At a time when our nation is portrayed as increasingly polarized, media often ignore viewpoints and stories that are worthy of attention. American Thought Leaders, hosted by The Epoch Times Senior Editor Jan Jekielek, features in-depth discussions with some of America’s most influential thought lead…
The American Thought Leaders podcast, hosted by Jan, is a highly informative and thought-provoking show that delves into a wide range of topics with insightful guests. Jan does an excellent job of selecting guests who offer unique perspectives and knowledge, and his questions draw out the scope and depth of their expertise. One of the best aspects of this podcast is Jan's preparation and ability to allow the guest to speak without interruption. This creates a space for in-depth conversations and allows the listener to truly benefit from the insights shared.
One standout episode was the interview with Conrad Black, which was both informative and insightful. Jan's skillful questioning allowed sufficient time for Conrad Black to provide detailed responses, making for a compelling conversation. The podcast has also introduced many listeners to the Epoch Times, as they explore different platforms for uncensored views.
On a spiritual note, the inclusion of a Bible verse in this review highlights how some listeners appreciate the podcast's content that goes beyond political discussions.
While there are plenty of positive aspects to The American Thought Leaders podcast, one area that could be improved upon is clarity and volume. Some listeners have noted difficulties in understanding certain parts due to unclear audio or low volume levels.
In conclusion, The American Thought Leaders podcast stands out as an exceptional source of information and insight. With its outstanding selection of guests and diverse perspectives, it offers a refreshing take on current events that may not always be covered by mainstream media outlets. Although there are minor areas for improvement in terms of audio quality, the overall content and format make it well worth listening to for anyone seeking thought-provoking discussions on important issues.

What happens when a business decides faith matters more than profit? Apparently, it flourishes.Hobby Lobby, founded by David and Barbara Green in Oklahoma City in 1972, is a private, family-owned corporation now with over a thousand arts-and-crafts stores nationwide. The stores are closed on Sundays, do not sell any Halloween-themed products, operate debt-free, and are run according to Biblical principles, emphasizing the value of faith and family life.David Green told me in our recent interview: “God blesses us when we do what we should do, rather than what's maybe most profitable.”“When we closed on Sunday, we did less business. When we stopped selling Halloween, we did less business. I can name seven or eight different things that ... cost us, but it was the right thing to do,“ he said. ”So I think God is asking us to do the right thing and not what's most profitable.”In 2012, the owners of Hobby Lobby sued the federal government for requiring company insurance plans to cover four specific contraceptives—two morning-after pills and two copper IUDs—that they argued could end life after conception. Facing daily fines of $1.3 million, the Green family filed a lawsuit that culminated in a 5–4 victory at the Supreme Court.In my interview with Green and his longtime friend and co-author of his many books, Bill High, we talk about their latest book “The Legacy Life.”How do we build a lasting, meaningful legacy? How do we become good stewards of our resources, time, and talents? How can families ensure their values are truly passed on to later generations—and not lost over time?Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

What if the most potent weapon that America has against the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) isn't nukes or tariffs?“This isn't a competition between the largest economy and the second largest economy. This is a competition of ideals—and we've got the better ones,” says former Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback.“If you want to hit them where it hurts, hit them on human rights issues, genocides in their own country, religious freedom that they don't grant any of their people—whether they be Buddhist, Muslim, Falun Gong, Christians. That's where they're the weakest. It's where they're the most vulnerable.”Ahead of President Donald Trump's expected meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, I sat down with Brownback to understand what he sees as the Chinese regime's greatest vulnerabilities, its deepest fears, and how those can be strategically leveraged by the United States.Brownback is co-chair of the International Religious Freedom Summit. He previously served as governor of Kansas from 2011 to 2018 and as a U.S. senator from Kansas, 1996 to 2011. His upcoming book is titled, “China's War on Faith.”Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

More than 11 percent of Americans take antidepressants, including rising numbers of kids and adolescents and even pregnant women.The majority of Americans believe that depression is linked to a chemical imbalance in the brain, and that drugs can fix this imbalance—just as someone with Type 1 diabetes might take insulin. But that's not true, according to board-certified psychiatrist Josef Witt-Doerring.“There's never been any evidence that there's been a chemical imbalance,” Witt-Doerring says. “There is no way to differentiate patients who are depressed from those who are not depressed using any objective markers.”Instead of fixing a chemical balance, what antidepressants really do is mask symptoms, he says.A former FDA officer and now director of TaperClinic, Witt-Doerring helps people safely get off of psychiatric medications.In this episode, we dive into the realities of antidepressant drug use, what most patients often aren't told by their doctors, and how a patient can be weaned off of psychiatric drugs safely and avoid devastating withdrawal symptoms.How do these drugs affect people long-term? Are they really safe for pregnant women? And what kinds of potential side effects do they have?And we dig into perhaps the most taboo subject of all: Is there a link between antidepressants and mass shootings?Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

