Conversations with Coleman

This week, Tyler Cowen joins the show. A true polymath, he answers everything on Coleman Hughes’s mind about our world and its future. In this rapid-fire exchange, Tyler weighs in on whether AI is a bubble, the minimum wage, Mexican wokeness, and the Donald Trump administration’s approach to foreign aid. He also touches on travel, new religions, the UN, and even his three favorite films. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Glenn Greenwald joins the show to debate a hotly contested topic: Does Israel influence U.S. policy? Coleman and Glenn examine competing claims about the power of the Israel lobby and whether it played a role in the path to war with Iran. They discuss Iran’s nuclear ambitions, the case for or against regime change, and how these questions shape American foreign policy in the Middle East. The conversation also turns to free speech on college campuses after October 7 and the boundaries between criticism of Israel and antisemitism. Finally, Coleman presses Glenn on his alliance with Tucker Carlson and the responsibilities of independent media. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Sam Harris joins Coleman Hughes for a sweeping conversation about the biggest risks facing humanity. They unpack the ethical and strategic dilemmas of a potential Iran conflict, the dangers of jihadist ideology paired with nuclear capability, and the persistent confusion around anti-Zionism and antisemitism. We also talk about the Epstein files, the conspiracies ruling the internet, Gavin Newsom, and the declining birth rate. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Justin Marozzi is a historian and author of Captives and Companions, a sweeping history of slavery in the Islamic world. Marozzi and Coleman discuss the origins and scale of the Islamic slave trade, the role of religion and law in shaping it, and why this subject has long been a historical blind spot in the West. They also discuss the trans-Saharan slave trade, the Barbary corsairs, and why forms of slavery still exist in places like Mauritania and Mali. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

James Hankins is a Renaissance historian, longtime Harvard professor, and co-author of The Golden Thread: A History of the Western Tradition. In this conversation with Coleman Hughes, he explains why he recently left Harvard, after nearly four decades, and why he believes the study of Western civilization has quietly disappeared from American education. Hankins argues that if students want to understand ideas like free speech, equality, and the rule of law, they need to know the long history story behind them—from ancient Greece and Rome through Christianity and the Enlightenment to the modern world. Along the way, he reflects on the controversy surrounding the Western canon, the debate over “dead white men,” and the question of whether a shared civilizational story is still possible in a pluralistic society. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What does conservatism mean in an age of populism, executive power, and institutional distrust? Yuval Levin is a political theorist, the director of Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies at the American Enterprise Institute, and the author of American Covenant: How the Constitution Unified Our Nation—and Could Again. Today he argues that the deepest divide in American politics is no longer left versus right, but populism versus institutions. Levin traces the shift within the conservative movement from an emphasis on morality and constitutional limits to a more confrontational style of politics, and he explains why durable reform requires coalition building, legislation, and respect for procedure. He reflects on his time in the Bush administration, the limits of presidential governance, the fight over universities, the coming politics of AI, and why the Constitution was designed to hold a divided nation together. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices