Conversations with Coleman
Conversations with Coleman is a podcast where deep thinkers and curious minds meet for sharp, surprising, and unfiltered chats. Hosted by Coleman Hughes, a writer and thinker who asks questions others dodge, the show covers politics, philosophy, race, culture, and science. It's not about debating but about discovery, offering real talk for those tired of hot takes.
Episodes
Inside Israel’s War Room: What Really Happened After October 7
Elliot Kaufman’s new book, In the War Room, is an inside account of how Israel actually fought the war that followed October 7, 2023. A Wall Street Journal editorial writer, Kaufman spent the last two years reporting on the conflict and drew on documents recovered from Hamas, along with behind-the-scenes access to Israel’s top political, military, and intelligence leaders, to reconstruct decisions
The Real Reason the Black Family Fell Apart
Delano Squires spent 15 years working in D.C. government, including a stint in the city’s office of gun violence prevention, where he noticed the same story on repeat: Young black men were both victims and perpetrators of some of the worst crimes in the city. In his new book, The Vanishing Black Family, he argues that family structure, not policing, incarceration, or education policy, is the most
Roland Fryer on the Cost of Telling the Truth
Roland Fryer is a professor of economics at Harvard University, the youngest black academic ever to receive tenure there, and a recipient of the John Bates Clark Medal for his research on racial inequality, education, and policing. His findings have often put him at odds with progressive orthodoxy, and he’s paid a real price for it over the years, including death threats and a shot-out window over
The Lie at the Center of Antisemitism, with Dara Horn
Dara Horn is a novelist and essayist whose book People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present examined how contemporary culture sentimentalizes Jewish suffering while ignoring the fullness of Jewish life. Her new book, provocatively titled The Final Solution to the Jewish Question: A Love Story for the Living, goes further, arguing that antisemitism isn’t an ordinary bigotry at all. It’s a
How Do You Talk a Klansman out of the Klan? Ask Daryl Davis.
Daryl Davis is a blues musician who has spent over 40 years doing something few people would attempt: sitting down with members of the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist groups, one on one, to ask them why they hate him. He’s been threatened, physically attacked, and called a race traitor by people on both sides. He’s also convinced over 200 Klansmen to leave their hate groups entirely—not b
He Couldn’t Save His Brother on 9/11. He Spent the Next 25 Years Saving Others.
Frank Siller’s youngest brother, Stephen, was orphaned at 10, grew up to become a New York City firefighter, and was driving home from a night shift on the morning of September 11, 2001, when he heard the World Trade Center had been hit. He turned his truck around, grabbed his gear, and ran through the closed Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel and up the stairs of the South Tower. He never came out.
Two wee
The Secret Recordings That Reveal How Presidents Really Think
Tim Naftali is a presidential historian who spent four years running the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum. He’s listened to thousands of hours of secret Oval Office recordings from Nixon, Lyndon B. Johnson, and John F. Kennedy. Naftali joins Coleman to break down which president was actually the sharpest, walking through the different kinds of intelligence—tactical, strategic, emotion
Nathan Cofnas on Race, IQ, and the Jason Arday Scandal That Made Him Famous
Nathan Cofnas is the academic researcher who broke the story alleging Jason Arday had fabricated his biography and plagiarized his PhD thesis, a scandal that led to Arday’s resignation from Cambridge University and, weeks later, his death.
