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- [00:00]
Glenn Beck
Foreign. This week, it is a celebration of our 250 years as a nation beginning tomorrow for an hour. The second hour of the broadcast will be the telling of the Declaration of Independence. How did we get there? And it is an incredible story. I've worked personally about a week on writing it to make sure that it's all right and doing the research. And I've learned so much and so will you. That starts tomorrow. Our number two in today's Best of podcast. We start with socialists in America. And geez, there's a lot of them. There's a lot of them. We talk about the 13 Democrats, kind of like the 13 colonies that are standing against the rest of the 257 Democrats in Congress. These guys have said, hey, we're not socialists, we're not communists, we'll see if they're eaten. Because I start with a story about what's happening in Europe with just air conditioning and what it means to you. Also, I show you a remarkable document as we get ready for our 250th anniversary from Rhode Island. It is the ticket that got you in to actually be a signer at the Declaration of Independence and debate. It comes from Rhode island and it's a fascinating story. And John Irwin tells us the story of the young Washington, all on today's podcast.
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Caller/Guest 1
Foreign.
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Caller/Guest 2
You're listening to the best of the Glenn Beck Program.
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Glenn Beck
Well, the heat came to Europe this month in a way that it it comes every year, early and angry. Boy, what's happening in the Midwest this week? What's happening in Washington, D.C. and New York? It is going to be boiling hot. In Spain, the thermometer hit 111. Britain just lived through the hottest June hit is ever recorded. And in France, in a single week, 40 people drown. What does that have to do with, with the heat wave? Well, they weren't drowning in storms. They were in rivers and lakes and quarries because they were desperate to get cool and the water was the only relief they could find. So 40 people drown. World Health Organization yeah, Those experts say heat kills up 175,000 people just in Europe every single year. I want you to sit on that number for a second. That's nuts. 175,000 people in Europe every single year die of heat. That can't be true. Well, here's what's really crazy. We know how to prevent most of it, and it's not really a moonshot. It's a box in a window that blows cold air. What a crazy thought. Studies say air conditioning cuts Heat deaths by as much as 75%. Now listen to this one study, this is the Lancet. It credited air conditioning with saving nearly 200,000 older Europeans in a single year. 90% of American homes have it. In Europe, one in five. So you would think with bodies piling up, that Europe might be going like, you know, we got to get a box in every window. You know, maybe that would be a social program that would be helpful. You'd think that that would be one thing everybody could agree on, but you'd be wrong. Let me take you to some of the things that are happening here in France. Let's play. Play. Cut two. Here. This is a British mom talking about her child's room, her baby's room. Listen to this.
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Caller/Guest 2
Us using so much electricity, oil and gas is the reason we're in this position in the first place. However, last summer I was seven months pregnant in the summer. And this summer I've got an eight month old baby and a three year old. And my baby monitor last night said that Both rooms at 7:00 at night, which is their bedtime, was 31 degrees. And Kate, like I think you said earlier, that the guidance is if the room is 29 degrees or over, children under 5 should not be in them. Now what do I do? Where do I put them? They have to go to sleep.
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Glenn Beck
So you put the aircon on?
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Caller/Guest 2
So I put the aircon on and it makes it more manageable. But it still wasn't an enjoyable sleep. I struggled to sleep in that and my little baby is so restless.
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Glenn Beck
Do you leave the air con on all day or do you just put it on?
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Caller/Guest 2
No, so I leave it on throughout the night. During the day I keep the curtain shut. But it is like an oven and our houses are designed to keep the heat in.
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Glenn Beck
So 88 degrees, that's 31 degrees Celsius. It's about 88, 90 degrees. Baby's room. 90 degrees. You wouldn't leave a kid in a car at 90 degrees. But here's what they're telling the people in, in England. Here's a British climate activist. Cut one.
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Caller/Guest 1
If you can switch your electricity provider to one that's completely renewable, or you speak to your MP and tell them that we need to get off oil and gas, not allow new giant oil fields like Rosebank that they're currently still considering to go ahead. Those are the sorts of things that means that we can actually make our grid green and that we can actually have aircon without making climate change worse.
