All righty, folks. So every day, I do a bit of mailbag on the show. This is the stuff that usually goes behind the paywall on the Ben Shapiro show. You have to actually be a subscriber over at DailyWirePlus.com to get your questions answer. But I want to give you a taste of that. And we'll do some more of this on the feed more regularly, where we actually answer questions from subscribers. Carlos says, Hey, Ben, I'm an avid chess player.

I was wondering if you enjoy and play the wonderful game of chess.

If so do you play online.

Also, if we were to reduce society down to pieces in chess,

who or what do you believe would be represented by the king and why?

And for fun, what piece would best represent you?

Well, I think probably the piece that would best represent me would be the bishop, ironically enough, mainly because moving in direct but diagonal pathways toward a goal is sort of my MO.

I'm not unpredictable like the knight would be.

And I also can't move in like literally any direction the way that the queen can. But if you're talking about, you know, what is represented by the king, meaning not

particularly dangerous, but the thing that is sought after, the actual goal, it is, in fact,

control over others. So you have to exercise a massive amount of control so you can have

titular control over others. That the queen is the most powerful tool in the game. That's why the government wants power over your life. But the goal is to be able to exercise the power, not even the actual exercise of the power, but the ability to exercise the power, which is what the king actually sort of represents? And it says, hey, Ben, you recently said you wouldn't and don't allow your kids on the internet as it's a a vile place. I agree with your take. My question is, at what age do you start allowing your kids to have access? Is there an age you think would be appropriate or necessary for kids to have a smartphone over a phone with no internet capabilities? Thank you for all you do. No, I don't think minors need a phone with smart phone capacity. I really believe this. I think that when they hit 17, 18 years old, once they've started to mature into actual adults, then the ability to give them more unfettered control to the Internet may become necessary, and you can sort of gradually introduce them to this. But do I think that a 16-year-old needs a smartphone? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. I think that when they go to college, like if you think of your kid as an adult, then your kid should have access to adult things. The internet is an adult thing. And even then, adults need to be very careful about the way that it poisons your mind because there are too many adults who have been perverted and destroyed by the internet. Lanin says, hey, Benton, long time listener. My question is regard to kids. As recently a new father, and as our son is continuing to grow,

both be it and my wife want to be there with him all the time. Unfortunately, we're in a position where we both have to work. This is also worrisome because I want to homeschool our kids, not sure how that would work. How have you justified? You and your wife both working and letting someone else raise your kids for several hours a day, whether that be with a babysitter or your parents. However, that works when they were younger or with a school raising and teaching them.

Well, I mean, you have to find a support network and a kinship network and a school that you actually trust. So don't just send your kid to the local school. If your community doesn't have a school that you like, you need to move communities. And this really is a serious consideration. And also understand that temporary decisions are not permanent decisions, right? My wife was going to medical school, which meant she was not home a lot. The idea was when she graduated from medical school, she would be able to essentially write her own check, make her own hours, sort of determine what she wanted her life to look like. And so it was worth the sacrifice in the now. So as the kids got older, they would see a lot more of her. And that's precisely what has happened, right? Planning is an element here. Where you live makes a huge difference. There are certain places, San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, where it's almost impossible not to have a two-salary family in order to live half decently. And then there are places in the United States where that actually isn't true, where the cost of living is actually significantly cheaper and where one person can be working, or where one person can be working full-time, the other person can be working part-time. Now, design your life around your wants and needs, and then figure out a community that actually fits those wants and needs is the way that I would express it. Mark says, hey, Ben, I heard that Washington State is trying to pass an assault rifle ban on the purchase sale and

manufacturer of semi-automatic rifles. I'd love to hear your thoughts on if this is likely to go through.

Thanks very much. Well, the Washington State Legislature right now is absolutely dominated by Democrats,

so it seems like a pretty good shot that it's going to go through, considering that you have

a Democratic governor and that your Senate is divided 2920 in favor of the Democrats

and your House is divided 5840 in favor of the Democrats. So it seems like it would be it would be a

hard thing for it not to go through. Democrats are obviously pursuing it. Nessie says,

Hey Ben, after seeing what the left did in Israel as far as protesting going on strike to shut down the country? What are your thoughts on the same thing happening here if DeSantis or more so if Trump wins in 2024? In my opinion, there's a greater chance this will happen than not happen. Well, I don't know that they actually have the capacity to shut down the country. This is the beautiful thing about a country of 340 million people. Very difficult to shut down that country. Israel is a country of 7.5 million Jews and about 2 million Arabs. And that's tiny. I mean, just in comparative terms, you don't need that many people not to go to work in order to shut down the country. Also, the number of businesses in Israel that support the workers is not that high. So all you need is a few kind of big tech bros to decide they're going to support protesters in the streets to make that happen. In the United States, not even remotely close. I mean, there are 20 million people who went in the streets for BLM, and it still didn't shut down all the businesses in the United States or anything remotely close to it. Eric says, Hey, Ben, I have a question concerning use of Narcan. Narcan has many benefits, including helping prevent accidental overdoses from people who have been exposed to fentanyl, for example. At the same time, an argument can be made that excessive use and availability enables addicts to keep using and knowing they will be brought back. As a Christian, I 100% believe in forgiveness and second chances for addicts and that treatment is the solution for most people rather than prison time. What is your position on Narcan is there a moral problem or a moral hazard caused by the use of it. Thanks and love the show.

Well, I don't know that

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