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'Friction' Author: Today’s Consumers Are ‘Walking Billboards’ for the Brands They Love

Companies need to focus on becoming “passion brands” instead of just flooding consumers with advertisements, co-author Jeff Rosenblum told Glenn Thursday on radio. The latest generation of consumers is comfortable with social media and loves to interact, so they are the best advocates for the brands they like.

In his book Friction: Passion Brands in the Age of Disruption, Rosenblum explored this phenomenon of “passion brands,” or companies and products that people love enough to share with everyone by tweeting, wearing a T-shirt and telling friends through word of mouth.

“They’re like walking billboards, and they’re actively proselytizing for brands,” Rosenblum said, describing this key type of consumer.

One of his favorite examples is the brand Yeti Coolers, which sells a particularly rugged type of cooler intended for camping, fishing and other outdoor trips. Instead of traditional ads, Yeti focuses on creating short videos about people going on incredible adventures. It’s more about image than anything else. Even if people don’t really need a cooler that can weather the elements, they’ll be drawn to the vision of adventure.

“They tell these stories about people who are going on bigger and bolder adventures than most people ever will,” Rosenblum said.

GLENN: The whole world is changing. And really in an exciting and dynamic way, if you understand that the bull crap of yesterday, which Washington hasn't figured out yet. The bull crap of yesterday, the lies of yesterday, and the systems that create friction and make your life complicated just don't work anymore. Nobody wants them. Don't prop them up. Get out of that and find passion. Passion brands and friction. We're going to talk about that with a guy who knows it quite well. Beginning right now.

Name of the book that I've been telling you about for weeks, and I'm thrilled to have Jeff Rosenbloom. He's one of the co-authors of the book "Friction" passion brands in the age of disruption. It is one of those books that you read, and you're, like, jeez. How could I not know that? How did I not think that? How is this all of a sudden -- it's one of those things that somebody invents something, and you're, like, of course. How come I didn't invent that?

I want you to know that Jeff is not here to sell books. I highly recommend you buy his book, but he's not taking any of the money from it. It's actually going to something called special spectators, which we hope to talk about a little bit later. He will also be with us on The Blaze TV for a special episode tonight at 5:00, so he's not here to make any money. He's here to change some lives, and you have dramatically impacted my thinking since I picked up your book, so it's great to have you here, Jeff.

JEFF: Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.

GLENN: So tell me. I guess we just need to start at, you know, the brands of the past and the brands now. Passion brands. What is it?

JEFF: , well, passion brands are the brands that absolutely dominate the competition; right? They don't have just customers. They have an army of evangelists. These are the folks that are at the bars, at the restaurants, at the dinner table, they sit around the campfire, grew up on their social media channels, they've got the T-shirts, they've got the hats, they're like walking billboards, and they're actively proselytizing for brands.

GLENN: So you talk about one passion brand that has really boggled my mind until I read your book, but I want to ask you some questions about it. And that is Yeti. Coolers. Great coolers.

JEFF: The best.

GLENN: But -- what is it? Four times the price of a good cooler?

JEFF: yeah.

GLENN: And I've often wondered. People who buy this, they become evangelists, and it's a cooler. And I wonder how much of that is because it truly is absolutely great and how much of that is to soothe the cognitive dissidents in their head of I just paid fours times as much and everybody who doesn't have one says "What the hell is wrong with you."

Does that play a role in that at all?

JEFF: Absolutely. To dial it back, and then we'll talk about Yeti. Passion brands are built by fighting friction. Friction is anything that gets in the way of what you want to accomplish in life. It's anything that gets in the way of your hopes, dreams, aspirations, on even your mundane day to day goals.

So when you think about Yeti, it's a cooler for outdoors. So by definition, if you're using it, you're going on some sort of outdoor adventure. So they fight friction in two ways. The first is this cooler is fundamentally better than any other cooler out there. It's literally certified Grizzly bear proof. Now, the chances of anyone actually needed that type of technology --- fairly negligable.

GLENN: Right. I would like a cooler that I can pick up and throw at the grizzly bear.

JEFF: That's the next product.

But it's nice to know if you're going on that adventure, that product that you're buying can go further and deeper and bigger on an adventure. But to your point, it's not just about the cooler, it's about the totality of the experience. And what they've done that I love is rather than relying on a bunch of interruptive ads, they've created these incredible videos. Each of these videos are about eight minutes long, and there are dozens of them. And they've been watched millions of times over. And what they do is they tell these stories about people who are going on bigger and bolder adventures than most people ever will. The world's greatest fly fisherman, the world's greatest ski guide, the world's greatest barbecue pit master who happens to be an 89-year-old woman named Tutsi. It's not, like, we're Yeti, and we make coolers. Yeti doesn't even appear in these videos. But what happens is they give us a vision. A bigger and bolder vision of ourselves. We all wake up in the morning wanting to be better we were than the day before. It's at the heart of the human experience. It's what drives capital I am. So these great videos help us envision that.

And, by the way, I've watched hours of them. Most people will watch a few of them. The typical interactive ad experience is 1.6 seconds. Compare that to an eight-minute video.

GLENN: I watched the fly fishing one. It's 22 minutes.

JEFF: Yeah.

GLENN: I watched it. Every second of it. And here's what I do. I hear from the guys because I'm not a sports guy. But I hear from the guys on sports every -- every Monday, I hear ugh, and I know they're on ESPN just trying to get the six-second clip, and they have to sit through the commercial. That's not 22 minutes. And it's just in the way of getting to their six seconds.

JEFF: Yeah. Prerolls. You know, the advertising industry, we keep making ads and the audience keeps running away.

