Category: Interviews

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Mike talks to novelist and essayist Joshua Cohen about his latest book, Attention: Dispatches from a Land of Distraction. In this talk, Mike and Joshua discuss:

• Donald Trump and the Fall of Atlantic City
• What people who have worked with Donald Trump have to say about him
• Ethnic whites and the Trump coalition
• Contrasting Donald Trump and Barack Obama
• The appeal of Bernie Sanders
• Distraction and Attention

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(There was a very short period in Mike’s life where he thought he could handle his teaching job, write a book, host The Politics Guys, and start a new podcast – Politics Plus. It soon became evident to Mike how insane trying to do all this at once was, and so he quickly shut down Politics Plus. But before he did, he’d posted four interviews – all of which he thinks are pretty good and are worth sharing with you as Politics Guys bonus episodes.)

Mike talks with Beck Dorey-Stein, who worked as a White House stenographer from 2012 – 2017. She’s written about her experiences in the recently released book, From the Corner of the Oval. They discuss:

• What White House stenographers do
• How being in the White House changed how Beck felt about politics
• If the White House is anything like the TV show The West Wing
• The insane hours and workloads of White House staffers
• What happens behind the scenes during crises
• ‘Living the dream’ in the Obama administration
• Her view of President Obama
• What it was like to come to work the day after Donald Trump was elected
• What it was like working in the Trump administration
• And lots more

Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. If you’re interested in supporting the show, go to politicsguys.com/support.

(There was a very short period in Mike’s life where he thought he could handle his teaching job, write a book, host The Politics Guys, and start a new podcast – Politics Plus. It soon became evident to Mike how insane trying to do all this at once was, and so he quickly shut down Politics Plus. But before he did, he’d posted four interviews – all of which he thinks are pretty good and are worth sharing with you as Politics Guys bonus episodes.)

Mike talks to Tali Sharot, director of the Affective Brain Lab and an Associate Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience in the department of Experimental Psychology at University College London. Dr. Sharot’s research integrates neuroscience, behavioral economics, and psychology to study how emotion influences people’s beliefs, decisions and social interactions. She’s the author of The Optimism Bias and, most recently, The Influential Mind: What the Brain Reveals About Our Power to Change Others.

Mike and Dr. Sharot discuss:

• how some information is like sex and plum pie
• why Donald Trump was so much more influential than his Republican presidential rivals
• how our attempts to persuade others can actually boomerang on us, leaving them less persuaded than they were to start with
• how to go from getting someone to agree with you to getting them to act
• when crowds are wise and when they’re not
• and lots more

Follow the Affective Brain Lab on Twitter

Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. If you’re interested in supporting the show, go to politicsguys.com/support.

(There was a very short period in Mike’s life where he thought he could handle his teaching job, write a book, host The Politics Guys, and start a new podcast – Politics Plus. It soon became evident to Mike how insane trying to do all this at once was, and so he quickly shut down Politics Plus. But before he did, he’d posted four interviews – all of which he thinks are pretty good and are worth sharing with you as Politics Guys bonus episodes.)

Mike talks to Mona Charen, one of the most prominent conservative voices in the United States. She writes a syndicated column that appears in more than 200 newspapers, she’s a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, and is the author of the books Useful Idiots, Do-Gooders,and the recently released Sex Matters: How Modern Feminism Lost Touch with Science, Love, and Common Sense.

Topics they cover include:

• differences between pioneering feminists and the ‘second-wave’ feminist movement of the 1960s and 1970s
• feminism and the Marxist concept of ‘false consciousness’
• what science tells us about biological differences between the sexes
• whether women can ‘have it all’
• how sexual empowerment was a wrong turn for the feminist movement
• the rise of ‘no-fault’ divorces and the damage they’ve done
• whether ‘my body, my choice’ and ‘safe, legal, and rare’ is a reasonable approach to abortion
• the ‘Campus Rape Industrial Complex’
• the transgender movement

Follow Mona Charen on Twitter

Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. If you’re interested in supporting the show, go to politicsguys.com/support.

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Mike talks to political scientist John Sides about his Democracy Fund Voter Study Group report, ‘Muslims in America: Public Perceptions in the Trump Era‘.

