Heartland Daily Podcast

Elon Musk's DOGE crew continues to shine a light on how our federal government operates, and it is exposing more climate grift than even the most cynical among us could have imagined. The latest involves the EPA giving failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams $2 billion to expand "clean energy by prioritizing housing, equity, and resilience." Her organization, Power Forward Communities, says it will install heat pumps, solar panels, EV chargers, and other "green" technology. Does Abrams have any expertise in this field? No. In fact, her organization incorporated itself with $100 in the bank just months before receiving $2 billion of our tax money. The Washington Free Beacon also reported this week that the man Biden put in charge of the EPA's "Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund" funneled $5 billion to his former employer, something called the Coalition for Green Capital.The climate grifters are being exposed, and the EPA is trying to claw these billions of dollars back. But how deep does the corruption

The "experts" are still trying to rewrite the narrative on the government response to COVID, and one of President Trump's picks supports the questionable PRO Act. Meanwhile, VP Vance had strong words for the Orwellian language controls in Germany, and DOGE continues to uncover corrupt and wasteful government spending.The Heartland Institute's Linnea Lueken, Jim Lakely, and Chris Talgo will discuss all of this and more on this episode of the In The Tank podcast.

Heartland’s Tim Benson is joined by Harold Holzer, director of the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College, to discuss his latest book, Brought Forth on This Continent: Abraham Lincoln and American Immigration. They chat about the immigration situation in the United States in the 30 years leading up the Civil War, how immigrants forever altered the country’s demographics, culture, and voting patterns, how tensions over immigration broke apart the Whig Party and lead to the formation of the Republican Party, and how Lincoln evolved into a champion for immigration. Get the book here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/558372/brought-forth-on-this-continent-by-harold-holzer/

The good news for climate realists and better governance in the Trump administration is piling up so fast it is difficult to keep up. As we covered on this show on December 6, a bit of undercover journalism by Project Veritas exposed a left-wing staffer at the Environmental Protection Agency admitting that he and others were trying to get billions of our tax money “out as fast as possible” before the Trump administration arrived in January and put a stop to it. “It truly feels like we’re on the Titanic and we’re throwing gold bars off the edge,” laughed Brent Efron, former “special advisor for implementation” at EPA. Well, new EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced this week that he has jumped into his submersible and snatched the gold bars ($20 billion) out of the hands of unaccountable lefty nonprofit “NGOs” and returned them to the treasury. The endless flow of our tax money going to environmental extremists groups who advocate against America’s interest seems to be coming to an endThe Heartland Institute’

Carefully constructed narratives and funding related to public health are being re-evaluated by this new administration, bringing sunlight to disinfect a contaminated NIH. Critics of President Trump and DOGE claim that Trump's actions represent a Constitutional crisis, Politico finally admits that Democrats were wrong to claim the economy was great under Biden, and RFK's confirmation process continues amid significant pushback.The Heartland Institute’s Linnea Lueken, Jim Lakely, and special guest Bonner Cohen, senior fellow with the National Center for Public Policy Research, will cover all of this and more on this episode of the In The Tank podcast.Join us LIVE at 1 p.m. ET and enjoy the live chat!

Heartland’s Tim Benson is joined by Brian VanDeMark, professor of history at the United States Naval Academy, to discuss his latest book, Kent State: An American Tragedy. They chat about the context of the divided cultural landscape of America during the Vietnam War and heightened popular anxieties around the country, how the shootings came to take place, the reductive narratives that ensued, the victims of the shooting, and the impact of that day on the Guardsmen who were there. Get the book here: https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324066255Show Notes:Los Angeles Review of Books: Tom Zoellner – “Yelling ‘Fire’ on a Crowded Knoll”https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/yelling-fire-on-a-crowded-knoll/Los Angeles Times: Chris Vognar – “A meticulous, pain-filled history of the senseless slaughter at Kent State”https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2024-08-05/brian-vandemark-kent-state-an-american-tragedyNational Review: Paul Baumann – “What Happened at Kent State?”https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2024/10/what-ha

 Join us as we dive into President Trump’s bold “Unleashing American Energy” executive order—a decisive move to free America’s most valuable resources, from coal and oil to natural gas and nuclear power. In this episode, we contrast this strategic shift with policies favoring costly, unreliable renewable alternatives, and explore how a return to sensible energy choices could redefine our national landscape. Dr. Sterling Burnett shares his insights on how unlocking America’s energy potential can safeguard our cherished resources while powering progress. Tune in for a informative conversation on why embracing our energy independence matters now more than ever! 

