From Amsterdam...this is the John Adams Podcast, a treasure trove of the best and the brightest of American thinking. 

This week’s guest is indeed one of the brightest:  Francis Fukuyama, the writer, thinker and teacher.  You may remember him from his book: "The End of History", where he proclaimed the triumph of liberal democracy as something of a societal finish line.

Well, he does NOT think that anymore. What changed his mind?  The election of Donald Trump, among others. 

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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...

This week’s guest is Megan Twohey, whose book about Harvey Weinstein’s  sexual abuse of women in Hollywood was also, as she put it, “an X-ray into the abuse of power”.  The #metoo movement really got going after New York Times journalists Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor published their investigative articles about Harvey Weinstein. 

They followed with  their  book, “She Said”, which dives deep, not just into Harvey Weinstein’s decades long alleged sexual predation, but also the failures of the system that let it happen. Some have called “She Said” the feminist “All the President’s Men”.

Back in 2019, Megan Twohey gave the John Adams an interview that was almost like a crime procedural.  She detailed how you piece together an investigation into someone powerful who was determined to undermine you every step of the way. 

It’s a tale of harassment, spies, failures of the legal system and, ultimately, the triumphant power of the truth to actually make change.  The Dutch journalist Joyce Roodnat interviewed Megan Twohey in front of a packed audience at the University of Amsterdam. 

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...

Seven years ago, Garry Kasparov came to Amsterdam and predicted the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He also described Vladimir Putin’s psychology and motivations in a way that you hear in every current affairs program nowadays. 

Back in 2015, Obama was president, Russia was actively bombing targets in Syria, Syrian refugees were literally washing up on the shores of the Mediterannean and Garry Kasparov, living in exile in New York, was touring his book: ‘Winter Is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must Be Stopped’. 

And the predictions came with Cassandra-like precision. He saw Putin ruthlessly cowing all domestic opposition and the coming of a resurgent Russian nationalism that would spread beyond its borders. 

After the Maidan Revolution  and the overthrow of Putin crony Viktor Yanukovych in 2014, Kasparov knew Putin simply could not allow a  free and democratic Ukraine, moving ever closer to Europe, to exist. After all, a successful Ukraine could give Russians... ideas. 

Mr. Kasparov’s talk was moderated by the Dutch journalist and Slavic world specialist, Michel Krielaars. 

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...

Every week we point out that we get the likes of Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz to grace an Amsterdam stage and impart his wisdom to our audiences. Well, it’s time. In this episode, Joseph Stiglitz came to the DeLaMar Theater in the Dutch capital in November of 2019, to talk about his book, People, Power, and Profits. 

In People, Power, and Profits, Stiglitz states that the U.S. got three things wrong in the past several decades: economics (too much faith in markets), politics (influence of money) and values (forgetting that government is here to serve all its citizens). He explains that the U.S. is in need of some serious reform and that government and democracy must be freed from the grasp of wealthy corporate forces in finance and other sectors.

Stiglitz doesn’t just criticize – he also comes with solutions. He shows how a decent middle-class life can once again be attainable for all by making sure that markets work for people and not the other way around. And he also talks about the rise of something called Progessive Capitalism. 

After an initial lecture, Mr. Stiglitz is joined by Dutch journalist, Sheila Sitalsing, and Alexander Rinnooy Kan, Professor of Economics and Business at the University of Amsterdam. The evening was presented in collaboration with Athenaeum Uitgeverij.

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...

Russell Shorto is an American historian, journalist and author. In 2004, he published The Island at the Center of the World: the Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony that Shaped America, for which he spent many hours in the New Netherland archives. It's an eye-opening book, and a marvelous historical retelling of the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam before it became New York. 

Between 2008 and 2013, he lived in Amsterdam, where he was the director of 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...

As John Adams was one of the great men of his era, we thought our next episode should be with one of the great people of our time: Dr. Anthony Fauci, the Brooklyn born and raised, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the chief medical advisor to President Biden. This was an online interview conducted by Damiaan Denys, himself a Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Amsterdam. You heard him earlier on the podcast interviewing Michael Pollan. 

This was a wide ranging conversation, including topics like, “Will we wear masks even after the pandemic ends? Why air travel made the covid pandemic so much worse. The upside of the pandemic. And why, in the end, telling the truth is always worth it! 

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...

Democracy and the rule of law in Western societies are under threat, according to Timothy Snyder, professor of history at Yale University, due to Vladimir Putin’s efforts to destabilize neighboring governments and to stir up dissent in countries from France to the United States.

The John Adams, in a collaboration with De Balie, brought Professor Timothy Snyder to Amsterdam in 2018 to discuss his new book The Road to Unfreedom. Snyder examines how Western societies left themselves open to anti-democratic forces after the Cold War, and how Russia fell into Putinism, and the rise of Donald Trump, which has become a major threat to democracy around the globe. Even though Donald Trump is gone now, the forces that got him into the oval office are still at work. Which is why Timothy Snyder’s  impassioned plea for the triumph of the truth is more relevant than ever. Because, to paraphrase him a bit,  without the truth in the present, you can’t start to imagine the future. 

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...

Michael Pollan’s book, How To Change Your Mind, has moved on from his research on food to delve into the world of psychedelics and their medical use. In the past decade, there has been renewed interest in psychedelic research as a form of psychiatric therapy, and to Pollan’s mind this renaissance is long overdue.

In this episode, Pollan makes a strong case for researching these drugs further and discusses it with professor and head of the psychiatry department at the Amsterdam Medical Center, Damiaan Denys. Denys is specialized in anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorders and the applicability of deep brain stimulation in healing these patients.

Click here for video of Michael Pollan’s talk at the Adams Institute in 2018: https://www.john-adams.nl/michael-pollan-3/

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 Secretary of State Madeleine Albright talks with former Dutch foreign minister and Vice President of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, about how the current state of world leadership inspired her most recent book, the ominously titled:  Fascism: a Warning. This was recorded in front of an audience in 2018 at the Muziekgebouw aan het IJ in cooperation with the European Commission. 

The evening was moderated by Juurd Eijsvoogel of the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad. 

“Fascism: a Warning” is published by HarperCollins in the United States and by De Arbeiderspers in the Netherlands.

Previous Interviews with Madeleine Albright at the John Adams: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4kr4A1poUQ&feature=emb_logo

https://www.john-adams.nl/madeleine-albright-3/

https://www.john-adams.nl/madeleine-albright/

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...

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...