The Ukraine war has now outlasted World War I — and there's no clear end in sight. Former CIA Russia analysis director George Beebe joins Newt for a sobering assessment of where things stand. They dig into how AI-guided drones costing $17,500 apiece are reshaping the battlefield and challenging a century of military doctrine, why Ukraine's deep strikes on Russian oil infrastructure are more effective than previous campaigns but still can't win the war alone, and what it would actually take to get Putin to the negotiating table. Beebe argues the conflict is not just a bilateral Russia-Ukraine dispute — it's a larger confrontation over the foundations of European security that requires the United States at the table, not just as mediator. He also warns that the window for a negotiated compromise may be closing, and that the escalatory risks — including nuclear — are higher than most people realize.

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What does it mean to have the American can-do spirit — and who best embodied it during the most turbulent century in our nation's history? Author Richard Battle joins Newt to discuss his new book, AmeriCANS Who Made America: 20th Century — The American Century, the fourth volume in his celebrated series. Battle profiles 43 patriots, leaders, and innovators who carried America forward through the Spanish flu, two World Wars, the Great Depression, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Space Race. The conversation brings several of them to life: Audie Murphy, the orphaned farm boy who became World War II's most decorated soldier; John Wayne, who used film to inspire patriotism; Ronald Reagan, the everyday American who became president; Martin Luther King Jr., who achieved more for civil rights in 13 years than the previous 350; and Hedy Lamarr, the Hollywood star whose wartime invention became the foundation of Wi-Fi, GPS, and Bluetooth.

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With the SAVE America Act stalled in the Senate for the third time, Senator Rick Scott is sounding the alarm. The former two-term governor and successful entrepreneur joins Newt for a frank conversation about the Senate's capacity, and willingness, to get things done. Scott makes no secret of his frustration: the Senate has been in session only 79 days this year, and the SAVE America Act — requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote and photo ID at the polls — has passed the House three times and is still going nowhere. Scott lays out his plan for the weeks ahead, from pushing the SAVE Act to avoiding a government shutdown and makes the case for bringing bills to the floor and making members vote. He also discusses healthcare transparency, runaway deficits, and what it truly means to do the job voters sent you to Washington to do.

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In January 2023, Kevin McCarthy endured five grueling days and 15 rounds of balloting to win the Speaker's gavel — the most dramatic Speaker's race in a century. John Leganski was at the center of it all. As McCarthy's Deputy Chief of Staff and the youngest floor director in House history, he watched up close as a small band of "Never Kevins" brought the People's House to a standstill. Now he's written the definitive inside account: Glory, Grief, and the Gavel. Leganski joins Newt — himself a former Speaker — for a candid conversation about the "Maybe Kevins" versus the "Never Kevins," the last-minute phone call where President Trump unleashed a private tirade, the emotional moment the gavel was finally won, and how the very coalition that delivered the speakership ultimately destroyed it nine months later.

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What would the Founding Fathers think of America today? That question sparked historian and novelist Johanna Neuman's new book, Trump's Superpower, in which George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and other founders — plus revolutionary-era writer Mercy Otis Warren — are summoned back to earth for America's 250th birthday and dropped into today's culture wars. Neuman joins Newt Gingrich to discuss the novel's premise, her argument that reclaiming the founders is President Trump's greatest political strength, and why she believes the Founding Fathers are trending again in American culture. The conversation also covers Neuman's remarkable journalism career — from covering the Reagan White House and Jim Baker's State Department to writing Gilded Suffragists, her award-winning history of the fashionable New York socialites who helped push women's suffrage over the finish line.

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Every year, millions of Americans vote with their feet — packing up and crossing state lines in search of something better. But what exactly are they looking for? In this episode, Newt talks with Jack Salmon, research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, to dig into his new policy brief analyzing 34 million interstate moves between 2018 and 2023. The results challenge some conventional wisdom: cost of living isn't the dominant driver, climate barely registers, and the red-state/blue-state narrative is more complicated than the headlines suggest. What actually predicts where Americans move? Tax burden, housing supply, and economic freedom — including the often-overlooked weight of occupational licensing and regulatory red tape. A data-driven conversation with real implications for every state legislator in America.

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On America's 250th birthday, Newt delivers a special solo episode dedicated to the document that started it all: the Declaration of Independence. Newt sets the scene in Philadelphia in the summer of 1776 — the heat, the secrecy, the weight of the moment — and traces the path from Lexington and Concord to the Continental Congress, explaining how 56 extraordinary men came to risk everything for an idea. He reflects on their courage, their backgrounds, and what they stood to lose if the revolution failed. Then, following Abraham Lincoln's tradition of slow, deliberate reading, Newt reads the Declaration aloud in full — every grievance, every principle, every word — before honoring each of the 56 signers by name. A fitting tribute for America's most important birthday.

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Newt talks with Fort McHenry National Park Ranger and historian Shannon McLucas about the remarkable story behind America's national anthem. McLucas recounts how Francis Scott Key, a Georgetown lawyer sent to negotiate a prisoner release, found himself aboard a British ship during the 25-hour bombardment of Fort McHenry in September 1814, unable to leave as he anxiously watched the battle unfold. His eyewitness emotional reaction became the poem "Defence of Fort M’Henry," set to a familiar tune and spreading virally across the young Republic within weeks. McLucas explains how the song endured for over a century before being officially designated the national anthem in 1931 under President Hoover. Their conversation also covers the hand-sewn garrison flag made by Baltimore seamstress Mary Pickersgill, what visitors can experience at Fort McHenry today, and how the fort celebrates the Fourth of July with a public reading of the Declaration of Independence.

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Newt welcomes bestselling biographer Walter Isaacson to discuss his new book, The Greatest Sentence Ever Written, a deep dive into the Declaration of Independence's most celebrated passage: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Isaacson traces how Jefferson, Franklin, and Adams collaboratively crafted and edited this sentence — including Franklin's pivotal change from "sacred" to "self-evident" — and argues it serves as America's enduring mission statement. Their conversation explores how Lincoln later invoked the sentence at Gettysburg to advance the cause of abolition, how the suffragette movement used it to expand women's rights, and why the 250th anniversary is a vital opportunity to use this founding ideal to heal today's deep political divisions. Isaacson also previews his upcoming biography of Marie Curie.

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Newt talks with NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman about America's renewed push into space. Isaacman, a former commercial astronaut who led the Inspiration4 and Polaris Dawn missions, discusses how the Artemis program is advancing toward returning astronauts to the moon, with Artemis III testing lunar landers from SpaceX and Blue Origin ahead of a 2028 lunar landing on Artemis IV. They explore NASA's strategy of partnering with private industry to drive down costs through reusable rockets while NASA focuses on harder problems like nuclear power and propulsion for deep space travel. Their conversation covers building a permanent moon base at the lunar south pole, growing competition with China in space, the challenges of orbital debris, and the emergence of a commercial space economy. Isaacman reflects on the patriotic significance of his role and shares his hope that future generations, including his own daughters, will travel to the moon and beyond.

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