The Three Whisky Happy Hour: Channeling Admiral Ackbar? (It's a Trap!)

The Three Whisky Happy Hour: Channeling Admiral Ackbar? (It's a Trap!)

From 3 Whisky Happy Hour by Ricochet

June 12, 2026 · 1h 1m · Season 2 · Episode 24

About this episode

The episode discusses whiskey, historical drinking habits of the Founding Fathers, and contemporary grand strategy in relation to US-China relations.

This week's episode, which finds Steve over in Japan but still with a hoarse voice, ranges widely from exonerating John Yoo from being implicated in a major whiskey heist, to what the prodigious drinking habits of the Founding Fathers has to say about constitutional law today. Justice Neil Gorsuch reminds us that “ John Adams took a tankard of hard cider with his breakfast every day. James Madison reportedly drank a pint of whiskey every day. Thomas Jefferson said he wasn’t much of a user of alcohol—he only had three or four glasses of wine a night.” Ah, the great ones. Speaking of the Founders, we make a nod to the tragic passing of Gordon Wood, and naturally manage to get into an argument about history and historians. But the central topic of today is considering John's foray into grand strategy in his Civitas Outlook article this week on " America Doesn't Need to Fear a 'Thucydides Trap' ," , and while Admiral Ackbar needed to fear a trap, John doesn't think so. But what was Chinese premier Xi trying to do in bringing up the subject in a public session at the recent summit with Trump? One doesn't imagine Trump being a reader of Thucydides, though one can easily see him liking…

People in this episode

Host: Steve

Topics covered

  • whiskey heist
  • Founding Fathers
  • constitutional law
  • grand strategy
  • Thucydides Trap
  • US-China relations

Keywords

  • whiskey
  • Founding Fathers
  • constitutional law
  • Thucydides
  • grand strategy
  • US-China relations
  • Gordon Wood

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Civitas Outlook, Thucydides Trap

Places: Japan

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