The Good Fight

Yascha Mounk and Dan Williams discuss the impact of AI on society, education, and politics. Dan Williams is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Sussex. He writes the Conspicuous Cognition newsletter, which brings together philosophical insights and scientific research to examine the forces shaping contemporary society and politics. In this week's conversation, Yascha Mounk and Dan Williams discuss whether AI is a genuinely transformative technology or just another tool, how the temptation to outsource thinking to AI may be eroding the cognitive skills of young people, and why the political battles we are actually having about artificial...

Yascha Mounk and Malcolm Gaskill debate what the Enlightenment got wrong about the so-called age of credulity. Malcolm Gaskill, Emeritus Professor of Early Modern History at the University of East Anglia, is the author of seven books, including Witchfinders, Between Two Worlds, and The Ruin of All Witches.  In this week's conversation, Yascha Mounk and Malcolm Gaskell discuss how premodern people understood the boundary between the natural and supernatural worlds, why historians are right—and wrong—to complicate the Enlightenment's story of progress, and what the persistence of superstition tells us about human nature. If you have not yet signed up fo...

Yascha Mounk and James Marriott explore what happens when a civilization turns its back on books. James Marriott is a London Times columnist and the author of the Substack Cultural Capital, covering society, ideas, and culture. He is the author of The New Dark Ages: The End of Reading and the Dawn of a Post-Literate Society. In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and James Marriott discuss whether the decline of reading is as severe as the data suggests, whether television or social media is more to blame, and why this is bad news for democracy. If you have not ye...

Yascha Mounk and Eliot Cohen delve into the lost meaning of “strategy” and why Trump's Iran gambit went off the rails. Eliot A. Cohen is the Arleigh Burke chair in Strategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. His latest book is The Strategist: How to Think About War and Politics. In this week's conversation, Yascha Mounk and Eliot Cohen discuss what genuine strategic thinking requires, why America's war with Iran represents a failure of strategy rather than of military capability, and what Winston Churchill's wartime memoranda reveal about what good strategy actually looks like. If you have not yet...

Yascha Mounk and David Deming discuss how artificial intelligence will transform research, teaching, and the economic foundations of higher education. David Deming is the Danoff Dean of Harvard College and an economist. He writes a Substack called Forked Lightning and hosts a podcast called The Context Window. In this week's conversation, Yascha Mounk and David Deming discuss why AI may force universities into a new era focused on community and virtue rather than knowledge or expertise, whether the business model of American higher education is facing existential or merely serious pressure, and how professors and students should rethink learning and...

Yascha Mounk, Owen Zidar, and Eric Zwick examine how America's hidden fortunes are built on garage doors, car dealerships, and beverage distribution. Owen Zidar is a Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton University.  Eric Zwick is the Joel F. Gemunder Professor of Economics and Finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. In this week's conversation, Yascha Mounk, Owen Zidar, and Eric Zwick discuss why the real concentration of American wealth lies with small business owners rather than tech billionaires, and whether entrepreneurship remains a viable path to upward mobility. If you have not yet signed u...

Yascha Mounk and Luis Garicano examine why Europe missed the tech revolution—and how it might catch up. Luis Garicano is Professor of Public Policy at the London School of Economics and a co-founder of The Rhine Group. In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Luis Garicano discuss why Europe has failed to produce world-leading technology companies, whether labor market rigidities and a fragmented single market explain Europe’s innovation deficit, and how much culture versus institutions are to blame for European risk aversion. If you have not yet signed up for our podcast, please do so now by follow...

Yascha Mounk and Galen Druke examine why the data points to a possible blue wave—and whether the polls can be trusted. Galen Druke is the founder and host of “GD Politics,” a leading nonpartisan podcast and Substack that explains politics with curiosity, rigor, and a sense of humor. He also co-hosts the “Still Counting” podcast alongside Nate Silver and Clare Malone.  In this week's conversation, Yascha Mounk and Galen Druke discuss whether Democrats are headed for a blue wave in the 2026 midterms, why the Senate map remains an uphill climb even in a favorable national environment, and what the persistent...

