Bright Minds: from the John Adams Institute

Edward Luce has spent decades chronicling America's slow transition from the undisputed architect of the postwar order into something less certain of its own role. He is the Financial Times' U.S. National Editor, a former speechwriter in the Clinton Treasury Department, and the author of The Retreat of Western Liberalism and Zbig: The Life of Zbigniew Brzezinski, America's Cold War Prophet. The latter is a biography of the Cold War strategist who understood earlier than most that the American century would not simply extend itself indefinitely.

In this conversation, recorded in the tense aftermath of the 2026 Munich Security Conference, he draws on that longer arc to make a case that reaches back well before the current moment: that the alliance system built in the ashes of 1945 was never just a strategy, but an extension of how America understood its own role in the world — and that the uncertainty visible abroad today has been building since the Cold War's end, across different administrations.

He traces America's slide from unipolar confidence to a multipolarity Brzezinski saw coming, and mourns the disappearance of strategists willing to think in decades rather than news cycles. His sharpest claim: America is a creedal nation, and its unresolved fight over what that creed means is what makes its current foreign policy so volatile.

Is that argument still legible on the ground? Anna van Zoest, Director of the Netherlands Atlantic Association and a principal organizer of NATO's 2025 Public Forum, brings it back to the summit she's just returned from in Ankara — testing whether the alliance still carries the weight of the thinking that built it, and what happens to a system built abroad as a mirror of American belief once that belief is shaken.

Out of Many, One Idea marks America's 250th anniversary by asking whether a nation still working out what it stands for can keep building a world that depends on it.

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The John Adams Institute is Amsterdam’s home for independent American thought. John Adams himself said “Let us tenderly and kindly cherish...the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write.” For four decades, we have amassed a unique archive of great thinkers, speakers and writers, from Toni Morrison to Timothy Snyder, and from Jane Fonda to Jill Lepore. It has been our pleasure to share this treasure trove of thought and word with you. 

In this exclusive miniseries, we’re sitting down with a few prominent voices from both sides of the Atlantic to take stock of the United States, two hundred and fifty years into its experiment in self-governance. We believe John Adams would have wanted it that way – in fact he explained as much in a letter to his wife, Abigail, on 3 July 1776; 

“I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival.”  And so, from Amsterdam, it’s Bright Minds; Out of Many, One?  the podcast from the Adams Institute! If you’re a friend of free thinking and the communities that support it, please, become a member. Our independence is something we cherish, and it comes with a cost. The John Adams is an independent foundation without structural subsidy, and there’s always room at our table for more.

Click here to find out about sponsorship or becoming a member...

Nancy Pelosi spent nearly two decades as the most powerful woman in American political history — the first female Speaker of the House of Representatives, twice over, steering the country through the financial crisis, the passage of the Affordable Care Act, and the certification of an election under siege on January 6th. In this conversation, she reflects on that career as a case study in the institution itself: what it takes to hold a fractious caucus together, what she learned seeing America through the eyes of colleagues who see it differently, and what she still believes those in Congress owe the voters who sent them to Washington.

Beneath the career retrospective runs the argument that matters most: that belief in the republic must to outlast the evidence against it — that every hard call along the way was worth its cost — which is how she arrives, again and again, at the same hopeful place: the flag is still there.

Is that earned, or is it the sentence Americans reach for so they don't have to ask what happens if it isn't? Casper Thomas, who spent years reporting on American politics for a Dutch audience, for both the Het Financieele Dagblad and de Groene Amsterdammer, takes up the question directly. He names the contradiction Pelosi doesn't quite resolve — a Congress unified overseas, hollowed out at home — and tests "win the election" against what actually happened the last time Democrats did exactly that. Drawing on a recent trip back to the U.S. that surprised him, we ask whether Pelosi's allusion to imagery of the national anthem  is resilience, or simply reliance on stale folklore.

Out of Many, One Republic marks America's 250th anniversary by asking what actually holds a republic together once the founding generation is gone — and whether trust, once broken, can still be rebuilt from within the institutional structure itself.

