Think First with Jim Detjen
Think First is a short-form podcast that makes you pause — before you scroll, share, or believe the headline.
Hosted by Jim Detjen, a guy who’s been gaslit enough to start a podcast about it, Think First dives into modern narratives, media manipulation, and cultural BS — all through the lens of gaslighting and poetic truth.
Some episodes are two minutes. Some are an hour. It depends on the story — and the energy drink situation.
No rants. No lectures. Just sharp questions, quick insights, and the occasional laugh to keep things sane.
Whether you’re dodging spin in the news, politics, or that “trust me, bro” post in your feed… take a breath. Think first.
Visit Gaslight360.com/clarity to sharpen your BS filter and explore the 6-step clarity framework.
🚨Distorted is set to release on February 10, 2026, and pre-orders are now available on Ingram, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble.
Reserve your copy today — and join me in cutting through the distortion.
Paperback and Kindle: Amazon
Hardcover: Barnes & Noble
Episodes
102 episodes
#94 Distorted Is Now in the World · What’s Inside the 346 Pages
Distorted is officially out — and this episode is your map to what’s inside.In this launch edition of Think First, I walk through the structure of the book, what you’ll find across its five parts, and why it was built the way it...
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Episode 94
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7:46
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#93 Death Isn’t the Problem. Delay Is.
We don’t talk about death very clearly.We whisper about it at funerals…then scroll past confident voices explaining how to manage it.This episode started with a conversation on a plane — about a Yale philosophy course taught b...
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Episode 93
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11:05
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Reserve a Free Signed Copy Before February 10
This is a short bonus episode.Distorted — the book behind Think First — is now available as a free Advanced Reader Copy, in signed paperback or eBook, for listeners.If you’ve left a rating for T...
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1:38
When Feelings Replace Reality: The Danger of Narratives That Just "Feel True"
What if the most powerful lies… don’t look like lies at all?In this episode of Think First, we unpack poetic truth — the kind of storytelling that sounds noble, feels right, and spreads fast… even when it’s not true. From histor...
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Episode 37
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6:32
FLASHBACK #17 Stolen Land · The Ritual, The Riot, and The Rewrite
They say we live on stolen land. And now, that slogan has leapt from classroom rituals to street riots. From land acknowledgments to ICE agents being swarmed in the name of justice. But what happens when poetic truth replaces real history — and...
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Episode 17
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6:57
#92 Why Chasing the Future Is Ruining Youth Sports and What Actually Works Instead
We love to talk about the future — rankings, opportunities, exposure.But real development doesn’t happen out there.It happens today.After nearly a decade running one of the most demanding youth basketball camps in the c...
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Episode 92
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14:10
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#91 A Year Later · Still Waiting on Justice
A year later, many Americans are still waiting — not for vengeance, not for show trials, but for explanation.This episode of Think First isn’t about indictments. It’s about legitimacy… and what happens when institutions ask for...
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Episode 91
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15:57
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#90 When ChatGPT Boils Everything Down to God
An AI-generated answer landed at the top of my Instagram feed — calmly explaining why, when intelligence strips away scripture, science, and human narrative, it still arrives at the idea of God.Not revelation.Not belief.Just redu...
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Episode 90
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8:05
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#89 When Protest Stops Being Speech · Minneapolis, ICE, and the Moment Language Broke the Law
What happens when protest quietly becomes interference — and language outruns the law?In this episode of Think First, Jim Detjen examines the Minneapolis ICE shooting not to adjudicate guilt, but to understand something deeper: ho...
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Episode 89
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15:06
#88 Who’s Actually Conscious? The Animals That Complicate the Question.
Some animals don’t just react.They anticipate.In this episode of Think First, we explore a quiet idea most of us already sense but rarely say out loud: animals may notice shifts in the world before we do — emotional, soci...
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Episode 88
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19:41
#87 Las Vegas, Charlie Kirk, Trump · And the Questions That Stopped Getting Asked
The deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history didn’t fade because it was resolved.It faded because asking questions became unwelcome.In this episode of Think First, we revisit the 2017 Las Vegas shooting — not to advance a ...
