Heartland Daily Podcast

Heartland’s Tim Benson is joined by David E. Hoffman, contributing editor and member of the editorial board of The Washington Post, to discuss his new book, Give Me Liberty: The True Story of Oswaldo Payá and his Daring Quest for a Free Cuba. They chat about how democracy for Cuba became Payá’s life work, the remarkable achievement of the Varela Project, and whether Payá’s death really was an accident or if Castro’s regime had a part in it.  Get the book here: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Give-Me-Liberty/David-E-Hoffman/9781982191191Show Notes:National Endowment for Democracy: “Give Me Liberty: Examining the Legacy of Oswaldo Payá” (VIDEO) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2T4o7VLXI84Times Literary Supplement: Anthony DePalma – “‘We are not afraid’” https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/give-me-liberty-david-e-hoffman-book-review-anthony-depalma/Washington Free Beacon: Flagg Taylor – “The Courage to Counter Castro” https://freebeacon.com/culture/the-courage-to-counter-castro/The Washington Post: Vanessa

Zero-emission energy mandates are undermining grid reliability and substantially increasing energy costs in Minnesota and Wisconsin. These mandates pose similar problems for the grid nationwide. Public utilities are profiting from the legislative push for zero-emission energy mandates. Unfortunately, these mandates increase the amounts of expensive, intermittent wind and solar added to the grid. Increasing black outs and brown outs. Legislators should put an end to the premature retirement of existing coal plants to ensure grid reliability. Reliability, not fighting climate change, should be the primary goal of public utility commissions. 

Social media companies have defended their close relationship with the government to control the COVID narrative by saying it was voluntary and protected under the First Amendment.  This raises a number of Constitutional red flags, says Jenin Younes, a litigator with the New Civil Liberties Alliance. Younes is representing the private plaintiffs in a First Amendment case filed by the attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana against the Biden administration.  Yeones discusses why this is unconstitutional, why it needs to end and how can be done. In this case, Younes is representing Jay Bhattacharya, Aaron Kheriaty, Martin Kuldorff, and Jill Hines; four leading experts in public health who were deplatformed and/or censored by social media companies.  During discovery, emails surfaced between Facebook and the White House’s director of digital media, Rob Flaherty, that show this was more than a friendly relationship. The tone was more between a demanding boss and an underling. Communications were so flagrant t

The Heartland Institute's Donald Kendal, Jim Lakely, Justin Haskins, and Chris Talgo present episode 381 of the In The Tank Podcast. The World Economic Forum's Davos 2023 conference is in full swing. World and business leaders from around the globe are meeting in the mountain countryside to talk about everything from climate change and energy policy to Artificial Intelligence and Robotics. However, we are being told that this is very important work being done, but also, if we talk them serious, then we are conspiracy theorists. Also, Greta Thunberg was arrested in Germany during a protest. The In The Tank crew explores these stories and more.

Heartland’s Tim Benson is joined by award-winning essayist and critic William Deresiewicz to discuss his new book, The End of Solitude: Selected Essays on Culture and Society. They chat about how social media is changing the nature of our interaction with others, addressing West Point plebes about leadership, why he left academia, and why they love essay collections.Get the book here: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250858641/the-end-of-solitudeShow Notes:The Chronicle of Higher Education: William Deresiewicz – “The End of Solitude”https://www.chronicle.com/article/the-end-of-solitude/Unherd: William Deresiewicz – “Escaping American tribalism”https://unherd.com/2022/03/escaping-american-tribalism/Law & Liberty: Theodore Dalrymple – “A Lament for the Lost University”https://lawliberty.org/book-review/a-lament-for-the-lost-university/Quillette: William Deresiewicz – “Why I Left Academia (Since You're Wondering)”https://quillette.com/2022/08/17/why-i-left-academia-since-youre-wondering/

In general, natural gas appliances are more efficient and less expensive to purchase and operate than electric appliances. Claims that they are a public health threat based on a single study by an environmental group are refuted by decades of safe use. Proposals floated by the Biden administration and New York's governor to ban various natural gas appliances have sparked a backlash, and rightly so, since this robs consumers of choice for no real benefit.