Support the show

The John Adams Institute is Amsterdam’s home for independent American thought. John Adams himself said “Let us tenderly and kindly cherish...the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write.” For four decades, we have amassed a unique archive of great thinkers, speakers and writers, from Toni Morrison to Timothy Snyder, and from Jane Fonda to Jill Lepore. It has been our pleasure to share this treasure trove of thought and word with you. 

In this exclusive miniseries, we’re sitting down with a few prominent voices from both sides of the Atlantic to take stock of the United States, two hundred and fifty years into its experiment in self-governance. We believe John Adams would have wanted it that way – in fact he explained as much in a letter to his wife, Abigail, on 3 July 1776; 

“I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival.”  And so, from Amsterdam, it’s Bright Minds; Out of Many, One?  the podcast from the Adams Institute! If you’re a friend of free thinking and the communities that support it, please, become a member. Our independence is something we cherish, and it comes with a cost. The John Adams is an independent foundation without structural subsidy, and there’s always room at our table for more.

Click here to find out about sponsorship or becoming a member...

Former U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón makes an argument that gets lost in most anniversary programming: that art does something political language simply can't — that attention, joy, and grief aren't distractions from the American experiment but its actual substance. In a moment she describes as defined by the theft of imagination, she makes the case that a single poem, a single act of noticing, is itself a civic act.

What does that look like when someone has to build it into an actual room? Annabel Birnie, director of Amsterdam's H'ART Museum, takes up the question directly. Drawing on two exhibitions she's currently running — David Levinthal's American Myth & Memory and Radical Histories: Chicano Prints — she reflects on holding love and criticism of a country in the same space, and on what 35 years in Amsterdam, still hesitant to call herself an Amsterdammer, taught her about belonging that Limón's poems gesture toward.

Out of Many, One Voice marks America's 250th anniversary by exploring what binds a nation together, and how the many voices that compose it give that nation meaning.

Support the show

The John Adams Institute is Amsterdam’s home for independent American thought. John Adams himself said “Let us tenderly and kindly cherish...the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write.” For four decades, we have amassed a unique archive of great thinkers, speakers and writers, from Toni Morrison to Timothy Snyder, and from Jane Fonda to Jill Lepore. It has been our pleasure to share this treasure trove of thought and word with you. 

In this exclusive miniseries, we’re sitting down with a few prominent voices from both sides of the Atlantic to take stock of the United States, two hundred and fifty years into its experiment in self-governance. We believe John Adams would have wanted it that way – in fact he explained as much in a letter to his wife, Abigail, on 3 July 1776; 

“I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival.”  And so, from Amsterdam, it’s Bright Minds; Out of Many, One?  the podcast from the Adams Institute! If you’re a friend of free thinking and the communities that support it, please, become a member. Our independence is something we cherish, and it comes with a cost. The John Adams is an independent foundation without structural subsidy, and there’s always room at our table for more.

Click here to find out about sponsorship or becoming a member...

The John Adams Institute is Amsterdam's home for independent American thought. John Adams himself said, "Let us tenderly and kindly cherish... the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write." For four decades, we have amassed a unique archive of great thinkers, speakers and writers, from Toni Morrison to Timothy Snyder, and from Jane Fonda to Jill Lepore. It has been our pleasure to share this treasure trove of thought and word with you. 

In this exclusive miniseries, we're sitting down with a few prominent voices from both sides of the Atlantic to take stock of the United States, two hundred and fifty years into its experiment in self-governance. Across these conversations, you'll hear from Ada Limón, former U.S. Poet Laureate, on art, identity, and the burden of speaking for a country; Nancy Pelosi, Speaker Emerita of the House, on the founding promise of American democracy and the gap between promise and practice; and Edward Luce of the Financial Times, on America as a creedal nation—the fragile idea holding it together at home, and what its fracturing means for its place in the world. 

We believe John Adams would have wanted it that way—in fact, he explained as much in a letter to his wife, Abigail, on 3 July 1776: 

"I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival." 

And so, from Amsterdam, it's Bright Minds; Out of Many, One?—the podcast from the John Adams Institute. 

If you're a friend of free thinking and the communities that support it, please become a member. Our independence is something we cherish, and it comes with a cost. The John Adams Institute is an independent foundation without structural subsidy, and there's always room at our table for more. 

