RealClearInvestigations Podcast

By RCIBusiness News Government

RealClearInvestigations Podcast episodes

October 10 Sex and Drugs at Cornell, AI Bias, and Hate Speech | RealClearInvestigations Podcast #138
On this week’s episode of the RealClearInvestigations Podcast, RCI Editor J. Peder Zane and RCI Senior Reporter James Varney discuss a series of articles featured by RCI that reported on the alleged gang rape at Cornell, bias in the algorithms Apple News uses to spotlight political coverage and a French woman who faced criminal charges for arguing biological men should not be allowed in women-only spaces such as bathrooms and locker rooms.
00:00 Cold Open & Welcome
01:34 HEADLINE 1: The Cornell Sexual Assault Allegations, Title IX and Due Process
07:21 Cornell, Where the University Failed
11:02 Campus Drugs, Narcan, and a Generation Raised Without Boundaries
18:06 HEADLINE 2: Apple’s Hidden Bias
24:10 Russiagate, the Progressive Media Ecosystem, and a Controversial Nobel Peace Prize
29:17 HEADLINE 3: France Prosecutes a Feminist Over Comments on a Trans Mayor
32:20 Lawfare, the First Amendment, and Europe's Speech Laws
Articles Discussed in This Podcast:
· Washington Examiner: Timeline of Jane Doe’s Cornell Allegations
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/crime/4751169/timeline-jane-doe-allegations-cornell-gang-rape/
· New York Post: Cornell Knew of Frat Drug Bust Before Alleged Gang Rape
https://nypost.com/2026/10/03/us-news/cornell-knew-of-drug-arrest-overdose-at-chi-phi-frat-before-alleged-gang-rape-records/
· Washington Post: Ketamine, Kratom, Other Dangerous Drugs Changing College
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/the-deadly-drugs-causing-warnings-at-cornell-and-other-colleges/ar-AA2dwxKg?ocid=BingNewsSerp
· New York Times: Estonia Won the War on Fentanyl. What Came Next Was Even Worse.
https://archive.is/C4UrX#selection-3905.1-3905.63
· Federalist: Apple News Voting Guide Filled With Leftist Sources
https://thefederalist.com/2026/10/07/apple-news-offers-users-personalized-voting-guide-filled-with-leftist-sources/
· Free Press: I Questioned Transgender Ideology. Now I Face Prison in France.
https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/2026/10/04/i_questioned_transgender_ideology_now_i_face_prison_in_france_1209718.html
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39 min
October 03 Is Talking About Group Identity and IQ a Crime? with Nathan Cofnas
On this week’s episode of the RealClearInvestigations Podcast, RCI Editor J. Peder Zane and RCI contributor John Murawski speak with Nathan Cofnas about his academic research into group identity and IQ – work that is so controversial that he may be facing criminal charges in Europe.
On the news roundup, Zane and RCI Senior Reporter James Varney discuss a Free Press article detailing the success of America’s post-all-out-bombing strategy in Iran, which has crippled Iran’s economy while restoring almost all of the pre-war flow of oil from the region. They also discuss Varney’s new article for RCI which suggests how like-minded groups – in this case journalists, nonprofits and lawyers that believe insurance companies do not treat their customers fairly – piggyback on each other’s work to amplify their message in ways that may raise ethical concerns.
00:00 Open
02:10 News Roundup: Iran Sanctions, Oil Flows, and the Munitions Narrative
04:24 Diesel Prices, CNN's Spin, and Results-Oriented Journalism
05:50 The Clarkson Law Firm: Turning Investigative Journalism into Lawsuits
16:20 Introducing Nathan Cafras and the Cambridge Plagiarism Scandal
20:43 What IQ Actually Measures
27:00 The "Equality Thesis"
33:05 Race and IQ
36:44 Do IQ Tests Have Cultural Bias?
44:27 "The Right's Stupidity Problem"
48:14 Affirmative Action and the Logic of the Equality Thesis
55:04 Why There's No Conservative New York Times
1:02:40 Hereditarianism, Selective Immigration, and the Fight Against Wokeism
1:07:24 Closing & Thanks
Articles Discussed in This Podcast:
· Nathan Cofnas: Research on group differences in intelligence: A defense of free inquiry
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09515089.2019.1697803
· Nathan Cofnas: Why We Need to Talk about the Right’s Stupidity Problem
https://ncofnas.com/p/why-we-need-to-talk-about-the-rights
· Nathan Cofnas: Beating Woke with Facts and Logic
https://ncofnas.com/p/beating-woke-with-facts-and-logic
· Natha Cofnas: DEI Fraud and Cover-Up at Cambridge
https://ncofnas.com/p/dei-fraud-and-cover-up-at-cambridge
· Free Press: The Strait of Hormuz Is Open
https://www.thefp.com/p/the-strait-of-hormuz-is-open?utm_campaign=realclearpolitics
· James Varney/RCI: Media Law: How One Firm’s Lawsuits Echo Investigative Journalism
https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2026/09/29/media_law_how_one_firms_lawsuits_echo_investigative_journalism_1208788.html
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1 hr 9 min
September 26 The AI Regulation Grift | RealClearInvestigations Podcast #136
On this week’s episode of the RealClearInvestigations Podcast, RCI Editor J. Peder Zane and RCI Senior Reporter James Varney speak with Dr. Robert Malone about how powerful businesses, government officials, foundations and journalists are behind the growing push to regulate artificial intelligence, an effort which, he says, has less to do with saving humanity from extinction than protecting the valuation and competitive advantages of AI behemoths.
