Will There Be a Nuclear War in Our Lifetime?

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:00]I thought, "Wow, these people are about to die, and they have no idea." That bothered you that much, huh? And I just wrote in my journal, "Why do people kill each other? Why is there war?"

[00:00:09]>> You've memorized the names of 2,300 plus Americans killed in Afghanistan. The Afghanistan names took 10 months to memorize. I hope there's no boots on the ground. I hope it's resolved. I want people to understand the cost of war. He was communicating and he said, "3 minutes out."

[00:00:27]And then, this is, you know, I didn't experience death in the same way you did in your deployment. I experienced death in a very sanitized way on a television screen.

[00:00:39]But even at that, I thought, "Wow, these people are about to die, and they have no [snorts] idea. That person who just walked out of the house to go to the bathroom or whatever, just saved his life, and he has no clue. That car that just pulled up and they went in, they're about to die."

[00:00:57]And then I heard, "2 minutes out."

[00:01:00]And as a guy who just gave PowerPoint briefings, I'm like, "Whoa."

[00:01:05]"60 seconds out."

[00:01:07]And then, boom, and you see these people running, and you see the they'll be chased by, I guess, a helicopter or some type of and they're sh- they're shooting at them, and then you see them fall.

[00:01:21]And I just went back to my room that night, and I just wrote in my journal, "Why do people kill each other? Why is there war?

[00:01:30]Why is this happening? I understand if we don't kill the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, they're going to kill us.

[00:01:36]But why? Why? Why? And it bothered me so much, and that bother in my heart for any death, not just the United States military. And I and I get and I get the people who are listening, they're going to say, "It's just It's a person, you know?" And but I understand there's some bad people, too.

[00:02:00]But those questions and all these stories that I just mentioned is what led up to me wanting to do the Afghanistan war. To focus on the death of war.

[00:02:13]Uh so my military career really led to to the tribute I do today.

[00:02:20]Right on. Right on.

[00:02:23]That bothered you that much, huh? And that's >> Well, it didn't bother me in a PTSD way, right? I don't you know, not a >> picking that up. No, there's not.

[00:02:31]Nothing. It wasn't >> First time you've seen real death. It was our guys killing bad guys, correct?

[00:02:39]>> Correct. Yeah.

[00:02:40]It bothered me in the sense it was, you know, it wasn't traumatic, right? It wasn't traumatic. It wasn't necessarily something that I even lost sleep over other than it but I did it did start getting that philosophical question in my brain. Why is there war? Why must people kill? Goes back to you know, it's the it's a story as old as time, you know, Cain and Abel, right? It's not you know, Harry uh Billy Joel, We Didn't Start the Fire. I realized this didn't just start with us, you know, it's the world's been burning How's the song go? The world's been burning since world's been turning.

[00:03:13]But um yeah, it's I think that those moments is what made me want to focus later on the Afghanistan war.

[00:03:23]Got you. Got you. Makes sense. You familiar with Polymarket?

[00:03:28]Yeah, I am. All right.

[00:03:30]This is about war. So >> Here's the question. Polymarket gives only a 5% chance that the Iranian regime falls by June 30th. You deployed to Kabul as an intelligence specialist.

[00:03:44]You've seen these con what these conflicts actually cost. When you look at what's happening in the in Iran right now, what is your gut tell you?

[00:03:54]Will we be will the regime fall by June 30th?

[00:04:00]I cannot My honest answer is I don't know.

[00:04:06]But I do have an opinion.

[00:04:08]I don't have a an answer on the time frame.

[00:04:11]But I do have an opinion.

[00:04:24]It is my sincere hope that there are no boots on the ground and that that there are no names to learn. There are already some names to learn. Yep.

[00:04:34]You know, I have no idea how it's going to turn out. I have zero idea and I have no educated guess.

[00:04:42]Um with the my only other thought on this is and I don't even know you you've done you've talked to so many people Sarah Adams and Joe Kent and you've talked to so many people who know so much about the background of this war.

[00:05:00]And I don't necessarily know that.

[00:05:04]But if it's true and I don't know if it's true that we don't want them to get nuclear weapons which seems to be the thrust of the idea, right?

[00:05:14]I'm not a fan of war and I'm not even saying we should have done this cuz I'm saying I'm just hoping for the best right now.

[00:05:22]I will say this though. I do fear a nuclear war.

[00:05:27]If you if you say there's only a 0.2% chance of of a nuclear war every year.

[00:05:33]0.2% Every year there's a 99.8% chance of no nuclear war. No nuclear be it. Okay, I can live with that.

[00:05:43]Well, what happens with percentages is over a hundred years that 2% becomes an 18% chance that it has happened within a hundred years.

[00:05:57]If it's just a 1% chance every year that that there is a nuclear war, 99% chance there's not after a hundred years it's a 63% chance that it will have happened.

[00:06:12]I'm not going to be alive in a hundred years.

[00:06:16]But there are people who are being born today that if there's a 1% chance there's a 63% chance in their lifetime.

[00:06:24]>> [gasps] >> On the war in Iran I hope there's no boots on the ground. I hope it's resolved. I'm not a a fan of anything that's going on really.

[00:06:36]And I don't know all the reasons why other than I just don't like it. Yeah.

[00:06:40]But I hope I also see the point of view of nuclear proliferation is a scary thing.

