At the White House

Peter Coyote: Are you related to Marcus Raskin?

Max Raskin: We think so, but I’m not sure.

PC: The name struck a chord. I’m a fan of the family.

During the Cuban Missile Crisis, I was one of the organizers of a group of 14 students from Grinnell College who went to Washington on a three-day fast, protesting the resumption of nuclear testing and supporting Kennedy’s peace race. We raised money — we bought two old flopper cars. The head of an insurance company in Des Moines gave us one brand new Chevy to drive and walkie-talkie radios for all the cars. The John Birch Society was following us, eating fried chicken and throwing the bones at us. The Birchers were following us on the sidewalk outside of the White House, ‘cause they knew we were fasting.

We got there and we got a photo above the fold on the New York Times. Kennedy saw it. He was flying to Arizona. He’d just been savaged by the John Birch Society, and he liked that we were supporting his peace race. He invited us into the White House. We were staying in a place called Gaunt House, which was a rooming house — a perfect name for fasters. Marcus Raskin came bursting in and said, “Do you know what this means? You’re the first protestors that have ever been invited into the White House.”

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Clint Eastwood and Cormac McCarthy

Max Raskin: You’re cool, right? People think of you as cool.

Sebastian Junger: Okay. Keep going. Now you got me interested.

MR: So just stipulate that you’re cool.

SJ: I actually don’t think so, but maybe being uncool the way that I am is cool.

MR: I’m not endorsing, I’m just reporting. Okay?

SJ: Okay. Well, that’s good to hear. I wish I’d had it in high school, but I’ll take it now.

MR: So my question is — when you were younger, was there anyone who you thought was cool who you styled yourself after? Whether in writing habits or drinking or anything like that?

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750 Words

Max Raskin: I wanted to start with your actual process of writing. You carry around a card in your pocket to write down column ideas. Where did you pick up your writing process? Did you self-consciously copy someone like Murray Kempton?

George Will: I made it up as I went along. I started very young as a columnist. I was born in ‘41 and I became a columnist in ‘73, so I was 31 and a half years old.

I have a strict adherence to 750-word limit. Murray would sometimes write 675 words, but he was such a literary craftsman that he could do that and get his point across.

MR: Do you handwrite? Computer? Dictate?

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Hellraiser

Max Raskin: What’s your favorite scary movie?

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Friends,

Thank you for so much support this year. Before kicking off our annual most-read interviews, I wanted to share my Weekend Interview in the Wall Street Journal with British politician Jacob Rees-Mogg out today. In spite of picking blackberries in a double-breasted suit, he is the most American of British politicians.

Since I often ask my guests their most-played songs of the year, I’ve shared my own list for 2025 below.

Most Read Interviews of 2025

Most Read Interviews of 2025

5) Douglas Murray (Writer)

“Writers have this strange thing, because we both need solitude and need a public. I remember one of my first literary agents saying, ‘It’s no wonder all you writers are mad. I mean, we lock you away for two years to write a book, throw you in front of the world’s cameras for a few days, and then throw you back in a locked room again.’”

4) Curtis Yarvin (Blogger)

“There are many, many benefits in not being clear to the average reader.

Is Marx clear to the average reader? I don’t think anybody ever understood Das Kapital. I don’t think it makes any sense at all. And yet, what are Marx’s revenues? What are his royalties? They’re immense, they’re enormous.”

3) Lydia Moynihan (Reporter)

“As a reporter, I’ve had some of those moments where there are important people who have been very kind to me, and then later I’ve been able to help them navigate challenges like with the press.”

2) Luana Lara Lopes (Co-Founder, Kalshi)

“We were really captured by the idea that casual forecasters are often more correct than subject matter experts. That’s the entire idea Kalshi is founded on. I think it was that and then the Predictably Irrational from Dan Ariely, and also Robin Hanson.”

1) Tucker Carlson (Writer)

“It’s remarkable how interested you can become in a topic as inherently uninteresting as saunas, but I’ve read books about them. I’m deeply interested in the cultural parts, but also the physical effects. They really are an integral part of my writing.”

