Issues And Ideas: News & Political Commentary With Chris DeBello March 22 2026

Join us for expert honest analysis and commentary about today's politics, news, economy, healthcare and current events.
 
(00:00) The details about the SAVE America Act and how it's a part of the threat to the right to vote is explained.

(10:43) Steve Swedberg, Finance & Monetary Policy Analyst with the Competitive Enterprise Institute, discusses the reasons for higher food prices, whether price controls are a solution and what lies ahead for the U.S. economy.

(22:27) Alleigh Marre, Founder and Executive Director of the American Parents Coalition, tells how a lack of price transparency by hospitals and healthcare providers results in financial debt for families and how the Parents Need Prices campaign is responding and empowering families.

(33:02) Former ABC News Science Editor Dr. Michael Guillen shares how he went from being an atheist to understanding how science proves the existence of God which is the focus of his upcoming documentary The Invisible Everywhere being released on April 8.

(47:49) Chris DeBello looks at how the Bible teaches the importance of proper focus in Faith.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hello, welcome to Issues and Ideas. I'm Chris Tobello. As we get closer and closer to what may be one of the most important midterm elections we've ever had, two things which are very related to elections progressed this past week. First, let's start with the nomination of Senator Mark Wayne Mullen to become the head of the Department of Homeland Security. He was appearing before a Senate committee this past week for his initial stamp of approval, which he did get despite Republican Rand Paul voting no, because Democrat Senator John Fetterman voted yes to advance the nomination. So Mullen's nomination will now go to the full Senate where it's pretty much likely he'll it'll pass and he'll get the DHS job. What's this have to do with the midterms? Well, one of the roles of the Department of Homeland Security is to ensure that our election process is protected and preserved rather than threatened and influenced. That makes this exchange between Mullen and Senator Elise Slotkin from this past week very interesting. Check this out.

SPEAKER_00 1:02

Let me turn to elections. The Department of Homeland Security has the mandate since the Obama era for securing our elections of infrastructure. That's an important job, and you will be Secretary. He has said he wants to federalize the elections. He has said name check cities, including Detroit. He has said voting machines are inaccurate. He has said in the State of the Union, I was on the Senate floor, paraphrase that if he doesn't, if his side doesn't win in November, then the elections were rigged, which is exactly what he said eight months before the 2020 election. You have your own history. You did not certify the 2020 election. There are people at the Department of Homeland Security, three people individually who are well-known election deniers now running election security functions. Who won the 2020 election?

SPEAKER_02 2:11

Ma'am, we know that President Joe Biden was torn into office. He was the President for the last four years. But I do believe I believe my job as Department of Homeland Security Secretary will be to make sure that we assure that the elections are fair and people can trust them.

SPEAKER_00 2:27

Does the Federal Government run the elections process or do states?

SPEAKER_02 2:31

It's very clear in the Constitution that the states control state elections and then there is some federal oversight that's on it, but the federal government can set some standards. So if you're talking about the Save American Act uh requiring you, which is within the Constitution, by the way, requiring individuals to be citizens of the United States, I don't think it's too much to ask somebody to prove they're a citizen of the United States to be able to do that. That's not what we're talking about.

SPEAKER_00 2:54

I am talking about administering the elections. If you are Secretary of Homeland Security, do you feel you have the authority to put uniformed officers at polling locations in 2026?

SPEAKER_02 3:05

Ma'am, we we said this in your office. The only reason why my officers would be there if there was a specific threat for them to be there not for intimidation, and I said no feeling. No, ma'am, I said I can't sit there and guarantee hypothetically of what threat would be not. I'm not putting military, that's not within my own.

SPEAKER_00 3:33

Uniformed, sorry, uniformed officers.

SPEAKER_02 3:35

But if there is a threat, a specific threat, say it's in a Jewish community, and there is a threat that's specific to that to that polling area, then we will work with local law enforcement. There'll be there'll be a reason for us to be there and it'll be known why we're there.

SPEAKER_00 3:49

I think the reason you're here and not Christy Ohm is because Americans trust their local law enforcement now way more than they trust ICE. So I would just say if we ever get to the point where you are being asked to put armed ICE officers at polling locations, we have lost the plot as a country. We have fundamentally lost it. And until I hear someone tell me that that this man, President Trump, will actually allow us to have a free and fair election, there is zero trust here, and I cannot trust that he won't try and steal it again.

