What the Super Bowl Revealed About America’s Culture War

Summary

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Podcast Summary: "What the Super Bowl Revealed About America’s Culture War"

The Charlie Kirk Show – February 10, 2026
Host: Charlie Kirk
Guests: Libby Emmons (Editor in Chief, The Post Millennial & Human Events), Will Chamberlain (Sr. Counsel, Article 3 Project), Andrew Colvett (Co-host), Mark Matson (CEO, Matson Money)

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Main Theme

This episode explores the cultural and political significance of Turning Point USA’s alternative Super Bowl halftime show, contrasting it with the NFL's official performance by Bad Bunny. Charlie Kirk and guests discuss what both Super Bowl performances say about American identity, language, and inclusion, as well as broader issues like immigration, the American Dream, and the importance of purpose and faith.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Turning Point USA’s "All-American" Halftime Show: A Cultural Statement

• Massive Viewership: The alternative halftime show achieved record streaming numbers (over 10 million live, 40–50 million total viewers), rivaling NFL’s viewership for the slot ([03:11], [04:33]).
• Cultural Inclusion Through Americana: The hosts and guests identify the Turning Point halftime show as “inclusive”—not by demographic targeting, but by celebrating shared American culture, English language, and common values ([01:56] Libby Emmons, [03:11] Will Chamberlain).
• Quote:
  • Libby Emmons: “It’s actually one of the more inclusive rock shows that I’ve seen… It was something that said, ‘Hey America, like this one’s for you. We’re here for you.’ And I respected that and appreciated it.” [01:56]
• Contrast with NFL’s Bad Bunny Show: Criticized the NFL show’s Spanish language focus and use of culturally specific symbols as “exclusive” and divisive ([06:39] Libby Emmons).
• Emmons: “Puerto Rican culture is niche culture. It’s not part of our shared culture… English is the language we all speak. English is the language where we all come together…” [06:39]

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2. Debating American Identity, Language, and Belonging

• Conversation about what it means to be “American” is sparked by the contrast in halftime shows and perceptions of U.S. culture ([04:33] Andrew Colvett, [06:39] Libby Emmons).
• Debate over whether features like language (English) and a celebration of shared heritage are foundational to “Americanness.”
• Emmons emphasizes that American culture transcends particular ethnic backgrounds, uniting citizens through shared traditions and the English language ([06:39]).
  • “Spanish is spoken by a bunch of people. It’s still niche. It’s not our shared language… Being American is about sharing our culture. It’s about speaking English. That’s certainly part of it. We all share that. It’s about being big and loud and boisterous and loving this country.” [06:39]

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3. Identity Politics and Cultural Backlash

• Play and analysis of two controversial clips:
  • Rep. Jean Wu (D) remarks on uniting minority groups against shared “oppressors” ([09:45]).
  • Writer Wajahat Ali’s commentary on white Americans and U.S. culture ([12:04]).
• Panel strongly condemns these statements as divisive and “anti-American,” pushing back against rhetorics of “replacement” and “cultural dispossession” ([10:08] Mark Matson, [12:52] Will Chamberlain, [13:53] Libby Emmons).
  • Will Chamberlain: “When I hear Jean Wu and Wajahat Ali talking about how much we suck, I’m like, well, clearly we should just denaturalize and deport you as a favor to you… You’re so miserable here.” [12:52]
  • Libby Emmons: “There was definitely a piece of this whole… Puerto Rican festival that hates America… We are here taking over your stage, but this is not for you.” [13:53]

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4. The American Dream: Purpose, Faith, and Hard Work

• Extended interview with Mark Matson, who shares his personal story of humble beginnings in West Virginia, contrasting the “victim mentality” with the “American Dream” ethic ([21:34], [23:31]).
• Matson underscores that faith, family, hard work, and contributing value are key to both individual success and national greatness ([22:30], [23:32], [26:13]).
  • “No one owes you anything. You don’t get anything in this world until you create value for other people.” [23:32, Matson quoting his father]
• Discusses how material wealth does not guarantee happiness—purpose and strong relationships, not money, bring fulfillment ([35:41]–[37:53]).
  • “Money can’t make you happy… What I teach them to do… is let’s discover a purpose and define a purpose that’s more important than money itself.” [35:41]

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5. Faith and National Service as Ultimate Purposes

• Clips and discussion featuring Charlie Kirk’s values: God, family, truth, and sacrificial service above self ([29:16]).
  • Quote: “God should be the most important thing in your life. But then beyond that, it’s getting married, having children, building families.” [29:16, Charlie Kirk]
• Reflection on the continued mobilization of the “army of freedom fighters” Kirk inspired, as essential to America’s future.

