Facts Matter

The Food and Drug Administration is combining seven of its side-effect reporting systems into one to save money and provide transparency to the public. Meanwhile, a new virus is spreading throughout the United States, masquerading as the flu. Lastly, a new strain of COVID has been detected in the United States, this time with many more mutations on the spike protein. Let's go through it all together.

In another win for parental rights, a school district over in Maryland was ordered to pay $1.5 million dollars to parents who weren’t allowed to pull their kids out of LGBT story time. Let’s go through the details of the case together.

AI Chatbots appear to really be keen on using nuclear weapons in war game simulations—something like 95 percent of the time, according to a report published in late February.Over at King’s College London, researchers had ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini form teams and play simulated war games against each other. Altogether, they played 21 games, and in 20 of the games, the systems reached for the button. During the experiment, none of the models ever chose to surrender—and instead, 95 percent of the time, the AI models chose to use nuclear weapons during the war.Let’s go through the details of this study together.

In the 90s, in California, David Allen Funston would drive around suburban neighborhoods looking for children. He would then use candy, toys, and little gifts to lure kids into his car. Once inside, he would kidnap them, beat them, and sexually assault them before dumping them on the roadside.Funston was convicted in 1999 of sexual abuse of children, including kidnapping and lewd and lascivious acts with a minor.He was sentenced to prison to serve out three life sentences. So far, Funston, now 64, has been sitting in prison for 27 years.The California Parole Board granted him early release under California’s Elderly Parole Program, which allows inmates who are over the age of 50 and have served at least 20 years or more to be released early.The thinking is that he is no longer a danger to society.Let’s go through the details together.

COVID-style lockdowns are slowly making a comeback. This time, though, it’s not because of some virus—but rather, it’s due to the Iran War. Or more specifically, it’s because of the situation currently unfolding with the Strait of Hormuz: Tankers carrying oil and gas are being blocked by the IRGC.Let’s go through which countries are asking (and which countries are mandating) people to work from home.

Researchers in the Northeast have poured 65,000 liters of red-dyed sodium hydroxide into the Gulf of Maine in order to conduct a geoengineering project which, they claim, might combat climate change.This trial—officially called the LOC-NESS project—took place last August 50 miles off the coast of Massachusetts. Scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution poured several tons of the bright red chemical into the water over the course of four days. The thinking is that by making the ocean more alkaline, it will suck in more CO2 from the atmosphere, and turn it into baking soda.Let’s go through the details together.

A man over in Spain tried to hack into his own vacuum cleaner robot, but instead, he accidentally hacked into 7,000 different vacuum robots—giving him direct access to live video feeds within people’s homes. Basically, he discovered a backdoor within these Chinese-made robots that made them extremely insecure.This meant that if you had one of these vacuums in your home, he (and anyone else who knew about this feature) could literally see inside your home through the camera lens at the top of the unit.Let’s go through the details of this case together.

An elite U.S. Air Force pilot was just arrested because he allegedly did the one thing that you shouldn’t do after leaving service ... train your Chinese military counterparts.Let’s go through the details of his case together.

Amidst the Iran-Israel-U.S. war in the Middle East, footage has emerged allegedly showing a new type of weapon being used in battle for the first time. Called the "Iron Beam" laser defense system, it uses electric powered lasers to shoot projectiles and drones out of the sky for a fraction of the price of a traditional Patriot battery.

Taiwanese exports to the United States surpassed those from China in December, according to the Commerce Department. It's the first time in decades that this has happened. Let’s discuss the reasons, as well as the implications for the future of trade in the region.

The U.S. Supreme Court just threw a wrench into the broader, global economic plan that President Donald Trump was working to realize. In a 6–3 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that Trump did not have the legal authority to implement his tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.However, if different countries and foreign businesses were breathing a sigh of relief, it was very short-lived. That’s because within about an hour, Trump announced that he’s using a different law to implement a new set of tariffs, which, for some countries, are actually higher than the previous tariffs.Let me break down the details of the case, as well as the grand, master plan behind the tariffs, which most other media missed in their reporting.

In what is likely to be the largest sewage spill in American history, roughly 300 million gallons of raw, untreated sewage were dumped into the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. Let’s go through the details of what happened, what the safety implications are, as well as the political finger-pointing that ensued.

A D.C. judge has just ordered the Trump administration to pay for the return flights of deported illegal immigrants so they can stand trial in the United States. Meanwhile, in a separate case, a judge in Michigan has just denied the Trump administration’s request to obtain the voter rolls in that state. Let’s go through the details of both cases together.

Let’s go through the details of President Donald Trump’s latest lawsuit against the IRS wherein he is seeking $10 Billion dollars in damages... from an agency that he is in charge of.

Today, let’s discuss several stories happening in the United States: 9,500 truckers get booted from service over English language requirements, and a jury awards $30 million to the estate of a teenager killed in Seattle.

