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Michael Knowles
This episode is brought to you by Good Ranchers, which I ate last night. And I have a lot to tell you about it. A lot of great stories. However, for right now, just know that you can support the American farmers and ranchers who fed this country for 250amazing years. Go to goodranchers.com, use code knowles, get free meat for life and 25 bucks off your first order. Entrepreneurial scientists just taught human brain cells derived from newborn foreskin to play the video game Doom. Do I. I'm just. I'm gonna repeat that sentence. Can we. Entrepreneurial scientists just taught human brain cells that were derived from newborn foreskin to play the video game Doom. That is not a mad lib. That is an actual news story. And while our minds are focused on horrors almost beyond comprehension, Democrat senate candidate James Tallarico wants you to know how much he loves trans children. Like, he really, really loves trans children. Weird. Also, new details reveal that Jeffrey Epstein's prison guards lied about the night he died. Stop the presses. Go figure. I'm Michael Knowles. This is the Michael Knowles. Panicans destroyed once again. Plan trusters yet again vindicated. It's almost exhausting at this point. As ships move through the Strait of Hormuz and as oil, which had hit $115per barrel just a couple days ago, is now back safely below 100, I think it's below 90 right now. We'll get to how the whole war is shaking out. We're getting some conflicting signals out of the White House. The president saying that the war is almost over. The Secretary of War saying we're just getting started. Little unclear. We'll get to what it means. First, though, I want to tell you about my magnificent dinner last night from Good Ranchers. Go to goodranchers.com, use code KNOWLES K A W L E S. Before I even get home last night, sweet little Elisa tells me, she goes, Mac, these new good rancher steaks. They're really. Oh, my goodness. There's something else. I said, oh, what do you mean, good good new ranch. They're always. Or, sorry, new good rancher steaks. Cause they're coming out with new stuff. I told you. They came out with these nice thick filet mignon the other but said, I've been eating their New York strip for years and years, and it's excellent. But what do you mean, new? We got the bone in last night. We got the bone in New York strip. That were nice thickies. Okay. I don't want to be. I don't Want to be too graphic or evocative, but they were thick, juicy, delicious. Oh, man. You know, I do the bone out New York strip a lot. This was so much better even than that. It just. They're just the best, man. You support American ranches. You don't get all the weird stuff injected into your meat. You don't deal with foreign stuff and fake branding. It's just. It's just the best. The deal is unbelievable. I don't know how they stay in business right now. When you subscribe to any good Ranchers, box@goodranchers.com, use code KNOWLES, K W L E S at checkout code knowles. You will get free meat for life and 25 bucks off your first order. Goodranchers.com, american meat delivered. Do we have the story? You know what? There's a little video of it. I don't even need to read the news story. You can just see how human neurons in a petri dish plugged into a computer are now playing the famous early video game Doom. There it is. And I remember Doom. I remember playing this when I was a kid. Old joystick on my computer. Pretty cool, pretty fun game. Oh, and that's what's playing it. It's a tiny little water filled petri dish full of human brain cells. Now, the first question that most people would ask when they read a news story about how human brain cells have now been plugged into a computer to learn how to play doom is, whose brain cells are they? Hey, scientists, where'd you get the brain cells? And the answer is, they're no one's brain cells. They are cells. They're neurons that came from stem cells. Stem cells which can develop into other kinds of cells. Stem cells that were taken from the foreskin of newborn babies. In a way, you'd say, well, that's a relief. I know it sounds pretty gross, but it could be much, much worse if, for instance, the stem cells had been taken from aborted babies, as a lot of our pharmaceuticals come from. No, no, in this case, it was just the discarded foreskin of circumcised babies from which we got the stem cells that got the brain cells, the brain cells which are no. 1's brain cells to learn how to play a beloved video game. This is the plot of Frankenstein. This is the actual plot. I don't know if you've ever read Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. It's a great gothic romantic novel. The plot is that a scientist who wants to transgress the limits of morality transgress the limits placed on us by our nature, by God, goes out, digs up a bunch of dead bodies, goes to morgues and takes body parts, and then cobbles together a monster from rotting human flesh and through a scientific form of wizardry, animates this thing and creates a being that is not human, made from undead flesh. This is actually somehow more grotesque than that because Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, while it describes all sorts of putrid, rotting flesh dug up from cemeteries, doesn't go quite so far as the discarded foreskin of circumcised babies to create brain cells for this ridiculous purpose, which is to play a video game. At least Frankenstein, you know, he really is. He is playing God. He is creating this human being. You know, this is a tale of a new Prometheus here. They just say, wouldn't it be funny if the thing could play Doom? Now, another confusion. This is something I really like about this story. I mean, you can make jokes about it all day and you can also be horrified by it and think that this is evidence of the approach of the apocalypse. But the thing that I really like about this story, you know, I'm a glass half full kind of guy, is it forces us to reflect on our human nature. We have a lot of errors these days about what a human being is. We don't even know what men and women are. Now, famously, infamously, we think a man can be a woman because we don't