The American Mind Podcast

For the second time in recorded primatology, a civil war has been observed between chimpanzees. This week, the guys get a little philosophical about the unique status of mankind as a political animal and the unlikelihood that we have much to learn from the chimps—progressive optimism and cash grabs notwitstanding. Meanwhile, Viktor Orbán lost the Hungarian election to Péter Magyar, a result misint...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit claremontinstitute.substack.com Host Spencer Klavan and Claremont president Ryan Williams kick off a new series on Trump v. Slaughter , a Supreme Court case that calls into question the whole misbegotten history of the administrative state. The carefully calibrated design of the founders has been thrown out of whack by 100 years of prec...

Over Easter weekend, as the Iran War approached its sixth week, Trump reissued his ultimatum to Iran: open the Strait of Hormuz or face complete destruction. This week, the guys take some guesses at what Trump intends for our adversary, and what is to come long-term. Meanwhile, amid the conflict, heroes have emerged—most recently in the harrowing rescue of an American airman downed behind enemy li...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit claremontinstitute.substack.com Wrapping up a short series of talks focused on Japanese politics, host Spencer Klavan and Claremont Institute president Ryan Williams examine Japan’s reaction to the rise of Trump and the MAGA movement. Building on the modern US-Japan partnership, Trump and the recently elected Prime Minister Sanae Takaic...

Amid an ongoing congressional battle over Department of Homeland Security funding, the House Democrats eked out a bill in the early hours last Friday—excluding ICE and Border Patrol. After a century of Congressional abdication, submission to bureaucracy has become second nature. And in making war, most recently with Iran, the atrophy of the government's first branch calls into question the separat...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit claremontinstitute.substack.com Claremont Institute president Ryan Williams continues his conversation with host Spencer Klavan about his quasi-diplomatic mission to Japan. This week, the two launch into the role of religion in Japanese politics, the country’s deeper history before World War II, and remedies for the nation’s birth deart...

After another tense week of Iran-US operations, Trump is reportedly looking to broker a deal and snuff out the Middle East conflict. Meanwhile, amid rumors that the Right is tearing at the seams, polling now reveals that young conservatives are the least divided on the recent intervention—overwhelmingly in its favor. Reports of a deep divide between old and young may, as so often, be more media hy...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit claremontinstitute.substack.com Joining host Spencer Klavan fresh off the plane from a Japan-hosted outreach mission, Claremont Institute president Ryan Williams gives an exclusive debrief with insight into Japanese political philosophy, business strategy, and defense. China, the nation’s longtime adversary across the sea, view it as an...

A buzzy new essay at New York Mag announces that some women have grown disgruntled at the MAGA movement and by their treatment from some on the New Right. Now their criticisms are being used to publicly discredit conservatism, wholesale. The concerns are real, but need to be addressed in-house—before they become oppo fodder. Meanwhile, Director of National Counterterrorism Center Joe Kent has resi...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit claremontinstitute.substack.com Will Thibeau joins host Spencer Klavan to take measure of our adversary's capabilities in the Iran War.

Following the joint US-Israel airstrike on the Ayatollah Khamenei, the late dictator’s son, Mojtaba Khamenei, has been picked successor by the regime. The Trump administration has begun to signal its objectives, goalposts and exit plan—but is victory clearly defined yet? Meanwhile, a failed terror attack targeting a protest in New York signals cascading effects back home. This week, hosts Spencer...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit claremontinstitute.substack.com California’s radical law, forbidding schools and teachers from reporting students' gender dysmorphia and transgender treatments to parents, has just been shot down by the Supreme Court. Eric Wessan, Claremont alum and Solicitor General at the Iowa Office of the Attorney General, joins host Spencer Klavan...

The Ayatollah Khameini is dead in a missile strike. The U.S. and Israel are effectively at war with Iran. Trump and his administration, hawkish on Iran, pursue peace through force with Operation Epic Fury. This week, the guys sit down to hash out the military and trade implications in the Mideast region, and the quagmire of political considerations back home—including presidential powers and an im...

