Each week J. Peder Zane, Editor of RealClearInvestigations, and RCI Senior Reporter James Varney discuss the week’s best investigative reporting and speak with journalists about cracking challenging stories. Whether it’s culture, politics, or the markets, RealClearIInvestigations should be your source for in-depth reporting from a wide range of perspectives. From the publishers of RealClearPolitics.com
American Political Violence, Russian Plague Labs, and More! | RealClearInvestigations Podcast #139
On this week’s episode of the RealClearInvestigations Podcast, RCI Editor J. Peder Zane and RCI Senior Reporter James Varney use two articles – a New York Times piece on the rising number of violent threats against US elected officials and a CNN report on the growing number of extremists targeting data centers – to discuss the various factors helping unleash what Philip Roth called the, “American Berserk.” They also discuss a Tablet story detailing how a recent death at Russian laboratory studying plague has increased fears of another man-made pandemic.
00:00 Welcome
01:47 HEADLINE 1: NYT Finds Elected Officials Living in Fear of Violence
04:11 Mental Health, Isolation, and the Anonymity of the Crowd
09:56 HEADLINE 2: CNN on Attacks on Data Centers and the Overton Window on Violence
11:09 Meta's Louisiana Data Center and the Transparency Problem
13:25 FOIA as a Shield: Why Officials Won't Explain Themselves
17:07 BLM, January 6, Effective Altruism, and the Normalization of Violence
22:03 HEADLINE 3: What Is Russia Hiding in Its Plague Labs? (Tablet)
10 Oct 2026
Sex and Drugs at Cornell, AI Bias, and Hate Speech | RealClearInvestigations Podcast #138
On this week’s episode of the RealClearInvestigations Podcast, RCI Editor J. Peder Zane and RCI Senior Reporter James Varney discuss a series of articles featured by RCI that reported on the alleged gang rape at Cornell, bias in the algorithms Apple News uses to spotlight political coverage and a French woman who faced criminal charges for arguing biological men should not be allowed in women-only spaces such as bathrooms and locker rooms.
00:00 Cold Open & Welcome
01:34 HEADLINE 1: The Cornell Sexual Assault Allegations, Title IX and Due Process
07:21 Cornell, Where the University Failed
11:02 Campus Drugs, Narcan, and a Generation Raised Without Boundaries
18:06 HEADLINE 2: Apple’s Hidden Bias
24:10 Russiagate, the Progressive Media Ecosystem, and a Controversial Nobel Peace Prize
29:17 HEADLINE 3: France Prosecutes a Feminist Over Comments on a Trans Mayor
32:20 Lawfare, the First Amendment, and Europe's Speech Laws
Articles Discussed in This Podcast:
· Washington Examiner: Timeline of Jane Doe’s Cornell Allegations
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/crime/4751169/timeline-jane-doe-allegations-cornell-gang-rape/
· New York Post: Cornell Knew of Frat Drug Bust Before Alleged Gang Rape
https://nypost.com/2026/10/03/us-news/cornell-knew-of-drug-arrest-overdose-at-chi-phi-frat-before-alleged-gang-rape-records/
· Washington Post: Ketamine, Kratom, Other Dangerous Drugs Changing College
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/the-deadly-drugs-causing-warnings-at-cornell-and-other-colleges/ar-AA2dwxKg?ocid=BingNewsSerp
· New York Times: Estonia Won the War on Fentanyl. What Came Next Was Even Worse.
https://archive.is/C4UrX#selection-3905.1-3905.63
· Federalist: Apple News Voting Guide Filled With Leftist Sources
https://thefederalist.com/2026/10/07/apple-news-offers-users-personalized-voting-guide-filled-with-leftist-sources/
· Free Press: I Questioned Transgender Ideology. Now I Face Prison in France.
https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/2026/10/04/i_questioned_transgender_ideology_now_i_face_prison_in_france_1209718.html
3 Oct 2026
Is Talking About Group Identity and IQ a Crime? with Nathan Cofnas
On this week’s episode of the RealClearInvestigations Podcast, RCI Editor J. Peder Zane and RCI contributor John Murawski speak with Nathan Cofnas about his academic research into group identity and IQ – work that is so controversial that he may be facing criminal charges in Europe.
On the news roundup, Zane and RCI Senior Reporter James Varney discuss a Free Press article detailing the success of America’s post-all-out-bombing strategy in Iran, which has crippled Iran’s economy while restoring almost all of the pre-war flow of oil from the region. They also discuss Varney’s new article for RCI which suggests how like-minded groups – in this case journalists, nonprofits and lawyers that believe insurance companies do not treat their customers fairly – piggyback on each other’s work to amplify their message in ways that may raise ethical concerns.
00:00 Open
02:10 News Roundup: Iran Sanctions, Oil Flows, and the Munitions Narrative
04:24 Diesel Prices, CNN's Spin, and Results-Oriented Journalism
05:50 The Clarkson Law Firm: Turning Investigative Journalism into Lawsuits
16:20 Introducing Nathan Cafras and the Cambridge Plagiarism Scandal
20:43 What IQ Actually Measures
27:00 The "Equality Thesis"
33:05 Race and IQ
36:44 Do IQ Tests Have Cultural Bias?
44:27 "The Right's Stupidity Problem"
48:14 Affirmative Action and the Logic of the Equality Thesis
55:04 Why There's No Conservative New York Times
1:02:40 Hereditarianism, Selective Immigration, and the Fight Against Wokeism
1:07:24 Closing & Thanks
Articles Discussed in This Podcast:
· Nathan Cofnas: Research on group differences in intelligence: A defense of free inquiry
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09515089.2019.1697803
· Nathan Cofnas: Why We Need to Talk about the Right’s Stupidity Problem
https://ncofnas.com/p/why-we-need-to-talk-about-the-rights
· Nathan Cofnas: Beating Woke with Facts and Logic
https://ncofnas.com/p/beating-woke-with-facts-and-logic
· Natha Cofnas: DEI Fraud and Cover-Up at Cambridge
https://ncofnas.com/p/dei-fraud-and-cover-up-at-cambridge
· Free Press: The Strait of Hormuz Is Open
https://www.thefp.com/p/the-strait-of-hormuz-is-open?utm_campaign=realclearpolitics
· James Varney/RCI: Media Law: How One Firm’s Lawsuits Echo Investigative Journalism
https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2026/09/29/media_law_how_one_firms_lawsuits_echo_investigative_journalism_1208788.html
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