The Glenn Beck Program Best of the Program | Guests: Nick Shirley & Jack Carr | 5/8/26
May 8, 2026
Jack Carr, former Navy SEAL and bestselling thriller author, offers military analysis and how recent withdrawals reshape global deterrence. Nick Shirley, independent investigator, recounts on-the-ground reporting from Cuba and exposes crumbling infrastructure and repression. They discuss surveillance, geopolitical consequences, shifting perceptions of American resolve, and firsthand scenes from a nation in decline.
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Rogue Reporting In Cuba Exposed Decay And Surveillance
- Nick Shirley traveled to Cuba without a government guide and documented crumbling buildings, power outages and widespread hunger he says left people depressed and without hope.
- He reports being followed, confined to his hotel and watched by a two-star general when he tried to leave early.
Protests Wouldn't Survive Under Cuban Communism
- Nick Shirley warns that protesters in the U.S. advocating socialism wouldn't be able to protest under a Cuban-style communist regime because freedom of speech is suppressed.
- He contrasts cheerful Latino communities he lived among with the hopelessness he saw in Cuba's youth and shuttered universities.
Fiction Rooted In A Failed Afghanistan Exfiltration
- Jack Carr describes a fictional operation where Chris Walker and a partner try to exfiltrate an asset during the Afghanistan withdrawal and the partner is killed.
- Carr ties this plotline to the real-world chaos of the August 2021 withdrawal that he and others found painful and avoidable.
