gupta there and some sad news to share before we go. the oldest living survivor of the attack on pearl harbor has died. warren upton was stationed aboard the uss utah in the harbor when japanese planes began their surprise attack on the naval base in hawaii. upton told the associated press in 2020 that he was just getting up. on the morning of december 7th, 1941, when a pair of torpedoes hit his ship. the then 22 year old swam ashore and survived the bombing. upton died wednesday at a hospital in california. this now leaves only 15 pearl harbor survivors still alive. warren upton was 105 years old thanks for joining me today. i'm rahel solomon. i'll be back at 2 p.m. eastern tomorrow. but for right now, it's smerconish. >> book club is back. >> i'm michael smerconish in new york city. >> my saturday program

celebrated its 10th anniversary this year. thank you so much for watching. hosting this program every weekend. it's a real privilege for me. before i had my own show, i was often a cnn guest, usually providing legal and political analysis. the network back then asked whether i had aspirations and ideas for a regular show. they seemed surprised when i said, well, yes, a book club. still, they agreed to shoot a pilot. i remember that as a personal favor to me. my favorite writer of fiction, nelson demille, came into the studio to appear on a program that he knew was just a rehearsal. sadly, this year we lost demille at age 81. he was the author of 23 books, 17 of them new york times bestsellers, 58 million demille's were sold. i miss his writing, and i miss his wit. book club with michael smerconish never made it to air, but i often interview authors, both here on cnn and for my sirius xm radio program.

as a matter of fact, a collection of several hundred of my radio author interviews are accessible as a book club podcast. and in the podcast you can hear me chat with everyone from demille to michael lewis, from hillary clinton to jd vance, from malcolm gladwell to admiral james stavridis. 2024 was a banner year for my personal reading, so i'd like to revisit some of the interviews that i did here on cnn with 11 authors of books that i found impactful. jonathan haidt explores the influence of technology on children's mental health. secretary hillary clinton reflects on what she's lost and what she's gained. professor scott galloway teaches us the best way to reach financial security. malcolm gladwell writes about the strength in diversity. charlamagne tha god tells us why kids need to get off their phones and go outside. andy jacobson warns about the threat of nuclear war. retired admiral james

stavridis dives into the dangers of a.i.. max boot chronicles the life and legacy of president ronald reagan. peggy noonan writes about the early days of donald trump's political career. bradley tusk explains why mobile voting will save our democracy, and valerie bauerlein revisits missing pieces from the notorious alex murdaugh murder trial. they'd make a hell of a carpool. right? so for just one day. welcome back to book club. jonathan hight had a new york times bestseller with the anxious generation. i loved his prior collaboration with greg lukianoff, the coddling of the american mind, and this book exceeded that high bar. in fact, goodreads, world's largest website for readers and book recommendations, named the anxious mind the best nonfiction book of the year. i see hite's book as the culmination of a series of great books

that collectively describe our societal disconnect. in fact, this body of work so moved me that this year i spoke in 14 different states to public and private audiences in an address that i call the mingle project, i draw on the work of robert putnam, who wrote bowling alone, about the loss of social capital that comes when we're no longer a community of joiners, like our parents and bill bishop. he then followed with the big sort, talking about how post-vietnam we disconnected from one another. and when we came back together in the internet era, it was a narrowly caste. lines. jean twenge explored the contribution of this fraying of our fabric and its impact on adolescent mental health in her book igen, they all set the table for height, who, with regard to social media and our kids, says more unsupervised play is needed. no smartphones before high school, no social media before 16, and

phone free schools. and here's why. >> imagine this claim. >> suppose we invented a toy. >> let's call it the furby or whatever. one of those things in the 80s. suppose you learned that this furby is going to take up about nine hours a day of your child's time. they won't go outside much, they won't get as much sleep. they won't spend much time with friends. um, they won't play. they won't have hobbies. they won't read books. and then somebody proposes. mm. maybe the furbies will be bad for kids. are you going to say what a fantastical claim? oh, my god, how could that be? so, you know, when you look at the massive rewiring of childhood into activities that are not particularly healthy, i mean, you of course it has an effect. and my book shows is that there's all kinds of evidence supporting that claim. >> jonathan, tell me one thing parents can do. >> the most important thing that parents can do is delay the age at which their child gets immersed

in internet culture. we have to protect early puberty, especially. that's middle school, ages 10 to 14. in that range, we must protect kids brains in that age. that's when the maximum damage is done, especially for girls. so the most important thing you can do is delay the age at which you give your child a smartphone. until high school, um, and delay social media until 16. and while these sound hard, if you're listening at home, these sound hard to do because your child is going to say, but then i'm the only one, well, team up with others. >> jonathan height and jean toussaint. they're clearly on to something. the connection between online activity and teen mental health, overdue attention this year, as indicated by australia in november becoming the first nation to ban social media for those under 16. the law is scheduled to take effect next year. it's going to impose significant fines on platforms for systemic fails to police the age of their users. now, like jonathan hite, i really enjoyed my conversation with secretary hillary clinton

