Heartland Daily Podcast

The Heartland Institute and Heartland UK/Europe have been in Poland and Hungary this week, meeting with leaders of the conservative movement and top politicians. Opposition to Net Zero in Europe is real—and growing. Just a few years ago, even right-leaning public figures were reluctant to publicly oppose the Big Green agenda, and hardly ever spoke of it even in private conversations. Today, climate realism has become a main plank of center-right politics and policy.Heartland Institute President James Taylor and Heartland UK/Europe Director Lois Perry join the show LIVE from Budapest to report on this shift—and take your questions—at 1 p.m. ET.In Episode #159 of The Heartland Institute's The Climate Realism Show, Anthony Watts, Linnea Lueken, H. Sterling Burnett, and Jim Lakely cover the rise of climate realism in Europe and the Crazy Climate News of the Week. That includes: an alarmist imploring us not to “shatter the climate,” climate clergy livestreaming their climate depression marathon, whether cows dream of electric grills, and the validity of a stack of Biden climate executive orders signed by autopen.Be sure to join the chat—we'll show your comments and answer your questions! In The Tank broadcasts LIVE every Thursday at 12pm CT on on The Heartland Institute YouTube channel. Tune in to have your comments addressed live by the In The Tank Crew. Be sure to subscribe and never miss an episode. See you there!Climate Change Roundtable is LIVE every Friday at 12pm CT on The Heartland Institute YouTube channel. Have a topic you want addressed? Join the live show and leave a comment for our panelists and we'll cover it during the live show!

Join The Heartland Institute's Linnea Lueken, S.T. Karnick, and Jim Lakely as they dive into Episode 497 of the In The Tank Podcast. This episode explores timely and provocative topics, including the Democrats' ongoing quest to find their own version of podcast superstar Joe Rogan—can they cultivate a voice that resonates widely in the digital age?The team also discusses President Joe Biden's reliance on the autopen presidency. With Biden increasingly using automation and pre-scripted methods to fulfill presidential duties, what does this mean for transparency, authenticity, and public perception of leadership?Finally, they break down former President Donald Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill." The hosts analyze its economic promises, potential impact on climate and energy policies, and how it stacks up against the Biden administration's previous legislation. Tune in for insightful discussion, sharp analysis, and engaging debate on today's critical issues. In The Tank broadcasts LIVE every Thursday at 12pm CT on on The Heartland Institute YouTube channel. Tune in to have your comments addressed live by the In The Tank Crew. Be sure to subscribe and never miss an episode. See you there!Climate Change Roundtable is LIVE every Friday at 12pm CT on The Heartland Institute YouTube channel. Have a topic you want addressed? Join the live show and leave a comment for our panelists and we'll cover it during the live show!

The "Big Beautiful Act" turned into a big disappointment for Medicaid reform. Instead of adding ways to improve Medicaid benefits, like cutting non-medical spending, Republicans caved. Work requirements and eliminating provider taxes will help, but the failure to fix Medicaid spending now creates major debt headaches just a few years down the road.AnneMarie Schieber, managing editor of Health Care News, and Devon Herrick of the Goodman Institute Health Blog discuss how this golden opportunity was lost in the U.S. House.Also on tap: tips beyond the obvious to bring down your prescription drug bill. Plus, what happened to baby powder? Why does it now feel like chalk? Trial lawyers. Even the American Cancer Society isn't convinced talc is dangerous. And what's a realistic way to understand risk? Vox had a good read on how to consider risk. Devon and AnneMarie agree it's time to "take a deep breath, relax, and educate yourself." We all die; the only difference is when and how. In The Tank broadcasts LIVE every Thursday at 12pm CT on on The Heartland Institute YouTube channel. Tune in to have your comments addressed live by the In The Tank Crew. Be sure to subscribe and never miss an episode. See you there!Climate Change Roundtable is LIVE every Friday at 12pm CT on The Heartland Institute YouTube channel. Have a topic you want addressed? Join the live show and leave a comment for our panelists and we'll cover it during the live show!

Are hospitals locking out Medicare Advantage enrollees? Find out the likely real reason behind the shutout and why we should be worried if MA can no longer compete with traditional fee-for-service Medicare. Join AnneMarie Schieber, managing editor of Health Care News, and Devon Herrick of the Goodman Institute Health Blog as they discuss the latest headlines in health care from a free-market perspective. Also on their radar: the mad rush by states to pass assisted medical suicide bills. Is the U.S. becoming Canada? Is assisted suicide becoming a means to ration ever-escalating health care costs?Additionally, former President Joe Biden's aggressive prostate cancer is receiving increasing attention as Congress probes who knew what—and when—about Biden's cognitive impairment. How in the world could a president not be screened regularly for a condition he previously had? Finally, will it be the carrot or the stick when it comes to creating rules based on the MAHA Commission report? In The Tank broadcasts LIVE every Thursday at 12pm CT on on The Heartland Institute YouTube channel. Tune in to have your comments addressed live by the In The Tank Crew. Be sure to subscribe and never miss an episode. See you there!Climate Change Roundtable is LIVE every Friday at 12pm CT on The Heartland Institute YouTube channel. Have a topic you want addressed? Join the live show and leave a comment for our panelists and we'll cover it during the live show!

Donald Trump achieved a major political and policy victory on Thursday when the U.S. House of Representatives passed what he calls his “Big Beautiful Bill.” The less-creative name is the budget reconciliation bill, which presidents for years have used to implement large parts of their agenda. (That's how we got “Obamacare.”)The bill includes many of Trump's economic policy promises, such as tax cuts, but also rolls back much of the “green” energy and climate policies the Biden administration imposed via the Inflation Reduction Act.Join Heartland's Anthony Watts, Linnea Lueken, H. Sterling Burnett, Jim Lakely, and special guest Steve Milloy LIVE at 1 p.m. ET for Episode #58 of The Climate Realism Show. We'll break down the good, the bad, and the disappointing in the Big Beautiful Bill. We'll also cover the Crazy Climate News of the Week and answer your questions in the chat. In The Tank broadcasts LIVE every Thursday at 12pm CT on on The Heartland Institute YouTube channel. Tune in to have your comments addressed live by the In The Tank Crew. Be sure to subscribe and never miss an episode. See you there!Climate Change Roundtable is LIVE every Friday at 12pm CT on The Heartland Institute YouTube channel. Have a topic you want addressed? Join the live show and leave a comment for our panelists and we'll cover it during the live show!

The legacy media that half this country relies on to inform them about the world is irrevocably broken. For the past five years, they've lied constantly to cover up the biggest political scandal of the century: that Joe Biden has been in accelerating cognitive decline since before he was sworn in as president.Of course, it's worse than that. The media attacked anyone who merely stated that obvious fact, calling what you saw with your own eyes and heard with your own ears “misinformation,” “disinformation,” or even “Russian propaganda.”CNN's Jake Tapper is now promoting his new book Original Sin and pretending that he and the rest of the legacy media innocently missed Biden's decline until his disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump last summer. This, like everything else the media peddles these days, is a lie. Tapper—now serving as an avatar for the entire corrupt media—says he looks back on his coverage of Biden with “humility.” That simply won't do. The word he must use is “regret,” or “embarrassment,” or even “horror.” And that must be coupled with a pledge to stop lying and a promise to be held accountable every single day. This, of course, will not happen.The media has brainwashed half the country into believing things that aren't true and told them to ignore truths staring them in the face. Their corrupt complicity in the cover-up of the century is more dangerous and societally destabilizing than any of the hundreds of fake scares the media peddles about Donald Trump being a “threat to our democracy.”The Heartland Institute's Linnea Lueken, Jim Lakely, and Sam Karnick will discuss this important topic—and more—on Episode #496 of the In the Tank podcast. Join us LIVE at 1 p.m. ET and participate in the show via the chat. In The Tank broadcasts LIVE every Thursday at 12pm CT on on The Heartland Institute YouTube channel. Tune in to have your comments addressed live by the In The Tank Crew. Be sure to subscribe and never miss an episode. See you there!Climate Change Roundtable is LIVE every Friday at 12pm CT on The Heartland Institute YouTube channel. Have a topic you want addressed? Join the live show and leave a comment for our panelists and we'll cover it during the live show!

A new study from the University of Alabama in Huntsville addresses the question of how much the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect is responsible for the higher temperatures at weather stations across the world. Dr. Roy Spencer and Dr. John Christy have spent several years developing a novel method that quantifies, for the first time, the average UHI warming effects related to population density. Their finding: no less than 65% of “runaway global warming” is not caused by our emissions of carbon dioxide, but by the urbanization of the world.Dr. Spencer will join us to go over his findings. We'll also cover the Crazy Climate News of the Week, including an absurd new bit of unscientific propaganda from the U.S. Climate Reference Network at NOAA, wonder if the sun is setting on wide-scale solar energy, and discuss how alarmists refuse to see that we live in a climactic “golden age”—and more.Join Heartland's Anthony Watts, Linnea Lueken, H. Sterling Burnett, Jim Lakely, and Dr. Roy Spencer LIVE at 1 p.m. ET for Episode #157 of The Climate Realism Show. We'll be answering questions in the chat for us, and for Dr. Spencer, on the show. In The Tank broadcasts LIVE every Thursday at 12pm CT on on The Heartland Institute YouTube channel. Tune in to have your comments addressed live by the In The Tank Crew. Be sure to subscribe and never miss an episode. See you there!Climate Change Roundtable is LIVE every Friday at 12pm CT on The Heartland Institute YouTube channel. Have a topic you want addressed? Join the live show and leave a comment for our panelists and we'll cover it during the live show!

The Heartland Institute and Rasmussen just completed another polling study—this one asking people how worried they are about AI and what should be done about it legislatively. To no one's surprise, people are worried and think the government has a responsibility to get ahead of it.We'll also cover the way people can fool even themselves with AI, how some are totally outsourcing their thinking to it, what effect that has (or seems to have), and what the mass expansion of AI is going to do to the economy—especially in terms of energy demand and white-collar jobs. The Heartland Institute's Linnea Lueken, Jim Lakely, Chris Talgo, S.T. Karnick, and Donald Kendal will discuss all this and more on Episode #495 of the In the Tank Podcast. In The Tank broadcasts LIVE every Thursday at 12pm CT on on The Heartland Institute YouTube channel. Tune in to have your comments addressed live by the In The Tank Crew. Be sure to subscribe and never miss an episode. See you there!Climate Change Roundtable is LIVE every Friday at 12pm CT on The Heartland Institute YouTube channel. Have a topic you want addressed? Join the live show and leave a comment for our panelists and we'll cover it during the live show!

The Heartland Institute and Rasmussen Reports released a new poll showing that 71% of Democrats support Elon Musk being IMPRISONED for his DOGE work. This insane position is held by 80% of self-reported "liberals" from the polling. The poll results were released the same day as this episode.This is sadly not very shocking, as we take a look at what leftist-dominated Reddit says about Elon in our Unhinged segment. We also discuss DOGE's work so far, including issues at the U.S. Treasury Department, and whether or not the pork uncovered by DOGE is actually being cut. It seems many representatives want the spending to keep on rolling along. The Heartland Institute's Linnea Lueken, Jim Lakely, Chris Talgo, and S.T. Karnick will discuss all of this and more on Episode 494 of the In the Tank Podcast. In The Tank broadcasts LIVE every Thursday at 12pm CT on on The Heartland Institute YouTube channel. Tune in to have your comments addressed live by the In The Tank Crew. Be sure to subscribe and never miss an episode. See you there!Climate Change Roundtable is LIVE every Friday at 12pm CT on The Heartland Institute YouTube channel. Have a topic you want addressed? Join the live show and leave a comment for our panelists and we'll cover it during the live show!

