Hour 3 - Clay Meets the Pope

The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show

iHeartPodcasts

Politics, News, Society & Culture, News Commentary, Daily News

4.5 • 11.4K Ratings

🗓️ 24 November 2025

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Hour 3 of The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show dives into a wide range of topics blending politics, culture, and lifestyle. The hour opens with Thanksgiving travel tips and personal holiday plans, encouraging listeners to subscribe to the podcast for on-the-road listening. Clay shares an exclusive story about his private Vatican tour, meeting the Pope, and exploring historical maps from the Age of Exploration, while Buck reveals his family’s genealogical ties to John Speed, Queen Elizabeth I’s chief cartographer. The conversation shifts to reflections on ancient Rome, the Coliseum’s role in sports history, and critiques of Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations as “philosophy lite,” even noting Bill Clinton’s admiration for the text. Clay contrasts America’s youth with Europe’s deep history, citing experiences in Italy, Greece, and Israel, and thanks ambassadors appointed by the Trump administration for facilitating his trip. Political analysis takes center stage with discussion of Marjorie Taylor Greene’s decision to leave Congress, framed as part of a troubling trend where “crazy” behavior is rewarded in media. The hosts critique social media’s lack of accountability and ego-driven infighting on the right, warning that attention-seeking undermines conservative principles. They praise President Donald Trump for his decisive strike on Iran, arguing it brought stability to the Middle East without American casualties and strengthened the Abraham Accords. Buck promotes his upcoming book Manufacturing Delusion, exploring how political madness is weaponized, while both hosts lament the fragmentation of conservative media in the podcast era. Economic frustration surfaces as Clay predicts the 2026 election will hinge on affordability, sharing a personal anecdote about rising costs. Lifestyle segments include holiday travel stress, flight delay strategies, and etiquette tips—such as saying “please” and “thank you,” dressing appropriately, and avoiding seat reclining in cramped coach cabins. The hosts debate travel attire, share humorous takes on airline behavior, and call out “chair terrorists” and passengers who play devices on speaker without headphones. Southwest Airlines earns praise for its seating flexibility. The hour closes with a lighthearted look at President Trump’s entertainment preferences, including his push for more buddy cop movies like Rush Hour and his love for 1980s and 1990s action classics. Trump’s favorite film, Bloodsport starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, gets special mention, along with anecdotes about fast-forwarding to fight scenes—a habit the hosts admit they share. Listener emails and talkbacks add personal flavor, referencing Trump’s resilience and cultural impact.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is an I-Heart podcast.
0:02.6	Guaranteed Human.
0:05.1	Welcome in our number three, Clay Travis, Buck, Sexton's show.
0:10.3	Appreciate all of you hanging out with us as we are rolling through the Monday edition of the program.
0:15.1	Just so you know, we will be with you Tuesday of this week and Wednesday of this week.
0:55.7	If you're going to be on the road, as I know a lot of you are, for Thanksgiving, including you're staying at home this year, right? Buck, you're with the little guy, like, just chilling. Oh, go to New York. Oh, that's going to be in New York. You're going to be home for Christmas. Going to be on the road. Buck will be up in Momdani Land for Thanksgiving. I will be on the road. I'll be down in Florida. But we will be with you Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, just in case you're going to be out on the road. I know a lot of you are going to be driving around. Good time to sign up for the podcast. Just you tomorrow. Just you tomorrow. Clay might lead everyone in the rosary before his beatification as St. Clay, which could come any moment now. Have you toured
1:04.0	the Vatican before? Have you taken like that? Yeah, I'm just going to say it. It's going to sound
1:09.1	a little frou-frou, but my eighth grade class trip was to Italy. So there you go. Oh, wow. Well, I had never been to Italy until a couple of years ago. I was out last week, super secret move, got to go set up a meeting with the Pope, got to hang out with the Embath. It was an awesome trip. We got to tour the Vatican buck after hours. And so we were the only people in the
1:31.5	Sistine Chapel, which if you, I've been before, there's usually hundreds of people. And we got a
1:38.6	special tour going through the Vatican. It was, it was awesome. The number of, so, maps that they have in the Vatican, you know, one of the things that
1:49.7	the Vatican used to be so powerful for, for those of you out there that are history nerds like
1:54.5	both Buck and myself are, if you study history, one of the things that was the most valuable
2:00.6	back in the day was accurate maps, particularly of the things that was the most valuable back in the day was accurate
2:03.1	maps, particularly of the new world.
2:05.9	And that was considered to be basically the state secrets of the era.
2:10.8	How do you get to the Spice Islands?
2:13.3	I love that whole area, that whole era, the age of exploration.
2:18.5	We got to go tour and see a bunch of maps, Buck, that were made almost immediately upon Columbus's discovery of America
2:28.5	and being able to look at those maps that were drafted in the 1490s that they kept in the Vatican
2:35.2	or that the Vatican eventually ended up in control of.
2:39.4	Think about how valuable that asset was.
2:42.1	The maps of the world in many ways were the most valuable intelligence of that era.
	...

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