The Law & Liberty Podcast

Driven in part by the revival of a classic knit sweater emblazoned with an American flag, "Ralph Lauren nationalism" has emerged as a trope among online talking-heads. Well-dressed political scientist Samuel Goldman is also known for his sharp takes on menswear. He joins host James Patterson to discuss his recent article for  Compact  magazine that tackled the concept. There may be something to th...

Neighborhoods are one of the most important human support structures, argues Seth D. Kaplan. Yet modern politics, economics, and social habits all seem aligned to undermine them. Discussing his recent book,  Fragile Neighborhoods , Kaplan explains why neighborhoods are irreplaceable sources of human community, and why they are often in such bad shape today. "No government or philanthropic program...

Daniel DiMartino calls balls and strikes on the ongoing, highly partisan debate over immigration, legal and illegal. The border ought to be secure, and asylum limited to those who have a genuine need for it, he argues. But border policy ought always to bound by law. When it comes to legal immigration, according to DiMartino, we do well to avoid an economics of nostalgia and should welcome the kind...

What Solzhenitsyn called "the ideological lie" was not limited to a single country, government, or movement. And it did not, unfortunately, die off in 1989. In his new book, Mahoney presents the lie as the replacement of traditional categories of "good and evil" with "progress and reaction," a change that ripples through political and social ideas in a way that opens the door to the replacement of...

The drive to pursue wisdom is engrained in every human being, right? Many have believed so. But in his new book, Ignorance and Bliss , Mark Lilla argues that a certain "will to ignorance" is also part of the human experience. Like Plato's Thrasymachus, many often want to throw up their hands in resignation rather than commit themselves to the pursuit of truth, creating a tension in human life that...

"Christian Nationalism" splashes across headlines regularly. But there is no clear definition of it. Is it just an epithet? A concept used for partisan manipulation? A real trend in socio-religious thought in America? Smith, Hall, and Williams consider different definitions, which ideas might be lumped into the category, and how it relates to American pluralism, historical Christianity, and contem...

Philip Rieff adopted the categories and language of Freud, but reinterpreted them in a way that supported culture and the moral life. Batchelder and Harding have edited a new volume of essays on Rieff, who they argue is a key thinker for any attempt to diagnose late modern cultural life. They join host James Patterson to discuss Rieff, Martin Luther King, Jr., Susan Sontag, and unimaginable deprav...

Historically grounded assessments of the American republic's relationship with religion require nuanced thinking and an appreciation for ambiguity. Unfortunately, those qualities don't sell. So American history is replete with attempts to construct a simple narrative of a Christian nation or a wholly secular liberalism. Jerome Copulsky and Mark Noll join James Patterson to discuss Copulsky's book,...

A poorly worded tweet became a career-altering conflagration for Ilya Shapiro in a particularly egregious example of cancel culture. It prompted him to take a hard look at the state of legal education, which he now skewers in  Lawless: The Miseducation of America's Elite . He and host James Patterson discuss the book, the atrocious impact critical theory and DEI has had on our  law schools, and wh...

Anyone could be forgiven for not knowing much about Peter Viereck. The eccentric historian and poet was one of the first mid-century thinkers to robustly embrace the "conservative" label, but he fell out of favor with movement conservatives and has been largely forgotten. John Wilsey thinks that's a mistake. He joins Law & Liberty 's editor, John Grove, to talk about Viereck and his unique conserv...

Konstantin Kisin has emerged as a powerful voice opposing "wokeness" in part because he has a unique appreciation for what makes Western civilization special. He and Helen Dale discuss the current state of wokeness, his own engagement with it, and the politics of the US, UK, and Australia. Ultimately, the moment calls not just for diagnosing Western malaise, but also gratitude for all the West off...

In the wake of the 2024 election, former Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels joins James Patterson to talk about the one issue politicians all try to avoid: the national debt. Though we have an impending debt disaster, both sides of the aisle avoid the hard choices that will eventually need to be made. Today, Daniels worries, it may be too late for a soft landing. We chose not to find solutions, and we...

The past five years have been tumultuous ones for elite higher education. Campuses have been rocked by plagiarism scandals, ugly and violent protests, and revelations about admissions discrimination that went on under the guise of affirmative action. Meanwhile, reformers are trying out new approaches, from civics institutes to more robust legislative oversight of public universities to brand new p...

