Episodes

What a highlight it was for us to have two of our favorite guests of TP&R, Pete Wehner and Jonathan Rauch, on together to give tribute to Tim Keller and Michael Gerson. Tim Keller and Michael Gerson were both at the top of the list of guests we wanted to have on TP&R. Sadly we lost both gentlemen within the last year. Mike passed away last November and Tim died in May of this year. But we’re lucky to have Jonathan Rauch and Pete Wehner for this conversation because they were all friends and had...

"Bringing people together to learn how to do democracy again. And we're gonna go after the crazies in the political environment that do not have the interest of the country at heart." - Adam Kinzinger Congressman Adam Kinzinger served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2011 to 2023, representing Illinois’ 16th Congressional District. During his tenure, he served on the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, as well as the House Committe...

What does it mean to be an EXvangelical? For Mattie Jo Cowsert, how did that deconstruction of her faith, the tradition that she grew up in, all come about? How have family and friends back home reacted to Mattie Jo's journey, specifically with her being an outspoken exvangelical? What's it been like to go back and examine the truth of certain pillars of today's American Evangelicalism such as the Kanakuk Kamps, now known to have employed and protected serial sexual predators? We get into so muc...

We're joined by Tim Alberta upon the publication of his new book, The Kingdom, The Power and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism. After starting out with some fun banter about Tim's beloved Detroit Lions and veering off into kids' names, we delve into weighty topics such as whether Tim still considers himself an #evangelical - more specifically, if there are aspects of his faith he's begun to question. Much of this conversation is about the new book: "The main thing is no lon...

On this episode, we were joined by Jahnavi Rao and Nivea Krishnan of New Voters. Jahnavi is the President and Founder and Nivea is the Executive Director of the organization, a 501(c)3 whose mission is to involve students in all aspects of civic life, from registration to education and even emerging technologies. This is a nonpartisan group that, as of the date of our interview, registered 80,000 high school students to vote in 39 states along with 300,000 students that have been reached through...

Thoroughly appreciated this "Best of" conversation with Dr. Yuval Levin which we originally had right after the terrible attacks of October 7th in Israel. It was especially timely to have Dr. Yuval Levin on the program as he's not only one of this country's foremost scholars and policy experts, he's originally from Haifa, Israel. So we, of course, discussed what's happening there; however, our recording was only a couple days after the terrorist attacks that sparked the war. We did get to discu...

This is a special episode of TP&R as we are joined by Michal Rozen from Israel. Michal is currently a communications and film teacher there. She served in the army when she was 19. But she's found other ways to serve as she is a leftist who believes in peace and non-violence. That said, Michal's partner, siblings and cousins are all active in the IDF. And as you'll hear, there's much unity with everyone helping as they can with the war effort. In this chilling conversation, we get updates on wh...

You might recognize David Brooks from his columns in The New York Times or his essays in The Atlantic. Perhaps you’ve seen him on PBS NewsHour or Meet the Press. He’s also a prolific author. In fact, his 2019 book The Second Mountain was a major inspiration for this program. We discuss that as well as David’s new book, How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen (Penguin Random House). Our conversation with "Brooksie" went in a number of surprising direction...

What standards seem to guide your conduct? What stories shape your sense of the world and your place in it? What stories shape your sense of what it is to be a human being? What kinds of responses to the world’s suffering do you have the most hope for? These are just a few of the big questions we explored with Dr. Ryan McAnnally-Linz in this conversation. They're the kinds of questions he explores with his colleagues Miroslav Volf and Matthew Croasmun at Yale together, in their book LIFE WORTH L...

"...nothing matters in this whole wide world, When you're in love with a Jersey girl..." It was so cool to have Lisa Camooso Miller on the program partly because she grew up just a couple towns over from where Corey grew up in New Jersey! So of course we talked about "my hometown..." We also talked a lot about Lisa's specialty: #communications. And can't we all use a primer on better communication skills? There was so much else we covered such as how Lisa built her career in #politics and #jour...

“Oseh shalom bimromav. Hu ya’aseh shalom aleinu. V’al kol Yisrael V’imru” (They who make peace in their high places, may they bring peace upon us, and upon all Israel.) In this episode, we are joined by Dr. Naomi Yudanin and Dr. Erica Harris. We came together to discuss what's been happening in Israel since the attack by Hamas on October 7th; what's happening with our own families there; some background about our family histories including emigrating from Ukraine; how we're processing the react...

Please consider participating in a charitable effort our family is supporting: http://spot.fund/EquipmentForIDFReserves It was especially timely to have Dr. Yuval Levin on the program as he's not only one of this country's foremost scholars and policy experts, he's originally from Haifa, Israel. So we, of course, discussed what's happening there; however, our recording was only a couple days after the terrorist attacks that sparked the war. We did get to discuss a number of other pressing issue...

