Nicholas A. Christakis , MD, Ph.D., MPH, is a sociologist and physician who conducts research in the areas of social networks and biosocial science. He directs the Human Nature Lab at Yale University. He is the NYT bestselling author of Connected , Blueprint , and Apollo's Arrow . Nicholas Christakis Book Recommendations: The Illiad - Homer The Last Days of Socrates - Plato Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen Man's Search for Meaning- Viktor Frankel Stumbling on...
Dec 28, 2021•59 min•Ep. 46
Amelia Pang is an award-winning, investigative journalist of Uyghur and Chinese descent. Her work has been published in The New Republic, Mother Jones, and The New York Times Sunday Review, among other publications. She is currently an editor at EdTech Magazine. Her most recent book, which I highly recommend is called Made in China: A Prisoner, an SOS Letter, and the Hidden Cost of America's Cheap Goods , published on February 2, 2021, by Algonquin Books. Amelia Pang Book Recommendat...
Dec 28, 2021•54 min•Ep. 45
Louis Menand is the Lee Simpkins Family Professor of Arts and Sciences and the Anne T. and Robert M.Bass Professor of English at Harvard University. He is a staff writer at The New Yorker Magazine and has served as an associate editor at The New Republic and a contributing editor at The New York Review of Books. His book The Metaphysical Club earned him the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for history and the Francis Parkman Prize from the Society of American Historians. In 2016, he was awarded the National ...
Dec 09, 2021•55 min•Ep. 44
Amity Shlaes is the author of four New York Times bestsellers, Coolidge , The Forgotten Man , The Forgotten Man/Graphic , and The Greedy Hand . Miss Shlaes chairs the board of the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation. She chairs the Hayek Prize, a prize for free market books given by the Manhattan Institute. She is a presidential scholar at Kings College/New York. Most recently she is the author of Great Society: A New History , which is a stunning analysis of the social welfare policies pass...
Dec 09, 2021•37 min•Ep. 43
Bobby Duffy is Professor of Public Policy and Director of the Policy Institute at King's College London. He has worked across most public policy areas in his career of nearly 30 years in policy research and evaluation, including being seconded to the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit. His most recent book The Generation Myth: Why When You're Born Matters Less Than You Think was published on November 9th, 2021 by Basic Books. Bobby Duffy Book Recommendations: Culture Wars: The Struggle To Defi...
Dec 09, 2021•46 min•Ep. 42
Henry William Brands Jr. is an American historian. He holds the Jack S. Blanton Sr. Chair in History at the University of Texas at Austin, where he earned his Ph.D. in history in 1985. He has authored 30 books on U.S. history. His works have twice been selected as finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. His most recent book is called "Our First Civil War: Patriots and Loyalists in the American Revolution", published on November 9th, 2021 by Doubleday. His substack, "A User's Guide to History" can be f...
Nov 11, 2021•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 41
Dr. Darrell Bricker holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Carleton University, where he was a Social Science and Humanities Research Council Doctoral Fellow, and a BA and MA from Wilfrid Laurier University. Bricker is the current Global CEO of Ipsos Public Affairs, polling, research, marketing, and analysis company. He is the author of 6 books, most recently the fascinating book "Empty Planet: The Shock of Global Population Decline." Darrell Bricker Book Recommendations: Eichman in...
Nov 03, 2021•1 hr•Ep. 40
Sidney Blumenthal is the former assistant and senior adviser to President Bill Clinton and senior adviser to Hillary Clinton. He was a national staff reporter for The Washington Post and Washington editor and writer for The New Yorker. He is the author of numerous bestselling books including "The Clinton Wars", "The Rise of the Counter Establishment", and "The Permanent Campaign." He's embarking on an ambitious 5-volume series on the political life of President Abraham Lincoln. Three of fi...
Nov 01, 2021•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 39
This is one of my favorite conversations so far. So grateful to be able to share this with all of you. Jordan Blashek is a Republican, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, and an aspiring business leader. After graduating from Princeton University in 2009, he spent five years in the Marines as an infantry officer and was awarded two Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals. He holds degrees from Yale Law School, Stanford Graduate School of Business, and Princeton University, and currently works at...
Oct 22, 2021•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 38
Thomas Dyja worked in publishing for more than a decade before becoming a writer. He is the author of 6 books including The Third Coast: When Chicago Built the American Dream and most recently the wonderful new book New York, New York, New York: Four Decades of Success, Excess, and Transformation . Thomas Dyja Book Recommendations: The Summer Book - Tove Jansson The Last Thing He Told Me - Laura Dave Gay New York - George Chauncey About The Inquiring Mind Podcast: I creat...
Oct 15, 2021•56 min•Ep. 37
Eric Berkowitz is a writer, lawyer, and journalist. He has a degree in print journalism from the University of Southern California (USC) and has been featured in The Los Angeles Times, The Los Angeles Weekly, and for the Associated Press. He was an editor of the West Coast’s premier daily legal publication, The Los Angeles Daily Journal. He lives in San Francisco. He is the author of 3 books, the most recent being Dangerous Ideas: A Brief History of Censorship in the West, from the Ancients to F...
Oct 13, 2021•55 min•Ep. 36
Nicholas Wapshott is an author, journalist, and biographer who has written for The Scotsman, The Times, The Observer, and The Sunday Telegraph. He was the national and foreign editor of the New York Sun and was part of the launch team for The Daily Beast. Lastly, he was an editorial director of Oprah Winfrey's website oprah.com and International Editor of Newsweek. He is the author of 10 books, including Keynes Hayek , The Sphinx , and most recently of Samuelson Friedman . Nicholas Wapshot...
Oct 11, 2021•1 hr•Ep. 35
Jon O. Newman is a United States Circuit Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He assumed senior status in 1997. At the time of his appointment in 1979, he was a United States District Court Judge for the District of Connecticut. Judge Newman was Chief Judge from 1993 to 1997. Judge Newman was also considered for the Supreme Court role under the Clinton Administration. He is also the author of the memoir Benched: Abortion, Terrorists, Drones, Crooks, Supreme Court, Kennedy, ...
Sep 20, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 34
Edward Glaeser is the Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics and the Chairman of the Department of Economics at Harvard University. He is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal. He is the author of the New York Times Bestseller Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier and most recently he is the author of Survival of the City: Living and Thriving in an Age of Isolation Edward Gla...
Sep 15, 2021•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 33
Christopher Browning is the Frank Porter Graham Professor Emeritus of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). He specializes in the history of the Holocaust, the implementation of the Final Solution, the behavior of those implementing the policies, and the use of survivor testimony. He is the author of nine books, including the incredible best-selling Ordinary Men and The Origins of the Final Solution Christopher Browning Book Recommendations: The Destruction of t...
Sep 02, 2021•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 32
Ashley Pallathra, MA, is a clinical researcher and therapist. She completed her bachelor's degree with Distinction in Neuroscience from the University of Pennsylvania. She has a Master's Degree in Psychology and is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. She writes and researches resilience-based interventions, social-emotional functioning in youth, autism research, and social neuroscience. Edward Brodkin, MD, is an Associate P...
Aug 31, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 31
John Sexton is the fifteenth President of New York University. He joined NYU's School of Law faculty in 1981 and was named the dean in 1988. He became the president of the University in 2002. He served as a law clerk to Chief Justice Warren Burger on the US Supreme Court and to Judges David Bazelon and Harold Leventhal of the United States Court of Appeals. Sexton is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a past member of th...
Aug 25, 2021•1 hr 29 min•Ep. 28
Edward Whelan is a Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center and holds EPPC’s Antonin Scalia Chair in Constitutional Studies. He is the longest-serving President in EPPC’s history, having held that position from March 2004 through January 2021. He is also the co-author of Scalia Speaks , On Faith , and The Essential Scalia . Edward Whelan Book Recommendations: Scalia Speaks - Antonin Scalia On Faith - Antonin Scalia The Essential Scalia - Antonin Scalia...
Aug 24, 2021•59 min•Ep. 29
Nadine Strossen is one of the preeminent constitutional law and civil liberties scholars in the United States. Her impressive resume includes serving as the first female President of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), being a member of the Foundation of Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), Heterodox Academy, Council on Foreign Relations, and the National Coalition Against Censorship. The National Law Journal has named Strossen one of America’s "100 Most Influential Lawyers," and severa...
Aug 13, 2021•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 28
Francis J. Greenburger is the CEO and Founder of real estate giant Time Equities Inc, owner of the highly successful Sanford J.Greenburger Literary Agency, and founder of the Omi International Arts Center and The Greenburger Center for Social and Criminal Justice. He is also the author of a book entitled Risk Game: Self Portrait of an Entrepreneur . Francis J. Greenburger Book Recommendations: Just Mercy - Bryan Stevenson Zeckendorf - William Zeckendorf Am I Being Too Subtle - Sam Ze...
