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Beyond the Polls with Henry Olsen
Beyond the Polls with Henry Olsen

Way On Base

The midterms are just weeks away, and Democrats are still enjoying a historically large lead in the generic congressional ballot. In response, the president is jetting about to rally support in key states. However, unlike the boldly expansive campaigns of MAGA ascendancy, his visits to safe districts reveal a defensive strategy aimed at mitigating losses. Henry rants his way through this development and draws attention to others that casual observers might miss, as he comes closer to finalizing his big election prediction. Plus, we look at two ads that bet it all on Independents. Stay tuned till the end for Henry's thoughts on late pitches for these ambitious campaigns to flip a Minnesota Senate seat and Montana's 1st Congressional District. Follow the midterms like a pro! Subscribe to Henry's weekly newsletter, "Margin of Victory," for invaluable insights every Wednesday.
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Latest podcast episodes

Freedom to Learn
Freedom to Learn

Ashling Preston on New York’s Opt-In, Treasury’s New Rules, & Implementing the Education Freedom Tax Credit

The Education Freedom Tax Credit is poised to expand opportunities for students nationwide, but what has to happen before it launches on January 1, 2027? Ashling Preston of the American Federation for Children joins Freedom to Learn to identify the steps state leaders and scholarship-granting organizations need to take now. She also explains how taxpayers can prepare to fund scholarships for eligible students in participating states. With implementation around the corner, the opportunity is enormous, the excuses are running out, and the push for all 50 states to opt in is on. https://federalscholarships.com/ Federal Scholarship Tax Credit temporary rules: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/10/02/2026-20264/federal-scholarship-tax-credit Federal Scholarship Tax Credit proposed rules: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/10/02/2026-20277/federal-scholarship-tax-credit New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s opt-in statement: https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/statement-governor-kathy-hochul-180 Regulations.gov Federal Scholarship Tax Credit comment portal: https://www.regulations.gov/document/IRS-2026-1354-0001
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The Learning Curve
The Learning Curve

Hoover at Stanford’s Peter Berkowitz on Reclaiming Liberal Education in America

In this episode of The Learning Curve, co-hosts Prof. Albert Cheng of The Ohio State University and Pioneer Senior Fellow Steven Wilson, speak with Dr. Peter Berkowitz, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and author of Reclaiming Liberal Education in America. Berkowitz reflects on the education that led him from Swarthmore College to the study of philosophy, political science, and law. He explains the ancient Greek meaning of “know thyself” and how Socratic inquiry seeks to understand universal questions about human nature, virtue, justice, and the good life. He distinguishes liberal education from a relativistic one, arguing that students should learn to question authority while cultivating moral virtues and respect for the law. Drawing on the examples of Frederick Douglass and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., he discusses how Americans can pursue civic reforms through the nation’s Founding principles and upholding constitutionalism. Finally, Dr. Berkowitz reads a passage from his book Reclaiming Liberal Education in America.
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Trump Is a Lame Duck

Steve Fast
@SteveFast
Congressional Republicans are pushing back against Trump, and he is becoming a lame duck even before the midterms. Here are some of the items of pushback: Mike Johnson recessed the House a day early on September 16 to avoid a vote on Thomas Massie's resolution to impeach SecWar Pete Hegseth. The House would likely have impeached Hegseth because enough Republicans would have joined all the Democrats to pass impeachment.
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Some Anti-Semitism is Worse than Others

Susan Quinn
@SusanQuinn
At times, I find myself just shaking my head when I hear of anti-Semitic attacks, especially verbal ones, because they are so ubiquitous. But this last one, sent to me by @ctlaw, enraged me, and I felt compelled to share it. A religion assistant professor at Haverford College in Pennsylvania decided to terrorize a colleague, a man who not only worked in the same building that he did, but even lived in the same neighborhood.
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The Shepherd’s Call

Andrew Miller
@AndrewMiller
There is an unspoken battle, A war within the world – Whether to be human, and man enough, To look after the lost one and the lamb – Or abandon them to the wind and the wolves, And pretend we do not know. There are thoughts that go beyond words, Things that are real even so. It is not right to give the lost ones’ bread to the wolf, And deny them even the crumbs – To hear not the voices in the wilderness crying out, As if deaf to the cries of the damned.
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Most Important Battle Ever?

