Q & A, Hosted by Jay Nordlinger

George Weigel is one of America’s leading political writers and social critics. His biography of John Paul II—“Witness to Hope”—is one of the great modern biographies. With Jay, Weigel talks about his growing up in Baltimore. The conversation moves to Ukraine, Israel, and some key questions of American politics today. George Weigel is both sagacious and blunt. Get full access to Onward and Upward at www.jaynordlinger.com/subscribe

Eliot A. Cohen, the scholar of international affairs, is a favorite guest of “Q&A.” He has written a new book, a Shakespeare book: “The Hollow Crown: Shakespeare on How Leaders Rise, Rule, and Fall.” Shakespeare knew . . . everything. Professor Cohen knows a great deal too. At the end of his conversation with Jay, he talks about Ukraine and Israel and the immense challenge facing us all. Get full access to Onward and Upward at www.jaynordlinger.com/subscribe

Once more, Jay speaks with Haviv Rettig Gur, the Israeli journalist, about what is going on in Israel and the profound meaning of this moment. Get full access to Onward and Upward at www.jaynordlinger.com/subscribe

A conversation with Brian Riedl, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, about the economy, politics, and life. Get full access to Onward and Upward at www.jaynordlinger.com/subscribe

Haviv Rettig Gur is one of the leading journalists in Israel. He is the senior analyst of the Times of Israel. He is a regular guest on “Q&A.” Listeners want to hear from him, for a deeper understanding of what is going on in Israel and in the Middle East more broadly. With Jay, he has discussed the Hamas attack and the war to come. Most illuminating. Get full access to Onward and Upward at www.jaynordlinger.com/subscribe

Adam Fischer is a noted Hungarian conductor (as is his brother, Ivan). He conducted at the Salzburg Festival in August. And, in an event hosted by the Salzburg Festival Society, Jay had a conversation with him. Very interesting man, Maestro Fischer. Bright, experienced, candid. One learns from him. Get full access to Onward and Upward at www.jaynordlinger.com/subscribe

Jay’s guest is Scott Lincicome of the Cato Institute. He and Cato have launched a defense of globalization, or the right of people in different nations to trade with one another. He and Jay talk about this and a host of other issues: growing up; going to school; words such as “capitalism” and “neoliberal”; economics and demagogues; the problem of China; the travails of Detroit’s “Big Three”; and more (including Lincicome’s jihad against expiration dates on food products). Get full access to Onward and Upward at www.jaynordlinger.com/subscribe

Marco Armiliato is a veteran conductor from Italy. He has spent most of his career in opera, and in Italian opera in particular. He is a regular at the Met, the Vienna State Opera, and other important venues. Last month, he conducted at the Salzburg Festival, and he was a guest in the series of conversations hosted by the Salzburg Festival Society. Jay does the questioning. In the course of their talk, Armiliato says that Luciano Pavarotti, the late tenor, was full of sunshine. Just the same is true of Maestro Armiliato. He is one of the most beloved people in all of music—for reasons that will be obvious when you listen to him. Get full access to Onward and Upward at www.jaynordlinger.com/subscribe

Sebastien Lai is the son of Jimmy Lai, the great Hong Kong entrepreneur and publisher who is now a political prisoner: a symbol of the general struggle of Hong Kong against the tyranny that has engulfed it. Sebastien is campaigning around the world in his father’s behalf. He has many interesting things to say: about his dad, about Hong Kong, even about some deep things in life. Get full access to Onward and Upward at www.jaynordlinger.com/subscribe

Michael R. Strain is an economist at the American Enterprise Institute. Jay talks with him about his upbringing, his education, and how he arrived at his views, which favor economic freedom and freedom generally—the “open society.” What about our federal budget deficit and national debt? Is there bound to be a reckoning? Strain says that there are two kinds of reckoning: a horrendous, destructive bear, suddenly at your door; and termites, eating away at your foundations, day after day. We are in termite territory. Economics may be a “dismal science,” but not in the hands, and in the conversation, of Mike Strain. Get full access to Onward and Upward at www.jaynordlinger.com/subscribe