July 2026 Q&A: Will I Run For Office? How I Read So Much? How To Fix The American Education System?

0:00Hey everyone, welcome back to Open Book. I've been going through all of your comments and questions. Obviously this is on YouTube, X, Instagram, Facebook, etc. Really good stuff coming in and really appreciate everybody thinking about us and chiming in here. I appreciate the support. You know, if you haven't subscribed to the channel yet, there's a button somewhere. If you could just press on it, it would really help us out a lot. but any event we're going to get right after it just want you guys to know that we are reading and listening to your comments trying to get to all of them and we're going to start this day with bad lad 8361 from youtube what would you like to copy from the uk okay so from the uk for the usa say my god so many different things but i think the uh the main one for me is the fish and chips i just think the fish and chips is uh spectacular i was in uh i think it was on chippy lane in wales giving myself a heart attack uh so i'm gonna go with the fish and chips but there's just so many different things uh i just get on with the brits and i love the british sense of humor i think that's probably another thing i would uh generally like uh instagram trans doubt life i don't know where you guys come up with these names but let's keep going who is your favorite modern leader and why such a great question you know people probably not going to believe this but i think the uh the the modern leader for me is mike bloomberg uh amazing leader unbelievable believable, uh, consensus builder ran the city.

1:43If you look at the city's metrics in New York City, why Mike was running the city, crime rates down, homeless down, cleanliness up, commercial activity up, population growth. I mean, he hit every possible metric that you could hit. And he was an incredible leader. Uh, if you want to talk about federal at the federal level, I'm going with Lee Kuan Yew. You say, whoa, why Lee Kuan Yew? Well, listen, he was the leader of Singapore. If he had ran China or some other country like that, a much bigger country, I think it would have been very transformative for the world. But those are the two leaders that come to mind for me in terms of my favorite modern leaders.

2:26I think President Clinton did a good job, got us to a budget surplus. Reagan helped us end the Cold War. But those are the guys that come to mind for me. How many books do you read in a week? This is from CrossFit137. It's about one a week. I'd like to tell you it was more than that. It really isn't. Some weeks, honestly, it's a little less than that. So I'm probably good for 48 books a year. I'm probably good at skimming, overviewing, pulling something off the shelf and reading the last chapter and things like that. I probably do a hundred of those, but really reading, listening to it on a book tape, digesting the whole thing.

3:07Uh, and so that I'm as knowledgeable as I can possibly be about the book. I'd say it's about 48 a year, just under one a week. Uh, X at Jan Stevens. All right, Jan, Wall Street, Washington, and media all claim to reward performance. Which one is the most dishonest about what it really rewards? I think Washington is the most dishonest, actually. I think we're all generally dishonest. I think that's the truth. It's the axiomatic fact of life. Homer taught us that years ago. We don't like the truth, so we live in a world of mendacity. Of course, we have to accept our own demise, so there's some level of denialism.

3:52As we're living here on earth. We're like, okay, everyone else is dying, not us. So there's some denialism there. And so we live in a world of mendacity, but I think Washington, it's almost like if you're telling the truth in Washington, you almost would get fired for that. I mean, they really don't like the truth there in Washington. So I would give that one the big thumbs up. Okay. YouTube at Andy's Images. All right. I like that name actually. If there was some sort of natural disaster and you only had a chance to save one thing not including people or pets what would it be and why wow that's such a really interesting question um you know this is sort of a weird thing it's the first thing that comes to mind for me is independence hall you say what the hell is he talking about well i visited with my children independence hall of course this is the birthplace of the United States.

4:49This is where the founding fathers snuck into Independence Hall and signed the Declaration of Independence. This is where the Continental Congress met to discuss the formation of the country. And if you look at that whole complex that has the Liberty Bell and the hall itself, I would want that monument to stand the test of time. It almost got knocked down actually many times in U.S. history. Thank God it was preserved. I just think when you stand there and you think about independence and you think about liberty, individual liberty, and the values that are endowed in human life, as Jefferson would say, by the creator for the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness, I think that's a monument that I would not want.

