Common Ground

This week, we hear from Akhil Reed Amar, Sterling Professor of Law at Yale University and the author of The Constitution Today: Timeless Lessons for the Issues of our Era. Amar discusses the origins and importance of the Constitution: when it was written, why it was written, why he calls it the “political equivalent of the Big Bang.” Amar also talks about the important constitutional debates raging today, and frequently offers his take on not yet then president-elect Donald Trump.

Today we hear from Sarah Leonard, senior editor at The Nation and co-editor of The Future We Want: Radical Ideas for the New Century. Leonard provides her take on this year’s election. She also describes, and weighs in on, a variety of the debates that are going on among Democrats and on the left in the wake of Trump’s victory.

In this episode, we hear from Mark Carnes, Professor of History at Barnard College and the creator of “Reacting to the Past,” a new style of teaching in college classrooms that immerses students in the events and debates that shaped the past. This pedagogical method aims not just to help students learn about the past, but to deepen their capacity for historical, political, and cultural empathy.

Today, we hear from Gleaves Whitney, director of the Hauenstein Center at Grand Valley State University and producer of this podcast. Gleaves discusses the results of the presidential election, and considers what a Trump presidency might mean, what it could look like, and how the Democratic and Republican parties will both have to change significantly to adjust to the new political and cultural landscape.

Today, we hear from Professor Hendershot about her recent book on William F Buckley’s famous political talk show Firing Line, which ran from 1966 through 1999 and thus chronicled the massive political and cultural changes in America from the 60s onward. The book is called Open to Debate: How William F Buckley Put Liberal America on the Firing Line, and we talk about it. We also discuss the effect of the media on the political process today, and how it might be improved.

In this episode we hear from Martha Jones, professor of history and of Afroamerican and African studies at the university of Michigan, as well as director of the Michigan Law Program in Race, Law, and History. Professor Jones discusses a book she recently co-edited, Toward an Intellectual History of Black Women. We also explore the significance of that work in light of the current political situation in America, especially given the recent election of Donald Trump to the presidency. This interview was recorded in October, 2016.

In this episode, Bhaskar Sunkara, founding editor and publisher of Jacobin Magazine, talks about the short history of his publication and how it has thus far tried to differentiate itself from other magazines of liberal-left opinion. He also discusses the current election and explores the possible reasons for, and implications of, the rise of Sanders on the left and Trump on the right. Finally, Sunkara considers the near future of the American left. This interview was recorded on October 27, 2016.

Most Americas seem to agree that our country is facing a kind of political and ideological realignment. This state of affairs has conservatives and progressives looking to the future, but also to the past—to the thinkers and activists both left and right who shaped their respective traditions. An important question to ask is whether we can, or should, resurrect the ideas of the past and apply them today? But then, we should also ask whether we can learn from the mistakes and the faults of past thinkers too. Gleaves Whitney, director of the Hauenstein Center, asks these questions about a major conservative thinker under whom he studied as a graduate student in history at the University of Michigan: the intellectual historian Stephen Tonsor. Even in the 80s, Tonsor seemed out of place as a conservative intellectual in a mostly liberal public university. But he found community among conservative thinkers of the day: William F Buckley and Russel Kirk, for instance. Gleaves explores Tonsor’s effect on American co

In the 1950s, American conservatives felt like they were on the ropes: faced with a liberal consensus at home and radical ideologies abroad, conservatives were fractured, broken, and, they thought, largely voiceless. According to historian Bradley J. Birzer, it took the publication of one book, Russell Kirk’s The Conservative Mind, to help change the tide. Hailed by political thinkers and writers on the right, such as William F. Buckley, the book set out certain first principles for postwar conservatives, chief among them belief in a transcendent order, trust in the rule of law and in the link between property and freedom, and, importantly, a conviction that change may not always be good. Kirk was a major thinker in the postwar era, but Birzer points out, his influence has waned. Anyone looking for prescriptions about the best tax policy, or defenses of someone like Trump, won’t find them in Kirk. Birzer discusses what this might mean for the future of the American Right, and whether conservatives in the com

Andrew Hartman, author of A War for the Soul of America: A History of the Culture Wars, joined us on October 6, 2016 to discuss the major political shifts of the 60s, the culture wars of the 80s, and the related political and cultural collisions today. We talk about debates over race, gender, religion, economics, and higher education. We also consider what the candidacies of Trump and Clinton might mean for the near-future of American culture and politics, and whether the rise of Sanders points to a split in the Democratic party that will have consequences well beyond this election season.

