Prior to the COVID lockdowns, Bobbie Anne Cox's law practice focused mostly on real estate law. That changed abruptly when clients began seeking her help fighting for their rights during the severe restrictions imposed by then-Governor Cuomo in New York. Bobbie talks about her path from property law to fighting government overreach, including her landmark lawsuit against Governor Hochul's quarantine regulation. We discuss her campaign to educate New Yorkers about "Prop 1," a bill that was deceptively marketed to voters and unfortunately passed. We also revisit the tyrannical lockdowns in New York, the ongoing battle for civil liberties she has taken up, and why the 2026 state elections are critical for restoring two-party balance to a state increasingly dominated by New York City politics.

Find Attorney Bobbie Anne Cox:

Website: Cox Lawyers, LLC

On Substack: Knowledge Is Power

On X: https://x.com/Attorney_Cox

Bobbie is a Brownstone Institute Fellow. Find her articles HERE.

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Learn more about CrowdHealth: If you are sick of paying sky high premiums for health insurance, CrowdHealth is a great alternative. Check out CrowdHealth to determine if it is right for you. Use code JONI if you join to get a discount on your first three months. All referral fees will go to charity. You can join at any time - there are no enrollment period restrictions.

I sat down with the formidable Dr. Mary Talley Bowden, a Houston-based ENT doctor who was thrust onto the national stage for speaking out about what she was observing in her private practice during COVID, namely that the shots were not working and that ivermectin was. Houston Methodist Hospital suspended her hospital privileges and denounced her on X as a “dangerous spreader of misinformation” even though Dr. Bowden had never admitted a patient there. She walked me through her lawsuit against the hospital for defamation and how she was reprimanded by the Texas Medical Board in what appeared to be a politically motivated action designed to make an example of a doctor who questioned the COVID narrative. (I read the transcripts and found them troubling.)

Dr. Bowden has now joined with three other physicians who had similar experiences with state medical boards in a lawsuit against those boards and the Federation of State Medical Boards for violating the First and Fourteenth Amendments over disciplinary actions taken against doctors who expressed concerns about the safety of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Besides her obvious grace under so much pressure, what struck me most was Dr. Bowden’s commitment to patient care and informed consent, even when it cost her professionally and personally. She has gone on to form Americans For Health Freedom, an organization whose mission is to encourage and educate the public and our representatives to champion medical freedom for every individual.

This conversation offers a window into what happened to many doctors who questioned the mainstream COVID narrative.

Plus, we end on a lighter note as Dr. Bowden reveals her surprising therapy for navigating the current chaotic landscape… roller coasters. (Yes, really.)

Show Notes:

Find Dr. Bowden

Dr. Bowden on Substack

Dr. Bowden on X

Physicians and Patients Reclaiming Medicine (Here you can learn more about and support the lawsuit against the Federation Medical Boards)

Her soon to be released book: Dangerous Misinformation: The Virus, the Treatments, and the Lies

Americans for Health Freedom

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About CrowdHealth

I discuss CrowdHealth in the episode intro. It’s a crowdfunding alternative to traditional health insurance that I recently joined myself after breaking up with my insurance company. If you’re struggling with high premiums and sky-high deductibles or want an alternative to the current broken system, check it out HERE and use code JONI for a discount on your first three months.

I recently did something that not too long ago I would have considered unthinkable: I quit buying health insurance.

Instead of remaining in a corrupt, over-priced, inefficient and consumer-hostile system, I joined CrowdHealth. The more I learned about it, the more enthusiastic I became—so much so that I reached out to ask if their CEO would come on my podcast. Within days, we’d scheduled a time to record. Can you imagine me getting the CEO of my last health insurance company on the show? Yeah, me neither.

In this episode, I sit down with Andy Schoonover, CEO and founder of CrowdHealth, to ask all my questions about how this alternative actually works. Andy brings a fascinating background: he holds an MBA from Stanford, transformed a company in the health care space, and had a personal bad experience with his own health insurer that led him to create something better.

Andy answers my questions about CrowdHealth, shares his take on the current state of health insurance, and explains where he sees it going. His vision is that CrowdHealth will be a major force for good—and I agree.

What struck me most wasn’t just the model itself—though it is terrific and works—but the company ethos. They genuinely care about their customers and work to align company goals with member needs. Andy explains why transparency and simplicity are core values at CrowdHealth and what it means to build a system that actually serves its members rather than shareholders.

Whether you’re frustrated with your current insurance, curious about alternatives, or just want to understand how someone is actively disrupting this space, Andy offers both practical insights and genuine inspiration. This conversation will open your mind to what’s possible—and it’s quite thrilling.

If you decide to join CrowdHealth, use the link in the show notes or code “JONI” to save on your first three months of membership. All referral fees I receive will be donated to charity.

Learn More/Join CrowdHealth (Use this link or code JONI to save on your first three months)

Andy Schoonover LinkedIn

CrowdHealth on X

I sit down with Steve Berger, former Mises Institute Board member and a passionate student of Austrian economics. He views the COVID era through a refreshingly different lens. Instead of rehashing the usual debates over data or narratives, Steve looks at lockdowns, mandates, and vaccine rollout as symptoms of deeper economic distortions: the Federal Reserve’s ability to print trillions with impunity, the crony capitalism of public-private partnerships, and the moral hazard created by liability shields for pharmaceutical companies. We discuss why massive societal shutdowns were only politically and economically feasible because of the Fed’s money-creation backstop, how a true free market would have produced very different and far less damaging outcomes, and why regulatory capture and centralized control usually serve entrenched interests rather than the public. Steve opened my mind to consider the hidden economic forces that shaped the catastrophic Covid response. I’m delighted to share it with you.

Monica Perez joined me to raise a glass (or two) with me this holiday season and have a light-hearted conversation. We had some fun but of course we couldn’t resist a few substantive topics. We dig in to the broken health insurance landscape and whether a crowd-sourcing alternative might be the way to go. Monica catches us up on how rebuilding is going in fire-ravaged Altadena, where she lives in a house that didn’t burn down. We banter about whether individuals can really make a difference on a state or local level and if there is any hope of change at the federal level.

Pour yourself a glass of wine or a soothing cup of tea and settle in for a very nice chat. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

And by the way, if you are enjoying this podcast, please share it with a friend and consider dropping a review on Apple podcasts or Spotify. Thanks!

Find Monica!

https://monicaperezshow.com/

https://linktr.ee/monicaperezshow

Rumble: https://rumble.com/user/monicaperezshow

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/MonicaPerez

Twitter/X: @monicaperezshow

Substack: https://substack.com/@monicaperezshow

Instagram: @monicaperezshow

Monica Mixes: Craft cocktail recipes and lively conversation for the home mixer

My old cocktail blog: http://bloomingcocktails.blogspot.com

Dr. Allon Friedman pulls no punches about what he has seen over twenty years in academic medicine. He speaks candidly about the negative impact of DEI ideology on medical education and practice, the erosion of merit-based standards in physician training, and the loss of physician autonomy to massive corporate healthcare systems. He addresses the silence among his colleagues regarding COVID lockdowns and mandates, and tells of the personal cost of speaking up in an environment that discourages it.

We also touch on the use of GLP-1 agonists to treat obesity and other conditions. Learn why Dr. Friedman calls this drug class “a cure for modern living” and why he’s optimistic about their potential to treat multiple diseases.

Medicine needs more physicians like Dr. Friedman—willing to speak up and advocate for the reforms necessary to restore sanity and good patient care.

Find Dr. Friedman’s work:

Professor of Medicine at Indiana University Medical School Profile

Publications list on PubMed

Essays at Brownstone Institute

I sit down with Dr. Joomi Kim, biologist and author of the excellent Substack “Let’s Be Clear.” If you haven’t discovered her work yet, you’ll want to subscribe.

In our conversation, Joomi describes how she became disillusioned with institutional science and what prompted her to bypass the “experts” and do her own research. She never intended to write publicly, but what she discovered so alarmed her that she felt compelled to speak up.

