
Hosted by James Howard Kunstler · EN

#447 — Eric Metaxas is the author of seven New York Times Bestsellers, including his newest: Revolution: The Birth of the Greatest Nation in the History of the World. His earlier books include Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy and Martin Luther, as well as thirty children's books. His works have been translated into 25 languages. Eric is the host of Socrates in the City and the Eric Metaxas Show (on Apple Podcasts), where he has interviewed Dick Cavett, Ron Howard, George Foreman, Mel Gibson, Morgan Freeman, and many others. His humor has appeared in The Atlantic, The New York Times Magazine, and The New Yorker. The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

Mel K is an investigative writer, host, and producer. Her new book, Infiltration Instead of Invasion: America Betrayed 1944–1954, examines how intelligence networks, financial institutions, and supranational structures reshaped American sovereignty in the decade after World War II. Mel was a producer and screenwriter in Hollywood until she was cancelled by the Woke Rebellion. She reinvented her self as a podcaster and is now host of The Mel K Show, where she has been killin' it with her commentary on the American political traumas and psychodramas of the day. She also happens to be the producer of Roaseanne Barr is America, which streams on Apple TV and other venues. The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

Susan Kokinda has been politically active since 1968, when she was part of the Robert Kennedy presidential campaign in Oregon and California. She pivoted politically after that, and in the 1970's and 1980's was active in Washington, DC, defending Richard Nixon during Watergate, covering the White House during the Carter Administration, and working with Congress in support of President Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative. With President Trump's 2016 victory, she knew it was time to return to Michigan. Since then, she has been organizing throughout the state, educating and building support for President Trump's commitment to make the U.S. a manufacturing superpower and to make the Republican Party the party of workers and producers. In March 2025, she was elected Coalitions Vice Chair of the Michigan Republican Party. She broadcasts on the Promethean Update YouTube channel and regularly reaches over 300,000 views. Her theme, along with her co-host Barbara Boyd, is that the real battle in the world is between the opposing principles of the American System and the British System, which represent two different images of man and society. She has been interviewed by OAN, Real America's Voice, Stephen Gardner, and numerous podcasters. The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

Richard Lyon is an electrical engineer, petroleum engineer, and energy economist. He spent more than twenty-five years in the oil and gas industry in senior operational management roles in the UK, Norway, Azerbaijan, Congo, and Cameroon. He writes about the gap between energy policy and physical reality at his Substack, State of Britain (richardlyon.substack.com). His book, The Energy Trap: Why the Renewable Energy Transition Can't Work — And What Can, will be published by Swift Press this coming September, 2026, available in the US through Amazon. The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

Bobbie Anne Cox is a New York-based civil rights attorney with over 25 years of legal experience, formerly with a large international law firm and now principal at Cox Lawyers, PLLC. She has extensive experience suing government entities on behalf of her clients and is best known for winning a lawsuit against New York Governor Kathy Hochul and the NYS Department of Health that struck down the state's "Isolation and Quarantine Procedures" regulation (the infamous Quarantien Camps rule). She also filed a lawsuit against New York State over an amendment to the state constitution, challenging it on both procedural and parental rights grounds. She serves as Director of Stop NY Corruption, an organization focused on redistricting, competitive elections, and civil rights in New York. Ms. Cox is also a Fellow at the Brownstone Institute and writes the "Knowledge is Power" newsletter on Substack. The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

Elizabeth Nickson is a Canadian journalist, author, and blogger who writes the weekly Welcome to Absurdistan newsletter on Substack, focused on politics, threats to individual liberty, and restoring rural economies. She began her career reporting for Time Magazine before becoming European Bureau Chief of LIFE Magazine and has since written for an extensive roster of publications including Harper's, The Guardian, The Observer, The Independent, The Telegraph, The Sunday Times, and the Toronto Globe and Mail. Her first book was The Monkey Puzzle Tree, an investigation of the CIA's MK-Ultra mind-control program. Herr second was Eco-Fascists: How Radical Environmentalists Are Destroying Our Natural Heritage. The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

Heather Mac Donald is the Thomas W. Smith Fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal. A New York Times bestselling author, she has written extensively on policing, criminal justice, race relations, higher education, and the pursuit of merit in American institutions. Her influential books include The War on Cops and When Race Trumps Merit. A non-practicing lawyer with a J.D. from Stanford, she holds a B.A. in English from Yale (summa cum laude) and an M.A. from Cambridge University. Mac Donald is a frequent commentator on Fox News and other outlets, known for her data-driven, fearless analysis of cultural and policy issues. The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

Dr. Shane Simonsen is an Australian experimental farmer, author, podcaster, and thinker based in the subtropical Sunshine Coast hinterland of Queensland (on around 40 acres among the Glasshouse Mountains). He holds a PhD in biochemistry and previously worked in academia and as a teacher before leaving in his late 20s — disillusioned by institutional structures, the global financial crisis, and concerns over peak oil— to pursue independent work in biology, ecology, and sustainable systems. For the last decade he obsessively developed hardy staple crops for his little mountain village. Australia is uniquely vulnerable to energy system disruptions and totally unprepared for post-industrial agriculture. Shane blogs weekly at Recombination Nation. His podcast of the same name interviews amateur plant breeders, geopolitical experts and culture innovators. His non-fiction book Taming the Apocalypse explores a post-industrial future built purely on biological technology He also wrote a novel under the nom-de-plume Haldane P. Doyle, Our Vitreous Womb, imagining a biotechnological civilization in the distant future.

Alex Krainer is a Croatian-born market analyst, author, and former hedge fund manager based in Monaco. Coming of age in socialist Yugoslavia, Krainer's unconventional path took him from serving in Croatia's war of independence to becoming one of the few fund managers to generate positive returns (+27-percent) during the 2008 financial crisis. He founded his own investment management firm in 2007 and later joined Altana Wealth, where he developed systematic portfolio allocation strategies bridging technology and finance. Krainer is the author of Mastering Uncertainty in Commodities Trading"(ranked #1 by Financial-Expert.co.uk), The Grand Deception, and Alex Krainer's Trend Following Bible. A sought-after voice on geopolitics, commodities markets, and global finance, he publishes regular market analysis through TrendCompass and his Substack, offering sharp, unconventional insights shaped by his unique background navigating both socialist regimes and Western financial markets. The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger

Stephan Sander-Faes is a professor of history teaching European civilization at the University of Bergen, Norway (faculty profile: https://www4.uib.no/en/find-employees/Stephan.Sander-Faes). His work focuses mainly on post-mediaeval (Central) Europe. He blogs semi-anonymously about European affairs at https://fackel.substack.com/ (click and sign up, it's free). When he's not teaching, he tends to his livestock (follow his sheep at https://bsky.app/profile/ramsesandhisgang.bsky.social). In whatever spare time he has left, he explores our analogue, pre-internet world cataloging his late grandfather's vintage picture postcard collection, which you may as well check out over at https://espc.substack.com. The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger