Sarah Lee

Episode 192: Election Integrity Begins With Local Politics

October 22nd, 2021  |  25 mins 13 secs

election integrity, local politics, unions

In this episode: Sarah Lee interviews Mike Watson on why local politics -- and the involvement of union organizers and activists at that level -- have played a role in some of the election integrity concerns plaguing modern American politics.

Episode 186: Is Mail-In Balloting Here to Stay?

September 9th, 2021  |  23 mins 17 secs

center for voter information, mail-in ballots, virginia gubernatorial election, voter participation center

In this episode: Sarah Lee is joined by CRC Senior Investigative Researcher Hayden Ludwig to discuss a recent article he wrote on the effort by some left-leaning activist groups to promote and facilitate mail-in balloting in Virginia before the gubernatorial election in November. Is pervasive mail-in balloting destined to the be the left's favored election strategy forever more?

Episode 184: Liberal Myths About H.R. 4

August 26th, 2021  |  27 mins 24 secs

big government, elections, ken blackwell, states rights

In this episode: With both sides of the political aisle claiming a desire to protect elections, Mike Watson gets to the heart of the debate with the always edifying Ken Blackwell. Join them as they discuss the myths liberal legislators peddle as they attempt to pass H.R. 4, legislation that would federalize elections.

Episode 183: The Redistributionist Right

August 19th, 2021  |  26 mins 18 secs

american compass, national review, oren cass, redistributionist right, wall street journal

In this episode: Sarah Lee and Mike Watson talk about the merits (or lack thereof) in a conservative embrace of unions, a conversation that comes after Watson publicly called out American Compass (in an op-ed at National Review) for pushing a new "conservative" approach to labor unions while taking significant funding from decidedly less than conservative donors such as the Omidyar Network.

Episode 182: Living Orwell Instead of Reading Him

August 12th, 2021  |  21 mins 57 secs

censorship, colleges, first amendment, free speech, universities

In this episode: Cherise Trump, Executive Director of Speech First, joins the Influence Watch podcast to discuss the challenges and trends related to censorship and infringement of speech on college campuses.

Episode 179: Social Justice Unionism

July 22nd, 2021  |  25 mins 46 secs

In this episode: Can unions continue to claim they advocate for the worker when they embrace social justice advocacy that has little or nothing to do with their original mandate? CRC's Research Director Mike Watson tries to answer this question.

Episode 177: Teachers Unions Running Wild (with guest Alleigh Marre)

July 9th, 2021  |  13 mins 36 secs

alleigh marre, community, critical race theory, critical theory, crt, education, free to learn coalition, freedom, k-12, left, parents, politics, pta, right, school, society, teachers, unions

In this episode: Our regular podcast host, CRC’s Research Director Mike Watson, is on vacation so CRC's Director of Communications and External Relations Sarah Lee is filling in. We are thrilled to welcome a Alleigh Marre to talk about a subject that is everywhere in the news right now and one of great importance to parents and school children. Alleigh Marre leads the Free to Learn Coalition, a group that describes itself as a nonpartisan organization established to support parents, caregivers, and community organizations in their advocacy for quality K-12 education. Specifically, the coalition wants to make classrooms safe enough again that students are: Free to ask questions, Free to develop individual thoughts and opinions, Free to think critically of ideas and concepts and, Free to achieve.

Episode 173: The State of Redistricting

June 11th, 2021  |  21 mins 58 secs

conservative, culture, gerrymandering, left, liberal, libertarian, politics, progressive, redistricting, right

In this episode: Our regular podcast host, CRC’s Research Director Mike Watson, joins the show to discuss his latest report on redistricting, a four-part series that lives on the CRC website entitled, “The State of Redistricting 2022.” We take a look at the myths, history, and lies around “gerrymandering.”

Read more here: https://capitalresearch.org/article/the-state-of-redistricting-2022-part-1/

Episode 171: Getting America Back to Work (with guest Megan Rose)

May 28th, 2021  |  15 mins 28 secs

As pandemic restrictions have begun easing in the states, employers are facing a new problem: labor shortages due to unemployment insurance bonuses that were intended to help people laid off from work during the pandemic. Many people are still collecting that benefit and it has led to a situation where employers are desperate to hire people making the rational financial decision to take a check over finding meaningful work.
Joining the InfluenceWatch podcast today is Megan Rose, a civil society fellow at the Manhattan Institute & CEO of a nonprofit organization called Better Together that works to provide a dignified way to prevent child neglect through programs that strengthen families and help keep kids out of the foster care system. As part of that work, Better Together provides compassionate “second chance” job fair programs. Rose began noticing attendance at their job fairs has dropped precipitously in the last year. She wrote an excellent piece at the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal about why she thinks that’s happening. It’s called, Jobs Without Takers, and in it she theorizes ways that America’s governors can help get people back to work to benefit the economy, individuals, and families.
Joining the InfluenceWatch Podcast today is Megan Rose, a civil society fellow at the Manhattan Institute CEO of a nonprofit organization called Better Together that works to provide a dignified way to prevent child neglect through programs that strengthen families and help keep kids out of the foster care system. As part of that work, Better Together provides compassionate “second chance” job fair programs. Rose began noticing that attendance at their job fairs have dropped precipitously in the last year. She wrote an excellent piece at the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal about why she thinks that’s happening. It’s called, Jobs Without Takers, and in it she theorizes ways that America’s governors could help get people back to work to benefit the economy and individuals and families.

