Stay ConnectedWeekly episodes of Ricochet’s flagship podcast feature our hosts James Lileks, Steve Hayward, Charles C. W. Cooke, and guests discussing the issues of the week.
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Steve and James embrace the Halloween mindset with a chat about a cast of characters who transcend space, time, and barriers of language and even reality. They brace themselves for the midterms, swap a couple scary movie suggestions, and offer a proper send-off to Sir Patrick Stewart.
Andrew Roberts joins to discuss his latest biography, Napoleon and His Marshals: Victory, Rivalry, Betrayal. Along with detailing the extraordinary talent behind the Grande Armée, the trio draws attention to parallels that contemporary expansionists, visionaries, and magalomaniacs would do well to remember.
(And speaking of treats, be sure to get your code for a whopping discount on a Ricochet subscription for your first year! Use code HALLOWEEN2026 for $15 off a Listener or Member plan.)
Opening sound this week: The late Sir Patrick Stewart at Just for Laughs in Montréal in 2015.
Closing music: "Space Journey," by Daniel Inrem via MotionArray.
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The great Douglas Murray, bestselling author of The Strange Death of Europe and On Democracies and Death Cults, joins James and Steve to discuss the mass immigration problem he's been sounding the alarm on for over a decade. As ever, Murray is unflinching in defense of civilization against the barbarous rioters and the myopic elites enabling them.
Plus, James and Steve raise an eyebrow each at Ilhan Omar's uncertainty over an important detail about one of her marriages. The duo also talk about all kinds of food: fast, foreign, and regrettable.
Opening sound: A French storekeeper pleads with rioters while Emmanuel Macron claims there’s nothing to see here and Abdul El-Sayed and Mike Rogers have their final debate (WXYZ - Detroit)
Closing music: "Say Less," by sviridpavlov via MotionArray
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The midterm polls sure don't paint a rosy picture for Republicans. While Henry Olsen, Ricochet's in-house election analyst, isn't here to pretend the data suggest otherwise, he joins James, Charles, and Steve to add dimension to the GOP's bleak prospects. Listeners brave enough for the cold facts will hear important lessons about the Republican Party's growing pains, the value of persuasive speech during tough times, and the necessity of message discipline in getting through them. The gang at least finds some consolation in the fact that the ascendant progressive wing of the Democratic Party will likely weigh down the whole if (or when) they overreach.
Ricochet 5 is here! Stay tuned till the end to hear Charles give a rundown of the new features. And check out the new site here: https://ricochet.com
Opening sound this week: Susan Collins and Troy Jackson have their final debate interrupted (WCSH Portland), and the President weighs in on the El Sayed candidacy in Michigan.
Closing music: "Rendezvous" by Dux, via MotionArray
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With each passing wild week in the West, it can feel like a tall order to request an unequivocal defense of it. But when there's a meme, there's a way, and if Marco Rubio has taught us anything, it's that he's always up for the job. James, Steve, and Charles celebrate his statesmanship displayed on Wednesday's Acropolis speech; wonder about the wisdom of the proposed live streaming of the firing-squad execution of the Fort Hood shooter; and bristle at Abdul El Sayed's response to being confronted with "dumb questions" about who our friends and enemies are. Despite it all, they find much to look forward to in our living, breathing, loud-talking and fast-walking civilization on a hill.
Sounds from this week's open: The late Jim Bakker advises against self-pity; Marco Rubio "testifies to a debt that no lapse of time, no distance of space, can ever extinguish."
Closing Music: "Reverie," composed by Robert Schumann, performed by Bruno Freitas
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Sometimes life feels like a freak show, and the sane can either take it in or turn away. This week gave us more glimpses of horror than usual, which tends to make folks more amenable to harsh punishments. James, Steve, and Charles consider the death penalty in light of the heinous crime of an unsuccessfully executed Tennessee woman; they wade through the cloudy "Cornell Seven" case and draw important distinctions between moral depravity and criminality; and they look to riots in France and wonder whether la République and la révolution will ever square themselves in l’Hexagone.
Plus, Charles has an announcement about Ricochet 5.0!
Sound from this week's open: Marine Le Pen responds to the riots in France. And our own John Yoo talks about execution methods on Fox News.
Closing music: "Waltz for the Elephants" by Ziv Grinberg
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What exactly do the fight to save Piddington in Oxfordshire, the public betrayal of Najya Hannah-Jones by her activist mom, Trump's deal with Greenland, Russia's cultural inferiority complex, and a lesbian bar in Massachusetts have in common? For those of us who haven't worn an N-95 mask in at least five years, the distinctions are clear. Even so, they each command the attention of James, Charles, and Steve, who remind us that praxis rarely makes perfect.
Opening sound this week: Nikole Hannah-Jones talks about her child’s school at the University of Iowa School of Journalism and Mass Communication in 2018 and lesbians on TikTok say, “Keep it on the QT.”
Closing music: "Revolution" by Willow McKenna via MotionArray.
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Sometimes our topsy-turvy world is more dizzying than usual—and in those times, it's best to stand on a firm foundation and in the company of dependable people. Rob Long returns to chat with Charles and Steve about controversies of all shapes, sizes and comprehensibility, from Bo French and the "NETTR" movement, a right planning to buy votes with $5,000 checks and a prudish left shocked by the... apolitical appeal of Sidney Sweeney.
Sound clips from this week's open: Gavin Newsom hubris on Hollywood and Sydney Sweeney seduces the betting man
Closing Music: "Can't Stop," by Wake the Wild via MotionArray
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It's been a quarter century, but the fury and grief have not dimmed in the slightest. James, Steve, and Charles recall that fateful day and reflect on life in America since.
Sound from this week's open and close: The Brooklyn Youth Chorus sings the Star Bangled Banner at today's September 11th memorial in New York City.
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AI has many amygdalae flooding nervous systems with warnings; a rising share of Americans look toward digital technology with deep suspicion; and a data center revolt is underway. The worries are increasingly apocalyptic. But it's not that America has never experienced a transformation of comparable scale, only that no living American is old enough to remember it—or so argues today's guest: Mark Mills, author of The Cloud Revolution: How the Convergence of New Technologies Will Unleash the Next Economic Boom and A Roaring 2020s. Mark, the erudite optimist, addresses everything from the cold realities behind development, construction, and energy considerations to productivity gains, labor participation, sociocultural cohesion, and cybersecurity risks.
Plus, while on the subject of the tumultuous present, James, Steve and Charles reflect on Ryan Reynolds' thoughts on the traumatic 1980s; Steve thinks through a proposal to curb bad actors in the "non-profit sector"; and while they look forward to cutting the rug at the White House's new ballroom, the trio find themselves baffled by Chief Justice Robert's sudden fretting over standing.
Opening sound this week: Jason Kelce and his friends at Garage Beer want you to send your pee to data centers, and Ryan Reynolds tells Variety he was traumatized by the tumultuous 1980s.
Closing music: Radetzky March Op. 228 performed by the Budapest Art Orchestra (via MotionArray)
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Canada is back in the news, but not in the good way like you want. So Steve and James find themselves weighing in on another renamed body of water while wading through the latest wave of weekly events. There's also curiously leaked reporting on CIA chief John Radcliffe's mission to Moscow, investigations into the Soros-backed DAs responsible for catch-and-release criminal justice, and another rich-kid commie duty-bound to lecture from the family's waterfront property.
This week’s opening sound: Al Michaels starts Prime’s Thursday Night NFL schedule from a city on the Great Lakes and Alice Weidel (AfD) declares Germany is finished with immigrants.
Closing music: "County Waltz," by promusic24 (via MotionArray)
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