The Bill Walton Show

The most politically important election in America takes place this November - the race to become the next governor of Virginia. This race will not be just about Virginia. It will be the first statewide election since Joe Biden took office, and will also be a referendum: How do voters feel about where Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are taking the country. Glenn Youngkin is the Republican candidate and he joins me in this episode to talk about what he wants to do as Virginia's governor. Glenn's joining the political fray after a career with the Carlisle Group where he rose to become co-chief executive officer of a firm with over $230 billion of assets under management. As you'll learn from this conversation, he not only brings a strong economics and leadership background, he also has a sound grasp of the on-the-ground social and pocketbook issues that concern Virginians. Among them: opening up communities and schools, the culture wars being waged in schools, keeping communities safe, qualified immunity for police officers, property taxes and the like. He comes across as passionate, thoughtful, a strong leader and strategic thinker who can connect with people from all walks of life. He could win. Listen in to decide for yourself.

"I used to struggle with imposter syndrome, but at age thirty six I refuse to internalize misguided patriarchal ideas of what a woman can or should be. I am tired of feeling like I'm supposed to apologize for the space I occupied rather than intoxicate people with my effort, my brilliance. I am proud of me, full stop." Is this a quote from a self-help workshop in a "safe space" on a university campus? No, it's taken from a recent CIA recruitment ad. What's going on here? What kind of people does the CIA want to recruit? American national security agencies are charged with protecting the United States and its citizens from foreign threats to our safety and liberties. But it seems that "national security" is no longer just about threats to our freedom from external enemies. Our national security agencies have been drifting leftward for decades and have become increasingly "woke" and hostile to political adversaries. Recently former CIA Chief John Brennan declared that political libertarians in America should now be considered domestic terror threats. How did this happen? Where do we go from here? For some answers and to explore these troubling trends are my guests, Fred Fleitz, the President and CEO of the Center for Security Policy, and Dr. Michael Waller, the Senior Analyst for Strategy at the Center for Security Policy. Social Justice recruiting must not be the mission of the CIA. As Fred puts it, "the CIA does serious work. CIA officers handle extremely classified information, and if used well lives can be saved. If it is misused, people die." External enemies still abound and it's clear that they now include China. I asked Mike whether we should also worry about the Chinese penetrating our Agencies? His answer: "Absolutely." To learn how this could be happening, join me in this wide ranging and disturbing examination of America's national security establishment.

My friend Paul Teller keeps a running (and depressing) list of the destructive actions taken by Joe Biden's Administration. Joe Biden has been in office for just a few months and already the list is a mile long. Paul, who was a top aide to VP Mike Pence and is now his chief of staff, calls his list "The Horribles" The TBWS Team agrees that the name is apt. In yet another free association roundtable, we kick off with how grateful we are for lunch bucket Joe's letter - in an IRS envelope - reminding us to thank him personally for our pandemic relief checks. Then we move on to wokeness, equity and Biden's sowing more racial divisions, cancel culture, Biden's proposed "Section 8" tax plan, the assault on religious liberty, whether a Federal government promoting "wokeness" violates the Establishment Clause, the attempted Federal takeover of elections with the "John Lewis Voting Rights Act", and the HR5 "Equality Act" which would do anything but bring about equality. "It's a Five Alarm Fire," says Brian McNicol. Who is really driving the Biden agenda? Greg Corombos puts it, "Joe Biden is getting shoved to the front of the parade and has no idea where it's going." But whoever's in command, "what they're doing is really damaging," says Brian. "They really think that they can control the weather, our ability to get and distribute energy, that they can just control it. They can just say, It won't be that anymore. It'll now be this. And it will magically happen." "They are operating on some very dangerous assumptions and we need to watch. It's a very dangerous time in the world." True, yet I think you'll find this show an interesting take on the madness.

The Bill Walton Show Roundtable worries about what the future of law enforcement could look like in this country. In many cities, seasoned officers are rushing to retire - causing a major deficit as those positions are becoming harder to fill. Increasingly, resisting arrest is becoming a badge of protest. And rather than punishing law breakers, police officers are being demonized for doing their jobs. Why happens if big city Mayors actually do "defund the police?" What will cities look like a decade from now? Who will be keeping the peace? Who will want to live there? Much to ponder, and unless we change course, the future of cities look dystopian.