5:36It's not the Eiffel Tower, or it's not the White House or the Jefferson or Lincoln Memorial or anything like that. But that's something that I think stands as a beacon of hope for many people. So anyway, it's a little bit off the beaten path, but that's the one I'm thinking of. Instagram, Cotswold Diana in Asia. All right, I mean, I don't know. What was one piece of advice your parents gave you that you pass on to your kids? La Dolce Vita, it's a sweet life. Enjoy your life. You know, accept your fates. You know, the Bible says something that happy is the man or happy is the woman who is happy with their lot in life.

6:19And so you've got your square, if you will. You're sitting here on earth. You're only here for a short period of time. You may not have as much as someone who you're looking over the fence at, or you may have more than the other person who really cares. You know, enjoy your life. The simple things in life are the things that are going to give you the most pleasure, which is love and kindness and charity. And it's not really, you know, look, I have some material things and I lived a good part of my life without material things. I mean, they're fun to have and there are conveniences to wealth, but it's really the simple things that you get on with.

6:57I once wrote in my book, From Wall Street to the White House and back, if I had to go back to a one-room apartment with a Ravivir TV, watching the Mets on a black and white television with a six-pack, a beer, and a white t-shirt, I could do it because I lived that. And I think that's the most important thing to think about, simple things. All right. Nacho De La Vega. All right. Instagram ad nacho della Vega. What is your definition of success? So my definition may be different from yours. So I always tell people that. I define success by I've got 24 hours in the day. How am I using those 24 hours?

7:40Am I taking care of my health? Am I taking care of my family? Am I working on my business to grow my income, to provide for the people that I love? um those are how things that i define as success uh i'm not a big legacy person okay so what do i mean by that no one's going to remember me after i'm passed i don't care uh there's some great stuff on instagram where they say you know the minute you pass they're like you know passing hors d 'oeuvres they say a few nice things about you and then everybody moves on and by two generations are now my great grandchildren should i ever be lucky enough to have great grandchildren.

8:17I've got five kids, so hopefully one of these kids will eventually have a kid. Hint, hint. But they're not going to remember me. They're not going to care. So I think the number one thing is take your circumference of your life. It's 24 hours a day. How do you fill your day? When are you filling your day with things that are fulfilling and making you happy? That's the way to define success. LinkedIn, Libby Collette, how does your Catholic faith and form your approach to business, are there ethical and moral guardrails you follow based on Christian teaching or is it more transactional based on what presents value in the moment?

8:55This is an unbelievably good question, Libby Collette. So I would be worth a lot more money if I was a complete asshole, if I was a ruthless bastard and I was a cutthroat MF, so much more money because there were opportunities and times where I could have done something like that. I'm going to tell this story. It does reflect well on me. So people are going to think I'm patting myself on the back, but I don't care because this is really based and grounded in my Catholic faith. I got into a squabble with a business partner. I received a$3 million earn out check, which I was a hundred percent entitled to.

9:35I could have taken the entire check and put it in my pocket. And of course, that was money 20 years ago that was worth a lot at that point. But I just put it to you this way. I took one and a half million dollars. I contacted my business partner that I was in a squabble with. And I said, I wouldn't feel right. I wouldn't be comfortable with taking the whole amount, even though I was legally entitled to it. Here's your half. And that's from my Catholic faith. And that's from trying to do the right thing and trying to think about people and treating them fairly. And there's a lot of ruthless assholes on Wall Street that would have never done that.

10:12And maybe that$1.5 million would have grown into$20 million, or if I invested it in Apple,$30 or$40 million. But the point is, who cares? Okay, I did the right thing at the moment. You want to sleep well at night. And so that's me. Really good question. Michael Christensen, Facebook at Michael Christensen. Education seems to be another area of division in our country, with many seeking to educate their children privately and public policy support for education weakening in favor of private sources of education. How important do you think public education is to the health of our nation? Do you believe in bringing back civic classes in public education?

10:51What about national service? What's your best strategy to achieve the goals you support? So Michael, I can tell by the question that you sort of know where I live on this. And so let me just stay plaintively where I live on this. Number one, I'm a big believer in public school education. So for people outside the United States, what that basically means, it's the state-sponsored education. And that would have been for people like me. Growing up in a working-class family, you went to the school that was funded by the government, and they taught you whatever it was. Now, we did have civics classes back then.

11:28And I believe we are suffering from an absence of civic classes now. So I would certainly want civic classes to return. When you say national service, I think that's the thing that we're missing in the country. Remember, when we went to war in the Second World War, even in Vietnam, people from different parts of the country got together. They realized how much in common that we have with each other, and they earned respect for each other in our discourse. And so even if we had national service that wasn't related to the military, there was other types of public service, I think it would be important.

