The Charles C. W. Cooke Podcast

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.

It's the day after the Super Bowl, and that means it's time for episode 18 of The Charles C. W. Cooke Podcast, which, this week, features a monologue about last week's remarkably embarrassing State of the Union address (which shouldn't exist), and an interview with Marian Tupy, co-author of Superabundance: The Story of Population Growth, Innovation, and Human Flourishing on an Infinitely Bountiful Planet. Are we richer than medieval peasants? Is it easier to buy a vacuum cleaner now than it used to be? Why is a bigger population not only not bad, but good? Do statist conservatives have a point when they complain about free markets? Is environmentalism a religion? Why does cancel culture threaten the economy? Charles asks all these questions—and more. Listen, or don't. It's up to you.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.

How many people can say they knew someone who assassinated a president? Charles's guest today is Paul Gregory, whose fascinating book, The Oswalds, relates his relationship with Lee and Marina. Paul tells Charles how he met the Oswalds, what he thought of them, why he still feels some "shame," why he thinks all the conspiracy theories are bunk, and why it took him six decades to put his story to paperCharles's monologue is on Florida's proposed "constitutional carry" bill, which, despite all the hysterics, actually represents a rather modest reform to the status quo.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.

It's Friday, and it's 5 o'clock somewhere. That means it's time for episode 16 of The Charles C. W. Cooke Podcast, in which Charles addresses everyone's favorite topic—how we can address our deficits and national debt, and why, despite their protestations, the Republicans aren't serious about doing so—and then chats with Vic Matus about his book on the history of Vodka in the United States, and, in particular, how a grain alcohol “without distinctive character, aroma, taste, or color” became the most popular hard liquor in America.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.