Zooming In at The UnPopulist

Immigration enforcement is the dominant focus of Donald Trump’s second term. He promised to get tough, and he has. Many who voted for him because this issue was important to them believed he would mainly crack down on criminal aliens.

On today’s episode, host Shikha Dalmia and guest David Bier of the Cato Institute dismantle that illusion. They discuss how in his second term, Trump has launched an all-out assault on all immigrants: Illegal and legal. Undocumented and documented. Criminals and law-abiding ones.

Moreover, Trump is going about immigration enforcement in an unimaginably crue...

America’s religious landscape has always been complicated, but something striking is happening inside conservative Christianity today. A movement that once spoke the language of scripture and personal faith is now increasingly shaped by grievance, politics, and an embattled sense of cultural siege.

To explore how we got here—and what this shift means for both Christianity and American liberalism—senior editor at The UnPopulist Berny Belvedere sits down with Tyler Huckabee of Sojourners to trace the long arc from the pilgrims to the rise of MAGA Christianity. They examine how persecution narratives, culture-war identity, and a growin...

A post-Trump America may feel distant right now, but the work of imagining what a liberal reconstruction could look like has already begun. After years of executive overreach, collapsing guardrails, and an unprecedented centralization of presidential power, the question facing the country isn’t only how to limit further damage—it’s how to rebuild a constitutional order that’s stronger, fairer, and resistant to the next would-be strongman.

In this episode, host Aaron Ross Powell sits down with The UnPopulist’s Shikha Dalmia and Andy Craig to introduce The Reconstruction Agenda, our ambitious new project dedicated to answeri...

For decades, American universities have been seen as bastions of free inquiry, attracting students and scholars from around the world. But what happens when this openness creates vulnerabilities? How do authoritarian regimes leverage financial ties and international student populations to stifle criticism and export censorship onto American campuses? And more urgently, are we now seeing these same tactics of intimidation and financial pressure being used by our own government to bring higher education to heel?

To explore these questions, host Aaron Ross Powell is joined by guest Sarah McLaughlin, a senior scholar of global expression at the...

The MAGA movement was once an insurgency within the Republican Party. Now, it is the party. But more than just a political takeover; this shift is the result of the consolidation of a movement defined by hostility toward its opponents and a vision of America based on a largely imagined past. Its intellectual and political leaders have a clear, authoritarian blueprint for reshaping the country.

In this episode, The UnPopulist's senior editor Berny Belvedere is joined by journalist Jason Wilson, who recently covered the fifth National Conservatism conference for The Guardian.

Through the lens of...

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Landry Ayres: Welcome back to Zooming In at The UnPopulist. I’m Landry Ayres.

We find ourselves in a deeply troubling moment for American democracy, grappling with the stark realities of a political landscape increasingly defined by fear, performative cruelty, and a conscious assault on established norms and institutions.

This special live recording from ISMA’s “Liberalism for the 21st Century” conference features host Aaron Ross Powell, as well as longtime observer of the militari...

At a recent conference at the Heterodox Academy, an organization founded in 2016 to promote viewpoint diversity on college campuses and defend academic freedom from the “woke threat,” attendees grappled with the new threat to academic freedom, this time coming from the White House. There was real disagreement about how much attention each threat deserved and we explored these tensions in a podacast episode with writer Cathy Young, who attended the conference.

This week, we take a look at that topic from a different perspective, as Berny Belvedere sits down with another guest at the conference; Michael Roth, the...

For decades, many observers held onto an optimism that, despite occasional setbacks, the arc of history inevitably bent towards a richer, freer, and better-governed world. However, the political turbulence witnessed across established democracies in the past decade has shattered this optimism and exposed deeper problems.

Today, The UnPopulist’s Editor-in-Chief Shikha Dalmia is joined by Brink Lindsey, senior vice president at the Niskanen Center and writer behind the Substack The Permanent Problem.

Shikha and Brink explore Brink’s central concept: the permanent problem, or how mass affluence has radically transformed human expectations, leading people to seek...

Academia finds itself at a critical juncture, navigating internal debates over the lack of intellectual diversity and too much in the thrall of prevailing orthodoxies, while simultaneously facing unprecedented external pressures from political forces intent on reshaping higher education. How can institutions uphold their mission of truth-seeking and open inquiry amidst such formidable challenges?

