The American Mind Podcast

Five weeks from election day, hosts Spencer Klavan and Mike Sabo take stock of Republicans’ standing in the midterms. As incumbents, they already face stiff headwinds, and Trump’s interventions have made things still more difficult in key states. Will Trump’s communication strategy amid the affordability crisis and the Iran War turn voters away from conservative candidates? Plus: a prediction of Democrats’s focus post-elections—data centers, populism, and more. 

Steve Hayward, senior fellow at Claremont and author-podcaster at the “Political Questions” Substack, joins the guys this week to discuss the political and intellectual significance of Harry Jaffa's teachings. His understanding of America's creed and culture remains critical amid our rolling crises of immigration and ideological revolution. Jaffa’s articulated the necessity of Judeo-Christian virtues and morality to the survival of America. But can today’s resurgence in spirituality be channeled to revive our dysfunctional social and political orders?

Recommended:

Political Questions Substack

Harry Jaffa and the Declaration ft. Glenn Ellmers

Patriotism Is Not Enough

The Making of the American Mind

The Rediscovery of America

Coming out of the 2008 recession, the globalist order envisioned a green recovery. Rupert Darwall, author of the forthcoming The Age of Error and the West's Undoing, joins the hosts to discuss the West’s unforced error in trying to achieve net-zero emissions amid a resurgence in business activity in the Global South and China—where economic ambition takes precedence over climate concerns, at the expense of Europe and America. Meanwhile, the narrative concocted by the CCP and Western epidemiologists to cover up COVID’s origins unveiled the West’s inability to block foreign influence. Plus: Nikole Hannah-Jones, the progenitor of the 1619 Project, sent her daughter to a black-majority NYC school as a test of racial ideology, only to discover the failures of a liberal education system.

Recommended:

The Age of Error and the West’s Undoing

In Fighting for Every Black Child, Did I Betray My Own?

Russell Vought, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, joins Claremont Institute President Ryan P. Williams to discuss the Trump Administration’s effort to bring order to the administrative state. Director during Trump’s first term, Mr. Vought returned to the OMB during the Trump 47 transition with a plan to cut bureaucratic overregulation and out-of-control spending. Much remains to be done to rein in the independent agencies and rogue lower courts, settle institutional wokeness, and more. Can the administration permanently change how Washington functions?

In this special episode, Will Thibeau, director of the Claremont Institute’s American Military Project, sits down with Claremont president Ryan P. Williams to discuss his recent report on the 8(a) Program, its unique weaponization in the Woke Era, and how the military under Secretary of War Pete Hegseth is combatting the rampant abuses. Plus: What can America’s industrial base learn from the Iran and Ukraine wars?

Recommended:

From Development to Dependency: The Corporate Welfare Economy Behind the 8(a) Program

Caving to pressure from a minority of members within the American Political Science Association in 2021, Claremont’s panels featuring John Eastman were moved online over concerns about protests—a de facto disinvitation by APSA. Now Claremont is back, reaching young political scientists and thinkers with an earnest, conservative assessment of Trump 2.0, illegal immigration, China’s rise as an economic rival to the West, and more—angles that largely left-leaning APSA conferences typically avoid.

Ten years ago, the Claremont Review of Books published “The Flight 93 Election,” Michael Anton’s urgent warning that the 2016 election would be do-or-die: Trump or Hillary. But where is conservatism now, ahead of midterms and the 2028 election? Plus: The guys reflect on the virtues and achievements of Charlie Kirk, who built up the conservative movement and the nation, and sacrificed everything for it one year ago. In the wake of Kirk’s assassination, the Right—splintered by the attack—has reckoned with the precarious state of our politics. Meanwhile, the Left has minimized the impact of the violence.

Recommended:

The Flight 93 Election

After the Flight 93 Election

Dispatches from the Late Republic

Dolly Parton, a widely adored icon in country music and American pop culture, passed away last week at 80. A friend to both the right and left, Parton transcended national politics by her personal grace and remarkable philanthropy. Born to a poor, illiterate family, she leaves behind a legacy of generosity that includes Imagination Library, a nonprofit delivering millions of books to children worldwide at no cost to their families. Dolly Parton, rest in peace.

Richard Lim, historian at Prager U. and host of the This American President podcast joins the guys to discuss his recent book on George Washington’s legacy, Refusing a Crown. Breaking through mainstream secularist assumptions, Lim argues that Washington’s greatness is best understood in the context of his Christian faith. Meanwhile, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) has challenged the Trump Administration’s attempt to deport Mahmoud Khalil and Rümeysa Özturk for anti-American speech. FIRE argues the constitution protects resident aliens, and even that immigrant speech cannot be scrutinized in the vetting process. Will reason prevail?

Recommended:

Refusing a Crown: How George Washington Changed the World

Dr. Nathan Cofnas has been accused of “scientific racism” for his studies of race and genetics. Now he's been suspended by the University of Ghent and banned on Substack for his role in exposing the academic dishonesty of the late Jason Arday. As the DEI debate flares, the academic and radical Left communities have attempted to discredit and even threaten Cofnas, revealing again the civilizational threat posed by an unchecked race regime.