Sunday Hang with Clay and Buck - Mar 8 2026
3/8/202636 mincomplete
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0:12Sunday Hang with Clay and Buck.
0:16This is a bit of a sad aspect.
0:19We mentioned that James Van Der Beek, 48 years old, star of Dawson's Creek and
0:24Varsity Blues, died. And somebody shared with me, it was you, and then I shared
0:31it, and so many people were reacting to it.
0:34Varsity Blues was an all -time teen and football movie, and I bet a lot
0:42of you saw it. It had a large number of, at that time, people in
0:46their late teens or early 20s that were stars in that era.
0:50It's for people who grew up in the 90s was a big movie.
0:52I don't think our parents saw it, but yeah.
0:55But that three of the icons of that movie are all now dead.
1:03Paul Walker, that's the guy from Fast and the Furious, but he was in this
1:08movie. He was the star of the Fast and the Furious movies who died in
1:11a high -speed car accident.
1:13And then the Billy Bob character, all three of them have passed.
1:18And James Van Der Beek had six young kids, 48 years old, and this was
1:24his final message. And this has gone viral, and I don't know how many people
1:28have heard this, but James Van Der Beek, as you mentioned, Buck, was on Team
1:34Sanity. It would not stun me if he sometimes listened to this show.
1:39And again, he had six kids, and I think it was colon cancer, which has
1:44become very deadly, it seems like, for a lot of younger men that you wouldn't
1:49anticipate. Chadwick Boseman, who played the Black Panther, among other roles, also, I believe, died
1:55of colon cancer. But here was James Van Der Beek's final message.
1:59I thought maybe it would resonate with some of you like it resonated with me
2:03when I heard this yesterday.
2:05Cut 21. When I was younger, I used to define myself as an actor, right?
2:11Which was never really all that fulfilling.
2:13And then I became a husband, and that was much better.
2:15And then I became a father, and that was the ultimate.
2:18I could define myself then as a loving, capable, strong, supportive husband, father, provider, steward
2:29of the land that we're so lucky to live on.
2:30And for a long time, that felt like a really good definition to the question,
2:34who am I? What am I?
2:37And then this year, I had to look my own mortality in the eye.
2:42I had to come nose to nose with death.
2:44And all of those definitions that I cared so deeply about were stripped from me.
2:49I was away for treatment, so I could no longer be a husband that was
2:53helpful to my wife. I could no longer be a father who could pick up
2:56his kids and put them to bed and be there for them.
2:59I could not be a provider because I wasn't working.
3:02I couldn't even be a steward of the land because at times I was too
3:06weak to prune all the trees during the window that you're supposed to prune them.
3:10And so I was faced with the question if I am just a too skinny,
3:15weak guy alone in an apartment with cancer, what am I?
3:21And I meditated and the answer came through.
3:24I am worthy of God's love simply because I exist.
3:29And if I'm worthy of God's love, shouldn't I also be worthy of my own?
3:35And the same is true for you.
3:38I just thought that was really very well said for a 48 -year -old.
3:43And again, he has left behind six very young children.
3:48They're the lovely family. But I think for a lot of people out there, because
3:56he's relatively young, you don't expect people in their 40s to pass with young families
4:00that they're taking care of.
4:02And I think a lot of people have been sharing that because it did feel
4:07like a very profound revelation from him.
4:10And I think a lot of people find purpose, particularly men.
4:14I think this is one of the biggest challenges that exists in our society today,
4:18Buck, is when you tell men that they shouldn't be providers and that they shouldn't
4:23be fathers and they don't have people that rely on them, most men are not
4:28at their best. I think that's fair to say.
4:31When men act entirely in their own self -interest and they do not have people
4:36to provide for, protect, and basically be the strong backbone of a household, I think
4:44most men are at their worst.
4:47And I thought that evolution in James Van Der Beek's perspective on...
4:51A lot of people say, oh, I'd love to be in a movie.
4:54I don't know. I've done a couple of things in film.