Yascha Mounk and Frank Furedi delve into the case for populism—and clash over Viktor Orbán's Hungary. Frank Furedi, author and social commentator, is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Kent. His latest book is In Defense of Populism. In this week's conversation, Yascha Mounk and Frank Furedi discuss whether populism is a legitimate force or a threat to democracy, the impact of political polarization on mainstream parties' claim to represent ordinary citizens—and to what extent Viktor Orbán undermined democracy in Hungary. If you have not yet signed up for our podcast, please do so now by...

Yascha Mounk and Simon Sebag Montefiore discuss how the fall of the Ottoman Empire shaped the region we know today. Simon Sebag Montefiore is a historian and author. His latest book is The Cauldron: The Origins of the Modern Middle East. In this week's conversation, Yascha Mounk and Simon Sebag Montefiore discuss how the collapse of the Ottoman Empire gave rise to modern nationalism and ethnic cleansing in the Middle East, how the region’s history has shaped today’s conflicts, and the long-term impact of October 7.  If you have not yet signed up for our podcast, please do so now b...

Yascha Mounk and Shashank Joshi also discuss Trump's war in the Middle East and the differences between the United States and Europe. Shashank Joshi is The Economist‘s Washington bureau chief, having previously covered defense and national security for the publication for eight years. In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Shashank Joshi discuss why Russia is escalating its hybrid warfare campaign against Europe, whether NATO’s political cohesion can survive the Trump era, and how the United States has changed over the last 20 years. If you have not yet signed up for our podcast, please do so now by fol...

Yascha Mounk and Jerry Kaplan debate whether the existential risk from AI is overstated—and if so, what we should be worrying about instead.  Jerry Kaplan is an artificial intelligence expert, serial entrepreneur, technical innovator, educator, and author. He is currently an adjunct lecturer at Stanford University. In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Jerry Kaplan discuss why the AI “existential risk” narrative is more science fiction than science, what actually happened during the Hugging Face security incident, and how to think clearly about the real—versus imagined—dangers of AI systems.  (For an alternative take on AI’s existential risk...

Yascha Mounk and Jacob Weisberg examine why so many powerful people and institutions capitulated to Trump the second time around. Jacob Weisberg is the co-founder of the podcast company Pushkin Industries. He serves as Chair of The Committee to Protect Journalists and is a regular contributor to the New York Review of Books. His latest book is Profiles in Cowardice: A Study of Collaboration in the Trump Era. In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Jacob Weisberg discuss why American institutions proved far less resistant to Trump in his second term than his first, what figures like Jeff Bezos an...

Yascha Mounk and Judith Dada also discuss why the tech sector is so behind in Europe—and how the continent can become dynamic again. Judith Dada is Co-CEO of Langdock, a leading European AI company, Senior Partner at Visionaries Club, an early-stage European venture capital fund, and is co-author of Europe 2031. In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Judith Dada discuss what the decline of German industry and infrastructure reveals about the broader crisis of the German model, why the European tech sector is so far behind China and the United States, and what Europe needs to change to beco...

Yascha Mounk and Sarah Longwell discuss why the pro-democracy coalition keeps losing the narrative war—and how it can fight back. Sarah Longwell is publisher of The Bulwark, host of The Focus Group podcast, and author of How to Eat an Elephant: One Voter at a Time. In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Sarah Longwell discuss why Donald Trump has dominated American politics for a decade, where Kamala Harris went wrong, and how the Democratic Party can win back working-class voters. If you have not yet signed up for our podcast, please do so now by following this link on...

Yascha Mounk and Jared Diamond discuss the age-old question of structure versus agency—and when individual leaders truly change the course of events. Jared Diamond is a professor of geography at the University of California, Los Angeles. His books include Guns, Germs, and Steel, The Third Chimpanzee, and Profits, Prophets, Coaches and Kings: (When) Do Leaders Make a Difference? In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Jared Diamond discuss how to measure the true impact of individual leaders, why the institutional environment determines how much difference a leader can make, and whether societies are better served by systems that cons...

