Impromptu Interview with James Fishback

Impromptu Interview with James Fishback

From The Hanania Show by Richard Hanania

March 24, 2026 · 1h 26m

About this episode

Richard Hanania conducts an impromptu interview with James Fishback during a livestream, discussing various policy issues.

Something very strange just happened. I was doing a livestream on James Fishback, and the man himself joined us midway through. This began as a stream with Nikos Mohammadi ( X , Substack), a student at Columbia University whose work has appeared in UnHerd , The Spectator , and elsewhere. As everyone knows, I’ve been fascinated by the Fishback phenomenon. Nikos wrote one of the articles I cited as a sign he was getting a respectful hearing in the right-wing press. My argument has been that those inclined toward populism on the right who are not Groypers have proved too eager to claim Fishback as their own, given his many scandals and shortcomings. About forty minutes in, someone with the profile name James Fishback showed up in the chat. I was skeptical that this was the real thing, but then I saw one of his campaign staff vouch that it was actually him. Before long, Fishback, sitting in Starbucks, was taking questions on the stream! I didn’t know exactly what to do with this, and it’s always awkward facing someone you’ve criticized harshly. There were a lot of angles that I could take, but I decided to focus on policy questions. I asked him about school choice, taxes, and crime…

People in this episode

Host: Richard Hanania

Guest: James Fishback

Topics covered

  • politics
  • interview
  • school choice
  • taxes
  • crime
  • right-wing populism

Keywords

  • James Fishback
  • Richard Hanania
  • politics
  • school choice
  • right-wing populism
  • livestream

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Columbia University, UnHerd, The Spectator

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