Power Line

Steve Hayward is joined this week by Power Line’s own John Hinderaker and Power Line’s eminence grise behind the curtain, Joe Malchow, to dissect the key takeaways of the Inspector General’s findings about the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton. The second half of this episode features Henry Olsen with his latest “surf report” about where the Democrats’ “blue wave” stands at the moment. Hint: Democrats shouldn’t be waxing up their longboards just yet.

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This week’s episode offers a conversation between Steve Hayward and Charles Copeland, president of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) about the crisis of the university, especially Steve’s favorite theme that universities are slowly committing intellectual suicide. This discussion took place at the recent Western Conservative Summit in Denver.

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Steve Hayward talks this week with author Michael Walsh about his new book, The Fiery Angel: Art, Culture, Sex, Politics, and the Struggle for the Soul of the West. Walsh has encyclopedic knowledge of high culture from Homer to Rocky IV, with detours to opera, novels, fine art, and classical music along the way, revealing deep layers of political and cultural meaning and explaining why the cultural struggles of our time are the key to winning our political battles. He also throws down on the defects of the modern conservative movement.

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Steve Hayward caught up with the noted author Matt Ridley and energy entrepreneur Chris Wright in a hotel lobby in Denver last week, and decided to make a podcast of it! Matt Ridley (nowadays Lord Ridley!) is the author of many fine books, including The Rational Optimist and The Evolution of Everything: How New Ideas Emerge. Ridley is one of the leading “lukewarmers”—the band of people who believe climate change is exaggerated and possibly a benefit to the planet, and we cover some of the latest scientific findings about our changing climate that the media don’t want you to know. Chris Wright is one of the leading innovators in oil and technology, and explains what’s going on—namely, that we’re still in the early stages of the worldwide fracking revolution.

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Steve Hayward sits down with Rebecca Heinrichs of the Hudson Institute to survey the scene with regard to defense spending, middle defense, what Russia and China are up to, how the North Korea talks may go, and why Trump, like Mark Twain’s comment on Wagner’s music, is better than he looks when it comes to foreign and defense policy. Special shout out to Peter Schramm, our mutual teacher and mentor.

Steve Hayward and John Hinderaker interviewed Michael Anton, former senior staffer at Trump’s National Security Council and author of the controversial “Flight 93 Election” article from September 2016, at the Ricochet Podcast Summit in Washington. Anton revisited the infamous article, shared his insights about Trump’s political character, and also regaled the live audience with a great tale of what it’s like to be a chef for a White House state dinner.

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This week Steve Hayward talks with . . . Steve Hayward! Well, not exactly. This special edition of the Power Line show features a keynote lecture Steve delivered at Arizona State University back in February on “The Suicide of the University.” Maybe coming next as a book and feature film.

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Who can make the connection between an obscure and bizarre British kids TV show and contemporary U.S. political analysis? The Power Line Show, that’s who! “Henry, were helping Henry and were telling Henry everything we know, Henry, were helping Henry, but we’ve still got a long long way too go!”—is the refrain of “Helping Henry,” but in this episode, Henry Olsen of the Ethics and Public Policy Center helps us keep up to date on the latest tea leaves of the political scene.

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The controversies surrounding free speech and academic freedom opened a new front last week with the execrable comments about the late First Lady Barbara Bush from Fresno State University professor Randa Jarrar. Steve Hayward talks here with Keith Whittington of Princeton University, author of a new book, “Speak Freely: Why Universities Must Defend Free Speech.” But as Whittington is also a leading scholar of constitutional law, Steve and Keith also talk about other constitutional issues—especially impeachment, the dream of liberals everywhere just now.

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Steven Teles of Johns Hopkins University is a rare liberal who writes with great perception and fairness about conservatism and conservative ideas. In this episode, Steve Hayward talks with Teles about his fine new book (co-authored with Brink Lindsay) “The Captured Economy,” and also about liberalism, intellectual history, and especially about the need for more conservatives in higher education.

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Claremont Institute fellow Joseph Tartakovsky is out this week with a fascinating new book that illuminates the Constitution with a unique approach: “The Lives of the Constitution” explores the meaning of our central political document through the stories of ten important figures in the story—some familiar, like Alexander Hamilton, but some less well known, like James Wilson and Stephen Field. Steve Hayward explores four of the 10 important thinkers and doers that Tartakovsky selected for a closer look. You’ll just have to listen to find out which four.

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Steve Hayward talks with Ed Whelan, president of of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, author of “Bench Memos” on National Review Online, and co-editor of “Scalia Speaks: Reflections on Law, Faith, and a Live Well Lived.” In addition to recalling the rich legacy of Justice Scalia, Steve and Ed talk about the problems of jurisprudence today, and in this season of new controversy over the 2nd Amendment, Steve even asks the bold question—was the Bill of Rights a mistake?

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In this very special episode, Steve Hayward gets an origin story out of Charles Murray, surveying the sweep of his life from childhood in Iowa through Harvard, the Peace Corps in Asia, and evaluating social programs in the 1970s where his growing doubts and misgivings started him on the road to his many pathbreaking books. Along the way, Steve and Charles also talk about NASA and the Apollo program, which Charles and his wife Catherine also wrote a fine book about.

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In our regular bi-weekly checkup with Henry Olsen, the Obi-Wan Kenobi of election analysts, Steve Hayward and Henry cover the fallout from the special election in House district 18 in Pennsylvania, how the tariff issue might play out, what to expect in the aftermath of the recent chaotic Italian election, plus a look ahead to November, including some of the key governor’s races like Bruce Rauner in Illinois. And finally, is there any hope for Republicans in California? To find out, you’ll have to listen to the end.

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We decided to transcend the recent International Women’s Day by declaring our own American Women’s Day with Julie Ponzi and Julie Kelly, stalwarts of AmericanGreatness. Steve Hayward draws out their views on how to come to grips with Trump, why the culture wars are more important in the short run than the budget deficit, and who they hope the Democrats will be foolish enough to nominate in 2020. [Sponsored by Mancrates this week.]

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In this short episode, Steve Hayward shares his recent short lecture at Claremont McKenna College on the campus threats to free speech, analyzing the pincer movement of the wholesale postmodernist rejection of the liberal tradition and recent social science that purports to establish that speech constitutes literal violence. If either of these attacks take firm hold, the liberal tradition is over, and freedom of thought along with it.

Steve Hayward catches up with Henry Olsen in London, ahead of the upcoming general election in Italy where populist parties are expected to do well, and where German politics remain in disarray because of the populist eruption in their last general election. Meanwhile, Brexit continues to be a non-stop agony for British PM Theresa May, while the best performing government in western Europe right now may well be (sit down for this) … France!

Power Line co-founder John Hinderaker joins Steve Hayward to offer up a recap on the just-concluded annual CPAC meeting, and to analyze the aftermath of the Florida school shooting, where media distortion and liberal virtue-signalling are reaching Olympic gold medal proportions.

Steve Hayward sits down with author Fred Siegel about a wide range of topics, from Trump and the Democrats, to how to think about leading intellectuals including H.L. Mencken, Arthur Schlesinger, Richard Rorty, Michel Foucault, and Mark Lilla, and the problems of the coastal elites in California and New York.

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Is it possible to be a liberal but not a “Progressive”? Steve Hayward sat down with Damon Linker, author and columnist for The Week, to discuss this and related questions, such as why Linker defected from the right to become a moderate liberal (hence “the missing Linker”), and his thoughts about religion and politics.

The Power Line Blog's Podcast

Ep. 75: The IG Report, and the Latest Big Wave Surf Forecast

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Ep. 74: “The Suicide of the University” Revisited, with Charles Copeland

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Ep. 73: Michael Walsh’s Fiery Angel

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Ep. 72: Is Progress Making Progress?

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Ep. 71: A Hard Look at Hard Power

Ep. 70: The “Flight 93 Election” Comes in for a Landing

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Ep. 69: The Suicide of the University

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Ep. 68: Helping Henry

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Ep. 67: Speak Freely, and Other Heresies

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Ep. 66: The Telos of Teles

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Ep. 65: The Lives of the Constitution

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Ep. 64: Finding Nino: A Celebration of Justice Scalia

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Ep. 63: How Charles Murray Became Charles Murray

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Ep. 62: Help Us Obi-Wan Henry—You’re Our Only Hope

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Ep. 61: American Women’s Day

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Ep. 60: The Future of Free Speech on Campus

Ep. 59: Populism Sweeping Europe?

Ep. 58: CPAC Recap and Shooting Aftermath

Ep. 57: Fred Siegel Explains It All

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Ep. 56: The Missing Linker

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