For years, major American corporations have been drifting to the political Left. Now that drift seems more like a tidal wave. Companies like Coca Cola, Delta Airlines … and even Major League Baseball have, for example, condemned Georgia's legislature's effort to protect free and fair elections. And increasingly the very top echelons of many big corporations - the C Suites and the boards of directors - are filled with people on the left promoting a "woke" agenda. Household names like Levi, Nike, Air BnB, Blackrock, Ford, the NBA and Bank of America are now aligned with the Democrat Party. This corporatist move to the left has emerged as the latest front in the war to "fundamentally change America." How this happened is a complicated and disturbing story. Joining me to tell it is Justin Danhof director of the Free Enterprise Project at the National Center for Public Policy Research, who has waged a long battle against creeping leftism in corporate America. And Matt Schlapp, Chairman ACU, which sponsors CPAC, and the founder of Cove Strategies, an advisor to many major corporations. Effective ways remain for conservatives to push back against this trend. Justin, Matt and I provide an insider's view about what's going on in corporate America and how to deal with its lurch to the left.

When you think of all the things in your house that are "made in China", one thing you may not realize is how many medicines are. That bottle of aspirin? Made in China. Penicillin? Made in China. Even something as simple as Vitamin C is produced in China. And if that's not shocking enough, there's also a good chance your doctor doesn't even know where these medicines are being manufactured! Joining me is Rosemary Gibson, author of the book "China Rx", which chronicles how this began and how the Chinese developed it in stealth. Rosemary, a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, is a thoughtful and careful chronicler of this very alarming reality. How did the US let this happen? What about Chinese quality control? How has the pandemic played a role in all of this? Before you take that next pill, you'll want to hear this conversation.

This past year has been filled with adversity, but with tough times can come great blessings. In my case, my wife Sarah and I have found a wonderful blessing in our friendship with Mercy and Matt Schlapp and their five daughters. We all found ourselves locked down in our places in Madison and Rappahannock County, Virginia during the pandemic. So what did we do? We formed a "quarantine club" and got together on weekends to talk deeply and at length about what's going on in America, and what we can do to keep it a free country. This show first appeared on CPAC Now last night and we thought you might enjoy hearing from Matt and Mercy in a wide ranging conversation that's very much like our informal get togethers. Of course, Mercy was director of communications strategy for the Trump-Pence reelection campaign, and Matt is Chairman and CEO of the American Conservative Union, sponsor of CPAC. Things have changed so much in society in recent years. As Matt points out, "What's interesting is we're all used to having conversations about public policy. Now, we're just trying to make sure that our family is safe. It's a really scary time. I think there's been so much change in society so fast that these esoteric policy conversations are really not a part of what we talk about now." "We talk about how will you raise kids? How do you talk to them about gender and sex? What are they hearing in school, our schools? There's complete chaos going on in society. So, for me personally it's a hard time because people say, "You don't seem as happy as you usually are." It's like you're not happy when you're seeing society being ripped apart." "I think that part of it is that our faith is very important to us," says Mercy. "It's central to our lives. It's the way we deal with the pressure, the abuse, the things changing in your life. If we did not have God in the center of it and faith, we know God will not abandon us because we have to do what God has asked us to do." "It is our vocation. Our vocation is to ensure that we keep up this fight for America." Please join me for this powerful and personal conversation with Mercy and Matt Schlapp.

In this episode, Bill talks with Jay Richards and John Tamny about the Covid-19 pandemic and the trade-offs between freedom and government mandated "safety." Should governments have simply provided people with information about risks and precautionary measures, or were the microscopic instructions, lockdowns and mask mandates necessary? At this point the answer seems pretty clear. "We're a full year into this and we've got a lot of empirical data," Jay explains. "We have Florida and New York to compare, as well as other states, so it's not as if we're in a position where we don't really understand whether lockdowns worked. The most modest and moderate way of saying it is that the lockdowns seem to make no difference one way or the other." Moreover, we're now seeing the lockdown's enormous human and social costs with most vulnerable groups in the US devastated by unscientific and ineffective policies. But even with the evidence before us, we're now seeing the goal lines to end mandates continually moved outward to some distant time when we will all be "safe." When do we get to the point when we can declare that - like all other viruses - we just have to learn to deal with its risks? Dr. Jay Richards is a professor at Catholic University, a senior fellow at Discovery Institute, the executive editor of The Stream and the author The Price of Panic. John Tamny is the economic guru for FreedomWorks, editor of RealClearMarkets and the author of When Politicians Panicked. Both John and Jay have penetrating observations about the ordeal we've all been through and what we can learn from it about balancing the risks in life.

For the past year or so, I've been reading in a daily devotional titled the The Bard and The Bible. In it each day is a quote from William Shakespeare, a related passage from the King James Bible and a witty and wise reading of how they might relate to us today. With Shakespeare, and of course anything related to the Bible, increasingly banned from American school curriculums, we are losing touch with these cornerstones of our western culture. The Victorians celebrated Shakespeare and the Bible as the twin moral underpinnings of British civilization. And when American pioneers headed west in their covered wagons, the two books that they brought with them were the King James Bible and the works of Shakespeare. Joining me to talk about their importance is Bob Hostetler, the author of The Bard and the Bible and a font of interesting and fun facts. In particular, Shakespeare, once you get used to his language, is a surprising antidote to today's toxic politics. Shakespeare distrusted the abstract, and disliked theory. He was in no sense an intellectual. His plays are essentially about people, not ideas. And despite the efforts of "critical theory" types, they are not remotely political in the left/right modern sense, which is why I find them such a breath of fresh air. Join me as Bob and I explore the many reasons why the Bible and Shakespeare are by far the most quoted texts in the Western World. You don't need to know much about either to learn a lot and love this show. How can you not be interested in a guy who wrote these stage directions: 'Enter three Murderers' and "Exit, Pursued By A Bear' And who wrote this lines: "All the world's a stage" "A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!" "Talkers are no good doers" "How many fond fools serve mad jealousy!" and "Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more: it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of "sound and fury", Signifying nothing."

During the last several years, I have had the great pleasure of getting to know a wonderful actor, Tony LoBianco. It's the 50th anniversary of his iconic movie "The French Connection" where he played Sal Boca, and a perfect occasion to invite him on the show to talk about the acting craft and working with other creatives. A leading actor in films, TV and the stage, he's made over 100 films during the course of his career and along the way won an Obie, an Emmy, an Outer Circle Critics Award, and was nominated for a Tony award for Best Actor. In this wide-ranging conversation, Tony and I talk about the days of Hollywood when it wasn't so woke. He shares stories of working with legends like Milton Berle, Richard Widmark, William Friedkin, Arthur Miller, Richard Gere, Alec Baldwin and James Gandolfini among others. Some of his great antidotes include how he got the role of Raymond Fernandez in the cult classic "The Honeymoon Killers" by fooling a casting director into thinking he was Hispanic even though he doesn't speak Spanish. And what the very scary Richard Widmark thought about Tony's acting. This is a truly fun and fascinating behind the scenes look at the movie industry of the 70s and since. I think you'll enjoy it.

In this episode, Mark Mills, Energy & Tech expert at the Manhattan Institute, and I go in-depth about the perils of so-called "green energy." Case in point: February's deadly blackout in Texas. Texas, with the most wind farms in the country providing 25% of its energy, learned what happens when the weather gets cold and the wind goes away. Just when you need electricity the most, it's not there. The National Academy of Sciences has declared the electrical grid the most important invention of the 20th century. But it doesn't work if it depends on unreliable wind and solar sources. Reliance on green energy "is a really, really bad idea. With it, we are going to switch America's energy from domestic production to imports. We're going to switch America's energy from liquids and gases which are easy to move and cheap to extract, to energy minerals, which are hard to move and energy-intensive to extract," according to Mark. "We're going to switch from a small footprint on the planet to a huge footprint on the planet because the land area required per unit of energy when it's green, compared to hydrocarbons, goes up tenfold. All bad." And of course, China is playing a clever strategic game having cornered the market for critical green energy components. Mark also clearly explains why nuclear is the smart green energy option, even though most so-called environmentalists oppose it. If you disagree with any of this, listen to Mark's fact-based explanations. It you want to truly understand why depending on green energy is a terrible idea, start here.

What are the evolutionary differences between men and women, and how do they survive and thrive through differing competitive strategies? In this episode, Dr. Joyce Benenson talks with Bill about her book Warriors and Worriers, which draws her extensive lifelong research on children's interactions. The result is a fascinating array of studies and stories that explore the ways boys and men deter their enemies, while girls and women find assistants to aid them in coping with vulnerable children and elders. Dr. Benenson, a retired professor of psychology at Emmanuel College and an associate member of the Human Evolutionary Biology Department at Harvard University, turns upside down the conventional wisdom that women are more sociable than men and that men are more competitive than women. E.O. Wilson of Harvard praises her work as "brave, thoroughly documented, and written with unusual clarity … her book explains more about the fundamentals of gender differences - and the meaning of human nature - than a library of conventional social science." An engaging conversationalist, Joyce quickly deconstructs the notion that being male, or female is simply a matter of "sex assigned at birth." Human history is a story of men and women genetically built to specialize in different behaviors necessary to ensure the survival of their children to adulthood.

If it's possible to have a fun and entertaining conversation about political correctness, critical race theory and the state of being "woke", this is it. Joining me is James Lindsay, PhD, Co-author of Cynical Theories and founder of the newdiscourses.com website and podcasts. James, who has been called the Donald Trump of Intellectuals (meant as an insult), because of his courage to take on political correctness, guides me down through the stranger and stranger rabbit hole of "Theory." Also knows as Postmodernism, it first took root in America in the Yale University English Department and since then, like a virus, it has jumped from this laboratory to infect all American society. In the wide-ranging interview, he explains things like "anti-racist", systems of privilege, Queer theory and how all these theories start with the conclusions you want to reach. Thought experiment: You are a white shopkeeper and two customers enter your store, one black and one white. Who you serve first determines whether you are a racist. Be careful, the answer is not obvious. According to "critical race theory" it might be safest to serve neither. It is definitely worth taking an hour of your time to understand this world.

