Victor Davis Hanson on Tucker, Trump, and the Fracturing Right
My guest today is Victor Davis Hanson, a classicist, military historian, and senior fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution. Victor is one of the most articulate defenders of Donald Trump, and one of the few people willing to explain why millions of Americans still see him as a necessary corrective rather than a danger.
We talk about how his years farming in California shaped his politics, how “lawfare” now cuts both ways, and why so many conservatives feel the system has turned against them. We also dive into the strange new revisionism spreading on the American right—from the claim that Churchill “started” World War II, to the idea that the Nazis killed millions by accident—and why Tucker Carlson has begun platforming the people pushing those ideas.
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BONUS: The 1987 Book that Explains Mamdani’s Victory
Today, I’m bringing you a special bonus episode with professor Shilo Brooks. Shilo is the host of a new Free Press books podcast called, 'Old School'.
For our conversation, I picked Thomas Sowell’s A Conflict of Visions. Although our conversation happened months before Mamdani's victory yesterday, I think Sowell’s theory of the two “visions” that shape modern politics is helpful to understanding this election cycle--and why some people buy into utopian projects of remaking society, while others trust the quiet power of incentive structures like free markets.
It was a great conversation and I am excited to share part of it with you today. This is just a section, for the rest of the discussion search for Old School with Shilo Brooks wherever you get your podcasts.
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Hormones, Ideology, and the Cost of Dissent with Carole Hooven
My guest today is evolutionary biologist Carole Hooven. If you’ve followed her story, you know she was effectively pushed out of Harvard for articulating a basic biological fact—and doing it politely. We talk through her research on hormones, rough-and-tumble play, aggression, and libido; what puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones actually do; why sports can’t be reorganized around “hormone levels”; and how elite institutions reacted to her saying things they all once taught. This is a conversation about evidence, not slogans—and about the cost of speaking plainly.
Carole Hooven is a non-resident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and an associate in Harvard’s psychology department.
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Inside Cuba’s Police State: From Ration Cards to Black Berets with Gelet Martínez Fragela
My guest today is Gelet Martínez Fragela, a Cuban journalist and political refugee whose outlet is banned on the island. We trace Cuba’s path from independence to dictatorship, and separate myth from reality on the embargo, healthcare, and poverty. Gelet describes ration cards, compulsory “labor camps,” and why Cuba’s incarceration rate is among the world’s highest. We also dig into the regime’s information warfare, from cozy ties with the PFLP to state media claiming Israel “nuked” Syria, and how Chinese paramilitaries trained Cuba’s anti-riot police. We end on the protests of July 11, 2021: what ignited them, why they mattered, and what a serious U.S. policy would prioritize now.
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Trailer | Spiral: Murder in Detroit
On October 21, 2023, beloved Detroit community leader Samantha Woll was found brutally stabbed to death outside her home—two weeks to the day after the October 7 attacks on Israel. It looks like an open-and-shut case—a hate crime. But swiftly the police rule that out. Instead they eventually find themselves with two unrelated suspects. When they charge one with murder, the case takes a turn that raises questions about antisemitism, race, and justice in America.
Hosted by The Free Press’s Frannie Block, this podcast features exclusive interviews and explores the remarkable, too-short life of Samantha, and the impact she had. And Spiral tells the bizarre twists and turns of one of Detroit’s most haunting recent crimes.
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Conversations with Coleman is where deep thinkers and curious minds meet for sharp, surprising, and unfiltered chats. Hosted by Coleman Hughes, writer, thinker, and guy who asks the questions other people dodge - this podcast isn’t about debating. It’s about discovery. Politics, philosophy, race, culture, science: it’s all fair game. If you're done with hot takes and hungry for real-talk, come join the conversation.