Podcasts about Coercion

In this episode, Alex speaks with Matt Zwolinski about whether markets are coercive, and why the answer is more complicated than either “markets are voluntary” or “capitalism is coercion.” They discuss Robert Hale's classic argument, the limits of standard libertarian responses, and why a better liberal defence of markets has to take real-world coercion seriously without treating all coercion as morally equal. References: Matt Zwolinski, “Are markets coercive?” Robert L. Hale, “Coercion and Distribution in a Supposedly Non-Coercive State” Thomas Nixon Carver, Principles of National Economy Sohrab Ahmari, Tyranny, Inc.: How Private Power Crushed American Liberty—and What to Do About It F. A. Hayek, The Constitution of Liberty Thanks to our patrons, including Kris Rondolo, Amy Willis, and Christopher McDonald. To support The Curious Task, visit: https://patreon.com/curioustask

In this week's episode of China Insider, Miles Yu observes the 37th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, and discusses how families of the victims plan to honor their loved ones both in mainland China and abroad despite CCP censorship. Next, Miles reports on China's continued economic woes as growth rates have declined over the past few months, and assess renewed calls for CCP intervention to spark stimulus and address increasing concerns. Finally, Miles reviews an investigative report stemming from a whistleblower disclosure of non-public foreign funding to Stanford University from Chinese state-backed entities, and comments on the extent of Chinese influence in US academia. China Insider is a weekly podcast project from Hudson Institute's China Center, hosted by China Center Director and Senior Fellow, Dr. Miles Yu, who provides weekly news that mainstream American outlets often miss, as well as in-depth commentary and analysis on the China challenge and the free world's future. 

It's Thursday, June 4th, A.D. 2026. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard on 140 radio stations and at www.TheWorldview.com.  I'm Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldview.com) By Jonathan Clark China's Tiananmen Square massacre anniversary Today is the 37th anniversary of China's Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989. In the weeks leading up to the tragic event, students were protesting for democracy in Beijing. The Communist Chinese government responded by forcibly putting down the protests. Hundreds, if not thousands, died in the massacre. China's military also arrested leaders in the underground church which had fueled the protests.  Communist Chinese denying Bible to imprisoned pastors Speaking of China, the country continues its persecution of the church. International Christian Concern reports Communist officials are denying access to Bibles for imprisoned pastors. Authorities arrested three leaders of Maizhong Reformed Church last year. Their family members requested to send them Bibles during their imprisonment. But officials refused the request and subjected the families to more intimidation.  Please pray for our persecuted brothers and sisters in Christ of the underground church in China.  According to Open Doors, China is the 17th most oppressive country worldwide for Christians. Please send a 2-3 sentence letter urging officials to give the Bible to imprisoned pastors. Send it to Chinese Ambassador Xie Feng, Chinese Embassy, 3505 International Place NW, Washington DC 20008. Africa's fertility rate above replacement level Pew Research reports that Africa boasts a young and growing population compared to the rest of the world. The continent is home to 19 percent of people around the globe. And it contains 28 percent of all people under the age of 25. In the next 75 years, nearly half of the world's young people are projected to live in Africa. Also, it is the only world region where the fertility rate is above the replacement level.  Scotland officials drop case against pro-life grandmother The government of Scotland recently dropped its case against a pro-life, Christian grandmother. Last September, authorities arrested 75-year-old Rose Docherty. She was simply holding a sign near an abortion mill in Glasgow. The sign read: “Coercion is a crime. Here to talk, only if you want.”   A court cleared her of criminal charges in April. And Scotland's prosecution office dropped the case last month.   Listen to comments from Mrs. Docherty after her victory. DOCHERTY: “I was arrested, charged, and prosecuted for nothing more than peacefully inviting consensual conversation in a public space that I was permitted to be in. When I was arrested, I was handcuffed, placed in the back of a police van, and placed in a police cell for over two hours without a chair to sit on. Simply for being available for the lonely, the afraid, and the coerced, I have been treated like a violent criminal. “But thankfully, today the charges have been dismissed. The judge ruled that the charges were irrelevant and that they were a breach of my Article 10 free speech rights. Thank you all for your support and prayers. Thank you to ADF International and my entire legal team, who were brilliant. “Nobody should be criminalized for consensual conversations, and I am glad that that truth has been vindicated here today.” In Matthew 5:10, Jesus said, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.” Trump proposed new tariffs on 60 countries In the United States, the Trump administration proposed new tariffs of up to 12.5 percent on 60 economies. The U.S. Trade Representative's ‌office released the proposal on Tuesday. It accuses these economies of failing to curb the importation of goods produced with forced labor. These economies include China, India, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and Canada.   Episcopal Church installed lesbian bishop in North Carolina An Episcopal Diocese in North Carolina installed Sarah Fisher, a self-avowed lesbian, as its bishop last month. She is living in unnatural relations with another woman, Mandy Brady, who is an Episcopal priestess. It is reportedly the denomination's first appointment of its kind in the American south.  Back in 1977, the Episcopal Church received its first homosexual into the clergy. Since then, membership has declined by nearly 50 percent as it has rejected clear Biblical teaching. Gallup poll: Americans less likely to support sexual perversion now A new survey from Gallup found that Americans are becoming less likely to support sexually perverted lifestyles. Support for such sinful lifestyles grew rapidly for two decades, peaking five years ago. Now, 65 percent of U.S. adults favor legal homosexual unions. That's down from a high of 71 percent in 2022. Similarly, 62 percent support homosexual relations now, down from 71 percent over the same time period. Wycliffe Bible Translators celebrated 800th Bible translation And finally, Wycliffe Bible Translators celebrated its 800th Bible translation this week. About 6.2 billion people now have the complete Bible in their own language.  It took over 1,900 years to translate the Bible into 400 languages. The next 400 translations were completed in just the last 28 years.   Isaiah 11:9-10 says, “The Earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse, who shall stand as a banner to the people; for the Gentiles shall seek Him, and His resting place shall be glorious.”  Close And that's The Worldview on this Thursday, June 4th, in the year of our Lord 2026. Subscribe for free by Spotify, Amazon Music, or by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldview.com.  Plus, you can get the Generations app through Google Play or The App Store. I'm Adam McManus (Adam@TheWorldview.com). Seize the day for Jesus Christ.

The system failed her. She told the truth anyway.Part II picks up with Emma making the drive back to his house — not for reconciliation, but for answers she was never going to get. She arrived to find a man who looked like a total mess, said nothing about her new car, and within minutes set a large knife in front of her on the bed.What followed was assault. Coercion under the guise of reconnection, with a loaded gun and that knife within arm's reach. Completely restrained, face down, staring at red velvet curtains while Stranger Things played in the background. A phone appeared. A photo she never consented to. A chuckle.She got out the only way she knew how. Fawning. Years of trauma had taught her body exactly what to do to avoid things turning violent. When she got home and finally looked at her phone, she found two photos and a four-second video of herself — taken without her knowledge or consent. Both illegal. A week later, a lawyer by her side, she filed a police report.The DA picked up the case the same day. A felony warrant was issued the next morning. He spent two weeks on the run — attending the concert they were supposed to go to together, posting on social media, and quietly soliciting Mad Libs-style fake witness statements from strangers. Emma sent everything to the DA. They did nothing.The grand jury disposed the case. No forensic phone examination. No follow-up interview. The victim advocate stopped returning her calls. The restraining order was denied. He still has the material. He always will. Her healing journey can be interrupted any day by whatever he decides to do with it next.She is learning to live with that. And she came on this podcast anyway — because people like him thrive on secrecy, and she promised herself she would never be quiet.

Ian Wilks was a high-ranking leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He is a former bishop, a former branch president, and a member of the stake presidency in British Columbia, with responsibility for shepherding twelve congregations and thousands of members. Then-apostle Dallin H. Oaks, now the 18th president and living prophet of the LDS Church, personally recruited him, interviewed him, called him, set him apart, and trained him into that role.¹ For 37 years, Ian devoted his entire life to his church. He paid tithing on his gross income. He sealed his marriage in the London Temple. He conducted hundreds of worthiness interviews. He trained bishops. He stood at pulpits and at altars. He made sacred covenants in the temple to give all he had, including his own life if required, for the building up of the kingdom on earth. In a snowstorm, the cost of those 37 years lands all at once. The thing he wanted most to be true, he learned was untrue. I spoke with Ian on my podcast Cults, Culture & Coercion and in a recent livestream. He is the co-host of the Inside Out podcast with Jim Bennett, son of the late US Senator Bob Bennett. What he told me confirms what former members of the LDS Church have been describing to me since my first book was published in 1988. The Mormon Church meets every criterion of an authoritarian cult under my BITE Model of Authoritarian Control™ and sits on the destructive end of my Influence Continuum©. Ian himself took the BITE Model self-test based on his decades of experience and scored the church at roughly 85 to 90 percent across the four dimensions of behavior, information, thought, and emotion. This group is one of the wealthiest, most influential groups in politics and its believers are over represented (compared to all other faith groups) in our FBI, CIA, Homeland security and faithful people will follow the direction of the Prophet over the Constitution (even though they swear an oath to uphold the Constitution) which should make all Americans worry. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dr. Janja Lalich on The Sex & Power PodcastGuest: Dr. Janja LalichTitle: Exploitation of Women in CultsHost: Janice Selbie, MPCCWarning: This episode discusses SA and coercion in cults Dr. Janja Lalich is one of the world's leading authorities on cults, coercive control, and authoritarian influence. A sociologist, researcher, and cult survivor herself, Dr. Lalich has spent decades exposing how high-control groups operate beneath the surface of belief, belonging, and power. She is the founder of the Lalich Center on Cults & Coercion and the author of groundbreaking works on charismatic authority and bounded choice.  In her powerful research on psychosexual exploitation, Dr. Lalich makes a critical point: sexual abuse in cults is not a side effect. It is a system - A mechanism of control. Today, we're pulling back the curtain on the intersection of sex, power, and control, and asking how these dynamics take hold, why they persist, and what it takes to break free. Dr Lalich Links:https://www.lalichcenter.org/https://lalichcenterce.thinkific.com/courses/lalichcenterCEhttps://www.facebook.com/JanjaLalichResources/https://www.instagram.com/lalichcenter/Support the show

When countries practice geoeconomics, they use their economic might to win concessions from other nations. Geoeconomics can include tools like industrial policy, tariffs, and embargoes.  But some say these economic coercion tactics could reduce trust and cooperation among nations – and have critical impacts on global trade. Watch the panel discussion with economists Douglas Irwin, Karen Dynan, and Caroline Freund and download the paper given by professor Jeffry Frieden at the Boston Fed's 69th Economic Conference, “The U.S. Economy in a Changing Global Landscape.”

