Q & A, Hosted by Jay Nordlinger

Maestro Riccardo Muti is a fixture at the Salzburg Festival. This year, he conducted the Vienna Philharmonic in Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony. Between rehearsals and performances, he sat down with Jay to discuss a variety of matters—musical and even social. What constitutes harmony in society? And what can music teach us about how to live together? A session with Muti is informative, enriching—and, not least, fun.

Get full access to Onward and Upward at www.jaynordlinger.com/subscribe

Ilya Somin is a law prof and all-around intellectual. He is of a libertarian bent. He teaches at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University. He began life in the Soviet Union. He was but six when his family immigrated to America. He read Robert Nozick, and Tolkien, and others. He went to Amherst, Harvard, and Yale. He is a Boston sports fan. With Jay, he talks about life, the law, and the American experiment. A formidable mind, a formidable teacher.

Get full access to Onward and Upward at www.jaynordlinger.com/subscribe

Rosa María Payá is a democracy activist. So was her father, Oswaldo—killed by the Cuban regime in 2012. With Jay, Rosa María talks about political prisoners, the Castros, the alliance between Havana and Moscow, the alliance between Havana and Beijing, the nature of democracy, and more. She is a brave, poised woman, with a touch of nobility about her, or more than a touch. Her father would beam.

Get full access to Onward and Upward at www.jaynordlinger.com/subscribe

For The Atlantic, Eliot A. Cohen has written a piece called “Farewell to Academe.” The subtitle is: “I leave with doubts and foreboding that I would not have anticipated when I completed my formal education in 1982.” With Jay, he talks about this. They also talk about Israel and Ukraine. About U.S. politics. About the life of the mind, including poetry (Dylan Thomas, Edwin Arlington Robinson). A wide-ranging, personal, and informative conversation.

Get full access to Onward and Upward at www.jaynordlinger.com/subscribe

Anastasia Shevchenko was a civil-society leader in Russia. She was the first person prosecuted under the Kremlin’s notorious law concerning “undesirable organizations.” She fled Russia in the summer of 2022 and continues to work for human rights in her native country from abroad. Earlier this month, she was a guest, by video hook-up, of the Oslo Freedom Forum. In this “Q&A,” Jay talks with Mrs. Shevchenko about the Soviet Union, Putin, Ukraine—many things. An encounter with Anastasia Shevchenko is a pleasure and an inspiration.

Get full access to Onward and Upward at www.jaynordlinger.com/subscribe

Christian Schneider is a writer and podcaster. With Scot Bertram, he hosts a podcast about “Saturday Night Live.” Jay talks with him about “SNL,” about politics, about politics and “SNL,” etc.

Get full access to Onward and Upward at www.jaynordlinger.com/subscribe

Adrian Karatnycky is a New Yorker with Ukrainian-Polish heritage. For eleven years, he was president of Freedom House. Today he is with the Atlantic Council and other organizations. He was a student of Ukraine—and the general neighborhood—long before most people thought of Ukraine. He has now written a history: “Battleground Ukraine: From Independence to the War with Russia.” With Jay, Karatnycky talks about some of the basics. A deeply knowledgeable man about a crucial set of issues.

Get full access to Onward and Upward at www.jaynordlinger.com/subscribe

Carlos Fernando Chamorro is one of the most important journalists in all of Latin America. He is a Nicaraguan—though the dictatorship has stripped him of his citizenship. He now works in exile, in Costa Rica. He is the son of Pedro Joaquín and Violeta Chamorro. His father was the editor of La Prensa, the newspaper that opposed the Somoza dictatorship. He was assassinated in 1978. His mother was elected president of Nicaragua in 1990. Carlos Fernando was involved with the Sandinista movement for some years. Like so many others, he turned into an opponent. They have hounded him out of the country. Yet he is still on their tail. With Jay, he discusses family, Nicaragua, and politics in general.

Get full access to Onward and Upward at www.jaynordlinger.com/subscribe

Across the globe, Paul Rusesabagina is known as “the hotel manager.” In 2004, Don Cheadle portrayed Rusesabagina in the movie “Hotel Rwanda.” (Cheadle won an Academy Award for the portrayal.) In 1994, Rusesabagina was the general manager of a hotel in Kigali. In that capacity, he saved 1,268 refugees from murder—from the genocide. In 2005, George W. Bush bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Rusesabagina. But the hotel manager’s troubles were not ended. In 2020, he was kidnapped, imprisoned, and tortured by the Rwandan dictatorship for two years and seven months. Jay has sat down with Rusesabagina at the Oslo Freedom Forum, asking about his life, and life more generally.

Get full access to Onward and Upward at www.jaynordlinger.com/subscribe

Richard Brookhiser has written many books about the American Revolution and the Founding Fathers. He got interested when he went to college—to Yale, where he saw John Trumbull’s paintings. Now he has written a biography of the artist. A wonderful student and explainer and depicter, Brookhiser is.

Get full access to Onward and Upward at www.jaynordlinger.com/subscribe