Recorded on June 2, 2017 Senator Benjamin Sasse joins Peter Robinson to discuss his book The Vanishing American Adult and the growing crisis in America of prolonged adolescence. Senator Sasse argues that children are growing up, entering adolescence, and becoming stuck in the transitional stage to adulthood as they fail to become financially independent from their parents. He argues that because this generation of children is growing up during a time of relative peace and prosperity, it has allowed millennials to grow up without the issues of previous generations that were raised in war time. In this era of consumption and material surplus, he argues that adolescents are leading age-segregated lives and not developing a work ethic and that both their parents have an obligation to teach their children to grow up. Furthermore, he stresses the importance of intergenerational learning by allowing children to be raised around their grandparents and other adults to help them learn that the trivial trials of youth don’t matter in the long run. Senator Sasse believes that there are certain virtues that American children have to learn to become productive and happy adults. Part of that is by teaching children the distinction between production and consumption and how to find happiness and self-worth through jobs that make one feel like a necessary part of the company/society. This, he argues, will help raise peoples’ self-worth and lead them to happiness and fulfillment in their everyday. Senator Sasse finishes by stressing the importance of building children’s identities as readers to help foster the growth of ideas and active learning over the passive activities of sitting in front of screens. He notes that sedentary life is not fulfilling and that by encouraging people to participate in production over consumption will lead to more fulfilling lives. He ends on the optimistic note, that while our youth may still need guidance, overall America’s best days still lie ahead. For the full transcript go to http://www.hoover.org/research/vanish…

And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God. (Mark 10:18; see also Luke 18:19). Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. (Matthew 7:21, KJV). I have been asked many times by many people if I believe in God. I don’t like this question. I generally respond by stating that I act as if God exists, but that’s not sufficiently true. Who could do that? Who could conduct themselves with the moral exactitude and care necessary of someone who would dare to make that claim? Either claim? In any case, after being asked the question yet again, when I was in Australia, I decided to attempt to answer it in some detail. This lecture, one of the 12 Rules for Life tour talks, was delivered in Sydney Feb 26, 2019, at the International Convention Centre. It was one of six I had professionally video recorded. Five of the six will be released directly on thinkspot, our new social media platform (to be announced in mid-June), as a bonus for direct subscribers (not to worry; there are still more than 50 to be released as audio on the Jordan B Peterson podcast at http://bit.ly/2HUdgnc, so it’s not as if there will be any shortage). But I thought YouTube would be appropriate for this, given the potentially broad interest in the topic. I’ve made a new playlist for it, too, entitled On (my) Belief in God. Three videos make up that playlist: this one, a 20 minute talk I did for the Prager summit in May of 2019 (https://youtu.be/vwKCK5EhibM), and an interview/discussion I had with Dennis Prager at the same event (https://youtu.be/j0GL_4cAkhI) I would recommend watching them in the playlist order, which will be this lecture first, then my Prager talk, then the interview, if you’re interested in doing so. I think they make a good group.The idea of belief in God is of extreme importance. I hope that these lectures and interviews add to everyone’s understanding of my position and why I hold it. As always, thank you very much for your continued support. The adjunct videos are also available on the Prager U site: the lecture at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avInT… the interview at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L47oJ… Thanks to the Prager U organization for the invitation and opportunity.