@Princeton University's program in American Ideals and Institutions, directed by @McCormickProf.
Princeton, NJ
Joined January 2018
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James Madison Program retweeted
Another good installment of the @MadisonProgram podcast.
Years ago a Marylin Manson music video showed riot cops dressed in pink & dancing in a big circle.
It inspired the writer @JamesPoulos to posit a theory about the post-1990s American political regime which he dubbed, "The Pink Police State."
Do we still live under one? How does his theory hold up now? Listen to his interview on Madison's Notes with host @RyanShinkel to find out:
James Madison Program retweeted
Billions must stream
Check out the latest Madison's Notes conversation with host @RyanShinkel interviewing the author, philosopher, and magazine editor @jamespoulos on "How to Stay Human Forever."
James Madison Program retweeted
This is a good interview with Matt Gasda, quite wise on the interaction of technology and culture.
@MadisonProgram
newbooksnetwork.com/writing-…
James Madison Program retweeted
Madison's Notes has a new episode: "Writing Against the Machine."
When AI can generate automatically what takes artists hours, days, even years to produce, one asks: what is the good of human creation?
To answer that question, in Season 6, Episode 5, host @RyanShinkel interviews the New York playwright, essayist, and novelist Matthew Gasda (@FOMO_sacer) to talk about the future of the creative arts.
They discuss how Gasda trained an AI on his plays and impersonated one for his new novel, plus Borges' many paradoxes, Harold Bloom's Anxiety of Influence, DF Wallace & Kafka, Tolstoy's Confession, culture monasteries, and seeing AI as a competitor to defeat.
Please enjoy: apple.co/4yJk9OI
James Madison Program retweeted
I had a great chat with @RyanShinkel about Twain that pairs well with an old fashioned podcasts.apple.com/us/podcas…
James Madison Program retweeted
My friend Ivan Kenneally, philosopher, has transformed himself into perhaps my favorite contemporary interpreter of Mark Twain's work. He brings the great writer into the present in a way very few can. Erudition plus passion. I'm listening to this now. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcas…
James Madison Program retweeted
The adventures of Mark Twain continue thanks to scholars such as @IvanKenneally—looking forward to hearing and reading more!
Madison's Notes is back with "The Political Philosophy of Mark Twain."
Many recall the Missouri author created some of America's most iconic characters—Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, Pudd'nhead Wilson, and Jim—yet few know that Twain was one of our most incisive political thinkers.
So in Season 6, Episode 4, host @RyanShinkel interviews @IvanKenneally, a Twain scholar who wrote for the @hedgehogreview on The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
They discuss Huck & Jim's many disguises, Tom's fealty to European escape novels, the con men Duke & Dauphin, technical versus tacit knowledge, Ron Chernow & Percival Everett, the nature of nobility and irony, plus what Twain can teach philosophers & comedians today.
Please enjoy: apple.co/3SOdfrU
James Madison Program retweeted
Thanks to @RyanShinkel and @MadisonProgram for a great conversation!
Madison's Notes has a new episode: "A Cure for Loneliness."
Host @RyanShinkel interviews the philosopher Ian Marcus Corbin (@ianmarcuscorbin), program director at Harvard University's Public Culture Project and author of To Arrive Where We Started (2026), about our longing for homecoming and the modern loneliness crisis.
They discuss neurobiology & culture, texts like T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets, Stefan Zweig’s The World of Yesterday, Plato’s Symposium, Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, & Karl Polanyi’s The Great Transformation, and figures from Black Elk to Roger Scruton.
Please enjoy: apple.co/4gjq84Z
James Madison Program retweeted
I offer some general thoughts here on civil discourse, civic friendship,and civil liberties. I'll have more specific things to say about the importance of these things, and how they are related, going forward.
The “near collapse of civic friendship is a catastrophic threat to public life,” @McCormickProf writes. “Restoring it depends on our capacity to practice civil discourse, which in turn requires us to acknowledge our fallibility.” theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0…
James Madison Program retweeted
✏️ K-12 NEWS 📚
Last week, the Jack Miller Center partnered with @MadisonProgram, gathering K-12 teachers from across the country for a summer seminar on statesmanship in American history.
