Best of the Program | Guest: Zachary Levi | 5/30/25

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Glenn Beck Program | Guest: Zachary Levi | 5/30/25

Release Date: May 30, 2025

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Introduction and Political Commentary

Timestamp: [00:01 - 07:36]

Glenn Beck opens the episode by discussing his perspectives on American culture and politics, highlighting his disdain for the political climate in Washington State. He criticizes what he perceives as the state's drift towards communism and Marxism, emphasizing the exodus of major corporations from the Seattle area due to fears of "wealth confiscation." Beck reminisces about the past, contrasting it with the current state of Washington, particularly focusing on the Hunts Point area:

“Lake Washington is... just the most beautiful place you've ever seen... Seventeen homes in Hunts Point are up for sale. Seventeen. And some of them have been up for sale now for over a year.” ([03:35])

Beck underscores his concerns about the sociopolitical shifts, referencing personal anecdotes from his upbringing in Washington State to illustrate his point about the changing cultural landscape.

Discussion on Bruce Harrell Scandal

Timestamp: [07:36 - 11:44]

Beck delves into the scandal surrounding Bruce Harrell, the Mayor of Seattle. He criticizes Harrell's past behavior, including an incident from 1996 where Harrell was accused of brandishing a firearm over a parking space dispute. Beck questions Harrell's integrity and accountability:

“If you have been arrested in 96 for brandishing a firearm... what are you doing just showing it to them?" ([10:12])

Stu Burguiere joins the conversation, supporting Beck's skepticism about Harrell's claims that he mistook his gun for a watch during the incident. They discuss the lack of consequences for Harrell and the broader implications for democratic accountability.

WNBA Controversy and Racism Claims

Timestamp: [11:02 - 16:20]

The conversation shifts to a recent controversy in the WNBA involving Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese. Beck and Burguiere critique the allegations of racism following a highly publicized game where Reese was accused of racial slurs and subsequent claims by Clark. Beck challenges the validity of these accusations, pointing out the absence of substantial evidence and thorough investigations:

“It doesn't seem to matter anymore. The truth doesn't matter anymore.” ([13:46])

They argue that the swift dismissal of the controversy without proper investigation reflects a broader societal issue where truth and accountability are being overshadowed by sensationalism and political agendas.

Interview with Zachary Levi on AI and Wildwood Studios

Timestamp: [18:54 - 34:07]

Guest: Zachary Levi, Actor and Founder of Wildwood Studios

Beck welcomes Zachary Levi, who shares his deep concerns about the rapid advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its impending impact on various industries, including entertainment. Levi emphasizes the exponential growth of AI technology and its potential to displace both white-collar and blue-collar jobs:

“AI is knocking on the doorstep of all of our industries... within five years, every white-collar job will be gone.” ([19:08])

Levi elaborates on his vision for Wildwood Studios in Austin, Texas, aiming to create a sanctuary for human creativity amidst the rise of AI. He draws parallels to the resurgence of vinyl records as consumers seek authenticity in an AI-saturated market:

“Wildwood Studios is going to be about... certified organic human-made content for free-range artists.” ([29:34])

Beck engages with Levi, raising concerns about AI-generated content potentially surpassing human creativity. Levi responds by advocating for the preservation of authentic, human-driven artistry and the importance of watermarking AI-generated content to maintain transparency:

“We must embrace AI, but we must do it in as ethical a way as possible.” ([22:50])

Monologue on Elon Musk's Departure from Washington D.C.

Timestamp: [34:07 - 44:10]

Beck transitions to discussing Elon Musk’s departure from Washington D.C., lauding Musk for his contributions to technology and innovation despite facing considerable opposition. He portrays Musk as a symbol of true courage and resilience, drawing historical comparisons to figures like Nikola Tesla and Winston Churchill:

“Elon Musk... did some things that are absolutely remarkable and you're going to continue to do things that are remarkable.” ([34:07])

Beck criticizes the political environment that vilified Musk for his attempts to challenge the status quo, highlighting his achievements such as reusable rockets and advancements in electric vehicles. He praises Musk’s unwavering commitment to freedom of thought and innovation:

“He never asked us to trust him. He never asked for our loyalty. But I think he does deserve our respect.” ([38:00])

Beck concludes by honoring Musk's legacy and expressing hope that future generations will recognize his sacrifices and contributions once the current political turmoil subsides.

Conclusion

Timestamp: [44:10 - End]

The episode wraps up with Beck reiterating his support for Elon Musk and encouraging listeners to recognize and appreciate leaders who challenge oppressive systems. He emphasizes the importance of innovation and free speech in shaping a better future.

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Notable Quotes:

• Glenn Beck: “If you don't think you're playing with communism or socialism, talk to the people. People in Washington State.” ([03:35])

• Zachary Levi: “AI is knocking on the doorstep of all of our industries... within five years, every white-collar job will be gone.” ([19:08])

• Glenn Beck: “The Constitution is the owner's manual.” ([16:03])

• Zachary Levi: “Authenticity is the most important. In fact, there's been studies done... people yearn for that.” ([28:58])

• Glenn Beck: “Elon Musk... did some things that are absolutely remarkable.” ([34:07])

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Key Topics Covered:

1. Political Climate in Washington State: Critique of perceived moves towards communism and the impact on local economies and communities.

2. Bruce Harrell Scandal: Examination of the Seattle Mayor's past misconduct and lack of accountability.

3. WNBA Racial Controversy: Analysis of recent allegations of racism within the WNBA and the implications for truth and justice.

4. Artificial Intelligence and Employment: In-depth discussion with Zachary Levi on the exponential growth of AI, its potential to disrupt industries, and efforts to preserve human creativity through initiatives like Wildwood Studios.

5. Elon Musk’s Legacy: Tribute to Musk’s contributions to technology and his fight against political and social opposition, positioning him as a modern-day innovator and symbol of resilience.

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Insights and Conclusions:

• Awareness of AI's Impact: The episode underscores the urgent need to address AI’s rapid advancement and its potential to replace human jobs, advocating for ethical implementation and preservation of human creativity.

• Political Accountability: There is a strong emphasis on holding political figures accountable for their actions, reflecting broader concerns about the integrity of leadership and governance.

• Value of Authenticity: Both Beck and Levi stress the importance of authenticity in an increasingly automated and AI-driven world, suggesting a consumer shift towards valuing human-made and genuine experiences.

• Courage in Innovation: Elon Musk is portrayed as an exemplar of courage and innovation, highlighting the challenges faced by those who strive to push boundaries and effect meaningful change despite opposition.

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This summary provides a comprehensive overview of the key discussions, insights, and perspectives shared during the episode, making it accessible and informative for listeners who have yet to experience the full program.

Transcript

[Glenn Beck]

Put us in a box. Go ahead. That just gives us something to break out of because the next generation 2025 GMC terrain elevation is raising the standard of what comes standard. As far as expectations go, why meet them when you can shatter them? What we choose to challenge, we challenge completely. We are professional grade. Visit gmc.com to learn more on today's Friday podcast. Washington State has gotten so far they are so crazy even Mao has to be impressed. This is what happens when you adopt the attitude of the ends justify the means. It's a really important part of the program today. Also Zachary Levi, the actor and he's the guy who's starting his own studios in in Austin, Wildwood Studios. He's talking to me about AI and the new Google a that will. It's going to change the industry. I mean, is there a reason we will have photographers and actors and everything else? Just what has been released this week from Google has changed things dramatically. And a thank you to Elon Musk as his fight against the swamp comes to an end. Don't miss a second of today's podcast. You ever watch a dog try to hide a limb that's hurting? It'll limp for a second, then it'll snap to attention like, nope, nope, totally fine. Watch me. I gotta run around in circles. You do things like that sometimes. Pretending my body isn't falling apart, you know, and you have zero. You have zero to say about it. Really? Zero. Zero stars. I don't recommend it. It's not a good thing when it happens. My wife made me try relief factor. And when I say she made me, she made me. She said she won't listen to me whine anymore unless I try everything. And I'm like, relief factor's not gonna work. It's all natural. I mean, Dow Chemical is not even, you know, better living through pharmaceuticals. And she said, no, I don't think that's actually true. So you should try something all natural. And I did. And I can't tell you the difference it made in my my life. It totally changed my life. It might change your life. Just try it for three weeks. Get the quick start trial for three weeks and see if your aches and pains and your problems kind of disappear over time. 1995, it's relieffactor.com relieffactor.com 1-800-the number four relief. 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 to work.

[Stu Burguiere]

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

[Glenn Beck]

You know, for Democrats, if you don't think you're playing with communism or socialism, talk to the people. People in Washington State. Talk to anyone who is sane in Washington state. I'll give you his number. But they are going to full fledged communism, Marxism, you have, you have every giant corporation now moving out of the Seattle area in Washington state because they're going to, I'm telling you, they're going to go to wealth confiscation. They're going to do it. There is a, a place, Lake Washington is, you know, by Bellevue, in between Bellevue and, and Seattle. And it is beautiful. It is just the most beautiful place you've ever seen. And this is where Bill Gates and everybody else and when I was a kid, it was, it was not like that. It was, you know, there were still normal people that lived there. And now you can't even get close to it. And there's this place in the middle of the lake and it's called Hunts Point. And it is where, you know, these are 60 to $100 million houses and they're not necessarily fancy. They just happen to be in an area where there's not very much land. And it is the place to live if you like water. And you're living right on the water and it's, it's just spectacular. It used to be that when a place would go up for sale, even when I was a kid on Hunts Point, it would never last. Okay. You'd never, they'd never come up for sale. People that would, they wouldn't want to sell it because you couldn't replace it. You couldn't get anything like it. And so they would, they would come up for sale and they'd be gone before anybody would even know. I am told by a friend who knows that Area quite well. That I think, he said. Seventeen homes in Hunts Point are up for sale. Seventeen. And some of them have been up for sale now for over a year. And there are no buyers. All of these people are trying to get out of Washington state, and nobody's buying their home because nobody. You're going to. Are you going to buy that? Hey, rich person, where are you going to move from? You're going to move to Washington? No, Washington. The property values are going to start plummeting, and you've got crazy people, not only crazy people all around you. I'm telling you, I grew up in Washington state. I grew up listening to, you know, hippies and everything else. My, you know, my friends and I remember going to a friend's house and we were standing on our front porch and, you know, we were. This is the Alex P. Keaton days. And not politically, but just, I mean, I guess a little politically. But my friends, not all my friends, you know, agreed with Reagan, but we didn't talk politics. It was just, you know, we weren't hippies. And I remember standing on a front porch, and my friend was going to open up her front door. She had her hand on the doorknob, and she. Before she opened it, she turned to me and she said, I really apologize. My folks are probably in the living room getting stoned. Just never mind. We were the adults, and we open up the door, and I'm like, I get it. And open up the door. And there they are getting stoned in the. And they're like, hey, kids, what's going on? I mean, that's where I grew up, okay? And it was crazy back then. And there's these people that believe in this thing called Cascadia, which is a communist state. Just get out of America. Start a new communist country called Cascadia. And it is Washington, Oregon. And I think they want parts of Idaho. Thank God Idaho hasn't gone nuts yet. But that's what's coming. That's what they want. And you see people like, you know, the mayor of Seattle. Do you see what happened in Seattle over the weekend, Stu, where there was this. Yeah, yeah, go ahead.

[Stu Burguiere]

A little bit. You're talking about the mayor and this. This accusation going, no, no, the.

[Glenn Beck]

No, no, no. The Christian. The. The. The Christians had had a revival out in a park, and all of these revolutionaries came. They were threatening them. The police came and shut down the Christians, and they deemed the Christians the police against their will, I think. But under the direction of the mayor, shut down the Christians, excused all the radical revolutionaries and said, you know, it's the Christians here that are causing all the ruckus. I mean, it was. It's crazy. What's going on. Well, now, what you were talking about is the scandal that's going on with Bruce Harrell. He's the mayor of Seattle. Who. Who is the mayor of Seattle? Who is this guy? Okay, well, he's just like you. Well, I mean, just like you. If you had been arrested in 96 for brandishing a firearm over a parking space in 1996, this. This has been out for a while. He was a young attorney, and he was. Had just been appointed to the. The housing authority board in, I think, Council Bluffs, Iowa. And he was at a casino, and he was pulling up to a parking space. And this other couple in their family, it's a husband, wife, a mom and somebody else, they pull up, and they pull into the parking space, and he gets pissed off, and they say he pointed a gun at them and they were afraid for their lives. He admitted at the time to say, yeah, I had my gun, but I wasn't pointing it at him. What are you doing just showing it to them? Hey, I just. I'm so proud of my gun. I just want you to see that's called brandishing a firearm. Okay? You can't do that. It's against the law. Well, the charges, you know, fall apart or whatever. And so he's charged with it, but he's not convicted of it. Nobody says anything. Well, it comes up again recently, and now he's saying, no, that I didn't have a gun. They mistook my watch for a gun. Now, I. I'm a. I'm a watch guy. I'm a watch collector. I like watches, and I have some big watches, But I've. I've. I've never had anyone at any airport or on the street go, oh, my gosh, you've got a gun strapped to your wrist. No, I. It's never happened. Has that ever happened to you, Stu, where you're like, that guy's got a gun on his wrist, and you realize, no, it's just actually a watch.

[Stu Burguiere]

Well, you're talking about the watch gun. Yeah. I mean, I try not to wear that at night because people do make that mistake.

[Glenn Beck]

Yeah. I mean, besides the watch gun. Right. You know what I mean? Besides that watch. Okay, so. So that's his excuse. Now when it's brought up, he's like, no, I didn't have one. He said at the time he did, but he wasn't Pointing it at him now, he says, no, they mistook that for a watch and justify the means. I mean, if you're going to. If you're going to elect radicals, if you're going to elect people that don't, you know, they just don't care about the. The law, the Constitution, you know, they don't care. The mo. You know, well, people just say anything now.

[Stu Burguiere]

There's no even attempt to come up with stories that even sound real.

[Glenn Beck]

Because basically.

[Stu Burguiere]

And if you think about it, there's some pragmatic sense to it in our current day, which is like, in reality, what's gonna happen is the people who already liked you are gonna support you no matter what you say. And I just. They just. You might as well just say something and everyone's gonna like, nod along and say, well, yes, I like his other policies or I want him to succeed, so therefore I believe his gun watch story.

[Glenn Beck]

Right. Who is the guy? Is it Jesse Smollett?

[Stu Burguiere]

Yeah.

[Glenn Beck]

Is that his name? He's still saying that it was, you know, he was targeted. Still saying it. Yeah.

[Stu Burguiere]

Yeah.

[Glenn Beck]

There's no consequence for any of this.

[Stu Burguiere]

No, it's true. I mean, we talked a little bit off the air a few minutes ago about. This is the sort of conversation we have, which is the WNBA in the situation with Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, where, you know, again, these are two basketball players, one white, one black. The white player fouled the black player. There's some sort of rivalry that seems to be basically one way from Angel Reese toward Caitlin Clark. Caitlin Clark walks away. Angel Reese freaks out. You know, the team. You know, Angel Reese's team lost by like 30 points in the game afterwards. She's doing her press conferences. And of course, as you 100% can just fill in the blank, even if you know nothing about this story, claim that there was racism, that was the reason why all of this happened. And there's people in the stands yelling racial slurs at her. She says this to a press conference. It's a major controversy. Everybody's talking about it. They're batting it back and forth. What does this mean? Can you believe this? Full investigation launched. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Now, remember, this is not. This doesn't happen in the woods. This doesn't happen, like under a bridge.

[Glenn Beck]

You know.

[Stu Burguiere]

You know, in Madagascar somewhere. This happens on a. In an arena where that's being televised. So, of course, there are hundreds of fans around the area where this was supposedly going to happen. There were dozens of employees around this area. There were cameras and microphones everywhere. Of course they do the investigation. Of course no one can find any evidence that this happened at all. No one can find one example of this occurring. And then the end of the story is not a massive controversy about how this player could be falsely accusing all of these people that are fans of the other team of being racist and manufacturing claims of racial slurs? No, no. The story is a two paragraph statement from the wnba. Hey, we looked into it, couldn't find anything. No follow ups from any of the journalists who were concerned about it at the time. They just, we just all move on.

[Glenn Beck]

And, and why no follow up on the investigation of how that began, who started those charges? What are they going to, are they going to pay a price for starting those charges? Shouldn't they. And didn't I see that, that very player sitting on the bench talking about white girls? Oh, yeah, well, that's in a derogatory way. Yeah.

[Stu Burguiere]

Hard to see many conversations without that phrase used from that particular player.

[Glenn Beck]

I mean, well, what about the racism there? I mean, it's just, it, it doesn't, it doesn't seem to matter anymore. The truth doesn't matter anymore. You know, I, I, somebody said to me the other day, have you seen that Donald Trump is now saying that if you're working for the government, you have to go through, I think it's a hundred hour class on the Constitution. And somebody said, well, wait a minute, I don't want that, I don't want that because I don't want them doing that with dei. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. The Constitution is the owner's manual. And right now we have a bunch of people that are trying to put our country together and they've never read the instructions. And you know, it's like, it's, it's like our country came from ikea. And you know, I can build this. I'll just put it together and it's being built upside down. The legs are in the wrong place. It's never, and you've got like 47 screws left over at the end. Okay, read the instructions. Okay. They're not in Swedish, they're in English. Read the instructions. This, this I think is one of the best things that the President has done so far. You want to work in the, you want to work in the administration, you want to work for the government, Good. You got to go take a course on the Constitution of the United States because that's the owner's manual and there's no excuse. Oh, I didn't know that, that was in the cause. I didn't know we couldn't do that. Even though they're not even saying that. They're now saying 200 people, Democrats are now saying, yeah, I knew that he was. I knew that he was gone. But, you know, we. We couldn't lose the election. Wow. I think you need a refresher on the Constitution, because none of that is part of our country. None of. None of that. There's no place in the Constitution that allows that.

[Stu Burguiere]

Yeah. One of the ways, it's interesting they talk about that in the book of those decisions being made. Right. Why would you hide this from the American people? Like, how could you justify that? And it is exactly what you're saying.

[Glenn Beck]

And justify the means.

[Stu Burguiere]

Right. And they said that one of the reasons why, especially the really close group around the Bidens, including the family and some of these advisors, basically said, number one, Donald Trump is basically Hitler.

[Glenn Beck]

Right.

[Stu Burguiere]

Like, he's an existential threat and he's the worst thing that could ever happen to us, so we have to do anything to beat him. And the people really close to Biden believed the only person who could beat him was Joe Biden. Now, that part's another part. That's another level of delusion, I suppose, to think that Joe Biden was uniquely qualified for this victory. But he was the only person who did win in an election against him.

[Glenn Beck]

Right.

[Stu Burguiere]

So there's some, maybe some sense to that. But as I think it was Alex Thompson, one of the authors, pointed out, it's like when you. When you exist, when those two things are true, you can justify anything.

