The Tudor Dixon Podcast: FreeSpoke, Media Bias & Finding Truth in Search

Summary

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The Tudor Dixon Podcast: FreeSpoke, Media Bias & Finding Truth in Search

Date: February 20, 2026
Guests: Tudor Dixon (Host), Todd Ricketts (FreeSpoke co-founder, former RNC Finance Chairman)

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Tudor Dixon welcomes Todd Ricketts—former Republican National Committee finance chairman and co-founder of FreeSpoke, a new search engine aimed at reducing media bias and providing a broader spectrum of news sources. The discussion centers on FreeSpoke’s goals, the state of media bias in tech platforms, how Americans can seek truth in today’s digital landscape, and the broader political climate approaching the midterms.

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Key Topics & Insights

1. Introduction: The Problem of Media Bias in Search (02:36–04:58)

• Media Suppression by Mainstream Search Engines:

  • Todd Ricketts describes personal frustration with Google and Bing results that “didn't match what I expected” ([03:07]).
  • He notes Google admits suppressing information, especially on topics like climate change.
  • Quote: “Google admits that, that they suppress information on climate change that is counter to the narrative.” – Todd Ricketts ([03:19])

• Birth of FreeSpoke:

  • FreeSpoke was developed to “surface as much information on all these topics as best we could to give all sides of that topic.” ([03:43])
  • Incorporates a “digital news assistant” powered by AI to present reporting from left, right, and center.
  • Quote: “We try to take out all the bias and lay the information out there for people so they can make up their own mind.” – Todd Ricketts ([04:36])

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2. How FreeSpoke Works: Features and Philosophy (04:08–06:50)

• Left/Right/Middle Labeling:

  • FreeSpoke labels sources by political lean, shows stories from both sides, and uses a “just the facts, ma'am” AI model. ([04:22])

• Broad Source Inclusion:

  • FreeSpoke includes outlets often buried or excluded by Google, such as Breitbart, and also seeks out rising or lesser-known sites.
  • Quote: “We've actively gone out and tried to tag and crawl so that [these sources] will show up when you search in FreeSpoke.” – Todd Ricketts ([06:10])

• Business Model Contrasts:

  • FreeSpoke eschews paid search ranking (unlike Google’s ad-focused model) to create a more level informational index. ([06:50])

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3. Motivation & Addressing Systemic Tech Bias (07:22–08:12)

• Why Build FreeSpoke?

  • Ricketts wanted to offer an alternative to the “double whammy of bias” in traditional search.
  • Quote: “[Big tech companies are] just run by people in California who are a little bit left-leaning. And so the guys that design the index are a little left-leaning. And then you put a crawler on top of that, that's a little bit left leaning... you get this double whammy of bias in your searches.” – Todd Ricketts ([07:38])

• Vision:

  • The internet’s promise should be “to help educate people, not be led in a direction or like listen to the narrative from a left-leaning tech company.” ([07:33])

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4. Enhanced News Discovery & Political Information (08:12–10:28)

• Podcast Integration:

  • FreeSpoke transcribes and makes podcasts searchable, allowing users to jump to relevant moments rather than sifting through hours of audio.
  • Quote: “If there's a minute in a podcast where they're talking about the Ukraine war, it doesn't take you to the full hour... but specifically to that minute so you can listen to just the part you want to hear about.” – Todd Ricketts ([08:41])

• Election Portal & Rapid Candidate Research:

  • Offers a candidate search feature and election portal for up-to-date races and positions, aiding journalists and political analysts ahead of the midterms. ([10:10])

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5. Media Narratives, Political Bias, and Information Currency (10:28–12:12)

• Case Studies of Media Spin:

  • Discussion of alleged bias in coverage of AOC and the Texas Senate race involving Stephen Colbert and Talarico; highlights how narratives are manufactured for political gain. ([10:28])

• Role of FreeSpoke:

  • Dixon suggests FreeSpoke can be a resource for checking narratives and “elevating the truth” via social media and podcasts.

