Conversations with Coleman

Linda Chavez has called herself the “Forrest Gump of Washington politics,” and it’'s hard to argue. She bumped into a Watergate burglar coming out of a bathroom in 1972, became the highest-ranking woman in the Reagan White House, nearly became Secretary of Labor under George W. Bush, and lost that nomination after it emerged she had sheltered an undocumented Guatemalan immigrant in her home. Today, she joins the show to respond to a recent episode with Lionel Shriver, pushing back on some of the assumptions driving the current immigration debate. She makes the case for robust legal immigration and serious border enforcement — and explains why the Trump administration is managing to get both wrong. She also discusses why assimilation is working better than the culture war suggests, why affirmative action hurts the students it claims to help, and why birthright citizenship is more legally settled than its critics want to admit. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

Is our criminal justice system broken, and can it be fixed? Jennifer Doleac is an economist, the executive vice president of criminal justice at Arnold Ventures, and the host of the Probable Causation podcast. Today she discusses her new book, The Science of Second Chances: A Revolution in Criminal Justice. Doleac studies what actually deters crime and what merely feels tough, and she argues that the familiar divide between “root causes” and “lock them up” misses the point. She explains why longer prison sentences often fail to change behavior, why the certainty and swiftness of punishment matters more than the severity, and how economists think about incentives and unintended consequences. The Free Press earns a commission from any purchases made through all book links in this article. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rutger Bregman is a Dutch historian and best-selling author of Utopia for Realists and Humankind: A Hopeful History. In 2019, he went viral for his takedown of billionaires at the World Economic Forum and for a heated exchange with Tucker Carlson. Today, he joins the show to discuss his latest book, Moral Ambition, which he defines as the desire to use your available talents and resources to make the world a better place rather than focus solely on individual wealth. He argues the real question is whether the work you’ve chosen is ambitious enough in moral terms—whether your day-to-day life tackles the big problems facing humankind. He explains why “follow your passion” is often bad advice; why moral breakthroughs tend to come from small, disciplined groups rather than mass appeal; and why moral progress is neither automatic nor inevitable. Go to https://surfshark.com/colemandeal or use code COLEMANDEAL at checkout to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Come join a live taping of this podcast with special guests Ambassador Andrew Young and acclaimed Martin Luther King Jr. biographer Jonathan Eig to discuss: ‘Nonviolence in a Violent Age’. WHEN: March 9 WHERE: Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta—the church led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. WHO: Coleman will be joined by Andrew Young, a civil rights pioneer and former United Nations ambassador who marched alongside King, as well as Jonathan Eig, whose best-selling book, King: A Life, won the 2024 Pulitzer Prize. --- Get your tickets here. More information here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Acclaimed novelist and cultural critic Lionel Shriver joins the show to discuss her provocative new book A Better Life. We talk about why immigration has become one of the most morally charged topics in public life; how good intentions collide with human nature; and why cultural change is treated as a legitimate concern for some groups but as taboo for others. We also explore the differing immigration challenges between America and Europe, the hypocrisy of open-border politics, and why fiction may be better suited than policy debates to expose the hard truths about border enforcement, assimilation, and today’s political orthodoxy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jamie Metzl is a former national security official, biotech futurist, and one of the earliest public voices to argue that Covid likely came from a lab accident. Today he talks about why that possibility became taboo; what gain-of-function research gets wrong; and how fear and politics distort scientific judgment. From there, we move into the future of gene editing, embryo selection, genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and artificial intelligence (AI)—what’s actually coming, what people misunderstand, and why the hardest questions ahead of us aren’t likely technical, but moral. https://jamiemetzl.com/human-genetic-engineering-and-the-catholic-church/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our guest today is Rabbi David Wolpe. He’s spent decades debating atheists, leading one of the country’s largest synagogues, and thinking seriously about what holds a moral society together once traditional faith loosens its grip. Wolpe discusses how secular movements quietly take on the structure—and zeal—of religion. We get into Judaism as a form of peoplehood, the strange moral logic of modern campus activism, antisemitism as a conspiracy engine, and why slogans and ideology can harden into dogma. Wolpe also reflects on his time teaching at Harvard, the limits of academic tolerance, and what he learned about institutions under pressure. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we hear from Arctic geopolitics expert Heather A. Conley, before President Trump made a speech at The World Economic Forum in Davos on Wednesday. Heather speaks about a place most of us barely think about—until it becomes the center of a global power struggle. Greenland has gone from frozen afterthought to geopolitical prize, and its story reveals a lot about American expansionism, NATO politics, and the race now unfolding in the Arctic. We trace Greenland’s strange political history with Denmark and the U.S., unpack why its location has always mattered militarily, and explore what happens as China and Russia push north. We also confront the uncomfortable truth behind Trump’s “buy Greenland” moment—and why the people who actually live there want neither Denmark nor America to own them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a world where AI can recreate our voices, half the internet thinks the moon landing was staged, and every group chat has a cousin who’s “just asking questions,” the perceived line between fact and fantasy has never been blurrier. On February 9 at the Comedy Cellar in NYC, Coleman Hughes will sit down with Michael Shermer—historian of science and author of Truth: What It Is, How to Find It & Why It Still Matters—for a live conversation. Together they’ll dig into why smart people believe strange things—from conspiracy theories and moral panics to post-truth politics—and how skepticism, evidence, and reason can still help us figure out what’s actually real. Is truth the only antidote to our world of cynicism and confusion? After the conversation, we’ll head to a nearby bar for an informal meetup with Michael, Coleman, and fellow Free Pressers for drinks, discussion, and the rare pleasure of arguing in good faith. (Location will be shared with ticket holders only.) This New York City event is intentionally intimate and will sell out quickly. Don’t delay. --- February 9, 2026 6:00pm1 Comedy Cellar @ 30 West 3rd Street, NY, NY, 10012 --- Tickets are here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we're joined by historian Niall Ferguson to help me make sense of Iran’s unprecedented wave of protests. We talk about why this moment feels different to previous uprisings, the regime’s growing crisis of legitimacy, the limits of sanctions, and how the long shadow of 1953 still shapes everything in Iran. We also look at what Trump’s “maximum pressure” could mean, and the risks posed by any form of U.S. intervention. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Thor Halvorssen is a Venezuelan-born human rights campaigner and the founder of the Human Rights Foundation. His life as an activist began after his mother was shot and wounded by pro-regime forces for trying to expose election fraud under Hugo Chávez, an event that turned his work from theory into something painfully concrete. In this episode we talk about how Venezuela’s dictatorship operated more like a cartel than a state, why the regime survived despite losing elections, and how oil, narcotics, and foreign alliances sustained one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the hemisphere. We also discuss why Venezuela is not another Iraq, how major Western media outlets repeatedly misread the regime, and what a realistic political transition might look like. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gelet Martínez Fragela is a Cuban activist and journalist and a close watcher of Venezuela who’s tracked how authoritarianism hollowed out a once prosperous country. Gelet talks about the warning signs, the lies that sustained the regime, and why President Maduro’s trial in the United States matters far beyond Venezuelan borders. Gelet also answers the question: Why were Cubans responsible for guarding President Maduro? And how will the country function in the wake of the U.S.’s shock intervention? For Gelet’s personal story, listen to our episode from October: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/inside-cubas-police-state-from-ration-cards-to-black/id1716338488?i=1000733663296 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dr. Anna Machin is a British evolutionary anthropologist at the University of Oxford who studies the neuroscience and psychology of love. Anna and I talk through what science actually says about attraction, attachment, and long-term relationships, and why so much modern dating advice gets human nature wrong. We get into dating apps and how they shape behavior, whether love at first sight is real, what attachment styles do and don’t explain, and what science says about polyamory. We also discuss common myths about pheromones, love languages, and whether having kids really makes people happier. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My producer Poppy Damon and I are back for another Ask Me Anything. In this bonus episode, I answer your questions on President Donald Trump and the attention economy, declining birth rates, psychedelics and mental health, AI and the future of work, social media and kids, religion, meritocracy, and more. As 2025 wraps up, it felt like a good moment to step back, take stock, and talk through the questions many of you have been thinking about. Thanks for listening this year—and here’s to more Conversations like this one in the year ahead. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tim Miller is a political commentator and former GOP strategist who became one of the most outspoken “‘Never Trump”’ conservatives in the country. Tim and I talk through the Republican Party’s transformation, from the guardrails John McCain tried to hold in place, to the anger and conspiratorial thinking that helped fuel Donald Trump’s rise. We get into what it was like to be an openly gay Republican in the 2000s, why Trump’s favorability is collapsing, and the administration’s bizarre new policy of blowing up alleged drug boats in the Caribbean. I also ask him about his recent interview with journalist Olivia Nuzzi and more. Bundle FOX One and FOX Nation to stream the entire FOX Nation library, plus live Sports and Entertainment at our lowest price of the year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices