Honestly with Bari Weiss

CBS News Presents: A Town Hall with Erika Kirk

14 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Last week, Bari sat down with Erika Kirk for an hour-long town hall in front of a live audience on CBS. It was an extremely powerful conversation....

Should We Legalize Assisted Suicide?

09 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

One of the most complex medical, ethical, moral, and religious questions of our era is that of physician-assisted suicide—also known as Medical Aid ...

Is Designing Babies Unethical—or a Moral Imperative?

02 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Most parents know what goes into raising children: the time spent changing diapers in inopportune places; the hours of worrying—about what to feed t...

Would America Be Safer Without the Second Amendment?

25 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Few lines in the Constitution have provoked as much passion—or confusion—as this one: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the securit...

Kids Don't Need Phones with Jonathan Haidt

18 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

You probably know Jonathan Haidt as the guy trying to save your kids from smartphones and social media apps. Likely you’ve read The Anxious Generati...

Is There Still Room for John Fetterman in Today’s Democratic Party?

11 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Who owns the future of the Democratic Party? That’s the question on everyone’s mind since last Tuesday night—when the richest city in America e...

How We Lost Ourselves to Technology—and How We Can Come Back

04 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Do you feel uneasy? Do you feel a level of ambient anxiety? Do you feel despair, despite the fact that we live in the most luxurious time and place in...

Can Reading Fix Men?

30 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It’s no secret that young men are sort of unwell. They are four times more likely to kill themselves, three times more likely to struggle with addi...

Palmer Luckey and the Future of American Power

28 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A former Senate staffer recently told our friend, reporter Dexter Filkins: “The last socialist systems in the world are in Cuba and the Pentagon.”...

Trailer | Spiral: Murder in Detroit

23 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On October 21, 2023, beloved Detroit community leader Samantha Woll was found brutally stabbed to death outside her home—two weeks to the day after ...

How Katie Herzog Drank Her Way to Sobriety

21 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

If you’re listening to this, you probably know someone who has struggled with alcohol addiction, or maybe you’re an alcoholic yourself. It’s one...

The Hostage Release and the Future of Gaza

14 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

At 3:22 a.m. ET on October 7, 2023, Bari texted her producer: “Candace, there’s war in Israel.” At that moment, Hamas men still roamed southern ...

María Corina Machado’s Fight to Free Venezuela

13 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Congratulations are not usually in order for someone who has been forced into hiding, someone whose children are scattered across continents for their...

Niall Ferguson on October 7 and Our Changed World

08 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This week commemorates the two year anniversary of October 7, 2023. That morning, Hamas invaded Israel. They slaughtered some 1,200 people and took an...

He Spent 491 Days as a Hamas Hostage. This Is How He Survived.

07 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Two years ago today, five terrorists broke into Eli Sharabi’s safe room on Kibbutz Be’eri. He had been sheltered there for hours with his wife, Li...

The Future of The Free Press

06 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

An announcement from The Free Press. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How One Man Overcame His Autism

30 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Leland Vittert is one of America’s most recognizable television correspondents. You’ll know his face from years of frontline reporting in places l...

Inside the Mossad

23 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

If you’re anything like us, you’re a sucker for a good spy show: Homeland, Tehran, Fauda, The Bureau. We’re fascinated by the life of spies—th...

Woody Allen on Life and Death

17 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

You know the name Woody Allen. Everyone does. He’s made some of the most acclaimed films ever made: Annie Hall, Hannah and Her Sisters, Crimes and M...

Charlie Kirk’s Murder and the Rise of Political Violence

11 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Yesterday, in broad daylight, in front of a crowd of 3,000 people at Utah Valley University, Charlie Kirk was shot dead. Kirk was not just a husband, ...

Amy Coney Barrett’s Message for America

08 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When Amy Coney Barrett was appointed to the Supreme Court, she was in some ways an unlikely choice. She was living in South Bend, Indiana, not New Yor...

Conversations with Coleman: Three Hostages Families Disagree on How to Get Their Loved Ones Home

02 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Everyone wants the war in Gaza to end. The reason the war is not over is because about 50 people are still being held hostage by Hamas. Twenty of the...

Breaking History: The Invention That Changed Everything

26 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Ever travel to Europe in the summer and suddenly feel very “ra ra ra” about America? It’s not because of American culture, or food, or architec...

The Radical Right Is Coming for Our Sons

19 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

You might have heard of the new term: “woke right.” It’s the idea that the illiberalism that has swallowed the progressive left—what we often ...

Why Amanda Knox Forgave the Man Who Sent Her to Prison

12 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On November 1, 2007, a man named Rudy Guede broke into a random home in Perugia, Italy, then raped and killed Meredith Kercher—a 21-year-old exchang...

