In this conversation, Robert Scheer and Nolan Higdon dig into the contradictions at the heart of America’s elite class — the philanthropists, technocrats, and political leaders who publicly preach democracy, equality, and women’s rights while privately orbiting Jeffrey Epstein long after his crimes were known. Higdon walks through the documents, the lies, the intelligence connections, and the cultural implications of a scandal that refuses to fade. What emerges is a portrait of a society where wealth shields wrongdoing, institutions collapse under their own corruption, and the public is left to pick up the pieces.

On today’s episode of Scheer Intelligence, Robert Scheer sits down once again with former CIA analyst Ray McGovern for a rare, unvarnished look at the war in Ukraine, the collapse of nuclear arms control, and the dangerous return of great‑power spheres of influence. McGovern, who spent 27 years briefing presidents from Nixon to Reagan, argues that the conflict was provoked, that Russia believes it has already won, and that the real negotiations now bypass Europe entirely. Scheer pushes back, insisting on the human cost and the moral urgency of ending the war now — not after another round of geopolitical maneuvering. Together, they cut through media narratives and political posturing to expose what’s really at stake: the future of global security, the erosion of diplomacy, and the lives caught in the crossfire.

Today on the show, Joshua Scheer speaks with award‑winning investigative journalist Peter Byrne about the explosive conclusion to his 10‑part Project Censored series on the militarization of artificial intelligence. Byrne’s reporting uncovers how Silicon Valley billionaires, the Pentagon, Wall Street, and corporate media have fused into a single war‑driven superorganism—one that feeds on conflict, surveillance, and profit while pushing humanity toward nuclear brinkmanship.

In this conversation, Byrne dismantles the mythology surrounding companies like Palantir and Anduril, exposes the New York Times for cheerleading a $1.5 trillion Pentagon budget, and explains why China is not the existential threat Americans are told to fear. He argues that AI is already embedded in a self‑propelling war machine that may be beyond meaningful human control.

This is a deep dive into empire, technology, and the death‑driven logic of American militarism—and what it will take for life‑affirming movements to resist it.

Every year on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, official tributes reduce a radical critic of empire, capitalism, and militarism into a safely packaged icon — while quietly ignoring the brutal reality of how the U.S. government treated him in real time. Martin Luther King Jr. was not merely monitored by the FBI; he was hunted, harassed, and psychologically terrorized by a federal agency determined to silence a man whose moral authority threatened entrenched power. In this republished interview, acclaimed filmmaker Sam Pollard exposes the depth of the FBI’s crusade against King — a campaign far darker than most Americans are ever taught. Revisiting this history is not an exercise in nostalgia, but a necessary confrontation with how the state responds when demands for justice move from rhetoric to action.

Today on Scheer Intelligence, we pull back the curtain on a crisis unfolding quietly but catastrophically across American higher education. Robert Scheer sits down with Professor Steve Macek — scholar, organizer, and one of the country’s sharpest analysts of academic freedom — to examine what he calls an unprecedented assault on the institutions that produce knowledge itself.

From Trump’s weaponization of the Justice Department to Democratic governors signing bills that criminalize criticism of Israel, the attack on academic freedom is no longer coming from the fringes. It’s bipartisan, it’s systemic, and it’s reshaping the university into a place where surveillance replaces debate and self‑censorship replaces inquiry.

In this conversation, Scheer and Macek trace the historical lineage — from Galileo to McCarthy to the present — and confront the chilling reality that tenure no longer protects scholars, adjuncts are silenced by precarity, and entire universities can now be punished for allowing dissent.

If you want to understand why America’s intellectual life is collapsing into fear, conformity, and political intimidation, this episode is essential.

As the world stumbles into a new year, journalist Robert Scheer sits down with former CIA analyst Ray McGovern for a conversation that feels less like a holiday reflection and more like a warning flare. Both men came of age in the shadow of World War II, lived through the Cold War, and spent their lives studying the machinery of American power. Now, they confront a moment they argue may be even more perilous: a nuclear‑armed standoff between the United States and Russia, shaped by political chaos, military inertia, and a peace movement too faint to hear.

In this episode, Scheer and McGovern revisit the promises, failures, and back‑channel dramas that brought the U.S. and Russia to the brink—unpacking Trump’s claims he could end the Ukraine war in 24 hours, Biden’s abandoned assurances, and the quiet but escalating risks that rarely make it into mainstream headlines. What emerges is a sobering, unsentimental look at how fragile global stability has become, and why the coming year may determine far more than most Americans realize.

Academic freedom in the United States is hanging by a thread — and nowhere is that more visible than in Texas.

In this episode of Scheer Intelligence, Robert Scheer speaks with Dr. Daniel Braaten, Associate Professor of Criminology and Political Science at Texas A&M–San Antonio, from what may be the epicenter of the most aggressive political assault on higher education in modern American history. As state legislators, governors, university boards, and now the federal executive branch move to police curriculum, punish dissenting faculty, and weaponize funding, Texas has become a testing ground for how far political power can go in controlling what is taught — and what is silenced.

Braaten details how professors are being publicly targeted, fired without due process, and subjected to ideological litmus tests — not only in the humanities, but across all disciplines, including science and medicine. From audits of course syllabi to bans on “race or gender ideology,” to social-media-driven intimidation campaigns, the goal, he argues, is clear: to weaken universities until they submit.

But this conversation goes far beyond Texas. Scheer and Braaten connect these state-level attacks to a broader national and global pattern — from Trump-era threats to withhold federal research funding, to the cynical weaponization of anti-Semitism, to the erosion of shared governance that once made American higher education the envy of the world. As Braaten warns, there are no “safe” fields: when academic freedom collapses in one discipline, it collapses everywhere.

At stake is not only the future of professors, but the education of students, the pursuit of truth, and the ability of a democratic society to think critically about power, science, war, climate, immigration, and human rights.

This is a conversation about how democracies lose knowledge — and how they might still fight to defend it.

Today we dive deep into the intricate web of America's economic landscape with our esteemed guest, Doug Henwood. As a prominent economist and writer for outlets like The Nation and Jacobin, Doug brings a critical progressive lens to the disarray of the American ruling class.

In this episode, we explore the alarming short-sightedness of our elites, their complicity in fostering economic inequality, and the historical missteps that have led us to this precarious moment. From the legacy of the Clinton administration to the contemporary challenges of neoliberalism, we dissect the threads of class struggle that weave through our society.

Join us as Doug shares insights on the recent political shifts in New York City, the role of grassroots movements, and the urgent need for a transformative vision that prioritizes the well-being of the many over the profits of the few. It's a conversation that cuts to the heart of our collective future—one you won't want to miss!