Political scientist Charles Murray has written many well-known books over the course of his lifetime.Many of his works—including “Losing Ground,” “The Bell Curve,” and “Coming Apart”—have deeply influenced the intellectual discourse and zeitgeist of our times and provoked heated debate about the roots of major social problems in America.His latest book covers a topic that he has never covered deeply before: religion.Murray writes in the foreword of his book “Taking Religion Seriously,” “Millions are like me when it comes to religion: well-educated and successful people for whom religion has been irrelevant. We grew up in secular households or drifted away from the faiths in which we were raised and never looked back. For them, I think I have a story worth telling.”In our conversation, he recounts how he slowly came to question his assumption that there was nothing in religion for him.He began to grapple with questions such as: How did life come to be? Why is there something rather than nothing? What happens to purely secular societies? What happens to art that no longer acknowledges beauty, truth, and the good?He said: “I finished the book by comparing myself to a kid whose nose is pressed against the glass watching a party that's going on inside that he can't join. I have had the good fortune to meet a number of people who have had a very full, rich spiritual experience. ... I look at the kind of people they are, and I say to myself: I want more of that.”Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.) has been spearheading efforts in Congress to combat the threat posed by the Chinese regime to American interests—from economic warfare to espionage and infiltration—as chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party.“With rare earths, China is basically firing a loaded gun ... on our economy,” he says.He's pushing a bill that would phase in a 100 percent tariff on all strategic goods from China. The tariff would not just penalize China but also incentivize “other countries, as well as the United States, to invest in this almost as if it's a Defense Production Act activity.”Beyond rare earth minerals, what leverage does the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) have exactly in trade talks with the United States? What will the CCP's strategy be? How should President Donald Trump respond to the CCP's coercive tactics and its recent attempts to gain additional leverage?And what can America do to extricate itself from its dependence on China for some of its most critical manufacturing technologies?Moolenaar points out that the CCP is using its leverage not only over trade but also over Chinese nationals studying or working in America via its extensive United Front operations.“Under their recent national security laws, any Chinese national who doesn't carry out the will of the Chinese Communist Party, no matter where they are in the world, on U.S. soil or somewhere else in the world, [is] in violation of national security laws,” Moolenaar says.On the other hand, is the position of the CCP really secure? And what about Chinese leader Xi Jinping's position in particular? What signs of dissatisfaction and unrest are there among the Chinese population?Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

NBA player Jonathan Isaac is known not just for his talent on the court, but for his convictions and outspoken faith. He's the author of the 2022 best-selling memoir “Why I Stand.”As a youth, he struggled with anxiety—but a chance encounter in an elevator with the man who would later become his pastor changed the course of his life.Faith helped him triumph over his battle with anxiety, but it also later put him at the center of a national debate. After George Floyd's death, at the height of the Black Lives Matter movement, most NBA players chose to kneel during the national anthem. But Isaac chose to stand. Later, his decision to decline the COVID-19 vaccines also drew intense media scrutiny.In this episode, he shares his story, his convictions, his choices and why he made them, and what it means to believe in something bigger than yourself.Now, through his UNITUS shoe line, Isaac shares Bible verses and a message of hope.Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) recently imposed unprecedented export controls on rare earths, escalating the U.S.–China trade war.How is it that the Chinese regime managed to gain control of many of the most essential supply chains, from critical minerals to pharmaceuticals? How should the Trump administration approach this threat to national security?In this episode, we sit down with Lee Smith, author of “The Plot Against the President,” and the soon-to-be-released book, “The China Matrix: The Epic Story of How Donald Trump Shattered a Deadly Pact.”“It was simply American corruption that has allowed all of this to happen. And that's certainly the point that [U.S. President] Donald Trump makes in the book,” Smith says.What is Trump's strategy when it comes to China? How does he actually view Chinese leader Xi Jinping?Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.Editor's Note: Lee Smith previously hosted the EpochTV program “Words That Matter.”

Few people understand the far-left extremist group Antifa as well as investigative journalist Andy Ngo, author of “Unmasked: Inside Antifa's Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy.”He has been beaten, attacked, and nearly killed by Antifa for his undercover reporting of the group's operations.In an executive order signed on Sept. 22, President Donald Trump designated the group a domestic terrorist organization. On Oct. 8, the president hosted a roundtable focused on Antifa and invited Ngo and other journalists to participate.In this episode, Ngo recounts his harrowing personal experiences.What will it take to actually dismantle Antifa? How is Antifa organized and funded? And what does Ngo make of the broader trends of political violence, from the assassination of Charlie Kirk to the murder of the United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson?Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

