5 Best Sam Tanenhaus Podcasts in 2026

1. How William F. Buckley Invented Modern Conservatism

Follow Play Oct 29, 2025 1:20:50
Website Apple Spotify
About Episode Watch the video recording of this Keynote here on YouTube. In the space of a single generation (1950 to 1980), the journalist and author William F. Buckley led a small band of little-known conservatives to the peaks of political power and cultural influence. Ten years before his death, Buckley chose journalist and historian Sam Tanenhaus to tell the full story of his life, granting him extensive uncensored interviews and exclusive access to his most private papers. The result, “Buckley: The Life and the Revolution,” published in June 2025, has received a great deal of attention and prompted wide and intense debate. In a live on-stage conversation at Cornell's College of Arts and Sciences, Peter Loewen, the Harold Tanner Dean of Arts and Sciences, and Tanenhaus discuss Buckley and the true meaning of his life and legacy in the Age of Donald Trump. Follow eCornell on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, and X.  MORE Podcast Title Cornell Keynotes
Podcast Description Join Cornell University's most celebrated scholars and industry experts for candid conversations that enlighten and challenge. From finance and tech to arts and culture, the Cornell Keynotes podcast hosted by eCornell delivers timely discussions on trending topics and current events.MORE Guest Sam Tanenhaus
Producer/Network eCornell
Apple Rating 5.0/5 Avg Length 48 min Format Long form Get Email Contact Get access to full database of 2.7M podcastsCreate podcast lists, export in spreadsheet or CSV file with email contacts and start your podcast outreach in minutes.Sign Up for Free with Email Continue with Google

2. The rich, populist Republican radical who paved the way for Trump

Follow Play Sep 01, 2025 54:09
Website Apple Spotify
About Episode The U.S. Republican party today isn’t what it used to be. But the evolution toward President Donald Trump’s MAGA-ism began decades ago when William F. Buckley launched a revolution on the American right. As Buckley’s official biographer Sam Tanenhaus tells Brian, the late conservative icon was a lot like Trump: a media-savvy wealthy elite who rebelled against the very establishment he came from. In his new book, Buckley: The Life and Revolution That Changed America, Tanenhaus lays out the improbable, fascinating story of the arch-Catholic New Englander who chummed around with hardcore leftists but transformed the GOP into a political powerhouse. In no small part by engaging Republicans in the culture war that eventually put Trump in the White House. (Recorded July 24, 2025) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesMORE Podcast Title Full Comment
Podcast Description Full Comment is Canada’s podcast for compelling interviews, controversial opinions and fascinating discussions. Hosted by Brian Lilley. Published by Postmedia, new episodes are released each Monday.MORE Host Brian Lilley
Guest Sam Tanenhaus
Producer/Network Postmedia Network
Email ****@postmedia.com
Apple Rating 5.0/5 Avg Length 53 min Format Long form Get Email Contact

3. Firing Line, Then and Now - Special Guests US Rep. Jamie Raskin, and Author..

Follow Play Jul 15, 2025 1:43:25
Website Apple Spotify
About Episode Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD 8) was the House manager of the second Trump impeachment in the Senate; is an outstanding constitutional scholar; a long-time law professor; a renowned author; a driving force behind the January 6th committee; and the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee.  For the great privilege of interviewing him, we need all the tools a great interviewer would have.  It is therefore appropriate that we also interview Sam Tanenhaus, the biographer, in a new and magisterial work, of William F. Buckley, perhaps the best known and most fearlessly non-partisan in his selection of interview subjects.  Sam Tanenhaus has written the definitive work on Buckley, whose Firing Line project was in some ways an inspiration for our own podcast.  CLE credit is available for lawyers and judges from podcast.njsba.com. MORE Podcast Title Amarica's Constitution
Podcast Description Professor Akhil Reed Amar, Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale University and one of the nation's leading authorities on the Constitution, offers weekly in-depth discussions on the most urgent and fascinating constitutional issues of our day. He is joined by co-host Andy Lipka and guests drawn from other top experts including Bob Woodward, Nina Totenberg, Neal Katyal, Lawrence Lessig, Michael Gerhardt, and many more.MORE Hosts Akhil Reed Amar, Andrew Lipka
Guest Sam Tanenhaus
Producer/Network Akhil Reed Amar
Email ****@yale.edu
Apple Rating 4.6/5Twitter 1.1K Avg Length 77 min Format Long form Get Email Contact

