Never Close the Inquiry

Nick Hagen
  • 5.0 (10)
  • Politics
  • Updated Weekly

Never Close the Inquiry is for pushing back on black and white, us vs. them thinking in politics—for creating dialogue across the aisle, and for demystifying the right for the left and the left for the right. The goal is better conversations, better arguments, better solutions, better relationships, and, maybe, a few giant skips and a jump and a hitch-hike down the line, a better country. neverclosetheinquiry.substack.com

  1. 1d ago

    Why Christopher Nolan Matters: Two Nerds Sincerely Nerd Out About Their Favorite Director

    Episode 51 - Why Christopher Nolan Matters: Two Nerds Sincerely Nerd Out About Their Favorite Director Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey has been in theaters since July 17th. Though it has already made approximately 8 bajillion dollars and earned rave reviews from most critics and lowly theater attendees, the film has fanned the eternal flame of the online culture war and is not without its detractors, including, notably, Emily Wilson, the best-selling translator from whom Nolan took at least some of his inspiration. If you are interested in a lengthy, contentious debate regarding the film’s merits or what it has to say about our politics, this is not the podcast for you. If you are interested in a thorough recitation of Christopher Nolan’s entire oeuvre and a fun discussion (i.e., we were having a blast) between two longtime fans as to why he matters to film and perhaps should matter to all of us, then look no further—you’re home. As luck would have it, my personal doctor, Dr. Justin Coles, happens to be (i) a friend since elementary school, (ii) a film major (I may or may not have appeared in one of his student films), and (iii) one of Earth’s biggest Christopher Nolan fans. We were in high school when Nolan burst into the mainstream with Batman Begins and The Prestige, and boy, did those movies make an impact on juvenile us. For 105 glorious minutes on this most recent Sunday (yes, both of us have already seen The Odyssey, him twice), we walked in delightful detail through Nolan’s entire career, from Following to The Dark Knight to Interstellar to Oppenheimer to The Odyssey, plus all the movies in between, and went back on forth on why Nolan matters to us, to film, and maybe to you. For more content and to subscribe to the Never Close the Inquiry newsletter, please visit neverclosetheinquiry.substack.com and follow on instagram @neverclosetheinquiry  Please like, rate, comment, and subscribe! Get full access to Never Close the Inquiry at neverclosetheinquiry.substack.com/subscribe

    Why Christopher Nolan Matters: Two Nerds Sincerely Nerd Out About Their Favorite Director

  2. 6d ago

    Episode 50! The Neophytes Never Close the Self-Inquiry But Not in a Bad Way

    Episode 50! The Neophytes Never Close the Self-Inquiry But Not in a Bad Way Each of us has political biases. Figuring out (and confessing) what those biases are is interesting and difficult enough, but figuring out where they originally came from might be the real trick. For this special, historical, entirely unprecedented, unyieldingly riveting 50th episode of the Never Close the Inquiry podcast, the Neophytes take Thomas, our resident radical leftist, and Channing, our resident moderate righty, and ask a simple question: Why? As per usual, we left A looking for B and ended up somewhere around 13. That said, as natural—i.e., disjointed—as our conversations may be, there is a real point to asking each other and ourselves what our biases are, where they came from, and why they push us toward specific policies, especially where our basic moral framework may not provide clear political guidance. Perhaps this can be dismissed as a view based off little more than anecdotal evidence, but I believe that the better we understand our own instincts and their origin, the slower we are to judgment of the instincts of others, and the more inclined we are to seek to understand them. It is true that there is far more that unites us than divides us, but that fundamental reality can hide behind the clouds when we don’t understand why anyone believes what they believe. So, call this episode an attempt to model what we’d like to see repeated at scale. Not brought to you by Dr. Pepper and A&W, but we’d like it to be, so if you know anyone, let us know. For more content and to subscribe to the Never Close the Inquiry newsletter, please visit neverclosetheinquiry.substack.com and follow on instagram @neverclosetheinquiry  Please like, rate, comment, and subscribe! Get full access to Never Close the Inquiry at neverclosetheinquiry.substack.com/subscribe

