Reclaiming Liberty & Equality: What the Founders Got Right—and What We Forgot (with Professor Robert George)
City Journal Audio
Manhattan Institute
4.7 • 657 Ratings
🗓️ 25 March 2026
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Professor Robert P. George and Rafael Mangual explore the enduring foundations of American constitutionalism and what they reveal about human nature, power, and freedom. Drawing on the vision of the Founding Fathers, George explains why structural limits on authority—not just good intentions—are essential to preserving liberty.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to another episode of the City Journal podcast. |
| 0:10.7 | I am your host, Rafael Mangual, and I am so, so, so excited to be joined by our guest |
| 0:16.5 | of honor, Professor Robert George. |
| 0:19.1 | Welcome to the show. |
| 0:20.3 | Thank you, Raphael. |
| 0:20.9 | It's a great pleasure to be on with you. |
| 0:22.2 | I'm so excited for this episode. |
| 0:23.7 | I don't know if you know this, but you are actually our first external guest on the |
| 0:28.0 | city journal podcast, which is great. |
| 0:29.7 | And I can't think of anyone better to have. |
| 0:32.5 | So, I mean, there's so much that I want to talk to you about. |
| 0:35.8 | But, you know, you are the director of the James Madison program at Princeton University. |
| 0:42.3 | And James Madison just happens to be my favorite founding father. |
| 0:45.8 | He is also the author of my favorite Federalist paper, which is Federalist 10. |
| 0:49.6 | Oh, there we go. |
| 0:50.5 | Human nature. |
| 0:51.1 | That's right. |
| 0:51.7 | That's right. |
| 0:52.2 | And so I thought I'd just start with the question about James Madison. I mean, what is it about him that you find most admirable? |
| 1:03.1 | Well, first, let me say, Raphael, what a pleasure it is to be on with you. I'm a big fan of City Journal. I've been reading it for years, benefiting from reading it for years and years. I'm also a big fan of the Manhattan Institute, and I'm just delighted to see the Institute flourishing under Rahan's very distinguished leadership. Well, what do I admire about Madison, just about everything? But if I had to pinpoint something, it was his deep wisdom in trying to design a Republican government |
| 1:36.3 | that would not fail. |
| 1:38.3 | Why would it not fail? |
... |
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