The Free Press
The Hollow Opulence of Gatsby
- Title
- The Hollow Opulence of Gatsby
- Runtime
- 1:12
- Date posted
- 1 year ago
- Description
- Title
- Why The Great Gatsby Still Defines America | Fareed Zakaria on The Great Gatsby
- Runtime
- 59:28
- Date posted
- 1 year ago
- Description
- It’s been 100 years since The Great Gatsby was published. In this episode, Shilo Brooks sits down with journalist Fareed Zakaria to explore why the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel still feels so modern.
Zakaria shares his experience discovering the classic as an Indian immigrant, describing Gatsby as his gateway to understanding America. Together, they unpack the book’s enduring themes: the allure of reinvention and the American dream, the search for meaning in a world stripped of faith and tradition, and the spiritual hollowness that accompanies wealth and glamor. They also discuss Fitzgerald’s unique partnership with his editor Maxwell Perkins, a writer-editor collaboration that helped transform Gatsby into one of the greatest works of American literature. Plus: Zakaria sounds off on what’s wrong with journalism—and its consumers—today.
Old School is proudly brought to you by the Jack Miller Center. If you believe in the importance of civic education a...
- Title
- Dance Moms Was a "Trainwreck"
- Runtime
- 1:17
- Date posted
- 1 year ago
- Description
- “It really was like a train wreck.” Dance Moms star Nia Sioux on the “dysfunction” put on full display throughout the show.
Abby “would say things that were out-of-pocket—that were inappropriate. Then, the moms would react.”
Watch the full conversation at TheFP.com.
- Title
- Abby Lee Miller's Racism Toward Nia Sioux
- Runtime
- 1:08
- Date posted
- 1 year ago
- Description
- Dance Moms star Nia Sioux on the racism she experienced during her time on the show.
“I was so young, but I knew things weren’t quite right.”
Watch the full conversation at TheFP.com.
- Title
- Can You Be a Pro-Israel Democrat?
- Runtime
- 0:44
- Date posted
- 1 year ago
- Description
- Sen. John Fetterman: “Being devoted to Israel is becoming increasingly incompatible with being a proud Democrat.”
Watch the full episode of Honestly: https://thefp.pub/43slo7F
- Title
- Dance Moms Star Talks Abby Lee, Emotional Abuse, Racism & More | Nia Sioux
- Runtime
- 44:20
- Date posted
- 1 year ago
- Description
- You may have come across a video on the internet showing a dance teacher yelling “Boring. Yawning. Sloppy. Lazy!” That is Abby Lee Miller of Lifetime’s hit show Dance Moms. Now this meme is just one emblem of a show that captured the cultural zeitgeist for nearly a decade.
The show centered on six dancers, between the ages of 6 and 13 in season 1, who spent 40–60 hours a week filming and training for weekly dance competitions under the tutelage of infamously harsh teacher Miller. All day, Miller would criticize them on their looks, their technique, their attitude, and even their weight. Meanwhile, their mothers would watch the classes from a raised mezzanine, picking fights with each other and with Miller, in pursuit of fame and glory for their respective daughters.
The drama, arguably, sold the series. As Nia Sioux—an original cast member and dancer on the show—writes in her new book, Bottom of the Pyramid, the producers “struck gold with the ...
- Title
- Young People Are Falling For Socialism.
- Runtime
- 1:36
- Date posted
- 1 year ago
- Description
- Capitalism is failing young people. So they’re falling for socialism.
- Title
- John Fetterman Speaks: Defying His Party on Israel, Zohran, Shutdown & More
- Runtime
- 1:18:01
- Date posted
- 1 year ago
- Description
- Think for yourself. Subscribe to The Free Press today: https://thefp.pub/3DmLpLi
Who owns the future of the Democratic Party?
That’s the question on everyone’s mind since last Tuesday night—when the richest city in America elected 34-year-old democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani as its mayor.
You can see Mamdani’s win as a one-off—a charismatic contender facing a rival mired in controversy. But the other way to see it is as emblematic of something larger: a sign about the state—and future—of the left.
