Grown Ass Dads Podcast

Grown Ass Dads Episode 9: Charlie Kirk’s Death — Talking To Kids About Violence, Faith & Fear

• Season 1 • Episode 9

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This one hits different. In our first live episode of Grown Ass Dads, we dive into the shocking, public death of Charlie Kirk — and what it means for fathers raising kids in today’s chaotic world.

We don’t hold back:

✅ The unfiltered reactions of seeing the video unfold in real time
✅ Late-night conversations with scared teenagers who can’t “unsee” it
✅ How dads wrestle with faith, doubt, and leading their families through fear
✅ Raising kids on social media when brutality streams instantly into their hands
✅ Is critical thinking the most important survival skill we can give our children

This episode isn’t about politics — it’s about parenting, fatherhood, mental health, and raising strong kids in the digital age. Whether you’re a dad, husband, or just trying to make sense of a broken culture, this raw, vulnerable conversation is for you. 

It’s raw. It’s vulnerable. It’s real.

👉 Don’t miss this Grown Ass Dads Podcast episode. Fathers, husbands, and families everywhere need to hear it.

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Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Grown Ass Dads podcast. Boop boop boop boop boop boop boop. Unbelievable. I assume that means we're live. We're going in recording in when we want it or not. Thank you for for tuning in to the Grown Ass Dance podcast. Our first live welcome. Cheers, buddy. Pretty exciting brother. Pretty exciting. I'm Adam Bundoran, here with J. Hillsong j, Hillsong. And, I'm here begrudgingly with, Jason Byrne. So he's got to be here because he makes it work begrudgingly. That's right. That hurt my feelings. You use some big ass words, you know that can't spell. I know words. I hate that it's begrudging, but good to see it nonetheless. That's right. I, I have to give a shout out to our man Jason for getting all this figured out. The live the can't. I mean, you do the cameras and mics and everything. You do everything all the time. But tonight was a little bit extra effort. So thank you, Dave, for I can't say that I had it completely figured out. We're we're close. We, as far as I can tell, by looking at my machines in front of me, I think I think we're live. I think we have people watching. And as far as I can tell, they can hear us as well. So actually, I tell you what, let's, let's, let's do the traditional webinar live. Anybody out there watching? Can you just post a note in the chat? Just saying yes. Good news. We can hear you. We can see you all as well. And then then I'll then I'll accept. I think it's awesome that we get to come and hang out and be jackasses and make fun of Jason, and he gets to do all the tough shit, right? And he works really hard. It's really good. It's really good for me. Really good for me. This is kind of effort. Thanks, guys. You know what? Okay, so Jason's we tried getting together a couple of weeks ago, then again last week. Happy anniversary. Thank you. I was Vegas. Yeah. How was Vegas? Vegas is an experience, like, legit. My wife and I had the time of our lives. It was a fantastic experience. They upgraded us at the hotel. So we're sitting there staying on the 55th floor of the cosmopolitan overlooking the Bellagio fountains. Got to see the Wizard of Oz, which was pretty crazy and cool. So great trip atmosphere right at the sphere. That's awesome. Yeah. So, I assume there was no psychedelics involved in you guys seeing The Wizard of Oz? The sphere? It depends. If you count Diet Coke, maybe enough of it. I mean, that aspartame. I'll get you. I really will get you. So. So we tried getting together a couple of weeks ago, and then you were out of town last week for your anniversary or the weekend or whatever. And you sent a message to to Jay and I, a couple of days ago and said, I think we should go live. Yep. And talk about the the Charlie Kirk situation. Yes. And I think my response was, I've never wanted to do another show other than this one, for a million different reasons. Sure. Obviously brings me anxiety. Just, openly discuss this in a, in a place, where I can be judged. And then obviously, Jay was like, in for all of this. Let's go. Which, which the crazy thing here is, this is one of the last things I would ever envision myself wanting to talk about. And yet I brought the idea to the table, which is which is kind of bizarre, but, I, I might be wanting to talk about it in a different fashion than you guys do. Possibly. My comments will be 1,000% about being a dad and parenting. I don't give a shit about politics. I have my religious beliefs, but I don't talk about them because I don't care what other people think and I don't care what they think, or I don't care what they think, and I don't care if they care what I think. Plus the conspiracy theories. I like talking about them privately, but we're not going to I'm not going to bring that up on, on, on this conversation. But oh, and good news, shout out to Big West. He has let us know that, in fact, they can hear us. It's good. Truly, my big man, big West. Okay, so. Thanks, Wes. Where to begin? So obviously, I'm not even going to use, like, the. If you were stuck under a rock thing. Like, we all know what has happened, over over the course of this past week. Facts only, a man named Charlie Kirk, who has spent basically his entire adult life from the time that he was 18, 19 until, his last breath at 31, engaging in political, religious and, you know, intellectual conversation lost his life in Utah, to, a gun shot in front of thousands, including his family. I don't that's the facts. Like, so, you and I have talked about this, this organization that I am a part of. Sure. Data is a big part of that organization. What's the data? That's the data. Those are the facts of the facts in everything else. Aside from that is probably a version of a judgment, a feeling, a story, etc.. But for for this conversation, there's the facts. When, when I'm going to go on a quick rant real quick about just finding out what happened and when it happened, on the 10th, I was in an appointment and I got two phone calls from my brother back to back, which never happens. Then a few text messages and I quickly looked down because that's not normal for him to do. And he said, Charlie Kirk got shot. Don't look it up. And I didn't see the second text. So quickly got out of my appointment. I saw the first one, pulled up my my ex account and saw the video seven minutes after it happened. Yeah. My emotions immediately were uncontrollable, rage, for seeing something like that live. And I think the anticipation of the venom and the venom from both sides that was, that was getting that was getting ready to happen. Right. And, my, my my quick, reaction went to my oldest, my, my 13 year old, because we haven't really had a ton of conversations about Charlie Kirk. But I knew that he, absorbed some of his content. Our our kids spend countless hours on social media. There's no chance they haven't at least seen his face or have some familiarity with with who he is. Yeah. Were you a Charlie Kirk guy? Yeah, I think yes, I was, you know, and and I don't think, you know, here's what I'm going to say. Yes, I was a big fan of Charlie's, and I had watched hours and hours and hours of his content. But that doesn't mean that I 100% sign on to everything that that man said. Here's why I was such a huge Charlie Kirk fan. Okay, I'm 41 years old and I am a human being, and I am a sinner, and I have fucked up a ton in life from the time I was little to the time. I'm 41 years old, I've made little mistakes and big mistakes, and I have struggled with loving myself. And I have struggled with these. This idea of somebody being able to love me, not just my family or my friends, someone loving me unconditionally. I've struggled with that for a very long. Since I lost my mom. I have struggled with that even being a possibility. And that man was completely unapologetic about his convictions, and I'm so envious of someone being able to sit in discourse and hear venom and and be able to be very, confident about what he believed. I think in this world. Well, I think the world is completely fucked, to be totally honest. I like I think that we are in a place that this is going to this is going to do one of two things. This is going to either let people understand that you should be allowed to have your opinions, opinions, and, and, and thoughts, and feelings about something without being shut up. Yep. Or it's, it's all going to go to shit and we're and and you're never going to be allowed to say what you believe or what you feel without being fear of of losing your fucking life. I think right now, though, to your point, we as a as a country and as a people have never been more aligned and in agreement that things are in a real, real bad shape. And I think that that's just kind of watching some of the dialog in the discussion that has happened over the last couple of days. That seems to be a common theme. No matter where I look, no matter what leaning news station I'm looking at, it's it's a it's a conversation of, oh boy, let's what's next? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I, I have the feeling of oh boy, what's next? So I, you know, I've, I've, I've sent messages back and forth to buddies and family and discussing, you know, how I feel. Having this conversation with my, my, my kids. Gus is a little young, probably to to really understand what this means and what happened. And I certainly don't want he doesn't have a device the same way that Harry has a device. And so the conversation that I had with him was, was different. Excuse me, but, I've had to remove this, this this invest personal investigation of more information. Sure. Because I'm. I've started to lose. Lose, like, focus on what his fucking message was. Sure. Which is the the most important thing? Which was which was the fact that you. I told if I've said this a million times over the last few days, the the quote that sticks out in my head more than any quote that I've heard from, from Charlie Kirk or any anyone, and Turning Point USA was when conversation stops, violence begins. And they I heard someone say they didn't shut him up because he was a Nazi. They didn't shut him up because he was a fascist. They didn't shut him up because he was anti-democracy. They shut him up because he was effective and he was pushing people towards politics, not just conservatives. He was pushing all young people towards politics. And that's fucking dangerous for the people that are in charge. That is very fucking dangerous. And we they want fucking idiots. They want people walking around that are fucking stupid and you know, vote right, vote left, say this. But that's what they fucking want. And this man, whether you loved him, you wanted to be a part of his movement, whether you hated him, you wanted to be a part of the movement that opposed him. But they both wanted to be part of something political. And that freaks people out, especially when they're 18, 19, 20. He's sitting on college campuses. That's the future of this country. He's sitting there talking to them, engaging both sides. And that's a fucking problem. Yeah. And it's a tragedy that we lost somebody like that. Okay, there we go. Here it goes. Jay, you're you're off and running. I am, Concerned. You said something earlier that, the world is shit. It's it's gone to fucking hell. I don't know that it has. I don't know that it has. It's scary. But it's, it's scary because of the extremists. Here's my problem. And I'm not a huge political guy, and I'm not going to speak on politics because I don't feel like I'm educated enough on it. Sam and I, have some feelings, but it's. I'm. I'm. I'm not nearly in. I'm not up and in the know as much as I need to to have what I would consider to be an educated discussion, debate, argument, what have you, just not going to argue with you? What I am going to argue about is the fact that, in the last week, I have had people that have told me there should be a Charlie Kirk holiday in the same way that we have Martin Luther King Day. And I've had people tell me I'm happy he got shot. He fucking deserved it. Both of those people are fucking morons. They're morons. And it's it's a it's a situation that, he had his opinions. I didn't watch a ton of his shit. I knew who he was. Like, some of it didn't like some of it. But the guy was convicted, and he did it in the right way. And he wasn't, you know, let's go storm the Capitol or let's get it. He was having discussions with college kids and young adults saying, open your eyes, pay attention, figure out what you believe in, and ask questions. Ask questions, figure, figure out what's what. And it's one of those things that I the biggest problem, the biggest problem in my opinion, is you have people that are convicted but unwilling to listen or have a discussion. It is I'm right. You're wrong. Your side is fucking stupid. Your side is ruining our country, your side, your side, yours. It's it's the dumbest thing in the entire world. If you are going to sit in front of me and tell me, the only people that are right about anything are Republicans. If you're not Republican, you're a fucking idiot. I promise you're a fucking idiot because it's just not the way it fucking works. It's not the way that it works. It doesn't matter. There are. You have to understand the issues and what's going on, and then use your brain to figure out how you feel about it and what works. And some stuff works best for me in some stuff doesn't. But there is a absolute. Tragedy going on because you're not alone. I have people in my life that will, I voted for Trump. I voted for Trump because I thought he was the lesser of two evils. I think Donald Trump's got a shitload of problems. I think the other candidates had more than a shitload of problems. And I have people that are go, you're fucking idiot. You have you voted for Trump. You are an absolute fucking moron and you don't know anything about anything. He's going to put us in World War three. He's complete psychopath. He's only out for himself too. I think that he is out for himself. Yes, but it's this is the problem. The problem is it's not. It's it's you. It's one way or the other. And that's all that it is. And I can't handle it. I can't handle it. I, I think that if anybody said out loud, I'm glad he died, you were fucked up. You have a problem. Well, I think we've just become so desensitized to that type of, that that type of, an occur, an occurrence, that, the the, like venom and like the, the excitement to that has been kind of injected into our into our civilians. But it, it makes that mean nothing. It makes it makes a man, and Joe, Beckman, just commented his main message was faith. It was he was a man of faith that he in fact, he was asked if you died tomorrow. The fucking question came across. If you were if you died tomorrow of a gunshot wound, what would you want to be remembered for? And he said, my faith. He was a man of faith, and he was a man of conviction. And I envy. It makes me feel hopeful and less than I am because I wish I was a better leader, of faith for my family and I and I hope. And it's only up to me, right? But I hope that this brings me, I hope this brings me an opportunity to to improve that because it's something I do want to improve. Right. However, it what the way in which our society has been manipulated and gaslit and controlled makes watching a 31 year old man be murdered live on the internet in front of his fucking two children and wife and thousands of people. It makes people go, oh yeah, did you guys see that Charlie Kirk video that was fucked up? And then that weird you guys see it? He's bleeding all over that. I remember being a shithead kid and having to go see seek out video shit that I wasn't supposed to see. Like, I remember being a little kid and searching for the two pack autopsy autopsy pictures. I know, I realize that's insane, but I did as he almost walked past his shooting memorial while I was in Vegas. There you go. I remember seeking that out and being like, man, this is heart. And that's how fucked up I was, right as a kid. Like, oh, this is hard to find. Like looking up for, looking for that shit. I'm worried that my son is going to be looking at phishing videos or dude perfect, or, videos of whatever. And the next fucking video is going to be that of I'm going to be an assassination. That's how desensitized our world has become. Yeah. And no one seems to care. There's one thing that I that he said that I have kind of been figuring out how to to bring this into into the conversation in my family. He said there's three types of people in this world. There's children's children, there's protectors and there's predators. And if you're not a child, you're one of the other two, and it's your fucking job to figure out which one of the two you are. I'm sure now I know I'm not a child, although I may act like one fucked, but I get to decide. Beat me to it, right? I get to decide how I show up for kids as either not a not a predator in the terms of of, you know, the the taboo word. But am I working to better and grow and protect children, or am I letting them off the hook? Am I am I leaning in enabling this bullshit that that we we do as a society? I get to decide and support. Looks really weird sometimes and love looks really weird sometimes. Love doesn't mean signing off on all your bullshit or just support doesn't mean just signing off on all your bullshit. It means maybe helping educate you are holding your feet to the fire or something like that. You know what I mean? Like, I don't know man, I'm super fucked up about this and I'm glad we're talking about it, but it makes me really passionate and angry. And it's probably because it's it's showing up for me in a way that makes me want to be more and make me, makes me want to be better. Sure. You you yeah, you you tossed out the carrot, or at least one of the