to it the way that the church says go to church every week otherwise we'll burn you at the stake. same thick thing. >> i want to ask you about two things, social guide to justice and my first little book of intersexual activity. who is author tanya mcgrath? >> a character i invented, at the woke privileged, and wanted to lecture everybody how privileged they are, and racist and she wants people to -- she wants you that she doesn't agree with. and i created that character on twitter because that's where the activists were and consolidated their dominance

and i wrote a couple of books, and the first book on social activism was a response to the books coming, known as children's books, books such as anti-racist baby, a book called woke baby, feminist baby, all of these books aimed at little kids which i think the book, "who am i", the 5-year-old's guide to gender identity and talking about the spirit and nonbinary and it's not something that children can comprehend what he it's adults trying to indoctrinate their religious values on the young. if you get people young and you can have them for life and -- common sense. so that book was a reaction to that and trying to get-- and the title i think says it all. my first book of sexual activism and a kid can't understand what that means, but you demand that they learn. and that was-- i mean, my idea there was to

try and laugh it out of existence, i suppose. if you can make it funny, if you can expose it for certainty, maybe the movement will collapse. it looks like it is on the way to collapsing, by the way. not anytime soon, but all the seeds are there and it will eventually fall because no incoherent movement with sustain for a frightingly long period. >> how did woke and my first book do in the marketplace? >> well, i was outed as the author on the weekend of the book's release. now, character late -- it wasn't my choice, a journalist that i was the author so i ended up on tv a lot and on radio talking about it and i was on joe rogan talking about it and it became a big book. but it also generated a lot of anger, obviously, from the

activists, because no tyrant likes to be mocked, a feeling they don't like at all. so getting a lot of death threats and angry comments online, but again, that comes with the territory and i also think it's, you know, if they liked the book i'd be doing something wrong and they hated it, which is fine me me. >> you can see andrew doyle, and gb news, host there, a newest book written under his name, the new puritans, how the religion of social justice captured the western world. thank you very much. >> thank you very much. >> now joining us on book tv is mark skousen, the author of 25-plus books. we'll get to those in just a moment, also the founder of the libertarian gathering called freedom fest. mark skousen, how did this get started? >> actually, 2007, maybe even earlier because when i was made

president fee, foundation for economic education, the oldest free market think tank, but it kind of, well, it fallen into obscurity with cato and heritage and reason being the big libertarian, conservative type of organizations. i was made president of fee and i said what can i do to joust our fee? let's have a fee fest and a national convention and do it in the most libertarian city in the world las vegas, 850 people show up and ben stein as our speaker, and i loved the idea of getting together like this so i started a for-profit organization called freedom fest instead of fee fest,and we've been going great guns ever since and a couple thousand people show up every year in vegas.

when they shut us down in 2020 the next year we went to mt. rushmore, rapid city. >> rapid city. >> had a great time there, we had a huge turnout and then we went back to vegas and last year in memphis. so we now do every other year in vegas and then other cities. >> what do people get? >> this is a gathering, philosophy, science, history, not just politics, yes, we have rfk coming and libertarian party and a presidential debate with the third parties have shown up, the two major parties have not shown up. so that's kind of frustrating that they won't-- they're not willing to debate third party candidates and i think rfk has a good criticism of the major parties. so, but what do people get out of it? it's an incredible feeling to get together of like-minded individuals who believe in

maximum freedom within the rule of law, the adam smith model, the system of national liberty, within the rule of law, you want maximum freedom to choose your occupation, to decide where you want to go, to what price you pay, who you hire, who you fire, maximum freedom. that's what this conference is all about. so we attract people and we actually don't call it a libertarian conference. we call it the largest gathering of free minds. if you have a closed mind, we don't want you here, but they come anyway. >> prior to getting involved with freedom fest, what was your occupation? >> well, i still am, i write an investment lewis letter called forecast and strategies, published by eagle publishing, doing it since the greatest president of the 20th century was elected. so who would that be? >> in your few, it would be ronald reagan. >> that's correct, in 1980 i started my newsletter and i'm going for 44 years.

