The Free Press: The Free Press Interviews

The West Is on a Suicide Mission

Rafaela Siewert — Fri, 08 May 2026 09:01:58 GMT

This week, a few news stories caught my attention.

Former congresswoman Katie Porter said she supports taxpayer-funded healthcare for illegal immigrants during the Democratic California governor’s candidate debate.

Closed-circuit television cameras helped catch two men who violently attacked a 77-year-old man in Seattle, undermining Mayor Katie Wilson’s c…

The Battle over Hormuz, the UAE, and Why Hamas and Hezbollah Endure

Rafaela Siewert — Tue, 05 May 2026 01:59:29 GMT

The Middle East remains in turmoil. Trump is waging “Project Freedom” to reopen the Strait of Hormuz; the war with Iran continues; the United Arab Emirates just dramatically departed from OPEC; Israel is still fighting on its northern border with Hezbollah; and Hamas’s grip on Gaza persists.

It can be hard to keep track of this—much less make sense of it…

Her Son Was Kidnapped and Killed by Hamas. This Is Her Story.

Rafaela Siewert — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 09:00:51 GMT

“There is nothing like the feeling of putting someone you carried for nine months inside of your body into the ground wrapped in white fabric. I was burying part of myself. Not just my DNA and my soul, but my essence, my identity, my Before, my mouth, my personality, my breath, my rest of my life. Me.”

These are the words of Rachel Goldberg-Polin in her new memoir, When We See You Again.

Many will recognize Rachel as the mother of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was abducted by Hamas from the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023.

Hersh survived 328 days in captivity. And during that time, Rachel and her husband did everything in their power to bring him home—traveling to Davos, meeting with Pope Francis, addressing the UN, speaking at the Democratic National Convention, and making countless trips to Washington, D.C.

And still, after nearly a year in captivity, Hersh was murdered, shot six times at close range by Hamas. There was gunpowder in his hair when he was found.

“And after all of that torture, misery, agony, burning, searing, battering, and torment,” Rachel writes, “I now found out: that had been the good part. He had been alive. . . . Hersh let me prove how much I loved him by letting me go into the arena to battle without training or armor, just with my tiny fists of primal love. He gave me hope that I could save him by wrestling with the world. He kept breathing so that I would be motivated; he kept me motivated so that I would keep breathing. I was, and I still am.”

I sat down with Rachel to discuss her new book, a firsthand account of her fight to bring Hersh home and the grief that followed. In it, she reflects on why she is grateful for the days she spent fighting for her son; what it meant to grieve so publicly; what she learned from former hostage Or Levy, who met Hersh in the tunnels; and how her faith deepened after Hersh’s death.

This is a conversation you won’t want to miss.

The Free Press earns a commission from any purchases made through all book links in this article.

A Conversation with Crypto Billionaire CZ—the Richest Former Inmate in U.S. History

Rafaela Siewert — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 09:02:44 GMT

Some of you may know the name Changpeng Zhao—or CZ, as he’s almost universally known in the tech and finance worlds—as crypto’s richest man. Forbes calculated his net worth as greater than $110 billion. That puts him ahead of Bill Gates, though CZ denies it.

He founded Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, transforming it from a start-up …

Elise Stefanik on the ‘Rotten’ Ivy League, Mayor Mamdani, and Why She’s Leaving Congress

Maya Sulkin — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 19:34:01 GMT

Two years ago, in the wake of burgeoning antisemitism after Hamas’s October 7 attacks, Elise Stefanik sat across from the presidents of Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Pennsylvania and asked them a simple question: Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate your university’s code of conduct? Their non-answers…

Niall Ferguson: Why Iran Thinks It’s Winning

Rafaela Siewert — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 01:00:39 GMT

Late last night, the United States and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire. But the first day has already proven rocky: Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Israel all reported missile and drone attacks from Iran; Israel carried out major air strikes against Hezbollah, raising questions about whether Lebanon is included in the ceasefire; and Ira…

Trump Says We’re ‘Winning’ in Iran. It’s More Complicated.

Rafaela Siewert — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 02:19:58 GMT

On Wednesday night, President Trump delivered a 19-minute address on Iran. As expected, he stressed his accomplishments: “In these past four weeks, our armed forces have delivered swift, decisive, overwhelming victories on the battlefield. . . . Iran’s navy is gone. Their air force is in ruins. Their leaders, most of them. . . are now dead.” And he issu…

Confessions of a Former Scientologist

Maya Sulkin — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 09:02:00 GMT

Most people have heard of Scientology, but have a limited understanding of what it really is. To many, it just seems wacky–associated with Tom Cruise jumping on a couch, and science fiction books staged as religious texts. But in preparing for my conversation with Claire Headley, who was born into Scientology and rose to a high-ranking position under le…

He Founded Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. Now He Wants to Destroy It.

