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Welcome back to our VIP video series “Off the Beaten Path,” usually featuring my friend Larry O’Connor! The Townhall columnist and Salem News Channel host will be back next week, discussing stories and ideas that may fly under our radar, in culture, politics, sports, and more.

Highlights from this episode include:

• Christian talks about the skepticism over the timing and nature of the allegations against Brand. “I think many, many of his fans are thinking, no, they’re throwing a flag on the play,” he says, “saying I don’t believe the media, why is this happening now? He’s become too powerful, too big, too influential a voice.”
• Is Tim Ballard, the subject of the smash summer hit Sound of Freedom, next on the list to be derailed?
• We discuss the double standard in play in our current culture when it comes to these kind of accusations. “On the left, I mean, you’ve got Woody Allen, who’s still making films and getting standing Os at Cannes,” I point out.
• Christian offers another example. “If The Flash had really done well at the box office, Ezra Miller would be the star of Flash Two and no one would blink an eye. And those alleged crimes are serious.”
• The big lesson of the summer, Christian says, is that films have to become cultural events to break out.
• Even then, though, it’s tough. Disney certainly tried that with the Indiana Jones sequel and its new Pixar film Elemental, I point out, but neither of them did as much box office as Sound of Freedom.
• We finish up by debating Barbie, didactics, and challenging assumptions.

Be sure to watch it all and join us in the comments!