But Cofnas has his own history of controversy. He’s a self-described race realist who says that genetic differences between population groups explain average I
This Is How AI Starts a Nuclear War
Robert Wright has spent decades writing about human nature, evolution, and the forces that shape history. In his latest book, The God Test, he argues AI is forcing a test humanity can’t afford to fail: whether we can finally get past the tribalism that’s defined most of our history. He joins Coleman Hughes to walk through a real scenario where competition between the U.S. and China over AI dominan
The Lie That Killed Comedy for a Decade, with The Babylon Bee’s Seth Dillon
Seth Dillon is the CEO of The Babylon Bee, a Christian satire site that’s been fact-checked and banned more times than most outlets twice its size. He joins Coleman Hughes to argue that comedy is one of the best weapons against ideas unable to survive scrutiny. He also warns that a new problem has arisen. While the culture has moved on from the joyless era of a few years ago, there is now a comple
Rep. Ro Khanna on Progressive Capitalism, Gaza, and 2028
Ro Khanna represents Silicon Valley in Congress, and he’s spent the last few years building a case that the Democratic Party’s future runs through places like Johnstown and Erie–in his home state of Pennsylvania–not just tech wealth. He calls it progressive capitalism, and he thinks it’s the platform that beats both Donald Trump’s economic nationalism and the socialism of the party’s left flank. H
Democrats Need to Ditch ‘Loser Politics,’ with Matthew Yglesias
Is there a meaningful difference between a commonsense Democrat and a center-right Republican? Matthew Yglesias thinks so. But he also thinks the Democrats have spent the last decade making it harder and harder to tell. He cofounded Vox and writes the essential Slow Boring Substack. He has been one of the most consistent voices calling for a Democratic politics that is practical and winnable. He j
The Real Reason Americans Are So Sick, with Jillian Michaels
Jillian Michaels is a fitness expert who has spent three decades helping people get healthy in a system that is actively working against them. She joins Coleman to make the case that America’s obesity crisis is not a failure of willpower but the predictable result of a food industry designed to addict and a pharmaceutical industry designed to profit. They get into Ozempic and why taking it for van
The Charlie Kirk Killing and America’s Forgotten History of Left-Wing Terror
Noah Rothman is a senior writer at National Review and author of the new book Blood & Progress, which makes the case that left-wing political violence has a long and largely forgotten history in America. He joins Coleman Hughes to argue that the commonly held belief that political violence is largely a right-wing phenomenon is not just inaccurate but actively dangerous. He believes America has for
In Defense of Elites, with Richard Hanania
Richard Hanania is a political scientist, writer, and author of the new book Kakistocracy: Why Populism Ends in Disaster, which makes the sometimes uncomfortable case that antiestablishment politics, for all their appeal, tend to make countries worse. He joins Coleman to talk about who elites actually are and why they’re usually right, even when they’re sometimes spectacularly wrong.
They a
Dr. Cornel West: Is America Living Up to Its Promise?
Dr. Cornel West is one of the most distinct voices in American public life. He’s a philosopher, theologian, and moral critic who has spent decades asking the toughest questions about America—what this country is and what it ought to be. He joins Coleman on the 250th anniversary of the founding to get into the state of America in 2026. They get into the founding contradictions, the ethics of manife
Douglas Murray: The Iranian Regime Means What It Says
Douglas Murray is back as a columnist at The Free Press, and Coleman wastes no time putting him to work. They get into the Iran deal and why Murray thinks it won’t hold. They also dig into the nature of a regime that has been openly stating its intentions for decades, and a West that keeps refusing to believe them. And they cover what the resignation of British prime minister Keir Starmer reveals
Caitlin Flanagan: Why I Finally Left Los Angeles
Caitlin Flanagan joins the show today, now an official columnist at The Free Press. Flanagan, one of the sharpest essayists working today, spent 35 years in Los Angeles before deciding she’d had enough, and tells Coleman why. The answer says a lot about what progressive governance has done to one of America’s great cities. From there they get into territory Flanagan knows well: the state of marria
Coleman Hughes vs. Peter Beinart Debate: Should Israel Be a Jewish State?
Peter Beinart is a writer and author who has contributed to The New Republic, The Atlantic, and The New York Times. He grew up a committed Zionist and has spent the last decade publicly refuting that position, arriving at the view that Israel cannot be reconciled with the principle of equality under the law. His most recent book, Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza, caused shock waves in th
Is America’s Racial Reckoning Over? With John McWhorter
John McWhorter is back. This time, Coleman and John analyze where America stands on race in 2026, whether the woke moment is genuinely behind us, and what may have replaced it. They also get into why black men are increasingly voting Republican, how mass immigration has subtly shifted the conversation on race, and what the Supreme Court's recent Voting Rights Act decision actually means.
