Get the Ricochet app

Ricochet will work fine in a browser on your mobile devices, but for the best experience please download our app.

Download on the App StoreGet it on Google Play

Become a member.

Tired of the toxicity of social media? Why not join Ricochet for just $5/month? Think of it as an online bar. Come in, have a drink, hang out, say whatever you want. But don’t badger, bully, or berate the other drinkers. That's our only rule.

Richard Samuelson

Richard Samuelson is professor of government at Hillsdale College's Van Andel School of Statesmanship in Washington DC.

Series

3 Whisky Happy Hour11 episodes

Recent Episodes

3 Whisky Happy Hour
3 Whisky Happy Hour

The Three Whisky Happy Hour: Will the Rotting Timbers of Academia Finally Fall?

The shocking suicide of the fraudulent Jason Arday alongside the Atlantic cover story about how a mostly leftist scholar "of color" (Tyler Austin Harper) quit his tenure track job at Bates College because he couldn't stand "the insufferable hypocrisy of elite academia," ought to be the last straw for our nation's tolerance for a completely rotten education system, from K-12 through the colleges and universities. But it probably won't be, because the left is not going to give up these premier bastions of political power unless they are crushed. And that can't be done quickly or easily. Joining us this week to take the place of the truant John Yoo is Bates College alum Richard Samuelson, nowadays a professor of history at Hillsdale College, who adds some detail from his own experience as an undergraduate at Bates College, and you will wonder how he survived the place. We also have a brief cameo appearance from John, who notes the peculiar legal strategy being pursued by Luigi Mangione, the killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last year.
Hosts:
'Lucretia'Steve Hayward
Organization
Ricochet

November 2025

3 Whisky Happy Hour
3 Whisky Happy Hour

The Three Whisky Happy Hour: Why John Adams Would Get Sydney Sweeney

Now we know what you're thinking: if we have on as a special guest historian Richard Samuelson, one of the pre-eminent experts on John Adams, you'd think we find out what Adams thought about the Clean Air Act, but no! Instead, the show reaches its zenith with Samuelson drawing our attention to some of Adams's handwritten marginalia that demonstrates why Adams would have completely understood the Sweeney Sensation. Richard joined us for our intermittent series between now and next July 4 about the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, and he helpfully arbitrated the debate we had last week about the probity of Gordon Wood's treatment of the American creed. (Readers should also not miss Samuelson's article "John Adams Versus Edmund Burke," which helps clarify the extent to which Adams should be thought of (as Russell Kirk did) as "America's first conservative." We also went through a couple of current headlines about the latest frontiers in lawfare, and the aftermath of the shooting of two national guard troops in Washington. For those who like to take in the video, you can find the YouTube right here (and consider subscribing).
Hosts:
John Yoo'Lucretia'Steve Hayward
Organization
Ricochet

January 2023

3 Whisky Happy Hour
3 Whisky Happy Hour

The Three Whisky Happy Hour Rummages Joe’s Garage and Celebrates Paul Johnson

John Yoo is away this week, so Hillsdale historian Richard Samuelson joins the Three Whisky Happy Hour for an extended discussion of the passing of Paul Johnson, and especially why he deserves to be considered one of the premier historians of all time. But first we rummage around in Joe's garage (Joe Biden that is), where the lyrics to Frank Zappa's tune by that name seem appropriate: This is the PoliceGive yourself upWe have the garage surrounded Everday this goes on around here! Is this a ramping up of "Operation Dump Joe" so that Kamala can become president in a week, suddenly eligible to serve ten years? The good news is that KAAAAH-mala (as one of our bartenders likes to call her) has re-emerged from her holiday hiatus—or has she escaped from the Democrats' witless protection program?—offering some fresh inanities about the Caribbean and Venn diagrams. You can pretty much guess this week's exit music by now.
Host:
Steve Hayward
Organization
Ricochet

