In 2012, Oren Cass was the domestic policy advisor to Mitt Romney during his 2012 presidential campaign. Romney's economic policy epitomized that of the modern Republican Party: He celebrated free markets, free trade, and entrepreneurial capitalism. Since the time of Reagan, this worldview dominated the Right. But then, in the mid 2010s, something …

Dr. Carl Hart is a neuroscientist at Columbia University who researches drugs and their effects on the human brain. After decades of research, Hart concluded that drugs aren't nearly as dangerous as we're taught to believe. Since then, he's published best-selling books like "High Price" and "Drug Use for Grown Ups" that share his findings on drug a…

Hours after President Biden's posted on X that he would be stepping aside and endorsed Kamala Harris to be the Democratic nominee, we sat down with Marianne Williamson to discuss what happened, what's next, and how the Democratic Party works. We also heard from several Roca readers in the first-ever call-in episode. Thank you to all those who calle…

In early June, Dr. Alina Chan published an essay in The New York Times arguing what the media once considered a conspiracy: Covid-19 originated in the Wuhan lab. The essay made waves on social media. To some, it was a breath of fresh air from the intelligentsia that validated long-held beliefs about where the costliest pandemic in modern history st…

Pennsylvania is the important swing state in the 2024 presidential election. That's why we took a week-long roadtrip around the state to talk to voters, meet with local leaders, and see the different corners of one of America's most fascinating, historically rich, and politically pivotal states. We also ate our fair share of Wawa and Sheetz... In t…

The homeless population in NYC recently eclipsed 100,000 for the first time in history. The official number now is around 150,000, but the real number is likely much higher. That only counts people who live in homeless shelters and not people like Ghoul and Lil Yea Yea, the guests of this episode of We the 66, who don't live in shelters but right o…

Today's episode of "We the 66" is with none other than "The Godfather" actor Gianni Russo, who played the drunken, abusive son Carlo Rizzi in the iconic film. Russo overcame insurmountable odds to land that role: First, he was a child with with polio, and second he had never had a movie role in his entire life. He went from zero acting experience t…

It’s hard to fathom the scale of the United States’ fentanyl crisis: In 2023, more Americans died from fentanyl overdoses than in the Iraq, Afghanistan, and Vietnam Wars – combined. In the same year, more Americans died from fentanyl overdoses than from car crashes, gun homicides, drowning, and choking – combined. And in 2023 alone, more Americans …

This is a message to our readers regarding the criticisms we received after last episode. But first some context. Almost exactly one year after the murder of George Floyd, Canada had its own reckoning. But this time, there was no video or autopsy that sparked the unrest. There was a claim, and that claim may have turned out to be baseless. On May 2…

On May 27, 2021, a shocking story out of British Columbia swept through Canada and eventually the entire world. The Kamloops Indian Band announced they had discovered 215 unmarked graves of schoolchildren under the ground of a former residential school. Everyone from the BBC to The New York Times speedily published a version of the headline: "Mass …

Mehdi Hasan is one of the most polarizing media figures today. When we polled the Roca audience to ask who we should invite onto our show, Mehdi Hasan was one of the more requested names. He has achieved a loyal following among progressive and pro-Palestinian circles and has sparred frequently on Twitter with previous We The 66 guest, John Spencer.…

Batya Ungar-Sargon is the author of the new book "Second Class: How the Elites Betrayed America's Working Men and Women." We had first come across Batya on "Real Time With Bill Maher," where she's appeared twice in the last two years. In both appearances, she made points about the political state of America that surprised us. She cited statistics a…

Harvard Professor Avi Loeb is one of the world's leading theoretical physicists and the founder of the Galileo Project, which seeks to find alien civilizations in the universe. Our conversation with Professor Loeb proved to be highly educational: He gave us a brief history of the universe, discussed the recipe for designing "baby universes," explai…

To some, Alex Berenson was the "pandemic's wrongest man." To others, he was a prophet, whose Covid and vaccine predictions -- although deeply unpopular and ultimately the reason for his ban from Twitter -- came true. A graduate of Yale University, Alex Berenson got a job as a journalist at The New York Times around 2000. During his award-winning 10…

About 10 years ago, Molly Winter decided she wanted to start seeing new men. She was an English teacher in Brooklyn at the time and felt that boyfriends would help spice up her life. That may sound entirely normal, but what made it unique is that Molly Winter was also a married mom. She and her husband then proceeded to open up their marriage. They…

