The Libertarian Institute - All Podcasts

A rumored Putin Trump Xi summit sounds like diplomatic fireworks, but the bigger story is what it reveals about power and leverage as Ukraine’s position weakens. Larry Johnson joins me to parse the Reuters report, the shifting tone coming out of Washington, and the growing sense that US leaders are preparing to treat Ukraine as a sunk cost. We also react to Trump’s rhetoric about Zelensky, what it signals to Europe, and why messaging can matter as much as money when alliances start to fray.

From there, we get concrete about capacity. Talk is c...



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Scott brings Larry Johnson back on the show to talk about all the Middle East news they couldn’t get to last week. They discuss the Iran war and the status of Iran’s nuclear program, Israel’s war with Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Saudi’s escalating war with the Houthis of Yemen.

Discussed on the show:

Larry C. Johnson is a former CIA officer and intelligence analyst, and a former planner and advisor at the US State Department’s Office of Counte...



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Scott interviews Robert Wright, author of the book The God Test, about how AI will impact our future. They discuss the threats AI poses to our safety and our economies. And they talk about the right and wrong ways to minimize those risks without sacrificing the genuine benefits offered by the technology.

Discussed on the show:

Robert Wright is the New York Times bestselling author of The Evol...



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Scott interviews Libertarian Institute Fellow Joseph Solis-Mullen about what’s happening in Ethiopia. Solis-Mullen gives us the historical context of the escalating conflict, the broader geopolitical context in the region and explains how Washington fits into all of this.

Discussed on the show:

Joseph Solis-Mullen is a political scientist and economist at The Libertarian Institute and a professor of politics and history at SAU. He is the author of The National Debt and You and The Fake China Threat and Its Very R...

Nationwide there has been an epidemic of police officers sexually abusing teens they are meant to mentor through Learning For Life’s Police Explorers Program.

It’s been quite some time since I have responded to “mail” so I have curated these questions to address:.

Events and Ephemera:

The Arcata Summit in Bozeman 13-14 November 2026

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References:

Why the M7 is Wrong with I...

Trump is turning up the heat on Ukraine and Zelensky, and the timing is impossible to ignore: voters feel foreign policy in their wallets through gas prices and diesel prices. Kyle sits down with Connor Echols of Responsible Statecraft to parse what’s real policy movement versus loud rhetoric, including Trump’s complaints about U.S. aid and the risk of Washington signaling more pressure on Kyiv than on Moscow. We also dig into a concrete headline with big implications: a U.S. purchase of Russian diesel meant to relieve stress on American fuel markets, and what that says abou...

The midterms are fast approaching, as is the “fall back” to Standard Time: that blissful-but-all-too-brief 4-month period in which our clocks & schedules align in a healthy way with our natural circadian rhythms, allowing us to flourish for 1/3 of the year until we “spring forward” back into the earthly hell known as “Daylight Savings.”

With the Orwellian-named “Sunshine Protection Act” (which Marco Rubio has been pushing since he was a Senator back in 2018 & which Donald Trump also vehemently supports) dangerously close to passing — the House has passed it, Trump supports it, & only a few Senators are holding it up at the moment —...

The fastest way to misread a war is to believe one leader can simply declare it over. We dig into President Trump’s claim that the Iran war will end “very soon” and test it against the hard constraints that actually decide timelines: the Strait of Hormuz, shipping attacks in the Persian Gulf, and the kind of leverage that shows up immediately in oil prices and energy costs back home.

We also get into the headline-grabbing idea that the US is considering the MOAB, the so-called mother of all bombs, for Iranian targets. We walk throug...

I went fishing, and many of y’all had suggested I livestream while fishing. During the stream I discuss Sandra Birchmore.

The fastest way a “regional conflict” becomes a global problem is through chokepoints, and we spend this conversation mapping the ones that matter. Dave DeCamp joins me to explain why a US move toward direct intervention in Yemen could trigger the exact kind of escalation Washington says it wants to avoid, including threats to US […]

Download Audio. Scott interviews Larry Johnson about the status of Washington’s campaign to weaken the current Russian regime. Discussed on the show: “Dispatch from Moscow: The Collapse Narrative Keeps Missing the Real Russia” (Sonar21) “The Human Cost of The War Nobody Is Counting: Sulfur, Fertilizer and an Email from Florida” (Sonar21) Larry C. Johnson […]

If you feel like the headlines about Ukraine, Russia, and “energy deals” never add up, you’re not imagining it. We sit down with Larry Johnson to separate political theater from the underlying mechanics that actually move wars and markets and to ask why so many public claims collapse the moment you put real numbers next […]

A single debate clip can reveal an entire foreign policy reality: we demand ritual condemnation of October 7, then treat any mention of Gaza’s devastation as taboo. Kyle is joined by Nolan Denaro to unpack a heated Michigan campaign exchange and the bigger story behind it, including how U.S. politicians lean on inflated or debunked […]

A promise not to attack Iran before the US midterm elections sounds calming until you ask the uncomfortable question: who benefits from the world believing it? We sit down with Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski to sort through the noise, the incentives, and the real risk of escalation hiding behind confident social media posts and campaign […]

Something big hides inside a simple question: if the US and Israel are thinking about striking Iran, why would the timing cluster around elections? We pull apart a Reuters-style headline and treat it like a map, tracing how US midterm politics and Israel’s vote can shape escalation decisions just as much as military “readiness” can. […]

“Let them take out Los Angeles” is the kind of line that explodes online, but the real story is what comes after the clip: how an unpopular Iran war gets sold to the public, and how critics keep missing the most effective, factual attacks. Andrew Day returns to help us separate viral framing from what […]

The fastest way to sell a war is to blame the same villain for everything, and right now that villain is Iran. We walk through Donald Trump’s comments on the alleged FlyDubai attack and the broader pattern of turning unclear events into “proof” of an Iranian terror campaign. We talk attribution, the Sunni extremist profile […]

a Download Audio. Scott interviews Ian Proud about how he recently traveled to Russia to hear a speech from Putin, only to be detained by his own government upon his return. Scott and Proud talk about what happened and why he decided to go to Russia. They then discuss the broader state of the war. […]

We react to the new Down, listen to Church of Misery, and discuss Douglas Carter getting released from prison after 41 years on death row.