12:02I think we have a great country and people owe a debt to the country and we should think about it that way. But as it relates to public education, for me, we have people leaning towards the private sector because I think they feel that there's some bureaucracy and there's some union lack of accountability for some of the public school teachers in certain areas. And now I'm not saying that's broadly, it could be in certain inner cities and things like that, which is why people have relied on these charter schools or private sector education, but there's need for reform. I can also tell you that with AI coming and the development of AI, we can customize and we can really help teachers with customized lessons plans and fingerprint lessons plans for each person.

12:51Someone could have ADHD, someone could be learning impaired. shared. There's a whole host of different things that we can do to make the education system better. But I think we have a lot of warring interests and we have a lot of political incentives that are blocking that. But for me, three quick things. I'm for public education. That's really the bedrock where everybody's getting taught. I'm for accountability for teachers and I'm for using AI propitiously in the education process and definitely for civics and national service. Okay. But you knew that already, Michael. That's why you asked the question.

13:27All right. YouTube, hubris one. Okay. What is hubris one? I'm not sure what hubris one is, but imagine you're an ambitious 20-year-old kid who wants to make something of himself. What would you do, especially considering how AI is advancing to give yourself the best chance in life. So all the conservatives are going to be wickedly pissed at me for this. So let me just fire this in there. Zoran Mondani, I'm pronouncing his name right, was a theater major. And he's using it with great success in the political realm. And so I would say to you, it doesn't matter. Pick something that you really love.

14:06For me, I believe always having a good liberal arts education is going to make you versatile. It's going to make you balanced. It's going to make you a deep thinker. And so that's always something to do. And I would learn how to use AI. One of the things I've done recently is I went through the works of Dante once again, who I think is one of the brilliant Western writers. When I think about the canon of Western literature, to me, it's really Dante who speaks to me about human nature. He took elements of that from Homer and elements of that from Virgil, but he really laid out the bedrock, the foundational way that we think in terms of where our Western morals are.

14:49And I went hard at that, meaning I took AI, Claude, even ChadGBT, and said, reteach me the divine comedy, the Purgatorio, Paradiso, the Inferno, everything. and, you know, think about it. It's a divine comedy, right? What did Shakespeare say? All the world's a stage. You have a role in it. And, you know, in some ways, you have to look at the life that we're living with some level of comedy. So anyway, that's me. Use the AI to teach yourself things. That's something I did recently with Dante, relearning Dante. 11, YouTube, CatWhisper968. what three changes to checks and balances need to happen to prevent another fascist-like character in government.

15:38Trump is a symptom, not the total problem. Well, that's right, cat whisperer. He is a symptom. Writing a book called All the Wrong Moves coming out in September, this predates Trump. This is the history of everything that led up to Donald Trump. And so it's an indictment of both parties and policy decisions that we unfortunately made that didn't work out for us. I'm not saying that they weren't well intended. And I'm not saying there was anything nefarious going on. We just made a series of bad decisions that have hurt a large group of people in the country and led to anger-based politics, anger-based populism and Donald Trump.

16:16And so a couple of things I would want to do is I would want to reform, seek reform in the constitution to end Citizens United. That's the money being dumped into the campaigns. I think it's absolutely ridiculous and has really hurt the average person. Second thing I'd want to do is curb or try to restructure gerrymandering. I'm not sure if you could end it completely, but I would certainly want to have some things there related to the reform of it. And the third thing, and perhaps this is the most important thing, I would want the Department of Justice to be a little bit more independent from the executive branch.

16:55It turns out that with the wrong executive there, they can turn the Department of Justice into their own personal family law firm. And so I'd want to seek reform there as well. So those are a couple of big things. Instagram, Feli Devil, at Feli Devil. If Trump ever fired you, at what stage do you think you would have left your position? So it's a good question. I would have probably have gotten fired during the Charlottesville thing. Remember, I've always said this, guys. I would have not lasted long in that position. So on July 21st, 2017, if you called me and said, hey, Anthony, congratulations, you've been named the White House Communications Director, how long are you going to last in the position?