regarding her latest memoir, something lost. something gained reflections on life, love, and liberty. the part of her book that most impacted me had nothing to do with foreign policy or her run for the presidency, for the presidency. instead, it was her reflection on her own upbringing in comparison to the challenges faced by our youth today. and i'll bet it seemed odd to some who watched the interview. but what i most wanted to explore with the former first lady, u.s. senator and democratic presidential nominee was the title that she selected for the book. i have one note, as they say in hollywood or the literary world. i've got one note on the book. it does not involve a matter of substance. it has to do with the book title. are you ready yes. i too love joni mitchell, and i love that song. well some lost, but something's gained in

living every day i've looked at life from both sides now, from win and lose. something lost. something gained makes perfect sense. but wouldn't it have been better if you'd gone with from both sides? now i've looked at life from both sides. now it's a serious question and i want to know if you considered it. >> well, i did, and as you know, because you have nicely read the book, which i appreciate in the first chapter i talk about what both sides now has meant to me and why that song has been like in the soundtrack of my life from my early 20s until today, and how when i saw joni mitchell singing it at the grammys last year, i was so touched and the both sides now is indeed, um, the song that sums up the kind

of different stages of my life. i've looked at life, i've looked at love from both sides now and in my sort of reflections. something's been lost. something's been gained. it's kind of the overview of a long life. >> i keep watching on a loop. i think it's at newport where she's singing it in 2022 and just brings the whole house down with emotion. it's hard for me to watch her sing it. i'm not quite sure why. without feeling emotional about it i recall. >> i really don't know. >> life. i really don't know life at all. >> well, first of all, the song itself is so meaningful for those of us who love it like you and me, but also after her cerebral aneurysm and her

withdrawal from doing anything because of her health, the fact that she came back on the stage first at newport, then memorably at the grammys about a year or so later, and she was encouraged to do that by another singer, a young singer, brandi carlile, who also loved her music and what those songs meant to her. and so she sought her out. she got to know her, and i think encouraged her to get back on the stage, which really meant a lot to me. >> i really enjoy rewatching these interviews. i hope you do. and i have to say this it's the second time that i've interviewed secretary clinton about her written work, and each of those conversations revealed a warm, a soft side of her, not always evident when the conversation is strictly politics. i can't help but wonder if more of that had come forth in 2016. maybe she'd be ending her second term right now. one of my most

frequent and favorite guests is professor g. professor scott galloway, the nyu stern business school professor, host of hit podcasts. he's that rare combination of academic and street brilliance. speaking of which, last spring with my wife, i met scott for a drink at an outdoor london cafe, and at the time, theft of cell phones was rampant. so we're sitting there, engrossed in conversation. a guy creates a distraction at the next table so as to provide cover for a buddy who stole somebody's cell phone at a neighboring table. the first person to intervene, professor g. no wonder why the subject he and i often discuss, then, is masculinity. he's got lots of thoughts about the plight of young men, and as my sons can attest, he's their champion. always careful to diminish toxic masculinity while

espousing what he calls aspirational masculinity. i love this guy. he gets more into this topic and offers great insight into how to launch your career. in his latest book, it's called the algebra of the algebra of wealth, a simple formula for financial security in the new book, you have a lot of advice for americans of all ages, but particularly the youth. and among the things that you advise, you turn on its head the time honored advice of follow your passion. give me the short version of that. >> anyone who follows tells you to follow your passion is already rich and made their billions in iron ore smelting. >> your job is to find your talent something you could become a ninja like master of mastery will give you economic security, camaraderie, relevance, a larger selection set of mates than you deserve, and whatever enables you to do these things, you will become passionate about that thing. no

tax law dreams, no child dreams of becoming a tax lawyer. but the best tax lawyers fly private and have really nice lives. so your job is to find your talent. and ideally in an industry that has a 90 plus percent employment rate, a lot of young people mistake hobbies for their passion. and if you want to be an actor, an athlete, a model, just recognize open a restaurant, a nightclub. just recognize if you don't get strong green signals that you're in the 1%, then find something else. there are 180,000 actors in sag-aftra union, 87% of them last year didn't qualify for health insurance because they didn't make $23,000. so your job is to find your talent in an industry with a 90 plus percent employment rate, which, by the way, is about 98% of industries. and what i can promise you is that you will become very passionate about the ability to take care of your kids with an absence of stress, stress, to take care of your parents, to do wonderful, fun things that a capitalist society provides. be passionate about economic security. >> makes sense, right? the way

that professor g explains it. he turns on its head the conventional wisdom of following your passion. how many times have we said that? just follow your passion instead, he says, identify your talent and the passion will follow, which to me sounds worthy of a book of its own. he has certainly changed the way i offer advice to questions when asked such things by interns thus has not read the tipping point. can you believe it just turned 25 years old? the book made malcolm gladwell a household name. he's brilliant. he's curious. previously named one of time magazine's 100 most influential people. by the way, do you see a theme here so far of the books that most interested me in 2024, like jonathan haidt, secretary clinton, and scott galloway, gladwell has keen insight into our kids and how to keep them safe until i read his latest book, which is called revenge of the tipping point. over

