The Near-Death Plane Incident That Changed Buckley Carlson’s Life

What this episode is about

The discussion centers around Buckley Carlson's personal journey with alcohol, highlighting his experiences with cocktail culture from a young age and the consequences of his drinking habits. He reflects on the influence of concerned friends, the potential need for change, and the realization of the significant impact alcohol has had on his life, including encounters with authorities.

Key takeaways

• Tonic water as a childhood favorite? That’s a sign you’ve attended too many cocktail parties!
• While some view rehab as a must, others find divine intervention—proving sobriety can be a personal revelation.
• Drinking enthusiastically can mask deeper issues; ironically, it’s often our loved ones who lift the veil.
• A quarter-century without alcohol sounds great until dreams of drinks ignite regret—some battles are fought in sleep!
• Surprisingly, sobriety is often met with support, not scorn—no one’s questioning your manhood for skipping cocktails.

Who speaks in this episode?

• Buckley Carlson (Guest) · 9 min speaking
• Tucker Carlson (Guest) · 4 min speaking

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 3:00: alcohol, cocktail, cocktail culture, AA meetings
2. 3:00 – 6:00: cocktail, alcohol, God, cocktail engagement party
3. 6:00 – 9:00: flying, smoking, alcohol, international airport
4. 9:00 – 12:00: flying, international airport, emergency, flight school
5. 12:00 – 13:20: The Grid Doctor, Last Country Supply

Notable quotes from "The Near-Death Plane Incident That Changed Buckley Carlson’s Life"

• True. That's where that remember. Well tonic water. That's when you know your parents too many cocktail parties. Not many six-year-olds drink tonic water. I wonder if any six-year-olds drink tonic water.

  about cocktail culture · at 0:18

• It had affected my life. Anybody asked you, Oh, do you think alcohol is affecting your life? Oh gosh, I don't know. Let me contemplate that. Oh, so and I'd also reach but principally what happened was my son was born.

  about alcohol · at 1:58

• In Georgetown and got like physically ill and so did my wife and she had a full-on divine intervention where God like spoke to her out loud and said enough.

  about God · at 3:44

• And he had a great party and I had a couple cocktails. Didn't get hammered.

  about cocktail · at 4:42

• Yes. Yes. I also once fell asleep while flying an airplane from drinking.

  about flying · at 7:12

• Fog banks everywhere. It's flat. It's actually in the state on the Atlantic Ocean and it the flight school itself shares an international airport with like six carriers, big…

  about flight school · at 9:23

• You can trust. Last Country Supply newest product is designed for exactly that. The Grid Doctor is a 3,300 watt battery backup system that will power full-size appliances, medical devices, and tools with clean, reliable power.

  about The Grid Doctor · at 11:58

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

Companies & orgs

• flight school — Company · Setting for aviation training · 3 mentions · first at 8:47
  Flight school contextualizes the guest’s flying routine, early mornings, and the dangerous fatigue episode near a busy international airport.

Products & tech

• The Grid Doctor — Product · Advertised product · 3 mentions · first at 12:02
  Presented as a battery backup system for outages and grid failures, including claims about EMP/lightning/solar flare shielding.
• Grey Goose — Product · Example drink (sensory trigger) · 1 mention · first at 5:02
  Grey Goose is used as a vivid example of how the guest can summon the taste of a martini and feel immediate physical revulsion after quitting.
  Yes, I feel that a physical revulsion where I could to this day 22 and 1/2 years later summon the taste of a Grey Goose martini or summon the taste of like a 3-in glass of…
• Makers Mark — Product · Example drink (sensory trigger) · 1 mention · first at 5:10
  Maker’s Mark is another concrete example used to describe the guest’s conditioned revulsion to alcohol after quitting.
  The taste of a Grey Goose martini or summon the taste of like a 3-in glass of Makers Mark and I could make myself vomit in like 15 seconds. and also for that first year, no one…

