American Thought Leaders

The Epoch Times
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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 School Closures Irrevocably Harmed a Generation | Natalya Murakhver

    1D AGO

    How School Closures Irrevocably Harmed a Generation | Natalya Murakhver

    Filmmaker Natalya Murakhver has recently released her new documentary “15 Days: The Real Story of America’s Pandemic School Closures.” It shows the devastating effects that remote learning had on children and families. What was the true impact of the school closures on a generation of children? How can we begin to measure it? “Viewers will bear witness to the stories of the people who experienced the closures directly. The film was shot almost immediately following the closures. We started in 2022, so the pain was still extremely raw,” Murakhver says. “I felt [that] we better get those stories in now, because people won’t want to talk about them in a couple of years. ... As we show the film, I see people’s body language, and they shudder. It takes them back to a very dark time.” Murakhver co-founded parent advocacy organization Restore Childhood in 2021 and played a leading role in mobilizing New York City parents to reopen public schools during the pandemic. In the spring of 2021, she filed a lawsuit against New York City and its Department of Education, seeking a judicial order to fully reopen public schools for five days a week of in-person learning. “People watch the film … and they realize how important it is to know the history,” she 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.

    43 min
  2. How I Discovered a Possible Cure for My Son’s Incurable Disease | Patrick Girondi

    3D AGO

    How I Discovered a Possible Cure for My Son’s Incurable Disease | Patrick Girondi

    Why did Patrick Girondi, a successful singer and songwriter, become the founder and CEO of a pharmaceutical company? Originally from the South Side of Chicago, Girondi dropped out of high school and became a musician and also, quite by accident, a highly successful commodities trader. In the early 1990s, his young son Rocco was diagnosed with thalassemia, a rare blood disorder caused by a defect in the globin genes. Girondi was told by doctors that his son would not live to be a teenager. So Girondi set out to find a cure. His company has been working on developing gene therapies and treatments for rare blood disorders such as thalassemia and sickle cell disease. He’s now recruiting for clinical trials, and his son will be among the first to receive his new treatment for thalassemia in the coming months. When I sat down with Girondi to hear his life’s story, he told me: “San Rocco Therapeutics … has become involved in so many different rare diseases, because people would reach out to us. Parents, in desperation, would read about me, find my story, find me. Sometimes through friends. … Sometimes they would come to me after concerts.” There are 6,000 rare diseases in the world, also called “orphan diseases,” he says, because nobody wanted to invest in expensive research to find a cure. Girondi has released seven albums to support rare disease awareness, and he is the author of “Flight of the Rondone: High School Dropout VS Big Pharma: The Fight to Save My Son’s Life.” Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

    49 min
  3. The Myths We’re Told About Climate Change | Michael Shellenberger

    6D AGO

    The Myths We’re Told About Climate Change | Michael Shellenberger

    Recently, Bill Gates very publicly pivoted on climate change, rejecting “doomsday” predictions and calling for a more pragmatic, human-centered approach. Is that a sign that the era of climate alarmism is coming to a close? That’s what I wanted to find out when I sat down with Michael Shellenberger, author of “Apocalypse Never” and founder of Public.news and the nonprofit Environmental Progress. From rising sea levels to surging forest fires to dying polar bears to disappearing coral reefs, much of what we’ve been told about climate change is not true, he says. The rising sea level narrative, for example, rests entirely on computer models that were manipulated to produce the desired outcome, Shellenberger says. “It’s clear that the activist scientists were manipulating models to show an acceleration in sea level rise when the only long-term, reliable source of data, which is called tide gauge data ... shows no acceleration from the 1850s on,” he says. How is data cherry-picked or skewed to create misleading narratives when it comes to climate change? What’s behind the sudden embrace of nuclear energy—after it had been demonized for decades? How might it be related to the global AI race? 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. It’s Time to Ban Transplant Tourism to China | Rep. Neal Dunn

    NOV 7

    It’s Time to Ban Transplant Tourism to China | Rep. Neal Dunn

    “We don’t want Americans to participate in any way, shape, or form in this kind of organ harvesting and transplantation scheme. … You can actually sit in America, [and] make an appointment for a heart, lung transplant in China right now,” says Congressman Neal Dunn (R-Fla.), a former Army surgeon who is also founding president of the Advanced Urology Institute in Florida. “I want to make that illegal.” As a starting point, Dunn has introduced the Block Organ Transplant Purchases from China Act, also known as the BLOCK Act, which would prohibit federal reimbursement for organ transplants and related medical services if the origins of the organs cannot be verified, as is the case in communist China. In our wide-ranging interview, we cover China’s illicit organ trade, the biowarfare program, and President Donald Trump’s new trade deal with leader Xi Jinping, as well as how America can accelerate rare earth mineral production, and the strategic significance of Pacific island nations like the Solomon Islands. As a member of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party—often referred to as the House CCP Select Committee—Dunn receives intelligence briefings on the multifaceted threats that Beijing poses to American national security. The CCP “is gathering biological data on all of us,” he says. “One of the most insidious ways they gather biological DNA sequencing on us is they run a set of blood banks in the United States.” Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

    49 min
  5. Canning, Compost, and Chickens: How to Stop Relying on Others for Food | Special Episode

    NOV 5

    Canning, Compost, and Chickens: How to Stop Relying on Others for Food | Special Episode

