In The Tank

On In The Tank's "farewell" episode, the panel (plus special guests) enjoys a completely UNHINGED compilation of the craziness coming out of the DSA and Socialist movement, while warning that extremist activists should not be dismissed or ignored entirely.

From energy policy to emerging technology and socialism and everything in between, Heartland Institute staff reflect on the most important issues covered by In The Tank and at the Heartland Institute at large, and discuss what's coming next for the action-tank... and how to save America.

For America @ 250, this week in 1776 American spy Captain Nathan Hale...

The debate surrounding AI and whether or not (or even how) its development should be regulated is definitely heating up, with a flurry of mostly-Democrats coming out in favor of forcing a development slowdown in order to supposedly prevent a looming AI-apocalypse. Why are leaders from Anthropic saying they agree? Legitimate conspiracy and conspiracy theories abound, and the panel will discuss WHY this is happening, who might be responsible, and what the free market solution is.

Also, President Donald Trump is floating the idea of giving every adult in the country $5000... if Republicans win in the midterms...

September 11th, 2001, was one of the darkest days in U.S. history. Almost 3,000 Americans died, and it is not a stretch to argue that it changed the course of American life forever. While the lives lost were the worst impact by far, policy decisions made in the aftermath still hurt us today, many of which were foundational for today's powerful surveillance state. The panel will discuss their personal experience with the terror attack, and the bad policy that followed.

Also, The Heartland Institute has released an important study ranking states based on how they handle Medicaid. Government...

Today the team is away at The Heartland Institute's 42nd Anniversary Benefit Dinner, hosting Governor Ron DeSantis.

Instead of your regularly scheduled program, we bring to you an amazing speech by Yeonmi Park!

We’re celebrating 550 episodes of In The Tank by revisiting some of the greatest stories from the American Revolution!

Join host Linnea Lueken, alongside regulars Jim Lakely, Sam Karnick, and Chris Talgo, as they explore the people, battles, and ideas that transformed 13 colonies into a nation that defied the odds, and has done so for 250 years of American history.

Tune in for this special collection of America at 250 from the Heartland Institute’s In The Tank!

One of the biggest tech-related debates right now, which also overlaps with concerns about privacy rights and government overreach, is over new Flock camera systems being used on public and private property. These camera systems are interconnected, in part so police departments can more easily coordinate between jurisdictions to solve crimes... but at what cost? Supporters say it's worth it to stop crime, opponents say it's an invasion of privacy and expansion of the surveillance state. The panel discusses how much is too much, and whether regulations already exist to limit public surveillance.

On the other hand...

 Conservatives often point at socialism and more or less leave the argument at "these guys are crazy!" -- But the DSA do point to some real problems, like the cost of medical care, how big companies can run roughshod over ordinary Americans, and that public infrastructure is failing in our cities as well as rural communities. But socialist solutions from Medicare for All to eating the rich will only exacerbate those problems, not solve them. We talk about actual solutions, and why socialism fails.

Meanwhile, inflation is falling, which is good, but how long can it last? W...

Anthony Fauci was recently hauled before the Senate to explain his role in the COVID 19 pandemic, and the multitude of lies he told as head of the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and advisor to the president. He pleaded the fifth more than 100 times during the hearing, refusing to answer pointed questions. Next steps are as unclear as his tenure, his reasoning for seeming to protect China has been left unstated, and the scale of his corruption is hard to quantify.

Meanwhile, the FCC has delivered a blow to China's AI...

President Trump revealed that China has been interfering with our elections, especially the fraught 2020 election, in a speech that the mainstream media attempted to debunk before they even had the details. Trump brought receipts, and then as if to re-emphasize his point about election integrity, another bombshell dropped: illegals have been voting in New Jersey elections. The panel will discuss how to prevent these egregious problems with our election system, how to harden it against attacks, and how deep this all may go.

On UNHINGED: Representative Jasmine Crockett says the reason people were rooting for Spain in...

The Democratic Socialists in America have one of the most extreme platforms of any rising political group. They identify some real problems, but their solutions would be catastrophic. The team breaks down the most dangerous elements of the DSA's stated goals, and presents what would ACTUALLY help the poor and working classes in America.

Also discussed is the unexpected positive consequences of investment in AI: natural gas and other major energy infrastructure is being improved in anticipation of the need for stable power, it may even spur on an energy revolution.

On UNHINGED: A crazy...

Trump is refusing to sign the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act unless lawmakers first pass the SAVE AMERICA Act, which Trump says is far more important. There is a lot of skepticism about whether or not the now-hostage Housing Act is a good idea anyway, the panel discusses the nuances. On another issue, Trump has also said that the administration is working on a National Right to Carry bill, but again, there are potential issues down the road from this approach. Gun rights advocates say its a step in the right direction, but doesn't affirm Constitutional rights to...

