With just one week until Election Day in New York City, we’re reflecting on the past and future of the Democratic Party, Gracie Mansion, and the political home of mayoral hopeful, Zohran Mamdani. Mamdani is a Democratic Socialist, having campaigned alongside and accepted donations from members of the Democratic Socialists of America, a group with a clear, parasitic strategy towards the Democratic establishment and post-colonial West. What does this mean for our political parties? If successful, ...
Oct 30, 2025•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 343
The Trump administration continues to focus on achieving peace in the Middle East, navigating a fragile ceasefire and defining the conditions for a Palestinian future. Meanwhile, Putin’s war in Ukraine rages on, marked by stalled negotiations and continued bombardments. Both situations have proven more complex and unpredictable than the President initially hoped. Lately, Tomahawk missiles remain top of mind for President Zelensky, while Trump cancelled a proposed summit with Putin. What comes ne...
Oct 24, 2025•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 342
After two incredibly long years, we are finally able to celebrate the return of all living Israeli hostages from the hell of Hamas. Absent specifics and relying on a long history of failed “new beginnings” in the Middle East, Trump’s 20-point Peace Plan begs the question, what comes next? With a successful Phase One and a fragile Phase Two, it is with cautious optimism that we ask: how will disarmament and demilitarization be successfully carried out in Gaza? What does this mean for Israeli poli...
Oct 17, 2025•58 min•Ep. 341
More than three years into Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, our European allies are reconsidering whether or not frozen Russian assets, totaling $300 billion on the continent, can be used to help Ukraine. As part of a broader brought about by the Trump Administration, Western countries are finally prepared to act in concert to overcome financial concerns, investment retaliation, and collective action challenges in supporting Ukraine. In addition, the Cuba-oriented Helms-Burton Act provide...
Oct 10, 2025•56 min•Ep. 340
Two years ago today, Hamas perpetrated the worst massacre of Jewish people since the Holocaust. In this episode of WTH Extra! Dany and Marc discuss Dany’s article in the WTH Substack, Two years after October 7, there is no path to peace. Following October 7, 2023, the ideological defeat of Hamas has remained paramount to the survival of Israel. Hamas’s goal remains the same: the complete destruction of the Jewish State. Dany reminds us that what Western leaders fail to understand is that this fi...
Oct 07, 2025•46 min•Ep. 339
On this episode of WTH Extra! Dany and Marc discuss Marc’s column, Democrats shut down the government to protect covid spending, not Obamacare . In the umpteenth government shutdown in recent memory, Democrats have decided that permanent COVID subsides for healthcare, already extended and phased out by a Democrat-controlled government, are more essential than keeping the government open. But… are Republicans actually considering agreeing to D demands? And for Democrats… why another effort at sel...
Oct 03, 2025•32 min•Ep. 338
President Trump’s speech before the General Assembly has sparked debate over its style and substance, raising questions about UN organizations that do not serve American interests. As we continue to foot its ever-growing bill, the United Nations system appears to be failing in peacekeeping and security. How did Trump’s speech signal a shift in our relationship with the international organization? When will the 180-day review be released? And what should it say about long-awaited UN reform? Brett...
Oct 02, 2025•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 337
On this episode of WTH, Dany and Marc discuss the assassination of conservative activist and founder of Turning Point USA, Charlie Kirk. The problem of political violence in America has only worsened since its uptick in 2020 with compounding factors like spoken and online rhetoric and the symbiosis of the far left and mainstream. It’s inside this Petri dish that a permission structure for violence is worsening our republic and presenting a clear and present danger to our country and those who en...
Sep 24, 2025•48 min•Ep. 336
According to major news outlets, the capital of the free world is under federal occupation by Donald Trump. Here in D.C., the 30-day public emergency has expired and Pam Bondi’s “takeover” of the MPD has ended, but National Guard troops aren’t going anywhere with an extended deployment to Nov. 30th. Their presence has led to a major reduction in violent crime, but what happens when they vacate? Is this something that could or should be replicated in other cities across the country? Beyond this h...
Sep 18, 2025•56 min•Ep. 335
After splashy announcements from our European, Australian, and Canadian allies, later this month, the UN will vote to “recognize a Palestinian State”. While theatrical and without legal import, the vote can only be understood as a reward for terrorism and October 7th. Hamas and too many Palestinians have no interest in state building, institutions, democratic elections, or taking part in the “two state solution” and never have. And yet, while Hamas is still holding hostages and blocking humanita...