really know how human nature works. And so something I like about this story is that the reasonable fear that people have, which is, is this a person? Are we creating souls? What are the ethics of this? And the answer is that these cells, even brain cells, they're not a person. This is not a person that we've created. Much like Dr. Frankenstein didn't really create a human being. These cells are not a person. They're not even really like a person. They don't have a soul. They don't have a soul because the soul is not just some magical word to fill in what we haven't yet uncovered through science. The soul is an objective fact that we can all know, which is that the soul is the substantial form of the body. My body is made up of all sorts of molecules and atoms and elements. I've got a lot of carbon in there. I got some hydrogen, I got some oxygen. But the thing that makes me me and that differentiates my carbon from, say, the carbon in this cigar box is my soul. The thing that pertains to me as an integral whole, the soul is the substantial form of the body. The reason that the leftist tears tumbler is different from other pieces of steel and, who knows, gold and platinum and whatever's in this tumbler, the thing that differentiates that from all, every other thing that includes those elements is its tumbler ness, its tumblrity, you could say its soul. The thing that pertains to it, that gives it its form, that makes it what it is. This is not that. So I'm not really concerned that we've created some poor wretched human person in the form of developed neonatal foreskin to play this video game that hasn't even been cooled in 30 years. But it does seem like we should learn a lesson from Frankenstein here. Why are we doing this? The reason that this company, Cortical Labs, creates this thing called dish brain is to just compute faster. The argument is that when you plug in human cells and you create these neurons, it'll compute faster and it will learn things faster than a computer chip. So in that way, it's very much like Frankenstein. In many ways, it's very much like Frankenstein, but in this way that we are transgressing human limits, we are now treating human flesh as if it is nothing but a commodity. And this too is manifest in our culture. We now go to the baby store to buy babies. We order babies, we custom order babies. We pick the mother or the father out of a catalog. We make a bunch of babies, and then the ones we don't want, we return or we discard. We feed, freeze indefinitely. I'm describing, of course, IVF and surrogacy. We then hire other unethical scientists, much like these people, to go and create the babies in a petri dish and then to implant them in different mothers who we pay through this is reminding us, just as the question about human nature reminds us that we once knew more about human nature than we do today. We have actually forgotten something. We thought, think, because of this weirdo technological progress. We think that we are advancing in all areas of life because we're advancing in technology, but we're not. Weirdly, we're advancing in technology and we're actually regressing. When it comes to ethics, we're regressing. When it comes to anthropology, we're regressing. When it comes to philosophy and theology, we are taking one step forward, but 150 steps back at the same time. And so we have to. The glass half full version of this is it forces us to contemplate our human nature. If baby foreskin in a petri dish can learn how to play doom. That is a shocking fact. And it forces me to think about what is a human being. And by thinking about what is a human being, I reconsider all these other aspects of politics. Things like IVF rebortion, things like gender, things like things like the ethical limits of science. If you don't want to live in a future where baby foreskin is playing doom, then we need to rethink what we're doing. Okay. Speaking of human experimentation, our favorite Democrat Senate candidate in Texas, James Tallarico, wants you to know that he really, really, really loves trans kids. We'll get to that momentarily. First, I want to tell you about Relay. Go to JoinRelay app Knowles K WLAS if you're a man watching this episode, there's a good chance you've encountered pornography. And not just because of my intro dance on the desk. I'm talking about like the real hardcore stuff on the Internet, probably more than once. That's just what the statistics show. Data show that around 70 to 75% of American men view pornography regularly. It's 90% plus, I think maybe even mid to high 90s have seen porn at some point on the Internet. 70 to 75% regularly view pornography. This is not a fringe issue, something most men in our culture are dealing with one way or the other. If you are one of those men, before you dismiss the numbers, just do something. Think about all the reasons that you've told yourself not to deal with that addiction. And then think about how terrible you feel when you do look at pornography because it's degrading to yourself. It's bad for your relationships. It's a waste of time. It's gross. It just. Then remember why you want to stop doing it. Because you want to be a good guy and an admirable guy and not like a creep. And you don't want to be a pervert. So anyway, I could go on for a while, but you get the point. Porn doesn't stay private. It'll cost you your marriage. It could cost you your family. You don't have to fight it alone. Relay is a non woke pro family resource built specifically for men who want to quit porn. Here is what I want you to do right now. Pause the episode. Scroll down. Click the link in the description. Copy and paste the code knowleskinewlas to join Relay. Two options. Lose the things that you love or get the help you need. Click the link, Join Relay right now. James Talarico the gift that keeps on giving. I violate my own rule every day. I said it a few days ago. I said, save some clips of this guy until closer to the election. But I can't. I'm just as tempted as all of you are. I can't resist. Here's a clip that's just come back around from a Superbloom podcast on YouTube and in which James Tallarico is asked what he most loves, and his answer is very, very creepy.