The Heartland Institute's Donald Kendal, Jim Lakely, Justin Haskins, and Chris Talgo present episode 380 of the In The Tank Podcast. The Biden administration announced this week that it was considering a ban on gas stoves, supposedly because it causes asthma in kids – a claim not backed up by science. They are trying to walk back from this infuriating government overreach, but the In the Tank crew won’t let them because it’s part of a tyrannical pattern by our ruling elite. For instance, New York governor Kathy Hochul also announced she wants to ban all appliances, including stoves furnaces, that burn fossil fuels. This is not about safety, but about forcing us to go “all electric” for EVERYTHING as soon as possible to “fight climate change.” It’s absolutely insane and must be stopped. The ITT crew will also talk about how the chairman of the Federal Reserve announced the Fed will not be a “climate policymaker,” a rare sensible statement from a position of great power that has the climate cultists enraged. We

Heartland’s Tim Benson is joined by Donald L. Drakeman, Fellow in Operations and Technology Management at the Cambridge Judge Business School, Distinguished Research Professor in the Program on Constitutional Studies at the University of Notre Dame, and a Venture Partner at Advent Life Sciences, to discuss his new book (co-authored with Lisa Drakeman and Nektarios Oraiopoulos), From Breakthrough to Blockbuster: The Business of Biotechnology. They chat about how medical innovation happens, specifically how biotech companies have created 40 percent more of the most important treatments for previously unmet medical needs than the major pharmaceutical companies at a lower cost. Benson and Drakeman also discuss the crucial roles played by academic research, venture capital, contract research organizations, the capital markets, and the pharmaceutical companies in creating medical breakthroughs. Get the book here: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/from-breakthrough-to-blockbuster-9780195084009?cc=us&lang=e

In his book Clean Energy Crisis, Donn Dears explains why it is impossible for society to reach net zero carbon emissions. Dears explains why it would be a bad idea to attempt to go net zero if this was a realistic possibility. Fossil fuels are energy dense, having relatively little impact on the land and environment. Wind and solar require far more land, leaving a massive environmental "footprint." Not only are the so-called green energy replacements for fossil fuels not green, but they are expensive and unreliable. As wind and solar power is added to the grid, lives are placed at risks from outages while jobs are lost due to unreliable energy supplies.

Now that Obamacare has been in effect for eight years, data is showing that Medicaid spending on low-income children has not kept pace with states that decided against expanding their programs to able-bodied adults.  Charles Blahous, the J. Fish and Lillian F. Smith Chair and senior research strategist at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, joins Health Care News to discuss this development. In addition to writing several books and publishing many studies on public policy issues, Blahous served as the deputy director of the National Economic Council under George W. Bush.On December 13, Blahous and Liam Sigaud published “The Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid Expansion is Shifting Resources away from Low-Income Children.”Host AnneMarie Schieber and Blahous discuss why spending growth for low-income children did not keep pace with growth in non-expansion states.  Why is it that children have been particularly impacted? What might have been a smarter approach? Are waivers the answer? Is expanding insuran

The Heartland Institute's Donald Kendal, Jim Lakely, Justin Haskins, and Chris Talgo present episode 379 of the In The Tank Podcast. With the start of a new year, climate alarmism has been given center stage. 60 Minutes recently ran a segment about the looming population doomsday. The segment, featuring noted doomsayer Paul Ehrlich, promoted dire warnings like "humanity is unsustainable," and how we are "in the midst of sixth mass extinction." Also, the UN convened a conference on biodiversity a few weeks ago where world leaders agreed to a bunch of principles which could have major implications.OPENING CHIT CHAT NYT - Live Updates: McCarthy Loses 4th Vote for Speakerhttps://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/01/04/us/house-speaker-vote  60 MINUTES – POPULATION DOOMSDAY Reason - 60 Minutes Promotes Paul Ehrlich's Failed Doomsaying One More Timehttps://reason.com/2023/01/03/60-minutes-promotes-paul-ehrlichs-failed-doomsaying-one-more-time/ National Review - Population-Bombers Are Going Extincthttps://www.nationalreview

Recently, noted climate change doomsayer Paul Erlich appeared on 60 Minutes to add to his growing tally of false predictions. Aged 91, Erlich has built a career around being wrong about environmentalist catastrophes, from mass famine in the 1970s to cannibalism today. His appearance on 60 Minutes speaks to 60 Minutes becoming another show with talking heads.

World Economic Forum leader Klaus Schwab is no stranger to making radical, sweeping promises and calls to action. But even by Schwab's standards, his latest interview with Chinese TV is creepy. Justin Haskins and Donald Kendal give you the clips and reveal their true meaning in their latest episode of "Justin and Donald Save America."

