The Claremont Review of Books Podcast

With election day creeping ever closer, political predictions are everywhere already. Spencer takes the opportunity to sit down with Dr. William Voegeli, senior editor of the Claremont Review of Books, to survey the history and prospects of realignment. Voegeli gives an incisive explanation of the current electoral landscape and what both parties need to do to capitalize on the opportunities before them.  

Editor Charles Kesler and Associate Editor Spencer Klavan meet the afternoon before the first 2024 presidential debate to discuss the new Spring CRB. Kesler and Spencer spin insightful short-term prophecies--and Kesler calls Biden's flop in advance--using the editor's note as a starting point. Meanwhile, Lee Edwards' tribute to Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago does honor to an epochal work of dissident literature. There's a surfeit of great content in the latest issue, from National Conservatism to George Orwell.  

Now that COVID is effectively behind us, it's increasingly easy to throw the hazy blur that was late 2019-2022 down the memory hole. Jeffery Anderson's latest CRB essay shines a light on the COVID craze: government overreach, popular complacency, and collective amnesia. Spencer sits down with Anderson to continue the post mortem analysis and ask how we can prevent the same extreme policies from coming to pass again.

For a country that features so prominently in the news and so wildly in many conspiracy theories, Russia is a country that many Americans—especially many in the press—scarcely understand. Dan Mahoney's new review essay in CRB gives a clarifying survey of major trends, challenges, and attitudes in Russian politics since the days of the Tsars. Without emotional theatrics but with moral clarity, Mahoney equips readers with resources for a fuller understanding of Russia's past and its possible future.  

Editor Charles Kesler and Associate Editor Spencer Klavan meet to discuss the winter CRB.  Kesler's cover essay covering the intellectual differences between national conservatism and Trump's brand of nationalism takes top billing. Michael Knowles's insightful review of Chris Rufo's new book invites us to consider where Rufo's project may be headed. Plus lots of other excellent material from the winter CRB, and a hint at the best subtitle ever. 

Celebrated journalist Lord Charles Moore joins Spencer to discuss his CRB essay on the history and prospects of Thatcherism and its implications for modern conservative movements on both sides of the pond. On the one hand, the forces arrayed against Thatcher's legacy have never been stronger. On the other hand, the attitudes she represented--including the "commonsense view that people would probably be better at running their own affairs than governments would"--just won't go away. In the age of Trump and Brexit, but also of globalist bureaucrats and Conservative ineptitude, what is Thatcherism's future?  

Editor Charles Kesler and Associate Editor Spencer Klavan meet to peruse the fall CRB.  Kesler's editor's note about the intellectual legacy  of Henry Kissinger considers whether foreign policy realism is gaining steam on the world stage as multiple wars rage on. Mark Helprin's essay on the grinding conflict in Israel takes a practical look at the situation, and Bill Voegeli's essay articulates the predicament of the modern Left since October 7. Plus much more from the fall CRB. 

Algis Valiunas, a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and contributing editor at The New Atlantis, joins Spencer to discuss the great modernist and Anglican convert T.S. Eliot. In the spirit of the season, Valiunas explores how a mixture of tragedy, heartache, and providence led Eliot gradually from the sorrow and discontent expressed in his jarring masterpiece, The Waste Land, on through to conversion and the searing brilliance of Christian poems like Four Quartets.  

Martha Bayles, frequent contributor to the CRB and prolific author and essayist, joins Spencer to discuss the perils and pitfalls presented by AI, especially as it pertains to the entertainment industry. Bayles elucidates the challenge of AI in entertainment as it emerged during the SAG-AFTRA strike. Will the strike's goals be met in the long term, or is an AI future inevitable? Plus: reflections on how digital delivery systems have changed the media landscape, for better and for worse.  

Editor Charles Kesler and Associate Editor Spencer Klavan convene to survey the summer CRB. Kesler's editor's note about the decline of West Virginia University proves timely as universities across the country reveal their funding priorities. Christopher Flannery's cover essay on President James A. Garfield introduces a neglected American statesman, while analyses of everything from affirmative action to modernist poetry round out the issue. Plus: some new authors make their CRB debut.  

Wilfred M. McClay, the Victor Davis Hanson Chair of Classical History and Western Civilization at Hillsdale College, joins Spencer to discuss the virtues and the public perception of the Midwest. Professor McClay illuminates the "reservoir of idealism" hidden away in the Midwest's often unexplored but fascinating history. Plus: a deep dive into why the Midwest is so misunderstood.  

Editor Charles Kesler and Associate Editor Spencer Klavan sit down to rifle through the Spring CRB. There's lots to unpack, including but not limited to: Kesler's editor's note on the growing ideological divide among the states, Christopher Caldwell's investigation of unrest in France, and a new biography of MLK, Jr. Plus: incisive commentary on the Supreme Court's history with affirmative action, and a whistle-stop tour through the greatest hits of country music's first ladies.

Spencer is joined by Jesse Merriam, a Washington Fellow at The Claremont Institute's Center for the American Way of Life who specializes in anti-discrimination and affirmative-action law, for a very timely episode. The two discuss the playing field of affirmative action and how diversity came to define our constitutional order, as well as possible solutions. Merriam outlines what is likely to come next in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision.  

Spencer is joined by Michael Knowles, celebrated host of “The Michael Knowles Show” at the Daily Wire, “The Book Club” at PragerU, and “Verdict with Ted Cruz.” They discuss the manic decline of the West and its long history, as well as its present manifestation in the form of trans radicalism. Fortunately, Knowles and Spencer also talk about how to cure what ails us, using selected portions from Knowles' review of Spencer's book, “How to Save the West: Ancient Wisdom for 5 Modern Crises.”  

Editor Charles Kesler and Associate Editor Spencer Klavan discuss the stimulating new winter 2022/23 CRB. Listen in for reflections on Dr. Kesler's own editor's note and the speech from which it was adapted, discussing the continuity between today's "New Right" and the young conservative movement of the 1950s and '60s. Plus: a survey of ten more CRB essays, covering topics from Benjamin Netanyahu's autobiography to the LGTQQIAAP2S+ movement, and a teaser for the next can't-miss episode of The Close Read.

To close out the Fall 2022 issue, Spencer is joined by Anthony Daniels (pen name Theodore Dalrymple), a British physician, psychiatrist and prolific author of excellent books. They discuss the history of psychiatric treatment in the West, particularly its blatant barbarism until recently, where we've moved from barbarism to aggressive apathy as the mentally ill have been emptied from asylums to the city streets, where they languish, untreated. Daniels and Spencer talk about solutions to this unfortunate situation. Plus: a brief COVID retrospective from a sane medical professional.  

Dr. Charles Murray, F. A. Hayek Chair Emeritus in Cultural Studies at the American Enterprise Institute, joins Spencer to expand on his most recent essay for the CRB on how diversity and ethnic differences affect large democratic countries like the U.S. Dr. Murray discusses some of the evidence for his argument, as well as some ways in which these difficult truths can be applied to politics today. Plus: a reflection on the need to speak out in troubled times.

Cornell Professor and Hoover Institution Corliss Page Dean Fellow Barry Strauss joins Spencer to discuss his newest essay for the CRB on Caesar and the fall of the Roman republic. Strauss analyzes Caesar's character and political calculations within the larger Roman political world. This naturally turns to contemporary discussion of what conditions would need to be met for a Caesar to emerge today.

Editor Charles Kesler and Associate Editor Spencer Klavan discuss the thought-provoking new fall 2022 CRB, including Michael Anton's retrospective on the nuclear near-misses of 1983, Douglas Jeffrey's thoughtful insights into Merle Haggard's life, and Dr. Kesler's own discussion of what 2022 might mean for 2024. Plus: how closely does the Late Roman Republic parallel us today?

Harvard Professor and Hoover Institution Senior Fellow Harvey C. Mansfield joins Spencer to discuss the state of woke dogma and groupthink at American universities. Mansfield reflects on the value of dissent for students who may be privately reconsidering the group mentality, which leads to broader discussion about the morality of equality and what we ought to do to shed the yoke of wokeism's inherent racism toward everyone.

Claremont Senior Fellow Christopher Caldwell joins Spencer to discuss Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine and America's involvement in it. Caldwell's brief outline of Ukraine's history with Russia leads them to a broader discussion of why Ukraine became the flash point for Russia's ire, and how Americans are inclined to narrativize the war. As the conflict rages on in new and ill-defined ways, what position are everyday Americans left in?