carrots that I was kind of hoping this conversation would go down. And I am not going to speak. Like I said at the beginning, on, on, on politics in any way, shape or form, I'm not going to even talk about who who Charlie Kirk was, his beliefs, and what I agreed with and didn't believe. However, I will in support of what Joe was saying in the comments. His his ability to find a marriage between church and state was unparalleled to anybody else that I had ever seen, but nonetheless, that the carrot that you tossed out is. You're right. Our kids are on social media and they're on their gaming platforms and so on and so forth. So it's hard to say what they're going to stumble across. That was one of the reasons why I wanted to have this conversation, because I am I, I work in the social media space like I live for social media. We work in digital marketing. It's what we do, right? So I can't I can't completely separate myself from it. But I have never, unlike the last 2 to 3 days, wanted to put social media away and silence it for myself, let alone my kids. Because this this has highlighted for me how easy it is to completely alter the narrative of a conversation using tools and technology that exists today. I have seen the same video from five, six, seven, eight different angles, all of which tell a different story. I don't know what's I, I don't know what's real, I don't know what I can believe anymore. I can't even go out to the news stations on websites and get an idea of what's going on, because if I go to if I go to CNN, I'm seeing one story. If I go to FoxNews.com, I'm seeing a completely different story. Right? So it's like, one of the things that I wanted to try to figure out here in this conversation, which we won't figure it out, we'll talk it out and we'll see if we can kind of come to some conclusions. But I don't know what to do about my kids in this scenario, because I know they're going to see it. I love them, I love them, yes, I, I, I always do, unconditionally, like you were talking about earlier. However, I was sitting on the couch yesterday watching golf because that's what I do. My youngest is playing VR with 2 or 3 other buddies. I believe they are school friends, not random internet people. Charlie Kirk came up in the conversation between 3 or 413 year olds playing, unfortunately, a shoot em up first person shooter game on their VR, right? And they started talking about Charlie Kirk and, and the suspect and the story and it's like, which story are you watching and which path are you being let down, whether it's correct or not? Correct. I like I worry about that. They're they're they're being fed a narrative and a story. I can't dictate which one they believe and which one they don't believe in. Which one's right, which one's not right, because I don't know, right? What's right, what's wrong or where to go. Yeah. So I kind of, I kind of I leaned into that a little bit, of just like the struggle that I was having personally of like, okay, I got to put I got to put the detective stuff away for a minute. And I remember the night it happened, you know, but Sarah was at. She said, let's let's turn on the news. Let's let's kind of see what's got. Let's see what they're saying. I think is what she said. And we watched it for a few minutes, and I was like, I gotta turn this off. Let's if we're if we're really interested in like how like where to go, I would rather watch content and hear the message and hear the words that would make me feel better. And that's, I think what I'm, I think that's what I'm trying to get at is I've, I've, I can you can hear he was he was shot by a right wing supporter who because he was asking too many questions, you can hear that he was shot by a left wing person, you know, transgender. You can hear like, oh, you're going to hear all of those, associations with what happened. And I don't know if right now I need to know the answer to that. I think right now I need to to lean into like, this is going to sound so stupid. Or maybe it won't. I don't know, it's like, well, what would he think? What would he say? Like, would I think he would want us to like, listen to the message and like, like understand what he was trying to say about faith, about gun violence, about politics. And if you believe it and agree with it right on, then you can then you can kind of dive into that a little bit. And if you don't, then right on, you can you can debate or you can have a conversation with, with your loved ones about that. But the fact that not only do we have a country that is divided, we have households that are divided, we have fathers and sons and mothers and daughters and husbands and wives who are divided and and unable to coexist and and live in and love one another because they they're being told that they can't love somebody that is conservative or they can't live some love, somebody that is liberal or they can't love somebody who's gay or they can't love somebody who's who's straight, or the fact that that is the message that, I wish that that is what people could hear and take away is that it had nothing to do with you're right, I'm right. You're wrong. It had everything to do with this is what I believe. What do you believe now? You try to tell me what you believe in an intelligent, articulate way. And I'll tell you what. I believe in an intelligent, articulate way. And maybe you'll change my mind. And maybe I'll change your mind. But either way, we can love one another. And that's that's honestly, as somebody who was not is certainly not a lifelong conservative. I've voted for Obama twice. I've I voted all across the board over my adult life. That is the message that I've heard multiple times from, from, you know, taking on his content is you don't have to believe me, but I'm going to tell you why I believe what I believe, and then you can tell me. And if you're smart enough to actually have conviction on what you believe, or are you just going to regurgitate talking points that you heard on the news? Are the critical thinking that he was pushing on to people is amazing, but we don't get that anymore. You're not allowed to think for yourself anymore. You have to consume fox. You have to consume CNN. You have to consume, God forbid, MSNBC like you have to consume these things. And if you don't, well, then you're not really educated. All right. I'm going to turn this for a second into, more grown ass dads ask, conversation because Betty boop boop boop boop boop. Yeah, I'm not someone save it. And and and this isn't, this isn't silly. This isn't, goof off. Fuck around. But something you said earlier is exactly what happened in my house. Okay. Tonight is Sunday show. Thursday night. My 13 year old is in his rooms getting ready to go to bed. He's. He's got a chat that's, on his phone. He doesn't have social media and won't have social media. I don't know when, but, he doesn't need it, and it's a fucking cesspool. Are you sure he doesn't? I'm certain that he doesn't. So, he comes out of his room and, he is upset. He's not crying, but he's like his face. Something's going on. He said. Said. Hey, bud, what's going on? He said that, you know, Charlie Kirk is said, I do. He goes, did you see the video? I said, I did. He goes, why did that happen? And I said, have fun with that one. Did I go to see the video? And he said, yeah, my buddy just sent it to our text thread and a bunch of and a bunch of, his buddies don't have social media either. And, one of his buddies, got the video sent to him from his dad. That's insane. And dad's an idiot. Yeah, and I went. Dad sent it to the kid. Yeah, because kid asked him, hey, I don't have social media. I what happen? Can you send me the video? Send him the video. So he he disseminates it to 15 other 13 year old kids that are in seventh grade and also are not old enough to understand. Right. And, so my 13 year old is very, very sensitive. And when I say very sensitive and this is, this is how sensitive, he cannot watch The Little Mermaid because the, the the octopus, which gives him nightmares saying, bro, this is what it is. So, he so he's upset because he he just watched somebody get murdered, and I and I watched somebody get murdered, and I was like, Holy fuck. Yeah. I, you know, I've seen movies and different shit. So I, I, you know, calm him down. He's getting ready to go to bed, and, he is in bed and he comes out like, 30 minutes later and is in tears, and I'm like, dude, what is going on? And he goes, dad, I can't I can't get it out of my head. I can't. I just keep seeing that guy get shot in the neck and I and I don't know what to I don't know what to do. So he said, we, we sit in my room for a little while because I, I'm afraid to go to sleep. So we sat in there and, he, he literally asked me goes, so like if I, if, if I become famous for some reason and I say something that somebody doesn't like, like somebody's going to shoot me. And I said, do that. No one's going to shoot you. And I said, dad's going to protect you, and I'm here for you. And I go, we can't. You can't