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So today I actually had to say Bernie Sanders is right. I mean, not really. Not really. I mean, he's kind of right. He's about a quarter of. He's 25% right on something. And I could identify what it is, and I do. He just proposed some AI madness. Madness about the government taking over 50% of all of the AI companies. It's madness. But he's right on one thing. You did build this. So how do we solve what's coming? Really fascinating conversation. Also, more on Platner and the race in California. There's just so much we have to get to today. This is the best of. You want to hear the whole thing? Just go to glenn beck.com torch or wherever you get your podcast. Look for the full three hour podcast. But this is the best of Tuesday.
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You're listening to the best of the Glenn Beck program.
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All right, I want to talk to you about one word. And this is. This one word describes almost every argument we are actually having in America. And you'll understand how, how that works out here in just a minute. But let me give you that one word that is the actual argument for everything. The one word is mine. Let me explain. This has not hit your kitchen table yet, but it will. Please hear me. This will. And if you don't deal with it now, you will be in panic. And the Bernie Sanders of the world are going to give you something that is dressed up in the prettiest language you've ever heard. You want to date that pretty thing? Like nobod is business. It's all about artificial intelligence and it's about your data. And underneath all of it is one question. Who owns the future? In the next couple of days, I want to talk to you about energy and these data centers, but I want to talk to you first. About what? Bernie Sanderson. Now Bernie Sanders. And give him credit where credit is due. The guy doesn't have a problem. I mean, you know, he, he, he took his honeymoon over in the former Soviet Union when it was still the scary Soviet Union. So, I mean, he doesn't have a problem telling you exactly who he is. And he just told us his plan and he's calling it the American Sovereign Wealth Fund Act. Wow. Like a patriot Act. Now I happen to speak, you know, political bull crap. So let me translate what that actually means. The government he's proposing will take a one time 50% cut of the biggest AI companies in America. OpenAI Anthropic, all of them. Okay? And here's the really clever part. He doesn't want it paid in cash. He wants it paid in stock. He wants Washington to own half the company. I warn you, this is going to come from the progressive Republicans as well. We have to say no to this every time. Now he's pairing this with what he calls a robot tax built on a report out of his own Senate committee warning that AI could wipe out nearly 100 million American jobs in the next 10 years. And that's going to happen. So he wants to fix this in a very generous way. Because technology belongs to everyone. Wealth belongs to everyone. The future belongs to everyone. Wow, sounds like just a hug from Bernie Sanders. Until you ask the one question that nobody really ever wants you to ask. Bernie. When you say everyone, who is everyone? Now watch, because this is where socialists always have a sleight of hand trick. Every time a politician says everyone, watch their hands because everyone always turns into a committee or a board or a fund. A handful of people in a building in Washington making decisions for 350 million people who will never know their names. It's the collective, it's the masses, it's the people. And history is stacked with people who claim to speak for the people right until the moment they were deciding everything for each of us and then executing those who didn't go along with the plan. Now, I'm not going to say that that's Bernie Sanders. I'm not going to call him a fascist. I think, you know, calling everybody a fascist or labels is pretty lazy unless they deserve it. Honestly, half the people who throw fascists around couldn't define it if you spotted them the first three letters. So I want to be precise on what fascism is, because precision is a strong weapon. The danger here is never goose stepping soldiers. Okay, that's a cartoon. The real danger is always much quieter. It's structural and it shows up in every system that has ever gone wrong. It's when people who create value get separated from the value they create. Now, there's lots of ways to define fascism, and most people want to make fascism just about nationalism and anti Semitism, but that doesn't help on anything that what is that? Fascism is an actual economic system and one the progressives loved until Hitler. Communism is a system where the state owns the mean of production. Okay, so they own all of the factories and everything else doesn't work. Fascism also doesn't work, but