Hearts of Oak Podcast

Lee Harris returns to look over a tense week in politics and media. We discuss the reported deletion of submissions to Angela Rayner’s working group on an Islamophobia / “anti-Muslim hostility” definition, questions over data protection excuses, and concerns that the proposed definition could be used to restrict speech.

We also cover the announced National Centre for Information Defence — branded by many as a “Ministry of Truth” — and whether it is a response to the government losing control of the narrative. The conversation then turns to sentencing and policing: contrasting cases that critics call two-tier justice, the arrest and charging of Danny Tommo after he slashed an abandoned dinghy in the Channel, and Tommy Robinson’s detention under counter-terrorism powers. We close with small-boat arrival numbers, police escorts for migrant transport, and the Chagos Islands sovereignty deal.

Connect with Lee...

X @LeeHarris https://x.com/LeeHarris

SUBSTACK https://www.leeharrisuk.org/

YOUTUBE https://www.youtube.com/@LeeHarrisMedia

INSTAGRAM https://www.instagram.com/leeharrismedia/

 

Connect with Hearts of Oak...
𝕏                         x.com/HeartsofOakUK
WEBSITE            heartsofoak.org/
PODCASTS        heartsofoak.podbean.com/
SOCIAL MEDIA  heartsofoak.org/connect/
SHOP                  heartsofoak.org/shop/

*Special thanks to Bosch Fawstin for recording our intro/outro on this podcast.

Check out his art theboschfawstinstore.blogspot.com and follow him on 𝕏 x.com/TheBoschFawstin

Oklahoma State Senator Shane David Jett joins Peter to talk about his Cherokee heritage, Christian upbringing, and path into public service. He describes growing up in Tecumseh, the books and preachers that shaped him, his time as the first Republican elected to his House seat (2004–2010), and later service in the Navy as an intelligence officer. Shane discusses Oklahoma’s mix of tribal, state, and local politics, gaming revenue, and how tribal governments interact with the legislature. He explains how COVID-era restrictions sharpened his focus on constitutional limits and emergency powers, and how that led him to chair the Oklahoma Freedom Caucus. The conversation also covers his view that Christianity underpins Western religious and political freedom, his relationships with local Muslims, and why he sees political Islam and violent applications of Sharia as incompatible with those freedoms.

Sen. Shane Jett was first elected to the state Senate in 2020 after serving in the Oklahoma House of Representatives from 2004-2010. He represents Senate District 17, which includes parts of Oklahoma and Pottawatomie counties.
The Shawnee Republican grew up in Tecumseh working in his father’s auto-repair shop and later earned a degree from Oklahoma Baptist University in International Business. Shane is a former lieutenant in the U. S. Navy and is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation. In addition to serving as a state Senator, he is the former CEO of a financial institution that makes commercial loans for Native American businesses focusing on economic development and job creation in the state.  
Shane and his wife, Ana, have three children.

Connect with Shane...
X                                              @SenShaneJettOK  https://x.com/SenShaneJettOK
                                                @shanejett  https://x.com/shanejett
FACEBOOK                             https://www.facebook.com/SenatorShaneJett/
WEBSITE                                 https://oksenate.gov/senators/shane-jett

 

Connect with Hearts of Oak...
𝕏                         x.com/HeartsofOakUK
WEBSITE            heartsofoak.org/
PODCASTS        heartsofoak.podbean.com/
SOCIAL MEDIA  heartsofoak.org/connect/
SHOP                  heartsofoak.org/shop/

*Special thanks to Bosch Fawstin for recording our intro/outro on this podcast.

Check out his art theboschfawstinstore.blogspot.com and follow him on 𝕏 x.com/TheBoschFawstin

American-German journalist Collin McMahon joins Hearts of Oak to unpack the AfD’s recent state election gains in Saxony-Anhalt, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Berlin. He links the results to public anger over immigration, a slumping economy, high energy prices, climate policy and what he calls woke politics, and argues the party is now growing beyond the east.
Collin discusses Friedrich Merz’s “firewall” against the AfD, the CDU’s collapse below the 5% threshold in Mecklenburg, Germany’s proportional system and why other parties keep forming coalitions to keep the AfD out. He also covers AfD co-leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla, rising figure Ulrich Siegmund, the Left’s surge in Berlin, European right-wing parties’ hesitation toward the AfD, and why he sees immigration, the economy and opposition to the war in Ukraine as the party’s core issues.

Collin McMahon is an American-German journalist, author and translator based in Munich. Born in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in 1968 to American parents, he grew up in Munich, studied media at Pomona College in California, and has worked as a radio reporter (including from the Yugoslav wars), Disney creative supervisor, screenwriter and children’s author. He translated the first volumes of Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid (Gregs Tagebuch) into German.
After 2015 he became a prominent conservative commentator on German and American politics. He previously worked in the Bundestag office of AfD MP Petr Bystron and now reports for the Swiss-German station Kontrafunk. He also writes for The Gateway Pundit, Junge Freiheit, Jüdische Rundschau and The European Conservative.
His recent German-language books with Kopp Verlag include George Soros’ Krieg, Der Zensurkomplex, Trump gegen den Deep State, Eroberung (with Irfan Peci) and Die Akte Epstein. A German book on Tommy Robinson is forthcoming.

