Hold These Truths with Dan Crenshaw

Every American city is different in terms of its transportation infrastructure and population density, two variables (among many others) which have major implications for the spread of COVID-19. So to what extent should the response to this crisis be handled by the federal government vs state and local governments? Former County Judge Ed Emmett, who led the recovery efforts after Hurricane Harvey hit the Houston area in 2017, joins Dan to examine this complicated question and talk about the urgent need for governments to begin looking ahead to re-opening the economy and allowing Americans to get back to work. Judge Emmett is an expert in emergency management at the local level, serving for almost 12 years as the County Judge for Harris County - the third most populous county in the country. He currently serves as a professor of public policy at The Kinder Institute for Urban Research at Rice University.

Dana Perino has a unique perspective of American journalism, having served on both sides of the pulpit - first as press secretary under President George W. Bush and now as the anchor of The Daily Briefing and co-host of The Five on Fox News. Dana joined Dan to talk about the coronavirus coverage, the media’s crisis of credibility, and what she learned as press secretary in the White House.

The restaurant industry is in deep pain right now and the future looks very uncertain. Dan spoke with Chris Shepherd, award winning chef and owner of four Houston restaurants that employed 200 people before the shutdown, to learn about the creative approaches his business has taken to weather the crisis. Chris explains the tough economics of running a restaurant, policy ideas that would help businesses like his survive the shutdown, and the most effective ways to support your local restaurants and their employees during this crisis. Chris Shepherd’s charitable foundation ‘Southern Smoke’ has donated more than $2 million to those in the food and beverage industry in crisis and to the National MS Society. In 2014 he won the James Beard Award for Best Chef in the Southwest for his contributions to the incredibly diverse Houston culinary scene.

A binary choice is often given in the conversations about the right pathway to defeat the coronavirus: we must prioritize lives over the economy or the economy over lives. Political theorist Dr. Danielle Allen joins Dan to describe a third pathway - treating the virus as a major national security threat and aggressively building an infrastructure for fighting and surviving the pandemic. A wartime mentality that shifts our economy to the production of testing capacity and test administration, personal protective equipment, and tools for case identification and contact tracing. Dr. Danielle Allen, James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University, and Director of Harvard’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, is a political theorist who has published broadly in democratic theory, political sociology, and the history of political thought. Widely known for her work on justice and citizenship in both ancient Athens and modern America, Allen is the author of The World of Prometheus: The Politics of Punishing in Democratic Athens (2000), Talking to Strangers: Anxieties of Citizenship since Brown vs. the Board of Education (2004), Why Plato Wrote (2010), Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality (2014), Education and Equality (2016), and Cuz: The Life and Times of Michael A. (2017). She is the co-editor of the award-winning Education, Justice, and Democracy (2013, with Rob Reich) and From Voice to Influence: Understanding Citizenship in the Digital Age (2015, with Jennifer Light). She is a former Chair of the Mellon Foundation Board, past Chair of the Pulitzer Prize Board, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. Allen is also the principal investigator for the Democratic Knowledge Project, a distributed research and action lab at Harvard University. The Democratic Knowledge Project seeks to identify, strengthen, and disseminate the bodies of knowledge, skills, and capacities that democratic citizens need in order to succeed at operating their democracy.

Dallas Mavericks owner and Shark Tank investor Mark Cuban joins Dan to give an inside look into what it takes to win on the long running reality show, shares his advice for entrepreneurs and small businesses trying to make it through the economic shutdown, and talks about how American manufacturing can stay competitive against countries like China and India in the coming decades.

Nancy Pelosi accused President Trump of “delay” and “denial” in the response to COVID-19. The political media was quick to repeat these talking points. But is that really the case? Were Democrats and the media sounding the alarm on coronavirus before the Trump Administration? Where did Democrats focus their attention as the White House ramped up their efforts to address coronavirus? I answer those questions with a detailed timeline of the Trump Administration’s response to this pandemic, and compare the president’s actions with the priorities of Speaker Pelosi over the last several weeks.

Latest Gallup polling reveals that, among U.S. institutions and leaders, American media has the lowest approval rating in terms of its response to the coronavirus. Which aspects of the media's reporting on COVID-19 account for such unpopularity? How has the media's historical coverage of the Trump administration contributed to its current predicament? As we balance health and economic concerns amidst a pandemic, what kind of nuanced questions should the media be asking, but due to partisan "gotcha" games, are not? David Harsanyi shares his insight on these questions, as well as his take on the coronavirus relief package passed by Congress last week.  David Harsanyi is a senior writer for National Review and a former senior editor at The Federalist. Harsanyi is a nationally syndicated columnist and author of four books. His work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Weekly Standard, National Review, Reason, New York Post, and numerous other publications. David has appeared on Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, NPR, ABC World News Tonight, NBC Nightly News and dozens of radio talk shows across the country. 

With the revelation that China has suppressed and manipulated the data on COVID-19, how do we, or any nation, trust China under the Chinese Communist Party? And what are the reasons behind the World Health Organization and many American politicians and media outlets parroting the CCP’s propaganda about the virus? China expert Gordon Chang joins us to answer these questions and examine how China is exploiting the virus to its geopolitical advantage. Gordon Chang is a columnist, author, and lawyer who lived and worked in China and Hong Kong for almost two decades. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and National Review and he is the author of The Coming Collapse of China. Find him on twitter at @GordonGChang.

In this very special episode, Houston Astros pitcher Lance McCullers, Jr. joins Dan to talk about adapting to life in quarantine (hint: the training doesn’t stop, it just gets more creative). They dive into their workout routines, injury stories, and the right balance for celebrities and politics. Dan also shares further proof that he is in fact Wolverine.

Social Security is projected to be insolvent in 2035 - which means that millennials and gen z paying into the program today may never receive its benefits. Dr. Charles Blahous returns to the show to talk about how we got to this point, and a realistic plan to save the program for future generations. Dr. Charles Blahous is the J. Fish and Lillian F. Smith Chair and Senior Research Strategist at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, where he specializes in domestic economic policy and retirement security, as well as federal fiscal policy, entitlements, and health care programs. Blahous is the author of Social Security: The Unfinished Work and Pension Wise: Confronting Employer Pension Underfunding and Sparing Taxpayers the Next Bailout, as well as the influential studies The Costs of a National Single-Payer Healthcare System and The Fiscal Consequences of the Affordable Care Act.