Here was a candidate promising to solve the affordability crisis with free childcare, free buses, rent freezes, and even government-run grocery stores. And despite the socialist bent, most establishment Democrats fell in line to support him—from Kathy Hochul and Hakeem Jeffries to Barack Obama, who reportedly called Mamdani to offer himself as a sounding board.
If that’s true—if Mamdani is the new standar...
- Title
- The 3I/ATLAS Mystery
- Runtime
- 0:50
- Date posted
- 1 year ago
- Description
- There’s a mysterious object flying through our solar system right now.
It’s called 3I/ATLAS—only the third interstellar object humans have ever detected.
The vast majority of astronomers say it’s just a comet. But Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb tells Will Rahn he isn’t so sure.
- Title
- Government Shutdown Ending
- Runtime
- 1:55
- Date posted
- 1 year ago
- Description
- The government shutdown may be coming to an end. Gabe Kaminsky reports on the latest.
- Title
- The BBC Is a Joke
- Runtime
- 1:26
- Date posted
- 1 year ago
- Description
- The BBC used to be the gold standard for broadcast journalism. Now it’s mired in scandals, and has become quite frankly, a joke, argues Ester Krakue.
- Title
- Ep 4: Spiral Murder In Detroit
- Runtime
- 0:58
- Date posted
- 1 year ago
- Description
- During a trial boiling with tension, a second trial was taking place on the internet.
Episode 4 of Spiral Murder In Detroit is out now.
- Title
- How This Thomas Sowell Book Influenced Coleman Hughes
- Runtime
- 2:09
- Date posted
- 1 year ago
- Description
- When Coleman Hughes first read Thomas Sowell’s "A Conflict of Visions," it flipped his assumptions about inequality. He realized different groups have different histories, cultures, and values—so equal outcomes shouldn’t be the default expectation.
Watch Old School with Shilo Brooks on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts.
- Title
- Who is Thomas Sowell?
- Runtime
- 2:15
- Date posted
- 1 year ago
- Description
- Why do we believe what we believe? And how do those beliefs shape our politics?
Thomas Sowell, one of the world’s most influential economists and social philosophers, set out to answer this question in his 1987 book, A Conflict of Visions. In it, he traces the underlying logic behind all modern political divides—why it is that knowing someone’s position on one issue, say gun control, makes it easy to predict their position on a totally unrelated issue, like abortion.
Watch Old School with Shilo Brooks on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts.
- Title
- The 1987 Book that Explains Zohran Mamdani’s Victory
- Runtime
- 58:14
- Date posted
- 1 year ago
- Description
- Why do we believe what we believe? And how do those beliefs shape our politics?
Thomas Sowell, one of the world’s most influential economists and social philosophers, set out to answer this question in his 1987 book, A Conflict of Visions. In it, he traces the underlying logic behind all modern political divides—why it is that knowing someone’s position on one issue, say gun control, makes it easy to predict their position on a totally unrelated issue, like abortion.
In this episode, Shilo Brooks sits down with Coleman Hughes to discuss the book that Sowell himself calls his favorite. Their conversation—recorded well before yesterday’s election of Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani—illuminates why some of us buy into utopian projects of remaking society, while others trust the quiet power of incentive structures like free markets.
- Title
- The Spiritual Cost of the Digital Age | Paul Kingsnorth
- Runtime
- 53:14
- Date posted
- 1 year ago
- Description
- Think for yourself. Subscribe to The Free Press today: https://thefp.pub/3DmLpLi
Do you feel uneasy? Do you feel a level of ambient anxiety? Do you feel despair, despite the fact that we live in the most luxurious time and place in human history? And did my producer offer to give me a Klonopin today? That one I won’t answer.
The point is, you are not crazy. If you feel these things, you are simply attuned to reality—and it’s not a problem that’s solvable with less screen time or with meditation, red light, or sea moss.