Advertisement Voice 1
Something that you love that's not family or friends.
James Talarico
I love. I'm just saying this because it's on my mind. The trans children who showed up yesterday at the State Capitol to advocate for their humanity, they shouldn't have to, but it was an inspiration to watch.
Michael Knowles
Ladies and gentlemen, your normal, moderate, polished Democrat Senate candidate. We've had enough. All this wokeness, you know, that's what we're being told. Enough of this wokeness a lot. Enough of these sideshows here. Finally, we have the normal, moderate, James Talarico, who's gonna bring Democrats back to sanity and moderation, help them reconnect with the average voter. Hey, James, other than your family, other than those people most close to, what do you love? Trans kids? I love them. I love trans kids. And then he tries to explain it. Maybe he realizes how creepy this sounds. So he tries to explain it, and he makes it worse. Says, I love trans kids, but I'm only saying that cause they're on my mind. Yeah, they're on my mind. I've had them on my mind a lot, trans kids. I love them. Other than, I don't know, my mom and my dad, the thing I love most in this world is children with sexual confusion. Yeah, they're on my mind. So says James Talarico. This guy, I just. I love him. I love him so much. Not the quote you want out there. Gavin Newsom just got in trouble for this quote. He said, I want to see more trans kids. Not the kind of quote you want if you want to connect with the voters in Peoria. Not the kind of normal stuff. I want to see more trans kids. Because even if you advocate for promoting the transgender ideology, even if you advocate for affirming people's delusions, if they have this kind of sexual hangup. Even if you think that we should do that when it comes to children, which is sick and perverted and insane. But even if you think all of that, how could you possibly say, I want to see more of this? Among kids, transgender identity is a psychological ailment that corresponds with a 41% suicide rate. 41% of people who have this condition will try to kill themselves and massively increased rates of depression and anxiety, all sorts of problems, to say nothing of the sterility and the bone problems and the early death that go along with the gender affirming treatment. And you come out and you say, I want to see more of this. Even if you think we should encourage this or tolerate this or we should affirm these, which is wrong. But. But even if you think that, to go and say I wanna see more of it is so sick and revolting that it takes you off the table as the moderate, as the Democrat reset. Newsom fell into that trap. Tallarico falls into that trap too. If you wanna encourage sexual confusion among kids, if that's on your mind a lot, something's wrong with you. Something's deeply, deeply wrong with you. So before I move on from Talarico, I know we could just do from now until November, I could dedicate my show to James Tallarico. One more clip that's going around. It's James Tallarico sitting with James Carville, Ragin Cajun, describing how non Christians are more Christ like than Christians.
James Talarico
I have met so many Hindus, Buddhists, Sikh, Jews, Muslims, atheists, agnostics who are more Christlike than some of the Christians I serve with in the Texas legislature. It is about how you treat other people. Matthew 25, people who haven't read their Bible. You're not thinking of Ken Paxton. He's Attorney General. Yeah, well, you know, he follows the Ten Commandments rather than the Ten Commandments. But you know, Matthew 25 tells us exactly how we're going to be judged and how we're going to be saved by feeding the hungry, by healing the sick, by. By welcoming the stranger, which is more timely now than it's ever been before. There's Nothing in Matthew 25 about reading your Bible. There's nothing about going to church. There's nothing about being a good Christian. It is all about how you treat other people. And so I've met a lot of people from different faith traditions, people who aren't religious at all, who embody that teaching better than some of the really loud Christians that we have in public office.
