The Jordan Harbinger Show

Clean energy has a dirty secret buried deep in the Congo. The Elements of Power author Nicolas Niarchos is here to pull the supply chain apart link by link.Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/1315What We Discuss with Nicolas Niarchos:"Clean" energy isn't clean — the cobalt in your phone or EV may have been hand-dug in dangerous DRC mine pits by workers living under near-slavery conditions, earning barely enough to scrape by.China processes 70–90% of critical battery metals and owns major mines across the DRC and Indonesia, giving it a stranglehold on the global supply chain that dwarfs OPEC's peak leverage over oil.Supply chain audits are largely theater — documents have flagged child labor and dangerous conditions at specific mines, yet production never stopped, and conditions often worsened in the years that followed.Communities surrounding DRC mines face heavy metal contamination, mine collapses, and the world's highest rates of congenital birth defects — a catastrophic hum

In the grand scheme, bees bring way more to the table than honey — so why are they vanishing? Jessica Wynn combs through the data on Skeptical Sunday!Welcome to Skeptical Sunday, a special edition of The Jordan Harbinger Show where Jordan and a guest break down a topic that you may have never thought about, open things up, and debunk common misconceptions. This time around, we’re joined by writer and researcher Jessica Wynn!Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/1314On This Week's Skeptical Sunday:Honeybees aren't even native to North America — they're European imports from the 1600s, essentially livestock with wings. Meanwhile, the 20,000+ species of wild and solitary bees that actually belong here are losing habitat and quietly heading toward extinction, largely unnoticed.The waggle dance isn't just a cute party trick — it's a Nobel Prize-winning symbolic language bees use to communicate precise GPS coordinates through choreography. And in 2023, scientists d

Your BFF wrecked your hair, kicked you off her bachelorette trip, and got your fiancé uninvited from his own brother's wedding. Yep, it's Feedback Friday!And in case you didn't already know it, Jordan Harbinger (@JordanHarbinger) and Gabriel Mizrahi (@GabeMizrahi) banter and take your comments and questions for Feedback Friday right here every week! If you want us to answer your question, register your feedback, or tell your story on one of our upcoming weekly Feedback Friday episodes, drop us a line at friday@jordanharbinger.com. Now let's dive in!Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/1313On This Week's Feedback Friday:On a previous Feedback Friday (episode 1274, question two), your fiancé wrote in about not being invited to his stepbrother's wedding, and now you're here to share your side. A botched haircut from your best-friend-turned-hairdresser, an explosive bachelorette trip exit, and a friendship that's been unraveling for years — all of it now rippling into your future f

Social media turned child abuse into a competitive sport. Munchausen by proxy expert Andrea Dunlop is here to explain how it works and why it's growing.Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/1312What We Discuss with Andrea Dunlop:Munchausen by proxy abuse is when a caregiver — usually a mother — fabricates, exaggerates, or induces illness in a child for emotional gratification, attention, and control. It's not a delusion or a bad parenting moment — it's calculated, premeditated, and persistent abuse that can include unnecessary surgeries, poisoning, and starvation.Social media has supercharged this abuse by giving perpetrators an unlimited audience for sympathy, an online playbook for faking illnesses, and access to rare disease communities they can infiltrate. Support groups, GoFundMe campaigns, and medical blogs become tools for manipulation — turning the attention economy into a weapon against children.The system meant to protect kids often fails them — there's no official des

Sports betting exploded overnight and the house always wins. Nick Pell calls the bluff on online gambling here on Skeptical Sunday.Welcome to Skeptical Sunday, a special edition of The Jordan Harbinger Show where Jordan and a guest break down a topic that you may have never thought about, open things up, and debunk common misconceptions. This time around, we’re joined by writer and researcher Nick Pell!Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/1311On This Week's Skeptical Sunday:Online gambling has exploded from a $5 billion industry confined mostly to Nevada into a $120 billion enterprise spanning 38 states — and 94% of bets are now placed via mobile devices. The 2018 Supreme Court decision overturning PASPA collided with the smartphone era to create a perfect storm of frictionless, always-on access to sports betting.The business model of gambling apps is built on exploiting problem gamblers, not casual bettors. While the industry points out that most people bet

