493: JD Vance—Communion
7/7/20261 hr 10 min
Vice President JD Vance joins Mike for a wide-ranging conversation about faith, family, and the future of America. From the dignity of work and the lessons he learned in the Marine Corps to his return to Christianity and the deeply personal journey that inspired his new book, Communion, Vance reflects on the people and experiences that shaped him. He also explains why America's energy future may determine whether we can keep pace with China in the decades ahead.
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsMike Rowe· Host0:00
[upbeat music] Hello, friends, it's Mike Rowe. This is The Way I Heard It. Today's guest, uh, is the Vice President of the United States, J.D. Vance.
Chuck Klausmeyer· Host0:11
Yeah, the Vice President of the United States. I mean, the sitting Vice President of the United States. He holds the office right now. That's crazy to me.
Mike Rowe· Host0:20
You know what's crazy? He showed up with 100 of his closest friends.
Chuck Klausmeyer· Host0:23
[laughs] Let me tell you, man, I had a week.
Mike Rowe· Host0:25
[laughs] I know.
Chuck Klausmeyer· Host0:26
I had a week preparing for this. I got a pocket full of challenge coins and, you know, shook a ton of hands.
Mike Rowe· Host0:32
Obviously, there's gonna be, uh, security, there's gonna be Secret Service, there's an advance team, there's a communications team, alternative forms of communications need to be set up in case something should happen that would requires immediate attention and so forth and so on. But what an enjoyable conversation for me.
Chuck Klausmeyer· Host0:53
Super nice guy.
Mike Rowe· Host0:54
Yeah.
Chuck Klausmeyer· Host0:54
Super nice guy.
Mike Rowe· Host0:55
Uh-huh. He's written a book called Communion, uh, which I'm nearly finished, which is really good. It's a very personal book about his, uh, faith journey and how he lost it, and then how he got it back. And it's not a political book by any stretch, and the conversation you're about to hear is not a political conversation by any stretch. I'm pretty sure I'll get some grief- [laughs] Probably ... here and there. Of course, I don't care about that. In fact, we had a really... I think my favorite exchange, he