Dr. Ben Carson: The Truth About Running for President & Working With Trump!

Key Takeaway

Replace passive wishing with a written pathway. Choose one outcome you want—better grades, a home, a career change, or calmer relationships—then identify your realistic starting point, the next small step, and the support or skill you need. Dr. Ben Carson’s story emphasizes that progress is a climb, not an instant declaration: consistent reading transformed his academic future, while honest self-reflection helped him change destructive anger. Start today by taking one step instead of waiting for ideal conditions.

Episode Overview

Ed Mylett speaks with Dr. Ben Carson about Carson’s upbringing in poverty, his mother’s emphasis on reading, his path to neurosurgery, and the personal transformation that redirected his anger toward a life of service. They also discuss long-term ambition, leadership, political division, faith, parenting in an AI-driven world, and the importance of pursuing progress through disciplined, realistic steps.

Full Transcript

Transcript of Dr. Ben Carson: The Truth About Running for President & Working With Trump! from The Ed Mylett Show. Auto-generated from episode audio; may contain minor errors.

Welcome back to the show, everybody. I have to tell you, the man to my left today, first off, there's two dress codes, one for the smart person and one for the idiot, and so I'm the one in the jeans. We're both speaking at an event here today. He came appropriately dressed. I came for the podcast, so I have to tell you, there's a short list of people that I've wanted to meet in my life, because from a distance, I've had such admiration for them, and not only the things that he's accomplished, but the method in which he's conducted himself publicly is something that I admire greatly, and so he's really, he is truly one of the most remarkable people alive today in my book, and his story, there is no better story you're going to hear than the one you're going to hear today.

Let me tell you a little bit about him, ends up becoming, grows up in poverty in Detroit with a single mother, ends up becoming one of the top neurosurgeons on the planet. That wasn't enough, so then he decides he's going to run for president, and a lot of people were behind him doing that. Then he becomes the HUD secretary, and he's also got an unbelievable think tank, and his philanthropic work is unbelievable, and the IQ disparity today is going to be very obvious as we kick this thing off.

Dr. Ben Carson, thank you for being here. Well, thank you for having me. I'm delighted to be here. I want to know about your mom. I've always wanted to know about your mom. Well, she's probably the wisest person I ever met. She didn't have much in the way of education. She came from a huge family in rural Tennessee, achieved less than a third grade education, bounced around from house to house, got married at age 13, trying to escape poverty, and they moved to Detroit. Is that where you go to escape poverty at that time?

Well, actually, Detroit was kind of booming at that time, automobile capital of the world, and not long before that, Detroit had been proclaimed the most prosperous city in Detroit, I mean, in the United States. So the factory jobs were what made it that way. My father had one of those, but some years later, she discovered that he also had another family, so that resulted in a divorce. She was trying to care for my brother and myself with little in the way of education. We ended up moving to Boston to live with her older sister and brother-in-law.

Typical tenement, large multifamily dwelling, boarded up windows and doors, sirens and gangs, roaches every place. First time I saw a water rat, I thought it was a dog. It was so big. But that was the environment. Both of my older cousins, who we adored, were killed, a lot of drugs, and it was that kind of a place. And my mother worked hard because she wanted to get us out of the environment and back to Detroit. She worked as a domestic, cleaning people's houses, going from one job to the next job.

But it worked, and after a couple of years, we were able to move back to Detroit, still in a multifamily dwelling, still with plenty of wildlife. But nevertheless, she was independent at that point. And I was just the worst student you can imagine. No, you weren't. I was terrible. And in the fifth grade, we had eye exams done. And that was amazing because I didn't know that anybody could see the board. You thought everybody was like you. So once I got glasses, I had an amazing transformation.

I went from an F student to a D student. But my mother was still very unhappy because she saw the beautiful homes that she claimed, and then she saw where we lived, and she says, what is the difference? So she became a spy. And she said, you know, these people, they read a lot of books, and they don't watch much TV. So she came home one day and imposed that on me and my brother. And we were not happy campers, but we had to read. And that's where the real transformation began.

