Podcasts

Policy Analyst Tim Benson discusses how over half of West Virginia teachers are chronically absent each school year and more than 10 percent miss more than 20 days. In essence, if students miss the same number of days parents can be fined or go to jail, while teachers continue to get paid.

This chronic absenteeism harms students education by reducing “‘instructional intensity’ by creating ‘discontinuities of instruction.’” Test scores bear this out with “only 46 percent tested to grade level in reading, while just 39 percent did so in mathematics.” When compared to charter schools, over a third less teachers were marked with chronic absenteeism.

For more information on this topic, visit: https://heartland.org/publications-resources/publications/research--commentary-west-virginia-public-schools-suffer-because-teachers-are-always-absent

The Chicago Teachers Union strike is a political gambit to reward the abject failure the CTU to educate the children of Chicago. Only about three in 10 district students are proficient in math and reading. They demand outrageous benefits such as affordable housing and a charter school moratorium. These completely skirt the democratic process around the democratic process on top of being completely unnecessary.

If Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Chicago Public Schools cave, average teacher salary would rise to $100,000 per year, force major tax hikes with the city, and a call for a bailout from every citizen across Illinois. 

In this episode of Voices of Vapers, Matt Culley joins The Heartland Institute’s State Government Relations Manager Lindsey Stroud to discuss a recently proposed flavor ban in Montana.

Culley, quit smoking seven years ago after being diagnosed with oral cancer. Culley and Stroud discuss his journey, Montana Gov. Steve Bullock’s recent vaping ban and address the media fearmongering surrounding vaping-related hospitalizations, which are being linked to the use of black market vaping products containing tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).

You can find Culley’s YouTube page here.

According to a recent Axios poll, just 40 percent of Millennials and Generation Z have a favorable opinion of capitalism, 61 percent have a positive reaction to the word “socialism,” and half say they’d prefer to live in a socialist country. This is because socialism is sold as “compassionate.” As the right thing to do. As caring about the welfare of your fellow man – especially those struggling economically. How does the right battle that false perception? How do they communicate that socialism means the surrender of your liberty?

Despite the trends, Copeland explains why he is optimistic about the future, and why socialism does not have to be the future of America.

Stefan Didak, founder of Not Blowing Smoke, and currently operating the public affairs firm Ignyter joins State Government Relations Manager Lindsey Stroud to discuss the history of flavor bans in California, LA’s recent flavor ban and how these have spread to other states, including Michigan, New York and Rhode Island.

Stefan and Lindsey talk about solutions to the issue of youth use of e-cigarettes and vaping devices, how “Big Tobacco” did not create vaping products as a gimmick to attract kids, what to expect in the coming months and the consequences of inaction.

You can contact Stefan on Facebook and Twitter.

Gregory Conley is an attorney in New Jersey and president of the American Vaping Association (AVA). The AVA is a nonprofit advocacy organization that champions the use of vapor products and electronic cigarettes to help smokers quit. AVA has testified in over a dozen states and localities, on behalf of vapor products and his work has been featured in in outlets in several countries and Greg has spoken at dozens of conferences and conventions

Conley joins Heartland State Government Relations Manager Lindsey Stroud to discuss the various legislative actions that happened across the states in 2019, including taxes and banning flavors. The two then address the recent media alarmism concerning vaping-related hospitalizations, which are continuing to be linked to black market vaping products. 

You can find out more information about the American Vaping Association at www.vaping.org. 

Heartland’s Donald Kendal sits down with Education Policy Expert Lennie Jarratt in the first episode of the In The Tank Podcast’s subseries “Deep Dive.” Jarratt and Kendal go in depth into the topic of education policy. Jarratt talks about the shortcomings of the public education system, the power and influence of teachers unions, and how education choice options empower parents and leads to better academic outcomes.

Watch the interview on YouTube.

Paul Blamire is a major vaping advocate in Australia. Paul helps educate people in his own country and the United States on the major health effects of vaping. A former 30 year smoker, Paul first tried vaping in 2014. Since then, Paul has created his own e-liquid line and is a major contributor to the do-it-yourself community. The do-it-yourself community is useful for countries like Australia, as their regulations on liquid nicotine are even more restrictive than the United States’.

Paul joins The Heartland Institute’s State Government Relations Manager Lindsey Stroud to discuss vaping in Australia, the impacts of Australian law on other countries and what we can expect for the future of tobacco harm reduction. You can find more information at Legalise Vaping Australia and the Australian Tobacco Harm Reduction Association (AHTRA).

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of capitalism, striking down a Tennessee statute which essentially discriminated against non-residents by requiring liquor store retailers to be residents of the state for two years prior to obtaining a retailer liquor permit, and to be a resident for 10 years in order to renew their liquor license.

