Ayaan speaks with Sylvia Bennett-Stone about violence in America, the importance of community, the Black Lives Matter movement, and our flawed criminal justice system. Finally, they discuss how to find purpose after losing a child?

Sylvia Bennett-Stone serves as the Executive Director of the Voices of Black Mothers United (VBMU) initiative. After losing her daughter to senseless violence in 2004, Sylvia began her life-long commitment of helping uplift the lives of others by founding the Innovative Approach Foundation and chronicling her own healing journey in her book “Mindfields: A Healing Journey to Survive the Murder of a Child”. It is from these committed efforts to serve the community that she started Voices of Black Mothers United. With Sylvia at the helm as Executive Director, the VBMU initiative has grown to service thousands of mothers who have lost children and are implementing solutions to address community violence.

Ayaan speaks with Rafael about his childhood, violent crime, the breakdown of family, antisocial behavior, and rehabilitation. They also discuss Rafael’s new book Criminal (In)justice, a critique of our increasingly radical criminal justice reform movement. Finally, how do we remind Americans of the inherent good of America?

Rafael Mangual is a senior fellow and head of research for the Policing and Public Safety Initiative at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal. He has authored and co-authored a number of MI reports and op-eds on issues ranging from urban crime and jail violence to broader matters of criminal and civil justice reform. His work has been featured and mentioned in a wide array of publications, including the Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, New York Post, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer and City Journal. Mangual also regularly appears on Fox News and has made a number of national and local television and radio appearances on outlets such as C-SPAN and Bloomberg Radio. In 2020, he was appointed to serve a four-year term as a member of the New York State Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

Ayaan speaks with Kmele Foster about family, discrimination, and individualism. They also try to answer the question of what happened to the American man? Our societal evolution to empower women has been an overwhelming good. But have we forgotten what a positive male role model looks like?

Kmele Foster is a media entrepreneur, commentator, and civil liberties advocate. He’s co-founder of Freethink, an award-winning media company whose publications (Freethink, BigThink) survey the intersections of culture, innovation, ideas, and human progress.

Ayaan speaks with Ian Rowe about the power of personal agency and how to build it. Ian introduces a new framework to help develop agency in individuals: the FREE framework (family, religion, education, and entrepreneurship). His new book, Agency, is out today.

Ian Rowe is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he focuses on education and upward mobility, family formation, and adoption. Mr. Rowe is also the cofounder of Vertex Partnership Academies, a new network of character-based International Baccalaureate high schools opening in the Bronx in 2022; the chairman of the board of Spence-Chapin, a nonprofit adoption services organization; and the cofounder of the National Summer School Initiative. He concurrently serves as a senior visiting fellow at the Woodson Center and a writer for the 1776 Unites Campaign.

Ayaan speaks with Jason Hill about free speech, immigration, and the power of individual agency. While they question the woke’s focus on equity and victimhood, above all, they are optimistic about the resilience of young people and the American determination to solve problems.

Jason D. Hill is a professor of Philosophy at DePaul University and an Honors Distinguished Faculty member. He specializes in ethics, political philosophy, moral psychology, and U.S. foreign policy.

Ayaan speaks with Speaker Newt Gingrich about growing up in the 1950s and ’60s, and how life differs today. They also discuss divisions among both the Democratic and Republican parties, what Biden should do about the situation in Ukraine, and the biggest long-term threat to America.

Speaker Newt Gingrich is Chairman of Gingrich 360, a multimedia production and consulting company based in Arlington, Virginia.  As former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Gingrich is well known as the architect of the “Contract with America” that led the Republican Party to victory in 1994, creating the first conservative majority in the House in 40 years.  He was a Republican candidate for President of the United States in 2012.

Ayaan speaks with Megan Phelps-Roper about leaving the Westboro Baptist Church. They discuss how we can bridge the divide and have empathetic conversations across ideological lines.

Megan Phelps-Roper was raised in the Westboro Baptist Church, the Topeka, Kansas church known internationally for its daily public protests against members of the LGBTQ community, Jews, other Christians, the military, and countless others. As a child, teenager and early 20-something, she participated in the picketing almost daily and spearheaded the use of social media in the church.

Ayaan speaks with Paulina Neuding about rising crime rates in Sweden, humiliation robberies against children, and what Swedish identity looks like today. They consider the social cost of speaking up, and how not saying anything is far more harmful.

Paulina Neuding is a journalist based in Stockholm, Sweden.