Aug 09, 2021•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 27
Leroy (Lee) Hood is a world-renowned scientist and recipient of the National Medal of Science in 2011 from President Barack Obama. Dr. Leroy Hood co-founded the Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) and currently serves as the Chief Strategy Officer and Professor at ISB. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the National Academy of Medicine. Of the more than 6,000 scientists worldwide who belong to one or more of these academies, Dr. Hoo...
Jul 30, 2021•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 25
Dr. Steven E. Koonin is a leader in science policy in the United States. He served as Undersecretary for Science in the US Department of Energy under President Obama. He has written more than 200 peer-reviewed papers in the fields of physics and astrophysics, scientific computation, energy technology and policy, and climate science, Dr. Koonin was a professor of theoretical physics at Caltech, also serving as Caltech’s Vice President and Provost for almost a decade. He is currently a University ...
Jul 28, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 25
David A. Kaplan was a senior editor and legal affairs correspondent at Newsweek for 20 years. While there, he wrote several dozen cover stories on the Court and other topics. He is the author of numerous books including The Silicon Boys and most recently, of The Most Dangerous Branch . He now teaches journalism and ethics at NYU and at CUNY. David Kaplan Book Recommendations: Charlotte's Web - E.B. White Cadillac Desert - Marc Reisner The Power Broker - Robert Caro ...
Jul 27, 2021•1 hr 22 min•Ep. 24
Norman Ohler is a German New York Times bestselling author, novelist, and screenwriter, best known for his book Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germany , which has been published in over 30 languages. Most recently he is the author of The Bohemians: The Lovers Who Led Germany’s Resistance Against the Nazis . Norman Ohler Book Recommendations: Gravity's Rainbow - Thomas Pynchon The Bohemians - Norman Ohler Moby Dick - Herman Melville Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy Things Fall Apart - ...
Jul 20, 2021•48 min•Ep. 23
Rabbi David Wolpe is the Max Webb Senior Rabbi of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles. He was named one of the 50 Most Influential Jews in the World by the Jerusalem Post and the Most Influential Rabbi in America by Newsweek. He taught at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York and at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles, Hunter College - CUNY, and UCLA. His articles have been featured in the New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Time Magazine, The Atlantic, and...
Jul 16, 2021•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 22
Benjamin Hett is a historian and writer who teaches at Hunter College (CUNY) and at the CUNY Graduate Center in NYC. He earned his BA in Political Science and English Literature from the University of Alberta, then a J.D. from the University of Toronto. He later received his MA in History from the University of Toronto and a Ph.D. from Harvard University. We discuss his latest books The Nazi Menace and The Death of Democracy on the podcast. Benjamin Hett Book Recommendations: Not Wanted on...
Jul 14, 2021•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 21
Ilana Redstone is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Professor Redstone obtained her BA at the University of New Hampshire and her Ph.D. in Demography and Sociology from the University of Pennsylvania. She has been at the University of Illinois since 2005. She teaches a highly popular class called "Sociology of Political Polarization: Bigots and Snowflakes" and is the author of the new book Unassailable Ideas: How Unwritten Rules and Social Med...
Jul 09, 2021•58 min•Ep. 20
Helaine Olen is an Opinion writer for the Washington Post. She has written on topics including politics, economics, workplace culture, and women's issues. Her work has been publishing in the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic Salon, Pacific Standard, and The Los Angeles Times. She is also the author of Pound Foolish: Exposing the Dark Side of the Personal Finance Industry and The Index Card: Why Personal Finance Doesn't have to be so complicated . Helaine and I had...
Jul 05, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 19
Yasmine Mohammed is an advocate for the rights of women living in Muslim majority countries as well as those who struggle under religious fundamentalism. She is the founder of Free Hearts Free Minds, which is an organization that provides mental health support for members of the LGBT community and freethinkers living in Muslim majority countries. Yasmine works with the Ayaan Hirsi Ali Foundation as an Advisor. As well, she's a member of the prestigious Center for Inquiry (CFI) Speaker’s Bu...
Jul 02, 2021•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 18
Michael Woodsworth is a teacher at the Bard High School Early College Queens, where he covers a wide variety of subjects in American History. His most recent book, which is central to our discussion is called Battle for Bed-Stuy: The Long War on Poverty in New York City Book Recommended by Michael Woodsworth: A Fortress in Brooklyn - Nathaniel Deutsch The Lightning Thief - Rick Riordan Reconstruction - Eric Foner Building the Great Society - Joshua Zeitz Souls of Black Fo...
Jun 29, 2021•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 17