Michael Knowles
Okay. I don't even really want to get into all of the many errors that this guy is making. The one right off the top that comes to mind. There's nothing in the Gospel of Matthew that says you need to read your Bible. Of course, the events that are chronicled in the gospel according to St. Matthew necessarily occur before the Gospel is written down. And therefore necessarily occur before the Bible can be compiled into a canon. Obviously that's such a minor point. This guy's job is to make non Christians feel good about disparaging Christians. That's this guy's job. This is why David French endorsed him in the New York Times. David French, who is the pretend conservative who used to at least hold some conservative views and then came down with a terminal case of Trump derangement syndrome and then moved over to the left. And now he's a New York Times liberal, but he has the same job as James Tallarica. The job that they share is to make non Christians feel good about disparaging Christians. That's what it's all about. Now, plenty of non Christians, just liberal, secular atheist types, they disparage Christians all the time anyway. They don't really need encouragement in that endeavor. However, for some of them, the ones who have a pang of a conscience, it helps them to feel permission to go after Christians. And so the way they attack Christians is they attack Christians as hypocrites because the liberals do not have a serious moral standard that they hold themselves to. They do all sorts of vicious stuff, sexual stuff, money stuff, violent stuff. They just do all this vicious stuff and they transgress everything that has ever even been said to resemble the moral order. They feel a resentment toward Christians who attempt to hold themselves to the moral order. And the way that they can attack Christians and thereby make themselves feel better is by accusing Christians of being hypocrites. So they say, well, look, I might do all this bad stuff. I might do lots of terrible sex stuff, and I might be greedy and I might not give to charity, and I might be a vicious person. I might think about myself all the time. I might be terrible, but at least I don't pretend otherwise. But you Christians, you have a moral standard and sometimes you fall short of that. Which is, of course, an integral part of Christianity is the recognition that this is a fallen world and no man saves himself. And we're in need of a savior and we're in need of God's grace that is built into Christianity. The libs either don't know that or don't care to admit that. Maybe they're just being obtuse. Regardless, that's the attack. And so the fulfillment of that attack is, you know, the non Christians are more Christian than the Christians. Did you know that? And it's an incoherent attack because on the one hand, these people will argue that Christianity is bad. Christianity, as we have always understood it, is bad. James Tallarico is an antichrist figure who insists that Christianity is totally contrary to everything that everyone has believed Christianity to be for 2,000 years. But the left broadly says Christianity is bad. And also all these non Christians are more Christian than the Christians. Now, you understand you have to pick one of those things unless you're saying your own side is bad. But they'll make those contradictory arguments constantly. This is the Talarico moment, as David French is calling it. The Talarico moment is this indulgent gift, this indulgent exercise of encouraging non Christians to disparage Christians. But it's not a serious political moment. Everything we're seeing from Talarico right now tells us he is Beto O' Rourke 2.0. He's Beto, he's buttigieg. He's probably not going to the U.S. senate. Speaking of religion, this is amazing. This was just called to my attention. I told you yesterday about how there was a conservative protest in New York protesting the Islamification of New York. Then a bunch of libs showed up and made a big to do about it and started screeching at the conservatives. And as the libs were yelling that everyone belongs in New York and we need mass migration and more Muslims, as one lib in particular is screeching about this, into a bullhorn, a Muslim comes up, screams Allahu Akbar, and throws a bomb, an ied, an improvised explosive device. So we saw that story yesterday. I talked about it on the show yesterday. Turns out, turns out the ringleader of the libs who was speaking while the Muslim came up, jumped on top of him, screamed Allahu Akbar, and threw a bomb, is none other than Walter Masterson, the star of one of the recent episodes of Bar Fight. I bring this guy on bar fight. No one had ever heard of him. I bring this guy on bar fight. He does one episode. Now he's the most viral guy on the Internet. Is that a coincidence? I don't know. We'll get to the video in a second. First, I want to tell you about roe. Go to rownutrition.com, use code knowles k a w l e s. That's r h o-nutrition.com, code knowles. No one likes talking about toxins, and yet we're surrounded by them. They're in the air, in the water, in the food packaging and the cleaning products. Even in things marketed as healthy, it's not one big exposure that hurts us. It's the daily buildup that quietly wears us down. That is one reason I Strongly recommend checking out glutathione, specifically ro. Glutathione. I pronounce it the Italian way, glutathione. But you can pronounce it however you want. It's your body's master antioxidant, critical for detox and liver function. One problem is the stress, poor diet, lack of sleep. Modern life, in other words, burns through it fast. Most supplements do not absorb well. Roe does. It's liposomal, meaning it's protected in these phospholipids that help your body actually use it. The result? Better detox support, less oxidative stress, more energy to get on with life. If you want a real daily way to support your body, not a gimmick, go check out Row Nutrition's liposomal glutathione. It's simple, effective, and it works. Go to ronutrition.com r h o-nutrition.com, use code knowles k w l e s for 20% off site wide, that's rownutrition.com code knowles. We covered the story yesterday. Here's the video. Here is Walter Masterson, lib extraordinaire, screaming at conservative protesters, saying that we need to take all the migrants into New York and especially the Muslim migrants. Islam is awesome. Everyone's welcome here.
Walter Masterson
We were born and raised in New York, and we want everyone here to stay in New York. You don't get to come from outside and then tell everyone else.