Today, senior editor Berny Belvedere sits down with distinguished journalist Cathy Young, who recently covered the Heterodox Academy’s annual conference for The Bulwark. Together, they examine how internal criticisms of “woke” excesses and progressive orthodoxy intersect with the Trump administration’s aggressive assault...

For generations, the idea of American liberty has been synonymous with limited government and individual freedoms. Yet, since the Founding, the reach of state surveillance has grown exponentially, often shrouded in secrecy and justified by the need to fight threats to safety and security.

To explore the historic choices and institutional dynamics that paved the way for the modern surveillance apparatus, Aaron Ross Powell sits down with Patrick Eddington, senior fellow at the Cato Institute and author of the new book, The Triumph of Fear: Domestic Surveillance and Political Repression from McKinley to Eisenhower.

They...

When President Trump launched his so-called Liberation Day tariffs, he didn’t just ignite a global trade war—he may have also triggered yet another constitutional crisis. This week, first an international trade court and then a federal court ruled those tariffs unlawful, striking at the heart of Trump’s sweeping claims of executive power under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. But almost immediately, an appeals court hit pause.

To help us unpack what these rapid developments mean—not just for trade policy, but for the separation of powers and the future of emergency authority in America—...

America’s Founders believed religion and liberty could not only coexist but be mutually reinforcing. Today, some influential intellectuals on the right are flatly denying that idea of alignment and arguing for society to be reordered around their vision of Christian orthodoxy.

In this episode, Berny Belvedere, The UnPopulist’s senior editor, sits down with Jerome Copulsky, research fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs and, from 2016 to 2017, senior advisor at the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Religion and Global Affairs. The two discuss Copulsky’s book, American Heretics: Religious Adversaries of Liber...

The executive branch is currently being run by an aspiring autocrat who neither respects institutional safeguards nor accepts the separation of powers. As part of his project to subsume all governmental authority under his control, he has empowered a tech billionaire to reshape and repurpose government agencies—through what they’ve called the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE—so that those agencies and their information can be weaponized for his purposes.

To explain how all this is unfolding, Zooming In host Aaron Ross Powell sits down with Julian Sanchez and Noah Kunin, the co-hosts of Wat...

In a post on Truth Social on May 2, President Trump promised to “[take] away Harvard's Tax Exempt Status,” because, “it's what they deserve!" While Trump may succeed in initiating such an action, our guest today doubts it will last, due to a long history of Supreme Court precedence regarding the tax code’s application to private institutions.

Speaking with the director of Executive Watch, Rob Tracinski is New York Times columnist David French. They discuss the Trump administration’s hypocritical implementation of viewpoint diversity, the rushed and indiscriminate defunding of scientific research, and whether to consider if the social...

Immigration policy has long been a battlefield for ideological disputes. But what we’re witnessing during Trump’s second term isn't just a debate over border security or visa policy. It’s an attempt to reconfigure the U.S. immigration system into a tool for authoritarian governance—an assault not only on due process, but on the foundational belief that laws must constrain power.

Joining Shikha Dalmia is immigration expert and senior fellow at the American Immigration Council Dara Lind. Together, they explore how Trump’s second term has differed from his first in his weaponization of obscure le...

In a piece for our new project Executive Watch, Walter Olson, senior fellow at the Cato Institute’s Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies, clarified the dangers of a recent presidential memo from the Trump administration, which accuses prominent law firms of “grossly unethical misconduct” and threatens them with severe penalties—such as revoking security clearances and cutting off federal contracts

Speaking with the director of Executive Watch, Rob Tracinski, Olson explains how, under the guise of promoting “accountability” for “frivolous, unreasonable, and vexatious litigation,” this move threatens the current means of accountability relied on by judges and under...

For much of American history, Christianity has played a crucial role in shaping the nation’s moral framework. But as political and religious identities become more entangled, has the church strayed from its traditional role as a moral anchor? And can it find its way back?

To explore these pressing questions, Berny Belvedere sits down with Jonathan Rauch, author of the new book, Cross Purposes: Christianity’s Broken Bargain with Democracy. Together, they examine how the historic relationship between Christianity and America’s liberal democracy has fractured—and what that means for the future of both.

We hop...

For years, traditional media—newspapers, cable news, and radio—dominated the political conversation. These were the institutions that shaped public discourse, set the agenda, and determined which ideas gained traction. But as the digital ecosystem evolved, a parallel and sometimes overlapping infrastructure emerged—one where influencers, niche content creators, and algorithmically curated feeds have redefined how people engage with information.

