The Ricochet Podcast
Weekly episodes of Ricochet’s flagship podcast feature our hosts James Lileks, Rob Long, Peter Robinson, and guests discussing the issues of the week.
Episodes
May 17, 2024 • 60 mins
In 2020 ordinary parents learned an important lesson: the so-called public school system felt perfectly free to ignore the public's wishes. This set in motion a backlash that's breathed new life into the school choice cause. Corey DeAngelis has paid close attention, and he joins Rob, Peter and James to explain the political whirlwind as laid out in his new book, The Parent Revolution: Rescuing Your Kids from the Radicals Ruining Ou...
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May 10, 2024 • 42 mins
John Yoo returns to the Ricochet Podcast, joining James and Rob for a discussion on prosecutorial overreach. The gang cover the unprecedented lawfare being waged against a former president, and consider the executive statesmanship that's kept the lawyers in check over our history. Plus there's some discussion of Biden's move to withhold congressionally approved arms to an ally at war; and, naturally, John has a few things to say ab...
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May 4, 2024 • 58 mins
H.R. McMaster joins James, Peter and Steve Hayward to discuss the Biden administration's feckless policy on the war in Gaza; he explains Hamas' battalion strength and the IDF's delayed invasion of Rafah, along with the political balancing act that's keeping the president from doing what he must.
Plus, the hosts enjoy the overdue campus crackdowns and consider the Trump campaign's pitch for a return to normalcy.
Plus, the hosts enjoy the overdue campus crackdowns and consider the Trump campaign's pitch for a return to normalcy.
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April 27, 2024 • 54 mins
Just James, Peter and Rob this week to wade through the disaster that has become of American higher education. Naturally, the essential question arises: what do we do about these once-prestigious institutions? The Ricochet trio think it through.
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April 20, 2024 • 58 mins
We'll have Manhattan, The D.A. and a jury, too...
And so we begin with apologies to Rodgers and Hart as our intrepid founders find themselves in the Big Apple together just as Donald Trump's criminal trial in the Stormy Daniels hush money case seats its jury. To that end we bring on National Review's Andy McCarthy, who just this week the former president called "a great legal scholar" to opine on whether Trump can get a fair hearing...
And so we begin with apologies to Rodgers and Hart as our intrepid founders find themselves in the Big Apple together just as Donald Trump's criminal trial in the Stormy Daniels hush money case seats its jury. To that end we bring on National Review's Andy McCarthy, who just this week the former president called "a great legal scholar" to opine on whether Trump can get a fair hearing...
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April 13, 2024 • 62 mins
James Lileks is back in the house, ladies and gentlemen! And speaking of houses, Jack Ryan joins the podcast to explain his war against the National Association of Realtors. (Pre-order your copy of the book he's co-authored: Bringing Adam Smith into the American Home: A Case Against Home Ownership.) Yes, you read that title correctly. Along with his fight against the "real estate cartel," Jack has his doubts that home ownership is ...
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April 6, 2024 • 61 mins
AEI's Matthew Continetti joins the Ricochet Podcast to discuss the internecine fight over the future of conservatism and the Democratic Party's abandonment of Israel. Plus, Peter and Rob have a bit of fun with earthquakes and hippie terrorists; swap lab leak theories and cheer themselves up with a reminder of the country's abiding unsung heroes.
- This week’s audio: NYC Mayor Eric Adams on this morning’s earthquake.
- This week’s audio: NYC Mayor Eric Adams on this morning’s earthquake.
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March 29, 2024 • 68 mins
Andrew Klavan returns to the Ricochet Podcast for a special Good Friday/Easter episode! He, Rob and Peter cover everything from antisemitism—the devil's flagpole, as Drew calls it—and what it really means to believe that Christ is King; on to poetics, popular fiction, political persuasiveness and the right's shortcomings as conveyors of truth.
Plus, Peter and Rob give a tribute to the last centrist Democrat Joe Lieberman; and consi...
Plus, Peter and Rob give a tribute to the last centrist Democrat Joe Lieberman; and consi...
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March 23, 2024 • 60 mins
Richard Epstein brings his encyclopedic knowledge to help break down some of the pivotal matters being debated in Congress and before the Supreme Court. Plus, James and Rob look back on the Covid lockdowns four years later, along with Minneapolis' move against Uber and Lyft.
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March 16, 2024 • 56 mins
Thirty years back, filmmaker Whit Stillman charmed audiences with a comedy about two Americans abroad in chaotic Cold War Europe. He joins Rob, James and Peter to discuss his movie Barcelona, cinema as an artform and as a business, and reasons for hope regarding its revival as a crowd-pleaser.
