Older/Wiser with Linda Chavez

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Where is America’s only living former Republican president, George W. Bush? Where are the titans of industry from companies like Amazon? The Supreme Court justices, lawyers at Paul, Weiss and other top firms, and politicians on Capitol Hill? The media leaders at outlets like The Washington Post ? In America’s moment of democratic crisis, prominent figures who could have stood up to MAGA demagoguer...

Donald Trump is 80. Joe Biden left office at 82. Americans are living longer than ever before—concentrating political power and resources among an aging demographic. Yale Professor Samuel Moyn is the author of the new book Gerontocracy in America: How the Old Are Hoarding Power and Wealth—and What to Do About It. He has some ideas for dealing with our disproportionately senior ruling class, and th...

Russia is facing battlefield setbacks in Ukraine—but Moscow may not need victory there to beat the democratic West. Mother Jones Washington Bureau Chief David Corn argues in his new book, How Russia Won , that Vladimir Putin is already accomplishing his broader goals by subverting the United States from within. He makes that case to Older/Wiser’s Linda Chavez on today’s podcast. If you’re a premiu...

Does the West still have something to offer the world? Dalibor Roháč has an answer: economic growth—and it’s the subject of his new book, Unshackled: How Economic Growth Can Defeat the World’s Dictators . As national debt, border closures, and creeping cronyism sap the dynamism of Western democracies, Dalibor and Linda discuss how to renew the institutions that keep democratic capitalism innovativ...

What would it take to restore faith in American democracy? Linda’s latest guest, Jennifer Dresden, has one answer: proportional representation. Jennifer is a policy strategist at Protect Democracy, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization working to safeguard our institutions through litigation, advocacy, and research. She previously served as the associate director of Georgetown’s Democracy and Gove...

Nathan Law became Hong Kong’s youngest-ever elected lawmaker at 23—then watched his city’s promised freedoms rapidly collapse as China tightened its grip. Jailed, disqualified from office, and forced to flee before the 2020 National Security Law took effect, Law now lives in exile in the UK while Beijing harasses his family back home. In this episode of Older/Wiser , Linda and Nathan discuss Hong...

Is liberalism dead? Linda’s latest guest doesn’t think so. Shikha Dalmia is the president of the Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism and founder of The UnPopulist . She and Linda discuss Shikha’s political trajectory as an Indian-American immigrant and her organization’s recent event, LibCon —the Liberalism in the 21st Century Conference. Linda and Shikha unpack the trend of executi...

To commemorate America’s 250th, Linda speaks with Robert P. George, the McCormick professor of jurisprudence and director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University. Linda and Robert discuss the legacy of the Declaration of Independence, its radical principles, and how it operates as an ancient faith uniting a country comprised of diverse ethnic and re...

The Renew Democracy Initiative and The Next Move are excited to bring you Older/Wiser with Linda Chavez . Linda is a veteran of multiple presidential administrations, author, and columnist. Linda speaks with Noah Bopp, founder and head of the School for Ethics and Global Leadership, about educating a younger generation that is navigating politics without the landmarks older Americans once took for...

This week, Linda speaks with George Mason University professor Justin Gest to discuss his new book Democratic Drain, and why the global movement of people is quietly reshaping the fate of democracy. From Hungary to Russia to the United States, Gest explains why the people most likely to emigrate are often those democracies can least afford to lose. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discus...

The Renew Democracy Initiative and The Next Move are excited to bring you Older/Wiser with Linda Chavez . Linda is a veteran of multiple presidential administrations, author, and columnist. This week, Linda speaks with Fatima Abo Alasrar, founder of The Ideology Machine on Substack and expert on Iran’s axis of resistance. Together, Linda and Fatima examine America’s recurring pattern of military i...

In this week’s episode of Older/Wiser, Linda speaks with Walter Olson, legal commentator and senior fellow at the Cato Institute’s Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies. Linda and Walter discuss the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Louisiana v. Callais , the future of the Voting Rights Act, and the rise of hyper-partisan redistricting battles across the country. They examine how race...

