This Thanksgiving, Filtered with TJ Walker steps back from the daily news cycle for a data-driven reality check on the state of the world.

TJ tackles the negativity bias, our tendency to focus on dramatic, recent bad news, and contrasts it with long-term global trends that rarely make headlines. Using data from major international sources, he walks through four massive improvements since 1962:

1. The collapse of extreme poverty worldwide
2. A huge jump in life expectancy and a plunge in child mortality
3. A global surge in literacy and education, especially for girls
4. A long-term decline in violent deaths from war and homicide

In the final segment, TJ reflects personally on how his own life has exceeded anything his teenage self in 1979 could have imagined: on-demand media, global information access, smartphones, ride-hailing, and the ability to broadcast and teach to millions from a laptop.

If you want less doomscrolling and more perspective, this episode explains why, by most historical measures, there has never been a better time to be alive, while still recognizing the work left to do.

This special Thanksgiving-week episode of Filtered with TJ Walker covers five big stories through the lens of data, incentives, and communication, rather than partisan spin.

Topics covered:

1. Thanksgiving Sticker Shock & Inflation Reality Check Why this year’s Thanksgiving grocery bill is the most expensive ever, what’s really driving the spike in turkey and food prices, and how the Trump administration’s “prices are coming down” narrative stacks up against the actual inflation numbers in the U.S. and other advanced economies.
2. AI “Singers” Quietly Taking Over the Charts AI-created “artists” like Solomon Ray, Xania/Xenia Monet, Breaking Rust, and Kane Walker are now topping Christian, country, and R&B charts. We explore what this means for working musicians, why labels love it, and how quickly streaming platforms could be flooded with AI-only music.
3. McConnell vs. Trump: GOP Civil War Over Ukraine & Russia Mitch McConnell publicly warns that Putin is “playing Trump for a fool,” blasts Trump’s peace plan as rewarding Russian aggression, and urges Trump to fire advisers who are “appeasing Putin.” Meanwhile, Marco Rubio admits the team has been working off Russia’s own talking points.
4. Trump’s Quiet March Toward State-Run Capitalism The Trump administration has committed over $10 billion in taxpayer money for ownership stakes or options in companies like Intel, MP Materials, Lithium Americas, Trilogy Metals, Vulcan Elements, Westinghouse, and even a golden share in U.S. Steel. We unpack why this looks less like free-market conservatism and more like creeping state ownership plus cronyism.
5. Ten Longevity Habits from Real Centenarians (No Gym Required) After five years of studying centenarians and long-life cultures, one author’s findings are surprisingly simple: constant light movement, modest whole-food eating, deep social ties, a sense of purpose, accepting aging instead of fighting it, prioritizing sleep, managing stress, cultivating small daily joys, staying optimistic and grateful, and living ordinary lives with extraordinary consistency.

Plus: Trainer Q&A How can trainers make sure key messages are actually remembered and acted upon? TJ explains a simple test every trainer should use at the end of every session.

This episode of Filtered with TJ Walker takes you through four sharp stories about law, branding, and political theater.

• A federal judge tosses the Trump administration’s case against James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James after ruling the supposed prosecutor was never properly appointed. TJ explains how this became a “comedy of errors” and a serious abuse of power.
• Campbell’s Soup faces a reputational mess after an IT vice president is recorded calling its products “s, for poor people, and insulting coworkers. What does effective crisis communication look like here?
• Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth threatens Senator Mark Kelly with sedition for reminding troops they must refuse illegal orders, reviving the specter of the Nuremberg defense.
• ShamWow infomercial star Vince Shlomi runs for Congress in Texas to “destroy wokeism,” while the real crackdown on speech is coming from the right.

Smart, centrist analysis with practical media-literacy lessons in every segment.