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Israel has been at war with Hamas in Gaza for 570
Douglas Murray has had a front-row seat to all three of these unfolding stories
bringing us reportage and analysis that have illuminated the most urgent issues of our time
his reporting and willingness to call out bad actors across the world and the political spectrum has earned him his fair share of adversaries
Douglas went on The Joe Rogan Experience—the most popular podcast in America—to debate both Joe and comedian-turned-pundit Dave Smith
with the debate earning millions of views and becoming its own viral news story
The interview became so popular in large part because Douglas
In this case that meant fighting back against antisemitism
the kind we’re seeing rise on the online right
George Orwell once famously wrote that “to see what’s in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle.” Nobody knows that better than Douglas who
never gets lost in excuse-making and needless ideological abstraction
He sees the world clearly and reports it back to us
which is a big reason why he’s such a unique and valuable voice in our era of dishonesty
That gift is on full display in his new and best-selling book, <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/93116/9780063437135" rel>On Democracies and Death Cults</a>
and in the conversation we had Monday in The Free Press newsroom
Paying subscribers were able to ask Douglas questions—and we are doing more and more talks like this. So to join us live and get in on the conversation, <a href="https://www.thefp.com/subscribe" rel>become a paying subscriber</a> today.
Douglas went on The Joe Rogan Experience\u2014the most popular podcast in America\u2014to debate both Joe and comedian-turned-pundit Dave Smith
the kind we\u2019re seeing rise on the online right
George Orwell once famously wrote that \u201Cto see what\u2019s in front of one\u2019s nose needs a constant struggle.\u201D Nobody knows that better than Douglas who
which is a big reason why he\u2019s such a unique and valuable voice in our era of dishonesty
That gift is on full display in his new and best-selling book, <a href=\\\"https://bookshop.org/a/93116/9780063437135\\\">On Democracies and Death Cults</a>
Paying subscribers were able to ask Douglas questions\u2014and we are doing more and more talks like this. So to join us live and get in on the conversation, <a href=\\\"https://www.thefp.com/subscribe\\\">become a paying subscriber</a> today
<a href="/countries-and-areas-list/"  class="nav__top-level-header-link">Countries &amp; Areas</a>
<a href="/bureaus-and-offices-list/"  class="nav__top-level-header-link">Bureaus &amp; Offices</a>
<a href="/about/" class="nav__top-level-header-link">About</a>
<a href="https://www.state.gov/biographies/marco-rubio/">Marco Rubio, Secretary of State</a>
SECRETARY RUBIO:&nbsp; Thank you.&nbsp;&nbsp;
QUESTION:&nbsp; I want to start with the report that came out today from Gabe Kaminsky and Maddie Rowley
and&nbsp;it’s&nbsp;about this major reorganization that is now underway in your State Department.&nbsp;&nbsp;It is the largest shakeup at the State Department in decades – something like 132 offices&nbsp;are&nbsp;being cut;&nbsp;there’s&nbsp;many other details – and I want to understand the significance here beyond cost cutting.&nbsp;&nbsp;How does this reorganization help advance American interests and the President’s foreign policy abroad?&nbsp;
I think&nbsp;that’s&nbsp;important to point out.&nbsp;&nbsp;This is not a cost-cutting exercise
although it certainly will provide savings to the American taxpayer.&nbsp;&nbsp;This is a policy exercise
and&nbsp;here’s&nbsp;why.&nbsp;&nbsp;Foreign policy – mature foreign policy
realistic foreign policy – requires the balancing of both policy geopolitical considerations
and some level of idealism – the promotion
of human rights or democracy and things of that nature.&nbsp;&nbsp;So&nbsp;this sort of balance.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
today those two entities are housed in two different places.&nbsp;&nbsp;We have a group of people that are our regions – our embassies and our regional bureaus that oversee those embassies – and they’re involved in balancing our relationships with these countries; and then you have these other entities that are only so – looking at issues from a single-source standpoint: human rights
These two&nbsp;have to&nbsp;be brought together.&nbsp;&nbsp;And so we get rid of those bureaus that are what they call functional bureaus
and instead we move that function – we’re not getting rid of
a group of people that care about human rights
but we’re putting those people in the regions and in the embassies so that all of our foreign policy is being balanced within those bureaus.&nbsp;&nbsp;So&nbsp;say&nbsp;it’s&nbsp;Western Hemisphere;&nbsp;it’s&nbsp;being balanced within the Western Hemisphere
and then ultimately empowering our embassies to pursue mature foreign policy that takes&nbsp;all of&nbsp;these factors into account.&nbsp;
So&nbsp;it really is about streamlining an entity&nbsp;that’s&nbsp;continued to grow.&nbsp;&nbsp;If I – if I show you the org chart of what the State Department looked like in the ’70s and what it looks like today,&nbsp;it’s&nbsp;unrecognizable.&nbsp;&nbsp;So&nbsp;we&nbsp;have to&nbsp;bring back some stability
some organizational streamlining that allows us to further foreign policy in a way that balances&nbsp;all of&nbsp;the things we&nbsp;have to&nbsp;take into consideration when we pursue foreign policy
and we can deliver it efficiently and fast.&nbsp;&nbsp;
One more point.&nbsp;&nbsp;I know&nbsp;it’s&nbsp;been a long answer to&nbsp;a very short&nbsp;question
but&nbsp;it’s&nbsp;important to talk about it.&nbsp;&nbsp;As the Secretary of State
I get these memos.&nbsp;&nbsp;They’re&nbsp;called these decision memos.&nbsp;&nbsp;And if you look at&nbsp;all of&nbsp;the boxes that&nbsp;have to&nbsp;be checked before it even gets to me
in some cases it&nbsp;has to&nbsp;be checked by six or seven people in one bureau alone before it gets to me.&nbsp;&nbsp;That’s&nbsp;way too&nbsp;long.&nbsp;&nbsp;It almost&nbsp;renders&nbsp;the State Department irrelevant.&nbsp;&nbsp;We&nbsp;have to&nbsp;shorten that approval process
and the way to do it is to get rid of&nbsp;all of&nbsp;these offices that are all chiming in
any one of whom could slow action for an indefinite period of time.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
if you are a normal American and you don’t know much about the bureaucracy at the State Department and you just look at the headline out of today
you will see that many of the offices that are being cut seem to broadly be about America’s soft power role in the world – things like the promotion of human rights
promoting democracy abroad.&nbsp; And&nbsp;I think critics of the administration&nbsp;are already saying in reaction to this news this is sort of yet another sign that the Trump Administration is pulling back from the world and leaving the vacuum to be filled by other contenders like China and Russia.&nbsp;&nbsp;What does that perspective get wrong?&nbsp;&nbsp;Is this a sign that America is no longer in the soft power business?&nbsp;&nbsp;
SECRETARY RUBIO:&nbsp; Yeah.&nbsp;&nbsp;Well,&nbsp;first of all,&nbsp;I’m&nbsp;not – I&nbsp;don’t&nbsp;think anyone should be too enthusiastic about China or Russia promoting human rights or democracy anywhere in the world.&nbsp;&nbsp;So&nbsp;it’s&nbsp;not like&nbsp;they’re&nbsp;going to displace us from that.&nbsp;&nbsp;No
they&nbsp;don’t&nbsp;mean –&nbsp;I’m&nbsp;sorry.&nbsp;&nbsp;They&nbsp;don’t&nbsp;mean displacing America from the human rights promotion business.&nbsp;&nbsp;
QUESTION:&nbsp; Simply that in the same way that China advances its own interests in Africa through the Belt and Road Initiative &#8212;&nbsp;&nbsp;
QUESTION:&nbsp; &#8212; America has historically after the Cold War
advanced ours through many of these offices.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
QUESTION:&nbsp; And people say we should still be in that business
and I think the Trump Administration has a different answer to that.&nbsp;&nbsp;So &#8212;&nbsp;&nbsp;
but&nbsp;we’re&nbsp;going to do it in a way&nbsp;that’s&nbsp;balanced across&nbsp;all of&nbsp;our other equities.&nbsp;&nbsp;So
for example,&nbsp;we’re&nbsp;still going to be involved in those things
but&nbsp;it’s&nbsp;going to be run at the embassy and regional level
that has that title.&nbsp;&nbsp;And so just – we need to be grown-ups here about how we talk about this.&nbsp;&nbsp;Promoting democracy and human rights in our relations
with some country in the Middle East is&nbsp;probably going&nbsp;to look different than it would with some country in Central America or South America.&nbsp;&nbsp;That’s&nbsp;just a geopolitical reality.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
we are going to have to have partnerships and alliances with countries whose system of government&nbsp;maybe is&nbsp;not like ours
may not be like ours.&nbsp;&nbsp;And we may not like&nbsp;that&nbsp;and it&nbsp;doesn’t&nbsp;mean we&nbsp;don’t&nbsp;wish it&nbsp;was&nbsp;different
but we still&nbsp;have to&nbsp;have relations with these countries because it serves a geopolitical purpose
So we have to have foreign policies in different parts of the world that are different
and we have to have the regions and the embassies run it
not some office in Washington that sort of applies the same standard all across the board.&nbsp; That’s just not realistic foreign policy in today’s world.&nbsp;
I think if you asked the secretary of state and certainly the president “Is the national interest of the United States stability or democracy?” I think they might have said democracy instead of stability.&nbsp; Was that view wrong?&nbsp; Was it foolish?&nbsp;
I think it was a different world.&nbsp; If you go back 20 years
and we were often called in to do things because nobody else could or would.&nbsp; We don’t live in that world anymore.&nbsp; We now live in a world with a near peer adversary in China.&nbsp; We live in a world where
they have the ability to project power and destabilize.&nbsp; We live in a world with a nuclear-armed North Korea
with a nuclear-ambitious Iran.&nbsp; We live in a world where there are both opportunities and real challenges in the Middle East.&nbsp; We live in the world where in Africa countries are going in two directions:&nbsp; Some are developing economically; others are falling into chaos.&nbsp; It’s just a very different world.&nbsp;
the United States has to make a mature decision about how to prioritize the use of our national power.&nbsp; There are some issues in the world that matter more than others from our national interest perspective.&nbsp; That doesn’t mean we don’t care about some terrible humanitarian crisis somewhere on the planet
but we can’t put that ahead of some critical long-term challenge to the national interest of the United States.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
So we have entered an era where we have to – we are the most powerful country in the world
but neither our power nor our resources have ever been infinite.&nbsp; And so we have to prioritize them in a mature and sustainable way in this new era which we live in.&nbsp; It’s a – in essence the world order is changing
and we need to adjust our foreign policies to serve our national interest in that new world that’s taking shape.&nbsp;
let’s talk about what I think is arguably the biggest story in America right now
which is the fight over deportations.&nbsp; I’m curious how that should rank in terms of priorities that you just lined up for me
but the President suggested in an Oval Office meeting with President Bukele of El Salvador that American citizens might be deported to El Salvador.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
Here’s what he said.&nbsp; He said that Bukele
in addition to the prison – I think it’s pronounced CECOT; you’ll correct me if I’m wrong – might have to build new places to house deported American citizens.&nbsp; And over the weekend
a Republican from Louisiana – hardly a squish – he was unequivocal in saying that the President cannot do such a thing.&nbsp; He said we have our own laws
we have the 8th Amendment to the Constitution; we shouldn’t send prisoners to foreign countries.&nbsp; So is he correct?&nbsp; Should we take the President seriously but not literally in that Oval Office meeting?&nbsp; Which is it?&nbsp;
the President talked about the most dangerous and vile criminals imaginable
and the question is whether you could send them to be in a prison in some other country.&nbsp; But the second point the President made – and I was there when he said it and I was there when said it in the past – is I don’t know about the legalities of that
maybe that’s not possible because of our laws.&nbsp; So he acknowledged that in his statement.&nbsp;
I think the broader point on deportations – and it’s the one that really is in the news these days – is we have people here illegally in this country from other countries
and one of the things we’ve done at the State Department is work with those countries to take back their citizens
to take back people that are – that’s where you deport people.&nbsp; You deport them back to the country that they came from.&nbsp; They are unlawfully in the country
and that’s where they’re supposed to be returned
and that’s what we’ve worked on doing.&nbsp;
they’ve been willing to take Tren de Aragua gang members because Venezuela was refusing to take them.&nbsp; And this is now a designated terrorist organization
one of the most dangerous gangs in the history of the world
and we want them out of our country.&nbsp; We don’t want them in our country.&nbsp;
QUESTION:&nbsp; One of the things the President and you have done in the past 90-something days – it feels like it’s been a lot longer than that – (laughter) – has been to successfully – I cannot even imagine how long it’s felt for you – has been to successfully close the southern border.&nbsp; And yet
that story has been just totally overtaken with the story of some of these individual deportations that have captured the national conversation and that many people
And so I want to just ask you a bigger question
which is:&nbsp; What message is the President trying to send with these deportations?&nbsp; There’s – is it about deterring people from coming?&nbsp; Or is it about terrifying people that have been here for years
and might even have American children?&nbsp; Should they be scared of deportation?&nbsp; Like what is the message that the President and the State Department is trying to send?&nbsp;&nbsp;
so two things.&nbsp; The State Department isn’t involved necessarily in the issue of migratory enforcement.&nbsp; We’re involved in making sure that foreign countries take back the citizens that are in our country illegally of their countries.&nbsp; So I would say two things.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
mass migration is almost entirely based on an incentive system.&nbsp; People were coming to this country under Joe Biden because they knew if they got to the border and claimed asylum
they would be allowed to come in and they would be allowed to stay – almost 90 percent success rate if you said the magic words
Now they know that if they come they won’t get to stay
which is why it’s the most secure border we’ve had in modern history.&nbsp; And in fact
which is people that were on their way here sort of do a U-turn and go back.&nbsp; We’ve seen that play out.&nbsp; And that’s an enormous achievement
That still leaves us with a fundamental challenge
and that is that we have in this country millions of people – some who have been here many years
some who have been here for a year and a half or two – who are unlawfully in the United States.&nbsp; And it’s this simple:&nbsp; If you say the speed zone is 70 miles an hour
but people know they’re not going to get a ticket unless they go 90 miles an hour
no one’s going to drive under the speed limit.&nbsp; You have to have laws
and laws have to be enforced.&nbsp; If you don’t enforce your laws
then your laws become meaningless.&nbsp; And that’s what’s happened in this country over the last 20 years.&nbsp; We were not enforcing our immigration laws
they’re going to prioritize the most dangerous people
dangerous criminals.&nbsp; If you look at the manifest of these flights of people that are being deported
these are some of the most vile human beings imaginable that we’re getting out of our country – sex offenders
killers.&nbsp; That’s who we’re prioritizing being sent out.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
But let there be no doubt we have immigration laws
and if you are in violation of those immigration laws
you have no right to be in the country.&nbsp; Now
some will choose to leave voluntarily; others may get caught up and be forced to leave.&nbsp; But we are – they are prioritizing the most dangerous.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
you have to have – there’s no point in having immigration laws if you have no intent to enforce them.&nbsp;&nbsp;
let’s talk about Iran.&nbsp; Both you and President Trump were profoundly opposed to Barack Obama’s nuclear deal known as the JCPOA
the Iran deal.&nbsp; And this is what the President said in 2018 when he withdrew from the deal:&nbsp; “The Iran deal was one of the worst and most one-sided transactions the United States has ever entered into.”&nbsp; You yourself called it disastrous.&nbsp; Now it looks like the administration is heading into another deal.&nbsp; So
simple question:&nbsp; What would a good deal with Iran look like?&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
we have good people negotiating that and involved in it
obviously.&nbsp; Let me just say a couple things about the previous deal
and then I’ll compare it to now.&nbsp; The previous deal was bad for a number of reasons.&nbsp; It gave Iran immediate and full sanctions relief in exchange for enrichment capabilities that at any point could be weaponized in the future.&nbsp; They got to keep that permanently
they got to keep the sanctions relief permanently
and they only had to live by the enrichment limitations for a defined period of time.&nbsp; In fact
right now we are entering that period of time in which the requirements of that deal would have expired.&nbsp; So it was a bad deal all the way around.&nbsp; We gave them permanent concessions for temporary concessions on their part.&nbsp; So now we’ve reached that point.&nbsp;
and that is the worst thing that could – we do not want a war.&nbsp; We do not want to see war.&nbsp; This is not a president that campaigned on starting wars.&nbsp; And as he has said very clearly
Iran is not going to have a nuclear weapon
and he reserves every right to prevent that from happening
but he would prefer it not happen.&nbsp; He would prefer that there not be need to resort to military force
either by us or anybody else.&nbsp; He would prefer that it be something that we can negotiate.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
The Iranians have shown a willingness to talk.&nbsp; We’re going to talk to them.&nbsp; If there is a chance of peace
we’re going to give peace and a peaceful resolution to this challenge every opportunity to succeed.&nbsp; Our priorities remain the same.&nbsp; If Iran wants a civil nuclear program
they can have one just like many other countries in the world have one
and that is they import enriched material.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
we’re not going to negotiate this in the press
we’re not going to negotiate this publicly
because it undermines negotiations.&nbsp; But there’s a pathway to a civil
peaceful nuclear program if they want one.&nbsp; But if they insist on enriching
then they will be the only country in the world that doesn’t have a “weapons program,” quote-unquote
but is enriching.&nbsp; And so I think that’s problematic.&nbsp;
let’s give peace every chance here to succeed.&nbsp; I don’t want to see a war
the President certainly doesn’t want to see one either.&nbsp;
QUESTION:&nbsp; Some who are watching these negotiations unfold and who have watched the JCPOA and then its unraveling are warning that this deal is on a path
to be similar or weaker to the JCPOA.&nbsp; And one of the reasons they’re saying that is because Steve Witkoff gave an interview in which he said that the goal should be to ensure that Iran’s uranium enrichment would be capped at something like 3.5 percent for civilian use and verified.&nbsp; And the reason critics are saying that is a very bad sign is because they’re saying
why shouldn’t the U.S.’s position be zero enrichment and the complete elimination of the program?&nbsp;
I think Steve subsequently followed up by clarifying that what he meant is that that would be the limit of what they would be allowed to import for their domestic program.&nbsp; And they do that now.&nbsp; They do have a nuclear reactor that imports Russian enriched material at 3.67
and that’s what you need for – but they don’t enrich it themselves.&nbsp; So I think what Steve was – the point he was trying to make in that interview
was he’s talking about the level of enrichment that they would be allowed – the level of enriched material that they would be allowed to import from outside
like multiple countries around the world do for their peaceful civil nuclear programs.&nbsp;
QUESTION:&nbsp; If the United States wanted to take out Iran’s nuclear program with a strike
or – or is everything buried so deep underground that there’s no guarantee?&nbsp;
I think logistically – I probably don’t want to discuss all the logistics of it.&nbsp; Suffice it to say that I do believe the United States has options
but we don’t want to ever get to that.&nbsp; We really don’t.&nbsp; This is not &#8212;&nbsp;
QUESTION:&nbsp; Maybe we could – maybe we could talk about it in a Signal group together.&nbsp;
SECRETARY RUBIO:&nbsp; (Laughter.)&nbsp; I’ll say this to you:&nbsp; I’ll – let me put it to you this way
okay?&nbsp; We don’t want it to get to that point.&nbsp; We’re not at a stage now where we’re going to be making threats or any things of this nature
this is not a president that ran on the promise of starting wars or armed conflicts.&nbsp; We’ve gotten involved in this Houthi situation; it’s a favor to the world that we’re doing
because these guys basically had shut down shipping in the Red Sea.&nbsp; That needed to end.&nbsp; But this is not a president that’s looking to start wars.&nbsp; He’s a president that’s looking to stop them and to prevent them.&nbsp; That’s why we’ve been focused on Ukraine
that’s why we’re having these talks with the Iranians.&nbsp;
I would tell everybody that this – we’re a long ways away from any sort of agreement with Iran.&nbsp; We recognize it’s difficult and hard.&nbsp; Oftentimes
peace is.&nbsp; But we’re committed to achieving a peaceful outcome that’s acceptable to everyone.&nbsp; It may not be possible; we don’t know.&nbsp; I don’t even know if Iran knows how to make a deal.&nbsp; They’ve got their own internal political dynamics in their country they have to work through.&nbsp; But we would want to achieve a peaceful resolution to this and not resort to anything else
or even speculate about it at this point.&nbsp;
just one last question and then I want to go to Russia and Ukraine.&nbsp; Tucker Carlson has said that a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities – now I’m quoting from him – would “almost certainly result in thousands of American deaths at bases throughout the Middle East
and cost the United States…billions of dollars.&nbsp; Those aren’t guesses.&nbsp; Those are the Pentagon’s own estimates.&nbsp; A bombing campaign against Iran will set off a war
and it will be America’s war.”&nbsp; Is that true?&nbsp;
SECRETARY RUBIO:&nbsp; I think – I – here’s what I can say:&nbsp; Any military action at this point in the Middle East
whether it’s against Iran by us or anybody else
could in fact trigger a much broader conflict that will not be the sort of thing that people&nbsp;have become accustomed to watching on television
but we took out a hundred fighters or whatever.&nbsp; This’ll be more complex.&nbsp; I think we have to recognize – and it’s important to be honest about it – Iran has taken – both under sanctions and because of sanctions relief under Obama
they have spent billions of dollars developing military capabilities that we’re seeing
being used in Ukraine right now with drones and the like.&nbsp; Is the United States capable of defeating and confronting all that?&nbsp; Absolutely we are.&nbsp; But I think it’s important to understand it’s much more complex than it would have been 10 years ago or 5 years ago.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
But that’s why we hope to avoid this.&nbsp; So when you hear people make the points that they’ve made
it’s true.&nbsp; Any sort of armed conflict in the region is going to be much messier than what people are used to seeing and that we would want.&nbsp; And that’s why the President is so committed to the peaceful resolution – the prevention of an armed conflict in this scenario.&nbsp; Although he reserves every right to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon
he’d prefer peace.&nbsp; He has said that repeatedly.&nbsp; And that’s why we want to end the war in Ukraine if that’s possible.&nbsp;
QUESTION:&nbsp; Okay.&nbsp; So let’s talk about that.&nbsp; Is it possible?&nbsp; On Sunday
