RADIOJuly 05, 2022

Yes, it IS possible for Americans to unite. Here’s how.

Each day it seems Americans become more and more divided along political party lines. But there IS still a way for Americans to unite. Riaz Patel, TV producer and founder of ‘ConnectEffect,’ tells Glenn it’s all about disregarding the ‘screen world’ and instead listening and learning from other humans’ first-hand experiences. It’s important to ‘reset humanity’ and fight the agenda being forced onto us all through our phones. Patel tells Glenn about his new project which does just that and about the amazing progress he’s witnessed thus far…

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: I want to welcome back a very good friend of the program. Somebody, if you're a long-time listener of this program. Somebody you might remember Riaz Patel. He's now the founder of Connect Effect. He is a TV producer. Two-time Emmy nominee. Couldn't get it done, huh?

RIAZ: Both times. And she wasn't even there.

GLENN: But he's also a guy that I think we met in 2015, or 2016?

RIAZ: Uh-huh.

GLENN: And there was shooting. You're a Muslim. You're a gay man. And there was a shooting, and you were -- you know, the media was telling you, this is really. This is what's happening. And then Trump came along. And you were like, okay. I got to know what's really going on. And you went up to Alaska. And said, I just want to meet these people. Because I can't live in a world, if that's what I'm really surrounded by. And you found out, that's not.

RIAZ: Not remotely. Not remotely. The 50 percent of the population is not the cliché that I was led to believe. They're actually human beings.

GLENN: And we had such a great time getting together. I still follow you on Instagram. We chat from time to time.

But the -- the thing that always struck me was how honest you always were. You were really looking for information. You weren't trying to prove anything. You just wanted to know what the truth was.

And how different our understanding of the news was, because you lived in your world.

RIAZ: Yes.

GLENN: And I lived in my world. And I remember putting things up in the chalkboard. And saying, none of those things happened.

RIAZ: At all.

GLENN: Big stories to conservatives. It was weird.

RIAZ: And it used to be the strangest thing, when I would come here to visit you, that I would get on the plane, and leave the LA feeds, and arrive here, completely different news. Completely different stories, like this is insane. Two different worlds.

GLENN: Yeah. Yeah. So you've been trying to bridge the gap.

RIAZ: Yeah.

GLENN: For a long time. And we talked about shows, where you could actually talk. Things have only gotten worse.

RIAZ: Yes. Absolutely.

And I think that was the big problem, was the screen world, and I called the screen world. All the edits that magically appear for us on our phone is the screen world, is not the real world. It's a very particularly point of view, and very highly edited. And to me, for seven years, what is the truth? And every time I would bring people together, seven people, ten people. Fifty people. In Alaska, Dallas, New York. They were never the clichés that I was led to believe.

And I constantly was wondering, how do they connect, and why wouldn't they connect?

And really, it came down to the power of the screen world is now the way we see the world.

People can be standing in front of us, and we cannot see them, or their humanity, because we see them through the edits that we think we know about them.

GLENN: It's really terrifying.

Because we were talking off the air. Children suicide and depression is off the charts.

RIAZ: Unbelievable.

GLENN: Unbelievable. And I think it's because of this.

There's nothing real. You don't really know people. And covid only made it worse. No real connections going on.

RIAZ: And that's the thing. It's so funny.

Everyone seems to be lacking true authentic connection, and the thing that I realized over seven years, is that true connection is not remotely information-based. Even if we're all living in an information age. That the words we exchange are 7 percent of communication. It's the body language. It's the tone. It's all of those things that create humanity. None of those you get from a screen. You just get the words, which sequentially posting at each other gets us absolutely nowhere fast.

And so I kept trying to think, what is a way to do this? A hard reset. Actually leave people in a room, so that they can see each other. And not see the edits that they think they know about each other. And that took seven years of testing and testing and testing.

GLENN: So how are you going to do this?