President Trump has struck the Biden administration’s climate and energy policy like a hurricane – from increasing energy exploration and extraction, to letting 1,000 employees at the Environmental Protection Agency know they could be fired at any time, to taking all mentions of climate change from the website of the Department of Agriculture, and more. But what will be the Trump Effect on the global climate agenda? Will the dedication to reorder the economies and societies of the world to “save the planet” being to crumble? And if so, which country will give up first?President Trump has struck the Biden administration’s climate and energy policy like a hurricane—ranging from increasing energy exploration and extraction to informing 1,000 Environmental Protection Agency employees that they could be fired at any time, to removing all mentions of climate change from the Department of Agriculture’s website, and more. But what will be the "Trump Effect" on the global climate agenda? Will the dedication to reorgan

The Trump administration's efforts to dismantle the status quo continue, causing the right people to worry about their next paychecks. Nations around the world are coming to the negotiation table on subjects no one thought they would, while some very unstable individuals are attempting to incite violence in retaliation against Trump's efforts.The Heartland Institute’s Linnea Lueken, Jim Lakely, and H. Sterling Burnett dig into these subjects, with a special focus on Elon Musk's DOGE and how a simple funding freeze and a small audit are making the entire deep state panic—while awakening average Americans to the true extent of wasteful government spending through groups like USAID. 

Heartland’s Tim Benson is joined by David Reynolds, emeritus professor of international history at Christ’s College, Cambridge University, to discuss his latest book, Mirrors of Greatness: Churchill and the Leaders Who Shaped Him. They reevaluate Churchill’s life by viewing it through the eyes of his allies and adversaries like Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, FDR, Chamberlain, Attlee, De Gaulle, and Gandhi, as well as his own family. They also chat about Churchill’s lifelong struggle to overcome his political failures and his evolving grasp of what “greatness” truly entailed.  Get the book here: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/david-reynolds/mirrors-of-greatness/9781541620209/?lens=basic-booksShow Notes:The Wall Street Journal: Robert D. Kaplan – “‘Mirrors of Greatness’ Review: Churchill’s Personal Diplomacy”https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/books/mirrors-of-greatness-review-churchills-personal-diplomacy-c8e300e3Washington Examiner: Sean Durns – “Making history with Winston Churchill”https://www.washington

H. Sterling Burnett, director of the Arthur B. Robinson Center on Climate and Environmental Policy at The Heartland Institute, was a guest recently on the Bill Cunningham Show on WLW radio in Cincinnati. He was invited on to talk about Donald Trump withdrawing the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement and the blizzard of executive orders he issued reversing all of the Biden administration's climate and energy policies.

The historic and devastating fires in Los Angeles exposed the incompetence of leaders such as Gov. Gavin Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass. So how do state legislators want to address that? By allowing victims who had their lives destroyed sue Big Oil. Of course. The Heartland Institute’s Anthony Watts and Jim Lakely blow holes in that absurd political stunt and also discuss other recent to abuse the courts to push climate alarmism.Also, Lee Zeldin has just started his first week as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, and already the environmental left is terrified that the days of considering human emissions of carbon dioxide are coming to an end. We will dig deeper into the EPA’s “endangerment finding” for CO2 and whether it can be overturned in the next four years. We will also cover some of the “Crazy Climate News of the Week.”

It’s an understatement to say that Donald Trump hit the ground running to start his interrupted second term. The speed and precision with which he has canceled nearly every achievement of the Biden nothing this country has ever seen before. It is simply breathtaking, and happening at such a frenetic pace it is difficult to keep up.The Heartland Institute’s Linnea Lueken, Jim Lakely, and Chris Talgo will do their best, though. Trump has issued hundreds of executive orders on all sorts of policy areas. On immigration, he closed the border, sent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) across America to round up and deport criminal illegal aliens, and even suggested he’ll use Gitmo to house them until flights back to their country of origin can be arranged. And he also declared that the federal government will no longer put up with “sanctuary” cities and states harboring illegals.Trump froze all federal grants to assess whether they are worth continuing or canceling because they are wasteful or harmful to Ameri

Heartland’s Tim Benson is joined by Tyson Reeder, assistant professor of history at Brigham Young University, to discuss his new book, Serpent in Eden: Foreign Meddling and Partisan Politics in James Madison's America. They chat about the espionage, shadow diplomacy, foreign scheming, and domestic backstabbing in the formative years of the American republic, and how an infant nation adjusting to rancorous partisan politics, aggravated by the untested and imperfect new tools of governance and the growing power of media, was exploited by foreign powers to advance their own agendas. Get the book here: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/serpent-in-eden-9780197628591?cc=us&lang=en&Show Notes:Law & Liberty: Sam Negus – “The Old World and the Young Republic”https://lawliberty.org/book-review/the-old-world-and-the-young-republic/The Wall Street Journal: Mark G. Spencer – “‘Serpent in Eden’: Foreign Spies and False Allies”https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/books/serpent-in-eden-review-spies-lies-and-fal

