Episodes

  • Episode 267: Weingarten Will Not Be Apologizing

    Episode 267: Weingarten Will Not Be Apologizing
    Apr 28 2023
    I’m Sarah Lee, and this is the Influence Watch podcast. Yesterday, three years after the COVID pandemic lockdowns began, American Federation of Teachers union president Randi Weingarten, who many feel was the public face of extended school lockdowns, testified in front of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic. Weingarten, who had spent most of her time during the pandemic loudly decrying attempts to reopen schools – calling plans from the last administration to reopen in late 2020 “callous” and “cruel” -- struck a decidedly different tone before Congress, insisting her goal was always getting kids back to in-person instruction, an assertion that was rather hilariously fact-checked by Twitter’s community notes Thursday. Here to discuss the hearing are my colleagues Mike Watson and Parker Thayer.

    Weingarten Tweet

    Free Beacon Tweet

    Beware Teachers Unions Bearing School Reopening Talk

    Randi Weingarten says 'Biden transition team’ was first to solicit union’s advice on schools reopening
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    25 mins
  • ESG in 2023

    ESG in 2023
    Apr 21 2023
    If the “ESG”—environmental, social, and governance—movement had a guiding text, it would the Proxy Preview. Put out by the corporate social responsibility investing nonprofit As You Sow, the Proxy Preview details all the ESG “shareholder resolutions” that activist shareholders, government worker and labor union pension funds, and left-of-center nonprofits want American businesses to adopt. Joining us to discuss the Proxy Preview and the organizations behind it is our colleague, Capital Research Center research specialist Robert Stilson.

    Sources:

    The Proxy Preview: ESG in 2023
    Influence Watch ESG Activism Hub
    As You Sow

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    27 mins
  • Episode 265: Athenai Institute Battles CCP Disinformation

    Episode 265: Athenai Institute Battles CCP Disinformation
    Apr 14 2023
    The Athenai Institute is a college student-led organization that seeks to limit the influence of the Chinese Communist Party on U.S. college campuses. Since their inception in 2020, they have worked to help young people understand not only the often-underreported billion dollar financial relationship between the U.S. academic sector and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), but how the CCP exports their surveillance state techniques -- through apps like the infamous TikTok -- that serve to both downplay the regime's human rights abuses for American students, but to keep Chinese students studying in the U.S. in line and loyal to the CCP. Joining Sarah Lee on the podcast today to discuss these subjects and Congress' new moves on China is John Metz, co-founder, current board member, and former president of the Athenai Institute. Links: https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/athenai-institute/ https://athenai.org/ https://thepienews.com/news/chinese-student-pro-democracy/ http://waysandmeans.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/3.15.23-UPenn-Letter8.pdf Follow us on our Socials: Twitter: @capitalresearch Instagram: @capitalresearchcenter Facebook: www.facebook.com/capitalresearchcenter YouTube: @capitalresearchcenter
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    32 mins
  • Episode 264: I Will Not Eat The Bugs

    Episode 264: I Will Not Eat The Bugs
    Apr 7 2023
    National Public Radio is adamant: Nobody is going to make you eat the bugs. In fact, NPR says that believing governments and environmentalist activists want to make you eat the bugs is a conspiracy theory! Oh, and if you don’t want to eat the bugs, you’re little different than Europeans who would not eat indigenous American foods during the period of colonization. But is that really the case? Do major advocacy groups like the World Economic Forum and the broader environmentalist movement in fact want to change what we eat? Joining us to discuss all this is Jim Lakely, vice president and director of communications for the Heartland Institute. Links: https://www.npr.org/2023/03/31/1166649732/conspiracy-theory-eating-bugs-4chan https://capitalresearch.org/article/they-really-believe-youll-be-happy/ https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/05/supervillains-gather-in-davos/ https://capitalresearch.org/article/the-great-reset-and-its-critics-part-5/ Follow us on our Socials: Twitter: @capitalresearch Instagram: @capitalresearchcenter Facebook: www.facebook.com/capitalresearchcenter YouTube: @capitalresearchcenter
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    31 mins
  • Episode 263: Protecting Our Children