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6. Political Landscape & 2026 Midterm Outlook (12:12–14:04)

• Media Messaging & Party Strategy:

  • Democrats focus on “affordability” as their campaign buzzword; Republicans counter with economic data and improvements.
  • Importance of redistricting and its potential to influence House and Senate majorities.

• Quote: “Republicans are going to be pushing the message that the economy is getting better and Democrats are going to be pushing this word affordability...” – Todd Ricketts ([13:07])

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7. Economic Analysis: Stock Market & Everyday Impacts (16:12–19:09)

• Stock Market Reality:

  • 50% of Americans have stock exposure, the remainder feel “left behind.” ([17:34])
  • Quote: “We always just have to be ensuring that everybody... feels like they have an opportunity to get ahead. That's like the promise of America...” – Todd Ricketts ([17:49])

• Inflation and Real Wages:

  • Despite the lowest inflation since 2021, wage increases don’t always translate to improved quality of life due to lingering price hikes.
  • Quote: “Inflation going down doesn't necessarily take prices down with it.” – Tudor Dixon ([18:31])

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8. Populist Messaging & Tax Policy in Elections (19:38–22:43)

• Contrast in Candidate Strategies:

  • Discussion around populist promises versus the realities of tax policy (case of Mamdani in NYC).
  • Quote: “First of all, he's a politician, so of course he lied.” – Todd Ricketts on populist campaign tactics ([21:21])

• Tax Returns & Voter Sentiment:

  • Larger refunds may boost voter short-term satisfaction, but long-term electoral impact remains uncertain.

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9. Senate & House Races: The 2026 Climate (23:03–24:34)

• Senate Battleground:

  • Dixon and Ricketts note challenges in Texas and North Carolina, with Republican infighting and tight margins.

• “Referendum on Trump”:

  • The midterms are positioned as both a test of Trump’s residual influence and a commentary on the current administration’s performance.
  • Quote: “Every two years we hear it's the most important election we've ever had... I feel like that's generally true.” – Todd Ricketts ([23:59])

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10. US Foreign Policy and Comparative Global Politics (27:14–32:34)

• Trump’s Disruptive Influence:

  • Ricketts credits Trump for forcing the global order to “shake out of its slumber,” arguing for stronger European partnership and accountability. ([28:33])

• Rising Division in Europe:

  • Points out persistent divisions within the EU, similar to US partisanship, and notes Europe’s economic stagnation relative to the US.

• International News on FreeSpoke:

  • FreeSpoke allows users to compare global news sources, thus enabling balanced perspectives on international affairs as well. ([32:16])

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11. Practicalities & Closing Thoughts (32:34–33:43)

• Using FreeSpoke:

  • Available via website or app; promotes itself as the “go-to” resource for news, research, and balanced perspectives every day. ([33:11])

• Feedback Solicited:

  • Ricketts and Dixon invite user input to improve FreeSpoke’s features and coverage. ([33:28])

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Notable Quotes

• “At FreeSpoke, we just wanted to give the best information possible without those biases.”
  — Todd Ricketts ([07:57])

• “We are in a time when information is currency. And if you can get the information out there first... we are looking for [ways]... to search the candidates by name to see where they’ve been.”
  — Tudor Dixon ([09:21])

• “I encourage everyone to download the app... every time you have a question, that should be like your go to.”
  — Tudor Dixon ([33:12])

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Timestamps of Important Segments

• [03:07] — Todd Ricketts describes the genesis of FreeSpoke and suppression of information by Google.
• [04:22] — How FreeSpoke labels and presents news sources from left, right, and center.
• [06:10] — FreeSpoke’s inclusion of news outlets often suppressed elsewhere.
• [08:41] — Podcast search functionality and granular audio indexing.
• [10:10] — Election portal and candidate-specific news searches.
• [13:07] — Analysis of 2026 midterm messaging strategies.
• [17:34] — Disparity of stock market benefits among Americans.
• [21:21] — Politicians and the reality of campaign promises.
• [23:59] — Razor-thin margins and the importance of each election.
• [28:33] — Role of Trump and current US foreign policy direction.
• [32:16] — FreeSpoke’s international news coverage capabilities.
• [33:12] — Instructions for downloading and using FreeSpoke.

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Memorable Moments

• Humorous Take on Political Messaging:
  Todd Ricketts jokes, “Of course he lied,” referring to the typical behavior of politicians when confronted with uncomfortable truths. ([21:21])

• On Technology’s Bias:
  Ricketts’ “double whammy of bias”—from designers to the crawlers to the algorithms—offers a striking image of how ideology seeps into digital products. ([07:38])

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Takeaways

• FreeSpoke positions itself as a transparent, politically-neutral alternative to mainstream search and news aggregation platforms.
• Increasing political polarization heightens the need to access unbiased, comprehensive information.
• Americans want—and need—tools to compare perspectives across media, especially as the 2026 midterms approach.

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Final Recommendation:
If you’re seeking to break out of the information silos curated by mainstream platforms, FreeSpoke offers an intriguing new resource, especially for staying up to date with both US and international politics.

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Transcript

[Tudor Dixon]

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[Tudor Dixon]

welcome to the Tudor Dixon Podcast. Today I am blessed to have Todd Ricketts with me. He is a former RNC finance chairman and the co founder of a site called Free Spoke Search, which I find fascinating because this is going to allow us to see a lot more news. I hope you've heard me talk before about sites like Breitbart that get completely pushed out of the Google search engine. You can't find it at all. So I'm excited to hear more about this. Todd, welcome to the program. Tell us.

[Todd Ricketts]

Well, yeah, thanks a lot, tutor. Thanks for having me here today. And really just, you know, what you hit on just a moment ago. I feel like a few years ago when every time I would go on to Google or Bing or any of these search engines, I was getting results that didn't match what I expected. And if you scratch a little deeper, what you find out is that these search engines do have a little bit of bias and they do suppress information. And interestingly enough, like Google admits that, that they suppress information on climate change that is counter to the narrative. Right. And so we started building a new search engine called Free Spoke. And really what we did is the idea was to try to surface as much information on all these topics as best we could to give all sides of that topic. And really we've layered onto that a bit of what we call a digital news assistant, which finds, which finds sources from both sides on all these topics and lets you kind of find like that Venn diagram of the overlap, which is probably where the truth lies, to be honest with you.

[Tudor Dixon]

So if I wanted to hear about, I don't know, something like if I wanted to hear about the Ukraine war and America's involvement, and I searched that, it would literally show me two different sides of that story.

[Todd Ricketts]

Yeah, what we do is we sort of label these sources, whether they be left, right, middle. But then with the onset of AI, we kind of layer on our own AI trained large language model. That is just the facts, man. When I talk to the programs, I'm like, it just has to be just the facts, ma'. Am. So we try to take out all the bias and lay the information out there for people so they can make up their own mind. And really, at the end of the day, I have a lot of faith in Americans. If you give them the good information that they can make up their own mind and do the right things.

[Tudor Dixon]

I mean, but you make a great point if you can make up your own mind, which is that you have to have enough information to make up your own mind. And that's something that I think we're even seeing. Last night I was hearing that the White House is getting together and talking about talking points for the midterms. And I think there's some of us who are involved in the political world and the news world that are saying, how do you actually get that out, though? Regardless of what the numbers are that are coming out of the White House, regardless of what the news is that is coming out of the White House, you have to wanna see both sides and you have to be aware that there's a place to see both sides because the media is so biased. I mean, I'll take just for example, we saw what happened with AOC in Munich where she just fell flat on her face. And then you have the New York Times reporter who actually tweet, no shame, tweets out, she called me and wants to clear things up. And then they do a whole article to clear things up for her. That is total bias.