17:36I would have said, I don't know, maybe 90 days, not much longer than that. Well, why is that? Well, people don't remember this, but on that Friday, the 21st of July, 2017, the president told the White House staff secretary to make me report directly to him so in the memo it said i'm the communications director reporting directly to donald trump the exact quote when i was in the oval office was he didn't want reince previous's stench or his filth on me he was super pissed at previous at that time uh of course previous was out to get me i was out to get previous it was like a shootout at the okay corral shots fired everywhere i got rid of bannon prebis and i got rid of spicer and of course i bit the dust too at the same time.

18:23But remember, having me report directly to the president was a termination right there because any chief of staff that was coming in to replace Priebus couldn't accept that. And of course, John Kelly wouldn't have been able to accept that. He's a good friend of mine. And so I got fired, but I don't think it would have lasted much longer than I lasted. And c 'est la vie, that's what happens in life. The point is I've never played the victim and I've always been accountable for my mistakes during that period of time. Instagram, the Levy Cast. What book recommendations do you have for men in their 20s and 30s?

19:00You know, so many books. But I'll give you the big three. And they're simple books, but they're foundational books. Richest Man in Babylon by George Clayson. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. That's the holy trinity of books that you should be reading. right now. Pick them up. You can get them done in a week and write notes in those books. Okay. Those books have been foundational for me and I think they've helped me a great deal with my success. Okay. X at Flyers 1963. Sounds like you are the same vintage as me. You've traveled a lot.

19:39What's the nicest country or part of the U.S. you've traveled to? Well, there's a lot of amazing places. So my favorite city other than New York is London. My favorite place to visit in all of the world is Hawaii. And so that's not really a separate country to the United States, but and it does feel that way when I'm there. I guess my grandparents' home, Italy, is probably the one that I go to the most in the summer, whether it's Sicily or the Italian coast, places like Amalfi, Positano, et cetera. Those are probably the places that I love the most. But there's so many beautiful places. And I would just say, if you can travel, do travel.

20:23You learn while you're traveling. And let's face it, the food is awesome too in places like that. So let's keep going. YouTube at Pinacrandi. I'm concerned about the erosion of ties in Trump's America with its typical allies, I believe. I heard a guest on one of your podcasts say that as far as Trump is concerned, Putin can have Europe, Xi can have Asia and leave the Americas for him. Do you believe that post-Trump presidents will recognize a pressing need for the U.S. to realign with its traditional allies in the future? Also, do you believe Trump would adhere to the U.S. foreign policy to help Taiwan if attacked?

21:04Okay, so this is quadruply loaded. So let's go through it one step at a time. That's the multipolar world. There's been more than one podcast guest that has come on to talk about that. I think Professor Brands, when he wrote about the Asian century, that's probably the one that comes to mind for me. I would just say this. I think that Trump and his minions do believe that, But I don't think that that can really happen. Unfortunately, America stands still at the front of the line as it relates to its military, at the front of the line as it relates to its engagement. And even though somebody like Trump would want to disengage America, even what's going on in Ukraine is an example of him not being able to fully disengage.

21:56age. So I would say no to the complete radical change in U.S. foreign policy by one president. And so I would say, yes, there'll be a realignment back to our traditional allies after Trump is gone. And I think also when Trump says he's going to get rid of like troops in certain areas or he's going to close down bases and then the military reminds him, well, that's our footprint. We sort of need that to project our power and to help our economy. And so all that stuff is just rhetoric and nonsense. But anyway, do I believe Trump would adhere to U.S. foreign policy and protect Taiwan? The short answer to that is for now, yes, he 100 % would.

22:36He wouldn't want that to happen. He certainly wouldn't want their reward. No one would want that. I predict that the Chinese are not going to do that. If Taiwan were to fall back into the government of the People's Republic of China, I think that goes without any bloodshed. That would be a realignment like Hong Kong or Macau or other things. I don't think we're going to have a war there. I think they would try to figure out a way to have a peaceful cohabitation. But right now, because of Taiwan's semiconductor and the economics necessary to protect Taiwan and its democratic style form of capitalism, the president would have no choice but to help to defend Taiwan.

