings. Like, I saw people accusing me of saying that I didn't like it. Like, I didn't say that at all, actually. And what I was trying to get at, I guess, if anything, was that I think that for the current moment, that we do need things that more are more explicitly Christian because we live in such a fallen society right now that we need things that aren't just Christian morality, like, below the surface. I'm talking about overt outward displays of Christianity and the. The Christian symbology. I think that's really important. And you see a lot of that in society today where people are bringing back those Christian symbols. I'm talking about, like, what should we use as a tool to evangelize? And as great as Lord of the Rings is, I just don't think it's great of a tool if you're explicitly trying to bring people to the cross. I mean, it might be good as like a really, really outward gateway drug, but it has spawned so many pagans and neo pagans and Wiccans and Elvish otherkin. In fact, the word otherkin itself comes from Lord of the Rings fans who originally were like the hippies and the counterculture left. So, you know, it's kind of a work that can be taken multiple ways. And I've thought, as great as it is, you know, it's just not something that I would use for that function.

[Russ Blake]

I mean, Stephen Colbert is a Catholic. I mean, I'm not saying he's a good.

[Blake]

We're gonna Go around with that. No, I think I feel like the best.

[Charlie Kirk]

Oh, just like Joe Biden. Come on.

[Russ Blake]

I'm just saying it's not like. All right, Colbert is distinctly self professing.

[Blake]

Well, okay, so we have one more topic we want to get. So I want to make one more final argument to Jack and it's this. Yeah, yeah, that's great.

[Andrew Colvett]

I, I have to, I have to say though, real quick.

[Russ Blake]

All right, Blake.

[Charlie Kirk]

Well, talking about. You got me there, Blake. You got, you got me there.

[Andrew Colvett]

I have to say though, like, specifically when it comes to evangelizing, I don't know any of my friends that are not Christian who would, who, whose eyes don't glaze over the minute I start talking about anything that is fundamentally like, like in your face, spoon fed. Like, here's the gospel message right off. Because growing up my mom used to have these movies from pure flicks and every single one is poorly made, but it's just the Bible thrown in your face and it just didn't, it just doesn't work. But something with like Lord of the Rings is like, you still have the opportunity to take something that is good material good. It's a good book, it's a good movie, and you're able to walk through the elements of the gospel and the elements of Christianity with something like Lord of the Rings that a non Christian can get behind because they're not being just pummeled over the head with the gospel. Like we're supposed to be salt and light, we're supposed to be out there. We're supposed to be all of that. And I agree with that. But at the same time, most Christian, most non Christians do not care to listen to the, the gospel message right off the bat. You have to tease them in, you have to bring them in in some way, shape or form. And that's what Lord of the Rings has done for generations, even just with the books. But then once the movies came out, so that's, that's all I'm gonna say. That's my final word on it.

[Blake]

I think my argument was a bit better.

[Charlie Kirk]

Yeah, I'm not gonna, I mean, I'm, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna say it doesn't, it doesn't lead to conversions. I mean, J.D. vance, of course, is a great example of that, you know, to steel man. Your argument that, you know, here's. And he, of course, JD's got a, a book out coming out as well about his conversion and his like, return to the faith. And, and we know that you know, we know that he has talked about Lord of the Rings in this context before. I. And so I, I'm not going to discount anything of that. And I'll point out that obviously that's a great example. But at the same time, J.D. vance is a unicorn and we do not have a lot of JD Vances that you will not run across a lot of them. So I wouldn't, I wouldn't, I wouldn't, I wouldn't want to say that the unicorn is always the best way, but you're right. Yeah, obviously the pure flick stuff. And I'm not knocking those guys at. I get what you're saying in terms of the criticism there. And no, I would also not hold up that stuff either.

[Russ Blake]

A lot of the comments, by the way, were that Tolkien never said that Narnia was too overtly Christian. That wasn't the problem. The problem was that it was too allegorical and he preferred more sophisticated or more vague, less on the nose.

