Hoover Institution (Stanford, CA) – This week marks the one-year anniversary of GoodFellows, the Hoover Institution’s weekly conversation series in which senior fellows John Cochrane, Niall Ferguson, and H. R. McMaster analyze domestic and world events, and provide thoughts on solutions to the nation’s policy dilemmas and crises.
Moderated by Research Fellow Bill Whalen, GoodFellows began as a video series on April 1, 2020, just two weeks after much of the world left their workplaces for home offices, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since its launch, the series has broadcast more than forty episodes, with over four million views.
“This series has been a joy. Once a week, I get a deep and thoughtful conversation with two immensely smart colleagues who know so much about so many things that I don’t know about,” Cochrane said.
The initial episodes assessed the global health crisis and governments’ responses, including ramifications for the economy, the education of young people, and individual civil liberties. The GoodFellows also considered how COVID-19 was shaping strategic engagement between the United States and China, and debated whether a new Cold War was under way. They also pondered whether the world would ever return to normal after the pandemic.
"A year ago, we all had to get creative about how to keep Hoover functioning in the midst of a pandemic. The idea of bringing together the academic equivalent of the Three Tenors was an even better one than I realized at the time,” Ferguson said. “Not only have our Zoom conversations reached a substantially wider audience than if we'd held them on campus. We've also had many more of them than we would have done under normal circumstances. Best of all, the contrasting perspectives I hear from H.R. and John (as well as our guests) often change my mind about issues I might otherwise have given too little thought."
Following the May 2020 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and demonstrations that followed, the series began to address the challenges of achieving racial equality in America. On a June 25 episode, GoodFellows hosted Roland Fryer, a professor of economics at Harvard University, for a conversation about the use of force against African Americans by police, as well as proposals to defund law enforcement. Other special guests and topics have included Hoover Institution director Condoleezza Rice on COVID-19’s impact on the Russian Federation; Stanford political scientist Francis Fukuyama on how the pandemic has affected political order throughout the world; Senior Fellow Victor Davis Hanson on the decline of free speech in academia; and Visiting Fellow Bjorn Lomborg on current debates about environmental justice.
In Fall 2020, the GoodFellows discussed H. R. McMaster’s newly released book, Battlegrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World, a tour d’horizon of the world’s trouble spots, which also offers wide-ranging policy prescriptions for ensuring the future of America’s national security and competitiveness.
The GoodFellows analyzed how issues such as the pandemic crisis, the power of big technology companies, and foreign affairs were shaping the politics of the presidential election. They also assessed the health of American democracy and the consequences for the January 6, 2021, riots at the US Capitol.
Following the election, the fellows opined about how Joe Biden might manage the health crisis, capitalize on the Trump administration’s peace achievements in the Middle East, and engage the US military in future conflicts. They also examined with Harvard economist Edward Glaeser how policy makers might address the plight of urban decay, and, in an episode featuring Senior Fellow Lee Ohanian, the flight of people and businesses from the state of California.
In recent episodes, the GoodFellows were joined by Pulitzer Prize–winning columnist George Will for a conversation about America’s drift from the Founding Fathers’ intentions, as well as former New York Times opinion writer Bari Weiss on how “wokeness” and the cancel culture destroy freedom and diversity of thought.
Upcoming shows include cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker on “Why Things Aren’t That Bad”; Manhattan Institute president Reihan Salam on the immigration crisis; and a second appearance by Lomborg on the climate change debate.
GoodFellows is a production of the Hoover Institution of Stanford University. The production team is led by executive producer Scott Immergut, producer Shana Farley, and the show’s advisor Chris Dauer. The show is edited by Cameron Bill, and its online distribution is managed by Maryem Torabi.
Click here to tune in to all past and future episodes of GoodFellows.