It’s been three full years since the Ohio state government decided to detonate derailed train cars containing vinyl chloride in the village of East Palestine.You might remember the apocalyptic imagery that came out of that explosion—it looked like a nuclear bomb had gone off.Three years later, anecdotal evidence is showing that the residents are experiencing thyroid disease, cancers, respiratory problems, neurological issues, asthma, and other problems.The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has now announced a $10 million research project to study the long-term health effects on the people living there.Let’s review what took place there in 2023, what the effects appear to be now, as well as what the NIH is doing about it.

Florida Department of Health officials put out a new report revealing that their independent investigation found arsenic in 28 of 46 candy brands tested. Let’s go through their methodologies, as well as their findings.

Today, let’s examine the Chinese Communist Party’s biowarfare program, specifically Chinese officials’ interest in making a bioweapon capable of targeting the DNA markers specific to distinct ethnic groups.

Today, let’s go through a few recent developments with the Trump administration: the escalating war of words with Canada, the citizenship verification order by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, as well as the effort to denaturalize recently naturalized U.S. citizens whose conduct justifies such an action.

The premise for “The Last of Us,” both the video game and the HBO hit series, centers around the survival of two people navigating a post-apocalyptic wasteland after a mutated fungus infected most of the world’s population, turning victims into mindless zombies.At first glance, it appears like just another interesting take on the zombie genre.But believe it or not, the game is actually based on a real-life genus of fungus called cordyceps, which survives by infecting insects, hijacking their immune systems, and turning them into vessels that the fungus then controls. The fungus parasite then guides the insect body to a desirable location where it can spread to other hosts.While the concept that a fungus can turn humans into mindless zombies might seem far-fetched, there is already mounting concern within the scientific community that mutating strains of fungi are rapidly evolving in response to changing climate, to the point where they are beginning to present a real threat to human health.In recent years, several genera of fungi (which had previously not been a problem) are now able to infect humans.Let’s go through the current state of pathogenic fungi.

In one of the worst “Made in China” product disasters in recent memory, 10 people in the United States have recently either died or been seriously wounded when the airbag in their car went off and blasted their face, neck, and chest with metal shrapnel.Instead of creating a pillow to cushion the impact, these made-in-China airbags acted like grenades—so far killing eight drivers in what would’ve otherwise been survivable crashes—and seriously injuring two others.Let’s go through what we know about these airbags, how they’re getting into cars, why they’re killing people, as well as how you can check your own car to see whether you’re safe.

In a new decision, the U.S. Supreme Court has allowed a Republican congressman to challenge a state election law. The decision is highly consequential in the precedent that it sets. With this ruling, the Supreme Court has decided that a candidate for office does in fact have the legal standing to sue over an election policy that he or she believes is illegal. The implications of this ruling are truly significant—especially if you remember what happened in the 2020 election, when many of the legal challenges that were raised were dismissed not based on the merits of the case, but due to a “lack of standing.” So today, let’s go through the details of this particular case, what the ruling is, and what it means for future elections.

For the past 11 years, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has released his annual “Festivus Report” to air grievances. While the name is a reference to a Seinfeld episode, the report itself is legitimate, detailing what he believes were some of the most egregious examples of the federal government wasting our tax dollars in the previous year.Since the start of the report, the dollar amount of the government “waste” he cites has grown significantly.In 2015, it was a little over a billion dollars. By 2019, it was $50 billion dollars. The latest report for 2025 showed that the figure hit a cool $1.639 trillion dollars. It’s worth mentioning that a huge portion of that total comes from interest payments on the national debt, which Senator Paul now includes in his overall tally. U.S. taxpayers paid $1.22 trillion dollars in interest just to service the national debt last year. That is significantly more than the Pentagon’s entire budget—and given the fact that that money is literally going to nothing other than interest, there’s a good case to be made to include that figure in the overall wasted spending report.Setting the interest payments aside, let’s go through nine of the most interesting examples of government waste from the report.

The U.S. Supreme Court just issued a decision that expands your right to appeal a federal prison sentence. Now, I’m sure most people reading this won’t ever become a federal prisoner—but, if you ever do, or if someone you know does, they will now have more rights given the fact that the court threw out a significant limit on federal prisoner appeals. Let’s go through the details together.

Measles, once thought to have been eradicated in the United States, is making a resurgence. The latest numbers from the CDC show that the number of cases reported in 2025 was the most in the past 33 years. Let’s examine where these outbreaks are happening, as well as why.

Included among the provisions of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law by President Donald Trump on July 4th of last year, is something called a Trump Account. This is an investment account that all American kids are eligible for—and very notably—any American child born after Jan. 1, 2025, is eligible to receive a $1000 thousand dollar deposit into their account.This is money that is not taxable; it’s not a loan, meaning you don’t have to pay it back, and also, because of the type of account that it is (an investment account that the child can’t touch until he’s 18) by the time your child is ready to take the money out, that $1,000 dollars might have grown substantially.If the market continued to have the same historical returns that it typically does—8 percent or 10 percent a year—it means that by the time your child is 18, they will have an account with as much as $6,000 in it. And by the time they’re 28, that account could have upwards of $28,000 dollars in it. Meaning, that this is a fairly good opportunity, and something that you should definitely not miss.

