Hoover Institution

John Cochrane discusses the current era of political polarization and how it can drive poor economic policies on both sides of the aisle. He analyzes various policies that have been proposed and talks about how those policies can hurt the economy in the long run.

Lanhee Chen breaks down the debate on single-payer health care, its different types, and why none of them will work.

Jack Goldsmith interviews John Judis about his book on the virtues and vices nationalism, why nationalism is a necessary prerequisite to democracy and social welfare, why we are seeing a global movement toward right-wing as opposed to left-wing nationalism and populism, and what Donald Trump got right in putting nationalist concerns at the center of the American political agenda.

Adam White analyzes the state the of the Supreme Court. He discusses President Trump’s judiciary appointments and how they are significantly overhauling the federal judiciary.

Terry Anderson discusses his work with indigenous tribes around the world, working on setting up profitable corporations run by the tribes to renew their indigenous economies.

Victor Davis Hanson discusses his forthcoming book, The Case for Trump, and assesses the impacts of President Trump’s foreign policy.

In this episode, Chris Bronk discusses the geopolitical implications of cybersecurity, including how control of information—and misinformation—impacts international relations. About the guest: Chris Bronk is an assistant professor of computer and information systems and associate director for the Center for Information Security Research and Education at the University of Houston. His research is focused on the area of cyber geopolitics, with additional work in organizational innovation, knowledge management, and intelligence studies. Prior to joining the University of Houston, he was with Rice University's Baker Institute. Previously he worked as a foreign service officer.

Hoover Institution fellows Herbert Lin and Amy Zegart are interviewed by Hoover Institution fellow Jack Goldsmith, via Security by the Book, concerning their book Bytes, Bombs and Spies: The Strategic Dimensions of Offensive Cyber Capabilities.

In this episode, ex-Facebook security head Alex Stamos discusses cybersecurity in relation to disinformation and elections, the emerging Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem, the breaches we don’t read about, and the challenges of securing social networking services. About the guest: Alex Stamos is a cybersecurity expert, business leader, and entrepreneur working to improve the security and safety of the Internet through his teaching and research at Stanford University. Stamos is an adjunct professor at Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute, a William J. Perry Fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation, and a visiting scholar at the Hoover Institution. Prior to joining Stanford, Alex served as the chief security officer of Facebook.

Hoover Institution fellows Richard Epstein and Adam White debate Attorney General Sessions’s resignation, and the appointment of Matthew Whittaker as his temporary replacement. Did you like the show? Please rate, review, and subscribe!

Norman Naimark, Admiral Gary Roughead, Russell Berman, and Michael Auslin discuss America’s role in the world today, focusing specifically on America’s strategies in regards to China and the Middle East.

Niall Ferguson discusses China’s increasing military aggression towards the United States, the Chinese economy in relation to the US economy, and the impact the current trade war is having on China’s economy.

Victor Davis Hanson discusses the aftermath of World War II, the state of the world back in 1945, and where the world is headed in today’s climate.

Larry Diamond discusses the authoritarian resurgence and the various forms of power projections on the part of Russia and China. These countries are becoming more authoritarian and prohibiting independent thought and independent organization in civil society. He discusses the challenges the United States is facing and what it can do to move forward.

In the aftermath of the Senate’s confirmation of Kavanaugh, Hoover Institution fellows Richard Epstein and Adam White discuss the need (or not) to change the Senate’s process, and recent criticism of the Court’s “legitimacy.” Did you like the show? Please rate, review, and subscribe!

Recorded on August 10, 2018 Michael Auslin discusses the growing influence of China in global affairs. For example, recently, airlines were forced to remove all references to Taiwan as a country from their websites and instead indicate cities like Taipei as part of China. Airlines that refused to make this change were banned from landing in mainland China, causing several small airlines to shut down operations. With the growing influence of China on the world stage, Auslin argues that the United States needs to be prepared to come to terms with it.

Recorded on August 10, 2018 With the two parties at odds on the path forward for health care, Lanhee Chen discusses the prospects of health care reform in the United States. He analyzes the issues Americans face in the quality of care for routine issues versus specialty issues, difficulties with the Affordable Care Act, and more.

Hoover Institution fellows Richard Epstein and Adam White look back at the Senate Judiciary Committee’s confirmation hearings on Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination, and then look ahead to the effect that Kavanaugh may have on constitutional law and the administrative state. Did you like the show? Please rate, review, and subscribe!

