The Close Read Podcast

Associate Editor Spencer Klavan reads “Stardust,” Helen Andrews’s review of We Tell Ourselves Stories, featured in the summer 2025 issue. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit claremontinstitute.substack.com

Editor Charles Kesler sits down with Associate Editor Spencer Klavan to discuss the recent summer issue. Highlighted are Christopher Caldwell’s cover essay on UK immigration and Charles’ own piece on the Joe Rogan of the UK, Jeremy Clarkson. His show, Clarkson’s Farm, is a love letter to the English everyman in a momen

The UK government of Boris Johnson, reckoning immigration as a pure economic gain, swung the door open to newcomers. Now 7 percent of the British population has been almost unilaterally imported en masse. Anger is swelling in response to “rape gangs” and other assaults on locals, and a new, populist right is materializ

Associate Editor Spencer Klavan reads his latest piece in the CRB, “A Complete Unknown,” on Horace. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit claremontinstitute.substack.com

Associate Editor Spencer Klavan reads “Land’s End,” Christopher Caldwell’s cover essay on how mass migration has radicalized the United Kingdom, featured in the spring 2025 issue. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit claremontinstitute

The European Union’s crusade to eliminate so-called “harmful speech” has breached America’s digital boundaries. The Digital Services Act effectively gives EU bureaucrats the ability to curb Americans’ constitutional rights, doing away with free speech in today’s online public square. In this Close Read bonus episode, a