Why Unions Went for Trump

05 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The question of who represents the working class is probably the hottest debate in American politics. Is it Republicans? Democrats? Or socialists like...

Jeffrey Epstein and Conspiracy America

29 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Here’s one fun question to ask at a dinner party: What is your favorite conspiracy theory? There’s the idea that the CIA killed John F. Kennedy. ...

Could Rahm Emanuel Be Our Next President?

23 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Rahm Emanuel is giving every indication that he’s running for president in 2028—including by coming on Honestly yesterday. Emanuel, now 65 years ...

Giga-Yachts, Flo Rida, and Bunkers. . . What Could Go Wrong?

22 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Depending on who you ask, some would call the ultrarich “shameless”; others might say “aspirational.” For example: Mukesh Ambani, the Indian c...

Why Young People Love Socialism

15 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Just two weeks ago, New Yorkers voted en masse for a self-proclaimed socialist—someone who once called for “seizing the means of production.” T...

Is Anyone a Genius?

08 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Love him or hate him, many consider Elon Musk to be a modern-day genius. He co-founded PayPal, which transformed how people purchase things. He became...

The Words That Made America

02 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

America is turning 250. And we’re throwing a yearlong celebration of the greatest country on Earth. The greatest? Yes. The greatest. We realize tha...

Is Iran’s Nuclear Program Damaged or Destroyed?

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When we last recorded Saturday night, the U.S. had just announced its strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities. The U.S. had entered the war. The restrai...

The U.S. Bombs Iran’s Nuclear Program

22 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On Saturday night at 7:50 pm ET, President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. had entered the war against Iran when he posted: “We have completed ...

Niall Ferguson and Dexter Filkins: Who Will Win the Israel-Iran War?

16 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It’s the fourth day in the war between Iran and Israel. Many questions hang in the air. Chief among them: Will Israel be able to fulfill its main g...

Iran Strikes Israel, Oil Fields Ablaze, and Will the U.S. Enter the War?

15 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

As we taped this episode of Honestly, it was 3 a.m. in Israel. Sirens wailed across the country as Iranian missiles rained down on Israeli towns. At ...

Naftali Bennett and Michael Oren: Israel and Iran at War

13 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the early hours of Friday morning, Israel pulled off a historic strike on Iran. As I record these lines, Iran is reporting a “massive explosion”...

Amb. Mike Huckabee on Gaza Aid, Iran, and MAGA’s Foreign Policy War

10 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

There are people who have résumés we might call “diverse” or “wide-ranging.” And then there are people like Mike Huckabee who, at age 69, ha...

How Qatar Bought America

03 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the past few weeks, Qatar has been all over the news with flashy headlines of a $400 million luxury jet that the country gifted to President Donald...

The Biden Cover-Up and the Failure of the Press Corps

29 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 2023 and 2024, there were many things that were unsayable. Perhaps the most unsayable—at least in legacy media circles—was that the President o...

How to Examine Your Marriage and Your Life

27 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A lot of people fall in love outside of their marriages. Some have affairs. Some leave their wives or husbands. But not a lot of people are Agnes Call...

Welcome to the Global Intifada

23 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Milgrim, 26, were staffers at the Israeli Embassy. They had just planned a trip for Sarah to meet Yaron’s parents. H...

Debate: Will the Truth Survive Artificial Intelligence?

22 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The late biologist E.O. Wilson said that “the real problem of humanity is the following: We have Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions, and go...

Andrew Cuomo on His Past and New York’s Future

20 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When you think about great political comebacks, maybe you think of Donald Trump, or Richard Nixon, or “comeback kid” Bill Clinton. You might so...

How China Captured Apple

13 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The majority of people listening to this episode are hearing it on an iPhone. As most of us can attest, the iPhone is so central to our lives that if ...

Meet Casey Means, Trump’s Pick for Surgeon General

10 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

There’s an endearing saying that the U.S. surgeon general’s primary role is to be the nation’s family doctor. They represent America’s medical...

The Man Who Helped Michael Jordan Win

08 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

I want to tell you the story of a kid, born in 1937 into segregated Washington, D.C. He’s 9 when his father dies and 13 when his mother has a mental...

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

06 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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....

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

01 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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...

100 Days of Donald Trump

29 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 har...

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

23 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 o...

Can America Survive Without Christianity?

22 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 w...

Ross Douthat: Why It’s Logical to Believe in God

17 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

You may have noticed on this show that Bari Weiss is always asking her guests, “Do you believe in God?,” “What is your favorite biblical charact...

