American Thought Leaders

Latest Episodes:

From Agroterrorism to Bioweapons Research: How the CCP Infiltrates the West | Sam Cooper Jun 12, 2025

Show notes

A 33-year-old researcher and her 34-year-old boyfriend, both Chinese nationals, were recently charged with allegedly smuggling into America a fungus called Fusarium graminearum, a potential bioterrorism weapon.

This recent case is just the tip of the iceberg, says investigative reporter Sam Cooper.

He played a key part in uncovering a similar case in Winnipeg, Canada.

“A married couple from China had been allegedly—according to the documents we now have access to—working with the highest levels of the Chinese military’s bioweapons program in Ebola research,” Cooper says. “They were running, clandestinely, materials from China and connected to the Wuhan Institute of Virology into the Winnipeg lab.”

For years, Cooper has been at the forefront of exposing Chinese Communist Party infiltration in the West.

He is the founder of The Bureau and author of “Wilful Blindness: How a Criminal Network of Narcos, Tycoons, and Chinese Communist Party Agents Infiltrated the West.”

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 Rise in Cardiovascular Conditions, Myocarditis in Children: Dr. Kirk Milhoan Jun 10, 2025

Show notes

Dr. Kirk Milhoan is a pediatric cardiologist and senior fellow at the Independent Medical Alliance. He has been treating children with myocarditis and other cardiovascular issues associated with COVID-19 and the COVID-19 vaccines.

“Four years later, five years later, I’m seeing this constant and dramatic change in who I’m seeing coming to see me. They’re complaining their heart doesn’t beat normally. And it beats fast for no reason at all,” says Dr. Milhoan. “Specifically after the second dose of the new platform for the COVID vaccine, we were seeing an increase in myocarditis in children that we’ve never seen before with any vaccine product in children.”

In this episode, we dive into the apparent rise of cardiovascular conditions in children and how to better address and understand them.

“We need to return the idea of a patient-doctor relationship,” says Dr. Milhoan. “You’re not a consumer. We’ve made this too marketing-oriented. We need to go back to: ‘I’m a physician who cares for you because I have compassion for you. And because of my compassion, I want you to do well, and I want you to be healthy.’”

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

Here’s How Trump Is Changing the Game in the Middle East: Josh Hammer Jun 07, 2025

Show notes

“You can essentially divide the region between two sets of players. You have the, broadly speaking, Western-aligned players, which essentially consist of Israel and the non-Islamist Arab countries—countries like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE—and then, on the other hand, you have the axis of Islamism—of support for Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood and jihadism. And that, these days, is mostly the Iranian regime of course, Turkey unfortunately under Tayyip Erdogan, and Qatar, Qatar being the lead financier of Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood,” says Josh Hammer, host of the Newsweek podcast “The Josh Hammer Show” and author of “Israel and Civilization: The Fate of the Jewish Nation and the Destiny of the West.”

“Iran is the source of evil in the Middle East. We should be very clear about that,” he says. “This is the world’s No. 1 state sponsor of terrorism. They have been ever since the hostage crisis that formed this horrific regime that ended the Jimmy Carter presidency in 1979.”

What does an America First foreign policy look like? How does Trump’s Middle East strategy fit into it? And what about the U.S. relationship with Qatar?

“America has always been engaged on the world stage. So the fact that we’re not necessarily going to be going around crusading in the name of spreading liberal democracy does not necessarily mean that we have no interest in the world. We’re America first, but you have to be America smart as well,” says Hammer.

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

The Wisdom of Athens and Jerusalem and Lessons for Today: Jacob Howland Jun 05, 2025

Show notes

“When we are dispersed and we interact with other human beings only online, and the algorithms feed back our preferences and desires to us, what it effectively does is kind-of isolate us in these multiple sub caves.”

Jacob Howland is the provost of the University of Austin, a new, private liberal arts university that is pushing back against censorship and politically popular narratives in higher education.

As dean of the Intellectual Foundations program, Howland gives students a comprehensive education in the Western tradition, emphasizing both “Athens and Jerusalem,” he says.

“After communism fell, it’s as if the historical amnesia had removed the capacity of those who were still around to reckon with the past,” he says. “There are inexhaustible resources in the tradition, and if we’re going to find our way forward, we’ve got to understand the past.”

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

Max Tegmark on AI Superintelligence: We’re Creating an ‘Alien Species’ That Would Replace Us Jun 03, 2025

Show notes

Few people understand artificial intelligence and machine learning as well as MIT physics professor Max Tegmark. Founder of the Future of Life Institute, he is the author of “Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.”

“The painful truth that’s really beginning to sink in is that we’re much closer to figuring out how to build this stuff than we are figuring out how to control it,” he says.

Where is the U.S.–China AI race headed? How close are we to science fiction-type scenarios where an uncontrollable superintelligent AI can wreak major havoc on humanity? Are concerns overblown? How do we prevent such scenarios?

