Best of the Program | Guest: Brad Meltzer | 6/24/26

Summary

The Glenn Beck Program — "Best of the Program"

Guest: Brad Meltzer
Air Date: June 24, 2026

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Episode Overview

This "Best of" broadcast on The Glenn Beck Program explores major questions of American economic ideology, the dynamics at play in modern U.S. politics and culture, and the power of American example during the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Glenn starts with a spirited explanation of capitalism vs. socialism, driven by his concerns over rising socialism in New York politics. The episode features extensive reflections on American identity and immigration, illustrating how visitors to the U.S. encounter the real country behind the caricature. The highlight is a rich conversation with best-selling author Brad Meltzer about his new children's book, "I Am Teddy Roosevelt," examining Roosevelt's complex legacy and why his example still matters.

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Key Discussion Points

1. Explaining Capitalism vs. Socialism: The "Pencil Story"

(Start: 00:30 — 16:00)

• Beck's Frustration with Political Education: Glenn laments the lack of clear, teachable explanations about capitalism and socialism, especially as socialism gains traction in politics.

• The "Pencil Story" (Eye, Pencil):
  Glenn uses the classic economic parable to illustrate the decentralized miracles of capitalism:

  • No one person or planner knows how to make a pencil: its components come from all over the world.
  • “No one was in charge. There is no pencil czar. There’s no Department of Pencils in a marble building deciding how much graphite Sri Lanka needs to mine this year.” (Glenn Beck, 05:16)
  • The market’s “invisible hand”—through pricing and the distributed knowledge of millions—coordinates action better than any central planner.

• Friedrich Hayek’s Insight: Hayek argued that the information needed to run an economy is dispersed; central planning cannot match this collective intelligence.

• The Socialism Critique:

  • When power is centralized, genuine local knowledge gets overridden.
  • “A man, a man who can take your living can make you say almost anything. He can make you applaud until your hands bleed when all you want to do is weep.” (Glenn Beck, 14:53)

• Owning the Critique of Markets:

  • Beck acknowledges the flaws: markets don’t price everything (e.g., clean air, dignity).
  • “You don’t put out a house fire by knocking the house down. You build the thing the market can’t: the rule of law…a fence at the edge of the cliff.” (Glenn Beck, 13:18)
  • But he argues the answer isn’t destroying what has historically lifted people out of poverty.

• Conclusion:

  • “Capitalism at its best, says something much humbler and a whole lot more radical: nobody’s that wise. Not the king, not a committee, not a computer, not the man with the spreadsheet and the very sincere face, not Mother Teresa, nobody.” (Glenn Beck, 16:44)

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2. The World Cup and the American Example

(19:00 — 34:00)

• Unexpected World Cup Enthusiasm:
  Glenn, a self-confessed soccer skeptic, is surprised by how the 2026 World Cup has highlighted American values and hospitality to the world’s visitors.

• Firsthand Impressions from Visitors:

  • Clip of Boston locals and Scottish fans celebrating the camaraderie and energy in the city.
  • “Stay here. Never leave. Dude, this is New Glasgow now. Don’t leave.” (Boston resident, 19:30)

• American Hospitality:

  • Visitors are struck by everyday kindness: small talk, open neighborhoods, a sense of safety, and patriotism.
  • “Nobody on this planet can come even close to the amount of patriotism Americans have, especially American South.” (Visitor, 30:23)
  • “No 10 foot fences. No rabid people trying to burgle, rape and murder the citizens in Washington.” (Visitor, 31:27)

• Political Co-opting of Soccer's Success:

  • Glenn criticizes how the Wall Street Journal and Senator John Cornyn tried to twist the U.S. Soccer Team’s success into an argument about immigration, using misleading statistics about the team’s makeup.
  • “Six of the 26 players on the roster were born outside the United States. Technically true, but birthplace is not the real question now, is it?” (Glenn Beck, 21:05)
  • Beck breaks down the numbers, revealing that only one actual immigrant is on the team, pushing back on narratives of open-borders advocacy.

• Cultural Takeaway:

  • The real story is the world discovering an America different from the one in negative foreign media.
  • Glenn positions the American way—not government decree, but living by example—as the real agent of global change.
  • “The way to change the world is live the example…people will notice and they’ll say, my gosh, we got to be more like that. What makes them special. That’s how you take real freedom…and share them with the world.” (Glenn Beck, 32:30)

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3. Immigration, American Identity, and "The Golden Door" Documentary

(28:52 — 34:00)

• Statue of Liberty’s Poem: Beck plays a segment about “The New Colossus” and its historical meaning as an invitation to dreamers, fighters, and seekers of freedom.

• Debate over Immigration:

  • Glenn voices a hardline stance: “It was never intended to be a suicide pact. And that’s why I say this with zero, apology zero new immigration. Until we can get this right, because you, you can’t understand immigration if you first don’t understand its purpose.” (Glenn Beck, 29:03)
  • Emphasis on citizenship as a commitment, not entitlement.

• Teaser for Upcoming Documentary:

  • “Golden Door” traces immigrant journeys and their impact.
  • The American success story is open to all who join in good faith.

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4. Brad Meltzer on "I Am Teddy Roosevelt" and the Value of Complexity

(35:27 — 51:46)

• Introduction:

  • Glenn celebrates Meltzer’s new children’s book as perfect for America’s 250th anniversary; highlights their shared enthusiasm for history.

• Teddy Roosevelt’s Contradictions:

  • Both praise and critique Roosevelt’s record—his heroic and problematic aspects.
  • Glenn: “He belongs on Mount Rushmore because he is a giant sized hero. A man like no other.” (35:28)
  • On eugenics: Both acknowledge Roosevelt’s troubling views, contextualizing them historically but not excusing their consequences.

• The Humanity and Flaws of Heroes:

  • Meltzer: “The only person that’s perfect…and everyone else. Take a number, right? We’re all flawed in some way. And Teddy Roosevelt…is maybe the most complicated person we’ve written about.” (Brad Meltzer, 39:59)

• Roosevelt’s Upbringing and Turning Points:

  • Sickly, bullied child who learned to fight back and build resilience.
  • Loss of wife and mother on the same day propelled him to the Dakota Territories, galvanizing his love of the outdoors—a major force in his later conservation efforts.