Michael Knowles
What. So some people are pointing out this is a strange video because you have this guy, Walter Masterson, who's yelling, who's screaming, and. And then as he's saying everyone's welcome here in New York, he's talking specifically about Muslims. A guy comes up and throws a bomb. And then as he's running away, he starts yelling, muslim things we'll get to. He actually yells. Not just Allahu Akbar. He yells, all praise is due to Allah, Lord of all worlds. I pledge my allegiance to the Islamic State. Die in your rage, you kaffar. Apparently, this is reportedly what he said. This isn't a religion that just stands. When people talk about the blessed name of the Prophet, we take action. Okay? Is reportedly what he says as he's running away. But what's weird is when he gets up there, he jumps on the guy and throws the explosive. Masterson barely reacts. And some people are suggesting that Masterson's not reacting means that he was in on it or this was a big prank or something. And I'm not sure that that's the case. And I can Say that only because I was on stage with Walter and he's just kind of that guy. He doesn't really react so much when you speak to him. He. He does kind of. I wanna be cordial about this. He kinda seems like he's on another planet when you're talking to him. He's not registering arguments. This is one of the clips from Barfi. Just to give you a little sense of what I'm talking about. Your claim is that Trump sexually assaulted children. So what's your proof? What's your evidence?
Walter Masterson
Just the Epstein files.
Michael Knowles
What's specifically in the files?
Walter Masterson
I mean, let's get the Epstein files in here.
Michael Knowles
Do you have any. Do you have any evidence for the claim you're making or.
Walter Masterson
No, you know, I. Besides the Epstein files. I mean, you know, God, there's only like 50,000 pages in it. I mean, there's three and a half million pages. You know what?
Michael Knowles
But is there anything in particular you would cite from the Epstein files? God. Or you just make.
Walter Masterson
Yeah, we're just. Yeah. They're bringing in the Epstein files right now, unredacted.
Michael Knowles
Is there. Do you really. You don't have a single piece. I thought you might have, like, a piece of.
Walter Masterson
I prepared against the evidence that I prepared. They're bringing it up, you know.
Michael Knowles
Come on. So Walter had come into bar fight, and his claim that he was gonna defend that we were gonna debate was he said preposterously that Trump sexually assaulted children. That's such a crazy claim. Okay, let me come up with all of the counterarguments to any way you could even possibly make that. Okay, how that. And we get there, and he makes the claim, and he didn't even have a false argument to make to defend the claim. He didn't have. It certainly didn't have a true argument, but he didn't even have a false argument. He just said it and then kind of stared vacantly into outer space. So, anyway, that's why I think that clip is legit. I don't really think Walter was in on it. It's just perfect. It just sums up liberalism. I mean, we want open borders. This is wonderful. It's Kumbaya. Islam's the religion of peace. We want Allahu Akbar. He throws the IED at people. And the craziest part is neither Walter nor any of those other libs will change their mind. Even if they say, we love Islam, open our borders, and a Muslim throws a bomb in their faces, they will not change their minds. Because one of the hallmarks of all ideology, but especially the left wing ideologies is that when forced to choose between the theory and the reality, if theory and reality contradict each other, you have to pick one of them. The ideologue will always pick the theory. Who cares if it works in practice? Does it work in theory? That IED will change no ideologue's mind. Now, speaking of Muslim lands, Panicans destroyed again. For now. For now. Of course, it's a live situation. As I've said, from the beginning of the Iran war, very stakes for President Trump. But as of now, all the Panakan's predictions have been wrong. Like all of them. The most recent prediction based on oil prices spiking a couple days ago, was that the Strait of Hormuz was going to be closed. Oil was gonna go up not just to $115 a barrel, but to $150 a barrel maybe. And this was gonna plunge the world into a global recession. And it was all over. And what happened? We now find out that the ships are moving through the Strait of Hormuz. Trump called into Brian Kilmeade yesterday or two days ago, said, no, I guess it was yesterday. Said these ships should go through the Strait of Hormuz. Show some guts. There's nothing to be afraid of. The Iranians have no navy. We sunk all of their ships. Now listening to Trump, I guess the ships are moving through. Oil is down again. Not only below $100 a barrel, it's down below 90. Last I checked, it was going between 78, 88. It's moving all over the place, but nevertheless, it's way down from where it was. And then on top of that, President Trump called CBS and said the war is gonna be over soon. He said, quote, I think the war is very complete, pretty much. They have no navy, no communications, they've got no air force. What's weird about this is this contradicts what Pete Hegseth and the Department of War Rapid Response put out, which is this image. It says, no mercy missile going up in the air, and it says in capital letters at the top, we have only just begun to fight. So hold on. You got the President saying the war's almost over. You got the Department of War saying we've only just begun to fight. Are they not on a text thread together or they're not coordinating their messaging? I actually don't think there's a ton of contradiction here, or rather there is a contradiction, but I don't think that this is anomalous. I don't think that this is evidence that the strike strategy is incoherent. Obviously, they're speaking to two different audiences and they're trying to convey different messages. They're trying to tell the world and the markets and other countries that the war is gonna wrap up quickly. The people who are deep skeptics of this are saying, we're about to enter World War iii. This is gonna be, at the very least, another Iraq and Afghanistan. We're gonna be in this country for 