In this Part 2 of my show with John Mauldin, we range far and wide peering into an optimistic future for humanity. 

Near term, things look pretty bleak, but when you step back and look at the innovations and technologies that will end up enhancing and prolonging human life, the future holds a lot of promise. Billions of people have been lifted out of poverty in the past 50 years.

In this episode I’m joined by John Mauldin the best-selling author of Bull’s Eye Investing: Targeting Real Returns in a Smoke and Mirrors Market and whose “Strategic Investors Conference” is considered among the best events in the business.

My guest this week is economist Steve Moore 

Our topic: the economy and how the trillion upon trillion dollar spending orgy in Washington is going to cause irreparable damage to America.

“This is an extremely dangerous time for our country. What happens over the course of the next three or four months will have decades worth of repercussions,” explains Steve.

We are living in a complicated and dangerous time in America.
American intelligence and national security should not be part of partisan politics but that is exactly what they’ve become.

“We saw it towards the end of the Obama administration, and the transition into the Trump administration,” according to my guest, Ambassador Pete Hoekstra.

Today we are witnessing a growing threat to our American military. A threat that is capable of doing what no foreign enemy ever could: 

Fracture the world’s greatest armed forces from within, through divisive political indoctrination and controls.

That threat is called “wokeness.” 

At its root, “wokeness” imposes the resentful mindset of an extremist few onto society – in this case the American military. 

As COVID cases continue to climb in Tokyo, the nation is preparing to host the world in what may wind up being the most infamous Olympic Games ever.

The Bill Walton show team discusses the role the virus is already playing and impacting athletes.

There’s also the issue of wokeness as members of Team USA are expected to protest the National Anthem, while the media and advertisers will be in their own competition to use every opportunity to promote social justice campaigns.

For the better part of a century, the Left has been waging a methodical – and largely successful – war to control American institutions.

Our universities, K-12 education, the news media, Hollywood, federal government bureaucracies … to name just a few … have all fallen victim to what the Left calls their “long march.”

During most of that time American business and the military escaped infiltration and indoctrination.

But now this has begun to change – and dramatically.

It’s becoming quite clear that one of the central aims of Critical Race Theory is to delegitimize and diminish the political and moral achievement that is the United States of America.

And with their 1619 Project, the New York Times has weighed in to rewrite American history by deconstructing institutions responsible for our prosperity and our success: free market capitalism and the United States Constitution.

Identity politics, and charges of systematic racism and white privilege, pose an existential threat to the American experiment and risk tearing our country apart. In this episode, I talk with Charles Murray – one of America’s greatest social scientists – who has now weighed in on this crisis with his latest book: “Facing Reality: Two Truths About Race in America”

America has a problem.

Positive attitudes toward communism and socialism are at an all-time high in the United States.
Almost 40% of Americans now view them favorably and half of our kids in their 20s say they favor socialism. This demonstrates a stunning lack of knowledge of the evils of communism.

This show comes at time that this episode’s guest, Dr. Peter Vincent Pry, calls our “hinge of fate.”

Our topic is his riveting paper “Surprise Attack: ICBMs and the Real Nuclear Threat” where he lays bare the world’s current and future nuclear warfare realities.

It’s an issue that many simply do not want to think about.

As Peter puts it, “when it comes to nuclear weapons, U.S. and Western strategic culture mostly thinks and acts in a state of denial and unreality. Nuclear weapons of mass destruction are antithetical to our ethos.”

If you think a show about financial regulation is likely to be boring, I ask you to think again.   Financial regulations are really about money.   And in particular, ordinary Americans’ money.  

The most politically important election in America takes place this November – the race to become the next governor of Virginia.
This race will not be just about Virginia. It will be the first statewide election since Joe Biden took office, and will also be a referendum: How do voters feel about where Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are taking the country.

“I used to struggle with imposter syndrome, but at age thirty six I refuse to internalize misguided patriarchal ideas of what a woman can or should be. I am tired of feeling like I’m supposed to apologize for the space I occupied rather than intoxicate people with my effort, my brilliance. I am proud of me, full stop.”    Is this a quote from a self-help workshop in a “safe space” on a university campus?