Click here to find out about sponsorship or becoming a member.

Support the show

The John Adams Institute is Amsterdam’s home for independent American thought. John Adams himself said “Let us tenderly and kindly cherish...the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write.” For four decades, we have amassed a unique archive of great thinkers, speakers and writers, from Toni Morrison to Timothy Snyder, and from Jane Fonda to Jill Lepore. It has been our pleasure to share this treasure trove of thought and word with you. 

In this exclusive miniseries, we’re sitting down with a few prominent voices from both sides of the Atlantic to take stock of the United States, two hundred and fifty years into its experiment in self-governance. We believe John Adams would have wanted it that way – in fact he explained as much in a letter to his wife, Abigail, on 3 July 1776; 

“I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival.”  And so, from Amsterdam, it’s Bright Minds; Out of Many, One?  the podcast from the Adams Institute! If you’re a friend of free thinking and the communities that support it, please, become a member. Our independence is something we cherish, and it comes with a cost. The John Adams is an independent foundation without structural subsidy, and there’s always room at our table for more.

Click here to find out about sponsorship or becoming a member...

Alice Walker is an internationally celebrated author, poet and activist whose books included novels, collections of short stories, children’s books, and volumes of essays and poetry. Her best known novel, The Color Purple, was adapted by Steven Spielberg into  a major motion picture. In 1992 she spoke at the John Adams Institute about her novel Possessing the Secret of Joy, about the devastating effects of female genital mutilation. The evening was mostly devoted to Ms. Walker’s readings, followed by a Q&A with the audience that unfortunately did not survive the recording. But the sound of her voice, her reading and her work are still very powerful.

This event took place on October 23, 1992 at the Aula of the UvA in Amsterdam.

Visit our website for more info on events by the John Adams Institute or click here to become a member.

Support the show

The John Adams Institute is Amsterdam’s home for independent American thought. John Adams himself said “Let us tenderly and kindly cherish...the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write.” For four decades, we have amassed a unique archive of great thinkers, speakers and writers, from Toni Morrison to Timothy Snyder, and from Jane Fonda to Jill Lepore. It has been our pleasure to share this treasure trove of thought and word with you. 

In this exclusive miniseries, we’re sitting down with a few prominent voices from both sides of the Atlantic to take stock of the United States, two hundred and fifty years into its experiment in self-governance. We believe John Adams would have wanted it that way – in fact he explained as much in a letter to his wife, Abigail, on 3 July 1776; 

“I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival.”  And so, from Amsterdam, it’s Bright Minds; Out of Many, One?  the podcast from the Adams Institute! If you’re a friend of free thinking and the communities that support it, please, become a member. Our independence is something we cherish, and it comes with a cost. The John Adams is an independent foundation without structural subsidy, and there’s always room at our table for more.

Click here to find out about sponsorship or becoming a member...

Kim Stanley Robinson is the author of 22 novels of speculative and science fiction. The Ministry for the Future is set in the near future in which the world is suffering the disastrous consequences of climate change. But it also details the steps humanity takes to mitigate them. It is ultimately an optimistic story about technological and political innovation.

The Ministry for the Future reaffirms Robinson’s unique ability to weave science and storytelling into a compelling tool, offering thought-provoking solutions that often get lost amidst the highly polarized debate about how to best tackle this life-threatening problem.
 
This interview was moderated by Wouter van Noort and recorded at The Duif in Amsterdam on November 8, 2023. Co-speakers: Lisa Doeland and prof. Dr. Heleen de Conink.

Click here to read more on how to support the John Adams Institute. 

Support the show

The John Adams Institute is Amsterdam’s home for independent American thought. John Adams himself said “Let us tenderly and kindly cherish...the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write.” For four decades, we have amassed a unique archive of great thinkers, speakers and writers, from Toni Morrison to Timothy Snyder, and from Jane Fonda to Jill Lepore. It has been our pleasure to share this treasure trove of thought and word with you. 