    Episode 263: Protecting Our Children
    Mar 31 2023
    This week, a spree shooter killed six people at The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee; our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims and the others affected. Now, even as they have campaigned to take away gun rights in response to similar spree shootings, left-wing interest groups have pushed to remove school resource officers—cops who work directly with the school community—from public schools. Joining me to discuss this anti-police campaign is CRC Senior Fellow Kali Fontanilla, a former teacher in California. Links: https://dcist.com/story/23/02/10/dc-debates-police-in-schools/ Follow us on our Socials: Twitter: @capitalresearch Instagram: @capitalresearchcenter Facebook: www.facebook.com/capitalresearchcenter YouTube: @capitalresearchcenter
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    23 mins
  • Episode 262: The Authoritarian Legal Left

    Episode 262: The Authoritarian Legal Left
    Mar 24 2023
    What connects the disruptive protests against a conservative judge’s speech to Stanford Law and the arrests of over two dozen demonstrators outside Atlanta? Both involved people aligned with the National Lawyers Guild, a radical-left association of attorneys, law students, legal workers, and jailhouse lawyers. Joining me to discuss the NLG is our colleague Robert Stilson, who has written and researched extensively on the history of the Guild. Links: https://capitalresearch.org/article/national-lawyers-guild-part-1/ https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/national-lawyers-guild/ https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/national-lawyers-guild-foundation/ https://www.wsj.com/articles/atlanta-cop-city-attacks-georgia-police-training-site-63c4cf40 https://www.wsj.com/articles/struggle-session-at-stanford-law-school-federalist-society-kyle-duncan-circuit-court-judge-steinbach-4f8da19e?mod=article_inline Follow us on our Socials: Twitter: @capitalresearch Instagram: @capitalresearchcenter Facebook: www.facebook.com/capitalresearchcenter YouTube: @capitalresearchcenter
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    25 mins
  • Episode 261: Stolen Youth

    Episode 261: Stolen Youth
    Mar 17 2023
    To readers of the Capital Research Center or InfluenceWatch, none of the findings reported by New York Post columnist Karol Markowicz and stay-at-home mother, children’s book editor, and political commentator Bethany Mandel in their book Stolen Youth: How Radicals are Erasing Innocence and Indoctrinating a Generation will be that surprising; capture of institutions ranging from school boards to the American Academy of Pediatrics by left-of-center interests will be familiar. But the details and personal accounts Mandel and Markowicz summon to warn parents about the direct challenges by left-wing interests to their children’s well-being are alarming. Joining me to discuss the book is co-author Bethany Mandel. Links: Link to Book: https://store.dailywire.com/products/stolen-youth-by-bethany-mandel-and-karol-markowicz Stolen Youth and the Power of the Powerless: https://capitalresearch.org/article/stolen-youth-and-the-power-of-the-powerless/ Follow us on our Socials: Twitter: @capitalresearch Instagram: @capitalresearchcenter Facebook: www.facebook.com/capitalresearchcenter YouTube: @capitalresearchcenter
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    22 mins
  • Episode 260: Are Unions Coming to College Sports?

    Episode 260: Are Unions Coming to College Sports?
    Mar 10 2023
    In late 2021, following a class action suit in which the Supreme Court decided some college athletes should be allowed to earn money off their image and likeness, a Biden administration lawyer with the National Labor Relations Board named Jennifer Abruzzo issued a memo clarifying that some college athletes could now be considered employees of state universities.This memo led to breathless articles from well-known, hard left outlets like In These Times arguing that employees of the state designation meant potential unionization of college athletes and, as In These Times said, “a new progressive institution powerful enough to bend the South to its will.”This idea gained traction in December of last year when the NLRB determined that the Pac 12 Conference and the University of Southern California were indeed employers of athletes at the school and were violating the law by failing to treat student basketball and football players as employees.Joining me today to discuss sports unions and the possibility of collective bargaining at the collegiate level is my colleague Mike Watson. Links: https://inthesetimes.com/article/nlrb-college-football-union-labor-ncaa-abruzzo https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/ncaa-violated-athletes-labor-rights-us-labor-officials-say https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/minor-league-baseball-players-unionize-minor-leaguers-officially-join-mlbpa-after-authorization/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/columnist/bob-nightengale/2022/02/12/players-union-unimpressed-with-mlbs-new-proposal-lockout/6767700001/ Follow us on our Socials: Twitter: @capitalresearch Instagram: @capitalresearchcenter Facebook: www.facebook.com/capitalresearchcenter YouTube: @capitalresearchcenter
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    34 mins