Scot and Jeff discuss the second part of XTC’s career (1984-2000) with Andrew Gretes. Introducing the Band: Your hosts Scot Bertram (@ScotBertram) and Jeff Blehar (@EsotericCD) with guest Andrew Gretes. Andrew is a fiction writer teaching creative rhetoric at Georgetown and George Washington University. You can find his work at andrewgretes.com . Andrew’s Music Pick: XTC, Pt. 2 Awaken you dreamers! A month after we took you through the first part of XTC’s career – an Argonaut-like journey across...
May 31, 2026•2 hr 41 min•Ep. 159
Scot and Jeff discuss the first part of XTC’s career (1977-1983) with Andrew Gretes. Introducing the Band: Your hosts Scot Bertram (@ScotBertram) and Jeff Blehar (@EsotericCD) with guest Andrew Gretes. Andrew is a fiction writer teaching creative rhetoric at Georgetown and George Washington University. You can find his work at andrewgretes.com . Andrew’s Music Pick: XTC There may be no language in our lungs to tell the world just how we feel about this band, but here we give you a three-hour exp...
Apr 30, 2026•3 hr 5 min•Ep. 158
Scot and Jeff discuss The Apples in Stereo with Jack Butler. Introducing the Band : Your hosts Scot Bertram ( @ScotBertram ) and Jeff Blehar ( @EsotericCD ) with guest Jack Butler. Jack is deputy editor for Free Expression , a new newsletter about politics and culture from the Wall Street Journal opinion page. Previously he was submissions editor for National Review Online . You can follow him on Twitter/x @ jackbutler4815 . And unless you're a 2:30 marathoner, you probably can't follow him in r...
Apr 03, 2026•2 hr 58 min•Ep. 157
Scot and Jeff discuss Deep Purple with Ivan Pongracic. Introducing the Band: Your hosts Scot Bertram (@ScotBertram) and Jeff Blehar (@EsotericCD) are joined by guest Ivan Pongracic, William E. Hibbs & Ludwig von Mises professor of Economics at Hillsdale College. Ivan has a career nearly as storied as Deep Purple’s -- a 1984 immigrant from the former Yugoslavia (Croatia, specifically), an accomplished professional surf guitarist, and now economics professor at Hillsdale. Ivan’s Music Pick: De...
Feb 24, 2026•3 hr 27 min•Ep. 156
Scot and Jeff discuss The Strokes with Christopher Scalia. Introducing the Band : Your hosts Scot Bertram ( @ScotBertram ) and Jeff Blehar ( @EsotericCD ) with guest Christopher Scalia. Chris is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and the author of 13 Novels Conservatives Will Love (But Probably Haven't Read) , a perfect Christmas gift for your favorite person. Find him on X at @ CJScalia . Christopher’s Music Pick: The Strokes The Strokes emerged at the beginning of the 2000s w...
Dec 25, 2025•2 hr 30 min•Ep. 155
Scot and Jeff discuss Van Halen with Sean Trende. Introducing the Band: Your hosts Scot Bertram ( @ScotBertram ) and Jeff Blehar ( @EsotericCD ) with guest Sean Trende. Sean is senior elections analyst at Real Clear Politics and visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute . His new podcast with co-host (and fellow Political Beats guest) Jay Cost, is Stubborn Things . Find him on X at @ SeanTrende . Sean’s Music Pick: Van Halen Wait, haven’t we covered Van Halen before? Indeed, we have....
Dec 11, 2025•3 hr 13 min•Ep. 154
Scot and Jeff discuss Iggy Pop & the Stooges with Dominic Green. Introducing the Band: Your hosts Scot Bertram (@ScotBertram) and Jeff Blehar (@EsotericCD) are joined by guest Dominic Green. Dom is a historian and columnist, and he used to be a musician. He is a contributor to the Wall Street Journal and a columnist for the Washington Examiner and Jewish Chronicle . Check him out on Twitter at @DrDominicGreen. Dominic’s Music Pick: Iggy Pop & the Stooges Looooooooooord! When Dominic last...