On this episode, our TBWS Roundtable discusses the push by the radical woke left to let transgendered boy/girl athletes participate in girls and women's sports. After coming out strongly against trans men in women's sports, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem recently vetoed a bill that would've banned it. Why? She says "it's complicated" and she may be right. The very woke NCAA would ban her state from staging its competitions. But allowing trans men in women's sports would gut Title IX. It seems that who and how you would define a boy or girl depends on your politics, not "the science." Where are the feminists on this when all the victims are girls? Martina Navratilova has been excoriated for coming out against it. Why is this seemingly only an American issue? What are the implications for our military? And is this just the opening salvo in the race to replace the binary? Did you know there was a "race to replace the binary?" It's a mess, and the Roundtable explores what it all means, and how we feel about it.

On this episode, we look into the life and presidency of Calvin Coolidge with Amity Shlaes, author of The NY Times bestsellers Coolidge, The Forgotten Man, The Greedy Hand and The Great Society. Amity is also co-editor of a fascinating new edition of The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge revealing how he embodied the best of America's founding principles and the character of the American people. In this wide-ranging interview Amity and I cover Coolidge from his early days growing up in Vermont to how his legacy impacted Ronald Reagan. The thing to remember about Coolidge is that the federal budget was lower after he left office than when he entered the Presidency. What a different time. She also chairs the board of the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation and we talk about its scholarships and programs for young people.

On this episode, I'm talking with Yaron Brook, Chair of the Ayn Rand Institute, in a wide-ranging conversation that launches into the case for why the profit motive is a good thing. Capitalism gets a bad rap in the media and pop culture, but should business be epitomized by Gordon Gecko or Steve Jobs? Was the 2008 financial crisis caused by greedy Wall Streeters or by wrongheaded government policies? We agree that finance, properly understood, is about "win/win" strategies to move capital to more productive uses, but what about all the people left behind by capitalism's "creative destruction? Are Americans any longer willing to do what's necessary to create their own future. We also talk about his view that our moral purpose should be our own happiness and that self-interest is not wrong. We part company on trade with China and on Donald Trump, but wholeheartedly agree on the need for an optimistic freedom agenda that embraces America's founding ideas.

On this episode, I'm joined by John Allison, named one of the 100 most successful CEOs in the world by the Harvard Business Review. In this wide-ranging interview, we talk about how he went from growing up in a lower-middle income family in North Carolina to becoming the head of BB&T, the Cato Institute and author of "The Leadership Crisis and the Free Market Cure". John and I discuss some of the 10 principles for living your best life as outlined in his book, a must read for anyone interested in learning the ethical values necessary for individuals, leaders and societies to achieve real human happiness.

The TBWS Roundtable discusses former President Trump's CPAC speech, and what it means for Republicans going forward. Has he learned anything about shoring up his weaknesses? Will he attempt another run for President? Should he? And if not, where does the Republican party go from here?We also look at the future for Mike Pence. What role will the former VP play in the party? Plus, we look at the role social media will play in getting out the message of the GOP and get into the risky business of offering predictions for the mid-term elections.

The phrase "Just the facts" has taken on new meaning with the creation of media-based fact checkers. However, the definition of truth varies based on the organization doing the research. I'm joined today by Jim Agresti, the President and co-founder of Just Facts as we talk about why what you see in the media is often agenda driven and what his organization does to find the truth.

In this Episode, we continue our conversation with Jeffrey Tucker and are now joined by Phil Magness also with the American Institute for Economic Research regarding the current state of the nation due to the Coronavirus. How does the handling of the virus remind us of the video game "Sim City"? What does the future hold now that the vaccine is starting to be distributed? We also discuss what the role of politics has played in the pandemic.

With the first anniversary of the emergence of the Coronavirus, Jeffrey Tucker head of research at the American Institute for Economic Research joins me for an in-depth discussion about what have we learned so far about the virus and what the future holds for our daily lives. We also talk about how 2020 was almost medieval, and how long it will be before we fully understand the pandemic's aftermath.

As Coronavirus lockdowns around the country are slowly starting to be lifted, I'm joined by Phil Kerpen, President of American Commitment to talk about what shutting down businesses and social activities have meant for our economy and our social fabric. We also discuss what the future holds now that vaccines are starting to be administered.