RIAZ: So it's called Connect Effect. And what it is -- it's an in-person -- it's an entertainment experience. And it's designed that way, because I reached out to a policy institute, and they said, everything we're doing about bridging and facilitating conversations, is not working. People just show up with more information, and they just keep exchanging it, and no one actually listens. And no one actually learns and is impacted. So how can I get people in a physical room? And we do 50 to 100 people at a time. To really see each other. The people in the room. The real world. And not the screen world. Not see each other through the screen world. It's a hard reset of their humanity.

GLENN: So how do you do that?

Because I would think that you would -- depending on where you are, you would have a lot of conservatives show up. And some very timid liberals. Or a lot of liberals show up. And their timid conservatives.

And you would fight an agenda. You know what I mean?

So how do you -- how do you -- how are you getting that?

RIAZ: The thinking is, the actual Connect Effect, what it is, is this: When you connect with someone in a meaningful, in-person way, in person, human to human, you'll talk, openly and honestly. It's how we met.

When we sat down opposite each other in 2016 and I came with my information, we just looked at each other, and we were like, oh, you're just a human being wants to know.

Once you have that connection, you'll talk openly and honestly. When you talk openly and honestly, you will understand. And that understanding deepens the connection.

That's the connective act. Now people are talking without the connection, and it's just this exchange of information. So they don't talk first.
They sit back. And from the moment the doors open, there's music. There's images on the screen. Two sides of stories, that people have never seen.

Whether it's edits I've seen in the news. Oh, yeah. That's what CNN ran. That's what Fox did side by side. And it constantly says, which edit do you see? Which edit do you not see?

And we're constantly running through history. Here's an edit you do know. And then it's before we even start the program, they're seeing, you're only -- that they're only seeing one edit.

GLENN: And so I would imagine, it's very important to let the audience know, that you're not trying to change them politically.

ROB: Not at all.

GLENN: You're just trying to say, you don't know the whole story, on both sides.

RIAZ: You don't know the whole story. And the whole story doesn't necessarily even matter when you are trying to fix things in your world. You and I did a podcast special a while ago, where we brought seven Americans together to talk about guns.

And --

GLENN: It was so great.

RIAZ: And it just spiraled and spiraled, until the NRA firearms instructor and the Moms Demand Action woman spent time together, made a joke, and suddenly all the defenses were gone. Because they had connected. And they talked openly. And realized they were 90 percent there. When they were all in the room, guarded with their information.

GLENN: Before we started it, we were both concerned, this could be a nightmare.

RIAZ: Absolutely.

GLENN: And by the end, I think the Marxist professor was like, this is great.

RIAZ: Yeah. Yeah. Because they stop seeing each other through screens. And the screens come at each other, all day every day.

And the way the screens work is for attention extraction is what they call it at Google. That's all they're doing. And so whatever you like, they'll send you more of it. If you're angry about this, they'll send you more.

Because the real facts are that anger makes money. The easiest shift to create in the human being is anger. What travels faster than any virus? Fear.

And so if the screens are constantly making you feel the world is burning constantly, then you're never going to be able to connect. But they make cha-ching. Cha-ching, cha-ching. More money the more you're watching.

And so we hard reset, the shared humanity of people in the room.

And it's very interesting, because at some time they start realizing, wait. I was going to say that. But I only know that from a screen. So we tell people, talk about what you know. Did you work on the front line of covid? Great. Tell us about that.

If you didn't, it's your time to sit back and listen. Because you received a screen edit that was designed to make you upset and angry. To look at more. To look at more. To look at more ads. And so I'm trying to get people -- the amazing thing, when people meet in the real world, they're constantly engaging people from what they know from the screen, which has little to no relevance to the person they're talking to.

GLENN: You -- the first one is happening, where? In Orange County?

RIAZ: Orange County, this Saturday. April 30th. I'm working with an organization called Civic Genius.

And I really was -- I was relentless when I was finding a partner that they didn't have a political affiliation. Because I cannot tell someone what the way they should think. I don't live their lives thousands and thousands of days as them.

GLENN: It's actually not the -- I shouldn't say that.

The problem is, people who are trying to tell people what to think.

RIAZ: Uh-huh.

GLENN: Not how to think. What to think. You will believe this. I don't care what side it's on. You believe this, and there's no compromise.

RIAZ: You must believe this. Or you're bad.

GLENN: Bad. That's what's killing us. That's what's killing us.

RIAZ: When you and I met years ago, I came in with this perception of what I thought you were. When I sat, the humanity kicked in, and we were able to talk. All I want, the whole point of this is I just want people fighting in their families. Fighting in their communities. If you can't sit down with the people in your community, to solve your problems. No one wins.

GLENN: So what age-group?

RIAZ: This is mostly 18 and over. But 18 to 80. It can be anyone.

GLENN: Okay. And when you go, do you have to participate, or can you just watch?

RIAZ: You can. So everyone sits, and everything is designed, the way the seats are set up. The way the screen works. It's all highly, highly produced. So everyone sits in this very large -- so there's no hiding in the back.

GLENN: Like an AA meeting.

RIAZ: It's like -- you can't go anywhere. You must stay.

But not everyone speaks, and who speaks is random. It's actually done through a way, inside the pouches. Some people have a chip, and some people don't. And the people who have blue chips have to stand up, and then they have a conversation. It's a way --

GLENN: So you're not speaking to -- I mean, you are speaking in front of the whole group. But you're not speaking and having interaction with the whole group.

RIAZ: No.

GLENN: The whole group is kind of channeling it through different conversations.

RIAZ: Correct. Correct. And we say it's one story told between two worlds. One is the real world. All of us in the room. And the other is all the media we have on the screen. And so the screen plays a large part in it, with edits and media coming at the audience, showing them, well, what is true?

Because if this is true on the screen, it can't be true in the real world. We're constantly juxtaposing the two. And it really ends up being this mind-blowing hard reset.

GLENN: So are you going to have video there? Okay.

Can you return maybe, and show me some video. And give me the results of what this happened.

RIAZ: We can. We actually have two tests on the website. ConnectEffect.us, under testimonials. One, we took women. And we said, if women, once connected, could they solve each other's most deep, challenging questions? So we took these total strangers. Didn't know each other, connected them. And they're reading these unbelievable questions. Like, why am I single my whole life? Why would I draw men that would abuse me?

And the audience helps them find the answer. It's incredible.

GLENN: That's unbelievable.
RIAZ: Because all that happens is, we have a problem. We go to an expert. We have a problem, we go to an expert.

Diagnosis. Medicated. Sometimes we just need the opinions of other people, and social buffering. And that doesn't exist anymore.

So that was one test. The other was at a university. Because we have students at a university, afraid of each other, not just physically, but ideologically. And so we thought, could we take students, once connected after 60 minutes, would they be open to the other side's ideology, and you look at the video, they were. They saw the whole thing differently. And they realized that all these people in the real world, in the room, are not the enemies, that they perceive coming through the edits.

GLENN: So how do you get people to -- I mean, are you just traveling the country. Are you asking for places to host you?

RIAZ: We are.

We are looking for organizations, churches, synagogues, anywhere where people have stopped talking, which is pretty much everywhere.

GLENN: Everywhere.

RIAZ: We're looking. And it's not just led by me.

It's a system that's replicated and designed to be done by many people. The system is called epic.

Forbes described, it was a game changer, a few years ago.

It's a different way of approaching people, that you have to engage through equalization, that's the E.

If I don't look at you as an equal, what are we talking about?

