The Charles C. W. Cooke Podcast

On episode 66, Charles talks to Charles Fain Lehman about drugs and crime. Charles asks Charles to tell him why he's wrong about the drug war, why marijuana is different from alcohol, whether we should ban substances to protect people from themselves, what the problem is with "harm reduction," how bad the drug crisis is, whether we talk about it seriously, and why drugs are more potent now than they used to be. Afterwards, they talk about whether crime is going up or down, or whether the whole debate is partisan nonsense.

The dial-up tone in the introduction was recorded by lintphishx and is used under a CC 3.0 License.

On episode 65, Charles talks to Randy Barnett about his memoir, A Life for Liberty: The Making of an American Originalist. Among the topics they discuss are: How did Randy get interested in the law? How did he become a law professor? What is an originalist? Why is he one? What sort of originalist is he? What was it like arguing before the Supreme Court? Why does he still defend the Lochner decision? Is he hopeful about the future of the Constitution?

The dial-up tone in the introduction was recorded by lintphishx and is used under a CC 3.0 License.

On episode 64, Charles writes an opera for his most persistent critic, 'Boiling Rug,' and then talks to Clark Neily about the problem of coercive plea bargaining.

The dial-up tone in the introduction was recorded by lintphishx and is used under a CC 3.0 License.

On episode 63, Charles talks to Wilfred Reilly about his new book, Lies My Liberal Teacher Told Me: Debunking the False Narratives Defining America's School Curricula. Among the topics they discuss are: Who is this 'liberal teacher'? Why does Wilfred feel a need to argue about this? Are the people who tell these lies aware that they are doing it? What lies do conservative teachers tell? Is the problem fixable? 

The dial-up tone in the introduction was recorded by lintphishx and is used under a CC 3.0 License.

On episode 62, Charles tells tale of his difficult two weeks, and then talks to Andy McCarthy about the Trump conviction.

The dial-up tone in the introduction was recorded by lintphishx and is used under a CC 3.0 License.

On episode 61, Charles talks to Rick Brookhiser about his new book, Glorious Lessons: John Trumbull, Painter of the American Revolution. Among the topics they discuss are: Was Trumbull a good painter? Was he regarded as such in his time? What did he hope to achieve? Why did he have such a tumultuous relationship with Thomas Jefferson? What is the thing that Rick likes the most about him and the thing he likes the least about him?

The dial-up tone in the introduction was recorded by lintphishx and is used under a CC 3.0 License.

On episode 60, Charles talks to Peter Robinson about the famous 'Tear Down This Wall' speech that he wrote for President Ronald Reagan. Among the topics they discuss are how Peter became a speechwriter in the first place, what Ronald Reagan was like, and how The Speech came to be.

The dial-up tone in the introduction was recorded by lintphishx and is used under a CC 3.0 License.

On episode 59, Charles invites Michael Brendan Dougherty and Noah Rothman to continue the debate over Ukraine that they started on Tuesday's episode of The Editors.

The dial-up tone in the introduction was recorded by lintphishx and is used under a CC 3.0 License.

On episode 58—recorded from Lord Ravenscroft's desolate manor—Charles reviews objections to his approach to counting states, relates the most recent problems he's had with his golf cart, and talks to Tim Carney about his new book, Family Unfriendly: How Our Culture Made Raising Kids Much Harder Than It Needs to Be. Among the questions Charles and Tim discuss are why we should have "lower ambitions for our kids"; what modern parents are doing wrong—and why; what caused these mistakes; whether there is a political answer to them; why creative and independent play is so important; why parents think the world is more dangerous than it is; whether achieving the cultural changes that Tim proposes will be different given the obvious collective action problem; how cultural underconfidence factors in to the baby bust; and what Tim would do if he were a dictator.

The dial-up tone in the introduction was recorded by lintphishx and is used under a CC 3.0 License.

On episode 57, Charles announces a special jigsaw puzzle and relates which 44 states he's visited before talking to Robert Frommer about an extraordinary case of civil asset forfeiture. 

The dial-up tone in the introduction was recorded by lintphishx and is used under a CC 3.0 License.