it works better than communism. And that's where the state partners with corporations and owners. That's it. That's the whole disease in one sentence. When it is socialism or fascism or communism. The rule is the same. The state becomes the owner or a part owner and the referee and the player all at once. And when that happens, you don't get a fairer game. You get a rigged game. It doesn't matter what flag is flying over or what label you want to give it. It doesn't matter what it's called in the textbook. Bernie Sanders calls himself a democratic socialist. Fine, I'll take him at his word. Okay? But the mechanism he's describing, Washington holding the stock, Washington steering the harvest. That's the dangerous part. You need to watch. Not the label, the machine that he wants to build. Okay, so it kills me to say this, but this is something I have been saying for 15 years and people haven't heard me because the problem seemed like sci fi machines and robots taking everybody's job and nobody paid attention. And AI still is pretty much just some, you know, thing that you just put a question in and it answers it for you. I told you several years ago, we have to talk about AI, the job situation, and ubi. I've said this several times that we need to discuss the alternatives, because UBI is not the answer. But when we get to this point, everybody is going to say, oh, we got to do something. And guys like Bernie Sanders will step up and he'll be half right. Hear me out. Bernie Sanders is half right. He said you helped build this thing. It's true. You did. For 20 years, you fed it every search, every email, every photo, every review you ever wrote at midnight, every click. Billions of people poured the. Poured the single largest collection of human experience ever assembled into these systems. And then a handful of these companies that knew exactly what they were building in the 1990s turned it into some of the most valuable assets in the history of the world. So when somebody stands up and say, says, hey, the American people had a hand in creating this, they're not wrong. And that question of, hey, wait a minute, you built this on the back of us. What do we get? That's an honest question. But the answer is where people fall off a cliff. Because Bernie Sanders answer. And other people on both sides of the aisle. Mike, mark my words, their answer will be, take it, tax it, nationalize at least half of it. Let Washington hold the keys. And my answer, the American answer is a world, a word that is older than the Republic itself. Property. Property. The reason why you can't take it from them is because of private property. But wait a minute. What about your property? I want you to think about how this works in every other aspect of your life, in every other corner of your life. Somebody strikes rich strikes oil on your property, under your house. Okay? Texans know this. What. What happens? Well, Washington doesn't seize the oil company. If you're smart. When you bought your house in Texas, you retained the. The mineral rights. And so if somebody finds oil underneath your land, you get a check. Somebody records your song. Washington doesn't nationalize the record label. You own the song, so you get the royalty. Somebody builds on your patent. Washington doesn't confiscate the factory. You own the patent, you own the invention. So I have one question. Why is it your data, which is the most valuable thing you own, that. That is the one thing that is the most personal to you, but yet you don't own it for some reason, property, that intellectual property doesn't apply here. I want you to know this is not some fever dream I cooked up on a chalkboard. Serious. People have been chewing on this for years. People in Silicon Valley, Tea Party or guys. I can't remember his name, Jason something or other, but he's been arguing that your data has dignity and a price. Andrew Yang was on this program 10, 12 years ago saying your data should be your property. And I agree with him. This idea crosses every line that we usually fight across. Okay, so how do we come to an answer? The difference is what you do with it. Because America is standing at a massive fork in the road. And if you are a true conservative, you need to get ahead of this. So I'm going to give you two paths. Bernie Sanders path and my path. And I'm going to show you the difference and why Bernie Sanders is dangerous on this and why we have to discuss this and how we can. How we can solve an awful lot of our problems by. By keeping our principles. Okay, so we're at this fork of the road. Now, let me give you two paths. First, Bernie Sanders. Washington takes stock in all of these companies, and then Washington runs a fund, and then Washington decides who benefits and when, and you get to hope that you're on the list and the citizen becomes the client and the state becomes the parent.
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And.
