Project Panama: Inside AI’s secretive race to consume the world’s books

0:00So I was listening to this lecture a couple of days ago and the person is speaking about how books were saved over the years or how the literature was retained or preserved, I guess, is a better word preserved. And essentially what it boils down to is we have the classics that we have today, the classics from antiquity, the classics from Plato and Aristotle and the Roman classics. Such as Virgil and Ovid or some say of it.

1:05Ascentech, Marcus Aurelius, Sysroup, that, Livy, go down the list. We have access to these materials essentially because of translators or transcribers perhaps might be a better word because of monks and monasteries who preserved language, they preserved literature. They understood the value of it and they copied it every single book out by hand and this is why we have what we have today is because of there wasn't a copy machine, there wasn't a printing press. It was monks in a room hand copying, transcribing as a word text and this is why we have what we have. And when you think about that, when you think about the fact that we can read Livy and Virgil and Plato and Aristotle because someone took the time to copy it out by hand to me is just, I don't know, it's mind blowing.

2:17And I'm grateful, obviously, we're grateful for these individuals who took the time to preserve knowledge. They took the time to preserve antiquity. The Dead Sea Scrolls, we find these scrolls in a cave, I say we some shepherd boy, find them in the cave, but we have access to them. Because somebody hand copied them how and continued to hand copy them people continued to hand copy the Old Testament and other ancient writings and because of that because somebody took the time because somebody believed enough in the written word. And they took the time to copy it out for other future generations to absorb to take in this is the preservation of Western civilization, the preservation of antiquity, the preservation of Greco Roman classics, classical history.

3:35And it's, it's a beautiful thing. And well, I don't know that we, we understand it anymore. I say, understand it anymore. I don't know that we can, I guess, a better way to say it is, I don't know that we can comprehend the magnitude of such a project that we can comprehend what it would take. I mean, think of it right now, just pick a favorite book, pick a tone, the count of Monte Cristo, take me four and a half months to read that bad boy. Can you imagine copying that out by hand word for word every single day? I mean, it took me four and a half months to read it. I wonder how long it would take me to write. But what's the, I mean, so much probably calculated the numbers. I mean, you can essentially read 100 words in a minute if you're, you know, if you're reading at a normal pace. How long does it take you to write 100 words? Probably longer than a minute. It's going to take me longer than four and a half months to copy out the count of Monte Cristo for doing it by hand. Now, of course, we have a copy machine.

4:48And we have scanners and we can take full advantage of the technology we have. As a matter of fact, we've talked about the story here that there are some, some AI companies, Allah and Thropic, that are taking advantage of copy machines and scanners. Chopping off the bindings of books, scanning them into their system and then destroying the books. We've, we've talked about this and the more it comes to light, I think the more, I don't know, the more disturbing it is, I think the more we need to continue talking about it. There's this piece in the epoch times that got me thinking more and more about it and they interview this, this individual, his name is Charlie Becker and he owns a bookstore in Houston.

5:54And he's watching this stuff unfold from, from the perspective of a bookseller who was, who was getting all these orders. And it's his perspective is interesting. It's different from ours because, well, I mean, you might be a book collector, but you don't have a warehouse or a store full of books. You're selling, I don't know, maybe you do, I don't know. But he, he notes that for generations, booksellers have worked to preserve humanities writings for generations, not only booksellers, but the monks in the Middle Ages basically are the, are the gatekeepers of western civilization, the gatekeepers of humanities writings.

6:55And now here we are, 2026. And we've come across this practice that's been dubbed AI Bookshredding, came to public awareness last year after court documents revealed that anthropic has purchased millions of printed books, removed their bindings, scanned each page into digital data sets. And then just discarded the originals, we're done with them, we don't need them anymore, we're just going to dispose of them. I think that's, I don't think we're as upset about them chopping off the bindings and then scanning the books into their, into their digital data sets. I mean, that, that's not upsetting. I think what's upsetting us is that they threw out the originals, they didn't rebind them, they didn't beautifully rebind them, they could have, they could have taken the time to beautifully rebind them and then donate them to a library or donate them to, I don't know, to schools, maybe perhaps.