On the news roundup, Zane and Varney discuss two articles that dovetail with Malone’s insights. The first is a Free Press article by a previous podcast guest, Roger Pielke Jr., that details how a “scientific” organization that openly says it is committed to climate change advocacy is gaming its studies to stoke fears about the climate – and is treated as an unbiased authority by much of the press. The second article, published by the Guardian, shows the influence many big companies have over government regulation by detailing how the EPA allowed pesticide giant Bayer to pick from a menu of regulation options for the controversial and destructive weedkiller dicamba.
00:00 Cold Open
02:13 Welcome to the Show
03:18 News Roundup: Introducing This Week's Stories
03:46 How "Fake Climate Science" Blamed a Nepal Disaster on Warming (Free Press)
10:08 Regulatory Capture: How Bayer Helped Write Its Own Weedkiller Rules (The Guardian)
15:43 Introducing Dr. Robert Malone
16:20 Upton Sinclair, "The Jungle," and the Original Regulatory Capture
24:17 The Hugging Face "Rogue AI" Incident: A Staged Fear Campaign?
32:03 A Timeline of the Coordinated AI Panic
38:36 Is There Really an AI Panic — and Should There Be?
43:31 Frontier vs. Open AI: Who Gets Regulated Out of Existence?
50:36 What Real AI Guardrails Should Look Like
54:06 AI, Censorship, and the Threat of "Pre-Thought" Control
1:04:11 Closing & Thanks to Dr. Malone
Articles Discussed in This Podcast:
Dr. Robert Malone/Substack: What the AI Panic Is Actually About
https://substack.com/home/post/p-215832105
Dr. Robert Malone/Substack: The Machine That Decides What You Know
https://substack.com/home/post/p-216901102
Free Press: How to Fake Climate Science and Fool the World
https://www.thefp.com/p/how-to-fake-climate-science-and-fool?utm_campaign=realclearpolitics
Guardian: EPA Let Bayer Pick Its Weedkiller Rules
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/sep/20/epa-bayer-regulation-pesticide-dicamba
RCI Podcast: Al Gore and the Politicization of Science
https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/video/2026/04/18/al_gore_and_the_politicization_of_science_with_roger_pielke_jr_1177499.html
RCI/James Varney: Government and the Case of the Phantom Frog
https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2017/06/27/wildlife_services_calls_private_land_critical_habitat_for_nonexistent_frog.html
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1 hr 4 min
September 19 Will AI Kill Us All? | RealClearInvestigations Podcast #135
On this week’s episode of the RealClearInvestigations Podcast, RCI Editor J. Peder Zane and RCI Senior Reporter James Varney discuss a wide range of articles published this week. Topics include the growing campaign to cast AI as an existential threat, the media’s lack of interest in the rampant fraud targeting taxpayer funds and the rise of Islam in Europe and the US.
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00:00 Cold Open
00:31 Welcome to the Show
01:15 AI Doomsday Debate: How Real Is the 10–20% Extinction Risk?
06:09 Who's Funding the AI Narrative? PR Campaigns and Paid Journalism
11:04 Climate Fear, AI Fear, and the Decline of Critical Thinking
14:07 DOGE's Fading Spotlight: California's Hospice & Home Care Fraud
17:33 Nick Shirley, a New York Magazine Hit Piece, and Who Counts as a "Journalist"
26:30 Ayaan Hirsi Ali on Islam, the Far Right, and a False Symmetry in Europe
29:13 Assimilation, American Values, and the Unspoken Debate Over Islam
37:38 Socialism, Mamdani, and Closing Thoughts
Articles Discussed in This Podcast:
Wall Street Journal: The Anonymous Math Geek Who Quit Anthropic—and Became the Face of AI Safety
https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/jacob-coxon-quit-anthropic-ai-safety-3f4e877c?mod=Searchresults&pos=1&page=1
Washington Examiner: Anthropic Allies Are Behind ‘Independent' Groups Ringing AI Alarm Bells
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/investigations/4729617/anthropic-allies-independent-groups-ai-warnings-tarbell-center-fellows/
City Journal: How Did a Nigerian Chief Make Millions From Medicaid?
https://www.city-journal.org/article/california-home-health-agency-nigeria-medicaid
New York Magazine: Nick Shirley Is the GOP's Favorite Poster
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/how-nick-shirley-became-republicans-favorite-poster/ar-AA2ceVCs?ocid=BingNewsSerp
Free Press: The Lie About Islam, Europe, and the Dangers We Face
https://www.thefp.com/p/ayaan-hirsi-ali-the-lie-about-islam?utm_campaign=realclearpolitics
RCI Series: Islam’s Rise in America
https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2026/09/17/rci_series_islams_rise_in_america_1206744.html
Zane/RealClearPolitics: Understanding Islam's Rise in America Without Rancor or Vitriol
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2026/09/18/understanding_islams_rise_in_america_without_rancor_or_vitriol.html
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41 min
September 11The Rise and Fall of a Super-Terrorist with Joby Warrick| RealClearInvestigations Podcast #134
On this episode of the RealClearInvestigations Podcast, RCI Editor J. Peder Zane and
RCI Senior Reporter James Varney speak with Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Joby Warrick
about his compulsively readable new book, “The Jackal: The Rise and Fall of Carlos, the World’s First Super-Terrorist.”