“Only because I wanted to go further.” That single line from Donald Trump’s Time magazine interview changes how you should read the entire Iran war timeline. I’m solo today, digging into the most relevant sections of the interview and separating performative victory claims from what the conflict actually looks like on the ground and in […]

The Iraq War has been a “still going” story for so long that it barely feels real when someone says it might finally be ending. We sit down with Col. Lawrence Wilkerson to talk through what the last American forces leaving Iraq could actually mean, not just for Baghdad, but for the bigger U.S. posture […]

“Only because I wanted to go further.” That single line from Donald Trump’s Time magazine interview changes how you should read the entire Iran war timeline. I’m solo today, digging into the most relevant sections of the interview and separating performative victory claims from what the conflict actually looks like on the ground and in […]

A lot of foreign policy talk collapses into slogans until you ask one simple question: if things are going fine, why are oil prices still telling a different story? We bring Larry Johnson back to sort through the gap between public claims and what the Strait of Hormuz, tanker security, and the energy market seem […]

Download Audio. Gordon Hahn returns to the show to talk about the notable rise of Azov’s Andriy Biletsky. He and Scott also discuss the obstacles to peace that are keeping this war going and some potential flashpoints for further escalation. Discussed on the show: Ukraine Over the Edge: Russia, the West and the “New […]

Download Audio. Scott interviews Ted Snider about Ukraine. After years of Western journalists acting like Ukraine had just started turning the tide toward victory, the conflict remains frozen in a bloody stalemate. Scott and Snider dig in and discuss what’s actually going in and why all parties seem unlikely to pull back or stop […]

Trump takes the UN stage and talks about Iran the way politicians talk when they want options to expand a war without owning the cost. I walk through what he said, why it lands as bluster instead of strategy, and how that kind of rhetoric can still be dangerous when it becomes the basis for […]

I watched the Caleb Flynn trial and was shocked by how little physical evidence there was. Although I think the jurors got it right, could innocent people be convicted?

A single phrase can change the whole global chessboard: nuclear first use. We start by reacting to speculation about a US nuclear strike in Iran and lay out why even “unlikely” decisions matter when escalation could pull in Russia, China, and every other nuclear-armed state. Deterrence is supposed to prevent war, but it also creates […]

Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen has dragged on for years, but one detail should stop you in your tracks: the New York Times reports Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has reached out to Donald Trump three times asking for US military help against Ansar Allah and each time Trump declines. That raises a bigger question […]

Download Audio. Scott interviews the Quincy Institute’s Eli Clifton and Ian Lustick about their new book Israel’s Lobby: America in the Grip of a Foreign Power. Discussed on the show: Israel’s Lobby: America in the Grip of a Foreign Power by Eli Clifton and Ian Lustick Naza (IMDb) Eli Clifton is a senior advisor […]

Download Audio. Scott interviews Rich Baris about his new book and the broader political trends he’s uncovered through his work as a pollster. Baris shares some unique insights into the dramatic shifts happening on both the left and right—especially with younger Americans—that are going mostly unnoticed thanks to antiquated polling conventions. Discussed on the […]

Download Audio. Scott interviews Ben Aris about the war in Ukraine. Aris uses his deep expertise of Russian society and the ongoing war to give us a window into the evolving nature of the conflict and the barriers to peace facing both sides. Discussed on the show: Radio Moskva IntelliNews Ben Aris is the […]

A miracle survival story can be true and still be used as propaganda, and that tension is exactly what we can’t ignore. We bring back Lt.Col. Karen Kwiatkowski to react to the long-awaited 60 Minutes appearance by the rescued Iran shootdown survivor known as “Bravo” and to explain why the interview lands as flat, scripted, […]

Sixty thousand bombs is not a headline you just scroll past, especially when the bill is picked up by U.S. taxpayers. We start by unpacking reports that Washington has agreed to provide Israel a huge package of heavy munitions, including 2,000-pound bombs and penetrator “bunker buster” style weapons. We talk through what that amount of […]

Download Audio. Charles Goyette returns to the show to talk about the terrible, unsustainable and outright destructive economic situation the US government has gotten us in and the many ways the Trump administration is making everything even worse. Discussed on the show: Empire of Lies by Charles Goyette “Beware: Monetary Geniuses At Work” (Libertarian […]

Download Audio. Scott interviews Brian McGlinchey about an article he wrote recently telling the story of Ameneh Abbasi, a 23-year-old Iranian woman who died while waiting for a lifesaving medical procedure that was delayed by the “crippling sanctions” the US government has put on the country. McGlinchey and Scott dig into what happened and […]

Download Audio. Scott interviews Kyle Anzalone about the latest news in foreign policy. They discuss the escalation between the Houthis and Saudis, the differences between this round of fighting in Yemen and the last, how the Iran war is impacting domestic politics in the US and more. Discussed on the show: “More U.S. troops […]

Download Audio. Scott interviews writer and analyst Elfadil Ibrahim about the current state of Iraqi politics. The US-backed Iraqi government sits in a strange, awkward and concerningly unstable place between Washington and Tehran amid this ongoing war. Ibrahim breaks it all down and also provides some clarity on the recent escalation between the Houthis […]

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