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And you, you just keep. Keep getting smaller. Path 2. Path 2. You own your slice now. Maybe you take it as a dividend, a check. Maybe you take it every year. No agency, no strings, no form to fill out in triplicate. Or maybe you don't spend a dime of it. Maybe you pool it voluntarily with your family or your church or your community, and you let it compound. Okay? You Let it grow you. Let the markets do the boring, beautiful thing they always do. Turn a little capital into a lot of it over time. So what are the, what's the difference between these two stories? Notice what nobody did in that second story. Nobody forced you. Nobody drafted you into somebody else's vision of the country. And that is the entire ball game. The collective says, we'll decide for you. But freedom says no, you decide. The collective says, the government owns the future and part of it. And freedom says no, you own the future. The collective says, trust us. Freedom says, trust yourself. Turning your data into a property right is going to be hard. Nobody is fully cracked this, this code. They don't know how to do it yet. Lawyers are going to get rich either way. But hard has never been an excuse to hand the harvest over to Washington and then have them call it generosity. The founders understood something that we keep forgetting here. The job of government is not to manage your life. It's to protect your right to go and create. You get that thing right, you protect property, you protect the person and free people to build themselves and everything changes. And that's not a theory. That's, that's, that's the idea that built the most prosperous nation that has ever existed on the planet. And we can do it again. So as you start to see jobs being lost, you hear about these giant companies making billions and billions and trillions of dollars. And it's, it is based on your back, your personal property. I mean, do you have access to all of the information they have on you? They can predict you better than you can. They know what they're going you're going to do before you know what you're going to do. And they can shape you. I want my personal property back. If they want access to it, they can buy it from me. But remember, none of this will come down to a fund or a tax or a 50 page bill that nobody will even read. It comes down to that one word, the first word that every two year old learns the world. That the word that built this country and scares every central planner like Bernie Sanders who has ever lived. And that word is mine. The government is saying that's mine on your behalf. I say government, get the hell out of the way. That is mine. And I don't give you the right to take anything that is mine and then hold it for me. No, Bernie Sanders is. This is a dangerous idea that changes us fundamentally. Property rights. Get property rights correct on this and we will solve a ton of problems. And you know what, Jason And I were talking before the show and you know, I said, they have all of our data and they are. I mean, look this up, Jason. You should do a Glenn AI. I think I've done enough shows on it to where it could pull this, where I've talked about the death of free will. You don't know if you had the idea or they gave you the idea because they know you so well. They have all your data points. So who's controlling whom? Which, by the way, leads me to a little bit of history here. This is a letter from the White House signed by Lyndon Baines Johnson to the Governor of California, Edmund Brown, in 1964, where Brown was saying, hey, we need some investment here because we, we need to do some high tech stuff. This is the letter that, this is the beginning of Silicon Valley. And he's talking about, yes, we've got existing federal programs, we're going to be doing some things in California, blah, blah, blah. This is the beginning of Silicon Valley. The United States government and the CIA in particular funded a lot of Silicon Valley. So again, you do own it. Your tax dollars funded a lot of Silicon Valley. Then we gave them all the information, which is strangely exactly what the CIA has wanted the American people to do, and give them forever. Can we stop giving the government more of our stuff? And don't forget, we start looking at our intellectual property, who we are, all of our data as mine. It's my property, period. Pay me for it. This is the best of the Glenn Beck program. The numbers don't quite work anymore, do they? I mean, you fill up the gas tank, you buy groceries, you go to a show, and then somehow or another, the normal parts of life just start costing a bundle. And so you put things on credit card, you tell yourself you're going to catch up, and then next month arrives and you still can't make it work because next month has its hand out. That's how people get trapped. 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This is the best of the Glenn Beck program. And don't forget, rate us on itunes. Few things you just have to remember, life becomes so easy. Let me give you an example here. Yesterday, Sunny Hostin from the View said something that jumped out to me today as I was preparing the show because it demonstrates a very clear principle. Okay. She started to attack Graham Platner, the guy who was the Nazi tattoo, whatever, that guy. She began to attack him. And it's not what she said on the attack, it's what she actually ended up confessing.
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Listen, I am conflicted. They asked Cory Booker how he felt about this because I think all the allegations are true. The sexting with other women while married is definitely true because his wife is the person that gave the messages to his campaign to give them a heads up. So the fact now that he's saying that these messages. I think she said that he had that he. Well, she told them campaign we haven't seen messages. But she disclosed it, right?
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Yeah.
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So why would she lie about that? So that part is true. He's also made racist remarks about against African Americans. So he's a cheater. He's an anti Semite because the fact that he had that tattoo for 20 years and didn't know what it was is a lie. So he's a liar, a racist, an anti Semite homophobe. He's a homophobe. So he's all the things and character does matter. But we have someone that has almost unbridled power in the White House at this point. There is no, there are no checks and balances. And the only way that we can maybe bring a bit of our democracy back is by having a Congress that functions and that has these checks and balances. And I do think one of the only ways is to win that seat in Maine. And so I like Cory Booker said this is a concern, but our country is in grave. There are other paths and they.
