On this episode of News World. Over the last fifty years, the left has poured time, money, and creativity into developing the institutions to support a storytelling culture, looking only at documentaries and small independent features. By some estimates, the left spends tens of billions of dollars annually. On the other side, the right spends maybe tens of millions of dollars on films and television. So over fifty years, this gap has grown to hundreds of billions of dollars, which has underwritten a progressive ecosystem of supportive and reinforcing institutions. In addition to many powerful films, the left starts nurturing young filmmakers right from the beginning of their career, and then at every step along the way. My guests today are putting a stake in the ground to help mentor right of center filmmakers through a new incubator program there working. I'm really pleased to welcome my guests, Michael Pack, producer of over fifteen award winning documentaries and president and CEO of Palladium Pictures, and his son Thomas Beck, director of Palladium Pictures incubator program, which is training the next generation of documentary filmmakers Michael and Thomas. Welcome and thank you for joining me on Newts World.

On this episode of News World. Over the last fifty years, the left has poured time, money, and creativity into developing the institutions to support a storytelling culture, looking only at documentaries and small independent features. By some estimates, the left spends tens of billions of dollars annually. On the other side, the right spends maybe tens of millions of dollars on films and television. So over fifty years, this gap has grown to hundreds of billions of dollars, which has underwritten a progressive ecosystem of supportive and reinforcing institutions. In addition to many powerful films, the left starts nurturing young filmmakers right from the beginning of their career, and then at every step along the way. My guests today are putting a stake in the ground to help mentor right of center filmmakers through a new incubator program there working. I'm really pleased to welcome my guests, Michael Pack, producer of over fifteen award winning documentaries and president and CEO of Palladium Pictures, and his son Thomas Beck, director of Palladium Pictures incubator program, which is training the next generation of documentary filmmakers Michael and Thomas. Welcome and thank you for joining me on Newts World.

Thank you for having us on the show Nude.

Thank you for having us on the show Nude.

Michael, have you been doing this a long time? We've known each other, gosh, I guess thirty years now. Can you talk about why you're launching Palladium Pictures dot com slash incubator.

Michael, have you been doing this a long time? We've known each other, gosh, I guess thirty years now. Can you talk about why you're launching Palladium Pictures dot com slash incubator.

Well, I think it's contained a lot in your introduction, as you say, and I have written about this in a couple of places, including a real clear and now I've written it in an a bad form on the Washington Examiner. We on the right have to take into account what you said that the left has built up over a fifty year period, a vast ecosystem to support storytelling media, and that has allowed them to struct the debate on every issue. By the time things come to Congress, the public has already made up its mind, and it's made up its minds largely through watching films and television. So this is perhaps a part of the well known culture war. But I like to say it's not really a culture war because only one side is fighting. Imagine if you had a real war where one side put an army in the field and the other side simply wrote articles complaining about that army, which army would win, And that's where we are. The left is making films and television, some of it at a very very high quality, and we are just complaining about the effects of that. We have to actually stop and get serious. We are watching this incubator and I've launched this new company playing in Pictures to make a different but I actually think it has to be part of a way bigger effort. As you said, new the leftist port tens a bits dollars a year into this at least since the sixties. We have to be at least one tenth where they are. We could win ten to one. We have truth on our side, but we have to up our game. We're doing what we can. I think you put this well, we're putting a stake in the ground. We hope to start this process, but we really need to be joined by lots of other people.

Well, I think it's contained a lot in your introduction, as you say, and I have written about this in a couple of places, including a real clear and now I've written it in an a bad form on the Washington Examiner. We on the right have to take into account what you said that the left has built up over a fifty year period, a vast ecosystem to support storytelling media, and that has allowed them to struct the debate on every issue. By the time things come to Congress, the public has already made up its mind, and it's made up its minds largely through watching films and television. So this is perhaps a part of the well known culture war. But I like to say it's not really a culture war because only one side is fighting. Imagine if you had a real war where one side put an army in the field and the other side simply wrote articles complaining about that army, which army would win, And that's where we are. The left is making films and television, some of it at a very very high quality, and we are just complaining about the effects of that. We have to actually stop and get serious. We are watching this incubator and I've launched this new company playing in Pictures to make a different but I actually think it has to be part of a way bigger effort. As you said, new the leftist port tens a bits dollars a year into this at least since the sixties. We have to be at least one tenth where they are. We could win ten to one. We have truth on our side, but we have to up our game. We're doing what we can. I think you put this well, we're putting a stake in the ground. We hope to start this process, but we really need to be joined by lots of other people.

Thomas, Since you're going to be in charge of this particular project, can you describe your vision of an incubator system as it relates to this whole concept of strengthening the right stability to compete in the cultural zone.

Thomas, Since you're going to be in charge of this particular project, can you describe your vision of an incubator system as it relates to this whole concept of strengthening the right stability to compete in the cultural zone.

Sure, I'll say quickly what the sort of incubator literally is before I tell you how it makes it compete.

Sure, I'll say quickly what the sort of incubator literally is before I tell you how it makes it compete.

I mean, it's a very simple concept. We're going to provide for up and.

I mean, it's a very simple concept. We're going to provide for up and.

Coming producer directors, documentary producer directors. We'll provide full funding for a short documentary idea. They'll get up to thirty thousand dollars to produce their film. We're going to provide distribution for them, which and I think these are two really useful things for young people getting started. Funding and distribution, but also maybe even more crucially well executive produce. So they'll get mentorship from Michael pack here, and they'll get to be part of a network. And we're going to do this every year and there'll be more and more people and they'll be part as we start to build out this infrastructure. They'll be part of like the first break of that.

Coming producer directors, documentary producer directors. We'll provide full funding for a short documentary idea. They'll get up to thirty thousand dollars to produce their film. We're going to provide distribution for them, which and I think these are two really useful things for young people getting started. Funding and distribution, but also maybe even more crucially well executive produce. So they'll get mentorship from Michael pack here, and they'll get to be part of a network. And we're going to do this every year and there'll be more and more people and they'll be part as we start to build out this infrastructure. They'll be part of like the first break of that.