We’re on vacation this week, so are rerunning a fun “beach read” episode exploring if your nearest and dearest could be psychopaths. Miss us already? In an event exclusively for readers of American Purpose and Persuasion, Yascha Mounk will be interviewing Francis Fukuyama about his life and thought at 5pm on Sunday, September 6 at The Abbey Centre, London. Find out more and get tickets here. Paying subscribers of Persuasion and American Purpose can access a code for a free ticket here. Abigail Marsh is a professor in the Department of Psychology and the Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Program at Georgetown University. In thi...

Yascha Mounk and Francis Fukuyama discuss his lifelong hobbies—from building furniture to robotics—and why they might save us in the age of big tech. Francis Fukuyama is the Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at Stanford University. His latest book is In the Realm of the Last Man. He is also the author of the “Frankly Fukuyama” column at Persuasion.  In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Francis Fukuyama discuss why building things with your hands is an antidote to dependence on big tech, whether AI will erode the practical skills future generations need to survive, and what hobbyist robotics ha...

Yascha Mounk and Francis Fukuyama delve into 9/11, the hubris of humanitarian intervention, and the letter he regretted signing. Francis Fukuyama is the Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at Stanford University. His latest book is In the Realm of the Last Man. He is also the author of the “Frankly Fukuyama” column at Persuasion.  In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Francis Fukuyama discuss why Fukuyama initially supported the Iraq War and what changed his mind, how the neoconservative movement’s experience of Eastern Europe shaped its disastrous assumptions about the Middle East, and what his break with former colleagues cost him perso...

Yascha Mounk and Adam Bodnar examine why Poland’s celebrated victory over illiberalism is now very much in doubt. Adam Bodnar is a Professor of Law at SWPS University in Warsaw, heading the Department for Rule of Law and Human Rights. He is also a Senator of the Republic of Poland, elected in October 2023, and a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. He previously served as Minister of Justice (December 2023–July 2025) and as Ombudsman of Poland (2015–2021). In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Adam Bodnar discuss the post-populist dilemma, how Poland’s pro-democratic coalition defeated an illiber...

Yascha Mounk and Francis Fukuyama explore why any theory of politics must begin with an account of what makes us human. Francis Fukuyama is the Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at Stanford University. His latest book is In the Realm of the Last Man. He is also the author of the “Frankly Fukuyama” column at Persuasion.  In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Francis Fukuyama discuss why human nature has been so central to Fukuyama’s political thought, what modern evolutionary biology and anthropology tell us about the myth of primordial individualism, and whether human beings are best understood as fundament...

Yascha Mounk and Daron Acemoglu examine how the digital age severed the link between economic growth and shared prosperity. Daron Acemoglu is an economist at MIT and a recipient of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Economics. His latest book is What Happened to Liberal Democracy? In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Daron Acemoglu discuss why liberal democracy’s post-war formula for shared prosperity broke down, how the rise of a college-educated professional class produced a cultural backlash against “social engineering,” and how to shape the future of artificial intelligence. We’re delighted to feature this conversation as part of our series...

Yascha Mounk and Francis Fukuyama examine what people still get wrong about “the end of history.” Francis Fukuyama is the Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at Stanford University. His latest book is In the Realm of the Last Man. He is also the author of the “Frankly Fukuyama” column at Persuasion.  In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Francis Fukuyama discuss the true meaning of “the end of history,” why the struggle for recognition—rather than material interest—is the engine of historical progress, and how his thesis holds up 35 years on. Enjoying this discussion? In an event exclusively for readers of American...

Yascha Mounk and Katja Hoyer also discuss what the Islamist attack on Berlin’s Pride parade says about the state of Germany. Katja Hoyer is a visiting Research Fellow at King’s College London and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. Her latest book is Weimar: Life on the Edge of Catastrophe. In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Katja Hoyer discuss why the Weimar comparison is so tempting (and so often misleading), what genuine enthusiasm for democracy in 1919 Germany can teach us about how democracies fail, and whether political fragmentation or economic crisis was the more decisive factor...