While the podcast team is taking a Radical Sabbatical, Kim is interviewing authors of the books that have had a big impact on her in the past two years.  In this episode, Kim speaks with Gary Gerstle, best-selling author of The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order and ten other books. Kim said that after reading this book, she began to feel that when it comes to economic policy, we really have a one-party system. The architect of the New Deal Order was FDR, a Democrat, but its general contractor was Eisenhower, arguably the most progressive of all American presidents. The architect of the Neoliberal order was Reagan, but its general contractor was Clinton. Kim also said that reading this book made her realize that, time and again throughout her career, she thought she was working towards progressive ends, not understanding how neoliberalism had taken hold of the Democratic Party.  Gerstle explains that “the phrase political order is meant to connote a constellation of ideologies, policies, and constituencies that shape American politics in ways that endure beyond the two-, four-, and six-year election cycles. In the last hundred years, America has had two political orders: the New Deal order that arose in the 1930s and 1940s, crested in the 1950s and 1960s, and fell in the 1970s; and the neoliberal order that arose in the 1970s and 1980s, crested in the 1990s and 2000s, and fell in the 2010s At the heart of each of these two political orders stood a distinctive program of political economy. The New Deal order was founded on the conviction that capitalism left to its own devices spelled economic disaster. It had to be managed by a strong central state able to govern the economic system in the public interest. The neoliberal order, by contrast, was grounded in the belief that market forces had to be liberated from government regulatory controls that were stymying growth, innovation, and freedom. The architects of the neoliberal order set out in the 1980s and 1990s to dismantle everything that the New Deal order had built across its forty-year span. Now it, too, is being dismantled.  Alarmingly, there seems to be no coherent policy around whatever it is replacing the Neoliberal order–just a mad grab for wealth, leading to even greater disparities than those that led to the Gilded Age's excesses and to the Great Depression. Guest Background: Gary Gerstle is Paul Mellon Professor of American History Emeritus and Paul Mellon Director of Research at the University of Cambridge. He is the author and editor of more than ten books, including two prizewinners, American Crucible (2017) and Liberty and Coercion (2015). He is a Guardian columnist and has also written for the Atlantic Monthly, the New Statesman, Dissent, The Nation, and Die Zeit, among others. He frequently appears on BBC Radio 4, BBC World Service, ITV 4, Talking Politics, and NPR. CHAPTERS (00:00) Introduction to Radical Sabbatical and Guest (03:03) Understanding Liberalism and Neoliberalism (06:11) The Evolution of Liberalism in America (09:06) The New Deal and Its Impact (12:10) Violence and Wealth Inequality in Capitalism (14:59) The Great Depression and Its Consequences (18:07) Defining Political Order (21:11) The Rise of the Neoliberal Order (24:05) Clinton's Role in Neoliberalism (26:58) The Gorky Automobile Factory and Communism's Appeal (31:19) The Rise of Soviet Communism as a Challenge to Capitalism (36:18) The Treaty of Detroit: Compromise Between Labor and Capital (41:43) Transition to Neoliberalism: The Powell Memo and Its Impact (49:13) Telecom Act of 1996: Deregulation and Its Consequences (54:16) The 2008 Financial Crisis: A Turning Point for Neoliberalism Connect with the Radical Candor team: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From Richard Dawkins to Larry Summers, brilliant minds get pulled in. I sat down with the journalist Virginia Heffernan for a recent conversation on Cults, Culture & Coercion to talk about who falls for the Trump cult and why. Virginia spent time inside a group of academics and intellectuals sponsored by Jeffrey Epstein, called Edge, run by literary agent John Brockman. She wrote about involvement in the Epstein cult for The New Republic. She told me she was fortunately kept at arm's length from the worst of it. “I was only there as a fig leaf because they didn't have any women,” she said. “They didn't want me at the parties or on the island.” She watched the dynamics around her. Edge included Larry Summers, former Treasury Secretary and Harvard president. The Epstein correspondence released by the House Oversight Committee in November 2025 documents a years-long stream of personal advice Summers sought from a convicted sex offender. In the messages, Summers asked Epstein for guidance on his pursuit of a younger woman he described as a mentee. Epstein called himself Summers' wing man and urged Summers to play the long game by keeping the woman in a forced holding pattern (Harvard Crimson, November 17, 2025). Virginia framed it bluntly: “I would venture to say someone you would least expect to fall under a spell. These are grown men who should know better.” Virginia writes the Magic and Loss Substack, hosts the Omni Shambles podcast, and contributes to The New Republic. The 10th anniversary of her book Magic and Loss has her circling back to a question she has carried since 2016. I thanked Virginia for reading my book and then being the first media person to bravely and publicly support what I wrote about. She wrote a Los Angeles Times op-ed that it was the “best explanatory framework” for what was happening politically. She then went on CNN to be interviewed about it. This led to Brian Stelter interviewing me about my book for his CNN show Reliable Sources. She put it plainly: “I was trying to solve a problem in my mind, which was, how did we get here? And you came along with your book; The Cult of Trump and you did me the favor of giving me a framework.” This is a fascinating interview with a crack journalist. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Lord's righteous judgement against unrighteous coercion and corruption.

Eric Jarvis is a Professor of Psychiatry at McGill University whose work brings attention to areas often overlooked in mainstream psychiatry, including religion, coercion, the social determinants of psychosis, and culture. He directs the Cultural Consultation Service, the First Episode Psychosis Program, and the Culture and Psychosis Working Group at the Jewish General Hospital, and is Editor-in-Chief of Transcultural Psychiatry. His research looks closely at how religious belief, spiritual practice, moral worlds, language, migration, racism, and social context shape how people experience distress, meaning, and healing. In this conversation, we explore how faith, culture, and power shape mental health practice. We discuss Jarvis's work on religion and spirituality in cultural psychiatry, his research on culture and the social causes of psychosis, and his studies of coercion in first-episode psychosis. We also talk about category fallacies, looping effects, and what happens when biomedical explanations of suffering collide with spiritual, familial, and community-based understandings of distress. *** Thank you for being with us to listen to the podcast and read our articles this year. MIA is funded entirely by reader donations. If you value MIA, please help us continue to survive and grow. https://www.madinamerica.com/donate/ To find the Mad in America podcast on your preferred podcast player, click here: https://pod.link/1212789850 © Mad in America 2026. Produced by James Moore https://www.jmaudio.org

Crimes for clicks, shares and online status - In this episode, Tim and Xanthe unpack the dangerous new phenomenon “crimefluencing”. Australia’s top cop recently highlighted this “new and disturbing front in traditional gender-based violence” - with young people being drawn into online networks that encourage everything from petty offending to serious violence and exploitation. From livestreamed assaults to the coercion of vulnerable teenage girls, this episode explores how social media has gamified criminal behaviour. WATCH OUR FULL VIDEO EPISODES ON YOUTUBE AT 'CRIME CENTRAL AUSTRALIA'. Follow us on Instagram @Motive&MethodSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Scientology recruitment rarely looks the way people imagine. There is no shadowy figure pulling you into a back room. The process is warm, and, for a curious young person, entirely easy to be “handled” and sucked in. Amir Essalhi was 18 years old and studying film when he first walked into the Edinburgh organization in late 2022. He had never heard of Hubbard. He did not know who David Miscavige was. He knew one thing: He was into being an aspiring filmmaker, and loved Tom Cruise. When he was shown a Scientology recruitment video with Tom Cruise his curiosity to know more was the tool used to manipulate him. Less than two years later, Amir was running the group's social media strategy across TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram, delivering public lectures, and serving as one of the senior executives of the only Scientology organization in Scotland's capital. He was 19. I spoke with Amir twice, first on a live stream, and then on my Cults, Culture & Coercion podcast. What he shared in both conversations is something every young person, and every parent of a young person, needs to hear. Scientology has been all over some social media channels as some people were running into Scientology buildings and posting the video of their illegal trespassing. I have been vocal criticizing this as has Leah Remini- whose original show I was on as a guest. Many of the platforms Scientology uses to reach young people carry no Scientology branding at all. Amir confirmed that promotional materials would sometimes run under names like "Dianetics" or localized event names, with "Scientology" buried in fine print or absent entirely. The group also uses front organizations, including Narconon (drug rehabilitation), the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, and Drug Free World, none of which disclose their Scientology ties in their public-facing materials. Destructive authoritarian cults know that if they give fully informed consent, no one would ever get involved. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eleven weeks into the U.S.-Iran war, the news cycle is relentless, but the strategic position has barely moved. Darren looks to step back from the weekly churn to lay out the five durable lessons of this conflict — the things that were becoming visible in March, that have held through April, that are still true in May, and that may well remain true for some time yet. The episode begins with a factual update: the collapse of Project Freedom, the trading of fire that neither side will call a ceasefire violation, Iran's 10 May counter-proposal demanding sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz, Trump's dismissal of it as "garbage," and the bombshell New York Times report that Iran has regained operational access to most of its missile capability — directly contradicting the administration's public narrative just as Trump leaves for his summit with Xi Jinping. The bulk of the episode then works through five structural lessons: Coercion doesn't work if your adversary wants it more The geography in geo-economics—how Iran has demonstrated a modern model of asymmetric power Both sides still prefer no deal to a deal, and Trump's overnight Truth Social post tells us more than he realises Policy competence actually matters a lot The decaying pillars of the international order, with the oil market as case study Darren closes with the model he keeps coming back to: what actually constrains Donald Trump. With JP Morgan predicting Hormuz will reopen in June on inventory grounds, the institutional architecture that has buffered the shock running out of room, and Republican Senate primaries clearing through May and June, the question is whether material reality and the political calendar finally converge to produce a binding constraint on a president who has resisted almost every other form. Australia in the World is written, hosted, and produced by Darren Lim, with research and editing by Hannah Nelson and theme music composed by Rory Stenning. Relevant links Adam Entous, Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, "U.S. Intelligence Shows Iran Retains Substantial Missile Capabilities," New York Times, 12 May 2026: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/12/us/politics/iran-missiles-us-intelligence.html Sudarsan Raghavan, "The Art of the Ceasefire," The New Yorker, 12 May 2026: https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/the-art-of-the-ceasefire International Crisis Group, "Iran Crisis Monitor #5," 12 May 2026: https://www.crisisgroup.org/bnt/middle-east-north-africa/iran-israelpalestine-united-states/iran-crisis-monitor-5 Danny Citrinowicz, "How the War Saved the Iranian Regime," Foreign Affairs, 29 April 2026: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/iran/how-war-saved-iranian-regime Gregory Brew, "America Will Pay Dearly for Its Energy Arrogance," New York Times, 2 May 2026: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/02/opinion/trump-us-oil-crisis-strait-of-hormuz.html Jason Bordoff, "If OPEC Falls Apart, It'll Cost Us All," New York Times, 6 May 2026: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/06/opinion/opec-oil-markets-trump.html

In this episode, Holly Draper sits down with Denise Capurso, a licensed clinical social worker with nearly 30 years of experience helping women heal from narcissistic abuse, coercive control, and complex relational trauma. Denise, who is based in Frisco, Texas and sees clients statewide, brings an essential clinical perspective to issues that family law attorneys encounter in their practices every day.The conversation covers critical ground for attorneys navigating high-conflict divorce and custody cases. Denise explains the distinction between narcissistic personality disorder and narcissistic traits, clarifies what narcissistic abuse and coercive control actually look like in practice, and unpacks the DARVO pattern — Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender — that abusers routinely deploy in courtrooms, mediation, and legal filings. She addresses why survivors of long-term abuse often appear dysregulated, scattered, or non-credible in legal settings, and why their failure to call police or press charges is rarely evidence that abuse did not occur.Denise also offers practical guidance for attorneys: how to recognize litigation abuse as a form of ongoing coercive control, why faster resolution generally better serves the survivor, what to look for when clients report stalking or monitoring, and how to help traumatized clients prepare for court appearances. This episode is an essential listen for any family law attorney whose clients may be navigating the aftermath of emotional, psychological, or coercive abuse. In this episode you will discover:•       The difference between narcissistic personality disorder and narcissistic traits•       What coercive control really is and how it works •       How the DARVO (Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender) pattern works•       Why survivors of narcissistic abuse appear dysregulated or non-credible in legal settings•       What attorneys and judges should understand about the neuroscience of these kinds of relational traumas•       Why stalking and digital monitoring within relationships is the number one predictor of escalation to physical violence•       Actionable advice for attorneys working with abuse survivors Connect with Denise CapursoWebsite: dccounseling.orgInstagram: @Denise_supportcoach  |  @CharminglyToxicPodcast: Charmingly ToxicLocation: Frisco, Texas (serves clients statewide; offers attorney consultations)

She Sought Out the People Who Threatened Her Deeyah Khan was editing a film when the BBC called. The threats were serious enough the police were already on their way. “Stay where you are,” they told her. “If there are windows in the room, move to a different one. Wait for us.” She had given an interview saying Britain would never be all white again. White supremacist sites in the United States picked it up and ran with it. One of those sites had been frequented by Dylann Roof, the man who murdered nine Black parishioners in Charleston in 2015. Now their followers were sending death threats by the hundreds, telling her to be afraid, telling her she should not exist. The police gave her a personal alarm and a security briefing. That night, sitting alone, she made an unusual decision. She would not hide. She would seek out the people threatening her, sit with them face to face, and try to understand who they were. I had the privilege of speaking with Deeyah recently on Cults, Culture & Coercion. She is a BAFTA and two-time Emmy winning documentary filmmaker. Over the past fifteen years, she has done what almost no one in journalism has been willing to do. She has interviewed convicted anti-abortion terrorists from the Army of God, the leader of America's oldest and largest neo-Nazi organization, and pro-Trump militia members plotting violence against refugees. She has done it warmly, with genuine curiosity, while also holding strong positions of her own about human rights, women's rights, and the basic dignity of every person. She is an inspiration and she has, but being respectful snd curious and asking questions without attacking, has been able to help deradicalize a major figure in the hate cult. Please read this blog on Substack and listen to this amazing interview. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A new report from the George W. Bush Institute argues that many border policies only provide short-term solutions to illegal immigration.

In the opening verses of Parashat Behukotai, the Torah promises great reward "Im Be'hukotai Telechu" – "If you follow My statutes." Rashi, in one of the more famous passages in his Torah commentary, writes that this phrase does not actually refer to Misva observance. After all, the very next words of the verse are "Ve'et Misvotai Tishmeru" – "and you observe My commands." Necessarily, then, the phrase "Im Be'hukotai Telechu" must denote something other than the performance of Misvot. Rashi therefore explains that it means "She'tiheyu Amelim Ba'Torah" – "that you are toiling in Torah." Many have noted that Rashi speaks here not of the study of Torah, but rather of "Amelut" – toil, hard work and exertion, investing a great deal of effort to learn. The importance of "Amelut" can be seen already in the events surrounding Matan Torah, the giving of the Torah at Sinai, which we will soon commemorate on the festival of Shabuot. The Gemara (Shabbat 88a) teaches that "Kafa Alehem Har Ke'gigit" – G-d lifted Mount Sinai and suspended it over Beneh Yisrael, threatening to annihilate them if they did not accept the Torah. They were not given a choice; they were coerced into accepting G-d's will. Many have raised the question of how to reconcile the Gemara's teaching with the Torah's account of Matan Torah, which tells that Beneh Yisrael willingly and excitedly accepted the Torah even before being informed of what it entails, enthusiastically pronouncing, "Na'aseh Ve'nishma" – "We will do and we will hear" (Shemot 24:7). If they happily announced their commitment to the Torah, then why did G-d need to threaten them and force the Torah upon them? A number of commentators answered that Beneh Yisrael committed willingly to the Torah She'bi'chtab – the written Torah, but not to the Torah She'be'al Peh – the oral law, which was eventually written into what we know as the Mishna. Coercion was necessary to force them to accept even the Torah She'be'al Peh. Why would Beneh Yisrael agree to the written Torah, but not to the oral halachic tradition? We might draw a comparison to a person who wants to stay fit and keep healthy without having to exercise. Instead of working out in the gym, he just wants a pill that he could take that would keep him thin and in shape no matter what or how much he eats, or how little he moves... Similarly, Beneh Yisrael were excited about accepting the Torah – but they didn't want to have to work for it. They wanted to be given a simple, straightforward, easy-to-read text that explained to them very clearly and succinctly what they needed to do. They wanted the instructions spoon-fed to them, presented to them in a lucid, organized fashion. But this is not how the Torah is meant to be learned. The Gemara (Kiddushin 30b) teaches that Torah study is the "antidote" to the Yeser Ha'ra (evil inclination). We overcome our negative tendencies and sinful impulses by immersing ourselves in Torah, by intensively applying ourselves and exerting effort to learn. If the Torah would be spoon-fed, it would not have this effect of empowering us against the Yeser Ha'ra. This requires "Amelut" – hard work and struggle. In fact, even when Rabbi Yehuda Ha'nasi wrote down the Oral Law, seeing that this was necessary to ensure its survival, he intentionally made the text ambiguous and difficult to understand. He maintained the delicate balance between making the material accessible and necessitating effort to comprehend it. "Amelut" is crucial to the process of Torah learning, as it is only through hard work that we achieve the spiritual benefits of Torah study, the strength to defeat the Yeser Ha'ra in its various forms. As we saw, Rashi explains the phrase "Im Be'hukotai Telechu" as a reference to exertion in Torah study. He perhaps read the word "Be'hukotai" ("My statutes") as alluding to the rules of interpreting the Torah text, the thirteen "Middot She'ha'Torah Nidreshet Bahem" – methods by which the Sages extracted Halachot from the written Torah, as listed by Rabbi Yishmael, and as we recite in our prayers each morning. These thirteen rules of interpretation represent the difference between a clear, lucid body of text, and a difficult text that can be understood only with rigorous study and analysis. We are promised reward not for simply learning Torah – but for investing the effort to learn "Be'hukotai," to study the Sages' intricate, complex discussions of the Torah text and their derivation of Halacha from its words. As we prepare for the celebration of Shabuot, let us commit to not only learn Torah – but to toil in Torah, to invest effort, so we can reap all the precious spiritual benefits that it offers us.

