Roots, Rights and Reason with Lee Smith

Featuring Adam Swart, founder of Crowds on Demand and one of the nation’s leading experts on organized demonstrations and advocacy campaigns, this episode offers a behind-the-scenes look at the mechanics of modern political protest. Drawing on more than a decade of experience coordinating lawful public events and grassroots advocacy efforts, Swart joins Lee Smith to discuss how demonstrations are...

Featuring physician-scientist Dr. Steven Quay, author of the newly released book The Code as Witness , this episode explores the growing body of scientific evidence surrounding the origins of COVID-19. In conversation with Lee Smith, Dr. Quay outlines the research and molecular analysis that led him to conclude the virus originated in a laboratory rather than through natural transmission from a wi...

Episode Fifty-Two: Is Cuba’s Communist Regime Finally Collapsing?  Lee Smith and returning guest J. Michael Waller, Senior Analyst for Strategy at the Center for Security Policy and author of Big Intel: How the CIA and FBI Went from Cold War Heroes to Deep State Villains examine the current state of Cuba’s communist regime, the growing pressures threatening its survival, and the pivotal role the U...

In Episode Fifty-One of Roots, Rights & Reason , host Lee Smith welcomes political philosopher and writer Nathan Pinkoski for a timely discussion titled Mass Migration and the Crisis of the West . The conversation examines the controversy surrounding the 1973 French novel The Camp of the Saints , which recently drew renewed attention after being temporarily removed from Amazon, and explores wh...

Lee Smith welcomes career educator and philosopher Jake Tawney for a thought-provoking discussion on one of the most consequential issues facing classrooms today: the rise of artificial intelligence in education. In Episode Fifty of Roots, Rights & Reason , Tawney challenges the conventional debate over AI by arguing that the most important questions are not about technology itself, but about...

 Lee Smith welcomes renowned political philosopher, Harvard professor, and author Harvey Mansfield for a candid conversation about the decline of one of America’s most influential institutions. Drawing from his latest book, Where Harvard Went Wrong , Mansfield reflects on more than seven decades at Harvard and explains how the university gradually shifted from a place of intellectual diversity to...

In Episode Forty-Eight of Roots, Rights & Reason , host Lee Smith welcomes award-winning journalist, filmmaker, and New York Times bestselling author Jan Jekielek for a sobering discussion about one of the most disturbing human rights atrocities of the modern era. Drawing from his newly released book Killed to Order , Jekielek exposes the Chinese Communist Party’s state-run forced organ harves...

In this episode of Roots, Rights & Reason , Lee Smith welcomes Carson Holloway, Washington Fellow in the Claremont Institute’s Center for the American Way of Life and author of No Liberty to Libel: The Constitutional Case Against New York Times v. Sullivan . Holloway examines one of the most consequential Supreme Court decisions in modern history, arguing that the “actual malice” standard esta...

In this episode of Roots, Rights & Reason , Lee Smith welcomes C. L. Max Nikias for a compelling conversation on leadership, resilience, and the enduring wisdom of the classical world. Drawing from the works of Homer and Xenophon, Dr. Nikias explains how the traits of great leaders, vision, discipline, courage, and self-restraint have been understood for centuries and remain essential today. F...

In this episode of Roots, Rights & Reason , Lee Smith welcomes historian Victor Davis Hanson for a clear and grounded look at what defines the “Western way of war” and how it is shaping modern conflict. Hanson explains that, at its core, this approach relies on overwhelming technological superiority, precision targeting, and strategic infrastructure disruption; seeking decisive outcomes withou...

In this episode of Roots, Rights & Reason , Lee Smith welcomes returning guest J. Michael Waller for a timely discussion on the concept of multipolarity and its growing influence in global affairs. Smith and Waller examine competing visions of global order, from alliance-based systems rooted in shared interests to spheres of influence dominated by adversarial regimes. The conversation explores...

In this episode of Roots, Rights & Reason, Lee Smith welcomes renowned legal scholar Richard A. Epstein for a timely and thought-provoking examination of birthright citizenship and the original meaning of the 14th Amendment. Drawing on decades of scholarship in constitutional and Roman law, Epstein challenges widely accepted interpretations and argues that modern legal frameworks have strayed...

