Paying Tribute to the Brilliant Scott Adams After His Passing at Age 68, with Andrew Klavan

What this episode is about

The discussion reflects on the unexpected passing of Scott Adams at age 68, highlighting his poignant final message about faith and belief. Adams expressed a humorous but profound take on Pascal's wager, weighing the merits of belief in Christ against the uncertainty of eternity, while also paying tribute to his impact on political discourse and personal connections.

Key takeaways

• Scott Adams embodied the 'Pascal's wager'—believing is risk-free when eternity is at stake.
• In a world of clickbait and cancel culture, Scott’s humor was a rare, refreshing antidote to outrage.
• Loss of friendships and health can stem from speaking your truth; Scott's life is a testament to that.
• His insights on persuasion made him a surprising Trump prophet, proving the power of understanding human behavior.
• Graciousness in the face of criticism is an art form; Scott mastered it while challenging societal norms.

Who speaks in this episode?

• Megyn Kelly (Guest) · 14 min speaking
• Andrew Klavan (Guest) · 6 min speaking

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 3:00: Supreme Court
2. 3:00 – 6:00: Jordan Peterson
3. 6:00 – 9:00: Dilbert, Supreme Court
4. 9:00 – 12:00: Dilbert, Coffee with Scott Adams, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big, Win Bigly
5. 15:00 – 18:00: Dilbert, Kasim Solommani

Notable quotes from "Paying Tribute to the Brilliant Scott Adams After His Passing at Age 68, with Andrew Klavan"

• He was coming from and yet they were really helpful to people. His advice it's kind of like Jordan Peterson. I frequently disagree with Jordan Peterson. His advice is always…

  about Jordan Peterson · at 3:27

• Me. What a sweet opening line. I have a few things to say before I go. My body failed before my brain. I am of sound mind as I write this January 1st, 2026.

  about January 1st, 2026 · at 8:56

• Ways I could add the most to people's lives one way or another. That marked the sort the start of my evolution from Dilbert cartoonist to an author of what I hoped would be…

  about Dilbert · at 10:16

• Surprised and delighted at how much positive impact that book is having. I also started podcasting a live show called Coffee with Scott Adams dedicated to helping people think…

  about Coffee with Scott Adams · at 11:40

• Kasim Solommani, master of Iran's intrigue, built a Shiite axis of power in the Middle East. The commander helped direct wars in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen, and became the face of Iran's.

  about Kasim Solommani · at 15:47

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Kasim Solommani — Person · Comparison figure in media-framing critique · 1 mention · first at 15:41
  Used to argue the New York Times framed a 'terrorist' more respectfully than Adams, highlighting perceived media bias.
• Jordan Peterson — Person · Referenced comparator (advice-giver) · 1 mention · first at 3:31
  Used as an analogy: the speaker says they often disagree with Peterson but find his advice consistently valuable, like Adams'.

Books & papers

• How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big — Book · Referenced book (career milestone) · 1 mention · first at 10:42
  Adams cites it as his first 'useful genre' book and a major success that influenced many people.
  My first book in the useful genre was How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big. That book turned out to be a huge success, often imitated and influencing a wide…
• Win Bigly — Book · Referenced book (persuasion theme) · 1 mention · first at 10:57
  Described as training readers to be more persuasive, reinforcing Adams' identity as a persuasion expert and 'Trump whisperer.'
  Standby. Next page. I followed up with my book, Win Bigly, that trained an army of citizens how to be more persuasive, which they correctly saw as a minor superpower. I know that book changed lives because I hear it often. You'll.
• Loser Think — Book · Referenced book (thinking/online discourse) · 1 mention · first at 11:20
  Presented as Adams' attempt to teach better thinking, especially on social media, though he says it had less impact.
  My next book, Loser Think, tried to teach people how to think better, especially if they were displaying their thinking on social media. That one didn't put much of a dent in the.
• Reframe Your Brain: The User Interface for Happiness and Success — Book · Referenced book (recent impact) · 1 mention · first at 11:27
  Adams describes it as teaching readers to program their thoughts and says he was surprised by its positive impact.
  Thinking on social media. That one didn't put much of a dent in the universe, but I tried. Finally, my book, Reframe Your Brain. He came out and promoted that with all of us.…

Companies & orgs

• Coffee with Scott Adams — Company · Referenced show (his podcast) · 1 mention · first at 11:45
  Presented as Adams' live podcast that helped people think productively and provided community for lonely listeners.

Products & tech

• Dilbert — Product · Key work referenced (career anchor) · 4 mentions · first at 6:44
  Dilbert is repeatedly cited as Adams' defining creation and the basis for how media headlines framed his death.

Places & events

• January 1st, 2026 — Event · Timestamp in Scott Adams' written message · 1 mention · first at 9:01
  Marks the date Adams says he wrote his final message while of sound mind, used to assert lack of coercion.
• Supreme Court — Place · Setting/context for speaker's day · 2 mentions · first at 0:00
  The speaker notes being at the Supreme Court when learning of Adams' death; it also appears as a distraction in their messages.
  I can't find it. It's in the midst of all my Supreme Court messages. My phone is a mess. My team is going to help me with it. But in the meantime, I want to read you this because there is a.

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 I was in the Supreme Court all morning and did not know that Scott died. Um, he had just said the other day, he had just said on his show that when they when you deteriorate marketkedly from month to month, you should have months left to live.

0:18 That when it happens week to week, you should have weeks. And when it happens dayto day, you probably have just days.

0:24 Yeah. And a couple days later, he died. He And he said he thought he had months. He said he thought he had months left, so it happened quickly. And um his ex-wife Shelley Miles Adams went on his feed today and delivered the following message. Sat 71.

0:43 Everyone, unfortunately, this isn't good news. Of course, he waited till just before the show started, but he's not with us right anymore. He has a final message that he wanted to say. Many of my Christian friends have asked me to find Jesus before I go. I'm not a believer, but I have to admit the riskreward calculation for doing so looks so attractive to me. So, here I go. I accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior and look forward to spending an eternity with him. The part about me not being a believer should be quite quickly resolved if I wake up in heaven.

1:35 What a great line. What a great classic Scott Adams. Offbeat out of left field uh and and beautiful and uh you know it's it's Pascal's wager. It's a it's got a long tradition. Uh you know Pascal was a great mathematician who converted to Christianity and he said it only makes sense that you're risking eternity. It only makes sense to believe because you don't lose anything by believing, but you could gain eternity and it's worth it's worth the wager. And so that was what Scott was saying. You know, he was listen I it's it's funny. I I used to listen to Scott all the time and I I had him on my show very early on when he started talking about political things and just really liked him. If if you would asked me, do I agree with like 50% of what I what he said, I probably would have said no. But who who cares, you I mean, he was a creative, original guy, full of goodwill, almost always gracious, which I really appreciate in

2:24 this atmosphere. I mean, he was always gracious to the people uh he attacked. He he would always tell people he was a far-left. Uh I I didn't see really see a lot of uh evidence of that, but he he claimed it all the time, but a big Trump supporter. the the press, of course, the New York Times, in one of the pettiest, meanest little uh headlines I've ever seen said he was a popular cartoonist until his racist remarks caused him to be cancelled. He never made racist remarks. Uh he said that a a poll showing that more than half of black people didn't like white people. He said you you might want to avoid uh people on the basis of that because they're they're hostile. That's not a racist remark. that's about hostility and about the way people feel and just the the the wickedness of of the the left in these moments is is a little hard to take. But the memory of Scott Adams is is a beautiful one. I mean they you know the

3:15 the Jews say may his memory be a blessing. I think it will be a blessing. He was just a a guy who came with these ideas that sometimes you just sit and blink and have to think about them all day long because you weren't sure where he was coming from and yet they were really helpful to people. His his advice it's kind of like Jordan Peterson. I frequently disagree with Jordan Peterson. His advice is always great. Uh Scott's advice was always great and and again always delivered with this kind of whimsical uh hilarious dead pan, gracious way of being. He was a voice that made the internet better, which is not an easy thing to do. And uh I'm I'm really going to miss him. I I really think it's a it's a sad day and uh happened way too soon at this point. you know sometimes

4:00 68 years old and I felt like he deserved more time. You know, when he announced casually that he had metastatic prostate cancer and that it has bred to his bones

4:09 right after Joe Biden's announcement came out, he he said, you know, not for nothing, he goes, I have that, too, and I I don't have very long to live. It was like, what? Everyone was shocked

4:18 and it happened too fast. You know, I just felt like we we we were owed more time, which of course is not how these things work. Can I point out one thing that he said that I thought was important? He he said that when he started talking supporting Trump, he lost his friends. He lost a lot of his work. He lost almost all of his speaking engagements. So, he was making like 50 to 100 grand per speaking engagement. And he said, "And I may have lost my health, which at least is an indication that it was this tremendous stressor to him. It was something that really got under uh his skin. And I I know people who have gotten very very ill with fatal diseases, with potentially fatal diseases after going through stress like this. And I think it is just a a a sad statement about our society that a guy of that much graciousness, wit, humor, and uh and wild, you know, helpful ideas should feel that maybe his health was

5:08 compromised by the way he was treated by our intellectual chattering classes. He he was brilliant and he was the original Trump whisperer when nobody thought Trump could win.

5:22 Yep. I mean early on in the 1516 campaign he said he's going to win and it was because he is he was an expert in persuasion. He he was a hypnotist

5:33 and he had learned it's the it's like the same thing as persuasion and he had learned the way people who have high persuasion skills sound and he saw Trump doing it from the beginning and he used to do a lot of shows analyzing it. It was a very interesting thing to listen to and so that's why he predicted it when very few did. I know some did but very few did. Um he saw it coming and I mean everything he I I watched his show from time to time. It wasn't like a regular thing for me, but every time I tuned in, I learned something. Scott would make an interesting quick prediction about something, and I'd be like, "Oh my god, that's so obviously right. Why didn't I think of that?"

6:06 He just had a different way into every story. And he he was very accurate in his ability to size people up, stories up, take something, be like, "That's not going to happen. That is going to happen. I believe that. I don't believe that." And you're like, "Yeah, same. Same." As soon as you hear him say it. Um, I do want to talk about the controversy because I'm I'm disgusted. People magazine. Didn't I tell you, my friends in the audience, didn't I just say yesterday People magazine is a tabloid magazine? They're the new gawker. They're disgusting. Stop buying People magazine. They're gross. They come out with the headline, Scott Adams, disgraced Dilbert creator, dies at 68.

6:49 This is so disgusting. The Boston Globe. Scott Adams, Dilbert creator who veered into racist far-right commentary dies. That's their headline to sum up this man's life. New York Times breaking news. Scott Adams, whose comic strip Dilbert was a sensation until he made racist comments on his podcast, has died at 68. And by the way, I'll get I'll get to the juxaposition of the New York Times on Kasam Solommani when he died uh versus what they're saying about Scott Adams, but I do want to start with um the People magazine piece. I'm telling you, stop buying People magazine. Stop going to their website online. Don't support these people. They are far-left.

7:39 They hate conservatives and they've gone totally tabloid. Matt Walsh posts the name of the writer who attacked Scott Adams. It's Victoria Ele. He writes, "This is the monstrosity who wrote the vile article. Scott Adams was a great man loved and mourned by millions. This person is a nobody loved by no one. The world won't even notice when this person dies." Now they took down her name and exchanged it for staff staff at people because they don't want to take um you know the responsibility for it. And hold on. There was one more.

8:17 I can't find it. Hold. Oh yeah. Is this you know this is from from Matt. I'm trying to find it there. It's mixed in. I can't find it. It's in the midst of all my Supreme Court messages. My my phone is a mess. My team is going to help me with it. But in the meantime, I want to read you this because there is a final message from Scott. Okay, I'm gonna read Look at this in part. It's long. If you're reading this, things did not what Andrew has to go. All right, I I'm I'll let you go, Andrew. I'll just finish it up with the audience, but thank you. Thank you so much for being here. I don't want to

8:47 It's great to see you, Megan. Thanks a lot. It's always great to see you. Byebye.

8:50 To be continued. All right, so this is from Scott for the audience. If you're reading this, things did not go well for me. What a sweet opening line. I have a few things to say before I go. My body failed before my brain. I am of sound mind as I write this January 1st, 2026. If you wonder about any of my choices for my estate or anything else, please know I'm free of any coercion or inappropriate influence of any sort. I promise. Next. Many of my Christian friends have asked me to find Jesus before I go. I'm not a believer, but I have to admit the riskreward calculation for doing so looks so attractive. So, here I go.

9:28 you heard his ex-wife read some of this. I accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, and I look forward to spending an eternity with him. Um, the the part about me not being a believer should be quickly resolved if I wake up in heaven. I won't need any more convincing than that, and I hope I'm still qualified for entry. With your permission, I'd like to explain something about my life. For the first part of my life, I was focused on making myself a worthy husband and parent as a way to find meaning. that worked. But marriages don't always last forever and mine eventually ended in a highly amicable way. I'm grateful for these years, those years and the people I came to call my family. Once the marriage unwound, I needed a new focus, a new meaning. And so I donated myself to the world, literally speaking the words out loud in my otherwise silent home. From that point on, I look for ways I could add the most to people's

10:18 lives one way or another. That marked the sort the start of my evolution from Dilbert cartoonist to an author of what I hoped would be useful books. Boy was he ever. By then I believed I had amassed enough life lessons that I could start passing them on. I continued making Dilbert comics. Of course, as luck would have it, I'm a good writer. My first book in the useful genre was How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big. That book turned out to be a huge success, often imitated and influencing a wide variety of people. I still hear every day how much that book changed lives. My plan to be useful was working.

10:57 Standby. Next page. I followed up with my book, Win Bigly, that trained an army of citizens how to be more persuasive, which they correctly saw as a minor superpower. I know that book changed lives because I hear it often. You'll probably never know the impact the book had on the world, but I know. and it pleases me while giving me a sense of meaning that is impossible to describe. My next book, Loser Think, tried to teach people how to think better, especially if they were displaying their thinking on social media. That one didn't put much of a dent in the universe, but I tried. Finally, my book, Reframe Your Brain. He came out and promoted that with all of us. Taught readers how to program their own thoughts to make their personal and professional lives better. I was surprised and delighted at how much positive impact that book is having. I also started podcasting a live show called Coffee with Scott Adams dedicated

11:48 to helping people think about the world and their lives in a more productive way. I didn't plan it this way, but it ended up helping lots of lonely people find a community that made them feel less lonely. Again, that had great meaning for me. I had an amazing life. I gave it everything I had. If you got any benefits from my work, I'm asking you to pay it forward as best you can. That is a legacy I want. Be useful and please know I loved you all to the end. Scott Adams. Wow, it's a beautiful message. Gosh, he did so well. He did so well right to the end with his messaging for all of us and giving of him himself when he was so sick and in hospice care, which he announced last week.

12:33 Why do the bad ones hang on forever and the good ones go so quickly? Like I don't know. You just hear like someone terrible has something happen to them and like then they linger for another 20 years. Scott Adams announces six months ago that he's got metastatic prostate cancer and he's gone in what felt like a heartbeat. I loved loved loved listening to Scott. I learned from Scott a lot. I found so many useful nuggets in the lessons that he brought and he was one of my teachers and I'm really going to miss him. I'm very sad for him. I'm sad for his family and I'm sad for the right, you know, like we keep losing people and um it hurts. It hurts like the movement, the push back against the lunatic left. We need people like Scott like with genuine wisdom to give. Gone too soon at 68.

13:30 and those quote eulogies offered by the mainstream do not do him justice. How dare they take this one moment he had a couple of years ago. And you guys remember remember he came on here to talk about the controversy. We were his first interview after he did that show talking about the poll on on black people not wanting to live um near white people and him saying, you know, me either then. You know, it was like it was classic Scott cuz it was provocative and it was a little tongue and the cheek and it was sort of part social experiment and he came on to explain all that to us.

