RealClear Defense presents Hot Wash

On this week’s episode of the RealClearInvestigations Podcast, RCI Editor J. Peder Zane and RCI Senior Reporter James Varney are joined by RCI Podcast Producer John Sorensen to examine the differences between journalism and storytelling through a deep dive into the journalistic questions raised by Nathan Fielder’s documentary about disgraced Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes, “You Can See Everything.”...

On this week’s episode of the RealClearInvestigations Podcast, RCI Editor J. Peder Zane and RCI Senior Reporter James Varney speak with Jennica Pounds, who runs the influential website DataRepublican (small r), about her new book, “Unelected: How You Paid a Sinister Elite to Take Over America.” In the news segment, Zane and Varney discuss an RCI article reporting how the historic drop in crime in...

On this week’s episode of the RealClearInvestigations Podcast, RCI Editor J. Peder Zane and RCI Senior Reporter James Varney speak with Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, about his government watchdog organization’s effort to clean-up voter rolls and support other measures to improve election integrity. On the news roundup, Zane and Varney discuss a RealClearInvestigations article which repo...

On this week’s episode of the RealClearInvestigations Podcast, RCI Editor J. Peder Zane and RCI Senior Reporter James Varney use two articles – a New York Times piece on the rising number of violent threats against US elected officials and a CNN report on the growing number of extremists targeting data centers – to discuss the various factors helping unleash what Philip Roth called the, “American...

On this week’s episode of the RealClearInvestigations Podcast, RCI Editor J. Peder Zane and RCI Senior Reporter James Varney discuss a series of articles featured by RCI that reported on the alleged gang rape at Cornell, bias in the algorithms Apple News uses to spotlight political coverage and a French woman who faced criminal charges for arguing biological men should not be allowed in women-only...

On this week’s episode of the RealClearInvestigations Podcast, RCI Editor J. Peder Zane and RCI contributor John Murawski speak with Nathan Cofnas about his academic research into group identity and IQ – work that is so controversial that he may be facing criminal charges in Europe. On the news roundup, Zane and RCI Senior Reporter James Varney discuss a Free Press article detailing the success of...

On this week’s episode of the RealClearInvestigations Podcast, RCI Editor J. Peder Zane and RCI Senior Reporter James Varney speak with Dr. Robert Malone about how powerful businesses, government officials, foundations and journalists are behind the growing push to regulate artificial intelligence, an effort which, he says, has less to do with saving humanity from extinction than protecting the va...

On this week’s episode of the RealClearInvestigations Podcast, RCI Editor J. Peder Zane and RCI Senior Reporter James Varney discuss a wide range of articles published this week. Topics include the growing campaign to cast AI as an existential threat, the media’s lack of interest in the rampant fraud targeting taxpayer funds and the rise of Islam in Europe and the US. Follow RealClearInvestigation...

On this episode of the RealClearInvestigations Podcast, RCI Editor J. Peder Zane and RCI Senior Reporter James Varney speak with Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Joby Warrick about his compulsively readable new book, “The Jackal: The Rise and Fall of Carlos, the World’s First Super-Terrorist.”   With the news round-up, Zane and Varney discuss a New York Times article that suggests Vice Preside...

On this week’s episode of the RealClearInvestigations Podcast, RCI Editor J. Peder Zane and RCI Senior Reporter James Varney mark Labor Day by giving their guests the week off. In an extended news round-up, Zane and Varney discuss two articles on the Iran conflict – a Tablet article detailing Trump’s evolving strategy and an AP piece on how the Pentagon’s latest precision missiles are not so preci...

On this week’s episode of the RealClearInvestigations Podcast, RCI Editor J. Peder Zane and RCI Senior Reporter James Varney speak with sports columnist Matt Calkins, who resigned from the Seattle Times after the newspaper killed his column that argued it is not hateful to oppose biological men playing women’s sports.  On the news round-up, Zane and Varney discuss a series of stories on the m...

On this week’s episode of the RealClearInvestigations Podcast, RCI Editor J. Peder Zane and RCI Senior Reporter James Varney speak with Atlantic writer Tyler Austin Harper about his widely discussed, gracefully written articles – including a piece addressing the recent suicide of Cambridge Professor Jason Arday and another detailing why Harper left his tenure track job at Bates College – reporting...

