Welcome to the Eric Metaxis show with your host, Eric Metaxus.

Hey there, folks.

This is the Eric Mataxis show.

It's officially named that.

We got it because nobody took the name. I happen to be also named Eric Mataxis. And I get to interview people about everything, so we call it the show about everything. As you know, I love history. And today I get to talk to the author of a book called The President and the Freedom Fighter, Abraham Lincoln, Frederick, Douglas, and their Battle of Save America's soul. And the author of the book is someone you may know named Brian Kilmead. Brian, you look very familiar. Eric, thanks a word for your support over the years. Every time I have a book out, you always say come down to this cathedral. And this place is the nicest studio I've ever seen, period. Thank you very much. Look, this, I think I told you this. And by the way, people, if you're just tuning in, this guy has been on Fox and Friends for how many years now? 25.

Well, hold on a second. Did you just say 25? Yeah, I started filling it in 96. You were in junior high school? I thought so. Yeah, it was crazy.

You're playing Pop Warner football and they grabbed you?

It took me 12 years to get to Fox. And then once I got there, I realized how great it was, even though no one had heard of it yet.

So when it started, I started filling in as a sports guy, and then it evolved.

And things started going crazy from the war war from the election mess to the war

on terror to the Iraq war. You mean the first election mess? Faye, yeah, 2000. Chad, hanging chads. Yes.

So you are the youngest living institution in the country. That's pretty, seriously, that's amazing 25 years from

the beginning. Yeah, I mean, I knew when I walked into that place who was going to be special. They were all about winning. They were all about substance. They were all about getting things done, completion oriented. Every time there would be a negative story out, they would put their headline on the wall. I'm like, wow, they're not running for negative stories. They would laugh at being laughed at.

I go, these guys, this is like Bill Parcells and the Giants before they were even 500.

Gosh. Until recently, I'm talking about the Bill Parcells, guys.

I honestly cannot believe 25 years. Good for you. Well, okay, but you've been writing books,

and the new one is about Lincoln and Frederick Douglas, the president and the freedom fighter.

I always want to ask people, where did you get the idea to write a book about Lincoln and Frederick Douglas?

I mean, I know they knew each other, but talk about the idea behind this.

Well, number one, I wanted to move up in time, And just so you know, I never intended to do this. I did the games do count because I wanted to be a great athlete and I wasn't. I thought I wasted my time. I go, I can't believe I played from 5 to 22. I ended up an average Division 2 soccer player. And I wanted to be great. And I go, I'm embarrassed. I walked off the field in the mud in an innocuous game at Pace University, and I played for Long Island University, and I said, what a waste of time that was. And then I started on TV and radio. And I just said, okay, I'm going to think about it. All my friends became all-Americans. I didn't. One division one player, the decade into the big

east, runner up to Patrick Ewing. He was a soccer goalie. So all my friends were captains,

and I just felt I felt like the ultimate loser because I poured just as much energy in,

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