The Debate Coaches

When we want a voice of sanity and reason to help us distill the election and the world at large, we turn to our good friend Mitch Daniels, the current President of Purdue University and the former Governor of Indiana (and in our alternate universe, the President of the United States). He schools us on Gary Johnson, our addiction to debt, and political correctness on campus. Then, our fellow podcaster Andrew Klavan joins to chat about his new book The Great Good Thing: A Secular Jew Comes to Faith in Christ. Also, what would you tell Donald Trump if you were his debate coach? We give our thoughts on the show, but tell us yours in the comments.

Public service announcement: if you’re not a member of Ricochet and enjoy this podcast, be one of the 1,500 and join today.

Music from this week’s podcast:
I’m Going Back to Indiana by The Jackson 5

The brand new opening sequence for the Ricochet Podcast was composed and produced by James Lileks.

Yes, you should absolutely subscribe to this podcast. It helps! And leave a comment too!

Crunch it, EJHill.

Subscribe to The Ricochet Podcast in Apple Podcasts (and leave a 5-star review, please!), or by RSS feed. For all our podcasts in one place, subscribe to the Ricochet Audio Network Superfeed in Apple Podcasts or by RSS feed.

Please Support Our Sponsor!

Harry's Shave

Use Code: ricochet

Now become a Ricochet member for only $5.00 a month! Join and see what you’ve been missing.

There are 31 comments.

Become a member to join the conversation. Or sign in if you're already a member.
  1. Eric Hines Inactive
    Eric Hines
    @EricHines

    Ironically, as I comment here, the image is captioned error – file does not exist..

    Eric Hines

    • #1
  2. Blue Yeti Admin
    Blue Yeti
    @BlueYeti

    Eric Hines:Ironically, as I comment here, the image is captioned error – file does not exist..

    Eric Hines

    We see it. Working on it.

    For now, use this link:

    https://player.megaphone.fm/RCH4447347783

    • #2
  3. Eric Hines Inactive
    Eric Hines
    @EricHines

    Blue Yeti:

    Eric Hines:Ironically, as I comment here, the image is captioned error – file does not exist..

    Eric Hines

    We see it. Working on it.

    That was a bit of snark on the implication of coachability, nothing else.

    Eric Hines

    • #3
  4. James Gawron Inactive
    James Gawron
    @JamesGawron

    Blue Yeti:

    Eric Hines:Ironically, as I comment here, the image is captioned error – file does not exist..

    Eric Hines

    We see it. Working on it.

    For now, use this link:


    Audio Player

    Oh Great and Powerful Yeti,

    The link that you have mercifully provided is also dead.

    Regards,

    Jim

    • #4
  5. James Gawron Inactive
    James Gawron
    @JamesGawron

    Blue Yeti:

    Eric Hines:Ironically, as I comment here, the image is captioned error – file does not exist..

    Eric Hines

    We see it. Working on it.

    For now, use this link:

    https://player.megaphone.fm/RCH4447347783

    Oh Great and Powerful Yeti,

    This one works!

    Regards,

    Jim

    • #5
  6. Drusus Inactive
    Drusus
    @Drusus

    I have faith in Chris too.

    • #6
  7. Mike LaRoche Inactive
    Mike LaRoche
    @MikeLaRoche

    Who’s Chris?

    • #7
  8. Blue Yeti Admin
    Blue Yeti
    @BlueYeti

    Drusus:I have faith in Chris too.

    LOL. Fixed.

    • #8
  9. Randy Webster Inactive
    Randy Webster
    @RandyWebster

    I get file does not exist messages all the time on Klavan’s podcasts.  I just download them and play them on Windows Media Player.  Never had a problem with that.

    • #9
  10. Max Ledoux Coolidge
    Max Ledoux
    @Max

    Hey, everyone, it’s fixed now. Sorry for the error. We have a new distribution partner for the Ricochet Podcast and GLoP Culture, and we had an issue with the url for the mp3 file.

    • #10
  11. Saint Augustine Member
    Saint Augustine
    @SaintAugustine

    Right on, Mr. Klavan: It’s not that we aren’t animals, but maybe there’s something more to us that powers the machine.

    Long live hylomorphism, baby.

    Are you a hick or a rube?  No, just a bit Aristotelian.

    Are you talking about being unscientific?  The very opposite!

    • #11
  12. Tyler Boliver Inactive
    Tyler Boliver
    @Marlowe

    I see the boys have been hitting the gym.