    In this special episode of American Thought Leaders, I visited the Food Independence Summit, an annual event dedicated to homesteading, sustainable living, and reclaiming food autonomy, in Walnut Creek, Ohio. The 2025 summit, with a theme of “Seed to Spoon,” took place in mid-June earlier this year in the heart of Ohio’s Amish country. Homesteaders, farmers, gardeners, educators, and healthy food advocates spent two days together participating in hands-on workshops, listening to keynote presentations, and networking with like-minded people. For many Americans, the COVID-19 pandemic exposed the fragility of supply chains, including the food supply chain. The summit’s focus was on learning how to grow, preserve, and prepare homegrown food. While at the summit, I spoke with organizer John Miller to learn about the philosophy behind this growing homesteading and self-sufficiency movement. I also spoke with renowned farmer Joel Salatin about what new trends he’s seeing. I even got some hands-on practice pressure-canning beef tacos with the help of Sarah Thrush, a canning expert and social media influencer. “There’s a lot of reasons people can, but one of them is so they can decide what goes in the jar, like if you have health concerns, or if you want to know what your food is sourced from, or you just like your chili recipe and you want it in bulk,” Thrush said. “It’s like the ultimate meal prep.” I also spoke to physician Julian Douwes, who flew to Ohio all the way from Germany. Dr. Douwes is the director at Clinicum St. Georg in Bad Aibling, Germany, where they developed the first known cure for Lyme disease. Many people in the Ohio Amish community suffer from Lyme disease. Miller himself was cured from an awful case of the disease through this therapy, called whole-body hyperthermia. Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

    38 min
  6. New Evidence Shows SSRI Antidepressants Can Cause Permanent Harm to Sexual Function | Dr. Irwin Goldstein

    NOV 1

    New Evidence Shows SSRI Antidepressants Can Cause Permanent Harm to Sexual Function | Dr. Irwin Goldstein

    Dr. Irwin Goldstein is one of America’s leading sexual health physicians, a pioneer in the field, and the director of San Diego Sexual Medicine. In this episode, he breaks down his latest research into what’s known as post-SSRI sexual dysfunction (PSSD)—a condition that’s not uncommon but rarely discussed publicly. He’s found that a class of antidepressants known as SSRIs can cause lasting physiological damage even after patients discontinue the medication—contrary to what many patients are told. “When they stop the medicine, the usual teaching is that everyone returns to their pre-medication sexual function, and that’s not what we’re seeing in our sexual health clinic here,” Dr. Goldstein says. His recent research showed that SSRIs can cause structural damage to genital tissue as well as many other physiological problems, like genital numbness, erectile dysfunction, and loss of libido. These problems persist long-term after discontinuing SSRI antidepressants. “It’s kind of an awful thing, and it doesn’t go away,” Dr. Goldstein says. “These individuals in my clinic who have been given the medicines: Our youngest is age 11. They'll never experience what one would otherwise consider a normal sexual life.” Dr. Goldstein holds a degree in engineering from Brown University and a medical degree from McGill University in Montreal. He is credited with advancing the study and treatment of both male and female sexual dysfunctions and has authored more than 360 academic publications in the field. Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

    25 min
  7. David Green and Bill High: How One Family Built a Billion-Dollar Company That Gives Away Half Its Profits

    OCT 31

    David Green and Bill High: How One Family Built a Billion-Dollar Company That Gives Away Half Its Profits

    What happens when a business decides faith matters more than profit? Apparently, it flourishes. Hobby Lobby, founded by David and Barbara Green in Oklahoma City in 1972, is a private, family-owned corporation now with over a thousand arts-and-crafts stores nationwide. The stores are closed on Sundays, do not sell any Halloween-themed products, operate debt-free, and are run according to Biblical principles, emphasizing the value of faith and family life. David Green told me in our recent interview: “God blesses us when we do what we should do, rather than what’s maybe most profitable.” “When we closed on Sunday, we did less business. When we stopped selling Halloween, we did less business. I can name seven or eight different things that ... cost us, but it was the right thing to do,“ he said. ”So I think God is asking us to do the right thing and not what’s most profitable.” In 2012, the owners of Hobby Lobby sued the federal government for requiring company insurance plans to cover four specific contraceptives—two morning-after pills and two copper IUDs—that they argued could end life after conception. Facing daily fines of $1.3 million, the Green family filed a lawsuit that culminated in a 5–4 victory at the Supreme Court. In my interview with Green and his longtime friend and co-author of his many books, Bill High, we talk about their latest book “The Legacy Life.” How do we build a lasting, meaningful legacy? How do we become good stewards of our resources, time, and talents? How can families ensure their values are truly passed on to later generations—and not lost over time? 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
  8. Here’s How Trump Can Leverage the CCP’s Greatest Vulnerability | Ambassador Sam Brownback

    OCT 30

    Here’s How Trump Can Leverage the CCP’s Greatest Vulnerability | Ambassador Sam Brownback

    What if the most potent weapon that America has against the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) isn’t nukes or tariffs? “This isn’t a competition between the largest economy and the second largest economy. This is a competition of ideals—and we’ve got the better ones,” says former Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback. “If you want to hit them where it hurts, hit them on human rights issues, genocides in their own country, religious freedom that they don’t grant any of their people—whether they be Buddhist, Muslim, Falun Gong, Christians. That’s where they’re the weakest. It’s where they’re the most vulnerable.” Ahead of President Donald Trump’s expected meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, I sat down with Brownback to understand what he sees as the Chinese regime’s greatest vulnerabilities, its deepest fears, and how those can be strategically leveraged by the United States. Brownback is co-chair of the International Religious Freedom Summit. He previously served as governor of Kansas from 2011 to 2018 and as a U.S. senator from Kansas, 1996 to 2011. His upcoming book is titled, “China’s War on Faith.” Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

    39 min
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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.

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