American Thought Leaders

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.

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Episodes

New Official Pandemic Report Recommends Against Use of COVID Vaccines: Dr. Gary Davidson

In January, the western province of Alberta in Canada released a 269-page report—the first of its kind—examining the information and data that informed its response to the COVID-19 pandemic. “Doctors felt pressure to do things they didn’t agree with. We need to have good autonomy where a physician is doing things safely, but they’re allowed to treat their patients in what they believe is the best for them. It still has to be regulated. You can’t just have everybody off on their own, but it has t...

Feb 23, 2025•49 min

How Trump Wields Tariffs as Negotiating Tactic and Instrument of Statecraft: Andrew Hale

Andrew Hale is a senior trade policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation. In this episode, we discuss how Trump is using various trade tools to strengthen alliances and weaken adversaries. “I look upon what he’s trying to do as a negotiating tactic. He’s using tariffs as an instrument of statecraft, and also for economic coercion, to achieve matters that sometimes go well beyond trade policy,” Hale says. Hale says that tariffs should be used against America’s foreign adversaries, but not necessar...

Feb 21, 2025•35 min

Where Governments Won’t Go: Charmaine Hedding’s Daring Rescues of the Persecuted, From Syria to Tanzania

“We had a case of a little cell of Christian believers who were all converts from Islam, and they were meeting secretly. And they were infiltrated by a radical terrorist group called Al Shabaab, and they burnt down the house. They captured some of them, they took them onto the beach, and only two of them managed to survive, because they killed the rest of them.” Charmaine Hedding is the founder and president of the Shai Fund, a humanitarian organization that aids, protects, and even rescues pers...

Feb 19, 2025•49 min

America’s $36 Trillion Debt, Musk’s DOGE Cuts, and Tracking Real-Time Inflation: Stefan Rust

“In the last four years, we’ve seen an aggregate inflation of about 26 percent. So that’s a quarter of your purchasing power—phoosh gone—just disappeared across the board,” says Stefan Rust, founder and CEO of Truflation, a blockchain-based financial data service that provides real-time economic and inflation data. What will be the impact of DOGE’s aggressive cost-cutting? Could it cause a short-term reduction in the size of the U.S. economy? Some people have been talking about risks of deflatio...

Feb 16, 2025•49 min

How Multiculturalism and Post-Nationalism Failed the West: John O’Sullivan

In this episode, I sit down with John O’Sullivan, a former policy and speech writer for British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and former editor-in-chief of National Review and executive editor of Radio Free Europe. Today, he’s the president of the Danube Institute, a Hungary-based think-tank. A “unified national identity is an absolute essential for a successful democracy,” he says. “If we continue on a multicultural path, it’s a path which is going to go in the directions of ever more aggre...

Feb 14, 2025•48 min

The DeepSeek Psyop Explained: Nicolas Chaillan

The Chinese AI app DeepSeek recently became the most downloaded iPhone app in the United States and caused U.S. tech stocks to plummet. President Donald Trump described it as a “wake-up” call for American companies. So what’s really going on? Is DeepSeek as powerful as people think? Or is there a bigger story here? In this episode, we sit down with AI expert Nicolas Chaillan, former chief software officer for the U.S. Air Force and now founder of the generative AI company Ask Sage. Views express...

Feb 12, 2025•1 hr 1 min

What Caused the Devastating California Fires and What Could Have Prevented Them? Edward Ring Explains

“The fires themselves are pretty much out. There’s a few smoldering remains, but the trouble has just begun,” says Edward Ring, director of Water and Energy Policy for the California Policy Center. “It’s going to be very hard to get everything rebuilt in Los Angeles.” In this episode, we do a deep dive on the California wildfires. How did they originate? Why was the devastation so horrific? Could they have been prevented? What is the scope of the damage? And in the aftermath, what should be done...

Feb 09, 2025•57 min

‘They’re at War for the American Mind’: Rep. Abe Hamadeh Wants to Ban China Daily From Congress

“They’re at war for the American mind. That’s why you have TikTok out there. That’s why you have DeepSeek. That’s why you have the China Daily. They’re out there trying to control information and your perception of reality,” says Rep. Abe Hamadeh (R-Ariz.), who was recently elected for his first term. His first bill seeks to ban the widespread distribution of the China Daily in the House of Representatives. China Daily is a registered foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. In 2...

Feb 07, 2025•26 min

How America’s State-Funded Media Can Be a Powerful Tool Against Adversaries: Michael Pack

Michael Pack is a documentary filmmaker and the president of Palladium Pictures. During Donald Trump’s first presidency, he led the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which oversees America’s state-funded news networks, including Voice of America. “The budget is something like $900 million,” he says. “It’s only a mid-sized government agency, but it’s one of the largest broadcasters in the world. They’re broadcasting over 70 languages to hundreds of millions of people a week. So it’s really a ...

Feb 05, 2025•36 min

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, 2025•39 min

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