stories superspreaders and the rise of social engineering. i never thought engineering. i never thought there was such virtue in some of the cliques of school life back in the day, but gladwell convinced me that they can sometimes create buffers and keep us from the sameness that sometimes fosters dangerous social trends. so you made me appreciate my high school lunchroom and also the greek fraternity system in which i spent my undergraduate years, because in each there were cliques. there were i'm going to date myself, but there were jocks and there were nerds, and there were potheads and there were, you know, techies, vo techies or greasers. et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. and what you argue in the book is there was a level of protection that actually came from that sort of differentiation that is missing today yeah, yeah. >> so the basic idea here is that,

um, epidemics like a monoculture, they where you have a culture where there aren't, um, where there's one set of values and one dominant group. it's very easy for a contagious idea. contagious behavior to race unchecked through the entire population where you have what your high school and mine had lots of different cliques and groups that are separated. it's very difficult for one idea to dominate the whole culture. and i think what's happened is that in certain parts of america, we've fallen in love with the idea that every kid ought to be ought to share the same values and be focused on the same goals. so in this town i talk about it's a town of upper upper middle class professionals. every parent wants their kid to go to an elite school, to do really well in school, to be a sports star, to be happy and successful and dress really well and be attractive. and you know, the the pressure that put on the population was such that they

became susceptible to this suicide outbreak. and i think it's you know, sometimes when we talk about the benefits of diversity, we focus way too narrowly and we, you know, we talk exclusively in terms of ethnic diversity and we forget that there are broader benefits to all kinds of diversity, and that creating a society that has a home for all kinds of people with very different perspectives is part of what makes a society safe. um, it's diversity is safety. it's not the opposite. i think sometimes people think of diversity as scary and, uh, and uh, it's that's not, that's that's not what happens when you look at teenage life. >> you heard what he said, right? epidemics like a monoculture. epidemics like a monoculture. it makes sense. social contagion has no guardrails, but diversity provides safety. or, as i like to say, we're all well served when we mingle with people who

aren't like us. and when we insulate our kids, we're pretty much assuring that our kids are going to then do likewise. what a year it's been for my author interviews, jonathan hite, hillary clinton, scott galloway, malcolm gladwell, and god. well, charlamagne, the god that is, he's the host of the popular morning radio program the breakfast club and founder and ceo of iheartradio's black effect podcast network. charlamagne has landed so many high profile interviews president obama, president biden, vice president harris, former u.s. ambassador to the united nations nikki haley. his latest book is called get honest or die lying why small talk sucks, and addresses why kids need to get off their phones and go outside. once again, i was drawn to the lessons this author offered for the fraying of our national fabric, and in his case, it came from charlamagne

reminiscing about his upbringing and extolling the virtues of being disconnected from technology and one with nature. charlamagne. my favorite paragraph from the book, which i told you i read and really enjoyed. i wouldn't say it if i didn't mean it. here it is. we'd meet at an appointed time and then just plot something to get into. let's ride our bikes to the bp gas station in conifer hall and get some honey buns, someone might say, or maybe my daddy told me there are some old tombstones in the woods over by old whitesville road. you want kids to get outside? speak to that in 30s. >> yeah, i'm talking to a time long, long, long ago, before social media and before cell phones, when you actually had to, you know, go outside, especially if you were in a rural area like i was in moncks corner, south carolina. and, you know, i believe we all have to get reconnected with nature. if you if you're a person like me who's an advocate of mental health and emotional well-being, man, go outside and breathe some fresh air. take

your shoes off. take your socks off. go do some grounding, you know, go, go. put your hands on a tree. you know, go hug a tree. put your forehead against a tree. say a prayer to the sky. go, go in some water. look up to the sun. pray to god. that's how you get reconnected. and you stay grounded. in this crazy society. and trust me, we all need it. >> i loved hearing about his youth and the connection he still feels to his native south carolina. and as further proof of his local passion, he just partnered with an atlanta burger chain to open several eateries in south carolina, including in orangeburg, home of south carolina state university, his mother's alma mater, and a school from which he's earned an honorary degree and established a scholarship. pretty cool right up ahead. what if i told you that mankind could be wiped off the planet from a nuclear war within an hour? that dark but realistic scenario outlined by pulitzer prize finalist, new york times bestselling author annie

jacobsen. that's next. and i want to know what you think. go to my website. this is a fun poll question today. it's dot com. amidst the digital media surge, did you discover and enjoy a good book in 2024? i hope so scott luther never too much new year's day at eight on cnn with dexcom g7 managing your diabetes just got easier. >> so what's your glucose number right now? good thing you don't need a fingerstick. how's all that food affect your glucose? oh, the answer is on your phone. what if you're heading low at night? wow. it can alert you and you can even track your goals. manage your diabetes with confidence. with dexcom g7, the most accurate cgm. learn more at dexcom.com.