[Blake]

Yeah, whatever. You know, all of that symbolism, he was all there, all butthurt because Tolkien was an Anglican and everything.

[Charlie Kirk]

I mean, that's splitting. That's semantics. We're talking about the same thing. Like overt, allegorical, overtly. It's. Again, it's, it's, it's. You're splitting here. That semantics. It's the same thing.

[Blake]

All right, well, Jack, we should be talking.

[Cliff]

We should be talking about Veggie Tales and whether that went. Woke or not. I'm looking for that opinion.

[Blake]

I'm not going to watch any veggies.

[Andrew Colvett]

Oh, it did. It 100 did. As somebody who grew up on Veggie

[Blake]

Tales, I'm sure it did, but. Okay, just don't watch Veggie tales made after 2003 or whatever. Just watch the old ones.

[Russ Blake]

All right, so the final topic is something.

[Blake]

Well, we got it. Jack's got a bounce. Jack, you have to bounce.

[Russ Blake]

Jack.

[Blake]

Yeah, Jack's got a intro. An event that's going on soon.

[Russ Blake]

Does he have to bounce now?

[Blake]

Because I believe so.

[Charlie Kirk]

I mean, I can hang for. I can hang. I can hang for a little bit, actually, because we have like here. I'm backstage at George Washington and the event is filling up. I see a ton of kids. I've got like a camera feed. A ton of kids are coming in. Erica, the team are here. Carolyn Levitt's going to be here. I mean, this is going to be a huge event. It's the kickoff of. This is the turning point. I get. I can hang for like a couple more. Maybe one More topic.

[Blake]

All right, well, then you're very lucky

[Russ Blake]

because we have great imagery, Christian or pagan, to overtly something.

[Blake]

All righty. You're going to talk about. We're going to talk about the most famous person from South Dakota Gods.

[Russ Blake]

That in this picture, we have to

[Blake]

talk about the most famous person from South Dakota right now. And that is.

[Charlie Kirk]

Oh, no. Yeah.

[Blake]

All right. I'm a big fan.

[Russ Blake]

We gave you the option to bounce.

[Blake]

I'm a big fan of my home state, but there have been strange reportings and rumblings from it in the past week. So many of us, myself included, felt a lot of sympathy for the husband of Kristi Noem because of the widespread rumors about her amorous activities with another person. And he was at her hearing, testifying before Congress when they were grilling her about this. It was all very strange. Everyone felt very bad. But someone didn't feel bad. Instead, they just went and they leaked his entire private life to the Daily Mail.

[Russ Blake]

There are reports that she had been talking about this behind the scenes for a while.

[Blake]

It's very possible. I don't know what the reports are, but apparently just to catch people up on it, Brian Gnome has some sort of hobby. And that hobby is. Look, we should be clear which of us hasn't inflated a balloon and then shoved it down our shirt to pretend that it's a cartoonishly large pair of breasts so that we can then send a bunch of money to strippers?

[Charlie Kirk]

You know? You know, I'm getting.

[Andrew Colvett]

Yeah, I'm getting.

[Charlie Kirk]

I'm getting. I'm getting notification. It turns out I actually do have to go. There's situation I have to deal with.

[Russ Blake]

Runjack. Run.

[Charlie Kirk]

Yeah, you guys, man, you. You guys have a. Have a great time. I'm down here with Turning Point usa. I don't know if you heard of them. Great organization. I'm just gonna. Gonna be with those guys tonight. Have fun with.

[Russ Blake]

I understand, Jack. I understand.

[Blake]

Right.

[Russ Blake]

I wish I could run.

[Blake]

Yeah, well, you're trapped. You're trapped.

[Russ Blake]

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[Blake]

So this is actually, this is kind of man.

[Russ Blake]

Why do you feel bad for him? Blake?

