Honestly with Bari Weiss

• Dana Perino on Trump’s White House, Fox News, and … Love

  Sometimes we have a guest who needs no introduction. You know Dana Perino. She took on the job of White House press secretary when President George W. Bush was at his most unpopular—back in 2007 and 2008, as the Iraq War dragged on. She did not receive a warm welcome from those covering the White House—outlets like The New Republic called her clueless, and she was even injured after an Iraqi reporter threw his shoes at Bush. It was not an easy job, but, as anyone who served in the press corps back then will tell you, she did it masterfully. Then she went to Fox News, where she quickly became a fixture. Today, she co-hosts America’s Newsroom in the morning and also co-hosts the highest-rated show on cable—Fox News’ The Five—where she is both the moral arbiter and the straight man. Today on Honestly, Bari asks Dana about the moments of great tumult at Fox News and in news media more broadly. She asks Dana what she makes of Trump’s media strategy—including the administration’s open mocking of deportees. On top of that, Dana’s also pretty well-known for being a mentor, and she has a new book that allows those who don’t know her to access her wisdom. It’s called I Wish Someone Had Told Me . . . : The Best Advice for Building a Great Career and a Meaningful Life, and it just hit bookstores. It’s full of practical advice from Dana and her friends, including many of her news colleagues. Her book covers everything from starting off in the workplace to keeping your career afloat during all the ups and downs that will inevitably come your way. Dana talks about how to stay healthy, keeping yourself financially secure, dealing with bosses and coworkers, handling your personal relationships, and the endless struggle of balancing work and life. From her time at Fox and Republican politics, Dana knows quite a bit about navigating through total chaos and keeping your head above water—you’re going to learn a lot from this one. The Free Press earns a commission from any purchases made through all book links in this article. Visit ⁠clearme.com/honestly⁠ for two months free! Go to ⁠groundnews.com/Honestly⁠ to get 40% off the unlimited access Vantage plan and unlock world-wide perspectives on today’s biggest news stories. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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• Douglas Murray on Joe Rogan, Hamas, and Moral Collapse in the West

  President Donald Trump has been in office for 100 days. Israel has been at war with Hamas in Gaza for 570, and Russia and Ukraine have been at war for over 1,000.  Douglas Murray has had a front-row seat to all three of these unfolding stories, bringing us reportage and analysis that have illuminated the most urgent issues of our time.  His reporting and willingness to call out bad actors across the world and the political spectrum has earned him his fair share of adversaries. Earlier this month, Douglas went on The Joe Rogan Experience—the most popular podcast in America—to debate both Rogan and comedian-turned-pundit Dave Smith. They sparred for some three hours, with the debate earning millions of views and becoming its own viral news story.  The interview became popular in large part because Douglas refused to pull a punch. In this case that meant fighting back against antisemitism—the people that spew it and the people who fail to confront it. In this case, the kind of antisemitism rising on the online right.  George Orwell famously wrote that “to see what’s in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle.” Nobody knows that better than Douglas who, unlike many of his contemporaries, never gets lost in excuse-making and needless ideological abstraction. He sees the world clearly and reports it back to us, which is a big reason why he’s such a unique and valuable voice in our era of dishonesty. That gift is on full display in his new and best-selling book, On Democracies and Death Cults, where he writes: “The story of the suffering and the heroism of October 7 and its aftermath is one that spells not just the divide between good and evil, peace and war, but between democracies and death cults.” We get into all that and much on this episode of Honestly, which was originally filmed live for our subscribers. As an aside, if you want to start participating and asking questions in my live interviews with people like Douglas, head over to TheFP.com now to subscribe. The Free Press earns a commission from any purchases made through all book links in this article. Buy tickets for SAPIR Debate“Is Donald Trump Good for the Jews?” at  ⁠sapirjournal.org/sapirdebate⁠. Listen to Wondering Jew with Mijal and Noam Visit clearme.com/honestly for two months free! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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• 100 Days of Donald Trump