that's my major source of income, i'm still writing the newsletter. i'm a professor, hold chair free enterprise at chapman university in california, taught at barnhard college, rollins college and chapman university. >> you've also taught somewhere else. >> well, i taught at sing-sing penitentury for 12 years not as an inmate, but as a teacher and as a volunteer. and that was an incredible experience. my wife and i were very much involved with inmates who were in maximum security prisons, state prison, sing-sing, quite infamous, but it was great to see their lives change and so, it's not just about, you know, it's about changing their lives so that when they get out they're not going back to the same crimes and the recidivism

rate with our program of education is 3% versus 60, 70% traditionally. so, it's been a very successful program at sing-sing. >> as mentioned you're the author of 25 books, mostly on politics and economics. >> more economics than politics. >> yeah. >> the latest book, "there were giants in the land," what is that about? >> this is a story in his own words of my uncle cleon skousen. >> he was i regarded a giant in the land and more known in the west, he was based in salt lake city. he had nationwide programs. he was very much involved with the fbi. he was a special assistant to j. edgar hoover in the fbi. he was assigned to help -- he was assigned as a special assistant to j. edgar hoover.

he was here on december 7th, 1941 when japan attacked pearl harbor so he was the communications director for j. edgar hoover at that time. then he was assigned to the los angeles bureau and assigned to hollywood dealing with the whole anti-communist movement at that period and organized crime. there's some incredible stories here about him with mickey cowan and bugsy segal and things like that. and it's quite an interesting book from my perspective. basically in the story, excuse me, this is all in his words. what we did, my wife and i, jo ann, who is an english professor, we took all of his private journals and we compiled and edited, reduced it

to 500 pages, to tell his own story in his own words, and we got lots of photographs and stuff like that. and what's really cool, as you can see, if you take my hat off and i put my glasses on, there's quite a resemblance. >> let's see if we can get a little closer on that and we'll let that happen. why did you write a book about your uncle? is this a tribute? >> well, you could call it a labor of love, right? >> what would a general audience get out of that? >> well, there's a lot of-- it's a great story about a motivational story in many ways, because cleon skousen was born dirt more in alberta, canada and he kind of became, you know, like a lot of these people, like ben franklin, a lot of the great leaders they started with nothing and built

up an empire. he was an empire builder. he was more mormon with mormon ancestors, he was firmly convinced-- he was born in 1913 and he said god had me become-- come into the earth in 1913 because three legislation occurred in 1913, it was all bad legislation and he was there to reverse it. what happened in 1913? the income tax. the federal reserve was created, and finally, the-- i'm not sure which amendment to the constitution had direct election of senators instead of by state legislature. he thought these were all bad. and so, he worked hard his whole life to reverse these. well, guess what? he failed on all three counts. despite all of his efforts and

yet, he was always an optimist because i tell this story at the end of his life, people would ask him, dr. skousen, he had a jd degree, fbi agents had to have a degree in law, and so said dr. skousen, how can you be so optimistic given the terrible things happening in the world? and his answer was a religious answer because he was a christian, he said well, i've read the book and in the end, we win. [laughter] >> so i had that kind of optimism, but there's some great stories in here, motivational stories, in the fbi is stories with organized crime, with hollywood. i tell the olivia dehavilan story in this book, which is about "gone with the wind," one of the main actresses of "gone with the wind" who was an actual communist and was very

supportive and giving lots of money to the communist party in 1940. so j. edgar hoover said i want you to visit the home of olivia dehavilan and i want you to thank her for her wonderful role in "gone with the wind," but she needs to know that the communists are bad and she needs to learn about the american story. can you do that for me? so cleon makes an appointment to see olivia dehavilan, the fbi, and she agrees. he goes in, listen, j edgar hover loves your book, and you shouldn't give money to the communist parties. >> she says they're my best friends, supportive. and tell j. edgar hoover says. >> before he leaves, we've been

taping meetings of the communist party and we have the recording, why don't you listen to it i'll step out and i'll come back, if you feel the same way, i'll take the tape recording and never hear from us again. >> she listens to the recording, and swearing like a mule skinner, i can't believe they're calling me money bags and a stooge and we know how to take advantage of olivia dehavilan, i'll have nothing to do with them ever again. it's quite a story. it's stories like that and by the way, cleon said, do not publish this story until after olivia dehavilan dies, i'm not sure why, but in any case, she lived to be like 103. so, but fortunately, she has passed away and so the story is there. >> there's a chapter in here called "my friendship with black panther eldridge

cleveland". >> so cleon had a weakness for people who -- he was a communist, he was involved, he had to flee the country because he was involved in some murders during the '60s and '70s protests, the black panthers were somewhat a revolutionary group that engaged in violence and so on. and not ideologically anything in many common with cleon skousen. but eldridge came back to the united states because i think he lived in a communist country or something like that. it was not what it was cracked up to be and so eldridge cleaver came back and changed his mind about life and he said-- he rejected communism and he befriended my uncle, cleon skousen and they went around giving speeches together. i've got pictures of them together and so forth. he still had drug problems and things like that so in the end

the friendship kind of disintegrated, but it was a remarkable story. >> that's just a little bit of "there were giants in the land," episodes in the life of w. cleon skousen written by freedom fest founder mark skousen, thanks for being with us. >> my pleasure, peter. thank you. >> actor comedian screen writer rob schneider is with us you can do it, speak your mind america. what are you doing at the freedom fest, a libertarian convention? >> i didn't think it would be necessary to have a freeman fest in the united states of america. i think freedom itself it wouldn't be necessary. however, it does-- the state of our politics, the state of the current administration, and our culture, does seem to necessitate a festival for

freedom. i think that's a-- i think it's very telling. >> free speech, have you ever been in trouble with the issue of free speech? >> i wouldn't say gotten in trouble, but i would say that people have problems now with unfettered free speech and the whole idea of free speech going back to, you know, the free speech advocates and those champions, free speech, you're for all of it or none of it. so, you know, as norm chomsky said, joseph gerble and josef stalin, the free speech you don't like, you have to be for all of it. it's messier, but once you start getting into people's feelings and this they -- you're protecting people, who gets to decide what the free speech is,s so i think it's a pretty simple thing, it's for

all of it or none it. i'm for all of it. >> and humans to have free unfettered speech is remarkably short, and for the privileged few. >> it's true. if you look the at history of humanity, there's not been a real sustained time for this individual, particular liberty, and there's a reason why our founding fathers in the united states made it the first amendment. they could have made it guns first, but they wanted to arm the citizenry with something that they could surely defend themselves and that's with their ability to stand up against potential tyranny and actual tyranny from their own government. so that's important and i didn't ever think in my lifetime that that could be under attack, but it is. i mean, thankfully for elon

musk and the great journalist, actual journalist, matt taibbi and michael shelonberg, they were able to expose actual infringement on the first amendment rights of americans through the twitter files. where the biden administration worked directly with google, with youtube, with twitter, to -- and facebook to really undermine our first amendment and to censor those they disagreed with. so while people will say, you know, free speech doesn't come free from consequences, well, it's true. you know, if you work for a company and they don't like what you say, they can fire you. however, the government can't do it and the government did do it. it has been absolutely no consequences for this administration. and the state of missouri went to the supreme court, the

supreme court did not defend free speech in missouri versus the biden administration, the ruling came out two weeks ago so i think that free speech is certainly under attack in our own country. >> the very best comedians, you write, are holding up a mirror to society and saying, quote, this is what's happening, let's talk about this a little before we accept it as part of our culture. >> well, i think in the book i want to talk about comedy because i do think that, if something's happening in society that's crazy, you know, we need to at least, as it's moving so fast now, we need to at least look at this before we just adopt it as part of the culture, you know, before we, i don't know whether it's men allowed in women's restrooms or whether it's you know, limiting

and deciding what can be quantified as free speech. we should at least discuss these things and comedians have a good way of doing it because the audience doesn't lie. they either laugh or they don't laugh, and if they laugh, you're onto something and maybe take it further, but i will say like this woke, you know, social justice fallacy talked about in the book the fallacy of social justice, it is built on a house of cards. i mean, the-- it's a trojan horse term, who would be against social justice, but the truth of the matter, addressing formal tyranny, it isn't kind of, it is communism, it is control and it's trying to rein in people's individual liberties for sure. >> mr. schneider, have you gotten in trouble with your comedy? >> well, i mean, you have to quantify what trouble is. >> have you been shut down?

>> have i been shut down? yeah. i mean, they tried to. i'm still here. i'm still performing, but i think-- i think comedian's purpose and my purpose as i become-- i didn't start out in show business to become a disrupter against new societal waves of oddness which i call it, but, yeah, i think i can be an interrupter and a disrupter and a questioner, but it does come at some cost. it's not like i'm going to get a beer commercial anytime soon. i mean, if you put your neck out there. i mean, when oprah decided to support barack obama for president she knew it was going to cost her money. and anytime you put your toe into the political ring, it does. but i feel the higher cost is not to say something, especially if you have kids and you want your kids to enjoy the

same career opportunities, the same freedoms that i've enjoyed. >> you've been pretty active on social media, especially on x, and here is a recent x post. my family left california and moved to the free state of arizona because individual liberties were trampled in the guise of liberalism, et cetera, et cetera. >> exactly right and i think that i know that individual liberties are trampled on. if the government can shut down your business and say, we're protecting you, it's for health. it's always for health that-- or safety that the infringement starts and during the pandemic i got out of california because i realized, it was time to go. and interestingly, you would think that after the pandemic and the destruction of businesses, restaurants, we don't know the trauma--