We talk about how fraud creeps into academic research, why institutional messaging so often diverges from the data, and what it costs to go public with dissent. Joomi also shares the experience of starting on the political left and finding herself supporting Trump to back RFK Jr., a shift she never saw coming. She offers her thoughts on what’s happening now at HHS, what changes she hopes to see, and why she’s realistic about the challenges facing changemakers.

Find Joomi:

On Substack: Let’s Be Clear

On X: @JoomiKim1

On YouTube: @Joomi101

In March 2020, just as we were entering the Covid-19 pandemic, Princeton University Press asked historian Colin Elliott to write a book about the Antonine Plague (165–175 CE), the Roman Empire’s first great pandemic. What followed was quite an interesting experience: researching an ancient disease while watching modern society repeat many of the same reactions in real time.

I recently sat down with Indiana University professor Colin Elliott (author of Pox Romana: The Plague That Shook the Roman World) to learn how the Antonine Plague exposed fatal cracks in Rome’s economy and political order and to understand the parallels to our current moment. Professor Elliott tells of religious panic and Christian scapegoating, the use of talismans to ward off disease (masking and social distancing, anyone?), currency debasement, grain-supply fragility, and the fifty-year run of violent imperial succession that followed, beginning with Commodus. Professor Elliott makes the case that Commodus, the tyrannical “gladiator emperor” and son of Marcus Aurelius, may be history’s first pandemic-traumatized leader.

We talk about all this and the changes he is seeing in his students post-lockdowns, and why one group of students has him optimistic about the future.

Find Professor Colin Elliot:

At Indiana University: Faculty Profile

Podcast: The Pax Roman Podcast (You will thank me heartily for this one - So Good!)

On YouTube: @ProfCPE

On X: @ProfCPE

Books:

Pox Romana: The Plague that Shook the Ancient Roman World

Economic Theory and the Roman Monetary Economy

How does one raise children in a world of screens, casual culture, and declining manners? In this refreshing conversation, I sit down with Faye Root, a 38-year-old writer and homeschooling mother of two (soon to be three) living in northern Michigan.

We discuss Faye’s decision to homeschool despite having attended public school herself, why she teaches her children to say “please” and “thank you” with direct instruction (not just modeling), and how she practices what she calls “placeholder parenting”—imagining the adults she wants her children to become and working backward from there.

Faye is candid about the sometimes tedious challenges of raising and homeschooling young children. But she’s also convinced that cultivating beauty, teaching manners, and prioritizing parental bonds over peer orientation are essential acts of rebuilding society.

We explore why natural materials matter, the importance of fostering curiosity over achievement, and why children need to be taught good manners in order to be welcome in other people’s homes and society at large. Whether you’re a parent, thinking about becoming one, or simply curious about alternative approaches to education and family life, this conversation offers an attractive and achievable vision of what intentional living can look like.

Find Faye Root:

Writing: Faye’s work at the Michigan Enjoyer

On Instagram: littlebayschool

On X: littlebayschool

On Substack: littlebayschoolfaye

Recommended Reading: Hold on to Your Kids by Gabor Mate and Dr. Gordon Neufeld

I recently caught up with my highschool friend John Spiri, now a professor living near Lake Biwa in Japan. We reminisce about growing up in a small town, and discuss his path from accounting to teaching English in Japan, his embrace of Zen Buddhism, and his evolving perspective on politics, shaped by his moral compass and skepticism of increasingly deceptive mainstream narratives. John shares how he lives with intention in a chaotic world, navigating global issues like AI, surveillance, and cultural shifts while staying grounded in gratitude. This meandering chat with an old friend explores remaining grounded and staying human and connected in these uncertain times.

Find John:

John on X: https://x.com/spiridigliozzi

John’s work: https://www.globalstoriespress.com/ and HERE

Recommended books:

The Master and His Emissary by Iain McGilchrist

Think on These Things by Jiddu Krishnamurti