InfluenceWatch Podcast

The year 2025 has been wild and disruptive in the world of policy and influence, with a new administration coming to power with an aggressive agenda, a major reorganization of the left and Democratic Party’s most important dark-money network, and a worrying rise in political violence. Joining me to look back on the year are my colleague Robert Stilson and Capital Research Center president Scott Walter.Six homes, Caribbean vacations and a new SUV: How Oklahoma pastor spent $3.15M of ‘embezzled’ BLM OKC moneyThe DOGE Files: Top ten ways to waste tax dollarsHow Left-Wing Nonprofits Exploit American Taxpayers to Fund Their AgendasAmerican Center for International Labor Solidarity (Solidarity Center)Greenpeace, nonprofits, and illegal protests

A new presidential administration does not typically mean new management at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, but typically the incumbent FBI director did not oversee the FBI when it raided the President-elect’s house. Given that fact and other standing disputes with the Bureau, it is not surprising that President-elect Donald Trump and Senator Chuck Grassley have informed FBI Director Christopher Wray that he does not have the confidence of both the incoming administration and the incoming Senate majority. President-elect Trump has announced his intention to nominate Kash Patel, a former Congressional staffer and national security staffer in the first Trump administration, to replace Wray. Here to discuss how the FBI got here and where it might go in the next administration is our colleague, Ken Braun.Links: Pursuing the FBI’s “Wicked” Russiagate PerpsThe FBI’s Bad Apples: The Bureau’s Worst Days Are Worth RememberingMatt Taibbi: Kash Patel was totally vindicatedFederal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)Follow us on our socials: Twitter: @capitalresearchInstagram: @capitalresearchcenterFacebook: www.facebook.com/capitalresearchcenterYouTube: @capitalresearchcenter

The Groups, the justly maligned nonprofit and otherwise-professional activist groups whom moderate Democrats blamed for the failures of the Biden administration on the economy and immigration, are back and bolder than ever. Joining us today is our colleague Robert Stilson to discuss his profile on one of the most well-funded and radical The Groups you’ve probably never heard of: PolicyLink.The ascent of PolicyLinkInfluenceWatch profile for PolicyLink

Minnesota was liberal to begin with: It has the distinction of “voting blue, no matter who” since Jimmy Carter led the Democratic ticket, joining only the District of Columbia in refusing to give its electoral votes to President Ronald Reagan in 1984. For a while, the Hubert Humphrey model of Big Government, strong labor unions, and a business community that operated with a “social conscience” worked well. But in recent years, the social model of Scandinavian exiles has broken down, just its big brother did in Scandinavia itself. Joining us to discuss how Minnesota’s social model has collapsed as “some of the state’s leading politicians and sectarian interests” have come to “understand government not as a society’s shared instrument to address its problems, but as a storehouse to pillage” is Armin Rosen, a journalist who wrote on the state’s problems for Walter Kirn’s newspaper-magazine County Highway.The Shame of Our Cities

Arabella Advisors, we hardly knew ye. The once obscure, multi-billion dollar, private-equity-owned machine of leftist funding has gone the way of the dinosaurs. Or has it?Arabella, an organization we here at CRC worked diligently to help bring into the light, has in fact, after being rather publicly and unceremoniously dumped by the Gates Foundation in June, simply split, been restructured, been sold, and/or rebranded, depending on your perspective. The two new entities born of Arabella’s demise are Sunflower Services, a public benefit corporation, and Vital Impact, a philanthropic consulting firm that most resembles the former dark money machine.  The three c3 workhorse nonprofits housed under the former Arabella, who often served as fiscal sponsors for other nonprofits and from which the funding flowed – New Venture Fund, Hopewell Fund, and Windward Fund – are now investors in the aforementioned Sunflower Services and have vowed to continue the work of helping leftist nonprofits accomplish their goals on everything from DEI, to abortion, to social justice. But there are many questions remaining, with perhaps the most interesting: what happens to Arabella’s most political entities, the c4s, notably the notorious Sixteen Thirty Fund? And what prompted them to make this momentous change?Arabella Advisors Dissolves After Years of GOP-Led InvestigationsBill Gates to Stop Grantmaking via Arabella AdvisorsArabella: The Dark Money Network of Leftist Billionaires Transforming AmericaWhat, Exactly, Just Happened to the Left’s Dark Money Behemoth Arabella Advisors?Bill Gates may have just set off the death of far-left-tainted philanthropy

What makes a journalistic outfit “completely independent”? According to Drop Site News, the outlet is exactly that, and “reader-supported” to boot. But recent Open Society Foundations spending reports suggest that the outlet is not completely reader-supported: George Soros’s philanthropy spent $250,000 to support the creation of a “MENA desk” for the group through a fiscal sponsorship cut-out. Joining us to discuss the Open Society-Drop Site relationship is Chuck Ross, senior investigative reporter at the Washington Free Beacon. EXCLUSIVE: Soros Bankrolling Anti-Israel Drop Site NewsSame Game, Different Name: 'Radioactive' Arabella Advisors Announces Rebrand to 'Sunflower Services' as Prominent Donors Flee

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.City Journal: Greenpeace Verdict Is a Wake-Up Call for Progressive NGOsWashington Post: Greenpeace ordered to pay Dakota Access Pipeline operator $667 million in case that could destroy the groupMartin Luther King, Jr.: Letter from a Birmingham JailCity Journal: Dismantle the “Environmental Justice” Juggernaut

A defining feature of the creeping leftism the country has experienced over the last several years is just that: It’s creeping, coming in on padded feet behind the scenes until Americans began to see it everywhere, in boardrooms, schoolrooms, and entertainment options. Now, there’s real concern that emerging technology like AI is embracing the ideology of woke on the sly, bringing it into the very information people seek online. Fortunately, there are organizations monitoring these things on behalf of consumers, such as Consumers Research via their Woke Alerts, which very recently sounded the alarm about a partnership between Anthropic AI and Salesforce that they say could make it easier to push left-wing ideologies on technology consumers.Here to discuss is Will Hild, Executive Director of Consumers' Research.Consumer protection organization warns of partnership between two 'woke' tech companiesWoke alertMarc BenioffSam Bankman-FriedEffective Altruism Animal Welfare Fund

Regular listeners might remember that earlier this year, a North Dakota jury awarded $667 million to Energy Transfer, the company building the Dakota Access Pipeline, for damages caused by Greenpeace. Because that poses an existential threat to the environmentalist activism group, Greenpeace has vowed to appeal pending final court action, and supporters published a mass open letter of 400 fellow activist groups and a large number of individual supporters, including (of course) prominent celebrities. But the case and the letter raise more fundamental questions about the activities of tax-exempt groups; namely, is it proper for nonprofits to advocate for, endorse groups that, and in some cases, outright engage in lawbreaking?  Joining us to discuss this is our colleague Robert Stilson. Greenpeace, nonprofits, and illegal protestsInfluenceWatch Podcast #361: Justice for GreenpeaceMegaphone philanthropy

In Washington, D.C., the “government shutdown” continues as Democrats demand that Republicans expand subsidies for Obamacare in exchange for lifting a filibuster on a “clean continuing resolution” that would reopen the government through approximately Thanksgiving. What listeners might not know is that there are is a big, well-known advocacy group and major corporation that look to benefit from those subsidies being extended: AARP, and its $9 billion funder, UnitedHealth. Joining us to discuss the dance of Obamacare, the AARP, and UnitedHealth is Phil Kerpen, president of American Commitment. How AARP Makes Health Insurance Unaffordable for Its MembersHow AARP’s Profits Harm Patients —And Violate Its PrinciplesAARP: Influence Watch