Shashank Joshi is Defence Editor at The Economist, where he writes on a wide range of national security, defence and intelligence issues. In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Shashank Joshi discuss how technology is changing warfare, the latest developments in Ukraine, and the future of Gaza. Podcast production by Mickey Freeland and Leonora Barclay. Connect with us! Spotify | Apple | Google X: @Yascha_Mounk & @JoinPersuasion YouTube: Yascha Mounk, Persuasion LinkedIn: Persuasion Co...
Jun 11, 2025•1 hr 3 min
Yascha Mounk and Mark Lynas on how to avoid armageddon. Mark Lynas is an author, campaigner and speaker. He is science advisor with the Climate Vulnerable Forum and policy lead with WePlanet, a pro-science environmental advocacy network active in over 20 countries. His latest book is Six Minutes to Winter: Nuclear War and How to Avoid It. In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Mark Lynas discuss how likely a nuclear war is, what a nuclear winter would look like, and how to avoid it. Podca...
Jun 07, 2025•53 min
David Leonhardt is an editorial director for New York Times Opinion. In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and David Leonhardt discuss why the left is losing its appeal to the working classes in the United States and in Europe, the flaws in the Democratic Party’s approach to voters, and what U.S. Democrats can learn from the Social Democrats in Denmark. Note: This interview was recorded on March 18, 2025. Podcast production by Mickey Freeland and Leonora Barclay. Connect with us! Spotify | A...
Jun 04, 2025•1 hr 3 min
Yascha Mounk and Quico Toro explore what’s holding environmentalists back. Quico Toro is Director of Climate Repair at the Anthropocene Institute, a contributing editor at Persuasion, and writes the Substack One Percent Brighter. In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Quico Toro discuss outdated ideas within environmentalism, why we need to decarbonize—and how technology can save us. Podcast production by Jack Shields and Leonora Barclay. Connect with us! Spotify | Apple | Google X:...
May 31, 2025•52 min
Steve Stewart-Williams is a professor of psychology at the University of Nottingham Malaysia, and author of The Ape That Understood the Universe (2018), Darwin, God and the Meaning of Life (2010), and The Nature-Nurture-Nietzsche Newsletter on Substack. In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Steve Stewart-Williams explore the nature vs nurture debate within psychology, how much impact IQ has on an individual’s success in life, and whether evolutionary psychology can explain politics. Podc...
May 28, 2025•1 hr 12 min
Yascha Mounk and Paul Krugman also explore whether the Euro was a mistake. Paul Krugman is the Distinguished Professor of Economics at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He was a columnist for The New York Times from 2000 to 2024. In 2008, Krugman was the sole winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to new trade theory and new economic geography. In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Paul Krugman discuss the value of economic mod...
May 24, 2025•1 hr 36 min
Katja Hoyer is a visiting Research Fellow at King's College London and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and is the author of Blood and Iron: The Rise and Fall of the German Empire, 1871–1918 and Beyond the Wall: East Germany 1949-1990. In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Katja Hoyer discuss life in the German Democratic Republic (GDR), how it is remembered today—and whether the Wall still has an impact on German politics today. Podcast production by Mickey Freeland and Leonora...
May 21, 2025•1 hr 2 min
Frances E. Lee is professor of politics and public affairs at Princeton University. In addition to In Covid’s Wake: How Our Politics Failed Us, she is author or coauthor most recently of The Limits of Party: Congress and Lawmaking in a Polarized Era and Insecure Majorities: Congress and the Perpetual Campaign. Stephen Macedo is the Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Politics and the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University. His books, in addition to In Covid’s Wake: How Our P...
May 17, 2025•1 hr 22 min
Pratap Bhanu Mehta is Senior Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi and Laurence Rockefeller Visiting Professor for Distinguished Teaching at Princeton University. In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Pratap Mehta discuss nationalism, radical forms of self-identity, and the likelihood of war between India and Pakistan. Note: The first part of this conversation was recorded on April 30, 2025 with a follow up on May 12, 2025. Podcast production by Mickey Freeland and Leonora ...
May 14, 2025•1 hr 50 min
Elaine C. Kamarck is a senior fellow in Governance Studies and the director of the Center for Effective Public Management at Brookings. William A. Galston is a senior fellow and the Ezra K. Zilkha Chair in the Governance Studies program at Brookings. In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk, Elaine Kamarck, and William Galston explore why the Democrats aren’t building long-term coalitions, how the Democrats lost the working class, and how centrists in the party can create a compelling offer for...
