Best of the Program | Guests: Jason Buttrill & Eric Fellman | 12/10/21

Charlie Sheen is an icon of decadence.

I lit the fuse and my life turns into everything it wasn't supposed to be.

He's going the distance.

He was the highest paid TV star of all time.

When it started to change, it was quick.

He kept saying, No, no, no, I'm in the hospital now, but next week I'll be ready for the show.

Now, Charlie's sober.

He's gonna tell you the truth.

How do I present this with a class?

I think we're past that, Charlie.

We're past that, yeah.

Somebody call action.

Yeah, aka Charlie Sheen, only on Netflix, September 10th.

We have a great Friday podcast for you.

We have clips from Mr.

Snerdly.

Bo Snerdley is on with us.

We have actually a Friday night exclusive that is available right now for Blaze subscribers.

You can watch the whole interview, but we have clips in this podcast.

That whole interview will be out on YouTube on Sunday.

Also, Jim Jordan is tomorrow's podcast, Clips on This Podcast.

We talk a little bit about

Christmas, the Hallmark channel, and a Hallmark movie that is actually premiering tomorrow, but we have the people whose story that movie is based on, and they're

nothing alike.

So you know how

Hallmark movies, they all kind of have a surprise ending?

The only people that are going to be surprised by this are the people it actually happened to, because it didn't happen like that uh all of this and so much more on today's podcast

you're listening to the best of the blend back program

uh post nerdly uh is going to be the friday exclusive for blaz tv

subscribers only today at five what do you i don't know i just keep getting i i i know it's going to be on youtube on sunday Yeah, yeah on Sunday it's going to be on YouTube, but it's available for Blaze TV subscribers.

That's all.

You should be a Blaze TV subscriber.

Yes, you could.

How would you do something like that?

Is there a way to do that?

You have the hardest day.

Right now, I'm having the hardest day.

And what are you doing?

You're just

curious as if, if, is it possible for you to see?

BlazeTV.com slash Glenn, use the promo code Glenn and get some sort of a discount.

How's that?

Buy some socks.

So, Bo Snerdley, Bo,

sorry, this is an inside joke.

Somebody is overachiever in the sock business and is telling us all the time, we got to talk about the new Blaze TV socks.

And we're like, okay, yeah, we got it.

We got a lot of important things to talk about.

We got to talk about the socks.

Got to talk about the buy the socks.

You can get them at, what's the, what is it, Blaze Socks?

BlazeSocks.com.

Yeah, okay.

Good.

Yeah.

There, I did it.

I did it.

And the promo code is nothing.

You get no discount.

But they're great too.

You will pay for one.

They have Joe Biden's butt and a little poop emoji.

I don't know if it's Joe Biden's, but it is a butt.

Yeah, it's probably too firm to be his butt.

It does seem to be a much more wrinkly.

Yeah, that's just, I guess, that is just in salute of his trip to see the Pope.

I don't know.

I don't make the socks, but you can get the Go Brandon socks now.

Okay.

So Bo Snerdley, you're going to get two podcasts this weekend because Bo Snerdley is a legendary producer

with

Rush Limbaugh forever.

I don't know any casual listeners of Rush Limbaugh.

I don't know if you know that Bo Snerdley is black, and that's not his real name.

I would have liked to talk to him a little bit about, you know, the things, you know, he's been really raked through the coals because you're a solo, you work for Rush Limbaugh, but he worked for him since the beginning.

You're going to get that tonight on Blaze TV and then tomorrow on the podcast, and it's already up at Blaze TV, tomorrow, wherever you get your podcast, you'll be able to see the interview with Jim Jordan.

But they both say something really interesting, and I want to spend some time on this here.

First,

let's take cut eight here from Bo Snerdley talking about the Medal of Freedom.

I was there the night Rush got the Medal of Freedom,

and Rush and I didn't know each other.

We met each other once at a friend's, mutual friend's wedding.

And I was, I'm never one to,

I just, I'm just not one to, you know, call people up and go, hey, Rush, I'm in town.

I would,

you know, especially somebody like Rush.

But

when I did see him and when I

saw him that night,

I don't know if he knew that was coming.

Was that a surprise to him?

I know he had been at the White House.

And what was that like when he came home?

Well, we didn't see him when he came home for a few days because this happened the first day he had made the announcement that he had advanced lung cancer.

He immediately left after the show that day to go to treatment.

That night is when all of this happened.