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Glenn Beck
But all of that would Take a heck of a long time. It won't be done by tonight. Are you saying in the interim you shouldn't have airconnected? You should wait until you can say hand on heart. Yep, it's green energy that's keeping me cool.
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Caller/Guest 1
Well, I think we need to be honest about the fact that it has costs, right? And then when we have. When we face these sorts of costs, we then need to make a decision. Well, who should we prioritize? Should it just be someone who fancies being a bit cooler, or should we be prioritizing the people who need it? People with young kids, people who are elderly, people who have disabilities that mean that they can call themselves.
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Glenn Beck
These people are out of their mind. Nuts. They're out of their. This, by the way, is an md. This is a doctor. It's a doctor saying these things. Now here's what's happening in the real world in France. Here's a store. See if we can go ahead and roll this, please. This cut three. I think this is store in France. I don't know if they're doing the little piggy thing, but wee, wee, wee. All the way home they are. They are going in and they're just taking the air conditioners. They're just storming in a store as rushing in a frenzy to grab all of the air conditioners. Okay? But they're going to have police at their house because you're not supposed to be using your air conditioner. Once they see your power going up, then you're going to be in trouble with the climate police. Let me take you to another town in France. This one's called Nimes. There is a primary school there. Little kids in this primary school. And this spring, the classrooms hit 104 degrees in the classroom. 104 child fainted. So they started moving the lessons out into the hallways just to find some air that didn't feel like you were in a convection oven. Well, they couldn't find it. Kids come home, the parents do what all parents would do. They didn't wait for the government. They passed the hat. In three days, they raised about €2,000. They bought five portable air conditioners and put them in the children's school. Okay? Problem solved, right? Of course not. You're in France. The mayor of Nimes is a communist. One of his deputies was honest to tell exactly what happened. The mayor of the communist mayor of Nime made them take the air conditioners out of the schools. And he said it's because it set a precedent. Because in some neighborhoods, parents don't have the means to do the same thing and get their kids air conditioning. Let me repeat that again. The children may not be cool now because there are other children that cannot be cool. So take all of the air conditioners out. Everybody sweats together. I just want you to know that's not a glitch. That is the socialist philosophy. That's. That's what it is. You're all going to be miserable. And it's not just France. In London, the borough of Camden, the council told the residents in an apartment building to rip out their air conditioning to comply with net zero. The official advice, how to survive the heat wave. Open your windows, open your balcony doors. That came from the people who they elected to represent them. Okay, now lay this over everything else that's going on over in. In Europe and in England, the fuel, more than half of what the European pays at the pump is tax. In Britain, that's three to four dollars a gallon in tax alone. The price of the pump, rough, roughly, is double what you pay here. So in some places it's as high as $5 a gallon. That's not an accident. That's the policy working as designed. Make the fuel hurt, make cooling disappear, pursue net zero. And I'm quoting the critics now, whatever the cost. So even if the cost is a child fainting in the classroom in May, even if the cost is 175,000 people that die, even if it's 40 people that die from drowning, this is what it looks like when a country is governed by experts and elites. Not evil men, necessarily, clever men, credentialed men, men with a spreadsheet and a target and the quiet certainty that they understand how you ought to live better than you do. And once they have the power to act on it, the air conditioning comes out of the window and they'll tell you it's for your own good and for fairness and for the planet. Here's why I'm telling you this. I'm going to give you some stats on what the Democrats. And I'm going to show you some things that happen with the Democrats over the weekend. It is getting terribly frightening. These are not. These are not progressives. They are not socialists. They are communists. And the mask is finally fully coming off this week. At the same time, we're celebrating the Declaration. 