SPEAKER_01 4:22

Sounded like a simple question to me, which Mullen obviously had a challenging time answering. Maybe that's because up to that point at least, Mullen had been a 2020 election denier. So has the leopard changed his spots? Combine that with what we're watching on full in the Senate with what's being called the Save America Act. Senate Republicans have taken to the Senate floor to try in every way possible to sell this legislation to you so that you will call your senator if they're not in favor of it and demand that they support and vote for the Save America Act. Oh no, they won't. Thankfully, they won't. Well I'll explain. The Republicans in Donald Trump are proclaiming how the Save America Act will eliminate people who shouldn't be voting from voting. Voter ID enforcement. Now an overwhelming majority of people, Republican, Democrat, independent, all support this idea. But the path to it via the Save America Act will in fact limit access to voting. Let's look a little deeper into that. We have one in ten voting age American citizens, that's about twenty-one point three million people, who either don't have a proof of citizenship document or certificate of passport, naturalization certificate, or they don't have easy access to get one. That's according to a 2023 survey. That same survey found that people of color are more likely not to have a document proving citizenship. Only about 43% of Americans have passports. That's according to a survey by the Voting Rights Lab. Now the bill says voters can show an ID that indicates citizenship, but as of now, only five states Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Vermont, and Washington, offer IDs that meet that criteria. The Safe America Act says that a form of identification issued consistent with the requirements of the Real ID Act of 2005 that indicates the applicant is a citizen of the United States can be used. No state real ID indicates citizenship status. Voters who don't have a citizenship document with a photo like a passport, then they'd have to show two documents. Government issue photo ID along with a document proving citizenship like a birth certificate. As many as sixty-nine million American women changed their names after they got married, so they don't have a birth certificate that matches their current name. That was according to uh analysis by the Center for American Progress. So these women would likely need additional documentation, a name change document, a marriage certificate, in order to register to vote. Now speaking of registering to vote, the Safe America Act specifies that if someone registers by mail, they must present their documents in person to the office of the appropriate election official before the voter registration deadline passes, or if they're in a state where voters can register at a polling place, they could show their documents there. That requirement would also completely upend any third party voter registration drives that go on. Those rely on on mail forms. Between the twenty twenty and twenty twenty two elections, according to the Election Assistance Commission, that's the EAC, most common way people registered was through Department of Motor Eagle offices, but nine percent of voters registered to vote by mail, fax or email, and fourteen percent register online, twenty-two, according to the EAC. Even small changes like moving into an apartment, moving down the block, changing party affiliation, that's considered voter registration update time. So under the Save Act, you'd have to go in person to your election office, present original or a certified documentation to make any kind of voter registration change, including what seems to be just minor details. It's important to note that Donald Trump and others claim that our elections are under attack from the outside. After looking at these facts, is it more accurate to say that the security and stability of our elections are actually under attack from within? So what happens when the Save America Act fails to pass the Senate? Will local election officials become even more of a target than they already have become? How about poll workers? Will they be discouraged or even fearful to take part and oversee the election process like like they've done in some cases for for many years? How about this? Will MAGA declare themselves to be poll watchers? I know in most states that's not how how becoming a poll watcher works, but will they care? Will there be armed law enforcement, even troops at highly selected polling locations? The election clause, of course, gives states the duty of running and overseeing elections, but well, Donald Trump is either carved out or by the House of Republicans has been awarded chunks of Article One of the US Constitution. So what's one more piece? Are you asking right now? Well, what can I do? How how much how much weight do I carry? What what kind of difference can I make? Well, there is this thing called the No Kings movement. There are going to be rallies. There's coming Saturday over three thousand locations nationwide. So there are two things you could do. First, find the rally near you. You could do that at NoKings.org. Then once you find the rally near you, go to it. Be a part of the answer to the threats that our elections are facing at an increasingly higher level. You certainly do not even tell you the cost of everything has gotten higher. This cost increase has affected everything from the non-essential to the very essential, like food, for example. I mean, yeah, you can look for options, lessen the financial hit, but how much food shopping can you do with the dollar store and still hope to maintain a normal lifespan? Now there are some who say that an idea called price controls would be a quick solution to the affordability issue. Remember that saying, those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. My first guest today joins us to give a history lesson. Let's call it on price controls and whether they succeeded in the goals that were set for them. He's finance and monetary policy analyst with the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Steve Swedberg, thanks for being here today, Steve.

SPEAKER_05 11:30

Pleasure to pleasure to be here, Chris.

SPEAKER_01 11:33

CEI.org, the website, learn more about Steve's work and the other experts and analysts with the Competitive Enterprise Institute. For the listeners, Steve, let's let's establish a definition. What are price controls?

SPEAKER_05 11:48

Uh price controls are um they are limits that the government imposes on how high or low, sometimes they're a price lower, uh, uh how low uh a price can go. Um and in this case, uh politicians uh are proposing them in in various forms to respond to high grocery bills and and this this persistent inflation we've been seeing since around uh 2021-22.

SPEAKER_01 12:15

If you look throughout history, are price controls established through executive orders? Does a law have to be passed? What's the what are the mechanics behind establishing price controls?

SPEAKER_05 12:25

Um yeah, oftentimes it can be uh it can come from the federal government, it can come from the state government, uh in in Argentina it came it came f it came federal. Uh so it it it it really it really depends. I mean, we're we're more f we have a more federalized system, so it that would more like there are price gouging laws, um, which price gouging laws are sometimes they're price ceilings um during emergencies, like a hurricane or a storm, where the government says on the state level you can only charge this much um during uh uh a natural disaster.

