September 21, 2025 • 14 mins
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Michael Arry Show.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Charlie Kirk was the voice of my generation. I've seen
plenty of guys in my age scrolling on TikTok watching
all of his videos, talking about it, arguing about it.
Even people that you would never expect to be interested
in politics, to be interested in anything in intellectual debate,
(00:25):
they'd be watching his videos because he was such a
great communicator. He'd be able to connect and empathize with
anyone no matter what side of the field he came from,
whether you were center right, center left, far right, far left,
he could connect with you. He could empathize with you,
he could see where you're coming from, and he could
(00:45):
show you some kind of truth that and you would.
These guys would leave the conversation learning something or being
left better off than they were when they started. There's
not many people that can do that as well as
he could, you know. There's also not many people that
can rally up so many young guys my age like
(01:08):
he could. And he's dead. He died on the tenth
of September. That's yesterday for me. I remember, I was
at my Christian school. We were setting up for Chapel.
I was leading Chapel worship. I'm walking into the building
(01:29):
the gym where we have our worship, and someone goes
and says, so, Samuel, Samuel, so what is it. Charlie
Kirk's dead. I don't know how to process that. We mean,
he's dead. I thought these kind of people are like untouchable.
And then instantly my mind goes to when Donald Trump
(01:54):
got shot and he was God saved my life. You know,
Charlie Kirk even went up to say, God save Donald
Trump's life to serve his purpose. And I'm thinking, why
didn't God save Donald Why didn't God save Charlie Kirks
like you saved Donald Trump's life, Why not Charlie Kirk's life.
Donald Trump is like almost eighty. Charlie Kirk died at
thirty one. All that is rushing through my head. I'm
(02:16):
thinking about that, and I get up and I sing
and I'm talking about the goodness of God and talking
about how He's always running, his goodness is always running
after us, and thinking, where is that love for Charlie
Kirk right now? You know, and I have to say
that day the enemy won, there were so many people
(02:41):
at my school, and you know, anyone who goes to school,
you've seen it as well. There were people rejoicing, there
were people celebrating. There were people making fun of him
getting shot, making fun of a husband, a father, a
follower of Christ's death, and some of these people claim
Christianity as well. It's the most disgusting thing I think
(03:05):
I've ever seen in my lifetime in person, and people
quoting the Bible saying never moren the wicked about celebrating
his death. I've never seen anything like it. But I'll
tell you what. The enemy is not gonna win. We're
not gonna let it. We're not gonna let the enemy win.
(03:29):
So I saw that darkness, I saw that despair. I've
never seen anything like it. The amount of hatred, man,
it's outrageous. It's shows how dark our culture is. But
I saw that. But I also saw this. I saw
what Charlie Kirke thought for. I saw all these young
men rally up, including myself, rally up around and we're
(03:54):
all supporting him. We're talking about what great influence he's
had on our lives. We're talking about the videos we
loved seeing him in. We talked about the information we
got from him, the fact that he's influenced us in
such a positive light, and I saw unity. So, whoever
(04:14):
that killer is, and whoever is motivated to enjoy seeing this,
whoever's happy to see this, I'll tell you something. You
have lost. You have lost this fight already. You have
lost the battle. You have lost the war. We have
defeated you. Whoever tried to kill Charlie Kirk, whoever killed
(04:36):
him and tried to silence him, you haven't silenced him
because his values are going to live on and people
like me, and they're going to live on in the
young people of this generation that are standing up for
what's right. You will never silence us. You can throw
as many bullets as you want, but you're not going
(04:56):
to silence the truth. Ever, the truths sets people free,
and the truth always prevails. And what he thought fought
for was truth, was justice, was freedom, and those things
will never be overcome by evil, no matter how many
bullets you throw it at. And I'll tell you what,
(05:18):
this has only made a million Charlie Kirks. You take
out when you've made a million, because you've emboldened people.
Whoever you are that wanted to see this happen. You've
now emboldened people like me to want to stand up
for what's right. For one to speak up against this
silencing tactic. There's so much censoring going on, and we've
(05:43):
just allowed ourselves to be silence us people that are
trying to stand up for what's right. We've allowed them
to speak down to us. We've allowed them to talk
bad about innocent people like Charlie Kirk and we haven't
stood up against it. But here's what's going to happen now.
What has happened as in boldened us to say we
will stand up against it. We will stand up for
what's right. And we're not going to let this sort
(06:05):
of thing slide. If I hear someone talk bad about him,
I'm not going to let that slide. I'm going to
challenge that. We're going to challenge people that talk down
about godly values, that talk down about Christian values, because
guess what, they're wrong, and we have a right to
tell them they're wrong. And we don't have to be quiet.