Now, to be clear, this is not about the death of advertising. That false eulogy has been written before. We're just asking advertising to do too much. We can still do incredible things with advertising, but increasingly those traditional interruptive ads are being ignored and avoided.

GLENN: In fact, just removing the friction from your product will do more than any ad. If you make a truly great product, and you make it frictionless and not only -- I mean, let's go into the passion brands a little bit. Of finding that group of people -- and let me ask you. Do you need -- to really have an authentic brand, does that need to come from the founders that are, like, what you know? I wanted this. I know this is great, and I don't care if anybody buys it. Or does it come from a group of people who are just scanning the horizon and saying, yeah, these people over there. Let's come up with something for their -- does it matter?

JEFF: Well, I think it comes from both. But most passion brands that we see, and they can be big brands like Under Armour or big brands like Amazon or some of them are smaller startups, they tend to be run by the founders because they have a strong vision, and they don't want to waver from that vision. But it can be from large, established corporations.

One of the interesting things that we found is that really the key is to take all of your efforts and instead of first focusing it outward at messaging, focus it inward at your own behaviors. And a piece of research we found is what's called the power score. And they looked at 9 million different data points. They interviewed 20 self-made billionaires and CEOs and army generals. What they found is only 1 percent. Only 1 percent of leaders are great at what they call the power score, which is establishing your priorities, staffing effectively, and building internal communication cadence. So if you can have great leadership, then you can build a great passion brand. And ironically, you can create great ads. But you have to focus inward before outward.

GLENN: Some amazing things that I just didn't know, for instance, some stats in your book. Let me just run through a few of them. 90 percent of all of the data in the world has been collected in the last two years. That's astounding. 40 minutes in nature every week will lower AD/HD by 50 percent. Don't put your smartphone or your iPad next to your bed. Take that on.

JEFF: That is interesting because so many people loved it, and we weren't sure if that actually fits in the book. But what we tried to do with the book is look at industrial friction, organizational friction, and personal friction. And in that example, we found this great story about Keith Richards. The world's greatest guitar player or one of them. And one night, he's out doing the one thing in this world better than play guitar. He's partying like a Rockstar, and he passes out cold, and he wakes up the next day, and he has a song in his head. And his guitar is literally lying in bed lovingly with him. He grabs his guitar, rolls over, presses record on his tape recorder, lays down a few notes, passes out cold again. Wakes up a couple hours later, presses play, and he finds the guitar riff for satisfaction is waiting for him. Of course, then it's followed by the sound of him snoring. He's not even conscious enough to press stop on the recorder.

Paul McCartney had a similar experience. He woke one day, and he has a song scrambled eggs in his head. Can't stop. He's turning to all of his band mates and friends and be, like, what song have I ripped off here? And they're, like, dude, you didn't. It's your song, it's your original. And he went to John Lennon and turned it from scrambled eggs to yesterday.

Not quite as catchy when talking about breakfast; right? And it knowledge only happens to rock stars. The guy who figured out the periodic table of elements, the guy who figured out the double helix of DNA. All of this happened first thing in the morning when people woke up. And what happens in your brain, you've got something called alpha waves. It's the most powerful form of cognitive creativity that you have. This is where you can think of some big, bold, break through ideas. It's the same thing you get if you're in a hot shower, hot bath, you're in traffic for a while, your alpha waves start kicking in, and you ignore all of that crap in your head.

Now, the issue is 72 percent of us go to bed with their cell phone lying next to us. 50 percent of us, the very first thing that we do is we check it. One third of women before they even go to the bathroom, they check social media. The problem is when you do that, you completely shut off those alpha waves. You lose that opportunity to have that cognitive creativity.

GLENN: And why is that.

JEFF: Because it kicks in your fight or flight system, which is something we learned about in high school; right? It's when the blood flow changes. It used to be something that kept us from getting eaten by woolly mammoths, now it keeps us from getting run over by a car; right? Your subconscious takes over, you have different chemicals like adrenaline and cortisol in there. Your buddy on Facebook who just went on a better vacation than you'll ever go on. That's stressful; right? The server that's on fire, the contract that didn't get signed. Whatever it is on e-mail, that's all stress. So you're turning off that creativity, and you're creating stress.

Now, here's the interesting point. They used to think that your brain was your brain, and that's all you got. It turns out that there's a high degree of plasticity in your brain, which means it can change just like that cheap analogy that says your brain is like a muffle, you have to work it. It turns out it's true. You can actually change the size and shape of certain areas of your brain, and it happens very quickly. So when you go to your mobile device first thing in the morning, you turn off the creativity, you turn on the fight or flight. For the rest of the day, you're not going to be as creative.

So with a 90 million bits of information, 90 percent of the data that's been collected the past two years, everybody has unprecedented access to data and technology. Creativity is the ultimate competitive advantage, and you have to feed your creativity just like you have to work out your body at the gym.

GLENN: When we come back, I want you to talk about --

STU: All about the gym. You're talking to a good crew.

JEFF: That's why I went there.

GLENN: So you're speaking our language. When we come back, I want you to talk about monkeys and how this relates to monkeys and then back to us. In just a second.

GLENN: A game-changing book in your thinking is "Friction: Passion Brands in the Age of Disruption." There is so much friction in our lives from chaos, from just -- just from the news trying to understand the political -- it's all friction. And being able to reduce that and navigate through that is really hard. And I think people are getting really frustrated in some ways with life, and they're just tuning out. They're just stopping. And that's really because the media or politicians or party or whatever you're dealing with just are not changing. They're holding onto the old system.

JEFF: Yeah.

GLENN: And it doesn't work. I was blown away -- where did you get the monkey thing, and then explain the monkey thing.

JEFF: Yeah, it was interesting. When I was writing the book, we set up a research team, thousands of pages of research. I'm a numb nut. I barely graduated college; right? But I'm hanging out with my really smart friend, he's a Ph.D. at Stanford, a neuroscientist, and he's telling me about this study that they conduct all the time. And what happens is when you go to get your Ph.D., they often give you this experiment where they take an electric probe, and they put it into a monkey's brain to read what's going on inside that brain. And then what they do is play this loud, blaring, obnoxious sound in the monkey's ear. And what you see on the readout is not surprising. When you play that awful sound, you get a very strong and very negative reaction from the monkey's brain. So then they repeat the experiment. They play that loud, blaring, obnoxious sound. And what you find, again, is not surprising. They have a very strong and very negative reaction.

But what it was absolutely shocking to me is that if you repeat the experiment a few times over, and then you look at the readout, the reaction looks like the side of a cliff. The monkey's brain literally stops reacting to this awful sound because the monkey at a structural level knows that it needs to focus on other things in life. Food, water, shelter, fornication; right? If it continues to respond so strongly to that stimulus, it literally can't survive. It's called repetition suppression.

GLENN: So are we in -- before we go into this on the decisions that we make and every day. But are we seeing this -- is this one of the reasons why we are just tuning so many things out in Washington? We're tuning principles out. We're tuning all kinds of stuff out because we just can't do anything about it, and we keep hearing it shouted over and over and over again, and we focus on other things? Am I reading that right?

JEFF: That's exactly right. The human brain is exposed to 400 billion bits of information every second. We make 35,000 conscious decisions per day. We ran an experiment --

GLENN: That's 35,000 yes or no decisions.

JEFF: It could be more complicated than yes or no. These are outright conscious decisions per day. So brands, politicians, we're all trying to enter this stream. We expose people to 5,000 branded messages per day. The previous generation was only 2,000. Already, that was too much. So what we have to do is focus less on interruptions, and more on empowerment. Another way of looking at it is magnets over megaphones. We have to create content and experiences that are so powerful, people go out of their way to participate in them. And then, share them with others. And that's the secret ingredient to brands like Yeti.

GLENN: Patagonia you think is the pinnacle of a passion brand?

JEFF: Patagonia is one of them.

GLENN: Why?

JEFF: Well, I fell in love with this guys because, first of all, they recognize that there's friction in the category. And what they to is they focus all their efforts on fighting that friction. So the friction is this:

If you want to enjoy their outdoor gear and apparel, you need a healthy outdoors. And ironically when they create their products, it actually damages the outdoors; right? Create manufacturing by-products, your old jackets make garbage; right? So everything they do, they fight friction by empowering people.

GLENN: Okay. So when we come back, listen to the ad campaign that they came up with, and it's brilliant. Brilliant. Patagonia "Friction" is the name of the book. Jeff Rosenbloom joins us again in a few minutes. "Friction: Passion Brands in the Age of Disruption". Back in a minute.

[Break 10:31]

GLENN: I will tell you. If you really want to see the world in a different way, especially if you're an entrepreneur or a leader of any sort, you really want to see the future and whether what you're doing will survive or not. You need to read the book "Friction: Passion Brands in the Age of Disruption".

Jeff Rosenbloom is with us, and you were giving us the example of Patagonia. Patagonia making outdoor clothing, and they really are dedicated to, you know, save the planet and everything else, and so that's where their people are. And the friction that they had internally was, you know, all of the stuff that we make the chemicals and everything, the garbage, that's actually hurting. So how are we helping, exactly?

So talk about the campaign that they ran with a coat.

JEFF: Yeah, so you hit on a really important point. For their target audience, making the environment healthier is absolutely paramount.

GLENN: Paramount.

JEFF: Right. So the campaign that I love, I came across not when I was doing research, but we actually created this documentary called the naked brand. And we looked at one of their campaigns called the footprint chronicles where you know if you got the surfer board shorts, and you go surfing, and you come back on the beach, and they dry, like, 45 seconds later? Well, guess what? Mother nature didn't make those shorts. We made them. We manufactured them. They're manufacturing by-products, so you can actually follow the manufacturer of their products around the globe, see the supply chain, they're not saying look how great we are. They're literally talking about the damage they do. It's really counterintuitive. I find it fascinating, and I fell in love with the brand. And I wanted to buy this blue Patagonia jacket. I had a perfect vision of it in my mind's eye.

And I'm literally shopping on Black Friday. The number one shopping day of the year. Brands sell more on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving than in months combined. And I went to Patagonia.com and on the home page, like, they read my mind, I can't exaggerate this. There's the blue jacket that I wanted to buy. And then right next to it on the home page in a giant font, don't buy this jacket. What the heck is going on here? And then there's a button, like, direct response principles click on it. Learn more. So I click. And their point is this. Reduce, reuse, recycle. Reduce is number one. So if you want to buy that jacket, we're happy to sell it to you. But we're going to damage the environment from the manufacturing, from the garbage of your old jacket. Maybe, you don't need that jacket. Maybe you should buy less.

So I'm Jewish, I'm from New York, I felt guilty, I didn't buy the jacket. They lost the sale. But here's what they gained. They gained my unwavering loyalty. And they gained my evangelism. So here we are on your show talking about Patagonia. But more influential than me are the people who are truly influential. The guys; right? These are the guides leading hiking and biking and fly fishing and surfing adventures all around the world. And in definition, guides are influential, and they're covered head to tow in Patagonia gear because Patagonia is empathetic and empowers people about the one thing that is most important to those guides. And when you talk about evangelists, they are 12 times or more trusted than paid advertising ever will be.