SPEAKER_01 13:00

Now, obviously not looking to protect the grocery industry. They're they're in effect victims too, because when you look at the the price of food, it's from uh cost of energy for the farmers, the cost of tariffs that the importers have to pay to pass on to the consumers. But as it is for grocery stores, by and large, they're not working with a lot of wiggle room to begin with as far as trying to make a profit and keep the lights on the doors open, are they?

SPEAKER_05 13:25

Oh, you're you're absolutely right on that point. Uh normally a business, uh, for to be a healthy business usually runs with a five, ten percent profit margin. Uh grocery stores, uh, they they're usually around the one, two percent mark. So yeah, you're right. They really don't have a lot of wiggle room. And if you take away that wiggle room, what what happens as a result, um, both in theory and in practice? What happens? You have fewer items on the sh you have fewer items on the shelf, they have less incentive to invest in better services. Uh, and in worst case scenario, they there can be closures of grocery stores.

SPEAKER_01 14:04

Or at the very least, reduction in staff.

SPEAKER_05 14:07

That too, uh, which will make which will make it even more complicated and then and make it even harder for people or more expensive for people to get groceries in the long run.

SPEAKER_01 14:16

Now, obviously the layperson thinks, okay, if prices are out of control, put some kind of control on them, even even if it's temporary, until everything rebalances and reshifts and we can get back to some realm of normalcy. But if you look through history, that hasn't always worked out uh according to plan or hope, has it?

SPEAKER_05 14:35

Um oh, I mean uh that I mean I would say that's an understatement. Uh uh price controls have are are one of the oldest and most tried uh policy interventions in history. Particularly with interest rate control uh cap. Uh and yeah, it's been it's been tried and failed because rather than trying to help out the problem, it creates more problems. Because uh Chris, a lot of people think of the economy like it's a machine. Like you fix the gear here or or tighten the screw there, you fix everything. But in fact, the economy functions more like an ecosystem. So when you try to fix something in one place, you have a bunch of other unintended consequences like grocery store closures and empty shelves that happen instead.

SPEAKER_01 15:25

Well, that's the thing. Looking through some of the history that you write about and did some digging on my own too, more often than not, price controls actually wind up creating product shortages, which wind up creating higher prices.

SPEAKER_05 15:37

Exactly. And that and that defeats that defeats the purpose of uh price control. So you're you're just creating more problems uh along the way.

SPEAKER_01 15:46

So why why are people going, I mean, is it just as simple as look as uh a senator or house member or president saying, well, I have to look like I'm doing something, so this will be a nice, quick, easy, superficial fix, where in fact it's like putting a tourniquet a band-aid on an amputation.

SPEAKER_05 16:03

Yeah, well, there's that there's definitely a political um it's like I think with a lot of public policy, it it sounds good on paper, it sounds good from a political standpoint, but when implemented it it creates it creates more problems. Yeah, yeah. Both sides are are are are doing it and have done it. And this is again, this is not original, like we've done it if we did it in World War II, we did it during the Nixon era. Uh it just yeah, it creates shortages and and quality and the quality of food gets like in Wor World War II. They they were they were they were replacing like tea tea with grass. Like they were they were really cutting back on on quality. And I mean those were more extreme advanced I mean World War II was a wartime, um, but the Nixon era uh was not wartime. That was that was relatively peacetime and and we still had shortages and and quality issues. Um and people were less incentivized to produce more and to invest in in food production. So that's that's the kind of thing we don't want to have uh uh happen in in an attempt to quote unquote try to do something.

SPEAKER_01 17:09

As you're right too in the article, which you can find at CEI.org, and we'll put a direct link to it too. It it just has the outreaching effect. I mean, you always think that an action coming in is going to solve a problem, but with price controls, it just and we've talked about uh some of them already, from farmers to retail to businesses to the consumer, it just has a negative impact as as the ripple effect goes on. We're talking with Steve Swedberg, who is finance and monetary policy analyst with the Competitive Enterprise Institute, CEI.org, their website, and you are listening to issues and ideas. It's safe to say, too, that Steve, with the recent economic statistical news, the the picture is not going to get better anytime soon, is it? So even price controls might seem like a superficial fix, but if the numbers keep go if the cost and inflation keeps going up, would you write about having little effect as it is, if none, is just not going to make a difference one way or another because it doesn't address the root cause of high prices, and that is inflation.

SPEAKER_05 18:14

No, it's absolutely and and that that is a whole other conversation. I'm gonna try to throw uh really quickly just some some suggestions. Uh, rather than just complain about prices being high. I mean, one one way we can go with it is uh removing tariffs on food imports. Another one is uh for the U.S. government to stop subsidizing sugar and and corn, uh, because corn's used to feed cows and and boosting that for demand for that and biofuel. Uh yeah, and that and that has health implications with uh fructose, corn, syrup, and all that. Another one we can do is uh uh reform occupational licensing, because why why do truckers or butchers need hundreds of hours of training before they can start working? It really is an impediment for someone to try to get a job, especially on on the lower income end of uh of things.