In this exclusive miniseries, we’re sitting down with a few prominent voices from both sides of the Atlantic to take stock of the United States, two hundred and fifty years into its experiment in self-governance. We believe John Adams would have wanted it that way – in fact he explained as much in a letter to his wife, Abigail, on 3 July 1776; 

“I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival.”  And so, from Amsterdam, it’s Bright Minds; Out of Many, One?  the podcast from the Adams Institute! If you’re a friend of free thinking and the communities that support it, please, become a member. Our independence is something we cherish, and it comes with a cost. The John Adams is an independent foundation without structural subsidy, and there’s always room at our table for more.

Click here to find out about sponsorship or becoming a member...

In South Carolina in the 1850s, an enslaved woman named Rose gives a simple cotton bag to her daughter Ashley. Ashley is about to be separated from her mother, sold as chattel to the highest bidder. The bag contains all her worldly possessions, and precious reminders about her family.

From Harvard historian and National Book Award-winning author Tiya Miles comes All That She Carried. Blending first-class historical research and literary creativity, Miles' book traces Ashley’s Sack through the ages, and with it, the story of a Black family during slavery, and of a people and a nation.

This conversation took place at Het Scheepvaartmuseum in Amsterdam om June 17, 2024. Moderation by Jennifer Tosch.

Click here to find out what more about the John Adams Institute and become a member.

Support the show

The John Adams Institute is Amsterdam’s home for independent American thought. John Adams himself said “Let us tenderly and kindly cherish...the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write.” For four decades, we have amassed a unique archive of great thinkers, speakers and writers, from Toni Morrison to Timothy Snyder, and from Jane Fonda to Jill Lepore. It has been our pleasure to share this treasure trove of thought and word with you. 

In this exclusive miniseries, we’re sitting down with a few prominent voices from both sides of the Atlantic to take stock of the United States, two hundred and fifty years into its experiment in self-governance. We believe John Adams would have wanted it that way – in fact he explained as much in a letter to his wife, Abigail, on 3 July 1776; 

“I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival.”  And so, from Amsterdam, it’s Bright Minds; Out of Many, One?  the podcast from the Adams Institute! If you’re a friend of free thinking and the communities that support it, please, become a member. Our independence is something we cherish, and it comes with a cost. The John Adams is an independent foundation without structural subsidy, and there’s always room at our table for more.

Click here to find out about sponsorship or becoming a member...

In 2018, the tech and democracy activist Yaël Eisenstat joined Facebook as the head of Global Elections Integrity for political ads. Six months later, she left. She was disappointed and disillusioned at how Facebook financially profits from voter manipulation. This, of course, was years before Mark Zuckerberg's recent announcement that Facebook’s parent company, Meta, would get rid of all its fact checkers.

Before joining Facebook, she had worked for years to strengthen and defend democracy—as an intelligence officer at the CIA, a diplomat at the State Department and a White House advisor. These days Eisenstat is a Senior Fellow at Cybersecurity for Democracy, working on policy solutions for how social media, AI-powered algorithms and generative AI affect political discourse, polarization and democracy.

And, as she told our Amsterdam audience on Apri 23, 2024 at Pakhuis de Zwijger, she’s hopeful that change will come one day. But it will be slow. Very slow.

The evening was hosted by the chair of the Foundation for Democracy and Media, Yvonne Zonderop. Click here for the video of the event.

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Support the show

The John Adams Institute is Amsterdam’s home for independent American thought. John Adams himself said “Let us tenderly and kindly cherish...the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write.” For four decades, we have amassed a unique archive of great thinkers, speakers and writers, from Toni Morrison to Timothy Snyder, and from Jane Fonda to Jill Lepore. It has been our pleasure to share this treasure trove of thought and word with you. 

In this exclusive miniseries, we’re sitting down with a few prominent voices from both sides of the Atlantic to take stock of the United States, two hundred and fifty years into its experiment in self-governance. We believe John Adams would have wanted it that way – in fact he explained as much in a letter to his wife, Abigail, on 3 July 1776; 

“I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival.”  And so, from Amsterdam, it’s Bright Minds; Out of Many, One?  the podcast from the Adams Institute! If you’re a friend of free thinking and the communities that support it, please, become a member. Our independence is something we cherish, and it comes with a cost. The John Adams is an independent foundation without structural subsidy, and there’s always room at our table for more.

