The Good Fight
194 episodes — Page 1 of 4
Judith Dada on the Rise of the AfD
Sarah Longwell on How Democrats Can Defeat Trump
Jared Diamond on Whether Leaders Make History
Abigail Marsh on Psychopaths (Rerun)
The Eras of Francis Fukuyama: Building Things
The Eras of Francis Fukuyama: How States Form
Adam Bodnar on Why Defeating Populists at the Ballot Box Isn’t Enough
The Eras of Francis Fukuyama: Human Nature
Daron Acemoglu on Why Liberalism Became a Victim of Its Own Success
The Eras of Francis Fukuyama: The End of History and the Last Man
Katja Hoyer on Why We Should Stop Comparing Everything to Weimar
The Eras of Francis Fukuyama: His Life and Ideas
Claude Steele on the Hidden Stress of Diverse Spaces
The Good Fight Club: Refounding Liberalism, Gen Z’s Political Instincts, and a Watergate Ghost Story
John Harpham on the Intellectual Origins of American Slavery
Deirdre McCloskey on What Really Caused the Industrial Revolution
Arvind Narayanan on Why AI Isn’t All That Revolutionary
Ivan Krastev on Why America Has Lost Faith in Itself
Charles Fain Lehman on Why Cities Got Safer
The Good Fight Club: Why the Center Left Is Losing, the Squad vs. the Median Voter, and How Patriotism Wins Elections
Mark Leonard on Why Europe is Doomed
A Debate with Curtis Yarvin
Samuel Moyn on Why Old People Are Ruining America
David Bau on How—and Whether—Artificial Intelligence Thinks
Rebecca Haw Allensworth on How Professional Licenses are Rigging the Game for Insiders
Steve Stewart-Williams on Sex Differences and Human Nature
Jeremiah Johnson on Why Gen Z Isn’t Actually Doomed
Kathryn Paige Harden on How Genetics Shapes Human Behavior
H.W. Brands on the Making of George Washington
James Traub on Why American Classrooms Are Failing Democracy
Marc Lipsitch on Playing Pandemic Roulette in the Lab
The Good Fight Club: The Vibe Shift That Wasn’t, White Identity Politics, and “When They Go Low, We Go Low&#
Al Roth on Why People Should Be Free to Sell Their Kidneys
Timothy Garton Ash on Europe’s Political Fragmentation
Laurenz Guenther on the Representation Gap in Politics
Lant Pritchett on Why Foreign Aid Misses the Point
David Bromwich on Why Americans Have Lost Faith in Universities
Luis Garicano on the Economics of Artificial Intelligence
Jacob Mchangama on the Global Free Speech Recession
Michael Shermer on Truth and Conspiracy
Ivan Krastev on Why Even Dictators Can’t Escape Democracy
Andrés Velasco on Oil Shocks and Financial Crises
Ruy Teixeira on What the Liberal Patriot Closure Says About the Center Left
Kathleen Stock on the Case Against Assisted Death
Sebastian Mallaby on AI Safety and the Race for Superintelligence
Yascha Mounk and Sebastian Mallaby discuss why tech leaders both fear and accelerate dangerous AI development, and whether open-source models pose unacceptable risks. Sebastian Mallaby is the author of several books including The Infinity Machine: Demis Hassabis, DeepMind, and the Quest for Superintelligence. A former Financial Times contributing editor and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, Mallaby is the Paul A. Volcker Senior Fellow for International Economics at the Council on Foreign Relations. In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Sebastian Mallaby discuss why AI developers simultaneously fear and advance potentially dangerous technology, whether open-source AI models pose unacceptable security risks, and how China and the United States differ in their approaches to AI safety. If you have not yet signed up for our podcast, please do so now by following ⁠⁠⁠this link on your phone⁠⁠⁠. Email: [email protected] Podcast production by Jack Shields and Leonora Barclay. Connect with us! ⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠Apple⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠Google⁠⁠⁠ X: ⁠⁠⁠@Yascha_Mounk⁠⁠⁠ & ⁠⁠⁠@JoinPersuasion⁠⁠⁠ YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠Yascha Mounk⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Persuasion⁠⁠⁠ LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠Persuasion Community⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
David Autor on the Scars That Money Can’t Heal
Yascha Mounk and David Autor discuss how policy failures made trade disruption worse—and why we're still making the same mistakes. David Autor is the Daniel (1972) and Gail Rubinfeld Professor in the MIT Department of Economics, codirector of the NBER Labor Studies Program and the James M. and Cathleen D. Stone Center on Inequality and Shaping the Future of Work. In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and David Autor discuss whether the economic pessimism of the 2010s was justified, what lessons we failed to learn from the China trade shock, and how artificial intelligence will reshape the American job market. If you have not yet signed up for our podcast, please do so now by following ⁠⁠this link on your phone⁠⁠. Email: [email protected] Podcast production by Jack Shields and Leonora Barclay. Connect with us! ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠Apple⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠Google⁠⁠ X: ⁠⁠@Yascha_Mounk⁠⁠ & ⁠⁠@JoinPersuasion⁠⁠ YouTube: ⁠⁠Yascha Mounk⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Persuasion⁠⁠ LinkedIn: ⁠⁠Persuasion Community Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
David Goodhart on Why the Educated Elite Lost Touch with Democracy
