This week, we’re bringing you a double feature of Politicology+ special previews. 

First, Ron Steslow talks with Mike Madrid about his invitation to debate at the Oxford Union, where he argued the position that Donald Trump has betrayed the conservative movement. 

Mike describes the pageantry and weight of history at one of the world’s most storied debating societies, the case he built around Edmund Burke, the opposing arguments he found most compelling. 

Then, Hagar Chemali and Jay Solomon unpack how Qatar, a tiny Gulf nation with just 350,000 citizens, has built one of the most wide-reaching influence networks in the world.

They start with a scandal involving Israeli columnist Alon Pinkas, who received Qatari-linked payments while writing about Qatar, and use it to trace the larger system behind it.

From there, the conversation widens to Qatar’s strategic investments and lobbying efforts across media, universities, think tanks, diplomacy, and politics.

Then, they break down Qatar’s long game: using money, access, and soft power to position itself as an indispensable player in the Middle East—and reshape Western institutions in the process.

POLITICOLOGY+

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In this episode, Ron talks to  Casey Michel (Director of the Combating Kleptocracy Program at the Human Rights Foundation) about his book Foreign Agents: How American Lobbyists and Lawmakers Threaten Democracy Around the World and how foreign money  influences our politics.

They discuss:

(01:46) The shadow world of foreign lobbying 

(03:45) Ivy Lee and Paul Manafort 

(07:36) The First Amendment and foreign influence 

(10:23) Understanding FARA 

(13:28) How Paul Manafort shaped modern lobbying 

(15:49) Legal loopholes and foreign influence in politics 

(18:11) The case of Viktor Pinchuk

(22:13) The Trump Administration’s impact on foreign lobbying 

(27:19) How Universities and Think tanks are the new frontier of influence 

(33:05) Colorful characters in foreign lobbying 

(41:39) The Biden Family and foreign influence accusations 

(45:27) Contrasting foreign influence on Trump and Clinton 

(49:00) Proposed reforms 

Read Foreign Agents: How American Lobbyists and Lawmakers Threaten Democracy Around the World: https://bit.ly/4giHjBK

Check out the HRF’s Combatting Kleptocracy Program: https://bit.ly/4hAAQTJ

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Host Ron Steslow welcomes Alex Gladstein (Chief Strategy Officer at the Human Rights Foundation) to discuss the significant and often misunderstood role of Bitcoin in protecting human rights and fighting against authoritarians around the world.

Segments to look forward to:

(02:07) Alex’s background in human rights work and why he became interested in Bitcoin 

(16:18) Bitcoin vs other cryptocurrencies

(26:04) Financial privilege

(38:35) Bitcoin in action 

(45:50) Bitcoin creating financial independence for women in Afghanistan 

(56:25)How a human rights activist uses Bitcoin to free hostages 

(59:10) Bitcoin as a tool against monetary colonialism in west Africa 

(1:00:10) The importance  of peer-to-peer transactions 

(1:07:50) How Bitcoin mining can bring electricity to remote areas and support sustainable energy projects 

(1:19:40) Why Bitcoin matters for everyone

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In this episode, Ron talks to Jay Solomon (executive director of investigations at the Program on Extremism at George Washington University and cohost of The Threat podcast) and Hagar Chemali (former spokesperson for the U.S. Mission to the UN and cohost of The Threat podcast) about what the latest war with Iran reveals about the limits of American power.

They explore why allies failed to rally around the United States, how the Strait of Hormuz became a political weapon, and why both ends of the political spectrum increasingly argue that America itself is the problem. Then they trace the radicalization of one young American activist as a window into the forces pulling at the country from the outside. 

Later, Ron, Jay, and Hagar turn to corruption, transactional foreign policy, and where American leadership goes once the old institutions can no longer be rebuilt.

They discuss:

(5:01) What this war revealed about the limits of American power

(6:41) Why allies didn't rally, and the Strait of Hormuz as a toll booth

(8:34) The case that confrontation with Iran was inevitable

(15:21) The left's turn: DSA, the Mamdani primaries, and a hollowing party

(20:26) Populism meets foreign policy

(25:52) The radicalization of Calla Walsh

(35:02) Utopian movements and the dream of a perfectible world

(39:09) The anti-war tradition versus foreign influence

(46:30) The right's turn: JD Vance, Qatar, Pakistan, and the Quincy Institute

(54:40) Transactionalism, corruption, and values that left the room

(1:02:41) Anti-Semitism, legitimate debate, and the new litmus tests

(1:09:47) What Israel does if American support collapses

(1:13:12) The industrial complexes and their competing incentives

(1:21:47) Iran's real motives and the lessons of the pallets of cash

(1:33:49) Is this our Suez Canal moment?

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Mike Madrid (Author of The Latino Century) joins Host Ron Steslow to dive into how populism is consuming both parties and the institutions meant to contain them, from a socialist sweep in New York to a building debt-and-oil crisis.

They begin with New York's primaries, where DSA-aligned candidates won and Zohran Mamdani emerged as a kingmaker—signaling the Democratic party’s “Tea Party moment.” 

From there, they ask whether the party is radicalizing or whether its establishment wing is the last refuge of institutional conservatism

Then they trace an oil crisis to a draining Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the rising cost of servicing the national debt, and the first moves of new Fed chair Kevin Warsh.

Finally, they map the vise closing on the White House before the midterms: a standoff with Iran, a depleting reserve, and a choice between a weak deal and economic shock.

In Politicology+, they discuss Mike’s invitation to the Oxford Union, where he argued the position that Donald Trump has betrayed the conservative movement. 