[Glenn Beck]

Yes.

[Stu Burguiere]

Right. Like if you believe Hitler's about to come into power and the only person is this old doddering fool you work with. Well, of course you're going to justify all of this.

[Glenn Beck]

If you believe that Elon Musk is evil, I can. I can firebomb and terrorize anybody with a Tesla.

[Stu Burguiere]

Yeah.

[Glenn Beck]

If you believe that global warming is going to wipe the entire Earth out, I can kill anyone with an suv. This is why you can never adopt the ends justify the means, which is Sol Alinsky. That is the motto now of the Democratic Party. So you're in debt, you're behind the eight ball, you've got high interest credit cards. What do you do? First thing you do, stop avoiding looking at it. Okay. There are mornings when you log into your bank account. I mean, I. Who was it the comedian that said, you know, I'm just thinking about, you know, letting that thing chill for a while? I've seen this Movie before. I'm just not going to check my bank account. Okay. I want you to look at things and get somebody that is an expert that can help you, that is not trying to sell you something. This is American financing. You know, your, your mortgage most likely sold to you by a bank and by people who got a kickback for selling you that mortgage. That's not the same with American finance. They work for you. Call them now, see how they can help you. It's American financing.net American financing.net now back to the podcast. This is the best of the Glenn Beck program. And don't forget, rate us on itunes. Zachary Levi is with us. Hi, Zach, how are you?

[Zachary Levi]

Hey, good morning, Glenn. I'm doing all right, Glenn. How you doing?

[Glenn Beck]

I'm really good, but I'm not in your business. How concerned are you by what Google released this week?

[Zachary Levi]

I mean, I'm, I'm very concerned. I mean, you know, when I, you and I talked about this when I came on your show last, and I hate to sound like, you know, a doomer and gloomer, but I, this is something I've been foreseeing for a really long time. I've been banging this drum for a really long time and trying to wake people up and say, hey, listen, technology, it moves exponentially. This is one of the things that I think most people just don't understand, whether it's people in my industry or other industries. And might I say, yes, this is knocking on the doorstep of entertainment right now. But understand that AI is knocking on the doorstep of all of our industries, your industry, radio, everything in entertainment, anything that can be recorded and broadcast. But every industry that we are, I mean, there are huge experts in many fields that say within a year, two years, certainly within five years, every white collar job will be gone. And a lot of blue collar jobs are going to be right behind that. Because you have to recognize that AI is not just moving exponentially, but also humanoid robots. And the development of humanoid robots is developing exponentially. And exponential growth is something that people just don't understand. Most people see growth as, you know, kind of just you know, multiplicative. Meaning, like, okay, every year it gets twice as good. No, no, no, it doesn't get twice as good. Every year it gets 10 times as good, and then it gets a hundred times as good, and then a thousand times as good, and so on and so forth. And so years ago I was telling people, guys, if what we have right now, you know, like for example, two years ago AI was generating images and you Know, but you know, humans had six fingers. And so people said, ah, this is schlock. Look at this. You know, this is never going to get good. They can't even get the amount of fingers right on people's hands. I said, yeah, yeah, right now it can't. Right now it cannot do that. But six months later it did. Six months after that you had video and now you've got video with audio that is almost indiscernible as you've been seeing with these new examples. It's almost indiscernible now. People say, yeah, but I can still tell. I go, yeah, right, right now you can. But six months from now, a year from now, two years from now, we're.

[Glenn Beck]

Going to take that long?

[Zachary Levi]

No, probably not even that long. No. And so people have got to wake up. And so for people in my industry, I think that, yes, we should all be very, very concerned, but everyone should be very concerned. And it's not even just, you know, like, for example, yes, this could very much replace my job. This is partly why I am building Wildwood Studios in Austin, Texas. It has always been, this is a 25 year plus calling that God has put on my life to create a better Hollywood, to give artists a better life, a better work life balance, to give audiences better content. These are all things that we've deserved for a really long time. But AI is really the kind of, I think, most galvanizing force in all of this. Because if we don't do something about it, if we don't hold the line, if we don't build the ark, which is really kind of what I've always felt on my life. I felt this kind of Noah calling on my life that God's like, hey, listen, a flood is coming. It's not going to be water. It's going to be something entirely different. And that is this AI. And if, and if you can build the ark, then you can at least save as many of those jobs two by two as you can. But if you don't build the ark, then the flood just wipes everything out. And.

[Glenn Beck]

Go ahead, let me, let me interrupt you on that because I believe, I mean, I'm developing some things with AI and I've been on this for a very long time as well. And I believe you're absolutely right that you have to get, you know, you have to get into a boat because floods are coming. However you, you have to, you can't dismiss it. You have to, I think, use some of the skills that it has and in a Positive way, because I think it could. It will enhance. As long as you don't surrender to it, it will enhance what you can do. So are you talking about, you know, building something that has no use for AI and it's just this island, or are you saying that we'll use it, but we'll use it in ethical ways and we'll never allow it to become the master? We will always use it as a tool.