Larry Sanger is the co-founder of Wikipedia and coined the name “Wikipedia' in 2001. He established many of Wikipedia's founding policies, including the original neutrality guidelines, before he left in 2002.Since then, he has become a vocal critic of Wikipedia's growing ideological bias, particularly on politically charged issues.Sanger says certain outlets are favored as sources while others are blacklisted, creating systemic distortion and exclusion of dissenting views.Most of Wikipedia's top editors are anonymous, which means that people have no legal recourse for lies or inaccuracies about them that may be published on Wikipedia's pages.In this episode, Sanger breaks down what went wrong with Wikipedia and how it can be reformed.Sanger has put forward nine theses for reform, including enabling competing articles, restoring original neutrality policies, convening an editorial assembly, and creating transparent rating systems for entries.But what is the likelihood it will happen? Can—and should—Congress do something about it? And could Elon Musk's Grokipedia offer a more balanced alternative?Editor's Note: The Wikimedia Foundation did not immediately respond to our request for comment.Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

While we often hear that free trade means cheaper goods, is it really that simple? What is the true cost of that? How can we measure the long-term decline of America's manufacturing and industrial base and its impact on America?John Gardner is the author of “Manufacture Local: How to Make America the Manufacturing Superpower of the World.”“America has a lot of questions to ask itself about the morality of what we've done to our own citizens, but also the morality of chasing sweatshop labor in other nations,” he says.Why is having a robust industrial base so important? And if so, how do we turn things around? Are tariffs really the answer? Is an External Revenue Service a good idea?Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

“What we've got today is too much money riding on seed oils. They can't produce addictive, empty, junk food, processed food without the seed oils,” says Sally Fallon Morell.For decades, Morell has led a grassroots movement to see healthy foods in every household in America.“You need to get in the kitchen. [It] doesn't mean you have to spend hours in the kitchen, but you need to get in the kitchen and learn how to produce healthy food for your family,” she says.In this episode, she explains what's wrong with our modern diet and calls for a return to traditional, nutrient-dense foods for better health.“Animal fats are good for you. They're not going to give you heart disease. Quite the opposite—they're very stable, and they support good health. They support heart health,” Morell says. “Our mission is to bring people back to these foods, to get people to eat butter again, whole milk. By the way, egg yolks are a sacred food as well, very rich in nutrients and fat-soluble activators.”Morell is the President of the Weston A. Price Foundation and author of, “Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats.”Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

Mollie Engelhart was once a celebrated vegan farm-to-table restaurateur in California. When she decided to put meat back on the menu, a targeted campaign forced her to close her business.She ultimately decided to make the painful decision to uproot her entire life, sell her farm, and rebuild from scratch in Texas.She's the author of the new book “Debunked by Nature: How a Vegan-Chef-Turned-Regenerative-Farmer Discovered that Mother Nature Is a Conservative.”“We're treating the soil and our bodies like we can outsmart them, but we're getting sicker,” she says.Once an ardent believer in the vegan movement, Engelhart now questions much of what she once believed.“Nature taught me my ideas were ridiculous. ... My cow isn't the enemy,” she says.Real environmentalism is “not to avoid nature, but to interact with her; not to try to out-science her, but to remember her wisdom,” she says.How does the health of our soil shape the health of our bodies? In this episode, we dive into the roots of our health crisis and why real change often starts small, with curious consumers and courageous farmers.Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

“President Trump talks about ‘drill, baby, drill.' We've also got to mine, baby, mine. We've got to get back into this business,” says U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum.China has a stranglehold on rare earths and critical minerals, controlling at least 85 percent of the refining of the 20 most important rare earth minerals, Burgum says.As secretary of the interior, Burgum oversees nearly half a billion acres of federal land and plays a key role in the Trump administration's energy dominance agenda.In this episode, we dive into what the Trump administration is doing to end America's rare earth minerals dependency on China, accelerate energy production, and win the AI arms race against China, which will require major increases in energy supply.We also discuss the government shutdown and how it impacts the Department of the Interior and the American people.Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

In early September, during a joint press conference with Governor Ron DeSantis, Florida's Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo publicly announced the decision to eliminate all state vaccine mandates—including those required for schools.In this episode, Dr. Ladapo explains the decision, how it will take shape, and his response to critics of the announcement who say there will be increased outbreaks of infectious disease.“It's just not appropriate for someone else to be able to dictate or force you to put something into your body.… If you own anything, you do own your body, just as you own your free will,” he says.Florida's Department of Health is removing all its current mandates, but a complete removal of all vaccine requirements from state law will require legislative action. Dr. Ladapo says he's confident it will be passed.We also dive into his concern that many pediatricians can refuse to treat children on the basis of the child's vaccination status: “To be kicked out of pediatrician practices for that reason, it's just wrong,” he says.He's working with Governor DeSantis on what he calls a “patient's bill of rights.”Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

The Chinese communist regime has “created a market in the organs of their political enemies,” says Matthew Robertson, a researcher who has been investigating China's organ transplant system for more than a decade.Fluent in Mandarin, Robertson is a China studies research fellow at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation and co-author of a number of research papers on China's organ transplant system including, “Execution by organ procurement: Breaching the dead donor rule in China.”After conducting a forensic review of thousands of Chinese research papers, they found 71 cases where violations of the dead donor rule were essentially written into the paper itself.In a moment that stunned the world, Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin were recently caught on a hot mic with their translators talking about increasing longevity through repeated organ transplants.What is the true extent of China's forced organ harvesting industry? How are physicians in China complicit? It's been known for many years that practitioners of the Falun Gong spiritual practice have been a prime target—but are they the only ones?Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.Editor's Note: Matthew Robertson previously worked as a journalist for The Epoch Times.