Reading. Reading. Because all of a sudden, my world went from the streets of Detroit to the streets of the world. And I began to learn so much stuff, and I got excited about learning. And if I had five minutes, I was reading a book. And within a year and a half, I went from the bottom of the class to the top of the class. And that really changed the way I thought about things. It changed the way you thought about yourself also? Definitely the way I thought about myself.

And won a scholarship to Yale at that point. I thought I was the smartest person in the world, but if not, certainly in the top five. By the end of that first semester, I was wondering what I was doing there at all. Because the way I operated at Southwestern High School in the inner city of Detroit, I could study for an hour before the test and get an A. It was not a problem. But it wasn't quite like that at Yale. Standard changes. Very, very different.

You know, the Lord got me through that. I was failing freshman chemistry. He got me through that. And I realized at that point that He really had a mission for me, and that it was in medicine. But none of that would have been possible if He hadn't had such a relationship with my mother. If the Lord and your mother didn't have such a great relationship. Right. So, education, reading. This is part of the formula. By the way, her son ends up growing up to get the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which is the highest honor you can get as a civilian on the planet.

So she did something right. Even though she got a lot of complaints from her friends. From your friends? From her friends. Okay. You can't make boys stay in the house and read books. They'll grow up and they'll hate you. And I used to overhear them, and I'd say, you know, they're right, brother. But we still had to do it. What about, so you, I'm trying to pick apart the recipe, because there's a lot of parents that listen to the show. But let me just say this.

She got the last laugh, her friends, because one son became a brain surgeon and the other became a rocket scientist. I wanted to ask about your brother. Is that what your brother, really? It is unbelievable for those circumstances to end up with both turning out like that. But it shows that this really is a land of opportunity that we live in. We just have to create the right pathway. As you might say, the right life search. The right life search. On that, one of the things, I'm going to spin all over the place with you, because I want to ask you a bunch of different things.

But you were the head of HUD, Housing and Urban Development. And one of the paths that worries me in the world today, my son's in the room here today, you met him, is the difficulty of this next generation of able to afford a home. There was a time when I was growing up that even on one income, somebody could at some point make enough money to own a family home. This is almost non-existent now. Does that worry you? Is there a path for that that could be changed?

It is worrisome. But also remember, when I was a youngster in Detroit, there were GI homes. They were 700 square feet. They had two bedrooms, one bathroom, a living room, and a kitchen eating area. All in 700 square feet. Now you tell people, you're going to live in the 700, they say, what are you talking about? It's got to be at least 2,000 square feet. So downsizing one's expectations, because what we have to remember is that it's a climb. It's not a declaration. You finish school and you get to be here.

You finish school and you get to start at the bottom and climb your way up. People want to get a bachelor's degree and they want to be executive vice president. That should be their first job. It's not like that. So that has to change. No question about it. But I think we also have to start thinking of new and different ways to do things. There are the Vietnamese boat people. When they came here, they couldn't afford houses either. What did they do? Three or four families in one house.

And then as they became gainfully employed, they would move out and then there'd only be three families. But the other ones would be making more money. And then there'd be two families and the other ones would be making more money. You envision an end point. You envision a strategy to get there. You don't just sit there and complain about what's going on. Do you feel like there's too much of that? There's way too much of it. You said something interesting. So I've been doing the show for 10 years, so probably about almost a thousand episodes.

No one's ever said, downsize your expectations before. By the way, you'll catch some flack for that, as you know. I'm wondering, I want to merge the two worlds. This woman's raising you. She ends up with two sons with this extraordinary success. Reading, standards, faith, God, all of that's part of the mixture. But what about expectations or dreams? Was that never part of the conversation? Our expectations were that we would do very well. But we knew there was a pathway to get there. It wasn't just wishing that you're going to be there and boom, you're there.