Describe for a second. You've now created Palladium Pictures as an independent film coming in and you launched it this year. How does that change what you've done in the past.

Describe for a second. You've now created Palladium Pictures as an independent film coming in and you launched it this year. How does that change what you've done in the past.

Well, I think the reason I launched it, a reason I launched it is that some of the people who've admired our work and supported it in the past, really thought I had to produce more films. You're right. I've done fifteen films that have all been nationally broadcast on PBS and award winning, but it's not enough. So I've gotten some multi year funding to launch this new company to produce more films, including short dot com entries. In including this incubator up our game because people are convinced by the argument that we are not really doing enough in the whole storytelling area. So it's similar to what we did with our previous company, Manifold Productions, but it has to be more of it, and it has to include all along the way, training a new generation of right of center filmmakers. I have to say I had a great career, and my wife and I are partners in both companies, and we've had great success. But we have largely worked with people who are on the left, our cinematographers, our cameraman or editors or composers, and they've gone on to do other things, and in some of them we've helped train, but we haven't trained people on our side, and I think there's really a dearth of training and a dearth of knowledge. So I think what you have over this, especially in the last five or ten years, is a renaissance of documentary filmmaking. It's all on the left and all these new streaming services Netflix, Amazon, Hulu have a huge non fiction portfolio, and if you throw in sort of historical political, independent features, it's even more and there's very little on our side. What we do pretty well on our side is preach to the choir. Make documentaries, including ones by mutual friends of Avenue, that do a very good job of kind of sharing people on with views they already have, but they don't tell stories that are convinced people. We want to get our storytelling ability somewhere up there where the lefts is. My last documentary that I did was created equal Clarence Thomas in his own words, and it was nationally brought Guestman PBS in twenty twenty and in one hundred and ten movie theaters and is now streaming on Amazon and Voxination and Zelley Wire and Salem in many other places. But the reason it gets on PBS is it's not just advocacy for Clarence Thomas. It purports and it is Clarence Thomas looking right in the camera telling his story in his own words, from his growing up in the segregated South to his radical youth, to coming around and becoming a conservative working for Reagan, and all the controversies that ensued, including his controversial confirmation process. But you hear him tell his story in his own words. So people on the left who don't like him have said to us, I didn't like him before i'd watched your documentary. I didn't like him after, but I understand him now. So you can get something from it if you're not a Clarence Thomas fan. It lets him tell his story, and his story is a dramatic story. You can see how his ideas come out of his life. We need to be way better at that on our side. I have many many friends on the left to make documentaries and feature films, and I think they do a great job. But it's not that hard and we can learn to do it.

Well, I think the reason I launched it, a reason I launched it is that some of the people who've admired our work and supported it in the past, really thought I had to produce more films. You're right. I've done fifteen films that have all been nationally broadcast on PBS and award winning, but it's not enough. So I've gotten some multi year funding to launch this new company to produce more films, including short dot com entries. In including this incubator up our game because people are convinced by the argument that we are not really doing enough in the whole storytelling area. So it's similar to what we did with our previous company, Manifold Productions, but it has to be more of it, and it has to include all along the way, training a new generation of right of center filmmakers. I have to say I had a great career, and my wife and I are partners in both companies, and we've had great success. But we have largely worked with people who are on the left, our cinematographers, our cameraman or editors or composers, and they've gone on to do other things, and in some of them we've helped train, but we haven't trained people on our side, and I think there's really a dearth of training and a dearth of knowledge. So I think what you have over this, especially in the last five or ten years, is a renaissance of documentary filmmaking. It's all on the left and all these new streaming services Netflix, Amazon, Hulu have a huge non fiction portfolio, and if you throw in sort of historical political, independent features, it's even more and there's very little on our side. What we do pretty well on our side is preach to the choir. Make documentaries, including ones by mutual friends of Avenue, that do a very good job of kind of sharing people on with views they already have, but they don't tell stories that are convinced people. We want to get our storytelling ability somewhere up there where the lefts is. My last documentary that I did was created equal Clarence Thomas in his own words, and it was nationally brought Guestman PBS in twenty twenty and in one hundred and ten movie theaters and is now streaming on Amazon and Voxination and Zelley Wire and Salem in many other places. But the reason it gets on PBS is it's not just advocacy for Clarence Thomas. It purports and it is Clarence Thomas looking right in the camera telling his story in his own words, from his growing up in the segregated South to his radical youth, to coming around and becoming a conservative working for Reagan, and all the controversies that ensued, including his controversial confirmation process. But you hear him tell his story in his own words. So people on the left who don't like him have said to us, I didn't like him before i'd watched your documentary. I didn't like him after, but I understand him now. So you can get something from it if you're not a Clarence Thomas fan. It lets him tell his story, and his story is a dramatic story. You can see how his ideas come out of his life. We need to be way better at that on our side. I have many many friends on the left to make documentaries and feature films, and I think they do a great job. But it's not that hard and we can learn to do it.

I was just noticing that you actually founded Manifold Productions forty six years ago.

I was just noticing that you actually founded Manifold Productions forty six years ago.

I was very young, but I did. Right out of college. I founded it.

I was very young, but I did. Right out of college. I founded it.

That must have taken a lot of courage. I mean, did you just decide you're going to found of production company.

That must have taken a lot of courage. I mean, did you just decide you're going to found of production company.

I think stupidity would be a better term than courage. I had gone through some a left like Clarence Thomas, a period of being sort of on the left growing up, and I have been just come to reject those things. And the people at NYU and film school and that I knew coming out of film school all wanted to make what I considered anti American, anti capitalist films. It was the era of the nuclear freeze, you know. They thought the Soviet Union in America, you know, equally good. They were radical environmentalists and my first partner and I thought, we will counter these films in a few years, will defeat these people, and then I'll go on to Hollywood and make you entertainment films. But it was a harder process than I thought, and as you say, more than forty years later, I'm still at it. So I'm not sure I would have done it if I had understood its difficulty.