A new paper by Dr. Judith Curry, one of the world's most prominent scientists skeptical of a looming human-caused climate catastrophe, and economist Harry DeAngelo cautions investors and the public that “the apocalyptic climate narrative is a seriously flawed guide for public policy.” Why? “Because it radically overstates the risks to humanity from continued global warming.” Wide-scale suppression of fossil fuel use will not measurably change future temperatures, but “a sharp decline in quality of life would surely ensue.”We are proud to welcome Dr. Curry back to the show to dig deeper into her paper. We will also cover the Crazy Climate News of the Week, including a “die-in” at NOAA, how the polar ice crisis narrative is melting, Bernie Sanders wanting to ban gasoline cars but still flying private jets, and why climate change is not causing kids to miss more school days.

In mid-April, Spain's socialist government bragged that, for the first time, the nation was powered by 100 percent “renewable” energy—mostly solar and wind. One week later, Spain, Portugal, parts of France, and several other countries suffered the largest peacetime blackout in their histories. Net Zero came to Europe all right—as in zero energy. We were perhaps seconds away from nearly the entire continent going dark. Yet again, wind, solar, and other “renewables” proved they simply cannot generate the consistent power needed to keep a complex electricity grid stable. We've been warning about this for a while, and today we'll break down exactly what happened.The Heartland Institute's Sterling Burnett, Anthony Watts, Linnea Lueken, and Jim Lakely will also cover some “Crazy Climate News of the Week,” including the federal government scrapping the so-called “social cost of carbon,” NASA's climate-alarmism office above the Seinfeld diner getting shut down, and a newly minted map of climate anxiety. In The Tank broadcasts LIVE every Thursday at 12pm CT on on The Heartland Institute YouTube channel. Tune in to have your comments addressed live by the In The Tank Crew. Be sure to subscribe and never miss an episode. See you there!Climate Change Roundtable is LIVE every Friday at 12pm CT on The Heartland Institute YouTube channel. Have a topic you want addressed? Join the live show and leave a comment for our panelists and we'll cover it during the live show!

Will AI replace your doctor? Bill Gates seems to think so. In today's podcast, AnneMarie Schieber, managing editor of Health Care News, and Devon Herrick of the Goodman Institute Health Blog discuss where AI can be a benefit—such as reducing medical error. But when it comes to replacing highly trained medical doctors to reduce the doctor shortage and save money for insurance companies, Herrick and Schieber say "nada."Also in the podcast: how tariff policy could impact the low cost of generic drugs in the U.S., and how far Trump should go in getting foreign countries to pay their fair share of drug R&D. Herrick and Schieber also discuss states now authorizing ivermectin to be sold over the counter, and why it's so difficult for Medicare patients to get good post-acute hospital care. Lots of gaps—and reasons why facilities are closing. In The Tank broadcasts LIVE every Thursday at 12pm CT on on The Heartland Institute YouTube channel. Tune in to have your comments addressed live by the In The Tank Crew. Be sure to subscribe and never miss an episode. See you there!Climate Change Roundtable is LIVE every Friday at 12pm CT on The Heartland Institute YouTube channel. Have a topic you want addressed? Join the live show and leave a comment for our panelists and we'll cover it during the live show!

Spend any time at all watching or reading the news, and you may notice an odd trend in the Democrat party-- they seem to be embracing policies more and more that totally alienate the "normies," people who hold generally average views on social and political issues. Democrats increasingly favor extreme positions, like defending gang members and embracing ideologies that would have been universally rejected just a few years ago. Where it may end is anyone's guess, we try to parse it out here.We also cover anti-gun activist David Hogg's potential expulsion from the DNC, how Trump Derangement Syndrome apparently was the deciding factor for many baby boomers in Canada,  and a look back on Trump's first hundred days as President, part deux. The Heartland Institute's Linnea Lueken, Jim Lakely, Chris Talgo, and S.T. Karnick will discuss all of this and more on Episode #492 of the In the Tank Podcast. In The Tank broadcasts LIVE every Thursday at 12pm CT on on The Heartland Institute YouTube channel. Tune in to have your comments addressed live by the In The Tank Crew. Be sure to subscribe and never miss an episode. See you there!Climate Change Roundtable is LIVE every Friday at 12pm CT on The Heartland Institute YouTube channel. Have a topic you want addressed? Join the live show and leave a comment for our panelists and we'll cover it during the live show!

In news that has climate alarmists in an even greater panic, the Trump administration is ending funding for the U.S. Global Change Research Program, the panel that produced the federal government's National Climate Assessment every four years. Several officials in the office have reportedly been fired, and Trump's NASA has canceled the contract with the firm that coordinates the production of the National Climate Assessment. Defenders of the program say the report has been a “comprehensive look at climate change,” but has that ever been true?The Heartland Institute's Anthony Watts, Sterling Burnett, Linnea Lueken, and Jim Lakely will discuss this topic and also cover some of the Crazy Climate News of the Week. In The Tank broadcasts LIVE every Thursday at 12pm CT on on The Heartland Institute YouTube channel. Tune in to have your comments addressed live by the In The Tank Crew. Be sure to subscribe and never miss an episode. See you there!Climate Change Roundtable is LIVE every Friday at 12pm CT on The Heartland Institute YouTube channel. Have a topic you want addressed? Join the live show and leave a comment for our panelists and we'll cover it during the live show!

The Net Zero project in Great Britain, so the country does it's part to stop climate change, has a true believer behind it in leftist Prime Minister Keir Starmer. But recent opinion polls show the public is starting to turn dramatically against it, especially when the economic costs become increasingly real. A London Times poll in November found that 92% of the British public viewed Labour's specific Net Zero plans—particularly the 2030 clean power goal—as unrealistic. Despite a foolish drive to “deindustrialize” the UK, force residents to buy expensive heat pumps, and reducing agriculture, the government's own Climate Change Committee frets that the efforts are woefully inadequate. Is the whole project in danger of collapsing due to the weight of its utter infeasibility? Or is that wishful thinking for the people of Britain and climate realists worldwide?The Heartland Institute's Anthony Watts, Sterling Burnett, Linnea Lueken, Jim Lakely will discuss this topic and more with special guest Lois Perry, the director of Heartland UK/Europe. We will also cover some of the Crazy Climate News of the Week, including the closing of an EPA museum that no one knew existed, how clinical climate anxiety continues to rise, and how global warming is causing your dog to stress out. In The Tank broadcasts LIVE every Thursday at 12pm CT on on The Heartland Institute YouTube channel. Tune in to have your comments addressed live by the In The Tank Crew. Be sure to subscribe and never miss an episode. See you there!Climate Change Roundtable is LIVE every Friday at 12pm CT on The Heartland Institute YouTube channel. Have a topic you want addressed? Join the live show and leave a comment for our panelists and we'll cover it during the live show!

