PODCAST · news
The Radicalist
by David Josef Volodzko
The Radicalist follows writer and foreign correspondent David Josef Volodzko as he speaks with politicians, historians, psychologists, writers, and professors about political extremism in all its forms, tracing its philosophical roots and political consequences to help us better understand our world today. www.theradicalist.com
Episodes
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Why great art feels like death
What does it mean to truly experience a work of art? In this episode of The Radicalist, David Volodzko speaks with friend and self-described redneck Jefferson Marks about the importance of set and setting and the unspoken terror of great works of beauty. The conversation moves from Christopher...
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William F. Buckley's greatest lesson
William F. Buckley Jr. was a leading American intellectual who helped shape the modern conservative movement. He founded National Review in 1955, hosted the long-running TV show Firing Line, wrote more than 50 books, and was a profoundly influential figure in U.S. political life throughout the…
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The map and the terrain
Not even the most advanced form of artificial intelligence can ever replace man. Because there is something in human beings that is irreducible to machine knowledge: self-awareness, free will, doubt, feelings. * Federico Faggin, Tiscali notizie interview, May 2024 This week, Yevgeny Simkin and I...
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[DEBATE] Bentham’s Bulldog: Is a trans woman a woman?
This debate came about after I wrote an essay, “Trans Women Are Trans Women,” in response to Matthew Adelstein’s essay, “Why I Think Trans Women Are Women.” I wanted to have the conversation for two reasons. First, I’m a student of philosophy and former university lecturer of logic, debate,...
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Kevin Ray on the Rot in American Theater
David Volodzko talks to former guest Kevin Ray about a disturbing experience he recently had on the New York subway, the pathology of woke activism, its influence in the arts and why things are getting worse rather than better, Yevgeny Zamyatin’s dystopian novel We, his experience with compelled...
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The Truth About the Trans Movement with Mia Hughes
David Volodzko speaks with Mia Hughes about the different waves of the trans movement, the DSM-V and gender dysmorphic disorder, how the trans movement operates as a cult, legal support for trans activism in U.S. states, prevalence rates, indicators of social contagion, the WPATH scam, how the...
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How Trash Culture Conquered America
David Volodzko speaks with Ross Benes about his upcoming book 1999: The Year Low Culture Conquered America and Kickstarted Our Bizarre Times. They discuss the political legacy of Jerry Springer and reality TV, what Beanie Babies and Pokemon can teach us about financial markets, the rise of WWE...
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Under the Loving Care of Father Trump
After President Trump announced “Liberation Day” on April 2, the Dow sank 350 points and the S&P 500 recorded a historic three-day loss. But never mind the regional security risks, or the fact that this should’ve been done through negotiation with our allies rather than unilateral action, what’s...
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Ilya Shapiro on Illiberalism and the Law
David Josef Volodzko speaks with Ilya Shapiro about constitutional originalism, Supreme Court reform, political bias on the bench, DEI in our courts, Shapiro’s scandal at Georgetown Law, free speech on campus, the illiberal takeover of legal education — which is the subject of his new book…
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No Apologies with Katherine Brodsky
David Volodzko speaks with Katherine Brodsky about her book No Apologies: How to Find and Free Your Voice in the Age of Outrage—Lessons for the Silenced Majority. Brodsky is a former guest on the pod, when she appeared to discuss civility and open discourse. She is also the author of the…
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Trump Is Right About the Houthis
In response to escalating Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping lanes, President Trump ordered large-scale airstrikes this week, targeting Houthi military infrastructure in the capital city of Sanaa. These strikes are intended to protect international maritime commerce as well as send a warning shot...
