(The full Dish returns on September 4. In the meantime, we are re-airing a handful of the most downloaded episodes from the early years of the Dishcast.)

In addition to the Middle East, another topic that has generated a lot of heat on the Dish since 2020 is the issue of the gender revolution and the TQ+ movement. So here are two perspectives from an early pod — that shows again how we at the Dish have genuinely sought the truth in this area, have listened to all sides, and aired all the arguments. Almost no other place does this anymore. Which is why we’re so grateful for your support and subscriptions.

Buck Angel was a pioneering porn star — the only trans man to ever win Transsexual Performer of the Year at the AVN Awards — and today he’s a sex educator, motivational speaker, and entrepreneur. Helena Kerschner is a young woman who lived as a man on hormone therapy for several years before detransitioning. Buck’s transition saved his life, while Helena’s transition was a bit of a calamity, but they share a resistance to the dogma of the trans activist community and speak forcefully and elegantly against it.

Go here for a polished transcript. Four clips on YouTube are also available: on the cult-like behavior of many trans activists; on the risks of puberty blockers; on the profound effects of testosterone; on how the hormone caused Buck, a former lesbian, to become attracted to men for the first time.

This episode is part of an ongoing series on the lives of transgender people and the debates surrounding one of the most polarizing subjects of today, especially when it comes to kids transitioning. Our previous episodes welcomed three happily transitioned and brilliant women — Dana Beyer, Mara Keisling, Brianna Wu — along with a remarkable trans man, Shannon Minter. All of them pushed back against my views, and we agreed on a lot as well.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit andrewsullivan.substack.com/subscribe

(The full Dish returns on September 4. In the meantime, we are re-airing a handful of the most downloaded episodes from the early years of the Dishcast.)

The Middle East has become one of the most contested topics here at the Dish. So on our summer break, we thought we’d run some classics, popular with Dishheads and ageing well. So here’s the great and humane Yossi Klein Halevi from 2022.

Yossi is an American-born Israeli journalist, and his latest book is Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor. After our pod with Peter Beinart in July 2021, many of you recommended Yossi to balance out the discussion on Israel. I was grateful for the suggestion and truly enjoyed our January 2022 talk — alternately honest and difficult. How can one admire Israel while also being candid about its flaws? How deeply utopian was Zionism in the first place?

Go here for a polished transcript. We also have two clips on YouTube — on the “bizarre, tragic” history of Zionism, and on the intractable nature of the Israeli settlements.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit andrewsullivan.substack.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit andrewsullivan.substack.com

(The full Dish is on vacation until Friday, September 4. This week’s episode was recorded on July 21.)

John is a journalist and political commentator. He’s the founder and president of the Danube Institute, the international editor of Quadrant Magazine, associate editor of the Hungarian Review, former editor of National Review, a fellow of the National Review Institute, and editor-at-large of National Review. He’s the author of several books, including Sleepwalking Into Wokeness.

For two clips of the episode — on falling birth rates and immigration, and comparing Thatcher and Reagan — head to our YouTube page.

Other topics: growing up Catholic in Liverpool; his working-class parents; his dad on a hospital ship for D-Day; stories of John working closely with Thatcher; both of us British editors of US magazines in the early ‘90s; covering The Bell Curve; the Cold War and defeating the Soviets; muscular liberalism; Tony Blair and his tensions with Bush; what it means to be a conservative liberal; cosmopolitanism; the meaning of Englishness; oikophobia; multiculturalism; the World Cup; Trump and the Greenland threat; the Dem threat to democracy via institutions; the post-liberal left; Deneen and the post-liberal right; Trump getting Europe to bolster its own security; Ukraine; the Iran War and the nuclear threat; Trump’s character; the future of the GOP; AI and automation; Brits on the dole; the grooming gangs; Andy Burnham; premarital sex; how women civilize men; and the divorce rates among gays, lesbians, and straights.

Browse the Dishcast archive for an episode you might enjoy. Coming up: Azam Ahmed on terrifying new drugs, Emily Eakin on postmodernism, and Arianna Huffington on anything but politics. Please send any guest recs, dissents, and other comments to [email protected].

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit andrewsullivan.substack.com

Ross is a journalist and novelist. He’s the editor-in-chief of The Metropolitan Review, and a columnist for the Nation and UnHerd. He’s the author of six books, including his new novel, Colossus. A new non-fiction book, about the rise of Zohran Mamdani, is coming soon. Find much more of his writing on his substack, “Political Currents.”

For two clips of the episode — on whether the DSA is truly dangerous, and the US elites’ obsession with Israel — head to our YouTube page.

Other topics: growing up Jewish in diverse Bay Ridge, BK; parents both federal workers; his dad working at the WTC on 9/11; Ross’ cynicism over Obama’s rise; coming of age in the Great Recession; the DNC screwing over Bernie in ‘16; Ross running for the state senate with Mamdani as his manager; identifying as “left-populist, woke-skeptical”; engaging and persuading ideological rivals; universal health care; questioning Covid policies; US aid to Israel; the horrors of Oct 7; the war in Gaza and the civilian toll; no pro-Palestine speakers at the ‘24 Dem convention; the decentralized DSA; calls to abolish prisons and the Senate; Jon Chait; AOC’s move to the center; border security; Trump’s norm-busting; Buckley and the Birchers; trans athletes; the + in LGBTQ+; corporations ditching DEI; the Arday scandal; The Odyssey; Jon Ossoff; the surprising surge of El-Sayed; and debating whether wokeness is dead.

Browse the Dishcast archive for an episode you might enjoy. Coming up: John O’Sullivan on conservatism, Emily Eakin on postmodernism, Azam Ahmed on terrifying new drugs, and Arianna Huffington on anything but politics. Please send any guest recs, dissents, and other comments to [email protected].

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit andrewsullivan.substack.com

Megan is an old friend, a journalist, and an OG blogger — starting way back in 2001. We were bloggers at The Atlantic together, and she went on to write for Newsweek, The Daily Beast, and Bloomberg View. She’s now a WaPo columnist, a contributing writer at The Dispatch, and a co-host of the podcasts “Reasonably Optimistic” and “Central Air.” She’s also the author of The Up Side of Down: Why Failing Well Is the Key to Success.

For two clips of the episode — on the appeal of socialism to those under 30, and the secrecy of ailing politicians — head to our YouTube page.

Other topics: growing up on the UWS; her prof dad meeting her mom while she TA’d for him; Frank Gannett in her family; peaking at 6’2’’ in 7th grade; an eating disorder to try to counter her height; the heightism of women on dating apps; the coziness of elites in DC; Fauci worship by the Dems; his coziness with Jake Tapper and Hollywood celebs; his diary; Fauci’s lie over masks; masks at the Floyd protests; vaccine mandates; lab leak; Mitch McConnell MIA; Rep. Granger in memory care; Rep. Kean’s depression; Biden’s infirmity; age limits on the presidency; FDR’s overreach; post-Nixon reforms; the constitutional crisis over the Iran War; dwindling Tomahawks; Lindsey Graham’s closeness with Bibi; 9/11 and Islamofascism; nuclear proliferation and the Saudis; whether Vance or Rubio would make a better successor to Trump; Rubio’s designs on Cuba; Vance’s populism and lecturing the Pope; presentism; Jon Ossoff; Rahm Emanuel; the Stonewall myth; misusing rape stats and the UVA hoax; critical theory; the DSA, and its over-educated, downwardly mobile youth.

Browse the Dishcast archive for an episode you might enjoy. Coming up: Ross Barkan on the DSA and Mamdani, John O’Sullivan on conservatism, Emily Eakin on postmodernism, Arianna Huffington on AI, and Azam Ahmed on terrifying new drugs. Please send any guest recs, dissents, and other comments to [email protected].

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit andrewsullivan.substack.com

Robert P. George is a legal scholar and political philosopher. At Princetown, he’s the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and the director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions. He’s also a senior fellow at both the American Enterprise Institute and the Witherspoon Institute, which he co-founded. His many books include Making Men Moral and In Defense of Natural Law. We spent many years sparring in print over marriage, gays, and Catholicism.

For two clips of the episode — on disobeying unjust laws, and the supposed harms of gay marriage — head to our YouTube page.

Other topics: his dad’s harrowing service in WWII; Robby growing up in Appalachia with his grandfathers in the coal mines; first in his family to go to college; stories of both of us being at Oxford at the same time; the origins of bluegrass; Robert Byrd’s legacy; Plato’s Gorgias; Aristotle and friendship; Robby’s close friendship with Cornel West; Montaigne; Aquinas; Vatican II; Eastern Orthodox liturgy; neo-scholasticism; Darwin’s survival of the fittest; Nietzsche; loving one’s enemy as uniquely Christian; just law and unjust law; MLK’s letter from a Birmingham jail; Hume; Oakeshott; natural law theorists vs legal positivists; the AIDS crisis; Christian marriage vs civil marriage; divorce; the Manhattan Declaration; Henry VIII’s annulments; the sexual habits of Clinton and Trump; illiberalism on the left and right; and the beached squids of Ptown.