PAT: Wow. And also, their competition is similar in that way; right? They try to reduce -- north face, they reduce friction for their customers as well.

JEFF: Yeah, it's a great point. Thanks for bringing it up because we can't just all jump on the environmental bandwagon. We can't jump on what other brands are doing.

PAT: That would look really disingenuous.

JEFF: Totally. People don't wake up in the morning and want to hug the trees and save the manatees; right? It works for some brands. North face took a different tact, which is if you want to enjoy outdoor sports and apparel, we're going to help you become a better athlete. So they created what they call the mountain series; right? And it's a bunch of instructional videos and information and articles and events that help people become better athletes. So I fell in love with this video series. It was from some of the best rock climbers and skiers, and they were shown very specific exercises to help me become a better skier. What's interesting is I don't think it worked all that well for them because they made less of those videos and became less prominent. But they stick to this platform. They're always empowering and always educating with different events and different information to help people become better athletes. You don't see the edge or you do see the ads and say, hey, we're north face, these are great products. But more importantly, they create content and experiences. So the ads are only part of that brand-building system. It's not the totality of it.

STU: You go through a lot of this stuff, obviously, in the book "Friction." And I have a friend who goes to Soul Cycle, which is a cycling spin class place.

JEFF: Bordering on a cult.

STU: The number one people say to her is shut up about Soul Sycle.

GLENN: It's like orange theory.

JEFFY: Yes.

GLENN: Orange theory is, like, okay. Stop with the bumper stickers. It's a gym, man. Let go.

STU: So the question I want to ask you is how do I get her to shut up about Soul Cycle? But separately -- because I look at their business model, and I see a huge friction point, which is they're charging people $31 to come in and ride a bike in their establishment for an hour.

JEFF: Yes.

STU: And, to me, that sounds completely insane. Yeti, they have more evangelists percentage-wise probably than any company I've ever seen. How do you cross over a huge friction point like that and bring your point along?

JEFF: Great point. Great brand. I should have included them in my book. I was scared to death to go in there. You guys selling salad? We'll do that.

GLENN: Salad? I like the part on Cadbury, for the love of god.

JEFF: Here's the interesting point that you just amongst is these passion brands, they don't get there by talking about discounts and promotions. And once brands go there, it becomes really addictive. They actually charge a premium price. Patagonia, Yeti, Soul Cycle, sweet green, all of this stuff is quite a bit more expensive than the competition.

GLENN: And it has to be worth it first. It has to be worth -- if you're buying a dozen eggs, you better get 14 and great farm fresh eggs if you're charging --

PAT: Or at least you're better than whatever else.

GLENN: Yeah, you've got to be. You have to be that first. There's none of this, you know, hey, Fred Flynn stone is saying, you know, that doctors say smoking is healthy. It has got to actually be accurate; right?

JEFF: There's a great poster I saw. No amount of advertising can get me to buy your crappy pizza; right? And the truth and the matter is it actually can. It can get you to buy that crappy pizza once. But it's not going to get loyalty and evangelism. So you're hitting on a key point with Yeti is that the product has to be better than the competition. It doesn't have to be two or three times better. But it has to be 10, 20, 30, 40 percent better.

But to your point, that relationship that people have with Soul Cycle is irrational; right?

STU: Yes. Yeah, I can confirm that. Yes.

JEFF: The reason it's irrational is that it's emotional. Most brands have a transactional relationship; right? They make a good product, they charge a fair price, they have some pretty good advertising, people comparison shop, and then they buy.

Soul Cycle and other brands have an emotional relationship where people pay more for the product. They ignore the competition. They buy all of that Soul Cycle and gear, and they turn themselves into walking billboards. And they do that, they create that irrational relationship through irrational behavior.

Think about that Patagonia example. Running a campaign that says don't buy this jacket, that's irrational.

GLENN: So Starbucks, really, was kind of a pioneer in this kind of area, weren't they? Where everybody was going to Dunkin' Donuts and getting your coffee at a normal price. And then all of a sudden here comes Starbucks charging money out the nose. But it became more than a coffee place.

JEFF: Yeah, well, it went from transactional. I like Dunkin' Donuts. I'm from the northeast. But it's transactional. You're in, you're out, you move on. Howard Schultz was, like, wait a second. Let's make this experiential. Let's look at what's going on in Europe. Let's sell them the cup of coffee and then give them a place to hang out. And then all of a sudden almost like Soul Cycle, it's almost coltish in the language that they're using, and they're becoming part of a tribe and tribes are extraordinarily powerful. We don't just want customers. If you want to be a passion brand, you have to build a tribe.

GLENN: So is that do you know where Y they use things like venti? They change the language to make it even more of a badge to be a part of this tribe. Is that what's going on?

JEFF: That's exactly right; right? And I don't know, like, I'm not that gifted creatively to figure those types of things out. But, yeah, Howard or somebody on his team figured out long ago let's create that badge. Let's create those shortcuts.

GLENN: The name of the book is friction. I can't recommend it highly enough. I've never done this with any book before. I insisted everybody on the staff read this book, so we're responsible for about 249 companies being sold.

JEFF: Thank you very much.