Chief Washington Correspondent at Newsmax James Rosen sits down this week with Claremont Institute president Ryan Williams to discuss the deep state's involvement in the operation to bring down President Nixon. Informing the discussion are never-before-seen files sourced by Mr. Rosen: a spy ring directed by three-letter intelligence agencies, collaborat… This is a public episode. If you'd like to...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit claremontinstitute.substack.com President Trump took to the podium to deliver the first State of the Union address of his second term Tuesday night. His appraisal: we are so back. Transparency is back, and so are affordability, education, homeownership, and more. On this exclusive Roundtable episode, hosts Ryan Williams and Mike Sabo si...

The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 last week that the International Economic Emergency Powers Act does not give the president authority to impose tariffs—Alito, Kavanaugh, and Thomas dissenting. The administration now scrambles to implement its tariff policies as appeals and new legislation proceed. Meanwhile, America counts its treasures as the Winter Olympics close out: 12 gold medals, one among them w...

Following on from J.D. Vance’s bracing speech in 2025, Secretary of State Marco Rubio called on European allies to resist the managed decline of the West at the 2026 Munich Security Conference this week. The welfare state is a slow moving trainwreck. Appeasement of climate cultists stunts economies. Mass migration threatens to disrupt our civilization. Playing good cop to the VP’s bad cop, Rubio o...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit claremontinstitute.substack.com Kicking off the Roundtable’s premium interview series, our AI chatbot—sorry, host, Spencer Klavan is joined by Claremont Institute president Ryan Williams to discuss the strange symptom of late-stage modernity that is AI maximalism. The technology, which excels as a task manager and mathematician, lacks h...

Superbowl LX went to the Seahawks, but the halftime show went to Puerto Rico with musician Bad Bunny, who performed almost entirely in Spanish (except, of course, when he took a dig at America's right to call itself America). The production targeted normie TV viewers with a joyous, positive aura—all while subtly communicating a leftist message of globalization. Was this a stroke of genius, or is B...

The recent government shutdown standoff has reached an end but, in yet another stage of the war against immigration enforcement, only temporary funding for Homeland Security has been passed. Democrats now aim at sweeping ICE reforms, Republicans at pushing through the SAVE Act requiring national voter ID—and dropping the Senate filibuster ahead of the midterms. Meanwhile, a New York jury has award...

Close on the heels of Renée Good's death, Minneapolis protestor Alex Pretti was killed in another altercation with ICE agents. Investigation into both incidents will hopefully make judgment easier in the court of law, but in the court of public opinion the situation looks grim. Losing ground on the media battlefield and in polls ahead of the midterms, Trump must consider the extent and nature of h...

As anti-ICE protests escalate in Minneapolis, agitators storm a church mid-service. But Trump’s deportation efforts are combining with economic pain to drive his poll numbers down. Uncertainty about Greenland doesn’t seem to be helping matters, though the breakdown of NATO may be unavoidable or already happening in all but name. With midterms looming, how should the administration approach this de...

This land is your land; this land is... Greenland ? Following the recent arrest and capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Trump has halted shipments of Venezuelan oil to Cuba, raising new speculations about efforts to acquire Greenland and solidify US control in the region. Meanwhile, Renée Good, egged by her wife to obstruct ICE officers in Minneapolis, was fatally shot while accelerati...

Nicolás Maduro is in U.S. custody, pleading not guilty to federal drug and weapons charges. What does his capture mean for Venezuela, American foreign policy, and the global order? And how does this moment connect to the domestic fight over America’s administrative state? Josh Treviño of AFPI unpacks the geopolitical aftermath of Maduro’s arrest, and R.J. Pestritto of Hillsdale College discusses h...

This week, hosts Ryan and Spencer sit down as the year closes out to share their Christmas plans and recommendations: music, theater, food, drink, and more! Stay tuned in the new year! Recommendations: Adventures in Old English: The History and Meaning of Advent “Christmas Traditions,” by the CRB editors Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking: 30th Anniversary Edition The PDT Cocktail Book This is...