Like, why am I talking to you, if I don't think you're an equal. And beyond that, the P is personalization. I don't care what you read. Because whatever you read, I've got -- you've got stats, I've got stats. You've got articles, I've got articles. Now we go nowhere. What do you know? What have you experienced of racism? What have you experienced of suffering? That's what I need to know, but if you keep bringing -- I kept bridging these conversations. And I had seven people in the room, and 480 opinions. And suddenly Nancy Pelosi was there. Mitch McConnell. And I said, why are they in the room? They certainly won't be helping you fix your problem in the school. Then it's personalization. Then information gathering. The thing I tell people, stop talking about what you know. We know what you know. Ask people, what do I not know?

GLENN: That is -- I think that is one of the real keys to -- if people say, I can't talk to them. Or I want to just -- I need to change their mind. If you're approaching a conversation that way, you are saying to don't, they don't have anything of value, to teach me.

RIAZ: Yes.

GLENN: And when you both exchange that, just the basic thing. And I don't mean stats. I mean you as a person. How do you get there?

As soon as you get there, things change.

RIAZ: I always ask people, why are we not cyclopses? Why do we have two eyes that do the exact same thing? Not even an inch and a half apart? Because that's the only way to see depth and perspective. So I tell people, look at the world, with your view. You need the other view to see the world in two dimensions. You have to know, what you don't know. Constantly coming to TheBlaze, and you and I would sit down, whether we were traveling on a project. And I would learn so much about the world, that I never knew. And vice-versa.

GLENN: Likewise. Likewise.

RIAZ: And it was the only way I saw things with depth, it was no longer a two-dimensional edit. In the screen world. It was three-dimensional in the real world.

GLENN: I was thinking about this a lot lately. We have to wrap up. The Scripture, there must be opposition in all things.

RIAZ: All things. There must be.

GLENN: We don't want to argue. And we have to agree to one side. No. There must be opposition.

RIAZ: Solutions, yes.

GLENN: And to see depth. Riaz. Thank you so much. You can find out more on this. At connecteffect.us. That's connecteffect.us.

Shocking train video: Passengers wait while woman bleeds out

Surveillance footage of the murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska in Charlotte, NC, reveals that the other passengers on the train took a long time to help her. Glenn, Stu, and Jason debate whether they were right or wrong to do so.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: You know, I'm -- I'm torn on how I feel about the people on the train.

Because my first instinct is, they did nothing! They did nothing! Then my -- well, sit down and, you know -- you know, you're going to be judged. So be careful on judging others.

What would I have done? What would I want my wife to do in that situation?

STU: Yeah. Are those two different questions, by the way.

GLENN: Yeah, they are.

STU: I think they go far apart from each other. What would I want myself to do. I mean, it's tough to put yourself in a situation. It's very easy to watch a video on the internet and talk about your heroism. Everybody can do that very easily on Twitter. And everybody is.

You know, when you're in a vehicle that doesn't have an exit with a guy who just murdered somebody in front of you, and has a dripping blood off of a knife that's standing 10 feet away from you, 15 feet away from you.

There's probably a different standard there, that we should all kind of consider. And maybe give a little grace to what I saw at least was a woman, sitting across the -- the -- the aisle.

I think there is a difference there. But when you talk about that question. Those two questions are definitive.

You know, I know what I would want myself to do. I would hope I would act in a way that didn't completely embarrass myself afterward.

But I also think, when I'm thinking of my wife. My advice to my wife would not be to jump into the middle of that situation at all costs. She might do that anyway. She actually is a heck of a lot stronger than I am.

But she might do it anyway.

GLENN: How pathetic, but how true.

STU: Yes. But that would not be my advice to her.

GLENN: Uh-huh.

STU: Now, maybe once the guy has certainly -- is out of the area. And you don't think the moment you step into that situation. He will turn around and kill you too. Then, of course, obviously. Anything you can do to step in.

Not that there was much anyone on the train could do.

I mean, I don't think there was an outcome change, no matter what anyone on that train did.

Unfortunately.

But would I want her to step in?

Of course. If she felt she was safe, yes.