  Today marks President Donald Trump’s 100th day in office. What to make of this dizzying first hundred days? As Bret Stephens put it: “I’m hard-pressed to think of a more disastrous first 100 days of any presidency in American history. . . all of the wounds are self-inflicted.” Even some of Trump's most ardent supporters are struggling to understand and support his actions. As Rod Dreher wrote for The Free Press last week: “MAGA tempts the same sorry fate that conservatives like me suffered over Iraq. Do we hate our enemies more than we love liberty? More than we care about prudence and common sense? If the cost of victory is trashing the jobs and businesses of ordinary Americans with a reckless and unstable tariffs policy, abusing the Constitution, pointlessly sabotaging America’s allies, and replacing a domestic woke-left system with a woke-right one, MAGA risks destroying itself.” On the other hand, there are people like Victor Davis Hanson, who see Trump as waging an existential counterrevolution, "a social, political, military, and economic shake-up to see if he can reboot the country. . . In other words, each day he is trying to stage a counterrevolution against the prior left-wing, neo-socialist, DEI, and green revolutions of the Obama-Biden years.”  Suffice it to say, the reaction to Trump’s policies has been a stark split screen. Today, we have two Honestly favorites to discuss these first 100 days: Free Press columnist Batya Ungar-Sargon, and Democratic strategist and Free Press contributor Brianna Wu. Bari asks them about Trump’s war on globalized trade, elite campuses, illegal immigration, plus the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. Bari, Batya, and Brianna debate if Trump’s actions are what his base really wants, and most importantly, Bari asks about the reach of Trump's power, and the lengths he is willing to go. Visit clearme.com/honestly for two months free! Go to groundnews.com/Honestly to get 40% off the unlimited access Vantage plan and unlock world-wide perspectives on today’s biggest news stories. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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• Marco Rubio on Iran, Deportations and the State Dept. Shake-Up

  Yesterday, The Free Press had a major scoop: The State Department is launching the biggest shake-up in decades in an effort spearheaded by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Today, Rubio joins us on Honestly to discuss his goals for restructuring the Department and also how the U.S. is responding to manifold crises at home and abroad, from controversial deportations to the American attempt to end the war in Ukraine to the possibility of a new Iranian nuclear deal.  In his confirmation hearing, Secretary Rubio talked about how the postwar global order is obsolete. The question is: what replaces it? We asked that and more of the man who has been charged with overseeing one of the most transformational shifts in our relationship to the world in American history.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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  37:29
• Can America Survive Without Christianity?

  In the past few weeks, Bari has done two episodes on religion—one asking, “Do we need a religious revival?,” and then a follow-up conversation with Ross Douthat asking how people who grew up in the secular West can actually find faith. Today, we have the last installment of this intellectual and religious inquiry, and we are asking a new question: What is the role of religion as a political force in this country? Our guest today, Jonathan Rauch, says: “Christianity is a load-bearing wall of American civic life.” In other words, the success of liberal democracy depends on a healthy Christianity to support it—and if Christianity falters, our American project will falter too. We get into why that is in this conversation. It’s a fascinating position for a person who happens to be an atheist, Jewish, gay man. And Jonathan doesn’t just say we need to embrace Christianity, he goes a step further. He says that Christians need to look in the mirror and reconsider how Jesus would approach American politics today.   Jonathan is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and he just wrote Cross Purposes: Christianity’s Broken Bargain with Democracy. Bari asks him about the breakdown of religion. She asks about the religious and political forces that have shaped our present moment, like MAGA, the evangelical movement, and their marriage to President Donald Trump. And, she asks about the rise of Christian nationalism and the threat it poses. And, most importantly, she asks how we can restore health in political life. Go to groundnews.com/Honestly to get 40% off the unlimited access Vantage plan and unlock world-wide perspectives on today’s biggest news stories. Head over to fastgrowingtrees.com/Honestly and use the code HONESTLY at checkout to get 15% off your first order. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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