Conversations with Coleman

You might think you know what a Washington Post columnist sounds like, but Megan McArdle is not your typical liberal media voice. She’s spent years inside the most established outlets in journalism: The Atlantic, Bloomberg, The Economist and yet she’s managed to surprise and infuriate readers on the left with sharp critiques that don’t always toe the party line.

Today on Conversations we talk about why progressives often get economic policy wrong and the real mess behind America’s broken healthcare system. Megan makes a solid pitch for why Americans should continue to have a private system. Megan and I get into it about insurance companies, pharmaceutical giants, and where the incentives in healthcare are completely backwards . . . and, believe it or not, where they actually work.

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In this special episode, I take on probably the most controversial and emotionally fraught topic of the moment: the Israel-Hamas conflict. 

I think war crimes have been committed on both sides. But that doesn’t mean I think the two sides are morally equivalent. Today, I argue that there’s a fundamental asymmetry between Israel and Hamas, one that’s too often blurred or ignored by the mainstream media. Israel’s actions, while sometimes flawed or tragic in consequence, are ultimately rooted in a defensive logic.

Hamas, on the other hand, has explicitly genocidal goals. But where does that leave us when we see images of children starving and hear reports that Israel is responsible?

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Filmmaker and digital rights activist Justine Bateman joins me for a conversation on how AI is warping Hollywood and why the content we consume feels increasingly hollow. We dive into the decline of originality, the studios' addiction to algorithms, and how the “double-screen” era (watching while scrolling) has rewired audience expectations, pushing creators toward louder, faster, and shallower stories. Can art survive the attention economy?

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This week I sat down with political analyst Galen Druke to talk about what actually moves public opinion and shifts voter behavior. We got into why some people viewed Donald Trump as the more moderate choice in 2016, what that says about how voters think, and how Democrats might get back into the national conversation in a real way. We also talked about how polls work, when they matter, and what they often miss about what voters actually care about.

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Josh Hammer is the author of Israel and Civilization: The Fate of the Jewish Nation and the Destiny of the West. He joins me to explore the big stuff: God, geopolitics, Zionism, the future of the U.S. We also get into the complexities of interfaith marriage and the role of religion in modern culture. The conversation delves into the challenges and nuances of maintaining religious and ethnic continuity in a modern, pluralistic society.

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New York City’s mayor on Zohran Mamdani and Andrew Cuomo; socialism and corruption; policing and power; rats and redemption.

New York City mayor Eric Adams has had a controversial time in office. So why should New Yorkers trust him for another four years?

In this episode, we talk about Adams’ criticisms of Zohran Mamdani, his call to Andrew Cuomo to step aside, and yes: rats, e-bikes, and trash.

Adams also opens up about the police beating him as a teen, and how that moment shaped his life in law enforcement and politics.

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I’m joined this week by someone who asks questions maybe all of us don’t ask enough: How do we become happier? And how do we date people we disagree with? And maybe most importantly: Why do people feel they are living lives without meaning? And how do we solve this? 

My guest is Arthur C. Brooks, a Harvard professor, a best-selling author, a social scientist, and a co-author (with Oprah, no less) of Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier. Arthur has spent decades studying the science of human flourishing, and this conversation turned out to be one of the most personal I’ve had on the show . . .think live therapy session. I hope you enjoy it.

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This week I sit down with writer and thinker Tim Urban, creator of the blog Wait But Why to talk: political polarization, AI, university campuses and even dating. 

Tim brings his trademark clarity and curiosity to a conversation that covers the rise of tribal thinking, the challenge of nuance in a viral world, and how humanity can navigate the information overload of the digital age.

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Mark Dubowitz, CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, has long focused on Iran’s nuclear ambitions and advised multiple U.S. administrations on policy toward Iran. I invited him on Conversations with Coleman to explain the Iran nuclear issue at a deep level.

We discussed the science of uranium enrichment, the differing Obama, Trump, and Biden policies on containment, and the history of Iran’s nuclear ambitions from the 1979 Revolution to today. Mark laid out the stakes of preventing a nuclear-armed Iran—not just for the United States, but for global stability—and the consequences of getting it wrong. 

Mark emphasized how the calculation on confronting Iran has changed for Israel since October 7, 2023. While the U.S. has followed a doctrine of de-escalating to de-escalate—favoring diplomacy, economic incentives, and restraint—Israel now believes it must escalate to de-escalate.

This conversation was recorded before Israel launched its attack on Iran, striking nuclear facilities, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps military bases, missile launchers, and commanders’ residences. It’s now more important than ever to understand the context for the articles and commentary that you’re going to see over the next weeks and months. Subscribe to The Free Press for all of our ongoing reporting about the conflict at TheFP.com.

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I am proud to announce that I have relaunched my podcast, Conversations with Coleman, with The Free Press. My first guest is none other than Bari Weiss, who talks to me about the recent surge in antisemitism, what it means to speak out in a time when doing so can come at a cost, and how walking away from The New York Times has helped shape The Free Press. Join us as we also cover Trump, God, and the future of our democracy. It's a conversation you won’t want to miss.

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