Young Americans #101

Was The Rings of Power Worth It?

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Hosted by Jack Butler
With guest Craig Hanks

Jack throws all this “Young Americans” stuff out the window for an episode of pure Lord of the Rings exegesis. He and Craig Hanks of the Legendarium podcast discuss the first season of the recently concluded Amazon series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. They air their complaints, look for the good in the show, try to determine whether it will get better, and more.

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Young Americans #100

Just Say No to Socialism

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Hosted by Jack Butler
With guest Daniel Di Martino

Daniel Di Martino, who left the failures of socialism in Venezuela for the freedom of the United States, joins the 100th (!) episode of Young Americans to tell his story, to warn about government excesses in the U.S. (from left and right), and to share what he is doing to make sure America never becomes a socialist country.

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Young Americans #99

Among the NatCons

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Hosted by Jack Butler

With Reason editor Stephanie Slade and Eric Kohn and Dan Hugger of the Acton Institute, Jack explores the mysteries, intricacies, tensions, and contradictions of national conservatism as filtered through the third National Conservatism Conference, held earlier this month in Miami. (This is a cross-posting of the Acton Unwind podcast.)

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Young Americans #98

The Student-Loan Usurpation from Another World!

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Hosted by Jack Butler
With guest Dominic Pino

Post-vacation, Jack brings Dominic Pino on to explain Joe Biden’s recent actions on student-loan debt, which so defy our political system that there is no obvious remedy in our system to challenge them.

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Young Americans #97

Hungary, Texas

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Hosted by Jack Butler
With guest Chris Schlak

USA Today Opinion Fellow (and native Texan) Chris Schlak joins the show to discuss his experience at CPAC Dallas, which featured, among other things, a speech from Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban, 2020 election trutherism, and January 6 performance art.

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Young Americans #96

That Summer Feeling

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Hosted by Jack Butler

Jack does something a little different for a rare solo episode, reminiscing about summer and trying to capture that ineffable “summer feeling.”

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Young Americans #95

Is There a Military-Recruiting Crisis?

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Hosted by Jack Butler
With guest Luther Abel

Luther Abel joins the podcast to tell us why he joined the Navy, and to speculate about why fewer young people are interested in joining the U.S. military these days.

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Young Americans #94

After Dobbs

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Hosted by Jack Butler
With guest Nic Rowan

Nic Rowan, managing editor of The Lamp, joins Jack to relate what he saw at the Court the day Dobbs came down, and to dicuss what comes next for the pro-life movement.

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Young Americans #93

Young Americans: Maverick

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Hosted by Jack Butler
With guest Alec Dent

Jack and Alec Dent take the occasion of Fathers’ Day to discuss Top Gun: Maverick, the movie described by Deadline Hollywood as “the ultimate movie to take your dad to.” Topics hashed out include whether Top Gun is a good movie (no), why the sequel is so much better, whether Hollywood will learn important lessons from Top Gun: Maverick‘s success, and whether Maverick is dead for basically the whole movie (no).

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Young Americans #92

Is Notre Dame Catholic?

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Hosted by Jack Butler
With guest Sean Tehan

Yes, obviously. So why is its institutional apparatus promoting the views of pro-abortion faculty? Once and future Notre Dame graduate Sean Tehan (’22 undergrad, ’25 law), a former staff member of The Irish Rover, attempts to explain these and other penumbras and emanations of Notre Dame’s Catholic identity on this episode of Young Americans.

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Young Americans #91

Explaining Nebraska

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Hosted by Jack Butler
With guest Ian M. Swanson

Last week in Nebraska, Charles Herbster became the first Trump endorsee to lose a Republican primary in 2022. Jim Pillen, a figure little-known to a national audience, prevailed. To explain why this happened, to examine other mysteries of Nebraska, and to push back against Beltway misconceptions about the state, Jack invites Nebraska talk-radio show host Ian Swanson on to the show for some good old fashion Nebraska-splaining. So grab some corn and get ready to learn some Nebraska facts.

(Find Ian’s radio show host listenable as a podcast here.)

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Young Americans #90

English Teachers against Teaching English?

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Hosted by Jack Butler
With guest Daniel Buck

The National Council of Teachers of English apparently believes that reading books and writing essays is overrated, and that students should learn about memes and selfies instead. English teacher (though not an NCTE member) Daniel Buck returns to the show to rebut this foolish notion . . . and to challenge Jack to a duel?

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Young Americans #89

The University of Virginia’s Identity Crisis

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Hosted by Jack Butler
With guest Ian Schwartz

Jack brings on University of Virginia jun–er, third-year Ian Schwartz to discuss various controversies–a speech by Mike Pence, the Thomas Jefferson legacy at UVA, free speech in general–that have dominated discusson on the camp–er, grounds of Charlottesville’s famous institution of higher education.

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Young Americans #88

The Lia Thomas Debacle

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Hosted by Jack Butler
With guest Jenna Stocker

Jack brings on former collegiate swimmer Jenna Stocker to try to make sense of Lia (Will) Thomas competing as a female collegiate athlete despite being male, and to swat down the arguments in favor. Jack and Jenna also bond over a shared loathing of the NCAA.

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Young Americans #87

Batman, Begin Again

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Hosted by Jack Butler
With guest Alec Dent

Holy reboot, Batman! To debate the merits of the latest incarnation of Batman, this time with Matt Reeves directing Robert Pattinson in The Batman, Jack brings Young Americans stalwart Alec Dent, who writes about culture and checks facts for The Dispatch, back to the show. Jack was not a fan; Alec was (after a second viewing). Tune in for the exciting clash of opinions, along with broader thoughts on the enduring appeal of Batman as a character.

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Young Americans #86

TikTok Is Evil

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Hosted by Jack Butler
With guest Emily Jashinsky

Federalist culture editor Emily Jashinsky joins Jack for an extended disqusition on how bad TikTok is, and what to do about it. They also make fun of Zoomers (who deserve it).

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Young Americans #85

Racist Harvard?

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Hosted by Jack Butler
With guest Kenny Xu

Kenny Xu, author of An Inconvenient Minority: The Attack on Asian American Excellence and the Fight for Meritocracy and the president of Color Us United, joins the podcast to discuss whether Harvard discriminates against Asian applicants in its admissions process (a case about which will soon be considered before the Supreme Court). They also cover related issues about race in America.

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Young Americans #84

Campus Covid Craziness

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Hosted by Jack Butler
With guest Jacob Adams

Ten-day isolation for students who test positive for Covid? No eating or drinking anywhere indoors? No in-person class or Mass? These are but a few of the ridiculous Covid restrictions that have been in place at Georgetown University, where Jacob Adams is currently a junior. On this episode, Jacob relates the full extent of the ridiculousness, and attempts with Jack to figure out why college students have on the whole been so compliant with Covid restrictions.

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Young Americans #83

China’s Interesting Times

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Hosted by Jack Butler
With guest Jimmy Quinn

Jack starts out the new year in appropriate Janus fashion, employing the aid of budding foreign-policy guru Jimmy Quinn to look back on the year that was in China news concering three areas (Uyghur genocide, Winter Olympics, Taiwan) and to take a guess at what this year might bring in each one.

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Young Americans #82

Supply-Chain Gang, Inflation Nation

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Hosted by Jack Butler
With guest Dominic Pino

Jack ends the year with young econ expert Dominic Pino to make sense of the supply-chain and inflation crises that have beset America in 2021 and to try to ascertain whether they’ll stick with us in 2022.

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