My brilliant guest, Paul Kingsnorth, argues that the reason you are feeling this way is not this or that social media app or algorithm or culture war issue. That these are all superficial expressions of a thousand-year battle with what he calls “the Machine.” What exactly that means, he’ll explain tonight…
To personally fight the Machine, Paul has moved his family out of urban England to live off the lan...
- Title
- A Man Should Know: How to Introduce Himself
- Runtime
- 0:43
- Date posted
- 1 year ago
- Description
- How can today’s lost boys become tomorrow’s good men?
Introducing A Man Should Know—a new series by Elliot Ackerman, Marine veteran and best-selling author, on the timeless lessons that make a man.
The first up: how to introduce yourself. Find the series at TheFP.com
- Title
- These New Yorkers Are Fighting Back
- Runtime
- 2:26
- Date posted
- 1 year ago
- Description
- Despite campaign promises to address “affordability,” lifelong residents of Queens say a 2019 climate bill—fully backed by Zohran Mamdani—would push middle-class homeowners out of New York City.
“Real New Yorkers need to take control…These Mamdani voters come from out of state—they don’t care.”
“We all want a clean environment, but you can't destroy affordable housing.”
Read more on the NYC mayor's race at TheFP.com.
- Title
- Are Conservatives the New Snowflakes?
- Runtime
- 1:46
- Date posted
- 1 year ago
- Description
- “Snowflakes make bad decisions because every choice is guided by the least consequential variable: Does this align with what I want to be true?
Ryan Holiday says that the shoe is now on the other foot: conservatives have become the censorious ones.
- Title
- Why Aren't Young Men Reading in 2025?
- Runtime
- 1:18
- Date posted
- 1 year ago
- Description
- Why are young men and boys not reading in America in 2025?
Shilo Brooks: “I suspect there’s plenty of trash that they’re willing to ingest. But what they’re reading are ephemeral things rather than enduring things.”
Shilo Brooks wants to save men from despair. His prescription? Books.
This is the driving vision of the new podcast he just launched with The Free Press called Old School, where he talks to guests about the books that shaped their lives.
Get it now on Spotify, Apple podcasts, and YouTube.
- Title
- How Hamas Keeps Gaza From Thriving
- Runtime
- 1:03
- Date posted
- 1 year ago
- Description
- Title
- Princeton Prof Called His Students Out for Being Boring.
- Runtime
- 1:56
- Date posted
- 1 year ago
- Description
- Former Princeton professor Shilo Brooks would tell his students that they were boring:
“Y’all are boring as hell . . .and the only way you become interesting is to have ideas that are not your own boring, ignorant ideas. What that means is that you need to read people whose ideas have endured because they stand for something.
“Expose yourself to the best that has been thought so you can become a person who has novel ideas based on arguments that other people who aren’t readers have never heard. You need to have some rough edges when you walk into a room. Don’t be an empty suit.”
Watch the full episode: https://thefp.pub/4oJqg0e
- Title
- The Real Pinocchio Is Much Darker Than Disney
- Runtime
- 1:18
- Date posted
- 1 year ago
- Description
- Title
- Will the Ceasefire Collapse?
- Runtime
- 1:12:21
- Date posted
- 1 year ago
- Description
- Just over two weeks ago, Israel and Hamas agreed to a historic ceasefire that—after two years of war—brought home the remaining living Israeli hostages from Gaza. Donald Trump repeatedly hailed it as the end of the war and the dawn of a new Middle East.
In the weeks since, Hamas has violated the deal multiple times, and on Tuesday, Israel responded with renewed strikes in Gaza.
Is the ceasefire durable—or about to unravel? And will the war between Hamas and Israel truly end?
Join us today at 10 a.m. ET with Haviv Rettig Gur, The Free Press’s Middle East analyst, to discuss what comes next.
You won’t want to miss it.
- Title
- Nick Cave: How Pinocchio Helped Me Grieve My Son
- Runtime
- 1:10
- Date posted
- 1 year ago
- Description
- Title
- Men Are Struggling. Reading Can Help.