A baby's on the way, but your mom with cancer is camped in the spare room with no exit plan. What do you do when love and limits collide on Feedback Friday?And in case you didn't already know it, Jordan Harbinger (@JordanHarbinger) and Gabriel Mizrahi (@GabeMizrahi) banter and take your comments and questions for Feedback Friday right here every week! If you want us to answer your question, register your feedback, or tell your story on one of our upcoming weekly Feedback Friday episodes, drop us a line at friday@jordanharbinger.com. Now let's dive in!Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/1310On This Week's Feedback Friday:You and your wife scraped together enough to buy your first home, and now family members keep treating it like an open-door shelter. Your brother camped out for three months, and now your cancer-battling mom has moved in — again — while you're expecting your first baby. You love her, but she won't save money or plan ahead. How do you set a boundary without feel

The dating industry profits by exploiting your insecurities. Bonded by Evolution author Paul Eastwick brings science to prove that even you can land love!Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/1309What We Discuss with Paul Eastwick:The concept of "mate value" — the idea that everyone is a fixed number on a scale of attractiveness — is largely unsupported by science. Studies show people only agree about who's attractive roughly 65% of the time, meaning a full third of the equation is purely subjective. Your "score" depends heavily on who's doing the scoring.Dating apps force people into artificial filtering habits — like screening for height or income — not because those traits genuinely matter in face-to-face attraction, but because users are drowning in options and need some way to narrow the pile. In speed-dating studies, traits like height barely register as factors when people are actually interacting in person.Your romantic partner likely sees you through a generous — a

Over 100,000 cameras are quietly tracking your movements and feeding the data to police. Benn Jordan is here to explain why that should terrify you.Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/1308What We Discuss with Benn Jordan:Flock Safety's network of over 100,000 license plate readers logs every car that passes, creating a searchable 30-day surveillance profile — and when mixed with consumer data, social media, and criminal records, it builds a disturbingly complete picture of your life that you never consented to.The security on these cameras is shockingly weak — many run on a version of Android deprecated in 2021, and law enforcement accounts were found for sale on the dark web, meaning hackers, stalkers, and foreign actors can access the same footage as police with minimal effort.Surveillance data is already being weaponized in unexpected ways — from Texas police tracking women suspected of seeking out-of-state abortions to insurance companies and banks using AI-scraped "open s

Is your water filter giving you something even more contaminated than what's flowing from the tap? Jessica Wynn pours us some facts on Skeptical Sunday.Welcome to Skeptical Sunday, a special edition of The Jordan Harbinger Show where Jordan and a guest break down a topic that you may have never thought about, open things up, and debunk common misconceptions. This time around, we’re joined by writer and researcher Jessica Wynn!Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/1307On This Week's Skeptical Sunday:Most US tap water meets or exceeds federal safety standards, but those regulations were written decades ago — meaning your water may be "safe" by outdated benchmarks that don't account for emerging threats like PFAS forever chemicals, agricultural runoff, and lead from aging infrastructure.A neglected water filter can become a breeding ground for bacteria, making your water dirtier than what comes straight from the tap — if you're not replacing your Brita, Pur, or

Untreated Bipolar II keeps pulling you under, but disclosing it could cost you the military pension you've bled for. Welcome to Feedback Friday!And in case you didn't already know it, Jordan Harbinger (@JordanHarbinger) and Gabriel Mizrahi (@GabeMizrahi) banter and take your comments and questions for Feedback Friday right here every week! If you want us to answer your question, register your feedback, or tell your story on one of our upcoming weekly Feedback Friday episodes, drop us a line at friday@jordanharbinger.com. Now let's dive in!Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/1306On This Week's Feedback Friday:You're a military servicemember just years from retirement, recently diagnosed with Bipolar II — and your depressive episodes have brought you dangerously close to the edge. But disclosing your diagnosis could torpedo your pension and career. How do you stay alive without blowing up the only stability you've ever built?Over 20 years ago, your partner cheated, then slapped