President Trump said he hoped that Russia and Ukraine would make a deal this week.&nbsp; What are the remaining obstacles to such a deal?&nbsp; Is there a chance that we could hear about a deal by the end of the week
I don’t know about by the end of the week.&nbsp; I’m hopeful that we can get to something quickly.&nbsp; And I remain hopeful that we can get something done because this is a terrible war and it needs to end.&nbsp; Here’s – because it has no military solution.&nbsp; There is no military solution to this war.&nbsp; We have to be frank.&nbsp; Russia is not just going to roll over Ukraine and take the whole country
and Ukraine’s not going to push them all the way back to where they were before 2014.&nbsp; So what I would say we’re involved in is understanding what is the Russian position – we have a better understanding of that now because we’ve actually spoken to them after three years of not speaking to them – what is the Ukrainian position
are these guys even in the same neighborhood?&nbsp; Because if they’re in completely different ZIP codes
then we may have to conclude that they’re so far apart that peace is impossible at this time.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
We’ve done our best.&nbsp; We’ve put a lot of time and energy at the highest levels of our government.&nbsp; We’ll continue to be willing to do so as long as there’s a realistic path forward.&nbsp; If at some point we determine that we’re just too far apart and not enough movement is happening
we may need to move on to other priorities because there are a lot of important things happening in the world.&nbsp; This is not our war.&nbsp; We didn’t start this war.&nbsp; We’re trying to help everybody end it.&nbsp;&nbsp;
but I hope not.&nbsp; We should be optimistic.&nbsp; We should be willing
to do whatever it takes to bring the two sides closer.&nbsp; And hopefully we can be successful.&nbsp; But ultimately
it’s not up to us.&nbsp; It’s up to Russia and it’s up to Ukraine.&nbsp; They have to make the decision that they’re willing to move closer to one another.&nbsp; And we need to start to see progress.&nbsp;
QUESTION:&nbsp; A lot of Republicans and a lot of conservatives have become skeptical of NATO as an institution.&nbsp; They question the outsized funding the U.S
whether or not it’s in our interest to remain in it.&nbsp; Why is NATO a good idea
if you still think it’s a good idea?&nbsp; And what would you say to people in your party that think NATO should be dissolved?&nbsp;&nbsp;
I think there’s two separate issues involved.&nbsp; Is NATO a good idea as a concept and as – yeah
it is.&nbsp; I think alliances are always good.&nbsp; To be able to enter into a defense alliance with advanced economies and advanced militaries
it’s a force multiplier for the United States.&nbsp; So absolutely NATO is in our interest.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
the question is what kind of NATO.&nbsp; It has to be a NATO in which your partners are carrying their weight.&nbsp; And when you see a NATO where you have countries that are spending 1 percent
then that’s really not an alliance.&nbsp; That’s a dependency.&nbsp; Now
there are other countries like Poland that are doing more than their fair share
and there are other countries that frankly have not invested in their defense capabilities for almost three decades.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
So what the President’s point has been is he wants to be in NATO but a NATO that’s real
a NATO in which every partner is contributing at scale
we’ve started to see movement.&nbsp; We have.&nbsp; We’ve started to see more and more countries dedicate more and more money to their – to their defense thanks to the pressure that President Trump has put on.&nbsp; And by the way
virtually every Republican president – I’m sorry – virtually every American president in the last 25 years has complained that NATO partners aren’t doing enough.&nbsp; Trump – President Trump – is the only one that’s actually insisted on it in a way that’s actually gotten results.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
So it’s on a good trajectory.&nbsp; So NATO is good as long as NATO is real
not the United States and a bunch of junior partners that aren’t doing their fair share.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
QUESTION:&nbsp; One of the areas where it’s unclear to many people if it’s strategic and a Trump sort of negotiating tactic or sincere is the question of tariffs.&nbsp; And that’s because there have been sort of two messages coming out of the White House.&nbsp; There’s the Peter Navarro school
which is basically tariffs are an end in and of themselves; they’re a way to rebuild American industries that have suffered from foreign competitions.&nbsp; And then the other view – and this is more the Treasury secretary – is they’re strategic
they are a way to extract meaningful concessions from other countries and get them to move.&nbsp; Which is it?&nbsp;&nbsp;
and I think both are legitimate.&nbsp; I think there are some industries that are critical to the future of the United States and we have to have a domestic capability.&nbsp; We have to be able to do things like build ships.&nbsp; We have to be able to do things that are critical to our national security
our pharmaceutical industry.&nbsp; And then there’s the broader question of whether the state of current global trade is fair to the United States
across multiple administrations and presidents in both parties
we have allowed very dangerous trade imbalances to build up.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
you can’t find an American car on the road.&nbsp; Many American products are not allowed in
all kinds of things they’ve put up.&nbsp; That just can’t continue.&nbsp; Maybe that made sense 50 years ago when these were poor developing countries that we hoped wouldn’t fall into the Soviet orbit
but now these are advanced economies.&nbsp; The EU – if you take the EU holistically
its economy is the same as the United States.&nbsp; These are advanced economies.&nbsp; Why would there be such a massive trade imbalance between two advanced economies
the EU and the United States?&nbsp; That’s not sustainable.&nbsp; That needs to be recalibrated and has to be fixed.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
it’s an export-driven economy.&nbsp; They can sell and export whatever they want into the U.S.
but they severely restrict what we can send them.&nbsp; That’s not sustainable.&nbsp; That has to be confronted.&nbsp; And we don’t have 10 years to figure this out now.&nbsp; We have like one
or three years to figure it out.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
So I think it’s a combination of both industries that we need in our country and need to be protected but also the broader issue of resetting the baseline for global trade in a way that’s sustainable to the national interests of the United States.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
QUESTION:&nbsp; The Treasury Secretary reportedly told investors at this closed-door JP Morgan summit today – and I’m quoting from him – “There will be a de-escalation” – and then I’m reading – “in President Trump’s trade war with China in the very near future.”&nbsp; And then he added this:&nbsp; “No one thinks the current status quo is sustainable.”&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
I&nbsp;can’t&nbsp;answer for what he said.&nbsp;&nbsp;I&nbsp;wasn’t&nbsp;in that&nbsp;meeting&nbsp;and I certainly&nbsp;don’t&nbsp;speak –&nbsp;it’s&nbsp;not –&nbsp;the State Department is not running the tariff negotiations.&nbsp;&nbsp;I will say this:&nbsp; As far as people are talking about the price that tariffs are going to have on the U.S
economy,&nbsp;it’s&nbsp;also having a tremendous price on the Chinese economy.&nbsp;&nbsp;That’s&nbsp;an export-driven economy.&nbsp;&nbsp;Their entire economy is built not on consumption domestically but on what they can overproduce and dump onto economies all over the world – all over the world
the Europeans had to stop them from selling electric cars because they were going to wipe out the European electric car industry.&nbsp;&nbsp;So&nbsp;I think China&nbsp;is paying a heavy price.&nbsp;
So I would say without commenting on what the Secretary of Treasury said that
there’s vulnerability to the Chinese side as well
but at some point this issue had to brought to a head because the trade imbalance and the unfairness that exists between the Chinese and the United States is simply unsustainable.&nbsp;&nbsp;It’s&nbsp;more than unsustainable.&nbsp;&nbsp;It’s&nbsp;dangerous.&nbsp;&nbsp;It’s&nbsp;geopolitically dangerous and it needed to be confronted
and we&nbsp;can’t&nbsp;wait any longer to do it.&nbsp;&nbsp;We’ve&nbsp;allowed this to go on for 25 years and it cannot continue
or&nbsp;we’re&nbsp;going to wind up living in a world in which we depend on China for everything critical to our security and to our prosperity
and&nbsp;that’s&nbsp;not a world that we intend to leave for our children and grandchildren.&nbsp;
QUESTION:&nbsp; Is China the number one defense priority that America faces?&nbsp;
SECRETARY RUBIO:&nbsp;&nbsp;I think China&nbsp;is the number one challenge on every front that I can imagine – geopolitically
the President says this all the time and I agree:&nbsp; We&nbsp;don’t&nbsp;blame the Chinese.&nbsp;&nbsp;The Chinese have done what we would have done if we were the leaders of China.&nbsp;&nbsp;They looked – we – the&nbsp;previous&nbsp;leaders in this country and around the world allowed them to cheat and steal and get these unfair advantages
and they took them.&nbsp;&nbsp;Why wouldn’t they?&nbsp;&nbsp;But now&nbsp;it’s&nbsp;got to be fixed.&nbsp;&nbsp;It’s&nbsp;got to be fixed.&nbsp;
QUESTION:&nbsp;&nbsp;Let’s&nbsp;look just objectively at where we stand versus China.&nbsp;&nbsp;The U.S
Navy is the smallest it has been since World War&nbsp;I.&nbsp;&nbsp;Our Army is the smallest it has been since World War II.&nbsp; Our Air Force is smaller and older than it used to be.&nbsp;&nbsp;And meanwhile
China has the world’s largest army and the world’s largest navy.&nbsp;&nbsp;They build more ships in a month – I think this will shock people – than we do in a year.&nbsp;&nbsp;And meantime
What are we doing to prepare for a&nbsp;possible war&nbsp;with China?&nbsp;
SECRETARY RUBIO:&nbsp; What we want to do is prevent a war from China by being strong enough to make them understand that they could never win a war against the United States.&nbsp;&nbsp;A war against China would be a terrible thing.&nbsp;
QUESTION:&nbsp; I know.&nbsp; But if they look &#8212;&nbsp;&nbsp;
SECRETARY RUBIO:&nbsp; And the best way to prevent it &#8212;&nbsp;&nbsp;
QUESTION:&nbsp; But if I’m China and I’m looking at that reality &#8212;&nbsp;&nbsp;
SECRETARY RUBIO:&nbsp; And that’s how – that’s why it’s dangerous
most expansive peacetime military buildup in the history of the world – not in modern history
in the history of the world.&nbsp; Meanwhile
the United States has lagged behind for a variety of different reasons.&nbsp;
You talked about the Navy as an example.&nbsp; We don’t have a shipbuilding industry.&nbsp; We have some shipbuilding in the United States but not nearly at the scale the Chinese do.&nbsp; It’s not just that we’re not spending the money on it; it’s we don’t have the ability to do it because we allowed the nation to be deindustrialized.&nbsp; We allowed the United States to become deindustrialized
especially since 1991 with both free trade agreements and the cheating that we allowed when we assumed the – allowed China to ascend to the World Trade Organization.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
they were sent somewhere else – not just to China but other places
but primarily to China.&nbsp; That’s dangerous.&nbsp; It cannot continue.&nbsp;
QUESTION:&nbsp; In your Senate confirmation hearing you talked about how
“The post-war global order is not just obsolete
it is a weapon being used against us,” and that right now we are being “called to create a free world out of the chaos.”&nbsp; And I think a lot of people have different explanations
about how we got to a place where the post-war global order is obsolete
but everyone is seeing the reality of that and I think feeling a lot of anxiety and concern from many different points along the political spectrum about what is going to replace it.&nbsp; And I think some people are feeling that the U.S
has almost accepted a declinist position and we’re now in a kind of managed decline.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
So I’ve wanted for a while to ask you two questions:&nbsp; Are we in decline
and is the role of our leadership to manage it as best as they can?&nbsp; And the second is:&nbsp; What comes next?&nbsp; What is the new global order going to look like and what are some of the parameters of the American position inside of it?&nbsp;
and that’s why we’re addressing that in the trade space.&nbsp; I think we realized that mass migration is not something that we can just tolerate.&nbsp; It undermines your country
I think you look at our alliances around the world
and I get it – you’re a country that has this vast social safety network that you have high taxes to pay for and you’re spending very little on your national security because America’s got your back.&nbsp; That can’t be sustained.&nbsp; We can’t continue to engage in that way.&nbsp; That has to be corrected.&nbsp; We talked about NATO a moment ago.&nbsp;
You think about all these conflicts going on in the world – we have to prioritize them.&nbsp; I think if we become a country that spreads itself too thin
that basically is trying to go 100 percent all in on five major conflicts around the planet
even for the most powerful country in the world.&nbsp; So I think we’re beginning to address that as – all of these challenges that could lead to American decline not because somebody else but because of the things we failed to do
and that includes rebuild our industrial capabilities here at home.&nbsp;
One final point I would make is we are entering an era in which our foreign policy has to be more focused
and that is that we have to clearly define what is our national interest
and then we have to pursue that.&nbsp; And that means balancing things that in the past weren’t balanced.&nbsp; In the past it was democracy promotion at any cost or human rights promotion at any cost.&nbsp; We’re not abandoning democracy
we’re not abandoning human rights; we’re just saying that has to be part of the overall analysis when we decide where to spend our time and what to spend our money on.&nbsp;
the Emma Lazarus poem – “Give me your tired
your poor,&nbsp;your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” – is that still true?&nbsp;
and there’s laws that allow people to come here every day.&nbsp; The United States – every year on average about a million people legally enter the United States on a green card and five – three to five years later can become United States citizens.&nbsp; We remain
the most generous country in the world in terms of allowing people to come to the United States.&nbsp; All we’re asking is that they do it through a process.&nbsp; All we’re asking is that they – even the most generous charities in the United States generally require people that show up for help to fill out a paper and wait in line and sort of have their case evaluated.&nbsp;
but when it comes to our immigration policies
no country in the world allows as many people to come in.&nbsp; We just ask people to do it legally through an appropriate process.&nbsp; What we can’t be is a country where you can just show up at the border and say I’m here and I’m here to stay
no questions asked.&nbsp; That’s lunacy.&nbsp;
QUESTION:&nbsp; Secretary of State Marco Rubio
thank you so much for the time.&nbsp; I really appreciate it.&nbsp;
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by <a href="" class="entry-author-link" rel="author">Healthcare IT Executive Hires</a> 05/01/2025 <a href="https://hitconsultant.net/2025/05/01/innovaccer-appoints-lisa-bari-as-head-of-external-affairs/#respond">Leave a Comment</a>
&#8211; <a href="https://innovaccer.com/">Innovaccer</a>, a healthcare interoperability platform announced the appointment of <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisabari/">Lisa Bari, MBA, MPH</a>
a nationally recognized expert in health IT
will spearhead Innovaccer&#8217;s government affairs and communications efforts
Bari will lead Innovaccer’s government affairs and communications functions
Her responsibilities will include working closely with partners in Washington D.C
she will support strategic initiatives aimed at expanding Innovaccer’s footprint within federal
leveraging her deep policy expertise to advance the company&#8217;s public sector strategy
Lisa Bari brings a wealth of relevant experience to Innovaccer
she served as the founding CEO of Civitas Networks for Health
a national organization dedicated to health information exchange (HIE) and fostering cross-sector collaboration for health improvement
Bari held a significant role at the CMS Innovation Center (CMMI)
where she led interoperability policy initiatives
she supported the development and implementation of primary care models
contributed to the drafting of key federal regulations related to health data exchange
and launched the agency’s inaugural AI Health Outcomes Challenge
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This rare disease affects a diverse community
just as no two people are the same.” — writer Cait Flanders
My motto — “Everything happens the way it should” — expresses an acceptance that sometimes things occur beyond our control
It&#8217;s similar to the Alcoholics Anonymous philosophy of accepting things we cannot change
During the COVID-19 pandemic, in the middle of a difficult divorce, I felt truly alive while participating in a <a href="https://hypoparathyroidismnews.com/news/transcon-pth-holds-promise-treating-hypoparathyroidism-phase-2-trial-shows/">phase 2 clinical trial</a> for what is now <a href="https://hypoparathyroidismnews.com/yorvipath-for-hypoparathyroidism/">Yorvipath</a> (palopegteriparatide)
and she&#8217;s been both generous and flexible
which caters to customers of all ages and sizes
I work 15 hours a week and would like to do more
but it’s hard because of my full-time job as a hypopara patient
I&#8217;m at a lab or a doctor’s office three days a week
which makes it nearly impossible to add more hours at the store
We sell fabulous designer dresses at the store
These particular dresses are called one-size-fits-all
so a dress might look better on one person than it does on another
and Bari Vapnek take a break from tending to clients in the boutique clothing store where they work in Delray Beach
Yesterday, as I repeated that reply, I thought about the similarities to <a href="https://hypoparathyroidismnews.com/about-hypoparathyroidism-its-causes-symptoms-treatments/">hypoparathyroidism</a>. We patients share similar experiences, <a href="https://hypoparathyroidismnews.com/symptoms-of-hypoparathyroidism/">symptoms</a>
hypoparathyroidism affects a diverse community
and it&#8217;s a reminder that a one-size-fits-all approach doesn&#8217;t benefit all hypoparathyroidism warriors
Some patients do well with the current <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6365672/">standard of care</a>. Some respond well to low doses of calcium, while others require higher doses. Everyone is different. Thankfully, it’s a promising time in the <a href="https://hypoparathyroidismnews.com/columns/passovers-message-hope-reminds-me-life-hypoparathyroidism/">landscape of hypopara</a>
as potential new treatments appear on the horizon
But a treatment that works wonderfully for one person might not be as effective for another
For those new to parathyroid hormone therapy
so the fact that one person might be doing well with treatment doesn’t necessarily mean you&#8217;ll follow suit
and the power to choose the best treatment for you is in your hands
just as clothing choices are in the hands of the shoppers in our store
I dress different women knowing there&#8217;s a perfect dress for everyone
It&#8217;s just that not everyone looks great in the same dress
Hypopara isn’t a one-size-fits-all disease
and I believe that hypopara patients will one day have more choices for treatment
This <a href="https://hypoparathyroidismnews.com/brave-butterfly-a-hypoparathyroidism-journey-bari-vapnek/">brave butterfly</a> will continue spreading her wings as we find the treatment that makes us feel alive
and the changing landscape of hypopara brings hope to us for the future
Note: <a href="https://hypoparathyroidismnews.com/">Hypoparathyroidism News</a> is strictly a news and information website about the disease
This content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice
Always seek the advice of your physician or another qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition
Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website
The opinions expressed in this column are not those of Hypoparathyroidism News or its parent company
and are intended to spark discussion about issues pertaining to hypoparathyroidism
just as clothing choices are in the hands of the shoppers in our store." What a powerful line
This site is strictly a news and information website about the disease
Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition
<a href="https://newvoices.org/">New Voices</a>
Just weeks after the ADL defended <a href="https://forward.com/fast-forward/690745/adl-elon-musk-sieg-heil-hitler-salute-nazi/">Elon Musk’s Nazi salute</a> at Donald Trump’s inauguration, Steve Bannon throws up what looks like a <a href="https://forward.com/fast-forward/698485/steve-bannon-nazi-salute-elon-musk-cpac/">Nazi salute at CPAC</a>
supposed bastion of “free thinking” launched by Bari Weiss—publishing an article telling us not to worry about it
The piece, penned by <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/richard-hanania-racism-silicon-valley/">Richard Hanania</a>, a Project 2025 contributor who <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/richard-hanania-white-supremacist-pseudonym-richard-hoste_n_64c93928e4b021e2f295e817">has written</a> in favor of forcibly sterilizing “low IQ” people and in opposition to “race-mixing,” claims these stiff-armed salutes aren’t actually about Nazis
They&#8217;re just symbols of an “oppositional culture,” a little rebellious energy from right-wingers who don’t realize they’ve already won
The far right loves playing this game—flirting with explicit fascism
But what’s really interesting isn’t just the right-wing attempts to mainstream Nazism
It’s that Bari Weiss is the one making space for it
This is the same Bari Weiss who built her career on decrying antisemitism and warning that the real threat to Jews comes not from the ascendent far-right, but from progressives on college campuses and BDS activists. Her 2019 book, <a href="https://jewishcurrents.org/bari-weisss-unasked-questions">How to Fight Anti-Semitism</a>
reads like a manifesto for a certain kind of center-right Zionist: the type who believes that leftist critiques of Israel from professors and student organizers are a greater danger to world Jewry than actual white supremacists
The sort of person who thinks of themself as a liberal
but who can’t seem to understand how they keep ending up allied with the right
We can’t ignore the fact that Bari Weiss used to write for this very magazine
And we won’t pretend that it doesn&#8217;t make us uncomfortable
She’s published in a print edition from the spring of 2006
her portrait tucked between other college correspondents who would grow up to be perfectly decent individuals
Whatever she might have represented back then
she has since chosen to use her platform to excuse
and ultimately enable the right’s slide into explicit fascism
the team at New Voices firmly and unequivocally rejects any association with her or her poisonous legacy
If Weiss once claimed to be a defender against antisemitism
she has now become a key figure in its normalization
While progressive Jewish organizations were quick to call them out for this absurdism
a vast majority of American Jews still look to the ADL to gauge their level of safety
Greenblatt’s refusal to name this show of terror will keep the wool over the eyes of the liberal American Jew until it’s far too late
This is the logical conclusion of Weiss’s and Greenblatt’s political project
have always framed their brand of anti-antisemitism around defending Zionism rather than fighting actual fascism
they’ve found themselves more and more aligned with the very people who throw up Nazi salutes at political rallies (which is to say
white nationalism is a lesser evil compared to the scary
And if that means laundering fascist symbolism as “oppositional culture,” so be it
There’s a reason why so many on the right have come to see Jewish public figures like Weiss and Greenblatt as allies
They’ve given them a blueprint for excusing their own creeping fascism—one where supporting Israel serves as a kind of moral absolution
This is why you have people like Hanania writing for The Free Press
It’s why Weiss and the ADL would rather publish excuses for Nazis than reckon with the fact that the movement they’ve chosen to align themselves with is riddled with people who hate Jews
even as they drape themselves in the language of “Judeo-Christian values.”
