Episodes
Wednesday Jul 05, 2023
Wednesday Jul 05, 2023
For a second straight summer, the Supreme Court issues a series of rulings that impact the nation’s social and political fabrics. John Yoo, a Hoover Institution visiting fellow and author of the newly released The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Supreme Court, explains the justices’ reasoning on race and free speech, what the future holds for college admissions (Harvard’s legacy factor now the subject of a lawsuit), plus the unusually personal nature of a few of the opinions.
Thursday Jun 29, 2023
Thursday Jun 29, 2023
Florida’s governor comes to San Francisco and uses the city’s decay as fodder for a presidential campaign ad, while improvement and innovation in California’s K-12 schools remains elusive thanks to the state’s political dynamics. Hoover senior fellow Lee Ohanian and distinguished policy fellow Bill Whalen, both contributors to Hoover’s “California on Your Mind” web channel, join Hoover senior writer Jonathan Movroydis to discuss the latest in the Golden State, including the summer’s first heat wave, the oddities of 4th of July on the West Coast, plus a Vanity Fair profile of a California overly obsessed with crime, homelessness, local nabobs, and trendy cuisine.
Tuesday Jun 27, 2023
Tuesday Jun 27, 2023
A recent data study on America’s charter schools – the third in an ongoing series – shows students with average learning gains of six days in math and 16 days in reading for the academic years 2015-2019. Macke Raymond, a Hoover Institution Distinguished Research Fellow and founder and director of Stanford University’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes, which authored the study, discusses lessons learned and the status of the three-decade charter school movement, the push for better performing traditional public schools, and a growing national conversation on classroom outcomes.
Thursday Jun 22, 2023
Thursday Jun 22, 2023
Arguably the world’s most troubled region, the Levant continues to produce geopolitical obstacles and conundrums. Joel Rayburn, a Hoover visiting fellow and former US State Department Deputy Assistant Secretary for Levant Affairs explains how Bashar al-Assad (the Levant’s “Tony Soprano”) survived a civil war and sanctions, the Arab League readmitting Syria, the significance of regional lands conducting their own diplomacy without direct US involvement, the role of a fragile regime in Iran, plus the long shadows of Russia and China.
Tuesday Jun 20, 2023
Tuesday Jun 20, 2023
A cyberattack on a European banking institution, the handiwork of a pro-Russian “hacktivist” collective, may be a preview of the next chapter in the war in Ukraine. Herb Lin, the Hoover Institution’s Hank J. Holland Fellow in Cyber Policy and Security, discusses possible motives behind the attack, various nations’ cyber-strategies – China in search of data, North Korea in need of cash – and the push and pull between the US government and the nation’s commercial and tech sectors over taking responsibility for future attacks.
Monday Jun 12, 2023
Monday Jun 12, 2023
Forty years after the movie WarGames showed the threat of a computer-driven nuclear holocaust, war-gaming has come to prominence as a way to foreshadow – and possibly deter – future conflicts. Jacquelyn Schneider, a Hoover fellow and director of Hoover’s Wargaming and Crisis Simulation Initiative, explains the fine art of quality war-gaming – and how the practice applies to current tensions between the US and China, and perhaps played a role in the current Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Thursday Jun 01, 2023
Thursday Jun 01, 2023
San Francisco’s office values plummet as the city/county face a myriad of financial woes including a gaping budget shortfall and a public-transportation system approaching a “fiscal cliff.” Hoover senior fellow Lee Ohanian and distinguished policy fellow Bill Whalen, both contributors to Hoover’s “California on Your Mind” web channel, join Hoover senior writer Jonathan Movroydis to discuss the latest in the Golden State, including what policies San Francisco could implement to rejuvenate its business sector, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ dust-up with a “progressive order of queer and trans nuns,” plus the left’s efforts to force a frail senator Dianne Feinstein into an early retirement.
Thursday May 18, 2023
Thursday May 18, 2023
What are we to make of the debt-ceiling drama in Washington and why is there a need for the Federal Reserve to engage in greater self-examination? John Cochrane, the Hoover Institution’s Rose Marie and Jack Anderson senior fellow and a recipient of the 2023 Bradley Prize for his contributions to the study of economics, reflects on lessons learned from inflation, institutional drift, and the art of economic storytelling.
Thursday May 04, 2023
Thursday May 04, 2023
San Francisco’s fentanyl “crackdown” begins; California’s budget drama heats up inside the State Capitol; and Governor Gavin Newsom’s ongoing obsession with national politics prompts a media backlash back at home. Hoover senior fellow Lee Ohanian and distinguished policy fellow Bill Whalen, both contributors to Hoover’s “California on Your Mind” web channel, join Hoover senior writer Jonathan Movroydis to discuss the latest in the Golden State, including what policy urgencies Newsom faces other than fiscal triage, plus a window into California’s cultural disparity that is the Lakers-Warriors NBA playoff series.
Thursday Apr 27, 2023
Thursday Apr 27, 2023
At the dawn of the 20th Century, control of the African continent centered around European colonial desires – national pride, natural resources, and manpower. Hoover senior fellow emeritus Thomas Henriksen, author of America’s Wars: Interventions, Regime Change, and Insurgencies After the Cold War, describes what differs in this century other than the former colonies being independent nations—Russian and Chinese influence (think war financing and debt traps), terrorist-related “forever wars,” and a question of direct American involvement (such as special forces operations). Henriksen also offers analysis on last weekend’s evacuation of US embassy staff in Khartoum.