InfluenceWatch Podcast

In an era when fewer than six percent of private-sector workers are union members, it’s easy to forget how forceful Big Labor’s activists can be when they’re out rooting for dues and political power. Joining us to discuss how Unite Here has exercised its coercive power over working Americans is Patrick Semmens, vice president of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation.Influence Watch profile for "Unite Here"Influence Watch profile for "Culinary Workers Union, Local 226"The Reality of Union Bullying by UNITE HERE

Before we begin, a programming note: Starting this week, we will be releasing the podcast on Tuesday mornings.For over seven years, InfluenceWatch.org has served the interested public as a resource on the groups and people influencing (see what we did there?) public policy. But now, Capital Research Center is launching a toolkit to help educators introduce their students to our behind-the-scenes information on American politics and policy. Joining us to discuss the new “InfluenceWatch Educational Guide” is former schoolteacher and Capital Research Center senior fellow Kali Fontanilla.Bringing Critical Thinking to the ClassroomInfluenceWatch Educational GuideKamala Harris paid LeBron James' entertainment company $50,000 for 'campaign event production'

It’s 2025 in America, but news reports of antitrust lawsuits which, if successful, could potentially lead to at least a partial breakup of some of the biggest tech companies in the world, hearken back to the early 1900s when Standard Oil was fundamentally restructured and the Federal Trade Commission was created. Names like Meta, Google, Amazon, and Apple – they’re all being examined for potential anticompetitive behavior, with Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg recently taking the stand and Google entering a remedy phase to ameliorate what a Court decided was behavior violating antitrust law. The political giving associated with these companies suggests that the outcomes of these suits could affect not just individual platform users but also possibly the broader American political landscape. Joining the podcast today to discuss these developments is Daniel Cochrane, Senior Research Associate in the Center for Technology and the Human Person at The Heritage Foundation.Mark Zuckerberg Wants Us to Forgive, Forget Facebook’s Sins

It can seem infuriating: Leftist demonstrators wantonly violate the law, only to face no or negligible consequences because the powers that be either support or refuse to oppose their disruptive tactics. But as a famous progressive politician was fond of saying, “The arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice.” Last month, a North Dakota jury awarded Energy Transfer, the company building the Dakota Access Pipeline, $667 million in justice, holding that Greenpeace USA had defamed the company during demonstrations against the pipeline. Joining us to discuss the protests, the verdict, and what it might mean for leftist activism going forward is James Meigs, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.Greenpeace Verdict Is a Wake-Up Call for Progressive NGOsGreenpeace ordered to pay Dakota Access Pipeline operator $667 million in case that could destroy the groupLetter from a Birmingham Jail — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.Dismantle the “Environmental Justice” Juggernaut

Hello, I’m Michael Watson joined by Robert Stilson and this is the InfluenceWatch Podcast. There’s an odd thing about the loud demonstrators protesting Israel in the year and a half since the Hamas attacks on the country in October 2023: They don’t like America much either. And now, there’s documentary proof to go along with the suppositions derived from protest literature, marchers’ signs, and ideological manifestos. Our colleague Ryan Mauro, an expert on political extremism and Middle East policy, has detailed the increase in anti-American and anti-law-enforcement sloganeering by pro-Palestinian groups since the October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel.How “Pro-Palestinian” Protest Groups Promote Anti-AmericanismOrganizational ExamplesPrevalence of Charities Among Radical Groups

While we at Capital Research Center may not have a favorite Internal Revenue Service regulation, we do find one to be particularly relevant to our work on nonprofits in the public policy process: “Restriction of political campaign intervention by Section 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organizations.” Long story short, if you’re a public charity, you’re free to be ideological, but you cannot endorse or support candidates for office. And New Georgia Project, the charitable-nonprofit voter outreach group of serial Georgia candidate Stacey Abrams, is on the hot seat for allegedly breaking that regulation, with the group paying a state fine for campaign finance violations, the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee asking the IRS to revoke the group’s tax exemption, and the state Senate investigating the Abrams-New Georgia relationship. Campaign finance expert Hans Von Spakovsky joins us to discuss what’s going on down in Georgia.New Georgia Project Leader Resigns After Ethics FineStacey Abrams-founded nonprofit faces crackdown threat from House GOP's top tax writerGeorgia Senate targets Stacey Abrams voting organization in new investigation

Sixty billion dollars—that is the estimate of foreign funding of American universities that Americans for Public Trust released earlier this week. Of that $60 billion, $20 billion went to just ten prestigious schools including Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, MIT, Yale, and Columbia, among others. Joining us to discuss the findings and the implications of the foreign funding of these major universities is Caitlin Sutherland, executive director of APT.Links:New report sounds alarm on 'staggering' amount of foreign money pouring into US universitiesNew Study Reveals ‘Pro-Palestinian’ Groups Promote Violence and Anti-AmericanismLinda McMahon to Education May Choke Foreign Influence Operations on Campus

To quote our colleague and guest for the week, Parker Thayer, the nonprofit voter registration industry “might not sound like a particularly exciting or important topic, and in an ideal world it wouldn’t be either, but unfortunately, it’s both.” Earlier this week, Parker testified to the Michigan House Election Integrity Committee on the nonprofit voter registration industry, which he has studied extensively. He joins us to discuss his testimony to the legislature and his research on nonprofit voter registration.Links:Nonprofit VOTE (IW)Voter Registration Project (IW)Partisan Charities Failed to Win in 2024 (VIDEO)Corrupt Voter Registration Scheme PersistsThe Winged Nike of Pennsylvania Ave

We here at CRC try not to wade into the more salacious soap opera stories that quite frankly infest the DC political world. But when a story intersects with work we already do, well, we’re not above getting down into the dirt a little. Such is the case with the report that dropped a few days ago that Connecticut liberal Senator and Biden mouthpiece Chris Murphy has recently left his wife and taken up with leftist activist Tara McGowan, late of the Obama administration and Courier Newsroom, a local news propaganda peddler that pushes political advertisements under the guise of local journalism. Watson has covered Courier fairly extensively so we decided to invite another Courier watcher Mark Hemingway of Real Clear Politics on to discuss what a union between Murphy and McGowan might mean beyond just a lot of really flattering, AI-generated pieces in quote “local news outlets."

Addiction breaks lives, breaks families, and on a mass scale can break societies, but breaking an addiction is quite difficult. There are two main schools of thought for how to help addicted people: Abstinence, or the cessation of drug (or alcohol, or other addictive vice) use, or “harm reduction”—the practice defined by the National Institutes of Health as “interventions aimed to help people avoid negative effects of drug use.” But is “harm reduction” a good policy and a good use of federal government money? Joining us to discuss his report on harm reduction spending by federal agencies is our colleague Robert Stilson.Links: DOGE and HHS: Harm ReductionBiden Admin To Fund Crack Pipe Distribution To Advance 'Racial Equity'The Weird Ideas and Shoddy Science Behind Free Government Crack PipesOmnibus Spending Bill Includes Ban on Government-Funded Crack PipesInside the East Coast’s Largest Open-Air Drug MarketDispensing Drug ParaphernaliaFollow us on our socials: Twitter: @capitalresearchInstagram: @capitalresearchcenterFacebook: www.facebook.com/capitalresearchcenterYouTube: @capitalresearchcenter