Greg Lukianoff is perhaps the leading expert on free speech on college campuses -- and now even off college campuses. He is the president of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) and co-author of the #1 New York Times best-seller "The Coddling of the American Mind." In this conversation, we asked Greg about the history of free …

Pastor Carl Day, known as the "Pastor of the Hood" was once the type of youth he's now trying to help. He grew up in a rough north Philly neighborhood without a dad and quickly fell into a life of crime. He had a kid at 18 and was charged with attempted murder and armed robbery a few years later. He spent the next three years in prison or on house …

In 2021, Winston Marshall was the lead guitarist of Mumford & Sons, one of the most successful rock bands of the 21st century. He co-founded the band in 2007 and was instrumental (no pun intended) to its extraordinary success. Then, after Tweeting a positive review of conservative journalist Andy Ngo's new book on the radical left's violence in 202…

Dr. David Hasan, a professor of neurosurgery at Duke University, was among the first cohort of doctors to enter Gaza in the wake of October 7th. It was late December 2023, and he had no clue what to expect. Although his visit was emotionally shattering, he later returned to Gaza in March and plans to do so again in June. Hasan discusses the morale …

Today we bring you an interview with John Spencer, an expert in urban warfare who serves as the chair of urban warfare studies at the Military Institute at West Point and has visited Gaza twice since October 7th. John Spencer is a US military veteran himself. He served for 25 years in the Army including two combat deployments to Iraq as both an inf…

Steven Pinker is the guest on the latest episode of We The 66. He defended his thesis in "Enlightenment Now" and shared how progress isn't linear, which might explain the backsliding in various areas over the last decade. He also discussed wokeness, free speech, and how Harvard his changed. He continues to defend the Enlightenment and argues that o…

A member of the Roca community, Michael Colgan, sent us a rather surprising message: He said he died for 7 minutes when he was a college student. At first, we didn't know if this was a joke, but we were curious. We reached out to him and brought him into the studio for an interview. He tell us his story, which was both terrifying and inspiring. It …

Marianne Williamson joined the pod to discuss her experience as an outsider candidate in the Democratic Party. She shares how she's lost friends on the campaign trail, why the Democratic Party hates her so much, claims that being a woman has made her candidacy harder, why her dad took her to Vietnam when she was 12, why she thinks her candidacy hur…

Today we bring you an interview with Dr. Martin Kulldorff. Virtually overnight, Dr. Kulldorff went from being one of the world’s most prominent epidemiologists – a Harvard medical professor and NIH affiliate – to being labeled “fringe” by the government, blacklisted on social media, and, eventually, losing his job at Harvard. You may be thinking, “…

Welcome to the first episode of We The 66! We are so thrilled to launch the first episode of our official podcast. In this episode, we share how Instagram has censored Roca, why we have this name, what we plan to cover in this show, and what we've learned about the news media in our 3.5 years of running Roca. We're the Maxes, and we hope you can fo…

World-renowned behavioural economist Cass Sunstein on why dismissing his friends' fears about democracy being at risk in the US was wrong.By The Depolarization Project

Former advisor to the Foreign Secretary at the time of the Iraq War, Ed Owen, on why he now feels differently about the decision to go to war in Iraq.By The Depolarization Project

The Authors of Union: a Search for Common Ground on how an American road trip woke them up to the failings in the criminal justice system and the limitations of beloved media outlets.By The Depolarization Project

Danny Finkelstein, associate editor of the Times and Conservative peer, talks to us about why being able to clearly see both sides of an argument is important but can also feel debilitating in a world that craves certainty. He shares his lessons from switching parties and why it is critical to reduce the cost of people changing their minds.…

Peter Geoghegan, author of Democracy for Sale and investigative journalist, left Ireland as a young man desperate to get away but has returned in lockdown to find a country much changed. He tells us why, from his childhood bedroom, and explains the need to dig deeper into unaccountable money in politics, in the UK as well as the US.…

Helen Lewis, a journalist at the Atlantic and author of Difficult Women: the History of Feminism in 11 Fights, talks about how she came to question her previous liberal beliefs on prostitution, a former Labour MP who cried after receiving an apology for being deselected when she came out in the 70s, the limits of unconscious bias training, and more…