10 or 20 years. And Trump said from the beginning, the war is gonna last about five weeks. Now he's saying, I think it's actually going to be shorter even than that. Trump may be managing expectations from the beginning, giving a larger timeline so that when he comes in below the timeline, it's impressive. That's what he's telling the markets and the rest of the world. And then the Department of War is saying, we've only just begun. Now, that doesn't necessarily mean that the war is gonna go on for two more months or six more months or another year or two. What that's saying is, we've only begun to fight, and maybe we'll stop at the beginning. Maybe we will do a few weeks, and then we're out. But we have the capacity to keep fighting much more. You have not seen the fullness of our strength. These are not contradictory statements, or they at least don't have to be. You gotta assure the markets that this is not going to go on forever, and you need to warn the Iranians that this could go on forever. Those are the two statements. In any case. In any case, this is why I'm not getting too riled up about the war. I've been very consistent from the beginning. And I'm not Lindsey Graham here, okay? I'm not the one who was beating the drums for war. I'm not Mark Levin, okay? I said from the beginning, had I been on the National Security Council, I would have made arguments against the strike on Iran from the beginning. I have discouraged attacking Iran for a long time. However, some of that is just based on the information that was public. The government obviously has a little more information on the particular threats and the effectiveness and efficiency with which the war can be fought. So when the war kicked off, a war that I would have argued against and have argued against, actually, when the war kicked off, all the people who were warning against war with Iran lost their freaking minds. And they started shrieking like chickens with their heads cut off. Can chickens with their heads cut off shriek? Maybe shriek through their necks? I don't know, it is a crazy reaction. And I did not have that reaction. You know why? Not just because I blindly follow Trump, not just because, you know, I'm a partisan for the administration or the gop. The reason I didn't get too riled up, and I'm not getting too riled up is I have learned from experience. The media and even some voters, they do this with Trump all the time. The walls are closing in. This is it. The world is gonna collapse. It's Mueller time. Oh, no, Russia owns Trump. Oh, no, we're gonna go to war with Syria. Oh, no, we're gonna go to war in Afghanistan. Oh, no, Venezuela's gonna descend into civil war. Oh, no, Kim Jong Un is gonna shoot a missile at us. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. And every, every time, it's worked out for Trump. Every time. And so being at least a semi rational person looking at what has happened, every single time someone freaks out about President Trump's policies, specifically policies overseas, every single time, people lose their minds. And then it works out. And so I think this is maybe not gonna work out. You know, Trump's not omnipotent. He could get it wrong at some point. But just learning from experience. I'm not gonna get my blood pressure, I'm not gonna spike my cortisol because of all these people screeching and losing their minds. Whether we're talking about the warmongering types who are making pretty species arguments, I think for the war in Iran, the ones who are trying to pretend that this is a clear moral crusade about which reasonable minds cannot disagree, or the people, this is the end of the world and America's over, and they're all gonna turn on Trump. I just think, guys, chill out. And what happens? Oil spikes to 115A barrel, all these people spike their cortisol. I mean, they're not gonna be frame mogging anybody. If they keep their cortisol this high. It's gonna be very. They're gesture maxing is what they're doing. Sorry, I'm using the language of another guy that we made go viral. Sorry, I don't know. There's something about. We make these kind of odd cultural figures go very, very viral. I don't even intend to. But what did they all freak out about this? And then what happens? 31 hours later, oil is back to normal. Slightly elevated prices, but not that bad, all things considering. A day and a half later, the Strait of Hormuz has ships moving through it again. At a certain point, guys, you have to say the rational thing to do is give Trump a little wiggle room, at least within the timeframe that he is talking about. He said this will be a five week campaign. And on day three, these anxious. I'm trying to be charitable in how I describe them. They're like ninnies. I don't know, they're like teenage girls or something. They freak out. Just think, guys just chill. It's okay. Even when they talk about the war, they're speaking in this very abstract, hysterical ideology. On the pro war side, they're speaking as though this is the great moral crusade and we just. Iran is the greatest, most imminent threat to the United States. You say that's not really true. But likewise the idea that America's not involved overseas with a global empire. We've been involved internationally since the first Barbary War. We've been involved in the Middle east since the first Barbary War, okay? Since the earliest days of our nation. It's not that shocking. It's not a betrayal of America to go into the Middle East. Just chill out. Good grief. Am I the only one with normal cortisol levels left on the American right? I don't know. Trump. Trump's the other one. Okay, now much more to get to. Speaking of President Trump, a story that I've wanted to get to cuz everyone was the import of this story, but a story I've wanted to get to now for a few days at least. President Trump floated putting Ted Cruz on the Supreme Court. We haven't talked about the Daily Wire lifetime membership in a little while, but now I want to mention it because one of you is gonna win mine. The way that you get my lifetime membership. You go to dailywire.com lifetime. You download the app, you tap me. To follow, tap my mug, my big beautiful mug on the app, you click it. So you follow me, forget about the other guys and you get yourself entered. To win my lifetime membership today.
