Newsvoice Think

Not one to shy away from controversies, our latest guest is best known for his views on what he calls "Who and what is really controlling the world". A former professional soccer player and sports broadcaster, David Icke is an English writer and public speaker. Self-described as the most controversial speaker in the world, Icke has authored over 20 books, the latest being the recently-published Everything You Wanted to Know But Were Never Told.

While neighboring Canada legalizes a national cannabis marketplace, the debate around the legal status of the drug in the US continues to be hotly contested. To know more on the direction of the US cannabis space, we recently spoke to someone with a finger on the pulse of the industry. Noelle Skodzinski is the editorial director at the Ohio-based Cannabis Business Times (CBT). She has also been named among the Top 50 Most Influential Women in Cannabis.

Thomas Drake is a former senior executive of the U.S. National Security Agency, a decorated United States Air Force and United States Navy veteran. In April 2010, a federal grand jury in Maryland indicted Tom under the Espionage Act for illegally retaining classified information after he was suspected of leaking operational inefficiencies in the National Security Agency.

Mark Little is a journalist, television presenter, author and social media visionary. He presented Prime Time for RTÉ until December 2009. After a year of leave of absence from RTÉ to pursue a project centered on digital media and global journalism, he launched Storyful. Later selling it to News International.

Bernie Sanders’ campaign made waves across the world. It inspired new generations, and awoke Americans across all social stratas in to becoming proactive, grassroots political campaigners. Kacey Carpenter was, and is just one of those battlers. One of those humble grafters who took it upon himself to actually go knocking on doors, canvass, engage, and inspire others in the knowledge that real change can be acquired.

Chris Blasi is a veteran of the financial and technology industries with over 30 years experience. In conjunction with his investment banking and wealth management roles, Chris has extensive experience in the technology industry – specifically working with financial services. Chris has contributed to publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Investor's Business Daily, CNBC. Chris gives his thoughts on the mainstream media, and why they constantly focus on short-time spans in which gold and silver prices drop as opposed to reporting on longer term trends.

Sharyl Attkisson is a New York Times bestselling author and host of the weekly Sunday public affairs program, Full Measure. As an investigative journalist, Sharyl has worked for CBS News and also as a foreign correspondent for CNN. She is a multi-award winning writer. In this exclusive interview she explains how fake news is a propaganda phrase invented by the left that was eventually co-opted by Donald Trump.

Nicholas Wilson, a whistleblower from the town of Hastings in the United Kingdom, has been battling against the British bank HSBC for over 14 years. In 2017, Nick forced the bank to reimburse customers to the tune of £4m and is campaigning to force them pay 100s of millions more. In this episode of Newsvoice Think, we chat with Nick about the control banks hold over the media, corruption in politics and what it’s really like living daily as a whistleblower.

Amelia Andersdotter is a human and digital rights activist and former member of the European Parliament for the Pirate Party. She is the president of Dataskydd.net, a politically neutral, non–profit organisation which focuses on data privacy violations, data protection, and consumer information security in government policy. We spoke to Amelia about the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and about her time working in Brussels.

Martin Armstrong is an economic prediction expert, who pioneered the economic cycle theory: The Economic Confidence Model. His economic model, based on Pi, is revered and referred to across the globe. In our interview, Martin regales being in jail for his part in an alleged ponzi scheme. He tells us why he thinks Bitcoin is utilized by money launderers, and the nepotism that exists within political structures at home – in the U.S. where Armstrong lives – and across the globe.

Naomi McDougall Jones is an award-winning writer, actress, producer, and activist. She is a vocal advocate for bringing gender parity to film – both on and off screen. She is based in Brooklyn, New York. We spoke to Naomi about why the way women are represented in film should change, the explosion of Netflix, and why the big film studios are in trouble as they fail to take advantage of the possibilities that technology present. McDougall Jones also told us what a post-Weinstein film industry means for people working in Hollywood and the U.S.

James Howard Kunstler is an author, social critic and public speaker – whose work has been published in estimable journalistic stables such as Rolling Stone, the New York Times, and The Atlantic Monthly. He has also hosted his own lecture as part of Ted Talks discussing public spaces in urban life. We spoke to James about his feeling on the election of Trump, why he feels the defeat of Hillary Clinton has made a certain generation of U.S. citizens completely crazy, and why the hysteria on Russian meddling in the 2016 is a dangerous operation in psyops.

Christine Mohan is the co-founder and partnerships lead at Civil; a decentralized marketplace for sustainable journalism, which will operate via a token curated registry model. We’ll be chatting with her about how the media is evolving, and how she hopes Civil and blockchain can play its part in the future of news and investigative reporting.

Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Colin Powell, joined Newsvoice Think to discuss the crisis in Syria. He shares his thoughts about the alleged deployment of chemical weapons in Douma, why he feels Trump joining the war is to get Stormy Daniels off the headlines, and why he calls America: ‘The United States of Amnesia.’

Ben Wizner is the Director of the ACLU Speech, Privacy and Technology Project. Ben is also the lead attorney for Edward Snowden since 2013. The ACLU is a monolith in U.S. public and political affairs, counting over 1.2 million members as it approaches its 100th anniversary in 2020. We chat to Ben about his work as Snowden’s lead attorney, Snowden’s life in Moscow and his work at the ACLU.

Lee Camp is an American stand-up comedian, writer, actor and activist. He is the host and head writer of the weekly comedy news show, Redacted Tonight with Lee Camp, on RT America. Among other things we chat with Lee about the state of the media in the US, his experience working at RT America, the wide spreading “Russian hysteria”, and the comedy scene.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is running for Congress on June 26 in the Queens and Bronx area. Alex, who is a third generation Bronxite herself, has had a wide-ranging career. She has worked for the late Senator Kennedy before working as an educator, social entrepreneur, and then in hospitality as a waitress before coming back to politics. We discuss her campaign, the momentum gained by political grassroot movements in the U.S. and the failing of voter registration laws in the New York State.

Bill Binney is the former Director of Global Communications Intelligence at the NSA. Bill supervised major surveillance programs before blowing the whistle on spying activities of the U.S. government and surveillance agencies. In this episode we chat with Bill about the current state of surveillance programs, their violations of the constitution and the privacy of citizens and what can be done to protect yourself.

Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer prize winning journalist and former foreign correspondent for the New York Times. He is now a columnist with Truthdig and also hosts a regular TV show on Russia Today: On Contact. In this interview we talk about the death of real democracy in the U.S, the role of tech giants like Google and Facebook in silencing independent media and undermining freedom of speech, failed diplomacy with North Korea and if civil disobedience is the way forward.