The Close Read Podcast

Our education system has devolved from a source of edification to a hotbed of radicalization. Teachers and curricula at schools all across the country—even in red states—are out to villainize everyone they can. Dr. Robert Royal joins Spencer to discuss the problems with this slippery slope and the truth about one of our most maligned figures: Christopher Columbus. This is a public episode. If you'...

Plummeting confidence in higher education is leading to drastically reduced enrollment--these alarming developments have been under-reported, but the coronavirus phenomenon has made them increasingly difficult to conceal. Professor John Ellis joins Spencer to discuss what widespread online learning is doing to affect the fate of our highly politicized academy. This is a public episode. If you'd li...

“Cancel one, cancel all!” wokesters religiously chant as they close in on another brand or person they don’t like. Cancel culture is spreading its abhorrent tendrils through American culture from boardrooms to classrooms at the behest of the self-righteous, yet all-too-often guilty media and elite classes. Professor Richard Samuelson joins Spencer to poke a few witty holes in the flawed logic of c...

Join Dr. Kesler and Spencer as they dive into the latest  CRB and its major themes. Dr. Kesler highlights the effects of rioting and statucide on America’s bedrock foundations. The summer issue charts America’s crisis in detail--Spencer and Dr. Kesler explain some of the dysfunction currently plaguing the country and contemplate possible solutions. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discus...

As Trump’s first term draws to a close, former senior national security advisor Michael Anton joins Spencer to discuss the political phenomenon that is Trump: are we better off now than we were four years ago? Anton, author of the forthcoming book  The Stakes: America at the Point of No Return , argues there’s little wrong with Trump that more Trump can’t solve. This is a public episode. If you'd...

Is China really an existential threat to America? Economist David P. Goldman joins Spencer to discuss the meteoric rise of a ruthless and emboldened China. Goldman, president of Macrostrategy LLC and columnist for Asia Times, is well-placed to observe and analyze the underhand tactics of the Chinese Communist Party. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or...

Where is all this wokeness leading us? Professor David Azerrad of Hillsdale College joins Spencer to reveal the final goal of the social justice crowd. Professor Azerrad, himself on the forefront of the culture war raging throughout American higher education, explains the tactics SJWs utilize to shut down the debate of ideas. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subsc...

Join Dr. Kesler and Spencer as they dive into the Spring 2020  CRB  and its major themes over a tall glass of forced social distancing. Dr. Kesler elucidates the effect the coronavirus is having on America and constitutional governance, and the two discuss ways in which governments often extend "emergencies" for decades beyond the resolution of the relevant crisis. This is a public episode. If you...

Professor Jim Hankins of Harvard joins Spencer to discuss the rapid and worrying rise of hyperpartisanship in the United States on the Left and, to a lesser extent, the Right. Professor Hankins, an expert in Renaissance history, draws on ancient Greece and Italy to forecast where we’re likely headed from here. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get ac...

Professor Amy Wax of Pennsylvania Law joins Spencer to discuss the threats that social justice ideology poses to education and legal philosophy. Professor Wax, herself a front-liner in the fight against wokeness, paints a bleak yet realistic picture. Then: Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the history of social justice in the American courts. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with othe...

Join Dr. Kesler and Spencer as they delve into the Winter 2020 CRB and its major themes over a glass of riesling. Dr. Kesler elaborates on his predictions about the effect of President Trump’s impeachment on the 2020 election cycle, and the two discuss what ails America with the help of Christopher Caldwell's new book, The Age of Entitlement . This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss thi...