Think about, you said, your wife. Think about your daughter. Your daughter is on that train, just watching someone else getting murdered like that. Would you advise your daughter to jump into a situation like that?

That girl sitting across the aisle was somebody's daughter. I don't know, man.

JASON: I would. You know, as a dad, would I advise.

Hmm. No.

As a human being, would I hope that my daughter or my wife or that I would get up and at least comfort that woman while she's dying on the floor of a train?

Yeah.

I would hope that my daughter, my son, that I would -- and, you know, I have more confidence in my son or daughter or my wife doing something courageous more than I would.

But, you know, I think I have a more realistic picture of myself than anybody else.

And I'm not sure that -- I'm not sure what I would do in that situation. I know what I would hope I would do. But I also know what I fear I would do. But I would have hoped that I would have gotten up and at least tried to help her. You know, help her up off the floor. At least be there with her, as she's seeing her life, you know, spill out in under a minute.

And that's it other thing we have to keep in mind. This all happened so rapidly.

A minute is -- will seem like a very long period of time in that situation. But it's a very short period of time in real life.

STU: Yeah. You watch the video, Glenn. You know, I don't need the video to -- to change my -- my position on this.

But at his seem like there was a -- someone who did get there, eventually, to help, right? I saw someone seemingly trying to put pressure on her neck.

GLENN: Yeah. And tried to give her CPR.

STU: You know, no hope at that point. How long of a time period would you say that was?

Do you know off the top of your head?

GLENN: I don't know. I don't know. I know that we watched the video that I saw. I haven't seen past 30 seconds after she --

STU: Yeah.

GLENN: -- is down. And, you know, for 30 seconds nothing is happening. You know, that is -- that is not a very long period of time.

STU: Right.

GLENN: In reality.

STU: And especially, I saw the pace he was walking. He certainly can't be -- you know, he may have left the actual train car by 30 seconds to a minute. But he wasn't that far away. Like he was still in visual.

He could still turn around and look and see what's going on at that point. So certainly still a threat is my point. He has not, like, left the area. This is not that type of situation.

You know, I -- look, as you point out, I think if I could be super duper sexist for a moment here, sort of my dividing line might just be men and women.

You know, I don't know if it's that a -- you're not supposed to say that, I suppose these days. But, like, there is a difference there. If I'm a man, you know, I would be -- I would want my son to jump in on that, I suppose. I don't know if he could do anything about it. But you would expect at least a grown man to be able to go in there and do something about it. A woman, you know, I don't know.

Maybe I'm -- I hope --

GLENN: Here's the thing I -- here's the thing that I -- that causes me to say, no. You should have jumped in.

And that is, you know, you've already killed one person on the train. So you've proven that you're a killer. And anybody who would have screamed and got up and was with her, she's dying. She's dying. Get him. Get him.

Then the whole train is responsible for stopping that guy. You know. And if you don't stop him, after he's killed one person, if you're not all as members of that train, if you're not stopping him, you know, the person at the side of that girl would be the least likely to be killed. It would be the ones that are standing you up and trying to stop him from getting back to your daughter or your wife or you.

JASON: There was a -- speaking of men and women and their roles in this. There was a video circling social media yesterday. In Sweden. There was a group of officials up on a stage. And one of the main. I think it was health official woman collapses on stage. Completely passes out.

All the men kind of look away. Or I don't know if they're looking away. Or pretending that they didn't know what was going on. There was another woman standing directly behind the woman passed out.

Immediately springs into action. Jumps on top. Grabs her pant leg. Grabs her shoulder. Spins her over and starts providing care.

What did she have that the other guys did not? Or women?

She was a sheepdog. There is a -- this is my issue. And I completely agree with Stu. I completely agree with you. There's some people that do not respond this way. My issue is the proportion of sheepdogs versus people that don't really know how to act. That is diminishing in western society. And American society.

We see it all the time in these critical actions. I mean, circumstances.

