InfluenceWatch Podcast

The podcast where we go beneath the surface to reveal the web of connected influence, money, and motivation driving the news.

About the show

The podcast where we go beneath the surface to reveal the web of connected influence, money, and motivation driving the news, sourced primarily from our website InfluenceWatch.org, the Capital Research Center's online encyclopedia of the donors, non-profits, and influencers driving politics.

You can watch the video version of the podcast at: http://bit.ly/2rnQygY

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Episodes

  • Episode 105: RIP, Sir Roger Scruton

    January 17th, 2020  |  8 mins 51 secs
    america, big labor, bill schambra, british, conservative, department of labor, left. right, liberal, libertarian, obama, obama administration, philanthropy, sir roger scruton, unions

    In this episode, the Department of Labor takes deregulatory action to undo a key Obama administration favor to its supporters in Big Labor, center-right scholar of philanthropy Bill Schambra offers an explanation for Americans’ declining trust in nonprofits that satisfies Ockham’s Razor, and we remember the eminent British Conservative philosopher Sir Roger Scruton, who passed away this week.

  • Episode 104: Howard Zinn: Historian, Author, and Communist?

    January 9th, 2020  |  7 mins 30 secs
    college, communist, dangerous documentaries, film, himmelfarb, history, howard zinn, industry, left-wing, philanthropy, senators, tech, union, victorian

    In this episode, a union with close ties to top left-wing Senators targets the technology industry for an organizing campaign; our colleagues at Dangerous Documentaries take aim at the late, probably-Communist, and terribly influential historian-author Howard Zinn; and we remember Gertrude Himmelfarb, historian of Victorian-era philanthropy, who passed away before the New Year.

  • Episode 103: 3 Pillars Supporting the Left

    January 2nd, 2020  |  6 mins 41 secs
    2019, 2020, allen greenberg, apple, barbara picower, billionaire, brexit, conservative, financing, funding, george soros, investor, jpb foundation, laurene powell-jobs, left, new year, open society foundations, philanthropy, steve jobs, susan thompson, united kingdom, warren buffett

    We’re starting off the New Year by taking one last look back at the old year, thanks to the “2019 Philanthropy Awards” published by Inside Philanthropy, a left-of-center news and commentary source on institutional funders. While listeners will likely be familiar with Inside Philanthropy’s “Philanthropist of the Year”—billionaire investor and founder of the Open Society Foundations George Soros—the website highlighted three other figures and institutions that bear watching in the left-of-center philanthropic world beyond the “man who broke the Bank of England”…and who in so doing may have inadvertently made possible Brexit by forcing the United Kingdom out of the predecessor financial arrangements to the European Union’s single currency. We note Inside Philanthropy’s runner-up to Soros, JPB Foundation funder Barbara Picower; Inside Philanthropy’s “foundation president of the year,” Allen Greenberg of the Warren Buffett-funded Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation; and Inside Philanthropy’s “Least Transparent Mega-Giver,” Laurene Powell-Jobs, Apple executive Steve’s widow.

  • Episode 102: Green Groups Push to Subsidize the Rich

    December 19th, 2019  |  9 mins 17 secs
    advocacy, auto industry, conservative, electric cars, fiat chrysler, kickbacks, left, liberal, progressive, right, subsidies, tax benefits, taxes, uaw, unions, united auto workers

    In this episode, a lawsuit alleges that United Auto Workers leadership was prepared to sell out its membership as a result of kickbacks from Fiat Chrysler, my colleague Ken Braun exposes the taxpayer-funded “labor centers” that use public university resources for political organizing and policy advocacy, and “progressives” offer tax benefits to rich blue-staters and drivers of electric cars that start at $40,000 list price.

  • Episode 101: Teachers’ Union Funding Abortion and Higher Taxes

    December 12th, 2019  |  7 mins 41 secs
    abortion, business, conservative, dark money, funding, left-wing, libertarian, lobbying, national education association, nea, political involvement, round table, taxes, teacher unions, unions, wellspring

    In this episode, we look behind the curtain of a massive “dark money” entity that funds left-of-center advocacy, the National Education Association’s annual report illustrates the teachers union’s massive left-wing political involvement, and we issue a caution to those pushing to restrain business from being business.

  • Episode 100: 100th EPISODE!

    December 6th, 2019  |  11 mins 32 secs
    arabella advisors, big labor, corruption, dark money, environmentalists, pro act, southern poverty law center, splc, strikes, uaw, unions, united auto workers

    In this, our 100th episode, we look back at five major stories that have crisscrossed our first 100 episodes: Corruption at the United Auto Workers labor union, the secretive “dark money” network of Arabella Advisors, the numerous times environmentalists campaigned to make life more unpleasant, the chaos at the top of the Southern Poverty Law Center, and the introduction of legislation to do Big Labor just about every favor it ever asked for.

  • Episode 99: FedEx Vs. New York Times

    November 21st, 2019  |  8 mins 19 secs
    arabella advisors, conservative, corruption, dark money, fedex, history, labor, left, new york times, politico, scandal, tax reform bill, uaw, union, united auto workers

    The ongoing United Auto Workers corruption scandal deepens as the union desperately seeks to avoid a federal takeover, FedEx’s leadership has it out with the New York Times’s reporting on its involvement with the 2017 tax reform bill, and Politico comes oh-so-close to figuring out what’s going on at Arabella Advisors.