Concepts & topics

• alcohol — Concept · Core topic · 5 mentions · first at 0:05
  Alcohol use and quitting are central to the guest’s life story, including consequences (dangerous behavior) and recovery effects (revulsion, insomnia, nightmares). It also frames the discussion of AA meetings, alcohol poisoning, and specific drinks.
• flying — Concept · Major anecdotal topic · 6 mentions · first at 7:12
  Flying is the setting for several high-risk incidents tied to exhaustion and drinking, including falling asleep at the controls and a forced landing, illustrating alcohol’s impact and the guest’s risk profile.
• cocktail — Concept · Core topic · 4 mentions · first at 0:08
  Cocktails are used as concrete markers of drinking behavior (last cocktail, social drinking dreams) and as sensory triggers (taste memory causing revulsion).
• God — Concept · Causal agent in quitting narrative · 2 mentions · first at 4:50
  God is described as speaking to the wife and as removing the guest’s desire to drink while implanting revulsion, anchoring the sobriety story in a religious interpretation.
• cocktail culture — Concept · Background theme · 1 mention · first at 0:08
  The speakers describe growing up in a home environment where cocktail parties and drinking norms were common, shaping early attitudes toward alcohol.
• emergency — Concept · Safety/operations concept · 2 mentions · first at 10:04
  Emergency is referenced in the aviation context (needing to declare one) and in the preparedness ad (grid-down scenarios).
  Back cuz I didn't want it to be super suspicious. Just take off. You have to basically declare an emergency to get back in the pattern in an international airport like that. So…
• power grid — Concept · Ad segment core topic · 2 mentions · first at 11:26
  The power grid is discussed as fragile (Texas winter failure) to motivate purchasing backup power equipment.
  Future is unforeseeable and things do seem to be getting a little squirly. So, if the grid does go down, you need power you can trust. Last Country Supply newest product is…
• emergency power — Concept · Ad segment solution concept · 1 mention · first at 11:56
  Emergency power is positioned as necessary due to unreliable infrastructure; it is the need that The Grid Doctor is marketed to fulfill.
  Newest product is designed for exactly that. The Grid Doctor is a 3,300 watt battery backup system that will power full-size appliances, medical devices, and tools with clean, reliable power.
• smoking — Concept · Contributing behavior in flying story · 3 mentions · first at 7:34
  Smoking appears as a coping mechanism used while flying to stay awake (chain smoking), reinforcing the broader theme of risky habits during that period.
  Face. You can pinch yourself. I was a smoker at the time and I, was chain smoking while flying.
• forced landing — Concept · Aviation incident · 1 mention · first at 6:47
  The host characterizes an airplane incident as a forced landing in a national forest clearing, used to illustrate the guest’s history of dangerous mishaps.
  And it was well forced landing they call it.
• alcohol poisoning — Concept · Consequence of binge drinking · 1 mention · first at 8:51
  Mentioned as a suspected outcome for a visiting friend (and possibly the guest) during a period of heavy drinking, underscoring severity.
  Go make it to the flight line. I was in flight school at the time and so I did that for 2 weeks. He subsequently got food po alcohol poisoning. I think I did too. But I was…

