The Dishcast with Andrew Sullivan

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Catherine is a philologist with a particular focus on Augustine of Hippo. She’s both the Leslie Clark Professor in the Humanities and a Professor of Greek, Latin, and Classical Studies at Bryn Mawr College. The author of many books, her most recent is Augustine the African. We had an exhilarating afternoon talking about this African who helped frame the West.
The episode was recorded on October 27, 2026, and aired on October 30. Timestamps for the main sections:
* 07:43: How Catherine came to specialize in Augustine
* 24:19: The profound influence of his mother
* 42:56: His conversion to Christianity
* 52:42: The deaths of his mom, son, and best friend in quick succession
* 101:23: His decades preaching and writing in Hippo
For two audio clips — on Augustine’s struggles with sex, and the moment he converted to Christianity — head to our YouTube page.
More topics covered: Catherine growing up mostly in Oxford; her family’s dedication to the classics; the Romans’ Gaza-like destruction of Carthage; the ferocious debating style of Augustine; his struggle to be humble; his emotional openness; his disgust over Roman games and executions; his early interest in Manichaeism; the problem of evil; sex in the Garden of Eden; Augustine’s persistent horniness; his 14-year relationship with a woman he ditched for an arranged marriage; his close bond with his Christian mother who long tried to convert him; the unprecedented nature of his Confessions; Oakeshott’s awe; Augustine on friendship; memory and time; The City of God filled with relentless counter arguments; Wittgenstein and the limits of language; the miracles of everyday life; the homelessness of Jesus and St Francis; and how Rome was falling at the end of Augustine’s life.
Browse the Dishcast archive for episodes you might enjoy.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit andrewsullivan.substack.com

My old friend Chris — the most intelligent, sane, and well-read conservative thinker writing in America today — returns to the Dishcast for his fourth appearance. He’s a senior fellow at the Claremont Institute, a contributing editor to the Claremont Review of Books, a contributing writer for the NYT and The Spectator, and a member of the editorial committee of the French quarterly Commentaire.
The episode was recorded on October 14, 2026, and aired on October 23. Timestamps for the main sections:
* 03:57: The Iran debacle and Trump’s broken promise on wars
* 33:11: Gaza and surging antisemitism on the left and right
* 46:01: Germany and the rise of the AfD
* 103:12: The political situation in France and Spain
* 112:03: The state of the right in the UK
* 129:30: What the GOP might look like after Trump is gone
For two audio clips — on the lawfare against right-wing pols in Europe, and whether the Iran War will split Trump’s party — head to our YouTube page.
More topics covered: the CIA cautioning against the Iran War; gas prices and inflation; China “laughing at us”; the Houthis harming global trade; Trump’s fickle moods; protectionism and tariffs; staggering corruption in crypto and other cons; Vought and Miller; Musk’s DOGE demolition; USAID and bias; Rubio’s expansive role; his Athens speech and thymos; Vance and “heritage Americans”; MAGA vs international alliances; Obama opposing the Iraq War; Howard Dean; the war in Gaza; Israel as Goliath; college protests and woke antisemitism; the Groypers and rising antisemitism on the right; the dark talents of Fuentes; the left’s rejection of nationalism; AfD and its origins; lesbian AfD leader Alice Weidel; Merkel and Syrian refugees; the surging popularity of Marine Le Pen; the Vox party in Spain; the fall of Starmer; the Restore and Reform parties; the waning influence of Farage; Count Binface; Kemi’s leadership; and Orwell’s views on Englishness.

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Evan is a former campaign fundraiser and political strategist for Democrats. She just published her first book, Nothing Left: Confessions of a Democratic Operative, which really blew me away. She’s also a writer and podcaster on Substack.
The episode was recorded on October 13, 2026, and aired on October 16. Timestamps for the main sections:
* 02:18: Evan’s upbringing in a poor, tumultuous family and trailer park
* 21:44: Her illness that led her to fight for Obama and his ACA
* 33:43: When she started to turn against Democrats
* 57:51: Getting canceled for being a “fragile white woman”
* 111:55: The death of her veteran brother and a woke disdain for patriotism
* 123:21: Her vote for Trump as a reactionary protest
For two audio clips — on her lifelong illness that drove her to campaign for Obama, and the woke dominance of Dem donors — head to our YouTube page.
More topics covered: how unions helped Evan’s family; the many marriages of her parents; going to 10 different schools; instability with money and healthcare; becoming a first-gen college grad; progressive activism; Bernie and AOC; the colorblind message of Obama; Hillary’s shift to identity politics; the smug elitism of Dem operatives; nepotism; weaponizing “oppression”; the Dem suspicion of straight men; Evan’s “masculine” approach to fundraising; the woke pipeline of the Ivy League; Kaepernick’s knee; oikophobia; immigration and the border; the ICE overreach; the silence of scared liberals; and how Dems haven’t gotten the message after 2024.
Browse the Dishcast archive for episodes you might enjoy. Coming up: Chris Caldwell on the right in the US and Europe, Michael Barone on the midterms, Francis Fukuyama on his memoir, Hamish McKenzie on Substack and journalism, Cynthia Burack on gender studies, Cyrus Habib on leaving politics to become a priest, Catherine Conybeare on Augustine, and Nancy Sherman on Aristotle.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit andrewsullivan.substack.com