250 years almost. And I want you to understand exactly what those men built, because it's the exact opposite of what you're seeing happening over in Europe and in England. Our Constitution is a design, a charter of negative liberties. And people say that like it's an insult. Barack Obama used to always say, it's a charter of negative liberties. We need a charter of positively. No, no, no. The whole miracle is that it is a charter of negative liberties. You know, it doesn't hand you a list of the things the government will graciously permit you to have. It hands the government a very short list of things that they can never, ever do to you. And what they can do, Congress shall make no law, shall not be infringed, shall not be violated. No, no, no, no. That's what our Constitution is all about. It. It puts a leash on the government, not the citizen. That's why no mayor in America can send a man into your child's school and carry the cold air back out the door because some family across town doesn't have it. That's the difference. That's what the Declaration and the Constitution and the Bill of Right. That's the whole difference. So this week, celebrate it. Celebrate your rights, celebrate your responsibilities, because a free people has it, must carry both of those things. But celebrate the strange and beautiful thing that those farmers and lawyers did in Philadelphia when they wrote down not what you owe the state, but what the state can never do to you. This is what sets us apart. And don't let anybody ever talk you out of it, but they are the Democrats. It's remarkable what is happening on our streets right now with the Democrats. And it is waking up some. Some Democrats, 13 in Congress, 13 Democrats have come out. And I want you to hear what they said. First. You got to hear what was said to them on the streets this week. And then what they're saying, 13 of them. It's a good start. Okay, I want to show you what is happening on our streets. And I told you at the very, very beginning, remember from the beginning. I'm talking early 20th century American progressives. And you're seeing it now. Early American progressives, they are actually communists. They liked communism and they just didn't like the bloody revolution. And so they decided if we just take it one step at a time, we can get there to this totalitarian state where we have experts running everything. That's the early 20th century American progressive. Okay? Now, some people were conned into it, and they're like, no, progressivism just means we love each other. But that is the understanding. And I told you, at some point, you get to a point, point of. Of. Of breaking the system cannot stand when you've mixed them. These two systems of free people, free Will free choice and communism can't. And the masks will start to come off. And I told you before that they would start to come off and they would declare that they were socialism. Yes. I said, this is in 2008. They like socialism. In fact, they don't like capitalism. Now, they were all denying this at the time. And I said, you watch, it will happen and they will start taking apart capitalism and saying socialism is the only answer. The masks would fully come off and say, yes, we're communist. It's got to change. Well, that's where we are now. Now let me play some. Some audio of what happened over the weekend with some of these. Some of these communists. Here's Scott Wiener. Now, Scott Wiener is the San Francisco Nancy Pelosi wannabe, okay? He's running for Nancy Pelosi's office. He is as far left as you can go, but he is Jewish. Listen to what happened. He was at a trans march. Listen to this. Redeem yourself. Do you and your. Scott, I want. Want to like the person such good legislation on trans rights. You're a piece of we. Scott. I want to support someone who. About trans rights. But you're a piece of.
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John Irwin
Do that.
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Glenn Beck
Listen to this. I think we've heard enough. This is an amazing thing. Here's a guy who has been so pro trans and everything else, he is as left as the left can get, okay? He's been their champion, but now it's not enough. Now because he's Jewish, he has come out and said Israel was committing genocide. Still not enough. Still not enough. Unless he'll say from the river to the sea. And because he's Jewish, he can never say enough. Look at the vitriol and how they have turned on him. This is called a purge. This is exactly what communists do all the time. They purge. They take the people that were with them. If you don't step up to the line they want, they eventually kill you. Okay, Joe Biden, here he is being heckle heckled at a speech. Cut 5. It's a battle that's never truly over. Okay, here they go. So that's just. They're calling him Genocidal Joe. Genocidal Joe, yada yada yada. This is at a Maryland Democratic Party gala. Now, here is a group of Toronto. I mean, I'm just saying. I mean, I'm just using their language. It's the 2026 Toronto Dyke March. And I thought these people from Holland. And then I, I learned. I was like, nope, don't put your finger in that. Anyway, this is completely different. Different kind of dyke. Not like the ones in Holland. They're marching and here's what they're chanting. We're here. We're queer. Free Palestine is our demand. You're going to be really surprised when that all comes together because you're going to be dead. You're going to be dead because they don't like you in the end. Remember what they're doing to you right now. What they're doing to Scott Wiener right now will be done to them because Wiener thought he was fine. All these people in the trans community think they're fine. All these people in the gay community, they're now