Family farms in America are slowly disappearing, with a 2022 USDA census reporting that America lost 142,000 farms over just five years. The average farmer in America is now nearly 60 years old.But it's not government subsidies that farmers need to stay afloat, says Joel Salatin. What small farmers really need is the freedom to innovate and sell directly to local consumers—without facing a morass of red tape, regulations, and mandates.Salatin, co-owner of Polyface Farms in Virginia, is widely recognized as a leading pioneer of sustainable or regenerative farming practices that enrich the land, rather than depleting it.Over the last half century, Salatin has seen his fair share of what he calls the “food police.” He discovered it was illegal to sell a couple dozen homemade pot pies at the farmers' market without proving he had a certified $50,000 septic system; illegal to process his own meat without sending it to a licensed butcher; illegal for his 17-year-old apprentices to operate a cordless drill—even though they were legally allowed to drive a car; and illegal to build housing without a permit on his farm—an agricultural zone—for his highly popular farmer apprenticeship program.The result? Small farmers have to fight for survival, factory farming wins, and America is less healthy, he says.“In my lifetime I have watched this erosion of farmer access to retail dollars. Meanwhile, we're seeing farmers go out of business hand over fist,” Salatin says.What America really needs is a “Food Emancipation Proclamation,” he says.Salatin is the author of 17 books, including “Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal: War Stories from the Local Food Front.”Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

For decades, there has been an assault on the Western classical tradition and the core values, arts, and philosophy at the bedrock of Western civilization, says classicist Spencer Klavan.Are we now witnessing a shift in this tide?Klavan is the author of multiple books, including “How to Save the West: Ancient Wisdom for Five Modern Crises.”He is also an associate editor at The Claremont Review of Books and host of the “Young Heretics” podcast.“People are starting to realize that you can only scream and yell and tear down statues and set things on fire for so long,” Klavan says. “Now the energy seems to be in the direction of … recovering and rebuilding some of our most profound traditions, these wisdom traditions of Athens and Jerusalem.”In this episode, we dive deep into questions of form and matter, beauty and truth, and the importance of finding spiritual meaning in our modern era.“It's often attributed to Werner Heisenberg that once you take one sip from the cup of science, you become an atheist. But when you drain it to the dregs, God is waiting for you there at the bottom,” he says.What do the classics have to offer us? Why is classical art and literature important? And why does Klavan believe President Donald Trump's executive order on restoring classical architecture is a major step forward?Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

How did the last nine years change Eric Trump? How did the second son of President Donald Trump react to the assassination attempt on his father's life in Butler, Pennsylvania? And does he plan to run for political office in the future?His new memoir is titled “Under Siege: My Family's Fight to Save Our Nation.”“It's the thousands of stories behind the scenes of how they try to dismantle our family and the greatest political movement in American history,” Trump says.Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

Since mRNA technology was deployed widely in the COVID-19 vaccines, developers have rapidly accelerated research into more mRNA products. Moderna alone has more than two dozen mRNA products in development.But is the mRNA platform really the revolutionary breakthrough that its champions claim?Since early 2021, Cole has been at the forefront of alerting the public to an unusual spike in cancer diagnoses following the widespread adoption of the COVID-19 genetic vaccines.In this episode, Cole explains the risks he sees with mRNA technology and how he sees things shaking out at the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the coming months and years.Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

“South Africa moved from one race-based system to another race-based system. ... We need to move away from race-based systems,” argues Ernst Roets. He's the Founder and Executive Director of Lex Libertas, an organization that advocates for constitutional reform and more decentralized governance in South Africa.While many have highlighted the killings of farmers in recent years, this violence is emblematic of broader problems in South Africa, he says.South Africa's murder rate is among the highest in the world—more than seven times higher than the global average. And race-based policies and distribution of wealth are having a serious deleterious effect, Roets says.In this episode, he breaks down why he believes South Africa's current political system is fundamentally not sustainable, and how anti-Western influences, including the Chinese Communist Party, are influencing the direction of South Africa.Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

What happens when a nation loses one of its most influential voices—and what can we learn from the legacy he leaves behind?What is the role of faith in shaping America's future, and how should we move forward?In this episode, I sit down with pastor Jackson Lahmeyer to reflect on the assassination of Charlie Kirk and the work of the Trump administration to strengthen religious liberty in America.“We have a lot to learn from Charlie's methodology,” Lahmeyer said. “Charlie would reach you in your mind, but also he'd reach you in your heart, because Charlie cared about people.”“The person was not the enemy. The idea might have been the enemy, but the person was not the enemy. ... That's why Charlie was taken out, because he was so good at reasoning with people,” he said.“It's the model that we need to adopt moving forward if we're going to bring healing and restoration to the country,” he added.Lahmeyer is the author of “Chasing After the Wind: Why Nobody Is Catching What Everybody Is Chasing.”Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