Browse the Dishcast archive for an episode you might enjoy. Coming up: Ross Barkan on the DSA and Mamdani, John O’Sullivan on conservatism, Azam Ahmed on terrifying new drugs, and Megan McArdle on pretty much anything. Please send any guest recs, dissents, and other comments to [email protected].

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit andrewsullivan.substack.com

David is a historian and perhaps the greatest living film critic. He’s the author of more than 20 books, including biographies of David O. Selznick and Orson Welles, and The New Biographical Dictionary of Film. His new book is called A Sudden Flicker of Light: A Revisionist History of Movies. It’s a wonderful extended rant in some ways, a love letter and a searing indictment of cinema. I was a little intimidated talking with him, but it was a lot of fun.

For two clips of the episode — on the uptight genius of Hitchcock, and the authoritarian nature of cinema — head to our YouTube page.

Other topics: born in South London in 1941 and his home damaged by the Blitz; his father leaving when he was born; his boyish mix of fear and delight at the cinema; the shower scene in Psycho; how film denies you the chance to stop and think; the directors who relish white space (e.g. PT Anderson); Birth of a Nation and Triumph of the Will; newsreels before TV; real nuke explosions on screen; Oppenheimer; from communal theater viewing to solo smartphone viewing; Game of Thrones and the insane production value of TV these days; Breaking Bad; Trump the ultimate product of TV; his telegenic Cabinet; the danger of deepfakes; Paul Schrader’s First Reformed; the audience’s love of car crashes and villains; Godfather I and II; contrasting Hitchcock and Malick; Tree of Life; nature in Thin Red Line; Fincher’s Seven; Robert Bresson’s religious films; Scorsese’s Silence and Last Temptation of Christ; the vulgarity of Spielberg (e.g. the red dress in Schindler’s List); ep. 3 of Adolescence; and Nolan’s new Odyssey.

Browse the Dishcast archive for an episode you might enjoy. Coming up: John O’Sullivan on conservatism, Azam Ahmed on terrifying new drugs, Robby George on natural law, and Megan McArdle on pretty much anything. Please send any guest recs, dissents, and other comments to [email protected].

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit andrewsullivan.substack.com

Stephen is a psychoanalyst and author. He used to teach clinical technique at the Institute of Psychoanalysis, and also psychoanalytic theory at University College London. He’s the author of The Examined Life: How We Lose and Find Ourselves, and his latest book is Love’s Labor: How We Break and Make the Bonds of Love.

For two clips of the episode — on what psychoanalysis is really for, and the benefits of friendship vs romantic love — head to our YouTube page.

Other topics: born in Gary, Indiana; his birth defect requiring many surgeries; his Jewish family emigrating from Eastern Europe; college at Berkeley and Oxford; arrested at the Chicago Dem convention; befriending Anna Freud; Sigmund and his studies in hysteria; loneliness in adolescence; how falling in love is very different than love; my own psychoanalyst of 25 years; trauma from my childhood; the losses that marriage entails; breakthroughs after breakdowns; detaching from the idea of yourself; legal marriages vs psychological ones; falling back into trauma because it’s familiar; the power of love’s precarity; victimology; Philip Roth’s “the ecstasy of sanctimony”; lessons from Othello; surrender vs submission; Esther Perel’s Mating in Captivity; seeking traits in a partner that mirror a dysfunctional parent; how sex is different for men and women; gay promiscuity; male-male marriages lasting the longest; HIV and the threat of deportation; dating with HIV in the ‘90s; and how to be a better listener.

Browse the Dishcast archive for an episode you might enjoy. Coming up: David Thomson on cinema in US history and culture, John O’Sullivan on conservatism, Robby George on natural law, and Megan McArdle on pretty much anything. Please send any guest recs, dissents, and other comments to [email protected].

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit andrewsullivan.substack.com

John is a political philosopher. He retired from academia in 2007 as Professor of European Thought at the London School of Economics, and he’s now a regular contributor and lead reviewer at the New Statesman. He’s the author of two dozen books, and the most recent is The New Leviathans: Thoughts After Liberalism, which we discussed on the Dishcast last year (after first having him on the pod in 2023).

For two clips of the episode — on what the Founders would think of the 250th, and sizing up the next prime minister of the UK — head to our YouTube page.

Other topics: the deadly heatwave in Europe and its lack of AC; the Putin-esque corruption of Trump; the Joker-esque nature of US politics; civic exhaustion; our broken trust with the rest of the world; losing the Iran War; the stranglehold of Hormuz; fears over the Strait of Malacca; the JCPOA; Fukuyama; edge-lording and DOGE; the embarrassment of Trump’s 250; his plunge in the polls; the socialist wins in NYC; DEI collectivism; Vance’s Catholicism; Rubio’s future; Tucker 2028; the collapse of free speech in higher ed; Keir’s departure; Andy Burnham’s rise; his neo-Blairite populism; Farage and Reform; Restore Britain; Kemi Badenoch; Scott Wiener hounded by transqueers; masks used by ICE and activists; the surge of antisemitism on the left and right; the Le Pen and Bardella factions; AfD; the EU becoming more right-wing; mass migration and Boris; the Swedish crackdown; Islamism; Meloni becoming a centrist; Putin and Ukraine; the drone revolution and Taiwan; the hope of Ossoff; and the World Cup.

Browse the Dishcast archive for an episode you might enjoy. Coming up: Stephen Grosz on the struggles of love, David Thomson on cinema in American history and culture, John O’Sullivan on conservatism, Robby George on natural law, and Megan McArdle on pretty much anything. Please send any guest recs, dissents, and other comments to [email protected].

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit andrewsullivan.substack.com

Bob is a journalist and the author of many books, including The Moral Animal, Nonzero, The Evolution of God, and Why Buddhism Is True. He’s written for countless magazines, including The New Republic, where he co-wrote the TRB column with Mickey Kaus. They also co-founded Bloggingheads TV, and Bob taught in the psych department at Penn and the religion department at Princeton. Today you can find him on Substack at the NonZero Newsletter, and his new book is The God Test: Artificial Intelligence and Our Coming Cosmic Reckoning.

For two clips of the episode — how AI flatters its users, and the rapidly converging threats from AI — head to our YouTube page.

Other topics: Bob’s reporting on AI in the early 1980s; Geoffrey Hinton — “the godfather of AI” — warning us about AI; “doomer-in-chief” Eliezer Yudkowsky; Bob’s own evolution on AI; the Tree of Knowledge; how AI is a more challenging global issue than nukes; the need for international regulation; the noosphere, our “global brain” — and its author, the visionary Christian, Teilhard de Chardin; neural networks; ChatGPT; Musk and self-driving cars; BF Skinner; philosopher John Searle; olfactory AI; virtual reality; AI designing drugs to induce spirituality; Anthropic’s Dario Amodei; Sam Altman calling Trump an NPC; AI stoking conspiracies; Leo’s encyclical; cognitive empathy; the Iran War; China vs Taiwan; kids befriending AI agents; Hal in 2001; the movie Her; silicon neurons that evolve; AI threatening the human need to be needed; job losses; scams; electoral risks; populism and tribalism; how is AI a continuation of human evolution; and the many positive potentials of AI.

Browse the Dishcast archive for an episode you might enjoy. Coming up: John Gray on Trump’s new world, Stephen Grosz on the struggles of love, David Thomson on cinema history, John O’Sullivan on conservatism, Robby George on all our disagreements, and Megan McArdle on pretty much anything. Please send any guest recs, dissents, and other comments to [email protected].

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit andrewsullivan.substack.com

Tiffany is a cultural historian, writer, and broadcaster. She has been a critic and presenter on BBC Radio 4 and now serves as a trustee of the British Museum. Her latest book is Strangers and Intimates: The Rise and Fall of Private Life. It’s a fascinating book of history and political insight: how privacy is deeply connected to liberal values, and why its abeyance matters.

For two clips of the episode — on the first sexual revolution in England, and when privacy strengthened patriarchy — head to our YouTube page.

Other topics: growing up in an Anglo-American household; losing and keeping accents; privacy a rare thing in history; the Greeks and Romans; the human tendency to gossip; the Reformation and private faith; Thomas More against Martin Luther; Cromwell banning Christmas; Hobbes and the right of conscience; Locke and natural rights; Marie Antoinette; Rousseau and self-creation; spying; the emergence of the back stairs; the Romantics and subjectivity; Wollstonecraft and women’s equality; the Sodomites’ Walk; the rise of coffee shops; John Stuart Mill; child abuse; marital rape; Betty Friedan; defending homosexuality based on privacy; outings; Lewinsky and the Starr Report; consent and policing sex; hook-up culture on campus; Obama’s private life; Hunter’s laptop; reality TV and Trump; Harry and Meghan’s worldwide privacy tour; OnlyFans; and a defense of hypocrisy.

Browse the Dishcast archive for an episode you might enjoy. Coming up: Bob Wright on the evolutionary force of AI, John Gray on Trump’s new world, Stephen Grosz on the struggles of love, David Thomson on cinema history, John O’Sullivan on conservatism, Robby George on all our disagreements, and Megan McArdle on everything. Please send any guest recs, dissents, and other comments to [email protected].