Learn mor
Why You Shouldn’t Be Scared of AI
Aman Verjee has had one of the more unusual careers in finance. He started on Wall Street at Lehman Brothers, joined PayPal in its earliest days and worked alongside Peter Thiel and Elon Musk, and eventually became a venture capitalist in Silicon Valley. Along the way he developed an obsession with the history of finance, which led to his upcoming book, A Brief History of Financial Bubbles. He joi
What People Who Choose Assisted Death Actually Say
In 2016, Canada legalized assisted dying for the terminally ill. Since then, the law—medical assistance in dying, or MAID—has expanded dramatically—to people with chronic but non-terminal conditions, with disabilities, and potentially those with mental illness as the sole underlying condition.
Rupa Subramanya, The Free Press’s Canada correspondent, has spent years reporting on this slippery slop
Michael Shellenberger on the Psychology of Left-Wing Violence
Michael Shellenberger is the author of San Fransickco and Apocalypse Never. He’s a former progressive activist, and one of the most prominent advocates for nuclear energy in the country. In this episode, he and Coleman dig into the Epstein story and why the evidence falls far short of the conspiracy theory most people believe; the savior complex he sees underlying progressive politics and its conn
The War Before the War: What Everyone Gets Wrong About Israel-Palestine
Oren Kessler explains the origins of Palestinian nationalism, the myth that Jews started the conflict in Israel, and why peace in the region has been elusive.
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Walter Russell Mead on Christian Zionism, the ‘Israel Lobby’ Myth, and the Psychology of Antisemitism
Why do Americans support Israel? The standard answers—D.C. lobbying, shared democratic values, strategic benefits—all miss something. Walter Russell Mead, one of America's foremost foreign policy scholars, traces the real answer back to 17th-century Calvinist theology, and argues that Christian Zionists were advocating for a Jewish homeland long before most Jews were. Mead joins the show to make t
The Case for Drinking Alcohol
Most researchers who study alcohol focus on what it does to your body. Edward Slingerland is more interested in what it does to your friendships. In his book Drunk: How We Sipped, Danced, and Stumbled Our Way to Civilization, the University of British Columbia professor argues that alcohol has functioned for thousands of years as humanity's most important social lubricant, and that the modern war
Who Decides What’s True on Wikipedia?
Ashley Rindsberg has spent years investigating how ideological bias corrupts institutions that present themselves as neutral arbiters of truth. His book The Gray Lady Winked exposed how The New York Times got major stories wrong across decades of reporting. Now he turns his attention to Wikipedia, the internet’s default encyclopedia and one of the most influential sources of information in the wor
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The Liberal Case for American Power
Shadi Hamid once marched against the Iraq War, read Noam Chomsky, and believed America was the root of the world's problems. He has since changed his mind—though not entirely. Now a Washington Post columnist and senior fellow at Georgetown University's Center for Muslim Christian Understanding, Hamid argues in his latest book, The Case for American Power, that American dominance, exercised morally
What People Get Wrong About Birthright Citizenship
Linda Chavez has called herself the “Forrest Gump of Washington politics,” and it’'s hard to argue. She bumped into a Watergate burglar coming out of a bathroom in 1972, became the highest-ranking woman in the Reagan White House, nearly became Secretary of Labor under George W. Bush, and lost that nomination after it emerged she had sheltered an undocumented Guatemalan immigrant in her home. Today
What Tyler Cowen Thinks About (Almost) Everything
This week, Tyler Cowen joins the show. A true polymath, he answers everything on Coleman Hughes’s mind about our world and its future. In this rapid-fire exchange, Tyler weighs in on whether AI is a bubble, the minimum wage, Mexican wokeness, and the Donald Trump administration’s approach to foreign aid. He also touches on travel, new religions, the UN, and even his three favorite films.
