Mike Rowe: Make America Stand for Something Again

Reason Podcasts

Today's guest is Mike Rowe, the podcaster, former host of Dirty Jobs, and star of Something To Stand For, an unabashedly patriotic film in which he tells unknown stories about legendary figures in American history. Something To Stand For will be in theaters from June 27th through the 4th of July, and will be available online afterward. Reason's Nick Gillespie and Rowe talk about the decline of patriotism and trust in experts over the past 50 years, the necessity of knowing history and your neighbors, and how developing gratitude may lead to a social renaissance even in the midst of political polarization. 0:00—Introduction 1:20—Rowe's new movie: Something To Stand For 6:29—Remembering the veterans of World War II and Korea 10:30—Faith Popcorn and futurism 12:50—Boys Scouts and crumbling social institutions 19:13—Are we sheep or goats? 21:15—Generational disconnections for patriotism 27:28—Ad: Students For Liberty 28:29—Paul Harvey and "God made a farmer" 31:00—"The Way I Heard It" and expanding stories into movies 32:34—How do we acknowledge failings and still celebrate progress? 35:55—Grounding the American experience in gratitude 38:38—"Embrace the suck" so you can make new discoveries 41:50—Finding optimism for the future despite our sordid past 44:42—Mike Rowe is "skeptimistic" 45:58—The end has always been "near" 48:50—Gratitude and curiosity require humility Subscribe at YouTube: http://youtube.com/reasontv Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Reason.Magazine Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/reason Visit the archive: https://reason.com/tags/reason-podcast