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6. Immigration Law Update

• Fifth Circuit Court Decision: Will Chamberlain explains significance: illegal immigrants found by ICE (who never presented at a port of entry) are no longer eligible for bond in Fifth Circuit jurisdictions ([16:48]).
  • Expected effect: increased self-deportation, reduced ability to “wait out” the system. [16:48]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Inclusivity of TPUSA Halftime Show:

  • Libby Emmons: “It’s really quite an accomplishment. I was impressed. Six million plus people watching concurrent at one point… It was actually one of the more inclusive rock shows I’ve seen.” [01:56]

• America’s Culture & Shared Language:

  • Libby Emmons: “English is the language where we all come together and do our government business… That is really a huge part of our culture, is our shared language.” [06:39]

• Critique of NFL Halftime Message:

  • Will Chamberlain: “The way [Bad Bunny] said God bless America… the framing was, he’s talking America, the hemisphere… the only way you’re proud of [being American] is in the same context as every other country. So you think we’re basically an unexceptional melting pot here for your economic exploitation.” [12:52]

• Mark Matson on Opportunity:

  • “You have these two screens: The American dream as a great country of opportunity and hard work and faith. And then… negative self, victim, victimization, entitlement.” [23:32]

• Charlie Kirk on Life Purpose:

  • “God should be the most important thing in your life. But then beyond that, it’s getting married, having children, building families… The more often that you choose the deep, the difficult, but the right path over the easy path is one that will reward you, your family and this beautiful nation.” [29:16]

• On Turning Point’s Disruptive Success:

  • Andrew Colvett: “You proved it was possible to take on the juggernaut. You proved that the machine does not always win… 40 or 50 million people… that’s a shot across the bat. That is literally earth shattering, tectonic shifting kind of stuff.” [31:15]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Timestamp | Topic/Speaker | |------------|-------------------------------------------------| | 01:56 | Libby Emmons on TPUSA halftime show, inclusivity| | 03:11 | Will Chamberlain: contrast with NFL show | | 06:39 | Defining “American” culture, language, belonging| | 09:45 | Rep. Jean Wu’s remarks (clip and reactions) | | 12:04 | Wajahat Ali’s remarks (clip and reactions) | | 13:53 | Libby Emmons: Cultural exclusion and backlash | | 16:48 | Will Chamberlain: 5th Circuit immigration ruling| | 21:34-25:41| Mark Matson’s American Dream story | | 29:16 | Charlie Kirk: faith, family, the right path | | 31:15 | Andrew Colvett on disruptive viewership success | | 35:41 | Mark Matson on money, purpose, fulfillment |

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Overall Tone and Language

The episode is unapologetically conservative, celebratory of American tradition, and direct in its critiques of progressive takes on identity. The conversation combines culture-war rhetoric with personal stories, appeals to faith, and practical financial advice—creating an assertive, optimistic, and combative stance in the ongoing debate about America’s future.

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For listeners seeking insight into how conservative cultural activists view the Super Bowl’s symbolic role in the “culture war,” this episode provides a vivid, personality-driven analysis—interwoven with perspectives on immigration, national unity, and building a purposeful life in America.

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. You gotta stop sending your kids to college. 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. Most important decision I ever made in my life. And I encourage you to do the same. Here I am, Lord.

[Mark Matson]

Use me.

[Charlie Kirk]

Buckle up, everybody.

[Will Chamberlain]

Here we go.

[Charlie Kirk]

The Charlie Kirk show is proudly sponsored by Preserve Gold, the the leading gold and silver experts and the only precious metals company I recommend to my family, friends and viewers.

[Andrew Colvett]

All right, welcome back. Hour two of the Charlie Kirk show is underway. We have two amazing guests for this segment. Libby Evans, she's the editor in chief, the Post, Millennial and Human Events. Of course, you know her. She's been here before. And Will Chamberlain, senior counsel at Article 3 Project. So welcome to both of our amazing guests. I'm just gonna. The floor is yours. We're gonna start with ladies first here, though. Will Libby, you wrote a piece this morning for Human Events, and you said TPA's all American halftime show proves you can just do things. So I just want to get your. We're kind of taking a little bit of a victory lap shamelessly here because we were blown away at just how successful last night was, but give you guys the opportunity to reflect on what just happened.

[Libby Emmons]

Yeah, I think you should be shameless in your self. Congratulations on this one. And everyone else is congratulating you too. It's really quite an accomplishment. It was very impressive. I was impressed. Six million plus people watching concurrent at one point. I think now it's got well over 20 million views, something like that. So it's really quite impressive. And it really was a triumph because there are a lot of people who were not able to. Excited to see the Bad Bunny halftime show and bringing together, you know, artists who are celebrating America and who are specifically not leaving people out, which I think is a really huge thing. Like it. It's actually one of the more inclusive rock shows that I've seen. It's a. It was something that said, hey, America, like this one's for you. We're here for you. And I respected that and appreciated it, especially when you looked at the, you know, you can compare. You can draw so many comparisons. Was doing in terms of inclusivity and what Bad Bunny was doing in terms of exclusivity.

[Andrew Colvett]

Hmm. Will, do you agree that we had the more inclusive of the two show. I didn't know I was going to be, you know, debating on those. Those lines, but what's your take, Will?