Connect with Collin...
X                                               @CollinFrMcMahon  x.com/CollinFrMcMahon
RADIO                                       kontrafunk.radio  
WEBSITE                                    collinmcmahon.de  
BOOKS                                      kopp-verlag.de/a/trump-gegen-den-deep-state  

 

Connect with Hearts of Oak...
𝕏                         x.com/HeartsofOakUK
WEBSITE            heartsofoak.org/
PODCASTS        heartsofoak.podbean.com/
SOCIAL MEDIA  heartsofoak.org/connect/
SHOP                  heartsofoak.org/shop/

*Special thanks to Bosch Fawstin for recording our intro/outro on this podcast.

Check out his art theboschfawstinstore.blogspot.com and follow him on 𝕏 x.com/TheBoschFawstin

The discussion covers comments on EU expansion, including suggestions that Ukraine could join the EU, which David Vance rejects as unrealistic. It also addresses criticism of the Archbishop of Canterbury over a photograph with a cleric described as having praised Osama bin Laden, which is presented as poor judgment.

A large part of the episode focuses on culture and media, including Greta Thunberg, protests at Ed Sheeran concerts, and what the speakers describe as pressure on public figures to adopt political messaging. They also criticize media language around a child sexual abuse case in Wiltshire, arguing that it obscures the suspect’s background.
 

Connect with David...
WEBSITE           davidvance.net
𝕏                        x.com/DVATW
SUBSTACK        thedavidvance.substack.com
PODCAST         vancedavidatw.podbean.com

 

Connect with Hearts of Oak...
𝕏                         x.com/HeartsofOakUK
WEBSITE            heartsofoak.org/
PODCASTS        heartsofoak.podbean.com/
SOCIAL MEDIA  heartsofoak.org/connect/
SHOP                  heartsofoak.org/shop/

*Special thanks to Bosch Fawstin for recording our intro/outro on this podcast.

Check out his art theboschfawstinstore.blogspot.com and follow him on 𝕏 x.com/TheBoschFawstin

Bill Walton returns to Hearts of Oak to discuss the AI safety debate after Anthropic’s leadership warned that advanced systems could pose a serious risk to humanity within a decade. He argues that heavy federal regulation would entrench the biggest players, squeeze open-source development, and slow innovation, while the U.S.–China race makes a simple pause unrealistic because AI is dual-use. Bill then turns to what he sees as the more immediate threat: rising long-term Treasury yields, global government debt, and the limits of taxing, borrowing, or inflating the problem away. The conversation closes on crypto, quantum computing, financial surveillance, Europe’s safety-first regulation, and why risk-taking and free speech matter more than trying to make everything “safe.”

Bill Walton is a former Chairman and CEO of a $10 billion NYSE-traded investment company, a successful investor, renaissance man and the host of The Bill Walton Show. After decades in finance, private equity and as an entrepreneur and CEO, he now writes and speaks about the intersection of finance, policy, and culture.

Bill has served at senior levels across business, government, and the arts—ranging from Vice Chairman of CPAC and President of the Council for National Policy, to President of the National Symphony Orchestra; and National Trustee and Finance Advisor to the National Gallery of Art Trustees and Chairman of the Kelley (Indiana) School of Business. Other national board service includes Heritage, AEI, Wolf Trap, and the National Venture Capital Association.

Earlier in his career, Walton served in the U.S. Army at the Pentagon, headed strategic planning for a major commercial bank, worked in mergers and acquisitions at Lehman Brothers Kuhn Loeb, and later advised CBS founder William S. Paley. 
As a feature film producer, two of Bill’s films screened at the Cannes and Tribeca Film Festivals.
In 2016-2017 he led President Trump’s 2016 Financial Agency Transition Teams. 
He attended public schools in Indiana and is now a private investor. 

 

Connect with Bill Walton

 The Bill Walton Show | Money Culture Power
The Bill Walton Show | Substack
The Bill Walton Show Podcast Series – Apple Podcasts
The Bill Walton Show - YouTube

 

Connect with Hearts of Oak...
𝕏                         x.com/HeartsofOakUK
WEBSITE            heartsofoak.org/
PODCASTS        heartsofoak.podbean.com/
SOCIAL MEDIA  heartsofoak.org/connect/
SHOP                  heartsofoak.org/shop/

*Special thanks to Bosch Fawstin for recording our intro/outro on this podcast.

Check out his art theboschfawstinstore.blogspot.com and follow him on 𝕏 x.com/TheBoschFawstin