[00:06:49]You've memorized the names of 2300 plus Americans killed in Afghanistan. You built that wall so people will understand the scope of the sacrifice before we go to war again.

[00:07:00]What does it mean to you that we're now in a conflict with Iran?

[00:07:04]I don't like it. I don't like it.

[00:07:06]You know, when I said at I recited the names and I was I was emotional when I finished saying the names, you know?

[00:07:15]And what I said at the end of that, I said it is my hope that humans evolve to the point one day that we can solve our differences with words instead of war. I just hope I just hope that the people who are in our government, the officials, the politicians that they are so cautious before they send men and women wearing the cloth of our nation into harm's way.

[00:07:37]And also they consider the cost on the other side and the overall cost of war.

[00:07:42]the cost of war is is the the names that I said today, Master Sergeant Evander Andrews, that was 25 years ago that we lost him, October of 2001. But today, his family's it's not 25 years ago for him. I met his daughters at a NASCAR race. For them, it's it's every day.

[00:08:00]And and I I'm not I'm not a fan of the Iran war.

[00:08:06]Yeah.

[00:08:07]If this escalates and Americans start dying in a war with Iran, which they already have, will you memorize those names, too?

[00:08:17]Maybe, but probably not.

[00:08:20]Um the Afghanistan names uh it took 10 months to memorize rank, first name, last name.

[00:08:31]Today, on your show was the first time I ever finished it.

[00:08:36]No kidding. This was it. This was the first time. Wow. So, I would um I started when I started memorizing them in 2012, there was 1,853.

[00:08:51][ __ ] As I was memorizing it, during that time, we lost 600 more. It was impossible to to finish it because I couldn't. I would set the wall up, I would do it, and but more more were dying.

[00:09:04]And I had some personal events in my life where I haven't done the wall in 4 or 5 years.

[00:09:10]It's never been complete.

[00:09:12]So, I just in the last 2 weeks got the last name, HM3 Maxton Soviak, memorized.

[00:09:20]Um I think what I would like to do eventually is get to where I know the months that everybody died, like this was this was September 2011 or something like that. So, I think there's a little bit more I want to do with the Afghanistan wall.

[00:09:35]But um it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it takes so much time. I would love to do Iraq, but there's 4,500 there.

[00:09:44]The Vietnam Wall is 59,000.

[00:09:46]I think Afghanistan is my tribute. I think that's where I focus my time.

[00:09:51]Roger that. Would congratulations, man.

[00:09:55]What a [ __ ] time to do it, huh?

[00:09:57]Memorial Day 2026. And and I finished it on your show.

[00:10:02]And I also thought the timing was so great cuz we are in this conflict with Iran. And when I when I say those names when I write out the wall I've done it over 30 times. NASCAR races, Major League Baseball games, and and and and and Fox News, whatever. Every time I've done it, people will walk by the wall, they'll look at it and they'll say, "What is this?"

[00:10:29]And we'll cuz they can tell it's something military. It looks like the Vietnam Wall.

[00:10:33]And we'll tell them.

[00:10:35]Every single time, somebody will say "Uh is is this name on the wall? Is is that name on the wall?" And I'll show them.

[00:10:44]>> [snorts] >> But the reason I share that story is you mentioned um I finished it today.

[00:10:50]The people would say when I was memorizing, I had a friend of mine. She said, "Why don't you just say the names?" Which I did today and it was it was very fitting, right? I loved it. I would got very emotional. I've never I've never had tears. I've never had tears. I've done this 35 times. I had tears today.

[00:11:10]Cuz it was emotional. Cuz it was complete. The greatest It's most I shouldn't say greatest. I don't want to use the word greatest. The most significant memory project of my life is complete today.

[00:11:21]And when I got to that final 13 names, the tears were just going down my eyes.

[00:11:25]I I I I couldn't believe it.

[00:11:28]But when I was training for this, somebody said "Ron, we we Why don't you just read them? That way you don't have to write them. You got cuz Jeffrey, you got to spell it You can spell it j e f f r e y, j e f f e r y, j e o f f r j e f f r i e, g o f f r i e, j g o f f That's just Jeffrey." So spelling it is so much difficult. And then my friend said, "Why don't you just say them? You don't have to worry about spelling."

[00:11:55]And I said, "No."

[00:11:57]I want Today was powerful. Today was powerful.

[00:12:00]But I wanted people to look at it and walk by that wall and say, "Wow, I didn't know it was this many."

[00:12:09]I want them to understand.

[00:12:11]And I think today that was accomplished just by saying the names. But it's my hope that maybe a politician heard it.

[00:12:18]And for 2 hours that politician realized, "Wow, that guy just talked for 2 hours.

[00:12:25]And he said everybody that we lost.

[00:12:29]That's not including necessarily all the civilians. That's not including everybody in Iraq.

[00:12:36]And that's what I want. I want people to understand the cost of war.

[00:12:39]Good for you, man.

[00:12:41]Good for you.

[00:12:44]That's a hell of a statement.

[00:12:48]All right. So let's move back to your service. So you were going to do You were going to do the the the memory championships while you were in, correct?

[00:12:57]Yeah. Well, what happened to that?

[00:12:59]>> some good research there. Maybe you guys are in military intelligence. Oh, jeez.

[00:13:03]Don't spread that rumor. Everybody already thinks that.

[00:13:06]>> Oh, that's [laughter] right. That's right. Okay. All right. Yeah.

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