The Ricochet Podcast

With each passing wild week in the West, it can feel like a tall order to request an unequivocal defense of it. But when there's a meme, there's a way, and if Marco Rubio has taught us anything, it's that he's always up for the job. James, Steve, and Charles celebrate his statesmanship displayed on Wednesday's Acropolis speech; wonder about the wisdom of the proposed live streaming of the firing-squad execution of the Fort Hood shooter; and bristle at Abdul El Sayed's response to being confronted with "dumb questions" about who our friends and enemies are. Despite it all, they find much to look forward to in our living, breathing, loud-talking and fast-walking civilization on a hill.Sounds from this week's open: The late Jim Bakker advises against self-pity; Marco Rubio "testifies to a debt that no lapse of time, no distance of space, can ever extinguish."Closing Music: "Reverie," composed by Robert Schumann, performed by Bruno FreitasBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-ricochet-podcast--5817275/support.

Sometimes life feels like a freak show, and the sane can either take it in or turn away. This week gave us more glimpses of horror than usual, which tends to make folks more amenable to harsh punishments. James, Steve, and Charles consider the death penalty in light of the heinous crime of an unsuccessfully executed Tennessee woman; they wade through the cloudy "Cornell Seven" case and draw important distinctions between moral depravity and criminality; and they look to riots in France and wonder whether la République and la révolution will ever square themselves in l’Hexagone. Plus, Charles has an announcement about Ricochet 5.0! Sound from this week's open: Marine Le Pen responds to the riots in France. And our own John Yoo talks about execution methods on Fox News.Closing music: "Waltz for the Elephants" by Ziv GrinbergBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-ricochet-podcast--5817275/support.

What exactly do the fight to save Piddington in Oxfordshire, the public betrayal of Najya Hannah-Jones by her activist mom, Trump's deal with Greenland, Russia's cultural inferiority complex, and a lesbian bar in Massachusetts have in common? For those of us who haven't worn an N-95 mask in at least five years, the distinctions are clear. Even so, they each command the attention of James, Charles, and Steve, who remind us that praxis rarely makes perfect. Opening sound this week: Nikole Hannah-Jones talks about her child’s school at the University of Iowa School of Journalism and Mass Communication in 2018 and lesbians on TikTok say, “Keep it on the QT.”Closing music: "Revolution" by Willow McKenna via MotionArray.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-ricochet-podcast--5817275/support.

Sometimes our topsy-turvy world is more dizzying than usual—and in those times, it's best to stand on a firm foundation and in the company of dependable people. Rob Long returns to chat with Charles and Steve about controversies of all shapes, sizes and comprehensibility, from Bo French and the "NETTR" movement, a right planning to buy votes with $5,000 checks and a prudish left shocked by the... apolitical appeal of Sidney Sweeney. Sound clips from this week's open: Gavin Newsom hubris on Hollywood and Sydney Sweeney seduces the betting manClosing Music: "Can't Stop," by Wake the Wild via MotionArrayBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-ricochet-podcast--5817275/support.

It's been a quarter century, but the fury and grief have not dimmed in the slightest. James, Steve, and Charles recall that fateful day and reflect on life in America since.Sound from this week's open and close: The Brooklyn Youth Chorus sings the Star Bangled Banner at today's September 11th memorial in New York City.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-ricochet-podcast--5817275/support.