The Mona Charen Show
After a great five year run on Beg to Differ, Mona Charen brings you a new show dedicated to deepening your understanding of complex issues and trends facing society. Each week she'll engage an expert for a probing discussion that goes past the day's headlines.
Episodes
July 28, 2025 • 73 mins
Author Sam Tanenhaus discusses his new biography of the multi-talented Buckley and the movement he did so much to create.
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July 21, 2025 • 30 mins
Mona Charen speaks with More in Common co-founders Tim Dixon and Mathieu Lefevre about rising polarization, the “exhausted majority,” and how loneliness, media incentives, and misinformation are fueling division. (Full disclosure: Mona is on More in Common’s board of directors.) They discuss global trends, practical solutions like refugee sponsorship, and the urgent need to rebuild community and trust in democratic societies. ...
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July 14, 2025 • 68 mins
The Atlantic’s Helen Lewis joins Mona Charen to discuss The Genius Myth, her new book exploring whether genius is a real phenomenon or a socially constructed label. They examine how society elevates certain individuals—often more for charisma or timing than raw talent—and how the genius myth can excuse bad behavior while undervaluing empathy, humility, and collaboration. The conversation also touches on the “genius wives,” pr...
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July 7, 2025 • 49 mins
CATO's David Bier explains who ICE has scooped up—93 percent are not criminals—and what's coming next. Bier describes aggressive, anonymous arrest tactics and overcrowded detention centers with inhumane conditions, and warns of efforts to undermine birthright citizenship and due process.
Head to moshlife.com/MONA to save 20% off plus FREE shipping on the Best sellers Trial Pack or the NEW plant-based trial pack.
...
Head to moshlife.com/MONA to save 20% off plus FREE shipping on the Best sellers Trial Pack or the NEW plant-based trial pack.
...
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June 30, 2025 • 57 mins
Author Marc Dunkelman discusses his new book Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress―and How to Bring It Back.Dunkelman contrasts past centralized efficiency with today’s slow, decentralized system full of procedural roadblocks. They close with a hopeful look at reform efforts, like Josh Shapiro’s in Pennsylvania, as one potential model.
The Mona Charen Show is a weekly, one-on-one discussion that goes in depth on political...
The Mona Charen Show is a weekly, one-on-one discussion that goes in depth on political...
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June 23, 2025 • 65 mins
Linda Chavez joined Mona Charen to discuss her debut novel The Silver Candlesticks, inspired by a personal revelation during an appearance on Finding Your Roots that her ancestors were secret Jews persecuted during the Spanish Inquisition. The novel explores themes of religious identity, repression, and survival, drawing on her family's history in Spain and the New World, as well as her own experience converting to Judaism. Th...
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June 9, 2025 • 61 mins
Kevin D. Williamson of The Dispatch muses about the voters' culpability for Trump, socialism, and the "Abundance" agenda. They explore the cultural and economic decline of American civic virtue, the bipartisan slide into demagoguery, and Williamson’s disdain for both Trumpism and technocratic central planning.
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Support American family farms and join the Moink Movement today at Moinkbox.com/MONA and get FREE wings FOR...
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June 2, 2025 • 44 mins
The Atlantic's Jonathan Rauch joins Mona to talk about Trump's Achilles Heel.
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May 26, 2025 • 50 mins
Jay Nordlinger returns to discuss whether conservatism remains valid in the MAGA era.
Sponsors: Listen now to the NPR Politics Podcast, only from NPR – wherever you get podcasts.
REFERENCES:
Sponsors: Listen now to the NPR Politics Podcast, only from NPR – wherever you get podcasts.
REFERENCES:
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Against All Hope – Armando Valladares
Memoir of a Cuban dissident imprisoned for his anti-Castro beliefs.
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Children of Monsters – Jay Nordlinger
Referenced indirectly by Mona as p...
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May 19, 2025 • 60 mins
Economist Noah Smith delves into the myth of the "hollowed out" middle class, the folly of protectionism, and more. He and Mona differ on Trump's handling of Covid and . . . American chocolate.
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The Mona C...
Support American family farms and join the Moink Movement today at Moinkbox.com/MONA and get FREE wings FOR LIFE.
Oneskin: For a limited time, you can try OneSkin with 15% off using code MONACHAREN
The Mona C...
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May 12, 2025 • 86 mins
Columnist and music critic Jay Nordlinger joins Mona for an excursion into classical music. No coat or tie required.
REFERENCES:
Here’s a list of every musical piece played in the episode.
REFERENCES:
Here’s a list of every musical piece played in the episode.