[Blake]

Well, I guess what I would say is it's very bad. It is very bad. It's gross. It's basically transgenderism adjacent. Like, we should honestly be happy he hasn't already truned out, as it were. But at the same time, my understanding is he basically, he was never leaking anything against his wife. He was never doing anything publicly to humiliate her. And there's something off about me that this is bad. This is 100% bad, and he should not do it. But he also was not a public figure. He didn't hold any office. He was an insurance salesman in, I think Castlewood, South Dakota. I can't remember the name because I've never been to it. It's that small. That's who he is. And he just like blasted on the Daily Mail. And in some sense, it's almost like blasting any random person for doing that. And if this guy is not publicly putting himself out there, if he's not a lawmaker himself, something feels very dark about just leaking all of that. But that said, it is very gross.

[Russ Blake]

So this is what Ryan James Graduski was reporting. He said, I mentioned on my podcast months ago that one of Trump's cabinet members was telling reporters off the record that her husband was gay. I didn't name Nate Gnome by name out of respect for privacy, but to say she had no idea really flies in the face of what she was saying. And Ryan, this is a little bit

[Blake]

different from being gay.

[Russ Blake]

So Ryan. Well, it could just be. I don't know what it is part of the same sort of thing.

[Blake]

Well, it is. What it is is based on what it is. It's autogynephilia like, that's what's going on with cross dressers. It's that his kink is like, be that himself becoming the woman he is attracted to. So it's a particularly messed up form.

[Russ Blake]

Well, she did straight. What he's. What he's saying is in the report, she's like a spokesman for Gnome, basically says she's devastated. She had no idea. Please respect their privacy kind of thing. Saying she's devastated. The family is blindsided by this. They're asking for privacy and prayer, which is a funny way to put it. Blindsided. Maybe you could. You could say that she was telling the truth, that she's blindsided by the fact that the report went public. Okay. Or she's blindsided by this revelation that her husband is dressing up with fake huge boobs.

[Blake]

Or she could just be not telling the truth.

[Russ Blake]

Or she could just be.

[Cliff]

Come on, guys, we can't. We can't justify this. This is demonic. This is wild.

[Russ Blake]

Who's just.

[Cliff]

And what gets me. No, no, I don't. I mean, like, when we talk about it, it's like, all right, well, why would he do this? It's weird. And I gotta say this. I am always so impressed with how I always think, oh, you know, I've seen it all. And there is something about political power. And look, yeah, he might not be a public figure, but his wife's a cabinet member. There's just something in the political world where these sexual deviants come out and it's like they're challenging or trying to do what is not allowed. It's almost like they're attracted to do things that are deemed not appropriate. But seeing this story, I mean, I couldn't even look at the photos. The guy is weird. He's got a problem. And it's just. To me, it's almost hilarious that some of this stuff comes out, because any normal person looks at this and is like, what the hell is going on in the political world in America?

[Blake]

Well, just offer context, because we're gonna have. We're gonna have Libs bully Brian know about this. And yet we had to pretend for years on end that what's her name in the Biden administration? Rachel Levine. That Rachel Levine was like a totally person and totally a real woman. Richard Levine. Whatever. Well, and then on top of that, Sam Brinton, totally normal dude. While he's. I mean, at least what we'll say. Brian Gnome. Nobody, at least so far. No one so far has accused him of stealing anyone's luggage. I don't really want to Take any poly market bets on what he might have been doing with his wife's clothes. But.

[Andrew Colvett]

And if Cliff hates those photos, he's gonna hate the ones coming up next.

[Russ Blake]

This. Oh, gosh.

[Blake]

Wait, What? Hold on. What?

[Andrew Colvett]

You know what? I do my job well. That's all I'm gonna say. I was asked, and I asked by whom? You know, I'm gonna throw Angelo under the bus on this one. He was like, hey, this would be funny. I agree. I thought it was funny.

[Russ Blake]

Yeah.

[Andrew Colvett]

Let's pull up photo 18.

[Blake]

Wait, what? What are we about to see here?

[Andrew Colvett]

Oh, just wait. It'll be. It's a girl.

[Charlie Kirk]

There it is.

[Andrew Colvett]

There it is.

[Blake]

What's that?

[Andrew Colvett]

19.

[Blake]

Hold on. What?

[Russ Blake]

Oh. Oh.

[Andrew Colvett]

20.

[Blake]

That's disgusting.

[Russ Blake]

Oh, oh.

[Andrew Colvett]

21. 22.

[Blake]

Why did Cliff get such a cliffs? Cliffs is way more low key.

[Russ Blake]

Deflated.

[Blake]

Yeah.

[Andrew Colvett]

And 22.

[Blake]

Weird.

[Andrew Colvett]

And then, of course.

[Blake]

All right, okay, so that's. That's Marco Rubio auditioning for the job of Christine Ohm's next husband, I suppose.

[Andrew Colvett]

You're welcome.

[Russ Blake]

You're welcome.

[Blake]

You know, if you're only listening to this on a podcast episode, you. You're lucky. And we're not gonna. We're not gonna tell you what you missed.

[Russ Blake]

The Jack one was really funny.

[Blake]

Yeah, throw that one back up. That was funny.

[Andrew Colvett]

Jack is here with us in spirit.

[Russ Blake]

The reason it's so funny is it looks like one of those. This is like adult, you know, female books that's like, you know, it's like porn for women. You know, the.

[Blake]

No, I don't understand.

[Andrew Colvett]

You're. You're digging yourself a hole.

[Blake]

You're not.

[Russ Blake]

These books.

[Blake]

Whoa, whoa. You're throwing me under the bus now? Oh, you're suddenly getting attacked by Andrew.

[Russ Blake]

His stare kind of going, you know, it just. It worked.

[Blake]

Oh, like that facial expression you had last week with Jack when he was talking about the paganism, you were defending

[Russ Blake]

yourself with your facial expression rush. You should have put. You should have done the prosthetics with that face, rather.

[Andrew Colvett]

Oh, you know, it was already hard to try to get grock to add chesticles to all y'. All.

[Blake]

But so here's a thought. What if Brian Noma just come out and just said, that's an AI pick and it's all fake.

[Cliff]

I thought about it.

[Andrew Colvett]

Defense.

[Russ Blake]

You bet. You can run it through AI software. You can run it through AI software and. And find out if it actually is. And they, you know, guaranteed reporters would have been like, we ran the photo through AI and it is not AI.

[Blake]

Yeah. And he could just be like, they're full of it now. It's AI.

[Andrew Colvett]

So what you do, especially with X's algorithm right now, you take that, the actual photo, you throw it into AI, make a bunch of AI photos of it, and then just get a bunch of people to circulate it around X. And then all of a sudden, you don't know what's what and what's. This is full on.

[Russ Blake]

We are cooked, aren't we? The AI.

[Cliff]

Well, I'll tell you who is cooked. None of us can run for political office now that we all just laughed at those photos with the screenshots.

[Russ Blake]

I mean, I was disgusted, for the record, but good thing I wasn't planning to run for political offices.

[Andrew Colvett]

Fair enough.

[Russ Blake]

Oh, man. Although I do. I do see a Russ. Russ. Congressional seat at some point.

[Andrew Colvett]

Oh, yeah, no, that ain't happening.

[Russ Blake]

Yeah, especially after you aced the. The Lord of the Rings question. You're sorry.

[Andrew Colvett]

You know what I got. I got marked safe by nerd Ronick and the guys. I'm. I'm fully okay with that.

[Russ Blake]

I don't understand why I didn't get Mark safe. Why was I not Mark safe?

[Andrew Colvett]

Because you hadn't watched it. You.

[Russ Blake]

You.

[Andrew Colvett]

The problem was, is you explained that you hadn't seen it in like 10 years.

[Russ Blake]

I mean, that. That's probably human. Well, that's like, not like I saw them when they came out and when they were like, you know, fair enough on the streamers at first.