live your life in fear. You can't you can't worry that someone's going to come and kill you for something that you said. The fucked up part about it is the kind of do it kind of do kind of do and and it's and it's one of those things that as we were talking through it and again, didn't think that that was on my Thursday night docket, but, you know, as a dad, what do I you know, I'm explaining to him that there are, you know, people in the world that are, just bad people that, you know, because that person said something that he didn't like or that his friends or that his, his people didn't like, he thought, it's my job to murder that guy. And I said, buddy, this is, you know, you have to be intelligent about who you spend time with. You have to surround yourself with good people, and you have to be willing to to say what you think. Not in an egotistical or a dickhead way. You just have to, you know, you have to be willing to have conversations. And if you believe in something, you don't have to go shout it from the rooftops. But if somebody is going to ask you, hey, Joe, what do you think of this? It's okay to tell him. It's okay to tell him, and it's not okay to tell him. Hey, I think this and you're a fucking asshole if you don't think the same. Right? But it's okay to go. Hey, I think this because of this and this, and here's here's what it is. And so we had a very grown up conversation just about, you can't go through life being afraid, and you can't go through life living in your house and never going out and never having an opinion. But going about it the right way and, and surrounding yourself with good people and good people aren't always people that think the exact same way as you, but good people are people that are willing to talk to you about it and have a conversation and, you know, as a, as a dad, I, I don't I don't know what to do with that. What am I hey, you know what? But it'll be fine. Just go to sleep. Don't think about it. Well, okay. That'll work. You know, it's. But these are the things I, When we were growing up without social media, I don't. Do you think that NBC, CBS would have aired that video? No way, no chance, no way. And this is the thing the it's it's. I'm. Is it less effective? Are you less informed because you didn't watch that dude get murdered live? Then if you if you heard Charlie Kirk on assassinated at the school discussion that he was doing in Utah and, and the video is basically him sitting there and then it's blurred out or whatever it is, and then there's paramedics and people around him. Again, there are a lot of really, really good things in technology and things that have progressed and whatnot. But the the kids are so, flooded with whatever they want as well as the most graphic of graphic things. And it's, it's, it's it's fucking tough. Yeah. Well, I think, I think part of it is that there's so I'm going to kind of side door. Your question, do you remember when Clint Miller, Chuck took a skate to the neck against the blues? It was, that it was, Buffalo Sabers goalie. Yep. Cut his carotid artery. Carotid artery. There was one camera on him. Right. And immediately, I think Jim Kelly was calling the get it, you know, pull the kit, get put the camera off. Turn the camera. Get the camera back. Right. Yep. We have thousands of cameras. And that's. And not only do we have thousands of cameras, half of those cameras are streaming live. Yep. Right. So the content availability is instantaneous, and life is brutal, and we don't get to, censor it. We don't get to blur things out when it happens instantaneously. So I think that's part of the problem is that the access to data is like that. And the brutality of real life. Yeah, is streamed all over the internet, but it's it's it's hard to to argue that, but at the same time, those thousands of cameras and the real time nature of it is also what helps the powers that be solved things too. Right? So like if this same thing happened 25 years ago, the authorities would be hoping and praying to God that they can find a security camera somewhere that is shot in for 20. Yeah, and grainy as hell. And now all of a sudden you got a thousand cameras shooting in ten, 80 or even 4K. So it's like there's, there's this pro and there's this con yeah, to that concept. But yet at the same time, it's the accessibility of that content that I think is what I have a problem for sure. For sure. Yeah. So, so, first of all, I'm sorry that you had to see that. That's terrible. It is what it is. As a dad, I haven't even asked my kids yet if they've seen it. Yeah. Man, sorry that that you have to, to to to take that on. I, I we got home, and Harry's in the front seat. Gus is in the back, and he's. We get in the truck and he's like, dad, you're like, I said, just. Yeah, no, no, we'll talk when we get home. We got home. We went downstairs and I said, yeah, Charlie Kirk was shot. And I said, and I need you to do me a favor because he's on, you know, whatever messaging. And they, they have Instagram. They text the bat message back and forth, chat, whatever. I said, I need you to promise me that you're not going to go look for that because it's brutal. It is something. It's not a video game. It's not a movie. It's not a TV show. Excuse me? It is. It is brutality. It is. It is an, someone's life ending. And if someone sends it to you, I need you to come to me or your mother immediately, because that's something that will be addressed, the right way, but it will be addressed. And all of our conversations from then on out was. And I don't think Charlie had died yet. I think he was there was still reports that he was stabilizing or what have you. I mean, I as somebody that understands anatomy. Yeah, I think I kind of knew like, we need a miracle, right. And, I said, you know, is he going to live? I don't know, buddy. Is, are they going to catch, you know, and then like, the next, the next couple of days were just kind of check into like, hey, do they, you know, do you know anything? I heard it's this. I heard it say. And I said, love. What? Let's just wait. Let's give it, like, the 48 hour rule and see what comes out. And then obviously it played out and they they took someone into custody and now they're obviously he didn't work alone. Based on just the information that's made public. So, yeah, I mean, I think as here's, here's why here's my response to why you wanted to talk about this. Jason. Okay. Let's do it. My response to why you wanted to talk about this is. I have two little boys who are really smart and really good polite children. And they've they've been they've had life events that have have caused growth or given opportunities for growth that have, you know, hurt. I want them to find their path in Christ as as a father, as a believer. I want them to find their path. And the fact the fact that there was someone who was so young and so confident and so unapologetic about his beliefs in my mind, and this is the lazy part of me in my mind, I thought, there's somebody they can follow, there's somebody that they can lean into and and learn about the gospel and learn about Jesus and learn about biblical, history. There's somebody that they can that they can look up to. And that was taken from them. Right? That was my stance. It's like, how dare they lose that in the fear comes in. It's like, it's supposed to be me. It's supposed to be me. That leads my family to faith. Interesting. Take, and and it and it it just brings up a ton of fear in me. It makes me scared as a as a person. Like, can I do that? Can I be that? Let me ask you a question. You fear you. You've opened Pandora's box for me. Oh, boy. Are you a Catholic? I am, are you serious about it? No. Okay, Jason, I, I let me let me can I can I caveat that church. I was born and raised Catholic. Have been going to to Catholic mass from the time I was born until I'm 41 years old, and I'm not regular enough to be able to call myself a highly practicing Catholic. However, I pray every single day, multiple times a day. We pray at meals. When we sit down, we pray before bed. I pray in the middle of the day for my kids, for my wife, for for myself, for my loved ones. I don't feel as, comfortable in a Catholic Mass as I do in, like, a non-denominational Christian mass. Okay, so that's my caveat. Wow. You also can. Any man may pass. I said I wasn't going to say a word about religion. Yes. Catholic practicing when needed. I'm not going to talk about my beliefs or my prayer patterns or anything like that, but, still, Catholic plan to always be Catholic. I believe in God. There you go. Okay, so, my my dad has taught me more than anybody else in the world, and, some of the teachings were easy. Some of them were hard. Some of them made sense at the time. Some of them made sense. Ten years later, some of them still don't make sense. When I was 17 years old, living at home, we went to mass every single Sunday. We prayed before meals. I would say we we are a Catholic family. We have a lot. It's it's important in our family. There was, a Sunday.

