Conversations with Bill Kristol Podcast
1) Doug Sosnik on What to Expect in 2026—and Why 2028 Will Be Different
“Whatever happens in 2026, I think no one should take any interpretation of that as a precursor to what’s going to happen in 2028.” So argues Doug Sosnik, former political director for Bill Clinton a...Show More
2) Aaron Reichlin-Melnick: Trump’s Mass Deportation Regime
“The US government wants to arrest, detain, and deport one in every 24 people in the country—4% of the US population. That cannot be done without fundamentally transforming who we are as a people and ...Show More
3) Francis Fukuyama on Trump’s Bullying and Europe’s Response
“The Europeans have been in this alliance [NATO] to protect themselves, largely from Russia and other aggressors. And now it has an aggressor within the gates, so to speak. And that’s quite an extraor...Show More
4) Ron Brownstein on What’s Ahead in 2026—and in 2028
Where do things stand in American politics as we head into a midterm election year? To discuss these questions we are joined again by Ron Brownstein, a Bloomberg Opinion columnist and senior CNN pol...Show More
5) Robert Kagan on Trump’s Foreign Policy and the New World Disorder
“We take for granted the degree of peace that we’ve enjoyed over the past eight plus decades. And we think that’s the norm. The norm is actually a lot more like what the world looked like before 1945....Show More
6) Steve Hayes on the Life and Legacy of Dick Cheney
Dick Cheney (1941-2025) is widely regarded as one of the most consequential vice presidents in American history. To discus his life and legacy, we are joined by Steve Hayes, CEO and editor of The Di...Show More
7) Jonathan Karl on Trump’s Retribution Presidency
How has the second Trump presidency differed from the first? How did Trump’s experiences during his time out of office and on the campaign trail in 2024—including his trial in New York and the assassi...Show More
8) Timothy Snyder on the Trump Administration at Home, and What’s at Stake in Ukraine
Where do things stand in the United States nine months into the second Trump administration? Where do things stand in Ukraine, and what are the implications of the war for the future of liberal democr...Show More
Timothy Snyder on the Trump Administration at Home, and What’s at Stake in Ukraine
53:59 | Oct 17th, 2025
9) James Carville on Politics Today, 2026, and 2028
“It’s hard for me to imagine a voter that votes in 2026 that doesn’t have Trump on their mind.” According to veteran Democratic strategist James Carville, Trump "keeps jacking the stakes up, every da...Show More
10) Aaron Friedberg on the Trump Administration's Surprising China Policy
The second Trump administration’s approach to China so far differs from the more consistently hawkish posture of the first term. To analyze the increasingly dangerous state of our geopolitical situa...Show More