4:59It honestly seems really boring to me, Buck.
5:02You do the same scene over and over again.
5:04Wow, you're going back for your IMDB here, Clay.
5:09Well, I mean, I think a lot of people think, oh, being an actor would
5:13be cool. And if you've ever been in one of those trailers and you've ever
5:17done a scene in a movie or you've ever filmed anything, I like live television.
5:22I like live radio because I imagine I probably would...
5:25like live theater because there is no safety net but the idea of doing the
5:29same scene 40 different times from every angle it's miserable like I did not enjoy
5:35it at all and I think a lot of people you know he had a
5:37great deal of success there but I think what he's recognizing uh is something much
5:41more profound than personal success uh yes I just clay clay drawing upon his time
5:48as a thespian to weigh in on this one is is very clay and I
5:52appreciate that uh he his his speech here or his uh his message here which
5:57I I even shared with my own with my family I just thought it was
6:00really worth hearing worth watching and listening to I'm very glad you played it on
6:04the air uh reminds me of a uh of a uh memoir that was written
6:10by Paul Kalanithi which you can get it's short it's called when breath becomes air
6:16and it's about this absolute top neurosurgeon who finds out right when he's about to
6:24sort of hit his peak of saving lives and you know operating on two you
6:29know tumors that are are the hardest to operate on all this kind of stuff
6:33that he has terminal cancer and then the book is really a meditation on being
6:38uh being a dad being a you know a man be everything you know father
6:43um and it's just really beautifully written and I think that if you're ever looking
6:47for something that's I mean you will read it in a weekend for sure um
6:51get manufacturing delusion first which comes out on Tuesday but I can't be selling other
6:57people's books right now but no it's a really if you haven't read when breath
7:00becomes air it's a really beautiful memoir and it goes into a lot of these
7:03things but he was he was a man of faith uh Paul Kalanithi so I
7:07think a lot of you would uh you know love being a dad love being
7:10a husband but it's very honest he's also wildly brilliant that comes across from you
7:15know he was just he was like the clay he was like the Stanford neurosurgeon
7:20guy you know that was the up -and -coming in California at his at the
7:25hospital and everything else you know he's like he's the guy that you would make
7:28the uh doctor like soap opera or uh you know Grey's Anatomy around as like
7:34the super doctor he was that guy uh and so I think it's it's really
7:38powerful to sort of go through his thoughts he knew he had a year to
7:42live and he wrote this book and that's that's what he did for the year
7:45so I would I would recommend that to you um Tim you're on hey you
7:50guys hey Tim from Minneapolis say um can you guys hear me okay yes yeah
7:57so I I was driving down the road I've never I listen to you guys
8:01periodically but uh the actor you had on who made a comment about uh you
8:08know he had he got diagnosed with cancer and obviously passed away but that hit
8:14home with me and I just gotta say that what it really sums up or
8:21comes down to is the fact that if you don't have your health none of
8:26it matters so he came to this revelation I've been through it I lost a
8:31wife to cancer I raised two kids on my own so I just get choked
8:35up hearing about stuff like that so it really hit home with me when I
8:40heard that yeah it was powerful it was powerful we're glad you're here how are
8:43the kids the kids are good they're growing now so they lost their mom about
8:4810 11 years ago so uh last one's just graduating from college so that's good
8:54but uh yeah that just like hit home so well like I say I tell
9:00people this all the time if you don't have health you don't have you don't
9:05have anything nothing else matters then thank you there's a uh there's a saying came
9:09cancer and congrats to getting those kids through college thank you so much I was
9:16gonna say there's a saying that uh the healthy person has a thousand wants the
9:20sick person has one and I think it is very true it's a very tough
9:25thing to deal with when you have a really serious illness and uh and you
9:30know our our thoughts and prayers go out to anybody out there right now who's
9:33dealing with an illness of any kind sundays with clay and buck jesse kelly joins
9:40us he is the host of the jesse kelly show syndicated by premier networks in
9:45the evenings he has a new book out jesse's little red book which we'll be
9:50talking about here in a second and he is america's tallest radio host according to
9:55the guinness book of world records so jesse welcome well i'm just happy i can
10:02finally bring some talent to the airwaves here buck and uh i do have to
10:06ask before we get going what did you do to your hair but i love
10:14my mustache avoided all all uh tax i you know i pointed this out did
10:19you get a new uh take on this because buck has been getting the same
10:23haircut as like 20 year olds in miami now um yeah so this is jesse
10:28i go i go to a barber shop with some wonderful cuban americans who speak
10:32very limited english and you are seeing the end product of that here but i
10:36will have you know that clay's uh teenage sons in shock referred to this haircut
10:43as cool yes but have you seen clay's mustache i mean with all due respect
10:52are we respect are we you like Going with Clay's brood's opinion here?