- Runtime
- 40:24
- Date posted
- 1 year ago
- Description
- It’s no secret that young men are—sort of—unwell.
They are four times more likely to kill themselves, three times more likely to struggle with addiction, and 12 times more likely to be incarcerated, than women. If that wasn’t enough, record numbers of men are not getting married, not dating, and not enrolling in school or working, and they’re struggling with serious mental health issues.
In response, a cottage industry has emerged—full of influencers and paid courses claiming to teach young men how to become “high value.”
But more deeply, there seems to be an intractable challenge: Young people lack meaning. Fifty-eight percent of young adults say they’ve experienced little or no sense of purpose in their lives over the past month.
Shilo Brooks has a simple idea for all of it. He’s telling young men—and really, all young people—to read. Yes, read. The idea is simple: Reading great books can make stronger and be...
- Title
- Nick Cave on the Best Children’s Book Ever Written
- Runtime
- 55:19
- Date posted
- 1 year ago
- Description
- Carlo Collodi’s The Adventures of Pinocchio is a dark, dazzling Italian fable that is worlds apart from Disney’s sanitized version. Beneath its fantasticism and humor, the story is brimming with poverty, violence, and existential peril. In this episode, Australian rock legend Nick Cave joins Shilo Brooks to talk about one of the best-selling and most widely translated books ever written.
Together, they explore how transgression and disobedience shape character and how art thrives in defiance of conformity. Cave reflects on how the story helped him process grief after the death of his son. In examining the puppet’s journey to becoming a real boy, Cave and Brooks consider how love and suffering make all of us real.
- Title
- Inside the Shadow Migrant Workforce Delivering New York’s Dinner
- Runtime
- 1:30
- Date posted
- 1 year ago
- Description
- “Cities that claim to stand for equality have created one of the most visible and unregulated hierarchies in modern America: the deliverers and the delivered to,” writes Sagnik Basu.
- Title
- Spiral: Murder In Detroit Episode 3
- Runtime
- 1:06
- Date posted
- 1 year ago
- Description
- “I may have murdered my girlfriend and I don’t remember it.”
That’s what Samantha Woll’s ex-boyfriend told police weeks after she was found stabbed to death. But he was later cleared of all wrongdoing and never charged.
Listen to episode 3 of “Spiral: Murder in Detroit.”
- Title
- Bill Gates Admits Climate Change Isn't an Existential Threat
- Runtime
- 2:27
- Date posted
- 1 year ago
- Description
- Today, Bill Gates admitted that pushing climate doomerism was a mistake.
Lucy Biggers: “That shift to common sense is welcome, but it comes after decades of fearmongering that harmed young people, stalled development, and punished dissenting scientists.”
- Title
- The Bulletproof Cheat Code for ChatGPT
- Runtime
- 1:17
- Date posted
- 1 year ago
- Description
- Title
- How Israel Fatally Underestimated Hamas | Yaakov Katz
- Runtime
- 58:59
- Date posted
- 1 year ago
- Description
- Think for yourself. Subscribe to The Free Press today: https://thefp.pub/3DmLpLi
For years, no one believed Hamas wanted—or was even capable of—crossing the border into Israel.
Yaakov Katz has just cowritten the definitive account of what went wrong on October 7: the false assumptions, the ignored intelligence, the absence of human sources, and the political and military failures that led to the largest targeted massacre of Jewish civilians since the Holocaust.
Rafaela Siewert sits down with Katz to understand how Israel’s weakest enemy pulled off one of the most devastating attacks in its history—and what must change to ensure it never happens again.
- Title
- The Companies Paying For Trump's Ballroom
- Runtime
- 1:21
- Date posted
- 1 year ago
- Description
- Some of the largest corporations in the world—Amazon, Apple, Google, crypto giant Coinbase, and defense contractors Lockheed Martin and Booz Allen Hamilton—are jockeying to foot the bill for Trump’s $300 million ballroom.
Gabe Kaminsky reports at TheFP.com.