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Okay, I want you to write something down and I just want you to post this in front of you. Okay. Everything before you say but is what you actually believe. Everything after is what you're willing to trade it for. Okay, let me show you. He's a liar, he's a racist, he's an anti Semite, he's a homophobe, he's all of those things. And then to her credit, she uses the right words. Character does matter. But then the most dangerous word in American politics or human existence. But we need the seat, we need the checks and balances. And in Maine, this is how we get power back. So let me say it again. Everything you say before, but everything she just said before is what she actually believes. And everything after the but is what she's willing to trade it for. Okay. And everything after a but is where republics go to die. I believe in freedom of speech, but hate speech. So we have to. I believe in freedom of speech, but Covid, we have to. Silence. Okay, here's the formula. What you actually believe. Then introduce a pro. But introduce a big, big problem. And then show how you're going to sell out all your beliefs. Okay, I believe in the free market system, but I had to violate the free market to save the free market. That doesn't make any sense. I believe in the Constitution, but times are so tough, we have to do some other. No, no. Stop with buts. What is it you believe? Okay, sit with. What she actually told you? She said. She didn't say I'm not sure about his record. She said he is by her own account, one of the worst human beings she described. Couldn't describe a liar, a racist, a bigot, cruel, anti Semite, and in the very same breath she says, I'm gonna. We need to hand him power. Think about how insane that is. You don't lock the doors at night and then hand the keys to the man you just described as the reason you lock your doors at night. If you truly believe someone is all those things, then there is exactly one honest conclusion. Keep him as far away from power as humanly possible. The only way to get to. But the only way is if power has quietly become more important than your principles. That if power actually is not what you believe, or power is not what you believe in, or is what you believe in and not the things you said before the bot. Because that makes more sense. Look, we need power. We need power. And he's all of these things, so we will elect him. That's what she actually said. And you know, most people don't even notice this. Let me make this really, really simple here. You and your wife need a babysitter and you call me up and you say, listen, this guy lies about everything. He's a bigot, he's cruel, his character is a disaster. I don't even know. I mean, he could be sketchy with kids. What would you say if I called you up and said that? What would you say to me, glenn, what the hell is wrong with you? Why would you let him anywhere near your kids and imagine I said, well, I agree with you, he's all those things, but Tanya and I just really need a night out. You would think I'm out of my mind because character is not a footnote on the resume with your children. Character is the resume. It's not the side issue. It is the issue and it doesn't stop being the issue just because we traded the nursery for the capital. I have diagnosed disease here in this chair for so long and tell you, you know, the things that we should be standing up against. I am trying really hard to show you the things we should stand up against and before, because I think if you want to save the Republic, this is what we need to do. We need to define not what we're against. We got it. We need to articulate what we're for and fight for those things. Otherwise we're going to get stuck in the. Yeah, yeah, yeah, all those things are important, but I'm for leaders that I want to be proud to explain to my 10 year old kid yet not. Not. Yeah, he's a jerk, but he's our jerk. I want to be proud of them, full stop. It's going to be hard to be really hard. I'm for the boring virtues like telling the truth when a lie would win. Keeping your word when breaking it would be easier. Restraint when you have the power to show no restraint. I'm for the kind of citizen who would rather lose an election with a clear conscience than win one rather than launder their soul. Here's what cynics never understand. Character was never the obstacle to the mission. Character is the mission. The whole point of self government is to be the kind of people who can be trusted to govern themselves. So if we start saying, I believe these things, but I'm going to do this, we'll never be the people that can govern ourselves. We can't. You can't, you can't. You'll never get that back. Okay, the moment we decide, we can skip the part that has principles. If the stakes are high enough, then we've already lost the only thing worth winning. I am not lecturing to the Democrats alone. We have a very long way to Go on. This, this. But our founders understood this better than we do. John Adams said the Constitution is made for a moral and religious people wholly inadequate for a government of any other. He wasn't saying everybody join a church. He was telling us something really, really super useful. The machinery only works if the people running it have breaks on the inside. I want you to think of our country, of the Republic, like a ship. We have checks and balances, right? What is that? Checks and balances are the rudder. The checks and balances help steer, okay? But character is the