Podcast
What Really Matters with Walter Russell Mead
Hosted by Tablet Magazine · EN
Walter Russell Mead, a historian, pundit, and popular author, is encyclopedic about politics, culture, and history. On What Really Matters, Mead and Tablet deputy editor Jeremy Stern help you understand the news, decide what news matters and what doesn’t, and enjoy following the story of America and the world more than you do now.
Check out Walter Russell Mead’s Tablet column at https://www.tabletmag.com/columns/via-meadia.
32episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
The Rise of Islam and the Radicalization of America
2d ago00:30:39Summary readyThis week, Walter and Jeremy discuss the greater global influence of Muslim-majority societies, the state of political radicalization in America, and to what extent the US is actually in decline.
Summary25 Years of Putin
1w ago00:26:50Summary readyThis week, Walter and Jeremy discuss Trump's flirtation with regulating AI, Narendra Modi's big election victory in Bengal, reports of a potential coup plot in Russia, and what a quarter-century of Vladimir Putin has done to the world.
SummaryGod Save the King
2w ago00:29:17Summary readyThis week, Walter and Jeremy discuss the US national debt, the Supreme Court's decision on a provision of the Voting Rights Act, the UAE's exit from OPEC, why Trump doesn't believe the Iran war is the catastrophe the establishment thinks it is, and King Charles' very successful visit to America.
SummaryTrump v. Pope
3w ago00:27:35Summary readyThis week, Walter and Jeremy discuss the Iran ceasefire and negotiations, the meaning of Japan's decision to open its military technology market, the global rise of clean energy sources and decline of coal, and how Pope Leo XIV's roots in Latin American Catholicism explain his particular distaste for Donald Trump.
SummaryWhat Orbán Meant
4w ago00:28:05Summary readyThis week, Walter and Jeremy discuss Pentagon plans to use US commercial enterprises for weapons production, the rise in young American men's religiosity, Trump's fallout with the European populist right, and the successes and (mostly) failures of Viktor Orbán.
SummaryHow Not to Follow Events in Iran
Apr 1000:33:01Summary readyThis week, Walter and Jeremy discuss the ceasefire, the situation in Lebanon and the Strait of Hormuz, how the war has impacted US defense capabilities, and how Trump's domestic and international political status is faring.
SummaryWill Trump Try to Get a Declaration of War?
Apr 100:27:14Summary readyThis week, Walter and Jeremy discuss the latest headlines from Iran, Trump and Rubio's fight with NATO, whether Trump might try to obtain a Declaration of War from Congress, and the best and worst wartime presidents in American history.
SummaryHow Everyone Got Iran Wrong
Mar 2800:32:06Summary readyThis week, Walter and Jeremy discuss the other strait Iran is threatening to close, the Trump administration's interest in Ukrainian territorial concessions, rumors of increasing US troop deployments to the Middle East, and how the doves and the hawks both got Iran wrong.
SummaryKent, NATO, Orban, Iran
Mar 2000:34:42Summary readyThis week, Walter and Jeremy discuss Joe Kent's resignation, Trump's frustration with NATO's refusal to help in the Gulf, JD Vance's show of support for Viktor Orban, and the state of the war in Iran.
SummaryHow Iran Ends
Mar 1300:39:07Summary readyThis week, Walter and Jeremy discuss the Iran campaign's economic shocks, the upsides for Russia, US-Cuba negotiations, and the three ways the Iran war could end.
Summary