SPEAKER_01 19:06

Certainly giving better policies and better fairness of of regulations and rules to to the farmers, that would be a big help.

SPEAKER_05 19:15

Oh, for helping out the f I mean that I mean they are getting help. There there are certain subsidies, and and that's another dis that's another distortion. Um and that also affects uh I like with with sugar, especially with the sugar and corn, that that really uh uh affects prices uh a as well. So yeah, I I mean generally the the the more we can cut back on those regulations that help that that that that are holding the hamstring in holding the market back. Uh the better the better the markets can work out and and the and the prices can signal rather than than artificial uh ceilings and and floors that that create more problems than solutions.

SPEAKER_01 19:56

Last question, only because we have a change in the guard coming up with the Fed, and a lot of this begins and ends with the Fed and what they do or don't do. Are there concerns that the incoming head of the Fed, Kevin Walsh, is not going to want to maintain the independence and take action based on economic stats and instead work for the White House instead of for the economy?

SPEAKER_05 20:20

Um that is a concern. CEI has uh written about that, uh, because for a number of years, uh Kevin Walsh was an inflation hawk, and then right around when he was being considered for Fed share, um, did he change his tune? Um I think especially now with the uh energy price volatility with the war in the Middle East, um, there's even less reason to lower the interest rate now um than there was just even a few weeks ago. And if he ends up uh doing that, um and this is the and the Fed once again is trying to play this balancing gap between making sure the labor market's stable and prices are stable. Whole other conversation about the dual mandate there. But essentially, yeah, that would I I think that would uh create some issues, and I think those are some good questions to ask as his confirmation hearing is approaching.

SPEAKER_01 21:10

Check out Steve's article over at CEI.org. No free lunch price controls won't make groceries more affordable. Steve Sweidburg, thanks so much for the bringing us a better understanding of reality versus imagery, and thanks for being here today.

SPEAKER_06 21:24

Thank you, Chris. Have a great day.

SPEAKER_01 21:26

And now for an opposing viewpoint.

SPEAKER_06 21:29

Starting on day one, we will end inflation and make America affordable again. But the word affordability is a democratic scam. One of my top priorities will be to quickly defeat inflation and make America affordable again. I don't want to hear about the affordability. We will make America affordable again. Affordability, affordability, we will target everything from car.

SPEAKER_01 22:27

As a parent, you always hope that you're on top of everything that's important and you're prepared when it comes to the well-being of your child. Nevertheless, when a medical event happens, your first priority, as it should be, is to get the best treatment possible for your child so they can be cared for as quickly and successfully as possible. The aftermath. As my next guest is with us to discuss often results and medical bills that aren't even close to being imaginable. This is caused in great part by a lack of price transparency within our health care system. When you think about it, it's kind of disturbing, or more than disturbing. Realize the retail business sector provides greater price transparency than our health care system does. Anyway, joining us to examine this issue and how the American Parents Coalition is taking action is their founder and executive director. Allah Moray, how are you today, Ally?

SPEAKER_03 23:22

I'm well, how are you?

SPEAKER_01 23:23

I appreciate you taking the time to talk about this. American ParentsCoalition.org is a website. You find out more about this and other vital issues for parents of no matter how many kids you have, because it's still the same responsibilities and you have uh hopefully the same high bar expectations of everyone, everything that's supposed to serve your child. Transparency with health care. Now, back in 2021, it was uh a rule that went to effect that basically mandated hospitals, uh health care providers are transparent in their pricing system. But a recent report says that to this day, up to 75 percent of those medical care givers and hospitals are not complying. What's happening here, Allie?

SPEAKER_03 24:13

That's right. So uh because it's uh a quote rule, um, there is more flexibility, I guess you could call it, on the enforcement side of things. It has not yet been codified into law. So um during the previous um administration, President Biden did not do a whole lot um and his team to enforce the healthcare organizations that were not complying with this rule. So what our organization, American Parents Coalition, is really advocating for right now is that the healthcare price transparency component gets really truly codified into law so that there are consequences and legal ramifications should healthcare providers, hospital systems, et cetera, not provide that transparency to patients and and their families.

SPEAKER_01 25:02

Do you think, and especially since that law was th that rule rather was put into place in 2021, do you think the transparency issue has grown in seriousness because of the way that so many hospitals have become part of hospital networks and they just fall into the same the same policies or lack of transparency that the hospitals that absorb them have been long practicing?