anchor and it holds you in place. When the storm wants to throw you on the rocks. You lose the rudder and you'll drift. You lose the anchor and you're a danger to everybody on board. She wants to fix the rudder by hiring a man who swears. She swears has no anchor. You can't reform a system by handing it to somebody that you've just described as the reason the whole system has failed. But once you let but win, watch what happens. Because it never stops at one trade. Never. Today it's ease awful, but we need the seat. Then truth becomes negotiable. Justice becomes negotiable. The difference between an ally and a decent human being become negotiable. You start. You start out saying we have to do this to save democracy. But you end up discovering that you spend every democratic virtue you had and the receipts still in your pocket. And history is a. Has a long list of people who said but, but, but, but, but with total sincerity. Okay? The French revolutionaries, they insisted the cause was too pure for the methods to matter. Yeah, we. Doesn't matter. This is a pure. We got to get rid of the king. Look at what's happening. What happened? The guillotine. Because they had a but. Lenin started the idea, hired Stalin. Because I believe in all of these things. I believe in the people. But there's some bad people. Millions dead. Very respectable men. In 1933, in Germany, they figured we'll put a really dangerous Nazi in as chancellor, okay? Because he's going to be easy to pull strings on, okay? We can craft him, we can control him because we need to have this power. If we don't have this power, the whole thing could fall apart. Okay, so guess which one met the, you know, Mr. Hitler's bullet in the head. The people who made that compromise. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we know about him. But that's the whole point. If you think the emergency is so big that just in this one case, character can wait. Character never waits. It just leaves. So here's a question I want you to ask yourself. I want you to start listening to people who say what they believe and then the but and follow it with what they'll sell their beliefs for. Okay? And pay particular attention to you. But the other question is the difference between a healthy republic and a sick republic. A healthy republic says, is this person worthy of power? A sick republic says, can this person get us power? That's the entire ball game in two sentences. That's it. The View asked the question. They didn't even flinch, and the audience cheered. I'm asking you to be the kind of person and to demand the kind of leaders who can only ever bring themselves to ask the first one, be the anchor. Hold the line on boring virtues when the world is screaming that this time, this just this once, that those virtues won't count. Throw out the Declaration. Throw out the Bill of Rights. Throw out. You can't do that. Because the day you stop counting, the day you stop counting and counting on those principles as an anchor is the day you'll find out that the rudder and the anchor were the only thing really holding the ship together. And there is no but big enough to bring those back once they're. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Those words weren't written for history books. They were written for you. But it's hard to pursue happiness when pain is a part of everyday life. Relief Factor was created to help people address inflammation, which is one of the most common causes of ongoing aches and pains from aging, overexertion, or just daily living. It's 100% drug free research based formula, no prescription, no masking of symptoms. Just real relief so you can keep moving forward. My pain almost stopped me. My hands were so bad I couldn't even butt my own shirt. I couldn't paint, I couldn't write. And Tanya was the one who told me, I'm not listening to wine anymore unless you try everything. Try Relief Factor. I did. It helped me get my life back. As America celebrates her 250 years of independence, give yourself the chance to reclaim yours. To commemorate, Relief Factor is offering a special patriotic price at 1776 so you can pursue your happiness being pain free. $17.76. Three week quick starts. Ready for right now. Relief Factor because freedom just feels better without pain. Visit relief factor.com relieffactor.com 800 the number 4 relief I would ask you to indulge me here just for a few minutes. Bring out an old friend and indulge me. This is a little inside baseball and Some of it is a little embarrassing, quite honestly. Vinnie Penn is a guy. He's a Connecticut based radio broadcaster. He's an author. He does a talk show in Connecticut on iHeartradio, also up in Boston. He has worked with Howard Stern, which I will get into if he decides to embarrass me. But he has written from Circus magazine to Maxim, Cracked, parent, you know, VH1, best week ever. He's done a lot of. He's done a lot of stuff. And I met him in the 90s and he was just a miserable failure and. And started to work with him and we became very good friends for a very long time. And he called me and said, glenn, I'm writing a book about, you know, radio in the 90s when we were together, blah, blah, blah. And the name of it is the Tale of Two Talk Shows. Talk Show Hosts. Tale of Two Talk Show Hosts. And I thought, wait a minute. Okay, that's cool. But then as I read the book, I realized, no, this isn't really about him. This isn't about him. It's not two. It's my split personality, I think is how he would describe it. Vinnie, welcome to the program.