    • #12
  13. Mate De Inactive
    Mate De
    @MateDe

    Gary Johnson was in a debate back in 2012 and he was unimpressive, which is why he decided to spoil over to the Libertarian ticket (even though he was an elected republican) Johnson like Hillary just gets more unlikable the more you see him. I think, and take this from where it’s coming from as I am not a libertarian, but having Johnson up there in the National debates would not be good for libertarianism. Maybe if Austin Petersen was the nominee he would have made a great case for libertarians but Johnson seems like a baked liberal at this point.

    • #13
  14. Koblog Inactive
    Koblog
    @Koblog

    Simple Safe? I thought it was SimpliSafe.

    • #14
  15. Koblog Inactive
    Koblog
    @Koblog

    Rob so deeply desires the very smartest, most informed, most erudite, most “rational,” most “stable,” most “measured,” most “thoughtful,” most Ivy League, most “moderate,” most insider…in short, the most Rob Longish person…to be president, or, or, or…he will stomp his feet and not feel good.

    Yet he has made a fortune and swims seamlessly in the very industry — Hollywood — that has done its institutional best to destroy those very concepts in this nation by bringing us the basest, crudist and very lowest of culture and “humor.” I tried to watch one episode of his Sullivan And Son (or whatever it was called on TBS) and was struck with cognitive dissonance — it stood for everything that disgusts me about what television has done to us.

    Never daunted, Rob marches on in his secular Hollywood mindset (he has absolutely zero understanding what has happened to Andrew Klavan) by hating the casting for this election. It’s just not “right.” As one old time Hollywood producer is to have said, “No, no, no! Jimmy Stewart as president. Ronald Reagan as his best friend.”

    Poor Rob.  He does such Important Things and lives by the sea in the Right Place, and knows the Right People, and we plebes just refuse to listen to him.

    • #15
  16. Rightfromthestart Coolidge
    Rightfromthestart
    @Rightfromthestart

    I’m sure Mitch Daniels is a lovely man, a good governor and would have been a fine President, but he would have to get in via the Harry Truman method. The Clinton media machine would have made minced meat of him. As John Derbyshire says ‘Midwestern nice will be the death of us all’ . If he gave a speech the people passing by the hall in the street would be yawning.                               I anticipate a Trump administration would be the fusion administration he hopes for. Whereas Hillary would be straight left 270° and tie the wheel off.
    Lazio wasn’t ‘too aggressive’ by any stretch. Rob swallowed the spin whole and regurgitates it 16 years later. He was in a media kill box , the ‘he scared the Girl’ headlines were written before the debate. The alternative was ‘ stood there like a dummy, out of his depth’ . Media delenda est.

    • #16
  17. Eugene Kriegsmann Member
    Eugene Kriegsmann
    @EugeneKriegsmann

    I was listening to the podcast this morning (Saturday) and the last 5 minutes simply cut off. I was able to get it by going to Yeti’s link. It is still not showing up on iTunes, though as of this morning. The description is there, but nothing happens when I try to play it.

    • #17
  18. Max Ledoux Coolidge
    Max Ledoux
    @Max

    Eugene Kriegsmann:I was listening to the podcast this morning (Saturday) and the last 5 minutes simply cut off. I was able to get it by going to Yeti’s link. It is still not showing up on iTunes, though as of this morning. The description is there, but nothing happens when I try to play it.

    Hi, Gene! Did you try refreshing your feed in iTunes? I just played this episode in iTunes and skipped to the end and heard the closing music.

    Screen Shot 2016-09-24 at 1.03.24 PM

    • #18
  19. Saje Inactive
    Saje
    @SarahJoyce

    “The Queens” – I laughed out loud on the treadmill.

    And thanks, Peter, for asking Drew about “The Benedict Option.” I agree with Drew.  IMHO, Monastic orders were an important part of the Middle Ages, but so were the preaching orders of Franciscans and Dominicans. Active and contemplative go hand in hand, otherwise it’s just retreat.

    • #19
  20. dborucke Lincoln
    dborucke
    @dborucke

    And that was my first podcast as a new member (signed up today — I’ll be checking the mail for my decoder ring).  Thanks and well-done.

    • #20
  21. Randy Webster Inactive
    Randy Webster
    @RandyWebster

    You aren’t really a full-fledged member until you make it to a meetup.  JK.  Welcome, though I wouldn’t hold my breath on the decoder ring.

    • #21
  22. dborucke Lincoln
    dborucke
    @dborucke

    I’m definitely getting a ring, and looking forward to my first decoded message – “shave with Harry’s razors.”

    • #22
  23. Eugene Kriegsmann Member
    Eugene Kriegsmann
    @EugeneKriegsmann

    Max Ledoux:

    Eugene Kriegsmann:I was listening to the podcast this morning (Saturday) and the last 5 minutes simply cut off. I was able to get it by going to Yeti’s link. It is still not showing up on iTunes, though as of this morning. The description is there, but nothing happens when I try to play it.