saying, Palestine, Palestine. They think they're fine. Just like Scott Wiener thought he was fine a couple of years ago. Just like when he was standing with people that he knew didn't like Jews. But we can all work together because we have the same goal. Once they get enough power, they kill you. So as you're chanting at your Dyke March, just remember you're next. You're not at the top of the food chain. You're at the bottom of the food chain. And they will eat you next. Now, where does all this come from? Chad. Chad is funding a lot of it. We're going to get into that and then make for a full circle back to air conditioning. Because I'm just amazed at how people don't understand. They'll kill you. The ends justify the means. We get to that when we come back in a minute. This is the best of the Glenn Beck program, and we really want to thank you for listening. I can't thank all of the insiders and everybody else who came on Saturday night. And Saturday afternoon, I was giving speeches all day in Idaho about the history of America. And I met so many great people. I mean, people drove from California and Colorado, and I met a couple from Ohio and Oregon. And I mean, it was. It was just. It was an amazing afternoon. And thank you so much for coming to that. I'm going to be in D.C. on Wednesday at 2pm I'm going to be at the Great American State Fair. That's on the Nation's Mall at the Capitol. You can find out all the information@freedom250.org but I'll be speaking at 2pm at the Great American State Fair. Then Wednesday night, that night, July 1st, I'm going to be doing the Torch live. And we'll be in Washington, D.C. to give you the special, the Golden Door. It is great. You're gonna love this special. Make sure you are a TORCH member to see that. On Monday, I'm going to be at Citizens United for Israel. Christians United for Israel. Cufi. It's a night to honor Israel. If you want to register for that, you do have to register because there's going to be very tight security. But I'd love to see you there if you, you want. They're making a special discount if you want to register and you're coming for me beck26 and you get that discount then in Vegas. Next Saturday, I'll be in Las Vegas speaking at Freedom Fest. So you don't want to miss that this week. Starting tomorrow, I'm going to tell you three days in a row, I'm going to tell you what it took to write the Declaration of Independence. It's going to be in this hour and you do not want to miss is. It's a great story and I've been working a week on the research on this. But today I just wanted. I want to show you something that we just got. I just won this in, in auction for our museum. Tanya and I bid on this this weekend or this last Friday. It's an amazing, amazing document. You know, the Declaration Independence is such a great story, but, you know, the war started long ago. And this is, this is a document. It's, it's on paper. It's 13 and a half inches by eight and a half. And up in the left hand corner, right here are the is or the right corner is pressed to bind the fiber together, knowing it's just a clear, clean bite into it. It's a seal of Rhode island and it just has the word hope on it, which I love hope at the bottom. Two signatures. One is Nicholas Cook. He is the governor. And at the right is Ward Henry Ward. He was the secretary. And between, between the seal and this is a commission. And its authority granted two men to go and act in the name of the people of Rhode Island. And the date is the 6th of May, 1776. And here's what they don't tell you about that date. The year the world. The war was already a year old. Okay? We've told this story to ourselves. We say the Declaration of Independence is what started it. But it wasn't the 4th of July or the 2nd of July, you know, a continent of farmers standing up, declaring themselves free and then go fetch your muskets. That's not what happened. By the time the Declaration of Independence, the ink was dry. We had already been at war for 13 months. Blood was a year dry already. You have to go back to 19 April in 1775, the Lexington Green and the Concord Bridge. The shot heard around the world. It had already been fired and men had already fallen face down in the spring grass. Two months after that, the 17th of June, they fought at Breeds Hill above Boston until the powder ran out and the British took, took that hill, but left a thousand of their own on its slope. So by the spring of 1776, American boys have already been a year in the ground. Mothers had already received the word. Pine boxes already were lowered, covered over, and the soil was already separated and the grass was starting to grow again. The King's soldiers were not a threat on the horizon. They were already here. Regiments on American soil, warships riding in and posting anchor in American harbors. Everybody could see this out their kitchen window. The most powerful force on the face of the earth was not coming. It was already here. So understand what these guys were in Rhode island were doing with this document. They were not picking a fight. The fight had already picked them. It was already here. They'd already buried their sons. What they were doing was harder because this is the thing that we have forgotten and the whole heart of it. These were loyal men. They did not want to