542. Charlie Kirk’s Personal Story
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What sparked Charlie Kirk's early political advocacy?
Looking back from your position of wisdom, what do you have to say to the American public about your cookie advocacy?
I should have been advocating for, you know, reduction in hamburger or steak prices. The funny undercurrent of that is that's kind of what started my political advocacy. I know.
It appeared to me that you were of that American evangelical stripe. When I met you, I thought, okay, so that's Charlie's cauldron, the matrix out of which he emerged. Maybe cauldron's not the right metaphor. But I'm curious. political rebellion took a conservative form.
Yes, the non-political, non-historical literature that we were being assigned was what I call pre-woke, very much anti-colonialist, anti-Western, that we are the contaminants on the world, that we are polluting other tribes.
Thank you.
Hello, everybody. I'm talking to Charlie Kirk, and Charlie came out of nowhere 10 years ago and built the world's most influential organization of young conservatives, and he did that from scratch. He did that by going to universities pretty much single-handedly, setting up card tables, offering to discuss and debate all the issues that weren't being discussed and debated in these places set up for exactly that reason. And iterating as he grew, establishing conservative clubs on campuses all across the United States, building a grassroots organization, learning how to debate despite the fact that he hadn't gone to college and actually playing the role on campus colleges that the professors in the classes were supposed to play. And so why watch my discussion with Charlie? Well, to learn who he is, to listen to how he did this. You know, he had a
vision and calling and he found his way and made it spectacularly successful while he was still very young and has ended up playing a very significant cultural role, transformative role that is by no means over. And so I think the podcast is interesting in and of itself because the story is so compelling, but it also contains many lessons, you might say, for those who are searching for a productive, adventurous, romantic way forward. So join me in my discussion with Charlie Kirk, founder and leader of Turning Point USA, the world's largest conservative youth organization. So I've got a gotcha question for you. So now you're warned. Okay. Okay. So you know that Robert F. Kennedy and Mehmet Oz, and I suppose Jay Bhattacharya too, are all hands on deck to restore American health. And that likely the biggest problem that's confronting us is insulin resistance.
I agree with that.
Too much, way too much sugar. and obesity and all that goes along with it. But insulin resistance, it's just devastating. It makes you old. It makes you diabetic. It's terrible. It interferes with your cognition. It increases the probability that you'll get Alzheimer's. And that's all linked to carbohydrate excess intake, right? You agree with all that?
I agree with that.
And yet... when you were in high school, one of the first things you did to begin your political career was agitate for a, what, reduction or stabilization of the price of cookies at the school?
We were against cookie inflation.
Yeah. So looking back from your position of wisdom, 13, 14 years later, what do you have to say to the American public about cookie advocacy?
I should have been advocating for reduction in the hamburger or steak prices. You see, that would have been a much better health approach. But all kidding aside, the funny undercurrent of that is that's kind of what started my political advocacy. I know, I know. It is hilarious. I kind of look back, even just 13 years ago, when cookie prices were the number one concern. This was before DoorDash, this was before all that. I look at these high school kids now, but they're able to order into high school. They have entire cubby rooms of like half of the high school class that is just getting takeout. So in our high school in the suburbs of Chicago, the biggest thing was these basically homemade cookies that nearly tripled in price over the course of a year.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What sparked Charlie Kirk's early political advocacy?
0:00–18:38
2
How did Charlie Kirk start Turning Point USA?
18:38–52:01
3
What challenges did Charlie Kirk face in college activism?
52:01–1:10:01
4
How has the landscape of college campuses changed?
1:10:01
5
What role does masculinity play in contemporary society?
1:00:53–1:01:24
6
How does the education system affect young men today?
1:01:24–1:33:31