Conversations With Coleman

This week I’m joined by historian Niall Ferguson to help me make sense of Iran’s unprecedented wave of protests. We talk about why this moment feels different to previous uprisings, the regime’s growing crisis of legitimacy, the limits of sanctions, and how the long shadow of 1953 still shapes everything in Iran. We also look at what Trump’s “maximum pressure” could mean, and the risks posed by any form of U.S. intervention.
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Thor Halvorssen is a Venezuelan-born human rights campaigner and the founder of the Human Rights Foundation. His life as an activist began after his mother was shot and wounded by pro-regime forces for trying to expose election fraud under Hugo Chávez, an event that turned his work from theory into something painfully concrete.

In this episode we talk about how Venezuela’s dictatorship operated more like a cartel than a state, why the regime survived despite losing elections, and how oil, narcotics, and foreign alliances sustained one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the hemisphere. We also discuss why Venezuela is not another Iraq, how major Western media outlets repeatedly misread the regime, and what a realistic political transition might look like.

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I’m joined by Gelet Martínez Fragela, a Cuban activist and journalist and a close watcher of Venezuela who’s tracked how authoritarianism hollowed out a once prosperous country.

We talk about the warning signs, the lies that sustained the regime, and why President Maduro’s trial in the United States matters far beyond Venezuelan borders. Gelet also answers the question: Why were Cubans responsible for guarding President Maduro? And how will the country function in the wake of the U.S.’s shock intervention?

For Gelet’s personal story, listen to our episode from October: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/inside-cubas-police-state-from-ration-cards-to-black/id1716338488?i=1000733663296
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Dr. Anna Machin is a British evolutionary anthropologist at the University of Oxford who studies the neuroscience and psychology of love. Anna and I talk through what science actually says about attraction, attachment, and long-term relationships, and why so much modern dating advice gets human nature wrong. We get into dating apps and how they shape behavior, whether love at first sight is real, what attachment styles do and don’t explain, and what science says about polyamory. We also discuss common myths about pheromones, love languages, and whether having kids really makes people happier.
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My producer Poppy Damon and I are back for another Ask Me Anything. In this bonus episode, I answer your questions on President Donald Trump and the attention economy, declining birth rates, psychedelics and mental health, AI and the future of work, social media and kids, religion, meritocracy, and more. 

As 2025 wraps up, it felt like a good moment to step back, take stock, and talk through the questions many of you have been thinking about. Thanks for listening this year—and here’s to more Conversations like this one in the year ahead.

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