One would think a major terror attack just occurred on U.S. soil, for all the reactions that Democrats and socialist friends are having to the news that Elon Musk's net worth just hit a trillion dollars. He is the first person in history to make that mark, and leftist progressives absolutely hate it. We will discuss the politics of ENVY, and how poisonous jealousy is to society and the economy.

Also, as the World Cup continues in the United States, many visiting Europeans are finding themselves loving American culture and community, reality is refuting the scary...

Social Security trustees predict the retirement trust fund is now projected to run dry a full year earlier than previously forecast, in just 2032. What got us here, and what does Congress need to do about it? Can we keep pushing insolvency forward forever?

And: where does good government end and dangerous negligence begin? The Belfast riots are the latest example of a Western government that suppressed legitimate debate about immigration and crime, and now things are boiling over.

Finally, related to our main topic but separated by over 250 years: the Intolerable Acts of 1774 pushed the...

More and more, parents and government agencies are preventing kids from doing things like walking home from school on their own. It’s clear that this kind of helicopter parenting is bad for kids’ development, we discuss where the line between child safety and independence is, and whether government should even have a say.

Bernie Sanders, in classic socialist form, is looking to nationalize AI. His argument is that human content was used to train the models, so the public should share in the profits made from that data. This will appeal to a lot of people, but...

As the Justice Department's war on fraud continues, a new report by City Journal says that California is giving free appliances, including solar panels, to illegal immigrants in the name of fighting climate change. Absurd enough on its face, but something else is very fishy about who exactly is benefitting from the program.

Leftists are being irresponsible with other people's money on the other coast as well: in New York City, Mayor Mamdani is openly bragging about his plans to take properties from landlords who own them, and transfer ownership to nebulous "responsible stewards." This is totally...

This week, President Trump agreed to drop a $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over the Biden administration targeting him and his family, and in exchange the DOJ will set up a fund that will be available to cover the legal fees and losses of other Americans who were politically targeted by government. Democrats hate it, some Republicans hate it. Is this corruption, or compensating people the Biden admin targeted?

Plus, Gen Z is increasingly despondent that they will never own their own homes, and are extremely negative about the economy. How right are they, and where are...

 Trump went to Beijing this week to negotiate the path forward with China, as President Trump's administration has made multiple international moves to cut the CCP off from total control of global resources. China says they want "peaceful coexistence," even as they threaten other US allies in Asia. The panel discusses what we would like to see come out of these talks, and what we expect will happen. 

Meanwhile, socialist mayor of New York City Mamdani claims that he has achieved a balanced budget for the city-- but it comes at the cost of billions from Albany an...

AI is everywhere; from the silly videos you see on Facebook to the articles you read online, even within hospital systems and publishers. Where is the line? Where is AI useful, and where is it more trouble than it's worth?

The Heartland Institute team will play "AI or not?", review the absolute mountains of AI-generated content that Amazon is allowing on their publishing platform, and we'll discuss what role government plays in all of this, where intervention might be necessary, and where it will only make things worse.

On UNHINGED: Scammers are now using AI...

Federal agents raided more than 20 businesses this week in Minneapolis as the fight against fraud continues, and Governor Tim Walz is trying to take credit, but the public isn't falling for it. Another scam was busted at the Supreme Court, which issued a decision on race-based gerrymandering in Louisiana, stating definitively that the practice is unconstitutional.

An advisor to Anthony Fauci has been charged with conspiracy against the United States; destruction, alteration, or falsification of records in federal investigations; concealment, removal, or mutilation of records; and aiding and abetting, at the same time, former FBI director James...

By just a hair, Virginia voters approved a gerrymandering plan that would eliminate five Republican districts, all in the name of "restoring fairness" to Virginia's elections-- which we recognize is more like restoring Democrat domination. Luckily a court has already ruled the referendum is unconstitutional, so the fight is not over yet.

But the biggest news this week has got to be that a grand jury in Alabama has charged the Southern Poverty Lawa Center with 11 counts of wire fraud and other financial crimes, and the indictment revealed that SPLC has PAID members of white supremacist and...

We all know that the public education system in America is rotten, but it is actually even worse than you may realize. There are only so many hours in a school day, and while kids are falling behind in reading, writing, and arithmetic, teachers unions are making sure kids learn about how to be good left-wing activists. Many of these same groups support the "No Kings" protest movement, and we will discuss why that is.

At the White House, Trump has signed an executive order about mail-in voting, in an attempt to limit fraud, but will it...

