Republican senators don't care that Trump's nominees are lying—like Kash pretending he didn't know a Nazi-adjacent podcaster whose show he's been on eight times—because the confirmation process to them is all a game and truth is irrelevant. And nominees are also mad-flipping on their signatures issues: RFK, Jr. on vaccines, Tulsi on Edward Snowden, and Kash on the Jan 6 cop beaters. Meanwhile, RFK knows embarrassingly little about the programs he'd be administering, Democrats should try combat on for size, and the Fox hosts/reality show stars turned in quite a performance after the first plane crash in 16 years.
Nasa's OSIRIS-REx mission to collect a sample from an asteroid has been a great success. Asteroid Bennu's sample yields a watery pool of history, thanks to an international team of scientists including the London Natural History Museum's Sarah Russell.
Also, in a week of tumultuous changes to federal funding and programmes, we hear from some US scientists affected and concerned by Executive Orders from the White House. Betsy Southwood, formerly of the Environmental Protection Agency, is worried not just about the government employees’ careers, but the environment itself and the whole of environmental science in the US and the world. Chrystal Starbird runs a lab at the University of North Carolina and is worried about the fate of grants aimed at diversifying scientific expertise, but also that some grant schemes are getting erroneously included in the anti-DEI clampdown. And Lawrence Gostin is an eminent health lawyer, proud of the NIH and all it has achieved.
Presenter: Roland Pease
Producer: Alex Mansfield
Production co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth
Fluoride in American tap water is nothing new. We've been safely adding it to our drinking water for decades and staved off tooth decay in our population.
But new skepticism has some Americans wondering about the benefits of the practice. This is in large part thanks to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Donald Trump's pick to run the Department of Health and Human Services.
We discuss why fluoride is added to our water supply, the risks and benefits.
It’s President Donald Trump’s second week in office, and he has wasted no time being the wrecking ball he promised his voters he would be.
On Tuesday, he issued a memo freezing trillions of dollars in federal funding, in his attempt to purge the government of “woke ideology,” which was followed by chaos and confusion—and ultimately blocked by a federal judge. Earlier in the week, Trump convinced Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro to accept deported Colombian migrants—who Petro had turned away from his borders only a day earlier—after Trump threatened a 25-percent tariff on Colombian imports to the U.S.
Back in Congress, the Senate narrowly confirmed Pete Hegseth to be secretary of defense in a dramatic tie-breaking vote cast by a hurried J.D. Vance who showed up just in the nick of time. Meanwhile, RFK Jr. is currently having his highly anticipated confirmation hearing to run the Department of Health and Human Services. Just as that began, Caroline Kennedy—the only surviving child of John F. Kennedy—came out Tuesday with a bombshell public denunciation of her cousin, calling him unqualified, “a predator,” and a hypocrite. She also alleged that he used to “put baby chickens and mice in a blender to feed to his hawks.” Can’t say we had that on our 2025 bingo card…
Finally, the Chinese artificial intelligence start-up DeepSeek sent tech stocks plummeting on Monday (to the tune of more than $1 trillion) after it rolled out a new app on the U.S. market that is a fraction of the cost of American AI competitors. All of which brought up questions—and panic—about our brewing AI war with China.
To talk about it all, FreePress senior editor Peter Savodnik is joined today by Brianna Wu and FP investigative reporter Madeleine Rowley, who spoke to Hegseth this week about his plans to end diversity, equity, and inclusion in the military.
If you liked what you heard from Honestly, the best way to support us is to go to TheFP.com and become a Free Press subscriber today.
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Has Germany’s firewall against the right just fallen? We’ll be taking you through an historic week in the German parliament, with wide-reaching implications for both German, and European democracy. Expect expert legal opinion, political analysis, and a beginner’s guide to democracy prepping: https://fragdenstaat.de/aktionen/prepping/&maca=en-podcast_inside-europe-949-xml-mrss#upgrade
Divided Argument is live from Stanford Law School, hosted by the Stanford Constitutional Law Center! We review an unusual summary reversal in a capital habeas case and the latest universal injunction developments, and discuss some of the implications of the change in administration. After that, we are joined by a very special guest to discuss the recent arguments in the excessive force case of Barnes v. Felix.
On this episode of "The Federalist Radio Hour," CJ Pearson, the Republican National Committee Youth Advisory Council co-chair, joins The Federalist's Senior Elections Correspondent Matt Kittle to discuss New York Magazine's latest hit piece, explain why the article flopped, and discuss the positive effect youth can have on the future of conservatism and the country.
Read more about the New York Magazine's attempt to paint a gathering of young conservative influencers as racist here.
If you care about combating the corrupt media that continue to inflict devastating damage, please give a gift to help The Federalist do the real journalism America needs.
Will RFK Jr. make it through after his contentious confirmation hearing? How will Tulsi Gabbard fare, and what is behind the MAGA intellectual passion for her nomination. Could it be hatred of...us? Give a listen.