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I Survived a Crazy Christian Cult
David Volodzko speaks with Allin Kimbrough, who grew up in the Quiverfull movement and its famous branch the Duggar family cult, a group of independent Baptist fundamentalists whose lifestyle was celebrated on The Learning Channel show 19 Kids and Counting and who later became the topic of the…
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Deeds of the Divine
The White House press secretary recently called New York Times reporter Peter Baker a “left-wing stenographer” after he questioned Trump’s decision to bar AP for not using the term “Gulf of America.” But just how biased is the NewYork Times, and in what ways? This is a public episode. If you'd…
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The Hollowing of American Honor
This week, David Volodzko discusses nonpartisanship and the Oval Office ambush involving President Trump, Vice President Vance, and Ukrainian President Zelenskyy. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit...
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SJ Murray on the Classics
David Volodzko speaks with Sarah-Jane Murray about how medieval politics changed the way people at the time told stories, how politics influence narrative structure generally, theoretical frameworks in medieval narratives, the ethics of interpretation, postmodern hermeneutics, storytelling as the...
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Anthony Mackie Isn’t Fit to Carry the Shield. But Captain America Should Be Black.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theradicalist.com/subscribe
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Velvet Jihad: Islam's Soft Imperialism
David Volodzko speaks with Alexander von Sternberg about the concept of velvet jihad, which he coined—inspired by French historian David Todd’s A Velvet Empire: French Informal Imperialism in the Nineteenth Century—to describe Islamic cultural imperialism. They also discuss the recent pogrom in...
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Ashley Rindsberg on Media Malpractice
Ashley Rindsberg is senior editor at Pirate Wires and author of the books Tel Aviv Stories and The Gray Lady Winked: How The New York Times’s Misreporting, Distortions & Fabrications Radically Alter History, which he was inspired to write after reading how the paper’s reported that Poland invaded...
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Katherine Brodsky on Open Discourse
Katherine Brodsky is the author of the newsletter Random Minds and has been a correspondent for Variety for over a decade. She has also contributed to publications such as The Washington Post, WIRED, The Guardian, Esquire, Newsweek, Playboy Magazine, New York Magazine's Vulture, USA Today, and…
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Civility and Sense: Debating Jake Klein and Salomé Sibonex
Part II: The debate: Notice he @’s FIRE, where I work, with claims of slander (never mind slander is spoken while libel is written), as if trying to get me in trouble or fired. This is precisely the disgusting kind of tactics we’ve all come to expect from woke activists. Respectfully brother, it...
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Money, War, and Democracy
David Volodzko speaks with terrorism expert Jonathan Schanzer about terrorism funding, the efficacy of sanctions, the Iranian regime and Hamas funding, the Israel-Hamas War, the Russo-Ukraine War, China’s potential invasion of Taiwan, and more. Jonathan Schanzer (website, X) is senior vice...
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The Nazi Roots of Palestinianism
David Volodzko talks with Alexander von Sternberg about Amin al-Husseini, the Nazi godfather of Palestinian nationalism, his early life, his embrace of Nazism, his efforts to send Jewish children to death camps, his legacy since then, and his place in the Palestinian movement today. Von Sternberg...
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Finding Purpose with Adam B. Coleman
David Volodzko speaks with Adam Coleman about fatherlessness in the black community, the insecurity of trans activists, white supremacist logic, the harm of victim mentality, what makes a good marriage, the psychology of happiness, the meaning of life, finding God, the search for purpose, what…
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Jeff Booth on the Bitcoin Revolution
David Volodzko speaks with Jeff Booth about the nature of inflation, the inevitability of Bitcoin, why other cryptocurrencies are inferior, Bitcoin’s volatility, common criticisms of Bitcoin, global adoption, the possibility of a Bitcoin standard, the social benefits of Bitcoin, and more. Jeff...
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On the Imane Khelif Debate
In this episode, David Volodzko discusses some of the medical questions surrounding the controversial Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, whether Khelif is trans, and what’s ultimately missing from the debate. Near the end, David references his recent essay on the subject, Raging Bullshit, in which he...
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Barrington Martin II on Uncomfortable Realities
David Volodzko speaks with Barrington Martin II about Covid, the U.S. presidential election, President Biden’s mental state, the attempted assassination of former President Trump, the danger of political drama, racism in America, cancel culture, calming our political monkey mind, inconvenient...
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Burning Our Cassandras with Ayaan Hirsi Ali
David Volodzko speaks with Ayaan Hirsi Ali about her new Substack project Restoration, the September 11 attacks, her father’s influence on her views, whether Islam can be reformed, the importance of Saudi Arabia’s political shift, what it would take for the West to win its conflict with…
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If Trump Wins
A shorter version of this essay was originally published as a Substack Note. If Trump wins, it will be because he has an immovable base. There’s nothing he can say to repulse them. At a campaign rally in January 2016, he claimed, “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I...
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Queer Majority is Different, Like You
David Volodzko speaks with Rio Veradonir about an Enlightenment-based liberal approach to gay rights as opposed to the extremism that characterizes so much activism today, neo-Marxist social justice warriors, the liberal solution to trans athletes and sexual displays at Pride festivals, the...
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Why Was Japan Never Colonized?
The socialist magazine Jacobin embarrassed itself this week by claiming the new miniseries Shōgun “shows something rarely seen on screen: the shocking hubris of the colonizer and dehumanization of the colonized.” Social media had a field day with this because, as we all know, Japan was not only...
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Ukraine at the Zero Hour
David Volodzko speaks with Doug Klain (website, X), a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center, where he focuses on Russia’s war on Ukraine. He is the former assistant director of the Eurasia Center and currently a policy analyst at the nonprofit Razom for Ukraine. The...
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Preserving the Fire
David Volodzko speaks with Stefan Tompson, the founder of Visegrád 24, which aggregates and curates news and current affairs on various social media platforms including X, where it currently has over 900,000 followers. The conversation covers disinformation on social media, the Israel-Hamas War,...
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A response to Arash Azizi
Arash Azizi reacted to my recent essay, The Case for Colonizing Gaza, by responding to a troll who had called the essay “blatantly racist,” to which Arash Azizi replied, “It’s not just racist but outright fascist.” There is nothing racist or fascist about it, any more than there was about the…
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The Future of Sci-Fi with David Brin
David Volodzko speaks with David Brin about comet dust formation, anti-institutionalism in Hollywood, how science-fiction has saved humanity, the moral philosophy of Star Trek, how tolerance and diversity have metastasized into a cancer, the infantile nihilism of Star Wars, how AI may buttress...
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Seattle in Crisis with Jonathan Choe
Jonathan Choe (profile, X) is a journalist and a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute’s Center of Wealth and Poverty, where he focuses on the homelessness crisis in Seattle. In our conversation, we talked about Korea, his family life, his firing from KOMO for covering a Proud Boys rally, the...
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Destroying DEI with Ryan Ruffaner
Ryan Ruffaner (Substack, YouTube) is an industrial-organizational psychologist specializing in organizational development and selection systems. He is also a member of the Committee for the Advancement of Professional Ethics (CAPE) in the Society for Industrial-Organizational Psychologists…
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Confronting Iran with Ramesh Sepehrrad
Ramesh Sepehrrad is an Iranian-American international relations and conflict resolutions expert who is also the advisory board chair of the Organization of Iranian American Communities (OIAC), a D.C.-based non-profit with 40 chapters nationwide. She is also an adjunct professor of Middle East...
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Russia Sanctions with Christine Abely
Christine Abely is the author of the new book The Russia Sanctions: The Economic Response to Russia's Invasion of Ukraine. She is also an assistant professor of contracts and international business transactions at New England Law. Abely (website, university profile, X) formerly worked at several...
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God, Guns, and Sedition
Bruce Hoffman and Jacob Ware are the authors of God, Guns, and Sedition: Far-Right Terrorism in America. Hoffman is a senior fellow for counterterrorism and homeland security at the Council on Foreign Relations and has been studying terrorism and insurgency for almost half a century. He is a...