10:55You know, how about you opening with no hair coming after Buck for a haircut?
11:03I'm like, that is just an unprecedented attack from you.
11:06That's like Iran coming into the negotiations with Trump and, you know, threatening to obliterate
11:12Washington, D .C. Clay wanted to read an email that you posted from one of
11:18your fans on air on this show.
11:20And I was like, no, Jess, I was like, no, Jesse's our friend.
11:23That's not. You know what, Clay?
11:24Go ahead. I'm not standing in the way anymore.
11:27Let's start off. You want to throw stones?
11:29Make sure I grabbed it here because I was laughing during the commercial break.
11:34This is an email. Jesse is on many of these same stations in the evening.
11:38The subject is gay boy, which, by the way, I'm sure got flagged because you
11:46and Mayor Pete are emailing so frequently with each other.
11:49So, Jesse, I think that's what you call each other, right?
11:53Jesse, you say you had an ice water at the Super Bowl party.
11:56How many fruit wedges did you throw in that water?
11:59Was any cucumber involved? People are concerned your gayness is bleeding over into the NFL.
12:05Just go watch the halftime show.
12:08Why are you so gay?
12:09It's okay to use my name, Aaron.
12:12So, you know, there's a lot of Super Bowl talk.
12:15Aaron wants to know, why are you so gay?
12:18Would you like to apologize to America for drinking an ice water at the Super
12:23Bowl party? No, I would not like to apologize.
12:26And let me explain. It was not my party.
12:28And I didn't care about the Super Bowl.
12:31I haven't watched the NFL in years because of all the Black Lives Matter stuff.
12:35I went from being an NFL super fan to I never watch it.
12:38I went to a neighborhood party because my neighbor who barbecues and he smokes all
12:43these delicious meats. He had smoked chicken wings.
12:45But anyway, the fellas and ladies were getting together.
12:48Of course, the ladies stayed inside.
12:49They're too annoying. And the guys went out back and we ate meats.
12:53I did not go for the game.
12:55I didn't care about the game.
12:56I left at halftime after I made everybody turn off the Bad Bunny halftime show
13:01and turn on the other one.
13:02Then I made it halfway through that and I left at halftime.
13:06I was there to hang with the fellas for a little bit and have some
13:10meats. The Super Bowl is on a Sunday.
13:13I am 44, not 24 years old anymore.
13:17I try to limit my alcoholic beverages, period, let alone on a Sunday night when
13:23I have to work the next day.
13:24So, yes, I had ice water.
13:26And I had to tell everyone there I had ice water.
13:28And I had to catch crap from them.
13:29And then I had to catch crap from my listeners.
13:31And now I'm getting it from you guys.
13:32What's wrong with ice water?
13:33I like ice water. Well, I mean, it's fine.
13:37We heard rumors that there were cucumber wedges in the ice water, to be fair.
13:40I just remember you coming after me for Brussels sprouts.
13:44And I think if you were trying to assess masculinity, Brussels sprouts for the table
13:48versus cucumber wedged ice water at a Super Bowl party.
