May 22, 2020 • 11 mins
Hi listeners, in case you haven't heard already, iHeartRadio just released a brand new podcast called Commencement: Speeches for the Class of 2020, where we collected speeches from notable folks all over and asked them to give their best advice, thoughts and words of wisdom to graduating seniors.
In this episode of Commencement: Speeches for the Class of 2020, Josh Clark, co-host of the Stuff You Should Know podcast, divulges secrets to graduates that their parents and teachers may have neglected to tell them.
If you'd like to hear the other speeches, including ones from John Legend, Bill & Melinda Gates, Tim Cook, Katie Couric, Ryan Seacrest, Abby Wambach, and more, just search "Commencement: Speeches for the Class of 2020" in your podcasting app of choice!
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
The holidays are the most wonderful time of the year,
but they can also be the most stressful, and with
the threat of COVID nineteen still looming, emotions are high
and can be overwhelming. Cal Hope can help with free
emotional support for you and your loved ones this holiday season.
Call eight three three three one seven four six seven
(00:24):
three or live chat at cal Hope dot org. Today
at Metro by T Mobile, we're giving you more with
the Big five G upgrade. Now choose from the largest
selection of three five D phones and pre paid like
the Samsung Galaxy five G. Just switch and trade in
your old device, plus enjoy five G access on every
(00:45):
plan at no extra cost. All powered by the T
Mobile five G network only at Metro requires poured in
I D and eligible plan plus tax. Five D coverage
not available everywhere. See sore for details. This episode is
brought to you by direct TV Stream, introducing direct TV
Stream the best of live TV and on demand, which
(01:08):
means you can watch your favorite sports, movies and shows
all in one place. So whether you want to catch
the game live or watch the latest blockbuster, they've got
you covered and there's no annual contract. Direct TV stream.
Get your TV together at direct tv dot Com requires
high speed Internet and compatible device. Content varies by package
and location restriction supply. Commencement Speeches for the Class of
(01:30):
twenty is a production of I Heart Radio. Class of Parents, Faculty,
rising graduates. Welcome to commencement. You made it. This year
(01:50):
is a little different at difficult time to graduate because
the traditional graduation day has been put on hold, So
we're bringing it to you wherever you are because this
is still your day, your moments, and now put your
hands together. It's time to be inspired. This year's commencement
speaker the one and only Josh Clark. Dear students, congratulations
(02:24):
on reaching this point in your life. It's a big
deal and you should be proud of yourself now that
you've gotten here. I've come to fill you in on
a little secret you've been told for practically your whole life.
Now how special you are, how singularly important you are,
how packed with uniqueness you are. And that is true.
(02:46):
You are special and unique and you are important. But
your parents and teachers haven't been telling you the whole
truth all of your life. They've only been showing you
a part of the bigger picture. Surely you've noticed of
this throughout the time that you were in school, Like
when you got older and suddenly the stories in history
class began to get a lot darker. They told you
(03:09):
all those same stories when you were younger. They just
arranged the picture without all of the pieces to keep
you from truly understanding. And perhaps you resented it when
you realize the whole truth have been kept from you.
That's understandable. Most of us do feel that way. But
don't waste your time stewing on this. Each generation does
(03:30):
it to the next. They think it protects the young,
when really it just keeps things as they are. The
important thing here is to learn from that experience, because
people are going to continue to do this to you
your whole life. People will try to lay out the
pieces of the truth that fit together to make the
picture they want you to see. It's a way to
(03:52):
get people to do what you want them to, and
throughout your life you will get this from all sorts
of people. People you're friends with, people you love, people
on television, people on the internet, people running your government,
people running other people's governments. Your actions and your thoughts
are powerful and influential, and people want to sway them.
(04:13):
This means that you will have to learn to think
for yourself, do your own research, seek out people who
are experts on the topic, talk to other people. In
this day and age, it's not enough to trust your
eyes or your ears. You have to put in work
to find the truth. Don't be lazy. Find the truth.
(04:34):
It's not necessarily what's on the news. It's also not
necessarily what's in some video that says the news is lying.
Always remember this. Whatever someone is showing you, they're probably
only showing you part of the picture. It's up to
you to fill in the rest of the pieces that
make up the whole truth. And maybe you'll never find it.