leave. For a year, in fact, years, the American colonists had clung to a single stubborn, I think, desperate hope. The hope that the King would finally see them, that George III would finally look across the ocean and go, oh, man, these are my people. They're not rebels, they're not rabble rousers, they're not some lesser breed to be managed or taxed or garrisoned. But they're my loyal subjects. They're English Englishmen, loyal, asking only for the rights that any Englishman was born holding. And just before the Declaration of Independence in the summer of 1775, so a year before we send out what's called the Olive Branch Petition, it was after Bunker Hill, after the dead had already been counted. But even then, with the war begun, they wrote to their king and said, please, we're still yours. Stop this. Hear us, please. He wouldn't even take this olive branch into his own hands. He would, he wouldn't receive it. He didn't read it. Instead he stood up and he said, they're in open rebellion. And then he went further. He signed a law that cut the colonies out of his protection entirely, declared all of their ships fair prize, sent foreign soldiers, the Hessians, mercenaries, hired guns to come across the sea and bring his own people to heal. Kill his own people. That was the answer. Not hand extended, a Fist. Foreign bayonets paid by him to drive it home. And that. Not the dead at Lexington, not the smoke over Boston. That was the thing that finally broke the cord. Because a war you can survive, a war you can even forgive at the end of it, if the man on the throne looks at you and finally calls you his own. But. But this. This told them the truth. That they had spent a year refusing to believe that the King was never going to see them as people. So he. He had made up his mind across the ocean. And he would sooner hire strangers to kill them than sit and hear them. So the Declaration of Independence was not the beginning of anything. It was the surrender of this little word up here in this document. Hope. It was the moment loyal people finally, in grief, let go of the King's hand. Not because they stopped loving the idea of him. Because they finally understood he's never going to love us back. Now, look at the date on this page again. The date on this page is the 6th of May, 1776. Why is that important? Because two days earlier, the 4th of May, that little colony of Rhode island had become the first to make it actually official. They struck the King's name out of all of their oaths. They crossed the Crown out of all of their laws. The smallest colony on the map let it go first, and stepped off alone. And then, two days after committing that treason, they sat down and wrote this order for two delegates to ride to Philadelphia to finish, to take in the words on the page all such measures that shall be thought of best for promoting the welfare of the United colonies. That's a blank check written against their own necks in the middle of the war. They were losing. And the first man it named was old Stephen Hopkins. Stephen Hopkins. He had been in the fight for a while, but he had palsy in his. In his hand. So his hand when he signed things. You look at the Declaration of Independence and you'll see his name, and it's so shaky, he could barely write. And when it came to his time at the table to sign the Declaration of Independence, he reached across with his left hand and gripped his trembling right and so he could steady his hand somewhat and sign it. And he said, my hand trembles, but my heart does not. The second guy on this was new, and he was only there because of a fresh grave. Samuel Ward. He was the delegate from Rhode island, the other delegate. He had gone down to Philadelphia, caught smallpox and died of it on in the lake on the 26th of March. And the war was on. The seat was Suddenly empty at the worst hour to leave it empty. So they reached for William Ellery. He was a lawyer in Newport, Rhode Island. And he's the guy. They put this paper in his hand and then he went down and he fought for the. The. The Declaration of Independence. And he didn't flinch. He didn't flinch. He went straight to grinding out this revolution. And it was pretty amazing what he. You know, what he had, what he had done when he signed the Declaration.
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John Irwin
He.
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Glenn Beck
He signed it so large, it's only second in size to Hancocks. And Ellery knew exactly what his signature was. He knew that that was a noose at the end of that sentence. So as the delegates came forward one by one, if you see the painting of them, you will see Ellery standing back behind. He was watching every man. He said he wanted to watch every man's face as they signed their own death warrant. And he said, I wanted to see if they were sincere or not. See if any man would break as he put his face. As he put his hand to the Declaration of Independence. And he said, he stood there and he looked at face after face after face. And he said, afterwards, all I saw was undaunted resolution. None of them flinched. All of them were ready for war. These were men who had already buried their own men who had begged the King and had been answered with Mercer and mercenaries. And they signed anyway.