Tariffs are the subject of heated debate not just between Democrats and Republicans, but within the spectrum of right wing economic thought as well. Trump has announced reciprocal tariffs for every country on the planet, in an attempt to end unfair trade imbalances across the board. Some countries have already started falling in line, the question is, what will the end result for American citizens be?The Heartland Institute's Linnea Lueken, Jim Lakely, Chris Talgo, and S.T. Karnick will discuss. Join us as we also discuss the staff purges at various U.S. health agencies, Tim Walz' weird Marxist comic book, the house arrest of Marine Le Pen, and more on Episode #490 of the In the Tank Podcast. In The Tank broadcasts LIVE every Thursday at 12pm CT on on The Heartland Institute YouTube channel. Tune in to have your comments addressed live by the In The Tank Crew. Be sure to subscribe and never miss an episode. See you there!Climate Change Roundtable is LIVE every Friday at 12pm CT on The Heartland Institute YouTube channel. Have a topic you want addressed? Join the live show and leave a comment for our panelists and we'll cover it during the live show!

The scientific community and the media are focused almost exclusively by how greenhouse gas emissions affect the climate — from power plants to automobiles to your fireplace to your gas stove, and even cow farts. But what about that big ball of gas in the sky? Why does it get short shrift when it comes to the causes of climate change?The Heartland Institute's Anthony Watts, Linnea Lueken, Jim Lakely will discuss this topic, asked for by many of the show's fans, with one of the leading solar and climate experts in the world: Dr. Willie Soon. We will also cover some of the Crazy Climate News of the Week, including a global warming conference that got snowed in, how climate change is affecting your naps, a promise by the crazies in Just Stop Oil to cease all its childish “direct action” to save the planet, and a debunking of human-caused climate change causing cherry blossoms to bloom too early.SUPPORT THE SHOW! https://donate.heartland.org/campaign/599325/donateJoin us LIVE at 1 p.m. ET for every episode of The Climate Realism show and we will answer your questions in the chat.WILLIE SOON'S presentation as a PDF: https://heartland.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Willie-Soon-March28-2025-slides-for-Heartland-podcast.pdf In The Tank broadcasts LIVE every Thursday at 12pm CT on on The Heartland Institute YouTube channel. Tune in to have your comments addressed live by the In The Tank Crew. Be sure to subscribe and never miss an episode. See you there!Climate Change Roundtable is LIVE every Friday at 12pm CT on The Heartland Institute YouTube channel. Have a topic you want addressed? Join the live show and leave a comment for our panelists and we'll cover it during the live show!

How can you consent to paying for something if you don't know the price? In today's podcast, AnneMarie Schieber of Health Care News and Devon Herrick of the Goodman Institute Health Care Blog talk about New York State's decision to ban “consent to pay” forms at medical practices. Also on tap: reforming health care without a political fight, the RESULT Act being reintroduced, which fast-tracks successful treatments in trusted countries but comes too late for one Alzheimer's patient, “Name it to tame it,” is over-diagnosing symptoms driving up health care utilization?—and has private equity ruined the doctor-patient relationship?Be sure to check out Health Care News at the Heartland.org website and the Goodman Institute Health Blog for the free-market perspective on the very latest in health care news.  In The Tank broadcasts LIVE every Thursday at 12pm CT on on The Heartland Institute YouTube channel. Tune in to have your comments addressed live by the In The Tank Crew. Be sure to subscribe and never miss an episode. See you there!Climate Change Roundtable is LIVE every Friday at 12pm CT on The Heartland Institute YouTube channel. Have a topic you want addressed? Join the live show and leave a comment for our panelists and we'll cover it during the live show!

The 2024 election will go down in history as a radical and lasting political realignment in America on the right. The Republican Party of the 80s and 90s is gone, and with it the influence of past presidents and the thought leaders of the right. In their place is a new populism led by former Democrats who were driven out by radical leftists. But is this unusual coalition of former Democrats and populist writers and YouTube stars built to last?The Heartland Institute's Linnea Lueken, Jim Lakely, Chris Talgo, and S.T. Karnick will discuss. Plus, we will cover the Supreme Court ruling on “ghost guns,” the defunding of American Pravda (NPR and PBS), and more on Episode #489 of the In the Tank Podcast.SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://donate.heartland.org/campaign/594169/donate

Heartland's Tim Benson is joined by Frank Trentmann, professor of history at Birkbeck, University of London, to discuss his latest book, Out of the Darkness: The Germans, 1942–2022. They chat about how a nation whose past has been marked by mass murder, a people who cheered Adolf Hitler, reinvented themselves, and by how much. Get the book here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/554959/out-of-the-darkness-by-frank-trentmann/Show Notes:Literary Review: David Blackbourn – “A Mercedes in Every Garage”https://literaryreview.co.uk/a-mercedes-in-every-garageNew York Review of Books: Timothy Garton Ash – “Big Germany, What Now?”https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2024/05/23/big-germany-what-now-timothy-garton-ash/The New Statesman: Brendan Simms – “What it means to be German”https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/2023/12/meaning-modern-germany-brenadan-simmsThe Times: Oliver Moody – “Out of the Darkness by Frank Trentmann review — how Germans became good (and rather complacent)”https://www.thetimes.com/culture/books/article/out-of-the-darkness-by-frank-trentmann-review-9rc5n8kbd?region=globalTimes Literary Supplement: Ben Hutchinson – “New moral order”https://www.the-tls.co.uk/history/twentieth-century-onwards-history/after-the-nazis-michael-h-kater-out-of-the-darkness-frank-trentmann-book-review-ben-hutchinsonThe Wall Street Journal: Ian Brunskill – “‘Out of the Darkness' Review: War Crimes and Remembrance”https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/books/out-of-the-darkness-review-war-crimes-and-remembrance-0b830556The Washington Post: Bryn Stole – “An ambitious history of Germany interrogates the country's moral makeover”https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2024/04/18/out-darkness-germans-nazis-legacy-frank-trentmann-review/