we won't know for decades the actual, the trauma that children went through trying to math two year olds, and children out in front of starbucks, trying to get-- i'm going to get wi-fi on the computer because they didn't have it at home for their schools is a pretty sad sign of what was happening. so, yeah, i think the legislatures in these states have not done anything to rein in the emergency powers of the governor. i don't think any state has done that. so, in other words, we're set up to do this again. unless people stand up for their liberties and their freedoms and how freedom of speech was trampled during the pandemic and i was one of the ones that was silenced and banned, unless people stand up for freedom, they're not going to have . >> i want to show this post as well.

you endorsed robert f. kennedy. >> yes. well, robert kennedy is actually talking about issues that matter to people. we have-- we have two candidates, president-- former president trump and president biden who really aren't talking about how is this new generation of kids going to be able to afford a home. how are we going to bring the interest rates down, how are we going to rein in black rock and vanguard and state street from buying up so many homes and causing the cost of rents to rise in america. why do 40% of children in america suffer from chronic illness. we need to get a handle on the fact that our agencies, our governmental agencies, whether it the food and drug administration, whether it's the environmental protection agency have too much-- the food and drug administration, they have too much influence and too much of

a revolving door between industry and the regulatory board. this actually impacts americans. we have a third of americans who are obese. we need to handle things that actually affect americans and robert kennedy is the only can candidate that's really talking about these crucial issues. >> the new book, you can do it, speak your mind, america. thank you, rob schneider, for spending a few minutes with us. >> thank you. >> if you're enjoying book tv use the qr code on the screen for upcoming author discussions, book festivals and more, book tv every sunday on c-span2 or anytime online, television for serious readers. >> weekends on c-span2 are an intellectual feast.

every saturday american history tv documents america's stories and on sunday, book brings you the latest in nonfiction books and authors. funding for c-span2 comes from these television companies and more, including cox. >> when connection is needed most, cox is there to help. bringing affordable internet to families in need. new tech to boys and girls clubs and support, wherever and wherever whenever it matters most. >> cox, supports c-span2 along with these companies as a public service. >> now, joining us on book tv is author, actress, entrepreneur sam sorbo. how many books have you written and what's your newest about? >> oh, seven maybe. i'm guessing because i have to count. the newest one is the parents

guide to homeschooling. i am excited about it. >> you've written about homeschooling in the past. >> and this is another one for adults and that's my target audience because i'm trying to reach the parents to open their eyes to understanding that educating your children yourself is the greatest gift that you could give yourself, that the education of a child is not only about the education of the child, which is what our school system tells us, that they're only about educating children, but if you talk to any teacher, you should hear from them, oh, my gosh, no, i got so much out of it. i was so blessed to have these children that i could come alongside and watch them grow and whatever, and parents too willingly give up that tremendous gift. my children, i have three, and they're all grown, have taught me so much, and have brought such richness to my life that when they were--

when they were teenagers and i finally-- well, they weren't actually teenagers, but when i homeschooled them for a while and i realized how fulfilling it was, how much richness they brought into my life, i game angry at the school for trying to take that away from me, for trying to rob me of that. so, i've said this, the schools have robbed the culture of the family unit, and that's dangerous to our republic because that's the building block of our nation, and if we lose the family, which we are in the progress of squandering, we've lost a lot. >> well, sam sorbo, you said you've home schooled your children for a while. >> after i had done it for a while. i started having these realizations. >> did they start at kindergarten in home school? >> so actually, so my oldest went to first and second grade and after second grade or during second grade i realized the school was just not as academic as i had thought

school could be. i'm an academic. >> public or private? >> public. we moved to the good public schools, the good ones in california, which is, you know, last in the nation or second to the last in the nation. the whole school experience, i looked at entire school experience. the fact that my son was going to be a very good bully, he was awesome, you've met him, he's very powerful he can get anybody to do anything. he's very persuasive and he was in second-- in first grade, all the fifth graders knew his name. like he was on his way, and i didn't like the attitude that he was coming home with. so, it wasn't just the academics, it was sort of the whole package. i was like, i'm not sure that this is the best thing. ... one day and the the teacher telling me, oh, it was so great because he sat next to my very misbehaved child. and i was hoping that he would rub off on the misbehaved child and it worked. and i'm ,