Editor Charles Kesler and Associate Editor Spencer Klavan discuss the wide range of summer's new CRB, including Chris Caldwell's thorough analysis of America's oblique but profound involvement in Ukraine, Michael Anton's notes from quarantine in Dubai, and Dr. Kesler's own essay on the several distinct generations of “voting rights”—a term which is gradually coming to imply representation by race or interest bloc. Plus: it's been a very good year at the Supreme Court. What next?

Professor Daniel J. Mahoney joins Spencer to discuss his thorough rebuttal to The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story. Exposing the Project's willful ignorance and spiteful misinformation leads the two into a broader assessment of American education. The 1619 Project's architects have engineered a comprehensive assault upon American history teaching from the earliest grades on upward—Professor Mahoney considers what can be done to countermand it.

Professor Allen C. Guelzo joins Spencer to discuss his review essay on Alan Taylor's deflationist histories of America. Along the way, the two discuss the nature of history as a discipline in America and Europe, the true character of the United States, and the moral responsibilities of the historian.

Enemies abroad and unrest at home: Editor Charles Kesler and Associate Editor Spencer Klavan discuss the wide range of spring's new CRB, including Mark Helprin's in-depth analysis of the war in Ukraine, Nathan Pinkoski's careful examination of how Spain's republic self-destructed, and Dr. Kesler's own comments on the precarity of Court-made rights. Plus: an excerpt from Klavan, Sr.'s new book.

Nathan Pinkoski, research fellow and director of academic programs at the Zephyr Institute, joins Spencer to discuss the Spanish Civil War and its implications for modern America. Contrary to the simple morality tale most people learn in school, the history of Spain's Civil war was a complex demonstration of how a republic can die from self-inflicted wounds. Americans would do well to take note.

Chris Flannery, Senior Fellow at the Claremont Institute, contributing editor of the Claremont Review of Books, and author of The American Story podcast, joins Spencer to discuss the enduring wisdom and meticulous composition of Abraham Lincoln's speeches. These are words that were intended for posterity, so it pays to turn to them in our perilous moment as we fight for America's future.

In his latest editor's note, Dr. Kesler identifies an emerging conflict between the anti-American Left, and the “post-American” Right. Spencer and Dr. Kesler discuss the conservative movement's past and future as illustrated in essays from the issue. Plus: the CRB takes on the delicate subject of race in America.

Is there a God? Can we believe? Or has science disproven all that? A prevailing assumption in the academy is that your life means no more than that of a jellyfish. Dr. Leonard Sax joins Spencer to explain how that mindset is crippling young adults, and to discuss a new book by Dr. Stephen C. Meyer on the Return of the God Hypothesis.

Mark Helprin, novelist and senior fellow of the Claremont Institute, joins Spencer to discuss America's—and the West's—apparent death wish. By making us as vulnerable as possible abroad, while simultaneously mimicking the authoritarianism of our supposed enemies at home, our leaders are flirting with disaster. What will come next—and is there any hope for the future?

Dr. William Voegeli, senior editor of the Claremont Review of Books, joins Spencer to analyze the Left's increasingly dangerous relationship with crime. Urban Democrats have embraced a counterintuitive policy preference, enabling astonishingly high crime rates rather than working to reduce them. At the heart of it all is an urgent need to explain away violent crime as a cry for help from the perpetrators, rather than an offense against justice in need of redress.

Jeffrey Anderson, former Trump appointee to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, joins Spencer to analyze the dubious science of mask mandates. Anderson's essay, which was featured on Tucker Carlson Tonight, identifies how masks have been used to make Americans more submissive and erode our form of government.

Glenn Ellmers, Claremont Institute senior fellow and author of the new book The Soul of Politics, joins Spencer to discuss the enduring relevance of Harry V. Jaffa's life and scholarship for our challenging political times. Plus: is the modern academy unmaking our best and brightest?

The CRB's Summer edition is wide-ranging, covering topics including masking, crime, and a prescient editor's note about the fiasco that is Afghanistan's fall. Join Dr. Kesler and Spencer as they discuss the significance of the collapse of Kabul, a brief history of how we got there, and what lessons can be gleaned from it all. Plus: an overview of the whole edition.

Andrew Roberts, author of the new book Churchill: Walking with Destiny, joins Spencer to discuss the legacy of Winston Churchill and the lessons we can draw from his greatness. Plus: a sneak peek at Roberts's forthcoming defense of King George III.