    Episode 50! The Neophytes Never Close the Self-Inquiry But Not in a Bad Way

  3. Jul 17

    The Neophytes: The Complicated Legacy of Lindsey Graham

    Episode 49 - The Neophytes: The Complicated Legacy of Lindsey Graham At one point or another over the past decade, Senator Lindsey Graham, a Teflon Don of the Senate, offended just about everybody. He delivered emphatic broadsides both for and against President Trump, took moderate positions, took less moderate positions, and stuck to his (warning: pun) guns as to hawkish views not currently in vogue among the Republican base. Despite what mostly-reasonable observers could interpret as craven flip-flopping to ingratiate himself with whoever happened to be in charge, the eminently quotable, genuinely charming Graham never suffered a truly serious challenge in a primary or general election, and remained of influence with wildly different administrations of both parties. Perhaps of most interest to us, the easily distracted Neophytes, Graham seems to have been adored by his colleagues on both sides of the aisle. The same cannot be said of plenty of those colleagues. And perhaps in that last bit there are useful lessons: among others, that serious disagreement on matters of policy need not bar us from being friends, AND that being friends can make it a heck of a lot easier to move toward agreement on matters of policy. I stand by my view that people are much more persuadable when they feel—and actually are—understood, and that it’s much easier to produce that understanding by asking sincere, open, curious questions than by analyzing from afar with “anyone who believes XYZ must be evil or, at best, stupid” as a starting point. Side note: the seat now occupied by the late senator’s sister was previously held by Strom Thurmond, a real piece of work who did not leave the Senate until he was 100. That seat held a grand total of four individual buttcheeks over a 70 year span. For more content and to subscribe to the Never Close the Inquiry newsletter, please visit neverclosetheinquiry.substack.com and follow on instagram @neverclosetheinquiry  Please like, rate, comment, and subscribe! Get full access to Never Close the Inquiry at neverclosetheinquiry.substack.com/subscribe

    The Neophytes: The Complicated Legacy of Lindsey Graham

  4. Jul 10

    The Neophytes: In Which the President Adds Graham Platner to the US Men’s National Team

    Episode 48 - The Neophytes: In Which the President Adds Graham Platner to the US Men’s National Team The terrific and inspiring US Men’s National Team’s foray in the World Cup ended with President Trump-centered controversy and a thumping at the feet of foreign waffle-makers, the ceasefire in Iran has ceased, and Graham Platner is on the outs in Maine after having been accused of, among other things, rape. Just weeks ago, we questioned where the line was regarding the character and past actions of a candidate, or whether there even was a line. Turns out, there is, both for the Neophytes and national Democrats, and Mr. Platner is on the wrong side of it. Platner did not drop out until the day after we recorded, but to parrot my younger self explaining to teachers, my parents, and, later, my bosses why I didn’t need to write anything down, we got the gist of it. For more content and to subscribe to the Never Close the Inquiry newsletter, please visit neverclosetheinquiry.substack.com and follow on instagram @neverclosetheinquiry  Please like, rate, comment, and subscribe! Get full access to Never Close the Inquiry at neverclosetheinquiry.substack.com/subscribe

    The Neophytes: In Which the President Adds Graham Platner to the US Men’s National Team

  5. Jun 18

    The Neophytes Learn Politics from Jalen Brunson and Exult in Their Newfound SpaceX Riches

    Episode 47 - The Neophytes Learn Politics from Jalen Brunson and Exult in Their Newfound SpaceX Riches The Neophytes—each of whom invested in SpaceX at the age of 12—question who on earth would voluntarily wear Snapchat’s new $2200 Snap Specs, discuss the SpaceX IPO, and talk about what Knicks star and NBA champion Jalen Brunson can teach us about the limitations of using current metrics to forecast future development. For more content and to subscribe to the Never Close the Inquiry newsletter, please visit neverclosetheinquiry.substack.com and follow on instagram @neverclosetheinquiry  Please like, rate, comment, and subscribe!   Get full access to Never Close the Inquiry at neverclosetheinquiry.substack.com/subscribe

    The Neophytes Learn Politics from Jalen Brunson and Exult in Their Newfound SpaceX Riches

  6. Jun 12

    The Neophytes Get a Tad Bleak About the Importance of Character in Politicians

    Episode 46 - The Neophytes Get a Tad Bleak About the Importance of Character in Politicians So what would you do in 2028 if it turned out one or both of JD Vance and Gavin Newsom (hypothetically, the candidates) were revealed to likely be responsible for a string of unexplained decades-old disappearances in a remote corner of the Ozarks or Sierra Nevadas? All else being equal, virtually everyone would choose a politician of high character over one of low character. But all else is never equal, and we are too often presented a choice between a mediocre person who shares few of our political views and a worse person who shares more. So what do you do? If experience and this conversation are any guide, most people, on both and every side of the political aisle, will pull the lever on matching political views almost no matter what. I’m not sure what that says about us or our system, but it isn’t fantastic. On the bright side, each us enjoyed a delicious low calorie beverage during the recording of this podcast. For more content and to subscribe to the Never Close the Inquiry newsletter, please visit neverclosetheinquiry.substack.com and follow on instagram @neverclosetheinquiry  Please like, rate, comment, and subscribe! Get full access to Never Close the Inquiry at neverclosetheinquiry.substack.com/subscribe

    The Neophytes Get a Tad Bleak About the Importance of Character in Politicians

  7. Jun 4

    The Neophytes Masculinely Discuss Masculinity

    Episode 45 - The Neophytes Masculinely Discuss Masculinity Warning: the audio is a tad echoey because the SD card, afraid of this conversation being made public, self-corroded and didn’t record anything. Sadly for the card, we believe in redundancies—in this case, the iPhone which recorded the video. On Saturday, I read “Progressives Don’t Understand Masculinity” by the Last Blue Dog here on Substack. I read the transcript of the podcast discussion that prompted the article. Then, an hour or so later, I attended FitCon, which, per its name, is a fitness-focused convention with various competitions—Crossfit, boxing, strongman, roller derby, and literal armored combat, among others—and dozens of vendors selling supplements and apparel. The convention, of which I am a huge fan—yes, a very good friend happens to own it, but it actually is great—was very well-attended, and mostly by people who probably agree progressives don’t understand masculinity. That all got the ball rolling, and Mabes, Channing, and I, all straight white dudes, decided to talk about America’s masculinity crisis, what Democrats are missing, and what we think it means to be a man. Naturally, the conversation ended up going in many different directions, perhaps none of which really have all that much to do with politics, but what is the point of the podcast format if not to start with one plan and end with another entirely? Two more points: * I could not be a bigger fan of the Art of Manliness, which, per its tagline, “provides useful, actionable, no-fluff content to help men become better men in all areas of their life.” I would add that their content is refreshingly, remarkably apolitical and non-toxic (or however you want to put it). The husband and wife behind the website and podcast, Brett and Kate McKay, are here on Substack. I think them very much worth a follow. * The podcast ends with a reading of the poem “If” by Rudyard Kipling. It’s my favorite didactic poem and the only one I have memorized. At some point, I might write a whole series of articles on the virtues it articulates. For more content and to subscribe to the Never Close the Inquiry newsletter, please visit neverclosetheinquiry.substack.com and follow on instagram @neverclosetheinquiry  Please like, rate, comment, and subscribe! Get full access to Never Close the Inquiry at neverclosetheinquiry.substack.com/subscribe

    The Neophytes Masculinely Discuss Masculinity

  8. May 22

    The Neophytes Get Awfully Prudish About Prediction Markets

    Episode 44 - The Neophytes Get Awfully Prudish About Prediction Markets Prediction markets, like Polymarket and Kalshi, allow users to purchase shares in certain real-world outcomes; or, in human speak, to bet on stuff. Like, all sorts of stuff. For example, a US special operations soldier recently made over $400,000 betting on the removal from office of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. The soldier is in a fair amount of trouble—he’s been indicted for unlawful use of confidential information for personal gain, theft of nonpublic government information, commodities fraud, and wire fraud—but his punishment, and the new frontiers of insider trading, are kind of beside the point. The point is that people—you, me, high schoolers, government employees, nuns probably—can place bets on stuff like the deaths of political leaders, the length of the war in Iran, the price of gas in a month, and all sorts of other strange stuff that has always been the subject of private bets, but never anything of this scale. As it turns out, we, the Neophytes, don’t like it. We’re not necessarily opposed to gambling, especially if it’s done with honor in the shadows with an offshore bookie probably in Thailand, but this brave new world where every sporting event is sponsored by a sportsbook and millions of people without fully developed prefrontal cortexes can lose money betting on the temperature in New York is not to our puritanical taste. But all of this raises legitimate questions: is there a valid use case for prediction markets? Do they provide something of real value? Or even if they don’t, to what degree should the government restrict them, if any? Anyway, please download the official Neophytes app to place a bet on the number of comments this episode generates. For more content and to subscribe to the Never Close the Inquiry newsletter, please visit neverclosetheinquiry.substack.com and follow on instagram @neverclosetheinquiry  Please like, rate, comment, and subscribe! Get full access to Never Close the Inquiry at neverclosetheinquiry.substack.com/subscribe

    The Neophytes Get Awfully Prudish About Prediction Markets
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About

Never Close the Inquiry is for pushing back on black and white, us vs. them thinking in politics—for creating dialogue across the aisle, and for demystifying the right for the left and the left for the right. The goal is better conversations, better arguments, better solutions, better relationships, and, maybe, a few giant skips and a jump and a hitch-hike down the line, a better country. neverclosetheinquiry.substack.com

Information

  • Creator
    Nick Hagen
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    51
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Nick Hagen
  • Show Website
    Never Close the Inquiry