Kamala Celebrates Herself, 1/6 Pipe Bomber Details, and Future of Film Industry, with Stu Burguiere and Zachary Levi | Ep. 1209

27:04He appears to favor pink or purple ponies with long, multicolored manes. In one post, a Star Wars-inspired pony says in a speech bubble, I'm not cute, I'm deadly, which Cole says is a line from a video game, Star Wars, The Old Republic. A Tumblr account focuses on My Little Pony art, which used one of his usernames comment, somebody who has his username commented on a drawing of a pony with an M60 machine gun, writing, Eh, I'd give her an RPG. What can I say? Explosions are cool. referring to a rocket propelled grenade launcher. Very interesting to have the potential pipe bomber talking about how explosions are cool in all caps.

27:45Then they explained to their audience, a man who is part of the My Little Pony community subculture is known as a brony. And they referenced the fact that as of 2017, this is a large enough subculture that they were holding annual conventions. Didn't I tell you? And we actually pulled some video from one of those conventions just so you could get a look-see, Stu Bergeer. I mean, I know you haven't been, but let's take a little look at what you might encounter if you were to go to the next one.

28:23There's no straight bronies. They just haven't met me yet. I've met plenty of straight bronies. They're fine. They can come to my rodeo anytime. Oh, my God. Do you ever kiss these dolls? No. I snuggled, but that's about it. What do you think of guys that are into My Little Pony? Nothing wrong with it. Guys who cosplay My Little Pony are hot. They're hot! What do you like about My Little Pony? It's innocent. The characters themselves are very cute. I like the music, and I love Pinkie Pie, and how she boings and how she defies gravity. Why do so many people like it? Because it stops them feeling low.

28:54Oh my gosh. Because they see cute little colorful animals on screen, and they kind of wish their friends were like that. Maybe I should be Pinkie Pie. There you go, here. You can home like this. Yay! why is it so popular now with adult men i think because a lot of them want to sleep with fluttershy do you want to hook up with fluttershy i yeah i don't think you even have to ask oh my god i actually dispute that that's not furry culture that is furry culture um there's something very off about those people i think we can all agree It wasn't all men. It was a fair amount of women, too, some of whom the men want to sleep with some character in the My Little Pony world.

29:38And I think that this guy's interest in this community will come as a surprise to approximately no one. Not at all. Absolutely no one. And I do want to say that I was going to wear a horse head for this interview. I'm so glad I didn't. It would have matched. It would have been very awkward. awkward. Yeah, it's not surprising at all, is it, Megan? And I don't know about you, but like when I, their first couple of incidents we had here with people in this generalized community, whether it's the trans community, the furry community, or the brony community, committing acts of violence, I kind of had a, you know, I had a nerdy reaction to it, which was like, I don't know, is this really supported?

30:28Is this, you know, is it just one person? And we're all kind of noticing it because this is, you know, kind of bizarre lifestyle. And then they just keep piling up. The incidents keep piling up and piling up and piling up. And we're talking about, you know, some of the major stories of our lifetime, Charlie Kirk, you know, tied to these communities. I mean, many of these have happened. And I, you know, I think it's real and in a way, not surprising when you kind of drill down and think about what the process is, you know, particularly in the trans community, but also I would, I would assume in the brony community at some level, I assume by the way, most bronies are not committing violent acts.

31:05I don't want to paint too broad a brush on this wonderful community. But like, you know, it's true that I think there is a connection there with one trait across all of these communities, which is a lack of connection to reality at some level, right? The idea that you can't recognize. Right. Like we can't recognize what gender you are. Like that is a major situation like going on with you. And if you're dealing with it, I'm sorry about that. But like that's a major problem. Like it's something that you're not necessarily connected to reality. If you are, you know, maybe dressing up as a furry animal and thinking, you know, living a good chunk of your lifestyle in a mascot uniform, again, it's a strange choice at the very least.

31:48And I'd put the brony situation in that category as well. I think that's a connection. I think that's a real thing. Because when you are fantasizing about, you know, all of these different situations that no one else around you can recognize, no one else around you sees. You're seeing things that other people don't see. We typically, you know, arrange that with a problem of recognizing reality. And when you have that delusional disorder. Yeah. And maybe that is connected to thinking, taking an action, like shooting a father in front of thousands of people is rational. That's not rational. It's not rational thought.

32:28But like in when you get down these roads and you have the lack of ability to connect a foundation of shared understanding with the rest of the people around you, it's not surprising you take erratic action. everything from a violent action to maybe dressing up as a pony. You mentioned Charlie Shooter. Tyler Robinson is the man accused of that crime and whom I believe 100 % is responsible for that crime. My only real question, and it was confirmed as a subject of inquiry currently by FBI Director Cash Patel, is whether trans Tifa had a role in it, whether some of these more radicalized trans people out in the community either knew about it or possibly helped.

33:13So that remains to be seen, but I have zero doubt Tyler Robinson was the shooter. Um, and so he was connected with furry culture and the trans community. Uh, Thomas Crooks connected, connected with furry culture and went by they, them. Now you got this accused pipe bomber, accused, I mean, this is a new one to be honest, like connected to the My Little Pony. But I'm telling you, I wasn't surprised one bit because of my friend's experience. I remember we were like, Christina, no, this is, you're going to get an Eiffel. And sure enough, she did. She did. She sent us pictures from the convention center, like it was at a hotel.

33:51And my friends and I were all laughing. You know, she's like this innocent mom with her two girls. Anyway, just not for nothing, because Debbie Murphy pulled it. For those of you not familiar with My Little Pony, here's a little ad for My Little Pony. It's marketed appropriately to little girls, who is the target audience. What'd you say, Deb? Oh, it's from the 80s, of course. Yes, we all remember. Here we go.

34:33I take her wherever I go. My little pony, my little pony. All little girls crushing the hair of their ponies. I love you, my little pony. My little pony. Each sold separately. Collect them all. Yeah. Only now we have the modern day pipe bomber twist of I give her an RPG. Explosions are cool. Trying to get either a machine gun or an RPG into the hooves of the my little pony. and there's more on this accused pipe bomber, Brian Cole Jr. A former high school classmate told the Washington Post that Cole had carried a My Little Pony backpack and it will come as a surprise to no one, had been teased for it because that is not something any normal, straight, non-furry man would ever do.

35:26And then the Post points the following out, New York Post. The subculture of bronies was very online and unique and attracted a lot of male fans who were breaking gender norms, which attracted a lot of attention, said Dr. Daniel Chadbourne, an assistant professor of psychology who wrote the book, Meet the Bronies, the psychology of the adult My Little Pony fandom. Okay, so he says a lot of male fans who are breaking gender norms, I'm telling you, it's all part of the same effed up mental sickness still. He goes on to say the subculture here was not generally sexual, but he's not surprised that within the community, some of its members are troubled.

36:15Someone who is disaffected is often going to look for spaces to engage in for a sense of identity and belonging. is this is all further evidence that these truly, like for too long, we've been treating them all as harmless little kinks or fetishes or just differences. And I'm sorry, they're not harmless. Like they can be, but I would suggest to you that the majority of people who are drawn to furry culture and certainly the people who find themselves declaring that they are trans have serious psychological issues that you are better to stay away from. and we are better as a society if we can seriously treat early as opposed to indulging it.

36:57Now, I want to go on because there's actual news about this investigation that's very interesting, and it comes to us from Miranda Devine in a piece she posted on December 7th, two days ago, then updated yesterday. Okay, and it's about this alleged shooter, first from his grandmother, who says, quote, he's very naive. He's almost autistic-like. He doesn't understand a lot of stuff. She says he's slow. He may be 30, but he's got the mind of a 16-year-old. Now, that could be true, or it could be a grandma trying to say he's not smart enough to be a pipe bomber. Don't know. Then Miranda gets into the following.

37:40How did Ray's, Christopher Ray's FBI, miss, allegedly, miss the phone used by the suspect in the vicinity of the DNC and RNC headquarters on the evening of January 5th when the pipe bombs were planted. Because Kash Patel told me when he came on the show on Friday that he believes it was intentional, that it wasn't just a mistake. But not intentional like, I don't want to catch a would-be killer. Intentional of like, I want to focus on Russiagate. I want to focus on other things that are bad for Trump and not this anymore. But she asked this question in part because we saw in the FBI affidavit in support of this guy's arrest that Cole's cell phone, quote, engaged in approximately seven data session transactions with his cell phone provider's towers between 7.39 and 8.24 p.m.