(04:55):
That's okay. It would be exhausting to spend your life
constantly search for the truth, constantly paranoid that every person
you speak to is manipulating you. Don't do that. That's
not what life is about, and people aren't that mean
at their core. Most people don't even realize they're showing
you an incomplete picture, and usually they're not doing it
(05:16):
for nefarious purposes when they do. Instead, the vast majority
of people are just passing along an incomplete picture that
someone else showed them. This happens a lot. It's a
big problem. So to keep from dying of exhaustion by
age thirty all haggard and paranoid and upset, do two things.
(05:38):
One decide if something is important enough to you or
the world to search out the missing pieces to find
the truth of the matter. Sometimes all it takes is
an effective Google search and taking the time to read
a couple of reliable articles. But remember that even if
you do search high and low, you may never find
the truth about whatever it is you're trying to understand.
(06:01):
So it better be important if you're going to go
looking for the truth of a matter. And two, if
it's not important, shrug it off. You will never know everything.
You'll never know most things. Some things will be important
enough for you to search for most will not be.
But if you decide it's not that important, then and
(06:22):
this is really important, don't pass along the incomplete picture
to others. When you do that, you are shaping someone
else's view of things. They trust you. They know you're
a good person with the good of the world at heart,
so why would you lie throughout your life? People will
listen to what comes out of your mouth, So be
(06:44):
careful that you believe in what you say. But back
to what I was saying before about your parents and
teachers giving you an incomplete picture. I hope you understand
a little better now that they don't mean any harm
by it. They might think they were protecting you all
these years by keeping ugly truths from you. But those
ugly truths, hard as they can be to take, are
(07:06):
what allow us to grow as people. If you see
a beautiful flower, you admire it and are glad that
it's there. If you see a weed growing, though, you
pull it. But if the people around you are telling
you that the weed you're seeing is actually a flower,
it's hard to know otherwise, and it's even harder to
know that the weeds should be pulled. Remember that your
(07:28):
parents and your teachers weren't lying to you because they
wanted to deceive you. Their parents and their teachers showed
them pictures of weeds that grow in our world and
told them that they were flowers too, And their parents, parents,
and their teachers teachers told them some weeds have been
called flowers for so long that no matter what you
say to some people, they will fight you tooth and
(07:51):
nail that the weed is a flower. That's their truth,
and people are deeply protective of what they hold to
be true, even when it's not true at all. Part
of the reason they'll fight and argue with you when
you tell them a flower is actually a weed is
just simple laziness. It takes a lot more effort to
(08:11):
pull a weed than it does to pretend it's a flower.
But the bigger reason they'll argue is because they don't
want to believe they've been wrong all this time. The
thing is, no matter how long everyone's called a weed
a flower, there's some aspects to a weed that a
flower doesn't have that will always give a weed away,
like hurting people. If something that people you know say
(08:34):
is a flower harms other people, it's really a weed.
Weeds can hurt people in all kinds of ways. Maybe
they give rights to some people but not to others.
Maybe they make it so some people have more wealth
and power than they could ever possibly use, while other
people have so little they can't barely scrape by other
(08:54):
Weeds make it so that when some people hurt other
people or other life or the play in it, they
don't get in trouble for it. If you suspect a
flower is really a weed, and you look at it
closely enough, you'll see that the people who say it's
a flower are the ones who get all the benefits
from it. And you'll also find there's a whole other
(09:15):
group of people out there who've been calling it a
weed all this time. It's just that nobody's listened to them.
And sometimes it's even worse than that. Sometimes those people
are told that their own flowers are weeds. So what
does all of this have to do with you being
special and unique? Excellent question, And actually that's the whole
point of everything. It's not a lie that you are
(09:38):
special and unique. You are both of those things, but
not simply because you're you, as you've been led to
believe all these years. That's an incomplete picture of the
whole truth. You are special and unique because you were
born a human being. All human beings are special and unique,
not just as individuals, but the whole human race. Every
(10:00):
one of us is special. Every one of us is unique,
and the same goes not just for human beings but
for all living things. Life is special, and in this way,
every single person that you will ever meet in your
entire life is as valuable and worthwhile as you are.
Some of these other people you'll meet, we'll disagree with you,
(10:22):
and some of them may harm you. Just because a
person is unique and special doesn't mean that they're good.
But as hard as it can be to remember, sometimes
never forget that, on the whole, human beings are generally good.