SPEAKER_03 25:29

Yeah, I I mean I think the biggest problem is just that like you you have no idea what to expect when you go anywhere. Um I unfortunately had a real life example of this over the weekend. My five-year-old uh missed the bed jumping into his brother's bed and cracked his head open. We went to the emergency room for five stitches. It was six hundred and fifty dollars out the door, and unfortunately, since I have five kids, we frequently need medical attention. And a very similar procedure at a different hospital a few months ago was significantly less expensive. And you know, we're just talking like co-pays from system to system and like you know what we're paying out of pocket. It's just it's wild. Um, and I know that I'm not alone in that experience. We see that in talking to families all across the all across the US. Um and the biggest problem here is that it really affects the care that we're able to provide for our kids. Um, parents and families are not able to budget effectively. We're not able to shop and compare options, we're not able to plan for emergencies. And some families may need to to prioritize and pick and choose, okay, can I leave room in my budget for an emergency? And if I'm doing that, does that mean that I'm foregoing some of the preventive care throughout the year so that God forbid s should something happen, I can pay for that out of pocket. Um, and it's just it's inconsistent, and parents have no idea what to expect, and the inability to compare one provider to the next, um, it it really makes things difficult.

SPEAKER_01 26:59

And a lot of times, and this is a story going back a few years, we're based in New Jersey. Uh, mother had her son in a small, let's call a rural hospital, and they said, Look, you can get better care for your child at this hospital over at location B, and we'll provide the ambulance transport, the medical transport. You know, for the moment, and mom's still worried about her son, obviously. So you probably the assumption is, well, it's gonna cost, but how much could this possibly cost and it's for my son? Yeah. It was a five-figure cost, ten thousand dollars to go from one hospital to another, which is absolutely ridiculous.

SPEAKER_03 27:36

Yeah, that's right. Um, and then every every monitor they they hook your child up to in transit is you know another thousand dollars. Um, and and you you raise a good point, you know, when we're talking about what is required and needed for your children, it's really hard to ask questions in that scenario because as a parent, it is your instinct to say whatever is necessary. You're not, especially in an emergent situation, you're not sitting there questioning, does my kid really need this? Um, and that's where I think a lot of families really get taken advantage of. But but just by and large, you know, even if it's a if it's a routine procedure, if you ask Dr. A and Dr. B, oftentimes they'll give you, you know, a generic price sheet that's not necessarily specific to the the treatment that your child needs or is receiving, if they're even willing to provide that. Um and it just makes it really impossible to to um you know shop. You would never do that when you're buying a car, when you're buying groceries, um, you know, get in the car and drive it off the lot and then find out that you know it's it's six thousand dollars more expensive than you thought it was. So I don't understand why one of the most important factors of our life, our our health care and the health care that we provide to our children, we have to guess um and and can really throw the family budget right out the window when we're talking about people's health.

SPEAKER_01 29:02

And wind up with medical debt, which it's gotten to the point now where credit card companies or credit uh bureau companies, when they take into your credit score situation, they are excluding medical debt just because of how how rampant that's becoming. We're talking with Ali Moray, who is the founder, executive director of American Parents Coalition, American ParentsCoalition.org, their website, and you're listening to issues and ideas. Now we know that in the Senate, well, we know some of the things going on in the Senate, and often they they tend to spin their wheels depending on uh who's in charge or who's the who the leadership is. But uh the uh exploration of improving health care at least is on the horizon, if not within action. And you have your Parents Need Prices campaign going on. So talk about how your campaign is looking to let those in the Senate and all of Congress really know that this isn't working out, this isn't what the parents deserve, this isn't what the children deserve.

SPEAKER_03 30:01

That's right. So just this week we sent a letter um to the Senate encouraging them again to um take up legislation that would codify price transparency into law. Um this has been something that has a been a priority of President Trump's administration. That rule that we talked about at the top was something that his first administration um put on the books and then just was poorly enforced by the the Biden administration. And so he has has brought that back into the fold as a priority for this term and asked the Senate um to include that in any legislation. So we sent a letter this week echoing that. Um we've also run some uh paid advertising and also sent a letter to um the president making aware that that we're on board with this. Um but we also have a lot on our website. Um, our campaign specific to this is parentsneadprices.com. And um on that page, there's a lot that that listeners can do if they're interested in advocating for this. We have um little how-to's on submitting a public comment for a proposed rule, um, and how you can talk to your own senators and representatives to support this price transparency um initiative. We have a sample letter that you can send and how you can find your member. So there's a lot of great stuff on our website. Um, we would really encourage people to get engaged and help us push this over the finish line.

SPEAKER_01 31:25

And that's important too, because the politicians and certainly the leadership in hospitals, if they don't hear voices pushing against the status quo, then the status quo is just going to receive more more life to it, and nothing is going to change. So it really is the voice of the parents and the respect for children that is really the only thing that they changed this alley.

SPEAKER_03 31:47

That's right. Um and I did just want to touch on on one thing that you mentioned as we transitioned into into this. Um you had mentioned that the the cost rising. So we know that employer sponsored, like the annual family plan premiums, are up fifty percent more than a decade ago. Oh yeah. And a hundred a hundred million Americans are in medical debt. So when you're referencing that it's you know being taken out of what's evaluated in credit checks, I mean that's why. It's this is not a one-off thing. The healthcare system and what it's costing American families is is just really out of control. So to your point, the more people that what we can get engaged um and advocating for that policy change, I think has an opportunity to really make a difference.

