- 54 minutes 52 secondsWill Wilkinson on his Will Happer biography: “Standing Up for Science” #428
Will Wilkinson discusses a biography he was hired to write about Princeton physicist William Happer, combining four chapters of life story with a climate-focused second half arguing science has been politicized. He describes Happer’s decades-long career, including inventing the sodium laser guide star for missile defense and work adapted for medical lung imaging, plus Happer’s “trust and verify” approach and skepticism of models over measurements. They cover Happer’s CO2 Coalition role, controversy at Princeton, colleagues’ contributions (e.g., Lindzen, Koonin, Ridd), and comparisons to Lysenkoism and past scientific dissent. The author stresses curiosity, civil communication, and avoiding fear-driven climate hysteria.
00:00 Meet Will Wilkinson
00:27 Writing Happer Biography
01:45 Happer Science Legacy
02:42 Climate Views Adaptation
03:29 Laser Guide Star Explained
05:12 Trust and Verify Mindset
06:04 Princeton Controversy
07:14 Famous Colleagues Stories
09:18 Childhood and Formation
10:58 Standing Up for Science
13:28 Lysenkoism and Dogma
16:38 Outsiders and Discovery
21:15 Curiosity and Measuring
23:25 CO2 Politics and Money
24:45 Book Release and Coalition
25:43 Rogan Episode and Outreach
27:07 Documentary and Prior Bio
28:33 Reluctant Scientist Profile
30:10 Working Life at Princeton
31:05 Red Team Blue Team Fallout
32:01 Middle Ground Climate Debate
34:46 Colleagues and Reef Controversy
37:29 Skepticism After COVID
41:38 Single Source of Truth Quotes
44:24 Kindness Over Division
48:41 Hope Against Climate Hysteria
50:23 Meaningful Memoirs and AI
54:04 Wrap Up and Thanks
Will Wilkinson’s web site: https://www.meaningfulmemoirs.com/
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My Linktree: https://linktr.ee/tomanelson1
11 September 2026, 11:00 am - 1 hour 14 minutesJonathan Cohler: “ Fossil fuel combustion drove essentially none of the atmospheric CO2 growth” #427
Jonathan Cohler presents a newly submitted paper using mass conservation, isotopic signatures (delta 13C), and multiple datasets to apply the Keeling relation and infer a consistent intercept near -13.2‰ across sites and time spans. He argues this makes fossil fuels (signature ~-28‰) at most 26% of net atmospheric CO2 change and, using preindustrial constraints, essentially ~0–1.3%, contradicting claims by IPCC, NASA, NOAA, EPA, and the CO2 Coalition. He says CO2 residence time is ~3.8 years and attributes rising CO2 to natural temperature-driven ocean/soil outgassing. He criticizes the CO2 Coalition for conflating accounting identities with causation, describes harassment, and says he resigned.
00:00 New Paper Claim
01:29 Three Inputs Setup
03:25 Isotope Signatures 101
06:05 Keeling Relation Explained
10:17 Datasets And Intercepts
13:38 Solving For Fossil Fraction
22:22 Why Fossil Dominance Fails
25:16 Rejecting The Conclusion
28:04 Carbon Cycle Turnover
31:45 What Drives CO2 Rise
33:56 Ancient CO2 And Whataboutism
36:53 CO2 Coalition Errors Teaser
37:38 Accounting vs Causation
39:23 Feynman on Conservation
40:37 What Proves Causality
41:37 Atmospheric Balance Equation
42:53 Coalition Paper Misreads
46:25 Molecules Not Labeled
48:08 Residuals Aren't Attribution
49:56 Isotopes Discriminate Sources
51:27 Airborne Fraction Fallacy
53:41 Retention and Cycle Time
56:02 Harassment and Resignation
01:03:18 CO2 Forcing and Policy Costs
01:08:51 X Feedback and Contact
01:13:38 Wrap Up and Links
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My Linktree: https://linktr.ee/tomanelson1
8 September 2026, 11:00 am - 51 minutes 50 secondsJames Tooley: “ You don't need government for education” #426
James Tooley describes two decades researching “low-cost private schools” serving poor families in India, Africa, rural China, and war-torn countries, arguing parents choose them because government/public schools often abandon children. He cites widespread enrollment (e.g., majorities in parts of Lagos and Kampala), higher standardized test performance, no gender bias, affordability around 10% of family spending, and sustainability as small businesses. He now finds a similar U.S. phenomenon in hybrid/micro schools, visiting examples in Pine Ridge (Onward Learning), rural Mississippi, refugee-serving Clarkston, and rural Oregon, and surveying 5,390 parents: about 4% use low-tuition private schools. He discusses limited, careful roles for philanthropy, and worries about dependence on government ESAs.