- Title
- The CEO of The Babylon Bee on the foolishness of ‘No Enemies to the Right’"
- Runtime
- 2:05
- Date posted
- 1 year ago
- Description
- This week, Seth Dillon, the CEO of The Babylon Bee, wrote a piece for us called "The Foolishness of 'No Enemies to the Right.'" He writes, "I’m in the business of mocking bad ideas. They’re on the right as well as the left."
Read his full piece here: https://www.thefp.com/p/the-foolishness-of-no-enemies-to-the-right
- Title
- What's Next in Gaza? with Amit Segal
- Runtime
- 48:47
- Date posted
- 1 year ago
- Description
- Nearly two weeks ago, Hamas and Israel agreed to a historic ceasefire that was meant to bring all the hostages home. President Donald Trump called it “the dawn of a new Middle East.”
Phase one was simple: Return all the hostages—living and dead. While we celebrate that all the living hostages have come home, 13 of the deceased remain in Gaza.
Phase two promised something even bigger: an international peacekeeping force, a transitional government of technocrats, and the disarmament of Hamas. But that now feels further away than ever.
On Sunday, Israel accused Hamas of violating the ceasefire agreement by firing at Israeli troops and killing two soldiers. Israel responded with a wave of air strikes.
Meanwhile, Gaza is now effectively divided by a “yellow line” separating the area controlled by Hamas from the area controlled by Israel. Hamas has taken to the streets—kidnapping, torturing, and executing civilians in public—t...
- Title
- Young People: Reject Nihilism
- Runtime
- 1:08
- Date posted
- 1 year ago
- Description
- Title
- The Mysterious Weed Syndrome Filling Emergency Rooms
- Runtime
- 1:21
- Date posted
- 1 year ago
- Description
- Some daily pot smokers are experiencing nonstop vomiting, involuntary screaming, and the worst pain of their lives. The only way to stop the symptoms? Stop getting high.
Read the piece at TheFP.com.
- Title
- Young People Want More Than Society Is Offering.
- Runtime
- 1:31
- Date posted
- 1 year ago
- Description
- Title
- Finding Meaning in an Unjust World | Cornel West on Plato’s “Republic”
- Runtime
- 51:47
- Date posted
- 1 year ago
- Description
- What is justice? And why should we live justly? These questions lie at the heart of Plato’s Republic, the foundational text of Western philosophy. In building his utopian city, Plato reveals how the quest for perfect justice can slip into tyranny. Yet his call for relentless self-examination—for resisting nihilism and seeking meaning—remains a starting point for us all.
In this episode, Dr. Cornel West joins Shilo Brooks to discuss why ancient Greek philosophy remains relevant for all of us, regardless of race or background. Together, they argue that confronting Plato is a universal rite of passage for everyone seeking to overcome despair and live a good life. Plus: West critiques the corruption of American universities and political parties—especially the Democratic Party, which he declares “beyond redemption.”
Old School is proudly brought to you by the Jack Miller Center. If you believe in the importance of civic education and want to help prepa...
- Title
- Drinking Your Way to Sobriety
- Runtime
- 1:18
- Date posted
- 1 year ago
- Description
- “The defining feature of my addiction was mental obsession… I had a compulsion to drink—an overwhelming mental obsession… I wanted that noise to stop and it did not stop for years.”
Katie Herzog on her struggle with alcoholism—and the unexpected way she finally overcame it. Watch the full episode of Honestly with Bari Weiss at TheFP.com.
- Title
- Spiral: Murder In Detroit
- Runtime
- 0:57
- Date posted
- 1 year ago
- Description
- When the beloved president of Detroit’s last remaining synagogue, Samantha Woll, was murdered, the city was left reeling.
A year later, no one has been convicted and the details don’t add up.
Spiral: Murder in Detroit—a new podcast from The Free Press—takes you inside the case, and the family’s search for justice.
