In The Tank

On this special 500th episode of the In The Tank Podcast, the team takes a look at Culture -- from pop culture like movies, to broader American cultural trends like national pride. Is the dominant left-wing culture finally on its way out? Or are recent flops just a a hiccup in some eternal progressive march? Should conservatives even participate to try to influence it, or is it a lost cause?

The Heartland Institute's Linnea Lueken, Jim Lakely, Chris Talgo, Sam Karnick, as well as our special guest--the ever-popular Donald Kendal, will discuss all of this and more...

Riots are once again breaking out in California, all the way to Chicago and East coast cities. The National Guard is on the streets of LA to handle violent protests against ICE, and it seems there is evidence that these multi-day protests are anything but organic. Similar protests are planned around the country this weekend, attempting to counter a military showcase parade President Trump has planned for the 250th birthday of the U.S. Army. The media can't be trusted to cover it fairly, which leads to our next question: is the "knowledge" economy falling apart? The mainstream news...

Join The Heartland Institute's Linnea Lueken, S.T. Karnick, and Jim Lakely as they dive into Episode 497 of the In The Tank Podcast. This episode explores timely and provocative topics, including the Democrats' ongoing quest to find their own version of podcast superstar Joe Rogan—can they cultivate a voice that resonates widely in the digital age?

The team also discusses President Joe Biden's reliance on the autopen presidency. With Biden increasingly using automation and pre-scripted methods to fulfill presidential duties, what does this mean for transparency, authenticity, and public perception of leadership?

Finally, they br...

The legacy media that half this country relies on to inform them about the world is irrevocably broken. For the past five years, they’ve lied constantly to cover up the biggest political scandal of the century: that Joe Biden has been in accelerating cognitive decline since before he was sworn in as president.

Of course, it's worse than that. The media attacked anyone who merely stated that obvious fact, calling what you saw with your own eyes and heard with your own ears “misinformation,” “disinformation,” or even “Russian propaganda.”
CNN's Jake Tapper is now promoting his new book O...

The Heartland Institute and Rasmussen just completed another polling study—this one asking people how worried they are about AI and what should be done about it legislatively. To no one's surprise, people are worried and think the government has a responsibility to get ahead of it.

We’ll also cover the way people can fool even themselves with AI, how some are totally outsourcing their thinking to it, what effect that has (or seems to have), and what the mass expansion of AI is going to do to the economy—especially in terms of energy demand and wh...

The Heartland Institute and Rasmussen Reports released a new poll showing that 71% of Democrats support Elon Musk being IMPRISONED for his DOGE work. This insane position is held by 80% of self-reported "liberals" from the polling. The poll results were released the same day as this episode.

This is sadly not very shocking, as we take a look at what leftist-dominated Reddit says about Elon in our Unhinged segment. We also discuss DOGE's work so far, including issues at the U.S. Treasury Department, and whether or not the pork uncovered by DOGE is actually being cut. It...

Spend any time at all watching or reading the news, and you may notice an odd trend in the Democrat party-- they seem to be embracing policies more and more that totally alienate the "normies," people who hold generally average views on social and political issues. Democrats increasingly favor extreme positions, like defending gang members and embracing ideologies that would have been universally rejected just a few years ago. Where it may end is anyone's guess, we try to parse it out here.

We also cover anti-gun activist David Hogg's potential expulsion from the DNC, how Trump...

Tariffs are the subject of heated debate not just between Democrats and Republicans, but within the spectrum of right wing economic thought as well. Trump has announced reciprocal tariffs for every country on the planet, in an attempt to end unfair trade imbalances across the board. Some countries have already started falling in line, the question is, what will the end result for American citizens be?

The Heartland Institute’s Linnea Lueken, Jim Lakely, Chris Talgo, and S.T. Karnick will discuss. Join us as we also discuss the staff purges at various U.S. health agencies, Ti...

