Call Me Back - with Dan Senor

Latest Episodes:

Mike Murphy on the Democrats' "Good Bad Night" Nov 10, 2022

Show notes

In this episode, we go deep on deconstructing the mid-term results. We try to understand the implications for both parties heading into 2024. (And Murphy even tries to draw a connection between Richard Nixon and Mahatma Gandhi). Mike Murphy has worked on 26 gubernatorial and US Senate races across the country, including 12 wins in Blue States. He was a top strategist for John McCain, Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. He’s a political analyst for NBC and MSNBC. He’s co-host of the critically acclaimed "Hacks on Tap" podcast. Mike is also co-director of the University of Southern California’s Center for the Political Future.

Israel’s Next Government - with Yaakov Katz Nov 04, 2022

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Yaakov Katz – Editor-in-Chief of The Jerusalem Post and a former advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett – returns to our podcast. Earlier, Yaakov Katz served as The Jerusalem Post’s military reporter and defense analyst. He is the author of "Shadow Strike: Inside Israel's Secret Mission to Eliminate Syrian Nuclear Power" and co-author of two books: "Weapon Wizards - How Israel Became a High-Tech Military Superpower" and "Israel vs. Iran - The Shadow War" "Shadow Strike: Inside Israel's Secret Mission to Eliminate Syrian Nuclear Power" – shorturl.at/adioS "Weapon Wizards - How Israel Became a High-Tech Military Superpower" - shorturl.at/fhIJ3

Special Episode: "Taking the 5th" - Scenarios for Israel's next government Nov 01, 2022

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We join the team at Commentary Magazine for a discussion on scenarios for Israel's next government coming out of this election (the 5th in 44 months!). Subscribe to commentary magazine by going to: commentary.org

The Economic "Trilemma" - with Mohamed El-Erian Oct 27, 2022

Show notes

Record inflation, another wake-up call out of Beijing, a new prime minister in the UK, overhang of supply chain shocks and massive fiscal and monetary stimulus from the pandemic, all against the backdrop of the Russia-Ukraine war, which shows no signs of abating. What are the economic implications of all this? What should Central Banks be doing? Dr. Mohamed El-Erian returns to the podcast. He is President of Queens' College at Cambridge University. Mohamed serves as part-time Chief Economic Advisor at Allianz and Chair of Gramercy Fund Management. He’s a Professor at The Wharton School, he is a Financial Times contributing editor, Bloomberg Opinion columnist, and the author of two New York Times best sellers. He serves on several non-profit boards, including the NBER, and those of Barclays and Under Armour. From 2007-2014, Mohamed served as CEO/co-CIO of PIMCO. He worked at PIMCO for a total of fourteen years, and was chair of President Obama's Global Development Council. Mohamed also served two years as president and CEO of Harvard Management Company, the entity that manages Harvard’s endowment. He has been chair of the Microsoft Investment Advisory Board since 2007.

Karl Rove's "Crystal Ball" Oct 20, 2022

Show notes

With less than 3 weeks to the mid-term elections, Karl Rove joins the conversation. Karl served as Senior Advisor to President George W. Bush and White House Deputy Chief of Staff. He was the architect of both of President Bush’s 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns. He is the author "The Triumph of William McKinley" and also "Courage and Consequence". He writes a weekly column for The Wall Street Journal.

'No off ramps for Putin' - with Fred Kagan Oct 14, 2022

Show notes

With increasing talk about nuclear threats, we have three questions in this episode: What do we know from Putin’s past behavior that could inform how high up the ladder of escalation he is prepared to go? What are the next rungs up the ladder of escalation before the nuclear threat is real? As Putin moves up this escalatory ladder, what are the calculations of Zelensky, Europe’s leaders, and President Biden? Military analyst and Russia historian Fred Kagan returns to the podcast. Fred is the director of the American Critical Threats Project at the American Enterprise Institute and a former professor of military history at West Point, where he taught for ten years. Fred regularly advises senior US military commanders. He earned his PhD in Russian and Soviet military history at Yale University. Fred has a contrarian take on possible off-ramps for Putin (spoiler-alert: he doesn’t think there are any). And Fred also has a contrarian take on President Biden’s recent comments about a “nuclear armageddon”. To follow Fred Kagan’s work, the easiest way to do that is to go to AEI.org and understandingwar.org.