[Will Chamberlain]

I mean, I suppose it's more inclusive among Americans because everything was in English, so at least I could understand it. I thought it was great. I mean, I'm not even a country music buffer or anything, but I just enjoy the music. I thought it was really good. Thought it was impre. The production was really impressive. I thought the fact you had. I mean, the sheer number of people you managed to get to watch, I feel like that's just been understated here. I mean, 6 million live, 25 million something total views. That's not just individuals, that's households, too. That's a huge bite out of people who would have been watching ads because, I mean, the other thing I noticed, because I actually watched after the super bowl was over, my wife wanted to watch the original show. So we watched the comparison. The original. The main halftime show is much shorter because obviously there's ads they're selling before and after it. So really you're just. You're confiscating a huge amount of ad revenue or. Or rather eyeballs from these advertisers and all the attention as well. Like, I mean, normally in the super bowl, you get some attention to the more prominent or interesting ads. The entire discussion today is about your super bowl show. So. And the people who got the best promotion out of it were the artists who performed at your show. So I think it's a remarkable achievement. And hopefully it's just a time for the rest of Hollywood and the sort of LA industry music types to realize that there's an audience that the audience of people who watch football would like to see their halftime show. In English, please.

[Andrew Colvett]

Yeah, well, and just to clarify on the numbers, so if Benny gave us some notes, Benny Johnson, last segment, he said that we should have consolidated all the YouTube streams into one. Fair enough. I think, Blake, your counterpoint is good, though. We had a lot of people that got to partner with us on this and wanted this to succeed. So we had a coalition of the willing sort of thing. But yeah, if you combine all the live streams, it was actually over 10 million, which would have probably been the number one live stream of all time. If not like, just slightly, barely, by an edge. Number two of all time on YouTube alone. That's just on YouTube alone. I'm not counting Rumble. I'm not talking broadcast partners. I'm not talking OTT fast channels. So, yeah, I mean, we're looking probably to your point, Will, when you add up households and people viewing together, Nielsen will typically put a 2.5x on that number. So we're probably looking at 40 to 50 million eyeballs. That was on that. The super bowl has an audience of about 125 million. So you. Yeah, that's a huge, huge dent. And we pulled that off in about two months. So hats up to the team and to the artists that performed. And. Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, Libby, the reason I thought of you this morning is because some people don't know this about your background, but you come from the arts. You come from the media world, the performing arts world, and you are an artist at heart. You really are one of those artists that made it out of the malaise of the urban core. And now you're proudly Americana. And one of the things, if you know Libby Emmons, all you realize that when you ask her, like, what's your family ethnicity? Or back, she goes, I'm American. You might be the most American American that there is, Libby. And so just one final note on this, and then I have a couple other topics I want to hit with you guys. But what does it mean to be American? Is Puerto Rico America? Is it just another country? Is it a colony? I know he's got a passport. That's not what I'm asking. But what does it mean? And what is our culture that we're sort of, like, defending here?

[Libby Emmons]

Yeah, I mean, American culture is very broad. There's a lot of pieces to it. And I think if you look back at past super bowl halftime shows, you see something that's much more American than this prince. I'm thinking Michael Jackson, Madonna. You know, I think the Rockettes were there one time. Chubby Checker. You know, this is a lot more of what we're looking at. This is a shared culture that we have. And Puerto Rico is part of America for sure. So is Guam. So is lots of places. Perhaps Greenland someday. You know, we have a lot of territories. We're a big, massive empire, and that's awesome. But Puerto Rican culture is niche culture. Right? It's not part of our shared culture. It's not something that we are all part of and as the NFL pursued their vision of having a Spanish only halftime show, I couldn't help but think of all of the other Americans who don't speak speak Spanish. And I'm not just talking about people like me, you know, basic white Americans. I'm thinking of Chinese Americans. I'm thinking of Korean Americans, Filipino Americans. You know, people who have come from other places, kept their own language, still have that, and also have learned English. Lingua franca. Right? This is a concept that we have in America where English is the language we all speak. English is the language where we all come together and do our government business and all of the rest of it. And so that is really a huge part of our culture, is our shared language. Spanish is spoken by a bunch of people. It's still niche. It's not our shared language. You know, I studied Spanish for three years. I've got nonka or whatever the word is. Nada. I don't even know. Right. Like, it's a problem. So. So I think that that's a big deal. Being American is about sharing our culture. It's about speaking English. That's certainly part of it. We all share that. It's about being big and loud and boisterous and. And loving this country. And that's. Those are things that I love about, you know, I love about our country. And the Bad Bunny halftime show, which, like, Will, I went back and watched. I was way too excited for the Turning Point show to sit and watch the Bad Bunny show and come back later for Turning Point, so I definitely made that switch. But looking at the Bad Bunny halftime show, there were a bunch of things about it that were oppositional to American culture. And that was really too bad. You know, you had a big sign and they had a bodega, fake bodega up there that said, you know, we accept ebt. Why? Why is that what we're doing at the Super Bowl?

