Get It On!: The Adam Carolla-Dennis Prager Story
It became apparent that Dennis had the ability not only to communicate big ideas to someone like me – someone who was already embarking on a career in the same line of work he has mastered – but also to connect with guys and gals my own age who don’t “follow politics” or any of the cultural battles waging around them. Prager has the knowledge to educate, the capacity to motivate, and the tenor and personality to circumvent the “I didn’t care for his tone” excuse most apolitical Americans use to obfuscate their intellectual laziness. (See, I’m still working on that whole “tone” thing myself!)
After a few memorable opportunities to come to Los Angeles and spend time with my hero, and after hearing Dennis say many times on his show that he wanted to find ways to bring his brand of “Speak softly and carry a Big Idea” conservatism to a younger audience, the hamster wheel of ideas in my head began spinning.
Here’s where things get really interesting.
On April 12th, in the year of our Lord 2011, while simultaneously parsing the Hebrew participle for my graduate school course in “Biblical Hebrew” and listening to comedian Adam Carolla’s podcast – the most popular in human history, by the way – I heard Carolla and guest Joe Rogan discussing the cultural and economic decline of their state of California. Amidst the ranting, and right as I was about to switch my iPod over to a Frank Sinatra playlist for the rest of my Hebrew conjugation bonanza, Adam said the following combination of words that I, like Samuel L. Jackson’s “Mr. Glass” in the movie Unbreakable, had been searching for.
There’s this super smart guy named Dennis Prager who I listen to every morning while taking my kids to school, and he always says…
This was it. This is what Bono and the lads from U2 should have been looking for. And I had found it.
Immediately my mind filled with all of the pertinent facts. Carolla is culturally relevant. He’s a touring stand-up comic. He is twenty years younger than Dennis Prager. He’s politically incorrect. He’s a beer-drinking, car-loving, sports-watching, red-blooded American male who worked his way up from a childhood on food stamps in North Hollywood to a beautiful home and family up in “the hills.”
Because he actually was that working-class stiff (some try and pretend to be) for the first thirty-plus years of his life, and specifically because he was in the insanely regulated construction and contracting business, Adam knows first-hand how soul-crushing big-government bureaucracy can truly be.
And so it was that after years of listening to Adam and hearing him give away little hints as to his true feelings about key flaws in progressivism, everything came together in one glorious moment: Adam has been listening to Dennis all along, too! He may not be a Tea Party conservative, but this guy “gets it”! And he loves Prager to boot!
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.