

InfluenceWatch Podcast
Capital Research Center
The podcast where we go beneath the surface to reveal the web of connected influence, money, and motivation driving the news, sourced primarily from our website InfluenceWatch.org, the Capital Research Center's online encyclopedia of the donors, non-profits, and influencers driving politics. You can watch the video version of the podcast at: http://bit.ly/2rnQygYListen to all episodes of InfluenceWatch Podcast at Ricochet.com.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Feb 12, 2021 • 23min
Episode 156: Defending the Freedom of Association (with guest Jennifer Braceras)
In this episode: We discuss an issue that is well known to those involved in politics and to donors, but perhaps not as well known to the average voter. So we’re hoping to shed some light on it. The issue is donor disclosure, and we have as a special guest Jennifer Braceras, director of Independent Women’s Law Center, project of independent women’s forum, and a former member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, who wrote a very sharp op-ed on the subject recently, "Freedom Of Association Is Under Attack. Will The Supreme Court Protect It?" We discuss a few cases surrounding donor disclosure that could be heard by the Supreme Court in the coming months. Read the article: https://www.iwf.org/2021/01/25/freedom-of-association-is-under-attack-will-the-supreme-court-protect-it/ Subscribe to the podcast on your platform of choice at: https://influencewatch.fireside.fm/ • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/capitalresearchcenter • Twitter: https://twitter.com/capitalresearch • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/capitalresearchcenter • YouTube: https://bit.ly/CRCYouTube • Rumble: https://rumble.com/account/content?type=all • Gettr: https://gettr.com/user/capitalresearch

Feb 6, 2021 • 13min
Episode 155: Party Realignment: Radical Republicans, Corporate Democrats?
In this episode: Continuing what has become something of a series on how American big business, big labor, and other “bigs” have gotten aggressively more aligned with progressive liberalism, today we turn to Big Business—Wall Street, Big Tech, and so forth. Groups like the Chamber of Commerce were once stalwarts of the Republican Party, but in the 2020 election they were far less aligned with their historical allies Joining me to discuss the realignment of Big Business support is my Capital Research Center colleague Shane Devine. Subscribe to the podcast on your platform of choice at: https://influencewatch.fireside.fm/ • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/capitalresearchcenter • Twitter: https://twitter.com/capitalresearch • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/capitalresearchcenter • YouTube: https://bit.ly/CRCYouTube • Rumble: https://rumble.com/account/content?type=all • Gettr: https://gettr.com/user/capitalresearch

Jan 29, 2021 • 14min
Episode 154: The Left’s “Dark Money” Machine
In this episode: We welcome special guest Dan Judy, vice president at North Star Opinion Research in DC. He’s a Georgia native and a fellow UGA alumnus (Go Dawgs!) We discuss privacy rights and donor disclosure. For more reading go to: http://www.northstaropinion.com/about/our-team Subscribe to the podcast on your platform of choice at: https://influencewatch.fireside.fm/ • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/capitalresearchcenter • Twitter: https://twitter.com/capitalresearch • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/capitalresearchcenter • YouTube: https://bit.ly/CRCYouTube • Rumble: https://rumble.com/account/content?type=all • Gettr: https://gettr.com/user/capitalresearch

Jan 23, 2021 • 19min
Episode 153: The New Presidential Administration
In this episode: It’s a new week, and there’s a new Presidential administration in town. And if his modern-era unprecedented early firing of the general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board and his immediate re-entry to the Paris Climate Accord are any indication, the administration of President Joe Biden is going to be a series of favors for the left-wing special interest groups that helped get him elected. Joining us to discuss the new Biden administration and the role those special interest groups have had in his transition process is Capital Research Center’s Research Specialist Robert Stilson, who compiled InfluenceWatch’s extensive profile on the Biden-Harris Transition. Subscribe to the podcast on your platform of choice at: https://influencewatch.fireside.fm/ • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/capitalresearchcenter • Twitter: https://twitter.com/capitalresearch • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/capitalresearchcenter • YouTube: https://bit.ly/CRCYouTube • Rumble: https://rumble.com/account/content?type=all • Gettr: https://gettr.com/user/capitalresearch

Jan 15, 2021 • 19min
Episode 152: Aggressively Political Philanthropy
In this episode: In recent years, American big business, big labor, and other “bigs” have gotten aggressively more aligned with progressive liberalism—even those bigs, like Big Philanthropy, that are technically required by law not to intervene in elections. While Big Philanthropy might always have been liberal-leaning ideologically, it has gotten so openly Democratic that as conservative philanthropic scholar Bill Schambra noted, “it’s no longer suspect, or even noteworthy, to treat nonprofits and foundations as anything other than useful tools to “build a Democratic Party that can translate [progressive values] into public policy as a true governing majority.”” Joining us to discuss how we got here and the consequences of philanthropy losing its nominal political neutrality is Mike Hartmann, head of Capital Research Center’s Center for Strategic Giving and editor of the Giving Review blog at Philanthropy Daily. Subscribe to the podcast on your platform of choice at: https://influencewatch.fireside.fm/ • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/capitalresearchcenter • Twitter: https://twitter.com/capitalresearch • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/capitalresearchcenter • YouTube: https://bit.ly/CRCYouTube • Rumble: https://rumble.com/account/content?type=all • Gettr: https://gettr.com/user/capitalresearch