Michael is the best nonfiction writer in America — and another friend from the early TNR days. He’s the author of so many bestsellers, including Liar’s Poker, Moneyball, The Blind Side, and Flash Boys. He was on the Dishcast four years ago to discuss The Premonition: A Pandemic Story, and last year to discuss a collection of essays called Who Is Government?
This week we’re covering his new book, Blockers: Rebels in the Deep State, which profiles some unknown heroes in the bureaucracy who defended the rule of law against Trump in his second term — and faced the consequences. Think of it as the flip-side of Jake Weisberg’s treatment of the powerful cowards who caved.
The episode was recorded on September 29, 2026, and aired on October 9. Timestamps for the main sections:
* 03:36: How Michael decided to frame and shape the book
* 11:32: DOGE as the tip of the spear for Trump 2.0
* 27:36: The physical takeover of buildings by DOGE
* 42:45: The amazing story of Alex Marangides inventing a new fire science
* 101:20: Covid policy and the turmoil at the National Institutes of Health
* 119:32: Michael’s moving tribute to his daughter Dixie
For three audio clips — why DOGE was never really about downsizing, the only member of DOGE who was fired, and Michael writing a play for his deceased daughter — head to our YouTube page.
More topics covered: how Trump 2.0 is different than 1.0; firing his transition team in 2016; the purging of enemies after 2024; Musk wanting to take control of NASA; reversing woke terminology; bypassing Congress; weaponizing private data; Musk promising pardons to DOGE; dismantling USAID; Vought and knee-capping the NIH; Michael’s scoop that Francis Collins was actually fired; debating the culpability of Bhattacharya; the Clinton-Gore downsizing; fixing the ozone layer; Trump’s sycophants; the horrifying Howard Lutnick; and inspiring stories of civil servants standing up for their role and the rule of law.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit andrewsullivan.substack.com

Emily is a senior editor at the New York Times Book Review. She’s also worked as a senior editor at The New Yorker, an ideas reporter for the NYT, a fashion features writer at Vogue, and a deputy editor of Lingua Franca magazine. Her new book is The Frenchmen: Or, My Life in Theory.
A polished transcript is here, including money quotes. Below are timestamps for the main sections of the pod:
* 03:56: Emily’s upbringing in a Francophile family
* 14:27: The postmodern idea that language is everything
* 31:05: The postmodern New Right
* 41:14: The dark dysfunctional lives of many of the French thinkers
* 103:27: The fatalism in pomo discourse
* 117:14: How Emily became skeptical of postmodernism
For two clips of the episode — on the word games of postmodernists, and the screwed-up lives of Foucault and others — head to our YouTube page.
More topics: Emily growing up in Indiana with regular trips to France; the country’s post-war boom but drop in world status; colonial revolt in Algeria; Heidegger and Nazism; Barthes and Maoism; Derrida and language; Levi-Strauss and structuralism; Camus and existentialism; nihilism; bourgeois as an epithet; Lacan and the unconscious; Althusser strangling his wife to death; the Straussian cult; Allan Bloom; the Sokal hoax; Stanley Fish and deconstruction; John Boswell and homosexuality; Foucault deconstructing gayness; the AIDS crisis; the prison system; Orwell and Oakeshott; Sarah Bakewell on Montaigne; HR and pronouns; the fatalism of Coates; and Trump’s exec orders on language in government.
Browse the Dishcast archive for an episode you might enjoy. Coming up: Michael Lewis on the bureaucrats who fought back against Trump, Evan Barker on how the Democratic Party got hijacked by elite activists, Sean Illing on the relevance of Camus and Nietzsche, Catherine Conybeare on Augustine, and Cyrus Habib on leaving politics to become a Jesuit priest. Please send any guest recs, dissents, and other comments to dish@andrewsullivan.com.