The John Stossel Interviews

Activist Robby Starbuck got companies like Target, Walmart, and Toyota to drop their woke DEI policies. It sounds hard to believe one man could do that, but he did. From DEI trainings to mandatory "ally" pledges, Starbuck posts videos about absurd woke things that big companies do behind closed doors to please activists. In this podcast, he explains how this fight against corporate America worked, how DEI hurts America, and what made him finally speak up. I also push back on his movie, "The War on Children."

Charles Ryu escaped from North Korea not once, but twice! He experienced starvation, torture, and years of propaganda. North Koreans, even those who escape, fear talking about socialist tyranny because the regime might kill their families. “Not just you, but your entire three generations will be wiped out,” explains Ryu. He is only willing to talk because he has no immediate family left in the country. Now he educates Americans about the horrors of the country on his YouTube channel. In this podcast, he tells me more about the North Korean regime, his incredible escape, and the importance of freedom.

People who run businesses are often smeared. But they shouldn't be. “Making our lives better is what entrepreneurs do. We take it all for granted,” says Yaron Brook, Chair of the Ayn Rand Institute. In this hour-long conversation, Brook defends the marketplace and the self-interest that drives it. He also carves out the path of self-interest through mountains of big issues: war, poverty, immigration, drugs and children--even how self-interest is important for your love life.

Professor John McWhorter, author of "Woke Racism," argues that condescending leftist ideology hurts black people. We spoke a few years ago when few others were pushing back on those ideas. But I learned a lot from my half-hour interview with him, so here's our full discussion. For one, the Columbia linguist points out "Woke Racism" hurts black people in many ways: from treating them as incapable of logic, to calling for abolition of tests, to insisting that violent kids stay in schools. He says that all these ideas are propped by a religion-like ideology that "requires that you sequester your brain for illogical thinking."

Michael Malice, the popular podcaster and author, reminds us that tyranny can be defeated. It’s been done before. In this podcast, Malice shares stories of life under totalitarian regimes, and explains how the media was often complicit in totalitarianism. Malice’s distrust in government is why he’s calls himself an anarchist. He makes the case that things like food, education, and even security, are better left in private hands. “Maybe we don't need government at all,” he says. “When you have something as important as security or anything, food, education, to have it at the purview of a monopoly, let alone a government monopoly, makes no sense." I’m skeptical that the private sector would do all those things better. So we debate those issues and more.