Plus: Rob's returned from Morocco, Peter's got big news, and James has a plan for the post-CCP TikTok.
- Soundbites from the opening: Chris E...
Plus: Rob's returned from Morocco, Peter's got big news, and James has a plan for the post-CCP TikTok.
- Soundbites from the opening: Chris E...
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March 9, 2024 • 57 mins
It's the Cooke and Lileks Show today! The duo delve into the egregious State of the Union address, and lament the erosion of the enumerated powers doctrine. They talk TikTok and the Energy and Commerce Committee's unanimous bill against the company's Chinese parent ByteDance; Charles has high hopes for the upcoming ruling that may well overrule the Chevron doctrine; and James has a few Oscar reviews and an ode to old Hollywood.
- So...
- So...
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March 2, 2024 • 64 mins
This week the Three Whiskey Happy Hour gang join James for a riotous good time, even as discuss and debate their beloved nation's precarious situation. They cover Joe Biden's visit to the border, Donald Trump's appeals to the Supreme Court, the latest on the war in Gaza, and a silly journalist's constitutional illiteracy. Plus there are whiskey recommendations and a must-hear story about apish antics on the high seas.
And if you enj...
And if you enj...
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February 24, 2024 • 60 mins
The forces against free speech are at again! Whether or not you've heard of NewsGuard or the Global Disinformation Index, rest assured that they're intently interested in where you get your information. Joining Peter, Rob and James today is David DesRoisers, Publisher of RealClearPolitics.com, whose scrupulously down-the-middle site was flagged by the groups above as a 'disinformation site,' and has lost a great many advertisers as...
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February 17, 2024 • 60 mins
We've got a special number for ya, folks. Instead of a guest or even politics, Charles Cooke, James Lileks and Peter Robinson talk football and music. Tune in for a recap on the Super Bowl—get Charles' take on the season and theLileksian review of the game's ads; plus the two of them give Peter a serious crash course in post-Beatles pop music!
- Sound clips from the open are from the State Farm, BMW, CeraVe ads, along with The ...
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February 10, 2024 • 58 mins
We're reminded often to mind our "work-life balance", but perhaps that distinction is drawn too plainly. Today we hear from David Bahnsen, author of the just-published Full Time: Work and the Meaning of Life, who makes the case that what we do for a living means a great deal more than what today's wellness gurus would have us believe. They go over everything in between the midcentury trend toward retirement as the goal to the conte...
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February 3, 2024 • 61 mins
Do you ever get that queasy feeling by the occassional thought that the people running our foreign policy agenda are, well… dumb? We do too. And so does our guest Rich Goldberg, who had to explain some basics to the House Foreign Affairs Committee earlier this week. He joins today to discuss everything from UNRWA and the tangled mess that is the United Nations, to Iran’s nuclear capabilities and our administration’s weakness in dea...
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January 27, 2024 • 58 mins
The GOP primary is basically dunzo. Time to look ahead towards the general election, the future of the Republican Party, even on to the generations that will take it over one day. To do so our merry Ricochet gang is joined by Governor Scott Walker, now the president of Young America's Foundation.
Peter, James and the Reverend Dr. Long also cut into the razor wire debate.
Peter, James and the Reverend Dr. Long also cut into the razor wire debate.
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January 20, 2024 • 57 mins
One caucus down and it appears the whole GOP primary is decided. Thankfully when you get a guest like Henry Olsen (EPPC senior fellow and host of the must-listen Beyond the Polls podcast) everything stays fresh and interesting. Henry has thoughts on what's left of this Republican primary along with the mess in the D camp; he runs us through campaigns we're scratching our heads at, forgotten about—or would like to forget about; and ...
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January 13, 2024 • 68 mins
Iowa braces for a cold Caucus Night and now the Trump, DeSantis, Haley and Ramaswamy teams have their work cut out for them to keep their engines from stalling. Since blizzardous conditions are keeping us from visiting, we asked Jim Geraghty, our man on the ground in Des Moines this week, to give us the scoop, the had-to-be-there insights and some informed speculation.
Plus Peter, James and Rob vent their lack of confidence in this...
Plus Peter, James and Rob vent their lack of confidence in this...
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January 6, 2024 • 61 mins
The trio is back for 2024! The reunited gang is happy to welcome back Ayaan Hirsi Ali to discuss the West's crisis of confidence and its fumbling attempt at post-Judeo-Christianity. Plus James, Rob and Peter have a few thoughts about Claudine Gay's resignation, and they divulge their philosophies on new year's resolutions.
- This week’s opening sound: Mara Gay of the NYT Editorial Board on the resignation of Harvard’s president (M...
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