The Far Middle episode 141 tips off with a sports dedication once again highlighting a great performer both on and off the field (or court).

Nick pays tribute to the great David Robinson, aka “The Admiral.” Nick reflects on the two-time NBA champion’s unique path to the Naval Academy, his time with the Spurs and the U.S. national team, and his commitment to education and supporting young people. 

“David Robinson put his money and actions where his mouth was; you just don’t get a better-quality person than David Robinson,” says Nick. “And if more of us are like him, it’s a winning formula for the nation and society.”

Connecting from Robinson’s service in the Navy, Nick discusses America’s military today, who’s being told by our current leaders that climate change is America’s biggest threat. This sets up the episode’s primary focus, which is the continuing examination of his recent video series, “A Rational Thinker’s Guide to Climate Change and Related Policies.”

Nick expands upon his analysis in part two of the series, “Consequences of the Experts’ Cures,” beginning with the significant carbon footprint of so-called “renewables,” from their supply chain to installation. Their misunderstood, or perhaps ignored, life cycle carbon footprints are arguably the foundational flaw of the experts’ climate “cures.”

The bad medicine, which is those cures, will have materially worse impacts on economies and quality of life for citizens across the globe than the actual symptoms of climate change, whether legitimate, manufactured, or imagined, explains Nick.

The ignored carbon footprints of wind, solar, electric vehicles, and batteries underpin why the consequences are not going to be positive by pursuing the medicine or cures that the experts and the elites have prescribed.

Nick next connects to how the experts’ cures are driving inflation and destabilizing the geopolitical map. Nick examines the aggression by Russia, China, Iran, Hamas, Venezuela, and others that are rooted in energy policy. Moreover, Nick calls out the hypocrisy of the “experts” who refuse to practice what they preach.

In closing, Nick offers a great tribute to “the first president of the United States to enjoy rock star status.” Who was that president? Well not Obama or JFK. Press play to discover who, and rock on.

Episode 140 of The Far Middle is a must-listen for hockey fans as Nick looks back at both the history of the game and the origin of the name “hockey.” He recounts the game’s early forms in ancient Greece, 17th-century Holland, and its evolution in North America.

While the game began outside of Canada, the Land of Maple refined and popularized hockey into the modern sport we know today. For more hockey talk, check out Nick’s prior dedications to “the Great One,” Martin Brodeur, Sidney Crosby, and Connor McDavid.

Nick leaves the rink to spend the bulk of episode 140 revisiting a three-part video series he released earlier this month following the United Nations’ 28^th “Conference of the Parties” climate summit (aka “COP 28”).

The trilogy, “A Rational Thinker’s Guide to Climate Change and Related Policies,” is available here and also on Nick’s YouTube channel. This Far Middle further explores Nick’s commentary in the trilogy’s first installment, “Diagnosing the Problem and Issue.”

Topics include:

• The poor and inept policies being forced upon society by the climate alarmist movement.
• Earth’s changing climate throughout history.
• The shale gas revolution’s role in reducing carbon dioxide emissions.
• The economic, social, and ecological challenges of so-called ‘renewable’ energy sources like wind and solar—as well as their low energy density.

“We need to have a follow-on conversation about what we know about climate change policies, because those policies, they’re advertised as the medicine and the cure to climate change by the climate alarmist crowd,” says Nick previewing next week’s episode. He calls the expert and elites’ cures much worse than the disease of climate change and asks whether those symptoms are real or whether they’re fabricated.

In closing, Nick connects to John Bunyan’s “The Pilgrim’s Progress.” He draws parallels between the challenges faced by dissenters in Bunyan’s classic work to today’s “religion of climate alarmism” and limitations on free thought in the present-day discussion of climate change.

Following Martin Luther King Jr. Day this past Monday, and the anniversary of his January 15^th birthday, Nick begins The Far Middle episode 139 with a great story of King’s nonviolence in action, which “no one did better than Martin Luther King Jr. with lasting impact.”

For this episode’s sports dedication, Nick again spotlights an athlete whose greatness extends beyond the field, or in this case the pitcher’s mound. That individual is Walter Johnson, “the best pitcher in an era of dominant pitchers, and very well may be the best pitcher of all time.” Johnson was part of the Baseball Hall of Fame’s inaugural Class of 1936 alongside episode 137’s dedication, Honus Wagner. While noting Johnson’s epic baseball stats, Nick focuses on Johnson’s life and leadership off the diamond.

Nick then moves from 1910s and ‘20s baseball to World War II, examining Americans’ views of the British military in 1942 versus present-day impressions of British strength during the Second World War.

Reverting back to the turn of the century, just after Walter Johnson was born, Nick references American historian John Milton Cooper, and Cooper’s account of America’s thriving economy circa 1900. Nick also notes Cooper’s 2009 biography of Woodrow Wilson that was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. “I’d love to pick his brain on Woodrow Wilson, who I consider to be one of the worst performing presidents in our nation’s history,” says Nick. “And if you want to know why, read Precipice for a full explanation.”

