Get It On!: The Adam Carolla-Dennis Prager Story
Like peanut butter and jelly, like Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, Adam Carolla and Dennis Prager were meant to be together. Their on-air, on-stage chemistry works because it was meant to work. It’s supposed to work.
I am simply the one who made it all happen.
But unlike a coming together of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies and a tall glass of cold milk, the union of the foul-mouthed atheist comedian Carolla and the erudite religious conservative Prager was not something as plain as the delicious smell wafting into the nose on your face. There was preparation and man-hours involved. There is a backstory.
Here it comes.
In 2005, while sitting on the roof of a house whose shutters I was painting to make some side cash during my senior year of college, I heard for the first time the commanding voice and demonstrable wisdom of Dennis Prager. In spite of the poor sound quality my small boombox offered, I heard the intellectual mentor for whom I’d been searching. Although the work I was doing at that exact moment was mundane and thoughtless, the monologue Prager unfurled had a zeal and depth that made one want to drop the paintbrush in order that he might go read an important book or start a charity or help an old lady cross the street.
Or, at the very least, do the best job of painting a shutter that one possibly could.
Like greater men such as Andrew Breitbart and David Mamet before me, I “found” Dennis in much the same way Gary Cooper in Sergeant York “found” religion.
To be fair to the Cooper-Breitbart-Mamet analogy, conservatism already coursed through my veins, but up to that point my political appetite had been fed primarily by the red meat served up daily on cable news shows and in Sean Hannity’s books. I believe in Ronald Reagan’s 11th Commandment, and so please understand that I mean no disrespect to any of the fine people who represent my values in the media, but it was then, finally, that I heard in Dennis’ presentation a voice of strength and breadth and insight that I had secretly craved.
A man of substance. A man of thoughtful inquiry. A man of big ideas.
This was my introduction to what I affectionately call “Prager Conservatism,” and from that point until today I haven’t gone more than a few days without listening to his nationally syndicated radio show or reading his discerning weekly columns. Eventually, after graduating from college, my friends and I began hosting “Prager Hour” nights twice a month where a bunch of guys in their 20s would come over, enjoy a cigar if they so chose, hear a pre-selected segment or two of The Dennis Prager Radio Show’s podcast, and engage in lively discussion and debate for a couple of hours. Dennis was Obi-wan to our band of Luke Skywalkers.
Thankfully none of us have had our hands chopped off with a light-saber by a scary man who claims to have sired us…yet!
A belated thank you for all you’ve done. I’m a Prager fan from way back, and a CarollaHead of more recent vintage. I’ve about to add the latest pair of their stage shows to my iPod for the plane trip to Israel. I couldn’t think of more appropriate listening!
Let’s just hope nobody’s service dog pees on me. (Carolla in-joke).
Cool is important. The good news is progressives are longer cool, really. They are out of ideas. Their bubbles are bursting. The risk is that progressivism is a progressive disease. Like someone with an addiction, progressives will come back and be worse than ever if they control the purse strings of government again. If we don’t get our financial house in order and put the blame squarely on progressives for pushing programs that don’t work and pile up debt, there is a real risk that we’ll see federal spending and regulation spin out of control more than it is now (like in CA and MI). I am looking forward to listening to some of the Prager-Carolla podcasts.
I would pay money to hear Dennis explain to Adam why he is a stereo buff and have Adam explain to Dennis about his passion for cars. I suppose they could do it on Dennis’ show but his producers won’t let him talk about audio gear on the air.
Kathy, Thanks for the kind words and glad you are enjoying the shows! And Steve, I very much agree with your assessment of where things are at. You won’t regret taking the time to purchase/listen to the Prager-Carolla shows! (And no, I don’t get a cut of the profit, so that’s a a genuine endorsement to spend your hard-earned money!).
Carolla is so fantastic when he’s not cussing. Combining him with Prager tames him without losing an ounce of that which differentiates him and makes him good to hear.
First I should tell you that I am agnostic, leaning toward atheist. That said, as a huge Adam Carolla fan, it was he who got me listening to Dennis Prager. I’d like to thank you for a great article and a great message. The nice thing about the pairing of the two is that it just re-affirms what we’ve known all along, which is that anyone can get along and prosper as long as we can be honest with each other. I don’t have to agree with you and you don’t have to agree with me, but if there is a basic intellectual dishonesty then can will be no common ground. It’s why I get frustrated when I hear the trite phrase, “…this country really needs to have an honest discussion about race…”. The statement is true, the problem is that most people that say it have no interest in an “honest discussion” about race, they are interested in a lecture about race. What we have with Prager and Carolla is an honest discussion about any and all topics. Why? Because they each come at the topic with intellectual honesty. It’s amazing how, when each side is truly honest, even though people can come at things from different ideologies, they tend to share more in common than one might think possible.
So thanks again, first for getting Adam and Dennis together, and also for a great message.
Higgs-
Great to hear from you, man! Thank you for reading the piece and I’m thrilled you enjoyed it. I have many non-believing friends and we get along famously, same as Dennis and Adam…same as friends all over the country in similar situations. The important thing in the public square isn’t uniformity of thought/belief, but respect for your opponent and a certain degree of comprehension regarding your own convictions. People think we have to “get along” for getting along’s sake, or pretend that every idea is equally valid. Not the case. It’s our duty to defend what we believe, but to do it respectfully and civilly.
Intellectual honesty is SO important!
You are guilty of being a bit of a Utopian here when you say each side must have respect for other’s position but that both sides must be intellectually honest. Ideologues and people trying to gain advantage usually can fake the former for the first few exchanges but generally can not ever achieve the latter.
The real problem is not that people cannot have civil discussions about how we should be collectively governed. Rather it is the overreach of government that allows one side to massively execute on their point of view without getting any agreements at all from other affected parties.
My neighbor may feel that we need a drainage ditch running between our properties while I feel that it isn’t so bad to simply deal with occasional flooding of the terrain. While neither can command the other, the conversation has a good chance of being civil and intelligent with perhaps a good compromise as an outcome. But when he petitions the city to force me into this expenditure, you can throw civility out the window.
When I meet an Obama supporter I immediately see someone who is complicit in the degradation of our standard of living and the stealing of wealth and opportunity from coming generations. We can discuss the weather or the Lakers with civility – but not politics or culture.
Yeah…..Maybe..We shall see how long Adam can keep tippy toeing around the snakes of the Hollywood pool. Kissing Sarah Silverman’s ass AND going on anti government rants in one podcast is quite a feat. So far, he’s managed to pull it off to some extent, although the powers that be on the left coast probably don’t sweat him so much because it’s a podacast which they most likely reguard as less than radio. I would think that if he got much bigger, he would be swat down for going against the company grain. I’m sure being Kimmels pal doesn’t hurt either. Good luck to him.
Great story, Geat example of effective action. Now, we all need to do our own and obviously need to take it to the next level since the Obama-Reid-Pelosi machine is accelerating and is aimed at destroying our country fast.
I love listening to these two together. Thanks for your role in making it happen.
I have been a Loveline fan since 15 years ago. Two to three years ago I picked up Prager. Under his guidance I went from a lifelong (at 25 then) atheist, angry and foolish, to exploring my Jewish roots and challenging myself to find God. I can’t speak highly enough of Dennis. Check out his book Happiness Is A Serious Problem, easy, yet life changing read.