JWI Presents: Anchoring Truths Podcast

For the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, we are pleased to share an intimate discussion with Dr. Matthew Spalding whose timely new book  The Making of the American Mind  explores the philosophic underpinnings of and story behind the Declaration. Please enjoy this special Anchoring Truths episode as a celebration of our nation’s Independence and Founding. Spalding, dean of Hill...

Our latest Anchoring Truths Podcast episode focuses on a new book Taking American Citizenship Seriously: The Recovery of the Fourteenth Amendment. Our guest is the author that book, David R. Upham. With the book, Professor Upham delivers a comprehensive account of the original understanding of the Fourteenth Amendment. Drawing on a close textual analysis, Upham shows how the framers shaped the Ame...

Our latest Anchoring Truths Podcast episode centers on a 2026 case in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, covering New York City. This case presented a fascinating opportunity to discuss the intersection of Natural Law, international law, and contract law. Petersen Energia Inversora v. YPF (2nd Cir. opinion here ) concerns how Argentina raised more than a billion dollars from American investors o...

As we continue our commemoration of America 250, we’re inspired to present a variety of different celebrations of our country. In that spirit, we are honored to welcome on theshow Dr. Matthew Mehan of Hillsdale College, Associate Dean and Associate Professor of Government at the Van Andel Graduate School in Washington, D.C. A literary scholar with a Ph. D. from the University of Dallas, Dr. Mehan...

We’ve devoted past Anchoring Truths Podcast episodes to the promise of AI in the legal profession and beyond. Today, we’ll be discussing more of the perils of that technology with Professor Glenn Harlan Reynolds. He's the Beauchamp BroganDistinguished Professor of Law at the University of Tennessee and the mind behind the legendary Instapundit blog. In his brand-new Encounter Books Broadside,...

This week's Anchoring Truths Podcast is a roundtable discussion of the James Wilson Institute's travels around the country to law school campuses from February-April. JWI Founder & Co-Director Hadley Arkes and Programs Director Daniel Osborne join host Garrett Snedeker to describe what they saw from law students at four different campuses during JWI's law school seminars as well as...

Our latest episode is a little bit of a something differentthan what we’re used to featuring on the Anchoring Truths Podcast. Our guest this week is an expert on etiquette, Alison Cheperdak. Whether from the hallowed halls of the West Wing to the bustling chaos of a newsroom, Cheperdak captures stories of her experiences rendered with vivid detail, emotional resonance, and the intimacy of a confid...

Our latest episode features a living legend and one of our oldest, closest friends at the James Wilson Institute: Prof. J. Budziszewski on the occasion of the release of his new book “Pandemic of Lunacy: How to Think Clearly When Everyone Around You Seems Crazy” from Creed and Culture. In ourconversation we will discuss his new book as well as his work at the intersection of Natural Law, constitut...

As part of our ongoing series of joint programs with our friends at First Liberty’s Center for Religion, Culture, and Democracy, we’re delighted to bring you a provocative lecture from Hiram Sasser on “The Religious Liberty Solution to Big Tech Censorship: How The Religious Freedom Restoration ActLimits Section 230”. Sasser is the Executive General Counsel for First Liberty Institute, a leading no...

In 2026, we celebrate 250 years since our Declaration of Independence. In honor of this milestone in our country’s history, we’ll be placing an extra emphasis on the American Founding in episodes and with guests this year. And there’s no better place to start on this theme than in the James Wilson Institute’s backyard, historic Old Town Alexandria, Virginia the home of the Institute since 2021, an...

Vice President JD Vance is one of the most influential Republicans in America. But unlike many politicians, he is a public intellectual. Long before holding office, he was a prolific writer and speaker, wrestling with the core issues facing conservatism in America. Vance has emerged to be in many ways the intellectual synthesizer of various emerging threads of the GOP in law, politics, and culture...

Judicial supremacy has been a frequent topic of conversation on the Anchoring Truths Podcast, but never before have we analyzed it from a comparative or international perpective. Yonatan Green, the author of Rogue Justice: the Rise of Judicial Supremacy in Israel , allows us to do both on the latest episode. Green's timely new book chronicles the experience of the Israeli Supreme Court's i...

