The Daily Signal Podcast

Doctors don’t have enough evidence to know the long-term effects of what happens to someone who takes puberty blockers as a child, the executive director of the American College of Pediatricians says. "We know that if you stop puberty with these puberty blockers, you stop a whole sequence of events," Dr. Jill Simons says, adding that there also are "effects on the brain.""There's effects on the biology that you need that for sexual organ development to become fertile in the future," she says.But according to Simon, "There's a lot of things we don't know about stopping puberty, and you can't get that back once you stop the puberty blockers."Given the rise in gender-identity treatments for children, the American College of Pediatricians launched a new initiative Wednesday called the Biological Integrity Initiative to provide not only medical professionals, "but also parents, teachers, policymakers, even teens themselves who are questioning some of these things" with resources and scientific data on the known effects of gender treatments on children, Simons says.Simons joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” to explain what medical professionals do and don’t know about the effects of puberty blockers and hormone treatments on young people and what resources the Biological Integrity Initiative offers. You can learn more about the new initiative at BiologicalIntegrity.org. Enjoy the show!

The second Republican presidential debate is set for Wednesday night, and if Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., chairman of the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, were the debate’s moderator, he knows what he would ask the candidates relating to China.“Maybe the most obvious question is perhaps the most important, which is: ‘Why should an average American care about the threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party?'” he says.“It may be obvious to those of us who work in D.C. or people who work at think tanks in D.C., but at times I fear it can seem like a distant “over-there” threat, when my view is very much that it’s a “right-here-at-home-threat” and a threat to American sovereignty,” says Gallagher, who is also chairman of the House Armed Services subcommittee on Cyber, Information Technologies, and Innovation. Gallagher, also member of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, adds:Perhaps the most important policy question, though, is: “What is your plan for rebuilding American military power in order to deter a war with China over Taiwan?”And then, if they want to stoke debate, they can ask questions about TikTok, because candidates have different opinions about whether we should ban TikTok, force a sale, or do nothing at all.Gallagher joins today’s episode of “The Daily Signal Podcast” to discuss some key issues relating to China that he thinks candidates should be focused on and address while campaigning, along with his pitch to young voters who are on TikTok about why the Chinese app should be banned.

TOP NEWS | On today’s Daily Signal Top News, we break down: President Joe Biden becomes the first known sitting president to stand on a picket line with protesters. Hunter Biden files a lawsuit against Rudy Giuliani and his former attorney Robert Costello. Sen. Cory Booker joins many of his colleagues in calling for Sen. Bob Menendez to resign. Republican lawmakers call on the Biden administration to provide detailed information on how much U.S. aid money has been sent to Ukraine.A new study finds that college admissions counselors give preferential treatment to emails from people with pronouns in their signature lines. Listen to other podcasts from The Daily Signal: https://www.dailysignal.com/podcasts/Get daily conservative news you can trust from our Morning Bell newsletter: DailySignal.com/morningbellsubscription Listen to more Heritage podcasts: https://www.heritage.org/podcastsSign up for The Agenda newsletter — the lowdown on top issues conservatives need to know about each week: https://www.heritage.org/agenda

The People's Republic of China "has used the power of its economy beyond its borders to push its illiberal and authoritarian geopolitical objectives and to change the behavior of individuals, governments, companies, and multilateral institutions," says Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian, author of "Beijing Rules: How China Weaponized Its Economy to Confront the World.""The reason I chose to focus on China's economic power is that I have covered China's power projection beyond its borders as a beat for about seven years, and I found that underlying much of China's power is its economic power," says Allen-Ebrahimian, who is the China reporter for Axios. "Whether that's its diplomatic power, it's still, to this day, a lot of the foundation of that is its economic power, what we tend to call extraterritorial censorship," says Allen-Ebrahimian, who has lived in Taiwan since August 2022, adding:I mean, the NBA and Hollywood studios will self-censor. This is an extension of China's economic power. And so I found that at least, I would say, until the first half of the 21st century, China's economy is the foundation of much of its power projection around the world.Allen-Ebrahimian joins today's episode of "The Daily Signal Podcast" to discuss her new book and what she has seen as the biggest change that China has undergone since she lived there in 2004 and then again from 2008 to 2012. 