Ayaan speaks with Michael Shellenberger about the drug addiction crisis taking over major U.S. cities. They also discuss the results of the Virginia elections, the potential of a political realignment and the COP26 conference.

Michael Shellenberger is the founder and president of Environmental Progress and is the author of Apocalypse Never and San Fransicko.

Ayaan speaks with Lawrence Krauss about the new religion of wokeism and how it spread throughout academia. They discuss the impacts that political correctness and cancel culture have on science, and what it means for the future.

Lawrence Krauss is an internationally known theoretical physicist.

Ayaan speaks with Katharine Birbalsingh about the importance of schools providing both a classical education and a place of belonging for children. Katharine explains how and why she established Michaela Community School. They also discuss the American obsession with race and how that is affecting education.

Katharine Birbalsingh is Headmistress and co-founder of Michaela Community School in Wembley, London. Michaela is known for its tough-love behavior systems, knowledge curriculum and teaching of kindness and gratitude. In 2017, the British Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills graded the school as “Outstanding” in every category.

Ayaan speaks with LTG H.R. McMaster about foreign policy challenges and threats, the withdrawal from Afghanistan and the recent purging of members from military boards. 

LTG H. R. McMaster is the Fouad and Michelle Ajami Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He is also the Bernard and Susan Liautaud Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute and lecturer at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. He serves as the Japan Chair at the Hudson Institute and Chairman of the Center for Political and Military Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracy.

Ayaan speaks with William McGurn about President Biden’s disastrous policy in Afghanistan. They discuss Biden’s speech declaring the end of the war, who really made the decision to leave Afghanistan, and the consequences that the U.S. faces from a botched withdrawal.

William McGurn is a writes the weekly “Main Street” column each Tuesday for The Wall Street Journal, is a member of the paper’s editorial board, and is a FoxNews contributor.

Ayaan asks Joe Lonsdale if we should rebuild or reform failing institutions. They also discuss Joe growing up in Silicon Valley, tech and the media, and whether or not the word “nerd” is still a derogatory term.

Joe Lonsdale is the managing partner at 8VC, a US-based venture capital firm which manages several billion dollars in committed capital. He was an early institutional investor in many notable companies including Wish, Oculus, Joby Aviation, and Guardant Health.

Ayaan speaks with Valerie Hudson about patriarchy and its expressions throughout history. They also discuss dangerous practices that hold women back, such as child marriage, polygamy, and exclusion from inheritance.

Valerie M. Hudson is a University Distinguished Professor and holds the George H.W. Bush Chair in the Department of International Affairs at the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University, where she directs the program on Women, Peace, and Security.

Ayaan invites Yasmine Mohammed back on to discuss why the Canadian authorities would not help her escape her forced marriage to an Al-Qaeda terrorist. They discuss other examples of governments failing young, vulnerable girls.

Yasmine Mohammed is a Canadian human rights activist who fights for the rights of women living within Muslim-majority countries, as well as those who struggle under religious fundamentalism, in general.

Ayaan speaks with Yasmine Mohammed about her marriage and escape from a man in Al-Qaeda.

Yasmine Mohammed is a Canadian human rights activist who fights for the rights of women living within Muslim-majority countries, as well as those who struggle under religious fundamentalism, in general.

Ayaan speaks with Nicholas Kristof about human rights abuses against women and girls around the world. They discuss his recent article, “A 14-Year-Old Bride, Wed to Her Rapist, Playing on a Jungle Gym,” and dive into the subjects of child marriage, forced marriage, and female genital mutilation.

Nicholas Kristof has been a columnist for the New York Times since 2001. He graduated from Harvard, studied law at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, and then studied Arabic in Cairo. He has won two Pulitzer Prizes for his coverage of Tiananmen Square and of the genocide in Darfur, along with many humanitarian awards such as the Anne Frank Award and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize.

Ayaan speaks with Helen Joyce about her new book, Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality. They discuss the rapid rise of gender-identity ideology, the differences between the US and UK, and much more.

Helen Joyce is The Economist’s Britain editor. She joined the paper in 2005 as an education correspondent, and between 2010 and 2013 was the Brazil correspondent, based in São Paulo. Since then she has edited the paper’s International section and Finance and Economics sections.

Ayaan speaks with Winston Marshall soon after he left the band, Mumford & Sons. They discuss his work helping Hong Kongers integrate into the UK, his interest in speaking up for the Uighurs in China, and much more.

This episode was recorded on June 28th, 2021.