Florida's “Alligator Alcatraz” immigration detention facility in the Everglades has generated considerable buzz and controversy since it was first proposed by Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier.In this episode, we sat down with Uthmeier to discuss Florida's aggressive efforts to curb illegal immigration and fentanyl trafficking, what he sees as the politicization of the U.S. census, and his investigations into surveillance technology.“In Florida, the most recent investigation we launched was into a company, Lorex. They make in-home or in-business cameras, everything from baby cams to nanny cams, doorbell cameras. … They capture the imagery of everything people are doing at home, and consumers do not know about it,” Uthmeier says.Is Florida creating a model for how America can confront its greatest vulnerabilities—and is it testing the boundaries of state power?Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

In a moment that stunned the world, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping were recently caught on a hot mic talking about increasing longevity and even achieving immortality through repeated organ transplants.For the last two decades, we've been reporting how the CCP kills prisoners of conscience, the main body of them being Falun Gong practitioners, for their organs.Joining me today to unpack the significance of this moment and what it teaches us about the inner workings of the CCP is Epoch Times senior investigative journalist Joshua Philipp, host of EpochTV's “Crossroads.”Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

As America has reeled from the assassination of Charlie Kirk, many have wondered what the future holds.How will this tragedy transform America? Will political violence continue to escalate? What is the path forward?To understand our current political and cultural moment, I sat down with legal scholar and political philosopher Robert George. He's a professor and director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University.“We're at an inflection point, and it's very worrying, very dangerous,” George said. “We could easily fall into a cycle of revenge, and then what becomes of us?”For years, he has been contemplating how the age of faith and the age of reason have been succeeded by what he has described as the “age of feelings” and moral relativism.His new book is titled: “Seeking Truth and Speaking Truth: Law and Morality in Our Cultural Moment.”In this episode, we have explored Kirk's legacy, the dangers of ever-growing polarization, and the pernicious ideas that have eroded civil discourse and the foundations of our free society.“If this generation rising today does not adopt a spirit of civic friendship, if they don't value civil discourse, then … this grand experiment in republican government and ordered liberty bequeathed to us by our great founding fathers will be lost,” George said.Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

How have screens and social media altered the brains of children? What is the long-term impact on their happiness and ability to be prosperous, fulfilled adults later on?“Looking at the brain science, we really have to treat screens more in the category of a highly addictive drug like digital fentanyl than sugar,” argues Clare Morell, a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and author of “The Tech Exit: A Practical Guide to Freeing Kids and Teens from Smartphones.”“These companies are in a race to the bottom. They're all in a race to get the youngest users. The incentives are not in place for them to put child safety first,” she says.While many apps advertise parental controls, the reality is there are far more hidden ways children can access addictive, dangerous, or pornographic content than parents may think, Morell says.“I just wanted to push back against this premise that the smartphone is an inevitable part of childhood. It doesn't need to be.”Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

Is it possible that autism, Alzheimer's, bipolar disorder, and other major health challenges might all be related to the gut?That's the question Dr. Sabine Hazan, a gastroenterologist and CEO of Progenabiome, has been probing for years.The Food and Drug Administration recently approved the use of fecal transplants for research into the treatment of autism, and Dr. Hazan says this may open the door to real breakthroughs.She hopes to compare the microbiomes of autistic children with their neurotypical siblings and see if fecal transplants can help treat autism. She's already seen one remarkable case where restoring gut bacteria brought real improvements for a child with autism.Can these findings be replicated on a larger scale?During the COVID-19 pandemic, she observed that people who experienced the worst bouts of COVID-19 seemed to have significantly lower counts of a key microbe: bifidobacteria.“Bifidobacteria is important in absorbing sugar. It's important in your metabolism. It's important in your energy drive,” Dr. Hazan says.There are trillions of microbes in the gut, and scientists are only just starting to discover how this delicate balance of microbes impacts people's health, immunity, and mental wellness, Dr. Hazan says. There are “microbes that can kill us, but also microbes that can save us,” Dr. Hazan says.“You will see, probably in 10 or 50 years from now, there will be a connection between cardiac disease and the microbiome. We will be possibly able to fix the heart by fixing the gut, because it all is connected,” Dr. Hazan says.Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

In this episode, Jeffrey Tucker unpacks President Donald Trump's growing dispute with the Federal Reserve and his efforts to remove Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook for alleged mortgage fraud.“There's a lot more at stake than just this one regulation about residences and mortgages. It has to do with whether and to what extent the Fed is actually accountable to the President of the United States,” says Tucker.He's the founder and president of the Brownstone Institute and senior economics columnist for The Epoch Times.How did the creation of the Federal Reserve fundamentally change America? Does Trump have the authority to fire a Federal Reserve Governor? And what does it really mean to be an independent federal agency?“What's striking to me about this is that the Fed has been around since 1913. This question has never really been asked at this level—much less answered—for all these years in this country,” Tucker says.Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