B
Yeah, that's excellent. That's. You know, I've been struggling for weeks on my show on how to describe it. That's it. The two talk show hosts. Are you. Because you were doing a talk show on a top 40 station in the 90s, and I had no idea you were, but you were. So I learned a lot doing one either. I don't think you knew.
A
I did. No, I. I did. I knew I was breaking on the rule. I knew where I was going to go. But, but, but, Vinnie, you know, I learned a few things and I. I had forgotten just how clueless I used to be and probably still am. But I also didn't realize how many people around me were just stabbing me in the back of. Just like my enemy. I had. No, I really didn't know that. And I also didn't know that I was pretty. Because of my cluelessness, I was pretty insensitive to a lot of people. That's what I got from the book.
B
No, no, it. Was that your takeaway? No, not at all.
A
That was my takeaway.
B
I wouldn't say that second half is. Is accurate at all. You're very. You were overly sensitive. Really. Which I would imagine everyone there can attest to as well. You can be overly sensitive while at the same time you have the ability, you know, to call it, you know, call it like it Is. But as for those other people, it took me a while to adjust to the fact that. And to even realize, oh, you're all kind of. They would drag me into the. Into these secret meetings and say, you know, you let Glenn go on this morning for, like, 10 minutes about being pro life. And I'm. And I'm like, I let him. It's the Glenn Beck program. And they're like, you gotta grab the wheel and make a joke. And I'd be like. During his Pro Life segment on the. On the show. So it took me a few months to realize, oh, you're not really a fan of what he's doing in there. But I loved what you were doing in there, and I never exacted that again.
A
So you said one of my favorite lines in the book. You said, I was just fine doing what we were doing because this was all new to you. It was really old. I Love Top 40 radio was really old. And it was all new to you. And we had a blast doing things. I just couldn't do it anymore. And I knew exactly where I wanted to go. And you said, this is a quote. I was just fine doing what we were doing day in and day out for the rest of my days. This is more than enough for me, but not for Beck. I'd soon learn nothing was ever enough for Beck. Such are the markings of either a madman or millionaires. So which am I? Because I will tell you what the staff said after that. What?
B
Both. Both. Clearly both. I would imagine Ricky would echo that sentiment. Surely I can speak for Stu. I'm not a madman.
A
You know exactly what I'm doing.
B
Mad with genius. And, you know, I. I think that. Although I will say, and it's also in the book, when you were. You began struggling with the genre because you were talking about the ministry for a while, and I'm like, I can't. You know, I kept trying to rein you in, and, like, you realize how great we've got it. Like, this is a fun gig. We have fun every day. You had this new romance. She would ultimately become your wife, this great chapter in your life, wonderful family. And I couldn't get you to see how great we had it. And you're like, you know, maybe it's talk radio that I need to be doing. And I'm like, oh, yeah, because that's really cool. And I believe, you know, and I believe. I honestly do believe that you're the reason there are Joe Rogan's today. There are, there are. There are a litany of Glenn Beck, I hesitate to say wannabes, they're all doing it their own way, but you revolutionized. I believe you took talk radio to a next level. I hesitate to say you made it cool, because I don't think you've made anything cool ever in your life. But if I would say you did. And now there are all these guys who, you know, are making their own fortunes, and you broke down a lot of. A lot of doors because your talk show was unorthodox in the early 2000s. I believe it still is. It's still. You still throw in humor. You're still irreverent during monologues about very serious stuff. And I. We were doing that in the late 90s, too, and I thought, this is. I can't believe this is what morning radio is. When you left, I found out, no, it isn't. And you guys should have never been doing what you were doing. I had no idea. I'll never forget. One day, we averaged about three to four songs an hour. And I loved the music. Glenn would come on and be like, well, that was a really rocking tune from Third Eye Blind. You know, he would just mock the artist. I was loving them. When you left, I'll never forget, the program director took me aside. He goes, and now Vinnie will finally be able to play the. The amount of songs we're supposed to be playing an hour. And I said, we weren't. Isn't it supposed to be three to four? And they said, no, it's 12. I had no idea. I had no idea that you were just making your own rules and doing a talk show. That's the only station.
A
That's the way you're supposed to do it. That's the way you're.
B
Yeah, I agree.
A
You didn't. Yeah, you didn't play 12. You didn't. You never ended up playing 12 songs, did you? You have too fat of a mouth to.