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America's Communist Subversion with Julie Behling
Julie Behling was a Christian missionary in Russia in the late 1990s. She earned a dual master’s in Russian languages and literature as well as Russian and East European studies at Florida State University, working on the side as a Russian language teacher. She wrote her thesis on the survival...
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The Death of the Newspaper
This week, the Los Angeles Times announced that it has laid off at least 115 people, or more than 20% of its newsroom. They did it via Zoom, took no questions, and gave no answers. Jared Servantez, assistant editor of breaking news at the paper, said a colleague told him, “that was like a...
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The Brothers Wolodzko
We had Bolsheviks in my family. The brothers Wołodźko. I remembered the story when I saw progressives in the West celebrating Hamas’s atrocities on October 7. How could thinking people persuade themselves they were fighting oppression by justifying the rape and mutilation of 1,400 innocent Jews?...
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The Lift of a Driving Dream
Richard Nixon gave the first speech of his presidential campaign in February 1968 at the New Hampshire Highway Hotel in Concord. It was a volatile time in American life. Then as now, Americans lived with the looming threat of Russian aggression, North Korean hostility, and a distant war against...
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A taboo conversation with Wilfred Reilly
Wilfred Reilly is an associate professor of political science at Kentucky State University who is known for fighting dogma with data. His 2019 book Hate Crime Hoax: How the Left is Selling a Fake Race War, looked at a dataset of 409 allegedly false hate crimes and found that a substantial...
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Victims of Communism with Elizabeth Spalding
Elizabeth Spalding is the chairman of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation (VOC) and founding director of the Victims of Communism Museum. She teaches U.S. foreign policy and national security at Pepperdine University and at Hillsdale College, and she is the author of The First Cold...
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On Conversion
This letter is a response to Benjamin Carlson, the author of the newsletter The Carlson Letter, the former executive editor of The Atlantic and former China correspondent for AFP. His work has also appeared in The New Republic, Esquire, and Rolling Stone, and he was my colleague at GlobalPost. I...
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4th Generation Warfare with James Scaminaci
James Scaminaci is an independent researcher and former civilian senior intelligence analyst for the U.S. Army’s Intelligence and Threat Analysis Center (ITAC) and the European Command’s Joint Analysis Center (JAC), specializing in the former Soviet Union, the former Yugoslavia, counter-organized...
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The psychology and sex life of Adolf Hitler
As you can imagine, there has been a lot speculation over Hitler’s psychopathology. Unsurprisingly, his monstrous behavior extended to his personal relationships—and to the bedroom. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes…
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FIRE's Nico Perrino wants to hear what you have to say
In this episode, I spoke with Nico Perrino, the executive vice president at FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, which was founded in 1999 to protect free speech on college campuses in the United States and has since expanded its efforts beyond campuses to American society…
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Fire in the belly: A defense of free speech
From the beginning of history, our ancestors have practiced the art of storytelling, wrapped in blackness as they huddled around the flickering fire, telling the legends of their people in the warm, crackling glow, passing on the best of themselves. This has always been the way, for we are...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
The Radicalist follows writer and foreign correspondent David Josef Volodzko as he speaks with politicians, historians, psychologists, writers, and professors about political extremism in all its forms, tracing its philosophical roots and political consequences to help us better understand our world today.
www.theradicalist.com
HOSTED BY
David Josef Volodzko
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The Radicalist currently has 50 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is The Radicalist about?
The Radicalist follows writer and foreign correspondent David Josef Volodzko as he speaks with politicians, historians, psychologists, writers, and professors about political extremism in all its forms, tracing its philosophical roots and political consequences to help us better understand our...
How often does The Radicalist release new episodes?
The Radicalist has 50 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
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You can listen to The Radicalist on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts The Radicalist?
The Radicalist is created and hosted by David Josef Volodzko.
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