The Ricochet Podcast

Ricochet

4.7 (1.4K)
NEWS COMMENTARY
UPDATED BIWEEKLY

Weekly 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. Listen to The Ricochet Podcast, along with more than 40 other original podcasts, at Ricochet.com. No paid subscription required.

5D AGO

The Revolution is Always the Issue

James, Steve, and Charles are back for a new year that seems determined to outdo its predecessor. Lileks reports from the Twin Cities, a site dead set on being the epicenter of American chaos. Then the fellas step out of the Minnesota cold to warm their bones by the fire of collectivism. And they round it all out with a chat about the ever-surprising Don Doctrine, which put an end to one tyrant last week and has many wondering what it could mean for Iran.

55 min
12/26/2025

New Beginnings

We have a special Christmas season episode to tide everyone over through the holidays. Steve Hayward sits down with Rob Long, who's just wrapped his first year at Princeton's Theological Seminary. They discuss dramatic career changes, the storyteller's take on the link between show business and the saving souls business, and the modern cultural discomfort with the faith of our fathers.

48 min
12/20/2025

A Revolution of Common Sense

If you have access to the internet, you've likely seen a clip of Scott Jennings acting as a lone voice of reason on a noisy CNN panel. This week, he joins Steve and Charles to discuss his new book, A Revolution of Common Sense, an account of President Trump's fight against a whole lot of kinds of crazy. Plus, Cooke and Hayward consider Australia's latest bid against gun ownership, suss out Susie Wiles' slip-up with the press, and marvel at the legacy of another kid from one of the other boroughs, Norman Podhoretz of Brooklyn, who passed this week at 95.

59 min
12/12/2025

The Making of the American Mind

America has a big anniversary coming up. And you know it's set to be grand when people give it a name like "semiquincentenial." To help us prepare for the big 250th, Matthew Spalding, Dean of Hillsdale College's School of Government in DC, joins to discuss his just-published book: The Making of the American Mind. He and the gang get into the story of how a group of iron men came to declare war with and independence from the greatest empire on earth. They delve into the many attacks against the Declaration and the founding that are coming in from all angles these days. Remember, these self-evident truths are not obvious, so order your copy today! Plus, Señor Lileks wonders what we're supposed to call this escalating series of adventures near Venezuela; the Honorable Hayward weighs in on the stunningly titled Trump v. Slaughter SCOTUS case and Justice KBJ's startling comments; and, lastly, Captain Cooke has a bone to pick with Europe! - Sound from the open this week: The EU fines X and Trump talks Europe with Politico

54 min
12/05/2025

Podcasters of the Caribbean

Two thirds of the earth is covered by water and the other third is covered by our intrepid trio of Steve Hayward, Charles C.W. Cooke and James Lileks. We start the week in Minnesota where federal officials believe over $1B of taxpayer money was lost in multiple instances of fraud. Then we run the gamut of the J6 Bomber arrest, the Pentagon's actions in the Caribbean, Texas redistricting and the eye-popping price Netflix is spending to acquire Warner Bros.-Discovery. Finally, we ask you to contribute to a GoFundMe project for our old friend Jon Gabriel who announced earlier this week that he's battling "The Big C."

59 min
11/21/2025

Lady Justice Unsheathes Her Sword

The Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice was founded in 1957 to ensure fairness in a union struggling to become more perfect. Yet somewhere along the way, bad actors saw an opportunity to play with the scales while Justice donned her blindfold. Our new Assistant Attorney General of the division is Ricochet's dear friend Harmeet Dhillon — and she's back to remind Americans that Justice has an enforcement arm. Harmeet gets us up to speed on her team's investigation into the latest riot at UC Berkeley; reports on how they've handled the workload with only one-third of the manpower; and reiterates the righteousness of the division's purpose while clarifying how she and the ambitious lawyers under her plan to balance the scales on a level playing field. James, Steve, and Peter weigh the president's approval numbers on the economy and foreign policy; and they have reason to believe that Democrats will continue to be hardest hit as Epstein files work their way to the public. Sound clip from this week's open: TPUSA spokesman Andrew Kolvet explains how UC Berkeley administrators worked to undermine their event last week.

57 min
11/14/2025

Two Plus Two Still Equals Four

Rob Long and John Yoo are reunited with James to serve up some laughs as they sift through some unpleasant truths that many of us would prefer to ignore. The trio yawns at the conclusion of the record-long government shutdown but sees plenty to worry about in its resuming business as usual; considers some elementary underpinnings of the affordability problem; John Yoo takes a barrage of questions on the SCOTUS term and presidential war powers; and Brother Rob takes us out with some thoughts on walking one's path even in tough times. Sound from this week's opening: The House adopts the Senate’s plan to reopen the government and Sen. rand Paul talks the deficit on NewsMax2

59 min
11/07/2025

Sydney Sweeny and the Cleavage on the Right

The American right has a decision before it. There are a few elements in the coalition that threaten the stability of the whole. The boys of the Ricochet Podcast propose the following: Sweeny in, Fuentes out. After settling on that, Steve, Charles, and James get to Tuesday's rout; Mayor Mamdani and the limits to NYC's invincibility; Trump's bad day at SCOTUS; all Canadian land acknowledgements taken to their illogical conclusion. All this before landing on an oddly reassuring note — that America is still among the sanest places on the planet.

57 min

See All (649)

James Lileks

Host
Rob Long

Host
Peter Robinson

Host

4.7

out of 5

1,372 Ratings

Great listen

11/22/2025

jt levitsky

Look forward every week
Don’t change the content, but Please fix the audio

12/11/2025

LongTimeListenerRD

Content is excellent. Audio is terrible. James’s audio is so over processed that all I hear is a ringing mid-bass with no clarity. Overall audio level is at least 8-10 dB below the ads, which means my car system is cranked to max to be able to understand James and then the speakers (and my ears) are damaged when the ad is inserted. Other podcasts don’t have this problem.
Old Friends

09/19/2025

The Grand Panjandrum

Like listening to a smart conversation with longtime friends.
Love this podcast!

08/23/2025

Lookingfortruth,notspin

Informative and laugh-out-loud funny😂.

Weekly 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. Listen to The Ricochet Podcast, along with more than 40 other original podcasts, at Ricochet.com. No paid subscription required.