The Federalist Radio Hour

Lachlan Markay, White House reporter for The Daily Beast, joins Federalist Radio Hour to break down this week's news surrounding Donald Trump Jr., the investigations into collusion with Russia, and White House leaks. 

"The collusion question has now split into two different questions," he said. "One is did they collude in general, and then two is did they collude on the blatantly criminal acts of hacking the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign." 

Later in the hour, Markay and Domenech discuss the nuances of center-right views at left-leaning publications. "I think as long as you realize that a certain outlet is coming at a question from a certain perspective, I don't think internally there need to be alternate perspectives, as long as people are able to get alternate perspectives elsewhere, Markay said. 

Megan McArdle is a columnist at Bloomberg View and author of "The Upside of Down." McArdle joins Ben Domenech on FDRLST Radio to discuss the latest Senate health care bill woes, the new season of Game of Thrones, and the algorithms that determine our entertainment.   

First they discuss the ideas ignited by David Brooks' column this week on social class and barriers created by the elite. "First of all, Brooks was clearly talking about social class, but second of all, social class and economic class are entangled," McArdle said. "Social capital helps you get financial capital. Social is knowing how to get a better job." 

Daniel Payne is Assistant Editor at The College Fix and a Senior Contributor at The Federalist. Payne discusses a range of topics with Publisher Ben Domenech, including campus protests, baking, parenting, raising chickens, and the nostalgia-fueled entertainment industry.  

College students have created the strong and pervasive climate on their own campuses. "Underneath [the riots] is really a much broader, more troubling trend of free speech suppression, and ideological conformity," Payne said. 

Domenech asks Payne to explain his infamous love of "Fuller House," "Star Wars: Episode II," and other unpopular indulgences. "I guess you might be able to say that all the stuff I like is a little more populist," he said. "But it really ends up for being for different reasons." 

George Will is a columnist at the Washington Post, a Pulitzer Prize winner, and conservative commentator. He joins Ben Domenech on Federalist Radio where they discuss why today's pundit are not knowledgeable, Twitter, reading, and baseball. 

When is comes to health care 'repeal and replace' efforts, Republicans are not governing like a serious party, Will said. "We're fighting over health care because only relatively recently in the human story has health care been worth fighting over," he said. 

Will shares what he sees in the MLB right now and baseball history. "Baseball is a game of episodes and not flow. Hockey is flows. Football is flows," he said. "Baseball is episodes.... that's how baseball produces this enormous, ever-thickening sediment of numbers that is the basis of the analytics." 

Christine Emba, is an opinion writer at The Washington Post and editor of the "In Theory" blog. Emba joins Mary Katharine Ham to discuss rat infestations, 'The Handmaid's Tale,' and the differences and common ground between Generation X and millennials. 

"There's always been this misfit group between Generation X and the millennials, born in the late '70s and early '80s," Ham said. 

Emba explains how some of the most common indicators for divorce, are the same red flags we see in current American political discourse. "Polarizing comments are...polarizing. They take place at the ends of the conversation. The real discussion seems to happen in that messy middle," Emba said. 

Arthur Brooks is president of the American Enterprise Institute and author of "The Conservative Heart." Brooks sits down with Ben Domenech to discuss the purpose of think tanks in today's media and political world. 

"We should be vertically integrated with the people who do politics, and we should stay in the climate of ideas," Brooks said. "It's less sexy. Sometimes it's less relevant,  it's more esoteric, but that's what we're uniquely good at." 

Peter Baker is the Chief White House Correspondent at the New York Times. Baker shares his experiences covering four different presidents, and stories from his time in Moscow as the Washington Post's Bureau Chief. 

"Everything moves so much faster and you almost never have time to stop and think and really report, and I think that's where our challenge is: to continue to do deep coverage without missing out on this accelerated timetable everyone is fixated on," Baker said. 

Have the White House Press briefings lost all their value in today's media landscape? "The truth is the briefing has become less and less useful over several presidencies," Baker said. "Now you've got a situation where it's so overtly hostile that's not very informational and it's unpleasant."  

Will Rahn, politics editor at CBS News digital, joins Ben Domenech on Federalist Radio to discuss global elitism at this year's Aspen Ideas Festival, an update on the Trump vs. CNN War, and Trump's political path forward. 

The elites look around and see the world as stable and globalism as a positive. "It's a very different experience for them to suddenly realize there's a huge number of people who really don't like them or the project they've been working on," Domenech said. 

Rahn and Domenech disagree on the moves Trump has to make to see reelection. "Everything about the Trump White House seems unsustainable right now. At the same time, I can't see a way that he changes course," Rahn said. "That means he's essentially at the mercy of the Democratic Party and he needs Democratic incompetence to see his agenda through." 

This episode originally aired on June 30th, 2016. Christopher Kimball is a chef, author, and founder of America’s Test Kitchen and, now Milk Street Kitchen. Kimball shares his Fourth of July weekend menu, the best tips for the grill, and how American’s have drastically changed the way we think about food.

Kimball’s newest project, Milk Street Kitchen, is based in downtown Boston and will include a cooking school, TV set, and of course, a kitchen. “I’m more excited about cooking now and I do more cooking at home than I ever have and I just think that’s a wonderful thing to teach people,” he said.

Mary Katharine Ham interviews comedian Jeff Dunham and his wife Audrey Dunham about their lives traveling and eating their way across the country. The Dunham's are the host of the new show, "Incredible, Edible America" on Food Network. 

Later in the hour, Jeff shares some of the ups and downs of his career in comedy, and how political correctness has hurt the comedy scene for the worse. "Forget going on a college campus and doing comedy. You can't do it," he said. "Any joke that you make is usually some form a criticism of something in life, so what are you left to joke about?"