He was supposed to be going to treatment.

And so following that, he had to rush back up to Boston where he was being treated and

resume and get started with the treatment.

So we didn't see him until about a week later when

he finally came back in.

And a week later, guess what?

He wasn't even interested in discussing it that much.

We took one call on it toward the end of the show.

He wanted to dive right back into the news of the day, do the kind of show that he always did.

I talked to him about the last couple of broadcasts.

Here's what Bo said.

His last few days, you were there with him.

Tell me about that.

Didn't know it was going to be the last few days.

We didn't.

I mean, Rush's bucket list was his audience.

And so

every

Glenn, every single day that he could be there, that he wasn't in treatment, that he wasn't suffering from the effects of treatment, he came to work.

And when the mic went on,

I'm telling you, you would not even think the man was fighting any kind of an illness because he had the same upbeat

uh the same upbeat presentation he was just as witty as ever was prepared as ever it was only afterwards Glenn when when

there were days he couldn't he could barely get out of the chair after doing his show

In fact, one day he had to have someone come in and help him because he couldn't even hold his attache case.

He was so weak and it had taken everything out of him to do those three hours.

But all of those days, you would not be able to tell that anything was wrong with him.

And we didn't know that his last show was his last show.

It was, then he just spiraled down really quickly, apparently after that, and that was, and then just didn't come back.

He worked until the very end.

And let me just stop for a moment and thank not only our audience, but it's also your audience, Glenn, it's all of our audience.

Do you realize the audience that

talk radio, all of you, all of us

appeal to,

gave so many millions and millions and millions of dollars to fight things like leukemia.

Those diseases don't have any political agenda.

They strike people from babies to the elderly.

The money that was raised to help the families of fallen first responders, the money that's raised every year to help needy children and needy families during the holiday season.

All of these things happen on a regular basis because all of you and Russ leading the way cultivated an audience that was among the most generous human that the world has ever seen, and they don't get thanked for it.

I agree with that

100%.

There's no one.

that can replace, and I don't mean the time slaughter anything, there's just no one in that category.

And I look at, you know, our graduating class now that's in charge, and I think

none of us are.

I mean, the next one will come, but none of us are in that category.

The next one will come.

It may not even be on radio, but the next one is already here.

Glenn, look, I've looked Glenn,

don't discount the impact that you've had.

I watched you

do something that

I had never seen anybody do before,

which was teach civics on television and make it freaking interesting.

Okay?

I mean, I was like, whoa,

who is this guy?

And you did it.

And so we all have our special gifts, our special skills.

And so we don't have to have the next one of him.

We have you.

We have other.

And the young crew coming up, boy, these young conservatives that have been inspired by this generation of talk radio hosts, look out, world.

Most nerdly, you do not want to miss

this Friday night

exclusive.

You can find it right now on Blaze TV or at 5 o'clock tonight on Blaze TV

and it'll be there.

And I think on Sunday it goes to YouTube, but also Jim Jordan.

That is an hour with Jim Jordan, which I think is one of the best hours

of what we have to do to turn all of this around.

We're going to give you some clips of that coming up in just a second, but that is already out on the blaze for our podcast, and it'll be out on the Saturday podcast, wherever you get your podcasts.

You're listening to the best of the Glenn Beck program.

Number one, New York Times best-selling author, 43 novels with more than 35 million copies of his books in print.

He is also the author of the international best-selling series Michael Vay, which he published with me and Mercury.

Eight of his books have been turned into movies.

His first feature film is releasing in 2022, starring Justin Hartley of This Is Us.

And he is also the founder and chairman of the Christmas Box International, an organization that helps and shelters abused, traffic, and neglected children.

Over 125,000 children have been served by the Christmas Box organization, and he is married to an amazing woman named Carrie, who I think is a better person than he is, but that's just my opinion.

Richard Paul Evans, welcome to the program.

How are you, sir?

That's why Carrie loves you so much.

I know.

I know.

So, Richard, you have a new book out called The Christmas Promise.

And I just read, and if I could, I just want to read what's

on the leaf here on the book.

On the night of her high school graduation, Rochelle Bach's father gives her and her identical twin sister, Michelle, matching opal necklaces.

These opals look identical, he tells them, but the fire inside each is completely unique, just like the two of you.

Indeed, the two sisters couldn't be more different, and their paths diverge as they embark on adulthood.

Years pass until their father's, at their father's behest, they both come home for Christmas.

What happens then forever damages their relationship, and Rochelle vows to never see or speak to her sister again.

In their father's last days, he asks Rochelle to forgive Michelle a deathbed promise which she never fulfills as her twin is killed in an accident.

Wow.

That, A, it sounds like a great opening of a story and a great plot for a story.

You want to go into it anymore

without giving it away?

Yeah, well, it actually is based on the story of the Prodigal Son.

And so I wanted to tell the story from the older brother's perspective.

Hold on just a second.

Hold on just a second.

Do you still have walking pneumonia?

I do.

Sit down, and then it'll be just plain pneumonia.

How are you feeling?

Not too great.

Oh, my gosh.

We could have rescheduled this interview, Richard.

I'm so sorry.

I would never leave you in that.

Oh, my gosh.

I'm sorry.

All right.

Well, sit down, and whatever you can do, let's do.

Well, hopefully, I don't sound ridiculous, but I am so excited about this book.

And it just hit all the nation's best seller lists, USA Today, New York Times, and Publishers Weekly.

My movie producer call me and tell me that he

has already read it twice, and this is his number one goal is to get it produced.

But most important, I wanted a book that at this time in our country that people would have something warm.

You know, the book is about compassion,

it's about not judging each other, and it's about loving each other for the fire that's within.

Do you watch the Hallmark channel?

Sometimes.

Yeah.

So I watch it, and I only I've actually never been a fan because it's so obvious the way all those stories are going to end.

but i i actually watch it with my wife in a fun way but but it is they're always

i don't know christmas is supposed to be a renewal of hope

and as cheesy as some of those movies are there is something special about christmas that allows you to start all over again is that why you keep coming back to christmas in a lot of your novels It is.

I mean, they say to dance with who brung you to the dance.

And my first book was The Christmas Box.

Right.

And I spent years trying to get away from that.

I didn't want to be typecast as a Christmas author, even though, I mean, the New York Times called me the king of Christmas fiction, so I was kind of stuck.

And I tried to get away from it, and then I thought, why?

Christmas is a time of redemption.

It's a time of love.

It's a time when society comes together.

And

why not embrace it?

You have a fascinating life.

I wish I could live your life

in many ways.

You travel all over the world as you're doing research for your books.

I know

Michael Vay,

you traveled all over.

You speak Mandarin, don't you?

Yes, I got to go back to Taiwan.

And oh my gosh, Glenn,

it was just like I wrote it in the book.

It's like, this is, it was like it really existed.

But the only way to really get the feel is to go there.

So, but Glenn, you're the life I'd like to have.

No one dreams as big as you.

Yeah.

So

are we ever going to talk about my son, who

read every single Michael Vay book, we read them together.

I think if you're looking for a Christmas gift, you know, for your family to read, I mean, obviously the Christmas Promise is his book, but if you've never read the series that Richard wrote, Michael Vay, it is great.

And we started reading him, I think Rafe was probably seven or eight.

He just said to me the other day, I said, I'm trying to convince

Richard Paul Evans to write

another

group of books on Michael Vay.

He said, you're kidding me.

He's 17 and he's still, you're kidding me.

Really?

When's that going to happen?

I said, I don't know.

I am hoping that he's going to want to do another one.

Glenn, Glenn, when

in the midst of this, when I came down with pneumonia, I went to a hotel to get away from my family.

And I'm checking in and this lady at the counter, young lady.

She looked up and looked at my name.

She goes, are you a writer and I go yes she goes Jirai Michael Vay

and I said yes she goes I love those books yeah she had the cutest smile on her face yeah they're really they're great that's a great series Richard

I want to talk to you about something else that you're that you're doing but we'll save that for

next year because I something has happened and it just drives me out of my mind and and I want Richard to tell you the story of that but maybe we'll do that next year I know the

the Christmas Promise

or the Christmas Box organization

has been helping, and you do so much.

What are you doing this season?

Is there anything that our audience might want to get involved in?

Oh, thank you so much.

Yeah, we're providing Christmas for 3,000 abused children.

And I love this organization.

We are hands-on with these kids, and we've struggled with COVID.

I mean, we take the kids 24-7.

So if they go to thechristmasbox.org,

just thechristmasbox.org, or they look at the Christmas Box House.

And I'm just really proud.

More than 80% of everything that comes in goes right to the kids.

And

we've provided billions of dollars of assistance to these children who have no one else.

