For generations, the idea of American liberty has been synonymous with limited government and individual freedoms. Yet, since the Founding, the reach of state surveillance has grown exponentially, often shrouded in secrecy and justified by the need to fight threats to safety and security. To explore the historic choices and institutional dynamics that paved the way for the modern surveillance apparatus, Aaron Ross Powell sits down with Patrick Eddington, senior fellow at the Cato Institute and a...
Jun 12, 2025•31 min
When President Trump launched his so-called Liberation Day tariffs, he didn’t just ignite a global trade war—he may have also triggered yet another constitutional crisis. This week, first an international trade court and then a federal court ruled those tariffs unlawful, striking at the heart of Trump’s sweeping claims of executive power under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. But almost immediately, an appeals court hit pause. To help us unpack what these rapid developments mean—...
May 31, 2025•23 min
America’s Founders believed religion and liberty could not only coexist but be mutually reinforcing. Today, some influential intellectuals on the right are flatly denying that idea of alignment and arguing for society to be reordered around their vision of Christian orthodoxy. In this episode, Berny Belvedere, The UnPopulist’s senior editor, sits down with Jerome Copulsky, research fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs and, from 2016 to 2017, senior advisor at the ...
May 25, 2025•42 min
The executive branch is currently being run by an aspiring autocrat who neither respects institutional safeguards nor accepts the separation of powers. As part of his project to subsume all governmental authority under his control, he has empowered a tech billionaire to reshape and repurpose government agencies—through what they’ve called the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE—so that those agencies and their information can be weaponized for his purposes. To explain how all this ...
May 07, 2025•46 min
In a post on Truth Social on May 2, President Trump promised to “[take] away Harvard's Tax Exempt Status,” because, “it's what they deserve!" While Trump may succeed in initiating such an action, our guest today doubts it will last, due to a long history of Supreme Court precedence regarding the tax code’s application to private institutions. Speaking with the director of Executive Watch, Rob Tracinski is New York Times columnist David French. They discuss the Trump administration’s hypocritical...
May 04, 2025•49 min
Immigration policy has long been a battlefield for ideological disputes. But what we’re witnessing during Trump’s second term isn't just a debate over border security or visa policy. It’s an attempt to reconfigure the U.S. immigration system into a tool for authoritarian governance—an assault not only on due process, but on the foundational belief that laws must constrain power. Joining Shikha Dalmia is immigration expert and senior fellow at the American Immigration Council Dara Lind. Together,...
Apr 26, 2025•48 min
In a piece for our new project Executive Watch, Walter Olson, senior fellow at the Cato Institute’s Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies, clarified the dangers of a recent presidential memo from the Trump administration, which accuses prominent law firms of “grossly unethical misconduct” and threatens them with severe penalties—such as revoking security clearances and cutting off federal contracts Speaking with the director of Executive Watch, Rob Tracinski, Olson explains how, under...
Apr 02, 2025•35 min
For much of American history, Christianity has played a crucial role in shaping the nation’s moral framework. But as political and religious identities become more entangled, has the church strayed from its traditional role as a moral anchor? And can it find its way back? To explore these pressing questions, Berny Belvedere sits down with Jonathan Rauch, author of the new book, Cross Purposes: Christianity’s Broken Bargain with Democracy . Together, they examine how the historic relationship bet...
Mar 24, 2025•1 hr 1 min
For years, traditional media—newspapers, cable news, and radio—dominated the political conversation. These were the institutions that shaped public discourse, set the agenda, and determined which ideas gained traction. But as the digital ecosystem evolved, a parallel and sometimes overlapping infrastructure emerged—one where influencers, niche content creators, and algorithmically curated feeds have redefined how people engage with information. To understand this evolution, host Aaron Ross Powel...
Feb 23, 2025•44 min
We have entered another Trump term, and the political landscape has shifted in ways that challenge the very foundations of our liberal democracy. With unprecedented executive power and a growing ecosystem of loyalists surrounding the president, we must ask: What happens when political institutions are no longer able to constrain a populist authoritarian president’s ambitions? And how do institutions, the media, and civil society respond? Today, The UnPopulist’s editor-in-chief Shikha Dalmia is j...
Jan 26, 2025•53 min
Does Christianity, or the Christian Bible, endorse a particular social configuration? What happens when faith communities tie their identity to political power? And can liberalism, with its emphasis on individual liberty and mutual respect, offer a path forward in a time of heightened polarization? Today, Berny Belvedere, The UnPopulist’s senior editor, is joined by Russell Moore, who is editor-in-chief at Christianity Today , to discuss all of this and more. Whether you’re a believer, a skeptic...