[Zachary Levi]

Yes, that's exactly right. I'm a firm believer, and have been for many years, that philosophically you cannot stop progress, you can only hope to guide it. That is the bottom line. It would be folly to look at new technology that, by the way, is going to do some really cool things in this world. Example being we're at the brink of nearly having our EarPods. Apple I think will start, but other companies will be right behind it. If not simultaneously, we'll have real, real time language translation. It's going to happen, it's happening very, very soon now. That's incredible. That's something that as a human race, we've all been wanting really since, I mean, since I guess the Tower of Babel, right? The ability for all of us to be able to communicate across the world, no language barriers whatsoever. That is huge. That's a huge leap forward for mankind. Now that's going to absolutely displace what is a smaller, let's say, industry of translators, right? It's not. There are many translators in the world, but it's not the biggest industry, let's say. And I feel for those people and I think we have to be very conscious about trying to rehome them in other jobs. But you always have to ask yourself, is the juice worth the squeeze? Is it ultimately worth it for the betterment of all of us? Right? So I don't think that we can't embrace AI, we must embrace AI, but we must do it in as ethical a way as possible and be mindful of what is it doing, how is it disrupting and how is it displacing jobs, because that's the only thing that we can do. Now when it comes to entertainment, there's going to be all kinds of ways that we can implement AI to make the process more efficient, more enjoyable. And I have every intention of utilizing AI like that. I don't vilify it writ large, but I think that we must be very mindful about how we implement it in still holding onto human creativity, human, human art and entertainment is, is at the brink. But I also believe, you know, with Wildwood example being like, I think that not only is it necessary, you know, to prevent, let's say, the extinction of human art and entertainment, but there's also a market opportunity in this because similar to vinyl, for example, you know, once upon a time, all music, we all listen to vinyl records. That's what it was. And then the cassette tape came out and everyone said, oh, well, I don't need VIN anymore. I'm going to go with these little rectangular plastic cassette tapes, and I'm going to do that. Great. And then the CD came out. Even more people left vinyl and then streaming, and now even more people have left vinyl. But the people that held on, the people that said, you know what? Yes, everyone is going to zig, but I'm going to zag. I'm going to hold on to this. I'm going to keep printing vinyl because I believe that there's something special about it, unique about it. And sure enough, vinyl sales have gone up because people are looking for something that's more human, more tangible, more slightly imperfect, with a little crackle, a little, you know, whatever. Wildwood. That's what we intend to do. We intend to hold on to. We're not. I'm not trying. I can't save the entire industry. That's impossible. But I'm going to try and save as many jobs as I can and in doing so, provide audiences the alternative. And I think a lot of people are going to be looking for that alternative.

[Glenn Beck]

So, Zach, I. Because I like you, I've been on this for a long time and I have put a lot, a lot of thought into, because my job is, you know, at stake. Everybody's job is up.

[Zachary Levi]

Oh, yeah.

[Glenn Beck]

And I've always felt, well, there's something special about humans, that we have a different sense to us. But I don't know if you heard there was a study done of, I think, a hundred thousand songs and. And they did, you know, what's called hook testing to see which tested the best. The. I think it was seven out of the top 10 were AI. And people didn't know it was AI. Seven out of the top 10. We used to say I couldn't, you know, art can never be done. So what is it that. That you think is going to be unique quickly? I mean, I believe that there is going to be a huge draw back to handmade individual. You know, when. When machines came out and you had factories and they started producing shirts, nobody wanted a homemade shirt. Nobody wanted a handmade shirt. They wanted one that was from the factory. But now handmade is the best of the best. So there's going to be a renaissance, if you will, of handmade and human made stuff. But what is it right now that will bridge this gap that humans can do that you don't think AI can do?

[Zachary Levi]

Well, I think that, you know, obviously live performance, that's going to be huge, right? So people in this, in this rebound effect of people saying, ah, you know, it just flooded with ubiquitous AI content. A lot of people are going to say, oh, I want something authentic.

[Glenn Beck]

Right.

[Zachary Levi]

And authenticity is the most important. In fact, there's been studies done where, you know, just from an energy level, like, you know, as humans, we have, we produce an energy when we have various emotions, right? And there's lower energy if you're sad, depressed, angry, and there's higher energies when you're joyful and happy and you feel love. But there's an energy even higher than love as they tested. And it's authenticity that is the highest energetic level that we can all reach. And so people yearn for that. They really do.

[Glenn Beck]

Yes.

[Zachary Levi]

Live performance obviously is going to be that. Sports is going to have a big. A lot of people are, you know, investing in sports and live performance because that is going to hold on the longest, at least as, you know, long. As long as, let's say, you know, robots and holograms, that's going to start to kind of eat into that market a little bit. We'll see how long that goes.