[Andrew Colvett]

Hey, yay.

[Libby Emmons]

You know, sucking up.

[Unidentified Male Guest]

Authenticity. They needed authenticity.

[Libby Emmons]

They had this sugar cane stuff, which is very, you know, it's talking about how America is imperialist and there are a lot of different elements that. Yeah, yeah.

[Unidentified Male Guest]

Speaking of anti American sentiment, we wanted to throw this in. This went extremely viral over the weekend, but people were a bit distracted by the Super Bowl. And we'll play it and we'll discuss in the next segment. We had this commentary from Democrat Representative Jean Wu. Born in China, immigrant to America. Basically just saying, guys, we should all unite and get whitey. Let's play. Clip 299.

[Andrew Colvett]

I always tell people the day the Latino, African American, Asian and other communities realize that they are. That they share the same oppressor is the day we start winning. Because we are the majority in this country now. We are. We. We have the ability to take over this country and to do what is needed for everyone and to make things fair.

[Unidentified Male Guest]

I want to be blunt. He should get his citizenship taken away and he should be kicked back to China.

[Mark Matson]

Screw you.

[Unidentified Male Guest]

That is disgusting. Like, the thought that that person is in Congress should make every single person in America shudder. Of all races. Like that. That exists. Utterly repulsive.

[Andrew Colvett]

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[Charlie Kirk]

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[Andrew Colvett]

All right, guys, after you saw this Representative Wu clip, which was, I totally agree with Blake, one of the more obscene, repulsive statements I've ever seen. But it reminded me of this other really obscene, repulsive statement. It was a few weeks ago, maybe a few months ago from Wajahat Ali. I think I said that right. Cut. 300. You have lost. You lost. The mistake that you made is you let us in in the first place. See, that's the thing with brown people. And I'm going to say this as a brown person. There's a lot of us like a lot.

[Will Chamberlain]

And we breed.

[Andrew Colvett]

We're a breeding people. Your story is a story filled with misery. It's filled with bland chicken. It's filled with terrible, terrible dry meat. Your music sucks. All your culture sucks. Nobody. That's why the kids listen to black people in their music. That's why the kids love Latinos. Your parties suck because they're monochromatic. Our parties have better food, better music, better looking women.

[Unidentified Male Guest]

And now imagine that guy got elected to Congress and said that we need to overthrow all of the oppressors. And then we have Jean Woo.

[Andrew Colvett]

Yeah. And then you get our halftime shows celebrating foreign flags, traipsing around all on our biggest stage. It all starts to feel like a big up yours to people like us. Am I interpreting this wrong? Go ahead, Will.

[Will Chamberlain]

Yeah, well, I mean, the thing about the Bad Bunny show, I don't know if you guys hit on this in previous segments. The way he said God bless America, but then the framing was he's talking America, the hemisphere America, the continents. And so we need to only, you know, you only God bless America only makes sense in the context of praising every single country in the hemisphere. Okay. You're part of our country, right? This is the idea. You're supposed to be proud to be an American and yet the only way you're proud of it is in the same context as every other country. So you think we're totally. We're just basically an unexceptional melting pot here for your economic exploitation. This doesn't sound like much of a great deal. And you know, when I hear Jean Wu and, well, particularly Wajahat Ali talking about how much we suck, I'm like, well, clearly we should just denaturalize and deport you as a favor to you. I mean, you're so miserable here. We just are, you know, might as well send you back to Pakistan or wherever it is where you can be much happier and much enjoy all your delicious food and beautiful women. That will be. We horrible white people are just not in a position to enjoy.

[Andrew Colvett]

Totally. Go ahead. Go ahead, Libby.

[Libby Emmons]

No, that, that was the other piece, Will, that you were just bringing up. You brought up the halftime show and bringing that back around to Wajahad Ali and Jean Wu. There was definitely a piece of this whole, you know, Puerto Rican festival that hates America that was telling Americans and this is not for you. We are here taking over your stage, but this is not for you. We're not going to speak your language if you try and dress like us. That's cultural appropriation. If you like Puerto Rican trap house music, whatever, that's cultural appropriation. So we're going to exhibit ourselves and let you watch it. But it's behind glass. You can't be part of it. And I thought that was really revolting as well. And this whole Wajahat Ali or Jean.

[Will Chamberlain]

Woo.

[Libby Emmons]

Like, go home. You know, like you're saying, andrew, just go home. Like, if your country is so much better, then why do you keep pushing for everybody to come here if it's so terrible? And I would put my grandmother's chicken up against anybody else's chicken in the whole world, I will tell you that. Because that's ridiculous. New Jersey took Italian food and made it good. You know what I'm saying? Like, Italian food is good or whatever, but it's not Jersey.

[Will Chamberlain]

Come on.

[Libby Emmons]

It's ridiculous.