Not a magic wand. Do you mean that? I want to understand. Do you think that there's too much immediate gratification with this Instagram click world? Do we think we should have to announce everything now? That's the problem. Everybody wants everything immediately. And there is a pathway to get there, and I think this country probably is the best country in the world to do it. You'll notice that there are a lot of people who come here from disadvantaged areas, places like Cuba, and they do very well.

Why do they do so well? Because they have a plan. They have a vision. They know they have to start down here and work their way up. That's the difference. So it's not really so much downsizing your expectations as it is being realistic in the approach that gets you where you want to be. I do think about that a lot. The people that come here with no advantages, that it's their second language, and so many do find their ways. I think of all different groups of people.

Americans, our Asian friends that have immigrated here, I mean, people from every country. We should probably name countries, but I do think about that. I also think about you. I've always wanted to ask you this. I almost picture your mother with these two boys, though. What an amazing accomplishment. But I also, when you were running the first time, I didn't know who you were before. And I had heard the story about you separating the twins, and I knew this legendary story, but I didn't know that it was you.

I mean, unbelievable career as a neurosurgeon. Then you're running, and immediately you stand out. You stand out for a lot of reasons, but the main reason was, oh my gosh, this appears to be a kind man, obviously of high intellect, but he is not doing that thing where he's going to tell you everything that's wrong with everybody else. He's doing that thing where he's painting a vision for what he thinks it should look like. Let's just be real. This is a way you conduct yourself that is very different than our politics today.

Honest answer, please. Do you think there's any room for a guy like you in the political arena nowadays? You know exactly what I mean. Probably to help people think about things. Meaning, move the conversation, but not get elected. Well, I didn't really want to be elected. You what? You didn't want to be elected. No. The reason I got into it is because I was afraid of where the country was going. I was afraid we were going to go off the cliff, and I was willing to do whatever needed to be done in order to keep it from going off the cliff, but during the campaigning, Donald Trump and I became friends, and he really wanted to be president, and I really didn't.

We actually were both doing very well. I think after the first debate, you were in front of him and everybody else. Well, it was actually in August when I first hit the lead position. When that happened, were you going, oh my gosh, I'm out over my ... I don't really want to do this? Well, I told him that he was going to be president. I said, because that is something that God has ordained because of the position that our country is in right now, not because you're a wonderful person, but because you're the right kind of personality to get done what needs to be done to save this country.

God used a lot of interesting personalities in the Bible, so he knows the end from the beginning, but he always remembers that I tell him that, but philosophically, we have a lot of the same philosophies. We have very different personalities, but I still talk to him, and he really does want to save this country. Personality greats against a lot of people. Mm-hmm The most successful business owners don't do it all themselves They delegate up work lets you build a team of highly skilled specialists for every function of your business needs so you can focus on what you do best and let Experts handle the rest in a world where AI is changing every role and every industry Knowing who actually has deep expertise matters more than ever Upwork gives your business fast access to highly skilled specialists with deep expertise so you can fill critical skill gaps Launch projects faster and scale support up or down without committing to full-time headcount What I love about it is you're not making a long-term commitment, but you're getting high-quality help Upwork also cuts down on operational hassle by handling things like contracts payments all in one place So you can spend more time running the business visit up work Upwork.com right now and post your job for free.

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I Really do and I by the way, everybody watching this regardless of their politics wishes the temperament Of our country would change because I do think that what comes from the top in leadership, whatever you believe politically This is nothing to do with politics and even having you on the show. I know there's people I There's a tone and there's a culture That of how we treat one another day-to-day that I believe the leader sets that tone. My preference would be Your tone. Well, you know, what does the Bible tell you it says to love your neighbor?

Not to cancel your neighbor if they disagree with you. We've we've Changed considerably from who we used to be when we were a country that was a large community and We didn't so much as are you a Democrat or Republican and if I can talk to you, right? It was you're my neighbor You need help. Hey, I'm here that's a real problem right now because They're those who really want to divide in this country you have to divide this country It's too strong because of our faith and our families.