On this episode, the BWS Roundtable discusses how thousands so called amateur investors got everyone talking about GameStop and Robinhood. What caused the stock to skyrocket? What does it say about the future of Wall Street? How will the regulators react? Those questions and more will be answered during this in-depth conversation.

As we start a new year, I'm joined by my friend John Tamny with Freedom Works and Real Clear Markets to recap the events of the past month. We talk about the unrest at the U.S. Capitol, the first days of President Biden's administration, and the role Gisele Bundchen plays in the ongoing success of Tom Brady as he prepares for his 10th Super Bowl.

As we wrap up one of the most chaotic years in modern memory, members of the BWS team gather virtually to talk about the impact of COVID-19 on our lives. What will the future hold when it comes to masks? The economy? Life in general? While 2020 is one most of us would like to forget, we manage to find several "silver linings" heading into 2021.

Have you noticed more people using the phrase "Merry Christmas"? This wonderful holiday greeting has come back in style in recent years, and in this special holiday episode, we take a very personal - and spiritual - look into the meaning of Christmas . My friend, Larry Green, owner of the Spirit Wind Trucking Company, joins me in a brief discussion about how it goes far beyond gift giving and family gatherings. It's about a rebirth. I also take a crack at reciting two of the best known Christmas songs and perform them in a way you likely haven't heard before. This was far more challenging than I ever imagined, but so worth it to find the deeper meanings of Christmas. MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR !

In the era of mandated mask wearing and social distancing, we are fighting two battles: One against COVID-19, the other over preserving personal freedoms. In a piece about the virus, New York Times Columnist Paul Krugman blamed President Trump and Ayn Rand for Americans who have stood up against wearing a face covering. Calling it "libertarianism gone bad, a misunderstanding of what freedom is all about". Tal Tsfany, the President and CEO of the Ayn Rand Institute joins me to talk about the article and how liberals are looking to rob Americans of the free will granted to them in the Constitution. We also discuss how Ayn Rand would react to all of this if she was still with us today.

As states are expected to start receiving their first vaccine doses as soon as next week, the new battle over whether you'll be required to get the COVID shot is about to begin. In the debut of the Bill Walton Show Roundtable, I'm joined by Rich McFadden of Radio America, Greg Corombos host of the Three Martini Lunch and Journalist Brian McNicoll in a lively exchange about how having the vaccine available will impact businesses, schools and life in general.

The Hon. Ken Blackwell is back with the latest in the fraud investigation related to the 2020 Presidential election. With less than a month to go until Congress is scheduled to count the electoral votes, we discuss what needs to happen and why fraud isn't the only obstacle the Trump campaign needs to overcome.

Weeks after our interview with Dr. Jay Richards, co-author of "The Price of Panic: How the Tyranny of Experts Turned a Pandemic into a Catastrophe", he contracted COVID-19. Now recovered, Jay tells me about his personal experience with the virus, discussions he had with front line healthcare workers and why they don't wear the masks that the rest of us wear. We also look at how vaccines will start a whole new debate in this country.

As the investigation into the 2020 Presidential Election continues, questions about the legitimacy of some voting machines and mail-in ballots are only part of the issue. Jim Agresti, Founder and CEO of "Just Facts" joins me to talk about how non-citizens were able to cast ballots to help tip the scales in favor of Joe Biden.

People are working from home and traveling less these days due to COVID-19. That's resulted in a lot of companies re-evaluating whether they need a brick and mortar space, and the hospitality industry struggling to fill rooms. Commercial real estate expert John Scheurer and I discuss the current state of the market and where it's likely to head once the Coronavirus is behind us.

While Trump voters knew who they were supporting, a new study shows many of those in swing states who voted for Joe Biden didn't really know him at all. Brent Bozell, President & Founder of the Media Research Center details the poll, the realities of our mainstream media, where we as a nation go from here in regard to the White House, and how to get the social media companies to give all Americans an equal voice.

If you've ever had a post flagged on or removed from social media, you need to know about the arcane sounding Section 230 of the Communications and Decency Act. Klon Kitchen, the Director of the Heritage Foundation's Center for Technology Policy joins me to take an in-depth look into Section 230 - called "the 26 words that created the Internet." And how the Big Tech/Social Media companies have squandered the public's trust by abusing its privileges.

As we celebrate the 157th anniversary of the Gettysburg address, I try my hand at reciting and analyzing the historic speech with Voice and Acting Coach Leigh Wilson Smiley. We also discuss how the address relates to the current state of affairs in our country.

On this special edition, we continue our in-depth look at what's happening with the Trump campaign's battle over the counting of legal votes. The Hon. Ken Blackwell, advisory board member of the Trump/Pence 2020 Campaign and J. Christian Adams, President and General Counsel of the Public Interest Legal Foundation discuss the latest on the recount process and the strategy moving forward.