They don't have their families.

I love this organization.

Check it out.

You can go to the Christmas Box.

Do you look up the Christmas Box house?

Or do you have the web address?

It's in Utah, so just yes, the web ischristmasbox.org.

Christmasbox.org.

Thank you so much.

Have a great holiday and

get well.

Thank you, Glenn.

My best to your family.

God bless.

Thank you, thank you.

Be back.

Bye-bye.

The name of the book is The Christmas Promise, and he is just, he's a fantastic, fantastic author.

If you've never read any of his books, he's actually, I don't know if we've ever talked about this, Simon and Schuster

came to me because of the original ending of The Christmas Sweater is, I think, and always have felt, is a better ending.

I've always wanted to update the Christmas sweater and give it the original ending.

But it was...

Director's Cut?

Yeah.

Yeah.

They thought it was depressing.

And I said,

you read a depressing book?

I can't even imagine.

They said it was depressing because in it, mom dies.

But in it, you know, it goes on for a couple more chapters.

And in it, you see real redemption work out.

And they were like, you can't have a holiday book where mom dies.

And I'm like, but it's, that's the truth.

I mean, it's better.

And they really didn't understand the idea and the concept of redemption.

They found, yeah, but he, see, he learns all the lessons.

And they're like, no, no, mom can't die.

I didn't know how to write that.

And so I called Richard Paul Evans.

I don't even know if we knew each other that well back then.

And I said, you know, I know you're the king of Christmas.

I'm stuck.

I've got this book and

I can't figure out a way to get this to be anywhere where I want it to be.

And mom lives.

And he said, send it to me.

Let me look at it.

And he called me back in a couple of days and he said, okay, here's what happens.

Eddie has to do this, this, this, this, and this.

And he was the guy who really is responsible for the ending of, you know, 2 million copies sold of the Christmas sweater.

And he's the guy who wrote it.

Are you trying to convince us he's a better author than you?

Because we've already believed that.

Learly.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You don't need to.

There's no work to meet done there.

This

is the best of the Glenn Beck program.

This is the Glenn Beck program.

We're glad you're here.

I want to introduce you to somebody who I think is here against his will.

And

when the story was first given to me, I said, oh, that's a great story.

But it was given to me by our executive producer,

Ricky, who has just married our next guest's son.

And so that made it a lock for me because I just wanted to say to our guest our deepest condolences.

Our deepest condolences.

No, it was

congratulations.

Congratulations.

That was a con, one way or another.

It was a con.

Eric Feldman, how are you, sir?

I am fantastic.

I'm just thrilled that you admitted the extreme nepotism that's going on.

Oh, my gosh.

It was.

Yeah, she was like, I'll get you fired if you don't have him on.

And I was like, wait a minute, Ricky.

But she told me.

I got to say that my son Jason totally outkicked his coverage when he got Ricky.

So there's no question.

Oh, what a good father-in-law.

All right.

So here's the thing.

You have, and I don't want to talk about the Hallmark movie because I hear it's nothing like the real story.

But a Hallmark movie, A Godwink Christmas, Miracle of Love, is airing, is premiering tomorrow night on Hallmark.

And it is based on a story that happened to you, correct?

That's correct.

Loosely based.

Loosely based.

Now, you're never going to guess how this ends.

Will the couple actually get together in the end?

Will a miracle happen?

Watch Tomorrow Night on Hallmark.

But

tell me the story quickly.

Start, you know,

you started dating your wife in the early 70s, and then in 1975, something happens.

Tell me, tell me.

So

we met that previous summer and in and we built a relationship, got engaged.

And a few weeks before we were to be married, I was working and I was involved in a horrible accident.

And

I was traveling.

I was in the small town of Oshikosh, Wisconsin.

And the doctors didn't think I would survive, but one of them had gone to a seminar, which is where the Godwink comes in, which means a coincidence.

And I had a severe liver injury.

Okay, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on.

Yeah, yeah.

You suck at telling your own story.

Let me help you out here just a little bit.

Let me be Hallmark here just a little bit.

You were working like eight weeks straight so you could pay for the honeymoon when you're getting when you're on vacation.

You're up in where, Wisconsin, and she's in San Diego?

That's correct.

Okay.