I think stupidity would be a better term than courage. I had gone through some a left like Clarence Thomas, a period of being sort of on the left growing up, and I have been just come to reject those things. And the people at NYU and film school and that I knew coming out of film school all wanted to make what I considered anti American, anti capitalist films. It was the era of the nuclear freeze, you know. They thought the Soviet Union in America, you know, equally good. They were radical environmentalists and my first partner and I thought, we will counter these films in a few years, will defeat these people, and then I'll go on to Hollywood and make you entertainment films. But it was a harder process than I thought, and as you say, more than forty years later, I'm still at it. So I'm not sure I would have done it if I had understood its difficulty.

What was your first film?

What was your first film?

My first major PBS film, I had done a short half hour drama right out of film school. Clued hard Bargain that on Awards, it was on some PBS stations, it was on Showtime, played at the Museum of Modern Art, and that sort of launched my career. But my first documentary, which came out in nineteen eighty seven, was called Hollywood's Favorite Heavy and it was how business and businessmen are portrayed on nighttime TV. And this was the era of Dallas and Dynasty, and businessmen were always the villains. So we went to Hollywood to ask the people who made these shows what their ideas of business were and why they made the villains. And it was a very revealing show. I mean, their knowledge of business was based almost exclusively on the entertainment business, so their idea of what business is like was limited to that, and they had a very interesting and entertaining views of how they came up with these ideas. And it featured lots of people. I mean, it had Norman Lear in it. It had the producers of Miami Vice and of Dallas and Dynasty, and it was an interesting show and it showed, I think, this superficiality of Hollywood's efforts to understand America and where it came from. These people were all smart, charming people and really bright and really creative, but they could not grasp the essence of America. And the movie tried to dramatize that still a good film in my opinion, you did take.

My first major PBS film, I had done a short half hour drama right out of film school. Clued hard Bargain that on Awards, it was on some PBS stations, it was on Showtime, played at the Museum of Modern Art, and that sort of launched my career. But my first documentary, which came out in nineteen eighty seven, was called Hollywood's Favorite Heavy and it was how business and businessmen are portrayed on nighttime TV. And this was the era of Dallas and Dynasty, and businessmen were always the villains. So we went to Hollywood to ask the people who made these shows what their ideas of business were and why they made the villains. And it was a very revealing show. I mean, their knowledge of business was based almost exclusively on the entertainment business, so their idea of what business is like was limited to that, and they had a very interesting and entertaining views of how they came up with these ideas. And it featured lots of people. I mean, it had Norman Lear in it. It had the producers of Miami Vice and of Dallas and Dynasty, and it was an interesting show and it showed, I think, this superficiality of Hollywood's efforts to understand America and where it came from. These people were all smart, charming people and really bright and really creative, but they could not grasp the essence of America. And the movie tried to dramatize that still a good film in my opinion, you did take.

A break from making movies when you became. From June of twenty to January twenty one, you were the first Senate confirmed CEO of the US Agency for Global Media, which sort of supervises the government's five international broadcasting networks. What was that like?

A break from making movies when you became. From June of twenty to January twenty one, you were the first Senate confirmed CEO of the US Agency for Global Media, which sort of supervises the government's five international broadcasting networks. What was that like?

Wow, Well, that was an amazing experience. I have taken a few breaks from filmmaking. My wife likes to say, if you're working for yourself as a filmmaker, it's good to get a job every ten years or so, and I have done that. I worked at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for a few years. I ran the Claremont Institute for a few years, but in the George HW. Bush administration, I ran the TV but is now the TV part of the Voice of America. So I had international broadcasting experience. So when the Trump administration began, they approached me because there were just not that many Conservatives that had any international broadcasting experience anyway, and it seemed like a great opportunity. I think I underestimated, once again it's difficulty, and the Trump administration approached me in March of twenty seventeen, just after they were inaugurated, and it took three years and three months for me to be confirmed. Democrats strongly opposed me, particularly Senator Menendez in the Center for Relations Committee. It took the personal intervention of the President of the United States to get me confirmed, which it should not do. The time I got in there, the opposition was very strong to Donald Trump. There was a feeling on the part the US Agency for Global Media had about four thousand people at it, and I was able to bring in, you know, maybe ten politicals, and the four thousand people there, I like to say the bottom half, the bottom two thousand that are editors, cameraman, sound record as they probably were less political and reflected somewhat closer to America. But the top of that, the top fifty percent, you know, those middle managers and above, were extremely progressive and had lots of free time in which to pursue their political goals. And they were all staunchly opposed to Trump and had no intention of following the guidelines of the President or his chosen appointee, meaning me. So the opposition was intense from the very beginning. My goal, and this is the only thing President Trump ever said to me that I should do, And the only advice anyone at the White House ever gave was to bring the Voice of America, especially back to its glory day, meaning in the Cold War, when it stood up for freedom and democracy against Soviet communism. And that is all I wanted to do. That is what the agency has founded on. And it's supposed to reflect American values, not be partisan, and promote ideas like democracy and freedom, and it's supposed to reflect the diversity of views in America. But the agency had not done that for many years. It was really captured by the progressive left, and they had no intention of giving it up. I mean. One kind of way of looking at this, I think is that the people who work there, their model was CNN or MSNBC, I mean, or the New York Times. That was the peak. And while those journalistic entities are private and have every right to be whatever they want to be, this was a government agency and they needed to reflect the views of the American people, and they were under the executive branch, and President Trump was the president and they simply could not take that. So it was fighting from the beginning to the end. One of the most difficult eight months of my life.