With the news round-up, Zane and Varney discuss a New York Times article that suggests Vice
President J.D. Vance may be highlighting obstacles to the Iran effort; a Wall Street Journal story
about an AI researcher who warns computers could destroy humanity; an X post reporting
evidence that the Journal piece could be part of an orchestrated campaign against AI; and Paul
Sperry’s exclusive article in RCI detailing the government’s decision to parole at least three of
the 15 terrorist detainees still held at Guantanamo Bay – men the government labels “high-value
detainees” and “forever prisoners.”

00:00 Cold Open: An Earlier Age of Terrorism
00:50 Welcome & Guest Tease: Joby Warrick on "The Jackal"
01:40 News Roundup: NYT's J.D. Vance "Unvarnished" Iran Intel Story
05:26 Is an AI Doomsday Coming? An Anthropic Researcher's Resignation
09:58 Can AI Regulation Actually Work?
12:16 Gitmo's "Forever Prisoners" May Be Released (Paul Sperry Exclusive)
15:54 Introducing Joby Warrick and Why He Wrote "The Jackal"
19:18 Who Was Carlos the Jackal? Origins and the 1975 OPEC Raid
25:11 The Hijacking Era and How Carlos Evaded Capture for Decades
30:56 State Sponsors, the Palestinian Cause, and Strange Bedfellows
37:05 Interrogating Terrorists, Modern Mercenary Attacks, and Meeting Carlos in Prison

Articles Discussed in This Podcast:
Joby Warrick: “The Jackal: The Rise and Fall of Carlos, the World’s First Super-Terrorist.”

Joby Warrick/NYT: Carlos the Jackal’s Violent Chaos Endures

Joby Warrick/Jewish World Review: My Encounter with Carlos the Jackal

NYT: How Vance Gathered Unvarnished Views of Iran War

Wall Street Journal: Anthropic researcher quits over 'out-of-control' AI fears

Parker Thayer/X: https://x.com/ParkerThayer?s=20

Paul Sperry/RCI: Exclusive: Gitmo Parole Board Greenlights Release of 3 'Forever Prisoners'
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51 min
September 04Trump’s Third Way in Iran | RealClearInvestigations Podcast #133
On this week’s episode of the RealClearInvestigations Podcast, RCI Editor J. Peder Zane and RCI Senior Reporter James Varney mark Labor Day by giving their guests the week off. In an extended news round-up, Zane and Varney discuss two articles on the Iran conflict – a Tablet article detailing Trump’s evolving strategy and an AP piece on how the Pentagon’s latest precision missiles are not so precise.