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Michael Knowles
My favorite comment yesterday is from Kuchufu Empire4029, who says David French's next article, the principled argument for seizing the means of production. He wrote ceasing, but I think he means ceasing the means of production. Yes. The conservative case for eating the rich. Yeah, okay. All right. Well, all right, David. That's a career. That's a career. I guess you go to church with Pastor Tallarico telling you to read the gnostic heretical gospel of Thomas because women need penises to go to heaven. And you make sure you vote straight Democrat all the time. That's the way to be a true conservative Christian. Okay, got it, Got it. Speaking of conservative Christians, Senator Ted Cruz just got a very interesting presidential endorsement, specifically from the president floating Senator Cruz for the Supreme Court.
Donald Trump
We have a senator who's really an amazing guy. I'm thinking about putting him in the Supreme Court. No, no, I'm thinking because it's very hard. You. You know, getting these nominations through is very tough, but he's the only guy I know he'll get 100% of the Democrat vote, 100% of the Republican vote. They want to get him out of there. He is such a pain in the ass, but he's so good and so talented. Ted Cruz,
Michael Knowles
great line. Love it. So there are three ways to read this line, and so far, I'm really only seeing people read it two ways. President Trump already floated Senator Cruz for the Supreme Court in the first term, and apparently Ted turned it down. It's a little unclear. Exactly. But that's the story. But he floated him already, and Senator Cruz said he didn't want it. Now he brings it back and he says, look, I'm thinking about putting him on the court. Not I'm thinking about asking him to be on the court. Not that I'm thinking about nominating him. I'm thinking about putting him on the court. I'm gonna do it. You know why? Because. And then he tells this joke, you know, Teddy's so ornery, so stubborn. He's so sticks to his principles that not only do the Democrats want him out, the Republicans want him out, but he's so good. He's so good. That's why they want him out. They hate having to deal with him. It's a funny line. It's a joke. And Trump loves a good joke. So that the first level is he's just telling a joke. He just wanted to get a laugh out of the crowd in Texas. Okay, Second, way to read this. Cruz would be great on the Supreme Court. He'd be great. And I know, look, I know that the Supreme Court is supposed to be run by Catholics and Jews and occasionally Episcopalian sneaks in there, but I know, I know the court is owned by the Catholics and the Jews. That's how it's supposed to be. Senator Cruz, a Southern Baptist. For now. For now. I'm working on it. But he would be great. He would be great. He's a brilliant constitutional lawyer. He knows the Constitution and the case law backwards and forwards. He's already successfully won a case at the Supreme Court, actually. Was it Cruz versus fec? He's argued before the Supreme Court. He clerked for the Supreme Court. He'd be great on the court. But there's the third level. And what I think a lot of this is about is what no one's talking about. It's about 2028 is what it's about. Because do you remember we talked about it on the show when it came out. There was that leak from Axios or to Axios that said that Senator Cruz is considering running for president in 2028. Now, I think there are a lot of people who are considering running for president in 2028. I think all those guys that were on stage in 2016 at the beginning of the Trump era, I think every single one of those guys still wants to be president. Some of them don't really have a chance anymore, but some of them do have a chance. And so we're all thinking, because the Trump era is very unified, we're all thinking, look, J.D. vance is obviously the heir apparent. He's the successor. Marco Rubio has effectively already endorsed him for president, and President Trump has endorsed Vance and Rubio as a ticket. So, come on. There's not gonna be a primary. However, there could be a primary. There's always kind of a primary, right? There's always. It's not like all the people who ran in 2016 just stopped wanting to be president, one of whom was Marco Rubio, let's not forget. Another one was Ted Cruz. Another One was Rand Paul. The list goes on and on. So there is still the possibility that you could get a pretty serious primary. The way I see that playing out is if Rubio flip flops on the endorsement of Vance. If Rubio were to withdraw his endorsement of Vance, which would look very bad for him, I don't think it would be a good idea. But if he did it and you actually had a two person race from within the Trump administration, then blows the primary wide open. And I wonder if this little joke. There's always an element of truth in these jokes. If this joke from President Trump was to signal that Senator Cruz could be a real presidential candidate, he was a pretty tough presidential candidate