38:32in the area of the RNC and DNC on January 5th, 2021, locating him at the right place at the right time. That info was obtained by the FBI within weeks of the discovery of the pipe bombs. and she accurately points out it took the FBI nearly five years though to track down and arrest Cole Jr. Then she brings up the case of Steve Dantuono. Steve Dantuono, D-A-N-T-U-O-N-O, was head of the FBI's Washington field office until his retirement in December 22, who was in charge of the crucial first year of the pipe bomb case, as well as the Capitol riot investigation. He was assigned to Washington one month before the 2020 election from his previous role in Detroit, where he ran the disastrous Gretchen Whitmer fed napping case that resulted in multiple mistrials and acquittals amid claims of FBI entrapment.

39:26That's, this is Miranda writing correctly. Dan Tuono, who has since found a job at KPMG, also led the controversial FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago. This guy's like right in the middle of some of the most controversial FBI actions in history. In any case, in June 2023, he testified before Congress do, claiming that the FBI had received corrupted data in the pipe bomb case from one of the three major cell phone carriers, and that that may have been the reason the FBI could not find the pipe bomber. He said, and I quote, we did a complete geofence, but there's some data that was corrupted by one of the providers, not purposely by them.

40:11It was just an unusual circumstance that we have corrupt data from one of the providers. Can't remember which one right now, but for that day, which is awful because we don't have that information to search now. So could it have been that provider? Yeah. With our luck, you know, with this investigation, it probably was. Yet all three of the cell phone carriers contacted by the congressional committee now investigating the pipe bomb case confirmed to Congress that they, quote, did not provide corrupted data to the FBI and that the FBI never informed them of any issues with accessing the cellular data.

40:52So Mr. Duantono appears to have been either wrong or lying in trying to explain to them why the cell phone tower data was a dead end for them. Because they're saying, if you have a bunch of info from two, but not from the third, how do you know this is the full universe of people? And how can you really sort of cross reference? And therefore, we couldn't find the guy. Well, it was no problem for Dan Bongino. and also we just got this testimony like two months ago from the subcommittee or to the subcommittee saying there was absolutely no corruption of the data as that man testified under oath.

41:35So what is going on here? It's a great question. It will be challenging for me to give you a serious answer with the My Little Pony theme song running through my head constantly since you played that commercial. My Little Pony. It's a great ad. It's a great ad. So far, I have put Kamala Harris's bust and the My Little Pony theme song in her head. And this is a problem for more than just you, Stu. I'm sure many of our listeners feel the same. I think that's true. You know, it's a fascinating story because the length of time it took for us to get to anything, right? You know, there was so many bits and pieces of information that kept popping up about the pipe bomber.

42:16And we just never really got to anything. It seems shocking because you'd think with their desire to blame someone who supposedly liked Donald Trump for really anything, you'd think that would have been a target if that was real. It certainly doesn't seem like the information we have about this particular individual aligns with someone who would support Donald Trump, which is something I guess he said in an interview at some point, or at least he said that he thought the election was stolen allegedly. We'll see if that proves to be true. but you know but then his grandmother came out and said he is not a trump supporter he's not political at all yeah so i you know who knows could just be a crazy person could be a conspiracy theorist could be something else like thomas crooks thomas crooks was hard left or sorry he was hard right before he went hard left he was googling where joe biden was in the days leading up to the trump assassination attempt then obviously he settled in on trump like it is very possible that these disturbed, disaffected, like tricked out young men are not really political, that they have just violence on their mind.

43:26It is also possible they get used by somebody who corrupts their feeble minds. That's something a lot of people have been asking, especially about Thomas Crooks. I don't know about this guy, but anyway, it is possible that this wasn't political, even though the targeted entities were the RNC and the DNC. Yeah, yeah, no, very true. And I think when you look at like how all of this played out, you have a guy doing, you know, multiple failed investigations and being aligned with kind of a bunch of big embarrassments, but politically targeted ones, right? Things that would end up, generally speaking, favoring the Democrats and the Biden administration at the time.

44:06And, you know, it's fascinating how these people who do these things that wind up being complete disasters always seem to fail up. Like, you know, he walks out of all of this and he's got a gig at KPMG, right? Like, it's a very strange development. You'd think this is a person who'd be like, hey, you know, is there, you know, Subway? Do you have a gig available? Like, it seems like that's the profile we've seen from someone like that. And, you know, honestly, there's been so many theories on this and so much speculation. And a lot of it ending up in conspiracies and all of that. And it's kind of understandable because of all the really strange things that have happened.

44:43When government officials are telling us the data was corrupted, a new administration gets in and they are almost instantly able to get a hold of this data. The data is fine. Yeah, it's fine. It's been fine the whole time. I mean, you know, when you hear the data is corrupted, it's like, OK, well, we just got to give up. There's there's nothing we can do here. He's wearing a mask. He's fully clothed. He's got the – his face is covered. There's no way we're going to figure this out without cell phone data. And then at the end of the day, we just have it, right? There are cameras in the area that were pointed towards places that could have – That's another thing.

45:18Yeah. So that's another thing Miranda is pointing out, that all images and videos released by the FBI were low-res and choppy. This is before. She points out Mike Benz, a former State Department official during Trump's first term and an executive director of the Foundation for Freedom Online also claims a blur bar or pixelation effect has been laid over the suspect's eyes in the footage that shows him looking directly at the camera while sitting on a bench outside of the DNC building. Judging by the video, it might also be goggles, but either way, nobody recognizes the suspect, perhaps by design.

45:48But now this FBI takes over, and before we know it, they've got, you know, better pictures of him, higher res, and she also points out that by the end of February, 2021, the Bureau had begun actively diverting resources away from the pipe bomb investigation. It's, you know, they, they did have other priorities under Joe Biden. They were, they were tracking grannies at abortion clinics. They were tracking parents at COVID meetings who literally just went over their allotted time, not making that up. The Merrick Garland testified before Congress on what led them to consider labeling parents domestic terrorists pursuant to that letter that went to Joe Biden.

46:32And one of the items was parents going over their time at the microphone at school board meetings. That's the insanity that the DOJ and the FBI were looking into instead of trying to find this guy who, by the way, Kash Patel and the FBI said had other bomb parts still sitting in his room, presumably purchased after the J6 date. so God knows what he was planning. You know, it's like, perhaps we should have been focused on him instead of the parent who went over her allotted time. Yeah, and that is, and to add on to that unseemly pile of priorities, they were also taking the cell phone information of sitting U.S.

47:16senators and looking at what they were doing. Yes. And also running a multi-year campaign to fool the American people into believing their president had some cognitive abilities that he clearly did not have. This is a, you know, they, it's his, I think, I really think over time, this will become a situation where we really understand historically how significant a lot of this stuff was. I mean, you know, we're talking about the American people without a president, basically for multiple years, at least making the decisions on a day-to-day basis. Really big things like this. You mentioned the pro-life centers.

48:00Some of those cases are fascinating. I mean, situations where local police didn't see it as enough of a priority. Local police were like, ah, we saw the details of this investigation. We're not going to charge this individual. And then mysteriously, weeks later, the federal government gets involved. In a minor case with no charges in a locality where no one was injured, there's a little bit of a scuffle, a little bit of an argument, but that's really it. And then the feds start coming in and charging individuals for crimes of blocking abortion clinics. And how do they even know about a case like that, let alone want to prosecute it?

48:39All the things that the Democrats say about Trump, they say he's targeting their enemies. They say he's out of control. All he wants is power. He wants to, you know, go blow through the Department of Justice and all the things they say about him are all very familiar to them because they were doing them all themselves for four years. And, you know, that has to be exposed. It really is. We don't get to the bottom of that and and come up with some sense of consequence for the people who were involved in it. You know, this stuff is going to keep happening. We should have a congressional like hearing on this and maybe this committee that Miranda references is going to look into with the subcommittee.

49:13But I want to know who gave the stand down order, you know, if one was given. Or was it just a generic, like, hey, we're all moving on. Like, hey, here's 20 other things for you to focus on. So you're not going to look at. But it's very, it is weird that they were making progress and, you know, getting somewhere on the investigation. And then suddenly they had no interest in it. Look, I only know two things. We have to stand for the people. All right, that's number one. I know that. And I know this, Stu, as we go to break. I know this. Watch. My little pony, my little pony. Come and brush her hair.