Most-Listened-To Songs of 2025

1. “Blue Train” by John Coltrane

2. “Bolero” by the London Symphony Orchestra (Ravel)

3. “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” by Blue Öyster Cult

4. “God Bless the Child (Live, 1961)” by Eric Dolphy

5. “The Great Pumpkin Waltz” by Vince Guaraldi

-Max

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[Editor’s Note: Our friend Luana Lopes Lara just became the world’s youngest self-made woman billionaire after her company Kalshi raised money at an $11 billion valuation. This interview is from a few years ago.]

Markets in Everything

Max Raskin: I’m a huge fan of prediction markets, and I think part of it is because I’m such a fan of the news. Are you a news junkie at all?

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Richard Hanania’s Substack can be found here.

Screens and Memes

Max Raskin: I want to start with tools of the trade. You spend a lot of time online — is it mostly on your phone, iPad, computer?

Richard Hanania: It depends on what I’m doing. When I’m writing an article, I’m usually on the laptop in the Substack dashboard. I’m also doing research as I’m writing articles, so I have a computer monitor, where I’ll look at papers, I’ll talk to ChatGPT. I’ll look up stats and figures that I need. I’m doing that for a good portion of the day. That’s my work-work, that’s what I try to do before everything else.

When I’m taking care of kids, or in the afternoon after I’m done writing for the day, I’ll spend a lot of time reading books or articles on my phone, and I’ll browse Twitter. And of course, I’ll be browsing Twitter while I’m on the laptop too, and I’ll be talking to people on Signal too, so I’ll do that. But yeah, the laptop is When I’m taking care of kids, or in the afternoon after I’m done writing for the day, I’ll spend a lot of time reading books or articles on my phone, and I’ll browse Twitter. And of course, I’ll be browsing Twitter while I’m on the laptop too, and I’ll be talking to people on Signal too, so I’ll do that. But yeah, the laptop is the base when I’m writing, and then the phone, otherwise.

MR: Do you have any apps on your phone that the average person wouldn’t have heard of?

RH: That’s a good question. I mean, I got ChatGPT, I got this weight loss thing where I have the scale that it tracks every single day. Substack.

MR: Do you draft your tweets or fire them off as you think of them?

RH: I just fire them off as I think. I proofread them obviously, and I look over them. But I don’t draft them and then say, “Tomorrow, I’m going to release.” I rarely, if ever, do that.

MR: Does ChatGPT help you with any of your tweets?

RH: No.

MR: Does ChatGPT help you with any of your writing?

RH: Yes, actually. I wrote an article a couple of weeks ago about how I use ChatGPT. It’s very good for just getting basic facts, like dates, right. The bigger one is putting together data. I think it’s probably increased my productivity maybe 33%. It maybe gives me another extra article a week. I mean, it’s really an amazing tool.

MR: Are you married?

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Remember the Titans by Rob Zombie

Max Raskin: What’s your favorite scary movie?

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[Editor’s Note: Ken Burns’ new documentary on the American Revolution was released this week. We are republishing our interview with him from a few years ago.]

Proposing to the Project

Max Raskin: I will say at the outset that this will not be an objective interview — I'm an unbelievable fan of yours.

Ken Burns: Thank you — I'm so pleased. Have you had a chance to see The U.S. and the Holocaust?

MR: Yes, I watched it with my wife in Jerusalem.

KB: Oh, my goodness.

MR: You said once that you decided to do the Brooklyn Bridge documentary in a fugue state after having pneumonia and reading the David McCullough book. How did you settle on America and the Holocaust?

KB: Sometimes it’s just really having mental ideas and then suddenly something emotional drops down from your head to your heart, and you say, “Yeah.” You get down on your knees and propose to the project.

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Home

Max Raskin: I want to start with England — it sounds like you traveled around when you were younger. Is there a part of England you most identify with?