00:00 Meet James Tooley
01:03 Hyderabad Discovery
03:25 Government School Reality
05:37 Makoko Lagos Expedition
07:49 Kibera Ghana China Proof
11:49 Beautiful Tree Thesis
13:04 War Torn Africa Schools
15:48 Five Key Features
21:06 Federations And Pushback
22:02 Low Cost Schools In America
25:53 Pine Ridge Onward Learning
29:46 Mississippi Trailer School
33:19 Refugees And Oregon Example
36:08 National Survey Findings
41:45 Philanthropy And Donations
43:26 Quality Assurance Debate
46:33 School Choice ESA Concerns
49:57 Where To Follow James
50:46 Final Reflections
The Beautiful Tree: https://a.co/d/032zFHgW
Really Good Schools: Global Lessons for High-Caliber, Low-Cost Education: https://a.co/d/01VMoY3r
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/james-tooley-320a8410
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My Linktree: https://linktr.ee/tomanelson1
4 September 2026, 11:00 am - 58 minutes 13 secondsTom Harris: “Pushing back against climate hysteria in Canada” #425
Tom Harris argues Canada’s claim of warming twice the global average is unreliable because northern data coverage is sparse and “homogenized” station adjustments may exaggerate trends. He questions the meaning of average temperature and says Canada’s record shows a step change around 1998, consistent with El Niño and possibly the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, not steady greenhouse-gas forcing. He cites extreme-weather records peaking in the 1930s and references Heartland’s Climate Change Reconsidered and Roger Pielke’s datasets as showing little detected change in many extremes. Harris then describes organizing local activists, using Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals, rehearsing questions, and bypassing media censorship to challenge municipal climate policies.
00:00 Meet Tom Harris
00:19 Canada Warming Claims
00:41 Is Warming Bad
03:21 So Called Averages
05:13 Overlapping Ranges
08:06 Why Start 1948
11:08 Heat Records Evidence
11:54 Sparse Arctic Stations
14:39 Homogenized Adjustments
17:00 Step Change Not CO2
18:57 Hickey Speaks Out
21:59 Natural Cycles Theory
22:59 PR Versus Evidence
24:22 Extreme Weather Database
25:56 Heartland Reports
28:32 Warmer Means Milder
31:07 Pielke Teaser
31:19 Global Extremes Database
31:51 P Factor Explained
32:30 Translator Not Climatologist
33:33 Drilling Into Continents
34:48 Wildfire History Context
37:23 Heatwave Data Concerns
38:31 Local Activism Playbook
40:06 Alinsky Rules In Action
42:49 Debate Questions And Ridicule
47:16 Training Volunteers Nationwide
51:59 Beating Media Censorship
53:55 Groups Funding And Contact
56:17 Practice Sessions And Wins
57:43 Wrap Up Resources
https://drtomharris.substack.com/
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My Linktree: https://linktr.ee/tomanelson1
1 September 2026, 11:00 am - 40 minutes 6 secondsDai Ato: “ Spurious Correlation Between Atmospheric CO2 Increase and Human Emissions” #424
Dai Ato presents findings from three papers arguing atmospheric CO2 rise is largely natural, claiming multivariate analyses reject human emissions as a significant predictor of annual CO2 increases while sea surface temperature (SST) is significant. He says detrended annual-change comparisons show emissions vs CO2 change has near-zero correlation, while SST retains moderate correlation, consistent with CO2 solubility in water. He also claims ice-core CO2 reconstructions are incorrect and that temperature leads specific humidity, rejecting CO2–water vapor positive feedback; absorbed shortwave and total solar irradiance correlate with SST while CO2 is negligible or negative. In Q&A, he expects the Keeling Curve to keep rising, COVID emission drops to have little effect, and rejects a stable 280 ppm preindustrial CO2.