  • Episode 98: History of Left-wing Movements

    November 14th, 2019  |  8 mins 12 secs
    communism, conservative, conservative movement, dictator, history, labor, mao, mythmaking, reform conservative, socialism, students for a democratic society, uaw, union, worker centers

    The story of the United Auto Workers’ presidential cabin allegedly built with non-union labor full circle, dig into the history of left-wing movements like Students for a Democratic Society, and debunk some “reform conservative” mythmaking about “worker centers” and other so-called “alt-labor” organizations.

  • Episode 97: Leftists Freak at Twitter Censorship?

    November 7th, 2019  |  7 mins 23 secs
    big labor, censorship, conservative, corporate pandering, corruption, left, political, progressivism, twitter, uaw, union, united auto workers

    In this episode, more developments in the United Auto Workers corruption scandal should illustrate cautions for conservatives courting Big Labor, Twitter announces a controversial proposal to restrict political advocacy on its service, and we dig into the world of professional corporate pandering to left-progressivism under the label “corporate social responsibility.”

  • Episode 96: Sexual Harassment Complaints Prompt Leave of Absence

    October 31st, 2019  |  6 mins 9 secs
    aba, american bar association, annie e. casey foundation, bar, casey foundation, conservative, federal worker union, lawyers, left, liberal, mike lee, progressive, right, senator, sexual harassment, union, union president, utah, workplace harassment

    In this episode, a federal worker union president takes a leave of absence after 10 people alleged he sexually harassed union employees, we look at the how the Annie E. Casey Foundation drifted toward the hard left, and Senator Mike Lee of Utah calls for treating the American Bar Association like a normal left-of-center interest group in the judicial nomination process.

  • Episode 95: George Soros' Big Money Lobbying

    October 24th, 2019  |  6 mins 35 secs
    business, chicago, chicago teachers union, conservative, federal government, general motors, gm, guilty, left, liberal, libertarian, lobbying, open society foundations, pac, philanthropy, right, scam pac, soros, uaw, union, united auto workers, welfare

    Chicago Teachers Union members extend their strike while UAW members continue striking as they vote on the proposed GM contract, the government secures a guilty plea from an operator of a deceptive “Scam PAC,” and the “social welfare” arm of George Soros’s advocacy-philanthropic network spends eye-popping amounts lobbying the federal government.

  • Episode 94: Activists Shut Down London’s Subway

    October 17th, 2019  |  8 mins 34 secs
    chicago, congress, conservative, ctu, demand justice, environmentalists, extinction rebellion, general motors, gm, influencers, justices, left, liberal, london, podcast, protest, radical, right, supreme court, teachers, teachers union, transit, uaw, underground, union

    Radical environmentalists think shutting down the London Underground is somehow a good idea, Demand Justice demonstrates that its idea of “justice” is just liberal politics, and we provide an update on major labor news, as UAW and GM reach a tentative deal, the Chicago Teachers Union strikes again, and the unions push for their wish list in Congress.

  • Episode 93: The NBA Does China’s Dirty Work

    October 10th, 2019  |  8 mins 32 secs
    aoc, conservative, corruption, democrat, democratic socialist, democratic socialists of america, dsa, exposed, hong kong, left, liberal, libertarian, national basketball association, nba, ocasio-cortez, planned parenthood, republican, senator, ted cruz, uaw, united auto workers

    Archconservative Senator Ted Cruz and Democratic Socialist Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez both criticize the National Basketball Association for cracking down on statements of support for protestors in Hong Kong, Planned Parenthood announces a $45 million political effort for the 2020 elections, and the feds dig in to possible corruption in the United Auto Workers’ building a vacation cabin for its former president as former UAW communications officers call on the union’s executives to resign.

  • Episode 92: Senator Warren Proposes Infringement of Rights

    October 4th, 2019  |  6 mins 42 secs
    big labor, conservative, constitution, court of appeals, dc circuit court, elizabeth warren, fcc, grievances, infrastructure, left-wing, net-neutrality, obama, rights, unions

    Senator Elizabeth Warren proposes a substantial infringement on the right to petition the government for redress of grievances, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals rejects a challenge to the FCC’s rescission of an Obama-era rule classifying internet service providers as public utilities, and we hit the “highlights” of recent labor union filings that both show odd spending habits and illustrate the deep involvement of Big Labor in the institutional left-wing infrastructure.

  • Episode 91: Democrats Advance Union Power-Grab

    September 26th, 2019  |  7 mins 29 secs
    arizona, conservative, controversy, democrats, department of labor, house of representatives, labor, labor department, left, liberal, republicans, right, transparency legislation, union, union corruption, unionization, white house

    In this episode, we look away from the White House, and at the risk of taking a “censure and move on” approach examine three labor stories: Democrats advance the most radical expansion of union power since 1935 to the floor of the House of Representatives, controversy rocks a unionization campaign at the Arizona Republic newspaper, and the Labor Department marks 60 years of combating union corruption with a powerful piece of transparency legislation.

  • Episode 90: Environmentalists Promise Gridlock

    September 19th, 2019  |  5 mins 44 secs
    anti-semitism, block traffic, dc, environmentalists, extreme, general motors, gridlock, uaw, union, union corruption, women’s march

    Extreme environmentalists vow to “shut down” transportation in the nation’s capital, the UAW strikes against General Motors, and the Women’s March replaces one set of controversial board members with another.