John Anderson: Conversations

John sits down with United States federal judges Amul Thapar and Andrew Oldham to discuss the purpose of a constitution, and who should have the power to change it. They argue that a constitution is a set of agreed rules that can only be understood in the context in which they were adopted, and that when unelected judges update those rules to suit the times, the people lose the ability to govern themselves.

The conversation turns to the American founders, their sober view of human nature, and the checks and balances built to constrain power. They also compare the American and Australian Constitutions, including their perspectives on free speech and the right to bear arms. Thapar and Oldham contend that the rule of law is the right that makes every other freedom possible, and that keeping it is a duty shared by citizens and government alike.

Judge Andrew Oldham serves as a United States Circuit Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, appointed by President Donald Trump in 2018. Prior to his judicial appointment, he served as General Counsel to Texas Governor Greg Abbott, Deputy Solicitor General of Texas, and an attorney-adviser in the U.S. Department of Justice. Judge Oldham is widely regarded as a leading voice in contemporary American jurisprudence and a steadfast advocate for public-meaning originalism and judicial constraint.

Judge Amul Thapar serves as a United States Circuit Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. His judicial career began in 2007 when President George W. Bush nominated him to serve on the Eastern District of Kentucky, making him the first South Asian Article III judge in American history. In 2017, he became President Donald J. Trump’s first appellate court nominee. He is the author of The People's Justice: Clarence Thomas and the Constitutional Stories that Define Him.

John sits down with author and social critic Os Guinness to ask whether Americans still understand the freedom they have inherited. Os argues that the republic the founding fathers built rests on what he calls the Golden Triangle of Freedom: freedom requires virtue, virtue requires faith and faith requires freedom of conscience, and each of those legs is undermined today.He traces the loss of that understanding to a breakdown in how the public is taught what America is, and to a long march through the institutions, and argues that renewal begins with civility in public speech and a ‘civil public square’ in which every right carries a responsibility. He also discusses the rise of authoritarianism and AI as threats to a human-friendly future, and explains the biblical roots that undergird human dignity.Os Guinness is an English author and social critic who has worked as a reporter for the BBC and served as Executive Director of the Williamsburg Charter Foundation. He has been a Guest Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Studies, a Guest Scholar and Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution, and Senior Fellow at the Trinity Forum and the EastWest Institute in New York. His latest book is A Freedom Like No Other: America 250 and the Restoration of the American Republic.

John is joined by Israeli national security expert Dan Schueftan for a blunt conversation about why Israel is so resented and how it remains resilient in spite of widespread opposition. Dan argues that Israel is hated because it challenges Western assumptions, such as the belief that the Arab world is on the road to democracy, and that institutions like the United Nations can settle conflicts.
He explains why Egypt and Jordan, whose interests often align with Israel’s, struggle to act on them in the face of hostile public opinion, and why he sees Turkey under Erdogan as a danger to Israel, NATO and the West. He also argues that democracy depends on national solidarity, and describes the Israeli army as a social institution that brings Israelis from very different backgrounds together. This conversation is a candid look at the challenge of defending a free society in a hostile region without compromising its freedom.
Dr. Dan Schueftan is the Head of the International Graduate Program in National Security at the University of Haifa and director of the university's National Security Studies Center. He has previously served as an advisor to Israel's National Security Council. His recent books include The Israel-Arab Reader – A Documentary History of the Middle East Conflict (2016) and Israel's National Objectives - A Comprehensive Perspective (2021).

John sits down with Mathias Cormann, Secretary-General of the OECD and a former Australian senator, for a wide-ranging conversation on the pressures facing advanced economies, from rising debt and ageing populations to housing affordability, migration and trust in institutions. They trace the OECD’s origins in the Marshall Plan and ask whether globalisation can be fixed rather than abandoned, before turning to the energy transition, defence spending and the war in Ukraine.Cormann warns that debt you do not pay down now means higher taxes or deeper cuts later, and urges governments to rebuild their fiscal buffers. He argues that Australia, once a leader on competition policy, is now in the middle of the pack, with regulation and corporate tax settings among the areas to fix. It is a candid conversation about the hard trade-offs leaders face, and why those choices only get harder the longer they are put off.Mathias Cormann is the Secretary-General of the OECD, a global policy forum/international organisation which groups 38 countries and works with more than 100 countries, promoting policies to improve the economic and social well-being of people around the world. He was Australia’s longest-serving Finance Minister (2013-2020), having also served as the Leader of the Government in the Australian Senate.

Nadia Schadlow joins John to discuss the fundamental shifts reshaping global geopolitics and the realities of modern statecraft. Together, they examine the return of great power competition, the evolving expectations surrounding alliance burden-sharing, and the complex challenge of managing relations with strategic competitors like China. The conversation breaks down the urgent need to address critical supply chain vulnerabilities, secure domestic energy supplies, and rethink defence industrial capacity. Schadlow also highlights how technological innovations and rapid adaptations on today’s battlefields, such as the widespread use of drones, are fundamentally altering the character of modern warfare.Dr. Nadia Schadlow is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, where she conducts research and analysis on a range of issues at the intersection of national security, technology, and strategy. She previously served as the US deputy national security advisor for strategy, leading the drafting and publication of the 2017 National Security Strategy of the United States. Her writing has appeared in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The Hill, Parameters, the Wall Street Journal and Philanthropy.