In 2023, the Hoover Institution interviewed Hoover fellows and guests about today’s most important topics in public policy, law, economics, foreign policy, culture, and beyond. As 2023 draws to a close, we highlight some of the year’s most popular episodes from our new and existing video and podcast series. Highlights include discussions about ongoing wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, freedom of speech, antisemitism, college protests, debt, inflation, the economy, housing, cryptocurrencies, education, Supreme Court decisions, judicial fairness, open borders, the continued effects of pandemic-era public health policies, the mind of Russian president Vladimir Putin, the Biden administration’s policies, and more.
Center for Revitalizing American Institutions
The Hoover Institution’s new Center for Revitalizing American Institutions explores the crisis in trust facing American institutions and find solutions.
The Center hosts its inaugural conference November 30 and December 1 at Stanford University, featuring a conversation among Maryland Governor Wes Moore (D), New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu (R), and Hoover Institution Director Condoleezza Rice.
Executive Leadership In A Polarized Era: Rebuilding Trust In American Institutions
Stanford Emerging Technology Review (SETR)
The Stanford Emerging Technology Review (SETR) is the first product of a major new Stanford technology education initiative for policymakers. Our goal is to help both the public and private sectors better understand the technologies poised to transform our world so that the United States can seize opportunities, mitigate risks, and ensure that the American innovation ecosystem continues to thrive.
The Stanford Emerging Tech Review | Launch
The Hoover Institution and Stanford School of Engineering held the launch of The Stanford Emerging Tech Review with Condoleezza Rice, Jennifer Widom, Marc Andreessen, and Richard Saller on Tuesday, November 14, 2023.
The Stanford Emerging Technology Review is a university-wide project bringing together science faculty across campus to outline key developments in ten frontier technology fields and their policy implications.
For more episodes of The Stanford Emerging Tech Review, click here.
Matters Of Policy & Politics
Hosted by distinguished policy fellow Bill Whalen, Matters of Policy and Politics is devoted to matters of governance and balance of power at home and abroad.
Supreme Court Fireworks: The Future of College Admissions
For a second straight summer, the Supreme Court issued a series of rulings that impact the nation’s social and political fabrics. John Yoo, a Hoover Institution visiting fellow and author of the newly released The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Supreme Court, explains the justices’ reasoning on race and free speech, what the future holds for college admissions (Harvard’s legacy factor now the subject of a lawsuit), plus the unusually personal nature of a few of the opinions.
For more episodes of Matters of Policy & Politics, click here.
Battlegrounds w/ H.R. McMaster | International Perspectives on Crucial Challenges to Security and Prosperity
Hosted by Fouad and Michelle Ajami Senior Fellow H.R. McMaster, the Battlegrounds interview series provides a needed forum with leaders from key countries to share their assessment of problem sets and opportunities that have implications for US foreign policy and national security strategy.
Reflecting on Russia’s history of aggression and Putin’s imperial ambitions, former US ambassador to Russia John Sullivan joins Hoover senior fellow H.R. McMaster to discuss the 2022 reinvasion of Ukraine and its impact on the United States and NATO. Drawing on his experience under the Biden administration in the lead-up to the reinvasion, Sullivan assesses the current state of the war, its historical similarities with Hitler’s invasion of Poland in 1939, the uncertain future facing Putin, and how the war in Ukraine may come to an end.
For more episodes of Battlegrounds, click here.
The Libertarian
The inimitable Richard Epstein offers his unique perspective on national developments in public policy and the law. Tune in each week to hear Epstein’s take on breaking news stories via podcast or written word, moderated by Policy Fellow Tom Church.
Boxes In The Bathroom: The Trump Indictment Unpacked
Richard Epstein discusses the facts of the case against Donald Trump, the legal and political defense strategies likely to be used, and why Hillary Clinton’s emails remain relevant.
For more episodes of The Libertarian, click here.
Economics, Applied
Each episode of Economics, Applied, a video podcast series, features senior fellow Steven Davis in conversation with leaders and researchers about economic developments and their ramifications. The goal is to bring evidence and economic reasoning to the table, drawing lessons for individuals, organizations, and society. The podcast also aims to showcase the value of individual initiative, markets, the rule of law, and sound policy in fostering prosperity and security.
Managing a Remote Workforce | Steven Davis and Raj Choudhury
Raj Choudhury joins Hoover Institution fellow Steven Davis to talk about work from home and other flexible working arrangements. They discuss Choudhury’s study of the transition to remote work by US patent examiners, including its effects on productivity and employee morale. Next, they consider which jobs and organizations are suited for remote work, which are not, and what it takes to successfully manage a remote workforce. To close, they remark on the potential of remote work to revitalize smaller cities.
For more episodes of Economics, Applied, click here.
Goodfellows: Conversations From The Hoover Institution
In uncertain times, what’s needed is not just clarity about today’s pandemic, but insight into the challenges that lie ahead as America recovers and returns to normal. GoodFellows, a weekly Hoover Institution broadcast, features senior fellows John Cochrane, Niall Ferguson, and H.R. McMaster discussing the social, economic, and geostrategic ramifications of this changed world.