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Caller/Guest 1
This.
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Glenn Beck
This room, to get into this room, which was locked and sealed tight. This was your ticket. This is what brought. Bought you a seat in that room. To hold this thing 250 years later. To have it in my own hands is amazing. The days of 4th of July, 2026. The king is gone. He's a footnote. The Empire is gone. But the paper survives. The men don't. This paper has outlived the men who carried it. But the paper still asks this one question, The only one that really mattered. You don't get to choose. When the storm comes, it's already here, just as it was in their day. It's in the harbor. It's in the fields. You only get to choose. Are you going to stand inside the storm? The seat at today's table is still warm, but it has your name on it. Now what remains to be seen
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Caller/Guest 1
is
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Glenn Beck
what you will do with it. More in a minute. This is the best of the Glenn Beck program. 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. John Irwin, welcome to the program.
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John Irwin
Glenn, good to see you, man. It's, it's, it's been a little while. It's great to, it's great to be among friends. I remember being on your show release week of a film for I can only imagine many years ago and, and Dennis Quaid was on and we had lost him in the Arctic. He was filming with like a bunch of polar bears or something. And he.
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Glenn Beck
Middle of the night.
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John Irwin
So right before I got on the segment, I hear like, we've lost Dennis in a, in a town there's more polar bears than people. And so I'm like, I'm gonna go on install with Glenn and you're gonna find Dennis Quaid in the Antarctic. And they did. And they did. Right before we came out of commercial break. So, So I have many memories.
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Glenn Beck
Yeah, I know he had to go back inside because he had to get his gun. I think because they wouldn't allow him to be outside without his gun. It was crazy.
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John Irwin
Anyway, to get service, he had to be like, risk his life with polar bears. I digress. Anyway, many, many great memories with you, man.
- [33:03]
Glenn Beck
I remember this has got to be 15 years ago. We first talked and we talked about the problem with Hollywood and that you were setting out and you were going to change Hollywood. And it was hard at that time. It was really, really hard for anybody on a conservative side to be able to do it. And I have to tell you, John, I watched your movie, Young Washington with such pride and admiration for you on all that you've accomplished and how good of a director and a producer and a, and a screenwriter you have become. It's a great story and a great movie. Congratulations.
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John Irwin
Thank you so much. We share the obsession for Washington. I read many books on Washington, including yours, and I just wanted to write a kind of a love letter to the country for our 250. And it's the only film in theaters nationwide that celebrates American history as we go into the 250. And. And I just, you know, it's. It's one of those things where I'm just grateful to the audience because, you know, the audience just keeps shocking Hollywood, and that allows us to do more and have more. Have larger budgets. And. And so it's not easy. The lead, I created the show House of David, that airs on Amazon, and the lead of that show, Michael, he gave this. This ring. It says, seek discomfort. And I believe in that as a way of life. So sometimes we say pain is temporary, film is forever. So it's been a. It's been a hard road, but incredibly fulfilling one. And I'm just so grateful for the audience to. For supporting the work. And. And that's what gets these films made.
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Glenn Beck
Is it out now?
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John Irwin
It comes out on Friday going into the Fourth of July weekend. So it's. I mean, it. Talk about the perfect date for a movie about Washington. It releases on the 4th of July weekend on our 250th anniversary. And so we're very grateful. It's in theaters nationwide, working with Angel Studios to release it. And so, look, we've always said your movie ticket is your vote, and it's more true now than ever. We really want to do more of these stories. We want to do more stories in the life of George Washington. We want to do more stories on the founding of America. And I just know when I took the time to read a lot of books on the founding of the country, the story is unbelievable. First of all, as you know, it lives up to the hype, and you're just filled with a sense of gratitude and awe and wonder and pride that this nation exists at all. And it really is something to celebrate together. And it's a. It is a miracle. I mean, talk about low statistical odds of success. And so we want to make more of these films. And it starts with we thought, where do we start? I'm like, well, I love the origin story, Hero's Journey of Washington, where he learns to be a leader. And. And so that's. That's where we decided to start.
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Glenn Beck
He learns to be a leader, but he. He really never learns to be a good general. He's really bad at strategy. He, you know, loses. He loses over and over and over. I mean, it's embarrassing on. On really. On how bad he is at the beginning.
- [36:13]
John Irwin
You know, what's interesting about Washington is he is forged much more by hardship and failure and risk and adventure. And then he was by ease. And many of the great leaders are Churchill the same way. And what I found out about him is, yes, he. We didn't have any good generals, you know, because we were colonies. But Washington became our first real leader and the embodiment of a cause. And I think he learned over the course of this story early in his life that to lead is to serve, and to lead is to embody something that's bigger than you are. And he became America's first great leader. And what I noticed about him during the Revolutionary War is he had this fortitude, man. Like he had this ability to endure in an uncommon way. And that was really the thing that won the war, or one of the major things that won the war was just grit. And I wanted to find out where that came from. And it really came from his early life. So I wanted to make this. I've always considered it Pride and Prejudice meets the Revenant, this kind of first adventure story in the French Canadian War. And that's where I wanted to start. But, man, I would love. My dream is to tell more of these stories. And we just. I think so many of the problems that we have are come from the fact that we don't know our origin story and we don't know why we're here and how amazing this country is.
- [37:39]
Glenn Beck
You know, it's exactly right. I have to ask you, you know, his. I. I never really, I guess, fully understood or saw. You know, I'm such an American that I never thought of George Washington having to go to the British and saying, hey, I could. You know, I could. I could serve here. And them looking at him and going, no, you're not an elite. You're. You're of no family. You're of no consequence. You have no education. Where Americans, we don't look at people like that. And it's so weird to see and to think George Washington being rejected because he's not part of the old system, you know, I don't know how to explain it. Once you see the movie, you'll understand. But even his. Even his first real. And I think I. I'll bet you his real love his whole life.
- [38:41]
John Irwin
Yeah.
- [38:41]
Glenn Beck
You know, he kind of grew up around. And dad just didn't even. Nobody even thought it was possible because he just was, you know, kind of scum beneath their. Their. Their feet. Yeah.
- [38:54]
John Irwin
You see, the American idea birthed in this idea of anyone, you know, from anywhere being able to do whatever they set their mind to. If they work hard enough. That is the idea of America. And that did not exist. And you clearly see that in the. And you see the unfairness of a world fixed in a class system with an elite that no matter what you do, no matter how good you are, you could never join just by virtue of your status. And, and you see this group of people and you see Washington in this movie say, why is the world. Why can we not make a better world? So it's so interesting how he so wanted to join this group that he was actually destined to defy. And, and you see that over the course of the film and you wonder if his, the first great love of his life had chosen him or if, if he was able to get a royal commission as a British officer, which he wanted so badly.
- [39:46]
Caller/Guest 1
Yeah.
- [39:46]
John Irwin
Is there an America today? I don't know. You know, so it's amazing to see these, these, these things that happened that really is, as he called it, were kind of a divine hand of providence guiding him, even when it was painful.
- [40:00]
Glenn Beck
It's interesting to see. What did you, what did you find about. And did you even research this far into it, his love affair with, with Martha? I mean, because I've always felt that the love affair that you see this, this crushing love that he has for this, this woman Fairfax, whose father is, you know, has hired him to make maps of the county and, and everything else or of his property. I'm not sure he ever gets past that. It was, was Martha. I mean, I know he loved Martha, but was it kind of the old fashioned because we're married and we're gonna love each other or was there ever really a love, a deep love affair with Martha and George? Do you know?
- [40:45]
John Irwin
Yeah, I have, I have opinions on this. And you try to research as much as you can. Martha burned all their letters, burned almost everything.
- [40:54]
Glenn Beck
Yeah, except two.