8:05Instead, they just pitched them. I think that's what's so upsetting to us. This whole project was revealed as part of an ongoing expansion of anthropic central library, they called it, which has one aim. The aim is to collect all the books in the world and retain them forever. They called this project Panama. I wonder why Panama, anyone know why Panama, well, they said that they needed to have a name that, that wouldn't raise red flags that wouldn't cause people to go, why are you just, you know, chopping up the biting of books and destroying them. So project Panama was very much, I don't know, benign name generic name, but still why, why Panama, why would you choose Panama? This same court document notes that Tom Turvy, who is the former head of partnerships for Google's own book scanning project, was hired by anthropic to acquire the materials for the project.

9:15Turvy's team emailed major book distributors and retailers about bulk purchasing their print copies, Franthropic's research library. Court filings from the Bart's V andthropic lawsuit, which was unsealed last January, named retailers such as Better World Books and World of Books as vendors from which anthropic acquired thousands of books. Sourcing books is a widely used approach for training large language models across the AI industry. This is an anthropic spokesman. None of our data acquisition programs buy and destroy rare or antiquarian books, although a federal judge ruled that the destructive scanning of legally purchased books qualified as transformative fair use. Or the alteration of an original work for a new purpose. Practice is sparking concern among book dealers who say systematically shredding books means losing not only words, but also cultural artifacts.

10:31So here's what we have in this epoch times piece they they speak to a woman named Susan. Beanie Ben B N N E Susan is the executive director of the antiquarian booksellers association of America. Did you know there was an antiquarian booksellers association of America. I did not know that. But I love it antiquarian booksellers association of America. How do we get a hold of these guys. I mean, I guess we look them up. Here's what Susan said. What I've been hearing is alarming. People are right to raise a red flag about it. The antiquarian booksellers association has been a trusted source of rare and print books since 1949. A holy smokes. You want a rare book. I guess go to the antiquarian booksellers association.

11:33Susan said that the destruction of printed materials, even if they're not rare or antiquarian, strikes at the heart of something sentimental in most people. She's right. Just the attachment she said to maybe something you read as a child or in college. I think it's hard for a lot of us to see that kind of destruction. Which is true. So I don't know a few months ago, but this post out on Substack. And it was a picture of, I don't know, maybe the first 10 books in the Hardy Boy series. And my comment was simple. It was just that, hey, this is where my love of reading began. It was the Hardy Boy. It was Frank and Joe Hardy. From there, it just blossomed, it bloomed. I mean, it was just certain sweet to the point, but it was a shout out to the Hardy boys. And that post just kind of went many viral, at least on the Substack. So many people commented. So many people loved the post and commented because it took them down memory lane.

12:45It was the attachment of something that they read as a child. And they were like, oh, I remember Frank and Joe or I remember Kelly or I remember Biff and chat and the Jalope and, you know, just down the list. And they just started throwing out titles. It what happened at midnight and the clock and the tower just, I mean comment after comment. And then, and then I was not aware of this until my post. But people started talking about how Franklin W. Dixon, the author of the books wasn't a real person. Franklin W. Dixon was a pseudonym for the Ghost Writers who wrote the Hardy Boy series. I did not know that. I was not aware that I always thought Franklin W. Dixon was, was an actual human. And he was out there getting it done in Hardy Boyland. But alas. And then one guy says, yeah, well, you know, the original Franklin W. Dixon just lived down the road from me.

13:47You know, I don't know how true it was, but it's just fun to read these comments and all because of this attachment to a book. Something somebody read as a child. And it would, it would be difficult for me to see the Hardy boys. But you know, chop have their binding chopped off. And then would watch the, the originals just thrown into into the fire. Or into some giant shredder. I wouldn't like it. I wouldn't like it at all. Nobody wants to see that kind of destruction to something that they love. Susan here compared AI book shredding to a flood or to a museum fire or to a similar disastrous event that wipes out a repository of human knowledge and culture and she's not wrong. She's 100% right. It hits the same nerve. She said the exact same nerve.

14:50So this, this person who owns the bookstore in Houston, becker. This is really how their piece begins. Becker said that he thinks the practice of destructive book shredding, particularly when done to train AI triggers even something visceral. People even something more. You're training AI to be smart, which I get you want, you know, you want clawed or chat to be able to do what they do. And so you've got to dump the words into them. You got to scan these books. And that's what's going to create the intelligence for, for the supercomputer as it were. And I get that. I understand that. And then you have to destroy the books. That just it hits differently for many people. He said, I don't think we lose something culturally or he said, I do think we lose something culturally when certain books are deemed as commodities are expendable.