Today let’s discuss the FBI’s latest move: ditching the building they’ve used as their headquarters for the past 50 years for a new location.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been busy lately—recalling 29 U.S. ambassadors and senior diplomats from around the world, and issuing travel bans on some unlikely individuals. Let’s go through the details together.Episode Resources:🔵 Apply to Be Foreign Officer🔵 Ambassadors Recalled:https://bit.ly/4sfdUjfhttps://bit.ly/4pUz7NL🔵 EU Travel Ban:https://bit.ly/4qopCpKhttps://bit.ly/49hiBAchttps://bit.ly/4q1fIef

Episode Resources:🔵 PFAS Map:https://ept.ms/3K6I57P🔵 Full Study:https://ept.ms/3K60aTz🔵 Water Testing Resources:https://ept.ms/3K54Mt2https://ept.ms/3OouxXWhttps://ept.ms/44UOjj9https://ept.ms/3OlMKVS

Within the last three months, we already discussed: a Chinese woman, from Wuhan of all places, who was smuggling in roundworms through the mail—while studying at a lab in Michigan; a couple, boyfriend and girlfriend (both Chinese nationals, also working at that Michigan lab) who were smuggling in a dangerous fungus—a type of deadly fungus that can target crops; and now, the FBI just arrested another Chinese national—this one studying for his doctorate at Indiana University—and he was allegedly smuggling plasmid DNA derived from E. coli bacteria from China hidden inside women’s underwear. Let’s go through the details of this new case together.

On Dec. 10, it was announced that Google would pay nearly $700 million in settlements to people who paid to download apps from the Google Play Store.The announcement came in the form of a statement from multiple state attorneys general, who were collectively suing Google for anti-competitive practices.Google decided to settle this lawsuit—along with several other concessions—and, in so doing, will pay $700 million, the bulk of which will go to the actual users.Let’s go through the details of the case: what Google was accused of doing, how the settlement money will be disbursed, and how you can know if you qualify.

Today, let’s go through one of the best, most convincing Apple scams that’s out there right now. This one really has it all: a genuine request to authenticate your identity coming from Apple, real alerts being sent to your phone, computer, and tablet, as well as perfectly timed phone calls coming from “Apple Support.” This scam is good enough to be able to trick even extremely skeptical people—so let’s go through it together so that you don’t get scammed.

There have been quite a few developments recently on the vaccine front coming out of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s new vaccine advisory panel recommends delaying the first vaccine that’s given to many children, the Hepatitis B vaccine that’s administered pretty much as soon as they’re born.President Donald Trump signed an executive memo, starting the process of aligning the U.S. childhood vaccine schedule with other developed nations.West Virginia is flip-flopping on the question of whether to allow religious exemptions for school vaccines.

Ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on a case that would effectively allow Republicans to gain five seats in the House.On Dec. 4, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the redrawn election map for Texas will be allowed to stand.Here, we go through the backstory of the case, as well as what it means for the upcoming midterm elections.

Lately, I’ve been seeing a lot of videos online of people glazing Chinese electric vehicles. How good they are. How fast they are. How well designed and sleek they are. How luxurious the interiors are. How good they are on power. And even how good they are on price. Basically, how they knock it out of the park compared to American EVs.I’ve also seen quite a few business videos, of people criticizing the United States for not allowing Chinese TVs into our market—for fear it would collapse U.S. auto manufacturing.Now, that might all be true. However, there’s another factor to consider, which is that when you’re dealing with a Communist nation like China, nothing is ever as it seems. Case in point, Norway is now finding out that the Electric buses they’ve been buying from the Chinese have a backdoor—which allows them to be disabled remotely. i.e. by someone outside of Norway.Let’s dive into this particular story together, because through it a lot of different issues get exposed to the public including how government officials try to save money by buying from China, only to find out that the stuff they bought contains literal kill-switches that can be activated by Communist cadres in the CCP.

In a case that's going out in a whimper, rather than a bang, on Nov. 26, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) charges that were pending against President Donald Trump in Georgia were dropped. Let’s go through the history of the case, as well as the details of why the new Georgia prosecutor decided to drop it entirely.

In a bit of a surprising move, on Nov. 24, a federal judge dismissed the indictment against New York Attorney General Letitia James. However, the reason it was dismissed wasn’t based on the merits of the case, but rather a technicality—a technicality that can be fixed, and the indictment refiled. So let’s break it down.

The U.S. Navy is scrambling to retrieve two aircraft that fell into the South China Sea without explanation in October—and they’re trying to find them before the Chinese do.On the flip side, the decision on whether or not to sell Nvidia’s AI chips to China now sits on President Donald Trump’s desk. Until that’s settled, some people are allegedly getting creative with AI chip “exports.” Four men were recently arrested by the feds and accused of selling AI chips directly to China and making off with $4 million in the process. Let’s go through it all together.