For our 100th episode, we continue to take an in-depth look into the 2020 Presidential election. As the lawsuits by the Trump campaign continue, we chat with Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. He is the author of "A Republic Under Assault: The Left's Ongoing Attack on American Freedom" about why voters on BOTH sides of the aisle should be concerned about the voting process.

On this special edition of the Bill Walton Show, we talk about the fight for the White House as the legal battle continues by the Trump campaign. But is there enough time to get it through the courts? John Fund with the National Review is skeptical.

Last month Atlantic ran a hit piece on President Trump that was notable, even by today's low standards of journalistic practice, for its invisible sourcing. It remains news because it typifies the realities of our increasingly fact-free media environment. "It's based on four anonymous sources and has in addition the strange sideshow of other media outlets 'confirming' the anonymous sources" says my guest, veteran journalist Brian McNicoll. "It's a classic illustration of how to do bad journalism that destroys the credibility of journalists," emphasizes Mark Tapscott, a member of the Freedom of Information Act Hall of Fame. Join me in a clarifying conversation about how the standards of what's called journalism have eroded over the years. How today's reporting compares to the Watergate story. How the distinctions between "opinion" and "news" have become fainter and fainter. Why the Society for Professional Journalists no longer plays the role of trusted guardian. And more. As Brian McNicoll concludes, "There's a reason why only about 12% of Americans trust what the media says."

"If you wanted to aim at the heart of the matter to bring about a more virtuous Washington DC where would you start? For Mark Tapscott, the award winning investigative journalist, editorial page editor and founder of HillFaith, the answer is clear: share the Good News of His Gospel with congressional staffers on Capitol Hill. "If you were asked, who's the most influential but least well-known group in Washington, DC, if you really understand how things work in this town, you would say immediately, 'Congressional Staff.' There are about 20,000 of them. They are mostly young men and women, highly educated, very motivated, and very smart." Mark, a member of the Freedom of Information Act Hall of Fame and recipient of the CPAC Conservative Journalist of the Year, explains further: "I knew that God was calling me to some sort of ministry and I kept coming back to the fact that virtually everything I'd done in my career included, directly or indirectly, contact with Members of Congress and especially with Hill aides." "They have a passion for public service and politics, who are also routinely over-worked, underpaid, and almost nothing gets done in Congress without them. They have tremendous power by virtue of their positions to influence public policy in this country, yet they may well be the most invisible power center in the nation's capital." What's unique about Mark's ministry is his focus on Christian Apologetics, based in logic, on science, history, on wherever the truth can be accessed. "While all truth is God's truth", says Mark, "Apologetics is the ideal way to reach young people, particularly those on the Hill, unfamiliar with the truth of Christianity." Mark is a remarkable man.

"The human costs of the emergency response to Covid-19 have vastly outweighed its benefits." So argue, backed by a vast amount of research, scholars Jay Richards, William Briggs, and Douglas Axe, authors of "The Price of Panic." For the first time in history, the world has shut itself down - by choice - for fear of a virus whose dangers have been dramatically exaggerated. Governments, with the support of most Americans, have ordered the closing of thousands of small businesses, schools, colleges, churches, sports events and most all of our civil society institutions. Overnight, "social distancing" - masks, 6 foot rules, no handshakes, no hugs - have become a moral obligation. We are now living under a "tyranny of experts" explains Dr Jay Richards. The world will reopen, and life will go on, but we are never going back to "normal." And we need to recognize that whatever the future holds, we cannot make the same mistakes again. What have we learned? What will have been the total cost in lives, dollars and livelihoods in relying on advice from "science"? Who will be held accountable for the enormous human costs imposed by our leaders blundering "one size fits all" policy responses? Join me in my conversation with Dr Jay Richards who digs deeply and thoughtfully into the answers to these questions. And another big, big unknown. As the health risks of Covid-19 have begun to subside, a bigger and more dangerous pandemic remains: a pandemic of fear. Social media, 24/7 cable news coverage and political agendas have whipped up social contagion, a climate of fear far beyond the real risks of the virus. Where is this going? How does it end?

Talking with John Tamny about his upcoming book "When Politicians Panicked: The New Coronavirus, Expert Opinion, and a Tragic Lapse of Reason." His premise, and I agree, is that experts aren't the answer to crisis, they are the crisis. What was needed at the onset of the virus was leadership wise enough to let sensible Americans figure out how to protect themselves. Information coming from China in January and February made it very clear that the virus was/is many things, none of them remotely justifying the enormous health, social and economic costs imposed by our panicked political response to it. Instead, our political leaders needed to provide information guidelines about the risks, take steps to protect the vulnerable and their caregivers, and otherwise let people take care of themselves and each other. Give them the facts and a little bit of guidance, and their intelligence and common sense will see them through. Pretty much what South Dakota and Sweden did. John writes, "One-size-fits-all lockdowns have crushed the global economy, left us in a worse position to fight the virus and has pushed hundreds of millions back into poverty, which is the biggest killer of all." We will be paying the price for years.