Wow, Well, that was an amazing experience. I have taken a few breaks from filmmaking. My wife likes to say, if you're working for yourself as a filmmaker, it's good to get a job every ten years or so, and I have done that. I worked at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for a few years. I ran the Claremont Institute for a few years, but in the George HW. Bush administration, I ran the TV but is now the TV part of the Voice of America. So I had international broadcasting experience. So when the Trump administration began, they approached me because there were just not that many Conservatives that had any international broadcasting experience anyway, and it seemed like a great opportunity. I think I underestimated, once again it's difficulty, and the Trump administration approached me in March of twenty seventeen, just after they were inaugurated, and it took three years and three months for me to be confirmed. Democrats strongly opposed me, particularly Senator Menendez in the Center for Relations Committee. It took the personal intervention of the President of the United States to get me confirmed, which it should not do. The time I got in there, the opposition was very strong to Donald Trump. There was a feeling on the part the US Agency for Global Media had about four thousand people at it, and I was able to bring in, you know, maybe ten politicals, and the four thousand people there, I like to say the bottom half, the bottom two thousand that are editors, cameraman, sound record as they probably were less political and reflected somewhat closer to America. But the top of that, the top fifty percent, you know, those middle managers and above, were extremely progressive and had lots of free time in which to pursue their political goals. And they were all staunchly opposed to Trump and had no intention of following the guidelines of the President or his chosen appointee, meaning me. So the opposition was intense from the very beginning. My goal, and this is the only thing President Trump ever said to me that I should do, And the only advice anyone at the White House ever gave was to bring the Voice of America, especially back to its glory day, meaning in the Cold War, when it stood up for freedom and democracy against Soviet communism. And that is all I wanted to do. That is what the agency has founded on. And it's supposed to reflect American values, not be partisan, and promote ideas like democracy and freedom, and it's supposed to reflect the diversity of views in America. But the agency had not done that for many years. It was really captured by the progressive left, and they had no intention of giving it up. I mean. One kind of way of looking at this, I think is that the people who work there, their model was CNN or MSNBC, I mean, or the New York Times. That was the peak. And while those journalistic entities are private and have every right to be whatever they want to be, this was a government agency and they needed to reflect the views of the American people, and they were under the executive branch, and President Trump was the president and they simply could not take that. So it was fighting from the beginning to the end. One of the most difficult eight months of my life.

In that context, did they promptly revert back as soon as you left and as soon as Biden came.

In that context, did they promptly revert back as soon as you left and as soon as Biden came.

In, they promptly reverted back. President Biden. I had a three year term, but it was really not a hard three year term, and President Biden's office called and asked me to resign within twenty minutes of the inauguration. Politico claimed that that was his first foreign policy move, which I guess is a high honor. And right away, I mean, we had a major security lapse in our agency where twenty five percent of people had been inadequately cleared, including a fair number that were top secret and above. And all the people involved in that that we were trying to get to the bottom up, they're all back. Everybody that we got rid of for cause were all hired back. So yes, the reversion was very complete. The person who was VOA director under Obama is now head of the agency, Manda Bennett, who's married to Don Graham, who used to own the Washington Post, you know, son of Catherine Graham. And indeed that kind of well connected us is part of the reason why they I got a huge amount of coverage in my time there. For instance, in the Washington Post. I was there eight months and there were forty articles about me, including four op ads and four editorials. Now you may be used to that kind of coverage, Mouve, because you actually are an important person. I was not, and I did not expect it, and they treated it seriously because the media thinks the media is important.

In, they promptly reverted back. President Biden. I had a three year term, but it was really not a hard three year term, and President Biden's office called and asked me to resign within twenty minutes of the inauguration. Politico claimed that that was his first foreign policy move, which I guess is a high honor. And right away, I mean, we had a major security lapse in our agency where twenty five percent of people had been inadequately cleared, including a fair number that were top secret and above. And all the people involved in that that we were trying to get to the bottom up, they're all back. Everybody that we got rid of for cause were all hired back. So yes, the reversion was very complete. The person who was VOA director under Obama is now head of the agency, Manda Bennett, who's married to Don Graham, who used to own the Washington Post, you know, son of Catherine Graham. And indeed that kind of well connected us is part of the reason why they I got a huge amount of coverage in my time there. For instance, in the Washington Post. I was there eight months and there were forty articles about me, including four op ads and four editorials. Now you may be used to that kind of coverage, Mouve, because you actually are an important person. I was not, and I did not expect it, and they treated it seriously because the media thinks the media is important.

Well, and I think also the power of language is real indeed, and that's why we need to recapture, you know, we need to have a voice for America which is actually pro American, which may be a bit much to switch gears. Thomas. Did you kind of feel, growing up surrounded by all this that it was inevitable that you would go into some kind of media activity.

Well, and I think also the power of language is real indeed, and that's why we need to recapture, you know, we need to have a voice for America which is actually pro American, which may be a bit much to switch gears. Thomas. Did you kind of feel, growing up surrounded by all this that it was inevitable that you would go into some kind of media activity.

No, I didn't I actually ever feel that way.

No, I didn't I actually ever feel that way.

I think, I mean, growing up.

I think, I mean, growing up.

Surrounded by this has been It really is an amazing experience. The great thing about filmmaking is you get to kind of dive into a new project. And as kids, I mean, we just like were thrown into it. It was the conversation around the dinner table was Admiral rickover for you know, a year and a half, and then once we were experts on that we've got to move on to the next interesting project. Exadra Hamilton Hamilton and before he was a rap artist, we say I wasn't sort of sure I was going to do it. I've been working in different educational organizations. I worked at Intercligius Studies Institute for a while, and so I came back to the family business to launch what is, you know, an educational initiative More than anything else, I think with all this talk about how much money is being spent on this issue, the solution isn't to just spend more money. You know, we can't solve this problem by like, you know, buying a streaming service and just assuming that we have content to put out, because we don't. We need to train out the talent. We've been behind on spending for so long that now we're also way behind on people that know how to make great films, that understand, you know, the art and story elements required.

Surrounded by this has been It really is an amazing experience. The great thing about filmmaking is you get to kind of dive into a new project. And as kids, I mean, we just like were thrown into it. It was the conversation around the dinner table was Admiral rickover for you know, a year and a half, and then once we were experts on that we've got to move on to the next interesting project. Exadra Hamilton Hamilton and before he was a rap artist, we say I wasn't sort of sure I was going to do it. I've been working in different educational organizations. I worked at Intercligius Studies Institute for a while, and so I came back to the family business to launch what is, you know, an educational initiative More than anything else, I think with all this talk about how much money is being spent on this issue, the solution isn't to just spend more money. You know, we can't solve this problem by like, you know, buying a streaming service and just assuming that we have content to put out, because we don't. We need to train out the talent. We've been behind on spending for so long that now we're also way behind on people that know how to make great films, that understand, you know, the art and story elements required.

