Live From the American Enterprise Institute! | Interview: Yuval Levin

What does it mean to be an American? What is government for? What reforms will fix our political system? Join Jonah Goldberg, Yuval Levin, and 100 little policy gnomes at the American Enterprise Institute to find out! Jonah and Yuval cover America at 250 and reflect on the Bicentennial. They also discuss Graham Platner versus Ken Paxton, what it means to hold office, America’s 50/50 problem, unitary executive theory, the administrative state, civic virtue, election reform, Nixonian propaganda, and taking people as they find them. Show Notes: The Remnant is a production of ⁠The Dispatch⁠, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture from a nonpartisan perspective. To access all of The Dispatch’s offerings—including the Saturday Ruminant, audio versions of all our articles and newsletters, and Jonah’s twice-weekly G-File—⁠click here⁠. Instructions on how to set up your members-only feed can be found here, and if you’d like to remove all ads from your podcast experience, consider becoming a premium Dispatch member ⁠by clicking here⁠. Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief and co-founder of The Dispatch, based in Washington, D.C. Prior to that, enormous lizards roamed the Earth. More immediately prior to that, Jonah spent two decades at National Review, where he was a senior editor, among other things. He is also a bestselling author, longtime columnist for the Los Angeles Times, commentator for CNN, and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. When he is not writing the G-File or hosting The Remnant podcast, he finds real joy in family time, attending to his dogs and cat, and blaming Steve Hayes for various things. Yuval Levin is the director of Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies at the American Enterprise Institute and the editor of National Affairs. He is the author of several books, including American Covenant: How the Constitution Unified Our Nation—and Could Again. The podcast transcription below was generated using artificial intelligence and may include occasional errors or misspellings. Music 0:00 [upbeat music] [screams] [upbeat music] Music 0:14 Now, ladies and gentlemen, uh- Music 0:16 Can I please have your attention? Can you dig it? Jonah Goldberg 0:27 Greetings, dear listeners. This is Jonah Goldberg, host of the Remnant Podcast, brought to you by The Dispatch and Dispatch Media. Very excited about today's guest. Not only is he a handsome man, he's a powerful man. Um, he's my immediate boss at the American Enterprise Institute, Yuval Levin. I don't know if the intros that you guys heard in the audience, longtime listeners of this podcast know, um, everything that they need to know about Yuval and-- 'cause he's one of the, uh, main names on the Remnant Podcast bingo card. And for listeners out there, we are speaking to a live studio audience of the AEI Summer Honors Program, which takes some of America's foremost larval public intellectuals and embryonic policy leaders and, um, runs them through a vigorous course of hazing and, um, poking with sharp sticks. Because as Yuval has argued, character formation is hugely important. And so if you hear anybody screaming, it's just 'cause we've activated their pain collars. So you guys are extremely lucky in the sense that if you take the combined net worth of me and Elon Musk, we're together worth, worth almost a trillion dollars. Interactive transcripts are available to Premium members. Join to follow along with the audio. Join Now More We Think You’d Like