Nov 03, 2025•2 hr 17 min•Ep. 153
Scot and Jeff discuss the second part of Tom Waits’ career (1983-2011) with Damon Linker. Introducing the Band: Your hosts Scot Bertram ( @ScotBertram ) and Jeff Blehar ( @EsotericCD ) are joined by guest Damon Linker. Damon is a senior lecturer in political science at the University of Pennsylvania, and publishes a Substack newsletter titled “ Notes from the Middleground .” Follow him at @DamonLinker on Twitter. Damon’s Music Pick: Tom Waits We sail tonight for Singapore and we’re all as mad as...
Sep 29, 2025•3 hr 12 min•Ep. 152
Scot and Jeff discuss the first part of Tom Waits’s career (1973-1982) with Damon Linker. Introducing the Band: Your hosts Scot Bertram ( @ScotBertram ) and Jeff Blehar ( @EsotericCD ) are joined by guest Damon Linker. Damon is a senior lecturer in political science at the University of Pennsylvania, and publishes a Substack newsletter titled “ Notes from the Middleground .” Follow him at @DamonLinker on Twitter. Damon’s Music Pick: Tom Waits There’s a world going on underground, and Political B...
Sep 04, 2025•2 hr 44 min•Ep. 151
Scot and Jeff discuss Jimmy Buffett with Conor Friedersdorf. Introducing the Band : Your hosts Scot Bertram ( @ScotBertram ) and Jeff Blehar ( @EsotericCD ) are with guest Conor Friedersdorf. Conor is a staff writer at The Atlantic , where he writes about politics and culture, with a focus on civil liberties, and he's the founding editor of The Best of Journalism , a newsletter on Substack where he highlights the best nonfiction that he encounters each week. Find him on X at @ conor64 . Conor’s ...
Aug 05, 2025•3 hr 12 min•Ep. 150
Your Political Beats hosts Scot Bertram (@ ScotBertram ) and Jeff Blehar (@ EsotericCD ) get the opportunity to spend a little more time with singer/songwriter/bandleader/advocate/professor David Lowery (@ DavidCLowery ) Now-frequent (two times is frequent, right?) Political Beats guest David Lowery returns to the show to talk about his magnificent new solo record Fathers, Sons and Brothers . For those unaware, David is the founder of Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker as well as a long-time advoc...
Jul 09, 2025•1 hr•Ep. 149
Scot and Jeff discuss Bob Seger with Tim Constantine. Introducing the Band: Your hosts Scot Bertram ( @ScotBertram ) and Jeff Blehar ( @EsotericCD ) with guest Tim Constantine. Today you see him interviewing presidents and prime ministers on The Capitol Hill Show out of Washington, D.C., but Tim got his broadcasting start in rock radio when he was just 13 years old. Watch Tim Constantine's Capitol Hill Show and find him on X at @ timconstantine1 . Tim’s Music Pick: Bob Seger Bursting out of the ...
Jul 02, 2025•3 hr 41 min•Ep. 148
Introducing the Band: Your hosts Scot Bertram ( @ScotBertram ) and Jeff Blehar ( @EsotericCD ) are joined by guest Jeff Pojanowski. Jeff is a professor at Notre Dame Law School, where he teaches and writes about philosophy of law and legal interpretation. He also writes occasional columns for The Pillar . He has been living happily in Northern Indiana after escaping Washington, D.C., 15 years ago. Jeff’s Music Pick: Turnpike Troubadours This is a rarity for Political Beats , in which we present ...
Jun 03, 2025•2 hr 38 min•Ep. 147
Introducing the Band : Your hosts Scot Bertram ( @ScotBertram ) and Jeff Blehar ( @EsotericCD ) are joined by Andrew Stuttaford. Andrew needs little introduction as the editor of NR's Capital Matters . Find him online right here at National Review or at @AStuttaford on Twitter/X. Andrew’s Music Pick : Brian Eno Here he comes, the boy who tried to vanish to the future or the past. Yes, it's time for Political Beats to celebrate one of the most influential musicians in the history of modern record...
Apr 29, 2025•3 hr 22 min•Ep. 146
Introducing the Band: Your hosts Scot Bertram ( @ScotBertram ) and Jeff Blehar ( @EsotericCD ) are joined by guest Steve Singiser. Steve is formerly a contributing editor at Daily Kos Elections and now is a contributor at The Downballot . Steve’s Music Pick: Def Leppard Do you wanna get rocked? If the answer is yes and the decade was the 1980s, it’s likely Def Leppard was at least partially responsible for the rocking. With two massive albums released four years apart, the band’s songs provided ...