Learn mo
Coleman Hughes and Glenn Greenwald Debate Israel’s Influence on Washington
Glenn Greenwald joins the show to debate a hotly contested topic: Does Israel influence U.S. policy? Coleman and Glenn examine competing claims about the power of the Israel lobby and whether it played a role in the path to war with Iran. They discuss Iran’s nuclear ambitions, the case for or against regime change, and how these questions shape American foreign policy in the Middle East. The conve
What Keeps Sam Harris Up At Night
In this episode, Sam Harris joins Coleman Hughes for a sweeping conversation about the biggest risks facing humanity. They unpack the ethical and strategic dilemmas of a potential Iran conflict, the dangers of jihadist ideology paired with nuclear capability, and the persistent confusion around anti-Zionism and antisemitism. We also talk about the Epstein files, the conspiracies ruling the interne
The Forgotten History of Slavery in the Islamic World
Justin Marozzi is a historian and author of Captives and Companions, a sweeping history of slavery in the Islamic world. Marozzi and Coleman discuss the origins and scale of the Islamic slave trade, the role of religion and law in shaping it, and why this subject has long been a historical blind spot in the West. They also discuss the trans-Saharan slave trade, the Barbary corsairs, and why forms
He Wanted to Teach Western Civilization. So He Quit Harvard.
James Hankins is a Renaissance historian, longtime Harvard professor, and co-author of The Golden Thread: A History of the Western Tradition. In this conversation with Coleman Hughes, he explains why he recently left Harvard, after nearly four decades, and why he believes the study of Western civilization has quietly disappeared from American education. Hankins argues that if students want to unde
Yuval Levin on What Conservatism Is for Today
What does conservatism mean in an age of populism, executive power, and institutional distrust? Yuval Levin is a political theorist, the director of Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies at the American Enterprise Institute, and the author of American Covenant: How the Constitution Unified Our Nation—and Could Again. Today he argues that the deepest divide in American politics is no longer
Why Longer Prison Sentences Don’t Work
Is our criminal justice system broken, and can it be fixed? Jennifer Doleac is an economist, the executive vice president of criminal justice at Arnold Ventures, and the host of the Probable Causation podcast. Today she discusses her new book, The Science of Second Chances: A Revolution in Criminal Justice. Doleac studies what actually deters crime and what merely feels tough, and she argues that
Is Your Life Morally Ambitious Enough?
Rutger Bregman is a Dutch historian and best-selling author of Utopia for Realists and Humankind: A Hopeful History. In 2019, he went viral for his takedown of billionaires at the World Economic Forum and for a heated exchange with Tucker Carlson. Today, he joins the show to discuss his latest book, Moral Ambition, which he defines as the desire to use your available talents and resources to make
YOU'RE INVITED: Coleman Hughes LIVE in Atlanta!
Come join a live taping of this podcast with special guests Ambassador Andrew Young and acclaimed Martin Luther King Jr. biographer Jonathan Eig to discuss: ‘Nonviolence in a Violent Age’.
