Breaking Battlegrounds

This week on Breaking Battlegrounds, Sam Stone is joined by Boad Swanson, Cory J. Ruth, Congressman Dusty Johnson and Max Klinger to discuss America’s crisis of character, socialism, government surveillance, rising beef prices, Washington dysfunction and ideology inside universities. Plus, B’s Crime Corner covers a horrifying North Dakota child murder case.

Author and entrepreneur Boad Swanson discusses his book, Great Souled Men: Reclaiming Aristotle’s Vision for Building Character and Virtue. He explains Aristotle’s 12 virtues, the crisis facing young men, the influence of the modern manosphere and how youth sports have shifted from teamwork toward specialization and burnout.
Facebook: Boad Swanson
Instagram: @rboads
Website: GreatSouledMen.com
Book: Great Souled Men

B’s Crime Corner examines the August 6 North Dakota case involving a 22 year old mother accused of killing two of her children and attempting to kill a third. B and Sam discuss reported postpartum depression, warnings before the killings, nine criminal charges and similarities to the Lindsay Clancy case.

Political strategist, economist and Mergence Global CEO Cory J. Ruth discusses the appeal of MAGA and democratic socialism, information overload and rapid cultural change. He also explains the growing capabilities of government surveillance systems and the need for transparency. Ruth previews Double Click: What the Numbers Really Say About Black America, examining Black America as an emerging economic market.
Facebook: Cory Ruth
X: @coryjruth
Instagram: @officialcoryruth
Book: Double Click, coming February 2027

Congressman Dusty Johnson breaks down Washington dysfunction, the Farm Bill and why beef prices remain high. He also discusses President Trump and Canada, affordability, legal immigration, nuclear power and permitting reform, warning that America is falling behind other countries in building major infrastructure.
X: @RepDustyJohnson

Journalist and political analyst Max Klinger discusses his experience studying social sciences at Cambridge and what he sees as ideological capture inside academia. He examines activism presented as scholarship, its spread into K through 12 education, pressure on academics to conform and professors who have privately contacted him with similar concerns.
X: @MaxE2review
Substack: @maxthinks

Catch Breaking Battlegrounds live on 960 AM in Phoenix every Saturday at 9:00 AM, with full episodes and exclusive podcast-only segments dropping every Friday wherever you get your podcasts or watch on YouTube.
Stay connected with Breaking Battlegrounds:
• Substack: https://substack.com/@breakingbattlegrounds
• Website: https://breakingbattlegrounds.vote
• News: https://breakingbattlegrounds.news
• X: @breaking_battle
• Instagram: @breakingbattlegrounds
• Facebook: Breaking Battlegrounds
If you enjoy the show, leave us a 5-star review and share it with a friend. Your support helps keep the podcast growing.
Breaking Battlegrounds is one of the top 2.5% most popular shows out of 3,779,399 podcasts globally. We interview policymakers, elected officials, and nationally and world-recognized reporters about the opportunities and hurdles facing the United States.