    Hi, Gene! Did you try refreshing your feed in iTunes? I just played this episode in iTunes and skipped to the end and heard the closing music.

    Screen Shot 2016-09-24 at 1.03.24 PM

    Yes, I did, multiple times. The little blue dot indicating that it was available was there, but when I clicked on the episode nothing happened. No biggy. I was able to find it on the link you had provided in an earlier post. Thx.

    • #23
  24. Mr. Conservative Inactive
    Mr. Conservative
    @mrconservative

    Kudos for the Andrew Klavan interview.

    download (1)Here’s why I liked it.  First, that kind of interview is nothing like what the mainstream media ever does.  It feels the need to suppress anything religious that might possible be taken in a positive light (leave that for religious programming, they think, that’s what they are here for).   As long as religious people can be painted as ignorant, narrow, bigoted,  or homophobic, they can have the airways, but nothing positive this way shall pass.  And the MSM are certainly horribly afraid to talk of ultimate issues in any personal way when it comes to religion.  If veganism, devotion to combating global warming, or meditation has changed your life, well that’s grand, tell us how.  But orthodox Christianity, and…dare I say his name, Jesus? Run as fast and far away as you can.

    Second, the interview with AK seems so natural on both sides.  The Ricochet guys interviewed AK like they would any winsome, intelligent author, and his answers seemed the same, they could have come from any winsome, intelligent author.  Just as I abhor affirmative action in terms of race, I abhor it terms of my faith.  The Christian faith either stands or falls on its own merit, I don’t want special protections for it, nor do I want to see special obstacles imposed.

    (continued below)

    • #24
  25. Mr. Conservative Inactive
    Mr. Conservative
    @mrconservative

    I particularly like the transparency of one of Rob’s questions, which was, in essence, “Has this experience with Christ changed you?  Have your friends and family noticed?”  And without sounding pious (AK even dismissed piety as the farthest thing from who he is), his answer was beautiful.  “Yes, I see a difference and my family has seen it.”

    If I might add just a smidgen to AK’s wonderful answer.  Yes, yes, yes, yes.  Knowing the real Christ in a real way will have a very real impact on your life.  How it could it not?  If God is who he says he is (Lord of all things, Creator of all things, Sustainer of all things, Meaning behind all things), it only makes sense that becoming his child, being adopted into his family–however you want to phrase it–should make a difference.   Don’t think of it as just adding a new app to your download (2)phone, think about it as changing your entire operating system, on a new phone, in a new universe of ideas.

    BUT, dear Rob and any listeners who heard the interview, the difference AK was talking about (a new peace, a new courage, a new way of seeing the world and its problem, of yourself and its problems) is NOT reason why someone should come to faith in Christ….

    (continued)

    • #25
  26. Mr. Conservative Inactive
    Mr. Conservative
    @mrconservative

    There is only one valid reason for someone to choose to follow Christ.  BECAUSE IT’S ALL TRUE (what the Bible says about Christ, and what he says about himself).  If it’s not, you’re wasting your time.  (AK hinted at this early in the interview when he described the effect of logic on his decision.)  The other stuff–all good, the changes he brings about in your life, the peace, the courage, AK talked about–are only the by-products that come after you settle the truth question:  Can Jesus Christ really be who he said he was?  Start there, my friend.  My feeling is that God loves prayers that might begin like this, “God, I don’t know if I even believe in you or if you are there, or if I did know you whether I would like you. I was just reading this stupid guy’s comment on a blog.  But, I want to know the truth.  If you are there and are listening, show me the truth about who you are.”

    And, if you think that following Christ is a bed or roses, or the sure way to health, wealth, and happiness–think again.  CS Lewis illustrated this so well in his masterpiece, The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.1363016312423.cached

    “Safe?” said Mr. Beaver; “don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”

    • #26
  27. Rick O'Shea in Texas Inactive
    Rick O'Shea in Texas
    @RickOSheainTexas

    Rob’s position on Trump proves once-and-for-all that he is not a RINO Squish, he’s a RINO Stiff.

    • #27
  28. Nancy Spalding Inactive
    Nancy Spalding
    @NancySpalding

    I am clearly the only person who go the message “not available from Ricochet network” when I have tried to play it on my iTunes subscription… Oh, well.

    • #28
  29. Nancy Spalding Inactive
    Nancy Spalding
    @NancySpalding

    Re-downloaded; on the 3rd time, it played!

    • #29
  30. Max Ledoux Coolidge
    Max Ledoux
    @Max

    Glad it’s working for you now, Nancy. We had a problem with the url for the audio file initially. :-(

    • #30
Become a member to join the conversation. Or sign in if you're already a member.