The American Mind Podcast

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit claremontinstitute.substack.com Five weeks from election day, hosts Spencer Klavan and Mike Sabo take stock of Republicans’ standing in the midterms. As incumbents, they already face stiff headwinds, and Trump’s interventions have made things still more difficult in key states. Will Trump’s communication strategy amid the affordability...

Steve Hayward, senior fellow at Claremont and author-podcaster at the “Political Questions” Substack, joins the guys this week to discuss the political and intellectual significance of Harry Jaffa's teachings. His understanding of America's creed and culture remains critical amid our rolling crises of immigration and ideological revolution. Jaffa’s articulated the necessity of Judeo-Christian virt...

Coming out of the 2008 recession, the globalist order envisioned a green recovery. Rupert Darwall, author of the forthcoming The Age of Error and the West's Undoing , joins the hosts to discuss the West’s unforced error in trying to achieve net-zero emissions amid a resurgence in business activity in the Global South and China—where economic ambition takes precedence over climate concerns, at the...

Russell Vought, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, joins Claremont Institute President Ryan P. Williams to discuss the Trump Administration’s effort to bring order to the administrative state. Director during Trump’s first term, Mr. Vought returned to the OMB during the Trump 47 transition with a plan to cut bureaucratic overregulation and out-of-control spending. Much remains to be...

In this special episode, Will Thibeau, director of the Claremont Institute’s American Military Project, sits down with Claremont president Ryan P. Williams to discuss his recent report on the 8(a) Program, its unique weaponization in the Woke Era, and how the military under Secretary of War Pete Hegseth is combatting the rampant abuses. Plus: What can America’s industrial base learn from the Iran...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit claremontinstitute.substack.com Caving to pressure from a minority of members within the American Political Science Association in 2021, Claremont’s panels featuring John Eastman were moved online over concerns about protests—a de facto disinvitation by APSA. Now Claremont is back, reaching young political scientists and thinkers with a...

Ten years ago, the Claremont Review of Books published “The Flight 93 Election,” Michael Anton’s urgent warning that the 2016 election would be do-or-die: Trump or Hillary. But where is conservatism now, ahead of midterms and the 2028 election? Plus: The guys reflect on the virtues and achievements of Charlie Kirk, who built up the conservative movement and the nation, and sacrificed everything fo...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit claremontinstitute.substack.com Dolly Parton, a widely adored icon in country music and American pop culture, passed away last week at 80. A friend to both the right and left, Parton transcended national politics by her personal grace and remarkable philanthropy. Born to a poor, illiterate family, she leaves behind a legacy of generosit...

Richard Lim, historian at Prager U. and host of the This American President podcast joins the guys to discuss his recent book on George Washington’s legacy, Refusing a Crown . Breaking through mainstream secularist assumptions, Lim argues that Washington’s greatness is best understood in the context of his Christian faith. Meanwhile, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) has c...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit claremontinstitute.substack.com Dr. Nathan Cofnas has been accused of “scientific racism” for his studies of race and genetics. Now he's been suspended by the University of Ghent and banned on Substack for his role in exposing the academic dishonesty of the late Jason Arday. As the DEI debate flares, the academic and radical Left commun...

Trade negotiations between the U.S. and Canada broke down in the final hours of last Friday. This week, Trump’s 50% tariffs on a range of Canadian goods have gone into effect. Amid a rekindled trade war, the guys consider the president's and Congress’s role in shaping world history in light of electoral concerns before the 2026 midterms. Meanwhile, Lindsay Clancy is on trial for the alleged murder...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit claremontinstitute.substack.com Is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez angling to become president in 2028? Ahead of the election, both California’s Gavin Newsom and AOC, who just last week denounced “Woke One,” have aimed to gain broader appeal. In AOC's case this means oversharing about fertility treatments and making TikTok-esque video shoots....