October 2022

3 Whisky Happy Hour
3 Whisky Happy Hour

The Three Whisky Happy Hour: From Command and Control to Fascism

This week offers a hybrid car of an episode—almost literally as it turns out—as John Yoo was traveling midweek when Lucretia and Steve gathered in person with Richard Samuelson to record the first half, reviewing his reflections on the significance of the "Washington Football Team" deciding to name themselves the "Commanders," which rather fits the administrative state today, no? From there we go on to observe that just when you think academic history can't sink any lower, it finds a way to do just that (in this case, the James Sweet fiasco that we've written about on Power Line), and then we take up Michael Anton's latest provocation about why the prospect of a new civil war could represent the vindication of the Declaration of Independence. At length, and with the help of Interpol, we managed to track down John Yoo in exile over in Italy to get his on the ground take on the recent Italian election that American media think is a harbinger of revived fascism, along with an extended discussion of how the new lawsuits against Biden's student loan giveaway have a good chance of overcoming the standing hurdles and successfully striking down Biden's illegal action. But wait! There's more: Would you believe our Lucretia took delivery of her very own Tesla this week? John recalls his not terribly happy experience with a rented Tesla last week, but when I showed him what happened to gasoline prices in California this week, he began to reconsider. (The left side shows prices on Monday, and then on Friday, at the same station.)
Hosts:
'Lucretia'John YooSteve Hayward
Organization
Ricochet

April 2022

3 Whisky Happy Hour
3 Whisky Happy Hour

The Three Whisky Happy Hour, With Richard Samuelson on Harvard’s April Fool’s Prank

Historian Richard Samuelson turned up for Friday evening happy hour this week, with 14-year-old Oban in hand, to kick around this week's less-than-neat headlines. Is it merely a coincidence that Jen Psaki chose April Fools' Day to have the news come out that she's going to join MSNBC? Irony is truly dead. Meanwhile, on the great existential question of the week—"Team Smith" or "Team Rock"—Lucretia disdains either choice, while affirming the general principle that "violence is always the answer." Steve offers up that "King Richard," the film for which Will Smith won his best actor Oscar, is in some small ways a conservative film, though it suffers the typical over-exaggeration of all sports movies, so it gets no better than a C. This week it was revealed that despite Judge and soon-to-be-Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson's supposed embrace of "originalism" in her confirmation hearing, she doesn't believe in the philosophy of the American founding that is the core of constitutional originalism rightly understood. (She told Sen.
Host:
Steve Hayward
Organization
Ricochet

February 2022

3 Whisky Happy Hour
3 Whisky Happy Hour

The Three Whisky Happy Hour: Not This Again!, with Richard Samuelson

This week we're joined once again by the historian, political theorist, and borscht-belt comedian Richard Samuelson to break the 3WHH deadlock on "the FDR Question." But fear not weary listeners, we dispose of that question in short order, and move on to other things. ("Team Lucretia" will be pleased with his tie-breaking verdict.) Among our other topics include the San Francisco school board recall, how the latest perversity of environmental law has suddenly landed hard on UC Berkeley in ways the left never anticipated, and of course a few recent COVID highlights, including especially the perverse incentives that lead CDC and "public health" bureaucrats to want to keep COVID panic going forever. Finally, we end with some reminiscences of P.J. O'Rourke including a few of our favorite classic lines of his, and also the surprising advice he once gave Steve about public speaking.
Hosts:
'Lucretia'John YooSteve Hayward
Organization
Ricochet

December 2021

3 Whisky Happy Hour
3 Whisky Happy Hour

The Three Whisky Happy Hour: The State of American Democracy at Year End, with Richard Samuelson

For what turns out to be the 300th Power Line podcast as well as the last episode of 2021, we decided to revert to full three-whisky mode with a live audience on Zoom, and an extended conversation with historian Richard Samuelson about the left's distorted and impoverished understanding of democracy. Steve had his usual Islay peat bombs and Lucretia polished off a bottle of Glenfiddich, while Richard, who is under quarantine with an actual case of the Omigod variant, had a soothing toddy. In between recalling what the Founders thought about democracy (and especially John Adams's contributions, since Richard is an Adams expert), Steve offered up his lexicon of what certain terms mean for liberals: Populism: When the wrong person or cause wins a free election. (Think Brexit and Trump.) Racism: Any opposition to the agenda of the left. Democracy: When the left gets what it wants. This explains the left's tantrums when they don't get what they want, and their demands to change the rules until they do. Richard also reviews for listeners the defects of the stage play Hamilton, even as it is coming under fresh attack from the left.
Host:
Steve Hayward
Organization
Ricochet

