As we celebrate Father's Day and recognize dads around the country, concerning data shows that America has the highest rate of fatherlessness in the world. In this episode, we talk to an expert about the importance of strong male role models in the home. I'm Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief John Bickley. It's Sunday, June 16th, and this is a special Father's Day edition of Morning Wire.

Did you know Fastgrowing Trees is the biggest online nursery in the US, with over 2 million happy customers? Fastgrowing Trees has everything you could possibly want, including fruit trees, house plants, and more. They have the best deals and offer free plant consultations for life. I just stocked up on all my summer blooms and all my plants arrived in great condition. Right now, as a listener of our show, you get an additional 15% off your first purchase when you use code WIRE at fastgrowingtrees. Com. Terms and conditions may apply.

Here to discuss on this Father's Day, the importance of fathers is Daily WIRE senior editor, Kabbit Phillips. Hey, Kabbit. So this is your first time celebrating this holiday as a dad yourself. Myself. So happy Father's Day.

Thank you very much. I've already mastered the entire art of being dad. Sure. Same to you as well, John.

So right off the bat, let's talk about the concerning numbers we referenced at the top, the fatherlessness issue in America.

Yeah, obviously this day is about celebrating dads, so I don't want to be too much of a downer, but it is a good time, if nothing else, to remind folks of the importance of fathers in our culture. We'll hear from an expert on all this in a bit and have some uplifting conversation about what it takes to be a good dad. But it is important to know this is a tough day for millions of children because their father is not present in their life. According to the latest data, roughly one in four children live in a home without a father present, while one-third live in a home without their biological father. That is not only the highest rate of any country on Earth, it's more than three times the global average. Now, much of that breakdown is due to a rise in children being born out of wedlock. In 1980, around 18% of kids were born out of wedlock. Today, that number is 40%. For moms under the age of 30, it's even higher at 53%. While many women who have children out of wedlock are living with their biological father at the time of birth, those relationships are more than twice as likely to ultimately fail as those in a traditional marriage.

Altogether, nearly 20 million American children now live in a home without a father present. The outcomes for those kids, as we now know, are devastating.

Yeah, let's talk a little bit more about that. Walk us through the impact for children without a father in the home.

Well, obviously, there are outliers here. We all know of children raised by single mothers who go on to achieve great things and become good dads themselves. But the numbers are clear when it comes to the negative impact of those situations as a whole. Whether you're looking at crime data, educational outcomes or mental health, kids without a father around do worse, period. Seventy-one % of high school dropouts come from fatherless homes, and they're twice as likely to repeat a grade in a lentry school. Fatherless children constitute 90% of homeless or runaway minors, 60% of youth suicides, 85% of the youth prison population and 75% of adolescent patients in substance abuse centers. The list goes on and on. Stunning numbers. Yeah. We also see a considerable uptick in abortions linked to fatherlessness. Around one in three pregnancies in a fatherless home and an abortion that is about 50% higher than the national average. It's worth noting, nearly all of those disparities are seen across all income brackets. While kids in a home without a father are more likely to be living in poverty, even those in wealthy households are still far more likely to fall into these categories.

For more on this topic, I spoke with Brian Slipka, an entrepreneur and the author of Winsum, Five Proven Life Strategies to Win in Relationships. He really challenges dads to step up and embrace the powerful responsibility of fatherhood. Here's some of that conversation.

The brutal truth is that there's 72 million or more fathers across this country, and almost 18 million children in America live without a father in the home. When you think about the impact of that and you play it forward throughout a generation, and then you think about the decisions they, as future adults, will start to make and that thing, you can start to see the cascading impact and the peril around it. I think Father's Day is a really good opportunity for us to rally around what being a father is all about and things we can do to improve the situation. If we can solve the fatherlessness problem in America, we're going to have a cascading favorable effect and impact on society as a whole, because the statistics do not lie. It will result in an indisputable reduction in crime and high school graduation rates improving, reduce mental health and behavioral issues. And so think Think about that for a second, how powerful that is.

What is your message to young men who, at this point in their life, might be scared by the prospect of fatherhood and view it as a burden or view it as daunting? What would you say to those people?

