William K. Reilly has achieved a consequential career in environmental leadership. He has served four presidents in high positions and sensitive assignments requiring notable judgment and disciplined discretion.  In this episode of the Serve to Lead Podcast, Reilly discusses the past, present and promise of environmental leadership in the United States and globally. He […]

  Frank DiStefano is a Washington, D.C.-based writer who focuses on the history and future of United States politics. He is the author of The Next Realignment: Why America’s Parties Are Crumbling and What Happens Next. The book has received praise from leaders and experts across the political spectrum.   ​ On this episode of the Serve […]

  Jennifer Hernandez is a widely respected practitioner and thought-leader in environmental and land-use law. In this episode of the Serve to Lead Podcast, she discusses her provocative, influential new article, published by the Breakthrough Institute: “Green Jim Crow: How California’s Climate Policies Undermine Civil Rights and Racial Equity.”  She explains how environmental regulation is […]

  Nationalism is back in the news. 2016 was a hinge moment. Brexit in the United Kingdom, combined with the Trump and Sanders insurgencies in the United States, focused attention on populism and evolving notions of national identity.   What does nationalism mean in our time? Is American nationalism a distinct variant? Is there a meaningful […]

Richard Nixon is often recalled as a historic foreign policy president, but his consequential domestic policy initiatives have been obscured amid the wreckage of the Watergate scandals. In fact, Nixon’s policies—from health care to welfare to the environment—reverberate through subsequent administrations, into the present day.    In this episode of the Serve to Lead Podcast, […]

In a turbulent, populist moment across the world, the costs and benefits of elites and meritocracy are very much contested. In this episode of the Serve to Lead Podcast, Aaron Renn discusses the American meritocracy and its discontents. Renn recently penned a provocative article relating to the customs and decline of the twentieth-century WASP (White […]

Stephen Wertheim is a historian of the United States in the world. He is the director of the Quincy Institute’s Grand Strategy program, and a Research Scholar at the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia University. He is the author of an influential new book, Tomorrow the World: The Birth of U.S. […]

Steven B. Smith, the Alfred Cowles Professor of Political Science at Yale University, has written an important new book: Reclaiming Patriotism in an Age of Extremes. In this episode of the Serve to Lead Podcast, Smith discusses why patriotism matters and why it must be reclaimed from the political left and right who have politicized it. […]

Richard Norton Smith is a presidential historian, biographer, essayist, and former leader of presidential libraries. He is a frequent commentator on C-SPAN and for many years appeared on the Lehrer Report on PBS. In this episode of the Serve to Lead podcast, Smith discusses the art and craft of history, and explores the changes of […]

Woodrow Wilson is recalled as one of America’s most consequential presidents. His two-term administration constitutes a keystone of the modern era of American government. John M. Cooper, professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has dedicated his career to illuminating Wilson and his era. Cooper is perhaps best known to the public as the author […]

Winston Churchill was undeniably one of the great leaders of history—was he a servant leader? In a new episode of the Serve to Lead podcast, Howard Behar, former president of Starbucks Coffee Company International, explores the Churchill conundrum and other aspects of servant leadership. Behar speaks with unique authority, pioneering the practice of servant leadership […]