Out of work Las Vegas Bartender Kevin Edwards discusses the collapse of the hospitality industry

About this episode

In one of the podcast's most information-dense and provocative episodes, Vance interviews Kevin McKernan, a Human Genome Project alum and founder of cannabis-genomics company Medicinal Genomics. McKernan opens with a striking evolutionary-biology argument: he believes SARS-CoV-2 almost certainly has undetected ancestors circulating in humans for decades (given that viral sequencing capacity only recently became cheap and widespread), meaning population-level antibody prevalence may be higher — and virus mortality models built on an "immuno-naive" population assumption fundamentally wrong — than epidemiological models like Imperial College's (Neil Ferguson) assumed. He argues these models, never peer-reviewed with public code, drove wildly disproportionate lockdown policy. McKernan's central thesis is a sweeping regulatory-capture critique: the FDA's revenue comes primarily from the pharmaceutical industry it regulates (PDUFA Act), the CDC's early COVID-testing monopoly and EUA bureaucracy strangled test rollout, and certificate-of-need laws artificially constrained hospital bed capacity in states like New York. He extends this into a passionate, detailed defense of cannabis as legitimate medicine (citing JAMA studies on reduced Medicare spend, hemp's nutritional value, and the 1937 Marihuana Tax Act's origins in Hearst's commercial interest against hemp-based paper/textiles), framing cannabis's newly "essential business" status as vindication. Throughout, he argues for radical decentralization — let each jurisdiction, business, and individual assess and manage their own COVID risk rather than imposing one-size-fits-all lockdowns — while acknowledging nuance around vaccine liability, the dangers of bioweapon speculation without evidence, and genuine risks like cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome. He closes discussing institutional trust erosion (repeatedly noting WHO/CDC's mask-guidance reversal), warns against pandemic-driven deglobalization/nationalism as historically dangerous, and predicts capital and business will flow to states that reopen fastest (Texas, Georgia, and — pointedly — Missouri, per Vance). Vance invokes Rene Girard's scapegoat theory to frame the coming search for someone to blame once the pandemic's economic damage becomes undeniable.

Key moments

• **[00:04:38–00:07:45]** McKernan's core scientific claim: SARS-CoV-2 likely has undetected ancestors circulating in humans for decades, undermining the "immuno-naive population" assumption behind severe lockdown models.
• **[00:15:52–00:17:28]** Extended argument that government intervention/lockdown, not the virus itself, may be the more historically deadly force, invoking Stalin/Mao/Pol Pot-style centralized-power disasters.
• **[00:21:23–00:29:51]** Detailed regulatory-capture case study: certificate-of-need laws limiting hospital beds, FDA/PDUFA revenue conflicts, and CDC's testing monopoly delaying COVID test rollout.
• **[00:36:21–00:38:00]** History of the 1937 Marihuana Tax Act as regulatory capture (Hearst's hemp/nylon conflict), reframing hemp/cannabis prohibition as an economically-motivated policy failure rather than a health-based one.
• **[00:44:50–00:52:40]** Extended critique of Imperial College's (Neil Ferguson) non-peer-reviewed, non-public-code pandemic model as the basis for sweeping lockdown policy, contrasted with Sweden's no-lockdown approach.
• **[01:03:13–01:07:51]** Detailed argument that academic/government-funded science lacks true market accountability, using the Human Genome Project's Sorlie-vs-NIH funding history as a case study.
• **[01:20:33–01:21:13]** Sharp critique of NIDA ("National Institute for Drug Abuse") as an institutionally-biased research funder whose name presupposes its conclusions about cannabis.

Notable quotes

“This isn't a regulatory system, this is a bribery system, veiled as a regulatory system that enables large entities that can afford the process to get through.”

“So the Overton window is wide open right now... for left ideas... for right ideas... what do you think people should be doing right now to ensure that they are seeing the right kind of ideas enter society?”

“It's a new priesthood and we're not wearing black robes, we're wearing white ones now... if you bring up any challenge to this, you're instantly labeled anti-science.”