So if you want to overcome it with Communism Marxism, whatever you have to divide the people on the basis of race age income gender political affiliation religion, you've got to get them fighting each other and It was Lennon who said you'll never change a country like America, they're too strong unless You can get them to destroy their own future with useful idiots people who will fight against their own well-being and that of their children without thinking interesting this rise of socialism in the country Is there's a there's a backdrop to it and the one of the reasons there's a rise is that people don't see that path for Themselves whether they're right or wrong.

They don't see that path for themselves And so that's an appealing path to some people the other thing that's risen whether that's the leadership tone or just Frustration in life is anger. People are angry. It surprised me To read correct me if I'm wrong that you Struggled with like an anger thing as a young man And so if that's true, tell us about it, and then how do we change that and how did you change? Well, I would get so angry That I would become irrational Like once the fella hit me with a pebble it didn't hurt But I was angry that he would hit me But there hit me I picked up a big rock hurled at his face broke his glasses Almost put his eye up Wow, Phil was trying to close my locker at school.

I didn't want to close. I Struck him in the forehead with my fist Unfortunately still had the lock in my hand put a three-inch gash in his forehead My mother was trying to get me to wear something. I didn't want to wear it I picked up a hammer went to hit her in the head with it. Oh my god, my brother caught it from behind You can see other than that. I was a pretty good kid That's Shocking to hear based on your no, but when I was 14 another teenager angered me and I had a large camping knife and I tried to stab him in the abdomen and Fortunately, he had a large metal belt buckle on under his clothing and the knife blade struck it broke.

You're kidding me Your life just a little different just like Camillo Anthony the kid down in Texas I mean, it's just that anger and boom and your life is completely gone at that point, but Long story short God God took the knife out of the hand of an angry teenager and replaced it with a scalpel to save lives. Hmm That's what he does, you know, that's especially I wish everybody was watching us it's not audio just to see your face change right there. Mm-hmm What why is that so emotional for you the part when you talked about God's like you you have this thing that I respect in Men when I'm with them you have a tender heart from God What what is that that thing?

I just saw in your face. Well just because You know, he can see the end from beginning and he can see the good in us and he can see what our strengths are and what our weaknesses are and he can take them and Fashion them into something that will be extraordinarily successful if you allow it Mm-hmm But you have to allow him to do it, you know with with my anger issue I after I tried to stab the young sir, I locked myself in a room and And I started contemplating my life I had changed academically by that time I was a straight-a student Hmm, but I said you'll never become a doctor with a temper like that your options our reform school jail or the grave and none of those appealed to me and I was Lord if you don't change me, I'm not gonna make it This is just no possibility, you know, I was reading psychology today I was thinking I was going to be a psychiatrist at that point and Reading about behavioral modification and all these things, but I knew we didn't have the money for that And I just said unless you change me This is it for me and I Pick up a Bible Open it to the book of Proverbs There were all these verses about anger Like Proverbs 19 19.

There's no point getting an angry man out of trouble because it's just gonna get right back into it But Proverbs 16 32 mightier is the man who can control this temper than the man who can conquer a city. I Mean it spoke to me and then there were all these verses about fools. Also, I spoke to me, too and the spirit Helped me to understand while I was sitting in that room that The reason I was angry all the time is because I was selfish Because it was always about me me my and I somebody did this to me Somebody took my space over there in my space I want this and if you learn how to take yourself out of the center of the circle, you wouldn't be angry That was the last angry outburst The last angry Albert that was the last one And some people say you just learn how to hide it.

Yeah, but no God when he fixes it, he doesn't do a paint job He fixes it You you but yeah, let me tell you a little more about God there though, please give it to me You know from that day until this day. I start every day reading from the book of Proverbs you do Who wrote the book of Proverbs Solomon Solomon wrote the book of Proverbs my middle name is Solomon God must have known that was going to happen But what was the first thing that Solomon did when he became the king that brought him great fame?