WHEN: March 9
WHERE: Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta—the church led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
WHO: Coleman will be joined by Andrew Young, a civil rights pioneer and former United Nations ambassador
Lionel Shriver on the Immigration Taboo
Acclaimed novelist and cultural critic Lionel Shriver joins the show to discuss her provocative new book A Better Life. We talk about why immigration has become one of the most morally charged topics in public life; how good intentions collide with human nature; and why cultural change is treated as a legitimate concern for some groups but as taboo for others. We also explore the differing immigra
Designer Babies and AI Jobs Are No Longer Sci-Fi
Jamie Metzl is a former national security official, biotech futurist, and one of the earliest public voices to argue that Covid likely came from a lab accident. Today he talks about why that possibility became taboo; what gain-of-function research gets wrong; and how fear and politics distort scientific judgment. From there, we move into the future of gene editing, embryo selection, genetically mo
Why Liberal Religion is Losing Ground
Our guest today is Rabbi David Wolpe. He’s spent decades debating atheists, leading one of the country’s largest synagogues, and thinking seriously about what holds a moral society together once traditional faith loosens its grip. Wolpe discusses how secular movements quietly take on the structure—and zeal—of religion. We get into Judaism as a form of peoplehood, the strange moral logic of modern
The Real Reasons Greenland Matters
This week we hear from Arctic geopolitics expert Heather A. Conley, before President Trump made a speech at The World Economic Forum in Davos on Wednesday. Heather speaks about a place most of us barely think about—until it becomes the center of a global power struggle. Greenland has gone from frozen afterthought to geopolitical prize, and its story reveals a lot about American expansionism, NATO
YOU'RE INVITED: Michael Shermer LIVE with Coleman Hughes!
In a world where AI can recreate our voices, half the internet thinks the moon landing was staged, and every group chat has a cousin who’s “just asking questions,” the perceived line between fact and fantasy has never been blurrier.
On February 9 at the Comedy Cellar in NYC, Coleman Hughes will sit down with Michael Shermer—historian of science and author of Truth: What It Is, How to Find It & Wh
Niall Ferguson: What Happens Next in Iran Will Change the Middle East Forever
This week we're joined by historian Niall Ferguson to help me make sense of Iran’s unprecedented wave of protests. We talk about why this moment feels different to previous uprisings, the regime’s growing crisis of legitimacy, the limits of sanctions, and how the long shadow of 1953 still shapes everything in Iran. We also look at what Trump’s “maximum pressure” could mean, and the risks posed by
Maduro Is Gone. The Mafia State Remains.
Thor Halvorssen is a Venezuelan-born human rights campaigner and the founder of the Human Rights Foundation. His life as an activist began after his mother was shot and wounded by pro-regime forces for trying to expose election fraud under Hugo Chávez, an event that turned his work from theory into something painfully concrete.
In this episode we talk about how Venezuela’s dictatorship operated
How Cuba Propped Up Maduro
Gelet Martínez Fragela is a Cuban activist and journalist and a close watcher of Venezuela who’s tracked how authoritarianism hollowed out a once prosperous country.
Gelet talks about the warning signs, the lies that sustained the regime, and why President Maduro’s trial in the United States matters far beyond Venezuelan borders. Gelet also answers the question: Why were Cubans responsible for gu
Is There a Science to Finding Love?
Dr. Anna Machin is a British evolutionary anthropologist at the University of Oxford who studies the neuroscience and psychology of love. Anna and I talk through what science actually says about attraction, attachment, and long-term relationships, and why so much modern dating advice gets human nature wrong. We get into dating apps and how they shape behavior, whether love at first sight is real,
Coleman Hughes Answers Your End-of-Year Questions
My producer Poppy Damon and I are back for another Ask Me Anything. In this bonus episode, I answer your questions on President Donald Trump and the attention economy, declining birth rates, psychedelics and mental health, AI and the future of work, social media and kids, religion, meritocracy, and more.
As 2025 wraps up, it felt like a good moment to step back, take stock, and talk through the
What Happens After Trump?: Why Tim Miller Thinks Politics Can’t Go Back
Tim Miller is a political commentator and former GOP strategist who became one of the most outspoken “‘Never Trump”’ conservatives in the country. Tim and I talk through the Republican Party’s transformation, from the guardrails John McCain tried to hold in place, to the anger and conspiratorial thinking that helped fuel Donald Trump’s rise. We get into what it was like to be an openly gay Republi
Big Tech Made Peace with Trump. Reid Hoffman Didn’t.