SPEAKER_01 32:29

All right, now more at Parentsneed Prices dot com and to learn more about the entire work of the American Parents Coalition, become a part of it as well in that aspect, American Parents Coalition.org. She is their founder, executive director. Allie Maury. Allie, thanks for helping parents understand they do have empowerment, they do have a say, they do have a voice, and they have to use it. That's the only way change comes about. Thanks for being here today.

SPEAKER_03 32:55

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 32:56

If you're listening via your favorite podcast platform, don't forget to uh follow or subscribe. How many times have you said that you won't believe it unless you see it? That's what someone else is delivered, doesn't it? Well, what if it's you who needs to see it differently? Not with what you look with. When it comes to the spiritual, we've been told that's as far away from science as you could possibly get. In his book, Believing is being, and now in a documentary being released April 8th called The Invisible Everywhere. He holds a PhD from Cornell in Physics, Astronomy, and Mathematics. He was also science editor for ABC News. Dr. Michael Gillen, how are you today, Doctor?

SPEAKER_04 33:52

Chris, I'm feeling really good and I'm looking forward to our conversation. Thank you for that generous introduction.

SPEAKER_01 33:57

Well, I'm eager to have as many as possible dive into this because uh I am I am a contrarian, self-confessed, and proud of it, and certainly you uh you're feeding many cont contrarians with your the sharing of your journey. We have a tr uh triple play website for the good doctor too, we have on our homepage too, for the documentary The Invisible, everywhere.com, MichaelGillen.com, and for his uh substack and podcast, MoreTheMeetheiq.com. Well, like I said, we have those uh as well for you to hopefully make use of at our homepage. Uh talk about your journey, Doctor. As far as starting off as an atheist and arriving to the understanding where you are now, is there an aha moment or is a is it a transitional in beliefs and gaining an understanding that brings you to where you are today?

SPEAKER_04 34:53

It's actually both of the above. You know, my journey started in East Los Angeles. Uh grew up in a poor neighborhood, uh Mexican bario, um Mexican, Spanish, and Cuban uh in heritage. Uh I fell madly in love with science in the second grade. And I figured at that point that, you know, any self-respecting scientist to be should be very skeptical. And so I adopted this motto, seeing is believing. I figured, well, what we see is all there is, and yeah, it's like the show me state. Show me, uh, show me, prove it to me, all that sort of thing. And the other thing I I developed as as I grew up as a young man in high school and so forth was the idea that logic was the gold standard of how one should look at the world, that logic was certainly superior to faith. Faith was somehow a mental weakness. So the idea of believing in God just never occurred to me. Science was, frankly, my God. I know that sounds blasphemous for many people, but for me that was just the reality. Science was my God. I loved it, and I I just wanted to spend my whole life being a scientist. And then I got to grad school at Cornell and I began learning a really uh I I had in-depth learning of the universe. And that really for me was when I realized that I was wrong on both counts. I mean, Chris, I mean, I did wrong. First of all, I learned uh I learned there was something called back then the missing mass problem. I won't get into the details. I deal with it in I I deal with it in my movie, but I won't get into it here. It was called the missing mass problem. We now call it the dark matter problem. But um it it you know, my professors explained to me that we now believe, uh, and all the evidence indicates, that 95% of the universe, I'm gonna repeat that, 95% of the observable universe is invisible to us. We can't see it. And more than that, we don't even know what it is. We have no idea what dark matter is, dark energy is. And so I thought, man, I have to ditch that old scene is believing model because if I stuck with it, I'd have to admit that I couldn't believe in 95% of the universe I can't see. So I uh, you know, that was that was a that was an aha moment for me. And then the other aha moment was uh I realized, you know, Chris, that you need I needed faith in the scientific method if I was to be a self-respecting scientist. How in the world could I be a scientist without having uh faith in the scientific method? And so I realized that faith is not a mental weakness, it's actually a uh necessary prerequisite to living a healthy life. So those were two, I think, aha moments for me and and which look which have led me to where I am today.

SPEAKER_01 37:36

And of course, it certainly didn't hurt that a woman who became your wife gave you a guided tour of the Bible, especially with the New Testament.

SPEAKER_04 37:46

Well, you know, I tell that story in the book. Uh it happened on a Valentine's Day, but you you know, I had to set the stage very briefly. I would work about 20, 21 hours a day, seriously, 20 to 21 hours a day, seven days a week. I had a basement lap, so I didn't know if it was day or night. I didn't really care. I was just living out my dream, man. I was being a scientist. And one morning, um, you know, uh typically three in the morning, I traced to my little teeny dorm room at Cornell, and uh heard a scraping sound underneath the door, and lo and behold, it was a Valentine's Day card from some girl named Laurel. And I thought back, oh yeah, I taught Laurel, uh, a woman named Laurel Physics a couple years back, and that sparked romance. And at some point in our romance, because she was a laps Catholic and she was also seeking for answers, and she said to me, Well, have you ever read I mean you've done Hinduism, Buddhism, you're telling me you've done all this stuff, but have you ever read the Bible? I said, No. And then she said something that changed my life forever, Chris. She said, Well, I haven't either, but if you read it, I'll read it with you. And I thought, okay, I'm not as dumb as I look. She's this pretty sorority girl offering to spend time with me reading the Bible. I didn't give two hoots about the Bible, but I sure cared about Laurel. And so I think that's how God kind of wrote me in. Anyway, it's a great story. So every Valentine's Day we celebrate that incredible day.