What happens when AI panic, Iran, socialism, campus crime, history, and America’s $40 trillion debt crisis collide?
This week on Breaking Battlegrounds, Chuck Warren and Sam Stone are joined by journalist Noah Rothman, Emmy Award-winning broadcaster Myrka Dellanos, author Jack Cheevers, and financial expert Gary Gygi. Plus, B’s Crime Corner investigates the Penn State cocaine ring and the infamous “Pablo Pledge Escobar” nickname tied to the case.
Noah Rothman kicks things off with the political backlash against AI data centers and why fear of rapid change is fueling the debate. He explains the growing battle over computing power, energy, and America’s race with China for AI dominance. Noah also examines Trump’s strategy in the Strait of Hormuz, pressure on Iran’s economy, and the potential for growing instability inside the regime.
Follow Noah on X: @NoahCRothman
Book: Blood and Progress: A Century of Left-Wing Violence
Then, B’s Crime Corner dives into the Penn State cocaine ring, where investigators uncovered an alleged fraternity-connected drug operation involving current and former students. The case includes digital payment apps, social media, and the nickname “Pablo Pledge Escobar.”
Next, Myrka Dellanos discusses socialism and communism through the personal story of her family’s escape from Cuba. She explains why younger generations can be attracted to radical politics, the influence of media messaging, and the importance of remembering what life under communist regimes actually looked like.
Follow Myrka on Instagram: @myrkadellanos
Myrka is an Emmy Award-winning journalist, author, professor of journalism and public speaking, and entrepreneur.
Jack Cheevers takes us back to the Kennedy administration and the decisions that pushed America deeper into Vietnam. He examines the 1963 coup against South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem, the instability that followed, and why this turning point deserves greater attention.
Book: Kennedy’s Coup: A White House Plot, a Saigon Murder, and America’s Descent into Vietnam
Finally, Gary Gygi breaks down America’s $40 trillion national debt, the bond market, inflation, and rising borrowing costs. He explains why spending, entitlements, and long-term fiscal discipline could have major consequences for investors and the U.S. economy.
Follow Gary on X: @GaryGygi
Visit: gygicapital.com
Catch Breaking Battlegrounds live on 960 AM in Phoenix every Saturday at 9:00 AM, with full episodes and exclusive podcast-only segments dropping every Friday wherever you get your podcasts or watch on Youtube.
Stay connected with Breaking Battlegrounds:
• Substack: https://substack.com/@breakingbattlegrounds
• Website: https://breakingbattlegrounds.vote
• News: https://breakingbattlegrounds.news
• X: @breaking_battle
• Instagram: @breakingbattlegrounds
• Facebook: Breaking Battlegrounds
If you enjoy the show, please leave us a 5-star review and share it with a friend. Your support helps keep the podcast growing.
Breaking Battlegrounds is one of the top 2.5% most popular shows out of 3,779,399 podcasts globally. We interview policymakers, elected officials, and nationally and world-recognized reporters about the opportunities and hurdles the United States faces.

What happens when artificial intelligence, government power, China, climate politics, and human vulnerability collide? This week on Breaking Battlegrounds, Chuck Warren and Sam Stone are joined by journalist Juan David Rojas, attorney and AI ethics fellow Devan Patel, and historian Dr. Jody Edward Ginn. Plus, B's Crime Corner examines the tragic Lindsay Clancy case and the role postpartum psychosis played in one of the most disturbing cases in recent years.
Juan David Rojas joins the show to discuss climate politics and the political shift taking place across Latin America. Juan recalls watching Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth as an elementary school student in Florida and the fear created by some of the film's predictions about hurricanes, flooding, and climate change. While acknowledging the broader concerns surrounding climate change, he argues that exaggerated predictions and partisan messaging can undermine public trust. Juan also explains why failed energy policies may be helping fuel a conservative resurgence across Latin America, particularly in oil-dependent nations where left-wing governments have attempted to rapidly move away from fossil fuels at significant economic cost.
Follow Juan David Rojas on X: @rojasrjuand
Next, Devan Patel joins Chuck and Sam for an in-depth conversation about the rapidly changing world of artificial intelligence. Patel examines how Americans can better educate themselves on AI, the philosophical dangers of transhumanism, and the growing push to use technology to overcome fundamental limits of human existence.
The conversation turns to one of the biggest questions facing policymakers: How much power should government have over AI? Patel argues for guardrails surrounding critical infrastructure, child safety, fraud, vulnerable populations, and emerging mental-health concerns while warning against government overreach, mass surveillance, privacy violations, and excessive corporate control.
Patel also discusses the United States' technological rivalry with the Chinese Communist Party, arguing that America may need both formal and informal channels of communication with Beijing similar to U.S.-Soviet dialogue during the Cold War. He explains why American allies, global critical-mineral supplies, advanced semiconductor production, and international cooperation will all play major roles in the AI race.
The conversation explores Marc Andreessen's accelerationism and Techno-Optimist Manifesto, antitrust concerns, corporate power, collective bargaining, lethal autonomous weapons, nuclear security, biotechnology risks, and whether the United States and China can find limited areas of cooperation before increasingly powerful AI systems become even harder to control.
Patel also warns about authoritarian surveillance technology spreading around the world and argues that churches and other faith institutions may have an important role to play in protecting civil society and establishing moral guardrails against technological overreach.
Learn more about Devan Patel: DevanPatel.com
Then, B's Crime Corner examines the tragic case of Lindsay Clancy, the Massachusetts mother and former labor and delivery nurse accused of killing her three young children in 2023. The segment looks at Clancy's reported mental-health struggles following childbirth, the medications she had been prescribed, and the role postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis have played in the legal and public debate surrounding the case.
Finally, historian and educator Dr. Jody Edward Ginn joins the program to discuss the state of history education in America. Ginn argues that declining academic standards, ideological changes within higher education, and shifts in teacher-training programs have left too many classrooms without educators who possess deep subject-matter expertise. The conversation examines what that means for students learning American history — and what may be lost when ideology replaces rigorous historical scholarship.
Follow Dr. Jody Edward Ginn on X: @JEGHistorian and check out his website reclaimingtexashistory.com
Listen now to Breaking Battlegrounds, the radio show covering Arizona politics, campus unrest, election integrity, national campaigns, and the true crime cases everyone is talking about.
Catch Breaking Battlegrounds live on 960 AM in Phoenix every Saturday at 9:00 AM, with full episodes and exclusive podcast-only segments dropping every Friday wherever you get your podcasts or watch on Youtube.
Stay connected with Breaking Battlegrounds:
• Substack: https://substack.com/@breakingbattlegrounds
• Website: https://breakingbattlegrounds.vote
• News: https://breakingbattlegrounds.news
• X: https://x.com/breaking_battle
• Instagram: @breakingbattlegrounds
• Facebook: Breaking Battlegrounds
If you enjoy the show, please leave us a 5-star review and share it with a friend. Your support helps keep the podcast growing.
Breaking Battlegrounds is one of the top 2.5% most popular shows out of 3,779,399 podcasts globally. We interview policymakers, elected officials, and nationally and world-recognized reporters about the opportunities and hurdles the United States faces.