Click here to find out about sponsorship or becoming a member...

A gem rescued from the archives! We are re-releasing the Toni Morrison episode after cleaning up the audio.

Toni Morrison writes about history, slavery, racism, resilience and survival with an unflinching voice. Her novels, once a staple of every American school bookshelf, are now the targets of politically motivated reviews and book bannings.

Despite this, there is no getting around the fact that she was one of America’s greatest writers. Before her death in 2019, her oeuvre stretched out over almost four decades. Her debut novel, The Bluest Eye, in 1970, already showed her ear for dialogue, and richly expressive depictions of African American struggles. In 2009, she came to Amsterdam on the strength of her book, A Mercy, which made the New York Times Book Review Top Ten of 2008.

She read a passage for us from “A Mercy”. Although physically frail, her mind was sharp during her conversation with the Dutch novelist, playwright and translator, Bas Heine (May 20th, 2009 at the Aula of the UvA in Amsterdam).

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Support the show

The John Adams Institute is Amsterdam’s home for independent American thought. John Adams himself said “Let us tenderly and kindly cherish...the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write.” For four decades, we have amassed a unique archive of great thinkers, speakers and writers, from Toni Morrison to Timothy Snyder, and from Jane Fonda to Jill Lepore. It has been our pleasure to share this treasure trove of thought and word with you. 

In this exclusive miniseries, we’re sitting down with a few prominent voices from both sides of the Atlantic to take stock of the United States, two hundred and fifty years into its experiment in self-governance. We believe John Adams would have wanted it that way – in fact he explained as much in a letter to his wife, Abigail, on 3 July 1776; 

“I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival.”  And so, from Amsterdam, it’s Bright Minds; Out of Many, One?  the podcast from the Adams Institute! If you’re a friend of free thinking and the communities that support it, please, become a member. Our independence is something we cherish, and it comes with a cost. The John Adams is an independent foundation without structural subsidy, and there’s always room at our table for more.

Click here to find out about sponsorship or becoming a member...

Ivo Daalder is a Dutch born American citizen, who became  the U.S. representative to NATO from 2009 to 2013 under President Barack Obama and was a foreign policy advisor for his 2008 presidential campaign. He also served in the United States Security Council during the Clinton administration. He’s now the CEO of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

The John Adams Institute and the Netherlands Atlantic Association welcomed Ivo Daalder back to the land of his birth in celebration of the 75th anniversary of the North American Treaty Organization, or NATO.

The world has changed immensely since the end of the cold war it was created to fight. There’s war on its Eastern front and a potential conflict with China. And Donald Trump, ever suspicious of NATO,  is president again. Indeed, governments all over the western world have made a significant populist rightward shift. In this conversation moderated by Dutch journalist Eelco Bosch van Rosenthal, Mr. Daalder says the stakes for NATO have never been higher, and that maybe even liberal democracy itself  hangs in the balance.

Recorded on September 16, 2024 at the Dominicuskerk in Amsterdam. Click here for the video, or visit our digital library and scroll through our rich archive.

Support the show

The John Adams Institute is Amsterdam’s home for independent American thought. John Adams himself said “Let us tenderly and kindly cherish...the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write.” For four decades, we have amassed a unique archive of great thinkers, speakers and writers, from Toni Morrison to Timothy Snyder, and from Jane Fonda to Jill Lepore. It has been our pleasure to share this treasure trove of thought and word with you. 

In this exclusive miniseries, we’re sitting down with a few prominent voices from both sides of the Atlantic to take stock of the United States, two hundred and fifty years into its experiment in self-governance. We believe John Adams would have wanted it that way – in fact he explained as much in a letter to his wife, Abigail, on 3 July 1776; 

“I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival.”  And so, from Amsterdam, it’s Bright Minds; Out of Many, One?  the podcast from the Adams Institute! If you’re a friend of free thinking and the communities that support it, please, become a member. Our independence is something we cherish, and it comes with a cost. The John Adams is an independent foundation without structural subsidy, and there’s always room at our table for more.

Click here to find out about sponsorship or becoming a member...