Jake Tapper, CNN host and author of Race Against Terror: Chasing an Al Qaeda Killer at the Dawn of the Forever War, joins The Realignment. Marshall and Jake discuss the saga of the first and only successful prosecution of an Al Qaeda fighter in American courts, why the Obama administration failed to shut down Guantanamo Bay, whether terrorism is best fought by civilian or military means, and the applicability of the post-9/11 approach to fighting terrorism to the Trump administration's airstrikes against Venezuelan boats that the Pentagon claims traffic drugs and cartel organizations in Mexico.

Liam Kerr, Co-Founder of Welcome and co-author of Deciding to Win: Toward a Common Sense Renewal of the Democratic Party, joins The Realignment. Marshall and Liam discuss challenge of articulating a centrist story and vision for America, what the left populist, right populist, and post-neoliberal stories get right and wrong, unpack the findings of Deciding to Win, the struggle to recruit winning centrist candidates for higher office, and how the divided factions of the Democratic Party can work together.

Last week, Marshall interviewed Reihan Salam, President of the Manhattan Institute, at Newark's Aspen Ideas Festival: Economy. Marshall and Reihan discussed culture's impact on the economy and politics through the lens of immigration. They cover the struggles of multigenerational working-class immigrants facing a new cultural and economic landscape and the right's increasing turn against H1B visas and high-skilled immigration through the lens of Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy's comments about American children choosing sleepovers over hard work.

Frank DiStefano, author of The Next Realignment: Why America's Parties Are Crumbling and What Happens Next and the Renew the Republic Substack, returns to The Realignment. Marshall and Frank discuss why they were attracted to the idea of a "realignment" before it was cool and obvious, why the breakdown of parties and institutions is fundamentally about a "crisis of legitimacy," the importance of building an ideological movement versus focusing on political parties, and why the abundance agenda, especially in its less wonky versions, is a useful vehicle for forcing institutions to answer the "what are we trying to do here," question.

Steve Teles, Senior Fellow at the Niskanen Center, returns to The Realignment. Marshall and Steve discuss the past, present, and future of American public policy think tanks, the origins of the Niskanen Center and its theory of change, how elite-driven think tanks on the left, right, and center navigate a moment of democratic and populist backlash, and why politicians and voters should care about the industry's work.

Giselle Hale, Managing Partner at the Abundance Network and former Mayor of Redwood City, CA, joins The Realignment. Marshall and Giselle discuss Abundance Network's newly announced Abundance Elected Network, a community of local elected officials in city and county government interested in abundance and state capacity. They discuss why the local government version of the abundance discourse is completely different than the national level, think tank and pundit debate, how local officials are operationalizing abundance ideas, and what an outcomes-centered politics could look like.

Doug Most, author of Launching Liberty: The Epic Race to Build the Ships That Took America to War, joins The Realignment. Marshall and Doug discuss the untold story of the construction of Liberty Ships, the massive cargo vessels that carried tanks, jeeps, food, and ammunition to allied forces in World War II. The conversation explores the parallels between World War II problem-solving and contemporary debates about infrastructure, industrial policy, and the private sector's role in government, the importance of bringing a "problem-solving" approach to government, and how the pragmatic choice of emphasizing "ugly duckling" ships over Hitler's obsession with engineering marvels made all the difference.

Nancy Scola, reporter and journalist focused on the battle of ideas in Washington, returns to The Realignment. Marshall and Nancy discuss the three big ideas-focused conferences in DC in September: The new right National Conservatism Conference, Abundance 2025, and this week's Anti-Monopoly Summit. They cover the competing stories and ideas discussed at these events, the degree to which each convening contradicts the others, the difficult task of holding bipartisan gatherings during a time of polarization and factionalism, and how politicians can use ideas to build their political brands during an era of anti-establishment and voter skepticism.

Danielle Lee Tomson, author of the forthcoming Under the Influence: What's Real When America Feels Fake, joins The Realignment. Marshall and Danielle discuss the right's multi-decade project of participatory, oppositional media, and why the effort culminated in President Trump's 2024 election victory. They unfavorably contrast the center-left's post-2024 response, with its focus on top-down marketing, "ideas" disconnected from a broader story and understanding of the country, highlight the importance of storytelling when it comes to creating the "common sense" that oppositional movements require, and compare and contrast the worldviews and stories of the left, right, and center.

Steve Teles, Niskanen Senior Fellow and Johns Hopkins University Professor, returns to The Realignment. After a brief note on Charlie Kirk's assassination yesterday in Utah, Marshall and Steve discuss their takeaways from last week's Abundance 2025 Conference in DC, tensions between the left-liberal wings of the Abundance project and the right-wing, "Dark Abundance" crew, the contrast between the dueling Abundance and National Conservatism conferences, and where the broader effort goes next after the previous week's events.