Old Bathos
@OldBathos
On this day 1,294 years ago Charles Martel led a Frankish army that defeated a Muslim army crossing from conquered Spain into France. Without his leadership, his consolidation of Frankish power and building a highly trained, disciplined army, there would have been no stopping a Muslim invasion of a divided Europe.
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Basic Lessons

iWe
@iWe
I have often … quarreled with those who feel that Western Civilization was born from the Greeks, and that the role of what I consider the foundational text – the Torah – is really incidental. I suspect this is primarily for two reasons: 1: Most people read the text as a storybook or even a kind of contrived history, instead of as a guide for holy relationships. As a result, fundamental lessons are missed. 2: We take much of the Torah for granted without thinking of it.
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Show Us Your Mugs

John H.
@JohnH
Has this been done before on Ricochet? Not by me! Here are mine, with handles unnaturally turned to facilitate the photography. Now they're back to their usual orientation. Of course, at breakfast time I know which one is which! The one on the far right is my weekday one. I cannot explain that particular feature of it, which is really a feature of me. At whatever its usage rate, I have had it a long time and like having its science-y reminder of such academic work as I ever did. I do sometimes consult its periodic table.
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Empire Without Limits

Seawriter
@Seawriter
Rome never fell, thanks to time travelers from our present and their future arriving in Marcus Aurelius’s Rome. Rome eventually united the whole world under the Roman eagles and then reached out to the stars. There they found other humans and other civilizations in the ruins of an alien Fallen Empire. Rome to the Stars (Pax Astra Book 1), a science fiction novel by S.M. Stirling and Melissa Olthoff, explores that alternate future. The Fallen Empire harvested humans from Earth to serve its needs before it disintegrated.
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Saturday Night Classics: Ernesto Lecuona ‘La Malagueña’

Andrew Troutman
@Dotorimuk
I forgot I was up for Saturday Night Classics tonight, so I’m serving this one hot and hasty. When I worked in classical radio in Oklahoma, I had a few different jobs, including announcing and playing music, and going out to record concerts. I became familiar with Cuban composer Ernesto Lecuona’s “La Malagueña” after hearing Cristiana Pegoraro perform it as an encore whenever she swung through town. When I had a few minutes to fill during my air shift, I often liked to play short ragtime or other swell piano pieces.
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Quote of the Day - Patriotism

Seawriter
@Seawriter
Patriotism is as much a virtue as justice and is as necessary for the support of societies as natural affection is for the support of families. -- Benjamin Rush Patriotism is in bad odor today, thanks to academia and the popular transnationalist cult that dominates the elite. (So is natural affection for the support of families among these groups.) Yet Benjamin Rush has the right of it. Without patriotism (and stable families), societies fall apart. Oddly, societal breakdown and chaos favor the elite.
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Law Talk with Epstein, Yoo & Cooke
Law Talk with Epstein, Yoo & Cooke

Supreme Court Preview: Oil, Arms, and Religious Liberty

Can the city of Boulder set climate policy for the world? Can Colorado make Catholic preschools choose between their faith and public funding? And can a six-pack of beer cost you an airplane? Richard Epstein and John Yoo join Charles C. W. Cooke to preview the Supreme Court’s coming term, tackling climate lawsuits, religious liberty, AR-15 bans, and the Eighth Amendment—with plenty of constitutional sparring and a surprising amount of agreement.
Hosts:
Charles C. W. CookeJohn YooRichard Epstein
Organization
Civitas Institute at the University of Texas at Austin
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The Ricochet Podcast
The Ricochet Podcast

Thumos and a Touch of Swaggart

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 televangelist 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 Freitas
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The Line in the Sand

GrandpaPublius
@GrandpaPublius
Dear Hakeem, As you approach the midterms, as you approach what you hope will be a stupendous personal triumph — becoming Speaker of the House, third in the line of succession, leader of the most important branch of government of the most important country in the world — I have a question. What’s the point? I assume, Hakeem, that among your ambitions is to make the country you love a little bit better during your time in office. Do you have a plan for how to do that? Would you like to give us voters a hint?
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3 Whisky Happy Hour
3 Whisky Happy Hour

