We have a generation that is so anxious and afraid to take risks.

0:00 Speaker 1 Sunday Morning with Us is Sunday is John Papola, and he’s the producer of a podcast, Dad Saves America, and he is very, very concerned about what’s going on in America today. Well, John, you have a good first name. John.

0:20 Tell us about your concerns about kids growing up today.

0:25 Speaker 2 Well, John, thanks for having me on the show. You know, I used to be a creative director at a TV network there in New York City called Spike Spike TV. It was the first network for men, and I at the time was a young dad and I sort of took a bunch of things for granted that really came

0:47 into the foreground I think for all of us, especially in the past couple of years, especially with COVID and the lockdowns and all the rest of it. And that is as my son got into teenage years, I know it ised something. And what I noticed is that his generation is gen Z. They have a lot of brokenness,

1:06 they have a lot of anxiety. They’re not doing a lot of the things that everyone myself as a Gen xer and and older did When you get to be a teenager, you want to go out with girls, you want to get your driver’s license, you want to get out of the house, you want to go take risks

1:25 and live life and experience freedom. And gen Z is the first generation really in a big way to not want those things the way you used to do. They don’t get their driver’s license, they aren’t going on eats in relationships to anywhere near extent. You could say, oh, it’s good they’re not doing drugs, But in some ways

1:45 the fact that they’re doing unless drugs is sort of a sign of the problem, even though I’m kind of happy about that. And so I started this show because my worry was that if we have a generation that is so anxious and so afraid of taking risks and so concerned with social justice and victimhood that they won’t

2:07 act and use their own freedom, how are we going to have a free society. I don’t think we can. I think a free society requires that we raise our kids to know what to do with their freedom, which is to go out there and build a life.

2:20 Speaker 1 Now we got more problems in that, We got more problems like that. And I’ve seen a lot of segments on television and on radio on it that Americans are having less and less children. There’s a crisis going on in Japanese in Japan where the population is decreasing every year because they’re not having enough children.

2:43 Speaker 2 Oh, in Korea, there’s a video saying Korea is actually going to see South Korea will cease to exist in like thirty to fifty years with the population rate there, and it’s happening all around the world.

2:54 Speaker 1 You’re totally right, John, So what does that mean? Does that mean when you have like in Germany in France you only have one and a half kids per family. In other words, the French are no longer what the French used to be, and they what happened is that a lot of migrants, a lot of immigrants went into Germany,

3:20 went into France. Their kids are having fourteen kids of peace their families, and the French are having one and a half. So maybe France won’t be France thirty years from now.

3:33 Speaker 2 Well, I think that, you know, it’s a very complex problem. But the things that I think we have to that I think we need to really pay a lot of attention to is our kids and all of us. We need to believe in our future. And so much of our education system, of our culture has been telling our

3:56 kids and especially our sons, that they don’t have a future, that climate change is going to kill their future. Or in the case of our boys, they go into school and their teacher is wearing a the future is female t shirt and it’s like, well, I guess that means I have no future as a boy. And last time

4:17 I checked, women don’t like men who don’t have a future and don’t see a future for themselves. Women want men who are go getters and have a positive vision. And so I think we have to we have to tear that stuff up root and branch this victimhood, this catastrophizing, this sort of toxic feminism, and say our kids should

4:42 believe in this country, they should believe in themselves and their individual dignity. I happen to be a person of faith. I think faith and are sort of got created in God’s image. Nature helps make that real. Like why should I believe in the future. It’s like, well, because I’m a creature of God. I’m a creator. I can create

5:04 my future. That’s the story our kids need to hear. And you know that there’s a big there’s bigger problems. You know, as countries get wealthy, they have fewer kids we get complacent. We do have a little bit of almost like wealth disease, and I don’t have any easy answer for that. But frankly, going back to church taking risks,

5:27 loving the country with all its problems, wanting it to succeed. I think these are the things that are essential. There’s no the alternatives we do, we cease to exist, and that’s not who wants that. Who wants to cease to exist except nihilists. I have no interest in that. I want I want to see our country thrive, our kids thrive.

5:50 That’s what matters to me.

5:51 Speaker 1 Well, John Popola, thank you. Where can your podcast be heard?

5:56 Speaker 2 You can go on YouTube. You can also find it good to Dad Saves America dot com where you can subscribe. We got tons of great content. We just had Mike Rowe on the show, you know, and it’s it’s all about how do you how do you do that? How do you live in this beautiful country and want to

6:14 keep it a free society?

6:16 Speaker 1 John Papola, thank you for calling in today and and uh, let’s let’s keep America together and let’s make sure America survives.

6:25 Speaker 2 Thank you so much for coming on all right, Thank you, John