Dirty Moderate with Adam Epstein Adam Epstein

William Inboden is Professor and Director of the Alexander Hamilton Center for Classical and Civic Education at the University of Florida, and Peterson Senior Fellow with the Kissinger Center for Global Affairs, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.  He joins Adam in a discussion centering around his latest book

“The Peacemaker: Ronald Reagan in the White House and the World.”
Inboden’s masterly book provides a definitive account of  Reagan’s strategic approach to diplomacy, his nuanced statecraft, and the impact of his decisions on the global stage. This compelling book is a must read especially for its analysis of Reagan’s policies of peace through strength. An examination of Reagan’s military buildup and tough rhetoric towards the Soviet Union are central to Reagan’s legacy, but Inboden goes beyond the surface to explore how Reagan the “cowboy” became Reagan the diplomat,  and emerged as arguably the most consequential 20th century president next to FDR.






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Alana Newhouse  is an American writer and editor. She is the founder of Tablet magazine, a dynamic hub of Jewish life, which features news, essays, podcasts and opinion pieces.
In November 2022, Alana wrote an essay for Tablet called “Brokenism.” The essay remains deeply compelling because, as Alana argues, that “the real debate today isn’t between the left and the right . It’s between those invested in our current institutions, and those who want to build anew.”
This is a must read essay and Alana and Adam use this piece as a springboard to discuss our political and cultural divides , but -also to examine the implications of “Brokenism” for Jewish people at a time of rising antisemitism.


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Mona Charen is a conservative American journalist, columnist, commentator and best selling author. She is the Policy Editor of The Bulwark, and host of the Beg to Differ podcast, which you need to subscribe to immediately.  

Mona fell hard for William F. Buckley as a teenager, and her first job was as editorial assistant at his National Review. She went on to write speeches for first lady Nancy Reagan and then for the Gipper himself.  Looking toward the 1988 race, Vice President George H.W. Bush wasn’t conservative enough for her. Fast forward through 4 best selling books (see below for links) and much prestige to CPAC-2018, where she got booed and seemingly harassed enough by the MAGA crowd for her views that security chose to escort her out of the building for her own safety. 
 
Folks, this is NOT Lincoln's, Reagan's or Mona's Republican party. 

Adam talks to Mona about her career as a conservative thinker, what being a “Never Trumper” means and about whether or not a new center right party might emerge and what that would mean for a potential post-Trump era conservative movement.
Mona's books:
Useful Idiots: How Liberals Got it Wrong in the Cold War and Still Blame America First (2003)
Do-Gooders: How Liberals Hurt Those They Claim to Help (and the Rest of Us) (2005),  Sex Matters: How Modern Feminism Lost Touch with Science, Love, and Common Sense (2018)
Hard Right: The GOP's Drift Toward Extremism (2023)

Mona's New York Times Op-Ed about her CPAC experience: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/25/opinion/im-glad-i-got-booed-at-cpac.html





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As the host of the podcast History of the Land of Israel, and his own YouTube show, Israel Explained, Shaiel Ben-Ephraim spends his time thinking about Israel and assessing Israel’s long term goals. Given Iran’s attack on Israel, we invited Shaiel back to Dirty Moderate so he and Adam could discuss the implications of Iran launching drones and missiles, including ballistic ones, directly at Israel for the first time in Israel’s history. What does this mean for the stability of the region( or instability?) 
Arab nations like Jordan and Saudi Arabia joined Irael in intercepting these missiles, as the United States and the UK. And what does this mean for the Israel Gaza war? 
If you are not subscribed to Shaiel's shows and following him on Twitter you are missing out. 
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@shaielb
Twitter @academic_la







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Mike Gonzalez is the Angeles T Arredondo E Pluribus Unum Senior Fellow at The Heritage Foundation. He is a longtime journalist who currently writes for The Washington Examiner. Prior to that, he wrote for the Wall Street Journal, where he was based in Hong Kong. 
Mike is an ardent conservative and he sees the re-election of Trump as the only stopgap against the progressive onslaught of the left. His latest book is “NextGen Marxism: What it is and How to Combat it,” which might as well his own ideological manifesto.

Mike and Adam don’t agree on Trump in the least, and they spar respectably on various issues. They find enough common ground, however, to affirm Adam’s long held belief that democracy depends upon our disagreement.

Purchase Mike's excellent book here
Explore the work Mike and his colleagues do at The Heritage Foundation here
Curious about Al Gore's concession speech after listening to Mike and Adam? Watch it here 


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George Washington claimed that anyone who attempted to provide an accurate account of the war for independence would be accused of writing fiction.
 
At the time, no one called it the “American Revolution”: former colonists still regarded themselves as Virginians or Pennsylvanians, not Americans, while John Adams insisted that the British were the real revolutionaries, for attempting to impose radial change without their colonists’ consent.
With his latest book,  The Cause, Joseph J. Ellis sits down with Adam and discusses how his book takes a fresh look at the events between 1773 and 1783, recovering a war more brutal than any in American history save the Civil War and discovers a strange breed of “prudent” revolutionaries, whose prudence proved wise yet tragic when it came to slavery, the original sin that still haunts our land. 
Joseph J. Ellis is a leading scholar of American history and is a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner for his biographies of our nation's earliest presidents. Ellis is a distinguished professor and seasoned speaker who regales audiences with stories of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and other U.S. presidents.

Explore the work of Professor Ellis at his website here

While his fine books are certainly available everywhere, Professor Ellis encourages you to shop at your local independent bookstore :) Click here to find one near you. 




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