To understand this evolution, host Aaron Ross Powell sits down with Renee DiResta, an Associate Research Professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown and author of Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies Into Realit...

We have entered another Trump term, and the political landscape has shifted in ways that challenge the very foundations of our liberal democracy. With unprecedented executive power and a growing ecosystem of loyalists surrounding the president, we must ask: What happens when political institutions are no longer able to constrain a populist authoritarian president’s ambitions? And how do institutions, the media, and civil society respond?

Today, The UnPopulist’s editor-in-chief Shikha Dalmia is joined by senior editor Berny Belvedere and contributor Andy Craig. They explore the risks of an unchecked executive, the breakdown of institutional safeguards, the...

Does Christianity, or the Christian Bible, endorse a particular social configuration? What happens when faith communities tie their identity to political power? And can liberalism, with its emphasis on individual liberty and mutual respect, offer a path forward in a time of heightened polarization?

Today, Berny Belvedere, The UnPopulist’s senior editor, is joined by Russell Moore, who is editor-in-chief at Christianity Today, to discuss all of this and more.

Whether you’re a believer, a skeptic about matters of faith, or simply curious about the interplay between religion and politics, this episode raises questions that...

What happens when the ideals of democracy are used to justify its own erosion? Can liberal democracy endure in an era where its strongest proponents appear to embrace the very authoritarianism they once opposed?

In this episode, The UnPopulist’s editor-in-chief Shikha Dalmia is joined by Zack Beauchamp, senior writer at Vox.

They discuss why authoritarian leaders often present themselves as champions of democracy and how they use democratic language to consolidate power, and delve into topics such as the resilience of liberal democracy in the face of these challenges. What causes democratic societies to tu...

Today, our senior editor Berny Belvedere is joined by Shikha Dalmia, Editor-in-Chief of The UnPopulist, and columnist Andy Craig, as they dive into the reactions and political dynamics of a pivotal election. Following Trump's decisive comeback, they confront the profound societal and electoral shifts that made it possible, exploring everything from the anti-incumbent sentiment driving voter behavior to the challenges the Democratic Party faces in effectively messaging to a skeptical electorate.

Together, they dissect how populism, economic grievances, and cultural divides intersect to influence American politics today. They question whether recent results signify genuine support for Trump...

Today, we’re excited to welcome back The UnPopulist’s editor-at-large, Tom Shull. The last time we spoke with Tom was back in January, when he shared insights from the groundbreaking survey he developed for the Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism, the publisher of The UnPopulist, focused on populist attitudes and beliefs in the electorate. Now, nine months later, Tom is going to walk us through the results of a new, even more comprehensive survey. His essay summarizing some of the survey’s main finding for Trump supporters was just published at The UnPopulist, and more findings will b...

Today on Zooming In at The UnPopulist, we’re diving into one of the most pressing issues of our time: free speech. Our host Aaron Ross Powell is joined by a special guest, Ken White—better known online as Popehat—a First Amendment expert, seasoned criminal defense attorney, civil litigator, and cohost of the Serious Trouble podcast. Together, they’ll explore some of the most pressing questions in free speech discourse today: Have we become too quick to label some speech as offensive? Are we idealizing a past where free expression was supposedly more open? And, most importantly, how can we f...

Earlier this summer, the German far-right party Alternative for Germany, or AfD, came in second place in Germany’s European Parliament elections, despite Germany’s postwar aversion to far-right populism. The AfD is known for inflammatory rhetoric about migrants and other marginalized people, and recently a member aided and assisted a full-blown coup attempt against the government … sound familiar?

On today’s episode, host Aaron Ross Powell is joined by UnPopulist contributor Tim Ganser to discuss how the AfD has capitalized on discontent, the limitations of technocratic or incrementalist politics, and what liberal movements around the world can do b...

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Landry Ayres: Welcome to Zooming In at The UnPopulist. I’m Landry Ayres.

As the 2024 election draws nearer and Donald Trump’s second-term plans come into greater focus, critics of his, across the ideological spectrum, are torn as to whether Trump’s movement is continuous with historical fascism. Does the dreaded “f”-word apply to him? Or is it an unhelpful exaggeration?

On today’s episode, The UnPopulist senior editor Berny Belvedere reconnects with his former A...

