Today’s guest is surprisingly upbeat about the world. A big factor in his optimism is the revolution in artificial intelligence that we’re about to live through.

Upon graduation from the US Military Academy in 1984, HR McMaster served as a commissioned officer in the US Army for thirty-four years. He retired as a lieutenant general in June 2018. From 2014 to 2017, General McMaster designed the future army as the director of the Army Capabilities Integration Center and the deputy commanding general, futures, of the US Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC). As commanding general of the Maneuver Center of Excellence at Fort Benning, he oversaw all training and education for the army’s infantry, armor, and cavalry force.He commanded the Combined Joint Inter-Agency Task Force in Afghanistan from 2010 to 2012; he commanded the Third Armored Cavalry Regiment in Iraq from 2005 to 2006; he was also deployed in Operation Desert Storm from 1990 to 1991. General McMaster holds a PhD in military history. He was an assistant professor of history at the US Military Academy. He is author of the bestselling books Battlegrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World and Dereliction of Duty: Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Lies that Led to Vietnam. General McMaster is the host of two podcasts: Battlegrounds: International Perspectives on Crucial Challenges and Opportunities and is a regular on GoodFellows, both produced by the Hoover Institution. He is a fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and he also teaches at Stanford's Graduate School of Business. And he chairs an advisory board at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

In this episode, we go deep on the current phase (the invisible primary) of the 2024 presidential primaries with Mike Murphy, who has worked on a number of presidential campaigns, as well as run 26 gubernatorial and US Senate races across the country. Murphy was a top strategist for John McCain, Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. He’s a political analyst for NBC and MSNBC. He’s co-host of the critically acclaimed "Hacks on Tap" podcast. Mike is also co-director of the University of Southern California’s Center for the Political Future.

How do we know if a country is a success? It’s a question that our guest on this episode, Dr. Daniel Gordis , tried to answer in a new book, timed for the 75th anniversary of Israel’s independence. His book is called “Impossible Takes Longer: 75 Years After Its Creation, Has Israel Fulfilled Its Founders’ Dreams?”

Over the past 16 weeks, Israel has experienced one of the biggest protest movements since its founding. On the surface, these protests were about proposed judicial reforms. But was something deeper going on -- for both sides of this debate? On a recent trip to Israel, Dan sat down with Dr. Micah Goodman to better understand the forces shaping this debate.

Today we sit down in Israel with Mark Dubowitz, who is the CEO of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD), at a time that Saudi Arabia is reopening its embassy in Tehran, and Iran's relations appear to be flourishing with Beijing, Moscow and much of the Sunni Arab Middle East. Six months ago, Iran was under enormous pressure. What happened?

“The real debate today isn’t between the left and right. It’s between those invested in our current institutions, and those who want to build anew.” This is according to Alana Newhouse in a provocative essay she penned for Tablet Magazine. Alana offers a a new frame through which to asses the dysfunction we see in institutions all around us, and what to do about them.

Yaakov Katz – Editor-in-Chief of The Jerusalem Post and a former advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett – returns to our podcast.

In this special episode we play a conversation that Dan recently had on the Commentary Magazine podcast on the current crisis, how Israel got here and where it goes from here.

Is the US Government trying to re-engage and bring down the temperature with China? Why right now? And what about the resurgent findings on the possible lab leaked accident (on the origin of the pandemic)? Where does this fit into the de-escalation dynamic? Josh Rogin is a long-time foreign affairs journalist, currently a columnist for The Washington Post. He’s also a Political Analyst for CNN. He’s the author of the bestselling book: “Chaos Under Heaven: Trump, Xi, and the Battle for the Twenty-First Century”.

Twenty years ago this past week, on March 19, 2003, the United States invaded Iraq, marking the second time the U.S. fought a war in Iraq in just over a decade. What is the legacy for U.S. foreign policy, for the Middle East, and for domestic public opinion on America's role in the world?

China just announced that it had brokered a deal between Saudi Arabia and Iran to restore diplomatic relations, for the first time since they were officially severed in 2016. But this news begs more questions than it answers. To help us understand what it means for Washington, Jerusalem, Beijing, Tehran, and Riyadh, Rich Goldberg joins the podcast.

Eric Cohen is the CEO of Tikvah. He was the founder and remains editor-at-large of the New Atlantis, and he serves as the publisher of Mosaic. Eric has written for The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and Commentary, He is the author of In the Shadow of Progress: Being Human in the Age of Technology. He previously worked for the U.S. President’s Council on Bioethics.