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Episode 87
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20:07
#86 Why a Harvard Professor Walked Away · And What the University Can’t Say Out Loud
After forty years at Harvard, historian James Hankins quietly walked away.Not in protest. Not in anger. But with a diagnosis.In this episode of Think First, we examine Hankins’ final essay and a recent interview to unders...
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Episode 86
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20:00
#85 Nick Fuentes and the Internet’s Real Power
Nick Fuentes didn’t appear in a vacuum — and this episode isn’t about defending or denouncing him.It’s about why certain voices cut through during moments of institutional fatigue — and why the same mechanics repeat across the po...
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Episode 85
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42:49
#84 The 150-Terabyte Moment No One Talks About
Every human carries the most advanced backup system on Earth — and it’s not your phone, your cloud account, or anything designed in Silicon Valley. It’s older, denser, more durable, and capable of moving more information in a single moment than...
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Episode 84
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23:25
#83 The Video That Crossed the Line · Congress, the Military, and the Fog Between Them
When six lawmakers released a highly polished “You can refuse illegal orders” video aimed at America’s troops, the official explanation was simple:It was just a reminder.But that’s not how the Pentagon saw it.<...
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Episode 83
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46:26
#82 The Shift No One Explained · Inside the LGB → LGBTQIA+ Break
Something happened to the movement that began as L-G-B.It expanded — then expanded again — until the letters outgrew the definitions they were built on.This Think First investigation walks through the quiet fracture inside the mod...
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Episode 82
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1:02:08
#81 Something Is Killing the Cows
A rancher finds his best bull bloodless at sunrise.No tracks. No struggle. No answers.From the 1970s panic to the Oregon cases making headlines today, “cattle mutilations” have never really gone away—they’ve just upgraded their to...
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Episode 81
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32:28
#80 DNA and the Soul · The Architecture of Continuity
What if DNA isn’t just a code of flesh, but the anchor of something older?In this episode, Jim Detjen explores the thin line between biology and belief — from inherited trauma and quantum biology to the question of whether consciousness ...
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Episode 80
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21:53
#79 Ten Headlines, One Comet, and a Cold.
Between Air Force Academy swim meets, a fiftieth-birthday celebration, Harvard Parent Weekend for two kids, a Distorted publishing deadline, and a world-class case of COVID — Jim’s finally back behind the mic.This wee...
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Episode 79
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11:13
#78 Diversity Is Our Strength — Until You Disagree
At 3:31 a.m. in Minneapolis, a sound echoes through the dark — a call that now defines a city’s new idea of “inclusion.”From that single moment, this episode unpacks the story we’ve all been sold: that diversity automatically makes us st...
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Episode 78
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29:30
#77 Weight of the World · Is the Obesity Epidemic a Side Effect or a Strategy?
Something about the obesity epidemic doesn’t add up.Despite decades of “awareness,” our population keeps getting sicker, younger, and more dependent — while the system built to fix it keeps breaking profit records.In this episode ...
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Episode 77
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25:33
#76 When the Government Stops, Military Families Still Pay.
When Washington shuts down, the headlines talk about politics. But at kitchen tables in Kansas, California, and overseas bases, it’s military and veteran families who feel it first.In this episode, Jim Detjen unpacks the gap between the ...
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Episode 76
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15:45
#75 Wikipedia · The Internet’s Biggest Gaslight
They told us Wikipedia was the “free encyclopedia anyone can edit.”What they didn’t tell us is how it edits you back.In this episode of Think First, Jim Detjen pulls apart the myth of Wikipedia’s neutrality — exposing how...
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Episode 75
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20:33
#74 Walter Russell and the Gaslight of Science: Madman, Mystic, or a Thousand Years Too Soon?
In 1921, artist-turned-polymath Walter Russell claimed to spend 39 days in a coma-like “illumination,” tapping the very “source of all knowledge.” His revelations became The Universal One — a sweeping vision of reality as crystallized ...
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Episode 74
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16:44
#73 Are Mormons Christian? The Michigan Shooting & Narrative Distortion
A tragic shooting at an LDS church in Michigan sparked a viral fight online — not just about violence, but about identity. Commenters claimed, “Mormons aren’t Christian.” Others insisted, “Christianity is under attack.”...
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Episode 73
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11:08