On today's episode, The UnPopulist's editor-in-chief Shikha Dalmia and senior editor Berny Belvedere are joined by guest Ian Bassin.

Ian previously served as Associate White House Counsel under President Obama and is the founder and Executive Director at Protect Democracy, a cross-ideological coalition defending America’s system of government against the threat of authoritarianism.

They discuss the challenges of recognizing and addressing threats to democracy when they don't fit traditional narratives, how to implement measures to slow down autocratic tendencies, and the importance of our rapidly shrinking civil society. We hope you enjoy.

On today episode, Aaron Ross Powell is joined by guest Richard Rothstein,  a Distinguished Fellow of the Economic Policy Institute and a Senior Fellow (emeritus) at the Thurgood Marshall Institute of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. He is the author of The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America. His latest book is Just Action: How to Challenge Segregation Enacted Under the Color of Law.

He and Aaron discuss the root of America's modern segregation, the role of the Supreme Court in its development, and what we can do to remedy it. W...

On today’s episode, Aaron Powell interviews Rachel Kleinfeld, a senior fellow in the Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a member of the Board of Directors at the National Endowment for Democracy, and a trustee of Freedom House.

She recently authored a piece at The UnPopulist titled, “Right-Wing Populists Are Just as Bad for Business as Left-Wing Ones,” in which she outlines the folly and falsehoods that form the foundation of populist economics.

In today’s discussion, they cover the story populists tell their followers about economics, how that sam...

On today’s episode, The UnPopulist’s editor-in-chief Shikha Dalmia and senior editor Berny Belvedere are joined by Matt Yglesias. Matt is a journalist, blogger, and podcaster who’s written for The Atlantic and Slate. He’s also a co-founder of Vox and now writes his daily Substack newsletter Slow Boring, which is dedicated to realizing a better world through rigorous conversations and a spirit of pragmatism.

Matt joins us to discuss the media’s adversarial role in politics, how polarization and populism foster conflict, and what both the left and right can do to make sure our politi...

It’s official: NATO has officially grown yet again. The international alliance now boasts 32 member states following the most recent additions of Finland and, as of this week, Sweden. But what are these Nordic neighbors getting into?

Today we have the pleasure of bringing you a conversation between our Editor in Chief Shikha Dalmia and Senior Editor Berny Belvedere. While they have different positions on the benefits of NATO, this episode is less of a debate and more a conversation discussing the merits and drawbacks of arguments for and against it. With historical grounding and moral reasoning, th...

On our last episode, we heard from UnPopulist columnist and Director of Election Policy the Rainey Center Andy Craig on why he believes removing Donald Trump from the 2024 presidential ballot is, in fact, not anti-democratic. Today, we wanted to give you the opportunity to hear a counter-argument.

Today’s debate, which features both Andy and, for the opposition, the Washington Post’s Jason Willick, is not filled with bad-faith interruptions, name-calling, or any of the other shallow chaos associated with modern debates. Andy and Jason discuss whether or not January 6th was an insurrection, the merits of the...

At the very end of last year, Donald Trump's presidential campaign hit a large roadblock when the Colorado State Supreme Court ruled him ineligible for the office under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, also known as the Insurrection Clause, due to his actions during January 6th. While many of his opponents praised this decision as justice finally taking course, there has of course been backlash.

A major complaint about the decision to take him off the ballot is that doing so would be anti-democratic, a circumvention of the people's will by unelected politicians in robes. Exercising judicial...

The Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism, the nonprofit parent organization of The UnPopulist, recently fielded a survey to measure populist attitudes among Americans. The poll of 1,000 respondents was administered nationwide from November 17th to the 27th 2023, as a supplement to the weekly America's Political Pulse Survey conducted by the Dartmouth-based Polarization Research Lab.

Last week, The UnPopulist published its findings, and they're fascinating. On today's episode, host Aaron Ross Powell is joined by the survey's author, Tom Shull, Polling Director at ISMA. They dig into how the survey was designed, what it tells us about...

Aaron Ross Powell: Welcome to Zooming In, a project of The UnPopulist. I'm Aaron Ross Powell. I'm joined today by my colleagues, Shikha Dalmia and Akiva Malamet for our editors' round table. Recent reporting has uncovered plans by Trump allies, and Trumpist think tanks, and other organizations to deconstruct the administrative state.

A transcript of today’s podcast appears below. It has been edited for flow and clarity.