Can you beat a medical bill you feel is unfair?  AnneMarie Schieber and Devon Herrick discuss their personal experience.  Can Congress rein in Medicaid?  Many ideas being consider:  block grants to states, changing funding rates for expanded Medicaid, work requirements.  Do enrollees value Medicaid or waste it?  Schieber and Herrick also discuss “gutting the FDA.” Herrick discusses why DOGE and the Trump administration might want to proceed cautiously. New parody book out critical of MI Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and her pandemic lockdowns.  True Gretchen is a hilarious parody of the governor's own tome, True Gretch. Be sure to check out Health Care News at the Heartland.org website and the health care blog and the Goodman Institute Health Blog for the free market perspective on the very latest in health care news.

Hours before his confirmation hearing, former Rep. Dave Weldon's nomination to head the CDC was withdrawn.   Weldon has been a vaccine critic. How much of a role did Big Pharma play? AnneMarie Schieber and Devon Herrick also talk about the growing focus on vaccines, and the history of vaccine policy. Most recently the Trump's administration to nix vaccines on chickens for bird flu.  Also in the podcast, state AGs take the first step in going after Anthony Fauci for violating state laws when handing the COVID-19 pandemic. A company offers indemnity style health insurance for direct primary care members, and how “meritocracy” is bad for your health. Also, how spouses age differently and how this can complicate health care decisions. 

The other day, Donald Kendall, director of the Glenn C. Haskins Emerging Issues Center at the Heartland Institute, was a guest on the Shawn Thompson Show on AM 560 The Answer in Chicago.Donald is a regular guest on Sean's show and was invited on this time to talk about a new heartlands to paper titled The High Cost of Green Scams, assessing the Green Giveaways in the Inflation Reduction Act.Donald details how the whole thing was a scheme designed to enrich the politically connected. It had nothing to do with fighting climate change, let alone reducing inflation.Have a listen.Donate here: https://heartland.org/donate/

The new EPA administrator, Lee Zeldin, dropped the Mother of All Bombs this week on the radical environmental agenda that has dominated Washington, DC since the start of the Obama administration. If it holds, the impact will be devastating.The Heartland Institute's Sterling Burnett and Jim Lakely are joined by SPECIAL GUESTS Matthew M. Wielicki, Ph.D.—an earth science professor-in-exile from “official” academia at the University of Alabama—and Steve Milloy, who served in Trump's EPA Transition Team in his first presidency.

Who actually runs this country? Voters asked for real change in November, and Donald Trump and his team are doing all they can to deliver it as quickly as possible. Yet federal judges use questionable authority to thwart it, keeping the Deep State status quo of unaccountable opposition to the people's will — which includes shoveling YOUR MONEY to their connected leftist cronies.Who is really in charge of the Executive Branch of the United States? The Constitution says it's the president, who was elected by all the people to direct the administrative state. The legacy media and even some conservative legal scholars say: “It's complicated.” Is it, really?On episode #488 of The Heartland Institute's In the Tank Podcast, host Linnea Lueken, Jim Lakely, Chris Talgo, and S.T. Karnick discuss the escalating resistance to the restoration of a government that serves the people and its elected representatives, instead of the other way around.

The Heartland Institute's Donald Kendal, Jim Lakely, and Chris Talgo present episode 487 of the In The Tank Podcast. Former ITT host Donald Kendal returns after only a few months and the world has gone insane. Suddenly, the left is burning the most popular electric vehicles while a Republican President promotes them in front of the White House. No, the world did not go insane, it was driven to insanity by an incredibly corrupt media system - a media system that has lied to us about virtually everything. We cover some more examples of this on this week's episode.Support the show! https://heartland.org/donate/

The Heartland Institute's Tim Benson wrote a paper analyzing the money funneled to green groups through the Inflation Reduction Act, where everything predictably cost way more than our government claimed. The Supreme Court decided that a district judge could tell the President when and how to pay USAID contractors, and Canada retaliates against Trump's tariffs. The President gave his first address to Congress, to the surprise of no one, the Democrats hated it.The Heartland Institute's Linnea Lueken, Jim Lakely, Sam Karnick, and Tim Benson will discuss all of this and more on this episode of the In The Tank podcast.

Big news this week as EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has reportedly told the White House it should officially abandon the ruling that greenhouse gases pose a threat to human health and welfare. The so-called “endangerment finding” for carbon dioxide and methane emissions forms the backbone of government regulations to “fight climate change” by heavily regulating everything from power plants to automobiles to stoves. Will President Trump repeal the endangerment finding? Can he do it unilaterally? We will discuss.Also, NOAA has “homogenized” the temperature data again. What does that mean? And does it correct the historical record, or distort it to support the alarmist global warming narrative?In “climate grift” news, Climate Crusader Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse has been caught backing legislation that funneled millions of taxpayer dollars to his wife's nonprofit organization. How convenient, and corrupt.And good news, everyone! The absurd plot of the climate disaster movie The Day After Tomorrow is not actually going to happen, despite alarmist “scientists” claiming it could be imminent.

Heartland's Tim Benson is joined by David L. Roll, founder of the Lex Mundi Pro Bono Foundation, to discuss his latest book, Ascent to Power: How Truman Emerged from Roosevelt's Shadow and Remade the World. They chat about Truman's struggles to emerge as president in his own right after his accidental ascension to the office and how Truman's decisions during these pivotal years changed the course of the world in ways so significant we live with them today.Get the book here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/690665/ascent-to-power-by-david-l-roll/Show Notes:Foreign Affairs: Jessica T. Mathews – “Review: ‘Ascent to Power: How Truman Emerged From Roosevelt's Shadow and Remade the World'”https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/ascent-power-how-truman-emerged-roosevelts-shadow-and-remade-worldWall Street Journal: Robert W. Merry – “'Ascent to Power' Review: Harry Truman's Moment”https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/books/ascent-to-power-review-harry-trumans-moment-e5654cb0

In this episode of Health Care News, hosts AnneMarie Schieber and Devon Herrick dive into the critical debates shaping health care today. They discuss the potential expansion of Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), exploring proposals from Rep. Chip Roy and policy experts who argue HSAs could significantly improve coverage, especially for gig workers and those seeking direct care options.AnneMarie and Devon also highlight Ohio's groundbreaking step to enforce price transparency at hospitals—holding institutions accountable by barring debt collection if hospitals fail to disclose clear pricing. Additionally, they examine troubling conflicts of interest within medical boards, spotlighting cases from Texas and beyond, raising crucial questions about whether medical boards protect patients or physicians' profits.Tune in for these insights and more in this timely discussion on the evolving landscape of health care policy.

The FBI is investigating an alleged "honeypot" operation against the 2016 Trump campaign, in which Comey's FBI may have planted female agents to try to compromise Trump. It has been a tough week for our mainstream media elites—multiple MSM personalities were fired or retired, and Jake Tapper is pretending he wasn't involved in covering up Biden's obvious decline. Bezos cracks the whip on The Washington Post Opinion section writers, and the White House Correspondents' Association loses its special status as press pool wranglers.The Heartland Institute's Linnea Lueken, Jim Lakely, and Chris Talgo will discuss all this and more on this episode of the In The Tank podcast.

Physicist C. Michael Hogan says the evidence shows that we do not face a climate crisis and that there is no existential threat. Instead, now, as throughout history, a warmer world is improving life. Attempts to fight climate change by forcing wind, solar, and battery power onto the grid are undermining the nation's electric power supply, costing enormous sums of money, and damaging the environment. Gas and nuclear power, not wind and solar, are the future.  

Elon Musk's DOGE crew continues to shine a light on how our federal government operates, and it is exposing more climate grift than even the most cynical among us could have imagined. The latest involves the EPA giving failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams $2 billion to expand "clean energy by prioritizing housing, equity, and resilience." Her organization, Power Forward Communities, says it will install heat pumps, solar panels, EV chargers, and other "green" technology. Does Abrams have any expertise in this field? No. In fact, her organization incorporated itself with $100 in the bank just months before receiving $2 billion of our tax money. The Washington Free Beacon also reported this week that the man Biden put in charge of the EPA's "Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund" funneled $5 billion to his former employer, something called the Coalition for Green Capital.The climate grifters are being exposed, and the EPA is trying to claw these billions of dollars back. But how deep does the corruption go? We're bringing in Steve Milloy of the Energy and Environmental Legal Institute, an EPA transition team member in Trump's first term, to get a handle on it. The Heartland Institute's Anthony Watts, H. Sterling Burnett, Linnea Lueken, and Jim Lakely will also cover some of the Crazy Climate News of the Week, including a look at NOAA data showing the second-biggest month-to-month temperature drop since 2009.

The "experts" are still trying to rewrite the narrative on the government response to COVID, and one of President Trump's picks supports the questionable PRO Act. Meanwhile, VP Vance had strong words for the Orwellian language controls in Germany, and DOGE continues to uncover corrupt and wasteful government spending.The Heartland Institute's Linnea Lueken, Jim Lakely, and Chris Talgo will discuss all of this and more on this episode of the In The Tank podcast.

Heartland's Tim Benson is joined by Harold Holzer, director of the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College, to discuss his latest book, Brought Forth on This Continent: Abraham Lincoln and American Immigration. They chat about the immigration situation in the United States in the 30 years leading up the Civil War, how immigrants forever altered the country's demographics, culture, and voting patterns, how tensions over immigration broke apart the Whig Party and lead to the formation of the Republican Party, and how Lincoln evolved into a champion for immigration. Get the book here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/558372/brought-forth-on-this-continent-by-harold-holzer/

The good news for climate realists and better governance in the Trump administration is piling up so fast it is difficult to keep up. As we covered on this show on December 6, a bit of undercover journalism by Project Veritas exposed a left-wing staffer at the Environmental Protection Agency admitting that he and others were trying to get billions of our tax money “out as fast as possible” before the Trump administration arrived in January and put a stop to it. “It truly feels like we're on the Titanic and we're throwing gold bars off the edge,” laughed Brent Efron, former “special advisor for implementation” at EPA. Well, new EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced this week that he has jumped into his submersible and snatched the gold bars ($20 billion) out of the hands of unaccountable lefty nonprofit “NGOs” and returned them to the treasury. The endless flow of our tax money going to environmental extremists groups who advocate against America's interest seems to be coming to an endThe Heartland Institute's Anthony Watts, Sterling Burnett, Linnea Lueken, and Jim Lakely, will also talk about how the Paris Climate Agreement seems to be breaking apart, provide a media “Climate Fact Check” for January, check in on the continuing failure of EVs, show you what a “dying coyote” climate protest looks and sounds like, and more.DONATE to support the show. http://heartland.org/tcrs

Carefully constructed narratives and funding related to public health are being re-evaluated by this new administration, bringing sunlight to disinfect a contaminated NIH. Critics of President Trump and DOGE claim that Trump's actions represent a Constitutional crisis, Politico finally admits that Democrats were wrong to claim the economy was great under Biden, and RFK's confirmation process continues amid significant pushback.The Heartland Institute's Linnea Lueken, Jim Lakely, and special guest Bonner Cohen, senior fellow with the National Center for Public Policy Research, will cover all of this and more on this episode of the In The Tank podcast.Join us LIVE at 1 p.m. ET and enjoy the live chat!