00:00 Intro And Agenda
00:39 Three Paper Overview
04:01 CO2 Rise Not Human
07:05 Detrending Spurious Links
10:33 Water Vapor Feedback Tested
13:19 Solar And Albedo Drivers
17:12 Past Evidence SST Leads
21:50 Global Temperature Averaging
23:58 Key Takeaways And DOE
26:04 Why I Wrote These Papers
33:06 Ice Core Reconstruction Issues
34:17 Closing Thoughts And Q&A
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Slides, summaries, references, and transcripts of my podcasts: https://tomn.substack.com/p/podcast-summaries
My Linktree: https://linktr.ee/tomanelson1
28 August 2026, 11:00 am - 1 hour 19 minutesRon Clutz Part 2: “Highlights from 3400 Climate Blog Posts” #423
Ron Clutz continues a three-part framework on climate change: humans cause warming, warming is dangerous, and government can stop it. He argues observed warming can be explained by post–Little Ice Age recovery plus multidecadal oscillations and solar-orbital effects, and says “alarmists” deny these. He describes a taxpayer-funded “climate scare machine” and cites a Climate Change Business Journal estimate of a $3.4T/year global climate industry. Using Joseph D’Aleo’s materials, he disputes claims about heatwaves, storms, droughts, wildfires, ice loss, ocean acidification, health, and food, then focuses on Arctic sea ice cycles and sea-level model projections versus tide gauges. He stresses climate is local (Köppen zones) and says climate policies are wasteful, ineffective, and harmful, citing project failures, costs, and energy poverty.
00:00 Framework Recap
01:07 Natural Warming Factors
03:56 Climate Scare Machine
07:59 Eleven Empty Claims
13:56 Polar Bears and Sea Ice
20:00 Sea Level Scare Tactics
28:27 Climates Are Local
35:13 Warming Impacts Summary
35:59 Can Governments Stop It
37:56 Energy Transition Reality
40:19 Why Hydrocarbons Rule
42:06 Energy Mix Big Picture
43:47 Trillions Visualized
45:22 Waste One Missing Funds
45:59 Waste Two Project Failures
48:35 Waste Three Blade Graveyards
49:13 Waste Four Operational Collapse
50:18 Hydrogen And Biofuels
51:32 Fear Sells Climate Policy
53:06 Policy Weapons And Results
55:51 Energy Poverty And Jobs
59:09 Rare Metals And Land Use
01:01:40 Better Priorities Consensus
01:02:29 Absurd Costly Pointless
01:03:59 Cartoons And Media Satire
01:09:33 Arctic Update And Data
01:13:28 Wrap Up Links And Wildfires
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Slides, summaries, references, and transcripts of my podcasts: https://tomn.substack.com/p/podcast-summaries
My Linktree: https://linktr.ee/tomanelson1
25 August 2026, 11:00 am - 1 hour 25 minutesHenrik Svensmark: “Cosmic Rays, aerosols, and clouds” #422
Henrik Svensmark discusses how solar activity modulates cosmic rays, which ionize the atmosphere and can help form aerosols that grow into cloud condensation nuclei, potentially altering clouds and Earth’s energy balance. He describes lab experiments showing more aerosols with increased ionization, critiques models that predicted no cloud effect, and presents observations from Forbush decreases where drops in cosmic rays are followed days later by reduced aerosols, cloud changes, and radiative-budget responses. He argues solar-cycle forcing may be ~1–1.5 W/m² and could affect CO2 sensitivity. On longer timescales, he links supernova-driven cosmic-ray variations to glaciations, ocean temperature, organic carbon burial, oxygen production, and biodiversity, while noting funding and career pressures.
00:00 Cosmic Rays and Clouds
00:42 Meet Henrik Svensmark
02:59 Solar Activity Basics
03:31 IPCC Forcing Debate
05:13 Sunspots and Cosmic Rays
07:03 Cosmic Ray Showers
08:55 Isotopes as Solar Proxies
11:48 Climate Correlations
15:17 Ocean Heat Amplification
17:55 Clouds as Amplifier
19:39 How CCN Form
22:22 Testing in Chambers
24:59 Models vs Reality
27:52 Forbush Natural Experiments
36:14 Fixing the Physics
41:17 Billion Year Timescales
42:08 Galactic Spiral Arms
44:02 Star Formation Setup
44:33 Open Clusters Explained
45:57 Mapping Nearby Clusters
46:53 Supernovas Meet Climate
48:27 Zooming Into Ice Ages
51:31 Nutrients And Carbon Isotopes
53:54 Organic Burial Correlation
55:15 Deep Time Starbursts
57:12 Oxygen And Complex Life
59:51 Dwarf Galaxies Trigger Stars
01:02:18 Fossils And Diversity Curves
01:05:13 Shelf Area Drives Richness
01:09:04 Area Normalization Test
01:11:34 Big Picture Conclusions
01:13:35 Funding And Career Risks
01:22:15 Critiques And Solar Events
01:25:16 Wrap Up And Farewell
Svensmark: The Cloud Mystery https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANMTPF1blpQ
The Chilling Stars [2008]: https://www.amazon.com/Chilling-Stars-New-Theory-Climate/dp/1840468661
Papers: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2843-3417
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My Linktree: https://linktr.ee/tomanelson1
18 August 2026, 11:00 am - 1 hour 24 minutesRandall Bock: “Withdraw to Freedom: Navigating the Addiction Maze” #421
Randall Bock argues opioids have dual legal and illicit markets and that most prescribed users don’t become street addicts. He recounts refusing drug-seekers (“Dr. No”) and later using buprenorphine as a temporary bridge, advocating a 4–6 month taper to sobriety rather than lifelong “maintenance.” He claims methadone maintenance, originated at Rockefeller University and expanded nationally via Nixon-era policy and Medicaid incentives, aimed to curb New York City crime but instead seeded the first wave of the opioid crisis and spread heroin use. He challenges the “addiction as disease/insulin” analogy, cites Vietnam vet recovery and Rat Park, and promotes his book “Withdraw to Freedom.”
00:00 Opioid Desert Intro
01:06 Two Marketplaces Theory
02:01 Doctor No Stories
03:29 Suboxone And DATA 2000
04:50 Maintenance Therapy Critique
06:22 New York City Sets Stage
08:04 Bridge To Sobriety Plan
10:47 Long Boom And Opioid Spike
14:24 Classic Narcotic Control Era
17:26 Harm Reduction And Methadone
18:43 OxyContin Myth Busting
19:48 Addiction As Exposure
23:28 Rockefeller Methadone Origins
26:40 Crime Control Not Cure
28:14 Why Methadone Feels Dopey
31:59 National Spread And Incentives
36:46 Did Crime Drop Actually
38:46 Equality Of Misery
40:49 Dealers Adapt And Expand
43:03 Dopesick Narrative Setup
43:36 Methadone First Wave
45:22 Medicalization Lessons
48:15 Disease Model Tested
50:20 Replacement vs Proclivity
53:29 Russia and Hard Truths
55:38 Rat Park Recovery
01:00:14 Economy and Despair
01:03:18 Bock Taper and Five Fs
01:09:28 Board Backlash
01:11:28 Book Launch Pitch
01:13:51 Incentives and COVID Parallels
01:19:01 Mental Health Parity
01:22:43 Wrap Up and Dual Path
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Slides, summaries, references, and transcripts of my podcasts: https://tomn.substack.com/p/podcast-summaries
My Linktree: https://linktr.ee/tomanelson1
14 August 2026, 11:00 am - 54 minutes 46 secondsJim Lakely #420
Jim Lakely, EVP and communications director at The Heartland Institute, describes Heartland’s free-market mission and its global role “pushing back on climate alarmism,” plus his weekly Climate Realism Show. He recounts Heartland’s 16 climate conferences since 2008 (300+ speakers, videos online), efforts to invite opposing views, and claims the IPCC’s mandate is to emphasize human influence. They discuss natural forcings, scientific uncertainty, warming since the Little Ice Age, and skepticism about “global average temperature.” Lakely cites funding pressures in academia, conference disruptions by Climate Defiance, and notes Roy Spencer’s satellite data work. He recounts “Fakegate,” alleging Peter Gleick stole documents and forged a memo. They also discuss COPs, social-media throttling, and AI’s energy demands weakening climate media funding.
00:00 Meet Jim Lakely
00:32 Heartland Climate Mission
01:34 Inside Climate Conferences
04:25 Debate And The IPCC
07:06 Natural Forcings Focus
09:32 Warming And Perspective
12:23 Young Skeptics Rising
15:40 Disruptions And Threats
20:44 Will Happer Spotlight
23:25 Models Funding And Media
28:01 Journalism Background
29:13 Congress Reality Check
30:39 Oval Office With Bush
32:44 Climate Beat Back Then
35:09 Momentum After 2024
38:32 AI Needs Real Energy
40:24 Fakegate Scandal Recap
47:03 Inside UN COP Meetings
48:57 Social Media Censorship
51:38 YouTube UN Banners
53:02 Closing Thoughts Freedom
See all Heartland “International Conference on Climate Change” videos here: https://climateconferences.heartland.org/
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Slides, summaries, references, and transcripts of my podcasts: https://tomn.substack.com/p/podcast-summaries
My Linktree: https://linktr.ee/tomanelson1
11 August 2026, 11:00 am - 1 hour 2 minutesThomas Kurz: “Greenhouse Gases and Climate Feedbacks” | Tom Nelson Pod #419
Thomas Kurz discusses chapters from his book Why There Is No Climate Crisis, citing positive reviews, then explains the greenhouse effect and argues CO2’s warming is limited and logarithmic. He claims doubling CO2 yields about 3 W/m² effective forcing, or ~0.9°C via Stefan–Boltzmann calculations, and says even burning all known fossil fuel reserves would add under ~1°C. He argues “climate crisis” claims rely on compounded positive feedbacks in IPCC models, but says observations show models overpredict warming, relative humidity aloft is declining, and a predicted tropical hotspot is missing. He attributes discrepancies to cloud/aerosol cooling, proposing an Earth “thermostat” and net slightly negative feedback.
00:00 Guest and Book Update
02:31 Greenhouse Effect Basics
04:53 CO2 Absorption and Saturation
07:38 Four Ways to Calculate Forcing
17:11 Convert Forcing to Temperature
21:19 Logarithmic Warming Limits
24:20 Fossil Fuels and Max Warming
28:13 Feedbacks Behind the Crisis
32:55 Models vs Observations
41:30 Clouds and Cooling Evidence
55:51 Earth Thermostat Conclusion
57:52 Q&A and Scientific Method
01:01:33 Wrap Up and Farewell
“Why There is No Climate Crisis: The Surprising Evidence You Should Know”: https://a.co/d/05rKxsYU
https://www.whynoclimatecrisis.com/
Email: [email protected]
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Slides, summaries, references, and transcripts of my podcasts: https://tomn.substack.com/p/podcast-summaries
My Linktree: https://linktr.ee/tomanelson1
7 August 2026, 11:00 am - 1 hour 16 minutesRay Sanders #418
Ray Sanders updates his Surface Stations project to classify all 385 UK Met Office weather stations using WMO siting classes, claiming 88% are class 3–5 and 112 meet no regulations, including many in walled or private gardens and car parks. He argues poor siting, degraded maintenance after automation, and rapid platinum resistance thermometers in Stevenson screens create spikes and non-comparable records versus older liquid-in-glass methods. He alleges rounding/conversion issues, data from non-existent “climate averages” sites, refusals under FOI, and deletion of queried webpages. He presents analyses of stable long-term records at Wye and effects from a solar farm at RAF Lyneham, and plans more reconstructions with helpers.
00:00 Project Update Intro
01:49 WMO Siting Classes Explained
03:23 Most Stations Fail Standards
05:54 Walled Gardens Hotspots
11:55 Car Parks and Heat Sources
13:58 Thermometers and Response Time
18:27 Stevenson Screen Meets PRT
20:36 Sampling Rates and Spikes
24:45 Fahrenheit to Celsius Rounding
28:00 Maintenance and Automation Decay
32:30 Phantom Stations and FOI Fight
37:59 Allies and Data Deletions
42:16 Searching for Good Stations
42:30 Best Station Locations
43:39 Wye Data Deep Dive
44:59 Anomalies And Baselines
46:36 Manual Records Reveal 1930s
50:00 Solar Farm Heat Jump
51:19 Dyce Vs Craibstone
55:06 Met Office Classification Errors
59:53 Questionable Data Practices
01:02:21 US Climate Reference Network
01:07:38 Why He Started The Crusade
01:13:53 Focus On Great Britain
01:14:51 Thanks And Wrap Up
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Slides, summaries, references, and transcripts of my podcasts: https://tomn.substack.com/p/podcast-summaries
My Linktree: https://linktr.ee/tomanelson1
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