• Roosevelt’s Enduring Lessons:

  • Resilience: After losses, he rebuilt himself.
  • Conservation: His establishment of national parks and focus on protecting vulnerable things.
  • “Next time you’re in a national park this summer, say a prayer and thank Teddy Roosevelt for that one. And to me, that is the lesson I wanted for my kids—to teach them that love of the great outdoors.” (Brad Meltzer, 46:34)
  • Becoming “a force in nature”—the motto of the new book.

• Anecdotes:

  • Roosevelt’s bulletproof speech: Survived an assassination attempt because the folded speech in his coat slowed the bullet.
  • “I love the fact that a politician is protected by his own words.” (Brad Meltzer, 49:15)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Central Planning:
  “It’s as if you meet the man who flunked the pencil, but you think he’s probably good at running healthcare or lunch for 300 million people.” — Glenn Beck (06:34)

• On Markets & Dignity:
  “A kid born in a dying town with a worn out school…you gonna look him in the eye and tell him you know his reward is tied to his effort when the race was 3/4 run before he put his shoes on? Absolutely fair…So if you want to be honest, where do you land? Well, you don’t burn down the engine that lifted more human beings out of crushing poverty…” — Glenn Beck (11:01)

• On Immigration & America’s Offer to the World:
  “What the players demonstrate is…that people from around the world want to be a part of America. There is so much sleight of hand in this story, it is crazy.” — Glenn Beck (22:21)

• On Living the Example:
  “The way to change the world is live the example. Just live the example…people will notice and want it.” — Glenn Beck (32:30)

• On Roosevelt’s Complexity:
  “Every person we’ve written about is complicated…the only person that’s perfect…is, of course, God. And everyone else, take a number.” — Brad Meltzer (39:59)

• On Resilience:
  “He loses and I love the fact that he won't stay down on the mat and keeps getting back up. That’s why I wrote the kids book for him…” — Brad Meltzer (50:06)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Timestamp | Segment Description | |---------------|----------------------------------------------------------| | 00:30–16:00 | Beck explains capitalism vs. socialism ("Pencil Story") | | 19:00–24:00 | World Cup: Visitors’ impressions, American hospitality | | 21:05–24:38 | Beck deconstructs the immigration narrative/statistics | | 28:52–32:30 | “Golden Door” docu trailer, true meaning of immigration | | 35:27–39:59 | Intro to Brad Meltzer, Teddy Roosevelt intro | | 39:59–47:14 | Meltzer on Roosevelt’s complexity, his legacy | | 47:14–51:46 | Roosevelt anecdotes (speech, resilience, legacy) |

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Tone & Style

The show’s tone is passionate, personal, and irreverently patriotic. Glenn Beck combines wit, earnest appeals, critique of establishment politics, and storytelling. Meltzer brings warmth and humility, focusing on the humanity and contradictions of America’s heroes.

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For Listeners Who Missed the Episode

This episode weaves Glenn Beck’s trademark economic parables and frustration with current political trends into the lived experiences of World Cup visitors rediscovering the American spirit. The candid and heartfelt discussion with Brad Meltzer about Teddy Roosevelt is a reminder that American heroes are both flawed and inspirational—and that learning from their humanity is essential as the nation approaches its 250th year. The episode is a compelling blend of economic theory, current events, and historical storytelling, all centered on what makes—and keeps—Americans special.

Transcript

[Glenn Beck]

Oh, there are so many good highlights from today's show. We can only get to some of them today. I want to start with something that, you know, I started with the fact that New York has just hired a bunch of socialists. They just voted socialist out. Good Democrats, they threw out, you know, and these were all. When I say good Democrats, what do

[Visitor or Fan]

I mean by that?

[Glenn Beck]

I don't know. Don't find it. But people who were like, I led the rally to get Trump out of office. I did all these things. But you're not socialist, are you? Now the socialists are coming in and they're eating their own. And the problem with this is, is no one is teaching in a understandable way what socialism is and what capitalism is. You can't defend it if you can't teach it. And so I modeled how you teach what socialism is and what capitalism is. And I start with the famous pencil story, also the World Cup. I am in love with all the people coming here because they, a. They have a skewed idea. They've been told by their media and their politicians. America, bad America, just a killing field. And then they come here and they're like, oh, my gosh, no, this is much better than our country. And they're expressing it. We're seeing it now because of social media. So I. I talk about that, the world that came to see and now how politicians are twisting because everybody's talking about the World Cup. So let's take a World cup story and make it into immigration. It's what the Wall Street Journal did, and it's a lie. And I exp. Today, also, one of my favorite guests, Brad Meltzer, is with me. He's got a new book out for kids. Perfect for the 250. I am Teddy Roosevelt. Who. And we talk about this. Teddy Roosevelt is one of my favorite presidents and one of my least favorite presidents, because, I mean, I'm. It's weird. I cut him a break, and I don't know if I should cut him a break, but I cut him a break on some really bad stuff. And at the same time, I love him on other things and despise him on the other half of personality. You decide all that and so much more on today's podcast.

[Brad Meltzer]

You're listening to the best of the Glenn Beck Program.

