Most of what is in your hands is in your hands. I think that the biggest question in life right now is whether you decide to take responsibility for your own actions and improve your own life. And if the answer is yes, then you're likely to be successful and if the answer is no, you're likely to be unsuccessful. It doesn't mean that there aren't going to be problems that are outside your control. But I think that the biggest question we all have to ask ourselves in a free society is how much responsibility we wish to take.

Today it is a great pleasure to welcome none other than the little known, very, very, very little known and little followed Ben Shapiro, author of the brand new book, how to Destroy America in Three Easy Steps. As you may know, the podcast, the Enter the Impossible podcast that I host is very non political. We don't get into anything political because I think we have too much politics in the world. We have too much division and polarization and not the good kind of astronomical polarization. So I just want to prepare the listeners for 30 minutes of abject silence. So we'll just sit there, we'll stare at each other.

I was going to say, dude, you picked the wrong guest.

So I want to start with you. You're known for so many things. We're going to talk about the book hopeful. We're also going to talk about the many enthusiasms that you have outside of politics because I think, you know, I always say there's no red constellations, there's no blue comets, no one ever wakes up saying, I hate astronomy. You know, in fact, today there's a big, there's big breaking news about possible discovery of evidence for life on the planet Venus, which is a place that's a little hotter than the valley where I think you are right now. But I want to begin with, how does Ben Shapiro view himself? So if an alien. One of our listeners were to wake you up three in the morning and ask you, are you a podcaster? Are you an author, Are you a pundit? What is Ben Shapiro to Ben Shapiro?

Well, I mean, first of all, a magnificently handsome gentleman. I mean, you have to begin with the good looks people call me. Maybe that's actually the entire thing. Maybe just an incredible Apollo esque specimen of humanity, the finest that the world has to offer. Aside from that, I mean, primarily I am a husband and a dad. And that is, that is how I identify myself. That's what I spend most of my time worrying about and doing. And then somebody who I hope is engaged in the world of ideas.

I spend an awful lot of time trying to read on all sides of various issues, and I have a broad range of interests. I hope that I'm trying to give impetus to people to make better decisions in their own lives and to do things that are meaningful to them. I think if I have one giant message, whether it's political or life, it's that most of what is in your hands is in your hands. I think that the biggest question in life right now, and this is true politically, but it's also true personally, is whether you decide to take responsibility for your own actions and improve your own life. And if the answer is yes, then you're likely to be successful, and if the answer is no, you're likely to be unsuccessful. It doesn't mean that there aren't going to be problems that are outside your control. But I think that the biggest question we all have to ask ourselves in a free society is how much responsibility we wish to take. So if I'm an advocate for that position chiefly, then I'll be happy with that.

So it's interesting you mentioned that. And not being a podcaster, you're followed by millions of people. You're known for your opinions, et cetera, but you essentially key into your responsibility as a husband and a father. And this takes us somewhere where I wasn't planning to go for a while, for the Next, until about 90 minutes from now, but I'll start it now. Just kidding. The question I want to ask is in the Bible, the famous story of Adam and Eve, when they come up, it said that. That God created Eve because it was not good for man to be alone. And of course, that means humanity and basically men and women.

I want to ask you, what matured you more? What caused you to be more mature, getting married or having children? Because if it's not good to be alone, it would seem to me call the homer. As they might say, you should have as many kids as possible. So which is more important to you or which was more maturing to maturation, part of your maturation process, getting married or having children?

I don't want to borrow from sort of an area where you are significantly more versed than I am, but it sort of feels like rocket. It feels like rocket stages. It'd be, you know, one builds on another. I would say that escaping immaturity requires you to realize that you are not the only person in the universe and that you have to put somebody else's interest first. That would be getting married, but then realizing there's an entire another generation that you have to pass things along to, that you have to structure your life in such a way as to provide a home. Values that you really do have to build, as we in the Jewish community say, by Netman, by Yisrael, you have to build a believing household. When people talk about building a household, I don't think they think about it, you know, seriously enough what the language actually means. It's not just that you create a household in which to live.

You have to decide how to build. You have to decide which materials to use. You have to decide how to structure that household. And that means that you have to decide where the doors go, where the windows go, how exactly people are going to live within that household. And that means structuring your own values. You have to build yourself in order to build the household. And I think that having kids, for me, having kids was the culmination of a thought process that begins when you choose to get married. So I'm of the view, and I've made this clear before, that I think that if people want to have successful marriages, you have to decide to get married before you meet the person you're going to marry.