Mike Rowe Talks To Tucker Carlson, And It’s All Kinds Of Awesome

Two of my favorite personalities in one news segment? Yes please!

The two discussed a variety of things, from flag burning to the value of trade schools versus a liberal college education.

“What are the attitudes that prevent young people from finding success and happiness?” Carlson asked.

Rowe was on it. Recapping doesn’t do his answer justice.

I think that’s such an existential, sociological, heavy thing. And I’m glad you asked. I’m not an expert.

 

But I think it’s this idea that there’s a “dream job” out there. We’re told from the very beginning that if you want to be happy then you have to be doing the thing that will make you happy. And so we embark on this quest for happiness that has everything to with attaining that which we’ve previously determined will cause bliss, right? It’s sort of like looking for your soul mate as opposed to trying to find happiness in your zip code. We just make it so hard.

 

So if you decide really really early if only way make me happy to be on “American Idol” than you’ll stand in line, audition and maybe it will be disappointing when one of the judges tells you at 20 years of age for the first time in your life: “No, you can’t do this.”

 

And so, there is just a disconnect. You know, the opportunities that exist today and the big lesson that I learned on ‘Dirty Jobs,’ and in other places was that if you chase the opportunities that are there and then figure out a way to be good at them, and then figure out a way to love them, you’ll be amazed at how stuff lines up…

Meaningful work is very different than drudgery. One of the things that continually surprised people with the kind of shows I do, is that we try and find people who aren’t doing jobs that are traditionally aspirational, but who have nevertheless prospered and found real contentment doing it. That was the real thing about ‘Dirty Jobs’ and ‘somebody has got to do it’ that freaked viewers out again and again over and over.

 

It wasn’t the fact that the jobs existed or the people were doing them. It was how much fun people were having and how much meaning and how much joy was being extracted from stuff that we have been trained to believe was some sort of vocational consolation prize. It is a big disconnect and kind of a pernicious lie. And bit by bit, we try to chip away at it…

 

I think it is always unhealthy to suggest that heads is more interesting than tails. Blue collar is more interesting than white collar. All these things –people talk about the skills gap like it is a great mystery. And personally I think it is a question of rewarding the behavior that we have been rewarding. So, we want something better for our kids than what we have, but we don’t really know what better means.

You can watch the entire interview below.

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