Oh, boy. I mean, fatherhood is one of the greatest earthly benefits and rewards that men in our society can experience and realize. And so while the perils of the short term or the short term strife or adversity of supporting and helping raise young kids and children can be difficult at times, the long term realization and benefits is so far, overwhelmingly, return on investment. And so that's the business guy in me talking, by the way, Kabbit. But there is such a strong effect, and it's really not just one's self, it's all of society.

Now, what advice would you have for the millions of Americans who might have frayed father-child relationships and have a hard time when Father's Day rolls around every year.

So, Kabbit, in the book Winsome that I recently authored, we talk about the five-tool framework for really building deeper, more personal relationships. And so when we think about Father's Day that we're all experiencing, Let's use this as a rallying event, as a compelling event to build deeper, more lasting, impactful relationships. And the method to be able to do that is really to seek more of a win-win environment. I think so often in relationships, and I think we all can emphasize, if you're a son or you're a grandfather or you're a father that has some strife with whether it be your father or be your son or daughter, I think one of the most powerful things that you can do is surrender selfish ambition. Surrender selfish ambition, surrender a win-lose mindset, and focus on more of a win-win, on a relational dynamic that surrenders discord, surrenders the strife elements, and most importantly, surrenders your selfish ambition or desires. It's really easy to say all the baggage of the past gets carried into today's moment. If we can surrender that as a society as we approach this year's Father's Day, I think we're going to have a really good heart for serving and advancing deeper relationships.

That's what's so exciting about this opportunity. We need to view it as an opportunity, not a threat.

You're big on the responsibility that dads have to be present in the life of their kids. I think we all know being present doesn't just mean being in the room with them. I'm a new father, I have a three-month-old, and I know being present doesn't just mean, Oh, he's sitting next to me. Talk to us about what being truly present as a parent looks like.

And that's easier said than done, right? I wrote this book Winsome, frankly, because I'm a mild version of the protagonist in the story and in the book, Sam Masterson. And it was basically me failing at what you just asked, right? It was me not being present in the moment. I may have been present physically, but I wasn't there mentally or emotionally. I think the visual that folks can really think about as they think about being present this Father's Day is this triangle, right? Mental, emotional, and physical. I would even submit that physical is probably the least important. If you're mentally and emotionally present, even though you aren't physically there, if you're fully engaged, you build in a relationship. I think that's a good visual for all of us as we enter Father's Day. Are you present mentally, emotionally, and physically this Father's Day? If you can really surrender all your other thoughts and feelings and emotions and really check the boxes on those three, you're going to have a profound Father's Day, and it's going to be a good one. It's going to be something that you're going to not regret, and you're going to be able to affect on positively and favorably moving forward.

I want to close with a powerful question that your father asked you that, in your words, it really led you to reassess your priorities days in life. Tell us that story and the impact it had on you.

I'll try to keep it really brief, but when my father was dying of cancer 11 years ago, on his deathbed, I was visiting him one workday over lunch, and I had a frustrating day professionally. I showed up and spoke to him and saw how he was doing and all that thing. But then I went on to rant about my issues of the day, my selfish frustrations with, in this case, professional stuff. And he stopped me about face knowing he was really two weeks away or so from passing away. And he said, Brian, I'm going to be leaving this world in a couple of weeks. I'm going to be gone. You got a lot going on for you. You got personal and professional success. You got a great wife, great kids. You're a great father, all this stuff. However, what on earth are you chasing? What on earth are you chasing? And so I think it was an about face for me personally, and one of the reasons why I wrote the book Winsum, is to really realize that what matters is the personal relationships and the head and heart around building personal relationships, deeper, more meaningful relationships that I was failing in at the time.

Because we can pursue all of these other selfish ambitions, things that benefit us, benefit our whatever it might be. It might be social media followers So it might be success, Fame, fortune, financial gains, all that stuff. Personally, that all may sound well and good, but what we're going to ultimately realize is that's very shallow and empty. What was truly fulfilling, especially as we approach this Father's Day, is the relationships that you carry with you and that you can build deeper, deeper, and deeper every day. And so that's really the point of my dad's challenge to me is, what on earth are you chasing? And that's really when we all are about to leave this world, what we're going to reflect most deeply on. That's one of the reasons why Father's Day is so important.

A very profound, important message, Brian. We will leave it there. Thanks so much for your time.

That was Daily Wire senior editor, Kabbit Phillips, talking with author and entrepreneur, Brian Slipka. And this has been a special Father's Day edition of MorningWire.