In this episode, Lillian Ablon discusses cyber threat categories in relation to markets for stolen digital data; the longevity of zero-day vulnerabilities and the resulting impact on business risk profiles; and the white, gray, and black markets for zero-day exploits. About the guest: Lillian Ablon is an information scientist at the RAND Corporation where her research addresses a range of cybersecurity topics including markets for zero-day exploits, cyber risks to the supply chain, markets for stolen digital data, cyber insurance, and corporate strategies for cybersecurity defense. She holds a BA in mathematics from UC Berkeley and an MS in mathematics from Johns Hopkins University. She was awarded a black badge at DEFCON21 and has recently provided congressional testimony on markets for stolen digital data. Did you like the show? Please rate, review, and subscribe!

In this talk, Research Fellow Jennifer Burns taps into the Hoover Library & Archives’ extensive Milton Friedman collection. Drawing on her own research in the archives as part of a forthcoming intellectual biography on Friedman, she brings the Nobel Prize-winning Hoover fellow’s work to bear on current policy debates about a universal basic income.

The day after a federal jury convicts the Trump Campaign’s former chairman, Paul Manafort on tax and fraud charges, and President Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, plead guilty to campaign finance violations. The Hoover Institution’s Richard Epstein and Adam White analyze these developments and argue about fundamental issues surrounding Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation of President Trump.

With Justice Kennedy’s retirement, and Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination to succeed him, Richard Epstein and Adam White reflect on Kennedy’s legacy and discuss what Kavanaugh may bring to the Court. Did you like the show? Please rate, review, and subscribe!

Kristen Eichensehr, Assistant Professor at UCLA School of Law, focuses on cybersecurity in a global context. Among other things, she focuses on extraterritoriality. Eichensehr talks about why extraterritoriality is particularly complex in the cyber context because a single document can be fragmented and stored in different places around the world at the same time. What and whose laws is the document subject to following? Did you like the show? Please rate, review, and subscribe!

Introducing Cyberspectives, a new podcast analyzing the cyber issues of today with host John Villasenor. In the inaugural episode, guest Andrew Grotto provides analysis on a broad range of cyber issues, including questions regarding areas of cyber most in need of national level attention, aspects of cyber that are underappreciated, emerging opportunities in the commercial cybersecurity sector, and how the academic community can best contribute to the cyber policy dialog.

President Trump claims that he has the power to pardon himself. Is he right? On the other hand, was the Mueller appointment unconstitutional itself? On this podcast, Richard Epstein and Adam White discuss the latest constitutional debates surrounding Robert Mueller’s investigation of President Trump. Did you like the show? Please rate, review, and subscribe!

On April 11, 2018, the Hoover Institution hosted a panel on female genital mutilation featuring Mary Wambui, the founder and director of Shelter Children’s Rehabilitation Center in Ngong, Kenya, along with Research Fellow Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Titled “The Human Rights Violation of Women that Rarely Gets Discussed,” the event illuminated not only the great harm caused by female genital mutilation but also its shocking extent. The discussion drew on the experience of Wambui and Hirsi Ali not only as advocates against the practice, but as victims of female genital mutilation themselves. The event was organized by Christie Skinner-Gilligan, wife of Hoover director Tom Gilligan, who has been a longtime friend and supporter of Wambui after meeting her during a mission trip to Kenya. Skinner-Gilligan invited Wambui to visit Hoover following a presentation on female genital mutilation before the UN Commission on the Status of Women. The discussion was moderated by Hoover research fellow Alice Hill, formerly senior counselor to the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and founder of the internationally recognized Blue Campaign to combat human trafficking.

On Sunday, Treasury Secretary Mnuchin announced that “we’re putting the trade war [with China] on hold.” Meanwhile the NAFTA renegotiations seem to be stalling. Professors Epstein and White debate trade policy in theory and practice. Featuring cameo appearances by Ricardo, Keynes, Lincoln, Hamilton, Clay, Mnuchin, and Trump. Did you like the show? Please rate, review, and subscribe!

The Hoover Institution hosted "Security by the Book: Habeas Corpus in Wartime with Amanda Tyler" on Monday, May 14, 2018 from 5:00pm - 6:30pm EST. In her new book, Habeas Corpus in Wartime, Amanda Tyler traces the wartime the Anglo-American legal and political history of habeas corpus in wartime. Join Tyler and Benjamin Wittes for a wide ranging conversation covering the English Habeas Corpus Act, the English suspension framework, the United States Constitution's Suspension Clause, and habeas throughout many American wartime periods, including the American Revolution, the Civil War, World War II, and the War on Terror.

