Has America Run Out Of Moderates?
In Search of Sanity
As faith in America's institutions declines, increasingly radical voices on both Left and Right are offering very different answers. Are they diagnosing real problems, exploiting public frustration or both? Last week we examined the rise of democratic socialism. This week we turn to the populist Right, from Tucker Carlson and America First to the darker fringes represented by Nick Fuentes. Perhaps America's problem isn't that Left or Right has all the wrong answers. It's that too many Americans have stopped believing the center has any answers at all.
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The Algorithm Wants You Angry. Here's How You Steal It Back.
In Search of Sanity
You already know the algorithm is playing you. What nobody tells you is you can play it right back. This week on iSoS, we dig into the actual science of why outrage spreads faster than good news online. Then we discuss some concrete moves that flip the script and start feeding you content that makes you feel like a person again, not a gladiator. Discussed: Media Literacy, Social Media, Politics, Bipartisanship, Online Discourse.
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How the Fourth-Largest Economy on the Planet Became a One-Party State
In Search of Sanity
This month on ‘iSoS in Conversation’, we sit down for a jovial hour with Jordan Cunningham — former California Assemblyman, ex-prosecutor, and now a political consultant— for an unflinching look at how The Democrats took over California and what's left of the California GOP. We discuss: How The Democrats became a super majority. Reagan. Schwarzenegger. Now this. What neutered the California GOP? Britain manages fifteen parties in one Parliament. California can barely manage two. What's the fix? CA has the worst scorecard in the country: Health, poverty, homelessness,...
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How Do We Know What's True?
In Search of Sanity
Fake news. Alternative facts. My truth. Post-truth. We have plenty of names for the problem. What we don’t have is an honest account of where it came from. In this episode, Clive and Mark trace the crisis of truth from the French philosophy departments of the 1960s to your social media feed in 2025. Along the way? The academic hoax that got a feminist reinterpretation of Mein Kampf accepted by a peer-reviewed journal. The brain imaging study that shows facts literally activate our self-defence systems. The Gallup numbers that show trust in American media has fallen from 70% to 28% in fifty...
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The Trillionaire Nobody Elected
In Search of Sanity
History gave us kings, emperors, and robber barons, and none of them quite prepared us for Elon Musk. Worth a trillion dollars as of this week, more powerful than most presidents and richer than most countries, he remains accountable to no electorate, no regulator with real teeth, and no shareholder brave enough to challenge him. Mark and Clive take on the Elon question. Subscribe and share if you like the show!
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Why Can't We Build Things Anymore?
In Search of Sanity
California's high-speed rail has spent $126 billion and laid zero miles of track. HS2, the UK’s high-speed rail project has been under construction since before the iPhone 6. Meanwhile SpaceX is launching rockets for a fraction of the cost of a NASA coffee break. The problem isn't that we can't build things. It's who's holding the shovel. In this episode, Clive and Mark go transatlantic on the great infrastructure disaster of our time. Two countries. Two doomed rail projects. One disease: public sector procurement. Plus what California’s housing crisis, Britain’s planning paralysis, and...
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The American Dream On Trial
In Search of Sanity
Republicans say it’s alive. Democrats say it’s dead. Mark & Clive suggest that reality and history say something more interesting. Your weekly dose of 15 minutes In Search of Sanity.
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Episode #2 With Steve Hilton, Canidate for CA Governor
In Search of Sanity
In Search of Sanity is back. We’ve started with a guest California’s political class would rather we hadn’t found. Steve Hilton is Oxford-educated, the son of Hungarian refugees, the man who made the Conservative Party in the UK electable again. Today he is the Trump-endorsed Republican candidate for Governor of California. Which is, by any measure, quite a journey. We sit down with Steve for 60 minutes of biography, contradiction, and the question California’s political establishment would rather not hear. Can the man who detoxified the Conservatives in Britain do the same...
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Episode 1: A Reinvigorated Push For Media Literacy
In Search of Sanity
In this episode, Clive and Mark discuss their plans for the re-launch of In Search of Sanity. The current media landscape necessitates a big push towards literacy and reason. Let’s be the push!
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15 Mins iSoS: Let We The People Decide.
In Search of Sanity
Mark and Clive dive into two local issues - redistricting (aka gerrymandering) and allowing voters to choose vacant elected positions. It seems that more and more the body politic want to adjudicate issues in the courts or in the chamber and view the idea of voting as inconvenient and unnecessary. Their commentary wont surprise you as they advocate for the supremacy of voters, but the origin of the term 'gerrymandering' might!
info_outlineWhen Mark & Clive applaud AOC, you know you're in for a thought provoking and entertaining 15 minutes. Today they take a closer look at the profiteering politicians who make money from buying and selling stock while privy to information not easily available to us mere mortals. As always, they have a few choice words for those on the gravy train and suggest some reasonable and pragmatic solutions to solve the problem. Don't expect any of them to be adopted anytime soon!