Today on Scope Conditions: when the bombs don't go off, the war isn't over.We tend to think of peace as beginning when the bombs stop falling. But as our guest today shows us, this is only half the story. Over the course of the Vietnam War, the United States engaged in massive bombing in Cambodia. Between 1965 and 1973, the U.S. dropped 500,000 tons of explosives there — more than the combined weight of every man, woman, and child in the country. Dr. Erin Lin, an Associate Professor of Political Science at the Ohio State University, set out to understand the continued impacts of this cataclysmic bombing campaign on Cambodian society. A landmark 2011 study had given us a partial answer: it had concluded that US bombing had no measurable long-term effects on economic outcomes in Southeast Asia. For years, that finding set the terms of the debate.In her award-winning book, When the Bombs Stopped: The Legacy of War in Rural Cambodia, published by Princeton University Press, Erin pushes back. She argues that those analyses were looking at the wrong level — that district-level aggregates conceal devastating effects on individual households and farms. More than that, they were looking at only half the intervention. It's the bombs that didn't detonate — an estimated 26 million cluster munitions still embedded in the soil — that are shaping life today in rural Cambodia.Erin spent years farming alongside families, combing through declassified military records, and building some of the most granular data ever assembled on the American bombing campaign. Her creative multi-method research design allows her to trace the dramatic long-term consequences of unexploded ordinance for the economic livelihood of Cambodian farmers.We talk with Erin about the many ironies laced through her findings: that cluster munitions are most likely to fail in soft, fertile soil, meaning Cambodia's most agriculturally valuable land is also its most contaminated; that bomb contamination can paradoxically shield farmers from predatory land seizures by political elites; and that unexploded ordnance, rather than forging solidarity among those living with it, tends to deepen ethnic divisions within villages.We hope you learn from this conversation. To stay informed about future episodes, follow us on X and Bluesky @scopeconditions and check out our website, scopeconditionspodcast.com, where you can also find references to all the academic works we discuss. And if you like the show, please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.We note that we recorded this interview before the recent US-Israeli war with Iran. Now, here's our conversation with Erin Lin.Works cited in this episodeBiddle, Steven. 2004. Military Power: Explaining Victory and Defeat in Modern Battle. Princeton University Press.Brooks, Rosa. 2014. “Cross-Border Targeted Killings: ‘Lawful but Awful'?” Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy 38:233–50.________. 2014. “Drones and the International Rule of Law.” Ethics & International Affairs 28(1):83–103. ________. 2016. How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything: Tales from the Pentagon. Simon and Schuster.Horowitz, Michael C. 2010. The Diffusion of Military Power. Princeton University Press.Lyall, Jason, and Isaiah Wilson. 2009. “Rage against the Machines: Explaining Outcomes in Counterinsurgency Wars.” International Organization 63(1):67–106.Reiter, Dan, and Allan C. Stam. 2010. Democracies at War. Princeton University Press.Pape, Robert A. 2014. Bombing to Win: Air Power and Coercion in War. Cornell University Press.Schelling, Thomas. 2008. Arms and Influence. Yale University Press.Sheehan, Neil. 1971. “Should We Have War Crime Trials?” New York Times Book Review. 

Episode SummaryIn this episode, Morgan sits down with former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou to explore the real world of espionage, influence, and high-stakes decision making.John shares his journey from leading counterterrorism operations after 9/11 to exposing the CIA's torture program ultimately serving time in prison for speaking out. He breaks down what most people get wrong about influence, revealing that trust and human psychology not coercion are the true drivers of persuasion. The conversation dives into how intelligence agencies actually recruit people, the role of vulnerability, and why relationships are the foundation of influence. John also shares powerful insights from his time in prison, including how he applied CIA strategies to survive and build authority in a high-risk environment.This episode is a deep look into human behavior, power, and the real psychology behind influence and trust.0:00 Intro 0:55 Meet John Kiriakou 2:10 CIA Career & Whistleblowing 4:00 The Truth About Influence 6:22 Building Trust vs Coercion 10:04 The Psychology of Recruitment 12:52 Money, Power & Motivation 17:17 Profiling & Human Behavior 21:16 Building Rapport & Trust 17:55 Dreamfest 28:34 Confidence & Adaptability 31:33 Influence in Real Life 35:00 Networking & Opportunity 38:17 Confidence & Fear 43:17 Leadership & Decision Making 45:18 Environment & Success 50:32 Identity & Human Nature 53:49 Espionage & Global Power 1:02:04 Epstein & Intelligence Agencies 1:05:15 Prison Experience & Survival 1:09:10 Power, Respect & Strategy 1:12:12 Building Confidence 1:16:04 Adaptability as a Skill 1:19:16 Life After the CIA 1:22:07 Where to Find John 1:23:28 Dreamfest Reminder 1:23:58 Final AdviceJohn Kiriakou is a former CIA officer, counterterrorism expert, and whistleblower.He served nearly 15 years in the CIA, including leading counterterrorism operations in Pakistan following the 9/11 attacks. In 2007, he publicly exposed the CIA's torture program, becoming the first U.S. official to confirm its existence.John was later charged and served time in prison, where he applied his intelligence training to navigate and survive the system. Today, he is an author, speaker, and podcast host, sharing insights on geopolitics, intelligence, and human behavior.

Martha Gagnon joins me for a deeply important and, at times, difficult conversation about coercion, control, and what she ultimately came to understand as rape within an intimate relationship. Her story doesn't follow the narrative many people expect—and that's exactly why it matters. In this survival story, Martha's relationship with this particular person began as what appeared to be healthy, emotionally aware, and enlightened. But it slowly shifted into a pattern of pressure, manipulation, and control that escalated over time. Martha walks us through how coercion operated in her relationship—how repeated pressure, emotional punishment, and the eventual inability to safely say no created a dynamic where compliance felt like the only option. She shares, in powerful detail, the moment that would later become central to her healing journey, and how confusion, self-blame, and manipulation kept her from recognizing the violation for what it was. As she began to process her experience, Martha encountered something many survivors face: the gap between lived experience and legal definition. Despite being believed, her case did not meet the legal standard for rape in her state. That realization became a turning point—not only in her personal healing, but in her advocacy. She has since founded Define Consent Iowa, working to push for a clear, comprehensive legal definition of consent that better reflects the realities survivors experience. This episode is not just about one story—it's about a broader misunderstanding that exists around coercion, consent, and trauma. Martha's voice brings clarity to something that is often minimized or dismissed, and her work is helping others recognize their own experiences, feel less alone, and begin to heal. An important side note: if you're finding value in this show and these conversations, please consider leaving a 5-star rating on your podcast platform—it truly helps more people find these stories. You can also follow Sexual Assault Survivor Stories on Instagram and send me a note of support. I can't tell you how much your emails mean to me—they fuel my passion to keep this podcast going. And if you're a victim or survivor and you feel like you might be ready to share your story—whether for your own healing or to help someone else—reach out to me. We can start a conversation, with no pressure and no expectations. You can email me directly at dave@sasstories.com. Please include a phone number where I can reach you, because I genuinely prefer to talk with people who are considering guesting. Thank you to everyone who has already reached out—and please keep those emails coming. I truly look forward to hearing from you. Here are some critically important links that I hope you'll take the time to explore. Where a contribution is requested, please consider doing so. Thank you—for listening, for believing survivors, and for being part of this community. linktr.ee/defineconsentiowa https://documenttheabuse.org/ https://hassl.uk/ https://saprea.org/ https://whattheydontsay.com https://1in6.org/ https://time.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/repeat_rape.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com https://soulwisesolutions.com https://safeinharmsway.org https://startbybelieving.org https://evawintl.org/ As mentioned, and emphasized, it's time to Normalize the Conversation.™ And please remember to Start by Believing…because we all know someone whose life has been impacted by rape or sexual assault. (Check out https://evawintl.org/ & https://startbybelieving.org for more information on "Start By Believing"!) Thank you for tuning in. --Dave

2. Headline: China's Economic Coercion and the Struggle for Panama's Ports Guest: Professor Evan EllisSummary: China is applying significant economic pressure on Panama after a Chinese shipping giant was removed from port operations. The US and regional allies have issued a joint statement opposing this coercion, highlighting the broader geopolitical struggle over control of the Panama Canal and international shipping lanes. 21880 WIEN