Aaron Ross Powell: I think all of us agree that the administrative state is unaccountable and too large, so what's wrong with Trump's plans to reform it?

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Aaron: Welcome to Zooming In, a project of The UnPopulist. I'm Aaron Ross Powell. Repressive regimes don't like critics, and they aren't satisfied to let their repression stop at the border. When they set their sights on threatening, coercing, or even killing critics who have fled to other countries, it's called transnational repression. My guest today is Annie Boyajian, Vice President of Policy and Advocacy at Freedom House, which tracks instances of transnational repression and helps governments prevent it.<...

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Aaron Ross Powell: Welcome to Zooming In from The UnPopulist. I'm Aaron Ross Powell. Joining me today is Berny Belvedere, the new senior editor at The UnPopulist. We're going to chat today about the state of politics and the defense of liberalism.

A transcript of today’s podcast appears below. It has been edited for flow and clarity.

Aaron Ross Powell: Berny, let's maybe start with a bit about you.

Berny Belvedere: Thanks, Aa...

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Aaron Ross Powell: Welcome to Zooming In, a project of The UnPopulist. I’m Aaron Ross Powell. My guest today is George Mason University law professor and B. Kenneth Simon Chair in Constitutional Studies at the Cato Institute, Ilya Somin. Ilya recently wrote an article for The UnPopulist about the state of the Supreme Court—whether it’s become more politicized than it used to be, and why many of the proposals to fix it could be counterproductive, even danger...

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Aaron Ross Powell: Welcome to The UnPopulist Editor's Roundtable at Zooming In. I'm Aaron Ross Powell. It's our birthday. The UnPopulist is now in its terrible twos, and so today I'm joined by my colleagues Shikha Dalmia and Akiva Malamet to give a progress report on what we've accomplished in these last two years and where we see the current state of liberalism.

A transcript of today’s podcast appears below. It has been edited for flow an...

Today, my colleague, Akiva Malamet, and I have our editor's roundtable, and we have a special guest. Walter Olson is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute's Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies. He is not a lawyer, but we've invited him on anyway, to discuss the recent Trump indictment in Washington, DC.

Read a transcript of this episode at The UnPopulist.

Today on our editor's roundtable, host Aaron Ross Powell and colleague Akiva Malamet are joined by special guest Walter Olson, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute's Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies. He is not a lawyer, but we've invited him on anyway, to discuss the recent Trump indictment in Washington, DC.

Today we have our editor's round table where I'm joined by Shikha Dalmia and Akiva Malamet to discuss the Supreme Court's recent Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard decision, which invalidated university affirmative action programs.

Today we have our editor's round table where host Aaron Ross Powell is joined by Shikha Dalmia and Akiva Malamet to discuss the Supreme Court's recent Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard decision, which invalidated university affirmative action programs.

Academic freedom is under assault, but who is mounting that assault depends on who you ask. The right has long argued that universities are controlled by the left with free inquiry as the victim. The liberal right, it turns out, doesn't much care for liberal education. The result is a wave of right-populist assaults on the very academic freedom they've historically claimed to support. To explore these issues, I'm joined by Jonathan Marks. He's a professor of politics at Ursinus College and author of Let's Be Reasonable: A Conservative Case for Liberal Education.

Academic freedom is under assault, but who is mounting that assault depends on who you ask. The right has long argued that universities are controlled by the left with free inquiry as the victim. The liberal right, it turns out, doesn't much care for liberal education. The result is a wave of right-populist assaults on the very academic freedom they've historically claimed to support. To explore these issues, host Aaron Ross Powel is joined by Jonathan Marks. He's a professor of politics at Ursinus College and author of Let's Be Reasonable: A Conservative Case for Liberal Education.  ­­­­­­­

Welcome to Zooming In, a project of The UnPopulist. On today's editor's roundtable, Shikha Dalmia, Akiva Malamet, and Aaron Ross Powell discuss where we disagree with the left and what progressives get wrong about liberalism.

Zooming In is produced by Landry Ayres.

Today, we have our editors' roundtable where host Aaron Ross Powell is joined by Shikha Dalmia and Akiva Malamet, to talk about liberalism and the left.

Today we have our editors' roundtable. I'm joined by Shikha Dalmia and Akiva Malamet to discuss Tucker Carlson and the state of the American right.

Read a transcript of this episode.

Zooming In is a project of The UnPopulist and is produced by Landry Ayres.

Today we have our editors' roundtable. Host Aaron Ross Powell is joined by Shikha Dalmia and Akiva Malamet to discuss Tucker Carlson and the state of the American right. 

It's all too common to dismiss ideas without understanding them. Feminism suffers this affliction more than most, with many people quick to denounce it while advancing very little knowledge of what feminists argue or what evidence they muster to support their claims. To help address that unfortunate ignorance, I'm joined today by Kat Murti, co-founder of Feminists for Liberty.

Read a transcript of this episode.

It's all too common to dismiss ideas without understanding them. Feminism suffers this affliction more than most, with many people quick to denounce it while advancing very little knowledge of what feminists argue or what evidence they muster to support their claims. To help address that unfortunate ignorance, host Aaron Ross Powell is joined today by Kat Murti, co-founder of Feminists for Liberty.

With this episode of Zooming In, The UnPopulist introduces a new monthly feature: a roundtable in which our editors discuss select issues of the day. Readers should feel free to suggest topics for future roundtables in the comments section following the article.

Zooming In is a project of The UnPopulist and is produced by Landry Ayres.

With this episode of Zooming In, The UnPopulist introduces a new monthly feature: a roundtable in which our editors discuss select issues of the day.

For a certain sort of social conservative, Viktor Orbán's Hungary is the North Star. The realization of fantasies about how social liberalism can be done away with and “trad living” elevated to primacy, if only the power of a committed executive were turned to that task. On today's episode, I'm joined by Robert Tracinski. He's the editor of Symposium, a journal of liberalism, and writes additional commentary at The Tracinski Letter.

Zooming In is a project of The UnPopulist and is produced by Landry Ayres.

For a certain sort of social conservative, Viktor Orbán's Hungary is the North Star. The realization of fantasies about how social liberalism can be done away with and “trad living” elevated to primacy, if only the power of a committed executive were turned to that task. On today's episode, host Aaron Ross Powell is joined by Robert Tracinski. He's the editor of Symposium, a journal of liberalism, and writes additional commentary at The Tracinski Letter.

This is the concluding post in The UnPopulist’s coverage of Black History Month.

Politicians love to stress the need for “law and order,” and most Americans are on board with that. But the phrase rings rather differently in middle-class suburbia than it does in those communities most subject to the heavy hand—or fist—of the law. To explore what law and order looks like in African American communities, host Aaron Ross Powell is joined today by Stephen Henderson. He’s the host of NPR’s Detroit Today and Detroit Public Television’s American Black Journal. Before working i...

Politicians love to stress the need for law and order, and most Americans are on board with that. But the phrase rings rather differently in middle-class suburbia than it does in those communities most subject to the heavy hand--or fist--of the law.

To explore what law and order looks like in African American communities, I'm joined today by Stephen Henderson. He's the host of NPR's Detroit Today and Detroit Public Television's American Black Journal. Before working in TV and radio, Henderson won a Pulitzer Prize for Commentary for his writing at the Detroit Free Press.<...

Note to listeners: This is the first of our Zooming In podcasts, which will feature in-depth conversations with The UnPopulist’s contributing writers on the subjects they’ve explored in their essays.

Today's guest is Eve Fairbanks, author of The Inheritors: An Intimate Portrait of South Africa’s Racial Reckoning. Our conversation explores the complex history of post-apartheid race relations in South Africa, how it complicates simplistic narratives and what lessons Americans should draw as we seek to address our own country’s racist history.

Our guest today is Eve Fairbanks, author of The Inheritors: An Intimate Portrait of South Africa's Racial Reckoning. Our conversation explores the complex history of post-apartheid race relations in South Africa, how they complicate simplistic narratives, and what lessons Americans should draw as we seek to address our country's own racist history.

Read an exercpt from Eve's book at The Unpopulist.

Zooming In is a project of The UnPopulist and is produced by Landry Ayres.

Welcome to the first episode of ReImagining Liberty at its new home with The UnPopulist. This is a show about the emancipatory and cosmopolitan case for radical social, political, and economic freedom. With every episode, host Aaron Ross Powell explores and defends liberalism by talking with scholars, activists, and others working to build a freer world.

For this first episode at The UnPopulist, Aaron talks about why America’s political culture seems so broken, and why this has led to rising illiberalism. He traces the problems to what he calls an “unskillful” approach to politics, and a widesp...

