What to Expect in 2025: Predictions from Niall Ferguson, John McWhorter, Nellie Bowles, Leandra Medine, and more

Honestly with Bari Weiss

The Free Press

News, Society & Culture

4.6 • 7.8K Ratings

🗓️ 31 December 2024

⏱️ 102 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This past year was not easy. But 2024 certainly was eventful. Joe Biden dropped out of the race at the eleventh hour, and Kamala Harris’s swift anointment brought us the joy of Brat summer. There was not one, but two assassination attempts against Donald Trump; the continued wars in Ukraine, Israel, Gaza, and Lebanon; the sudden and surprising fall of the Assad regime in Syria; the murder of a CEO (and Luigi Mania); mystery drones over New Jersey; and finally, Trump's decisive reelection to the White House. On a cheerier note, 2024 was also the year of breakdancing at the Paris Olympics; Claudine Gay’s resignation from Harvard; SpaceX’s first commercial spacewalk; and Israel’s epic spy-thriller, pager-explosion attack on Hezbollah—not to mention they took out Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah and Hamas’s Yahya Sinwar as well. So, what will 2025 bring? We are starting the year, as we did last December, with a special 2025 predictions episode of Honestly. We called up some friends of the pod—people we trust in their fields—to get a better sense of what’s in store for the year ahead. Political analyst and former spokesperson at the Department of Justice Sarah Isgur tells us what we can expect in the Trump 2.0 White House. Linguist John McWhorter looks at new words and how language will evolve in the coming months. Our very own Suzy Weiss talks us through the cultural calendar. Stylist Leandra Medine clues us in on fashion trends in 2025, and last but not least: Historian Niall Ferguson tells us, as he did last year as well, whether or not we’re right to have nightmares about World War III—but for real this time. Some guests cheered us up, whereas others freaked us out. All of them were a pleasure to talk to. We hope you enjoy these conversations with some of our favorite people. If you liked what you heard from Honestly, the best way to support us is to go to TheFP.com and become a Free Press subscriber today. *** This show is proudly sponsored by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). FIRE believes free speech makes free people. Make your tax-deductible donation today at www.thefire.org/honestly. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	From the free press, this is honestly, and I'm Barry Weiss. It's New Year's Eve, and that means
0:06.2	not just champagne, but that we're contractually obligated to look back at the year that was.
0:11.3	2024 was not easy, but it certainly was eventful. We had Biden dropping out and a debate
0:18.3	performance I don't think any of us will ever forget.
0:25.6	We had Kamala's anointment, brat summer, finance guy summer. If you don't know what that is,
0:32.3	look it up. Two assassination attempts against Donald Trump continued wars in Ukraine, Gaza, and Lebanon, the sudden and shocking fall of the Assad regime in Syria, the cold-blooded murder of a CEO and
0:39.4	ongoing Luigi mania, mystery drones over New Jersey, or are those UFOs, and so much more.
0:46.5	But it wasn't all bad. At least we got breakdancing at the Paris Olympics. Do you remember Reagan?
0:51.5	That was a highlight of my year. So was Claudine Gay's resignation,
0:55.7	or the return of Evan Gershkovick, the WSJ reporter who had been detained in Russia.
1:01.4	SpaceX astronauts completed their first commercial spacewalk. The Israelis launched an epic
1:07.8	spy thriller pager explosion attack on His Bala.
1:11.3	They killed Hassan Nasrallah, the head of his Bala, and also Cinewar, the architect of 107.
1:16.8	There was also Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey, Wicked, and Chapel Rhone.
1:21.8	So that was 2024, or at least a very edited biased version of it.
1:25.4	The question now is, what will 2025 bring? I'm here
1:30.1	today with the one, the only, the singular Nelly Bowles to answer those questions. Nellie,
1:36.6	welcome to Honestly. Hi, fair. I'm so excited to be here. But you did forget the biggest news
1:42.2	story of the year. The free press reached one million
1:45.9	subscribers. Okay, that was huge, is huge. We cannot stop talking about it. I thought what you were
1:53.3	going to say is that the biggest news story of our year is, I don't know, the birth of our son.
1:58.6	Oh, him? He's fine.
	...

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