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GoodFellows: Conversations on Economics, History & Geopolitics
by Hoover Institution
In uncertain times what’s needed is not just clarity about today’s pandemic, but insight into the challenges that lie ahead as America recovers and returns to normal. GoodFellows, a weekly Hoover Institution broadcast, features senior fellows John Cochrane, Niall Ferguson, and H.R. McMaster discussing the social, economic, and geostrategic ramifications of this changed world.
Episodes
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California’s War on Wealth—and America’s War on Terror
The rubber meets the road in California this fall when a proposed one-time 5% tax on the state’s billionaire class – wealth taxes being a longtime progressive hobby horse – faces a public vote in the form of Proposition 40. Joshua Rauh, the Hoover Institution’s George P. Shultz Senior Fellow in...
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Endless Summer: Iran, Woke Two?, and the George Costanza Theory of War
On the latest GoodFellows: Is economic strangulation the key to achieving Iranian cooperation, or another misstep in the Persian Gulf? Is a sequel to “Woke 1” in the works? And does playing the race card in the aftermath of a former Cambridge University professor's suicide make his death even…
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Complicated Legacy: Jay Bhattacharya on Fauci, RFK, and Vaccines
Jay Bhattacharya returns to GoodFellows—now as NIH director and acting CDC director—for a candid conversation on what COVID got wrong, why science needs a replication revolution, and how to restore public trust. Jay takes on the legacy of lockdowns, school closures, Fauci, gain-of-function...
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Trump Slump, Capitalism vs. Communism, and Old Man Yells at Claude
After a productive first 100 days after returning to office, President Trump has since hit a rough patch – stubborn inflation (despite an otherwise powerhouse economy), an unpopular war with Iran, setbacks at the Supreme Court, plus growing dissent among congressional Republicans as his party…
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The Empire Strikes Out: Rick Atkinson on 1776, Is Britain Broken?, and Socialists in New York
On paper, it was a mismatch: a fledgling republic seeking freedom from the world’s mightiest empire. And yet the American Revolution ended with the upstart colonists’ victory over the mighty British military. Rick Atkinson, a military historian and author of a “Revolutionary Trilogy” on the fight...
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Trump’s 14 Points: Epic Fury or Epic Fail?
As the US and Iran prepare to sign a memorandum of understanding halting hostilities in the Middle East, will the agreement hold up for long given fundamental differences over Iran’s nuclear ambitions (another 60 days of negotiating), its funding of terrorist proxies across the region, plus...
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From Arsenal to Zelenskyy: The GoodFellows Answer Viewer Mail
In a special “mailbag” episode, Hoover senior fellows Sir Niall Ferguson, John Cochrane, and H.R. McMaster answer audience questions. Among the topics (after a brief opening segment devoted to the latest in the Iran-US impasse – aka, “Schrödinger’s ceasefire”): who are today’s great leaders; is...
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“Deciders”, “Honey Badgers”, and “Lonely Liberals”: Sarah Isgur on a Divided Supreme Court
Is it time to rethink the configuration of the US Supreme Court – not nine justices divided along lockstep ideological lines, but three groups of three justices, each clique with a different approach to jurisprudence? So argues court watcher and legal analyst Sarah Isgur, who discusses her new...
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GoodFellows LIVE: The US Constitution and A Republic - If You Can Keep It | Hoover Institution
As part of the Hoover Institution’s ongoing USA@250 celebration of the founding of the American republic, a live GoodFellows episode recorded on the campus of Stanford University focusing on the US Constitution – in tech terms, America’s “operating system”. Goodfellows regulars Sir Niall…
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Who’s Actually Running Iran? with Abbas Milani | Hoover Institution
Hoover Institution research fellow and Iran scholar Abbas Milani joins the GoodFellows to discuss life within the beleaguered theocracy: who’s in charge, and will added economic pressure in the form of a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, and a halt on Iran’s oil trade bring about an end to the...
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Locusts and Pirates: What’s Your Favorite Recession? with Tyler Goodspeed | Hoover Institution
If unexpected wars and oil shocks have been big features of recent history, so too are economic recessions – another downturn perhaps ahead in 2026. Tyler Goodspeed, a former Hoover Institution fellow and author of the forthcoming book, Recession: The Real Reasons Economies Shrink and What To Do...
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Dire Straits: Condoleezza Rice on The War with Iran | Hoover Institution
Does the current conflict in the Middle East suggest that America has learned from its recent past wars? Hoover Institution Director and former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice joins GoodFellows regulars Sir Niall Ferguson, John Cochrane and Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster to discuss the prospects…
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Gulf War III Or Cold War II: Iran Truth And Consequences | Hoover Institution
A week into US and Israeli military operations against Iran, where does the conflict stand? GoodFellows regulars Niall Ferguson, John Cochrane and H.R. McMaster discuss the odds of hostilities expanding, what the aftermath of “regime alteration” might resemble, a possible economic backlash should...
