American Thought Leaders

Charles Murray: I Thought Religion Was Irrelevant to Me. I Was Wrong.

Political scientist Charles Murray has written many well-known books over the course of his lifetime.Many of his works—including “Losing Ground,” “The Bell Curve,” and “Coming Apart”—have deeply influenced the intellectual discourse and zeitgeist of our times and provoked heated debate about the roots of major social problems in America.His latest book covers a topic that he has never covered deeply before: religion.Murray writes in the foreword of his book “Taking Religion Seriously,” “Millions are like me when it comes to religion: well-educated and successful people for whom religion has been irrelevant. We grew up in secular households or drifted away from the faiths in which we were raised and never looked back. For them, I think I have a story worth telling.”In our conversation, he recounts how he slowly came to question his assumption that there was nothing in religion for him.He began to grapple with questions such as: How did life come to be? Why is there something rather than nothing? What happens to purely secular societies? What happens to art that no longer acknowledges beauty, truth, and the good?He said: “I finished the book by comparing myself to a kid whose nose is pressed against the glass watching a party that’s going on inside that he can’t join. I have had the good fortune to meet a number of people who have had a very full, rich spiritual experience. ... I look at the kind of people they are, and I say to myself: I want more of that.”Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

CCP Power Plays in Tariff Talks Explained | John Moolenaar, Chairman of the House CCP Committee

Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.) has been spearheading efforts in Congress to combat the threat posed by the Chinese regime to American interests—from economic warfare to espionage and infiltration—as chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party.“With rare earths, China is basically firing a loaded gun ... on our economy,” he says.He’s pushing a bill that would phase in a 100 percent tariff on all strategic goods from China. The tariff would not just penalize China but also incentivize “other countries, as well as the United States, to invest in this almost as if it’s a Defense Production Act activity.”Beyond rare earth minerals, what leverage does the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) have exactly in trade talks with the United States? What will the CCP’s strategy be? How should President Donald Trump respond to the CCP’s coercive tactics and its recent attempts to gain additional leverage?And what can America do to extricate itself from its dependence on China for some of its most critical manufacturing technologies?Moolenaar points out that the CCP is using its leverage not only over trade but also over Chinese nationals studying or working in America via its extensive United Front operations.“Under their recent national security laws, any Chinese national who doesn’t carry out the will of the Chinese Communist Party, no matter where they are in the world, on U.S. soil or somewhere else in the world, [is] in violation of national security laws,” Moolenaar says.On the other hand, is the position of the CCP really secure? And what about Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s position in particular? What signs of dissatisfaction and unrest are there among the Chinese population?Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

Against the Grain: The NBA Player Who Refused to Kneel or Get the Shot | Jonathan Isaac

NBA player Jonathan Isaac is known not just for his talent on the court, but for his convictions and outspoken faith. He’s the author of the 2022 best-selling memoir “Why I Stand.”As a youth, he struggled with anxiety—but a chance encounter in an elevator with the man who would later become his pastor changed the course of his life.Faith helped him triumph over his battle with anxiety, but it also later put him at the center of a national debate. After George Floyd’s death, at the height of the Black Lives Matter movement, most NBA players chose to kneel during the national anthem. But Isaac chose to stand. Later, his decision to decline the COVID-19 vaccines also drew intense media scrutiny.In this episode, he shares his story, his convictions, his choices and why he made them, and what it means to believe in something bigger than yourself.Now, through his UNITUS shoe line, Isaac shares Bible verses and a message of hope.Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

The CCP’s Gloves Are Off in Trade War—What’s Next? | Lee Smith

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) recently imposed unprecedented export controls on rare earths, escalating the U.S.–China trade war.How is it that the Chinese regime managed to gain control of many of the most essential supply chains, from critical minerals to pharmaceuticals? How should the Trump administration approach this threat to national security?In this episode, we sit down with Lee Smith, author of “The Plot Against the President,” and the soon-to-be-released book, “The China Matrix: The Epic Story of How Donald Trump Shattered a Deadly Pact.”“It was simply American corruption that has allowed all of this to happen. And that’s certainly the point that [U.S. President] Donald Trump makes in the book,” Smith says.What is Trump’s strategy when it comes to China? How does he actually view Chinese leader Xi Jinping?Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.Editor’s Note: Lee Smith previously hosted the EpochTV program “Words That Matter.”

Andy Ngo: I Was Nearly Killed by Antifa. This is What I Learned.

Few people understand the far-left extremist group Antifa as well as investigative journalist Andy Ngo, author of “Unmasked: Inside Antifa’s Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy.”He has been beaten, attacked, and nearly killed by Antifa for his undercover reporting of the group’s operations.In an executive order signed on Sept. 22, President Donald Trump designated the group a domestic terrorist organization. On Oct. 8, the president hosted a roundtable focused on Antifa and invited Ngo and other journalists to participate.In this episode, Ngo recounts his harrowing personal experiences.What will it take to actually dismantle Antifa? How is Antifa organized and funded? And what does Ngo make of the broader trends of political violence, from the assassination of Charlie Kirk to the murder of the United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson?Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.