The Close Read Podcast

Associate Editor Spencer Klavan reads “Red and Dead,” Daniel J. Mahoney’s essay featured in the Claremont Review of Books’ Summer 2026 issue.

American schools are failing society. Illiteracy is rampant while progressive ideology overrides traditional curricula. Social studies, history, and civics are all captured by people and organizations devoted to anti-American revisionism. Mark Bauerlein, First Things contributing editor and Emeritus Professor of English at Emory University, outlines the dangers of teaching students to hate their country before they understand it in his latest CRB piece, “Saving Civics.” Can Americans recover a shared canon and a moral core?

Associate Editor Spencer Klavan reads “Bursting the Bubble,” Michael Barone’s review of 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History—and How It Shattered a Nation, featured in the Claremont Review of Books’ Summer 2026 issue.

The American Revolution produced a lasting republic, now in its 250th year. But is it still the country the founders envisioned? Claremont Review of Books editor Charles Kesler joins associate editor Spencer Klavan to review the CRB’s summer 2026 edition, including Kesler's own essay on the principles and lasting success of our revolution as distinguished from its English and French counterparts. Other essays in the issue include Christopher Flannery on Benjamin Franklin's advice for the common man, Andrew Roberts on the clashes between Churchill and de Gaulle, and much more!

Associate Editor Spencer Klavan reads “Wine Lunacy,” Sam Schneider’s most recent entry to the column Under the Vine and Fig Tree, featured in the Claremont Review of Books’ Summer 2026 issue.

Following Richard Nixon's victory in the turbulent 1968 election, an amendment threatening to dismantle the Electoral College gained startling momentum. Enter the young senate staffer Michael Uhlmann, whose 1970 report put forward what would become the definitive case for the institution thereafter. The amendment failed, but a torrent of new challenges to our constitutional system now arise ahead of 2028. This week, Former president of American Enterprise Institute Christopher DeMuth joins Spencer Klavan to consider if the Electoral College can still weather the storm of an emboldened Left.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has emerged as the leader of the global Left. As president of the Socialist International and co-founder of the Global Progressive Mobilization, Sánchez has pioneered a new strain of European politics to counter Trump. Contributing Editor Christopher Caldwell joins the show to discuss his latest piece, “Pedro Sánchez’s Kingdom,” and the anti-American sentiment that progressive leaders use to distract from unpopular immigration and economic policies. How will the Right respond?

Associate Editor Spencer Klavan reads “Melville at Sea,” Algis Valiunas’s essay featured in the Claremont Review of Books’ Summer 2026 issue.

Excited by the prospect of capitalizing on China’s rise in the 2010s, American firms—notably Apple—funneled billions of dollars of capital and masses of infrastructure into the nation without regard for geopolitics. Today, China has realized its opportunity to rival the U.S. as a regional power, using our investments as a springboard. This week, Claremont Lincoln Fellow Emmet Penney joins Spencer Klavan to evaluate how, as America reaches an inflection point at 250, it can recover a sense of national agency and avoid the creeping "historical nihilism" that threatens to infect both the Left and the Right.

Associate Editor Spencer Klavan reads “We Shall Not Fight on the Beaches,” Theodore Dalrymple’s review of The Camp of the Saints, featured in the spring 2026 issue.