I think the depths of the left's infrastructure is very important to understand. We only kind of glanced at it at the beginning, but I think one way to look at it is there are four thousand colleges and universities in America. Everyone has a film school. Those film schools usually in their brochures, are very outfront about training people to be advocates for social justice, and they have activist filmmakers that they create. So every year those four thousand universities pump out, you know, tens of thousands that want to be filmmakers. And the left, the progressive left, is able to siphon off the talented top five or ten percent, and we have no such shifting process. We get the rebels, but we have to work with what we have. And I think there are people out there that want to make films that are now tired of woke progressivism as it has drifted further and further to the left. So we appeal to your listeners to actually sign up for the incubator and apply. It's very easy to do. It's on our website Palladium Pictures dot com. There's a huge sign up incubator button. The process is not that hard, but you need have some experience in making a film of some sort and have a good idea. But we really encourage your listeners or the children or grandchildren or friends of your listeners to apply.

I think the depths of the left's infrastructure is very important to understand. We only kind of glanced at it at the beginning, but I think one way to look at it is there are four thousand colleges and universities in America. Everyone has a film school. Those film schools usually in their brochures, are very outfront about training people to be advocates for social justice, and they have activist filmmakers that they create. So every year those four thousand universities pump out, you know, tens of thousands that want to be filmmakers. And the left, the progressive left, is able to siphon off the talented top five or ten percent, and we have no such shifting process. We get the rebels, but we have to work with what we have. And I think there are people out there that want to make films that are now tired of woke progressivism as it has drifted further and further to the left. So we appeal to your listeners to actually sign up for the incubator and apply. It's very easy to do. It's on our website Palladium Pictures dot com. There's a huge sign up incubator button. The process is not that hard, but you need have some experience in making a film of some sort and have a good idea. But we really encourage your listeners or the children or grandchildren or friends of your listeners to apply.

When you look at all this, you've been in the middle of it, you've thought about it. Why do you think people on the left are so anti American?

When you look at all this, you've been in the middle of it, you've thought about it. Why do you think people on the left are so anti American?

That is a very deep question and a very hard one to answer. I mean, I think that part of it is what they're getting at universities. I mean, I thought they were pretty anti American when I began, but it is so much worse today. I mean, as you see these colleges erupt with anti semity, it is flat out shocking, even to me. I mean, we are Jewish and we are maybe particularly sensitive. I hope not. I mean, I hope everyone's sensitive, but it's shocking. I think that they are just feel free to express that. But I do think it has to do with this long march through the institutions. Do you know the story? Well, I think in the sixties, the left, having failed to from violent Marxist revolution, took stock of what to do next, and they concluded that they would do a long march with the institutions, a line of Rudy Deutschka famous German Marxist but really deriving from cultural Marxism of Gramchy and hicked up by the new left here. And they just decided that they would take over the cultural institutions, beginning at the universities where a lot of them were. They were student radicals, but very rapidly moving to Hollywood and media in general, because, as you said a moment ago, they understood the power of the word and of the culture. And I think they've succeeded in making the country less pro American than it used to be. I think there's still a vast pool of people who love this country, but they are increasingly not the elites, not the ones that are best educated, that are coming out of Harvard, Yale and Stafford. We see that among the people who are doing the work in America, plumbers and carpenters, and they remain pro American, and they've avoided some of this work ideology. I think that is a large part of it. And it's both being miseducated and then the failure to educate them properly. And I do believe. I mean, this is the thing about the incubator and the media. We have not done our part. We can't just pick on the left. They've been advocating their views. They're allowed to do that. This is America. They're making great films that push for their ideas. That's what you're supposed to do in a battle of ideas. We meet up. Our game. Culture is much more of a free market than government. I had a lot of struggles when I was in the Trump administration. It's not nearly a free market. You can't hire and fire people. We can make films, we have great stories to tell. We need to put in, As you said, I think upfront the same kind of talent, energy, and money that the left us we hope at played in pictures that we're doing our part. Actually, I know that you and Callista do work in this area too, but there needs to be way more of us, and I'm optimistic that we can win this back. I think there's still a deep well of patriotism and a desire to understand this country and its principles, and we need to tap into that and use it and educate it.

That is a very deep question and a very hard one to answer. I mean, I think that part of it is what they're getting at universities. I mean, I thought they were pretty anti American when I began, but it is so much worse today. I mean, as you see these colleges erupt with anti semity, it is flat out shocking, even to me. I mean, we are Jewish and we are maybe particularly sensitive. I hope not. I mean, I hope everyone's sensitive, but it's shocking. I think that they are just feel free to express that. But I do think it has to do with this long march through the institutions. Do you know the story? Well, I think in the sixties, the left, having failed to from violent Marxist revolution, took stock of what to do next, and they concluded that they would do a long march with the institutions, a line of Rudy Deutschka famous German Marxist but really deriving from cultural Marxism of Gramchy and hicked up by the new left here. And they just decided that they would take over the cultural institutions, beginning at the universities where a lot of them were. They were student radicals, but very rapidly moving to Hollywood and media in general, because, as you said a moment ago, they understood the power of the word and of the culture. And I think they've succeeded in making the country less pro American than it used to be. I think there's still a vast pool of people who love this country, but they are increasingly not the elites, not the ones that are best educated, that are coming out of Harvard, Yale and Stafford. We see that among the people who are doing the work in America, plumbers and carpenters, and they remain pro American, and they've avoided some of this work ideology. I think that is a large part of it. And it's both being miseducated and then the failure to educate them properly. And I do believe. I mean, this is the thing about the incubator and the media. We have not done our part. We can't just pick on the left. They've been advocating their views. They're allowed to do that. This is America. They're making great films that push for their ideas. That's what you're supposed to do in a battle of ideas. We meet up. Our game. Culture is much more of a free market than government. I had a lot of struggles when I was in the Trump administration. It's not nearly a free market. You can't hire and fire people. We can make films, we have great stories to tell. We need to put in, As you said, I think upfront the same kind of talent, energy, and money that the left us we hope at played in pictures that we're doing our part. Actually, I know that you and Callista do work in this area too, but there needs to be way more of us, and I'm optimistic that we can win this back. I think there's still a deep well of patriotism and a desire to understand this country and its principles, and we need to tap into that and use it and educate it.

