The Ricochet Podcast

Even bunker-busters dropped on a major enemy can't top the news cycle for a whole week these days, but James, Charlie and Steve get to that along with today's Supreme Court decision drop. They're joined by Manhattan Institute president Reihan Salam to discuss New York City voters' decision to let Zorhan Mamdani turn America's largest city into a hipster paradise.  Become a supporter of this podcas...

The Iranian regime is receiving an education of sorts this week, and while we await President Trump's decision on the extent of America's role in busting up the nuclear site at Fordow, the Free Press's Eli Lake (and host of the Breaking History podcast ) returns to educate us on why surgical involvement in Iran fits with the "America First" agenda that voters signed up for last November. Plus, the...

It's been an incendiary week since Charlie and Steve last spoke, but they return to chat the matters over as they wait for the smoke to clear. They share approval of Israel's strike at Iran, discuss the legal and political questions surrounding the unrest in LA with Andy McCarthy, and wish the great Brian Wilson peace in the afterlife.  Sound from this week's open: Prime Minister Netanyahu announc...

It's just Steve and Charles this week, taking in another wild one. Don and Elon are on the outs — but is it permanent? The courts are busy, and a handful of great, unanimous decisions get their due cheer; Karine Jean-Pierre goes independent; Ukraine's drones remind us that modern warfare has changed; and Sam Tanenhaus published his long-awaited Buckley bio. Tune in for Hayward's review preview. -...

Noah Rothman returns to the Ricochet Podcast to discuss the troubles of dealing with an uncooperative world. He, Steve, and James discuss the fall of the New Puritans in the real world as they resist from their barracks on prestigious college campuses. The gang then moves from culture war to the shooting kind as they consider Putin's recalcitrance and negotiations with Iran. Plus, Hayward and Lile...

Western elites have run into a recurring predicament over the past decade: In a democracy, you can't abolish the voters. Populist coalitions are on the march in Europe, and while they've yet to take over their respective governments like their American counterparts, they aren't going away. So Henry Olsen returns to the podcast to give us the scoop on everybody from the Romanians, who just had thei...

Conservatives love their histories; they lose themselves in great biographies; they have a voracious appetite for news and avidly devour op-eds. But the menu for literature on the right is, regrettably, if understandably, a bit limited. To add a bit of variety, Chris Scalia joins Peter, Steve, and Charles to discuss his soon-to-be-published book, Thirteen Novels Conservatives Will Love (But Probab...

Ben Domenech returns to the Ricochet Podcast to give a progress report on Trump's second go at running things. James, Charles and Steve glean insights about the builder from Queens as Ben divulges about his long sitdown with the president in February.  Plus, the hosts rap on the pope from Chicago, Germany's lurch toward state censorship, series worth a watch, and pieces worth a read. - Sound from...

Within a week of Spain boasting its success at wiring up the grid with renewable energy sources, it was lights out for the whole Iberian Peninsula. Who could've predicted such an outcome? Today's guest is Robert Bryce, author of A Question of Power: Electricity and the Wealth of Nations and a Substack well worth a look. Robert provides a little refresher course on energy grids and explains how Gre...

It's the Hayward and Long Hour this week, meaning it's TheoBro-PoliPhi time. Since this duo was away for our recent episode featuring questions submitted by Ricochet subscribers, we asked for a new batch of inquiries catered specifically for our blithesome professor and the jocular seminarian. As ever, Ricochet members delivered a surplus of material for us in the chatty corner of showbiz.  Care t...

With Congress missing in action, the two active branches of our federal government are at it again, and the temperature rises by the minute. Caught in the crosshairs are the increasingly exasperated American people and our numerous non-citizens, most notably Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Jason Willick joins today to argue that our partisan impulses are blinding team red and team blue to both the legal and...

It's Question Time with Lileks and Cooke. They jump into the guest chairs and let Ricochet's very own members steer the ship this week. Tune in to hear their thoughts on lots of stuff: the Pax Americana, universal suffrage, wordsmithing in the age of AI, their favorite interview subjects, and more — all with plenty of pop culture sprinkled in. - Sound from this week's open: John Cleese in the "Tak...