[Glenn Beck]

But, but ultimately, I have to tell you, may I say, may I say something on that? Have you been to London and seen the ABBA experience?

[Zachary Levi]

I haven't, but I'm very well aware of it and I've heard that it's incredible. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

[Glenn Beck]

Yeah, no, it's, it's, it's beyond incredible. It is my son. And I said, I didn't tell my daughter, who was a teenager at the time, you know, 17 years old, that ABBA wasn't really performing. We just didn't tell her. And two songs into it, I said, do you think they're real? Does it look like they're real? And she's like, what are you talking about? And I'm like, that's not real. Those aren't people. And she's like, what are you talking about? And she couldn't believe it. And the first couple of songs, my son, who was probably 18, 17 at the time, kept looking at me going, dad, this changes everything. This is not good. This changes everything. And I Mean, everything is about to just turn upside down.

[Zachary Levi]

Yeah, yeah. Well, it's. Yeah, it's already. It's like in front of our eyes. It's happening already. And, and, and I am not one of those people. Many people that I talk to, you know, a common pushback that I get is people saying, well, it will never be able to fully replicate, let's say, you know, human emotion or, you know, we'll always be able to tell. And I just don't believe that. I mean, I don't believe any of ourselves. No, we are amalgamations of everything that we've taken in, right? So we're. We are. We ourselves are kind of LLMs. We. We scrape our entire lives. We scrape information from our parents, our community, people around us that, you know, the Internet, whatever, we're learning all the time, and then we are replicating from the things that we learn. AI is doing that, and it's doing it at scale and it's happening exponentially. And we're very, very close to it becoming AGI, general intelligence, which is then just a few steps away from superintelligence. And it will be. Then at that point, it will be more intelligent and more capable than not just any individual human. It will be more capable and more intelligent than the sum of all humanity. So we're stepping into some insane, insane territory. And when you start powering video agents like Google and others, that will keep popping up. It's terrifying to acknowledge that a lot of people just don't. They're kind of burying their head in the sand and saying, no, no, no, no, it won't happen, it won't happen. It's going to happen. At that point, I think that what we have to. And what I'm hoping that Trump and the administration are going to be working on in earnest is legislation that at the very least requires all content that is AI generated to be watermarked. Right. So that therefore we know, we can say, okay, I can't tell the difference. I don't know the difference, but just by looking and listening to it, I can't tell if it's real humans doing this or not. The difference will be that there will be some kind of watermarking that indicates that. And therefore, that is what people are going to be looking for. In the same way, if you go to the supermarket and you're looking at blueberries, and these ones on the left look the same as the ones on the right, but there's packaging that says, these ones on the right are organic. Oh, those are the ones I'm looking for, I want the organic ones that aren't sprayed with glyphosate. I'm trying to make certified organic human made content for free range artists. That is what Wildwood Studios is going to be about. And also at Wildwood Studios, we're not just going to be making and really, you know, focusing and dedicated to making human film, television, music and video games, but also providing amphitheaters and live performance venues so that it's a one stop shop so people can really know when they go there, they support us, they're supporting humans in that process.

[Glenn Beck]

Zachary, I appreciate it, thank you so much. And anything we can do to help you at Wildwood, let me know, please. Zachary Levi, Wildwood Studios owner, actor he was, you know, Chuck, he was Shazam. I mean there's a ton of great movies and everything else. So. Zachary Levi, you're streaming the best of.

[Stu Burguiere]

The Glenn Beck program and you can.

[Glenn Beck]