Bari Weiss didn’t start out as a defender of Nazi salutes
But when you choose Zionism over progressivism
when you make a career out of arguing that the left is a greater threat than the right
and when you decide that student protesters are more dangerous than white nationalists—well
Akiva Colin Haskins is the Politics Editor at New Voices Magazine
Akiva is a journalism and geography student from Los Angeles and serves as Managing Editor at The Pasadena City College Courier
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CEDAR RAPIDS &mdash; A temporary closure has become permanent for a former mainstay in Italian dining
An auction liquidating equipment at Bari Italian, the upscale restaurant in Kingston Village, <a href="https://www.backes-auction.com/auction-details?id=1169" id="link-768cbdd2f2529ccfd75b63675b71d973" target="_blank">went live on Backes Auctioneers</a> March 24
The equipment sale comes after temporary closures were posted by the restaurant at 450 First St
Bari first closed through January due to frozen pipes
subsequently extending its winter closure through February
according to posts on its social media and website
Hobart had hoped the business closure would only be temporary as she pursued leads with potential buyers
just under my ownership,&rdquo; she told The Gazette
&ldquo;I am working with a few people who are interested in buying it
I hope it will be reopened very soon.&rdquo;
Even as Bari&rsquo;s equipment auction was listed later in March
she hoped to find a buyer before the auction started accepting bids
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s also allowing me time to negotiate with potential buyers,&rdquo; Hobart said on March 13
The closure&rsquo;s extension and attempt to find a buyer were not publicly announced
Bari first <a href="https://www.thegazette.com/food-drink/classic-italian-cuisine-with-a-twist-at-bari-italian-in-kingston-village/" id="link-a108ae8b339aa0ce90f400b9e390852a" target="_blank">opened in November 2019</a> at The Metropolitan Building
which the Hobarts purchased from the city of Vinton
Old Hospital Pub <a href="https://trundlebedtales.wordpress.com/2024/05/30/old-hospital-pub-closed/" id="link-c6616afcd95472a46dde8c3f1e5052b5" target="_blank">closed later in 2023</a>
Comments: Features reporter Elijah Decious can be reached at (319) 398-8340 or elijah.decious@thegazette.com
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I have the last installment of this intellectual and religious inquiry
There are, however, always a few stories that stick out to me each week—stories that are worth revisiting because they changed the conversation or captured the moment. So as a service to readers like you—the people who keep our little pirate ship afloat—we’re rolling out a new weekly feature where I round up the must-reads of the week.
And what better week to do it? The news has been insane. The stock market! The bond market! The tariffs! The pause on the tariffs! The new tariffs taking their place! And that’s just the financial news, which is supposed to be boring.
This is starting as an experiment. I welcome your ideas on what to feature in this email and, more broadly, how best to share our work with you.
It’s a dizzy, disorienting moment. So let us help you make sense of it. Here are my favorite reads of the week from The Free Press and beyond.
what became easier to see is that the tariffs are just a piece of a much bigger story
Are we headed back to the early 19th century—an era of protectionism and isolationism
Did President Trump’s “Liberation Day” take us into a much hotter stage of the ongoing Cold War with China
all of us have been reaching for the right analogy to make sense of this unfolding era
Niall Ferguson argued in his fantastic essay “<a href="https://www.thefp.com/p/niall-ferguson-trumps-tariffs-and" rel>Trump’s Tariffs and the End of American Empire</a>” that the right way to understand what’s happening is to view this economic policy as the intentional unraveling of U.S
“​​The American empire that came into existence after the failed autarky and isolationism of the 1930s is being broken up after 80 years,” says Niall in a piece only he could write
“Despite Trump’s imperial impulses—wanting to annex Greenland
calling for Canada to become the 51st state—he is engaged right now in a kind of wild decolonization project.”
Read <a href="https://www.thefp.com/p/niall-ferguson-trumps-tariffs-and" rel>the whole piece here</a>. Also, Niall is perhaps the best talker in the English language, so do yourself a favor and <a href="https://www.thefp.com/p/niall-ferguson-trump-trade-war" rel>listen to him on </a><a href="https://www.thefp.com/p/niall-ferguson-trump-trade-war" rel>Honestly</a>
diving into greater detail on what happened this week and what to expect next
Tyler Cowen, meanwhile, believes that we need to go back even further to find the correct analogue for this current moment—a time of radical progress, but also extreme disruption and frequent war. His piece is called “<a href="https://www.thefp.com/p/17th-century-england-tyler-cowen" rel>Welcome to Our Weird and Wild Century. It’s a Lot Like the 17th</a>.”
“It is obvious to many people—on all sides of the political spectrum—that we have left one era and entered another
Our politics feels different—and so does our economy
Some suggest that the change we are feeling is simply the end of the postwar 20th century—as seen in the decline of multilateral liberalism
and the resumption of major international conflicts
My unlikely nomination for the most relevant time and place today is 17th-century England.”
Read <a href="https://www.thefp.com/p/17th-century-england-tyler-cowen" rel>the whole piece here</a>.
We still haven’t reckoned with how the disease emerged
the fallout from our government’s dishonesty
and how trust in traditional institutions plummeted to such depths that many pulled the lever for the guy who had been targeted by them
“All the sound and fury signified nothing,” Gurri writes
“ ‘Non-pharmaceutical interventions’ damaged the education of millions of schoolchildren
placed economic stress on workers beneath the laptop class
and added to the financial burdens of the poorest nations
but there’s no evidence they slowed the progress of the virus or lowered the mortality rate
Trillions of dollars vanished in a drunken orgy of borrowing and spending
with the hangover left for later generations.”
It’s an amazing short history of how we got to this moment. <a href="https://www.thefp.com/p/martin-gurri-when-americans-gave-freedom-in-covids-wake-lockdowns-fifth-anniversary" rel>Read it all here</a>.
</a>The Enigmatic Usha VanceOur own Peter Savodnik landed <a href="https://www.thefp.com/p/usha-vance-second-lady-interview-the-free-press-peter-savodnik-jd-vance" rel>the first interview with the new second lady</a> this week
whom he called the most impressive person to serve in the role “at least since the very first second lady of the United States: Abigail Adams.”
“Vance was top of her class at Yale Law School; an editor of the law review; a <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/usha-vance/" rel>clerk for Chief Justice John Roberts</a>; and partner-bound in one of the nation’s most prestigious white-shoe law firms
‘People taking bets would have said she could have been solicitor general or attorney general of the United States,’ said a close friend from Yale Law.’ ”
And Usha will likely be her husband’s top adviser should he run for president in 2028
“Everyone in the J.D.-Usha orbit agreed she was his most trusted adviser,” writes Peter
The question is: What does she really believe
Read <a href="https://www.thefp.com/p/usha-vance-second-lady-interview-the-free-press-peter-savodnik-jd-vance" rel>the whole piece here</a>.
</a>The Season of Our Freedom<a target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fed4db987-7247-467a-8b1d-23c91324e053_750x440.webp" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM" rel class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img"></a>Two Jewish immigrants in New York City around 1935
(Imagno/Getty Images)Tomorrow night Jews around the world will sit around their tables and tell the story of our liberation from slavery
we will also pray for those currently enslaved: the 59 hostages trapped in terror tunnels by Hamas
But the story of the Exodus from Egypt is not just a Jewish story
The journey of the Israelites through the split sea
has been a touchstone for so many in other places and times seeking freedom from subjugation—including here in America
From the founding fathers to abolitionists like Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass
to presidents like Abraham Lincoln and leaders like Martin Luther King Jr.
the themes and symbols and moral truths of the Exodus story have been at the core of how Americans seeking freedom from tyranny have seen themselves
No one has brought that history alive for me better than Rabbi Meir Soloveichik, who helms the oldest synagogue in the United States. (You can <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-story-that-made-and-saved-america/id1570872415?i=1000557607469" rel>listen to him on the subject right here</a>—this early episode of Honestly remains one of my favorites.)
Today Soloveichik <a href="https://www.thefp.com/p/america-and-the-exodus" rel>writes in our pages</a> about the great Hollywood filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille, his classic The Ten Commandments, and how America owed its greatness to the Jewish Passover story.
Passover is called zman cherutenu: the time of our freedom. May this season bring freedom of all kinds to all of us. And literal freedom, above all, to those languishing in slavery.
</a>Must-Watch: When our friend Douglas Murray agreed to sit down with Dave Smith on Joe Rogan’s podcast, he knew it would be contentious. It was certainly that, <a href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ah6kirkSwTg" rel>but also a triumph for Douglas</a>, whose new book, <a href="https://amzn.to/43QvyQC" rel>On</a><a href="https://amzn.to/43QvyQC" rel> </a><a href="https://amzn.to/43QvyQC" rel>Democracies and Death Cults</a>
And a Must-Read from Long Ago: “<a href="https://www.commentary.org/articles/jeane-kirkpatrick/dictatorships-double-standards/" rel>Dictatorships &amp; Double Standards</a>,” Jeane J
is worth revisiting in our strange new era of adversary-coddling
Finally, a Must-Listen: Go for a walk and <a href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/0LScs9jNmLgT2eWpX2t1tp?go=1&amp;sp_cid=5c15c07e9ce87920c5d8f37c240e68ea&amp;utm_source=embed_player_p&amp;utm_medium=desktop&amp;nd=1&amp;dlsi=05d139716df54abb" rel>listen to the latest episode</a> of Breaking History with Eli Lake. It’s about how one book—and one charismatic academic—fueled a decade of campus unrest.
Share</a><a href="https://www.thefp.com/p/bari-weiss-my-picks-of-the-week/comments" class="more-comments">125 more comments...</a>No posts
In my humble and completely unbiased opinion, you should read everything The Free Press publishes. But as you may have noticed, we are publishing more than ever\u2014this week some 30 pieces, to say nothing of podcasts, videos, and livestreams.
There are, however, always a few stories that stick out to me each week\u2014stories that are worth revisiting because they changed the conversation or captured the moment. So as a service to readers like you\u2014the people who keep our little pirate ship afloat\u2014we\u2019re rolling out a new weekly feature where I round up the must-reads of the week.
And what better week to do it? The news has been insane. The stock market! The bond market! The tariffs! The pause on the tariffs! The new tariffs taking their place! And that\u2019s just the financial news, which is supposed to be boring.
It\u2019s a dizzy, disorienting moment. So let us help you make sense of it. Here are my favorite reads of the week from The Free Press and beyond.
Are we headed back to the early 19th century\u2014an era of protectionism and isolationism
Did President Trump\u2019s \u201CLiberation Day\u201D take us into a much hotter stage of the ongoing Cold War with China
Niall Ferguson argued in his fantastic essay \u201C<a href=\\\"https://www.thefp.com/p/niall-ferguson-trumps-tariffs-and\\\">Trump\u2019s Tariffs and the End of American Empire</a>\u201D that the right way to understand what\u2019s happening is to view this economic policy as the intentional unraveling of U.S
\u201C\u200B\u200BThe American empire that came into existence after the failed autarky and isolationism of the 1930s is being broken up after 80 years,\u201D says Niall in a piece only he could write
\u201CDespite Trump\u2019s imperial impulses\u2014wanting to annex Greenland
calling for Canada to become the 51st state\u2014he is engaged right now in a kind of wild decolonization project.\u201D
Read <a href=\\\"https://www.thefp.com/p/niall-ferguson-trumps-tariffs-and\\\">the whole piece here</a>. Also, Niall is perhaps the best talker in the English language, so do yourself a favor and <a href=\\\"https://www.thefp.com/p/niall-ferguson-trump-trade-war\\\">listen to him on </a><a href=\\\"https://www.thefp.com/p/niall-ferguson-trump-trade-war\\\">Honestly</a>
Tyler Cowen, meanwhile, believes that we need to go back even further to find the correct analogue for this current moment\u2014a time of radical progress, but also extreme disruption and frequent war. His piece is called \u201C<a href=\\\"https://www.thefp.com/p/17th-century-england-tyler-cowen\\\">Welcome to Our Weird and Wild Century. It\u2019s a Lot Like the 17th</a>.\u201D
\u201CIt is obvious to many people\u2014on all sides of the political spectrum\u2014that we have left one era and entered another
Our politics feels different\u2014and so does our economy
Some suggest that the change we are feeling is simply the end of the postwar 20th century\u2014as seen in the decline of multilateral liberalism
My unlikely nomination for the most relevant time and place today is 17th-century England.\u201D
Read <a href=\\\"https://www.thefp.com/p/17th-century-england-tyler-cowen\\\">the whole piece here</a>.
We still haven\u2019t reckoned with how the disease emerged
the fallout from our government\u2019s dishonesty
\u201CAll the sound and fury signified nothing,\u201D Gurri writes
\u201C\u2009\u2018Non-pharmaceutical interventions\u2019 damaged the education of millions of schoolchildren
but there\u2019s no evidence they slowed the progress of the virus or lowered the mortality rate
with the hangover left for later generations.\u201D
It\u2019s an amazing short history of how we got to this moment. <a href=\\\"https://www.thefp.com/p/martin-gurri-when-americans-gave-freedom-in-covids-wake-lockdowns-fifth-anniversary\\\">Read it all here</a>.
</a>The Enigmatic Usha VanceOur own Peter Savodnik landed <a href=\\\"https://www.thefp.com/p/usha-vance-second-lady-interview-the-free-press-peter-savodnik-jd-vance\\\">the first interview with the new second lady</a> this week
whom he called the most impressive person to serve in the role \u201Cat least since the very first second lady of the United States: Abigail Adams.\u201D
\u201CVance was top of her class at Yale Law School; an editor of the law review; a <a href=\\\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/usha-vance/\\\">clerk for Chief Justice John Roberts</a>; and partner-bound in one of the nation\u2019s most prestigious white-shoe law firms
\u2018People taking bets would have said she could have been solicitor general or attorney general of the United States,\u2019 said a close friend from Yale Law.\u2019\u2009\u201D
And Usha will likely be her husband\u2019s top adviser should he run for president in 2028
\u201CEveryone in the J.D.-Usha orbit agreed she was his most trusted adviser,\u201D writes Peter
Read <a href=\\\"https://www.thefp.com/p/usha-vance-second-lady-interview-the-free-press-peter-savodnik-jd-vance\\\">the whole piece here</a>.