Confused about what's going on with the Post Office? I am. So I asked my friend Brian McNicoll, who has written about the post office for many years and has a real feel for its economics and the politics, to clarify what's going on. In our conversation he tells me, "the Post Office has a monopoly on two things. Only the post office can put something in your mailbox and only the post office can handle first class mail. But the number of first class letters have dropped by almost 40% in the last decade. And in the last 15 years, the U.S. Postal Service has lost some $60 billion and is expected to lose some $10 billion this year." But its package delivery business is growing like gangbusters, and it it also losing money on that. Why? Turns out U.S. Taxpayers are subsidizing Jeff Bezos's Amazon and other package delivery companies, big time. So we dig into post office economics 101. I think it could break even, especially with its new Postmaster in charge. But it isn't just its bad business model that has it in the news. The presidential election has made it into yet another partisan political football. We dig into the differences between mail-in and absentee voting, bundling ballots, ballot harvesting, election fraud (e.g. last election they found 120 000 ballots in trash cans in a dumpster in Nevada), why mailboxes are being taken off the streets, post office closings, whether the Post Office could handle mail-in ballots, and much more.

It's Saturday in September and there's no Big Ten football being played today. But in a not-so-surprising reversal, just weeks after Kevin Warren, the Big Ten commissioner, pointedly said the decision not to play this year would "not be revisited", they revisited. They just announced that it will start up its fall football season October 24. Why the change? Of course it faced pressure from coaches, players, parents and fans but the decision looks like it has everything to do with politics and money, and very little to do with "science." Last week, before the Big Ten's change of heart, I talked about the cultural phenomenon, politics and money of college football with my friends and frequent collaborators, John Tammy, author of When Politicians Panic and Brian McNicoll, a veteran newspaper and sports reporter. Both are "certified college football fanatics" and do a great job explaining to me what's happening with the college football season this fall. It seems to be a crazy mishmash. Some teams are playing, some canceling their seasons. Some with fans, others not. In the Big Ten states, they're playing high school and professional football, but not college. We speculated that the Big Ten's decision, wouldn't hold, coming as it does in the Presidential battleground states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, etc. And of course there's the money. College football is a $4 billion business, supports a lot of other minor sports and is a keystone for college fundraising. Listen in here to our fun and wide-ranging conversation:

Jean Shepard ("Shep"), the legendary 60's and 70's WOR NYC late nightradio show humorist and storyteller, romantically described the differences between what he considered to be "day people" and "night people." Day people were conformists, night people were non-conformists, and he was proud to be one of them. Well had he lived to see the streets around the White House last week he would be hard pressed to feel romantic about its new "night people."

"From early March 2020 on, the best-known authorities on epidemics—the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control— have presented the COVID-19 respiratory disease to the Western world as a danger equivalent to the plague. But China's experience, which its government obfuscated, had already shown that the COVID-19 virus is much less like the plague and more like the flu. All that has happened since followed from falsifying this basic truth." So writes my guest Angelo Codevilla, Senior Fellow of the Claremont Institute and professor emeritus of International Relations at Boston University and author of The Covid Coup (hyperlink this). He continues: "What history will record as the great COVID scam of 2020 is based on: 1) a set of untruths and baseless assertions—often outright lies—about the novel coronavirus and its effects; 2) the production and maintenance of physical fear through a near-monopoly of communications to forestall challenges to the U.S.. ruling class, led by the Democratic Party, 3) defaulted opposition on the part of most Republicans, thus confirming their status as the ruling class's junior partner. No default has been greater than that of America's Christian churches—supposedly society's guardians of truth." But despite the enormous human, social and economic costs imposed by locking down the country, more than 44 percent of Americans are in favor of shutting it down again. (Epoch Times' national survey of likely voters conducted by Big Data Poll.) And almost 2/3 of Democrats (63.2 percent) support a nationwide shutdown. Something has to give.

