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John Hinderaker

John Hinderaker spent 41 years as a litigator with Faegre & Benson and its successor Faegre Baker Daniels, during which time he tried 100 jury cases and appeared in courts in 19 states and was repeatedly considered one of America's Top Lawyers. Upon his retirement from the legal profession at the end of 2015, he became President of the Center of the American Experiment. John has had a long association with the Center, including co-authoring several papers published by the Center and serving on the organization’s Board of Directors. John was Chairman of the Center’s board in 1998-2000. In addition to his legal career, John is a long-time commentator and activist. He founded the website Power Line in 2002 and has been a prominent voice on the internet and elsewhere since that time. He has appeared as a commentator on NBC, CBS, Fox News, CNN, CNBC, and Sky News Australia, and is a frequent guest and guest host on national radio programs. John has lectured at Dartmouth College, Harvard Law School, Carleton College, St. Olaf College, Macalester College and the University of Minnesota.

Series

3 Whisky Happy Hour, 5 episodesThe Ricochet Podcast, 1 episode

Recent Episodes

The Ricochet Podcast
The Ricochet Podcast

Minnesota Not-So-Nice

There's a lot of joy in the air. Or so we're told by the Jolly Dad VP nominee Tim Walz. To step past the vibes for a moment, we talk with John H. Hinderaker, president of the Minneapolis-based Center of the American Experiment. He takes us through the methods and policies of Governor Walz, which reveal a less-than-pleasant character. Plus, he sticks around with James, Steve, and "Lucretia" to discuss the 50th anniversary of Richard Nixon's departure from the White House.

Hosted by James Lileks, 'Lucretia', and Steve Hayward

Organization:
Ricochet

February 2023

3 Whisky Happy Hour
3 Whisky Happy Hour

The Fab Four for the 400th

Can it really be possible that this is the 400th episode of this ramshackle podcast? With such a milestone, it seemed a good occasion to get the Fantastic Four who work the site every day together at once (never simple to do), and we decided to do a dry run with a special Zoom webinar for our VIP subscribers. Savor this rare occasion, as Steve, Scott Johnson, Joe Malchow and John Hinderaker (resuming his legacy role as the host) gather for this gala 400th episode, where we deflated more balloons than Joe Biden with a dart gun, preview the 2024 presidential field, and also discuss in broad terms some early plans for upgrading the site in the near future.

Hosted by Steve Hayward

Organization:
Ricochet

June 2022

3 Whisky Happy Hour
3 Whisky Happy Hour

Happy Anniversary: Power Line Celebrates 20 Years

The 20th anniversary is known as the "China anniversary," and can you still use that if your predominant mode is breaking China? In any case, the Power Line crew assembled for a live (by Zoom) VIP webcast this week that featured a rare appearance by our technical director Joe Malchow, who is usually our behind-the-screen Wizard of Oz figure. Among other things, Joe shared a sacred relic, a signed copy of Tom Wolfe's last novel, as it turned out Wolfe was an occasional Power Line reader. We decided after the hour was over that our general readership might enjoy the conversation (though everyone should still sign up to be a Power Line VIP member—new premium VIP content coming soon!). A lot has changed in 20 years, from the technical aspects of websites which saw Power Line early on coping with the problem of site crashes from sudden surges of traffic (we were one of the first to figure out how to cope with that), to changes in the format and character of the online media world. We still have "blog" in our title because of the difficulties of changing domain names.

Hosted by Steve Hayward

Organization:
Ricochet

May 2022

3 Whisky Happy Hour
3 Whisky Happy Hour

Special Leakgate Edition

Owing partly to travel schedules that prevent our normal and proper Friday evening happy hour to debrief the week, combined with the shocking leak of the prospective Supreme Court opinion in the Dobbs case, we decided to declare a special mid-week happy hour with Scott and John joining in the libations, along with a special guest, the noted Whisky-McRibb pairing expert, John Yoo, coming to us from outside his favorite squash court in San Francisco—all recorded before a live audience on Zoom (and thank you to everyone who tuned in). We begin by revisiting several predictions we made about the Dobbs case in our podcast of December 10, where we not only nailed the dynamic of the likely decision based on how the oral argument went, but also discussed the probability that the opinion would leak, in an unprecedented attempt to blow up trust and public esteem for the Supreme Court. In fact, as the show notes for that episode record: We also speculate on whether there might actually be leaks from somewhere inside the Court ahead of the decision—something that rarely or never happens—because the liberal justices are desperate to do anything to derail an overturning of Roe (which, Steve argued to John, is the “McRibb sandwich of modern jurisprudence: a compressed confection of offal cuts slathered with sauce to disguise its true awfulness”). Now I had forgotten this since Lucretia uses her Will Smith "Men in Black" neuralizer flashy thing on me after every episode. Our perspectives on the legal analysis and political fall out are all over the map and quite unpredictable, so settle in with a single-malt or other substitute, and enjoy.

Hosted by Steve Hayward

Organization:
Ricochet

March 2021

3 Whisky Happy Hour
3 Whisky Happy Hour

The Power Line Show: VIP Highlights

Last night we had one of our special live Zoom events for Power Line VIP subscribers, but a gremlin seems to have prevented many VIPs from getting timely notice of the link to the event. So we decided to post up the audio of the event for VIPs who didn't get a link or who were unable to join us for whatever reason--and for any curious listeners who want to hear what they're missing! Scott was under the weather, so "Lucretia," Power Line's International Woman of Mystery (and somehow "America's Sweetheart" to some whisky-drinking regulars) took Scott's place on short notice, as we survey several topics, from the Chauvin trial, the chaos and crisis at the souther border, the rigor mortis of (P)resident Biden, and several other topics, as well as taking listener questions.

Hosted by Steve Hayward

Organization:
Ricochet

January 2021

3 Whisky Happy Hour
3 Whisky Happy Hour

Open Mic Edition

Lucretia and I decided to pour triple shots and host an open bar episode of our regular whisky-drenched dialogue with two special guests, Power Line co-founder John Hinderaker, and Charles Lipson, frequent contributor to The Spectator and other publications. Partly this is because Steve wanted some company in the weekly "getting-thrashed-by-Lucretia" moments. And also because we taped this episode with a live virtual Zoom audience of Power Line VIP members, which kind of made it an open mic edition. Naturally there was only one topic: how to think about this disastrous week in Washington, and where do we go from here? Steve and Charles are critical of Trump, while John and Lucretia urge us not to look beyond the massive hypocrisy and bad faith of Democrats and the media (but we repeat ourselves). What messages and strategies ought conservatives—and the reeling Republican Party—adopt going forward? What does the political landscape look like now that the Democrats control the Senate? Do we really want to repose our fate into the hands of Joe Manchin? Settle in with your favorite drink (Steve had a peaty Japanese whisky, because it seemed to pair best with the temptation to commit hari-kari), and give a listen.

Hosted by Steve Hayward

Organization:
Ricochet