And

your truck won't start that you're using for your job, and you get underneath it, and the car brake goes out and actually lurches forward and crushes everything from the belt up right except for your head

that is very true and it did get part of my head because it's it smashed my jaw in three places holy cow and so when you're laying there how long were you laying there was anyone around

So I was in the parking lot of a little restaurant and

I just, I knew what had happened, you know, and I thought, well, I'm dead.

I really did.

And I had one of those moments where you hear from God, and he said, not yet.

And so I kind of tried to holler, and somebody ran up and this woman started screaming.

And they immediately called the EMTs and got me to the local hospital, Ashkosh Mercy's Medical Center.

So your jaw,

both collarbones, several ribs broken, right arm shattered.

They actually went, if I'm not mistaken, they called

your bride to be

and said,

don't rush.

He's not going to make it.

Yeah.

She was actually at her bridal shower, and my father called her father, and he called the church and said, send Joy home right now.

They got a hold of the hospital, and they said, exactly what you said.

He's not going to make it.

Don't rush out here.

We're so sorry, you know.

But she jumped on a plane anyway, and obviously I survived.

And the first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was her lovely face.

And I'm trying to figure out how did she get here because, you know, I was out of it for several, several hours.

So when you got in to surgery, your liver ruptured, and that's normally a death sentence, right?

Correct.

But the guy who was just happened to be on duty, I mean, you weren't with a special, you were just at the hospital, the next hospital that could take you, right?

Correct.

Yeah.

And he just happened to be on call.

Okay.

And so he happened to be on call.

And

what had he just happened to do?

He had been at a seminar, and there was another session with a billboard out there, and it said new technique for liver trauma.

And he was going to go home, and he said, well, I might as well go to this.

And it was just the day before.

So therefore, the coincidence that the writer called a Godwink.

And he said to his partner,

one was N.

Graver, the other

partner was Isom.

He said, let's try this.

This kid's a goner anyway.

So they used that technique and saved my life.

That is unbelievable.

Really, truly unbelievable.

You went on, I just love this because I love Norman Vincent Peale.

You went to work with Norman Vincent Peale and Donald Trump as the co-chair of Peale's 90th birthday, right?

Which had to be.

Well, yes, that was an amazing event where Trump's father loved Dr.

Peale.

And so when Trump was a teenager, there was an assigned seat for him to sit in Peel's church in

29th and 5th Avenue in Manhattan every week.

And

later when Peel came around to this big celebration for his 90th birthday, Trump and then former Governor John Y.

Brown of Kentucky were the co-chairs, but Trump was in charge.

And we met in Manhattan and I was placed, you know, as the staff executive responsible to help him with whatever he needed.

So, I mean, there were 20 people in the room, but I got to spend two or three sessions watching him orchestrate a wonderful event for Dr.

Peale's 90th birthday.

And you've gone on to also, you went to China,

and you were there when the churches were open for the first time after 50 years.

Yep.

And that was an amazing experience.

Joy went with me.

The Chinese government was very anxious to show that they were loosening at that time.

And

we attended a few church events, but also experienced through interview what many of the believers had gone through in terms of imprisonment and torture during the 40 years between when the churches were closed and when they were reopened.

You also had three kids.

One of them is Jason, and now he's married to Ricky, which kind of makes it, it cheapens it a bit, doesn't it?

I mean, you've went on to do all these things.

Well,

you know, I can't say that because I never thought I'd ever get to be on Glenn Beck's radio show.

This is another amazing event in my life.

Well, I have to tell you,

I saw a bit of the clip.

What you just told me and what I knew, it doesn't seem like

Hallmark.

It doesn't seem like anything like what you just told me.

Yeah, so the only true things in the Hallmark movie are names, the fact that Graeber saved my life, and

that Joy ended up marrying me.

That's the only thing.

That's it.

Not even the injury, nothing.

Well,

yeah, there's an injury, but the facts of the injury are different because instead of meeting at a summer camp and going to work, they have us meeting on a Habitat for Humanity project.

And I actually haven't seen the whole movie, so I don't know all the details.

Are you going to watch it?

Are you going to watch it?

Absolutely.

It's already, you know, we're old now, so it starts at 10 o'clock.

We might not make it.

It's on record.

It's on record.

Eric, great to talk to you, sir.

Thank you so much.

We'll be watching God Winks, the Hallmark movie, God Wink Christmas, Miracle.

And it had nothing to do with Christmas either, did it?

Your

God Wink Christmas, a miracle of love.

That is tomorrow night on Hallmark.

Thank you so much, Eric.

God bless.