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Not Dead Yet
We’re all dying, but some of us have been brought face to face with that reality. Reflecting on this certainty is part of a life well lived. However long we’ve got, it’s up to each of us to redeem the time. In this new podcast, hosts Ben Sasse and Chris Stirewalt talk with their guests about lives lived with gratitude, grit, and joy.
Episode length: 1h 22m
Can you live the good life without taking risks? Emma Camp of the Wall Street Journal joins the guys to talk about Gen Z, risk aversion, getting married young, and the importance of a good cocktail party — and the obligation to extend hospitality more more broadly. When did everything get wrapped in therapy speak? How has lifestyle creep blown expectations out of proportion? How do you build the habit of being social? Could a few good house parties save America?
Episode length: 1h 8m
The former head of the CIA joins the guys and things get wonky. The (mostly) unredacted conversation covers everything: Russia, China, college basketball, AI, spy novels, and what it takes to become an intelligence officer. What does the former top spy remember most about his time as a hostage at the Farm’s Special Operations Training Course?
September 2026
Episode length: 1h 4m
Chris is doing journalism, so Ben talks football. Another father-son football episode with Ed and Carmen Policy. Can you build a common culture for front office white-collar workers and on-field warriors? How has a salary cap made the NFL more competitive, and can baseball learn anything from it? Did high school failure help create the 49ers dynasty? Gambling’s a big problem, but after the Supreme Court’s ruling, what’s the path forward? Why is Youngstown, OH the epicenter of football? Ben Sasse's WSJ piece on how playing football builds character: https://www.wsj.com/opinion/free-expression/america-needs-its-boys-to-play-football-5b9673de?st=Qmuz3H&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
Episode length: 1h 13m
First return guest, Katherine Boyle, joins the guys to pick up where they left off. How can technology strengthen families? Why do boys need risks? How can women combine work and motherhood? Don’t we all need some suffering? Come for the deep questions, stick around for the autonomous boats, rebuilt shipyards, and American builders.
Episode length: 1h 8m
Technology, idolatry, time, and habits. Andy Crouch joins the gang to talk about technology, work without rest, and rest. How radical is an hour a day, a day a week, and a week a year? How does rest make us better at work? Is anybody a digital native? Golf, magic, acorn (not cogs) metaphors. It’s a wild ride.
Episode length: 1h 8m
World renowned for his beauty and his above-average thoughtfulness, Yuval Levin joins the guys. Why does he describe his work as gratitude for America? Why can’t you script a career path? Why do we overcomplicate questions of virtue? Is it true that Ben once sheared a sheep with Yuval in western Nebraska? All this and so much more.
Episode length: 1h 6m
Ok, they’ll bite. What’s a university? Ben and Chris are joined by legendary university president E. Gordon Gee. Public trust is in collapse, the core curriculum looks like a Cheesecake Factory menu, the math doesn’t add up, and college football looks a heckuva lot like professional football. The guys cover it all. Boy do Stirewalt and Gee love West Virginia.
August 2026
Episode length: 1h
The guys do some deep work. Prolific author and computer scientist Cal Newport joins the podcast. The gang talks about why email is a slog, what sparks human creativity, why the good life needs thoughtful deliberation, why Slack is a bummer, why the apocalyptic AI warnings are out of control, why productivity is different than busyness, and what we can do about it.
Episode length: 1h 8m
You write; they talk. Bicycle gangs are good, schools are overrated, chronological snobbery is bad, vocations are always plural, and Chris waxes poetic about his favorite hot dog.
Episode length: 1h 14m
The guys get fancy when Andrew Roberts, Baron Roberts of Belgravia, joins the pod. (Again with the historians.) The guys talk about Churchill and the Special Relationship between the United States and Great Britain. What was Churchill’s political philosophy? What did the wilderness years teach him? What’s the deal with the “Black Dog” anyway? And who would win in a cage match: Teddy Roosevelt or Winston Churchill?
