Konstantin Kisin has emerged as a powerful voice opposing "wokeness" in part because he has a unique appreciation for what makes Western civilization special.

He and Helen Dale discuss the current state of wokeness, his own engagement with it, and the politics of the US, UK, and Australia. Ultimately, the moment calls not just for diagnosing Western malaise, but also gratitude for all the West offers us, and optimism for its future.

In the wake of the 2024 election, former Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels joins James Patterson to talk about the one issue politicians all try to avoid: the national debt. Though we have an impending debt disaster, both sides of the aisle avoid the hard choices that will eventually need to be made. Today, Daniels worries, it may be too late for a soft landing. We chose not to find solutions, and we'll start living with consequences very soon. Daniels and Patterson also touch on the state of higher education, the election, and our evolving partisan dynamics.

Further Reading:

Mitch Daniels, "The Day the Dollar Died," Washington Post
Mitch Daniels, "I'm Talking to You," Law & Liberty (2022 Purdue University Commencement Remarks)
Vance Ginn and Thomas Savidge, "Two Rules to Tackle America's Debt," Law & Liberty
Samuel Gregg, "David Hume and America's Debt Disaster," Law & Liberty

The past five years have been tumultuous ones for elite higher education. Campuses have been rocked by plagiarism scandals, ugly and violent protests, and revelations about admissions discrimination that went on under the guise of affirmative action. Meanwhile, reformers are trying out new approaches, from civics institutes to more robust legislative oversight of public universities to brand new private institutions. How pivotal will these years turn out to be? And what strategies are most likely to revive the mission of the university? Law & Liberty senior writer James Hankins has hope for a higher-ed renaissance.

When conservatives debate fundamentals, it does not take long for "fusionism" to come up. But it's not always clear what it is. Is it a philosophical stance or a practical coalition? Was it a historically contingent response to the Cold War or an integral part of any conservative disposition? An all-star panel joins host James Patterson to discuss and debate what fusionism really is and what the prospects are for its future. Charles C. W. Cooke, Samuel Goldman, and Stephanie Slade consider fusionism's origins in mid-century America, its culmination in the 1980s and its current status.

Charles C. W. Cooke is a senior editor at National Review and the host of The Charles C. W. Cooke Podcast.

Samuel Goldman is an associate professor of political science and executive director of the Loeb Institute for Religious Freedom at George Washington University. He is author of God’s Country: Christian Zionism in America, and After Nationalism: Being American in an Age of Division, and has written for many publications. He is the editor of FUSION.

Stephanie Slade is a senior editor at Reason and a fellow in liberal studies at the Acton Institute.

Related Links:
Charles C. W. Cooke, "A Roadmap—If We Want It" (Law & Liberty)
Stephanie Slade, "Is There a Future for Fusionism?" (Reason)
FUSION: In the Tradition of Liberty, (Samuel Goldman, Editor)
Charles C. W. Cooke, The Conservatarian Manifesto

Human beings are flawed, finite creatures. But they are not problems to be solved, argues AEI senior fellow Christine Rosen, author of The Extinction of Experience. In the technological age, we too often see basic human activities, from reading and writing, to shopping and conversing, as obstacles to efficiency that must be overcome, simplified, or replaced. And while digital technology has provided many benefits, it has also come with unintended consequences for our habits of mind and social interactions. Rosen argues that we need a "new humanism" that puts the human person front-and-center and encourages people to regularly "touch grass."

Related Links:
The Extinction of Experience (Christine Rosen)
The Outrage Industry ( Jeffrey M. Berry and Sarah Sobieraj
Irony and Outrage (Dannagal Goldthwaite Young)
"A Long View on Artificial Intelligence" (A Law & Liberty forum on artificial intellegence led by Rachel Lomasky)
"What the Smartphone Hath Wrought," (A Law & Liberty review by Joseph Holmes of Jonathan Haidt's The Anxious Generation)

Christine Rosen is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a columnist for Commentary magazine, senior editor at the New Atlantis and fellow at the University of Virginia’s Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture. She lives in Washington, DC.

As students head back to classrooms, host James Patterson welcomes education experts Frederick Hess and Michael McShane to the podcast. We are still finding the "new normal" after Covid lockdown shook our education system—and public confidence in schools. Too often, our schools are guided by ideas developed by policymakers, intellectuals, and administrators who are separated from the needs of the classroom. Ranging from cell phones in class to school choice, from gender theory to administrative bloat, the conversation points in hopeful directions, drawn in part from their recent book, Getting Education Right.

Related Links:
Frederick Hess and Michael McShane, Getting Education Right
"Taking on the College Cartel," Frederick Hess and Michael McShane (Law & Liberty)
"Opening Doors for School Choice," Frederick Hess (Law & Liberty)
"A Unified Theory of Education," Frederick Hess and Michael McShane (National Affairs)
Rick Hess Straight Up (Education Week)
Old School with Rick Hess (Education Next)

Frederick M. Hess is a senior fellow and the director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he works on K–12 and higher education issues.

Michael Q. McShane is an adjunct fellow in education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and director of national research at EdChoice, where he studies and writes about K–12 education policy, including private and religious schools and the politics of education.

On the latest episode of the Law & Liberty Podcast, Helen Dale joins host James Patterson to discuss the rise of new sectarianism in the UK, political and civil unrest, and how the Australians performed in the Olympics.

Helen Dale is a Senior Writer at Law & Liberty. She won the Miles Franklin Award for her first novel, The Hand That Signed the Paper, and read law at Oxford and Edinburgh. Her most recent novel, Kingdom of the Wicked, was shortlisted for the Prometheus Prize for science fiction. She writes for a number of outlets, including The Spectator, The Australian, Standpoint, and Quillette. She lives in London, is on substack at helendale.substack.com, and on Twitter @_HelenDale

Show Notes:

"The New Sectarianism" (Helen Dale for Law & Liberty)
Helen Dale's Substack
"The Sporting Genius of the English-Speaking Peoples" (Rachel Lu for Law & Liberty)

In a time of partisanship and dissention, can the Constitution provide the kind of unity we seek? Yes and no, argues AEI Senior Fellow and author Yuval Levin in his new book, American Covenant. The Constitution offers a kind of unity, but a limited one, that falls short of what many hope for. He joins host James Patterson to discuss constitutional history, our present social tensions, and what's wrong with our institutions.

Notes:

American Covenant: How the Constitution Unified Our Nation―and Could Again

Law & Liberty symposium on Levin's book

"Constituting Unity", a Law & Liberty forum led by Levin.