Ivy-League Anti-Semitism with Bari Weiss, Regarding Henry, and Santa Hats
Failing to unequivocally denounce students’ calls for Jewish genocide has cost one university president her job and raised questions as to whether the current levels of antisemitic vitriol and political activism inside America’s elite schools suggests parallels to Nazi Germany. Bari Weiss, founder of The Free Press and host of the Honestly podcast, joins Hoover senior fellows Niall Ferguson, H.R. McMaster, and John Cochrane to discuss when and why America’s universities went astray and how to separate scholarship from political agendas.
For more episodes of GoodFellows, click here.
Uncommon Knowledge with Peter Robinson
For more than two decades, the Hoover Institution has been producing Uncommon Knowledge, a series hosted by Murdoch Distinguished Policy Fellow Peter Robinson as an outlet for political leaders, scholars, journalists, and today’s big thinkers to share their views with the world.
A Historian Of The Future: Five More Questions For Stephen Kotkin
Historian Stephen Kotkin became the Kleinheinz Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution in 2022. He taught at Princeton for more than thirty years and is the author of nine works of history, including the first two volumes of his biography of Joseph Stalin, Paradoxes of Power, 1878 to 1928, and Waiting for Hitler, 1929 to 1941. He is now completing the third and final volume. Since the war in Ukraine broke out a year ago, Kotkin has appeared regularly on Uncommon Knowledge with Peter Robinson to offer his unique perspective on Russian aggression and answer five questions for us. This is the third installment.
For more episodes of Uncommon Knowledge click here.
Law Talk With Epstein, Yoo & Senik
A lively (and often funny) look at legislation and constitutional jurisprudence is offered by preeminent law professors Richard Epstein and John Yoo. The show is hosted by Troy Senik.
The Supreme Court ended its most recent term with a bang, and that’s also how professors Richard Epstein and John Yoo are starting this review of the biggest decisions. There’s a split in the faculty lounge over the wisdom of the court’s affirmative action ruling, and we’ll let you decide who gets the better of the argument. Then we move on to the court’s smackdown of the Biden administration’s student loan relief plan and the latest in a long string of cases regarding how and whether free speech rights apply in an antidiscrimination context (yes, it’s Colorado … again). Finally, because we don’t want you to think Law Talk has lost its edge, we tee up the most important legal question of 2023: Can a bear violate your Fourth Amendment rights?
For more episodes of Law Talk, click here.
The Pacific Century
The twenty-first century may be the Pacific Century, and China appears poised to become America’s greatest rival for global power and influence. Host Michael Auslin, the Payson J. Treat Distinguished Research Fellow in Contemporary Asia, broadly addresses developments in China and Asia. Auslin and his guests discuss the latest politics, economics, law, and cultural news, with a focus on US policy in the region.
Larry Summers Lays Down the Law
Larry Summers discusses why America is committed to economic interdependence with China and how to protect US interests going forward.
For episodes of the Pacific Century, click here.
The Secrets Of Statecraft with Andrew Roberts
Secrets of Statecraft is a bimonthly podcast hosted by Andrew Roberts which explores the effect that the study of history has had on the careers and decision making of public figures. It also asks leading historians about the influence that the study of history had on their biographical subjects.
Getting Inside the Mind of Vladimir Putin
Mike McFaul, President Obama’s ambassador to Moscow, drew on history to discover what makes Putin tick.
For more episodes of Secrets of Statecraft, click here.
The Caravan Notebook
This platform for essays, articles, and podcasts offers commentary on a variety of subjects, ranging from current events to cultural trends and including topics that are too local or too specific from the larger questions addressed quarterly in The Caravan.
At the Cusp of Israeli-Saudi Normalization?
Talk of normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel has been heating up this year, with American officials visiting Riyadh to hammer out the terms of an agreement and Saudi and Israeli leaders sounding optimistic. But how close to such a deal are we really? Joshua Teitelbaum, a professor of Middle East history at Bar-Ilan University in Israel and an expert on Saudi Arabia, offers his insights on the prospects of normalization. What are the Saudis looking to get out of such an agreement? Why is the United States being asked to provide the inducements? What are the obstacles that stand in the way of normalization and might they be too great to overcome in the near term?
For more from The Caravan Notebook, click here.
Talks from the Hoover Institution
Talks and interviews from Hoover Institution events.
Sanctions and Russia: Effects, Lessons, and the Future
This Hoover History Lab Discussion is between Kleinheinz Senior Fellow Stephen Kotkin and Sergei Guriev, provost and professor of economics at the Institut d'études politiques de Paris (Sciences Po). Many analysts are skeptical about the effects of the sweeping sanctions imposed by the West on Russia, pointing to the Kremlin’s apparent ability to weather and circumvent the harsh measures. They say that Russia’s resilience to this onslaught is due to its geostrategic advantages, including the sprawling Eurasian landmass and its relationships with China, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and a number of Central Asian countries that declined to join the sanctions regime. These skeptics also highlight perverse and unintended consequences of the sanctions, including driving economic activity underground, spurring criminal forms of commerce, and helping the Putin regime strengthen control over the private sector and oligarchs. What is the actual story? What are the facts, consequences, responses, paradoxes, and long-term effects of the sanctions on Russia? Has Russia become vulnerable economically? This conversation explores these questions and more.
For more information on the Hoover History lab, click here
For more Talks From the Hoover Institution, click here.
