Mar 18, 2026 3-5pm ET
Wednesday on The Robert Scott Bell Show:
Hour 1
Religious Liberty Commission Hearing Highlights Free Speech Violations and Harms from COVID Vaccine Mandates The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom held a public hearing on March 10, 2026, examining how COVID-19 vaccine mandates in the United States and around the world infringed on religious liberty, conscience rights, and free speech, with witnesses—including military members, healthcare professionals, clergy, and civil liberties advocates—describing how government and institutional coercion forced individuals to violate deeply held beliefs, suppressed dissenting viewpoints on vaccine safety or morality, and created a climate of fear that chilled First Amendment protections without adequate religious accommodations or due process. Testimonies detailed cases of service members discharged or demoted for requesting religious exemptions, nurses and physicians who lost licenses or employment for refusing mandates on faith-based grounds, and religious leaders censored or threatened for publicly questioning the moral or safety implications of the vaccines. Several speakers argued that the mandates, combined with emergency use authorizations and suppression of information about natural immunity, alternative treatments, and adverse events, constituted compelled participation in what they viewed as an experimental medical intervention conflicting with their religious convictions regarding bodily autonomy, the sanctity of life, or opposition to abortion-derived cell lines used in development. The hearing highlighted how social media platforms, often in coordination with government agencies, removed or labeled religious and medical dissent as misinformation, while employers and schools imposed blanket policies with narrowly interpreted or inconsistently granted exemptions, leading to widespread discrimination against people of faith. Witnesses emphasized the disproportionate impact on minority religious communities and uniformed services, where refusal frequently resulted in loss of career, benefits, pensions, or honorable discharge status. The commission heard calls for legislative reforms to strengthen conscience protections, require robust religious accommodation processes, provide compensation for those harmed by coercive policies, and establish clear statutory safeguards preventing future public health emergencies from overriding constitutional rights without compelling justification and least-restrictive alternatives. Children’s Health Defense and allied organizations welcomed the hearing as an important step toward accountability, arguing that the pandemic response established dangerous precedents for government overreach into personal belief systems and medical autonomy, and urging broader societal recognition that genuine public health cannot be achieved by sacrificing fundamental rights to conscience, speech, and informed consent. The article frames the proceedings as part of a growing national and international reckoning with the human and constitutional costs of COVID-19 vaccine mandates, underscoring the need to restore protections for religious liberty and individual medical choice in future health policy decisions.
Special Guest: Lisa Rooney
With a focus on transformative healing, Lisa Rooney blends the power of Integrative Coaching and Homeopathy to guide individuals on a journey towards reclaiming their health and vitality. Lisa is a seasoned Life Coach and Homeopathic consultant, who intimately understands the intricate dance between physical and emotional struggles, recognizing their profound impact on well-being. Specializing in guiding overwhelmed individuals, women in various life transitions, young adults, and first responders, Lisa tailors her approach to address a spectrum of challenges. Through personalized coaching sessions, Lisa helps clients navigate emotional challenges such as overwhelm, fear, trauma, and uncertainty, while also addressing physical ailments including sleep disturbances, digestive issues, chronic pain, and skin conditions.
She possesses extensive training as a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach, an Energy Healer, and a Homeopathic Consultant.
Her educational journey has taken her through esteemed institutions such as The Coaches Training Institute, Healing Touch, Energy Psychology, Lotus Health Institute, and Joette Calabrese, among others—all of which have helped her refine her integrative, multi-method approach to healing. As a mother of two young adults, she raised her children holistically, employing many of the same methods she uses today. Nestled in the greater Atlanta area with her husband and two canine companions, Lisa finds joy in traveling, kayaking, hiking, sharing movie nights with loved ones, and embracing a lifestyle in harmony with her core values.
Welcome back to another “Homeopathic Hits” episode on The Robert Scott Bell Show!
Today’s Homeopathic Hit is Argemone mexicana, commonly known as Prickly Poppy.
Boericke highlights this remedy for colicky spasms of the bowels, painful neuro-muscular conditions, and rheumatic disease associated with Bright’s disease. Its picture includes gastrointestinal distress, urinary changes, and weakness affecting sleep and mobility.