[Glenn Beck]

Okay, I want to help out the homeschoolers. I want to help you out. If you can't defend capitalism, you can't explain why it's better than socialism. Because I'm telling you, we are going to be a socialist Nation if we don't stop this soon. And that is going to require us to be stronger people, better educated people. And there was something that I read when I was a kid, and I. And I think it was eye pencil. I can't. I can't remember exactly. And so I'm going to bastardize it horribly, but I'm holding a pencil, yellow, six sides, little pink eraser at the top. And we've used these our whole life. I mean, you don't know, use them now, but we use them our whole life. Everybody had one, okay? Nobody on Earth, even though you have these, nobody on earth knows how to make this thing. Not me. Not even the man who runs the pencil factory. I mean, he knows what it takes, but he's not the guy doing all of it. Not the CEO, not his best engineer, not the genius three cubicles down who corrects everybody's grammar. Not that guy. It's a pencil the cedar comes from. Comes off a mountain in the Pacific Northwest. It's cut by a steel saw. That steel came from iron ore in Minnesota, smelted with coal, hauled by the rails by people who are long dead, okay? The graphite comes out of the ground in Sri Lanka and it's mixed with clay from Mississippi, the little band up at the top, it used to be copper from Chile, zinc from Canada, the yellow paint, the rubber that never once met a rubber tree in its life. All of these things. Thousands of people on five continents that don't speak the same language, who never met, who probably crossed the street to avoid each other. You know, if they did, all of them, somehow or another, without even knowing it, have conspired to put this perfect little writing machine in a child's hand for less than a quarter. These people couldn't agree on lunch and they built the pencil. And here's the key. No one was in charge. There is no pencil czar. There's no Department of Pencils in a marble building deciding how much graphite Sri Lanka needs to mine this year. Nobody on the planet wakes up at 3 o' clock in the morning in a cold sweat thinking, dear God, does Ohio have enough racer erasers? Nobody does. It just happens. Every day. It's a miracle so ordinary we walk right past it on the way to complain about something. So here's how you explain capitalism and socialism. If no one is smart enough to plan a pencil, Nobody. It doesn't take anybody. It just happens. Who exactly do we figure is smart enough to plan an entire economy? You know this person, right? You meet the man who flunked the pencil. But I think he's probably pretty good on running healthcare or energy or lunch for 300 million people. No, no. There's this economist named Friedrich Hayek. He spent his life on this one idea. The knowledge that it takes to run an economy doesn't live in any one place. It's scattered across millions and billions of heads. It's the welder who can feel a batch of steel running brittle. It's the grocer who notices that young families are starting to move in. And they're starting to move in. And they got all these kids, so I better stock up more diapers. It's the farmer that can read the sky. None of them could write down what they know. They couldn't fill it out in a form, they'd lose the form. But they act on it every single day. And the price tag is how they talk to one another. Copper jumps. And a man in a workshop who has never spent one waking thought on the nation of Chile suddenly figures out we should use less copper. He didn't know why. I don't think he even wants to know why. I don't want to know why. But the number told him, hey, slow down on the copper. Somebody else in the world is using a lot of it and they need it worse than you do right now. So slow down. That message races around the planet at the speed of light without one human being saying, put out the warning on copper.

[Brad Meltzer]

They're not.

[Glenn Beck]