Drawing a connection from the more than 2,000 newspapers at the outset of the 20^th century, Nick discusses a December 14, 2023, article in The Economist by former New York Times editorial page editor James Bennett. In the article, “When the New York Times lost its way,” Bennett does “a great job of differentiating between classic liberalism and illiberalism,” says Nick, further commenting on the herd mentality and state of journalism today.

Drawing connections from journalism, media, and America’s economic might, Nick reflects on a 2021 interview with author Walter Kern and the cultural divide between urban versus rural America. Addressing the divide, Nick calls media a “wedge creator and wedge preserver in America today.”

And in closing, Nick wishes a happy birthday to America’s first “polymath,” Benjamin Franklin. “How many people do you know that could be described as all of the following?,” asks Nick. “A writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and a political philosopher.” In admiring Franklin’s immeasurable accomplishments and contributions, Nick highlights Franklin’s 13 virtues to cultivate his character and achieve not only success but also happiness.

The January 10^th release date of Far Middle episode 138 coincides with Save the Eagles Day. Marking the occasion, Nick suggests halting the “taxpayer-subsidized development of what’s become the most murderous aviary campaign in the history of man and since cats: wind turbines,” and even weaves in a Rage Against the Machine reference during the episode’s open.

Nick again highlights a standout sports figure whose accomplishments both on and off the field epitomize greatness. And this installment’s sports dedication honors go to Robert Patrick “Rocky” Bleier—a Vietnam veteran, a four-time Super Bowl champion with the Pittsburgh Steelers, an author, the subject of the television movie Fighting Back, and more.

After reflecting on Bleier, the discussion makes a jump cut to explore Francis Fukuyama’s 1989 essay, “The End of History.” Nick examines the paper and calls out a series of excerpts and assertions from Fukuyama that were a complete misread and a significant historic blunder. Fukuyama’s conclusions influenced even more historic blunders by those in power who believed the global ideological transformation that Fukuyama professed and subsequently set policy from.

“I’ve said it before, I’ve said it on The Far Middle in prior episodes, I wrote it in my book Precipice, and I’m going to state it again, never ever underestimate the Left,” says Nick. “It comes at great peril for the individual and for society.” And while the Left might have been on the ropes in the late 1980s and 1990s, it will never surrender.

With the supposed fall of communism, socialism, and the Left, Nick notes the irony that in the end of history era, the ideological vacuum in the West has been filled with none other than the tenets and values of the Left. He uses examples of open borders, “tackling climate change,” and the vilification of prior Western values such as capitalism and the individual.

In closing, Nick pays tribute to 19th century American author Horatio Alger who was born a few days after today’s episode release, on January 13, 1832. While the Left’s dislike for Alger today borders on hate, he focuses in on the Horatio Alger Association and its promotion of the American dream, which is now under attack by the mainstream media.

“Constant listeners, in the words of Public Enemy don’t believe the hype when it comes to the Left,” says Nick. “Horatio Alger, and all that he stood for in his stories, they’re legitimate and real, as long as policy and culture allow individuals to freely achieve.”

The Far Middle journey continues into 2024 as Nick celebrates one of the greatest baseball players ever to play the game, Johannes Peter “Honus” Wagner. Nick looks back on “the Flying Dutchman’s” baseball career and southwestern Pennsylvania roots.

It’s a dedication “riddled with history,” that will entertain both constant-listener sports fans and non-sports fans alike. “You don’t get more Appalachia, more Western Pennsylvania, or more Pittsburgh than Honus Wagner, says Nick. “And you don’t get more scrappy, doer, and achiever than the Flying Dutchman.”

Nick then takes a minute to discuss his Western Pennsylvania accent before connecting to the more serious topic of air quality in Western Pennsylvania. Nick highlights the organization Pittsburgh Works Together (online at pghworks.com) and their “Clearing the Air” report.

“A few years ago Pittsburgh Works Together (PWT) started to think seriously about why all one hears about Western Pennsylvania when it comes to air quality is that it is horrible and that industry, manufacturing, and energy, they’re to blame, and we should shut them down,” explains Nick. He proceeds to highlight PWT’s report, which uses 2022 EPA data to dispel the myth (perpetuated by many including the American Lung Association) that the air in the Pittsburgh region is among the worst in the country.

“We need to act and set policies and establish goals that are based on facts, not fear or feelings,” says Nick (a repeated theme Far Middle constant listeners know well).

Similar to PWT’s analysis of air quality, Nick highlights the ongoing research from the Institute for Energy Research (IER). Specifically, Nick discusses IER’s Environmental Quality Index analysis (available at www.instituteforenergyresearch.org). Per IER’s research, Nick demonstrates how “replacing American domestic production of oil or natural gas with foreign supplies would be an overwhelmingly negative trade-off for the planet, for Code Red, and for the environment.”

Staying on data and numbers, Nick shifts to America’s debt and annual deficit. While a recurring Far Middle topic, in this discussion Nick helps provide perspective to just how unsustainable and calamitous America’s financial situation has become. The federal government’s insatiable desire to continue to spend is akin to the draw of Lord Sauron’s magical One Ring. With that, Nick concludes this Far Middle by heading to Middle-earth as he remembers J.R.R. Tolkien on the anniversary of his birthday back in 1892.