49:56My little pony, my little pony. Tie a ribbon to show how much I care. My little pony, my little pony. I take your word. That's rocking. I love it. Someone's got to remake it. It's for you to marinate on until we come back, which we will do in just a couple of minutes. Be right back with Stu. You know, the holidays are always full of surprises. Here's one. When it comes to religious freedom, you might be surprised to learn which states rank low on the Religious Liberty in the States Index. The First Liberty Institute, the nation's leading law firm protecting religious freedom, just released this index, and it ranks all 50 states on how well they protect your right to live out your faith.

50:36The results? Hmm, full of surprises. If you have not heard of First Liberty, they're different. They've been on the front lines defending religious freedom for nearly 30 years. When your faith comes under attack, they are first in the fight. And they do it without ever sending their clients a bill. That's right, they do not charge a dime. They have a win rate of over 90 % on their cases, including a 9-0 record at the U.S. Supreme Court. This Religious Liberty in the States Index is an independent, peer-reviewed study that gives you the real picture of religious liberty across America. Want to see where your state ranks or others do?

51:10Get your free copy today at firstliberty.org slash Megan. That's firstliberty.org slash M-E-G-Y-N.

51:22Stu Bergeer of Stu Does America is back with me now. Stu, our friend Piers Morgan sat down with Nick Fuentes and did the interview that everybody wanted Tucker to do with Nick Fuentes. And I'm sure this is going to make everyone super happy and put to bed the controversy of Nick Fuentes and his appeal. Oh, wait. No, it won't at all. But here's a little taste of how it went. Take a listen here to SOT 12. Just to clear up one of the many theories about you, I've no idea what the answer is and you haven't got to answer it, but are you actually attracted to women? I am attracted to women. You're not gay?

52:06No. But I will say that women are very difficult to be around. Okay. So there's that. And do you think they should have the right to vote? I do not, no. Absolutely not. They should stay at home? Well, yeah, absolutely. See, basically, you're just a misogynist old dinosaur, aren't you? For a young guy. I mean, I know I'm the boomer. I know I'm the boomer here. But actually, you're a 27-year-old dinosaur, aren't you? Aren't you, Nick Fuentes? I am. All women are annoying. All women grow old. They all get fat. Says the guy. Have you ever had sex? No, absolutely not. Wow. Says the guy who's never got laid.

52:50Okay. I mean, it's interesting. You know, Piers did his thing, but honestly, I don't understand the value that comes out of any of it. I got to be honest. I love Piers. But like, I don't get it. I don't think this is worth doing. I just think if you don't like Nick Fuentes, you should ignore Nick Fuentes. I don't think people hearing and we're going to, here's another soundbite. This is him on Hitler. it's not going to surprise anybody. Here he is. You think Hitler was very fucking cool? Yes, I do. And I'm tired of pretending he's not, to be honest. This is the problem, you see. It's a bit like when you just say, I'm a racist.

53:31You're a racist who thinks Hitler's cool, but you're not anti-Semitic. If you're a Jewish person watching this, what are they thinking? Just one more, Stu. Here he is. one of the things that was arable. If you go to his show, the stuff's not arable. His thoughts on blacks. This is where you talk about Jews, women and blacks. Take a listen. They're always coming up with, no, it's not the Jews. No, it's not women. No, it's not blacks. It's actually really complicated. No, it fucking isn't at all. Jews are running society. Women need to shut the fuck up. Blacks need to be imprisoned for the most part.

54:17And we would live in paradise. It's that simple. OK, would you like to clarify what you meant there? That's all true. That's 100 percent true. Everything I said in that clip is true, including that blacks need to be imprisoned for the most part. Yeah, yes. OK. So I don't like, what are your thoughts? Cause I just don't, I love Pierce and he, he does a lot of controversial interviews and it's kind of part of his brand. But for me personally, like I see absolutely no redeeming value in doing this. Yeah. I mean, first of all, can we go back to the bronies? Can we talk about that instead? Is that possible?

55:04That was the cleaner, nicer portion of our time today. Yeah. You know, look, obviously his views are awful. And I think it's quite obvious to everyone that it's awful. You know, Piers can program his own show, just like Tucker can program his own show, and you can program your own show, and I can program mine. You know, some people think this is interesting. And I think there's a lot of views on this where it's like, God, his views are abhorrent. I fully agree with that. People question about whether his, views are somewhat, I don't know, manufactured? Is it partially a shtick? I don't know. I don't know the guy and I don't want to know the guy.

55:42At the end of the day, though, there's like a different section that I also fall into, which is I just don't find him all that interesting. You know, I don't get a lot out of it. I don't need or really care about any of his views. When you're leading with Hitler was cool and I like Stalin, I kind of made up my mind about the Holocaust a really long time ago. I don't feel the need to re-entertain it. You're just trying to be subversive. You're just trying to be subversive and attract attention by saying the most outrageous things. Yeah. It's not a criticism of peers. It's a criticism of the people who are like, Tucker needed to do his interview with Nick Fuentes a certain way, you know, to like show people that that side of him.

56:21And I just feel like if you spent 20 seconds just Googling the name, you will get all of those views. They will be the first thing that's there on you. I don't think there's a huge population of people who listen to Tucker's show who walked away with, that's a really interesting guy. I want to know more. People know that name. They know the name Nick Fuentes now because mostly the left, but also the right have made him a boogeyman and, um, that whatever they, they did that for whatever their reasons were, but now he's better known than ever. And, uh, he's been on a bunch of other podcasts. I, this is why, like, I've never asked him for an interview and I have no desire to interview him.

57:01I can cross-examine with the best of them. Trust me. If I want to do a contentious interview, I know how. This just seems pointless to me. To me, it's like you want to cross-examine reasonable people who are taking an outrageous position on something. Someone who's gettable, someone who you might actually find fundamentally decent, but who's just gone like off the deep end on something. That's something somebody I would talk to, but I don't really want to talk to crazy. And I don't really want to talk to, I'm just subversive looking for attention. It's not that interesting to me. Yeah. I mean, you know, you interviewed Vladimir Putin, right?

57:43Like this is a person that has really awful views and I think is, oh God, even worse. But yeah, you know, there is value in interviewing someone who, particularly someone who has power. And, you know, I'm not saying that there's no case for an investigation on what the phenomenon is, if there is one. I mean, there's some belief that they're, you know, it's a little bit overstated, which I tend to agree with. You know, I run in conservative circles, never met anybody in my entire life who brought up anything about Nick Fuentes, that they watched the show. I mean, they probably exist. I don't know, but I've never met anyone.

58:22He's become like a David Duke figure. We're like, you know the name, you know generally what he stands for. It's not really something you're going to spend any time with. Yeah. And I don't know, Megan, is it okay? Because I see a lot of people posting online about the back and forth between what you're supposed to do in these moments, right? Like you're supposed to take him on at full strength and make sure everything he says is denounced and everyone who talks to him, you denounce them. And I can understand that argument. You know, I really do think his views are absolutely terrible. And I see another side of people who are fighting back and saying, no, it's a really important phenomenon.

58:54We need to talk about him constantly. And, you know, I guess there's some validity to that view as well. At the end of the day, though, do I have to be interested in everything? I have a life I live, right? I've got kids at basketball games and baseball games and gymnastics meets. Like, do I really have to come here and try to make a case that the Holocaust happened? What year is this? It's so true. It's just flatly uninteresting to me at the scale we're at. It seems like you feel the same way with it. I've heard about it. I'm done with it. Conspiracy theories too. Like I could spend all day. If you want to take on somebody's favorite conspiracy theories, you could devote your whole show to it every day, debunking each latest iteration of it.

59:38Who wants to spend their time like that? It's utterly pointless, by the way, because you can't talk people who believe conspiracy theories out of their beliefs of those conspiracy theories. They don't respond. Like the truly conspiratorial thinkers do not respond to hard facts that disprove their theories at all. They just find a way around them. They find a new way to justify them. I mean, you truly would be better just banging your head against your desk. So it's like, why not? Why do it? Why not spend the time delivering what you know is real news that actually might affect people's lives and let those chips on these other things fall where they may?

1:00:14It's just, it's America. You can be crazy. It's America. You can be racist. It's America. You can be subversive. And what we can do is use the law when someone like a Nick Fuentes gets into, let's say, a hiring position and those views are unleashed on a staff position or a staffer, somebody working for him. Now that's illegal, but it's not illegal to have his views and it's not illegal for him to be popular, which he is amongst a certain contingent. And they know that contingent knows better than you and I know what he actually stands for because he makes zero attempts to hide it, especially on his show.

