Fireside Chat with Dennis Prager! Ep. 30 | Fireside Chat

hi hi I'm Dennis Prager welcome to my home my fire my seat my study it's great to be with you completely unscripted totally spontaneous that's why sometimes it sounds truly inelegant like last week but what are you gonna do we don't we don't change it or edit it we just present to you what happens here and thank you for being with me it's just a chance to talk to you take your questions get to know each other better and it's been the reception has been very moving to me how many people watch this each week maybe because you know why you know what if the appeal is if and I'm not bragging here by it's not my style it's real people like the real and I like real that's that's oh that's a big factor in what appeals to me that's why you know I'll give you an example of what is not real and I I so dislike it I can't watch a lot of the sitcoms on American television you guys know what I'm referring to what's not real about American sitcoms that's right the laugh track I'm so aware that it's just a recording that somebody's doing with a button a knob and then lowering that I have no joy uh if there's a real audience and it laughs fine if there's no laughter it's if it's funny it I'll laugh anyway I'm not laughing because they're laughing I'm laughing cause it's funny so I just don't like that stuff I don't like the fake it and so this is really real I try to be real so today I want to talk to you about a subject dear to my heart and that is people freaking out about health scares and I I have watched this my whole life and I'm telling you people are gonna die from fright more than they're gonna die from what they're afraid of there are things I'm afraid of but they're they're very different so I'll give you an example the latest example judge just ruled in California that all those who sell coffee like Starbucks have to now announce have to have announcements written and announcements or signs that coffee can cause cancer why what is it called Accra light acrylamide thank you acrylamide apparently in the heating process of something is this and if you give enough acrylamide to a mouse you know it dies of overweight I'm kidding it just dies but if you give enough anything to a make have enough water to a mouse it'll die it's first of all coffee and I'm I'm not a coffee nut I like coffee but it's it's not not crazy about it likes many are and I have no issue people are crazy about it my wife's crazy about it and and she's very healthy and she loves it it's great I have no issue with it and the acrylamide is a carcinogen despite the fact that coffee and you look this up you'll be amazed I've been amazed at how healthy coffee really is for you that at like 3 cups a day is actually good for you that it's actually an anti-cancer and and good for blood vessels and good for a whole host of things for you it turns out that that that is the case why am i raising this is my opening issue before I take your questions because I've lived through this all of my life all of these scares the biggest the most famous one is one that I is is very fraudulent secondhand smoke which 99% of you believe kills people ok we're told every year it kills 50,000 Americans it's nonsense it's complete nonsense if he are stuck in a room 5 by 5 or 10 by 10 with a person smoking cigarettes all day long and you sleep with that person while they're smoking and this takes place for about 50 years I believe it could have an adverse effect just like enough acrylamide of in a mouse but beyond that I don't if somebody were to say it's bad if you have asthma and you are in a room a small room with smoke I totally agree with that I'm not saying that it has no adverse effects saying it doesn't kill or it kills so rarely and on the such extreme exertion stances it's not true you know why it was developed secondhand smoke I'll tell you why we the the Crusaders against smoking and especially cigarettes and cigarettes are dangerous i truth is truth i have no problem with science or truth i have science i probably with hysteria not with science so they realized that telling people that cigarettes can kill you was not doing enough to stop a lot of people smoking cigarettes so then they came up brilliantly with a new thing ah you're not just killing you you're killing people around you that's what changed the entire anti-smoking crusade then people said oh if somebody wants to kill himself that's their business but if they're gonna kill me that's my business and that's why the secondhand smoke thing became so big to get people to stop smoking through what it turns out to be largely untrue about it being this fatal thing you should read the British Medical Association and others about secondhand smoke and you'll realize that this is wildly exaggerated but we get it all the time this is dangerous that's dangerous we have a Prager University video lador skin Aziz Ganassi gives a brilliant video look what does it let kids be kids let kids be kids and I couldn't believe it when I when I first read her script what doctors doctors unfortunately are some of the biggest hysterics and I know why I'll explain it in a moment it's a very interesting thing I've analyzed it why doctors are so much hysterical so the the there were doctors who were saying don't let your kids walk barefoot in the sand on the beach give me a break give me a break gotta be nuts not to let your kids walk barefoot on the beach it's part of being a kid don't build sandcastles don't dig holes don't bury your friend I don't mean fully come on what are you gonna do on the beach watch the waves come in of course you play in the sand that's that's half the point let me play frisbee football on the sand or whatever you're doing don't walk barefoot I remember I mean do you know that diving boards have been banned in in California at homes that have swimming pools this is already so many years ago cuz hey some people have dived into swimming pools that didn't have water and they begin they kill themselves or got paralyzed or brain concussion it there are people in America who want to live a life with no risks but you know what happens with a life with no risks you have very few joys I don't believe in silly risks I'm not going bungee jumping Heinemann tend to climb Everest where I say one is at 10% I don't know what percent it is actually die I mean it's it's it's a very very risky thing to climb Mount Everest but I mean I'm certainly not for banning it but it's not something even if I could do that I would do but all right people do what they do it but life life should have a lot of joy in it and and and this is one of the joys for kids to walk in sand the coffee is one of the joys of life for people who like coffee because mice get it you're gonna have these announcements you know in California if you fill up your car it's hilarious you've got to read most people Noren thank God but there is a long list of people who shouldn't be filling their car with gas cos because the the fumes of gas could kill you and it's unbelievable when I think about it or how about this oh my god and this is I know it's gonna turn off some of you and I I don't mean to turn you off but I got to be honest I have I am totally supportive you want to breastfeed your children god bless you if it's bonding and God bless you it's a non-issue to me but the the the the anger at women who give their kids a bottle I mean it's anger like you've engaged in some form of child abuse I was bottle-fed and I am healthy I've been healthy my whole life I'm 6 foot 4 they say that kids with who were breastfed are smarter maybe I would have been smarter but I'm okay with the level of intelligence that God gave me right now and a bottle I'm not sure I got stupider my brother was bottle-fed he's a professor of medicine at Columbia University I think he's been I think he's been okay intellectually I mean this stuff is just unbelievable the scare tactics that people use on things that are nothing when I think about my life my parents both smoked nobody died of second-hand smoke my my mother smoked when she was pregnant with me she drank when she was pregnant with me I'm not advocating you do so do whatever you want but I'm telling you it is amazing when I think that my mother would it would send me when I was a kid to go to that what we called in New York where I grew up candy store Dennis could you know go to the candy store and Pecha pick up a pack of cigarettes for me I was like eight years old and they sold me cigarettes because it didn't matter in those days nobody thought I was gonna smoke the pack how many eight-year-olds of smoking packs of cigarettes and if they are the the problem is not the salesperson the problem is the upbringing of the kid I can grow up in a different world seesaws we had seesaws we had diving boards we had monkey bars these things are unknown to a lot of kids today what's wrong with the seesaw somebody fell off a seesaw of course somebody's gonna fall off a seesaw that's what happens on occasion it's not it's not good this stuff and it comes from a an immature view of life that somehow we can make it risk-free but it comes with a price risk free its joy free its spontaneity free so that's that's what I think about when I think a judge rules that you gonna tell people coffee's a carcinogen frankly the the more things that are announced as carcinogens maybe the better maybe people will just tune out which is what's gonna happen because excuse me when something is actually a carcinogen no one will believe it it's like calling everybody you don't agree with the white supremacists when the real bad white supremacists arise nobody will believe it because everybody's already been called a Nazi a neo-nazi a fascist erases there this is this is the ruining of language through this hysteria whether it's in politics or it's in health it's just it's not healthy it's not good god I'll never forget this is gonna drive of nowhere will be crazy to what okay I was uh my I was in my one of my two sons birthday party I don't remember I probably I think the younger one so this was about a while at ease 25 so this is it's about 20 years ago and it was my house and I was smoking my pipe I smoked a pipe in a cigar and at the FT birthday party so this five six year old walks over to me and he goes mister that's dangerous you know he saw this this you know five-year-olds telling me that my sig might buy pipe is dangerous like he knows about pipe you know what's dangerous about pipes I've talked about doctors in a moment I promised I would and it's important thing so I looked at