American Thought Leaders

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Dr. Joseph Ladapo Breaks Down Decision to Remove All Vaccines Mandates in Florida Oct 04, 2025

Show notes

In early September, during a joint press conference with Governor Ron DeSantis, Florida’s Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo publicly announced the decision to eliminate all state vaccine mandates—including those required for schools.

In this episode, Dr. Ladapo explains the decision, how it will take shape, and his response to critics of the announcement who say there will be increased outbreaks of infectious disease.

“It’s just not appropriate for someone else to be able to dictate or force you to put something into your body.… If you own anything, you do own your body, just as you own your free will,” he says.

Florida’s Department of Health is removing all its current mandates, but a complete removal of all vaccine requirements from state law will require legislative action. Dr. Ladapo says he’s confident it will be passed.

We also dive into his concern that many pediatricians can refuse to treat children on the basis of the child’s vaccination status: “To be kicked out of pediatrician practices for that reason, it’s just wrong,” he says.

He’s working with Governor DeSantis on what he calls a “patient’s bill of rights.”

Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

How the CCP Monetizes the Bodies of Its Prisoners | Matthew Robertson Oct 02, 2025

Show notes

The Chinese communist regime has “created a market in the organs of their political enemies,” says Matthew Robertson, a researcher who has been investigating China’s organ transplant system for more than a decade.

Fluent in Mandarin, Robertson is a China studies research fellow at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation and co-author of a number of research papers on China’s organ transplant system including, “Execution by organ procurement: Breaching the dead donor rule in China.”

After conducting a forensic review of thousands of Chinese research papers, they found 71 cases where violations of the dead donor rule were essentially written into the paper itself.

In a moment that stunned the world, Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin were recently caught on a hot mic with their translators talking about increasing longevity through repeated organ transplants.

What is the true extent of China’s forced organ harvesting industry? How are physicians in China complicit? It’s been known for many years that practitioners of the Falun Gong spiritual practice have been a prime target—but are they the only ones?

Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

Editor’s Note: Matthew Robertson previously worked as a journalist for The Epoch Times.

Why Small Farmers Are Disappearing | Joel Salatin Oct 01, 2025

Show notes

Family farms in America are slowly disappearing, with a 2022 USDA census reporting that America lost 142,000 farms over just five years. The average farmer in America is now nearly 60 years old.

But it’s not government subsidies that farmers need to stay afloat, says Joel Salatin. What small farmers really need is the freedom to innovate and sell directly to local consumers—without facing a morass of red tape, regulations, and mandates.

Salatin, co-owner of Polyface Farms in Virginia, is widely recognized as a leading pioneer of sustainable or regenerative farming practices that enrich the land, rather than depleting it.

Over the last half century, Salatin has seen his fair share of what he calls the “food police.” He discovered it was illegal to sell a couple dozen homemade pot pies at the farmers’ market without proving he had a certified $50,000 septic system; illegal to process his own meat without sending it to a licensed butcher; illegal for his 17-year-old apprentices to operate a cordless drill—even though they were legally allowed to drive a car; and illegal to build housing without a permit on his farm—an agricultural zone—for his highly popular farmer apprenticeship program.

The result? Small farmers have to fight for survival, factory farming wins, and America is less healthy, he says.

“In my lifetime I have watched this erosion of farmer access to retail dollars. Meanwhile, we’re seeing farmers go out of business hand over fist,” Salatin says.

What America really needs is a “Food Emancipation Proclamation,” he says.

Salatin is the author of 17 books, including “Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal: War Stories from the Local Food Front.”

Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

From Cultural Revolution to Cultural Revival: Spencer Klavan on ‘How to Save the West’ Sep 30, 2025

Show notes

For decades, there has been an assault on the Western classical tradition and the core values, arts, and philosophy at the bedrock of Western civilization, says classicist Spencer Klavan.

Are we now witnessing a shift in this tide?

Klavan is the author of multiple books, including “How to Save the West: Ancient Wisdom for Five Modern Crises.”

He is also an associate editor at The Claremont Review of Books and host of the “Young Heretics” podcast.

“People are starting to realize that you can only scream and yell and tear down statues and set things on fire for so long,” Klavan says. “Now the energy seems to be in the direction of … recovering and rebuilding some of our most profound traditions, these wisdom traditions of Athens and Jerusalem.”

In this episode, we dive deep into questions of form and matter, beauty and truth, and the importance of finding spiritual meaning in our modern era.

“It’s often attributed to Werner Heisenberg that once you take one sip from the cup of science, you become an atheist. But when you drain it to the dregs, God is waiting for you there at the bottom,” he says.