GLENN: And everybody has read it. I also for the first time I've never done this. We're asking all of our Dallas employees to come down to the studio floor today. There's about 90 here just in this building. They're coming to listen to you at 5:00 for the show at 5:00 today TheBlaze.com, and I just want you to talk about how to find the customer, how to reduce friction, how to -- I mean, I'm convinced -- everything in your book, I've known instinctively. And if I boil it down, I always thought that capitalism was the greatest charity brand ever, if it's done right. And meaning if I love a group of people, I'll say how can I serve them? How can I make their life better, easier? And by serving them, what they need in a really easy way, I could become rich. It is capitalism. It's not charity. It's capitalism. And that's really kind of the thing. If you know who your target is, you know who you're serving, and you actually love them, listen to them, and help make their life easier, that's it, isn't it?

JEFF: It's interesting you bring it up because I'm leaving this very blue region of New York City, and I'm entering this red region of Texas. And I'm looking out the window of this wonderful, amazing, beautiful country of ours. And I was thinking about the fact that we just can't seem to agree very much lately. And then I realize, wait a second. There is one thing that we can all agree upon. Which is corporations have incredible power. And they should use that power to improve people's lives one small step at a time. And this is not for altruistic reasons, this is not for idealistic reasons because that is not sustainable. It's because when brands improve people's lives, they get rewarded. Not just by shifting customers or, say, prospects to customers, but by shifting customers into evangelists, and that's what fighting friction is all about.

GLENN: Unless you go to the Harvard school of business, and you are assigned both wealth of nations and moral sentiments, which is imperative that you read both Adam Smith books, you're not going to get this. This is a new really kind of Adam Smith look at how capitalism should work, "Friction" passion brands. We will you on The Blaze TV today at 5:00.

JEFF: Thank you.

GLENN: I want to talk really quick before you go. The proceeds as we're telling people to buy your book. The proceeds are not going to you. Where are the proceeds going?

JEFF: From July 15th to August 15th, all of the proceeds, not Amazon, not the publisher. I can't control those guys. Goes to special spectators.

GLENN: Which is what?

JEFF: Takes kids with life-threatening illnesses, and takes them to exclusive college sports experiences. So they'll get on the field at, like, Alabama, and they'll get into the locker room, they'll meet the coaches, and there's all different games going around the country. And what they found with these, because I'm on the board of make a wish, and we saw it there also. It's not just about giving these guys a moment of happiness, but it's also part of a healing process; right? It literally heals kids when they're fighting these diseases to actually have a moment of happiness in their life.

GLENN: Thank you very much, Jeff. We'll talk to you later this afternoon.

JEFF: Thank you.

GLENN: By the way, if you have any questions, go ahead and tweet them, and I'll have the staff look at them this afternoon before we go on the air. You can just tweet them @glennbeck, and we'll try to get your questions in as well.

RADIO

The FBI secretly SPIED on Republican senators?!

According to newly released information, the FBI under President Biden secretly obtained the phone records of 8 Republican senators as part of an investigation called “Arctic Frost.” But while the FBI claimed it was about “election integrity,” Glenn has another take: This could be a WORSE scandal than Watergate…

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: I fell compelled to tell you today, that if your church, your synagogue, you know, is -- is not telling you these things and -- and helping you deal and navigate through the waters today, and showing you how the Bible actually is the answer to the things that you're dealing with in real life every day, you need to go find another church or synagogue. You must!

You must.

Anyone who is ignoring this, at this point, is either so under-equipped for the times. And so blind to the times, and clearly not getting any promptings from the spirit. Or they don't get it, or they are afraid because they're afraid of controversy. You know, in times where the truth is controversial, there's nothing you can do accept tell the truth. I mean, if you want to fix things. The truth right now is the most controversial thing you can say. A man is a man. Never will be a woman. Never.

The problem is: We keep conflating all of these problems with politics. And that's the problem!

I want you to just for a second play this monologue for your friends, who don't agree with me: You don't have to like Donald Trump to see the danger we're now in. You don't have to vote Republican or wear a red hat or cheer at rallies. You just really, all you have to do is love the idea of America. Not the flag-waving. The idea that man can rule himself, that we do not have a king or a dictator, or a cabal of people that run things.

There is no master. Government serves us! We are in charge of government, not the other way around. That's -- that's the American dream. That's what makes us different.

You also have to believe, that the scales of justice must stay balanced. I have told you from the first day, you know, after 9/11 when things got serious. I stand with the Constitution. Anyone who violates the Constitution, I will stand against. And I am a hawk on that! If the story that I'm about to tell you is true, and so far, all signs point that it is, then something has gone very, very wrong in our constitutional republic. The FBI under this administration, secretly obtained the phone records of nine Republican lawmakers. Sorry. Not this administration. The former administration.

They've released it, Trump has just released it. They have the phone records of nine Republican lawmakers, eight sitting US senators. They were not suspected terrorists. They're not foreign spies. They're elected officials. They're public servants. They work for you. People who work to represent millions of people, just like you.

And the FBI had a -- a vet investigation that we have now just found out, and all of the documents are there. It was called Arctic Frost.

The bureau said, this is about election integrity. But we now know, it swept up elective representatives, all from one party, without any -- anybody's knowledge.

Now, this is not 1972. We're not talking about a couple of thugs, that broke into a file cabinet, at Watergate.

This is much bigger than Watergate. And I want anybody who disagrees with Donald Trump to ask themselves: The documents are here.

If this was Donald Trump doing this, I would be with you and saying, this is authoritarianism, and it must stop now!

Why will you not join my voice with this? We're talking about digital surveillance. Invisible, vast, far more powerful than a hidden microphone in the Watergate building.

Chuck Grassley said, "It's arguably worse than Watergate."

