Be anvinditos, that's California for welcome to the August 18th edition of National Reviews Radio Free California Podcast.

I'm Will Swain, president of the California Policy Center. You can find my colleagues and me at California PolicyCenter.org. There's an entire party in the studio this morning. Thank you, Brian. You can find my friend and co-host, Brian. David Bonson right here. He's an economist, the host of the Capitol Record podcast, the author of full-time, work in the meaning of life. And of course, he's founder of the eponymous investment firm, the Bonson Group. Hello, David. Hey, what episode number is this? This is episode 403. Do you think by episode 405, you won't need to read that off the sheet anymore? No read it all the time I know but how come

you don't know that part by heart like Pledge of Legion style I actually do it's a yeah

it's a it's a crutch there are things that like we habitually as humans say a lot that you can

memorize just because you do repetition or whatever that you don't say it

for like 30 years and then you will still do it yeah what's that thing for you

besides a pledge of allegiance uh some of them are kind of are kind of personal I

can tell you off air what why I'm thinking about it but um but yeah there's uh there's a

lot of things that like for all people just you know I would imagine certain things

from their school there their their alma mater you know I would imagine certain things from their school their

their their alma mater you know their fight song their whatever um and also uh like in in church liturgy and stuff

so we were uh at my church we did apostles creed every week but then once a month we do the nicene

creed and then um i've been so many different churches over years that haven't done either.

And I don't really remember last time regularly in Nicene Creed.

And then I'll go to church that I do Nicene Creed.

And I still remember it.

And it might have been 30 years.

I was, you know, in my deep in my atheism, Marxism phase, reading The Silver Chair by by, by, you know in my deep in my atheism Marxism phase reading the silver chair by by sorry Lewis

C.S. in case you're forgetting the. Oh my gosh my brain this morning. I'm so sorry this is

really embarrassing. Not enough caffeine. But reading the silver chair by C.S. Lewis, yes.

To my then, you know, brand new son. He was, well, not totally new, but... Book two in the series. Is that what it is? I believe, I believe Silver Chair comes right after Lion Witch and Wardrobe. And I'm really, still to this day, really intrigued by the simple story there about how, you know, the lion, Aslan comes to the kids. the kids and he says you're going to go on this journey and here's some things you have to remember every day. Repeat these things to yourself every day. And it only occurred to me as I'm reading that book that really what he's saying is there are prayers. There's a liturgy to every day, if you will. And those are the things that stand out in my mind, you know, being a young Catholic boy and tethered to prayer and the Gospels,

and you were taught to read and remember certain things throughout your day. And I found that as I

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