The Three Whisky Happy Hour: Godwin’s Law Edition

Sitcom viewers will recall the "Soup Nazi" from Seinfeld, but the famous Soup Nazi needs to yield to the latest iteration of this low form of comedy, as this week's episode features the person who has been called "the Shampoo Nazi"—Charles Haywood. We would have thought that people named "EricKKK EricKKKson" (see how easy it is to be stupid?) would know Godwin's Law, whose most important corollary application is that the first person to resort to Reductio ad Hitlerum is immediately deemed the loser of the debate. Charles Haywood is a person of considerable controversy these days, and to be sure he has some exotic opinions, which listeners should check out for themselves at his capacious website, The Worthy House, in particular his Foundationalist Manifesto. Harry Jaffa, the person who wrote the infamous phrase "Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice" for Barry Goldwater (and who got called a Nazi for saying this in 1964), also wrote: "'Provocative articles' are worthless unless they can be tested."
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Beyond the Polls with Henry Olsen
Beyond the Polls with Henry Olsen

The Trump Tornado and Danger in the Dust Bowl

There's good news and bad news, Toto: We are still in Kansas, but it's not the safe state we'd grown used to. With the midterms less than a month away, and reports confirming the GOP's move to divert funds to tightening races in the agricultural belt, Henry opts to fly solo this week to survey the windswept field ahead of the battle. Considerable movement has occurred in response to the president's bold maneuvering after returning to office, particularly among the Independents and MAGA-lite Republicans who helped elect him. But is a complete leveling inevitable? Not so, says Henry, who offers a lesson from the 2022 midterms that Republicans have curiously left on the table so far. Plus, Michigan Senate candidate Mike Rogers has a new ad that reveals an important detail about this cycle's swing state playbook. Can't wait til Thursday for Henry's election insights? Subscribe to his weekly newsletter, "Margin of Victory," for an early look at his latest thoughts on the approaching midterms.
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France Up In Flames Again

Greg Strange
@GregStrange
La diversité est notre force! In case you don’t understand one of the world’s most beautiful languages, the French sentence above means “diversity is our strength.” It’s a common sentiment expressed by officials of countries foolishly allowing themselves to be swamped by incompatible “migrants.” Evidence that the current policy is an error is readily dismissed, all in the name of diversity. Because diversity, according to the left, is inherently good — no matter what.
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The Libertarian
The Libertarian

Diesel Shock: The High Cost of Energy Isolation

Why are diesel prices soaring, and why doesn’t American energy independence shield consumers from global shocks? Richard Epstein discusses how war, restrictions on pipelines, and strained international relationships affect energy supplies. He also looks at the limits of energy self-sufficiency, the risks of disrupting global trade, and why expanding supply is essential to easing pressure on farmers, businesses, and households.
Hosts:
Charles C. W. CookeRichard Epstein
Organization
Civitas Institute at the University of Texas at Austin
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New Intro to Augustine

Saint Augustine
@SaintAugustine
The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy has a new article on Augustine. I wrote it. If I say so myself, it's pretty good. Here's a sample from the intro section: Any attempt to summarize Augustine is necessarily an exercise in leaving something out. One approach is to apply to Augustine an idea he applied to the Bible. With all its immeasurable tracts of information, Augustine thinks two things summarize everything the Bible teaches: the love of God and neighbor.
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Freedom to Learn
Freedom to Learn

Averel Meden on What New Education Freedom Tax Credit Rules Mean for States, SGOs, & Families

What if families in your state could unlock thousands of dollars for their children's education thanks to a new federal Education Freedom Tax Credit, but your state hasn't opted in yet? Averel Meden of the Federal Scholarship Tax Credit Coalition joins the podcast to explain the Treasury Department’s newly released rules governing the tax credit for donations to scholarship granting organizations, how to talk to state leaders, and key dates leading to the 2027 tax credit implementation. Averel explains how this $1,700 federal tax credit could generate scholarships that benefit 96% of students nationwide. She also encourages listeners to engage in the 60-day comment period for the proposed rules and build public awareness about the EFTC through friends, families, schools, and faith communities.
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The Miracle of Miniatures

Susan Quinn
@SusanQuinn
About once a year, we take a trip to our financial advisor in Daytona Beach. Hardly a vacation, but the day is made blessed with a later visit to historic St. Augustine. We’ve seen almost all the sites there, from the chocolate factory and coquina fort to the colonial village. But this time we were in for a treat, a place that we didn’t even know existed: the Tiny Art Museum. We’d never noticed it, probably because it was housed in the Medieval Torture Museum, which was definitely not a place that I wanted to tour!
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