In this special one-on-one conversation, Chuck Warren sits down with Jennifer Galardi, Senior Policy Analyst for Restoring American Wellness in The Heritage Foundation's DeVos Center, for a wide-ranging discussion about Anthony Fauci, the Fauci Diaries, and what happens when public health officials gain enormous power with too little accountability.
Jennifer examines Fauci's record from the AIDS and Ebola crises through COVID-19, including his controversial role during the pandemic and the consequences of policies that isolated the elderly, disrupted childhood development, and changed the relationship between Americans, doctors, and government health authorities.
Chuck and Jennifer also discuss the rise of technocratic government, digital health passports, censorship, the growing distrust of the traditional healthcare system, and why more Americans are turning toward functional medicine and taking greater control of their own health.
They close with the growing Make America Healthy Again movement and Jennifer's argument that real health sovereignty may begin with something much simpler: real food, time outdoors, better daily habits, and empowering Americans with the truth about preventable chronic disease.
Follow Jennifer Galardi on X: @JennGalardi
Catch the full conversation on Breaking Battlegrounds wherever you get your podcasts. 
In this special one-on-one conversation, Chuck Warren sits down with Jennifer Galardi, Senior Policy Analyst for Restoring American Wellness in The Heritage Foundation's DeVos Center, for a wide-ranging discussion about Anthony Fauci, the Fauci Diaries, and what happens when public health officials gain enormous power with too little accountability.
Jennifer examines Fauci's record from the AIDS and Ebola crises through COVID-19, including his controversial role during the pandemic and the consequences of policies that isolated the elderly, disrupted childhood development, and changed the relationship between Americans, doctors, and government health authorities.
Chuck and Jennifer also discuss the rise of technocratic government, digital health passports, censorship, the growing distrust of the traditional healthcare system, and why more Americans are turning toward functional medicine and taking greater control of their own health.
They close with the growing Make America Healthy Again movement and Jennifer's argument that real health sovereignty may begin with something much simpler: real food, time outdoors, better daily habits, and empowering Americans with the truth about preventable chronic disease.
Follow Jennifer Galardi on X: @JennGalardi
In this special one-on-one conversation, Chuck Warren sits down with Jennifer Galardi, Senior Policy Analyst for Restoring American Wellness in The Heritage Foundation's DeVos Center, for a wide-ranging discussion about Anthony Fauci, the Fauci Diaries, and what happens when public health officials gain enormous power with too little accountability.
Jennifer examines Fauci's record from the AIDS and Ebola crises through COVID-19, including his controversial role during the pandemic and the consequences of policies that isolated the elderly, disrupted childhood development, and changed the relationship between Americans, doctors, and government health authorities.
Chuck and Jennifer also discuss the rise of technocratic government, digital health passports, censorship, the growing distrust of the traditional healthcare system, and why more Americans are turning toward functional medicine and taking greater control of their own health.
They close with the growing Make America Healthy Again movement and Jennifer's argument that real health sovereignty may begin with something much simpler: real food, time outdoors, better daily habits, and empowering Americans with the truth about preventable chronic disease.
Follow Jennifer Galardi on X: @JennGalardi
Listen now to Breaking Battlegrounds, the radio show covering Arizona politics, campus unrest, election integrity, national campaigns, and the true crime cases everyone is talking about.
Catch Breaking Battlegrounds live on 960 AM in Phoenix every Saturday at 9:00 AM, with full episodes and exclusive podcast-only segments dropping every Friday wherever you get your podcasts or watch on Youtube.
Stay connected with Breaking Battlegrounds:
• Substack: https://substack.com/@breakingbattlegrounds
• Website: https://breakingbattlegrounds.vote
• News: https://breakingbattlegrounds.news
• X: https://x.com/breaking_battle
• Instagram: @breakingbattlegrounds
• Facebook: Breaking Battlegrounds
If you enjoy the show, please leave us a 5-star review and share it with a friend. Your support helps keep the podcast growing.
Breaking Battlegrounds is one of the top 2.5% most popular shows out of 3,779,399 podcasts globally. We interview policymakers, elected officials, and nationally and world-recognized reporters about the opportunities and hurdles the United States faces.