Places & events

• international airport — Place · High-risk setting in flying story · 3 mentions · first at 7:42
  The guest describes nodding off while flying in a busy traffic pattern at an international airport, emphasizing danger and the need to declare an emergency to re-enter the pattern.
  H. And I was in a traffic pattern and I just couldn't keep my eyes open. could not in an international airport in someone else's airplane. Yeah. And I kept nodding off.
• AA meetings — Event · Referenced support setting · 1 mention · first at 1:10
  AA meetings are mentioned as a place where the speaker heard stories and was pulled in by concerned friends while considering stopping drinking.
  Been to one, but I did have some concerned friends who'd gone through this journey themselves and who pulled me in and I was receptive to listening.
• New Orleans — Place · Referenced location (visitor origin) · 1 mention · first at 3:38
  A friend (the son’s godfather) comes in from New Orleans, triggering a multi-day drinking binge that precedes the decision to quit.
  Really an amazing an epic weekend with my son's godfather, a great friend of both of ours, who came in from New Orleans, the and had like 3-day Baknalia in Georgetown and got…
• Georgetown — Place · Setting for binge weekend · 1 mention · first at 3:40
  Georgetown is where the three-day drinking weekend (“Bacchanalia”) occurs, leading to illness and the turning point toward quitting.
  My son's godfather, a great friend of both of ours, who came in from New Orleans, the and had like 3-day Baknalia in Georgetown and got like physically ill and so did my wife…
• cocktail engagement party — Event · Last-drink event · 1 mention · first at 4:29
  The guest identifies an engagement party as the occasion of his last cocktails before quitting permanently.
  And I did. I had my last cocktail engagement party of God, a great guy. I'm spacing his name out. I'm thinking in a second. H, you know him. He's a wonderful guy. His.
• bachelor party — Event · Temptation/last-hurdle event · 1 mention · first at 4:20
  A bachelor party is cited as the reason the guest delayed quitting for one more weekend, illustrating the social pressure and timing around cessation.
  Resistant. And so that day I made the commitment, I'm going to join her. But then one of my great friends was having a bachelor party like in two days. So, I said, Okay, well, let's just get through this weekend. And then I'm committed.

Sponsors

• Last Country Supply — Company · Advertiser/sponsor · 2 mentions · first at 11:58
  The company is promoted as providing emergency-ready power solutions, framing the ad’s preparedness message.
  Seem to be getting a little squirly. So, if the grid does go down, you need power you can trust. Last Country Supply newest product is designed for exactly that. The Grid…

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 So how um I would say the other thing the feature of the world that we grew up in was do you know alcohol is part of it.

0:08 Yes. Is cocktail culture. Absolutely. My favorite food growing up was tonic water and cam bear.

0:14 We had so many cocktail parties at our house. That's tonic water and cam bear. True. That's where that remember. Well

0:22 tonic water. That's when you know your parents too many cocktail parties. Not many six-year-olds drink tonic water. I wonder if any six-year-olds drink tonic water.

0:30 I don't think people even drink genonics anymore, but they did in our house growing up. Anyway,

0:34 boy, we come from a long line of genolics of genonic drinkers. But yeah, uh so we both got caught up in it and I would say you a little more enthusiastically than me. You were like um you were epic, I think is the term people use now. But uh and then you know you know as anyone who drinks overly enthusiastically the people who love him start to worry and then you just like quit. Didn't go to rehab.

1:02 No, I admire people who do. I think it's helpful. I had I'm not criticizing it.

1:07 No, no, no. I didn't think you were. I just actually I've had heard some fascinating stories at those AA meetings. It's been years since I've been to one, but I did have some concerned friends who'd gone through this journey themselves and who pulled me in and I was receptive to listening. Um, not necessarily receptive to stopping, but receptive to learning more. And um, and I was flirting with it, flirting with stopping because you take those tests that they have and like, answer 10 of these questions and if you answer even three of them, then you've got a drinking problem. And it was always like, I've answered yes on all 10. And I could probably give you six more questions to ask. Um, so and I'd been I'd had a few run-ins with the with authorities. Quite a few actually.

1:58 It had affected my life. Anybody asked you, "Oh, do you think alcohol is affecting your life?" Oh gosh, I don't know. Let me contemplate that. Oh,

2:06 so and I'd also reach but principally what happened was my son was born and that was a tough pregnancy an early birth and um the moment I saw that child be born I'd had a lot of preparation from you cuz you'd already had a couple of children and from others but I and it was an aspiration for me for the entirety of my life to be a father but the moment I saw that child be born and they're purple and unattractive. My son urinated all over the doctors. It was great. Still very proud of them. But I remember unbidden. Speaking of unbidden thoughts and emotions, the first thing that I thought when that child was born was I'd [ __ ] kill for this child.

2:52 Yes. And I would do it with relish. Like if someone ever someone ever threatened this child, I would I mean there's nothing I wouldn't do. So, um, anyway, so he was born and he was young as a baby. My son has never seen me intoxicated. I'm happy to say he's 24. I had my last cocktail 23 years ago in March coming up.

3:20 Incredible. And talked about it and thought about it and had concerned people discuss it with me. um and had dialed back, but then had really an amazing an epic weekend with my son's godfather, a great friend of both of ours, who came in from New Orleans, the and had like 3-day Baknalia in Georgetown and got like physically ill and so did my wife and she had a full-on divine intervention where God like spoke to her out loud and said enough. And and she that was it. Removed it from her completely.

4:04 Incredible. Completely. And then I was sympathetic on board with it cuz not only was I trying to convince myself that I should lay off it for a while, I was trying to convince her. And like most, she was resistant. And um so that day I made the commitment, you know, I'm going to join her. But then one of my great friends was having a bachelor party like in two days. So, I said, "Okay, well, let's just get through this weekend." And then I'm committed.

4:28 I've been there. And I did. I had my last cocktail engagement party of God, a great guy. I'm spacing his name out. I'm thinking in a second. H, you know him. He's a wonderful guy. His marriage didn't last, but he's around. Um, and he had a great party and I had a couple cocktails. Didn't get hammered. And then I said, "That's it. Not doing it again." And but it was divine intervention for me too because he removed not only the desire to drink but he implanted like a revulsion for alcohol.

5:00 Yes, I feel that a physical revulsion where I could to this day 22 and 1/2 years later summon the taste of a Grey Goose martini or summon the taste of like a 3-in glass of Makers Mark and I could make myself vomit in like 15 seconds. Um, and also for that first year, no one ever talks about this, at least I've never heard anybody talk about this, that for that first year, I couldn't sleep, sweating constantly, had horrible nightmares every night. Yeah.

5:29 And the enduring nightmare that I still have occasionally, I would say once a month, I'll be somewhere socially in my dream and I'll be talking to someone and I'll just reach and have a cocktail and I'll as soon as it hits my mouth, like start sobbing in my dream and wake up really agitated and really upset with myself. Um, but anyway, I God removed the desire completely for me and and I've had a much better life since. And I've never run, interestingly, I've never run. I could give you hours of stories about stupid and dangerous and destructive things I did as a drunk person, but I never have hooked up with an old friend that I haven't seen in like two decades have a meal and they like order a drink and oh, do you want a drink? will say, "No, actually, I quit drinking." I've never had someone say, "What the [ __ ] did you do that for?"

6:24 Like, like, "Really? You quit drinking? Like, you loser? You quitter?" No. No one's ever had that that emotion.

6:31 You're the only person I know who's crashed an airplane, a speedboat, a motorcycle, and multiple cars. And that's literally true. That's just a fact. And you're here.

6:40 I think we differ on the the definition of crashing. I did not crash the plane. And it was uh

6:47 well forced landing they call it. Okay. Okay. Well, forced landing. Well, I bear some responsibility for sure,

6:55 but the plane survived completely. Uncathed. Well, okay. In a clearing in a national forest. I'm just saying. And by the way, I'm not blaming you for whatever mechanical error forced your plane. But again, we could just take the plane out of it and we still have the motorcycle, the boat, and the cars.

7:12 Yes. Yes. I also once fell asleep while flying an airplane from drinking. Yeah. Passed out in in a in a really trafficked area and I was aware that I was, you know, when you're really really really tired, you can't hide it from yourself. You can slap yourself in the face. You can pinch yourself. I was a smoker at the time and I, you know, was chain smoking while flying. H. And I was in a traffic pattern and I just couldn't keep my eyes open. could not in an international airport in someone else's airplane. Yeah. And I kept nodding off.

7:48 Was anyone else in the plane? No, I was by myself. It was really terrifying. I wrote a piece about it actually for a friend of mine who also subsequently quit drinking and started like a web scene when those things were around

8:02 and um yeah, it was pretty hilarious. Fell asleep while flying an airplane. What?

8:07 Multiple times. Multiple times. I I was going on a a local trip and I took off. I was tired. I was sleep deprived. I had a friend. You know those friends who come and visit you?