There is no historian like Howard Zinn. Certainly no other history book has taken the place of the Bible at the swearing-in of an elected official . But in 2019, Howard Zinn's "A People's History" was the sacred object on which newly elected Oklahoma City council member JoBeth Hamon chose to place her hand for her oath of office . "For one of the great enemies of the American idea, Howard Zinn, our history "a story of defeat, despair, and domination … a tragedy in three acts: what we did to the Indians, what we did to the African-Americans, and what we did to everyone else," explains my guest Dr. Mary Grabar the author of "Debunking Howard Zinn: Exposing the Fake History That Turned a Generation against America" Because of Zinn and other historians like him, American schools have largely stopped teaching our children what America is and what she represents in the history of the world. "An all-important question has opened up a great chasm between Americans: Is the essence of our civilization—our culture, our mores, our history—fundamentally good and worth preserving, or is it rotten at its root?" asks my other Guest Jarrett Stepman the author of "The War on History: The Conspiracy to Rewrite America's Past". Zinn's rhetorical strategies are more than "radical." They are fundamentally and grossly dishonest. Yet when Purdue University president Mitch Daniels sought to eliminate Zinn's book from classrooms, he was roundly excoriated. "Zinn's conception of American elites" such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton "is akin to the medieval church's image of the Devil." The College Board, which is largely replacing states and localities as the shaper of both textbooks and teacher training promotes Zinn's version of history in its advanced placement training seminars. Join me as I learn from Mary and Jarrett about some of the root causes why America is being torn apart by radical ideologies that have entered the mainstream of America's schools.

There is no historian like Howard Zinn. Certainly no other history book has taken the place of the Bible at the swearing-in of an elected official . But in 2019, Howard Zinn's "A People's History" was the sacred object on which newly elected Oklahoma City council member JoBeth Hamon chose to place her hand for her oath of office . "For one of the great enemies of the American idea, Howard Zinn, our history "a story of defeat, despair, and domination … a tragedy in three acts: what we did to the Indians, what we did to the African-Americans, and what we did to everyone else," explains my guest Dr. Mary Grabar the author of "Debunking Howard Zinn: Exposing the Fake History That Turned a Generation against America" Because of Zinn and other historians like him, American schools have largely stopped teaching our children what America is and what she represents in the history of the world. "An all-important question has opened up a great chasm between Americans: Is the essence of our civilization—our culture, our mores, our history—fundamentally good and worth preserving, or is it rotten at its root?" asks my other Guest Jarrett Stepman the author of "The War on History: The Conspiracy to Rewrite America's Past". Zinn's rhetorical strategies are more than "radical." They are fundamentally and grossly dishonest. Yet when Purdue University president Mitch Daniels sought to eliminate Zinn's book from classrooms, he was roundly excoriated. "Zinn's conception of American elites" such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton "is akin to the medieval church's image of the Devil." The College Board, which is largely replacing states and localities as the shaper of both textbooks and teacher training promotes Zinn's version of history in its advanced placement training seminars. Join me as I learn from Mary and Jarrett about some of the root causes why America is being torn apart by radical ideologies that have entered the mainstream of America's schools.

It's time to wake up to an existential risk that looms infinitely larger than anything posed by the Covid 19 virus. Electromagnetic pulse (EMP). EMP can be caused by either a naturally occurring solar storm or a manmade suitcase sized device and would collapse electric grids and electrical critical infrastructures all over the world A nationwide blackout lasting one year could kill up to 90 percent of the American people, through starvation, disease, and societal collapse. Moreover, EMP is the ultimate cyber-weapon in the military doctrines and plans of Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran. The threat is not theoretical. A solar storm EMP occurred in 1859 at the dawn of our electrical age and destroyed telegraph systems everywhere in the world. "Today, the impact would be catastrophic. Power grids would collapse all over the world. And all of the life sustaining critical infrastructures, telecommunications, transportation, business, finance, even food and water, depend directly or indirectly upon electricity. And advanced electronic civilization in the whole world, even in African countries depend upon electricity now for the survival of their people," warns my guest Dr. Peter Vincent Pry But preventing this terrifying scenario "has never enjoyed popular or government sustained focus" explains my other guest Frank Gaffney. Join me as I learn in this riveting conversation about what our government is doing - or more accurately not doing - to protect America from this threat. My Guests: Dr Pry is executive director of the Task Force on National and Homeland Security and the author of The Power And The Light: The Congressional EMP Commission's War To Save America 2001-2020 Frank Gaffney founder of the Center for Security Policy and Vice Chairman of the Committee for the Present Danger: China.

Many of us have read Ayn Rand's novels especially, "Atlas Shrugged" and the "Fountainhead." But I have been surprised to learn how her ideas and philosophy have continued to resonate throughout the world many years after her novels were first published. To learn more about this I asked Tal Tsfany, President and CEO of the Ayn Rand Institute to come on the show to talk about the Ayn Rand phenomena. Mr. Tsfany has a great personal story having been an software entrepreneur, investor and executive in both Israel and the United States. In a fascinating conversation we talk both about Ayn Rand's ideas and Tal's personal journey toward her philosophy.