In Response...

Joey speaks with Michael Tomasky. Michael is the editor of The New Republic and editor-in-chief of Democracy. We discuss Trump’s war on civil society, polarization, federal programs, race, and other topics. He and his writing appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, and on PBS, MSNBC, C-SPAN, Fox News, and other media. He can be found on X  @ mtomasky  and Bluesky @ mjtom...

Joey speaks with Alexandra Hudson. We discuss her book The Soul of Civility and Joey’s recent  speech  at an anti-gay church in the context of the Charlie Kirk assassination. Alexandra is the founder of  Civic Renaissance . She and her writing appeared in The Wall Street Journal, TIME, POLITICO, and on CBS, PBS, Fox News, and other media. She can be found on Instagram at  alexandraohudson , on X ...

Joey speaks with Nick Gillespie. We discuss our takes on the state of the arts, conservative art and entertainment, the Kennedy Center, the role of the audience in media, misinformation, political prejudices and polarization, our family backgrounds, understanding the New Right, reactionary Catholicism, anti-wokeness, the Trump administration and DOGE, government spending, and other topics. Nick ca...

Joey speaks with Bret Stephens and Chloe Valdary. We discuss DEI, prejudice on the right and left, MAGA, wokeness, social media, polarization, communicating across the aisle, intentions and misunderstandings, graciousness, human uniqueness, understanding one’s political opponents, the media and Trumpism, the crisis of meaning and connection, balancing moral clarity with compassion, antisemitism, p...

Joey speaks with Ilana Redstone. We discuss her book  The Certainty Trap , the state of academia, conservative media, trust in media, reaching across the aisle, polarization around Israel-Palestine, dialogue in Islam, prejudice, democracy, travel, family, Joey’s experience in college, and other topics. Ilana can be found on X @ irakresh  and her  website . Illana is a professor of sociology at the...

Joey speaks with Heather Mac Donald. We discuss the state of the fine arts, the need for classical training, modern art, the state of “wokeness,” the Democratic Party, the war in Gaza (this conversation took place before the cease-fire), Western sympathy for Hamas, race politics, antisemitism, other prejudicial attitudes on the populist right, Joey’s concerns about race realism, and other topics....

Joey speaks with Dr. Diana Blum. We discuss the rise of antisemitism, the ongoing  lawsuit  against the Sequoia Unified School District, the Ethic Studies curriculum in California schools, Diana’s attempts to reach out to school officials, the climate at the school, the school district’s attempt to silence the film  Killing America , Benny Morris and Norman Finkelstein, Abigail Shrier’s piece for ...

Joey speaks with Aaron Kimberly. We discuss Aaron’s work as a pediatric gender nurse, the impact of trans activism on American and Canadian politics, the cultural and political attitudes of trans people, the right-wing reaction to far-left trans activism, Canadian media and LGBT, Joey’s belief that he was trans when he was a child, transgenderism and children, the reality of biological sex and int...

Joey speaks with Ben Kawaller. We discuss how Ben came to bridge divides in his work at The Free Press, humor, LGBT politics, the role of the media in polarization, why Kamala Harris lost, conservative media and audience capture, election discourse, mass deportations, Trump’s norm violations, cross-partisan communication, muscular conservatism & feminine liberalism, why gay guys go to the gym,...

Joey speaks with Brian T. Allen. We discuss the state of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA), the impact of identity politics on art history and fine art pedagogy, the Critical Identity Studies, the impact of COVID on cultural institutions, the decay of art and humanities curricula, the re-emergence of figure painting; galleries, art fairs & museums; presentism, The New Philistine...

Today’s guest is Dr. Naya Lekht. She is a scholar of contemporary antisemitism, Soviet history, and the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict. We discuss the Arab-Israeli conflict, identity politics in education and its impact on perceptions of Israel, the Bible’s place in modern politics; the history of the region, including the League of Nations plan for Israel and the partition proposed by the U...

Today, Joey speaks with Joe Nepomuceno. Joe and Joey met through the National Journalism Center, an internship program they completed over the summer. They discuss the state of conservative journalism, the cults of “wokeness” and “anti-wokeness,” the politicization of universities, Christopher Rufo, the state of friendship, being “plugged in” all the time, conspiracy thinking, our response to COVI...

Today, Joey speaks with Professor Erec Smith. Smith is a Fellow at the Cato Institute, a Professor of Rhetoric at York College, and the President of  Free Black Thought . Joey and Erec discuss his past role as a DEI officer, Free Black Thought, the ideological stranglehold of “wokeness” on academia, gender and transgenderism, political tolerance, rhetoric, the impact of “wokeness” and “anti-wokene...

A note from Joey concerning the controversial nature of today’s guest: I have the right to have anyone I want on my podcast. -Joey Today, Joey speaks with Professor Amy Wax. Wax is an American lawyer, legal scholar, and neurologist. She graduated from Harvard, Yale, and Columbia. She is the Robert Mundheim Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Her work deals with social we...

Today, Joey speaks with Chloe Valdary. Valdary is an American writer, entrepreneur, and diversity & inclusion educator. She graduated magna cum laude from the University of New Orleans in 2015 with a BA in International Studies. She runs the DEI program  Theory of Enchantment  and her new app,  Dojo . She has also contributed to The New York Times and The Atlantic. Joey and Chloe discuss Theor...

Today, Joey speaks with Dr. Stephen Hicks. Hicks is a Canadian-American philosopher and professor of Philosophy at Rockford University in Illinois. Hicks is also the Director of his university’s Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship. Hicks has written several books, including Nietzsche and the Nazis and Explaining Postmodernism. Joey and Stephen discuss the purpose of art, the state of fine arts...

Today, Joey speaks with Peter Zokosky. Peter is an American figurative artist working in drawing and painting, a Professor of Drawing & Painting, and Department Chair of Graduate Fine Arts at  Laguna College of Art & Design (LCAD)  in Laguna Beach, CA. Joey and Peter discuss why LCAD differs from other art schools, the difference between undergraduate and graduate fine arts education, the...

Today, Joey speaks with Hope Railey. Hope is an American figurative artist working in drawing and painting, a Professor of Drawing & Painting, and Department Chair of Undergraduate Fine Arts at  Laguna College of Art & Design (LCAD)  in Laguna Beach, CA. Joey and Hope discuss why LCAD is different than other art schools, the difference between LCAD and an atelier, the need for free speech...

Joey’s guest today is Brent Morden. Brent is a music director, composer, arranger, educator, and arts program director. He directs the band at Columbia University, teaches jazz at Hofstra University, is the Red Co-Chair of Braver Angels’ NYC Alliance, Director of FAIR in the Arts, and Chairman of the New York Young Republican Club Arts Caucus. Brent and Joey discuss the state of discourse on colle...

Joey is joined by Julia Gould and Professor Matthew Napoli. They discuss the state of fine arts education at the university level in the United States, the broken state of critique, the absence of a core curriculum in the fine arts, and solutions to these problems. Matthew Napoli is a Providence-based artist working in representational painting and drawing. Napoli is a graduate teaching fellow at...

Today, Joey speaks with Laurie Fendrich. Laurie is an abstract painter, art critic, and professor emerita of fine arts and art history at Hofstra University. They discuss her essay How Critical Thinking Sabotages Painting , the broken state of critique, the impact of identity politics on fine arts education, and other topics. Fendrich is originally from Paterson, NJ, and studied painting at the Sc...