B
I did struggle with that. It got up.
A
You did right.
B
The got up. But it is thanks to you that I'm able to do the long monologues that I do. I learned a lot from you, Glenn. Like, for instance, here's one thing that I learned from you. When you get booked for 1105, say, on a radio show, you're like, wow, I got to leave that hour open. When that host then bumps you to 11:35, you realize, oh, my segment just. I just got cut in half this. You're never going to make it around the bend. That is noon. When. When Sarah emailed me yesterday, we're going to do 11:30. Okay. I know, Glenn. I've been cut in half. Under. Understood. I learned radio.
A
I just haven't.
B
You.
A
I just said, we just had important things. We just had important things. And you know me, I. I get. I would be much more likely to promote a book that was really more about you than about me. I get uncomfortable in. In, you know, these kinds of. These kinds of things. And I will tell you, Vinnie, I read the book. I called you right after I read the book. I thought I would read a little bit of it. I read the whole thing. I gave it to Tanya. She said, what are you. What are you reading? And I said, I have not gotten up. I started reading this book and I can't believe. It's like a whole new story to me. I wrote to you and I said, I don't know how much of this is true. I can't verify because, you know, in the book you talk about me being oblivio. I was just focused on other things. But Tanya did. I caught her in the day. She spent the whole day reading the book, just laughing so much at all of it. And. And I really appreciated the way you treated Tanya in the book.
B
And, and, well, and it's interesting, Glenn, because it took me writing the book to realize. Because one of something you would keep revisiting during those three years is, I don't know, I lost something here. I lost something here. And I would keep saying, well, then you'll find it here. You'll find it here. I didn't realize until writing the book, well, you got divorced and you found your. Your wife, your. Your second wife, your true love here. While I was writing it, I'm like, oh, that's the thing he lost. And that's the thing he found. It wasn't. He found talk radio here. It's. He found his true love here. She was a key ingredient, I think, to so many things there, and I'm glad she enjoyed it. There has to be something you remembered in that book, though. There has to be somebody like. I remember that part.
A
None of that, none of it. That I will admit to. I remember. I. I honestly, I remembered all of it. I did not remember how clueless I was on some things, especially when it came to people. I didn't. But I was different then, you know?
B
Yeah.
A
Don't you think?
B
Yeah, in some ways. Like, I'd love to hear your thoughts. Technology, like, technology fascinated you, were ahead of everybody on the tech front. I'll never forget going into a meeting where they wanted to talk about our new commercial and you saying in the hallway, we don't want a commercial. Back me up. We want to get equipment in the studio so that people at home can watch us. They could dial up on their desktops and watch us do a radio show at home. And I said, all right, I'll back you up on that. Management resisted, but caved. And really, that's 1997, and you wanted people to see you doing a radio show. Now, I think they're called podcasts, and they're like, one of the biggest things did we do right now?
A
So did we actually do that?
B
You. Absolutely. In 1997, we fought. That's how certain key players came into our fold. Young guys who were really tech savvy. You might recall Bob Calderella and people. And I remember thinking, we're never going to be at an appearance where any of these wonderful women I'm meeting are going to say, I was watching the show this morning and being surprised. The number wasn't great, but it was large enough that I thought, geez, he was right. People will, like, dial up. Well, you remember dial up. Wow. Yeah. And watch it. That's why, Glenn, I would love to get your thoughts on AI, because as I struggle with that, I'm thinking Beck's probably got a really interesting view on AI. You know, I don't want to come across as a Luddite. Occasionally, I've got to embrace all of this technology, but I kick and scream into much of it. And you were always the opposite. You look at it, you eye it like a newborn. Like, how do I figure this thing out and how do I play with it? So what is. Where are you at on AI right now?
A
So I will tell you, you should go back and listen to today's first hour, because I talk about the Bernie Sanders thing that he Talked about with AI, about how he wants, you know, 50% going to the government. That's insanity. However, we did build it. We. I know, but we did. We did build it. That was built on. On our information. And there. There are some discussions, especially with the. The AI centers. I'm going to do something on AI data centers tomorrow, because everybody has them, I think has the approach wrong. You have the problems correct, you have the solutions wrong. But AI is. Is going to decide the world of tomorrow. It will decide whether you are successful or not and whether a country, you know, if we are not leading the world, we will all be speaking Chinese. And that will happen.