We were going to 9:

00 mass, and, my dad came in and woke me up because I was not, an early riser, to say the least. So we're going to mass. I said I'm not going. And he goes, no, you're going. I said, no, I'm I'm not going to 17 years old. 17 okay. And I said, I'm not going. And he goes, are you planning on living here for a little while? And I said, yeah, for a little while probably. And he goes, all right. It turns out you're going. And so we get in this big old argument and he goes, here's the deal. He goes, you can you can argue with me while you're getting your your church clothes on. But you're going. And so we go through this whole deal and we go, we go to mass pissed off fucking mad the whole time. Not I'm not participating. I'm just going to sit here and be pissed. So I do the deal. We do the mass, we go home after the mass. Dad says, hey, why don't you come upstairs? And, when I was in trouble, grab a switch before you make that switch and come on up. When, when we had something serious talk about, we went upstairs. We we we talked and their, their room had a little sitting area in it, and we would sit there and I, you know, take my, my medicine like, fuck. All right. Fine. So we go up there and, and I thought, okay, I'm going to get yelled at for being an asshole and whatever. And he said, here's the deal. What do you believe in? So what do you mean? He goes, what do you believe in? I go, I don't know. And he goes, okay, until you can tell me what you believe in differently than the Catholic faith, you're going to mass. You figure out something else you believe in, you come and tell me about it. You tell me why you believe in it. You don't have to go to mass anymore. And, I said, okay. Cool. Okay. All right, I'm gonna go. You go figure some shit out. So the interesting part about that is it actually spurred a, a whole bunch of thought in me, and what do I believe in? What I'm in. And he was giving me the option. Hey, you don't have to be Catholic. You got to be something. And so the conversation ended up continuing. He goes, if you don't believe in something, why are you a good person? If you don't believe in a higher power, you don't believe in something bigger than yourself. Why not just go do whatever the fuck you want? Yeah, and, it was it was one of the most thought provoking things that my father ever told me. And, so I kind of went along. And so I am a I'm going to call myself a convenient Catholic. I believe in, in, in the Catholic Church. I don't believe in if you don't go to mass every day, you're not going to go to heaven. I think that, confession is a load of shit, because I think it was something that was developed way back when, when people did stupid shit and killed in the name of Christ, or took on seven wives or did whatever, and then they, the, the bishop or whatever said, come talk to me and apologize, and then I'll absolve you and you'll still go to have some fucking nonsense. It's absolute fucking nonsense. The fact that someone can go and rape a kid and then go, you know what? My bad. Hey, Pastor Jim. So I raped this kid last week. I feel real bad about it. Could you, give me a little, once over and, I'll say ten Hail Marys and five our fathers, and I'll get in the habit. That's not the way fucking world works. I also don't think that that's the way confession works. I'm just. I'm just telling. Just to be. It's. It's the most absurd shit in the whole world. What I, what I believe in, at its core is I believe there's a higher power. I believe there's something bigger than me. I believe there's a heaven and hell. I also believe that just about every other religion out there is virtually the fucking same. They believe in the same shit to an extent. There's a higher power, there's a have it and a hell, and everybody's got their own little rituals and their own stuff that goes on. Do I? It's it's all semantics. And so I don't give a fuck what you are. If you believe in something and you're a good person, we're fucking cool. I you're a Buddhist, you're Hindu, you're Jewish, you're Catholic, you're Baptist, you're non-denominational. Love the Rock church. Great. Fucking do it. Fucking do it. I but I also believe that there's a shit ton of money in Jesus. And there's a whole bunch of really faithful motherfuckers that lead big giant congregations, one that's just down the street from us. That is in a situation that I think that guy is full of fucking shit, and he's got tens of thousands of followers that think he's the greatest dude the whole world. And the dude owns two airplanes. What the fuck? So just for the record, I want to throw up in my mouth a little bit right now. I, I just if we I wish we had a blood pressure monitor on Jason right now. Who'll be who you want to be? Believe in something. Believe in. Believe in something bigger than yourself. And if you want to talk about it, great. If you don't want to talk about it, that's totally fine with me too. I will never, ever, ever have a religious discussion that, hey, you're something different than me, and you're wrong because you need to be a Catholic if you want to go to heaven. Fuck off. That's not how it works, dude. I want to say one small thing and then you can get this back on the rails. Okay? Go ahead. Here's the one thing I'll say. Okay, I got to figure out how I'm going to say this. Okay. Here's what I'm going to say. So there was a time in my life where I, I kind of started leaning into the, the, the stories of, commonality in religions. Right. Even even so much as, like, well, there's multiple religions that say that there was a prophet born on December 25th who was born of a virgin mother and that, that like, there was there's multiple religions that have that, or at least that that is a story in their religion. Right? And there's many religions who believe, very similar tweaks, the Christianity religion, that says a lot to me, that says to me that, that, that's that, that holds basis. How can multiple religions across the world, across the globe, when they used to have a fucking stick and wood and a raft to get to one spot to another? How can they all have similarities? Right. So, so I am a Christian, I believe in Christ, I do, and I think that there are also and I and I promise you, Jason, I won't get into religions, but I do want to say, I do believe that there are religions in this world that are fucking insane, that that don't let women be women and don't let children be children and don't let people live the life that they want to live or they'll kill them. Agreed. So I do believe that there are many religions out there that are fucking insane. Sorry, my wife said, please watch the f bumps. I'm sorry babe, I believe that there are wrong people in this world that are influencing millions and millions and millions of people that are very, very dangerous. But again, here's the best part. It's just what I believe. I'm not going to kill you if you think otherwise. And if you want to kill me because of it, I think you're insane. Period. Full stop. I have many friends who are very, devout Christians that I envy their relationship with God. And I have many friends who are, as you said, you are a convenient Catholic c squared. Yeah. And I love all of you. In the end, it does. I don't need you to justify your humanity for me, and I'm not going to try to justify mine, but I will from this point forward, try to understand which bucket you fit in. You're either a predator or a protector. And if you are one that I don't agree with, we ain't going to drive anymore. That's it. I got no problem with it. Yeah. You wanted to try and kind of kind of change the change the tone of this direction here a little bit. I got another story I'm going to tell, but you go ahead and try. Yeah. Okay. I, I would like to flip the script just a little bit. We've talked a lot about Charlie Kirk and who he is or who he was and, and what he has stood for the whole nine yards. One of the reasons that I have latched on to this whole thing, which I normally wouldn't like, I just I don't I don't follow this stuff. But for some reason, the particular narrative, whichever one you're following, has really caught my attention here. And and that's one of the reasons why I wanted to have this conversation, because I'm worried about how I'm allowing my kids to dive into said narrative, like I said earlier. Right. So I mean, aside from Charlie Kirk, I would like to talk about the alleged suspect. Those are the correct terms, right? Alleged suspect. Whether whether you log in to CNN or Fox News or whatever, everything that I have seen points to the suspect being a completely normal human being, a normal upbringing up until a certain point. Right? Correct. So he he had great grades, he had a full ride scholarship. He had an okay family life from everything that I could see. So on and so forth. That's the part that's freaking me out a little bit. Yeah. As as a dad who is doing my damnedest to try and raise three boys to be the best upstanding human beings and men that they can possibly be. Everything that I'm seeing in the media right now is, is pointing fingers at the gaming community and the online community and the internet as what's radicalizing people one way or the other up, down, left, right, whatever. Yeah. How can we as dads have good visibility into what that is? Right? And the reason why I ask that question is I love my three boys to death. And I think they're they're great human beings. They spend a lot of time gaming. Okay. Do I need to be scared? Do I need to be concerned? As far as I know, the online experience that they're having is with friends and family and and community that I'm familiar with. I don't know how how do I, as a dad, granted, it's going to be sitting down and having the conversation with my boys here. I'm I'm working through that in my head about how do I how do I not become that, like militaristic dad who's like, I need to know everything you're doing, everyone you're talking to, blah blah, blah, blah, blah. You don't have to be. But that's that's that's what I want this conversation to be about right now is, well, I'm like, I am, I am full blown, ready to sit my kids down and say, no more social media. I need to know what games you're playing with. I need to know who you're talking to. I know that's not the right answer. I know that's not the right way to handle this scenario, but I'm almost wanting to do it