Pod and Man at Yale

In the first episode of the spring semester, Lux et Veritas Leadership Fellows Audrey Bae ’28, Joe Gicante ’28, and Constantine Semka ’28 discuss the value of liberal arts, why they think it's worth it to pay Yale tuition to study the humanities, and what liberal arts can teach us about Trump and Venezuela:

• Semka: “I think maybe that liberal education sets you back in the first couple years, but it really gives you an advan...

In the most recent episode of Pod and Man at Yale, Buckley Fellows Nico Sahi SOM ’26 and Toby Neal ’27 talk about being liberal at Yale and as members of the Buckley Institute: 

• Nico Sahi: “I really wanted to learn a little bit more about conservative ideologies, partly because maybe I’ll change my own mind about something, but also that you can’t debate something that you don’t understand yourself.”
• Toby Neal: “The recent events...

In the newest episode of Pod and Man at Yale, Mickey Lin ’26 and Justin Greenman GSAS reflect on their trip to see Hamilton on Broadway with the Buckley Institute and discuss their thoughts on the Founders:

• Lin: “When I was working on the Hill and I had to give capital tours, I was like, now, looking back, yeah, we never really talked about Hamilton…”
• Greenman: “I think there’s this perception that, oh, we’ve never been more divi...

In the first Pod and Man at Yale episode of the fall semester, Will Flanigan '27, Hilda Barragan-Reyes '26, and Stephen Morris '27 discuss free markets, capitalism, and Zohran Mamdani:

• Hilda Barragan-Reyes: “I think people don’t necessarily disagree with the premise that capitalism is the best system. I think they often don’t understand what capitalism is and what socialism is.”
• Stephen Morris: “I do think many peo...

On the last episode of the spring semester, Pod and Man at Yale brought two military veterans, Valerie Calderon-Meyer ’27 and Galen Jones MPH/MBA '26, to talk about post-military life at Yale: 

• Calderon-Meyer: “Most of my friends are graduates or PhD students who are within my age group. I think I feel deeper connections in that way.” 
• Jones: “The school of management, I’ve had a very, I think, easy time fitting in. 10% of t...

On this week’s episode of Pod and Man at Yale, Buckley Beacon Editor-in-Chief Owen Tilman ’27 interviewed climate policy expert Bjorn Lomborg ahead of his talk at Yale: 

• Lomborg: “The world is actually, on pretty much all measurable variables getting better, but there are still lots of problems to fix. But let’s stop fixing them because we think this is the end of the world…let’s be smart and think about what we can do best.” 
• Lo...

On the newest episode of Pod and Man at Yale, Anshul Guha ’25 and Kevin Baisden LAW ’25 talked about what it means to be conservative at Yale: 

• Guha: “I think the most important thing for me, as a conservative on campus at that time, was to make sure that I was continuing to speak out…and making sure that my views were heard just so that there was this opposing view on campus.”
• Baisden: “I didn’t self-censor. None of my closest f...

On the newest episode of Pod and Man at Yale, Abhinay Lingareddy ’26, Will Flanigan ’27, and John Byler ’28 discuss the storied Yale Political Union, its conservative bent, and the state of debate on Yale’s campus: 

• Byler ’28: “On the left, in the party of the left, the progressive party, I would be shocked to find a single trump voter. But in the Federalist Party, and I what I presume to be other conservative parties as well, t...

Yale College Council Senators Will Barbee ’26 and David Fleming ’26 join Yale Daily News columnist Joshua Danziger ’28 to talk about the new YCC call for student oversight of the Yale Police Department:

Will Barbee’26: “I do think it’s important to keep it in our minds, and, you know, always make sure that we’re giving them the adequate resources they need to keep us safe.” 

• Joshua Danziger ’28: “Students, I think, recognize that...

In this week’s episode of Pod and Man at Yale, Tori Cook ’27 and Vanessa Li ’25 take on Yale’s busyness culture and whether China’s or America’s educational culture is the best path for societal success.