Rafaela Siewert — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 09:02:11 GMT

This week, I sat down with one of the founders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Mohsen Sazegara has witnessed nearly every phase of the modern-day Iranian regime—from the inside. In 1978, at the age of just 23, he was one of Ruhollah Khomeini’s closest aides and advisers, helping plan the final stages of the Iranian Revolution from Khomeini’s co…

Meet Iran’s 21-Year-Old American Propagandist

Rafaela Siewert — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 17:59:24 GMT

“It is the greatest honor of my life to be visiting the Islamic Republic of Iran right now.”

These were the words of Calla Walsh, a 21-year-old American from Cambridge, Massachusetts, while standing in the IRGC Aerospace Exhibition in Tehran last July.

She continued: Iran “is under genocidal siege by the United States, by the Zionist entity. It is a great…

Konstantin Kisin: The Iran War, Europe’s Decline, and the Future of the West

Rafaela Siewert — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 09:01:39 GMT

Mass migration. Net-zero carbon goals. Expansive welfare states. Identity politics. Limited defense spending. Throughout the 2010s, all these policies became causes du jour across the European continent. It was an intellectual mood captured by three famous words from former German chancellor Angela Merkel: wir shaffen das, roughly meaning “we can handle…

The Booming Business of Penis Enlargement

Rafaela Siewert — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 19:10:21 GMT

The 2026 Winter Olympics brought us Alysa Liu, the Hughes brothers, and a scandal colloquially referred to as “Penisgate.” It emerged when some ski jumpers were accused of injecting their penises with hyaluronic acid—the same substance used in lip fillers—to expand their suits’ surface area and improve their jump distance. Sounds niche, right?

Well, it’s…

Dennis Prager: The Battle Over Good and Evil

Abigail Shrier — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 16:19:48 GMT

For 50 years, Dennis Prager, one of the most important and influential conservative thinkers of the 21st century, has made a single core argument: Without God, there is no good and evil—only opinion. He advanced it on the radio, in five volumes of biblical commentary, in more than a dozen books on religion, morality, and the foundations of Western civil…

A Message for Iranian Regime Apologists

Rafaela Siewert — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 20:00:07 GMT

Since the start of the Iran-Israel-U.S. war, there has been reasonable criticism of how the war is being conducted as well as questions about the clarity—and viability—of its end goals. At The Free Press, we have published a range of voices reflecting many sides of that debate.

Then there are the people who take it a step too far. Conspiracy theorists ha…

Khamenei Is Dead. What Comes Next for Iran?

Rafaela Siewert — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 23:58:47 GMT

Who will lead Iran? As its war with the United States and Israel nears the end of the first week, the question looms large. Will the successor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei be his son, Mojtaba Khamenei? Or the head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani? Or someone else entirely?

As speculation swirls, President Donald Trump…

How Iran Became China’s Weapon

Rafaela Siewert — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 02:01:25 GMT

On Saturday, the United States and Israel launched a joint attack on Iran, killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and at least 40 Iranian leaders. Iran is now retaliating against American allies and military assets in a counteroffensive that has killed at least six American service members.

In the days since, social media has filled with a single …

Confessions of a Former Marijuana Evangelist

Maya Sulkin — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 18:48:34 GMT

In the past 15 years, the consensus on marijuana has changed dramatically. After Colorado and Washington became the first states to legalize weed in 2012, others quickly followed suit—and marijuana is now legal for recreational use in 24 of the 50 states. With widespread legalization, the stigma that surrounded weed has largely fallen away.

Almost overni…

Will Robots Replace Women in the Bedroom?

Rafaela Siewert — Thu, 26 Feb 2026 20:06:15 GMT

Sex shows up everywhere in American culture. Think: the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders; popular sex icons from Madonna and Britney Spears to Tate McRae and Sabrina Carpenter; the 75-foot Calvin Klein billboard on Houston Street in New York; the millions of “thirst traps” flooding social media; and popular TV shows, from Sex and the City to Heated Rivalry. …

Confessions of a Former OnlyFans Model

Maya Sulkin — Tue, 24 Feb 2026 16:56:11 GMT

Taylor Fogarty once made $15,000 a month for making content on OnlyFans.

She was a self-described “degenerate” party girl in Brooklyn—drinking, doing drugs, dating women, drifting between identities, and eventually signing up for sugar-daddy websites because, as she tells it, “It just felt normal.” Sex work was empowering, she was told. Men were going to…

Confessions of a Former Climate Activist

Maya Sulkin — Wed, 18 Feb 2026 16:34:31 GMT

Before I met my colleague Lucy Biggers, she was an activist fighting to ban plastic straws and posing with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Greta Thunberg. In today’s episode of Confessions, Lucy tells us about how she became an activist who built a huge following making videos about the dangers of climate change.

In her time in the movement, Lucy protested …