James Grant - Friends Until The End

A Book with Legs

Smead Capital Management

Investing, Business, Management

4.2 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 17 November 2025

⏱️ 78 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode, Cole Smead is joined by author James Grant to discuss his book, “Friends Until the End: Edmund Burke and Charles Fox in the Age of Revolution.” The book details the remarkable lives and friendship of British politicians Edmund Burke and Charles Fox, who often united in the pursuit of political causes, despite having wildly different lifestyles and backgrounds. Cole and James’ conversation also touches on their perspectives on today’s economy.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to A Book with Legs, a podcast presented by Smead Capital Management.
0:07.9	At Smead Capital Management, we advise investors who play the long game.
0:12.3	You can learn more at Smeadcap.com or by calling your financial advisor.
0:23.6	Welcome to a book with legs podcast. I'm Cole Smead, CEO and portfolio manager here at Smead Capital Management.
0:28.6	At our firm, we are readers, and we believe in the power of books to help shape, informed investors.
0:33.6	In this podcast, we speak to great authors about their writings. The late great
0:38.3	Charlie Munger prescribed using multiple mental models and analysis. We analyze their work
0:43.2	through the lens of business, markets, and people. In this episode, we will discuss a unique
0:49.2	history of two members of parliament in the mid to late 18th century that as we entered the age of reason
0:55.5	and therefore also revolution. Jim Grant is joining us to discuss his book, Friends Until the
1:01.1	End, Edmund Burke and Charles Fox in the Age of Revolution. A little background for our listeners
1:07.3	on Jim, and some of you would know this, but for those of you that are younger,
1:11.1	Jim started his journalist career in 1972.
1:13.7	He joins Barron's Magazine in 1975.
1:16.5	More famously, he began publishing Grant's Interest Rate Observer in 1983, which he continues today.
1:22.8	I would just note that he is a prolific author with at least 10 titles that I could count, but I'm
1:28.7	sure Jim's going to tell us that I didn't get that right count. These include titles like
1:32.8	Minding Mr. Market and his more recent classic in my mind is Badgett, which he published
1:38.4	a few years ago. Jim, thanks for joining me today.
1:41.2	Oh, you're very welcome, Colin. It has to be here.
1:44.0	So I got a sense of this late in the book, but I, you're very welcome, Colin. It has to be here.
1:54.1	So I got a sense of this late in the book, but as I was kind of going through this, you know, you like history, you like the markets, you have those similarities with people like myself.
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