Episode 167: Understanding China's University Influence

April 29th, 2021  |  18 mins 37 secs

america, ccp, china, confucius institutes, conservative, culture, education, foreign influence, funding, left, liberal, libertarian, nonprofits, politics, progressive, propaganda, rachelle peterson, radicalism, right, sarah lee, society, universities

In this episode: CRC’s Communications and External Relations Director Sarah Lee interviews National Association of Scholars Senior Research Fellow Rachelle Peterson about her work related to the Confucius Institutes, ostensible Chinese cultural education centers that function as propaganda arms of the Chinese Communist Party. NAS has been following the Confucius Institutes for years, observing how their funding by organizations and individuals tied to the CCP, and how they’re possibly beginning to rebrand themselves in light of recent criticism. The subject of American radicalism, donor privacy, and the role of nonprofits in national security all discussed. Check out both NAS’ and CRC’s work on the subject of Confucius Institutes and foreign funding of American nonprofits.

Episode 156: Defending the Freedom of Association (with guest Jennifer Braceras)

February 12th, 2021  |  22 mins 49 secs

civil rights, conservative, constitution, culture, dark money, democrat, disclosure, donors, freedom, information, iwlc, jennifer braceras, left, liberal, libertarian, philanthropy, politics, privacy, progressive, republican, right, supreme court

In this episode: We discuss an issue that is well known to those involved in politics and to donors, but perhaps not as well known to the average voter. So we’re hoping to shed some light on it. The issue is donor disclosure, and we have as a special guest Jennifer Braceras, director of Independent Women’s Law Center, project of independent women’s forum, and a former member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, who wrote a very sharp op-ed on the subject recently, "Freedom Of Association Is Under Attack. Will The Supreme Court Protect It?" We discuss a few cases surrounding donor disclosure that could be heard by the Supreme Court in the coming months.

Episode 154: The Left’s “Dark Money” Machine

January 29th, 2021  |  13 mins 57 secs

2020, biden, california, conservative, dark money, election, freedom, georgia, kamala harris, left, liberal, libertarianism, litigation, mark zuckerberg, money, philanthropy, phill kline, politics, privacy, progressive, right, senate, society

In this episode: We welcome special guest Dan Judy, vice president at North Star Opinion Research in DC. He’s a Georgia native and a fellow UGA alumnus (Go Dawgs!) http://www.northstaropinion.com/about/our-team

Episode 146: Unions Want Coercive Power...

November 20th, 2020  |  19 mins 38 secs

ab5, california, conservative, contracting, culture, democratic, federal, georgia, law, left, legislation, liberal, libertarian, politics, progressive, right, right-to-work, society

In this episode: As all eyes are turned toward Georgia’s two Senate runoff races, we discuss proposed legislation that both the Democratic challengers in Georgia support, and that has serious implications for right-to-work laws nationally if the Senate flips from red to blue. The legislation is called the Pro Act, and it’s an expanded federal version of the controversial AB5 legislation in California that has upended independent contracting in that state.

Episode 138: The 2020 Dark Money Influencer They Won’t Tell You About

September 25th, 2020  |  29 mins 50 secs

big labor, conservative, culture, dark money, election, fox news, ginsburg, healthcare, justice, labor, left, liberal, libertarian, nonprofit, politics, progressive, project, right, society, supreme court, unions

In this episode: We sit down to hash out some of the issues of the day as they relate to the research and work CRC is currently engaged in.

Episode 133: The MSNBC “Cheesecake” Republicans

August 21st, 2020  |  27 mins 14 secs

american, conservative, culture, democrat, democratic, left, liberal, libertarian, lincoln project, political parties, politics, progressive, republican, right, russia, russia hoax, russia investigation, society, state, super pac, trump

This week I’m joined by my colleague Sarah Lee to discuss how recent developments in the investigation of the Trump-Russia investigators illustrates the problems with the administrative state, ask how American political parties might work to improve the quality of their nominees and what they stand to gain from doing so, and investigate the Lincoln Project, a Democratic SuperPAC with pretentions of being more than that.