Heartland’s Tim Benson is joined by F.H. Buckley, Foundation Professor at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School, to discuss his new book, Progressive Conservatism: How Republicans Will Become America's Natural Governing Party. They chat about what Buckley means exactly by “progressive conservative,” why the Republican Party must return to its roots as a progressive conservative party, and why the GOP must reject the illiberalism of extremists on the Right as well as the Left. Get the book here: https://www.encounterbooks.com/books/progressive-conservatism/ Show Notes:  Law & Liberty: George Hawley – “The Mythical Progressive-Conservative Voter” https://lawliberty.org/book-review/the-mythical-progressive-conservative-voter/ Law & Liberty: F.H. Buckley – “The Permanence of Progressive Conservatism”https://lawliberty.org/the-permanence-of-progressive-conservatism/ National Affairs: F.H. Buckley – “The Next Republican Party”https://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/the-next-republi

The Heartland Institute's Donald Kendal and Jim Lakely — with SPECIAL GUEST Christian Toto — present episode 377 of the In The Tank Podcast. In what is becoming an annual tradition, the In the Tank crew end the year talking about the state of pop culture with veteran movie reviewer and culture writer Christian Toto, proprietor of the HollywoodInToto.com website.We’ll discuss what is looking like a rough patch (and maybe much worse) for the big streaming services (Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, etc.), what that means for the future of Hollywood, and if the “get woke, go broke” maxim is holding or getting even worse. We’ll also discuss the state of the modern Hollywood blockbuster (with Avatar 2, which Donny just saw, being a test case), and Christian will tell us the best movies and streaming shows he saw this year and recommends to our audience.

In his book Time to Think Small, author Todd Myers explains why big government efforts usually fail to fix the problem at hand. Rather, these attempts often create greater problems than the original problem they intended to solve. By contrast, new technologies, individuals and groups can provide flexible solutions to environmental problems that improve both the environment and society.  Technologies, like cell phones and the apps they can run are allowing individuals and small groups to develop new insights into the causes and consequences of environmental problems and solutions to them at the local level. By contrast, one-size-fits all big government "solutions," often misidentify the problem and/or its causes, take time to develop, are inflexible, and often make a bad situation worse. 

The Republicans will be in control of the U.S. House starting next month. Brian Blasé and Drew Keyes, both health care policy and administration and legislative veterans now at the Paragon Health Institute, say Congress should focus on four key areas: more affordable health care, ending the COVID-19 health emergency, eliminating waste and abuse at Medicaid, and restoring trust in the CDC and NIH. 1. The Republicans in Congress will have a long list of priorities. Can something meaningful happen on health care policy?2. “Anti-inflationary” agenda: Many people think the solution is more government spending to offset the high costs of health care. Why is this boneheaded thinking?3. How will ending the COVID emergency help all Americans?4. Medicaid oversight… has abuse and waste gotten worse during the current administration and how does this impact all health care, private care, and care for the needy?5. Restoring trust in CDC and NIH…what can Congress really do here since this is under control of the current ad

The Heartland Institute's Donald Kendal and Jim Lakely present episode 377 of the In The Tank Podcast. With Christmas just around the corner, we take a look at the potential ghost of Christmas future. Based heavily on articles and rhetoric from the World Economic Forum - the biggest advocates of The Great Reset - the ITT crew talks about a world in the not-too-distant-future where people no longer own anything. Sounds crazy, but we may be well on our way to realizing that scenario. World Economic Forum - Welcome to 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better https://web.archive.org/web/20200919081413/https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/11/shopping-i-can-t-really-remember-what-that-is?utm_content=buffer60978&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer The New York Times - Disney Adds Warnings for Racist Stereotypes to Some Older Films https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/18/business/media/disney-plus-disclaimers.html World Economic Forum - 3 circular economy app

The Heartland Institute's Donald Kendal, Jim Lakely, and Chris Talgo present episode 376 of the In The Tank Podcast. With the recent deluge of "Twitter Files," some of the most important facts have been lost in the 24/7 news cycle. But, between the revelations about the Hunter Biden laptop, the deplatforming of a sitting president, and the rampant "shadowbanning" of conservative voices, these stories are too important to ignore. The ITT crew sifts through the "Twitter Files" and highlight the facts you need to know. OPENING CHIT CHAT The Blaze - Ocasio-Cortez's climate change documentary has embarrassing opening weekend, earning only $81 per theaterhttps://www.theblaze.com/news/aoc-climate-change-documentary-flops  PRIMARY TOPIC – THE TWITTER FILES PART 1 – 5 Matt Taibbi – The Twitter Files Part 1https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1598822959866683394?lang=en Bari Weiss – The Twitter Files Part 2https://twitter.com/bariweiss/status/1601007575633305600 Matt Taibbi – The Twitter Files Part 3https://twitter.com/m

Heartland’s Tim Benson is joined by Bruce Gilley, Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at Portland State University, to discuss his new book, In Defense of German Colonialism: And How Its Critics Empowered Nazis, Communists, and the Enemies of the West. They chat about the reasons why Gilley contends German colonialism was overall a force for good in the world where development was encouraged and native governance flourished, and why critics of German colonialism helped destabilize the country and played into the hands of the Nazis and communists. Get the book here: https://www.regnery.com/9781684512379/in-defense-of-german-colonialism/Show Notes: Law & Liberty: Jesse Russell – “Colonialism Reconsidered”https://lawliberty.org/book-review/colonialism-reconsidered/