Climate Realism and the Battle Against Eco-Extremism

On March 11, 2024, Janak Joshi, David Legates, Kurt Gerwitz, and Stephanie joined the show. Former Colorado state representative and physician running for Congressional District 8 outlines his voting record of fiscal discipline and three priorities for Congress: economy, immigration, and healthcare Climatologist and professor emeritus debunks climate alarmism narratives, explains natural climate variability, and warns that abandoning fossil fuels will reverse humanity’s progress against.

Bringing Fiscal Discipline to Congress

Start listening at 17:25 – Hour 1

Janak Joshi, a physician who immigrated legally to America over 50 years ago, explains why he earned the nickname “Dr. No” during his six years in the Colorado House. The CD8 congressional candidate served three terms with a consistent voting record: if a bill did not meet his criteria of smaller government, lower taxes, and less regulation, he voted no, including voting against his own party’s budget when Republicans broke their campaign promise not to increase spending.

Joshi identifies three priorities for Congress: addressing the economy and inflation crushing American families, securing the border with proper immigration enforcement like the medical screenings he underwent as a legal immigrant, and fixing healthcare to restore the doctor-patient relationship. His website is janakforcd8.com.

“Every time there was a bad bill, regardless whether it was a Republican or Democrat, it, my three principles, smaller government, lower taxes, and less regulations. And if that bill did not meet that criteria, I voted no. So they started to call me Dr. No.”

Janak Joshi, CD8 Congressional Candidate

Exposing Climate Alarmism and the War on Energy

Start listening at 30:00 – Hour 1

David Legates, climatologist and professor emeritus at the University of Delaware, co-authored Climate and Energy: The Case for Realism with the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation. He argues that climate activism has become a force for evil, morphing natural climate variability into a crisis narrative designed to destroy economies and ways of life.

Legates dismantles the arbitrary 1.5 degree Celsius threshold, noting how activists constantly move the goalposts when their predictions fail. He explains that climate has never been constant since Earth formed, with documented warm and cool periods throughout history including the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age. The professor warns that the push for wind and solar will lead to brownouts and blackouts when conditions fail to produce power.

The real technological advancement, Legates argues, has been making fossil fuels cleaner over 150 years while maintaining reliable energy. Inexpensive energy from fossil fuels lifted humanity from 90% poverty in the early 1800s to just 9% today. “Keeping it in the ground,” he says, echoing the parable of the worthless slave who buried his talent, will reverse that progress and harm the people environmentalists claim to help.

“If you’re trying to come up with a way to make the climate constant and to make it keep it from changing, it’s akin to trying to stop the sun from rising. It just is not going to happen because it’s baked into the system.”

David Legates, Climatologist, University of Delaware

Shrinkflation and Economic Reality Behind the Headlines

Start listening at 59:00 – Hour 2

Kurt Gerwitz, economics professor, breaks down why Americans feel worse about the economy than official numbers suggest. While unemployment sits at 3.9% and the stock market hits all-time highs, the official inflation measurements miss a critical factor: shrinkflation, or what academics call package downsizing.

When the government reports 2-3% inflation but companies raise prices 5% while reducing product sizes, consumers feel the squeeze that statistics obscure. Gerwitz notes that airline tickets reportedly dropped 9.4% in 2023, but only at discount carriers offering less legroom and charging more for bags. Disney Plus raised prices 27% while adding commercials, yet streaming overall showed only 2% increases. The devil, Gerwitz explains, is in the details.

The conversation turns to corporate pricing strategies and market competition. In truly free markets, businesses that overcharge or deliver inferior products lose customers to competitors. But when big government and big business hold hands, as Kim Monson observes, they squeeze the little guy through regulations, subsidies, and barriers to entry that protect established players from market forces.

“Shrinkflation is not getting measured. That’s part of the problem here is when they tell us 3% inflation. And it feels worse. It’s because it is worse. Our feelings are correct.”

Kurt Gerwitz, Economics Professor

A Mother Fights Back Against Trans Ideology in Schools

Start listening at 102:24 – Hour 2

Stephanie, a Colorado mother, describes discovering that her 11-year-old daughter had encountered transgender concepts online and through school counselors. When her daughter was 14, a school counselor directed her to the I Matter Colorado program, where a trans-identified individual coached the child on social transition, discussed hormones and surgeries, and instructed her to hide everything from her parents.

Stephanie discovered the emails in her daughter’s school account and confronted the situation directly. The family began a healing process that required hard boundaries: limiting internet access, spending more time outdoors together, studying brain development, and teaching critical thinking about difficult issues. After about a year, her daughter independently rejected the trans identity and chose to accept herself.

The mother warns other parents about the coordination between online content, school counselors, and state-funded programs targeting vulnerable children. Gender affirming care, she learned, translates to “feeling, agreement, treatment,” meaning agreement with an alternate identity followed by chemical and surgical body modification.

“This iMatter counselor spoke to my daughter at length about hormones and surgeries and how to obtain them, and regularly spoke to my daughter about hiding this information from us as her parents.”

Stephanie, Colorado Parent