The Heartland Institute’s Donald Kendal, Jim Lakely, and Chris Talgo present episode 480 of the In The Tank Podcast. At the beginning of his inaugural address, President Donald Trump declared "The golden age of America begins right now." And within hours of this statement, Donald Trump began signing a series of executive orders, taking the first steps toward fulfilling this promise. On this week's episode, the ITT crew is taking a look at these executive orders and the promises made by Trump to help determine if we are back on track to once again achieve greatness in the United States of America.SHOW NOTES:TRUMP'S INAUGURATION White House - The Inaugural Addresshttps://www.whitehouse.gov/remarks/2025/01/the-inaugural-address/DAY 1 EXECUTIVE ORDERSNYT - Trump's Executive Orders: Reversing Biden's Policies and Attacking the 'Deep State'https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/20/us/politics/trump-executive-orders-list.htmlNYT - Trump Signs Orders to Promote Fossil Fuels and End Climate Policieshttps://www.nytimes.com/20

President Trump wasted no time after his inauguration on Monday reversing all of his predecessor’s executive orders that made climate alarmism and “green” energy the focus of American government. He didn’t just reverse bad policies, and pull us out of the Paris Climate Agreement, he went farther than he did in his first term to ramp up American energy production and rein in an Environmental Protection Agency that regulated far beyond its mandate. Among at least 47 climate- and energy-related EOs signed in the first 24 hours of his swearing-in was one tackling what has long served as the keystone of limitless environmental regulation: the “endangerment finding” for carbon dioxide emissions. May we finally see the end of the EPA’s abuse of its regulatory power?The Heartland Institute’s Anthony Watts, Sterling Burnett, Linnea Lueken, and Jim Lakely are joined by special guest Myron Ebell, who was on President Trump’s EPA Transition Team for his first term to break down what these reversals of radical climate and

Heartland’s Tim Benson is joined by Richard Carwardine, Emeritus Rhodes Professor of American History and Distinguished Fellow of the Rothermere American Institute at Oxford University, to discuss his new book, Righteous Strife: How Warring Religious Nationalists Forged Lincoln's Union. They chat about how the tensions surrounding the moral quandary of slavery cracked the United States in half, and even formed rifts within the North itself, how Lincoln proclaimed more days of national fasting and thanksgiving than any other president before or since, and how these pauses for spiritual reflection provided the inspirational rhetoric and ideological fuel that sustained the war.Get the book here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/24975/righteous-strife-by-richard-carwardine/

In this episode of The Heartland Daily Podcast, host AnneMarie Schieber is joined by health economist Devon Herrick for an in-depth discussion on the pressing issues in the U.S. healthcare system. Together, they explore the real-life implications of policies like Obamacare, the growing challenges of Medicare, and the evolving landscape of health insurance options. From short-term plans to the potential of direct primary care, they highlight innovative, free-market solutions that empower individuals and reduce costs.Discover why health insurance remains prohibitively expensive for many Americans, how government mandates distort the market, and what steps can be taken to promote transparency, competition, and patient-centered care. This episode also delves into topics like the unintended consequences of employer-provided insurance, the future of telemedicine, and creative alternatives for long-term care.With insights backed by decades of research and expertise, AnneMarie and Devon shed light on how we can move

Senate committee rooms on Capitol Hill were buzzing with activity this week as many of President Trump’s picks for cabinet posts were underway. Three of the key hearings on climate and energy policy were Lee Zeldin for EPA, Doug Burgum for Interior, and Chris Wright for Energy. We hope you caught Heartland’s two three-hour long “watch parties” with gavel-to-gavel coverage this week, but there’s still more to examine. What did the hearing performances of Trump’s picks say about how they will serve in their roles? Which federal agency of the three needs the most work to change its purpose? And can these appointments succeed in carrying out Trump’s agenda in the face of a deeply entrenched federal bureaucracy that is opposed to almost all of Trump’s major climate and energy goals?The Heartland Institute’s Anthony Watts, H. Sterling Burnett, Linnea Lueken, and Jim Lakely will dive deeper into that topic. Plus, we’ll review some of the Crazy Climate News of the Week, including a deep freeze that’s on the way for m

Historic wildfires have destroyed thousands of homes and businesses in Los Angeles County. Many homes of the rich and famous in Pacific Palisades, Malibu, and Pasadena have been reduced to rubble and ash. Entire neighborhoods were completely destroyed, and the fires have been blamed for at least five deaths. The speed at which the fires spread caught firefighters and residents off guard. Fed by hurricane-strength Santa Ana winds, embers were flying through the air seemingly everywhere and with no let-up. Climate alarmists have pinned the blame on human-caused climate change, but that is not truth.On Episode #140 of The Climate Realism Show, The Heartland Institute’s H. Sterling Burnett, Anthony Watts, Linnea Lueken, and Jim Lakely welcome U.S. Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-CA) and CFACT’s Chris Martz to cover the LA fires and some of the “Crazy Climate News of the Week.” There’s been some fascinating news since our two-week hiatus, some of it good. Blackrock and JP Morgan are the latest financial giants to drop out of