(06:26):
We don't have to be afraid of what people think
because the majority stand for common sense, that's the truth.
The majority needs to speak up. The young people need
of this generation need to speak up. Charlie Kirk was
a man of God, very admirable, and he's inspired a generation,
(06:49):
he's inspired me, and he's won. He's won the battle
that he set out to do. And whatever, whatever the reason,
God has allowed this to happen, God has got plan
for this. God worked all things out for the good
of those who love him. And Charlie is in heaven
rejoicing with his Savior right now. And this is our
(07:12):
duty today, my gt. When I wake up for school tomorrow,
and probably I've already said things, probably gonna get barrages
about standing up for him. My guts to do what's right,
and that's what I'm going to do because that's what
Charlie Coke did and that's what Jesus commands us to
do every day.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Our next guest one spoke at a turning point event
and said Charlie was his mentor. Writing in an op ed,
I cannot bring back his voice, but I can honor
him by carrying forward his lessons, fighting for education and
refusing to give up on the mission he built. High
School senior Gregory Leakoff joins us. Now, Gregory, I wish
(07:50):
we were speaking under different circumstances. What made Charlie so special.
Speaker 4 (07:54):
Yeah, well, if you look at it, he's the only
one who truly cared about students my age and really
valued us, whether we can vote or not. He went
to those college campuses, he went to those high schools,
established Turning Point USA clubs, and he actually got students
to finally become engaged. You know, a generation that was
once known as the liberal progressive generation turned into the
(08:17):
generation that is now a conservative or hopefully will become
a conservative stronghold. And it was all because of Charlie
Kirk and his influence on millions of students, including me.
Speaker 5 (08:27):
When this perfect tragedy occurred, you wrote me yesterday, say
you wanted to come on here and talk about what
Charlie Kirk meant to you. So describe for the audience
the influence he has had on your life.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
So, let me just tell you a quick story, just
personal story of mine. So for sixteen years I had
undiagnosed ADHD, and what that meant for me was that
as I was a failing student, I couldn't read, I
couldn't write. And only last year did I finally get
diagnosed and my entire life changed. I found my interest
with politics, and that's when I started listening to people
like Charlie Kirk. His show in particular showed me that
(09:00):
debit matters, that things that you know, we don't see
in our regular political world actually matter. And that's what
he shows. Whether you disagree with Charlie Kirk, whether you
agree with Charlie Kirk, he would debate you, and even
if he wins, whether he doesn't win the debate, that's
not the point. The point is to have a civilized
conversation and that's what we're missing here, and that's what
(09:21):
he taught me is the most important aspect of everything.
And you know, there's no other conservative who cares that
much about children, about students as much as he did, because,
to be honest, for many, many decades, students were considered progressives,
as I said before, so they were kind of a
(09:41):
voting class that was not really needing to be represented
because there would be no students that would be voting
for red candidates. Charlie changed that and with that impact,
it's going to last decades.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
Let's take a minute to listen to Charlie in his
own words, over the course of his very influential political career,
encouraging young people just like you.
Speaker 6 (10:02):
Listen to this here, our generation and our belief system
will be paving the way for millennials for decades to come.
As soon as you make the decision that I am
going to boldly speak my mind courageously, whether I'm with
friends or family, or as I am in private and public,
that is the most freeing thing we can give our students.
That's the sea I go around universities and have challenging conversations,
(10:26):
and I'm sure because that's what is so important to
our country, is to find our disagreements respectfully, because when
people stop talking, that's when violence happened. As a young
man pursuing a marriage, I just want to ask if
you had any advice on how I can pursue and
maintain a God centered marriage. God must always come first,
from your spiritual disciplines, honor the Sabbaths, and turn off
(10:49):
your phone for one.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Day a week.
Speaker 6 (10:50):
There is a not so silent majority now in college
campuses of students that identify with a more conservative libertarian viewpoint.
We are packing up these lecture halls. Actors are growing
at a record rate. How I got my political start.
One of my first things of activism is when they
doubled the price of cookies at Wheeling High School. I said,
this is unconsitable, this is unwarranted, and we need a rebellion.
(11:11):
Conservatives are dominating in new media. We're dominating in podcasting,
We're dominating on TikTok, We're dominating on social media because
we are a movement that believes in freedom of speech
and that is able to have different ideas but build
coalitional type politics.
Speaker 5 (11:25):
Another great warrior right here ready, Vanka, You are a
great warrior.