Heartland's Tim Benson is joined by Brian VanDeMark, professor of history at the United States Naval Academy, to discuss his latest book, Kent State: An American Tragedy. They chat about the context of the divided cultural landscape of America during the Vietnam War and heightened popular anxieties around the country, how the shootings came to take place, the reductive narratives that ensued, the victims of the shooting, and the impact of that day on the Guardsmen who were there. Get the book here: https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324066255Show Notes:Los Angeles Review of Books: Tom Zoellner – “Yelling ‘Fire' on a Crowded Knoll”https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/yelling-fire-on-a-crowded-knoll/Los Angeles Times: Chris Vognar – “A meticulous, pain-filled history of the senseless slaughter at Kent State”https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2024-08-05/brian-vandemark-kent-state-an-american-tragedyNational Review: Paul Baumann – “What Happened at Kent State?”https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2024/10/what-happened-at-kent-state/Times Literary Supplement: John McMillian – “Civil unrest”https://www.the-tls.co.uk/regular-features/in-brief/kent-state-brian-vandemark-book-review-john-mcmillian

 Join us as we dive into President Trump's bold “Unleashing American Energy” executive order—a decisive move to free America's most valuable resources, from coal and oil to natural gas and nuclear power. In this episode, we contrast this strategic shift with policies favoring costly, unreliable renewable alternatives, and explore how a return to sensible energy choices could redefine our national landscape. Dr. Sterling Burnett shares his insights on how unlocking America's energy potential can safeguard our cherished resources while powering progress. Tune in for a informative conversation on why embracing our energy independence matters now more than ever! 

President Trump has struck the Biden administration's climate and energy policy like a hurricane – from increasing energy exploration and extraction, to letting 1,000 employees at the Environmental Protection Agency know they could be fired at any time, to taking all mentions of climate change from the website of the Department of Agriculture, and more. But what will be the Trump Effect on the global climate agenda? Will the dedication to reorder the economies and societies of the world to “save the planet” being to crumble? And if so, which country will give up first?President Trump has struck the Biden administration's climate and energy policy like a hurricane—ranging from increasing energy exploration and extraction to informing 1,000 Environmental Protection Agency employees that they could be fired at any time, to removing all mentions of climate change from the Department of Agriculture's website, and more. But what will be the "Trump Effect" on the global climate agenda? Will the dedication to reorganizing the world's economies and societies to “save the planet” begin to crumble? And if so, which country will be the first to give up?

The Trump administration's efforts to dismantle the status quo continue, causing the right people to worry about their next paychecks. Nations around the world are coming to the negotiation table on subjects no one thought they would, while some very unstable individuals are attempting to incite violence in retaliation against Trump's efforts.The Heartland Institute's Linnea Lueken, Jim Lakely, and H. Sterling Burnett dig into these subjects, with a special focus on Elon Musk's DOGE and how a simple funding freeze and a small audit are making the entire deep state panic—while awakening average Americans to the true extent of wasteful government spending through groups like USAID. 

Heartland's Tim Benson is joined by David Reynolds, emeritus professor of international history at Christ's College, Cambridge University, to discuss his latest book, Mirrors of Greatness: Churchill and the Leaders Who Shaped Him. They reevaluate Churchill's life by viewing it through the eyes of his allies and adversaries like Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, FDR, Chamberlain, Attlee, De Gaulle, and Gandhi, as well as his own family. They also chat about Churchill's lifelong struggle to overcome his political failures and his evolving grasp of what “greatness” truly entailed.  Get the book here: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/david-reynolds/mirrors-of-greatness/9781541620209/?lens=basic-booksShow Notes:The Wall Street Journal: Robert D. Kaplan – “‘Mirrors of Greatness' Review: Churchill's Personal Diplomacy”https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/books/mirrors-of-greatness-review-churchills-personal-diplomacy-c8e300e3Washington Examiner: Sean Durns – “Making history with Winston Churchill”https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/2838794/making-history-with-winston-churchill/

H. Sterling Burnett, director of the Arthur B. Robinson Center on Climate and Environmental Policy at The Heartland Institute, was a guest recently on the Bill Cunningham Show on WLW radio in Cincinnati. He was invited on to talk about Donald Trump withdrawing the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement and the blizzard of executive orders he issued reversing all of the Biden administration's climate and energy policies.

The historic and devastating fires in Los Angeles exposed the incompetence of leaders such as Gov. Gavin Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass. So how do state legislators want to address that? By allowing victims who had their lives destroyed sue Big Oil. Of course. The Heartland Institute's Anthony Watts and Jim Lakely blow holes in that absurd political stunt and also discuss other recent to abuse the courts to push climate alarmism.Also, Lee Zeldin has just started his first week as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, and already the environmental left is terrified that the days of considering human emissions of carbon dioxide are coming to an end. We will dig deeper into the EPA's “endangerment finding” for CO2 and whether it can be overturned in the next four years. We will also cover some of the “Crazy Climate News of the Week.”

It's an understatement to say that Donald Trump hit the ground running to start his interrupted second term. The speed and precision with which he has canceled nearly every achievement of the Biden nothing this country has ever seen before. It is simply breathtaking, and happening at such a frenetic pace it is difficult to keep up.The Heartland Institute's Linnea Lueken, Jim Lakely, and Chris Talgo will do their best, though. Trump has issued hundreds of executive orders on all sorts of policy areas. On immigration, he closed the border, sent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) across America to round up and deport criminal illegal aliens, and even suggested he'll use Gitmo to house them until flights back to their country of origin can be arranged. And he also declared that the federal government will no longer put up with “sanctuary” cities and states harboring illegals.Trump froze all federal grants to assess whether they are worth continuing or canceling because they are wasteful or harmful to America. He demanded the federal workforce actually show up in the office again, or be fired or resign with severance. He's frozen all foreign aid to determine its wisdom. Trump has allowed America's energy sector to go full ahead again, and even fired the alarmist scientific advisory board at the EPA. What have we left out? Who can keep up? We will talk about what is nothing less than the most-transformative first 10 days a president has had in American history.