Florida is conducting a primary election to pick Governor Ron DeSantis’s conservative successor. President Trump’s choice, Representative Byron Donalds, leads in the polls. Opposing him, political newcomer James Fishback leads a young, online centric and anti-Israel platform. Meanwhile, the Left coalition continues its reckoning with Woke, reordering to capture populist, pro-Gaza, and anticapitali...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit claremontinstitute.substack.com President Ryan Williams reports on the Claremont Institute's Lincoln fellowship. On the docket: America’s political economy and the utility of tariffs, RFK’s new dietary guidelines, and more!

“Woke One was crazy.” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, questioned this week on ABC about a fellow Democratic Socialist’s call to cancel Thanksgiving in 2020, rolled out a new messaging strategy for the Left. Woke 2 will try to distance itself from COVID-era messaging while still demanding that America be transformed to suit its latest grievance coalition. Plus: inflation of the racial oppression narrativ...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit claremontinstitute.substack.com Common good discourse, recently a central topic of right-wing discussion, suffered distortions as it became a catch-all term for the worst fears of the Trump-deranged. Now, as Trump’s possible heir, J.D. Vance has occasioned new debate over the term, its meaning, and its future. How much involvement shoul...

Jason Arday, who rocketed to academic stardom as the youngest black professor at Cambridge, now faces claims that his PhD thesis contains plagiarism. That's not all: huge portions of his story seem likely to be fabricated, from a supposed brain surgery days before his defense, to an appearance on the documentary Seven Up. But is Arday really the problem? It seems the institutional decay goes much...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit claremontinstitute.substack.com New York mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration announced a special pied-à-terre tax on non-primary residences in an attempt to price out affluent owners—noting down properties and owners who might be subject to it in a publicly available list. As the Democratic Socialists rise to take the lead of Democrat...

Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky and Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu entered meetings with Trump this week to discuss their respective wars with Russia and Iran. Will Trump shift strategies to bring an end to the conflicts in time for the midterms? Will Thibeau, director of the American Military Project, joins the guys to survey the battlefield and its implications. Meanwhile, Senator Rand Paul released p...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit claremontinstitute.substack.com Faced with ever-greater housing costs, Millennials and Gen Z are finding little comfort in the decreased price of luxury goods like TVs and phones. Despite traditional indicators, today's economic landscape is far grimmer than the one the Boomers faced. How will America bridge this generational disconnect...

President Trump this week has announced a set of 50 percent tariffs on various Canadian goods, with a 30-day window to negotiate before they are imposed. In retaliation against Canada’s quotas on American cars and alcohol, Trump proposes to levy tariffs on wine, hockey sticks, and cement. But does it serve America and the Right ahead of midterms? Meanwhile, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s c...

This week, Marco Rubio declared a crusade against the International Criminal Court, citing the ICC’s aim to deny America its sovereignty on behalf of globalist elites. But the New York Times recently reported that the U.S. is managing Venezuela’s oil export revenue. Does the "Donroe Doctrine” run against the administration's wider outlook on nationalism? Meanwhile, two fatal ICE shootings, in Main...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit claremontinstitute.substack.com Graham Platner, a self-proclaimed communist and the Democrats’ former working-class role player in Maine’s Senate election, has withdrawn his candidacy following allegations of sexual misconduct. The Left has now jettisoned Platner despite mainstream media attempts to downplay his reported behavior. Can t...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit claremontinstitute.substack.com Appropriating the U.S. Founding to deliver a message of never-ending “progress,” New York Mayor Mamdani scowled into the camera and delivered a joyless indictment of America as it really exists. In contrast, President Trump lead a jubilant Independence Day festival in D.C., honoring the truth that our str...

This week John Eastman, Founding Director at Claremont’s Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, joins the show to discuss recent landmark Supreme Court rulings. In Trump v. Slaughter , the Court ruled to hold executive agency heads accountable to the president. Meanwhile, delivering the Court’s opinion in Trump v. Barbara, Chief Justice Roberts upheld a broad conception of birthright citizenship...