Adam White, a research fellow at Hoover and the executive director of the C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School, grades the Trump Administration on regulatory policy. Covering Trump’s campaign agenda through today, White tells a promising story about regulatory reform and explains how the president can ensure his accomplishments remain in effect through future administrations.

Renowned scholar of race relations Shelby Steele discusses the dissolution of cultural unity and the rise of moral division in America. He argues that much of the racial strife we see today centers on a struggle to reclaim moral authority that was compromised by “old evils” such as war and racism

Iran, argues Abbas Milani, is a nation of paradoxes. Seventy percent of the country’s citizens are younger than thirty-five years old, yet their political fate is in the hands of a cadre of septuagenarian-and-older religious leaders. The country’s leaders, Milani jokes, were already old men when he was jailed with them as a political prisoner in the 1970s. Four decades later, he maintains, they are finally losing their grip on power.

One of Hoover’s newest fellows and an expert on security and political relations in Asia, Michael Auslin argues that despite the best hopes of other analysts, China’s economic convergence with the West won’t be followed by an embrace of Western values and institutions. A more realistic view, he explains, reveals a China that is resolute in its own political model and engaged in a fierce competition with the West that extends beyond the economic arena.

Nearly 50 years old, the National Environmental Policy Act has become a major roadblock for modern infrastructure projects. Hoover Institution fellows Richard Epstein and Adam White discuss whether it’s time to mend it—or end it.

As North and South Korean leaders meet to discuss a possible peace agreement and an end to decades of hostility, is President Trump’s next move a one-on-one summit with the “honorable” Kim Jong-un? Hoover senior fellow Thomas Henriksen assesses the stakes on the Korean peninsula and what Trump could and should not do to avoid the frustration experienced by recent American presidents. Did you like the show? Please rate, review, and subscribe!

Ten years after the release of Nudge, the volume that popularized behavioral economics, Richard Epstein considers the shortcomings of the behaviorist school and the concept of “libertarian paternalism.”

First Lady Melania Trump has championed cyber-bullying as a cause, but Hoover visiting fellow Markos Kounalakis thinks she should broaden her horizons – to include a little diplomacy in her native Central Europe. It’s a portion of the world that’s drifted into angry nationalism, economic uncertainty and civil unrest, with one country (Poland) displaying troubling anti-Semitic tendencies. Kounalakis talks about all of that, plus he discusses Vladimir Putin’s Russia playing a meddling role around the world. Did you like the show? Please rate, review, and subscribe!

Richard Epstein parses President Trump’s economic criticisms of Amazon — and examines a Supreme Court case that will determine how online retailers pay taxes.

Recorded on March 29, 2018 Washington Post columnist and author, George F. Will, sits down with Peter Robinson in Austin, Texas to chat about the current administration and America’s favorite pastime—baseball. They discuss politics in the age of polarization and the future of America. Will argues that Americans need to stop looking at presidents as moral exemplars and instead focus on the president as the head of the executive branch. Will and Robinson discuss a quote from his 1984 book, Statecraft as Soulcraft: What Government Does, “The United States acutely needs real conservatism, characterized by a concern to cultivate the best personas and the best in persons. It should express appreciation for the ennobling functions of government.” They use this quote as a launchpad to discuss the future of American politics. The discussion turns to young adults and teenagers, and Will argues why history should be a required class for all college students. They also discuss the rise in birth rates of illegitimate children and what that means for society. They talk about family as the transmitter of social capital and that when the family fails, free society fails too. In the end they discuss baseball as America’s favorite pastime, and George Will argues it is the sport of America’s future as parents stop letting their children play football because of the dangers of lifelong head and body injuries

Victor Davis Hanson describes the philosophical conceits employed by defenders of illegal immigration — and explains how they’re undermining American society.

Now that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has pulled back on a plan to double the entry fees to America’s national parks, how will Washington address the multi-billion-dollar infrastructure backlog facing the National Park Service? Terry Anderson, the Hoover Institution’s John and Jean De Nault Senior Fellow and a proponent of “free market environmentalism,” discusses how to modernize the park system while preserving its natural splendor. Did you like the show? Please rate, review, and subscribe!

