Q & A, Hosted by Jay Nordlinger | Ricochet

Charlie Dent is a longtime congressman from Pennsylvania. He is a Republican, born and raised in Allentown. Billy Joel wrote a song about the town. With Jay, Congressman Dent talks about that and much else. He talks about what it’s like to be a politician, what it’s like to be a congressman, what it’s like to be a Republican in the Age of Trump. A very interesting and candid conversation.

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Marina Nemat is an Iranian dissident, a former political prisoner, and now an exile. She is the author of the blockbuster memoir “Prisoner of Tehran.” She and Jay have known each other for some years, through human-rights circles. In this “Q&A,” Jay asks her about the protests going on in Iran: what they mean, for the protesters, the regime, and Iran as a whole. She is a brainy, articulate woman who speaks with great passion – and from painful experience.

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Yuval Levin answers that question and others. He is the editor of National Affairs and the author of “The Great Debate: Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, and the Birth of Right and Left.”

With Jay, he talks about those terms, “Right” and “Left.” He talks about how he himself became a conservative. About the teachers who influenced him. He talks taxes, health care, etc. Jay asks him about his favorite Founders. And favorite presidents. Also about his pastimes.

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Ryan Crocker is one of the outstanding U.S. diplomats of our time. In addition to his other posts, he was ambassador to Lebanon, Kuwait, Syria, Pakistan, Iraq, and Afghanistan. He has had some of the most challenging assignments on offer. George W. Bush, in the last days of his presidency, hung the Presidential Medal of Freedom around Crocker’s neck.

In this “Q&A,” Jay asks Crocker about the State Department today. Along with others, Crocker has sounded the alarm about cuts to the Foreign Service. He and Jay also take a tour of Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and other countries, discussing matters past, present, and future.

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Ash Carter is a physicist and a defense-policy expert, having served in government periodically for decades. He was secretary of defense from 2015 to 2017. He has spent his academic career at Harvard, where he is today. In this “Q&A,” Jay asks him about some of the biggest issues: nuclear proliferation, North Korea, Iran, the size of the U.S. military. He also asks about the relation between our servicemen and the general American population. Is there too great a gulf between them? Do people sentimentalize our military? Is it okay to say “Thank you for your service”? Carter is an exceptionally thoughtful person with a wealth of experience.

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Victor Davis Hanson’s new book is “The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won.” Jay asks him a slew of questions, including: What caused the war? Was Hitler dumb to declare war on America? Was Japan dumb to attack America? How was FDR as wartime leader? And Truman? Were we right to drop the A-bomb(s)? Was Yalta a crime, committed by the West? Is the Holocaust separable from the war? Who are some unsung heroes of the conflict?

VDH knows the answers — backwards and forwards. An education and a pleasure.

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Anne Applebaum is a historian and journalist, a columnist for the Washington Post. She is a particular expert on the former Soviet Union and its bloc. Her latest book is “Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine.” With Jay, she discusses this book: the “terror-famine” that killed so many Ukrainians. She also discusses contemporary issues, such as the war going on in eastern Ukraine. A lady who knows a lot, and says it with confidence – a well-earned confidence.

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In this second episode of his new “Jaywalking” podcast, Jay Nordlinger plays some music from Massenet’s “Thaïs,” including the Meditation, which is how the episode gets its name. Jay also talks about Fritz Kreisler and Fritz Crisler (a legendary violinist and a legendary football coach, respectively). Then he’s got Nazis, slavery, North Korea, and other cheerful stuff. He ends with genuine cheer, however: the American Dream and more music.

Jay began his Impromptus column in 2001. It is a potpourri of a column, covering politics, foreign affairs, language, music, and a lot more. Now he is starting a podcast version of it, called “Jaywalking.” This podcast will feature extra touches as well – such as the playing of music.

In fact, he begins this inaugural episode with some impromptus – some piano pieces by Schubert, Fauré, and Chopin. He goes on with talk about Roy Moore, Sweden, and an Israeli judo star. He tells an old joke, on the bawdy side. And he ends with what he calls “pretty much the best thing on earth” – a song, a spiritual, in a transcendent performance from 1975.