Anya Bidwell is an attorney at the Institute for Justice and litigates cases to protect and promote economic, speech, and property rights. Anya was also an attorney on Tennessee Wine and Spirits Retailers Association v. Russell F. Thomas, in which the Supreme Court struck down Tennessee’s residency law.

Anya joins the podcast to discuss the case, its reliance on the Constitution’s Commerce Clause, and the effects the ruling with have on other state’s regulatory statutes.

For more information on IJ and Anya’s work, you can visit https://ij.org/. You can find more information about Short Circuit here, and their podcast and newsletter. To reach Anya directly, email [email protected].

In this episode of Voices of Vapers, Stefan Didak joins Heartland’s State Government Relations Manager Lindsey Stroud to talk about what is going down in California. Stefan has recently founded THR Policy and was the president and founder of NOT Blowing Smoke. Stefan started the organization as an educational resource and inadvertently became involved in legislative efforts surrounding vaping products including taxes, regulations, tobacco 21, and flavor bans.

Stefan talks about California, from its ever-changing tax schematic and the various localities passing flavor bans, San Francisco’s push to ban e-cigarettes but not combustible cigarettes, and the hypocrisy of governments subsidizing nicotine in nicotine replacement therapy, but banning e-cigarettes and vaping devices.

You find more information about THR Policy at http://thrpolicy.com. You can find Stefan on Facebook and Twitter.

This podcast discusses his new book Restoring the Promise: Higher Education in America. It outlines the major reasons higher education is failing to fulfilling its promise. The blame falls squarely on government intervention. In their desire to help, they have cause many unintended consequences that harm education and students. Dr. Vedder discusses these causes and proposes some solution to start correcting the problems. It all starts with getting the government out of the way.

Heartland’s Jim Lakely talks with Mark Joseph, producer of the upcoming film “No Safe Spaces,” a look at modern oppression of our free speech rights in America. The docudrama, which was shown at a special advance screening at The Heartland Institute on June 5, stars comedian Adam Corolla and national radio talk host Dennis Prager. The film also features interviews with free-speech champions from across the political spectrum, including comedian and actor Tim Allen, professor Jordan Peterson, classical liberal YouTube star David Rubin, the Hoover Institution’s Shelby Steele, self-proclaimed communist commentator Van Jones, liberal civil rights lawyer Alan Dershowitz, and leftist philosopher Cornel West. Lakely and Joseph talk about his career in Hollywood – including some shocking facts about The Chronicles of Narnia movie – and why this fight to protect our free speech rights on campus, in the public square, and on social media is the most important fight of the modern age.

James Dunworth is the co-founder of E-Cigarette Direct, a rapidly expanding vaping supplies sales company founded in 2008. E-Cigarette Direct now employs 90 workers and sells regulated e-cigarette supplies through their website, shops and resellers. James is the co-author of the first peer-reviewed study into electronic cigarettes, which was published in November 2009. James has been featured in most major newspapers in the UK and has been interviewed on Sky News, BBC Wales (TV and radio), The Jeremy Vine Show, Hello Wales and Radio Free Live. James also maintains and writes for the Ashtray Blog.

James joins State Relations Manager Lindsey Stroud to discuss the electronic cigarette market in the United Kingdom, compare UK and US vaping regulations, and touch base on the Master Settlement Agreement.

You can find James’ blog at https://www.ecigarettedirect.co.uk/ashtray-blog/ and follow him on Twitter at @inijames.

Marsha Enright discusses The Great Connections summer program, Leap Year program, the philosophy and teaching method of reading great books from across the ideological spectrum, and how to hold a collaborative dialogue through civility, logic, and reason.

Website: https://thegreatconnections.org/

In this episode of Voices of Vapers, Washington State Representative Drew MacEwen, a republican representing the 35th House district, joins state government relations manager Lindsey Stroud to discuss vaping-related legislation. Rep. MacEwen was first elected to the House in 2012 and has been a continuous leader on tax and education funding reform. Rep. MacEwen is the current assistant floor leader and ranking member of the House Commerce and Gaming Committee, assistant ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee, as well as serving on Joint Committee on Veterans' and Military Affairs and the Joint Task Force on Economic Resilience of Maritime and Manufacturing. Rep. MacEwen served in the United States navy for six years and upon completion entered the financial sector. He is the founder and president of the investment firm Falcon Financial Inc. located in Union, WA.

More importantly, this year Rep. MacEwen has helped fight against bad vaping legislation in Washington state and is still trying to fight against a recently-passed bill that will tax vaping products. Rep. MacEwen talks about the various bills that were introduced in Washington this year, including Tobacco-21, HB 1873 – which is an egregious tax on vaping products that was heavily amended during the 2019 session, and even legislation that would have banned flavored tobacco products, as well as requiring vaping companies to be responsible for recycling used e-cigarettes and vaping devices.