</a>The Season of Our Freedom<a class=\\\"image-link image2 is-viewable-img\\\" target=\\\"_blank\\\" href=\\\"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fed4db987-7247-467a-8b1d-23c91324e053_750x440.webp\\\" data-component-name=\\\"Image2ToDOM\\\"></a>Two Jewish immigrants in New York City around 1935
has been a touchstone for so many in other places and times seeking freedom from subjugation\u2014including here in America
No one has brought that history alive for me better than Rabbi Meir Soloveichik, who helms the oldest synagogue in the United States. (You can <a href=\\\"https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-story-that-made-and-saved-america/id1570872415?i=1000557607469\\\">listen to him on the subject right here</a>\u2014this early episode of Honestly remains one of my favorites.)
Today Soloveichik <a href=\\\"https://www.thefp.com/p/america-and-the-exodus\\\">writes in our pages</a> about the great Hollywood filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille, his classic The Ten Commandments, and how America owed its greatness to the Jewish Passover story.
</a>Must-Watch: When our friend Douglas Murray agreed to sit down with Dave Smith on Joe Rogan\u2019s podcast, he knew it would be contentious. It was certainly that, <a href=\\\"http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ah6kirkSwTg\\\">but also a triumph for Douglas</a>, whose new book, <a href=\\\"https://amzn.to/43QvyQC\\\">On</a><a href=\\\"https://amzn.to/43QvyQC\\\"> </a><a href=\\\"https://amzn.to/43QvyQC\\\">Democracies and Death Cults</a>
And a Must-Read from Long Ago: \u201C<a href=\\\"https://www.commentary.org/articles/jeane-kirkpatrick/dictatorships-double-standards/\\\">Dictatorships &amp; Double Standards</a>,\u201D Jeane J
Finally, a Must-Listen: Go for a walk and <a href=\\\"https://open.spotify.com/episode/0LScs9jNmLgT2eWpX2t1tp?go=1&amp;sp_cid=5c15c07e9ce87920c5d8f37c240e68ea&amp;utm_source=embed_player_p&amp;utm_medium=desktop&amp;nd=1&amp;dlsi=05d139716df54abb\\\">listen to the latest episode</a> of Breaking History with Eli Lake. It\u2019s about how one book\u2014and one charismatic academic\u2014fueled a decade of campus unrest.
But the real star of the week, to hear Suzy Weiss tell it, is Melania, <a href="https://www.thefp.com/p/melania-trump-never-asked-for-this" rel>the least ambitious</a>—and therefore most relatable—first lady in history. Weiss (some relation) has an amazing culture roundup (according to intrepid editor Freya Sanders) Saturday (tomorrow) to top off her first month of her (still unnamed) newsletter. <a href="https://www.thefp.com/s/weekend-culture" rel>Sign up for it here</a>
below I choose my must-reads of the week from all the excellent stories we’ve published
This week marked President Donald Trump\u2019s first 100 days in office
But the real star of the week, to hear Suzy Weiss tell it, is Melania, <a href=\\\"https://www.thefp.com/p/melania-trump-never-asked-for-this\\\">the least ambitious</a>\u2014and therefore most relatable\u2014first lady in history. Weiss (some relation) has an amazing culture roundup (according to intrepid editor Freya Sanders) Saturday (tomorrow) to top off her first month of her (still unnamed) newsletter. <a href=\\\"https://www.thefp.com/s/weekend-culture\\\">Sign up for it here</a>
below I choose my must-reads of the week from all the excellent stories we\u2019ve published
First up: some of the president\u2019s men
because you tell me whenever you run into me
(Or chase me down insisting we build an app
is coming soon!) Which is why I am doing the unthinkable and selecting the most important stories we published this week
Choosing my favorite stories of the week is like choosing a favorite child
Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen are either the swampiest of swamp creatures—the epitome of all that is wrong with political journalism
suction eels on the hull of the good ship of state—or
successful entrepreneurs in the new media landscape
Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen are either the swampiest of swamp creatures\u2014the epitome of all that is wrong with political journalism
suction eels on the hull of the good ship of state\u2014or
This year, 4,000 people attended the London conference. It was an honor to be there—and to present alongside so many Free Press contributors, including Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Niall Ferguson, Douglas Murray, Konstantin Kisin, and many others. My remarks are below.
</a>ARC is the kind of organization you eagerly cross an ocean to address
It’s an honor to be here with so many friends and so many people I admire
but I imagine the vibes are quite different now
Perhaps another way of saying that is: Are you tired of all the winning
Javier Milei wielded that chainsaw and declared that he would save his nation from hyperinflation—and he has delivered
Giorgia Meloni said declinism in the West is not inevitable—it is a choice—and she chose differently
On Monday, I addressed the <a href=\\\"https://www.arcforum.com\\\">Alliance for Responsible Citizenship</a>\u2014or ARC, as it is known. Formed in 2023, ARC\u2019s goal is to \u201Cdevelop a more hope-filled vision for the future and, ultimately, to relay the foundations of our civilization.\u201D
This year, 4,000 people attended the London conference. It was an honor to be there\u2014and to present alongside so many Free Press contributors, including Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Niall Ferguson, Douglas Murray, Konstantin Kisin, and many others. My remarks are below.
It\u2019s an honor to be here with so many friends and so many people I admire
Javier Milei wielded that chainsaw and declared that he would save his nation from hyperinflation\u2014and he has delivered
Giorgia Meloni said declinism in the West is not inevitable\u2014it is a choice\u2014and she chose differently
Economists warned of a swift end to globalization. The stock market had its single worst day since the Covid-19 pandemic. Our allies started to wonder what an end to free trade would look like. And American consumers worried about what tariffs mean for their stock portfolios—and their taste for foreign goods.
There’s a lot to take in. Here to make sense of it all is economist Tyler Cowen, who officially joined The Free Press as a columnist last week, and not a moment too soon.
Last Thursday, he joined me for a subscriber-only livestream to talk about all things tariff—and to take questions from the thousands of listeners who tuned in. Our talk was recorded, so now paid subscribers can click to enjoy every moment. In typical Tyler style, no topic was off limits, with him responding to questions like:
Did the Trump administration actually use AI to generate their seemingly random tariff rates?
Is there a reason Trump slapped big tariffs on Taiwan and Vietnam—two countries needed to counter China’s global influence?
And why did Tyler call Trump’s tariffs an “assault on the American consumer and voter”?
Livestream conversations like these are one of the many benefits of becoming a paid subscriber to The Free Press. Upgrade today and never miss a chance to tune in and hear Bari and our star columnists discuss the most pressing issues of the day.
If you\u2019re still reeling from \u201CLiberation Day\u201D\u2014when Trump imposed the most drastic tariff policies in a generation\u2014you aren\u2019t alone.
Economists warned of a swift end to globalization. The stock market had its single worst day since the Covid-19 pandemic. Our allies started to wonder what an end to free trade would look like. And American consumers worried about what tariffs mean for their stock portfolios\u2014and their taste for foreign goods.
There\u2019s a lot to take in. Here to make sense of it all is economist Tyler Cowen, who officially joined The Free Press as a columnist last week, and not a moment too soon.
Last Thursday, he joined me for a subscriber-only livestream to talk about all things tariff\u2014and to take questions from the thousands of listeners who tuned in. Our talk was recorded, so now paid subscribers can click to enjoy every moment. In typical Tyler style, no topic was off limits, with him responding to questions like:
Is there a reason Trump slapped big tariffs on Taiwan and Vietnam\u2014two countries needed to counter China\u2019s global influence?
And why did Tyler call Trump\u2019s tariffs an \u201Cassault on the American consumer and voter\u201D?
</a><a class=\\\"button primary\\\" href=\\\"https://www.thefp.com/subscribe?\\\">Subscribe now</a>
Our reporters heard from <a href="https://www.thefp.com/p/steelworkers-trump-tariffs" rel>steelworkers in Pittsburgh</a>, anxious <a href="https://www.thefp.com/p/garment-district-owners-trumps-tariffs" rel>garment merchants</a> in lower Manhattan, and <a href="https://www.thefp.com/p/working-class-americans-like-my-family-will" rel>those left behind</a> by deindustrialization in rural America
Here to help make sense of it all is Lloyd Blankfein
who ran Goldman Sachs for more than a decade—including during the global financial crash of 2008
He’ll be joined by Dennis Berman—the publisher of The Free Press and a veteran business reporter—and me
Join the livestream <a href="https://www.thefp.com/livestream" rel>here</a> at 11 a.m. ET or head straight to <a href="http://thefp.com" rel>TheFP.com</a>
And come with questions—we’ll take as many of them as we can
Live conversations like these are one of the many benefits of becoming a paid subscriber to The Free Press
so be sure to upgrade today to never miss out
Share</a><a href="https://www.thefp.com/p/bari-weiss-lloyd-blankfein-tariffs/comment/107332856" class="more-replies">1 reply</a><a href="https://www.thefp.com/p/bari-weiss-lloyd-blankfein-tariffs/comments" class="more-comments">70 more comments...</a>No posts
In the wake of President Trump\u2019s \u201CLiberation Day,\u201D we\u2019ve published a number of pieces from a variety of perspectives\u2014from historians exuberant about Trump\u2019s war on globalism to economists certain that his tariffs spell financial disaster
Our reporters heard from <a href=\\\"https://www.thefp.com/p/steelworkers-trump-tariffs\\\">steelworkers in Pittsburgh</a>, anxious <a href=\\\"https://www.thefp.com/p/garment-district-owners-trumps-tariffs\\\">garment merchants</a> in lower Manhattan, and <a href=\\\"https://www.thefp.com/p/working-class-americans-like-my-family-will\\\">those left behind</a> by deindustrialization in rural America
who ran Goldman Sachs for more than a decade\u2014including during the global financial crash of 2008
He\u2019ll be joined by Dennis Berman\u2014the publisher of The Free Press and a veteran business reporter\u2014and me
Join the livestream <a href=\\\"https://www.thefp.com/livestream\\\">here</a> at 11 a.m. ET or head straight to <a href=\\\"http://thefp.com\\\">TheFP.com</a>
And come with questions\u2014we\u2019ll take as many of them as we can
<a class=\\\"button primary\\\" href=\\\"https://www.thefp.com/subscribe?\\\">Subscribe now</a>
and a tai chi expert who might be the only man alive who knows how to wield a sword but doesn’t know how to drive
He’s also a collector of extremely prestigious degrees
His PhD thesis was titled “Aggression in the Life-World: The Extension of Parsons’ Concept of Aggression by Descr…
Alex Karp is many things: a cross-country skier
and a tai chi expert who might be the only man alive who knows how to wield a sword but doesn\u2019t know how to drive
He\u2019s also a collector of extremely prestigious degrees
His PhD thesis was titled \u201CAggression in the Life-World: The Extension of Parsons\u2019 Concept of Aggression by Descr\u2026
Depending on how you feel about him, this thought is likely to bring either elation—almost four more years of ye golden age!—or sink you even deeper into the pit you’ve called home since Inauguration Day. (Not to mention <a href="https://www.thefp.com/p/tyler-cowen-liberation-day-was-even" rel>Liberation Day</a>
which somehow happened less than a month ago.)
we’ll have voices from across The Free Press universe and beyond weigh in on the first few months of Trump 2.0
Expect strong arguments and thoughtful disagreements
In the meantime, we published dozens of stories this week, including <a href="https://www.thefp.com/p/trump-state-shake-up-rubio" rel>a major scoop</a> on how the State Department is being totally reorganized under Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEaWHzzdRE0&amp;themeRefresh=1" rel>an interview</a> with Rubio himself
I’ve been forced to pick just a handful to be my must-reads of the week
Something to keep in mind as we head into the weekend: We\u2019re still less than 100 days into President Trump\u2019s second term
Depending on how you feel about him, this thought is likely to bring either elation\u2014almost four more years of ye golden age!\u2014or sink you even deeper into the pit you\u2019ve called home since Inauguration Day. (Not to mention <a href=\\\"https://www.thefp.com/p/tyler-cowen-liberation-day-was-even\\\">Liberation Day</a>
we\u2019ll have voices from across The Free Press universe and beyond weigh in on the first few months of Trump 2.0
In the meantime, we published dozens of stories this week, including <a href=\\\"https://www.thefp.com/p/trump-state-shake-up-rubio\\\">a major scoop</a> on how the State Department is being totally reorganized under Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and <a href=\\\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEaWHzzdRE0&amp;themeRefresh=1\\\">an interview</a> with Rubio himself
I\u2019ve been forced to pick just a handful to be my must-reads of the week
President Trump announced the most drastic tariff policies in our lifetime
Is this a brilliant negotiating tactic—one intended to bring our trading partners to the table
Or is it the opening shot in a catastrophic global trade war
Closer to home: What does this mean immediately for the price of groceries
There’s no one better poised to answer these questions than economist Tyler Cowen
Please join me and Tyler Cowen at 4:30 p.m
ET—30 minutes from now—to talk about it all
We’ll take as many of your questions as we can
Join the livestream <a href="https://www.thefp.com/livestream?utm_source=post-publish" rel>here</a> or head straight to <a href="https://www.thefp.com/" rel>TheFP.com</a> where you will see it on our homepage
This conversation is for paying members of The Free Press
(Not that I have anything against Tyler. But Noah has been writing on this topic intensively since Trump 1, with a very developed and nuanced understanding of tariffs and the world's central problem, which is China.)
The short answer is: moronic, with no upside. It's short-term pain ... for long-term pain. There's no Trumptopia waiting on the other side.
Reply</a><a class="pencraft pc-reset link-_X6et2 link-LIBpto">Share</a><a href="https://www.thefp.com/p/join-bari-weiss-and-tyler-cowen-in/comments" class="more-comments">253 more comments...</a>No posts
Is this a brilliant negotiating tactic\u2014one intended to bring our trading partners to the table
There\u2019s no one better poised to answer these questions than economist Tyler Cowen
ET\u201430 minutes from now\u2014to talk about it all
We\u2019ll take as many of your questions as we can
Join the livestream <a href=\\\"https://www.thefp.com/livestream?utm_source=post-publish\\\">here</a> or head straight to <a href=\\\"https://www.thefp.com/\\\">TheFP.com</a> where you will see it on our homepage
The tech entrepreneur talks to Bari Weiss about his quest for immortality.View all episodesIf you haven’t heard of Bryan Johnson or watched the new Netflix documentary about him
Don’t Die: The Man Who Wants to Live Forever
Bryan is a person who has given his life—and his body—over to the science of longevity
That means that he has essentially turned himself into a human lab rat
undergoing hundreds of tests and studies on every human marker imaginable in order to discover the best ways to stop the process of human aging
What he’s found is unconventional to say the least: He eats dinner at 11 a.m.
he has swapped blood with his 17-year-old son
and he measures his nighttime erection lengths—just to name a few of the hundreds of things that you probably have never heard of a person doing in the name of health and longevity
But it’s not just that Bryan wants to reverse aging and live forever. He also thinks we’re at the bleeding edge of a new kind of reality. He believes he’s akin to Amelia Earhart or <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ernest-Henry-Shackleton" rel>Ernest Shackleton</a>
and that he’s on the frontier of something big—something that will change everything about humanity as we know it
this conversation is not just about wacky exercise routines and unusual supplements
It’s a philosophical discussion about the meaning and purpose of life
and what we’re all doing here on this planet
On how Bryan Johnson structures his entire life around not dying: 
BARI WEISS: Why are you trying so hard not to die
BRYAN JOHNSON: Don’t Die is actually the oldest and most-played game of human history
You have kids so you can pass on your lineage
“Don’t die” is the most fundamental of all human desires
What I’m suggesting is right now may be the first time that legitimate Don’t Die is here
Whereas before we’ve had to make up stories
What I’ve done as a project is I’ve said: Can I slow down my speed of aging to the greatest extent of any human on the planet
And can I then eliminate all the sources of death
Can I become the most Don’t-Die person in human history
BW: Let’s establish for people just how differently you live your life in terms of diet
How many pills and supplements would you say you take every single day
These things are meticulously measured in my body
and we determine which things are actually slowing down my speed of aging
This is on the cutting edge of science and technology of how you actually isolate what is causing death in the body and how you neutralize it
BW: The way you eat might be the hardest thing for people to fathom
Most people eat three meals a day plus a few snacks
If you haven\u2019t heard of Bryan Johnson or watched the new Netflix documentary about him
Don\u2019t Die: The Man Who Wants to Live Forever
Bryan is a person who has given his life\u2014and his body\u2014over to the science of longevity
What he\u2019s found is unconventional to say the least: He eats dinner at 11 a.m.
and he measures his nighttime erection lengths\u2014just to name a few of the hundreds of things that you probably have never heard of a person doing in the name of health and longevity
But it\u2019s not just that Bryan wants to reverse aging and live forever. He also thinks we\u2019re at the bleeding edge of a new kind of reality. He believes he\u2019s akin to Amelia Earhart or <a href=\\\"https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ernest-Henry-Shackleton\\\">Ernest Shackleton</a>
and that he\u2019s on the frontier of something big\u2014something that will change everything about humanity as we know it
It\u2019s a philosophical discussion about the meaning and purpose of life
and what we\u2019re all doing here on this planet
BRYAN JOHNSON: Don\u2019t Die is actually the oldest and most-played game of human history
they\u2019re selling a version of Don\u2019t Die
\u201CDon\u2019t die\u201D is the most fundamental of all human desires
What I\u2019m suggesting is right now may be the first time that legitimate Don\u2019t Die is here
Whereas before we\u2019ve had to make up stories
What I\u2019ve done as a project is I\u2019ve said: Can I slow down my speed of aging to the greatest extent of any human on the planet
Can I become the most Don\u2019t-Die person in human history
BW: Let\u2019s establish for people just how differently you live your life in terms of diet
How do you build an institution that isn’t about a single person or one moment in time—but about a broader mission bigger than any individual or news story
You do it by working with people of the highest integrity
People who are curious about the world as it actually is
People who marry the quality of the old world to the freedom of the new
People who seek the truth and tell it plainly
People who keep cool heads in an increasingly hot moment and—crucially!—never lose their sense of humor
we’re thrilled to announce a new lineup of extraordinary voices who embody these virtues: Tyler Cowen
We’re also expanding the fiefdoms of other writers we love
Before I get into that I just want to say: In just a few years
The Free Press has become America’s most important home for the politically homeless
for those who hunger for honesty and truth
You have made The Free Press a thriving community where ideas
And you have enabled us to add some of the most enlightening and provocative minds to our team
We have much more to announce in the coming months—podcasts and events and special projects that will help you think for yourself and connect you to us
That ability to connect seemingly disparate things into a new mode of understanding—and his pure love of learning—is something that has made him one of my longtime intellectual heroes
We’re calling his column Tyler Cowen Must Know—a nod to his voracious curiosity
with an explanation of why he is joining our team
Today’s piece opens with something he said to me—something that kind of scared me:
Many people do not like that fact about start-ups
because they do not want to be part of a possible failure
It is precisely because it can fail that the people here will work harder
That it is a start-up is not only true in fact, but you sense it the moment you walk into the newsroom. . . <a href="https://www.thefp.com/p/tyler-cowen-why-im-joining-the-free" rel>Continue reading Tyler’s first column here</a>
No one is better situated to answer those questions—and the subject of law and lawfare—than Jed
Jed Rubenfeld is a professor of law at Yale Law School
He is the author of three seminal legal books and two novels
and is on the highly endangered species list: He is an academic who knows how to write
Since Coleman Hughes burst onto the scene at 23 years old, testifying before Congress opposite Ta-Nehisi Coates on the subject of reparations, he has exhibited a wisdom and composure far beyond his years. <a href="https://www.thefp.com/w/coleman-hughes" rel>His essays</a> on race
and public policy have been among the most important we have published
Now we are thrilled to announce that Coleman is bringing his podcast
You can expect his special brand of inquiry—curious
and preternaturally calm—to start in the weeks ahead
There is no one in American life better situated to explain the origins, divisions, and future of the American Right than Matthew Continetti. His book <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/93116/9781541600515" rel>The Right: The Hundred-Year War for American Conservatism</a>
With the Republican Party not just in power but going through a generational transformation
he is essential to understanding its successes—and the fault lines that lurk beneath the surface
Matt is director of domestic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute
</a>If you want to support what we do—and make sure that we continue to grow—become a paid subscriber today.
</a>We’re also proud to welcome a group of outstanding thinkers and writers who have been contributing to The Free Press
but will now do so on a regular and consistent basis:
<a href="https://www.thefp.com/w/ruy-teixeira" rel>Ruy Teixeira</a>
Ruy Teixeira has been a student of the left and the Democratic Party for 40 years
Ruy will be our guide to understanding the state and future of the party and its politics every other week
<a href="https://www.thefp.com/w/martin-gurri" rel>Martin Gurri</a>
Gurri’s book, <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/93116/9781732265141" rel>The Revolt of the Public</a>
is among the most important of this century
Martin is a truly independent thinker and is currently obsessed with the state of populist movement here and around the world
<a href="https://www.thefp.com/w/charles-lane" rel>Charles Lane</a>
At a time when few remember their history—or the context of the present—Chuck Lane’s voice is vital
and legal issues emphasizes practical solutions over ideology—and never accepts partisan narratives at face value
<a href="https://www.thefp.com/w/suzy-weiss" rel>Suzy Weiss</a>
Plus—and perhaps most importantly—our staff reporters
who are the hardest-working journalists in the business
Head to our <a href="https://www.thefp.com/newsletters" rel>newsletters page</a>
where you can opt in to receive every piece your favorite new columnists write
As always, if you have ideas on other topics or columnists, please send comments and suggestions to <a href="mailto:tips@thefp.com" rel>tips@thefp.com</a>.
</a>Jay Bhattacharya on Honestly: “Fauci’s Pardon Is a Good Thing.”
whose first day as head of the National Institutes of Health was Monday
It’s something of a karmic moment: For opposing the conventional wisdom of Covid lockdowns—most famously in the <a href="https://gbdeclaration.org/" rel>Great Barrington Declaration</a>—Jay was pilloried by the public health establishment
In his first interview since his confirmation
Does he believe Anthony Fauci should be pardoned
And how does he plan not just to run the NIH
but to restore trust in public health more broadly
For all that and much more—including whether Jay believes in karma—click the play button below
or follow Honestly wherever you get your podcasts
And if you want to get straight to the newsiest things Jay said, <a href="https://www.thefp.com/p/jay-bhattacharya-fauci-pardon" rel>read this write-up</a> from Maya Sulkin.
</a>The Editors: No Deportations Without Due Process
Last week, a video clip emerged of masked men and women in dark clothes approaching a woman who was standing on a Massachusetts sidewalk. They tied her hands behind her back and hustled her into a car. Eyewitnesses feared they were <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/26/ice-agents-detain-tufts-university-graduate-student" rel>watching a kidnapping</a>
they were witnessing the arrest of Rumeysa Ozturk
a 30-year-old Turkish doctoral student at Tufts University
by plainclothes federal immigration officers
was that she co-authored an op-ed in 2024 for The Tufts Daily that urged the university’s president to divest assets from Israel and assert that Israel’s defensive war against Hamas is a “genocide.”
That is about the only thing that the public knows about the Ozturk case
<a href="https://www.thefp.com/p/no-deportations-without-due-process" rel>Read our editorial and find out what they told us.</a>
</a>ICYMI: The Free Press’s Gabe Kaminsky had the scoop on the Trump administration investigating $9 billion in funding for Harvard over antisemitism. <a href="https://www.thefp.com/p/exclusive-trump-administration-reviewing" rel>Read it here.</a>
</a>Tune In Tonight: Frannie Block on How One Town Turned a Child’s “Cry For Help” Into a Hate Crime
On Saturday, we published Frannie Block’s <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/3e1cd3b8-8669-4d2a-9dc6-bd3b18f783e2?j=eyJ1IjoiMnM2NWdiIn0.VXV45PooUIGFoOWO3sFl7-WV-_MA-4CPyAkkLDe0JpU" rel>explosive piece</a> about Mike Klotz
whose family was driven out of their hometown in Evanston
after his 12-year-old son was falsely accused of being complicit in a hate crime
At the heart of the accusation were three ropes
The superintendent of the school district said they were “nooses.” The police found that they were a “cry for help.” But the truth didn’t matter: The boy had already been branded a racist
Many of you were as shocked by this story as we were
exclusively for paid subscribers of The Free Press
Frannie will sit down with Klotz for a livestream about his family’s ordeal
Come to <a href="http://thefp.com" rel>our website</a> at 5 p.m. ET to watch the conversation.
If you aren’t a paid subscriber, that’s easily remedied: Click the button below to sign up:
The short answer is: The Baltic state is part of NATO
and these men were part of a training exercise with its military
Elon Musk suggested Sunday night that <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/03/31/us-news/elon-musk-reveals-doges-new-target-members-of-congress-who-got-strangely-wealthy/" rel>DOGE’s next move</a> might be investigating how lawmakers have become “strangely wealthy” despite their relatively modest salaries. “How do they get $20 million if they’re earning $200,000 a year?” Musk asked at a town hall in Wisconsin. “We’re going to try to figure it out and certainly stop it from happening.”
Share</a><a href="https://www.thefp.com/p/bari-weiss-big-news-from-our-newsroom/comments" class="more-comments">340 more comments...</a>No posts
How do you build an institution that isn\u2019t about a single person or one moment in time\u2014but about a broader mission bigger than any individual or news story
People who keep cool heads in an increasingly hot moment and\u2014crucially!\u2014never lose their sense of humor
we\u2019re thrilled to announce a new lineup of extraordinary voices who embody these virtues: Tyler Cowen
We\u2019re also expanding the fiefdoms of other writers we love
The Free Press has become America\u2019s most important home for the politically homeless
We have much more to announce in the coming months\u2014podcasts and events and special projects that will help you think for yourself and connect you to us
That ability to connect seemingly disparate things into a new mode of understanding\u2014and his pure love of learning\u2014is something that has made him one of my longtime intellectual heroes
We\u2019re calling his column Tyler Cowen Must Know\u2014a nod to his voracious curiosity
Today\u2019s piece opens with something he said to me\u2014something that kind of scared me:
That it is a start-up is not only true in fact, but you sense it the moment you walk into the newsroom. . . <a href=\\\"https://www.thefp.com/p/tyler-cowen-why-im-joining-the-free\\\">Continue reading Tyler\u2019s first column here</a>
No one is better situated to answer those questions\u2014and the subject of law and lawfare\u2014than Jed
Jed\u2019s column will appear every other week
Since Coleman Hughes burst onto the scene at 23 years old, testifying before Congress opposite Ta-Nehisi Coates on the subject of reparations, he has exhibited a wisdom and composure far beyond his years. <a href=\\\"https://www.thefp.com/w/coleman-hughes\\\">His essays</a> on race
You can expect his special brand of inquiry\u2014curious
and preternaturally calm\u2014to start in the weeks ahead
There is no one in American life better situated to explain the origins, divisions, and future of the American Right than Matthew Continetti. His book <a href=\\\"https://bookshop.org/a/93116/9781541600515\\\">The Right: The Hundred-Year War for American Conservatism</a>
he is essential to understanding its successes\u2014and the fault lines that lurk beneath the surface
</a>If you want to support what we do\u2014and make sure that we continue to grow\u2014become a paid subscriber today
</a>We\u2019re also proud to welcome a group of outstanding thinkers and writers who have been contributing to The Free Press
<a href=\\\"https://www.thefp.com/w/ruy-teixeira\\\">Ruy Teixeira</a>
<a href=\\\"https://www.thefp.com/w/martin-gurri\\\">Martin Gurri</a>
Gurri\u2019s book, <a href=\\\"https://bookshop.org/a/93116/9781732265141\\\">The Revolt of the Public</a>
He\u2019ll be a regular monthly contributor
<a href=\\\"https://www.thefp.com/w/charles-lane\\\">Charles Lane</a>
At a time when few remember their history\u2014or the context of the present\u2014Chuck Lane\u2019s voice is vital
and legal issues emphasizes practical solutions over ideology\u2014and never accepts partisan narratives at face value
He\u2019ll be in these pages every other week
<a href=\\\"https://www.thefp.com/w/suzy-weiss\\\">Suzy Weiss</a>
Plus\u2014and perhaps most importantly\u2014our staff reporters
Head to our <a href=\\\"https://www.thefp.com/newsletters\\\">newsletters page</a>
As always, if you have ideas on other topics or columnists, please send comments and suggestions to <a href=\\\"mailto:tips@thefp.com\\\">tips@thefp.com</a>.
And with that: Let\u2019s get to the news.
</a>Jay Bhattacharya on Honestly: \u201CFauci\u2019s Pardon Is a Good Thing.\u201D
It\u2019s something of a karmic moment: For opposing the conventional wisdom of Covid lockdowns\u2014most famously in the <a href=\\\"https://gbdeclaration.org/\\\">Great Barrington Declaration</a>\u2014Jay was pilloried by the public health establishment
called him \u201Cfringe\u201D and \u201Cdangerous.\u201D
For all that and much more\u2014including whether Jay believes in karma\u2014click the play button below
And if you want to get straight to the newsiest things Jay said, <a href=\\\"https://www.thefp.com/p/jay-bhattacharya-fauci-pardon\\\">read this write-up</a> from Maya Sulkin.
Last week, a video clip emerged of masked men and women in dark clothes approaching a woman who was standing on a Massachusetts sidewalk. They tied her hands behind her back and hustled her into a car. Eyewitnesses feared they were <a href=\\\"https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/26/ice-agents-detain-tufts-university-graduate-student\\\">watching a kidnapping</a>
was that she co-authored an op-ed in 2024 for The Tufts Daily that urged the university\u2019s president to divest assets from Israel and assert that Israel\u2019s defensive war against Hamas is a \u201Cgenocide.\u201D
<a href=\\\"https://www.thefp.com/p/no-deportations-without-due-process\\\">Read our editorial and find out what they told us.</a>
</a>ICYMI: The Free Press\u2019s Gabe Kaminsky had the scoop on the Trump administration investigating $9 billion in funding for Harvard over antisemitism. <a href=\\\"https://www.thefp.com/p/exclusive-trump-administration-reviewing\\\">Read it here.</a>
</a>Tune In Tonight: Frannie Block on How One Town Turned a Child\u2019s \u201CCry For Help\u201D Into a Hate Crime
On Saturday, we published Frannie Block\u2019s <a href=\\\"https://substack.com/redirect/3e1cd3b8-8669-4d2a-9dc6-bd3b18f783e2?j=eyJ1IjoiMnM2NWdiIn0.VXV45PooUIGFoOWO3sFl7-WV-_MA-4CPyAkkLDe0JpU\\\">explosive piece</a> about Mike Klotz
The superintendent of the school district said they were \u201Cnooses.\u201D The police found that they were a \u201Ccry for help.\u201D But the truth didn\u2019t matter: The boy had already been branded a racist
Frannie will sit down with Klotz for a livestream about his family\u2019s ordeal
Come to <a href=\\\"http://thefp.com\\\">our website</a> at 5 p.m
that\u2019s easily remedied: Click the button below to sign up:
Elon Musk suggested Sunday night that <a href=\\\"https://nypost.com/2025/03/31/us-news/elon-musk-reveals-doges-new-target-members-of-congress-who-got-strangely-wealthy/\\\">DOGE\u2019s next move</a> might be investigating how lawmakers have become \u201Cstrangely wealthy\u201D despite their relatively modest salaries
\u201CHow do they get $20 million if they\u2019re earning $200,000 a year?\u201D Musk asked at a town hall in Wisconsin
\u201CWe\u2019re going to try to figure it out and certainly stop it from happening.\u201D
I spoke at the end of the conference, which traditionally calls for uplifting words or an assurance that all will be okay.  Here’s what I said instead. – BW
I wonder: When did you realize that things had changed
When did you know that the things we had taken for granted were suddenly out of our reach
That the norms that felt as certain as gravity had disappeared
That the institutions that had launched our grandparents had turned hostile to our children
When did you notice that what had once been steady was now shaky ground
Did you look down to see if your own knees were trembling
When did you realize that we were not immune from history
When did you see that our world was actually the world of yesterday—and a new one
On November 12th, I spoke to the General Assembly in Washington D.C., which is an annual conference of the Jewish Federations\u2014the largest Jewish organization in North America. There was a lot to talk about this year.&nbsp;
I spoke at the end of the conference, which traditionally calls for uplifting words or an assurance that all will be okay.&nbsp; Here\u2019s what I said instead. \u2013 BW
I wonder: When did you realize that things had changed?&nbsp;
That the institutions that had launched our grandparents had turned hostile to our children?&nbsp;
When did you see that our world was actually the world of yesterday\u2014and a new one
when newspapers covered both sides of an issue
editorial endorsements might have moved a voter in Michigan or persuaded some undecided soul in Pennsylvania (hi
which may explain the astonished outrage this election season when a couple of legacy papers—The Los Angeles Times
and then The Washington Post—decided not to endorse a candidate
of its digital subscribers over the decision.)
The most delicious publication-endorsement fight of this cycle was at The Nation. The left-wing magazine endorsed Kamala Harris, which apparently outraged the interns, who then wrote <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/kamala-harris-counter-endorsement/" rel>an op-ed of their own</a> arguing the endorsement was “unearned and disappointing” given the Biden-Harris administration’s support for Israel
We’ve received a lot of questions about whether and who we’d endorse in this election
Given our mission of not telling readers what to think
but rather giving them the information necessary to make their own decisions
We didn’t do it with the expectation of sharing the results
we did it on account of a relentlessly curious producer who took advantage of the fact that we were trapped together on a boat on the Hudson River
They seem worth sharing now partly because they are not results you would find in any other American newsroom
but mostly because we are continually told that the country is divided into reds and blues; into MAGA and the Resistance; into protesters and counter-protesters
which may explain the astonished outrage this election season when a couple of legacy papers\u2014The Los Angeles Times
and then The Washington Post\u2014decided not to endorse a candidate
The most delicious publication-endorsement fight of this cycle was at The Nation. The left-wing magazine endorsed Kamala Harris, which apparently outraged the interns, who then wrote <a href=\\\"https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/kamala-harris-counter-endorsement/\\\">an op-ed of their own</a> arguing the endorsement was \u201Cunearned and disappointing\u201D given the Biden-Harris administration\u2019s support for Israel.&nbsp;
We\u2019ve received a lot of questions about whether and who we\u2019d endorse in this election
We didn\u2019t do it with the expectation of sharing the results
we did it on account of a relentlessly curious producer who took advantage of the fact that we were trapped together on a boat on the Hudson River.&nbsp;
but mostly because we are continually told that the country is divided into reds and blues; into MAGA and the Resistance; into protesters and counter-protesters.&nbsp;
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Bari Italian, once a staple in Italian restaraunt in Cedar Rapids, has permanently closed its doors according to<a href="https://www.thegazette.com/restaurants/bari-italian-restaurant-closes-in-cedar-rapids-after-attempts-to-find-buyer/" target="_blank" title="https://www.thegazette.com/restaurants/bari-italian-restaurant-closes-in-cedar-rapids-after-attempts-to-find-buyer/" class="themeColorForLinks"> The Gazette. </a>
An auction to sell equipment from the upscale restaurant went live on Match 24
had initially closed temporarily due to frozen pipes in January
according to social media and website posts
Hobart had expressed hope earlier this month that the closure would be temporary as she explored potential buyers
Bari Italian first opened in November 2019 at The Metropolitan Building
The couple became restaurateurs through their restoration company
Iowa&#x27;s News Now has repeatedly reached out to the owners
Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker
or you believe that those miracles are myths
one thing is beyond dispute: The story of Jesus and the message of Christianity is among the stickiest ideas the world has ever seen
Christianity had become the official religion of the Roman Empire
It had 30 million followers—which amounted to half the empire
Christianity is still the largest religion in the world
How did the radical message of Christianity catch on
These questions motivate the latest episode of Honestly. My guest is the incredible historian Tom Holland, one of the most gifted storytellers in the world. His podcast, <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/7Cvsbcjhtur7nplC148TWy" rel>The Rest Is History</a>
charm their way through history’s most interesting characters and sagas
I also recommend Tom’s book <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/93116/9780465093502" rel>Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World</a>
he argues that Christianity is the reason we have America
that it was the inspiration behind our revolution
He also argues that Christianity is the backbone of both “wokeness,” as an ideology
including a question that a lot of my colleagues have thought about this year: Is our vacation from religion coming to an end
or scroll down for an edited transcript of our conversation
Bari Weiss: Your book opens with the crucifixion
Your argument is that the turning point is not Jesus’s birth
Tom Holland: It is very difficult to overemphasize how completely mad it was for everybody in the ancient world that someone who suffers crucifixion could in any way be the Messiah
crucifixion is the fate that should properly be visited on slaves
Not just because it is protracted and agonizing
I think what is radical about what Christians come to believe is not the fact that a man can become a god
Because for most people in the Mediterranean that is a given
What is radical is that the man Christians believe was divine was someone who had ended up suffering the worst fate imaginable—death by crucifixion—which
The reason that Jesus suffers that fate is that he is part of a conquered people
Galilee is not properly under the rule of the Romans
The fact that such a person could conceivably be raised up by citizens of the Roman Empire as someone greater than Caesar himself
The radical message of the crucifixion is that
On the power relationship between the church and state:
BW: I've always been so interested in how Christianity goes from being the bane of the powerful to being the faith of the emperor
instead converts to the faith whose god died on a cross
TH: Christianity spreads through most of the major cities of the empire
It’s not difficult to see what the appeal is
In a society without any hint of a welfare state
a state in which no value at all is put upon the weak or the poor or the sick
what the church offers is the first functioning welfare state
If you are a widow or an orphan or in prison or hungry
the likelihood is that you will be able to find relief from the church
And that offers a kind of power because bishop literally means an overseer—the figure of a bishop who has charity to dispense
You are in a position of authority that even your pagan neighbors might come to respect
That’s the situation at the beginning of the fourth century
What Constantine wants is what Roman emperors for a century have wanted
Everyone in the empire knows that the prosperity of the empire is dependent on the favor of the gods
which is that most cults are centered on particular temples
particular ways of offering up sacrifice or respect to a god
the Roman Empire goes through a terrible time—barbarian invasions
he is looking for a religion that can bind everyone within the empire
What it also does is to suggest that there is a single celestial king in heaven
You can see it’s quite nice to imagine himself as the chosen one of God
because it suits his ego to have a single god for a single emperor
But it has to be said that it takes Constantine and his heirs a while to realize what they’ve taken on—that the church is a kind of independent entity
And over the course of subsequent Christian history
what the relationship of the church should be to the authority and power of the great is one that is repeatedly being hammered out
The traditions and ideologies of the Orthodox world and of the Western world are
a consequence of the attempt to try and work out exactly what the balance should be between what you might call church and state
BW: To join a community not based on the lineage of your family or where you are born
but based on a belief—that still feels so radical to me
This is a tension that runs throughout Christianity
The paradox is the great motor of the Christian story and of Christian history
the idea that someone who is dead can come to life
the idea that someone who suffers the death of a slave can be greater than Caesar: These are all paradoxes
And over the course of the 2,000 years of Christianity’s history
of which I would say—and this is pointed out by people hostile to Christianity—that for a people who claim to have a universal identity
Christians are very fond of fighting one another and denying the name of Christian to one another
Christianity is a faith that is founded on the conviction that a crucified criminal suffering the death of a slave triumphs over the greatest empire on the face of the planet
That conviction has led to it becoming the most hegemonic explanation for who humans are—what their purpose on the face of the earth is
and where they will go after death—that has ever existed
And that gives it an unbelievable degree of power
and has given kings and emperors and popes power
That is the supreme paradox of Christian history
a faith that became powerful by virtue of enshrining as its symbol someone utterly powerless
On the influence of Christianity on revolutions and modern political movements like wokeness:
BW: One of the things that Dominion does so powerfully is it shows the ways in which things we take for granted were actually Christian ideas
Some are obvious: the ideas of charity or forgiveness or redemption
But you connect even the American Revolution
You talk about how the impulses behind wokeness are fundamentally Christian
TH: Christianity is inherently subversive of the established order that it’s born into
The Reformation of the eleventh century is followed by the Reformation of the sixteenth century
and that Reformation in turn is followed by the Enlightenment
moral convulsions that we’re going through at the moment
You can distinguish certain abiding themes
One of them is the idea that the last shall be first—it’s the humbling of the papacy itself in the sixteenth century
It’s the overthrow of kings and emperors and czars in the American
It’s the toppling of statues in contemporary America
the idea that there is almost an inherent virtue within victimhood
It’s a very radical idea that Christianity weaponizes and has weaponized again and again and again
I would go so far as to say that there are very few aspects of the culture wars that are being fought in America at the moment that do not ultimately have their origins in Christian theology
you would say that the idea that a man can become a woman or woman become a man
is radically opposed to Christian teaching
God creates man and woman separately in Genesis
and there really is no kind of sanction for thinking anything else
the case for trans rights as pushed by those who campaign for them is invariably done in very Christian terms
And that seems to impose a kind of instinctive assumption that the last should become the first
described himself as an extremist for Jesus
his activism was saturated in biblical imagery
And essentially what he was doing was reminding Americans that if there is no Greek or Jew in Christ
And he was summoning white American Christians to a reminder of their shared inheritance
other groups of people who historically were disadvantaged
who drew on that lesson—whether feminists or gay-rights campaigners
You have a splintering between those who remain doctrinally Christian and those who are drawing on that Christian inheritance
but feel that they are opposing Christian doctrine and therefore increasingly become hostile to Christianity itself
The fact is they are indebted to the Christian inheritance
But because they have cut themselves off from the Scripture
and the patterns of behavior that had always defined Christians
they are kind of drifting off in all kinds of radical new ways
But I think that there is one major theological maneuver that happens over the course of the ’60s
which is that sense that the Latin Christian doctrine of original sin is something to be profoundly rejected
The notion that human beings are born good and that they’re kind of corrupted by capitalism or whatever is very
And so it seems liberating and progressive to get rid of the idea that we’re all born as sinners
The problem with that is that if you get rid of the doctrine of original sin
then what you bake in is that it’s within our own capabilities to be good
and therefore you might persuade yourself that you are free of sin
BW: You became secular as a teen and then you returned to Christianity
TH: I exist in the kind of shadowlands between belief and agnosticism
And what brought me back from being an atheist apostate was that I found it boring ultimately
I found the process of reading the great Christian thinkers
reflecting on the patterns of Christian history
and recognizing that this is where I came from—they kind of gelled with me in a way that nothing else would
There are times where I might be out in the wilderness and I have a sense of the closeness of animals and water and the sky
And I can imagine what it must have been like to exist in the Neolithic era
because that’s the faith in which I was raised
to its beauties as well as to its cruelties
I’m trying to make sense of myself and the kind of conflicted nature that I sense exists within me and within the society that I live in
it makes my life more interesting to be a part of that
to share in that and to contemplate the possibility that it might be true
TH: The times of the year where I feel most Christian and I feel that I can believe most easily are Christmas and Easter
because these are the two great festivals of the Church
I respond to the inherent beauty and drama of the story
To live in England in December is to live in darkness a lot of the time
and so the idea of light in the darkness is very vivid for me
Reply</a><a class="pencraft pc-reset link-_X6et2 link-LIBpto">Share</a><a href="https://www.thefp.com/p/tom-holland-historian-christianity-west-world-christmas/comments" class="more-comments">336 more comments...</a>No posts
Whether you believe in the story of the virgin birth and resurrection
Within four centuries of Jesus\u2019s death
It had 30 million followers\u2014which amounted to half the empire
These questions motivate the latest episode of Honestly. My guest is the incredible historian Tom Holland, one of the most gifted storytellers in the world. His podcast, <a href=\\\"https://open.spotify.com/show/7Cvsbcjhtur7nplC148TWy\\\">The Rest Is History</a>
charm their way through history\u2019s most interesting characters and sagas
I also recommend Tom\u2019s book <a href=\\\"https://bookshop.org/a/93116/9780465093502\\\">Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World</a>
He also argues that Christianity is the backbone of both \u201Cwokeness,\u201D as an ideology
On the radical story of Jesus\u2019s death:
Your argument is that the turning point is not Jesus\u2019s birth
What is radical is that the man Christians believe was divine was someone who had ended up suffering the worst fate imaginable\u2014death by crucifixion\u2014which
Romans\u2014it\u2019s shocking to them all
It\u2019s not difficult to see what the appeal is
And that offers a kind of power because bishop literally means an overseer\u2014the figure of a bishop who has charity to dispense
That\u2019s the situation at the beginning of the fourth century
the Roman Empire goes through a terrible time\u2014barbarian invasions
You can see it\u2019s quite nice to imagine himself as the chosen one of God
But it has to be said that it takes Constantine and his heirs a while to realize what they\u2019ve taken on\u2014that the church is a kind of independent entity
but based on a belief\u2014that still feels so radical to me
And over the course of the 2,000 years of Christianity\u2019s history
it\u2019s unsurprising that these ideas have
of which I would say\u2014and this is pointed out by people hostile to Christianity\u2014that for a people who claim to have a universal identity
That conviction has led to it becoming the most hegemonic explanation for who humans are\u2014what their purpose on the face of the earth is
and where they will go after death\u2014that has ever existed
TH: Christianity is inherently subversive of the established order that it\u2019s born into
moral convulsions that we\u2019re going through at the moment
One of them is the idea that the last shall be first\u2014it\u2019s the humbling of the papacy itself in the sixteenth century
It\u2019s the overthrow of kings and emperors and czars in the American
It\u2019s the toppling of statues in contemporary America
It\u2019s a very radical idea that Christianity weaponizes and has weaponized again and again and again
who drew on that lesson\u2014whether feminists or gay-rights campaigners
But I think that there is one major theological maneuver that happens over the course of the \u201960s
The notion that human beings are born good and that they\u2019re kind of corrupted by capitalism or whatever is very
And so it seems liberating and progressive to get rid of the idea that we\u2019re all born as sinners
then what you bake in is that it\u2019s within our own capabilities to be good
and recognizing that this is where I came from\u2014they kind of gelled with me in a way that nothing else would
because that\u2019s the faith in which I was raised
I\u2019m trying to make sense of myself and the kind of conflicted nature that I sense exists within me and within the society that I live in
Someone asked me the other day how I planned to commemorate October 7
How do you look at something with a sense of distance when it has revealed so much
Although they insist they’ll never go into politics themselves
they are offering Democrats a path back to power
they say the Democrats need a new vision—one that goes beyond resistance to Trump
A vision that can bring back the disaffected Democrats who stayed home or voted red for the first time this past November
While other progressives are doubling down on zombie ideas
afraid to confront a country that has moved decisively to the right
Ezra and Derek are willing to face reality
They see that blue states are functioning similarly to the DMV—and
losing people to states like Texas and Florida
In their new book, <a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/abundance-what-progress-takes-derek-thompson/20165403?[%E2%80%A6]JJOlwU9fJsyYLAWxwe_0m7kS6uJykZldlUEBOpk6GjvWL2OR0aAuU4EALw_wcB" rel>Abundance</a>
they offer a blueprint for winning them back—to cities like San Francisco and New York
The thesis is simple: To have the future we want
we need to build and invent more of what we need
While conservatives and libertarians might say
Ezra and Derek insist that the government can play a crucial role—if liberals will let it
and bureaucratic thinking that have made it nearly impossible to do anything in this country
How do we build a government that’s less like the DMV and more like the Apple Store
How can it actually deliver for Americans and solve our most pressing problems—in housing
how do we reverse government’s long march into total incompetence
Ezra and Derek have a lot of ideas on how we can get there
This was an excellent conversation and I’m eager for you to watch or listen
Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson are the two most important liberal journalists working in the legacy press today\u2014Ezra at <a href=\\\"https://www.nytimes.com/column/ezra-klein\\\">The New York Times</a>, and Derek at <a href=\\\"https://www.theatlantic.com/author/derek-thompson/\\\">The Atlantic</a>
Although they insist they\u2019ll never go into politics themselves
they say the Democrats need a new vision\u2014one that goes beyond resistance to Trump
They see that blue states are functioning similarly to the DMV\u2014and
In their new book, <a href=\\\"https://bookshop.org/p/books/abundance-what-progress-takes-derek-thompson/20165403?[%E2%80%A6]JJOlwU9fJsyYLAWxwe_0m7kS6uJykZldlUEBOpk6GjvWL2OR0aAuU4EALw_wcB\\\">Abundance</a>
they offer a blueprint for winning them back\u2014to cities like San Francisco and New York
Ezra and Derek insist that the government can play a crucial role\u2014if liberals will let it
How do we build a government that\u2019s less like the DMV and more like the Apple Store
How can it actually deliver for Americans and solve our most pressing problems\u2014in housing
how do we reverse government\u2019s long march into total incompetence
This was an excellent conversation and I\u2019m eager for you to watch or listen
I thought we would be looking back at the past year from a slightly quieter vantage point
But quiet is the last thing happening in the Middle East right now
The war that Iran outsourced to its proxies since October 7
2023 has now become a war explicitly between Iran and Israel
Hours before I sat down with Douglas Murray in New York City
Iran launched over 100 ballistic missiles toward Israel
As Israel’s 9 million citizens huddled in bomb shelters
There are not many <a href="https://www.thefp.com/p/sam-harris-honestly-good-and-evil" rel>bright lines</a> that divide good and evil
But it’s also a war between civilization and barbarism
And yet this testing moment has been met with alarming moral confusion
all martyrs we salute.” That’s just a few examples from the past week
No one I know understands the moral urgency of this moment better than Douglas Murray
although I know a lot of Israeli families who consider him an adoptive family member
who has articulated the stakes of this war with the moral clarity it requires
There is just no one I would rather be sitting with as we watch the Middle East and
To watch the Honestly episode with Bari and Douglas
Click below to listen to our conversation or scroll down for an edited transcript:
And what’s next after Iran’s missile attack on Israel:
Bari Weiss: We are speaking on the eve of what some people are saying feels like the beginning of World War III
And I guess the first question I want to ask you is
How did we get to a moment where Iran is dropping 100 ballistic missiles on Israel
What are the factors that led us to this moment
Douglas Murray: Probably with the plane that took off in 1979 from Paris
This is one of the worst journeys of the twentieth century
Iran had the opportunity to be a progressive country in the region
There was the opportunity for normalization
But the revolutionary Islamic government in Tehran chose a different path
The revolutionary Islamic government decided to oppress the people it presumes to govern and try to expand itself across the region
And my worry early in the period after October 7th was always that Hamas would take up all of the energy and that Israel wouldn’t be allowed
And the Israeli government and the Israeli armed forces and military have shown that there was a price to pay for trying to eradicate the Jewish people
is hiding in the tunnels somewhere in the south of Gaza surrounded by what he would regard as the best hostages
decided to go to old-fashioned pager devices
But someone we don’t know put explosives in all of those pager devices
And so 3,000 of their operatives in one moment across Lebanon and Syria all suffered grievous injury
they couldn’t trust putting on a kettle in Beirut
when Benjamin Netanyahu came to New York last week
I watched from the gallery as the traditional walk out of various despots and dictators and their minions occurred
Hassan Nasrallah was watching Benjamin Netanyahu on television
and that’s when Hassan Nasrallah went to meet his maker
BW: It’s like the baptism scene from The Godfather
DM: I was told by a Jewish friend the other day that apparently there is something in the Torah that says one should not take enormous delight in the decimation of one’s foes
As Israel\u2019s 9 million citizens huddled in bomb shelters
There are not many <a href=\\\"https://www.thefp.com/p/sam-harris-honestly-good-and-evil\\\">bright lines</a> that divide good and evil
But it\u2019s also a war between civilization and barbarism
all martyrs we salute.\u201D That\u2019s just a few examples from the past week.&nbsp;
who has articulated the stakes of this war with the moral clarity it requires.&nbsp;
the world transformed before our eyes.&nbsp;
And what\u2019s next after Iran\u2019s missile attack on Israel:
What are the factors that led us to this moment?&nbsp;
And my worry early in the period after October 7th was always that Hamas would take up all of the energy and that Israel wouldn\u2019t be allowed
they couldn\u2019t trust their cell phones
But someone we don\u2019t know put explosives in all of those pager devices
they couldn\u2019t trust putting on a kettle in Beirut
and that\u2019s when Hassan Nasrallah went to meet his maker.&nbsp;
BW: It\u2019s like the baptism scene from The Godfather.&nbsp;
DM: I was told by a Jewish friend the other day that apparently there is something in the Torah that says one should not take enormous delight in the decimation of one\u2019s foes
and so I don\u2019t have to follow this.&nbsp;
</a>In case you missed it, check out all of our inauguration coverage <a href="https://www.thefp.com/t/inauguration" rel>here</a>
On this episode of Honestly, Yale law professor Amy Chua reflects 14 years later on the firestorm around her book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, discusses the vibe shift around free speech on elite college campuses, and tells Bari what she first saw in her student J.D. Vance long before his rise to the vice presidency.
</a>In case you missed it, check out all of our inauguration coverage <a href=\\\"https://www.thefp.com/t/inauguration\\\">here</a>
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‘There’s never been a period like this in world history.’View all episodesDid you know that Joseph Stalin could sing with perfect pitch
Or that he was so scared of his wife that he would hide from her in the bathroom
Did you know that Peter the Great liked to surround himself with naked dwarfs
Did you know that Catherine the Great—long smeared as a nymphomaniac—was actually a lovelorn monogamist
Or that King Herod’s genitals once exploded with maggots
Most historians bore you with dry accounts of battles and treaties
who writes 900 pages that you cannot put down
While most of Sebag Montefiore’s books are biographies of people, <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/93116/9780307280503" rel>Jerusalem</a> is a biography of a city—one that is “the house of the one God
and she is the only city to exist twice—in heaven and on earth.” The book takes you through 3,000 years of Jerusalem’s history
from King David to Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu
and it has just been reissued in paperback
With the ceasefire deal underway in Israel and with Donald Trump a few weeks into his second presidency
we could not think of a better person to talk to at this moment
Click below to listen to our conversation on Honestly
Bari Weiss: A lot of us grew up under the belief that history had ended
that liberalism and capitalism were obviously better than any other system and would conquer the world
None of that was challenged by anyone for a very long time
So America could go about its mission of selling those ideas to the world
But it’s interesting to realize that there’s never been a period like this in world history
Most world history is about a multiplayer game
but the Cold War was a game of chess between two great players: the Soviet Union and the U.S
Did you know that Joseph Stalin could sing with perfect pitch
Did you know that Catherine the Great\u2014long smeared as a nymphomaniac\u2014was actually a lovelorn monogamist
Or that King Herod\u2019s genitals once exploded with maggots
While most of Sebag Montefiore\u2019s books are biographies of people, <a href=\\\"https://bookshop.org/a/93116/9780307280503\\\">Jerusalem</a> is a biography of a city\u2014one that is \u201Cthe house of the one God
and she is the only city to exist twice\u2014in heaven and on earth.\u201D The book takes you through 3,000 years of Jerusalem\u2019s history
from King David to Benjamin \u201CBibi\u201D Netanyahu
But it\u2019s interesting to realize that there\u2019s never been a period like this in world history
&quot;Bari-Ship 2025&quot; is schedule to be held from May 22- 24
&quot;Bari-Ship&quot; is the largest international maritime exhibition in Western Japan
The event serves as a venue for maritime industry professionals from not only Japan but around the world to gather
This year&#39;s exhibition will be the largest ever
with exhibitors from 380 companies from 24 countries
and is expected to attract approximately 20,000 visitors during the three-day exhibition
General InformationExhibition Name: Bari-Ship 2025Dates: 22 &ndash; 24 May 2025 / 10am &ndash; 5pm (until 4pm on the last day)&nbsp;* Open to the general public on the last dayVenue: Texport ImabariOrganizer: Informa Markets Japan Co LtdIn Partnership with: Imabari city
Imabari Maritime City Promotion CommitteeSupporters: Ministry of Land
Japan Federation of Coastal Shipping Associations
The Shipbuilders&#39; Association of Japan
The Cooperative Association of Japan Shipbuilders
Japan Ship Machinery and Equipment Association
The Japan Society of Naval Architects and Ocean Engineers
A new exhibition area called &quot;M Zone&quot; will be set up at Imabari Port
making this the largest exhibition in the event&rsquo;s history
Approximately 380 companies from 24 countries will be exhibiting
and experience the latest developments in the maritime industry
A Platform for the Future of the Maritime Industry and the Development of Next-Generation Talent
&quot;Bari-Ship&quot; will host forums discussing future trends in the maritime industry and seminars introducing the latest technological trends
The final day of the exhibition will be open to the public to promote familiarity with ships and the sea
offering a variety of events aimed at nurturing the next generation of talent
Onboard TourSIM-SHIP1 mk2 &quot;Churasan&quot;Produced by: SIM-SHIP / NAIKEN R&amp;DVenue: Bari-Ship 2025 &ldquo;M Zone&rdquo; (Imabari Port)This 499 GT cargo ship is equipped with an advanced air lubrication system
The Israeli military said it carried out airstrikes against Yemen&#39;s Hodeidah Port on Monday
The offshore rig market recovery appears to have taken a pause
with demand tapering off and marketed utilization hitting… 
U.K.-based PD Ports has outlined its plans to develop one of the U.K.’s largest offshore wind manufacturing and installation… 
a 170-year-old French family-owned company operating across a broad swath of maritime and offshore energy… 
A comprehensive transformation of AROYA Cruises&#39; flagship vessel
we excel in creating stunning illuminated yacht names and logos
and cutting-edge LED and fiber optic solutions
Maritime Reporter E-News is the maritime industry's largest circulation and most authoritative ENews Service
delivered to your Email five times per week
I cringe listening to that now because today, in the waning days of 2024, not only has it become clear what AI is and how to use it—ChatGPT processes over <a href="https://www.pcworld.com/article/2546712/believe-it-or-not-chatgpt-gets-over-1-billion-messages-every-single-day.html" rel>a billion queries per day</a>—but it’s also becoming clear what the political and cultural ramifications—and the arguments and debates—around AI are going to be over the next few years
Among those big questions are: Who gets to lead us into this new age of AI technology
what company is going to get there first and achieve market dominance
how will those companies be structured so that bad actors with nefarious incentives can’t manipulate this technology for evil purposes
and what role should the government play in regulating all of this
At the center of these important questions are two men
you probably need a law degree and special expertise in American tax law
But you don’t need a degree or specialization to understand that
this feud is about something much bigger and more existential than the business model of OpenAI
This is really a fight over who will ultimately be in control of a technology that some say
could very well make human beings obsolete
Here to tell his side of the story today is Sam Altman
and why he thinks superintelligence—the moment where AI surpasses human capabilities—is closer than ever
We talk about the perils of AI bias and censorship; why he
donated $1 million to the president-elect’s inaugural fund; what happens if America loses the AI race to a foreign power like China
what went wrong between him and the richest man on Earth
or scroll down for an edited transcript of our conversation:
BARI WEISS: The last time we spoke was in April of 2023
and people were just at the beginning of trying to figure out what this technology was and how it might transform their everyday lives
And people all over the world are using AI tools every single day to do everything from math tutoring for their kids to drafting emails to debugging code
Tell me about how ChatGPT and AI technology has changed since we last spoke
and whether or not it’s where you expected it to be today
SAM ALTMAN: The technology itself has gotten way better
If you think about the AI we were excited about back in April of 2023
and the things that the technology is capable of are pretty mind-blowing to me
If we come back in another 18 months and talk about what it can do
I think it will feel as big or even bigger than the gap from April 2023 to December 2024
The other thing that’s happened is it’s really integrated into society
People really use it now a lot for their work
I’ve never seen a technology become widely adopted this fast
That part of the adoption curve happened much more quickly than I thought
BW: How are you using the tool that you have helped create in your daily life
and now ChatGPT can search the internet for real-time information
I must have still used Google for something
I switched ChatGPT to be my default search in Chrome
Now when I remember the way that I used to search
it feels like that was like a pre-iPhone kind of equivalent
BW: You’re in a very public battle right now with your original OpenAI co-founder
In a blog post introducing OpenAI to the world in December of that year
“OpenAI is a nonprofit artificial intelligence research company
Our goal is to advance digital intelligence in the way that is most likely to benefit humanity as a whole
unconstrained by a need to generate financial return
Since our research is free from financial obligations
we can better focus on a positive human impact.”
