We’re only one month (not even) into the second Trump administration, and word is we’re in the midst of a “constitutional crisis”! So, set your hair on fire, clutch your pearls, and rage tweet!

Of course, you know I don’t think you should do that.

Google Trends indicates that the term “constitutional crisis” really peaked only in the last couple of weeks, and largely peaked in the Washington DC metro area. Outside the Beltway, the term has not gained that much traction. Why? Are average Americans just that disconnected from the impending authoritarian takeover of the Trump-Musk cabal? Do they no longer value the checks and balances of the Constitutional order?

No and no.

In this episode, I’m going to walk you through the emergence of the “constitutional crisis” term and the narrative around it in the American media space.

We’ll take a look at how the term has been used, what it’s being used to describe, and relevant historical parallels all in an effort to bring perspective and clarity to the “crisis of the moment” that is actually not much of a crisis. 

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Today’s show is a rebroadcast of Episode 34 where I discussed the nature and limitations of executive orders. Both the Biden and Trump administrations spent their first days in office signing executive orders almost as fast as staffers could get them across their desks. And while those executive orders demonstrate the “energy” Publius sought to imbue the executive branch with, they also come with some real limitations.

In today’s show, I’m going to provide you with a brief overview of executive orders, their purposes, how they fit in our Constitution system, and why they so often become a lightning rod for partisan controversy.

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This week ushered in the second Trump administration as President Trump took the oath of office in the Capitol Rotunda due to inclement weather.

Rather fitting, no? A storm is raging outside, but the American republic literally and figuratively takes shelter within the physical and political structures established by the Constitution.

That wasn’t the only thought provoking visual the inauguration ceremony presented. In style and substance, this second Trump inauguration signaled a serious shift from the Biden years towards a vision of American possibility that drew on history, the Constitutional order, Trump’s own brand of optimistic swagger, and America’s religious roots. 

There is a lot to unpack, here, so I jumped on a call with my friend and colleague, Dr. Scott Waller of Biola University, to unpack the imagery, rhetoric, and history of the moment we witnessed this past Monday.

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It’s 2025 and we’ve got a new year, new Congress, new President, and a very different political landscape in the US and abroad. How, then, should America conduct itself on the world stage? How will the new Trump administration approach the many simmering conflicts around the world while navigating the still fluid political realignment at home? Are we entering a period of renewed American isolationism?

To answer these questions (and a whole lot more), I talk about the future of American foreign policy with New York Times bestselling author Stephen Mansfield. I’ve been reading Stephen’s books since high school, and I highly recommend his podcast, The Stephen Mansfield Podcast. Stephen brings decades of experience in historical research and writing, and international experience to bear on these big questions surrounding the future of American foreign policy.

Our focus in this discussion is exploring the future of American foreign policy, particularly in the realigned Republican Party under Donald Trump, and what a conservative view of foreign policy may look like going forward. Is there room for an internationalist conservative vision of foreign policy in an expanded GOP tent, or will the isolationist instincts of Donald Trump and his MAGA base prevail?

In this wide ranging conversation, we talk about everything from the Middle East and the Kurds to Winston Churchill to what a Trump 2.0 foreign policy could look like.

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Joseph Eptstein is back on the podcast to discuss recent events in the Middle East. As listeners of my podcast and readers of my newsletter know, Syria has undergone a seismic change in the last month with the collapse of the Assad regime, and the emergence of a new government composed of elements of a Turkey-backed rebel coalition. Where do we go from here?

Joseph and I unpack this question as we explore the events that led up to Assad’s ouster, the groups and people now seeking to build a better Syria, and the broader regional and global implications of one of 2024’s biggest black swan events.

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Disclaimer: Since we’re talking about bitcoin, cryptocurrencies in this podcast, and I reference my work as a financial advisor, I must emphasize that the content of this podcast is for information and educational purposes ONLY. Nothing discussed here should be taken as personal financial or investment advice for any individual or group. Onwards!

Bitcoin keeps pushing close to the $100,000 mark, which is a long way from where the world’s most prominent cryptocurrency started in 2010. The crazy thing is that, relatively speaking, bitcoin is still in its infancy, yet it is making a mark on politics and economics alike. From recalibrating the political economy of El Salvador to its use as an alternative source of money for Russian dissidents and Ukrainian refugees, bitcoin is carving out space for itself in the global economy.

To help unpack bitcoin, how it works, and its growing use as “resistance money,” I’ve brought on friend and colleague Andrew Bailey from Yale-NUS to discuss Resistance Money: A Philosophical Case for Bitcoin, a book he recently published with coauthors Bradley Rettler and Craig Warmke. 