And he's right! Because this time the government did not just spy on its political enemies from a smoky back room in DC in a hotel. It did it from inside the federal agencies that we're supposed to trust, that are supposed to protect people's rights. Now, if you have been told all your life that the real danger only comes from the right, that corruption, dishonesty, abuse of power is exclusive to conservatives, then I'm asking to you pause and to look again. Because the documents have just been released. When one side can weaponize the justice system and the other side cheers it on, justice dies for everyone. And it makes people who now want to say, "But look what they did."

They feel justified to get revenge. "Well, if they're doing it, we can do it."

And that leads all of us to hell. Then we're all in trouble.

People have been defending James Comey and have been saying, then this is just a political hit job by Donald Trump.

No, it is not. Again, look at the facts. He was accused to lying to Congress. It's not political persecution. When a grand jury recommends charges, that's not politics, that's the process! That's how our system is supposed to work. Now he goes to trial. That doesn't make him guilty. But it does mean, he has to face the same standard of justice, as you or I would! In America, no one is supposed to be above the law. Not Donald Trump. Not James Comey. Not Joe Biden or Hunter Biden. Not anyone sitting in the White House today or yesterday! Because in America, no one is above the law!

Now we have candidates. One running for attorney general in Virginia. Who openly flirt with violent rhetoric. And the media yawns! They call it, quote, colorful language. Quote, that's just politics!

No, it's not. When threats and intimidation become normal, when justice becomes selective, when the press decides who's innocent and who's guilty before the evidence is even in, the republic begins to rot from within.

So many people -- so many of our neighbors are just exhausted. And they've tuned everything out because it all sounds like noise. You know, they all lie. And nobody is going to pay.

That's what people say to themselves.

You stop caring, because the truth seems impossible to find. But when documents are -- are produced. And prove the truth! There is no argument. And the truth still does matter! If you want a civil society, justice still matters! And whether you voted for Trump or can't stand him. Whether you think Biden was a saint or a disappointment. None of that matters. What matters is: Do we still believe in equal justice under the law? Because if we lose that, we lose the promise of America itself, and you will get a dictator on the left or the right!

So I'm asking you, not as a conservative or a liberal, but as an American: Do not look away from this story. This is worse than Watergate. What happened in Watergate?

We had all kinds of hearings. Not to get the president. We had all kinds of hearings, to make sure that never happened again!

I can't tell you how many private conversations I have had with senators, who have said to me, whispered in my ear, they're monitoring everything I do and say!

No senator should ever feel that! No Republican, no Democrat, no independent, no communist. No one should ever feel that way in America!

But that will only stop when we demand fairness, when it makes you and your side uncomfortable, when you hold power accountable, even if it's your team holding it!

What will happen is: This story will go out. People will talk about it. The right will talk about it. They'll try to show the evidence. The left will not listen. The media will not report it. And then when it is all proven to be true, the media will say, "That's all old news."

And everyone will move on. And what does that do to the machine? It means the machine is never turned off. It means the machine gets more power. It means, next time, it could be you. If you don't punish whichever side is doing it, what happens? If you don't -- if Democrats don't tell the AG in Virginia, "This is unacceptable, and we do not tolerate that at all," what happens next? Stop dealing with what's happening now. Look over the horizon. What does that mean for tomorrow?

Justice can never be partisan. Never! Truth must never depend on who's in office. And America, this beautiful, fragile idea will only survive if both sides refuse to let blindness become loyalty.

Okay? Whether you like it or not, we are in this together. Gold just hit $4,005 an ounce. I have told you for 15 years, if gold hits $5,000 an ounce, you don't want to live in that world. That means the world is coming apart at the seams. Goldman Sachs just said their prediction is gold at $5,000 an ounce. That means, the trust of all of our institutions, the trust of our dollar. The trust of our government. The trust of our banking. The trust of our business.

All of that is up for grabs. You do not want to live in that world.

I told you yesterday, when I was talking about Civil War. That's not a TV show!

That means the end of all of the dreams that you have had for your children, coming to an end!

You no longer will be able to predict what their life will be like!

Now, you may not like it the way it is. But believe me, it is better than living in Somalia or Haiti!

Haiti is what revolution looks like.

Haiti is what Civil War leaves behind. Start looking at the news. What does this mean on what's coming next? And because of what that will lead to, what must I do today?

Today, you must look at the facts. Today -- today is an easy day. You must look at the facts of what was released yesterday on Operation Arctic Frost. And then you must demand Republican and Democrat, this must end!

TV

Dr. Oz reveals truth About shutdown and healthcare

Democrats are playing "high-stakes poker" with the government shutdown, and they’re "running out of chips," says Dr. Oz, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services administrator for President Trump. He joins Glenn on this week’s "Glenn TV" Friday Exclusive to debunk the Left’s lies — like is the shutdown REALLY about providing "lifesaving" care for illegal migrants? (Hint: No, no it’s not.) Plus, Dr. Oz explains why Americans are paying higher prices for medicine than Europeans and what the Trump administration is doing to remedy the situation, WITHOUT losing medical innovation here at home (there’s a reason why wealthy Europeans come to America for cancer treatment). He explains how TrumpRx — to be launched next year — will "bring transparency to the process" of finding affordable medicine, in an effort to ensure that no U.S. citizen has to "decide between groceries and medicine." Plus, Dr. Oz explains why the initiative will begin with Pfizer, despite the dark cloud COVID left over the pharmaceutical giant.

RADIO

The HORRIFIC TRUTH about "national divorce"

Over the past few months, Glenn has heard a lot of talk about national divorce, a great reset, or even civil war coming from both the Right and the Left. Glenn lays out in blunt terms why that “must NEVER be considered.”

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: People are throwing around things like national divorce.