Sep 11, 2025•50 min•Ep. 334
The intersectional coalition the Democrats put together in 2024, comprised of the 1%, coastal, corporate, elites and the 20% on 80/20 issues, is failing to register new voters or execute at the polls. While they abandon their historic constituencies and adopt more radical left wing cultural ambitions, it’s not clear how the Democratic Party will rebuild. Between inflation and immigration, the Party has antagonized enough voters that they now face a monster structural problem for elections to com...
Sep 04, 2025•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 333
Closing out What the Hell’s summer book series, we offer a timely reminder of the value of free speech and critical thinking from a time when it wasn’t taken for granted. Charlie English discusses his book, The CIA Book Club: The Secret Mission to Win the Cold War with Forbidden Literature (Random House, 2025). Charlie chronicles George Minden’s 1980s covert intelligence operation that smuggled literature into Poland from beyond the Iron Curtain. From its Manhattan headquarters, Minden’s “book c...
Aug 28, 2025•46 min•Ep. 332
In the next episode of our annual What the Hell’s summer book series, we are time traveling around the world with experimental archeologist, Sam Kean, who shares with us his latest science narrative novel, Dinner with King Tut: How Rogue Archaeologists Are Re-creating the Sights, Sounds, Smells, and Tastes of Lost Civilizations (Little Brown and Company, 2025). Sam took us on an adventure of the senses, back through the history of mankind and across the globe, from the Egyptian pyramids to the t...
Aug 21, 2025•48 min•Ep. 331
In this episode of What the Hell’s summer book series, bestselling author, Jonathan Horn, discusses his new book, The Fate of the Generals: MacArthur, Wainwright, and the Epic Battle for the Philippines (Scribner, 2025). In it, Jonathan tells the tale of lesser-known American Pacific Theater hero, General Jonathan Wainwright. General Wainwright’s story is a lesson of the importance of keeping your word and honor. As a leader, he says, “no other course of action would be honorable but to stay wit...
Aug 14, 2025•45 min•Ep. 330
Kicking off our annual What the Hell’s summer book series, Zach Cooper discusses his new book, Tides of Fortune: The Rise and Decline of Great Militaries (Yale University Press, 2025). How will the United States and China evolve militarily in the years ahead? Many experts believe the answer to this question is largely unknowable. But in his book, Zack Cooper argues that the American and Chinese militaries are following a well-trodden path. For centuries, the world’s most powerful militaries have...
Aug 07, 2025•43 min•Ep. 329
Almost two years after the October 7th attacks, facts about the state of life in Gaza are almost impossible to glean from the daily news. Much of what used to be mainstream journalism has become political activism, and Palestinian allied NGOs, UN organizations, and international press are using selective information as a weapon. Are Palestinians starving? Or is this just another lie in the war on Israel? Matti Friedman joins us to talk about his important piece on Gaza for The Free Press. Matti ...
Jul 31, 2025•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 328
Dominic Green writes , “The war on free speech is about to violate the most sacred recesses of British life—not the home or the workplace, but the pub.” In legislation dubbed the “Banter Bill”, Parliament is attacking the center of British life in a new effort to hold employers accountable for staff’s hurt feelings over third parties “offensive language”. Under the UK’s two-tiered justice system, government is now in the service of a minority to punish perceived miscreants for free speech. How d...
Jul 24, 2025•49 min•Ep. 327
Last month, New York City took to the polls for their mayoral primary and the Democratic party has decided that a socialist, communist, terrorist supporting, antisemite, is the best candidate for mayor of New York City. Zohran Mamdani is a radical left "intersectionality salad". Between his unironic quotation of Marx to raps about the Holy Land Five, we're left wondering what New Yorkers are thinking and how Mamdani came to these "beliefs". Is this really the path out of the wilderness for the D...
Jul 17, 2025•52 min•Ep. 326
President Trump has made it clear: whichever nation is the obstacle to peace in ending Russia’s war on Ukraine will face an opponent with the military aid and backing of the United States. Putin has no intention of giving up his objectives in Ukraine and Trump is over the bull. Reversing a Pentagon freeze of critical weapons shipments to Ukraine, Trump announced Monday night that more defensive weapons were on the way. In the wake of Russia’s largest combined drone and missile strike, having Pat...
Jul 10, 2025•53 min•Ep. 325
Notwithstanding regular headlines and firm conventional wisdom, the MAGA Movement is not and never has been an isolationist faction of the Republican Party. Neither the American people nor self-identified MAGA Republicans are fundamentally isolationist, and in fact score higher than non-MAGA Republicans on support for U.S. intervention abroad. The numbers don’t lie: this year’s Reagan Foundation Summer Poll found the MAGA coalition strongly support Trump’s decision to strike Iran’s nuclear facil...