14:06 Steve, can you find the episode number just in case people want to go back and listen to it? Um, well, no, I don't want to play it now. I don't want to get back into it, but we'll find the episode number for you because we talk about that in a bunch with him. So he wasn't but like to take that one moment like that one controversy and make it his eulogy his orbituary and in the headline no less after all the good he's done in the world episode 638. Thank you 638 is just immoral. It's immoral. Like why can't there be a bigger pull among the media to just when you're eulogizing someone just try to stick to their best moments and bury the stuff you find controversial if you must put it in his obit down by the bottom. Why?

14:58 How dare you put that into his head his the headline? And I just think it's like they would never do this to their side or to their heroes or even to like villains. I I mentioned the thing about hos uh Solommani. Stand by. I'm I'm gonna read it to you here. This is what they did to Scott Adams versus to Solommani, a terrorist. Um, okay. Drew Holden found this online. Scott Adams, audacious creator of the Dilbert comic strip, dies at 68. His chronicle of a corporate cubicle dweller was widely distributed until racist comments on his podcast led newspapers to cut their ties with him. Here's Kasim Solommani.

15:47 Kasim Solommani, master of Iran's intrigue, built a Shiite axis of power in the Middle East. The commander helped direct wars in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen, and became the face of Iran's efforts to build a regional block of Shiite power. Um, how about all of the stuff about his terrorism and the Americans he killed? He killed Americans. That didn't make it into the headline or the subhead. But Scott Adams comments, which again, they weren't actually racist. You have to go back and listen to the episode, but in the New York Times world, they were. It's just wrong. You know, I I I shudder to think what they'll do to me when hopefully many many decades from now I pass. But I also don't really give a because they don't define me and they don't define Scott. And the people who loved Scott and the people who love all of us listening to this show right now know who we are, right? They don't believe

16:46 this They like being in the public eye, they will tear you limb from limb, even in death. And all you can hope is that the people who did know you, who listened to you, in Scott's case, and listened to your show, and maybe occasionally actually got something out of it, know in their hearts who you were. I'm disgusted by People magazine. I spit on People magazine. I'm disgusted with the New York Times as I am every day. and the Boston Globe, too. Shame on you for for joining in on this. I'll miss him, and I know millions of Americans will miss him, and I know people listening to this show right now feel the same. So, thank you all for being not just truth tellers, but people who see through the And I believe the people listening to the show have been trained now that when you see anyone in the right wing getting piled on and Scott may have called himself a leftist but he he was rightwing he was a right-wing savant

17:50 okay whether whatever his positions were on various issues to issues that's a different story but like he was ours that he was by the end of his life he was ours and it's perfectly fitting that he converted to Christianity right before he passed um that you you have to take it all with so many grains of salt you have to take it all with like one of those huge salt mountains that you see in the wintertime before they go to to salt the roads you know because they lie they lie lie lie about people like Scott and it's deeply immoral to do it in the manso bit a new year means new financial goals like making sure your savings are secure and diversified will this be the year you decide to talk to someone from Birch Gold Group they use an educational approach with a deep understanding of macroeconomics There are forces pushing the dollar lower and gold higher, which is why they believe every American should own

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19:26 Thanks so much for watching. If you like what you just saw, hit the subscribe button for more clips and full episodes.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "Paying Tribute to the Brilliant Scott Adams After His Passing at Age 68, with Andrew Klavan"?

Megyn Kelly (Guest), Andrew Klavan (Guest).

What is "Paying Tribute to the Brilliant Scott Adams After His Passing at Age 68, with Andrew Klavan" about?

The discussion reflects on the unexpected passing of Scott Adams at age 68, highlighting his poignant final message about faith and belief. Adams expressed a humorous but profound take on Pascal's wager, weighing the merits of belief in Christ against the uncertainty of eternity, while also paying tribute to his impact on political discourse and personal connections.

What is mentioned in this Megyn Kelly episode?

10 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Dilbert, Coffee with Scott Adams, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big, Win Bigly, Kasim Solommani, Loser Think. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Paying Tribute to the Brilliant Scott Adams After His Passing at Age 68, with Andrew Klavan"?

The episode runs 20 min; the transcript is about 3,586 words in 32 timestamped sections.

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