November 2021

3 Whisky Happy Hour
3 Whisky Happy Hour

The Three Whisky Happy Hour: The New Misery Index Edition

Steve actually turned up for this week's show with three different whiskys in hand (Finlaggan, Lagavulin 8, and Bunnahabhain 12—in other words, Islay All the Way!), along with a sampling of the worst-reviewed whiskys ever, though these reviews pale in comparison to the reviews this episode's panel gives to Democrats just now. Historian Richard Samuelson joined Steve and Lucretia for this week's show—which was recorded on Veterans Day with alive audience on Zoom, a day earlier than normal—to go over an all new, 21st Century Democratic Misery Index, the most outrageous part of the farcical "infrastructure week," the strange reactions to the news of the founding of the University of Austin, and the new malicious deceptions of the New York Times' 1619 Project. We also range over the strange news that some dunderheads in Britain actually think it is news that John Locke read Thomas Hobbes, the Rittenhouse trial, Kamala in Paris, and at the last, the results of a viewer poll intended to settle the Steve-Lucretia feud about peaty whisky, where Steve's peat bombs narrowly edged Lucretia's Highland style by less than 2 percent. But there are allegations of voting irregularities, so there may need to be a recount. And the next time a liberals says "Critical race theory is not being taught in schools!", show them this picture and ask why education schools are adopting all of these:
Host:
Steve Hayward
Organization
Ricochet

October 2021

3 Whisky Happy Hour
3 Whisky Happy Hour

The Three (No) Whisky Happy Hour: Gonzo Beach Edition

Unfortunately we weren't able to fix up the usual online recording session for this week's Three Whisky Happy Hour, and attempted to assemble in person ahead of the Claremont Institute's annual dinner at Huntington Beach, this year with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (who was terrific, by the way). But we were outside, with not enough time to get organized—and without any whisky!—and the result was a bit of a train wreck. But at least it's short! (As I used to say when I still showed up for road races in my dotage, "I may be old and fat, but I'm slow! My strategy is to start of slow, and tail off from there." Well we kind of live up to that here.) Our irregular sidekick Richard Samuelson joined us, and then halfway through Jeremy Carl wandered by, so we made him sit down and join us with no preparation. We tried to cover Last Week in Wokeness and a few other things, but I'm not sure we really got anywhere. But we got so many emails from disappointed listeners than we decided to throw this episode up (literally) and let you decide. Yeah, some whisky would have made a difference.
Host:
Steve Hayward
Organization
Ricochet
3 Whisky Happy Hour
3 Whisky Happy Hour

The Three Whisky Happy Hour: Alice Cooper (‘School’s Out’) Vindicated, with Lance Izumi

We're a day late with this week's episode because Lucretia and Steve had the opportunity to catch up live with the Pacific Research Institute's education expert extraordinaire Lance Izumi in San Francisco, to talk about what's going on in the world of K-12. Lance is the author of the forthcoming book entitled The Homeschool Boom, but also helpfully fills us in on the backstory of how Japanese whisky originated and came to take its place as a rival to the finest Scottish whisky. And we also get some confessions about his unlimited collection of minor league baseball team uniforms (yes, including even the Toledo Mud Hens). This is only fitting for the person whose unofficial PRI title is the Gilbert & Sullivan Fellow in Sartorial Splendor. (Look up his Facebook page photos if you doubt us.) Among the news items we review about why home schooling is going to continue growing rapidly is Gov. Newsom's mandate that all school children will need to be vaccinated to attend public and private schools.
Host:
Steve Hayward
Organization
Ricochet

September 2021

3 Whisky Happy Hour
3 Whisky Happy Hour

The Three Whisky Happy Hour: The End of History, with Richard Samuelson

We're a day late because of travel problems, and Steve is working on a backup computer because he left his laptop behind at his office on Friday, but this allowed us finally to book historian Richard Samuelson to join the happy hour to talk about . . . history. Specifically, what the hell has happened to history? It's not just that the academic field has gone left like everything else; it has become narrow, mediocre, and . . . boring. Richard breaks it all down for us, with some cheers and side rants from Steve and Lucretia. From there we do a deep dive into the Arizona election audit, and kick around the two big stories of the end of the week: the revelation, in the New York Times of all unexpected places, that the FBI had an informant inside the Proud Boys on January 6, and the revelation that the Biden Administration admitted 12,000 Haitians from under the Del Rio Bridge scene. It is extremely unlikely than any of this number were properly processed.
Host:
Steve Hayward
Organization
Ricochet