15:55However, he said it's important to clarify that not all the books being fed into the jaws of AI training were rare out of print. Okay, I mean, that's fair. I understand that. A lot of people he set are upset because they have the idea that it's all these rare books like priceless works, but people need to keep in mind a lot of times it can be stuff like an old GE refrigerator manual. I mean, okay, that's that's true. And just because something is out of print doesn't mean it's rare. What we've heard many of the books were common items. However, it's not to say people shouldn't be worried. I think we should be worried. Truly, I do. I think we should be concerned that that books or written materials at all are being ordered and then I don't know, destroyed. I mean, are we concerned about a GE refrigerator manual? No, destroy it. I mean, I destroyed every GE refrigerator manual. I won't. I mean, I kept it for a while. Then I'm like, why am I keeping this? I'm not going to refer to it.

17:05And in the garbage can it goes. All right, so that's fair, but I don't know just the thought of just I don't know just rebind it beautifully. How about we rebind it beautifully? When more, how about we take the time and then we'll drop it. You've got the money. Take the time. And let's bring beauty back into culture. Let's bring beauty back into society and rebind these books beautifully. And then donate them. They donate them to a school. Yeah, you're not going to donate the GE refrigerator manual school. You're not going to have to rebind you need to just pull the staples up or whatever. I'm not my point, right? There should be some suspicion here. I just I just I'm suspicious. I am very suspicious and there have been suspicious orders taking place. We're going to pause here because it's break time. I want to dive into the suspicion to the suspicion of it all when we come back here in just in just three minutes. Your heart is the most crucial muscle in your body. Are you doing enough to keep it strong? Introducing the wellness companies break through healthy heart formula designed by Dr. Peter McCullough now upgraded with touring. This daily supplement supports cardiovascular health and works to protect sales against oxidative stress packed with D ribos to boost heart function.

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22:05So in July 404 media report flagged the book database ISB and DB for promoting print book acquisition services that would keep buyer information confidential. ISB and DB has since changed the landing page on its website titled printed book sourcing for your AI data set needs. The website now states that the company was exploring demand and has chosen to pivot away from that direction indeed they have. When questioned about this practice or representative from ISB and DB reiterated the statement on the company's website saying the database had never purchased scanned or destroyed a book for AI training or anything else. We have never bought or sold printed books for AI training or no orders no purchases no books no nothing.

23:12But even if it had that's just one aspect of the issue non disclosure agreements can be involved when sellers are working with big buyers I mean and that's fine. It's not currently common practice to ask a seller what are you going to use this before I mean I get it I mean that's. I mean normally you think we're going to use a book to read. But the lack of available information is why becker here in this piece thinks that it's important to know what books are being scanned for AI use. And then destroyed. He said literally no one knows and that's part of the problem. Somebody who cares about our literary heritage should be in that pipeline somewhere but that's not what's happening I mean we're being told that there aren't any books of antiquity being destroyed.

24:14That's what we're being told we're being told is just a lot of g refrigerator manuals or a lot of books that aren't rare not in others there's several other additions out there. That's what we're being told but who knows I mean this was this was labeled under a secret project name project Panama so who knows really I don't know that I don't know that we're getting the full story here. I mean that they're not being transparent with it. Back in April becker noticed a sudden spike in book sales again becker owns his own use bookstore they're in Houston. And so he said in April that between double and triple orders were coming in more than his usual weekly sales double and triple. And by working in the warehouse for his family story said you kind of get a feel for what people order. So the warehouse holds about 300,000 titles and when the sales volume began picking up he started looking into the orders.

25:21That's when I went online he said and I saw a lot of people were talking about the same thing. This is crazy he said accounted I looked deeper the last 100 book orders we'd received 95 came from the same buyer for all the book orders to come in that way he said it was very very strange. Andrea Klein who operates the Ohio based store the bookseller ink also notice strange orders in recent weeks. For Andrea the bump in sales was enough to catch a eye. She also saw that whoever purchased the books wasn't the final destination here's what she told the epoch times. I could tell they were buying it for somebody else. I thought at the time they were buying it for somebody in Europe and then consolidating in order to save on shipping. Once I heard about all this AI stuff I wondered is that what it could have been.

