Foster Care, Broken Homes, and America's Crisis of Meaning | Rob Henderson
Hold These Truths with Dan Crenshaw
Dan Crenshaw
4.6 • 16K Ratings
🗓️ 11 December 2025
⏱️ 69 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Manhattan Institute's Rob Henderson shares his extraordinary journey from the chaos of the foster care system to becoming one of the leading voices on human nature, social class, and culture. He joined Rep. Crenshaw to break down the roots of America's growing crisis of meaning—especially among young men—and explore why childhood instability, not poverty, drives so many social outcomes. They dig into the failures of the foster system, the erosion of family structure, the search for purpose, and how discipline, responsibility, and strong values can rebuild the foundation of American society.
Rob Henderson is the best-selling author of "Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class." He is a Senior Fellow at Manhattan Institute. Find him on X at @robkhenderson.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | We hold these truths to be self-evident. That all men are created. As a member of Congress, I get to have a lot of really interesting people in the office. Experts on what they're talking about. This is the podcast for insights into the issues. China, bioterrorism, Medicare for all, in-depth discussions. Breaking it down into simple terms. We hold. We hold these truths. We hold these truths. With Dan Crenshaw. |
| 0:22.2 | The angle has landed. Welcome back to hold these truths, everyone. We're here with Rob |
| 0:27.7 | Henderson. Rob, welcome. Thank you, Congressman. Great to be here. Thanks for being on. So your life |
| 0:31.5 | story is pretty extraordinary. Rob grew up in chaos and instability, moved through foster homes across California, |
| 0:40.2 | enlisted in the Air Force as a teenager, and through sheer determination, earned his way to Yale |
| 0:45.9 | and later a Ph.D. at Cambridge. God, overachievers. His is a story of success. It's really just a foundationally American. So glad to have you on. |
| 0:58.9 | We've written a book that we're going to talk about. And I think that's what's interesting is what |
| 1:03.7 | you've done with that experience. Become a really insightful voice in America on class, culture, |
| 1:09.2 | the crisis of meaning facing young men. This is a really |
| 1:12.7 | popular topic these days. So I'd love to hear your thoughts on that. Thoughts on manhood, |
| 1:18.0 | responsibility, dangers of a society that no longer believes in truth, like some |
| 1:24.4 | basic truth. So troubled. It's I'll say a little bit about it, and I'll leave it to you. |
| 1:31.8 | It's a memoir. I guess I think we probably got this from your publisher. But it's a raw, |
| 1:37.7 | unfiltered memoir about growing up in the chaos of foster care and fighting his way towards |
| 1:42.0 | stability. It's not a victim story. It's a story about |
| 1:44.9 | duty, discipline and the cost, psychological and personal, of climbing the American ladder. |
| 1:50.0 | So we're going to cover it all today. I can't wait to hear about it. |
| 1:57.6 | So where should we begin? I mean, where does your book begin? |
| 2:01.7 | Does it begin in this foster care system? |
| 2:04.2 | I mean, I have a lot of questions about that. |
| 2:05.7 | Yeah, so one thing, Congressman, that I wanted to do with this book because the early |
| 2:10.3 | portions of my life are often difficult to read, and I got this feedback from early readers |
... |
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