To The Contrary with Charlie Sykes

Tim O'Brien, Senior Executive Editor at Bloomberg Opinion, joins Charlie to discuss the President's recent China visit, the poor state of American democracy, and Trump's golden phone scam. 

David Frum of The Atlantic joins Charlie to discuss Trump's China visit, his ignorance on oil and the global economy, and the Democrats' missteps heading into the midterms. The conversation also turns personal: Frum reflects on loss and his wife's new book about their family's journey through grief after losing their daughter.

On today’s episode, Charlie welcomes Gal Beckerman, a staff writer at The Atlantic and author of the book, “How to Be a Dissident.” The two walk through Gal’s book which outlines the simple but difficult steps anyone can take to avoid falling mistakenly in line with a political system that’s going off the rails.

On today's 'To the Contrary" podcast, Charlie is joined by NYT contributor Molly Jong-Fast to discuss the latest developments: the GOP's billion dollar ballroom; stunning new polling on the Trump-as-Jesus meme; this week's TACO on Iran, and why the abortion issue has exploded back onto the political scene. (They also talk about Molly's cameo in the new "Devil Wears Prada 2" movie.)

On today’s episode, Charlie welcomes attorney, NYT Best-selling author and CEO of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), Greg Lukianoff. Charlie and Greg discuss the ways Trump is weaponizing the FCC to skirt free speech and how his efforts fit into the larger nuances of 1st Amendment rights in the US today.

The New Yorker's Susan Glasser joins Charlie to discuss Trump's war on free speech and press freedom, US relations with Ukraine, Russia, and China, and Trump missing the point of King Charles' speech. 

Peter Wehner, a contributing writer at The Atlantic and a senior fellow at the Trinity Forum, joins Charlie to dissect King Charles' historic address to Congress and Trump's feud with the pope.

The Atlantic's Anne Applebaum joins Charlie to discuss the fallout from the White House Correspondents' dinner, Victor Orbán's defeat, and why Trump wants to talk about his ballroom and his triumph arch rather than Iran.

Economist Justin Wolfers joins Charlie to rage about Trump's Fed chair nominee. They also discuss the importance of Fed independence, prediction markets, and private credit markets.