They generally care about each other, they generally want what's best,
and most just don't forget that humanity is generally good.
(10:45):
It's just that sometimes other people don't recognize a flower
is really a weed. You can find a reflection of
incredible commencement addresses from all your favorite speakers at the
(11:05):
Commencement Podcast on I Heart Radio or wherever you listen
to podcasts.
The holidays are the most wonderful time of the year,
but they can also be the most stressful, and with
the threat of COVID nineteen still looming, emotions are high
and can be overwhelming. Cal Hope can help with free
emotional support for you and your loved ones this holiday season.
Call eight three three three one seven four six seven
(00:24):
three or live chat at cal Hope dot org. Today
at Metro by T Mobile, we're giving you more with
the Big five G upgrade. Now choose from the largest
selection of three five D phones and pre paid like
the Samsung Galaxy five G. Just switch and trade in
your old device, plus enjoy five G access on every
(00:45):
plan at no extra cost. All powered by the T
Mobile five G network only at Metro requires poured in
I D and eligible plan plus tax. Five D coverage
not available everywhere. See sore for details. This episode is
brought to you by direct TV Stream, introducing direct TV
Stream the best of live TV and on demand, which
(01:08):
means you can watch your favorite sports, movies and shows
all in one place. So whether you want to catch
the game live or watch the latest blockbuster, they've got
you covered and there's no annual contract. Direct TV stream.
Get your TV together at direct tv dot Com requires
high speed Internet and compatible device. Content varies by package
and location restriction supply. Commencement Speeches for the Class of
(01:30):
twenty is a production of I Heart Radio. Class of Parents, Faculty,
rising graduates. Welcome to commencement. You made it. This year
(01:50):
is a little different at difficult time to graduate because
the traditional graduation day has been put on hold, So
we're bringing it to you wherever you are because this
is still your day, your moments, and now put your
hands together. It's time to be inspired. This year's commencement
speaker the one and only Josh Clark. Dear students, congratulations
(02:24):
on reaching this point in your life. It's a big
deal and you should be proud of yourself now that
you've gotten here. I've come to fill you in on
a little secret you've been told for practically your whole life.
Now how special you are, how singularly important you are,
how packed with uniqueness you are. And that is true.
(02:46):
You are special and unique and you are important. But
your parents and teachers haven't been telling you the whole
truth all of your life. They've only been showing you
a part of the bigger picture. Surely you've noticed of
this throughout the time that you were in school, Like
when you got older and suddenly the stories in history
class began to get a lot darker. They told you
(03:09):
all those same stories when you were younger. They just
arranged the picture without all of the pieces to keep
you from truly understanding. And perhaps you resented it when
you realize the whole truth have been kept from you.
That's understandable. Most of us do feel that way. But
don't waste your time stewing on this. Each generation does
(03:30):
it to the next. They think it protects the young,
when really it just keeps things as they are. The
important thing here is to learn from that experience, because
people are going to continue to do this to you
your whole life. People will try to lay out the
pieces of the truth that fit together to make the
picture they want you to see. It's a way to
(03:52):
get people to do what you want them to, and
throughout your life you will get this from all sorts
of people. People you're friends with, people you love, people
on television, people on the internet, people running your government,
people running other people's governments. Your actions and your thoughts
are powerful and influential, and people want to sway them.
(04:13):
This means that you will have to learn to think
for yourself, do your own research, seek out people who
are experts on the topic, talk to other people. In
this day and age, it's not enough to trust your
eyes or your ears. You have to put in work
to find the truth. Don't be lazy. Find the truth.
(04:34):
It's not necessarily what's on the news. It's also not
necessarily what's in some video that says the news is lying.
Always remember this. Whatever someone is showing you, they're probably
only showing you part of the picture. It's up to
you to fill in the rest of the pieces that
make up the whole truth. And maybe you'll never find it.
(04:55):
That's okay. It would be exhausting to spend your life
constantly search for the truth, constantly paranoid that every person
you speak to is manipulating you. Don't do that. That's
not what life is about, and people aren't that mean
at their core. Most people don't even realize they're showing
you an incomplete picture, and usually they're not doing it
(05:16):
for nefarious purposes when they do. Instead, the vast majority
of people are just passing along an incomplete picture that
someone else showed them. This happens a lot. It's a
big problem. So to keep from dying of exhaustion by
age thirty all haggard and paranoid and upset, do two things.