to myself. I'm I'm literally ready to hang up every social media channel that I am part of because I don't know what to freaking believe anymore. And I don't want my kids being in that position where they're being led down one path or another because of the narrative that's being told in the channel that they've gone to, okay, you can go first and say, what do you want to do? You know, all right, so here's, here's my my stance on this. The, the. Social media is not I don't think it's not the culprit. And and let me let me give this kind of disclaimer. What I say and what you say and what you say is all fucking filled with judgments and stories and all kinds. It's our own stuff, right? Whether it's online or it's in person. Doesn't matter what our what, what our three opinions are right now are just that. They're just opinions. And they're based on stories and, judgments and experiences. So let me give that disclaimer. I don't think that social media is the culprit here. I don't think that video games is the culprit here. I don't think that movies are the culprit here. And I don't think that TV or the news is the culprit here. The three of us played first person shooters and we're not shooting people. But there are people our age that are fair. And here's what I think the problem is. The problem is that we have not, as a society, not we as in us three, as a society, we have not educated our children to not be influenced easily. Period. I don't want my sons to go into a classroom in college and have one, one person teaching American history and telling a story about, you know, what those Vietnamese kind of wanted to be murdered either. And then them go, you know what, dad? I think those Vietnamese kind of wanted to be that's what I don't want, is the ability to not, we have to have to, as a society, teach our children. And I am talking to us three right now. We have to teach our children critical thinking. We have to. Logic and critical thinking will solve almost all of this because the stories that we are told from the far right and the far left are so illogical that people that that look at it at its face go, that's insane. Okay, well, I'm not going to go do x, y and Z or shoot up a school or, you know, whatever. But there are people out there who don't teach those skills to their children, don't teach critical thinking, and they walk into an establishment that is completely dedicated to indoctrinating your children. And I'm not saying only indoctrinated by the left like I'm that's what I'm saying. There are people who get into education, higher education for the only purpose of having a desire to indoctrinate your children. That's what they want. They say it, and I've seen it for we've seen it so much over the last few days. I can't I can't wait to to to tell your children what to think and like all that. That's insane. These people are insane. They have emptiness and hate in their eyes. And they want to turn your families against you. They want to turn your children against you. It's absolutely bizarre. And if we don't start addressing not just the the lack of critical thinking, but the lack of a addressing of the mental health crises that we are creating as a as a government, as a people. We it's not going to get better. It's only going to get worse. What I am I am a complete believer in, therapy and, and mental health addressing. I'm a part of a, support organization myself because I need it, and I will continue to do it for the rest of my life. But that's how I get right with myself. And we are not teaching children to love themselves. We are teaching to love attention and, like affirmation. And you are not supposed to get attention and affirmation. You're supposed to learn how to love yourself so that you can then love other people. But that's not the way that this world works. And that is why we have so many issues. And it's it's so frustrating because I'll be honest, if I if I wouldn't have had a few really great, people in my life that that leaned into me and, and helped me see that I was worthy of love, I could be in trouble to. I could be in big trouble, too. I, you know, I've I've had some amazing, amazing people in my life that didn't try to change my opinion. That just chose to love me at my worst and say, yeah, yeah, no, I know you're you're kind of fucking up right now, but you know, I love you, I love you, and I'm going to continue to love you. Like, it's, I, I would be in trouble not saying that I would be doing anything insane or terrible, but, like, once we stop teaching people that love is the currency and instead affirmation and attention is the currency, we're in trouble. All right, I've got your answer, bro. I mean, I'm here for answers, not questions. I have said multiple times, on the show, I don't know what the fuck I'm doing as a dad. I'm figuring it out, and I'm still figuring it out. But these three things, nobody has the manual. No manual, but these three things. I will stand behind. I will put the fucking Helsing stamp on, and I will argue to the death with anybody that wants to argue with me. There are three things. If I, I, I say all the time when my kids leave my house, I don't particularly care what their grade point average was. I don't particularly care if they were star athletes. I don't care if they were popular. I don't care if they have. They're the best dressed. I don't care how much fucking money they make when they're in their real life big boy jobs. If my boys leave my house and they are really good people, and they treat people with respect and they understand how to cultivate relationships and genuine relationships with people around them, and they are hard working as well as willing to take ownership. They're willing to, in essence, take responsibility for their actions. That is so big. I'm good. I fucking nailed it. I fucking nailed it. And so what the situation is with your boys and the the first person shooter, games and social media, all the shit. Everybody has it, everybody has it. There's been a full generation of people that have grown up with it, and the people out there shooting people off of rooftops is a very, very slim minority. So no, it's it's not the video games. Also, most of them weren't playing first shooter games. Doesn't even doesn't it doesn't even matter that this dude that just shot Charlie Kirk full ride scholarship, normal kid, whatever. You know what? I guarantee you that kid fucked up and is fucked up in one of three ways. And the three situations are one critical thinking. You have to be able to think for yourself and not be told what to do. Two you have to grow a fucking spine and growing a spine is real fucking hard because peer pressure is real and being influenced and people that are charismatic telling you what you should think and what you shouldn't think, growing a spine and being able to do something that is hard when people are looking at you, and when people are peer pressuring you to do something else. And the third thing, which is the the largest of the large understanding right from wrong, I guarantee you that if they understand right from wrong, right and wrong, it's pretty black and white for the most part. I. I don't care who you are as a person, if you go climb seven flights of steps, get your sniper rifle out, settle in on a rooftop, put a dude in your scope and pull the trigger, and then jog away. You don't know right from wrong. Can I challenge you a little bit? Go ahead. So knowing right from wrong. First of all I agree with all three of those, okay. Mainly because two of them are mine. Sure. But I told them to you before we started. I gave you the ball. I took your paper. Gave you the answer. What? Okay, what I love is, as you guys are sitting, you're having these conversations. I wish we could have all three cameras on all the time. Because every single time one of you guys goes on a real deep, deep path, the other one looks at me and goes, you're gonna be all right, right? We're just checking on you, Jay. Okay. So knowing right from wrong there are legal right from wrong. Okay? And there are moral right from wrong. Okay. Where do you pull your anchor from? Both. Okay. I mean, this is the reality. So. So here I'll. I'll throw myself at this. Is it ever okay to murder somebody? No. Okay. I disagree. Me too, dear God, but hold on. I look at in this. God, it's going to get so weird for a minute. I know where's the. I'm the off right. I'm sorry. Can I look at murder? Different. All right. Van judgment. Killing someone. Is it bad to kill someone? Murder or killing somebody? Is it killing someone? Is it ever wrong, or is it. Is it ever okay? Yep. Yeah. I'd kill somebody. Okay. If they hurt my family or if I, if I, if I saw them hurting an innocent person, I would and and I've, I've and God, this is so bad that we're putting this on the internet. It's going to be fine. I've. I've made the I don't want to say joke, but the comment to my wife, because we've unfortunately in the world we live in, we have to talk about craziness that if someone comes after us. I will do what I have to do to protect us. And that means what I have to do to protect us. That doesn't mean, hey, please stop. We're going to call them. No, I'm not calling anyone. I will not call anyone until we're safe. Okay? Here, here's here is here's my line. Here's where I'm at. I'm in my house before I was divorced, and my wife and kids are in the house. And an armed man breaks into my house and is now threatening to shoot someone in my house. Yes, I will shoot them in the face and not think I would recommend center mass. Not nice and not be concerned about it at all. Jason. Now here's here's where. Here's the deal. Let's say that I'm not home. Yeah. Person comes in and kills your wife. You weren't there to protect them. Nothing happened. You know who it was. Yep. Is it okay to go after them and shoot them. I don't care if it is or not okay. That's the difference. I am going to then have to let the authorities like I know who they are. We're going to go we're going to go pick it up. We're going to do that. No I'm not I'm not going to go hunt that person and murder them I am okay. And again, this is this is the situation that we're in. Right. There is a there I'm not saying that you're wrong. I'm saying in the immediate situation and I can protect someone from getting hurt. I will shoot them. Yes. After all said and done. And what's going