Dec 22, 2024•47 min
What happens when the ideals of democracy are used to justify its own erosion? Can liberal democracy endure in an era where its strongest proponents appear to embrace the very authoritarianism they once opposed? In this episode, The UnPopulist ’s editor-in-chief Shikha Dalmia is joined by Zack Beauchamp, senior writer at Vox . They discuss why authoritarian leaders often present themselves as champions of democracy and how they use democratic language to consolidate power, and delve into topics ...
Nov 24, 2024•52 min
Today, our senior editor Berny Belvedere is joined by Shikha Dalmia, Editor-in-Chief of The UnPopulist , and columnist Andy Craig, as they dive into the reactions and political dynamics of a pivotal election. Following Trump's decisive comeback, they confront the profound societal and electoral shifts that made it possible, exploring everything from the anti-incumbent sentiment driving voter behavior to the challenges the Democratic Party faces in effectively messaging to a skeptical electorate....
Nov 10, 2024•47 min
Today, we’re excited to welcome back The UnPopulist ’s editor-at-large, Tom Shull. The last time we spoke with Tom was back in January, when he shared insights from the groundbreaking survey he developed for the Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism, the publisher of The UnPopulist , focused on populist attitudes and beliefs in the electorate. Now, nine months later, Tom is going to walk us through the results of a new, even more comprehensive survey. His essay summarizing some of t...
Oct 01, 2024•46 min
Today on Zooming In at The UnPopulist , we’re diving into one of the most pressing issues of our time: free speech. Our host Aaron Ross Powell is joined by a special guest, Ken White—better known online as Popehat—a First Amendment expert, seasoned criminal defense attorney, civil litigator, and cohost of the Serious Trouble podcast. Together, they’ll explore some of the most pressing questions in free speech discourse today: Have we become too quick to label some speech as offensive? Are we ide...
Sep 08, 2024•37 min
Earlier this summer, the German far-right party Alternative for Germany, or AfD, came in second place in Germany’s European Parliament elections, despite Germany’s postwar aversion to far-right populism. The AfD is known for inflammatory rhetoric about migrants and other marginalized people, and recently a member aided and assisted a full-blown coup attempt against the government … sound familiar? On today’s episode, host Aaron Ross Powell is joined by UnPopulist contributor Tim Ganser to discus...
Aug 04, 2024•25 min
Listen to Zooming In at The UnPopulist in your favorite podcast app: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | RSS | YouTube Landry Ayres: Welcome to Zooming In at The UnPopulist . I’m Landry Ayres. As the 2024 election draws nearer and Donald Trump’s second-term plans come into greater focus, critics of his, across the ideological spectrum, are torn as to whether Trump’s movement is continuous with historical fascism. Does the dreaded “f”-word apply to him? Or is it an unhelpful exaggeration...
Jun 23, 2024•39 min
On today's episode, The UnPopulist 's editor-in-chief Shikha Dalmia and senior editor Berny Belvedere are joined by guest Ian Bassin. Ian previously served as Associate White House Counsel under President Obama and is the founder and Executive Director at Protect Democracy , a cross-ideological coalition defending America’s system of government against the threat of authoritarianism. They discuss the challenges of recognizing and addressing threats to democracy when they don't fit traditional na...
May 06, 2024•55 min
On today episode, Aaron Ross Powell is joined by guest Richard Rothstein , a Distinguished Fellow of the Economic Policy Institute and a Senior Fellow (emeritus) at the Thurgood Marshall Institute of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund . He is the author of The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America . His latest book is Just Action: How to Challenge Segregation Enacted Under the Color of Law . He and Aaron discuss the root of America's modern segregation, the role of...
Apr 21, 2024•31 min
On today’s episode, Aaron Powell interviews Rachel Kleinfeld, a senior fellow in the Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace , a member of the Board of Directors at the National Endowment for Democracy , and a trustee of Freedom House . She recently authored a piece at The UnPopulist titled, “ Right-Wing Populists Are Just as Bad for Business as Left-Wing Ones ,” in which she outlines the folly and falsehoods that form the foundation of popul...
