Hold These Truths with Dan Crenshaw

Roving journalist Michael Tracey joins us to discuss what he observed on his two month journey documenting the civil unrest across America. From Seattle to Philadelphia, with dozens of small and large cities in-between, Michael saw firsthand what's really motivating the riots, looting, and violence which has destroyed the lives and livelihoods of countless innocent Americans. Michael Tracey is an independent journalist with articles appearing in The Wall Street Journal, Vice, The Federalist, and numerous other publications. Follow him on Twitter at @mtracey.

Dr. Avik Roy joins us for a pragmatic look at America’s approach to the COVID-19 response thus far and how it compares to other countries which fared better or worse than us. From lockdowns to school re-openings, there is much we can learn from the past eight months to better prepare ourselves for the future. Dr. Avik Roy is the co-founder of The Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity – a non-partisan organization dedicated to considering the impact of public policies and proposed reforms on Americans with incomes or wealth below the U.S. median. He is the author of How Medicaid Fails the Poor, and Affordable Health Care for Every Generation: A Patient-Centered Plan for Universal Coverage and Permanent Fiscal Solvency. He is a senior advisor to the Bipartisan Policy Center, serves on the advisory board of the National Institute for Health Care Management, and co-chaired the Fixing Veterans Health Care Policy Taskforce. He is also the policy editor at Forbes. Follow him on Twitter at @Avik.

Dr. Bjorn Lomborg joins us to continue the conversation on rational environmentalism which we left off with Michael Shellenberger. What are the second order effects of climate change policies, like the ones we find in the Green New Deal, on poor communities and developing countries? How do these policies - counterintuitively - actually hurt the environment more than doing nothing? And what are the 21st century solutions humanity should pursue to propel everybody into safer, cleaner societies? Dr. Bjorn Lomborg is president of the Copenhagen Consensus Center and visiting professor at Copenhagen Business School. The Copenhagen Consensus Center is a think-tank that researches the smartest ways to do good. For this work, Lomborg was named one of TIME magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world. His most recent book is "False Alarm: How Climate Change Panic Costs Us Trillions, Hurts the Poor, and Fails to Fix the Planet." Follow Dr. Lomborg on Twitter at @BjornLomborg.

Evolutionary biologist Dr. Bret Weinstein returns to explore the latest developments in gene splicing, stem cells, lifespan extension, the search for extraterrestrial civilizations, and the next (and perhaps final) step in human evolution - the Fourth Frontier. Dr. Bret Weinstein is host of the DarkHorse Podcast and a Visiting Fellow in the James Madison Program at Princeton University. Follow him on Twitter at @BretWeinstein.

Historian Amity Shlaes joins us for a new look at the origins and aftermath of LBJ's Great Society – the massive federal poverty-reduction programs of the 1960's. The debates in that era were the same debates today: socialism vs capitalism, public-sector vs private-sector, victimhood vs self-empowerment. And the cost of these programs led to devastating outcomes which are still unfolding to this day. Amity Shlaes’ most recent book is Great Society: A New History. She is the author of four New York Times bestsellers: The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression, The Forgotten Man/Graphic, Coolidge, and The Greedy Hand: How Taxes Drive Americans Crazy. Miss Shlaes chairs the board of the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation and the Manhattan Institute's Hayek Book Prize, and serves as a scholar at the King's College. A former member of the Wall Street Journal's editorial board, Miss Shlaes published a weekly syndicated column for more than a decade, appearing first in the Financial Times, then in Bloomberg. Follow her on Twitter at @AmityShlaes.

Dr. Arthur Brooks is one of the world's most preeminent researchers on the topics of government, economic opportunity, happiness, and the morality of free enterprise. He joins us to talk about leadership principles that every aspiring politician needs to know, and how to use storytelling to craft a more persuasive argument for your opponent. Dr. Arthur C. Brooks is Professor of the Practice of Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School and Arthur C. Patterson Faculty Fellow at the Harvard Business School. Before joining the Harvard faculty in July of 2019, he served for ten years as president of the Washington, D.C.-based American Enterprise Institute (AEI), one of the world’s leading think tanks. He is the author of eleven books, including the bestselling "Love Your Enemies: How Decent People Can Save America from Our Culture of Contempt." Follow him on Twitter at @arthurbrooks.

Michael Shellenberger is an environmental activist, TIME’s Hero of the Environment, an advisor to the U.N.’s Panel on Climate Change, and author of the new book "Apocalypse Never: How Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All." He joins us for an honest conversation about the devastating impact that wind and solar energy infrastructure is having on Earth's ecology, the sources of energy we can safely and efficiently utilize, and facts vs fiction behind everything from the rise in extreme weather events to plastics pollution. Follow Michael on Twitter at @ShellenbergerMD. Episode Timeline: 1:50   Recent Testimony at the Committee on the Climate Crisis 8:00   Climate Fatalism and the Myth We’re All Going to Die in 12 Years 21:00 Climate Change Collusion + Backroom deals 32:00 Is Solar That Great? 42:00 California and the Grid 101 1:02:00 What about Wind? 1:13:00 Nuclear Proliferation 1:23:00 Why do People Hate Nuclear? 1:33:00 Extreme Weather Events 1:47:00: Plastic Straws and Plastic Waste 1:56:00 Recycling 1:58:00 Farting Cows and Meat Eating 2:04:00 Final Thoughts 

Antonia Okafor is a Second Amendment advocate and the Founder of EMPOWERED, a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating, training, and equipping young women in the use of firearms for protection on college campuses. She joined us to talk about the practical reasons why young women should arm themselves, gun ownership in minority communities, and what's behind the skyrocketing demand for firearms since the rise of COVID-19. Antonia was the Southwest Regional Director for Students for Concealed Carry on Campus and was instrumental in the passage and implementation of Texas’ 2015 “campus carry” law. Read her NY Times oped "Why I Bring My Gun to School" here. Follow Antonia on Twitter at @antonia_okafor.

T.W. Shannon is the first African-American, and youngest person ever, to serve as the Speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives. He joins us to share what he's learned about debate and persuasion after years spent fighting in the political arena. How can Republicans do a better job at articulating why capitalism and conservative principles are the solution? What's the message we should be making to communities which believe they are systemically oppressed? T.W. answers these questions and much more. T.W. Shannon was elected Speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives in 2013. Today he serves as the President and CEO of Chickasaw Community Bank and the State Highway Commissioner for Central Oklahoma. He was previously a Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School's Institute of Politics (where he first met Dan). Follow him on Twitter at @TWShannon.

Rich Lowry returns to examine the mainstream media's manipulative (and often absurd) coverage of the pandemic. From propagating lies about the Trump Administration's national strategy to praising Gov. Cuomo while vilifying Gov. Abbott, there is one very obvious end goal to all of this toxic spin. Rich shares his reporting to uncover the truth and what all of this means for the future of our country. Rich Lowry began his career as a research assistant for Charles Krauthammer. In 1997 he was selected by William F. Buckley to lead National Review. He is the author of Lincoln Unbound, The Case for Nationalism: How It Made Us Powerful, United, and Free, and Legacy: Paying the Price for the Clinton Years — a New York Times bestseller. Follow him on Twitter at @RichLowry.