OpenAI moved to what it called a hybrid model with a for-profit arm that got a $1 billion investment from Microsoft
Microsoft has poured something like $13 billion into the company
Elon’s relationship with the company soured over time because he disagreed with that shift
and he eventually left the company and stepped down from the board
Elon has sued you and OpenAI on several different occasions
arguing that you are in some kind of contract violation by putting profits ahead of the public good in the move to advance AI
Elon asked the District Judge in California to block OpenAI from converting to this for-profit structure
Did I summarize it properly and is there anything crucial that I left out
But it was Elon that most wanted OpenAI to be a for-profit at one point
and had made a bunch of proposals—like OpenAI being part of Tesla—mostly just to create a new for-profit that he was going to be in control of
I think a lot of the summary there is correct
BW: What is the fundamental conflict between Elon Musk and his various allies—Meta being one of them—and you guys
I cringe listening to that now because today, in the waning days of 2024, not only has it become clear what AI is and how to use it\u2014ChatGPT processes over <a href=\\\"https://www.pcworld.com/article/2546712/believe-it-or-not-chatgpt-gets-over-1-billion-messages-every-single-day.html\\\">a billion queries per day</a>\u2014but it\u2019s also becoming clear what the political and cultural ramifications\u2014and the arguments and debates\u2014around AI are going to be over the next few years
how will those companies be structured so that bad actors with nefarious incentives can\u2019t manipulate this technology for evil purposes
But you don\u2019t need a degree or specialization to understand that
and why he thinks superintelligence\u2014the moment where AI surpasses human capabilities\u2014is closer than ever
donated $1 million to the president-elect\u2019s inaugural fund; what happens if America loses the AI race to a foreign power like China
and whether or not it\u2019s where you expected it to be today
The other thing that\u2019s happened is it\u2019s really integrated into society
I\u2019ve never seen a technology become widely adopted this fast
BW: You\u2019re in a very public battle right now with your original OpenAI co-founder
\u201COpenAI is a nonprofit artificial intelligence research company
we can better focus on a positive human impact.\u201D
Elon\u2019s relationship with the company soured over time because he disagreed with that shift
and had made a bunch of proposals\u2014like OpenAI being part of Tesla\u2014mostly just to create a new for-profit that he was going to be in control of
BW: What is the fundamental conflict between Elon Musk and his various allies\u2014Meta being one of them\u2014and you guys
Brianna says her politics haven’t actually changed much
It’s the Democratic Party and the left that have changed
But she’s not sitting by while it runs itself into the ground
She wants Democrats to get back to common sense
Which is why she’s speaking out and why she’s launched a political action committee
that’s fundraising in the 2024 election cycle
we cover a lot of people whose politics have evolved over the past decade
But I’m not sure anyone has gone through that evolution as publicly as Brianna Wu
there’s no clear way to sell this conversation because it’s so fascinating and wide-ranging
We cover everything from Brianna’s upbringing in a conservative religious home to her favorite video games
champion.) We discuss Israel and why Brianna identifies as a Zionist
We talk about feminism and the trans-rights movement
Below is an edited and condensed transcript of our conversation: 
and I think the right way to ground the conversation about your political changes is by telling people a little bit about the world you were born into
Brianna Wu: Well, I was adopted into a kind of fringe right, Christian family. And we ended up in Mississippi. My dad decided to leave the Navy and go back to his birthplace. I grew up in the <a href="https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/poorest-states" rel>poorest state in America</a>
but my dad is a rich surgeon who started a set of gynecology clinics when healthcare prices were exploding in the ’90s
I’ve had a lot of experiences over my life
and I think it’s kind of given me a broad perspective that informs this subtlety that you see in my politics
Bari Weiss: So you’re adopted and you’re raised in Mississippi
you’ve described yourself as a boy who desperately wanted to be a girl
There\u2019s no one quite like Brianna Wu.&nbsp;
Brianna says her politics haven\u2019t actually changed much
It\u2019s the Democratic Party and the left that have changed
But she\u2019s not sitting by while it runs itself into the ground
Which is why she\u2019s speaking out and why she\u2019s launched a&nbsp;political action committee
that\u2019s fundraising in the 2024 election cycle.&nbsp;
But I\u2019m not sure anyone has gone through that evolution as publicly as Brianna Wu
there\u2019s no clear way to sell this conversation because it\u2019s so fascinating and wide-ranging
We cover everything from Brianna\u2019s upbringing in a conservative religious home to her favorite video games
I\u2019ve done a lot of interviews on Honestly
This stands out to me as one of the best.&nbsp;
Brianna Wu: Well, I was adopted into a kind of fringe right, Christian family. And we ended up in Mississippi. My dad decided to leave the Navy and go back to his birthplace. I grew up in the <a href=\\\"https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/poorest-states\\\">poorest state in America</a>
but my dad is a rich surgeon who started a set of gynecology clinics when healthcare prices were exploding in the \u201990s
I\u2019ve had a lot of experiences over my life
and I think it\u2019s kind of given me a broad perspective that informs this subtlety that you see in my politics.&nbsp;
Bari Weiss: So you\u2019re adopted and you\u2019re raised in Mississippi
You\u2019re in a conservative Christian family
you\u2019ve described yourself as a boy who desperately wanted to be a girl
It’s open season for media companies big and small next year
Media insiders expect investment and dealmaking to whir back to life amid a friendlier regulatory environment for consolidation
and a reengaged audience that tuned out the news during much of Joe Biden’s presidency
Big media: The simultaneous erosion of the entertainment industry and the cable business and the return of a potentially more merger-friendly administration led by Donald Trump appear likely to spur several hot years of corporate dealmaking that will reshape the entertainment and cable news industry
the continued growth of YouTube as the default viewership platform of choice is reshaping the news
and talk-show content that a generation ago would’ve grown through cable television
News: Some of the independent news media success stories of the past several years are seeing renewed interest from potential investors
the Free Press founder Bari Weiss has been inundated with offers and interest in investment in her independent digital publication
As rumors circulated about the publication’s future
Weiss told Semafor that while the FP didn’t have any immediate plans for acquisition or investment
she felt that the increased interest in the Free Press was a vindication of the outlet’s worldview — contrarian
skeptical of progressivism — and demonstrated some of the tectonic shifts occurring in the US media business
It’s been a big few weeks for those of us in the reality-based community,” she told Semafor
Other news veterans who have been quiet in recent years are emerging from the woodwork
has been making the rounds and having conversations with media entrepreneurs like Weiss
though he assured Semafor that he’s still in the early stages of figuring out his next moves
The British hedge fund tycoon Paul Marshall
a kind of UK cousin to Weiss’ publication that professes ideological independence but hews pretty consistently to the right on some cultural and identity issues
Audio: The increased attention in recent months on podcasting and the “manosphere” has already <a href="https://www.semafor.com/article/11/24/2024/get-me-on-rogan-pr-scrambles-to-navigate-new-media" class="styles_linkEmbed__SNmaX" rel="no-referrer">prompted</a> public relations leaders to examine their best practices
and that trend looks poised to shake up media dealmaking as well
As Semafor and others wrote previously,<a href="https://www.semafor.com/article/02/12/2023/how-spotifys-podcast-bet-went-wrong" class="styles_linkEmbed__SNmaX" rel="no-referrer"> Spotify’s pullback</a> from podcasts in 2022 and 2023 cast a pall over the audio business
But the continued growth of podcast listenership and the increased attention given to the podcaster/YouTuber ecosystem during the 2024 election suggest a reversal
a former executive vice president of podcasts at iHeartMedia
has been talking to investors and podcast companies over the last year about a new audio investment company that would roll up complimentary audio and podcast businesses
He told Semafor that although there was some trepidation about media investing over the last year
the results of the election (and podcasters’ effects on it) could prompt more investors to get off the sidelines
“2025 is shaping up to be the year when audio-driven brands take center stage in larger media growth strategies,” Peterson told Semafor
“Investors are finally recognizing podcasting as a key piece of the media puzzle
and we’re poised to see multiple investments and acquisitions in the next 12 months.”
Sign up for Semafor .css-w8sqnb{text-transform:capitalize;}media
Italian leisure airline Neos Air will fly nonstop service between New York JFK and the southeastern Italy city of Bari
The weekly summer seasonal flight will operate weekly between June 3 and Oct. 15. It will be the first transatlantic service from Bari and the third Neos route to the U.S., joining flights to <a href="/Travel-News/Airline-News/Italian-airline-Neos-Milan-New-York-JFK" ek-link="true" title="JFK from Milan"  target="_blank" rel="noopener">JFK from Milan</a> and Palermo
Neos will fly the route with a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner offering premium economy and economy cabins
Neos was founded in 2002 and is a subsidiary of the Italian tour operator Alpitour
The carrier flies a fleet of 16 Boeing planes
But just as the country is realigning itself along new ideological and political lines
many of the Valley’s biggest tech titans came out with their unabashed support for Donald Trump
but also WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum; Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss
who run the cryptocurrency exchange Gemini; VCs such as Shaun Maguire
and Chamath Palihapitiya; Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale; Oculus and Anduril founder Palmer Luckey; hedge fund manager Bill Ackman; and today’s Honestly guest
one of the world’s most influential investors and the man responsible for bringing the internet to the masses—Marc Andreessen
Marc’s history with politics is a long one—but it was always with the Democrats
He supported Democrats including Bill Clinton in 1996
He endorsed Barack Obama in 2008 and then Hillary Clinton in 2016
he announced that he was going to endorse and donate to Trump
Public records show that Marc donated at least $4.5 million to pro-Trump super PACs
Because he believed that the Biden administration had
and that this election was existential for AI
Marc got his start as the co-creator of Mosaic
which is said to have launched the internet boom
which became the most popular web browser in the ’90s
and sold it to AOL in 1999 for $4.2 billion
He later became an angel investor and board member at Facebook
when everyone told Mark Zuckerberg to sell Facebook to Yahoo for $1 billion
Facebook has a market cap of $1.4 trillion.)
He now runs a venture capital firm with Ben Horowitz
where they invest in small start-ups that they think have potential to become billion-dollar unicorns
And their track record is pretty spot-on: They invested in Airbnb
(And for full disclosure: Marc and his wife Laura were small
Marc has built a reputation as someone who can recognize “the next big thing” in tech and
He has been called the “chief ideologist of the Silicon Valley elite,” a “cultural tastemaker,” and even “Silicon Valley’s resident philosopher-king.”
Bari Weiss: I have never seen you with more of a pep in your step and more of a perma-smile on your face than I have over the last four weeks
What about Trump’s win felt so fundamentally important to you for America
I think the analogy for what’s happening right now is 1980—the transition from the ’70s to the ’80s and the Carter-Reagan race
there was a dramatic shift to the right across broad swaths of the population
And then the youth vote—the kids are changing
The new kids are not the same as the kids 10 years ago
But even beyond the partisan politics of it
it feels like the last decade has been a very emotionally dark and repressive time
And Silicon Valley was on the vanguard of what you might call a soft authoritarian social revolution starting about 10 or 12 years ago
And that soft repressive authoritarianism had a real negative impact on my whole world—the tech industry
and I think an entire generation of young people
People are finally poking their heads out of the frozen tundra of the culture and realizing that it’s actually okay to build things
and fundamentally be proud of the country and be patriotic
BW: When did you start to update your mental model of politics and what was going on in the country
MA: I was completely shocked that Trump got nominated in 2015 and I didn’t understand it at all
I was completely shocked times 10 when he won the general election in 2016
but I had lost touch with the culture and didn’t understand what was happening in that part of the world
I was a fully assimilated Californian and I no longer understood what was happening
I tried deliberately to reset my own psychology
and I need to read a lot and I need to go back in history
I had to basically completely rebuild my worldview
James Burnham was super helpful on these topics
He was one of the smartest political scientists
philosophers of the twentieth century on American politics
He was a full-on communist revolutionary activist and a personal friend of Leon Trotsky in the 1920s and ’30s
and then he broke from communism in the ’40s
And he helped found the National Review with William F
when the heart of the big three-way battle between communism
which he called “managerialism,” which is the establishment of an expert class
who are assumed to be able to steer society in healthy and beneficial ways
and then often lead you in very bad directions
He wrote this other book called The Machiavellians
and he looks at politics structurally as opposed to ideologically
and one of the ideas is what he calls the “iron law of oligarchy.” Which says: Democracy is never actually a thing
Because you always end up with a small minority in charge of a large majority in basically every society in human history
And the reason is because small elites can organize and large majorities cannot
It doesn’t matter what you think democracy should be
Any form of democracy is going to have an elite class that is going to be running things
And that elite class is either going to be good and beneficial and have the best interests of the population in mind
But to pretend that they’re voted in and out and that the people are in charge is just a myth
BW: So are we living in a democracy in America or an oligarchy
Every society in history has been an oligarchy
Are you a turncoat or are you someone who saw the corruption of the old elite—the old oligarchy—and decided to switch into a new counter-elite
MA: So there is something that was never written down
Democrats once seemed to have a monopoly on Silicon Valley. Perhaps you remember when Elon Musk bought Twitter and posted pictures of cabinets at the old office filled with \u201C<a href=\\\"https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1595250835096621057\\\">#StayWoke\u201D T-shirts</a>
many of the Valley\u2019s biggest tech titans came out with their unabashed support for Donald Trump
Elon Musk.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;but also WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum; Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss
and Chamath Palihapitiya; Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale; Oculus and Anduril founder Palmer Luckey; hedge fund manager Bill Ackman; and today\u2019s Honestly guest
one of the world\u2019s most influential investors and the man responsible for bringing the internet to the masses\u2014Marc Andreessen
Marc\u2019s history with politics is a long one\u2014but it was always with the Democrats
which became the most popular web browser in the \u201990s
Marc was the only voice saying: don\u2019t
and Oculus\u2014to name a few of the unicorns
Marc has built a reputation as someone who can recognize \u201Cthe next big thing\u201D in tech and
He has been called the \u201Cchief ideologist of the Silicon Valley elite,\u201D a \u201Ccultural tastemaker,\u201D and even \u201CSilicon Valley\u2019s resident philosopher-king.\u201D
What about Trump\u2019s win felt so fundamentally important to you for America
Marc Andreesen: It\u2019s morning in America
I think the analogy for what\u2019s happening right now is 1980\u2014the transition from the \u201970s to the \u201980s and the Carter-Reagan race
And then the youth vote\u2014the kids are changing
And that soft repressive authoritarianism had a real negative impact on my whole world\u2014the tech industry
It certainly feels like that\u2019s cracked
People are finally poking their heads out of the frozen tundra of the culture and realizing that it\u2019s actually okay to build things
MA: I was completely shocked that Trump got nominated in 2015 and I didn\u2019t understand it at all
but I had lost touch with the culture and didn\u2019t understand what was happening in that part of the world
He was a full-on communist revolutionary activist and a personal friend of Leon Trotsky in the 1920s and \u201930s
and then he broke from communism in the \u201940s
One\u2019s called The Managerial Revolution
which he called \u201Cmanagerialism,\u201D which is the establishment of an expert class
and one of the ideas is what he calls the \u201Ciron law of oligarchy.\u201D Which says: Democracy is never actually a thing
There\u2019s no actual system of democracy
It doesn\u2019t matter what you think democracy should be
But to pretend that they\u2019re voted in and out and that the people are in charge is just a myth
Are you a turncoat or are you someone who saw the corruption of the old elite\u2014the old oligarchy\u2014and decided to switch into a new counter-elite
Bari Gordon Vapnek was born in New York and relocated to Florida in 1995 after graduating from the University of Delaware with a BS in Business Administration
Hired as a director of new business development
managing hypoparathyroidism and feeling isolated
In 2019 she discovered the Hypoparathyroidism Association
She became actively involved and assumed a position as a board member
Bari has written and spoken publicly about her journey
She believes her column can help those who feel isolated in their diagnosis
“May the dreams of your past be the reality of your future.&#8221; — Jimi Hendrix I celebrated my birthday last week with minimal fanfare yet much gratitude to have turned 52
Internet meme culture has now landed in the White House. <a href="https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/dogecoin" rel>Dogecoin</a> is a <a href="https://www.bankrate.com/investing/what-are-memecoins-in-crypto/" rel>memecoin</a>—and if you don’t understand that sentence
fear not—I am sure Nellie will cover it in TGIF tomorrow
But what the announcement solidifies—if Trump’s win hadn’t already—is the triumph of the counter-elite
A bunch of oddball outsiders ran against an insular band of out-of-touch elites supported by every celebrity in Hollywood—and they won
They are about to reshape not just the government
but also the culture in ways we can’t imagine
How they did that—and why—is a question that I’ve been thinking about nonstop since Tuesday
He is the vanguard of those antiestablishment counter-elites: Peter Thiel
the start-up incubator where he was a partner
Many prominent tech leaders criticized him publicly
who called Thiel’s endorsement of Trump “one of the most dangerous things” he had ever seen
Thiel has taken a step back from politics—at least publicly
There was no big RNC speech this time around
But the bigger change is a cultural one: He’s no longer the pariah of Silicon Valley for supporting Trump
among many other tech titans who have joined the Trump train
He is a libertarian who has found common cause with nationalists and populists
He invests in companies that have the ability to become monopolies
and yet Trump’s White House wants to break up Big Tech
but he hates identity politics and the culture wars
but still seems to venerate the Ivy League
But perhaps that’s the secret to his success
His most recent bet—helping his <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/07/28/jd-vance-peter-thiel-donors-big-tech-trump-vp/" rel>mentee J.D. Vance</a> get elected senator and then on the Trump ticket—seems also to have paid off
The next four years will determine just how high Thiel’s profit margin will be
Thiel explains why so many of his peers have finally come around to Trump; why he thinks Kamala—and liberalism more broadly—lost the election; why the Trump 2.0 team
with antiestablishment figures willing to rethink the system
We talk about the rise of historical revisionism
the blurry line between skepticism and conspiracy
and his contrarian ideas about what we might face in a dreaded World War III
On Tuesday night, Donald Trump announced that the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, along with the entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, will <a href=\\\"https://www.npr.org/2024/11/12/g-s1-33972/trump-elon-musk-vivek-ramaswamy-doge-government-efficiency-deep-state\\\">head a new initiative</a> in the Trump administration: the Department of Government Efficiency
Internet meme culture has now landed in the White House. <a href=\\\"https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/dogecoin\\\">Dogecoin</a> is a <a href=\\\"https://www.bankrate.com/investing/what-are-memecoins-in-crypto/\\\">memecoin</a>\u2014and if you don\u2019t understand that sentence
fear not\u2014I am sure Nellie will cover it in TGIF tomorrow
But what the announcement solidifies\u2014if Trump\u2019s win hadn\u2019t already\u2014is the triumph of the counter-elite
A bunch of oddball outsiders ran against an insular band of out-of-touch elites supported by every celebrity in Hollywood\u2014and they won
but also the culture in ways we can\u2019t imagine
How they did that\u2014and why\u2014is a question that I\u2019ve been thinking about nonstop since Tuesday
who called Thiel\u2019s endorsement of Trump \u201Cone of the most dangerous things\u201D he had ever seen
Thiel has taken a step back from politics\u2014at least publicly
He didn\u2019t donate to Trump\u2019s campaign
There was no big RNC speech this time around.&nbsp;
But the bigger change is a cultural one: He\u2019s no longer the pariah of Silicon Valley for supporting Trump
among many other tech titans who have joined the Trump train.&nbsp;
and yet Trump\u2019s White House wants to break up Big Tech
But perhaps that\u2019s the secret to his success
He\u2019s beholden to no tribe but himself
His most recent bet\u2014helping his <a href=\\\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/07/28/jd-vance-peter-thiel-donors-big-tech-trump-vp/\\\">mentee J.D. Vance</a> get elected senator and then on the Trump ticket\u2014seems also to have paid off
The next four years will determine just how high Thiel\u2019s profit margin will be
Thiel explains why so many of his peers have finally come around to Trump; why he thinks Kamala\u2014and liberalism more broadly\u2014lost the election; why the Trump 2.0 team
that’s how many Free Press subscribers there are
It’s an incredible figure—nearly double the number this time last year
We founded The Free Press based on a simple belief: that we weren’t the only ones fed up with an old media that had abandoned its most basic role
We thought that building a journalistic institution committed to the pursuit of truth seemed important and worth trying but would be very hard to pull off
Judging by the size of this growing community—and the outsize impact we are having on the culture—I think we were on to something
we’ve been working harder than ever to build a media company deserving of your trust
Here’s just a small taste of what we’ve been up to:
So for those of you who aren’t yet paying subscribers
we’re giving 25 percent off our annual subscription of $80 as a special Black Friday deal from now until Monday
That’s a full year of unlimited access to all Free Press content for just $60
So forget the discounted ceramic pans and the final sale J.Crew sweaters languishing in your cart
None of those will give you the feeling of superiority you’ll get from supporting independent media all year long
Help us build an institution that Americans can trust—and become one in a million Free Press subscribers today.