[Todd Ricketts]

Yeah, no, it's definitely. It's definitely out there. And there's sources that come on both sides, which, when you go to Free Spoke, what you'll find is that there's a lot of sources out there that you may not have heard about before that don't appear in a Google or a Bing type search that we have actively gone out and tried to tag and crawl so that we'll show up when you search in Free Spoke, when

[Tudor Dixon]

you say they're not, they're sources that you don't necessarily see. Is it situations like we've seen with Breitbart where, I mean, I think it was probably almost 10 years ago now that they were completely wiped from Google. You, you have to actually search their name to see anything that they are publishing. Is it sources like that or are these sources that maybe we're not even aware, like new news sites?

[Todd Ricketts]

I would say a little bit of both. And yeah, Google acknowledges that they suppress information, which I think is really interesting if you just start there. But also in Google they have like this kind of the ranking that they do internally. They have ads that show up at the top where they say, like, the New York Times can buy that space at the top of those searches. And so they're just a different business model than we are. What we're really trying to do is find all the sources and compile that information and present it in a way that people can sort through it themselves.

[Tudor Dixon]

This is a big project to undertake to help people get to the truth. What made you say, I want to take this on?

[Todd Ricketts]

You know, really it was just my own experience of how I was interacting with the Internet. And I feel like the promise of the Internet is to help educate people, not be led in a direction or like listen to the narrative from a left leaning tech company. And it goes a little bit deeper than that. These companies are just run by people in California who are a little bit left leaning. And so the guys that design the index are a little left leaning. And then you put a crawler on top of that, that's a little bit left leaning. And then you have this display that's a little bit left leaning. And so you kind of get this double whammy of bias in your searches. And at Freespoke, we just wanted to give the best information possible without those biases.

[Tudor Dixon]

I do love it because being someone who is constantly searching the news and searching for what we're going to about on the podcast, what we're going to talk about on tv, I find myself going through multiple different search engines when I know that there is a topic that I'm not getting enough information about. And I'm sure I'm not alone. I mean, you're obviously saying the same thing. I love the idea that I could go one place and have it all brought to me and kind of as like a buffet of news.

[Todd Ricketts]

Yeah. And on top of that, one of the things we do is we do crawl and transcribe podcasts. Because what we found is so many people in the world today, they're not looking to the typical mainstream news networks for their information, but they're listening to podcasts, you know, like Joe Rogan and so on, and that's where they're getting all their information. So we transcribe podcasts and make them searchable as well. Especially if you're searching for something like you said on the Ukraine war. If there's a minute in a podcast where they're talking about the Ukraine war, it doesn't take you to the full hour of that podcast, but specifically to that minute of the podcast so you can listen to just the part you want to hear about.

[Tudor Dixon]

Wow. So that's actually fascinating from the standpoint of people who are in the News business because I think oftentimes we're trying to figure out. And for the midterms too, I will say, because oftentimes we're trying to find out if you're on a podcast, and that's not a podcast that we would typically listen to if it's a left leaning or right leaning, depending on what side of the aisle that you're on. How do you know when those candidates are out there? Because we are in an. In a time when information is currency. And if you can get the information out there first, if you can make the critique quickly and with everything that's going on, we are looking for, even by name, I think that would be interesting for the midterms to be able to search the candidates by name to see where they've been. Is that something that you could do?

[Todd Ricketts]

We have an election portal too, that kind of gives a rundown of races and the primaries. And so, yeah, so we have that functionality as well. So it's really. We've really tried to set ourselves up in a way to help people inform themselves and come to their own conclusions and really not guide anyone towards a particular narrative.