[Blake]

What if every member of the fellowship had the. The Brian gnome look?

[Andrew Colvett]

Oh, no, I don't want to do that. I. I clock out.

[Cliff]

Please tell me you guys don't have those photos.

[Charlie Kirk]

I don't know.

[Russ Blake]

All the orcs just like Grock is

[Andrew Colvett]

gonna start being like, what is wrong with you?

[Charlie Kirk]

Right.

[Russ Blake]

We're turning you off. Yeah.

[Blake]

There'd be a lot of subtle political commentary if you bimboed up the. The orcs that kind of resent. They really would just basically.

[Andrew Colvett]

Well, Rings of Power kind of already did that.

[Blake]

Yeah, so I've heard.

[Russ Blake]

I actually sort of. I just to wrap it up, put a fine point on it. It feels like some people are alleging that potentially our ex cabinet secretary was aware of this, maybe helped leak it. We have no knowledge of that being the truth, but we do have reporting that says she was aware of it and not blindsided by it.

[Blake]

It'd be hard to not be aware

[Russ Blake]

either, or it is a sad story because they do have kids and I feel bad for them. Yeah. So hopefully

[Andrew Colvett]

when something like that.

[Russ Blake]

Yeah.

[Andrew Colvett]

Destroys the family.

[Russ Blake]

Yeah. Hopefully they can pick up the pieces and I don't know what the future for.

[Cliff]

I don't know how she didn't know. As big as those prosthetics or whatever you call them, would you call them male?

[Charlie Kirk]

What?

[Cliff]

What did you call them?

[Andrew Colvett]

Chesticles.

[Cliff]

Yeah, chesticles. As big as they were. I don't know where you're hiding those now.

[Charlie Kirk]

They were a balloon.

[Blake]

It was a balloon.

[Cliff]

That's tough.

[Russ Blake]

Yeah, it's a balloon.

[Blake]

Yeah.

[Russ Blake]

Really throw them in the dress.

[Blake]

Balloon.

[Russ Blake]

Yeah. That's why they were so wonky.

[Blake]

Yeah.

[Cliff]

You guys have a lot of experience

[Russ Blake]

in detail on this. I'm very impressed. Russ is the one with all these.

[Andrew Colvett]

I'm new.

[Russ Blake]

I'm new.

[Andrew Colvett]

I just got here last week.

[Russ Blake]

You're not new. You've seen all this. Yeah, that's carnage. That's true. Any final thoughts?

[Andrew Colvett]

Lord of the Rings is Christian culture. Thank you and good night.

[Russ Blake]

I'm gonna have to agree with you on that one. But if you're a dude dressing up like a woman, that is not Christian culture. The facts.

[Cliff]

Andrew, let me give a quick shout out. Erica came out with Tyler to open up the Las Vegas headquarters. Want to say congrats. Really excited about the partnership between my group, Citizens alliance, and Turning Point. We got a lot of swing states we're going to be battling, obviously, as Charlie's vision work backwards from 2028 with the presidential and in 2026, I think it's going to be a tough year, but I think we're obviously going to do the work, do the ground game and really excited about that partnership. We'll have a lot more details over the next couple months as we roll things out.

[Russ Blake]

Yeah, that was a big. A big development. Nevada is key to building the red wall along with New Hampshire and Arizona. So we're, by the way, if you guys want to get involved with what we're doing there, turning point action. Turningpointaction.com Obviously, there's also Cliff's work, Citizens alliance, but it's a great partnership, so congrats as well. Cliff, I know you're central to that whole vision. So big, big moves. And like I said, there's so much. I. Sometimes I wonder if anybody else is doing anything as much like media interest as there always is. I mean, I'm about at the point where just gonna say, like, you know, no comment. Leave us alone. Like, legit. Is anybody else doing anything? Because we seem to be the topic of conversation 24 7. Thank you guys all for joining.

[Blake]

For more on many of these stories and news you can Trust, go to charliekirk.com.