SPEAKER_01 39:14

Releasing April 8th, the InvisibleEverywhere.com, MichaelGillen.com. He's also on Substack and his podcast, and you're listening to Issues and Ideas. With your documentary, The Invisible Everywhere, are you looking to reaffirm what is or convert the non-believers?

SPEAKER_04 39:36

You know, it's a good question. I I joke uh that it's like uh a four quad movie. You know, in Hollywood, when we say a four-quad movie, and I and I've made a movie before, it's called Little Red Wagon, it's on Amazon Prime, it's uh distributed by Lionsgate. So, you know, this is not my first rodeo. But uh when we say about a four quad movie, it means that you know we we appeal to uh everybody every demographic, young, old, female, male, right? I call the invisible everywhere a four-quad movie, but uh with a slightly different definition of four-quads. I I say it's for believers, it's for seekers, it's for doubters, and it's for haters. Okay, so you know, in other words, uh look, I have a lot of people who follow me who are atheists, who are Muslim, who are Jews. I mean, I get the whole spectrum all over the world, honestly, Chris. And I really made it with them in mind. I'm not trying to convert anybody to any uh I'm not trying to convert anybody to anything. Okay, let's get that really clear. All I'm doing with this movie is I am documenting the journey I took from being a young man to where I am now, from atheism to believing in God. And who who convinced me of the existence of God? It really was my science. I mean, Laurel, my wife who forced me to read the Bible, or who kind of uh seduced me into reading the Bible, so to speak. I mean, that was eye-opening. That really was, and I talk about it in the book. We can't get into it here. But really, what brought me to my knees, so to speak, Chris, was science. And what keeps me on my knees now is both science and the Bible. And so this documentary, this movie, which I'm I made with with the help of AI, because not only is it documenting my journey from atheism to believing a scene, but the bonus is I wanted to show viewers the universe they've never seen before. Because listen carefully. We not only inhabit a universe that is mostly invisible, 95% invisible, but we have an invisible universe that inhabits us. So this documentary not only takes you to the great beyond, the cosmos beyond us, but it takes us, it takes a deep dive into the cosmos within us, our bodies, our brains, our minds, our spirit. And so I I I I needed to think, okay, well, I don't have a hundred million dollars to use state-of-the-art CGI, which you know, to bring this these invisible universes to life, to the screen. So I used AI. And I'm telling you, um the few people who have seen the movie uh within you know our inner circle, just blown away by the visuals. And I have to say, yeah, the the the visuals are stunning. And so you have this double thing, my journey, but then then you're introduced to the universe that is invisible within us and beyond us.

SPEAKER_01 42:31

Which so many times we dismiss as instinct, a gut feeling, uh coincidence, chance happening. But if you I always tell someone who says that, grab a piece of paper or tap it on your notepad on your phone, how many steps had to happen, how many things had to happen to get you from there to here, and you want to call that chance? I don't think so.

SPEAKER_04 42:53

Yeah, yeah. And you know, I had friends like you know, Dr. James Tour, who is uh eminent chemist at Rice University, and he has spent his whole career trying to create life in a test tube. I mean, and and he can't do it. And a lot of other people have tried all over the world for decades that we've tried to create life sort of from scratch in a test tube, and we haven't even come close. So what makes you think, even even if you buy into the idea that the universe is uh billions of years old, what makes you think that you know life happened by accident from scratch? And so this was part of my awakening, and I and I detail in the movie, for example, I talk about the three theories, the three scientific theories of how life began on Earth. So I I I take people literally, I recreate my awakening, so to speak, Chris, from atheism to believing in God. And again, what compelled me to believe in God was the science. When I started the studying where did the universe come from? How is it made? Where did life come from? How is it made? Are we alone? Do we have a spirit? Is there life These are huge questions that I asked myself as a young man. And it was science that really pointed to that was ultimately the undeniable reality of it. That it wasn't an accident. It happened within or without is an accident. It was intentionally made. It wasn't just the discoveries I made is that never mind that I'm a Christian, never mind that I believe in the set that aside for a moment. I'm talking just as a person who's going to teach you physics, math, and astronomy, right? What we have found in cosmology, which is one of my specialties, the study of the origins of the universe. What we have discovered is that the universe, and listen carefully, because this is game changer for me. It's made for life. If you look at the natural consciousness or what I call the vital statistics of the universe, they are perfect, they have the perfect numerical values for life to exist. If they were smitten up or smitten down, life wouldn't exist. The universe would be one gigantic coast. And you have to ask yourself, be honest with yourself. Is that just a coincidence? It's like going to Las Vegas and being on Lucky Street for like 100 times in a row. That just didn't happen by accident. And so this is what this is what I talk about. This is what changed my life, which converted me from atheism to ultimately Christianity. And I document that in the movie, and I almost show it with visuals. It's really, I'm so proud of it. I poured my heart and soul into this thing, Chris, for a more than a year. And I can't wait for people to see it on April 8th. It's going to be amazing.