[Tudor Dixon]

Well, it's interesting because we are trying to figure out the truth right now. Just in the last few days we've seen this story, and I'm sure you saw this story with the Senate race out of Texas where you had Colbert saying that he was forced to have his Talarico interview go on the Internet instead of on the air because he said that the Trump administration was trying to keep Talarico, the Senate candidate from Texas, off the air. Well, then CBS actually kind of busted Stephen Colbert and said the truth is that we told him he had to have equal time with Jasmine Crockett and he decided to use this. But Talarico ended up raising two and a half million dollars off of this idea that the President was keeping him off the air. This is an opportunity to really expose some of these lies and get them out there. And then I think the people who are trying to fight these fights can go to your site and find out the truth and kind of elevate that through their social media and their podcasts.

[Todd Ricketts]

Yeah, 100%. And you know, the media is going to be who they are and they're going to give those opportunities to candidates. But yeah, if you really want to understand the issues and understand the candidates, we've created this portal so you can kind of dig a little bit deeper to educate yourself on that.

[Tudor Dixon]

Is that within Free Spoke?

[Todd Ricketts]

It is, yeah. Yeah.

[Tudor Dixon]

So how Explain how you get there.

[Todd Ricketts]

Well, if you, you can either download the app or go to the website. And so on the, on the front page of our website we have what I call the digital news assistant. And there, there's a link to our election portal as well.

[Tudor Dixon]

That's amazing. So, okay, you were obviously very involved with the RNC while I think it was what, 2018 to 2021.

[Todd Ricketts]

Yeah, about that. About that. Yeah, I think it's.

[Tudor Dixon]

So you were involved during this time where things are, I would say a heightened level of information is out there and a heightened level of emotion is also out there. We've, as I mentioned, we've just heard that the White House is looking at what the messaging should be in the midterms. We're at a moment right now where you're seeing a lot of chaos in Washington. I mean, you're brother is a senator there, so he's fully aware of what's going on with the DHS funding. That seems to be the messaging for the Democrats right now. They seem to be pretty hung up on the fact that they think that they can use ICE as their messaging, but they continue to say that the economy hasn't gotten better under the Trump administration. Give us a little idea of what you see happening in the midterms and where you think the Republican Party should stand and what their messaging should be.

[Todd Ricketts]

Yeah, I think that obviously the Republican Party is going to be pushing the message that the economy is getting better and Democrats are going to be pushing this word affordability, which I think is the new catchphrase of it's the economy, stupid. Right. Remember that from back in 1992. I think they're going to be using this word affordability as their catchphrase to say that affordability has not gotten back the way the president has promised. And Republicans are going to try to counter that narrative with the economic data that's coming out currently. But you know, it's always a tough midterm for an incumbent president. They usually lose seats. But there's a lot going on right now as far as redistricting in a few different states that might lead to a few more right leaning seats in the House. And you know, it's really going to come down to do the people that voted for President Trump want to see his policies continued or, you know, are they getting a little tired?

[Tudor Dixon]

Let's take a quick commercial break. We'll continue next on the Tudor Dixon Podcast.

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[Tudor Dixon]

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[Todd Ricketts]

Yeah, I think there's a little bit of both of that. The stock market is, I always kind of come up with this phrase, it goes a little bit like this, like 50% of the people in the United States do have exposure to the stock market and the s and P 550% don't. And so the stock market does track ahead of inflation. So if you have exposure to the stock market, you're generally doing okay. And if you don't, you're getting killed. And I think one of the things that like the Republicans, well, both sides really need to be sensitive to are these people who are feeling left behind. And we always just have to be ensuring that everybody who is in the United States, it feels like they have an opportunity to get ahead. Right. And that's like the promise of America is this idea that you can always do a little better. And so we have to sure that everybody in our country, whether they're, you know, whatever percentile or whatever their income is, that they feel like they have the opportunities to get ahead. And I think this election is going to let us know how people feel about that.

