Things change, norms shift, and even the language we use alters with time. But despite being commonplace, change isn't always easy. This month we'll listen to David Skinner -- editor of Humanities magazine and formerly of The Weekly Standard -- deliver a 2012 lecture on how a crisis among the literary classes was sparked by a change...in a dictionary. Change also comes to the Bradley Lectures Podcast itself. We're a month off our normal schedule, in part because of changes we hope to bring...

For decades, our appreciation for natural beauty has been tempered by an awareness of its impermanence. Our environment, its species, and the very climate in which we live all exist under conditions of duress. In this month’s lecture, we will hear from Pulitzer prize winner E.O. Wilson, one of the most influential biologists of the last 70 years and pioneer of the field of sociobiology. His lecture, delivered in 2001, addresses the dangers facing our environment, strategies for slowing its...

The European Union has lost a major member. Several EU countries are facing COVID crises. The German-backed European vaccine rollout has been widely derided as a disaster. Trust in the European Union and German leadership are in question. What will be the answer? This month, we hear a 2014 lecture from Professor Brendan Simms of Cambridge University on the importance of German stability for Europe, what may happen if this stability is challenged, and the possibility of a Europe organized in...

A new administration. A renewed American bombing campaign in Syria. An apparently reconsidered relationship with Saudi Arabia. After four years of comparative international quietude, is the United States reasserting its position as a forceful manager of world affairs? And if so, should it? This month we will hear a 1997 lecture from journalist and foreign affairs scholar Fareed Zakaria on the limits of realpolitik, and the challenges of realism. ------ If you would like to keep in touch...

From the 2016 election through the present pandemic, the world has seemed anything but predictable over the last four years. In a world of Congressional chaos and a seething stock market, we might not be blamed for asking: "Can we really predict anything at all?" This month, we will hear a 2015 lecture from Prof. Philip Tetlock, co-founder of the Good Judgment Project, on the potential of Super-Forecasters, and the possibility of sifting through the noise to find the signposts toward the future.

How does a great lie become believed? How can a small, passionate minority dictate reality for a whole nation? When does history become subordinate to fiction? This month, we will hear Pulitzer Prize winner Anne Applebaum address these questions through the lens of the Soviet crushing of Eastern Europe from 1944 to 1956. While her lecture was originally delivered in 2012, its story of an impassioned minority, a totalitarian ideology, and the thrall of "alternative facts" remains trenchant in...

In November and December, many of us slip into a familiar rhythm of renewed focus on our friends, our families, and the things we have faith in. As this particular year draws to a close with several COVID-19 vaccines potentially on the way, it is good to remember that science, too, can be something worth believing in. In this episode we will hear a lecture entitled "God and the Philosophers" from Dr. Robert Jastrow, first chairman of NASA's Lunar Exploration Committee, and founding director...

Elections come and go, but the more fundamental basis of state society--political order--endures. Or does it? In the aftermath of the 2020 election, please join the Bradley Lecture Podcast for a conversation with Dr. Fukuyama on his 2012 lecture, "The Origins of Political Order," and the question of whether that order is durable enough to survive whatever happens next.

Is capitalism working? How is it supposed to work? And what do we do if it fails? In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis these questions were more relevant than ever. Now, in the midst of economic turmoil and uncertainty brought on by COVID-19, they are questions once again on everyone's mind. To help consider these old questions in a new context, Yuval Levin joins us to revisit his 2010 Bradley Lecture, "Recovering the Case for Capitalism." The text of Levin's 2010 lecture can be found at...

Judge Stephen F. Williams (1936 – 2020) was not only a storied fixture of the United States Court of Appeals’ D.C. Circuit, but a prolific author with wide-ranging expertise. In this episode of the Bradley Lectures Podcast, AEI Senior Fellow Karlyn Bowman and Resident Scholar Adam J. White join to discuss Judge Williams’ lasting legacy and learn from his lecture on efforts to liberalize post-Soviet Russia. We hope you will find that there are lessons to be learned from...

Should we impose term limits on members of Congress? Should we drastically expand the size of the House of Representatives? Are Republicans republicans and Democrats democrats?  Jonah Goldberg joins the show to discuss George Will’s Bradley Lecture, how Dr. Will humbled Young Jonah with an answer that launched a thousand op-eds, and to ruminate on political questions big and small.

The late 20th century brought into existence a new species of moneyed elite. This highly educated nouveau riche combined traditional bourgeois ethic with bohemian tastes to form a new species that David Brooks called the “Bobo.” What became of the Bobos, and how does their legacy live on — or not — in today’s elite? Factual Feminist Christina Hoff Sommers joins “The Bradley Lectures Podcast” to femsplain how Brooks’ observations can help us better understand today’s social and...

From Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France to Yuval Levin’s new book, A Time to Build, conservatives have long been fascinated by the relationship between the American individual, state, and mediating institutions. Building properly-functioning institutions of all kinds – media, religious, or educational — is crucial to the politics and social lives of a self-governing people. David Gelernter, Yale computer scientist and polymath, addresses the lack of institutions...

Decades prior to today’s political arguments about “coastal elites” misunderstanding “flyover country,” film critic, author, and talk show host Michael Medved made a cultural argument. Medved contended that the cloistered cultures of Hollywood were unresponsive to market demands, and chose to push a narrative—one that would not serve their own financial interests —  about religion, the US, and the human condition. Will Baird joins the podcast once again to discuss the themes that drew...

Prolific historian, author, and social critic Gertrude Himmelfarb (1922–2019) leaves behind a legacy of scholarship transcending time and place. Her insights into the past, such as her studies of Victorian England, help fashion a worldview for the present, one emphasizing virtue, truth-seeking, and humility. AEI Senior Fellow Karlyn Bowman joins the podcast to memorialize Dr. Himmelfarb and discuss what lessons her life and works hold for future generations. This lecture was...

“In my business,” explained one immigrant entrepreneur in the mid-1930s, “I am the best economist.” So went the argument against centralized power acting for what it believed to be the common good. Knowledge is too diffuse for a command economy to function – just one lesson among many that historian and author Amity Shlaes gleaned from her study of New Deal administration and compiled into her 2004 Bradley Lecture, “The New Deal and Class Warfare.” This lecture was originally...

The first Amendment to the Constitution provides that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” 200 years after its ratification, the Supreme Court determined that a nonsectarian prayer at a public high school’s graduation ceremony violated the Establishment Clause, and was not protected under the Free Exercise Clause. It was a puzzling decision for those who understood the centrality of religion to public life throughout...

In 2019, everyone from seven-time NBA All-Star James Harden to the writers of South Park has something to say about China. The narrative is fairly simple: China is an economic behemoth, full of billions of consumers ready to support American business – as long as said business keeps quiet about Chinese authoritarianism and human rights abuses. Almost twenty years ago, after China liberalized much of its economy and opened up to foreign investment, Arthur Waldron spoke of the paths its...

College campuses play a central role in shaping the thinking of future leaders and current public intellectuals. But starting in the 1990’s, campuses took a strange tack, engaging in more banning than shaping. Speech codes developed by shadowy bureaucracies restricted activities that might offend – whether speech, laughter, or even pinning up a calendar. Professor Alan Kors shines a light on the draconian codes of the ‘shadow university,’ explaining the origins of this “betrayal of...

Are we doomed? Probably. But the reason for that doom depends on whom you ask. If you ask a candidate at a recent Democratic town hall event on climate change, we might be doomed because our planet cannot sustain current population levels. But if you ask writer Jonathan V. Last, he will write a book explaining why the opposite is true: We need higher fertility rates to fend off the disastrous economic, social, and even environmental consequences of dwindling population levels. Lyman...

“Predictions are hard,” goes the proverb, “especially about the future.” But as the 2020 election season ramps up and Democrats compete for the opportunity to take the White House, it seems as though everyone will try anyway. Some predictions are based on a close look at demographic and other long-term political trends, while others depend upon the very short term – that whatever is most important to Americans in November 2020 will decide the coloration of the electoral map. AEI Senior...

“Predictions are hard,” goes the proverb, “especially about the future.” But as the 2020 election season ramps up and Democrats compete for the opportunity to take the White House, it seems as though everyone will try anyway. Some predictions are based on a close look at demographic and other long-term political trends, while others depend upon the very short term – that whatever is most important to Americans in November 2020 will decide the coloration of the electoral map. AEI Senior...

The counterculture that developed in the 1960s rocked post–World War II America and changed the course of the 21st century. Its art, protest culture, and worldview, moreover, led AEI Scholar Irving Kristol to identify the counterculture as “adversary to secular humanism” in a way that was previously “unthinkable.” Kristol examines the origins and legacies of this counterculture — and how it continues to reverberate in the world of politics today. This lecture was originally delivered in...