Apr 14, 2024•38 min
On today’s episode, The UnPopulist’s editor-in-chief Shikha Dalmia and senior editor Berny Belvedere are joined by Matt Yglesias. Matt is a journalist, blogger, and podcaster who’s written for The Atlantic and Slate . He’s also a co-founder of Vox and now writes his daily Substack newsletter Slow Boring , which is dedicated to realizing a better world through rigorous conversations and a spirit of pragmatism. Matt joins us to discuss the media’s adversarial role in politics, how polarization and...
Apr 07, 2024•52 min
It’s official: NATO has officially grown yet again. The international alliance now boasts 32 member states following the most recent additions of Finland and, as of this week, Sweden. But what are these Nordic neighbors getting into? Today we have the pleasure of bringing you a conversation between our Editor in Chief Shikha Dalmia and Senior Editor Berny Belvedere. While they have different positions on the benefits of NATO, this episode is less of a debate and more a conversation discussing th...
Mar 14, 2024•47 min
On our last episode, we heard from UnPopulist columnist and Director of Election Policy the Rainey Center Andy Craig on why he believes removing Donald Trump from the 2024 presidential ballot is, in fact, not anti-democratic. Today, we wanted to give you the opportunity to hear a counter-argument. Today’s debate, which features both Andy and, for the opposition, the Washington Post’s Jason Willick, is not filled with bad-faith interruptions, name-calling, or any of the other shallow chaos associ...
Feb 18, 2024•43 min
At the very end of last year, Donald Trump's presidential campaign hit a large roadblock when the Colorado State Supreme Court ruled him ineligible for the office under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, also known as the Insurrection Clause, due to his actions during January 6th. While many of his opponents praised this decision as justice finally taking course, there has of course been backlash. A major complaint about the decision to take him off the ballot is that doing so would be anti-democr...
Jan 28, 2024•55 min
The Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism, the nonprofit parent organization of The UnPopulist, recently fielded a survey to measure populist attitudes among Americans. The poll of 1,000 respondents was administered nationwide from November 17th to the 27th 2023, as a supplement to the weekly America's Political Pulse Survey conducted by the Dartmouth-based Polarization Research Lab. Last week, The UnPopulist published its findings, and they're fascinating. On today's episode, host ...
Jan 22, 2024•52 min
Aaron Ross Powell: Welcome to Zooming In, a project of The UnPopulist . I'm Aaron Ross Powell. I'm joined today by my colleagues, Shikha Dalmia and Akiva Malamet for our editors' round table. Recent reporting has uncovered plans by Trump allies, and Trumpist think tanks, and other organizations to deconstruct the administrative state. A transcript of today’s podcast appears below. It has been edited for flow and clarity. Aaron Ross Powell: I think all of us agree that the administrative state is...
Dec 03, 2023•32 min
Listen to Zooming In at The UnPopulist in your favorite podcast app: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | RSS Aaron: Welcome to Zooming In, a project of The UnPopulist. I'm Aaron Ross Powell. Repressive regimes don't like critics, and they aren't satisfied to let their repression stop at the border. When they set their sights on threatening, coercing, or even killing critics who have fled to other countries, it's called transnational repression. My guest today is Annie Boyajian , Vice Pr...
Nov 27, 2023•31 min
Listen to Zooming In at The UnPopulist in your favorite podcast app: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | RSS Aaron Ross Powell: Welcome to Zooming In from The UnPopulist. I'm Aaron Ross Powell. Joining me today is Berny Belvedere, the new senior editor at The UnPopulist. We're going to chat today about the state of politics and the defense of liberalism. A transcript of today’s podcast appears below. It has been edited for flow and clarity. Aaron Ross Powell: Berny, let's maybe start wi...
Nov 12, 2023•38 min
Listen to Zooming In at The UnPopulist in your favorite podcast app: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | RSS Aaron Ross Powell: Welcome to Zooming In, a project of The UnPopulist . I’m Aaron Ross Powell. My guest today is George Mason University law professor and B. Kenneth Simon Chair in Constitutional Studies at the Cato Institute, Ilya Somin . Ilya recently wrote an article for The UnPopulist about the state of the Supreme Court—whether it’s become more politicized than it used to be...
Sep 30, 2023•39 min
Listen to Zooming In at The UnPopulist in your favorite podcast app: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | RSS Aaron Ross Powell: Welcome to The UnPopulist Editor's Roundtable at Zooming In . I'm Aaron Ross Powell. It's our birthday. The UnPopulist is now in its terrible twos, and so today I'm joined by my colleagues Shikha Dalmia and Akiva Malamet to give a progress report on what we've accomplished in these last two years and where we see the current state of liberalism. A transcript of...
Sep 18, 2023•48 min
