Q & A, Hosted by Jay Nordlinger

Charlie Dent is a longtime congressman from Pennsylvania. He is a Republican, born and raised in Allentown. Billy Joel wrote a song about the town. With Jay, Congressman Dent talks about that and much else. He talks about what it’s like to be a politician, what it’s like to be a congressman, what it’s like to be a Republican in the Age of Trump. A very interesting and candid conversation. Source Get full access to Onward and Upward at www.jaynordlinger.com/subscribe

Marina Nemat is an Iranian dissident, a former political prisoner, and now an exile. She is the author of the blockbuster memoir “Prisoner of Tehran.” She and Jay have known each other for some years, through human-rights circles. In this “Q&A,” Jay asks her about the protests going on in Iran: what they mean, for the protesters, the regime, and Iran as a whole. She is a brainy... Source Get full access to Onward and Upward at www.jaynordlinger.com/subscribe

Yuval Levin answers that question and others. He is the editor of National Affairs and the author of “The Great Debate: Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, and the Birth of Right and Left.” With Jay, he talks about those terms, “Right” and “Left.” He talks about how he himself became a conservative. About the teachers who influenced him. He talks taxes, health care, etc. Jay asks him about his favorite... Source Get full access to Onward and Upward at www.jaynordlinger.com/subscribe

Ryan Crocker is one of the outstanding U.S. diplomats of our time. In addition to his other posts, he was ambassador to Lebanon, Kuwait, Syria, Pakistan, Iraq, and Afghanistan. He has had some of the most challenging assignments on offer. George W. Bush, in the last days of his presidency, hung the Presidential Medal of Freedom around Crocker’s neck. In this “Q&A,” Jay asks Crocker about the State... Source Get full access to Onward and Upward at www.jaynordlinger.com/subscribe

Ash Carter is a physicist and a defense-policy expert, having served in government periodically for decades. He was secretary of defense from 2015 to 2017. He has spent his academic career at Harvard, where he is today. In this “Q&A,” Jay asks him about some of the biggest issues: nuclear proliferation, North Korea, Iran, the size of the U.S. military. He also asks about the relation between our... Source Get full access to Onward and Upward at www.jaynordlinger.com/subscribe

Victor Davis Hanson’s new book is “ The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won.” Jay asks him a slew of questions, including: What caused the war? Was Hitler dumb to declare war on America? Was Japan dumb to attack America? How was FDR as wartime leader? And Truman? Were we right to drop the A-bomb(s)? Was Yalta a crime, committed by the West? Source Get full access to Onward and Upward at www.jaynordlinger.com/subscribe

Anne Applebaum is a historian and journalist, a columnist for the Washington Post. She is a particular expert on the former Soviet Union and its bloc. Her latest book is “Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine.” With Jay, she discusses this book: the “terror-famine” that killed so many Ukrainians. She also discusses contemporary issues, such as the war going on in eastern Ukraine. A lady who knows a... Source Get full access to Onward and Upward at www.jaynordlinger.com/subscribe

In this second episode of his new “Jaywalking” podcast, Jay Nordlinger plays some music from Massenet’s “Thaïs,” including the Meditation, which is how the episode gets its name. Jay also talks about Fritz Kreisler and Fritz Crisler (a legendary violinist and a legendary football coach, respectively). Then he’s got Nazis, slavery, North Korea, and other cheerful stuff. He ends with genuine cheer... Source Get full access to Onward and Upward at www.jaynordlinger.com/subscribe

This week, Daniel Hannan, the one and only, dropped by National Review headquarters in New York. Taking advantage, Jay sat down with him for a “Q&A.” Hannan, as you know, is the British writer-politician extraordinaire. With Jay, he discusses the nature of America. And then the question of national self-determination: What right do the Catalonians and Kurds have? Everyone can’t have his own... Source Get full access to Onward and Upward at www.jaynordlinger.com/subscribe

The Chinese Communist Party has just conferred on its leader, Xi Jinping, the status of Mao Zedong. He is the most powerful boss in China since Mao. His status is virtually god-like. Having Xi’s number, and the CCP’s number, is Stein Ringen, a professor emeritus at Oxford University. Ringen is the author of The Perfect Dictatorship: China in the 21st Century. For the Washington Post recently... Source Get full access to Onward and Upward at www.jaynordlinger.com/subscribe