My guest today is entrepreneur and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman. He’s now facing something most tech business people never imagine: being personally targeted by a sitting president’s Department of Justice. Reid and I talk through the rise of politically motivated prosecutions, the erosion of trust in institutions, and how social media and AI have accelerated our collective slide into suspicion
Justice in the Age of Retribution with Andy McCarthy
In today’s episode, I sit down with former federal prosecutor Andy McCarthy, now a columnist at the National Review. He is someone whose legal commentary I’ve followed closely for years. Andy has consistently offered analysis of the major legal battles shaping American politics. In our conversation, we cover everything from the rise of modern lawfare to the prosecutions of both Donald Trump and hi
The Viral Educator: Warren Smith on Wokeness, Campus Culture, and Losing His Job
Today I’m joined by Warren Smith, a teacher and filmmaker. He created a viral video challenging a student to explain why they believed J.K. Rowling was a bigot. It sparked a national conversation and ultimately cost Smith his job. We talk about that fallout, compare our experiences on college campuses during the height of wokeness, dig into Trump’s attempts to reshape elite universities, and explo
Did Trump Win Over Black Men or Did the Democrats Lose Them? with Astead Herndon
Today I sit down with journalist Astead Herndon, whose award-winning political reporting has appeared in The New York Times, on CNN, and now in Vox, where he serves as editorial director.
Astead and I explore how President Donald Trump’s 2016 victory reshaped our own views of American politics. We disagree—cordially—about how much of Trump’s rise was driven by racism, and what that moment reveale
Victor Davis Hanson on Tucker, Trump, and the Fracturing Right
My guest today is Victor Davis Hanson, a classicist, military historian, and senior fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution. Victor is one of the most articulate defenders of Donald Trump, and one of the few people willing to explain why millions of Americans still see him as a necessary corrective rather than a danger.
We talk about how his years farming in California shaped his politics, how “l
BONUS: The 1987 Book that Explains Mamdani’s Victory
Today, I’m bringing you a special bonus episode with professor Shilo Brooks. Shilo is the host of a new Free Press books podcast called, 'Old School'.
For our conversation, I picked Thomas Sowell’s A Conflict of Visions. Although our conversation happened months before Mamdani's victory yesterday, I think Sowell’s theory of the two “visions” that shape modern politics is helpful to understanding
Hormones, Ideology, and the Cost of Dissent with Carole Hooven
My guest today is evolutionary biologist Carole Hooven. If you’ve followed her story, you know she was effectively pushed out of Harvard for articulating a basic biological fact—and doing it politely. We talk through her research on hormones, rough-and-tumble play, aggression, and libido; what puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones actually do; why sports can’t be reorganized around “hormone leve
Inside Cuba’s Police State: From Ration Cards to Black Berets with Gelet Martínez Fragela
My guest today is Gelet Martínez Fragela, a Cuban journalist and political refugee whose outlet is banned on the island. We trace Cuba’s path from independence to dictatorship, and separate myth from reality on the embargo, healthcare, and poverty. Gelet describes ration cards, compulsory “labor camps,” and why Cuba’s incarceration rate is among the world’s highest. We also dig into the regime’s i
Trailer | Spiral: Murder in Detroit
On October 21, 2023, beloved Detroit community leader Samantha Woll was found brutally stabbed to death outside her home—two weeks to the day after the October 7 attacks on Israel. It looks like an open-and-shut case—a hate crime. But swiftly the police rule that out. Instead they eventually find themselves with two unrelated suspects. When they charge one with murder, the case takes a turn that r
When Empathy Goes Too Far with Dr. Gad Saad
Dr. Gad Saad is a visiting scholar at the Declaration of Independence Center for the Study of American Freedom in Mississippi and an evolutionary psychologist. We discuss his forthcoming book, Suicidal Empathy, in which he argues that the political left has taken empathy to a dangerous extreme. We also talk about his childhood as a Jew in Lebanon and his family’s experience during the Lebanese Civ
Can Evolution Explain Our Politics? Nicholas Wade Thinks So
Nicholas Wade is a former science writer for The New York Times and author of several books on human evolution, including A Troublesome Inheritance: Genes, Race, and Human History and his new book, The Origin of Politics: How Evolution and Ideology Shape the Fate of Nations.