Mark Hyman: How to Live Your Healthiest Life

15 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 2025 it seems like there are two types of people—those who are insanely diligent about health, the people who learn everything there is to know a...

Niall Ferguson: The Trade War and the Battle for the 21st Century

10 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

If your head has been spinning since Donald Trump walked into the White House Rose Garden  and declared “Liberation Day” last Wednesday, we don't...

Axios Founders: Who Broke the Media?

08 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Depending on who you talk to, Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen are either the swampiest of swamp creatures—the epitome of all that is wrong with politica...

Debating Pronouns with John McWhorter

03 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

John McWhorter is one of the greatest living experts on the English language—and many others, too. He’s an associate professor of linguistics at C...

Jay Bhattacharya Was “Dangerous.” Now He Leads NIH.

01 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A few years ago Jay Bhattacharya was an obscure Stanford professor—a medical doctor who also had a PhD in economics. Then Covid hit, the lockdowns b...

Leonard Leo: The Man Who Rebuilt the Supreme Court

27 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

For the last quarter century, an Italian macher from New Jersey has been one of the most powerful people in the United States. If you’re a certain t...

Will Mahmoud Khalil Be Deported?

25 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The morning of March 8, Mahmoud Khalil was detained at his apartment in New York City. Khalil is a 30-year-old Algerian citizen. He was born in Syria ...

Debate: Do We Need a Religious Revival?

20 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The other week Bari traveled to Austin, Texas, to host a debate on a simple little topic: religion and whether we need more of it. There’s a line f...

Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson Have a Plan for the Left

18 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson are the two most important liberal journalists working in the legacy press today—Ezra at The New York Times, and Derek...

Alex Karp’s Fight for the West

15 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Alex Karp is many things: a cross-country skier, a long-range shooter, a tai chi expert who might be the only man who knows how to wield a sword but d...

Andrew Schulz Has Advice for Dems, Jews, and Comics

13 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Each one of us has a different conception story. For some parents, it’s a romantic night out, maybe over a candlelit dinner. For others, like Bari a...

Meet Sarah Wynn-Williams, Facebook’s Highest-Ranking Whistleblower

11 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

You may have never heard of Sarah Wynn-Williams, but that’s about to change.  She’s written a memoir about her nearly seven years at Facebook, t...

The Dissidents Who Defeated Russia

06 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Earlier this week on Honestly, Batya Ungar-Sargon, Brianna Wu, and Christopher Caldwell shared their views on President Donald Trump and Vice Presiden...

The Best Reality TV Is Actually in the Oval Office

04 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It’s been four days since the diplomatic earthquake went down in the Oval Office between President Trump, Vice President Vance, and Ukrainian presid...

The Future of Money with Brian Armstrong

27 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Have you ever gone on the internet and stumbled onto this combo of words, or perhaps non-words?: “Dogecoin.” “Shiba Inu.” “Hawkcoin.” “B...

German Elections, Antisemitic Nurses, and the Latest Hostage Release

25 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Over the past year, right-wing parties across the West have been sweeping elections. Donald Trump in the United States, Argentina’s Javier Milei, It...

‘We’re Releasing Dangerous Terrorists. . . and We Accept the Price’

20 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

I’m sure you remember the images of Kfir and Ariel Bibas. They were just nine months and four years old when they were kidnapped by Hamas along wit...

Can Rick Caruso Save LA?

18 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A lot of people are wondering if things in LA would look different if Rick Caruso had won the mayoral race against Karen Bass in 2022. If he had been ...

How to Find Love in 2025

13 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Running The Free Press is Bari’s hobby, but her true passion is being a yenta. And one thing Bari has learned from talking to young singles is that ...

Tulsi Gabbard, Kanye West, and Mar-a-Gaza

11 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It’s Trump’s third week in office and there is no shortage of news to report. Last week, RFK Jr., Kash Patel, and Tulsi Gabbard advanced in their ...

Can America Win the AI War with China?

06 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Two weeks ago, America thought it was leading the AI race. Then out of nowhere, an unknown Chinese start-up turned the American stock market—and tha...

Simon Sebag Montefiore: History Is Not Over

04 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Did you know that Joseph Stalin could sing with perfect pitch? Or that he was so scared of his wife that he would hide from her in the bathroom? Did y...

Tiger Mom Amy Chua Takes Washington

01 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Fourteen years ago, Amy Chua published Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. It was received less like a book and more like a nuclear bomb. Here are some ...

Trump’s Second Week: DeepSeek, DEI in the Military and . . . Baby Chickens?

30 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It’s President Donald Trump’s second week in office, and he has wasted no time being the wrecking ball he promised his voters he would be. On Tue...

