Shaping Opinion

Our guest is Bishop Joseph Stirckland. He is a Roman Catholic Bishop, the Biship Emeritus of Tyler, Texas. He he’s the Chairman and the Founder of a nonprofit organization called Pillars of Faith. He’s developed a reputation for taking strong, traditional positions, and that has put him in situations I’m sure he never imagined when he entered the clergy. We’re going to talk about that and much mor...

Our guest is Timothy Sandefur. He is the vice president for legal affairs at the Goldwater Institute’s Center for Scharf-Norton Center for Constitutional Litigation. What I wanted to talk with Tim about was something he wrote about free speech and employers’ rights. More the point, does your employer have a right to free speech, and if so, how far does it reach? Links: * Defending the Free Speech...

Our guest today is Patrick Breyer. He is a self-described freedom fighter and a former member of the European Parliament. He served on the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs. I wanted to talk with Patrick about a newly proposed EU internet regulation, commonly known as chat control. Under this proposed legislation, users of apps would have to agree to allow the government to sc...

Our guest is Bunni Pounds. She is the Founder and President of Christians Engaged as well as the Senior Vice President for Family Policy Alliance and Family Policy Alliance Foundation – both founded by Dr. James Dobson. She is the author of the book Jesus and Politics: One Woman’s Walk with God in a Mudslinging Profession . She was a political consultant for 16 years. And in 2018 she ran for Congr...

Our guest is Ingrid Jacques. She is a columnist at USA Today. She wrote a column recently about those late-night comedy shows. She argues that the reason Stephen Colbert got fired had everything to do with ratings and business issues. All of this points to larger problems with the whole genre of late-night comedy and those who produce the shows. Links: * Leno's right: Colbert got canned because Am...

Our guest is Jennifer Huddleston. She is a senior fellow in technology policy at the Cato Institute. In her work, she focuses on the law in relation to emerging technology. What caught my attention was something she wrote about the relationship between AI and the First Amendment. What happens when AI repurposes your words and images, your opinions and thoughts? That’s one question we’re going to t...

Our guest is Carole Lieberman. She is an accomplished psychiatrist and a forensic expert witness. Board certified in both psychiatry and neurology. She’s been a leading voice on the psychology of terrorism and its impact on people. Today, we’ll be talking to Carole about psychological warfare, and how she thinks it may be used to divide Americans. Also, we’ll talk with Carole about what she descri...

Our guest is Ari Paparo. He is the CEO of a company called Marketecture Media, which is a network of podcasts, newsletters and events covering the digital media sector. He is a writer, a podcaster and an expert on all forms of advertising. He worked in the ad business for 20 years. This included time spent at DoubleClick and Google. He is also the author of a new book called, “Yield. How Google Bo...

Our guest is Aaron Bandler. He’s an investigative journalist who is based in the Bay Area. He’s written for several leading national news organizations. In today’s interview, we’ll talk with Aaron about something he’s investigated and reported on after noticing a disturbing pattern at the ubiquitous website, Wikipedia. Links: * Taking Sides: Wikipedia Advances Anti-Israel Narratives | RealClearInv...

Our guest is David Smokler. He’s the executive director of the K-12 Fairness Center, which is a division of an organization called StandWithUs. StandWithUs is a 24 year-old international nonpartisan education organization that fights antisemitism. I wanted to talk to David about fee speech in the classroom. Just how much does the First Amendment protect what teachers say, or want to say in the cla...

Our guest is Mark Joseph. He is Litigation Director at a group in Canada called The Democracy Fund. It’s widely considered the leading voice in the battle for free speech in Canada. I wanted to talk to Mark about a specific bill under consideration in Canada that would enable the spread of censorship and threaten free speech in that country. It’s called the Online Harms Bill. Links: * The Democrac...

Our guest is David McGarry. He is Research Director at an organization called the Taxpayers Protection Alliance. He is a pundit and a frequent contributor to magazines and news sites on a wide range of topics. He usually writes about things tied to technology, government accountability and consumer impact. Lately, he’s been weighing in on a new law in Europe that seems targeted toward American com...

What you don’t know can hurt you. Our guest today is Stacy Malkan. She’s the co-founder and the managing editor at a nonprofit public health research group called, U.S. Right to Know . The group covers public health science, and it tracks industry lobbying efforts. She’s covered everything from how pesticides impact the foods you eat, to the health risks of the cosmetics you use. Some links from t...

We are back after a long hiatus, and we’re ready to go! As before, this is a video and an audio podcast. We’re on Substack at ShapingOpinion.com, YouTube, Rumble, and all of the audio channels, from Apple to Spotify. If you watch, you’ll notice we have new digs. We’ve moved into the heartland of America and now have a more permanent “studio.” As for format, you’ll notice we’re familiar but streaml...

One of the nation’s leading trial attorneys Brent Wisner talks about his role in current litigation against several big pharma companies who’ve all been manufacturers of the popular heartburn drug called Zantac, which has been taken off the market amidst concerns over possible cancer diagnoses. Brent is the managing partner and lead trial attorney at the law firm of Wisner Baum. He’s been recogniz...

One of the co-authors of a groundbreaking academic paper, Michael Hicks, makes the case that “ChatGPT is bullshit.” That’s not only the title of his paper, but a compelling point of view that we dig deep into in this conversation. Michael is one of the three co-authors of the paper, along with James Humphries and Joe Slater. All three are educators at the University of Glasgow. Michael Hicks is a...

The head of the National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO), Mo Canady joins us to talk about a self-inflicted safety crisis at many American schools because school boards are terminating their in-school police presence. They are banning School Resource Officers, and more and more parents are outraged. Mo has been a member of NASRO’s board since 2005. And before that he held positions...

If you suffer from anxiety, you may be given a lot of options. Drugs, illegal or legal. Alcohol. Therapy. But one thing most may not bring up to you is something that’s inside of you. Courage. In this episode, we talk with Janet Jackson Pellegrini, one of the authors of a new book called, “You Can Overcome Anything with Courage.”  The book contains 17 different stories from 17 different people. Ea...

University professor and researcher April Bleske-Rechek makes her case for standardized testing in college admissions at a time when there’s an aggressive movement to get rid of the tests.  She co-authored an article recently in Skeptic Magazine where they say the standardized tests are not biased, but are in fact more fair than other measures to gauge student potential. April is a Professor, Univ...

Author and university professor JP Messina talks about how private companies and others have emerged as the new censors in society. JP wrote the new book called, “Private Censorship.” In it, he describes a new kind of censorship where there are no government-sanctioned book burnings, no prosecutions, no laws or committees. In fact, the state doesn’t publicly appear to be involved at all. Instead,...

Patrick Wolf joins Tim to shed light on why school choice is exploding across the country. The list of states passing or pursuing legislation for more school choice is on the rise weekly. Patrick has long been at the forefront on the issue of school choice. He talks about the impact on the pandemic, which he says revealed a lot to parents about their kids’ public school education. https://traffic....

Patrick Wolf joins Tim to shed light on why school choice is exploding across the country. The list of states passing or pursuing legislation for more school choice is on the rise weekly. Patrick has long been at the forefront on the issue of school choice. He talks about the impact on the pandemic, which he says revealed a lot to parents about their kids’ public school education. He is a Distingu...

Marian Tupy joins Tim to burst the myth that the world is overpopulated. Through his work, he has demonstrated that as the world’s population has grown, humankind has actually become more abundant. Marian is the founder and editor of HumanProgress.org, and a senior fellow at the Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity at the Cato Institute. He is the coauthor of: The Simon Abundance Index, Ten Gl...

Author and university professor Sanjai Bhagat joins Tim to talk about his research findings on ESG investing and what he calls “an inconvenient truth” about it. According to Sanjai, ESG investing is simply not living up to the hype, and he knows why. If your retirement finds are invested in ESG funds, or if your financial advisor wants you to invest in ESG funds, you need to listen to Sanjai. Sanj...

Catholic artist Eric Armusik joins Tim to talk about the current trend at the Vatican to embrace ugly art at the expense of so much beauty it could showcase. Eric paints classical figurative art. His work is reminiscent of the old masters. His works are inspired by grand and vivid murals that he first saw in Gothic cathedrals as a child. But what caught my attention was a social media post from Er...