Today, I invite Wade on to discuss some of the toughest topics in modern science: the controversial territory of race and g
A Debate with Dave Smith: Israel, Iran, and American Power
Note that this conversation took place before Hamas addressed some conditions of President Donald Trump’s proposed peace plan and said it agreed to release all remaining hostages.
This was the most requested conversation I've ever had, and one of the longest and most challenging. Dave Smith—comedian, podcaster, and libertarian foreign policy critic—joined me for three and a half hours to debate
Steven Pinker on How Common Knowledge Rules Our Lives
Recorded live at the Comedy Cellar in New York City: I sat down with Steven Pinker, Harvard psychologist, best-selling author, and world-class debunker of doom, to talk about his new book, When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows…:Common Knowledge and the Mysteries of Money, Power, and Everyday Life.
We got into this idea of “common knowledge”: what we all know and know that everyone else knows.
Politics for the Exhausted American Voter with Jane Coaston
In this episode, I’m joined by Jane Coaston, a journalist and former host of The Argument podcast at The New York Times who is now a host at Crooked Media. We talk about how she became a libertarian, the spread of far-right conspiracies, why black support for conservatives is growing, and what the mainstream media continues to miss.
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Understanding the Black Conservative Vote with Janiyah Thomas
In this mini episode, I’m joined by Janiyah Thomas, the Black Media Director for Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign. We talk about Charlie Kirk's assasination, Jimmy Kimmel being pulled off the air, Trump’s National Guard deployment in D.C., and how Janiyah helped Trump win over black voters. If you enjoy these shorter episodes, let me know and maybe we’ll do more. Don’t forget, a full-length episode wi
Can Socialism Ever Really Work? w/ Bhaskar Sunkara
My guest today is Bhaskar Sunkara. He’s the founding editor of Jacobin magazine and currently serves as president at The Nation. Bhaskar is a proud democratic socialist; he was even vice-chair of the Democratic Socialists of America, and he’s the author of a book titled The Socialist Manifesto: The Case for Radical Politics in an Era of Extreme Inequality.
In this conversation, we dive into the
Is America Rewarding the Wrong Values? Ben Shapiro Thinks So
I’m joined by Ben Shapiro, a controversial figure who for many needs no introduction. Ben is a political commentator, author, and co-founder of The Daily Wire. He joins me to discuss his new book, Scavengers and Lions. We explore the central metaphor of the book and what it says about the moral choices facing our culture today. Ben lays out his argument about the rise of intellectual scavengers wh
Deal or No Deal? October 7 Hostage Families Divided
It’s been nearly two years since October 7, when Hamas took over 250 people hostage. Since then, families of the captives have led a relentless campaign to bring them home, but they haven’t always agreed on how to get there.
As a new ceasefire deal is on the table, I speak with three voices from that struggle. One is Dalia Cusnir-Horn, who has one brother-in-law, Iair Horn, who was captured and t
The Bipartisan Assault on Free Speech w/ Greg Lukianoff
Greg Lukianoff is an attorney, author, and president of FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. You may know him from his previous books, The Coddling of the American Mind and The Canceling of the American Mind. His latest book, which was published earlier this summer, is The War on Words, Ten Arguments Against Free Speech—and Why They Fail.
In this episode, we get into why Lu
How Sensitivity Readers Made Publishing More Racist w/Adam Szetela
This week on Conversations with Coleman, I’m joined by writer and cultural critic Adam Szetela, author of That Book Is Dangerous!, a trenchant look at how moral panic, social media, and identity-driven outrage are reshaping the publishing industry. We discuss the rise of so-called sensitivity readers who vet books to ensure they are as inoffensive as possible, and how an obsession with controlling
Coleman Hughes Special: Candace Owens, Brigitte Macron & Our Age of Conspiracy
I watched the eight-hour series on the French First Lady by podcaster Candace Owens, so you don't have to. It’s a fascinating window into a mind gripped by extreme apophenia: the tendency to see patterns where none exist.
