Our speaker is Nick Griffin who is the author of The Year of Dangerous Days: Riots, Refugees, and Cocaine in 1980, and he spoke about that book on a previous podcast. Today, Nick is going to speak about his new play English Only which had its opening run at the Colony Theater in Miami Beach.

In 1980 125,000 Cubans arrived in Miami in two months and many of these new Spanish speakers were not fluent in English and that frustrated many native Miamians. I want to discuss with Nick the importance of English being the lingua franca in the US and whether the government should encourage its use by recent immigrants.

President Trump recently nominated Kevin Warsh to be the next Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board.  In October 2022, Kevin spoke on What Happens Next along with my old boss Myron Scholes who was the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics.

In this episode I include excerpts from that previous meeting as well as an additional interview with John Cochrane who is a Professor of Finance and Economics at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institute, and he will discuss the challenges that Kevin will face in his new job.

Our speaker is Henry Olsen who is a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Henry studies American politics with a focus on populism.

I want to learn from Henry about why Trump is successful with his non-traditional and outrageous speaking style. No other world leader talks like Trump with the use of threats and hyperbole.  Is that going to change if there is a perception that it is successful? I want to find out if Henry thinks that we should expect other politicians to mimic Trump’s methods in social media and public speaking in the 2028 presidential campaign.

Our speaker is Giles Tremlett who is the author of several books on the Spanish civil war and his most recent work is entitled El Generalisimo: A Biography of Francisco Franco.

I want to hear from Giles about what triggered the civil war, why did it become a proxy war between Hitler and Stalin, and what happened to Spain after Franco’s nationalists won the conflict.

Our speaker is Francisco Rodriguez who is a Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Economic and Policy Research and the author of the recent book The Collapse of Venezuela: Scorched Earth Politics and Economic Decline, 2012-2020.

I want to learn from Francisco about the importance of sanctions to explain the catastrophic performance of Venezuela’s economy for the past 20 years. I also want to hear about whether the US should encourage a negotiated settlement between members of the regime and its opposition to create a functioning civil society.

Our speaker is Amir Avivi who is a retired Israeli Brigadier General and the Chairman of the Israel Defense and Security Forum – ISDF. Amir is the author of a recent book entitled No Retreat: How to Secure Israel for Generations to Come.

I want to learn from Amir about why he thinks that Israel should encourage the Palestinians to govern themselves using city states instead of a single state sovereign. In addition, I want to discuss why Amir believes that Israel’s previous negotiating position was flawed and that going forward that Israel should focus foremost seeking borders that can be easily defended with its neighbors and with the Palestinians.

Our first speaker is Seth Jones who is the president of the Defense and Security Department at the Center for Strategic and International Studies – CSIS. Seth is also the author of a new book entitled The American Edge: The Military Tech Nexus and the Sources of Great Power Dominance. Our second speaker is a very good friend of mine and golf partner David Susser who is the President of HEICO Distribution Group which is a leading company in commercial and defense aviation.

Our speaker is Abby Pogrebin who is the author of My Jewish Year: 18 Holidays, One Wondering Jew. Abby was previously the President of the Board of Central Synagogue where I am a member. Central’s head rabbi is our friend Angela Buchdahl who has managed Central to be the leading reform synagogue in the world.

Our speaker is William Howell who is the inaugural Dean of Johns Hopkins School of Government and Policy. This is a new academic division located at the Hopkins Bloomberg Center in DC that plans to develop innovative, evidenced based public policy solutions. William is the co-author with Terry Moe of a new book entitled Trajectory of Power: The Rise of the Strongman Presidency. I want to learn from William about why he opposes the will of a popularly elected president and why he thinks that congress is incapable of controlling expanding presidential power.

Our first speaker will be a very dear friend of mine, Rory MacFarquhar, who previously was a member of Obama’s National Security Council. Our second speaker will be Emma Ashford who is a Senior Fellow at the Stimson Center, an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown and the author of a new book entitled First Among Equals: US Foreign Policy in a Multipolar World. I want to learn from Emma about Trump’s realist approach to foreign policy and what that will mean in its application.