on? I if you are going to, I'm not going to go hunt the assailant down and murder them in their house. Yeah. Do I want to do I think that an eye for an eye make sense? Sure. I'm still not going to do that. I'm not going to do it. Not for morality reasons. I'm not going to do it because then I go to prison also, and no one's there for my kids. That's that's how I think about things. So that's the it's it's the morality situation that yes, thou shall not kill. That's a pretty good rule. It is. It's a pretty good rule. The, the old ten commandments. Good rules. I can sum up the Ten Commandments in one commandment. Ten commandments are unnecessary. The Golden Rule is the only rule necessary. Fair. The only rule necessary. Try and work around it. Well, here's the deal. I'm not going to say you have, more. Man, I don't know. Maybe we should move on. Here's a here's the thing I felt we should have moved on about, here's here's the thing. And this is this is a me thing. This is not, where we're where we're at as a society thing. The loss that. And I'm not putting myself in any type of, you know, thing that other people don't deal with. The losses that I have felt have, have reminded me, That you that that losing unconditional love is possible. Sure. And, if I, I don't know how easily I can absorb that anymore. And if it happens in a way that is, Not natural. Retribution. And and, you're going full vigilante. Vigilante? Yeah. It's it's it's it. And here's the thing. It's not a healthy. It's not a healthy place to be. No, and I, I acknowledge that, and I it's something that I have worked through, I have worked through in my own, you know, support organization and, and therapy of, like, that's not a healthy mindset to have, but but God help anyone that hurts my people. I, I'm just I'm just in this with the, with the kids situation and trying to reel this back in slightly. I, I'm, I'm not worried about my children. I'm not worried about my children murdering anybody. I'm not worried about my children being or hurting people. Because in the in the world of what we are living in right now, critical thinking. And understanding how to think for yourself, standing up for yourself and being comfortable. Walking away from a situation or taking responsibility. And the very quick story on this, I. I did tons and tons of dumb shit in high school and college. Tons of it. But I was never uncomfortable with taking ownership or face in the music. Did I want to get caught doing dumb shit? No, when I did, we're going to own it and we're going to go forward. And so there was a situation in high school where, we went had some drinks, and the guy that was driving, had some drinks and he decided he's driving home. And I said, dude, you're not driving home. And he was like, dude, we it's our only way home. There's no Uber. There's no my my my parents are going to fucking kill me because I'm drunk. And I go, the worst scenario is we drive home drunk and we get in a car crash and we all die. So we're not going to do that. So what we're going to do is we're not driving home. And there was a big dust up in which I basically took this guy's keys and I was drunk too, but had the wherewithal to not get behind a wheel and drive. And we all got in big shit. That was a better solution than potentially having a car accident, hurting ourselves, hurting somebody else, whatever that ends up being. That's that was a hard place to be because peer pressure wise, your kid, you're immature. You don't want to get in trouble. So you know what? I can probably make it home. So again, growing a spine, standing up for yourself even when it's hard and then knowing right from wrong you get in there. Any of these guys, any of these people that are doing this crazy shit, the dude that shot Charlie Kirk, the people that go shoot up a school, the the people that are, you know, overseas that are, you know, dropping car bombs on people. You have a full lead up all the way to pulling the trigger or hitting the button on that, that you have critical thinking. You have a chance to stand up to somebody and then you know, right from wrong. And if I press this button or I pull this trigger, that person is going to die. Is that right or is that wrong? So there are many things that lead up to this that you have to overcome or not have a healthy sense of yourself to be able to do that. So I think I, I, I agree, I also think that the majority of destruction in general, whether we're talking about overseas, you know, in, in war torn territories or in our own, backyard where we have, you know, you'd be remiss not to talk about the Colorado school shooting that happened the same day as the Charlie Kirk shooting or, the so many others that have happened, over the last, you know, years. And I don't I, I firmly believe that none of them made that decision on their own like a cord. I don't think that the that's my concern I but I but I don't I think that I think that there is influence that says, you know, that person needs to die or those people need to die or I hate x, Y and Z. Well, then you should do something about it. You should make a decision and you should create destruction, peer pressure, peer pressure, influence, growth agenda. And whatever it is, I get it. I get to grow a spine thing I do. But here's the here's where. And I promise I'm not going to go into a conspiracy theory place. Fully. This is like saying with all due respect. With all due respect, Jason, like, I mean, you basically have said, I'm getting ready to go there. I'm getting ready to go there for a minute real quick. I'm going to dip my toe in and dip it back up. Every single piece of our existence as an American society is made to create dissent. What we consume, where we go to school, what we're, what we're taught, what we watch on TV, the games we play, the food we eat, the pharmaceutical companies. Everything is made to create chaos. So it takes very little to influence somebody to do something very, very little. And so it is our responsibility to not let our kids be so easily influenced. But and here's the crazy part. That's exactly my question. Why I wanted to have this discussion tonight is how do we not allow that to happen? Here's how I don't here's, here's and maybe I'm wrong, but here's how I'm not going to let it happen. I'm going to ask questions, and then I'm going to shut the fuck up. And I'm going to listen. Listen. As importantly, I'm going to listen to what my kids say. And I don't do it well enough. I wish I did it better, and I'm going to do it better. And so that's the first thing I'm going to listen to what they're saying, because what they're saying is so important and I'm busy or I'm doing this or I have to do what? Whatever, whatever my bullshit lazy excuses of father is, I need to be better. And and this may not fit for you, man. And that's perfectly fine. I firmly believe that knowing and and walking in Christ's words is infinitely important. I firmly believe it. I, I don't do a good job of it. I wish I did a better job, I'm going to do a better job. I can make those barters whatever I want to say, I, I, I, I firmly believe that his path is the path. And I'm not saying Catholic and I'm not saying Protestant, and I'm not saying Christ's path. Listen to his words, read his words, and believe that if you follow his path, there is eternity waiting for you. And it's not. It's it's not because I say so or the church says so, or school says so, or anybody says so. It's because it gives you an opportunity to love yourself and be loved unconditionally, which is so rare in this world and so desperately needed in this world. I'm going to take the religious spin off of it and people. And when you say I wasn't religious enough, no, I'm going to take the spin off, okay? Because when you say in Christ's path, there are, thousands and thousands of people watching this right now that, that immediately freak out because they go, jeez, so somebody else just pushing religion down my throat. I'm not I am not disputing what you just said. I'm going to say it differently. And what I said earlier in the Golden Rule, don't don't make it religious. Don't make it Christ path. Treat people how you would want to be treated and the world will be fucking great. It will be great because in your words earlier, if you need love, if you yearn for someone to love you and tell you it's going to be okay, that's that's how you would want to be treated. Treat the people around you that way. If you if you need something or you think, man, I hope that doesn't happen to me, don't fucking do it to somebody else. I mean, it's it's the easiest thing in the whole world. There is not I have yet to. And I've been saying this for since I was 22 years old, because I remember the first time I said it in front of people in a college class. No one can argue with me that it doesn't apply to every situation. Treat people the way that you would want to be treated and you cannot get around it. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Treat if if you if you go, hey, I'm going to I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to, I'm going to kind of fuck this guy over, because it's good for me and it's going to make me a lot more money. But you know what? It's okay because I need it more than them. Would you want that to happen to you? But hold on. Let me let me let me just there's there's this weird. And I'm only I'm only challenging you in this because it's somewhere I've been. I have, I have walked moons with so little self-worth that I, that I, I was perfectly happy with me being treated like shit. Because that because I treated myself like shit. Okay, so I don't want to treat people how I want to be treated all the time, because there's been times where I've wanted to treat myself like shit I want and I understand the golden rule. I do not really want to treat yourself like shit. It was maybe not really guaranteed you didn't want to treat yourself. But my point is, I need I need a bigger North Star to follow then how I feel about me. Because I'm on a I'm on a path, brother. I am on a path of of of loving myself and being more confident and being having more conviction. But there are days when I hate myself. And I struggled mightily and I can't get out of bed, and it it hurts to swing my feet on the floor. There are days like that, and if I am the the the bar of what is acceptable for treatment, we're in trouble. I need something bigger to say. That's why. Not because I want to be treated that way. Because if. If I'm the deciding factor, worthless, you know, and I'm not saying all the time and I'm not. Here's the other thing, J. I'm not saying you're wrong either, brother. Like, I'm not like, I love that that is where you're at. Because if everyone was where you are at, the world will be a beautiful place. But there are people that are hurting and and choose to hurt themselves and and when they choose to hurt themselves, hurting others seems easy because I feel this way about me. So if I fuck with you now, you're going to think of me the same way I think of me. And we're square with the house, and that's a dangerous place to be for me. There's some sorry, Jason. How sweaty are you right now? Yeah. I need to see your armpits. It's. That's dangerous, right? Like I'm swimming in my own chair. I, I love every bit of this conversation. I think that this has been super, super heavy for a grown ass dads conversation, but I think needed to happen right? Like, I think I think the world has, has taken us in a direction where these conversations are important. We are blessed to have a platform upon which we can share our thoughts, be honest about things. And, we have an audience. Maybe they're wrong for being this way, but they they like to hear what we have to say and are interested in what we think. Right. So, we try to stay positive. We we we, we try to, to lead people down the right path. We're not we we we are not the, the Almighty. And don't don't necessarily fall into whatever one of the, one of the three of us have to say is as gospel. But, I think it's super awesome that we have an audience who wants to hear what we have to say, and we have a platform upon which we can share that. And I think all three of us have very diverse views, but we're also very aligned on a lot of things. And I think that's what makes our show very, very special. I think we're I think we're at a point where we can rap, to be honest. Yeah, yeah. I don't want to point any fingers at all here, but you're a real problem. You're a real problem. Just just for the record, the finger was pointed at Adam. Yeah. They know? Nah. They know. Oh, I'm. I'm the prude of the group here. I'm politically prude. I am religiously prude. I just I just want to get along with everybody. I just want to get along. He just wants to spend more time on balconies. That's all right, dude. Just watch it. Just watching the Bellagio fountain. Yeah. Hanging out on the balcony and just enjoying the view. Terrace view we had down in Vegas was, pretty lights out, and I want to go back there right now. So anyway, I think we're going to go ahead and call it a day right now for the Grown Stars podcast. I still have not made true on my commitment to have merch available and ready. However, I've gotten more requests for Grown Dad's merch in the last week than I have ever, so I promise you I will do it. We'll have merch out on Grown-Ups dads. Dot coms would be peeking out there looking for opportunities. Jay, I think you had a couple shout outs you wanted to give also. Oh yeah, we got, we got a great group if anybody wants, if anybody is in the Saint Louis area and is looking to make a life altering change that make themselves feel better, there's a group called Functional Elements. That is it. Olivine 270. It is a very, very unique, health workout facility with some really special guys there. I've been a client for a number of years, and I basically go for six months. I get in the best shape of my life, and then I get busy and do other stuff, and then I eat and drink like a fucking moron, and I get fat again. And then they put me back into shape. But they've got, Jamie, who's the nutritionist and is amazing, and Tony, who's the lead trainer who is a good friend of mine. Ryan's in there. Who's the whipping boy? Eddie is just the nicest dude in the entire world. These guys are all incredible trainers. Jesse's the guy that I want to be. Just an incredibly attractive jack black guy, which is what I would like to be in my next life. And then, my main man, Patrick, who's the antagonist, who's kind of a dick, but, fires everybody up, so he doesn't he really doesn't like to get made fun of very much. So I'm not going to make fun of him right now. But, these guys are all unbelievable trainers. They are tailored to you, and they're, big fans of the show. I appreciate them listening, and I appreciate everything they've done for me. Over the years. So just wanted to give them a shout out and then let them know they're the very best, exercisers there are, but none of them can beat me in any real sport. So, that's a real shame, because they're in much better shape than me, but just terrible athletes. I'm pretty sure Jesse could kick your ass. Not in a sport, but he could definitely kick my ass. But yeah, the rest of those guys, excellent exercisers. Adam, any closing comments? Yeah, man, I mean, I'll I'll echo what you said, just about being being super grateful for the opportunity to have this conversation. We've, you and I have had a lot of conversations in this building, that, you know, whether it's after this, before this, whatever. I'm super, super grateful to be able to have this conversation in a way that, more than you and I can hear. Yeah. Or, you know, I think that's what's missing. I think conversation is missing. And one of the things that I think about a lot is. I don't want my beliefs to change how much you love me, because your beliefs don't change how much I love you. And I think when we get to that place. The world is going to be different. And us as a people will be different. We we had a ton of people log on tonight and listen to us knuckleheads jack around and talk and me scream and all kinds of crazy stuff. Big deal. Joe was the was the the big contributor on the comment board tonight. So thanks for that, Joe. There's your price. There's your price, baby. I wish, I wish that we all could come to come to a place where a conversation like this isn't so taboo. Yeah, And I think we're getting there. I do, I have a lot of. I think I have a lot of hope for for where our country is going to go from here on out. I have fear, but I have so much hope that the response to, the, the, the assassination of a person like Charlie Kirk is going to lead to conversations that will bring people together, even if they're not similarities. So, Jason, thank you for number one. Thank you for doing all the things that you do to make this show possible. But this topic I know was important to you, but I also know was extremely uncomfortable for you to be a part of. Yeah. So blessings to you. And thank you for, for for letting me and Jay scream and and go ham for a little bit. It's it's dude, I, I love the show. I wish we did more. I know we all wish we did more. We're busy guys. But this is it's such a blessing to be able to do this stuff with. With you guys. Yeah, man. That's it. I love you guys. I and thanks for thanks for letting us do it. I do encourage those of you that are listening right now and who will be watching this show in in arrears, if you will. We love doing this. And yes, we're super busy and in our own lives, right? We we want to prioritize this, but we we're growing as dads. We're prioritizing our family and things we got going on over sitting in front of some microphones. Right. But please use use the comments here. Use Cronus dads.com and the submission form there. Give us some topics. Things you want to talk about. Questions. Things that would would benefit you to have us three knuckleheads talk about our viewpoints and how we would handle those scenarios and what have you. Right. And, I, I agree, I think it's just it's it's it's so fun to be able to be here, be ourselves, actually have people who listen and care and to hear the feedback when we're not on air, I think is, is is really the fun thing. Yeah. It's humbling. Yeah, yeah. Very, very much so. Let me, let me, let me echo that in a little bit of a shameless way. I love the engagement that we get through the show. I, I love when I hear I get a text or I get a message, like, when are you guys going to do an episode? Right? Agreed. Send this episode to somebody that you think is interested in the the the current climate of our country. Send this episode. Share it on. I assume, hopefully if our tech guy, did everything right. Oh, promises. Send this to your people. And and have them engage in the show. Because that's going to push all three of us to get off our asses on Sundays and come do this upgrade. Because I, I get motivated by people reaching out to me and being like, hey, when are you idiots going to be on the show again? And I think that this is polarizing a of a of a topic polarizing enough of a topic to kind of jump the shark of where we want to be on our on the show. Can we? Oh, I love this episode. I don't know, this is exactly what this show is about all the time. So maybe if you going to send this to somebody that's never listened to the show before, maybe send them the show where we busted everybody's balls about youth sports. Youth sports. You know, I hated that episode. So you're wrong. You know, send and send. Send the send. This episode is what everybody asks me about. Send the serious with the goofball. Because we were serious about youth sports as well. But, man, the world is heavy, and I. I'm all in on having conversations like this. I don't want to have them every fucking week. And if if, if people are like, oh, we want you to do another heavy episode about fucking politics and religion. I don't want to fucking do that. I want to do it when it's absolutely necessary and I'm fired up about it. Otherwise I just want to fuck around and earn some people and have some fun. So please God, send a couple of episodes. I've been I've been wondering how to get you off the show. You, oh, you want to say next week we're going to talk about the Pope? Unbelievable. Or. All right, we got to go. This has been the grown ass dads. We have had a great time. And hopefully you enjoyed our, nonsense and tomfoolery once again. We'll see you here next week. Jason, I love you anyway. Even though you're kind of a baby about this stuff. That's right. Watch for watch for new merch and, possibility of a new set. Oh, I like that. All right, boys, see you next time. Cheers and love you monster Groans that's out. Oh.