There are men and women, and it's actually a meme. That fantasize about hoards of people coming to attack their home and family. And they sit there and say, I've got it. You guys go. I'm staying behind, while I smoke my cigarette and wait for the hoards to come, because I will sacrifice myself. There are men and women that fantasize of block my highway. Go ahead. Block my highway. I'm going to do something about it. They fantasize about someone holding up -- not a liquor store. A convenience store or something. Because they will step in and do something. My issue now is that proportion of sheepdogs in society is disappearing. Just on statistical fact, there should be one within that train car, and there were none.

STU: Yeah. I mean --

JASON: They did not respond.

STU: We see what happens when they do, with Daniel Penny. Our society tries to vilify them and crush their existence. Now, there weren't that many people on that train. Right?

At least on that car. At least it's limited. I only saw three or four people there, there may have been more. I agree with you, though. Like, you see what happens when we actually do have a really recent example of someone doing exactly what Jason wants and what I would want a guy to do. Especially a marine to step up and stop this from happening. And the man was dragged by our legal system to a position where he nearly had to spend the rest of his life in prison.

I mean, I -- it's insanity. Thankfully, they came to their senses on that one.

GLENN: Well, the difference between that one and this one though is that the guy was threatening. This one, he killed somebody.

STU: Yeah. Right. Well, but -- I think -- but it's the opposite way. The debate with Penny, was should he have recognize that had this person might have just been crazy and not done anything?

Maybe. He hadn't actually acted yet. He was just saying things.

GLENN: Yeah. Well --

STU: He didn't wind up stabbing someone. This is a situation where these people have already seen what this man will do to you, even when you don't do anything to try to stop him. So if this woman, who is, again, looks to be an average American woman.

Across the aisle. Steps in and tries to do something. This guy could easily turn around and just make another pile of dead bodies next to the one that already exists.

And, you know, whether that is an optimal solution for our society, I don't know that that's helpful.

In that situation.

THE GLENN BECK PODCAST

Max Lucado on Overcoming Grief in Dark Times | The Glenn Beck Podcast | Ep 266

Disclaimer: This episode was filmed prior to the assassination of Charlie Kirk. But Glenn believes Max's message is needed now more than ever.
The political world is divided, constantly at war with itself. In many ways, our own lives are not much different. Why do we constantly focus on the negative? Why are we in pain? Where is God amid our anxiety and fear? Why can’t we ever seem to change? Pastor Max Lucado has found the solution: Stop thinking like that! It may seem easier said than done, but Max joins Glenn Beck to unpack the three tools he describes in his new book, “Tame Your Thoughts,” that make it easy for us to reset the way we think back to God’s factory settings. In this much-needed conversation, Max and Glenn tackle everything from feeling doubt as a parent to facing unfair hardships to ... UFOs?! Plus, Max shares what he recently got tattooed on his arm.

THE GLENN BECK PODCAST

Are Demonic Forces to Blame for Charlie Kirk, Minnesota & Charlotte Killings?

This week has seen some of the most heinous actions in recent memory. Glenn has been discussing the growth of evil in our society, and with the assassination of civil rights leader Charlie Kirk, the recent transgender shooter who took the lives of two children at a Catholic school, and the murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska, how can we make sense of all this evil? On today's Friday Exclusive, Glenn speaks with BlazeTV host of "Strange Encounters" Rick Burgess to discuss the demon-possessed transgender shooter and the horrific assassination of Charlie Kirk. Rick breaks down the reality of demon possession and how individuals wind up possessed. Rick and Glenn also discuss the dangers of the grotesque things we see online and in movies, TV shows, and video games on a daily basis. Rick warns that when we allow our minds to be altered by substances like drugs or alcohol, it opens a door for the enemy to take control. A supernatural war is waging in our society, and it’s a Christian’s job to fight this war. Glenn and Rick remind Christians of what their first citizenship is.