Speaker 6 (11:29):
Thank you, Thank you, Amshire Frank, thank you.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
He had so much life, so much drive, so much strength,
and his convictions and so much gregorly left to give
what stood out to you.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
You know, out of everything, he was always the most
humble person. He never took anything for himself, and I
think that's what really taught me who I want to
be and how I want to represent myself in front
of other people. I want to be as humble as
caring for other people as Charlie Kirk was. Because, for example,
(12:02):
he didn't have to offer me a spot to speak
at a turning Point USA event. He didn't have to
even listen to me take a photo after speaking fifteen
hours straight on the stage, but he still did, and
it's because he truly cares about students like me. He
truly cares about our generation. And there's no one else
that compares to the amount of care that he has.
(12:23):
So really, that's what shocks me, is that we can
have a such a polarized world right now where someone
so caring, even if they disagree with their beliefs, is
now dead for no good reason.
Speaker 5 (12:36):
Ten seconds, how will you carry on his legacy?
Speaker 4 (12:39):
I will carry on his legacy by making sure that
his education, his education reform is carried on. I think
that's very important. I think reform in our K through
twelve and higher upper education is extremely important.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
And if you like the Michael Berry Show in podcast,
please tell one friend, and if you're so inclined, write
a nice review of our podcast. Comments, suggestions, questions, and
interest in being a corporate sponsor and partner can be
communicated directly to the show at our email address, Michael
(13:16):
at Michael Berryshow dot com, or simply by clicking on
our website, Michael Berryshow dot com. The Michael Berry Show
and Podcast is produced by Ramon Roeblis, the King of
Ding Executive producer is Chad Knakanishi. Jim Mudd is the
(13:39):
creative director. Voices Jingles, Tomfoolery and Shenanigans are provided by
Chance McLain. Director of Research is Sandy Peterson. Emily Bull
is our assistant listener and superfan. Contributions are appreciated and
often incorporated into our production. Where possible, we give credit,
(14:02):
where not, we take all the credit for ourselves. God
bless the memory of Rush Limbaugh. Long live Elvis, be
a simple man like Leonard Skinnard told you, and God
bless America. Finally, if you know a veteran suffering from PTSD,
call Camp Hope at eight seven seven seven one seven
(14:27):
PTSD and a combat veteran will answer the phone to
provide free counseling.
The Michael Arry Show.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Charlie Kirk was the voice of my generation. I've seen
plenty of guys in my age scrolling on TikTok watching
all of his videos, talking about it, arguing about it.
Even people that you would never expect to be interested
in politics, to be interested in anything in intellectual debate,
(00:25):
they'd be watching his videos because he was such a
great communicator. He'd be able to connect and empathize with
anyone no matter what side of the field he came from,
whether you were center right, center left, far right, far left,
he could connect with you. He could empathize with you,
he could see where you're coming from, and he could
(00:45):
show you some kind of truth that and you would.
These guys would leave the conversation learning something or being
left better off than they were when they started. There's
not many people that can do that as well as
he could, you know. There's also not many people that
can rally up so many young guys my age like
(01:08):
he could. And he's dead. He died on the tenth
of September. That's yesterday for me. I remember, I was
at my Christian school. We were setting up for Chapel.
I was leading Chapel worship. I'm walking into the building
(01:29):
the gym where we have our worship, and someone goes
and says, so, Samuel, Samuel, so what is it. Charlie
Kirk's dead. I don't know how to process that. We mean,
he's dead. I thought these kind of people are like untouchable.
And then instantly my mind goes to when Donald Trump
(01:54):
got shot and he was God saved my life. You know,
Charlie Kirk even went up to say, God save Donald
Trump's life to serve his purpose. And I'm thinking, why
didn't God save Donald Why didn't God save Charlie Kirks
like you saved Donald Trump's life, Why not Charlie Kirk's life.
Donald Trump is like almost eighty. Charlie Kirk died at
thirty one. All that is rushing through my head. I'm
(02:16):
thinking about that, and I get up and I sing
and I'm talking about the goodness of God and talking
about how He's always running, his goodness is always running
after us, and thinking, where is that love for Charlie
Kirk right now? You know, and I have to say
that day the enemy won, there were so many people
(02:41):
at my school, and you know, anyone who goes to school,
you've seen it as well. There were people rejoicing, there
were people celebrating. There were people making fun of him
getting shot, making fun of a husband, a father, a
follower of Christ's death, and some of these people claim
Christianity as well. It's the most disgusting thing I think
(03:05):
I've ever seen in my lifetime in person, and people
quoting the Bible saying never moren the wicked about celebrating
his death. I've never seen anything like it. But I'll
tell you what. The enemy is not gonna win. We're
not gonna let it. We're not gonna let the enemy win.
(03:29):
So I saw that darkness, I saw that despair. I've
never seen anything like it. The amount of hatred, man,
it's outrageous. It's shows how dark our culture is. But
I saw that. But I also saw this. I saw
what Charlie Kirke thought for. I saw all these young
men rally up, including myself, rally up around and we're
(03:54):
all supporting him. We're talking about what great influence he's
had on our lives. We're talking about the videos we
loved seeing him in. We talked about the information we
got from him, the fact that he's influenced us in
such a positive light, and I saw unity. So, whoever
(04:14):
that killer is, and whoever is motivated to enjoy seeing this,
whoever's happy to see this, I'll tell you something. You
have lost. You have lost this fight already. You have
lost the battle. You have lost the war. We have
defeated you. Whoever tried to kill Charlie Kirk, whoever killed
(04:36):
him and tried to silence him, you haven't silenced him
because his values are going to live on and people
like me, and they're going to live on in the
young people of this generation that are standing up for
what's right. You will never silence us. You can throw
as many bullets as you want, but you're not going
(04:56):
to silence the truth. Ever, the truths sets people free,
and the truth always prevails. And what he thought fought
for was truth, was justice, was freedom, and those things
will never be overcome by evil, no matter how many
bullets you throw it at. And I'll tell you what,
(05:18):
this has only made a million Charlie Kirks. You take
out when you've made a million, because you've emboldened people.
Whoever you are that wanted to see this happen. You've
now emboldened people like me to want to stand up
for what's right. For one to speak up against this
silencing tactic. There's so much censoring going on, and we've
(05:43):
just allowed ourselves to be silence us people that are
trying to stand up for what's right. We've allowed them
to speak down to us. We've allowed them to talk
bad about innocent people like Charlie Kirk and we haven't
stood up against it. But here's what's going to happen now.
What has happened as in boldened us to say we
will stand up against it. We will stand up for
what's right. And we're not going to let this sort
(06:05):
of thing slide. If I hear someone talk bad about him,
I'm not going to let that slide. I'm going to
challenge that. We're going to challenge people that talk down
about godly values, that talk down about Christian values, because
guess what, they're wrong, and we have a right to
tell them they're wrong. And we don't have to be quiet.
(06:26):
We don't have to be afraid of what people think
because the majority stand for common sense, that's the truth.
The majority needs to speak up. The young people need
of this generation need to speak up. Charlie Kirk was
a man of God, very admirable, and he's inspired a generation,
(06:49):
he's inspired me, and he's won. He's won the battle
that he set out to do. And whatever, whatever the reason,
God has allowed this to happen, God has got plan
for this. God worked all things out for the good
of those who love him. And Charlie is in heaven
rejoicing with his Savior right now. And this is our
(07:12):
duty today, my gt. When I wake up for school tomorrow,
and probably I've already said things, probably gonna get barrages
about standing up for him. My guts to do what's right,
and that's what I'm going to do because that's what
Charlie Coke did and that's what Jesus commands us to
do every day.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Our next guest one spoke at a turning point event
and said Charlie was his mentor. Writing in an op ed,
I cannot bring back his voice, but I can honor
him by carrying forward his lessons, fighting for education and
refusing to give up on the mission he built. High
School senior Gregory Leakoff joins us. Now, Gregory, I wish
(07:50):
we were speaking under different circumstances. What made Charlie so special.
Speaker 4 (07:54):
Yeah, well, if you look at it, he's the only
one who truly cared about students my age and really
valued us, whether we can vote or not. He went
to those college campuses, he went to those high schools,
established Turning Point USA clubs, and he actually got students
to finally become engaged. You know, a generation that was
once known as the liberal progressive generation turned into the
(08:17):
generation that is now a conservative or hopefully will become
a conservative stronghold. And it was all because of Charlie
Kirk and his influence on millions of students, including me.
Speaker 5 (08:27):
When this perfect tragedy occurred, you wrote me yesterday, say
you wanted to come on here and talk about what
Charlie Kirk meant to you. So describe for the audience
the influence he has had on your life.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
So, let me just tell you a quick story, just
personal story of mine. So for sixteen years I had
undiagnosed ADHD, and what that meant for me was that
as I was a failing student, I couldn't read, I
couldn't write. And only last year did I finally get
diagnosed and my entire life changed. I found my interest
with politics, and that's when I started listening to people
like Charlie Kirk. His show in particular showed me that
(09:00):
debit matters, that things that you know, we don't see
in our regular political world actually matter. And that's what
he shows. Whether you disagree with Charlie Kirk, whether you
agree with Charlie Kirk, he would debate you, and even
if he wins, whether he doesn't win the debate, that's
not the point. The point is to have a civilized
conversation and that's what we're missing here, and that's what
(09:21):
he taught me is the most important aspect of everything.