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

Michael Shellenberger: How China Gained Control of Solar—And Why It Matters May 31, 2025

Show notes

“It’s now been revealed that the Chinese—who manufacture virtually all of our solar panels, both in the United States and Europe—have been installing cellular radios inside the inverters, which can act as kill switches,” says Michael Shellenberger, an investigative journalist, author, founder of Public, and CBR Chair of Politics, Censorship, and Free Speech at the University of Austin.

Shellenberger is the author of the books “San Fransicko” and “Apocalypse Never.”

In this wide-ranging interview, we dive into key vulnerabilities in America’s energy grid, how Trump is transforming America’s energy future, the current status of the “censorship industrial complex,” as Shellenberger describes it, and his continued fight for government transparency, including around unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs).

Two years on from the publication of the Twitter Files—in which Shellenberger played a key role—where are things now?

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 Numbers Can Lie in Scientific Research: Dr. Lynn Fynn May 29, 2025

Show notes

Dr. Lynn Fynn is a clinical research scientist and a retired infectious disease specialist. We sat down together to discuss issues she sees plaguing medical research, including the misallocation of funds, a broken peer review process, and major conflicts of interest.

”Any time you incentivize something, you’re creating a bias. And when you create a bias, there’s an element of truth that’s removed from the equation,” says Dr. Fynn.

“When a pharmaceutical company gets to pour money into a program, the curriculum is going to reflect what they want it to reflect, to make it a profitable transaction for them. It’s a return on investment.”

What practical steps are needed to restore public trust in science and medicine?

“Where there’s transparency, there’s trust. It’s really that simple,” says Dr. Fynn. “Oftentimes, [in] what used to be the scientific method, the process gets reversed. They look at the conclusion that is agreeable or preferred, and then they start working backwards. How can we prove this conclusion?”

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

Jonah Platt: The Incredible Story of Muslims and Jews Visiting Auschwitz Together May 27, 2025

Show notes

“Hollywood is about as left and progressive a community as there is in this country. And unfortunately, part of the box you have to check in that very left, super progressive space is being anti-Israel and being pro-Palestine in an anti-Israel way,” says Jonah Platt.

Platt is a jack of all trades in the entertainment industry—an actor, director, producer, and singer. In the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre of Israelis led by terrorist group Hamas, he launched the podcast “Being Jewish.”

He recently visited Auschwitz, the largest German death camp, alongside over a dozen Muslims. He went with the organization Sharaka, which builds on the work of the Abraham Accords and educates Middle Easterners and other Arabs and Muslims around the world about the Holocaust.

“Some of these people came on this trip at great personal risk. If you’re coming from Pakistan to hang out with Jews in the middle of this Israel-Gaza war, I mean, you could be in real, physical danger. Some people—they couldn’t be in any photos and their identities had to be kept secret to protect them,” says Platt. “There were Jewish slaves [at Auschwitz], working out in that kind of rain in threadbare pajamas, starving to death, and having to do physical labor and be shot if they didn’t keep up. And meanwhile, I’m freezing in the cold, but I get to go on a warm bus and get a hot meal after this.”

In this episode, we discuss how to navigate being Jewish and Zionist in a society that is becoming increasingly hostile to Israel.

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

***Disclaimer: One of the producers for American Thought Leaders participated in the Sharaka program to Poland on an all-expenses paid trip.

Beyond Lt. Dan: Gary Sinise Reflects on Grief, Gratitude, and a Life Devoted to Honoring America’s Heroes May 24, 2025

Show notes

“Service … it’s a great healer for a broken heart. It helped me a lot through our fight for our son, and the difficulties and the challenges of fighting for him and then losing him,” says Gary Sinise.

An Emmy Award-winning actor, producer, director, and musician, Sinise has dedicated his life to supporting America’s active-duty military, veterans, first responders, and their families.

The Gary Sinise Foundation has raised over $500 million in support of these communities, and Sinise has won many awards for his humanitarian contributions, including the Presidential Citizen Medal, the second-highest civilian honor in the United States.

In this episode, Sinise reflects on his three decades of service, from building dozens of specially modified homes for wounded veterans and first responders to playing nearly 600 concerts with the Lt. Dan band (named after his Forrest Gump character) at military bases across the United States and overseas.

Sinise’s son McCanna Anthony “Mac” Sinise died last year at age 33 after a five-year battle with a rare bone cancer called chordoma. Before he passed, he was able to record an entire album of music that he’d begun in college. It’s titled “Resurrection & Revival.”

Mac’s story and his father’s full tribute to his son can be found here on the Gary Sinise Foundation website: https://www.garysinisefoundation.org/mac-tribute

The Monument That Almost Wasn’t: The Remarkable Story Behind Canada’s Anti-Communist Memorial | Ludwik Klimkowski May 22, 2025

Show notes

A few months ago, Canada unveiled its national memorial to the millions of victims of communism.

In this episode, Ludwik Klimkowski, chair of the Tribute of Liberty, gives us a tour of the memorial and reveals the 17-year battle to realize it as the group navigated changing political winds.

“This is a memorial to those who still struggle. This is the memorial given to those who still want to escape. This is the memorial to those who are still sitting in prison, whose organs are being harvested,” Klimkowski says.

The memorial was inaugurated last year, although the final elements on the Wall of Remembrance are still under development.

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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