Francis Fukuyama discusses the experiences and individuals that shaped him. Francis Fukuyama is the Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at Stanford University. His latest book is In the Realm of the Last Man. He is also the author of the “Frankly Fukuyama” column at Persuasion. We have a treat for you today! To mark the publication of Francis Fukuyama’s memoir In the Realm of the Last Man, we’re launching a multi-part series about his intellectual eras. Here, Francis Fukuyama reflects on his life, from his family’s experience of Japanese-American internment, to surprising family secrets discovered in letters, to the politi...

Yascha Mounk and Claude Steele discuss why diversity can produce anxiety—and how it differs from prejudice.  Claude Steele is Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Stanford University. His latest book is Churn: The Absurd Abyss of Race in America. In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Claude Steele discuss why diversity produces psychological tension even in the absence of explicit prejudice, whether American schools are truly as racially segregated today as they were in the 1950s, and how the fear of being stereotyped affects both minority and majority group members in integrated settings. If you have not yet signed up fo...

Francis Fukuyama, Linda Chavez, and Rachel Janfaza join Yascha Mounk to discuss what a radical liberal agenda might look like today. In this week’s episode of The Good Fight Club, Yascha Mounk, Francis Fukuyama, Linda Chavez, and Rachel Janfaza explore whether Gen Z’s political instincts are genuinely liberal, what a renewed liberalism needs to reclaim from the republican tradition, and how to rebuild a culture of public-spiritedness in an age of anti-establishment politics.  Francis Fukuyama is the Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at Stanford University and the founder of American Purpose. His latest book is Liberalism and Its Discontents. Linda...

Yascha Mounk and John Harpham examine how early modern thinkers justified slavery long before modern theories of race took hold. John Samuel Harpham is Assistant Professor in the Department of Classics and Letters and Wick Cary Assistant Professor at the Institute for the American Constitutional Heritage at the University of Oklahoma. He is the author of The Intellectual Origins of American Slavery.  In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and John Harpham discuss why the standard racial account of slavery’s origins misses the earliest justifications for the practice, how Aristotelian and Roman conceptions of freedom and slavery shaped the intel...

Will you be in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday July 15? I will be interviewing Francis Fukuyama about how liberalism should respond to the postliberal threat. Find out more and get your free ticket here! —Yascha Yascha Mounk and Deirdre McCloskey discuss why ideas, not capital accumulation, made the modern world rich. Deirdre Nansen McCloskey, sometimes described as “the conscience of economics,” holds the Isaiah Berlin Chair in Liberal Thought at the Cato Institute in Washington, D.C. In this week's conversation, Yascha Mounk and Deirdre McCloskey discuss why liberalism drives economic growth, how the gradual erosion of inherited hierarchy unleashed centur...

Yascha Mounk and Arvind Narayanan discuss why the real transformation from AI will take decades rather than months—and what that means for how we should prepare. Arvind Narayanan is a professor of computer science at Princeton University. In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Arvind Narayanan discuss why AI’s transformative impact will unfold over decades rather than months, whether human accountability can survive the rise of AI agents in the workplace, and what the economy will look like once AI has automated every task that can be precisely specified. If you have not yet signed up for our po...

Yascha Mounk and Ivan Krastev examine what the country’s founding ideals mean on its 250th anniversary.  Ivan Krastev is Chairman of the Centre for Liberal Strategies and the Albert Hirschman Permanent Fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM) in Vienna. He is a founding board member of the European Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the advisory and governing boards of several international organizations, including the European Investment Bank, the International Crisis Group, and GLOBSEC. In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Ivan Krastev discuss what the 250th anniversary of the United States reveals about America’s crisi...

Yascha Mounk and Charles Fain Lehman explore how strategic policing drove the decline in violent crime—and why Baltimore was left behind. Charles Fain Lehman is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor at City Journal, where he covers crime, policing, and urban policy. In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Charles Fain Lehman discuss why Baltimore failed to follow the crime declines that transformed other American cities, what the evidence tells us about why strategic policing works, and how focused deterrence breaks cycles of retaliatory violence. Watch the conversation below—the full video is behind the pa...