>> whether you're a professional driver or just a fan, vehicle breakdowns are costly. >> it started tugging. >> it started making some really weird noises. >> the last thing i remember is just the engine cut out. >> if your check engine light comes on tomorrow, the repair could easily cost thousands. >> is that transmission? it's an exhaust leak. broken axle, but with endurance, you could never pay out of pocket for a costly repair again. >> they covered a $14,000 engine replacement. >> i had a seat sensor that went out $1,400. endurance paid it. >> we got a brand new transmission and we never seen the repair bill. >> use any certified mechanic you want. just bring your car in and endurance will pay them direct. all major parts are covered. what i like about endurance, they don't play games. >> there's no middleman. >> they're a solid company. >> if i didn't have endurance, i would have paid over $7,000 out of pocket to repair my vehicle. >> something is going to break down. make endurance.

>> pay for it. with endurance, your car repair costs go way down while your car's life expectancy goes way up, allowing you to drive more and pay less. one claim alone saved me more than $4,000. i've had five claims, and that is $3,500 that i've kept in my pocket. >> so who's going to pay for your next car repair? you or endurance? >> whether you put 10,000 or 100,000 miles a year on your car. if it's less than 20 years old, endurance has you covered with unlimited miles. plus, your plan covers 24 over seven roadside assistance anywhere in the country. call right now to get $300 off any plan, plus a full year of our top tier elite benefits. a $200 value free and all endurance plans come with a 30 day money back guarantee. but you have to act now. call 1-855-237-0489. that's 1-855-237-0489. >> i am tony hawk and like many

of you, i take a statin to reduce cholesterol. but statins can also deplete coq10 levels. that's what my doctor recommended. qunol coq10 qunol has the number one cardiologist recommended form of coq10. qunol the brand i trust. >> i tried everything for my stubborn dandruff and then i found nizoral. nizoral works differently to get to the root cause of dandruff. in fact, its active ingredient is ten times more effective at fighting fungus, the primary cause of dandruff. say goodbye to stubborn dandruff with nizoral. >> the best part of the party. snooping in the bathroom. ooh! party fell. not listening to your dentist? make the sonicare switch for a champ. >> be gentle. be effective. be you. i love you. >> closed captioning brought to you by guilt. visit gilt.com today for up to 70% off designer brands. >> guilt has the designers that get your heart racing at insider prices new everyday. >> hurry! they'll be gone in a flash. designer sales at up to 70% off

shop gilt.com. day. >> welcome back to book club. i've always got my ear to the ground for good books. i pay attention to the advice of radio listeners, tv viewers and people in my personal orbit. as a matter of fact, it was one of my sons who was first to tell me about annie jacobsen. she's a pulitzer prize finalist, a new york times bestselling author. she's also a producer of the hit amazon prime show jack ryan. her new york times best selling book is called nuclear war, a scenario, and it gave me a much needed wake up call. in the words of un secretary general antonio gutierrez, humanity is just one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation. before reading her book, i had no idea that the world literally could end in a little over an hour and that when the most feared missiles are launched, there's no calling them back. why the

ticking clock scenario, michael? >> nuclear war is as dangerous to civilization. that means all of us as the incoming asteroid was to the dinosaurs. 66 million years ago. we're talking about. civilization ending event were a full scale nuclear exchange to happen. i explain it to readers in the book using that ticking clock scenario, because you learn right away that nuclear war unfolds in seconds and minutes, not hours and days and weeks like you might think. >> it could all end in 72 minutes, right? >> that's exactly right. that's the you know, i was doing an interview to report the book. i spoke to presidential advisors, nuclear commanders, nuclear weapons designers. and when i was speaking to general keeler, who was the former commander of stratcom, those are the he's the steward of the nuclear weapons. should

nuclear war come, is in direct communication with the president. general keeler said to me when i asked him how terrible it would be in exchange with russia, he said, annie, the world could end in the next couple of hours. >> what also stands out about annie's book is that she wrote it and was my guest long before vladimir putin dropped russia's nuclear threshold in response to the biden administration allowing ukraine to use those atacms missiles on strikes into russia. so sadly, her concern was ahead of its time. early in the 2024 presidential cycle, when i would advocate for a third party choice, radio callers would say to me, okay, well, give me a name. and i would say, one of the two admirals, william mcraven, who created and oversaw operation neptune spear, which took out bin laden in 2011. mcraven went on to write a new york times

bestseller called make your bed little things that can change your life, and maybe the world. his book was inspired by a commencement speech that he gave at the university of texas, where he shared ten principles that he learned during his navy seal training. that speech went viral with more than 10 million views. and the other name that i would suggest is admiral james stavridis, the former supreme allied commander of nato. stavridis is a frequent guest of the program and spent more than 30 years in the navy. admiral stavridis, this is interesting, was fully vetted by secretary clinton as a potential running mate back in 2016. and after donald trump was elected for his first term, it was trump who summoned stavridis to trump tower to sound him out for a possible cabinet level appointment. appealing to both in our divided climate that really says something. stavridis is a man in full, and one of his talents is writing fiction, but he does it in a way that makes very real points. and in his