26:22The plot thickens. Bookseller ink started in a basement in Kauga Falls in 1948 and has been passed on between generations. Klein who now runs the bookshop for used in rare volumes online. She has a smaller retailer she's very tuned in to anything out of the ordinary. Normally I'm selling one or two books to customers all over the place she said. Noting that she had the suspicion that two recent buyers might have been connected. They would order five or six nice books instead of a $10 or $20 book. They would order $100 or so worth of books and that happened maybe three or four or five times. She's also heard buzz about strange orders circulating throughout the print book community. anecdotally we heard murmurings about this two or three months ago when there was a spade of orders going around.

27:25The orders are frequently involved older or obscure books and often books published free 2022. Such books are valuable for training large language models because they're sure to be free of AI generated text. Because nowadays I guess you can't be sure that your text has not been AI generated but books before 2022 while they're actual human thought. There is an AI generation there. So how do we safeguard this? How do we safeguard civilization? On the flip side here Susan Benny highlighted some efforts to use AI more equitably when it comes to books. Companies and nonprofits such as Project Gutenberg digitized materials for preservation. By the way we love Gutenberg around here. I mean Gutenberg is I mean you can get old old stuff at Gutenberg.

28:27Benny believes that there's a big difference between digital cataloging and conservation and just taking information, revamping it and then using it in a non ethical way. And becker the bookseller in Houston also shares this point of view. Becker said I do not have a flat problem with AI I think it's a much more complex issue than something you can just before or against. The discovery of AI bookshreading however has only strengthened his resolve to use AI in the service of literature. Alongside his co founder Adam Nelson Archer becker is creating an AI powered catalog platform for free for used in rare booksellers. It's the concept of safeguarding civilization he said and I love this by the way. He is the modern day monk the modern day Tibetan priest or the modern day Franciscan friar here.

29:36Outcry over destructive book scanning was prompted has prompted some tech magnets such as Elon Musk to take similar steps toward preservation. Musk wrote on his ex account in July that he had asked the SpaceX AIT to preserve any rare books and a library and scan them the hard way. Versus just cutting off the spine. The disclosure of AI bookshreading arrives at a time when American public trust and the technology's use is plummeting. A recent Bentley University Gallup surveyed observed that an increasing number of US adults believe that AI does more harm than good. While an overwhelming 73% of Americans don't trust companies to use AI responsibly. Again, I think the issue here is why do the why do the books have to be destroyed?

30:40I mean anthropic said that they want to they want to retain these books forever they want to collect all the books in the world. Is it that they want to be the the sole provider of books. Do they want to be the new Amazon here. Do they want to come in is this is this that. Distop it did just stop it because that award I want to say dystopian but I mean that does fit in the sentence. Is it that dystopian in nature I guess we can we can say that I mean it's kind of dark. It's kind of. It's spiritual to think that anthropic is going to collect all the books in the planet and then. They're the they're the main library. I mean it feels like I don't know Fahrenheit for 51ish to me. Kind of got that feel to it.

31:43It feels like the it feels like Montagg is going to run around and just burn all the books down. Until he decides he's going to save one or two and collect them and then be on the. On the bad list here I mean it feels like anthropic is the fire department in Fahrenheit for 51. I mean it does it feels like that's what we've come to. You know you think those monks back in the day those friars those Franciscan friars back there just copying down stuff. Just this one individual by candlelight somewhere in a monkish tower. I don't know where they I don't know my monastery. I don't know but they're they're preserving literature because they understand the knowledge that it contains. And now we're we're also understanding the knowledge that it contains because we're watching.

32:47What AI can do we're watching what. What Claude can do what what chat can do because of. Because the information it has because of the books that it holds because of what it carries. So here's the real concerning thing this is this is problematic. What if let's say for example all the works of Plato are gone all the works of Aristotle are gone. And we're okay with them being gone because we can just go to chat we can go to Claude we can ask Claude well what did Aristotle say about blah blah blah blah. Who's to say that. Chats going to give us the correct information of whatever Aristotle said about blah blah blah blah. Who's to say that Claude's going to give us the correct information about what Plato said and blah blah blah blah. Who's to say that chat and Claude are going to give us the correct information when we want to know what Jesus said in the book of Luke chapter 7 verses 13 through 54.

33:57Or I just made that chapter in verses up. I don't know that there's 54 verses in chapter 7 of the book of Luke but you get my point. Now I highly doubt that that every Bible in the world will be destroyed. That effect I'm sure it won't be but it's it's dystopian in nature and it's possible that a great majority of of Bibles could be wiped out or a great majority of any text could be wiped out. I mean it would it would really cause the price of of a rare book to skyrocket. You know supplying demand and all that maybe maybe we should get into the antiquarian book business. Maybe we see a future here in the antiquarian book business. I don't know. I mean there might be somebody to be made. Here's the here's the moral of the story by books and keep them by old books and keep old books do not do not let them escape from your shelves pass them down to your children and your grandchildren right little notes in the margin right notes to your kids in the front flap of the book cover.

35:20Until them hey you're going to enjoy this book especially this line on page. Page 97 and the third paragraph matter of fact go to it now I've highlighted it you know I don't. Think of the treasure that you're passing down by just buying old books and then seeing to it that those old books get to the generations below you and I ultimately you have to hope that those generations want your old books. I mean many of them don't I go to a state sales and kids are selling their parents old books I'm like why why would you do this I don't understand. When when my dad passed away I I just went and that's what I wanted I wanted the books. I didn't take them all because my other siblings might have wanted some and we all kind of divvied it up together. It wasn't one of those situations where the kids are fighting over stuff I mean my parents weren't loaded.

36:22But they had treasures and many of those treasures were in the form of books. And that was one of my favorite things. My dad when he passed away he was living with my my oldest sister and so all of his books were there all in boxes and. His old desk and some of his things were there and she said Dean come over and just you know go through what you want and I did I went and I took a lot of books. And it got his desk and you know got a table got a little little shelf little bookshelf type thing and just. Just stuff but it was the books that I wanted and he had written some notes in him and he had written in the margins and he had just that kind of stuff is I don't know it. It is there's treasure in that there's there's treasure in and old books especially old books that have been passed down I think we need to do this I think we need to I think we need to write in books.

37:34And I think we need to pass past these books down matter of fact we've had some conversations about this on some stack recently just this past summer. We've we've explored this idea of passing down books and and making them available and to to future generations. And it's it's a conversation that I think we should we should constantly be having I don't think we should stop having because this very reason because there are companies out there that. I don't know that they have let me put it this way I don't know that they have our best interest at heart are you tired of struggling with low energy we get it that's why we created organic energy juice in just one minute you'll have clean natural energy all day and never struggle with low energy again and it tastes amazing and there's no toxic chemicals or stimulants that make you crash you shouldn't have to struggle with low energy and with organic energy juice you won't.

38:40If you're struggling with low energy then buying organic energy juice is the right decision with our double your money back guarantee there is zero risk to try it go to chemical free body dot com forward slash out loud for an exclusive discount that's chemical free body dot com forward slash out loud. I'm Doug Evans author of the sprout book I want to share something that's powerful you can grow your own food right on your kitchen countertop sprouting is an ancient method that turns ordinary seeds into living veg. Into living vegetables in just three to five days no soil no sunshine no fertilizer just seeds water for under a dollar a serving you can grow nutrient dense packed greens anywhere city apartments dorm rooms off the grid cabins in a time when food prices are rising spouting gives you control abundance in peace of mind join the self reliance revolution go to the spouting company dot com slash out loud and you know you can grow your own food and you can grow your own food and you can grow your own food and you can grow your own food and you can grow your own food in the garden. So I've talked about this before this book that I discovered at the used bookstore in my town came across this book from I don't know what's up it's a book of of very stories Hans Christian Anderson and I'm going to share this book with you.

40:05Christian Anderson and it's a it's a it's a thick book like two inches at the time and it looked brand new brand spanking new and I'm like this is this is a bind this is a gold mine pick it up open up the front cover in the front cover in beautiful cursive script is inscribed a note from grandparents to grandchildren and and the note is hey we we hope that you. You get many years usage out of this book these are you know wonderful stories that that we grew up on we want to pass them along to you. And it was you know it's it was something that a grandparent was passing along to their grandchildren and and the book looked unused it looked untattered unfettered it looked like a grandparent. It looked like it hadn't been read it looked brand spanking you and I bought it because I was wanted to preserve it I wanted to preserve the legacy and memory of these grandparents way didn't know I was bummed out that it was not still with the grandkids it lists three of them by name that the grandmother's I'm presuming it's the grandmother doing the writing it looked like female script.

41:32And she lists the three grandkids by name and I must why bought it I bought it because I thought holy smokes I want this I want this book this this needs to be this needs to be preserved and so I I thought what you know we should do this again if this if we were going to if we're going to bring something back from my grandparents generation this is something we should bring back the the giving of books as gifts with handwritten notes and scribed in them I think that should come back absolutely we should we should bring it back and we should bring it back now as a matter of fact that that reminds me I came across this piece the other day this commentary in the epoch times and the commentary is indeed entitled what would we bring back from our grandparents generation and he starts going through some things he I don't know that this is in his list he's got some good stuff in his list and this I don't know if this is in his list he he says we should bring back the dignity of work.

42:50It's true our grandparents understood that work was I mean it was more than earning money it built discipline working builds responsibility build self respect and and our grandparents did what needed to be done just because families depended upon I mean they didn't necessarily enjoy their work. I mean it's nice to enjoy your work don't get me wrong I don't think that we need to be say don't massacres and and go out and work a job that we don't enjoy but I mean today we we talk endlessly about finding ourselves and and finding ourselves in our work that that's exactly what they did our grandparents found themselves not necessarily in the work but through the responsibility of of of being there for people who depended on them and they found themselves through the service they were providing they found themselves through through keeping their word through through getting up in the morning, clacking in or you know in the afternoon clacking out and and doing he hears the statement doing an honest day is work for an honest days pay.

44:12That's what they believed in they believed in showing up they didn't our grandparents generation they didn't clock in and then go take a three hour lunch or go to lunch and and have it be where your buddies would would clock you in when the lunch hour was over and then you do that for them tomorrow. You know you you hear stories of this where you know men would would go take lunch and then they would take turns with each other clacking each other in and then clacking each other out at the end of the day but yet the person left at lunch and went to the bar went to the whatever. Not our grandparents are least not their generation I mean maybe your maybe you had grandparents that did that but the generation let's bring that idea back from the generation. We would also if we were bringing stuff back from our grandparents generation we would bring back the sacredness of family and that's true.

45:19Grandparents helped raise grandchildren. Ants uncles they all corrected their nieces and nephews Sunday dinners were classrooms in which stories values history was passed passed down from one generation to the next. Children sat next to old people and listened paid attention and just listened well I mean what if we did that today how cool would that be instead of receiving every lesson from an algorithm from the screen from that device in our pocket instead young people would hear first hand from their elders how they I don't know how they survived poverty. How they survived war how they just survived heartbreak and loss wisdom perhaps would once again have a human voice and maybe in bringing back the sacredness of family we would bring back community neighbors knew one another when someone became sick food suddenly appeared at the door.

46:39When someone died people surrounded the family. Sundays often included visiting the elderly or the sick not because a program required it but because people understood that they had obligations to one another. You know that still happens at least in my neighborhood. It does that there is I've got a neighbor who's 87 years old and neighbors and not just me but neighbors in the neighborhood stop in on her regular. I take snatch the dog down down to her and she gives snatch treats and she loves the dogs she loves snatch will go inside. You know we'll sit and talk for a little bit as long as you know snatch will allow snatch gets impatient and if treats aren't coming away then she becomes obnoxious. But we just hang out we just check on her and other of my neighbors will go down and check on her.

47:41You know because that's what happens at least in my neighborhood. I mean that is that's the community that's the community environment the community feel. You know our our neighbors the. His wife was sick for a period of time you know she had surgery and just the neighbors around just pitched in and made sure they had dinner made sure they were taking care of it. Here's the two of them we just made sure everybody was. The community is still going on. And many places even though thousands of us have have digital connections. People are still lonely and community. Community needs to exist because your Facebook friend. Isn't necessarily your community. You know we've we've mastered this communication without necessarily mastering community. We would also perhaps bring back respect for our elders today our culture worships youth and novelty above all else.

48:51And when we often assume that newer just means better. But it necessarily doesn't. Wisdom takes time and information itself is not with just something new is not necessarily wisdom. Takes time it takes mistakes it takes experiencing consequences and then reflecting. And this comes by listening to our elders it comes from hearing their stories and learning the lessons that they learned. In a society that stops listening to its elders. Well we'll we'll pay hard lessons. We'll pay a high price for those lessons that their ancestors have already learned in our willing. To pass it down. If we're paying attention. We would perhaps bring back patience and thrift. According to this piece here. Our grandparents waited.