Mar 10, 2025•2 hr 52 min•Ep. 145
Introducing the Band : Your hosts Scot Bertram ( @ScotBertram ) and Jeff Blehar ( @EsotericCD ) are joined by guest Eli Lake. Lake is a columnist with the Free Press and also a contributing editor at Commentary. Find him online at the Free Press or @EliLake on Twitter/X. Eli’s Music Pick : Stevie Wonder It’s time to sing some songs in the key of life as we tackle the amazing and iconic second half of Stevie Wonder’s career. From his emergence as Motown’s first truly singular independent artist i...
Feb 05, 2025•2 hr 47 min•Ep. 144
Introducing the Band: Your hosts Scot Bertram ( @ScotBertram ) and Jeff Blehar ( @EsotericCD ) are joined by guest Eli Lake. Lake is a columnist with the Free Press and also a contributing editor at Commentary. Find him online at the Free Press or @EliLake on Twitter/X. Eli’s Music Pick: Stevie Wonder Happy New Year, everyone. 2024 was a mess, 2025 looks to be every bit as much of a mess, and gloom pervades the national mood. Therefore, it is high time for Political Beats to turn to Stevie Wonde...
Jan 02, 2025•2 hr 17 min•Ep. 143
Introducing the Band : Your hosts Scot Bertram ( @ScotBertram ) and Jeff Blehar ( @EsotericCD ) are with guest Mary Chastain. Mary is a writer and editor at Legal Insurrection . She's also a sometimes contributor to The Hill , Washington Examiner , and Reason , and FEE . Mary is on X at @ Mchastain81 . Mary’s Music Pick: Stone Temple Pilots: This is another in a series of episodes (think Daryl Hall & John Oates and The Monkees) in which your hosts believe there is a reputation to be restored...
Nov 25, 2024•2 hr 48 min•Ep. 142
Introducing the Band : Your hosts Scot Bertram ( @ScotBertram ) and Jeff Blehar ( @EsotericCD ) are with guest Andrew Fink. Andrew lives with his wife Lauren and their five children in Hillsdale County, Mich., and is an attorney, Marine veteran, current state representative, and candidate for Michigan Supreme Court. He's on X at @ AndrewFinkMI , and his website can be found here . Andrew’s Music Pick: ZZ Top No matter how far into the future this show might run, when you stack Political Beats ep...
Oct 14, 2024•4 hr 4 min•Ep. 141
Introducing the Band: Your hosts Scot Bertram ( @ScotBertram ) and Jeff Blehar ( @EsotericCD ) are joined by guest Peter Suderman. Suderman is the features editor at Reason magazine. He also writes the Substack Cocktails With Suderman , which is about making better cocktails at home. Find him online at Reason or @petersuderman on Twitter/X. Peter’s Music Pick: The Dismemberment Plan The name might sound like you’re in for a three-and-a-half hour barrage of trendily obscure post-punk music with t...
Sep 23, 2024•3 hr 14 min•Ep. 140
Introducing the Band: Your hosts Scot Bertram ( @ScotBertram ) and Jeff Blehar ( @EsotericCD ) are with guest Nick Lowe. Nick Lowe is . . . wait, you don’t really need a bio for Nick Lowe, do you? If there’s any questions about who he is, please take the time to listen to our lengthy Political Beats episode with guest Matt Murray. In an interview that has been months in the making, your Political Beats hosts get the opportunity to spend a little more than an hour with the legendary Nick Lowe. Ca...
Sep 17, 2024•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 139
Introducing the Band : Your hosts Scot Bertram (@ ScotBertram ) and Jeff Blehar (@ EsotericCD ) with . . . no guest at all! With Jeff moving his belongings to a new abode while also covering the RNC and DNC for National Review and Scot's vacation schedule creating another hurdle, we felt it was time to break the glass on the window marked "VERY SPECIAL EPISODE." For those relatively new around here, we've done two VSEs in the past, both when schedules were getting out of control. One compiled ou...