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Hour 2
Adult ADHD stimulant prescriptions surging, doctors raising concerns Prescriptions for ADHD stimulant medications such as Adderall (amphetamine/dextroamphetamine), Ritalin and Concerta (methylphenidate), and Vyvanse (lisdexamfetamine) have surged dramatically among U.S. adults over the past five years, with dispensing rates rising more than 30% from 2020 to 2025 according to pharmacy claims data analyzed by the CDC and independent researchers, prompting growing alarm among physicians over potential overdiagnosis, long-term side effects, dependency risks, and diversion for non-medical use in a population that historically received far fewer such prescriptions. The increase is most pronounced among women aged 25–44, where rates have more than doubled in some states, coinciding with expanded telehealth prescribing during the pandemic, increased social media awareness and self-diagnosis of ADHD symptoms, and diagnostic criteria that have broadened to include more subjective adult presentations like difficulty focusing, emotional dysregulation, executive function challenges, or procrastination previously attributed to stress, lifestyle, or other mental health conditions. Doctors interviewed by Fox News expressed concern that many new prescriptions stem from brief telehealth evaluations lacking comprehensive psychological testing, ruling out comorbidities such as anxiety, depression, sleep disorders, trauma, or nutritional deficiencies, or considering non-pharmacological interventions like cognitive behavioral therapy, nutrition, exercise, sleep hygiene, or environmental modifications. Potential risks highlighted include cardiovascular strain (elevated heart rate and blood pressure), appetite suppression leading to nutritional deficiencies or unintended weight loss, insomnia, anxiety exacerbation, dependency or tolerance requiring dose escalation, and rare but serious psychiatric effects including mania or psychosis in susceptible individuals. Experts also noted rising diversion and misuse for cognitive enhancement or weight loss among college students and professionals, with DEA data showing increased emergency room visits and overdoses linked to non-prescribed stimulants. The American Psychiatric Association and some ADHD specialists defend the rise as reflecting previously underdiagnosed adult ADHD and improved access to care, arguing that properly prescribed stimulants can improve quality of life, productivity, and safety in daily functioning when used as part of a comprehensive treatment plan. However, critics—including psychiatrists and primary care physicians—call for stricter diagnostic standards, mandatory in-person or thorough evaluations, limits on telehealth prescribing for controlled substances, routine drug screening, and greater emphasis on non-drug therapies, noting that long-term studies on adult stimulant use remain limited and that benefits may diminish over time while side effects accumulate. The surge has also strained supply chains, leading to periodic shortages that force patients onto alternatives or abrupt discontinuation, exacerbating withdrawal symptoms and mental health issues. The article underscores the need for balanced prescribing practices, better physician education on adult ADHD evaluation, and more research into underlying causes of rising symptoms—including potential contributions from ultra-processed diets, excessive screen time, sleep disruption, environmental toxins, and societal pressures—rather than defaulting to medication as the primary solution for what some clinicians describe as a complex biopsychosocial phenomenon.
Special Guest: Gilbert Martina
Gilbert Martina is a Caribbean-born ancestral healing teacher, meditation guide, and the creator of the forthcoming Blenchi Sanctuary. After a successful career in healthcare and organizational change—including his role as Advisor to the Board of Managing Directors at Curaçao Medical Center—he experienced a life-changing turning point that challenged his view of health, identity, and purpose.
This led him to study ancestral traditions, meditation, and spiritual healing across cultures—from the Andes to the Amazon. Today, Gilbert blends Afro-Caribbean and Indigenous wisdom with modern leadership insight to help people reconnect with their body, intuition, and sense of truth.
He is the author of the upcoming book Healthy Minds – Healthy Nation, a call to action for holistic healing at both the personal and systemic levels. The book is supported by a grant from the Dutch Foundation for literature as part of its Regulation Literature Caribe initiative, recognizing projects that explore transgenerational trauma and mental health in Caribbean societies.Through his teachings, retreats, and the development of the Blenchi Sanctuary, Gilbert offers a new way to think about transformation—one rooted in remembrance, reconnection, and cultural healing.
A Promising Fatty Liver Treatment May Actually Trigger Cancer A class of drugs known as FXR agonists, long considered promising candidates for treating metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD, formerly NAFLD) and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), may actually promote the development and progression of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) — the most common form of liver cancer — according to a new study published in the journal Nature that raises serious safety concerns about this therapeutic approach. Researchers from institutions including the University of California San Diego and the Salk Institute analyzed liver tissue from patients and animal models treated with FXR agonists and found that activation of the farnesoid X receptor (FXR), a nuclear receptor that regulates bile acid metabolism, lipid homeostasis, and inflammation in the liver, unexpectedly accelerated tumor formation and growth in the presence of underlying liver damage or genetic predispositions to cancer. In mouse models engineered to mimic human MASLD/NASH progression, FXR agonist treatment reduced steatosis and fibrosis in early stages but significantly increased the incidence and aggressiveness of HCC in later stages, with tumors showing enhanced proliferation, angiogenesis, and resistance to apoptosis. Molecular analysis revealed that chronic FXR activation altered gene expression patterns, promoting oncogenic signaling pathways (including Wnt/β-catenin and YAP/TAZ) while suppressing tumor suppressor mechanisms, effects that were exacerbated in livers with preexisting inflammation or fibrosis. The study also examined human liver samples from patients who had received FXR agonists in clinical trials and found similar molecular signatures associated with higher cancer risk markers. The findings challenge the prevailing view that FXR agonists are broadly beneficial for metabolic liver disease, suggesting that while they may improve early histological features, they could inadvertently drive carcinogenesis in susceptible individuals, particularly those with advanced fibrosis or cirrhosis who are already at elevated HCC risk. The authors recommend caution in ongoing clinical development, calling for longer-term safety studies with cancer endpoints, careful patient stratification to exclude those with high oncogenic potential, and exploration of alternative dosing or combination strategies that mitigate pro-tumor effects. Current FXR agonists such as obeticholic acid have faced regulatory setbacks due to safety signals, and this research provides a potential mechanistic explanation for those concerns. Experts not involved in the study noted that while the results are concerning, they do not necessarily invalidate all FXR-targeted therapies but underscore the need for precision medicine approaches and rigorous preclinical testing for oncogenic risk before advancing candidates to late-stage human trials. The article highlights the broader challenge in MASLD/NASH drug development, where improving surrogate histological endpoints has not always translated to reduced clinical events or cancer risk, emphasizing the importance of long-term outcomes in therapeutic evaluation for this increasingly prevalent liver condition affecting over one-third of adults. Remember Friends, The Power to Heal is Yours!