Episode length: 1h 4m
July 2026
Episode length: 1h 5m
Everything’s great and nobody’s happy? Megan joins the guys to talk about affluenza. Each generation has to figure it out — so take some risks, make some bad decisions, and embrace scar tissue.
Episode length: 1h 16m
History, storytelling, and America, baby! Ken Burns joins the guys to talk about the work he’s done to translate the American experience to a wide audience. What makes a good documentary? What’s the deal with professional historians? Is “The Ashokan Farewell” a true playlist banger?
Episode length: 1h 9m
Ok, they’ll bite. What is poetry? Poet and critic Dana Gioia joins the guys to talk about poetry. How do poems reward the reader? What can verse tell us about memory? What’s the deal with poets?
Episode length: 1h 5m
As America celebrates 250 years, the guys talk with Jeff Rosen about the pursuit of happiness. Did Ben Franklin and John Adams really see it the same way? Does self-government depend on reading and virtue? How was Milton an influence on the Founders? Also… poetry?
June 2026
Episode length: 1h 13m
Ben and Chris talk with one of the most interesting people in Silicon Valley who isn’t actually in Silicon Valley. Ben’s got morphine fog. Katherine’s got parenting sleep deprivation. Perfect conditions to talk about intergenerational family life, American dynamism, and the case for optimism.
Episode length: 1h 6m
Dave talks with the guys about the problem of replacing faith with the cheap imitations of disordered goods, the need for thick community, the emptiness of striving, and the need for grace. Come for the critique of moral therapeutic deism — stick around for David Foster Wallace’s commencement speech and Emo Philips’ stand-up.
Episode length: 1h 15m
Happy Father's Day! While Chris is pulled away for journalism stuff, Ben talks about more important things with America’s football family. Jack and John Harbaugh talk about building character, raising families, and living with gratitude. “Who's got it better than us? Nobody!” Listeners: Always run out your pop flies, or Jack Harbaugh will make you — and probably your brother — walk home.
Episode length: 1h 21m
Indiana is better than West Virginia, nobody disagrees — except Chris. Ben, Chris, and the former Governor — and reality TV star? — Mitch Daniels talk about higher education, the need to deliver competency for taxpayers, and the looming debt crisis.
Episode length: 1h 13m
Ben can’t do pull-ups anymore, so it’s a great time to talk to Admiral William McRaven. The guys talk about the fine line between swagger and arrogance, the importance of clear communication, and the way McRaven built his teams of Navy Seals. Lots of conversation about failure as a teacher and McRaven’s top-5 must-read book recommendations. Show Notes: Admiral McRaven's book recommendations: — Marcus Aurelius: Meditations — Anton Myrer: Once an Eagle — Erich Maria Remarque: All Quiet on the Western Front — Will Durant — Ella Wheeler Wilcox — Rudyard Kipling — Stephen M. R. Covey: The Speed of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything — Ian MacHorton: The Hundred Days of Lt. MacHorton
May 2026
Episode length: 1h 10m
This Q&A episode has everything. Habits, dispositional conservatism, family bookshelves, Bo Jackson, Viking longboats, Apollo space ships, theology, and more. In an effort to avoid premature elaboration, the gang does a lightning round of false binaries.
Episode length: 1h 16m
Ben and Chris talk with tech analyst Ben Thompson about the future. Is AI heaven, or hell, or both? Does the future belong to China or the United States? What’s the deal with Silicon Valley, and does American ingenuity require a little insanity?
Episode length: 1h 13m
Singer, songwriter, musician, actor, and record producer Clint Black joins underachievers Ben and Chris. The gang talks about country music, writing, parenting, career choices, and gratitude. How much does art depend on lived-experience and pain, or can performers serve their audiences without working through their own trials?
Episode length: 1h 9m
Astronaut and Nebraskan Clayton Anderson joins the guys to talk about all things space. The human desire to explore, the vocation of spacewalking hundreds of miles above the earth, the rigors of NASA’s selection process, and the challenges of getting to Mars. Ben and Clayton agree Nebraska is better than West Virginia — it’s science.
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