Find full episodes wherever you download podcasts. So. Elon Factor. Elon Factor. Elon Musk is leaving Washington D.C. today. He is not in, he's not in defeat. I don't think he's in retreat. We all expected this. In fact, many of us believed that there was no way this was going to end well with him because, you know, of he was a strong individual. Trump is a strong individual. How are these two strong individuals going to get along? They got along famously and, and we're losing today one of the few individuals in our time that is willing and has been willing to challenge the most sacred assumptions. Here's a guy that when he, you know, when they were talking about, I think it was the X Prize about, you know, making rockets for NASA, he went to NASA, this is early on, and they said, okay, so here's what we want. And he said, great. And what kind of money do you want this to come into? I mean, what do you want? What do you, what's your goal that I could hit that would make it affordable for you? And they said, what are you talking about? He said, what? What do you want to spend on this? And they said, don't worry about that, just make it fly. And he's like, well, there's got to be a budget. No, don't worry about it. It's not about budget. You know, it is about budget. And, and he knew that that was wrong and he really, really, it bothered him a great deal. And so here's a guy who comes in, reinvents absolutely everything and then goes to Washington because he actually believes in something and he's vilified for it. I mean, I don't know of anybody that has been this vilified, you know, so, so vital to progress and what humans are experiencing and going through and, and solving huge problems. I don't think I've ever seen anybody do that and been this vilified. Here's a guy who didn't ask for the power, he didn't seek the favor. In fact, when he said because he believed something, yeah, I think I'm on the other side, they tried to literally kill him for it. And all he was fighting for was the freedom to invent, the freedom to think differently, the freedom to speak your mind, and also the freedom to remain free by not becoming a slave to an out of control government and out of control waste and out of control spending. He wanted just the chance to build something. And he knew America was the place to do it. And build he did. He gave us the first reusable rockets. I mean, think if I would have said to you six years ago, yeah, we're gonna send up some rockets and you're gonna see it. Instead of just casting in the ocean, it's gonna, it's gonna reignite and it's gonna come down and control and we're gonna just grab it out of the sky. No, not only did he do that, he thought that crap up. You. Here's a guy who completely thinks out of the box. American made, American launched, restoring capability that we had already given away. Okay? He forced the auto industry to evolve, dragging it unwillingly into the 21st century with electric vehicles. That shattered the idea that sustainability has to come at the cost of performance or ambition. Here's a guy who, remember the big three, didn't want him around. He had to break that entire system. And look what happened then he took a brand new platform speech that was supposed to free us up. And it had become oppressive, ossified, monopolized. It became the public square. And what did he do? He went in, bought it with his own money and was like this can't stand. We have to have free speech. Cracked it open and gave us again raw, uncomfortable at times, but vital free speech. It was all back into your hands now. And now with Grok and AI, he's fighting to ensure that the machines of tomorrow are actually aligned with not centralized power, but with human liberty. But for all of this, all of this that would earn anyone a chapter in the history books of the history of man. How is he leaving Washington? I mean, think of that. He has endured the public efforts all around the world to ruin him. Coordinated efforts to deplatform, demonetize, to destroy. He's received death threats. His companies have been targeted, his cars are burned, his employees are harassed, his customers are harassed. All the while, he just keeps on doing what he does. And that is, boys and girls, courage. You don't see it very often. That is what real courage looks like. Without getting angry, without being vengeful, spiteful, any of it. He just keeps going. This is. This is real courage. This is the real thing. Real high personal risk, high stakes, sleepless nights, relentless attacks, and the refusal to sit down or break. He's like, no, I believe this is right. That's America. He is really. We have a few great symbols that we didn't have 20 years ago. We have some great symbols of real leaders, real examples of courage and. And innovation that we didn't have. And he's right up at the top. I mean, history is riddled with people like this. Nikola Tesla. Nikola Tesla is probably one of them. Penniless, mocked. In at least his later years, Galileo was, you know, imprisoned because he was telling the truth too early. Winston Churchill, because he was telling the truth too early. Nobody, I mean, he was cast aside until people realized, oh, the barbarians are at the gates. These are people that saw over the horizon, saw the storms of life, or saw what was capable of being. They came, they spoke up, and they paid dearly for it. Churchill said, once you have enemies, oh, good, that means you stood for something in your life. Elon Musk, as he stood up again and again, technological sovereignty, speech, enterprise for the radical, dangerous idea that the individual, not the institution, should shape the future. I think there's going to be a time, and hopefully it's not too far in the future, when, you know, the heat is cooled and politics have moved on, that society will acknowledge not only what he's done, what he's given, but the sacrifice that he just went through. But that'll happen, you know, at a time when the real effects of everything, I mean, when. When the future that he is helping shape right now, better or worse, is really taking root. That's when he'll be recognized, once this nonsense is over. The thing I like about him, he never asked us to trust him. He never asked for our loyalty. But I think he does deserve our respect. You know, I don't care what side of that. I don't care who you voted for. How do you not recognize what this man has done for humanity? Especially if you're somebody who believes in global warming? What he's done for humanity what he is still trying to do. The, the incredible strides that he has made and the bravery that it has taken for him just to stand up. I remember he, he walked away from his side. Didn't expect his side to leave him. But once he had a different opinion of theirs, they just abandoned him. He lost all of his friends. He lost everything. So today, as he is leaving, I would like to say, Elon Musk, thank you. Thank you. You didn't play the game. You changed the game. Thank you. Thank you for reminding me and so many other Americans that progress has never come in polite little packages. It's never been polite. The truth rarely comes dressed in approval. But I think you did some things that are absolutely remarkable and you're going to continue to do things that are remarkable. Go in strength. Know that history will catch up to you. You're way ahead of the game. Thank you. Elon Musk. Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. I don't know if you knew this, but anyone can get the same Premium Wireless for $15 a month plan that I've been enjoying.

[Zachary Levi]

It's not just for celebrities.

[Glenn Beck]

So do like I did and have one of your assistant's assistants switch you to Mint Mobile today. I'm told it's super easy to do. @mintmobile.com Switch upfront payment of $45 for three month plan equivalent to $15 per month required. Intro rate first three months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra. See full [e-mail].