In this discussion, we explore Bitcoin’s evolution, its use as resistance money, the El Salvador experiment, and how Bitcoin mining is contributing to developing green energy infrastructure around the world. It’s a fascinating discussion that helped me broaden my view of what had been a somewhat mysterious topic to me prior to reading Andrew’s work.

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There was a time not too very long ago when the so-called Global War on Terror dominated American national security and foreign policy thinking. Not so today as the doyens of American grand strategy fret over great power competition with Russia and China, and the return of nuclear proliferation with Iran and North Korea. So what happened to global terrorism? What became of Al-Qaeda and ISIS? They never went away, in fact, in some respects, these two organizations have never been more active. They’re just not that focused on the US and the US is not that focused on them. What shifted in the politics and geographic footprint in global terrorism and its main actors? To help me unpack this fascinating topic, I welcome Dr. Steven Childs to the show.

Dr. Childs and I are friends and colleagues. We both got our doctorates from Claremont Graduate University where we studied under the same professors, and we’ve collaborated on multiple writing projects, including one on terrorism. Dr. Childs is currently the director of the Masters in National Security Studies program at Cal State San Bernardino. 

In this wide ranging interview, we discuss the geostrategic shift in world politics towards great power competition and what that means for the ongoing fight against terror groups like Al-Qaeda and ISIS, then we dive into an overview of the current status of terrorism and its major organizations today. 

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It’s a week after Election Day and what a fascinating election it was. You can see my initial assessment of the election in my newsletter (link below), but in this podcast I’m going for a bit of a palette cleanser. If you’ve been feeling overwhelmed or generally weary with all the election coverage, may I recommend the Gettysburg Address? 

Arguably one of the greatest speeches, if not the greatest, in American history, Abraham Lincoln’s brief words memorializing the Gettysburg battlefield present us with enduring lessons on the nature of the American state, and casts an expansive moral vision for the future of the republic. 

Today on the podcast, I’m joined by Lincoln scholar Dr. Matt Van Hook who is an Assistant Director and Associate Professor in the Torrey Honors College at Biola University. We recorded this podcast before the November 5th election, but it’s a timely walkthrough of a timeless work of political thought and prose.

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We’re less than a week away from Election Day and the presidential race looks as tight as most people anticipated. However, recent media appearances by Kamala Harris have again failed to move the needle in her favor, and may even be accelerating a sense of alienation between independent voters and the Democratic Party as well as growing frustration within the Democratic base.

In this second of two episodes looking at the major party platforms, I sit down with my friends and colleagues in Biola University’s Political Science Department to break down the party platforms of 2024. In this episode, Drs. Scott Waller and Darren Guerra cover the Democratic Party’s platform, which is very different from the GOP platform we covered last time. 

Admittedly, all three of us are conservative voters who generally vote Republican, but we’re also scholars who are interested in pursuing truth and wisdom. So, even though we bend a rather critical eye on this document, we’re working to understand the reasoning behind the Democratic Party’s choices in terms of format, length, policy options, etc. that show up in this platform.

This is a discussion that seeks to understand how the Democratic Party views the voting public in the context of a significant political realignment. If you’ve felt a little confused over why the opposing parties seem so different this year, this is a great conversation to understand the political changes afoot in America, and I would highly recommend you listen to it in tandem with our discussion on the GOP platform.

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As America careens towards another presidential election, it’s already been a campaign season marked by once in a generation changes such as the pro-life movement getting marginalized inside the GOP, key blocs of voters breaking with the Democratic Party, assassination attempts on Donald Trump, and the list goes on. But what is it that Democrats and Republicans are trying to achieve in this election cycle, besides winning, that is? What does a vote for a Republican or Democrat even mean these days?

In the next two episodes of this podcast, I sit down with my friends and colleagues in Biola University’s Political Science Department to break down the party platforms of 2024. In this episode, Drs. Scott Waller and Darren Guerra cover the Republican platform, which is a very different kind of platform on many different fronts. As experts in religious liberty issues (Waller) and Constitutional thought (Guerra), Scott and Darren bring both a historical awareness of Republican politics as well as developments in the broader American political system to this conversation. 

This is a discussion that seeks to locate what appears to be a different kind of platform document in the context of a significant political realignment. If you’ve felt a little confused over why the opposing parties seem so different this year, this is a great conversation to understand the political changes afoot in America.

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