Q & A, Hosted By Jay Nordlinger

Waad al-Kateab is a Syrian journalist and documentarian. She filmed daily life in Aleppo, during the siege of that city, which lasted four years. Today, she is exiled in London. She made a documentary called “For Sama” (Sama being one of her two daughters). This week, she has participated in the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy. With Jay, she talks about a range of issues... Source

Haviv Rettig Gur is a senior analyst with the Times of Israel. In the last few days, he has written a searching article about the latest Hamas war, and the prospects for Israel. With Jay, Mr. Gur expands on important issues. What about intra-Palestinian politics (Hamas vs. Fatah)? What about the role of Iran? What about the United States? What errors has Israel made? Why can’t Israel finish off... Source

For 30 years, Marvin Kalb was a reporter and commentator for CBS News and NBC News. He was the last of the “Murrow Boys.” In the 1980s, he was the host of “Meet the Press.” Today, he hosts “The Kalb Report.” He was born in 1930 and, as a child, helped his family get through the Depression. Millions of Depression kids did this. He later went to Harvard graduate school, to study Russia and Russian. Source

Nicholas Christakis is an unusual academic—a physician, a sociologist, and more. He is also a champion of free speech. Christakis is a Greek American, who grew up in both countries. He has a lofty position at Yale: Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science. He has written a book about the pandemic, “Apollo’s Arrow.” He talks about this, both knowledgeably and movingly. He and Jay discuss a... Source

Dana Perino has written three books, all filled with wisdom and light. Books tend to reflect their authors. She has podcasted with Jay about all three of them. The latest is “Everything Will Be Okay: Life Lessons for Young Women (from a Former Young Woman).” Ms. Perino is a co-host of two shows at Fox News: “America’s Newsroom” and “The Five.” She served a press secretary to President George W. Source

Gulchehra Hoja works at Radio Free Asia, in Washington, D.C. She is a Uyghur, a Uyghur American. The Chinese government has imprisoned more than a million Uyghurs in a new network of concentration camps—a new gulag archipelago. Among the prisoners are many of Gulchehra Hoja’s relatives. She and her colleagues at RFA have paid a terrible price for their truth-telling; so have their families. Ms. Source

As Jay says in his introduction, Donna M. Hughes is “an academic and activist—a righteous warrior.” She is a professor of women’s studies at the University of Rhode Island. Her specialty is sex trafficking. No one knows more about it than she. She works against it day after day. In recent days, she has published an article involving the transgender movement, which caused a furious reaction... Source

Ellen Bork is a veteran analyst of Far Eastern affairs—and a devoted friend of freedom and democracy. Perry Link is an eminent professor of Chinese and Chinese literature—and a friend and helper of dissidents, over the years. They are part of a new effort called the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong. The Chinese government has cracked down ferociously on that city, that outpost. For Taiwan, too... Source

That’s a phrase that David French uses in this episode: “a Darwinian mêlée.” He is talking about the survival of the fittest in the NBA—but the phrase applies to other arenas as well. Jay hosts his golden gurus—David, Sally Jenkins, and Vivek Dave—in this discussion of, yes, the NBA, and also the NCAA (including in the Supreme Court), along with the Masters and more. A discussion both lively and... Source

Michael Wooldridge is the chairman of the computer-science department at Oxford University. He is a specialist in artificial intelligence, and the author of a new brief history of the subject (which Jay has reviewed). Driverless cars are coming. What else is coming? Should we worry or rejoice? Anyway, a fine talk with the AI Man. Source

Peter Meijer is a new congressman from Grand Rapids, Mich. He is the son of Hendrik Meijer, with whom Jay did a “Q&A” three years ago (here). The Meijers own a chain of “superstores” in Michigan (and beyond) where virtually everyone shops. Peter went to West Point, Columbia, and NYU. He served in the Iraq War. Three days after he was sworn in as a congressman, a mob attacked the Capitol. To Jay... Source

Jay talks with Jonah Goldberg about his writing life, his dogs, his political thought. Bill Buckley, Charles Krauthammer, Donald Trump. Music, sports, food. “Life its ownself,” or at least significant slices. Jonah is in splendid form, expressing joy even when the topics are unjoyful, somehow. Source

Michael Powell is a national reporter for the New York Times. He has had many beats in his career, including sports. Today, he has a tricky one, you might even say a dangerous one: free speech, campus life, intellectual debate. Recently, he published a blockbuster piece headed “Inside a Battle Over Race, Class and Power at Smith College.” Jay talks with him about this—and about his career... Source

Steven B. Smith is indeed an American, Chicago born. (The line is Saul Bellow’s, cited by Smith in this “Q&A.”) He is a political scientist, a political theorist, a famous professor at Yale. His new book is “Reclaiming Patriotism in an Age of Extremes.” He and Jay talk about patriotism (naturally) and nationalism and many other issues—including “wokeness” on campus and baseball. Source

On Twitter, Claire Berlinski bills herself as a “rootless cosmopolitan.” She has styled her new newsletter “The Cosmopolitan Globalist.” There is such a thing as “owning the insult.” In other words, if they’re going to call you those things anyway … Berlinski is a writer and scholar who specializes in international relations. She has lived in various places and is now in Paris. With Jay... Source

Douglas Carswell grew up in Uganda. For a dozen years—2005 to 2017—he was a member of the British parliament. He is a conservative and a free-market man. In recent weeks, he has come to America to head the Mississippi Center for Public Policy. Jay talks with him about a little bit of everything: Africa; British politics (Thatcher, Cameron, Boris, et al.); Mississippi (how do you sell Thatcher... Source

Jared Genser is an American human-rights lawyer, who has represented many political prisoners and dissidents all over the world. From 2006 to 2010, he served as pro bono counsel to Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese democracy leader. A week ago, the Burmese military ousted Aung San Suu Kyi and the government in a coup d’état. Genser wrote about the issue here. And he talks about Burma—and his work... Source

Jay hosts two of his young colleagues from National Review: Madeleine Kearns, of Glasgow, and Cameron Hilditch, of Belfast (or nearby). He has had them as guests before—singly. This show is more of a roundtable. Under discussion: the British Isles, with its accents and whatnot; the critical importance of “loser’s consent” in a democracy; great literature (including “Jane Eyre”and George Herbert)... Source

John Hare is an eminent philosopher—a professor of philosophical theology at Yale. Among his books are “Why Bother Being Good? The Place of God in the Moral Life.” Hare is also a renowned teacher, prized by his students. He is the son of another eminent philosopher, R. M. Hare. He and Jay talk about that. What else do they talk about? Young Hare’s adventures in India, as a teenager. His time on a... Source

A sportscast with Jay’s favorite gurus: Sally Jenkins, Vivek Dave, and David French. Bill Belichick and the Pats. The coach’s turning down of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The miraculous career of Tom Brady. Too “miraculous”? Anything illicit going on? Urban Meyer, the Washington Football Team, James Harden as Brooklyn Net, and more. Very lively, very informed—very entertaining. Source