Dr. Ray is away for a couple weeks, and after a break, Dr. Kay is back to drop a surprise mid-week pod! First, Dr. Kay updates us on Scamanda, with use of examples from the recent episodes of the currently-airing season of Summer House, given what we now know about West and Amanda's relationship. She then used our classic Reality Test approach–the 6 psychologically-focused segments–to discuss other hot topics from Summer House, as well as hot topics from the current seasons of The Valley, Beyond the Villa, and Real Housewives of Beverly Hills! In the reality TV you watched this past week, what sociopolitical moments did you spot? How was therapy discussed? What did you expect to be a popular topic in the social media halls the next day, only to find no one was talking about it? Dr. Kay answered these questions & more, with discussion of such themes as sexual coercion and post-partum body image in marital/romantic relationships, the impacts of getting reality TV fame, and beauty culture expectations around make-up. She ends with a note or two, including an informal Reality Check, about cyberbullying.REALITY TEST WITH US: What would you say to a friend who was having difficulty with their body image after having a baby? o-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=OListeners! Come visit the Patreon for free at⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (http://patreon.com/RealityTest)  ⁠patreon.com/RealityTest⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (or search on Patreon with “@RealityTest”) & check out some of the benefits of a free membership (early access to the audio episodes!) & the paid tier! For only a MEASLY $5/month, you get the bonus features, including Mental Health Check-Up episodes, the VIDEO episodes, the full audio episode archive, and bonus & behind-the-scenes video content!The first 10 paying members will get shoutouts on the pod & 5 randomly selected members will get a free year of membership after joining! What are you waiting for? Come watch our video episodes, & join us in learning a little something about psych & mental health from our examinations of your favorite reality TV shows, castmates, and tea! O=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-oReality testing is when we check an emotion or thought we're having against objective reality. So, here in Reality Test, we're going to be testing the thoughts, emotions, interactions, and producer antics of reality television against what we know, as licensed psychologists, about objective reality. Come with us, let's Reality Test!Hosts: Dr. Kay & Dr. RayThank you to our sound extraordinaire, Connor!Patreon: patreon.com/RealityTest Linkt.ree/@RealityTestInstagram: @realitytestpodcastThreads: @drkaypodsTikTok: @realitytestpodYouTube Channel: @realitytestpodFacebook Page: Reality Test PodEmail: realitycheckpodding@gmail.com     Dr. Kay: @drkaypods (Insta) & @dr.realitv (TikTok)Dr. Ray: @drraypods (Insta)O=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-o

In this high-stakes episode of HR's Most Dangerous Podcast, Joel and Chad swap their usual banter for a masterclass in human psychology with Jim Lawler, a former CIA case officer who spent 25 years convincing people to commit treason for the United States. Lawler pulls back the curtain on the "addictive" world of espionage, describing his career across posh European postings as a relentless pursuit of the "adrenaline junkie" high that comes from subverting foreign governments. From his early days nearly skipping the agency for a "miserable" family business to the pinnacle of his career dismantling nuclear networks, Lawler shares the gritty reality of being a "professional manipulator" within the lanes of U.S. law. The conversation takes a fascinating turn as Lawler translates his CIA tradecraft into actionable wisdom for HR and recruiters. He breaks down the legendary MICE framework—Money, Ideology, Coercion, and Ego—explaining why he never recruited a "happy person" and why ego is often the most powerful leverage point for turning an asset. Whether it's his ten qualities of a top recruiter—like "mastery of the metaphysics" and finding the "cracks" in a candidate's psychological armor—or his surreal story of sitting on $1 billion in gold in a Swiss vault, this episode is a deep dive into the art of building trust in the most untrustworthy environments.

In this long episode, we look at several interviews conducted by notorious 'skeptic' author Michael Shermer on his podcast and "shitty YouTube channel", as it was memorably described by Rebecca Watson... After an introductory discussion of Shermer and his... ahem... chequered history (to put it legally non-actionably), we boggle at the decidedly low-energy Mr Skepticism as he interviews psychologist of abuse and gaslighting Jennifer Fraser PhD about her book about abuse and gaslighting and her own history of being abused and gaslit, all without breaking a bead of sweat. This is Michael Shermer, remember. Then we take in some lowlights of his unbelievably vapid conversation with store-brand Bari Weiss, Bari Weiss's wife, Nellie Bowles, who is just... insufferable. We conclude by voyaging fully into the sickness as we tune into a discussion Shermer had with rabidly Islamophobic Zionist neocon warmonger and racist reactionary crank Douglas Murray, all about how Islam is a 'culture of death' and maybe Israel accidentally did some bad stuff in Gaza but, y'know, that's war, or something. Big content warnings on this one. It's what I call a 'journey episode'. Not only is it over 2hrs long (we try to keep the length down but sometimes it's not possible) but all the way through it also raises topics that are very hard to deal with, including sexual and psychological abuse, and the manifold violent crimes of the state of Israel, including the Gaza genocide. And all through it, there is the personification of self-identified rational, logical, sceptical centrism nodding along like the libertarian reactionary and alleged abuser he actually is. I've made time stamps for this one, for ease of navigation or multi-session listening. The Intro to Shermer section starts around 13:50 The section dealing with the Fraser interview starts around 24:11 The Nellie Bowles bit begins around 1:04:00 And the Douglas Murray section starts at around 1:31:00 NOTES: Rebecca Watson, "So I'm in the Epstein Files" https://www.reddit.com/r/behindthebastards/comments/1p1noab/so_im_in_the_epstein_files_rebecca_watson_on/ Rebecca Watson, "Epstein Files Reveal How Pathetic Richard Dawkins and Others Really Are" https://www.reddit.com/r/behindthebastards/comments/1p1noab/so_im_in_the_epstein_files_rebecca_watson_on/ PZ Myers, "What Do You Do When Someone Pulls the Pin and Hands You a Grenade?" What do you do when someone pulls the pin and hands you a grenade? https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2013/08/08/what-do-you-do-when-someone-pulls-the-pin-and-hands-you-a-grenade/ Mark Oppenheimer, Buzzfeed, "Will Misogyny Bring Down the Atheist Movement?" https://www.buzzfeed.com/markoppenheimer/will-misogyny-bring-down-the-atheist-movement The Michael Shermer Show, "Douglas Murray on Hamas, Iran, and the Collapse of the Two-State Solution" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTTXoQ42wP4&pp=ygUObXVycmF5IHNoZXJtZXLSBwkJ0woBhyohjO8%3D The Michael Shermer Show, "Shermer Says 5: What Went Wrong in Minnesota? Protests, Panic, and Personal Responsibility" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iZRwQ4ggFc The Michael Shermer SHow, "The Psychology of Gaslighting, Bullying, Cults, and Coercion" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w37x_mIGOIA The Michael Shermer Show, "What Happened to Journalism" https://youtu.be/uUfkVLkvPzk PZ Myers, Michael Shermer is Scum https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2026/01/14/michael-shermer-is-scum/ PZ Myers, Shermer-Shrier Interview https://freethoughtblogs.com/reprobate/2021/08/01/the-shermer-shrier-interview/ Skepchick / Rebecca Watson, The Fascists are Lying about ICE Murdering an Innocent Woman https://skepchick.org/2026/01/the-fascists-are-lying-about-ice-murdering-an-innocent-woman/ Science-Based Medicine, Michael Shermer's Anti-Trans Obsession https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/fakeskepticshermer/ Legal Planet, False Equivalence Watch: Michael Shermer https://legal-planet.org/2013/02/10/false-equivalence-watch-michael-shermer/ SHOW NOTES: Please consider donating to help us make the show and stay ad-free and independent.  Patrons get exclusive access to at least one full extra episode a month plus all backer-only back-episodes. Daniel's Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/danielharper/posts Jack's Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=4196618&fan_landing=true IDSG Twitter: https://twitter.com/idsgpod Daniel's Twitter: @danieleharper Jack's (Locked) Twitter: @_Jack_Graham_ Jack's Bluesky: @timescarcass.bsky.social Daniel's Bluesky: @danielharper.bsky.social IDSG on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/i-dont-speak-german/id1449848509?ls=1

If you enjoy this episode, we're sure you will enjoy more content like this on The Occult Rejects.  In fact, we have curated playlists on occult topics like grimoires, esoteric concepts and phenomena, occult history, analyzing true crime and cults with an occult lens, Para politics, and occultism in music. Whether you enjoy consuming your content visually or via audio, we've got you covered - and it will always be provided free of charge.  So, if you enjoy what we do and want to support our work of providing accessible, free content on various platforms, please consider making a donation to the links provided below.  Thank you and enjoy the episode!Links For The Occult Rejectshttps://linktr.ee/theoccultrejectsOccult Research Institutehttps://www.occultresearchinstitute.org/Cash Apphttps://cash.app/$theoccultrejectsVenmo@TheOccultRejectsBuy Me A Coffeebuymeacoffee.com/TheOccultRejectsPatreonhttps://www.patreon.com/TheOccultRejectsPrimary / official sourcesU.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of New York. “Long Island Pastor Pleads Guilty to Sexual Exploitation of a Child.” March 11, 2025.U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of New York. “Long Island Pastor Charged With Sexual Exploitation of Children, Coercion and Distribution Of Child Pornography.” December 6, 2023.FBI New York. “FBI New York Arrests Long Island Pastor for Production of Child Pornography.” September 28, 2023.FBI. “Seeking Victim Information in Jose Saez Investigation.” Victim-information notice.Local / secondary reportingNews 12 Long Island. “FBI arrests Brentwood pastor accused of sexually exploiting minor.” September 28, 2023.News 12 Long Island. “Brentwood pastor already accused of sexually exploiting dozens of children charged with targeting 4 more victims.” April 10, 2024.News 12 Long Island. “DOJ: Brentwood pastor pleads guilty to sexual exploitation of child.” March 11, 2025.News 12 Bronx. “Brentwood pastor accused of coercing children into sending sexual videos, pictures.” December 2023.Also want to remind people about the website, if you're into reading we have tons of information by multiple contributors, and we got t-shirts up on the site if you're interested. Fun fact, the art is all based on the eyeball. Now let me introduce the rest of the panel and guests.

Eight weeks into the US-Israeli war against Iran, the ceasefire is about to expire and the second round of negotiations is supposed to be happening this week in Islamabad. Darren uses the framework of “war-as-bargaining” to make sense of an extraordinary three weeks—the threats, the ceasefire, the collapse of the first talks, the blockade, Iran's brief reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and its near-immediate closure—and argues that the conflict has transformed Iran's strategic calculus in ways that make control of the Strait a functional substitute for nuclear weapons. The episode then works through what kind of deal is actually possible, why the Trump administration's rejection of process makes that deal hard to deliver, and why the West more broadly is going to have to develop the psychological capacity to live with outcomes in which adversaries get to enjoy strategic successes. Darren finishes with a moral accounting of Trump's threats to annihilate Iranian civilisation, and a post-script on what he still believes despite it all. Australia in the World is written, hosted, and produced by Darren Lim, with research and editing by Hannah Nelson and theme music composed by Rory Stenning. Relevant links Thomas Schelling, Arms and Influence (Yale University Press, 1966): https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/113730.Arms_and_Influence Robert Pape, Bombing to Win: Air Power and Coercion in War (Cornell University Press, 1996): https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/761594.Bombing_to_Win Mark Mazzetti, Adam Entous and Julian E. Barnes, “For Iran, Flexing Control Over Waterway Is New Deterrent,” New York Times, 18 April 2026: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/18/us/politics/iran-hormuz-strait-trump.html Josh Dawsey and Annie Linskey, “Behind Trump's Public Bravado on the War, He Grapples With His Own Fears”, 18 April 2026: https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/trump-public-bravado-private-fear-59814dca “Which Iran is America dealing with?”, The Economist, 19 April 2026: https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2026/04/19/which-iran-is-america-dealing-with Barak Ravid and Marc Caputo, “U.S. considers $20 billion cash-for-uranium deal with Iran,” Axios, 17 April 2026: https://www.axios.com/2026/04/17/iran-us-deal-20-billion-frozen-funds-uranium Phil Stewart, “Allies fear a rushed US–Iran framework deal could backfire, leaving technical deadlock,” Reuters, 19 April 2026: https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/allies-fear-rushed-usiran-framework-deal-could-backfire-leaving-technical-2026-04-19/ Fareed Zakaria interview with Ezra Klein, “Fareed Zakaria on the Moral Cost of Trump's War,” The Ezra Klein Show, New York Times, 10 April 2026: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5hU0VHM1-M&pp=ygUSZXpyYSBrbGVpbiBwb2RjYXN0 The West Wing, “They'll Like Us When We Win”: YouTube clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZYs2UpLYAI Twitter handles of individuals mentioned: Danny (Dennis) Citrinowicz (@citrinowicz) Vali Nasr (@vali_nasr) Ali Vaez (@AliVaez) Robert Malley (@Rob_Malley) Dmitri Medvedev (@MedvedevRussiaE)

Dr. Naomi Gatherer has conducted a scientific feat, bringing the legendary Billy Mays back from the dead. If you don't know who Billy Mays is, fuck you, but he was the best infomercial voice actor to ever exist in this world, galaxy, universe, etc. And he's back, and ready to… The post [P.A.Z.NIA RADIO NETWORK] Cleaning The Stains of Coercion with the Legendary Billy Mays appeared first on The Vonu Podcast.

Send us Fan MailLosing control and losing your agency rarely happens all at once. It happens the way a pilot gets off course: one small degree at a time, until you look up and realize you're heading the wrong direction. That's why we start with a dogfighting lesson about initiative and translate it into spiritual terms, because moral agency works the same way. When you're acting, you're positioned, purposeful, and hard to deceive. When you're being acted upon, you're reacting, drifting, and hoping the enemy makes a mistake.We dig into the doctrine of agency as the first battlefield for your soul, tracing it back to the pre-mortal choice between coercion and Christ's plan of growth, repentance, and real freedom. Using scriptures like 2 Nephi 2:26 and Moses 4:3, we name the adversary's core strategy: destroy agency without you noticing. From there, we walk through seven stages of spiritual decline that lead to “capture,” from disengagement and distraction to desensitization, distortion of truth, dependence, bondage, and finally justification.Then we shift to the counterattack: a practical daily checklist to strengthen moral agency and keep the initiative. Morning alignment through prayer, input control to guard your mind, mastering micro choices, quick repentance and early course correction, acting instead of reacting, nightly debrief with journaling and prayer, and staying linked to God's power through covenants and the Holy Ghost. If you've felt stuck, scattered, or spiritually numb, this gives you a clear path back to control and clarity. Subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find it.Support the showYou can reach me anytime at email: tandrewsen.monat@gmail.comInstagram @toddtalks_ig

This interview with Prof. Thomas Pink, originally published in 2020, is being republished as part of Thomas Mirus's ongoing series covering the major encyclicals of Pope Leo XIII. Vatican II's Declaration on Religious Freedom, Dignitatis Humanae, begins by noting that its discussion of religious liberty "has to do with immunity from coercion in civil society" and so "leaves untouched traditional Catholic doctrine on the moral duty of men and societies toward the true religion and toward the one Church of Christ." This episode is about discovering what that traditional doctrine was and is.  Our main source will be Pope Leo XIII's encyclical Immortale Dei, which is available in audiobook form on CatholicCulture.org. Thomas Pink guides us through a close reading of this document (with supplementary material from Libertas and Longuinqua). Here, and in the magisterium of other 19th-century Popes, we find a number of teachings on Church and State that have gone largely unmentioned since the Council, and which are sadly forgotten or even rejected by the majority of self-described conservative Catholics. Links Thomas Mirus's article summarizing the encyclical https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/leo-xiii-on-states-duties-toward-church/ Audiobook of Immortale Dei https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/pope-leo-xiii-immortale-dei-on-christian-constitution-states/ Text of Immortale Dei (On the Christian Constitution of States) https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=4916 Thomas Pink, "Conscience and Coercion" https://www.firstthings.com/article/2012/08/conscience-and-coercion Timestamps [00:00] Introduction  [4:59] The historical and theological context of Immortale Dei  [9:42] An overview of points from Immortale Dei and Libertas  [12:28] The source and nature of authority; its directive and coercive functions  [20:30] The State's duty to profess, protect and foster the one true religion  [25:56] Reasons for toleration of other religions; coercion of the baptized  [36:05] Leo's analogy of Church and State with soul and body  [45:26] Separate sovereignties of Church and State interact; State can act as the "secular arm"  [51:31] Obligations twd. religion of the State properly speaking, not just rulers as individuals  [55:03] Consequences of the State neglecting God and religion  [1:02:40] Dignitatis Humanae: drafting, intended scope, legacy, compatibility with tradition  [1:10:30] Papal condemnations of freedom of speech and opinion  [1:31:10] The Church's move away from coercing baptized heretics  [1:36:13] The importance of docility in accepting difficult teachings  [1:41:29] Need for a synthesis of the whole magisterium on Church, State and religious liberty DONATE to make this show possible! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio  SIGN UP for Catholic Culture's newsletter: https://www.catholicculture.org/newsletters

Send us Fan MailThe moment you realize “this could happen to anyone” is the moment you start getting your power back. We're kicking off our Cult Survivor Series with two of the most important voices in the cult recovery space: Sarah Edmondson and Nippy Ames, co-hosts of A Little Bit Culty, to talk about their new book A Little Bit Culty: Navigating Cults, Control, and Coercion.We get into what makes high control groups work across religions, self-help programs, political movements, and influencer communities, even when they look nothing alike on the surface. Sarah and Nippy break down coercive control in plain language: love bombing that turns conditional, information control, isolation, punishment for questioning, and the “special” jargon that trains you to gaslight yourself. We also talk about why cult recruitment isn't about intelligence, and how a simple checklist mindset can help you spot red flags early, before you're deeply invested.From there we go personal and practical: parenting after a cult, teaching kids how to ask questions without fear, setting boundaries while still building real community, and how online algorithms can target vulnerability and amplify recruitment tactics. We also talk honestly about healing, PTSD, trust, and why recovery doesn't have a clean endpoint, it comes in waves.If this conversation helps you, share it with someone who needs better language for what they're experiencing, and subscribe for more survivor stories. After you listen, leave a comment with the biggest warning sign you've seen in a group or relationship.Support the showBFG Store - http://blownforgood-shop.fourthwall.com/Blown For Good on Audible - https://www.amazon.com/Blown-for-Good-Marc-Headley-audiobook/dp/B07GC6ZKGQ/ref=tmm_aud_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=Blown For Good Website: http://blownforgood.com/PODCAST INFO:Podcast website: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2131160Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/blown-for-good-behind-the-iron-curtain-of-scientology/id1671284503RSS: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/2131160.rssYOUTUBE PLAYLISTS:Spy Files Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWtJfniWLwq4cA-eBNXD...