Dr. Sides is an associate professor of political science at The George Washington University, co-author of the books Identity Crisis: The 2016 Presidential Campaign and the Battle for the Meaning of America (coming out in September of 2018) and The Gamble: Choice and Chance in the 2012 Presidential Election, as well as a founder and the editor-in-chief of the political science blog, The Monkey Cage.

Topics Mike and Dr. Sides discuss include:

• How favorably Americans rate Muslims.
• Differences in how Republicans and Democrats rate Muslims.
• How education affects Muslim bias.
• Public support for a Muslim ban.
• Americans’ views of Muslims compared to Muslim Americans’ own views about themselves.
• Mainstream media’s role in perpetuating anti-Muslim bias.

Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. If you’re interested in supporting the show, go to politicsguys.com/support.

There was a very short period in Mike’s life where he thought he could handle his teaching job, write a book, host The Politics Guys, and start a new podcast – Politics Plus. It soon became evident to Mike how insane trying to do all this at once was, and so he quickly shut down Politics Plus. But before he did, he’d posted four interviews – all of which he thinks are pretty good and are worth sharing with you as Politics Guys bonus episodes.

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In this interview, Mike talks with journalist, author, and policy analyst David Frum. Mr. Frum is currently a senior editor at the Atlantic. From 2014 through 2017, he chaired the board of trustees of the leading UK center-right think tank, Policy Exchange. He’s served as a speechwriter and special assistant to President George W. Bush and as senior adviser to the Rudy Giuliani presidential campaigns. He’s also the author of nine books, most recently Trumpocracy: The Corruption of the American Republic.

In the conversation, Mike and Mr. Frum cover, among other things:

• how Bill Clinton monetized the post-presidency
• America as a toddler in heavy traffic
• Donald Trump and punching babies
• the ‘neither ethical or smart’ Trump administration
• Congressional leaders enabling Trumpocracy
• whether the American political system can handle the Trump presidency

Follow David Frum on Twitter

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Mike talks to Dr. Robert Sutter, a Professor of International Affairs at the Elliott School of George Washington University. Dr. Sutter has worked both in government and in academia, including positions with the CIA, State Department, and Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He’s published 20 books, over 200 articles and several hundred government reports dealing with contemporary East Asian and Pacific countries and their relations with the United States. His most recent book is US-China Relations: Perilous Past, Uncertain Present.

Mike and Dr. Sutter discuss how China is like Prussia, China’s investment in Africa, the US / China trade deficit, China & North Korea, if the 21st century will be the ‘Chinese Century’, and lots more.

We’d really appreciate it if you could take the short, super-easy Politics Guys libsyn survey. Here’s the link: survey.libsyn.com/politicsguys

Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. If you’re interested in supporting the show, go to politicsguys.com/support.

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Mike talks with journalist, editor, and publisher Kenneth Whyte, author of The Uncrowned King: The Sensational Rise of William Randolph Hearst  and most recently, Hoover: An Extraordinary Life in Extraordinary Times. If you think Herbert Hoover was a boring conservative presidential nonentity, you’re in for a pleasant surprise.

In this conversation, Mike and Ken discuss Hoover’s swashbuckling and sketchy business career, his amazing humanitarian efforts in World War I (it was a crime that he didn’t win a Nobel Peace Prize), how Hoover can amazingly lay claim to being the father of modern progressivism and modern conservatism, and lots more.

Kenneth Whyte on Twitter

Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. If you’re interested in supporting the show, go to politicsguys.com/support.

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Mike talks with Ran Levi, author of Battle of Minds: The History of Computer Malware and host of the Malicious Life podcast, which explores the people and the stories behind the cyber security industry and its evolution.

Mike and Ran discuss Russian hacking into Democratic and Republican systems, potential hacking into state election systems, why paper ballots are a really good idea, the cybersecurity threat posed by Russia, North Korea, and terrorist organizations, the most common vulnerabilities and what governments aren’t doing to protect themselves, and more.

Ran Levi on Twitter

Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. If you’re interested in supporting the show, go to politicsguys.com/support.