GoodFellows: Conversations from the Hoover Institution

That 70s Show

To the adage of repeating the past, does a stretch of inflation at home, the end of prolonged military involvement in a faraway land, and a president lamenting a nation in crisis suggest a return to the America of the 1970s? Hoover Institution senior fellows Niall Ferguson, H. R. McMaster, and John Cochrane discuss the differences between then and now—after sharing photos showcasing their ’70s finery.

Recorded June 25, 2021

Glenn Loury: “A Man Of The West”

Does elite thinking about the Black experience in America, as expressed via the teaching of critical race theory and the 1619 Project, benefit the descendants of slavery? Glenn Loury, a Hoover Institution distinguished visiting fellow and Brown University economist who writes frequently on racial inequality, joins Hoover senior fellows Niall Ferguson, H. R. McMaster, and John Cochrane to discuss the historical and economic arcs of race in America.

Recorded May 25, 2021

Gates’s Way to National Security

It’s a complicated world—one in which an ascendant China threatens American concerns, fighting has recommenced in the Middle East, and the US government may not be suitably prepared for future cyberattacks. Robert Gates, secretary of defense in both the Obama and Bush 43 presidential administrations, joins Hoover senior fellows Niall Ferguson, H. R. McMaster, and John Cochrane to discuss the state of world affairs, US cybersecurity, and America’s global vision (or lack thereof).

Recorded May 18, 2021

Hoosier Daddy

While many an American university has struggled with the pandemic and cancel culture, Indiana’s Purdue University seems the exception to the norm: a reopened campus with an ongoing commitment to civics literacy and intellectual diversity. Purdue’s president, former Indiana governor Mitch Daniels, joins Hoover senior fellows Niall Ferguson, H. R. McMaster, and John Cochrane to discuss the state of higher education.

Recorded May 11, 2021

Doom Day!

As it turns out, COVID-19 isn’t the first catastrophic event to plague mankind. Or so Niall Ferguson, the Hoover Institution’s Milbank Family Senior Fellow, reminds us in his new book Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe, a historical look at past disasters and their aftermaths. The author joins Hoover senior fellows H. R. McMaster and John Cochrane to discuss why it is that we still struggle with disaster response and how to better prepare for future calamities.

Recorded May 4, 2021

Stirring the Melting Pot

For decades, America has struggled to make sense of whom to allow legally into the nation, whether to create pathways to citizenship for those who have slipped across the border illegally, and how to maintain the ideal of a welcoming society. Reihan Salam, president of the Manhattan Institute and author of 2018’s Melting Pot or Civil War? A Son of Immigrants Makes the Case Against Open Borders, joins Hoover senior fellows Niall Ferguson, H. R. McMaster and John Cochrane to discuss the present crisis at the southern border and what a 21st-century version of immigration reform should resemble.

Recorded April 27, 2021

A New Chill in the Classroom

What to make of elite universities with scant conservative representation in their faculty ranks; mankind’s tendency to dwell on the negative; plus the question of whether this is indeed the best time to be alive? Harvard cognitive psychologist and best-selling author Steven Pinker joins Hoover senior fellows Niall Ferguson, H. R. McMaster and John Cochrane to make the case for optimism in this time of the “Great Awokening.”

Recorded April 20, 2021

Question Time!

In this week’s episode, we dove into our mailbag of viewers’ letters. The end result: Hoover senior fellows Niall Ferguson, H. R. McMaster, and John Cochrane answering 15 questions on a variety of subjects: the threat of hostilities between China and Taiwan; the potential effect of Scottish independence on the future of corporate woke politics; alternate versions of higher learning; how to re-instill youthful optimism in America; plus what books the three “GoodFellows” recommend.

Recorded April 13, 2021

We’ll Always Have Paris

Climate change no longer is a conversation confined to saving the planet; for the woke left, it’s a segue to “environmental justice and equitable economic opportunity,” in the words of Joe Biden’s campaign platform. Hoover visiting fellow Bjorn Lomborg, author of False Alarm: How Climate Change Panic Costs Us Trillions, Hurts the Poor, and Fails to Fix the Planet joins Hoover senior fellows H. R. McMaster and John Cochrane for a conversation about sensible climate policy moving forward.

Recorded April 6, 2021

The Great Awokening With Bari Weiss

What does the future hold for the workplace and institutions of learning when diversity of thought prompts cancel-culture condemnation, ridicule, and ouster? Journalist, author, and Substack Common Sense writer Bari Weiss joins Hoover senior fellows Niall Ferguson, H. R. McMaster, and John Cochrane for a conversation about a changed world in which, she warns, “curiosity is a liability.”

Recorded March 30, 2021