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 “society”.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Episode 169: A Democrat Takeover of Election Law? (with guest J. Christian Adams)
May 14th, 2021 | 13 mins 8 secs
bills, congress, conservative, elections, ideas, independent, law, left, libertarian, politics, progressive, right, senate, society, unions
In this episode: In this Congress, bad ideas don’t die—they get marked up by the Senate Rules Committee. And this week it was the turn of S 1, the Senate companion to HR 1, the Democrats’ federal-election-takeover legislation. Joining us today to discuss the potential consequences of HR1/S1 should they pass is J. Christian Adams, right-leaning elections lawyer extraordinaire.
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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.
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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.
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Episode 161: What Would H.R. 1 Mean? (with guest Steve Marshall)
March 18th, 2021 | 12 mins 13 secs
alabama, american, attorney general, california, congress, conservative, culture, democrat, labor, left, legislation, liberal, libertarian, politics, progressive, republican, right, society, steve marshall, stimulus, unions
In this episode: H.R. 1: It might be the most consequential piece of legislation before the Congress this year—and that’s saying something in year when Congressional Democrats have already spent $1.9 trillion and advanced a fundamental restructuring of American labor relations. But what does this partisan-Democratic proposal to turn all American elections into copies of California’s often-criticized system mean? Joining us is Steve Marshall, the Attorney General of Alabama and one of twenty state attorneys general who signed a letter to Congressional leaders (that we will include in today’s show notes) opposing large sections of H.R. 1.