Season 85, Episode 1019: Guest: Brian Hess: A Tribute to Charlie Kirk

"One word of truth shall outweigh the whole world. Violence can only be concealed by a lie and a lie can only be maintained by violence. Any man who has once proclaimed violence as his method is inevitably forced to take the lie as his principle. At its birth, violence acts openly; even proudly, but no sooner does it become strong firmly established, then it senses the rare faction of the air around it and it cannot continue to rule without descending into a fog of lies, clothing them in sweet words. Violence does not live alone and is not capable of living alone. It is necessarily interwoven with falsehood and the lie can only persist by covering up violence. Any man who has once acclaimed violence as his method must inexorably choose falsehood as his principle. The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the lie, not to support deceit. Let the lie come in to the world, let it even triumph, but not through me." - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

On today's episode of The Culture Matters Podcast, we are continuing with our series of guests who are paying their respects to conservative activist and co-founder of Turing Point USA, Charlie Kirk, who lost his life at a speaking engagement in Utah on September 10, 2025.  To continue these discussions on the life an contributions of Charlie Kirk, we have a regular back on the show in the form of Brian Hess, founder of The Pavement Group and Top Contractor School and the host of "The Brian Hess Show".  As we've stated before, the murder of Charlie Kirk was met with a myriad of different emotions and responses and this conversation brings in to focus just how sad an event this was.  Brian and Jay discuss the tragedy of Charlie's kids growing up without him, how not getting the full scope of someone's words is both dangerous and irresponsible, the inspiration Charlie provided for the next generation, and how, eventually, there will be someone who is going to pick up the mantle and continue on.  We hope you enjoy this episode of The Culture Matters Podcast.