(05:38):
One decide if something is important enough to you or
the world to search out the missing pieces to find
the truth of the matter. Sometimes all it takes is
an effective Google search and taking the time to read
a couple of reliable articles. But remember that even if
you do search high and low, you may never find
the truth about whatever it is you're trying to understand.
(06:01):
So it better be important if you're going to go
looking for the truth of a matter. And two, if
it's not important, shrug it off. You will never know everything.
You'll never know most things. Some things will be important
enough for you to search for most will not be.
But if you decide it's not that important, then and
(06:22):
this is really important, don't pass along the incomplete picture
to others. When you do that, you are shaping someone
else's view of things. They trust you. They know you're
a good person with the good of the world at heart,
so why would you lie throughout your life? People will
listen to what comes out of your mouth, So be
(06:44):
careful that you believe in what you say. But back
to what I was saying before about your parents and
teachers giving you an incomplete picture. I hope you understand
a little better now that they don't mean any harm
by it. They might think they were protecting you all
these years by keeping ugly truths from you. But those
ugly truths, hard as they can be to take, are
(07:06):
what allow us to grow as people. If you see
a beautiful flower, you admire it and are glad that
it's there. If you see a weed growing, though, you
pull it. But if the people around you are telling
you that the weed you're seeing is actually a flower,
it's hard to know otherwise, and it's even harder to
know that the weeds should be pulled. Remember that your
(07:28):
parents and your teachers weren't lying to you because they
wanted to deceive you. Their parents and their teachers showed
them pictures of weeds that grow in our world and
told them that they were flowers too, And their parents, parents,
and their teachers teachers told them some weeds have been
called flowers for so long that no matter what you
say to some people, they will fight you tooth and
(07:51):
nail that the weed is a flower. That's their truth,
and people are deeply protective of what they hold to
be true, even when it's not true at all. Part
of the reason they'll fight and argue with you when
you tell them a flower is actually a weed is
just simple laziness. It takes a lot more effort to
(08:11):
pull a weed than it does to pretend it's a flower.
But the bigger reason they'll argue is because they don't
want to believe they've been wrong all this time. The
thing is, no matter how long everyone's called a weed
a flower, there's some aspects to a weed that a
flower doesn't have that will always give a weed away,
like hurting people. If something that people you know say
(08:34):
is a flower harms other people, it's really a weed.
Weeds can hurt people in all kinds of ways. Maybe
they give rights to some people but not to others.
Maybe they make it so some people have more wealth
and power than they could ever possibly use, while other
people have so little they can't barely scrape by other
(08:54):
Weeds make it so that when some people hurt other
people or other life or the play in it, they
don't get in trouble for it. If you suspect a
flower is really a weed, and you look at it
closely enough, you'll see that the people who say it's
a flower are the ones who get all the benefits
from it. And you'll also find there's a whole other
(09:15):
group of people out there who've been calling it a
weed all this time. It's just that nobody's listened to them.
And sometimes it's even worse than that. Sometimes those people
are told that their own flowers are weeds. So what
does all of this have to do with you being
special and unique? Excellent question, And actually that's the whole
point of everything. It's not a lie that you are
(09:38):
special and unique. You are both of those things, but
not simply because you're you, as you've been led to
believe all these years. That's an incomplete picture of the
whole truth. You are special and unique because you were
born a human being. All human beings are special and unique,
not just as individuals, but the whole human race. Every
(10:00):
one of us is special. Every one of us is unique,
and the same goes not just for human beings but
for all living things. Life is special, and in this way,
every single person that you will ever meet in your
entire life is as valuable and worthwhile as you are.
Some of these other people you'll meet, we'll disagree with you,
(10:22):
and some of them may harm you. Just because a
person is unique and special doesn't mean that they're good.
But as hard as it can be to remember, sometimes
never forget that, on the whole, human beings are generally good.
They generally care about each other, they generally want what's best,
and most just don't forget that humanity is generally good.
(10:45):
It's just that sometimes other people don't recognize a flower
is really a weed. You can find a reflection of
incredible commencement addresses from all your favorite speakers at the
(11:05):
Commencement Podcast on I Heart Radio or wherever you listen
to podcasts.
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Josh Clark
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