- [40:55]
John Irwin
And I was actually, I was at Mount Vernon two days ago. We got to lay a wreath on his, on his grave, which was amazing. And then also we were, you know, in the room that he died. And there's a desk there. And that's where one of these letters was from Martha. Tucked away, hidden like it was just hidden in the desk, but the rest are burned. And the only letters that we have from Sally are from the letters he wrote to her. And so Sally was obviously his kind of first crush flame. There was obviously attraction there. The last letter he wrote her was like a week before he married Martha. I feel like Martha was a business partnership that and a part as marriages were in that day that actually grew into a bond over time, especially as they experienced difficulty together and she was out with him during the war. And if you read that one letter that survived, you see that their, the relationship with Martha blossomed into, into a real bond, in my opinion, different than kind of the. Yes, the infatuation with Sally. But I think it grew and grew and became more and more real. Man. I hope to tell that story. And especially as you get into 1776 and beyond just the pressure that he was under, you know, I think she was there for him in every way. So these were the two loves of his life, you know, and it's so fascinating to explore.
- [42:17]
Glenn Beck
Yeah, she was not only there for him, but when they went to Valley Forge, I mean, she was there. I mean, no woman is going to Valley Forge. She was there helping and she was a remarkable woman. Anyway, John, what is one last thing? What, what is the one thing you learned about George Washington you did not know that you thought, wow, everyone should know this.
- [42:38]
John Irwin
Well, as I studied his life, you know, you think about these characters forged in stone, you know, and they're mythic and, and then you ask where do these characteristics come from? And I think what I learned was just the value of failure that George Washington learned through his mistakes. And, and he kept going and he didn't give up and he was very self aware and he forged himself before he could forge a nation. And you see that in this film, in this early chapter in. In his life. So I think, you know, one of the great lessons for me was that failure doesn't have to define you, but it can mold you into the person that you're meant to become if you'll let it and if you'll not quit. And, and this guy had an uncommon endurance and, and, and he learned from his mistakes and he kept going and he had true courage. So I think those were the primary things. Other than that, I think his personality was like a lid on top of a volcano. I think that there was. This was not a boring person. This was a person of great passion and great emotion. And his personality was kind of like a lid on that and so fascinating character. And so I wanted to start with this early adventure. It is in theaters nationwide. And as always, when our audience unifies our voice around something and shocks Hollywood, millions and millions of people see it that wouldn't otherwise see it because of the fear of missing out. And that's my hope and that's my prayer. As we've screened the movie around the country. It's Cool to hear people like, you know, cheer and chant USA at the end of the movie. But what I love is a lot of people say, I was up on Google like, all night researching, like, did this really happen?
- [44:25]
Glenn Beck
Yeah, yeah.
- [44:26]
John Irwin
Some of the most extraordinary things in the movie actually happen. So that's, that's my hope, is that it will serve as a spark of curiosity for Americans everywhere.
- [44:35]
Glenn Beck
I will tell you congratulations. State Department is doing screenings now of Young Washington, the embassies all over the world, which is tremendous. And I will tell you as a listener, that stuff is not going to happen. We lose the next, you know, couple of elections, this is over, and it gets really dark. It is so important to support movies like this now because money doesn't talk. It usually screams. And the only way we get. I mean, we have an extraordinary opportunity this 250th year. I mean, I again, divine providence, to drop our 250th in right now where we are politically right now. If this would have happened 10 years ago, it wouldn't have been the same to happen right now. You have a chance to educate yourself and stop all of this stuff and support the next great storytellers. We lost our story. The left took it from us and has butchered it to death. We must find it again and we must support great storytellers. And I will tell you, John Irwin is one of my favorites and one of the best. And the. The name of the film is Young Washington. And if you make this, you. You go to see this and this becomes a success. I can't wait to see the series that he will make on this because Washington is the greatest story ever told in American history. He is fabulous, John, thank you. God bless you.
- [46:03]
John Irwin
Thank you, Glenn. Great to see you again as always. Take care.
- [46:06]
Glenn Beck
Good to see you.
- [46:07]
John Irwin
You're streaming the Best of Glenn Beck. To hear more of this interview and others. Download the full show podcasts wherever you get podcasts.
- [46:18]
Glenn Beck
Nana Nana n.