To celebrate America250, the teachers studied the role of the Declaration in American statesmanship with top scholars in the field. They examined figures such as George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, and Theodore Roosevelt and also had the special experience of viewing actual documents (and a cannonball!) from our nation's founding.
James Madison Program retweeted
German chancellor Otto von Bismark famously said: "God has a special providence for drunks, fools, and the United States of America."
Was he right? Walter Russell Mead (@wrmead) thought so.
He used that line for his 2001 book, Special Providence, about the four schools in American foreign policy—the Hamiltonians, Jeffersonians, Jacksonians, and Wilsonians—arguing for a grand strategy underlying chaotic American politics.
How has this thesis held up since publishing? See his Madison's Notes interview with host @RyanShinkel to find out: apple.co/4w31XyJ
James Madison Program retweeted
How did U.S. foreign policy change before and after World War One and World War Two?
Guest Walter Russell Mead (@wrmead) explains this and more on Madison's Notes: apple.co/4w31XyJ
James Madison Program retweeted
The Wilsonian tradition is a school of U.S. foreign policy that focuses on international development and soft power.
For decades, it was the often default position of Washington, D.C. Right now, however, it is in shambles as a political force. What happened?
Guest Walter Russell Mead (@wrmead) explains its decline, among other things, on the latest Madison's Notes episode: apple.co/4w31XyJ
James Madison Program retweeted
The Riflemen of the Revolution, many figures of the Scots-Irish, General Patton and General MacArthur: why are they all called Jacksonians?
This foreign policy tradition, explains guest Walter Russell Mead (@wrmead), is a sleeping giant that, when awoken, goes all-out on war.
For his full interview on Madison's Notes with host @Ryanshinkel on American grand strategy since the Declaration of Independence, see here: apple.co/4w31XyJ
James Madison Program retweeted
How did American Protestant missionaries change the country's foreign policy? What is their impact today on humanitarian outreach and international development? And what does that have to do with Woodrow Wilson?
Scholar Walter Russell Mead (@wrmead) explains the history of this Wilsonian tradition on Madison's Notes with host @RyanShinkel: apple.co/4w31XyJ
James Madison Program retweeted
One of our country's anthems is "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." This religious song spoke of the Union's efforts to abolish slavery.
Few know its lyrics changed over time, going from "Let us die to make men free" to "Let us live to make men free." How did that reflect changes in larger national attitudes?
Scholar Walter Russell Mead (@wrmead) talks about this and more on Madison's Notes with host @RyanShinkel: apple.co/4w31XyJ
James Madison Program retweeted
Although Thomas Jefferson opposed Alexander Hamilton's policies, why did he govern as an expansionist? And why did he come to support the Monroe Doctrine?
Scholar Walter Russell Mead (@wrmead) explains why this doctrine is so misunderstood, and why Jeffersonians came up with it.
For his full Madison's Notes interview with host @RyanShinkel, see here: apple.co/4w31XyJ
James Madison Program retweeted
What was the foreign policy vision of the Declaration of Independence? Why was it able bring together so many different parties?
And how did presidents such as George Washington govern afterwards for the national interest?
On Madison's Notes with host @RyanShinkel, guest Walter Russell Mead (@wrmead) answers these questions and more about America's founding foreign policy: apple.co/4w31XyJ
James Madison Program retweeted
What was the political vision of New England Puritans? And what is its strange influence today upon many of our modern, liberal, and secular ideas?
Scholar Walter Russell Mead (@wrmead) explains all this and more in his interview about the history of American foreign policy on Madison's Notes with host @RyanShinkel: apple.co/4w31XyJ
James Madison Program retweeted
What did Thomas Jefferson object to in Alexander Hamilton's policies? And why did he fear the government's energetic foreign policy would be corrosive to American liberty?
On Madison's Notes, scholar Walter Russell Mead (@wrmead) explains to host @RyanShinkel the Jeffersonian tradition on U.S. grand strategy, and more: apple.co/4w31XyJ