Lee Smith welcomes Constitutional Attorney KrisAnne Hall to examine the original constitutional framework of taxation and how far the United States has departed from the Founders’ design. Drawing on founding-era documents and early American history, Hall explains how taxation was intended to function at the state level, with the federal government relying primarily on tariffs and limited, apportio...

Lee Smith welcomes educator and author Jake Tawney to examine the true nature of mathematics and its role in shaping both the individual mind and the American founding. Challenging the modern view of math as mere computation, Tawney argues that mathematics is fundamentally about truth, discovery, and the formation of human reason; training the mind to think clearly, pursue what is true, and commun...

Episode Forty: The Information State and the War for Truth In this focused discussion, Lee Smith sits down with writer Jacob Siegel to examine what information warfare actually is and how it has evolved from a tool of foreign conflict into a defining force within American political life. Drawing from his new book The Information State: Politics in the Age of Total Control , Siegel explains how mod...

Episode Thirty-Nine: Immigration and the Defense of the American Nation In this focused discussion, Lee Smith welcomes attorney Erielle Azerrad to examine the intersection of immigration law, national security, and the responsibilities tied to entering the United States. Using the case of Mahmoud Khalil as a focal point, the conversation explores the legal grounds for deportation, the limits of Fi...

 In this episode of Roots, Rights & Reason , Lee Smith speaks with Professor Gregory Roper about why the ability to argue well is essential to the survival of a constitutional republic. Drawing on classical rhetoric and the ancient Roman concept of stasis theory , Roper explains how rational debate once shaped civic life—and why modern culture has largely abandoned the discipline of logical ar...

Lee Smith discusses with Hillsdale College Professor Paul Rahe the significance of grand strategy and its influence on American foreign policy. Rahe describes grand strategy as seeing the larger picture: understanding what the country needs and coordinating military power, economic policies, diplomacy, and geography to ensure America’s safety and prosperity for many years. Their discussion reflect...

Destabilizing America By Design In Episode Thirty-Six of Roots, Rights & Reason , Lee Smith speaks with Kyle Shideler, Senior Analyst for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism at the Center for Security Policy, about the coordinated unrest unfolding in Minneapolis and other American cities. Shideler outlines the layered structure behind recent protests, including foreign-linked organizing gro...

The Strategy of Deterrence: Preventing War in a Dangerous World In this episode of Roots, Rights & Reason , host Lee Smith speaks with General Charles A. Flynn, USA (Ret.),  former Commanding General of U.S. Army Pacific, about the strategic role of deterrence in preventing conflict and maintaining global stability. Drawing on decades of senior military leadership and operational experience ac...

In this episode of Roots, Rights & Reason , host April Moss interviews Lee Smith on the escalating tensions with Iran and the broader geopolitical implications for the United States. As military assets move into the Middle East and negotiations unfold, Smith explains why Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs pose a threat not only to regional stability, but to global energy markets and...

As America marks the 217th birthday of Abraham Lincoln, this episode of Roots, Rights & Reason examines why Lincoln should be understood as a world historical leader. Host Lee Smith speaks with author Lee Harris about how Lincoln recognized that the Civil War was not only about preserving the Union, but about protecting the future of popular government itself. At a time when republics were col...

The Roots of the Republic: Greece, Rome, and the Birth of American Liberty  In this episode of Roots, Rights & Reason , host Lee Smith speaks with Harvard Professor James Hankins about the civilizational roots of the American constitutional republic in “The Roots of the Republic: Greece, Rome, and the Birth of American Liberty.” Hankins explains that America stands within a tradition stretchin...

In this episode of Roots, Rights & Reason , host Lee Smith speaks with Professor C. Bradley Thompson, political philosopher at Clemson University and Executive Director of the Clemson Institute for the Study of Capitalism, about the growing ideological assault on capitalism and why the defense of liberty must begin with a moral defense of property rights. Thompson explains that America’s const...

In this episode of Roots, Rights & Reason , host Lee Smith speaks with J. Michael Waller, Senior Analyst for Strategy at the Center for Security Policy, about the return of the Monroe Doctrine and America’s renewed focus on hemispheric defense. Waller explains how the Monroe Doctrine, first articulated in 1823 by President James Monroe and shaped by Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, became...