novel 2054, which he coauthored with elliott ackerman, stavridis warns about the dangers of artificial intelligence and gives keen insight into the warfare of the future. militarily, we worry, could these machines overtake us? i think that we would be foolish to simply x out the possibility. going back to stanley kubrick's 2001 a space odyssey, as hal overtakes the astronaut, is it possible? >> perhaps. but michael, like you, i like to look at history, to understand there have been big inventions in the past. the printing press, electricity, the internet, all of these have been decried for the possibility of nefarious activity associated with them. same with artificial intelligence. so bottom line, i

think we should be mindful of a.i.. that's the point of the book. it's kind of cautionary fiction. look ahead to 2054. we ought to be concerned about it. on the other hand, artificial intelligence could turn out to be extremely beneficial to society. broadly 2054 was one of two books admiral stavridis published this year for which he appeared on this program. >> the other was a novel called the restless wave, about a young naval officer set against the outbreak of world war two. that, too, is a good read, with a blend of fact and fiction that sort of makes you scratch your head while you're reading it and you say, wait a minute, did that really happen up ahead? could voting in elections on your smartphone finally put an end to the country's political polarization? a former deputy governor of illinois and political adviser for uber makes his case on why mobile voting could save our democracy. remember, i want to know what you think. go to my website at smerconish.com. answer today's poll question,

which is this amidst the digital media surge, did you discover and enjoy a good book in 2024? >> andy, it has been one wild year. >> i know that whole live stream was crazy. >> what you have been following actual news, right? oh boy. >> new year's eve live with anderson and andy. live coverage starts at eight on cnn and streaming live on max. >> i got this thousand dollar camera for only $41 on deal dash deal dash dot com online auctions since 2009, this playstation five sold for only $0.50. >> this ipad pro sold for less than $34, and this nintendo switch sold for less than $20. >> i got this kitchenaid stand mixer for only $56. i got this barbecue smoker for 26 bucks, and shipping is always great. >> go to deal dash dot com right now and see how much you can save.

>> celebrate mouthwatering moments with omaha steaks end of season event. for a limited time, we're offering 50% off site wide. >> that's 50% off all your favorites. this is the best time to save big and enjoy the taste of guaranteed perfection. what better way to celebrate than with a rich, decadent quality of something you know you'll love? order now and get eight burgers free with your order. visit omaha steaks.com/tv today to find all our end of season savings. >> you make good choices. they've shaped your journey to leave all that your life built. rock solid for generations. with ambition like that, you need someone who elevates advice to a craft. at ubs, we match your vision with insight and expertise to shape a unique outcome for you. advice is our craft. >> mazzarello has vitamin e

from sunflowers. >> ours has retinyl palmitate, organic broccoli, carrots and blueberries, pyridoxine hydrochloride so much harder to say than blueberry. >> natural whole food multivitamins available on amazon and naturalizer.com. there's nothing like welcome to the white lotus in thailand. >> this is very exciting. >> aren't you a brave girl? >> there's nothing like it. where's the money? >> you can't heal something unless you say it out loud. it's not the z's bakery is looking to add a pizza oven, arissa's hair salon wants to expand their space, and steve's t-shirt shop wants to bring on more help. with the comcast business 5-year price lock guarantee, they can think more about possibilities for their business and not the cost of their internet. it's five years of gig-speeds and advanced security. all from the company with 99.9% network reliability.

get the 5-year price lock guarantee, now back for a limited time. powering five years of savings. powering possibilities™. some of your money back. for some unforgettable, more than incredible. >> are you not entertained? >> more than you ready for? guarantee. the. unforgettable. it's ready to watch on tnt, trutv and stream br sports on max america. >> we're glad to have you all

back. >> welcome back to book club. i came of age politically in the era of ronald reagan, whose memory i still hold on a pedestal. i'm not the only one who reveres the memory of the gipper. and yet, until max boot wrote a biography of the nation's 40th president this year, there wasn't a definitive assessment of reagan's life. edmund morris tried, but his approach was unconventional and not universally accepted. max boot did a terrific job. in fact, a few months ago i met patty davis, the daughter of nancy and ronald reagan, and i asked patty davis, what did you make of max? max boot's book? she said, he totally captured my dad. well, that's high praise. one thing i learned from max boot is that while reagan's name today is associated with conservatism, his record of governance was much more nuanced. max boot is a historian, foreign policy analyst, senior fellow at the council on foreign relations, and a columnist for the washington post. he spent more than a decade researching and

writing this 700 plus page book. this reagan biography, which is called reagan his life and legend. his name is synonymous with conservatism. but your portrait of reagan is much more nuanced and much more pragmatic. >> well, that's one of the central paradoxes of reagan, michael, is that he could be very ideological. and, you know, he was often quite far to the right, especially in the 60s and 70s and warning that, you know, social welfare programs like medicare and medicaid were going to lead to a socialist or even communist takeover of the united states. but once he was in office, he pivoted to the center and turned out to be supremely pragmatic. i mean, in fact, the first big bill he signed as governor of california in 1967 was a large increase in spending and taxes to deal with the looming budget deficit. i mean, he signed one of the most liberal abortion laws in the country in both sacramento and washington. he cut deals with

