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The Vital Center

The Niskanen Center

Both the Republican and Democratic parties are struggling to defend the political center against illiberal extremes. America must put forward policies that can reverse our political and governmental dysfunction, advance the social welfare of all citizens, combat climate change, and confront the other forces that threaten our common interests.

The podcast focuses on current politics seen in the context of our nation’s history and the personal biographies of the participants. It will highlight the policy initiatives of non-partisan think tanks and institutions, while drawing upon current academic scholarship and political literature from years past — including Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.’s 1949 classic “The Vital Center.”

We welcome your thoughts on this episode and the podcast as a whole. Please send feedback or suggestions to vitalcenter@niskanencenter.org

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20 episodes
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Avg 1 hr 11 min
English

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#97
August 17 · 1 hr 2 min
Richard Nixon's elusive totality, with Lee Huebner
Huebner remembers episodes from his time in the White House, describes the conflicts between the moderate and conservative impulses of the administration, and assesses Nixon's key strengths as a speechmaker. He shares his insights into what it takes to be a successful presidential speechwriter, and reflects on how history will remember Nixon, for good and ill.
#96
July 6 · 1 hr 6 min
Can Democrats win back the working class, with Joan Williams
As Joan Williams observes in her recent book Outclassed: How the Left Lost the Working Class and How to Win Them Back, as recently as 2010 Democrats still represented a majority of working-class districts. But in the decades since, the two parties have traded their political bases, with Democrats increasingly becoming the party of the college-educated professional classes; the percentage of Democrats who are college grads almost doubled between 1996 and 2018.
#95
April 13 · 1 hr 14 min
Recovering the lost genius of liberalism, with Adrian Wooldridge
Wooldridge recounts the history of liberalism and the difficulties it has encountered in addressing contemporary problems.
#94
March 26 · 1 hr 5 min
Reforming our way to dynamism, with Philip K. Howard
Howard offers qualified approval of the Abundance movement that he in some ways anticipated by decades.
#93
February 25 · 1 hr 1 min
Rethinking feminism and dependence, with Leah Libresco Sargeant
Sargeant argues that liberal feminism — and American culture more generally — champions an ideal of freedom based in autonomy that is poorly suited to human beings as they are. Instead, she advocates for a culture that sees dignity in mutual dependence.
#92
February 5 · 1 hr 3 min
From material abundance to mass flourishing, with Brink Lindsey
Lindsey describes the “triple crisis of capitalism” that has brought material prosperity but also social disintegration, sputtering dynamism, and dysfunctional politics.
#91
January 21 · 1 hr 25 min
Reevaluating the New Liberals, with Henry Tonks
Tonks argues that while New Liberals didn’t correctly diagnose the changes to the economy in all of its particulars, their policy vision retains considerable relevance to today’s politics — and particularly the discussion around the Abundance movement.
#90
Dec 16, 2025 · 1 hr 18 min
Why everyone hates white liberals, with Kevin Schultz
Schultz concedes that liberalism set itself up for criticism in many ways, but nonetheless concludes that liberalism did not fall of its own weight—it was assassinated by its political opponents.
#89
Nov 13, 2025 · 1 hr 7 min
Germany and the dangers of America abandoning Europe, with Jan Techau
In this podcast interview, Techau discusses the European reaction to Trump’s reelection, the likelihood of Germany’s being able to make the physical and psychological adjustments it would need in order to become the principal provider of conventional deterrence in Europe, the rise of anti-Americanism in Germany on both the left and right, and whether Europeans are capable of keeping peace on the continent without the help of the Americans.
#88
Oct 23, 2025 · 1 hr 32 min
Reflections on DOGE and the abandonment of the West, with Michael Kimmage
In this podcast discussion, Kimmage discusses the idea of the West — as a geopolitical and cultural concept rather than a geographic place.
#87
Oct 1, 2025 · 55 min
Going local to heal politics and institutions, with Steve Grove
Grove describes his experiences with finding both resistance and innovation in state and local government, and the perspective that gave him on Elon Musk’s DOGE attempt to reinvent government along Silicon Valley lines.
#86
Sep 10, 2025 · 1 hr 17 min
The Legend of Murray Kempton, with Andrew Holter
In this podcast discussion, Holter talks about how he became interested in Kempton’s work, how Kempton’s writings provide an overview of and window into American life in the twentieth century, and why he wanted to make Kempton’s work available to a new generation of readers.
#85
Aug 6, 2025 · 1 hr 6 min
The politics of abundance, with Misha Chellam
Misha Chellam, a leader in the Abundance movement and co-founder of the Abundance Network, joins The Vital Center to discuss how YIMBYism, state capacity, and Progress Studies relate to abundance. Chellam analyzes the successful alliances of growth-focused Abundants and good-government moderates in San Francisco. He also envisions future Abundance policies that expand beyond California and adapt to meet local needs and priorities.
#84
Jul 16, 2025 · 2 hr 6 min
How William Buckley shaped the American right, with Sam Tanenhaus
Sam Tanenhaus, an esteemed journalist and biographer, joins The Vital Center to discuss his biography of William F. Buckley Jr.
#83
Jul 1, 2025 · 1 hr 5 min
The libertarian prophet of the abundance movement, with Virginia Postrel
In this podcast conversation, Postrel analyzes different approaches to what she considers to be the linked causes of abundance and progress and the basic political division between advocates of stasis and dynamism.
#82
Jun 12, 2025 · 53 min
Populism and working-class nostalgia for the 1950s, with Alan Ehrenhalt
Ehrenhalt discusses what both the political left and right miss about the 1950s, but acknowledges the difficulty of recovering communitarian values in the present era.
#81
May 29, 2025 · 1 hr 7 min
Exploring the Secrets of Political Charisma, with Molly Worthen
Worthen discusses not only her studies of charismatic leaders but also her previous work on religious belief, the Grand Strategy program at Yale, and her own conversion to evangelical Christianity.
#80
Apr 17, 2025 · 1 hr 5 min
The old, weird history of libertarianism, with Matt Zwolinski
In this podcast conversation, Matt Zwolinski discusses his investigations into the intellectual history of libertarianism as well as his analysis of the longstanding tensions between radical and reactionary elements within the philosophy.
#79
Apr 3, 2025 · 1 hr 8 min
Understanding the diploma divide, with Matt Grossmann and Dave Hopkins
In this podcast discussion, Grossmann and Hopkins argue that educated liberals are winning the culture war, particularly with regard to the secularization of American public life.
#78
Mar 20, 2025 · 55 min
Our contentious universities, with Neil L. Rudenstine
In this podcast interview, the former Harvard president discusses the sources of student and faculty radicalization in the 1960s, the parallels between the ‘60s campus protests and those of today, and the financial and institutional difficulties that beset many of the country’s leading universities.

Showing 1–20 of 20 episodes