- Thomas Tallis – Motet from the Gospel of John
- Johann Sebastian Bach – Preludio from Partita in E major for solo violin
- J.S. Bach (arr. Rachmaninoff) – Preludio (Bach/Rachmaninoff transcription)
- Ludwig...
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May 5, 2025 • 65 mins
The New Yorker's Susan Glasser joins Mona to discuss Trump's big beautiful deals, the cowardice of the press, and more.
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References:
Head to moshlife.com/MONA to save 20% off plus FREE shipping on the Best sellers Trial Pack.
References:
- The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021 by Susan Glasser and Peter Baker
- "Letter from Trump’s Washington" (Glasser's New Yorker column)
- Donald Trump’s f...
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April 28, 2025 • 46 mins
Mona talks with Richard Kahlenberg about a proposal to make college admissions more fair in a post race preferences world.
The Mona Charen Show is a weekly, one-on-one discussion that goes in depth on political and cultural topics. New shows drop Mondays. Find this show wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube. Add the show to your player of choice, here.
Listen now to the NPR Politics Podcast, only from...
The Mona Charen Show is a weekly, one-on-one discussion that goes in depth on political and cultural topics. New shows drop Mondays. Find this show wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube. Add the show to your player of choice, here.
Listen now to the NPR Politics Podcast, only from...
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April 21, 2025 • 66 mins
The Atlantic's Peter Wehner offers insights into the transformation of the GOP from the party that passed PEPFAR to the MAGA warriors of today.
The Mona Charen Show is a weekly, one-on-one discussion that goes in depth on political and cultural topics. New shows drop Mondays. Find this show wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube.
Go to Hungryroot.com/CHAREN and use code CHAREN to get 40% off your firs...
The Mona Charen Show is a weekly, one-on-one discussion that goes in depth on political and cultural topics. New shows drop Mondays. Find this show wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube.
Go to Hungryroot.com/CHAREN and use code CHAREN to get 40% off your firs...
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April 14, 2025 • 67 mins
Greg Lukianoff of FIRE joins Mona to discuss why free speech matters (hint, it's not for the powerful) and how left and right are attempting to destroy it.
The Mona Charen Show is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/mona and get on your way to being your best self.
REFERENCES:
The Canceling of the American Mind: Cancel Culture Undermines Trust and Threatens Us A...
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April 7, 2025 • 65 mins
The Atlantic's Helen Lewis joins Mona to talk about Andrew Tate, backlash to MAGA in Europe, and how polarization suppresses reasonable doubts about treatment of trans kids.
References:
When You’re MAGA, They Let You Do It... Why Trumpworld is just fine with Andrew Tate’s violent misogyny, by Helen Lewis
The Global Populist Right Has a MAGA Problem... In Europe, Trump looks too extreme even for man...
References:
When You’re MAGA, They Let You Do It... Why Trumpworld is just fine with Andrew Tate’s violent misogyny, by Helen Lewis
The Global Populist Right Has a MAGA Problem... In Europe, Trump looks too extreme even for man...
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March 31, 2025 • 34 mins
In this show before a live audience, Mona talks with Stephen Richer about standing up for reality, tangling with Kari Lake, and his political future.
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Head to moshlife.com/MONA to save 20% off plus FREE shipping on the Best sellers Trial Pack.
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March 24, 2025 • 56 mins
David Frum joins Mona to discuss Trump's Canada gripes, how tariffs will/are sabotaging America, NATO, defying court orders, and how best to counter all of it.
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REFERENCES:
Why Cede the Flag to Trump? by David Frum in The Atlantic (2017)
Go to Hungryroot.com/CHAREN and use code CHAREN to get 40% off your first box and a free item of your choice for life.
REFERENCES:
Why Cede the Flag to Trump? by David Frum in The Atlantic (2017)
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March 17, 2025 • 47 mins
Famed virologist Dr. Paul Offit describes his encounters with RFK, Jr., vaccine misinformation, trust in medicine, and what he fears most.
REFERENCES:
REFERENCES:
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Dr. Paul Offit’s Books:
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Deadly Choices: How the Anti-Vaccine Movement Threatens Us All
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The Cutter Incident(about a polio vaccine gone wrong)
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Deadly Choices: How the Anti-Vaccine Movement Threatens Us All
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Historical Vaccine References:
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March 10, 2025 • 42 mins
The Manhattan Institute's Jessica Reidl explains the fake fiscal posturing of DOGE as well as the ground truths about deficits and national debt. Predictions: More inflation, lower growth, less prosperity.
Get started at FACTORMEALS.com/FACTORPODCAST and use code FACTORPODCAST to get 50% off your first box plus free shipping.
Get started at FACTORMEALS.com/FACTORPODCAST and use code FACTORPODCAST to get 50% off your first box plus free shipping.
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