Matthew Yglesias, Claire Ainsley, and Yascha Mounk debate whether progressives have abandoned the working-class voters they once claimed to represent. Will you be in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday July 15? I will be interviewing Francis Fukuyama about how liberalism should respond to the postliberal threat. Find out more and get your free ticket here! —Yascha In this week’s episode of The Good Fight Club, Matthew Yglesias, Claire Ainsley, and Yascha Mounk examine why center-left parties are losing ground across democracies, whether structural forces or strategic failures are to blame, and what lessons from Canada, Australia, and the UK might offe...

Yascha Mounk and Mark Leonard discuss whether the West can defend itself without America. Mark Leonard is co-founder and director of the European Council on Foreign Relations, the first pan-European think–tank. His latest book is Surviving Chaos: Geopolitics When the Rules Fail. In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Mark Leonard discuss why Europe is behind, the global impact of China’s rise, and whether Europe can learn to defend itself without the United States. If you have not yet signed up for our podcast, please do so now by following this link on your phone. Email: leonora.barcla...

Curtis Yarvin, Minna Salami, and Yascha Mounk discuss whether we can ever be free in a liberal society in a discussion moderated by Roger Hearing. In this special episode of The Good Fight, recorded at the How The Light Gets In Festival, Roger Hearing moderates a debate between Curtis Yarvin, Minna Salami, and Yascha Mounk on whether liberalism can ever be neutral, what a truly free society would look like, and whether liberalism’s heyday is over. Find out more about the Institute of Arts and Ideas—and book tickets to this year’s  How The Light Gets In Festival in Sept...

Yascha Mounk and Sam Moyn also discuss whether some people deserve to have more votes than others. Samuel Moyn is the Kent Professor of Law and History at Yale University. His books include Humane: How the United States Abandoned Peace and Reinvented War, The Last Utopia, and Not Enough: Human Rights in an Unequal World. Cohost of the Digging a Hole podcast, he is a frequent contributor to The New York Times and many other publications. In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Sam Moyn discuss whether a truly fair democracy might weigh different citizens’ votes differently, whether the emph...

Yascha Mounk and David Bau delve into the emerging science of AI interpretability and what we can learn from billions of neural signals. David Bau is Assistant Professor at Northeastern University and Director of the National Deep Inference Fabric, researching the emergent internal mechanisms of deep generative networks in both Natural Language Processing and Computer Vision. In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and David Bau discuss how AI models actually produce their results and reflect about problems, whether the “thinking” process that models show users reveals their authentic thought processes, and how researchers can decode the internal representations of neural...

Yascha Mounk and Rebecca Haw Allensworth examine how professional licensing has become America’s most important—and most restrictive—regulatory institution. If you have not yet signed up for our podcast, please do so now by following this link on your phone. Email: [email protected] Podcast production by Mickey Freeland and Leonora Barclay. Connect with us! Spotify | Apple X: @Yascha_Mounk & @JoinPersuasion YouTube: Yascha Mounk, Persuasion LinkedIn: Persuasion Community Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Yascha Mounk and Steve Stewart-Williams examine what science reveals about biological and psychological differences between men and women. Steve Stewart-Williams is a professor of Psychology at the University of Nottingham’s Malaysia campus and runs The Nature-Nurture-Nietzsche Newsletter. His latest book is A Billion Years of Sex Differences. In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Steve Stewart-Williams discuss why women and men are more similar than is often thought and what the real sex differences between men and women are, from casual sex to career choices. If you have not yet signed up for our podcast, please do so now...

Yascha Mounk and Jeremiah Johnson examine the disconnect between economic data and public sentiment about young Americans’ prospects.  Jeremiah Johnson is the co-founder of the Center for New Liberalism. He hosts the New Liberal Podcast and writes at Infinite Scroll. In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Jeremiah Johnson discuss why young Americans think the economy is worse than it actually is, whether social media has made us permanently pessimistic about institutions, and how elite failures are now exposed in real time. If you have not yet signed up for our podcast, please do so now by following this link...