TOP NEWS | On today’s Daily Signal Top News, we break down: Congress struggles to reach an agreement on the budget, moving the government closer to a shutdown. Democrats call for New Jersey Democrat Sen. Bob Menendez to resign. George Mason University’s president fires back at The Heritage Foundation following a DEI report.  Canadians upset after Parliament honors a Nazi-linked veteran. Ukraine says it killed the commander of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. Relevant LinksListen to other podcasts from The Daily Signal: https://www.dailysignal.com/podcasts/Get daily conservative news you can trust from our Morning Bell newsletter: DailySignal.com/morningbellsubscription Listen to more Heritage podcasts: https://www.heritage.org/podcastsSign up for The Agenda newsletter — the lowdown on top issues conservatives need to know about each week: https://www.heritage.org/agenda

As a little girl, Kathy Grace Duncan watched her father abuse her mother and vowed she would never be victimized like her mom. "I didn't have the tools to realize that my dad was abusive, my mom's a victim," Duncan says, "so, my takeaway from that was that women were weak, women were vulnerable, and women were hated."Duncan realized she would grow up to be a woman and did not want to be "weak," so she says she "made a vow at a very early age, 'I'm going to be the man my dad is not.'""I was running from pain," Duncan says.When she was 19, Duncan began to live as a man and did so for the next 11 years. When Duncan came to know Jesus as her savior, she got involved in a local church while she was still living as a man. Over the course of several years, Duncan journeyed with her church community and eventually made the decision to detransition. For Duncan, it was a five year journey to go through the "de-transitioning process, and that was undoing the thinking that being a woman is bad, that I'm not safe, that I'll be hated, that I'm vulnerable," she says.Duncan, director of gender advocacy for the CHANGED Movement, joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” to share her story and discuss what children struggling with gender dysphoria need most. Elizabeth Woning, co-founder of CHANGED Movement, also joins the show to explain the fight to preserve counseling and therapy that affirms and celebrates an individual's biological sex amid a struggle with their gender identity. Enjoy the show!

TOP NEWS | On today’s Daily Signal Top News, we break down:Another IRS official has come forward regarding Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss’ ability to bring charges against the president’s son, Hunter Biden.A federal grand jury returned an indictment against New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez todayDepartment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced this week “the establishment of the Homeland Intelligence Experts Group.”Federal judge rules on a Biden administration’s upcoming offshore oil and gas lease saleUkraine attacked Crimea in a missile attack  Relevant LinksListen to other podcasts from The Daily Signal: https://www.dailysignal.com/podcasts/Get daily conservative news you can trust from our Morning Bell newsletter: DailySignal.com/morningbellsubscription Listen to more Heritage podcasts: https://www.heritage.org/podcastsSign up for The Agenda newsletter — the lowdown on top issues conservatives need to know about each week: https://www.heritage.org/agenda

A Republican congressman is speaking out about how the Chinese Communist Party is influencing U.S. classrooms."Well, they come in, and they sort of soft-pedal their propaganda, but yet, they also whitewash history by eliminating Taiwan," says Rep. Aaron Bean, R-Fla., chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee's early childhood, elementary, and secondary education subcommittee.“You can’t talk about Taiwan. You can’t talk about Tiananmen Square. You can’t talk about the Uyghurs. You can’t talk about Tibet, the Dalai Lama—all these things that they are influencing and really trying to grasp the young minds of young students to say how great China is,” adds Bean, who was elected to Congress last November. Bean joins today’s episode of “The Daily Signal Podcast” to discuss a hearing his subcommittee held Tuesday, “Academic Freedom Under Attack: Loosening the CCP’s Grip on America’s Classrooms”; the Confucius Classrooms located throughout the U.S.; and what’s at stake if the U.S. isn’t able to counter the communist regime’s influence in American classrooms. 

TOP NEWS | On today’s Daily Signal Top News, we break down: Encounters of illegal aliens on America’s southern border reach near record highs.Virginia’ public universities have more DEI bureaucracies than any other state in America. Rupert Murdoch announces he is stepping down from his role as Chair of Fox Corporation and Executive Chairman of News Corp. Canada experiences fierce protests in recent days over gender ideology. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy meets with President Joe Biden.  Poland says it is going to halt sending weapons to Ukraine. Relevant LinksListen to other podcasts from The Daily Signal: https://www.dailysignal.com/podcasts/Get daily conservative news you can trust from our Morning Bell newsletter: DailySignal.com/morningbellsubscription Listen to more Heritage podcasts: https://www.heritage.org/podcastsSign up for The Agenda newsletter — the lowdown on top issues conservatives need to know about each week: https://www.heritage.org/agenda