1:00:51So even if you go over to Tucker's show or whoever's show and you manage to like act like you're kind of a normie. As soon as somebody tunes into your actual show and you're Nick Fuentes, they're going to hear exactly what you stand for. He is not shy on his show. He says it all. It's shocking. So anyway, I just thought it was sort of an interesting social situation where somebody did the thing they wanted of Tucker. I don't think it'll change anything. Yeah, I tend to think the same way. And I understand some people feel like really passionate to call out every one of these things. I'm glad there is the other side, that if people are searching, the very few that could be convinced, I'm glad that those views are out there.

1:01:28You know, but like, I tend to, like, I was reading a piece by Coleman Hughes recently. Yes, I read it. Yeah, it was a great piece. I haven't talked about it. Very good. And he's, you know, he's fantastic. And I think he had a really good breakdown of this and kind of talked about Nick Fuentes. He did another video about how Nick Fuentes has one opinion on, his show, and then he comes to mainstream podcasts and he changes that. And that might have been what Pierce was getting at there saying, okay, you're on a mainstream podcast. Now, don't soften it. Let me ask you these direct questions, which maybe there's some value to.

1:02:02But I think about Coleman Hughes. He wrote a book, his most recent book was about race. And it was excellent. It is, I believe, an important book, a book that America should know about and should understand how to really dissect a topic like that that's difficult. If you don't know Coleman, he's an African-American guy, but he's talking about race in a really sensible way and solving, I think, a lot of these problems and making real impact on it. If anyone read it, Nick Fuentes' views on these things are getting a hell of a lot more publicity from the left, the right, the middle, and everything else than this incredible book that came out last year that should have been much more in the spotlight and much more part of a serious conversation.

1:02:50Like, I'm not saying that someone who's, you know, literally threatening to imprison people based on the race is not a threat. You should take those people seriously at some level. But he's also a goofball. And I don't know what to believe about it. If we lose the battle on whether the Holocaust happened, we're lost as a society already. And I don't know if there's anything to repair. Maybe instead of spending another 25 ,000 segments on Nick Fuentes, go back and read the Coleman Hughes book. That's something really serious and did some real work on race and I'd encourage people to pick it up and read it.

1:03:22Yeah. I don't, it's just like, I know Jews feel targeted by Nick Fuentes, not for nothing, but women are just as targeted in his rants. So are blacks. I just like, I'm sorry, but this is America and people are allowed to say terrible things about us. That's life. It's fine. They think he's been mainstreamed. I don't think he's been mainstreamed. I think Tucker took a look to see why he was growing in popularity. But now there's a question about whether he even is. I saw an interesting report on X the other day suggesting a lot of his support has been somewhat overstated. It was astroturfed and he's been pumped up by people who want to undermine the United States, a lot of foreign actors, making him seem more important than he really is, which makes perfect sense to me.

1:04:07Okay, let's keep going because there's one other thing I've got to get to with you before you go. Okay. Everyone takes maybe a few extra days off, I think, if they can, in the summer. because it's nice weather. And for a lot of us who are parents, our kids are off and you want to see them. And if you can see them like on a beach by an ocean, so much the better. So I don't begrudge anybody who wants to take their vacation in the summer. I do, however, begrudge taking off more than half of your working days over the course of the summer when you are paid reportedly somewhere near$30 million, like Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski.

1:04:52The Free Beacon did this amazing report on how over the summer, it's actually from June, July, August, September, and October, so into the fall as well. Morning Joe, that show was without at least one of its married, they live together, they're married, co-hosts for literally dozens of episodes. So how does the one, like, you don't go on vacation by yourself without your spouse, not if you're normal. So what's like the one asleep in bed while the other one gets up early and actually fulfills their contractual obligations? So between May 27th and November 15th, Scarborough and Brzezinski appeared together on just 70 of 124 episodes, a Washington Free Beacon review found.

1:05:33So yeah, so 56 % of their shows had both of them on cam, and 44 % of their shows did not. For 44 % of their shows, they were missing one of the hosts. Scarborough missed 29 shows. That's six weeks. Six weeks. Brzezinski missed 41. One out of every three work days, eight weeks she had off during that brief time for eight. In July, she was out for two consecutive weeks, appearing on only about half of that month's episodes. Neither was present for 16 shows, leaving Morning Joe's C-list, Jonathan Lemire, Willie Geist, and Caddy Kay to fill in. Caddy Kay opened the one show by saying, I'm Caddy Kay, in for Joe, Mika, and Willie.

1:06:24Everyone's off except me. I'm so sorry. Aw. Their chronic absenteeism, reports the beacon, has reportedly frustrated long-suffering staffers leading to chaos and a workplace and meltdown because the staff doesn't get all that time off, Stu. Just the two big stars do. Someone saying there's no leadership, according to a senior producer. Every day is a scramble. Who's hosting? What's the tone? Who's running the ship? No one knows. They have special deals. Endless vacation time. then they suddenly turned it around and starting November 12th just days before MSNBC was forced to switch its name to MS Now they got back to work and have since had a perfect attendance streak three whole weeks showing up for their jobs the longest since Memorial Day.

1:07:12In fact their record before November 12th was a whopping seven days in a row that happened in July their compensation Payson package is said to be in the same league as Rachel Maddow's, which is where I got the 30 million from. She makes between 25 and 30. This is crazy. This is elitist snobbery of people who are living in a totally different manner from the people who watch them. They're down in Jupiter, Florida, Stu, at some mansion. I'm sure it's on the water. not having anything to do with the communities or the people that they are supposed to be reporting to. And all of this perfectly explains why they cover the news the way they do, why they sound the way they do, and why they just generally have an air of, I'm better than you.

1:08:07Yeah. I mean, you know, that's fascinating. And there's got to be a story behind this, right? I mean, I guess there's an outlier possibility. There's something we don't know about. It could be a health issue or who knows. I mean, you could set that aside. It would be odd. Maybe they're passing it back and forth to each other. It would be really tragic. As one gets better, the other gets sick. Who knows? All I know is a couple of things. Number one, Joe Scarborough years and years and years ago had a radio show. And you might not remember that because no one listened to it at all. But when the show was at one point was taken off the air, he instead of saying what I believe to be the truth, that his ratings were so terrible that he was just getting canceled.

1:08:51He came up with this elaborate excuse that the show, which I believe was two hours long, needed to go into a hiatus in order to figure out how to add a third hour. Now, I'm not, you know, I don't know. I'm not a mathematician. I might not have all the details. What it seems to me to do is you just stay for the next hour and keep talking. Like that was my solution for them. You'll be shocked to hear the hiatus never ended. They never came back with a third hour, which, you know, he has a history of, you know, making things up and, you know, excusing bizarre circumstances. behind the scenes. The best Joe Biden ever.

1:09:37Yeah, right. Oh, God. Not to mention completely misleading the country in the most egregious way possible. I mean, he I think he was the worst one, honestly, he was everybody in the media. Yeah, really is say something. The other thing is, you know, I grew up listening to New York radio and Mike and the Mad Dog were a big sports show. And they would do the show together all the time. And for a long time, there would just be filled with other hosts when they would be off. And then it started developing into a period where one would host while the other one went on vacation. And then they would come back on the other side and it would be a reverse.

1:10:12And then they'd all have like multiple weeks off and it'd be months in between times I heard them together. Later on, we kind of found out they were really at odds. They couldn't stand each other, right? Like they were at the period where they didn't want to talk to each other. They didn't want to see each other. Now, when you're talking about a married couple, you know, everybody might have, you know, there are problems that do get into marriages. And I, you know, again, total speculation here, but you wonder if there's an issue of tension there, it's tough to do a show together in front of the country and be able to hide that.

1:10:42So, I mean, maybe that's, you know, that's, you know, unfair marital counseling advice from Stu Bergeer, but it is an interesting, you wonder because of their relationship, which again, they hid for a long time. Yeah. It just doesn't seem like there's just even a cell in his body that is honest. And, you know, maybe that plays in here. You know, it's like hard work is what gets you ahead in life. And even when you're at the top, hard work is what is important to keep you there. And I think also to keep you the respect of your audience. Like I take two weeks off in December, right? The Christmas, this new year's break.

1:11:24And the first week of those, I prepare taped new content for my audience because I respect them and I want them to have something to look forward to some, something new, especially at a time when there's very little new coming in the podcast world. And in June, the same, we take a family trip every June, all five of us. And now we do the same. We do one week of new content. So, so literally there's only should be only two weeks of true vacation time where the audience is not getting new content. They're getting like a best stuff. That's not because I loved taping double shows in a month like December where I'm just as busy as everybody else.

1:12:01It's out of respect for the audience and the relationship that we've built, you know? And I just think this is so disrespectful. I cannot imagine in a summer taking off eight weeks. And it also underscores how unimportant they are to their audience too. You know, like I would get complaints from my audience. I do believe if I took eight weeks off in the summer, I think they start writing in like, what happened to you? And they'd start looking for other broadcasters. You know, it's like, can't, can't go eight weeks without getting your news from someone you trust. These two don't give a shit. They don't.

1:12:35And, and apparently neither does their audience. Yeah. That's fascinating. Cause I, I hadn't heard from anybody that they were taking time off until this freebie game piece came out. Um, But you made the point there, which I think is interesting, and I will quibble with a little bit, which is that hard work is what gets you ahead and keeps you on top. What in Joe Scarborough's life shows any evidence of that? He has risen to these levels where he's making$30 million. Yeah, it is. They live in a different world, and it goes back to several of the people we've talked about today. Jasmine Crockett, Kamala Harris, all of these people learned the same lesson, which is if you believe the right things and you get in front of the camera enough, great things happen and you're never held to account for any of your actions.

1:13:25Your audience doesn't really care. It's repetitive. Karine Jean-Pierre. You keep failing up. Karine Jean-Pierre is maybe the ultimate example. The investigator we talked about earlier, all these people seem to fail up. And Scarborough has held this gig for a long time with no audience, an audience that's a tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny fraction of what you have. And that's because the people who listen to your show care about what you say and are here to understand the world. Where the MSNBC audience is, you watch that show. Half of the interviews, because we have it on one of our monitors here, half of the interviews are with like kind of no-name actors in movies that are coming out from major studios.

1:14:06videos that aren't really getting any attention. And it's like, why would they put that on the air? Well, they, because they're doing the show for like 14 Democrats in Hollywood, in New York city. Like they're not doing the show for an audience. It's just a placeholder so they can charge massive ad rates. I mean, it's good work if you can get it, but I would find it pretty unfulfilling as an actual life. Yeah. It's, those are all great points. And you do raise an interesting thought about what's the state of the marriage? Because like, if you're both home, can you imagine like you get out there and do it this morning.

1:14:36I don't want to see those people. I don't want to service my audience. You do it. And then the next day, no, no, you do it. I was out there talking to them. This audience is a pain in my ass is basically what they're saying. This job is a pain in my ass. Well, then give it up, move on, do something else. Go, go work, go be on your boat in Mar-a-Lago or wherever you are, Jupiter, Florida, all the time, right? You're not contributing meaningfully to the national dialogue anymore. Maybe it's time to hang up your spurs. Stu, that's a reference you get as a Texas man. We end where we began. And I love that you might have Jasmine Crockett, as you so exotically refer to her, to kick around for quite some time now, my friend.

1:15:19Let's encourage her. Let's encourage Kamala. And I think all of our lives will get better up until the day of the election when they're gone. Jasmine Crockett for Senate, but only in the primary. and then a hopeful, destructive loss. Thanks, Megan. Great to see you. Talk to you soon. Okay, up next, Zachary Levi is here with a new project and more. Stand by. This holiday, while others chase the rush, find your calm with Peak, a luxury wellness brand powered by rare plants and cutting-edge ingredients offering a remedy for the season's hustle. Their science-backed botanicals, minerals, and vitamins support metabolism, immunity, energy, and radiant skin.

1:16:01In this festive season of joy, choose serenity as the ultimate luxury. Peak proudly introduces Sun Goddess Matcha, an organic ceremonial superfood blend crafted from the purest tea leaves. They say it brings a focused boost without jitters or crash. The natural balance of caffeine and calming compounds can keep you centered and alert all day. And they say nutrients in their matcha help curb sugar and hunger cravings, making it easier to stick to your wellness goals. Ready to gift the glow? Unlock 20 % off for life for yourself and everyone on your list. Give the gift of glowing health this holiday season.

1:16:38Get started at peaklife.com slash Megan. That's P-I-Q-U-E life.com slash Megan.

1:16:48Joining me now, actor and producer Zachary Levi. He's joined the show a few times. First as a supporter of RFKJ and then as a supporter of then-candidate Donald Trump. Now, Levi's new film, Not Without Hope, hits theaters this Friday. Oh my gosh, I got a sneak preview of it last night. It was gripping. The film tells the tragic true story of four best friends who went out for a fishing trip only to be lost at sea in the middle of a storm after their boat capsizes. Here's some from the trailer. We're going to be all right. We're four big, strong men. You can't bench press the ocean. Look at this hall.

1:17:36This weather is not good. We got to wrap it up. Nicholas, it's mom. I know you went out fishing this morning. This big storm is supposed to hit.

1:17:49Love you, huh? Bye. We've got some men out in the open water. Four men in the middle of a giant storm.

1:18:02What's happening to them? Hypothermia. I'm going to do everything in my power to bring them home safe and sound. Right now, let's go! No visuals. Weather getting worse. We are not done yet. Hang on! I get strong! You get strong! We get strong!

1:18:28Oh, Not Without Hope again is the name of the movie. Highly recommend. Zach, welcome back to the show. Hi, thanks. Good to see you. How's my favorite talk show host? Oh, thank you so much. I'm doing great. I loved the movie. It reminded me of The Perfect Storm. It was about friendship. It was about perseverance. It was about hope, but also like the element that scares us all. Mother nature, the ocean, that comment about you can't bench press the ocean and just how small we all feel when we encounter one of nature's angry days and how powerless we are against the elements. My gosh, what was it like shooting this thing?

1:19:08Because you are in the water like the whole time. Yeah, yeah, basically the whole time. So we shot it in Malta in a massive water tank that was filled with actual ocean water. So it was freezing. It was freezing water. We were in that tank, the four of us, for about three and a half weeks, mostly shooting at night. And listen, you know, no matter what we encountered, it was nothing compared to what these actual men went through and the loss of their lives. We were surrounded by emergency divers and, you know, medical teams and all that kind of stuff. But it was grueling. It was the most intense physical experience I've ever had as an actor.

1:19:44It was part of the reason I signed up for it. I wanted to be challenged in a different way. But I remember reading about this or, you know, seeing this story on the news in passing that these four guys had gone on this fishing trip. Two of them were NFL football players. That was kind of what made it so notable. And I remember just feeling so gutted for them and for their family. Like, what a tragic way to die. And then the script came across my desk and I, you know, read it and learned about all of the harrowing details of it. And I just thought, man, I feel like this is a story that's worth telling.

1:20:15I mean, it's harrowing. It's frustrating. It's angering almost. You know, so much of this came down to an anchor, you know, getting their anchor caught ultimately. Yes. And that ultimately them trying to dislodge that, capsize the boat, they get caught in this storm. and Nick Schuyler, the character that I played, he was the lucky one. He survived and he was able to write the book. And then now this is the story that's based on that book. And I believe that we have, you know, not just honored Nick, but honored the lives of these other gentlemen, Marquise and Corey and Will, who passed. And, you know, it's not a feel-good movie.

1:20:52I mean, it is a really pulse-pounding, harrowing adventure. but I think at the end, it still leaves the audience with the concept of holding onto that last shred of hope. No matter what, no matter what the odds are to hold onto that hope, it's imperative. It's imperative in our lives. Well, I also think, you know, they say that the stories that do the best in books, movies, what have you, are about friendship. And this is about friendship. Yes, it's not that hopeful in the end, although not everyone dies. But it is a story about friendship and these four guys who are really close and do everything possible to sort of buoy each other up during this very harrowing experience.

1:21:32And then the sole survivor who takes all those memories with him and winds up writing a book and going on a book tour here, his name is Nick Schuyler. That's who you played. He gave the actual guy an interview to Larry King back in 2010, talking about like the hypothermia, which the movie does a very good job of documenting as it set in on these very big NFL players. Here's a little bit of that in SOT 51. Will was able to retrieve a few life jackets and a throw cushion. So why didn't that save people? It had nothing to do with the drowning. It was the hypothermia. When hypothermia sets in, it does things to the mind and the body that neither anyone can control.