[Andrew Colvett]

I totally agree. By the way, my grandma's Italian cooking. Oh, boy. That was. That is top notch stuff. Yeah. Up there. Anyways, so I'm going to pivot here.

[Libby Emmons]

I don't like it. What are you doing? Like, what are you doing?

[Andrew Colvett]

Yeah, but why are these same people, these ankle biters are so miserable?

[Unidentified Male Guest]

If you hate it, why? Well, I want to answer that. The dark thing. Like, if you hate it, why are you here? Well, he's advocating let's all team up to dispossess the people we hate. That is what he's saying. He's saying these, like, what Gene Wu was saying is these white people who are descended from the people who founded America were dumb enough to let us in. Let's take power from them and take their stuff. That is what he is saying. Well, and that's why he should be kicked out.

[Libby Emmons]

You don't have a democracy if it's not for America creating this democracy. You don't have, like, all of the amazing capitalist enterprise. You don't have the bounty of our supermarkets. Like, do you walk into our supermarkets? You see what we have access to every day in our sweatpants? Like, this is insane. Nowhere else has this. Our women are free. If you want to be gay, you could be gay. You're totally free to do that. You can do pretty much whatever you want in this country so long as you don't squash the rights of others. And Ali and Wu want to squash everybody else's rights. They're not satisfied to just be part of this amazing thing that we have all created. They're not satisfied with that. They want to destroy it. And so that they're the only ones who have any rights. And that's insane. That's so un American as to be. Yeah, treasonous.

[Andrew Colvett]

I love what you're saying. And I think this ties in. Will. There was an important. I think it was First Court of Appeals, First Circuit. That Fifth Circuit.

[Mark Matson]

Fifth Circuit.

[Andrew Colvett]

The Fifth Texas. All right, so there was a really important ruling that plays into this whole conversation. Can you just make sure that our audience understands it? Because I don't want us to miss. This is a big story.

[Will Chamberlain]

Yeah. So the question is, if you're an illegal alien who crossed the border legally and you're found in the United States by ice, the question is, do you get bond or not? And the answer from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals is yes. In fact, sorry, no. The answer is no, you don't get bond anymore. And this was contrary to the rulings of something like 300 district court judges. But in my view, it's the correct textual decision. The context of this decision is enormous because many ICE detention facilities are in the Fifth Circuit. And the only way to challenge this is through habeas corpus. And you can only file habeas corpus petitions in the district where you're detained. So what this means is if you're an illegal alien and you are caught and you never presented yourself at a port of entry, then if you're caught by ice, that's it, you're done. You get to go straight. You can either sit in immigration detention while your lawyers file frivolous claims trying to get you to stay, or you can just take the first flight home up to you. But there's no more getting out on bond and just sort of waiting for things to play out and dragging things along. And this means that one, you'll have a lot more people give up their legal challenges because if they have to sit in immigration detention while those challenges are ongoing, it's a lot less appealing to just let you know, months, years go by while to play it out. And then second, you'll start to see a lot more self deportation because if you, if people realize that if ICE finds them, that's it, they don't get to go back home and pack up their things. They're just gone. That's a big deal in terms of making self deportation a more attractive option.

[Andrew Colvett]

Yeah, I love that you call it one of the most important decisions, judicial decisions of the year of Trump's Trump 2.0. So this is a big, big story, guys. Gives DHS a lot more power to deport illegals. Libby Emmons, Wilt Chamberlain. Thank you guys so much. Hi, folks. Andrew Colvett here. I'd like to tell you about my friends over at Yrefi. 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. Why Refi 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. Why? Refi can help. Just go to yrefi.com, that's the letter Y. Then refi.com and remember why Refi doesn't care what your credit score is. Just go to yrefi.com and tell them you. Your friend Andrew sent you. I am very excited about this because I had dinner with this gentleman not too long ago and learned so much about him. His heart for this country, his heart for what we do here at Turning Point is second to none. Mark Matson, founder and CEO of Matson Money, author of Experiencing the American Dream. And there's a good subtitle to this. How to invest your time, energy and money to create an extraordinary life. And the subtitle to me is really important because if I. And the four words by Rob Lowe, by the way, it's just fantastic. If I had to describe what made Charlie so extraordinary, that subtitle is probably one of the ways I would do it. Obviously, his faith in Jesus Christ, his love of country, his just his energy. But how to invest your time, energy and money to create an extraordinary life. That is the perfect descriptor of Charlie Kirk, because he did it in 31 years. Everything that he did and the amazing success that we had last night with the halftime show was all. It's all downstream impacts of his life. And so anyways, welcome to the. Welcome to the set, my friend.

[Mark Matson]

Great to be with you.

[Andrew Colvett]

Yeah.

[Mark Matson]

Yeah.

[Andrew Colvett]

So why don't you. Okay. Got to start here.

[Mark Matson]

All right.

[Andrew Colvett]

You went a little viral yesterday because you were. You were just pumped about the halftime show. Tell us about that first.

[Mark Matson]

Well, I was. I mean, obviously I wasn't interested in watching Bad Bunny and super psyched about the show to begin with, so I just jumped on. I had my wife, I gave her my cell phone. I got in front of our TV screen in our living room, and I'm like, okay, let's go. We got an alternative. If you love America, if you love this country, you love country music, which I do, and my family does. You know, Melissa made her gold star, awesome chili. And we Were going to sit down, watch. Watch the show turn. When the halftime show came on and we watched it, it was so good. We watched it during the halftime and then after the game, which was a kind of a crappy game, we also watched. We watched it again after the game, and it was just. We cried, we laughed, we loved it.

[Andrew Colvett]

I want to play it again just because I think it was so powerful. And this is this moment from Kid Rock. I just looked during the break, and it is by far the most viral clip and.222. We'll just play it again just because it's. It's wonderful.

[Charlie Kirk]

There's a book that's sitting in your house somewhere that could use some dusting off. There's a man who died for all.

[Libby Emmons]

Our sins hanging from the cross. You can give your life to Jesus.

[Andrew Colvett]

And he'll give you a second chance till you can't. Yeah, I wish it would keep going, to be honest. Like I said. Chills every time.

[Mark Matson]

I got him, too.

[Andrew Colvett]

Yeah, I got him, too. It was amazing, but it wasn't. It wasn't in your face. It wasn't like, too over the top. It was just mostly great music, zero agenda. But I think it was a really important moment for the culture and. And for the country.

[Mark Matson]

Well, I, you know, look, we live in the greatest country that has ever existed on the face of the planet during any time in previous history. It's. This is. That's part of the American dream my dad built into me. And I've spent a lot of time thinking about people that have the American dream as a screen by which they live their life versus the. The opposite. And I learned it. We were born in West Virginia. I was born in West Virginia, and my grandpa worked the coal mines and the factories there, the chemical factories. And my dad and my, My. This is when Rob. Rob Lowe helped me write the beginning of the book. He says, you got to put your family story in there because it really hits. And my dad eventually got out of the hollers and he believed this was the great country, that if you worked hard, that if you were industrious, if you created value for other people. And he would always tell me, from a low age, young age of like 8 years old, no one owes you anything. And you don't get anything in this world until you create value for other people.

[Will Chamberlain]

And.

[Mark Matson]

And so I always was like, well, then how did the rest of my family get help, you know, left back in the hollers? And it's because they had a completely different screen they believed that they were victims. They believe they were entitled. They felt sorry for themselves. They lived a very jealous life of other people, you know, and so you have these two screens. The American dream as a great country of opportunity and hard work and faith. And then you have this other. This other negative, self, victim, victimization, entitlement. And so the book largely talks about how you can get rid of one screen, create the other screen, and then create massive amount of opportunity, relationships, creativity, expression.

[Andrew Colvett]

So why don't you tell the audience what you did with yourself? So you were raised in West Virginia in a. At a pretty hardscrabble, like, you know, blue collar, at least you could say background. And yet, I mean, I know a thing or two about what you've done with your life, but tell our audience.

[Mark Matson]

Yeah, so I always wondered, you know, a lot of kids want to grow up and be like, football and baseball players and athletes and. My dad sold insurance and was a financial planner. And I was a weird kid. I wanted to grow up, be just like my dad. So I got a degree in finance, a degree in accounting for Miami University, went to work at 21 as a financial planner, started selling insurance products, mutual funds, commissions, all that stuff, doing what the big broker dealer told me to do. And after about four years of doing that, I knew that most people were being taken advantage of because stock picking and market timing and track record investing were really just gambling with people's money. And I went out and I started my own company when I was 27 years old with $30,000 in debt and an overhead projector and a yellow pad. That's all we had back then. No Internet, no technology, no smartphones. And then Today we have $13.8 billion that we manage for investors all over the United States. With a B? Yeah, with a B. Yes, sir.

[Andrew Colvett]

That's a little bit of cash there.

[Mark Matson]

We worked hard.

[Andrew Colvett]

Yeah.

[Mark Matson]

Started from zero.

[Andrew Colvett]

And you're based here locally?

[Mark Matson]

Yeah, we're based in Scottsdale.

[Andrew Colvett]

Yeah. That's amazing. I mean, so you have been a fan of Charlie's for a while. We almost got you guys together. Right. But I mean, that's one of the. One of these in a long list of tragic things that almost happened. And you know, that didn't because he was taken from us. What was it about Charlie that drew you to him? Because I know, again, I've had dinner with you, so I know the backstory here, but just maybe explain what it was about Charlie that was unique.

[Mark Matson]

Well, I love the way that he spoke out for what he believed and it was courageous and it was loving. You know, I think about a lot of the people that I work with in the financial world, complain about kids and even kids, I'll say kids in College. I'm 62, so I can say kids in college, but they didn't do anything about it. Yes, they were being woke. Yes, they were being turned into communists. I'll say it. Yes, they were being destroyed. Yes. You know, they were believing that you shouldn't even talk about God. So. But his courage to talk about his faith and Jesus Christ as his savior, and then his courage to go on a campus, a college campus, and starting up, not with tons of money, just a card table and a folding chair. I mean, that kind of courage and to build a coalition that actually changes, impact the world. Even though he's so much younger than me, he's a hero of mine. And I just, and I'm kind of a role model and my family experienced. I was supposed to meet him the week after he was martyred. I was on a, I was doing a zoom call with some of our investors and I said that shortly after he was assassinated that he was martyred. And one of the clients from the Seattle area put a post it up and said he was not a martyr. And I said, you know what, we'll just agree to disagree on this. And he, the guy jumped off of the, the feed and then I'm pretty sure he had about $2 million, you know, and he, I think he moved the $2 million and I don't care. You know, when, when I watched and it's something, something snapped in me, you know, money, money management company, you're trying not to alienate people and so forth. And when, when they attempted the first time to assassinate Donald Trump and I'm watching this rally with him and he gets shot and he jumps back up and he says, fight, fight, fight. And my 10 year old son says, daddy, what's going to happen to this country? And I thought, Mark, you've been a coward. You haven't been taking a stand for what you really believe. And I thought about Charlie and that day I made a post about that I supported Donald Trump. He had my support and that I gave, I was going to give and I did give $100,000 to Super PAC to help promote his presidency. And that really opened up my voice to talk about such great men like Charlie that are just a strong stand for saving this country. And it's not just a fight for the American dream for Charlie, I think, and for me it's a fight for Western culture and Western civilization.

[Andrew Colvett]

Well, it sounds Mark. I mean, God bless you for your courage. If we had more titans of business and finance that had your courage, this would be a much better country. So thank you for taking a stand. And it seems like you're living up to some of the words of one of your heroes, Charlie Kirk. This played at the halftime show last night.

[Charlie Kirk]

304 I want to honor God in all that I do. I want to be a great husband, a great father. I want to serve this country. I want to try to continue to lead this movement and to speak truth and to never lie. To stop thinking about yourself all the time and said think about what you should do to help other people and to defend this country above yourself. I'm so inspired. This army of freedom fighters, we're going to be around for the next hundred, two hundred years because we know in the end our ideas will win. God should be the most important thing in your life. But then beyond that, it's getting married, having children, building families. My kids are my most important thing in my world. My wife, my kids, my relationship. Top three things and the more often that you choose the deep, the difficult. But the right path over the easy path is one that will reward you, your family and this beautiful nation.

[Andrew Colvett]

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[Charlie Kirk]

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[Andrew Colvett]

Lenders to tighten up their policies. Here's what you need to do. Schedule a free consultation. There's no pressure and it only takes a few minutes share who you owe and they'll tell you if this is the moment you could see a major reduction in your debt. Imagine waking up without that weight on your shoulders and doing it without taking out another loan or filing for bankruptcy. Done with debt helps you through the debt relief process so you keep more of your paycheck every month. Go to donewithdebt.com right now. That's donewithdebt.com you proved it was possible to take on the juggernaut. You proved that the machine does not always win. And yeah, maybe they got more viewer, but that's not the point, guys. We, we probably. I'm just saying 40 to 50 million people on a night where, you know, 125, 227 million people are expected to have turned tuned in to that show. And then you get 40 or 50, that's a shot across the bat. That is literally earth shattering, tectonic shifting kind of stuff. So thank you again to everybody in this audience that spread the word that tuned in, that changed the channel and said, hey, we love our country and we love our God, and that's okay. There's no hate, no agenda. We just wanted to watch something that reflected our values. And so this is a day for you. We basically devoted the whole show to it because I want everybody to understand what just happened. It was that extreme, that important, that big. But like, I don't know if you.

[Unidentified Male Guest]

Yeah, it was. Well, it was, it was just, it was classic. It. It really is perpetuating Charlie's vision, not just in what he cared about, but in his ambition to try something really gutsy and on a very short turnaround time. As, as we learned, yes, there was a lot of drama behind the scenes, like, can we actually do this in the time span required? And you know, Charlie would bowl through all of that. I love telling that story of when we put that Nebraska event together in a week, in, in six days and the similar deal here. They turned around a, you know, the large. This, the largest entertainment YouTube livestream that we've ever seen in a matter of weeks. Essentially, they took over a lot of the storyline from the NFL on basically the biggest public sporting event of the year.

[Andrew Colvett]

We drank their milkshake, as they say in a movie. I want to play one clip here for you, and I feel like it's tied in. It's a, it's a partner of the show, Hillsdale, but like Charlie's favorite college. And I think it ties into your personal story and what you're trying to do too. So I'm going to play it here. I think this should have been one of the top 10 ads according to ad week and whatever. You know how they rate them all. It was a beautiful spot from Hillsdale. We played it in the all American halftime show stream. Check it out. 290. It's a minute long. And then we'll have Mark react on the other side. 290.