Aug 19, 2024•2 hr 28 min•Ep. 138
Introducing the Band: Your hosts Scot Bertram ( @ScotBertram ) and Jeff Blehar ( @EsotericCD ) are with guest Brad Birzer. Brad is the Russell Amos Kirk Chair in American Studies and Professor of History at Hillsdale College. He is also the co-founder of and senior contributor at The Imaginative Conservative , and the author of a number of books, including Neil Peart: Cultural (Re)Percussions . Find him online at bradbirzer.com or @bradleybirzer on Twitter. Brad’s Music Pick: Yes Well, the buses...
Jul 01, 2024•2 hr 43 min•Ep. 137
Introducing the Band: Your hosts Scot Bertram ( @ScotBertram ) and Jeff Blehar ( @EsotericCD ) are with guest Brad Birzer. Brad is the Russell Amos Kirk Chair in American Studies and Professor of History at Hillsdale College. He is also the co-founder of and Senior Contributor at The Imaginative Conservative , and the author of a number of books, including Neil Peart: Cultural (Re)Percussions . Find him online at bradbirzer.com or @bradleybirzer on Twitter. Brad’s Music Pick: Yes Tell the moon d...
Jun 03, 2024•2 hr 58 min•Ep. 136
Introducing the Band: Your hosts Scot Bertram ( @ScotBertram ) and Jeff Blehar ( @EsotericCD ) are with guest Guy Denton. Guy is the co-host of The Wrong Stuff with Matt Lewis, contributor to The Dispatch and National Review , and until recently took Jonah Goldberg's guff over at The Remnant . Find him on Twitter/X . . . nowhere, because he is saner than the rest of us. Guy’s Music Pick: Echo & the Bunnymen There's really not much to say about this episode other than that it is the greatest ...
May 06, 2024•3 hr 27 min•Ep. 135
Introducing the Band: Your hosts Scot Bertram ( @ScotBertram ) and Jeff Blehar ( @EsotericCD ) are with guest Joshua Treviño. Joshua works and writes at the Texas Public Policy Foundation and spent the entire 1990s listening a lot to Matthew Sweet. Joshua’s Music Pick: Matthew Sweet For listeners of a certain age, just the name Matthew Sweet will evoke a particular memory, and it’s likely one that involves heartbreak. Breaking through with the power-pop masterpiece, Girlfriend , Sweet channeled ...
Apr 08, 2024•2 hr 48 min•Ep. 134
Introducing the Band : Your hosts Scot Bertram ( @ScotBertram ) and Jeff Blehar ( @EsotericCD ) are with guest Tom Nichols. Tom is a staff writer at The Atlantic and author of The Death of Expertise: The Campaign against Established Knowledge and Why it Matters , with a new second edition out soon. Find him on X/Twitter at @RadioFreeTom . Tom’s Music Pick: Boston This could be our first episode that is longer simply by listening to the entirety of the band's actual discography. Even if true, we ...
Mar 18, 2024•2 hr 7 min•Ep. 133
Introducing the Band: Your hosts Scot Bertram ( @ScotBertram ) and Jeff Blehar ( @EsotericCD ) are with guest Jay Cost. Jay is the Gerald R. Ford senior non-resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and the author of, most recently, James Madison: America’s First Politician . Find him on Twitter/X at @Jay__Cost . Jay’s Music Pick: The Kinks Haven’t we done these guys already? We sure did! But this is the part of the Kinks' career we didn't do any real justice to back six or seven year...
Jan 29, 2024•3 hr 23 min•Ep. 132
Introducing the Band: Your hosts Scot Bertram ( @ScotBertram ) and Jeff Blehar ( @EsotericCD ) are with guest Jay Cost. Jay is the Gerald R. Ford senior non-resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and the author of, most recently, James Madison: America's First Politician . Find him on Twitter/X at @Jay__Cost . Jay's Music Pick: The Kinks Haven't we done these guys already? We sure did! For the first (and possibly last) time, Political Beats has done something unprecedented and gone...
Jan 02, 2024•3 hr 38 min•Ep. 131
Introducing the Band : Your hosts Scot Bertram ( @ScotBertram ) and Jeff Blehar ( @EsotericCD ) with guest Mike Long. Mike is a (very) occasional writer for National Review and was one of the originals back in the early 2000s as NRO was launched. He’s the author of the non-fiction bestseller The Molecule of More and its sequel coming in fall of 2024. Mike’s Music Pick: Joe Jackson After running through Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe/Rockpile, it was only a matter of time before we got to covering ...
Nov 20, 2023•3 hr 10 min•Ep. 130