Do you think that the left is better at storytelling than we are, or just that there's so many of them doing it that the mathematical laws of having some of them be really good is just a practical reality.

Do you think that the left is better at storytelling than we are, or just that there's so many of them doing it that the mathematical laws of having some of them be really good is just a practical reality.

I believe that it is the latter. There are some people over the years that people on the left are naturally better at the arts period, and that we are just better at economics or law or whatever. But I think there is no evidence for that. If you look over the history of mankind, there have been very many, what you have to say, right of center great artists, you know. I mean, you can't say that Shakespeare, who's extolling Elizabethan England is a rebel, you know, or Virgil making the greatest epic poem ever in support of the emperor. But more recently, I say, look back at Hollywood and its golden age. Hollywood used to make very pro American, pro family, pro religion movies, so that proves that it can be done. And those movies were great movies, you know, the films of John Ford, the Westerns with John Wayne. These are the things that sold America to the world, even more than the VOA and It's heyday. They made people, especially including in the Sylvia Block, wanting to believe in America and wanting to come to America. So it has been done, and done recently and done well, and that proves that we can do it too.

I believe that it is the latter. There are some people over the years that people on the left are naturally better at the arts period, and that we are just better at economics or law or whatever. But I think there is no evidence for that. If you look over the history of mankind, there have been very many, what you have to say, right of center great artists, you know. I mean, you can't say that Shakespeare, who's extolling Elizabethan England is a rebel, you know, or Virgil making the greatest epic poem ever in support of the emperor. But more recently, I say, look back at Hollywood and its golden age. Hollywood used to make very pro American, pro family, pro religion movies, so that proves that it can be done. And those movies were great movies, you know, the films of John Ford, the Westerns with John Wayne. These are the things that sold America to the world, even more than the VOA and It's heyday. They made people, especially including in the Sylvia Block, wanting to believe in America and wanting to come to America. So it has been done, and done recently and done well, and that proves that we can do it too.

Part of what I can't understand, I guess is you take somebody who is clearly a genius in Steven Spielberg. He makes Chindler's List, and yet people on the left are increasingly anti Semitic and anti Israel. And you would think with those kind of powerful emotional films, it would have sunk in that there are some core values here that are directly threatened by terrorist organizations like AMAS. But on the left now it's almost like you can't even have this conversation without people becoming so emotional and so frenzied. I don't know whether it's the changing of the generational guard or what's going on, but people like Spielberg at least had some sense of balance, that the world was real and that there were things that really were bad.

Part of what I can't understand, I guess is you take somebody who is clearly a genius in Steven Spielberg. He makes Chindler's List, and yet people on the left are increasingly anti Semitic and anti Israel. And you would think with those kind of powerful emotional films, it would have sunk in that there are some core values here that are directly threatened by terrorist organizations like AMAS. But on the left now it's almost like you can't even have this conversation without people becoming so emotional and so frenzied. I don't know whether it's the changing of the generational guard or what's going on, but people like Spielberg at least had some sense of balance, that the world was real and that there were things that really were bad.

I think that's right. But even Stephen Spielberg, they get captured by the left. You know, they are sitting in Hollywood among the groups that are just reinforcing these other views, and so he ends up making these films that are left of center. And I think that that tends to be what happens. It's the rare person likes say Clint Eastwood, that can sort of stand up to that. That's why, really conservatives have always wanted to persuade Hollywood to be more open to their ideas. And I'm skeptical of that. I think it's its own culture. I depicted it in nineteen eighty seven in Hollywood's Favorite Heavy and it's only gotten more woke. We need to create our own team here. It's like imagine if we only have the Democratic Party and you had to just appeal to it to be open to publican ideas. You can't do it that way. You need a second party. We need other people. And that is not to downplay the genius of people like Steven Spielberg. In fact, I like to say, even in my own area of documentaries, there are plenty of very talented left and center documentary filmmakers, and I don't like to take anything away from them. A lot of them are extremely talented and brilliant, and some of them are personal friends. We just need to make similar films of our own, expressing our ideas and telling our stories. I always give the example of the Clarence Thomas film that many people on the left chose to tell the Ruth Bader Ginsburg story. There is a feature film and at least two documentaries, and they made her into sort of a rap store. We were the only ones interested in telling Clarence Thomas's story. Now, I guess they're interested in attacking him, as they've always been interested in that. So there are plenty of stories out there that are being left untold, that are great stories, that are not simply advocacy, and we need to tell them. We can tell them. Whether we can ever get geniuses at the level of Spielberg, I hope so, and I think that we can.

I think that's right. But even Stephen Spielberg, they get captured by the left. You know, they are sitting in Hollywood among the groups that are just reinforcing these other views, and so he ends up making these films that are left of center. And I think that that tends to be what happens. It's the rare person likes say Clint Eastwood, that can sort of stand up to that. That's why, really conservatives have always wanted to persuade Hollywood to be more open to their ideas. And I'm skeptical of that. I think it's its own culture. I depicted it in nineteen eighty seven in Hollywood's Favorite Heavy and it's only gotten more woke. We need to create our own team here. It's like imagine if we only have the Democratic Party and you had to just appeal to it to be open to publican ideas. You can't do it that way. You need a second party. We need other people. And that is not to downplay the genius of people like Steven Spielberg. In fact, I like to say, even in my own area of documentaries, there are plenty of very talented left and center documentary filmmakers, and I don't like to take anything away from them. A lot of them are extremely talented and brilliant, and some of them are personal friends. We just need to make similar films of our own, expressing our ideas and telling our stories. I always give the example of the Clarence Thomas film that many people on the left chose to tell the Ruth Bader Ginsburg story. There is a feature film and at least two documentaries, and they made her into sort of a rap store. We were the only ones interested in telling Clarence Thomas's story. Now, I guess they're interested in attacking him, as they've always been interested in that. So there are plenty of stories out there that are being left untold, that are great stories, that are not simply advocacy, and we need to tell them. We can tell them. Whether we can ever get geniuses at the level of Spielberg, I hope so, and I think that we can.

