The American Mind Podcast

Matthew Peterson joins the podcast to discuss his recent NatCon speech, which examined the shifting relationship between the New Right and Israel. He conveyed to the Israeli Right the desire of younger American conservatives to decouple from the Middle East amid a broader reevaluation of global alliances. But as the war against Iran proceeds, Peterson notes that some defenders of Israel wield “anti-Semite” to condemn skeptics of U.S. involvement, a counterproductive tactic in the face of rising anti-Semitism on both the Right and the Left. How can the two nations navigate their alliance amid a changing global order?

Riots in France—begun by students but now taken over by migrants—expose the dangers of uncontrolled immigration. Will the unrest flowing from Islamic-majority enclaves give rise to a populist Right movement? Meanwhile, what remains of a functioning society in South Africa is buckling under the strain of extreme governmental dysfunction. Racial violence between black communities and white Afrikaners has intensified as state control recedes, and more race laws now exist than during apartheid. Jeremy Carl, senior fellow at The Claremont Institute and author of The Unprotected Class joins President Ryan P. Williams to discuss what lessons America can draw from woes across the West. Plus: Predictions for the 2026 midterms and 2028 election.

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The Unprotected Class: How Anti-White Racism Is Tearing America Apart

Europe faces a civilizational crisis induced by self-destructive progressive ideologies. The German Left has weaponized atonement for World War II to censor opposition. In Spain’s North African enclave, Ceuta, a recent border crossing by thousands of migrants posed an unchecked Moroccan challenge to Spanish sovereignty. Meanwhile, French deindustrialization and rampant immigration threaten to strangle its economy. Conservative movements have begun to gain traction, but can they pull Europe back from the brink? Claremont Review of Books Contributing Editor Christopher Caldwell joins Claremont President Ryan P. Williams to explain. 

Flávio Bolsonaro, son of Brazilian ex-President Jair Bolsanaro, won 47-45 in the first round of Brazil’s general election against incumbent President Lula. A conservative, Bolsonaro heads a populist movement against progressives, mirroring Trump. Woke has been rejected globally, yet its fumes linger still in Leftist circles. How might this inform the Right's outreach to America’s economically liberal, culturally conservative middle?

Anthropic's top brass have been meeting religious leaders and trying to bring theology into the AI conversation. Do our newest technocrats intend to build a machine god and usher in a horrifically digitized future? Meanwhile, Justice Samuel Alito weighed in on originalism, highlighting both its pitfalls and the broader successes of conservativism in the Supreme Court—and the Left’s radical response. Plus: On the third anniversary of the October 7 attacks by Hamas, Israel defiantly celebrates the universe’s lawgiver during Simchat Torah and remembers the fallen.

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Religious Scholars Met With Anthropic: What They Heard Stunned Them

We Are Clueless About What’s Coming

Justice Samuel Alito: Even Originalists Make Mistakes

The Alito Court: A Rare Interview With the Influential Supreme Court Justice

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?

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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.

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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?

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