On today’s episode, Linda speaks with veteran, immigration attorney, and MacArthur Genius Fellow Margaret Stock. A retired US Army Reserve lieutenant colonel, Margaret explains the plight of Afghan refugees left in limbo after America’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. From bureaucratic failures to the shocking proposal to relocate Afghan refugees to the Democratic Republic of the Cong...

This week, Linda speaks to Catholic theologian George Weigel, distinguished senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, and biographer of Pope St. John Paul II. From Donald Trump’s use of religious imagery to JD Vance’s criticism of Pope Leo, George and Linda examine the weaponization of faith in modern politics, the dangers of political “idolatry,” and the erosion of democratic discours...

The term “regime change” is a third rail in US politics—but how do you play the game of world affairs with bad actors who break the rules? Renew Democracy Initiative Chairman Garry Kasparov joins Linda Chavez to discuss what it would mean to throw out entrenched dictators in Russia and Iran—and how the Trump administration is bungling the war in the Middle East. This is a public episode. If you'd...

This week, Linda speaks to Tim Miller, political commentator and host of The Bulwark Podcast . Recently, Tim has been at the center of a debate regarding the boundaries of the “Big Tent” fight against MAGA. In this episode, he and Linda discuss whether someone like the controversial far-left streamer Hasan Piker is friend or foe. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other s...

Join Garry Kasparov for a premium subscriber-exclusive Zoom conversation with former White House Attorney Ty Cobb, moderated by RDI CEO Uriel Epshtein. Coming up on Thursday, April 30 at 5pm ET/2pm PT. Click here to register . The Renew Democracy Initiative and The Next Move are excited to bring you Older/Wiser with Linda Chavez . Linda is a veteran of multiple presidential administrations, author...

With national attention on Iran, Linda and Elliott Abrams revisit Trump’s earlier intervention: Venezuela. What are the administration’s goals in Venezuela? Months later, are we seeing progress? What could the future of Latin America look like? This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thenextmove.org/subscribe

This week, Linda speaks with Bill Kristol, co-founder and editor of The Bulwark and an advisory board member at RDI. Though they both led careers as prominent conservatives, Linda and Bill have split from the Republican Party. Here, they discuss how they reached their current political positions, the philosophical ties they still share with their old camp, and the future of conservatism in America...

This week, Linda speaks with The Next Move ’s managing editor, Evan Gottesman, about his column—entitled, ”It’s Jew Hatred, Stupid”—and antisemitism in America as a measure of our country’s societal health. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thenextmove.org/subscribe

The Renew Democracy Initiative and The Next Move are excited to bring you Older/Wiser with Linda Chavez . Linda is a veteran of multiple presidential administrations, author, and columnist. Are American actions and American objectives mismatched in Iran? Professor Robert Pape of the University of Chicago joins Linda to discuss the Trump administration’s strategy—or lack thereof—in the war in the M...

The Renew Democracy Initiative and The Next Move are excited to bring you Older/Wiser with Linda Chavez . Linda is a veteran of multiple presidential administrations, author, and columnist. How do immigrants and their children reconcile ties with their homelands and commitment to the United States? RDI CEO Uriel Epshtein joins Linda to discuss his own journey as a first-generation American and the...

The Renew Democracy Initiative and The Next Move are excited to bring you Older/Wiser with Linda Chavez . Linda is a veteran of multiple presidential administrations, author, and columnist. Rule of law or rule by law? Linda speaks with Andrew McCarthy, a columnist and former assistant US attorney who led the prosecution of the terrorists behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing for a lawyer’s pe...

The Renew Democracy Initiative and The Next Move are excited to bring you Older/Wiser with Linda Chavez . Linda is a veteran of multiple presidential administrations, author, and columnist. In our latest installment, Linda is joined by Katya Pavlevych, an advocate for Ukrainian children who serves as an advisor at Razom for Ukraine and the founder of Forget Us Not, a non-profit that works to bring...