Hoover Institution fellow Lanhee Chen, a veteran of four presidential campaigns and the George W. Bush administration, joins Secrets of Statecraft to discuss why good policy so often fails politically. Drawing on his time as Mitt Romney’s chief policy advisor and his run for California State Controller, Chen discusses bipartisan healthcare reform, tax simplification, and the threat to Taiwan. He also criticizes California’s Prop 50 redistricting push, the muddled war in Iran, and Trump’s hold over the 2028 Republican nomination. He closes with reflections on California’s future and what might have been had Romney won the 2012 presidential election.

Everyone quotes Thucydides—but are we getting him right? Historian Andrew Novo joins Andrew Roberts to explore what the chronicler of Athens and Sparta really tells us about war, democracy, ambition, and human nature. From the disastrous invasion of Sicily to today’s rivalry between America and China, they examine how leaders wield power, how democracies lose their way, and why history’s most memorable lines can teach the wrong lessons when stripped of context.

In this special, crossover edition of Secrets of Statecraft and Uncommon Knowledge with Peter Robinson, Andrew Roberts is the guest and is interviewed by Peter Robinson. Roberts explains why great individuals still shape history—and why Winston Churchill remains history’s ultimate example. Roberts also confronts attacks on Churchill’s record, explains Britain’s decision to fight Hitler in 1940, and discusses tyranny, Brexit, socialism, immigration, Donald Trump, and Britain’s future. Roberts also despairs of the decline of literacy and historical memory, and reveals both the world leaders he admires today and the source of the title of this podcast: Winston Churchill’s enduring advice: “Study history, for therein lie all the secrets of statecraft.”