49:51They were patient. Matter of fact they coined the phrase patient is a virtue. They would save before making a purchase. They would repair before replacing. And they would plant before harvesting. Glows were mended furniture was prepared. Food was saved. I remember going to Kmart back in the day with my mom and my grandma. And she would put something on layaway. She would buy something on layaway. She put down $10.20. And you know for whatever it was. And then they would put it. They'd give her a ticket and they put that ticket or tag the other on the product. They put the product in the back. And then every week or every month she'd go make a payment on it. And then when she had it paid for, she'd got it out of layaway. And the other day I was, we were talking about this micage. Well, what's layaway? What do you, what do you mean, pay on layaway? I mean, we don't do that anymore.

50:52We just slap it on a credit card. Payed 29% interest. What if we were paying attention to patience and thrift? Our grandparents understood something our instant culture forgets. And that is valuable things take time. And sometimes it takes some time to get to something of value. Trust takes time. Character takes time. A marriage takes time. Your reputation, your business, all of these meaningful points of life take time. And then there's a minute to get there. And our grandparents understood the difference between wanting something and needing it. Or demanding it. We live in a very demanding society. You don't become wealthy by displaying everything that you can afford. We would also perhaps bring back faith and morality.

51:56Hmm, what if we brought back faith and morality? I mean, a lot of you have it. A lot of you have these things. This list that I'm going through, you already have it. You're like, yeah, it's already back into your, I have it. What if it was prevalent in our society? For many of our grandparents, families and of that generation, faith was not confined to a building one day a week. It wasn't just a Sunday morning operation. A prayer and gratitude and accountability shaped their everyday living. It literally described who they were as human beings. Faith didn't make previous generations perfect. But it certainly gave them a moral vocabulary. Certainly gave them a moral compass as Bill Bennett coined the phrase. Duty, sacrifice, forgiveness, humility, grace, service,

52:59all of these words remain essential. In a culture increasingly organized around faith. Do we still hold those words in a steam today? And perhaps according to this piece, one of the most important things that we would bring back from our grandparents' generation is the ability to be resilient. Resiliency. I don't even know if young people know what that word is. Resiliency. Our grandparents did not assume that hardship meant that life had failed them. No, on the contrary, they expected hardship. They expected storms. They understood it was coming. They endured economic depression. They endured war. They endured illness, death, disappointment. And yet they continued to move forward.

53:59Struggle wasn't necessarily an interruption to their lives. Struggle was a part of their life. Well, struggle shouldn't be a part of our life. Everything should be easy. Everything should be smooth. Everything should be hunky-dory. Yes, I mean, we like that. We like everything to be easy and smooth and hunky-dory. But when that's what we demand and expect, and it doesn't happen, we'll be fine to ourselves in an airport, staring at adults who are carrying stuffed animals. Sometimes our grandparents turned struggles into a footstool, standing upon yesterday's difficulties to reach stromarose possibilities. What about that? We cannot, according to this piece, we cannot and should not return to the past. The past is gone. We can't go back to it. Nor should we. We should move forward. But we can look back to the past and retrieve its wisdom. And we should do that. We can and should do that.

55:03Imagine if we combine today's technology, today's medicine, today's opportunity, with yesterday's discipline and faith and patience and family bonds and community and responsibility and resilience. Well, what if all of that was combined? What would what type of superhuman would we become? Our grandparents left us more than photographs, more than furniture, more than land, more than family names, more than books, with inscriptions in them. They left us instructions. And here they are. Work hard, keep your word, save something, repair what can be repaired, visit the sick, respect your elders, sit at the table together, pray together, forgive, take care of your neighbors, teach children where they came from, and perhaps the most important.

56:05When life knocks you down and it will knock you down, don't make the ground your permanent residents. Stand up, brush yourself off, and move forward. Move forward with a smile on your face and gain the strength from the experience. That, my friends, is what our grandparents taught us. And that's what I wish we could bring back from their generation. In addition to the process of buying books, writing inscriptions in the front cover, and then giving them his gifts. All right, my friends, that's it. It's all the time we have. Thank you for joining us, as always. Encourage your friends and family to get on the Beans List.