With President Donald Trump recently challenging pharmaceutical companies to “justify success” of their COVID-19 products, I'm sitting down with scientist, physician, and author Dr. Robert Malone to get his insights into what's going on behind the scenes.Dr. Malone is currently serving as a member of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and also as a medical advisor for MAHA Action.The recent firing of CDC director Susan Monarez was followed by the resignations of several top CDC officials. At the same time, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has also announced that the emergency-use authorization for the COVID-19 vaccine products has been rescinded.Is Trump's recent Truth Social post a turning point in his stance on the COVID-19 vaccines and the success of Operation Warp Speed?What does the future hold for the ACIP? What will they be evaluating in upcoming meetings? And what challenges and major opportunities does Dr. Malone see?Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

In less than a decade, euthanasia has become tied for the fifth leading cause of death in Canada, accounting for one in every 20 deaths since it was first legalized in 2016. Over 60,000 Canadians have died via euthanasia.“This marks a massive cultural shift in how we live and die in Canada,” says Amanda Achtman, a leading critic of the practice and the founder of the Dying to Meet You Project.Patients no longer need to be terminally ill to request euthanasia, and there are ongoing debates about whether minors or people with mental illnesses should be able to apply. Disability advocate groups have been some of the leading critics of the program, arguing it sends a disturbing message: that the lives of those who are disabled are worth less.What are the ethical implications of Canada's euthanasia program? How is it changing family dynamics, societal norms, the meaning of a life well lived, and the fundamental role of a physician?Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

When an 88‑year‑old Tennessee woman confronted representatives of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) when they came to survey her land for a methane gas plant project, her words—“you think you own something, you don't own nothing”—left a lasting impression on country artist John Rich.That moment became the spark for his new song “The Devil and the TVA” and the starting point for this conversation on “American Thought Leaders.”In this episode, Rich reflects on his journey from Texas family sing‑alongs to writing No. 1 hits with bands Lonestar and Big & Rich. He explains why he walked away from major record labels to protect his creative freedom, and he shares how songs like “Revelation” and “Earth to God” to connect present‑day turmoil with enduring spiritual truths.Along the way, he opens up about the lessons he has learned about faith, fame, and standing firm in what matters most.Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

For years, U.S. strategic missteps have empowered Tehran and Beijing, according to political theorist Yoram Hazony. Now, as a new strain of isolationism grows in America, Hazony says, both isolationism and hyper-interventionism have key flaws.In this episode, we dive into President Donald Trump's distinct foreign policy approach as well as what Hazony sees as an assault on nation-states and their right to independent decision-making.Nationalism has been falsely vilified, and global governance has become the new mantra, he says.Hazony recently released a revised edition of his 2018 seminal work, “The Virtue of Nationalism,” which played a key role in bolstering the global national conservatism movement. Hazony is also Chairman of the Edmund Burke Foundation, which hosts the National Conservatism Conference in the United States, Britain, and Europe.Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

Political economist Chenggang Xu grew up amid the upheaval of China's Cultural Revolution and in the 1970s was beaten, imprisoned, and subjected to years of forced labor by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).Today, he is a senior research scholar at the Stanford Center on China's Economy and Institutions, a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and author of the new book, “Institutional Genes: Origins of China's Institutions and Totalitarianism.”For decades, Beijing has repeatedly deceived the world about its true intentions, Xu says. So why do we keep falling for it?In this episode, we dive into the origins of the Chinese Communist Party and why Xu believes its model of totalitarianism is distinct from any other regime today.Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

In this episode, I'm sitting down with award-winning investigative journalist John Solomon, founder and editor-in-chief of Just the News, for a deep dive into what we now know—nine years later—about the origins of the Russia collusion probe. How did these events change America?“We'll never know what history was stolen from us, what opportunities diplomatically were stolen from us, what security opportunities were thwarted because this dirty trick was allowed to extend so far,” Solomon says.Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

How has Hollywood changed in the last several decades, and why are film productions leaving Los Angeles and increasingly going abroad? Where is the industry headed, and what role should Trump's “special ambassadors” to Hollywood play?“Hollywood spent probably the last 15 or 20 years basically telling half of its audience that they don't want them to watch, that they hate them, that they're deplorables,” says actor and filmmaker Nick Searcy. “They've driven half the audience away.”Searcy played James Baker in the Reagan biopic last year and is perhaps best known for his role as Art Mullen in the crime drama “Justified.” He's also the director of “Gosnell: The Trial of America's Biggest Serial Killer,” a film about an abortion doctor who was convicted for the murder of three babies.A few months ago, Searcy released his memoir, “Justify This: A Career Without Compromise.”Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