And you know, there's no other conservative who cares that
much about children, about students as much as he did, because,
to be honest, for many, many decades, students were considered progressives,
as I said before, so they were kind of a
(09:41):
voting class that was not really needing to be represented
because there would be no students that would be voting
for red candidates. Charlie changed that and with that impact,
it's going to last decades.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
Let's take a minute to listen to Charlie in his
own words, over the course of his very influential political career,
encouraging young people just like you.
Speaker 6 (10:02):
Listen to this here, our generation and our belief system
will be paving the way for millennials for decades to come.
As soon as you make the decision that I am
going to boldly speak my mind courageously, whether I'm with
friends or family, or as I am in private and public,
that is the most freeing thing we can give our students.
That's the sea I go around universities and have challenging conversations,
(10:26):
and I'm sure because that's what is so important to
our country, is to find our disagreements respectfully, because when
people stop talking, that's when violence happened. As a young
man pursuing a marriage, I just want to ask if
you had any advice on how I can pursue and
maintain a God centered marriage. God must always come first,
from your spiritual disciplines, honor the Sabbaths, and turn off
(10:49):
your phone for one.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Day a week.
Speaker 6 (10:50):
There is a not so silent majority now in college
campuses of students that identify with a more conservative libertarian viewpoint.
We are packing up these lecture halls. Actors are growing
at a record rate. How I got my political start.
One of my first things of activism is when they
doubled the price of cookies at Wheeling High School. I said,
this is unconsitable, this is unwarranted, and we need a rebellion.
(11:11):
Conservatives are dominating in new media. We're dominating in podcasting,
We're dominating on TikTok, We're dominating on social media because
we are a movement that believes in freedom of speech
and that is able to have different ideas but build
coalitional type politics.
Speaker 5 (11:25):
Another great warrior right here ready, Vanka, You are a
great warrior.
Speaker 6 (11:29):
Thank you, Thank you, Amshire Frank, thank you.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
He had so much life, so much drive, so much strength,
and his convictions and so much gregorly left to give
what stood out to you.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
You know, out of everything, he was always the most
humble person. He never took anything for himself, and I
think that's what really taught me who I want to
be and how I want to represent myself in front
of other people. I want to be as humble as
caring for other people as Charlie Kirk was. Because, for example,
(12:02):
he didn't have to offer me a spot to speak
at a turning Point USA event. He didn't have to
even listen to me take a photo after speaking fifteen
hours straight on the stage, but he still did, and
it's because he truly cares about students like me. He
truly cares about our generation. And there's no one else
that compares to the amount of care that he has.
(12:23):
So really, that's what shocks me, is that we can
have a such a polarized world right now where someone
so caring, even if they disagree with their beliefs, is
now dead for no good reason.
Speaker 5 (12:36):
Ten seconds, how will you carry on his legacy?
Speaker 4 (12:39):
I will carry on his legacy by making sure that
his education, his education reform is carried on. I think
that's very important. I think reform in our K through
twelve and higher upper education is extremely important.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
And if you like the Michael Berry Show in podcast,
please tell one friend, and if you're so inclined, write
a nice review of our podcast. Comments, suggestions, questions, and
interest in being a corporate sponsor and partner can be
communicated directly to the show at our email address, Michael
(13:16):
at Michael Berryshow dot com, or simply by clicking on
our website, Michael Berryshow dot com. The Michael Berry Show
and Podcast is produced by Ramon Roeblis, the King of
Ding Executive producer is Chad Knakanishi. Jim Mudd is the
(13:39):
creative director. Voices Jingles, Tomfoolery and Shenanigans are provided by
Chance McLain. Director of Research is Sandy Peterson. Emily Bull
is our assistant listener and superfan. Contributions are appreciated and
often incorporated into our production. Where possible, we give credit,
(14:02):
where not, we take all the credit for ourselves. God
bless the memory of Rush Limbaugh. Long live Elvis, be
a simple man like Leonard Skinnard told you, and God
bless America. Finally, if you know a veteran suffering from PTSD,
call Camp Hope at eight seven seven seven one seven
(14:27):
PTSD and a combat veteran will answer the phone to
provide free counseling.
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