Bradley Lectures Podcast

Should we impose term limits on members of Congress? Should we drastically expand the size of the House of Representatives? Are Republicans republicans and Democrats democrats? 

Jonah Goldberg joins the show to discuss George Will’s Bradley Lecture, how Dr. Will humbled Young Jonah with an answer that launched a thousand op-eds, and to ruminate on political questions big and small.

The late 20th century brought into existence a new species of moneyed elite. This highly educated nouveau riche combined traditional bourgeois ethic with bohemian tastes to form a new species that David Brooks called the “Bobo.”

What became of the Bobos, and how does their legacy live on — or not — in today’s elite? Factual Feminist Christina Hoff Sommers joins “The Bradley Lectures Podcast” to femsplain how Brooks’ observations can help us better understand today’s social and political elites.

This lecture was originally delivered in May 2000.

From Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France to Yuval Levin’s new book, A Time to Build, conservatives have long been fascinated by the relationship between the American individual, state, and mediating institutions. Building properly-functioning institutions of all kinds – media, religious, or educational — is crucial to the politics and social lives of a self-governing people.

David Gelernter, Yale computer scientist and polymath, addresses the lack of institutions that would challenge growing left-wing domination of the cultural and educational landscapes. His Bradley Lecture, “New Institutions for a New Cultural Establishment,” examines with incisive wit how the center-right can build the institutions they need most.  

This lecture was originally delivered in October 1996.

Decades prior to today’s political arguments about “coastal elites” misunderstanding “flyover country,” film critic, author, and talk show host Michael Medved made a cultural argument. Medved contended that the cloistered cultures of Hollywood were unresponsive to market demands, and chose to push a narrative—one that would not serve their own financial interests —  about religion, the US, and the human condition.

Will Baird joins the podcast once again to discuss the themes that drew Medved’s ire, the conservative case for irreverence in film, and whether there’s something truly the matter with the film industry in Hollywood.

This lecture was originally delivered in January 1993.

Prolific historian, author, and social critic Gertrude Himmelfarb (1922–2019) leaves behind a legacy of scholarship transcending time and place. Her insights into the past, such as her studies of Victorian England, help fashion a worldview for the present, one emphasizing virtue, truth-seeking, and humility.

AEI Senior Fellow Karlyn Bowman joins the podcast to

memorialize Dr. Himmelfarb and discuss what lessons her life and works hold for

future generations.

This lecture was originally delivered in October 2008.

Gertrude Himmelfarb’s other Bradley Lectures:

* From Hegel to Marx to Lenin (1990)* From Victorian Virtues to Modern Values (1995)

“In my business,” explained one immigrant entrepreneur in the mid-1930s, “I am the best economist.” So went the argument against centralized power acting for what it believed to be the common good. Knowledge is too diffuse for a command economy to function – just one lesson among many that historian and author Amity Shlaes gleaned from her study of New Deal administration and compiled into her 2004 Bradley Lecture, “The New Deal and Class Warfare.”

This lecture was originally delivered in April 2004.

The first Amendment to the Constitution provides that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” 200 years after its ratification, the Supreme Court determined that a nonsectarian prayer at a public high school’s graduation ceremony violated the Establishment Clause, and was not protected under the Free Exercise Clause. It was a puzzling decision for those who understood the centrality of religion to public life throughout American history.

University of Chicago Law professor Michael W. McConnell, later a federal judge, was among the puzzled. He endeavored to trace the impulse to turn “freedom of religion” into “freedom from religion” in the public square. AEI Visiting Fellow and religious freedom expert Ramesh Ponnuru joins the podcast to discuss McConnell’s argument, First Amendment Jurisprudence since the early 1990s, and ongoing threats to religious life in America today.

This lecture was originally delivered in September 1992.

Listen to the full lecture here.

In 2019, everyone from seven-time NBA All-Star James Harden to the writers of South Park has something to say about China. The narrative is fairly simple: China is an economic behemoth, full of billions of consumers ready to support American business – as long as said business keeps quiet about Chinese authoritarianism and human rights abuses.

Almost twenty years ago, after China liberalized much of its economy and opened up to foreign investment, Arthur Waldron spoke of the paths its government might choose. Chinese economic liberalization could be followed by political liberalization, or it could double down on authoritarianism and militarization. Waldron’s Bradley Lecture, “China after Communism,” explores those very themes – and cuts to the heart of what it means to be a free, democratic country.

This lecture was originally delivered in September 2000.

Listen to the full lecture here.

College campuses play a central role in shaping the thinking of future leaders and current public intellectuals. But starting in the 1990’s, campuses took a strange tack, engaging in more banning than shaping. Speech codes developed by shadowy bureaucracies restricted activities that might offend – whether speech, laughter, or even pinning up a calendar.

Professor Alan Kors shines a light on the draconian codes of the ‘shadow university,’ explaining the origins of this “betrayal of liberty,” and makes the renewed case for robust First Amendment protections for all Americans – even college students.

This lecture was originally delivered in October 1998 .

Listen to the full lecture here. 

Are we doomed? Probably. But the reason for that doom depends on whom you ask. If you ask a candidate at a recent Democratic town hall event on climate change, we might be doomed because our planet cannot sustain current population levels. But if you ask writer Jonathan V. Last, he will write a book explaining why the opposite is true: We need higher fertility rates to fend off the disastrous economic, social, and even environmental consequences of dwindling population levels.

Lyman Stone – AEI fellow, demographer, and unabashed baby-supporter – joins the podcast to discuss Last’s Bradley Lecture, “What to expect when no one’s expecting.”

This lecture was originally delivered in February 2013.

To read Lyman Stone’s report, “Declining fertility in America“, click here.