People are saying, let it all burn! We need a great reset. As if we're talking about a new season of television. But we are not. Let me be very, very clear of what we are talking about. That must never be considered.

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Ten seconds.
(music)
I want to hit this early, before this becomes a trend.

Because the algorithms will reward talk like this!

National divorce.

You know, Civil War. Et cetera, et cetera.

We're not talking about a season of television, that you watch from your home, when you're talking about things like that.

We're talking about your life. Your -- your ordinary, miraculous, taken for granted life ending.

Everything you grew up knowing, believing, in, having -- having the opportunity to have, be, do, over!

It won't change. It ends!

That's what Civil War means!

The world your children expect to grow up in.

The one with school plays and Little League. And the birthday parties in the backyard. Gone!

And it doesn't come back with an election or a speech or a victory parade.

It doesn't come back at all. This is very fragile. This has never been done. A government with of, for, and by the people.

Has never been done before.

And I don't know if you've noticed this, but the entire world system systems to be against people, that want to rule themselves!

So it doesn't come back!

Civil War is not, you know, Gettysburg reenactors with quotes on social media.

It's neighbors!

It's culled sacks. It's the grocery store. And the gas station.

And the pharmacy.

It's the lights you never think about. Until they don't turn on. The water you never worry about. Until it comes out brown.

If it comes out at all.

I need you before things get crazier than they are, I want you to be firm on what you believe.

I want you to picture, not for shock. But for absolute clarity. Your day begins. And your bank app says, service unavailable.

Your ATM says, out of cash. The trucks have stopped coming to the grocery stores, because the highways have checkpoints and ambushes and rumors of both.

The gas station is a rumor too. One station has a line that is three blocks long. The other has a hand-lettered sign that says, cash only. Limit five gallons. You think, well, I've got some cash, until you realize, everybody else had that same idea, yesterday!

You must have a prescription for somebody in your family. Insulin, heart meds, chemo, whatever it is.

The pharmacy is closed. Why?

Because the pharmacist couldn't make it through the roadblocks. And the chain's distribution centers can't risk sending a truck without a police escort. And the police don't escort trucks anymore!

Because the police that do show up for work now, are triaging their own neighborhoods!

You call 911 about a domestic disturbance down the street. And the dispatcher says, if anybody even answers, we'll put you on the list. These aren't front lines in a modern Civil War. They are the intersections. They are our neighborhoods. They are the algorithms. The algorithm that sells rage by the pound! And it's being fed to both sides until both sides are blind with rage!

When the governor -- person running, Spanberger, running for Virginia, for the governor says, let your rage fuel you. No!

Rage will make you blind!

And we won't be fighting in uniform!

You'll be avoiding a rumor. The rules of the road become rules of the rifle.

Whoever controls the intersection controls that day!

Hospitals are now fortresses. Then targets.

Then shells.

Food becomes scarce. Then it's currency. Your children's school becomes a shelter. Do they even have school anymore?

No, your children now have memories of school and a new job of staying quiet when they hear a drone or a truck backfire. Childhood shrinks down to the safest room in your house.

Now, you think you're going to pick a side. You think you know what side you'll be on.

You think your side will protect you. But here's the truth: Sides protect themselves.

And both sides will ask you to prove your loyalty with things you promised yourself you would never, ever do.

Good people, just like you, will do them.

Because fear is a sculpture, and it carves away at conscience first. You think you know how the market works, until the market dies.

Markets die when trust dies. Pensions evaporate, not because of a bad quarter, but because the bond market can't price what's coming tomorrow!

The currency on your counter is now canned food. Bottled water, diesel, antibiotics. Your home value.

What's a house worth if there's nobody to ensure it? Nobody to mortgage it. Nobody to drive to it, without risking their life. And then there are the guests who are arrive when a great house is on fire. The cartels, the opportunists, the foreign intelligence services, the war tourists with passports and GoPros. They don't choose sides. They just choose opportunities and openings, and they open the opportunities you didn't know you had. Your grid, your water plants, your data center, your port, and they don't fly flags, they fly yours.

And then let you blame one another, to fuel the fire. Let your rage know, don't! Listen to me. There's no clean ending to this.

No, there's, there's -- there's no clean Gettysburg. Especially in a world of encrypted chats and weaponized rumors, there is just grinding. Bone-grinding pain.

There's the settling of old scores under new slogans. There's the permanent loss of innocence.

The moment you stop seeing your neighbor as a neighbor, that can never quite -- that you can never quite unsee the enemy that you have imagined.

I can't ever think of that person, any way other than that. Then you are headed for that outcome.

And if you imagine glory, war doesn't wound bodies. It wounds time. Ten years from now, the men and women who survive will still hear the sound of a truck at night and think checkpoint. Your children will flinch at fireworks. Weddings will be smaller. Funerals will be more frequent.

And hope -- real hope will be spoken in a whisper because it's learned to hide.

It is reasonable to ask what do we have in common anymore? But the next reasonable question is: How can we find common ground? How can we understand each other?

Before you retweet bravado, count the cost of where we could be headed.

And not in abstract numbers, but in faces. The old man on your street who needs oxygen, the single mom who works at night.

The kid who just made the team.

The clerk at the corner store, always remembers your brand, your face, your needs.

These are the casualties that -- that never make the headlines, because they disappear, one inconvenience at a time.

These are the times that try men's souls. That used to be a phrase, I didn't understand it. And it belonged in the past.

I say it to you today!

These are the times that try men's souls.

Those who stand today and shoulder the burden, who those stand today, and do the hard work, God's work of love and peace making. And uniting. And speaking the truth!