The 2024 election will go down in history as a radical and lasting political realignment in America on the right. The Republican Party of the 80s and 90s is gone, and with it the influence of past presidents and the thought leaders of the right. In their place is a new populism led by former Democrats who were driven out by radical leftists. But is this unusual coalition of former Democrats and populist writers and YouTube stars built to last?

The Heartland Institute’s Linnea Lueken, Jim Lakely, Chris Talgo, and S.T. Karnick will di...

Who actually runs this country? Voters asked for real change in November, and Donald Trump and his team are doing all they can to deliver it as quickly as possible. Yet federal judges use questionable authority to thwart it, keeping the Deep State status quo of unaccountable opposition to the people’s will — which includes shoveling YOUR MONEY to their connected leftist cronies.

Who is really in charge of the Executive Branch of the United States? The Constitution says it’s the president, who was elected by all the people to direct the administrative state. The legacy media...

The Heartland Institute’s Donald Kendal, Jim Lakely, and Chris Talgo present episode 487 of the In The Tank Podcast. Former ITT host Donald Kendal returns after only a few months and the world has gone insane. Suddenly, the left is burning the most popular electric vehicles while a Republican President promotes them in front of the White House. No, the world did not go insane, it was driven to insanity by an incredibly corrupt media system - a media system that has lied to us about virtually everything. We cover some more examples of this on this week's episode.

The Heartland Institute's Tim Benson wrote a paper analyzing the money funneled to green groups through the Inflation Reduction Act, where everything predictably cost way more than our government claimed. The Supreme Court decided that a district judge could tell the President when and how to pay USAID contractors, and Canada retaliates against Trump's tariffs. The President gave his first address to Congress, to the surprise of no one, the Democrats hated it.

The Heartland Institute's Linnea Lueken, Jim Lakely, Sam Karnick, and Tim Benson will discuss all of this and more on this episode of the...

The "experts" are still trying to rewrite the narrative on the government response to COVID, and one of President Trump's picks supports the questionable PRO Act. Meanwhile, VP Vance had strong words for the Orwellian language controls in Germany, and DOGE continues to uncover corrupt and wasteful government spending.

The Heartland Institute's Linnea Lueken, Jim Lakely, and Chris Talgo will discuss all of this and more on this episode of the In The Tank podcast.

Carefully constructed narratives and funding related to public health are being re-evaluated by this new administration, bringing sunlight to disinfect a contaminated NIH. Critics of President Trump and DOGE claim that Trump's actions represent a Constitutional crisis, Politico finally admits that Democrats were wrong to claim the economy was great under Biden, and RFK's confirmation process continues amid significant pushback.

The Heartland Institute’s Linnea Lueken, Jim Lakely, and special guest Bonner Cohen, senior fellow with the National Center for Public Policy Research, will cover all of this and more on this episode of the In The Ta...

The Trump administration's efforts to dismantle the status quo continue, causing the right people to worry about their next paychecks. Nations around the world are coming to the negotiation table on subjects no one thought they would, while some very unstable individuals are attempting to incite violence in retaliation against Trump's efforts.

The Heartland Institute’s Linnea Lueken, Jim Lakely, and H. Sterling Burnett dig into these subjects, with a special focus on Elon Musk's DOGE and how a simple funding freeze and a small audit are making the entire deep state panic—while awakening average Americans to t...

It’s an understatement to say that Donald Trump hit the ground running to start his interrupted second term. The speed and precision with which he has canceled nearly every achievement of the Biden nothing this country has ever seen before. It is simply breathtaking, and happening at such a frenetic pace it is difficult to keep up.

The Heartland Institute’s Linnea Lueken, Jim Lakely, and Chris Talgo will do their best, though. Trump has issued hundreds of executive orders on all sorts of policy areas. On immigration, he closed the border, sent Immigration and Customs Enfo...

The Heartland Institute’s Donald Kendal, Jim Lakely, and Chris Talgo present episode 480 of the In The Tank Podcast. At the beginning of his inaugural address, President Donald Trump declared "The golden age of America begins right now." And within hours of this statement, Donald Trump began signing a series of executive orders, taking the first steps toward fulfilling this promise. On this week's episode, the ITT crew is taking a look at these executive orders and the promises made by Trump to help determine if we are back on track to once again achieve greatness in the United St...

