GoodFellows: Conversations from the Hoover Institution

International Man Of History

Imagine the three “GoodFellows” in charge of America’s government—a modern (and democratic) twist on ancient Rome’s triumvirate. Hoover senior fellows Niall Ferguson, H. R. McMaster, and John Cochrane discuss the coronavirus-related steps they’d take if entrusted with deciding the nation’s health, economic, and geostrategic choices.

Recorded May 19, 2020 1 PM PT

Education, Economics—and Woodpeckers

A simple question for this week: where will we be a year now, assuming the COVID-19 pandemic has been tamed? Hoover senior fellows John Cochrane, Niall Ferguson, and H. R. McMaster debate COVID-19’s lasting effects on the economy, education, and the public’s willingness to risk its health—all while one of the GoodFellows does battle with an invading woodpecker.

Recorded May 11, 2020

A “Wartime” President?

The “war” on COVID-19 continues a trend of affixing that word to life’s miseries (poverty, drugs, cancer). Hoover senior fellows John Cochrane, Niall Ferguson and H.R. McMaster debate whether “war” applies to pandemics, if Donald Trump’s “wartime presidency” is more akin to LBJ’s than FDR’s, plus Joe Biden’s odd fixation with the late Hoover economist Milton Friedman.

Recorded May 5, 2020 1 PM PT

Your Wallet or Your Life?

As the nation’s states start loosening shelter-in-place restrictions developed in response to the coronavirus, governments weigh sometimes conflicting advice from the scientific and business communities. Hoover senior fellows John Cochrane, Niall Ferguson, and H. R. McMaster debate the right balance to strike in restarting a battered economy, COVID-19’s effect on America’s military readiness, and a scenario in which a second pandemic wave strikes shortly before the fall electio strike in restarting a battered economy, COVID-19’s effect on America’s military readiness, and a scenario in which a second pandemic wave strikes shortly before the fall election.

Recorded April 28, 2020 2 PM PT

Cold War 2

If the US-Soviet standoff defined the second half of the 20th century, is a new “cold war” between America and China this generation’s defining economic and geostrategic engagement? Hoover senior fellows John Cochrane, Niall Ferguson and H. R. McMaster debate whether a new cold war indeed is under way and what defines the competition. (Spoiler alert: the three “GoodFellows” are not in agreement.)

Recorded April 21, 2020 1PM PT

A Return to Normalcy?

The question on everyone’s mind: when will society revert to its pre-coronavirus existence, and is such a restoration remotely possible? Hoover senior fellows John Cochrane, Niall Ferguson, and H. R. McMaster reflect on the various factors—economic policies, governments restoring civil liberties, nations working in tandem, the search for a COVID-19 vaccine—that will lead to the “new normal.”

Recorded April 14, 2020 2PM PT

Rue Britannia?

In this episode of GoodFellows, a Hoover Institution weekly broadcast examining the ramifications of the global COVID-19 pandemic, senior fellows John Cochrane, Niall Ferguson, and H. R. McMaster exchange their thoughts on why governments fail to anticipate crises, British and European leadership in flux, and the right approach for re-engaging with China.

Recorded April 7, 2020 11AM PT

Still A Free Society?

In the inaugural episode the Hoover GoodFellows have a lively discussion about how much civil liberties can be sacrificed in an emergency, what steps should be taken to prevent the health crisis from becoming an economic and financial crisis, and whether the decoupling of the US-China relationship will accelerate.