It's been said that California is to America what America is to the world. This is troubling for all parties involved given the current state of affairs in the now-inaptly named Golden State. While today's guest Steve Hilton pulls no punches in his new book,  Califailure ,  he carries some glad tidings in the form of voter trends that magnify what look to be glimmers of hope. Our resident Californ...

It's legal funtime hour with John Yoo calling in from the always optimistic Golden State. He, James and Charlie dig into the issues at root of the deportation fights between the executive and judicial branches. Considering everything from foreign thugs to Charlie's seditious past and our missed opportunity to conquer France in the early days of the Republic, the fellas turn up what powers they can...

Immediately upon the president's return to office, we discovered that stopping the flood of illegal immigrants across the border was as simple as closing the spigot. While the crisis may be over, the mission has yet to be accomplished. Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies and host of the  Parsing Immigration Policy podcast returns to discuss what follows the end of the beginning ef...

It's Justin Trudeau's last day. A time to rejoice for the friends of liberty to our north. But the economic spat between the US and Canada has had the unwelcome consequence of restraining the latter's Conservative Party momentum. Thankfully, Ezra Levant returns to the Ricochet Podcast with a solution, which he laid out in a recently published book with a title that shows he knows how to speak our...

Nearly fifty topsy-turvy days into Trump 2.0, we thought it'd be a good idea to zoom out some to better distinguish the signals from the noise. To that end, the gang sits down with Wall Street Journa l Editor at Large Gerard Baker. Gerry covers everything from Trump's tariffs and geostrategic reshuffling to the media's collapsed institutional repute.  Plus, Charles, Steve and James notice hints th...

Who needs guests when the news overflows? Not us! Our intrepid trio of James Lileks, Charles C.W. Cooke and Steve Hayward opine on Joy Reid's exit at MSNBC, Jake Tapper discovering Joe Biden's decline, gay horses and free speech in the UK (Not a joke!) and Gene Hackman exits the stage (Rest easy, Marine!) Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-ricochet-podcast--58...

Ross Douthat returns to the Ricochet Podcast to discuss his latest book, Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious . Rob, Steve and James chat with him to get at The Big Everything. Why does a Catholic make the case for broadly-defined belief? Has disillusionment with liberalism provided God an opening to win back lost sheep? Should faith guide us toward practical answers to ordinary problems? Tun...

In ways both subtle and decidedly not, American foreign policy is a-changin'. Eli Lake joins James and Steve to caution against cuts to the National Endowment for Democracy and to nod approvingly of the Trump administration's boldness in the Middle East. We also get into "Breaking History," Eli's new podcast that pushes back against disheartening presentism by coloring today's headlines with histo...

The Trump administration’s days of thunder roll on while just about everyone outside the DOGE team struggles to keep up. While many see little more than nonsense and mayhem, today’s guest, Daniel McCarthy, recognizes a sound strategy in tariff threats, iconoclasts heading executive agencies, and even the baffling Gaza Strip pitch, to address America’s mounting challenges at home and abroad.  Plus,...

President Trump's disruptive tendencies continue to shake up the Executive Branch at dizzying speed.  Thankfully, James and Charlie can keep their wits as they discuss the spending freeze/unfreeze and the reasonable expectations of the good that can be done with the president's pen. They're then joined by Dennis Kneale, host of the Ricochet Audio Network's "What's Bugging Me" podcast and author of...

Trump's back in the White House and off to the races! To celebrate the return to popular sovereignty, Victor Davis Hanson returns to explain the most extraordinary political comeback in the nation's history. He identifies the agenda items Trump would do well to prioritize; he makes sense of the quick dissipation of the last decade's progressive lunacies; and, perhaps most importantly, he offers su...

Happy Inauguration Day! To celebrate, Peter and Steve sit down with speechwriter and presidential advisor Ken Khachigian to discuss his time working with Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, as laid out in his newly published memoir,  Behind Closed Doors .  Going through his start in politics by landing a job under Pat Buchanan in the '68 campaign to drafting Reagan's first inaugural and serving as an...

The National Endowment for the Arts has been with us for sixty years, coinciding conspicuously with the ascendancy of nihilistic works that pollute our public spaces. Justin Shubow aims to change all of that. He's a top candidate to chair the NEA under the second Trump administration and has a particular interest in the proper design of federal architecture. What have columns and Roman arches to d...