Your emotions are a con artist's favorite weapon. Johnathan Walton lost nearly $100k to a fake friend, sent her to prison, and is here to explain how.Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/1305What We Discuss with Johnathan Walton:Con artists don't outsmart you — they out-feel you. They bypass logic entirely by creating deep emotional bonds, exploiting love, sympathy, fear, and trust. Once you're making decisions with your heart instead of your head, you're already in the trap — and believing you're "too smart to be scammed" only makes you a bigger target.The most dangerous scammers are already in your life. Professional con artists enter through offers to help, build trust over years, and use real details — like places they've actually lived — as kernels of truth to construct elaborate lies. They don't lurk in dark alleys; they sit at your dinner table and call your mom auntie.Con artists deliberately make their scams complex and document-heavy so that when victims go to police,

The US spent millions trying to create psychic spies, but this remote viewing pseudoscience never came into focus. Nick Pell explains on Skeptical Sunday!Welcome to Skeptical Sunday, a special edition of The Jordan Harbinger Show where Jordan and a guest break down a topic that you may have never thought about, open things up, and debunk common misconceptions. This time around, we’re joined by writer and researcher Nick Pell!Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/1304On This Week's Skeptical Sunday:The U.S. government spent millions over two decades on Project Stargate — a real program aimed at training psychic spies to "see" enemy secrets through meditation — and the CIA ultimately concluded that no remote viewing report ever provided actionable intelligence.Early ESP research by J.B. Rhine at Duke produced seemingly positive results, but none of his studies were ever reliably replicated — including a Princeton trial of over 25,000 attempts with 132 subjects

A narcissistic friend ghosted you for years, then announced he's moving in — rent-free — while you and your fiancée plan a family. It's Feedback Friday!And in case you didn't already know it, Jordan Harbinger (@JordanHarbinger) and Gabriel Mizrahi (@GabeMizrahi) banter and take your comments and questions for Feedback Friday right here every week! If you want us to answer your question, register your feedback, or tell your story on one of our upcoming weekly Feedback Friday episodes, drop us a line at friday@jordanharbinger.com. Now let's dive in!Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/1303On This Week's Feedback Friday:If you prefer to board the Dooze Cruise without following the latest globetrotting adventures of Jordan and Gabe, skip ahead to around 21 minutes and 20 seconds.After two years of radio silence, your old friend from Germany has suddenly resurfaced — not to reconnect, but to announce he's moving into your apartment rent-free while you and your fiancée are trying to

Drug cartels have quietly infiltrated rural America. Trafficked host Mariana van Zeller walks us through the underworld hiding beneath our very feet.Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/1302What We Discuss with Mariana van Zeller:Mexican drug cartels are deliberately setting up operations in small-town America — not big cities — because rural areas have minimal law enforcement, making it easier to hide distribution networks where a single sheriff can't compete with heavily armed cartel operatives.Mariana van Zeller builds trust with dangerous sources — from cartel lieutenants to assassins — by ditching prepared question lists, sharing personal photos, and offering cigarettes, treating interviews as human conversations rather than interrogations to unlock genuine, unguarded responses.Commercial airlines like Delta are among the biggest drug transportation networks in the US, with cartel distributors exploiting everyday travel infrastructure rather than the covert smuggling opera

Are electric vehicles a green revolution or just greenwashing on wheels? Nick Pell pops the hood and breaks it all down here on Skeptical Sunday!Welcome to Skeptical Sunday, a special edition of The Jordan Harbinger Show where Jordan and a guest break down a topic that you may have never thought about, open things up, and debunk common misconceptions. This time around, we’re joined by writer and researcher Nick Pell!Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/1301On This Week's Skeptical Sunday:Electric vehicles carry zero tailpipe emissions, but the electricity powering them often comes from coal and natural gas plants — meaning your EV's true environmental footprint depends heavily on where you live and how your local grid generates power.The cobalt fueling EV batteries comes overwhelmingly from the Democratic Republic of Congo — one of the poorest, most unstable nations on Earth — where child labor, armed militia control of mines, and toxic contamination of loca

