Madison's Notes

Born in Somalia, Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a women’s rights activist, free speech advocate, and New York Times bestselling author. She joins the show to discuss her new book, Prey: Immigration, Islam, and the Erosion of Women's Rights. [Note: This conversation includes discussion of sensitive topics related to sexual violence.]

What is postmodernism? Does the Biden Administration support Critical Race Theory? How might a recommitment to classical liberal principles help fight "Woke-ism"? James Lindsay joins the show to answer these questions and more and discuss his book (co-written with Helen Pluckrose), Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything About Race, Gender, and Identity—and Why This Harms Everybody. About the "Grievance Studies Affair," here.

Why and how should we read Plato? Why did Plato write dialogues? Is Plato a friend to democracy? Dr. Marcus Gibson, John and Daria Barry Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Princeton University's James Madison Program, joins Madison's Notes to provide an introduction to Plato in preparation of a series of episodes on individual Platonic dialogues.

John Cribb is the author of Old Abe, an historical novel which former Vice President Mike Pence says is the "best book on President Lincoln" he has ever read. John joins to show to discuss the book, the importance of heroes, the "great man" approach to history, Facebook's attempts to "cancel" his book, and more! You can find Cribb's essay "Facebook Cancels Abe Lincoln" here.

What does the future hold for the Republican Party? What are the greatest challenges facing America today? How many pull-ups should a young man be able to do? Congressman Mike Gallagher joins Madison's Notes to answer these questions and more. 

On January 6th, 2021, the world watched in disbelief as rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol while the results of the Electoral College were being formally presented—and challenged—in Congress. The riots left at least 4 dead, and many others wounded. Robert P. George, Director of the James Madison Program, and Allen C. Guelzo, Director of the James Madison Program's Initiative on Politics and Statesmanship, discuss the significance of this attack on the Capitol, the state of the Nation, and what Republicans and Democrats alike can do to fix this.

What is the relationship between America's Founding principles and her foreign policy? What are unalienable rights and how do we know they exist? How have other nations responded to the final report of the U.S. Department of State's Commission on Unalienable Rights? Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo and Mary Ann Glendon, Chair of the Commission on Unalienable Rights, join Madison's Notes to answer these questions and others. The Final Report of the Commission on Unalienable Rights is here.

What made George Washington the "greatest man in the world"? What is his legacy outside the United States? What did "honor" mean to America's Founding Fathers, and why was it so important to them? Craig Bruce Smith, author of American Honor: The Creation of the Nation's Ideals During the Revolutionary Era, joins the show to answer these questions and others. 

Sergiu Klainerman is the Eugene Higgins Professor of Mathematics at Princeton University. Born in communist Romania, he sees disturbing parallels between life in the Soviet Bloc and the "soft totalitarianism" or "pre-totalitarianism" taking root in America. He joins the show to discuss these parallels and reflect on Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's 1978 speech, "A World Split Apart."Klainerman's essay "Reflections on Solzhenitsyn’s Harvard Address" is here.

On November 19, 1863, Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address. Allen C. Guelzo, Director of the James Madison Program's Initiative on Politics and Statesmanship, joins the show to discuss the legacy of the Gettysburg Address and what Lincoln might say to us today. Guelzo's 2013 article for The New York Times is here. Guelzo's 2013 piece in the Claremont Review of Books is here.