The Supreme Court saves the year’s most dramatic case for last – the question of whether Donald Trump can claim immunity from prosecution for actions he took while holding office. John Yoo, a Hoover Institution visiting fellow and Emanuel S. Heller Professor of Law at the University of California–Berkeley School of Law, dissects the court’s highly anticipated ruling. After that John talks about the significance of American’s Independence Day celebration, the health of the US Constitution, plus the proper balance of freedom and regulation – from the perspective of a constitutional scholar and a first-generation American.

Is a Chinese move on Taiwan inevitable (a quarantine, embargo or outright invasion this decade or next)? Or are there commonsense ways to ensure the island country’s freedom—and prevent a great-power conflict between Cold War rivals? Matt Pottinger, a Hoover Institution distinguished visiting fellow and former senior staffer at the White House’s National Security Council, joins Hoover Distinguished Policy fellow Bill Whalen to discuss the options he and other US-Sino experts have to offer in Hoover’s newly released The Boiling Moat: Urgent Steps to Defend Taiwan. Among the recommendations: ramping up military technology and capabilities; introducing a new pro-military mindset on the other side of the Pacific Rim; plus, America (following Israel’s example) understanding the benefits of a “warrior ethos.”

While the Golden State struggles with the aftershock of its elevated fast-food minimum wage – California-based Rubio’s Coastal Grill, home of the fish taco, is filing for bankruptcy – and the legislature has to deal with the approaching deadline for a new state budget, which invites fiscal and policy skullduggery. Hoover senior fellow Lee Ohanian and distinguished policy fellow Bill Whalen, both weekly contributors to Hoover’s California on Your Mind web channel, discuss the latest news in the Golden State including a nascent 2026 governor’s race (will vice president Kamala Harris “pull a Nixon” and give it a go?), plus a fond remembrance of the late Bill Walton – native San Diegan, UCLA basketball legend, citizen activist – who passed away just days after his beloved Pac-12 Conference likewise bid farewell.

President Biden and Donald Trump have agreed to a departure in presidential politics – two general-election debates in late June (a historical first) and early September, with a lone vice presidential debate somewhere in between. Ben Ginsberg, the Hoover Institution’s Volker Family Visiting Fellow and a nationally recognized election-integrity advocate and campaign counsel, discusses the merits of the new debate schedule, what it means for the future of the Commission on Presidential Debates (which both candidates purposely avoided) and national conventions and third-party candidacies, the impact on a changing media landscape, plus the feasibility of a third Biden-Trump debate in October if either the public demands or both campaigns feel compelled to do so.

Did a preeminent California university handle campus protests the right way, and why can’t the state prove that its homeless programs are working? Hoover senior fellow Lee Ohanian and distinguished policy fellow Bill Whalen, both contributors to Hoover’s “California on Your Mind” web channel, discuss the latest news in the Golden State including third-party candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. qualifying for California’s November ballot, a fast-food wage hike that continues to cause economic heartburn, and Governor Gavin Newsom’s return to wanderlust (this time, a mid-May sojourn to the Vatican to preach about the perils of climate change).

What happened to teamwork and the spirit of unity and common purpose – not just in sports, but in politics and in society? Former New Jersey senator and basketball legend Bill Bradley, the star of the one-man show Rolling Along, tells a tale that took him from a Missouri boyhood to a celebrated turn at Princeton, the bright lights of New York’s Madison Square Garden, and nearly 25 years in politics, followed by a post-political segue to academia, finance, and “story-telling.”

President Biden’s campaign swing through Pennsylvania this week is notable for two things – three days devoted to one “swing” state, and a nuanced message regarding the US economy that’s heavy on class-warfare rhetoric and light on inflationary concerns. Mickey Levy, a macroeconomist and Hoover Institution visiting fellow, explains the complicated picture of America’s economy – higher employment, higher productivity, and higher prices for goods and services; then Levy previews the upcoming Hoover Monetary Policy Conference and its annual look at the Federal Reserve’s performance.

Evidence points to generations of Americans increasingly less informed as to their republic’s origins and system of checks and balances, so it is not surprising that more Americans are less engaged in their communities and are increasingly pessimistic about the future. Checker Finn, a Hoover Institution adjunct senior fellow and past chairman of Hoover’s K-12 Education, joins Hoover emeritus research fellow David Davenport, co-author of the soon-to-be-released A Republic If You Can Teach It: Fixing America’s Civic Education, to discuss better ways to engage K-12 and college students in the understanding and appreciation of the concept of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”