Congress is in a bad way. Why is this the case, when all the instruments for its revival are literally within its grasp? What can we do to encourage change? And will the Biden era move the needle? The American Enterprise Institute’s Kevin Kosar joins host Richard Aldous to discuss all this, as well as a new volume he has edited, Congress Overwhelmed: The Decline of Congressional Capacity and Prospects for Reform. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or g...
Jan 29, 2021•35 min
With the transfer of power to President Joe Biden complete, American Purpose Editorial Board member Larry Diamond joins host Richard Aldous to take the temperature of American democracy. While there was plenty to lose sleep over, is there cause for optimism about American democracy? What kind of reforms are still necessary? And how is the next generation of young Americans thinking about the challenges? Tune in for the discussion, and read Larry Diamond’s Ill Winds: Saving Democracy from Russian...
Jan 22, 2021•34 min
How does writing history influence the future? How did Enlightenment thinkers help prepare the ground for Empire? And how can we rescue the Enlightenment project to build a better future? This week, Priya Satia of Stanford University joins our host Richard Aldous to discuss all this, as well as her new book Time’s Monster: How History Makes History. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.persuasion.community/subsc...
Jan 15, 2021•35 min
Is liberal democracy the foundation of a lasting world order, or should we be constructing a world order to help fragile democracies thrive? And after a rough few years for liberal democracy around the globe, what are the chances that such an order can be built? G. John Ikenberry joins host Richard Aldous to discuss all this, as well as his new book, A World Safe for Democracy on the first episode of 2021. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get acce...
Jan 08, 2021•34 min
Project Apollo captured the world’s imagination, and as a feat of “soft power” public diplomacy, it has few peers in the history of mankind, and has not been matched since. With hopes expressed that President Biden’s election can start to bring the world together after several years of polarization, Smithsonian curator Teasel Muir-Harmony joins Richard Aldous to discuss her new book, Operation Moonglow: A Political History of Project Apollo ( https://www.basicbooks.com/titles/teasel-muir-harmony...
Dec 18, 2020•31 min
Is the America we have today, the America that elected Donald Trump and is still struggling to move on from his term in office, the country our Founding Fathers envisioned? And just what is it that this illustrious group really thought they were building? Pulitzer Prize winning author Thomas E. Ricks joins host Richard Aldous to discuss his new book, First Principles: What America’s Founders Learned from the Greeks and Romans and How That Shaped Our Country. This is a public episode. If you'd li...
Dec 11, 2020•28 min
To paraphrase Henry Kissinger, "Who the heck is James Baker?” For a quarter-century, from the end of Watergate to the aftermath of the Cold War, no Republican won the presidency without his help or ran the White House without his advice. Susan Glasser and Peter Baker join our host Richard Aldous to discuss their new book, The Man Who Ran Washington, a biography of George H. W. Bush's legendary White House chief of staff and Secretary of State, and a rumination about a Washington that perhaps no ...
Dec 04, 2020•36 min
What’s so special about the special relationship? Was it built on anything more than Winston Churchill’s charisma and cunning? What can we learn about the history of the European project by studying its contours? And is it doomed after Brexit? Ian Buruma, author, historian, and a professor at Bard College, joins our host Richard Aldous to discuss all this, as well as his new book, The Churchill Complex: The Curse of Being Special, from Winston and FDR to Trump and Brexit. This is a public episod...
Nov 20, 2020•32 min
Conservatism. It arose out of the ashes of the French Revolution. Margaret Thatcher famously denied she was an adherent. And today, it is taking yet another new shape as the world changes at a breathtaking pace. Edmund Fawcett, a correspondent for The Economist for more than three decades, joins host Richard Aldous to discuss his new book, Conservatism: The Fight for a Tradition, a companion volume to his earlier volume on liberalism. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with ...
Nov 13, 2020•33 min
Codes of honor. Ethics. Values. The rough-and-tumble of American electoral politics. And the fateful choice of Sarah Palin as VP pick. Mark Salter, the late Senator John McCain’s speechwriter, aide, and close confidant, joins host Richard Aldous to discuss his new book, The Luckiest Man: Life With John McCain ( https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Luckiest-Man/Mark-Salter/9781982120931 ). This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus ...
Nov 06, 2020•36 min
Francis Fukuyama, chairman of the board of American Purpose and the Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at Stanford University's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, has published a new UK edition of his famous book, The End of History and the Last Man, accompanied with a new foreword. He joined host Richard Aldous to discuss how his seminal work has aged, the challenges liberalism is facing today from both the left and the right, and why now is the perfect time to start a new magazin...
Oct 30, 2020•29 min
In her book The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution ( https://www.amazon.com/Cabinet-Washington-Creation-American-Institution/dp/0674986482/ ), published this year by Harvard University Press, historian Lindsay M. Chervinsky explains why George Washington came to convene his cabinet, how he used it, and how later presidents adapted the institution. Chervinsky formerly worked as a historian at the White House Historical Association, and has been a scholar-in-res...
Oct 23, 2020•28 min
Charles A. Kupchan is a professor in the School of Foreign Service and the Government Department at Georgetown University. He joins Bookstack host Richard Aldous to discuss his book Isolationism: A History of America's Efforts to Shield Itself from the World ( https://global.oup.com/academic/product/isolationism-9780199393022?cc=us&lang=en&# ), published by Oxford University Press in October 2020. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bon...
Oct 16, 2020•34 min
