The Mona Charen Show

Jonathan Cohn joins Mona to discuss the growing public health crisis under RFK Jr.’s leadership at HHS. From vaccine rollbacks to misinformation about autism and common medications, they walk through how policy decisions are already affecting real people—and why diseases like measles are making a comeback.They also look at the politics: internal pushback inside the Trump orbit, warning signs from polling, and whether any of this can be stopped before the damage spreads further.

Brookings scholar Jessica Riedl analyzes the DOGE debacle and the failure of Americans to make grown up choices about spending and taxes.

Will Sommer takes us on a tour of the groypers and other right wing influencers.For a limited time, try OneSkin with 15% off using code MONA at https://oneskin.co/MONA.

Mona Charen talks with Unite America’s Nick Troiano about the structural problem driving America’s political polarization: the primary system.

In this emergency episode of The Mona Charen Show, Tom Nichols lays out the tremendous risks Trump has taken with Iran war.Go to https://Quince.com/MONA for free shipping and 365-day returns. That's a full year to wear it and love it. And you will.

NOTE: This episode was recorded before the US/Israel attack on Iran.Two professors describe the staggering corruption Trump is normalizing and how it is affecting foreign policy. Alexander Cooley and Daniel Nexon join The Mona Charen Show to discuss their Foreign Affairs piece “The Age of Kleptocracy.” Go to https://Quince.com/MONA for free shipping and 365-day returns. That's a full year to wear it and love it. And you will.

Dr. Atul Gawande reports on what cuts to USAID are doing to the world’s most vulnerable, as well as how that is coming home. Also a look back at Covid and reflections on end of life care.

David French discusses culture wars morphing into hot wars, partisanship, and the idiocy of threatening Greenland.Get 15% off OneSkin with the code MONACHAREN at https://www.oneskin.co/MONACHAREN #oneskinpod

Mona is joined by the Atlantic’s Peter Wehner to discuss the psychology of MAGA and why defeating them must be the precursor to depolarization.Wildgrain is offering $30 off your first box - PLUS free Croissantsfor life - when you go to https://Wildgrain.com/MONA to start your subscription today.

Protect Democracy founder Ian Bassin talks about victories and setbacks in the effort to thwart authoritarianism America-style, and what each person can do to preserve free and fair elections going forward.Go to https://Quince.com/MONA for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada, too.

Dave Wasserman joins Mona to discuss what’s changed and what hasn’t since 2018, including electoral map, redistricting, public discontent, and likely turnout.

Mona speaks with David Brooks (author, contributor to PBS NewsHour and opinion columnist for The New York Times) about why so many Americans feel unseen, how loneliness and moral drift are reshaping society, and what we lose when human connection is replaced by screens, algorithms, and artificial companionship.How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/652822/how-to-know-a-person-by-david-brooks/

Sonny Bunch joins to discuss “It Was Just an Accident” a film from dissident Iranian director Jafar Panahi. It raises profound questions about guilt, judgment, and revenge. Also, amazing that it was made at all.Get 15% off OneSkin with the code MONACHAREN at https://www.oneskin.co/MONACHAREN#oneskinpod #adFilms & References Mentioned:It Was Just an Accident (dir. Jafar Panahi)The film discussed throughout the episode — a clandestinely made Iranian dissident film that won the Palme d’Or at Cannes.https://www.imdb.com/title/tt30841958/The Seed of the Sacred Fig (dir. Mohammad Rasoulof)Recommended by Sonny as further viewing; set during post–Mahsa Amini unrest in Iran.https://www.imdb.com/title/tt29362290/The Lives of Others (dir. Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck)Cited as a thematic comparison for life under a surveillance state.https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0405094/A Hero (dir. Asghar Farhadi)Mentioned as another standout contemporary Iranian film about truth, lies, and social pressure.https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11777738/

Quico Toro offers an insider’s perspective on his lost homeland and the American raid.Wildgrain is offering our listeners $30 off your first box - PLUS free croissants for life - when you go to https://Wildgrain.com/MONA to start your subscription today.

Trump promised a manufacturing comeback and cheaper prices. Instead, jobs are shrinking, costs are rising, and America’s economic credibility is taking a hit. Catherine Rampell joins Mona to discuss why the factory revival was always a myth, how tariffs backfired, and why chaos, favoritism, and attacks on rule of law are making the U.S. a riskier place to do business.Go to https://Quince.com/MONA for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada, too.

Laura K. Field discusses her book, Furious Minds, which dissects the thought of MAGA intellectuals (yes, there are some). Anti-enlightenment, theocratic, racist, misogynistic and yet, claiming to be for the general good.Get up to 30% off OneSkin with the code MONACHAREN athttps://www.oneskin.co/MONACHAREN #oneskinpod

While there won’t be an episode of the Mona Charen Show this week, Mona sends along this holiday greeting. She will return next Monday, December 29.

Georgetown professor Rosa Brooks discusses the legality (or the lack) of Trump’s drug boat attacks as well as the bonkers National Security Strategy document.Head to https://GhostBed.com/mona and use promo code MONA at checkout to get an EXTRA 10% off—on top of their already-reduced prices.

The Economist’s John Prideaux discusses the lavish gifts and other forms of corruption in Trump’s Washington.

Mona Charen and Will Saletan discuss the growing resistance to Trump’s agenda—grand juries rejecting his charges, the DOJ stumbling, senators warning troops against illegal orders, and his tariffs and deportations driving prices even higher. Go to https://quince.com/MONA for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada, too! Get 15% off OneSkin with the code MONACHAREN at https://www.oneskin.co/MONACHAREN #oneskinpod During GhostBed’s Cyber Monday Sale, you can get 25% off sitewide for a limited time. Just go to https://GhostBed.com/mona and use promo code MONA at checkout.

Lawfare’s Ben Wittes discusses Lindsay Halligan’s incompetence and malevolence and the importance of grand juries to our liberties.

Francis Fukuyama discusses his theory that the internet, and not economic distress, the Democratic party’s problems, or other things have given rise to populism.Go to https://Oneskin.co and use code: MONACHAREN for 15% off!Take our quick listener survey and help us make The Bulwark even better. https://bit.ly/bulwarkaudio

This week on the Mona Charen Show, Mona is joined by Nico Perrino, Executive Vice President of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), for a crucial conversation about the unprecedented assault on the First Amendment under the Trump 2.0 administration.During GhostBed’s Black Friday Sale, you can get 25% off already-reduced prices, for a limited time. Just go to GhostBed.com/mona and use promo code MONA at checkout.