What If I'm Right?

This week, host Ian Heller opens with a question every parent, teacher, and taxpayer has wrestled with: why do so many educators work so hard and still feel as though we’re failing our children, and why do so many groups with the same goal of preparing kids for the future keep pulling in different directions? Then Ian is joined by Kenneth Bratspies, a former assistant school superintendent, princi...

This week, host Ian Heller opens with a question marketers and politicians already know the answer to: why do we believe what we see, even when it never happened? Drug commercials bury the warnings under happy people dancing in the street, and political ads use the same ploy. With the midterms coming, how do we get better at spotting a pitch designed to pull our attention away from what matters to...

This week, host Ian Heller opens with a question the midterm coverage keeps skipping: everyone is talking about voter intimidation, fraud claims, and mid-decade redistricting, but how much of democracy is decided by election law and the census long before anyone casts a ballot? Then Ian is joined by Jeffrey Wice, a national expert on redistricting, voting rights, and census law with decades of exp...

This week, host Ian Heller opens with a question that music history keeps answering the same way: does great art actually need a crisis to be born from? Ian's answer might surprise you. Then Ian is joined by Tom Rizzuto, a professor of music history, guitar, and media at Molloy University and SUNY Old Westbury, whose TEDx talk "Why Streaming Can't Replace Physical Media" was an e...

This week, host Ian Heller opens with a question most people are afraid to research honestly: what if some of our most effective tools for anxiety, depression, and addiction have been sitting right in front of us, buried for decades by the war on drugs? Ian's answer might surprise you. Then Ian is joined by Dr. Marc Swogger, an associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Palliative...

This week, host Ian Heller opens with a question most of us avoid: where does all the rage go? Not the big explosions - the quiet, simmering kind that leaks out sideways at the dinner table, or builds until it finds the worst possible moment to erupt. Ian's answer might surprise you. Then Ian is joined by Jack Holloway - writer, musician, minister, dog walker, and the creator of Despair Sanctuary,...

This week, host Ian Heller opens with a rallying cry: shows like What If I'm Right? exist to push back against the noise, the propaganda, and the slow erosion of honest discourse — and he needs you in the fight. Then Ian is joined by John Parikhal, president of John Parikhal & Associates, award-winning global market researcher, trend spotter, creative strategist, and one of the rare people who...

What if our legal system was never actually designed to be moral? This week, host Ian Heller tackles the massive "legal fiction" that governs immigration in America alongside an absolute powerhouse in the field. Professor Lenni Benson is the Distinguished Chair Professor of Immigration and Human Rights Law at New York Law School and the founder of the Safe Passage Project, a massive nonprofit init...

This week, host Ian Heller talks to his friend Marc. Marc Unger is a nationally headlining comedian, actor, screenwriter, and former radio talk show host with a brilliant 35-year career.  Using Marc's journey from a comic rising in the ranks to a creator navigating the cutthroat entertainment industry, they trace the intersection of art, geography, and culture. They dig deep into the city of Balti...

This week, host Ian Heller makes his mission clear: forget the talking heads — What If I'm Right? is about understanding the world from the ground up, from the people actually getting rained on when the storm rolls in. And no one illustrates that better than today's guest. Colin Erdle is a sixth-generation farmer and partner of Erdle Farms in Silver Creek, New York, growing blueberries, seedless t...

This week, host Ian Heller asks a question that sounds like it belongs in a boardroom but lands in everyone's living room: why do we keep using technology that's quietly falling apart? Ian is joined by his cousin Eric Wenger — Cornell and George Washington Law grad, former DOJ trial attorney in the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property section, former assistant attorney general of New York wher...

This week, host Ian Heller starts where everything starts — at the frequency. Before the guest arrives, Ian makes the case that music isn't just a soundtrack to social change, it is the change: from Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit" cracking open the civil rights movement, to the science of string theory suggesting that at the core of the universe, we're all just vibrations looking for harmony. The...

This week, host Ian Heller asks a question that cuts deeper than politics — what if our hunger for strongmen isn't about ideology at all, but about loneliness? Ian is joined by Dr. Mena Mirhom, board-certified psychiatrist, assistant professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center, and chief well-being officer at Athletes for Hope, whose work at the intersection of identity,...

This week, host Ian Heller does something he's long been afraid to do — publicly challenge Israel's conduct in Gaza, even at the risk of losing family and friends. Ian is joined by Dr. Erela Portugaly, Professor of Sociology at City College of New York and an Israeli citizen, whose ground-level perspective cuts through the noise of expert commentary. Drawing on her own experience living through Oc...

This week, host Ian Heller examines how institutions—from the education system to the courtroom—are failing our communities. Ian is joined by Dr. Edwin Grimsley, Professor of Sociology at Baruch College and an expert in criminology. Drawing on his work with the Innocence Project and the Misdemeanor Justice Project, Dr. Grimsley discusses the real-world impact of policing, the targeting of vulnerab...

In this inaugural episode, host Ian Heller challenges the modern "death match" of public discourse. By moving past echo chambers and the "mushy middle," Ian explores a "Venn diagram" approach to finding commonality between opposing views. Plus, Ian is joined by his wife, Lora, founder of Baby Fingers, to discuss the powerful origin story of using American Sign Language to connect with infants and...