A few weeks ago, Rabbi Abraham Cooper, a prominent advocate for religious freedom and human rights, was invited to the Presidential Palace in Damascus, Syria, alongside fellow religious freedom advocate Johnnie Moore.They had an intimate meeting with the new president of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa.In this episode, the rabbi shares what he learned about al-Sharaa and whether he believes a peace between Syria and Israel is possible in the near future.“There's a term in Hebrew: It's called Kabdehu ve Hashdehu, [which] means show respect and verify,“ he says. ”So, this is not a ‘kumbaya' moment. This is a moment where there's great leverage.”Cooper previously chaired the U.S. Commission for International Religious Freedom and also serves as associate dean and director of global social action for the Simon Wiesenthal Center.Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

As the Trump administration gives China another 90-day extension on elevated tariffs, I'm sitting down with China analyst Gordon Chang to get his read on U.S.–China trade talks, signs of infighting in Beijing and trouble for Xi Jinping, and the recent destruction of a Chinese coast guard vessel by a Chinese navy warship.Chang is the author of “Plan Red: China's Project to Destroy America.”Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

Canadian-Chinese filmmaker Yan Ma knew from the outset that he was putting himself at risk for making a political thriller about a lab leak in China. “The Unrestricted War” is a movie that was inspired by the cover-up and outbreak of COVID-19 and spotlights how the Chinese Communist Party coerces its citizens, and even foreigners living within China, to achieve its ends.Officials pressured Ma's family members back in China in attempts to coerce him to stop the project. His Chinese team members faced similar pressure. Ethnically Chinese actors refused to participate in the film for fear of the Chinese regime targeting them, ruining their careers, or threatening their families. The actor cast as the lead of the project abruptly backed out just three days before filming, leaving Yan and his casting director scrambling to audition a new lead.In this episode, we dive into some of the extraordinary challenges Yan and his team faced to make this movie a reality, and why he feels it was all worth it.Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

“As an economist, it's extremely important to look at the data, rather than just on a theoretical basis,” says Mark Skousen. “We should be in a recession. Well, we're not in a recession; looks like we're coming out of slow growth, which is really important.”In this episode, I sit down with economist Mark Skousen to discuss taxes, tariffs, trade, and energy.“I think somewhere in between what the Fed wants and what Trump wants is a more reasonable approach to keep this economy on an even keel,” says Skousen. “The other thing that's really positive is President Trump's support for nuclear power, the small nuclear power plants, which don't cost as much and can be done much more efficiently. This is a breakthrough.”We also discuss his latest book, “The Greatest American: Benjamin Franklin, The World's Most Versatile Genius.”“There were many critics of Franklin, but he had a very interesting point of view. He said enemies will teach you a lot about yourself,” says Skousen. “So, you should be grateful for the enemies you have.”Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

How does the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) cognitive warfare manifest in the West? How prevalent is it? And how can Americans recognize it?Few understand this elusive subject better than Robert Spalding. The CEO of Sempre, Spalding is a retired Air Force brigadier general and B-2 stealth bomber pilot, former senior director of strategy at the National Security Council, and author of “War Without Rules: China's Playbook for Global Domination.”“We have these enormous political warfare and psychological warfare campaigns happening in the United States. We have nobody that's responsible for responding to them,” he says.In this episode, he breaks down how the CCP is influencing Americans and weaponizing resources like rare earths. And he explains why key vulnerabilities in America's networks could be exploited in ways devastating to the United States.Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

“Veterans are not being told the risk of their medications,“ says Derek Blumke. “Doctors themselves are not aware of the risks of those medications.”Derek Blumke served 12 years in the US Air Force and Michigan Air National Guard and is a longtime advocate for veterans. A bad experience with psychiatric drugs changed his life trajectory. He has been sounding the alarm about suicide and the overprescription of psychiatric drugs among veterans.“If we're going to treat a firearm with respect that we should and we do, which is making sure there's a safety on, making sure the weapon is not always loaded, don't point at people, this is a similar thing. If one of these medications can cause you to harm yourself or others, you should be told of that. And right now, we're not,” he says.Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

Bob Healey was in his 60s battling terminal cancer with only a product prototype when he sought advice from business coach Clay Clark. Now, his company is booming.It's never too late to succeed, Clark says.After building several multi-million dollar businesses, Clark developed a 14-step system to help budding entrepreneurs turbocharge their ideas.During the pandemic, he helped his clients not just stay afloat but even thrive.In this episode, we dive into how to grow a small business, what business schools fail to teach, and why America must rebuild its manufacturing and industrial capacity.Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times

For years, award-winning investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson has been tracking the rise of censorship, biased “fact-checkers,” and what she describes as narrative-enforcing journalism.How has today's information landscape transformed? What does she make of the recent releases of new documents surrounding the Russia investigation? And will Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the Trump administration be able to fulfill their campaign promises to reform the various health-related agencies?Attkisson is the host of Full Measure and author of a number of bestselling books, including “The Smear,” “Slanted,” “Stonewalled,” and most recently “Follow the Science.”

In this episode, I sit down with the 28th governor of Oklahoma, Kevin Stitt, to learn about how he's reducing his state's vulnerabilities and dependency on communist China.We also dive into Oklahoma's push toward critical-mineral production and the governor's mission to promote economic development and reignite the American Dream.Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

“China is surpassing American strength, whether it be naval forces or nuclear forces,” says retired U.S. Army Col. John Mills.His four-decade career has spanned key roles from the Cold War era to the War on Terror. At the Department of Defense, he directed cybersecurity policy.“I was brought into cyber in 2007 when the threat really was Russian cyber adventurism, but by 2012, from that point onward, it was all China—wasn't even close,” he says. “For every dollar Russia spent on misadventure, China spent 20.”In this episode, we dive into the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP's) influence globally and how it has created what Mills calls a “world on fire.”“All the playing pieces are kind of in place for [CCP leader Xi Jinping] to make his move around the world, to establish China as the dominant nation state, and everything else, all other nations, would be tributary vassal states, including the U.S.,” Mills says.“They are absolutely advancing a relentless onslaught of information warfare, through their media, through their wolf warriors, to advance a Chinese communist message that just drowns out everything else.”Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

Former Trump national security adviser retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn found himself at the center of a national firestorm when he was charged with lying to the FBI over a phone call he had with the Russian ambassador to the United States.The DOJ would later drop the case, saying there was no “legitimate investigative basis” to have targeted him.In his new book “Pardon of Innocence,” he details his story.As new documents are released by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, we sat down with the 33-year military veteran to understand how he sees everything that happened to him, almost a decade later.Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

“A quarter to a half of the exploitation that's happening to our own nation's youth ... it's a caregiver doing it—it's a familial figure,” Jaco Booyens says.He is the founder of Jaco Booyens Ministries (JBM), an anti-human trafficking organization working to protect American children from predatory exploitation.“We're talking about a $52 billion industry of buying and selling predominantly women and children inside this country—American citizens. The discussion about an immigrant child or an immigrant in the country is a completely separate conversation,” he says.Booyens says laws against human trafficking are not being sufficiently enforced. Why are cases continuing to increase, while prosecutions decrease? And how is pornography a “gateway drug” into the trafficking industry?Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

Kelly Walker, a local coffee shop owner in Tucson, Arizona, never imagined how his world would be turned upside down when he started speaking out publicly against COVID-19 mandates and the harm to children.He and Sam Sorbo are cofounders of the Parents Demanding Justice Alliance. They have put together a report detailing alleged actions taken by local authorities to censor, surveil, and pressure parents who protested policies during the COVID-19 pandemic.Editor's Note: Kelly Walker previously has done work for The Epoch Times as a freelance marketing writer. Sam Sorbo previously hosted a show on EpochTV called School's Out with Sam Sorbo. Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

In this episode, Rushan Abbas reveals how the Chinese communist regime has escalated its campaign against the Uyghurs.Uyghurs are being mass surveilled, forcibly sterilized, and exploited as slave labor both in Xinjiang and in other provinces across China. There are growing signs of large-scale forced organ harvesting in the region—including an apparent special lane in the city of Kashgar's airport dedicated to the transport of human organs.In 2018, the Chinese regime imprisoned Rushan Abbas's sister Gulshan in an apparent attempt to silence Rushan. Her sister was sentenced to 20 years in prison, and she has since spent almost seven years detained—with no end in sight.Rushan Abbas is the author of the powerful memoir “Unbroken: One Uyghur's Fight for Freedom.” She is the founder and executive director of the Campaign for Uyghurs and chairperson of the World Uyghur Congress's executive committee.Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

In this exclusive interview, I spoke with Dr. Marty Makary, commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), about his first 100 days in office and how he is transforming the agency.In this wide-ranging interview, we dive into his work to change food guidelines and drug approval processes, reduce supply chain vulnerabilities, and tackle conflicts of interest. We also address criticism of some of the FDA's recent decisions surrounding vaccines.Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a newly established U.S.-backed aid group distributing food in Gaza, is under fire from critics who say hundreds of Gazans have been killed near its distribution sites.But is there a bigger story here?In this episode, I sit down with Johnnie Moore, executive chairman of the GHF and former commissioner for the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.“We have one mission, to feed the people of Gaza in a way that Hamas—a designated terrorist organization in the United States and Europe—can't steal the food because for many, many years, Hamas has been stealing the food of the Gazan people,” Moore says.“The problem in Gaza is that the United Nations and other international agencies created a system which empowered virtually every bad actor and every bad force in the Gaza Strip to make a bad situation worse.”Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

“We're living in this strange day and age when we've essentially bio-hacked all of the things that we do and really come to organize our lives around our little rewards, right? So, we wake up in the morning, we reach for our phones, we have our cup of coffee, we have our favorite muffin.”Dr. Anna Lembke is a psychiatrist, professor, and medical director of addiction medicine at Stanford University. She's the author of “Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence.”“This is, of course, the great paradox, that although we want to avoid pain, our efforts to avoid pain actually lead to more pain,” she says.How have technology and modern living led to mass overconsumption in America?Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
