The Charles C. W. Cooke Podcast

On this week's episode of The Charles C. W. Cooke Podcast—the first since Charles got a haircut—Charles talks to Elbridge Colby about Taiwan. Among the topics discussed are why Taiwan matters more to the United States and the West more generally than, say, the Falkland Islands; whether Americans are prepared for an invasion; if China is our biggest geopolitical threat; and, if it is, what this tells us about our ideal Ukraine policy.Charles also answers a question: "Why do most state legislatures have a Senate?"The dial-up tone in the introduction was recorded by lintphishx and is used under a CC 3.0 License.   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Is free speech more at risk in the U.K. or the U.S.? Should Britain adopt a First Amendment? How can it possibly be legal for the police to place "non-crimes" on Brits' criminal records? Why is Scotland so censorious? And is it getting better? On Episode 27, Charles talks to Toby Young about these questions and more.He also discusses the delicious political candidacy of Calvin Ball (yes, really!), and answers a question about martial arts.The dial-up tone in the introduction was recorded by lintphishx and is used under a CC 3.0 License.   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Episode 26 begins with a Q&A. The first question has to do with infringements on constitutional rights. “Why is it okay to infringe on a right when it comes to requiring voters to register, but it isn't okay to infringe on a right when it comes to requiring gun owners to register?” The second returns to a familiar frame: “As a well known rollercoaster aficionado, what four ‘coasters would be on your Mount Rushmore?” Then it’s on to a chat with Sonny Bunch, of the Bulwark, about the state of modern cinema. As a self-professed “movie idiot,” Charles asks how Sonny became a critic, how one can tell what’s a Good Film, why the Oscars seem so far removed from films people actually want to watch, and why Hollywood is hooked on remakes, reboots, sequels, and spinoffs?The dial-up tone in the introduction was recorded by lintphishx and is used under a CC 3.0 License.   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This week's episode features another whole-show conversation, this time with Daniel Hannan, the writer, blogger and Conservative member of the British House of Lords. Charles and Daniel chat about William Shakespeare, the subject of Daniel's fantastic piece in the most recent issue of National Review. On the table are whether Shakespeare invented the modern human, how Shakespeare wrote his plays, why the Japanese think Shakespeare is Japanese and the Germans think Shakespeare is German; and whether some of Shakespeare's work is too unbearable to watch.Additional note: The man that hath no music in himself / Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds / Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils / The motions of his spirit are dull as night / And his affections dark as Erebus / Let no such man be trustedThe dial-up tone in the introduction was recorded by lintphishx and is used under a CC 3.0 License.   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On episode 24, Charles starts off by answering two questions. (1) "Were he alive today, would Ben Franklin be repairing old cars or modifying golf carts?" (2) "What do you think the practical end goal of judicial Originalism is supposed to be?"Then it's time for a conversation with pollster and strategist, Giancarlo Sopo, who answers questions about the GOP's challenges going into 2024. Is abortion going to drag Republicans down in swing states? How much will January 6 continue to matter? Does DeSantis have a better chance than Trump? And what are the Democrats' liabilities?The dial-up tone in the introduction was recorded by lintphishx and is used under a CC 3.0 License.   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On this 23rd—but not 22nd or 24th—episode, Charles starts by taking on the preposterous idea that if one thinks that Donald Trump ought to have been impeached for what he did in 2021, the unrelated criminal case against him in New York must therefore be correct.Afterwards, Charles talks to Stanford's Lanhee Chen about whether California is salvageable, and then, on the Color Supplement, discusses the joy of half-dead cars with Luther Abel, who confirms that, in the Midwest, the quadratic spacing solution needs to be more viscous so that the cold weather doesn’t contract the tetrafarseling or shimmy the wanglepins.The dial-up tone in the introduction was recorded by lintphishx and is used under a CC 3.0 License.   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Overwhelmed by the number of questions he's received about his decision to emigrate, about the USA vs. the UK, and about whether he'd ever consider moving back to England, Charles asks Sam Negus, a fellow British Americaphile (and, now, a fellow American citizen), to chat with him about what it's like to move from the Old Country to the New World. Among the topics covered by Charles and Sam are whether they feel more American or British, why they call themselves "immigrants" instead of "expatriates," if it's possible for an Englishman to become Spanish, how long it took them to get into American sports, why the British are so flummoxed by the First Amendment, and why a song from An American Tail neatly sums up the American Dream.The dial-up tone in the introduction was recorded by lintphishx and is used under a CC 3.0 License.   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In the wake of the second largest bank failure in American history, Charles eschews his monologue in order to chat to someone who knows what he's talking about: the economist, John H. Cochrane, who is the Rose-Marie and Jack Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, a co-host of the show Goodfellows, and the author of the Grumpy Economist blog, and, most recently, of the book, The Fiscal Theory of the Price Level.After that, Charles talks to Henry Oliver, of The Common Reader, about whether literature students at Harvard are capable of reading, whether it's a problem that people want to shave the edges off Shakespeare, and how long copyright terms should be for authors.The dial-up tone in the introduction was recorded by lintphishx and is used under a CC 3.0 License.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Well, he waited for nineteen episodes, but eventually he let it all out. Charles explains why he is so worried about the constitutional crisis that President Biden has created with his illegal order "forgiving"—read: transferring—student loan debt. If it's not fixed, he argues, there is trouble ahead.After that, he asks Noah Rothman some tough questions about foreign policy and America's ideal role in the world.The dial-up tone in the introduction was recorded by lintphishx and is used under a CC 3.0 License.   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The soufflé must be ordered with 24 hours' notice, but, as good luck would have it, this episode must not. This one shakes it up a bit and begins with a Q&A. "If you were to create a British Mount Rushmore, what four faces would it display?" Charles was asked by some rotter who then excluded "John, Paul, George, and Ringo" from eligibility. Charles tries to get through it nevertheless.Then it's time for a conversation with Kat Rosenfield, culture writer and author, most recently, of the novel You Must Remember This. Among the topics that were discussed were whether it matters that Roald Dahl's publisher has started rewriting his books to address so-called modern sensibilities, to what extent one should separate art from the artist who produced it, and which sorts of censorship are the most alarming.The dial-up tone in the introduction was recorded by lintphishx and is used under a CC 3.0 License.   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.