There's not. There's no forum. There's no. There's no phone call. Nobody's scheduling a meeting about it. But then we introduce a central planner, let's just say, best heart in the world. It's Mother Teresa with a PhD and a spreadsheet. And the most sincere Mother Teresa desired to help the poor. And she stands up and she says, we don't need all this messy haggling over prices. I'll decide. I'm going to set the prices. You love me. I love you. You know my heart. We'll just plan it. How hard can it be? And the second Mother Teresa does that, she turns off the lights. She blinds herself to the one thing that is telling everyone what everybody else knew. She's not stupid. She's not greedy. She's been handed the job no human, no computer can pull off, because the information she needs doesn't exist in any form that they can hold. It's in the lives of the welders, in the hands of the farmer's gut. And the. And it dies the instant that you tell them to stop deciding for themselves and wait for the memo. Then the farmer's like, well, I got to tell you, my gut says this, but the memo says, do this. And that's when the breadline happens. Bread lines are real. And it happens the same way every single time. It's. Honestly. It's like a band that only knows one song. That's what socialism is. Because those countries, they were not stuffed with lazy people, evil people, stupid people. The people were the same. We're the same. We're proving it right now. We took one nation and we split it down the middle with a wall. And we waited 40 years like the world's bleakest science fair. East German, West German. Same people, same Beethoven, same grandmother's recipe, same family. Sometimes they were on different sides of the wall. One side became one of the richest places on earth and the other side bugged its own citizens, ran out of coffee and built a wall. Same people. What happened? And by the way, notice which direction people were climbing over that wall. In all of history, all the history of that wall, not one man ever risked the searchlights and the machine. Gu. Sneak into East Germany for shopping or the good food. Pull up a satellite photo of Korea. Tonight, the south of Korea. South Korea. It is a blanket of light. The north is a black hole with one lonely pin prick where the dictator keeps his lamp on. Same people, same mountains, same conditions, one border, one difference. So when somebody tells you socialism just hasn't been done right, ask them, and ask them gently, how many times do we have to see the same movie end the same way before we stop being surprised at the ending? How many times do you go to the moving and moving? Wait, so Jaws, the. The shark was going to eat the swimmers. I didn't see that one coming this time. We've seen it. It ends the same way every time. We own this story on every format. We know. In the end, the dog doesn't make it. So let me. Let me spend a second being the kind of man I always ask you to be and give you the strongest thing the other side says, because I can't just hand you an easy version of the argument. I'm not informing you. I would be flattering you. And I don't want to do that. I hate when I ask a question of ChatGPT or some one of these AIs, and they're like, that is a very smart. Shut up. Just give me the facts, okay? The socialists will look at my pencil and say, beautiful story, Glenn, that's really not I mean, that's really Hallmark movie stuff. It's great. I'm going to cry in the end. Oh, and do you, do you end up together? Okay, but your market made that pencil. And the market can't make a single thing that it can't slap a price tag on. It can't price clean air. It can't price a stable climate. It can't price the quiet dignity of a man who has built something with his own hands so it just ignores them. It runs clean off the cliff with those things and calls it efficiency. Here's the thing about that argument. It's not wrong. And any honest defender of the markets has to own that he's not wrong. And then I could go harder. The wealth doesn't stay polite. It doesn't sit in the corner Glen sipping water. It buys senators. It writes the rules of the very game. It swears it's playing fair. A kid born in a dying town with a worn out school. You're gonna look him in the eye and tell him you know his reward is tied to his effort when the race was 3/4 run before he put his shoes on. Absolutely fair. Absolutely fair. That is correct. So if you want to be honest, where do you land? Well, you don't burn down the engine that lifted more human beings out of crushing poverty than anything else in the entire history of the world. This is why I'm a conservative. You look at the whole situation, you go, what worked? What doesn't. Okay, the engine is good. The corruption is bad. Okay, that's, that's what you have to do. When China and India finally quit trying to plan every single pencil and let the markets breathe, a billion people climbed up out of the kind of poverty that kills your children. A billion. No charity, no revolution, no five year plan ever came close a thousand miles to something like that number. What it did was let ordinary people own things, trade things, keep a little of what they earned. You don't put out a house fire by knocking the house down. You build the thing the market can't. The rule of law. A real shot for that kid. A fence at the edge of the cliff. You build it around the engine, not in place of the engine. And the part that has almost nothing to do with money. When the government owns the work, the government owns the worker. You keep saying, well, the capitalist owns the worker. Well, the government will too, because it's humans that are involved. A man, a man who can take your living can make you say almost anything. He can make you applaud until your hands Bleed when all you want to do is weep. You won't weep, you'll clap because he owns you. In a free economy, if one boss fires you for what you believe, you just walk down the street to the next one. Unless the government is involved. The government is supposed to be the policeman. If a powerful man hates your idea, somebody else prints it. They might even just print it just to make a buck off the controversy. That grubby, profit hungry marketplace is the very same thing that keeps the dissident fed. The freedom of the spirit and freedom of the wallet were never two things. They were always one thing. Wearing two coats. So let me quickly end where I started with the pencil. The reason why this little miracle works, the reason a quarter's worth of cedar and Chilean copper assembles itself in a child's hand with nobody in charge, is that it trusts something that no planner ever can or will. It actually trusts you. It trusts the welder that they've never met, the farmer, the grocer, the grandmother. It trusts that millions of free people, each one knowing one small true thing, will between them. No more than any genius in any capital ever could. Socialism, say, says that the people at the top are wise enough to run your life. Capitalism at its best, says something much humbler and a whole lot more radical. Nobody's that wise. Not the king, not a committee, not a computer, not the man with the spreadsheet and the very sincere face, not Mother Teresa, Nobody. So we'll leave deciding the the only people. Leave it to the only people who actually know, which is all of us, one at a time. And I'd rather live in a country that admits nobody knows how to make this pencil because that's the country that figured out how to make a billion of those pencils and then hand them to the poor more in a minute. This is the best of the Glenn Beck program. Keeping yourself and your family safe means being prepared for situations that can, you know, put you or them in danger. It means being prepared for all the situations you know, even those situations where deadly force is not needed. In fact, it's a real problem. There are more of those than you think. And if you're a gun owner, it's unfortunately easy to think a gun will provide you all the safety it needs. But you never pull a gun unless you're prepared to kill somebody. And I'm, I'm not in all situations, you know, but they can go bad fast. There is a tool for this. It's the burner launcher. It's a non lethal alternative to Safeguarding your home, that will teach somebody a very painful, non lethal lesson. It's legal in all 50 states, no permits or background checks required. And it can be used by all age groups over 18. My kids carry them in their backpacks. You'd be confident that you are prepared to defend yourself against potential threats. Go to burnet.com glenn learn more about it. Try before you buy at a sportsman's warehouse located near you. You can find that location at byrna B Y R N a dot com GLENN. This is the best of the Glenn Beck program. And don't forget, rate us on itunes. All right. There is something really glorious that is happening in America, and I can't believe it's happening with soccer in the World Cup. I mean, I am not interested at all in the World Cup. And finally, I am fascinated, suddenly fascinated by the World Cup. And I think, why is because the world came and they didn't lecture us. They came to play. And somewhere between the kickoff and the final whistle, the people who came to watch, the visitors watching, are discovering something the people who sell them opinions never wanted them to see. They're seeing the actual real America. They arrive here and they have expected to see the caricature, the cruel, broken down, dangerous, you know, cops riding on the hood of a car shooting people. And instead they find a barbecue or a stranger waving to them into a parking space. You know, 70,000 people in a stadium who really don't care, you know, what flag you arrived under. Just, can you play or not? For years these people have been told America is the villain. You don't, you're not gonna like Americans and America's a bad place. Instead, have you noticed how many of them are like, I would live here in a heartbeat. And all because of soccer. Soccer has everybody's attention. And because of that, politicians are reaching for soccer, too. And I was really disgusted yesterday. Before I get to that, let me just play a couple of things that I think are a really cool what people are actually saying about us. Let's play. But let's play. Cut 16, please. Have you got a message for the

[Brad Meltzer]

Scottish fans of Kitten City the last few days?

[Glenn Beck]

Yeah, absolutely. Stay here. Never leave. Dude, this is New Glasgow now. Don't leave. I just want to say thank you

[Another Visitor or Fan]

to the fan base.

[Glenn Beck]

You guys are absolutely electric. You brought an energy to Boston that we've been missing. So thank you very much. And it's now added Scotland to the list of places to visit because you guys are a great crew. Please don't leave. We're Gonna miss you guys when you're gone.

[Another Visitor or Fan]

This was the best thing that happened to this city. These Scots, all these Scots here, man, I love these people in Uncle Fern. I'm saying right now, a year from today, I'm going to Scotland and I'm gonna do videos over there. And I want to have a hell of a time. I'm gonna go for 10, 10 days over there.