Turning their attention to the changing world of journalism, they discuss a Semafor story describing how online ‘ghost creators’ are pushing fake news and a Columbia Journalism Review report on how New York City’s Mayor is shaping the news by paying social media influencers. Finally, Zane and Varney look at two articles related to the 25th anniversary of 9/11.

00:00 Cold Open: The Mamdani Influencer Story
01:16 This Week on RealClearInvestigations.com
02:00 Trump's Iran Strategy: A Third Way Between Bush and Obama (Tablet/Michael Doran) 06:18 AP's Investigation Into U.S. Precision Munitions & Pentagon Contracting
11:47 Semafor: The Rise of AI-Scripted "Ghost Creator" Influencers
12:44 Columbia Journalism Review: Mamdani's Paid Influencer Network
17:10 9/11 at 25: The Human and Economic Toll
19:44 Douglas Murray on Why Conspiracy Theories Endure
24:57 Who Falls for Conspiracy Theories — and Which Side Does It More?
Articles Discussed in This Podcast:
Tablet: Trump's Third Way on Iran
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/israel-middle-east/articles/trump-third-way-iran

AP: Report: New US Missile Cut Deadly Path Through Iranian City
https://apnews.com/article/iran-lamerd-us-prsm-lockheed-martin-b4a37c59bcf5d1a11eb87aa79f153648

Semafor: 'Ghost Creator' Videos Cashing in on America's Political Divide
https://www.semafor.com/article/09/02/2026/paid-actors-ai-writing-how-a-new-kind-of-video-business-cashed-in-on-americas-divided-politics

CJR: Mayor Mamdani’s Friendly Influencers and the Funding of Public Messaging in New York City
https://www.cjr.org/tow_center/mayor-mamdanis-friendly-influencers-and-the-funding-of-public-messaging-in-new-york-city.php

City Journal: The Staggering Financial Cost of 9/11
https://www.city-journal.org/article/911-attacks-financial-cost

Free Press: 9/11 Conspiracies and the War on the Truth
https://www.thefp.com/p/douglas-murray-911-war-on-truth?utm_campaign=realclearpolitics
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29 min
August 31Standing Up To Political Correctness with Matt Calkins | RealClearInvestigations Podcast #132
On this week’s episode of the RealClearInvestigations Podcast, RCI Editor J. Peder Zane and RCI Senior Reporter James Varney speak with sports columnist Matt Calkins, who resigned from the Seattle Times after the newspaper killed his column that argued it is not hateful to oppose biological men playing women’s sports.
On the news round-up, Zane and Varney discuss a series of stories on the media including: a PJ Media piece on California’s chilling new law Republicans have dubbed the “Stop Nick Shirley Act”; a Washington Free Beacon analysis showing how the New York Times uses the term Islamophobia to delegitimize viewpoints and shut down debate; and an arbitrator’s ruling that the Washington Post must rehire an opinion columnist the paper had fired for inflammatory tweets regarding the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
00:00 Cold Open: "I Don't Think I Can Do It Anymore"
00:32 Welcome & Intro to This Episode
00:41 News Roundup: California's "Stop Nick Shirley Act"
06:34 The NYT's "Islamophobia" Label (Washington Free Beacon)
09:18 WaPo Arbitrator Reinstates Columnist Fired Over Charlie Kirk Tweets
13:35 Introducing Matt Calkins
13:37 The Column That Got Him Fired: Sophie Cunningham & Trans Athletes
18:37 Three Previous Columns the Seattle Times Spiked
22:06 Inside the Newsroom: Book Clubs, Activism & the Overton Window
27:17 Is Seattle Sports Media Just Reflecting the City?
32:57 The Decision to Resign
35:17 Seattle Times vs. San Diego Union-Tribune
37:02 Why Newsrooms Keep Losing Readers
39:31 Is the Trans-in-Sports Debate Media-Driven?
42:43 What's Next for Matt Calkins (Substack)
43:44 Closing & Thanks
Articles Discussed in This Podcast:
Matt Calkins: I Was a Sports Columnist at the Seattle Times for 11 years. This is why I resigned

Matt Calkins: X account

PJ Media: Hiding Much? Newsom Signs 'Stop Nick Shirley Act.'