Frankly, I look at some of the audiences. Some of the most successful movies in the last few years have been either very Christian or very conservative. You have had surprisingly big box office.

Frankly, I look at some of the audiences. Some of the most successful movies in the last few years have been either very Christian or very conservative. You have had surprisingly big box office.

That's right. The Sound of Freedom very recently is a example. I think people are tired of what they're getting from Hollywood. Hollywood cannot change it's self reinforcing. People get kudos and credits and the best tables and everything else they want from being within the sort of woke orthodoxy and the few people who try to be different. I mean even now in Hollywood, I think Gail Gado, the actress, is trying to do some pro Israel things and it's not easy and this is just to be pro Israel. So I think that people are tired of it. You're right, there's an audience there for an alternative. I like the Sound of Freedom. I don't think it's a brilliant movie, but it shows you that you can make a non brilliant movie, but a pretty good movie that has non Hollywood values outside the Hollywood system and make two hundred million dollars. So it can be done. There is an audience there. I sometimes compare it to the audience for News before they launched Fox News. You know, Roger L's and Rupert Murdoch have the insight that CNN and the NBCABC, CBS, we're all splitting the left of center audience that if they did something that was right of center, they had half the country. And that's true in both future films and documentaries. There's a vast audience and we simply need to tap it. But it takes time, it takes money, it takes resources, and we need to come up with them right.

That's right. The Sound of Freedom very recently is a example. I think people are tired of what they're getting from Hollywood. Hollywood cannot change it's self reinforcing. People get kudos and credits and the best tables and everything else they want from being within the sort of woke orthodoxy and the few people who try to be different. I mean even now in Hollywood, I think Gail Gado, the actress, is trying to do some pro Israel things and it's not easy and this is just to be pro Israel. So I think that people are tired of it. You're right, there's an audience there for an alternative. I like the Sound of Freedom. I don't think it's a brilliant movie, but it shows you that you can make a non brilliant movie, but a pretty good movie that has non Hollywood values outside the Hollywood system and make two hundred million dollars. So it can be done. There is an audience there. I sometimes compare it to the audience for News before they launched Fox News. You know, Roger L's and Rupert Murdoch have the insight that CNN and the NBCABC, CBS, we're all splitting the left of center audience that if they did something that was right of center, they had half the country. And that's true in both future films and documentaries. There's a vast audience and we simply need to tap it. But it takes time, it takes money, it takes resources, and we need to come up with them right.

I think that the sort of anti americanism of the left really does play in our favor. I mean, even if it were true that there was a little less talent on the right, this would maybe even make up for it, because I think Americans are sick of the kind of Grieman's narratives and the pro American story is like top Gun or something, are extremely appealing to people. I mean, I really feel like despite all the bad news that we're saying, they're good news for people that want to get into the film business. Is it's actually an exciting time in documentary because the left is such.

I think that the sort of anti americanism of the left really does play in our favor. I mean, even if it were true that there was a little less talent on the right, this would maybe even make up for it, because I think Americans are sick of the kind of Grieman's narratives and the pro American story is like top Gun or something, are extremely appealing to people. I mean, I really feel like despite all the bad news that we're saying, they're good news for people that want to get into the film business. Is it's actually an exciting time in documentary because the left is such.

A stranglehold on the media. There's a lot of good stories that expose that that are ripe for the picking and in film in general. I think now that there's a sort of democratization of how distribution works and people are getting tired of getting the same types of stories from Hollywood and they're looking elsewhere. It's a good time if you can create something great. We just need to make sure that we're finding the people that can do that and actually helping them, because it's a very hard business no matter what side you're on.

A stranglehold on the media. There's a lot of good stories that expose that that are ripe for the picking and in film in general. I think now that there's a sort of democratization of how distribution works and people are getting tired of getting the same types of stories from Hollywood and they're looking elsewhere. It's a good time if you can create something great. We just need to make sure that we're finding the people that can do that and actually helping them, because it's a very hard business no matter what side you're on.

Actually that is true.

Actually that is true.

So the Pladium Pictures Incubator for Documentary Filmmaking, which you entitled Shaping America's Future Storytellers, I assume you're looking for funding for people who want to be documentary filmmakers, for people who have ideas that might be the beginning of a really interesting film. What exactly are you looking for and how can people apply to work with you.

So the Pladium Pictures Incubator for Documentary Filmmaking, which you entitled Shaping America's Future Storytellers, I assume you're looking for funding for people who want to be documentary filmmakers, for people who have ideas that might be the beginning of a really interesting film. What exactly are you looking for and how can people apply to work with you.

So we're looking for people that are producer directors already. So they have to have some experience making a film that they can use in their application that demonstrates that they have I mean that can mean that their early career with starting their own film studio, or it can mean that they're maybe they're doing something else in video, they want to pivot into documentary, they are working for somebody else, they want to.

So we're looking for people that are producer directors already. So they have to have some experience making a film that they can use in their application that demonstrates that they have I mean that can mean that their early career with starting their own film studio, or it can mean that they're maybe they're doing something else in video, they want to pivot into documentary, they are working for somebody else, they want to.

Make their film their way.

Make their film their way.

But we're looking for people that are conservative in the sense at least that they're willing to question the mainstream orthodoxy coming out of the left and documentary film, and that they want to be documentary filmmakers and work with Palladium Pictures.

But we're looking for people that are conservative in the sense at least that they're willing to question the mainstream orthodoxy coming out of the left and documentary film, and that they want to be documentary filmmakers and work with Palladium Pictures.