1:22:15So things that happened out there to the guys that they didn't realize that was even happening. When you say not realize, they were disoriented? Correct, yes. And you weren't? Not till later. Not till later when I was by myself. What was it like to see three of your friends go under?

1:22:38It was probably the worst thing I could ever imagine for anyone else. it's really indescribable and words don't do justice but you know particularly how those guys you know went and to sit there absolutely helpless and defenseless and not being able to help them or get help or whatever it was definitely heart-wrenching and looking into their eyes once again them not even knowing what's going on was definitely difficult all such young strong guys Did you get to meet him, Zach? Zach, do you get to meet him? Yes, I did. I did. I, you know, I, Nick was the lucky one in this ordeal and I was the lucky one in that I had a living counterpart that I could, you know, I was able to have a few phone calls with him before we filmed and pick his brain and heart about what was going on in him during that time.

1:23:31As you can imagine, it was, and as you see in this interview, it was an incredibly traumatic experience. And with trauma, there's a lot of memories that are repressed. So it was difficult for him to recall a lot of all of those feelings or thoughts that he was having. But I was able to glean what I could from that. And then he was also able to come, he and his wife, Paula, who was his girlfriend at the time and is in the film. They came and visited us in Malta. And so we were able to, you know, kind of visit with them while they were out there, which was a very surreal experience for everyone.

1:24:02I mean, it was very surreal for them as they're watching these scenes being reenacted with his friends dying again. And it was surreal for us to be doing that in front of them. But I think that there is something, I don't know, there's, when you're doing a movie like this, where you are honoring real people, you know, that is the, first and foremost, that is the audience that you are trying to please, to honor, to make sure that you're telling that story as authentically as possible. And I believe that we did that. And I hope that we've honored Corey and Marquise and Will and their families in this.

1:24:41I know that Marshall and Quentin and Terrence gave everything that they could. They did not have their real-life counterpart to be able to interface with, to dig into those characters. But I know they did everything they could to try to bring them authentically to the screen. and we all bonded greatly while we were in that tank. I mean, you can't help but bond because we really were freezing and we were huddling up during the take, after the take, between takes, just trying to stay warm. And again, you know, I'm not trying to paint this as if we were in the same peril that those gentlemen were in, but it was a gnarly experience.

1:25:21I mean, that's - Yeah, grueling for you as an actor. I remember Kate Winslet talked about that after she shot Titanic about how they went through a lot of that themselves, like near hypothermia from the scene she had to do immersed in water for hours and hours on end. So it can be somewhat dangerous and unpleasant for the actors. Of course, that's not to compare it to the actual. You mentioned that scene where the boat gets caught, where the anchor gets caught. And honestly, that's what reminded me of The Perfect Storm, that and some of the waves that came after when the guys were floating. That too doesn't have exactly like a hopeful, like a positive ending, but it's one of those movies that stays with you based on the book written by Sebastian Junger.

1:26:00We have a little bit of that scene cut. You need to see the whole movie, which is called Not Without Hope. It hits theaters this Friday. Go see it. But here's a little bit of that moment in just a gripping scene. I think it's Sot 49. A little more, Cooper. A little more. Yeah.

1:26:22I think it's working. Hey, it's working. Trying to get the anchor line out of this car. It's pulling the front of the boat up. Oh shit, is it working? Talk to me, shall we cut it? Hit that shit, dude! Hit that shit! No, no, no! It's not dodging! Stop!

1:26:44I got it! I got it! I got it! Go, go, go! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! The bow of the bow is straight up.

1:26:58And now it's flipping backward.

1:27:17that is like you're all underwater is that did you what you have to do for that because that looks terrifyingly realistic. Well, we all had wonderful stunt doubles. So that particular stunt right there of men flying off. Were they Navy SEALs? No, no. I mean, listen, my stunt double, Dave Castillo, is an incredible human being. He's like a brother from another mother and he's just an incredible athlete as most stunt men and women are. I mean, they are trained to do these types of things. So that specific stunt was our stunt doubles, But we did a lot of underwater, in-water stunts ourselves as the cast.

1:27:57Lots of wave machines, wind machines, rain machines, water cannons, all kinds of stuff. But just quickly, you know, this was, when I read the script, because this happens, you know, pretty much in the beginning of the movie, the anchor getting caught and what leads to, you know, ultimately the demise of three of these gentlemen. um marquise a week prior had been on a fishing trip and he got his anchor caught in the same place and he had to cut the anchor and it was a 500 anchor and he didn't want to cut another anchor and so that's what ultimately led to this and it's in fear as i'm reading the script i'm so angry i'm angry for all of them i'm angry for their families i'm angry that this simple little thing could have been the difference between them actually getting home and being alive today, right?

1:28:46And it's one of the things that making the movie, and even afterwards, as I've kind of contemplated it, you know, I want audiences to, you know, be moved by this movie, obviously, and I think that they will be. And I think that you can take hope away from this to hold on to hope. If nothing else, like hold on to that last shred of hope and believe that there are people out there that are praying and hoping for you as their families were. but also kind of philosophically one of the things that I hope audiences take from this and certainly what I take from this is cut the anchor like whatever is in your life yeah whatever whatever petty little thing or large thing or whatever it is that is pulling you down that is weighing you down that is drowning you and we all have them we all have them and we got to cut these anchors we We cannot, you know, lose the, miss the forest for the trees.

1:29:38And that's what, this was a kind of a perfect example of that. So anyway, it is, yeah. You're totally right. Well, thankfully it, it will end well for you, Zachary Levi, because this is going to be a big hit. It's called Not Without Hope. Go check it out in your theater this Friday. You might not be able to check out movies and theaters for too long. if this Warner Brothers deal goes through to Netflix. Do you have any thoughts on that? So Netflix struck a deal to buy Warner Brothers. Everybody's worried because Warner Brothers is one of the few remaining movie studios that puts out real movies in real theaters as opposed to direct-to-streaming on an app on your home TV.

1:30:16And then at the last minute, you've got Paramount Skydance swooping in saying, we're going to try a hostile takeover where we rest this deal away from Netflix and we'll let Warner Brothers still be Warner Brothers putting real movies out at least 30 per year into theaters. So some in the acting community are more for the hostile takeover bid than the Netflix bid, which has been agreed to, but is now in danger. Do you have any thoughts on it? Oh, I've got so many thoughts about it. Um, listen, I think that's, I think that we're already in really dire straits, right? We have, um, such a consolidation of power.

1:30:55Um, you know, it used to be 50 different companies that represented the entertainment industry. And now it's basically down to five, six, something like that. And this is why we have antitrust and monopoly laws on the books is to ensure that we don't have such a consolidation down to just a few powerful entities that are controlling everything within any individual industry. I don't love the idea that anybody's going to buy Warner Brothers, to be perfectly honest. Warner Brothers has been a home for me for many years. I did Chuck there for five years. Shazam, both films, you know, these are Warner Brothers DC films.

1:31:32I love Warner Brothers as a studio. I have a lot of friends there. But they've also been going through lots and lots and lots of issues over these last 10 years, first with the AT &T deal that was not good for them, then with the Discovery deal that, you know, ultimately with all of these consolidations, lots and lots of people are losing their jobs. More and more, I think, great art is not being made. And I think with the Netflix deal, it's particularly troubling because they don't really care about theatrical release. And I think that theatrical release is imperative for us. I think that not just from a financial modeling or, you know, allowing filmmakers and artists to be able to, you know, make a living making movies that go into theaters that people pay ticket, you know, pay for tickets.

1:32:18But when we don't go to theaters, this is something that's, I think, driving us apart. Part of the theatrical experience for decades is that you go to a theater and you are surrounded by strangers, people that don't look like you, don't agree with you. It might come from different political or religious backgrounds, whatever it is. But you know that you can go watch the same movie and laugh in the same moments and cry in the same moments. And what that does is it reminds you, either consciously or subconsciously, that we're not all that different. And so when we don't go to the theater as people and we don't enjoy these things as a collective, we lose even more of that connective tissue.

1:32:54And I know that Netflix is, you know, they, Sarandos has said as much. He said, you know, I think we can do film windows that, you know, theatrical windows that are like a week or two weeks. and that's just simply not enough time, I think, to give a great film its opportunity in the theater. Some films don't even pick up their inertia until a few weeks in the theaters when word of mouth gets out and people start going to the theater and experiencing that as it was meant to be exhibited. And so I really don't love that. I don't love the consolidation. I don't love that with streaming, by the way, this is another issue that we have and something that I'm actively trying to solve for, we don't own anything anymore.