On the topic of geopolitics, international flashpoints and the state of the war, a surprisingly optimistic Richard Fontaine returns to our podcast.

Historian Niall Ferguson returns to the podcast to look at how the current Cold War could turn hot.

The Abraham Accords were signed in September 2020. This agreement between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, marked the first full normalization agreement between Israel and an Arab country since the 1994 Jordan-Israel agreement. Soon after the September 2020 signing, Morocco and Sudan joined the Accords as well. Since these historic breakthroughs, Israel has been through wild political swings, from a left-right coalition government that included Naftali Bennett from the Right, Yair Lapid from the center-Left, and Mansour Abbas from a Muslim-Arab party. Fast forward to today, there is a government of the Right led by Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been on this podcast. And through it all, the Abraham Accords have endured. One of the architects of the accords was Aryeh Lightstone, who served as Senior Advisor to the U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman from 2017 to 2021.

In this episode, we go deep on 2024 presidential primaries with Mike Murphy, who has worked on 26 gubernatorial and US Senate races across the country.

Mike Tannenbaum has more than 2 decades of experience in NFL team front offices.

Are we actually headed for a replay of Trump vs Biden in 2024? How strong is Trump heading into the GOP primaries? Is Biden certain to be the Democratic nominee? Do Biden and Trump need each other? And what role will Trump play in 2024 if he’s NOT the Republican nominee? Maggie Haberman, senior political correspondent for The New York Times, returns to the podcast.

Congressman Mike Gallagher returns to our podcast, this time to look ahead at American foreign policy in 2023. Congressman Gallagher -- of Wisconsin's 8th CD -- has a unique perspective, since he’s just been tapped to lead the newly created House Select Committee on China.

In this episode, we break down changes in our media diets that have been changed as a result of the pandemic and the tech market boom, and what will revert back to VERY pre-pandemic habits. John Podhoretz returns to our conversation.

Is there any precedent for combating inflation that doesn’t end in recession or depression? This is one of many questions we have for Dr. Mohamed El-Erian as we look ahead to 2023. What should we expect this year in the markets and the economy?

“Democrats fall in love. Republicans fall in line." So said former President Bill Clinton. But it didn't seem that way last week, as House Republicans struggled to select a new Speaker. A band of rebels wasn’t getting in line for anyone - not for the most recent leaders of the House Republican Conference, not for the leaders of their own House Freedom Caucus, and not even for former President Trump. What happened? What does it tell us about the current state of Republican politics heading into 2024, and about Republican governance in Congress, as Washington has to take up issues like the Debt Ceiling.

WIth Prime Minister Netanyahu's new government now sworn in, and also developments for Israel at the UN, Yaakov Katz – Editor-in-Chief of The Jerusalem Post – returns to our podcast.

One of our regular guests – Bret Stephens, Pulitzer Prize winning columnist for The New York Times – returns for a conversation on cancel culture, anti-semitism and a new issue of a journal he edits, called Sapir.

U.S. Senator Tom Cotton recently announced that he would not run for president in 2024. And yet at the same time, he continues to be one of the most important voices in Washington on all matters involving American foreign policy and national security. Senator Cotton also recently penned a new book, called Only The Strong. He returns to the podcast to discuss issues ranging from Iran and Russia/Ukraine to China and a proposed ban of TikTok.

Yuval Levin returns to the podcast. He's especially focused on whether we will have a replay of Trump vs Biden in 2024 or a new generation of leaders from both parties. Yuval discusses the promise of a number of these newer candidates and challenges they face.

President Biden recently warned that the U.S. faces a 'decisive decade' in its rivalry with China. Are we sleepwalking through this decisive decade? That's what Bret Stephens of The New York Times argues in the Times. (Not only with regard to China but also a range of geopolitical challenges across the globe.) In this conversation, Bret looks at China, Russia/Ukraine, and U.S. defense readiness. He also raises important questions about where the revolution in Iran is going.

From civil disobedience we have not seen in China since Tiananmen Square, to loosening zero covid policy, and leadership tightening its political grip in unprecedented ways, this has been quite a few weeks in China. What is US policy on a range of issues – the protests, semiconductors, Taiwan and also TikTok?

Most of the post-midterm commentary has been focused on how the Democrats pulled off a surprise win in holding the majority in the U.S. Senate, and only lost the U.S. House of Representatives by a slim margin. But former Clinton and Schumer strategist -- and current Bloomberg senior advisor - Howard Wolfson is asking something entirely different: why DID the Democrats lose the House? Suggesting that they could have bucked history altogether and won the House too.