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Iran, Tariffs, Epstein | GoodFellows | Hoover Institution
As his self-proclaimed 10-day window for dealing with Iran approaches its end, what are President Trump’s options? GoodFellows regulars Niall Ferguson, John Cochrane, and H.R. McMaster weigh the merits of a US military strike versus an interim diplomatic solution. They also probe the Epstein...
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The Origins of Modern China; Is Trump “Lost”? America, Home of the . . . Squatters? | GoodFellows | Hoover Institution
Unlike the romanticized tale the Chinese Communist Party tells of itself—long marches and a long game of outlasting and outwitting its foes—the early years of the CCP were ones of unrepentant violence and a rise to power made possible only with external help. Frank Dikötter, the Hoover...
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The Right Side of History with Tyler Cowen | GoodFellows | Hoover Institution
Donald Trump’s drop-in at the World Economic Forum and the ensuing kerfuffle between the American president and the attending globalist elites raises the question: Who is winning on the world stage, Trump or his foes—or do they have more in common than is commonly recognized? Tyler Cowen, an...
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The World According to Trump | GoodFellows | Hoover Institution
As Iran’s theocracy teeters on the brink, the question turns to what the Trump administration’s abiding interest in other bad regimes (Venezuela, Cuba, Colombia) and its appetite for land acquisitions (greenbacks for Greenland?) say about the American president’s worldview. GoodFellows regulars...
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Coercive Diplomacy: Venezuela, Iran, and . . . Greenland? | GoodFellows | Hoover Institution
American special forces capture Venezuela’s president and his wife in a daring nighttime operation, returning the deposed first couple to the US to stand trial for alleged narcoterrorism. Meanwhile, protests in Iran over worsening living conditions, coupled with a cratered economy, threaten that...
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Are We Doing This Again? Andrew Ross Sorkin on “1929” and the GoodFellows on 2025 | GoodFellows | Hoover Institution
Nearly a century ago, after years of investors on a champagne high and warning signs ignored, a stock market crash led to a descent into a global depression. Andrew Ross Sorkin, a New York Times financial journalist and author of the bestseller 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street...
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Tiny Cars and 70’s Problems with Ben Sasse | GoodFellows | Hoover Institution
Two institutional sectors are in both steady and rapid decline in terms of public trust: Congress and academia. Ben Sasse, former US senator from Nebraska and president of two universities, joins GoodFellows regulars Niall Ferguson, John Cochrane, and H.R. McMaster to discuss what ails Congress…
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Viewer Mail: War & Peace, Reading & Writing, Why Babies Are Good, and Thanksgiving Memories | GoodFellows | Hoover Institution
Is the bitter war in Ukraine soon to wind down now that a peace settlement is being negotiated (think a Panmunjom-style compromise, not Munich-style appeasement), and how should America prepare for economic and military parity with China? In an episode devoted solely to viewers’ questions, Hoover...
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Cyber Rattling & Socialism: Anne Neuberger on Future Wars, Mayor Mamdani, and a Big Deal at the BBC | GoodFellows | Hoover Institution
Will future wars be decided by who controls space—cyber and outer—and which superpower has better paired geostrategic thinking with emerging technologies? Anne Neuberger, the Hoover Institution’s William C. Edwards Distinguished Visiting Fellow and a former White House and Pentagon cyber policy...
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Trick or Treat? A Fight Between Good and Evil with Michael McFaul | GoodFellows | Hoover Institution
At a time of “hot wars” across the globe, there’s also an ideological “cold war” featuring two foes: those who embrace freedom and those who oppress it. Michael McFaul, the Hoover Institution’s Peter and Helen Bing Senior Fellow and author of the newly released Autocrats vs. Democrats: China,...
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It’s The Economy, Israel and Tariffs, Stupid | GoodFellows | Hoover Institution
A hostage return and the signing of a cease-fire agreement signal a new chapter in the long-running dream of peace in the Middle East. Did it matter that the key negotiators, on the US side, were financiers and real-estate developers rather than scions of America’s diplomatic corps? Russell…
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Who’s Going To Win The Future? Dan Wang on China’s Engineers vs. America’s Lawyers | GoodFellows | Hoover Institution
One great power (China) has a relentless thirst to build that comes with a terrible human cost, while its main rival (America) is a more lawyerly and free society that’s prone to stifling ideas both good and bad. On the 76th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, Dan Wang…
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Turning Points: Kyiv, Kirk, Kimmel, and the Sundance Kid | GoodFellows | Hoover Institution
As a seemingly interminable conflict in Ukraine concludes its 43rd month of ground combat, aerial drone strikes, and stalemate, America’s culture war enters a new phase with the assassination of conservative activist and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, followed by the suspension of...