This week, Daniel Hannan, the one and only, dropped by National Review headquarters in New York. Taking advantage, Jay sat down with him for a “Q&A.” Hannan, as you know, is the British writer-politician extraordinaire.

With Jay, he discusses the nature of America. And then the question of national self-determination: What right do the Catalonians and Kurds have? Everyone can’t have his own country, can he?

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The Chinese Communist Party has just conferred on its leader, Xi Jinping, the status of Mao Zedong. He is the most powerful boss in China since Mao. His status is virtually god-like.

Having Xi’s number, and the CCP’s number, is Stein Ringen, a professor emeritus at Oxford University. Ringen is the author of The Perfect Dictatorship: China in the 21st Century. For the Washington Post recently, he wrote an article summing up China today, here.

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A year or two ago, a colleague of Jay’s said, “If you want to know anything about Russia and Europe – if you want to know anything about Putin’s influence worldwide – you MUST consult Mark Galeotti.” He never forgot it. And Jay has now done a “Q&A” with Galeotti.

He is a British scholar working in Prague. He does indeed know everything, or an enormous amount. With Jay, he talks about Putin, Russia, Europe, the U.S., nationalism, jihadist Islam, Facebook, Twitter – many of the things that are in our faces now.

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Catalina Serrano is a Colombian and the wife of Andrés Felipe Arias, a minister in the cabinet of President Álvaro Uribe. Arias was, in fact, Uribe’s chosen successor. But Arias was railroaded in the Colombian judicial system. His case is positively Kafkaesque. With his family, he fled to the United States to seek political asylum. He is now in federal detention, scheduled to be extradited.

Jay wrote about all this in a piece called “Asylum Now: The awful case of a splendid man.”

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Angela Gheorghiu is a Romanian soprano, and one of the starriest, and most controversial, opera singers in the world. She is a legend in her own time. Jay interviewed and wrote about her in 2012 (here). For this “Q&A,” she is in Palermo and he is in New York. They discuss a variety of issues, including Gheorghiu’s new album, “Eternamente.”

Listeners to this podcast may need a cheat sheet, as Gheorghiu refers or alludes to things without making them explicit.

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He has a new novel out, Mark Helprin does: “Paris in the Present Tense.” Among his previous novels are “Winter’s Tale,” “A Soldier of the Great War,” and “In Sunlight and in Shadow.” The new one is about love and loyalty. Aren’t they all? As Jay says, it’s another blow by Helprin for truth and beauty. Enjoy the show.

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Jay pronounces Golda Schultz one of the world’s best interviewees – and that is an easy call to make. She is a young South African soprano, currently working at the Metropolitan Opera. Jay interviews her there. They talk about New York, South Africa, opera, Broadway, and life. Do you know Golda? You’ll want to.

(To hear her in Doretta’s Song, from Puccini’s “Rondine,” go here.)

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On a recent National Review cruise, Jay sat down with an old friend and colleague, Kathryn Jean Lopez, a.k.a. K-Lo. They talk about some things dear to Kathryn’s heart — and to Jay’s — chiefly the pro-life cause and the cause of adoption.

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Leyla Hussein was born in Somalia and has long lived in Britain. Age seven, she underwent female genital mutilation – which she describes as sexual assault. She is a prominent, fearless, and also, frankly, delightful campaigner against this. With Jay, she talks about different angles of FGM. You know what class of people she has taken the most flak from? White liberal women. Treat yourself to this “Q&A,” and to the extraordinary Leyla Hussein.

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Ben Shapiro, the conservative writer and journalist, spoke at Berkeley last week. They spent $600,000 on security. For lil’ ol’ Ben? Yes. He spoke bravely and well. In this “Q&A,” he talks about the experience with Jay, and about higher education, the political temperature in America, health care, and some other things. This episode is a quick blast o’ Ben.

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Douglas Murray is a British intellectual, famous since he was a teenager. His latest book is “The Strange Death of Europe.” It is No. 1 on the U.K. bestseller list. In this “Q&A,” Jay asks him about politics and policy, of course. Politics and policy in Britain, America, and elsewhere. But they also talk about novels, poetry, and music. (Murray himself is a musician.) When you have time, spend an hour with one of the most interesting writers in the world, Douglas Murray.

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