When conservatives debate fundamentals, it does not take long for "fusionism" to come up. But it's not always clear what it is. Is it a philosophical stance or a practical coalition? Was it a historically contingent response to the Cold War or an integral part of any conservative disposition? An all-star panel joins host James Patterson to discuss and debate what fusionism really is and what the p...

Human beings are flawed, finite creatures. But they are not problems to be solved, argues AEI senior fellow Christine Rosen, author of The Extinction of Experience . In the technological age, we too often see basic human activities, from reading and writing, to shopping and conversing, as obstacles to efficiency that must be overcome, simplified, or replaced. And while digital technology has provi...

As students head back to classrooms, host James Patterson welcomes education experts Frederick Hess and Michael McShane to the podcast. We are still finding the "new normal" after Covid lockdown shook our education system—and public confidence in schools. Too often, our schools are guided by ideas developed by policymakers, intellectuals, and administrators who are separated from the needs of the...

On the latest episode of the Law & Liberty Podcast , Helen Dale joins host James Patterson to discuss the rise of new sectarianism in the UK, political and civil unrest, and how the Australians performed in the Olympics. Helen Dale is a Senior Writer at  Law & Liberty . She won the Miles Franklin Award for her first novel,  The Hand That Signed the Paper , and read law at Oxford and Edinburgh. Her...

In a time of partisanship and dissention, can the Constitution provide the kind of unity we seek? Yes and no, argues AEI Senior Fellow and author Yuval Levin in his new book, American Covenant . The Constitution offers a kind of unity, but a limited one, that falls short of what many hope for. He joins host James Patterson to discuss constitutional history, our present social tensions, and what's...

On the latest episode of the Law & Liberty Podcast , host James Patterson sits down with contributing editor John O. McGinnis and AEI's Adam White to discuss what the Supreme Court's latest rulings mean for the future of law in America. Show notes:  https://lawliberty.org/forum/constitutional-government-after-chevron/ https://www.amazon.com/Originalism-Good-Constitution-John-McGinnis/dp/0674725077...

On the first episode of The Law & Liberty Podcast , host James M. Patterson sits down with Richard M. Reinsch, who was the founder of Law & Liberty and the host of our original podcast series, and is currently a Senior Writer for the magazine. Listen to Patterson and Reinsch discuss contemporary trade policy blunders and prospects, the economic resilience of blue-collar towns, and Reinsch's new pr...

Eliot A. Cohen joins Rebecca Burgess to discuss his new book on Shakespeare and power politics,  The Hollow Crown . Brian Smith: Welcome to Liberty Law Talk. This podcast is a production of the online journal Law and Liberty and is hosted by our staff. Please visit us at lawliberty.org. Thank you for listening. Rebecca Burgess: Oh, for a muse of fire that would ascend the brightest heaven of inven...

Eckart Frahm joins host Rebecca Burgess to discuss the ancient Middle East and his recent book, Assyria: The Rise and Fall of the World's First Empire .   Brian Smith: Welcome to Liberty Law Talk. This podcast is a production of the online journal, Law & Liberty, and hosted by our staff. Please visit us at lawliberty.org, and thank you for listening. Rebecca Burgess: "When time was young and world...

Comedy writer Graham Linehan joins host Helen Dale to talk about cancel culture, comedy, and his new book Tough Crowd: How I Made and Lost a Career in Comedy . Brian Smith: Welcome to Liberty Law Talk. This podcast is a production of the online journal, Law & Liberty, and hosted by our staff. Please visit us at lawliberty.org, and thank you for listening. Helen Dale: My name is Helen Dale, and I'm...

Justin Shubow joins host Rachel Lu to talk about the importance of beautiful government buildings and the possibility of a classical revival. 

Rebecca Burgess is joined by Frank Cogliano to discuss Jefferson, Monticello, and the Jeffersonian legacy.  Brian Smith: Welcome to Liberty Law Talk. This podcast is a production of the online journal, Law & Liberty, and hosted by our staff. Please visit us at lawliberty.org, and thank you for listening. Rebecca Burgess: We know this outline from every nickel we've ever handled, it's part and parc...