Jan 8, 2021 • 15min
Episode 151: This Business Will Get Out of Control
In this episode: We’re doing something different this week, because we're recording this on Thursday January 7, 2021. Yesterday, a riotous mob stormed the U.S. Capitol and attempted to prevent the certification of the votes of the Electoral College that make Democrat Joe Biden President-elect of the United States. There is no excuse for demonstrators, whatever their beliefs and goals, to overrun police barricades and attempt to prevent the people’s elected representatives from carrying out their duties. Violence is not speech—and storming the Capitol is violence. At Capital Research Center, we do have a specific point of view: We believe in free markets, Constitutional government, and individual liberty—violent disruption of the legislature is not that. Subscribe to the podcast on your platform of choice at: https://influencewatch.fireside.fm/ • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/capitalresearchcenter • Twitter: https://twitter.com/capitalresearch • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/capitalresearchcenter • YouTube: https://bit.ly/CRCYouTube • Rumble: https://rumble.com/account/content?type=all • Gettr: https://gettr.com/user/capitalresearch

Dec 31, 2020 • 18min
Episode 150: The "Rising American Electorate"
In this episode: A strange thing happened on the road to the Emerging Democratic Majority. Even as Joe Biden won a roughly four-and-a-half percentage point national lead in total ballots cast, the “Rising American Electorate” demographics that were supposed to deliver “blue Texas” actually kept the Lone Star State and Florida in the Republican column while swinging to the right—even in deep-blue areas—as the country tilted to the left relative to 2016. The swings were most notable in two areas: The Mexican border region of Texas (known as the Rio Grande Valley or RGV) and South Florida—in both places, Hispanic constituencies Democrats assumed would be permanently in their camp swung hard to the right, helping keep those states in the Republican column. Joining us to discuss this unexpected development is Alfredo Ortiz, President and CEO of the Job Creators Network. Subscribe to the podcast on your platform of choice at: https://influencewatch.fireside.fm/ • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/capitalresearchcenter • Twitter: https://twitter.com/capitalresearch • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/capitalresearchcenter • YouTube: https://bit.ly/CRCYouTube • Rumble: https://rumble.com/account/content?type=all • Gettr: https://gettr.com/user/capitalresearch

Dec 19, 2020 • 16min
Episode 149: Union Leaders Held Accountable
In this episode: The federal government closed a substantial part of the book on its investigation into the largest labor union corruption scandal since the mob control over the Teamsters Union was broken. Federal prosecutors in Michigan announced that they had reached a settlement with the United Auto Workers to establish an oversight regime and adopt reforms to increase members’ ability to hold union leadership accountable. Joining us to recap how we got here and breakdown the settlement is Sean Higgins, Research Fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute specializing in labor and employment. Subscribe to the podcast on your platform of choice at: https://influencewatch.fireside.fm/ • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/capitalresearchcenter • Twitter: https://twitter.com/capitalresearch • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/capitalresearchcenter • YouTube: https://bit.ly/CRCYouTube • Rumble: https://rumble.com/account/content?type=all • Gettr: https://gettr.com/user/capitalresearch

Dec 11, 2020 • 20min
Episode 148: From Zuckerberg to Election Officials, Financing the 2020 Elections
As states finalize their results or find the ballots they misplaced or lost the sticky notes for—looking at you, New York Twenty Two—the debate over election procedures shifts from the concluded 2020 elections to protecting election integrity for the future. And while much heat and light—arguably too much of the former—has focused on voting machine manufacturers, less light has shone on the influencers that exploited the COVID pandemic to fundamentally alter how elections were conducted, often without due consideration of consequences. Joining me today is Capital Research Center president Scott Walter to discuss one of those influencers—the Center for Technology and Civic Life. For additional reading: https://capitalresearch.org/article/what-is-mark-zuckerbergs-election-money-doing-in-georgia/ Subscribe to the podcast on your platform of choice at: https://influencewatch.fireside.fm/ • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/capitalresearchcenter • Twitter: https://twitter.com/capitalresearch • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/capitalresearchcenter • YouTube: https://bit.ly/CRCYouTube • Rumble: https://rumble.com/account/content?type=all • Gettr: https://gettr.com/user/capitalresearch

Dec 5, 2020 • 17min
Episode 147: RIP Dr. Walter Williams (with guest Veronique de Rugy)
In this episode: Last week, free-market economics lost one of its greatest evangelists: George Mason University professor, occasional Rush Limbaugh Program substitute host, book author, syndicated columnist, and Capital Research Center Advisory Board member Dr. Walter Williams. Joining us to reflect on Williams’s life and legacy is one of his colleagues, Mercatus Center scholar and columnist Veronique de Rugy. For additional reading: Thomas Sowell: Walter E. Williams 1936-2020 Free to Choose Network: Walter Williams: Suffer No Fools Foundation for Economic Education: Book Review: South Africa’s War Against Capitalism by Walter E. Williams Marginal Revolution: The Great Walter Williams, Radical Troublemaker Walter E. Williams: Up from the Projects: An Autobiography Hoover Institution: "A Radical, a Troublemaker..." Subscribe to the podcast on your platform of choice at: https://influencewatch.fireside.fm/ • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/capitalresearchcenter • Twitter: https://twitter.com/capitalresearch • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/capitalresearchcenter • YouTube: https://bit.ly/CRCYouTube • Rumble: https://rumble.com/account/content?type=all • Gettr: https://gettr.com/user/capitalresearch