13:53I just think that I'm the more masculine choice here.
13:57Well, if I have to be honest, I didn't advertise it was ice water because
14:01I had one of those big, big, I forget what brand it was, one of
14:05the big insulated mugs with the lid on it.
14:08So, if you looked and I walked in with it, you probably would have thought,
14:11wow, he had. You're just carrying around your own water now?
14:14No. This is what chicks do in your Stanley Cup?
14:17No. No. I like the water to stay cold.
14:21I have an ice machine.
14:22I don't like to rub my wealth in anyone's face.
14:24But I have an ice machine.
14:26It makes endless amounts of ice.
14:28And so, I spend my days drinking icy, cold water as if I'm on an
14:34Arctic expedition. Tell us about, I'm going to save you here, Jesse.
14:39I'm going to pull you out of the Arctic icy waters here for a second,
14:43like a polar bear grabbing a seal.
14:45Tell me the little red book.
14:49This is available at jessikelly .com right now.
14:53What is this? Okay. First of all, it's free.
14:58I need to stress this.
14:59It's free. It's not a gimmick or a scam.
15:01I wrote the Anti -Communist Manifesto, what was that, a couple years ago.
15:07I'm not an author. I don't ever want to write another book again.
15:10And I didn't want to write another book.
15:11But I had some extra thoughts.
15:13Like, I wanted to put an extra chapter in it, basically.
15:15But then, as I was sitting down and I was hashing it out, it turned
15:19into, I think it's 93 pages, which is more than an extra chapter.
15:23And I thought, well, how do I even get this to people?
15:25I don't want to put it in hardback.
15:26Why don't I just email it to everybody?
15:29So we came up with the idea.
15:30Let's just write it. It's a little booklet on, you know, my thoughts on the
15:34Democrats, Republicans, culture. I even have food thoughts in there.
15:38Whatever. Just a little booklet.
15:40That's obviously a riff on Mao's little red book, which he used to slaughter all
15:45kinds of people in China.
15:46No one will be slaughtered after my little red book.
15:49It's just little food for thought items about where we're at as a country.
15:52And it's free. We just put in your email address at jessikelly .com and we
15:57email it to you. That's what it is.
15:59That's a pretty cool idea.
16:01So I would encourage people to to potentially check this out if you're into gay
16:06authors, which, you know, it's an important, important moment to to honor you.
16:13I know it's Black History Month, but, you know, Gay Author Month is coming up
16:16soon, I'm sure. And it's an esteemed accomplishment.
16:19All right. I'm going to.
16:20I'm going to. so this is all like prelude to you can choose to join
16:25me in right now people are coming after me like crazy uh or you can
16:30say you know what clay that's you on an island and it's an interesting island
16:34because i watched yesterday pam bondy testify on capitol hill and she was interrupted by
16:42so -called and i say use the phrase so -called because these women are saying
16:47hey we were abused by people other than jeffrey epstein and uh they continue to
16:53have all these press conferences and they keep showing up and they were in the
16:56press conference and they're in the back of the i mean at the uh at
17:00the at the hearing they're in the back of it they're chanting they're drawing attention
17:04to themselves where what am i missing here if you are a victim if somebody
17:10assaulted you and yet that person is still alive and maybe they're still out there
17:16assaulting other people don't you have an actual obligation if you are doing all these
17:22press conferences to actually make the public allegation file lawsuits get investigations to occur what
17:30am i missing here at some point when you're showing up for all these press
17:33conferences saying i'm a victim i'm a survivor epstein is dead jelaine maxwell's in prison
17:39they're saying there's other people that abuse them don't they have an obligation morally to
17:45actually tell us who these people are uh i mean i i'm just i'm fired
17:49up about it i don't i don't disagree i but i think this this epstein
17:54stuff it's very similar to to like the what the me too movement was like
17:59that started out and it was a really good thing because women who had been
18:02abused by men felt comfortable coming forward and finally voicing it and then it took
18:06like five minutes for it to turn really scummy and scammy and very clearly it
18:10was a money grab and he took me out on a bad date and he