This week on Breaking Battlegrounds, hosts Chuck Warren and Sam Stone examine China's growing challenge to the United States, disturbing allegations involving fentanyl enforcement in New Mexico, the latest developments surrounding Iran and the Strait of Hormuz, a 33-year-old NBA All-Star Weekend murder finally solved, and a dramatic migration crisis unfolding in Ceuta.
Michael Sobolik, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and author of Countering China's Great Game: A Strategy for American Dominance, joins Chuck and Sam to explain why he believes Washington has failed to adequately respond to China's political warfare. They discuss TikTok and ByteDance, America's dependence on Chinese supply chains, Taiwan's security, advanced semiconductor exports, India's growing strategic importance, and why rebuilding the U.S. defense industrial base could be critical in a future confrontation with Beijing.
Follow Michael Sobolik on X: @michaelsobolik
Book: Countering China's Great Game: A Strategy for American Dominance
Next, Vince Torres, Executive Director of America First New Mexico, joins the show to discuss New Mexico's fentanyl crisis and allegations from DEA whistleblowers that agents were told not to seize certain large drug shipments. Vince also breaks down the state's education struggles, the push for school choice, and changing voter-registration trends that could reshape New Mexico politics.
Follow Vince Torres on X: @VincentTorresNM
Then, B's Crime Corner takes us back to Salt Lake City and the 1993 NBA All-Star Weekend, where a woman was murdered in a case that remained unsolved for more than three decades. New forensic technology ultimately helped investigators identify a suspect, leading to an arrest and guilty plea in 2025.
Alex Welz, Senior Research Associate at The Heritage Foundation, joins the program with an update on the Iran war and what escalating tensions could mean for global energy markets and the Strait of Hormuz. He discusses Iran's weakened military and economic position, continued support from Russia and potentially China, Pakistan's regional role, and efforts to revive the Kirkuk-Banias pipeline as another route for Middle Eastern energy.
Follow Alex Welz on X: @WelzAlex
Finally, Quebec-based Rebel News journalist Alexa Lavoie joins Chuck Warren following her reporting from Ceuta. She describes how social-media claims about an supposedly open border helped trigger a massive attempted migration from Morocco, the role she says Moroccan authorities played in the crisis, the use of unaccompanied minors, and the growing divide inside Ceuta over humanitarian assistance, security, and control of the Spanish territory.
Follow Alexa Lavoie on X: @ThevoiceAlexa
Listen now to Breaking Battlegrounds, the radio show covering Arizona politics, campus unrest, election integrity, national campaigns, and the true crime cases everyone is talking about.
Catch Breaking Battlegrounds live on 960 AM in Phoenix every Saturday at 9:00 AM, with full episodes and exclusive podcast-only segments dropping every Friday wherever you get your podcasts or watch on Youtube.
Stay connected with Breaking Battlegrounds:
• Substack: https://substack.com/@breakingbattlegrounds
• Website: https://breakingbattlegrounds.vote
• News: https://breakingbattlegrounds.news
• X: https://x.com/breaking_battle
• Instagram: @breakingbattlegrounds
• Facebook: Breaking Battlegrounds
If you enjoy the show, please leave us a 5-star review and share it with a friend. Your support helps keep the podcast growing.
Breaking Battlegrounds is one of the top 2.5% most popular shows out of 3,779,399 podcasts globally. We interview policymakers, elected officials, and nationally and world-recognized reporters about the opportunities and hurdles the United States faces.