democrats and ultimately, his crowning achievement as president was working with mikhail gorbachev, the world's number one communist, to peacefully end the cold war. despite a long career as an anti-communist. so i think that shows you why he was ultimately successful as president. he was able to pivot to the center, compromise and get things done. >> something else that i learned from max boot is that even among those who worked with him and knew him best, ronald reagan was hard to really get to know. and one person boot uses as an example of that difficulty was the person who met with ronald reagan several times in writing and in preparation for his final presidential address. another guest of mine this year, peggy noonan. i'm a reader and admirer of peggy noonan of the wall street journal, who in another life was a speechwriter for president reagan. she writes and speaks with a level of dignity and grace. she's

smart, she's witty, she's grounded. this year, peggy noonan published a collection of her work called a certain idea of america. selected writings. each chapter contains a dozen or so of her columns, except for one chapter that had only two columns, one that she'd written about then vice president biden in 2019, and another that she wrote about donald trump when he was a candidate in 2016. and neither was a victory lap. she got things wrong in each. but like a fine wine, her assessments and prognostications, they seem to be doing well with age. so in the trump column, you say, my god, i'm paraphrasing, but if only he were sane. if only he were sane. and now reading it, i say to myself, but if he were sane in the way you were wishing, he probably wouldn't have won. i mean, i've had to disabuse myself of the idea that he that

he's won despite the things that he has said. and instead, peggy, i come to the conclusion he has won, for better or worse, because of the things that he has said yeah, um, i understand what you're saying, and i think i've come to some similar conclusion myself. >> once in 2017, i was asked by a bunch of republican senators in the u.s. capitol to come and talk to them about recent events. they do that with historians and writers. so i was one once in the spring of 2017. and michael, i said to them, the way i figure it, now, three months into the trump administration, i thought the only person who could have won the gop primaries in 2016 was donald trump. and that man was the only one who could have beat hillary clinton. and that same man is the only one who

does not have the tools for successful governance. so i found it to be ironic, and we sort of had a little wrestling match about that. there was a lot of pushback, as you can imagine, but he's a large historical figure, and we have decided to go back there a second time and see how it goes. >> i have a footnote. peggy noonan has pulled no punches with her critical assessment of president-elect donald trump. she's written about him for eight years and by her own admission, sometimes has clubbed him like a seal. she wrote that all the while she avoided meeting him because she wanted to view him from a distance, in part for fear that he'd be charming and funny, which might sway her perspective. but as she revealed just last month, she did meet him recently at a wall street journal editorial board sit down after trump won the election and after the encounter, she said that her

instinct had been correct. bradley tusk is another favorite radio and tv guest. he's having an interesting life. tusk once ran campaigns for new york city mayor michael bloomberg, and then went out on his own as a political consultant. a potential client was seeking to introduce its novel ride share concept into new york city, and sought out his professional services. but this company said we might not be able to afford your fee, so bradley tusk took payment in the form of stock options. that company was uber, and tusk is now a wealthy man. having done well, he's now seeking to do good. his latest project, trying to sell america on the idea of voting by phone. his latest book, vote with your phone why mobile voting is our final shot at saving democracy. it makes sense when you think about the fact that we do everything on our smart devices, including our banking. and yet there's something that

holds us back from the idea of casting our ballot by phone. for those who are skeptical, bradley tusk has an answer what's the explanation? what's the answer to those who are concerned about ballot security? >> the answer is twofold. >> one is we have built a system that meets every recommendation that the u.s. vote foundation put out there for secure mobile voting. our plan is to start small. let's start municipal elections, city council races, school board races, things like that. see what's working. and also we're submitting this both to nist, national institute for standards technology for their review. and because the code is open source, that means any expert at any time can go into it's all online and it's all available. the second argument is more political, which is the status quo doesn't work. our country is falling apart. it is controlled by the extremes. and most people, even if they want to, are just not going to vote in state and local primaries.

and that's why things are the way they are. and yet they all have cell phones and we've got to meet them where they are. >> i know from the conversations you and i have had on my sirius xm radio program, and when i've raised this independently, that conceptually people say they love the idea, but but even some who move money on their phones and buy concert tickets and airline reservations and go to the tsa checkpoint, it's like when you get to voting, there's still this hang up address that. why that concern? and what would you say to those people? >> well, look, i don't blame them at all. look, your your listeners, your viewers are really smart, informed people. that's why they're watching you and listening to you. and so of course, they have good ideas and questions and concerns. you know, i would have had them, too, if i hadn't been building this system for the last seven years. and the answer is it's a new thing. obviously, we should start small. and so, like i said, school board elections, city council elections. let's see what's working. it may not be that we're voting for president this way for ten

