The Comedy Cellar: Live from the Table

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Battle of the War and Terrorism Experts - John Spencer vs. Robert Pape - Is Gaza Backfiring? Jul 19, 2024

Show notes

Get Ready To Rumble

John Spencer is an award-winning scholar, professor, author, combat veteran, national security and military analyst, and internationally recognized expert and advisor on urban warfare, military strategy, tactics, and other related topics. Considered one of the world’s leading experts on urban warfare, he served as an advisor to the top four-star general and other senior leaders in the U.S. Army as part of strategic research groups from the Pentagon to the United States Military Academy.

He’s authored over 130 articles in our leading intellectual publications. He is the author of three books, including The Mini-Manual for the Urban Defender, which was translated into 16 languages.

Robert A. Pape is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago specializing in international security affairs. His commentary on international security policy has appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, New Republic, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, and Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, as well as on Nightline, ABC News, CBS News, CNN, Fox News, and National Public Radio. Before coming to Chicago in 1999, he taught international relations at Dartmouth College for five years and air power strategy for the USAF's School of Advanced Airpower Studies for three years. He received his PhD from the University of Chicago in 1988 and graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Pittsburgh in 1982. His current work focuses on the causes of suicide terrorism and the politics of unipolarity. He is the director of the Chicago Project on Security and Threats.

0:00 Introduction

3:36 Coin Toss Decision

5:30 Robert Opening Pape's Argument

11:20 John Spencer's Counterargument

15:53 Pape Responds

29:53 Assessing Hamas's Strategic Goals

34:00 Critique on Planning for the Future

37:13 Rebuilding Democracy in the Middle East

41:01 Pape's Preferred Israeli Strategies for October 8th

42:46 Creating a Wedge Strategy

47:09 Insights from General McChrystal

49:42 Differing Military Strategies

50:23 Debating Military Approaches

51:38 Winning Battles vs. Winning Wars

55:58 Political Power Dynamics

59:00 Importance of Words in Strategy

1:01:27 Acknowledging Past Mistakes

1:04:53 Counterinsurgency Strategies

1:08:36 Role of Threat in Strategy

1:10:20 Separating Militant Groups

1:12:05 Achieving Strategic Objectives

1:12:09 Counterinsurgency Tactics

1:14:20 Importance of Meaningful Conversations

1:14:38 Sharp Arguments and Surviving Contact with the Enemy

An Analysis of Trump and Biden with CNN's senior legal analyst Elie Honig Jul 19, 2024

Show notes

Elie Honig is CNN's senior legal analyst, a former federal and state prosecutor and the bestselling author of Hatchet Man.

Did Political Rhetoric Cause the Trump Assassination Attempt with Nick Gillespie Jul 18, 2024

Show notes

Nick Gillespie is an editor at large at Reason,the libertarian magazine of "free minds and free markets," and host of The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie.

Case Dismissed? Politic Legal Expert and Former Federal Prosecutor Ankush Khardori - Cannon, Immunity, The Current Supreme Court and more Jul 17, 2024

Show notes

Partisanship or principle? IMHO, one of the best and most reasonable liberal analysts of the current Supreme Court, discusses Trump's immunity and Chevron's reversal decisions and what motivated them.

Also, Cannon's dismissal.

Contributor for New York magazine, also The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, The New York Review of Books, The New Republic, The Atlantic, TIME, USA Today, WIRED, Slate, The American Prospect, and the Columbia Journalism Review.

Former Shin Bet Chief - Ami Ayalon discusses the Gaza War, Peace, Hannibal and more. Jul 15, 2024

Show notes

The former chief of Israel's internal intelligence agency discusses all things Gaza, Hamas, Israel, peace talks, and more.

Buy his book Friendly Fire, How Israel Became its Own Worst Enemy: https://www.amazon.com/Friendly-Fire-Israel-Became-Future/dp/1586422588

The Amazing Life of Glenn Loury Jul 13, 2024

Show notes

In a remarkable and candid conversation, Glenn Loury discusses his new book "Late Admissions," and his amazing, checkered, erratic, inspirational, and dramatic life.

00:00:00 Introduction

00:04:37 Performing the book for Audible

00:05:04 Had to be Honest to be Believed

00:09:09 A Gifted Family

00:15:22 Understanding Slavery and History

00:20:07 Constant Self-Doubt and Inferiority Complex

00:26:11 Betraying a Best Friend

00:32:25 Decoding Glenn's Politics from His Life

00:32:57 Stealing a Car

00:38:54 A Child Is Born

00:39:54 Glenn's Son's Gift to His Father

00:47:34 Glenn's Heroic Father

00:49:05 Glenn feels Put Off by Middle-Class Blacks

00:57:13 Arrested

01:03:14 Modern Hypocrisy

01:05:29 Speaking in Tongues

01:09:33 Smoking Crack

01:20:21 Called the N-Word

01:24:00 Final Remarks on Humanity

Is Israel's Strategy Making Hamas Stronger with Terrorism Expert Robert Pape Jul 12, 2024

Show notes

Robert Pape is a professor of political science and founding director of the Chicago project on security and threats at the University of Chicago. He is an author and leading scholar of political violence and has been studying terrorism both internationally and domestically for over 20 years. His most recent publication is “Hamas is Winning,” in Foreign Affairs (June 2024).

Support the show and get 20% off your 1 st Sheath order at

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Noam made a mistake - At Ma'alot 105 children were taken hostage, 22 were killed. He carelessly read the page in front of him. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ma%27alot_massacre#:~:text=The%20Ma'alot%20massacre%20was,hostages%20and%20six%20other%20civilians. Apoliges to professor Pape.

YouTube Version: https://youtu.be/xoCgk-w0wHQ?si=LT-MiBCsV7S733wc

Haviv Rettig Gur on the Gaza War, American Jews, Hopes for Peace, and more (with Coleman Hughes). Jul 09, 2024

Show notes

The Times of Israel's Haviv Rettig Gur in a freewheeling conversation on Israel and related matters.

Co-hosted by Coleman Hughes

Did Netanyahu prop up Hamas?

Will peaceful Islam prevail?

Why are American Jews ignorant of their own history?

Why is America so bad at negotiating?

Please write: podcast@comedycellar.com

Live from the Table: Leclerc Andre Jul 05, 2024

Show notes

LeClerc was featured at Just For Laughs Comedy Festival as one of the New Faces of Comedy. He has appeared on The Tonight Show w/Jimmy Fallon, as well as on NBC’s “Bring the Funny."

Congestion Pricing and the Safety of the Subways with Nicole Gelinas Jul 05, 2024

Show notes

Nicole Gelinas is a columnist for the New York Post, a regularly quoted source for the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, and a contributing editor to the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal. She has covered New York’s transportation issues for over a decade. Her book, Movement: New York's Long War to Take Back Its Streets from the Car if forthcoming.

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