I learned, early in life, that I am not an idealist or purist on the subject of perfection.  I live on the pragmatic part of the spectrum, and continually appreciate TFP.
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that\u2019s how many Free Press subscribers there are
It\u2019s an incredible figure\u2014nearly double the number this time last year
We founded The Free Press based on a simple belief: that we weren\u2019t the only ones fed up with an old media that had abandoned its most basic role
Judging by the size of this growing community\u2014and the outsize impact we are having on the culture\u2014I think we were on to something
we\u2019ve been working harder than ever to build a media company deserving of your trust
Here\u2019s just a small taste of what we\u2019ve been up to:
So for those of you who aren\u2019t yet paying subscribers
we\u2019re giving 25 percent off our annual subscription of $80 as a special Black Friday deal from now until Monday
That\u2019s a full year of unlimited access to all Free Press content for just $60
None of those will give you the feeling of superiority you\u2019ll get from supporting independent media all year long
You can also get 25 percent off <a href=\\\"http://thefp.com/gift\\\">annual gift subscriptions</a>, because nothing says \u201CI love you\u201D\u2014or derails the family\u2019s holiday get-together\u2014quite like the gift of The Free Press. You\u2019ll also get 25 percent off everything in our <a href=\\\"https://shop.thefp.com/?srsltid=AfmBOopkOUs7G_qETARVIg6DrxkTJbiCltEKho5bmQUCJq-ku4dAqaB8\\\">merch store</a>
(Snap up those reasonably priced TGIF socks before the Trump tariffs hit
Kidding\u2014they\u2019re made in America!)
Help us build an institution that Americans can trust\u2014and become one in a million Free Press subscribers today
journalist and founder of media company The Free Press
former Indiana Governor and president of Purdue University
spoke Thursday evening at an event titled “Where Do We Go From Here
The Future of Free Speech on College Campus” in Old Cabell Hall
Weiss and Daniels shared their concerns about the erosion of free speech on college campuses
the dangers of self-censorship and how college and university administrators should respond to protests and large gatherings.&nbsp;
The event was hosted in honor of the 60th anniversary of the Free Speech Movement by Think Again at U.Va. — an initiative with the stated mission of <a href="https://www.thinkagainuva.com/">encouraging</a> students to think critically and promote free expression — and the Heterodox Academy, an organization that says it <a href="https://heterodoxacademy.org/campuses/university-of-virginia/">works</a> to improve research and education at the University by encouraging open inquiry
Weiss spoke on her resignation from the New York Times at Thursday’s event
saying she feels blessed to no longer be working for the organization.&nbsp;
“I still know quite a lot of people that work there
and the kind of distortions … that they need to indulge in in order to keep their jobs is painful,” Weiss said
Daniels is a businessman and retired politician who served as the 49th governor of Indiana from 2005 to 2013 before becoming president of Purdue University
a role he held from 2013 until the end of 2022
Daniels worked as a chief political advisor and liaison to President Ronald Reagan
Office of Management and Budget under President George W
The evening began with a featured screening of a short documentary <a href="https://www.berkeleyside.org/2024/10/14/free-speech-movement-60th-anniversary">chronicling</a> the birth of the Free Speech Movement at UC Berkeley
in which students protested administrators’ implementation of restrictions on political expression at the school in 1964
Drama lecturer and Oscar-winning film maker
Weiss said that the United States is facing an “epidemic of cowardice,” adding that the fear of being “canceled” and suffering reputational damage due to expressing one’s true beliefs has led people to censor themselves and their opinions
Weiss said that free speech is as much about overcoming this behavior as it is about protecting the right itself
“Free speech is not just about the right to speech,” Weiss said
“It’s about refusing to go along with compelled speech.”
While Weiss said she had not heard about the events surrounding the encampment at the University, she and Daniels discussed similar protests that occurred at Columbia last semester. At Columbia University, pro-Palestinian protesters have <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg3dnn7zlyo">occupied</a> campus buildings to voice their opposition to the war in Gaza
Police intervened to clear the encampments
resulting in numerous arrests and heightened security concerns.&nbsp;
Daniels asked Weiss what she would have done differently if she were president of Columbia University during the recent protests
Weiss responded that she would also have “enforced the law” against students who protested
"Those students were holding these janitors hostage at [Columbia University].” Weiss said
“How can that be construed as being on the side of social justice
what I would say is to enforce the law on all of the students … that destroyed property.”
Weiss also said it is important for universities to clearly outline the difference between speech and violence and to articulate what the deeper purpose of a university is — to help students grow into citizens who will uphold and further civilization
“You have a right as a student at Columbia to go and say ‘I love Hamas’’” Weiss said
you should make it very clear that the kind of worldview that celebrates terror is not what the university stands for.”
Daniels added that there should be distinction between speech and conduct
Daniels said there are critical moments where universities failed first to enforce the rules as the rights of others were trespassed by conduct
said he feels that University students effectively support free speech
as there are a diverse group of organizations through which students can express themselves freely
“Whether it’s College Democrats and Republicans or the Jefferson Literary and Debating Society and the Washington Literary and Debating Society or the Civil Discourse Initiative
there are a lot of really good organizations that are student led that promote free speech,” Haydel said
Weiss said that the University is an example of an institution that effectively supports free speech on its campus
“I was so impressed with the students that I met … while things here may not be perfect
compared to a lot of other similar schools
[the University is] going wildly in the right direction.”
Indieheads is one of many Contracted Independent Organizations at the University dedicated to music
though it stands out to students for many reasons
Indieheads President Brian Tafazoli describes his experience and involvement in Indieheads over the years
as well as the impact that the organization has had on his personal and musical development
you should probably question the decisions you’ve made up until that point
That’s the situation that Tucker Carlson and his guest—the pseudo-historian Darryl Cooper, who goes by the internet handle Martyr Made—found themselves in on <a href="https://x.com/TuckerCarlson/status/1830652074746409246" rel>Carlson’s podcast</a> earlier this week
I urge you to watch <a href="https://x.com/TuckerCarlson/status/1830652074746409246" rel>the whole thing</a> and see for yourself lest you imagine Carlson had Cooper on to grill him about his views
He billed the episode with Cooper as a conversation with “the best and most honest popular historian working in the United States today.” Carlson added: “I want people to know who you are and I want you to be widely recognized as the most important historian in the United States.” 
Cooper asserted that Churchill was a “psychopath” and the “chief villain” of World War II—and that Hitler really wanted peace but was forced into war because Churchill wanted that
There was more: <a href="https://www.jpost.com/international/article-818792" rel>Cooper argued</a> that the Nazi death camps
where half of the more than six million Jews killed in the Holocaust were systematically murdered
were the result of the Germans taking too many “prisoners of war.” (Nazi Germany “launched a war where they were completely unprepared to deal with the millions and millions of prisoners of war
and they just threw these people into camps and millions of people ended up dead.”) Yes
Many people are surely being exposed to these ideas for the first time
and perhaps they think Cooper has uncovered some kind of forbidden knowledge
But none of these ideas are new; they’ve just been debunked or rejected
They are mostly a regurgitation of Pat Buchanan’s view of that war
captured most concisely in his book Churchill
The only difference now is that the purveyors of this pseudo-history—one that dishonors America
and history itself—enjoy audiences of many millions
He is also a very intelligent person and I presume he has a very strong internet connection at his podcast studio. So, like me, he surely has seen Cooper’s recent musings. 
Here, for example, was Cooper’s reaction to the Olympics opening ceremony in July: 
</a>And here, also in July, was Cooper suggesting that Hitler is in heaven: 
</a>Here he is a year ago, in August 2023, claiming that <a href="https://x.com/martyrmade/status/1697297571591631151" rel>God sent the Romans</a> “to destroy the leprous temple and put an end to the Israelite religion for all time.”
</a>If there is a criticism I’ve gotten over the past several years it’s that I pay too much attention—and apply too much scrutiny—to the excesses of the illiberal left at the expense of the illiberal right. Wasn’t I ignoring the elephant and allowing myself to get distracted by the gnat?
The second is that I have been concerned for years now that the illiberal ideology that has become increasingly mainstream on the political left—one that makes war on our common history, our common identity as Americans, and fundamentally, on the goodness of the American project—would inspire the mirror ideology on the right. 
And that is exactly where we find ourselves, with an illiberal left that defaces Churchill statues—and an illiberal right that defaces Churchill’s legacy. With a left that insists 1619 was the year of the true founding of America—and a right that suggests the Greatest Generation was something closer to genociders. With a left that sympathizes with modern-day Nazis in the form of Hamas—and a right that sympathizes with the original ones. 
Tucker Carlson is scheduled to take the stage with J.D. Vance and Donald Trump Jr. in the coming weeks. His views may be alarming to most Americans, but it is hard to ignore that Carlson seems to have positioned himself as a vector of influence in the Republican Party.
The fringe these days has a way of making its way to the mainstream with the speed of Starlink. Crazy ideas on campus came careening into the center of the Democratic Party’s belief system. Do not pretend this away.
I recommend three illuminating pieces published today by The Free Press
First, the historian Victor Davis Hanson systematically reviews the false claims made about Churchill, the Allies, Hitler, and more. Hanson is the author of hundreds of articles, book reviews, and newspaper editorials on Greek, agrarian, and military history. He has written or edited 24 books, including <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/93116/9781541674103" rel>The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won</a>
Read Victor Davis Hanson: <a href="https://www.thefp.com/p/victor-davis-hanson-the-truth-about" rel>The Truth About World War II</a>
someone who once embraced a pugnacious brand of Trumpian populism
and who now is horrified by what he sees emerging from the darker corners of the right
Sohrab argues that odious views like Cooper’s Nazi apologia threaten to make their way from the fringe to the mainstream
Read Sohrab Ahmari on <a href="https://www.thefp.com/p/pseudo-scholars-and-the-rise-of-the" rel>Pseudo-Scholars and the Rise of the Barbarian Right</a>
we believe deeply in America and its promise
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If you ever find yourself defending Adolf Hitler and demonizing Winston Churchill
you should probably question the decisions you\u2019ve made up until that point.&nbsp;
That\u2019s the situation that Tucker Carlson and his guest\u2014the pseudo-historian Darryl Cooper, who goes by the internet handle Martyr Made\u2014found themselves in on <a href=\\\"https://x.com/TuckerCarlson/status/1830652074746409246\\\">Carlson\u2019s podcast</a> earlier this week
I urge you to watch <a href=\\\"https://x.com/TuckerCarlson/status/1830652074746409246\\\">the whole thing</a> and see for yourself lest you imagine Carlson had Cooper on to grill him about his views
He billed the episode with Cooper as a conversation with \u201Cthe best and most honest popular historian working in the United States today.\u201D Carlson added: \u201CI want people to know who you are and I want you to be widely recognized as the most important historian in the United States.\u201D&nbsp;
Cooper asserted that Churchill was a \u201Cpsychopath\u201D and the \u201Cchief villain\u201D of World War II\u2014and that Hitler really wanted peace but was forced into war because Churchill wanted that.&nbsp;
There was more: <a href=\\\"https://www.jpost.com/international/article-818792\\\">Cooper argued</a> that the Nazi death camps
were the result of the Germans taking too many \u201Cprisoners of war.\u201D (Nazi Germany \u201Claunched a war where they were completely unprepared to deal with the millions and millions of prisoners of war.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;and they just threw these people into camps and millions of people ended up dead.\u201D) Yes
millions of people \u201Cended up dead.\u201D
But none of these ideas are new; they\u2019ve just been debunked or rejected
They are mostly a regurgitation of Pat Buchanan\u2019s view of that war
The only difference now is that the purveyors of this pseudo-history\u2014one that dishonors America
and history itself\u2014enjoy audiences of many millions
He is also a very intelligent person and I presume he has a very strong internet connection at his podcast studio. So, like me, he surely has seen Cooper\u2019s recent musings.&nbsp;
Here, for example, was Cooper\u2019s reaction to the Olympics opening ceremony in July:&nbsp;
</a>And here, also in July, was Cooper suggesting that Hitler is in heaven:&nbsp;
</a>Here he is a year ago, in August 2023, claiming that <a href=\\\"https://x.com/martyrmade/status/1697297571591631151\\\">God sent the Romans</a> \u201Cto destroy the leprous temple and put an end to the Israelite religion for all time.\u201D
</a>If there is a criticism I\u2019ve gotten over the past several years it\u2019s that I pay too much attention\u2014and apply too much scrutiny\u2014to the excesses of the illiberal left at the expense of the illiberal right. Wasn\u2019t I ignoring the elephant and allowing myself to get distracted by the gnat?
The second is that I have been concerned for years now that the illiberal ideology that has become increasingly mainstream on the political left\u2014one that makes war on our common history, our common identity as Americans, and fundamentally, on the goodness of the American project\u2014would inspire the mirror ideology on the right.&nbsp;
And that is exactly where we find ourselves, with an illiberal left that defaces Churchill statues\u2014and an illiberal right that defaces Churchill\u2019s legacy. With a left that insists 1619 was the year of the true founding of America\u2014and a right that suggests the Greatest Generation was something closer to genociders. With a left that sympathizes with modern-day Nazis in the form of Hamas\u2014and a right that sympathizes with the original ones.&nbsp;
The fringe these days has a way of making its way to the mainstream with the speed of Starlink. Crazy ideas on campus came careening into the center of the Democratic Party\u2019s belief system. Do not pretend this away.
First, the historian Victor Davis Hanson systematically reviews the false claims made about Churchill, the Allies, Hitler, and more. Hanson is the author of hundreds of articles, book reviews, and newspaper editorials on Greek, agrarian, and military history. He has written or edited 24 books, including <a href=\\\"https://bookshop.org/a/93116/9781541674103\\\">The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won</a>.&nbsp;
Read Victor Davis Hanson: <a href=\\\"https://www.thefp.com/p/victor-davis-hanson-the-truth-about\\\">The Truth About World War II</a>
Sohrab argues that odious views like Cooper\u2019s Nazi apologia threaten to make their way from the fringe to the mainstream.&nbsp;
Read Sohrab Ahmari on <a href=\\\"https://www.thefp.com/p/pseudo-scholars-and-the-rise-of-the\\\">Pseudo-Scholars and the Rise of the Barbarian Right</a>
In fact, the photos in question appear to have been taken around the same time as Carti&#x27;s <a href="/pop-culture/a/cmplxtara-mahadevan/kai-cenat-on-stage-playboi-carti-rolling-loud-set">Kai Cenat-featuring RL performance</a>
the bulk of fans’ ensuing comments focused on pleas for a deluxe version of MUSIC and/or rumors of a swiftly released follow-up
“Opps Linking Up,” he said in a comment left on the Opium IG post
“N***as Will Link With Rats To Prove They Get Cheese.” While it wasn’t immediately apparent whether this was also intended as a commentary on the Carti and Bari photos
Connor’s own rise, <a href="/style/a/rae-witte/rise-and-fall-of-ian-connor">particularly in the fashion space</a>
has long been a subject of discussion among fans
as have the multiple rape allegations against him
The current status of his relationships with Bari and Carti isn&#x27;t clear
As for the allegations against Bari, Carti <a href="/music/a/kyle/playboi-carti-addresses-asap-bari-sexual-harassment-allegations">directly addressed them</a> mid-performance in 2017
“I don’t support none of that rape shit,” <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBst_1HHyo8" target="_blank">Carti said at the time</a>
When some in the crowd started a “Fuck Bari!” chant
Carti himself was accused of aggravated assault in 2023, though his lawyer said in a statement to Complex at the time that the MUSIC artist had been “<a href="/music/a/tracewilliamcowen/playboi-carti-alleged-assaulted-girlfriend-paternity-test-lawyer-says-falsely-accused">falsely accused</a>.”
ASAP Rocky Calls ASAP Bari and Ian Connor &#x27;B*tch&#x27; During Rolling Loud Performance (UPDATE)
Ian Connor Allegations Resurface in New Report 
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