Jade Bird: What a good start. Yes. I definitely feel like my roots are in the north of England, which is sort of layered because my dad was from Chesterfield in Derbyshire, and so I spent a lot of my school holidays there. But I was living in Wales from the ages of about seven to 15, 16 with my mom and grandma. No one in my family is from Wales, but I feel like my humor and everything feels a bit more northern.

MR: What is Welsh humor?

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Sci-Fi

Max Raskin: I wanted to start with sci-fi. Are you a fan of science fiction?

Nate Soares: In a sense. I read some as a kid.

MR: Are you an ongoing fan?

NS: It’s not a big part of my personality. Ender’s Game had an impact on me as a kid.

I enjoyed Vernor Vinge. He was actually at one of the AI alignment summits I was at in 2015. A Fire Upon the Deep is probably one of my favorite books. But these days I think there’s a lot too much cynicism in popular media, and so if I’m going to read sci-fi stories I’ll stick to the older stuff.

MR: What about movies? Were you into the Terminator movies or anything like that?

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BFFs IRL

Max Raskin: So you are a part of this Internet people — do you have anyone that you met on the Internet that became a really good friend in real life?

RH: Interesting. Kyle Kashuv — we met online. Razib Khan, the geneticist. Chris Williamson, Modern Wisdom host — he and I first met through online Twitter podcasting world, and now we're friends in real life. I would say I have at least as many friends I met online than in real life now.

MR: What about, have you ever met any of your heroes or people that you enjoyed reading intellectually and became friends with them?

RH: There was a period, especially years ago, when Jordan Peterson first appeared on the scene and I had a lot of admiration for his intellectual courage. Now, we're on friendly terms. Glenn Loury — it would be a stretch to call him a friend — but I've interacted with him multiple times. Steven Pinker is another thinker I admire a great deal and now know.

MR: Yeah I don’t necessarily mean BFFs like you guys have bracelets.

RH: I mean, we don't have the bracelets yet. We're working on it.

MR: I want to talk to you about eating. What does your diet look like?

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Hobbitses, Hobbesian, & Palantirians

Max Raskin: There's a thing at Palantir about Lord of the Rings. Are you a fan?

Margaret York: This is a great question, and I can disclose that, no, not really. I'm one of those bad Palantirians who has only watched the Lord of the Rings movies but has never read the books.

MR: Really?

MY: I did not finish the Harry Potters…I made it through book four.

MR: But you use the word "hobbitses"! Now this changes everything.

MY: I know, and it's odd because I'm much more of a book person than I am a movie person.

I watched the trilogy for the first and probably second time when I got my wisdom teeth out and I had a lot of time on the couch to consume that deeply. The exception, however, is I have watched the original Star Wars trilogy many, many, many times.

MR: What are you reading right now?

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Huevos Con Hijos

Max Raskin: I have this fascination with eggs and cooking eggs —what’s your go-to way to cook an egg?

Pati Jinich: First of all, let me say I am obsessed with eggs. My husband and I are empty-nesters, but when my kids were at home, I think we ate eggs six out of seven mornings. I think they're a magnificent ingredient. Incredibly affordable, accessible, easy to use. It can shine on its own or it's happy to help other dishes shine.

One of my favorite ways of eating eggs is connected to a dear memory of when I was growing up. My dad used to make soft-boiled eggs. Soft boil the egg, open the top, cut a good piece of butter, drop it in there, add salt, pepper, mix it, and then just break a piece of toast.

MR: You would eat it out of the shell?

PJ: Eat it out of the shell, but first you dunk in a little bit of the toast in the yolk that has the melting butter. To me, that's exquisite.

MR: If you need to eat just to survive, not cook anything fancy, what’s the thing you cook?

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I wanted to share a special interview with San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie that was published in the Wall Street Journal as their Weekend Interview.

As some of you know, I started a company (Uris Acquisitions) with my best friend and partner Ian Jacobs to buy real estate in San Francisco. Ian used to work for Warren Buffett and our philosophy is very much finding value where others overlook it.

This interview with Mayor Lurie is about the city’s recovery and what he’s doing to drive down crime and make San Francisco a great major American metropolis again.

