American Thought Leaders - The Epoch Times

Frank Bisignano oversees not one, but two of America’s most consequential institutions: the Social Security Administration (SSA) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Before stepping into government, he built a career at the very top of finance as the youngest senior vice president in American Express history at just 25, co-COO of JPMorgan Chase, and CEO of the massive payment processing company Fiserv. Now, he’s taking on a different kind of challenge: bringing, in his words, “accuracy” to massive federal agencies that impact every American. He’s cleaning up records—including moving records of 12.4 million people aged 120 and over into the Social Security Administration’s Death Master File—and digitizing records to streamline systems. 🔴Watch the premiere at 5PM ET: https://ept.ms/4bTi1Ki

Adnan Alkhalili says technology is rewiring people to chase easy dopamine instead of doing what’s actually healthy. “Young people are aware that they’re not eating well… and when they do eat well, they feel slightly better, and yet they’re still not eating well.” “This comes from… the virtual world or what I call the escapist reality.” “They’re constantly on devices to escape from the real world.” “They know it feels good to eat something healthy.” “But it feels even better… to quickly feel this big spike of dopamine.” “That comes from going on their phone.” “It’s a lot better to escape your thoughts.” “What time in history have you been able to just avoid anything you want, anything that's hard and difficult, by just going online.” In this conversation, Adnan Alkhalili explains why so many young people keep choosing what they know is bad for them. Click below to watch this full discussion:https://ept.ms/4sB436U

“This is literally the scariest time to live because this is the first time we're not being human and having rituals.” Adnan Alkhalili says modern technology is stripping away the basic human rhythms we’ve lived by for thousands of years. “We had rituals for most of humanity.” “You’d wake up because the sunlight… and go to bed because the sun went down.” “People would gather… every single day.” “These are things that we just did because that’s just how we are as humans.” “We don’t have those rituals anymore.” “I wake up… in a dark room… from an alarm.” “I go to bed… not because of the sun.” “You’re basically not living like a human anymore.” “You’re living completely out of what humans have lived for hundreds of thousands of years.” https://rumble.com/v77oype-technology-is-stripping-away-the-basic-human-rhythms-weve-lived.html

“This is literally the scariest time to live, because this is the first time we're not being human,” Gen Z entrepreneur Adnan Alkhalili told me. The online world traps Gen Z into an escapist reality that their parents do not comprehend. Even good parents, he said, have no idea what their kids are doing online and to which extent they live online. What does living virtually do to people, I asked Adnan. What did it do to him? “I started to feel really, really sick and unhealthy.” Now he’s helping Gen Z get out of the “matrix” and back into the real world. That’s how the Touch Grass Together movement was born: “Somewhere within their minds they [Gen Z] know that they're literally not touching the earth anymore… No humans have just stayed inside all day, which is scary, if you think about it.” But how to achieve that? In the interview, Adnan talks about the constructive role technology can play in helping Gen Z to escape brain rot within the matrix. 🔴 PREMIERE 9pm on @EpochTV: https://ept.ms/4sB436U

“This is literally the scariest time to live, because this is the first time we're not being human,” Gen Z entrepreneur Adnan Alkhalili told me. The online world traps Gen Z into an escapist reality that their parents do not comprehend. Even good parents, he said, have no idea what their kids are doing online and to which extent they live online. What does living virtually do to people, I asked Adnan. What did it do to him? “I started to feel really, really sick and unhealthy.” Now he’s helping Gen Z get out of the “matrix” and back into the real world. That’s how the Touch Grass Together movement was born: “Somewhere within their minds they [Gen Z] know that they're literally not touching the earth anymore… No humans have just stayed inside all day, which is scary, if you think about it.” This framework, he explained, is based on four core components: Light, movement, nourishment and human connection. This means: Getting Gen Z off their devices and out of their rooms, getting them to do stuff together outside and eating healthy food. But how to achieve that? In the interview, Adnan talks about the constructive role technology can play in helping Gen Z to escape brain rot within the matrix. Is there also a constructive role for AI? What about Social Media? And should schools forbid smartphones? 🔴 PREMIERE 3/26 at 9pm on @EpochTV: https://ept.ms/4sB436U

“We absolutely knew it was a weaponized bioweapon.” T. Casey Fleming says his firm BlackOps Partners knew early on that COVID was a manipulated virus. “We absolutely knew it was coming with all of our intelligence that we had.” “Open source intelligence… is much more efficient than solid government intelligence.” “We knew the nefarious intent from China.” “We already knew many years ahead of time that they were working on bioweapons.” “Everything that happens in China happens under the direction of the Chinese Communist Party.” T. Casey Fleming says the United States is already in a silent war with the Chinese Communist Party, just without most Americans knowing it. See what he reveals in this interview: https://youtu.be/mZo0PEcNecc