So that's who should do it.

So that's who should do it.

The process is very simple on our website, and what they get out of it after they apply is then they're in this program for a year and so we're executive producing this film with them, we're distributing it, we're funding it, and they can learn with us. But at the end of it they'll have something that can serve as the career springboard. It's very useful and it's tough to make it to short docs. Sometimes it sits on your website, you don't really know what.

The process is very simple on our website, and what they get out of it after they apply is then they're in this program for a year and so we're executive producing this film with them, we're distributing it, we're funding it, and they can learn with us. But at the end of it they'll have something that can serve as the career springboard. It's very useful and it's tough to make it to short docs. Sometimes it sits on your website, you don't really know what.

To do with it.

To do with it.

It's very useful to have something that was good, that it can be a proof of concept. It makes funding and distribution in the future easier, and for us, it's sort of the first kind of brick as we start to build the infrastructure out, and hopefully it'll also kind of start to turn the flywheel. We'll start to get the conservative donor class aware of the fact that films on the right can be good, that there can be talent, and that when you cultivate talent, it's a network effect and it'll just sort of snowball more and more and there's you know, one person that's great that comes out of the incubator that is a filmmaker for their lifetime.

It's very useful to have something that was good, that it can be a proof of concept. It makes funding and distribution in the future easier, and for us, it's sort of the first kind of brick as we start to build the infrastructure out, and hopefully it'll also kind of start to turn the flywheel. We'll start to get the conservative donor class aware of the fact that films on the right can be good, that there can be talent, and that when you cultivate talent, it's a network effect and it'll just sort of snowball more and more and there's you know, one person that's great that comes out of the incubator that is a filmmaker for their lifetime.

Is a humongous win.

Is a humongous win.

People who want to apply go to Palladium Pictures dot com slash incubator Is.

People who want to apply go to Palladium Pictures dot com slash incubator Is.

That correct, that's right, Palladium Pictures dot com, slash incubator or Poladion Pictures dot Com.

That correct, that's right, Palladium Pictures dot com, slash incubator or Poladion Pictures dot Com.

Click the big incubator button.

Click the big incubator button.

If there's a f a Q page, then you can just hit apply.

If there's a f a Q page, then you can just hit apply.

It'll ask you for things like sample of past work and a chance to like picture documentary idea. And the deadline is December first, so it is coming up. That first round of the application is not that time intensive, so you still have time to put together something great.

It'll ask you for things like sample of past work and a chance to like picture documentary idea. And the deadline is December first, so it is coming up. That first round of the application is not that time intensive, so you still have time to put together something great.

And then you have your opening session of the Incubator Fellows in Washington in February of twenty twenty four, that's right, which will be exciting. And after you do that, we're going to have to ask you to come back and share with us your first year's progress and what's going on and what you're excited by, and also what you will have learned from this great new experiment. I think it's a terrific thing you're doing.

And then you have your opening session of the Incubator Fellows in Washington in February of twenty twenty four, that's right, which will be exciting. And after you do that, we're going to have to ask you to come back and share with us your first year's progress and what's going on and what you're excited by, and also what you will have learned from this great new experiment. I think it's a terrific thing you're doing.

We're bringing everybody to gather in Washington, so get to meet your cohort, and there is like a fellowship element of this. But this is a problem you can do from anywhere in the country and stay wherever you are, shoot it wherever you need to shoot.

We're bringing everybody to gather in Washington, so get to meet your cohort, and there is like a fellowship element of this. But this is a problem you can do from anywhere in the country and stay wherever you are, shoot it wherever you need to shoot.

You know, we see it as a year long program. We would love to come back, of course we would, yes.

You know, we see it as a year long program. We would love to come back, of course we would, yes.

We'd love to follow what you're learning and how you're doing it, what others could learn from it, and how they could participate. Michael and Thomas. I want to thank you for joining me on newts World. I encourage our listeners who are interested in documentary filmmaking to apply for your new incubator program, which helps fund, mentor and empower the next generation of documentary films. Anyone who's insted, I want to remind you you can apply at Palladium Pictures dot com slash Incubator and we'll have that on our show page. The deadline to apply is December first. And thank you both very much for joining.

We'd love to follow what you're learning and how you're doing it, what others could learn from it, and how they could participate. Michael and Thomas. I want to thank you for joining me on newts World. I encourage our listeners who are interested in documentary filmmaking to apply for your new incubator program, which helps fund, mentor and empower the next generation of documentary films. Anyone who's insted, I want to remind you you can apply at Palladium Pictures dot com slash Incubator and we'll have that on our show page. The deadline to apply is December first. And thank you both very much for joining.

Thanks for having thank you, thank you very much.

Thanks for having thank you, thank you very much.

Thank you. To my guest Michael and Thomas pat you can get a link to apply to their new documentary filmmaking mentorship program on our show page at newtsworld dot com. Newsworld is produced by Gingrish three sixty and iHeartMedia. Our executive producer is Guernsey Sloan. Our researcher is Rachel Peterson. You art work for the show Who's created by Steve Penley. Special thanks to the team at Gingrish three sixty. If you've been enjoying Newtsworld, I hope you'll go to Apple Podcast and both rate us with five stars and give us a review so others can learn what it's all about. Right now listeners of Newtsworld consigner for my three free we columns at gingrichwe sixty dot com slash newsletter. I'm nute Gingrich. This is nuts World,

Thank you. To my guest Michael and Thomas pat you can get a link to apply to their new documentary filmmaking mentorship program on our show page at newtsworld dot com. Newsworld is produced by Gingrish three sixty and iHeartMedia. Our executive producer is Guernsey Sloan. Our researcher is Rachel Peterson. You art work for the show Who's created by Steve Penley. Special thanks to the team at Gingrish three sixty. If you've been enjoying Newtsworld, I hope you'll go to Apple Podcast and both rate us with five stars and give us a review so others can learn what it's all about. Right now listeners of Newtsworld consigner for my three free we columns at gingrichwe sixty dot com slash newsletter. I'm nute Gingrich. This is nuts World,