8:18 Oh, yes. And they never leave and they're great company. Amazing. Especially after like 5:00 p.m.

8:25 Yeah. Yeah. And well, he stayed for like 2 weeks. And so we developed this this great um strategy where we'd go out we'd like drink all day on the beach and then go out to wildly hedonistic meal and then we'd get back to my apartment at like 2:00 in the morning and then he would stay up smoking and reading so he could make sure that I got up at 4:30 to go make it to the flight line. I was in flight school at the time and so I did that for 2 weeks. He subsequently got food po uh alcohol poisoning. I think I did too. But uh I was just exhausted and but I love flying and it was actually the only academic experience I've ever had that I was really passionate about. I love flying and that was in a great flight school. I took it seriously. Uh not too seriously not seriously enough to quit drinking but to sleep.

9:16 Or to sleep but yeah I showed up at dawn flew you know places prone to massive fog banks everywhere. It's flat. It's actually in the state on the Atlantic Ocean and it the flight school itself shares an international airport with uh like six carriers, big carriers. So, it's got like a 10,500 foot runway. It's got north and south and east and west. It's got a lot of traffic. And so, I was weary and feeling, you know, tired or exhausted. But it wasn't until I took off that I thought this is bad. Like, this is dangerous. It's like I really can't focus and I'm falling asleep. And so I went about 10 miles north and came back cuz I didn't want it to be super suspicious. Just take off. You have to basically declare an emergency to get back in the pattern in an international airport like that. So I went north for like 10 12 miles and then called approach and said I was coming back and have to identify why. And it was in the

10:17 approach with like 737s flying around and other it was a very hightraiced airport and I was on like a five mile downwind or crosswind. I'm trying to think whatever. I was on a long approach to this airport and communicating with the tower on the radio and I would fall asleep in between communication, you know. Sessa November 678 echo, are you there? November 678 echo here. Oh yeah, it was and I said a lot of prayers and as I said I smoked some cigarettes in that plane and I pinched myself and uh I landed safely. Excellent landing and got to the flight line and and turned the engine off and promptly took a nap in the plane for like an hour. It was bad. And then I got I hopped I had a motorcycle at that time too and I hopped on my motorcycle and I went home and I was like you got to go back to your real life man. It's like one of my oldest friends. Um, you got to leave.

11:16 I can't can't sustain this. Well, it wasn't that long ago that many Americans thought they were inherently safe from the kinds of disasters you hear about all the time in third world countries. A total power loss, for example, or people freezing to death in their own homes. That could never happen here. Obviously, it's America. People are recalculating, unfortunately, cuz they have no choice. The last few years have taught us that. Remember when the power grid in Texas failed in the dead of winter? Yeah, it happened and it could happen again. So, the government is not actually as reliable as you hoped they would be. And the truth is the future is unforeseeable and things do seem to be getting a little squirly. So, if the grid does go down, you need power you can trust. Last Country Supply newest product is designed for exactly that. The Grid Doctor is a 3,300 watt battery backup system that will power

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13:07 Thanks for watching our YouTube channel. We hope you'll subscribe to it. And by the way, you can hit the little bell on there and get notifications every time we produce a video. And we hope you'll do that also.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "The Near-Death Plane Incident That Changed Buckley Carlson’s Life"?

Buckley Carlson (Guest), Tucker Carlson (Guest).

What is "The Near-Death Plane Incident That Changed Buckley Carlson’s Life" about?

The discussion centers around Buckley Carlson's personal journey with alcohol, highlighting his experiences with cocktail culture from a young age and the consequences of his drinking habits. He reflects on the influence of concerned friends, the potential need for change, and the realization of the significant impact alcohol has had on his life, including encounters with authorities.

What is mentioned in this Tucker Carlson Network episode?

22 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including alcohol, flying, cocktail, God, international airport, cocktail culture. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "The Near-Death Plane Incident That Changed Buckley Carlson’s Life"?

The episode runs 13 min; the transcript is about 2,382 words in 32 timestamped sections.

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