Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics

Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics

Author: The Claremont Institute September 11, 2025 Duration: 1:06:24

The editors open with an analysis of the killing of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska by a repeat violent offender, and discuss what it reveals about crime, media spin, and a legacy media more fixated on “Republicans pouncing” than the literally pouncing criminal himself. Follow-up discussion ranges from Europe’s disappearing crime stats to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’s downward revision of nearly a million jobs during the Biden presidency, probing whether institutions still merit public trust and what a reality-based politics on immigration, safety, and the economy might look like. The editors also touch on an immigration sweep at a Georgia battery plant and the gap between GDP and lived experience before closing with fresh culture picks.

Culture recommendations:

* The Name of the Rose

* Last Summer Boys

* Alien: Earth

* How to Be a Better Drinker: Cocktail Recipes and Boozy Etiquette



This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit claremontinstitute.substack.com/subscribe

Behind the daily headlines and political noise, there's a deeper current of ideas shaping the nation. The American Mind Podcast, from The Claremont Institute, digs into that foundational layer. It moves beyond surface-level debate to examine the philosophical assumptions and historical principles that actually drive American life. In each episode, hosts sit down with Claremont scholars and a range of thoughtful critics to untangle the real causes of our cultural moment. These conversations aren't about quick takes or partisan scoring; they're sustained explorations of how concepts from history, philosophy, and political theory manifest in our society, news cycles, and personal lives. Tuning in, you'll hear rigorous but accessible discussions that connect timeless thought to contemporary upheaval. This podcast provides a space for listeners to step back from the frenzy and consider the underlying forces-the enduring ideals and the new challenges-that are continually remaking the American experiment. It’s for anyone who suspects there’s more to the story and wants to engage with the substantive ideas, not just the symptoms, of our political and cultural reality.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

The American Mind Podcast
Podcast Episodes
The Arrakeen Restoration [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:01:19
Objective normalcy makes a comeback. In several inauguration speeches, Trump delivered a searing indictment of the elites, a symbolic rebuke to the old order, and a reassertion of American ideals. He followed this up wit…
Big Tech Turns Red [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:03:17
The age of the normie has arrived. As Mark Zuckerberg lifts Facebook’s censorial boot off the neck of its users and moves its moderation team from California to Texas, which seems to signal a sincere tech bro realignment…
Mar-a-Igloo [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 56:46
To kick off the new year, the guys open the mail and answer listeners’ questions on everything from cutting back the glut of unaccountable bureaucratic offices to buying Greenland. Meanwhile, Governor Gavin Newsom and th…
Unidentified Federal Operations [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:01:31
Is that a bird, is that a plane? No, it’s drones! Or aliens? Demons? Iran? The guys take a look up in the sky and down at the public frenzy, which betokens an all-too-real breakdown of trust in government. Democrats, mea…
Strangio-er than Fiction (ft. Gates Garcia) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:01:55
The ACLU’s most deranged lawyers try to enshrine kid-transing in United States v. Skrmetti; a true domestic terrorist assassinates a healthcare CEO; and Syria’s Assad government is toppled by Islamic rebels. The editors…
A Pardon in a Pear Tree [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 56:59
Biden tosses his son Hunter an early but unsurprising Christmas present in the form of a sweeping presidential pardon. In doing so he undermines the moral grandstanding of liberals who claim to be above the fray of polit…
Biden’s Parting Gifts [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:15:51
As Biden’s lame duck administration winds down, he—or whoever's in charge—is leaving a few fun parting gifts for the incoming Trump Administration. From escalation in Ukraine, to a re-opened border surprise, to the intra…
Recess is Over [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:04:26
With a historic second Trump presidency on the way, there's a new vista of possibility just over the horizon. Immigration, trade, and international relations are each in for a major overhaul. But amid the scramble to pla…
One Shift, Two Shifts, Whiteshift, Redshift [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 59:45
Trump assembles a notably youthful cabinet of swamp-draining avengers, grinding the gears of the Left. Democrats, meanwhile, face a Hobson’s choice between declining into irrelevancy and admitting they were wrong about T…
He's So Back [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 58:30
Exceeding even the most optimistic expectations, Trump swept across the states handily to the chagrin of the Harris-Walz campaign, winning both the electoral and popular votes—and becoming the second-only president to se…