On this week’s episode of the RealClearInvestigations Podcast, RCI Editor J. Peder Zane and RCI Senior Reporter James Varney speak with the Substacker who writes under the pseudonym “Yuri Bezmenov” (he’ll tell us why) about his reporting on the network of awards, fellowship, teaching gigs and other lucrative and prestigious incentives that reward people who espouse progressive ideas. On the news r...

On this week’s episode of the RealClearInvestigations Podcast, RCI Editor J. Peder Zane and RCI Senior Reporter James Varney speak with true crime reporter extraordinaire Valerie Bauerlein of the Wall Street Journal about her recent coverage of the Nancy Guthrie abduction, her book on the Alex Murdaugh murder case and her podcast on another South Carolina homicide, “Camp Swamp Road.” On the news r...

On this week’s episode of the RealClearInvestigations Podcast, RCI Editor J. Peder Zane and RCI Senior Reporter James Varney speak with Aaron Shuster about his Tablet article “Entryism Comes to America,” which argues that the U.S. should follow France’s lead and have a serious inquiry into and discussion of what the rise of Islamism means for the nation’s prevailing culture and politics. On the ne...

On this week’s episode of the RealClearInvestigations Podcast, RCI Senior Reporter James Varney speaks with author James Rasenberger about his new work of history, “A Perfect Coincidence: The Extraordinary Friendship and Astonishing Deaths of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.” On the news round-up, J. Peder Zane joins Varney to discuss a reported editorial from the Wall Street Journal and a news ar...

On this week’s episode of the RealClearInvestigations Podcast, J. Peder Zane and James Varney speak with Tablet writer and RCI contributor Lee Smith about conservative media in the Trump era with a special focus on X.    On the news round-up, Zane and Varney discuss how a ProPublica investigation reporting on the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration efforts, which includes a remake of the...

On this week’s episode of the RealClearInvestigations Podcast, J. Peder Zane speaks with Noah Rothman of the National Review about his insightful new book “Blood & Progress: A Century of Left-Wing Violence in America.” On the news round-up, Zane and RCI contributor Ben Weingarten discuss the vast wealth President Trump and his family have accumulated since he began his second term, with a special...

On this week’s episode of the RealClearInvestigations Podcast, J. Peder Zane speaks with Duke Professor Adrian Bejan about his new book, “Diversity through Freedom” about the physics of politics. On the news round-up, Zane and RCI Reporter & Editor Vince Bielski discuss an Associated Press investigation detailing how and why the DEA allowed hundreds of thousands of potentially lethal fentanyl pill...

On this week’s episode of the RealClearInvestigations Podcast, J. Peder Zane and James Varney speak with Dr. Kendall Conger who lost his job after challenging a 2021 statement issued by his employer – Duke Health – declaring racism a “public health crisis.” On the news round-up, Zane and Varney discuss the challenges of reporting on the Iran war – and peace deal – when the government seems loath t...

On this week’s episode of the RealClearInvestigations Podcast, J. Peder Zane and James Varney speak with Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University, about the national civics education he has spearheaded and how to have conversations across the political divide. On the news round-up, Z...

On this week’s episode of the RealClearInvestigations Podcast, J. Peder Zane and James Varney speak with Joel Kotkin about his recent article for RCI exploring how and why fascism has become a buzzword of American politics. On the news round-up, Zane and Varney use a City Journal piece suggesting why fraud in Medicaid and Medicare seems an unsolvable problem to discuss a Wall Street Journal articl...

On this week’s episode of the RealClearInvestigations Podcast, RCI Editor J. Peder Zane and RCI Senior Reporter James Varney speak with author Andrew G. Bostom about the rise of Shariah law in the U.S. and the EU and challenges it poses to those western laws, customs and society. On the news round-up, Zane and Varney use a Tablet article saying the U.S. has few good options in Iran to discuss some...

On this week’s episode of the RealClearInvestigations Podcast, RCI Editor J. Peder Zane and RCI Senior Reporter James Varney speak with Patrick Steel, the former CEO of Politico who is now a Senior Advisor to Antenna Group, about the changing landscape of the media business.  On the news round-up, Zane and Varney discuss articles published by Reuters and the Washington Post that detail Iran’s conf...

On this week’s episode of the RealClearInvestigations Podcast, RCI Editor J. Peder Zane and RCI Senior Reporter James Varney speak with Leighton Woodhouse about his RCI article on the surprising partnership between left-leaning activists and MAGA influencers to oppose a farm that breeds beagles for scientific experiments.    The New York Times is the focus on this week’s news roundup. Zane and Var...