American Thought Leaders

Jan Jekielek
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  • POLITICS
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American Thought Leaders

At a time when our nation is portrayed as increasingly polarized, media often ignore viewpoints and stories that are worthy of attention. American Thought Leaders, hosted by The Epoch Times Senior Editor Jan Jekielek, features in-depth discussions with some of America’s most influential thought leaders on pertinent issues facing our nation today.

  1. How Trump Wields Tariffs as Negotiating Tactic and Instrument of Statecraft: Andrew Hale

    1 DAY AGO

    How Trump Wields Tariffs as Negotiating Tactic and Instrument of Statecraft: Andrew Hale

    Andrew Hale is a senior trade policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation. In this episode, we discuss how Trump is using various trade tools to strengthen alliances and weaken adversaries. “I look upon what he’s trying to do as a negotiating tactic. He’s using tariffs as an instrument of statecraft, and also for economic coercion, to achieve matters that sometimes go well beyond trade policy,” Hale says. Hale says that tariffs should be used against America’s foreign adversaries, but not necessarily against its allies. “Among [those on] the protection side, there’s a knee jerk reaction saying a tariff is the panacea to all of our problems. And actually, a lot of these problems we created right here in Washington. And we can fix them right here in Washington, with dealing with some of the stupid and foolish regulations that we have,” he says. “What we cannot go back to is what we had during the Clinton years, what we had during the Bush years, the Obama years—which was this seamless trade with China, where we treat them as a market economy. They’re a non-market economy. They’re a foreign adversary.” Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

    35 min
  2. Where Governments Won’t Go: Charmaine Hedding’s Daring Rescues of the Persecuted, From Syria to Tanzania

    3 DAYS AGO

    Where Governments Won’t Go: Charmaine Hedding’s Daring Rescues of the Persecuted, From Syria to Tanzania

    “We had a case of a little cell of Christian believers who were all converts from Islam, and they were meeting secretly. And they were infiltrated by a radical terrorist group called Al Shabaab, and they burnt down the house. They captured some of them, they took them onto the beach, and only two of them managed to survive, because they killed the rest of them.” Charmaine Hedding is the founder and president of the Shai Fund, a humanitarian organization that aids, protects, and even rescues persecuted minorities throughout the Middle East and Africa. “In 2014, I watched as the Islamic State swept over Syria and Iraq. And I watched as the Yazidi and the Christian women were taken as sex slaves and sold in the markets of Raqqa and in Turkey and across the Middle East. And I thought to myself, ‘Who’s going to do something about this?’” she says. “The greatest struggle in the Middle East and in Africa, at the moment, is this concept of freedom of religion and belief.” Hedding was born and raised in South Africa, where her father and grandfather were outspoken anti-apartheid activists. Because of their activism, they were eventually forced to flee to Jerusalem when Hedding was a child. “By the time I was 12, we were harassed by agents. And we had agents in the church. We were followed,” she says. “The question that I remember asking myself as a child after reading the stories of the Holocaust is: If I was a European, what would I have done? And would I have put myself at risk to save a Jewish family? And that’s what motivated me, that question.” Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

    48 min
  3. America’s $36 Trillion Debt, Musk’s DOGE Cuts, and Tracking Real-Time Inflation: Stefan Rust

    6 DAYS AGO

    America’s $36 Trillion Debt, Musk’s DOGE Cuts, and Tracking Real-Time Inflation: Stefan Rust

    “In the last four years, we’ve seen an aggregate inflation of about 26 percent. So that’s a quarter of your purchasing power—phoosh gone—just disappeared across the board,” says Stefan Rust, founder and CEO of Truflation, a blockchain-based financial data service that provides real-time economic and inflation data. What will be the impact of DOGE’s aggressive cost-cutting? Could it cause a short-term reduction in the size of the U.S. economy? Some people have been talking about risks of deflation—is that really a concern? And what will be the economic impact of Trump’s tariffs? Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

    48 min
  4. How Multiculturalism and Post-Nationalism Failed the West: John O’Sullivan

    FEB 14

    How Multiculturalism and Post-Nationalism Failed the West: John O’Sullivan

    In this episode, I sit down with John O’Sullivan, a former policy and speech writer for British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and former editor-in-chief of National Review and executive editor of Radio Free Europe. Today, he’s the president of the Danube Institute, a Hungary-based think-tank. A “unified national identity is an absolute essential for a successful democracy,” he says. “If we continue on a multicultural path, it’s a path which is going to go in the directions of ever more aggressive and hostile identity politics, and people will feel that their neighbors are their enemies.” O’Sullivan’s latest book is titled: “Sleepwalking into Wokeness: How We Got Here.” “The idea of post-nationalism is unachievable if you’re a state. You don’t remain just a post-national state, what you become is something else,” he says. Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

    48 min
  5. The DeepSeek Psyop Explained: Nicolas Chaillan

    FEB 12

    The DeepSeek Psyop Explained: Nicolas Chaillan

    The Chinese AI app DeepSeek recently became the most downloaded iPhone app in the United States and caused U.S. tech stocks to plummet. President Donald Trump described it as a “wake-up” call for American companies. So what’s really going on? Is DeepSeek as powerful as people think? Or is there a bigger story here? In this episode, we sit down with AI expert Nicolas Chaillan, former chief software officer for the U.S. Air Force and now founder of the generative AI company Ask Sage. Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

    1h 1m
  6. What Caused the Devastating California Fires and What Could Have Prevented Them? Edward Ring Explains

    FEB 9

    What Caused the Devastating California Fires and What Could Have Prevented Them? Edward Ring Explains

    “The fires themselves are pretty much out. There’s a few smoldering remains, but the trouble has just begun,” says Edward Ring, director of Water and Energy Policy for the California Policy Center. “It’s going to be very hard to get everything rebuilt in Los Angeles.” In this episode, we do a deep dive on the California wildfires. How did they originate? Why was the devastation so horrific? Could they have been prevented? What is the scope of the damage? And in the aftermath, what should be done? Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

    57 min
  7. ‘They’re at War for the American Mind’: Rep. Abe Hamadeh Wants to Ban China Daily From Congress

    FEB 7

    ‘They’re at War for the American Mind’: Rep. Abe Hamadeh Wants to Ban China Daily From Congress

    “They’re at war for the American mind. That’s why you have TikTok out there. That’s why you have DeepSeek. That’s why you have the China Daily. They’re out there trying to control information and your perception of reality,” says Rep. Abe Hamadeh (R-Ariz.), who was recently elected for his first term. His first bill seeks to ban the widespread distribution of the China Daily in the House of Representatives. China Daily is a registered foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. In 2020, the newspaper was among many Chinese state media outlets designated as foreign missions in the United States. “It’s propaganda by a foreign government that’s trying to influence the highest echelons of the United States government. It’s unacceptable,” Hamadeh said. Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

    26 min
  8. How America’s State-Funded Media Can Be a Powerful Tool Against Adversaries: Michael Pack

    FEB 5

    How America’s State-Funded Media Can Be a Powerful Tool Against Adversaries: Michael Pack

    Michael Pack is a documentary filmmaker and the president of Palladium Pictures. During Donald Trump’s first presidency, he led the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which oversees America’s state-funded news networks, including Voice of America. “The budget is something like $900 million,” he says. “It’s only a mid-sized government agency, but it’s one of the largest broadcasters in the world. They’re broadcasting over 70 languages to hundreds of millions of people a week. So it’s really a potent tool, and it’s designed to promote American ideas and values abroad.” In this episode, we discuss his recent films, the future of media, and how the U.S. government can better leverage public diplomacy as a tool against its adversaries. “We could do nothing better, really, than to knock [China’s internet] firewall down. I think if people in China had a chance to hear the range of ideas out there, it would change the country more than almost anything else. And it’s not expensive,” he says. Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

    36 min
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About

At a time when our nation is portrayed as increasingly polarized, media often ignore viewpoints and stories that are worthy of attention. American Thought Leaders, hosted by The Epoch Times Senior Editor Jan Jekielek, features in-depth discussions with some of America’s most influential thought leaders on pertinent issues facing our nation today.

Information

  • Creator
    Jan Jekielek
  • Years Active
    2019 - 2025
  • Episodes
    205
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2021 American Thought Leaders
  • Show Website
    American Thought Leaders

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