18:13ordered brussels sprouts and now i'm mad at them that kind of a thing and
18:16so i think the exact same thing is taking place with epstein who was clearly
18:20a creep and a monster was surrounded by creeps and monster did all kinds of
18:25creepy monstrous things and i hope every one of them gets thrown into prison however
18:29as soon as people start getting paid on this stuff start getting famous on this
18:34stuff that is inevitably going to invite scammers and scummy people too who love to
18:40give press conferences every other day and have their name in 60 minutes but at
18:45some point if you're gonna if you're gonna come out publicly and say i was
18:48abused you have to deliver the goods i don't necessarily think you're crazy now if
18:53you want to stay quiet i get that i know a bunch of women who
18:55have sadly gone through this kind of thing and they don't want to talk about
18:57it they don't feel comfortable talking about it and that's not my place to tell
19:00anyone to talk about it but if you're if you're on your 20th press conference
19:04talking about the powerful men who've abused you and it's the 20th time you haven't
19:08named a single name i'm sorry i i need to hear some names now i
19:12want to hear some names i want to know which of the powerful people in
19:16our society are freaking monstrous predators preying on women i and you've you've teased me
19:21to this point in time now you got to deliver much more if they truly
19:26are out there and they did it to you they're likely doing it to other
19:30people so to me the moral obligation people say oh there's an nda they got
19:34paid 100 million dollars they can't talk this is bs like the epstein uh the
19:38epstein estate is not suing you uh i've been through some of these cases before
19:43um uh with representing women and representing people in situations like these you i just
19:50i i'm fired up about it um okay where are we jesse year two as
19:56we are now you know you got a primary you live in texas you got
19:59a primary in what two and a half weeks whatever it's going to be uh
20:02what do you expect in 26 i i expect that we will lose the house
20:09of representatives and keep the senate i think that's a reasonable expectation how bad that
20:14loss is remains to be seen if we fight tooth and nail we might lose
20:18it by a little if if this economy does not come back for most people
20:23then we're probably going to lose it by a lot and trump's going to be
20:26impeached every other day in the house and it's going to be a miserable last
20:29two years of his presidency i i think it's all going to depend on the
20:33economy those us political people everyone listening right now we know all the ins and
20:37outs we know all the issues but the normies who decide elections don't vote on
20:40that they vote on can they afford chicken can they afford a plane ticket to
20:44go see their mother is the economy back for them selling them on another big
20:48trade deal does not do anything for the normies out there they have to feel
20:53it in their pocketbook are they feeling it i don't know they better be feeling
20:57it by election time or we're in trouble jesse putting you back on the hot
21:01seat here for a second what would you say to a full -grown man with
21:06a mustache who lives in the nashville area who makes the claim that taylor swift
21:11is on her way to being the 21st century version of the beatles man that
21:19is just so sad if i had a moment you're looking if i could if
21:25i could talk to that guy if i had him if i had a chance
21:28to talk to that guy i really want to i mean i'd almost want to
21:32figure out is he hurt is there something wrong inside is there something going on
21:37in his life that we need to find out about can we get him help
21:39is i am i have a heart for people buck if i've met somebody that
21:43broken and wrong i would want to find out is it is it rehab Look,
21:48I'll pitch in some money.
21:50Buck, I know you will, too.
21:51Clay, you probably would, too, if you met anybody that unbelievably deranged.
21:58She is an absolute icon.
22:01And long after the three of us are gone, her music is going to echo
22:05throughout the world, bringing everyone together.
22:09Go to jessikelly .com. I was just called gay for drinking ice water?
22:14At a Super Bowl party.
22:15You didn't drink ice water after you ran a half marathon.
22:19You drank ice water at a Super Bowl party while I might mention hanging out
22:24with guys and pounding meats on the patio, I think, when you're phrasing.