This is a special, timely conversation about what's happening in Israel. We invited our friends who produce and host DIRTY MODERATE, Adam Epstein and Dawn Sorokin, to work through some of the real history of Israel and that region; some of our own family's history; numerous false and destructive narratives that need to be confronted; how we're muddling through everything that's unfolding; and much more. Here is one charitable effort that our family is supporting: http://spot.fund/EquipmentForI...

Anytime Matt Lewis joins us, we have a grand ole' time! In this free flowing conversation, we make a pitch for how to solve the dumpster fire known as U.S. Congress: In light of the #Barbenheimer summer, Congress should consider the #FitzpatriHeimer fall. (cf. Co-heads of the Problem Solvers Caucus, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-PA, and Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-NJ.) We also cover how to talk to some friends and family in one information bubble, and other friends and family in a whole other political ...

What is the distinction between civility vs. politeness? How do we do life together? Why do so many of us have a lust to dominate others? How do we navigate the vertical relationship between the people and our governing authorities? More importantly, how do we navigate our horizontal relationships among our neighbors? How can we have a debate without it devolving into a quarrel? We've been grappling with these questions since the oldest story in the world has been told and since the oldest book ...

Mike Madrid makes his triumphant return to TP&R! We explored why significant numbers of Latino voters are drifting away from the Democratic Party; what explains the drift toward authoritarian populism of much of the Republican Party; how Fox News and the conservative media ecosystem keep their audience so angry; whether there are any Republicans worth supporting; we had some disagreement on whether to keep the offramp open for those who want to depart the Trump Train; what Mike means when he say...

Such a joy to have Wajahat Ali back on TP&R! Even before we got to the formal intro, Waj had Corey laughing to the point of tears. And yes, that was a snort - a laugh-snort! (a lorf? a snaf?) But laughter was a good salve for the serious subjects we covered. We discussed how power doesn’t like to be confronted and grappled with whether change can happen without discomfort. We were candid about our own mental health and what tools we've each developed to nurture good mental health. There was also...

Is a hotdog a sandwich? And why is that an important question? (Just trust me: It is!) Yascha Mounk of Johns Hopkins University joined us for this conversation to discuss his latest book THE IDENTITY TRAP: A STORY OF IDEAS AND POWER IN OUR TIME. What is meant by the term “identity synthesis?” In recent years, terms like “identity politics,” “cancel culture” and being “woke” have been used to refer to the topics that are dealt with in the book. So with the urgency of fighting the dangers of right...

“Is America a divinely ordained promised land for European Christians, or is America a pluralistic democracy where all stand on equal footing before the law?” Dr. Robert P. Jones, president and founder of PRRI, grapples with this central question in his new book, The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy and the Path to a Shared American Future. As Dr. Jones says, “At its heart, this book sets out to expose the deep, hidden roots of America’s current identity crisis.” This landmark work examines the g...

Mariana Alfaro, reporter on the breaking political news team at The Washington Post, has insights about the changing landscape of journalism; how to do excellent reporting, especially given some of the hostile environments contributors to the Fourth Estate are subjected to; appreciating the role of good journalism in a healthy democracy; how to collaborate with other top notch writers on the larger, breaking stories in American politics; yes, we break down some of those current events such as th...

Have you ever wondered how primetime news commentary shows on major networks are made? Have you ever wondered why guys like Tucker Carlson say the kinds of things he says? Our guest on this episode, Mike Leon, can tell you all about it. Mike shares what really happens behind the scenes on the set of Fox News. And some of the secrets are quite surprising. He also provides insights on how we can be better consumers of news and analysis. Mike Leon is a Rutgers journalism graduate, with 20+ years o...

What's at the root of the differences between generations? How different are those in the Silent Generation (that's who came after the Greatest Generation) from GenZ and "Polars" (which is the working name of the youngest generation)? Are major historical events like the Great Depression, World War II or, more recently, the Great Recession and COVID 19 the most significant factors in shaping a generation? Or could it be technology? Our guest, Dr. Jean Twenge, says it's the latter. In particular,...

This is a special presentation of Let’s Find Common Ground from our friends at Common Ground Committee. CGC’s mission is to bring healing to the national challenges of polarization and incivility, inspiring and motivating the public to find common ground. They do this by demonstrating how influential people of opposing views can find agreement without compromising core values. Here are the show notes from this episode of Let’s Find Common Ground: "Moderate Republican Will Hurd insists that acro...

Will Saletan returns to discuss his book, The Corruption of Lindsey Graham: A Case Study in the Rise of Authoritarianism. It's a fascinating, well-sourced study on the public record of Lindsey Graham since 2015 that helps us better understand what's happened to the Republican Party since the rise of Trump. When and why did many Republicans start capitulating to Donald Trump? We discussed how it's not just the rhetoric that changes; but the people themselves that change. As Will profoundly points...