[Tudor Dixon]

I do think that there is a message on the Republican side that like, look at all of these numbers. I mean we saw that even in last week's hearings when we saw Pam Bondi talk about the Dow and people went, oh my gosh, that doesn't have to do with what she should be talking about. But I, I understand that they may have thought going into that that was a good talking point because they're talking about the economy. When you said people have to feel it. We're seeing that the inflation number is now at its lowest rate since 2021. But do you actually feel that? Because once prices go up, inflation going down. Doesn't necessarily take prices down with it.

[Todd Ricketts]

Yeah. So that's. I mean, you have to pay close attention to what's happening. And I think, you know, one of the things that the President did this last year was the Trump saving, which I think are a really great idea, because if you give people access to the stock market and let them start paying attention to the stock market, it actually gives them a better sense of where things are. And so I think that's actually going to be a big win for Republicans in this midterm and really long term, if they stay around for a long time.

[Tudor Dixon]

So the contrast of that. Actually, let's break that down a little bit, because he's bringing people into. I didn't think about it that way. You said that nicely, that he's bringing people. People into the stock market and allowing them to see how this can impact their lives. We had this big election in New York City last year, and it was obviously Mamdani against, essentially Cuomo. And people were saying, well, Mamdani is promising us all this stuff for free. And. And that is very attractive now. We also saw AOC on the world stage with her socialist activism messaging. And it didn't necessarily play that well because it kind of exposed that she didn't have a whole lot of information beyond that. We're kind of seeing that same thing in New York City right now as Mamdani comes out and he says, look, if we're not going to get this from the State assembly, if they're not going to increase taxes on the rich, then I'm going to have to increase property taxes on everybody. And I think we can be pretty confident that Mamdani knew coming out of the State assembly that that wasn't going to happen, that he wasn't going to get those taxes. Ra. So ultimately, we have to question, was his plan all along to just raise taxes on everybody? Is that a messaging point that can be expanded across the country? Because so many people have aligned themselves? I mean, the Senate. One of the Senate candidates in Michigan, for example, has aligned himself very closely with Mamdani. If Mamdani comes out with this huge tax, is that gonna be a big failure for the Democrat Party?

[Todd Ricketts]

You know, I think it will. But I think when you think in terms of Mamdani, first of all, he's a politician, so of. He lied. Right.

[Tudor Dixon]

I guess it's true.

[Todd Ricketts]

Of course he knew what he was saying wasn't 100% true when he was saying those things. But set that aside for one second and let's just keep in mind that that message is resonating. And so there's people out there who I think it really suffered through the inflation of the Biden administration. And we need to be really sensitive to those people. And again, it's all about making sure that everybody feels like they have that opportunity to excel and get ahead.

[Tudor Dixon]

Do you think? I mean, we have these numbers that for our audience, maybe they don't mean that much, but we're seeing that the Bureau of Labor Statistics is recently reporting in February, they're reporting that the average weekly earnings has increased 1.9% from last January to this January. Is that significant enough for people to feel.

[Todd Ricketts]

I think it is. But let's keep in mind how much of a hit hit we took. Inflation was so out of control for the couple of years and people are probably still behind where they were in 2021. And so it's going to take a little bit of time before the before families start feeling that like, okay, we're back on top of things and we're not just treading water anymore.

[Tudor Dixon]

What about that combined with what we're hearing is that people will be getting back a significantly higher tax return this year. Do you think that will be enough for them to remember come November?

[Todd Ricketts]

It's hard to say. I mean, people do definitely appreciate getting a check in the mail. I being one of them. I love opening my mail. I sadly, I usually only get bills. It's people that want money from me. But I'm always happy when I get something back. So I think that will give a short term happiness. Whether that has a huge impact in the election remains to be seen.

[Tudor Dixon]

Have you heard any of the buzz from your brother about how people are feeling on the ground? We know that going into the midterms the administration felt really confident about the Senate. And I think that there's a little bit of concern over the Senate right now as we see the numbers coming out of North Carolina and quite honestly as we see the numbers coming out of Texas, which is really a state that the left has said has been going blue for a long time, but we've always held strong there. We have an interesting dichotomy right now with the challenge of Wesley Hunt and Ken Paxton against John Cornyn. That's creating some, some confusion and some frustration on the Republican side. But in addition, you have these two candidates that have pretty high numbers in Texas. What's the buzz on the ground? Are people concerned about the Senate now or do you feel like it's still the House is the big concern for the midterms.

[Todd Ricketts]

You know, I think that anytime you're going into a midterm with an incumbent president, you're looking at this idea that you're probably going to lose a couple of seats. The margins are just razor thin. And so I think that like, you know, the election's gonna be kind of a referendum on President Trump and how people are feeling in that moment. But all of these things are tough. And every two years we hear it's the most important election we've ever had, or every four years we hear it's the most important. And I feel like that's generally true. Like each time it happens, we get into these critical elections and, you know, it's hard to say which way it's gonna which way it's gonna go.

[Tudor Dixon]

Let's take a quick commercial break. We'll continue next on the Tudor Dixon Podcast.

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[Todd Ricketts]

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[Tudor Dixon]

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[Tudor Dixon]

We kept hearing so much about Trump on the world stage and we kept hearing people saying he's spending too much time on foreign policy and not enough time on policies at home. I think the numbers that we just talked about would show that there is still quite a big focus on the economy, what's happening at home, the kitchen table issues, getting gas prices down. We don't hear about eggs anymore. But we did have last year, the same munich security conference. J.D. vance spoke and there was some criticism of his speech. They, the world leaders said it felt too harsh, it felt too direct. Marco Rubio spoke this past week and he actually commented on that. He said sometimes we are direct and you have to understand why we're direct. But he's been overwhelmingly praised as bringing everybody kind of back together and talking about our overwhelming shared culture and heritage and that we want to have a future together and that we want to protect our borders and that we shouldn't be silly about allowing fear and guilt to shame us into having open borders and putting our national security at risk. Do you think that Marco Rubio's message is going to be one that is gonna be a hard message for the Democrats to go against when it looks like he really brought world leaders together?

[Todd Ricketts]

Well, you know, I don't know exactly how that's gonna play out in November, but I would say that, you know, the president is definitely a disruptive right and in a good way that the world order was kind of gotten into this stagnant place and President Trump came along and said we really need to shake the world out of its sort of slumber here. And really, it does play into domestic politics, too, because we have been the leader of the world since World War II. President Trump has kind of questioned saying, like, okay, how long do we have to be that leader on trade and with our military power? And at what point do our European allies come along with us? And so I think as we go forward in the world, obviously, we're going to continue to be that leader. But we really need our European allies to kind of come, as I say, come along with us. And part of that is going to be having them address their own bureaucracy and red tape that they've created over the last 80 years that has kind of put them into this kind of like, zombie, like state, economically and militarily.

[Tudor Dixon]

You know, it's interesting because there was a lot of discussion that felt like there is a real, the poll in the United States between the left and the right. I think we get a lot of criticism that we have a lot of division. But Europe, in the European Union, it seems as though they have that same pull going on. I mean, you saw Brexit. You see now the UK Seems to be trying to pull back the conservative side, and they, they, they vacillate between liberal and conservative. You see it, you see, even what's happening in Latin America, too, seems to be going much more conservative. But one of the things that I wanted to ask you about, we saw one of these world leaders or one of these people who was a politician speaking on behalf of world leaders in Munich, and he commented on the eu. He said, I feel like the EU should have a president over them so that we have a, A, a collective voice and that we go to the table and we can be as powerful or more powerful than the United States. I thought that was a really interesting statement, especially considering I think that they are, in a similar way, pulling from left and right. Not all of them are on the same page from the EU standpoint. But do you see that sometime in the future that Europe could be kind of a consolidated force against the rest of the world?