[Glenn Beck]

Those are Boston people who are like, I just love these people. And I feel the same way. I don't care. I don't care what country they're from. I don't care what they look like. I don't care what flag. I don't care what team they're rooting. None of it. None of it. They're coming over and they're discovering, I love America and we love them. It's great. It's great. Now let's wreck it with politics. When we started winning, the US Team started winning, the narrative machine kicked into gear. Wall Street Journal now the editorial board has published a piece titled America's Immigrant Soccer Team. And then, of course, the weasel, John Cornyn amplified it, arguing the team's success really reflects America's historically welcoming immigration system. Okay, all right. It's not about soccer. This is all about politics. The article is clearly aimed at the ongoing debate over birthright citizenship and the Supreme Court case that is expected to rule on it. Okay, Soccer is just the vehicle. So let's take their article. Let's count. The Journal noted that six of the 26 players on the roster were born outside the United States. Technically true, but birthplace is not the real question now, is it? The questions. The question is, how many of those players became Americans? Five of those six were born to at least one American parent. So I don't care where you were born, if one of your parents is an American, you get citizenship at birth. That's not immigration in any meaningful sense of the current political debate. That is not being debated. So you remove those five, and you're left with one actual immigrant on the roster. He was born in Mexico. Zendayas. I guess. I don't know. He moved to the United States as a child. He became a citizen when his father was naturalized, when his father stood up, by every public account, lawful, ordinary immigration story, the kind that very few people object to, he stands up and says, I will protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. He takes the test. And every player representing the United States in the World cup has to be a verified American citizen. There's no ambiguity on that one. Yeah. But what about birthright citizenship? Okay, let's count those cases. Maybe you get four. Maybe one born in New York to Nigerian parents before growing up in England. Then you have one. Another one who was born to parents that came from El Salvador in Guatemala. Then you have a couple of others that were born in the United States to foreign born parents whose status at the time is not publicly documented. So I don't know. But if you grant everyone the benefit of the doubt, that's 4 of 26. That's not a quarter of the team. That's not an argument for open borders. What the players demonstrate is something else entirely. Wall Street Journal. That people from around the world want to be a part of America. There is so much sleight of hand in this story, it is crazy. Take a true statement that ambitious people from everywhere strengthen this country, quietly substitute a different claim that border, citizenship, ship and legal distinctions no longer matter. That's what's happening here. You're watching a magic show. They're not the same argument. And then you get John Cornyn coming in. John Cornyn. John Cornyn. Republicans already made their judgment on you in. In 2026. In the primary. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. It was just this year, wasn't it? It seems such a long time ago. He lost his party's nomination. Ken Paxton, 1. Ken won despite being outspent by Cornyn 10 to 1. You couldn't buy the voters. Okay. Why? Because people are done with the Republican establishment and people like John Cornyn. What makes moments like this so striking is here's a politician rejected by his own voters who is still trying to shape a conversation they've moved beyond. Maybe it's conviction, maybe it's habit, maybe. Maybe it's something else.

[Another Visitor or Fan]

Hmm.

[Glenn Beck]

I wonder what that could be. Either way, the larger story is not about one senator. It's about the political and media establishment just making mistakes in volume for influence, for forever. For my whole life, they just assumed they were the referees. And for my whole life, they generally were the referees. But today you're discovering, wait a minute. I'm just an ordinary participant in the game. I'm just. I'm in the bleachers here. How did that happen? And I think that's the most encouraging part of this whole story. A new generation is coming up behind these weasels in the media and these weasels in Washington. People who are tired of the stale arguments, the broken trust, the endless attempt to divide Americans into competing camps. We're done with it. They all want. I don't care who they vote for. I actually do. If you're a socialist, you don't want this. But generally speaking, everybody who's joining in now, they want a country confident enough to welcome visitors, proud enough to be admired. Clear enough about what citizenship means. Look at the. Listen to the people in Boston. A country we want, a country that is open to those who want to contribute. If you come here legally, raise your hand, take an oath, commit yourself to the nation's future. Generally speaking, we're happy welcoming you, okay, Because America does not owe anyone a place here. But because citizenship means joining a shared project, we want you here if you want to share in it. The question in. Oh, man. The question is not what America can do for you. The question is, what can you do to help build America? That's the country millions of visitors are seeing right now. A group of people who are like, they love their country. They're nice. They don't want to hate people. That's not who they are. And maybe someday the United States lifts the World cup trophy. It would be sweet, but this year, the trophy is not the most important thing. To me, what's remarkable is that the people who were told to fear America spend 90 minutes at a time seeing it for themselves, and they're discovering that the country they were warned about is not the country they were they found. So who's been lying to them the whole time? And why? By the way, Cornyn, we're not going to miss you. It's sad. It's really sad and pathetic to see you've lost and now you're doing everything you can to burn the house down on the way out. It's really sad. We should have seen how much you really. I mean, how it's almost psychotic. If I can't have you, no one will. It's psychotic. You're a really bad boyfriend or ex husband. Really bad. And I, for one, not gonna miss you. I'm glad they threw your ass out there. The door in Texas. All right, back in just a second. There is so much going on. If you're trying to teach your kids or yourself about American history, I mean, this is the summer to join Torch. I mean, there is so much going on. And on July 1st, I think that's next week, we're doing a live special. We have a new doc that is coming out. America250 doc, and it's called the Golden Door. And it's really, really good. We take you from New York to the White House. And it is. I mean, it's. It's really well done. Really, really well done. I'll be there live. We'll be taking questions and things. Jason will be with me. And we'll be doing it from Washington, DC. It is on July 1st, 8pm only on Torch. You're really going to love this because of the history and inspiration and quite honestly, the truth. Here is a trailer from Golden Door that premieres on Torch next week. Now, on the base of the Statue of Liberty is a poem, and it's called the New Colossus. Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe, Break free

[Brad Meltzer]

the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

[Glenn Beck]

Send these the homeless tempest toss to me.

[Brad Meltzer]

I lift my lamp beside the golden door.

[Glenn Beck]

For more than a century, Americans heard those lines as an invitation to the world's dreamers, the fighters, the people who looked at tyranny and said, I'm going to go to a place where a man can rise, where I can be who I was born to be. It was never intended to be a suicide pact. And that's why I say this with zero, apology zero new immigration. Until we can get this right, because you, you can't understand immigration if you first don't understand its purpose. Well, we're gonna correct that. From New York City, where it all started, we'll take a tour through history from some of the historic sites that wrote the immigration story in our country. And speaking of stories, I'm gonna tell you the story of a young woman who stepped off a boat from Scotland. One generation later, her child achieves something I can guarantee you she could have never dreamt of. You think this kind of success happens in Somalia? It begins next week. You'll see it. Live with me. June, July 1, 8pm Let me just play a little montage of the people who are coming and what they're saying about America. Let's remember this.