So just how and why did Candace Owens spread this lie?
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How to Avoid the Partisan Trap Even at The Washington Post w/ Megan McArdle
You might think you know what a Washington Post columnist sounds like, but Megan McArdle is not your typical liberal media voice. She’s spent years inside the most established outlets in journalism: The Atlantic, Bloomberg, The Economist and yet she’s managed to surprise and infuriate readers on the left with sharp critiques that don’t always toe the party line.
Today on Conversations we talk abo
Coleman Hughes Special: Israel, Hamas & the Myth of Moral Equivalence
In this special episode, I take on probably the most controversial and emotionally fraught topic of the moment: the Israel-Hamas conflict.
I think war crimes have been committed on both sides. But that doesn’t mean I think the two sides are morally equivalent. Today, I argue that there’s a fundamental asymmetry between Israel and Hamas, one that’s too often blurred or ignored by the mainstream m
Hollywood's Death By Algorithm w/ Justine Bateman
Filmmaker and digital rights activist Justine Bateman joins me for a conversation on how AI is warping Hollywood and why the content we consume feels increasingly hollow. We dive into the decline of originality, the studios' addiction to algorithms, and how the “double-screen” era (watching while scrolling) has rewired audience expectations, pushing creators toward louder, faster, and shallower st
Do The Democrats Really Need ‘Their Own Trump’ To Win? w/ Galen Druke
This week I sat down with political analyst Galen Druke to talk about what actually moves public opinion and shifts voter behavior. We got into why some people viewed Donald Trump as the more moderate choice in 2016, what that says about how voters think, and how Democrats might get back into the national conversation in a real way. We also talked about how polls work, when they matter, and what t
Can You Marry Across the Religious Divide? w/ Josh Hammer
Josh Hammer is the author of Israel and Civilization: The Fate of the Jewish Nation and the Destiny of the West. He joins me to explore the big stuff: God, geopolitics, Zionism, the future of the U.S. We also get into the complexities of interfaith marriage and the role of religion in modern culture. The conversation delves into the challenges and nuances of maintaining religious and ethnic contin
Eric Adams to Cuomo: ‘Get Out’ and Let Me Beat Mamdani
New York City’s mayor on Zohran Mamdani and Andrew Cuomo; socialism and corruption; policing and power; rats and redemption.
New York City mayor Eric Adams has had a controversial time in office. So why should New Yorkers trust him for another four years?
In this episode, we talk about Adams’ criticisms of Zohran Mamdani, his call to Andrew Cuomo to step aside, and yes: rats, e-bikes, and t
The Secret To A Fulfilling Life (Backed by Science) w/ Arthur Brooks
I’m joined this week by someone who asks questions maybe all of us don’t ask enough: How do we become happier? And how do we date people we disagree with? And maybe most importantly: Why do people feel they are living lives without meaning? And how do we solve this?
My guest is Arthur C. Brooks, a Harvard professor, a best-selling author, a social scientist, and a co-author (with Oprah, no less)
The Right Way To Be A Skeptic w/ Tim Urban
This week I sit down with writer and thinker Tim Urban, creator of the blog Wait But Why to talk: political polarization, AI, university campuses and even dating.
Tim brings his trademark clarity and curiosity to a conversation that covers the rise of tribal thinking, the challenge of nuance in a viral world, and how humanity can navigate the information overload of the digital age.
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The Roots of Iran’s Nuclear Program w/ Mark Dubowitz
Mark Dubowitz, CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, has long focused on Iran’s nuclear ambitions and advised multiple U.S. administrations on policy toward Iran. I invited him on Conversations with Coleman to explain the Iran nuclear issue at a deep level.
We discussed the science of uranium enrichment, the differing Obama, Trump, and Biden policies on containment, and the history of
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