The Free Press Interviews

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Free Press interviews always offer something different. We speak to the people who see changes coming. We speak to the people whose stories help us understand society. We speak to the people who are shaping America and the world. These are conversations you wonߴt find anywhere else, delivered with a dose of common sense. Only at The Free Press.

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  1. 3 DGN GELEDEN · BONUS • ALLEEN VOOR ABONNEES

    Confessions of a Former Alt-Right Extremist

    Lately Free Press reporter Maya Sulkin has been talking to people who have changed their minds—people who’ve left ideological movements or seriously questioned worldviews they once held. Here, she’s joined by Richard Hanania. He’s a writer and political commentator, a columnist for “UnHerd,” and the author of a Substack focused on foreign policy, American politics, and social science. But before the world knew Richard Hanania, they knew Richard Hoste. Under that pseudonym, Hanania wrote things like: “The ultimate goal should be to get all the post-1965 non-White migrants from Latin America to leave.” “Women’s liberation = the end of human civilization.” “If we want to defend our liberty and property, a low-IQ group of a different race sharing the same land is a permanent antagonist.” In 2023––at which point Hanania had become a prominent right-leaning social media personality––an exposé by “HuffPost” revealed that Hanania and Hoste were the same person. In the wake of the “HuffPost” revelations, Richard published an essay titled “Why I Used to Suck, and (Hopefully) No Longer Do.” He publicly reckoned with his past and described the path that led him away from those bad ideas. Maya wanted to speak with Richard about how he went from the extreme fringe to the mainstream. They talked about what first drew him to extremist ideas about race, gender, and immigration, fueled in part by personal grievance and isolation. Rather than describing a single moment of conversion, Richard lays out a process of years of exposure to data, failed predictions, real-world experiences, and thinkers who rejected both left-wing dogma and racial identity politics. Over time, he says, many of the claims underpinning his earlier worldview simply stopped adding up. They spoke about what it felt like to have his biggest secret exposed at the height of his professional success, and how he chose to respond. He also shared his perspective on guilt, accountability, and how people—especially young men who find identity and community in the darker corners of the internet—can find their way back to reality.

    51 min

  2. 3 DGN GELEDEN · BONUS • ALLEEN VOOR ABONNEES

    The Villain in This New Thriller Is Nihilism

    Free Press reporter Peter Savodnik first met the novelist Gregg Hurwitz in 2019, when he profiled him and two of his Hollywood writer compatriots for “Vanity Fair.” Now, the 11th novel in Gregg’s “Orphan X” series—about former super-assassin Evan Smoak—has been published. The novel, “Antihero,” touches on many themes we regularly report on here at The Free Press: digital culture, the plight of young men, identity, and faith. Like all the “Orphan X” novels, it’s also a page-turner. Peter has been wanting to talk to Gregg for ages about the arc of the series—which is now something of a cultural phenomenon, with millions of readers and a movie deal in the works—and his own intellectual and spiritual evolution.

    50 min

  3. 3 DGN GELEDEN · BONUS • ALLEEN VOOR ABONNEES

    How Big Food Destroyed Our Health—and How to Fix It, with Dr. Mark Hyman

    If you watched the Super Bowl, you may have seen the Make America Healthy Again commercial. It featured Mike Tyson speaking about his sister Denise, who died at 25 from a heart attack linked to obesity. Tyson also spoke candidly about formerly weighing 345 pounds and experiencing suicidal thoughts. And he’s not alone: Roughly 40 percent of Americans are obese, and six in 10 live with at least one chronic disease. The message of the ad was clear: “Processed food kills.” And as Tyson confesses, his addiction to junk food nearly cost him his life. But one American doctor has been sounding this alarm for years. Dr. Mark Hyman has written 15 books, hosts the hit podcast “The Dr. Hyman Show,” and is now a contributor at CBS News. His company, Function Health, uses comprehensive lab testing to empower people to better understand what’s happening inside their bodies. He has also just published a new book, “Food Fix Uncensored,” an updated and revised version of his 2020 bestseller. In the book, Hyman details how the American food system—from farm to factory to grocery store aisle—has been corrupted by corporate money, lobbyists, and special interests, who have incentivized us to shift our diets from whole foods to ultra-processed products loaded with artificial ingredients, sweeteners, and chemical flavorings. As Hyman often notes, we now live in a “soup of toxins.” Rafaela Siewert sat down with him to discuss why America seems to have sleepwalked into this crisis; how we can take on powerful food interests; what the human and economic costs of the current system are; whether drugs like Ozempic actually make us healthier; and how new trends to advance longevity are reshaping health and medicine.