• Vanessa Li: “It’s good to have this kind of pressure to push you to achieve better. But make sure that you are directing the pressure in the direction that you want.”
• Tori Cook: “The idea that you’re then going to force someone i...

In the newest episode Pod and Man at Yale, Will Barbee ’26, and Raleigh Adams DIV ’26, discuss being religious on campus, how Yale interacts with and teaches religion, and the ways a religious lifestyle build on and improves the campus experience:

• Adams ’26: “You kind of are on the back foot in being that minority of being a traditionally religious student.” 
• Barbee ’26: “In terms of just perceptions of religion from the student ...

On the first episode of Pod and Man at Yale of the year, Hilda Barragan-Reyes ’26, Abhinay Lingareddy ’26, and Eric Arabadzhiev ’28  talk about new Yale student survey results pointing to an increase in support for free speech. They also debate the free speech value of shout downs and whether institutional neutrality really matters for free speech. 

• Arabadzhiev ’28: “I think, across the board, that sort of censorious behavior is...

Arianne de Gennaro ’25 and Owen Tilman ’27 join Pod and Man at Yale to talk about institutional neutrality and how Yale handles free speech. They then look at the Congressional report on Yale’s handling of Gaza protests:

• Tilman: “I think it’s pretty extraordinary that the free speech conversation on Yale’s campus in the past year has become, is it genocidal to shout ‘from the river to the sea?’ And then say, it depends on the co...

Pod and Man at Yale hosted its first ever presidential debate! Two teams of two Buckley Fellows each made the case for Kamala Harris and Donald Trump respectively to be the next president of the United States. Will Wang ’26 and Felix Leonhardt ’26 argued for supporting Vice President Kamala Harris. Manu Anpalagan ’26 and Owen Tilman ’27 took the trump side of the debate. 

Check it out before you cast your vote!

Subscribe to get all B...

In this week’s episode of Pod and Man at Yale, Arav Dalwani ’26 and John Matthews-Ederington ’27 talk about the state of world politics, covering the Middle East, Europe, and Asia. 

• Matthews-Ederington: “A lot of the failure of October 7th was an intelligence failure on Israel’s part.”
• Dalwani: “The world is on fire in my opinion… The world is in a much more precarious position than it was four or five years ago.”
• Matthews-Edering...

In the newest episode of Pod and Man at Yale, Claire Barragan-Bates ’25 and Owen Tilman ’27 return to the podcast to reflect on the spring protests and the charges against the students who wouldn’t leave. They then discuss the alarming lack of diversity among the Yale faculty in light of a new Buckley Institute report and how it impacts the campus:

• Claire Barragan-Bates: “It’s crossed the line from just being a normal college ex...

On the first episode of the second season of Pod and Man at Yale, Will Barbee ’26, Isaac Oberman ’26, and Marco Nino ’24 talk about the presidential election and what it will mean for campus civility and debate:

• Will Barbee: “People are very willing to forget things that they don’t like about one person if they even think that there’s a slightly better chance that they’ll win.” 
• Isaac Oberman: “I think that there will be a lot of...

In the final Pod and Man at Yale episode of the academic year, Tori Cook ’26 and Claire Barragan-Bates ’25 talk about the Yale Women’s Center and how it has failed to support Yale women in favor of Marxist causes:

• Barragan-Bates: “It wasn’t just about furthering women in their career prospects. They were in fact against that which is why they didn’t want to partner with The Women’s Network and Women’s Leadership Initiative.”
• Barr...

In this episode, Yale faculty members Edward Kaplan, Evan Morris, and Roya Hakakian discuss how Israel is treated on campus, the hypocrisy of academic boycotts of Israel, and their recent trip to the country. 

• Roya Hakakian: “That doesn’t just reveal the hypocrisy of boycotts but also the impossibility of separating human beings and human inventions from one another.”
• Hakakian: “A lot of Arab Israelis, almost everyone that I inte...