Conversations with Bill Kristol

Gen. Jack Keane is a retired four-star general and former vice chief of staff of the U.S. Army. The conversation focuses on the advice that led President Bush to change strategies in the Iraq War via the troop surge, Gen. Keane’s remarkable career in the military, and the threats we face today.

Peter Thiel co-founded PayPal and Palantir Technologies, was the first outside investor in Facebook, and is the author of "Zero to One, Notes on StartUps, or How to Build the Future." The conversation focuses on Thiel's experiences founding companies, the state of technology and innovation, and the crisis in American higher education.

The second in an ongoing series with the distinguished Harvard government professor Harvey Mansfield, this conversation focuses on the political science of The Federalist, conservatism in America, and on feminism.

Mark Blitz is a professor of political philosophy at Claremont McKenna College and author, most recently, of "Plato's Political Philosophy." The discussion focuses on great thinkers in the history of political philosophy, ancient and modern (Plato, Aristotle, John Locke, Karl Marx, G.W.F. Hegel, Friedrich Nietzsche) and the importance of studying them in contemporary America.

The Hertog Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and editor of the policy journal "National Affairs", Yuval Levin is a leading figure in the public policy movement that has come to be known as "Reform Conservatism." This conversation focuses on how conservatives—and conservatism—should respond to the challenges of the twenty-first century.

The Clifton Waller Barrett Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Virginia, Paul Cantor is a leading scholar of Shakespeare as well as an authority on American popular culture. In part one of a two part series, Cantor discusses comedies, tragedies, and what Shakespeare can teach us about politics. Plays discussed including Hamlet, Measure for Measure, The Merchant of Venice, Coriolanus, and Julius Caesar, among others. Visit www.thegreatthinkers.org for an online course on Shakespeare curated by Professor Cantor.

Charles Murray is one of America's most distinguished political scientists and the W. H. Brady Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. This conversation focuses on Murray's groundbreaking books from "Losing Ground" to "Coming Apart," the controversies surrounding the publication of "The Bell Curve," as well as the economic and moral challenges that America faces today.

A fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, Elliott Abrams discusses his career in Washington, mostly in the State Department and the White House. Much of the conversation focuses on Abrams work on Latin American affairs and, particularly, Israel and Middle Eastern affairs.

Leon Kass and Amy Kass were for many years teachers at the University of Chicago. There, they taught great books, political philosophy, the Hebrew bible, literature, and many other subjects as part of the university's then-commitment to a comprehensive education. This conversation focuses on the experience of teaching as well as considers themes such as love, friendship, and courtship in contemporary America.

The first in a series of conversations with the Harvard government professor Harvey Mansfield. In this conversation Mansfield discusses his work on Edmund Burke, Alexis de Tocqueville, Niccolo Machiavelli, and the importance of political philosophy. He also discusses the influence of Leo Strauss.