Dr. James Poulos, executive editor of The American Mind, joins Spencer to discuss humanity's identity crisis as machines and algorithms—piloted by Big Tech—threaten to usurp us as rulers of the earth. In a world increasingly dominated by invisible technology, the question becomes: who will catechize the bots?

Professor James Hankins joins Spencer to discuss China's present position on the world stage, where it's trying to go, and how the U.S. should respond. Hankins, a professor of history at Harvard University, uses China's ancient past to paint a nuanced picture of modern China's political situation.

The Right has been grappling with an identity crisis for some time. President Trump seems to have ushered in a new era—but an era of what, exactly? Daniel McCarthy, editor of Modern Age and a 2020 Lincoln Fellow, joins Spencer to talk about the Right's present trajectory and where it's likely headed next.

The CRB's winter edition takes a cumulative look at the aftermath of the 2020 election, the dismay among conservatives, and the two radically different philosophies competing for American hearts. Join Dr. Kesler and Spencer as they discuss these major themes, and the deepening rifts beneath the surface of it all.

Our education system has devolved from a source of edification to a hotbed of radicalization. Teachers and curricula at schools all across the country—even in red states—are out to villainize everyone they can. Dr. Robert Royal joins Spencer to discuss the problems with this slippery slope and the truth about one of our most maligned figures: Christopher Columbus.

Plummeting confidence in higher education is leading to drastically reduced enrollment--these alarming developments have been under-reported, but the coronavirus phenomenon has made them increasingly difficult to conceal. Professor John Ellis joins Spencer to discuss what widespread online learning is doing to affect the fate of our highly politicized academy.

“Cancel one, cancel all!” wokesters religiously chant as they close in on another brand or person they don't like. Cancel culture is spreading its abhorrent tendrils through American culture from boardrooms to classrooms at the behest of the self-righteous, yet all-too-often guilty media and elite classes. Professor Richard Samuelson joins Spencer to poke a few witty holes in the flawed logic of cancel culture, complete with a case study: The New York Times.

Join Dr. Kesler and Spencer as they dive into the latest CRB and its major themes. Dr. Kesler highlights the effects of rioting and statucide on America's bedrock foundations. The summer issue charts America's crisis in detail--Spencer and Dr. Kesler explain some of the dysfunction currently plaguing the country and contemplate possible solutions.

As Trump's first term draws to a close, former senior national security advisor Michael Anton joins Spencer to discuss the political phenomenon that is Trump: are we better off now than we were four years ago? Anton, author of the forthcoming book The Stakes: America at the Point of No Return, argues there's little wrong with Trump that more Trump can't solve.

Is China really an existential threat to America? Economist David P. Goldman joins Spencer to discuss the meteoric rise of a ruthless and emboldened China. Goldman, president of Macrostrategy LLC and columnist for Asia Times, is well-placed to observe and analyze the underhand tactics of the Chinese Communist Party.

Where is all this wokeness leading us? Professor David Azerrad of Hillsdale College joins Spencer to reveal the final goal of the social justice crowd. Professor Azerrad, himself on the forefront of the culture war raging throughout American higher education, explains the tactics SJWs utilize to shut down the debate of ideas.

Join Dr. Kesler and Spencer as they dive into the Spring 2020 CRB and its major themes over a tall glass of forced social distancing. Dr. Kesler elucidates the effect the coronavirus is having on America and constitutional governance, and the two discuss ways in which governments often extend "emergencies" for decades beyond the resolution of the relevant crisis.

Professor Jim Hankins of Harvard joins Spencer to discuss the rapid and worrying rise of hyperpartisanship in the United States on the Left and, to a lesser extent, the Right. Professor Hankins, an expert in Renaissance history, draws on ancient Greece and Italy to forecast where we're likely headed from here.

Professor Amy Wax of Pennsylvania Law joins Spencer to discuss the threats that social justice ideology poses to education and legal philosophy. Professor Wax, herself a front-liner in the fight against wokeness, paints a bleak yet realistic picture. Then: Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the history of social justice in the American courts.

Join Dr. Kesler and Spencer as they delve into the Winter 2020 CRB and its major themes over a glass of riesling. Dr. Kesler elaborates on his predictions about the effect of President Trump's impeachment on the 2020 election cycle, and the two discuss what ails America with the help of Christopher Caldwell's new book, The Age of Entitlement.