“There’s only two sides to this coin… You’re either free or you’re under communism.” T. Casey Fleming says even though many Americans don’t realize it, the U.S. is already in a form of conflict with the CCP and everything is at stake. “They are the grand puppeteer over Russia, Iran, Pakistan, Venezuela, North Korea, drug cartels.” “The 3,200-pound gorilla in the room is the Chinese Communist Party.” “The American people need to understand what the threat is.” “It’s the biggest threat of their lifetime.” “We’re in the fourth quarter, 2 minutes left and no timeouts.” “They need to be able to focus on one enemy.” “The number one enemy is the Chinese Communist Party.” “It is war. It is for all the marbles.” “The world will be won or lost in the next 10 years.” T. Casey Fleming warns the United States is already in a silent conflict with the Chinese Communist Party and most Americans do not even realize it. Watch the full breakdown here: https://youtu.be/mZo0PEcNecc

“The Chinese Communist Party is overtaking the Western world and the United States by over a hundred different methods of unrestricted warfare,” counterintelligence expert Casey Fleming told me during our interview. These unrestricted warfare weapons “go after the people in a ‘people's war’ that never involves the military. It's focused on every man, woman and child in the United States and the rest of the free world, but mostly in the United States.” Fleming is the CEO of BlackOps Partners, a strategy and cybersecurity consulting firm that he founded in 2008. He’s the author of the new book, “The Red Tsunami: The Silent Storm Killing Your Freedom.” “It may look like a book, but it's a whistleblower's exposé and survival guide… It basically tells you what to do to protect yourself… Number one, stop buying Chinese products and services and stop investing in companies that are investing in China,” he told me. 🔴 PREMIERE 5PM ET on @EpochTV: https://ept.ms/3Pn01QZ

Psychological scientist J.D. Haltigan told me the feminine impulse to be empathetic has been weaponized. “We’ve come to basically hijack the feminine ethic of care.” “And if a society becomes completely feminine, all kinds of chaos will ensue.” “Because you don’t have any sort of rule-based, lawful, statistically-minded, quantitatively-focused orientation to why we have laws, why we have rules, why we need order, why we need immigration law, and so forth.” “Masculinity is what will track, personality-wise, with systemization, and femininity is sort of the analogy with empathization.” But this feminization has become dominant in many areas of society with major effects. J.D. Haltigan warns that when feminization of society extends into law and policy, then “all kinds of chaos will ensue.” Watch my full interview with J.D. Haltigan below: https://ept.ms/3NhhidQ

“What’s happening now is the mental illness is becoming valorized.” Developmental psychologist J.D. Haltigan says mental illness is increasingly being turned into an identity people embrace. “Mental illness as identity is really something that is coming on.” “I have a disorder, I am defined by that disorder, and I’m some sort of a heroic person for having this disorder.” “It’s really happening across the disorders… mostly for depression and anxiety.” “It’s become so destigmatized that there is no stigma.” “You see this a lot on social media… if you claim you have a mood disorder, you get a lot of affirmation for that.” “That feeds back into it… and you get into this sort of niche group that valorizes it and affirms it.” “That’s not really helpful treatment to eliminate the disorder.” https://rumble.com/v77cqne-how-mental-illness-became-an-identity-jd-haltigan.html

“You can't abandon the concept of normality, or societies will just completely fall apart,” says developmental psychologist and social science scholar J.D. Haltigan. There has been a tremendous push in mental health to destigmatize mental illness, he says, and people are encouraged to regard themselves as “some sort of heroic person for having [mental] disorders.” This is true especially for mood disorders like depression and anxiety. People nowadays increasingly define themselves through mood disorders—especially women, who often are more prone than men to depression and internalization of anxiety, he says. Haltigan’s departure from the University of Toronto in 2023 coincided with his growing concerns about what he described as increasing ideological pressures in academic research and restrictions on what researchers could say about mental health and early child development. 🔴 PREMIERE 9PM ET on @EpochTV: https://ept.ms/3NhhidQ

“You can't abandon the concept of normality, or societies will just completely fall apart,” says developmental psychologist and social science scholar J.D. Haltigan. There has been a tremendous push in mental health to destigmatize mental illness, he says, and people are encouraged to regard themselves as “some sort of heroic person for having [mental] disorders.” This is true especially for mood disorders like depression and anxiety. People nowadays increasingly define themselves through mood disorders—especially women, who often are more prone than men to depression and internalization of anxiety, he says. Haltigan’s departure from the University of Toronto in 2023 coincided with his growing concerns about what he described as increasing ideological pressures in academic research and restrictions on what researchers could say about mental health and early child development. 🔴 PREMIERE 9PM ET on @EpochTV: https://ept.ms/3NhhidQ

Robert L. Suettinger says China has long been willing to arm Iran to keep the United States distracted in the Middle East. “I started working in the White House when there were great concerns about the shipment of weapons of mass destruction and various kinds of steel… that was going to Iran at very sensitive times.” “They’ve been happy to rearm Iran.” “There was… a very strong concern in the United States government about what kinds of missiles are going to be provided to Iran that they could use in local conflicts.” “They are perfectly happy to take advantage of forces in the world that are adamantly opposed to the United States.” “And use them to their advantage and to keep the eyes off of the problems in East Asia.” I sat down with Robert L. Suettinger to discuss his book, “The Conscience of the Party,” and how Hu Yaobang’s story may reflect the recent internal struggles inside the CCP. https://youtu.be/q7Vwa-kJhTs

Robert L. Suettinger says U.S. actions in Venezuela and Iran may be forcing leaders in China to reconsider how they view President Trump. “I think that there has been a level of shock that the United States has not only been able to, but willing to, engage in these kinds of operational military on-the-ground matters.” “I think it’s probably a matter of considerable concern and discussion… that they maybe have been wrong about Trump all along and that there is more to his policies than they had given him credit for.” “That has probably provided them with a lot of cause for concern.” “It is going to be a major topic of conversation in the hallways at the National People’s Congress, in the back rooms of Zhongnanhai, and certainly in the discussions that go on within China.” Internal debates and leadership struggles have long shaped China’s political system. Those dynamics are explored in Robert L. Suettinger’s book “The Conscience of the Party.” Watch our full conversation: youtu.be/q7Vwa-kJhTs

“There's no question of the fact that Xi Jinping is now less of a dominant leader than he was six eight months ago,” China expert Robert Suettinger told Jan during their recent interview. Earlier this year, Xi purged two top generals from the CCP’s military brass, following on the heels of earlier purges last year. Now only two of the originally seven members of the Central Military Commission remain. One of them is Xi himself; the other one, General Zhang Shengmin, is a political commander and has, like Xi, no combat experience. After the January purges, Xi issued an order to the military demanding that everyone acknowledge him as the head of the military commission. “The silence from all those military commands has been deafening and has been noticed by everybody,” Suettinger says. “The military is just sort of sitting back and saying, ‘Well, what are you going to do next?’… There's a level of distrust on both sides,” Suettinger told me. 🔴 PREMIERE 5PM ET on @EpochTV: https://youtu.be/q7Vwa-kJhTs

Avi Loeb just told me that humanity may have been visited by extraterrestrials in our distant past. “We don’t know the history of Earth.” “Documented human history is only 8,000 years old.” “The question is: what introduced life here on Earth?” “Maybe it was an interstellar gardener.” “We’ve been searching for 65 years for radio signals, but that’s just like waiting for a phone call.” “In fact, we do not use radio communication as much as we did a century ago.” https://rumble.com/v7725js-has-humanity-been-visited-by-extraterrestrials-in-the-past-avi-loeb.html

President Trump seems to be on the brink of disclosing government secrets about extraterrestrial life. And President Obama just admitted that he believes it exists. So I sat down with physicist Avi Loeb to ask why the government has been so cagey about UFOs for decades. Here’s his response: “There are two ways of getting to this evidence.” “It’s either in the hands of government, because the U.S. government was monitoring the sky and the oceans for many decades.” “The defense budget is huge. It’s close to $1 trillion for 2026.” “In the process of collecting a lot of data, they may have noticed unusual phenomena.” Watch our full interview below: https://ept.ms/4us4Bxc

Astrophysicist Avi Loeb says AI could be viewed as a form of alien intelligence. But he believes humanity will ultimately learn far more from encountering real alien intelligence. “You might view AI systems as alien intelligence because they are made of computer chips … silicon chips, and not from flesh and blood.” “So you might say, okay, well, AI is a form of alien intelligence.” “But we can learn much more from a truly alien intelligence.” “All the AI systems that we develop were trained on experiences here on Earth.” “However, alien intelligence might have benefited from experiences well beyond Earth in interstellar space.” “And I think we will learn much more from that encounter than from our AI systems here on Earth.” https://rumble.com/v77101s-is-ai-a-form-of-alien-intelligence-avi-loeb.html

Is there intelligent life out there? Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb hopes there is. “I'm searching for a higher intelligence. I don't often find it here on Earth,” he told Jan. Loeb is not your typical astronomer. For many years, he’s been scouring the universe for the abnormal and the unknown. “Brushing anomalies under the carpet of traditional thinking,” as he put it, is anathema for him. In 2021, Loeb founded the Harvard-based Galileo Project to speed up the scientific search for evidence of extraterrestrial objects. Since then, Loeb has been supervising the building of three state-of-the-art observatories in the US: one in Massachusetts, one in Pennsylvania and one in Nevada. They make use of machine learning models to identify unexplained anomalies and use triangulation to infer the distance of objects from earth. 🔴 PREMIERE 9PM ET on @EpochTV: https://ept.ms/4us4Bxc

“They treat this really peaceful, loving people of faith like guinea pigs.” Bob Fu says the Chinese Communist Party’s treatment of Christians resembles some of the worst abuses in modern history. “They cage you in the concentration camp to the mind control transformation centers all over China.” “And I think basically they’re doing the same kind of practice and experiment like the Nazis to the Jews in the 1930s to 40s.” https://rumble.com/v76v3kg-the-ccps-war-on-christians-pastor-bob-fu.html For a look into the dark world of religious suppression under the CCP, watch my interview with Bob Fu below👇 https://youtu.be/DSiOEmqX4uU