American Thought Leaders - podcast cover

American Thought Leaders

The Epoch Timeswww.theepochtimes.com
At a time when our nation is portrayed as increasingly polarized, media often ignore viewpoints and stories that are worthy of attention. American Thought Leaders, hosted by The Epoch Times Senior Editor Jan Jekielek, features in-depth discussions with some of America’s most influential thought leaders on pertinent issues facing our nation today.

Episodes

Is Your Diet Making You Sick? | Dr. Berg

Eric Berg, popularly known as Dr. Berg or “The Knowledge Doc,” is a nutritionist and chiropractor specializing in weight loss and alternative health care. He has published more than 6,000 videos and amassed 13 million followers on YouTube, and has trained more than 2,500 doctors and health care practitioners in how diet can impact your health. “When you reduce carbohydrates, it then forces your body to go after your own fat as fuel. So for weight loss, it’s great. And for other things, it’s good...

Feb 02, 202539 min

Grooming Gangs in Britain Were Deliberately Ignored for 2 Decades: MP Suella Braverman

Suella Braverman is the former home secretary of the United Kingdom, and a conservative member of the British parliament. While she was in Washington for President Donald Trump’s inauguration, we sat down to talk about what’s been happening in the U.K., and what Trump’s election means to her and her constituents. “We need to learn a lot from the MAGA movement, from the success of the Republicans under Donald Trump, and really try and apply some of those lessons to U.K. politics right now, becaus...

Jan 31, 202537 min

The Mental Health Industry Is Incentivized to Keep Patients Medicated: Cooper Davis

At a young age, Cooper Davis was diagnosed with ADHD and prescribed a low dose of Ritalin, which helped his ability to focus but caused unwanted side effects. To counteract them, he was prescribed other medications. By age 30, Davis was dependent on six different psychiatric drugs at any given time, what’s commonly known in the mental health community as a “prescription cascade.” “It’s complicated enough that the scientific consensus will generally say, ‘We don’t quite understand why these drugs...

Jan 29, 202551 min

EXCLUSIVE: President Santiago Peña on What Trump’s Return Means for Paraguay and Latin America

In this episode, we have a special guest: Paraguay’s President Santiago Peña. Paraguay is a unique country. It is one of only 12 countries in the world that recognize Taiwan instead of communist China. It is also one of only six nations in the world, alongside the United States, that have moved their embassies from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Peña said he made the decision despite immense opposition from other world leaders. An economist, Peña served as Paraguay’s minister of finance before he was el...

Jan 26, 202535 min

Has Trump Been Proven Right About the Panama Canal? Joseph Humire Says, Yes.

President Trump says he wants the United States to control the Panama Canal and other regions and waterways that he says are crucial to America’s national security interests. “The question we would have to have with Panama is: Do you truly, verifiably know everything that China is doing in regards to your canal for national security concerns? And unless they could give us an answer of ‘100%, we do,’ I think that we’re going to have to have more transparency on that. And I think that’s where the ...

Jan 24, 202549 min

America Has Disease Care, Not Health Care: Dr. Jingduan Yang

“In America, we really don’t have a health care system, even though we call everything ‘health’ insurance, ‘health’ care, and this and that,” says Dr. Jingduan Yang. “We’re not healthy as a nation because we allocate all resources trying to deal with consequences of problems or disease, rather than to prevent [them] and find the root causes that cause those problems,” he says. Yang is a specialist in psychiatry and integrative medicine, and is a fifth-generation practitioner of traditional Chine...

Jan 22, 20251 hr 4 min

Why Europe Is Putting the Brakes on Gender Interventions: Leor Sapir

“The UK has now banned puberty blockers—probably will ban cross-sex hormones too, is my prediction, in the next few years,” said Leor Sapir, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute. He has been following the massive increase in children identifying as transgender and undergoing what’s known as “gender-affirming care” treatment—from puberty blockers to double mastectomies. “[The World Professional Association for Transgender Health] commissioned systematic evidence reviews as part of the process of d...