You can find more information on legislation in Washington state at: http://leg.wa.gov/. And for more information on Representative MacEwen visit: http://drewmacewen.houserepublicans.wa.gov/.

Nicotine is getting a bad reputation lately. The Nicotine Queen joins State Government Relations Manager Lindsey Stroud to discuss her efforts in tobacco harm reduction. Taylor was a sales executive at Alchem USA and Nicselect and has recently joined North American Nicotine as Vice President of Sales. North America Nicotine is the exclusive importer of CNT and the world’s leading supplier of the gold standard of nicotine.

Despite fearmongering campaigns, other than being addictive, nicotine is not harmful when used outside of combustible cigarettes. Lindsey and Taylor discuss erroneous claims around nicotine, the difference between e-liquid nicotine and nicotine salts, how the nicotine industry is currently addressing the tobacco shortages in India and China, and issues related to tobacco harm reduction products in 2019 and beyond.

You can find more information about CNT at https://nicotineusp.com/, North America Nicotine at  https://northamericanicotine.com/. You can find Taylor on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/thenicotinequeen and reach her directly at 916/472-8863.

Rep. Patrick Neville, a Columbine survivor, discussed how he escaped the shooting and how it profoundly changed his life. He discussed memories of the shootings aftermath and watching parents not be able to find their children.

As a state representative, he proposes solutions to help keep students safe. These include hardening the physical building, allowing teachers to volunteer to be trained and armed, and to provide Child Safety Accounts empowering parents to find a safe alternative to unsafe schools. These proposals never get out of committee.

In this episode of Voices of Vapers, Scout Stubbs joins the Heartland Institute’s state government relations manager Lindsey Stroud to discuss her efforts in Arkansas. Scout and her husband opened their vape shop in 2015 and have expanded it to a franchise chain of five stores in Arkansas. Drippers Vape Shop exclusively sells their e-liquid line that come in 103 different flavors and are all registered with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The two discuss Scout’s journey into vaping, the role and economic impact of her business in Arkansas, efforts to restrict youth from using e-cigarettes, and pending legislation in Arkansas which will tax e-cigarettes, as well as ban access to these products and other tobacco products, from persons under 21 years of age.

You can find more information about the Arkansas Vape Advocacy Alliance at arkansasvaaa.org or on their Facebook page. The video mentioned in the podcast can be found here.

In this Voices of Vapers podcast, James Jarvis, president of the Ohio Vapor Trade Association (OHVTA), joins Heartland’s State Government Relations Manager Lindsey Stroud to discuss his efforts and advocacy in shaping vaping regulations in Ohio. James owns five vape stores and an e-liquid manufacturing lab in central Ohio, and has been involved in the vaping industry since 2008. Lindsey and James discuss his work at OHVTA and his efforts to educate elected officials, including Congressman Steve Stivers. James talks about the regulatory challenges Ohio has faced and what to expect in 2019.

You can find more information about OHVTA at https://www.ohvta.com/, or follow them on Facebook or Twitter.

State Government Relations Manager Lindsey Stroud rejoins Guy Bentley, a research associate at Reason Foundation to discuss A Question of Taste: The Public Health Case for E-Cigarettes.

Lindsey and Guy explore his brief, his findings when examining the role of flavors in electronic cigarettes and vaping devices, the implications of legislation introduced in localities, states and the federal government to ban such flavors and other reforms to address the uptick in youth consumption of e-cigarettes.

For more information about Guy, visit www.reason.org.  

In this episode of Voices of Vapers, Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-CA) talks with The Heartland Institute’s state government relations manager to discuss vaping and tobacco harm reduction. Known as the “Vaping Congressman,” Congressman Duncan Hunter represents California’s 50th congressional district, which covers East and North San Diego County and a portion of Riverside County. Congressman Hunter is a former United States Marine, and has served three combat tours overseas, two in Iraq and one in Afghanistan and he the first combat veteran of either Iraq or Afghanistan to serve in the U.S. Congress.

Congressman Hunter is also a vaper and an advocate for tobacco harm reduction (THR). The congressman made headlines in 2016 when he vaped in a congressional hearing on an amendment to ban vaping on planes. Before vaping in Congress, Congressman Hunter authored an op-ed in the The Hill, where he implored the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to not restrict access to vapor products, as he believes they have saved his life, as well as millions of other smokers’ lives.

In this episode, Congressman Hunter describes his own personal journey to vaping, the flavor he’s currently vaping (Blueberry Crumb), his legislation that will separate vaping products from combustible cigarettes and place THR products on a continuum of harm, and his advice for vapers and policymakers when regulating these products.

For more information on Congressman Hunter and to see his legislation visit, hunter.house.gov or follow him on Twitter at @Rep_Hunter.