'MAHA': The Unexpected Coalition of Nutritionists, Mushroom Shamans and Moms

28 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

There has been a cultural sea change over the last year when it comes to health in America. It is shepherded by an unexpected coalition of nutritionis...

26 Executive Orders, TikTok's Future, and Elon’s Arm

24 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

President Donald Trump was inaugurated on Monday, and he came out swinging. On his first day, he signed 26 executive orders and rolled back about 80 o...

Trump’s Populism Isn’t a Sideshow. It’s as American as Apple Pie.

22 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Donald Trump, just sworn in as the 47th president, was reelected to be a wrecking ball, a middle finger, the people’s punch to the Beltway’s mouth...

Inauguration Day with the Speaker of the House

20 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Being the Republican House leader is a little like marrying Henry VIII. At some point, you’re getting your head cut off.  But for now, Mike Johnso...

H.R. McMaster on Trump: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

16 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Very few people have worked closely with President-elect Donald Trump, gotten fired, and walked away with a pretty balanced view of him. But former n...

L.A. Fires, MAGA's Schism, and Meta's Big Pivot

14 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Trump’s inauguration is right around the corner, and there is so much to cover about the new White House. In the coming weeks, we’ll have key figu...

The UK Grooming Gangs and the Cowardice of the West

09 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It’s the biggest crime—and cover-up—in British history. And most people, at least until recently, haven’t even heard of it. Thousands of youn...

How Not to Die in 2025

07 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

If you haven’t heard of Bryan Johnson or watched the new Netflix documentary about him, Don’t Die: The Man Who Wants to Live Forever, Bryan is a p...

How The Babylon Bee Predicted the Vibe Shift

02 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

There is something so delicious about a single, tight joke in one headline that captures the political moment, or even just the banality of our lives....

What to Expect in 2025: Predictions from Niall Ferguson, John McWhorter, Nellie Bowles, Leandra Medine, and more

31 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This past year was not easy. But 2024 certainly was eventful. Joe Biden dropped out of the race at the eleventh hour, and Kamala Harris’s swift anoi...

Tom Holland on How Christianity Remade the World

24 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Whether you believe in the story of the virgin birth and the resurrection, or whether you believe that those miracles are myths, one thing is beyond d...

Why Jews Wrote Your Favorite Christmas Songs

23 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Merry Christmas, Honestly listeners! We hope you’ve been enjoying the parties, the spirit of charity, the lights, the tree at Rockefeller Center, th...

Sam Altman on His Feud with Elon Musk—and the Battle for AI's Future

19 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Just a few years ago, as AI technology was beginning to spill out of start-ups in Silicon Valley and hitting our smartphones, the political and cultur...

They Tortured Him for Years. Now They Rule Syria.

17 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Last week marked a historic turning point in Syria. Rebel forces seized control of the nation, toppling the regime of Bashar al-Assad and ending his f...

Is Kemi Badenoch the Next Margaret Thatcher?

12 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Kemi Badenoch just became the first black woman to lead the UK’s Conservative Party, the oldest in British politics, colloquially known as “the To...

Marc Andreessen on AI, Tech, Censorship, and Dining with Trump

10 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Democrats once seemed to have a monopoly on Silicon Valley. Perhaps you remember when Elon Musk bought Twitter and posted pictures of cabinets at the ...

What We Can Learn from the Ancient Stoics

05 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the 2010s, Ryan Holiday was the head of marketing for the controversial clothing brand American Apparel, and the sought-after media strategist for ...

From Aleppo to Tehran: A Middle East on Edge

03 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This week marked a dramatic escalation in Syria’s 13-year civil war. Rebel factions launched their most audacious offensive in years, capturing Alep...

Love, Death and Gratitude: Seven Stories

30 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As you’re recovering from indulging in stuffing and pecan pie, we wanted to bring you a special bonus episode we put together in collaboration with ...

The Making of America’s Most Famous Cheerleaders

28 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Happy Thanksgiving, Honestly listeners! If you’re anything like the rest of America, you’ll be spending the day with family, cooking turkey, eatin...

How to Save America with Peggy Noonan

26 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Peggy Noonan does what we try to do every day at The Free Press: tell the truth, make sense of things plainly and without pretension, frame the news i...

Where Do Democrats Go from Here?

21 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Throughout the election, we heard one warning, repeated ad infinitum: A Donald Trump victory would precipitate a fascist dictatorship, and the United ...

Where Will Trump 2.0 Take the GOP?

19 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Trump’s gains among working-class voters of all races—according to exit polls, he won the majority of Latino men at 55 percent—represent the ong...