Finding Freedom with John Odermatt: Power, Justice, and the Decline of Trust
On occasion, I get the chance to step outside my self-contained ecosystem and say out loud what I’ve been hammering on for years in The O’Leary Review and on The Brian D. O’Leary Show.
In late December, I joined John Odermatt on Finding Freedom for a long-form conversation that hits the core of what I’ve been writing about: power, justice, and why trust in our institutions is collapsing.
If you’ve enjoyed my work, or even if you hate it, this interview is one of the clearest windows into how I think about the mess we’re living through, and what, if anything, we can do about it.
On the show, John and I walked through how political, legal, and cultural “authorities” have quietly rewritten the rules while telling you nothing has changed. We talked about:
- How centralized power operates today versus what Americans think the system is supposed to be.
- Why “justice” has become a slogan instead of a standard—and what that means for ordinary people just trying to live decent lives.
- The slow-motion evaporation of trust in media, government, courts, and experts, and why that loss of trust is not a bug but the natural result of how these institutions now behave.
If you’ve ever felt like the official story and the lived reality no longer match, this conversation will resonate.
While I am nominally “on the right,” I don’t really approach politics or culture as a game of left versus right. I look at incentives, history, and the way real human beings respond when systems stop serving them. In this interview, I do what I always do: strip away the rhetoric and get to the underlying structure.
If you want a neat, partisan pep talk, this isn’t it. If you want a sober look at where we are and how to navigate it, you’ll find it here.
For Readers of The O’Leary Review
If you read my columns, you’ll recognize the same skepticism toward centralized power and the same insistence on personal responsibility and local solutions. But a podcast interview gives room for tone, nuance, and back-and-forth that doesn’t always come through on the page.
You’ll hear:
- How I connect “separate” issues—foreign policy, the economy, education, crime—back to the same structural problems.
- Why I still think it’s worth building, writing, and creating—even when the culture seems determined to slide downhill.
Think of this episode as an extended “editor’s note” to the project I’ve been building with The O’Leary Review.
If You’re Building a Voice of Your Own
One thread that runs under everything I do—newsletter, books, appearances—is the belief that more people need to be publishing their own honest, unfiltered perspectives, outside what the gatekeepers deem acceptable.
This does not mean shouting into the void on social media. Rather, it is about building a durable platform that you own.
That’s why I put together Your Substack Success Blueprint—a practical framework to help you launch, grow, and use a Substack as your own free press.
If listening to this episode sparks the thought, “I need to be writing my own thing,” then don’t ignore that impulse. The tools are sitting there.
The question is whether you’ll put them to work.
Substack can work if done right.
You can get Your Substack Success Blueprint here: http://OLearyWriters.com.
Watch the Episode, Then Take the Next Step
Here’s what I’d suggest:
- Watch or listen to my conversation with John Odermatt on Finding Freedom and pay attention to where you find yourself nodding—or getting annoyed. Those reactions tell you what you really care about.
The episode is here:
- If you come away thinking, “I’ve got something to say, too,” then head over to OLearyWriters.com and grab Your Substack Success Blueprint.
If you’d like, tell me a bit about your ideal reader and what you want your Substack to stand for, and I can help you sharpen the positioning even further.
Book a free 15-minute call to see if we are aligned…