Steve Teles, Senior Fellow at the Niskanen Center, returns to The Realignment. Ahead of next week's 2025 Abundance in DC, Marshall and Steve discuss his new Niskanen Center paper on "The Varieties of Abundance." In Steve's telling, despite broad agreement within the Abundance movement on the need to increase supply, challenge existing incumbents who benefit from scarcity, and the critical role of enhanced state capacity in addressing America's challenges, there are existing and potential varieties of Abundance across the ideological and geographic spectrums. Just as the late 19th- and early 20th-century Progressive Movement held a shared critique of the industrial-era American state, different actors took the project in different directions. Theodore Roosevelt, Herbert Hoover, and Woodrow Wilson were all progressives, but operated in separate camps. In Steve's telling, abundance is already operating accordingly. In the paper, he identifies six varieties of Abundance: Red Plenty, Cascadian Abundance, Liberal Abundance, Moderate-Abundance Synthesis, Abundance Dynamism, and Dark Abundance. The aim of the paper is not to be overly inside-baseball, but to offer readers and listeners a framework for understanding the diversity of actors, institutions, and ideologies that have positively engaged with the Abundance framework.

Dan Wang, Research Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover History Lab and author of Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future, joins The Realignment. Marshall and Dan discuss China's quest to become a techno-industrial superpower, how China's "engineering state" contrasts with America's "lawyerly society," why China has successfully built megaprojects vs. America's stalled efforts at industrial policy, high speed rail, and electrification, whether both countries have entered into a cold war, and the downsides of the engineering states top-down control.

Scott Anderson, author of King of Kings: The Iranian Revolution: A Story of Hubris, Delusion, and Catastrophic Miscalculation, joins The Realignment. Marshall and Scott discuss the historical legacy of the rise and fall of the Shah of Iran, how the rise of religious fundamentalism reshaped America's relationship with Iran and the broader Middle East, President Carter's misread of the Iranian Revolution in the context of the Cold War, and survey the aftermath of the joint U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran's nuclear program this past June.

Jon Lee Anderson, New Yorker Staff Writer and author of To Lose a War: The Fall and the Rise of the Taliban, joins The Realignment. Marshall and Jon discuss the legacy of America's 20-year war in Afghanistan, how policymakers and the military struggle to define "victory" during wartime, why post-WWII conflicts and the end of the norm of "total war" has made it harder to "win," and why, despite achieving the goal of ending the country's status as a safe haven for terror, eliminating Osama bin Laden, and initially removing the Taliban from power, the U.S. still lost the war.

Sam D'Amico, Founder & CEO of Impulse Labs, and Noah Smith, author of the Noahpinion Substack, join The Realignment. Marshall, Noah, and Sam discuss how the "Electric Tech Stack," a combination of advances in batteries, motors, power electronics, and computing, will reshape everything from kitchen appliances to warfare. They argue that electricity will increasingly "eat" the world, that China has seized the lead in the race to electrification, and make the case for a serious industrial policy.

Osita Nwanevu, author of The Right of the People: Democracy and the Case for a New American Founding, joins The Realignment. Marshall and Osita discuss a "re-founding" of America at the level of the post-Civil War Reconstruction Amendments, why the current political system has left many Americans disillusioned with pro-democracy promises and rhetoric, the failure to leverage the 2008 Financial Crisis and 2020 COVID epidemic to force systemic change, and his case for radical reforms to the legislative branch, elections, the workplace, and Supreme Court.

Daniel Squadron, former New York legislator and Co-Founder of the States Forum, joins The Realignment. Marshall and Daniel discuss why the center-left and the Democratic Party lack the kind of coherent worldview of the MAGA right, why real political power and the opportunity to build and test new ideas lies in the states, not just D.C., the importance of ideas vs. "messaging," and the case for centering the themes of representative democracy, fair markets, effective government, and personal freedom at the center of the left-liberal project.

In today's episode of The Realignment, the Niskanen Center's Steve Teles returns for a wide-ranging discussion about the Democratic Party's evolution during the Trump-era and what lessons it can and can't take from the GOP's experience under Trump. Marshall and Steve unpack how Democratic Party factions - from abundance-focused reformers to the new "Common Sense Democrats" - mirror and diverge from the GOP's 2010s-era "Reform Conservative" movement. They explore the challenge of offering new ideas after rejection at the ballot box, the role of candidates like NYC's Zohran Mamdani, and why signaling change requires taking on your own side.

Sam Tanenhaus, author of Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America, joins The Realignment. Marshall and Sam unpack Buckley's influence on today's political landscape, how his ideas, debates, and style shaped postwar conservatism, the rise of MAGA conservatism after the 2012 election, the ideas vacuum on the left, and why developing a coherent worldview, beyond following the polls and vibes, matters more than ever post-2024.

Oren Cass, Founder and Chief Economist of American Compass and editor of The New Conservatives: Restoring America's Commitment to Family, Community, and Industry, returns to The Realignment. Marshall and Oren discuss the evolution of the conservative movement since the 2016 election, the fifth anniversary of American Compass, and the organization's new volume covering the new right's perspective on trade, immigration, labor, family, industry policy, technology, and more...