The Heartland Institute’s Linnea Lueken and Jim Lakely are joined by writer and commentator Jon Gabriel​ for episode 479 of the In The Tank Podcast.

With the certification of Trump’s election victory, the ousting of Justin Trudeau as Prime Minister of Canada, and other progressive defeats around the world in recent years, could this spell the beginning of the end for global progressives? Are big companies and big tech finally shifting away from a focus on DEI and ESG, and will it stick? The team talks about all of this and more.

Jon Gabriel (@exjon...

The Heartland Institute’s Donald Kendal, Jim Lakely, and Chris Talgo present episode 477 of the In The Tank Podcast. 2024 was an incredibly important year, filled to the brim with massive stories and events. The ITT crew recaps the year, giving their takes on what was the biggest news of the past 12 months. Also, the ITT crew talks about Heartland's biggest impactful moments of 2024. And last, they will make some bold predictions for what is in store for 2025.

The Heartland Institute’s Donald Kendal, Jim Lakely, Justin Haskins, and Chris Talgo present episode 476 of the In The Tank Podcast. As Donald Trump prepares to take office in 2025, President Joe Biden is riding out his last days in the Oval Office. But instead of just focusing on the orderly transfer of power, Biden seems like he may be trying to sabotage Trump's upcoming term before it can even start. Peculiar foreign policy decisions and increased spending that is contributing to increasing inflation rates is making us wonder if Biden is striving to make life under Trump as hard as...

The Heartland Institute’s Donald Kendal, Jim Lakely, and Chris Talgo present episode 475 of the In The Tank Podcast. There is a lot to talk about this week! Joe Biden pardoned Hunter, President-elect Trump continues to fill his cabinet, and a new analysis of the 2024 election shows that socialist candidates won a vast majority of their races. The ITT crew talks about these topics, the current state of socialism, and speculates whether the Democratic Party will lurch toward "democratic" socialism in the upcoming election cycles.

Hunter Biden Pardon
 
National Review - Judge on Hunter Biden Tax...

The Heartland Institute’s Donald Kendal, Jim Lakely, and Chris Talgo present episode 474 of the In The Tank Podcast. As the dust of the election settles, President-elect Donald J. Trump is busy constructing his cabinet. Elon Musk, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Tulsi Gabbard, Marco Rubio, and many others have been nominated by Trump to fill some of the most important positions in the upcoming administration. How is the ITT crew reacting to some of these picks? Also, Thanksgiving is next week. Will families unite over good food, or will arguments break out while we pass the mashed potatoes?

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Since Election Night, doesn’t everything feel different now? Not just our politics. but the whole mood of the country. Yes, some of our fellow Americans are in a very sad state. Clips of people filming their misery and sharing it with the world are everywhere. But for the majority of the country, is feels like a major societal and cultural shift has occurred. And there are a lot of people walking around with a new spring in their step.

Our media has changed, with the legacy media’s corruption being its undoing. Our pop culture feels abou...

The Heartland Institute’s Donald Kendal, Jim Lakely, Justin Haskins, and Chris Talgo present episode 472 of the In The Tank Podcast. Donald J. Trump has been elected as the 47th President of the United States. Trump's victory comes after a years long campaign by the media to paint the President-elect as a racist, sexist, fascist, second-coming of Hitler. The media's narrative failed as Trump looks to lock up the popular vote. The In The Tank crew talks about the evaporating influence of the mainstream media and speculates on what the first 100 days of the next administration will look like.

The Heartland Institute’s Donald Kendal, Jim Lakely, Justin Haskins, and Jack McPherrin present episode 471 of the In The Tank Podcast. The last vestiges of the media's credibility are going up in smoke. From ghastly journalistic blunders to headlines that twist and turn like characters in a Hitchcock thriller, we’ll break down how the media seems to be taking an axe to its own reputation—Jack Torrance-style. Polls show public trust in the media is as low as the depths of Crystal Lake, and even Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon and owner of The Washington Post, recently penned a chil...