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In this episode, Ron talks to Grace Pak (founder and cake artist behind Duchess of Cameron, and the artist selected by America 250 to create the official cake for the country's 250th birthday) about how a single dessert became a bipartisan project.

They explore her path from a Columbia neuroscience lab to fine art cake design, and the philosophy of "cake as therapy" that shapes her studio work. Then they turn to the commission itself: how she pitched it, why she landed on the theme American Made, and how children's artwork from all fifty states and the territories became the centerpiece. 

Later, Grace walks through the congressional sessions she's running on Capitol Hill, the donated ingredients sourced from local farms and historic mills, the recipe she rebuilt from the first American cookbook, and the logistics of moving a cake the size of a car.

They discuss:

(0:00) Pitching the birthday cake

(4:07) From a neuroscience lab to a cake studio

(7:37) Fine art cakes and the multisensory experience

(14:33)Personifying America and landing on American Made

(29:48) Bipartisan sessions on Capitol Hill

(37:04) Sourcing the ingredients from local farms

(41:51) Baking like it's 1796: the historic recipe research 

(46:53) A cake the size of a car: logistics, humidity, and delivery

(49:13) Volunteers, nonprofits, and what she'll take away

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Susan Del Percio (crisis communications expert) joins host Ron Steslow to examine what becomes of a populist movement once it captures the institutions it was built to attack.

They begin with the Epstein files and a new book from New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan about the White House’s behind-the-scenes scramble to respond, including a Situation Room damage control meeting, and why the leaked recording of that meeting is more alarming still. 

Next, they widen the lens to populism’s paradox, what happens when a movement built to distrust institutions takes them over and whether these movements need a single figurehead to lead them. 

Then they turn to Maine, where Democrats nominated Graham Platner, a self-described socialist with a Nazi tattoo and allegations from former romantic partners describing him as volatile and demeaning toward women, including one ex-girlfriend’s accusation that he physically intimidated and restrained her.

Finally, they weigh the economics underneath the populist rhetoric, from Platner’s “Epstein class” framing to a leftist turn toward capping growth and redistributing wealth, and why the politics of stagnation is a hard sell. 

In Politicology+, they dig into “jawboning”— the way governments lean on private platforms to suppress speech they can’t legally suppress themselves—and a new bipartisan bill to stop it.

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Billy Binion (reporter at Reason Magazine) joins host Ron Steslow to examine how democratic governments are redefining speech as a harm to be managed and who pays the price when they do.

They begin with the White House's negotiation with Senator Marsha Blackburn, a deal that would trade federal preemption of state AI laws for the Kids Online Safety Act, the No Fakes Act, and federal age verification, and whether we are “one bad deal away from the era of online government censorship.”

Next, Britain's thousands of arrests each year for online posts, its mandate that Apple and Google build content scanning into every device, and Signal's vow to exit the market before that happens.

Then they turn to the killing of Henry Novak, whose dying words police discounted in deference to his killer's fabricated racism accusation.

Finally, they unpack Minnesota's multibillion-dollar benefits fraud—JD Vance's referral of Tim Walz and Keith Ellison, why warnings went unheeded, and the citizen journalist who made the scandal impossible to ignore.

In Politicology+, they discuss the bipartisan push to force UFO disclosure and the legal fight underneath it: whether the government should use eminent domain to seize allegedly recovered non-human technology from private contractors, and whether contractor employees who come forward deserve whistleblower protections.

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Watch Billy’s Documentary about citizen journalist Priscilla Villarreal: https://bit.ly/3S4cuKJ 

Read Konstantin Kissin on Henry Nowak’s murder: https://substack.com/home/post/p-200293621 

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Géraldine Blanche (Intellectual Property Lawyer and PhD candidate in Intellectual Property Law at the Sciences Po Law School in Paris) joins Ron Steslow to discuss the politics of fashion and intellectual property law

(01:26) Fashion in Politics 

(05:36) Iteration, interpretation, and inspiration

(09:47) The need for time in fashion and democracy

(14:24) Environmental impact of fashion

(26:42) The impact of AI on fashion

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Hagar Chemali (Former spokesperson for the U.S. Mission to the UN) is back in studio with host Ron Steslow to map the widening gap between the Trump Administration's declared aims in the Iran war, and the murky reality now shaping the region and the world.

First they discuss the state of the war with Iran and the supposed negotiations in which the two governments are describing opposite realities—and what it would mean for the US to “finish the job.”

Then, they widen the lens to China, tracing the argument that the campaigns against Iran and Venezuela are less about those countries than about choking off Beijing's energy supply.

Finally, they turn to the information domain and the Singham network, a Chinese Communist Party-aligned financing infrastructure that has funneled hundreds of millions of dollars into American left-wing protest infrastructure and the deeper question it raises: how can a liberal society defend itself against foreign information warfare without surrendering the values it is fighting to protect? 

In Politicology+, they discuss Trump's appointment of Bill Pulte—a political enforcer with zero intelligence experience—as interim Director of National Intelligence and why it’s essential to understand what was going on behind the scenes in the lead up to Tusli Gabbard’s resignation. 

POLITICOLOGY+

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Géraldine Blanche (Intellectual Property Lawyer and PhD candidate in Intellectual Property Law at the Sciences Po Law School in Paris) joins Ron Steslow to discuss the politics of fashion and intellectual property law

(01:25) History of laws protecting creativity 

(09:20) What IP lawyers do

(12:50) What led Géraldine to fashion IP

(20:50) Fashion as political

(35:50) How politicians send messages through fashion choices

(41:41) Fashion as a signifier of political groups

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