SPEAKER_01 45:49

I think it is going to be changing, and it'll bring people who are fence-sitters in particular to a better understanding. Your story makes me think uh this is going back more years than I care to, admit we have to wrap up here. But Rabbi Erwin Katzell wrote a book about faith with Larry King, who was a devout atheist, and Rabbi's goal was to convert Larry. And I at during the interview when he when the book came out, I said, How'd you do, Rabbi? Well, I got close. I got him from being an atheist to an agnostic with questions, but I'm not done yet with him. And that's true. That I think is what Dr. Gillen's documentary, The Invisible Everywhere, is going. It will help you along in understanding because one law of science, and I've I've spent this past week looking for any possible clue to an alternative, but the only conclusion is you cannot create something where there is nothing. So as far as evolution versus creation, uh, I'm sorry, the science, again, and you'll learn a lot more of a Dr. Gillen's documentary, science gives you only one path to take. The InvisibleEverywhere.com, Michael Gillen.com. He's also on Substack his podcast. More than MeetsTheIQ.com. We have all three of those links at our homepage. The Invisible Everywhere Believing is Seeing. And Dr. Gillen, you are, I think, the one of the greatest you found the greatest way to help teach people truth about themselves within themselves, which so many people have trouble trouble finding.

SPEAKER_04 47:37

Thank you, Chris. God bless you. I always said ask tough questions, demand honest answers. I think what you said is said beautifully. God bless you and your listeners. Have a wonderful day.

SPEAKER_01 47:48

When? If you've dealt with uh less than spectacular customer service, there's you wanted when? Yeah we've all been there, right? Considering the times that we're in today and certainly where they're unfolding geographically, there's another when people are asking. Is this when Jesus is returning? God has certainly given us ample warnings about what to be watching for. This is what we're told in Malachi chapter four verse one for behold the day is coming, burning like an oven, and all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble, and the day which is coming shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, that will leave them neither root nor branch. These words of Jesus in Luke chapter twenty one verses ten through twelve, then he said to them nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be great earthquakes in various places, and famines and pestilences, and there will be fearful sights and great signs from heaven. But before all these things they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, you will be brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake. So are we to be spending our time and giving our focus to determine if this is when? No, that's not what our priority should be. If it was, then why was Daniel told so much about what was to come? This is found in chapters eleven and twelve in the book of Daniel, only to be instructed in Daniel chapter twelve, verse four with this But you, Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book until the time of the end, many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase. And later in verse nine, Daniel's told by a man clothed in white linen who was above the water of a river, and he said, Go your way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. It's Jesus, who in Matthew chapter twenty four, verse thirty six, tells us not to be concerned about this when, but of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but my Father only. The lesson is not to spend your time wondering whether this is when, instead, spend your time making absolutely positively sure that you're prepared for that when that we're waiting for. Galatians chapter two verse twenty provides us a very strong foundation for understanding this. I've been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. We also have these words from Paul in Romans chapter twelve, verses one and two. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service, and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. You should take the steps to know God more, since when you think about it, he certainly knows all about you. We read this in Second Peter chapter three, verse eighteen, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Commit yourself to God and his word as we're instructed in first Corinthians chapter fifteen, verse fifty eight. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. We are to give praise to God for all that He's blessed us with and brought us through. Let's read from Psalm chapter one hundred fifty, verses one through six. Praise the Lord, praise God in his sanctuary, praise him in his mighty firmament, praise him for his mighty acts, praise him according to his excellent greatness, praise him with the sound of the trumpet, praise him with the lute and the harp, praise him with the timbrel and dance, praise him with stringed instruments and flutes, praise him with loud cymbals, praise him with clashing cymbals, let everything that has breath praise the Lord, praise the Lord. Doesn't leave much to question, does it? Finally, we're instructed numerous times to stay awake, including these words of Jesus from Luke chapter twenty one, verse thirty-six. Watch therefore and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass and to stand before the Son of Man. I want to invite you to visit our website, Issues and Ideas, radio.com. That's where we have more information about the guests who joined us here on the show today. And if you are listening via your favorite podcast platform, be sure to subscribe and follow us so you never miss a minute of everything that we do here. Always grateful and thankful for your time and attention. Look forward to being with you right here this time next week for our next edition of Issues and Ideas.