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Gut-Brain Axis

Max Raskin: I want to start with your morning routine — when your eyes open in the morning, what happens next?

Heston Blumenthal: I lay in bed a little bit. I do a bit of a meditation lying in bed…we’re lucky we have a comfortable bed. Just being in the moment. I get up, I brush my teeth.

MR: Do you floss?

HB: No, I've got something called a Waterpik, which is a jet of water. I do it thinking about how my gut feels because there's microbiome connected to your teeth. Then I hang from a door for a minute.

MR: What do you mean you hang from a door?

HB: I just hang from a door which stretches my spine.

MR: Wow.

HB: And I've got this little Japanese monk who is a gardener. He's done a little Zen book — every day a little page. It could be making a cup of coffee mindfully. Taking you through the mindful process. One day, one page. Then I fill in a gratitude book.

I do some exercise because since my diagnosis — I'm bipolar — I've been on medication and the medication has helped give me quite a big tummy. So I'm in the process of trying to remove that. I take the mountain bike out and go for a run and then start.

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Reading vs. Scrolling

Max Raskin: You spend a lot of time reading and writing. On the reading side, how do you actually read? Hard copy? iPad?

Thomas Chatterton Williams: That's a great question. As a rule, I do everything I can to read on paper. I was doing a lot of book-reviewing earlier in my career, and because I was getting so many e-galleys and having to read on Kindle, I started to almost demand that if you want me to look at a book, I have to have a paper copy.

MR: Why is that?

TCW: A variety of reasons. Because we spend so much time on social media and use screens for a lot of things that are not serious, I needed to make a hard division between reading and scrolling. When I have something on paper, I'm active in a way that I'm not when I'm passive on the screen.

MR: Do you write marginalia?

TCW: My books look crazy. There's a ton of marginalia. I'm commenting constantly. Also, I underline very promiscuously, but I dog-ear very selectively. If a page is dog-eared, it's very important, but there's a lot of underlining on many pages.

MR: And what's the point of underlining?

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On Writing

Max Raskin: How do you primarily think of yourself? You write, you give lectures, you’re a reporter.

Douglas Murray: Always as a writer, because it's what I've been all my adult life.

MR: I want to ask a little bit about your writing habits. How do you sit down to write something — do you take notes in notebooks? On your phone?

DM: It varies, and it’s different from columns to books. With a book like this one, I work out of notebooks and use recording devices to collect evidence and testimony. I then write that up and start to work that into the themes and the narrative of the book. I’m also furiously making notes all along the way.

And then something happens in the book writing process: Things settle to the bottom. Certain stories or events will stand out, certain testimonies become emblematic of a wider story.

MR: So you handwrite things that stand out?

DM: Yes, and particular phrases or observations and things like that.

MR: What about in books that you read? Do you write marginalia?

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Tennis Trophies

Max Raskin: I see you have a lot of plaques and commendations right behind you — why do you have so much stuff up there?

Emily Austin: I've got one I didn't even hang yet! I just got this one in Jerusalem.

My room is my office, and I try to have everything that motivates me in my room. This is my award wall. These are my trophies.

MR: What are those trophies for?

EA: I was a star tennis player.

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Polly Want A Janáček Opera?

Max Raskin: I have a general theme that I want to talk about with this interview, which is how creativity and all your high ideas interact with the day-to-day of your life.

I want to start by asking: What’s the last piece of music you listened to?

Bruce Adolphe: It depends how you think about this. I have a parrot, and he needs to hear music all the time. So, when I have breakfast, I'm sitting with the parrot and my wife is usually there. We are always listening to an opera because that's what he likes.

MR: What's your parrot's name?

BA: Polly Rhythm. He's an opera singer; he is a great singer. But for myself, I don't sit and listen to music that much during the day because typically I would be improvising, getting prepared for a concert, or writing.

MR: When you do listen is it to the radio?

BA: It's usually the radio, though in the morning I tend to put on a CD so I can control what it is because Polly wants to hear singing.

MR: What radio station do you listen to the most?

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