Sanity Check

Latest Episodes:

Think Climate Alarmism is Dead? Go to a Blue State Feb 20, 2026

Show notes

With headlines declaring the end of climate extremism and federal withdrawals from global climate bodies making waves, many are celebrating what looks like a turning point. But is it really over?

In this episode, David R. Legates argues that while the federal government may be stepping back, the climate agenda is far from defeated. From sweeping state-level “NetZero” mandates to massive electrification plans, offshore wind expansion, hydrogen schemes, and the redesign of entire communities, the push for decarbonization is accelerating closer to home.

Drawing on personal experiences from the final days of the Soviet Union, Legates offers a sobering reminder: ideologies rarely disappear—they adapt. Climate alarmism, he contends, is no exception.

Before we celebrate victory, we need to ask a harder question: Are we winning the battle, while losing the war?

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Does Capitalism Harm the Environment? Feb 13, 2026

Show notes

Is capitalism wrecking the planet—or is that the biggest environmental myth of our time?

From Naomi Klein in This Changes Everything to Karl Marx in Das Kapital, and even Pope Francis in Laudato Si', influential voices have argued that free markets are fundamentally incompatible with environmental protection. The claim is bold: if you care about the Earth, you must abandon capitalism.

But does history actually support that narrative?

In this episode, Cal Beisner launches a powerful new series examining the real-world environmental records of socialist and capitalist systems—from East Germany and the Soviet Union to Mao’s China. The evidence is sobering, and it raises uncomfortable questions about property rights, poverty, prosperity, and political freedom.

If you’ve ever been told that saving the planet requires rejecting free markets, this series is for you.

Use It or Lose It: How the Electric Grid Works Feb 06, 2026

Show notes

Most people think the electric grid is a giant battery—store power when there’s extra and pull it out when you need it. Simple. And completely wrong.

In this episode, David R. Legates explains how the electric grid actually works: a just-in-time system where electricity must be generated and consumed almost simultaneously. Using clear analogies, he walks through generation, transmission, distribution, and consumption—and shows why reliability depends on energy sources that can be used when needed.

The discussion also explores why wind and solar, which are non-dispatchable, cannot keep the lights on without constant real-time backup, and how rising demand, grid operators like PJM, and policy choices affect reliability and cost.

If you want to understand why blackouts happen, why electricity prices are rising, and why the grid is far more fragile than most people realize, this episode is for you.

Sources:

https://www.caesarrodney.org/post/delaware-s-energy-crossroads-rising-demand-shrinking-reliability

https://16f05e07-790c-4e37-8967-e07503198f80.usrfiles.com/ugd/16f05e_950ecbbff4b54cbc8b9223d8dc890591.pdf

Blaming the Weather for Your Migraine Jan 30, 2026

Show notes

Migraines are a debilitating neurological condition affecting millions—and no one who has experienced one takes them lightly. In the United Kingdom alone, an estimated 10 million adults suffer from migraines, costing millions of lost workdays each year. So when headlines recently declared that scientists have pinpointed a reason migraines are on the rise, it sounded like an important public-health breakthrough.

But there was a familiar twist.

According to the popular press, the culprit is—of course—climate change. Rising temperatures, turbulent weather patterns, and even anxiety about climate change itself are now being blamed for an alleged migraine “epidemic.” But does the evidence actually support these claims?

In this episode of Created to Reign, David R. Legates takes a closer look at what the studies really say, what they don’t say, and how correlation is being dressed up as causation. From daily and seasonal migraine patterns to the role of stress, diagnosis, and media framing, this episode asks a simple question: are migraines increasing because of climate change—or because climate change has become the go-to explanation for everything?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-15422347/Scientists-pinpoint-reason-people-getting-migraines.html

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/health/article/migraines-climate-change-weather-heat-pressure

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9664747/

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s10194-021-01276-w

Keep Your Hands in Your Own Pockets Jan 23, 2026

Show notes

$7.56 billion. 321 grants. One federal judge. And a big question: who should be spending your money?

In this episode of Created to Reign, Dr. E. Calvin Beisner breaks down the Department of Energy’s attempt to cancel billions in clean-energy and climate grants—and why a federal court just forced those projects back onto the taxpayer’s tab. Were the terminations a long-overdue effort to stop wasteful spending? Or a politically clumsy move that handed the courts an easy win?

We unpack the legal ruling, the politics behind the grants, and the uncomfortable reality of government picking winners and losers with other people’s money. Along the way, Dr. Beisner asks the harder question Washington never wants to answer: Why is the federal government in this business at all?

If you care about energy realism, fiscal sanity, and the growing habit of reaching into your pocket to fund someone else’s pet project—this episode is for you.

Show notes:

https://www.energy.gov/articles/secretary-wright-announces-new-policy-increasing-accountability-identifying-wasteful

https://www.energy.gov/articles/energy-department-announces-termination-223-projects-saving-over-75-billion

https://news.oilandgaswatch.org/post/trump-cancels-billions-in-clean-energy-grants-while-increasing-subsidies-for-oil-and-gas

https://whyy.org/articles/delaware-new-jersey-clean-energy-projects-funding-cuts/

file://C:\\Users\ECalvinBeisner\Downloads\Mehta decision.pdf

https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/judge-says-trump-admin-illegally-cut-billions-in-grants-from-blue-states-climate-projects-5969995

NCAR, Alarmism, and the Federal Gravy Train Jan 16, 2026

Show notes

The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) has been called the “mothership” of climate science. So when reports claimed the Trump administration was planning to shut it down, the reaction was explosive—headlines screamed “destruction of knowledge” and “war on science.”

But is that what’s actually happening?

In this episode of Created to Reign, David R. Legates cuts through the hysteria to examine what the administration really said, what NCAR was created to do, and how decades of federal funding have fueled an entrenched climate alarmist narrative. Is science being silenced—or is ideological spending finally being challenged?

This is a conversation about power, money, and whether climate research can survive without the federal gravy train.

Sources:

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/shaman-performs-pagan-ritual-over-world-economic-forum-leaders-at-davos-summit/

https://x.com/russvought/status/2001099488774033692

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/12/16/trump-dismantle-national-center-atmospheric-research-climate/87798771007/

https://theweek.com/politics/trump-vought-climate-national-center-atmospheric-research

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/major-climate-research-center-trump-administration-dismantle-climate-alarmism/

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/12/17/trump-team-breaking-up-top-climate-research-center-00694887

https://apnews.com/article/trump-colorado-climate-research-lab-1eaf91b1e737809b80497f44d45b6c03

https://nypost.com/2025/03/05/business/john-podesta-375m-epa-slush-fund-gave-billions-to-newly-formed-charities/

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/dec/22/trump-stalin-national-center-atmospheric-research

God Never Lost Control of Creation Jan 07, 2026

Show notes

Psalm 104 offers a bracing corrective to the modern habit of treating the world as fragile, chaotic, or fundamentally out of control. In this episode of Created to Reign, Cal Beisner walks through one of Scripture’s most vivid portraits of creation—not as a system teetering on the brink, but as a world actively governed, sustained, and ordered by God’s wise and joyful providence.

Adapted from Cal’s book Psalms of Promise, this episode explores what Psalm 104 teaches about God’s ongoing care for the natural world and humanity’s place within it. From daily provision to cosmic order, the psalm reminds us that creation is neither abandoned nor autonomous—and that confidence in God’s rule changes how we think about stewardship, responsibility, and trust.

This New Company Lets You "Save the Planet" for $9.95 Jan 02, 2026

Show notes

Some efforts are so disproportionate to their impact that they border on the absurd—like bailing out the ocean with a teaspoon. In this episode of Created to Reign, David R. Legates takes aim at one such effort: a Silicon Valley–style geoengineering startup selling “cooling credits” by launching weather balloons filled with sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere.

On paper, the idea borrows from real science—volcanic eruptions do cool the planet, after all. But when you scale the math, the economics, and the physics, the entire enterprise collapses into a case study in symbolic action masquerading as climate policy. Along the way, Dr. Legates explores the risks of solar geoengineering, the difference between meaningful solutions and virtue signaling, and the growing tension between private experimentation and public oversight. In the end, it’s a classic Sisyphean tale—lots of effort, lots of money, and virtually no effect.

Links:

https://makesunsets.com/

https://www.greenprophet.com/2025/04/make-sunsets-is-launching-geo-engineered-cooling-credits-with-vc-money/

https://cepa.org/article/solar-geoengineering-a-transatlantic-split-under-the-sun

https://legal-planet.org/2025/11/11/should-private-firms-be-involved-in-cooling-the-planet/

https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-demands-answers-unregulated-geoengineering-start-launching-sulfur-dioxide-air

More on the Greenhouse Effect Dec 22, 2025

Show notes

In this episode of Created to Reign, Dr. David Legates revisits the most controversial sentence he’s ever spoken: “Carbon dioxide contributes very little to the greenhouse effect.” That single line has earned him everything from eye-rolling to outright insults—but it also reveals how deeply misunderstood the science has become. Dr. Legates breaks down, in plain language, why CO₂ is only a minor player compared to other greenhouse gases, why the famous “1.5°C tipping point” is more politics than physics, and why doubling CO₂ isn’t the doomsday trigger many claim it to be. If you’ve ever wondered whether the alarm matches the actual science, this episode cuts through the noise.

But he doesn’t stop there. Dr. Legates tackles popular myths head-on—from claims that the greenhouse effect violates basic thermodynamics to conspiracy theories suggesting 19th-century physicists engineered a global warming hoax. With clarity and a bit of humor, he explains how the greenhouse effect really works, why climatologists aren’t ignoring physics, and why Earth’s stable, life-supporting climate is something to marvel at—not fear. It’s a straightforward, no-nonsense look at climate science that challenges assumptions without the panic.

https://global-tipping-points.org/the-dartington-declaration/ https://climate-change-theory.com/

https://climate-change-theory.com/

Is The Science Really Settled? Dec 19, 2025

Show notes

Sometimes new research genuinely advances our understanding. Other times, long-standing claims quietly fall apart. In this episode of Created to Reign, David R. Legates walks through two major developments in the climate literature from late 2025—one newly published paper that challenges prevailing assumptions about sea-level rise, and one highly influential paper that was abruptly retracted after its conclusions proved unsound. Together, they raise serious questions about how confident policymakers and the public should be in the climate narratives driving global decisions.

https://www.thecooldown.com/outdoors/bare-ice-ablation-zone-greenland-ice-sheet-sea-level-rise/

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07219-0

https://fackel.substack.com/p/retracted-the-economic-commitment

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