May 10, 2025•52 min
Rutger Bregman is an historian and author. He is the co-founder of The School for Moral Ambition, a new initiative to mobilize talented professionals to work on the world’s most pressing problems. His latest book, Moral Ambition, explores how we can build lives and careers that make a real difference. In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Rutger Bregman discuss what it means to have moral ambition, how to know which causes deserve support—and how to make the world vegan. Email: goodfight...
May 07, 2025•1 hr 4 min
Kevin Mitchell is Associate Professor of Genetics and Neuroscience at Trinity College Dublin. He studies the interplay between genes, brains, and minds. He is the author of Innate: How the Wiring of Our Brains Shapes Who We Are and Free Agents: How Evolution Gave Us Free Will. In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Kevin Mitchell discuss the arguments against free will, if evolution supports free will, and how much control we have over our decisions. Podcast production by Mickey Freeland ...
May 03, 2025•1 hr 20 min
Claire Lehmann is an Australian publisher and journalist who founded the online magazine Quillette in 2015. She serves as Editor-in-Chief of Quillette and contributes regularly to The Australian newspaper. Email: [email protected] Podcast production by Mickey Freeland and Leonora Barclay. Connect with us! Spotify | Apple | Google X: @Yascha_Mounk & @JoinPersuasion YouTube: Yascha Mounk, Persuasion LinkedIn: Persuasion Community Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoi...
May 01, 2025•59 min
Yascha Mounk and Sarah Longwell also discuss who—if anyone—can save the Democrats. Sarah Longwell is the publisher of The Bulwark, which she helped found in 2019. She regularly conducts focus groups with voters across the political spectrum and hosts the podcast “The Focus Group,” which is in its fifth season, and co-hosts “The Next Level” podcast and “The Secret Podcast.” In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Sarah Longwell discuss which voter segments support Donald Trump, what might c...
Apr 26, 2025•1 hr 9 min
Ivan Krastev is the chairman of the Centre for Liberal Strategies and Albert Hirschman Permanent Fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences, IWM Vienna. His books include Is it Tomorrow, Yet? After Europe, and The Light that Failed: A Reckoning, which was co-authored by Stephen Holmes. In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Ivan Krastev explore how Donald Trump is—and isn’t—similar to Mikhail Gorbachev, the impact of the Trump revolution, and whether we’ve finally reached the end of histo...
Apr 23, 2025•1 hr 22 min
Yascha Mounk and Larry Summers also discuss the administration’s tariffs. Lawrence H. Summers is the Charles W. Eliot University Professor and President Emeritus at Harvard University. He served as the 71st Secretary of the Treasury for President Clinton and the Director of the National Economic Council for President Obama. In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Larry Summers discuss why tariffs are so concerning, how Harvard should react to the Trump administration cutting its funding, a...
Apr 19, 2025•51 min
Editor’s Note: This podcast was produced as part of Persuasion’s partnership with the Civil Discourse @ MIT program, at which Coleman Hughes recently spoke on a panel exploring the topic “Should American Society Commit to Colorblindness?” To learn more about Civil Discourse @ MIT, visit the program’s website here, and to see prior episodes in the series click here. Coleman Hughes is a writer and the host of Conversations with Coleman. He is the author of The End of Race Politics: Arguments for a...
Apr 16, 2025•1 hr 6 min
Yascha Mounk and Emily Oster also talk about what public health authorities fell short during the pandemic. In addition to being a Professor of Economics at Brown University, Emily Oster is the founder and CEO of ParentData, a data-driven guide to pregnancy, parenting, and beyond. Emily is also a New York Times best-selling author, whose books include Expecting Better, Cribsheet, The Family Firm and The Unexpected. In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Emily Oster explore how parents can...
Apr 12, 2025•56 min
John H. McWhorter teaches linguistics, American studies, and music history at Columbia University. He is the host of the podcast Lexicon Valley and writes a weekly column for The New York Times. McWhorter is the author of twenty-three books, including Nine Nasty Words, Woke Racism, The Power of Babel, and Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue. In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and John McWhorter explore how language evolves, why English only has one form of you, and if we should embrace the sin...
Apr 09, 2025•58 min
Yascha Mounk and Jason Furman also discuss the flaws in Build Back Better. Jason Furman is the Aetna Professor of the Practice of Economic Policy jointly at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) and the Department of Economics at Harvard University. Previously Furman served as Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors under Barack Obama. In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Jason Furman discuss the economic record of the Biden administration, whether the abundance agenda is the way forward—and w...