[Libby Emmons]

I see him speak. I see him lead. I see him.

[Andrew Colvett]

What concrete steps can I take now in order to achieve the goal of doing my part to make America great again?

[Charlie Kirk]

You should go to Hillsdale College. America's greatest college.

[Will Chamberlain]

So I just. I listen to your podcast.

[Andrew Colvett]

I'm taking Hillsdale online courses.

[Charlie Kirk]

That's what I'm talking about. I love it.

[Will Chamberlain]

How do I grow?

[Charlie Kirk]

I'm on pace to complete every single Hillsdale Online course.

[Andrew Colvett]

So that the backstory on that, it was a complete riff off of the be like Mike 1990s viral commercial. And, you know, the folks over at Hillsdale think Charlie is like the MJ of Hillsdale of learning, of, you know, he was proudly an autodidact. He didn't go to school. He learned all this stuff. He took the classes. He took it seriously. And I. And I wanted. I thought the tie in made a lot of sense to me because you are somebody that is bringing all these people in saying, hey, you can actually live out the American dream. You can do this. You can be a victor, not a victim. And that was a central core of Charlie's message.

[Mark Matson]

Yeah, I think so. I love this. I love this clip. And it reminds me of. I talk about in the book that money can't make you happy, which is an odd thing for someone who is a money manager to say. But when I was very young, I had one client with 5 million. She was very miserable. She was worried about the economy, worried about her money getting stolen, worried about everything. And then I had another client with about 5,500,000, and she was just delightful. She gave to charities. She had great relationships. And I said, well, my life at 25, when I discovered this would be very diminished or maybe even wasted if I spent my whole life just helping people get more money. But it actually didn't make them happy. And then I started on a journey. Why doesn't it make people spend so much of their life trying to get more money? Why? It doesn't make them happy. And the reason it doesn't make them happy is because it's temporary. You know, you get something new, a new house, a new car, toyo you just have a commercial. Oh, what a feeling. And it feels good for a little while, but then you start comparing that to new things. You know, the new cell phone, the new laptop, the new bubble driver, the new pair of shoes and other, you're never going to have the most money, you're never going to have the most power, you're never going to have the most fame. So as a result, when you chase those things and the default position for money is more money. And that's why people end up speculating and gambling with their money. And what I teach them to do in class is let's discover a purpose and define a purpose that's more important than money itself. And then once we have that purpose, people with the purpose, they live longer, they have better relationships, they, they have better health. Health, they, they have more fulfilling lives. I mean purpose, there's a whole science, a brain science to purpose. And there's no greater purpose than having a relationship with Jesus Christ. And so I teach people how to define their purpose. And then once you have your purpose, then let's talk about how you should invest your money to fulfill on that purpose. And if people get it turned the other way around and twisted the other way around, then they end up gambling and hurting themselves and money becomes a burden and not a blessing.

[Andrew Colvett]

Yeah, well, and this was like, this is just to be clear to the folks at home, this is not some promotional spot. But I mean, we just want to talk to you because you are an embodiment of the American dream. But if people do want to get involved in what you're doing, where do they go? What do you offer? I mean, you are a, I'm just going to say it, you have been successful financially, you've built a business, you were living the American dream. But you offer some, you offer purpose or at least finding purpose. You, you've seen it go bad and seen it, seen people do it right. So how do people plug into what you're doing?

[Mark Matson]

And yeah, thanks, Andrew. Yeah, they're. One thing is you can get my book, it's called Experiencing the American Dream. It's, you can get it anywhere online. You can also, if you like to listen, you can, you can get it on audible. That's a great place to start. I also have a two day workshop called the American Dream Experience. And in that workshop we help, we work people through something I call breakthrough thinking. There's the things they know about investing, there's things they don't know, they don't, that they want to learn about. But where the breakthrough thinking comes is in the area of where they don't know. They don't know. And we teach them that there is an academic, empirically tested way to invest money that eliminates gambling.

[Andrew Colvett]

So you get pretty technical, but you also get kind of ask the more philosophical questions as well.

[Mark Matson]

Yeah. And help break through the no talk rule. Most people have a no talk rule about money and I created it for families. So it's a two day workshop where couples usually attend. Sometimes they bring their kids if they're high school or above. And we spend two days talking about.

[Andrew Colvett]

So many people just need that. Yeah.

[Mark Matson]

And it's, it's a great time.

[Andrew Colvett]

Yeah. No, that's huge. I mean, money is kind of that no go zone. And so when you break that down and you invite people that to go where they're not supposed to, like the forbidden fruit kind of thing, you know, I bet it's really, I bet it's really a relief for a lot of people. Mark Matson, Matson Money. You are living the American dream. So God bless you. Thanks for sharing that message and for your courage.

[Mark Matson]

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