A miracle has occurred! Suddenly, the media is warming to the idea that COVID might have leaked from a Wuhan biolab—an idea which, just last year, they condemned as dangerous conspiracy. But of course that has nothing to do with President Biden having won the election. Surely not. Nor, certainly, is the “January 6 Commission” a cynical power play by house Democrats. Our editors discuss what all this is really about.

The CDC has newly proclaimed that vaccinated people no longer need to mask up (duh). But some people can’t seem to let go of the ritual. Plus: violent conflict breaks out between Israel and Palestine. It’s a skeleton crew this week—just Seth and Spencer—as the rest of the cast are out at Claremont’s Washington, D.C. event. Together the two tackle the week’s weighty events and the Left’s appalling response.

In this newly revived occasional series, Ryan Williams, President of The Claremont Institute, interviews prominent scholars in the Claremont Institute's orbit. Dr. Mark Blitz, the Fletcher Jones Professor of Political Philosophy at Claremont McKenna College, joins Ryan to discuss his new book, Reason and Politics: The Nature of Political Phenomena—a searching discussion of questions at the heart of both America’s regime and her present crisis. Ryan and Mark discuss prudence, the common good, and how American public life could regain its sanity.

The rapidly spreading woke dogma that has taken over our CIA now seems to be ascendant in the military. What does that mean for national security? Our editors analyze. Plus: Liz Cheney has been ousted from GOP leadership, which is good news for everyone who wants to see the the uniparty, anti-American establishment gone.

Like so many of our crumbling institutions, the CIA is experiencing a woke takeover of its own, which it’s advertising in incredibly cringey ways. Meanwhile, the forever war in Afghanistan is hopefully reaching a final endpoint. Our editors reflect on what we learned from the experience. Plus: Part I in a mini-series on mapping the political landscape of the American Right.

In this special edition of The American Mind Podcast, Michael Anton, lecturer and research fellow at Hillsdale College, senior fellow at the Claremont Institute, and former Trump Administration national security official, is joined by Charles Haywood, who runs The Worthy House and is a distinguished book reviewer. The two discuss the future of a country in crisis, touching on a wide array of topics in the process—from questions of political philosophy both contemporary and ancient, to the balance between hope and despair at the decay of the American regime.

It’s official: Governor Gavin Newsom will face a recall election later this year. Besides the sheer glee of watching Gavin get the boot, our editors have many thoughts about what all this might mean for California and the great national reshuffle. Meanwhile, Texas and Florida take action against big tech, and Jonah Goldberg attacked Claremont on his podcast recently. The cast responds.

Derek Chauvin, the police officer most prominently involved in the death of George Floyd, was found guilty of all charges against him yesterday. This of course did nothing to appease the leftist mob. When Ma’Khia Bryant was shot and killed by police while brandishing a knife, the hive mind immediately switched gears and zeroed in on Bryant’s story. Our editors examine the media forces at work and the deeper issues festering beneath the veneer of righteous fury.

With control of Congress and the presidency, Democrats have taken the first steps toward making Washington, D.C. the fifty-first state. But there is even more here than meets the eye, and the rationale behind the Left’s push to transform voting is truly sinister. Our editors analyze the situation and underlying arguments.

From Vermont to Arkansas, GOP governors are bowing to wokeness in spectacular displays of misunderstanding of what time it is politically. Scott Yenor, a Washington Fellow for the Center for the American Way of Life, joins the podcast as a special guest to analyze the depths of depravity feminism and wokeness have brought us to.