Jan 19, 202548 min

Bribery, Lawfare, and Media Smears: The CCP’s Campaign to Destroy a Religious Group in America—Erping Zhang

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is stepping up its efforts to destroy a religious group in America that it sees as a threat to its rule, according to leaked information from multiple CCP insiders. Tactics include lawfare, bomb threats, smear campaigns, impersonation attempts, and bribing U.S. officials. The Department of Justice sentenced a Chinese agent for trying to bribe an IRS agent to target practitioners of the Falun Gong spiritual discipline. So what’s going on exactly? And why would th...

Jan 17, 202537 min

Why Trump May Be the First Post-Racial President: Bob Woodson and Joshua Mitchell

“I think race is a very emotional issue with black America, and it can be very easily manipulated. And it has been manipulated for decades by people who use it to direct blacks to vote in a certain way.” In this latest episode in our special series on the U.S. presidential transition, I sit down with Bob Woodson and Joshua Mitchell. Woodson is a civil rights activist and the Founder and President of the Woodson Center. Mitchell is a professor of political theory at Georgetown University. “The pa...

Jan 15, 20251 hr 8 min

Americans Are Not Eating ‘Real Food’—Here’s What You Need to Know: Vani Hari

Sponsor special: Up to $2,500 of FREE silver AND a FREE safe on qualifying orders - Call 855-862-3377 or text “AMERICAN” to 6-5-5-3-2 “Our bodies are not meant to handle these man-made chemicals that have been invented in the last 50 years. These chemicals are invented for one sole purpose, and that’s to improve the bottom line of the food industry, not improve our health.” In this episode, I sit down with author and activist Vani Hari, popularly known as the “food babe.” For over a decade, she ...

Jan 13, 202532 min

Trump’s Tariffs on China: Will They Work? Nazak Nikakhtar Explains

In this latest installment of our special series on the U.S. presidential transition period, I’m sitting down with Nazak Nikakhtar, former assistant secretary of commerce for industry and analysis under the first Trump administration. She’s an expert on trade and national security and a partner at Wiley Rein LLP. In this episode, we dive into the debate surrounding the use of tariffs. How have China’s unfair trade practices destroyed American manufacturing? Will tariffs work? Or will they make t...

Jan 10, 20251 hr 16 min

Here’s Why Americans Are Becoming Sicker: Calley Means

Sponsor special: Up to $2,500 of FREE silver AND a FREE safe on qualifying orders - Call 855-862-3377 or text “AMERICAN” to 6-5-5-3-2 “We’re being lied to about chronic disease. That’s 90 percent of medical spending—92 percent of American deaths are chronic disease. Only 8 percent are infectious. And we have this system that profits from that. But what we could do, which is what President Trump and Bobby Kennedy talked about, is get to the root cause.” In this episode, I sit down with Calley Mea...

Jan 09, 202527 min

How the Family Court System Is Fueling a Fatherless Society: Mark Ludwig

“The science is out there: There have been 64 peer-reviewed studies that Linda Nielsen has reviewed. And they all come to the same conclusion—that children fare better with both parents.” After experiencing firsthand systemic problems within the family court system, in which one parent, typically the father, is relegated to weekend visits with his children in divorce cases, Mark Ludwig founded Americans for Equal Shared Parenting to raise awareness about the need for children to have equal acces...

Jan 06, 202548 min

Why the World Has Less Trust in the Dollar, and How Trump Can Change That: Carol Roth

Sponsor special: Up to $2,500 of FREE silver AND a FREE safe on qualifying orders - Call 855-862-3377 or text “AMERICAN” to 6-5-5-3-2 “We do need to shrink our spending and we need to get a hold on the debt, but it needs to be done in a way that you have the growth go first. Otherwise, you’re going to end up with less revenue, which means you’re going to actually widen the deficit and create a worse problem—a ‘no good deed goes unpunished’ type of scenario.” As part of our special series on the ...