22:31He's going to be voting for Mayor Pete in every election for the rest of
22:34his life. He's Jesse Kelly.
22:35Make sure that you go subscribe to his podcast.
22:38Check out his new book, and you can listen to him on many of these
22:40same stations in the evenings.
22:42Jesse, thank you. See you, boys.
22:45The Sunday Hang is brought to you by Chalk Natural Supplements.
22:49For guys, gals, and nothing in between, fuel your day at Chalk .com.
22:54Sunday Drop with Clay and Buck.
22:57You will be able to watch all three hours of this program on YouTube.
23:01If you haven't subscribed on YouTube, I think.
23:04Last I checked, 120 ,000 of you have, which we appreciate, but we want to
23:09bump those numbers. I would like to get it.
23:10I think we can get it up over a million.
23:12This is a big goal.
23:13I think we can get it up over a million in the next year.
23:16I think when we start putting up the three -hour show and people are able
23:20to find it there, in addition to podcasts and all the live radio and everything
23:25else, I think we can take the YouTube show up over a million subscribers.
23:30I think we can get that next year at some point.
23:32Well, let's certainly add a really fun dynamic to what we're doing here because then,
23:37for example, all of you could, after you've listened on the radio, go check out
23:42the YouTube, and you could see that the haircut that I got that Jesse remarked
23:47on, I've already taken some incoming on this one.
23:51Clay, I got home from my barbershop, and I feel like I'm doing great.
23:57You know, it's all very light, very aerodynamic up top.
24:00How often do you get your hair cut?
24:01Once a month. Okay. You know, every four or five weeks.
24:05That's not very often. That's legit.
24:07Okay. Yeah. But I came home, and I looked at my wife, and I said,
24:12what do you think? She said, it's fine.
24:17And there was like a three -second pause before fine.
24:20I think it looks good.
24:21I don't understand. But that's like dagger to the heart, man.
24:26When you ask your wife, what do you think?
24:28And she says something is dot, dot, dot, fine.
24:32It's not fine. By the way.
24:33That's not fine. By the way.
24:36Flip it. How do I look in this new dress?
24:39Dot, dot, dot, fine. You're lucky if you make it out of that house alive.
24:44Like, there is no equality.
24:47Like, you're going to say great no matter what.
24:48Great is the word. Great is the word, guys.
24:50You say great. You look great.
24:52No matter what. No matter what.
24:53She puts a trash bag on.
24:54She puts a trash bag on.
24:55She's like, I only paid $500 for it.
24:57What do you think? It was on sale.
24:59Like, that trash bag looks great.
25:00What do you think? It's great.
25:01She can pause and completely denigrate you.
25:04Or, I think you've talked about this before, the real woman move is, are you
25:10going to wear that? Like, they don't say change.
25:13They say, are you going to wear that?
25:15The number of times I've heard in my life, getting ready, I've been married 20,
25:19I don't know, I probably know this, 22 years now.
25:21A number of times I've been told, are you going to wear that?
25:24I guess not. Headed right back into the laboratory here to find something new that
25:30I need to put on.
25:31But yeah, you can't ever say, this is a good Valentine's Day is Saturday.
25:34Good Valentine's Day choice. She looks great.
25:39Everything she's ever put on looks fantastic.
25:41We have a ton of talkbacks.
25:43Only some of them mad at Clay, but we'll get to them anyway.
25:46Here we go. Marin in Arizona, this is talkback E.
25:52This is Marin in Arizona.
25:55Tell Clay I didn't have a mustache and I was really good at landing airplanes.
26:00I'm retired now, but I have over 30 ,000 hours of flying time.
26:07Well, so I guess you said she was a good pilot.
26:09I don't think I took a shot.
26:10I said that I look like I would be good at landing airplanes.
26:13But Marin, I appreciate the fact she didn't have a mustache, but she was still
26:17good at landing airplanes. I'm glad she's still with us.
26:20That's good stuff. Here we go.
