Conversations with Coleman

Latest Episodes:

Trailer | Spiral: Murder in Detroit Oct 21, 2025

Show notes

On October 21, 2023, beloved Detroit community leader Samantha Woll was found brutally stabbed to death outside her home—two weeks to the day after the October 7 attacks on Israel. It looks like an open-and-shut case—a hate crime. But swiftly the police rule that out. Instead they eventually find themselves with two unrelated suspects. When they charge one with murder, the case takes a turn that raises questions about antisemitism, race, and justice in America.

Hosted by The Free Press’s Frannie Block, this podcast features exclusive interviews and explores the remarkable, too-short life of Samantha, and the impact she had. And Spiral tells the bizarre twists and turns of one of Detroit’s most haunting recent crimes.

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When Empathy Goes Too Far with Dr. Gad Saad Oct 20, 2025

Show notes

Dr. Gad Saad is a visiting scholar at the Declaration of Independence Center for the Study of American Freedom in Mississippi and an evolutionary psychologist. We discuss his forthcoming book, Suicidal Empathy, in which he argues that the political left has taken empathy to a dangerous extreme. We also talk about his childhood as a Jew in Lebanon and his family’s experience during the Lebanese Civil War. Has empathy gone too far? And is it really a phenomenon unique to the political left?

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Can Evolution Explain Our Politics? Nicholas Wade Thinks So Oct 13, 2025

Show notes

Nicholas Wade is a former science writer for The New York Times and author of several books on human evolution, including A Troublesome Inheritance: Genes, Race, and Human History and his new book, The Origin of Politics: How Evolution and Ideology Shape the Fate of Nations.

Today, I invite Wade on to discuss some of the toughest topics in modern science: the controversial territory of race and genetics, and whether there are fundamental genetic differences between right-wingers and left-wingers. We also dig into the fertility crisis. Birth rates across the developed world have collapsed below replacement level, and no country except religious Georgia has figured out how to reverse the trend. Wade explains why modern economic progress makes having children less appealing, and why the breakdown of the family matters.

Finally, we talk about how the modern nation-state stamped out tribalism, why the academic establishment refuses to engage honestly with genetics research, what evolutionary psychology tells us about foreign policy, and much more.

Whether you find Wade’s evolutionary framework persuasive or not, I hope our conversation raises questions that most political leaders and academics prefer to ignore.

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A Debate with Dave Smith: Israel, Iran, and American Power Oct 04, 2025

Show notes

Note that this conversation took place before Hamas addressed some conditions of President Donald Trump’s proposed peace plan and said it agreed to release all remaining hostages.

This was the most requested conversation I've ever had, and one of the longest and most challenging. Dave Smith—comedian, podcaster, and libertarian foreign policy critic—joined me for three and a half hours to debate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and American foreign policy more broadly.

We disagree on a lot. Smith recently published a video responding to my analysis of the conflict, and this conversation gave us the chance to unpack those disagreements directly—without dodging the hard questions or talking past each other. We covered Ron Paul's influence on Smith's worldview, whether 9/11 was driven by foreign policy grievances or jihadist ideology, the Iraq War, whether Israel wants peace, what Palestinians actually want, and what American foreign policy in Iran should be.

This is what substantive disagreement looks like: long, difficult, and hopefully enlightening.

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Steven Pinker on How Common Knowledge Rules Our Lives Sep 29, 2025

Show notes

Recorded live at the Comedy Cellar in New York City: I sat down with Steven Pinker, Harvard psychologist, best-selling author, and world-class debunker of doom, to talk about his new book, When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows…:Common Knowledge and the Mysteries of Money, Power, and Everyday Life.

We got into this idea of “common knowledge”: what we all know and know that everyone else knows. It may sound abstract, but really it underlies everything. It is our shared awareness that lets us coordinate, bluff, protest, and panic together. We also talk about assassinated Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, the changing style of comedy and its audience, and more.

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Politics for the Exhausted American Voter with Jane Coaston Sep 22, 2025

Show notes

In this episode, I’m joined by Jane Coaston, a journalist and former host of The Argument podcast at The New York Times who is now a host at Crooked Media. We talk about how she became a libertarian, the spread of far-right conspiracies, why black support for conservatives is growing, and what the mainstream media continues to miss.

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Understanding the Black Conservative Vote with Janiyah Thomas Sep 20, 2025

Show notes

In this mini episode, I’m joined by Janiyah Thomas, the Black Media Director for Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign. We talk about Charlie Kirk's assasination, Jimmy Kimmel being pulled off the air, Trump’s National Guard deployment in D.C., and how Janiyah helped Trump win over black voters. If you enjoy these shorter episodes, let me know and maybe we’ll do more. Don’t forget, a full-length episode will be back on Monday!

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Can Socialism Ever Really Work? w/ Bhaskar Sunkara Sep 15, 2025

Show notes

My guest today is Bhaskar Sunkara. He’s the founding editor of Jacobin magazine and currently serves as president at The Nation. Bhaskar is a proud democratic socialist; he was even vice-chair of the Democratic Socialists of America, and he’s the author of a book titled The Socialist Manifesto: The Case for Radical Politics in an Era of Extreme Inequality.

In this conversation, we dive into the practicality of democratic socialism. We talk about rent controls, the affordability crisis in American cities, and the real-world limits of the populist left. We also touch on identity, class politics, and the influence of New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani. What do we all get wrong about his pitch to New Yorkers?

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Is America Rewarding the Wrong Values? Ben Shapiro Thinks So Sep 08, 2025

Show notes

I’m joined by Ben Shapiro, a controversial figure who for many needs no introduction. Ben is a political commentator, author, and co-founder of The Daily Wire. He joins me to discuss his new book, Scavengers and Lions. We explore the central metaphor of the book and what it says about the moral choices facing our culture today. Ben lays out his argument about the rise of intellectual scavengers who feed on grievance and resentment, and contrasts them with the “lions,” those who embrace responsibility, reason, and moral clarity. We also talk about Donald Trump, wokeness, gun control, and birth rates.

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Deal or No Deal? October 7 Hostage Families Divided Sep 01, 2025

Show notes

It’s been nearly two years since October 7, when Hamas took over 250 people hostage. Since then, families of the captives have led a relentless campaign to bring them home, but they haven’t always agreed on how to get there.

As a new ceasefire deal is on the table, I speak with three voices from that struggle. One is Dalia Cusnir-Horn, who has one brother-in-law, Iair Horn, who was captured and then freed and another, Eitan Horn, who is still held in Gaza. Dalia has become a leading advocate for a negotiated release.

I also speak with Tzvika Mor and Talik Gvili, parents with a very different view. Tzvika speaks to me from a protest calling for “total victory.” Both argue that only military pressure will bring real resolution, and to negotiate with Hamas is not an option.

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