The Charles C. W. Cooke Podcast

def generate_podcast_intro(episode_number, host_name, guest_name, topic):      intro = f"On episode {episode_number} of the {host_name} Podcast, budget cuts destroy the introduction and {informal_name} talks to {guest_name} about {topic}."      return intro episode_number = 53 host_name = "Charles C. W. Cooke" informal_name = "Charles" guest_name = "Timothy B. Lee" topic = "artificial intelligence...

On episode 52, Charles talks to Peter Suderman about cocktails. Among the topics discussed are: What is a cocktail? When were they invented? How have they changed over time? What is the 'cocktail renaissance'? How have laws affected their production or development? And how did Peter get into this in the first place? The dial-up tone in the introduction was recorded by lintphishx and is used under...

In episode 51, Charles confesses that he is genuinely morose about the end of the Jaguars season, and then talks to his colleagues about their own sporting highs and lows. For just $5/month, you can help a sad male fan. The dial-up tone in the introduction was recorded by lintphishx and is used under a CC 3.0 License. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information ab...

On episode 50, Charles is rudely prevented from staging his radio play by the Ghost of Luther Abel. After that, he talks to Rafael A. Mangual about crime. (Here's his book .) Among the questions they discuss are why Rafael believes that the U.S. has a "decarceration problem"; whether too many Americans are in jail; whether the justice system is "racialized"; what we should do about police brutalit...

On episode 49—so called because there have been 48 others—Charles talks to Russ Roberts, the host of the EconTalk podcast and the president of Shalem College in Jerusalem. Among the topics they discuss are: What life has been like in Jerusalem since October 7; why Russ started a podcast so early; why he's less interested in economics than he used to be; how strongly he holds his views; whether ind...

On episode 48, Charles celebrates the Jacksonville Jaguars' 34-14 victory over the Tennessee Titans, and then talks to Steve Simpson about the core of America's system of government: the separation of powers. Among the questions discussed are: What is separation of powers? Why does it matter? Does America still have it? Can it co-exist with the modern world? Can there be such a thing as an "indepe...

On episode 47, Charles tries to work out why some of the anti-Israel protests have bothered him so much, and then talks to Ruy Texeira about the current state of the Democratic Party. Among the questions asked are: Why is Texeira's new book called 'Where Have All the Democrats Gone?' when the Democrats seem to be doing fine? Why is the "shadow Democratic Party" so  strong? What is the "soul" of th...

On episode 46, Charles talks to Dan Senor about the horrors of October 7. Among the topics discussed are: What happened? Why did it happen? Why would Hamas's apologists say it happened? Was Dan surprised that it happened? Does he worry about another Holocaust? Has he been shocked by the reaction in the United States? What will happen next? Why does Dan describe Israel's system as "genius" in his n...

On episode 45, Charles admits that he missed the podcast's anniversary. Then he talks to Yascha Mounk about his new book, The Identity Trap: A Story of Ideas and Power in Our Time . Among the topics discussed are where identity politics comes from, how it spread so fast over the last ten years, why it's a problem, whether opposition to it should be moral or practical or both, and what will happen...

On episode 44, Charles talks to NPR's Steve Inskeep about his excellent new book on Abraham Lincoln, Differ We Must: How Lincoln Succeeded in a Divided America . Among the topics discussed are whether the book is a call for engagement in the modern era, whether practical politics gets a bad rap, what Lincoln really thought about African-Americans, whether Lincoln intuited that he was going die in...

On episode 43, Charles answers a question about atheism and individual rights: "How can your belief in unalienable rights be squared with your professed atheism?" Then he talks to Heather Mac Donald about her book, When Race Trumps Merit: How the Pursuit of Equity Sacrifices Excellence, Destroys Beauty, and Threatens Lives . The dial-up tone in the introduction was recorded by lintphishx and is us...

On episode 42, Charles answers a question about the game of Rugby, and then talks to Douglas Brunt about his fascinating new book about Rudolf Diesel, the inventor of the diesel engine and, at one point, one of the most famous and interesting people in the world. Among the questions asked are: Why have we not heard more about Diesel? What sort of world was he inventing in? Why were the world's mil...

On episode 41, Charles talks to the historian Niall Ferguson about Cold War II (not Cold War 2.0). Among the questions asked are: What is a Cold War and why are we in one? Is China now more ideological than it was twenty years ago? Should America be taking more drastic action at home and abroad? What sort of tools should the United States be creating? Is Ukraine a distraction from the real threat?...