[Visitor or Fan]

Listen, here are the things I love about Americans. First of all, amount of patriotism flags everywhere. And I absolutely love it. Nobody on this planet can come even close to the amount of patriotism Americans have, especially American South. Another thing that really stands out is the amount of water Americans consumption consume daily. Believe it or not, nobody else drinks so much clean water as Americans. At first I thought, oh my God, this is so dumb. Nobody needs so much water. And to be honest, the only dumb one in this situation was me. I decided to give it a try and started drinking water on regular basis. And I've never felt better. Headaches went away, skin cleared out. It's absolutely amazing thing. I love small talk it makes you feel so much better. Of course, nobody gives how you're really doing that. Your day is crap. No, that's why you put a smile on your face. You leave your problems at home and a cashier tells you, hi, how are you doing? With a smile on her face, it automatically brightens your day. And I love it.

[Another Visitor or Fan]

Okay, I am just walking around randomly, no idea what's ahead of me. But I got to show you these houses and these places. Gosh. No 10 foot fences. No rabid people trying to burgle, rape and murder the citizens in Washington. My goodness, look. This is. Wow, look at this. They really used to build beautiful buildings.

[Glenn Beck]

Look at that.

[Another Visitor or Fan]

That would be a death trap in South Africa. Imagine walking through there in the middle of the day or the middle of night. I can also basically guarantee you'd have your throat slit in South Africa, but not yet. This is the land of the free, ladies and gentlemen. This is actually truly overwhelming. Look at that little fence. Such a tiny little fence that's literally just decorative.

[Glenn Beck]

Let me stop this here. Let me stop this here. This is how we change the world. This is honestly why the French made the Statue of Liberty for us. They were trying to teach their own people. It's why Washington crossing the Delaware. That painting was painted in Germany for the Germans by a German painter saying, look, America has it. We have beat our chests and we are like, we're going to make everybody free. You're gonna, we're gonna come in and bomb you and then we're gon give you our, your freedom the way we like to give it to you. No, the way to change the world is live the example. Just live the example. And then when people come over here, they do what they're doing. My gosh, you would not believe America. They have it down. Look at what they're doing now. We don't have it down. You know that. I know that. Imagine how bad it is over in their countries that they think we've got it down. We don't need to get arrogant. We need just to recognize, yeah, this is a special place. This is a place that is different than everywhere else in the world. And it's good. It's good. Do we have problems to fix? Yes. Can we fix them? Yes. Why can we fix them? Because we're Americans. So let's fix it the American way, not the European way. European way is government will fix it. You just sit down, stay out of it. We'll fix it. We'll tell you how to live your life. That's the American way. That's not how we got here. This is the greatest example I have ever seen in my lifetime of just live your life the way you're supposed to. People will notice and they'll say, my gosh, we got to be more like that. What makes them special. That's how you take real freedom, the real principles of our country, and share them with the world. Not through the State Department, not through usaid, not through any of that. Live your principles, America, and people will notice and want it. Hello, America. You know, we've been fighting every single day. We push back against the lies, the censorship, the nonsense of the mainstream media that they're trying to feed you. We work tirelessly to bring you the unfiltered truth because you deserve it. But to keep this fight going, we need you right now. Would you take a moment and rate and review the Glenn Beck podcast? Give us five stars and leave a comment. Because every single review helps us break through Big Tech's algorithm to reach more Americans who need to hear the truth. This isn't a podcast. This is a movement. And you're part of it, a big part of it. So if you believe in what we're doing, you want more people to wake up, help us push this podcast to the top. Rate, review, share. Together we'll make a difference. And thanks for standing with us. Now, let's get to work. This is the best of the Glenn Beck program. Probably not. Probably. Definitely top five.

[Visitor or Fan]

Probably.

[Glenn Beck]

Their one or two favorite guest of all time is Brad Meltzer. We are like brothers from another mother. We both love, love, love history. We love exploring the things that nobody knows about and learning them just for ourselves, even if we don't share them and bore everybody to death by sharing them. And strangely, if you catch us on a good day, we don't bore you to death. You're fascinated by it. Brad Meltzer is the king of this. And he has written a new book, I Am Teddy Roosevelt. He has this whole book series out for kids about, you know, heroes of American history. And this one is about Teddy Roosevelt, who I have a love hate relationship with. I love the guy, but he was also. And I give him a break, and maybe I shouldn't, but I give him a break because it's. He's before you start to see the results of what deep progressivism does and, you know, eugenics and everything else. But he was deeply into all that stuff. But he also, at the same time, is a monstrous hero. I mean, just. He belongs on Mount Rushmore because he is a giant sized hero. A man like no other. Brad is going to talk to us about that and then we're going back to the news here in just a second. First, let me tell you about our sponsor. It's the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. One of the most dangerous things that can happen to any of us is taking things for granted. Freedom, safety, peace. You know, these things have a feeling of permanency right until the moment they're not. And that is one of the reasons I pay attention to what's happening in Israel. Most of us go about our daily lives. Millions of Israelis wake up every morning in a part of a world where the threat of violence is very real. And they don't have the luxury of forgetting about how precious peace really is. That's why I'm grateful for the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. They give us a way to stand with our Jewish brothers and sisters. I don't care how you feel about Israel. I don't. You know, you, you can be for Benjamin Netanyahu against Benjamin Netanyahu. You can think the war is great or think the war is horrible. Doesn't matter what you think about the Jewish people matters. Do they have a right to exist and not be hunted or blamed for everything? Yeah, I do. And I know history well enough to know they're the canary in the coal mines. Whenever a society goes dark, that's the, that's the first thing that happens. People get wildly anti Semitic. Okay, so that's happening now. So what can you do about it? Well, I would like to suggest that you take one step of courage today. And this is so sad that this is courageous, but it is. Take one step. Get a free US Israel flag pin today and wear it just once. Just wear it. Okay. Simple reminder that two nations are united by shared values and a common God. Flagpin IFCJ.org get it for free flagpain IFCJ.org request your US Israel flag pin flag pin [e-mail] Brad. How are you, my man?

[Brad Meltzer]

I miss you. So good to see you.

[Glenn Beck]

Oh, so good to see you. Thank you so for joining us on Zoom. So I want to talk to you, I want to talk to you about Teddy Roosevelt, but let's start with the news. The, the fight that happened at the White House. I thought of Theodore Roosevelt the whole time. Everybody is freaking out. Theodore Roosevelt, that's his kind of thing, don't you think?

[Brad Meltzer]

Well, here's what I think. I actually was not a fan of the fight at the White House. Because I just felt like it was. I think what I love about the Teddy Roosevelt is Teddy Roosevelt would fight. Teddy Roosevelt was the guy who got in the ring. Yes. He had fights there. Correct. Also wanted to fight there. I just don't like the money making part of it. Right. Like, I like the. The fighting part. I get. I, you know, Teddy Roosevelt has this. Nixon has bowling. Everyone present has their thing. I just didn't like the cash value of it. But, of course, how could I not think of Teddy Roosevelt? When you're thinking of fighting, it's the guy who truly, you know, was. Was the guy who had fights at the White House.

[Glenn Beck]

How do you. How do you reconcile him as a. As a parent? Because I. There's parts of me that absolutely loves him as a parent, and there's parts of me that go, you would be in jail today. He used to take his kids out, and I don't remember the age. You probably do. But he would take them out. They were very young, and he would just take them out in the middle of the forest and say, find your way home. And they'd have to find their way home because he taught them how to survive in anything.

[Brad Meltzer]

Listen, he's complicated. Every hero. And listen, I owe you a huge thank you. This whole series started. I came and launched it on your show. It was to give people better American heroes to look up to. We started with the obvious. I am Abraham Lincoln. I am Amelia Earhart. People we love. I am Rosa Parks. We've done together on this show. And every book I've done, Glenn, someone has written to me and said, that person has this wrong with them, that wrong with them. They shouldn't have done this. They shouldn't have done that. And they're right. Every person we've written about is complicated. The only person that's perfect and you know is, of course, God. And everyone else. Take a number, right? We're all flawed in some way. And Teddy Roosevelt, the reason why it took me so long, this is our 39th book in the series, is he was most complicated, maybe the most complicated person we've written about. And, yes, I don't feature some of the things he's done that you've talked about. I don't feature problematic things he's done as his presidency goes on. But you know what I do feature? I love the fact that when he's a little kid, his father doesn't like bullies. And his father says, when you have money and you have power, that doesn't make you fantastic or strong or Terrific. What it does is it gives you responsibility, a responsibility to help other people. So you see those orphans that are in the streets that have no place to live, we got to help them. You see these workers that are suffering under bad conditions, we got to stand up and make sure they're not being taken advantage of. And that's what he does with the environment and the great outdoors. Our mutual love. Right. Has always been, is he goes to those great outdoors and says, we have to protect them and we have a responsibility to the environment, too. And those are the parts, of course, that I picked to feature in the book. Sure. You know, my editor was like, maybe we shouldn't talk about the later parts of his life. Maybe we shouldn't talk about these parts, but maybe we don't talk about abandoning your kids in the wilderness. But that doesn't mean he doesn't have amazing, amazing things to teach us.

[Glenn Beck]

No, I know, but I mean, you're writing a kid's book, and I, I get that. And you, you cover all the important things that make him a great guy. But I. But he is so. I think he's probably the. The president, that is, he's probably the most complicated president since Jefferson. I think those two. I have a hard time reconciling. I like both of them. I like. And I can understand both of them. And maybe because Roosevelt is closer to me and I don't even know if this is right. You know, he was a big eugenist guy. I mean, we have some documents where he is like, look, we wouldn't do this with our cattle. Just let him breed with anybody. We got to pick and choose who we breed, you know, who we let have children. But I look at that and think, he's at the beginning of this science. He doesn't understand what it's going to turn into. And you could have made that case back then because you didn't have any negative. Am I being too kind on that, or do you. Or do you feel.

[Brad Meltzer]

I don't think you're being too kind on eugenics. I mean, that's a huge issue. I think as we all look, that's a moment in time where I certainly don't think he knows what's going to happen in the future and what it's going to be turned into. Of course, what I focus on very strongly is how he gets there. And as you said, he's a complicated president, but as a person and as someone growing up, it's an incredibly great hero to give to my kids and all that. Let's talk about why. Because it is important. I think today, Teddy Roosevelt is sometimes held out as being that strong guy, the macho guy. Look at him. He's in the big stick, the whole thing. But that's not who he is. When he's growing up, he's actually sick a lot. He's smaller than everyone else. He gets picked on. He's so scared when he's little that his mother used to read to him to go to bed because he was so scared to go to bed. He used to get bullied. And that's when he takes boxing lessons because his dad is like, listen, fighting's a last resort, but if you're being picked on, you gotta stand up. And I can tell you, my editor wanted to take that part out of the book. And I was like, no, no, no, no. Right. We have to put that in. I learned the same thing from my dad. I remember being picked on and my dad teaching me how to throw a punch. And not that that's the answer, but listen, when you're pushed around and someone picks on you, you have to stand up and say no. And that was a key part of the book that we put in there. And what I love is. Go ahead.

[Glenn Beck]

Do you think that's his turning point?

[Brad Meltzer]

I think the turning point is this. And it's the part that I think you and I, I'm going to wager just knowing how much we know each other is your favorite part of his story, which is his turning point. He's not the great outdoorsman. He loves animals. His whole life, he, you know, he had, like, mice and. And. And spiders used to keep in his room. He was a weird kid. He keep, like, animals in his pockets. And he, you know, called his bedroom with Roosevelt Museum of Natural History that it's a weird kid. But here's the turning point. His father dies, and then soon after, his mother and his wife die on the same day, Glenn, on Valentine's Day. And on that day, he's devastated, Loses the great two women in his life, and he can't get over it. So he moves in that moment. He can't. He's suffering in New York, he moves to their ranch out in North Dakota. And in North Dakota, he just sits under the stars and he listens to the wolves. And it's there that he really develops that need and that. And that truth. What I can call his experience in the great outdoors. He. He's never a great rider until he gets out there, and then he starts spending 12 hours, 13 days in the saddle. You know what that takes in? In degrees that are crazy below zero temperatures. And what I love about him when he does that is it's not. He's not the best rider. It's. He worked hard in it day after day. And if being out in nature teaches him anything, it's that success doesn't come from having natural gifts. It comes from how hard you work those gifts. And that's where he falls in love and starts protecting the outdoors. And on this one, July 4th, as we come up to July 4th ourselves, he gives this speech. They asked him to speak, and he says this quote, and this is a speech he says, like all Americans, I love big things. Big prairies, big forests, big factories. But we also have a responsibility to protect things that can't take care of themselves. And that's when he starts protecting Yellowstone and Yosemite and Niagara Falls. And he creates five national parks. Those national parks that you and I love so much, they exist because of Teddy Roosevelt. That's who gave us the national parks and federal lands and wildlife bird preserves, and that's why he's on Mount Rushmore. Not because of, you know, even the big stick or the freedom fighters or anything else. It's all because of what he does to our national park. So next time you're in a national park this summer, say a prayer and thank Teddy Roosevelt for that one. And to me, that is the lesson I wanted for my kids, to teach them that love of the great outdoors.

[Glenn Beck]

I love Mount Rushmore. I love her on Mount Rushmore, but I find it.

[Another Visitor or Fan]

It.

[Glenn Beck]

I find it so ironic that they carved his face in a mountain, and he was the guy who was protecting and saying, leave everything. Leave the mountains alone. And they carve his face into it. So ironic.

[Brad Meltzer]

Great is when you. Every. When I've been to Mount Rushmore, there's an. I can't even tell you. Every time that I've been there, I have someone, because I can't help but listen on everyone. And someone says, oh, yeah, there it is. Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, and fdr. And I'm like, it's not fdr. I can't help myself. I'm just like, it's not. It's the other Roosevelt. There's another Roosevelt.

[Glenn Beck]

I know. And.

[Brad Meltzer]

And that is the irony, of course. My favorite part of Mount Rushmore. My favorite part of Mount Rushmore, you know, there's a secret room behind Mount Rushmore, which I spent a lot of months trying to get into. It's just a storage room. But the fact that there's a secret room behind Mount Rushmore. Come on, maybe. You know, I love that.

[Glenn Beck]

So cool. One thing that this, the story, to me, that defines him and his just inner strength to go on is he is going over to accept the nomination to run for President, and he's going to run against Wilson and he's trying to get the nomination of the Progressive Party, blah, blah, blah. Which he starts, and he's going to give this speech and he talks so long. He's so long winded. He talks so long. He folds this speech up and he puts it in his pocket. He has then his glasses. And he puts his glasses into his pocket, into his shirt pocket. He puts a heavy coat on. He goes across the street, somebody shoots him. The bullet goes through his glasses, then through the speech, which. I have the speech.

[Brad Meltzer]

I know you have the speech. Trust me. I was waiting all day because I know you told me you have it. I didn't know if I was supposed to say it or not.

[Glenn Beck]

Yeah, yeah, listen. It's a great bullet hole in it. The speech saves his life.

[Brad Meltzer]

Saves his life, protects him in the assassination attempt. I debated putting that into the book because it's so good, but it goes through. It goes through. I love the fact that a politician is protected by his own words.

[Glenn Beck]

I know, I know. So it goes through the speech. It's slowed down so much that it just lodges between his ribs and it stays between his ribs forever. But then he goes on to give a 45 and he's saying, right. And he's saying, please, you know, you gotta. There's no microphones or anything. There's thousands of people there. And he has to project and give this speech. And at one point, his coat kind of opens up and everybody sees all the blood on his shirt and they laugh or they like, gasp and he's like, I told you I was shot. But nobody believed him.

[Brad Meltzer]

Nobody. Well, that's the best part, is I'm finishing the speech because. And that.

[Glenn Beck]

Right.

[Brad Meltzer]

I know, again, he's complicated, but he has these hero moments that you're like, oh, my goodness. Like, you can't. If I. If I put that in one of my thrillers, my editor would say, no one's going to believe that. No, there's no one that's going to believe that. But he over and over has these moments. Like he. Even when he's younger, he has these moments when bullies come and pick on him and he goes and gets the boxing lessons. You can hear the Rocky theme being played in your head. And he Then fights back and beats up the bullies and, you know, again, it sounds like something that's just made up, but the fact that this guy rises and when he goes to run for the. For his first office, he loses. He comes in third. He runs for, I think, mayor of New York. And I love the fact that he loses and I love the fact that he won't stay down on the mat and keeps getting back up. That's why I wrote the kids book for him, is I want my. My sons, I want my daughter to have that lesson that you can be. It's what it says in the back of the book. You know, every, every kid's book. We do, yes, they're history books, but they're value books. So. On the back of I am Amelia Earhart, it says I know no bounds. On the back of I am Abraham Lincoln, it says, I will speak my mind and speak for others. On the back of I am Teddy Roosevelt, it says, you know, become a force in nature. And right now, America 250. I'm a force in nature on the back and. And I. As America 250 approaches, we obviously time this book for that is I wanted to give my kids a lesson of what kind of American they should be at America250. And Teddy Roosevelt, complicated as we all are, is the man. Yep.

[Glenn Beck]

Brad, I love you. Thank you so much. Thanks for sharing the book. It's a great book for your kids. Make sure you get it. I am Teddy Roosevelt. I am Teddy Roosevelt. In the whole series by Brad Belt. Thanks, Brad. Appreciate it.