Ben Stein on The Capitalist Code, Author Todd R. Mitchell Jr., and GildaGram with Dr. Gilda Carle

Ben Stein on The Capitalist Code, Author Todd R. Mitchell Jr., and GildaGram with Dr. Gilda Carle

This edition of The Neil Haley Show opens with a Total Celebrity conversation with economist, author, and actor Ben Stein about his book The Capitalist Code: It Can Save Your Life and Make You Very Rich. Stein traced his belief in owning capital back to his father, a prominent free-market economist, and to a family shaped by the Great Depression, arguing that owning capital, not just labor, is what gives ordinary people security. His central message was refreshingly simple: most people will never beat the market by picking stocks, so the smart move is to steadily buy a low-cost S&P 500 index fund and let compounding do the work over decades. He pointed to Social Security as far too thin to rely on, even for high earners, and framed buying the index as effectively owning a microscopic share of all American business without the headaches of running one. He urged listeners to start young and put investing on autopilot, predicting the market's next move is likely down before it climbs higher, and shared that Warren Buffett, whom he called a friend, endorsed the book by saying its readers need no other guide to investing. Stein balanced the financial talk with reflections on living for today as well as tomorrow, on order and discipline as keys to happiness, and on his gratitude for America, and he previewed a coming project on sobriety drawn from his years in recovery and his losses of friends and relatives to addiction. The advice is his own; listeners should weigh it for their own situation.

Neil then welcomed author Todd R. Mitchell Jr., joined by his fiancee, to talk about his book Never Gave Up. A gifted athlete who earned a college basketball scholarship without ever playing a high school game and went on to eight years of arena football, Mitchell described how alcoholism shadowed every opportunity and closed door after door. Asked where he would be had he reached the NBA or NFL, he did not hesitate: homeless, broke, or dead, because the money would have arrived long before he reached the root of the problem. He traced a hard road through homelessness, incarceration, and car accidents, including spending his father's last twenty dollars on alcohol instead of food, and credited his turnaround to faith and to a partner who visited him every day during rehab and stood by him through relapse, understanding that recovery is a process rather than a single decision. His daughter, and the disappointment on her face one difficult day in Atlanta, became another anchor, and he spoke about the patience and grace it took his fiancee to walk beside him without giving up. Today Mitchell has finished school, earned a film production degree from Miami Dade College, and launched Born From The Ashes Mitchell Production Studios in Jacksonville. He and Neil went deep on the question every retired athlete faces, what you build once the crowd noise stops. Never Gave Up is available on Amazon, where it has been a number-one new release.

The hour closes with two GildaGram simulcasts featuring co-host Dr. Gilda Carle, author of Real Men Don't Go Woke. In the first, Carle discussed the themes of her book, which she frames as an examination of male mental health and a rising rate of suicide among men and, increasingly, boys, arguing that men are being discouraged from speaking up and expressing themselves; she illustrated the point through Will Smith and responded directly to online critics of her work. In the second, she offered her take on a viral story about a workplace romance caught on camera, using it to talk through questions of power dynamics, consent, and consequences when a relationship crosses lines of authority. Find Ben Stein's The Capitalist Code and Todd R. Mitchell Jr.'s Never Gave Up on Amazon, and Dr. Gilda Carle's Real Men Don't Go Woke wherever books are sold.