Two women came to him claiming be the mother of the same baby. What did he advocate divide the baby? That's when I became very well-known when I divided babies He has a sense of humor, too Did you let's talk about let's stay in faith for a second I feel like this man's there I want to stay in there You also have a very scientific mind and as a neurosurgeon, I'm sure you saw a Lot of things that were heartbreaking as well. Mm-hmm And so a lot of people have a hard time, you know, this reconciling a lot of very smart people so to speak Sometimes look at people of faith like oh that's cute or people that have seen a lot of hardship in their lives They say why can that happen?

If God is a loving God, correct? What would you say to them? I would say that God loves us so much that he doesn't force us He gives us choices and we are on this earth living out those choices that started with the first man and woman and And everybody will have an opportunity to see where those choices lead and I think it's becoming increasingly apparent in the world that we live in now and I think he will come back as he said he would I have total faith in that But he did tell us what would be going on And he said before he came back it world would be like it was in the days of Noah Evil everywhere It's coming.

Mm-hmm. And you know, I'm particularly concerned about AI When people have a hard time deciphering between what's real and what's not real and So, I don't think it's gonna be that long before it comes back you don't think it's that long I don't think so amen But let's stay on AI big topic on my show, okay big topic you'll look at it from a different perspective I just listened to something yesterday about this to pretty good debate about the here we go because I know you're also conservative as well, so the regulating of it and How should there be regulation of it and if so, how much also who But this notion that we were a year or two away from You know the idea that it is smarter than all of the collective minds in the world whether or not that's true or not I don't know but the fact that it could begin to shape culture and tone and That's deeply concerning to me.

Yeah, what do you feel about regulating it? Well I'm I'm not conservative or liberal I'm logical But You know, I recognize That once it's out of the box, you can't put it back in the box. Okay, so it's coming So what we have to do is figure out. How do we use it and How do we make sure it doesn't destroy us? That's where that should be of interest to people from both sides of the aisle I think it is. Yeah, but I'm surprised I don't hear much about it from either side Did you know that over 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated and 90% don't even don't get enough potassium a key electrolyte responsible for energy Muscle function and clear thinking that's why so many people feel tired foggy crampy or even off or late-day kind of just fatigue Even when they drink tons of water instant hydration is a premium electrolyte drink designed to support hydration energy recovery and focus Actually overall performance instant hydration is known for their refreshing flavors Not overly salty smooth taste and an easy daily habit.

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I mean see how that changed everything, right? Maybe much more so than the Internet so We have to take it seriously The the real challenge is going to be for parents uh Whose children are growing up in the world of AI and virtual reality. I mean It's hard enough to get kids off the Nintendos and the PlayStations. Can you imagine when they can disappear into their own world? and if parents don't exercise significant control parental control Those kids aren't going to have a chance. Mm-hmm That's scary and sad at the same time, yeah, I see on your face too when you talk about it.

What's it like inside? I'm just curious. And so we're talking about, you know, you're logical, you're not left or right or conservative or liberal. By the way, I don't know that I'm even logical, but I'm certainly not left or right. The logic part sometimes escapes me too. But give us a peek. You've had a very rare seat in your life to a lot of different seats in your life, but inside the Oval Office, inside the operating system of our country, which is really that of the world as well.

What would surprise most of us that you saw or that surprised you? Is it the bureaucracy? What about it? I don't want to lead you in a direction. Well, I think what might surprise people is how involved the president was. I don't know where he got the energy. I really did not understand. I asked him once. I said, that's when he was 78. He's 80 now. I said, most people, 78 years old, are sitting on a porch in a rocking chair and here you are doing it.

Where are you getting all this energy? And he said, God, he said that. That's what he said. And I don't think it was just because he thought I wanted to hear that. That was my first thought. My first thought. But he was deeply touched by what happened in Butler, PA. He thinks about that every day. And he does have an inordinate amount of energy. I think most people would be shocked. He's up at two in the morning. If there's something going on, it's just unbelievable. But I think most people might be surprised to know that inside, it's just like it is outside.

