InfluenceWatch Podcast
The podcast where we go beneath the surface to reveal the web of connected influence, money, and motivation driving the news.
We found 10 episodes of InfluenceWatch Podcast with the tag “philanthropy”.
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Episode 137: Shadow Over America (with guest Kevin Mooney)
September 18th, 2020 | 13 mins 43 secs
conservative, culture, dark money, funding, left, liberal, libertarian, nonprofit, philanthropy, politics, progressive, right, society
In this episode: Hayden Ludwig, an investigative researcher at the Capital Research Center fills in for Mike Watson. With us today is Kevin Mooney, a reporter for the Daily Signal and the Commonwealth Foundation in Pennsylvania. We’ll be discussing CRC’s new report, The Shadow Over America: Arabella Advisors’ $635 Million Empire, pulling back the curtain on a vast web of liberal “dark money” influencing the 2020 election—right here in Washington, DC.
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Episode 135: Today's Woke-Progressive Infiltration (with guest Naomi Schaefer Riley!)
September 4th, 2020 | 19 mins 12 secs
activism, aei, bagman, business, capitalism, conservative, dark money, donor, donors, ford, foundations, funding, george floyd, influence, intent, iwf, left, left-wing, liberal, libertarian, major institutions, money, naomi schaefer riley, philanthropy, police, progressive, public policy, research, right, rockefeller
In this episode: Since the initial demonstrations following the police-custody death of George Floyd, foundations have pledged over one billion dollars to support efforts to combat alleged “systemic racism.” In practice, that means more foundations have followed the path of the Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, and Pew Charitable Trusts and abandoned the business-friendly pro-capitalist outlooks of their founding donors and adopted the socialist and woke-progressive outlooks of their current year managers. Joining us to discuss this consistently troubling development this week is Naomi Schaefer Riley, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a senior fellow at the Independent Women’s Forum. We discuss the recent turn toward left-progressive activism at the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the broader problem of Big Philanthropy dishonoring donor intent, and what can be done about it.
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Episode 134: Big Philanthropy and the Professional Left
August 27th, 2020 | 27 mins 17 secs
advocacy, conservative, culture, foundations, giving, jerry falwell, left, liberal, libertarian, logistics, nonprofit, philanthropy, politics, progressive, research, resources, right, society, steve banning, strategy
In this episode: They say that in warfare, amateurs talk strategy while professionals talk logistics. With that in mind, I’m joined by Mike Hartmann, Capital Research Center Senior Fellow and Director of CRC’s Center for Strategic Giving to talk advocacy logistics, specifically the multi-billion-dollar world of private foundations that sustains much of the Professional Left, the position of the Right in advocacy resources and the effects of the falls of Steve Bannon and Jerry Falwell on those resources, and what is to be done about the advantages Big Philanthropy gives the professional Left.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Episode 87: In Memory of David H. Koch
August 30th, 2019 | 6 mins 12 secs
aclu, barry goldwater, conservative, corruption, dave beck, david koch, detroit news, dinosaurs, editor’s note, feds, fiat chrysler, investigation, j.d. vance, jean harditsy, jimmy hoffa, kickback, koch, koch bros, koch brothers, leftist, libertarian, marissa brostoff, mit, nancy adams johnson, national lawyers guild, nationwide, philanthropist, philanthropy, political research associates, pro-abortion-rights, radical, raids, reason, teamsters, uaw, union, unkoch my campus, washington post, watchdog, white supremacist
The Feds expand their investigation of the United Auto Workers with a nationwide series of raids, the Washington Post lets a radical leftist smear a conservative writer, and we remember philanthropist and libertarian idealist David H. Koch.
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Episode 80: The Left’s “Dark Money” Coordinator
July 12th, 2019 | 11 mins 17 secs
bagman, dark money, donors, funding, influence, left, left-wing, liberal, major institutions, money, philanthropy, public policy, research
In this Episode: Joining the show this week is Capital Research Center Investigative Researcher Hayden Ludwig, who spends his time studying the liberal networks funneling money from major institutions and big donors into left-wing politics and policy. This week he released a new piece at capitalresearch.org with a deep-dive into NEO Philanthropy, a liberal “pass through” funding group.
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Episode 75: Eugenics: American Philanthropy’s Greatest Achievement?
June 6th, 2019 | 9 mins 42 secs
activist, alaska, conservative, d.c., environmental, eugenics, left, lobbyist, natural resources, philanthropy, population control, right
D.C. lobbyist-funded environmental activists denounce the influence of D.C. lobbyists on natural resources policy in Alaska, a left-wing outlet acknowledges the abuses of Big Progressive Philanthropy’s Population Control crusade of the mid-to-late 20th Century, and the highlights from a debate on the past and future of the two-billion-plus-dollar world of right-of-center advocacy philanthropy.