Jan 03, 20251 hr 2 min

How DEI and Gender Ideology in Medicine Is Harming Patients: Dr. Stanley Goldfarb

More than 5,000 minors in the United States underwent transgender surgeries between 2019 and 2023 and nearly 14,000 had transgender-related treatments, according to research into insurance billing codes conducted by the advocacy organization Do No Harm. In total, these treatments and procedures cost at least $119 million. Dr. Stanley Goldfarb is a board-certified kidney specialist and the board chairman of Do No Harm, which recently released a national database on transgender-related services at...

Jan 01, 202553 min

Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn: Putting ‘Country Before Self’ Is Necessary to Repair America

Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn has been advising President-elect Donald Trump’s national security team. At Turning Point USA’s AmFest conference in Phoenix, I sat down with him to discuss key challenges facing the incoming administration, such as how to address Chinese Communist Party (CCP) control of the Panama Canal. “Who’s controlling this very important waterway? It’s the most strategic waterway for the United States of America on the planet,” Flynn says. “China is the dominant player right ...

Dec 30, 202429 min

Mattias Desmet and Aaron Kheriaty: Understanding the Age of Loneliness

America is facing an epidemic of loneliness, and it’s as bad for people’s health as smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day, says U.S. surgeon general Vivek Murthy. In the past two decades, there’s been a marked rise in suicides and “deaths of despair.” What’s fueling these trends of social fragmentation, isolation, and atomization? And how are they linked to broader political and social trends? In this episode, two of the world’s leading thinkers on bioethics and group psychology join together with m...

Dec 28, 202449 min

The Future of TikTok and the Collapsing Chinese Economy: Kyle Bass

Sponsor special: Up to $2,500 of FREE silver AND a FREE safe on qualifying orders - Call 855-862-3377 or text “AMERICAN” to 6-5-5-3-2 Kyle Bass is the founder and chief investment officer of Hayman Capital Management, and he’s known for his prescient bets on major global economic events. In this episode, we dive into why he believes China’s economy is collapsing, why Bytedance hasn’t sold TikTok despite a looming January deadline, and what he believes the big economic and financial priorities of...

Dec 27, 202450 min

Kari Lake Reveals Plans for Voice of America

At Turning Point USA’s AmFest conference in Phoenix, I sat down with former TV anchor Kari Lake, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to head Voice of America (VOA). VOA is an international broadcaster funded by Congress that releases content in nearly 50 languages to more than 300 million people weekly around the globe. It was founded in 1942 to combat Nazi propaganda and share the “policies of the United States clearly and effectively.” VOA later played a major role in the ideological fight aga...

Dec 24, 202415 min

Sen. Johnson: Why Trump Needs a ‘Secretary of Information Extraction’ to Restore Transparency

Sponsor special: Up to $2,500 of FREE silver AND a FREE safe on qualifying orders - Call 855-862-3377 or text “AMERICAN” to 6-5-5-3-2 As part of our special series on the U.S. presidential transition period, I’m sitting down with Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.). In the next Congress, Johnson will become chairman again of the homeland security committee’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which has uniquely powerful subpoena powers to investigate crime and corruption within the U.S. government...

Dec 24, 202457 min

Sebastian Gorka: How the Trump Admin Will Tackle Terrorism and National Security Threats

As part of our special series on the U.S. presidential transition period, Sebastian Gorka breaks down the complexities of recent events in Syria, and what the incoming Trump administration’s foreign policy may look like when it comes to NATO, the Middle East, Russia, and China. Gorka will serve as Trump’s deputy assistant and senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council. Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect ...

Dec 20, 202450 min

45 Hongkongers, 250 Years: The Grim Realities of Hong Kong’s Political Trials–Mark Clifford

Sponsor special: Up to $2,500 of FREE silver AND a FREE safe on qualifying orders - Call 855-862-3377 or text “AMERICAN” to 6-5-5-3-2 Forty-five key figures in Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement were recently sentenced to up to 10 years each. More than 1,900 political prisoners have been convicted and imprisoned in Hong Kong in the last five years. Thousands more are simply being held without bail for years on end. About 40 percent of Hong Kong’s entire prison population is being held without a ...