Heartland's Tim Benson is joined by Tyson Reeder, assistant professor of history at Brigham Young University, to discuss his new book, Serpent in Eden: Foreign Meddling and Partisan Politics in James Madison's America. They chat about the espionage, shadow diplomacy, foreign scheming, and domestic backstabbing in the formative years of the American republic, and how an infant nation adjusting to rancorous partisan politics, aggravated by the untested and imperfect new tools of governance and the growing power of media, was exploited by foreign powers to advance their own agendas. Get the book here: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/serpent-in-eden-9780197628591?cc=us&lang=en&Show Notes:Law & Liberty: Sam Negus – “The Old World and the Young Republic”https://lawliberty.org/book-review/the-old-world-and-the-young-republic/The Wall Street Journal: Mark G. Spencer – “‘Serpent in Eden': Foreign Spies and False Allies”https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/books/serpent-in-eden-review-spies-lies-and-false-allies-5a34e6e8

The Heartland Institute's Donald Kendal, Jim Lakely, and Chris Talgo present episode 480 of the In The Tank Podcast. At the beginning of his inaugural address, President Donald Trump declared "The golden age of America begins right now." And within hours of this statement, Donald Trump began signing a series of executive orders, taking the first steps toward fulfilling this promise. On this week's episode, the ITT crew is taking a look at these executive orders and the promises made by Trump to help determine if we are back on track to once again achieve greatness in the United States of America.SHOW NOTES:TRUMP'S INAUGURATION White House - The Inaugural Addresshttps://www.whitehouse.gov/remarks/2025/01/the-inaugural-address/DAY 1 EXECUTIVE ORDERSNYT - Trump's Executive Orders: Reversing Biden's Policies and Attacking the 'Deep State'https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/20/us/politics/trump-executive-orders-list.htmlNYT - Trump Signs Orders to Promote Fossil Fuels and End Climate Policieshttps://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/20/climate/trump-emergency-oil-gas.htmlA TIME OF UNITY OR DIVISION?NBC News - Trump says his inaugural will be about unity. It might be a tough sellhttps://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-says-inaugural-will-unity-going-tough-sell-rcna183484PROJECT STARGATEThe Federalist - Trump Announces $500B AI Infrastructure Plan That Could Help Cure Cancerhttps://thefederalist.com/2025/01/22/trump-announces-500b-ai-infrastructure-plan-that-could-help-cure-cancer/OpenAI - Announcing The Stargate Projecthttps://openai.com/index/announcing-the-stargate-project/

President Trump wasted no time after his inauguration on Monday reversing all of his predecessor's executive orders that made climate alarmism and “green” energy the focus of American government. He didn't just reverse bad policies, and pull us out of the Paris Climate Agreement, he went farther than he did in his first term to ramp up American energy production and rein in an Environmental Protection Agency that regulated far beyond its mandate. Among at least 47 climate- and energy-related EOs signed in the first 24 hours of his swearing-in was one tackling what has long served as the keystone of limitless environmental regulation: the “endangerment finding” for carbon dioxide emissions. May we finally see the end of the EPA's abuse of its regulatory power?The Heartland Institute's Anthony Watts, Sterling Burnett, Linnea Lueken, and Jim Lakely are joined by special guest Myron Ebell, who was on President Trump's EPA Transition Team for his first term to break down what these reversals of radical climate and energy policy will mean for America and the world. We will also cover some of the Crazy Climate News of the Week.DONATE: https://donate.heartland.org/campaign/599325/donate

Heartland's Tim Benson is joined by Richard Carwardine, Emeritus Rhodes Professor of American History and Distinguished Fellow of the Rothermere American Institute at Oxford University, to discuss his new book, Righteous Strife: How Warring Religious Nationalists Forged Lincoln's Union. They chat about how the tensions surrounding the moral quandary of slavery cracked the United States in half, and even formed rifts within the North itself, how Lincoln proclaimed more days of national fasting and thanksgiving than any other president before or since, and how these pauses for spiritual reflection provided the inspirational rhetoric and ideological fuel that sustained the war.Get the book here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/24975/righteous-strife-by-richard-carwardine/

In this episode of The Heartland Daily Podcast, host AnneMarie Schieber is joined by health economist Devon Herrick for an in-depth discussion on the pressing issues in the U.S. healthcare system. Together, they explore the real-life implications of policies like Obamacare, the growing challenges of Medicare, and the evolving landscape of health insurance options. From short-term plans to the potential of direct primary care, they highlight innovative, free-market solutions that empower individuals and reduce costs.Discover why health insurance remains prohibitively expensive for many Americans, how government mandates distort the market, and what steps can be taken to promote transparency, competition, and patient-centered care. This episode also delves into topics like the unintended consequences of employer-provided insurance, the future of telemedicine, and creative alternatives for long-term care.With insights backed by decades of research and expertise, AnneMarie and Devon shed light on how we can move toward a more efficient and accessible healthcare system. Whether you're a policymaker, healthcare professional, or concerned citizen, this episode offers valuable perspectives you won't want to miss.

Senate committee rooms on Capitol Hill were buzzing with activity this week as many of President Trump's picks for cabinet posts were underway. Three of the key hearings on climate and energy policy were Lee Zeldin for EPA, Doug Burgum for Interior, and Chris Wright for Energy. We hope you caught Heartland's two three-hour long “watch parties” with gavel-to-gavel coverage this week, but there's still more to examine. What did the hearing performances of Trump's picks say about how they will serve in their roles? Which federal agency of the three needs the most work to change its purpose? And can these appointments succeed in carrying out Trump's agenda in the face of a deeply entrenched federal bureaucracy that is opposed to almost all of Trump's major climate and energy goals?The Heartland Institute's Anthony Watts, H. Sterling Burnett, Linnea Lueken, and Jim Lakely will dive deeper into that topic. Plus, we'll review some of the Crazy Climate News of the Week, including a deep freeze that's on the way for most of the continental United States.