1:33:33We're all just leasing everything. And I don't think that's right. I don't, I don't love the idea that as an artist, I could go make something and there's no physical copy of it anymore because nobody's making DVDs or anything like that. And so it only lives on a streamer. And then the streamer decides, well, you know, we don't want to put this on the service anymore. And it's gone. It's literally gone. I can't point my friends or family or fans to go watch what I made. It doesn't exist anymore because it's not on the streaming service anymore. And I don't think that's good either. I think we as the audience, we as the people, more and more of us are waking up to the fact that we are just renting everything.

1:34:08It's just subscription after subscription. I mean, by the way, I said this 15 years ago when everyone was cutting the cord on cable. I told all my friends, I said, do you realize what's going to happen? We're going to cut this$100 cord, this bill that's got all these channels and certainly some that we don't care about and we don't watch. And that's, you know, Why are we paying for all this? But then what's going to happen is we're going to have 10 subscriptions over a whole bunch of different services, and we're going to pay twice as much. And that's exactly what's happened. And now we don't – there is no home video.

1:34:37There's no ownership anymore. We've got to figure out a way to get back to that. And I don't know that any of these things are getting us there. So it's troubling all the way around. I cannot imagine going to see some of the movies we grew up on, like Indiana Jones, just on the small screen. Not being able to watch that on the big screen. Or another one, Schindler's List. Remember? I mean, everybody remembers seeing that movie for the first time. Unfortunately, in my case, I went with my stepsister, who had just gotten off her shift as a nurse, and went into Schindler's List with a salad from McDonald's in one of those plastic containers.

1:35:13It's like, every time she opened it, it was so loud. And then the salad eating was loud. I was like slowly moving my way away from her, like four seats down. Like, oh, my God, this is so inappropriate. That's an episode of Seinfeld. I mean, that's basically what you're calling yourself out of. But anyway, the point is, like, most of these movies will be way more impactful on the big screen. And yes, there is something to it. You think of like the great horror films that we've all seen, like Friday the 13th. Seeing that in the theater with the audience yelling at the same moments. Or even you walk out of terms of endearment.

1:35:48And everybody's got this tear stained face. Like there is a shared community in experiencing it together. So I agree. I mean, I'm not really rooting for the Netflix deal. I have to be honest, they're big enough. And I'm not really a big fan of the people who run Netflix and own Netflix. So we'll see what happens. Okay, let's keep going. Let's talk politics for a minute. RFKJ, your guy, notwithstanding the fact that he's at least one of, if not the most maligned member of the Trump cabinet, he's probably tied with Hegseth, is the most popular. I've been saying this because you proved the most popular in a recent poll.

1:36:20But then we just got another poll once again says the same thing. RFKJ, the most popular. So are the people learning to ignore the media? I hope so. I mean, I think that, you know, unfortunately, we've been living in a culture where legacy media has been just an arm of propaganda for far too long, you know. And I think it started, well, I don't know, there's a lot of things that we could pick at and all of that. But obviously, once people figured out that death and fear and all of that sell, well, then they're just going to push more and more and more of that. And I do think that, unfortunately, we have massive just financial interest in this when legacy media is in large part financed by the pharmaceutical industries.

1:37:10They have a vested interest in making more money. And so they are going to do everything they can to make sure, lean on these news industries to, you know, entities and outlets to malign somebody like Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who I know personally, and he is a wonderful human being. And he's not a perfect human being. None of the people in any of the political spectrum are perfect human beings. So first of all, we need to let that go. Right. We're not trying to vote for or support people because they are perfect. We're trying to understand, are they actually trying to do the work to make this country healthier, better, bring us back into alignment, bring us back into understanding each other?

1:37:57and I believe that Bobby has been doing that from day one. I mean, clearly he's been doing it for a really long time because he was beloved in the Democratic Party. He was beloved by people who were more liberally leaning for a really long time and then because he wouldn't tow these very ridiculous, you know, woke is used now in so many different ways, but, you know, kind of woke ways, then he couldn't be the Democratic nominee and therefore they had to besmirch and smear him every chance they could. But listen, more and more data continues to come out about vaccines, about our food, about agriculture, about pesticides.

1:38:35And I know that he's doing everything that he can, everything within his power to fight for us, for the American people. And I hope that more and more people are willing to just look beyond the propaganda because that's what it is. We have been propagandized on every side, right? I don't think that this is exclusively something that happens in legacy media on the left. I think that there is even legacy media on the right that chooses to use stories or factoids or data points that are, you know, salacious and trying to. I can tell you this for a fact, having been in right-wing media and left-wing media, they are all slaves to Pfizer.

1:39:16They're all slaves to Pfizer. And once you realize how powerful the drug companies are, it explains a lot of the negativity you hear about Bobby Kennedy. Stand by. I'm going to take a quick break, but pick it up on the back end, Zach. Don't go anywhere. Let's talk about real health armor, especially if you're done with the dye-filled, toxin-heavy stuff lining store shelves. Beekeepers Naturals can be your clean, no-compromised line of defense. Start your day with their Propolis Throat Spray, a concentrated hit of antioxidants that keeps your immune system fortified. They say one spritz and you're protected.

1:39:48No synthetic fog, just pure bee-powdered protection. Are you experiencing a scratchy throat from winter air or crowded plains? Grab the Propolis Throat Soother, pair it with their Propolis Nasal Spray to rinse, hydrate, and eliminate germs on contact. Today, Beekeepers Naturals is giving you an exclusive offer. Go to beekeepersnaturals.com slash Megan or enter the code Megan to get 20 % off your order. That's beekeepersnaturals.com slash Megan, or just enter the code Megan, beekeepersnaturals.com slash Megan, or enter the code Megan when you check out. Beekeepers Naturals products are also available at Target, Whole Foods, Walmart, Amazon, CVS, and Walgreens.

1:40:37And it is where you will hear the truth unfiltered with no agenda and no apologies. Along with The Megyn Kelly Show, you're going to hear from people like Mark Halperin, Link Lauren, Maureen Callahan, Emily Jashinsky, Jesse Kelly, Real Clear Politics, and many more. It's bold, no BS news only on The Megyn Kelly Channel, Sirius XM 111, and on the Sirius XM app.

1:41:03We're back now with Zachary Levi, star of the movie Not Without Hope, which hits theaters on Friday and is gripping. Highly recommend. So Zach, we were talking about RFKJ and one of the things he did this week that he's taking flack for, but not from anyone reasonable, is they're trying to remove hep B from the list of recommended baby, day one baby vaccinations saying, if you want to get it done, you should, but we're only recommending it for mothers who are hep B positive or for mothers who don't know, uh, and might be hep B positive because it's a sexually transmitted disease or something you get through IV drug use.

1:41:49And most children, most babies do not need any of these vaccines until they become more, you know, into the teenage years and potentially sexually active or drugs and so on. Anyway, that doesn't happen for a newborn baby in virtually any case. So what do you make of it? I think it's long overdue. I think I think that it's really, really tragic what's happened in this world in, again, in the medical industry, one that of all industries, we would imagine or we would assume these people having taken Hippocratic oaths to do no harm, right, under any circumstances, to not deceive, that might lead to harm.

1:42:36that money has become, you know, the only objective. It's just make money at any price, whether that's the cost of human life or our own health. The fact that hep B vaccines have been forced on babies day one, freshly out of the womb, when mothers take a test, a blood test, they know if a mother has hep B or not. This was all predicated upon, by the way. There was the study that was done that advocates for the hep B vaccine point to and this data that says, well, but there's this amount of mothers who even after testing still contracted hep B. And so therefore, we just need to cover all of our bases to make sure that babies are given this vaccine.

1:43:22That study was done on prison inmates. That study was done with women who were essentially practicing things that would put themselves in harm's way that would make them susceptible to getting hep B even after being tested for hep B. That is where that data came from. That is not the normal. That is not the average. That is cherry picking a very small amount of data, then applying it to the general populace and then saying, well, see, this is what happens. We don't know. So we should probably just give every child a hep B vaccine. It's ludicrous. It is absolutely insane that we're doing this. More than that, Bobby, not too long ago, he did a press conference where he showed the data, data that, by the way, I knew for a really long time.

