The Federalist Radio Hour

After seeing Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Alexandra Petri and Ben Domenech discuss their questions on and initial reactions to the movie, the characters, and what this movie means for future Star Wars films. Spoilers included!  Tony Gilroy was a writer brought in to work on Rogue One once it was in post-production. There were enough reshoots that they actually had to fire the original composer, Domenech said. Gilroy was mostly concentrated on fixing the third act and man, did he fix the third act. Most of all, this movie allows the Star Wars franchise to go into different genres. You have permission to play around in the Star Wars universe and you dont have to worry so much about proving to us that its a Star Wars movie with all these cameos, Petri said. Just trust the universe and have a good time, and people will come with you. andnbsp;

David White is a wine writer and author of But First, Champagne: A Modern Guide To The Worlds Favorite Wine. On the Federalist Radio Hour, White discusses the history of Champagne, wine policy, wine fraud, and how amateur wine enthusiasts can learn to order something they will enjoy. Champagne, France is the northern most serious wine region in the world, and its cold weather plays a role in Champagnes fermenting process. It was actually in England where wines from Champagne frequently had bubbles... they thought it was a flaw, White said. How can you make sure you get the most out of a restaurant or sommelier experience? Tell them what you like and why, and dont worry about how you sound, White said. andnbsp;

Chris Bedford, editor in chief of The Daily Caller News Foundation, shares tips for how to throw a holiday party, as well as his thoughts on the current state of political media, all on todays Federalist Radio Hour. These reporters and journalists have no concept of what freedom of expression is and what the first amendment is... and they have just shown us their ugliest side, Bedford said. They have shown people who never believed in a biased media how ugly they could be in this last cycle. Bedford and Domenech discuss how we are a over a month past the election, and yet the Left is still acting as if the world is ending. If youre an athiest hipster living in New York City whose religion is global warming, Hillary Clinton is your God. And Donald Trump just killed your God, Bedford said. They need to have a little more perspective.

Eli Dourado, director of the technology policy program at the Mercatus Center, joins Ben Domenech to determine whether innovation and technology are really job killers or not. They also discuss how technology effects trade, the sharing economy, and the future of aviation. The U.S. is at an all-time high for manufacturing, that many who have lost their jobs to robots believe otherwise. We dont really have that many robots in day-to-day life yet, so I think thats a little overstated, Dourado said. Its difficult for those left unemployed in the rust belt to physically move to cities where there are job opportunities. Im not sure that a lot of people know what it is that they should be doing to retrain, to develop new skills, he said. The way we structure employment in this country through regulation and habits... makes it fairly difficult to hire somebody at an entry-level, who doesnt have a lot of experience. Later in the hour, Dourado shares his research on supersonic flight and ways the aviation industry is being held back by regulation.

Kristen Soltis Anderson, columnist at The Washington Examiner and co-host of The Pollsters podcast, joins Mary Katharine Ham on this holiday episode of The Federalist Radio Hour. They discuss Christmas traditions, bad Hallmark movies, and how Trumps tweets impact U.S. foreign relations. Is the Christmas tradition of forcing your crying children to sit in Santas lap really worth the chaos and mall lines? They dont look happy. Theyve been standing in line for an hour. Anderson said. It always looks like a mess. Cant you just photoshop? Cant we clone Santa? Theres surely a way to make supply meet demand. From Trumps tweets on flag burning to floating cabinet picks, the media freaks out about most all of them. The President tweeting effectively is a declaration of foreign policy, Anderson said. When Trump tweets something about Russia, something about China, thats what I think we should freak out about.

T. Becket Adams, commentary writer at the Washington Examiner, explains this trending conversation on fake news on the Federalist Radio Hour with Ben Domenech. They also discuss what journalists and newsrooms can do to improve their reporting, as opposed to doubling down on the approaches they had been using prior to the election. A lot of major media outlets are talking about fake news as a way to pass the buck of their failure to fairly report on the election. On the other hand, Fake news has become some sort of rallying cry for conservatives who have long been irked by the medias sloppy reporting, Adams said. Adams and Domenech describe the DC groupthink and the medias blindspots that impaired their coverage. They didnt see any of it coming. There was a reason there was a general consensus, which is got to the point where even (Hillary Clintons) own campaign bought it. he said.

Robert Draper, author and writer for New York Times Magazine and National Geographic, joins Ben in studio to discuss narrative journalism, how to report in the era of fake news, and the concept of a free press in the US compared to other countries. Most of the media continues to fall in the trap of Trump, to yell about everything until nothing becomes worth yelling about. What do you do with the nations chief executive when he is constantly saying things that simply are just not true? Draper said. [Trump] is a master of the media and no one has played the media more successfully. Draper said he resists the temptation of many journalists to give up on objectivity and retreat into their own ideology. The reflex action to go first-person instead of staying third-person and actually finding out the way the world is-- instead of telling the world how your world is-- is a reflex that is to be avoided, he said.

Amber Smith joins Federalist Radio to share stories from her time as a combat helicopter pilot in Iraq and Afghanistan, and discuss her new book Danger Close. Smith also speaks to concerns of veterans, national security, and the future of the military under the new administration. Smith described the experience and the intensity of flying a Kiowa Warrior helicopter. I had no idea what to expect. I went in sort of blind, my bubble existed in the aircraft, she said. I think the hardest part of being a Kiowa pilot is learning to multitask up on a level that youve never experienced before. Many veterans struggle with the transition back into civilian life and feeling lost as to how to use the skills they honed in the military. War is not normal... in our society going to war is not a normal thing, Smith said. So what you experienced isnt normal and thats OK... War sucks, but you came home and you have a life and you get to choose what you make of it. andnbsp;

Anthony Fisher is a film writer, director and associate editor at Reason magazine. Fisher joined Ben Domenech on The Federalist Radio Hour to discuss comedy, film-making, the creative process, and his new movie Sidewalk Traffic. They also speculate how 2016, the campaigns, and the election are going to be portrayed movies and TV shows to come. I kept waiting for the bottom to fall out but it didnt. We got it to production. We made the movie. We edited the movie. We got it into film festivals, Fisher said. It was a matter of everything else failing and then coming up with an idea that could be done on the streets of New York. One challenge of the films to be made about this election, is the casting of Donald Trump as something more than a SNL character. And of course then theres the election night scenes, Domenech said. Theres so much going on there I dont know how as a creative person you wrap your arms around it.

Jeremy Senderowicz, a New York attorney, joins Ben Domenech in studio to discuss what financial regulation, the SEC, and Wall Street will look like under the Trump administration. From Dodd-Frank to Fannie Mae, there are many financial areas that the new administration could have an enormous impact. Reform conservatives are concerned about Trumps protectionist policies on trade and his tax policy. The best case scenario from my standpoint is that he generally follows a more conventional policy and makes individual exceptions for things that he sees on TV, Senderowicz said. He also described the relationships between banks and borrowers that we are seeing now compared to 2008. Even if there is another financial crisis, its extremely unlikely to happen in a way similar to what happened in 2008 because peoples memories are still too strong, he said.

Allysen Efferson is a senior contributor at The Federalist and licensed therapist. On todays Federalist Radio Hour, Efferson and Domenech discuss the appointment of General James Mattis as Secretary of Defense, as well a number of other topics including grief, therapy, protected beliefs and discrimination. Like most of Trumps other cabinet selections, he is picking people who are outsiders but not unqualified outsiders. Everyone wants to destroy ISIS, but what the soldiers want and what the American people really want is clearly defined strategy to that end, Efferson said. It would be nice if we involved people who were on the ground in that strategy. For most the holiday season is cheerful, but for others its a reminder of family and friends weve lost. Efferson gives advice for how to extend grace to those who may be grieving. They want to be joyful...they see the lights, they see the excitement, but they are simply not in a place emotionally and personally to participate. andnbsp;

Peter Suderman, features editor at Reason magazine, joined Senior Writer Mary Katharine Ham in breaking down the current White House transition and the Trump Administrations cabinet appointments. Suderman also reviews the movies out this month you should see, and later, Bre Payton joins to recap Netflixs Gilmore Girls revival. This week Trump appointed Rep. Tom Price as secretary of Health and Human Services. There is a lot to like about Tom Price, and certainly you can imagine a lot worse picks, Suderman said. He doesnt have a lot of demonstrated experience managing a massive bureaucracy and thats what HHS is. Is Trumps accomplishment of keeping Carrier from moving to Mexico just saving jobs or a prime example of cronyism? I suspect that a lot of Trumps economic policy will be these sorts of negotiated deals, Suderman said. I certainly think if President Obama had something like this conservatives would have been freaking out. andnbsp;

Will Rahn, digital politics managing editor at CBS News, joins Ben Domenech in studio to discuss his 2016 experience as a DC journalist and the unbearable smugness of the press. They also open the conversation about whether we still need a designated capital city in the modern era, and other ways that technology is disrupting our culture broadly. It made sense to have a capital when Hamilton and Jefferson made the deal. People didnt want to travel that far... you couldnt telecommute, Rahn said. Whats the point of having this entrenched elite in this peculiar little city on the Potomac? The communities and institutions of American life that originally made self-government possible have been increasingly on the decline, and inadequately replaced by social media. The loss can be attributed to the degradation of peoples ability to step out on their front porch and look around, Domenech said. It gives you a semblance of having some kind of neighborhood connection, but one that has a lot less value.

Michael Tracey is an independent writer and political reporter who joins todays Federalist Radio to discuss fake news, the unhinged media reactions to Trump, and experimenting in digital media platforms. Donald Trumps tweets have been consistently treated as breaking news every day sin he was elected. A lot of these people in the media are so blinkered by rage and confusion... and they dont have a standard for how to situate themselves in relation to Trump, Tracey said. Which is crazy because they should by now. As a crowd-funded journalist himself, Tracey discusses the relationships audiences have with news sources and what they are willing to pay for. I think one reason why this media class is so disposed to groupthink is that they rely on revenue from similar sources...clicks, non-profit support, or philanthropists money. andnbsp;

Mike Gonzalez, senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, joins Ben in studio to discuss how Fidel Castro destroyed the country of Cuba and why the media has been praising the dictator since his death on Friday. Not only did he repress the Cuban people, he made them flee or put them in prison, and made them very poor, Gonzalez said. But he changed the Cuba he inherited. He made it different thing and not a better thing. On the recent U.S. deal-cutting with Cuba, Gonzalez said Obama gave up all the leverage. [Obama] gave the Castros almost everything they wanted, he said. Everything we are doing is putting money into the military... and is putting money into the Castro family. andnbsp; andnbsp;