The White House is doubling down on justifying its extra-judicial actions around Abrego Garcia by trying to incriminate him in the court of public opinion. But the government still can't pluck people off an American street and send them to a concentration camp without due process. Plus, Judge Boasberg is not letting Stephen Miller off the hook for defying his order to turn the Salvadoran-bound planes around. And while the administration tries to stir up outrage about one immigrant's marital problems, they admiringly describe the evil, blood-thirsty Vladimir Putin as a good guy. Ben Wittes joins Tim Miller.
On this episode of "The Federalist Radio Hour," former federal prosecutor John O'Connor joins Federalist Senior Elections Correspondent Matt Kittle to break down the showdown over the deportation of El Salvador native Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, explain whether illegal aliens have due process rights, and analyze how activist judges' enabling of "court shopping" hurts the judicial system.
If you care about combating the corrupt media that continue to inflict devastating damage, please give a gift to help The Federalist do the real journalism America needs.
A two-hander today as Abe Greenwald and I delve Talmudically into the New York Times story on how Donald Trump decided not to participate in an Israeli strike on Iran and why. Give a listen.
Introducing the newest thing in higher (and we really mean higher — like look UP) education: The Flying Pig Academy. A dream of The Village Square (with support from Florida Humanities) for many years, it’s finally aloft. The division in American society is big and seems impossible at times to address.
The bigger, gnarlier and more all-encompassing a conflict grows, the more we naturally rush right to its epicenter to try to break it up. It demands so much attention it’s hard to look away. But we’re going to give you our hottest tip for handling the most difficult conflicts — do it indirectly. Named by our very own Bill Mattox (this episode's guest), who may or may not know a lot about a carom shot in billiards (hitting a ball to hit another ball into the pocket), but he certainly knows a lot about human beings.
The Village Square is a proud member of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what's broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.
Featured in this episode: A reference to the Heineken Worlds Apart ad, which is well worth a watch.
Funding for this podcast was provided through a grant from Florida Humanities with funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of Florida Humanities or the National Endowment for the Humanities.
You may have noticed on this show that Bari Weiss is always asking her guests, “Do you believe in God?,” “What is your favorite biblical character?,” or “Do we need a religious revival?”
And you might be wondering why she keeps knocking on this door?
It’s partly because we’re curious about people’s metaphysical beliefs. But it’s also because we think something profound has gotten lost in our society, as we’ve lost traditional religion.
You can argue that we are starting to see the beginnings of a religious revival, and even if you don’t believe in God, many think that the practice of religion—keeping Shabbat, going to church—has clear benefits like a community or a moral code. Religion, in other words, is a good program.
Our guest today, Ross Douthat, has a different perspective. Ross makes the case that we should be more religious—not in order to cure society’s many ills—but because it is the best way—the most accurate way—to understand the world around us. Belief in God, he says, is entirely rational.
Ross is a best-selling author, a columnist at The New York Times, and the host of a new podcast called Interesting Times. His newest book is Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious. The release is perfectly timed to our strange moment of “plagues, populism, psychedelic encounters, and AI voices in the air,” as Ross writes.
Ross says it’s not enough to argue that religion is simply good for society, or that we must be religious to sustain our civilization. Ross argues that it’s time for people to actually become religious. Bari presses him about this distinction.
And this week, as billions of Christians gather for Holy Week—the sacred days leading up to, and including, Easter—we are wondering if this return that Ross suggests is even possible. And if yes, will it fix our problems?
Today on Honestly, Bari sits down with Ross to understand why he thinks belief in God is the most logical way to understand our world, how he rationalizes and justifies faith, and how he thinks readers can move from doubt to belief.
Go to fastgrowingtrees.com/Honestly and use the code HONESTLY at checkout to get 15% off your first order.
For this Easter episode, we’re doing the journalism few dare attempt: taste-testing every bizarre Peeps flavor we could find. From classic yellow to Dr. Pepper (why?), we rank them all so you don’t ruin your holiday. Tune in!
In this episode, Ericka Andersen joins Rusty Reno at The Editor’s Desk to talk about her recent essay, “Who Owns the Embryos?” from the April 2025 issue of the magazine.
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Paris Marx is doing a solo episode this week to bring together some important issues that have been on his mind lately. This is a recording of a talk Paris gave in Auckland, New Zealand on how Silicon Valley’s alliance with Donald Trump forces us to reassess the politics of the internet and challenge our collective dependence on US tech as it embraces the project of American empire.
Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.
The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham.
Also mentioned in this episode:
Paris co-wrote a white paper on digital sovereignty and has written about the need to challenge US tech in response to Silicon Valley’s alliance with Trump.