Your friend fled her wall-punching spouse and crashed at your place. Now she wants to go back, and your husband says to butt out. It's Feedback Friday!And in case you didn't already know it, Jordan Harbinger (@JordanHarbinger) and Gabriel Mizrahi (@GabeMizrahi) banter and take your comments and questions for Feedback Friday right here every week! If you want us to answer your question, register your feedback, or tell your story on one of our upcoming weekly Feedback Friday episodes, drop us a line at friday@jordanharbinger.com. Now let's dive in!Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/1300On This Week's Feedback Friday:An eagle-eared listener spotted a mistake on episode 919 and wrote in to correct the record and clarify the facts!Your close friend's spouse is punching walls, deflecting blame, and getting verbally aggressive — and now she wants to reconcile with him. You're a police officer who sees this stuff escalate for a living, and your own husband thinks you should just play

The China Show's Laowhy86 reveals how millions of Chinese citizens disguise dissent as puns, memes, and mythical creatures to dodge censors.Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/1299What We Discuss with Laowhy86:China's internet operates as a closed ecosystem where apps like WeChat handle everything from payments to communication — and the government monitors all of it. Citizens who default on debts, post the wrong opinion, or even discuss banned topics can lose access to trains, flights, and basic services overnight.Chinese citizens have built an ever-evolving coded language to dodge censorship — from "grass mud horse" (a pun on a profanity) to calling lockdowns "square cabins" and using "talk egg prices" to vent about the economy. What started as playful wordplay has become a high-stakes survival tool as punishments have escalated to years in prison.The government now deploys AI — through campaigns like "Clear and Bright" — to predict and pre-emptively ban future slang before

The red light therapy market is full of junk science and real breakthroughs. Recharge Health CEO Bjorn Ekeberg is here to separate scams from the science.Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/1298What We Discuss with Bjorn Ekeberg:Red light therapy has real, evidence-backed benefits — particularly for musculoskeletal pain, inflammation, and recovery — but the market is flooded with junk products like LED toothbrushes and shower heads that can't deliver a meaningful dose, threatening to discredit the legitimate science behind it.The real power of light therapy lies in near-infrared wavelengths — not just visible red light. Red light works on the skin's surface, but near-infrared penetrates deeper into tissue, stimulating mitochondrial function and improving cellular efficiency — which is why the distinction matters more than most people realize.NASA research in the early 2000s showed that without exposure to red and near-infrared light, astronauts' healing processes slowed dramat

Protests, missiles, and a regime on the ropes — Iran is at a turning point. Ryan McBeth explains the forces driving one of the world's most complex crises.Welcome to what we're calling our "Out of the Loop" episodes, where we dig a little deeper into fascinating current events that may only register as a blip on the media's news cycle and have conversations with the people who find themselves immersed in them.Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/1297On This Episode of Out of the Loop:Iran is an ancient civilization stretching back 5,000 years — but most Americans only know the post-1979 version, which is like judging Rome entirely by the fall of its empire and missing the aqueducts, art, and architecture that came before.The 1953 CIA-backed coup that toppled Iran's democratically elected government planted the seeds for the 1979 Islamic Revolution — a theocratic regime that crushed dissent, built a proxy empire through Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis, and turned the IRGC into

Your brother's political curiosity took a dark turn into alt-right extremism. As his big sis, can you reach him before it's too late? It's Feedback Friday!And in case you didn't already know it, Jordan Harbinger (@JordanHarbinger) and Gabriel Mizrahi (@GabeMizrahi) banter and take your comments and questions for Feedback Friday right here every week! If you want us to answer your question, register your feedback, or tell your story on one of our upcoming weekly Feedback Friday episodes, drop us a line at friday@jordanharbinger.com. Now let's dive in!Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/1296On This Week's Feedback Friday:Your teenage brother has gone from healthy political curiosity to spouting antisemitic talking points and binging alt-right influencers. You're his cool big sister — but you moved across the country, and the window of influence is closing fast. How do you pull him back before it's too late?Your former mother-in-law is elderly, broke, and living with an ex-husban