Another point goes to capitalism in the long war of economics, as Poland has overcome its once-communist decay and rocketed into becoming one of the world's largest economies. Meanwhile, socialist Cuba slowly crumbles amid a fuel embargo and the decades of communist economic influence. We will contrast and compare these two examples of economic systems and see which one is best (Hint: it's not the one represented by the hammer and sickle).

Trump is temporarily suspending the Jones Act, which has had a major impact on energy shipping, especially for East-coast states, and we will look at...

BlackRock and Larry Fink is continuing to blink on climate policy. The investment giant appears to be abandoning some of its climate-focused dogma in favor of protecting investor returns, a crazy idea that apparently everyone forgot for a few years. At the same time, the economic catastrophe that is Net Zero is beginning to convince even New York Governor Hochul that climate policies mostly just crush affordability and energy security.

Meanwhile, a major victory for free speech comes out of Missouri, as the courts have decreed that the Biden administration was WRONG for using social media as...

In the days leading up to the attack on Iran, a rift formed between the Pentagon and AI company Anthropic. The dispute rose over restrictions the company imposed on the AI model used in US intelligence and military operations. The feud, interesting in its own right, provided insight into how the government is using AI in the theater of war.

The Heartland Institute's Donald Kendal, S.T. Karnick, Jim Lakely, and Chris Talgo will talk about all of this and more on Episode #529 of the In The Tank Podcast.

Join us LIVE at 1 p.m...

New York City is struggling with its budget, and despite Mayor Mamdani campaigning on affordable housing, he’s now turning to property tax hikes to try to close the gap. This is fairly typical for Democrats—and totally unsurprising. Meanwhile, Trump struck a deal with Japan that looks poised to sidestep China while also boosting American energy abundance. We’ll also cover socialism in our schools—how bad it really is—and how to counter it.

And on UNHINGED: the Obama Presidential Center, scheduled to open this spring, is astonishingly ugly—and fitting for the Obama legacy.

The Hea...

Justin Haskins joins us to talk about his and Jack McPherrin's new book, "The Next Big Crash," covering the shady dealings of Wall Street insiders and elites who have conspired to rig our economy and transfer control over our futures to massive financial interests. When the next crash comes, it could very well be more devastating than any before. On a brighter note, federal employment is at the lowest level it has been since 1966, showing that the Trump administration really has made progress on cutting federal bloat, while American private sector jobs are improving. Meanwhile, the SAVE America Act...

This week, Bitcoin is DOWN, but does that mean anything to those of us who don't own it? Some argue that it indicates the dollar is strengthening, which is good news for affordability. AND the Washington Post has laid off a third of their staff, journalists are unemployed all over the place, and it could mean the beginning of the end for the far-left publication. Finally school is out... all the time, it seems, because students seem to be missing class for protests, snow weeks, all kinds of things that aren't school. In New York City, Mamdani's government is...

The scale of fraud in federal entitlement programs is truly staggering with some estimates reaching into the TRILLIONS, and we have to ask, who can be held accountable for all this?

Fresh off the plane home from Switzerland, Linnea, Donald, and Jim discuss the Heartland Institute's inaugural WORLD PROSPERITY FORUM, the antidote to the globalism of the World Economic Forum held at Davos every year... which Linnea and Donald may or may not have also gone to visit while in Europe.

And on UNHINGED: An insane viral video of a nurse shows her instructing "resistors"...

On In The Tank Podcast #523, Linnea Lueken, Jim Lakely, Chris Talgo, and S.T. Karnick break down the latest reminders that socialism doesn’t “fix” anything—it wrecks it. From political theater in Washington to chaos in corporate America, and from Venezuela’s collapse to what’s brewing in New York City, the panel connects the dots on how bad ideas keep spreading.

The panel digs into Democrats holding a candlelight vigil… for Jan. 6. Then the crew looks at a Hilton franchise caught in a PR firestorm after targeting ICE bookings, and asks the obvious question: when did basic law...

Hollywood is at a breaking point—and audiences can feel it.

On In the Tank Podcast #522, Linnea Lueken, Jim Lakely, Chris Talgo, S.T. Karnick, and Donald Kendal dig into what’s reshaping movies and TV right now: DEI-era gatekeeping, studios quietly changing course, shrinking opportunities for creators, and the growing role of AI in entertainment.

They’re joined by Christian Toto, returning for his fifth annual appearance, to break down how Hollywood’s incentives filtered out creative voices—and why so many films now feel safe, preachy, and lifeless.

The panel also tackles Di...

"Woke" and its pushers continues to be exposed for the ugliness, fraud and tyranny their policies unleash on the rest of us, all over the world. We'll cover how the architect of Jaguar’s disastrous rebrand has finally been canned, and Rep. Aftyn Behn’s loss to Matt Van Epps in Tennessee reveals her and her party as very sore losers indeed.

We'll also take a look at the years of widespread fraud inside Minnesota’s social services system, and discuss how Governor Walz not only buried the problem but may be setting the stage for even more a...

Thanksgiving is approaching, but grocery prices seem to just keep getting higher. We will discuss what causes food costs to rise, and how it can be stopped.

A new exclusive from the Free Beacon reports that George Soros gave a quarter million dollars to the Center for Countering Digital Hate, which works with advertisers for Big Tech trying to deplatform conservative voices and destroy X.com. Plus, Rasmussen polling found that a worrying chunk of young voters would be willing to hand functions of government over to AI, including policymaking decisions and our very rights.

...

America’s great exodus from major cities and entire states keeps accelerating — and the election of socialist Mayor Mamdani in New York City is only speeding things up. Yet polls show young Americans becoming more favorable toward socialism, even embracing ideas like government-run grocery stores. What does that say about our culture, our education system, and the nation’s future?

On the education side, things are just as alarming. UC San Diego reports that incoming students can’t meet basic math expectations — not just at grade level, but far below it. How did we get here, and how can st...

On Tuesday, New York City elected a trust-fund communist as mayor. New Jersey, which seemed to be trending red, put a scandal-ridden Democrat in the governor's mansion. In Virginia, voters rejected a black Republican conservative woman over a woke former CIA spook who pledged to force girls and women to endure biological men in their private spaces again. Oh, and Dems in the Old Dominion also elected a man who wished a political opponent and his children would be murdered so his grieving wife would finally agree with him on policy as she held her family in her arms.<...

Are Democrats holding SNAP funding hostage to keep the Schumer Shutdown alive? The In the Tank crew dives into the latest Washington tricks — and whether major reforms are long overdue.

As the Democratic Party embraces openly socialist candidates, we ask: are there any moderates left?

On UNHINGED, the team rants about Christmas displays popping up before Halloween 🎃 — and then wraps up with a lighter segment on our favorite spooky-season books and movies.

Featuring Linnea Lueken, Jim Lakely, S.T. Karnick, and Chris Talgo of The Heartland Institute.

🕐 Tune in LIVE at 1 p.m. ET on...

The AI Revolution is happening at an incredible speed. New AI products, like OpenAI's Sora 2, continue to push the envelope and blur the lines between reality and fabrication. And as this revolutionary technology continues to advance and integrate deeper into our daily lives, serious questions are emerging about power, control, and human rights in the digital age. Should there be a framework—an “AI Bill of Rights”—to protect individuals from algorithmic abuse, data manipulation, and government or corporate overreach? The ITT crew discusses how real this future is becoming, the potential threats to privacy and autonomy, and whether society...

The government is still shut down, and Democrats are warning that the expiration of Obamacare subsidies at the end of this year will make healthcare unaffordable for millions. But that’s not true. While the system certainly needs reform, the real problem lies deeper than temporary subsidies. The Heartland crew will break down what needs to change to make healthcare work for everyone.

Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has floated the idea that the United States may need to “decouple” from China if they continue to play unfairly in global markets. What would that mean for essential materi...

Are Democrat-led cities spiraling out of control? Weeks of unrest, weak law enforcement, and rising violence are testing the limits of left-wing policies.

In Portland, ANTIFA attacks ICE facilities by night while petty crime dominates by day. In Chicago, local leaders defend policies that fuel gang violence and lawlessness. As the Trump administration vows to crack down, the question is — how far should it go?

Plus: President Trump threatens Hollywood with tariffs on movies filmed overseas, and in UNHINGED, we reveal shocking text messages from a Democrat AG candidate showing violent hatred toward a GOP le...

Are Democrat-led cities spiraling out of control? Weeks of unrest, weak law enforcement, and rising violence are testing the limits of left-wing policies.

In Portland, ANTIFA attacks ICE facilities by night while petty crime dominates by day. In Chicago, local leaders defend policies that fuel gang violence and lawlessness. As the Trump administration vows to crack down, the question is — how far should it go?
Plus: President Trump threatens Hollywood with tariffs on movies filmed overseas, and in UNHINGED, we reveal shocking text messages from a Democrat AG candidate showing violent hatred toward a GOP legislator.

The United States government has shut down once again as Democrats demand the reversal of major spending cuts while Republicans and President Trump refuse to back down. At the same time, the ADL is facing growing backlash after its “Glossary of Hate” targeted groups like TPUSA, prompting even the FBI to distance itself. Meanwhile, Chicago schools continue to struggle with failing literacy rates, yet the teachers union chose to highlight and celebrate Assata Shakur, a convicted terrorist. And while the Wall Street Journal claims the U.S. is losing the race to China on green tech, is that really the...