My friend Paul Teller keeps a running (and depressing) list of the destructive actions taken by Joe Biden’s Administration. Joe Biden has been in office for just a few months and already the list is a mile long.   Paul, who was a top aide to VP Mike Pence and is now his chief of staff, calls his list “The Horribles” The TBWS Team agrees that the name is apt.

The Bill Walton Show Roundtable worries about what the future of law enforcement could look like in this country.

In many cities, seasoned officers are rushing to retire – causing a major deficit as those positions are becoming harder to fill.

Increasingly, resisting arrest is becoming a badge of protest.  And rather than punishing law breakers, police officers are being demonized for doing their jobs.

For years, major American corporations have been drifting to the political Left. 

Now that drift seems more like a tidal wave. Companies like Coca Cola, Delta Airlines … and even Major League Baseball have, for example, condemned Georgia’s legislature’s effort to protect free and fair elections. 

And increasingly the very top echelons of many big corporations – the C Suites and the boards of directors – are filled with people on the left promoting a “woke” agenda.

When you think of all the things in your house that are “made in China”, one thing you may not realize is how many medicines are.

That bottle of aspirin? Made in China. Penicillin? Made in China. Even something as simple as Vitamin C is produced in China.

And if that’s not shocking enough, there’s also a good chance your doctor doesn’t even know where these medicines are being manufactured!

This past year has been filled with adversity, but with tough times can come great blessings. In my case, Sarah and I have found a wonderful blessing in our friendship with Mercy and Matt Schlapp and their five daughters. We all found ourselves locked down in our places in Madison and Rappahannock County, Virginia during the pandemic. So what did we do?

In this episode, Bill talks with Jay Richards and John Tamny about the Covid-19 pandemic and the trade-offs between freedom and government mandated “safety.”

Should governments have simply provided people with information about risks and precautionary measures, or were the microscopic instructions, lockdowns and mask mandates necessary?

At this point the answer seems pretty clear.

For the past year or so, I’ve been reading in a daily devotional titled the The Bard and The Bible. In it each day is a quote from William Shakespeare, a related passage from the King  James Bible and a witty and wise reading of how they might relate to us today.

With Shakespeare, and of course anything related to the Bible, increasingly banned from American school curriculums, we are losing touch with these cornerstones of our western culture. The Victorians celebrated Shakespeare and the Bible as the twin moral underpinnings of British civilization. And when American pioneers headed west in their covered wagons, the two books that they brought with them were the King James Bible and the works of Shakespeare.

During the last several years, I have had the great pleasure of getting to know a wonderful actor, Tony LoBianco.  It’s the 50th anniversary of his iconic movie “The French Connection” where he played Sal Boca, and a perfect occasion to invite him on the show to talk about the acting craft and working with other creatives.

A leading actor in films, TV and the stage, he’s made over 100 films during the course of his career and along the way won an Obie, an Emmy, an Outer Circle Critics Award, and was nominated for a Tony award for Best Actor.

In this episode, Mark Mills, Energy & Tech expert at the Manhattan Institute, and I go in-depth about the perils of so-called “green energy.”

Case in point: February’s deadly blackout in Texas.

Texas, with the most wind farms in the country providing 25% of its energy, learned what happens when the weather gets cold and the wind goes away. Just when you need electricity the most, it’s not there.

What are the evolutionary differences between men and women, and how do they survive and thrive through differing competitive strategies? 

In this episode, Dr. Joyce Benenson talks with Bill about her book Warriors and Worriers,which draws her extensive lifelong research on children’s interactions. The result is fascinating array of studies and stories that explore the ways boys and men deter their enemies, while girls and women find assistants to aid them in coping with vulnerable children and elders. 

If it’s possible to have a fun and entertaining conversation about political correctness, critical race theory and the state of being “woke”, this is it. Joining me is James Lindsay, PhD, Co-author of Cynical Theories and founder of the newdiscourses.com website and podcasts. James, who has been called the Donald Trump of Intellectuals (meant as an insult), because of his courage to take on political correctness, guides me down through the stranger and stranger rabbit hole of “Theory.”