The Heartland Institute’s Donald Kendal, Jim Lakely, and Chris Talgo present episode 470 of the In The Tank Podcast. When Elon Musk expressed interest in purchasing Twitter and making it a bastion for free speech, he simultaneously put a target on his back for the political elites. In a recent development, leaked documents appear to show advisors to the Kamala Harris campaign have plans to "kill Musk's Twitter." Elon Musk's response? "This is war." Also, has the media completely lost it? President Donald Trump's recent campaign stunt at McDonalds has exposed what can only be described as lunacy of th...

The Heartland Institute’s Donald Kendal, Jim Lakely, and Chris Talgo present episode 469 of the In The Tank Podcast. Over this past week, we witnessed an engineering breakthrough from Elon Musk's SpaceX. The successful launch and recapture of the SpaceX Starship booster marks a pivotal moment in the future of space travel, showcasing advancements in reusability and cost efficiency. SpaceX is paving the way for a new era where space access becomes more routine and affordable, pushing the boundaries of what is possible beyond Earth's orbit. But remember, Elon Musk is frowned upon by the political elite. Instead of co...

The Heartland Institute’s Donald Kendal, Jim Lakely, and Justin Haskins present episode 468 of the In The Tank Podcast. As the election approaches, it appears as though the mainstream media industry is desperate to paint Kamala Harris in the best light possible. For example, it appears as though 60 Minutes selectively edited their interview with VP and presidential candidate Kamala Harris to make her come off in as good a light as possible. Simultaneously, the White House Press Secretary accused correspondent Peter Doocy of spreading misinformation for simply asking a question about the Biden Administration's handling of the response to Hu...

The Heartland Institute’s Donald Kendal, Jim Lakely, Justin Haskins, and Chris Talgo present episode 467 of the In The Tank Podcast. The European Union has  The ITT crew talks about all this and more on this week's episode. The European Union recently approved a piece of radical legislation that is poised to overhaul the global economy, wreak havoc on the United States, undermine individual rights, and force thousands of American businesses to adopt left-wing values. Also looking to cripple the United States economy are the longshoreman who officially went on strike this week. The ITT crew talks about all thi...

The Heartland Institute’s Donald Kendal, Jim Lakely, Chris Talgo, and H. Sterling Burnett present episode 466 of the In The Tank Podcast. Surprising news dropped earlier this week when Microsoft announced a partnership that would see the reopening of the 3-Mile Island Nuclear Plant. Despite the history of the plant suffering a partial nuclear meltdown back in 1979, Microsoft is so desperate for a source of reliable energy they are moving forward with this plan. What does this reveal about the state of big tech companies and their energy needs? What does this story show in regards to America's future en...

The Heartland Institute’s Donald Kendal, Jim Lakely, and Chris Talgo present episode 465 of the In The Tank Podcast. We are back after taking a week off while preparing for Heartland's 40th Anniversary Benefit Dinner and we have a lot of news to cover. In the time since our last episode, we have had a presidential debate, accusations of cheating during the debate, and yet another attempt on Donald Trump's life. The In The Tank crew dives into the absolute horrid state of our media industry before talking about the state of the race with only 46 days left before th...

The Heartland Institute’s Donald Kendal, Jim Lakely, Justin Haskins, and Chris Talgo present episode 464 of the In The Tank Podcast. This week, the ITT crew is discussing a handful of stories that revolve around some of the world's most authoritarian socialist rulers. From Brazilian President Lula going after Elon Musk and Twitter to North Korean Dictator Kim Jung Un purging government officials, it seems we are at a time when the world's socialists are desperately clinging to power. What common links can be found between these stories? And what do these events tell us about socialism in general?

The Heartland Institute’s Donald Kendal, Jim Lakely, and Chris Talgo present episode 463 of the In The Tank Podcast. Despite being the official Democratic Presidential candidate for several weeks, the campaign has been slow to reveal her official positions on many important issues. And lately, there have been statements on behalf of Vice President Harris suggesting she is no longer in favor of mandates for electric vehicles and that she is no longer in favor of banning hydraulic fracturing. With the lack of official policy platforms, how are voters supposed to know who is the real Kamala Harris?