years. that's okay. we just have to start getting on the path of making voting easier, because if we don't, we're always going to be stuck in this paradigm where we either get completely dysfunctional government like we have in washington, dc, or totally one sided government, and that could be the city of san francisco on the left, or the state of texas on the right. in my view, none of that is good. >> you know, it occurs to me that many of the same security concerns that people have about mobile voting today used to be much more widely held on the topic of voting by mail, until many of us started to vote by mail in time. i hope that the same fears can be allayed about our phones. when more people vote, we water down the influences of the fringe, the infamous alex murdaugh trial, about a father convicted of killing his wife and son. it captivated the nation. the next author i want to highlight received exclusive media access to the crime scene and points out many unanswered questions even now about the case. and remember, i want to know what you think. kind of a special

poll question today. go to smerconish.com and answer this amidst the digital media surge, did you discover and enjoy a good book in 2024? >> oklo just cleaned my entire house for $19. seriously. $19. they showed up right on time and did my dishes, my laundry. they even cleaned my windows. you just pick a date, pick a cleaner, and enjoy a spotless house for $19. i love using home glow and i think you will too. i can feel the winds of change. >> consumer cellular ranked number one in network coverage and customer satisfaction. >> hi. my friend linda has you guys and gets way better coverage than i do. >> sounds like linda has you beat only in coverage and plans start at $20. >> okay, price to get your second month free when you

switch to consumer cellular.i'l plan on me. >> please help. snow. and mistletoe and presents on the tree right now. all over the country. kids at shriners hospitals for children are able to go home and be with their families for the holidays, and that's only possible because of the monthly donations from people like you. thanks to a generous donor, every dollar you give will go three times as far to help more kids. with your gift of just $19 a month, only $0.63 a day,

we'll send you this adorable love to the rescue blanket as a thank you and a reminder of the care you'll be providing so kids can be with their families. christmas. eve will find me where the love light. >> gleams. >> it only takes a moment to call the number on your screen. or you can visit love shriners. org. your gift of $19 a month will have three times the impact in the lives of kids like me, because every child just wants to be home for the holidays, and your gift makes that possible. your call is the best gift of all. your gift will be my favorite christmas present this year. please call the number on your screen or go to love shriners. org to give whatever you can. and when you become a monthly donor, your first gift will be tripled. thank you for giving.

when you're the leader in disaster cleanup and restoration, how do you make like it never even happened? >> happen. let it rain, randy. whoa! hahahahaha! yes by being prepared for anything. whoa! whatever comes your way, there's a pro for that. >> servpro. >> like it never even happened. >> coming january 2025. founded by the stars of women's basketball, a new style of three on three six clubs. >> more action, more access, unrivaled. >> coming january 17th. >> welcome back to book club. i confess to having been totally hooked on the trial of alex murdoch, who was convicted for the murder of his wife and son in south carolina. my fascination began long before

the trial, when valerie bauerlein wrote about the tragedy for the wall street journal as events unspooled, she was both a serious xm and cnn guest of mine. valerie knew the player. she knew the terrain. she was ultimately a fixture in the lowcountry courtroom. and when the jury visited the crime scene, she was a designated media representative reporting on that tour. i thought i knew the story, but found the revelations in her book, the devil at his elbow, to be an eye opener. valerie bauerlein is a national affairs reporter for the wall street journal. she spoke to more than 200 people for her instant new york times bestseller, valerie the murder weapons never found, which caused me to ask you, did he have help? >> you know, i think there are a number of unanswered questions. >> where are the guns? is a big one. and and also, where is the money? there's millions of dollars that alex stole from his poor personal injury

clients. that is still missing. you know, the prosecutors said if he had help, we want to find out. but i spoke at some length to david owen for this book. he was the lead sled agent and really had not talked about the case before. and, you know, that's a question that they would really like to know. the scene was sanitized, the scene was cleaned up. and to think that alex murdaugh ek could have done all that, that cleanup work in a matter of minutes by himself, you know, kind of beggars belief. >> valerie's book about the murdoch dynasty, it reads like fiction. sadly, it's not. one other thing about the alex murdoch case. i'm so glad it was televised. i only wish that there were cameras in all courtrooms, all state, federal, including the supreme court. my view is that if you have a right as a citizen to be there as an observer, then a camera should be present. school board, township supervisor

meeting, congressional hearing and supreme court. make sure you're voting on today's poll question@smerconish.com. amidst the digital media surge, did you discover and enjoy a good book in 2024? and just in time for the holidays? i've got some exciting news about the grand total of money raised by smirk comics 2024 for the children's crisis treatment center. can't fool myself. >> it was the most exciting time in the world. >> his life has truly joyful moments and some really difficult moments. >> you only come across an artist like luther vandross once in a lifetime. >> luther. never too much new year's day on cnn. >> if you have high blood pressure or diabetes and get a cough, cold or flu. safety is specially formulated for you. powerful, safe and effective cough, cold and flu relief that's formulated so it won't raise your blood pressure or impact your blood sugar. play it safe with safe tussin. i've got this. hey, susan. >> toothbrush.

