Episodios

  • Teaching Wit, Wisdom, and Love of Country

    Teaching Wit, Wisdom, and Love of Country
    Jun 19 2026
    America's 250th birthday is just a few weeks out, and festivities are underway. But, leaving aside disputes about fist fights and daring stunts on the White House South Lawn, a question emerges about what a serious celebration of the American way looks and feels like. To consider this and more, Charles, James, and a visiting Peter Robinson sit down with Matthew Mehan, author and Associate Dean of Hillsdale College's graduate school in Washington, D.C., to discuss The American Book of Fables.

    The gang thinks through the meaning of our civic inheritance and the endeavor to pass on the baton to the young. Matt's here to remind us that the arduous effort can be joyful and that hopefulness is a trait that marks the serious thinker.

    Our trio also kvetches (and then some!) over the Iran deal, winces at the newly unveiled Obama Presidential Center, and chortles with bewilderment at the accusation that a Pride-themed baseball cap was "desecrated" by a Bible verse.

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    57 m
  • A World of Willful Weirdos

    A World of Willful Weirdos
    Jun 12 2026
    It's just James and Charles to recollect and swap rants about the goings-on of the land of the free and the home of oddball. The cast of characters includes the world's first billionaire, an Angeleno who lost an election for common sense, a lunatic posing as a model working man, and the deeply flawed judgment of Democratic voters about guys like these. Lileks and Cooke also delight in watching Europeans share their newfound love for America, and embrace Trump's can-doism vis-à-vis public beautification.


    Sound this week: CNBC announces the world’s first trillionaire, Jimmy Kimmel recoils, and Graham Platner continues to gaffe.

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    55 m
  • A Law Unto Yooself

    A Law Unto Yooself
    Jun 5 2026
    John Yoo returns to usher in SCOTUS opinion season, joining James and Steve for some friendly debates on law, politics and, most controversially, more than a few matters of taste. For our democrats in the audience, we've got chatter on California vote counting and Alabama map battles. News from the UK reminds us that the royalists are in even worse shape, as authorities there prove to be as confused in dealing with controversial speech as they are with violence (the real kind). John Bolton's deal with the DOJ and a couple death penalty cases concentrate the fellas' minds further on the subtleties—and unsubtleties—of hard justice. Thankfully, Scott Pelley's bad week brings a much-needed restorative laugh, and the gang finds something to agree on as they count down to the semiquincentennial. That's right: not even petty celebrities can rain on our Independence Day parade!

    Sound this week: CBS Evening News anchor Tony Dokoupil says goodbye to Scott Pelley while Fox News’ Brit Hume finds it all amusing.

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    1 h
  • Deal or No Deal?

    Deal or No Deal?
    May 29 2026
    Lots and lots of burning questions dominate the news. Do we need a $250 bill, and what or who should be on it? Mamdani flexes his communist urges in NYC, so what could possibly go wrong? And can a state tax a "slush fund" at 100%? James and Charles have thoughts.

    But the question we really want an answer to is, "Do we have a deal with Iran or not?" To answer that, we welcome back our old friend Richard Goldberg, a senior advisor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the former director for countering Iranian weapons of mass destruction for the White House National Security Council during the first Trump administration.

    It's an episode to get your Spidey senses tingling.
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    58 m
  • Revolution on the Run

    Revolution on the Run
    May 22 2026
    James, Steve and non-stipendiary host Rob Long shoot the breeze as they face revolutionary changes big and small. From the impending phenonena of Pratt Summer and unstoppable AI to the DNC's stateside Commie drama and the Euros giving nationalism another go, the trio draws some important lessons:

    Local elections matter. They can even be fun!
    Political messaging is especially effective when your opponent is the weird one.
    Climate apocalypse is dumb.
    You can be a people or a bureaucracy, not both.
    Artificial Intelligence is coming. Work on your human skills.

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    59 m
  • Summit Song and Dance

    Summit Song and Dance
    May 15 2026
    Donald Trump and Xi Jinping have ended their two day summit in Beijing with lots of talk and no announced breakthroughs. James and Steven break it all down.

    Speaking of breaking down, we welcome back National Review senior writer Noah Rothman to talk about the left's embrace of political violence that he covers in his new book, Blood and Progress: A Century of Left-Wing Violence in America. It's a riot.

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    59 m
  • Alien to the Court

    Alien to the Court
    May 8 2026
    Ricochet’s beloved former editor Mollie Hemingway is back with a new book, Alito: The Justice Who Reshaped the Supreme Court and Restored the Constitution. We’re so thrilled, in fact, that we couldn’t even keep Peter Robinson away. So Mollie leads our embarrassment of hosts through her exclusive scoop on the Supreme Court’s most enigmatic justice. Tune in for an in-depth report covering everything Alito—from the political dramas starting with his confirmation to the leak of his best-known Dobbs opinion, and analysis of the particulars of his legal philosophy, his mastery over oral proceedings, and ultimately his influence over the increasingly originalist branch of government.

    And with investigative journalism in mind, our quartet digs into reports about rampant Medicaid fraud in Ohio, and James tries to pin the panelists down on their stance on aliens, UFOs and G-man plots. The gang also guffaws at the Virginia Supreme Court's redistricting rebuff and manages to find quibblible claims against the common understanding of invasive species.
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    1 h y 2 m
  • The Renegade Academy

    The Renegade Academy
    May 1 2026
    Have we hit the "another week, another act of homegrown terror" phase of American history? Spencer Klavan joins Steve and Charles for a roundup of the (relatively) young academic's recent works on subjects ranging from Francis Fukayama's oft-misunderstood thesis to the ascent of figures like Hasan Piker, who hope to microloot our stores of social capital (and Whole Foods, too). The trio also considers the possibilities before the classical education rebellion that's breaking out on campuses.

    Plus, Cooke and Hayward dive into this week's SCOTUS decision on Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, and they see an achievement worth celebrating in the United Arab Emirates' decision to leave OPEC.
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    59 m