Q & A, Hosted by Jay Nordlinger Ricochet

Ilya Somin is a law prof and all-around intellectual. He is of a libertarian bent. He teaches at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University. He began life in the Soviet Union. He was but six when his family immigrated to America. He read Robert Nozick, and Tolkien, and others. He went to Amherst, Harvard, and Yale. He is a Boston sports fan. With Jay, he talks about life, the law, and the American experiment. A formidable mind, a formidable teacher. 

Rosa María Payá is a democracy activist. So was her father, Oswaldo—killed by the Cuban regime in 2012. With Jay, Rosa María talks about political prisoners, the Castros, the alliance between Havana and Moscow, the alliance between Havana and Beijing, the nature of democracy, and more. She is a brave, poised woman, with a touch of nobility about her, or more than a touch. Her father would beam. 

For The Atlantic, Eliot A. Cohen has written a piece called “Farewell to Academe.” The subtitle is: “I leave with doubts and foreboding that I would not have anticipated when I completed my formal education in 1982.” With Jay, he talks about this. They also talk about Israel and Ukraine. About U.S. politics. About the life of the mind, including poetry (Dylan Thomas, Edwin Arlington Robinson). A wide-ranging, personal, and informative conversation. 

Anastasia Shevchenko was a civil-society leader in Russia. She was the first person prosecuted under the Kremlin’s notorious law concerning “undesirable organizations.” She fled Russia in the summer of 2022 and continues to work for human rights in her native country from abroad. Earlier this month, she was a guest, by video hook-up, of the Oslo Freedom Forum. In this “Q&A,” Jay talks with Mrs. Shevchenko about the Soviet Union, Putin, Ukraine—many things. An encounter with Anastasia Shevchenko is a pleasure and an inspiration. 

Christian Schneider is a writer and podcaster. With Scot Bertram, he hosts a podcast about “Saturday Night Live.” Jay talks with him about “SNL,” about politics, about politics and “SNL,” etc. 

Adrian Karatnycky is a New Yorker with Ukrainian-Polish heritage. For eleven years, he was president of Freedom House. Today he is with the Atlantic Council and other organizations. He was a student of Ukraine—and the general neighborhood—long before most people thought of Ukraine. He has now written a history: “Battleground Ukraine: From Independence to the War with Russia.” With Jay, Karatnycky talks about some of the basics. A deeply knowledgeable man about a crucial set of issues.