Washington Free Beacon: The New York Times Is Weaponizing Islamophobia

Guardian: Washington Post Ordered To Reinstate Opinion Writer Fired Over Charlie Kirk Posts

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45 min
August 24 Jason Arday and Academic Freedom with Tyler Austin Harper | RCI Pod #131
On this week’s episode of the RealClearInvestigations Podcast, RCI Editor J. Peder Zane and RCI Senior Reporter James Varney speak with Atlantic writer Tyler Austin Harper about his widely discussed, gracefully written articles – including a piece addressing the recent suicide of Cambridge Professor Jason Arday and another detailing why Harper left his tenure track job at Bates College – reporting how identity politics is undermining academic freedom.
On the news round-up, Zane and Varney discuss Wall Street Journal and Free Press articles on the pushback against data centers and AI, a ProPublica piece on some of the problem when public money is used to support private schools and a New Yorker article on a Nobel Prize-winning researcher who sexually abused dozens of the young people from Papua New Guinea that he studied.
00:00 Curriculum and Social Justice Initiatives
03:05 The Pushback Against AI and Data Centers
06:13 The Debate on Academic Freedom and Private Schools
09:08 The Case of Jason Arday and Academic Integrity
12:03 Navigating Cultural Sensitivities in Academia
14:47 The Role of Media in Shaping Academic Discourse
33:02 The Evolution of Academic Discourse
37:04 Marxism and the Academy
41:01 The Assault on Academic Freedom
46:10 The Crisis in the Humanities
50:08 The Value of Humanities in Society
54:31 Navigating Political Discourse in Academia

Articles & Books Discussed in This Podcast:
· Tyler Austin Harper/Atlantic: The Truths That Failed Jason Arday

· Tyler Austin Harper/Atlantic: Why I Quit the Tenure Track
· Tyler Austin Harper/Atlantic: What Is the Mellon Foundation Doing to Higher Education?
· “Words For the Taking: The Hunt for a Plagiarist” by Neal Bowers
· Wall Street Journal: The 'Country Hicks' Who Refused $26M from AI Data Center
· Free Press: A City’s War on Surveillance Cameras

· ProPublica: Private Voucher Schools Face Little Accountability

· The New Yorker: The Nobel Laureate Who Experimented on Children

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1 hr 5 min
August 17The Prestige Industrial Complex with “Yuri Bezmenov” RCI Pod #130
On this week’s episode of the RealClearInvestigations Podcast, RCI Editor J. Peder Zane and RCI Senior Reporter James Varney speak with the Substacker who writes under the pseudonym “Yuri Bezmenov” (he’ll tell us why) about his reporting on the network of awards, fellowship, teaching gigs and other lucrative and prestigious incentives that reward people who espouse progressive ideas.
On the news round-up, Zane and Varney discuss a National Review article that details Iran’s efforts to take the war to other countries, a ProPublica article about how General Dynamics’ failed effort to make artillery shells with robots cost American taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars and an article in the Atlantic in which an African-American professor details how his experience with dangerous excesses of wokism pushed him to leave academia.
Articles Discussed in This Podcast:|
Yuri Bezmenov Substack: Fauci’s Georgetown Gig and Other Progressive Rewards

National Review: Iran Is Rewiring Its Proxy Network

ProPublica: Taxes Funded $533M Artillery Plant That Made Nothing

Atlantic: Why This Black Professor Quit the Tenure Track
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1 hr 1 min
August 10Nancy Guthrie and the Truth about True Crime | RealClearInvestigations Podcast #129
On this week’s episode of the RealClearInvestigations Podcast, RCI Editor J. Peder Zane and RCI Senior Reporter James Varney speak with true crime reporter extraordinaire Valerie Bauerlein of the Wall Street Journal about her recent coverage of the Nancy Guthrie abduction, her book on the Alex Murdaugh murder case and her podcast on another South Carolina homicide, “Camp Swamp Road.”
On the news round-up, Zane and Varney discuss the Washington Post’s investigation into fraud and abuse at the Veterans Administration and two articles – one from the New York Times on China, the other from the Washington Post on the U.S. – that look at the continuing rise of the surveillance state.
Articles Discussed in This Podcast:
Valerie Bauerlein/WSJ: How Savannah Guthrie Lost Her Mom and Cops Lost the Case

Valerie Bauerlein/WSJ: Camp Swamp Road Podcast: Listen to the Full Season - WSJ

Valerie Bauerlein: The Devil at His Elbow: Alex Murdaugh and the Fall of a Southern Dynasty

Washington Post: How Predatory Trade Schools Cheat Veterans

Washington Post: How Some Veterans Exploit $193 Billion VA Program

New York Times: How China Keeps Tabs on Foreigners

Washington Post: Rogue Officers Used Camera Network for Stalking

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1 hr 2 min

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Each week J. Peder Zane, Editor of RealClearInvestigations, and RCI Senior Reporter James Varney discuss the week’s best investigative reporting and speak with journalists about cracking challenging…

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