the kid I go hey you see how big and tall I am it's because I smoke a pipe so of course when I tell this there are parents who was so horrified that they would like me jailed I understand that but I think it's ridiculous I can't imagine going over to an adult when I was five and telling them you know you're it's dangerous now they gonna do that with coffee why not my kid's gonna walk over to adults II know that's dangerous you're drinking coffee by the way the thing that really bothered me from the beginning the thing that really bothered me about the anti tobacco crusade was that there's no anti-alcohol crusade nobody abuses a wife or a child after a cigarette but overwhelmingly child and spousal abuse are accompanied by alcohol abuse alcohol abuse has ruined families okay not cigarettes not cigars and not pipes our our moral compass is really wacky now why your doctor is so hysterical it's understandable because they see only sick people people don't go to the doctor when they're healthy they go when they're sick you know right that's the way it works so they see only sick and they therefore for example doctors have said to me Dennis you smoke a cigar you know you can get lip cancer so I said yes I am aware of that but doctor to be honest I've lived a long life thank God and I got to tell you I have met I have known a lot of people because I'm a public figure because I I know a lot of people and a lot of people who know a lot of people I don't know anyone who got lip cancer pancreatic cancer lung cancer skin cancer liver cancer brain cancer breast cancer ovarian cancer testicular cancer you name it but I never met anybody with lip cancer but they exist of course there are people who haven't and doctors a tiny number of people who have it so they extrapolate it's really dangerous because that's what they see so that's the reason doctors are understandably although not I don't defend it but understandably get hysterical because they see the the rare cases of all all these things like carcinogens and coffee so live life enjoy it some things are are truly dangerous and don't bother doing them but most things they're just find don't don't get freaked out okay no time for there we go press it twice Dennis good your questions Eric twenty five Detroit Michigan what is the right thing for single men to do about dating when some women fall in line with society's demonization of viewing forms of courtship as sexist thanks in advance Dennis let's see some women fall in line with society's demonization of forms of courtship as sexist you mean like if you hold the door is that what it is or if you pay for the dinner or is that was that sexist any woman you date who thinks it's sexist to hold the door open you should thank if you're on a date with a woman and she says that sexist you know why you should thank her because in one fell swoop in one moment she has announced to you that you don't want to date her anymore so you don't have to waste any time if she has done you a service because she's a dummy and why would you want to date a dummy that's it simple men should be men women should be women and that's one of God's blessings to the human species that we come in those two varieties not three varieties not four varieties just two and to celebrate each there is a tiny percentage of humanity that has gender dysphoria that does not identify with the sex that they are biologically I want to embrace these people I want to hug them I want I want to give them consolation it's a tragedy it's a separate issue but even they don't deny that there were two sexes they just think they're the other one that's that's a separate issue but if you're with a woman who says I don't you don't have to hold the door for me what do you think I'm weak okay so she has told you that does she doesn't think clearly and that's a service Ian's 23 Sheboygan Wisconsin I am a devout Christian who in the past to struggle with churches I've attended churches around me and they've only impeded my walk with God my question is what are some ways to keep the Sabbath holy without going to church okay number one the first part is not necessarily related to the second but I'll answer the second one because I don't know all the specifics about the first part how do you keep the Sabbath without going to church I I did the Ten Commandments for Prager University you should see by the five minute video they're all five minutes the one I did on the commandment to keep the Sabbath that is by the way that has kept me sane the Sabbath that every week in the Jewish case at sunset on Friday till sunset on Saturday I in effect leave the world I don't read newspapers I don't read the internet news I don't care or don't know what's happening in the world with friends and/or family and it is just a joy I don't work I don't broadcast it's it's life saving the best way if you don't go to church and I think you should even if you have troubles find a place that that you can have less talk I have troubles I go to synagogue every week I don't find prayers particularly moving but I find Bible study incredibly moving so that's the part I go for and I don't pray much others love prayer and God bless them I envy them I wish I liked it more but I don't but it doesn't mean I don't go if you have to be a hundred percent at home in in in your religion nobody will be in their religion very few people or a hundred percent happy or secure or an agreement with their religion the only religion you'll ever be a hundred percent in agreement with is your own it's like people who don't know I can't vote for this can because I don't agree with him or her on on this all right but the only candidate you'll ever agree with all the time is you so you'll have to run for office you want to invent a new religion it's a free country go right ahead I'm not kidding I'm not being sarcastic could all invent a new religion but if you'd like to be with other people in a religion and you don't fully agree with it so what I don't fully agree with everything in my religion so what really by the way so what are magic words very often it's worth saying so what you lead a happier life and find if in your case find a church where you like the people where you like the pastor or the priest and that's just sufficient if you don't agree with everything or not everything makes you comfortable so what or found your own you know found your own church I'm not joking not even a new religion just your own church and and do what what you find is meaningful you'll always find people who will agree with you and now how do you think new churches are always made it's people want to make something that they are more consonant with that's just fine Provo Utah Sam 22 can children be raised effectively in single parents single gender or single parents / single gender homes okay that's two separate questions can people raised effectively in a single-parent home yes they can is it ideal to have two parents it is ideal to have a mother and father that is the ideal that doesn't mean other things can't work but you see people are afraid to say that there is an ideal as if it's insulting to those who don't live by the ideal it's ideal to have one marriage and not get divorced I've gotten divorced I wish that I had had a happy marriage from the very beginning and only been married once but I haven't so I didn't live that ideal that's the way it is I understand but I don't deny the ideal is one marriage that is the ideal okay I am NOT it doesn't insult me that I didn't live the ideal and doesn't insult a single parent to say that the ideal is a mother and father it doesn't insult gay couples to say that the ideal is a mother and father I am NOT going to deny reality so that's that nobody's feelings can be hurt people have to be mature just as I have on the divorce issue the ideal is not to get divorced but some people have to okay it's it's not good to live in a bad marriage your whole life it's not fair to people we have one life it's not fair to either spouse so I understand it and that that's that's how I look at it some of you have religious objections to any divorce I never debate religion that I respect that but for those who do not have that and then Judaism you're allowed to get divorced so it has not been a religious a problem in my life but it is the ideal the ideal is two parents the idealist a parent of each sex that doesn't insult anyone else there are I know people who were raised by a single mom or a single dad who turned out beautiful I know and now with the the I'm sure that they were kids with with same-sex parents who will turn out beautiful and I'm sure they were kids that will turn out troubled life is complex but my my same-sex couple friends and relatives acknowledge the ideal is to have a mother and father it's not it's not they're not negating their their own selves by saying that they're just telling the truth so we should strive for the ideal we can't make it we can't make it but I'm not gonna deny ideals so that nobody's feelings are hurt that's that's a big problem in America feelings trump reality big big problem last question is from Jade 20 in London what is your opinion on the birth control pill birth control in general well my religion allows for it within you know within marriage obviously all religions are of problems with premarital intercourse but the the issue to me forgetting religion now the issue is that the the the birth control the birth control pill has obviously enabled a lot of people to have sex without thinking about it in the past on all of human history people have to think about it well you know maybe I shouldn't have intercourse with this person because they you know we could get pregnant or if she could get pregnant obviously and or I the woman could get pregnant and that's it that that was a heavy-duty thing and now that is a non-issue if birth control is used in the vast majority of cases sometimes there's you know there's a an accident as it were a lot of a lot of people walking around who know their accidents including for married couples but otherwise the issue to me is not birth control the issue is do people want to marry and do people want to have children I don't have an issue with birth control I have an issue with people not wanting to have children that's a bad sign not marrying that's a bad sign or using abortion as a form of birth control that's also a bad sign so that's how I would respond to that well we good guys everybody happy great it's been a joy being with you and I guess that's about it for now see you next week from my home I'm Dennis Prager you