    58 min

  4. 29 JAN · BONUS • ALLEEN VOOR ABONNEES

    How a New York State Assistant Attorney General Got Fired for Questioning Youth Gender Medicine

    Until late January 2026, Glenna Goldis was an assistant attorney general for the state of New York in the Consumer Frauds and Protection Bureau. Then, she was fired by New York attorney general Letitia James for opposing so-called “gender-affirming care” for minors. In a piece for The Free Press, Glenna wrote about how she came to see childhood gender transition as a form of consumer fraud built on deceptive claims, and how sounding the alarm led to her firing. Free Press senior editor Emily Yoffe sat down with Glenna to discuss her investigation into pediatric gender medicine, the free-speech fight that followed, and her thoughts on why the Democratic establishment continues to support these interventions while ignoring medical evidence and public opinion.

    28 min

  5. 25-11-2025 · BONUS • ALLEEN VOOR ABONNEES

    How a Wellness Start-Up Became a ‘Sex Cult’

    It’s not every day we witness the downfall of a pro-orgasm wellness guru. But in June 2025, a federal jury sent founder—and alleged cult leader—Nicole Daedone to jail. Two decades earlier, Daedone had founded OneTaste, a global wellness company promising sexual education, empowerment, and even enlightenment. The company’s signature offering was a 15-minute clitoral-stroking method called “orgasmic meditation,” or OM, supplemented by for-purchase demonstrations, workshops, and retreats for members to immerse themselves in the practice. The goal was to make OM as common as yoga or meditation. “Do you want to OM?” was meant to reverberate across the San Francisco wellness community. At its peak, OneTaste drew endorsements from Gwyneth Paltrow, Khloé Kardashian, Theo Von, and Tim Ferriss. But behind closed doors, a very different reality was taking shape—one that former members say involved exploitation, labor violations, and sexual trauma. Some have even called it a “prostitution ring.” “Bloomberg” journalist Ellen Huet spent six years investigating OneTaste and broke the first story about its abuse. She chronicles the rise and collapse in her new book, “Empire of Orgasm: Sex, Power, and the Downfall of a Wellness Cult.” Rafaela Siewert asks her what really happened inside the organization; how to understand consent and agency in a cult environment; how the movement took on religious overtones; and how, in the end, this “wellness revolution” left so many lives in ruins.

    1u 3m

  6. 19-11-2025 · BONUS • ALLEEN VOOR ABONNEES

    Confessions of a Former Pro-Palestine Activist

    When Free Press reporter Maya Sulkin saw a viral video of Taryn Thomas speaking at an October 7, 2025, vigil at Stanford, she knew Thomas was unique. That’s because only two years before, Thomas was a part of the pro-Palestine movement on her campus. After Hamas’s attack on Israel, Thomas took part in the first encampments that appeared on campuses across the country and fully submitted to the groupthink that Hamas was a legitimate resistance group. She marched with people who wouldn’t dare associate with Zionists, and accepted an invitation to see the Nova exhibit in Los Angeles only so she could report back to her friends about the “Zionist propaganda.” But that’s not what happened. Thomas says seeing evidence of the Nova festival and what truly happened on October 7 opened her eyes. In the months that followed, she took a trip to Israel, listened to the firsthand experiences of Israelis and Palestinians, and made friends from the Jewish community on her campus. Those experiences gave Thomas the fortitude to do something truly courageous: risk her friendships, face her misconceptions, and change her mind. This is a conversation about how a well-meaning, highly educated young person can fall into a destructive movement and what it took to find her way out. Maya, who’s covered the anti-Israel movement on college campuses since October 7, said this is one of the most moving interviews she’s ever done.

    45 min
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Free Press interviews always offer something different. We speak to the people who see changes coming. We speak to the people whose stories help us understand society. We speak to the people who are shaping America and the world. These are conversations you wonߴt find anywhere else, delivered with a dose of common sense. Only at The Free Press.

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