the first time he came in second to, to Trump, practically speaking. So I wonder if it's a signal to say I'm still behind a unified Trump administration ticket. I recognize that Senator Cruz is a threat in a presidential primary. I want to move him to the Supreme Court, which is a pretty good job, and therefore I want the party to be unified around the ticket that I've already endorsed, which is Vance Rubio. It's not quite an explicit endorsement, but it's pretty close. That was my, that's my esoteric in between the lines read. And you see this broader trend within the GOP and the conservative movements. Very odd, which is that among the babbling class, among the podcaster class and the livestreamer class and the commentators, the conservative movement is as divided now as it ever has been, certainly within the last 50, 60 years. And it's all these podcaster fighting with this podcaster because of the thing that this other podcaster said about the fifth podcaster. And it's all this bickering and all this fighting, and some of it is substantive and a lot of it's petty. But then look at the actual political order, not the kind of meta political order, the politics of politics. The podcaster class look at the actual elected officials with the policies, waging the wars, implementing the regulations. And those guys, while the podcasters are as divided as ever, those guys are as unified as ever, such that they're even looking ahead to 2028. And there seems to be unity within the Trump administration, within the elected class, even on who the next presidential nominee will be. Strange dynamic. It's a paradoxical dynamic. We'll try to delve more into that. In fact, I think I'm going to be giving a speech on that down in Florida later on. Not today, tomorrow. But you know what I'm going to be doing right now, I'M going to be going to the Membrum segmentum for Tee Heehee Tuesday. The rest of the show continues. Now if you are a member of the hoi polloi on YouTube, on Spotify, on itunes. Do they still do itunes? What do they call it now? Apple Podcasts. You need to go over to Dailywire, subscribe, download the app, go to your boy, follow ya boy on the app, and if you use code nolskinwlas at checkout, you'll get two months free on all annual plans.
The Michael Knowles Show, Ep. 1928
Date: March 10, 2026
Main Theme:
Michael Knowles analyzes the current state of science, culture, and politics — focusing on recent stories that he believes encapsulate larger ideological and ethical trends in America and the West, particularly around the use of human biological material in science, Democratic messaging on transgender youth, and recent geopolitical events.
This episode opens with a provocative headline about scientists teaching human brain cells (specifically derived from newborn foreskin) to play the video game Doom. Knowles uses this bizarre story as a launching pad to discuss deeper cultural, ethical, and philosophical issues around scientific limits, the commodification of human life, and ongoing confusion about human nature and ethics. The episode also critiques Democratic rhetoric on "trans kids," touches on attacks against Christianity, highlights a viral protest in New York involving migrant issues and Islam, and assesses the latest developments in the Iran conflict. Knowles closes with speculation about Ted Cruz's possible Supreme Court nomination and the implications for future GOP primaries.
[02:21 - 14:00]
Knowles’ tongue-in-cheek summary: "If baby foreskin in a Petri dish can learn how to play Doom, that is a shocking fact. And it forces me to think about what is a human being."
[13:02]
[14:03 - 18:46]
Clip Highlight: Plays a clip of Texas Democrat Senate candidate James Tallarico expressing love for "trans children" at the state capitol.
Knowles’ Critique: Finds Tallarico’s phrasing “creepy” and “very, very creepy,” and ridicules Democrats who publicly wish to "see more trans kids," drawing attention to mental health statistics among transgender-identifying youth and labeling the rhetoric as perverse.
Attacks on Christianity: Tallarico later claims non-Christians are often more "Christlike" than Texas Christians.
Knowles' Response (18:46):
[25:53 – 28:14]
[28:14 – 39:12]
[40:42 – 44:55]
Knowles’ tone is arch, sardonic, and often mockingly incredulous towards his political and cultural opponents. He draws on philosophical and theological language to critique the "regression" in ethics and anthropology, seeing in the advance of bizarre science and progressive politics signs of a civilizational malaise.
Summary Takeaway:
This episode uses sensational and perplexing news stories (foreskin-derived neurons playing Doom, Democratic paeans to "trans kids," a protest-turned-terror incident) as metaphors illustrating the confusion, ideological fervor, and ethical disarray Knowles sees in current politics. He remains characteristically skeptical of media and progressive narratives, urges a return to philosophical/anthropological sanity, and closes with political horse-trading speculation for the GOP’s future.