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The Heartland Institute’s Donald Kendal, Jim Lakely, Justin Haskins, and Chris Talgo present episode 462 of the In The Tank Podcast. Over the past few weeks, Vice President and presidential candidate Kamala Harris has outlined a number of economic policy proposals her potential administration would enact. Some of these policies include price controls, subsidies for first-time-homebuyers, increases to the corporate income tax, and increases to the capital gains tax. How would these economic policies affect the economy? What do these proposals reveal about the Democratic presidential candidate?

PRIMARY TOPIC - COMMIE-LA'S BASKET OF DEPLORABLE ECONOMIC POLICIES 

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The Heartland Institute’s Donald Kendal, Jim Lakely, and S. T. Karnick present episode 461 of the In The Tank Podcast. The concept of free speech is once again under assault. The Europe Union's Digital Commissioner Thierry Breton wrote an open letter to X CEO Elon Musk warning him to stop the "amplification of harmful content." Meanwhile, authorities in the UK have been cracking down on so-called "hate speech" on social media, even going as far as threatening American citizens of extradition over supposed incitement of violence. Are any of these restrictions justifiable? Should free speech be absolute? The In Th...

The Heartland Institute’s Donald Kendal, Jim Lakely, Justin Haskins, and Chris Talgo present episode 460 of the In The Tank Podcast. Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic candidate, has selected her running mate - Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. Nancy Pelosi and others in the media are trying to portray Walz as a moderate "heartland democrat," but is this really the case? The In The Tank Crew looks into Walz's record and policy agenda to show just how far-left he really is.

PRIMARY TOPIC - HARRIS/WALZ: A FAR-LEFT DEMOCRATIC TICKET

(video) Nancy Pel...

The Heartland Institute’s Jim Lakely, Chris Talgo, Justin Haskins, and S.T. Karnick present episode 459 of the In the Tank Podcast. Heartland recently commissioned some polls with our friends at Rasmussen Reports – together, among the only organizations doing serious polling research on election fraud. Our latest finding: No less than 62% of likely voters are concerned that cheating will affect the outcome of the 2024 election in November. And why might that be? Maybe because nearly 20% of those same voters said they received multiple ballots in the mail in 2020. Committing voter fraud has never been easier in America. It’s a nati...

The Heartland Institute’s Donald Kendal, Jim Lakely, Justin Haskins, and Chris Talgo present episode 458 of the In The Tank Podcast. Another wild news cycle has seen President Joe Biden bow out of the 2024 election. With an endorsement from Biden, it appears as though the candidacy is Vice President Kamala Harris's for the taking. The In The Tank crew talks about the latest news before breaking down the things you need to know about candidate Kamala Harris.

PRIMARY TOPIC - CANDIDATE KAMALA HARRIS: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

The Federalist - Top 30 Rea...

The Heartland Institute’s Donald Kendal, Jim Lakely, Chris Talgo, and S. T. Karnick present episode 457 of the In The Tank Podcast. Saturday July 13th, 2024 is a day that will go down in history. An attempted assassination of Donald Trump sent shock waves around the world. The In The Tank crew talks about the swirling news, trying to make sense of what is going on in this country. From the failure of the Secret Service to the reactions from the media and partisan commentators, there is no shortage of things to discuss. Also, the ITT crew speculates about Trump's up...

The Heartland Institute’s Donald Kendal, Jim Lakely, Justin Haskins, and Chris Talgo present episode 456 of the In The Tank Podcast. We are now two weeks removed from what might go down in history as the worst performance in a presidential debate of all time, and the story continues to garner massive mainstream attention. President Biden's horrible performance on the debate stage has resulted in a tidal wave of criticism and calls to step aside by many of the most influential people on the left. This is unprecedented. How is this going to play out? Will Biden step aside? Ho...