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Drones, Dictators & Debt: India Flirts, Ukraine Fights, Trump Takes on The Fed | GoodFellows | Hoover Institution
Is Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s embrace of his Russian and Chinese peers a mere signal of his displeasure with American tariff policy, or the beginning of a deeper geopolitical realignment? Hoover senior fellows Niall Ferguson, John Cochrane, and H.R. McMaster discuss the significance of...
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The Eternal Optimist: H.R. McMaster on Combat, Faith, and Turning Down the Funk | GoodFellows | Hoover Institution
What inspires a young boy to dream about a career in the US Army and then, after graduating from West Point, manage to prepare for—and survive—combat? In a “solo” installment of GoodFellows, Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, Hoover’s Fouad and Michelle Ajami Senior Fellow, a former national security…
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Boss Time: Summits, Cold Wars, and Universities, with Condoleezza Rice | GoodFellows | Hoover Institution
What to expect from this week’s Putin–Trump summit in Alaska? Hoover Institution Director and former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice—no stranger, she, to engaging in statecraft with Russia’s enigmatic president—joins GoodFellows regulars Niall Ferguson, John Cochrane, and H.R. McMaster for…
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Niall Ferguson, Flying Scotsman | GoodFellows
How does a young Scotsman go from struggling actor and failed politician to internationally acclaimed (and knighted) historian? In a solo installment of GoodFellows, Sir Niall Ferguson, Hoover’s Milbank Family Senior Fellow, discusses his academic journey, fellow historians he admires, keys to...
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California Dreaming with Rick Caruso | GoodFellows | Hoover Institution
In contrast to the 20th-century bosses of industry who ran America’s big cities, New York City seems poised to elect an unabashed socialist with dreams of government-run bodegas, rent freezes, and wealth redistribution. Rick Caruso, noted Los Angeles real estate developer and possible political...
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Gliding Through Life: John Cochrane on the Making of an Economist | GoodFellows | Hoover Institution
How does a promising young scholar go from dreams of designing glider planes to the study of physics and then on to a celebrated career as one of the world’s foremost monetary economists? In a “solo” installment of GoodFellows, John Cochrane—Hoover’s Rose-Marie and Jack Anderson senior fellow and...
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Call Him Daddy: Assessing America’s Strike On Iran | GoodFellows | Hoover Institution
US forces launched bomb and missile strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities, followed soon by an Iran-Israel ceasefire and the beginning of what could be a diplomatic realignment across the Middle East. The GoodFellows regulars and Hoover Senior Fellows Niall Ferguson, John Cochrane, and…
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“That’s Not Gonna Happen:” Israel Aims to Destroy Iran’s Nuclear Program | GoodFellows | Hoover Institution
Israel launches air attacks intended to destroy Iranian nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities, Iran retaliates with missile strikes on Israeli cities, and the world waits to see what comes next – a return to the status quo, neighboring countries drawn into the conflict, or an end to the...
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Caveman Marxists: Frank Dikötter on Whether China Is a Fiery Dragon or a Paper Tiger | GoodFellows | Hoover Institution
Is China hell-bent on a move against Taiwan, or does its saber-rattling not square with a military capability that’s perhaps overestimated? Frank Dikötter, a Hoover senior fellow specializing in the history of modern China, joins Hoover senior fellows Niall Ferguson, John Cochrane, and Lt. Gen....
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The Plane Truth: Playing Chicken with China, Trump Goes Gulf-ing, Tensions in South Asia
America and China take a 90-day time-out in their dispute over tariffs; President Trump’s tour of the Middle East—the first overseas trip of his second term—raises unsettling questions about both his regional strategy and his family’s business dealings; and hostilities between nuclear-armed India...
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Peace Through Strength: The Good Fellows on Harvard, Europe, Warfare & Niall Gets Busted
Harvard University and the Trump administration do battle over civil rights, funding, and tax status. Europe confronts unpleasant realities as it honors the 80th anniversary of VE Day. And the Pentagon contemplates how new weaponry and technology will change the future of warfare. It’s all part…
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Tangled Up in Blue with Rep. Ro Khanna: Tariffs, Trump, and Progressive Capitalism
Rejected by voters last November, the Democratic Party is perhaps afforded new life given President Trump’s decline in popularity and economic uncertainty ahead. What is the party’s message? Rep. Ro Khanna, a prominent progressive voice whose California district includes parts of Silicon Valley,...
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Viewer Mail: The GoodFellows Answer Your Questions
What are the economic and geopolitical effects of President Trump's imposition of tariffs on America's trading friends and foes? In an episode devoted solely to viewers' questions, Hoover senior fellows Sir Niall Ferguson, John Cochrane, and Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster delve into the certain…
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Mixed Signals and Emerging Technology with Amy Zegart
Does America have a plan for winning the competition of the future—mastering artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and space, plus other material and developmental sciences? Amy Zegart, the Hoover Institution’s Morris Arnold and Nona Cox Senior Fellow and cochair of the Stanford Emerging...