Dec 18, 20241 hr 4 min

How to Protect Civil Rights in Schools Without a Department of Education: Fmr. Assistant Sec. Kenneth L. Marcus

“Despite decades of a US Department of Education, we’re not doing any better in educating our students. If anything, we’re now doing worse ... I think the question is how the American people can best be served. The goal shouldn’t be to preserve jobs of bureaucrats. The goal shouldn’t be to preserve the status quo. We should ask, how can we best serve students and their families?” As part of our special series on the U.S. presidential transition period, I’m sitting down with Kenneth L. Marcus, fo...

Dec 17, 202450 min

‘Universities Have Lost Their Way’: Ralston College President Stephen Blackwood

Universities today are increasingly plagued by ideological nihilism, bloated costs, and the growing infantilization of students with “safe spaces” and “trigger warnings,” says Ralston College President Stephen Blackwood. And far too many students are being funneled into universities as the default step after high school, he says. “We’re trying to make universities the kind of catch-all for job training, and universities have historically not played that role,” Blackwood says. Ralston College is ...

Dec 15, 202445 min

Whistleblowers Reveal the Reality of Child Trafficking in America and What Trump Could Do About It

There is an unprecedented child trafficking crisis in America today. Large numbers of unaccompanied migrant children are being released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to sponsors that are not thoroughly vetted, including individuals associated with dangerous criminal organizations like MS-13 and the 18th Street gang, whistleblowers say. Many migrant children now work backbreaking shifts in slaughterhouses, restaurants, or factories. Others are being sold for sex. From ...

Dec 13, 20241 hr 3 min

Dr. Drew: From the Opioid Crisis to COVID, the Physician–Patient Relationship Is Increasingly Impaired

Drew Pinsky, popularly known as Dr. Drew, is an addiction medicine specialist and host of the TV series “Ask Dr. Drew.” For decades, he has been studying public health and drug addiction in America, exposing its ongoing challenges in nationally syndicated television and radio programs. He saw early on during the COVID-19 pandemic that the response from the authorities would cause unnecessary harm and suffering. “A member of the school board came in and said, ‘We’re going to lock the schools down...

Dec 10, 202437 min

How China Controls Our Vital Medicines and the Health Care Supply Chain: Victor Suarez

“You can literally make all the components of all these drugs in China, you can ship them in a barrel to some plant in New Jersey, mix it, compound it, package and label it, and say ‘made in the USA,’ and then sell it to the Department of Defense. Now, that’s the number one thing I would ask a Congress and the president—to fix that loophole through legislation immediately. They can fix that in the NDAA a week from now, if they were really serious about it.” As part of our special series on the U...

Dec 07, 20241 hr 11 min

I’m Suing Harvard for Violating the Civil Rights of Jewish Students: Shabbos Kestenbaum

Following the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre in Israel, universities throughout America experienced a sharp rise in hostility toward Jews. “I have lost every single non-Jewish friend I had at Harvard—every single one,” said student activist Shabbos Kestenbaum. A proud Orthodox Jew and a former self-described “die-hard liberal,” Kestenbaum endorsed Donald Trump and voted Republican for the first time in his life, believing that the Democratic Party had systematically abandoned Jewish Americans. “As an Or...

Dec 05, 202428 min

Why We Teach Our First Graders Shakespeare: Michael Fitzgerald

As part of our special series on alternative models of education, I’m sitting down with Michael Fitzgerald, principal of Northern Schoolhouse, an upstate New York private school focused on classical literature and art, immersion in nature, and nurturing strong moral character based on time-tested virtues. “This is the trend in education: ‘It doesn’t matter what you’re reading, as long as you’re reading.’ And I actually disagree with that. I think it’s very important what you’re reading,” Fitzger...

Dec 03, 202458 min

Recess Appointments: Trump’s Way to Bypass Senate Impasse?—Jeff Clark

As part of our special series on the U.S. presidential transition period, I’m sitting down today with Jeff Clark, an assistant attorney general at the Department of Justice during the first Trump administration and now senior fellow and director of litigation at the Center for Renewing America. What are recess appointments? Why is Trump so interested in them? Are there legal or historical precedents for them? And how could they impact the effectiveness of this coming administration? Views expres...

Nov 26, 202454 min
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