Jul 03, 2025•46 min•Ep. 324
In the wake of a decisive US strike on Iran’s nuclear weapons facilities, many questions are being asked. Did Donald Trump make the right call? What about the intelligence? Is this the start of US military action in Iran or a one-off? And what are the implications for Gaza, the region, and Iran in the coming months? Kenneth M. Pollack, PhD., is Vice President for Policy at the Middle East Institute. Previously he was a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he worked on ...
Jun 24, 2025•53 min•Ep. 323
Five days in, Israel’s battle to destroy the Islamic Republic of Iran’s nuclear weapons infrastructure continues. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched the campaign in the wake of a decision by the IAEA Board to censure Iran a resolution declaring that Iran is in breach of its non-proliferation obligations, one day past a Donald Trump imposed deadline of 60 days for Iran to agree to relinquish its uranium enrichment capabilities. Iran has responded with i...
Jun 17, 2025•59 min•Ep. 322
The aftermath of Biden’s open border policies continues to haunt America as the consequences of mass illegal immigration continue to snowball. Changing attitudes towards, net positive, productive legal migration reflects the sentiment stirred up by the surge in illegal immigration we experienced the last four years. How does this affect workforce participation and address population decline? What role does the welfare state play? How are foreign adversaries using this mess as an opportunity to e...
Jun 12, 2025•46 min•Ep. 321
Donald Trump has promised Americans that in three years, with the help of Congress’ “Big Beautiful Bill” and a $25 billion-dollar downpayment, his dreams of a golden dome protecting the nation will become a reality. Inspired by Israel’s highly successful Iron Dome, Trump has selected General Guetlein of the Space Force to lead the missile defense shield project, signaling a focus on space that is bound to ratchet up the arms race in the skies. With our adversary’s missile capabilities growing by...
Jun 05, 2025•45 min•Ep. 320
John Ondrasik is standing up for Israeli hostages in the best way he knows how. Having written and performed songs with strong social messages over the last several decades, he is responding to the horrors of Hamas’ October 7th attacks by rewriting the words to his hit song “Superman (It’s Not Easy)”. Ondrasik’s revised lyrics turn pain into resilience, but why aren’t other artists speaking out? Ondrasik has sung about 9/11, about Afghanistan, about Ukraine, and about terror attacks in Israel. B...
May 29, 2025•43 min•Ep. 319
China’s Ministry of State Security has infiltrated and is conducting espionage at all levels of Stanford University. By law, all Chinese nationals are required to report back to the Chinese Communist Party on their research and daily activities when asked. Sometimes this spying is voluntary and conducted by those who wish to see America fall behind in the global tech race. Other times, Chinese nationals are coerced into spying on their school, friends, and teachers through transnational repressi...
May 22, 2025•48 min•Ep. 318
America’s immigration law and system are broken. President Biden allowed millions of people to enter the United States illegally. And now President Trump is using obscure laws to try to fast-track a massive deportation campaign. Expedited removal and deportations without court hearings are legal and supported by the vast majority of Americans. However, members of Congress have the power to clarify immigration laws and fix a system clogged up by an influx of asylum cases – if they choose to use i...
May 15, 2025•58 min•Ep. 317
Harvard has finally released its 311-page report on the antisemitism Jewish students face on one of America’s most elite college campuses. The stories of Jews being forced to conceal outward displays of their religion, being shut out of academic and extracurricular spaces alike, and facing systemic harassment are horrifying. However, the intensity of the antisemitism at Harvard is also unsurprising. And the manner in which this report was released indicates the university has no real intention o...
May 08, 2025•43 min•Ep. 316
Gen Z may not be the liberal base of support many on the left hoped they would be. Today, there is a growing split between voters under 30, with 22-29 year olds favoring Democrats by 6.4 points and 18-21 year olds favoring Republicans by almost 12 points. As America’s youngest voters are growing up in the age of COVID lockdowns, social media, and cancel culture, conservative and MAGA ideology is emerging as the new counter-culture, giving young men in particular an opportunity to escape the worl...
May 01, 2025•45 min•Ep. 315
As President Trump continues to try to end the war in Ukraine, Russia is playing for time. For as long as the U.S. continues to support Ukraine, Russia’s military effort will remain weak and unsustainable. But if Russia is able to stall in negotiations, and degrade American and Western support for Ukraine, they could very well emerge victorious. How should Ukrainian leadership respond to continued American attempts at war-ending negotiations? And what are the consequences if America withdraws it...
Apr 24, 2025•55 min•Ep. 314