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Evil Empire 2.0: Tom Cotton on Europe’s Path to Peace and China’s Dangerous Hegemony
US and Ukrainian officials will meet on March 12 to talk peace in Eastern Europe; a new US approach to China may or may not be in the works; and the Trump administration’s gas-brake approach to imposing tariffs on trade partners has a Hoover economist baffled. Arkansas senator Tom Cotton, chair…
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The Great X Debate, with Matt Continetti: Vance v. Ferguson, Trump Diplomacy, DOGE, and Hackman
A one-week window into the Trump administration’s worldview—the president blaming Ukraine for Russia’s invasion; his vice president taking to social media to accuse a Hoover scholar of “historical illiteracy”; the US then refusing to join other UN members in condemning Russian aggression—raises…
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The Age of Empire Strikes Back: Stephen Kotkin on Trump, Wrestling, and the Use of American Power | GoodFellows | Hoover Institution
Three weeks into the nascent Trump presidency, the question of “power” arises: how the leader of the free world uses unique words, deeds, and threats to advance America’s interests globally, through a blend of grandiose promises (rebuilding Gaza), economic saber-rattling (tariffs on imported...
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Big Deal: Davos Man Returns; Colombia’s Social Media Smackdown; Is DeepSink AI’s “Sputnik Moment”? | GoodFellows | Hoover Institution
A week into Donald Trump’s “second first term,” the GoodFellows drink from the proverbial fire hose trying to keep up with the news: a flurry of presidential executive orders; a freezing of US foreign aid; policy spats with multiple nations; at Davos, the world’s globalists contending with MAGA…
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Vibe Shifts: Enter Trump, Exit Biden, the Politics of Fires, “Silly Walking and Flying Eagles” | GoodFellows | Hoover Institution
Donald Trump’s “second first term”—an oddity of winning nonconsecutive presidential elections—begins with talk of dramatic policy shifts at home and abroad. Hoover senior fellows Niall Ferguson and “Trump 45” veteran H.R. McMaster discuss the odds of a successful second Trump presidency; whether...
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2024 in Review: Standards and Norms with the WSJ’s Kimberley Strassel | GoodFellows | Hoover Institution
An eventful election year concludes with the curtain soon to rise on a second Trump presidency and the possibility of dramatic changes to how Washington conducts itself. Kimberley Strassel, the Wall Street Journal’s “Potomac Watch” columnist, joins Hoover senior fellows Niall Ferguson, John...
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The Mailbag Show: The GoodFellows Answer Your Questions
In a special “mailbag” episode, Hoover senior fellows Sir Niall Ferguson, John Cochrane, and H.R. McMaster answer audience questions ranging from current geopolitics quandaries and viable economic models to career and parenting advice, plus their personal choices of dream guests. Among the…
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Focus on the Mission, with Mike Pompeo | GoodFellows | Hoover Institution
After a “change” election that returned Donald Trump to the presidency, what can Americans expect in the way of foreign policy and national security departures from the current administration? Former US secretary of state and CIA director Mike Pompeo joins Hoover senior fellows Niall Ferguson…
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The Comeback: The NYT’s Bret Stephens and the GoodFellows Recap the ’24 Election | GoodFellows | Hoover Institution
Donald Trump will return to the Oval Office in a manner few saw coming – he won America’s popular vote; his coattails may lead to Republican control of Congress – while progressive institutions (legacy media, Hollywood, wokeism, and a tired Democratic playbook) take a beating. New York Times...
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Butterfly Wings & Hurricanes: The GoodFellows & Andrew Roberts Revisit Historical Counterfactuals | GoodFellows | Hoover Institution
Imagine an alternate universe in which the American Revolution fails or where Russia rejects Leninism in its infant stage. Live from the Hoover Institution’s Fall Retreat, Lord Andrew Roberts, renowned historian and the Hoover Institution’s Bonnie and Tom McCloskey Distinguished Visiting Fellow,...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
In uncertain times what’s needed is not just clarity about today’s pandemic, but insight into the challenges that lie ahead as America recovers and returns to normal. GoodFellows, a weekly Hoover Institution broadcast, features senior fellows John Cochrane, Niall Ferguson, and H.R. McMaster discussing the social, economic, and geostrategic ramifications of this changed world.
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In uncertain times what’s needed is not just clarity about today’s pandemic, but insight into the challenges that lie ahead as America recovers and returns to normal. GoodFellows, a weekly Hoover Institution broadcast, features senior fellows John Cochrane, Niall Ferguson, and H.R. McMaster...
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GoodFellows: Conversations on Economics, History & Geopolitics has 100 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
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