1:44:07People like me who have cared about this vaccine issue across all vaccines for a really long time and understanding that there is a lot of risk that comes with this. And does the value, does the upshot outweigh these risks? um bobby laid it out pretty clearly that if you look at the data um you know we've been told for a long time that vaccines are the main reason why we have you know essentially eradicated things like polio and measles mumps and you know all of these things that we we shoot up our children with to avoid these problems but the data actually shows very clearly that almost all of these things were essentially already eradicated because of far better sanitation and far better things like antibiotics that were being applied to the general populace uh that means all of those sicknesses were already going away before the vaccines were being applied to everyone and then of course in 1986 under reagan's lead which is really disappointing he gave immunity to all of these drug companies who are making vaccines and saying, well, no one can sue you if anything happens.

1:45:16Now, why would they need to have this level of immunity if what they were making was safe and effective? It doesn't make any sense whatsoever. No other product in the country has this kind of immunity. And for again, for why, so that we can go back to data that shows that they weren't even really, again, this is, I believe this wholeheartedly, this is data that Bobby showed very clearly. People still debate it, obviously, because there's a lot of doctors who I think are really well-meaning people, but who have believed this trickle down of information that comes from vested greedy interests, people that control the narrative or the people that are making the most amount of money doing this.

1:45:54And I would also argue to say that I think a lot of them are willing to pump children full of a lot of vaccines that might actually be injuring them, knowing full well. By the way, have you seen or have you heard of an Inconvenient Study? Del Bigtree made a documentary. Please go watch that documentary. Mickey Willis, a dear friend of mine, and Del Bigtree and these wonderful people that are a part of Maha. It will blow your mind. An Inconvenient Study, essentially, there was a doctor who did a study of vaccinated children versus unvaccinated children in the thousands, right? So it is a truly like, um, like it gives you the, the, the, the, the data points on both sides and what is downstream of being either a vaccinated child or an unvaccinated child and shocker, the unvaccinated children have extremely low, like when it comes to asthma, eczema, things like autism, like the vaccinated children were the ones who had multiple times more cases of what was going on.

1:46:56And they buried it because the guy on Hidden Camera, he says, I can't release this study. I would lose my job. I would lose everything if I brought this out. I would lose my career. I would lose my reputation. And this is the pressure that's coming from on high. And this is what was going on during the pandemic and during COVID. Any scientist or any doctor who dared question the narrative was shut down, was silenced, was censored, got their credentials were stripped from them. Their relationships were ruined because they were questioning what is now becoming very evident that, oh my God, these COVID vaccines actually were incredibly detrimental to us.

1:47:33And they were causing all manner of side effects, including, by the way, there were 10 children who died in Pfizer's own trial and they hid that information. Moderna. Moderna had a child die and hid the information from the public and removed them from the trial so that they wouldn't have to report on the evidence of it. It's outrageous. I've told the audience, I reported at the time on the fact that children were dying in the wake of the vaccine, especially thanks to myocarditis and pericarditis. And of course, I got attacked by the leftist, you know, media as a liar. And I said, you don't don't do not give your child this vaccine without checking this out, especially if he's a teen and a boy.

1:48:14Girls, too, though. I mean, it's so outrageous how they hid these facts from us. But talking like this is still dangerous if you're in certain industries like yours. You're not allowed to say these truths. And frankly, even mine, even mine. I mean, I'm independent media now, so I can say what I want. And you're independent too, but you do get jobs from Warner Brothers and so on. I heard you tell Fox News recently that you felt like you had been gray listed. So not fully blacklisted where you can't get a job. I assume gray means things slow down. there's more people who are like, it's a no just from hearing your name, but you're still able to get some work.

1:48:52So are you still experiencing that? Yeah. Yeah. It's been a really, it's been a really heavy journey. I'm not going to lie. You know, a lot of people, I think that there were journalists, ironically on the right who wanted again to make kind of a salacious um story uh when i first was being more vocal they were saying things like zachary levi blacklisted well i never said that i never said i was blacklisted um uh because there are people still i think wonderful people who know me know my heart know that i genuinely i care about everybody i care about people on the left and the right i want all of us to win i don't i don't think that we win because so in order for us to win other people have to lose.

1:49:39I think we all need to come to what is true and let sunlight be the best disinfectant. Let us get to the heart of all of it. If there are corrupt politicians on the left and the right, and there are, let all of them be taken out. Let us get to what is good and true and bring us back together and stop being, you know, kind of manipulated to fight against one another, which is the greatest distraction, so that we're not holding all of them accountable for their ridiculousness. I mean, insider trading, like things like that. Like, what are we doing? Like, Like, I love Tim Burchett because he's one, like, that guy is just going after him.

1:50:11He's like, he is one of the good guys. He doesn't care. And he's one of the good guys. I think Massey is as well. Again, I think there's people on both sides. There's people on the left that I think Fetterman, of all the people on the left, I mean, I think that Fetterman has shown himself to be truly reasonable and honorable. And, but anyway, when it comes to my career, when it comes to, you know, yes, there's been incredible amounts of blowback. I think the hardest thing, to be honest, is friends of mine that I had for two decades who I would have thought, no matter what, they know my heart. They know that I might believe something different than them, but they know my heart.

1:50:51And many did. People checked in with me like, hey, what are you doing? And I explained to them, like, listen, guys, to me, all of these issues are important. But there are certain issues that are like triage. We have to treat these things in some kind of order of priority. And when it comes to the health of every single person in this country, especially our children, we need to get to the root of the poisoning. We have got to get to the bottom of that. And also, you know, having secure borders and also staying out of foreign wars, like things that Trump was willing to go and fight for. And, you know, so I have all my issues, whatever, with, you know, his Trumpiness.

1:51:29Like I've made that very clear. But he, we only had two options. That's how we had to go. That's what I felt like we had to go and do. And some people understood that. And a lot of people just simply did not. And they have ghosted me. They are not my friends anymore. And it has broken my heart, but I still love them. I still pray for them. When it comes to the work situation, there are still wonderful people who still see the value in me as an actor and as a man. And they're not all conservative either. There are people that are more liberally minded that still, they don't hate me because they because I differ in my opinions with them or I had the audacity to not toe that line and think that Kamala was somehow God's gift to politics because she isn't because she wasn't you know and I and I don't think Donald Trump is either I don't think he's some paragon of morality but he was of the two options and this is constantly the problem we're only given two options to me Bobby Kennedy would have been the absolute best but the Democratic Party made that impossible for him and therefore made it impossible for us as a nation to be able to vote for him.

1:52:31So this is where we ended. This is where we're at. And I'm grateful that I'm still working. I'm grateful that despite, you know, my coming out of the, you know, political closet and opening my big mouth, there are still people that believe in me and support me. And I'm very grateful for that. But it's been really difficult. I'm not going to lie. You know, one positive potential thing of this merger that we discussed a minute ago is the Paramount Skydance folks are somewhat close to Trump. They seem a little bit more fair and balanced in their approach to politics. One of the purchasers financing that deal would be Jared Kushner.

1:53:12So I do wonder if they get Warner Brothers, whether that's more optimistic, that's more hopeful for people. I know you're not a conservative, but for people who are just not rabid leftists who want to work in Hollywood. Maybe Warner Brothers could be the studio that still at least says, we'll employ you no matter what your politics. We really just care about whether you can act, you know, like it used to be, or like at least it should be. I hope that happens. And I love watching you on screen, Zach. Good luck with it. Thanks for being here. Everybody should go see Not Without Hope. See it in the theater.

1:53:48Get your popcorn. Get your snow caps. It's probably my my candy of choice interesting old school like you need chocolate with the popcorn what's your what would you go for uh listen i think that's a that's a that's a fair mix uh i would do some popcorn and some raisinets actually or some or some goobers i think you know you want the sweet and the savory i mean that's a good mix but sometimes i just go popcorn and like a big soda that gives me my sweet and savory i'm good with that yep either way you're gonna love the movie not without hope. But yeah, go for it. Treat yourself. That's the joy of the movie theater experience.

1:54:26Zach, all the best. Thanks for being here. Thanks, Megan. Great seeing you as always. Have a great day. You too. All right. And we are back tomorrow with Andrew Klavan. And with Andrew Klavan, I'm going to break a little news with you guys about the Golden Globes and us. Thanks for listening to The Megan Kelly Show. No BS, no agenda, and no fear. Thank you.