B
Yeah.
A
And it will be a very, very different world.
B
How did you feel about the Pope, Leo's comments on it? Have you caught those yet? Glenn, you have to watch that.
A
Yeah, I saw, yeah, no, I, I, I saw him. I, I didn't pay much attention to them. You know, I think he's, I think he's right about some things. I think he's not right about some things. But AI is a very dangerous tool that we should all be really, really aware of. If you have, if you have one thing you want people to walk away with on the book, what would it be?
B
Reinvention. It's never too. You, you can reinvent yourself once a decade, and I don't mean with intention and, but that it is possible. It's never over. There's always another chapter. I didn't even realize at 29 years old that I was in need of reinvention. I met this guy named Glenn Beck in a hallway who was in the throes of it, and he didn't realize he was in the midst of it. And I think you've reinvented. I think you're in the midst of another reinvention right now. Reinvention is necessary. Evolution is necessary. It's never too late for anyone.
A
Vinnie, I'd love to talk to you. We'll do something online as well. Vinnie Penn. The name of the book is A Tale of Two Talk Show Hosts. It is out now. It is an unauthorized biography.
B
I don't think that's necessary. It's not really necessary that way. That, that seems a bit much, but all right.
A
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 lead 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 this summer.
C
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A
to work.
Date: June 2, 2026
Host: Glenn Beck
Guest: Vinnie Penn
Main Theme: Exploring property rights in the age of AI, the state of American values and character in politics, and stories from radio past with Vinnie Penn.
This episode focuses on the ownership and control of data and AI, the implications of state power versus personal property, and the importance of character in American political life. Glenn Beck also reunites with radio personality Vinnie Penn to discuss reinvention, the evolution of talk radio, and personal stories from their careers.
Prompted by Bernie Sanders' Proposal: Glenn critiques Bernie Sanders’ American Sovereign Wealth Fund Act, which advocates for the government to seize a 50% stake (in stock, not cash) from major U.S. AI companies.
Central Question: “Who owns the future?”—particularly, who owns the data that made modern AI possible? Beck argues that every American has contributed to AI’s wealth through their personal data.
Property Rights vs. Government Control: Glenn draws a line in the sand, advocating for data to be recognized as private property rather than something collectivized or controlled by the state.
Critique of Nationalization and UBI: Glenn warns that both progressive and some conservative voices may seize on AI-fueled disruption to justify unprecedented government intervention. He insists on rooted American principles:
Critique of Political “Buts”: Using Sunny Hostin's commentary on "The View" as a springboard, Glenn explores the rationalizations people make in sacrificing principle for political gain.
American Political Disease: The willingness to overlook character flaws in the name of political expediency is, Glenn argues, corrosive to the Republic.
Historical Parallels: Glenn references the French and Russian revolutions, the rise of Hitler, and John Adams’ insight, all to warn that sacrificing character and principle, even “just this once,” leads to ruin.
Guest Segment: [35:51] – [48:48]
Old Friends, New Book: Glenn is joined by longtime friend and radio collaborator Vinnie Penn, author of "A Tale of Two Talk Show Hosts."
Their Time in Radio: Funny, candid recollections of the 90s radio era, with Beck constantly breaking formats and Vinnie adapting.
On Innovation and Change: Glenn is credited as a pioneer in moving radio toward talk and interactive formats, even toying with in-studio video years before podcasts and video shows became mainstream.
Personal Growth and Reinvention: Vinnie reflects that "reinvention is necessary," crediting his and Glenn’s careers as proof that people can evolve and thrive by embracing new chapters.
Returns to AI: Vinnie asks for Glenn’s thoughts on AI, looping in their earlier discussion. Glenn reiterates the stakes: “AI is going to decide the world of tomorrow… If we are not leading the world, we will all be speaking Chinese.” (47:10)
This episode delivers a multi-faceted reflection on technology, personal agency, and public virtue in America. Glenn Beck sharply distinguishes between government collectivism and individual rights, especially regarding the future of data and AI. He makes an urgent, principle-based appeal: protect property rights, revive character in politics, and do not let expediency override core values. The conversation with Vinnie Penn offers a lighter but insightful exploration of professional growth, adaptation, and the ongoing story of American talk radio.