26:23AJ in Racine, Wisconsin. A mustache takes far more discipline.
26:29It takes far more active effort than a beard does.
26:34Beards are symbols of laziness, whereas a mustache takes effort every day to groom.
26:41It shows a much put together man.
26:44This is coming from a bearded gentleman myself.
26:47I never really thought about that.
26:49Doesn't AJ kind of sound to you like a guy who spends hundreds of hours
26:53making dioramas of like Revolutionary War figures, you know?
26:56Intense. He sounds intense. He probably do well in the Linda McMahon test that I'm
27:00going to take about 1776 history.
27:03I really want to take that test.
27:04We got to figure out if I can get a special dispensation to do so.
27:08Michael from Florida. Gee, let's hear it.
27:11Listen, I'll put this to bed right now.
27:13The mustache has to stay.
27:15Hey, you've actually... You've actually become the, let's say, the most dependent on reporter or
27:22slash broadcaster slash whatever acronym or title we want to give.
27:30You are now the Tom Tucker from Family Guy of our media, and the mustache
27:38has got to stay. That's just the way it is.
27:40You may be the most trusted, mustachioed media figure in America right now, Clay.
27:47That is a real thing.
27:50Yeah, look, I'm just America's sweetheart, and this is quite the change from much of
27:56my career. By the way, people are coming after you, El Paso.
28:00El Paso, they shut down the airport for a little bit for not recognizing the
28:05Mexican radio song. I obviously have no idea, but you're the musical expert here, H.
28:11Look, I can't believe that you've never heard the Mexican radio song.
28:16It's a comedy song talking about a guy that was in a band back in
28:22the late 70s when suddenly he tunes on the radio and he hears from across
28:28the border the Mexican radio station playing his rock song.
28:34It's a great song. You should listen to it.
28:36Come on, man. That's a cool concept of a song idea, but I know nothing
28:41about it. I've never heard of it, nor had I heard it, the song, before.
28:47I think there are cooler songs that we could put into our rejoin hopper, as
28:53it were. But yeah, no, I'm not taking an L on that one.
28:58Like, this is some song from the 70s.
29:00Guys, I was born in the 80s.
29:02You know, we've got to keep it real over here.
29:03Long Island listener J .R.
29:06listens on W .O .R.
29:07This is I. Hey, guys, it's J .R.
29:10on Long Island. Whomever is picking your bumper music needs to get a raise.
29:15First wall of voodoo, then was not was.
29:17I say give that person more money.
29:21Was not was? I don't know.
29:23Is it but Greg has been I think producer Greg is picking the music.
29:27So he's now rigging the talkbacks to angle for raises.
29:31Not a bad move by him, by the way.
29:32Jackie in North Carolina. She's been waiting a while.
29:35We were talking with Secretary of Education Linda McMahon.
29:39Jackie, you wanted to weigh in.
29:41Hey. Hello, boys. I was weighing in on the top to bottom control in public
29:47schools that I am exposed to on the daily.
29:50I'm a teacher in North Carolina.
29:52I won't say where. So a college board, I teach in high school.
29:57College board is disseminating a workbook that all of our students have to use and
30:04is mandating that we use it.
30:07I have no anonymity in my choices in my classroom.
30:12And so at any rate, long story short, they're race dating in all the stories
30:16that they choose in these workbooks.
30:18They are anti -American, like colonialism and colonialism, the root of all evil.
30:28And as to Linda, to your point, I should say, boys, I'm not needed.
30:33We had a couple of snow days over the past couple of weeks.
30:36I went home and I turned on a switch for dissemination of the curriculum that
30:44they have chosen. There was nothing for me to do.
30:46It's already electronically put into a platform, which I just allow the children to access,
30:51and that's it. I mean, it's really horrific.
30:54And our personal children went to private school and had a vastly different experience and
30:59actually learned something. Sadly, the children that sit in our schools here in North Carolina
31:05are absolutely, they're absolutely suffering, and it shows them the test results.
