The Good Fight

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David Leonhardt on Why the Left isn’t Reaching the Working Class Jun 04, 2025

Show notes

David Leonhardt is an editorial director for New York Times Opinion.

In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and David Leonhardt discuss why the left is losing its appeal to the working classes in the United States and in Europe, the flaws in the Democratic Party’s approach to voters, and what U.S. Democrats can learn from the Social Democrats in Denmark.

Note: This interview was recorded on March 18, 2025.

Podcast production by Mickey Freeland and Leonora Barclay.

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YouTube: Yascha Mounk, Persuasion

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Quico Toro on How to Save the Climate May 31, 2025

Show notes

Yascha Mounk and Quico Toro explore what’s holding environmentalists back.

Quico Toro is Director of Climate Repair at the Anthropocene Institute, a contributing editor at Persuasion, and writes the Substack One Percent Brighter.

In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Quico Toro discuss outdated ideas within environmentalism, why we need to decarbonize—and how technology can save us.

Podcast production by Jack Shields and Leonora Barclay.

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Steve Stewart-Williams on Nature vs Nurture May 28, 2025

Show notes

Steve Stewart-Williams is a professor of psychology at the University of Nottingham Malaysia, and author of The Ape That Understood the Universe (2018), Darwin, God and the Meaning of Life (2010), and The Nature-Nurture-Nietzsche Newsletter on Substack.

In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Steve Stewart-Williams explore the nature vs nurture debate within psychology, how much impact IQ has on an individual’s success in life, and whether evolutionary psychology can explain politics.

Podcast production by Mickey Freeland and Leonora Barclay.

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YouTube: Yascha Mounk, Persuasion

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Paul Krugman on Why International Trade is Good May 24, 2025

Show notes

Yascha Mounk and Paul Krugman also explore whether the Euro was a mistake.

Paul Krugman is the Distinguished Professor of Economics at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He was a columnist for The New York Times from 2000 to 2024. In 2008, Krugman was the sole winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to new trade theory and new economic geography.

In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Paul Krugman discuss the value of economic models, the Euro crisis, and how to make a fruitful intellectual contribution in economics.

Podcast production by Jack Shields and Leonora Barclay.

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Katja Hoyer on East Germany Then and Now May 21, 2025

Show notes

Katja Hoyer is a visiting Research Fellow at King's College London and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and is the author of Blood and Iron: The Rise and Fall of the German Empire, 1871–1918 and Beyond the Wall: East Germany 1949-1990.

In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Katja Hoyer discuss life in the German Democratic Republic (GDR), how it is remembered today—and whether the Wall still has an impact on German politics today.

Podcast production by Mickey Freeland and Leonora Barclay.

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YouTube: Yascha Mounk, Persuasion

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Frances Lee & Stephen Macedo on Why Institutions Failed During COVID May 17, 2025

Show notes

Frances E. Lee is professor of politics and public affairs at Princeton University. In addition to In Covid’s Wake: How Our Politics Failed Us, she is author or coauthor most recently ofThe Limits of Party: Congress and Lawmaking in a Polarized Eraand Insecure Majorities: Congress and the Perpetual Campaign.

Stephen Macedo is the Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Politics and the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University. His books, in addition to In Covid’s Wake: How Our Politics Failed Us, include Just Married: Same-Sex Couples, Monogamy, and the Future of Marriage, and Diversity and Distrust: Civic Education in a Multicultural Democracy.

In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk, Frances Lee, and Stephen Macedo discuss school closures during COVID, why Republicans and Democrats reacted differently to the pandemic, why institutions failed, and why as a consequence institutions lost the public’s trust.

Podcast production by Mickey Freeland and Leonora Barclay.

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YouTube: Yascha Mounk, Persuasion

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Pratap Mehta on the Global Crisis of Legitimacy May 14, 2025

Show notes

Pratap Bhanu Mehta is Senior Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi and Laurence Rockefeller Visiting Professor for Distinguished Teaching at Princeton University.

In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Pratap Mehta discuss nationalism, radical forms of self-identity, and the likelihood of war between India and Pakistan.

Note: The first part of this conversation was recorded on April 30, 2025 with a follow up on May 12, 2025.

Podcast production by Mickey Freeland and Leonora Barclay.

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Elaine Kamarck and William Galston on How the Democrats Can Win May 10, 2025

Show notes

Elaine C. Kamarck is a senior fellow in Governance Studies and the director of the Center for Effective Public Management at Brookings. William A. Galston is a senior fellow and the Ezra K. Zilkha Chair in the Governance Studies program at Brookings.

In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk, Elaine Kamarck, and William Galston explore why the Democrats aren’t building long-term coalitions, how the Democrats lost the working class, and how centrists in the party can create a compelling offer for voters.

Email: goodfightpod@gmail.com

Podcast production by Jack Shields and Leonora Barclay.

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Rutger Bregman on How to Live a Moral Life May 07, 2025

Show notes

Rutger Bregman is an historian and author. He is the co-founder of The School for Moral Ambition, a new initiative to mobilize talented professionals to work on the world’s most pressing problems. His latest book, Moral Ambition, explores how we can build lives and careers that make a real difference.

In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Rutger Bregman discuss what it means to have moral ambition, how to know which causes deserve support—and how to make the world vegan.

Email: goodfightpod@gmail.com

Podcast production by Mickey Freeland and Leonora Barclay.

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