On episode 40, Charles talks to Winkfield Twyman Jr. and Jennifer Richmond about their book, Letters in Black and White: A New Correspondence on Race in America . Among the issues discussed: Have our conversations about race got worse despite conditions for African-Americans having improved? Is racial solidarity necessary in a country that once had slavery? Can a focus on 'Old Americans' help ever...

On episode 39 of the Charles C. W. Cooke Podcast, Charles talks to Rob Long, a writer and the founder of Ricochet.com, about the ongoing "Hollywood Strike," which is now on its 114th day. What's it about? Is it justified? How—and when—will it end? Why do entertainment figures have unions? Is streaming ruining everything? Will this strike make it worse? How a big a threat to actors and writers is A...

On episode 38, Charles begins by rebuffing a takeover attempt from a ghostly Luther Ray Abel. Afterwards, he talks to the novelist Lionel Shriver about immortality, the topic of her recent cover story at National Review. What are the personal and societal implications of immortality? What drives her to write about that topic? Does Lionel want to live forever herself? What would be her biggest fear...

On episode 37, Charles talks to historian, Andrew Roberts, about Winston Churchill, Napoleon Bonaparte, King George III, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and others. Among the topics discussed: Where did Churchill get his literary ability? What would have happened if Britain had made peace with the Nazis in 1940? Was Napoleon a 'tyrant'? Is the U.S. uninvadeable? Was George III a good king? Is the Dec...

On episode 36, Charles begins by highlighting his favorite parts of Becky Pringle's astonishing speech to the 2023 NEA Conference, and then chats with "school-choice evangelist" Corey DeAngelis about the dramatic increase in interest in his prescriptions since COVID-19 changed the world. Among the questions Corey answers are: "What is school choice?" "What is a charter school?" "What is a voucher?...

On episode 35 of The Charles C. W. Cooke Podcast , Charles begins by answering a question about what he prefers about England and what he prefers about America, and then talks to Eli Lake about whether the Espionage Act of 1917 ought to exist, and whether Donald Trump ought to have been charged under it. The dial-up tone in the introduction was recorded by lintphishx and is used under a CC 3.0 Lic...

On episode 34, Charles talks to Tim Carney about his book, Alienated America: Why Some Places Thrive While Others Collapse . Among the topics they discuss are what constitutes "the American Dream," whether that American Dream is "dead" (as Donald Trump charged in 2016), and, if so, when that decline started and what caused it. After that, Charles asks if those who are suffering are right to be ang...

On this pop-up episode, Charles talks to the Pacific Legal Foundation's Ethan Blevins about the Supreme Court's decision to strike down affirmative action, and then answers a question about his time at King's College Choir School in Cambridge. The dial-up tone in the introduction was recorded by lintphishx and is used under a CC 3.0 License.   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adsw...

On episode 32—released on the 32nd of the month—Charles talks to Gareth Russell, who wrote a book about the Titanic ( Ship of Dreams: The Sinking of the Titanic and the End of the Edwardian Era ) and who, a couple of years ago, was invited to take a trip on the Titan submersible that sank this week. Among the topics Charles and Gareth discuss are why the Titanic continues to command such interest,...

On episode 31 of The Charles C. W. Cooke Podcast—this one with 100% less Luther Abel—Charles chats with Dr. Jay Bhattacharya about his reflections on the pandemic. What did he get right? What did he get wrong? Has the public health establishment learned its lesson? Does it deserve to be trusted? If so, how would we get back to that? Does Dr. Bhattacharya share Charles's enthusiasm for the vaccine?...

On episode 30 of The Charles C. W. Cooke Podcast , Charles welcomes back his old Mad Dogs and Englishmen co-host, Kevin Williamson, to talk about cities, crime, whether libertarians were wrong about marijuana legalization, going to Italy, shooting snakes with revolvers, and who is going to be the Republican nominee in 2024. No PPE money was destroyed during the making of this podcast. N.B. Charles...

In this special "pop-up" episode, Charles talks to Andy McCarthy about why, since Episode 5, Andy has changed his view on whether or not the FBI is irredeemable and should be abolished. The dial-up tone in the introduction was recorded by lintphishx and is used under a CC 3.0 License.   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of pe...