One of the country's foremost authorities on executive power, Prof. Saikrishna “Sai” Prakash, joins the Anchoring Truths Podcast to discuss his fascinating new book The Presidential Pardon . Prof. Prakash’s slim new tome from Harvard University Press delivers an engaging analysis of the Constitution’s Pardon Clause and its transformation over the centuries into a blunt and potent instrument th...

Join the Anchoring Truths Podcast for a tour de force from our friend Prof. Josh Blackman. In the height of the politicization of the judicial branch, the federal courts cannot be reformed through unilateral disarmament, argues Blackman. Rather, any federal judicial reform must be bilateral. Blackman lays out a set of ten proposals for reducing the power both the Right and the Left exert through t...

In light of the tragic killing of Charlie Kirk, the culture of American Campuses and Free Speech - which Kirk fought so hard for - are more relevant than ever. Profs. Hadley Arkes & Justin Dyer share a discussion of a new way to look at free speech, its purpose, and the best way to restore its role at American Universities. Arkes Symposium Article Dyer Symposium Article Please note that this e...

With less than one more before the Supreme Court’s oral argument in one of the most explosive cases of this term, Trump v. Slaughter, you're encouraged to join the Anchoring Truths Podcast for a discussion of this important case over whether the President remove any Senate-confirmed commissioner of an agency he no longer wishes to have serve in that federal agency. The constitutional question in t...

Professor Melissa Moschella of the University of Notre Dame joins us to discuss the contents of her recently published book titled, " Ethics, Politics, and Natural Law: Principles for Human Flourishing ." A rich yet cogent articulation of New Natural Law Theory (NNLT), Moschella's work has been described as "the clearest, most readable exposition and defense of contemporary natu...

Join the Anchoring Truths Podcast for an in-depth dive into the career and jurisprudential mind of Justice Amy Coney Barrett. The occasion for doing so is the publication in September of Justice Barrett's new book, Listening to the Law . Anchoring Truths featured an exclusive review of the book by Michael A. Fragoso. Fragoso joins the podcast to discuss his review. Fragoso was not only a stude...

Think back to when you were in high school or even middle school. Do you remember the history textbook you used? Perhaps that’s the problem: what passed for your reading material was so forgettable. Or if you do remember it, do you remember it being so ideologically slanted you were constantly fighting the story you were presented with? Indeed reinstating lost academic standards for excellence is...

Lawyer and legal scholar Timon Cline joins the podcast to share his ambitious proposal to revisit and overturn the Supreme Court’s 1947 ruling on the Establishment Clause in  Everson v. Board of Education . Drawing on his recent Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy article, " Everson  Must Fall ," co-authored with Josh Hammer (James Wilson '21) and Yoram Hazony, Cline explains...

Join us for this episode as Professor Robert Luther anticipates judicial nomination selection in Trump's second term. Professor Luther asks two types of questions: formally, "How will the Senate composition impact Judicial Nominations?" "How many seats will be open to fill? Will blue slips still apply for district courts?" "Will any circuit seats be moved to different...

As a loose tie in to the launch of our sister podcast, Natural Law Moment , we could not think of a better guest to have on the Anchoring Truths Podcast than Dennis Wieboldt , the author of a new article forthcoming in the Georgetown Journal of Law & Public Policy titled "Our Natural Law Moment(s).” The article argues that in the last 100 years, American law has experienced two other Natu...

Join us for this special episode featuring Judge Janice Rogers Brown (U.S. Circuit Court for D.C, ret.). Her remarks, given in 2023 as she received the James Wilson Leadership & the Law Award, comment on the need for judicial courage and fortitude, especially for those who take the Natural Law seriously.

What are the pre-political grounds of property rights? What are the just uses of property according to natural rights and the natural law? In this Anchoring Truths Podcast episode, Prof. Eric Claeys, presents his research on these questions inspired by his new book Natural Property Right s . Claeys, discusses the ways a natural right to property is justified and limited, drawing on sources from an...

In the pantheon of intellectual giants of modernconservatism, standing first among equals is the late professor Harry Jaffa. Jaffa, who influenced generations of students from his academic perch at Claremont Graduate University, might have been the 20th century’s greatest scholar on the thought of Abraham Lincoln. Jaffa, who along with JWI Founder & Co-Director Hadley Arkes was a student of th...