They will be owed a thanks for generations to come.

Turn town the algorithm and turn up the conversation.

Teach your children the difference between courage and recklessness!

Between justice and vengeance!

Make your county and your town resilient.

So relationally thick, that an outside arsonist. Foreign or domestic, will only find damp tinder there.

You must get serious about peace. Not the sentimental kind.

The muscular kind. Form covenants with churches and synagogues and community groups and clubs and counsels. And say it out loud. No violence in our name. It's not acceptable.
Not here. Not here.

RADIO

Texts reveal DISTURBING fantasies of Virginia Democratic candidate

Glenn reviews disturbing leaked text messages from Democratic Virginia Attorney General candidate Jay Jones about political violence and a concerning statement made by Democratic Virginia gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger. Glenn advises Virginians and all Americans: these Democrats warned you what they supported. So, don’t be surprised about what might happen if they gain power.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: It is shocking and shameful, especially in this day and age. With what we have seen with violence. And yet, there are those on the left that believe that violence is an okay answer.

Jay Jones, the guy running for attorney general, the guy would be enforcing the laws in Virginia.

Thinks that it's okay -- he says, to joke about killing people. But the way he did it, does not seem like a joke to me. He was asked by the person he was texting, to stop!

Stop. This really bothers me when you say things like this. Don't -- don't say those things.

Well, you know what, only when people feel the pain personally do they change their political opinions. You were just talking about killing this guy's children! So you get here, and you think, okay. What is headed our way?

Let me start with this: Back in 1999, I was on WABC, and I warned of Osama Bin Laden, and nobody listened to me. Nobody would listen to me.

They thought I was crazy. They thought I was actually, you know, sticking up somehow or another, for Bill Clinton. Because Bill Clinton was the one who said, you know, Osama Bin Laden, he's got to be eliminated, blah, blah, blah. And I went on the air at WABC in New York City. Nobody believed me.

And I said, in frustration, I said, at the end of the hour: There will be bodies and buildings and blood in the streets of this city in ten years! And the name on that will be Osama Bin Laden. Will you care and listen then?

So after September 11th, people started going, how did you -- how did you know that?

Very easy. This is life lesson number one.

If someone tells you, they are going to kill you, or they joke about it, but not retract.

Like, get -- hey. Don't joke about that. I know.

I'm sorry. I'm out of line.

Just stand by it. When they say things like, their children should be killed. Or in their case. Jay Jones not only said that. He said, his wife should have to hold his dying children. And maybe that will change his mind.

Okay? You must take those people seriously. You must believe them!

Because anything short of that is madness itself!

Because if they start doing -- this is Germany.

If he says, you know what, I've got a solution for those Jews. And you're like, eh. He doesn't really mean it. It's your fault!

He told you. When you're dealing with life and death, you always take it seriously. Always!

And we all say stupid things.

I've said stupid things.

Everybody has said stupid things.

And what do you do?

You immediately mea culpa. You immediately apologize. Oh, my gosh. I wasn't thinking. I'm sorry. But the guy running as the AG, the chief lawmaker for Virginia, he hasn't apologized.

In fact, he kind of doubled down in the -- in the throes of it! And he hasn't said anything about it.

And the woman running on the same democratic ticket for governor, in Virginia, Abigail Spanberger, she hasn't distanced herself.

Well, that's wrong.

Well, should we drop out?

I don't -- what do you mean? Yes! The answer is yes. We don't threaten people.

We don't say, their family and their children should be killed.

That's an easy call. If your governor, your AG cannot make a simple call like that about life and death, about people who disagree with them.

They cannot have any power in government. They cannot.

It's easy. If Virginia makes that mistake, when there's bodies in your streets, I guess you will come to me, and say, how did you know?

And I'll say, you disregarded rule number one. Somebody says those things. You take them seriously, every single time!

You must!

The governor actually has said, let your rage fuel you!

Now, good people in Virginia, when was the last time you went to church?

When was the last time you went to church, and you heard your preacher say, let -- Jesus says, let your rage fuel you!

My guess is, never!

Because Jesus said the exact opposite. What would Jesus do?

Not that! You have a politician that says, let your rage fuel you! In conjunction with, the other politician that they're linking arms and campaigning together. Saying, I would be happy -- happy if we killed him, his children, and his wife.
If they died, I would piss on their graves.

That's a quote. And let your rage fuel you. Virginia, you will get what you deserve!

They are telling you who they are. I don't want George Soros, nor any member of his family killed. Ever! And I think he's the biggest destructive force in the world for freedom.

I don't want him killed.

I want him exposed!

If he's broken laws, I want them to go to jail!

But I at least want the truth to be known about them.

I don't want to kill them.

If you've gotten to that place, to where your political enemy is somebody you want killed, you have a psychiatric or deep spiritual problem going on with you.

So now, we have people on our side. And I can say, I know what you mean.

Glenn, how do we work together?

How can -- we're running out of principles. To agree on.

I don't want to -- we can disagree all you want about policies. But principles must be universal.

That's our a plurbis unum. All men are created equal, endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. They're all codified in our unum.

That's the one thing we all used to agree on. We don't anymore.

And we are running out of things to agree on, that are principled-based. I don't care if you like Game of Thrones or hate Game of Thrones. There's no relationship that is worth anything. That will withstand any storm, if that's what we have in common.

You know, I love trees. And you love trees.

When the storms come, we're all blown off.

People are throwing around things like national divorce.

People are saying, let it all burn! We need a great reset. As if we're talking about a new season of television. But we are not. Let me be very, very clear of what we are talking about. That must never be considered.