504: Victor Davis Hanson—The Counter Revolution

Mike Rowe (0:04)

Hello, friends. Mike Rowe here with another episode of The Way I Heard It. Happy to see my old buddy Chuck all lit up here on my computer screen. How are you, pal?

Chuck (0:12)

I'm living the dream, Mike, living the dream.

Mike Rowe (0:15)

You know, it's weird. I think I've done seven of these without you over the last couple of months for various reasons, and it's just not the same.

Chuck (0:24)

I'm happy to hear that.

Mike Rowe (0:25)

I didn't say it was better or worse.

Chuck (0:26)

Oh, I see, I see.

Mike Rowe (0:28)

It's just not the same.

Chuck (0:30)

Oh, yeah.

Mike Rowe (0:32)

But you've been traveling, you've been vacationing, you've been relaxing, I hope.

Chuck (0:36)

A little bit, all three of those, yes.

Mike Rowe (0:38)

Excellent. Well, welcome back. I'm glad you didn't miss this one because I think you are probably as big a fan of Victor Davis Hanson as I am, and I hope you enjoyed the conversation you just produced.

Chuck (0:51)

Yeah, this guy is, he's a brainiac. He's smart, he's level headed, and he's really calm, you know. He's not a guy who gets worked up.

He's a guy who can argue convincingly, and it's not really arguing, it's just he makes such a persuasive case that you have to pay attention to it.

Mike Rowe (1:10)

Well, he's very experienced. I would never suggest he's old, but like all of us, he's older than he's ever been. I don't know how exactly or when, I think I know how, but I don't know when precisely he came to occupy such a huge piece of real estate in the zeitgeist. But maybe it's a confirmation bias, maybe the brain finds what it looks for. I started looking for Victor Davis Hanson seven, eight years ago because every time I heard him speak, I heard what you just described. It was a mix of experience, common sense, but also a balance. I was really delighted to spend the first 30 minutes with him talking about the importance of the generalist and our infatuation with the specialist.

He would never describe himself as a Renaissance man, but when I talked to him, I can never quite decide if he's a bigger fan of history, of the present day, of the skilled trades, of the true pursuit of knowledge. His time at Stanford, his hundreds of articles, his dozens of books, they all just really speak of a curious mind and a very brave guy because he has taken it in the neck, I mean, from both sides for the last 10 years, and he just doesn't seem to care.

Chuck (2:43)

No, he doesn't, and partly it's because he bridges two worlds. He's a man of two separate places. He's an intellectual and an academic.

He's, I think, senior fellow at the Hoover Institute, right, at Stanford, and yet he's also a raisin farmer. And you know what I mean? It's like he's a guy who could, kind of like Reagan, who could be mending a fence one day and negotiating a contract the next.

Mike Rowe (3:10)

I don't think he would disagree. I just don't think he would put him in that order. I honestly think he sees himself as a raisin farmer first.

And the son, the grandson, the great, great grandson of farmers. This guy has made his home in the Central Valley here in California. He has not just passionate views about what's happening to California, but informed, logical. You just don't want to argue with this guy. And honestly, the reason I wanted to have him on, I so enjoyed talking to him a couple of years ago when we did this. And he's written a book. It's called The Counterrevolution.

It's going to do what his last three or four books have done, which is inflame and inspire and confuse and challenge people on both sides of the aisle and sell.

Chuck (4:01)

It's going to sell a lot. I'm sure it's already was number one on Amazon. Yeah.

Mike Rowe (4:06)

Yeah. So it's a thick book. I'm about halfway through it. The way a B-list celebrity gets through a book when he's attempting to impersonate the impression of preparedness for an interview like this, I will finish it cover to cover before too long. But I didn't want to wait. I wanted to talk to him immediately. I do want to see his book sell out. I'm sure it will.

But I also want people to arm themselves with it. It doesn't matter how you vote. If you can understand what's happened in the country vis-à-vis Trump over the last couple of, well, over the last decade, then you can probably start to understand what's happened to your own relationship with your friends and with your family. I don't want to speak for you, Chuck, but I've got members of my family who have very strong opinions on the other side of the aisle. I think you do as well.