Apr 05, 2025•1 hr 13 min
In this week’s conversation, Persuasion editor-in-chief Yascha Mounk was joined by listeners of The Good Fight for a “mailbag” episode, speaking about everything from domestic and global politics to AI. Larry Diamond’s piece The Crisis of Democracy can be found in Persuasion. Please do listen and spread the word about The Good Fight. If you have not yet signed up for our podcast, please do so now by following this link on your phone. Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.persua...
Apr 02, 2025•6 min
Audrey Tang is Taiwan’s Cyber Ambassador and served as Taiwan's first digital minister and the world’s first nonbinary cabinet minister. In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Audrey Tang discuss what makes social media so divisive, how to tackle misinformation without undermining free speech, and how online tools can engage participation in a democracy. Please do listen and spread the word about The Good Fight. If you have not yet signed up for our podcast, please do so now by following ...
Mar 29, 2025•1 hr
Aaron Sibarium is a staff writer at the Washington Free Beacon, where he covers higher education and institutional capture. In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Aaron Sibarium discuss racial bias in medicine, affirmative action at universities and if “woke” is dead. Please do listen and spread the word about The Good Fight. If you have not yet signed up for our podcast, please do so now by following this link on your phone. Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.persuas...
Mar 27, 2025•1 hr 15 min
Hamish McKenzie is co-founder of Substack, a platform for online publications including Persuasion and writing like Yascha’s weekly column. He is a writer and former journalist based in San Francisco. In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Hamish McKenzie discuss how Substack was formed, why its business model rewards different behaviors to traditional social media, and its steadfast commitment to free speech in the face of criticism. Please do listen and spread the word about The Good Fi...
Mar 22, 2025•1 hr 5 min
Jacob Mchangama is the Founder and Executive Director of The Future of Free Speech, a research professor at Vanderbilt University, and a Senior Fellow at The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). His book Free Speech: A History From Socrates to Social Media is now available in paperback with a new epilogue. In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Jacob Mchangama discuss traditions of free speech throughout history, whether European laws are too restrictive, and concerning...
Mar 19, 2025•1 hr 11 min
Francis Fukuyama is a political scientist, author, and the Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University. Fukuyama’s notable works include The End of History and the Last Man and The Origins of Political Order. His latest book is Liberalism and Its Discontents. You can find his blog, “Frankly Fukuyama,” at Persuasion. In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Francis Fukuyama discuss talks of a ceasefire in Ukraine and what t...
Mar 15, 2025•1 hr 3 min
Yascha Mounk and Jonathan Rauch also discuss patrimonialism in the United States. Jonathan Rauch is a senior fellow in the Governance Studies program at the Brookings Institution and a member of the Persuasion Board of Advisors. His latest book is Cross Purposes: Christianity’s Broken Bargain with Democracy. In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Jonathan Rauch discuss the decline of religion and its impact on society, the long-term future of religion in America, and why patrimonialism is...
Mar 12, 2025•55 min
Mónica Guzmán is author of I Never Thought of it That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times; founder and CEO of Reclaim Curiosity; Senior Fellow for Public Practice at Braver Angels; and host of A Braver Way podcast. In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Mónica Guzmán discuss how to build trust across political divides and the joy of heated debates. Please do listen and spread the word about The Good Fight. If you have not yet signed up for our po...
Mar 08, 2025•1 hr 11 min
I’m really proud of the community that has grown up around The Good Fight, Persuasion and my own Substack. That’s why I was excited to welcome paying subscribers to join me for a live session—so I could answer your questions personally. We had a great discussion: About the idea of a foreign policy for the middle class. About the state of free speech in Europe. About how to tell when the rule of law has broken down in the United States. About the prospects for a third party. And about so much mor...
Mar 04, 2025•7 min
Editor’s Note: This podcast was produced as part of Persuasion’s partnership with the Civil Discourse @ MIT program, at which Spencer Case spoke late last year on the topic “Does Citizenship Require Patriotism?” To learn more about Civil Discourse @ MIT, visit the program’s website here, and to see prior episodes in the series click here. Spencer Case hosts Micro-Digressions: A Philosophy Podcast. He's the author of many academic philosophy articles and coauthor of Is Morality Real? A Debate. He...
Mar 01, 2025•1 hr 1 min
