Who Funds that?

It seems like everywhere you look around the world, political extremism—of forms Islamist, radical-right/ultranationalist, and radical-left/neocommunist—is on the rise. Why is this so and what can be done about it? At Capital Research Center, we’re debuting a new program, the Counter Extremism Research Center to track and expose the forces promoting, funding, and engaging in extremist activity. Leading that project and joining us today to discuss the rise of extremism and his work for Capital Research Center is the director of the Counter Extremism Research Center, Sean Durns. Links:https://nationalinterest.org/feature/frances-riots-stem-from-a-deep-rothttps://www.wsj.com/opinion/the-chinese-communist-partys-tactics-to-weaken-the-u-s-d0570734?mod=letterstoeditor_article_pos1https://www.nationalreview.com/2026/10/when-terrorism-was-first-fashionable/https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2026/oct/12/tehrans-calculus-shifts-must-washingtons/?srsltid=AU7gw4Vw6QfTyAc-DKrk5G4cPqKw-jWbySgmpUmSWIJAkxeCHEwbLr_q

If you listen to any number of left-of-center environmentalist activists, donors, and advocacy groups, the People’s Republic of China is the environmental champion among the great powers, with the United States a climate criminal that should be taking lessons from the totalitarian Communists. But is that true? And if it isn’t, why are American donors spending hundreds of millions of dollars to claim that it is? Ken Braun, our colleague and author of Capital Research Center’s Enemies of Energy joins us to discuss Xi Jinping’s useful green idiots. Links:https://capitalresearch.org/publication/enemies-of-energy-the-myths-the-movement-and-the-money/https://capitalresearch.org/article/climate-ngos-are-xi-jinpings-useful-idiots-in-america/https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/energy-foundation-china/

Cue the fanfare and Pomp and Circumstance March Number One: The MacArthur Foundation has revealed its latest class of “Genius Grant” recipients (officially styled MacArthur Fellows). But behind the marketing hype, this program—and the related program of the even-more-radical Marguerite Casey Foundation—are just an old form of ideological or political advancement: Patronage. Joining us to discuss the MacArthur “geniuses” and the Marguerite Casey Freedom Scholars is our colleague, Robert Stilson. Links:https://apnews.com/article/macarthur-foundation-fellows-genius-grant-list-bea43976f1d35d706b49dadfdc8ed8fdhttps://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/john-d-and-catherine-t-macarthur-foundation/https://capitalresearch.org/article/big-philanthropys-most-radical-scholars/https://capitalresearch.org/article/meet-another-batch-of-big-philanthropy-funded-leftist-loons-the-health-policy-research-scholars/https://capitalresearch.org/article/robert-l-woodson-sr-and-his-concern-for-the-plight-of-the-least-of-gods-children/https://capitalresearch.org/article/featured-book-excerpt-how-great-philanthropists-failed-how-you-can-succeed-at-protecting-your-legacy/

As we discussed last week, the robot apocalypse is maybe not coming, which means that we’re going to have to learn to live with artificial intelligence and related technologies. And now Randi Weingarten, one of the least helpful people in American public life, is here to help us. Joining us to discuss how teachers unions are trying to wriggle themselves into AI regulation is CRC Senior Fellow Kali Fontanilla.  Links:https://capitalresearch.org/article/unions-and-school-districts-have-been-clumsy-ai-regulators/https://capitalresearch.org/article/who-funds-that-episode-23-the-prophets-of-the-ai-apocalypse/

It’s not every day that the would be masters of the universe are going on television and proclaiming an imminent doomsday, as if they were street preachers or the people who used to walk around public parks with sandwich boards saying “The end is nigh!” But the heads of major artificial intelligence companies like Anthropic and OpenAI have spent the last couple of weeks doing just that, claiming that they themselves are bringing forth Armageddon and that only government bureaucracy can stop them. But are these “AI Doomers” a true, organic response to concerns best known by those building the god-machine, or is it a cynical media operation by a mega-business interested in using the regulatory state to lock out potential competitors? Our colleague Parker Thayer, who is skeptical of the motivations of the corporate titans, joins us to discuss. Links:https://x.com/ParkerThayer/status/2097759699626328575?s=20https://capitalresearch.org/article/my-problem-with-effective-altruism/https://capitalresearch.org/article/left-wing-billionaire-dustin-moskovitz/https://www.influencewatch.org/for-profit/anthropic/https://www.influencewatch.org/for-profit/openai/