Conversations with Coleman

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, remains the world's best bet for stability and peace. He joins the show to make that case while refusing to pull his punches where America has fallen short. He and Coleman debate whether the Iraq War was worth it in the long run, why Joe Biden's Afghanistan withdrawal was a mistake, how the U.S. has failed to use its leverage over Israel, his fundamental mistrust of the Trump administration, and why a world where China balances American power is not the progressive fantasy some on the left imagine it to be. He and Coleman also get into the America First movement and the limits of the United Nations.
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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, she joins the show to respond to a recent episode with Lionel Shriver, pushing back on some of the assumptions driving the current immigration debate. She makes the case for robust legal immigration and serious border enforcement — and explains why the Trump administration is managing to get both wrong. She also discusses why assimilation is working better than the culture war suggests, why affirmative action hurts the students it claims to help, and why birthright citizenship is more legally settled than its critics want to admit.
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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. 
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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 conversation also turns to free speech on college campuses after October 7 and the boundaries between criticism of Israel and antisemitism. Finally, Coleman presses Glenn on his alliance with Tucker Carlson and the responsibilities of independent media.
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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 internet, Gavin Newsom, and the declining birth rate.
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