The Director of Change.org in the UK Kajal Odedra talks about realising no platforming tended to backfire, her changing relationship with her own identity and how Change.org's supporters come from a much broader base than most people imagine.By The Depolarization Project

Author of Future Politics, Jamie Susskind, left the Labour Party after 10 years of activism due to antisemitism. He tells us what happened, why he is on the cusp of going back and what politicians need to think about now to prepare for the tech of the future.By The Depolarization Project

Author Derek Bardowell used to think mainstreaming would be enough to tackle racism. Over decades over work he's realise that on it's own, it is far from enough.By The Depolarization Project

When Leah Garces sat opposite Craig Watts in his living room it was an unlikely occurrence. Leah, a vegan and CEO at Mercy for Animals, did not expect to have much in common with the factory farmer she had spent years campaigning against. Yet, she and Watts were to become unexpected allies in the fight to improve animal welfare. She tells us how th…

Aimen Dean was a bombmaker for Al-Qaeda before leaving to become an MI6 informant. He and the Middle East expert Thomas Small join us to explore why and what we can learn from a 14th century Muslim scholar.By The Depolarization Project

Lollipops the Clown updates loyal viewers of the Blood Sports Network on the new games of death for the pandemic. Helen Keller makes sure people stay safe. The Oh Dear God! team shares their DIY tips for the coming Apocalypse. Oh Dear God! It's A Comedy Horror Podcast was created by Ed Cass. Additional Voices by: Tracy Ip, Sydney Tupper and Kyle Ly…

Once again Helen Keller Flash Bang Assassin must destroy evil. This time on Valentine's Day.By Ed Cass

From the Abby Normal brain of Ed Cass comes another disgusting episode of Oh Dear God! It's A Comedy Horror Podcast. Featuring three commercials for Mollie's Transdimensional Foods and Drink Restaurant. Plus the mysteries of The Magic Knife, the terror of Earworm Zombies and exciting news about The Blood Sports Network's newest streaming service Ma…

By Ed Cass

More Horrific tales from the abby-normal brain of Ed Cass. The American Slasher League: Hatchet Holly vs Teens Time Machine Problems Wonderful What Helen Keller Flash-bang Assassin Ep.21 All sponsored by the Oh Dear God Pre-Thanksgiving Christmas SellathonBy Ed Cass

Social psychologist, rising star at UCL & MIT, and author of new book Messengers on why he’s changed his mind (several times) on positive discrimination. Plus, learn why the messenger is now the message and what you can do (and should NOT do) to be heard.By The Depolarization Project

A Presidential Memorial Address In Studio with Ed Helen Keller Flash-bang Assassin Ep.78 Sponsored by Platinum Executive SafarisBy Ed Cass

Chief Leader writer at The Observer and The Guardian, Sonia Sodha was very active in the campaign to make higher education free. Fifteen years on, she has changed her mind. We talk about why, what her 20 year old self would make of it and the role of the media in polarization.By The Depolarization Project

Three horrifically hilarious stories from the Abby Normal brain of Ed Cass. Hollywood Hike – teaches us all not to judge every book by its cover and if you just try you might find that people have more in common than they think. When the Moon – follows some wild lunar antics. The Angel’s River Bride – is a love story that hits you where it hurts. S…

Jeff Pfeffer once wrote that leaders often made little difference to a company, now he thinks they can. We talk about why telling people to be authentic is terrible advice and how flattery helps change people's minds with one of the world's leading management thinkers.By The Depolarization Project

Stanford Professor and expert in protest movements on how she performed a total u-turn on the value of online learning. From thinking it was never going to work to leading courses and persuading colleagues to join in. With such a strong background in protest we also talked to her about when they work, why and how in 2019 our political polarization …

Carwyn Jones, the former First Minister of Wales talks leadership, why he switched his position to be in favour of another referendum on the UK's membership of the EU and what chastisement of children is reasonable.By The Depolarization Project

World renowned negotiations expert Stanford's Professor Maggie Neale talks about becoming comfortable with conflict, learning that you don't always need to be nice and the importance of owning a dog.By The Depolarization Project

Georgetown University's Dr Marcia Chatelain takes it to a meta level with us. We talk about her work looking at the relationship between race and fast food in the States, why people don't own up to mistakes and how she has changed her mind on capitalism.By The Depolarization Project