Cracks in Iran’s Theocracy - a view from a former CIA officer Sep 30, 2022

Show notes

We have all seen the images of women in cities across Iran burning their headscarves and cutting their hair in public to chants of "Death to the dictator.". The protests began after the September 13th death of 22-year-old Masha Amini. According to reports, Iranian morality police had accused Amini of violating laws mandating women cover their hair. These events appear to have sparked a major public backlash against the Iranian regime. But how serious is the threat to the Iranian regime? Reuel Marc Gerecht is a senior fellow at the Washington-based think tank, the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. He was previously a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Earlier, he served as a Middle Eastern specialist at the CIA’s Directorate of Operations. In that role, he was focused on Iran targets. Among his many books, Reuel is the author of Know Thine Enemy: A Spy’s Journey into Revolutionary Iran and The Islamic Paradox: Shiite Clerics, Sunni Fundamentalists, and the Coming of Arab Democracy. He has been a correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly, as well as a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Dispatch.

BONUS EPISODE: Kol Nidrei...misunderstood - with Rabbi Meir Soloveichik Sep 30, 2022

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Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, begins in a few days. Kol Nidrei, is one of the most misunderstood parts of the Jewish high holidays -- and of the entirety of Jewish liturgy -- according to Rabbi Meir Soloveichik. He laid this out in a recent thought-provoking piece in The Wall Street Journal, which you can access here: https://tinyurl.com/44e4z7z8 Rabbi Soloveichik is the senior rabbi of Congregation Shearith Israel in Manhattan, the oldest Jewish congregation in the United States. He is also director of the Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought at Yeshiva University. He has a must-listen daily podcast called Bible 365, which you can access through the Tikvah Fund. He is prolific – he writes a monthly column in Commentary magazine, and his writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Mosaic, the Jewish Review of Books, and many other outlets. You can keep up with all of his work at meirsoloveichik.com

Putin's Panic Surge? With Richard Fontaine Sep 22, 2022

Show notes

Vladamir Putin has announced what he called a “partial mobilization” of up to 300,000 reservists. According to reports, these reservists are basically former conscripts that will need training. Meanwhile, commercial flights out of Russia are apparently selling out, fast. The Russian Duma, on the other hand, is passing a law to clamp down on anyone evading their military service. And then there was Putin’s seeming dangling of the nuclear threat again. All against the backdrop of the Kremlin organizing referenda on whether four occupied regions in Ukraine should fall under Russian sovereignty. And how do we assess US military support for Ukraine? Richard Fontaine is the CEO of the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), bi-partisan foriegn policy think tank in Washington, DC. Prior to CNAS, he was foreign policy advisor to Senator John McCain and worked at the State Department, the National Security Council, and on the staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He serves on the Biden administration’s Defense Policy Board – which advises the Pentagon. Richard is also just back from a trip to the Middle East – so we also talk at the end about the two-year anniversary of the Abraham Accords (a topic we’ll be returning to from time to time on this podcast) and also the status of the Iran deal negotiations.

Mike Murphy on the Mid-Terms (& the madness of polls) Sep 17, 2022

Show notes

Between now and November, we will be taking a close look at the midterm election season, which -- for most voters -- is just kicking off now. If history is a guide, the first mid-term election cycle of a new president should result in the opposing party (the party not in the White House) scoring a wave of victories in Congress. How big will the wave be? New polls suggest that there may not be much of a wave for Republicans. But are these new polls missing something? To offer a masterclass in how to de-code the polls -- and a number of other dynamics in these midterms -- Mike Murphy returns to the podcast. Mike’s worked on 26 gubernatorial and US Senate races across the country, including 12 wins in Blue States – something that’s getting harder and harder to do for Republicans. He was a top strategist for John McCain, Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. He’s a political analyst for NBC and MSNBC. He’s co-host of the Hacks on Tap podcast and newsletter. And Mike’s also co director of the University of Southern California’s Center for the Political Future. Pieces discussed in this episode: Mark Mellman: : https://tinyurl.com/3v74z3hp Nate Cohn: https://tinyurl.com/dzjrbc2m Hacks on Tap podcast: https://tinyurl.com/55j5pe5k Hacks on Tap newsletter: https://tinyurl.com/yckkzrpx

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