Our guest today argues that a lot of America's social and economic problems, including the rise of populism and the affinity for authoritarian leaders, can be traced back to changing relationships and institutions in our neighborhoods. Dr. Seth D. Kaplan is a Professorial Lecturer in the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, Senior Advisor for the Institute for Integrated Transitions, visiting Fellow with Mercatus Center's Program on Pluralism and Civil Exchange, and consultant to organizations such as the World Bank, USAID, the State Department, and OECD. He's the author of the forthcoming Fragile...

Our guest today argues that a lot of America's social and economic problems, including the rise of populism and the affinity for authoritarian leaders, can be traced back to changing relationships and institutions in our neighborhoods.

Dr. Seth D. Kaplan is a Professorial Lecturer in the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, Senior Advisor for the Institute for Integrated Transitions, visiting Fellow with Mercatus Center's Program on Pluralism and Civil Exchange, and consultant to organizations such as the World Bank, USAID, the State Department, and OECD. He's the author of the...

Our guest today is Greg Sargent. He’s a columnist at The Washington Post and author of the book An Uncivil War: Taking Back Our Democracy in an Age of Trumpian Disinformation and Thunderdome Politics. Our discussion digs into the state of the American right, its conflicting constituencies, and its fringe and conspiratorial elements, as well as how the press has covered all of it.

Our guest today is Greg Sargent. He’s a columnist at The Washington Post and author of the book An Uncivil War: Taking Back Our Democracy in an Age of Trumpian Disinformation and Thunderdome Politics. Our discussion digs into the state of the American right, its conflicting constituencies, and its fringe and conspiratorial elements, as well as how the press has covered all of it.

Reactionary Minds is a project of The UnPopulist. Hosted by Aaron Ross Powell. Produced by Landry Ayres.

We're recording this on the afternoon of Wednesday, November 9th, the day after the 2022 midterm elections. The results were rather unexpected, especially in light of the dominant narrative these last several weeks of an inevitable red wave.

To talk about the electoral outcomes, what we should make of them, and what they mean looking ahead, I'm joined by Andy Craig, director of election policy at the Rainey Center and an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, and Shikha Dalmia, editor of The UnPopulist and Fellow at the Mercatus Center's Program on Pluralism and Civil Exchange.

We're recorded this on the afternoon of Wednesday, Nov. 9th, the day after the elections. The results were rather unexpected, especially in light of the dominant narrative these last several weeks that a red wave was nigh.

To talk about the electoral outcomes, what we should make of them, and what they mean looking ahead, I'm joined by Andy Craig, director of election policy at the Rainey Center and adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, and Shikha Dalmia, editor of The UnPopulist and fellow at the Mercatus Center's Program on Pluralism and Civil Exchange.

Read...

Christian Nationalism has long been a sub-movement on the American Right, but recently its profile has risen as an increasing number of conservative media personalities and politicians claim the label and call for America to be reoriented as an explicitly Christian nation.

To help me explore just what Christian Nationalism entails as a movement and an ideology, as well as its history on the right, I'm joined today by Paul Matzko. He's a research fellow at the Cato Institute, a historian of the American Right, and author of The Radio Right: How a Band of Broadcasters Took...

Christian Nationalism has long been a sub-movement on the American right, but recently its profile has risen as an increasing number of conservative media personalities and politicians claim the label and call for America to be reoriented as an explicitly Christian nation.

To help me explore just what Christian Nationalism entails as a movement and an ideology, as well as its history on the right, I'm joined today by Paul Matzko. An evangelical and a research fellow at the Cato Institute, Matzko is an historian of the American Right, and the author of The Radio Right: How a...

While both sides today have rather less respect for genuine political liberalism than they ought to, the ascension of far-right populism to the presidency, its near-total takeover of one of the two major parties and its continuing efforts to establish control of our institutions and culture make the American right the most severe and immediate threat to our republic and our freedoms.

However, just what the right is and what it means to be a conservative—if those are even the same thing—can be a bit slippery. The history of the American right and American conservatism is q...

While both sides today have rather less respect for genuine political liberalism than they ought to, the ascension of far-right populism to the presidency, its near-total takeover of one of the two major parties, and its continuing efforts to establish control of our institutions and culture make the American right the most severe and immediate threat to our republic and our freedoms.

However, just what the right is and what it means to be a conservative, if those are even the same thing, can be a bit slippery. The history of the American right and American conservatism...

We’re used to thinking about politics as a battle between left and right, progressive and conservative. But those sides can be somewhat protean, with their positions, preferences and policies shifting in ways that make it difficult to analyze the political landscape clearly.

My guest today has a different way of framing politics—one she first set out 24 years ago, and one which looks more and more prescient with every passing day. Virginia Postrel is the author of many books, including The Future and Its Enemies. Her latest is the Fabric of Civilization. The core of Postrel’s framew...

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Reactionary Minds is a project of The UnPopulist. Hosted by Aaron Ross Powell. Produced by Landry Ayres.

The following is a transcript of Reactionary Minds’ interview with Virginia Postrel, author of many books, including The Future and Its Enemies. The transcript has been lightly edited for flow and clarity.

Aaron Ross Powell: I’m Aaron Ross Powell, and this is Reactionary Minds, a project of The UnPopulist.

We’re used to thinking about politics as a battle between left and right, progre...

Subscribe to Reactionary Minds: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | YouTube

Reactionary Minds is a project of The UnPopulist. Hosted by Aaron Ross Powell. Produced by Landry Ayres.

The following is a transcript of Reactionary Minds’ interview with writer Damon Linker, founder of Eyes on the Right, a Substack newsletter. The transcript has been lightly edited for flow and clarity.

Aaron Ross Powell: I'm Aaron Ross Powell, and this is Reactionary Minds, a project of The UnPopulist. The mainstream of the American right, as well as the Republican Party, looks quite a bit different to...

The mainstream of the American right, as well as the Republican Party, looks quite a bit different today than it did 10 years ago. Trumpism's rise and its near-total take over the GOP has fundamentally changed our political landscape.

To talk through what's going on and to explore the best ways to approach understanding the evolution of the liberal right, I'm joined today by Damon Linker, author of the Substack Eyes on the Right. He's also a senior fellow with the Open Society Project at the Niskanen Center and a weekly participant on the Beg to Differ podcast at ...

A good way to understand the appeal of Donald Trump is to talk to the people who voted for him. One of the most interesting ways to approach that is to talk to voters and counties that flipped, long voting for Democratic Party candidates until suddenly in 2016, they didn’t. That’s the background for Trump's Democrats, a book that looks at three communities that turned to Trumpism after having been solidly blue basically forever.

I’m joined today by its authors, Professors Stephanie Muravchik and Jon A. Shields of Claremont McKenna College. Their fascinating book explores why Tru...

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The following is a transcript of Reactionary Minds’ interview with Stephanie Muravchik and Jon A. Shields, authors of the book Trump’s Democrats. The transcript has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

Aaron Ross Powell: I’m Aaron Ross Powell, and this is Reactionary Minds, a project of The UnPopulist. A good way to understand the appeal of Donald Trump is to talk to the people who voted for him. One of the most interesting ways to approach that is to talk to voters and counties that flippe...

Welcome to the inaugural episode of Reactionary Minds, a podcast from The UnPopulist that I’ll be hosting every month. This is a show about why some people reject liberalism and what the rest of us can do about it.

This first episode is all about introducing the problem Reactionary Minds exists to address. In it, Shikha Dalmia, the editor of The UnPopulist and fellow at the Mercatus Center's Program on Pluralism and Civil Exchange, discusses the biggest challenge of our times: The resurgent threat of populist authoritarianism here and abroad. Every regime has its pathologies and popu...

Subscribe to Reactionary Minds: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

Welcome to the inaugural episode of Reactionary Minds, a podcast from The UnPopulist that I’ll be hosting every month. This is a show about why some people reject liberalism and what the rest of us can do about it.

This first episode is all about introducing the problem Reactionary Minds exists to address. In it, Shikha Dalmia, the editor of The UnPopulist and fellow at the Mercatus Center's Program on Pluralism and Civil Exchange, discusses the biggest challenge of our times: The resurgent threat of populist authoritarianism he...

I am very excited to announce that on May 6, Friday, The UnPopulist will roll out a new feature, a monthly podcast hosted by Aaron Ross Powell called Reactionary Minds.

The series will open with a wide-ranging conversation between Aaron and yours truly that takes stock of the world as it is right now — and how this podcast will advance the mission of The UnPopulist, defending liberal principles — pluralism, toleration, freedom — from the resurgent threat of populist authoritarianism here and abroad. Neutralizing this threat requires the readiness to call out its protagonists whether Viktor Orban in Hungary, Narendra Modi i...