Calls to ban the Muslim Brotherhood have resurfaced in recent years, especially amid its links to Hamas and violent offshoots across the Middle East. Is it a political movement, a terrorist network, or both? How should the U.S. balance democratic principles with the need to confront groups that shift between ballots and bombs? And what tools exist to cut off its funding and influence?

In this episode, Jacob Heilbrunn speaks with Robert Silverman, the editor-in-chief of the Jerusalem Strategic Tribune. Previously a senior Foreign Service officer, Silverman served in nine overseas assignments, including in Iraq, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Riyadh. From 2013 through 2015, he was the elected president and chairman of the board of the 16,000-member American Foreign Service Association.

Music by Aleksey Chistilin from Pixabay

What does the life of William F. Buckley, Jr. reveal about the deeper currents shaping American politics? In this episode, Jacob Heilbrunn speaks with Sam Tanenhaus, a former editor of The New York Times Book Review and the author of the new biography “Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America” (Random House, 2025). Together, they examine how outsider campaigns, cultural backlash, and the performance of political authenticity have reshaped both the right and the left. Is Trump the culmination, or corruption, of Buckley's movement? Has the liberal establishment lost its hold not just on power, but on the language of ideas itself? And in a time of ideological confusion and institutional decay, is today's chaos a break from the past or its inevitable result?

Music by Aleksey Chistilin from Pixabay

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has released the Trump administration's plans for reorganizing the State Department—a first step toward reducing what the White House calls a bloated and inefficient bureaucracy. The proposed reforms could reshape U.S. engagement with the world, ending America’s human rights advocacy, shuttering key diplomatic offices, and threatening the very infrastructure that supports global U.S. leadership. With Congress holding the purse strings and foreign governments watching closely, how far will these reforms go—and at what cost to American influence and values abroad?

In this episode, Jacob Heilbrunn speaks with Paul Saunders, the president of the Center for the National Interest. Saunders served in the George W. Bush Administration from 2003 to 2005 as Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs.

Music by Aleksey Chistilin from Pixabay