4. Christian faith, politics and culture

Follow Play Jun 27, 2025 56:21
Website Apple Spotify YouTube
About Episode Anne McElvoy and guests explore the intersections between Christian faith and political decision-making and look at some recent dramas which explore the impact of belief. Chine McDonald is director of the Christian Think Tank Theos, Mark Lawson is a writer, broadcaster and theatre critic of Catholic journal The Tablet, Prof Anna Rowlands is St Hilda Professor of Catholic Social Thought & Practice at the University of Durham, Dafydd Mills Daniel is a Lecturer in Divinity at the University of St Andrews and Sam Tanenhaus, has published a biography of influential American conservative thinker and Catholic, William F Buckley Jnr. called Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America. Producer: Debbie Kilbride MORE Podcast Title Arts & Ideas
Podcast Description Leading thinkers discuss the ideas shaping our lives – looking back at the news and making links between past and present. Broadcast as Free Thinking, Fridays at 9pm on BBC Radio 4. Presented by Matthew Sweet, Shahidha Bari and Anne McElvoy.MORE Hosts Matthew Sweet, Shahidha Bari, Anne McElvoy
Guest Sam Tanenhaus
Producer/Network BBC Radio 4
Email ****@bbc.co.uk
Apple Rating 4.3/5Facebook 1.7MTwitter 512.1KInstagram 434.7K Avg Length 57 min Format Long form Get Email Contact

5. San Tanenhaus On Bill Buckley

Follow Play May 23, 2025 55:49
Website Apple Spotify
About Episode This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit andrewsullivan.substack.com Sam is a biographer, historian, and journalist. He used to be the editor of the New York Times Book Review, a features writer for Vanity Fair, and a writer for Prospect magazine. He’s currently a contributing writer for the Washington Post. His many books include The Death of Conservatism and Whittaker Chambers: A Biography, and his new one is Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America. It’s a huge tome — almost 1,000 pages! — but fascinating, with new and startling revelations, and a breeze to read. It’s crack to me, of course, and we went long — a Rogan-worthy three hours. But I loved it, and hope you do too. It’s not just about Buckley; it’s about now, and how Buckleyism is more similar to Trumpism than I initially understood. It’s about American conservatism as a whole. For three clips of our convo — Buckley as a humane segregationist, his isolationism even after Pearl Harbor, and getting gay-baited by Gore Vidal — head to our YouTube page. Other topics: me dragging Sam to a drag show in Ptown; the elite upbringing of Buckley during the Depression; his bigoted but charitable dad who struck rich with oil; his Southern mom who birthed a dozen kids; why the polyglot Buckley didn’t learn English until age 7; aspiring to be a priest or a pianist; a middle child craving the approval of dad; a poor student at first; his pranks and recklessness; being the big man on campus at Yale; leading the Yale Daily News; skewering liberal profs; his deep Catholicism; God and Man at Yale; Skull and Bones; his stint in the Army; Charles Lindbergh and America First; defending Joe McCarthy until the bitter end and beyond; launching National Review; Joan Didion; Birchers; Brown v. Board; Albert Jay Nock; Evelyn Waugh; Whittaker Chambers; Brent Bozell; Willmoore Kendall; James Burnham; Orwell; Hitchens; Russell Kirk; not liking Ike; underestimating Goldwater; Nixon and the Southern Strategy; Buckley’s ties to Watergate; getting snubbed by Reagan; Julian Bond and John Lewis on Firing Line; the epic debate with James Baldwin; George Will; Michael Lind; David Brooks and David Frum; Rick Hertzberg; Buckley’s wife a fag hag who raised money for AIDS; Roy Cohn; Bill Rusher; Scott Bessent; how Buckley was a forerunner for Trump; and much more. It’s a Rogan-length pod. Browse the Dishcast archive for an episode you might enjoy (the first 102 are free in their entirety — subscribe to get everything else). Coming up: Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson on the Biden cover-up, Walter Isaacson on Ben Franklin, Robert Merry on President McKinley, Tara Zahra on the last revolt against globalization after WWI, N.S. Lyons on the Trump era, Arthur C. Brooks on the science of happiness, and Paul Elie on crypto-religion in ‘80s pop culture. Please send any guest recs, dissents, and other comments to dish@andrewsullivan.com. MORE Podcast Title The Dishcast with Andrew Sullivan
Podcast Description Unafraid conversations about anything andrewsullivan.substack.com
Host Andrew Sullivan
Guest Sam Tanenhaus
Producer/Network Andrew Sullivan
Email ****@substack.com
Apple Rating 4.6/5 Avg Length 50 min Format Long form Get Email Contact