InfluenceWatch Podcast

Episode 178: Chaos in Cuba (with guest John Suarez)

July 16th, 2021  |  32 mins 28 secs

blm, castro, communism, conservative, cuba, democrat, demonstrations, freedom, john suarez, left, liberal, libertarian, liberty, politics, progressive, protests, republican, right, riot, society

In this episode: Since last Sunday, Cubans have publicly demonstrated against the Communist regime that has inflicted tyranny on their homeland for over sixty years. Joining us to discuss the background behind the demonstrations and the prospects for a freer Cuba is John Suarez, the executive director of the Center for a Free Cuba.

Episode 176: Ranked Choice Voting in NYC (with guest Michael Hendrix)

July 2nd, 2021  |  15 mins 42 secs

conservative, culture, elections, left, liberal, libertarian, manhattan institute, mayor, nyc, politics, progressive, ranked choice voting, right, society

In this episode: What do pizza toppings, test data, and waiting have to do with becoming Mayor of New York City? Thanks to the city’s new, confusing, and poorly administered “ranked choice voting” system, quite a lot. While New Yorkers voted last week on their party nominees for Mayor, on the Democratic side they still don’t know who won over a week later. Joining us to discuss the car-crash outcome in NYC is Michael Hendrix, director of state and local policy for the Manhattan Institute.

Episode 175: Orwellian Fact Checkers (with guest Chris Bedford)

June 25th, 2021  |  23 mins 14 secs

aspen institute, big tech, chris bedford, conservative, culture, disinformation, left, liberal, libertarian, ministry of truth, orwell, politics, progressive, right, society, tech giants, the federalist, woke

In this episode: It’s a name worthy of Orwell: The “Committee on Information Disorder,” a project of the posh and well-connected Aspen Institute designed to identify “disinformation” for Big Corporations and Big Government to suppress. A notionally private-sector, woke-progressive Ministry of Truth, as it were. Joining us to discuss this effort to control the political discourse is Chris Bedford, senior editor of The Federalist.

Episode 174: The History of Big Tech Censorship

June 18th, 2021  |  22 mins 18 secs

amazon, apple, big tech, censorship, communication, conservative, culture, facebook, google, left, liberal, netflix, politics, right, social media, tech, twitter

In this episode: “Big Tech”—the major social media and online communications companies like Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google—FAANG, for short. Especially since Facebook and Twitter banned the then-still-sitting President Donald Trump from their services after the riot at the U.S. Capitol in January, conservatives have expressed increasing alarm at the power of Big Tech to remove voices not in alignment with Current Year liberalism from the internet. Joining us to discuss the history of Big Tech censorship and the prospects for reform is James Bowers, managing director of Challenge Censorship.

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 172: Using the Courts to Push Unpopular Policy (with guest Robert Stilson)

June 4th, 2021  |  16 mins 14 secs

climate change, conservatize, culture, environmentalism, law, left, liberal, libertarian, politics, progressive, right, society

In this episode: Radical environmentalists have a problem: Their policies are unpopular, and even a unified Democratic government aligned with them can only advance so many restrictions on personal choice, industrial activity, and employment opportunities before it provokes public revolt. But they have one weird trick to get around public opposition: The courts. Joining us to discuss the tactics that environmentalists are pursuing to have judges force their policies on the rest of us is Capital Research Center’s Research Specialist Robert Stilson.

Episode 170: Pennsylvania's "Zuck-bucks" (with guest Todd Shepherd)

May 21st, 2021  |  14 mins 11 secs

biden, conservative, ctcl, culture, election, law, left, liberal, libertarian, pennsylvania, politics, progressive, right, society, zuckerberg

In this episode: When people think “political billionaire,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is not the one who usually comes to mind. But after the 2020 elections, maybe he should. The Center for Tech and Civic Life, funded principally to the tune of a reported $350 million by Zuckerberg and his wife through entities the couple controls, provided millions of dollars in grants to counties to support their implementation of mail-in voting and other left-of-center election administration procedures. And there is strong circumstantial evidence that those grants may have favored Democratic counties over Republican counties, contributing to Joe Biden’s victories in battleground states. Joining us to discuss his analysis of these “Zuck-bucks” in Pennsylvania is Todd Shepherd, chief investigative reporter for the website Broad and Liberty, which covers Philadelphia city and Pennsylvania state-level news and politics.

Episode 168: The CDC and Lockdown Collusion

May 6th, 2021  |  16 mins 30 secs

cdc, conservative, culture, education, fee, guidance, kerry mcdonald, left, liberal, lockdowns, right, schools, society, unions

In this episode: The hard lockdownists and their allies in the Biden administration repeat the mantra as often as a chanting monk: “Follow the science,” invariably before proposing some policy that continues the ongoing tyrannies ostensibly intended to reduce the burden of COVID-19. But what happens when the science conflicts with the permanent lockdowns, as it does over school closures? Then stakeholders get involved, and the science need not be followed. That is exactly what happened when the CDC issued its guidance that supposedly would lead to school reopenings, which conflicts with the teachers’ unions position of “lockdown today, lockdown tomorrah, lockdown for-evah.” The New York Post and center-right group Americans for Public Trust obtained emails under an open-records request showing that the CDC and the American Federation of Teachers collaborated on issuing unnecessarily restrictive reopening guidance, with at least two of the union’s proposals being issued by the CDC nearly verbatim. Joining us to discuss this special-interest influence is Kerry McDonald of the Foundation for Economic Education.

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 166: Foreign Billionaire Influences American Policy

April 23rd, 2021  |  16 mins 37 secs

billionaire, charity, conservative, environmental, foreign, left, liberal, libertarian, media, news, nonprofits, philanthropy, politics, progressive, right, swiss

In this episode: Federal law prohibits foreign nationals, except holders of permanent resident (or “green card”) status, from making political contributions in federal elections. But foreign billionaires are free to spend whatever they like on news organizations and advocacy groups that otherwise influence American public policy, and that brings us to Swiss billionaire Hansjoerg Wyss, the major environmentalist donor who just dropped a bid to buy the Chicago Tribune and turn the paper into a clone of the Washington Post, another national-level liberal propaganda outlet. But a funny thing happened on the way to a Midwestern #Resistance media outlet: the New York Times exposed Wyss’s agenda and he dropped his bid for the Tribune. Joining us to discuss Wyss, the brouhaha, and Wyss’s other projects is my colleague Hayden Ludwig.