Yascha Mounk and David Goodhart explore how the domination of mobile, university-educated “anywheres” sparked the populist revolt. David Goodhart is a journalist, author and think tanker, and currently head of the demography unit at the Policy Exchange think tank. His latest book is The Care Dilemma: Freedom, Family and Fertility. In this week's conversation, Yascha Mounk and David Goodhart discuss why the triumphalist worldview of the early 2000s has collapsed, how the “anywhere” versus “somewhere” divide explains contemporary populism, and whether meritocracy is creating an insulated professional class that damages the communities it leaves behind. If you have not yet signed up for our podcast, please do so now by following this link on your phone. Email: [email protected] Podcast production by Mickey Freeland and Leonora Barclay. Connect with us! Spotify | Apple | Google X: @Yascha_Mounk & @JoinPersuasion YouTube: Yascha Mounk, Persuasion LinkedIn: Persuasion Community Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Shashank Joshi on Why the War in the Middle East Won’t End Anytime Soon
Yascha Mounk and Shashank Joshi examine whether the United States and Israel are achieving their strategic objectives in the Middle East. Shashank Joshi is Defence Editor at The Economist, where he writes on a wide range of national security, defence and intelligence issues. In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Shashank Joshi discuss how the war of attrition between the United States, Israel, and Iran is unfolding, whether military successes justify the enormous economic and strategic costs, and why Iran’s nuclear program remains largely untouched despite being a primary justification for the conflict. Note: This episode was recorded on March 18, 2026. If you have not yet signed up for our podcast, please do so now by following ⁠this link on your phone⁠. Email: [email protected] Podcast production by Jack Shields and Leonora Barclay. Connect with us! ⁠Spotify⁠ | ⁠Apple⁠ | ⁠Google⁠ X: ⁠@Yascha_Mounk⁠ & ⁠@JoinPersuasion⁠ YouTube: ⁠Yascha Mounk⁠, ⁠Persuasion⁠ LinkedIn: ⁠Persuasion Community Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ibram X. Kendi on Great Replacement Theory
Yascha Mounk and Ibram X. Kendi also discuss anti-racism, equity, and education. Ibram X. Kendi is Professor of History and the founding director of the Howard University Institute for Advanced Study, an interdisciplinary research enterprise examining global racism. His latest book is Chain of Ideas: The Origins of Our Authoritarian Age. In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Ibram X. Kendi discuss whether great replacement theory is the common basis for political movements from India to Argentina, the role of racist policy in different outcomes between racial groups, and how to define equity vs equality. If you have not yet signed up for our podcast, please do so now by following this link on your phone. Email: [email protected] Podcast production by Mickey Freeland and Leonora Barclay. Connect with us! Spotify | Apple | Google X: @Yascha_Mounk & @JoinPersuasion YouTube: Yascha Mounk, Persuasion LinkedIn: Persuasion Community Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Adrian Wooldridge on the Lost Genius of the Political Center
Yascha Mounk and Adrian Wooldridge explore how liberalism reinvented itself through past crises—and what that means for its survival today. Adrian Wooldridge is the global business columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. He is the author or co-author of 12 books, including Centrists of the World Unite: The Lost Genius of Liberalism. In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Adrian Wooldridge discuss how liberalism emerged as a solution to concrete historical problems, why the fundamental challenges liberalism addressed in the 17th and 18th centuries have returned in new forms today, and what lessons the origins of liberalism offer for defending it against contemporary threats. We’re delighted to feature this conversation as part of our series on Liberal Virtues and Values. That liberalism is under threat is now a cliché—yet this has done nothing to stem the global resurgence of illiberalism. Part of the problem is that liberalism is often considered too “thin” to win over the allegiance of citizens, and that liberals are too afraid of speaking in moral terms. Liberalism’s opponents, by contrast, speak to people’s passions and deepest moral sentiments. This series, made possible with the generous support of the John Templeton Foundation, aims to change that narrative. In podcast conversations and long-form pieces, we feature content making the case that liberalism has its own distinctive set of virtues and values that are capable not only of responding to the dissatisfaction that drives authoritarianism, but also of restoring faith in liberalism as an ideology worth believing in—and defending—on its own terms. If you have not yet signed up for our podcast, please do so now by following ⁠this link on your phone⁠. Email: [email protected] Podcast production by Mickey Freeland and Leonora Barclay. Connect with us! ⁠Spotify⁠ | ⁠Apple⁠ | ⁠Google⁠ X: ⁠@Yascha_Mounk⁠ & ⁠@JoinPersuasion⁠ YouTube: ⁠Yascha Mounk⁠, ⁠Persuasion⁠ LinkedIn: ⁠Persuasion Community Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices