The Hanania Show

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.richardhanania.comTom Khaled Würdemann (follow on X) is a PhD student at Heidelberg University. He also works as a lecturer at the Police College of the State of Hassia, Germany.He joins the podcast to talk mainly about the history of Syria and recent events in that country. I am particularly fascinated by the question of why a nation that had multiple coups in the decades before 1970 ended up being ruled by one family for over half a century. We discuss the personalities of Hafez and Bashar al-Assad, and the nature of the mafia state that they created. I knew that part of the regime’s downfall was a result of it no longer having much support from Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah, but Tom explained to me the extent to which the Syrian government itself was hollowed out and had to rely on militias domestically. Once the Assad regime turned on those militias and its foreign backers were distracted, there was no one left to face the rebels. I personally enjoyed the story of the Druze commander of the Republican Guard Issam Zahreddine, who was jacked and apparently a falconer, although I couldn’t find much detail on this picture. Here’s a hagiographic obituary that is very fun to read but should be taken with a grain of salt of course. I thought since Zahreddine posed with a falcon he was the leader of the Falcons of the Euphrates, but Tom corrected me on this and noted he was actually part of the government. This is why you talk to experts in their field. We go into the role of socialism in Baathist ideology, how that was operationalized in Syria, and the supposed economic opening under the younger Assad. Tom lists four possibilities for a new Syria, from worse to better: ISIS, the Taliban, Iran, and Turkey.Near the end we talk about the issue of Syrian refugees in Germany. Tom’s father is Syrian and his mother is German, and he teaches aspiring police candidates in Hassia, so he brings a unique perspective to this issue. There’s also some talk on German culture, which from what I’ve heard I’ve always found disturbingly weird. LinksMe, Uncle Sam as the Hegelian Hammer in SyriaMe on Assad’s last daysTom on October 7 from a comparative perspective (only published work in English)Economic growth in rebel held areas versus those of the regimeThe historic overrepresentation of Alawites in the top echelons of the Syrian military

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.richardhanania.comMichael Tracey joined me tonight to discuss the fall of the Syrian regime. We speculate about the future of Syria, and express surprise regarding how little Assad did to rally his troops and try to inspire them to fight on. See here for the WSJ piece we refer to.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.richardhanania.comBryan joined me on a livestream recently to talk about his new book Self-Help is Like a Vaccine. We discuss topics like parenting, how to live a stress free life, when to stick to one’s principles and when to compromise, and more. We end by taking a few questions from the audience. See Bryan on Milei and populism, which is another one of the issues we discussed. To get notifications for future livestreams, make sure to download the Substack app.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.richardhanania.comStephen Goldstein (follow on X) is a postdoc in Evolutionary Virology at the University of Utah Medical School, where he specializes in coronaviruses. He joins me to discuss vaccines and whether you should get them.Short answer: yes. I’ve been delving a bit into the claims of anti-vaxxers, and every time you look at one of their arguments it falls apart in the face of the most basic scrutiny. See tweets on RFK here, here, here, and here. The debate has a certain motte-and-bailey quality. Anti-vaxxers will throw ten different things at you. They’ll dispute the term “anti-vaxx,” and claim they are only asking questions. Every question you answer leads to more ill-informed questions, and claims that this or that hasn’t been studied. Overall, we just have to step back and say that the main claims of their most prominent spokesmen – that the covid vaccine was a net negative for most people or that it led to a surge in sudden deaths, that there is any link between vaccines and autism, that vaccines have done more harm than good, etc – are false, and they have a negative influence on public life. Maybe they once in a while have a very narrow point. Perhaps young men shouldn’t get two doses of a covid vaccine if they’ve recently been infected. Who cares? If your issue is public health, the world is much more undervaccinated than it is overvaccinated, so you should take up the cause of developing and distributing more vaccines, or just pick another topic. See my previous article on the “99% Good Principle.” There’s no reason to be questioning the common recommended vaccines people get that is not rooted in a misinformed and unscientific worldview.Near the end, Stephen tells people to “do your own research.” Oh how we’ve learned what a can of worms that phrase opens up! As the success of anti-vaxxers has taught us, most people are bad at it. I reject the idea that if only elites were better or more honest, we wouldn’t have anti-vaxxers. Human stupidity doesn’t need a “root causes” explanation in the era of MAGA and the Joe Rogan Experience. Not sure what the answer is.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.richardhanania.comTonight I had a livestream with Mike Tracey on the Hunter Biden pardon, Trump expressing an intent to name Kash Patel as FBI Director, the latest in Syria, and what Trump might do in Ukraine. I explain to Michael why Trump appointing both of his daughters’ fathers-in-law to positions might make sense, as in my view nepotism isn’t necessarily a bad thing in foreign policy. Near the end we do some fanfic on how Trump and Vance might have a falling out by 2028. See tweets on Patel here, here, here, and here. See the CNN summary of the Keith Kellogg plan for Ukraine here.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.richardhanania.comMy friend Tracing Woodgrains joined me on the live stream today. Earlier this month, he and I published articles in Quillette one day apart on a similar theme, which is the need for a sane centrism beyond woke leftism and the Trump cult. We try to distinguish between a kind of libertarian-statist axis and one that focuses on whether institutions are functioning well. I share some thoughts on whether it’s even possible to be a right-wing intellectual at this point.We do an AMA near the end. Topics that come up include the future of X, whether Blue Sky will take off (see my account and Trace’s), how Trace started working for Blocked and Reported, and Nathan Cofnas’ idea on the only way to defeat wokeness.LinksToday’s out-of-context headline controversyMy previous conversation with TraceMe telling people to shut up about race and IQ, and debating CofnasTrace’s post-election reflections, followup in Quillette

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.richardhanania.comMichael Tracey joins me on a livestream today to discuss Matt Gaetz withdrawing his nomination to be Attorney General. We also talk about where MAGA is going, the increasing meaninglessness of the term “neocon”, escalation in Ukraine, and more. Here’s the video Michael sent me showing the missile attack in Dnipro today. I’ve found that livestreams are a good way to build a following on Substack. So I’ve been doing them almost daily. I’m not going to send all of the recordings out because that would just be too many emails. The ones that are really good or with other people, like this one, I’ll release to paid subscribers, while others that are less important I’ll just put on X from now on. To catch them live, you’ll have to be paying attention to my X feed or have the Substack app to get a notification. You can download it below.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.richardhanania.comI had an hour in my car today and decided to do a livestream where I talked about the Trump appointments so far. We had a few normal days and then it sort of went off the rails. The RFK and Gabbard appointments are particularly shocking, as is Gaetz in a different way. I thought that the Gribbles would be tossed aside after the election and now that they weren’t I need to rethink some things. I discuss Trump becoming a kind of mad king as he realizes just how much the right has become a cult of personality around him, along with optimistic and pessimistic scenarios for his presidency. Since he can’t run again, it’s actually an interesting question what Trump wants out of a second term. In the second half of the video, I take questions from viewers.Join me for my next stream in the app. Download it here to get a notification any time I’m live.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.richardhanania.comPolymarket gives Trump a 97% chance of Trump winning as I write this. Republicans are taking the Senate, and by a relatively substantial margin. Michael Tracey and I talk about what happened. We get into the Hispanic vote, what a second Trump administration will look like, Trump’s unique magic, how Michael could tell voters’ preferences by their looks, and much more.See Michael’s three threads of Pennsylvania voters. Sorry, but there’s like 15 seconds of dead sound at the beginning. I hate to put the podcast out in this condition, but this is time sensitive and I don’t have the time to fix it up tonight.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.richardhanania.comJust finished a three-hour election day live stream, which started at 1PM ET.Hour 1: Maxim Lott discusses betting markets and where we’re putting our money.Hour 2: Alex Nowrasteh on immigration, and what the vibe is like in DCHour 3: Rob Henderson, to discuss basic election stuff, the vibes, and we go on some tangents.This is probably going to be dated in a few hours, but I’m getting it to you all in time where you can listen to the whole thing before we know exactly what happened. There’s a lot that’s valuable here even if you get to it late.I plan to go back on tonight to talk to Darren Beattie at 7PM ET. I may go on Destiny’s stream tonight, and there might be other things going on. So watch the app to stay up to date. Note: Rob and I discussed the fact that Google gave you a map if you searched for “Where to vote for Harris” but not if you searched for “Where to vote for Trump.” There turned out to be an innocent explanation of this. We regret the error.