What do the classics have to offer us? Why is classical art and literature important? And why does Klavan believe President Donald Trump’s executive order on restoring classical architecture is a major step forward?

Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

Eric Trump Opens Up About How Relentless Attacks Impacted Him and His Family Sep 27, 2025

Show notes

How did the last nine years change Eric Trump? How did the second son of President Donald Trump react to the assassination attempt on his father’s life in Butler, Pennsylvania? And does he plan to run for political office in the future?

His new memoir is titled “Under Siege: My Family’s Fight to Save Our Nation.”

“It’s the thousands of stories behind the scenes of how they try to dismantle our family and the greatest political movement in American history,” Trump says.

Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

Dr. Ryan Cole: NIH Should Fund Research into Rise in Cancer Sep 25, 2025

Show notes

Since mRNA technology was deployed widely in the COVID-19 vaccines, developers have rapidly accelerated research into more mRNA products. Moderna alone has more than two dozen mRNA products in development.

But is the mRNA platform really the revolutionary breakthrough that its champions claim?

Since early 2021, Cole has been at the forefront of alerting the public to an unusual spike in cancer diagnoses following the widespread adoption of the COVID-19 genetic vaccines.

In this episode, Cole explains the risks he sees with mRNA technology and how he sees things shaking out at the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the coming months and years.

Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

How Race-Based Policies Are Harming South Africa: Ernst Roets Sep 23, 2025

Show notes

“South Africa moved from one race-based system to another race-based system. ... We need to move away from race-based systems,” argues Ernst Roets. He’s the Founder and Executive Director of Lex Libertas, an organization that advocates for constitutional reform and more decentralized governance in South Africa.

While many have highlighted the killings of farmers in recent years, this violence is emblematic of broader problems in South Africa, he says.

South Africa’s murder rate is among the highest in the world—more than seven times higher than the global average. And race-based policies and distribution of wealth are having a serious deleterious effect, Roets says.

In this episode, he breaks down why he believes South Africa’s current political system is fundamentally not sustainable, and how anti-Western influences, including the Chinese Communist Party, are influencing the direction of South Africa.

Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

Why Charlie Kirk’s Approach Matters Now More Than Ever | Pastor Jackson Lahmeyer Sep 20, 2025

Show notes

What happens when a nation loses one of its most influential voices—and what can we learn from the legacy he leaves behind?

What is the role of faith in shaping America’s future, and how should we move forward?

In this episode, I sit down with pastor Jackson Lahmeyer to reflect on the assassination of Charlie Kirk and the work of the Trump administration to strengthen religious liberty in America.

“We have a lot to learn from Charlie’s methodology,” Lahmeyer said. “Charlie would reach you in your mind, but also he'd reach you in your heart, because Charlie cared about people.”

“The person was not the enemy. The idea might have been the enemy, but the person was not the enemy. ... That’s why Charlie was taken out, because he was so good at reasoning with people,” he said.

“It’s the model that we need to adopt moving forward if we’re going to bring healing and restoration to the country,” he added.

Lahmeyer is the author of “Chasing After the Wind: Why Nobody Is Catching What Everybody Is Chasing.”

Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

The Battle Over Alligator Alcatraz, the US Census, and CCP Surveillance | Florida AG James Uthmeier Sep 18, 2025

Show notes

Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz” immigration detention facility in the Everglades has generated considerable buzz and controversy since it was first proposed by Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier.

In this episode, we sat down with Uthmeier to discuss Florida’s aggressive efforts to curb illegal immigration and fentanyl trafficking, what he sees as the politicization of the U.S. census, and his investigations into surveillance technology.

“In Florida, the most recent investigation we launched was into a company, Lorex. They make in-home or in-business cameras, everything from baby cams to nanny cams, doorbell cameras. … They capture the imagery of everything people are doing at home, and consumers do not know about it,” Uthmeier says.

Is Florida creating a model for how America can confront its greatest vulnerabilities—and is it testing the boundaries of state power?

Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

Xi and Putin’s Hot Mic Moment on Immortality and Why It Matters | Joshua Philipp Sep 16, 2025

Show notes

In a moment that stunned the world, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping were recently caught on a hot mic talking about increasing longevity and even achieving immortality through repeated organ transplants.

For the last two decades, we’ve been reporting how the CCP kills prisoners of conscience, the main body of them being Falun Gong practitioners, for their organs.

Joining me today to unpack the significance of this moment and what it teaches us about the inner workings of the CCP is Epoch Times senior investigative journalist Joshua Philipp, host of EpochTV’s “Crossroads.”

Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

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