- Title
- How Katie Herzog Drank Her Way to Sobriety
- Runtime
- 1:02:04
- Date posted
- 1 year ago
- Description
- Think for yourself. Subscribe to The Free Press today: https://thefp.pub/3DmLpLi
If you’re listening to this, you probably know someone who has struggled with alcohol addiction, or maybe you’re an alcoholic yourself. It’s one of the most universal human experiences. In 2023, 10 percent of the U.S. population met the criteria for alcoholism. That’s 30 million people.
And throughout the past hundred or so years, there’s basically been one solution: total sobriety, talk therapy, and Alcoholics Anonymous. And yes, there are countless people ready and eager to say, “AA saved my life.” I know and love many of those people.
But as Katie Herzog writes: “The dominance of AA obscures the fact that other options exist too.” Okay, so what are these other options? One of them is a drug called naltrexone that can let alcoholics keep drinking—yes, you heard me right. Katie describes it as a chemical safety net that makes you want to drink les...
- Title
- Will the Peace Hold in Gaza?
- Runtime
- 2:23
- Date posted
- 1 year ago
- Description
- Just over a week into the U.S.-brokered ceasefire in Gaza, the fragile truce teetered on the edge of collapse this past weekend when Hamas operatives reportedly violated the agreement, prompting a wave of retaliatory strikes by the IDF.
Tanya Lukyanova reports for The FP.
- Title
- Zohran Stumps at Terror-Linked Mosque
- Runtime
- 1:18
- Date posted
- 1 year ago
- Description
- On Thursday, New York City's mayoral front-runner condemned Hamas. On Friday, he turned up at a Brooklyn mosque with ties to terror.
Olivia Reingold reports for The FP.
- Title
- Fired by Mark Zuckerberg to Founder of Anduril. Palmer Lucky Sits Down with Bari Weiss.
- Runtime
- 0:35
- Date posted
- 1 year ago
- Description
- Out now!
Bari Weiss sits down with Anduril founder Palmer Luckey. https://thefp.pub/3WH4Hl4
- Title
- Girls. Gone. Bible.
- Runtime
- 1:26
- Date posted
- 1 year ago
- Description
- Young women are trading hookup culture for holiness. And they’re finding their tribe on the podcast Girls Gone Bible. https://thefp.pub/4opbsUr
- Title
- Palmer Luckey and the Future of American Power
- Runtime
- 1:25:20
- Date posted
- 1 year ago
- Description
- Think for yourself. Subscribe to The Free Press today: https://thefp.pub/3DmLpLi
A former Senate staffer recently told our friend, reporter Dexter Filkins: “The last socialist systems in the world are in Cuba and the Pentagon.” My guest tonight is trying to do something about that. And good luck to anyone trying to get in his way.
When people think of defense tech titans, they might not think of my guest tonight, Palmer Luckey. He looks more like Jimmy Buffett than George S. Patton. But don’t let his looks deceive you.
At the age of 19, Palmer founded the VR company Oculus. Two years later, it was acquired by Facebook for more than $2 billion. Then, when he was 24—while his peers were making dating apps and platforms to share thirst traps—he founded Anduril Industries, having had no experience whatsoever in the world of defense.
Now it’s a $30.5 billion company that develops drones, autonomous vehicles, subs, rockets, and ...
- Title
- Climate Anxiety vs. Reality
- Runtime
- 3:00
- Date posted
- 1 year ago
- Description
- Climate Anxiety vs. Reality
“I’m a former climate activist who broke up with the movement and healed my climate anxiety. Now, I’m at a climate march to see if I can help heal others—with the facts.”
- Title
- Who Was Samantha Woll?
- Runtime
- 0:50
- Date posted
- 1 year ago
- Description
- Who was Samantha Woll?
A new podcast from The Free Press Investigates, “Spiral: Murder in Detroit,” premieres October 21.
- Title
- Diamonds Are Whatever
- Runtime
- 1:38
- Date posted
- 1 year ago
- Description
- Lab grown diamonds sell around a 90% discount, meaning a ring that would have been $30,000 just a few years ago can now go for just $3,000.
Suzy Weiss reports on the man-made stone dismantling the most enduring symbols of affluence.