>> big interview, huh? >> nice new suit, new haircut, ancient bristle stick. make the sonicare switch. all right, now go knock em dead, boss. can i get the wi fi? i'm gonna hang here. >> i'm jonathan lawson, here to tell you about life insurance through the colonial penn program. if you're age 50 to 85 and looking to buy life insurance on a fixed budget, remember the three p's? >> what are the three p's? >> the three p's of life insurance on a fixed budget are price, price and price. a price you can afford. a price that can't increase, and a price that fits your budget. >> i'm 54. what's my price? >> you can get coverage for $9.95 a month. >> i'm 65 and take medications. >> what's my price? >> also 9.95 a month. >> i just turned 80. what's my price? >> 9.95 a month for you too. if you're age 50 to 85, call now about the number one most

popular whole life insurance plan available through the colonial penn program. options start at $9.95 a month. no medical exam, no health questions. your acceptance is guaranteed. and this plan has a guaranteed lifetime rate lock, so your rate can never go up for any reason. so call now for free information and you'll also get this free beneficiary planner. and it's yours free just for calling. so call now for free information, call one 800 688 1300 for your free information and your free gift. >> that's one 800 688 1300. don't wait one 800 688. 1300 call now dealdash.com. >> online auctions since 2009. this playstation five sold for only $0.50. this ipad pro sold for less than $34, and this te,

enjoy a spotless house for $19. >> how many subscriptions do you have? >> probably just netflix and

spotify, right? >> it's saying you have 13 subscriptions, which is costing you around $270 a month. >> what? >> you can cancel the ones you don't want right through the app, and it can even help you try and get a refund hey, finally, thank you. >> regular viewers know that i dispatch a free daily newsletter every day, which includes editorial cartoons from prize winning illustrators. i love political cartoons. several months ago, we realized that this content would make a great coffee table book, recreating in chronological order the images that came to define the most unpredictable election of any of our lives. that was the idea behind what came to be known as smosh comics 2024. it features the work of jack ohman, rob rogers, steve breen, and scott stantis. the books are all sold out, but recently my wife and i were being honored by a philadelphia charity, the children's crisis treatment center ktc. they do god's work,

and at this event, i was able to present a check to ktc representing 100% of the profits from the book $185,251, which i rounded up. so if you bought one of the books, i wanted to say thank you. together we really did do some some good. um, speaking of thank yous, thank you to catherine brousseau and my team here at cnn. what a great year it has been. i'm sitting here wondering, what if they call me at cnn next year and they say, hey, that book club idea of yours, you know, the pilot that you shot 15 years ago that we shelved,, it looked good as a holiday special for the second year in a row. happy new year to everybody. i'll see you in the new year

happy. >> so whether you're a professional driver or just a fan, vehicle breakdowns are costly. >> it started tugging. >> it started making some really weird noises. >> the last thing i remember is just the engine cut out. >> if your check engine light comes on tomorrow, the repair could easily cost thousands. >> is that transmission? >> it's an exhaust leak. >> broken axle, but with endurance, you could never pay out of pocket for a costly repair again. >> they covered a $14,000 engine replacement. >> i had a seat sensor that went out. $1,400 insurance paid it. >> we got a brand new transmission and we never seen the repair bill. >> use any certified mechanic you want. just bring your car in and endurance will pay them. direct. all major parts are covered. >> what i like about endurance. >> they don't play games. there's no middleman. they're a solid company. >> if i didn't have endurance, i would have paid over $7,000

out of pocket to repair my vehicle. >> something is going to break down. make endurance. pay for it. >> with endurance, your car repair costs go way down while your car's life expectancy goes way up, allowing you to drive more and pay less. one claim alone saved me more than $4,000. i've had five claims, and that is $3,500 that i've kept in my pocket. >> so who's going to pay for your next car repair? you or endurance? >> whether you put 10,000 or 100,000 miles a year on your car, if it's less than 20 years old, endurance has you covered with unlimited miles. plus, your plan covers 24 over seven roadside assistance anywhere in the country. call right now to get $300 off any plan, plus a full year of our top tier elite benefits. a $200 value free and all endurance plans come with a 30 day money back guarantee. but you have to

act now. call 1-855-237-0489. that's 1-855-237-0489. >> your life is pretty smart, but when it's time to eat, suddenly you feel out of sync. >> refresh your routine with factor chef prepared meals delivered with a tap ready in two minutes. >> imagine dinner on autopilot and enjoying tuscan tomato chicken without lifting a finger. upgrade your plate. what if your mobile network wasn't just built to work out here... ...but was designed differently to also give you blazing fast wifi where you are most of the time? reliable 5g, plus wifi speeds up to a gig where you need it most. xfinity mobile. xfinity internet customers, ask how to get a free 5g phone and a second unlimited line free for a year.

offers won't last. do you? >> one of these things. yeah. sounds fun. this looks wild. i went through this last year. the winter classic outdoors. >> wrigley field. >> come out here. at wrigley field. >> december 31st blues, blackhawks on tnt and streaming on max. >> you're on the cnn newsroom. >> i'm jessica dean in new york. and new developments tonight in the deadly plane