31:10What grade, can you tell us what grade you teach?
31:13I teach 12th grade English, well, English 3 and English 4.
31:18So one block of English 3 and two blocks of English 4.
31:22So I teach it in English 3, and I've taught English 2 and 10th grade.
31:27I refuse to teach freshmen.
31:29That's just a little bit too much.
31:30So I've seen it literally up and down the curriculum vertically.
31:35I'm curious from your perspective, how has it changed?
31:40I don't know when you started teaching, but when you started teaching, was it drastically
31:44different? How have you seen the evolution of the curriculum as dictated by North Carolina
31:50progress in your career? I've been in North Carolina since the mid -2000s, and there
31:58is no longer teacher choice.
32:00You are told what to teach.
32:01They give you the feeling that you have choice in your classroom.
32:05You do not. You have no choice.
32:07You can supplement, I suppose, but you have to be in lockstep with college board,
32:13SAT, spring board. And you have to also be in lockstep with what your principal
32:24says and your, like, little local overlord says.
32:28I mean, you get zero choice, zero choice.
32:30And when I first started teaching, you could go cross -content.
32:34Me as an English teacher, I could go over to history and cross -content it
32:39and, you know, text that would meet both worlds and make the kids agree.
32:43excited if they are there is nothing exciting about teaching anymore all right let me
32:47ask you this because I'm concerned about this and I see it my older son
32:51reads a lot my middle son like getting him to read anything is a challenge
32:55if you're teaching English for do kids I know kids have pretended to read books
33:01for a long time but do kids have the ability to read text meaning classic
33:06novels and interact with them or are you seeing with the rise of social media
33:11an inability to read deeply with your kids 100 % inability to read deeply reason
33:19being everything that they're being given is like tackled in like 10 -15 minutes first
33:24if it's a you know a chapter book you have to read forget about it
33:27they don't have the stamina for that the first time in our curriculum as it
33:32stands now that the children in this part of North Carolina see Shakespeare is as
33:38seniors crazy like they may read a may read a sonnet here or there but
33:42they're not studying Shakespeare and the only thing they they read is Othello where I'm
33:47at and um you know you're in Othello for two weeks and that um you
33:53know and and you have no choice as a teacher what books you can read
33:56you can like suggest supplementation but that has to be done outside of class just
34:01so my children aside from the uh text that they're reading in the workbook again
34:06that's being disseminated from college board and we are being mandated to use um and
34:11you know how that might be indoctrination um the only two other texts they're reading
34:15are like I said Othello and Pygmalion or the Crucible thank god which is really
34:20fun to teach but um uh thank you for calling in Jackie this is what
34:24thank you for giving us your perspective but this is something that I actually worry
34:28about big picture we talk about historical illiteracy I worry that kids younger kids are
34:36not developing a depth of reasoning that is required in order to analyze things in
34:44a complex way and that instead they're going to be on AI and they're going
34:49to say hey tell me she just mentioned Othello tell me the story of Othello
34:53uh or tell me what the themes are of Huckleberry Finn and when you don't
34:59experience it and grapple with text yourself your depth of knowledge of basically anything is
35:05non -existent because I would argue the most useful tool that exists is the ability
35:10to read and analyze information and I think it's going to matter even more in
35:15the culture in which we're moving to because I think things are just getting more
35:18complicated it's all true and I didn't even have to type that into AI to
35:24be able to understand it I agree with you I think that's where we are
35:28and by the way with the power of AI these kids are going to lack
35:33the ability to even understand when they're being manipulated by the algorithms that govern AI
35:38I don't want to be like a super alarmist here but depth of reasoning and
35:44knowledge is basically to me all that should be taught in school and I worry
35:49that it's being completely erased in many of our schools and if kids don't have
35:53the depth of knowledge to grapple with complex issues in an in -depth way uh
35:58then we're in trouble going forward because basically we're just going to have two emoticons
36:03running against each other uh in elections going forward you