You have different opinions. People feeling very strongly about their opinions. And that's why there's always turmoil in any administration. You're never going to find everybody on the same march. But in a way, that's a good thing. Some dynamic tension. Because you need to always consider all the different viewpoints. In a country like ours, which is composed of so many diverse components, my way or the highway is not the right way. You always have to be willing to sit down and talk. And that's what has not happened, historically, in societies that have the conflicts that are going on with us right now.

One side or the other side, and they want to obliterate the other side. And the record has not been good in the world. We did well for the first 250 years, based on our constitution. Now we have people who want to get rid of the constitution, who want to rewrite the constitution, who want to do all kinds of things that make absolutely no sense. If you have something that's working, but is not perfect, you don't destroy it and start all over again. It just doesn't work that way.

You say, what can we learn? And what can we do together so that we all can live with us? And I think we're capable of that. Well, I'm glad that you have some optimism about it. Because when I sit in a seat nowhere near as close to that as yours, and I think most people listening to this are watching it, there's some angst, some fret, some real concern about where the world is heading. And it's not just the decisions, it's the way we are treating one another.

The thing you said about energy, I want to go back to that just for a second. I think it's the way we are treating each other. I've had the good fortune, I've met President Trump a couple times. I'm fortunate that I had a relationship with President Obama, I had a friendship with George W. I've met Bill Clinton. They all, there is a commonality and you're right about something, even though their ideology may be different. These people, when you're around them as a leader, have an energy, a frequency, a vibration about them somehow.

Have you noticed that in leaders you've encountered in your life that just, literally, energetically, there's something about them that is a little bit different and they're conscious of it almost, it would seem to me? I think that's the thing that brings them to the point of leadership. That's why it was, you know, the previous president to this one was sort of not energetic, to say the least. That was a very unfortunate episode in our chain of leadership, which has, unfortunately, some severe ramifications, but we'll get through those things, hopefully, as long as we have that kind of energy and a desire to actually resolve those issues.

And, you know, the next president, the next administration, be it Republican or Democrat, if they have that desire for healing, I think good things could potentially happen. Let's assume for somebody, the last question, first off, I would do 25 hours with you, but you're going to be on stage in a few minutes. There's all these things I want to know from inside of you, and I've got some of them today. So you've talked the last part there about, you know, what maybe the government can do to help, you know, the next leader, whoever it is, to create healing and bring people together and those things.

And that's, hopefully, I think everybody would pray that that would be the case. But let's assume that someone's not going to wait around for the government to do that or change that, and you would speak to somebody, and you would say, you know, that someone's not going to wait around for the government to do that or change that. And you would speak to somebody right now who's the head of a family. And they said, Dr. Carson, I want to take my family to a better place, like your mom and your brother and you took your family.

And what should I be focusing on? What should I be doing to change my family's stage in this world and have us make a bigger difference, make a bigger impact, a little bit more abundance and freedom in our family? Well, there is no better place that you can take them on this earth, but there is a better place you can take them spiritually. It's that relationship with God. That's what really brings peace. As it says in the book of Isaiah 26, 3, thou will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusts in thee.

I've found that to be the case. When I've faced tension and troubles, I just turn back to God. You know, it's so easy to forget about him, start trying to do things our way. And he's always there. He's not going to force himself on you. But if you want to call upon him with faith, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean on to your own understanding and all your ways, acknowledge him and he shall direct your path. That's the better place. I feel like I don't want to let you go.

Can I just sit here with you for another hour? I have to tell you, you know, it's great in life. You see somebody from a distance and you hold them in high regard and then you meet them. And they exceed your expectations, that there's a kindness, a gentleness, but yet there's some strength about you at the same time that's just makes me just want to sit with you. Praise the Lord. You know what they used to call me in the hospital? Gentle Ben. Thank you for today.

Absolutely. This was like, just remarkable. You guys, you don't get a chance to sit in on a conversation like this very often. Whatever your politics are, he's a treasure. And there's so many lessons that came out of this last 45, 50 minutes together that I hope you feel compelled to share this with somebody that you love, that you care about, and that you believe in. Dr. Carson, thank you for today. Thank you. God bless you, everybody. Max out your life. This is The Ed Myron Show.