The Elsa Kurt Show

You know that rush of childhood wonder you can almost feel in your chest and how it gets harder to reach as you grow up? We chase that feeling with author Christopher Charles Anderson, who takes a character nearly everyone recognizes and asks a deceptively big question: what keeps the magic alive year after year, and how does Frosty come back every Christmas? 

We talk about *Frosty and the Magic of Christmas* as both a holiday story and a craft problem. Christopher shares how his screenwriting background shapes the book’s pacing, dialogue, and “see it like a mov...

Your kid can ace the test and still feel lost, anxious, and disconnected, and that gap is what we tackle with Dr. Amy Tepper and Dr. Amy Vaughn. They’re educators, speech language pathologists, longtime colleagues, and co-authors of Grounded in Greater, a faith-informed approach to K-12 education that aims for something bigger than scores: grounded, resilient humans who know their worth and can live with integrity.

We talk about what’s quietly disappearing from many schools: everyday practice in being a good human. That includes honest communication, healthy peer interaction, perseverance, and the kind of character form...

We track the week’s biggest stories and ask what actually changed once the cameras turned off, from Trump’s Beijing trip to Europe’s growing frustration and NATO’s mounting bills. We also call out how quickly the media moves on when the facts get complicated, then end with a few viral moments that show how narratives get made in real time. 
• Trump’s China visit as slow diplomacy and relationship building 
• Taiwan as the central leverage point and the risk of shifting arms policy 
• Iran and the Strait of Hormuz as shared global economic pressure 
• Bri...

We track how the Iran operation is shifting public opinion, draining resources, and colliding with everyday costs like gas and airfare. We also zoom out to China, local foreign influence, and the trust crisis that flares up the moment masks and new virus headlines return.
• Iran’s long tail on gas prices, airlines, and voter patience 
• Precision munitions limits and what “degraded capability” means 
• War powers fights in Congress and claims of illegality 
• Trump’s China trip and why Taiwan and Iran dominate 
• Rubio’s viral tracksuit moment and the optics trap 
• Arcadia, California mayor pleading g...

A breakup, a desperate prayer, and a month of unsettling phone calls at a construction site set Moustapha Ozturk on a path he never expected. Years later, that path becomes his book, Invoking the Holy Spirit, and a simple but demanding claim: forgiveness is not about pretending something didn’t hurt, it’s about releasing the anxiety and pain that keep replaying in our minds. If you’ve ever felt stuck in old patterns, carrying stress you can’t explain, or longing for real inner peace, this conversation meets you right where you are.
 
 We talk about what forgi...

We bounce from airline boarding chaos to global conflict, asking why incentives and unclear goals keep producing the same ugly outcomes. We weigh Iran’s shifting mission language, a cruise ship outbreak scare, city politics in Seattle and California, and the growing 2028 conversation around Rubio and Vance. 
• Southwest’s assigned seating and the disappearance of “Jetway Jesus” 
• Iran’s operation rename, the War Powers Act timeline, and unanswered objectives 
• Strait of Hormuz pressure, oil flow, and the risk of wider global entanglement 
• Suspected hantavirus on a cruise ship, quarantine fears, and passenger reality 
• Amsterdam banning meat and fossil f...

A single sunrise can outshine a whole gift shop, and that’s the kind of quiet truth we dig into with children’s author and artist Michelle Dahl. Michelle spent years as an elementary school teacher, and her chapter book “A Walk with Grandpair, Mickey’s Souvenirs” began as a personal narrative writing tool for her students. After retirement, she pulled that classroom framework back off the shelf, followed the memory further, and turned it into a story that honors childhood wonder, family traditions, and the influence a grandparent can have in one ordinary morning.

We talk about what...

Gunfire at one of Washington’s most scripted nights jolts everything into the real world. We start with the White House Correspondents Dinner security scare, what we know about the suspect, and the bigger question nobody can dodge: how much does political rhetoric and media framing contribute to the temperature that makes violence feel “justified” to unstable people?

From there, we get into the messy part: accountability. We talk about why armchair breakdowns of Secret Service movements don’t help, what a layered VIP security response actually looks like, and why Trump’s post-incident press conference turned into anoth...

A cancer epidemiologist walks into the Australian outback, builds a field camp at 22, and accidentally sparks a small-town “cookie war” between two rival grandmothers. That’s the tone of this conversation with Dr. Christopher Loffredo of Georgetown University, whose new book Globe Trotting for Science blends global fieldwork stories with the real stakes of cancer prevention and public health research.

We talk about what science looks like outside the lab: the messy logistics, the teamwork, and the people skills that make international research possible. Chris shares how he moved from bench science to epidemiology through a life-changing data a...

We track how fast today’s headlines move while the deeper patterns stay stubbornly the same, from Iran’s stalled negotiations and Strait of Hormuz tensions to US politics and media double standards. We also weigh what accountability looks like when officials resign, narratives spin, and public safety risks keep bleeding into everyday life.
• IRGC isolating Iran’s top leadership and collapsing negotiations
• Strait of Hormuz as an economic and military flashpoint
• US red line on nuclear weapons capability and the risks of enforcement
• Confusion between supporting Iranian people versus backing the regime
• Cabinet and congressiona...

Some people live through change. Cordell J. Overgaard tracked it, worked inside it, and then sat down to tell the truth about what it did to law, media, politics, and everyday life.

We talk about his memoir, Watching Things Change, and why it started as a message to his grandchildren before widening into a frank look at American systems. Cordell shares why Citizens United still matters, how campaign contributions distort incentives, and why “who funds a candidate” is now a basic voter skill. We also dig into information literacy in the social media era, where confidence can masq...

A single week manages to hit every nerve: faith and war, social media spectacle, nuclear brinkmanship, and institutions that feel like they’re losing the plot. We start with the clash between Pope Leo and President Trump over Iran, including the moral claims being made about war and peace and the very modern problem of a viral AI image becoming part of the geopolitical conversation. We’re not interested in performative outrage, so we talk through what’s actually knowable and where people are letting bias do the thinking for them.

Then we zoom in on the Iran n...

Some stories don’t just describe a life, they explain why it never felt like the surface version was the whole truth. I’m joined by Tulsi C, author of Reconnaissance Behind the Veil, for a candid conversation about grief, trauma, and the moment a near-death experience reshaped how she understood purpose, healing, and identity.

Tulsi shares her path from earning an MS in computer science and working in corporate America to building a healing practice in the Atlanta area, where she now supports clients through modalities like life coaching, hypnotherapy, neurolinguistic programming, emotional freedom techniques, sound ther...

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Elsa Kurt: You may know her for her uncanny, viral Kamala Harris impressions & conservative comedy skits, but she’s also a lifelong Patriot & longtime Police Wife. She has channeled her fierce love and passion for God, family, country, and those who serve as the creator, Executive Producer & Host of the Elsa Kurt Show with Clay Novak. Her show discusses tod...