Philosopher Stefan Molyneux's 8 April 2026 Wednesday Night Live unpacks interstellar travel's relativity barriers, microbial aliens, Fermi Paradox voids and gov drags to ignite free-market human conquest of the stars.GET FREEDOMAIN MERCH! https://shop.freedomain.com/SUBSCRIBE TO ME ON X! https://x.com/StefanMolyneuxFollow me on Youtube! https://www.youtube.com/@freedomain1GET MY NEW BOOK 'PEACEFUL PARENTING', THE INTERACTIVE PEACEFUL PARENTING AI, AND THE FULL AUDIOBOOK!https://peacefulparenting.com/Join the PREMIUM philosophy community on the web for free!Subscribers get 12 HOURS on the "Truth About the French Revolution," multiple interactive multi-lingual philosophy AIs trained on thousands of hours of my material - as well as AIs for Real-Time Relationships, Bitcoin, Peaceful Parenting, and Call-In Shows!You also receive private livestreams, HUNDREDS of exclusive premium shows, early release podcasts, the 22 Part History of Philosophers series and much more!See you soon!https://freedomain.locals.com/support/promo/UPB2025

Scott brought Robert Pape of the University of Chicago back to discuss the attempted ceasefire that went into effect on Wednesday night. Pape explains why this is not actually a meaningful step away from the escalation to a full-on war that he's long been warning about. He also talks about how this is war is cementing Iran's status as a world power and why he expects the Iranians to abandon their previous stance, begin earnestly pursuing nuclear weapons and attain them quickly. Discussed on the show: “The Pause That Isn't: Why the Iran Ceasefire Changes Everything” (The Escalation Trap) “The War Is Turning Iran Into a Major World Power” (The New York Times) Robert A. Pape is Professor of Political Science and Director of the University of Chicago Project on Security and Threats and the author of Bombing to Win: Air Power and Coercion in War. Follow him on Twitter @ProfessorPape Audio cleaned up with the Podsworth app: https://podsworth.com Use code HORTON50 for 50% off your first order at Podsworth.com to clean up your voice recordings, sound like a pro, and also support the Scott Horton Show! For more on Scott's work: Check out The Libertarian Institute: https://www.libertarianinstitute.org Check out Scott's other show, Provoked, with Darryl Cooper https://youtube.com/@Provoked_Show Read Scott's books: Provoked: How Washington Started the New Cold War with Russia and the Catastrophe in Ukraine https://amzn.to/47jMtg7 (The audiobook of Provoked is being published in sections at https://scotthortonshow.com) Enough Already: Time to End the War on Terrorism: https://amzn.to/3tgMCdw Fool's Errand: Time to End the War in Afghanistan https://amzn.to/3HRufs0 Follow Scott on X @scotthortonshow And check out Scott's full interview archives: https://scotthorton.org/all-interviews This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Roberts and Roberts Brokerage Incorporated https://rrbi.co Moon Does Artisan Coffee https://scotthorton.org/coffee; Tom Woods' Liberty Classroom https://www.libertyclassroom.com/dap/a/?a=1616 and Dissident Media https://dissidentmedia.com You can also support Scott's work by making a one-time or recurring donation at https://scotthorton.org/donate/https://scotthortonshow.com or https://patreon.com/scotthortonshow Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

 Download Audio. Scott brought Robert Pape of the University of Chicago back to discuss the attempted ceasefire that went into effect on Wednesday night. Pape explains why this is not actually a meaningful step away from the escalation to a full-on war that he's long been warning about. He also talks about how this is war is cementing Iran's status as a world power and why he expects the Iranians to abandon their previous stance, begin earnestly pursuing nuclear weapons and attain them quickly. Discussed on the show: “The Pause That Isn't: Why the Iran Ceasefire Changes Everything” (The Escalation Trap) “The War Is Turning Iran Into a Major World Power” (The New York Times) Robert A. Pape is Professor of Political Science and Director of the University of Chicago Project on Security and Threats and the author of Bombing to Win: Air Power and Coercion in War. Follow him on Twitter @ProfessorPape Audio cleaned up with the Podsworth app: https://podsworth.com Use code HORTON50 for 50% off your first order at Podsworth.com to clean up your voice recordings, sound like a pro, and also support the Scott Horton Show! For more on Scott’s work: Check out The Libertarian Institute: https://www.libertarianinstitute.org Check out Scott’s other show, Provoked, with Darryl Cooper https://youtube.com/@Provoked_Show Read Scott’s books: Provoked: How Washington Started the New Cold War with Russia and the Catastrophe in Ukraine https://amzn.to/47jMtg7 (The audiobook of Provoked is being published in sections at https://scotthortonshow.com) Enough Already: Time to End the War on Terrorism: https://amzn.to/3tgMCdw Fool's Errand: Time to End the War in Afghanistan https://amzn.to/3HRufs0 Follow Scott on X @scotthortonshow And check out Scott's full interview archives: https://scotthorton.org/all-interviews This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Roberts and Roberts Brokerage Incorporated https://rrbi.co Moon Does Artisan Coffee https://scotthorton.org/coffee; Tom Woods' Liberty Classroom https://www.libertyclassroom.com/dap/a/?a=1616 and Dissident Media https://dissidentmedia.com You can also support Scott's work by making a one-time or recurring donation at https://scotthorton.org/donate/https://scotthortonshow.com or https://patreon.com/scotthortonshow

The First Amendment's free speech clause is meant to protect Americans against government abridgment of free expression. How does this apply to social media companies when they are subjected to both formal and informal pressure from members of a president's inner circle? Although a narrow ruling, MO v. Biden makes clear the relevance of free […]

The First Amendment's free speech clause is meant to protect Americans against government abridgment of free expression. How does this apply to social media companies when they are subjected to both formal and informal pressure from members of a president's inner circle?Although a narrow ruling, MO v. Biden makes clear the relevance of free speech, regardless of the state of technology at a given time in our history.Read NCLA's press release: https://nclalegal.org/press_release/ncla-reaches-historic-settlement-strikes-major-blow-against-governments-social-media-censorship/Host: Jeff SikkengaExecutive Producer: Jeremy GyptonSubscribe: https://linktr.ee/theamericanideaHomepage: https://ashbrook.org/the-american-idea-podcast/

In this episode, Dr. Jeremy Goldberg sits down with Tad Hargrave, founder of Marketing for Hippies, to explore how marketing can be practiced ethically, beautifully, and effectively. Tad breaks down the distinctions between coercion and persuasion and shares practical ways to build trust, integrity, and reputation in business.Topics covered include:The fundamental difference between coercion and persuasion in marketingThe importance of ethics, truth, and alignment before sharing offersThe seven fundamentals of ethical marketing, including clear niching, compelling point of view, and filtering clientsHow to lower client risk cleverly with filtering and 'Are You Sure' pagesThe influence of reciprocity, social proof, and reputation in long-term successThe impact of coaching space, financial stability, and reputation managementCritique of manipulative tactics like urgency, scarcity, and high-pressure salesThe importance of authenticity, empathy, and beauty in marketing practicesA few things we discussed:Tad's website: Marketing for HippiesLock the Game: Ari GalperRobert Allen's Sales Letter ExampleBig Dream Program by Alex BasleyTad's Instagram_______________________________________Follow me on Instagram, @LongDistanceLoveBombs: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/longdistancelovebombs⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Read my Substack: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://substack.com/@longdistancelovebombs⁠⁠⁠⁠Sign up for my weekly newsletter!  Click here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://longdistancelovebombs.mykajabi.com/email⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. It's easy and takes five seconds.Check out a list of my favorite books here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.amazon.com/shop/longdistancelovebombs_______________________________________Timestamps:00:00 - Welcome and guest introduction02:09 - Who is Tad? His background and mission03:40 - Targeting resistant holistic practitioners and ethical marketing06:03 - Shift from "get the sale" mentality to honest alignment07:26 - Distinction between coercion and consent-based sharing08:58 - The role of ethics, space, and clear niches in marketing success10:22 - Building compelling points of view and filtering clients effectively11:31 - The metaphor of the spear: fundamentals and sharing12:11 - Persuasion vs coercion explained15:02 - Using worldview, diagnosis, and premises in marketing15:55 - The problem with gimmicks like urgency and scarcity16:43 - The ethics of scarcity and genuine urgency18:20 - The structure of effective marketing involving attention, filtering, and lowering risk21:49 - Empathy and speaking to clients' pain, fear, and desire points23:01 - Building credibility and value in offers24:00 - Managing high-risk scenarios ethically25:31 - The danger of exploiting pain or manufactured discontent27:48 - The importance of honesty and authenticity over tricks28:09 - The long-term value of reputation and integrity31:39 - Respectful, opt-in approach at workshops and events36:26 - Critique of manipulative marketing videos37:28 - How false promises and "automatic compliance" are unethical40:45 - The impact on self-respect and industry trust43:43 - Filtering clients through transparent pages and vetting processes45:04 - The power of honesty and clarity in decision-making46:35 - Ethical reflection in client engagement and pricing48:49 - Long-term reputation and sustainability in business53:05 - The collective importance of industry reputation55:46 - Final thoughts on ethical leadership and industry pitfalls56:17 - Common pet peeves: rationalizing coercive tactics58:40 - The lies behind "light" versus "dark" marketing approaches60:17 - The visual and linguistic errors in marketing that undermine trust61:55 - Cues from indigenous elders vs industry norms for ethics63:05 - Closing remarks and how to connect with Tad

This interview was originally published on May 19, 2023. We are republishing it as the war in Iran continues to escalate.Historian, Assal Rad, explores identity formation in modern Iran, both under the Pahlavi dynasty as well as after the 1979 Revolution under the Islamic Republic. Her book “State of Resistance: Politics, Culture, and Identity in Modern Iran” examines top-down and bottom-up manifestations of national identity as narrated by state structures and popular culture, respectively. Her fascinating analysis is based on a historical assessment of how modern state-building in Iran inculcated a sense of national belonging in the population, as well as on interviews with people in Tehran and examples taken from popular music and film. Can national identity play a positive role in liberation struggles?

Philosopher Stefan Molyneux's 1 April 2026 Wednesday Night Live livestream breaks down unions as cults, state coercion vs true voluntarism, greed's ethics and faith in dating calls to forge libertarian freedom and personal responsibility.GET FREEDOMAIN MERCH! https://shop.freedomain.com/SUBSCRIBE TO ME ON X! https://x.com/StefanMolyneuxFollow me on Youtube! https://www.youtube.com/@freedomain1GET MY NEW BOOK 'PEACEFUL PARENTING', THE INTERACTIVE PEACEFUL PARENTING AI, AND THE FULL AUDIOBOOK!https://peacefulparenting.com/Join the PREMIUM philosophy community on the web for free!Subscribers get 12 HOURS on the "Truth About the French Revolution," multiple interactive multi-lingual philosophy AIs trained on thousands of hours of my material - as well as AIs for Real-Time Relationships, Bitcoin, Peaceful Parenting, and Call-In Shows!You also receive private livestreams, HUNDREDS of exclusive premium shows, early release podcasts, the 22 Part History of Philosophers series and much more!See you soon!https://freedomain.locals.com/support/promo/UPB2025

When Shea Briar didn't show up for church, Pastor Angela Smiley knew something was wrong. He was found laying on a bridge in the rain. As investigators start pulling at threads, a messy breakup and custody fight come into focus. What seemed random quickly starts to look like something planned, with more than one person involved. Get exclusive Killer Instinct content on my patreon : ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/killerinstinct ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ If you like the show, telling a friend about it would be helpful! You can text, email, Tweet, or send this link to a friend: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://bit.ly/KillerInstinctPod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Savannah on IG: @savannahbrymer Follow Savannah on Twitter: @savannahbrymer Get exclusive Killer Instinct content on my patreon : ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/killerinstinct ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ If you like the show, telling a friend about it would be helpful! You can text, email, Tweet, or send this link to a friend: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://bit.ly/KillerInstinctPod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Savannah on IG: @savannahbrymer Follow Savannah on Twitter: @savannahbrymer Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What do gaslighting, bullying, cults, and coercion have in common? In this episode, Michael Shermer speaks with Jennifer Fraser about the psychology and neuroscience of manipulation, the recurring structure of abuse cultures, and the way authority can distort perception. Their discussion looks at fear, humiliation, retaliation, favoritism, empathy deficits, and the warning signs that distinguish legitimate leadership from coercive control across schools, workplaces, sports, relationships, and institutions. Jennifer Fraser is the author of four books and an international expert on bullying and abuse. Her latest book is The Gaslit Brain: Protect Your Brain from the Lies of Bullying, Gaslighting, and Institutional Complicity.

Christianity has been “hijacked” by Christian Nationalists, right-wing Conservatives and Dominionists, according to John Fugelsang, author of the 2025 book Separation of Church and Hate: A Sane Person's Guide to Taking Back the Bible from Fundamentalists, Fascists, and Flock-Fleecing Frauds. “The entire history of the organized religion has been authoritarian control,” he said on our interview for the Cults, Culture & Coercion podcast. However, he also noted a deep appreciation for the teaching of Christ through the Bible and as used by non-violent activists like Martin Luther King Jr., “There's this incredible history of liberation thought and a true history of Christian activism that's almost always in resistance to Christian authoritarianism.”   “This book is a guide to everything the haters got wrong, and how, even if you're an atheist, if you're debating a Christian fundamentalist, Jesus agrees with you whether he exists or not, on every topic that divides us, it gives you the right-wing arguments and why they're full of crap.” I replied that I'd interviewed many biblical scholars over the years and that I felt John really knew his stuff when it came to countering Christian nationalist fascists. I encouraged listeners to read or listen to his book. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

White Christian nationalism is not an abstract political concept. For Adam James, it was the air he breathed from birth. Adam, who goes by @epistemiccrisis on Instagram with well over 700,000 followers, grew up in the Pentecostal and charismatic church culture of Augusta, Georgia, was raised inside the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR), served as a worship leader and helped plant a church that is still operating today. He is also a licensed physical therapist with fourteen years of geriatric home health care experience and holds a Doctorate in Physical Therapy (DPT). He has spent the last several years applying that dual expertise, as a former insider in authoritarian religion and as a clinician who works daily with elderly patients, to analyze what he sees happening at the highest levels of American government. I invited Adam to Cults, Culture & Coercion because the combination of his lived experience and professional training is genuinely rare, and the clarity he brings to both subjects is something my listeners need to hear. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

White House war advisor ROBERT PAPE reveals why Trump is trapped in a war with Iran, the risk of a nuclear breakout, the role of China in the conflict, and how the US is losing control of the Middle East. Robert Pape is a renowned political scientist and director of the Chicago Project on Security and Threats. He has advised every White House since 9/11 on military strategy and is the author of Bombing to Win: Air Power and Coercion in War. He explains: ▪️The 3 stages of the escalation trap locking the US into war ▪️Why precision smart bombs trick leaders into strategic failure ▪️The hidden reality of Iran's 400kg enriched uranium stockpile ▪️How killing the Supreme Leader made the Iranian regime more resilient ▪️The pattern that connects Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran Enjoyed the episode? Share this link and earn points for every referral - redeem them for exclusive prizes: https://doac-perks.com Follow Robert: X - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/CACnkUs LinkedIn - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/EhIzCvZ Substack - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/AtTbkWq The Diary Of A CEO: Join DOAC Circle - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/EVyBm53  The Diary Of A CEO book - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/67654nf  The 1% Diary - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/2mrbk7t  Conversation Cards - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/Ex8Yc9b  Get email updates - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/7Az7mkJ  Follow DOAC on Instagram - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/6KoLc6C  Sponsors: Stan - Visit https://coach.stan.store/?ref=stevenbartlett&utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=episode1 Fiverr - https://fiverr.com/diary and get 10% off your first order when you use code DIARY Wispr - Get 14 days of Wispr Flow for free at https://wisprflow.ai/steven

When a family sailing journey ends in capture by child soldiers during Mozambique's civil war, a man must protect his children while confronting the unsettling truth that his captors are both perpetrators of violence and children shaped by it. Today's episode featured Dave Muller. Dave has written about his experiences in a book entitled, “Not Child's Play”, available where books are sold or at https://notchildsplay.co.uk/ You can email Dave at dave.muller@notchildsplay.co.za Dave is on Instagram @davenotchildsplay, on Facebook @Dave Muller and on YouTube @DaveMuller-NotChildsPlayIn the 1960s and 1970s, both South Africa and Mozambique were part of the larger decolonization of Africa, with South Africa gaining full independence from Britain in 1961 and Mozambique gaining independence from Portugal in 1975. However, in the decolonization process, both were thrown into proxy battles, between old structures clinging to power and the larger global cold war between communist and capitalist superpowers. South Africa, even after independence, was still ruled by a white minority government, under the National Party. The National Party was populated mostly by the white ethnic group known as Afrikaners who spoke a language called Afrikaans. The National Party instituted apartheid, a brutally oppressive system of institutionalized racial segregation and white supremacy enforced in South Africa from 1948 to the early 1990s. South Africa shares a northeastern border with Mozambique. When Mozambique gained independence in 1975, they were ruled by the Communist party known as FRELIMO. FRELIMO became a major force opposing apartheid in neighboring South Africa. The South African apartheid government, in response to FRELIMO's opposition, actively destabilized Mozambique from the inside by propping up a rebel group known as RENAMO. This led to a violent 15-year civil war in Mozambique, between the ruling, communist-backed FRELIMO party and the South African-backed RENAMO rebel group. In the first part of today's episode, you'll hear our storyteller speak about growing up in South Africa during apartheid as a white man, but he was not an Afrikaner, and grew up in a family that was opposed to apartheid. The second part of the story takes place in Mozambique, where he and his family are held by the RENAMO rebel group and caught in the chaos and fighting between FRELIMO and RENAMO, the two warring factions in the civil war there. Of course there is much more to say about all of this, and Dave will speak to some of these issues as he experienced them. I encourage you all to read more about the brutal and complex history of decolonization and apartheid in Africa. And one final note, you'll hear Dave talking about “Arwen” several times. In case it isn't clear right away, he is referring to his boat that he built. Producers: Whit Missildine, Andrew Waits, Aviva Lipkowitz Content/Trigger Warnings: War and armed conflict, Child soldiers, Kidnapping / hostage situation, Graphic violence, Murder (including stabbing / bayoneting), Violence against the elderly, Exposure to blood, Threats of execution, Weapons (guns, rockets, mortar fire), Terrorism / militant groups, Civil war, Psychological trauma, PTSD, Panic attacks / emotional breakdown, Spiritual distress, Political violence, Forced recruitment of children, Coercion and intimidation, explicit language Social Media:Instagram: @actuallyhappeningTwitter/X: @TIAHPodcastFacebook: This Is Actually Happening Discussion Group Website: thisisactuallyhappening.com Website for Andrew Waits: andrdewwaits.comWebsite for Aviva Lipkowitz: avivalipkowitz.com Support the Show: Support The Show on Patreon: patreon.com/happeningAudible subscribers can listen to all episodes of THIS IS ACTUALLY HAPPENING ad-free right now. Join Audible today by downloading the Audible app or visit Audible.com. Shop at the Store: The This Is Actually Happening online store is now officially open. Follow this link: thisisactuallyhappening.com/shop to access branded t-shirts, posters, stickers and more from the shop. Transcripts: Full transcripts of each episode are now available on the website, thisisactuallyhappening.com Intro Music: “Sleep Paralysis” - Scott VelasquezMusic Bed: Sparse_Reflections__a__APM ServicesIf you or someone you know is struggling with the effects of trauma or mental illness, please refer to the following resources: National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: Text or Call 988 National Alliance on Mental Illness: 1-800-950-6264National Sexual Assault Hotline (RAINN): 1-800-656-HOPE (4673)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.