[Todd Ricketts]

I mean, they've tried it from an economic point of view. And really the issue that I think is going on, I mean, it's happening here in the United States, but it's a bigger issue in Europe and in Canada, because what we've seen over the last 20 to 25 years is that the US has, the economy has grown significantly. And whereas 25 years ago, the standard of living in Europe and in Canada was roughly the same as the United States. As we've gone through this economic boom over the last 25 years, those places have stagnated. And now that division has become much larger. And really, Europe has a lot of homework to do. They need to decide if they're going to unwind some of the bureaucracy that they've created and let their economy start growing again or continue to fall behind.

[Tudor Dixon]

It's interesting, as we watched this past week, what was happening at that conference, I was feeling like we need to be able to have a better understanding of what's happening country by country. So I want to go back to Free Spoke for a minute because obviously we want to get the national news and have that perspective back and forth. Are we able to do that on an international basis on the site as well?

[Todd Ricketts]

For sure. For sure. Yeah. I really encourage you to kind of go and look and see what our search engine will find on these different places. And I think you're going to find, like, a really balanced view, kind of highlighting the different sides of those arguments, not just in the United States, but in Europe and around the world. World.

[Tudor Dixon]

I love it. It's the perfect time to talk about this because so many people who are listening to this podcast are saying, how do I intelligently talk to the other side right now? And I think that's one of the benefits of what you're doing, is that you. You are showing us both sides of the argument, which you should know to be able to talk to the other side, because it's better to have an understanding of what they're thinking. If you want to come around them, come beside them, try to even convert their thinking. You have to kind of know what they're thinking and what the AL version is. So I encourage everyone to download the app. If you go to the App Store, it's just Free spoke. Is that how you find it?

[Todd Ricketts]

That's it, yeah.

[Tudor Dixon]

And you. And you can go to the app. You can get the app or you can go to the website, but the app, I would love. I think the app is a good thing to have on your phone because you can just go there every day. Really? You can go there every time you have a question that should be like your go to. So we appreciate what you've done here.

[Todd Ricketts]

Yeah, yeah. And as you use it more tutor, like, I'd love to hear your feedback so we can make whatever tweaks and changes you think we might be able to do.

[Tudor Dixon]

That sounds great. Absolutely. I will. And I. And for all of you who are listening. Give us your feedback too because we'll get it to Todd.

[Todd Ricketts]

Okay, great. Thanks.

[Tudor Dixon]

Todd Ricketts, thank you so much for coming on the podcast today.

[Todd Ricketts]

No, it was good fun. Thanks for having me.

[Tudor Dixon]

Absolutely. And thank you all for joining us on the Tutor Dixon podcast. As always, you can get this wherever you get Your podcast, the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, Rumble or YouTube. But just make sure you join us and have a blessed day.

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[Todd Ricketts]

People at work supported me while I was going through treatment by not treating me like somebody who was going through treatment.

[Tudor Dixon]

Treatment sucks.

[Todd Ricketts]

Cancer sucks.

[Tudor Dixon]

Being engaged with work really helped to oh, I just knew I was going to beat this.

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[Tudor Dixon]

Learn more and sign the [e-mail] this season on Dear Chelsea with me, Chelsea Handler. We've got some incredible guests like Kumail Nanjiani. Let's start with your cat. How is she?

[Todd Ricketts]

She is not with us.

[Tudor Dixon]

Okay, great, great, great. Way to start. Maybe you will cry. Ross Matthews, you know what kids always say to me? Are you a boy or a girl? Oh my God. All the time.

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I know.

[Tudor Dixon]

So I try to butch it up for kids so they're not confused. Yeah, but you're butching it up is basically like an angry woman. Doris Day, right?

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No, I turn into Bea Arthur.

[Tudor Dixon]

Listen to these episodes of Dear Chelsea on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

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[Tudor Dixon]

This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.