American Thought Leaders

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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