23:19Remember, we have a treaty with Japan, and Japan would be equally concerned about what was happening in Taiwan. And so we would be forced to act whether we would want to or not, or whether Trump would want to or not. And remember, she knows that, which is like the likelihood of this stuff happening is like a near zero. It just won't happen for the time being. Really good questions. Facebook. This is Peter Burton. how do you think your 20 year old self would view you now your beliefs and values my 20 year old self would want me to lose weight that's what my 20 year old my 20 year old self said hey dude you promised yourself when you were in your 60s you wouldn't gain weight look at you now so that's what my 20 year old self would say so i got to get my shit together related to that but i would say my beliefs and values have been pretty consistent i think my 20 year old self I would say, wow, you could have made a little bit more money.

24:14Maybe you could have been a little bit more high level successful, but then your values would have been corrupted. And I think that my 20-year-old self would say it was worth it. It's worth it to stay true to yourself as opposed to buying all the bullshit that's out there. So hopefully that's true, but I got to lose some weight. All right, Instagram, Brian Hutchinson. Would you ever run for office knowing how it all works? It's a serious question. I know you're running for reelection in your marriage. Bryant, the problem with running for office is you got to be a total, complete liar. I mean, it's just you have to lie about shit.

24:48And I don't know. I just think it'd be very hard for me to run for office. Having said that, I still see myself as a young person. I'm open-minded and the political cycles had changed and people were looking for something that's very common sense oriented in terms of reform as opposed to this great tribalism and polarity. I don't know. I mean, I want to be, I don't want to, I don't want to totally negate it, but I would have to get Deirdre on board. Okay. Instagram, Snore and Stuff. What's your favorite book you've read this year so far? Okay. So many, so many. Okay. But this one, I'm going to pull one up here.

25:29Okay. And this is a nonfiction. This is such a good book. It's called The Gods of New York by Jonathan Mailer. Oh my God. Such a good book. also i lived during that era in new york and so yeah everybody's in there ed kotch mike bloomberg donald trump i mean everybody's in there and this is really the template for what's happened over the last 30 years so that's great book i guess i'm going to go with the most recent one that i read for fiction is uh daniel silva's book a ransom so good i mean you won't be able to put it down It's just a great beach read. And my dear friend, Bonnie Gormis, is coming out with a new book in October.

26:09Of course, she wrote Lessons in Chemistry. So I haven't read that one yet, but I know that's going to be a good one too. All right, 19. Instagram, this is Dung You. How do you manage stress? Forget about it, okay? Forget about it. What are you going to do? Think about it. You're going to be dead forever, okay? So you've got stress right now. but whatever i mean you gotta be dead forever you gotta take it easy you know chris cuomo probably won't mind me saying this paid me a huge backhanded compliment this week uh chris said to me i'm taking anthony scaramucci's approach i said well what is that what is anthony scaramucci's approach he says you don't give a shit and i said you're right i actually don't give a shit you want to pee on me in the media don't give a shit you want to write a negative article about me the new york Post or Bloomberg, by the way, look at me.

27:01Don't give a shit. You want to give me stress by taking Bitcoin down 50%, sort of give a shit, but I don't really give a shit because I can't control it. And I think you got to live in the moment, my friend. You'll manage your stress better if you just let everything go. You're working hard. You're doing the best you can. The things you can control, you're trying to control. But at least you also accept from the universe that There's just so many things that you can't control. And so I think that's the best way to manage stress, Doug. Okay, last question for this month. Mike Moon Rip, 67-45. How impactful or noticeable has the football soccer World Cup been within the U.S.?

27:48I think it varied. I think the kids are in love with it. I think the ratings have been off the hook in terms of what's going on. The games have been very, very exciting. I was present and went to a World Cup game in 1994. I think I went to the Italy versus Ireland game, which is a great fun, a very famous game in World Cup lore. I went to the Panama-England game, where England bested Panama. And I've watched a lot of these games, but I think the kids love this. And I think soccer is growing in this country. Remember, our demography is such where as we get more Latin American and more European, more Mexican people into the country, even though Donald Trump doesn't like that, that's still happening.

28:34I think you'll see that this game, football slash soccer, by the year 2030, which is the next World Cup, I think it'll be even more exciting here in the United States, although I think it's being played in Morocco, Spain, and Portugal at that time. So that'll be exciting. Certainly by 2034, when it's in Saudi, I do think that this will be bigger than ever. All right, guys, that's a wrap on today and this month's question and answer session for Open Book. Remember, we are reading all your comments. I'm reading them. My producers are reading them. We like to hear what's on your mind, so keep sending the questions.