Victor Davis Hanson describes how President Trump’s unconventional approach to foreign policy has often proved to be more effective than the conventional wisdom proffered by the Washington establishment.

A quarter of a century since the nation’s first charter school opened in Minnesota, a new administration in Washington speaks of “school choice.” Eric Hanushek, the Hoover Institution’s Paul and Jean Hanna Senior Fellow, and Macke Raymond, a Hoover distinguished research fellow and director of the Stanford-based Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO), discuss the health of the charter-school movement and what needs to be done at the federal, state, and local levels to improve the nation’s classrooms. Did you like the show? Please rate, review, and subscribe!

Richard Epstein breaks down the legal rationales that may — or may not — have justified the FBI raid on Donald Trump’s personal lawyer. He also examines the broader trajectory of the Mueller investigation. Whose job is in more danger: Mueller’s or Trump’s?

In the immediate aftermath of an FBI raid on the office of President Trump’s private counsel, Hoover Institution fellows Richard Epstein and Adam White debate whether Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation is a problem in terms of constitutional structure and accountability. Along the way, they discuss the criminal process, and the need for “republican virtue” in our constitutional system. Did you like the show? Please rate, review, and subscribe!

The Hoover Institution hosts "'A Discussion of Tim Maurer's New Book: Cyber Mercenaries" on Thursday, April 5, 2018 from 5:30pm - 7:00pm EST. Tim Maurer's new book, Cyber Mercenaries: The State, Hackers and Power, is an exploration of the intersection between cyberspace and geopolitics. In timely commentary considering recent revelations about state-sponsored cyber operations, Maurer describes a landscape of state actors deploying, sponsoring and exploiting hackers to express power in the international sphere. State-hacker relationships have created new frontiers for the regulatory and legal questions around offensive cyber capabilities. Through case studies, Maurer demonstrates the importance of creating a framework for understanding the pros and cons of using cyber operations as geopolitical tools.

The coming midterm election is more than a litmus test of the Trump presidency. It’s also a continuation of a fourth cycle of political polarization dating back to the Civil War. David Brady, the Hoover Institution’s Davies Family Senior Fellow, explains the sorting-out in the election – a possible surge in women voters, Trump loyalists’ enthusiasm, and the two parties dealing with their respective ideological differences in races nationwide. Did you like the show? Please rate, review, and subscribe!

Richard Epstein discusses the history behind America’s anti-discrimination laws and explains why they’re not well-suited for the modern economy.

Recorded February 27, 2018 What do Catholics think of Pope Francis’s changes to the Catholic Church? Ross Douthat explores that question in his new book, To Change the Church: Pope Francis and the Future of Catholicism. Douthat joins Peter Robinson on Uncommon Knowledge to discuss his new book, his thoughts and critiques of Pope Francis, and the changing conception of divorce under Pope Francis’s ambiguous teachings. Douthat and Robinson spend a large portion of the episode discussing the Catholic teachings surrounding marriage, divorce, and communion. They examine the history of Catholicism and divorce, going back so far as to understand the lessons of the New Testament on divorce and how those lessons were radically conservative for the time. They talk about how problematic the terms “conservative” and “liberal” are when used in the context of the Church as the political leanings do not necessarily correlate with moral leanings of religion. They go on to discuss the future of the Catholic church under Pope Francis and how the Bishops can handle all of the changes.

T.S. Eliot deemed April “the cruelest month,” but for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg it’s been March with the Cambridge Analytica data scandal that’s cast doubt on the fabled “social network.” Niall Ferguson, the Hoover Institution’s Milbank Family Senior Fellow and a frequent author on technology and Silicon Valley’s prominence, examines the perils of “hyperconnection.” Has Zuckerberg fulfilled George Orwell’s vision of a society of addicted to an all-knowing, all-watching telescreen? Did you like the show? Please rate, review, and subscribe!

Introducing Reasonable Disagreements with Richard Epstein and Adam White, a new Hoover Institution podcast where two lawyers and Hoover fellows discuss and analyze the top legal issues of the day, and debate points of disagreement between their libertarian and conservative perspectives. Richard Epstein and Adam White’s inaugural episode begins with a discussion of Epstein’s Defining Ideas column, “The Troubled Legacy of Dodd-Frank,” concerning proposals to reform the Dodd-Frank financial law and delves into a broader conversation on Dodd-Frank’s inherent problems.