In this October 5, 2016 interview with Matthew Continetti, editor-in-chief of the Washington Free Beacon, Mr. Continetti offers perspective on conservative journalism and commentary. He also provides us his take on the current election and describes what he thinks a Clinton presidency or a Trump presidency might mean for the nation.

Today we hear an interview from February, 2016 with H.W. Brands about the life and legacy of Ronald Reagan. We also discuss Brands’ early takes on the 2016 presidential race, and discuss how he has managed to author so many award-winning books, and still find time, on the side, to write an entire history of the US, in haikus, on Twitter.

In this special episode of the Common Ground podcast, we’ll play for you a dialogue held at Grand Valley State University on September 8th, 2016, between two internationally renowned interfaith leaders: Abdullah Antepli, imam and Chief Representative of Muslim Affairs at Duke University, and Donniel Hartman, orthodox rabbi, President of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem and author of Putting God Second: How to Save Religion from Itself. Hosted collaboratively by the Hauenstein Center and the Kaufman Interfaith Institute, the dialogue took up one of the most challenging questions facing the international community: might Israelis and Palestinians be able to find sufficient common ground to resolve their decades-old conflict? Antepli and Hartman pursue this question honestly, and admit some of their reservations. At least, they call attention to the many obstacles that need to be surmounted before either side could even glimpse some possible common ground and common purpose. Nevertheless, the conversati

In today’s episode we hear a September 6, 2016 interview with Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, assistant professor of History at the New School, podcast host, wellness expert, and the author of Classroom Wars: Language, Sex, and the Making of Modern Political Culture. Natalia talks about debates over education in America, and how they can shed light on our country’s shifting political landscape from the 1960s to the present.

Today’s episode features an August, 2016 interview with Jonathan White, an internationally recognized terrorism and criminal justice expert and the executive director of the Homeland Defense Initiative at Grand Valley State University. Dr. White discusses the recent terrorist attacks in Nice and Orlando, as well as what he thinks most Americans don’t understand about the nature of modern terrorism. This special episode of the Common Ground podcast commemorates September 11, 2001.

Today's episode concludes our "Back to School" series and features two perspectives on issues faced by higher education today. Our interview with Alan Charles Kors, recorded on March 16, 2016, explores issues of free speech and academic freedom. Our interview with Louis Menand, recorded on December 11, 2016, focuses on issues of specialization and graduate studies.

This interview, recorded on May 16, 2016, features Eva Brann, tutor and former dean at St. John's College. We look at the model of St. John's College as a possible alternative to address issues in higher education today, and we also hear details of Ms. Brann's personal philosophy and history.

This interview with the Midwestern History Association's Jon Lauck, recorded on June 1st, 2016, explores the often overlooked field of Midwestern history and the movement that seeks to revive it.

This episode is going to be just a bit different from the others. We’re going to play for you a series of short presentations by three historians--Raymond Haberski, Paul Murphy, and Natalia Mehlman Petrzela. These historians were on a panel at an April 16, 2016 summit, hosted by the Hauenstein Center, that entertained the possibility of common ground between progressives and conservatives, as we do. These three presentations were perfect for that summit—as well as for this podcast—because they took up certain relatively recent cultural debates that, in some cases, highlight the value of common ground between the left and right, but in others, reveal how such common ground might not always be possible or even valuable. For instance, in the first presentation, Raymond Haberski discusses what he calls America’s “civil religion of war,” and examines whether common ground between liberal and conservatives about war—particularly the Iraq War—is or has been all that valuable. Following that, Paul Murphy talks a

In today’s episode, we hear a June 29, 2016 interview with Daniel Oppenheimer, a writer and documentarian, and the author of Exit Right: The People Who Left the Left and Shaped the American Century. In his book, Daniel Oppenheimer writes about the political conversions of six figures whose names might be familiar—Whitaker Chambers, James Burnham, Ronald Reagan, Norman Podhoretz, David Horowitz, and Christopher Hitchens. Though each of these figures defected from the left in one if not all ways, their stories are certainly not identical: whereas Chambers and Burnham were both committed Marxists at one point, Reagan was never really of full-fledged lefty. And Hitchens, though a supporter of the Iraq War and a friend of neoconservatives, always bristled at the accusation that he was in any way on the Right. Still, despite the differences between these figures, studying their respective apostasies can reveal something valuable and instructive about the changing political landscapes of the 20th century. And in a